FullReviews Index
The Wilderness Warrior
In March 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt declared Pelican Island in Florida "a preserve and breeding ground for native birds." That was the first federally protected area for birds. By 2003 this had grown to more than 540 wildlife refuges comprising 4% of US lands - 95 million acres. That initial designation was not without a backlash. Read more.
Farm City : The Education of an Urban Farmer
When Novella Carpenter moves to an Oakland ghetto, "a postcard of urban decay," she gazes out onto an adjoining vacant lot - 4,500 square feet of weeds - and envisions a backyard vegetable garden. This is 'Farm City.'
Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend
'Red and Me' is the story of Celtic's all-star Bill Russell and his close relationship with the Celtic's legendary coach Red Auerbach. Could there have been two more unlikely friends, a short, abrasive Jew from Brooklyn and a tall, gangly black man from the South? These were two different "tribes," to use Russell's term, which would seem to be on a collision course.
Soft Spots: A Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
'Soft Spots' is the firsthand account of one Marine's attempt to re-enter life after experiencing it in its most barbaric form for five months in Iraq in 2003. Van Winkle's story is unique as it is not told from the perspective of a journalist or a foreign policy expert who observed triggers being pulled, but is told from someone who pulled the trigger and is now faced with a lifelong struggle to make sense of it all.
Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare
Subtitled "A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare," Soul of the Age "is an intellectual biography of the man in the context of the mind-set into which he was born and out of which his works were created." Perhaps the preeminent Shakespeare scholar writing and teaching today, Bate is a professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature at the University of Warwick.
The Thoreau You Don't Know
Robert Sullivan smashes our national myth, of Henry David Thoreau as hermit of the woods, the "secular priest of solitude," the technophobic, misanthropic, tree-hugging loner, and in its place depicts another man, one who grew up in Concord, but went to college at Harvard, grew melons and threw an annual melon party for his Concord neighbors, took over the family business when his father died, and accidently set fire to the woods near Concord.
Hurry Down Sunshine
In the opening pages of his memoir, Michael Greenberg says it's "something of a sacrilege" to speak of mental illness as anything besides the "chemical brain disease that it on one level is." Nonetheless, in Hurry Down Sunshine, Greenberg takes on the subject from a father's perspective and tells the story of his fifteen-year-old daughter's swift mental decline.
No-Man’s Lands: One Man’s Odyssey Through The Odyssey
'No Man’s Lands' takes us on a journey. In fact, it takes us on a journey that’s so long and arduous and well known that it’s become the namesake of any impressive journey: an odyssey. Scott Huler’s book is about both 'The Odyssey,' by Homer, and an odyssey of his own as he undertakes to retrace the steps of Odysseus's own journey.
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
In the late 1970's, Steve Martin,, this gray-haired, white-suited comedian, burst seemingly out of nowhere, straight to the top. But Steve Martin was no overnight sensation. He had spent the prior decade and a half tirelessly learning, honing, and refining the character and the act that in the late 1970's would be indelibly imprinted on the frontal lobes of a nation. This book is all about Steve Martin's fifteen year slog through the trenches of stand-up comedy.
A Wolf at the Table : A Memoir of My Father
In 'A Wolf at the Table,' Augusten Burroughs returns to the story of his dysfunctional family, a subject that he mastered in his bestseller, 'Running with Scissors' (2003). If 'Running with Scissors' is Burroughs' family comedy of sorts, then 'A Wolf at the Table' is its tragedy. None of the zany humor present in his earlier book surfaces in this one, which is poignantly rendered and at times heart-breaking.
The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine
Bernard Loiseau was one of only twenty-five French chefs to hold Europe's highest culinary award, three stars in the Michelin Red Guide, and only the second chef to be personally awarded the Legion of Honor by a head of state. Despite such triumphs, he shocked the culinary world by taking his own life in February 2003. In 'The Perfectionist,' Journalist Rudolph Chelminski gives us a rare tour of this hallowed culinary realm.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
When Haruki Murakami ('The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles') traded the physically demanding job of running his jazz club for the sedentary routine of a professional novelist, he learned he was going to have to make some life changes. For one thing, he was going to have to quit smoking 60 cigarettes a day. For another, he'd have to start exercising. Exercising for Murakami means running, specifically long-distance running.
