1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
By Charles C. Mann (Knopf, $30.50)
Notable nonfiction of 2011
A god’s-eye view of the world in 1493 that explores the economic and ecological shifts unleashed by Columbus’s discovery of America. — Gregory McNamee
AGE OF GREED: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present
By Jeff Madrick (Knopf, $30)
Looking for the roots of our financial decline, Madrick narrates a history that brims with powerful men, ugly fights, infamous scandals, twists and turns, and, true to the book’s title, lots of shameless cupidity. — David Greenberg
ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis
By Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera (Portfolio/Penguin, $32.95)
Although delivered in a measured tone, the revelations in this account of the events that helped bring on the financial crisis are nonetheless shocking. — Daniel Gross
AND SO IT GOES: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
By Charles J. Shields (Henry Holt, $30)
This unsparing but ultimately convincing portrait shows Vonnegut as alternately generous and abrasive, kind and petulant, sentimental and emotionally remote — a man defined by his contradictions and determined to have his say. Shields looks beyond Vonnegut’s status as cultural icon, showing us the gifted, all-too-human figure beneath. The result is a first-rate biography and a cogent work of social and cultural history. — William Sheehan
AND THE SHOW WENT ON: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris
By Alan Riding (Knopf, $28.95)
A vivid historical account of the Nazi era that plunges the reader into the French cultural scene of the 1930s and ’40s and shows us how real men and real women dealt with the devil. — Michael Dirda
A WORLD ON FIRE: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War
By Amanda Foreman (Random House, $35)
An energetic, detailed tale of the British engagement with the American Civil War built around a huge cast of politicians, diplomats, soldiers and civilians in Great Britain, the United States and the Confederacy. — Gary W. Gallagher
BELIEVING IS SEEING: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography
By Errol Morris (Penguin Press, $40)
A thought-provoking and detailed exploration of photography’s connection to the real world by the Academy Ward-winning filmmaker. — Michael S. Roth
By Joan Didion (Knopf, $25)
Didion’s companion volume to “The Year of Magical Thinking,” a memoir about the death of her daughter and her own diminished capacities, is a beautiful condolence note to humanity about some of the painful realities of the human condition. — Heller McAlpin
BOOMERANG: Travels in the New Third World
By Michael Lewis (Norton, $25.95)
In his latest book on the planet’s seemingly endless financial implosion, Lewis drops in on Iceland, Greece, Ireland and Germany and chronicles the messes they’ve made of their markets and money. — Carlos Lozada
By Jimmy Breslin (Viking, $19.95)
Breslin’s eloquent tale of the man who masterminded the integration of baseball. — Steven Levingston
-
article_story
Khaled Hosseini’s exquisite ‘And the Mountains Echoed’
The bestselling author of “The Kite Runner” returns with another powerful story about Afghanistan.
1369071240000 -
BlogStory
Two thumbs up! (I hated it)
What do the blurbs on book jackets really mean?
1369057031000 -
article_story
‘Minotaur,’ by Benjamin Tammuz
A man becomes obsessed with a teenage girl, but does that obsession lead him to murder?
1369002211000 -
BlogStory
Adam Mansbach at the Gaithersburg Book Festival
The fourth annual book fair offered 100 authors and a dozen workshops.
1368976928000 -
article_story
Book review: ‘The Golem and the Jinni,’ by Helene Wecker
Can modest golem and a mercurial jinni find love in Lower Manhattan?
1368827928000 -
article_story
Book review: ‘Cheat the Clock’
A science writer for The Washington Post, Margaret Webb Pressler decided to unravel the mystery of her husband’s biology.
1368825487000 -
article_story
Book review: ‘Wash,’ by Margaret Wrinkle
The harrowing story of a black man pressed into sexual slavery after the Revolutionary War.
1368742926000 -
article_story
Washington Post Bestsellers May 19
The books Washington has been reading.
1368722950000 -
article_story
Book review: ‘The Philosopher, the Priest, and the Painter’
Steven Nadler’s fascinating survey of Golden Age Dutch culture, Cartesian philosophy and art connoisseurship.
1368662393000 -
article_story
Book review: Eleanor Morse’s ‘White Dog Fell from the Sky’
A novel about the unusual friendship between a South African refugee and an American expatriate.
1368630487000 -
BlogStory
Timothy Egan wins the Chautauqua Prize for "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher"
Egan's biography of American West photographer Edward Curtis garners $7,500 and a week at the summer program in New York State.
1368624811000 -
article_story
Book review: ‘Flora’ by Gail Godwin
Things fall apart when a young girl is left alone in the house with her emotional cousin.
1368573677000 -
article_story
Book review: ‘Raven Girl,’ by Audrey Niffenegger
The author of ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ returns with a novella for the Royal Ballet in London.
1368571595000 -
article_story
Book review: Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon races to solve a mystery based on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”
1368504060000
.JPG)
- Spam
- Obscene
- Duplicate
.JPG)
The Post Most: EntertainmentMost-viewed stories,videos, and galleries in the past two hours
Loading...
Comments