Current Issue: Nonfiction

Allen, Thomas B. TORIES September 1, 2010 - Veteran historian Allen (Remember Valley Forge: Patriots, Tories, and Redcoats Tell Their Stories, 2007, etc.) offers a lively account of the colonists who remained loyal to King George during the Revolutionary War. At the war’s outset, George Washington believed that ... Full Review

Andrews, Colman FERRAN September 1, 2010 - Saveur co-founder and former Gourmet magazine columnist Andrews (The Country Cooking of Ireland, 2009, etc.) chronicles and applauds the career of Ferran Adrià, a chef whose El Bulli restaurant became a lighthouse of innovation and experimentation. The author doesn’t conceal ... Full Review

Angel-Ajani, Asale STRANGE TRADE September 1, 2010 - Close-up account of the international drug trade, seen from the point of view of its foot soldiers. Drawing on her dissertation research, anthropologist Angel-Ajani leads readers into the minor hell of Italy’s Rebibbia Prison, erstwhile home of some hundreds of ... Full Review

Angrist, Misha HERE IS A HUMAN BEING September 1, 2010 - A former genetic counselor investigates personal genomics. Angrist, an assistant professor at the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, volunteered to participate in the first phase of Harvard University’s Personal Genome Project, which sought to create a publicly ... Full Review

Auchincloss, Louis A VOICE FROM OLD NEW YORK September 1, 2010 - The prolific author’s last book is a farewell to a way of life that was gone before he was. Including this memoir, Auchincloss (1917–2010) published nearly 70 books. Here the author looks at his coming of age not long after ... Full Review

Birbiglia, Mike SLEEPWALK WITH ME September 1, 2010 - Popular comedian Birbiglia reminisces about his wacky childhood pipe dreams, sleep disorders and occupational and social failures. In the Comedy Central regular’s first foray into the book business, the author engages in plenty of self-deprecating put-downs, non sequiturs and underdog-loser ... Full Review

Blom, Philipp A WICKED COMPANY September 1, 2010 - Historian Blom (Vertigo Years: Change and Culture in the West, 1900-1914, 2008, etc.) returns with a flowing, limpid account of an 18th-century French salon that housed the greatest names in French philosophy. The real star here is Denis Diderot, who, ... Full Review

Bojowald, Martin ONCE BEFORE TIME September 1, 2010 - The latest effort to make sense of the universe by a young physicist. In his debut, Bojowald (Physics/Pennsylvania State Univ.) points out that general relativity and quantum mechanics, the two magnificent explanations of physical phenomena, don’t explain everything. For example, ... Full Review

Briggs, Bill THE THIRD MIRACLE September 1, 2010 - Intriguing glimpse into the Vatican saint-making process. In 1840, Mother Théodore Guérin left France for the unknowns of rural Indiana. In 2006, she was officially canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Veteran journalist Briggs chronicles the surrounding ... Full Review

Bryson, Bill SEEING FURTHER September 1, 2010 - The Royal Society has been incubating and disseminating scientific illumination for 350 years, as Bryson (Shakespeare: The World as Stage, 2007, etc.) and his fellow contributors gracefully attest. “The Royal Society has been doing interesting and heroic things…since 1660,” writes ... Full Review

Cadbury, Deborah CHOCOLATE WARS September 1, 2010 - The tale of the surprisingly cutthroat world of corporate chocolate-making, influenced by religion, science, slavery and globalization. In early 2010, Kraft Foods acquired Cadbury, the longtime independent British chocolate maker. Deborah Cadbury (Space Race: The Epic Battle Between America and ... Full Review

Cavett, Dick TALK SHOW September 1, 2010 - Veteran talk-show titan turns comic columnist. Cavett (co-author: Eye on Cavett, 1983, etc.) began an online column for the New York Times in 2007, musing on current events and reminiscing about his many celebrity encounters. This slim volume collects a ... Full Review

Chatfield, Tom FUN INC. September 1, 2010 - A treatise on the current and future state of video games. In his debut, Prospect magazine arts and books editor Chatfield explores topics ranging from the culturally pervasive influence of video games throughout the world to the ways in which ... Full Review

Cook, Kevin TITANIC THOMPSON September 1, 2010 - Former Sports Illustrated editor Cook (Driven: Teen Phenoms, Mad Parents, Swing Science and the Future of Golf, 2008, etc.) provides a raucous retelling of the life of a consummate gambler, grifter and quintessential American character. At age 16, Alvin “Titanic” ... Full Review

