In My TBR Stack:

The Way of Tea and Justice: Rescuing the World's Favorite Beverage From Its Violent History
by Becca Stevens
Jericho Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In 2012, reverend and social entrepreneur Becca Stevens began work on the Thistle Stop Café, a business designed to provide employment opportunities for the residents of Magdalene, as well as Thistle Farms, the social enterprise benefitting women recovering from violence and addiction. As she explored the legacy of tea, she uncovered not only its healing mysteries but also the dark secrets that have overshadowed this ancient brew.

In The Way of Tea and Justice, Becca draws readers into the world of tea-making, as she works with cooperatives and coalitions across the globe to ensure fair trade and community enhancement in every cup of tea the café brews. But beneath the beauty of the tea ritual, she found an underbelly of corruption, abuse, and extortion that plagues laborers in the tea industry. True to her nature as an activist and a storyteller, she recounts stories of triumph for impoverished tea pickers and the tales of struggle and hope that have poured in with hundreds of teacups that have been donated to the café.

On My Radar:

Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, The Bill of Rights, and the Election that Saved a Nation
by Chris DeRose
Regnery History
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

In 1789, James Madison and James Monroe ran against each other for Congress—the only time that two future presidents have contested a congressional seat.

But what was at stake, as author Chris DeRose reveals in Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election That Saved a Nation, was more than personal ambition. This was a race that determined the future of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the very definition of the United States of America.

Friends and political allies for most of their lives, Madison was the Constitution’s principal author, Monroe one of its leading opponents. Monroe thought the Constitution gave the federal government too much power and failed to guarantee fundamental rights. Madison believed that without the Constitution, the United States would not survive.

It was the most important congressional race in American history, more important than all but a few presidential elections, and yet it is one that historians have virtually ignored. In Founding Rivals, DeRose, himself a political strategist who has fought campaigns in Madison and Monroe’s district, relives the campaign, retraces the candidates’ footsteps, and offers the first insightful, comprehensive history of this high-stakes political battle.

DeRose reveals:

• How Madison’s election ensured the passage of a Bill of Rights—and how
  Monroe’s election would have ensured its failure
• How Madison came from behind to win a narrow victory (by a margin of only 336 votes) in a district gerrymandered against him
• How the Bill of Rights emerged as a campaign promise to Virginia’s evangelical Christians
• Why Madison’s defeat might have led to a new Constitutional Convention—and the breakup of the United States

Founding Rivals tells the extraordinary, neglected story of two of America’s most important Founding Fathers. Brought to life by unparalleled research, it is one of the most provocative books of American political history you will read this year.

In My TBR Stack:

Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind
by David J. Linden
Viking Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and bestselling author of The Compass of Pleasure, David J. Linden presents an engaging and fascinating examination of how the interface between our sense of touch and our emotional responses affects our social interactions as well as our general health and development. Accessible in its wit and clarity, Touch explores scientific advances in the understanding of touch that help explain our sense of self and our experience of the world.

From skin to nerves to brain, the organization of the body’s touch circuits powerfully influences our lives—affecting everything from consumer choice to sexual intercourse, tool use to the origins of language, chronic pain to healing. Interpersonal touch is crucial to social bonding and individual development. Linden lucidly explains how sensory and emotional context work together to distinguish between perceptions of what feels good and what feels bad. Linking biology and behavioral science, Linden offers an entertaining and enlightening answer to how we feel in every sense of the word.

In My TBR Stack:

The Balance Myth: Rethinking Work-Life Success
by Teresa A. Taylor
Greenleaf Book Group Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Tired of trying to attain the mythical work-life balance and constantly feeling frustrated? Are you giving yourself a C– for your performances at work and at home? Teresa A. Taylor knows that trying to be a career woman and a mom can leave you feeling tired and defeated, and she wants you to take a new approach. She herself rapidly ascended through the ranks to become COO of a Fortune 200 company while raising two boys with her working husband, and in The Balance Myth, she shows you how you can do it too. 

Taylor takes you along to a meeting in the White House, to union negotiations, and to her sons’ soccer practices as she shares her candid, humorous, and heartfelt stories. Based on these real-life experiences and the lessons she learned from them, she shares the key to living with multiple responsibilities: integrating—not bifurcating—your personal and professional worlds. In addition, she offers insights about leading with integrity; surrounding yourself with positive resources; pushing through adversity; and celebrating accomplishments—especially your own.

Taylor couldn’t take the mother out of the career woman or vice versa, and she believes that you shouldn’t have to either. Don’t search for balance; the answers are within you!

