Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9781400068722
ISBN-10: 140006872X

The chef of New York's East Village Prune restaurant presents an unflinching account of her search for meaning and purpose in the food-central rural New Jersey home of her youth, marked by a first chicken kill, an international backpacking tour and the opening of a first restaurant. 50,000 first printing.

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Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9780307267672
ISBN-10: 0307267679

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Publisher: Audioworks
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/03/2011
ISBN-13: 9781442341258
ISBN-10: 1442341254

Nonfiction. Like The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, author Michael Lewis' account of the U.S. financial meltdown in 2008, Boomerang explores the roots of another economic catastrophe: the current European debt crisis. In this often humorous, yet serious, travelogue of "disaster tourism," Lewis focuses on several countries -- including Greece, Germany, Iceland, and Ireland -- and explores exactly what they did with the cheap, abundant credit available to them during the first decade of the 21st century, and what resulted from these investments.

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/05/2011
ISBN-13: 9780316056861
ISBN-10: 0316056863

Ok, so the cover's a little odd (Tina Fey doesn't really have man-arms), but it is true that she's risen to the top of what has historically been a male-dominated industry. Here, she talks about how she climbed that comedy mountain and what it means now: balancing work with parenting sometimes results in an emotional mess (like the time she burst into tears at the gynecologist's). Reviewed everywhere from blogs to established newspapers and magazines, the consensus seems to be that her collection of memoir-esque stories on topics like making it through college, Second City, Saturday Night Live, and 30 Rock is "dagger-sharp, [and] extremely funny" (The New York Times).

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Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/08/2011
ISBN-13: 9780679456728
ISBN-10: 0679456724

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Nicholas and Alexandria offers a masterful study of 18th-century Russia's most influential femme fatale, Empress Catherine the Great. At barely 16, a newly christened Catherine (formerly Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst) married Peter III, the decidedly unprepossessing heir to Russia's Romanov dynasty. Catherine proved to be all that Peter was not: brilliant, ambitious, strategic, sensual, and determined to lead Russia from its provincial past. The New York Times praises this account of her remarkable 34-year rule as "juicy and suspenseful."

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Publisher: Doubleday Publishing
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/20/2011
ISBN-13: 9780385526265
ISBN-10: 0385526261

This blazing triple-portrait of President Garfield, his deranged killer, and Alexander Graham Bell (who, surprisingly, was among those who labored in vain save the President's life) vividly illuminates Gilded Age America itself: Garfield's personal achievements epitomize its grace, while Bell's skill as a scientific inventor embodies its innovative spirit -- and, sadly, Guiteau's life and actions reflect the diffidence with which19th-century society treated mental illness. Author Candice Millard delivers a long-overdue, eloquent testament to the lost potential of a great man, as well as a page-turning account of the shocking events that unnecessarily contributed to his death. If you liked Eric Rauchway's Murdering McKinley, explore The Destiny of the Republic.

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Publisher: Penguin Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9781594203121
ISBN-10: 1594203121

A portrait of the Cold War strategist offers insight into his complex, troubled character while tracing his role in defining U.S. policy, covering his critical views on American diplomacy and his struggles with depression.

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Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/20/2011
ISBN-13: 9781400041626
ISBN-10: 1400041627

An assessment of the decades before Ernest Hemingway's suicide reveals the key life moments that occurred on board his beloved boat, Pilar, from celebrations with friends and romantic liaisons to the dissolutions of marriages and alcohol-marked withdrawals from society. By the author of the National Books Critics Circle-winning Sons of Mississippi.

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Publisher: Crown Trade
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9780307408846
ISBN-10: 0307408841

Documents the efforts of the first American ambassador to Hitler's Germany, William E. Dodd, to acclimate to a residence in an increasingly violent city where he is forced to associate with the Nazis while his daughter pursues a relationship with Gestapochief Rudolf Diels.

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Publisher: Pantheon Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9780375423727
ISBN-10: 0375423729

The best-selling author of Chaos analyzes how information has become a defining quality of the modern era, tracing the evolutions of pivotal information technologies while profiling key contributors from Charles Babbage and Ada Byron to Samuel Morse and Claude Shannon.

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Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/26/2011
ISBN-13: 9780061988349
ISBN-10: 0061988340

Lost in Shangri-la blends riveting WWII history with a true adventure tale worthy of cinematic treatment. A transport plane with 24 U.S. military personnel on a sightseeing excursion crashes in the deadly jungles of uncharted Dutch New Guinea--home to cannibalistic tribes and monitored by deadly Japanese snipers. Only three survive the crash: WAC Margaret Hastings, suffering terrible burns; the young lieutenant John McCollom, whose twin brother was also killed; and Kenneth Decker, a sergeant with severe head injuries. Unexpected flashes of humor leaven this "immensely readable" (Kirkus Reviews) story, highly recommended for readers who found Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken too grim.

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Publisher: Henry Holt and Co
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9780805091533
ISBN-10: 080509153X

Chronicles the 1859 raid by radical abolitionist John Brown on Harpers Ferry, revealing how his acts, deemed terrorism by the South, prompted a counterattack by Robert E. Lee and galvanized Northern supporters during Lincoln's election campaign.

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Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9781439190135
ISBN-10: 1439190135

Chronicles the rise of the iconic German shepherd character while sharing the stories of the real WWI dog and the canine performer in the 1950s television show, and explores Rin Tin Tin's relevance in the military and popular culture.

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Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/24/2011
ISBN-13: 9781451648539
ISBN-10: 1451648537

A biography of the recently deceased entrepreneur, based on 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years.

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Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/26/2011
ISBN-13: 9780393064476
ISBN-10: 0393064476

In the early 15th century, papal scribe Poggio Bracciolini discovered a tattered copy of De Rerum Nature (On the Nature of Things), by classical Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher Titus Lucretius Cara. His discovery was rife with subversive content: Lucretius damned religion as superstition. Lucretius also wrote that all earthly matter (including man) consisted of tiny particles, swerving in constant motion and full of energetic potential. Given the overwhelming dominance of religion in Bracciolini's day, his decision not to destroy the manuscript is the first of many unexpected, meaningful "swerves" -- sudden, unpredictable changes -- that engendered modern philosophical, political, artistic, and scientific thought.

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Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9780393064667
ISBN-10: 0393064662

The author of "House of Sand and Fog" describes his childhood in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime and his weekly visits with his father, an eminent author who taught on a college campus.

Publisher: Random House Inc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/2011
ISBN-13: 9780375504945
ISBN-10: 037550494X

Presents a history of the role of British citizens in the American Civil War that offers insight into the interdependencies of both nations and how the Union worked to block diplomatic relations between England and the Confederacy.

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