Double Down: Game Change 2012

by Mark Halperin    (Find this book)
Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times"
"Those hungry for political news will read "Double Down" for the scooplets and insidery glimpses it serves up about the two campaigns, and the clues it offers about the positioning already going on among Republicans and Democrats for 2016 ... The book testifies to its authors' energetic legwork and insider access... creating a novelistic narrative that provides a you-are-there immediacy... They succeed in taking readers interested in the backstabbing and backstage maneuvering of the 2012 campaign behind the curtains, providing a tactile... sense of what it looked like from the inside."
In their runaway bestseller "Game Change," Mark Halperin and John Heilemann captured the full drama of Barack Obama's improbable, dazzling victory over the Clintons, John McCain, and Sarah Palin. With the same masterly reporting, unparalleled access, and narrative skill, "Double Down" picks up the story in the Oval Office, where the president is beset by crises both inherited and unforeseen--facing defiance from his political foes, disenchantment from the voters, disdain from the nation's powerful money machers, and dysfunction within the West Wing. As 2012 looms, leaders of the Republican Party, salivating over Obama's political fragility, see a chance to wrest back control of the White House--and the country. So how did the Republicans screw it up? How did Obama survive the onslaught of super PACs and defy the predictions of a one-term presidency? "Double Down" follows the gaudy carnival of GOP contenders--ambitious and flawed, famous and infamous, charismatic and cartoonish--as Mitt Romney, the straitlaced, can-do, gaffe-prone multimillionaire from Massachusetts, scraped and scratched his way to the nomination.
"Double Down" exposes blunders, scuffles, and machinations far beyond the klieg lights of the campaign trail: Obama storming out of a White House meeting with his high command after accusing them of betrayal. Romney's mind-set as he made his controversial "47 percent" comments. The real reasons New Jersey governor Chris Christie was never going to be Mitt's running mate. The intervention held by the president's staff to rescue their boss from political self-destruction. The way the tense detente between Obama and Bill Clinton morphed into political gold. And the answer to one of the campaign's great mysteries--how did Clint Eastwood end up performing Dada dinner theater at the Republican convention?
In" Double Down," Mark Halperin and John Heilemann take the reader into back rooms and closed-door meetings, laying bare the secret history of the 2012 campaign for a panoramic account of an election that was as hard fought as it was lastingly consequential. -- Publisher Marketing

Modernist Cuisine at Home

by Nathan Myhrvold    (Find this book)
The culinary revolution that has transformed restaurant menus around the world is also making its way into home kitchens. The Cooking Lab, publisher of the encyclopedic six-volume set Modernist Cuisine, which immediately became the definitive reference for this revolution, has now produced a lavishly illustrated guide for home cooks, complete with all-new recipes tailored for cooking enthusiasts of all skill levels.Modernist Cuisine at Home, by Nathan Myhrvold with Maxime Bilet, is destined to set a new standard for home cookbooks. The authors have collected in this 456-page volume all the essential information that any cook needs to stock a modern kitchen, to master Modernist techniques, and to make hundreds of stunning recipes. The book includes a spiral-bound Kitchen Manual that reprints all of the recipes and reference tables on waterproof, tear-resistant paper. Drawing on the same commitment to perfection that produced Modernist Cuisine, Modernist Cuisine at Home applies innovations pioneered by The Cooking Lab to refine classic home dishes, from hamburgers and wings to macaroni and cheese. More than 400 new recipes are included, most with step-by-step photos that make it easy to bring dining of the highest quality to your own dinner table.Among the amazing techniques you'll find are: how to cook fish and steak perfectly every time, whether you're in the kitchen, the backyard, or tailgating in a parking lot;how to use a pressure cooker to make stocks in a fraction of the usual time while capturing more of the flavor;the secret to making quick, sumptuous caramelized vegetable soups and purees;how to outfit your home oven to make pizzas as crispy as you would get from a wood-fired brick oven along with recipes for: perfect eggs and breathtaking omelets that remove the guesswork for stress-free breakfasts, even for a crowd;gravies and a hollandaise sauce that are wonderfully rich, perfectly smooth, and never separate;a flawless cheeseburger and an ultrafrothy milk shake;chicken wings made better with Modernist techniques, plus seven great sauces and coatings for them;macaroni and cheese, including stove-top, baked, and fat-free versions, that can be made with any cheese blend you like, from gouda and cheddar to jack and Stilton.Cooking like a Modernist chef at home requires the right set of tools, but they're less expensive and easier to find than you might think. You'll also learn how to get the best out of the kitchen appliances you already own. Learn how to use your microwave oven to steam fish and vegetables to perfection, make exceptional beef jerky, and fry delicate herbs.The first 100 pages of the book are a trove of useful information, such as: how to test the accuracy of a thermometer, and why it's time to switch to digital;how to use (and not to use) a blowtorch to sear food fast and beautifully;how to marinate meats more quickly evenly by injecting the brine;the myriad uses for a whipping siphon beyond whipped cream;why those expensive copper pans may not be worth the price;how to deep-fry without a deep fryer;how to stop worrying and get the most out of your pressure cooker;how to cook sous vide at home with improvised equipment, a special-purpose water bath, or a home combi oven.Modernist Cuisine at Home is an indispensable guide for anyone who is passionate about food and cooking.  -- Publisher Marketing

