January...

• One Soldier's War
  Author: Babchenko, Arkady
  Publisher: PGW $ 25 ISBN: 9780802118608 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  One Soldier's War is a visceral and unflinching memoir of a young Russian soldiers experience in the Chechen wars that brilliantly captures the fear, drudgery, chaos, and brutality of modern combat.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted
  Author: Boylan, Jennifer Finney
  Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780767921749 Date: 2008
  LJ PW
  From the bestselling author of She's Not There comes another buoyant, unforgettable memoir about growing up in a haunted house--and making peace with the ghosts that dwell in the heart.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope
  Author: Cohen, Richard M.
  Publisher: HarperCollins $24.95 ISBN: 9780060763114 Date: 2008
  PW
  The "New York Times" bestselling author of Blindsided offers an honest and inspirational perspective on living with chronic illness, witnessed through the lives of five remarkable individuals.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
  Author: Faust, Drew Gilpin
  Publisher: Knopf $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780375404047 Date: 2008
  LJ
  Eminent historian Faust presents an illuminating study of the American struggle to comprehend the meaning and practicalities of death in the face of the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War.
  Updated 11.19.07
  
• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
  Author: Pollan, Michael
  Publisher: Penguin $ 21.95 ISBN: 9781594201455 Date: 2008
  PW
  From the author of the bestselling The Omnivore's Dilemma comes this bracing and eloquent manifesto that shows readers how they might start makin g thoughtful food choices that will enrich their lives and enlarge their sense of what it means to be healthy.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Her Last Death: A Memoir
  Author: Sonnenberg, Susanna
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 9780743291088 Date: 2008
  Booklist LJ
  A searing, beautifully written, and compulsively readable memoir by a daughter who grew up with a narcissistic and addictive mother. Sonnenberg mines her painful and often startling memories as she examines her struggle to break free of her mother's all-consuming influence.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
  Author: Weiner, Eric
  Publisher: Grand Central $ 25.99 ISBN: 9780446580267 Date: 2008
  PW
  Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness."
  Updated 2.27.08
  

February...

• The Predictably Irrational: A Behavioral Economist's Startling Insights for Irrationally Better Life
  Author: Ariely, Dan
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780061353239 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  In the tradition of Freakonomics and Blink a behavioral economist argues that human behavior is often anything but rational--that thoughts are not random, but instead are systematic and predictable.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• The Good Rat: A True Story
  Author: Breslin, Jimmy
  Publisher: Ecco $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780060856663 Date: 2008
  Booklist
  From Pulitzer Prize-winner Breslin comes the streetwise saga of the Mafias golden era and its decadent demise.
  Updated 11.19.07
  
• The Perfect Scent: A Year Behind the Scenes of the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York
  Author: Burr, Chandler
  Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 9780805080377 Date: 2008
  PW
  From the "New York Times" perfume critic comes a stylish, fascinating, unprecedented insiders view of an industry and its charismatic characters. Writing with wit and elegance, Burr juxtaposes the stories of two perfumes--one created for a luxury-goods house, the other made by a giant international corporation.
  Updated 10.31.07
  
• Swallow the Ocean: A Memoir
  Author: Flynn, Laura M.
  Publisher: PGW $23 ISBN: 9781582433851 Date: 2008
  Booklist
  Set in 1970s San Francisco, Swallow the Ocean is a searing, beautifully written memoir of a childhood under siege and three young girls determined to survive despite their mothers mental instability. In luminous prose, this memoir paints an intimate portrait of what might have been a catastrophic childhood.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Storming Las Vegas
  Author: Huddy, John
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 26 ISBN: 9780345487452 Date: 2008
  PW
  Huddy tells the memorable true-crime story of how a Cuban-born, Soviet-trained commando takes down the Las Vegas Strip to the tune of five world-class hotels, three armored cars, and three million dollars, over a 16-month period.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed
  Author: Kodas, Michael
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781401302733 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  Kodas details how the recent infusion of wealth into mountaineering has brought about the age-old lust for glory. Through others accounts, as well as his own, the author illustrates the mountain's ability to reduce climbers to their essential selves--revealing villains as well as heroes.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street
  Author: Nicholl, Charles
  Publisher: Penguin $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780670018505 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  Acclaimed writer Nicholl presents a brilliantly drawn detective story with entirely new insights into Shakespeare's life, in this atmospheric and exciting book.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• The Life of the Skies
  Author: Rosen, Jonathan
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 9780374186302 Date: 2008
  PW
  In this illuminating and charming book, Rosen shows us the poetry, the philosophy, and the history--natural and human--of the strange modern pastime of bird-watching.--Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and The Stuff of Thought.
  Updated 1.3.08
  
• Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret
  Author: Shulman, Seth
  Publisher: Norton $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780393062069 Date: 2008
  Booklist PW
  Shulman challenges the reputation of an icon of invention, rocks the foundation of a corporate behemoth, and offers a probing meditation on how little Americans know about their own history.
  Updated 2.27.08
  

March...

• Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World's Fastest Human Being
  Author: Balf, Todd
  Publisher: Random $ 24 ISBN: 9780307236586 Date: 2008
  Booklist
  Balf brings to life the fascinating story of cyclist Major Taylor, America's first African-American sports mega-celebrity and his quest to beat out his white, racist rival for the title of the Fastest Man in the World at the turn of the century.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Jumbo: This Being the True Story of the Greatest Elephant in the World
  Author: Chambers, Paul
  Publisher: Steerforth $ 23.95 ISBN: 9781586421410 Date: 2008
  LJ
  Updated 11.19.07
  
• Have You Found Her: A Memoir
  Author: Erlbaum, Janice
  Publisher: Random $ 14 ISBN: 9780812974577 Date: 2008
  Booklist
  Twenty years after she lived at a homeless shelter for teens, Erlbaum went back to volunteer. There she met Sam, a 19-year-old junkie savant whod been surviving alone on the streets since she was 12. Written with startling candor, this is the story of one womans quest to save a girl's life.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People
  Author: Goodison, Lorna
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061337550 Date: 2008
  PW
  In lush, vivid prose, textured with the cadences of Creole speech, Goodison weaves together memory and mythology to create a vivid tapestry of her ancestors and the places they called home.
  Updated 2.27.08
• Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human
  Author: Hess, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Bantam $ 23 ISBN:9780553803839 Date: 2008
  PW
  Hess delivers the heart-tugging true story of Nim, a baby chimpanzee whose human-like manners and behavior have made him a celebrity in 1973. Nims story is by turns moving, tragic, and hilarious, and has raised profound questions about what it means to be human.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival
  Author: Jones, Margaret B.
  Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781594489778 Date: 2008
  LJ Booklist
  This memoir is the stunning account of a mixed-race girl growing up in gang-ridden South Central Los Angeles, where she followed her foster brothers into the Bloods before she hit puberty. Jones chronicles what she witnessed, how she survived, and--against all odds--thrived.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Amalia's Tale: A Poor Peasant, and Ambitious Attorney, and a Fight for Justice
  Author: Kertzer, David I.
  Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 9780618551064 Date: 2008
  PW
  Updated 10.31.07
  
• The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
  Author: Lee, Jennifer 8
  Publisher: Grand Central $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780446580076 Date: 2008
  PW
  Readers take an unexpected and entertaining journey through culinary, social, and cultural history in this delightful first book on the origins of the customary after-Chinese-dinner treat by "New York Times" reporter Lee.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre
  Author: Richard, Grant
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 15 ISBN: 9781416534402 Date: 2008
  PW
  Part gonzo misadventure, part cultural history, God's Middle Finger explores a fascinating land--the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico--where few outsiders are foolish enough to venture.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction
  Author: Sheff, David
  Publisher:Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 9780618683352 Date: 2008
  LJ Booklist
  Sheffs story tells of his teenage sons addiction to meth in this real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the familys gradual emergence into hope.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Cheer! A Year in the Extreme World of Competitive College Cheerleading
  Author: Torgovnick, Kate
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781416535966 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  Bring It On meets Pledged in this fascinating odyssey through the world of competitive college cheerleading.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Long After Midnight at the Nino Bien: A Yankqui's Missteps in Argentina
  Author: Winter, Brian
  Publisher: Perseus $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781586483708 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  In a book that is part travelogue, part history, a young American reporter moves to Argentina and struggles to learn the tango. He discovers that the tango, with its tales of jealousy, melodrama, and lost glory, may hold the secret to the country that is inexplicably disintegrating before his eyes.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• A Step from Death
  Author: Woiwode, Larry
  Publisher: PGW $ 24 ISBN: 9781582433738 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  Larry Woiwode's literary fame began with his first novel, the 1969 classic What I'm Going to Do, I Think, and continued unabated through his brilliant 2000 memoir What I Think I Did. In this deeply affecting follow-up to the latter, Woiwode addresses his son as heir to his emotional interior. With vibrant wordcraft and a poetic sensibility, Woiwode begins his story by relating a near-death experience with a malfunctioning hay baler 2; the kind of mistake that can kill a novice farmer. This episode is the first skein in a rich tapestry of memories, from colorful snippets of Woiwode7;s time in New York as a young writer working with the late, great William Maxwell, to his days as a young father, husband, and teacher trying to scrape enough together to buy a ranch in western North Dakota, and finally to the prospect of an empty nest and the step from death that he finds rapidly approaching.
  Updated 2.27.08
  

April...

• I Was Told There'd Be Cake
  Author: Crosley, Sloane
  Publisher: Penguin $ 14ISBN: 9781594483066 Date: 2008
  PW
  Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. Crosby's strikingly original voice chronicles the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• The Execution of Willie Francis
  Author: King, Gilbert
  Publisher: Perseus $ 26 ISBN: 9780465002658 Date: 2008
  Kirkus LJ
  The inspiration behind A Lesson Before Dying meets the best of John Grisham as a young Cajun lawyer fights to save a black teenager from the electric chair.
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• Panama Fever: The Epic History of One of the Greatest Engineering Triumphs of All Time: the Building of the Panama Canal
  Author: Parker, Matthew
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 30 ISBN: 9780385515344 Date: 2008
  PW
  A tale of exploration, conquest, money, politics, and medicine, Panama Fever charts the challenges that marked the long, labyrinthine road to the building of one of the greatest engineering feats in human history.
  Updated 10.31.07
  
• Apples Are from Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared
  Author: Robbins, Christopher
  Publisher: Norton $ 24 ISBN: 9780977743384 Date: 2008
  Kirkus LJ
  In this funny and revealing travelogue of Kazakhstan--a blank in Westerners' collective geography--Robbins reveals the country to be diverse, tolerant, and surprisingly modern. A superlative addition to the literature of travel--"The Observer" (UK).
  Updated 2.27.08
  
• The Suspicions of Mr.Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
  Author: Summerscale, Kate
  Publisher: Walker $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780802715357 Date: 2008
  PW
  In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land.
  Updated 10.31.07
  

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