DEAR WRITER: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life By Maggie Smith

(One Signal, April 2025)

New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills creativity and the craft of writing with a practical guide perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magicand Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.

Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.

Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Best American Poetry, and more. You can follow her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

KILLER IN A WHITE COAT: The True Story of New York’s Deadliest Pill Pusher and the Team that Brought Him to Justice (Formerly Entitled BAD MEDICINE) by Charlotte Bismuth

(One Signal, July 2024)

A taut exploration of America’s deadly battle with opioid addiction—an unnerving and inspirational firecracker of a book.” —Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author

For fans of Dopesick and Bad Blood, the shocking story of New York’s most infamous pill-pushing doctor, written by the prosecutor who brought him down.

In 2010, a brave whistleblower alerted the police to Dr. Stan Li’s corrupt pain management clinic in Queens, New York. Li spent years supplying more than seventy patients a day with oxycodone and Xanax, trading prescriptions for cash. Emergency room doctors, psychiatrists, and desperate family members warned him that his patients were at risk of death but he would not stop.

In Killer in a White Coat, former prosecutor Charlotte Bismuth meticulously recounts the jaw-dropping details of this criminal case that would span four years, culminating in a landmark trial. As a new assistant district attorney and single mother, Bismuth worked tirelessly with her team to bring Dr. Li to justice. Killer in a White Coat is a chilling story of corruption and greed and an important look at the role individual doctors play in America’s opioid epidemic.

Charlotte Bismuth started her legal career at the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, and joined the New York County District Attorney’s Office in 2008 as an appellate attorney. In 2010, she transferred into the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, which prosecutes felony narcotics crimes within the City’s five boroughs. She is a graduate of Columbia University, Columbia Law School, and the Instituts d’etudes politiques in Paris. She lives in New York with her husband and children. For more on Bismuth, please visit charlottebismuth.com.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Portfolio Tagged With: ,

DICTIONARY OF FINE DISTINCTIONS: Nuances, Niceties, and Subtle Shades of Meaning by Eli Burnstein

(Union Square & Co., 2024)

“A great idea, beautifully realized. I shall never have a latte again without thinking of this book! A joy to read.” –David Crystal, Linguist and Author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.

“Like bringing a blurry image into focus, the fine distinctions we make in English sharpen our view of the world. Eli Burnstein‘s witty explanations clarify our choice of words and remind us that, with language, precision is its own reward.” –Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large, Merriam Webster.

Swamp or bog? Guilt or shame? Club soda or sparkling water? From food to fashion, ethics to architecture, there are thousands of words and ideas that we tend to collapse, conflate, or confuse. For hairsplitters and language lovers, Dictionary of Fine Distinctions explores the world of the vanishingly small, offering up witty deep dives and lively illustrations to help sharpen these differences and bring us clarity at last.

Eli Burnstein is a humor writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, Weekly Humorist, The Offing, and Points in Case. He runs a spelling bee (Spelling Bae) that has been featured in the Toronto Star and the National Post, and on CBC Radio. For more on Eli, please visit eliburnstein.com.

Filed Under: Fiction & Humor, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

FOOTNOTES FROM THE MOST FASCINATING MUSEUMS by Bob Eckstein

(Princeton Architectural Press, May 2024)

A beautiful, smart, entertaining new art book from New Yorker cartoonist and author Bob Eckstein that is a love letter to museums and museum-goers, filled with lush and whimsical illustrations paired with stories and anecdotes from curators, museum workers, museum visitors, and more.

Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums is a collection of the greatest and most beloved museums of North America, illustrated and explored through fun and fascinating anecdotes. Curated by Bob Eckstein, author of the New York Times bestseller Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores, this delightful twist on an art history book shows these institutes in a way not seen before, illustrated in a lush and idealized style.

The 75+ museums featured include the biggest and boldest names (MoMA, the Whitney) and the more offbeat (Museum of Bad Art, the Museum of Jurassic Technology). They span the US, Canada, and Mexico and include those specializing in art, natural history, academia and science, and more. The 155 original pieces of artwork illustrate a story about the museum or showcase a particular work of art in its collection.

Featured museums include:

The Field Museum, Chicago
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
The National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC
La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Museum of Motherhood, St. Petersburg, Florida
Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City, Mexico
American Museum of Natural History, New York
And many more

A perfect gift for artists, art lovers, students, travelers, and adventurers of all ages, this collection of funny, heartfelt, and quirky profiles is a thought-provoking, inspiring celebration of museums, why we go to them, and why we love them so much.

Bob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator, writer, and cartoonist for the New Yorker, New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Smithsonian Magazine, Atlas Obscura, and many others. His Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores was a New York Times bestseller and made many “Best Of” 2016 lists and continues to be an “Amazon Most Wished for Title” years later. A postcard set based on that book was published in 2018. He is also the author of The History of the Snowman, The Illustrated History of the Snowman, and The Complete Book of Cat Names (That Your Cat Won’t Answer to Anyway). He was editor for The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons series and is contributing editor for Writer’s Digest. He lives in New York City. For more on Bob please visit his website.

Filed Under: Illustrators, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

APOCALYPSE TELEVISION By David Craig

(Applause Books, November 2023)

On November 20, 1983, American viewers witnessed an unprecedented television event: a three-hour, made-for-TV movie about a nuclear attack on the nation’s heartland. Broadcast only after months of culture warring, political jockeying, and corporate maneuvering, The Day After marked a watershed moment in the history of the arms race, delivered at the peak of network television’s reach, before cable, streaming, and social media atomized audiences. To this day, it remains the highest-rated television movie ever.

As David Craig recounts in Apocalypse Television, however, the film almost never aired at all. The brainchild of ABC executive Brandon Stoddard, it courted controversy from the outset, with Stoddard’s colleagues aghast at the idea of realistically depicting a nuclear strike. Even once the movie was greenlit, battles continued behind the scenes, inside the edit room, and between network executives and the production’s young, brash director. But these skirmishes paled in comparison to the cultural and political conflict that the film inspired, with antinuclear activists pitted against neoconservatives, the Religious Right, and the White House, which mounted a full-throttled propaganda campaign aimed at hijacking the film’s message. Nonetheless, it reached millions of viewers abroad and at home, including Ronald Reagan himself, whose policies and rhetoric toward the Soviet Union would soon shift significantly.

Featuring a cast of Hollywood creatives, political operatives, rogue publicists, and the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, this is a dramatic account of storytellers harnessing the most powerful medium of the day to advance their cause and avert a dystopian future in the face of tremendous personal and commercial risk.

David Craig is a Clinical Professor at the University of Southern California in the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. He is one of the world’s leading scholars of the “emerging creator” industries, marked by social media entrepreneurs and influencers harnessing global platforms. Craig has been cited in major outlets including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Hollywood Reporter, Vox, CNN, Bloomberg, and NBC News. Prior to his academic career, he was a multiple Emmy-nominated Hollywood producer and cable television executive involved in over thirty projects, from feature films to television programs, web series and stage productions. His television projects garnered critical acclaim and were nominated for over seventy Emmy, Peabody, and Golden Globe awards.

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THE GREAT ABOLITIONIST: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union by Stephen Puleo

(St. Martins, April 2024)

The groundbreaking biography of a forgotten civil rights hero.

In the tempestuous mid-19th century, as slavery consumed Congressional debate and America careened toward civil war and split apart–when the very future of the nation hung in the balance–Charles Sumner’s voice rang strongest, bravest, and most unwavering. Where others preached compromise and moderation, he denounced slavery’s evils to all who would listen and demanded that it be wiped out of existence. More than any other person of his era, he blazed the trail on the country’s long, uneven, and ongoing journey toward realizing its full promise to become a more perfect union.

Before and during the Civil War, at great personal sacrifice, Sumner was the conscience of the North and the most influential politician fighting for abolition. Throughout Reconstruction, no one championed the rights of emancipated people more than he did. Through the force of his words and his will, he moved America toward the twin goals of abolitionism and equal rights, which he fought for literally until the day he died. He laid the cornerstone arguments that civil rights advocates would build upon over the next century as the country strove to achieve equality among the races.

The Great Abolitionist is the first major biography of Charles Sumner to be published in over 50 years. Acclaimed historian Stephen Puleo relates the story of one of the most influential non-presidents in American history with evocative and accessible prose, transporting readers back to an era when our leaders exhibited true courage and authenticity in the face of unprecedented challenges.

Stephen Puleo is a historian, teacher, public speaker, and the author of several books, including Voyage of Mercy, Dark Tide, American Treasures, and The Caning. A former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor to American History magazine, the Boston Globe, and other publications, he holds a master’s degree in history and has taught at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and Suffolk University. He and his wife, Kate, reside in the Boston area. for more on Puleo, please visit stephenpuleo.com.

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SLOW NOODLES: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon with Kim Green

(Algonquin, February 2024)

Take a well-fed nine-year-old with a big family and a fancy education. Fold in 2 revolutions, 2 civil wars, and one wholesale extermination. Subtract a reliable source of food, life savings, and family members, until all are gone. Shave down childhood dreams for approximately two decades, until only subsistence remains.

In Slow Noodles, Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodia refugee who lost everything and everyone—her house, her country, her parents, her siblings, her friends—everything but the memories of her mother’s kitchen, the tastes and aromas of the foods her mother made before the dictator Pol Pot tore her country apart in the 1970s, killing millions of her compatriots. Nguon’s irrepressible spirit and determination come through in this emotional and poignant but also lyrical and magical memoir that includes over 20 recipes for Khmer dishes like chicken lime soup, banh sung noodles, pâté de foie, curries, spring rolls, and stir-fries. For Nguon, recreating these dishes becomes an act of resistance, of reclaiming her place in the world, of upholding the values the Khmer Rouge sought to destroy, and of honoring the memory of her beloved mother.

From her idyllic early years in Battambang to hiding as a young girl in Phnom Penh as the country purges ethnic Vietnamese like Nguon and her family, from her escape to Saigon to the deaths of mother and sister there, from the poverty and devastation she experiences in a war-ravaged Vietnam to her decision to flee the country. We follow Chantha on a harrowing river crossing into Thailand—part of the exodus that gave rise to the name “boat people”—and her decades in a refugee camp there, until finally, denied passage to the West, she returns to a forever changed Cambodia. Nguon survives by cooking in a brothel, serving drinks in a nightclub, making and selling street food, becoming a suture-nurse treating refugees abused by Thai authorities, and weaving silk. Through it all, Nguon relies on her mother’s “slow noodles” approach to healing and to cooking, one that prioritizes time and care over expediency. Haunting and evocative, Slow Noodles is a testament to the power of culinary heritage to spark the rebirth of a young woman’s hopes for a beautiful life.

Chantha Nguon was born in Cambodia, was a refugee for two decades until she was finally able to return to her homeland. Today she is the co-founder of the Stung Treng Women’s Development Center (SWDC), a social enterprise that offers a living wage, education, and social services to women and their families in rural northeastern Cambodia. A gifted public speaker, she has appeared at universities and on radio and TV news programs, including NPR’s Morning Edition. She cooks often for friends and family. For more on Chantha, please visit slownoodles.com.

Kim Green is an award-winning journalist, essayist, public radio producer, and editor of Pursuit Magazine. Her work has appeared on NPR, the New Yorker Radio Hour, and Marketplace, and in Fast Company, the New York Times, Roads & Kingdoms, UAL Hemispheres, and the Nashville Scene. As co-translator and editor of RED SKY, BLACK DEATH: A Soviet Woman Pilot’s Memoir of the Eastern Front by Anna Yegorova, Kim has spoken at Emory University, the U.S. Air Force Academy, conferences for female pilots (including Women in Aviation, International, and 99s) and at bookstores, festivals, and book clubs. Kim is a longtime contributor to Nashville Public Radio. For more on Kim, please visit aviatrixkim.com.

Filed Under: Food & Wine, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Portfolio Tagged With: , ,

BIZARRO: The Surreal Saga of America’s Secret War on Synthetic Drugs and the Florida Kingpins It Captured by Jordan S. Rubin


(University of California Press, April 2023)

Inside a drug war so screwy that people don’t know what’s illegal—until it’s too late.

Bizarro is a page-turning tale of the unprecedented prosecution of Burton Ritchie and Ben Galecki, the Florida-based founders of a sprawling “spice” (synthetic cannabinoid) operation. With this book, journalist and former New York City narcotics prosecutor Jordan S. Rubin exposes a Reagan-era law called the Analogue Act, which targets dealers selling drugs that are “substantially similar” to controlled substances—an unwieldy law that produces erratic results in court.

Rubin brings readers deep inside the synthetic war, exploring how Ritchie and Galecki landed in its crosshairs and why one of the DEA’s own chemists may have been their best chance at freedom, until he was arrested too. This stranger-than-fiction narrative is backed by thousands of pages of court records and exclusive interviews with defendants, lawyers, law enforcement, celebrities, and more. Bizarro reveals the world of underground chemists making drugs faster than the government can ban them, dealers making millions in a gray market, and a justice system run amok.

Jordan S. Rubin is a journalist and former prosecutor for the Manhattan DA’s Office, where he was assigned to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.

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TAKE THE LEAD: Hanging On, Letting Go, and Conquering Life’s Hardest Climbs by Sasha DiGiulian


(St. Martins, September 2023)

World champion climber Sasha DiGiulian tells her story―from coming of age under the scrutiny of social media, navigating a male-dominated sport, and tackling her most heart-stopping climbs―and shares the power of perseverance and positivity.

At age six, Sasha DiGiulian stepped into a climbing gym for the first time and was competing within a year. Decked out in all-pink gear and with her blonde hair tied into pigtails, Sasha knew from an early age what it was like to be a girl in a traditionally male-dominated sport, vowing to never sacrifice her femininity to fit in. With a fierce love for the climb and incredible natural talent, Sasha soon won her first National Sport Climbing Championship at only seventeen, and a year later took the title of World Champion.

To her fans, it looked like Sasha was on top of the world. But under the accolades, she was just another young woman learning how to handle the intense scrutiny of social media and dealing with body dysmorphia, all while quietly facing a potentially career-ending injury. In a relatable and inspiring voice, Take the Lead reflects on the highs and lows of Sasha’s illustrious life and career for the first time, bringing readers on her remarkable journey from novice climber to Columbia University graduate, adventurer, environmentalist, and entrepreneur, and one of the most recognizable faces in climbing.

For readers of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Megan Rapinoe’s One Life, Take the Lead ultimately emphasizes the power of perseverance, fearlessness and positivity in tackling some of the most daunting and fearsome climbs―on and off the wall.

SASHA DIGIULIAN is a world champion climber and three-time U.S. national champion. At 30 years old she has traveled to over 50 countries and accomplished 30+ First and First Female Ascents. In 2016 she graduated from Columbia University with a focus on journalism and business, and is the founder and CEO of SEND Bars, a superfood nutrition bar company. Aside from having been featured in dozens of magazines and news media pieces, she has written for many publications, including Outside magazine, National Geographic, Rock and Ice, SELF, Seventeen, and CRAVE. Sasha is an outspoken environmental activist and a global athlete ambassador for Right to Play and Up2Us Sports. She has served on the Board of the Women’s Sports Foundation for several years and travels globally for speaking engagements, sporting events, and commercial work. For More on Sasha, visit sashadigiulian.com.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Self-Help & Health Tagged With: ,

PEOPLE NOT THINGS: Love Poems and Paintings for Humanity by Genesis Be

(Andrews McMeel, November 2023)

In People Not Things: Love Poems for Humanity, Genesis Be offers a strikingly honest yet hopeful snapshot of her journey as a queer Black woman in America fighting for the humanity of her community.

Poignant and moving, this debut collection of poetry from Genesis Be bravely examines what it means to stay hopeful on the arduous journey to freedom.

Drawing on her activism and antiracist work as covered by the New York Times and VICE, Be examines tools of division and challenges our notion of freedom in an effort to combat racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. Equal parts delicate and unapologetic, People Not Things is a powerful debut that will speak to the hearts of readers from all walks of life.

Genesis Be is a critically acclaimed poet, peace activist, and artist from Biloxi, Mississippi. Her work has been featured in the Associated Press, New York Times, NY Daily News, Soledad O’Brien, and VICE. She often uses theatrical protest during her live performances to bring attention to both global and localized issues surrounding racial justice, peace movement, queer visibility and gender equity. She creates original paintings, poetry, and music under her ever-growing collection, People Not Things. As a Cultural Ambassador for the Government funded Meridian International Center, Be works to promote understanding and conflict transformation on a Global level. She is the subject of the documentary Mississippi Turning (unreleased) and continues the fight to improve race relations in her home state Mississippi. For more on Genesis, please visit genesisbe.com.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Portfolio Tagged With: ,

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

(OneSignal, April 2023)

New York Times Best Seller

“[Smith]…reminds you that you can…survive deep loss, sink into life’s deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new.” —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The bestselling poet and author of the “powerful” (People) and “luminous” (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age.

“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. With a poet’s attention to language and an innovative approach to the genre, Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.

Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. Smith’s poems and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The Best American Poetry, and more. Her forthcoming children’s illustrated book is entitled My Thoughts Have Wings. You can follow her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.

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Cougars on the Cliff: One Man’s Pioneering Quest to Understand the Mythical Mountain Lion, A Memoir by Maurice Hornocker with David Johnson

(Lyons Press, July 2023)

Maurice Hornocker is recognized worldwide as the first scientist to unravel the secrets of America’s most enigmatic predator—the mountain lion. A story of redemption, this book is a memoir about the never-before-told adventures, challenges, and controversies surrounding Hornocker’s groundbreaking study of cougars in the remote reaches of the Idaho Primitive Area. North America’s biggest cat was once killed for bounty dollars, slaughtered with impunity and driven toward extinction. But today’s cat of intrigue, despite our lingering fears and misconceptions, has returned to much of its native range in the western United States and gained respect as a predator integral and necessary to wild ecosystems. This turnaround was triggered by one man: Maurice Hornocker. Cougars on the Cliff recounts the early years of his research (1964–1973) when he tracked lions following a dog’s nose and footprints in the snow—before telemetry was available. Hornocker was first to learn that mountain lions living in stable populations limit their own numbers through territoriality and a concept he called “mutual avoidance.” This insight flew in the face of long-held beliefs that cougars were prolific and wanton killers that needed to be controlled as vermin. Thanks to Hornocker’s work, today cougars can be found throughout the West and have even started to reclaim their place in New England.

Maurice Hornocker, PhD, is a wildlife biologist best known for advancing our knowledge of the elusive mountain lion’s behavior and ecology. During his fifty-five years of research in Idaho, New Mexico, and Yellowstone National Park, he published numerous scientific papers about cougars and edited books that include “Cougar: Ecology & Conservation,” “Yellowstone Cougars” (which was the recipient of a 2020 The Wildlife Society Publication Award), and “Desert Puma” (which was the recipient of the 2002 The Wildlife Society Book of the Year Award). His writing, research, and mountain lion photographs have appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian, and National Wildlife magazine. He and his colleagues have also conducted pioneering research on other big cat species throughout the world including Siberian tigers, jaguars, leopards, ocelots, lynx, and bobcats. Hornocker and his wife, Leslie, live in Bellevue, Idaho, with their bird dogs, dressage horses, and a domestic cat named Redd.

David Johnson is a retired roving regional reporter-columnist for the Lewiston Tribune in Lewiston, Idaho. He holds bachelor’s degrees in wildlife management from the University of Minnesota and journalism from the University of Idaho. Johnson lives with his wife, Linda Weiford, in Moscow, Idaho.

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Bird Brother by Rodney Stotts with Kate Pipkin

A Falconer’s Journey and the Healing Power of Wildlife
(Island Press, February 2022)

To escape the tough streets of inner city Southeast Washington D.C. in the late 1980s, young Rodney Stotts would ride the metro to the Smithsonian National Zoo. There, the bald eagles and other birds of prey captured his imagination for the first time. In Bird Brother, Rodney shares his unlikely journey from dealing drugs to becoming a conservationist and one of America’s few Black master falconers.

Rodney grew up during the crack epidemic, with guns, drugs, and the threat of incarceration an accepted part of daily life for nearly everyone he knew. To rent his own apartment, he needed a paycheck—something the money from dealing drugs didn’t provide. For that, he took a position in 1992 with a new nonprofit, the Earth Conservation Corps. Gradually, Rodney fell in love with the work to restore and conserve the polluted Anacostia River that flows past D.C. As conditions along the river improved, he helped to reintroduce bald eagles to the region and befriended an injured Eurasian Eagle Owl named Mr. Hoots, the first of many birds whose respect he would work hard to earn.

That part of his life—along with the chance to be involved in his children’s lives— was nearly lost when Rodney was arrested on drug charges in 2002. The jail sentence sharpened his resolve to get out of the hustling life. With the fierceness of the raptors he had admired for so long, he began to train to become a master falconer and pursue his dream to build an aviary and develop his own raptor education program and sanctuary. Rodney’s son Mike, a D.C. firefighter, has also begun his journey to being a master falconer, with his own kids cheering him along the way.

Eye-opening, witty, and moving, BIRD BROTHER is a love letter to the fierce raptors and humans who transformed what Rodney thought his life could be. It is an unflinching look at the uphill battle Black children face in pursuing stable, fulfilling lives, a testament to the healing power of wildlife, and a reminder that no matter how much heartbreak we’ve endured, we still have the capacity to give back to our communities and pursue our wildest dreams.