The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

by Ella Berthoud    (Find this book)
In times of trouble, a good book can soothe any kind of pain. Longtime friends Berthoud and Elderkin take that notion to a new level in their delightful reference guide to "bibliotherapy" "the prescribing of fiction for life's ailments." In each case, the authors (who have run a bibliotherapy service since 2008) prescribe a book or two to propel readers to action, bring about awareness or diversion, or show that things are not as bleak as they might seem. They tackle serious and not-so-serious ailments with equal verve, delving into such topics as "Scars, Emotional" (Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night or Antonya Nelson's Bound), "Pessimism" (Robinson Crusoe), and "Burning the dinner" (Zola's The Belly of Paris). Eclectic top 10 lists are peppered throughout, such as the "Ten Best Novels to Lower Your Blood Pressure" or the "Ten Best Novels to Make You Weep." Abundant indices allow the reader to browse by author or title and to search for reading problem advice. Berthoud and Elderkin's elegant prose and discussions that span the history of 2,000 years of literature will surely make readers seek out these books. Taking two novellas and calling the bibliotherapist in the morning sounds welcome indeed. Agent: Claire Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates. (Sept.) Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Beyond Winning: Smart Parenting in a Toxic Sports Environment

by Kim John Payne    (Find this book)
These days it seems everyone has a youth sports horror story--whether it's about a tyrant coach obsessed with his team record that only plays the best kids on the team, or a parent who publicly berates his kid for not making a goal. But should it really only be all about winning? What about having fun, learning a sport, and developing athletic skills? "Beyond Winning with Whole Child Sports" offers an alternative approach to teaching sports to kids. It deemphasizes short-term goals like winning and youth championships and discourages the introduction of adult-oriented, league-structured competition. Instead it emphasizes training techniques and coaching strategies aimed at improving core strength, balance, and creativity in aspiring athletes, using an age-appropriate four-stage timeline, based on a child's physical, psychological, and neurological development. "Beyond Winning with Whole Child Sports" provides frustrated parents with help in the form of advice and concrete solutions to common questions, and step-by-step instructions for helping young children develop athletic ability in an environment that's less structured while encouraging athletic and personal growth. It also reveals how to avoid bullying, trash talk, and elitism.  -- Publisher Marketing

The Best American Infographics 2013

by Mariner Books   ( Find this book)
The rise of infographics across virtually all print and electronic media--from a striking breakdown of classic cocktails to a graphic tracking 200 influential moments that changed the world to visually arresting depictions of Twitter traffic--reveals patterns in our lives and our world in fresh and surprising ways. In the era of big data, where information moves faster than ever, infographics provide us with quick, often influential bursts of art and knowledge--on the environment, politics, social issues, health, sports, arts and culture, and more--to digest, to tweet, to share, to go viral.
"The Best American Infographics" captures the finest examples from the past year, including the ten best interactive infographics, of this mesmerizing new way of seeing and understanding our world. -- Publisher Marketing

Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books

by Claudia Roth Pierpont    (Find this book)
In 2012, acclaimed novelist Philip Roth famously declared that he was retiring, sending shudders of disbelief through the literary world. Drawing on conversations with Roth and featuring insightful close readings of his entire oeuvre, longtime New Yorker staff writer Pierpont (Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World) offers a dazzling chronicle that traces moments from the author's life and explores the "life of his art." Pierpont develops the story of Roth's writing chronologically, summarizing the plots and critical reception of each of his many novels, from Goodbye, Columbus (1959) to Nemesis (2010). For example, "When She was Good is a book as harsh and plain as the world that Roth depicts.... Roth was no longer standing outside the Americans' he'd been observing... he was burrowing within them, even if only to discover a resistance to admitting depths." Pierpont declares Sabbath's Theater "a masterpiece of twentieth-century American literature: coursing with life, dense with character and wisdom, it gives the deepest experiences we face dying, remembering, holding on to each other the startling impact of first knowledge." Exit Ghost is about the "mystification between young and old, " while Nemesis is about "conscience and duty as much as it is about the randomness of fate." Her luminous and graceful study achieves what all good criticism should: it drives us to reread Roth's work anew. Agent: Robert Cornfield, Robert Cornfield Literary Agency. (Oct.) Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

