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Best Nonfiction of 2012 (page 6)

Cover art for WHEN AMERICA FIRST MET CHINA
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 10, 2012
Kirkus Star WHEN AMERICA FIRST MET CHINA: AN EXOTIC HISTORY OF TEA, DRUGS, AND MONEY IN THE AGE OF SAIL
by Eric Jay Dolin
"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. Read full book review >
Cover art for SURVIVING SURVIVAL
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 10, 2012
Kirkus Star SURVIVING SURVIVAL: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF RESILIENCE
by Laurence Gonzales
"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."
How can the world smite thee? Let us count the ways... Read full book review >
Cover art for LINCOLN'S CODE
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
Kirkus Star LINCOLN'S CODE: THE LAWS OF WAR IN AMERICAN HISTORY
by John Fabian Witt
"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. Read full book review >
Cover art for ON A FARTHER SHORE
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
Kirkus Star ON A FARTHER SHORE: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF RACHEL CARSON
by William Souder
"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. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE VOYEURS
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
Kirkus Star THE VOYEURS
by Gabrielle Bell, illustrated by Gabrielle Bell
"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. Read full book review >
Cover art for EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY
NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 4, 2012
Kirkus Star EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY: A LIFE OF DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
by D.T. Max
"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. Read full book review >