Readers > New Books > Nonfiction, January 2007
Nonfiction, January 2007
- Abrahamson, Eric
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Combining business, science, history and psychology, this book sheds new light on ideas of order and explains how chaos, disorder and mess make the world a better place.
- Allen, Arthur
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A fascinating account of vaccination's miraculous, inflammatory past and its uncertain future.
- Dann, Patty
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Sooner or later, all parents face the question of how to talk to their children about death. For Patty Dann it was harder still: her husband, still in his forties, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He had one year to live, two at the most. In this spirited and startlingly honest memoir, Dann takes us on her journey with her three-year-old son — a journey that cycles through grief and anger, but also through humor, joy, empowerment and ultimately acceptance.
- Diggins, John P.
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In his bold and philosophical reevaluation, Diggins affirms Reagan's position as one of America's greatest presidents.
- Doyle, John
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Celebrated TV critic John Doyle has penned an Irish memoir that gives a portrait of a boy and his country transformed by television. His story, at once a charming coming-of-age tale and a compelling social history, is a welcome addition to the literature of Ireland.
- Eaton, Susan E.
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Eaton goes inside the classroom and the courtroom to disclose the unsettling truths about an education system that is leaving millions of children behind.
- Edgerton, David
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Offering a fresh way of thinking about the history of technology, this book radically revises ideas about the interaction of technology and society in the past and in the present. It provides an entirely new way of looking historically at the relationship between technology and society as well as invention and innovation themselves.
- Ehrenreich, Barbara
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From a best-selling social commentator (Nickel and Dimed) and cultural historian (Blood Rites) comes a fascinating exploration of one of humanity's oldest traditions: the celebration of communal joy expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming and dancing.
- Esquith, Rafe
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In a Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by guns, gangs and drugs, there is an exceptional classroom known as Room 56. The fifth graders inside are first-generation immigrants who live in poverty and speak English as a second language. They also play Vivaldi, perform Shakespeare, score in the top 1 percent on standardized tests, and go on to attend Ivy League universities. Rafe Esquith, the teacher responsible for these accomplishments, reveals the techniques that have made him one of the most acclaimed educators of our time.
- Green, Dominic
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In a dramatic narrative, historian Dominic Green recounts the clash between Victorian Britain and a militant Islamist state that eerily foreshadows the 21st century.
- Harris, Mark
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The first book ever written about "green" burials follows the fast-moving trend that embraces affordable, personal, eco-friendly alternatives to the highly toxic, mass-produced modern method.
- Heath, Chip
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Focusing on successful marketing campaigns and undying urban legends, this book is designed for anyone who strives to craft messages that are memorable and lasting.
- Honey, Michael K.
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Labor historian Michael Honey captures the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade.
- Lambert, Angela
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Featuring 32 pages of intimate home photos, this authoritative biography on Hitler's famous mistress is based on detailed new research and opens a new window on the life at the cold heart of the Nazi leadership.
- Lawrence, Joseph E.
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Lawrence reveals the curious fact that 2012 has been pinpointed as a pivotal, perhaps cataclysmic, year in human history by ancient sources and contemporary science alike. His revelation results in this authoritative and deeply unsettling appraisal of just how close the earth, or at least humankind, might be to extinction.
- Luce, Edward
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India remains a mystery to many Americans, even as it is poised to become the world’s third largest economy within a generation, outstripping Japan. It will surpass China in population by 2032 and will have more English speakers than the United States by 2050. In In Spite of the Gods, Edward Luce, a journalist who covered India for many years, makes brilliant sense of India and its rise to global power.
- Manning, Sean
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Music journalist Sean Manning has collected an array of memorable concert testimonies from a veritable A-list of writers and musicians who offer their take on the question "What was the greatest concert you ever saw?"
- Newport, Jerry
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This riveting and inspiring memoir is penned by a couple who fell in love, fell apart and finally overcame the pressures of fame, family and Asperger's Syndrome to build a life together.
- O'Rourke, P. J.
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In this hilarious, approachable and insightful examination of Smith and his groundbreaking work, provocative satirist P. J. O'Rourke puts his trademark wit to good use and shows us why Smith is still relevant, why what seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and why the pursuit of self-interest is so important.
- Perry, Bruce
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Combining case histories with his own compassionate strategies for rehabilitation, a child psychiatrist explains what exactly happens to the brain when a child is exposed to extreme stress — and reveals the measures that can be taken to ease a child's pain and help him grow into a healthy adult.
