NONFICTION
Released: Dec. 4, 2012
"A captivating tale of an oft-overlooked, morally ambiguous moment in American history."
An exploration of the violent downfall of Little Crow's Dakota nation at the hands of American soldiers.
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NONFICTION
Released: Dec. 4, 2012
"A masterful work of critical journalism."
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 27, 2012
"A dark but hopeful chronicle that shows how even humanity's worst can fracture and fall."
A Pulitzer Prize–winning author returns with the story of those dark decades in Eastern Europe when the Soviet Union slammed the prison doors on people, cultures and countries.
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NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 13, 2012
"An eye-opening take on how romantic sentimentalism about nature can have destructive consequences."
Journalist Sterba (
Frankie's Place: A Love Story, 2003, etc.) employs humor and an eye for the absurd to document the sometimes bizarre conflicts that arise as a consequence of America's transformed relationship with nature.
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NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 13, 2012
"An outstanding biography that reveals an overlooked steeliness at Jefferson's core that accounts for so much of his political success."
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 13, 2012
"It did not, and nothing came easy to any of the Kennedys, that tragic clan, who continue to fascinate. Exhaustive yet accessible, Nasaw's book illuminates."
Sprawling, highly readable biography of the dynast and larger-than-life figure whose presence still haunts American political life.
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NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 13, 2012
"An informative and moving book that raises profound issues regarding the nature of love, the value of human life and the future of humanity."
National Book Award–winning journalist Solomon (
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, 2001, etc.) uses issues raised by disability to examine the nature of parenthood, the definition of disability and the ability to control reproduction to create designer children.
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NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 6, 2012
"Essential for Manchester collectors, WWII buffs and Churchill completists."
A (very) posthumous study of the late, great British leader by the late, great popular historian, aided by journalist Reid.
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NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 6, 2012
"Forney's story should resonate with those grappling with similar issues, while her artistry should appeal to a wide readership."
For anyone who loves graphic memoir or has concerns about bipolar swings, creativity and medication, this narrative will prove as engaging and informative as it is inspirational.
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NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 2012
"Thankfully, King's book is an impressive work of restoration--the author helps readers see this painting for the first time."
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 2012
"Vonnegut's most human of hearts beats on every page."
Selected and edited letters by the author of
Cat's Cradle,
Slaughterhouse-Five and other enduringly popular novels, letters that reveal Vonnegut's passions, annoyances, loves, losses, mind and heart.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 30, 2012
"A thoroughly engaging examination of the irreversible changes emerging from a year when the nation's very survival remained in doubt."
A historian zeroes in on the year Lincoln found his footing as president and set the country on a bold new course.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 23, 2012
"A splendid assemblage of significant work by one of our keenest observers. "
NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 22, 2012
"Provocative, illuminating and entertaining--an exemplary work of philosophy and history whose author's deep learning is lightly worn."
An ambitious survey not of politics itself, but of the way Westerners have thought about politics for 2,500 years.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 22, 2012
"Alternately sad, defiant, carefree and understated, this journey into a world hidden in plain sight is well worth taking."
A journalist ingratiates himself with a band of day laborers on the mean streets of Delhi, India.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 16, 2012
"A profound and richly satisfying reckoning with the movies and what they mean."
Thomson (
The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder, 2009, etc.) brings his encyclopedic knowledge of film and idiosyncratic, allusive style to bear on this ambitious consideration of the history of motion pictures and their effect on the audience.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 16, 2012
"Incisive, reflective and unfailingly stimulating. It wouldn't hurt Mendelsohn to occasionally pass up an opportunity to remind readers he's the smartest guy in the room, but then again, he almost always is."
Another top-notch collection of previously published criticism from Mendelsohn (
How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken, 2008, etc.).
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 15, 2012
"A breathtaking study of "walking as enabling sight and thought rather than encouraging retreat and escape.""
Macfarlane (English/Cambridge Univ.;
The Wild Places, 2008, etc.) returns with another masterful, poetic travel narrative.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 9, 2012
"Brilliantly juxtaposes Marvel with its best characters: flawed and imperfect, but capable of achieving miraculous feats."
NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 9, 2012
"Rarely has a book with so much information been such an entertaining read."
From British food writer Wilson (
Sandwich: A Global History, 2010, etc.), a savory survey of kitchen implements and their impact.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 9, 2012
"Even though we know the answers to most of the questions--Will our heroine win the coveted role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl? Will she live happily ever after with her Prince Charming, Elliott Gould?--this book makes getting to them a treat."
Hollywood chronicler Mann (
How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood, 2010, etc.) divulges the blood, sweat and tears that propelled a diva's rise to stardom.
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NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012
"The Great Helmsman fully fleshed, still complicated and ever provocative."
A comprehensive, authoritative new study that challenges the received wisdom regarding Mao's relationship with Stalin and the Soviet Union.
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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
"A superb biography of a fiercely driven explorer who traveled across the last inaccessible areas on earth before technical advances made the journey much easier."
Bown (
1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half, 2012, etc.) delivers an intensely researched, thoroughly enjoyable life of one of history's best explorers.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 24, 2012
"Such a large historical project could have easily descended into tedious and dry academia, but instead, all three volumes are briskly paced, well-researched and insightful. Aficionados of urban histories, in particular, will find much to enjoy."
