New Nonfiction
Awake in the Dark: Forty years of reviews, essays, and interviews by Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert has been writing film reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times for nearly forty years. And during those four decades, his wide knowledge, keen judgment, prodigious energy, and sharp sense of humor have made him America's most celebrated film critic. If Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris were godmother and godfather to the movie generation, then Ebert is its voice from within--a writer whose exceptional intelligence and daily bursts of insight and enthusiasm have shaped the way we think about the movies.
Blood and Thunder: An epic of the American West by Hampton Sides
Hampton Sides's extraordinary book brings the history of the American conquest of the West to ringing life. It is a tale with many heroes and villains, but as is found in the best history, the same person might be both. At the center of it all stands the remarkable figure of Kit Carson-the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier who embodies all the contradictions and ambiguities of the American experience in the West. Brave and clever, beloved by his contemporaries, Carson was an illiterate mountain man who twice married Indian women and understood andrespected the tribes better than any other American alive. Yet he was also a cold-blooded killer who willingly followed orders tantamount to massacre. Carson's almost unimaginable exploits made him a household name when they were written up in pulp novels known as "blood-and-thunders," but now that name is a bitter curse for contemporary Navajo, who cannot forget his role in the travails of their ancestors.
Dog Heroes of September 11th: A tribute to America's search and rescue dogs by Nona Kilgore Bauer
Profiles of 77 dogs and their handlers who worked through the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC.
Love adn Louis XIV: The women in the life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser
The self-proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth-century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well-known tales of Louis's accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. Her focus is on the private life rather than the power and political achievement of that larger-than-life sovereign, Louis XIV of France. Beginning with his relationship with his mother, Anne of Austria, Fraser argues that the happiest moments of Louis's life were associated with women.
Mandela: A critical life by Tom Lodge
Striking in appearance--six foot four and physically imposing--with an aristocratic bearing and incredible charm and self-assurance, Nelson Mandela is the greatest African leader in modern history, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and an iconic figure the world over. Tom Lodge draws on a wide range of original sources to uncover a host of fresh insights about the shaping of Mandela's personality and public persona, from his childhood days and early activism, through his twenty-seven years of imprisonment, to his presidency of the new South Africa.
The Tree: A natural history of what trees are, how they live, and why they matter by Colin Tudge
In an elegant tribute to denizens of nature that humans too often take for granted, British biologist Tudge presents a wealth of intriguing facts about trees. Basing his information on science and writing "in a spirit of reverence," he explains how biologists identify the different kinds of trees; how trees have evolved over millions of years; how they adapt to their habitats, survive and reproduce.