- Pollack, Neal
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Mixing ironic skepticism with an appreciation for the absurdities of everyday life, Alternadad is a portrait of a new version of the American family: responsible — if unorthodox — parents raising kids who know the difference between the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. Wildly funny, surprising and often moving, it just might be the parenting bible for a new generation of mothers and fathers.
- Pope, Frank
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Pope delivers an engrossing tale of danger, adventure and ambition — a fascinating object lesson in what happens when scholarship and money join forces to recover lost treasure.
- Rapp, Emily
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Born with a congenital condition that led to the amputation of her left leg, a former March of Dimes poster child offers an unflinching, brutally honest and often darkly humorous account of wrestling with the tyranny of self-image and ultimately coming to terms with her own body.
- Rosen, Jeffrey
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A leading Supreme Court expert recounts the personal and philosophical rivalries that forged our nation's highest court and continue to shape our daily lives. The Supreme Court is the most mysterious branch of government, and yet the Court is at root a human institution, made up of very bright people with very strong egos, for whom political and judicial conflicts often become personal.
- Rosenberg, Scott
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Not just for geeks but for anyone captivated by the drama of invention, Dreaming in Code offers a window into the information age as it follows a team of maverick software developers as they seek to liberate the world from information overload.
- Rucker, Allen
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Rucker — baby boomer, husband, father of two, self-described "aging hack" — had a life that was certainly good enough. Then, at the age of 50 he was struck out of nowhere by a rare condition called transverse myelitis, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. This remarkable book speaks to the fragility of life and resilience of an ordinary human being.
- Schlessinger, Laura C.
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In her follow-up to The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands, Dr. Laura focuses on the typical mistakes made by men and women in their relationships and shows how marriage can come back from the brink of disaster and divorce.
- Sheffield, Rob
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Sheffield relates the two important love affairs of his life — the first with music and the fine art of the perfect mix tape, and the second with a woman who changes him forever.
- Stone, Robert
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From the New York City of Kline and De Kooning to the jazz era of New Orleans's French Quarter to Ken Kesey's psychedelic California, Prime Green explores the 1960s in all its weird, innocent, fascinating glory. Building on personal vignettes from Stone's travels across America, this powerful memoir offers the legendary novelist's inside perspective on a time many understand only peripherally.
- Stuart, Tristram
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This debut work from a young historian depicts how Western Christianity and Eastern philosophy merged to spawn a political movement that had the prohibition of meat at its core.
- Thompson, Hunter S.
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A milestone for the irrepressible Thompson, this is the final chapter in a three-volume collection of previously unpublished letters from one of America's most provocative literary icons.
- Todd, Kim
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Before Darwin, before Audubon, there was Merian. An artist turned naturalist known for her botanical illustrations, she was born just sixteen years after Galileo proclaimed that the earth orbited the sun. But at the age of fifty she sailed from Europe to the New World on a solo scientific expedition to study insect metamorphosis — an unheard-of journey for any naturalist at that time, much less a woman. When she returned she produced a book that secured her reputation, only to have it savaged in the nineteenth century by scientists who disdained the work of "amateurs." Exquisitely written and illustrated, Chrysalis takes us from golden-age Amsterdam to the Surinam tropics to modern laboratories where Merian's insights fuel a new branch of biology.
- Trillin, Calvin
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Though it deals with devastating loss, About Alice is also a love story, chronicling a romance that began at a Manhattan party when Calvin Trillin desperately tried to impress a young woman who “seemed to glow.” Five years after her death, her husband offers this loving portrait of Alice Trillin off the page — an educator who was equally at home teaching at a university or a drug treatment center, a gifted writer, a stunningly beautiful and thoroughly engaged woman.
- Weintraub, David A.
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This volume tells the story of how the meaning of the word "planet" has changed from antiquity to the present day, as new objects in our solar system have been discovered. In lively, accessible prose, Weintraub provides the historical, philosophical and astronomical background that allows readers to decide whether Pluto is indeed a planet.
- Wolpert, L. (Lewis)
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Lewis Wolpert tackles one of the most important causes on the horizon of public debate: the nature of belief. Looking at belief's psychological basis and its possible evolutionary origins in physical cause and effect, Wolpert investigates what science can tell us about those concepts we are so sure of, covering everything from everyday beliefs that give coherence to our experiences, to religious beliefs, to paranormal beliefs for which there is no evidence.