NONFICTION
Released: June 6, 2013
"The author's vision and knowledge substantiate his clearly expressed concerns."
Fagan (Emeritus, Anthropology; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara;
Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans, 2012, etc.) provides his assessment of rising sea levels.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 4, 2013
"A touching, fairly uncomplicated portrayal of rowing legends."
The long, passionate journey of the University of Washington rowing team to the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 4, 2013
"A rousing tale of the longest murder trial to that date in Manhattan, and the author's conjecture as to the true villain is spot-on--but he should have focused more on the trial."
Ostensibly the tale of a dramatic murder trial with three famous defense attorneys, "the first fully recorded murder trial in U.S. history," but actually more of an intriguing exploration of Manhattan in 1799.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 4, 2013
"Kevin Phillips' 2012 tour de force, 1775, delivered a massive argument for that year as the key to American independence. A traditionalist, Ellis sticks to 1776 and writes an insightful history of its critical, if often painful, events."
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Ellis (
First Family: Abigail and John Adams, 2010, etc.) writes book after book on the American Revolutionary period. Practice makes perfect.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 4, 2013
"Will appeal to military buffs, conservative readers and, of course, firearms enthusiasts."
A raucous and duly violent tour of American history through the sights of 10 famous weapons, from the Kentucky long rifle to the M-16.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 3, 2013
"An intriguing addition to a centuries-long geopolitical adventure story."
Day (Research Fellow/La Trobe Univ., Melbourne;
Conquest: How Societies Overwhelm Others, 2008, etc.) examines the strange history of Antarctica, "a continent of many claimants and no owners."
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NONFICTION
Released: June 3, 2013
"A useful, engaging primer for anyone wishing to understand the politics, precedent and procedures that have shaped the Senate."
Two longtime observers of our government in action offer a multidimensional study of the history, traditions and culture of the United States Senate.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 3, 2013
"Of possible interest to Jesse James and/or Civil War buffs, but not to a wider audience."
A Missouri legal historian's well-researched but lackluster answer to the question of whether Jesse James was "the last great rebel of the Civil War or the first notorious robber after [it]."
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NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2013
"Seriously funny, humorously serious, scholarly, witty and wise."
A survey and analysis of Jewish humor, from the Bible to Larry David and Sacha Baron Cohen.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2013
"While the legal principles presented remain sound, the commentary on controversies that were topical in the 1980s and '90s too often sounds dated and suggests that Abrams is largely serving warmed-over material from an illustrious past."
Vigorous, principled defenses of freedom of expression from a long career in the legal trenches.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2013
"A valuable survey of U.S. golf history, but a bit too dry and academic for casual readers."
Moss (History, Emeritus/Colby Coll.;
Eden in the Pines: A History of Pinehurst Village, 2005, etc.) presents a study of golf's development in the United States.
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NONFICTION
Released: May 28, 2013
"Carlson has taken full advantage of abundant material to deliver a vivid chronicle of two working Civil War reporters and their spectacular odyssey."
A rollicking story of imprisonment and escape during the Civil War seems a stretch, but journalist Carlson accomplished a similar feat with a Soviet premier in
K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist (2009), and this is another entertaining, occasionally gruesome account.
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