Food
Beyond the Great Wall by Jeffrey Alford
Like their previous books, Hot, Salty, Sour, Sweet and Mangoes and Curry Leaves, this volume from Alford and Duguid is a sumptuous combination of spectacular photography and exotic flavors. This time, their recipes and travels introduce us to China's far-flung regional cuisines.
Summer Cooking by Elizabeth David
This still vivid 1955 classic by one of the English tongue's tastiest food writers presents the art of preparing seasonal meals with a minimum of fuss.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
The novelist and her family moved from Tucson to a farm in Virginia and resolved to eat only home-grown and locally produced food. Here she explains how and why. New in paperback.
Fiction
Dictation by Cynthia Ozick
Mischievous wit and characteristic eloquence in four tales.
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Erdrich's first novel in three years.
Wild Nights! by Joyce Carol Oates
Six American writers -- Poe, Dickinson, Twain, Hemingway, and Henry James -- do not go gently in this unsettling collection of stories about their last days.
Animal's People by Indra Sinha
A crippled narrator's extraordinary language animates this tale of a Bhopal-like industrial disaster.
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Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
The acclaimed author of The Left Hand of Darkness re-imagines Vergil's Aeneid and takes on the theme of warfare in this concentrated and vivid novel.
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Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed
A novel from a Saudi Arabian author who has earned comparisons to Gabriel García Márquez and Haruki Murakami.
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Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Interpreter of Maladies returns with a new collection of stories.
The Drop Edge of Yonder by Rudolph Wurlitzer
The cult author beloved by Pynchon, DeLillo, Dylan and more delivers his fifth and most satisfying novel to date.
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History
Setting the Desert on Fire by James Barr
T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918.
Alexander the Great by Richard Stoneman
The afterlife of Alexander, in myth and legend.
Romance
Devil Who Tamed Her by Johanna Lindsey
In this sexy Regency-era version of Taming of the Shrew, a rakish viscount bets he can tame a ruthless, gossiping beauty, only to find the tables turned.
The Loner by Geralyn Dawson
A hardened Texas gunman meets a bewitching girl who won't let him growl out his answers, tip his hat, and ride away.
International Affairs
Terror and Consent by Philip Bobbitt
The author of The Shield of Achilles confronts the myths and realities of the struggle to defeat terrorism.
AK-47 by Michael Hodges
The global age demands a global weapon. And as journalist Michael Hodges makes all too clear in this explosive chronicle, the weapon of choice from South Central Los Angeles to Baghdad is the AK-47.
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
A feminist critique of Islam delivered by the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats for collaborating on a film with Theo Gogh (who was himself assassinated).
Science
Great Laws of Science and the Minds Behind them by Clifford Pickover
Pickover explicates some of the greatest laws of science -- from Archimedes Law of Buoyancy to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and beyond -- and provides quirky, often surprising biographies of the people who discovered them.
Bonk by Mary Roach
The science writer who enlivened cadavers (Stiff) and the afterlife (Spook) now turns her focus to the history of sex research. From Alfred Kinsey to ancient Greece, from brothels to pig farms, Roach seeks out the quirky and queries her subject with intelligence and humor.
Microcosm by Carl Zimmer
A natural history of the world's oldest bacteria.
Going East
Turtle Feet by Nikolai Grozni
In this colorful, often funny spiritual odyssey, a jazz pianist ditches Boston for the Himalayas to become a Buddhist monk -- but not for long.
In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce
From the former Financial Times South Asia bureau chief, a portrait of modern India, a country poised between modernity and tradition, and the world's largest democracy.
Kids
After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson
Woodson presents the delicate unfolding of a friendship in this slim, subtle novel of three-eleven-year old girls who identify strongly with the music of Tupac Shakur. 10+
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! by Mo Willems
Of course he does! Our irrepressible tantrum-throwing blue-banded friend is back and begging for a dog in another home run from the master of childhood yearnings. 3+
Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman
This slim yet fresh prequel to Pullman's His Dark Materials series chronicles the early friendship and adventures of the cowboy aerialist Lee Scoresby and the irritable armored bear Iorek Byrnison.
Memoir
Greetings from Bury Park by Sarfraz Manzoor
In this rollicking cross-cultural memoir, an ex-pat Pakistani living in 1970s London finds solace in the music of Bruce Springsteen.
