Richard Munson’s splendid biography of Benjamin Franklin provides an insightful view of the statesman’s lesser known accomplishments in science.

Biography, Literature, Nonfiction

Didion and Babitz

Lili Anolik’s Didion and Babitz is a freewheeling and engaging narrative about two iconic literary rivals and their world in 1970s Los Angeles.

Crafts, Hobbies & Home, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Garden Wonderland

With its seamless integration of gardening principles with advanced design ideas, Garden Wonderland is the perfect gift for new gardeners—or anyone in need of a little inspiration.

All Nonfiction Coverage

Filter by genre

A sparkling discourse on diamonds

by Edward Morris

Fiction, Horror, Lifestyles, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality

Nonfiction Fiction Religion & Spirituality Lifestyles Horror

Scaring up creepy concepts

Review by Hunter Foreman

by Hunter Foreman

Halloween is right around the corner. The neighbors have carved their pumpkins (including the chic miniature pumpkins which are more avant garde these days), your kids swear their friends already have costumes and the check-out lanes at the grocery store are clogged with bags of candy. Are you really going to be this ordinary? Please, there are alternatives. Consult these new books for inspiration on innovative ways to celebrate a hair-raising, high-spirited Halloween.

Witch Crafting

Let's face it witches have gotten a raw deal in history. From the Salem trials to Oz's Wicked Witch of the West, witches are portrayed as scary, ugly and evil. Author Phyllis Curott, a Wiccan high priestess, certainly doesn't fit that stereotype. A svelte blonde and former civil liberties lawyer, Curott told the story of her own journey toward accepting Wicca in the 1998 memoir Book of Shadows. Her latest effort, Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic, is a practical guide to the whys and hows of making Wiccan magic. With Curott's advice, you can find your own inner goddess just in time for Halloween.

How To Communicate with Spirits

Ever felt like touching the other side ? Then this is your book. In How to Communicate with Spirits, certified medium Elizabeth Owens gathers advice from noted experts on how to contact the spirits of those who have passed on. But beware: the spirits you contact may be naughty rather than nice. While positive spirits can help you out of difficult situations (like getting a seat on a crowded airplane), a negative spirit can be a household menace, stealing items from your kitchen or sending you into fits of depression. Shocking.

Coast to Coast Ghosts

Bored by the same old ghost stories around the campfire? Leslie Rule has solved your dilemma by traveling the country to collect eerie tales of our nation's most haunted places. Guaranteed to send a chill down your spine, Coast to Coast Ghosts: True Stories of Hauntings Across Americadescribes haunted houses, schools, hotels, bridges, forts and, of course, cemeteries. The author, who is the daughter of true-crime writer Ann Rule, includes plenty of photographs for those who need cold, hard evidence that there are goblins and ghouls among us.

Ghost Dogs of the South

Reading scary stories can haunt your bedtime hours with nightmares. And after reading Ghost Dogs of the South, your nightmares will be full of slobber and paws. In these mysterious tales compiled by folklorists Randy Russell and Janet Barnett, dead dogs from Dixie return in ghostly form, while in even stranger cases, humans who die come back as ghost dogs. Think again before you buy that cheaper bag of dog food at the market.

Origami Monsters

If you're interested in the Japanese art of paper folding, why waste your time on a delicate swan or butterfly when you can create such origami ogres as Frankenstein's monster or a snapping goblin? Far less messy than carving a pumpkin, Steve and Megumi Biddle's Origami Monsters should keep the little demons at your house occupied for hours. The book includes well-illustrated instructions and paper for creating several seasonably appropriate creatures.

Handmade Halloween

If your house is the least spooky on the block, don't despair. You can become the Martha Stewart of Halloween decorating by implementing a few practical suggestions from Handmade Halloween: Ideas for a Happy, Haunted Celebration. Tissue paper ghosts will hang from your windows, a front-door scarecrow will grace your entrance and skeleton luminarias will light the way for trick-or-treaters arriving at your stylishly haunted house. Author Zazel Loven also includes cute costume ideas suitable for frantic moms who have never mastered the sewing machine.

