Library Journal

Anastas, Benjamin. Too Good to Be True: A Memoir. New Harvest: Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9780547913995. $25. MEMOIR
Appreciated by the cognoscenti, the author of novels like An Underachiever’s Diary that should be better known, Anastas was broke and frustrated with his career when his pregnant wife left him for another man (a writer, no less).  This is an account of how he fought to maintain a relationship with his son—especially important because his own childhood was so fractured. (What can you say about a mom who lets her nutty therapy group hang a sign around her three year old’s neck proclaiming “Too Good To Be True”?) Expect something different—but nakedly there.

Casteel, Seth. Underwater Dogs. Little, Brown. Oct. 2012. 144p. ISBN 9780316227704. $19.99. PHOTOGRAPHY
An award-winning pet photographer and (bless him) an animal adoption activist, Casteel got the bright idea of photographing dogs swimming, working mostly from below to create spooky-adorable images and the occasional fierce shot of a sharp-toothed canine going straight for a ball. Since he began posting them online, his images of doggie-paddling pooches have garnered 150 million views. Possible cult status here.

Colbert, Stephen. America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t. Grand Central. Oct. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780446583978. $28.99. CD/Downloadable: Hachette Audio. HUMOR
America is No. 1, except that it’s not, really, proclaims political satirist Colbert. We don’t make anything anymore, and our future is in the hands of the Chinese. Does Colbert have recommendations? “Feel free to deep-fry this book—it’s a rich source of fiber.” Maybe laughing will help.

Douglas, Tom. The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle. Morrow. Oct. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780062183743. $35. COOKBOOKS
Here’s what you could be eating if you get this latest book from Douglas, James Beard Association Award winner for Best Northwest Chef and Bon Appétit Best Restaurateur of 2008: cinnamon sugar and mascarpone doughnuts, streusel-topped monkey bread with caramel dipping sauce, and a triple coconut cream pie that Serious Eats founder Ed Levine calls one of the best pies in the country. Not to mention some yummy savory treats, too. What are you waiting for? With a 75,000-copy first printing.  

Eisenberg, John. Ten-Gallon War: The NFL’s Cowboys, the AFL’s Texans, and the Feud for Dallas’s Pro Football Future. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780547435503. $27. SPORTS
Award-winning sports author Eisenberg tells an appropriately Texas-sized story. In the early 1960s, with pro football everywhere on the ascendant but for Texas, where college football still held sway, two young oil tycoons founded rival pro football teams in Dallas. The Cowboys’ Tom Landry looked to winning games, while the Texans’ Lamar Hunt aimed to build a fan base, and each triumphed in his own way. Eisenberg is a natural to tell the story since he grew up in 1960s Texas. An obvious purchase unless everyone in your town hates sports.

Elliott, Chris. The Guy Under the Sheets: The Unauthorized Autobiography. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780399158407. $26.95. HUMOR
Um, hot affairs with Lee Radziwill and Kathie Lee Gifford? Time spent dismembering bodies for the Mob? I think it’s safe to say that this book is not meant as a wholly accurate reminiscence. Expect entertainment from out-there comic Elliot, star of Adult Swim’s Eagleheart, author of The Shroud of the Thwacker, and part of a comic dynasty: his father is Bob Elliott of Bob & Ray and daughter Abby is a Saturday Night Live cast member.

Gershon, Gina. In Search of Cleo: How I Found My Pussy and Lost My Mind. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 176p. ISBN 9781592407668. $22.50. MEMOIR/PETS
She’s done movies (Showgirls), television (Curb Your Enthusiasm), and theater (as a founding member of the group Naked Angels), but when her beloved cat vanishes, Gershon plays her most important role ever: impassioned cat lady hunting obsessively for her missing pet. As she wanders L.A.’s byways, she encounters an array of quirky and sometimes helpful folks, from an earnest newspaper deliveryman to a Santeria priest who clobbers her with a chicken to Ellen DeGeneres’s know-it-all pet psychic. And of course in finding Cleo she finds out some things about herself. A cat-loving, colorful travelog.

Gómez, Carlos Andrés. Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9781592407781. $26. MEMOIR/SELF-HELP
“I will not rest until one dream is made real: that we might redefine what it is to be a man. That we redefine what it means to say, ‘man up.’ ” Sound too dreamy? Will men, especially young men, listen? In fact, Gomez, New York’s Slam King in 2006 and a two-time International Poetry Slam Champion, as well as an actor (he costarred in Spike Lee’s Inside Man) and a former social worker in Harlem and the South Bronx, is an energized example of street-smart credibility. As detailed in one of his spoken-word poems, his epiphany came when, on the verge of a bar fight, he found his eyes welling with tears. We’ve heard that men should feel free to show such emotion, but obviously the message needs repeating. Gómez delivers it for the 21st century.

