Readers > New Books > Nonfiction, February 2007
Nonfiction, February 2007
- Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem
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Soon to be released as a major documentary produced by Spike Lee, this autobiography explores Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's personal journey to become the man he is today — a basketball superstar, jazz enthusiast, historian and African-American icon.
- Adovasio, J. M.
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Two leading archeologists challenge assumptions about mankind's earliest days, arguing that women played a central role in the development of language and social life — in short, in our becoming human.
- Anderson, Patrick
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In his provocative and often hilarious survey of today's popular fiction, Anderson shows who the best thriller writers are — and the worst. He also demands that the best of these novelists be given their due — not as genre writers, but as some of the most talented artists at work in American fiction.
- Bauer, Susan Wise
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Spanning the earliest accounts to the fall of Rome, this work is the first volume in a new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country.
- Beah, Ismael
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In the more than 50 conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. In a rare and mesmerizing account, Beah tells of his experience as a child fighting a war in Sierra Leone.
- Brown, Breni
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Using powerful personal stories and examples, Brown delivers an affirming, revealing examination of the painful effects of shame.
- Cobb, William Jelani
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A kid from Queens who spent his youth at the epicenter of this new art form, music critic William Jelani Cobb takes readers inside the beats, the lyrics and the flow of hip-hop, separating corporate rappers from the creative MCs that forged the art in the crucible of the street jam.
- Frayn, Michael
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With wit and charm, this epic work sets out to make sense of our place in the scheme of things. Surveying the spectrum of philosophical concerns from the existence of space and time to relativity and language, Frayn attempts to resolve what he calls "the oldest mystery": the world is what we make of it.
- Gruman, Jessie
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Every year millions of Americans are diagnosed with cancer, stroke, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, ALS and other life-threatening or life-altering diseases. When faced with a devastating diagnosis, people must quickly understand the prognosis and choose from several treatment options — while still in shock. AfterShock identifies the processes required to respond to a serious diagnosis, regardless of the specific disease.
- Hirsi Ali, Ayaan
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In this memoir from the internationally author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia to her intellectual awakening in the Netherlands to her life under armed guard in the West.
- Kamdar, Mira
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From the author of Motiba's Tattoos comes a lively exploration of America's stake in India's gambit to transform itself from a developing country to a global powerhouse in record time.
- Katie, Byron
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A Thousand Names for Joy is an exploration of the spiritual text, Tao Te Ching, and how its wisdom can be applied to everyday life.
- Key, Joshua
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In this memoir from a young soldier who deserted from the war in Iraq, Joshua Key offers a vivid and damning indictment of what America is doing there and how the war itself is being waged.
- Kundera, Milan
In this entertaining and stimulating essay, Kundera sketches out his personal view of the history and value of the novel in Western civilization.- Lawrence, Bruce
A distinguished historian of religion shows precisely how the Qur'an is Islam. He describes the origins of the faith and assesses its influence on today's societies and politics.- Lee, William Poy
Lee pens an evocative memoir of a relationship between a mother and son — Chinese-American experience — moving and complex story of growing up in the housing projects of San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1960s and '70s.- London, Mark
A complex, vibrant portrait of the Amazonian region on the edge of crisis, this masterpiece of reporting is a seductive journey and a searing account of political, environmental and social tumult.- MacMillan, Margaret (Olwen)
MacMillan makes history come to life in one of the most important subjects today: the relationship between the United States and China and the historic meeting of Richard Nixon and Mao Tse-tung in 1972 that ultimately laid the groundwork for the relationship between the two nations.- Martin, Judity
Love of Venice can strike anyone, not just romantic wusses. Among the toughies with serious cases were Lord Byron, Richard Wagner, Ezra Pound and Ernest Hemingway. There is no cure for this affliction. This is a guide to managing it.- Matthews, David
Abandoned as an infant by his mother, David was left with the rumor that he might be half Jewish. As he grew, he was torn between his actual life as a black boy in the ghetto of 1980s Baltimore and an imagined world of white privilege in this bracing yet hilarious American memoir.- Nguyen, Bich Minh
Nguyen pens a nostalgic, candid account of growing up as a Vietnamese girl in the Midwest in the 1980s, and using popular American food — from Pringles potato chips to Toll House cookies — as a way to fit in and become a "real" American.- Rounding, Virginia
"A great thumping triumph of a book" (London Telegraph), this is the first comprehensive modern biography of Catherine the Great to explore her life both as a woman and an empress.- Shawn, Allen
In this memoir of enormous bravery, a member of one of New York's premier literary families delivers a droll, inquisitive and poignant examination of his life with agoraphobia.- Swarner, Sean
This inspiring memoir follows one man's journey from overcoming cancer to climbing Mt. Everest.- Tenet, George
A former CIA director delivers an unflinching, no-holds-barred chronicle of the war on terror. This candid memoir of Tenet's life at the CIA is a revelatory look at the agency's dealings with national leaders at home and abroad.- Theroux, Louis
For a decade now, Louis Theroux has been making programs about offbeat characters on the fringes of U.S. society. Now he revisits the people who have most intrigued him to try to discover what motivates them and why they believe the things they believe. From his Las Vegas base (where else?), Theroux calls on these assorted dreamers, schemers, and outlaws — and in the process finds out a little about the workings of his own mind.- Ury, William
The author of Getting Past No gives readers the life skills to successfully assert themselves. He explains that when used correctly, this one simple word — no — can profoundly transform lives for the better.- Yagoda, Ben
Not since the television show School House Rock have adjectives, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns and verbs been explored with such infectious exuberance.