Weekend Top 5: Best Non-Fiction Ever

This week we asked Jane to choose her all-time favorite non-fiction books.

1. River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard

"I have recommended this book hundreds of times... No one has not enjoyed it! Very gripping."
—Jane

River of Doubt was a runaway bestseller the Christmas after its release, but its appeal is still fresh.

After Teddy Roosevelt lost out to Woodrow Wilson, he set out on an expedition in South America, traveling up an uncharted portion of the Amazon river, known as the "River of Doubt."

2. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

1491 reveals "the Americas before the arrival of the white man," Jane tells us. "It's about the complex and really quite sophisticated civilizations that were here."

3. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

"The original and most interesting book on the subject,"
—Jane

This book captivated at least half of our staff when it came out, and it's still the perfect starting point for anyone who wants to know more about nutrition or the movement towards organic foods.

"A very interesting book about what we eat and how it's grown," says Jane, summing the matter up just perfectly.

4. Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich

"Little tree frogs freeze solid!"

Bernd Heinrich, a naturalist from Vermont, writes his observations about the world around him.

"The heart of the book is how an animal survives the winter in Vermont—they've all developed very complicated, almost magical, systems for dealing with freezing temperatures and very short days," says Jane, following with a highly intriguing factoid she learned from Winter World: "Little tree frogs freeze solid!"

How can you not need to know more about that?

P.S. If you're not quite in the mood for contemplating a harsh winter, fear not—Bernd Heinrich recently released a sequel to Winter World, this time exploring how animals live during the summer. Summer World: A Season of Bounty promises to be just as fascinating, if slighly less chilly.

5. Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World by Jack Weatherford

Indian Givers, though it was released in 1989, remains an interesting and relevant read about how much the new world influenced and benefited the rest of the globe.

Jane enjoyed learning about the vital, often-unsung gifts the Americas have given to other cultures, for instance, "sunflowers are the only oil crop that grows in Russia."

Friday Top 5: Must-Read New Novels

When it came time to go in search of this week's Friday Top 5, we knew immediately that we must seek out Kathryn & Kerry in order to discover which of the endless number of new novels are actually good.

Here, then, are the five new novels you really ought to read as soon as possible.

1. The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton

...fans of Morton's earlier novel, The House at Riverton or Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale will love The Forgotten Garden

Kate Morton is a young Australian author who writes so beautifully that we've been known to fight over who gets to choose her books on our monthly employee picks lists.

In The Forgotten Garden, a woman discovers that her beloved grandmother had a secret past—as a child, she was found abandoned on a ship from England to Australia, with no memory of her past and only a suitcase and a book of illustrated fairy tales to hint at her origins.

We won't spoil the book by telling you more, but we will say that fans of Morton's earlier novel, The House at Riverton or Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale will love The Forgotten Garden.

2. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

The Help is a book about a book, which we always like.

In 1969 Mississippi, a young white woman decides to write—anonymously—about the world of maids & other house help. She collects true stories about the unfair treatment and complicated lives of seventeen black maids, and becomes convinced to become a social activist.

3. Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

A wonderful saga!

In Ethiopia, a nun dies giving birth to twins, and their alleged father disappears. The orphaned boys are left to be raised by doctors at the hospital where their mother worked and died.

"A wonderful saga!" says Kerry, who also told us the novel contains plenty of intrigue and scandal.

4. Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

From the author of Shadow of the Wind, this is another novel that takes place in Barcelona against the backdrop of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

Also available on compact disc.

5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

We had to put this charming book at the bottom of this list simply because we recommend it so often—we do try to be fair.

In the interest of not going on for pages and pages about the merits of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, we will just tell you it's new in paperback, we hope you'll read it as soon as possible.

Friday Top 5: Young Adult Fiction

Our children's department (located in what used to be the shop next door to Chaucer's) has its own dedicated staff: Lana, Blanca, Rose, and sometimes Jordan and Summers.

When you spend so much time around books for young people, you can't help but become a bit of an expert...

This week, Lana, our teen & young adult literature expert, has listed the very best of the new teen fiction for us.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group
by Catherine Jinks

Think vampires are romantic, sexy, and powerful? Vampires are dead. And unless they want to end up staked, they must stop fanging people, admit their addiction, and join a support group.

