At a moment when college students—and their parents—are scrutinizing the "return on investment" of humanities courses, Carlo Rotella opens the door to a classroom full of wary first-year students. He follows thirty-three students through a required literature course and captures the transformation unfolding on both sides of the seminar table. Their initial doubt—"How will this get me a job?"—slowly shifts as they grapple with demanding books, exchange ideas, sharpen their thinking, and form a genuine community. Along the way, they discover how to make meaning from the world around them—an indispensable life skill. Warm, vivid, and deeply humane, this book offers a rare look at what students truly encounter in college and why it matters. Carlo Rotella is a Professor of English at Boston College, a regular contributor to the NY Times Magazine, and writes about cities, boxing, music, and literature.

It may seem fun to jump on the ChatGPT bandwagon and use it as a quick fix for mental health questions, but you shouldn't take shortcuts to heal, according to distinguished licensed marriage, family, and child psychotherapist Dr. Nicki J. Monti. While it can offer reflection and information, it cannot understand your full emotional context, detect crises, or provide personalized clinical care. Misinterpreted advice may worsen mental-health struggles or delay real treatment. She details her own journey with childhood trauma, addiction, violence, divorce, and widowhood in her memoir, The Divine Traumedy of Nicki Joy: A True Grime Tale. Dr. Monti has been featured on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Millionaire Matchmaker and more.

Forget everything you think you know about women in midlife. Angela Burk's raw, unfiltered, and fiercely passionate book shatters the glossy, sugar-coated stories we've been sold about 'aging gracefully.' This isn't a manual for doing midlife perfectly—it's a companion for doing it honestly. She dives into everything from career reinvention to the three waves of menopause—rage, wild symptoms, and all—with unapologetic candor. After divorcing at 45 and raising three young sons, she scrapped the life script she'd been following and rebuilt from the ground up. The result? A long-distance love, a blended family of seven, and a trove of hard-earned wisdom about sagging knees, vanishing eyebrows, and the unapologetic confidence that only midlife can bring. She is an award-winning marketing strategist, mother of three, bonus mom to four, and fierce advocate for women reclaiming their stories at midlife. Follow Angela on Substack or at realgirlsguide.com.