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| Best Selling Nonfiction |
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Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities
by Elizabeth Edwards
Published 2009 by Broadway Books
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Jacket Notes:
She's one of the most beloved political figures in the country, and on the surface, seems to have led a charmed life. In many ways, she has. Beautiful family. Thriving career. Supportive friendship. Loving marriage. But she's no stranger to adversity. Many know of the strength she had shown after her son, Wade, was killed in a freak car accident when he was only sixteen years old. She would exhibit this remarkable grace and courage again when the very private matter of her husband's infidelity became public fodder. And her own life has been on the line. Days before the 2004 presidential election--when her husband John was running for vice president--she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After rounds of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation the cancer went away--only to reoccur in 2007. While on the campaign trail, Elizabeth met many others who have had to contend with serious adversity in their lives, and in "Resilience," she draws on their experiences as well as her own, crafting an unsentimental and ultimately inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life's biggest challenges. This short, powerful, pocket-sized inspirational book makes an ideal gift for anyone dealing with difficulties in their life, who can find peace in knowing they are not alone, and promise that things can get better."
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The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
by David A Kessler
Published 2009 by Rodale Press
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REVIEW: Booklist
Kessler surveys the world of modern industrial food production and distribution as reflected in both restaurants and grocery stores. To his chagrin, he finds that the system foists on the American public foods overloaded with fats, sugars, and salt. Each of these elements, consumed in excess, has been linked to serious long-term health problems. Kessler examines iconic foods such as Cinnabon and Big Macs, all of which have skilled marketing machines promoting consumption. Such nutritionally unbalanced foods propel people who already tend to eat more than mere physical need might otherwise warrant into uncontrolled behavior patterns of irrational eating. These persistent psychological and sensory stimuli lead to what Kessler terms "conditioned hypereating," which he believes is a disease rather than a failure of willpower. There is hope, however. Kessler identifies the cues that lead to overeating and offers some simple, practical tools to help control one's impulses.
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Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir
by Christopher Buckley
Published 2009 by Twelve
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Jacket Notes:
Bestselling author Buckley's most personal and transcendent work--the tragicomic true story of the year in which he lost both of his parents. The author offers consolation, wit, and warmth to those coping with the death of a mother or father. In twelve months between 2007 and 2008, Christopher Buckley coped with the passing of his father, William F. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, and his mother, Patricia Taylor Buckley, one of New York's most glamorous and colorful socialites. He was their only child and their relationship was close and complicated. Writes Buckley: "They were not - with respect to every other set of loving, wonderful parents in the world - your typical mom and dad." As Buckley tells the story of their final year together, he takes readers on a surprisingly entertaining tour through hospitals, funeral homes, and memorial services, capturing the heartbreaking and disorienting feeling of becoming a 55-year-old orphan. Buckley maintains his sense of humor by recalling the words of Oscar Wilde: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness."
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Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
by Doug Stanton
Published 2009 by Scribner Book Company
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REVIEW: Kirkus
An action-packed, breathless account of American special-forces heroics that helped defeat the Taliban in the months after 9/11. Stanton apparently belongs to the history-is-boring school of writing, so he converts his material into a dime-novel narrative complete with strong-jawed American heroes, sneering villains, colorful natives and a relentless series of melodramatic cliff-hangers—an odd authorial choice, given that the plain facts are irresistible. Enraged at the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden after 9/11, the United States resolved to invade Afghanistan. When military leaders realized it would take months to move soldiers to the distant, landlocked nation, they sent small numbers of elite Special Forces to support opposition fighters, guide precision air attacks and bribe local warlords to join. It worked brilliantly. Stanton recounts the lives of a dozen such soldiers and undercover CIA operatives, revealing their emotions and thoughts, quoting inner monologues and inventing dialogue to dramatize events. He invents similar scenarios for many Afghan figures and for John Walker Lindh, the American who fought for the Taliban. Using diplomatic skills, money, airdropped supplies and high-tech communications equipment, the soldiers inspired Afghan forces, who did almost all the fighting, to unite and crush the Taliban. In the final pages Stanton admits that America squandered this dazzling triumph. Happily proclaiming victory, the administration turned its attention elsewhere as Afghanistan descended into chaos from which the Taliban emerged again to control most of the country.