Coram, Robert BRUTE September 1, 2010 - The story of a legendary Marine Corps commander who championed innovative tactics in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In this admiring biography, novelist and biographer Coram (American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day, 2007, etc.) traces ... Full Review

Coren, Stanley BORN TO BARK September 1, 2010 - The first truly personal story from Coren (Psychology/Univ. of British Columbia; The Modern Dog: How Dogs Have Changed People and Society and Improved Our Lives, 2009, etc.), an expert on human-dog interaction. The author’s previous books have addressed how man’s ... Full Review

Currid-Halkett, Elizabeth STARSTRUCK September 1, 2010 - Intriguing, readable critical analysis of celebrity and our cultural obsession with fame. By tackling America’s current condition of free-news oversaturation and ubiquitous fixation with celebrities, Currid-Halkett (Policy, Planning, and Development/Univ. of Southern California; The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and ... Full Review

De Bruhl, Marshall THE RIVER SEA September 1, 2010 - A character-rich narrative of the exploration and exploitation of the Amazon River and the land drained by it from the days of the first European explorers to today’s cattle ranchers, farmers and oil men. Former book editor and publisher De ... Full Review

Dublanica, Steve KEEP THE CHANGE September 1, 2010 - The author of Waiter Rant (2007) follows up with this similarly energetic insider’s look at tipping. During his nine years as a waiter, Dublanica started an anonymous blog, waiterrant.net, which led to the publication of his eponymous bestseller. After revealing ... Full Review

Duval, Jared NEXT GENERATION DEMOCRACY September 1, 2010 - Political treatise suggesting that the wired and tolerant under-30 “millennials” must apply open-source principles to the process of governance. Demos fellow Duval was national director of the Sierra Club’s student chapter and received awards for his own organizing efforts. From ... Full Review

Greenberg, Keith Elliot DECEMBER 8, 1980 September 1, 2010 - A panoramic view of the events leading up to the infamous murder of John Lennon (1940–1980). Lennon plainly said that one reason he relocated to New York City was that he could be, if not anonymous, at least left alone ... Full Review

Greenwald, Jeff SNAKE LAKE September 1, 2010 - A journalist struggles to balance the complications of love and family in a foreign land. Greenwald (Scratching the Surface, 2008, etc.) recounts his experiences as a reporter in 1990s Kathmandu. After falling for a news photographer named Grace, the pair ... Full Review

Hillenbrand, Laura UNBROKEN September 1, 2010 - The author of Seabiscuit (2001) returns with another dynamic, well-researched story of guts overcoming odds. Hillenbrand examines the life of Louis Zamperini, an American airman who, after his bomber crashed in the Pacific during World War II, survived 47 days ... Full Review

Hiss, Tony IN MOTION September 1, 2010 - Former New Yorker staff writer Hiss (Building Images: Seventy Years of Photography at Hedrich Blessing, 2000, etc.) explores the “wider, expanded, more inclusive awareness” of the mind in motion. Dramatic evidence for humankind’s bipedalism is at least as old as ... Full Review

Hitchens, Christopher THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2010 September 1, 2010 - Plenty of good reading in this 25th annual anthology, though it extends the definition of “essay” past the point of category. In the foreword, series editor Robert Atwan addresses the technological changes that have, or haven’t, affected the essay: “What ... Full Review

Hudson, Michael W. THE MONSTER September 1, 2010 - Another look at the subprime mortgage lending meltdown, with a focus on the predatory housing finance corporation Ameriquest and the once-venerable Wall Street firm of Lehman Brothers. Formerly a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Hudson (editor: Merchants of ... Full Review

Johns, Adrian DEATH OF A PIRATE September 1, 2010 - A historical retelling of the pirate-radio revolution that swept throughout 1960s England. In June 1966, pirate-radio rivals Reg Calvert and Oliver Smedley faced off in Smedley’s home, leaving Calvert dead. After chronicling the encounter, Johns (History/Univ. of Chicago; Piracy: The ... Full Review

Kelly, Kevin WHAT TECHNOLOGY WANTS September 1, 2010 - Wired founding editor Kelly (Asia Grace, 2002, etc.) attempts to balance a clear-eyed overview of the rise of technology and its place with a grand statement about what it all means. The author’s arguments are careful and convincing—to a point. ... Full Review

Kershaw, Alex THE ENVOY September 1, 2010 - Popular historian Kershaw (Escape from the Deep: A True Story of Courage and Survival During World War II, 2009, etc.) looks at the work of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and his still mysterious disappearance. Wallenberg, famously, was the bane of ... Full Review

