Mumia Abu-Jamal
Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA (City Lights)
Award-winning journalist and death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal presents the stories and reflections of fellow prisoners-turned-advocates who have learned to use the court system to represent other prisoners, many uneducated or illiterate, and, in some cases, to win their freedom. In Abu-Jamal’s words, "This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion-dollar endowed universities [but] in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the dank dungeons of America."

Martha Ackmann
Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League (Lawrence Hill)
The captivating story of Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional baseball on men’s teams. After black players began to move to the major leagues, Stone seized an unprecedented opportunity to play professional baseball in the Negro League. She replaced Hank Aaron as the star infielder for the Indianapolis Clowns and later signed with the legendary Kansas City Monarchs. Playing alongside some of the premier athletes of all time including Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Buck O’Neil, and Satchel Paige, Toni faced down not only fastballs, but jeers, sabotage, and Jim Crow America as well.

John Atlas
Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group (Vanderbilt)
A gripping look at ACORN's four decades of effective organizing, before it was destroyed by right wing attacks.

Gail Brandeis
My Life with the Lincolns (Holt Books for Young Readers)
A delightful novel about a twelve-year old girl who becomes convinced that her family is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln's, and tries to keep her father safe as he involves her in the Chicago Freedom Movement, marches with Dr. King and tries to bring integration to the suburbs all while evading her flighty mother and dealing with her obnoxious sisters.

Edwin Burrows
Forgotten Patriots (Basic)
The untold story of the British abuse of American POW's in New York during the Revolutionary War, by the co-author of Gotham.

Mollie Caldwell Crosby
Asleep: The Epidemic That Became Medicine's Greatest Mystery (Berkley)
The forgotten story of encephalitis lethargica or "sleeping sickness," an epidemic that plagued New York City during the 1920's, affecting 5 million people worldwide, in which victims fell into a deep sleep, many dying, but thousands more surviving, their minds permanently damaged and spending the rest of their lives in mental asylums.

Pratap Chatterjee
Halliburton's Army (Nation Books)
The inside story of the oil company that took America to war.

Staceyann Chin
The Other Side of Paradise (Scribner)
The celebrated performance poet's memoir of growing up in Jamaica. "The is A Portrait of the Artist written for our age"--Walter Mosley.

Philip Clark and David Groff
Persistent Voices (Alyson)
An anthology of poets lost to AIDS, from Reinaldo Arenas, Tory Dent, and James Merrill to Paul Monette, Essex Hemphill, and Joe Brainard.

Cliff Conner
A People's History of Science (Nation Books)
A revolutionary account of how science was developed by ordinary people, rather than a few geniuses.

John D'Agata
The Lost Origins of the Essay (Graywolf)
An exploration of the roots of the essay form, from ancient Mesopotamia to classical Greece and Rome, from fifth-century Japan to nineteenth-century France, and beyond. With seminal works by Heraclitus, Sei Sho-nagon, Michel de Montaigne, Jonathan Swift, Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, Octavio Paz, and many more.

Alix Dobkin
My Red Blood (Alyson)
One of the groundbreaking icons in women's music recalls the bohemian folk years of Greenwich Village, the radical left culture that shaped her life and music, and the feminism that changed it.

Martin Duberman
The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein (Knopf)
A life of the great impresario and driving force in American modernism.

Elana Dykewoman
Risk (Bywater)
A beautifully told novel chronicling life and politics from the 80's through the post 9/11 era. Carol is an idealistic, Berkeley-educated, Jewish lesbian living in Oakland, California. Through Carol’s life, Dykewomon explores the changing times and values in America.

Hester Eisenstein
Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women's Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World (Paradigm)
A pioneering reinterpretation of the role of mainstream feminism, and the ways it has been coopted by global capitalism.

Martin Espada
The Trouble Ball (W.W. Norton)
The newest collection of poems by "the Pable Neruda of North American authors" (Sandra Cisneros).

Brian Evenson
Fugue State (Coffee House)
Hallucinatory and darkly comic stories of paranoia, pursuit, sensory deprivation, amnesia, and retribution. "Brian Evenson is one of the treasures of American story writing, a true successor both to the generation of Coover, Barthelme, Hawkes and Co., but also to Edgar Allan Poe." Jonathan Lethem

Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Writers on Twain (Library of America)
A collection of writings on Twain and his continuing influence on international literature.

Susanne Freidberg
Fresh: A Perishable History (Harvard)
A history of the global trade in fresh foods, and how it has transformed our diet and our ideas of what food is and should be.

Joan Friedman
Emotionally Healthy Twins (Da Capo Lifelong)
The seven simple concepts to raising twins as emotionally healthy individuals even while encouraging them to cherish their special sibling relationship.

Barry Golson
Retirement Without Borders (Scribner)
Barry Golson and his wife Thia explore all the ways in which retiring abroad is becoming a viable alternative to Sun City and Florida, giving advice, locations, and practical tips for resettling.

Juan Gonzalez and Joseph Torres
News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race in the American Media (Verso)
A new, sweeping history of the American news media that puts race at the center of the story, from the earliest colonial newspapers, to the rise of the internet age.

Aram Goudsouzian
King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (University of California)
A look at Bill Russell, one of the greatest winners in sports, and how black players surged into professional basketball, how athletes responded to the civil rights movement, and how basketball became "big-time" in the pantheon of American sports.

Deborah Harkness
The Jewel House: Science in Elizabethan London (Yale)
A fascinating exploration of science in bustling, raucous Elizabethan London.

Deborah Harkness
A Discovery of Witches (Viking)
A tale of science and magic in which a long-lost alchemical manuscript is discovered at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, leading to romance between a 1,500 year old vampire and a witch in denial of her powers. First of a trilogy; New York Times bestseller; rights sold in 34 countries to date.

Jennifer Heath
The Veil: Women Writers on its History, Lore and Politics (University of California)
An anthology of essays by internationally prominent women scholars and authors, the first to deal with the culture and politics of the veil in Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Ross Horsley
My First Dictionary (It Books/HarperCollins)
A wicked children's primer for adults, consisting of sunny children's book illustrations from the past paired with the author's irreverent and sometimes twisted definitions, based on the blog of the same name.

Dale Hrabi
The Perfect Baby Handbook: A Guide for the Excessively Motivated New Parent (HarperCollins)
Former editor-in-chief of Blender and Radar editor Dale Hrabi's mock child-rearing manual -- a hilarious illustrated guide in the tradition of The Official Preppy Handbook.

Michael Hudson
The Monster (Times Books)
The true history of subprime lending, from its roots in Southern California boiler rooms, to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, by a journalist who has been one of the primary chroniclers of predatory lending.

Fred Jerome
Einstein on Israel (St. Martin's)
Einstein's little-known writings on Israel and Palestine, in support of a single state for Arabs and Jews, compiled and annotated by the author of The Einstein File.

Harriet McBryde Johnson
Accidents of Nature (Holt Books for Young Readers)
This stirring book tells the story of Jean, a 17-year-old with cerebral palsy, who attends a camp for the disabled, where all her assumptions are turned upside down.

Ann Jones
War Is Not Over When It's Over (Metropolitan/Holt)
The true costs of war, on women and communities.

James Kugel
In the Valley of the Shadow (Free Press)
The Harvard biblical scholar and author of HOW TO READ THE BIBLE chronicles his two years on an experimental treatment plan for cancer, exploring what happens when someone is told he will likely die soon, and how this connects to an innate sense of human "smallness" that lies at the heart of all religions.

Anna Lappe
Diet for a Hot Planet (Bloomsbury)
The misunderstood link between the world food system and climate change, by a rising star advocate of sustainable living.

Camilo Mejia
The Road from Ar Ramadi (New Press)
The memoir of a soldier in Iraq who refused to go back, and now speaks out against the war.

Stephanie Mencimer
Blocking the Courthouse Door (Free Press)
How corporations and right-wing politicians are taking away your right to sue, and getting away with murder.

Rutu Modan
Jamilti and Other Stories (Drawn & Quarterly)
A collection of stories, by the author of the acclaimed graphic novel Exit Wounds.

Michael McMullen
I, Superhero (Citadel)
The author fights crime with an array of Real-Life Superheroes (real-world men and women who dress and act like comic book superheroes), from Mexico City's "Superbarrio Gomez", to Minnesota's "Geist", and the UK's "Angle-Grinder Man".

Arthur Neslen
In Your Eyes a Sandstorm (California)
A portrait of the Palestinians, through eye-opening interviews with a wide cross-section of Palestinian people.

