At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than 1,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington state — and she would do it alone.

Francesco Marciuliano, author of the comic strip Sally Forth, gives voice to the thoughts and feelings of cats in this collection of poems attributed to felines.

Unbroken tells the gripping true story of a U.S. airman who was the sole survivor when his bomber crashed into the sea during World War II. He faced thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft and an even greater trial.

Julia Child was a genuine rebel: She took the pretensions that embellished French cuisine and fricasseed them to a fare-thee-well, paving the way for a new era of American food — not to mention blazing a new trail in television. Bob Spitz reveals the history behind the woman who taught America how to cook.

Early in 1944, American, British and Canadian soldiers gathered in Southern England and prepared to invade Nazi-occupied Europe. It was hard to hide the largest invasion force in history, so Great Britain instead tried to deceive the Germans into believing that the D-Day attacks would be anywhere but Normandy. As Ben MacIntyre explains, a sophisticated operation of deception began, in which extraordinary spies — including untrustworthy double agents, West End set designers and at least one pigeon handler — successfully fooled the Germans and saved thousands of lives.

Jeffrey Brown comically reimagines the plot of Star Wars with Darth Vader as a charming father.

An award-winning journalist and the author of Enemies of the People recounts how her marriages to Peter Jennings and Richard Holbrooke were shaped by the beauty and allure of Paris, where she found enduring love and healing against a backdrop of historical events.

Mortality traces the author's battle with esophageal cancer — as he continued to write columns on politics and culture for Vanity Fair — and describes his views on life and death.

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and writer Martin Dugard focus on the life, death and legacy of the 16th president in their book Killing Lincoln. The authors reconstruct the final days of Lincoln's life and examine the plot against the president at the end of the Civil War in April 1865.

The author of The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery profiles the life of the influential and tormented literary figure David Foster Wallace. The book draws on conversations with family and friends, as well as hundreds of unpublished letters, manuscripts and audio recordings, to offer insight into his writing and his 2008 suicide.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and co-founder of Talking Heads presents a celebration of music that offers insight into the roles of time, place and recording technology.

Susan Cain demonstrates how introverted people are misunderstood and undervalued in modern culture, charting the rise of extrovert ideology while sharing anecdotal examples of how to use introvert talents to adapt to various situations.

This memoir from the author of The Invention of Solitude details his mother's life and death, as well as the effects of time and aging on one's body and memory.

The search for the origins of the universe extends beyond God and the Big Bang theory; a philosopher explores the bizarre possibilities inspired by physicists, theologians, mathematicians and even novelists.

Edward Klein, author of The Truth About Hillary, argues that President Obama is arrogant and incompetent. He discusses what he calls the first lady's control over Obama; why Rahm Emanuel left the White House; and how, Klein says, the president has forgotten and ignored those who helped put him in power.