Kotb, Hoda HODA September 1, 2010 - The autobiography of 46-year-old TV reporter and anchor Kotb. She’s the one with the odd name perched next to Kathie Lee Gifford. The author hails from the Oklahoma heartland, where her Egyptian parents arrived not long after their wedding. After ... Full Review

Langguth, A.J. DRIVEN WEST September 1, 2010 - In this history of the four decades preceding the Civil War, Langguth (Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence, 2006, etc.) argues that Andrew Jackson’s handling of the Cherokees sowed the seeds of secession. The author ... Full Review

Lanois, Daniel SOUL MINING September 1, 2010 - The master musician and producer offers a typically idiosyncratic take on his life and art. In a memorable chapter of his 2004 memoir Chronicles Volume One, Bob Dylan recounts his work on the 1989 album Oh Mercy—the collection that began ... Full Review

Lepore, Jill THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES September 1, 2010 - Lepore (American History/Harvard Univ.; New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan, 2005, etc.) explores the nexus of the American Revolution, the understanding and telling of history and today’s Tea Party. For a number of years, the author ... Full Review

Loebl, Suzanne AMERICA'S MEDICIS September 1, 2010 - Loebl (America’s Art Museums: A Traveler’s Guide to Great Collections Large and Small, 2002, etc.) celebrates the myriad contributions of generations of Rockefellers to the public enjoyment of art. The author focuses on the fortune of the Rockefellers and how ... Full Review

Luzzatto, Sergio PADRE PIO September 1, 2010 - Biography of Padre Pio, a 20th-century Italian friar who claimed religious miracles, including stigmata. Luzzatto (Modern History/Univ. of Turin, Italy; The Body of Il Duce: Mussolini’s Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy, 2005) recounts the little-known tale of the modest ... Full Review

Macknik, Stephen L. SLEIGHTS OF MIND September 1, 2010 - With the assistance of New York Times contributor Blakeslee (co-author: The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better, 2007, etc.), neuroscientists Macknik and Martinez-Conde probe the neurological features ... Full Review

Maiolo, Joseph CRY HAVOC September 1, 2010 - Provocative examination of modern history, showing that World War II was all but inevitable given the military-industrial-political complex of the day. In Europe and Asia in the era following World War I, writes Maiolo (International History and War Studies/King’s College, ... Full Review

Mitchell, Frank JACOBS BEACH September 1, 2010 - A grab bag of stories about the American boxing world and how the Mob transformed it in the 1950s. Jacobs Beach wasn’t actually a beach, but a stretch of pavement in Manhattan around which the boxing world revolved from the ... Full Review

Montaigne, Fen FRASER'S PENGUINS September 1, 2010 - An online magazine writer witnesses the incremental damage of global warming firsthand. In 2005-’06, Yale Environment 360 senior editor Montaigne (Reeling In Russia: An American Angler In Russia, 1998) spent five months at Palmer Station, the only U.S. research station ... Full Review

Norris, Michele THE GRACE OF SILENCE September 1, 2010 - In her debut memoir, veteran journalist and All Things Considered co-host Norris deftly explores the “unprecedented, hidden and robust conversation about race” now taking place throughout the United States. In the wake of Barack Obama’s election, the author found that ... Full Review

Parker, Bruce THE POWER OF THE SEA September 1, 2010 - An appealing overview of sea movements. Former National Ocean Service chief scientist Parker begins with the familiar: tides, which turn out to be more complicated than readers may have learned in high school. Lunar gravity pulls the ocean, but so ... Full Review

Philipps, David LETHAL WARRIORS September 1, 2010 - The shameful story of how the U.S. Army has played a role in the mistreatment of traumatized soldiers who served in Iraq, then returned to Fort Carson, Colo., to commit rapes, murders and other violent crimes. Colorado Springs Gazette features ... Full Review

Potter, Wendell DEADLY SPIN September 1, 2010 - A former health-care PR executive blows the whistle on the industry. Born in rural North Carolina to hardworking parents struggling through lean times, Center for Media and Democracy senior fellow Potter was the first in his family to earn a ... Full Review

Reardon, Joan AS ALWAYS, JULIA September 1, 2010 - The letters exchanged between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto from 1952 to ’61, as the former was creating the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). During many years of research, culinary historian and biographer Reardon (M.F.K. ... Full Review

Roberts, Randy JOE LOUIS September 1, 2010 - A sympathetic, moving life of the Brown Bomber by veteran cultural historian and biographer Roberts (History/Purdue Univ.; The Rock, the Curse, and the Hub: A Random History of Boston Sports, 2005, etc.). As the author tells it, the story of ... Full Review

