Robert Edsel and Bret Witter trace the lesser-known effort by an Allied division to find and secure European art that had been looted by the Nazis. They outline the dramatic story of how the men risked their lives and raced against time with limited supplies and scraps of information, sometimes obtained from colorful sources.

After her mother's death and the end of her marriage, Cheryl Strayed impulsively decided to hike more than 1,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington state — alone.

Twelve Years a Slave describes the life of Solomon Northup, a free black man from Saratoga, N.Y., who was kidnapped in 1841 and forced into slavery in Louisiana for 12 years.

Fifty years after giving her son up for adoption, Irishwoman Philomena Lee decides to find him, while, on the other side of the Atlantic, her son, a lawyer in the first Bush administration, struggles to find his mother.

Hyperbole and a Half began life as Allie Brosh's blog, full of crude sketches and absurdist rants about spelling, dogs, cake and the pressures of adulthood. But there's a serious side as well, in heartfelt, unsparing stories about her struggle with depression.

New York Times business writer Charles Duhigg explores the science behind why we do what we do, and how companies use our habit-forming tendencies to sell and market products to us.

The first Hispanic-American on the U.S. Supreme Court shares the story of her life before becoming a judge, describing such experiences as her youth in a Bronx housing project, her relationship with a passionately spiritual grandparent, the ambition that fueled her Ivy League education and the individuals who helped shape her career.

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.

A Harvard-trained neurosurgeon shares a minute-by-minute account of his religiously transformative near-death experience and revealing weeklong coma. He describes his scientific study of near-death phenomena while explaining what he learned about the nature of human consciousness.

When he returned to his old hometown, Detroit, Charlie LeDuff was horrified to see how far the city had fallen. He used his reporting experience to try to uncover what had happened to what was once America's richest city.

Piper Kerman's memoir explores her time at a women's prison in Connecticut, where she was incarcerated for drug trafficking.

According to New Yorker writer George Packer, there used to be a kind of understanding among Americans — one in which everyone had a job and a purpose. But that deal has come undone. In The Unwinding, Packer explores what happened. The book is a collection of vignettes and profiles of ordinary and famous American lives, from the son of Southern tobacco farmers to a Silicon Valley billionaire.

Austin Kleon presents practical advice for increasing productivity on creative projects and improving chances for success.

Like the original Wreck This Journal, this expanded edition invites readers to alter and destroy its pages as a way to express creative energy.

The leader, and only survivor, of a team of U.S. Navy SEALs sent to northern Afghanistan to capture a well-known al Qaeda leader chronicles the events of the battle that killed his teammates and offers insight into the training of this elite group of warriors.