--

Written in an engaging voice, Teresa Taylor, the high-profile COO of Qwest who orchestrated a $20 billion acquisition in the telecom industry, uses memoir and real-life examples to deliver valuable business perspectives that illustrate how she rose to the top of a Fortune 200 company while also raising her two sons with her working husband and maintaining fulfilling family relationships. 

Taylor illustrates that executives (as well as professionals with executive ambitions) don’t have to sacrifice a successful family life for a corner office position—and she provides the keys to managing these multiple responsibilities based on her experience.

In My TBR Stack:

The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity
by Norman Doidge, M.D.
Viking Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge described the most important breakthrough in our understanding of the brain in four hundred years: the discovery that the brain can change its own structure and function in response to mental experience—what we call neuroplasticity.

His revolutionary new book shows, for the first time, how the amazing process of neuroplastic healing really works. It describes natural, non-invasive avenues into the brain provided by the forms of energy around us—light, sound, vibration, movement—which pass through our senses and our bodies to awaken the brain’s own healing capacities without producing unpleasant side effects. Doidge explores cases where patients alleviated years of chronic pain or recovered from debilitating strokes or accidents; children on the autistic spectrum or with learning disorders normalizing; symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and cerebral palsy radically improved, and other near-miracle recoveries. And we learn how to vastly reduce the risk of dementia with simple approaches anyone can use.

For centuries it was believed that the brain’s complexity prevented recovery from damage or disease. The Brain’s Way of Healing shows that this very sophistication is the source of a unique kind of healing. As he did so lucidly in The Brain That Changes Itself, Doidge uses stories to present cutting-edge science with practical real-world applications, and principles that everyone can apply to improve their brain’s performance and health.

In My TBR Stack:

Literary Cash: Unauthorized Writings Inspired by the Legendary Johnny Cash
Edited by Bob Batchelor
BenBella Books
Trade Paperback

Fro the publisher's website:

The legendary lyrics of Johnny Cash are the inspiration for this collection of extraordinarily creative works that provides a new spin on this musical legend. For nearly five decades, Cash captivated audiences with his unique voice and candid portrayal of the gritty life of a working man, and his songs continue to strike a chord with listeners today. But it is the stories behind the music that remain with audiences and provide the inspiration for the work in this thoughtful compilation of fiction and non-fiction from contributors such as Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Don Cusic, Amanda Nowlin, Gretchen Moran Laskas and Russell Rowland.

In My TBR Stack:

Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir
by Joe Satriani and Jake Brown
BenBella Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

"Joe has refined his own style of playing to a point where he’s forever up there in the stratosphere of excellence that is reached by very few musicians."
—Brian May

"Every time Joe puts his fingers on a guitar, what comes out sounds like inspired music, even if it’s just a finger exercise. He created and branded a niche with his own voice and in so doing he wielded an entire genre."
—Steve Vai

***

Go behind the scenes with the musician The New York Times called “a guitar God!”

Oft-hailed as the Jimi Hendrix of his generation, living guitar legend Joe Satriani has long-transcended stylistic boundaries with a sound that raises the bar like a new horizon for the broader genre of instrumental guitar rock. Joe’s 6-string secrets have astounded listeners around the world for nearly 30 years.

In Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir, Joe and co-author, music biographer Jake Brown, take fans on their first authorized tour of the story behind his climb to stardom and the creative odyssey involved in writing and recording of a storied catalog of classics including “Surfing with the Alien,” “Summer Song,” “Satch Boogie,” “Always With Me, Always With You,” “The Extremist,” “Flying in a Blue Dream,” “Crowd Chant,” and more!

Featuring previously unpublished photos and hours of exclusive, first-hand interviews with Satriani, Strange Beautiful Music offers a unique look inside the studio with Joe, giving fans a chance to get up-close and personal like never before. With insider details about his collaboration with multi-platinum supergroup Chickenfoot, exclusive interviews with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony of Van Halen and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, first-hand commentary from fellow guitar legends such as Steve Vai, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Primus’s Larry LaLonde, and legendary music producers including Glynn Johns and the late Andy Johns, this memoir offers a rare inside look for die-hard Satriani fans, guitar enthusiasts, and anyone who loves to rock.

On My Radar:

Balls: The Life of Eddie Trascher, Gentleman Gangster
By Ken Sanz, Scott M. Deitche
Skyhorse Publishing
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Eddie Trascher had balls. Born in the bayou of Louisiana, Eddie learned about gambling at the side of his stepfather. Starting his career in 1950s Vegas, he moved to pre-Castro Cuba and became adept at running a casino and stealing from the mobsters who owned it. He was a regular fixture at Rat Pack–era Vegas—stealing chips from the craps table, running gambling out of his bar, and hanging around with a wild assortment of gangsters, conmen, thieves, and celebrities.

