Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books
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| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
2012 - Selection(s) Celebrated British author Pullman retells what he calls the “cream” of the brothers’ 210 tales. In a straightforward, conversational style, Pullman delivers a wonderfully rich... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| True Believers
2012 - Selection(s) A onetime Supreme Court nominee sets out to reveal a deadly truth from her radical past but manages to do much more. An ambitious and... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Barack Obama: The Story
2012 - Selection(s) A thoroughly fascinating, multigenerational biography that explores broader social and political changes even as it highlights the elements that shaped one man’s life. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Beautiful Ruins
2012 - Selection(s) In 1962, an American movie starlet arrives at a small hotel on the Italian coast, there to recuperate from a disaster on the set of... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Thornton Wilder
2012 - Selection(s) A definitive biography of the distinguished American playwright and novelist, author of such works as Our Town and The Bridge of San Luis Ray. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| In One Person
2012 - Selection(s) Irving’s charming and audacious novel about the confusing coming-of-age of a bisexual boy in a small Vermont town features a glorious cast of misfit characters... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years among the Poorest Children in America
2012 - Selection(s) This is an engaging look at the broader social implications of ignoring poverty as well as a very personal look at individuals struggling to overcome... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
2012 - Selection(s) Joyce’s debut novel about a new retiree who embarks on a mission of mercy involving a solitary 500-mile walk across the north of England is... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King
2012 - Selection(s) In this gripping biography—it’s as page-turningly exciting as any thriller—Samuel Zemurray, once the most powerful banana importer in America, comes off as a sort of... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Beginner’s Goodbye
2012 - Selection(s) Tyler’s sparkling, covertly philosophical tale about a man who refuses to be defined by his disability or denied communication with his deceased wife reveals how... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Mansion of Happiness
2012 - Selection(s) In this witty, provocative, and deeply informed essay collection, Lepore considers how perceptions about life and death in all their weighty complexity have evolved over... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Lower River
2012 - Selection(s) When his marriage and clothing store fail, a sixtysomething man returns to Africa to rekindle the intense feeling of his days in the Peace Corps... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.
2012 - Selection(s) Tough argues that disadvantaged children would be best served by learning such skills as grit, conscientiousness, curiosity, and optimism in this very hopeful look at... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen.
2012 - Selection(s) In this compelling biography, Simmons chronicles the career of courtly, elegant, and influential singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist Cohen and illuminates his impressive body of work. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
2012 - Selection(s) Written in a voice that is at once hopeful, cautious, and completely lost yet utterly knowing, Fountain’s novel delivers a brilliant, powerful examination of how... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| New Collected Poems
2012 - Selection(s) Though Berry is best known for his fiction and essays, his poetry is the radiant heart of his prophetic art as he writes about life... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Round House
2012 - Selection(s) Erdrich’s profound intimacy with her characters, beginning with 13-year-old Ojibwe Joe Coutts, electrifies this stunning and wise novel of family bonds, hate crimes, and vengeance... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court
2012 - Selection(s) Legal analyst Toobin offers a vividly revealing inside look at the personalities and politics behind the fractious relationship between Chief Justice Roberts and President Obama. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| James Joyce: A New Biography.