7 Myths about Women and Work

by Catherine Fox    (Find this book)
Australian journalist Fox investigates common misconceptions and biases that prevent women from reaching high level employment. She begins with the insidious myth that workplaces are meritocracies with an "even playing field" and those with top jobs are "simply better equipped." In reality, studies show that women are paid less than men, are underrepresented in accelerated development programs, and blatantly discriminated against at all levels. Fox questions the belief that women lack ambition and have a "natural inclination to focus on their family," noting that women internalize these sexist messages and equate ambition with selfishness and lack of femininity. High profile women are attacked by the media as either too cold or too emotional. Meanwhile, working mothers are responsible for child-rearing and most housework in 70% of households, resulting in underemployment for many highly skilled, well-educated women. Fox deconstructs the fraudulent "pipeline myth," which asserts that as more women graduate with higher degrees the imbalance in upper level jobs will correct itself, and also presents "Case Studies" featuring businesses working on solutions to the gender gap. This book is a terrific resource for those who seek real solutions to diversity problems or even a better understanding of the often subtle psychology of discrimination. (Mar.) Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Robert's Rules for Dummies

by C. Alan Jennings    (Find this book)
Discover why Robert's Rules "rule"
If you belong to any type of organization--from school board to garden club to bowling league to trade association--chances are this book can save you many boring meeting minutes. This friendly guide translates "Robert's Rules of Order, " the essential guide for conducting meetings of all types, into principles you can understand and apply the next time "Billy Bully" tries to dominate the discussion or "Debbie Dictator" issues another edict.
If you've ever been frustrated at the way condominium association business was (or wasn't) conducted or fidgeted while PTA members debated whether to have goldfish or pencils as prizes for the elementary school carnival, this is the book for you. Written by a Professional Registered Parliamentarian, it covers everything from the basics of bylaws that establish the real framework of your organization to the requirements for a legal meeting, from how to use an agenda to plan your next meeting and keep things on track to voting procedure and putting ideas into motion--and so much more.This new edition is published in response to the revised 11th edition of "Robert's Rules of Order" Techniques for following parliamentary procedures to effectively manage meetings of any size.  Helps you stay current with the latest updates to the rules of order and parliamentary procedure.
Complete with a glossary of parliamentary terms and sample agendas, reports, and minutes, this guide has everything you need but a gavel. Whether you belong to an elite country club or a civic organization, an investment club or a volunteer fire department, when you use the principles in this book, meetings won't be dominated by the loudest or pushiest member or go on and on and on and on and on . . . -- Publisher Marketing

Robert's Rules of Order

by Henry M. Robert    (Find this book)
"Robert's Rules of Order" is "the" book on parliamentary procedure for parliamentarians and anyone involved in an organization, association, club, or group and the authoritative guide to smooth, orderly, and fairly conducted meetings and assemblies. This newly revised edition is the only book on parliamentary procedure to have been updated since 1876 under the continuing program of review established by General Henry M. Robert himself, in cooperation with the official publisher of "Robert's Rules." The eleventh edition has been thoroughly revised to address common inquiries and incorporate new rules, interpretations, and procedures made necessary by the evolution of parliamentary procedure, including new material relating to electronic communication and "electronic meetings."  Publisher Marketing

Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words

by John W Pilley    (Find this book)
The amazing story of a very smart Border collie who is redefining animal intelligence.
Chaser has a way with words. She knows over a thousand of them--more than any other animal of any species except humans. In addition to common nouns like house, ball, and tree, she has memorized the names of more than one thousand toys and can retrieve any of them on command. Based on that learning, she and her owner and trainer, retired psychologist John Pilley, have moved on to further impressive feats, demonstrating her ability to understand sentences with multiple elements of grammar and to learn new behaviors by imitation.
John's ingenuity and tenacity as a researcher are as impressive as Chaser's accomplishments. His groundbreaking approach has opened the door to a new understanding of animal intelligence, one that requires us to reconsider what actually goes on in a dog's mind. Chaser's achievements reveal her use of deductive reasoning and complex problem-solving skills to address novel challenges.
Yet astonishingly, Chaser isn't unique. John's training methods can be adopted by any dog lover. Through the poignant story of how he trained Chaser, raised her as a member of the Pilley family, and proved her abilities to the scientific community, he reveals the positive impact of incorporating learning into play and more effectively channeling a dog's natural drives.
John's work with Chaser offers a fresh perspective on what's possible in the relationship between a dog and a human. His story points us toward a new way of relating to our canine companions that takes into account our evolving understanding of the way animals and humans learn. -- Publisher Marketing

