Random House New Releases - Nonfiction

A History of Egypt by Jason Thompson

2009-12-01T00:30:00-05:00

A History of Egypt From Earliest Times to the Present
Written by Jason Thompson

Trade Paperback, 432 pages | Anchor | History - Egypt | $17.00 | 978-0-307-47352-3 (0-307-47352-X)

In A History of Egypt, Jason Thompson has written the first one-volume work to encompass all 5,000 years of Egyptian history, highlighting the surprisingly strong connections between the ancient land of the Pharaohs and the modern-day Arab nation.

No country's past can match Egypt's in antiquity, richness, and variety. However, it is rarely presented as a comprehensive panorama because scholars tend to divide it into distinct eras—prehistoric, pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic, medieval Islamic, Ottoman, and modern—that are not often studied in relation to one another. In this daringly ambitious project, drawing on the most current scholarship as well as his own research, Thompson makes the case that few if any other countries have as many threads of continuity running through their entire historical experience. With its unprecedented scope and lively and readable style, A History of Egypt offers students, travelers, and general readers alike an engaging narrative of the extraordinarily long course of human history by the Nile.

Picasso by Philippe Dagen

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

Picasso
Written by Philippe Dagen

Hardcover, 512 pages | The Monacelli Press | Art - Individual Artist | $150.00 | 978-1-58093-257-8 (1-58093-257-6)

Art critic and scholar Philippe Dagen approaches Picasso as a subject through a series of questions. What does it mean to be an artist in the twentieth century? What does it mean to be an artist in the time of newspapers and museums, in a time when the art market has expanded to reach the entire western world? Is modern civilization so different that it gives an artist a new attitude and causes him to redefine his role for the public, the market, and, therefore, to invent entirely new artistic practices?

Picasso is considered here in view of this last, and most probable, hypothesis. He is a product of his situation and time, in the broadest sense of the term. Refusing to confine himself to his studio or the small artistic community in Paris, Picasso responded forcefully to world affairs, giving pictoral and sculptural form to the passions and events he witnessed around him. This is a thoroughly modern Picasso, constantly and consciously confronting the modernity of the world.

Dagen's original exploration of his techniques, materials, and images shows how the artist both allowed modernity to in?ltrate his work and at the same time to react against it. Picasso moved between acceptance and rejection, a perpetual confrontation that is, perhaps, the most satisfying explanation of his will to create change that drove him to leave the most varied and diverse body of work in the entire history of art.

Star Pieces by Helen Chislett

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

Star Pieces The Enduring Beauty of Spectacular Furniture
Written by David Linley, Charles Cator and Helen Chislett

Hardcover, 256 pages | The Monacelli Press | Art - Design - Furniture; Antiques & Collectibles - Furniture | $65.00 | 978-1-58093-259-2 (1-58093-259-2)

Furniture has star qualities unlike any other object:
It is both functional and decorative, yet it can connect us to history and far-flung places around the globe in the same way a Renaissance painting sends us back in time or a photograph takes us to a beloved overseas locale. Furniture also appeals to four of our senses at once: we see the way it makes an otherwise dull room into a glamorous one; we touch its sleek modern lines and soft fabrics; we hear hinges creaking; we smell the rich scents of antique wood and leather.

The authors, each of whom are experts on furniture, share their knowledge of its value and importance from an intellectual and emotional perspective, and describe how best to assess it from an aesthetic one, exploring styles, techniques and materials. They introduce twenty golden ages, from the ancient world to the twentieth century, by way of such rich moments as Ming in China, Italian and French Baroque, Chippendale in England, the designs of Newport and Philadelphia in America, Neoclassicism in France, Russia and Sweden, Biedermeier, Shaker and Art Deco. They also spotlight the most brilliant contemporary international designers, both those who see furniture as akin to fine art and those who simply enjoy the craft involved. They explain how your own star piece can enrich an interior with glamour, drama and personality and advise on how to commission a unique handmade piece and buy antique furniture.

