On My Radar:

Out of the Clouds: The Unlikely Horseman and the Unwanted Colt Who Conquered the Sport of Kings
by Linda Carroll and David Rosner
Hachette Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In the wake of World War II, as turmoil and chaos were giving way to a spirit of optimism, Americans were looking for inspiration and role models showing that it was possible to start from the bottom and work your way up to the top-and they found it in Stymie, the failed racehorse plucked from the discard heap by trainer Hirsch Jacobs. Like Stymie, Jacobs was a commoner in “The Sport of Kings,” a dirt-poor Brooklyn city slicker who forged an unlikely career as racing’s winningest trainer by buying cheap, unsound nags and magically transforming them into winners. The $1,500 pittance Jacobs paid to claim Stymie became history’s biggest bargain as the ultimate iron horse went on to run a whopping 131 races and win 25 stakes, becoming the first Thoroughbred ever to earn more than $900,000. The Cinderella champion nicknamed “The People’s Horse” captivated the masses with his rousing charge-from-behind stretch runs, his gritty blue-collar work ethic, and his rags-to-riches success story. In a golden age when horse racing rivaled baseball and boxing as America’s most popular pastime, he was every bit as inspiring a sports hero as Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis.

Taking readers on a crowd-pleasing ride with Stymie and Jacobs, Out of the Clouds unwinds a real-life Horatio Alger tale of a dauntless team and its working-class fans who lived vicariously through the stouthearted little colt they embraced as their own.

In My TBR Stack:

NewsReal: A View Through the Lens When...
by Tim Ortman
Incorgnito Publishing Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In today’s thousand-channel, blog-heavy news environment, it’s tough to envision a time when everyone was, more or less, on the same page; when news coverage was less contentious and delivered in a straightforward fashion. NEWSREAL is a view through the lens to when such a time did truly exist.

Recalled by Emmy Award winning cameraman and producer, Tim Ortman, NEWSREAL relives a time when the news landscape was owned by the ‘Big 4’ networks. With their vast assemblage of domestic and international bureaus, enormous budgets and loyal viewers, they were everywhere and anywhere news happened–and as an NBC cameraman, Ortman found himself at the frontlines of these stories.

In today’s world, the same fact-based reporting competes with an increasing interference from talk show interpretations and online opinions. NEWSREAL evokes a time void of that noise. A time when anchormen were more trusted than presidents, the reporting was riveting, the stories were real, and ‘Fake News’ was nowhere to be found.

On My Radar:

Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News
by Clint Watts
Harper Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Clint Watts electrified the nation when he testified in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. In Messing with the Enemy, the counterterrorism, cybersecurity and homeland security expert introduces us to a frightening world in which terrorists and cyber criminals don’t hack your computer, they hack your mind. Watts reveals how these malefactors use your social media information and that of your family, friends and colleagues to map your social networks, identify your vulnerabilities, master your fears and harness your preferences.

Thanks to the schemes engineered by social media manipulators using you and your information, business executives have coughed up millions in fraudulent wire transfers, seemingly good kids have joined the Islamic State, and staunch anti-communist Reagan Republicans have cheered the Russian government’s hacking of a Democratic presidential candidate’s e-mails. Watts knows how they do it because he’s mirrored their methods to understand their intentions, combat their actions, and coopt their efforts.

Watts examines a range of social media platforms—from the first Internet forums to the current titans of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—and nefarious actors—from al Qaeda to the Islamic State to the Russian social media troll farm—to illuminate exactly how they use Western social media for their nefarious purposes. He explains how he’s learned, through his successes and his failures, to engage with hackers, terrorists, and even the Russians—and how these interactions have generated methods for fighting back against those that seek to harm people on the Internet. He concludes with a snapshot of how advances in artificial intelligence will make future influence even more effective and dangerous to social media users and democratic governments worldwide. Shocking, funny, and eye-opening, Messing with the Enemy is a deeply urgent guide for living safe and smart in a super-connected world.

On My Radar:

Calypso
by David Sedaris
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong. 

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny - it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's writing has never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet - and it just might be his very best.

In My TBR Stack:

An Outlaw Makes It Home: The Awakening of a Spiritual Revolutionary
by Eli Jaxon-Bear
New Morning Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

An Outlaw Makes It Home is an odyssey, a journey out and a return home. A candid, compelling and raucous spiritual adventure story, with an element of danger when Eli goes underground as a federal fugitive during the Vietnam War. From underground revolutionary to spiritual awakening, he takes us with him from uncharted outback of Peru to a monastery in Japan, an initiation into a Sufi clan in Marrakesh, and the streets of India in his quest for a final teacher.

