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45 favorites in nonfiction

Published December 6, 2003 at midnight

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Daniel Wiegand © News



BIOGRAPHY/ AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, $30). More than producing just another biography, Isaacson offers a kind of graduate-level course on the founding father who remains one of the most accessible figures from the American Revolution.

Her Husband, by Diane Middlebrook (Viking, $25.95). Middlebrook's book about the ill-fated marriage of poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath faces these familiar images head on, with the help of Hughes' personal papers, which were sold to Emory University one year before his death. The result is a fresh, utterly successful combination of biography and literary criticism.

Kate Remembered, by A. Scott Berg (Putnam, $25.95). Berg, a longtime friend of Katharine Hepburn, recalls the last 20 years of the actress's life. The author's keen powers of observation and shrewd readings of his "characters" are evident on every page.

Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra, by George Jacobs and William Stadiem (HarperEntertainment, $24.95). It's payback time for George Jacobs, longtime personal valet to Frank Sinatra who was dismissed without explanation, apology or severance pay 35 years ago. Jacobs and co-author Stadiem stomp on Sinatra with both feet, with spicy details of the star's life, including his obsession with childish practical jokes and his sensitivity about the baldness he tried so hard to obscure.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind, by David Quammen (W.W. Norton, $25.95). By the year 2150, writes the author, all top predators will be dead or in a zoo where captivity and their declining gene pool will eventually render them mere shadows of their species. In his important, erudite and passionate book, Quammen posits a question: Can we exist without large predators?

ESSAYS

Literary Occasions, by V.S. Naipaul (Alfred A. Knopf, $24). Nobel Prize winner Naipaul offers a series of autobiographical essays that reflect on his writing experiences, a career colored by the Trinidad-born writer's search for identity.

The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings, by Amy Tan (Putnam, $24.95). Tan's definition of what makes for a good story describes her own work as well: "a distinctive voice that tells a story only that voice can tell." In this collection of essays, some published previously, Tan reminisces on everything from her childhood to her forays in Hollywood, with a voice that's unmistakably her own.

FOOD

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, by Jacques Pepin (Houghton Mifflin, $26). A captivating memoir in which Pepin recounts his journey from his difficult early years scratching for food in WWII France, through years of grueling training in various kitchens, under tyrannical bosses, to his current status as America's best-known and probably best-loved chef. Pepin's gift for storytelling and his willingness to share earthy, self-deprecating and sometimes painful anecdotes about himself and his family make this book a delightful dish.

Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties From Kansas City to Cuzco, by Calvin Trillin (Random House, $22.95). A collection of 14 rich and spicy essays that regale readers with Trillin's experiences sampling traditional dishes from locales as diverse as San Diego and Barbados.

HISTORY

Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95). A parallel examination of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the murder spree and eventual capture of Dr. H. H. Holmes, often considered America's first serial killer. Larson's writing is so masterly that there are times when the details of the murder spree pale in comparison to the last-minute drive to build the park and its many attractions.

Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify, by Jill Jonnes (Random House, $29.95). Jonnes tells the story of the onset of the electrical age through the lives of three major players: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. A superb and lively look at an era when electricity was known by some as the "mysterious fluid."

Flyboys, by James Bradley (Little, Brown, $25.95). The stories of nine fliers, one of them George H.W. Bush, responsible for launching firebomb attacks on the Japanese during World War II. Through these men, best-selling author Bradley tells a larger story about the histories of Japan and the United States that's as disturbing as it is captivating.

Sea of Glory, by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking, $27.95). The winner of a National Book Award for his previous survival tale, In the Heart of the Sea, Philbrick details a little-known exploration begun in 1838 that rivals Lewis and Clark's journey for its importance in opening up the sea to America. His story of the mission, and the complicated man who led it, makes for an absorbing read.

Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy, by Paul Hendrickson (Alfred A. Knopf, $26). In 1962, James Meredith was the first black to integrate the University of Mississippi. Hendrickson examines that tumultuous event through the lives of seven men captured in a photo at the time, all sheriffs called by the governor to help prevent Meredith's enrollment. Far more than just another recounting of the horrifying events, this book has the power to make us think about where we stand - and who we stand with.

The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox, by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Dutton, $24.95). A page-turning account of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu of London and surgeon Abdiel Boylston of Boston, two unlikely heroes who promoted the concept of smallpox inoculation in the 1700s, in the face of daunting opposition.

