New Nonfiction
Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the near death of a great American City by Jed Horne
Hurricane Katrina shredded one of the great cities of the South, and as levees failed and the federal relief effort proved lethally incompetent, a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe. As an editor of New Orleans' daily newspaper, the Times-Picayune, Jed Horne has had a front-row seat to the unfolding drama of the city's collapse into chaos and its continuing struggle to survive.
The Detonators: The secret plot to destroy America and an epic hunt for justice by Chad Millman
In 1916, while the Allied and Central forces waged war in Europe, a group of German saboteurs blew up Black Tom Island, a spit of land in New York Harbor within earshot of downtown Manhattan. The subsequent hail of missiles and gunpowder devastated much of lower Manhattan. The attack--so massive that as far away as Maryland people could feel the ground shake--had been shockingly easy. America was littered with networks of German agents, hiding in full daylight, an enemy within plotting further, deadlier attacks. All the way up to the president, officials had known something like this could happen, and yet nothing had been done.
Lost Mountain: A year in the vanishing wilderness by Erik Reece
A groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction that exposes how radical strip mining is destroying one of America's most precious natural resources and the communities that depend on it.
Erik Reece chronicles the year he spent witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain, aptly named "Lost Mountain." A native Kentuckian and the son of a coal worker, Reece makes it clear that strip mining is neither a local concern nor a radical contention, but a mainstream crisis that encompasses every hot-button issue-from corporate hubris and government neglect, to class conflict and poisoned groundwater, to irrevocable species extinction and landscape destruction.
One Planet: A celebration of biodiversity by Nicolas Hulot
This breathtaking work celebrates the amazing variety of species and ecosystems and how various forces affect them positively and negatively. In his absorbing, informative text, journalist Nicolas Hulot presents a lucid portrait of eight ecosystems (forests, oceans, deserts, poles, mountains, wetlands, grasslands, and cities), the species that inhabit them, and the role humans play in each. One Planet is a loving photographic tribute to the beauty of the earth-it will remind us all how important it is to preserve this exquisite planet.
The Overachievers: The secret lives of driven kids by Alexandra Robbins
Robbins tackles hard-hitting issues such as the student and teacher cheating epidemic, over-testing, sports rage, the black market for study drugs, and a college admissions process so cutthroat that some students are driven to depression and suicide because of a B. Even the earliest years of schooling have become insanely competitive, as Robbins learned when she gained unprecedented access into the inner workings of a prestigious Manhattan kindergarten admissions office.
A compelling mix of fast-paced storytelling and engrossing investigative journalism, The Overachievers aims both to calm the admissions frenzy and to expose its escalating dangers.