Heather O'Neill
Lullabies for Little Criminals (HarperPerennial)
Baby is 12-going-on-20, growing up on the streets in Montreal; a luminous debut novel, winner of the Canada Reads competition for 2007.

Carla Peterson
Black Gotham (Yale)
A history of African-American life in New York in the 19th century, through the lens of the author's own family, prominent members of the black gentry.

Frances Fox Piven
Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven: The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate (New Press)
The latest collection by one of America's foremost poets, a ringing call for action in troubled times.

Adrienne Rich
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve (Norton)
A concise, accessible introduction to the work of the ground-breaking sociologist, from her early work on welfare rights and poor people’s movements, written with her late husband Richard Cloward, through her influential examination of American voting habits, and her most recent work on the possibilities for a new movement for progressive reform. A major corrective to right-wing bombast, this essential book is also a rich source of ideas and inspiration for anyone interested in progressive change.

Mark Scroggins
The Poem of a Life: A Biography of Louis Zukofsky (Shoemaker & Hoard)
A life of the singular Louis Zukofsky, a poet whose work spanned the divide from modernism to postmodernism.

John Siceloff and Jason Maloney
Your America (Palgrave)
From the producers of the PBS series NOW with David Brancaccio: profiles of local activists who are taking bold intiatives to change their communities.

Seth Tobocman, Eric Laursen, and Jessica Wehrle
Understanding the Crash (Soft Skull)
A radical primer on the Great Financial Meltdown of 2008, in stunning, pictorial form.

Brad Tuttle
How Newark Became Newark: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American City (Rutgers)
A lively history of the embattled city, from its foundings to its present revivial.

Siva Vaidhyanathan
The Googlization of Everything (University of California)
How Google is transforming modern culture, commerce and communication...not necessarily for the better.

Jay Wexler
Holy Hullabaloos (Beacon)
Boston University Law School professor and humor writer Jay Wexler's slightly skewed tour of First Amendment battle sites, where some of the most important struggles over free speech, press, religion, and assembly have taken place.

Steve Wilson
The Boys from Little Mexico (Beacon)
A stirring account of a season spent with the talented Woodburn Bulldogs, a mostly Hispanic high school soccer team in Oregon, as they go for an ever elusive state championship against wealthier suburban teams, looking at what holds them back on and off the field.


Martha Ackmann
Vesuvius at Home: Ten Days in the Life, Loves and Mystery of Emily Dickinson (Smithsonian)
A narrative exploration of the forces that shaped the author as a poet, seen through the prism of ten pivotal days, including her struggles with God, secret anguish, and passionate love.

Jeff Biggers
A State Out of the Union (Nation Books)
An examination of the political and social currents and outlandish personalities roiling Arizona today, especially regarding its stance on immigration, placed within the context of other anti-immigration movements in American history, and the prospects for long-term damage to the idea of America as a haven for those seeking a better life.

Aaron Bobrow-Strain
White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf (Beacon)
The story of how supermarket white bread went from modern marvel to white trash and how, in an age of being told "what to eat," our fears and aspirations still govern what actually makes it into our mouths.

Susan Bordo
The Anne Boleyn Diet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The English queen as proto-feminist heroine.

Dorothy Cotton
If Your Back's Not Bent: The Civil Rights Movement, from Victim to Victory (Atria)
A memoir and stirring call to action by the only woman member of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s inner circle, who headed up the Citizenship Education Program which trained activists like Rosa Parks in nonviolent action.

Molly Caldwell Crosby
The Great Pearl Heist: The Story of Scotland Yard, London's Greatest Jewel Thief, and the Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Necklace (Berkley)
The true story of a daring jewel thief at the close of Edwardian era, and the veteran detective whose methods not only brought him to justice but helped bring the modern Scotland Yard into being.

John D'Agata and Jim Fingal
Lifespan of a Fact (W.W. Norton)
This volume will reproduce D’Agata’s 2010 essay in The Believer magazine, "What Happens There", along with the extensive and often argumentitive correspondence between D’Agata and and The Believer's factchecker Jim Fingal, resulting in an eye-opening meditation on the relationship between "accuracy" and "truth" in nonfiction.

John Donnelly
A Twist of Faith (Beacon)
A journalist explores the growing American desire to help orphans in Africa--focusing on the saga of one man who made it his mission to start an orphanage, and learned many hard lessons before ultimately triumphing.