Howe, Sean. True Believers: The Secret Origins of Marvel Comics. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2012. 496p. ISBN 9780061992100. $25.99. POPULAR CULTURE/BUSINESS
In the early 1960s, minor-player Marvel Comics introduced a host of brightly bedecked and brave but sometimes humanly fallible superheroes like Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk; now it’s the No. 1 comics company in the world. Here’s an unauthorized history from former Entertainment Weekly editor Howe; the 35,000-copy first printing seems small.

Janzen, Rhoda. Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?: A Mennonite Finds Faith, Meets Mr. Right, and Solves Her Lady Problems. Grand Central. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781455502882. $24.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. MEMOIR
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Janzen’s pointedly funny memoir of returning home to her cheerily faithful family when her life was at low ebb, dwelled on the New York Times best sellers list for more than 40 weeks, sometimes in the top spot. Her new memoir charts her growing comfort with faith, though she goes for the hallelujah-swaying Pentecostals rather than the staid Mennonites, and eventually meets the right guy. If this is anything like her last memoir, hang on; with a multicity tour and reading group guide.

Jillette, Penn. Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780399161568. $25.95. HUMOR
Half of Penn & Teller, the world-famous magic act whose long-running Showtime series was nominated for 13 Emmys, Jillette has also flown solo, having appeared often on TV talk shows and written a bunch of best sellers. This new collection of essays gleefully stomps on Christmas carols, Halloween, children’s over-the-top birthday parties, and more while recalling the finer moments in life. Wildly funny, but not for the honk-if-you-love-Jesus folks.

Khan, Salman. The One World Schoolhouse: A New Approach to Teaching and Learning. Twelve: Hachette. Oct. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9781455508389. $26.99. EDUCATION
While tutoring his niece online in algebra, hedge fund analyst Khan got a bright idea. Wouldn’t it be cool to provide a free, first-class education online to anyone who wanted it? Now, the Khan Academy is flourishing on YouTube, with millions viewing and subscribing to courses in every area imaginable. Khan is routinely approached by schools interested in learning how to reach students more effectively with digital tools, and he was just named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. A book on the all-important topic of education that’s not all theory.

Lagasse, Emeril. Emeril’s Kicked-Up Sandwiches: Stacked with Flavor. Morrow. Oct. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780061742972. pap. $24.99; eISBN 9780062210432. COOKBOOKS
A sandwich cookbook with a 100,000-copy first printing? Okay, this is Emeril Lagasse, proprietor of 12 restaurants, author 16 best-selling cookbooks, cookware baron, and host of cooking shows on the Hallmark and Cooking channels. Included are kicked-up classics like Fried Soft Shell Crab with Lemon Caper Mayo, plus wraps, breakfast sandwiches, pressed and grilled sandwiches, and even sweet stuff (Red Velvet Whoopee Cushions). Lots of fans, so buy one—or more; this is a paperback original, and it wouldn’t last for long in my kitchen.

Milgrim, David. Siri & Me: A Modern Love Story. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 112p. ISBN 9780399161599. $15.95. HUMOR
Our hero Dave practically lives online; cyberspace is his space. So it’s no wonder that his deepest, most touching relationship is with cybergirl Siri, the voice inside his iPhone. She really understands him. From the author of the best-selling Goodnight, iPad; did you know that there are more than 37 million iPhone users out there who love Siri, too?

O’Brien, Geoffrey, ed. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. 18th ed. Little, Brown. Oct. 2012. 1472p. ISBN 9780316017596. $50. REFERENCE
The immortal Bartlett’s, which contains more than 25,000 quotations, is published once a decade. This 18th edition, brought to you by Library of America editor in chief O’Brien, includes 2500 new quotes and more than  800 newcomers ranging from Julia Child to David Foster Wallace. Quotes have been culled to bring in more foreigners and women and more material from fiction and poetry; a companion app brings this chestnut into the 21st century. My favorite featured quote, from Walter Benjamin: “Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.”

The Onion. The Onion Book of Known Knowledge. Little, Brown. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780316133265. $29.99; CD: Hachette Audio. HUMOR
Onion books are usually New York Times best sellers, and Onion online has won 19 Webbys, so forgive this offbeat journalistic entity its pride as it boasts that this comprehensive reference source is the last book ever published. A typical entry: Woodstock, “landmark music festival that brought together half a million future bankers and hedge fund managers.” Lots of folks groove to this kind of humor.