- - - - -

"An Outlaw Makes It Home bares it all.... I consumed this book in huge gulps and would do it again. I urge others to read it."

~Peter Coyote

In My TBR Stack:

Can Business Save the Earth: Innovating Our Way to Sustainability
by Michael Lenox and Aaron Chatterji
Stanford Business Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Increasingly, business leaders are tasked with developing new products, services, and business models that minimize environmental impact while driving economic growth. It's a tall order—and a call that is only getting louder.

In Can Business Save the Earth?, Michael Lenox and Aaron Chatterji explain just how the private sector can help. Many believe that markets will inevitably demand sustainable practices and force them to emerge. But Lenox and Chatterji see it differently. Based on more than a decade of research and work with companies, they argue that a bright green future is only possible with dramatic innovation across multiple sectors at the same time.

To achieve this, a broader ecosystem of players—including inventors, executives, customers, investors, activists, and governments—all must play a role. The book outlines how and the extent to which each group can serve as a driver of green growth. Then, Lenox and Chatterji identify where economic incentives currently exist, or could exist with institutional change, and ultimately address the larger question of how far well-coordinated efforts can take us in addressing the current environmental crisis.

In My TBR Stack:

Jenna's Case: A Tug Wyler Mystery
by Andy Siegel
Rockwell Press
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

A teen-aged girl can be among the most vulnerable of human beings. And the preyed-upon young woman at the dark center of Jenna’s Case is certain to win the heart of readers. Believing Jenna Radcliff to be the victim of a Brooklyn doctor willing to put greed above his oath to do no harm, Tug takes on her case with deeply felt zeal. Yet what he quickly comes to understand is that his new client—once an obviously bright, outgoing girl (and ace neighborhood jump-roper)—is now a nearly mute shadow of her former self. As he proceeds to amass evidence against the conscienceless and defiant surgeon who’d willfully mutilated Jenna, Tug unfortunately soon discovers that the forces set against him are not only more numerous than he’d imagined but also more deadly.

Nelly's Case: A Tug Wyler Mystery

by Andy Siegel

Rockwell Press

Trade Paperback

From the author''s website:

Nelly Rivera, when Tug first sees her, lies helpless in a hospital bed. Once sassy, active and ambitious, she’s now a young woman with an uncertain future and a present seemingly tied to dependency. Discovering exactly what happened to her in a dental office while under anesthesia and who was responsible, however, is just one of Tug’s goals. For he soon enough learns Nelly’s recently inherited a hefty sum from her late father’s life insurance. Which definitely complicates matters. The closer Tug, committed as always to gaining justice, gets to the truth the more elusive it becomes.

Elton's Case: A Tug Wyler Mystery

by Andy Siegel

Rockwell Press

Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

Wrongfully locked up for a crime he didn’t commit, the wheelchair-bound Elton Cribbs immediate situation soon goes from bad to tragic. Could it have happened that, while in custody and being transported with less than suitable care in a police van he suffered the injuries which rendered him a paraplegic? Certainly, ever since then—for the past decade—he’s led the life of an aggrieved victim, seeking justice while rejecting pity. Retained now to litigate Elton’s case even as the clock’s ticking, Tug finds himself caught in the unlikeliest of conflicts. After all, what’s he supposed to think when the defendant, otherwise known as the City of New York, begins offering him millions to settle while at the same time maintaining its allegation that Elton’s case is a phony one?

On My Radar:

Facts and Fears: Hard Truths From a Life in Intelligence
by James R. Clapper with Trey Brown
Viking Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

When he stepped down in January 2017 as the fourth United States director of national intelligence, James Clapper had been President Obama’s senior intelligence adviser for six and a half years, longer than his three predecessors combined. He led the U.S. intelligence community through a period that included the raid on Osama bin Laden, the Benghazi attack, the leaks of Edward Snowden, and Russia’s influence operation during the 2016 U.S. election campaign. In Facts and Fears, Clapper traces his career through the growing threat of cyberattacks, his relationships with presidents and Congress, and the truth about Russia’s role in the presidential election. He describes, in the wake of Snowden and WikiLeaks, his efforts to make intelligence more transparent and to push back against the suspicion that Americans’ private lives are subject to surveillance. Finally, it was living through Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and seeing how the foundations of American democracy were–and continue to be–undermined by a foreign power that led him to break with his instincts honed through more than five decades in the intelligence profession to share his inside experience.

