B&N Recommends

Sarcastic, witty, and fun; Jen Lancaster brings humor to the unemployment line in pearls. Never before have I read such an entertainingly playful memoir with an actual story. From the rise of the dot com era to the fall of the industry and Jen right onto her self proclaimed smart-ass, this book will have your attention. Endless e-mails, job applications, interviews, phone calls, the unemployment office, an awkward proposal, a wedding, pet adoption, not being able to make rent, and a blog; this book has it all. I've never laughed out loud so hard while reading a book in my life and with this quick and witty read, you'll be cracking up in no time.

In the 150 years since "Colonel" Edwin Drake's well struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the preeminent driving force in our world has been petroleum. Oil has been behind the expansion and collapse of global empires and personal fortunes. Oil was both a key factor in the collapse of Germany and Japan during World War II, and propelled the explosive growth in postwar America. Wars have been fought for it, and nations have revolted over foreign control of it.

Nowhere is this tumult better chronicled than in The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, Daniel Yergin's epic Pulitzer-winning history of oil and its affect on industry, geopolics, and world society. Spanning the globe, and featuring a colorful list of players ranging from titans of industry and wealthy desert sheikhs to Texas "wildcatters," The Prize is gripping history that flows off the page.

I first read this book in 1993, after my seventh grade social studies teacher showed the class excerpts from the eight-hour PBS documentary based on the book. It was incredibly informative then, and is even more relevant today as we face important decisions related to energy supply and consumption, and their effect on both the American and global economy. The Prize isn't just another business history title; it speaks directly to the political and sociological issues brought up by how we as a people consume oil in what Yergin dubs the "Age of Hydrocarbon Man." With the 2009 updated edition, which includes a new epilogue covering events and trends since its first publication, The Prize has maintained its place as the essential book on its subject.

I'm a firm believer in the old adage "those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it." The Prize should be mandatory reading if for no other reason than we can't afford to make the same mistakes again as we try and find our path forward.

Lizzie Skurnick's new book muses over all those teen/young adult books we all just read to tatters.  Spanning over one hundred years of YA - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Louisa May Alcott, Lois Duncan, Judy Blume, Madeleine L'Engle, Beverly Cleary, Katherine Paterson, Joan Aiken, Paul Zindel, Robert Cormier - Skurnick's essays, and those by contributors such as Meg Cabot, Laura Lippman, and Jennifer Weiner, cover approximately one hundred beloved books, and, just like our favorites, this book is very, very hard to put down.  There's a little something for every type of reader, too.  Did you carry Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret with you everywhere?  Shiver through the pages of Girl With The Silver Eyes or Stranger with My Face?  Did you stand fiercely behind Meg from A Wrinkle in Time or Kit from Witch of Blackbird Pond?  Or did you swipe your older sister's/babysitter's copy of Forever...?  Then Shelf Discovery is the perfect book for you.  It might even introduce you to a book or two that escaped your teenage eyes at the time - Skurnick champions In Summer Light by Zibby Oneal, a book that is currently out-of-print (and can be had used).  If you haven't read the majority of books covered in Skurnick's pieces, get yourself to the nearest library or bookstore and start reading with Shelf Discovery to point the way!  Shelf Discovery is a winding trek back through the library trips and under-the-cover-with-flashlight reading sessions of my childhood and adolescence; I enjoyed every minute of it and I now have a towering list of books to re-read (I have to dig them out of my parents' basement first). 

I bet your first thought was that I'm recommending the classic The Odyssey, which is a very good read, but I'm not. If you never read another heartwarming tale about a beloved pet, read this one. Seriously.

Homer is blind. In fact, Homer had his eyes removed when he was still a kitten, so he has never had the chance to rely on the sense of sight. That, combined with a wonderful, caring owner, makes Homer a, in Gwen Cooper's words, "wonder-cat."

I've read the other ones -- Marley & Me, Dewey, etc. -- but none have touched me the way this story, about a little blind black cat named Homer, has. Cooper has a knack for storytelling and a way to show her readers the very unique personalities of each of her three cats. But, of course, it's Homer who shines. He has no fear. He knows no bounds. He will try anything once. In fact, if he fails, he will try, try again. Instead of taking the easy way out, as Cooper feared when she adopted him, Homer persevered. He grew into an affectionate, lovable, fearless cat who captures the attention and hearts of everyone who meets him.

The book outlines much of Homer's life, chronicling Cooper's string of boyfriends, apartments and roommates, moves from Florida all the way to Manhattan, where she lived on 9/11 -- with her cats. We see not only a portrait of the cat, but also of the author and how her life was affected and shaped by the love she shared with her animals.

This is a fascinating new book from Sally Jenkins (co-author of It's Not About the Bike  with Lance Armstrong) and John Stauffer. As a long-time Civil War guy, I was aware of the amazing story of Jones County, Mississippi, but knew I was one of few who did. With this new work, this almost-lost history is memorialized for all.

It's generally well-remembered that there was opposition to the war in the loyal states, most general Civil War books will touch on Copperheads, and the 1863 draft riots. But almost never is it mentioned that the war was also widely unpopular in the South. Nowhere was this opposition stronger than in Jones County, Mississippi. The State of Jones is the story of Newton Knight, poor farmer and Confederate draftee, who deserts the rebel army and leads a violent opposition to Confederate rule from the swamps and thickets of backwoods Mississippi. His story makes for a compelling narrative, from it's realistic, Gone With The Wind-busting coverage of antebellum class tensions, to its frank portrayal of the horrors of war (The phrase "rich man's war, poor man's fight" actually originated in the wartime Confederacy, after the draft was imposed and it exempted wealthy slaveowners.)