This ambitious three-volume history, overseen by Moore (Judaic Studies and History/Univ. of Michigan;
American Jewish Identity Politics, 2008, etc.), provides a lively, much-needed overview of the role that Jews have played in the history and success of the Big Apple, helping to transform it into "a city of promises, some fulfilled, some pending, some beckoning new generations."
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"A triumph of scholarship."
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"Essential reading for anyone interested in justice or memoir."
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"Aspects of a spy novel, a writer's autobiography and a victim's affidavit pulsing with resentment and fear combine to reveal a man's dawning awareness of the primacy of freedom."
The frightening, illuminating and disturbing memoir by the author of
The Satanic Verses, the book that provoked a death sentence from the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 12, 2012
"Highly recommended--anyone at all interested in music will learn a lot from this book."
From the former Talking Heads frontman, a supremely intelligent, superbly written dissection of music as an art form and way of life.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 11, 2012
"Taking on a looming subject with intelligence and wit, Simmons manages to take the full measure of her man."
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 10, 2012
"A rich, highly readable examination of the seeds of poppies, trade, greed, grandeur and an international partnership that remains uneasy and perilous."
The author of
Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (2010) returns with the story of America's first voyages to the Middle Kingdom, where Americans and Chinese looked at each other with wonder, alarm and calculation.
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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
"Certainly, Hitchens died too soon. May this moving little visit to his hospital room not be the last word from him."
A jovially combative riposte to anyone who thought that death would silence master controversialist Hitchens (
Hitch-22, 2010, etc.).
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
"Truly remarkable, composed with all the precision and insight you expect from a law professor, marked by all the elegance and sparkling readability you don't."
Artfully mixing law, history and sharp analysis, a Yale law professor examines the persistent struggle to reconcile justice and humanitarianism in America's conduct of war.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
"A poignant, galvanizing, meaningful tribute."
Fifty years after the publication of Rachel Carson's seminal
Silent Spring, Pulitzer Prize nominee Souder (
Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America, 2004, etc.) examines the legacy and lasting impact of Carson's passionate environmental work.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
"Playfully drawn and provocatively written, the memoir reinforces Bell's standing among the first rank of the genre's artists."
"Graphic memoir" only hints at the artistry of a complex, literary-minded author who resists the bare-all confessionalism so common to the genre and blurs the distinction between fiction and factual introspection.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
"A stellar biography of a complicated subject: Max's portrait skillfully unites Wallace's external and internal lives."
A thorough, understated account of the life of the pioneering author and how his addictions and fiction intersected.
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 28, 2012
"Cleareyed, compassionate and hopeful."
The award-winning author of
Death at an Early Age (1967) tells the stories of the later lives of poor children who grew up in the Bronx.
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 27, 2012
"Not for all readers, but Gorra's approach will appeal to scholars, fans of the James family, and lovers of important novels and those who create them."
Gorra (English/Smith Coll.;
The Bells in Their Silence: Travels Through Germany, 2004, etc.) blends a focused biography of Henry James (1843–1916) with the story of his composition of
The Portrait of a Lady (1881).
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 27, 2012
"An innovative, marvelous book about comedy, stereotypes and the struggle to steer through the sometimes-fierce internal debates over African-American identity in a society still struggling with its racial past."
A provocative, compelling exploration of one of the most controversial elements of the black entertainment world.
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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. 21, 2012
"A potent reminder of the explosiveness of 1960s politics and how far elements of the government were (and perhaps still are) willing to go to undermine civil liberties."
A kaleidoscopic look at the FBI's willingness to undermine American citizens during the 1960s.
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 16, 2012
"An exciting, inspiring and essential book for anyone interested in American theater."
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 15, 2012
"An engrossing biography of a woman worthy of iconic status."
Published to coincide with what would have been her 100th birthday, this biography of the iconic Julia Child (1912–2004) does full justice to its complex subject.
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 14, 2012
"Bold, gripping, original and occasionally darkly funny."
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 7, 2012
"Brown is as smart as he is puckish, and there are plenty of laughs on this terrific trip through modern fame."
A hilarious collection of strange-but-true tales of encounters between the rich and famous.
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NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 7, 2012
"Less self-absorbed than Luis Alberto Urrea, less cynical than Charles Bowden, less otherly obsessed than William Vollmann--and right in the pocket, a necessary chronicle of a weird corner of America."
A savage journey into terror, cacti, drugs, desperation and all-around anomie in the superheated atmosphere of the desert Southwest.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 24, 2012
"A courageous, insightful book that offers no cause for optimism."
A former watchdog in the federal government attacks the officials who perpetuated the financial meltdown by kowtowing to behemoth banks and Wall Street firms while abandoning the public interest.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 23, 2012
"Some casual readers may be turned off by the page count, but this is likely to be the authoritative history of the origins and progress of the Iranian policy morass for years to come."
An encyclopedic account
of the ongoing military and diplomatic conflict between the United States and Iran.
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NONFICTION
Released: July 17, 2012
"In an impressive narrative, the author renders esoteric DNA concepts accessible to lay readers."
Science writer Kean (
The Disappearing Spoon: and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, 2010) returns with another wide-ranging, entertaining look at science history, this time focusing on the many mysteries of DNA.
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THE VIOLINIST'S THUMB: AND OTHER LOST TALES OF LOVE, WAR, AND GENIUS, AS WRITTEN BY OUR GENETIC CODE
