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New & Notable Nonfiction: November 2012

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Cover art for LOST AT SEA
NONFICTION
Released: Oct. 30, 2012
Kirkus Star LOST AT SEA: THE JON RONSON MYSTERIES
by Jon Ronson
"Casual readers will find plenty to like about this excellent collection, but journalism and philosophy students should find it especially stimulating."
A sterling collection of amazing stories from an offbeat journalist at the top of his game. Read full book review >
Cover art for KURT VONNEGUT
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 2012
Kirkus Star KURT VONNEGUT: LETTERS
by Kurt Vonnegut, edited by Dan Wakefield
"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. Read full book review >
Cover art for REPORTING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 2012
REPORTING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: BEFORE IT WAS HISTORY, IT WAS NEWS
by Todd Andrlik
"An impressive cache of primary-source documents, normally the province of scholars, presented here in an entertaining, aesthetically pleasing fashion guaranteed to entice general readers."
In his first book project, Andrlik, the curator and publisher of Raglinen.com, an online archive of rare newspapers, presents an intriguing real-time look at the American Revolution. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE STORY OF AMERICA
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 2012
Kirkus Star THE STORY OF AMERICA: ESSAYS ON ORIGINS
by Jill Lepore
"As smart, lively and assured as modern debunkery gets."
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," says a character in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. As New Yorker contributor Lepore (American History/Harvard Univ.; The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death, 2012, etc.) sees it, American historians have been doing just that since the dawn of the republic. Read full book review >
Cover art for LEONARDO AND THE LAST SUPPER
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 2012
Kirkus Star LEONARDO AND THE LAST SUPPER
by Ross King
"Thankfully, King's book is an impressive work of restoration--the author helps readers see this painting for the first time."
An absorbing study of a disappearing masterpiece. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE ANNOTATED AND ILLUSTRATED DOUBLE HELIX
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 6, 2012
Kirkus Star THE ANNOTATED AND ILLUSTRATED DOUBLE HELIX
by James D. Watson, edited by Alexander Gann, Jan Witkowski
"Readers old or new are in for a fine treat; there really has been nothing in the history of science writing comparable to Watson's tell-all memoir."
The classic Double Helix (1968) is here again, this time annotated and illustrated and told in all the bold, brash, bumptious style that has become Watson's (Avoid Boring People and Other Lessons from a Life in Science, 2007, etc.) trademark in the intervening years. Read full book review >