Author Bio:
Raised in Southeast Washington, D.C., Rodney Stotts has achieved the highest level of master falconer. Stotts is an educator and the founder and director of a successful, educational nonprofit called Rodney’s Raptors. When he’s not on the sanctuary property located in Laurel, Maryland, Rodney lives on seven acres in Charlotte Court House, Virginia, where he is working to turn the property into a haven for underprivileged youth and anyone who is interested in learning about falconry, wildlife, and conservation. The finished project will be called Dippy’s Dream, after Rodney’s deceased mother. His work has been featured National Geographic,NPR, and other national outlets. He is the subject of the documentary The Falconer. For more on Rodney, please visit rodneysraptors.webs.com

Kate Pipkin is the Senior Director of Communications and Marketing for the School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. She has contributed to The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Magazine, Johns Hopkins Magazine, Loch Raven Review, and other publications.

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Goldenrod by Maggie Smith

(One Signal, July 2021)

From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of Keep Moving and Good Bones, a stunning poetry collection that celebrates the beauty and messiness of life.

With her breakout bestseller Keep Moving, Maggie Smith captured the nation with her “meditations on kindness and hope” (NPR). Now, with Goldenrod, the award-winning poet returns with a powerful collection of poems that look at parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Pulling objects from everyday life—a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrods at the side of the road—she reveals the magic of the present moment. Only Maggie Smith could turn an autocorrect mistake into a line of poetry, musing that her phone “doesn’t observe / the high holidays, autocorrecting / shana tova to shaman tobacco, / Rosh Hashanah to rose has hands.”

Slate called Smith’s “superpower as a writer” her “ability to find the perfect concrete metaphor for inchoate human emotions and explore it with empathy and honesty.” The poems in Goldenrod celebrate the contours of daily life, explore and delight in the space between thought and experience, and remind us that we decide what is beautiful.

Maggie Smith is the author of the national bestseller Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change and four collections of poetry: Goldenrod, Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Lamp of the Body. She is also the author of three three prizewinning chapbooks.

Smith’s poems and essays have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, AGNI, Ploughshares, Image, the Washington Post, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, and many other journals and anthologies. In 2016 her poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally; since then it has been translated into nearly a dozen languages and featured on the CBS primetime drama Madam Secretary. Smith has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She can be found online at maggiesmithpoet.com and on Twitter and Instagram @maggiesmithpoet.

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Valedictorians at the Gate by Becky Munsterer Sabky

(Holt, 2021)

A former Ivy League Admissions Officer shares her stories from the frontlines of the admissions wars, and offers advice on how to stand out, get in, and most importantly, stay true to yourself as you prepare for college.

When Becky Munsterer Sabky was a college senior she was rejected by her dream school, Dartmouth. She had done everything right. Checked every box. Played on every team, and yet still she received, “the thin envelope”. A decade later she was the one helping to make the admissions decisions for the Ivy League university. Drawing back the curtain, Valedictorians at the Gate is a behind-the-scenes look at how best to prepare for the admissions process, from the first day of high school to welcome weekend on campus, with the needed perspective to stay true to yourself, and discover your passions as you battle the other valedictorians at the gate.

Written with actionable advice (do take the SATs multiple times; don’t write your college essay about Hermione Granger) Valedictorians at the Gate answers the questions of just who to ask for a college recommendation (a note from a janitor will turn more heads than a form letter from the chair of the math department), just what to do on campus visits (have the student ask the questions, not your mom and dad) and what curriculum to take (if you like art, go for it over AP physics). This is the book every student and parent wishes to have by their side as they navigate the immensely competitive, and confusing, process of selecting a college.

Perfect for both prospective students, and (hopefully-not-helicoptering) parents, Sabky infuses her wisdom gleaned from years making the tough admissions decisions with illuminating anecdotes of her time as an Ivy League gate keeper. Parents and students will find relief, and advice that cuts through the confusion and intimidation of applying to college, and places the power firmly in the hands of the applicant. A college doesn’t choose you, you choose it. In Valedictorians at the Gate, Sabky has written the book we need now, and for generations to follow.

Becky Munsterer Sabky is a former Director of International Admissions at Dartmouth College. She’s a graduate of Colby College and received her M.A.L.S. degree in creative writing from Dartmouth. Based in Vermont, she is also an award-winning monthly newspaper columnist, a blogger, and the author of a children’s books series entitled The Little Rippers. For more on Sabky visit beckysabky.com

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Self-Help & Health Tagged With: ,

Bad Medicine by Charlotte Bismuth

(One Signal, an imprint of Atria, 2021)

“Charlotte Bismuth gives us a bold and cinematic true crime story about her work at the intersection of medicine and greed. Bad Medicine is a gripping memoir that toggles deftly between the personal and prosecutorial.” —Beth Macy, New York Times bestselling author of Dopesick

“Bismuth has written a brilliant account of prosecuting a doctor who became a drug dealer in a white coat. She is haunted by the voices of the dead and listening closely to the voices of the living.” —Nan Goldin, artist, activist, and founder of P.A.I.N.

“Bad Medicine is a taut exploration of America’s deadly battle with opioid addiction—an unnerving and inspirational firecracker of a book.” —Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Ghosts of Eden Park

For fans of Dopesick and Bad Blood, the shocking story of New York’s most infamous pill-pushing doctor, written by the prosecutor who brought him down.

In 2010, a brave whistleblower alerted the police to Dr. Stan Li’s corrupt pain management clinic in Queens, New York. Li spent years supplying more than seventy patients a day with oxycodone and Xanax, trading prescriptions for cash. Emergency room doctors, psychiatrists, and desperate family members warned him that his patients were at risk of death but he would not stop.

In Bad Medicine, former prosecutor Charlotte Bismuth meticulously recounts the jaw dropping details of this criminal case that would span four years, culminating in a landmark trial. As a new assistant district attorney and single mother, Bismuth worked tirelessly with her team to bring Dr. Li to justice. Bad Medicine is a chilling story of corruption and greed and an important look at the role individual doctors play in America’s opioid epidemic.

Charlotte Bismuth started her legal career at the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, and joined the New York County District Attorney’s Office in 2008 as an appellate attorney. In 2010, she transferred into the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, which prosecutes felony narcotics crimes within the City’s five boroughs. She is a graduate of Columbia University, Columbia Law School, and the Instituts d’etudes politiques in Paris. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children.

For more on Charlotte Bismuth please visit charlottebismuth.com.

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Grabbed Edited by Richard Blanco, Caridad Moro, Nikki Moustaki and Elisa Albo

Poets & Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment & Healing
(Beacon Press, October 2020)

With a foreword from Joyce Maynard and afterword by Anita Hill, a gender-inclusive anthology of poetry and prose that addresses the physical and psychological act of being “grabbed,” or in any way assaulted.

The #MeToo movement, the infamous Access Hollywood tape, and the depraved and hypocritical actions of celebrities, politicians, CEOs, and other powerful people have caused people all over the nation to speak out in outrage, to express allegiance for the victims of these assaults, and to raise their voices against a culture that has allowed this behavior to continue for too long.

The editors asked writers and poets to add to the conversation about what being “grabbed” means to them in their own experience or in whatever way the word “grabbed” inspired them. What they received are often searing, heart-rending works, ranging in topic from sexual misconduct to racial injustice, from an unwanted caress to rape, expressed in powerful, beautifully crafted prose and poetry.

The writers represented here, some very well known, such as Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Eileen Miles, Ana Menendez and Sapphire, as well as some newer voices not yet fully discovered, have mined their collective experiences to reveal their most vulnerable moments, and in some cases, to narrate moments that they have had previously been unwilling or unable to speak of. What results is a collection of emotional, hard-hitting pieces that speak to the aftermath of violation – whether mental, emotional, or physical.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir

Voyage of Mercy by Stephen Puleo

The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s First Humanitarian Mission
(St. Martin’s Books, 2020)

The remarkable story of the mission that inspired a nation to donate massive relief to Ireland during the potato famine and began America’s tradition of providing humanitarian aid around the world

More than 5,000 ships left Ireland during the great potato famine in the late 1840s, transporting the starving and the destitute away from their stricken homeland. The first vessel to sail in the other direction, to help the millions unable to escape, was the USS Jamestown, a converted warship, which left Boston in March 1847 loaded with precious food for Ireland.

In an unprecedented move by Congress, the warship had been placed in civilian hands, stripped of its guns, and committed to the peaceful delivery of food, clothing, and supplies in a mission that would launch America’s first full-blown humanitarian relief effort.

Captain Robert Bennet Forbes and the crew of the USS Jamestown embarked on a voyage that began a massive eighteen-month demonstration of soaring goodwill against the backdrop of unfathomable despair—one nation’s struggle to survive, and another’s effort to provide a lifeline. The Jamestown mission captured hearts and minds on both sides of the Atlantic, of the wealthy and the hardscrabble poor, of poets and politicians. Forbes’ undertaking inspired a nationwide outpouring of relief that was unprecedented in size and scope, the first instance of an entire nation extending a hand to a foreign neighbor for purely humanitarian reasons. It showed the world that national generosity and brotherhood were not signs of weakness, but displays of quiet strength and moral certitude.

In Voyage of Mercy, Stephen Puleo tells the incredible story of the famine, the Jamestown voyage, and the commitment of thousands of ordinary Americans to offer relief to Ireland, a groundswell that provided the collaborative blueprint for future relief efforts, and established the United States as the leader in international aid. The USS Jamestown’s heroic voyage showed how the ramifications of a single decision can be measured not in days, but in decades.

For more on Stephen Puleo, please visit stephenpuleo.com.

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Homegrown by Alex Speier

How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up
(William Morrow, August 2019)

The captivating inside story of the historic 2018 Boston Red Sox, as told through the assembly and ascendancy of their talented young core—the culmination of nearly a decade of reporting from one of the most respected baseball writers in the country.

“Alex Speier spins a compelling narrative about how great scouting and player development created a perennial contender in baseball’s toughest division, without losing sight of the people at the heart of his story.” — Keith Law

“Compelling reading. A must for Red Sox fans.” —Booklist

The 2018 season was a coronation for the Boston Red Sox. The best team in Major League Baseball—indeed, one of the best teams ever—the Sox won 108 regular season games and then romped through the postseason, going 11-3 against the three next-strongest teams baseball had to offer.

