Susannah Felts is so emotionally spot-on about the human experience that there is no piece of Maggie’s story that doesn’t resonate. ... Read full Story
Amitav Ghosh is a rarity in modern fiction: a rigorous writer unafraid to challenge his audience. Readers up to the task will be rewarded with a thrilling intellectual contest. ... Read full Story
Babylon, South Dakota is a remarkable literary journey as lush and abundant as the chrysanthemums that take over the Hsius’ greenhouse. ... Read full Story
Isabel Waidner solidifies themself as a contemporary master of the novel in As If, which elevates their signature screwball style to existential heights. ... Read full Story
Now in a 50th anniversary edition, Edna Lewis’ The Taste of Country Cooking continues to be the primer for the recipes and foods that define the American South. ... Read full Story
Drawing extensively from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Cut Out offers a thorough, almost encyclopedic study of photo collage. ... Read full Story
In his immersive, thoughtful Water in the Desert, Gary Paul Nabhan traces his journey from a child who loved Michigan’s sand dunes and lakes to an ethnobiologist and environmental justice advocate. ... Read full Story
Watermelon Pool’s superb art makes for an immersive, uplifting read that celebrates the singular delight of a day well-spent, and the delicious thrill of diving in to summer fun. ... Read full Story
In Decoding the Devil, Sarah Valentine reconstructs the lives of Black cryptologists who performed vital national security work during the Cold War. ... Read full Story
Research chemist Ijeoma Uchegbu’s enthusiasm for her subject is so contagious that even the most chemistry-averse reader will find their ears pricked up while reading Chain Reaction. ... Read full Story
With its puffy padded cover and surprisingly diverse recipes, Farideh Sadeghin’s The Hot Dog Cookbook is highly recommended for lovers of novelty and adventurous eating. ... Read full Story
Katee Robert concludes her Dark Olympus Series with a steamy triad of powerful women, plus a delightful sports rivals-to-lovers debut. ... Read full Story
Required reading for anyone who cares about women and justice, Unreasonable Women aims a powerful spotlight on our country’s continued failure to protect its most vulnerable. ... Read full Story
The Missed Connection, Tia Williams’ second-chance romance about an anxious casting director and the one who got away, is a rollicking good time. ... Read full Story
Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Hopkins share their experience crafting the unique, dual-narrator audiobook production of This Story Might Save Your Life. ... Read full Story
Whistler is exceptional: a reminder of how some people in your life may cause you pain, but if you love them, and they love you, that’s enough. ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2026 is:
gamut \GAM-ut\ noun
A gamut is a range or series of related things. When we say that something “runs the gamut,” we are saying that it encompasses an entire range of related things.
// The flea market offerings run the gamut with a wide array of vendors each offering something unique.
“... she brings a certain je ne sais quoi to the production with themes running the gamut from circuses and rodeos to mermaids and pirates.” — Heather Douglas, Coast Weekend (Astoria, Oregon), 23 Apr. 2026
Did you know?
With the song “Do-Re-Mi,” the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music (adapted from the 1958 stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein) introduced millions of non-musicians to solfège, the singing of the sol-fa syllables—do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti—to teach the tones of a musical scale. Centuries earlier, however, the do in “Do-Re-Mi” was known as ut. Indeed, the first note on the scale of Guido d’Arezzo, an 11th century musician and monk who had his own way of applying syllables to musical tones, was ut. d’Arezzo also called the first line of his bass staff gamma, which meant that gamma-ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma-ut underwent a shortening to gamut, and later its meaning expanded first to cover all the notes of d’Arezzo’s scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.