The Drunken Silenus is a book that is as hard to categorize as it is to put down—an enlightening and mesmerizing blend of philosophy, history, and art criticism. Morgan Meis begins simply enough, with a painting by the Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens of the figure from Greek mythology who is mentor to Dionysus, god of wine and excess of every kind. The narrative spirals out from there….

Something has shifted — and you can feel it. The old normal no longer holds, and looking away is no longer an option. In True Human, guide and cultural activist Samantha Sweetwater writes for those who sense that personal transformation and our collective future are not separate journeys, but one.

Weaving together storytelling, deep ecology, cultural history, and spirituality, Sweetwater draws on years of work guiding thousands — from tech executives to elite athletes to suburban mothers — through periods of upheaval and reinvention. Rather than offering easy answers or false comfort, True Human provides tools for making sense of turbulence, healing despair and trauma, and reclaiming a sense of belonging and wholeness. At its heart is a living vision of a future worth fighting for.

Poetic, provocative, and fiercely honest, True Human is not a book about transcending your humanity or perfecting yourself. It is an invitation into a deeper, more courageous, and more luminous way of being human — a companion for anyone longing to live with greater joy, meaning, and purpose as we reimagine ourselves and our world together. Samantha Sweetwater is a movement artist, ecologist, and founder of Dancing Freedom, whose work has reached communities across four continents.

Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are is perfect for anyone who is curious about nonduality’s impact on life as it is lived every day. How can the philosophy of nonduality change how we experience our lives? The book helps us integrate nonduality’s core theory — that nothing truly exists outside of the here and now — with the practice of present-moment awareness.

When we thoroughly understand that present-moment awareness is all there is, we are able to be here now with renewed appreciation and clarity. We can make an uncompromising commitment to the present moment without the distractions of distorted thinking, artificial comparisons, and impossible ideals. J. Jennifer Matthews studied philosophy and theology at the University of Louvain, Belgium, and the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge. She works as a counselor and meditation instructor in Boston.

True leadership is rooted in the ability to deeply connect with others. Understanding the dynamics of human relationships is essential in order to thrive — and even just survive — in today’s world of work. In You and We, Jim Ferrell illustrates how lasting success, more than ever before, depends on our ability to develop strong personal relationships.

In the style of his previous bestselling books, Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace, Ferrell brings readers another story — this time showing how as machines grow ever smarter, it won’t be our brains that differentiate us in the workplace of tomorrow, but our hearts: our ability to authentically relate with others. You and We is a culmination of all Ferrell has learned over his years of researching, training, and mentoring leaders to transform organizational ecosystems.

In the face of ecological crisis, economic injustice, and political violence, the moral demands of being a good person are almost too much to bear. In Unbecoming Persons, Ladelle McWhorter argues that this strain is by design. Our ideas about personhood, she shows, emerged to sustain centuries of colonialism, slavery, and environmental destruction. We must look elsewhere to find our way out.

This history raises a hard question: Should we be persons at all, or might we live a good life without the constraints of individualism or the illusion of autonomy? In seeking an answer, McWhorter pushes back on the notion of our own personhood—our obsession with identity, self-improvement, and salvation—in search of a better way to live together in this world. Although she finds no easy answers, McWhorter ultimately proposes a new ethics that rejects both self-interest and self-sacrifice and embraces perpetual dependence, community, and the Earth

MacArthur Fellow and National Humanities Medalist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplexand The Mind-Body Problem, returns with a revelatory book about the primal drive that in our species alone has been transformed into one of our most persistent and universal motivations: the longing to matter. Drawing on biology, psychology, and philosophy, Goldstein argues that this need to matter, and the many “mattering projects” it inspires, lies at the heart of both our greatest achievements and our deepest conflicts. It is the very crux of the human experience.

Goldstein brings this profound idea to life through unforgettable stories of famous and not-so-famous people pursuing their own mattering projects, from ragtime genius Scott Joplin and his devotion to the overlooked masterpiece Treemonisha, to pioneering psychologist William James, who overcame early depression to become a foundational theorist of mattering. Deeply insightful and decades in the making, The Mattering Instinct is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand why we yearn to matter to ourselves and others, and how this powerful longing might help us finally understand one another.