Current Reads (fiction & nonfiction)

Cokie Roberts's number one New York Times bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values." Her second bestseller, From This Day Forward, written with her husband, Steve Roberts, described American marriages throughout history, including the romance of John and Abigail Adams. Now Roberts returns with Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families -- and their country -- proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. While much has been written about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution, the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters they left behind have been little noticed by history. Roberts brings us the women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, often defending their very doorsteps. While the men went off to war or to Congress, the women managed their businesses, raised their children, provided them with political advice, and made it possible for the men to do what they did. The behind-the-scenes influence of these women -- and their sometimes very public activities -- was intelligent and pervasive. Drawing upon personal correspondence, private journals, and even favored recipes, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington -- proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might never have survived. Social history at its best, Founding Mothers unveils the drive, determination, creative insight, and passion of the other patriots, the women who raised our nation. Roberts proves beyond a doubt that like every generation of American women that has followed, the founding mothers used the unique gifts of their gender -- courage, pluck, sadness, joy, energy, grace, sensitivity, and humor -- to do what women do best, put one foot in front of the other in remarkable circumstances and carry on. ...

Here is the ultimate insider's account from the highest and most sensitive levels of the Clinton administration, revealing how the irresponsible use of power can lead to a terrible price paid by all Americans. ...

In the tradition of "The Wise Men" comes the first group portrait of the inner circle of George W. Bush's team--Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Armitage, Rice, and Wolfowitz. ...

Aristocracy, fortune, and the politics of deceit in the House of Bush are the topics discussed in this book. ...

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Richard Clarke has been one of America's foremost experts on counterterrorism measures for more than two decades. Here he tells the disturbing truth about the war on terror. ...

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The name’s John Taylor. I work the garish streets of the Nightside—the hidden heart of London where it’s always three A.M., where in human creatures and otherworldly gods walk side by side in the endless darkness of the soul. I have a talent for finding things. People…property…no problem. But now I’m after something different. A local diva called the Nightingale has cut herself off from her family and friends, and I’ve been hired to find out the reason. I’m also wondering why her suicide—prone fans think she has a voice to die for. Literally. To get the truth, I’ll have to lend an ear to the most enticingly beautiful and deadly voice in all of the Nightside—and survive. ...

President Bill Clinton’s My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public. It shows us the progress of a remarkable American, who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House—a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process which manifested itself at every stage of his life: in college, working as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; at Oxford, becoming part of the Vietnam War protest movement; at Yale Law School, campaigning on the grassroots level for Democratic candidates; back in Arkansas, running for Congress, attorney general, and governor. We see his career shaped by his resolute determination to improve the life of his fellow citizens, an unfaltering commitment to civil rights, and an exceptional understanding of the practicalities of political life. We come to understand the emotional pressures of his youth—born after his father’s death; caught in the dysfunctional relationship between his feisty, nurturing mother and his abusive stepfather, whom he never ceased to love and whose name he took; drawn to the brilliant, compelling Hillary Rodham, whom he was determined to marry; passionately devoted, from her infancy, to their daughter, Chelsea, and to the entire experience of fatherhood; slowly and painfully beginning to comprehend how his early denial of pain led him at times into damaging patterns of behavior. President Clinton’s book is also the fullest, most concretely detailed, most nuanced account of a presidency ever written—encompassing not only the high points and crises but the way the presidency actually works: the day-to-day bombardment of problems, personalities, conflicts, setbacks, achievements. It is a testament to the positive impact on America and on the world of his work and his ideals. It is the gripping account of a president under concerted and unrelenting assault orchestrated by his enemies on the Far Right, and how he survived and prevailed. It is a treasury of moments caught alive, among them: • The ten-year-old boy watching the national political conventions on his family’s new (and first) television set. • The young candidate looking for votes in the Arkansas hills and the local seer who tells him, “Anybody who would campaign at a beer joint in Joiner at midnight on Saturday night deserves to carry one box. . . . You’ll win here. But it’ll be the only damn place you win in this county.” (He was right on both counts.) • The roller-coaster ride of the 1992 campaign. • The extraordinarily frank exchanges with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole. • The delicate manipulation needed to convince Rabin and Arafat to shake hands for the camera while keeping Arafat from kissing Rabin. • The cost, both public and private, of the scandal that threatened the presidency. Here is the life of a great national and international figure, revealed with all his talents and contradictions, told openly, directly, in his own completely recognizable voice. A unique book by a unique American. ...

The most famous and controversial novel from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century tells the story of Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. “The conjunction of a sense of humor with a sense of horror [results in] satire of a very special kind.”—The New Yorker One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Awe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsession for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation. ...

This "New York Times" bestselling plan is helping millions lose weight, cleanse their bodies, and lead healthier lives by eating foods that flush away fat while building vitality and strength. ...

Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart -- and an ordinary life that is changed forever on a day he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed existed -- a dark subculture flourish in abandoned subway stations and sewer tunnels below the city -- a world far stranger and more dangerous than the only one he has ever known...Richard Mayhew is a young businessman with a good heart and a dull job. When he stops one day to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk, his life is forever altered, for he finds himself propelled into an alternate reality that exists in a subterranean labyrinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations below the city. He has fallen through the cracks of reality and has landed somewhere different, somewhere that is Neverwhere. ...

The former Speaker of the House's re-imagination of the Civil War continues in this sequel to the "New York Times" bestselling "Gettysburg." ...

Frankel is a recognized expert in the fields of workplace behavior and female empowerment, and the president of Corporate Coaching International. She shows that half of the American workforce is made up of women, and they still earn 76.5 cents to every dollar earned by men. ...

Sure to be one of the signature books of the century, this is a tapestry both intimate and panoramic, personal and public, and a rich memoir of a powerful woman. Two 16-page photo inserts. ...

Tracing the disgraceful history of appeasement from the days of Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter to the unrepentant leftists of the modern Democratic Party, Hannity reminds us of the menace of widespread attitudes of accommodation, and he pays tribute to the great leaders who have defended our country with strength, moral clarity, and courage. ...

From one of the world's leading physicists comes a grand tour of the universe that makes readers look at space, time, and the texture of reality in a completely different way. 146 illustrations. ...

Take your real estate career to the highest level! "Whether you are just getting started or a veteran in the business, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent is the step-by-step handbook for seeking excellence in your profession and in your life." --Mark Victor Hansen, cocreator, #1 New York Times bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul "This book presents a new paradigm for real estate and should be required reading for real estate professionals everywhere." --Robert T. Kiyosaki, New York Times bestselling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad The Millionaire Real Estate Agent explains: Three concepts that drive production Economic, organizational, and lead generation models that are the foundations of any high-achiever's business How to "Earn a Million," "Net a Million," and "Receive a Million" in annual income ...

Why not live at 60 feeling like you did at 35? Thousands of Americans are younger today than they were five years ago. How is that possible? By following the specific recommendations that reverse aging in Dr. Michael Roizen's bestselling book RealAge®: Are You As Young As You Can Be?, people who were previously much older than their chronological age have now taken up to twentynine years off their biological ages. Since that first publication, more than 10 million people have taken the RealAge® test in one form or another, and thousands of people have thanked Dr. Roizen for helping them make simple changes in their lives -- changes that have made them healthier, younger, and more vibrant. In the last several years, Dr. Roizen and his team have learned much more about the aging process. The RealAge® Makeover makes sense of recent critical medical findings -- mportant new research on inflammation in your arteries, stress reduction, chronic disease management, hormone replacement therapy, and other choices you can make to keep aging at a distance. You’ll also find the latest on vitamins and other supplements, which are age-reducing, which are aging, and which ones to avoid if you are taking certain medications. Roizen then offers more than seventy ways to reduce or even prevent 80 percent of the diseases that make you feel older. For example, coffee or the right kind of chocolate in moderate amounts can help reduce inflammation, preserving your arteries, joints, and memory. But the wrong choice can lead to needless aging and loss of energy, such as taking too much Vitamin A. And The RealAge® Makeover tells you how much (in years) each choice is worth so you can make the choices that are meaningful to you. More potent than any statistic or finding are the personal stories interwoven throughout -- success stories from readers who followed the RealAge program, became biologically younger, and are living happier, healthier lives. With this book, readers have more opportunity than ever to turn back their biological clock to look, feel, and actually be many years younger. Join the RealAge® Revolution and give yourself a RealAge® Makeover! ...

Provides an inspirational portrait of legendary golf caddy Bruce Edwards, who has been a caddy for Tom Watson since 1973, as he continues the job he loves despite the growing physical limitations of Lou Gehrig's disease. ...

In these tales of love by some of romance's brightest writers, four couples put on their blue suede shoes and learn they don't need a Hawaiian vacation to find paradise. Whether they're in Las Vegas or Pennsylvania, passion will blossom where they least expect it--especially with a little help from Elvis himself. ...

Minnesota detective Lucas Davenport uncovers links to a Communist spy network in Duluth after a Russian man is found there, shot dead with fifty-four-year-old bullets. ...

A generational memoir of the American suburbs, Pull Me Up is a deeply affecting book. With prose that to Frank McCourt "flashes with poetry," New York Times columnist Dan Barry tells the story of an unforgettable American family. He writes so crisply that we not only feel his emotions but also recall our own: the joy of Little League, the thrill of small-town reporting, the pain of losing a parent, and the fear of facing a life-threatening illness. Barry's writing has its own stalwart beauty, a single melody teased out of the American symphony. Here is the voice of an authentic American writer. ...