In the World but Not of It by Brett Grainger
A former NPR producer and Sojourners editor explores American fundamentalism through his family's history and his work at Harvard Divinity School.
Beyond Category
Tintin and the Secret of Literature by Tom McCarthy
Using Balzac, Barthes, Bataille, Derrida, and ordinary readers, McCarthy argues for Tin Tin's place in the pantheon of greatness.
American Photobooth by Nakki Goranin
The history of the photobooth is wonderfully examined, with hundreds of photobooth strips -- anonymous found images that, Paul DiFilippo writes, "offer candid and intimate revelations into the lives of the portrait sitters, evoking entire eras."
A Summer of Hummingbirds by Christopher Benfey
Just what the subtitle promises: "Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade."
Mystery and Suspense
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
A true tale of a Victorian murder -- and the birth of the detective story.
Instant Enemy by Ross MacDonald
Played by Paul Newman in two mediocre Hollywood adaptations, Ross MacDonald's PI Lew Archer was much more alluring on the printed page. Sample one of Archer's finest cases in this welcome reprint.
The Locktender's House by Steven Sherrill
After her soldier boyfriend dies, a young woman goes on a road trip that ends at a ramshackle Pennsylvania farmhouse adjacent to canals haunted by gruesome history.
Film
Magic Of MeliesDirected by George Melies
A collection of 15 films (plus a documentary) from the cinema's pioneering visionary genius, Georges Méliès (1861-1938).
Delirious Fictions of William Klein (3pc) / (Ws)Directed by William Klein
Three films from a Sixties American expatriate in Paris.
Music
Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus
Glimmering pop gems from indie rock royalty -- the third solo collection from the ex-Pavement frontman is also the first to feature new Jick Janet Weiss, of the late, lamented Sleater Kinney.
Judith Weir: The Welcome Arrival of Rain by
Wit, learning, curiosity, irony, ingenuity, amusement -- all emanate palpably, dressed in a striking aural loveliness, in these orchestral and vocal scores by the contemporary Scottish composer Weir.
![CD Cover Image. Title: Tapestry [Legacy Edition], Artist: Carole King](http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/26860000/26861096.gif)
Tapestry [Legacy Edition] by Carole King
A double-disc reissue of the classic 1971 recording that tunefully merged confessional, feminist, and psychological ruminations.
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Travel
Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? by Thomas B. Kohnstamm
Wayward stewardesses, drug dealers, and the lead singer of the Danish grunge band Synthetic Jesus are just a few of the characters encountered by a former Wall Streeter who ditches his job to update the Lonely Planet guide to Brazil.
A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel by Annie Griffiths Belt
Hilarious anecdotes and glorious photographs of three decades of travel -- much of it accompanied by her children -- from one of National Geographic's first female photographers.
God's Middle Finger by Richard Grant
British journalist Grant takes a hair-raising journey into Mexico's Sierra Madre, birthplace of Pancho Villa, inspiration for the American western, and current drug-producing capital.
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Libros en español
El juego del ángel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Ruiz Zafón inicia la saga de
La sombra del viento con esta historia en la Barcelona de los años 20.
Un día de cólera by Arturo Perez-Reverte
El autor de El club Dumas y las aventuras del Capitán Alatriste cuenta la historia de la batalla entre España y Francia por Madrid el 2 de mayo de 1808.
Diccionario de uso del español by María Moliner
El diccionario favorito de García Márquez, estupendo en su ingenio, su claridad y sus ejemplos iluminadores.
Modern Motherhood
The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer
A quartet of New York women who have "opted-out" of their careers to raise their children struggle with identity, finances, and marriage in the most recent novel from the writer our reviewer, Kera Bolonik, calls "the fiction laureate of feminist social politics."
Notes on a Life by Eleanor Coppola
The wife of one director (Francis) and mother of two more (Sofia, Roman), Coppola provides a fascinating account of her own accomplished life in a famous family.
Opting In by Amy Richards
Richards wades into the "Mommy Wars" and attempts to sort out the hate from the hype, using memoir, reporting, and analysis of feminist history.
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
A posthumous volume of previously uncollected pieces.
Literature from the ''Axis of Evil'' by Alane Mason
Thirty-five contemporary works of fiction and poetry from Iran, Iraq, South Korea, and other countries.