2012 - Selection(s) In tracing the evolution of Joyce’s art, Bowker also hints at the dark recesses of the artist’s psyche, defending his psycho-reading of Joyce’s fiction as... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Bring Up the Bodies
2012 - Selection(s) This second volume in the author’s planned trilogy brilliantly reconstructing the life of Henry VIII’s secretary Thomas Cromwell follows Wolf Hall (2009) and tells the... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Stag’s Leap
2012 - Selection(s) Olds, a poet of indomitable candor, continues to follow the arc of her life in her searing poetry, here chronicling the sudden end of her... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Skagboys
2012 - Selection(s) Nearly 20 years after Trainspotting, Welsh delivers a stunning prequel that shows how his characters got hooked on heroin. As before, it’s the remarkable... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security since Reagan
2012 - Selection(s) In this breathtakingly comprehensive and compelling analysis, Laursen shows how American economics and politics evolved to the point at which Social Security, once considered nearly... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Joseph Anton
2012 - Selection(s) In his forthright, gripping, and darkly humorous memoir, Rushdie tells the full story of his life under siege after the Ayatollah Khomeini called for his... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| By Blood
2012 - Selection(s) A disgraced professor becomes obsessed with the client of a psychiatrist working next to him. This poetic and mysterious story suggests both Poe and Kafka. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas, and the Weather of the Future
2012 - Selection(s) Climate Central, a nonpartisan collective of ecological experts, presents a succinct yet comprehensive overview of how human-generated CO2 pollution is contributing to the crises we’re... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Sutton
2012 - Selection(s) Moehringer relays, in electrifying prose, the highs and lows of bank robber Willie Sutton’s dramatic life, from the thrill of the heist to the brutal... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else
2012 - Selection(s) Freeland offers an engaging, deeply analytical look at the history, politics, and economics behind the rise of the super-elites, drawing parallels between current inequality and... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill; Defender of the Realm, 1940–1965
2012 - Selection(s) The late Manchester was one of the best Churchill biographers, and this third volume in the series is the capstone to his magnum opus. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Cove
2012 - Selection(s) In a powerful novel that skillfully overlays its tragic love story with pointed social commentary, Rash effortlessly summons the rugged Appalachian landscape as well as... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Social Conquest of Earth
2012 - Selection(s) In this passionate analysis of the human condition, renowned biologist Wilson guides us through the great maze of evolutionary adaptations that led to our ancestors’... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Sweet Tooth
2012 - Selection(s) McEwan goes back in time to enter the spy world of British intelligence in the early 1970s, and in the book’s heroine, he has created... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Thunder on the Mountain: Death at Massey and the Dirty Secrets behind Big Coal
2012 - Selection(s) Galuszka investigates the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in this bracing inquiry into the corporate culture at Massey Energy and how the coal industry... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Love Song: The Lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya
2012 - Selection(s) This author presents the best book on the foremost couple in twentieth-century musical theater, who depended on one another for 25 years. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Dear Life
2012 - Selection(s) Her latest collection advances the widely held conviction that Munro reigns as the best short story writer in English today. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body
2012 - Selection(s) Our ability to move, perceive, think, and speak depends on continuously occurring electrical events in nerve and muscle cells, which are explained by physiologist Ashcroft... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Telegraph Avenue
2012 - Selection(s) Chabon’s exuberantly alive novel of two families, one African American, the other Jewish, and a beloved but imperiled used record store is an intricate, funny... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies
2012 - Selection(s) In this compelling collection of thematically linked essays, veteran film historian Thomson defines screen as encompassing everything from early nickelodeons through tablets and smart phones. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Angelmaker
2012 - Selection(s) In this sublimely intricate and compulsively readable tour de force of Dickensian bravura and genre-blending splendor, Harkaway tells the tale of a mild-mannered London clockmaker... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
2012 - Selection(s) Wedged between LBJ’s triumphant Senate career and his presidency, this riveting fourth volume in Caro’s acclaimed series addresses the 1960 presidential campaign, the three frustrating... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Dream of the Celt
2012 - Selection(s) The ever-creative Peruvian novelist takes as his subject Roger Casement, an Irishman in the British diplomatic service executed for treason during WWI. |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
