Read Between the World and Me

James Baldwin's two essays of 1963 on race and religion in America.

Solzhenitsyn's literary investigation of the camps from 227 witnesses; the abridged edition is enough.

Mandela's autobiography from the Transkei to Robben Island to the presidency.

From Detroit Red to Mecca, told to Alex Haley in the year before his assassination.

Michelle Obama from the South Side of Chicago to the White House.

John Lewis's civil rights years, from Nashville lunch counters to Selma, in three books.

The Inner Harbor, Fort McHenry where the anthem was written and Chesapeake blue crabs.

The woman whose cells, taken without consent in 1951, are still alive in every lab.