In My TBR Stack:

Stronger: Develop the Resilience You Need to Succeed
by George S Everly Jr., Ph.D., Douglas A. Strouse, Ph.D., Dennis K. McCormack, Ph.D.
Amacom Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

What separates the best from the rest?

Professional athletes, surgeons, first responders—all perform remarkable feats in the face of intense stress. Why do they thrive under pressure, while others succumb?

What separates the two is attitude. Resilient people meet adversity head-on and bounce back from setbacks. They seem to naturally exude an inner strength—but studies show that resilience is something that anyone can build. Analyzing the heroic exploits of U.S. Navy SEALs and others who succeed against all odds, Stronger identifies five factors that combine to unlock deep reserves of personal power:

Active optimism—believe that you can change things for the better • Decisive action—you can't succeed if you don't take the leap • Moral compass—face any challenge with clear guiding principles • Relentless tenacity—try, try again • Interpersonal support—gain strength from those around you.

Drawing on the unique perspective of a standout team of authors (a stress management expert, a skilled entrepreneur, and a Navy SEAL), Stronger explores the science behind resilience and explains how you can develop this vital trait for yourself. Whatever your profession, today's demanding world calls for a special kind of strength. This revealing book holds the key.

In My TBR Stack:

Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness
by Suzy Favor Hamilton with Sarah Tomlinson
Dey Street Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The former middle distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness, and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition, but also in life. This is a heartbreakingly honest yet hopeful memoir reminiscent of Manic, Electroboy, and An Unquiet Mind.

During the 1990s, three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton was the darling of American track and field. An outstanding runner, a major sports apparel spokesperson, and a happily married wife, she was the model for an active, healthy, and wholesome life. But her perfect facade masked a dark truth: manic depression and bipolar disorder that drove her obsession to perform and win. For years after leaving the track, Suzy wrestled with her condition, as well as the loss of a close friend, conflicted feelings about motherhood and her marriage, and lingering shame about her athletic career. After a misdiagnosis and a recommendation for medication that only exacerbated her mania and made her hypersexual, Suzy embarked on a new path, and assumed a new identity. Fueled by a newfound confidence, a feeling of strength and independence and a desire she couldn’t tamp down, she became a high-priced escort in Las Vegas, working as “Kelly.”

But Suzy could not keep her double life a secret forever. When it was eventually exposed, it sent her into a reckless suicidal period where the only option seemed out. Finally, with the help of her devoted husband, Suzy finally got the proper medical help she needed. In this startling frank memoir, she recounts the journey to outrun her demons, revealing how a woman used to physically controlling her body learned to come to terms with her unstable mind. It is the story of a how a supreme competitor scored her most important victory of all—reclaiming her life from the ravages of an untreated mental illness. Today, thanks to diagnosis, therapy, Kelly has stepped into the shadows, but Suzy is building a better life, one day at a time. Sharing her story, Suzy is determined to raise awareness, provide understanding, and offer inspiration to others coping with their own challenges.

In My TBR Stack:

Are We Having Fun Yet? The Cooking & Partying Handbook
by Sammy Hagar with Josh Sens
Dey Street Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Indulge yourself in the superstar rocker and #1 New York Times bestselling author’s raucous and delicious lifestyle with this bold cookbook and entertaining guide, complete with stories from a lifetime of food, signature recipes and drinks, and featuring lavish full-color photos.

For over twenty years, Sammy Hagar has redefined the relationship between good food and good music through his iconic Cabo Wabo tequila brand, his popular chain of Cabo Wabo Cantina restaurants, and his newly launched rum—Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum. Now with Are We Having Any Fun Yet? any Sammy fan can eat, drink, and party like the Red Rocker himself, as Sammy shares his love of food, drinks, and rock-and-roll.

Bringing you into the kitchen, behind the bar, and into the center of the party like never before, Sammy shares his deep passion for food and his secrets for rock-and-roll entertaining, including his favorite recipes from home, on the road, and his go-to vacation spots, Cabo and Maui. Coming along for the ride are a wealth of crazy tales, celebrity chefs from around the globe, and stories that reveal the inspiration behind his favorite recipes.