As Boston Globe baseball reporter Alex Speier reveals, the Sox’ success wasn’t a fluke—nor was it guaranteed. It was the result of careful, patient planning and shrewd decision-making that allowed Boston to develop a golden generation of prospects—and then build upon that talented core to assemble a juggernaut. Speier has covered the key players—Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Jackie Bradley Jr., and many others—since the beginning of their professional careers, as they rose through the minor leagues and ultimately became the heart of this historic championship squad. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews and years of reporting, Homegrown is the definitive look at the construction of an extraordinary team.

It is a story that offers startling insights for baseball fans of any team, and anyone looking for the secret to building a successful organization. Why do many highly touted prospects fail, while others rise out of obscurity to become transcendent? How can franchises help their young talent, in whom they’ve often invested tens of millions of dollars, reach their full potential? And how can management balance long-term aims with the constant pressure to win now?

Part insider’s account of one of the greatest baseball teams ever, part meditation on how to build a winner, Homegrown offers an illuminating look into how the best of the best are built.

Alex Speier has covered the Red Sox for more than fifteen years, the last four at the Boston Globe. He has also reported on the Red Sox minor league system for Baseball America since 2007.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

Keep Moving by Maggie Smith

(One Signal an imprint of Atria, 2020)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
INDIE BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER

For fans of Anne Lamott and Cleo Wade, a collection of quotes and essays on facing life’s challenges with creativity, courage, and resilience.

When Maggie Smith, the award-winning author of the viral poem “Good Bones,” started writing daily Twitter posts in the wake of her divorce, they unexpectedly caught fire. In this deeply moving book of quotes and essays, Maggie writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, Keep Moving celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next?

Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of several books of poetry including Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, The List of Dangers, and Nesting Dolls. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New York Times, Tin House, The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review, and more.

For more on Maggie Smith, please visit maggiesmithpoet.com.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Portfolio, Self-Help & Health Tagged With: ,

Bedlam by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD


An Intimate Journey into America’s Mental Health Crisis
(Avery, 2019)

A psychiatrist and award-winning documentarian sheds light on the mental health care crisis in the U.S.

When Dr. Kenneth Rosenberg trained as a psychiatrist in the late 1980s, the state mental hospitals, which had reached peak occupancy in the ’50s, were being closed at an alarming rate, with many patients having nowhere to go. There has never been a more important time for this conversation, as one in five adults–40 million Americans–experiences mental illness each year. Today, the largest mental institution in the U.S. is the LA County Jail, and the last refuge for many of the 20,000 mentally ill people living on the streets of Los Angeles is LA County Hospital. There, Dr. Rosenberg begins his chronicle of what it means to be mentally ill in America today, integrating his own moving story of how the system failed his sister, Merle, who had schizophrenia. As he says, “I have to come to see that my family’s tragedy is an American tragedy. My family’s shame is America’s great secret.”

Dr. Rosenberg gives readers an inside look at the historical, political, and economic forces that have resulted in the greatest social crisis of the twenty-first century. The culmination of a seven year inquiry into the lives of Americans with severe mental illness, Bedlam is a not only a rallying cry for change, but with also a guidebook for how we move forward with care and compassion.

For more information about Dr. Rosenberg, please go to https://drkenrosenberg.com.

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The Illustrated History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein

(Globe Pequot, Fall 2018)

A thoroughly entertaining exploration, this book travels back in time to shed light on the snowman’s enigmatic past — from the present day, in which the snowman reigns as the King of Kitsch, to the Dark Ages, with the creation of the very first snowman. Eckstein’s curiosity began playfully enough, but soon snowballed into a (mostly) earnest quest of chasing Frosty around the world, into museums and libraries, and seeking out the advice of leading historians and scholars. The result is a riveting history that reaches back through centuries and across cultures — sweeping from fifteenth-century Italian snowballs to eighteenth-century Russian ice sculptures to the regrettable “white-trash years” (1975-2000). The snowman is not just part of our childhood memories, but is an integral part of our world culture, appearing — much like a frozen Forrest Gump — alongside dignitaries and celebrities during momentous events. Again and again, the snowman pops up in rare prints, paintings, early movies, advertising and, over the past century, in every art form imaginable. And the jolly snowman — ostensibly as pure as the driven snow — also harbors a dark past full of political intrigue, sex, and violence.

With over two hundred illustrations, The Illustrated History of the Snowman is a truly original winter classic — smart, surprisingly enlightening, and quite simply the coolest book ever.

Bob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator, writer, New Yorker cartoonist, snowman expert, and author of the New York Times bestselling Footnotes from the Greatest Bookstores (Clarkson Potter) and The History of the Snowman (Simon & Schuster). His cartoons, OpEds, and short stories appear regularly in the New York Times, New York Daily News, MAD magazine, Barron’s, Readers Digest, The Spectator, Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, among many others. He was a columnist for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, and Time Out New York. He has been interviewed in over 100 TV, radio and magazine spots including Good Morning America and People magazine.

For more on Bob Eckstein, please visit Bob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator, writer, New Yorker cartoonist, snowman expert, and author of the New York Times bestselling Footnotes from the Greatest Bookstores (Clarkson Potter) and The History of the Snowman (Simon & Schuster). His cartoons, OpEds, and short stories appear regularly in the New York Times, New York Daily News, MAD magazine, Barron’s, Readers Digest, The Spectator, Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, among many others. He was a columnist for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, and Time Out New York. He has been interviewed in over 100 TV, radio and magazine spots including Good Morning America and People magazine.

For more on Bob Eckstein please visit bobeckstein.com.

Filed Under: Illustrators, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

GOODBYE, SWEET GIRL by Kelly Sundberg

(HarperCollins, 2018)

When Kelly Sundberg’s piece about domestic violence, “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” was published by Guernica magazine in 2014 it was heralded as the must-read piece to explain why women stay and one of the most read pieces in Guernica’s history. A movingly portrait about the see-saw of love/violence that is symptomatic of abusive relationships, one reviewer said, “We come out of her essay believing that a partner can be both loving and dangerous. Warm and monstrous. A good father and a frightening husband.”

In her memoir, Sundberg delves deeper, chronicling the anatomy of marriage, once a love story, and examining why she endured years of physical and emotional abuse. Along the way she’ll reckon with her family and childhood by telling the story of Salmon, a small, isolated mountain town known as the most redneck town in Idaho. Like her marriage, Salmon too is a place of deep contradictions, where Mormon ranchers and hippie back-to-landers live side-by-side; a place of magical beauty riven by secret brutality; a place that takes pride in its individualism yet acceptance is sought and attained via the approval of the church and community, at all costs. While Sundberg will often return to this Idaho wilderness to seek healing, it is through its unrelenting nature that she’ll find the resolve to abandon her marriage for good and make peace with her family.

Kelly Sundberg’s essays have appeared in Guernica, Slice, Quarterly West, The Los Angeles Review, Mid-American Review, PANK, and others. Most recently, her essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” was selected by Ariel Levy for publication in the 2015 Best American Essays anthology. An activist and speaker, Sundberg was the 2015 A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Courage Fellow, which is awarded biannually to a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault. Sundberg also works as a resource guide for the domestic violence and sexual assault section of the website ESME (Empowering Solo Moms Everywhere). For more on Sundberg please visit kellysundberg.com.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Portfolio

Infidelity by Dr. Kenneth Rosenberg

Infidelity is a key social issue of the 21st century, no longer confined to “cheaters” bars or secret rendezvous during business trips. The Internet is a technological playground for philanderers, turning previously out-of-reach fantasies into instant opportunities. And in both genders, infidelity—emotional, virtual, and sexual—is on the rise. In his new book, INFIDELITY: Why Men and Women Cheat, renowned sex and addiction specialist Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, M.D. draws from the latest research in neuroscience and his own clinical practice to reveal the mechanics of the sexual brain. And through concrete rules, Dr. Rosenberg guides couples on how to prevent cheating, stop it from progressing, and repair the damage caused by an affair.

Dr. Kenneth Rosenberg is the co-editor of BEHAVIORAL ADDICTIONS (Elsevier Academic Press, 2014), which is considered to be a landmark text in the field, and he is a consulting editor of one of the leading sex journals, the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy. A board-certified addiction psychiatrist, Dr. Rosenberg is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a certified sex addiction therapist. For over a decade, he has been listed in US News and World Report and New York Magazine as a top psychiatrist. As a sex researcher, he has published scholarly articles on sexuality and contributed to clinical studies of the effectiveness and safety of Viagra. He has appeared on HBO, CNN, Fox, ABC World News Tonight, and CNBC and has been cited in The New York Times, People, Newsweek and the Huffington Post among other publications. He is also a Peabody Award winning filmmaker for HBO and PBS. Dr. Rosenberg maintains a private practice in Manhattan.

INFIDELITY is poised to become a classic guide for men and women to help them understand and overcome their own self-inflicted barriers to love and commitment and discover their true sexual and romantic potential.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Self-Help & Health Tagged With: ,

Miss D & Me by Kathryn Sermak with Danelle Morton

Miss D and Me: Life with the Invincible Bette Davis (Hachette Books, Fall, 2017)

by Kathryn Sermak with Danelle Morton

For ten years Kathryn Sermak was at Bette Davis’s side–first as an employee, and then as her closest friend–and in Miss D and Me she tells the story of the great star’s harrowing but inspiring final years, a story fans have been waiting decades to hear.

Miss D and Me is a story of two powerful women, one at the end of her life and the other at the beginning. As Bette Davis aged she was looking for an assistant, but she found something more than that in Kathryn: a loyal and loving buddy, a co-conspirator in her jokes and schemes, and a competent assistant whom she trained never to miss a detail. But Miss D had strict rules for Kathryn about everything from how to eat a salad to how to wear her hair…even the spelling of Kathryn’s name was changed (adding the “y”) per Miss D’s request. Throughout their time together, the two grew incredibly close, and Kathryn had a front-row seat to the larger-than-life Davis’s career renaissance in her later years, as well as to the humiliating public betrayal that nearly killed Miss D.

The frame of this story is a four-day road trip Kathryn and Davis took from Biarritz to Paris, during which they disentangled their ferocious dependency. Miss D and Me is a window into the world of the unique and formidable Bette Davis, told by the person who perhaps knew her best of all.

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Dust to Deliverance by Jessica DuLong

“Minutes after thick, gray smoke began spilling through the airplane-shaped hole in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, civilians caught in an act of war—some burned and bleeding, some covered with soot—had fled to the water’s edge, running until they ran out of land. Never was it clearer that Manhattan is an island.”

When terrorists took down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, frightened people crowded along the shores of Lower Manhattan. With the dust and fires spreading, no one knew if more attacks were coming. Chaos reigned.

Dust to Deliverance is the gripping story of how the New York harbor maritime community converged spontaneously to deliver stranded commuters, residents, and visitors out of harm’s way. Even before the Coast Guard called for “all available boats,” ferries, charter yachts, dinner boats, tugs, and other vessels had raced across New York harbor to pick up passengers. In less than nine hours, they rescued nearly half a million people from Lower Manhattan, making this the largest waterborne evacuation in history.