By the time he moved to Clearwater, Florida, after a stint running a Los Angeles hotel for the Chicago Outfit, Eddie was the biggest bookmaker in the state. But the FBI made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: “Help us get the Mafia and we’ll let you keep bookmaking.” For the next twenty years, Eddie became the Bureau and later the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s eyes and ears as they investigated organized crime in Florida. From the famous Donnie Brasco case to the new guard of the Tampa Mafia, Eddie was in the middle of it all. Eventually, he gave up the booking to become a professor, teaching law enforcement everything there was to know about bookmaking and running the scams.

Balls is the story of the quintessential gangster, a man who didn’t make money for anyone but himself. Instead of working for the Mafia bosses, Eddie stole from right under their noses. And he lived to tell the story.

On My Radar:

The B-Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song
by Ben Yagoda
Riverhead Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Everybody knows and loves the American Songbook. But it’s a bit less widely understood that in about 1950, this stream of great songs more or less dried up. All of a sudden, what came over the radio wasn’t Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin, but “Come on-a My House” and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?” Elvis and rock and roll arrived a few years later, and at that point the game was truly up. What happened, and why? In The B Side, acclaimed cultural historian Ben Yagoda answers those questions in a fascinating piece of detective work. Drawing on previously untapped archival sources and on scores of interviews—the voices include Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Linda Ronstadt, and Herb Alpert—the book illuminates broad musical trends through a series of intertwined stories. Among them are the battle between ASCAP and Broadcast Music, Inc.; the revolution in jazz after World War II; the impact of radio and then television; and the bitter, decades-long feud between Mitch Miller and Frank Sinatra.

The B Side is about taste, and the particular economics and culture of songwriting, and the potential of popular art for greatness and beauty. It’s destined to become a classic of American musical history.

In My TBR Stack:

The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
by Jan Jarboe Russell
Scribner
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II, where thousands of families—many US citizens—were incarcerated.

From 1942 to 1948, trains delivered thousands of civilians from the United States and Latin America to Crystal City, Texas, a small desert town at the southern tip of Texas. The trains carried Japanese, German, Italian immigrants and their American-born children. The only family internment camp during World War II, Crystal City was the center of a government prisoner exchange program called “quiet passage.” During the course of the war, hundreds of prisoners in Crystal City, including their American-born children, were exchanged for other more important Americans—diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, physicians, and missionaries—behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany.

Focusing her story on two American-born teenage girls who were interned, author Jan Jarboe Russell uncovers the details of their years spent in the

Jan Jarboe Russell -- photo by
Trish Simonite

camp; the struggles of their fathers; their families’ subsequent journeys to war-devastated Germany and Japan; and their years-long attempt to survive and return to the United States, transformed from incarcerated enemies to American loyalists. Their stories of day-to-day life at the camp, from the ten-foot high security fence to the armed guards, daily roll call, and censored mail, have never been told.

Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet, The Train to Crystal City reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR’s tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and how the definition of American citizenship changed under the pressure of war.

Author website

New York Times review of The Train to Crystal City

On My Radar:

Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully

by Allen Kurzweil

Harper

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The true account of one boy’s lifelong search for his boarding-school bully.

Equal parts childhood memoir and literary thriller, Whipping Boy chronicles prize-winning author Allen Kurzweil’s search for his twelve-year-old nemesis, a bully named Cesar Augustus. The obsessive inquiry, which spans some forty years, takes Kurzweil all over the world, from a Swiss boarding school (where he endures horrifying cruelty) to the slums of Manila, from the Park Avenue boardroom of the world’s largest law firm to a federal prison camp in Southern California.

While hunting down his tormentor, Kurzweil encounters an improbable cast of characters that includes an elocution teacher with ill-fitting dentures, a gang of faux royal swindlers, a crime investigator “with paper in his blood,” and a  onocled grand master of the Knights of Malta. Yet for all its global exoticism and comic exuberance, Kurzweil’s riveting account is, at its core, a heartfelt and suspenseful narrative about the “parallel lives” of a victim and his abuser.

A scrupulously researched work of nonfiction that renders a childhood menace into an unlikely muse, Whipping Boy is much more than a tale of karmic retribution; it is a poignant meditation on loss, memory, and mourning, a surreal odyssey born out of suffering, nourished by rancor, tempered by wit, and resolved, unexpectedly, in a breathtaking act of personal courage.

