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Haiti
The Aftershocks of History
Even before the disastrous 2010 earthquake, Haiti was known as a benighted place of poverty and corruption. But as author and historian Laurent Dubois demonstrates, Haiti's troubles owe more to a legacy of international punishment for the original sin of staging the only successful slave revolt in the world. Dubois vividly depicts the isolation and impoverishment that followed the 1804 rebellion: the crushing indemnities imposed by the former French rulers, which initiated a cycle of debt; the multiple interventions by the U.S. armed forces, including a 20-year occupation; and the internal divisions and political chaos that are the inevitable consequences of centuries of subversion. Dubois also explores Haiti's overlooked successes, as its revolution created a resilient culture insistent on autonomy and equality.
News and Reviews
On The Map
A Mind-Expanding Exploration Of The Way The World Looks
The award-winning author of Just My Type examines the pivotal relationship between mapping and civilization, demonstrating the unique ways that maps relate and realign history in an account that also shares engaging cartography stories and map lore.
News and Reviews
Detroit City Is the Place to Be
The Afterlife of an American Metropolis
Mark Binelli traces Detroit's demise and recovery efforts, evaluating the plans of urban developers, speculators, politicians, agriculturalists and utopian environmentalists to transform Detroit into a viable, desegregated and economically diverse post-industrial region.
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
Behind The Beautiful Forevers
Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
A profile of everyday life in the settlement of Annawadi as experienced by a Muslim teen, an ambitious rural mother and a young scrap-metal thief, illuminating the way their efforts to build better lives are challenged by religion, caste and economic tensions.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Signal And The Noise
Why So Many Predictions Fail — But Some Don't
The founder of FiveThirtyEight.com challenges myths about predictions in subjects ranging from the financial market and weather to sports and politics, profiling the world of prediction to explain how to distinguish true signals from hype.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Killing Lincoln
The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever
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.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Far From The Tree
Parents, Children and the Search for Identity
The National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon explores the consequences of extreme personal differences between parents and children, describing his own experiences as a gay child of straight parents while evaluating the circumstances of people affected by physical, developmental or cultural factors that divide families.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Operation Family Secrets
How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family
The son of notorious mobster Frank Calabrese describes the violent world he endured before making the life-threatening decision to work with the FBI to shut down the family syndicate, recounting the months he worked as an undercover insider to collect evidence for dozens of murders.
News and Reviews
The World Until Yesterday
What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies?
Jared Diamond uses decades of fieldwork in the Pacific Islands and other world regions to explore the degree to which modern society draws from earlier and ancient cultures. NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
The Queen of Katwe
A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster
Traces the story of an Ugandan teen who was introduced to chess by a missionary mentor and struggled to overcome formidable levels of poverty to become her country's national champion.
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.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Team Of Rivals
The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's political talents identifies the strengths and abilities that enabled his election and describes how he used those same abilities to rally former opponents to win the Civil War.NPR Bestseller
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
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
The Book of Gin
Richard Barnett traces the spirit's life, from its beginnings in alchemy to its current popularity among boutique distillers.
News and Reviews
Blue-Eyed Devil
A Road Odyssey Through Islamic America
News and Reviews
The American Religion
News and Reviews
The First Four Notes
Beethoven's Fifth And The Human Imagination
A music critic presents a revelatory work of music history that analyzes Beethoven's iconic symphony, assessing the composer's influences and legacy while challenging popular beliefs that Beethoven was deaf at the time of the Fifth's composition.
News and Reviews
The Patriarch
The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
Historian David Nasaw draws on exclusive records to offer insight into Joseph P. Kennedy's shrewd financial talents and considerable ambition for his family, providing coverage of such topics as the controversies surrounding his character and his role in several mainstream political events.NPR Bestseller
News and Reviews
Marmee & Louisa
The Untold Story Of Louisa May Alcott And Her Mother
A great niece and cousin of Louisa May Alcott draws on newly uncovered family papers to present a revisionist portrait of Louisa's relationship with her mother, discussing how Abigail May served as the intellectual and emotional center of Louisa's life.
News and Reviews
My Husband And My Wives
A Gay Man's Odyssey
My Husband and My Wives: A Gay's Man's Odyssey is Charles Rowan Beye's memoir of a man reflecting on eight tumultuous decades at the complications of discovering at puberty that he is attracted to other men.