Patronite, Rob & Robin Raisfeld. In Season: More Than 140 Fresh and Simple Recipes Inspired by Farmer’s Market Ingredients. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780399161100. $35. COOKBOOKS
Eating what’s in season: it seems like common sense, but until recently it was not common practice. But now it’s the rage, with farmer’s markets sprouting up in just about every state. The authors drawn on their popular “In Season” for New York magazine to offer 140 recipes—from chefs nationwide—that show us, for instance, how best to use fiddlehead fern. Yes!

Robles, Anthony. Unstoppable. From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9781592407774. $26. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. MEMOIR/SELF-HELP
Three-time all-American wrestler. The 2011 NCAA National Wrestling Champion. Nike-sponsored athlete (with his brand-name “Unstoppable” apparel). Robles would seem to have it all, but he was born without a right leg. Here’s the story of how he persevered, from coming in last in his first wrestling season to his current championship heights and an intensive speaking tour that has already introduced him to 15,000 high school and college students and their coaches.

Skinner, David. The Story of Ain’t: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780062027467. $25.99; lrg. prnt. HISTORY/POPULAR CULTURE
Published in 1961, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary abandoned the traditionally prescriptive approach and offered straightforward description of how language was actually being used at the time. It even included the word ain’t. A seemingly sensible (and scientific) move, but it caused an uproar, and Dwight Macdonald decried it as the end of civilization. Editor of Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities publication where an early version of this work first appeared, Skinner covers not just the making of the new dictionary but the tumultuous reaction. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Strogatz, Steven. The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780547517650. $27. MATHEMATICS
Strogatz, a Cornell professor of applied mathematics, doesn’t stick with x but shows that math is intimately involved with art, science, philosophy, business, and humdrum, everyday life in ways you might never have imagined. Trust the author of the New York Times column “The Elements of Math,” which appeared online in 2010, to explain everything from how Google searches the Internet to how many people you should date before making that big choice. If you think this book will have only a select audience, think again; Strogatz’s column always made the most-emailed list and got hundreds of comments. With 50,000-copy first printing.

Weil, Andrew, M.D., & Sam Fox with Michael Stebner. True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure. Little, Brown. Oct. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780316129411. $29.99. COOKBOOKS
The high-profile promoter of both our mental and our physical well-being, Weil—best-selling author (e.g., Spontaneous Healing) and founder/director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine—opened True Food Kitchen in 2008 with Fox, three-time James Beard Restaurateur of the Year nominee. The aim? Really tasty food that also assures our well-being. With over 125 recipes—personally, I’m down with the Corn and Ricotta Cheese Ravioli and the Pomegranate Martini (and I don’t even drink martinis)—and note that Weil and Fox hope to open 20 True Food restaurants over the next few years. 

Abrams, David. Fobbit. Black Cat: Grove Atlantic. Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780802120328. pap. $15. LITERARY/MILITARY FICTION
A number of Iraq veterans have returned home to give us fiction explaining what the war was really like (see, for instance, Kevin Powers’s forthcoming novel, The Yellow Birds; and in poetry don’t miss award winner Brian Turner). Next in line is Abrams, who served in the U.S. Army for 20 years and was deployed in Iraq as part of a public affairs team. (He was named the Department of Defense’s Military Journalist of the Year in 1994.) His debut novel is set at a Forward Operating Base, where the battle-hardened sleep between missions and everyone else has a desk job; fobbits fear fighting more than anything. Abrams’s antihero is Staff Sergeant Chance Gooding, who writes white-washed press releases. Billed as dark humor in the vein of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.

Beckett, Samuel. Echo’s Bones. Grove. Sept. 2012. 128p. ISBN 9780802120458. $24. LITERARY
A new story from Beckett, one of the defining writers of the 20th century? Yes! In 1933, when Beckett was preparing for the publication of More Pricks Than Kicks, a collection of ten interrelated stories, his publisher asked for a final story to round out the collection. Having killed off the stories’ protagonist, Beckett found the writing hard going, and the piece was finally rejected for publication. Now, eight decades after he wrote it, here is “Echo’s Bones”—distinct from Beckett’s poem and collection of the same name. Mark Nixon, director of the Beckett International Foundation at the University of Reading, explains what this story has to tell us about all of Beckett’s work.

