In the past two months, our world has changed irreversibly. While I am confident that we will emerge on the other side, hopefully stronger and more compassionate and empathetic to all of our global citizens, so much is uncertain right now that it’s increasingly difficult to focus on any one thing for very long.

This includes reading, as we constantly update our families about our health and safety and fight the temptation to check Twitter, Facebook, and other outlets for the latest (usually depressing) news. With that in mind, here are new releases that you can pick up and put down without losing the thread. All of them are quite different, which reflects my catholic tastes in literature, but each is suitable for intermittent reading.

Illuminating History by Bernard Bailyn (Norton, April 14): The well-honored master historian—two Pulitzers, a National Book Award, a Bancroft Prize, and a National Humanities Medal—compiles seven (!) decades of writing in this top-notch collection. Our reviewer calls it “a privilege for history buffs from a master of the craft,” and whether Bailyn is explaining the effect of the Puritans’ beliefs on the early American economy or discussing his diligent research methods, the narrative is rarely dull and never less than, yes, illuminating.

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (Godine, April 7): It’s a cliché, I know, but this book is legitimately laugh-out-loud funny; I LOL–ed every few pages. In this “bighearted, sobering, and humane” memoir, Bythell presents a day-by-day, journal-style chronicle of his experiences as an independent bookstore owner in Wigtown, Scotland. Always astute and wry, the author not only gives us an inside look at what it takes to run a bookstore; he also offers consistently entertaining portraits of the many quirky regulars and other characters who stop by.

God-Level Knowledge Darts by Desus Mero (Random House, moved tp Sept. 22): “A poetically profane, verbally adroit guide to life by two jokers who are smarter than they act,” this one’s not for everyone (especially readers uncomfortable with frequent profanity or graphic discussions of sex and drugs), but it will undoubtedly please the many fans of the duo behind the hit eponymous show. It’s a rapid, back-and-forth conversation from black and Latinx perspectives that is consistently raw, often hilarious, and sometimes quite poignant.

Final Draft by David Carr (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 7): Though we lost this top-flight journalist in 2015, his legacy lives on in this well-curated collection that spans his career, from the Twin Cities Reader to the New York Times. Each piece demonstrates Carr’s “profound care about his craft, flashes of humor, and, when necessary, genuine fangs: See his 2015 piece about a neighbor’s cat, and witness the gleam of his verbal scalpel that vivisects [Ann] Coulter.” I would pay good money to see what he would make of our current political and cultural landscape. If you enjoy this collection, do not miss his outstanding memoir, Night of the Gun (2008).

Foxfire Story, edited by T.J. Smith (Anchor, April 28): In the latest of the long-running franchise about life in Appalachia, the executive director of Foxfire—a heritage preservation organization—compiles what our reviewer called “yarns aplenty, from tall tales to etiological myths and collections of folk beliefs.” In addition to engaging folktales and nuggets of traditional wisdom, “readers will learn that the local way of saying insomnia is ‘big eye,’ that something ‘catty-whompus’ is lopsided, that working people wear clodhoppers while someone in an office wears a ‘choke-rag,’ or necktie.” Also check out Travels With Foxfire (2018) and their 45^th anniversary book (2011).

Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor.