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|  | Berman, Brooke NO PLACE LIKE HOME
March 01, 2010 - Celebrated playwright Berman (Hunting and Gathering, 2008, etc.) recounts her early years in New York City seeking the artist's life, love and suitable lodgings. Student dorms, sublets, roach-infested walk-ups, parentally-funded "princess"
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|  | Berman, Paul THE FLIGHT OF THE INTELLECTUALS
March 01, 2010 - The author begins with Islamic history as defined by its major players, including Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, and Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Drawing from documents stored in government archives in the
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| | Brands, H.W. AMERICAN DREAMS
March 01, 2010 - The author begins with "the war that never ended," as World War II shaded into the Cold War. The Soviets, though weakened by six years of bloodletting, were resolute enough to effectively seize half of Europe after the war—and to impose the blockade
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| | Bryant, Howard THE LAST HERO
March 01, 2010 - Though he retired as the all-time leader in RBIs and total bases, Henry Aaron was "never supposed to be the guy" who ran down the game's most cherished record: Babe Ruth's career 714 home runs. Known for his durability and his amazingly strong
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| | Bryce, Robert POWER HUNGRY
March 01, 2010 - Energy sources must be judged, the author writes, by the four imperatives: power density, energy density, cost and scale. By that measure, oil is a good source of energy, while corn ethanol is not, since corn-ethanol production requires huge swaths
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| | Chabris, Christopher THE INVISIBLE GORILLA
March 01, 2010 - Chabris (Psychology/Union Coll.) and Simons (Psychology/Univ. of Illinois) won a 2004 Ig Nobel Prize for their widely reported "gorilla experiment," which showed that when people focus on one thing, it's easy to overlook other things—even a woman in
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| | Davis, Kenneth C. A NATION RISING
March 01, 2010 - By now the author's formula is familiar—seize a small or misunderstood incident from America's past, identify it as a precursor to or emblematic of a better-known event and use it to illustrate larger themes that have altered the nation's course.
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| | Edmundson, Mark THE FINE WISDOM AND PERFECT TEACHINGS OF THE KINGS OF ROCK AND ROLL
March 01, 2010 - In this erudite, coming-of-age riot, the author deftly navigates the purgatorial rites of passage between university and professional life, developing insightful social critiques and candid self-evaluations along the way. After graduating from a
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| | Egan, Robert EATING WITH THE ENEMY
March 01, 2010 - In his 1992 sworn testimony, the author admitted to POW/MIA Affairs attorney John McCreary that he simply wished to "make a difference…to become part of the solution" in initiating positive dialogue between himself and Vietnamese political
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| | Fisher, June Breton WHEN MONEY WAS IN FASHION
March 01, 2010 - Of German Jewish heritage, Goldman wanted for little after his parents settled in the United States and combined with the similarly situated Sachs family to enter the investment-banking industry. Today the two families play little role in the
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| | Greenlaw, Linda SEAWORTHY
March 01, 2010 - Writing bestsellers and pulling lobster traps out of the bay off her island home in Maine couldn't "fill the void left in the absence of true, hardy, saltwater adventure," so when opportunity knocked to skipper a swordfishing longliner to the blue
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| | Guest, Paul ONE MORE THEORY ABOUT HAPPINESS
March 01, 2010 - When the author was 12, he lost control of a bicycle and flipped over the handlebars, breaking both arms and shattering two neck vertebrae. His hospital experience, related in surreal, fever-dream tones, became a harsh amalgam of "catastrophe and
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| | Guidry, Jeff AN EAGLE NAMED FREEDOM
March 01, 2010 - In 1996, professional guitarist and animal-lover Guidry began volunteering at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to animal rescue and rehab. For years, the author found immense satisfaction in the few hours each week
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| | Helvarg, David SAVED BY THE SEA
March 01, 2010 - Helvarg (Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, America's Forgotten Heroes, 2009, etc.) has led an adventurous life as a journalist, private investigator, producer of documentary films and a political activist. During his boyhood on the north shore
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| | Kirkpatrick, Sidney D. HITLER'S HOLY RELICS
March 01, 2010 - In early 1945, Lt. Walter Horn—an expatriate from the Fatherland with an academic background in art history—learned of a bunker underneath Nuremberg's castle housing secret treasures, known to only a few, including Heinrich Himmler. Before long,
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| | Kumar, Manjit QUANTUM
March 01, 2010 - Wired UK consulting science editor Kumar (Science and the Retreat from Reason, 1997) provides a gripping narrative of the birth of atomic physics in the first half of the 20th century. Max Planck described his 1900 discovery—that light acted on
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| | Le Breton, Binka WHERE THE ROAD ENDS
March 01, 2010 - In 1989, with their children grown and an itch for change, Le Breton (The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang, 2008, etc.) and her husband Robin left Washington, D.C., and purchased a farm in an isolated mountain
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| | Lende, Heather TAKE GOOD CARE OF THE GARDEN AND THE DOGS
March 01, 2010 - In fact, Anchorage Daily News columnist Lende was "run over by a truck…flown out of town, put back together, hospitalized, and finally placed in a nursing home a thousand miles away from home until I was strong enough to travel." After such a
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| | Lipsky, David ALTHOUGH OF COURSE YOU END UP BECOMING YOURSELF
March 01, 2010 - In 1996, the author got the call to drive into the Illinois countryside to find David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) and wrestle a profile of the then-budding cult hero of literature. "I'm thirty years old, he's thirty-four," writes Lipsky. "We both
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| | Lord, James MY QUEER WAR
March 01, 2010 - The author presents himself as utterly ordinary, "average of height, weight, build, unremarkable, in short, in every outward aspect." That unremarkable nature proved useful, for Lord was living a dangerous life in those days—and, as he notes, even