They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October, 1967, by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster, $30). In overwhelming texture and detail, Maraniss relates the story of two events that took place 10,000 miles apart during a span of three days in October, 1967: a student protest at the University of Madison and a devastating battle involving American soldiers in Vietnam. A powerful read by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and associate editor at The Washington Post.

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, by David Von Drehle, (Atlantic Monthly Press, $26). The story of a deadly factory fire in New York, in 1911, Von Drehle's book details with complete mastery how the factory owners' exploitation of workers led to the disaster - and, ultimately, to labor reform.

The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides, by Christian G. Appy (Viking, $29.95). Appy covers the vast scope of the Vietnam War through 135 accounts from people of all levels of involvement - from former chief of staff Alexander Haig to Playboy's 1965 Playmate of the Year (who hand-delivered the first issue of a lifetime subscription to a U.S. lieutenant serving in the war).

MEMOIR

A Mighty Heart, by Mariane Pearl with Sarah Crichton (Scribner, $25). Pearl details what led up to the murder of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was killed by Pakistani extremists. Her poignantly-wrought story includes the final, hellish days in Karachi when he was held captive and she, pregnant with their first child, did everything she could to bring him back alive.

The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest, by Aminatta Forna (Atlantic Monthly Press, $26). A stunning account of the author's childhood in Africa, Scotland and at English boarding schools, set against her modern-day search for the truth about her father, a finance minister in the early days of Sierra Leone's independence who was tried for treason.

The Fifth Book of Peace, by Maxine Hong Kingston (Alfred A. Knopf, $26). The original three Books of Peace were said to date to the beginning of Chinese civilization, though the author could find no proof of their existence. Instead, Hong Kingston wrote her own, titled the Fourth Book of Peace - only to be devastated when the nearly completed manuscript was destroyed in a 1991 California firestorm. This is the author's response, a beautiful hybrid that melds fiction with nonfiction to pay tribute to her lost book and her efforts to promote healing among war veterans.

The Story of My Father: A Memoir, by Sue Miller (Alfred A. Knopf, $22.50). Miller holds back nothing in this intense picture of her personal journey to cope with her father's Alzheimer's disease.

NATURE

Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone, by Gary Ferguson (National Geographic, $15). With prose that reads like poetry, this lyrical book recounts Ferguson's 2002 summer stay in Hawk's Rest, Wyo., the place farthest from any road in the lower 48 states.

POLITICS

Bushwacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose (Random House, $24.95). Syndicated columnist Ivins pairs with journalist Dubose for a comprehensive examination of the dark side of the Bush administration's agenda, served up with saucy language and good humor.

POST SEPT. 11

After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era, by Steven Brill (Simon & Schuster, $29.95). An extraordinary work of journalism, Brill's book is a detailed account of what various individuals - including government officials, U.S. customs inspectors, widows, businessmen and lawyers - did to keep America afloat in the wake of Sept. 11.

Middletown, America: One Town's Passage From Trauma to Hope, by Gail Sheehy (Random House, 256 pages, $25.95). With sensitivity and exhaustive detail, Sheehy profiles Middletown, N.J., an area 20 miles from the World Trade Center that suffered the largest number of deaths from the Sept. 11 attacks. A difficult, but affecting read.

RELIGION

Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith With the Poor Clares, by Kristin Ohlson (Theia, $24.95). A former Catholic turned "radical communist atheist," Ohlson writes about the Poor Clares, a dwindling group of nuns who live in a Franciscan church in downtown Cleveland in seclusion and silence. Her five-year project reveals her own humorous and intimate search for faith.

SOCIAL ISSUES

Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World, the Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, by Tracy Kidder (Random House, $25.95). Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kidder profiles the amazing achievements of Paul Farmer, a doctor devoted to the people of Haiti, who has revolutionized ideas about health care in impoverished areas. Farmer's humor shines through in a book that's only disappointment is that it ends.

True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman (Alfred A. Knopf, $24). Fascinating stories about jailed juvenile offenders who took part in Salzman's creative writing program at a correction facility in California. The book intersperses the boys' personal writings with Salzman's thought-provoking recollections.

SPORTS

At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman, by John Gierach (Simon & Schuster, $23). Coloradan Gierach offers artful observations and anecdotes about fishing for anyone who has ever baited a hook, braved a freezing river bank or endlessly waited to catch a fish, debating the reasons all the while.