Two of the field’s foremost experts – David Linley, who rose to the head of his profession after founding his own firm in 1985, and Charles Cator, who holds special responsibility in furniture and decorative arts at Christie’s International – provide unsurpassable guidance, with their intimate understanding of the subject from both a commercial and enthusiast’s perspective. Combined with Helen Chislett, who offers insightful comments from her experience as a writer on decorative arts, no group of authors is better suited to discuss these topics. Their illuminating text is supplemented by rich and varied illustrations – details of carving, ornamentation and upholstery, views of different styles of furniture used in historic and contemporary interiors, original drawings, and spectacular pieces, both antique and contemporary.

The Age of Entanglement by Louisa Gilder

2009-11-10T00:30:00-05:00

The Age of Entanglement When Quantum Physics Was Reborn
Written by Louisa Gilder

Trade Paperback, 464 pages | Vintage | Science - Quantum Theory; Science - Physics; Science - History | $17.00 | 978-1-4000-9526-1 (1-4000-9526-3)

In The Age of Entanglement, Louisa Gilder brings to life one of the pivotal debates in twentieth century physics. In 1935, Albert Einstein famously showed that, according to the quantum theory, separated particles could act as if intimately connected–a phenomenon which he derisively described as “spooky action at a distance.” In that same year, Erwin Schrödinger christened this correlation “entanglement.” Yet its existence was mostly ignored until 1964, when the Irish physicist John Bell demonstrated just how strange this entanglement really was. Drawing on the papers, letters, and memoirs of the twentieth century’s greatest physicists, Gilder both humanizes and dramatizes the story by employing the scientists’ own words in imagined face-to-face dialogues. The result is a richly illuminating exploration of one of the most exciting concepts of quantum physics.

The Black Book by Toni Morrison

2009-11-10T00:30:00-05:00

The Black Book 35th Anniversary Edition
Edited by Middleton A. Harris, Ernest Smith, Morris Levitt and Roger Furman
Foreword by Toni Morrison

Hardcover, 224 pages | Random House | Social Science - African-American Studies; History - United States; Art - History - American | $35.00 | 978-1-4000-6848-7 (1-4000-6848-7)

Seventeenth-century sketches of Africa as it appeared to marauding European traders. Nineteenth-century slave auction notices. Twentieth-century sheet music for work songs and freedom chants. Photographs of war heroes, regal in uniform. Antebellum reward posters for capturing runaway slaves. An 1856 article titled “A Visit to the Slave Mother Who Killed Her Child.”

In 1974, Middleton A. Harris and Toni Morrison led a team of gifted, passionate collectors in compiling these images and nearly 500 others into one sensational narrative of the black experience in America: The Black Book.

Now in a deluxe 35th anniversary hardcover edition, The Black Book remains a breathtaking testament to the legendary wisdom, strength, and perseverance of black men and women intent on freedom. Prominent collectors Morris Levitt, Roger Furman, and Ernest Smith, as well as Middleton Harris and Toni Morrison (then a Random House editor, now a two-time Pulitzer Prize—winning Nobel laureate) spent months studying, laughing at, and crying over these materials–from transcripts of fugitive slaves’ trials and proclamations by Frederick Douglass and other celebrated abolitionists to chilling images of cross burnings and lynchings, patents registered by black inventors throughout the early twentieth century to vibrant posters from “Black Hollywood” films from the 1930s and 1940s.

A labor of love and a vital link to the richness and diversity of African American history and culture, The Black Book honors the past, reminding us where our nation has been, and gives flight to our hopes for what is yet to come. Beautifully and faithfully presented, and featuring a new Foreword and original poem by Toni Morrison, The Black Book remains a timeless landmark work.

A Truth Universally Acknowledged by Harold Bloom

2009-11-10T00:30:00-05:00

A Truth Universally Acknowledged 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen
Edited by Susannah Carson
Foreword by Harold Bloom

Hardcover, 320 pages | Random House | Literary Criticism & Collections - Essays | $25.00 | 978-1-4000-6805-0 (1-4000-6805-3)

For so many of us a Jane Austen novel is much more than the epitome of a great read. It is a delight and a solace, a challenge and a reward, and perhaps even an obsession. For two centuries Austen has enthralled readers. Few other authors can claim as many fans or as much devotion. So why are we so fascinated with her novels? What is it about her prose that has made Jane Austen so universally beloved?