Brown, Brené. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781592407330. $25. SELF-HELP
Quoting Theodore Roosevelt in her title, Brown urges us to throw ourselves out there and take risks—that is, to be vulnerable. Okay, so I’m leery of anyone called a thought leader, but since Brown’s 2010 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk has had 2.3 million views on TED.com (she was back for TED 2012)  and her book The Gifts of Imperfection, the basis of a PBS special, has sold 150,000 copies, she’s clearly got followers.

Echols, Damien. Damien Echols. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780399160202.  $26.95. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. MEMOIR
With Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., Echols is one of the West Memphis Three—young men accused of killing three Arkansas boys in 1993. After a trial burdened by hearsay and public hysteria, Baldwin and Misskelley were given life sentences and Echols, considered the ringleader, was sentenced to death at age 18. In 2007, new forensic tests of crime-scene evidence found no genetic material belonging to the men, and finally they were released in August 2011. Echols here recalls a painful childhood, his teenaged outsider status, and his 18 years on death row. An attention getter; the case remains controversial, and many famous musicians and actors (Eddie Vedder, Johnny Depp) have supported the West Memphis Three.

Fancher, Hampton. The Shape of the Final Dog and Other Stories. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780399158230.  $25.95. SHORT STORIES
You can expect the original screenwriter for the cult classic Blade Runner to write off-the-wall, over-the-line stories, and it seems that he has. One of his characters is an escaped lab rat that bats about philosophical ideas with a wakeful man, another a failed actor reincarnated as garden snail out for revenge. Watch.

Geragos, Mark & Pat Harris. Mistrial: An Inside Look at How the Criminal Justice System Works . . . and Sometimes Doesn’t. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781592407729. $27. LAW
Big trials are media events, but do we really know how the justice system works? Absolutely not, say the authors, who are here to offer an insider’s look at what really happens in the courts, some of it disheartening. Since Geragos has represented the likes of Michael Jackson and Winona Ryder and Harris regularly serves as his cocounsel, this could be interesting.

Johnson, Steven. Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9781594488207. $26.95. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. SOCIAL SCIENCE
A best-selling author (e.g., Where Good Ideas Come From) and the guy most likely to tackle your precious assumptions, Johnson here proclaims that we’re undergoing a period of rapid political change, facilitated by the Internet but not high-tech in nature, that obviates terms like liberal and conservative. A great nonfiction title for book clubs; imagine the arguments.

Koryta, Michael. The Prophet. Little, Brown. Sept. 2012. 432p. ISBN 9780316122610.  $29.95. lrg. prnt. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Two brothers, one a popular high school football coach and the other a long-suffering bail bondsman, live separate lives in a small Midwestern town—but not for the reasons you might think. When they were teenagers, their sister was raped and murdered, and the trauma has driven them apart. Now a similar crime rocks their town, forcing the brothers together again. From a perennially rising star in the thriller firmament with a couple of nice movie deals under his belt.

LaVette, Bettye with David Ritz. A Woman Like Me. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780399159381. $26.95. MEMOIR
R&B great LaVette had a hit single as a Detroit teenager, then subsided into poverty, turning tricks in New York to survive. A tough few decades followed until her recent starburst comeback, which has included CDs, appearances on the Jay Leno and David Letterman shows, and performances at the Kennedy Center and President Obama’s inauguration. Anyone who’s worked with a rafter of stars from Cab Calloway to the Rolling Stones has got to be cool.

Lelic, Simon. The Facility. Penguin. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780143120681 pap. $15. THRILLER
Lelic has been gathering steam since the 2010 publication of his first novel, A Thousand Cuts, a Betty Trask Award winner that was also shortlisted for a Crime Writers’ Association New Blood Dagger Award. Here, he offers a chillingly plausible near-future Britain where antiterrorism laws allow the police to “disappear” anyone they choose. But when mild-mannered dentist Arthur Priestley vanished, his estranged wife swings into action.

Norfolk, Lawrence. John Saturnall’s Feast. Grove. Sept. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780802120519. $25. LITERARY
You can bet that the author of the Somerset Maugham Prize winner Lemprière’s Dictionary will serve up a lusciously detailed feast with his new novel—12 years in the making. After his mother starves to death, having been driven with him from their village because she is deemed a witch, John sees her starve to death, then becomes kitchen boy at Buckland Manor. He ends up a master chef—but not before becoming entangled with Lady Lucretia, the lord’s daughter, for whom he must cook meals meant to break the fast she’s declared so that her father will call off her engagement to her ridiculous fiancé. Love, food, and a riveting historical setting—it’s the English Civil War, and Cromwell’s Roundheads are descending; essential for literate readers.

