New Nonfiction Hardcovers This Week:

It is a glorious day here at BookSpin Manor.  One of our Patron Saints, Bill Bryson, has a new book in bookstores today.  If you, or someone you love, enjoy narrative nonfiction, this would make a wonderful addition to the library.  As the synopsis below states, Bryson is a master of the form.

One Summer: America 1927
by Bill Bryson
Doubleday / Random House
Hardcover

The summer of 1927 began with one of the signature events of the twentieth century: on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop, and when he landed in Le Bourget airfield near Paris, he ignited an explosion of worldwide rapture and instantly became the most famous person on the planet. Meanwhile, the titanically talented Babe Ruth was beginning his assault on the home run record, which would culminate on September 30 with his sixtieth blast, one of the most resonant and durable records in sports history. In between those dates a Queens housewife named Ruth Snyder and her corset-salesman lover garroted her husband, leading to a murder trial that became a huge tabloid sensation. Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly sat atop a flagpole in Newark, New Jersey, for twelve days—a new record. The American South was clobbered by unprecedented rain and by flooding of the Mississippi basin, a great human disaster, the relief efforts for which were guided by the uncannily able and insufferably pompous Herbert Hoover. Calvin Coolidge interrupted an already leisurely presidency for an even more relaxing three-month vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The gangster Al Capone tightened his grip on the illegal booze business through a gaudy and murderous reign of terror and municipal corruption. The first true “talking picture,” Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, was filmed and forever changed the motion picture industry. The four most powerful central bankers on earth met in secret session on a Long Island estate and made a fateful decision that virtually guaranteed a future crash and depression. 

     All this and much, much more transpired in that epochal summer of 1927, and Bill Bryson captures its outsized personalities, exciting events, and occasional just plain weirdness with his trademark vividness, eye for telling detail, and delicious humor. In that year America stepped out onto the world stage as the main event, and One Summer transforms it all into narrative nonfiction of the highest order.

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
by Malcolm Gladwell

Little, Brown and Company / Hachette Book Group
Hardcover

Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn't have won. 

Or should he have? 

In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.
Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland's Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms---all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity. 

In the tradition of Gladwell's previous bestsellers---The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw---David and Goliath draws upon history, psychology, and powerful storytelling to reshape the way we think of the world around us. 

Running With Monsters: A Memoir
by Bob Forrest
Crown Archetype / Random House

Hardcover

Life has been one strange trip for Bob Forrest. He started out as a suburban teenage drunkard from the Southern California suburbs and went on to become a member of a hip Hollywood crowd that included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Depp, and River Phoenix. Los Angeles was their playground, and they hung out in such infamous haunts as the Viper Room and the Whisky a Go Go. Always one to push things to their limit, Bob partied the hardest and could usually be found at the center of the drama. Drugs weren’t Bob’s only passion. He was also a talented musician who commanded the stage as the wild and unpredictable lead singer of Thelonious Monster. They traveled the world, and their future seemed bright and wide open. But Bob’s demons grew stronger as he achieved more success and he sank deeper into his chemical dependency, which included alcohol, crack, and heroin habits. No matter how many times he went to rehab, sobriety just wouldn’t stick for him. Soon he saw his once-promising music career slip away entirely. Eventually Bob found a way to defeat his addiction, and once he did, he saw the opportunity to help other hopeless cases by becoming a certified drug counselor. He’s helped addicts from all walks of life, often employing methods that are very much at odds with the traditional rehab approach. Running with Monsters is an electrifying chronicle of the LA rock scene of the 1980s and ’90s, the story of a man who survived and triumphed over his demons, and a controversial perspective on the rehab industry and what it really takes to beat addiction. Bob tells his story with unflinching honesty and hard-won perspective, making this a reading experience that shocks, entertains, and ultimately inspires.

Life in 5 Seconds: The Short Story of Absolutely Everything
by H-57, Gianmarco Milesi, Matteo Civaschi
Quercus Books

Hardcover

Told in ingenious pictographs that are witty, provocative, and to the point, Life in 5 Seconds starts with 200 important events, inventions, great lives, wonders of the natural world, and cultural icons and boils away the useless details to give you the pure essence of knowledge. 

In today’s caffeine-charged, jet-fueled, information-overload society, who has the time to probe the deeper meaning of existence? Let’s face it—life’s far too short for that sort of in-depth research. What today calls for is instant knowledge, delivered in pictures. 

The result is a collection of hilarious visual snapshots that puts all of life into context. You’ll laugh out loud as you finally understand the differences between Satan and Santa Claus; explore the vibrancy of artists from Beethoven to Banksy; compare the masonry in the Great Wall of China to that of the Berlin Wall; weigh the importance of Elvis; deconstruct the genius of Ikea; play with the history of video games; and plumb other vitally important holes in your knowledge. 

Recipient of a 2013 Cannes Bronze Book Design Lion Award, Life in Five Seconds is beautifully designed with bold color scheme and irreverent illustrations—a gift for anyone with a good sense of humor and a short attention span.