Rohatyn, Felix DEALINGS September 1, 2010 - The banker who famously helped to save New York City from bankruptcy recalls his career as a leading Wall Street dealmaker. A self-described “capitalist with a liberal conscience,” 82-year-old Rohatyn (Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It ... Full Review

Sample, Ian MASSIVE September 1, 2010 - Lively popular account of late-20th-century physics, physicists and their machines. To a physicist, “massive” does not mean “heavy,” explains Guardian science correspondent Sample. It means having mass or weight (such as an atom) as opposed to having no mass (such ... Full Review

Settersten, Richard NOT QUITE ADULTS September 1, 2010 - How young adults and their families are navigating a rapidly changing economy. With the assistance of Ray, the former communications director for the MacArthur Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood, Settersten (Human Development and Family Sciences/Oregon State Univ.; co-editor: On ... Full Review

Silverman, Kenneth BEGIN AGAIN September 1, 2010 - A Bancroft and Pulitzer Prize winner takes on one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. John Cage (1912–1992) redefined what music could be by expanding nearly every element of the art. Silverman (Lightning Man: The Accursed Life ... Full Review

Smiley, Jane THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE COMPUTER September 1, 2010 - Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Smiley (Private Life, 2010, etc.) looks at the curious personalities and tortured paths that led to the first computer(s). As in her novels, the author displays a talent for keeping a dozen fully realized characters on stage. ... Full Review

Smith, Julian CROSSING THE HEART OF AFRICA September 1, 2010 - An award-winning travel writer embarks on an African expedition to prove his love. In 2007, Smith began a monumental trek walking the length of Africa, mirroring the trail that British explorer Ewart Grogan had taken more than a century ago. ... Full Review

Spoto, Donald POSSESSED September 1, 2010 - Hollywood biography machine Spoto (High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, 2010, etc.) presents the life and career of screen queen Joan Crawford (1905–1977), a movie star whose iconic status owed as much to the actress’s sheer willpower as to ... Full Review

Tatchell, Jo DIAMOND IN THE DESERT September 1, 2010 - A British woman who spent much of her childhood in Abu Dhabi returns to examine the sociological and economic character of the United Arab Emirates and to unearth the truth about her brother’s rushed departure from the UAE as a ... Full Review

Thomas, Marlo GROWING UP LAUGHING September 1, 2010 - That Girl star and Emmy-winning TV veteran attempts to find out how humor works. Thomas (The Right Words at the Right Time: Volume 2: Your Turn!, 2006, etc.), the daughter of funnyman Danny Thomas, builds on her thriving second career ... Full Review

Tremlett, Giles CATHERINE OF ARAGON September 1, 2010 - The Madrid correspondent for the Guardian follows the sad, tragic life of Catherine, first wife of Henry VIII, from her native Spain into the bloody whirlwind of Tudor England. Tremlett (Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past, ... Full Review

Unger, Harlow Giles LION OF LIBERTY September 1, 2010 - A veteran biographer specializing in the Founding Fathers offers a short, sharp life of the Virginia patriot. Most Americans know Patrick Henry only for his 1775 “liberty or death” speech. Like his northern counterpart, Samuel Adams, he was a driving ... Full Review

Wills, Garry OUTSIDE LOOKING IN September 1, 2010 - Pulitzer Prize winner Wills (Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, 2010, etc.) offers up a pleasantly revealing grab bag of memories. These rocking-chair ruminations are relaxed, intimate and impressionistic. Though he writes that he “was determined ... Full Review

Wolff, Geoffrey THE HARD WAY AROUND September 1, 2010 - An exhilarating depiction of the adventurer, shipbuilder and writer Joshua Slocum, who spent nearly his entire life at sea and was the first man to sail solo across the globe. It's tough to gauge which accomplishment merits more admiration—that Slocum ... Full Review

Woodworth, Steven E. MANIFEST DESTINIES September 1, 2010 - Woodworth (History/Texas Christian Univ.; Sherman: Lessons in Leadership, 2009, etc.) examines the political and military conflicts that accompanied the westward flow in the 1840s and exacerbated hostilities between the North and South. Although the author’s thesis is principally political, he ... Full Review

Wu, Tim THE MASTER SWITCH September 1, 2010 - Powerful forces are afoot to take control of the Internet—for profit, of course. It’s happened before, writes Slate contributor Wu (Copyright and Communications/Columbia Univ.; co-author: Who Controls the Internet?, 2006), and the corporations have won just about every time. Take ... Full Review