NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 2012
"A brief but eloquent plea for peace. Perhaps it takes a Nobel Laureate to see hope as the beating heart in the body of despair."
The Nigerian 1986 Nobel Laureate (Literature) offers a slender, hopeful volume about his native continent's potential for healing the world's spiritual ills.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012
"A welcome second installment for readers who enjoyed Janzen's first memoir. Others may want to turn elsewhere."
Continuing her search for spiritual relevance in everyday life, Janzen (
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, 2009) recounts the travails and joys encountered while finding love, embracing her new beau's religion, and surviving breast cancer.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 1, 2012
"A moving call to action."
Freelance journalist Kavin (
The Everything Travel Guide to Italy, 2010, etc.) hunts down the story of what happened to her rescue dog Boy Blue.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 1, 2012
"A wonderful, eye-opening account of humans versus disease that deserves to share the shelf with such classics as Microbe Hunters and Rats, Lice and History."
Nature writer and intrepid traveler Quammen (
The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, 2006, etc.) sums up in one absorbing volume what we know about some of the world's scariest scourges: Ebola, AIDS, pandemic influenza--and what we can do to thwart the "NBO," the Next Big One.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 25, 2012
"Appealing reading for those interested in memoirs about the Camino de Santiago and other epic modern-day treks."
A journalist chronicles his month-long, 500-mile trek with his grown son along one of the world's most famous pilgrim routes.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"A rarefied, intimate literary study delineating a roiling revolutionary era."
A compelling new work by literary detective Reiss (
The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life, 2005) tracks the wildly improbable career of Alexandre Dumas' mixed-race father.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"Mostly entertaining but not a standout. Coulda been a contender, but the author touches too lightly on the hard questions about celebrity, violence and money in America."
FOXSports.com columnist Kriegel (
Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, 2007, etc.) tells the story of a Youngstown, Ohio, lightweight boxer whose brief championship reign included a notorious 1982 bout that ended with the death of opponent Duk Koo Kim.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"What would Howard Roark do? Maybe find a more persuasive apology for Randian money-grubbism."
"Capitalism is the system of selfishness--of
rational selfishness." Ayn Rand acolytes Brook (
Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea, 2010) and Watkins sing the same old hymn, with a slightly different chorus, to the same old choir.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 11, 2012
"The tedious format only occasionally dulls the author's sharp descriptive and analytical skills."
The author of
Don't Know Much About History and similar titles returns with a sometimes-saucy handbook on the American presidency.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 10, 2012
"Survivors of traumatic events often do not recover without help from others, and Gonzales' excellent book is an education for those wishing to be of use in a stressful, often frightening world."
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
"Well-written and bursting with ideas, this will be essential reading for anyone who cares about childhood in America."
Turning the conventional wisdom about child development on its head,
New York Times Magazine editor Tough (
Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America, 2008) argues that non-cognitive skills (persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence) are the most critical to success in school and life.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
"A fine examination of a life, well deserving a place alongside David McCullough's study of Adams père."
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
"Entertaining, informative, satisfying and fun--everything books should be."
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 1, 2012
"An essential eyewitness account, and with luck an inaugural document in a Syrian literature that is uncensored and unchained."
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 1, 2012
"A scholarly yet thoroughly readable historical/biographical study, of considerable interest to students of 19th-century American history and religious revivalism."
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 21, 2012
"A consummate professional explores the attic of his life, converting rumination to art."
The acclaimed novelist (
Sunset Park, 2010, etc.), now 65, writes affectingly about his body, family, lovers, travels and residences as he enters what he calls the winter of his life.
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 14, 2012
"A witty and politically charged analysis of a potent obscenity in its modern and contemporary context."
Linguistic analysis and cultural criticism meet sociopolitical rant in this investigation of the word
asshole and the modern phenomena of "assholism."
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 7, 2012
"A provocative and unsettling look at something most take for granted--but shouldn't."
Acclaimed essayist and
Harper's contributor Keizer (
The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want: A Book About Noise, 2010, etc.) conducts a philosophical meditation on the nature of privacy and finds that the "right to be let alone" is a lot more complex than many may think.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 17, 2012
"Meandering entertainment."
A fun and quirky but sometimes chaotic travelogue that reveals the many conflicts and contradictions underlying life in modern India.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 10, 2012
"An inspirational glimpse into one vibrant area of the local food movement."
An introduction to the growing local food movement in Chicago restaurants and the farmers who supply them.
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