Clapper considers such controversial questions as, Is intelligence ethical? Is it moral to intercept communications or to photograph closed societies from orbit? What are the limits of what we should be allowed to do? What protections should we give to the private citizens of the world, not to mention our fellow Americans? Are there times when intelligence officers can lose credibility as unbiased reporters of hard truths by inserting themselves into policy decisions?

Facts and Fears offers a privileged look inside the U.S. intelligence community and, with the frankness and professionalism for which James Clapper is known, addresses some of the most difficult challenges in our nation’s history.

On My Radar:

To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment
by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz
Basic Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:


To End a Presidency addresses one of today’s most urgent questions: when and whether to impeach a president. Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz provide an authoritative guide to impeachment’s past and a bold argument about its proper role today. In an era of expansive presidential power and intense partisanship, we must rethink impeachment for the twenty-first century.

Of impeachments, one Constitutional Convention delegate declared, 

“A good magistrate will not fear them. A bad one will be kept in fear of them.” To End a Presidency is an essential book for all Americans seeking to understand how this crucial but fearsome power should be exercised.

In My TBR Stack:

Accidental Jesus Freak: One Woman's Journey From Fundamentalism to Freedom
by Amber Lea Starfire
MoonSkye Publishing
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

In 1973, Linda was a flute player and music major at a California community college, until she met and fell madly in love with a charismatic piano player, plunging into his world of music-making and drug-fueled parties. When, just three weeks after their wedding, he reveals that he’s been “born again,” Linda makes the decision to follow him into his new religion and, unwittingly, into a life of communal living, male domination, and magical thinking.  

With unflinching candor, Amber Starfire chronicles her journey as Linda Carr into the evangelical culture, where she gives up everything for her husband and their music ministry. But in the process, she loses her most valuable assets: her identity and sense of self-worth. It is only when Linda returns to live with her birth family and faces her complicated relationship with her mother that she finds new purpose and the courage to begin extricating herself from the limiting beliefs of her past.

In My TBR Stack:

Start a Successful Business: Expert Advice to Take Your Startup From Idea to Empire
by Colleen DeBaise
Amacom
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

Makers, doers, and dreamers--for decades they have turned to Inc. for help in getting their businesses off the ground. The publication's keen advice clarifies the process, while startup stories fuel aspirations and spark action.

Warby Parker shook up the eyewear sector with its innovative, socially-conscious business model. Skullcandy tapped into the surfing, skateboarding, and hip-hop scenes--and built a standout audio brand. All along, Inc. was there, capturing triumphs, setbacks, and lessons learned.

Now, Start a Successful Business gathers these important lessons into a single path-charting guide. From brainstorming to crowdfunding to building partnerships, the book walks new and aspiring founders through seven crucial stages:

- Come up with a brilliant business idea
- Select the best structure and strategy for your startup
- Figure out funding
- Get the word out--and get customers
- Dig deep to discover their wants and needs
- Become an exceptional leader
- Prepare to go global

Throughout, celebrated entrepreneurs share ideas that worked for them, including where Sarah Blakely got the inspiration for Spanx, how Elon Musk stays insanely productive, why Rent the Runway ditched the business plan, and how a hashtag accelerated Airbnb's success.

With a fleet of trusted experts by your side, starting a business will be faster, less confusing--and a whole lot more fun.

In My TBR Stack:

Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces
by Michael Chabon
Harper Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

“Magical prose stylist” Michael Chabon (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times) delivers a collection of essays—heartfelt, humorous, insightful, wise—on the meaning of fatherhood.

For the September 2016 issue of GQ, Michael Chabon wrote a piece about accompanying his son Abraham Chabon, then thirteen, to Paris Men’s Fashion Week. Possessed with a precocious sense of style, Abe was in his element chatting with designers he idolized and turning a critical eye to the freshest runway looks of the season; Chabon Sr., whose interest in clothing stops at “thrift-shopping for vintage western shirts or Hermès neckties,” sat idly by, staving off yawns and fighting the impulse that the whole thing was a massive waste of time. Despite his own indifference, however, what gradually emerged as Chabon ferried his son to and from fashion shows was a deep respect for his son’s passion. The piece quickly became a viral sensation.

With the GQ story as its centerpiece, and featuring six additional essays plus an introduction, Pops illuminates the meaning, magic, and mysteries of fatherhood as only Michael Chabon can.

On My Radar:

Robin
by Dave Itzkoff
Henry Holt and Co.
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations – all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed. 

But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams’s comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, where he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation to bring to life a wide range of characters. And in Good Will Hunting he gave an intense and controlled performance that revealed the true range of his talent.

Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression-- topics he discussed openly while performing and during interviews -- and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a man whose work touched so many lives.