Whipping Boy features two 8-page black-and-white photo inserts and  83 images throughout.

In My TBR Stack:

Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll
by James L. Dickerson
Sartoris Literary Group
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

At long last—the truth about the birth of the blues, rock 'n' roll, country and jazz!

Draw a straight line from New Orleans to Nashville, then over to Memphis and then follow the Mississippi River back down to New Orleans, and you have the Mojo Triangle, a phrase coined by the author in the early 2000's.

"So much of what has been written about the music of the South is untrue," says Dickerson. "I wanted to set the record straight and put the development of the music in perspective. The Mojo Triangle is where all of America's original roots music was created: country, blues, jazz, and rock 'n' roll. How did this music come about? What is there about the Mojo Triangle that has contributed to the creation of so much original music?"

The book points out that although the music itself was created in the geographical area defined by the Mojo Triangle, the two portals through which the various musical components entered and then morphed into the finished products were Natchez, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee, with the Natchez Trace serving as the main artery.

Based on interviews with the recording artists, musicians, producers and songwriters who created and performed the music, it traces the development of the music from the early 1800s in Natchez, Mississippi, where Native Americans played an instrumental role in the development of the blues, all the way up to the present day.

There is probably no author in history who has interviewed as many music legends and musicians as the author—and the reader benefits from that experience in a big way. Among the music legends who participate are: Al Green, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Carl Perkins, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Chet Atkins, Ike Turner, Jack Clement, Marty Stuart, Mose Allison, Rita Coolidge, Roy Orbison, Scotty Moore, Tammy Wynette, Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings, Garth Brooks, Chips Moman, Billy Sherrill, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Jimme Vaughan, Willie Mitchell, Booker T. & the MGs, Bobby Womack, Estelle Axton, Dave Edmunds, Pinetop Perkins, Bobbie Gentry, and the list goes on and on.

This incredible book, which contains rare photographs, some of which were taken by the author himself, not only allows the music greats themselves to express themselves about the music they made famous, it explains for the first time the development of  that music.

On My Radar:

The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild
by Miranda J. Banks
Rutgers University Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Screenwriters are storytellers and dream builders. They forge new worlds and beings, bringing them to life through storylines and idiosyncratic details. Yet up until now, no one has told the story of these creative and indispensable artists. The Writers is the only comprehensive qualitative analysis of the history of writers and writing in the film, television, and streaming media industries in America. 

Featuring in-depth interviews with over fifty writers—including Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, and Frank Pierson—The Writers delivers a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at the role and rights of writers in Hollywood and New York over the past century. Granted unprecedented access to the archives of the Writers Guild Foundation, Miranda J. Banks also mines over 100 never-before-published oral histories with legends such as Nora Ephron and Ring Lardner Jr., whose insight and humor provide a window onto the enduring priorities, policies, and practices of the Writers Guild.

With an ear for the language of storytellers, Banks deftly analyzes watershed moments in the industry: the advent of sound, World War II, the blacklist, ascension of television, the American New Wave, the rise and fall of VHS and DVD, and the boom of streaming media. The Writers spans historical and contemporary moments, and draws upon American cultural history, film and television scholarship and the passionate politics of labor and management. Published on the sixtieth anniversary of the formation of the Writers Guild of America, this book tells the story of the triumphs and struggles of these vociferous and contentious hero-makers.

In My TBR Stack:

Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone
by Marky Ramone with Rich Herschlag
Touchstone Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The inside story behind one of the most revered bands in music history during the early days of punk rock in New York, from legendary drummer Marky Ramone.

Rolling Stone ranked the Ramones at #26 on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.” They received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. And Marky Ramone played a major part in this success—his “blitzkrieg” style of drumming drove the sound the Ramones pioneered. Now, fans can get the inside story.

Before he joined the Ramones, Marc Bell was already a name in the New York music scene. But when he joined three other tough misfits, he became Marky Ramone, and the rhythm that came to epitomize punk was born.

Having outlived his bandmates, Marky is the only person who can share the secrets and stories of the Ramones’ improbable rise from obtuse beginnings to induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it wasn’t all good times and hit songs, and Marky doesn’t shy away from discussing his own struggles, including the addiction to alcohol that led him to be temporarily kicked out of the band.