Wheelchair bound, author finds contentment

by Mary Carol Moran

Business & Finance

Business & Finance

Managing your money

Review by Margaret Feinberg

by Margaret Feinberg

Unstable. Unpredictable. Downright scary. Whatever term you use, the sudden swings in the stock market have left multitudes of brokers and investors scratching their heads. Are we headed for a recession? Is this just a temporary correction? Where is the economy going? With lower returns on investments in the last year, many are simply wondering, where should I put my money? It's an important question, and one that publishers and financial experts are eager to answer. Whether you've just graduated from college and are still more concerned with a latte than an IRA or are only a few years away from retirement, there is sound financial advice available to help you and your portfolio.

One of the most exhaustive resources is Suze Orman's The Road To Wealth: A Comprehensive Guide to Your Money. In 550-plus pages, Orman provides everything you need to know about finances in both good times and bad. A popular financial adviser on television (Oprah, CNBC's Business Center and two PBS specials) and in print, Orman takes a Q&andA approach in her latest book, responding to countless detailed questions about financial issues. Her answers are straight forward, opinionated and fiercely honest. Chapters cover topics ranging from managing debt, finding insurance and paying for college to handling stocks, mutual funds and bonds, and organizing a will or trust. But unlike other financial advisors, Orman is concerned with the whole person. For example, in the chapter on debt, she points out that there is a noticeable correlation between self-esteem and bad debt. The lower your self-esteem, the more willing you are to live in the hole. In a section on handling finances, she explores the links between emotions and money. Such observations add a personal touch and refreshing human element to the information. As an added bonus, buyers of Orman's book will receive the Suze Orman E-Newsletter, a bimonthly publication that includes important resource listings, updates, forecasts and an ongoing economic analysis. It's a great addition to this worthwhile title.

Young readers especially those in their 20s may be intimidated by the sheer thickness of Orman's book. They may be looking for something a little more compact a title that speaks directly to the heart. That was part of the inspiration for Vanessa Summers' Get in the Game: The Girl's Guide to Money & Investing. Summers, who worked six years as a model before becoming a stock broker, knows firsthand how important it is for women to become financially responsible at an early age. She uses her own sense of humor, concern and passion for investing to take readers on a financial adventure. In Get in the Game, Summers explains how 20-something women need to begin developing an emergency adventure backpack, a retirement adventure backpack and a dream adventure backpack. Each one contains the funds needed for various stages in life. Summers knows how to connect with her peers, and she offers advice tailor-made for a generation that came of age in era of boom times and free spending. She understands the natural craving for Starbucks, but explains how a little cutting back now can go a long way in the future.

For those a little further down the path in the journey of life, Ann Douglas and Elizabeth Lewin have written Family Finance: The Essential Guide for Parents. Although small in size, this niche finance book is admirably thorough. Topics ranging from finding the right credit card to buying the right home are examined in light of the special financial concerns of parents. Filled with ideas from surviving the first year to saving for a child's education, the book explores all the stages of parenting. Surprising tidbits of wisdom line the pages. Whether it's advice on where to find maternity clothes, a no-frills baby wardrobe or how to avoid scams, there are dozens of neat lists and guides for parents. Family Finance would make an excellent, practical gift for new parents juggling the financial demands of starting a family.

A number of investors are beyond the cloth versus disposable diaper debate, and are ready to find their own financial opportunities. Off The Record: A Maverick's Secret For Discovering Great Stocks by Craig Gordon with Stephen Kindel, helps individuals learn how to gather data, spot trends and keep a finger on the marketplace, thus making wiser stock buying decisions. Gordon, director of Off-the-Record Research, shares his secrets on how to become a successful marketplace checker. He explains how watching the movement of products in your local grocery store and making a few contacts with company representatives can provide leading information on some of the best-known and lesser-known companies on Wall Street. It's a grassroots approach to investing that will appeal to many individual investors eager to manage their own money.

Another strategy in investing is to follow the lead of those who do it best. The New Investment Superstars: 13 Great Investors and Their Strategies for Superior Returnsby Lois Peltz examines the track records and decisions of 13 hedge fund managers who have matched or outperformed the S&andP 500 for the last seven years. Each person is recognized for their unique areas of expertise whether it's stock picking, sector investing or merger arbitrage and asked candid questions about their strategies, mistakes and outlook. Profiles include Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital, Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors, Paul Singer of Elliott Associates, Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group and Bruce Wilcox of Cumberland Associates. In closing, Peltz interviews some of those who have invested money with these financial superstars and uncovers how well these leaders have performed for institutions and private investors.

