After the dog days of summer, the book industry is ready to wow readers with some of the best books of the year. We've culled through our starred reviews to choose ten in nonfiction to pay special attention to and present them here.
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. 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. 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: 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: Oct. 9, 2012
"Lucent prose illuminates a man obscured for years in history's shadows."
New York Times Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Egan (
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, 2009, etc.) returns with the story of the astonishing life of Edward Curtis (1868–1952), whose photographs of American Indians now command impressive prices at auction.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"Essential reading for anyone interested in justice or memoir."
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. 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: 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: 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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