From the cult film Rock ‘n’ Roll High School through “I Wanna Be Sedated” through his own struggle with alcoholism, Marky Ramone sets the record straight, painting an unflinching picture of the dysfunction behind the band that changed a generation. With exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, Punk Rock Blitzkrieg is both a cultural history of punk and a stirring story that millions of fans have been waiting for.

On My Radar:

The Set-Up: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV
by Pete Crooks
BenBella Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The pitch went like this: Chris Butler, a retired cop, ran a private investigator firm in Concord, California. His business had a fascinating angle—his firm was staffed entirely by soccer moms.

In fact, Butler employed PI Super Moms: attractive, organized, smart, and trained in investigative techniques, self-defense, and weaponry. This American Life host Ira Glass described them as “MILF: Charlie’s Angels.”

When this story came across Pete Crooks’s desk when he was working at Diablo magazine in 2010, he was instantly hooked. He’d heard a little bit about Butler and his super moms in the news; they’d been featured in People magazine and on Dr. Phil. What Butler’s publicist was offering was too tantalizing to pass up: an opportunity to ride along with Butler and a few of his sexy PIs as they prepared to start filming a reality TV show.

But after the ride-along—and after he started receiving mysterious emails from one of Butler’s employees—Crooks started to realize something didn’t seem right. After doing a little digging, he discovered the “sting” he’d seen only had one real victim…him. The PI bust had been a setup.

Crooks wasn’t a hardboiled crime reporter. He did lifestyle pieces a regional magazine. The more he learned about Butler’s operation, the more he realized he was in far over his head. But swallowing his fears, he decided he was going to write an expose on Butler and his entire organization. He soon found himself deep in the underbelly of fake sting operations, wannabe celebrities, police corruption, drug-dealing, reality television, double-crossing employees, and more twists and turns than a dozen crime thrillers.

On My Radar:

Screw the Valley: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of America's New Tech Startup Culture
by Timothy Sprinkle
BenBella Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Long considered the ideal environment for tech startup companies, Silicon Valley has recently become a victim of its own success, an expensive, crowded, hypercompetitive place that no longer works for all entrepreneurs.

In Screw the Valley, author Tim Sprinkle takes readers on a cross-country road trip, hitting many of the new tech hotspots: Austin, Texas; the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina; Las Vegas, Nevada; New York City, New York; Detroit, Michigan; Boulder, Colorado; and Kansas City, Missouri.

In a tour of these seven new technology cities, Sprinkle encourages entrepreneurs to think outside the Silicon Valley box and explore the modern startup culture that’s springing up all over the country. With an up-close look at the major players in each city, how the local culture is conducive to the burgeoning tech industry, and what each city is bringing to the table in new innovations and inventions.

In My TBR Stack:

The Undertaker's Daughter: A Memoir
by Kate Mayfield
Gallery Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

What if the place you called “home” happened to be a funeral home? Kate Mayfield explores what it meant to be the daughter of a small-town undertaker in this fascinating memoir evocative of Six Feet Under and The Help, with a hint of Mary Roach’s Stiff.

The first time I touched a dead person, I was too short to reach into the casket, so my father picked me up and I leaned in for that first, empty, cold touch. It was thrilling, because it was an unthinkable act.

After Kate Mayfield was born, she was taken directly to a funeral home. Her father was an undertaker, and for thirteen years the family resided in a place nearly synonymous with death. A place where the living and the dead entered their house like a vapor. The place where Kate would spend the entirety of her childhood. In a memoir that reads like a Harper Lee novel, Mayfield draws the reader into a world of Southern mystique and ghosts.

Kate’s father set up shop in a small town where he was one of two white morticians during the turbulent 1960s. Jubilee, Kentucky, was a segregated, god-fearing community where no one kept secrets—except the ones they were buried with. By opening a funeral home, Kate’s father also opened the door to family feuds, fetishes, and victims of accidents, murder, and suicide. The family saw it all. They also saw the quiet ruin of Kate’s father, who hid alcoholism and infidelity behind a cool, charismatic exterior. As Mayfield grows from trusting child to rebellious teen, she begins to find the enforced hush of the funeral home oppressive, and longs for the day she can escape the confines of her small town.

In The Undertaker’s Daughter, Kate has written a triumph of a memoir. This vivid and stranger-than-fiction true story ultimately teaches us how living in a house of death can prepare one for life.