Ray Douglas
Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans (Yale)
The shocking, little-known story of the mass deportation of ethnic Germans from central Europe at the end of World War II.

Daniel Duane
How to Cook Like a Man (Bloomsbury)
A hilarious memoir of cooking obsession, by the author of the classic surfing memoir Caught Inside.

Brian Evenson
Windeye (Coffee House)
A new collection of stories including a PEN/O.Henry winner--Evenson's third O.Henry in four years.

Brian Evenson
Dead Space 2 (Tor)
A follow-up to Dead Space, the novelization of the popular video game.

Brian Evenson
Immobility (Tor)
A dystopic, noir, crime novel set in what could be post-apocalyptic Mormon Utah.

Norman Finkelstein
A Farewell to Israel (Or Books)
Why the American Jewish community is increasingly disaffected with Israel, and how that could change the political balance between Israel and Palestine.

Matthew Gilbert
Off the Leash: Dispatches From the Dog Park (St. Martin's Press)
A memoir written by the Boston Globe TV critic, about how he was transformed from stay-at-home loner to dog park denizen by his labrador retriever, Toby

Ronnie Gilbert
A Radical Life with Songs (University of California)
A memoir by the only female member of the iconic American singing group, The Weavers, who survived blacklisting and the McCarthy era.

Steven Jaffe
New York at War (Basic)
A history of New York during wartime--how New York has been a strategic focal point in all of our wars, as a key port, as an industrial and financial center, and as a symbol of American power.

Barbara Kingsolver
Flight Behavior (HarperCollins)
A young wife and mother, living in a small town in Tennessee, happens upon a forested valley filled with silent red fire.Her attempts to share the wonder and find an explanation throw her into a spiraling confrontation with her family, her church, her town, her continent, and finally the world at large.

Ricki Lewis
The Forever Fix: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Gene Therapy, and the Boy Who Saved It (St. Martin's)
Recent breakthroughs have dramatically advanced this 21st century medical technology, providing cures for hereditary conditions once thought hopeless...starting with restoring the sight of young Cory Haas.

Steve Light
Zephyr Springsmith (Candlewick)
A little girl's fantasy takes flight as she discovers an old airplane in this lovely picture book.

Cate Lineberry
The Secret Rescue: A World War II Story of Courage and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Europe (Little, Brown)
The untold history of a group of US Army nurses and medics stranded in Nazi-occupied Europe after a plane c rash—a drama that captured the attention of President Roosevelt and the American public—their months-long struggle for survival, the heroic efforts by American and British officers and partisans to help them, and their eventual rescue.

Chris Lombardi
I Ain't Marching Anymore (University of California)
The history of soldiers and veterans who have opposed war in America, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq.

Rutu Modan
Day of the Dead (Drawn & Quarterly; Jonathan Cape)
A comedy in which an elderly Israeli woman travels to Warsaw with her granddaughter to reclaim her family's apartment, lost during WWII, while secretly hoping to meet the Polish lover of her youth. Modan's first graphic novel since the Eisner Award-winning EXIT WOUNDS.

Janisse Ray
The Seed Underground (Chelsea Green)
Stories of seed-savers, the unsung heroes who are preserving the riches of biodiversity in the face of corporate agriculture and the looming threat of monocrop crisis. By the author of the beloved ECOLOGY OF A CRACKER CHILDHOOD.

Gretchen Reynolds
The First Twenty Minutes (Little Brown)
The scientific research that is changing our understanding of exercise, fitness and training, including practical guidelines for achieving peak physical and mental performance.

PJ Tracy
Untitled Monkeewrench Novel, (Putnam)
Detectives Rolseth and Magozzi contend with multiple murders in an area of Minneapolis known as Little Mogadishu in the latest riveting Monkeewrench novel, the sixth in a series.

Helene Wecker
The Golem and the Djinni, (HarperCollins)
A magical realist fable: the story of a female golem and a male djinni, who arrive in New York in 1899 and pass for human, then meet and bond although they are from entirely different worlds.

Marianne Wesson
A Death at Crooked Creek (New York University Press)
When John Hillmon died in western Kansas in 1879, a 30-year legal odyssey ensued. Was it really his body in the grave? Or was it someone else's, murdered by Hillmon in order to collect the life insurance? University of Colorado law professor Marianne Wesson pursued her curiosity about the case in this fascinating reconstruction--even exhuming the grave to reexamine the body.