New Nonfiction Releases
March 2013

These books are being published and released this month. They have been ordered by the Library and will be available soon.

(Do you need more information on how to place a hold? )

• Biography and Memoir 
• General Nonfiction

Biography & Memoir

After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story
By Michael Hainey
The GQ deputy editor traces his decade-long investigation into the mystery of his father’s sudden death, including his examination of his father’s medical records and the honor code of secrecy within the medical community that challenged his research.

Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church
By Lauren Drain and Lisa Pulitzer
A former member of the cult-like church known for its anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-everything stance and its picketing of military funerals provides an inside look within the organization and describes how she was eventually cast out and cut off from her family.

The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild
By Hannah Rothschild
Written by her great niece, this account of the dramatic and romantic life of the music manager and jazz patroness draws on family interviews and records to examine the traditions that shaped her youth, her marriage to Allied Defensive member Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, and her role in supporting the New York jazz world during the mid 20th century.

Battle Ready: Memoir of a SEAL Warrior Medic
By Mark L. Donald
A Navy Cross-decorated SEAL and combat medic traces the dramatic story of his military service, his survival of harrowing battlefield engagements, and his subsequent triumph over post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Book of My Lives
By Aleksander Hemon
One of the great writers of our time pays tribute to the two different cities of his youth: Sarajevo, where he spent his time poking at the pretensions of the city’s elders; and Chicago, where he and his family started a new life after Sarajevo came under siege.

Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier
By Bob Thompson
In an account that explores Crockett’s actual life and enduring cultural influence, Thompson chronicles his visits to key areas important in the life of Davy Crockett, including the legendary figure’s Tennessee River Valley home, the Washington, D.C. region where he served three terms in Congress, and the Alamo in Texas.

Chasing Perfect: The Will to Win in Basketball and Life
By Bob Hurley
The famed head coach of St. Anthony High School’s basketball team traces his decades-long career, citing the odds that have challenged the team throughout the years, his inspirational coaching strategies and the memorable players who made pivotal contributions during seven undefeated seasons.

Detroit: An American Autopsy
By Charlie DeDuff
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Work and Other Sins presents an expose of bureaucratic corruption and systemic arson in his home city of Detroit, tracing his work with a local fire brigade and his investigation into the daily lives of politicians, police officials, businesspeople and homeowners who are working to save the troubled city.

Farther and Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson
By Blake Bailey
A portrait of the author of the acclaimed The Lost Weekend traces the experiences that inspired his famed autobiographical novel, his relationship with his gay brother, his celebrity friendships, and his lifelong struggle with addiction.

Gypsy Boy on the Run: My Escape from a Life Among the Romany Gypsies
By Mikey Walsh
A sequel to the best-selling Gypsy Boy follows the author’s harrowing effort to survive after leaving his Gypsy family at the age of 15, a decision that was challenged by difficult factors in the outside world, his father’s contract hit on his life, and his evolving sexuality.

Her
By Christa Parravani
After her identical twin sister succumbs to drugs and depression following a lifetime of harrowing experiences including being raped as a young adult, the author reads a statistic declaring that there are high odds that the surviving twin will also die within two years and decides to take actions to beat the odds.

Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage
By Jeffrey Frank
A narrative account of the unconventional relationship between the 34th and the 37th presidents explores their contrasting beliefs and temperaments as well as the collaborative efforts that shaped the nation’s political ideology, foreign policy, and domestic goals.

Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life
By Jonathan Sperber
This biography of the philosopher and political revolutionary describes his childhood and family life along with his public life as an agitator and dissident and compares him to his contemporaries, including Napoleon III, Bismarck, Adam Smith and Charles Darwin.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
By Sheryl Sandberg
The Facebook CEO and Fortune top-ranked businesswoman shares provocative, anecdotal advice for women that urges them to take risks and seek new challenges in order to find work that they can love and engage in passionately.

Long Shot
By Mike Piazza
The personal story of the 12-time All Star and record-holding home run catcher describes the inspiration he gleaned from his self-made father, his initial difficulties gaining recognition as a franchise player, his memorable 2000 World Series with the Mets and the controversies that have marked his career.

Lucky Me: My life with – and Without – My Mom, Shirley Maclaine
By Sachi Parker
The daughter of the Academy Award-winning Hollywood star traces her youth spent moving between her mother’s Los Angeles movie sets and her father’s home in Japan, her years in boarding schools and the sequence of abusive relationships she endured while trying to understand her parents’ unconventional marriage.