In essays culled from the last one hundred years of criticism juxtaposed with new pieces by some of today’s most popular novelists and essayists, Jane Austen’s writing is examined and discussed, from her witty dialogue to the arc and sweep of her story lines. Great authors and literary critics of the past offer insights into the timelessness of her moral truths while highlighting the unique confines of the society in which she composed her novels. Virginia Woolf examines Austen’s maturation as an artist and speculates on how her writing would have changed if she’d lived twenty more years, while C. S. Lewis celebrates Austen’s mirthful, ironic take on traditional values.

Modern voices celebrate Austen’s amazing legacy with an equal amount of eloquence and enthusiasm. Fay Weldon reads Mansfield Park as an interpretation of Austen’s own struggle to be as “good” as Fanny Price. Anna Quindlen examines the enduring issues of social pressure and gender politics that make Pride and Prejudice as vital today as ever. Alain de Botton praises Mansfield Park for the way it turns Austen’s societal hierarchy on its head. Amy Bloom finds parallels between the world of Persuasion and Austen’s own life. And Amy Heckerling reveals how she transformed the characters of Emma into denizens of 1990s Beverly Hills for her comedy Clueless. From Harold Bloom to Martin Amis, Somerset Maugham to Jay McInerney, Eudora Welty to Margot Livesey, each writer here reflects on Austen’s place in both the literary canon and our cultural imagination.

We read, and then reread, our favorite Austen novels to connect with both her world and our own. Because, as A Truth Universally Acknowledged so eloquently demonstrates, the only thing better than reading a Jane Austen novel is finding in our own lives her humor, emotion, and love.

The Bedside Book of Beasts by Graeme Gibson

2009-11-03T00:30:00-05:00

The Bedside Book of Beasts A Wildlife Miscellany
Written by Graeme Gibson

Hardcover, 384 pages | Nan A. Talese | Nature - Animals | $35.00 | 978-0-385-52459-9 (0-385-52459-5)

In a wonderfully diverse selection of writings and gorgeous illustrations, this stunning companion to The Bedside Book of Birds explores the relationship between predators and their prey.

The intricate, complex connection between the hunter and the hunted has defined animal life on earth throughout time. In The Bedside Book of Beasts, Graeme Gibson gathers breathtaking works of art and literature that capture the power, grace, and inventiveness of both predators and their natural prey.

The Bedside Book of Beasts presents myths, fables, poetry, and excerpts from nature and travel writing, journals, sacred texts, and works of fiction. Within these pages we encounter big cats, bears, wolves, and the small but voracious praying mantis, as well as works that bring to life the experience of more vulnerable prey. Portraits of such legendary evil beasts as the Minotaur, Grendel, and the biblical Leviathan add to the depth and breadth of the collection. An impressive array of art, both traditional and contemporary, as well as scientific, religious, and mythological drawings, paintings, and woodcuts make this volume an utterly unique gift for the holidays or any occasion.

A fascinating exploration of the chain of life, of survival and mortality, The Bedside Book of Beasts evokes a profound sense of the eternal connection between humans and the creatures they endeavor to tame.

Defend the Realm by Christopher Andrew

2009-11-03T00:30:00-05:00

Defend the Realm The Authorized History of MI5
Written by Christopher Andrew

Hardcover, 1056 pages | Knopf | Political Science - Political Freedom & Security - Intelligence; History - Great Britain | $40.00 | 978-0-307-26363-6 (0-307-26363-0)

An unprecedented publishing event: to mark the centenary of its foundation, the British Security Service, MI5, has for the first time opened its archives to an independent historian. The book reveals the precise role of the Security Service in twentieth-century British history, from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909, through two world wars, up to and including its present roles in counterespionage and counterterrorism. The book describes how MI5 has been managed, what its relationship has been with government, where it has triumphed, and where it has failed. In all of this no restriction has been placed on the judgments made by the author.

Defend the Realm also adds significantly to our knowledge of many celebrated events and notorious individuals and definitively lays to rest a number of persistent myths. Above all, it shows the place of this previously extremely secretive organization within the United Kingdom. Few books could make such an immediate and extraordinary increase to our understanding of British history over the past century.