In My TBR Stack:

Wordplay: How Words Captivate, Illuminate, Intimidate, Inform, & Imbue Us with Intelligence
by Glenn Bassett
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

WordPlay lays out the functions of language as the foundation of what is loosely called mind. Studies of language in primitive cultures by anthropological linguists demonstrate the existence in every cultural setting of a basic set of word constructs called semantic primes. Language is extended and elaborated on the foundation of semantic primes to construct a mental map of the perceived phenomenal world. Once in place, a rich culture of language is passed on from each generation to the next by example. Words ultimately become so ubiquitous and necessary that they take on a reality all their own. Mental maps can become more real than the reality of direct experience.

Establishment of a critical capacity for knowing truth demands a study of psycholinguistics. The fund of social psychological research that has emerged over the past century offers a window on the way words are used to enrich culture. WordPlay is a compilation of the most salient research that pertains to language use. It is a layman's introduction to psycholinguistics. The emphasis is on how words shape behavior and become the substance of the mind. This is knowledge of those habits of mind that can interfere with or improve straight, clear thinking. It is antidote to functional social ignorance of our rich language culture.

On My Radar:

The Last Pirate: A Father, His Son, and the Golden Age of Marijuana
by Tony Dokoupil
Anchor Books
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

A haunting and often hilarious memoir of growing up in 80s Miami as the son of Big Tony, a flawless model of the great American pot baron. 

To his fellow smugglers, Anthony Edward Dokoupil was the Old Man. He ran stateside operations for one of the largest marijuana rings of the twentieth century. In all they sold hundreds of thousands of pounds of marijuana, and Big Tony distributed at least fifty tons of it. To his son he was a rambling man who was also somehow a present father, a self-destructive addict who ruined everything but affection. Here Tony Dokoupil blends superb reportage with searing personal memories, presenting a probing chronicle of pot-smoking, drug-taking America from the perspective of the generation that grew up in the aftermath of the Great Stoned Age. 

The book shown in the following book trailer is the hardcover. The trade paperback is now out with the cover pictured above.

Coming Soon:

Independent Ed: Inside a Career of Big Dreams, Little Movies, and the Best Twelve Days of My Life
by Edward Burns
Gotham Books
Hardcover
Available January 29, 2015

From the publisher's website:

At the age of twenty-five, Ed Burns directed and produced his first film on a tiny $25,000 budget. The Brothers McMullen went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, and established the working-class Irish American filmmaker as a talent to watch. In the twenty years since, Burns has made ten more films (She’s the One, Sidewalks of New York, and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas), while also acting in big budget Hollywood movies (Saving Private Ryan), hit television shows (Entourage and Mob City), and pioneering a new distribution network for indie filmmakers online and with TV’s On Demand service (“why open a film in twenty art houses when you can open in twenty million homes?”).

Inspired by Burns’s uncompromising success both behind and in front of the camera, students and aspiring filmmakers are always asking Burns for advice. In Independent Ed, Burns shares the story of his two remarkable decades in a fickle business where heat and box office receipts are often all that matter. He recounts stories of the lengths he has gone to to secure financing for his films, starting with The Brothers McMullen (he told his father: “Shooting was the twelve best days of my life”). How he found stars on their way up—including Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz—to work in his films, and how he’s adhered religiously to the dictum of writing what you know, working as if he was just starting out, and always “looking for the next twelve best days of my life.”

Chronicling the struggles and the long hours as well as the heady moments when months of planning and writing come to fruition, Independent Ed is a must-read for movie fans, film students, and everyone who loves a gripping tale about what it takes to forge your own path in work and life.

On My Radar:

Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!
by Nicholas Carlson
Twelve Books
Hardcover

I admit to a little bit of a crush on Marissa Mayer.

From the publisher's website:

When Yahoo hired star Google executive Mayer to be its CEO in 2012 employees rejoiced. They put posters on the walls throughout Yahoo’s California headquarters. On them there was Mayer’s face and one word: HOPE. But one year later, Mayer sat in front of those same employees in a huge cafeteria on Yahoo’s campus and took the beating of her life. Her hair wet and her tone defensive, Mayer read and answered a series of employee-posed questions challenging the basic elements of her plan. There was anger in the room and, behind it, a question: Was Mayer actually going to be able to do this thing?

MARISSA MAYER AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE YAHOO! is the inside story of how Yahoo got into such awful shape in the first place, Marissa Mayer’s controversial rise at Google, and her desperate fight to save an Internet icon.

In August 2011 hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb took a long look at Yahoo and decided to go to war with its management and board of directors. Loeb then bought a 5% stake and began a shareholder activist campaign that would cost the jobs of three CEOs before he finally settled on Google’s golden girl Mayer to unlock the value lurking in the company. As Mayer began to remake Yahoo from a content company to a tech company, an internal civil war erupted.


