Nonfiction page 2

Nonfiction reviews from our Great Fall Books supplemental newsletter.

 


 

By Judy Shepard
$25.95
ISBN-13: 9781594630576
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hudson Street Press, 09/01/2009
In her poignant memoir, the mother of Matthew Shepard shares her story about her son's death and the choice she made to become an international gay rights activist. We are honored to be hosting Judy Shepard for a book talk and signing on Friday, October 23rd at 7:30. Purchase a copy of The Meaning of Matthew and receive a priority seating voucher for our event. Please visit the event's web page to learn how to order your copy of the book with a voucher on line.

By Michael Greenberg
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780307473547
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage, 09/01/2009

This brutally honest memoir takes you through one man's struggle to deal with his daughter's severe mental problems. It's not easy subject material, but Greenberg strikes a wonderful balance between factual reporting and emotional responding. He presents us with his truth—deep, unsettling, and ambiguous but altogether enlightening.
—Nici Smith


By Michael J. Sandel
$25.00
ISBN-13: 9780374180652
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 09/01/2009

Michael Sandel is best known for his famous Justice course at Harvard and his latest book introduces us to those class concepts of moral citizenry and responsible dialogue. A philosopher by trade, Sandel uses the big picture to examine hot topic current social problems shaping current political discourse. This is a great read for both political junkies or anyone who loves to debate how collective responsibility leads to a more engaged civic life.
—Adrienne Mages


Bicycle Diaries (Hardcover)

By David Byrne
$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780670021147
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Viking Adult, 09/01/2009

By David Harris
$26.00
ISBN-13: 9781400066650
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Random House, 09/01/2008

If you don’t know the name, you’re obviously not a 49ers fan. This is the true tale of Bill Walsh, the San Francisco 49ers coach who transformed a losing 1979 football team into a football dynasty. If you need more convincing, just read the subtitle for a complete 10-word biography. Walsh made his mark as a creative innovator of team organization and a collector of compatible talents. Reading The Genius (the title would only be pretentious if it wasn’t so appropriate) is the perfect way to kick off football season!
—Adrienne Mages


By Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman
$24.99
ISBN-13: 9780446504126
Availability: Usually ships from warehouse in 1 - 5 days
Published: Twelve, 09/01/2009

NurtureShock is a provocative collection of essays popularizing recent research that challenges conventional wisdom about raising children. An award-winning article, “How Not to Talk to Your Kids,” which advised parents that telling children they are smart is counterproductive, prompted journalists Bronson (What Should I Do with My Life?) and Merryman to dig further into the science of child development. Here they ably explore a range of subjects of interest to parents and call attention to what they see as two basic errors in thinking about children: that things work in children the same way they work in adults and that positive traits necessarily oppose and ward off negative behavior.


By Jane Goodall
$27.99
ISBN-13: 9780446581776
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grand Central Publishing, 09/01/2009

Growing up, Jane Goodall was my older sisters #1 heroine—so, rightly, I loved her too. She was our cape-wearing, animal-rescuing, avenger. In her new book, Goodall and Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard narrate an exciting slew of stories about the world’s most endangered or formerly on-the-brink-of-endangered animals. Goodall’s simple writing style makes a compassionate argument for the successful conservation and restoration of threatened and endangered animals.
—Adrienne Mages


By Kay Redfield Jamison
$25.00
ISBN-13: 9780307265371
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf, 09/01/2009

Kay Redfield Jamison—who recounted her battle with harrowing mental illness in her bestselling memoir, An Unquiet Mind—has written an exquisite, haunting meditation on mortality, grief, and loss. In Nothing Was the Same, Jamison looks back at her twenty-year relationship with her husband, Richard Wyatt, a renowned scientist who battled debilitating dyslexia to become one of the foremost experts on schizophrenia. With honesty, candor, wit, and simplicity, she describes his death, her own long, difficult struggle with grief, and her efforts to distinguish grief from depression. “A soul-baring love letter to the author's loving life partner,” writes Kirkus Reviews.


By Kathy Griffin
$25.00
ISBN-13: 9780345518514
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ballantine Books, 09/01/2009

Since the 1980s musician and artist David Byrne has been riding his bike as his principal means of transportation around New York City. When he discovered folding bicycles twenty years ago, he began taking one on tour with him, which enabled him to experience many of the world’s cities from a two-wheeled vantage point. Byrne’s new book, Bicycle Diaries—part travelogue, part journal, part photo album—is an eye-opening celebration of seeing the world from the seat of a bike.
—R.M.


The Slippery Year (Hardcover)

By Melanie Gideon
$24.95
ISBN-13: 9780307270672
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf, 08/01/2009

“At 44, Melanie Gideon looked at the various roles she'd assumed as the younger twin in a family of four girls, wife of a loving husband and stay-at-home mother of a sweet nine-year-old boy, and found herself guiltily asking, ‘Is this all there is?’ The author's memoir, a hilariously probing account of personal growth and stasis, is Gideon's answer to that existential query. Refreshing and sassy, with more than a dash of tenderness thrown in,” writes Kirkus Reviews.