Tracing Sammy’s culinary path through the decades, Are We Having Any Fun Yet? offers a fascinating glimpse into Sammy’s evolution as a cook and as a musician, showing how these twin passions have fueled each other, and how he brings a rock star attitude of simplicity and fun to everything he does in the kitchen. Of course, nothing goes better with a great meal than a good drink. Here are Sammy’s greatest drink recipes accompanied by true stories of the wild nights that brought them to life.

With even more rock stories from the road and his table, over fifty food and drink recipes, and Sammy’s tips for entertaining like a rock star, Are We Having Any Fun Yet? gives fans everything they need to party the Cabo Wabo way.

Fiction Spotlight:

Dark Wild Night
by Christina Lauren
Gallery Books
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS. BUT WHAT DIDN’T HAPPEN IN VEGAS SEEMS TO FOLLOW THEM EVERYWHERE—Book Three in the sexy, fun New York Times bestselling Wild Seasons series that began with Sweet Filthy Boy (the Romantic Times Book of the Year) and Dirty Rowdy Thing.

Lola and Oliver like to congratulate themselves on having the good sense not to consummate their drunken Las Vegas marriage. If they’d doubled-down on that mistake, their Just Friends situation might not be half as great as it is now.

…Or so goes the official line.

In reality, Lola’s wanted Oliver since day one—and over time has only fallen harder for his sexy Aussie accent and easygoing ability to take her as she comes. More at home in her studio than in baring herself to people, Lola’s instinctive comfort around Oliver nearly seems too good to be true. So why ruin a good thing?

Even as geek girls fawn over him, Oliver can’t get his mind off what he didn’t do with Lola when he had the chance. He knows what he wants with her now…and it’s far outside the friend zone. When Lola’s graphic novel starts getting national acclaim—and is then fast-tracked for a major motion picture—Oliver steps up to be there for her whenever she needs him. After all, she’s not the kind of girl who likes all that attention, but maybe she’s the kind who’ll eventually like him.

Sometimes seeing what’s right in front of us takes a great leap of faith. And sometimes a dark wild night in Vegas isn’t just the end of a day, but the beginning of a bright new life…

Fiction Spotlight:

The Drafter
by Kim Harrison
Gallery Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In the first explosive book in the Peri Reed Chronicles, Kim Harrison, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Hollows series, blazes a new frontier with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. 

Detroit 2030. Double-crossed by the person she loved and betrayed by the covert government organization that trained her to use her body as a weapon, Peri Reed is a renegade on the run. Don’t forgive and never forget has always been Peri’s creed. But her day job makes it difficult: she is a drafter, possessed of a rare, invaluable skill for altering time, yet destined to forget both the history she changed and the history she rewrote. When Peri discovers her name is on a list of corrupt operatives, she realizes that her own life has been manipulated by the agency. Her memory of the previous three years erased, she joins forces with a mysterious rogue soldier in a deadly race to piece together the truth about her fateful final task. Her motto has always been only to kill those who kill her first. But with nothing but intuition to guide her, will she have to break her own rule to survive?

In My TBR Stack:

1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History
by Jay Winik
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

New York Times bestselling author Jay Winik brings to life in gripping detail the year 1944, which determined the outcome of World War II and put more pressure than any other on an ailing yet determined President Roosevelt.

It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did, or that it would even end well. 1944 was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler’s waning power. Instead, it saved those democracies—but with a fateful cost. Now, in a superbly told story, Jay Winik, the acclaimed author of April 1865 and The Great Upheaval, captures the epic images and extraordinary history as never before.

1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his reelection, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasion, the liberation of Paris and the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and the tumultuous conferences that finally shaped the coming peace. But on the way, millions of more lives were still at stake as President Roosevelt was exposed to mounting evidence of the most grotesque crime in history, the Final Solution. Just as the Allies were landing in Normandy, the Nazis were accelerating the killing of millions of European Jews. Winik shows how escalating pressures fell on an all but dying Roosevelt, whose rapidly deteriorating health was a closely guarded secret. Here then, as with D-Day, was a momentous decision for the president. Was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? Was a rescue even possible? Or would it get in the way of defeating Hitler? In a year when even the most audacious undertakings were within the world’s reach, including the liberation of Europe, one challenge—saving Europe’s Jews—seemed to remain beyond Roosevelt’s grasp.

As he did so brilliantly in April 1865, Winik provides a stunningly fresh look at the twentieth century’s most pivotal year. Magisterial, bold, and exquisitely rendered, 1944: FDR and the Year that Changed History is the first book to tell these events with such moral clarity and unprecedented sweep, and a moving appreciation of the extraordinary struggles of the era’s outsized figures. 1944 is destined to take its place as one of the great works of World War II.

In My TBR Stack:

My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South
by Rick Bragg
Oxmoor House
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Rick Bragg, comes a poignant and wryly funny collection of essays on life in the south.

Keenly observed and written with his insightful and deadpan sense of humor, he explores enduring Southern truths about home, place, spirit, table, and the regions' varied geographies, including his native Alabama, Cajun country, and the Gulf Coast. Everything is explored, from regional obsessions from college football and fishing, to mayonnaise and spoonbread, to the simple beauty of a fish on the hook.

Collected from over a decade of his writing, with many never-before-published essays written specifically for this edition, My Southern Journey is an entertaining and engaging read, especially for Southerners (or feel Southern at heart) and anyone who appreciates great writing.

In My TBR Stack:

The Art of Memoir
by Mary Karr
Harper Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.

For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning graduate teaching prizes for her highly selective seminar at Syracuse, where she mentored such future hit authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas. In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.

Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.

Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.

On My Radar:

All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid
by Matt Bai
Vintage Books
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

In May 1987, Colorado Senator Gary Hart—a dashing, reform-minded Democrat—seemed a lock for the party’s presidential nomination and led George H. W. Bush by double digits in the polls. Then, in one tumultuous week, rumors of marital infidelity and a newspaper’s stakeout of Hart’s home resulted in a media frenzy the likes of which had never been seen before. 

Through the spellbindingly reported story of the Senator’s fall from grace, Matt Bai, Yahoo News columnist and former chief political correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, shows the Hart affair to be far more than one man’s tragedy: rather, it marked a crucial turning point in the ethos of political media, and the new norms of life in the public eye. All the Truth Is Out is a tour de force portrait of the American way of politics at the highest level, one that changes our understanding of how we elect our presidents and how the bedrock of American values has shifted under our feet.

On My Radar:

Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting
by Eilon Paz
Ten Speed Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting is an inside look into the world of vinyl record collectors in the most intimate of environments—their record rooms. Compelling photographic essays from photographer Eilon Paz are paired with in-depth and insightful interviews to illustrate what motivates these collectors to keep digging for more records. The reader gets an up close and personal look at a variety of well-known vinyl champions, including Gilles Peterson and King Britt, as well as a glimpse into the collections of known and unknown DJs, producers, record dealers, and everyday enthusiasts. Driven by his love for vinyl records, Paz takes us on a five-year journey unearthing the very soul of the vinyl community.

On My Radar:

The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the Worlds Finest Actor
by Robert Schnakenberg
Quirk Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

He’s the sort of actor who can do Hamlet and Charlie’s Angels in the same year.

He shuns managers and agents and once agreed to voice the part of Garfield because he mistakenly believed it was a Coen brothers film. Bill Murray’s extraordinary career is rich with fascinating anecdotes, contradictions, and mystery, from his early success on Saturday Night Live and the biggest blockbusters of the 1980s (Caddyshack, Stripes, Tootsie, Ghostbusters) to his reinvention as a hipster icon in the early 21st century (in films like Lost in Translation and Moonrise Kingdom).

