The Top 75 Community College Titles: August 2026 Edition

The best of all the titles appropriate for two-year colleges reviewed in the August issue of Choice.

Posted on August 20, 2026 in Top 75 Community College Titles

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Reference

Barker, Gordon S. Black women freedom fighters: profiles in the struggle against slavery, by Gordon S. Barker and Sophie A. Brady. McFarland, 2025. 259p bibl index ISBN 9781476694481 pbk, $49.95; ISBN 9781476655758 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2275

Solomon, Norman. Historical dictionary of Judaism. Rowman & Littlefield, 2025. 595p bibl ISBN 9781538184950, $250.00; ISBN 9781538184967 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2276

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Humanities

Barker, Alan. How to improve your communication skills: how to build trust, be heard and communicate with confidence. Kogan Page, 2025. 224p index ISBN 9781398621145, $64.00; ISBN 9781398621121 pbk, $16.99; ISBN 9781398621138 ebook, $16.99; 63-2285

Bather Woods, David. Arthur Schopenhauer: the life and thought of philosophy’s greatest pessimist. Chicago, 2025. 294p bibl index ISBN 9780226829760, $30.00; ISBN 9780226844411 ebook, $29.99; 63-2330

Beyond zombie politics: the art of George A. Romero’s cinema, ed. by Adrienne Boutang, Claire Cornillion, and David Roche. University Press of Mississippi, 2025. 276p bibl index ISBN 9781496860262, $110.00; ISBN 9781496860279 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9781496860286 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2316

Burlingame, Christopher J. Adapting transgressive fiction to film: sharpening the critical edge with a golden age. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 260p bibl index ISBN 9798765142387, $120.00; ISBN 9798765142394 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2317

Cureton, Adam Steven. Respecting disability: attitudes, ideals, and relationships. Oxford, 2025. 312p bibl index ISBN 9780197775004, $140.00; ISBN 9780197775011 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780197775035 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2331

Dalla Riva, Chris. Uncharted territory: what numbers tell us about the biggest hit songs and ourselves. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 339p bibl index ISBN 9798765149843, $34.00; ISBN 9798765149911 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2320

Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass: the philosophical writings, ed. by Nick Bromell. Oxford, 2025. 280p bibl index ISBN 9780197746479, $99.00; ISBN 9780197746486 pbk, $24.95; ISBN 9780197746509 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2333

Dunn, Lily. Into being: the radical craft of memoir and its power to transform. Manchester University Press, 2025. 240p index ISBN 9781526179258, $24.95; ISBN 9781526179241 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2293

Freeman, Samuel Richard. Debating libertarianism: what makes society just?, by Samuel Freeman and Jason Brennan. Oxford, 2025. 277p bibl index ISBN 9780197540862, $99.00; ISBN 9780197540879 pbk, $24.95; ISBN 9780197540893 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2335

Gathercole, Simon. The genuine Jesus and the counterfeit Christs: New Testament and Apocryphal Gospels. Eerdmans, 2025. 131p bibl index ISBN 9780802884459 pbk, $24.99; ISBN 9781467468725 ebook, $24.99; 63-2346

Greenblatt, Stephen. Dark renaissance: the dangerous times and fatal genius of Shakespeare’s greatest rival. W. W. Norton, 2025. 334p ISBN 9780393882278, $31.99; ISBN 9781324134213 pbk, $19.99; ISBN 9780393882285 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2299

Heney, Diana B. American ethics: an introduction to pragmatist moral philosophy. Oxford, 2025. 258p bibl index ISBN 9780197784235, $140.00; ISBN 9780197784242 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780197784266 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2337

Holly, Michael Ann. Somewhere between art history and phenomenology: at the still point of the painted world. Edinburgh University Press, 2025. 204p bibl index ISBN 9781399531887 ebook, $115.00; ISBN 9781399531856, $115.00; 63-2280

Ioanes, Anna. Painful forms: aesthetic violence in American literature and art, 1945–2001. North Carolina, 2025. 220p bibl index ISBN 9781469688930, $99.00; ISBN 9781469688947 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9781469688961 ebook, $27.99; 63-2301

Jacobsen, Douglas G. Christianity and intellectual inquiry: thinking as pilgrimage, by Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen. Oxford, 2025. 221p index ISBN 9780197820346, $29.99; ISBN 9780197820353 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2347

Koenig, Sara M. The Ten Commandments through the ages. Eerdmans, 2025. 269p bibl index ISBN 9780802882127, $35.99; ISBN 9781467464857 ebook, $35.99; 63-2348

