Good Reads: New Nonfiction for the Kindle

What I like about non-fiction is that it covers such a huge territory. The best non-fiction is also creative. - Tracy Kidder.

Nonfiction encompasses a wealth of reading possibilities - history, essays, memoirs, scientific research, travel guides, cookbooks - essentially everything that is based on fact, real events and real people. Recent nonfiction titles for the Kindle that you might have missed:

Emus Loose in Egnar: Big Stories from Small Towns, by Judy Muller. University of Nebraska, 2011. Print Length: 264 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $16.47. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"At a time when mainstream news media are hemorrhaging and doomsayers are predicting the death of journalism, take heart: the First Amendment is alive and well in small towns across America. In Emus Loose in Egnar, award-winning journalist Judy Muller takes the reader on a grassroots tour of rural American newspapers, from an Indian reservation in Montana to the Alaska tundra to Martha’s Vineyard, and discovers that many weeklies are not just surviving, but thriving. In these small towns, stories can range from club news to Klan news, from broken treaties to broken hearts, from banned books to escaped emus; they document the births, deaths, crimes, sports, and local shenanigans that might seem to matter only to those who live there. And yet, as this book shows us, these 'little' stories create a mosaic of American life that tells us a great deal about who we are..." - Publisher.

Precious Objects: A Story of Diamonds, Family and a Way of Life, by Alicia Oltuski. Scribner, 2011. Print Length: 368 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $10.99; Hardcover $15.82. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"In the middle of New York City lies a neighborhood where all secrets are valuable, all assets are liquid, and all deals are sealed with a blessing rather than a contract. Welcome to the diamond district. Ninety percent of all diamonds that enter America pass through these few blocks, but the inner workings of this mysterious world are known only to the people who inhabit it. In Precious Objects, twenty-six-year-old journalist Alicia Oltuski, the daughter and granddaughter of diamond dealers, seamlessly blends family narrative with literary reportage to reveal the fascinating secrets of the diamond industry and its madcap characters: an Elvis-impersonating dealer, a duo of diamond-detective brothers, and her own eccentric father..." - Amazon.

Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate, by Juan Williams. Crown, 2011. Print Length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.10. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Prize-winning Washington journalist Juan Williams was unceremoniously dismissed by NPR for speaking his mind and saying what many Americans feel - that he gets nervous when boarding airplanes with passengers dressed in Muslim garb. In Muzzled, Williams uses his very public firing as a launching pad to discuss the countless ways in which honest debate in America - from the halls of Congress and the health care town halls to the talk shows and print media - is stifled. In today’s partisan world, where media provocateurs rule the airwaves and political correctness dictates what can and cannot be said with impunity, Williams shows how the honest exchange of ideas and the search for solutions and reasonable compromise is deliberately muzzled. Only those toeing the party’s line - the screaming voices of the extremist - get airtime and dominate the discussion in politics and the media. Each side, liberal and conservative, preaches to a choir that revels in expressions of anger, ideology, conspiracies, and demonized opponents. The result is an absence of truth-telling and honest debate about the facts...A fierce, fresh look at the critical importance of an open airing of controversial issues..." - from the hardcover edition.

Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty , by Mustafa Akyol. W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. Print Length: 352 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $14.27; Hardcover $16.86. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Turkish journalist Akyol clarifies the complexities and contradictions of Islam in this indispensable book. He demonstrates how the harsh tribal cultures of the Arabian desert in the 7th century shaped Islam for centuries since their traditions evolved into unquestioned rules that were often at odds with the Qur'an. The Qur'an stresses family, rights for women, protection of the weak, the use of reason, and the freedom to choose - teachings similar to Jewish and Christian writings of the time. After Muhammad's death, opposing forces (adhering to tradition or the employment of reason as guides for life) clashed bitterly for centuries, their tribal harshness creating a political Islam. The resulting Islamic political systems are the products of men attempting to recreate the caliphate of 7th century Arabia, a goal that Akyol argues is impractical. This even-handed scholarly work, which also helps explain the rise of the Taliban and other extremists, makes Islam accessible to Western readers." - Publishers Weekly.

Words to Eat By: Five Foods and the Culinary History of the English Language, by Ina Lipkowitz. St. Martin's Press, 2011. Print Length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.79. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"You may be what you eat, but you’re also what you speak, and English food words tell a remarkable story about the evolution of our language and culinary history, revealing a vital collision of cultures alive and well from the time Caesar first arrived on British shores to the present day. Words to Eat By explores the remarkable stories behind five of our most basic food words, words which reveal fascinating aspects of the evolution of the English language and our powerful associations with certain foods. Using sources that vary from Roman histories and early translations of the Bible to Julia Child’s recipes and Frank Bruni’s restaurant reviews, Ina Lipkowitz shows how saturated with French and Italian names the English culinary vocabulary is, 'from a la carte to zabaglione.' But the words for our most basic foodstuffs - bread, meat, milk, leek, and apple - are still rooted in Old English and Words to Eat By reveals how exceptional these words and our associations with the foods are." - Amazon.

Pitching in the Promised Land: A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League, by Aaron Pribble. University of Nebraska Press, 2011. Print Length: 280 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $14.97; Hardcover $18.21. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"It was the first (and last) season of professional baseball in Israel. Aaron Pribble, twenty-seven, had been out of Minor League Baseball for three years while he pursued a career in education when, at his coach’s suggestion, he tried out for the newly formed Israel Baseball League (IBL). Of Jewish descent (not a requirement, but definitely a plus) and former pro, Pribble was the ideal candidate for the upstart league. In many ways the league resembled the ultimate baseball fantasy camp with its unforgettable cast of characters: the DJ/street artist third baseman from the Bronx, the wildman catcher from Australia, the journeymen Dominicans who were much older than they claimed to be, and, of course, seventy-one-year-old Sandy Koufax, drafted in a symbolic gesture as the last player. After falling in love with a beautiful Yemenite Jew, enduring an alleged terrorist attack on opening day, witnessing a career-ending brain injury caused by improper field equipment, participating in a strike, and venturing into the West Bank despite being strongly advised against it, Pribble must decide whether to forgo a teaching career in order to become the first player from the IBL to sign a pro contract in the United States. His is a story of coming of age spiritually and athletically in one short season in the throes of romance, Middle Eastern politics, and the dreams of America’s pastime far, far afield from home." - Amazon.

Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales: A Knitter's Stash of Wit and Wisdom, edited by Kari Cornell. Voyageur Press, 2005. Kindle edition 2011. Print Length: 224 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.89; Hardcover $7.18. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"...brings to life the unique and universal experiences of knitters from a variety of backgrounds. This exceptional collection combines lighthearted essays with more philosophical pieces from authors and experts such as Meg Swansen, Perri Klass, Lily Chin, Teva Durham, Lela Nargi, Susan Gordon Lydon, Suzyn Jackson, Amy Singer, Greta Cunningham, Laura Billings, Kay Dorn, Betty Christiansen, and Jennifer Hansen, who put down their needles long enough to share their thoughts and musings about the popular pastime. In these entertaining yarns, the authors provide insight into the warmth and enjoyment of knitting and crocheting. Join one writer as she shares a poignant Sunday afternoon in March shearing sheep with her father; travel to Sant ’Arsenio, Italy, where women gather on their door steps to knit, crochet, embroider, and chat; laugh at one woman’s memories of learning to knit in an uncomfortable classroom chair beside a World War II vet named Max; and smile at the essays that delve into the psyche of the knitter. " - Amazon.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.



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