Fix-It and Forget-It New Cookbook: 250 New Delicious Slow Cooker Recipes!

by Phyllis Good    (Find this book)
*Starred Review* Fans of Good's best-selling slow-cooker recipe books won't be disappointed with her latest installment. Good provides plenty of practical tips about what she calls a near miracle appliance. For example, take time to get acquainted with a new slow cooker, fill it two-thirds full for best results, and try out recipes for the first time when at home for the day. And she dispels two big myths: that her beloved machine is a winter-time appliance and that it's mainly just for beef stew. Fuggedaboutit. True, many of the 250 recipes are for main dishes made with chicken, turkey, pork, or beef. But she gives even more space to pasta, soups, quiches, appetizers, breakfasts, breads, and desserts. Why not wake up to steel-cut oatmeal that's been slow cooking overnight? The slow cooker can even bake peach cobbler or a fudgy chocolate cake. Each recipe comes with a photo, some (such as mashed potatoes) get a quick and easy label, and several get a bonus tip from Good (such as cooking wine is wine with salt added). With good recipes and good vibes, the latest Fix-It and Forget-It cookbook is bound to be a best-seller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

America's Obsessives: The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation

by Joshua Kendall    (Find this book)
When most of us think of Charles Lindbergh, we picture a dashing twenty-five-year-old aviator stepping out of the Spirit of St. Louis after completing his solo flight across the Atlantic. What we don't see is the awkward high school student, who preferred ogling new gadgets at the hardware store to watching girls walk by in their summer dresses. Sure, Lindbergh's unique mindset invented the pre-flight checklist, but his obsession with order also led him to demand that his wife and three German mistresses account for all their household expenditures in detailed ledgers.
Lucky Lindy is just one of several American icons whom Joshua Kendall puts on the psychologist's couch in AMERICA'S OBSESSIVES. In this fascinating look at the arc of American history through the lens of compulsive behavior, he shows how some of our nation's greatest achievements-from the Declaration of Independence to the invention of the iPhone-have roots in the disappointments and frustrations of early childhood.
Starting with the obsessive natures of some of Silicon Valley's titans, including Steve Jobs, Kendall moves on to profile seven iconic figures, such as founding father Thomas Jefferson, licentious librarian Melvil Dewey, condiment kingpin H. J. Heinz, slugger Ted Williams, and Estee Lauder. This last personality was so obsessed with touching other women's faces that she transformed her compulsion into a multibillion-dollar cosmetics corporation.
Entertaining and instructive, Kendall offers up a few scoops along the way: Little do most Americans know that Charles Lindbergh, under the alias Clark Kent, sired seven children with his three German "wives." As Lindbergh's daughter Reeve told Kendall, "Now I know why he was gone so much. I also understand why he was delighted when I was learning German."  -- Publisher Marketing

Thank You for Your Service

by David Finkel    (Find this book)
From a MacArthur Fellow and the author of "The Good Soldiers," a profound look at life after war
The wars of the past decade have been covered by brave and talented reporters, but none has reckoned with the psychology of these wars as intimately as the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel. For "The Good Soldiers," his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion during the infamous "surge," a grueling fifteen-month tour that changed them all forever. In Finkel's hands, readers can "feel "what these young men were experiencing, and his harrowing story instantly became a classic in the literature of modern war.
In "Thank You for Your Service," Finkel has done something even more extraordinary. Once again, he has embedded with some of the men of the 2-16--but this time he has done it at home, here in the States, after their deployments have ended. He is with them in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover, and in doing so, he creates an indelible, essential portrait of what life after war is like--not just for these soldiers, but for their wives, widows, children, and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done.
The story Finkel tells is mesmerizing, impossible to put down. With his unparalleled ability to report a story, he climbs into the hearts and minds of those he writes about. "Thank You for Your Service "is an act of understanding, and it offers a more complete picture than we have ever had of these two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for?  -- Publisher Marketing

John Updike: Collected Early Stories

by John Updike    (Find this book)
The Library of America presents the first of two volumes in its definitive Updike collection. Here are 102 classic stories that chart Updike's emergence as America's foremost practitioner of the short story, "our second Hawthorne," as Philip Roth described him. Based on new archival research, each story is presented in its final definitive form and in order of composition, established here for the first time.  -- Publisher Marketing

