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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Her latest collection advances the widely held conviction that Munro reigns as the best short story writer in English today.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of (2008) brings to bear his focused and sensitive scholarship, rich prose style, and acute sense of the need...

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

This second volume in the author’s planned trilogy brilliantly reconstructing the life of Henry VIII’s secretary Thomas Cromwell follows (2009) and tells the...

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)

Nearly 20 years after , Welsh delivers a stunning prequel that shows how his characters got hooked on heroin. As before, it’s the remarkable...

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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...

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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 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)

Enright illuminates the vicissitudes of extramarital love and the obstructions to its smooth flow with a raw clarity expressed in magnetically precise prose. (...

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Drawing on philosophy, neurology, linguistics, and computer science, Christian offers a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

In this sequel to his marvelous domestic drama (2002), O’Nan presents the minute mapping of the lay of the domestic land...

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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...

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)

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)

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...

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)

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)

Arts & Literature

Finding Beauty in a Broken World. By Terry Tempest Williams. Pantheon, $25 (9780375420788).

Williams considers the complex beauty of brokenness and the...

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...

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...

2005 - Selection(s)

Arts & Literature

Blumenthal, Eileen. Puppetry: A World History. Abrams, $65 (0-8109-5587-3).

Blumenthal’s exhaustively researched, lavishly illustrated volume chronicles the roles puppets and puppeteers have...