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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NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2012
"Contemplative, upbeat enlightenment for spiritually inclined positive thinkers."
NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2012
"Tasty as a Buddy Guy guitar lick, but seldom revelatory."
One of the last survivors of Chicago blues' golden age of the 1950s and '60s, Guy retravels a familiar route in this ingratiating but disappointingly slim as-told-to autobiography.
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NONFICTION
Released: May 17, 2012
"A worthy tribute and a good lesson on the conservation movement."
A tribute to David Brower (1912–2000), father of the modern environmental movement, on what would have been his 100th birthday.
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NONFICTION
Released: May 13, 2012
"Each of these intimate tales of self-discovery are so brief as to be nearly indistinguishable, but the collection's overall effect gives voice to the desperate need for language to cope with one of the most socially challenging states of being."
A stark, important anthology of essays by mothers of transgender and gender variant children.
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NONFICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"A quick read about a gruesome crime with a twist at the end--will appeal mostly to die-hard fans of historical true crime."
The final installment of the author's true-crime trilogy about New York City in the Gilded Age.
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NONFICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"A lively anthropological study encompassing the total belief system of these rare, hardy Arctic hunters."
A young Danish anthropologist's valiant attempt to organize the sable hunters of northeastern Siberia.
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NONFICTION
Released: April 27, 2012
"In an intimate glimpse, Coretta steps out from her husband's shadow."
NONFICTION
Released: April 3, 2012
"A decent cultural study, but many readers may desire more analysis and wisdom."
In her debut memoir, Wilson portrays our culture's intolerance of homosexuality through a mother-daughter story of dysfunction, loss and empowerment.
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NONFICTION
Released: April 1, 2012
"A good start on a rich subject."
A solid, readable academic inquiry into accordion technology and culture, showing how the instrument has adapted to changing times and trends.
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NONFICTION
Released: April 1, 2012
"A fishing book that will appeal to initiates in the piscatorial arts (especially as practiced in the British Isles), but may be a bit tedious to others."
The coming-of-age memoir of an avid angler, weighted with plenty of fishing detail and lore and tied with a filament of retrospective reverie.
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NONFICTION
Released: April 1, 2012
"With measured verve, McAuliffe presents an accessible text that occasionally approaches Barbara Tuchman's talented touch."
NONFICTION
Released: April 1, 2012
"An education on organic farming and its importance, as well as a heartfelt love letter to the land."
NONFICTION
Released: March 6, 2012
"Some readers may find hope from Roppé's successful battle with cancer, but her self-indulgent tone may leave others unsatisfied."
NONFICTION
Released: March 1, 2012
"A powerful story of a tumultuous era by an author more adept at visual art than textual storytelling."
A debut graphic memoir provides a unique child's perspective on racial strife in 1960s Alabama.
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NONFICTION
Released: Feb. 28, 2012
"A meticulous, very specific "on the ground" research study."
NONFICTION
Released: Feb. 17, 2012
"A modern apologetic with appeal for like-minded readers."
Conservative writer and speaker D'Souza (
The Roots of Obama's Rage, 2010, etc.) draws on years of experience publicly debating atheists in crafting a new argument for the existence, and benevolence, of God.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 1, 2011
"Distinctly regional in tone yet universal in scope, the book offers a cozy homage to a more innocent time and place."
A greenhorn professor finds unexpected camaraderie and community when he takes a teaching job in Utah, challenging his preconceptions of small-town life.
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