Koeth, Stephen M. Crabgrass Catholicism: how suburbanization transformed faith and politics in postwar America. Chicago, 2025. 316p index ISBN 9780226829968, $115.00; ISBN 9780226842202 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9780226842196 ebook, $29.99; 63-2349

Libow, Jess. Vigorous reforms: women writers and the politics of health in the nineteenth-century United States. North Carolina, 2025. 196p bibl index ISBN 9781469689029, $99.00; ISBN 9781469689036 pbk, $32.95; ISBN 9781469689043 ebook, $24.99; 63-2304

Liz Collins: motherlode, ed. by Kate Irvin. Hirmer, 2025. 160p bibl ISBN 9783777444482 pbk, $45.00; 63-2282

Maguire, Muireann. Invading the American canon: translators of Russian literary fiction, 1863–1984. Bloomsbury Academic, 2026. 192p index ISBN 9798765121917, $110.00; ISBN 9798765121955 ebook, open access; 63-2315

Masters, Stuart. The Quaker faith: friends of love and truth. Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2025. 192p bibl index ISBN 9781538185346, $75.00; ISBN 9781538185353 pbk, $22.95; ISBN 9781538185360 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2351

McKenna, Erin. American philosophies: from Wounded Knee to the present, by Erin McKenna and Scott L. Pratt. 2nd ed. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 419p bibl index ISBN 9781350342750, $110.00; ISBN 9781350342743 pbk, $36.95; ISBN 9781350342774 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2339

Oluwayomi, Adebayo. Foundations of Black epistemology: knowledge discourse in Africana philosophy. Temple, 2025. 240p index ISBN 9781439925478, $115.50; ISBN 9781439925485 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9781439925492 ebook, $34.95; 63-2340

Poole, Kristen. Philip Pullman and the historical imagination: seventeenth-century literature, science, and religion in His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust. Oxford, 2025. 268p bibl index ISBN 9780192889317, $45.00; ISBN 9780192889331 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2305

Saurisse, Pierre. Performance in the museum. Lund Humphries, 2025. 144p index ISBN 9781848223806, $49.99; ISBN 9781848223820 ebook, $24.99; 63-2327

Swift, Daniel. The dream factory: London’s first playhouse and the making of William Shakespeare. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025. 302p bibl index ISBN 9780374601270, $30.00; ISBN 9781250448330 pbk, $21.00; ISBN 9780374601287 ebook, $15.99; 63-2328

Walker, Nicole. Writing the hard stuff: turning difficult subjects into meaningful prose. Bloomsbury Academic, 2026. 160p bibl index ISBN 9781350518667, $90.00; ISBN 9781350518650 pbk, $26.95; ISBN 9781350518681 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2295

Winkiel, Laura. Modernism and the Middle Passage. Columbia, 2025. 320p bibl index (Modernist latitudes) ISBN 9780231217248, $140.00; ISBN 9780231217255 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780231561631 ebook, $34.99; 63-2313

Wyett, Jodi L. Quixotic authority: the female Quixote and the woman writer, Lennox to Austen. Delaware, 2026. 264p bibl index (Early modern feminisms) ISBN 9781644534137, $120.00; ISBN 9781644534120 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9781644534144 ebook, $39.95; 63-2314

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Science & Technology

Aiello, Thomas. Return of the king: the rebirth of Muhammad Ali and the rise of Atlanta. Nebraska, 2025. 312p bibl index ISBN 9781496244185, $36.95; ISBN 9781496245953 ebook, $36.95; 63-2374

Carlson, Ann E. Smog and sunshine: the surprising story of how Los Angeles cleaned up its air. California, 2026. 312p bibl index ISBN 9780520387393, $26.95; ISBN 9780520387409 ebook, $26.95; 63-2366

De Vos, Asha. Ocean: from the shore to the abyss. Thames & Hudson, 2026. 288p index ISBN 9780500027554, $65.00; 63-2365

Flower, Hilary. The kite and the snail: an endangered bird, its unlikely prey, and a story of hope in a changing world. University Press of Florida, 2026. 246p bibl index ISBN 9780813081496 pbk, $28.00; ISBN 9780813075327 ebook, $18.99; 63-2364

Grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets of the world, ed. by Martin Husemann and Oliver Hawlitschek. Princeton, 2025. 320p bibl index ISBN 9780691281056, $29.95; ISBN 9780691290560 ebook, $29.95; 63-2361

Joseloff, Michael. The greatest scientific gamble: a story of impossible odds, rival scientists, and the atomic bomb. Michigan State, 2026. 283p bibl index ISBN 9781611865608, $79.95; ISBN 9781611865592 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9781628955644 ebook, $34.95; 63-2359