And now you can get your fill of Bill: part biography, part critical appreciation, part love letter, and all fun, The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray chronicles every single Murray performance in loving detail, relating all the milestones, yarns, and controversy in the life of this beloved but enigmatic performer. These pages are packed with color film stills, extraordinary fan art, and behind-the-scenes photography.

On My Radar:

A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George
by Kelly Carlin
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Truly the voice of a generation, George Carlin gave the world some of the most hysterical and iconic comedy routines of the last fifty years. From the "Seven Dirty Words" to "A Place for My Stuff," to "Religion is Bullshit," he perfected the art of making audiences double over with laughter while simultaneously making people wake up to the realities (and insanities) of life in the twentieth century.

Few people glimpsed the inner life of this beloved comedian, but his only child, Kelly, was there to see it all. Born at the very beginning of his decades-long career in comedy, she slid around the "old Dodge Dart," as he and wife Brenda drove around the country to "hell gigs." She witnessed his transformation in the '70s, as he fought back against---and talked back to---the establishment; she even talked him down from a really bad acid trip a time or two ("Kelly, the sun has exploded and we have eight, no-seven and a half minutes to live!").

Kelly not only watched her father constantly reinvent himself and his comedy, but also had a front row seat to the roller coaster turmoil of her family's inner life---alcoholism, cocaine addiction, life-threatening health scares, and a crushing debt to the IRS. But having been the only "adult" in her family prepared her little for the task of her own adulthood. All the while, Kelly sought to define her own voice as she separated from the shadow of her father's genius.

With rich humor and deep insight, Kelly Carlin pulls back the curtain on what it was like to grow up as the daughter of one of the most recognizable comedians of our time, and become a woman in her own right. This vivid, hilarious, heartbreaking story is at once singular and universal-it is a contemplation of what it takes to move beyond the legacy of childhood, and forge a life of your own.

On My Radar:

The Dog Walker: An Anarchist's Encounters with the Good, the Bad, and the Canine
by Joshua Stephens
Melville House Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

From the it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time department: Anarchist Joshua Stephens needed a job to support his relentless activism against the bad guys of capitalist society. So he and some of his fellow activists decided it would be fun to start a business walking the creatures they all agreed were the wonderful opposite of the powerful politicians and big corporate types they spent their days protesting: dogs.

The only hitch: The dogs they were walking were owned by . . . well, the powerful politicians and big corporate types they spent their days protesting.

Rich with hilarious anecdotes, brilliant observations, and a powerful political conscience, The Dog Walker proves Stephens to be an Anthony Bourdain of the dog walking set, adept at detailing the charmingly odd tricks of the trade, and showing what dog walking reveals about everything from gentrification to street harassment, and why radical empathy must always anchor every interaction—canine or otherwise.

An irreverent and perceptive fish-out-of-water story, The Dog Walker is totally irresistible.

On My Radar:

Police State: How America's Cops Get Away with Murder
by Gerry Spence
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

We all want to feel safe. But safe from what, and from whom?

In his 60-plus years as a trial lawyer, Gerry Spence has never represented a person accused of a crime in which the police hadn't themselves violated the law. Whether by covering up their own corrupt dealings, by the falsification or manufacture of evidence, or by the outright murder of innocent civilians, those individuals charged with upholding the law too often break it, in ways more scandalous than the courts have dared admit. The police and prosecutors won't charge or convict themselves, and so the crimes of the criminal justice system are swept under the rug. Nothing changes.

Too many police officers are killers on the loose, and every uninformed American is a potential next victim. Police culture is mired in the dead weight of precedent and ruled by trigger-happy tyrants. Power will march our nation over the police state precipice unless We the People take action.

The FBI's massacre of the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge; the killing of mortally wounded Fouad Kaady by a group of police officers; the torture of teenaged Dennis Williams by cops seeking a murder confession - again and again, the question arises: When the very men and women we pay to protect us instead persecute us, how can we be safe? In Police State, Spence issues a stinging indictment of the American justice system and puts forth a plan to restore liberty and justice for all.