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean by Edward Kritzler

2009-11-03T00:30:00-05:00

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge
Written by Edward Kritzler

Trade Paperback, 352 pages | Anchor | History - Jewish | $15.00 | 978-0-7679-1952-4 (0-7679-1952-1)

In this lively debut work of history, Edward Kritzler tells the tale of an unlikely group of swashbuckling Jews who ransacked the high seas in the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition. At the end of the fifteenth century, many Jews had to flee Spain and Portugal. The most adventurous among them took to the seas as freewheeling outlaws. In ships bearing names such as the Prophet Samuel, Queen Esther, and Shield of Abraham, they attacked and plundered the Spanish fleet while forming alliances with other European powers to ensure the safety of Jews living in hiding. Filled with high-sea adventures–including encounters with Captain Morgan and other legendary pirates–Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean reveals a hidden chapter in Jewish history as well as the cruelty, terror, and greed that flourished during the Age of Discovery.

The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika by Robert B. Strassler

2009-11-03T00:30:00-05:00

The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika
Edited by Robert B. Strassler

Hardcover, 672 pages | Pantheon | History - Ancient - Greece | $40.00 | 978-0-375-42255-3 (0-375-42255-2)

From the editor of the widely praised The Landmark Thucydides and The Landmark Herodotus, here is a new edition of Xenophon’s Hellenika, the primary source for the events of the final seven years and aftermath of the Peloponnesian War.

Hellenika covers the years between 411 and 362 B.C.E., a particularly dramatic period during which the alliances among Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Persia were in constant flux. Together with the volumes of Herodotus and Thucydides, it completes an ancient narrative of the military and political history of classical Greece.

Xenophon was an Athenian who participated in the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against Cyrus’ brother, the Perisan King Artaxerces II. Later Xenophon joined the Spartan army and hence was exiled from Athens. In addition to the Hellenika, a number of his essays have survived, including one on his memories of his teacher, Socrates.

Beautifully illustrated, heavily annotated, and filled with detailed, clear maps, this edition gives us a new, authoritative, and completely accessible translation by John Marincola, an comprehensive introduction by David Thomas, sixteen appendices written by leading classics scholars, and an extensive timeline/chronology to clarify this otherwise confusing period. Unlike any other edition of the Hellenika, it also includes the relevant texts of Diodorus Siculus and the Oxyrhynchus Historian, with explanatory footnotes and a table that correlates passages of the three works, which is perhaps crucial to an assessment of Xenophon’s reliability and quality as a historian.

Like the two Landmark editions that precede it, The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika is the most readable and comprehensive edition available of an essential history.

5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great by Terri L. Orbuch

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great
Written by Terri L. Orbuch

Hardcover, 272 pages | Delacorte Press | Family & Relationships - Marriage | $26.00 | 978-0-385-34286-5 (0-385-34286-1)

What makes marriages last? What makes couples happy?
Is it possible for a so-so marriage to become a great one?

From Dr. Terri Orbuch, the renowned therapist and nationally recognized relationship expert known as The Love Doctor®, comes a book that breaks new ground in marital relationships. The head researcher in a large-scale, unprecedented study funded by the National Institutes of Health—which has followed 373 couples for more than twenty-two years and is ongoing—Dr. Orbuch made some remarkable discoveries about happiness, sexuality, human mating patterns, and relationship longevity. In 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great, she releases the study’s findings to the public in a book for the first time, sharing her insights and never-before-revealed strategies for improving and enhancing your marriage—at every stage.

Do you remember the feeling of first being in love? Based on the latest research about what works in happy marriages, Dr. Orbuch offers an accessible, step-by-step roadmap for reconnecting with those feelings and gaining a deeper appreciation for the things you and your spouse share. She defines the five simple strategies to help couples navigate the daily minefield of marriage…from defusing frustrations that erode your relationship to the simple things that will keep your partner happy…from the 10-minute rule to help you really get to know your spouse to reducing boredom and weeding out unprofitable behaviors.

Filled with exercises, check lists, and some surprising statistics, 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great will help you bring happiness, joy and fulfillment to the most important relationship of your life.

