The Winter Reading List

What is utopia? The concept (coined by Thomas More, from the Greek for “no place”) has enthralled humanity for centuries, but few have grappled with it like Iyer does here. The renowned travel journalist goes everywhere from North Korea to the Himalayas seeking paradise on Earth, drawing on five decades of reporting to consider how we might find it in the midst of our own lives.

(Riverhead Books, January 10)

In 2019, Hendrickson—a longtime editor at Esquire and Rolling Stone—wrote for The Atlantic about Joe Biden’s lifelong stutter, which mirrored his own experience with the same speech disorder. He’s now expanded that piece into a book, describing his journey and struggles—substance abuse, bullying, and the daily ups and downs of having a stutter—over a lifetime. He also chronicles advances in the field, alongside his own hard-fought resilience.

(Knopf, January 17)

Legendary music producer. Amiable podcast host. Admirable grower of facial hair. Rick Rubin is one of the most dynamic creative forces of the last 40 years, and now he’s added author to his resume. In this book, he preaches a holistic approach to the creative life—one he’s used in working with Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Adele, Run-DMC, and more—being creative, rather than merely doing creative things.

(Penguin Press, January 17)

It’s almost impossible to fathom that, as an art form, hip-hop is vigorously approaching its silver anniversary. This coffee-table book celebrates that history through a style lens, starting with that hot August night when DJ Kool Herc first spun records in a Bronx rec room. With a foreword by Slick Rick, it traces how rap went from NYC’s underground to a global fashion phenomenon. Expect more than a few Polo looks in these pages.

(Rizzoli, February 7)

If you need any more proof that the ’80s were crazy, just consider Luna Luna. Opened in Hamburg, Germany, in 1987 as an “art amusement park,” it featured all of the classic rides and attractions with a twist. The biggest artists of the time—including Basquiat, Hockney, and Roy Lichtenstein—were commissioned to put their own spin on them. (Literally, in the case of Keith Haring, who designed a carousel.) After one glorious summer, the park was abandoned and ​ ​eventually shipped to Texas, until some current luminaries (including Drake) raised $100 million to restore it ahead of a 2023 tour. The original mastermind, Austrian avant-gardist André Heller, tells the story (and shares the jaw-dropping images) in this new coffee-table book.

(Phaidon, February 15)

Admittedly, this book might inspire your next nightmare rather than your great accomplishment, but hear us out: It’s about wolves and the human fascination with them, in particular as a metaphor for fear. But it’s also about how to move in the world, even when we’re scared, which in the end is a very wolf-like thing to do. The author layers in her own personal story within a larger consideration of the lupine species, including tracking the OR-7, a male grey wolf that left his familial pack in Oregon, ultimately wandering more than 1,000 miles from home.

(Macmillan, February 21)

For more traditional inspiration, look to the heavens—or to this book, which gathers 60 years of photos from the NASA archives. The images include those captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, various Mars rovers, and, of course, the photos taken on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts themselves. The book nods to the past (via text by NASA’s former chief historian) and to the future, with pictures of space systems currently in development.

(Taschen, March)

Among its other charms, Santa Fe is notable for being the only city besides NYC to inspire an entire collection from Ralph Lauren. And no wonder—with its distinct adobe architecture, storied art and design scenes, and centuries of rich history, it’s unique among American cities, particularly in the West. This book collects photos of its most beautiful homes, along with the details that define them (including folk art and ceramics). It’s the next best thing to visiting the City Different yourself.

(Rizzoli, March 7)

It is perhaps the ultimate American Dream story. Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine shortly after the Chernobyl accident, whose radiation caused her to be born missing a kidney, with only a partial stomach, an extra toe on each foot, webbed fingers (and no thumbs), and leg conditions that eventually required double amputation. After enduring abuses at an orphanage, she was adopted and began a path that led to becoming America’s most decorated athlete in the Paralympic or Olympic Games. Her memoir tells the haunting, but ultimately uplifting, story.

(Scribner, February 21)

Ralph Lauren has often drawn inspiration from the intersection of NYC and the sporting life, and this book embodies that distinctly New York vibrancy. The writer has long taught basketball culture at NYU, and now the professor has turned it into a book, with input from the likes of Charles Barkley, WNBA champs, and elite NYC pickup players on how signature basketball skills like adaptivity, teamwork, sanctuary, and transcendence can help us off the court too.

(Harmony, February 7)