The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care

by Thomas G. Long    (Find this book)

Two of the most authoritative voices on the funeral industry come together here in one volume to discuss the current state of the funeral. Through their different lenses--one as a preacher and one as a funeral director--Thomas G. Long and Thomas Lynch alternately discuss several challenges facing "the good funeral," including the commercial aspects that have led many to be suspicious of funeral directors, the sometimes tense relationship between pastors and funeral directors, the tendency of modern funerals to exclude the body from the service, and the rapid growth in cremation. The book features forewords from Patrick Lynch, President of the National Funeral Directors Association, and Barbara Brown Taylor, highly praised author and preacher. It is an essential resource for funeral directors, morticians, and pastors, and anyone else interested in current funeral practices.-- Publisher Marketing

   

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

by Sheri Fink    (Find this book)
Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink's landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina - and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice In the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing. In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters-and how we can do better. A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis.  -- Publisher Marketing

Time's the 100 Most Influential People Who Never Lived

by Kelly Knauer    (Find this book)
We know them better than we know our friends: brilliant Sherlock Holmes; stingy Ebenezer Scrooge; the idealistic Don Quixote; the obsessed Captain Ahab. Hamlet is indecisive and world-weary; Romeo and Juliet are young, lusty and impulsive; Indiana Jones is dashing, learned and courageous.
We speak of men with Oedipus Complexes or Peter Pan Syndromes. We know women who dream of being Cinderella-or Madame Bovary. We fear Orwell's Big Brother, Bram Stoker's Count Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein's Creature. And we marvel at odd couples: Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. D'Arcy; Huckleberry Finn and Jim; Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock; Humbert Humbert and Lolita.
Yet all of these unforgettable icons-who have shaped civilization and embodied our deepest archetypes-are not human: they are fictional constructs, some created by great authors, others by long processes of folklore and myth.
Now TIME has enlisted a host of brilliant authors to ponder the impact of these remarkable figures. Imagine Paul Ryan saluting Ayn Rand's heroic individualist, John Galt. Think David Sedaris sizing up the Marlboro Man, Gloria Steinem dressing down the Barbie doll, and Chris Rock ripping the reign of Jim Crow. Join TIME for a brisk, enlightening exploration of the almost-lives and almost-times of the most influential characters who never drew a breath.  --Publisher Marketing

Lillian & Dash

by Sam Toperoff    (Find this book)
This exciting novel about Dashiell Hammett ("The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man") and Lillian Hellman ("The Children's Hour") reintroduces their larger-than-life personalities and the vicissitudes of their affair that spanned three decades.
Toperoff   reimagines the highs and lows of a fast-living, hard-drinking literary couple, and their individual passions, projects, and literary creations. Hammett and Hellman's relationship evolves during major artistic and political epochs--Hollywood's heyday, the New York literary scene, the Spanish Civil War, McCarthyism, and both world wars--and each movement is captured with subjectivity and credible insight. Populated with writers, drinkers, filmmakers, and revolutionaries, "Lillian and Dash" chronicles the unusual affair of two prominent and headstrong figures. -- Publisher Marketing

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

by Therese Anne Fowler    (Find this book)
"I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we're ruined, Look closer...and you'll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed."

When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, "This Side of Paradise, " to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.
What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel--and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera--where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.
Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby's parties go on forever. Who "is" Zelda, other than the wife of a famous--sometimes infamous--husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott's, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda's irresistible story as she herself might have told it.-- Publisher Marketing

The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story

by Lily Koppel    (Find this book)
As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of "Life" magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons.
Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was proclaimed JFK's favorite; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived on base with a secret. Together with the other wives they formed the Astronaut Wives Club, meeting regularly to provide support and friendship. Many became next-door neighbors and helped to raise each others children by day, while going to glam parties at night as the country raced to land a man on the Moon.
As their celebrity rose-and as divorce and tragic death began to touch their lives-they continued to rally together, and the wives have now been friends for more than fifty years. THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history.  -- Publisher Marketing