The Measure of Manhattan: The Tumultuous Career and Surprising Legacy of John Randel, Jr., Cartographer, Surveyor, Inventor
By Marguerite Holloway
A portrait of the 19th-century genius architect of Manhattan’s city grid shares insights into his bombastic, irascible personality while surveying the controversial innovations that enabled the developing city of Manhattan to overcome natural obstacles to infrastructure.

Raising Cubby: A Father and Son’s Adventures with Asperger’s, Trains, Tractors, and High Explosives
By John Elder Robison
The author of the best-selling Look Me in the Eye recounts how Asperger’s syndrome has shaped his experiences as a parent, describing his unconventional approaches to fatherhood and his eventual discovery that his son shared the same condition.

Rita Moreno
By Rita Moreno
The Puerto Rican singer, dancer, and actress takes a look back at her life and career, from her arrival in New York at age five to winning an Academy Award for her role in West Side Story and beyond.

Song without Words: Discovering My Deafness Halfway through Life
By Gerald Shea
Bringing new insight into the nature and significance of language, the author, who discovered at the age of 34 that he had been deaf since childhood, shares how he compensated through his amazing ability to translate the melody of vowels.

The Soundtrack of My Life
By Clive Davis
The Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music presents a candid assessment of his life and the past half century of popular music from an insider’s perspective, tracing the difficulties he faced as an orphaned teen, the controversies that challenged his ambitions, and his work with a wide array of stars and personalities.

Still Points North: Surviving the World’s Greatest Alaskan Childhood
By Leigh Newman
A moving account of the author’s life on the Alaskan tundra describes the formidable skills she acquired in order to survive and gain independence in a brutal environment, her childhood transitions between the homes of her bitterly divorced parents, and her difficulties in making human connections as an adult.

Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective
By Pat Head Summitt and Sally Jenkins
The Basketball Hall of Fame NCAA coach and the author of the best-selling It’s Not About the Bike describe how Summitt’s upbringing helped her develop a balanced coaching style that contributed to the Tennessee Vols’ record-breaking number of wins, and recount Summitt’s recent personal battle against early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Wave
By Sonali Deraniyagala
A poignant memoir of the author’s experiences as a survivor of the 2004 tsunami that killed her parents, husband and two young sons recounts her struggles with profound grief and survivor’s guilt and her gradual steps toward remembering the joyful times she shared with lost loved ones.

General Nonfiction

The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America
By Ernest Freeberg
A history of the culture of invention as epitomized by Thomas Edison demonstrates how America’s lead in the electric light revolution of the late 19th century transformed the country. Freeberg explains how electric light served as a catalyst for a profound shift from a rural to urban-dominated culture and prompted the migration of millions of workers to urban centers while shifting priorities to science, technology and patent law.

And Man Created God: A History of the World in the Time of Jesus
By Selina O’Grady
A history of civilization at the end of the first century BC examines how empires and religions worked collaboratively to gain size and power, in an account that identifies the roots of belief within societies and offers additional insights into how Christianity rose to a predominant world religion.

Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition
By David Nirenberg
Nirenberg describes how Judaism has been viewed as a dangerous force to be opposed, criticized, attacked and eliminated for centuries, from rome’s destruction of the Second Temple through the Spanish Inquisition and up to the German Holocaust.

The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates
By Frans De Waal
A renowned primatologist argues that ethical behavior witnessed in animals is the evolutionary and biological origin of human fairness and explains that morality has more to do with natural instincts than with religion.

Business Brilliant
By Lewis Schiff
Combining storytelling with thought-provoking research and practical guidance, this excellent business resource shatters commonly held myths about wealth, identifies the seven distinct principles practiced by successful individuals, and provides a four-step program to help ordinary workers become extraordinary.

Clean Gut: The Breakthrough Plan for Eliminating the Root Cause of Disease and Revolutionizing Your Health
By Alejandro Junger
This revolutionary new program helps readers achieve life-long health by pre-emptively eliminating the root cause of illness by providing a tool kit that offers a two-week gut repair that restores the body’s amazing healing capabilities and keeps minor and major symptoms away for good.

Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy
By John Wood
Wood traces the inspirational story of a former Microsoft executive who quit his lucrative career to found “Room to Read” a nonprofit organization that builds libraries for poor children throughout the world, describing how the organization has been challenged by the recent economic collapse.

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
The authors of the best-sellers Made to Stick and Switch counsel readers on how to overcome natural biases and irrational thinking to make better decisions in work and life, drawing on extensive studies and research to outline specific strategies for enabling clear-headed thinking in a range of environments.

The Diabetes Rescue Diet: Conquer Diabetes Naturally While Eating and Drinking What You Love – Even Chocolate and Wine!
By Mark Bricklin
A former Prevention columnist outlines a plan for balancing blood sugar levels naturally and without sacrifices by following ten strategic rules based on the Mediterranean diet, demonstrating how to continue enjoying favorite foods while incorporating moderate exercise levels and health-bolstering ingredients.

Earn the Right to Win: How Success in Any Field Starts with Superior Preparation
By Tom Coughlin and David Fisher
The head coach of the New York Giants, who presided over their 2008 and 2012 Super Bowl wins, describes how the principles that apply on the field – including preparation, focus, consistency and hard work – can also lead to success in other endeavors.

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World
By Matthew Goodman
Goodman documents the 1889 competition between feminist journalist Nellie Bly and Cosmopolitan  reporter Elizabeth Bisland to beat Jules Verne’s record and each other in a round-the-globe race, offering insight into their respective daunting challenges as recorded in the reports they sent back home.

Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death
By Sam Parnia and Josh Young
Drawn from meticulous research, one of the world’s leading experts on the scientific study of death, the human mind-brain relationship and near-death experiences, demystifies what happens to human consciousness during and after death.

Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
By Ira Katznelson
The author brings to life the New Deal era of American history, highlighting the politicians and pundits of the time, many of whom argued for positions that modern citizens would find questionable, including advocating for separation of the races and an American dictatorship.

The Forecast: What Extreme Weather Can Teach Us About Economics
By Mark Buchanan
Buchanan draws on the examples of unpredictable severe weather to present a metaphorical assessment of the inherent instability of economic markets, building on the author’s expertise as a physicist to explain how common investor practices are typically untrustworthy.

Get the Guy: Learn Secrets of the Male Mind to Find the Man You Want and the Love You Deserve
By Matthew Hussey
A leading relationship expert and star of the reality show Ready for Love offers women a guidebook that reveals the secrets of the male mind and the fundamentals of dating and mating for a proven, revolutionary approach to finding lasting love, in a book that covers everything from flirtation to emotional intimacy to tips for spicing up the bedroom.

A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World’s Most Legendary Watch
By Stacy Perman
The award-winning author of In-N-Out Burger chronicles the dramatic early 20th-century competition between Wall Street figure Henry Graves, Jr. and automobile tycoon James Ward Packard to acquire what became the world’s most expensive timepiece, drawing on multiple disciplines to detail the watch’s sophisticated craftsmanship and role in influencing international luxury standards.

Gun Guys: A Road Trip
By Dan Baum
A Jewish Democrat and lifelong NRA supporter presents a raucous tour of gun culture that describes its stores, festivals, and colorful enthusiasts from all walks of life while offering insight into the power and appeal of guns in America.

It Takes Balls: Single Moms, Strip Clubs, and Other Confessions of an Unprepared Dad
By Josh Wolf
This comedic account of partially-single fatherhood from one of the stars and writers for Chelsea Lately  includes essays about putting his daughter in a wheelchair to skip long lines at Disneyland and discovering that he and his kids’ principal go to the same strip club.

Law and Disorder: The Legendary FBI Profiler’s Relentless Pursuit of Justice
By John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
The FBI’s pioneer of criminal profiling and the person on whom the character “Agent Jack Crawford” in The Silence of the Lambs is based reflects on his nearly 40-year career during which he pursued, studied and interviewed such criminals as Charles Manson and David Berkowitz, and devoted his time to helping the wrongfully accused and convicted.

Making Marriage Simple: Ten Truths for Changing the Relationship You Have into the One You Want
By Harville Hendrix and Helen Lakelly Hunt
The authors draw on extensive research, counseling workshops with couples and their own 30-year relationship to distill basic, provocative truths about marriage and provide essential tools for rendering a marriage more rewarding and positive.