Only in New York by Thomas Mellins

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

Only in New York Photographs from Look Magazine
Written by Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins

Hardcover, 208 pages | The Monacelli Press | Photography - Photojournalism; Photography | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-248-6 (1-58093-248-7)

In the aftermath of World War II, New York emerged as a world-class city and the de facto national financial capital, becoming a magnet for moguls and strivers. At the same time the city remained a collection of small towns made up of people going about their daily rounds. No other publication captured this twin identity as successfully as Look magazine.

In the pre-television era, the editors of Look recognized the great demand for photographs of all kinds—politicians, titans of industry, and unsung heroes, glamorous events and intimate moments, society matrons and showgirls, violent crime and courtroom drama—that provided entertainment and diversion to voyeuristic subscribers to the magazine. Reaching a peak circulation of nearly 8 million in the late 1960s, Look was a national publication with a focus on the fascination and allure of New York.

The magazine's New York images—more than 200,000 in all—were donated to the Museum of the City of New York. Only in New York draws from that astonishing archive to present the tapestry that was New York in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Snowball by Alice Schroeder

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

The Snowball Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Written by Alice Schroeder

Trade Paperback, 832 pages | Bantam | Biography & Autobiography - Business; Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs; Biography & Autobiography - Rich & Famous | $20.00 | 978-0-553-38461-1 (0-553-38461-9)

Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.”

When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would never write.

Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

From the Hardcover edition.

The American Civil War by John Keegan

2009-10-20T00:30:00-05:00

The American Civil War A Military History
Written by John Keegan

Hardcover, 416 pages | Knopf | History - United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) | $35.00 | 978-0-307-26343-8 (0-307-26343-6)

For the past half century, John Keegan, the greatest military historian of our time, has been returning to the scenes of America’s most bloody and wrenching war to ponder its lingering conundrums: the continuation of fighting for four years between such vastly mismatched sides; the dogged persistence of ill-trained, ill-equipped, and often malnourished combatants; the effective absence of decisive battles among some two to three hundred known to us by name. Now Keegan examines these and other puzzles with a peerless understanding of warfare, uncovering dimensions of the conflict that have eluded earlier historiography.

While offering original and perceptive insights into psychology, ideology, demographics, and economics, Keegan reveals the war’s hidden shape—a consequence of leadership, the evolution of strategic logic, and, above all, geography, the Rosetta Stone of his legendary decipherments of all great battles. The American topography, Keegan argues, presented a battle space of complexity and challenges virtually unmatched before or since. Out of a succession of mythic but chaotic engagements, he weaves an irresistible narrative illuminated with comparisons to the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and other conflicts.

The American Civil War is sure to be hailed as a definitive account of its eternally fascinating subject.

Escaping the Endless Adolescence by Claudia Worrell Allen

2009-10-20T00:30:00-05:00

Escaping the Endless Adolescence How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old
Written by Joseph Allen and Claudia Worrell Allen

Hardcover, 272 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Parenting | $25.00 | 978-0-345-50789-1 (0-345-50789-4)

Do you sometimes wonder how your teen is ever going to survive on his or her own as an adult? Does your high school junior seem oblivious to the challenges that lie ahead? Does your academically successful nineteen-year-old still expect you to “just take care of” even the most basic life tasks?

Welcome to the stunted world of the Endless Adolescence. Recent studies show that today’s teenagers are more anxious and stressed and less independent and motivated to grow up than ever before. Twenty-five is rapidly becoming the new fifteen for a generation suffering from a debilitating “failure to launch.” Now two preeminent clinical psychologists tell us why and chart a groundbreaking escape route for teens and parents.

Drawing on their extensive research and practice, Joseph Allen and Claudia Worrell Allen show that most teen problems are not hardwired into teens’ brains and hormones but grow instead out of a “Nurture Paradox” in which our efforts to support our teens by shielding them from the growth-spurring rigors and rewards of the adult world have backfired badly. With compelling examples and practical and profound suggestions, the authors outline a novel approach for producing dramatic leaps forward in teen maturity, including

• Turn Consumers into Contributors Help teens experience adult maturity–its bumps and its joys–through the right kind of employment or volunteer activity.
• Feed Them with Feedback Let teens see and hear how the larger world perceives them. Shielding them from criticism–constructive or otherwise–will only leave them unequipped to deal with it when they get to the “real world.”
• Provide Adult Connections Even though they’ll deny it, teens desperately need to interact with adults (including parents) on a more mature level–and such interaction will help them blossom!
• Stretch the Teen Envelope Do fewer things for teens that they can do for themselves, and give them tasks just beyond their current level of competence and comfort.