Lynch, Patrick J. Ponds: an illustrated guide. Yale, 2026. 288p bibl index ISBN 9780300284966 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780300289541 ebook, $35.00; 63-2363

Morris, Carl. Dirtbag dreams: a history of mountain, ultra and trail running. Manchester University Press, 2025. 301p index ISBN 9781526190185, $29.95; ISBN 9781526190178 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2375

Omland, Kevin. Understanding the tree of life. Cambridge, 2025. 223p index ISBN 9781009207300 pbk, $19.99; ISBN 9781009207287 ebook, $19.99; 63-2362

Palaeontology in public: popular science, lost creatures and deep time, ed. by Chris Manias. UCL Press, 2025. 344p bibl index ISBN 9781800085848, contact publisher for price; ISBN 9781800085831 pbk, $40.00; 63-2360

Trotter, Joe William. From enslavement to COVID-19: a history of African American health and labor. North Carolina, 2025. 213p bibl index ISBN 9781469690841, $99.00; ISBN 9781469690858 pbk, $24.95; ISBN 9781469683348 ebook, $19.99; 63-2372

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Social & Behavioral Sciences

Blurton, Heather. Richard the Lionheart: in life and in legend. Reaktion Books, 2025. 200p bibl ISBN 9781836391234, $25.00; ISBN 9781836391593 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2435

Bozçali, Firat. Smuggling law: unsettled sovereignties in Turkey’s Kurdish borderlands. Stanford, 2026. 251p bibl index ISBN 9781503644113, $120.00; ISBN 9781503644496 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9781503644502 ebook, $30.00; 63-2418

Caetano Álvarez, Elena. Alfonso X, the dream of empire, and (re)writing history in the Estoria de Espanna. Tamesis, 2025. 288p bibl index (Monografías A, 409) ISBN 9781855664012, $130.00; ISBN 9781805438526 ebook, $24.00; 63-2438

Caponi, Todd. Four levers negotiating: the simple, counterintuitive way to higher deal values and lasting trust. Matt Holt Books, 2026. 151p ISBN 9781637748404, $28.00; ISBN 9781637748411 ebook, $13.99; 63-2389

Coin, Francesca. The great resignation: the new refusal of work. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 206p bibl index ISBN 9781350534353, $90.00; ISBN 9781350534360 pbk, $26.95; ISBN 9781350534377 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2390

Cosco, Tara. Adapt and thrive: strategies for inclusive and special education. Myers Education Press, 2026. 89p index ISBN 9781975509217 pbk, $37.95; ISBN 9781975509224 ebook, $37.95; 63-2397

Daley, Patricia. Human geography: a very short introduction, by Patricia Daley and Ian Klinke. Oxford, 2025. 132p index ISBN 9780192869302 pbk, $12.99; ISBN 9780192695956 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2399

Daniel, Larry J. Richmond views the West: politics and perceptions in the Confederate capital. University Press of Kansas, 2025. 341p bibl index ISBN 9780700640102, $49.99; ISBN 9780700640119 ebook, $14.99; 63-2421

Designs upon nature: the cultural landscape history of yellowstone, ed. by William K. Wyckoff and Karl Byrand. University Press of Colorado, 2025. 336p bibl index ISBN 9781646427680, $45.00; ISBN 9781646427697 ebook, $36.00; 63-2422

Dobson, Hugo. Former prime ministers in Japan: power, influence and the role of informal politics, by Hugo Dobson, Karin Narita, and Caroline Rose. Bristol University Press, 2025. 194p index ISBN 9781529206838 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9781529206852 ebook, open access; 63-2441

Donaldson, Sue. Animals and the right to politics, by Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka. Oxford, 2025. 352p bibl index ISBN 9780198988236, $155.00; ISBN 9780198989004 pbk, $25.00; ISBN 9780198988250 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2452

Edmundson, William A. The social contract: political equality from Putney to Rawls. Cambridge, 2025. 234p bibl index ISBN 9781009395267, $130.00; ISBN 9781009395274 ebook, $130.00; 63-2453

Foltz, Robert. No method to the madness: making sense of the psychiatric treatment of our youth. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 188p bibl index ISBN 9798881806026, $120.00; ISBN 9798881806033 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9798881806040 ebook, $31.45; 63-2463

Gayle, Caleb. Black Moses: a saga of ambition and the fight for a Black state. Riverhead Books, 2025. 286p index ISBN 9780593543795, $33.00; ISBN 9780593543818 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2425

