we tell ourselves stories

Today’s Daily Cartoon by Tom Toro. Visit our new hub for all things New Yorker cartoons.

NOVA NEXT: Pluto shows its true colors

New Horizons’s images of Pluto are already revealing a striking world. 

Be sure to catch NOVA’s “Chasing Pluto” this Wednesday at 9/8c.

Seriously excited.

“In the press release, Marston explained that Wonder Woman was meant to be an allegory: ‘Like her male prototype, ‘Superman,’ ‘Wonder Woman’ is gifted with tremendous physical strength—but unlike Superman she can be injured.’ Marston went on, ‘‘Wonder Woman’ has bracelets welded on her wrists; with these she can repulse bullets. But if she lets any man weld chains on these bracelets, she loses her power. This, says Dr. Marston, is what happens to all women when they submit to a man’s domination.’”

– Jill Lepore - The Secret History of Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman, created in 1941, on the brink of World War II, is the most popular female superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, she has lasted the longest and commanded the most vast and wildly passionate following. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike others, she also has a secret history.

In Jill Lepore’s riveting work of historical detection, Wonder Woman’s story provides the missing link in the history of the struggle for women’s rights—a chain of events that begins with the women’s suffrage campaigns of the early 1900s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.

This edition includes a new afterword with fresh revelations based on never before seen letters and photographs from the Marston family’s papers. 

Read an excerpt here: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…/the-secret-history-of-…/

I started this book on the Metro this morning and nearly missed my stop. Good stuff.

Frosty dawn by Martin Cook

With eight days until publication of Go Set a Watchman, we are thrilled to share the very submission letter that Nelle Harper Lee’s agent, Maurice Crain, sent out in April 1957. It gives some insight into the contents of the novel…  

‘Go Set A Watchman will be an eye-opener for many northerners as to Southern attitudes, and the reasons for them, in the segregation battle.’

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Release date: August 4, 2015

Bridge and her best friends have considered themselves a set for the last couple years. They are close as three friends can be. Except this year, all three of them seem to be a little busy for each other. Bridge with tech crew, Tab with activities for the school’s human rights club and Em with the soccer team.

Sherm is also busy with tech crew, but for him it’s a way to get away from the house where he and his parents live with his grandma. Until the past year, it’s also where his granddad lived, now he only talks to him in letters Sherm’s not sending.

Then there’s a girl who has had enough of Valentine’s Day. Instead of going to school on February 14, she’s hiding out in a bakery.

How do these three stories come together? Why is Bridge wearing a pair of cat ears every day of school? Is there anything better than a stack of cinnamon toast? For these answers and more, check out the newest book from Rebecca Stead.

This book has the coolest native New Yorker feel. If you read Harriet the Spy or The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler as a kid and are looking for a new book that hits in a similar way but for YA, this is the perfect book for you. Goodbye Stranger is smart and funny, but still with all the angst of seventh grade.

Rebecca Stead writes books that remind you why you first fell in love with reading.

Percy Jackson series in less than 10 words

Best seat in the house😊📖🌿☕️🌞

by Lizzy Stewart

Onward and upward.