On My Radar:

Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation
by Bill Nye
Edited by Corey S. Powell
St. Martin's Griffin
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

"Evolution is one of the most powerful and important ideas ever developed in the history of science. Every question it raises leads to new answers, new discoveries, and new smarter questions. The science of evolution is as expansive as nature itself. It is also the most meaningful creation story that humans have ever found."-Bill Nye

Sparked by a controversial debate in February 2014, Bill Nye has set off on an energetic campaign to spread awareness of evolution and the powerful way it shapes our lives. In Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, he explains why race does not really exist; evaluates the true promise and peril of genetically modified food; reveals how new species are born, in a dog kennel and in a London subway; takes a stroll through 4.5 billion years of time; and explores the new search for alien life, including aliens right here on Earth.

With infectious enthusiasm, Bill Nye shows that evolution is much more than a rebuttal to creationism; it is an essential way to understand how nature works-and to change the world. It might also help you get a date on a Saturday night.

In My TBR Stack:

Find Your Balance Point: Clarify Your Priorities, Simplify Your Life, and Achieve More
by Brian Tracy and Christina Stein
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Everyone today has too much to do and too little time—that’s not going to change. The only way to make our lives less stressful is to make sure we spend more time doing the things that matter most and less time doing the things that matter less. When we’re not clear on what is really important, we make thoughtless and impulsive choices and end up feeling exhausted and unfulfilled.

Bestselling author Brian Tracy teams up with therapist Christina Stein to show how to find true balance—when all your actions and choices are guided by a profound knowledge of your deepest personal values, vision, purpose, and goals. Not only will you feel less stressed, but you’ll accomplish more, and more efficiently, than you ever thought possible.

When you operate from your true balance point, you feel clear and focused, and everything in your life feels like it is in perfect harmony. You go through your day with courage, confidence, and purpose because everything you do is in alignment with who you are.

Through questions that guide you to reflect and focus, as well as concrete action steps and exercises, Tracy and Stein help you discover your personal balance point and show how you can use it to set priorities and manage your time in a way that both energizes you and simplifies every aspect of your life. The result is a new, active approach to integrating life balance, work achievement, and time management. 

On My Radar:

How to Draw Everything
by Gillian Johnson
St. Martins Griffin
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

A playful book by renowned illustrator and artist Gillian Johnson, How to Draw Everything encourages readers to overcome their fear of the blank page and inspire their inner artist. The book is not about drawing realistically; it's about taking your line for a walk and seeing where you end up!

Inside are exercises and easy projects prompting you to draw literally everything around you--from mugs and bugs to cars and stars. A wide variety of drawing projects will teach you how to drop your artistic inhibitions and sketch what you see using step-by-step techniques. Delightful full-color illustrations accompany each lesson to ensure your drawing journey is both educational and filled with plenty of whimsical fun.

On My Radar:

Mr. Smith Goes to Prison: What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America's Prison Crisis
by Jeff Smith
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The fall from politico to prisoner isn't necessarily long, but the landing, as Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith learned, is a hard one.

In 2009, Smith lied to the Feds about seemingly minor campaign malfeasance and earned himself a year and a day in Kentucky's FCI Manchester. Mr. Smith Goes to Prison is the fish-out-of-water story of his time in the big house; of the people he met there and the things he learned: how to escape the attentions of fellow inmates, like a tattooed Klansman and his friends in the Aryan Brotherhood; what constitutes a prison car and who's allowed to ride in yours; how to bend and break the rules, whether you're a prisoner or an officer. And throughout his sentence, the senator tracked the greatest crime of all: the deliberate waste of untapped human potential.

Smith saw the power of millions of inmates harnessed as a source of renewable energy for America's prison-industrial complex, a system that aims to build better criminals instead of better citizens. In Mr. Smith Goes to Prison, he traces the cracks in America's prison walls, exposing the shortcomings of a racially based cycle of poverty and crime. Smith blends a wry sense of humor with academic training, political acumen, and insights from his year on the inside. He offers practical solutions to jailbreak the nation from the financially crushing grip of its own prisons and to jump-start the rehabilitation of the millions living behind bars.