To America with Love

by A.A. Gill    (Find this book)
IN TO AMERICA WITH LOVE, celebrated British provocateur and Vanity Fair columnist A. A. Gill traverses the Atlantic to become the freshest chronicler of American identity in recent memory. With a fiery temper, a sharp-tongued wit, and an insatiable curiosity to figure out what makes more than 300 million of the world's population tick, Gill traces the history and logic of our nation's habits, collecting wild stories and startling facts along the way. From Colorado, where he meets a local vegetation expert and learns which flowers were in Pocahontas's nuptial bouquet, to Kentucky, where he visits the Creationist Museum and drinks moonshine with a hog farmer, and to Harlem, where he misses a turn and stumbles into the wrong barbershop for a once-in-a-lifetime haircut, Gill embarks on a tour of not only the nation's landscape but also its psyche, playing adventurer, philosopher, statistician, and raconteur all at once. In inimitable fashion he explains why pressing a button in a Manhattan elevator means entering a social contract of American etiquette and inverting conventional hierarchies of space; why browsing through Playboy centerfolds becomes the perfect litmus test for a generation s political views; and how Hollywood is the metaphysical marketplace for movies, the place where Americans are sold on American romance and taught how to dream the American dream.
Weaving together a tapestry of historical erudition and outrageous anecdotes, Gill ultimately captures the scope and spirit of a nation that started off as a conceptual experiment and became a political, scientific, and cultural fortress. This humorous and revelatory book shows us why we are who we are by transforming ordinary experiences into extraordinary lessons and promising to never let us look in the mirror the same way again.  -- Publisher Marketing

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

by Thomas King    (Find this book)
In "The Inconvenient Indian," Thomas King offers a deeply knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly unconventional account of Indian-White relations in North America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the centuries and the Canada-U.S. border, King debunks fabricated stories of Indian savagery and White heroism, takes an oblique look at Indians (and cowboys) in film and popular culture, wrestles with the history of Native American resistance and his own experiences as a Native rights activist, and articulates a profound, revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands.
Suffused with wit, anger, perception, and wisdom, "The Inconvenient Indian" is at once an engaging chronicle and a devastating subversion of history, insightfully distilling what it means to be "Indian" in North America. It is a critical and personal meditation that sees Native American history not as a straight line but rather as a circle in which the same absurd, tragic dynamics are played out over and over again. At the heart of the dysfunctional relationship between Indians and Whites, King writes, is land: "The issue has always been land." With that insight, the history inflicted on the indigenous peoples of North America--broken treaties, forced removals, genocidal violence, and racist stereotypes--sharpens into focus. Both timeless and timely, "The Inconvenient Indian" ultimately rejects the pessimism and cynicism with which Natives and Whites regard one another to chart a new and just way forward for Indians and non-Indians alike.-- Publisher Marketing

The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks

by Amy Stewart    (Find this book)

Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley, tequila from agave, rum from sugarcane, bourbon from corn. Thirsty yet? In The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart explores the dizzying array of herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi that humans have, through ingenuity, inspiration, and sheer desperation, contrived to transform into alcohol over the centuries.
Of all the extraordinary and obscure plants that have been fermented and distilled, a few are dangerous, some are downright bizarre, and one is as ancient as dinosaurs but each represents a unique cultural contribution to our global drinking traditions and our history.
This fascinating concoction of biology, chemistry, history, etymology, and mixology with more than fifty drink recipes and growing tips for gardeners will make you the most popular guest at any cocktail party.-- Publisher Marketing

Mad Men, Mad World: Sex, Politics, Style, and the 1960s

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Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From the Sopranos and the Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad

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The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies

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Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy

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This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral-Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!-In America's Gilded Capital

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Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America

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The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

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Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

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Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do

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American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms

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Clark Howard's Living Large for the Long Haul: Consumer-Tested Ways to Overhaul Your Finances, Increase Your Savings, and Get Your Life Back on Track

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I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes

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The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

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"This detailed and riveting book from award-winning historian McCullough traces the lives of several high-profile Americansincluding Oliver Wendell Holms, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Mark Twainwho, in the 19th century, found themselves in Paris. McCullough limns the impact that Parisian sojourns had upon these travelers and contrasts their lives in France with events occurring in the United States. Co-narrator (and actor) Edward Herrmann provides a stronger narration than the author, however. While McCullough, with his deep voice, grabs listeners' attention initially, he lacks the ability to maintain that interest, as his emphasis, tone, and energy wears over time. Herrmann's ability, on the other hand, to emphasize different facts through deliberate speech and tone, while moving more quickly through less complicated material, makes listening enjoyable and easygoing"  (Publishers Weekly)

Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music

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"The Grammy-nominated Collins has recorded more than 40 albums and still is writing and performing today at age 71. At the height of her career, Collins knew nearly everyone associated with the folk scene, and her story is filled with just as many tales of famous acquaintances such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, and Joni Mitchell as there are on the singing legend herself. Her own story, however, remains truly fascinating. She was a woman of her time, embracing the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that went with the job, as well as the social activism that accompanied the era. Collins, who narrates in a dreamy voice, tells her story with honesty and doesn't gloss over the dark parts, including a failed marriage, an eating disorder, alcoholism, and a troubled son. The best parts, however, are the snippets of Collins singing throughout as well as the five bonus tracks at the audiobook's end. VERDICT As Richard Farina once said, "[I]f amethysts could sing...they would sound like Judy Collins."