If you're looking for advice on where to put your nest egg, these books will help to put you right on the money.

Margaret Feinberg is a freelance writer based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

And the award goes to . . .

by bookpagedev

Arts & Culture, Music

Music Arts & Culture

Searching for the story of a raw talent

Review by James Dickerson

by James Dickerson

Born at the turn of the century, Emmett Miller was a Georgia-raised blackface entertainer who recorded a string of records, mostly in the 1920s, that helped to fill the creative void between ragtime and jazz. Stylistically, he was neither blues nor country, black nor white. Think yodeling blues singer. Talent-wise, he was neither good nor bad mostly just something in-between, different enough to strike a chord with those who attended his minstrel performances and purchased his records.

Nick Tosches, contributing editor for Vanity Fair and best-selling author of Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, became obsessed with Miller more than 25 years ago—a fascination to which he admits without embarrassment while researching a book about country music. The fact that Merle Haggard dedicated his album I Love Dixie Blues to Miller was enough to tweak Tosches' curiosity. Not until he discovered one of Miller's recordings in the bargain bin of a New York record store did he understand why Haggard and others felt obligated to tip their hats to the entertainer. He writes, "When I heard Miller's actual voice, forthshining from the coruscations of those slow-spinning emerald grooves, I was astounded, and my search for information on him began in earnest."

To say that Tosches was obsessed with this white man who liked to perform made-up as a black man is an understatement. He pursued Miller with the righteous zeal of a cuckolded husband on the trail of his marital adversary. But, in truth, this gracefully written book contains very little information about Emmett Miller. Rather, it is more about the author's search for some semblance of creative unity and purpose in American music. It's a noble quest, a journey of discovery that is as entertaining as it is enlightening.

James L. Dickerson is the author of Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager.

And the award goes to . . .

by bookpagedev

Essays, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Essays

A stiletto-sharp take on the political

Review by Stephen Lyons

by Stephen Lyons

In today's national political scene, citizens are merely props in a carefully choreographed dramatic narrative that resembles a Hollywood movie set more than it does an American democracy. Joan Didion's Political Fictions, a collection of essays previously published in The New York Review of Books, proves this thesis with stiletto-sharp prose and ample sources to sway even the most skeptical reader. Didion, the author of five novels and five nonfiction books, walks readers through the various sets, starting with the 1988 presidential election and ending with the 2000 election. The actors, designers, directors and writers of these various campaigns are the nation's permanent professional political class Washington D.C., insiders who create, disseminate and then argue the storyline among themselves. The public is dragged along for the ride, but if their viewpoints differ too sharply from those of the pundits and politicians, they are condemned as proof of America's declining morality. Neither Democrats nor Republicans make it through Political Fictions unscathed. Didion tells us what we already suspected: the two parties have merged into a hybrid containing elements of sloppy journalism, power-hungry attorneys, mediocre candidates and a nostalgic yearning for an America that last existed in the 1950s, if it ever existed at all. While carefully and intelligently outlining the co-opting of the political process by the rich, the powerful and the new compassionate conservatives, Didion does not blame non-voting citizens. Rather than describing them as apathetic, the term the press loves to use, she presents chilling research that suggests today's non-voter has less education, less money and less voice in the political process than those who do cast ballots. When faced with the reality of voting i.e., money buys access and access buys votes the majority of the public has simply given up.

If one ever needed a compelling reason to become involved in the political process, Political Fictions will provide that impetus. Didion stays clear of shrill ideology, and her attention to detail continues to place her among this country's best interpreters of current events.

Stephen J. Lyons is the author of Landscape of the Heart, a single father's memoir.

And the award goes to . . .

by bookpagedev

Memoir

Memoir

The pain of a boy’s final days

Review by bookpagedev

by Lynn Hamilton

The pain of a boy’s final days Native American author Nasdijj delivers an unforgettable memoir with The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping, a chronicle of the death of his adopted son, a 12-year-old Navajo born with AIDS. Nasdijj, whose first son, also adopted, died of fetal alcohol syndrome, is persuaded to adopt Awee by the boy’s parents, also AIDS patients. Against his better judgment, Nasdijj agrees. Taking on hopeless boys is something of an addiction with him, he admits.