The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together, by Michael Shapiro (Doubleday, $24.95). A superbly written account of the Dodgers' final season in Brooklyn that tells as much about America as it does about the game.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton & Co., $23.95). In this eye-opening and fun look at baseball, Lewis questions traditional methods of evaluating a player's potential, focusing on strategies devised by Oakland A's general manager and former ballplayer Billy Beane.

Notes of a Baseball Dreamer, by Robert Mayer (Houghton Mifflin, $18). A hilarious, engaging look at Mayer's life as a baseball fanatic.

We Own This Game, by Robert Andrew Powell (Atlantic Monthly Press, $25). Powell tackles the surprisingly tough topic of youth football - and in the process writes a hard-hitting social commentary on Miami's black populace, a community that puts its heart into Pop Warner football with hopes that kids can trade poverty and crime for the big leagues.

TELEVISION

This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV, by Bob Schieffer (Putnam, $26.95). Best known as anchor and moderator of Face the Nation, Schieffer offers behind-the-scenes stories and honest, direct and self-critical appraisal of his years in broadcasting.

TRAVEL

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town, by Paul Theroux (Houghton Mifflin, $28). Theroux details his experiences trekking through Africa, including chatting with the prime minister of Uganda, cruising the Nile with a package-tour group and dodging the bullets of Somali bandits. Neither a sensationalistic reveler in the pain of others, nor a hopeless romantic, Theroux offers up decay and beauty, fear and joy, misery and perseverance.

TRUE CRIME

Journal of the Dead, by Jason Kersten (HarperCollins, $24.95). In the summer of 1999, Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin decided to camp overnight in Calsbad Caverns National Park. Four days later, when park officials found them, Coughlin was dead, stabbed in the chest, and Kodikian told rescuers he had killed him, to put him out of the misery of dehydration. Kersten spins the tale of the men's ordeal - and its aftermath - exploring the notions of mercy killing and moral death along the way.

VOICES AROUND THE WORLD

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo, by Paula Huntley (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, $22.95). A 56-year-old woman from Pocahontas, Ark., finds herself reading The Old Man and the Sea and other stories with a group of Kosovo Albanians, while teaching English in the capital city. Huntley's connections with her students and their families, as well as her willingness to seek out their stories of oppression, rape, massacre and survival, make this book an inspiring read.

Occupied Voices: Stories of Loss and Longing From the Second Intifada, by Wendy Perlman (Thunder's Mouth Press, $14.95). Perlman offers up the fresh and raw stories of everyday Palestinians (mothers, doctors, shop owners, professors), painting a portrait of a people who long for the chance to be citizens in a country of their own.

Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi (Random House, $23.95). Frustrated by the increasing limitations put on her by the Iranian revolution, an English literature professor at the University of Tehran quits her job, handpicking seven women to meet privately in her home to discuss literature. The author recounts these discussions with an infectious passion for books and descriptions of the revolution you won't soon forget.

The Storyteller's Daughter, by Saira Shah (Alfred A. Knopf, $24). A journalist who documented life under the Taliban in the CNN special, Beneath the Veil, Shah writes of her many visits to Afghanistan and the stark realities she discovered there.

MISCELLANEOUS

Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York's Greatest Hoarders, by Franz Lidz (Bloomsbury, $19.95). Lidz profiles his uncle Arthur, a man who passionately hoarded junk, skillfully weaving Arthur's story with the tale of New York hermits Homer and Langley Collyer, who collected so much junk in their four-story brownstone mansion that after their death in 1947, the New York Department of Sanitation ordered its workers sprayed with DDT before cleaning up the building.

Good Morning Midnight: Life and Death in the Wild, by Chip Brown (Riverhead, $24.95). Brown deftly and lyrically explores the complicated life of mountaineer, jazz pianist and Republican speechwriter Guy Waterman, who committed suicide by hiking to the top of a ridge in the New Hampshire mountains, drinking whiskey and sleeping until he succumbed to subzero temperatures.

Delivering Doctor Amelia: The Story of a Gifted Young Obstetrician's Mistake and the Psychologist Who Helped Her, by Dan Shapiro (Harmony Books, $24). When successful obstetrician, Dr. Amelia Sorvino, delivers a baby born with cerebral palsy, the baby's parents blame Sorvino, sending her into a suicidal depression. Psychologist Shapiro shares his attempts to help the doctor, along with recollections of his five-year fight with cancer.