cover image
LATEST ISSUE OF
Kirkus Reviews
Check out our interview with Rick Yancey, author of the wildly entertaining YA thriller The 5th Wave.
Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS



New and Notable Nonfiction for August

Showing
Cover art for BEAUTIFUL UNBROKEN
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 1, 2011
Kirkus Star BEAUTIFUL UNBROKEN: ONE NURSE'S LIFE
by Mary Jane Nealon
"Simultaneously an elegiac memoir and a sparkling prose-poem."
Poet and Bakeless Prize winner Nealon (Immaculate Fuel, 2004, etc.) poetically writes about her close-knit Irish-American family and her vocation for healing. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE FATAL GIFT OF BEAUTY
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 2, 2011
THE FATAL GIFT OF BEAUTY: THE TRIALS OF AMANDA KNOX
by Nina Burleigh
"Burleigh's propulsive narrative and the many unsettling aspects of the case make this a standout among recent true-crime titles."
Powerful assessment of a tragic crime and its disastrous aftermath. Read full book review >
Cover art for JUST ONE CATCH
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 2, 2011
JUST ONE CATCH: A BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH HELLER
by Tracy Daugherty
"Essential reading about a writer whose major novels continue to command attention."
How do you top Catch-22? Daugherty (English and Creative Writing/Oregon State Univ.; One Day the Wind Changed: Stories, 2010, etc.) attempts to answer that question and more in this first full-length biography of Joseph Heller (1923–1999). Read full book review >
Cover art for CREDIBILITY
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Star CREDIBILITY: HOW LEADERS GAIN AND LOSE IT, WHY PEOPLE DEMAND IT
by James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner
"A profound exploration of credible leadership presented in a thoroughly engaging, accessible format."
The landmark meditation on true leadership, updated and streamlined for a troubled 21st-century world. Read full book review >
Cover art for STATE VS. DEFENSE
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Star STATE VS. DEFENSE: THE BATTLE TO DEFINE AMERICA'S EMPIRE
by Stephen Glain
"A work of smoldering focus and marshaled evidence that just might have found its publishing moment."
The perils of an expanding American hegemony by military means rather than diplomacy, as skillfully tracked by an American journalist. Read full book review >
Cover art for 1493
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 9, 2011
Kirkus Star 1493: UNCOVERING THE NEW WORLD COLUMBUS CREATED
by Charles C. Mann
"Focusing on ecology and economics, Mann provides a spellbinding account of how an unplanned collision of unfamiliar animals, vegetables, minerals and diseases produced unforeseen wealth, misery, social upheaval and the modern world."
A fascinating chronicle of the "Columbian Exchange," which mixed old and new world elements to form today's integrated global culture, the "homogenocene." Read full book review >