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The Gateway Arch
A Biography
A surprising history of the spectacular Gateway Arch in St. Louis details the competing agendas of its supporters and the mixed results of their ambitious plan.
News and Reviews
The Last of the Doughboys
The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War
Richard Rubin presents interviews with the last remaining World War I veterans, aged 101 to 113, to paint a picture of a time and a generation that, despite memorials and history lessons, is quickly fading away.
News and Reviews
Cooked
A Natural History of Transformation
Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. There, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements — fire, water, air and earth — to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. And he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Guns at Last Light
The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945
The final volume of the World War II trilogy brings to life the Allies' brutal struggles in Normandy and at the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the freeing of Paris as experienced by participants from every level of the military.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Help, Thanks, Wow
The Three Essential Survival Prayers
Help, Thanks, Wow describes the three simple prayers — asking for assistance from a higher power, expressing gratitude and feeling awe — that help to deal with the hardships of daily life.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Religion Without God
News and Reviews
Into the Abyss
An Extraordinary True Story
Four men, including the author's politician father, a pilot, a cop and a handcuffed criminal, fight to stay alive in the northern Alberta wilderness after surviving a commuter plane crash that killed six others.
News and Reviews
Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace
The Private Diary Of A Victorian Lady
In 1858, Isabella Robinson's husband read her private diary in which she'd recorded her infatuation with another married man, including descriptions of what were either trysts or sexual fantasies. Mr. Robinson petitioned a divorce, which England had just made legal, on the grounds of adultery. Kate Summerscale traces the true story of the scandalous trial that ensued.
News and Reviews
Why Does The World Exist?
An Existential Detective Story
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.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Escape From Camp 14
One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West
Until his early 20s, the only life Shin Dong-hyuk had ever known was one of constant beatings, near starvation and snitching on others to survive. Born into one of the worst of North Korea's system of prison camps, Shin was doomed to a life of hard labor and an early death. But when he was 23, he managed to elude the guards and escape. Reporter Blaine Harden tells the tale of Shin's imprisonment and astounding getaway.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Looking for Leroy
Illegible Black Masculinities
News and Reviews
The Savior Generals
How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost-From Ancient Greece to Iraq
Traces the stories of Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus, evaluating their pivotal military roles and the controversies that marked their careers.
News and Reviews
Algerian Chronicles
Author Albert Camus' agonized reflections on Algeria and the dead end of terrorism are gathered here in English for the first time. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer.
News and Reviews
The Black Count
Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo
Gen. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was one of the heroes of the French Revolution, leading armies of thousands in triumph through the snows of the Alps and the sands of Egypt. Today, he is almost forgotten, though he lives on in his son's stories. The son of a Haitian slave and a French nobleman, this mixed-race swordsman was the father of novelist Alexandre Dumas, and his adventures helped inspire The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Tom Reiss' biography of the elder Dumas explores the real-life adventures behind these classic novels.
News and Reviews
Double Cross
The True Story Of The D-Day Spies
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.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Passage Of Power
The Years Of Lyndon Johnson
Robert Caro has spent decades researching Lyndon Johnson's life; previous books in his massive biography of Johnson told the story of Johnson's rise to national prominence. In this fourth volume, Caro takes up Johnson's dismal years as vice president and his sudden presidency, which he used to shepherd the 1964 Civil Rights Act through Congress.
NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Swerve
How the World Became Modern
A humanities professor describes the impact of the translation of the last remaining manuscript of On the Nature of Things by Roman philosopher Lucretius, which fueled the Renaissance and inspired artists, great thinkers and scientists.NPR Bestseller, Literary Award Winner
News and Reviews
In The Garden Of Beasts
Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
The best-selling author of Devil in the White City documents the efforts of William E. Dodd, the first American ambassador to Hitler's Germany, to acclimate to a residence in an increasingly violent city where he is forced to associate with the Nazis while his daughter pursues a relationship with Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels. NPR Bestseller