Public Speaking Survival Kit: Expert Training to Dazzle Your Audience (Library) ( Made for Success Collection )

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 Compact Disc

" In this self-paced audio series, two of world's top communicators share their powerful techniques to help you create and deliver a dazzling speech for any occasion. You'll learn how to think on your feet, play off your audience, and banish anxiety and stress."

Awake and Sing! ( L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collections )

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Compact Disc

" Starring Mark Ruffalo, Clifford Odets 1935 masterpiece brings to urgent life the struggles of a working-class family aspiring to the promise of the American Dream. Even as they endure the countrys worst economic nightmare, three generations of an immigrant family are crowded into a Bronx tenement, fiercely determined to stay afloat, no matter what the cost. A full-cast performance featuring: Mark Ruffalo, Jane Kaczmarek, Richard Kind, Ben Gazzara, Emily Bergl, Jonathan Hadary, Peter Kybart, Raphael Sbarge and Peter Smith." 

American Pastoral [sound recording (unabridged CD audiobook)] /

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"Symbolic of turbulent times of the 1960s, the explosion of a bomb in his own bucolic backyard sweeps away the innocence of Swede Levov, along with everything industriously created by his family over three generations in America. Unabridged. 14 CDs."

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's special AudioBook Show taped on May 30, 2013

The Nightingale's Song [sound recording (unabridged CD audiobook)]

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" Robert Timberg weaves together the lives of five well-known naval Academy graduates to reveal how the Vietnam War continues to haunt America. "This is an amazing piece of work that could make you cry over descriptions of bravery so bold and so big that you wonder how our country deserves such men. . . . It is about the soul of a nation".-(-Mike Barnicle, The Boston Globe Books.)

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's AudioBook show taped on May 30, 2013

Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives [sound recording (unabridged CD audiobook)]

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"Welcome to the savage and surprising world of Zoo Story, an unprecedented account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants, both animal and human. Based on six years of research, the book follows a handful of unforgettable characters at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo: an alpha chimp with a weakness for blondes, a ferocious tiger who revels in Obsession perfume, and a brilliant but tyrannical CEO known as El Diablo Blanco. Zoo Story crackles with issues of global urgency: the shadow of extinction, humanity's role in the destruction or survival of other species. More than anything else, though, it's a dramatic and moving true story of seduction and betrayal, exile and loss, and the limits of freedom on an overcrowded planet-all framed inside one zoo reinventing itself for the twenty-first century. Thomas French, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, chronicles the action with vivid power: Wild elephants soaring above the Atlantic on their way to captivity. Predators circling each other in a lethal mating dance. Primates plotting the overthrow of their king. The sweeping narrative takes the listener from the African savannah to the forests of Panama and deep into the inner workings of a place some describe as a sanctuary and others condemn as a prison. All of it comes to life in the book's four-legged characters. Zoo Story shows us how these remarkable individuals live, how some die, and what their experiences reveal about the human desire to both exalt and control nature."  (Publisher Description)

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's special AudioBook Show taped on May 30, 2013

A Walk in the Woods [sound recording (Playaway)]

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"Following his return to America after twenty years in Britain, Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The AT, as it's affectionately known to thousands of hikers, offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genious of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to test his own powers of ineptitued, and to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings."  (Publisher Description)

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's special Audiobook Show taped on May 30, 2103

Walking the Bible [sound recording (abridged CD audiobook)]

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"One part adventure story, one part archaeological detective work, one part spiritual exploration, Walking The Bible vividly recounts an inspiring personal odyssey--by foot, jeep, rowboat, and camel--through the greatest stories ever told.
Feeling a desire to reconnect to the Bible, award-winning author Bruce Feiler set out on a perilous, 10,000-mile journey retracing the Five Books of Moses through the desert. Traveling over three continents, through five countries, and four war zones, Feiler is the first person to complete such a historic expedition. He crosses the Red Sea, climbs Mt. Sinai, and interviews bedouin and pilgrims alike, as he attempts to answer the question: Is the Bible just an abstraction, or is it a living, breathing entity?
Both a pulse-pounding adventure and an uplifting spiritual quest, Bruce Feiler's Walking the Bible is a stunning and elevating work of courage, scholarship, and heart that revisits the inscrutable desert landscape where the world's great religions were born--and uncovers fresh answers to the most profound questions of the human spirit."  (Publisher Description)