2012 - Selection(s) Quammen’s vital, in-depth inquiry into the fascinating if alarming facts about animal infections that sicken humans, such as Ebola, influenza, SARS, and AIDS, is aimed... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Testament of Mary
2012 - Selection(s) Irishman Tóibín delivers a stunning interpretation of the life and role of the mother of Jesus that is as beautiful in its presentation as it... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Leonardo and the Last Supper
2012 - Selection(s) King’s uniquely detailed and engrossing chronicle of the creation of Leonardo’s revolutionary masterpiece, The Last Supper, brings to vibrant life wizardly Leonardo, his cunning... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Arcadia
2012 - Selection(s) This beautifully crafted novel invokes the fragility of community as it follows Bit Stone, the first child to be born in the late 1960s on... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937–1948
2012 - Selection(s) Accessing political history for a wide readership, Albright renders a powerfully somber accounting of the fates of her extended family during the Holocaust. No reader... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Flight Behavior
2012 - Selection(s) In this passionate novel on global warming, feisty, funny Dellarobia Turnbow gains new and galvanizing insight into her life when a fluke of nature draws... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom
2012 - Selection(s) Rediker offers a totally enthralling account of the Amistad rebellion and its place in the broader American story of revolt against those who would threaten... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| That’s Not a Feeling
2012 - Selection(s) This remarkable debut novel follows the growing friendship between students at the Roaring Orchards School for Troubled Teens. The matter-of-fact prose, studded with perfectly phrased... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama
2012 - Selection(s) Drawing on two years of research, including interviews with two elderly women—one black, the other white—Swarns presents the complicated story of race in the U.S... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Astray
2012 - Selection(s) Inspired by newspaper stories from the last four centuries, Donoghue’s masterful short story collection explores the unexpected in people’s lives in such varied settings as... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
2012 - Selection(s) Ace popular historian Egan tells the suspenseful and heroic story of master photographer Edward Curtis and the sacrifices he made to document North American Indian... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Gods without Men
2012 - Selection(s) Kunzru’s lively, hugely ambitious novel explores humans’ desperate search for meaning—whether it be through drugs, religion, computer programming, or UFOs—within the chaos of life, both... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010
2012 - Selection(s) In this timely analysis, Murray argues that a worsening class divide has resulted in the segregation of elites, living in “SuperZips,” from those with little... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| This Is How You Lose Her
2012 - Selection(s) Each tale of unrequited and betrayed love and family crises is electric with passionate observations and off-the-charts emotional and social intelligence as MacArthur fellow Díaz... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| And Bid Him Sing: A Biography of Countée Cullen
2012 - Selection(s) Molesworth rescues Harlem Renaissance poet and novelist Countée Cullen from obscurity in this scrupulous and vivid biography, celebrating his work and pondering the mysteries of... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| The Bartender’s Tale
2012 - Selection(s) Doig’s latest historical novel set in the fictional Two Medicine Country in northern Montana stars an affable bartender and his precocious 12-year-old son, whose coming-of-age... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
2012 - Selection(s) The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion (2008) brings to bear his focused and sensitive scholarship, rich prose style, and acute sense of the need... |
2012 - Selection(s) | |
| Home
2012 - Selection(s) With the economical presentation of a short story, the rhythms and cadence of a poem, and the total embrace and resonance of a novel, Morrison... |
2012 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska
2011 - Selection(s) In this gripping memoir, Mondor, formerly an operations manager for an airline servicing Alaska’s remotest settlements, chronicles the rigors of wilderness flying and portrays pilots... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| When She Woke
2011 - Selection(s) Jordan takes on hot-button issues in her slightly futuristic, overtly dystopian, and utterly engrossing take on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
2011 - Selection(s) This is a splendidly insightful, dynamic three-way biography of our second assassinated president, James Garfield; Charles Guiteau, the president’s assassin; and inventor Alexander Graham Bell... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes
2011 - Selection(s) Kennedy, the bard of Albany, is back with a jazzy, seductive, historically anchored novel of politics, race, and revolution, featuring journalist Daniel Quinn; Renata, a... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Book of Universes: Exploring the Limits of the Cosmos
2011 - Selection(s) In a narrative laced with humor and poetry, Barrow conducts readers on a tour of the dazzling array of Einsteinian universes. A mind-expanding look at... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Marriage Plot
2011 - Selection(s) During the Reagan era, an English major and devotee of classic literature at Brown University gets involved in a love triangle in Eugenides’ beautifully written... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America’s Rush to War.