Slinkachu. Little People: The Global Model Village. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. 120p. ISBN 9780399160745. $16.95.  HUMOR/ART
A pseudonymous London-based street artist, Slinkachu roams the city, setting up vignettes with hand-painted figurines for passersby to discover. His first book, Little People in the City, sold 150,000 copies in the U.K. and 11,000 copies here in an export edition. This new book features his “little people” in settings worldwide, from Greece, Israel, and South Africa to China, Qatar, and the United States. This is billed as humor, though I understand the vignettes can be quite poignant. An artist who’s getting hot; the publisher will use this book to push him to the U.S. media.

Smilevski, Goce. Freud’s Sister. Penguin. Sept. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780143121459. pap. $16. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. LITERARY Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature and sold to 23 countries, Macedonia-born Smilevski’s novel is all the more remarkable—and unsettling—because it’s based on fact. When Freud was granted an exit visa from Vienna in 1938 and asked to list those he would take with him, he named his entire household, including the maids and the dog, but left off his four sisters. They ended up in the Terezín concentration camp. This novel ranges over the life of Freud’s sister Adolfina, a sweet, sensitive soul who was close to her brother, dreamed of marriage, and spent time with Gustav Klimt’s sister in a psychiatric hospital. A hardcover-worthy paperback original.

Ashcroft, Frances. The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body. Norton. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780393078039. $28.95. SCIENCE
From the first stirrings in the primordial muck to our brain’s elaborate pulsings when we read or watch Shakespeare, electricity is life, and much-honored Oxford physiologist Ashcroft—recently winner of the top honor in the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards—explains how it drives the body. Historical perspective, too (the book harks back to the Greeks); insight from a master.

The Best Science Writing Online 2012. ed. by Jennifer Ouellette. Scientific American/Farrar. Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780374533342. pap. $16. SCIENCE
You have to love a science writer whose accomplishments include maintaining the Cocktail Party Physics blog. That’s Ouellette, who here guest edits the sixth edition of an anthology launched by Bora Zivkovic, editor of the blog network at Scientific American. With pieces ranging from fluids to fungi, written by rising stars, here’s online writing about science—how much more cutting edge can you get?

Brown, Lester R. Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. Norton. Sept. 2012. 160p. ISBN 9780393088915. $27.95. SCIENCE/POLICY
As the subtitle suggests, Brown—president of the Earth Policy Institute, a MacArthur Fellow, and a prolific author to boot (e.g., World on the Edge)—has something potent to say about the human-made aspect of the famines that keep stalking this planet. Dedicated readers will appreciate.

Cantu, Robert, MD & Mark Hyman. Concussions and Our Kids: America’s Leading Expert on How To Protect Young Athletes and Keep Sports Safe. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780547773940. $27. SPORTS/HEALTH
Concussion has become a major issue in sports, plaguing professional athletes and youngsters alike. A clinical professor of neurosurgery and codirector of Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, as well as chair of the Department of Surgery at Emerson Hospital, Cantu has treated of thousands of patients with brain trauma. Here he both explains how to treat concussions and, more important, how to prevent them. There will be national TV coverage, so expect interest.

Chafe, William H. Bill and Hillary: The Politics of the Personal. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780809094653. $28. BIOGRAPHY
That the personal is political is a well-worn adage, but it takes on new meaning when examining not one politician but two—specifically, Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose commitment to each other, as well as to key issues like race and gender equality, have shaped their careers. Duke history professor Chafe, whose numerous titles include The Rise and Fall of the American Century, considers their early years, “copresidency,” tempestuous relationship, and more.

Cotton, Dorothy. If Your Back’s Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780743296830. $25; eISBN 9781439187425. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
This autobiography by Cotton, former director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Citizens Education Project and the only woman in Martin Luther King’s inner circle, was featured here as a pick in September 2011. The subtitle change since then (from “How the Civil Rights Movement Gained Victory”) suggests a shift in focus that makes the book more personal.

Dauch, Richard. American Drive: The Road to More Jobs, a Stronger Economy, and Renewed Industrial Dominance in America. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781250010827. $27.99; eISBN 9781250010834. ECONOMICS
In 1994, after 30 years in the automotive industry, Dauch decided to get behind the wheel and bought an ailing axle and supply company, which included five crumbling plants in the center of Detroit. After rebuilding the plants, renegotiating with unions, and instituting job training, he opened up for business—and made a $60 million profit in the first month. His account is being positioned as a blueprint for fixing our economic woes.

