On March 24, 1927, a writer and a composer met in a cafe in Berlin to discuss the prospect of working together. This fact unto itself is not particularly notable, as the Weimar Republic had made Berlin a hotbed of artistic activity. However, though no one knew it then, these two young men—Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill—would go on to radically reshape musical theater.

The National Football League has been intensely scrutinized in its opening weeks this season, mostly due to grossly mishandling the domestic violence case of Ray Rice. It is rare for America’s most popular sport to be so openly and passionately attacked. It is also the ideal intellectual and philosophical climate for Steve Almond’s new book, Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto.

In the fall of 1977, a London man named Martin Windrow decided to do something rather eccentric: adopt an owl.

“I stay in a place that people leave.” This single, defiant sentence reveals the tone of David Giffels’s new book of essays, The Hard Way on Purpose. In the book, Giffels writes with equal parts loving pride and critical acumen about Akron, Ohio, the city in which he was born.

For more than 60 years, The Great Gatsby has been required reading for most high school students. It has been adapted into six film versions. Thousands upon thousands of pages have been written about the book and its author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. So it is fair to assume that most Americans have at least a passing familiarity with the story.

Lance Armstrong’s story has been equal parts inspirational journey and tabloid fodder. After he was publicly shamed as a cheater, his epic collapse culminated in a highly anticipated, tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. Except he did not tell all.