In author Nicholas Carlson’s capable hands, this riveting book captures Mayer’s rise and Yahoo’s missteps as a dramatic illustration of what it takes to grab the brass ring in Silicon Valley. And it reveals whether it is possible for a big lumbering tech company to stay relevant in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.

In Stores Now:

Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film
by Patton Oswalt
Scribner
Hardcover

Patton Oswalt is a brilliant comedian and actor.  He's also a friend of Harlan Ellison, which makes him even more amazing in my opinion.  If you want to know more about the artist as a young man, pick up this unique book.

From the publisher's website:

New York Times bestselling author, comedian, and actor Patton Oswalt shares his entertaining memoir about coming of age as a performer and writer in the late ’90s while obsessively watching classic films at the legendary New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles.

Between 1995 and 1999, Patton Oswalt lived with an unshakeable addiction. It wasn’t drugs, alcohol, or sex. It was film. After moving to L.A., Oswalt became a huge film buff, absorbing classics and new releases at least three nights a week at the New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Patton’s life schoolbook, informing his notions of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships. Set in the nascent days of the alternative comedy scene, Oswalt’s memoir chronicles his journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective supporting him all along the way.

Ideally timed for awards season, when everyone’s mind is on Hollywood, Silver Screen Fiend follows up on the terrific reception of Oswalt’s New York Times bestselling debut, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. Already a beloved fixture on the comedy stage, on television, and in film—not to mention his 1.87 million Twitter followers—Oswalt announces, with this second book, that he’s also here to stay on the page.

In My TBR Stack:

Russian Tattoo: A Memoir
by Elena Gorokhova
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

I am really looking forward to this one. I have cheated a little, jumped ahead of a few other books, and read a little more than a chapter so far…this lady can write. Check out the video below, and you'll probably move Russian Tattoo up in your stack too. 

From the publisher's website:

An exquisite portrait of mothers and daughters that reaches from Cold War Russia to modern-day New Jersey, from the author of A Mountain of Crumbs—the memoir that “leaves you wanting more” (The Daily Telegraph, UK).

In A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorokhova describes coming of age behind the Iron Curtain and leaving her mother and her Motherland for a new life in the United States. Now, in Russian Tattoo, Elena learns that the journey of an immigrant is filled with everyday mistakes, small humiliations, and a loss of dignity. Cultural disorientation comes in the form of not knowing how to eat a hamburger, buy a pair of shoes, or catch a bus. But through perseverance and resilience, Elena gradually adapts to her new country. With the simultaneous birth of her daughter and the arrival of her Soviet mother, who comes to the US to help care for her granddaughter and stays for twenty-four years, it becomes the story of a unique balancing act and a family struggle. 

Russian Tattoo is a poignant memoir of three generations of strong women with very different cultural values, all living under the same roof and battling for control. Themes of separation and loss, grief and struggle, and power and powerlessness run throughout this story of growing understanding and, finally, redemption. “Gorokhova writes about her life with a novelist’s gift,” says The New York Times, and her latest offering is filled with empathy, insight, and humor.

On My Radar:

Call Girl Confidential: An Escort's Secret Life as an Undercover Agent
by Rebecca Kade
Gallery Books
Trade Paperback

What's the over/under on "undercover" jokes?  

From the publisher's website:

You’ve probably heard of Anna Gristina, the notori­ous “Soccer Mom Madam,” who allegedly operated a multimillion-dollar escort service with clients from the Forbes billionaires list to Capitol Hill. But you haven’t heard of the woman who helped bring the Soccer Mom Madam down—until now. Call Girl Confidential is Rebecca Kade’s compelling, intimate account of her career as an escort . . . and her work as an undercover agent for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. 

Strictly raised as a Southern Baptist, Rebecca Kade never dreamed she would compromise her values by someday becoming a high-priced escort. But when her rock star former lover took her to court in a drawn-out custody battle for their daughter, Rebecca’s legit day job barely covered her exorbitant legal fees. She needed to make money and lots of it—fast. 

Rebecca first became an escort for Kristin Davis, aka “The Manhattan Madam,” and her classic beauty made her an instant favorite with the host of wealthy, powerful men who were willing to pay thousands to sleep with her. When she went to work for Anna Gristina, the stakes were even higher and the clientele more prominent. From Wall Street bankers and CEOs to famous U.S. politicians and Middle Eastern princes as well as Grammy winners, Rebecca met the world’s most influential movers and shakers. Then her deepest fears came true. Kristin Davis was arrested, and Anna Gristina also landed on authori­ties’ radar after going undetected for fifteen years. 