Eco, Umberto. Inventing the Enemy: Essays. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780547640976. $25. ESSAYS
Eco’s recent The Prague Cemetery proposed that countries needs enemies and invent them if none are to be found—an intriguingly relevant thought in today’s world and the basis of one of the essays in his new collection. Other topics: censorship, Wikileaks, James Joyce’s Ulysses, lost islands, and—not surprisingly from the author of the immortal The Name of the Rose—the medieval world. Bonbons for the literati and maybe others.

Elie, Paul. Soundabout: Reinventing Bach. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 496p. ISBN 9780374281076. $30. MUSIC
A senior fellow with Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs whose first book, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, received the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize, Elie explains how Bach shaped music—not simply through his ineffable compositions but by perfecting the tuning scheme we use today, for instance—and how subsequently Bach has been shaped by musicians from Albert Schweitzer to Pablo Casals, Glenn Gould, and Yo-Yo Ma. Today, technology from smartphones to multimedia presentations is allowing us to hear Bach’s multiple voices in different ways. Such a cool idea if it works.

Gottman, John & Nan Silver. What Makes Love Last?: How To Build Trust and Avoid Betrayal. S. & S. Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9781451608472. $26; eISBN 9781451608496. SELF-HELP
Gottman runs the Love Lab at the University of Washington, Seattle, which sounds hippy-dippy until you realize that his 35 years of research into marriage have earned him honors from the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Psychological Association, among other organizations. Here he talks about maintaining trust, rebuilding after betrayal, and watching out for what he calls sliding door moments—pivotal points when a couple can connect more deeply or start to spin apart. Bigger than your standard self-help stuff.

Makary, Marty. MD. Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Sept. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781608198368. $28. HEALTH
The Johns Hopkins surgeon who developed the checklist that inspired Atul Gawande’s best-selling The Checklist Manifesto, Makary here challenges the lack of transparency in health care, which leaves patients ignorant and error rates uncomfortably high despite efforts to curb them. Here he argues for accountability, aiming to reward the good doctors and ditch the bad ones. Let’s hear it from the inside! With a five-city tour to Baltimore, Boston, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York.

Marshall, Penny. My Mother Was Nuts. New Harvest: Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780547892627. $26. MEMOIR
Marshall started out as Laverne in the beloved sitcom Laverne and Shirley but made her mark as the first woman to direct films that made more than $100 million, namely, Big and A League of Their Own. Your chance to spend some more time in Hollywood.

Min, Janice. How To Look Hot in a Minivan: A Real Woman’s Guide to Losing Weight, Looking Great, and Dressing Chic in the Age of the Celebrity Mom. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780312658977. $26.99; eISBN 9781429960588. FITNESS/GROOMING
The former editor of US Weekly and current editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter, Min knows how Hollywood types make motherhood look glam. Now she’s sharing these secrets with ordinary mortals. Too late for me, but the rest of you might be interested; check out the author tour and heavyweight promotion, which will include fashion, parenting, and mommy blogs.

Pinsky, Drew. Recovering Intimacy. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781451605716. $26; eISBN 9781451605730. SELF-HELP
Despite our in-your-face interconnectedness via social media, achieving true intimacy is hard—some would say harder than ever. Doctor, best-selling author, and TV personality, Pinsky explains how to sense when a relationship is faltering and to build and maintain deep personal bonds, whether with friends, family, or partners. Pinsky has fans.

Roth, Marco. The Scientists: A Family Romance. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 192p. ISBN 9780374210281. $23. MEMOIR
Dinnertime conversations about scientific advances and house concerts open to guests—that’s what it was like for Roth, who grew up in New York, the only child of a doctor and a concert pianist. Then his father started exhibiting the first signs of AIDS, which he had contracted in the 1980s, radically rearranging Roth’s world and leaving behind a legacy of silence. A cofounder of n + 1 and recipient of the 2011 Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism, Roth can be expected to offer an elegant examination of what we learn from our parents and what we have to learn for ourselves.

Self, Robert O. All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s. Hill & Wang: Farrar. Sept. 2012. 512p. ISBN 9780809095025. $30. HISTORY
Here’s what family values have meant to the Left since the 1960s: first Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty, then the fight for racial and gender equality, then the fight for gay rights, health care reform, and welfare reform. Those multiplying interests have fractured Leftist ranks, allowing the Right to sweep in with its version of family values: a single-minded traditional take. So argues Brown history professor Self, a James A. Rawley Prize winner for American Babylon, who’s clarifying an idea many of us have sensed for some time. Intriguing to think of this as backdrop for the elections.