Gudmestad, Robert H. The devil’s own purgatory: the United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War. Louisiana State, 2025. 292p bibl index ISBN 9780807184912, $50.00; ISBN 9780807185452 ebook, $19.95; 63-2428

Hartmann, Rasmus Koss. Innovation management: foundations and futures. Cambridge, 2025. 236p bibl index ISBN 9781009431521, $95.00; ISBN 9781009431569 pbk, $30.99; ISBN 9781009431576 ebook, $30.99; 63-2391

Judson, Pieter M. The Great War and the transformation of Habsburg Central Europe, by Pieter M. Judson and Tara Zahra. Oxford, 2025. 190p index ISBN 9780198804000, $35.00; ISBN 9780192526052 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2415

Kurashige, Scott. American peril: the violent history of anti-Asian racism. California, 2026. 352p bibl index ISBN 9780520424777, $27.95; ISBN 9780520424784 ebook, $27.95; 63-2381

Michener, Jamila. Uncivil democracy: how access to justice shapes political power, by Jamila Michener and Mallory E. SoRelle. Princeton, 2026. 261p bibl index ISBN 9780691264462, $29.95; ISBN 9780691287256 ebook, $29.95; 63-2460

Monger, David. British first world war propaganda: from A to Z. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 230p bibl index ISBN 9781350386846, $110.00; ISBN 9781350386839 pbk, $36.95; ISBN 9781350413542 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2436

Overholtzer, Lisa. Toward a small data archaeology: Otomí, Aztec Imperial, and Spanish colonial Xaltocan, Mexico. University Press of Colorado, 2025. 281p bibl index ISBN 9781646427499, $93.00; ISBN 9781646427505 ebook, $74.00; 63-2386

Peyton, Caroline Rose. Radioactive Dixie: a nuclear history of the American South. Georgia, 2025. 284p bibl index (Environmental history and the American South) ISBN 9780820373966, $119.95; ISBN 9780820373973 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780820373997 ebook, $29.95; 63-2392

Rivera, Salvador. The fragmented nation: a political history of Latin American societies. McFarland, 2025. 348p bibl index ISBN 9781476682976 pbk, $49.95; ISBN 9781476654638 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2417

Schablitsky, Julie M. Belvoir: an archaeology of Maryland slavery. Alabama, 2025. 152p bibl index ISBN 9780817322502, $110.00; ISBN 9780817362225 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9780817395797 ebook, $34.95; 63-2387

Schewel, Kerilyn. Moved by modernity: how development shapes migration in rural Ethiopia. Oxford, 2025. 288p index ISBN 9780197680711, $132.00; ISBN 9780197680728 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780197680735 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2471

Seth, Michael J. Forever president: a biography of Kim Il Sung. Reaktion Books, 2025. 288p bibl index ISBN 9781836391043, $30.00; ISBN 9781836391449 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2412

Sharpless, Rebecca. People of the wheat: culture and cultivation in North Texas. Texas, 2026. 298p bibl index ISBN 9781477333327, $45.00; ISBN 9781477333341 ebook, $45.00; 63-2430

Smith, Christopher E. Evolving constitutional rights: the Roberts Court and criminal justice, by Christopher E. Smith, Michael A. McCall, and Madhavi M. McCall. Southern Illinois, 2025. 283p bibl ISBN 9780809339747, $85.00; ISBN 9780809339730 pbk, $27.95; ISBN 9780809339754 ebook, $17.99; 63-2461

Stainton, Leslie. Scarlett: slavery’s enduring legacy in an American family. Potomac Books, 2025. 236p bibl index ISBN 9781640126756, $32.95; ISBN 9781640126824 ebook, $32.95; 63-2431

Stille, Mark. Pearl Harbor: Japan’s greatest disaster. Osprey, 2025. 448p bibl index ISBN 9781472865311, $35.00; ISBN 9781472865335 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2404

Sturm, Susan. What might be: confronting racism to transform our institutions. Princeton, 2025. 309p bibl index ISBN 9780691246741, $32.00; ISBN 9780691246758 ebook, $32.00; 63-2472

Van Atta, John Robert. The day they hanged Old Brown: the making of celebrity and martyrdom in the Civil War era. Missouri, 2025. 329p bibl index ISBN 9780826223388, $48.00; ISBN 9780826275189 ebook, $48.00; 63-2432

Wallace, Mike. Gotham at war: a history of New York City from 1933 to 1945. Oxford, 2025. 958p bibl index ISBN 9780199384518, $45.00; ISBN 9780199384532 ebook, contact publisher for price; 63-2433

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