A refreshing, funny antidote to the guilty pleasure of intense, doomed romance-y, vampire-themed bestsellers.

If I Stay,
by Gayle Forman

A poignant story about a girl who, after an accident puts her into a coma, spends the down-time reliving the past few days in light of her difficult relationships with her parents and little brother. Soon, the important question becomes clear: will she stay and fight to recover her will to live, or should she let go and slip away?
"Pulls your heart-strings," says Lana.

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

We get a lot of people asking us what they should read when they're finished with the Twilight Saga... The Hunger Games is absolutely the right book

Suzanne Collins says the idea for this book is based on the Greek myth of the Minotaur, and the children who were shut inside the labyrinth to feed the monster each year.

Katniss Everdeen is forced to compete against a group of teenagers in a nationally-televised reality show with a twist. In the Hunger Games, contestants aren't voted off the show—they have to fight to win, and only one of them will survive the competition.

Stephenie Meyer (author of Twilight) couldn't put this book down, and neither could we. We get a lot of people asking us what they should read when they've finished the Twilight Saga—they want another addictive, compelling novel to get lost in. Well, if that sounds like you, then The Hunger Games is absolutely the right book for you.

Suzanne Collins hasn't written for teens before The Hunger Games, but her Underland Series is a favorite of the chapter-book set. First book in that series: Gregor the Overlander.

We should also mention—possibly because we've been taking turns staying up far too late to finish the advance reader copy, but we'll deny it if asked—that the sequel to The Hunger Games is due out in September. It's called Catching Fire, and it's every bit as good as the first book.

Hero
by Perry Moore

Life as a superhero is not always easy, especially when you're gay, your father's a has-been, and you haven't even found out what your super-strength is yet.
Lana chose this book, in part, because of its focus on father-son issues.

Killer Pizza,
by Greg Taylor

Mystic Pizza + Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Maybe, but Lana says this is a great book for teen boys (and we know it can be difficult to find just the right book for young men, especially if they're neither Lord of the Rings types nor into gritty modern novels), so we're ignoring the amusing title.

Saturday Top 5 from the Mystery Ladies

Here in the store, we each have pet sections to keep up, so each of us becomes an expert in some particular genre.

We all know, for instance, that mystery fans should always be referred to Barbara or Marenda for recommendations—thus, we've dubbed them The Mystery Ladies, and asked them to come up with a list of their favorite new additions to the mystery & suspense aisles.

Top 5 New Mystery & Suspense Novels

Grave Goods, by Ariana Franklin.

Ariana Franklin's third book in the Mistress of the Art of Death series takes us to medieval England. Very gothic, with a great sleuth: Adelia Aguilar, who acts as the 12th-century version of a forensics expert.

First in this series was Mistress of the Art of Death, followed by The Serpent's Tale.

The Bellini Card, by Jason Goodwin.

Another third-in-a-series mystery, The Bellini Card follows the progress of Yashim from the Edgar-winning The Janissary Tree. Set in 1840s Istanbul, this mystery centers upon an art theft.

Aside from The Janissary Tree, Yashim also appears in the second book in this series, The Snake Stone.

Last Child, by John Hart.

This time, Marenda recommends a modern-day mystery, set in North Carolina.

By the same author: Down River (another Edgar winner), and The King of Lies.

The Memory Collector, by Meg Gardiner.

Barbara loves Meg Gardiner, but claims it has nothing to do with Ms. Gardiner hailing from Santa Barbara.

Another of Barb's favorite Meg Gardiner mysteries is The Dirty Secrets Club; for more titles by Meg Gardiner, click here.

Awakening, by S. J. Bolton.

From the cover description:

Clara Benning, a veterinary surgeon in charge of a wildlife hospital in a small English village, is young and intelligent, but nearly a recluse. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she generally prefers the company of animals to people. But when a local man dies following a supposed snakebite, Clara's expertise is needed. She's chilled to learn that the victim's postmortem shows a higher concentration of venom than could ever be found in a single snake—and that therefore the killer must be human.

Of S. J. Bolton, Barb says, "British author. Absolutely wonderful."

From Barb, this is high praise. Honestly.
More from S. J. Bolton here.