Mayday
By Seth Cropsey
A former deputy undersecretary of the Navy describes how the United States Navy has shrunk in recent decades, with the military focused on land wars in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the maritime presence of other nations, particularly China, has expanded.

The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martrydom
By Candida R. Moss
A fresh new female voice in the world of academic religion and a leading scholar on Christian history reveals how the early church forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the legacy of martyrdom is used today to condemn others as enemies and opponents.

A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts
By Hal Taussig
A pastor, professor and founding member of the Jesus Seminar presents a thought-provoking new edition of the New Testament that includes ten more recently found texts, selected by a council of scholars and spiritual leaders, along with the classic books.

O.J. in the Morning, G&T at Night: Spirited Dispatches on Aging with Joie de Vivre
By A. E. Hotchner
The nonagenarian author of the best-selling Papa Hemingway presents a collection of uplifting essays on the experiences and insights of aging that celebrates the lighter side of such topics as commercials that target seniors, the advantages of keeping a pet, and the highs and lows of divorce.

Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court
By Sandra Day O’Connor
The former Supreme Court Justice and author of Lazy B shares stories about the history and evolution of the Supreme Court that traces the roles of key contributors while sharing the events behind important transformations.

Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live
By Marlene Zuk
A professor of ecology, evolution and behavior debunks the myths behind the paleo diet and defends her assertion that modern man is not biologically the same as our caveman ancestors and should, therefore, not eat as they did.

Picking up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City
By Robin Nagle
Charting New York’s 400-year struggle with trash, an anthropologist who spent ten years with sanitation workers of all ranks takes readers inside New York City’s Department of Sanitation to reveal what it really takes to manage Gotham’s garbage.

Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory
By Charles Fernyhough
Using a series of personal stories and the latest research, an award-winning writer and psychologist guides readers through the extraordinary new science of autobiographic memory to help them better understand the powers of recall and their relationship with the past.

Power Foods for the  Brain: An Effective 3-Step Plan to Protect Your Mind and Strengthen Your Memory
By Neal Barnard
A doctor, clinical researcher and health advocate offers a nutritional plan for improving brain function, reducing irritation and lack of focus and preventing diseases by adding foods rich in folates and B vitamins and reducing dairy, alcohol and toxic metals.

The Power of Negative Thinking
By Bob Knight
Using behind-the-scenes examples from his long career, a legendary basketball coach turns conventional thinking on its head by encouraging readers to embrace negative thinking, positing that it will help build a realistic strategy that takes all potential obstacles into account.

Public Apology: In Which a Man Grapples with a Lifetime of Regret, One Incident at a Time
By Dave Bry
A writer trying to come to terms with his past writes a series of apologies to all the people in his life, from children he babysat and allowed to watch horror movies, to not hearing his ill father calling out for help.

Raising the Curve: A Year Inside One of America’s 45,000 Failing Public Schools
By Ron Berler
A journalist describes the year he spent at a failing public school in Connecticut and discusses the struggles and challenges of both the students and the faculty as they try to improve learning abilities and pass an important statewide exam.

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
By Michael Moss
A Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative reporter traces the rise of the processed food industry and how the addictive properties of sugar, salt and fat have enabled their dominance in food production throughout the past half century. Moss draws on confidential reports and inside sources to reveal deliberate corporate practices behind current trends in obesity, diabetes and other health challenges.

To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism
By Evgeny Morozov
Arguing that technology is changing the way we understand human society, the award-winning author of The Net Delusion discusses how the disciplines of politics, culture, public debate, morality, and humanism will be affected when we delegate much of the responsibility for them to technology.

The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power
By Kim Ghattas
Drawing on extensive interviews with Clinton, administration officials and other players around Washington, a foreign correspondent with both an insider and a global perspective tells the story of Hillary Clinton as America’s envoy to the world.

The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More
By Bruce Feiler
Combining cutting-edge science with novel techniques that leading figures in business, sports, technology and the military use with their own families, this essential guide provides contemporary families with new ideas for cherishing and enriching their home life in an age of chaos.

Shouting Won’t Help: Why I – and 50 Million Other Americans – Can’t Hear You
By Katherine Bouton
A former senior editor at The New York Times traces her own experiences of hearing loss while evaluating a growing epidemic of hearing impairment in America, drawing on medical and specialist insights to identify possible causes while sharing perspectives on how hearing loss affects everyday life.