Today’s teens are starved for the lost fundamentals they need to really grow: adult connections and the adult rewards of autonomy, competence, and mastery. Restoring these will help them unlearn their adolescent helplessness and grow into adults who can make you–and themselves–proud.

Building Up and Tearing Down by Paul Goldberger

2009-10-13T00:30:00-05:00

Building Up and Tearing Down Reflections on the Age of Architecture
Written by Paul Goldberger

Hardcover, 320 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Criticism | $35.00 | 978-1-58093-264-6 (1-58093-264-9)

PAUL GOLDBERGER
ON THE AGE OF ARCHITECTURE
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry, the CCTV Headquarters by Rem Koolhaas, the Getty Center by Richard Meier, the Times Building by Renzo Piano: Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Paul Goldberger’s tenure at The New Yorker has documented a captivating era in the world of architecture, one in which larger-than-life buildings, urban schemes, historic preservation battles, and personalities have commanded an international stage. Goldberger’s keen observations and sharp wit make him one of the most insightful and passionate architectural voices of our time. In this collection of fifty-seven essays, the critic Tracy Kidder called “America’s foremost interpreter of public architecture” ranges from Havana to Beijing, from Chicago to Las Vegas, dissecting everything from skyscrapers by Norman Foster and museums by Tadao Ando to airports, monuments, suburban shopping malls, and white-brick apartment houses. This is a comprehensive account of the best—and the worst—of the “age of architecture.”

On Norman Foster:
Norman Foster is the Mozart of modernism. He is nimble and prolific, and his buildings are marked by lightness and grace. He works very hard, but his designs don’t show the effort. He brings an air of unnerving aplomb to everything he creates—from skyscrapers to airports, research laboratories to art galleries, chairs to doorknobs. His ability to produce surprising work that doesn’t feel labored must drive his competitors crazy.

On the Westin Hotel:
The forty-five-story Westin is the most garish tall building that has gone up in New York in as long as I can remember. It is fascinating, if only because it makes Times Square vulgar in a whole new way, extending up into the sky. It is not easy, these days, to go beyond the bounds of taste. If the architects, the Miami-based firm Arquitectonica, had been trying to allude to bad taste, one could perhaps respect what they came up with. But they simply wanted, like most architects today, to entertain us.

On Mies van der Rohe:
Mies’s buildings look like the simplest things you could imagine, yet they are among the richest works of architecture ever created. Modern architecture was supposed to remake the world, and Mies was at the center of the revolution, but he was also a counterrevolutionary who designed beautiful things. His spare, minimalist objects are exquisite. He is the only modernist who created a language that ranks with the architectural languages of the past, and while this has sometimes been troubling for his reputation . . . his architectural forms become more astonishing as time goes on.

Miracle on the Hudson by Laura Parker

2009-10-13T00:30:00-05:00

Miracle on the Hudson The Survivors of Flight 1549 Tell Their Extraordinary Stories of Courage, Faith, and Determination
Written by The Survivors of Flight 1549, William Prochnau and Laura Parker

Hardcover, 272 pages | Ballantine Books | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs | $25.00 | 978-0-345-51994-8 (0-345-51994-9)

In this heart-stopping, page-turning tale of fear, heroism, and redemption, the passengers of the Hudson River crash landing tell their remarkable stories.

Millions watched the aftermath on television, while others witnessed the event actually happening from the windows of nearby skyscrapers. But only 155 people know firsthand what really happened on U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on January 15, 2009. Now, for the first time, the survivors detail their astounding, terrifying, and inspiring experiences on that freezing winter day in New York City. Written by two esteemed journalists, Miracle on the Hudson is the entire tale from takeoff to bird strike to touchdown to rescue, seen through the eyes and felt in the souls of those on board the fateful flight.

Revealing many new and compelling details, Miracle on the Hudson dramatically evokes the explosion and "smell of burning flesh" as both engines were destroyed by geese, the violent landing on the river that felt like a "huge car wreck," the gridlock in the aisles as the plane filled swiftly with freezing water, and the thrill of the passengers' rescue from the wings and from rafts—all of it recalled by the "cross section of America" on board.