Silber, William L. Volcker: Central Banker. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781608190706. $30. BIOGRAPHY
We owe a lot to Paul A. Volcker. As Federal Reserve chair, he helped curb booming inflation in the 1970s, while as chair of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board he grappled with 2008’s financial implosion; Obama dubbed the centerpiece of his Wall Street regulation the Volcker Rule. Silber is not just director of the Glucksman Institute for Research in Securities Markets at NYU’s Stern School of Business but an author as well—from trade titles to the standard textbook Money, Banking and Financial Markets—so should be able to explain Volcker’s accomplishments to the financially challenged.

Sullivan, Robert. My American Revolution. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780374217457. $26. HISTORY
Maybe the shot heard ’round the world was fired in Lexington, MA, but most of the fighting during the Revolutionary War took place in the Middle Colonies. This I know, having grown up in a family deeply invested in supporting Trenton’s Old Barracks and in visiting Pennsylvania’s Valley Forge. Sullivan wanted to experience the war where it actually happened, so he witnessed reenactments of the crossing of the Delaware, tramped through New Jersey backyards, built a Colonial-style signal beacon, and even evacuated illegally from Brooklyn to Manhattan in a handmade boat. History as lived, not just read—which sounds great.

Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Rethinking Character and Intelligence. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780547564654. $27. EDUCATION
Listen up, pushy parents; intelligence is not necessarily the attribute children need to develop most. Psychologists, neuroscientists, and even economists are now refocusing on qualities like perseverance, optimism, and curiosity as the true catalysts of success. So may we now throw out the SATs? This book served as the basis of a New York Times magazine cover story, and there’s a 12-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Montreal, so expect demand.

Tyler, Patrick. Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country—And Why They Can’t Make Peace. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 560p. ISBN 9780374281045. $30. POLITICAL SCIENCE
A longtime reporter at the Washington Post and then the New York Times whose The Great Wall won the 2000 Lionel Gelber Prize, Tyler here argues that Israel is not the democracy it proclaims itself to be but a military society built with the Holocaust in mind and now committed to maintaining war. Look for the controversy over this one.

Bennett, Amanda. The Cost of Hope. Random. Jun. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781400069842. $26; eISBN 9780679604846. MEMOIR/HEALTHCARE
Not your standard memoir. Yes, Bennett is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, currently executive editor at Bloomberg and cochair of the Pulitzer Prize board. And, yes, she writes about her marriage to the wacky, delightful Terrence and their struggle when he was diagnosed with cancer. But after Terrence’s death she requested his medical records and learned something about how medical costs are set that she wants to share with us all. A 30,000-copy first printing; not fluff.

Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan. Knopf. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780307967146. $27.95; eISBN 9780307958425. Downloadable: Random Audio. CURRENT EVENTS
Having taken on America’s pie-in-the-sky planning for the occupation of Iraq in Life in the Emerald City, an Overseas Press Club Book Award winner, Chandrasekaran is well equipped to consider the “war within the war” in southern Afghanistan in the year of Obama’s surge. There, the military parted ways with President Obama’s directives as nation building gave way to compromise and tacit acceptance of corruption. Important documentation that I hope readers aren’t too jaded to consider; with a 100,000-copy first printing.  

Cohen, Andy. Here’s What: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture. Holt. Jun. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780805095838. $25. MEMOIR/PERFORMING ARTS
Bravo’s executive vice president of original programming and development, Cohen is the man who gave us Real Housewives. Here he talks about his enduring love for television (as a kid, he wrote home from camp to remind his mother to record the soaps) and his experiences as a gay man. Go for it, pop fans.

Keen, Andrew. Digital Vertigo: How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780312624989. $25.99. TECHNOLOGY/SOCIAL SCIENCE
Social-media networking is supposed to be bringing us closer together. But in fact, argues Keen, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who writes regularly for venues from the Weekly Standard to Jazziz, it ends up dividing rather than uniting us; the desire for individualistic expression (“it’s all about me”) trumps efforts at community building. An informed contrarian; keep your eye out.

