New Nonfiction
Beatles: the biography by Bob Spitz.
This book is with the Beatles as they hit upon a winning, hair-shaking performance style and as they watch the world go berserk over it. When the exhilaration begins to sour, it captures the frightening fishbowl sensation of their being imprisoned by fans' hysteria and critical acclaim.
Cat confidential by Vicky Halls.
Many cats and their owners co-exist in an atmosphere of polite misunderstanding. In this fascinating and sweetly funny book, cat counselor Vicky Halls explores the hidden workings of the unique bond that people have with their cats.
The Lost Painting: the search for a Caravaggio masterpiece by Jonathan Harr.
Told with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling, award-winning A Civil Action, The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story. The fascinating details of Caravaggio's strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages. Harr's account is not unlike a Caravaggio painting: vivid, deftly wrought, and enthralling.
Never hit a jellyfish with a spade: how to survive life's smaller challenges by Guy Browning.
Covering cooking and eating, sleeping and waking, men and women, love and marriage, religion and politics, hedges and neighbors, Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade delivers the truth about the things that really matter. With a package as fun as its contents, it's the ideal gift for anyone who wants to live life with a sense of humor.
Shakespeare: the biography by Peter Ackroyd.
SHAKESPEARE: THE BIOGRAPHY is unlike the works other writers--excellent academics--have written, which merely analyze and describe. Rather, Peter Ackroyd has used his skill, his extraordinary knowledge, and his historical intuition to craft this major full-scale book on one of the most towering figures of the English language.
Snowstruck: in the grip of avalanches by Jill A. Fredston.
Every year around the globe, people cross paths with avalanches-some massive, some no deeper than a pizza box-often with deadly results. Avalanche expert Jill Fredston stalks these so-called freaks of nature, forecasting where and when they will strike, deliberately triggering them with explosives, teaching potential victims how to stay alive, and leading rescue efforts when tragedy strikes.
Having spent decades trying to keep avalanches and people apart, Fredston brings them together unforgettably in Snowstruck. From a rare store of personal experience, she conveys a panorama of perspectives: a skier making what may prove his final decision, a victim buried so tightly that he can't move a finger, rescuers racing both time and weather, forecasters treading the line between reasonable risk and danger. Seamlessly interweaving these accounts, Fredston brings to life the awesome forces of nature that can turn the mountains deadly-and the equally inexorable forces of human nature that lure us time and again into treacherous terrain.
This tender place by Laurie Lawlor.
This Tender Place is a celebration of nature, the elements, and humanity. From the wetland's genesis during the ice age to its survival in the twenty-first century, Lawlor chronicles the universal ties among people, wild places, and healthy wetlands.
Why men never remember and women never forget by Marianne J. Legato.
According to Dr. Marianne Legato, an internationally recognized expert in gender-specific medicine, male and female brains are chemically and structurally different. And scientists are now finding out how these differences cause us to approach problems and experience the world in such dissimilar ways.