2011 - Selection(s) Investigative reporter Willman deftly chronicles how Bruce Ivins’ life of suspicions and obsessions merged with the panicked atmosphere following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and led... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Winter Palace
2011 - Selection(s) This brilliant, bold historical novel of eighteenth-century Russia is a masterful account of Catherine the Great’s ascension to absolute monarchical rule. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock
2011 - Selection(s) This dual biography takes a complex look at two women at the center of a historic moment—the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,000 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them
2011 - Selection(s) In this dazzling science travelogue, Hohn journeys from beaches to factories to the northern seas to determine what happened to 28,000 Chinese-manufactured plastic animals after... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Matchmaker of Kenmare
2011 - Selection(s) An elderly Irishman remembers a wild adventure during WWII and immediately after, which took him from neutral Ireland into hardly neutral continental Europe on an... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Most Human Human: What Talking to Computers Teaches Us about What It Means to Be Alive
2011 - Selection(s) Drawing on philosophy, neurology, linguistics, and computer science, Christian offers a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Year We Left Home
2011 - Selection(s) In Thompson’s episodic, wryly comic, and astute multigenerational family saga about the Eriksons of Iowa, her characters’ struggles reveal depthless truths about human nature, including... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| George F. Kennan: An American Life
2011 - Selection(s) This biography, with its documentary thoroughness and lucidity about its enigmatic, fragile subject, must stand as the definitive portrait of the uniquely influential diplomat and... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Conquistadora
2011 - Selection(s) Santiago’s extraordinary historical novel, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico and featuring a strong-willed woman determined to escape her boring upper-class future, is full of emotion... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| A Planet of Viruses
2011 - Selection(s) Viruses are everywhere, Zimmer tells us in his information-packed, superbly readable scientific inquiry, and what matters is not that we have to live with viruses... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Millennium People
2011 - Selection(s) A revolution is under way in Chelsea Marina, an upper-middle-class enclave of London: its salaried professionals are opting out. Brilliant, funny, disturbing, and quotable: “The... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| 33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day.
2011 - Selection(s) British music critic Lynskey offers a completely absorbing look at 33 protest songs, spanning seven decades and hailing from five continents. Comprehensive and beautifully written. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media
2011 - Selection(s) This is journalism history from an entirely fresh perspective, one that challenges the old heroes and shines a sharp light on the role of the... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| John Huston: Courage and Art
2011 - Selection(s) Veteran biographer Meyers steps into the ring with legendary movie director John Huston and proves adept at wrestling the larger-than-life figure onto the page. A... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Emily, Alone
2011 - Selection(s) In this sequel to his marvelous domestic drama Wish You Were Here (2002), O’Nan presents the minute mapping of the lay of the domestic land... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments
2011 - Selection(s) Laid out in 40 episodes clustered around seven themes, Baggott’s engrossing chronicle of the making of quantum physics portrays the icons of nuclear science battling... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Saints and Sinners
2011 - Selection(s) These 11 stories will hold lovers of literature rapt as the Irish author displays her clear, immaculate style; brilliant selection of detail; nimble plot construction... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ’n’ Roll
2011 - Selection(s) In this major work of cultural history, Lauterbach portrays seminal musicians and uncovers the intriguing secrets of the “chitlin’ circuit,” a thriving African American subculture... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement
2011 - Selection(s) In this utterly engaging analysis, Brooks synthesizes research on human unconsciousness, meshing sociology, psychology, and economics to show how character is formed and how we... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Obama on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President
2011 - Selection(s) Using psychoanalytic techniques, Frank examines Obama’s memoirs and speeches to explore the reasons for the seeming gaps between his behavior as candidate and as president... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Empty Family
2011 - Selection(s) Tóibín’s new collection of short stories beautifully shows his ability to instill life and contemporary interest into historical figures; the result is short story writing... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water
2011 - Selection(s) Fishman presents a lively, eye-opening, and invaluable assessment of the politics, economics, and culture of water; warns us about deteriorating infrastructure; and calls for a... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Secret History of Costaguana
2011 - Selection(s) Vásquez spins a multitextured tale of a Colombian man who has endured multiple revolutions and personal tragedies only to have the story of his life... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism.