Rooted in eyewitness accounts and written by a mariner who served at Ground Zero, Dust to Deliverance interweaves the personal stories of people saved that day with those who saved them, while revealing the inner workings of New York harbor and its close-knit community. This groundbreaking, minute-by-minute chronicle provides an unprecedented look at one of the most significant moments in American history. This human saga of compassion, triumph, and resilience reveals how tragedy creates new, often unlikely, alliances, even as it strengthens existing bonds. The book brings to light the resourcefulness and resounding human goodness that rise up in response to darkness, calamity, and turmoil.

Journalist and historian Jessica DuLong is the author of My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work that Built America (Free Press, 2009), winner of the American Society of Journalists and Authors Outstanding Book Award for Memoir, 2010. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek International, Rolling Stone, Psychology Today, Newsday, and Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, among other publications. A Coast Guard-licensed merchant marine officer, DuLong serves as chief engineer of retired 1931 New York City fireboat John J. Harvey, a historic preservation project now operating as a living museum, which was called back into service on September 11.

For more on Jessica DuLong, please visit JessicaDuLong.com.

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Counting Backwards: A Doctor’s Notes on Anesthesia by Henry Jay Przybylo, MD


(W.W. Norton, June 2017)

A moving exploration of the most common but mysterious corner of medicine—by an experienced anesthesiologist with a gift for narrative.

For many of the 40 million Americans who undergo anesthesia each year, it is the source of great fear and fascination. In Counting Backwards, Dr. Henry Jay Przybylo—an anthesiologist of more than thirty years experience—has written an unforgettable and deeply moving exploration of its daily dramas and fundamental mysteries. Przybylo has administered anesthesia more than 30,000 times in his career—to newborn babies, screaming toddlers and sullen teenagers, his own son, even to a gorilla. With compassion and candor, he weaves his experiences into intimate stories that explore the nature of consciousness, the politics of pain relief, and the wonder of modern medicine. Through its humane tales of mistakes and near-disasters, of profound grace and satisyfing success, Counting Backwards brings readers behind the curtain of one of the most fascinating but unexplored parts of the world of medicine.

Henry Jay Przybylo, MD, is an associate professor of anesthesiology at Northwestern University School of Medicine and an attending anesthesiologist at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He also holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College. He lives in Chicago.

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Ice Ghosts by Paul Watson

Ice GhostsIce Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson (March 2017, W.W. Norton)

“Engaging… A keen, entertaining chronicle of the various attempts to locate a sensationally doomed expedition.”—Kirkus (starred review)

“Riveting… An engrossing chronicle of a legendary doomed naval voyage and the nearly 200-year effort to bring the Franklin Expedition to a close.”—Booklist

The true story of the greatest mystery of Arctic exploration―and the rare mix of marine science and Inuit knowledge that led to the shipwreck’s recent discovery.

Ice Ghosts weaves together the epic story of the Lost Franklin Expedition of 1845―whose two ships and crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice―with the modern tale of the scientists, divers, and local Inuit behind the incredible discovery of the flagship’s wreck in 2014. Paul Watson, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was on the icebreaker that led the discovery expedition, tells a fast-paced historical adventure story: Sir John Franklin and the crew of the HMS Erebus and Terror setting off in search of the fabled Northwest Passage, the hazards they encountered and the reasons they were forced to abandon ship hundreds of miles from the nearest outpost of Western civilization, and the decades of searching that turned up only rumors of cannibalism and a few scattered papers and bones―until a combination of faith in Inuit lore and the latest science yielded a discovery for the ages.

Paul Watson is the author of Where War Lives and the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Headliner Award, the George Polk Award, and the Robert Capa Gold Medal. He lives in Vancouver.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Portfolio Tagged With: ,

The Mezcal Rush by Granville Greene

The Mezcal Rush: Explorations in Agave Country by Granville Greene (Counterpoint, 2017)

In pursuit of the story behind a beguiling drink, Granville Greene embarks on a journey through remote Mexican highlands to learn about the history, cultures, and traditions surrounding mezcal. In recent years the smoky flavored agave distillate has become a craft cocktail darling, rivaling even its better-known cousin tequila, and it can sell for over $100 a bottle in the U.S.

But unlike most high-end spirits, mezcals are typically produced by and for subsistence farming communities, where distillers have been swept up in a hot new trend in which they have very little voice. Greene visits indigenous villages in Oaxaca and Guerrero states, meeting maestros mezcaleros who create their signature smallbatch drinks using local plants and artisanal production methods honed through generations of mezcal-making families.

As Greene details the sights, smells, and intoxicating flavors of Mexico, he turns his eye to the broader context of impoverished villages in a changing economic and political landscape. He explores the gold-rush style surge of micro-distilled mezcals as luxury exports, and the consequent overharvesting that threatens the diversity of wild agaves, as he finds the oldest distilled spirit in the Americas at a crossroads.

Granville Greene is a graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. He has written for Outside, The New York Times, and many other publications. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Filed Under: Food & Wine, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

Notes on a Banana by David Leite

Notes on a BananaNotes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression by David Leite (April 2017, Dey Street, an imprint of HarperCollins)

The stunning and long-awaited memoir from the beloved founder of the James Beard Award-winning website Leite’s Culinaria—a candid, courageous, and at times laugh-out-loud funny story of family, food, mental illness, and sexual identity.

Born into a family of Azorean immigrants, David Leite grew up in the 1960s in a devoutly Catholic, blue-collar, food-crazed Portuguese home in Fall River, Massachusetts. A clever and determined dreamer with a vivid imagination and a flair for the dramatic, “Banana” as his mother endearingly called him, obsessed over proper hair care, yearned to live in a middle-class house with a swinging kitchen door like the ones on television, and fell in love with everything French, thanks to his Portuguese and French-Canadian godmother. But David also struggled with the emotional devastation of bipolar disorder. Until he was diagnosed in his mid-thirties, David found relief from his wild mood swings in cooking, Julia Child, and a Viking stove he named “Thor.”

Notes on a Banana is his heartfelt, unflinchingly honest, yet tender memoir of growing up, accepting himself, and turning his love of food into an award-winning career. Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life: from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to “turn straight” through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his twenty-three-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David’s readers as “The One,” which began with (what else?) food. Woven throughout these stories are the dishes David loves—the tastes that led him to happiness, health, and success.

A blend of Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind, the food memoirs of Ruth Reichl, Anthony Bourdain, and Gabrielle Hamilton, and the character-rich storytelling of Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, and Jenny Lawson, Notes on a Banana is a feast that dazzles, delights, and, ultimately, heals.

For more on David Leite please visit LeitesCulinaria.com.

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Footnotes from The World’s Greatest Bookstores by Bob Eckstein

bobecksteinNew York Times Bestseller

Foreword by Garrison Keillor
(Clarkson Potter, October 2016)

The local bookshop is the heart and soul of a community—each one unique, each one filled with local characters, legendary stories, surprising quirks, and comfortable charm—as readers, we cherish them as sanctuaries for learning and dreaming.

In Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores, beloved New Yorker cartoonist Bob Eckstein has gathered the greatest untold stories from a seventy-five of the world’s most renowned bookstores (both past and present) and paired them with evocative color illustrations of each shop. Here is a portrait of our lifelong love affair with bookstores that is at once heartfelt, bittersweet, and filled with good cheer.

Bob Eckstein has been a humor writer for more than twenty years, and is most recognized for his popular weekly columns in Newsday, the Village Voice, and now, TimeOut. His cartoons and artwork have also appeared in publications like The New Yorker, the New York Times, Spy magazine, and Details. He is also the author of The History of the Snowman. He splits his time between his studios in Manhattan and Pennsylvania.

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American Treasures by Stephen Puleo

American TreasuresOn December 26, 1941, Secret Service Agent Harry E. Neal stood on a platform at Washington’s Union Station, watching a train chug off into the dark and feeling at once relieved and inexorably anxious. These were dire times: as Hitler’s armies plowed across Europe, seizing or destroying the Continent’s historic artifacts at will, Japan bristled to the East. The Axis was rapidly closing in.

So FDR set about hiding the country’s valuables. On the train speeding away from Neal sat four plain-wrapped cases containing the documentary history of American democracy: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, and more, guarded by a battery of agents and bound for safekeeping in the nation’s most impenetrable hiding place.

American Treasures charts the little-known journeys of these American crown jewels. From the risky and audacious adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to our modern Fourth of July celebrations, American Treasures shows how the ideas captured in these documents underscore the nation’s strengths and hopes, and embody its fundamental values of liberty and equality. Stephen Puleo weaves in exciting stories of freedom under fire – from the Declaration and Constitution smuggled out of Washington days before the British burned the capital in 1814, to their covert relocation during WWII – crafting a sweeping history of a nation united to preserve its definition of democracy.

STEPHEN PULEO is the author of six books, including Dark Tide (Beacon, 2003); Due to Enemy Action (Lyons Press, 2005); and The Caning (Westholme, 2012). Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter, he is a contributor to American History magazine, among other publications. He holds a master’s degree in history and has taught history at Suffolk University in Boston. He resides in Massachusetts with his wife, Kate. For more on Stephen please visit stephenpuleo.com.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

This Road I Ride by Juliana Buhring

thisroadirideTHIS ROAD I RIDE: Sometimes it Takes Losing Everything to Find Yourself by Juliana Buhring (WW Norton, May 2016)

In December 2012, Juliana Buhring achieved a Guinness World Record as the first and fastest woman to circumnavigate the world by bike, cycling 18,060 miles across four continents and nineteen countries in a total time of 152 days. Juliana’s success is all the more remarkable as, until she decided on a whim to cycle around the world, she had never ridden a bike. Without sponsorship, with very little money, and just eight months of training, she set out to prove that there are no extraordinary people, there are only people who decide to do extraordinary things.

Juliana grew up in the notorious cult, the Children of God. Her first book was the UK bestseller NOT WITHOUT MY SISTER, an account of her childhood in the cult, written with two of her sisters. In THIS ROAD I RIDE, Juliana will chronicle the inspirational story of her round the world cycle, share her candid and witty perspectives about the places she visits, and tell the stories of the people she meets along the way, including members of her former cult “family.” She will also reveal how surviving and escaping the cult, both informed and led her to embrace the enormous physical and mental challenge of cycling the globe.

Juliana was featured in the documentary “Inspired to Ride” which follows her and Mike Hall in the TransAmerica bike race which they both won in June 2014. You can learn more about Juliana on her website julianabuhring.com.

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His Father Still by Tim Hollister

HollisterhisfatherstillHis Father Still: A Parenting Memoir is, first, Reid’s father’s disarmingly candid account of the tumult of parenting Reid through his teenage years, and then confronting the unthinkable obligations of a father to a son after a sudden tragedy. But this book is about much more than parenting and grief. In the months following Reid’s crash, as Tim Hollister worked to steady himself and his family, he found himself consumed by an accelerated need to answer two questions: Had he been a good father? And in raising his son, had he struck the right balance between exposing him to life’s risks while protecting him from life’s dangers?

Answers came in large part from a flood of condolences conveyed through letters and emails, and also in social media posts — which at the time, 2006, were a brand-new phenomenon. From these messages emerged a mosaic of Reid’s character and personality that was barely known to Tim while Reid was alive because, as parents raise teens by “letting out the tether,” they see less of and know less about their kids. Thus, after Reid’s passing, Tim learned more about his son than he had known while Reid was alive. While this portrait arrived too late, it was not unwelcome; Reid’s crash and its aftermath eventually segued to Tim forging these new insights into the foundation of a renewed relationship with his son that was, if nothing else, a sustainable way forward.

This book is, therefore, remarkable not only for its honesty but also for its forays into a breadth of universal issues, topics that shaped both Tim ‘s experience as a father while Reid was alive and his reconstruction of their parent-child bond after the crash: balancing protection and freedom when raising a teen; delivering discipline; reacting to a school’s contested accusation of misconduct; supervising a teen driver; writing an obituary and eulogy for a teen; composing condolence messages, especially through social media; preserving and
then giving away a deceased’s possessions; using the aftermath of tragedy to rebuild a frayed relationship; counting blessings; establishing an enduring connection with a loved one who has passed away; and harnessing the power of communities to care for those reeling from a sudden loss.

Tim Hollister is an environmental attorney who has been ranked among the Best Lawyers in America. After Reid’s crash in 2006, Tim became an advocate for safer teen driving. In 2009, he launched a national blog for parents of teen drivers, “From Reid’s Dad,” and in 2013 he published Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through theDangers of Driving (Chicago Review Press). In 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation honored Tim’s advocacy with the nation’s highest civilian award for traffic safety, and in 2014, the Governors Highway Safety Association recognized Not So Fast with its own national public service award. Tim has appeared on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, the “Home and Family Show” on the Hallmark Channel, and Kyra Phillips’ Raising America on HLN. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and daughter.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Self-Help & Health Tagged With: ,

The Art of Risk by Kayt Sukel

theartofriskThe Art of Risk: The New Science of Courage, Caution, and Chance (National Geographic Books, November 2015)

In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, and Charles Duhigg, RISK blends riveting case studies and hard-hitting science to explore risk-taking and how it impacts decision-making in work, play, love, and life, aiding readers in understanding their own behavior and furthering personal success.

Are risk takers born or made? Why are some more willing to go out on a limb (so to speak) than others? How do we weight the value of opportunities large or small that may have the potential to change the course of our lives?

These are just a few of the questions that author Kayt Sukel tackles in RISK, applying the latest research in neuroscience and psychology to compelling real-world situations. Building on a portfolio of work that has appeared in such publications as Scientific American, Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and more, Sukel offers an in-depth look at risk-taking and its role in the many facets of life that will resonate with readers on a personal level. Smart, progressive, and truly enlightening, Sukel’s study of the interplay of human behavior and biology is made accessible by her deft hand and playful approach to science. From the adrenaline junkie to the precautious parent, RISK’S unique insights hold value for everyone interesting in maximizing personal and professional success.

Kayt Sukel earned a BS in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University and a MS in engineering psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. A passionate traveler and science writer, her work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the New Scientist, USA Today, the Washington Post, ISLANDS, Parenting, the Bark, American Baby, and the AARP Bulletin. She is a partner at the award-winning family travel website Travel Savvy Mom, and is also a frequent contributor to the Dana Foundation’s many science publications. She is also the author of This Is Your Brain on Sex: The Science Behind the Search for Love (The Free Press).

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Please Don’t Bite the Baby by Lisa Edwards

edwardspleasedontbitethebabyPLEASE DON’T BITE THE BABY (Seal, September 2015) by certified professional dog trainer Lisa Edwards chronicles her endearing and entertaining journey to ensure that her household survives and thrives when she introduces her son to her motley pack of animals. As Lisa knows all too well, the dog/child relationship is simultaneously treasured, misunderstood, and sometimes feared. In a twist, Lisa’s dog training techniques inevitably seep into how she navigates her first year with baby to mixed but enlightening results.

Lisa includes her best training techniques for the everyday pet owner itemized at the end of each chapter. This book is important for parents, grandparents, and caregivers who have dogs and young children together and want to ensure safety for all.

Lisa Edwards, CPDT-KA, CDBC, is a professional dog trainer and dog behavior consultant, a Pet Partners evaluator and instructor, and an AKC Canine Good Citizen evaluator. Her book A Dog Named Boo was a London Times bestseller.

Lisa has been training dogs professionally and performing animal-assisted therapy since 1999. She has trained hundreds of therapy dogs and service dogs for veterans and individuals with PTSD. She is the lead trainer and behavior consultant for the Animal Rescue Foundation–Beacon and the Danbury Animal Welfare Society. She also lectures on dog/child safety, runs webinars for Pet Partners, and operates a teaching and consulting business, Three Dogs Training.

Lisa lives in New York State with her husband, son, dog, and cat.

Praise for A Dog Named Boo:

“The best animal stories are about relationships, and nothing is better than a story like A Dog Named Boo, in which a person and an animal together find hope, strength, purpose, and their place in the world.Lisa and Boo’s joy at helping others is inspiring; but it’s their belief in each other, even when no one else believed, that touched my heart.”

– Bret Witter, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Dewey and Until Tuesday

“The ‘feel good’ book of the season…Boo’s story remind all of us that life is full of possibilities and that hope often arrives wagging a tail.”

– Best Friends Magazine

“Heartwarming tale about the power of canines.”

– Booklist

“A fascinating look at what service dogs can accomplish…Readers interested in dogs and service animals will enjoy this story of resilience.”

– Publishers Weekly

“A wonderful, heartfelt read.”

– Interactions magazine

“I applaud Lisa Edwards for her journey and accomplishments with Boo.”

– Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, CDBC

“It’s hard to say who is most fortunate – the developmentally disabled and ultimately wonderful dog Boo, the woman who devoted years to his training and healed herself in the process, or the many readers whose lives this book
will touch. As a bonus, even those who don’t have dogs will come away with an understanding of positive training methods, therapy dog work, and the countless benefits of canine companionship.”

– CJ Puotinen, author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, co-founder of the Hudson Valley Visiting Pet Program.

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Mama Gone Geek by Lynn Brunelle

mamagonegeekIn MAMA GONE GEEK, Lynn Brunelle has taken her nerdy passion for science, art and education and applied it to the awe-inspiring eleven-year project that has been raising her children. An Emmy Award winning writer for “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” Lynn is the author of best-selling children’s books, and a former K-12 science and art teacher. The results of her “experiment” to date have been surprising, humorous, sometimes misguided, but always meaningful.

We live in a time and in a culture that celebrates scientific and technological innovation. It is also a time when smart kid parenting is a driving trend, especially important as we seek to compete with the rest of the world that has long invested in the mathematical and scientific training of their children at younger ages. Readers of MAMA GONE GEEK will learn how one artsy science-nerd mom applies what she knows to raise science savvy and confident kids. Readers can follow Lynn’s magical stories as she seamlessly incorporates lessons of the physical world into her sons’ every day lives, whether she uses an accidently ingested magnet to teach them about the human body or increases their Little League batting averages through lessons on Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Lynn Brunelle is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for the television series “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” with over twenty years of writing experience. Lynn has created, developed and written projects for PBS, NPR, A&E, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Disney and ABC-TV. She is the creator of a family science blog Science Friday’s Tabletop Science, a regular voice on NPR’s Science Friday Kids’ Connection, an on-air contributor and consultant on activities for Martha Stewart Radio, a writer for the Huffington Post, as well as for several children’s and parenting magazines. She is a national speaker and has presented as a Street Fair Educator at the World Science Festival New York City and The Aspen Center for Physics Aspen Science Festival. She lives on Bainbridge Island off the coast of Washington with her husband and two sons.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Self-Help & Health Tagged With: ,

Staying True by Jenny Sanford

In this candid and compelling memoir, the first lady of South Carolina reveals the private ordeal behind her very public betrayal—and offers inspiration for anyone struggling to keep faith during life’s most trying times.

She’s been a successful investment banker, a mother of four, and the campaign manager for one of American politics’ rising stars—her husband, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, once widely hailed as a possible candidate for president in 2012. Yet to most Americans, Jenny Sanford is best known for the one role she refused to play—that of conventional political spouse standing silently by while her husband went before the media and confessed his infidelity. Instead, she stayed true—to herself, to her faith, and to her highest ideals of parenthood and public service. She chose to let Mark Sanford deal with the embarrassment and political fallout from his own actions while focusing her own efforts privately on raising their children to be men of character, even in the face of the lies their father has told.

In Staying True, Jenny Sanford recalls her shock and anguish upon discovering that her husband was having an affair with a woman in Argentina, and the further pain when she learned—just a day ahead of most Americans—that he had not ended the affair when she believed he had. She reveals the source of her determination to be honest and forthright instead of the victim in the tabloid passion play that gripped the nation in June 2009.

But her story neither begins nor ends with Mark Sanford’s astounding fall from grace. Writing with uncommon candor from a deep well of spiritual strength, Sanford shares personal stories and life lessons from before and after she stepped into the public realm. She recounts the many stresses—as well as the myriad joys—that she experienced on a daily basis while living in the governmental spotlight. (Just try keeping four young boys out of mischief in the governor’s mansion!) And she describes the many ways that the seductions of power can drive apart even the most committed couples.

At every step along her journey, Jenny Sanford has made choices: She gave up her career, moved far from her home state of Illinois, even changed her religious practices. Every choice was a glad concession to harmonious married life and, in some cases, to the support of her husband’s political aspirations. But the one thing she never gave up was her sense of self, her inner moral compass. Her remarkable poise and decency make her a role model for men and women alike. Her story will empower anyone who has fought to maintain independence and integrity—within a marriage or elsewhere in life.

Published in February 2010, Jenny Sanford’s memoir, Staying True, was an instant national bestseller. She is now focused on spending time with her four teenage sons—Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake at their home on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina.

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Cat Daddy by Jackson Galaxy

Cat behaviorist and star of Animal Planet’s hit television show My Cat from Hell, Jackson Galaxy, a.k.a. “Cat Daddy,” isn’t what you might expect for a cat expert (as The New York Times noted, with his goatee and tattoos he “looks like a Hells Angel”). Yet Galaxy’s ability to connect with even the most troubled felines—not to mention the stressed-out humans living in their wake—is awe-inspiring. In this book, Galaxy tells the poignant story of his thirteen-year relationship with a petite gray-and-white short-haired cat named Benny, and gives singular advice for living with, caring for, and loving the feline in your home.