The Great Railway Bazaar
"The Great Railway Bazaar," Paul Theroux's classic 1975 account of a four month railroad journey through Europe and Asia begins, "I sought trains, I found passengers," and it is the individuals that he meets along the way, more than the cities, buildings, or sites of touristic import, to which Theroux devotes his most generous descriptions.
House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family
The James family, one of America's most brilliant yet troubled dynasties, gave the world three famous children: one of America's literary giants (Henry James), an early theorist in the field of psychology (William James), and a feminist icon (Alice James). Where other biographers have approached these influential individuals separately, In 'House of Wits' Paul Fisher has penned a biography of the family as a whole.
A Year in the Merde
"A Year In The Merde" is the almost-true account of Stephen Clarke's adventures as an expat in Paris. Based loosely on his own experiences and with names changed to avoid embarrassment and possible legal action, A Year In The Merde is the story of a Paul West, a 27-year-old Brit who is brought to Paris by a French company to open a chain of British "tea rooms." He soon becomes immersed in the contradictions of French culture.
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
Nick Flynn met his father when he was twenty-seven years old, working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter in Boston. Nick, his own life unsettled, was living alternatively in a ramshackle boat and in a warehouse that was once a strip joint. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City tells the story of two lives, the story of Nick's boyhood in Scituate, Massachusetts, with his brother and young mother who struggled to keep the family together and that of his father who refused to play by the rules.
'The Last Lecture'
Each year at a series known as The Last Lecture, a Carnegie Mellon faculty member is asked to deliver what would hypothetically be a final speech to their students before dying. For Randy Pausch, it wasn't hypothetical. The 47-year-old father of three has been diagnosed with cancer and given just a few months to live. Randy Pausch's inspirational last lecture has been viewed over 10 million times and is now a best-selling book elaborating on the theme "achieving your childhood dreams."
The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Pico Iyer, one of the most acclaimed and perceptive observers of globalism and Buddhism, gives us the first serious consideration—for Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike—of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s work and ideas as a politician, scientist, and philosopher in "The Open Road."
The Whale Warriors
In December 2005, adventure-writer Peter Heller joined the crew of the Farley Mowat, a 50-year-old converted Norwegian fishing trawler and the flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, on a quest through the icy waters of Antarctica to find and stop a six ship Japanese fishing fleet from illegally killing hundreds of whales.
Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home
Abandoned at the age of three in a Korean marketplace, Kim Sunee is adopted and raised by a New Orleans couple. As an adult, she moves to France with multimillionaire Olivier Baussan. In A Trail of Crumbs, Kim Sunee takes readers on a journey from Korea to New Orleans to Paris and Provence, along the way serving forth her favorite recipes.
Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography
Charles M. Schulz, the most widely syndicated and beloved cartoonist of all time, is also one of the least understood figures in American culture. Now acclaimed biographer David Michaelis gives us the first full-length biography of the brilliant, unseen man behind Peanuts: at once a creation story, a portrait of a native genius, and a chronicle contrasting the private man with the central role he played in shaping the national imagination.
What is the What
Eggers illuminates the history of the civil war in Sudan through the eyes of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese Lost Boy now living in the United States. We follow his life as he's driven from his home as a boy and walks, with thousands of orphans, to Ethiopia, where he finds safety—for a time. Valentino's travels, truly Biblical in scope, bring him in contact with government soldiers, janjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas and lions, and disease and starvation.
Luckiest Man
Jonathan Eig's "Luckiest Man" may be one of the best baseball books written. It is right up there with Roger Kahn's "The Boys of Summer," Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Wait Till Next Year," and Red Smith's "On Baseball." Heavily researched in a seemingly successful effort to separate mythology from fact, this is no hagiography. Henry Louis Gehrig is presented, warts and all. Modern baseball players need to read this book (or, have it read to them) and learn something about integrity and sportsmanship.
Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
April 15, 1947. It was an ordinary day for an ordinary baseball player. It was an extraordinary day for an extraordinary man. Jack Roosevelt Robinson went 0-4 that day, scoring the winning run, but he changed the face of baseball. Some said he changed the face of America...
Love Is A Mix Tape: Life And Loss, One Song At A Time
In "Love Is a Mix Tape," Rob Sheffield, a music writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs on fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with his wife Renée. From Elvis to Missy Elliott, the Rolling Stones to Yo La Tengo, the songs on these tapes make up the soundtrack to their lives.