By Edith Belle Gelles
William Morrow ©2009 | Hardcover 352pgs
Volumes have been written about the vital role that John Adams has played in the history of the United States of America, and Abigail Adams herself has been the subject of several in-depth biographies. But, Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage portrays the life of one of America’s first couples, framed by their loving and enduring marriage. Much has been made of the Adamses’ public life, yet Abigail & John draws a more intimate portrait, illustrated by passages of their private correspondence. Though this book may not cover any fresh ground historically, it gives a wonderful sense of the Adamses as partners, lovers and patriots.
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By Elizabeth Gilbert
Viking Adult | 304pgs
Release Date: January 5, 2010
Elizabeth Gilbert is forced to reconcile her doubts about the institution of marriage in Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, the sequel to her 2006 breakout hit Eat, Pray, Love. The memoir opens with Gilbert and Felipe, the Brazilian-born Australian man she met in Indonesia, still blissfully in love. But, upon returning to Dallas, the couple gets a bitter shock when Felipe is detained and then deported by Homeland Security. The only way for him to re-enter the country is for the couple to marry, something they both vowed never to do again. Essentially, “sentenced to marry by the Homeland Security Department,” the pair spend the next year traveling the world while waiting for Felipe’s visa to be approved. Gilbert immerses herself in matrimonial research, interviewing women around the globe, and trying to come to terms with her ambivalence towards marriage.
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By James Dalessandro
Morgan James Publishing ©2009 | 212pgs
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Scott D. Imamura
Citizen Jane is a sort of misleading title for this book. When I first picked up the book, I thought it was a story of the first successful newspaper company owned by a woman (female version of Citizen Kane). As I perused the pages, I noticed it was a true crime story. Apparently, the title was a play on words. Non-fiction reading is my forte, plus it was a true crime book. So, this book got me interested there afterward.
After reading the back cover, you get a clue from the author on “whodunit.” Yes, this a who-done-it book; but, not in the style of your usual Sherlock Holmes murder mystery novel.
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By Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger with Jeffrey Zaslow
HarperCollins ©2009 | Hardcover 340pgs
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Russ Imamura
Rarely do I read autobiographies of contemporary people. I find many of these writings are usually shallow stories of egotistical movie stars, sports figures, politicians or tele-evangelists. These books hardly ever leave me with any lasting worthwhile impressions.
However, after seeing Captain “Sully” Sullenberger on television earlier this year being interviewed by many people about his courageous handling of the Airbus plane on the icy Hudson River, I was immediately impressed by this human being. The qualities exuded by this person as he spoke were very genuine, upright, and commanding. When his book was published I had to get it right away to find out more about him.
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By Terry Teachout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 496pgs
Release Date: December 2, 2009
In this new biography of jazz legend Louis Armstrong, Wall Street Journal columnist Terry Teachout mines a trove of previously unpublished material to show the complexity of Armstrong’s character. The narrative voice of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong reverberates with warmth and soul, echoing the core of Satchmo’s music. Teachout gained access to hundreds of Armstrong’s private recordings of backstage and late-night conversations, made mostly during the last half of the musician’s life. His inner strength and sheer love of music shine through in these personal exchanges, and are the foundation of his ability to overcome the racial tensions of the times. “Faced with the terrible realities of the time and place into which he had been born,” Teachout writes, “he didn’t repine, but returned love for hatred and sought salvation in work.”
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After 50 years of writing mystery novels, author P.D. James knows a thing or two about crafting a well-written plot. In her new non-fiction book, Talking About Detective Fiction, James discusses the history of the mystery genre and the construct of a good crime novel. “There must be a central mystery,” she explains, “and one that by the end of the book is solved satisfactorily and logically, not by good luck or intuition, but by intelligent deduction from clues honestly if deceptively presented.” James focuses primarily on British authors, and her opinions of some of the genre’s icons are surprising and amusing. Agatha Christie, she posits, “hasn’t in my view had a profound influence on the later development of the detective story.” Though James does offer this backhanded compliment to mystery legend: “Perhaps her greatest strength was that she never overstepped the limits of her talent.” James also prefers Dr. Watson over Sherlock Holmes, finding his character more genuine and relatable, though she does raise some questions about the coziness of their household.
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Last year, close friends and business partners, Tom Matlack and James Houghton, engaged in several deep discussions about the true meaning of manhood. From those discussions, The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood was born. The new book features 31 essays by men from all walks of life, and portrays a wide spectrum of the male experience, from heartbreak to redemption. A 53-minute film documentary, of the same name, has also been released. “We really wanted to spark a national conversation on what it means to be a man, and to help the 30 million boys and girls in our country who don’t have a father,” states Tom Matlack in an interview with L.A. Times’ Jacket Copy. The goal for this project is to help men realize they are not alone. Many feel they have to struggle with emotional issues and societal pressures in silence. Matlack and Houghton hope the men’s real-life stories will be relatable in a non-threatening way. “By getting to know them and reading their stories, I’m better for it. Our hope is that the people who read the book feel the same way,” explains Matlack.
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By Greg Mortenson
Viking Adult | 448pgs
Release Date: December 1, 2009
Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan is Greg Mortenson’s touching follow-up to the bestselling Three Cups of Tea, and details his dogged efforts to fulfill his promise to build a school in the Wakhan Corridor. The Corridor, situated in a desolate part of northeastern Afghanistan, is home to the Kirghiz, and receives little government support for health or education. Mortenson and the international staff of his Central Asia Institute (CAI), affectionately called the “Dirty Dozen”, choose the village of Bozai Gumbaz as the site for the school, and work with local leaders to obtain building materials and labor for construction. The CAI must overcome threats of Taliban violence, an earthquake, ingrained opposition to educating girls, and even Mortenson’s own 8-day abduction, in order to finish the school and give the village children an opportunity for a better life.
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By Daniel Asa Rose
William Morrow ©2009 | Hardcover 320pgs
What do a knock-off Cartier watch, a mail order bride and a black market kidney have in common? They are just three of the things that Daniel Asa Rose works to help his cousin, Larry, procure during their trip to China. Larry’s Kidney: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant – and Save His Life (what a mouthful!) is the journalist’s real-life account of the lengths the pair go to in order save Larry from kidney failure.
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Seventy-one years after a 16th century Rabbinic Bible was looted in a Nazi raid, it was finally returned to its rightful home in Vienna’s Jewish community. Published during 1516-1517, the Bible contains landmark treatises by leading rabbinical figures of the medieval period, such as 11th century French scholar Rashi and 13th century Spanish scholar Nachmanides. The two-volume Bomberg/Pratensis Rabbinic Bible was part of the rare book collection in the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (IKG) library seized in Austria on Nov. 9, 1938, during the infamous Kristallnacht (Crystal Night). Over the next four years, large portions of the IKG library were parceled out to Nazi outposts in Poland, Lower Silesia and North Bohemia (Czech Republic). The Bible didn’t resurface again until June 25, 2009, when the New York-based auction house Kestenbaum & Company listed the item in its catalog. An investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed that the ancient volumes were the rightful property of the IKG library, and had been imported into the U.S. illegally on March 19, 2009. When the investigating agents submitted proof of the Bible’s true ownership to Kestenbaum, the auction house promptly removed the item from auction and agreed to return it to the rightful owners.
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