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| | Love, Robert THE GREAT OOM
March 01, 2010 - It wasn't the Beatles who brought Indian spirituality to America, the author discovered, but a Leon, Iowa, native and autodidact (born Perry Arnold Baker) who established the first yoga centers from San Francisco to New York City. As a teenager,
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| | Macintyre, Ben OPERATION MINCEMEAT
March 01, 2010 - Although the invasion finally took place July 10, 1943, allowing the Allied forces an initial foothold into the German "Fortress Europe," the trick that kept the Nazis from fortifying Sicily took place months before. The dead body of a British
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| | McCrum, Robert GLOBISH
March 01, 2010 - The author, who co-wrote the book and subsequent TV series The Story of English (both in 1986), begins with a definition of Globish, then moves through English, American and world history at a breathtaking pace, pausing only occasionally to
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| | Miller, Marla R. BETSY ROSS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA
March 01, 2010 - Miller (History/Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) paints a detailed portrait of the woman credited with the creation of the Stars and Stripes. In fact, the story of George Washington's visit to Betsy Ross (1752–1836), in which she showed him that
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| | Moore, Wes THE OTHER WES MOORE
March 01, 2010 - Author Wes Moore, a Rhodes Scholar, former Army officer and White House Fellow, works in investment banking. The other Wes Moore, a drug dealer, is imprisoned for life. Both are in their early 30s. Upon reading about the other Wes's 2000 conviction
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| | Moses, Kate CAKEWALK
March 01, 2010 - The author grew up in Palo Alto, Calif., in the 1960s, and her mercurial, struggling-artist mother co-dependently bonded amid a male-dominated household. A "compliant, tidy daughter," Moses recalls sugar being the "mainstay of my diet as a child,"
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| | Oreck, Sharon VIDEO SLUT
March 01, 2010 - A self-described "socialistically inclined ex–hippie chick," the author grew up in California, got pregnant at 16 and held random jobs while taking film classes and yearning to become a movie producer. Rejected by top studios, she worked for years
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| | Oreskes, Naomi MERCHANTS OF DOUBT
March 01, 2010 - Oreskes (History and Science Studies/Univ. of California, San Diego) and Conway (Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History, 2008, etc.) begin with the tobacco industry's enlisting of scientists to refute studies linking smoking and lung cancer. To
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| | Poole, Eric WHERE'S MY WAND?
March 01, 2010 - Fox Television radio-marketing executive Poole grew up in the Midwest in a family, and among an assortment of characters, destined to end up in a coming-of-age memoir. Some of the more entertaining stories include the chaos of his parents' fighting
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| | Rakove, Jack REVOLUTIONARIES
March 01, 2010 - Instead of focusing on the battlefield, the author examines what might be called a revolution of the mind—that is, how the early Founding Fathers' ideas developed and took hold. Early on, moderates who did not wish independence from England—such as
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| | Remini, Robert V. AT THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE
March 01, 2010 - Although Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas actually pressed for the passing of the separate bills that effectively became the Compromise of 1850, it was Kentucky Senator Henry Clay who hammered the various proposals by Northerners and Southerners
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| | Rough, Bonnie J. CARRIER
March 01, 2010 - The symptoms of hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED) include the inability to sweat or produce tears, and other physical traits such as sparse hair, few and strangely shaped teeth and dry, nearly hairless skin. In the X-linked form of the
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| | Saint Bris, Gonzague LAFAYETTE
March 01, 2010 - French historian and biographer Saint Bris attempts to correct the prevailing criticism of the Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) as na™ve, in terms of his dealings with the republicans during the French Revolution and allowing himself to be
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| | Schooler, Lynn WALKING HOME
March 01, 2010 - Schooler (The Last Shot: The Incredible Story of the C.S.S. Shenandoah and the True Conclusion of the American Civil War, 2005, etc.) narrates his journey along the western side of Mount Fairweather in Alaska, a trek that completed, in combination
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| | Snow, Richard A MEASURELESS PERIL
March 01, 2010 - The Pacific is often considered the primary locale for the naval battles of WWII, but the effort in the Atlantic, centered on protecting supply lines between the United States and Europe, was no less vital. Snow uses the experiences of his father, a
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| | Waters, John ROLE MODELS
March 01, 2010 - Waters is known for his campy, often hilarious films, including Pink Flamingos (1972) and the mainstream hit Hairspray (1988). In this consistently charming and witty collection of essays, he fondly remembers the many artists he has admired
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| | Woods, Vanessa BONOBO HANDSHAKE
March 01, 2010 - Journalist and research assistant Woods took a romantic plunge in her late 20s, joining her fianc Brian on his quest to discover what makes us human by studying bonobos, a species of chimpanzee found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The
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| Online Exclusive
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| The Arabian Nights: A New Edition
March 01, 2010 - The most famous tales in The Arabian Nights have flown far beyond the confines of the night-shrouded bedroom in which Scheherazade spins stories to the vengeful king who will kill her come morning (unless she makes sure he just has to know what happens next). "There is no such thing as a canonical text of the Nights with a fixed number of stories," writes Middle East scholar Robert Irwin in his introduction to Volume 2 of Penguin Classics' new three-volume edition. So should we care that Cambridge University scholars Malcolm and Ursula Lyons, for the first time since Sir Richard Burton in the 1880s, have based this English translation on the 1839-42 Arabic edition that contains more stories than any other, usually in fuller versions? We should
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