But The State of Jones is also a personal story, haunted by a forbidden love whose details are shrouded by the mists of time. What brought Newton Knight and Rachel (a former possession of Knight's extended family) together is unknown; but both this relationship and Newton's stand against secession have echoed through family and Mississippi history, from Reconstruction to the present day.

A few of the niggling details about the war itself and army life are incorrect in this book, but unless you're a dedicated Civil War buff, you'll never notice- and they're so minor, I can't even begin to call them "inaccuracies." Jenkins and Stauffer do a great job of making Newton Knight's story accessible to non-experts, so don't be scared of this book if you're not a Civil War expert.

It's hard to find an American writing about contemporary Middle Eastern politics - especially in the context of US foriegn policy - who isn't doing so with the obvious intent of making some glaringly partisan statement more relevent to the constant bickering of our own political scene than to the realities of the Middle East. 

Baer's book breaks down the common perceptions of Iran espoused by American politicians on both sides of the aisle, showing us Iran as an increasingly powerful - and power-hungry - nation who's expanionist goals are driven more by pragmatism and realpolitik than by the religious zeal most Americans associate with the country.

Conducting military and political campaigns though the use of proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and others, Iran's methods have proven successful in Lebanon and Iraq - and Baer's careful examination of each of these cases shows us an Iran well on the way to accomplishing many of its goals without signifigant attention or opposition from western powers preoccupied with the nuclear issue and the use of Middle Eastern affairs as a tool for internal political infighting.

Recent events uncovering an Israeli intelligence campaign inside Iran shed an interesting light on Baer's revelations in this book, and while his portrayal of the religious and cultural struggle in Iraq following the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime certainly correlate with what other sources are now telling us about the region, it is unclear to which the extent of Iran's war-by-proxy in other regions as portrayed by Baer matches up with the reality.

Nonetheless, the book offers a view far freer of rhetoric meant to establish a position on the American political spectrum than much other current writing on the Middle East, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of Iran's relationship with the United States.   

Art Spiegalman's Maus is renowned for having dramatically pushed foward the artform of comics with his very personal tale of his family's experiences in the Holocaust.

Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde now pushes the form even further, taking us into the fractured Bosnia of the early 1990's with the eye of a journalist. The narrative concerns the city of Gorazde, a predominantly Bosniak (Muslim) area that is surrounded by Serb territory and which is only connected to the rest of the soon-to-be Muslim-Croat federation only by one narrow road on which UN convoys run. At first the story appears light-hearted as Sacco makes friends with the inhabitants of the town and gets his bearings - but as these inhabitants tell us their stories the truly gruesome nature of this conflict is unveiled and grotesquely illustrated through Sacco's detailed artwork. The narrative is supported not only by Sacco's illustrations (which provide a very realistic sense of the atmosphere of the place - something lacking in many other non-fiction books covering this conflict) but also by substantial research - at several points Sacco takes some time to explain the often confusing historical background to the conflict.

My only complaint is that the scope of the story is somewhat narrow and comes off as a bit biased - we never see anything from the Serb or Croat perspectives in this book, and that's a signifigant lack. But given the focus on a particular geogpraphic location it does to some extent make sense.

Anyone interested in the history of the Balkans or the recent conflict should certainly read this, as should anyone who is a fan of comics that truly push the artform in a new direction and show what it is capable of. 

Being the tennis fanatic that I am, I knew I would enjoy this book. What I didn't expect was to learn something about and from this great champion. Most of the world knew who Andre Agassi was in the '90s, but hardly anyone knew what he had been through and what was going through his mind while playing his matches. This book is honest, reads quickly, and will make you laugh, cry. and cheer.

Reading Agassi's impeccable retellings of key matches took me back to those days as I sat on the edge of my seat watching those Grand Slams on TV. I loved hearing how he interacted with other great champions such as Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors. It was also fascinating to be with him, on his side of the court, as he waited to return serve and finally, it became apparent how he was the best returner in the game of tennis.

His dad started him young in tennis and Open takes the reader from those early days through his time at the Bollettieri Prison (I mean Academy) and on to his beginnings as a pro. Agassi tells, with brutal honesty, about his marriage to Brooke Shields, his relationship with his father, and, as has been sensationalized by the media, his  use of a hairpiece and meth.

Finishing Agassi's autobiography will leave you exhausted. Not only does he take you on an emotional roller coaster, but as the reader, you run every hill with him, return every bomb from Sampras, and feel every injury he has.

This is an excellent sports memoir and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sports, people, or great stories.

You really shouldn't burn this book. 

You should read it.  All of it.  Edited by Toni Morrison and published in conjunction with PEN International, this volume contains eleven essays contributed by authors like John Updike, Nadine Gordimer, Orhan Pamuk, and Francine Prose (and Morrison, who contributed the opening essay, Peril), each writing about the importance of words and ideas.  Some of these essays are original and some are adapted from extant writing (like the Updike) and speeches (like the Pamuk).  While not a large book, it generates quite a bit of thought.  I was particularly struck by the contribution by Pico Iyer which describes his "penpal" who lives in Burma/Myanmar and how information was important to that trishaw driver (but not too much information, i.e. no political discussion).  Orhan Pamuk's essay also provides much thought as he mulls over his transition from silent writer to activist, even though he does not always address political concerns in his novels.  This book is also a must-read due to Ed Park's contribution The Sudden Sharp Memory; Park discusses censorship and how young adults encounter literature but instead of a plain essay he makes use of the unique form of Robert Cormier's I Am the Cheese, an often censored or banned YA novel.  

Read this book.