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As the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's death looms, a raft of books exploring the tragedy in Dallas are hitting their publication dates. Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis aim to make their title, Dallas 1963, distinct from the rest by turning their attention from the assassination itself to the toxic political climate of Dallas. What kind of city would produce a president's assassin? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ernest Hemingway rose by 6 o'clock in the morning, no matter what escapades had taken place the night before, and he wrote his first drafts in pencil on onionskin typewriter paper. He tracked his daily word count on a chart - so as not to fool himself, he said. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a high-powered executive publishes a book on leadership, there are good reasons to be skeptical. Thin on substance, high on self-flattery, this genre too often is simply PR dressed up as nonfiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographics are destiny, some say, and there's plenty of truth to that. If you live in the South, you're more likely to be an evangelical Christian than if you live in San Francisco. And if you live in San Francisco, you're more likely to be an environmentalist (or at least recycling your soda can) than if you live in San Antonio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Official figures say 46 million Americans live in poverty. Beyond that, there's little about poverty that Americans can agree on. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Phiona Mutesi is a young chess prodigy from Uganda whose fierce mind has sparked notice not only because it's relatively rare to see an African woman playing elite chess, but also because she's from Katwe – an impoverished corner of Uganda's teeming capital city of Kampala. Phiona is Uganda's national chess champion, a title she earned as a teenager. She competed at the World Chess Olympiad – the world's most prestigious team chess event – in Siberia in 2010 and just weeks ago in Istanbul, Turkey, where she won a title that points her toward becoming a grandmaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is hardly a schoolchild who is not familiar with haiku, the Japanese art of the tiny poem, constructed out of three lines of 5-7-5 syllables and traditionally evoking images from nature. But while an understanding of haiku is often left at that, its legacy in art and literature is decidedly more complex. In The Art of Haiku, Stephen Addiss illuminates how haiku evolved in the hands of its masters, stretching from the eighth century to the 12th. He purposefully juxtaposes the well-known poetic form with its less famed artistic counterparts: paintings, called haiga, and calligraphy. Fully formed haiku was meant to be experienced both visually and textually. This uncommon book gives us the chance to do just that. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Shark Week appears on the Discovery Channel for the 25th year, I have to wonder whether in another 25 years, it will air on The History Channel instead. After more than 400 million years on planet Earth, sharks are being decimated by overfishing and the lucrative trade in shark fins. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tug of war used to be an Olympic event. It had all the rules, regulations, and rituals of any other sport, as well as the scandals (spiked footwear was an issue). In fact, the very first black Olympian competed in the tug of war of 1900: a Frenchman named Constantin Henriquez de Zubiera. Alas, tug of war was dropped in 1920. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]