NONFICTION
Released: June 25, 2013
"Do we care if a professionally successful person is a psychological mess? Not, it seems, if we get out of it a great smartphone or a well-organized library. Kendall delivers a mostly engaging history of a handful of America's "obsessive innovators.""
Kendall (Associate Fellow/Trumbull College, Yale Univ.;
The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture, 2010, etc.) returns with a collection of minibiographies of obsessive personalities who transformed American life.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 25, 2013
"The author's wit and biting analysis render this a most readable study."
What first appears to be a narrowly academic profile of two rival scholars amplifies into a trenchant, engaging study of the postwar split between the New Left and Western liberalism.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 28, 2013
"Prior to his career in government service, Cannon (who died at 93 in 2011) spent years as a journalist, and that training shows in this smoothly readable account."
An advisor to President Gerald Ford (1913–2006) pens an admiring biography of America's most anomalous and, possibly, most underrated chief executive.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 1, 2013
"An illuminating book built, like its subject's life, on small episodes rather than great, dramatic turning points. Essential for students and serious readers of Kafka."
Conclusion of a massive, comprehensive life of the famed Czech/German/Jewish writer, chockablock with neuroses, failures and moments of brilliance.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 1, 2013
"A resurrection story that offers a significant contribution to the history of American popular theater."
A veteran music critic and historian excavates the long-buried story of the signal contributions made to the original staged production of
Porgy and Bess by director Rouben Mamoulian (1897–1987).
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NONFICTION
Released: July 1, 2013
"Honest but undistinguished."
A former New York publicist's memoir, written as an "open letter" to an imaginary daughter, about the circumstances and personal choices that caused her to remain childless.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 1, 2013
"A nicely crafted biography that also offers Civil War buffs an unusual ambulance-wagon view of the great conflict."
NONFICTION
Released: July 1, 2013
"Not just for the armchair traveler, this book would serve as a useful guide for those interested in exploring Mali."
NONFICTION
Released: July 2, 2013
"Intriguing, but at times dry and not entirely satisfying."
A journalist's memoir of how he escaped the Christian fundamentalism that shaped, and distorted, both his and his parents' lives.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 2, 2013
"Even those unable to carry a tune will find that Horn's prose hits a high note.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 2, 2013
"If readers can get past Cardiff's irritating efforts to constantly demonstrate her own cleverness, they may find some interesting observations about human sexual foibles, but not much else."
A 20-something editor and writer's unapologetically snarky sex memoir that is "not about [her] sex life."
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NONFICTION
Released: July 2, 2013
"Heartbreakingly honest, yet not without hope and flashes of wry humor."
Technology journalist Hafner's (
A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano, 2008, etc.) one-year "experiment in multigenerational living," which forced her to confront her past and understand its impact on her present.
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