By Julia Sweeney Free Press, $26.00, 288 pages Now a working wife and mother, Sweeney takes advantage of a rare month alone to write down her thoughts on religion and atheism, adoption and abortion, race and class, and, ironically, her family. Because …
By Ken Jennings Scribner, $19.99, 256 pages Chew each bite thirty times! Early to bed, early to rise. Don’t cross your eyes or they’ll stay like that! Sit up straight! We only use 10 percent of our brains. From catching …
By John Mullan Bloomsbury Press, $30.00, 352 pages What is it that draws us back to Jane Austen’s characters year after year? What fuels this obsession of reinventing her stories and retelling them to new audiences? And what keeps us …
By Jessica Fellowes, Matthew Sturgis St. Martin’s Press, $29.99, 320 pages Just like the third season of Downton Abbey, the indispensable companion book has arrived. If you haven’t caught the Downton Abbey bug, then The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era by Jessica …
By Loren Collins Prometheus Books, $19.00, 267 pages People can easily be fooled, and common sense is not always the best indicator of truth. Subject to all sorts of biases and prejudices, even the most rational among us can be convinced, by …
By John Ayto Oxford University Press, $24.95, 405 pages The Diner’s Dictionary: Word Origins of Food & Drink is written in the tradition of a dictionary: an alphabetical listing of food-related words. Think Blount’s Alphabet Juice for the foodie. Certain things …
By Tim Webb, Stephen Beaumont Sterling Epicure, $30.00, 256 pages What a treasure trove of information! Beginning with the basics of beer, including what beer is, its history, and how it’s made, this book is great for those just beginning to appreciate …
By Nancy Reagin and Janice Liedl (editors) Wiley, $29.95, 328 pages The Star Wars universe is without a doubt the most elaborate and expansive fictional setting in pop culture history. It spans thousands of years, hundreds of planets, and an impossibly diverse …
By Constance Hale W.W. Norton, $26.95, 400 pages When I think of a book about grammar, I expect a collection of rules: “Always form complete sentences.” ”Don’t put prepositions at the end of a sentence.” I expect to be bored. I don’t expect …
By Craig Brown Simon & Schuster, $26.95, 356 pages I have a hard time believing in the prophecies of Nostradamus or anyone else, because history is so full of weird coincidences, lucky breaks, and opportune bumping-intos that it’s virtually impossible for anyone …
By Steven Rinella Spiegel & Grau, $16.25, 236 pages Poetry, philosophy, and imagery; not only musings on the author’s own life experiences, but a well-researched anthropological study of hunting’s place in our souls… and stomachs. Hunting and storytelling are linked in the …
By Adam Brent Houghtaling Itbooks, $16.99, 268 pages Sir Elton John once wrote “sad songs say so much.” Author Adam Brent Houghtaling shows us in a uniquely original casual cataloging of those “sad songs” in This Will End in Tears. With entries about …
By Pamela Redmond Satran Bloomsbury USA, $18.00, 164 pages Chihuahuas dressed in geisha costumes. Schnauzers drinking out of wine goblets. Whippets wearing couture ball gowns. The pictures alone are worth the cost of Pamela Redmond Satran’s Rabid: Are You Crazy About Your Dog …
By Jeremy Stangroom Norton, $15.95, 144 pages Morality and choices. What do your choices say about you? This book allows you to look at yourself honestly with a selection of hypothetical questions. Should we punish the innocent? Should we sacrifice one to …
By Chris Ballard Hyperion, $24.99, 254 pages One Shot at Forever proves that Bad News Bears stories do happen in real life. This is the tale of the 1971 high school baseball team from the rust belt town of Macon, Illinois. The …
