Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir by Doron Weber Nonfiction — Memoir Simon & Schuster; February 5, 2013 Paperback 368 pages (Source: Publisher / TLC Book Tours) From the back cover: A medical mystery and a remarkable passion for life lie at the heart of a gifted boy’s fight to survive. Born with a congenital heart […]

Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff Nonfiction — World War II Harper; April 23, 2013 Hardcover 416 pages (Source: Publisher / TLC Book Tours) On November 5, 1942, a U.S. C-53 cargo plane on a routine flight crash-landed on the Greenland ice cap. All five men aboard initially survived the crash and sent out distress […]

The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics by Greg Mitchell Nonfiction — Politics Sinclair Books, 2011 Kindle edition 686 pages Upton Sinclair was a lot of things: journalist, Socialist, muckraker, author, politician. He’s probably best known for his novel, The Jungle (1906), about the […]

Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman Nonfiction — Memoir Beacon Press, November 2012 Kindle edition 209 pages In the Foreword to Faitheist, Eboo Patel–the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core–says of Chris Stedman: His atheism doesn’t hate God; it loves people. He is proud of who he […]

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead Nonfiction Harper Perennial (reprint); October 23, 2012 Paperback 400 pages From the back cover: They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives; a singer at the Paris Opera; a midwife; a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, […]

Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear by Carrie Goldman Nonfiction HarperOne; August 14, 2012 Hardcover 368 pages From the inside flap: Carrie Goldman became an unexpected voice for the antibullying movement after her blog post about her daughter Katie’s bullying experience went viral and an […]

Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love & Revolution by Luisita López Torregrosa Nonfiction — Memoir Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; August 7, 2012 Hardcover 240 pages From the inside flap: Before the Rain tells the story of love unexpected, its fragile bonds and subtle perils. As a newspaper editor in the ’80s, Luisita Torregrosa lived her […]

Sharp: A Memoir by David Fitzpatrick Nonfiction — Memoir William Morrow; August 21, 2012 Hardcover 368 pages **TRIGGER WARNING for people who self-harm: I’m not sure that I need to post a warning, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.** From the back cover of the ARC: In his early twenties, David Fitzpatrick began cutting […]

Lizz Free or Die: Essays by Lizz Winstead Nonfiction — Essays / Comedy / Memoir Riverhead Books; May 10, 2012 Hardcover 320 pages This is a book of essays about life. My life. It’s not a memoir, per se, as I decided to write about some specific moments that will give you some insight into […]

The Little Red Guard: A Family Memoir by Wenguang Huang Nonfiction — Memoir Riverhead Books; April 26, 2012 Paperback (ARC) 262 pages Father made me Grandma’s coffin keeper when I was nine, imbuing the spooky black wooden box with a mythic significance that I could barely grasp. His stories lulled me into believing that Grandma’s […]

The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us by Sheril Kirshenbaum Nonfiction Grand Central Publishing, January 2011 Hardcover 272 pages From the inside flap: Are humans the only animals who kiss? Why is kissing integral to some cultures and alien to others? Do good kissers make better lovers? And is that expensive lip-plumping […]

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson Narrative Nonfiction Random House, 2010 Hardcover 640 pages From 1915 through the mid-1970s, approximately six million black citizens in the United States migrated from the Jim Crow south to points north and west in search of a better life. In […]

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo Narrative Nonfiction Random House Release Date: February 7, 2012 Paperback (Advance Reader’s Edition) 288 pages (I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.) Katherine Boo is an investigative journalist who started her career writing editorial […]

American Transcendentalism: A History by Philip F. Gura Nonfiction Hill and Wang, 2008 Paperback 384 pages From the back cover: American Transcendentalism is a comprehensive narrative history of America’s first group of public intellectuals, the men and women who defined American literature and indelibly marked American reform in the decades before and after the Civil […]