Jay McDonald, a thirty-nine-year-old software developer, had survived brain-tumor surgery just two years earlier and now faced the unimaginable.

Tracey Wolsko, a nervous flier, suddenly became other people's rock: "Just pray. It's going to be all right." Jim Whitaker, a construction executive, reassured a nervous mother of two young children on board, only later admitting, "I was pathologically lying the whole time." As the plane started sinking, Lucille Palmer, eighty-five, told her daughter to save herself: "Just leave me!"

Featuring much more than what the media reported—moments of chaos in addition to stoicism and common sense, and the fortuitous mistakes and quick instincts that saved lives that otherwise would have been lost—Miracle on the Hudson is the chronicle of one of the most phenomenal feel-good stories of recent years, one that could have been a nightmare and instead became a stirring narrative of heroism and hope for our times.

Conquering Fear by Harold S. Kushner

2009-10-06T00:30:00-05:00

Conquering Fear Living Boldly in an Uncertain World
Written by Harold S. Kushner

Hardcover, 192 pages | Knopf | Self Help - Stress Management; Psychology & Psychiatry - Emotions; Religion | $23.95 | 978-0-307-26664-4 (0-307-26664-8)

From the best-selling author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, an illuminating book about fear—and what we can do to overcome it.

An inescapable component of our lives, fear comes in many guises: fear of unemployment; fear of aging, illness, losing beauty; fear of a terrorist attack or natural disaster. In uncertain times, coping with these fears can be especially challenging, but in this indispensable, hopeful book, Harold S. Kushner teaches us to confront, master, and even embrace fear for a more fulfilling life.

Drawing on the teachings of religious and secular literature and on the true stories of people who have faced their fears, Kushner helps us to see that fear can present us with extraordinary opportunities—to connect with our emotions, rethink our values, and change our lives, and the world, for the better. For those who fear helplessness, he suggests empowerment: through prayer, service, and education. For those who fear for mankind’s future, he insists on hope and pragmatic measures, such as working to protect the environment. For those who fear death, he proposes life—lived boldly and purposefully.

In Conquering Fear, we are again inspired by Harold S. Kushner’s wisdom, at once deeply spiritual and eminently practical.

Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes

2009-10-06T00:30:00-05:00

Nothing to Be Frightened Of
Written by Julian Barnes

Trade Paperback, 256 pages | Vintage | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs | $15.00 | 978-0-307-38998-5 (0-307-38998-7)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A memoir on mortality as only Julian Barnes can write it, one that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction. If the fear of death is “the most rational thing in the world,” how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty and an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for, against, and with God, and at his own bloodline, which has become, following his parents’ death, another realm of mystery.

Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis.

We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives by David Ritz

2009-10-06T00:30:00-05:00

We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives A Swingin' Show-biz Saga
Written by Paul Shaffer and David Ritz

Hardcover, 336 pages | Flying Dolphin Press | Biography & Autobiography - Entertainment & Performing Arts | $26.00 | 978-0-385-52483-4 (0-385-52483-8)

From Paul Shaffer, lifelong music junkie, hipster, and longtime leader of David Letterman's band, comes a candid, endearing, hilarious, and star-studded memoir of a life in-and love of-show business.

How does a kid go from a remote Canadian town at the tip of Lake Superior to the bright lights of Broadway and a gig leading the band on Letterman? This book is Paul Shaffer's answer to that question. From playing seedy strip joints in Toronto, to his first legitimate job out of college-which found him working with future stars (and friends) Gilda Radner, Martin Short, and Eugene Levy-to being first musical director of the nascent Saturday Night Live and helping to form the Blues Brothers, to being onstage every night with Dave and playing with the greatest musicians of our time, Shaffer has lived the ultimate showbiz life.

Now, in this hilarious, entertaining, and candid memoir-in which he dishes on everyone from John Belushi and Jerry Lewis to Mel Gibson and Britney Spears-Paul gives us the full behind-the-scenes story of his life, from banging out pop tunes on the piano at the age of twelve to leading the band every night at the Sullivan Theater.

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