McDermott, Terry & Josh Meyer, The Hunt for KSM. Little, Brown. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780316186599. $27.99. CURRENT EVENTS
Responsible for al-Qaeda’s recruitment, training, and terrorism, Khalid Sheik Mohammad is considered the chief architect of the 9/11 attacks; he was captured in March 2003 by American and Pakistani intelligence agents and remains in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. This story of his capture is based on hundreds of interviews conducted by journalist McDermott (Perfect Soldiers), author of an eye-opening piece on KSM (as he is known) in The New Yorker, and Pulitzer Prize winner Meyer, whose “Inside al Qaeda” series ran in the Los Angeles Times. Serious politicos will want this.  

McMillan, Tracy. Why You’re Not Married: Straight Talk You Need To Get the Relationship You Deserve. Ballantine. Jun. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780345532923. $25; eISBN 9780345532930. RELATIONSHIPS
McMillan has two interesting qualifications for writing this book. First, her Huffington Post piece on the subject is the fourth most viewed in Huffington history, having hit 1.4 million views and counting. Second, she has been married three times herself and has some idea of what went wrong. Pretty no-nonsense; one chapter called “You’re a Bitch” examines issues of anger and fear. Given the popularity of the original piece and the subject itself, this looks like a strong purchase.

Samuelsson, Marcus. Yes, Chef. Random. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780385342605. $26; eISBN 9780440338819. CD: Random Audio. MEMOIR/FOOD
Orphaned in Ethiopia, raised by an adoptive family in Sweden, the youngest chef ever to be given three stars by the New York Times, and recent proprietor of Red Rooster in Harlem, James Beard Award–winning chef Samuelsson has some story to tell. Yes, food memoirs are sizzling, Samuelsson has 30,000 Twitter followers, and the issues here go beyond eating—Samuelsson considers what it’s like to be a black man in the white-white world of upscale cooking.   

Sennett, Frank. Groupon’s Biggest Deal Ever: The Inside Story of How One Insane Gamble, Tons of Unbelievable Hype, and Millions of Wild Deals Made Billions for One Ballsy Joker. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250000842. $25.99. ECONOMICS
A discount service offering a deal a day at local merchants in cities worldwide, Groupon was founded by Andrew Mason, who turned down a $6 billion buyout offer from Google in 2010 and is now an online behemoth worth $30 billion. Groupon is now reputedly the fastest-growing company in Internet history. Sennett, who is Time Out Chicago’s editor in chief, profiles the company and risk-taker Mason. If you want to stay au courant.

Shriver, Mark. A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sarge Shriver. Holt. Jun. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780805095302. $24; CD: Macmillan Audio. MEMOIR
Sargent Shriver founded the Peace Corps and helped bring about President Johnson’s War on Poverty, but this is not an account of his accomplishments. Instead, son Mark portrays a kind and good man whose daily behavior was shaped by the principles articulated here, which the author determined through conversations and examination of notes and letters after his father’s death. A heart warmer.

Stott, Rebecca. Darwin’s Ghosts. Spiegel & Grau. Jun. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9781400069378. $27; eISBN 9780679604136. SCIENCE
There’s so much that’s intriguing about this book. First, the subject: Stott points out that evolution was not an idea dreamed up by Charles Darwin but evolved (pardon the expression) over millennia. Here she provides the history of an idea, starting with Aristotle and working up through the Arab world to the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species. Second, Stott is not a scientist, which at first gave me pause, but a noteworthy novelist (Ghostwalk) and English literature professor. But she’s proved her science bona fides with the well-received Darwin and the Barnacle, and her writing skills should enhance the telling of this tale.

Stutz, Phil & Barry Michels. The Tools. Spiegel & Grau. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780679644446. $25; eISBN 9780679644453. CD: Random Audio. SELF-HELP/PSYCHOLOGY
Frustrated with how long standard therapy takes—the complaint of plenty of patients, too—psychotherapist Michels turned to Stutz, a psychiatrist who had devised a set of tools aimed at bringing about quick, decisive change. The results have been good enough to bring the authors a New Yorker profile, and because their Los Angeles–based practices bring celebrity patients as well, testimonials are promised that will surely drive readership. For me, though, the idea of rapid improvement instead of just talk, talk, talk is what appeals. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Tye, Larry. Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero. Random. Jun. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9781400068661. $27; eISBN 9781588369185. CD: Random Audio. POP CULTURE/HISTORY
The best-selling author of Satchel, about Negro Leagues pitcher Satchel Paige, here profiles a very different kind of American hero—one that is in fact imaginary. But as Tye shows, Superman both reflected and affected the American psyche tremendously. Tye uses his skills as a former Boston Globe reporter to interview over 300 people involved with the Superman story and even gives us some little-known facts about this hero—for instance, he’s Jewish. Now that should get people to read the book.