"I want the mad ones," Nasdijj writes. "The children who have had everything taken away from them. The children who are broken and mad enough to attempt to repair themselves. The children mad enough to spit and fight." Nasdijj makes some unorthodox decisions about how Awee should spend his last weeks of life, choices he suspects minivan moms would not approve of. Instead of hunkering down in a hospital or hospice, with pill bottles and intravenous drip close at hand, Nasdijj takes his son on a motorcycle to the coast, lets him play baseball, lets him spend the day in an auto repair shop and introduces him to several Indian rites of passage. Along the way, Nasdijj exposes the failure of America’s health care system to provide relief for indigent AIDS patients, especially those on Indian reservations, where welfare hospitals may take as long as six weeks to return blood test results. Awee is frequently in and out of the hospital with pneumonia, with terrible pain from nerve damage, with sarcoma. The most scathing criticism Nasdijj offers is the health care industry’s failure to relieve a 12-year-old’s pain. Here, Nasdijj runs up against a medical brick wall. Pain medications for children with AIDS haven’t been developed, he writes, and doctors are unwilling to experiment. Despite the prevailing darkness and forgone conclusion of The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping, the book has wonderful moments of humor, whimsy and warmth. But the narrative’s most important accomplishment may very well be its biting commentary on the neglect of AIDS patients in a complacent society that mistakenly believes the monster has been leashed. Lynn Hamilton writes from Tybee Island, Georgia.

The pain of a boy's final days Native American author Nasdijj delivers an unforgettable memoir with The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping, a chronicle of the death of his adopted son, a 12-year-old Navajo born with AIDS. Nasdijj, whose first son, also adopted, died…

One friendship that changes everything

by Marianne Peters

Arts & Culture, Literature

Literature Arts & Culture

A personal quest to understand the poetry of war

Review by Roger Bishop

by Roger Bishop

Daniel Swift’s paternal grandfather died during World War II, at the age of 30, while on a bombing mission for the Royal Air Force over Germany in 1943. In the course of research about his grandfather’s life and death as a bomber pilot, Swift, a literary critic and English professor, began to explore the relationship between the bombers and poetry. Discussion of the role of bombers is a sensitive subject for many because of the great devastation and the death of many civilians on the ground. As Swift notes in his illuminating personal and literary journey, Bomber County, “The poetry of air bombing requires a particular imaginative sympathy absent from other war poetry, and it must play between telling and deferring the tale: between the poet who survived and the others who died that night.”

Swift is concerned with bomber poetry written from several perspectives. He focuses on the work of noted bomber poets such as James Dickey and John Ciardi, but he also wants us to read poetry by those engaged in bombing runs who had not been poets but felt compelled to write poetry because of their experience, including Michael Scott and John Riley Byrne. He explores, too, the war poems of Randall Jarrell, who trained others to be pilots but did not see action himself. He considers in detail poetry by civilians moved by the terror of air raids. T.S. Eliot was an air raid warden in London, and “Little Gidding,” the last of his Four Quartets, is directly concerned with living in a bombed city. Dylan Thomas thought that he could write poetry only in peacetime. Although not a combatant, Thomas wrote hauntingly about the distinctive grief of aerial bombardment in “Ceremony After a Fire Raid” and “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London,” as did Stephen Spender in “Responsibility: The Pilots Who Destroyed Germany, Spring 1945.”

As Swift continues to find out more about his grandfather’s life and death, he discusses the very different views of the bombing raids, ranging from “atrocities pure and simple” to “one of the decisive elements in Allied victory.” He does not shy away from discussing the morality and ethics of the bombers’ missions: “Bombing can be both bright purpose and dreadful duty; both horror and great joy; tourist and killer, proudness and fear.”

Bomber County is a stimulating and insightful investigation into the poetry of a particular time as well as a unique personal quest to understand a grandfather’s legacy.

The Texas roots of George W. Bush

by bookpagedev

Want more BookPage?

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Trending Nonfiction

Nonfiction Politics Memoir

How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Maria Ressa

By Sarojini Seupersad

Maria Ressa’s book is a political history of the Philippines and an intimate memoir, but it’s also a warning to democracies everywhere: Authoritarianism is a threat to us all.