When Benny arrived in his life, Galaxy was a down-and-out rock musician with not too much more going on than a part-time job at an animal shelter and a drug problem. Benny’s previous owner brought the cat to the shelter in a cardboard box to give him up. Benny had seen better days—his pelvis had just been shattered by the wheels of a car—and his owner insisted he’d been “unbondable” from day one. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

An inspiring account of two broken beings who fixed each other, Cat Daddy is laced throughout with Galaxy’s amazing “Cat Mojo” advice for understanding what cats need most from us humans in order to live happier, healthier lives.

Jackson Galaxy has been called everything from a cat trainer to a cat shrink. Drawing on his years of experience in animal shelters and as a consultant working one-on-one with thousands of cats in their homes, his unique “Cat Mojo” approach offers people a deeper understanding of why their cats act out in the ways they do. Galaxy maintains a private consulting practice in Los Angeles.

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Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunée

Already hailed as “brave, emotional, and gorgeously written” by Frances Mayes and “like a piece of dark chocolate–bittersweet, satisfying, and finished all too soon” by Laura Fraser, author of An Italian Affair, this is a unique memoir about the search for identity through love, hunger, and food.

Jim Harrison says, “TRAIL OF CRUMBS reminds me of what heavily costumed and concealed waifs we all are. Kim Sunée tells us so much about the French that I never learned in 25 trips to Paris, but mostly about the terrors and pleasure of that infinite octopus, love. A fine book.”

When Kim Sunée was three years old, her mother took her to a marketplace, deposited her on a bench with a fistful of food, and promised she’d be right back. Three days later a policeman took the little girl, clutching what was now only a fistful of crumbs, to a police station and told her that she’d been abandoned by her mother.

Fast-forward almost 20 years and Kim’s life is unrecognizable. Adopted by a young New Orleans couple, she spends her youth as one of only two Asian children in her entire community. At the age of 21, she becomes involved with a famous French businessman and suddenly finds herself living in France, mistress over his houses in Provence and Paris, and stepmother to his eight year-old daughter.

Kim takes readers on a lyrical journey from Korea to New Orleans to Paris and Provence, along the way serving forth her favorite recipes. A love story at heart, this memoir is about the search for identity and a book that will appeal to anyone who is passionate about love, food, travel, and the ultimate search for self.

Kim Sunée is the author of the national bestseller, TRAIL OF CRUMBS: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home (Grand Central Publishing). Trail of Crumbs was both a BARNES AND NOBLE Discover pick and a Booksense Pick, and has been translated into Korean, Chinese, and Hebrew. She has been featured in the New York Times, Ladies’ Homes Journal, People, ELLE, and Glamour.

She ate and lived in Europe for ten years and loves everything from tacos and fried chicken to a perfect terrine of foie gras. Sunée got her start as food editor at Southern Living and then worked as the founding food editor of Cottage Living magazine. Her writing has appeared in FOOD & WINE, ENTREE, The Oxford American, Cooking Light, and Asian American Poetry and Writing. Sunée has appeared several times as a guest judge on the Food Network’s IRON CHEF AMERICA. She is currently working on a cookbook/culinary scrapbook to be published by Andrews McMeel in 2013.

Filed Under: Food & Wine, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

Your Brain on Sex by Kayt Sukel

Philosophers, theologians, artists, and boy bands have waxed poetic about the nature of love for centuries. But what does the brain have to say about the way we carry our hearts? In the wake of a divorce, science writer and single mother Kayt Sukel made herself a guinea pig in the labs of some unusual love experts to find out.

In each chapter of this edgy romp through the romantic brain, Sukel looks at a different aspect of love above the belt. What in your brain makes you love someone—or simply lust after them? (And is there really a difference?) Why do good girls like bad boys? Is monogamy practical? How thin is that line between love and hate? Do mothers have a stronger bond with their children than their fathers do? How do our childhood experiences affect our emotional control? Should you be taking an oxytocin supplement to improve your luck in love? Who is most at risk for love addiction? In her search for truth, Sukel also has an fMRI during orgasm, ponders a cure for heartbreak, and samples a pheromone spray called Boarmate.

As science allows us a more focused examination on the intricate dance between the brain and our environments, we can use it to shed new light on humanity’s oldest question: What is love and why does it torture, delight, and transform us so?

Fiercely honest and wonderfully funny, Sukel can offer no simple solutions for the curveballs love throws our way. But after reading this gimlet-eyed look at love, sex, and the brain, you’ll never look at romance the same way again.

Kayt Sukel’s work has appeared in myriad publications, including Atlantic Monthly, USA TODAY, The Washington Post, National Geographic Traveler, Continental, American Baby, and Cerebrum. She is a partner in the renowned family travel website, TravelSavvyMom.com, blogs about international eating for UpTake.com, and is also a frequent contributor to the Dana Foundation’s many science publications.

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Machiavelli for Moms by Suzanne Evans

An enlightening parenting manifesto showing how the strategies used in Machiavelli’s masterpiece, The Prince, can be employed to reign in a rambunctious family.

Newly remarried, with four kids under the age of eight, Suzanne Evans was fed up with tantrums, misbehaving, and general household chaos. Desperate to get the upper hand, she turns to Machiavelli’s iconic political treatise and inspiration strikes—maybe she can use the philosopher’s famously manipulative rules to bring order to her boisterous family?

Soon, Evan’s experiment is playing out in surprisingly effective ways. She starts off with the widely maligned maxim, “It is better to be feared than loved,” and realizes that for all its harshness, it contains a kernel of truth—her kids behave when they fear punishment. She starts channeling her inner disciplinarian, and is surprised at how quickly her brood falls in line. A few months later, when her kids’ beloved kitten dies an untimely death, she decides to follow Machiavelli’s edict that “the populace need not know all the details of government life”—she tells them their cat “went to live at the farm.” Though she eventually came clean, she learned that sometimes honesty isn’t the best policy with kids—and that’s OK.

As she tries more and more of Machiavelli’s ideas on her family, Evans figures out his secret: You can get more out of your kids with less fight if you figure out how to gently manipulate them to get what they want (and think it’s their own idea). In Machiavelli for Moms, she shows modern-day mothers and fathers how to use his advice to take back their own kingdoms.

Suzanne Evans is a former divorce lawyer and business/sports reporter who holds a Ph.D. in history from UC Berkeley. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Business Journal, and other national publications. She is also a freelance writer for The History Channel website and the creator of The History Chef, a popular food history blog for parents and kids. She lives in Newport Beach, California, with her husband and four young children.

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The Bird Market of Paris by Nikki Moustaki

birdmarketTHE BIRD MARKET OF PARIS, a memoir by Nikki Moustaki, is a story about birdsong, drunken antics and the promise of Paris. In her youth, Rhode Island reds, Japanese silkies, golden pheasants, homing pigeons and lovebirds were just a few species populating the fantastical world the author shared with her grandfather in their South Miami paradise. Yet by college, Nikki’s obsession with birds, pills and booze would leave her living on the fringe, where blackouts, overdoses, and trips to the emergency room became routine.

In the tradition of Susan Orlean’s THE ORCHID THIEF, THE BIRD MARKET OF PARIS is a sometimes whimsical, sometimes dark look at the world of aviculture. Like Augusten Burroughs’ DRY, she offers up a raw, twisted tale of addiction. In this unforgettable story, Nikki would ultimately find salvation in a childhood pledge, an injured pigeon, and a spectacular aviary within a Willy Wonka-esque Parisian brothel.

Nikki Moustaki is the author of twenty-five books on exotic birds, and has been writing for bird magazines such as Bird Talk and Birds USA for over fifteen years. Her bird books have sold more than 350,000 copies, and her pet magazine articles, columns, and blogs reach over two million readers a month. She is a renowned avian care and behavior consultant and speaker. In the early nineties, Nikki became aware of the bird overpopulation problem, stopped breeding birds, and began helping in rescue efforts. Today, she lives in New York City and hosts several websites including Good Bird (www.goodbird.com) and The Pet Postcard Project (www.petpostcardproject.com), a popular grassroots charity project that raises pet food for animal shelters. As you will
see in the proposal, Nikki is incredibly media savvy and has a dynamic social media presence.

Nikki has MA in creative writing and a MFA in fiction from New York University as well as a MFA in creative writing from Indiana University. She is recipient of a 2001 National Endowment for the Arts Grant in poetry, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times, and has been awarded many national prizes for her writing.

Advance Praise for The Bird Market of Paris

“This may be the most original cross-species love story I’ve ever read. Part travelogue, part recovery memoir, and one hundred percent compelling, The Bird Market of Paris is a gorgeously realized exploration of the ineffable bond that links humans and animals.”
—Gwen Cooper, author of New York Times bestselling Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat

“I’ve long been a devotee of Nikki Moustaki’s poetry. Now, her keen eye, deft language, and startling voice shine just as brilliantly in her memoir, The Bird Market of Paris, a work of remarkable honesty, proving the power and exuberance of her prose. The wisdom of an exceptional grandfather, a passion for birds, and the darkness of addiction—all spun together by Moustaki’s gift for finding just the right words, at the right time—give life to this epiphany-provoking gem of a story, skillfully crafted, vivid and rich with feeling.”
—Richard Blanco, Presidential Inaugural Poet and author of The Prince of los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood

“I’ll tell you what’s so good about The Bird Market of Paris, what distinguishes it from the long catalogue of naval-gazing memoirs lining our bookstore shelves. I’ll tell you why it matters. The governing artistic value here is honesty. Nikki Moustaki may want to tell us about her love for and devotion to her Poppy and to her avian friends, and she does a marvelous job at just that, but she tells us something much more important. She tells us about herself and her struggle with alcoholism, her struggle and ultimate victory, and in so doing she tells us all we need to know about courage, dignity, and heroism.”
—John Dufresne, author of No Regrets, Coyote

“Through breathtaking, lyrical prose, Nikki Moustaki bares herself on the page, and renders her coming of age and its uncontainable desires through the surprising metaphor of birds. This debut narrative is a stunning, inspiring, honest, break-your-heart recovery memoir with wings, a triumphant story of the brick-by-brick building of sobriety and of family love.”
—Christa Parravani, author of Her: A Memoir

“No one writes better about birds than Nikki Moustaki. To her, the smallest beating bird heart is full of the same strength and longing that is her own. This astonishing book is the story of Nikki’s growth, fall, and triumph, as she seeks to protect every bird in her path, often while not protecting herself.”
—Deb Olin Unferth, author of Vacation and Revolution

“Nikki Moustaki’s The Bird Market of Paris is a terrific book, a beautiful memoir of a child’s love of birds, instilled in her by a loving grandfather. The love he gave her helps to save her from the oblivion of alcohol.”
—Dan Wakefield, author of the memoirs Returning: A Spiritual Journey and New York in the Fifties

“The Bird Market of Paris is a stunning, exceptional memoir from a woman who truly understands and appreciates birds—who could not resist the warmth of a baby lovebird in her hand, or the poetry in watching eggs turn to baby birds—and who found strength in them to carry her through addiction and heartache. A captivating, heart-warming tale and a delightful, inspiring read.”
—Joanna Burger, author of The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Portfolio Tagged With: ,

Swish by Joel Derfner

Swish by Joel DerfnerA hilarious and deeply moving account of one man’s journey from stereotype to truth.