2011 - Selection(s) The last collection of occasional pieces by the late, great man of American letters is a book to be kept at hand and appreciated for... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| 1Q84
2011 - Selection(s) Murakami’s vividly imagined parallel-world epic, about a woman who walks off a Tokyo expressway and enters a two-mooned universe of confounding complexity, expertly melds fantasy... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore.
2011 - Selection(s) In this account of a chimpanzee who ascends the evolutionary ladder, first-time novelist Hale explores what it means to be human, holding up a remarkable... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools
2011 - Selection(s) Writing with amazing energy and excitement, journalist Brill makes a compelling argument that the forces at work behind school reform are making slow but steady... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Time in Between
2011 - Selection(s) Flawlessly researched and breathlessly paced, this debut novel captures the beauty and decadence of pre-WWII Europe without minimizing the very real suffering of Spaniards following... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Paper Garden: An Artist (Begins Her Life’s Work) at 72
2011 - Selection(s) Poet Peacock marvels over the remarkable life of English artist Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700–1788) and her “flower mosaiks,” exquisitely detailed paper botanical collages, in... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| American Boy
2011 - Selection(s) Watson’s powerful coming-of-age story about a teenage boy shocked into maturity by a moment of sudden and unexpected violence drives home the melancholic and morally... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation
2011 - Selection(s) Wulf argues that the passion for horticulture shared by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison profoundly influenced the shape of American governance in this exceedingly well-researched... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Faith
2011 - Selection(s) With an exquisite sense of drama and mystery, Haigh portrays Father Arthur Breen, who lives a quiet life of determined faith in Boston until an... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
2011 - Selection(s) This true-crime account of respected doctor Marcel Petiot, who tortured and dismembered at least a score of victims during the WWII Nazi occupation of Paris... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| To Be Sung Underwater
2011 - Selection(s) In this thoughtful and compelling look at the road not taken, an unhappily married woman agrees to meet her first love in what turns out... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.
2011 - Selection(s) In a passionate work of discovery, Orlean chronicles the never-before-told, genuinely dramatic, and surprisingly consequential story of canine hero and film and television star Rin... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Art of Fielding
2011 - Selection(s) First-novelist Harbach draws readers into the lives of his characters, plumbing their psyches with remarkable psychological acuity and exploring the transformative effect that love and... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Greater Journey: American in Paris
2011 - Selection(s) The author relates the fascinating tale of the many Americans, most of them in the arts, who were soul-drawn to Paris between 1830 and 1900. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Forgotten Waltz
2011 - Selection(s) Enright illuminates the vicissitudes of extramarital love and the obstructions to its smooth flow with a raw clarity expressed in magnetically precise prose. (Top... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Inequality around the Globe.
2011 - Selection(s) Milanovic defies the typical image of an economist by presenting research overlaid with humor, literary insights, and fully imagined portraits of daily life as he... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Turn of Mind
2011 - Selection(s) Part literary novel, part thriller, LaPlante’s haunting first novel traces the deterioration of a surgeon suffering from dementia. An often startling portrait of a fiercely... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Verdi’s Shakespeare: Men of the Theater
2011 - Selection(s) Wills’ joyously engaged and scholarly yet personable essay is not just a treat but also a banquet succulent enough to make Shakespeareans and Verdians of... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Broken Irish
2011 - Selection(s) In this elegantly written and compellingly plotted novel, six haunted people, the “broken Irish” of South Boston, see their lives converge in heart-wrenching fashion. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Jerusalem: The Biography
2011 - Selection(s) While sometimes painful to read, this is an essential book for those who wish to understand a city that remains a nexus of world affairs. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Glass Demon
2011 - Selection(s) This exhilarating page-turner offers a cerebral blend of horror and mystery as it focuses on the family of a medieval scholar intent on finding lost... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