Rebecca had two choices: refuse to cooperate and go to jail—risking never seeing her daughter again—or com­ply fully, even if it meant giving up Gristina, who trusted Rebecca implicitly. She agreed to go undercover for the DA’s office. Though authorities were trying to nab Gris­tina for illegal prostitution, they still expected Rebecca to continue working as a call girl. And the more incriminat­ing evidence she collected, the more she placed herself in danger. 

Candid and fascinating, this revealing memoir gives readers a glimpse into the little-known life of a high-priced escort turned confidential informant.

In My TBR Stack:

The OPA! Way: Finding Joy & Meaning in Everyday Life & Work
by Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon
BenBella Books
Hardcover

A perfect New Year's Resolution kind of book, if you ask me….

From the publisher's website:

How can we live more meaningful lives?

In chasing the good life, many of us sacrifice our relationships, our health, and our sanity, and at the end of the day still find ourselves with lives and work that bring us little fulfillment or meaning. The pursuit of happiness doesn’t fill this void, and it doesn’t help us deal with the challenges and chaos that are inevitable in everyday life. We need to learn how to embrace all of life—the ups and the downs, the joys and sorrows, the good times as well as times of transition and upheaval.

Inspired by ancient Greek philosophy and traditional Greek village life, and backed by years of research, The OPA! Way offers a breakthrough, practical approach to discovering and reconnecting with the true meaning of our lives and work. Bestselling authors Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon, founders of The OPA! Way® and The Meaning Group, share insights, stories, and three core lessons to guide you on your odyssey to meaning:

• Connect meaningfully with Others
• Engage with deeper Purpose
• Embrace life with Attitude

Create the meaningful life you want by living and working The OPA! Way. OPA!

In My TBR Stack:

Tough Man, Tender Chicken: Business & Life Lessons from Frank Perdue
Mitzi Perdue
Significance Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Everyone who’s seen his TV commercials or eaten his chicken knows the business legacy of Frank Perdue. But this humble man was so much more. Profiled by his wife, Mitzi, the late Frank Perdue comes alive in the pages of Tough Man, Tender Chicken, and imparts lessons on life and business that are of value to everyone.

Along with the remarkable company he build, to his heirs Frank Perdue also left his hopes and dreams, embodied in a statement to them that says volumes about who this memorable man truly was:

An Ethical Will from Frank Perdue to his Dear Children, Grandchildren and Family Members (present or future)

I want little more than your long-term happiness. To be happy you need character and self-respect and these come from following your highest values. To be happy, consider the following:

1. Be honest always.
2. Be a person whom others are justified in trusting.
3. If you say you will do something, do it.
4. You don’t have to be the best, but you should be the best you can be.
5. Treat all people with courtesy and respect, no exceptions.
6. Remember that the way to be happy is to think of what you can do for others.  The way to be miserable is to think about what people should be doing for you.
7. Be part of something bigger than your own self.  That something can be family, pursuit of knowledge, the environ­ment, or whatever you choose.
8. Remember that hard work is satisfying and fulfilling.
9. Nurture the ability to laugh and have fun.
10. Have respect for those who have gone before; learn from their weaknesses and build on their strengths.

In My TBR Stack:

Psy-Q: Test Yourself with More Than 80 Quizzes, Puzzles, and Experiments for Everyday Life
by Ben Ambridge
Penguin
Trade Paperback


Happy New Year!

I am one of those people who love to take quizzes. I try to stay away from the ones in Cosmo magazine that tell me what an awful boyfriend I am, but PSY-Q has lovely quizzes like, "Are You Stupider Than A Monkey?".  I mean, I got this.

From the publisher's website:

Psychology is the study of mind and behavior: how and why people do absolutely everything that people do, from the most life-changing event such as choosing a partner, to the most humdrum, such as having an extra donut. Ben Ambridge takes these findings and invites the reader to test their knowledge of themselves, their friends, and their families through quizzes, jokes, and games. You’ll measure your personality, intelligence, moral values, skill at drawing, capacity for logical reasoning, and more—all of it adding up to a greater knowledge of yourself, a higher “Psy-Q”.    

Lighthearted, fun, and accessible, this is the perfect introduction to psychology that can be fully enjoyed and appreciated by readers of all ages.

Take Dr. Ben’s quizzes to learn:

- If listening to Mozart makes you smarter

- Whether or not your boss is a psychopath

- How good you are at waiting for a reward (and why it matters)

- Why we find symmetrical faces more attractive

- What your taste in art says about you