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War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars
by Richard N Haass
Published 2009 by Simon & Schuster
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416549024
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REVIEW: Library Journal
Having served several U.S. administrations in high-level foreign policy positions for over two decades, Haass (The Opportunity), president of the Council on Foreign Relations, arguably the most influential foreign policy think tank in the United States, is uniquely qualified to provide readers with foreign policy insights and analysis. In this book, he compares, from both personal and historical perspectives, the U.S. decision-making process during two wars launched against Iraq. Haass was on the Security Council staff during George H.W. Bush's war, and he was director of policy planning in George W. Bush's State Department. As Haass persuasively argues, the first Iraq War was launched by a broad coalition of countries to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait and is described by Haass as an example of a classic war of collective self-defense, or a war of necessity. The second Iraq conflict, which was launched by the United States in 2003, was a war of choice because it was a preemptive war that ignored viable alternatives to war. Haass also addresses broader issues and forces that continue to affect the making and conduct of U.S. foreign policy.
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The Good Fight: Hard Lessons from Searchlight to Washington
by Harry Reid
Published 2009 by Berkley Publishing Group
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780425227572
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Jacket Notes:
In a voice that is real and passion-filled, Senator Reid tells the tale of two places, intertwining his own story of growing up in the tiny mining town of Searchlight, Nevada, with the cautionary tale of Washington, D.C. After a childhood of shocking poverty, Harry Reid completed law school, working as a policeman to pay his way. He faced death threats as the head of the Nevada Gaming Commission trying to clean up Las Vegas. Eventually he rose to become Senate Majority Leader in Washington--without ever forgetting the mining town he came from, or the battles he fought along the way. This is that rare book by a politician that is more than a glorified press release. It is an extraordinary American story told in a voice that is flinty, real, and filled with passion.
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American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America
by Edmund S Morgan
Published 2009 by W. W. Norton & Company
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780393070101
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REVIEW: Library Journal
This book is a perfect gem. None of the 17 essays here has been published previously in book form, and three of them appear here for the first time. Morgan (Sterling Professor Emeritus, Yale), the winner of just about every major book award, including the Pulitzer, ranges from Christopher Columbus, to the Puritans and sex (which they liked, providing it was in marriage), William Penn, the Anti-Federalists, and historian Perry Miller. Two characteristics that tie the essays together are Morgan's penchant for taking contrarian views of accepted orthodoxies and his admiration for individuals who stood up against authority. His piece on the development of Yale's library in the 18th century demonstrates that books are valuable because they keep alive the memory of dissident voices that otherwise might be drowned out by official, hagiographical versions of a nation's past. His chapter on George Washington and Benjamin Franklin points out that one of the traits that made them great was their ability to say "no" when popular opinion wanted them to act in one way or another. Both specialists and general readers will find this book both authoritative and fun to read.
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In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood
by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt
Published 2009 by Basic Books
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REVIEW: Publishers Weekly
Lehmann-Haupt, executive editor of Plum magazine, entered her 30s feeling optimistic and in control. The accomplished journalist and world traveler had a great boyfriend, too—and fully expected to achieve her next goal: motherhood. When the relationship didn't work out, the author began to wonder if the love-marriage-baby sequence might not happen for her. Like countless 30-something American women, she didn't worry about her fertility during her 20s and 30s, thanks to advances in feminism and medical technology that have given women more options—and the feeling that the so-called biological clock moves more slowly now. Lehmann-Haupt does an excellent job chronicling the societal and medical trends that have influenced modern motherhood. She also describes her pursuit of a romance that will lead to marriage and family, and the choices she makes in an effort to give herself more options. A mix of science, statistics, interviews and personal narrative form this valuable guidebook. It also serves as a compelling reality check as she lists various statistics: women over 35 suffer higher rates of miscarriage; 50,000 children are born to single mothers each year; a third of these mothers choose to become pregnant on their own. In this informative and frank book, Lehmann-Haupt makes a compelling case for education and preparation: "We have more options than ever; understanding them can empower us and, perhaps most importantly, turn panic into peace."
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