2011 - Selection(s) Best-selling Gleick’s tour de force is the first book to fully chronicle the amazing story of information, our hunger for connectedness, and how profoundly information... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| West of Here
2011 - Selection(s) Evison’s audacious historical novel, bridging more than 100 years of life in Washington State, is grounded in the vividly realized daily lives of characters who... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon
2011 - Selection(s) Quiñones-Hinojosa tells the inspiring story of how he left Mexico to pursue a better life and ended up becoming a Johns Hopkins University neurosurgeon, professor... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Caleb’s Crossing
2011 - Selection(s) Pulitzer Prize winner Brooks incisively imagines the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard, as seen through the eyes of... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Jerusalem: The Biography
2011 - Selection(s) Young’s magnificent cycle of poems, which takes many forms, including a libretto, tells the signal story of the Amistad rebels with galvanizing artistry and insight. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Lost Memory of Skin
2011 - Selection(s) Banks masterfully pairs the Kid, a naive paroled sex offender, and the Professor, a gargantuan man of epic mysteries, in a robustly compassionate and courageously... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White
2011 - Selection(s) Legal scholar Sharfstein demonstrates the fluidity and arbitrariness of racial classification as he chronicles the lives of three African American families who passed themselves off... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| When God Was a Rabbit
2011 - Selection(s) A wonderfully wise and compellingly readable tale of love and friendship in all their forms, of family uncircumscribed by biological bonds, and of loss worse... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
2011 - Selection(s) Ace biographer Massie’s dramatic account of Catherine the Great’s ascent from minor German princess to absolute autocrat of Russia humanizes the real woman behind the... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| The Cat’s Table
2011 - Selection(s) In 1953, an 11-year-old boy’s life is permanently upended when he leaves Colombo, Ceylon, to begin a new life in London with his mother; his... |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems
2011 - Selection(s) Trinidad’s lucid, amusing, and sad autobiographical poems evince fascination with the feminine and mass-media entertainment while offering soulful candor about gay life. |
2011 - Selection(s) | |
| Luminarium
2011 - Selection(s) With his twin in a coma and the virtual world they created hijacked by the “Military-Entertainment Complex,” Fred seeks guidance in spiritual healing, an experimental... |
2011 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| The Cello Suites
2010 - Selection(s) A former pop-music critic embarked on a journey--part historical, part personal--to discover for himself the music tat has remained a pillar of the cello repertoire... |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
| The Death and Life of American Journalism
2010 - Selection(s) Respected Journalists McChesney and Nichols offer historical perspective on the death of newspapers while arguing passionately for radical solutions and also presenting an exhilarating vision... |
2010 - Selection(s) | |
| Handling One Another Along
2010 - Selection(s) In his direct and engaging style, acclaimed psychiatrist Coles examines just how it is that literature influences moral meaning in our lives. A joy to... |
2010 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Clara and Mr. Tiffany
2008 - Selection(s) In beautifully wrought pages, Vreeland brings to life the world of Clara Driscoll (a real-life figure), who in all likelihood conceived the famous Tiffany lamp... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| 2008 booklist editors choice adults
2008 - Selection(s) Arts & Literature Finding Beauty in a Broken World. By Terry Tempest Williams. Pantheon, $25 (9780375420788). Williams considers the complex beauty of brokenness and the... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark
2008 - Selection(s) In a greatly revelatory portrait, Kellow details all of the major and minor stages in the life of vastly influential movie critic Pauline Kael. |
2008 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 booklist editors choice adults
2007 - Selection(s) Arts & Literature The Baroque World of Fernando Botero. By John Sillevis. Yale, $65 (9780300123593). The amplitude of Colombian artist Botero’s figures embodies his humanitarian... |
2007 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 booklist editors choice adults
2006 - Selection(s) Arts & Literature Brothers, Thomas. Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans. Norton, $26.95 (0-393-06109-4). Exploring how a boy from the poorest of the poor became the central... |
2006 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 booklist editors choice adults
2005 - Selection(s) Arts & Literature Blumenthal, Eileen. Puppetry: A World History. Abrams, $65 (0-8109-5587-3).
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2005 - Selection(s) |