Joel Derfner is a knitter, an aerobics instructor, a cheerleader, a go-go dancer, and a musical theater composer, but when he realizes one day that he’s a walking gay cliché he embarks on a quest for deeper meaning. A very, very funny quest for deeper meaning. And whether he’s confronting the demons of his past at a GLBT summer camp, using the Internet to “meet” men–many, many men–or going undercover to a conference of ex-gays, he discovers that what he’s looking for–and sometimes even finds, hidden underneath the surface of everyday life–is his own identity. In the tradition of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, yet with its own particular flair, Swish is a story told with not just wit but humor; not just candor but honesty; and not just compassion but humanity.

Joel Derfner is from South Carolina, where his great-grandmother had an affair with George Gershwin. After fleeing the south as soon as he possibly could, he got a B.A. in linguistics from Harvard. A year after he graduated, his thesis on the Abkhaz language was shown to be completely wrong, as the word he had been translating as “who” turned out to be not a noun but a verb. Realizing that linguistics was not his métier, he moved to New York to get an M.F.A. in musical theater writing from the Tisch School of the Arts.

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Lawfully Wedded Husband by Joel Derfner

lawfullyweddedhusbandWhen Joel Derfner’s boyfriend proposed to him, there was nowhere in America the two could legally marry. That changed quickly, however, and before long the two were on what they expected to be a rollicking journey to married bliss. What they didn’t realize was that, along the way, they would confront not just the dilemmas every couple faces on the way to the altar—what kind of ceremony would they have? what would they wear? did they have to invite Great Aunt Sophie?—but also questions about what a relationship can and can’t do, the definition of marriage, and, ultimately, what makes a family.

Add to the mix a reality show whose director forces them to keep signing and notarizing applications for a wedding license until the cameraman gets a shot she likes; a family marriage history that includes adulterers, arms smugglers, and poisoners; and discussions of civil rights, Sophocles, racism, grammar, and homemade Ouija boards—coupled with Derfner’s gift for getting in his own way—and what results is a story not just of gay marriage and the American family but of what it means to be human.

Joel Derfner is or has been an aerobics instructor, knitter, go-go boy, math teacher, cheerleader, and the author of Gay Haiku and Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever and What Happened Instead. Musicals for which he has composed the score have played in London, New York, and several cities in between (going the long route). He is from Charleston, South Carolina, and now lives in New York City with his husband.

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For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose

In the dramatic story of one of the greatest acts of corporate espionage ever committed, Sarah Rose recounts the fascinating, unlikely circumstances surrounding a turning point in economic history. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the British East India Company faced the loss of its monopoly on the fantastically lucrative tea trade with China, forcing it to make the drastic decision of sending Scottish botanist Robert Fortune to steal the crop from deep within China and bring it back to British plantations in India. Fortune’s danger-filled odyssey, magnificently recounted here, reads like adventure fiction, revealing a long-forgotten chapter of the past and the wondrous origins of a seemingly ordinary beverage.

Sarah Rose is the author of FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History (Viking, 2010), the true story of a 19th Century botanist who traveled undercover in Qing China to steal the secrets of tea for England and the East India Company; the largest act of corporate espionage in the history of the world.

Named the BBC’s Book of the Week, FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA was called “a wonderful combination of scholarship and storytelling” by NPR and “An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction,” by the Financial Times. It received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal and the AudioPhile Earphones Award for the author-read audiobook.

In Hong Kong, Miami and New York, Rose has covered a broad range of beats including international politics and economics during the Hong Kong handover, finance and business during the end of the dot com bubble, the environment, and local stories such as cops, courts and schools. She now writes about food and travel for magazines such as Men’s Journal and Bon Appetit.

A Chicago native, Rose holds degrees from Harvard College and the University of Chicago. She has been awarded the North American Travel Journalists Association Grand Prize in Writing, finalist in the John T. Lupton “New Voices in Literature” Award in Non-Fiction, and was a grant recipient from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

For All the Tea in China is her first book, published by Viking in the US, Hutchison in the UK.

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Love as Always, Kurt by Loree Rackstraw

A loving, intimate memoir from a lifelong friend of Kurt Vonnegut, including photos and never-before-published correspondence

When Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ducked into his classroom at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in September of 1965, his jokes drew only weak laughter and a few rolled eyes. But workshop student Loree Rackstraw was quietly impressed by this “great bear of a man” and his down-to-earth sensibilities about writing.

That fall, an impossible romance began between the then-unknown author and his student—a brief affair that matured into a joyful, lifelong friendship. Rackstraw distills four decades of memories and Vonnegut’s letters to her into an affectionate memoir that crackles with the creative energy of one of America’s most beloved writers.

Rackstraw’s unique perspective on Vonnegut’s life and how it shaped his famous works portrays a deeply humane man who looked for the humor and absurdity in life in order to survive. And then there are Vonnegut’s own letters: Whether energetic about new projects or frustrated with the “game” of writing and selling “a gazoolian copies,” Vonnegut writes with the playful imagination and generous, accessible brilliance that have always been his trademarks.

Loree Rackstraw is Professor Emeritus at the University of Northern Iowa. A former fiction editor of The North American Review, Rackstraw holds degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Iowa. She lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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A Dog Named Boo by Lisa J. Edwards

She Thought She Was Rescuing an Abandoned Puppy.
Turns Out, He Was Rescuing Her.

“The best animal stories are about relationships, and nothing is better than a story like A Dog Named Boo, in which a person and an animal together find hope, strength, purpose and their place in the world. Lisa and Boo’s joy at helping others is inspiring; but it’s their belief in each other, even when no one else believed, that touched my heart.”

– Bret Witter, New York Times bestselling co-author of Dewey and Until Tuesday

Selected as Publishers Weekly 2012 Top Ten Memoirs

International Bestseller, Sunday Times UK

The last thing Lisa Edwards needed was a new dog. But when she came across an abandoned litter on Halloween, her heart went out to the runt who walked into walls and couldn’t steady his feet. Lisa—healing from past abuse and battling constant pain from Lupus—saw a bit of herself in little Boo. And when he snuggled, helpless, against her, she knew he was meant to be hers.
The dunce of obedience class with poor eyesight and a clumsy gait, Boo was the least likely of heroes. Yet with his unflappable spirit and boundless love, Boo has changed countless lives through his work as therapy dog—helping a mute six-year-old boy to speak, coaxing movement from a paralyzed girl, and stirring life in a ninety-four-year-old nun with Alzheimers. But perhaps Boo’s greatest miracle is the way he transformed Lisa’s life, giving her the greatest gift of all—faith in herself.

This is the inspiring true story of “the little dog who could,” but more than that, it’s the story of how one woman and one dog rescued each other—a moving tribute to hope, resilience and the transformative power of unconditional love.

Lisa J. Edwards is a full-time professional dog trainer and behavioral consultant. She has been a registered Delta Society Pet Partner with three of her dogs and has made more than 400 visits with her pets to hospitals, schools, nursing homes and residential care facilities. In 2008, Boo was honored as one of five finalists for the Delta Society’s national Beyond Limits Award for his therapy work with Lisa.

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Bringing in Finn by Sara Connell

In February 2011, sixty-one-year old Kristine Casey delivered to her daughter, Sara Connell, the greatest gift of all—Sara’s son, Finnean. For years Sara and her husband Bill had been trying to have a baby and had suffered through a miscarriage and stillborn twins. Sara and Bill had started to give up hope of bringing a baby to term. Nevertheless, a little over a year ago when Kristine approached her daughter about being a surrogate she didn’t know what Sara would say. But Kristine felt she must try. The happiest moments in her life were when she gave birth to her three daughters. She felt the vision to surrogate for her daughter was a calling. IN BRINGING IN FINN, Sara tells the remarkable story about how their family came together to create a life.

Sara Connell is a writer, life coach, and speaker specializing in women’s health, empowerment, and The Power of the Feminine. Sara lives in Chicago where she has a private practice, teaches, and leads workshops and retreats both locally and around the world. She has been both a speaker and workshop leader for a variety of companies including: Avon, Estee Lauder, Origins, GE, The Leo Burnett Company, Jones Lang LaSalle, The Chicago Center for Spiritual Living, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Prentice Hospital for Women, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson. Sara appears frequently in the media, including as a regular contributor on FOX News Chicago as their sexuality/relationship/lifestyle expert. Sara, Kristine, and Finn appeared on one of Oprah’s final episodes to tell their extraordinary story.

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Fool Me Twice by Shawn Lawrence Otto

“Whenever the people are well informed,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “they can be trusted with their own government.”

But what happens in a world dominated by complex science? Are the people still well-enough informed to be trusted with their own government? And with less than 2 percent of Congress with any professional background in science, how can our government be trusted to lead us in the right direction?

Will the media save us? Don’t count on it. In early 2008, of the 2,975 questions asked the candidates for president just six mentioned the words “global warming” or “climate change,” the greatest policy challenge facing America. To put that in perspective, three questions mentioned UFOs.

Today the world’s major unsolved challenges all revolve around science. By the 2012 election cycle, at a time when science is influencing every aspect of modern life, antiscience views from climate-change denial to creationism to vaccine refusal have become mainstream.

Faced with the daunting challenges of an environment under siege, an exploding population, a falling economy and an education system slipping behind, our elected leaders are hard at work … passing resolutions that say climate change is not real and astrology can control the weather.

Shawn Lawrence Otto has written a behind-the-scenes look at how the government, our politics, and the media prevent us from finding the real solutions we need. Fool Me Twice is the clever, outraged, and frightening account of America’s relationship with science—a relationship that is on the rocks at the very time we need it most.

S H A W N L A W R E N C E O T T O is the cofounder and CEO of Science Debate 2008, the largest political initiative in the history of science. He is also an award winning screenwriter best known for writing and coproducing the Academy Award–nominated House of Sand and Fog. He lives in Minnesota.

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