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's special AudioBook Show taped on May 30, 2013

The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America [sound recording (unabridged CD audiobook)] /

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"A leading Supreme Court expert recounts the personal and philosophical rivalries that forged our nation's highest court and continue to shape our daily lives. In this compelling work, Jeffrey Rosen recounts the history of the Court through the personal and philosophical rivalries on the bench that transformed the law and, by extension, our lives. Rosen brings to life the perennial conflict that has animated the Court-between those justices guided by strong ideology and those who forge coalitions and adjust to new realities."  (Pubisher Description)

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's special AudioBook Show taped on May 30, 2013

The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court [sound recording (unabridged CD audiobook)]

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"From the awkward swearing-in of President Obama by Chief Justice Roberts to Obama's caustic reaction to the Citizens United ruling to Roberts' support of Obama's health-care law, the tumultuous relationship between the administration and the Supreme Court has been increasingly evident...Legal analyst Toobin offers a vivid inside look at the personalities and politics behind the fractious relationship...Among the highlights: Ginsburg's scathing dissent on a ruling against a claim of pay disparity, in which she urged congressional action; Souter's caustic dissent in Citizens United that questioned Roberts' integrity; and Scalia's bitter disappointment in Roberts' decision on the health-care law. A revealing look at the ideological battle between the White House and the Supreme Court.  (Booklist)

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's AudioBook Show taped on May 30, 2013

My Life

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6 sound discs (6.5 hrs.) Abridged. Read by the author.

"Condensing a 900-page text into a six-and-a-half-hour audiobook is no small challenge, but this production proves that it can be done-and done well. Inevitably, people will wonder what has been left out. The answer: anecdotes from Clinton's childhood; blow-by-blow accounts of his gubernatorial and presidential races; a plethora of details regarding his smaller accomplishments as president; and some blistering indictments of Kenneth Starr and other conservatives. What's left is a moving but all-too-brief portrait of Clinton's troubled childhood and an in-depth look at the battles he fought before and after being elected. It should come as no surprise to anyone who has heard Clinton speak that the former president narrates his autobiography with aplomb. His voice rings with mirth when he relates an amusing anecdote and expresses sadness when he describes how his abusive, alcoholic father faced death with more courage than he did life. Clinton covers the expected topics-Whitewater (a "bogus scandal"); his "immoral and foolish" dalliance with Monica Lewinsky; his attempts to balance the budget and bring peace to the Middle East-but the most illuminating details are the small ones (such as when he recalls, with a smile in his voice, impulsively buying a house and telling Hillary: "Remember that little house you liked so much? I bought it. You have to marry me now, because I can't live there alone"). Although not all of the transitions between topics are seamless and listeners may wish John McElroy, who created this abridgment, had included more details from Clinton's younger years, Clinton's legendary charisma shines through in his reading, making this audiobook a rare treat."  (Publishers Weekly)
Selected as part of Joe and Zina's special AudioBook Show taped on May30, 2013

At Home [sound recording (unabridged CD audiobook)] : [a short history of private life] /

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"Popular UK-based writer Bryson (www.billbrysonbooks.com)—whose Aventis Prize-winning "A Short History of Nearly Everything"(2003) is also available from Books on Tape/Random Audio—here uncovers the stories of how various ordinary objects in his home came to be, taking listeners along on one wild historical tangent after another. He explores everything from the spice trade to the toilet bowl, revealing the hilarious and revolting details of our private lives from Roman times to the present. Bryson's fact-based writing seems almost fiction-like because of his ability to tease eccentric facts and characters out of even the most banal topic. He himself narrates, reading in a deadpan voice perfectly suited to the text. Fans of Bryson's previous works will be pleased, as will those who enjoy their nonfiction with a fun, witty edge."(Library Journal)

Selected as part of Joe and Zina's special AudioBook Show taped on May 30, 2013.

Mistress of the Art of Death [sound recording (unabridged CD audiobook)]

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11 sound discs

Read by Rosalyn Landor.

"In medieval Cambridge four children are murdered. The Catholics blame the Jews so they are placed under the protection of the King Henry II. The king sends for someone to do a scientific investigation into the deaths. The person sent is an Italian woman doctor, but in medieval Cambridge she must conceal her true identity to keep herself safe."