Slim By Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Home, School, Grocery Stores, Restaurants and More
By Brian Wansink
Using cutting-edge, never-before-seen research from his acclaimed Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, a leading expert in eating behavior reveals how innovative, inexpensive design changes can make it mindlessly easy and profitable for people to eat healthier.

The South Beach Diet Gluten Solution: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Gluten-Aware Plan for Losing Weight and Feeling Great – Fast!
By Arthur Agatston
Arguing that undiagnosed gluten-related health problems linked to modern overconsumption of processed grain products are affecting nearly half of Americans, the creator of The South Beach Diet outlines detailed meal plans complemented by gluten-free recipes, tips for dining out, and inspirational success stories.

Storm Kings: The Untold History of America’s First Tornado Chasers
By Lee Sandlin
Sandlin traces the historical efforts to study and understand super cell tornadoes and the role of storm chasers in shaping meteorology, citing the early experiments of Ben Franklin, the “great storm debates” of the 19th century and the development of the National Weather Service.

Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets
By Jim Rogers
The best-selling author of Investment Biker draws on a range of personal experiences, including his 2007 decision to relocate his family to Singapore, to offer insight into and advice on today’s financial world. Rogers draws on a belief that Southeast Asia and China are the dominant drivers of a world economy and that America is in permanent decline.

Supreme Influence: Change Your Life with the Power of the Language You Use
By Niurka
A popular motivational expert and former Anthony Robbins corporate trainer demonstrates how shifting one’s language can positively transform the spectrum of daily experience, outlining practical techniques for developing skills in the areas of mental focus, empowerment and articulation to enable greater appreciation in spite of circumstance.

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight over World War II, 1939 - 1941
By Lynne Olson
The author of the best-selling Citizens of London traces the crisis period leading up to America’s entry in World War II, describing the nation’s polarized interventionist and isolation factions as represented by the government, in the press and on the streets, in an account that explores the forefront roles of British-supporter President Roosevelt and isolationist Charles Lindbergh.

Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing
By Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
The co-authors of the New York Times best-selling NurtureShock  turn their attentions to the cutting edge science behind life’s triumphs and failures and offer insight from politics, finance, science, sports and economics to tip the odds in the readers’ favor.

The Tragedy of Mister Morn
By Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
The first English-language translation of an early major dramatic work from the 1920s traces the experiences of an incognito king whose love for a revolutionary activist’s wife ignites the chaos he has fought to prevent and forces him to confront the lines between truth and fantasy.

Visions of Infinity: The Great Mathematical Problems
By Ian Stewart
Explaining why mathematical problems exist, what drives mathematicians to solve them, and why their efforts matter within the context of science as a whole, a celebrated mathematician presents a fascinating history of mathematics by concentrating on fourteen of its greatest problems.

Walking Home: A Poet’s Journey
By Simon Armitage
An award-winning poet and translator walks the Pennine Way through England and describes his experience of stopping each night in a different village to give a poetry reading in return for a place to sleep, just like a traveling troubadour of old.

The War Within
By Yuval Elizur
An eminent Israeli journalist and former correspondent for the Washington Post  discusses the conflict and national debate going on within Israel between the ultra-orthodox Haredim, who reject everything but religious study, and the more mainstream population.

Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
By Geoff Williams
Williams chronicles the harrowing 1913 flood and the related tornadoes and freezing rains that killed more than 700 people in 14 states and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings, describing how the disaster led to the establishment of important emergency laws and flood control techniques.

What We Talk About When We Talk About God
By Rob Bell
Guaranteed to be filled with mystery, controversy and reverence, a highly anticipated sequel to Love Wins  addresses who God is and how we relate to God in today’s world.

Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition
By Garry Wills
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of What Jesus Meant outlines a provocative assessment of the role of the priesthood to evaluate its relevance in today’s world, exploring both sides of the argument and drawing on historical examples to consider whether or not Christianity would be stronger without priests.

With Charity for All: Why Charities Are Failing and a Better Way to Give
By Kenneth Stern
A former head of a major nonprofit organization reveals surprising failings in the charitable world while outlining a new paradigm for charitable activities in America and shares insights into the unique marketplace incentives and flaws of nonprofit organizations based on his tours of unaccountable U.S. charities.

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2/2013