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* White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War. By John Gans. Apr. 2019.320p. Norton/Liveright, $28.95 (97816314945671.353. The following statement is in bold reference [...]

Will spring ever arrive? Positive thinking is made a little easier if you spend some cold winter evenings curled up with travel guides, planning that spring trip. To that end, […]

* King Edward VIII: An American Life. By Ted Powell. Nov. 2018. 320p. Oxford, $34.95 (9780198795322). 941.08. Powell's title and the subtitle offer a paradoxical assertion: How did Edward VTII, [...]

Prince Albert: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy. By A. N. Wilson. Aug. 2019.448p. Harper, $35 (9780062749550). 941.081. To serve as a companion volume to his well-executed Victoria: A Life [...]

The Borgias: Power and Depravity in Renaissance Italy. By Paul Strathern. Aug. 2019. 384p. illus. Pegasus, $28.95 (9781643130835). 945.6050922. It is ironic that a family synonymous with degeneracy and corruption [...]

The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts. By Andrew E. Stoner. June 2019. 304p. illus. Univ. of Illinois, $110 (9780252042485); paper, $22.95 (9780252084263). 050. Randy Shilts was [...]

Life of David Hockney. By Catherine Cusset. Tr. by Teresa Fagan. May 2019. 192p. Other, paper, $15.99 (9781590519837). What looks like a biography and reads like a biography is not [...]

The Real Wallis Simpson: A New History of the American Divorcee Who Became the Duchess of Windsor. By Anna Pasternak. Mar. 2019.320p. Atria, $28 (9781501198441). 941.084092. Mrs. Wallis Simpson stepped [...]

Devices and Desires: Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England. By Kate Hubbard. Feb. 2019.384p. illus. Harper, $29.99 (9780062302991). 942.05.It seems that the Tudor era in English history [...]

The Lost Prince: A Search for Pat Conroy. By Michael Mewshaw. Feb. 2019. 288p. illus. Counterpoint, $26 (97816400914981.813.The late Pat Conroy (who died in 2016) ranked highly in popular appeal [...]

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life. By Lucy Worsley. Jan. 2019.432p. St. Martin's, $32.50 (9781250201423). 941.0810.Until very recently, Queen Victoria held the distinction of being the longest-reigning monarch [...]

* Queen of the World. By Robert Hardman. Jan. 2019. 592p. illus. Pegasus, $35 (9781643130026). 941.Having recently surpassed Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning monarch in British history, the present queen [...]

* Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him.By Tracy Borman.Jan. 2019.496p, Atlantic Monthly, $30 (9780802128430). 942.Do we know enough about England's most famous king? Popular historian Borman (The Private [...]

In My Mind's Eye: A Thought Diary.By Jan Morris.Jan. 2019.208p. NortonlLiveright, $24.95 (97816314953661.818.From large-scale issues--'It is not that the United Kingdom ... has disgraced itself. It has simply, it seems [...]

The Eternal City: A History of Rome. By Ferdinand Addis. Nov. 2018. 608p. Pegasus, $29.95 (9781681775425). 937. The adage that says, in advancing the virtue of patience, 'Rome wasn't built [...]

* Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life. By Sally Bedell Smith. Apr. 2017. 640p. illus. Random, $30 (9781400067909). 941.085092. In this comprehensive and admirably fair biography, [...]

The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived: A True Story of My Family. By Tom Shroder. Oct. 2016. 416p. Penguin/Blue Rider, $28 (97803991745991.813.5. Shroder is the grandson of MacKinlay Kantor, [...]

* Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce. By Colm Toibin . Oct. 2018.256p. Scribner, $26 (9781476785172). 828. Through such nimbly constructed and deeply incisive [...]

French Exit. By Patrick deWitt. Aug. 2018. 256p. Ecco, $24.99 (9780062846921). This smart, very nearly smart-alecky social comedy by the author of Under-majordomo Minor (2015) rewards casual fiction readers with [...]

Mad Boy: An Account of Henry Phipps in the War of 1812. By Nick Arvin. June 2018. 240p. Europa, paper, $17 (9781609454586). Set in an infrequently mined period for historical [...]

* Last Stories. By William Trevor. May 2018. 224p. Viking, $26 (9780525558101). The situations behind Trevor's (Selected Stories, 2010) beautifully composed stories revolve around themes of personal cruelty, romantic and [...]

Harry: Life, Loss, and Love. By Katie Nicholl. Mar. 2018. 256p. Hachette, $27 (9781602865266); e-book, $13.99 (9781602865273). 941.085092. The world has come to smile warmly at Prince Harry, the indomitable, [...]

* Herbert Hoover. By Glen Jeansonne. Oct. 2016.464p. illus. NAL, $28 (9781101991008). 973.91. Hoover bears the dismal historical reputation as the American president who did very little to arrest the [...]

* The Life-Writer. By David Constantine. Oct. 2016. 240p. Biblioasis, paper, $14.95 (9781771961011). Middle-aged Eric is dying, slowly, and he refuses to spend his final days focused on trying to [...]

* Nutshell. By Ian McEwan. Sept. 2016. 208p. Doubleday/Nan A. Talese, $24.95 (9780385542074); e-book, $12.99 (9780385542081). Until the exciting (but, sadly, unlikely) day when McEwan (The Children Act, 2014) is [...]

* Madagascar: New and Selected Stories. By Steven Schwartz. Sept. 2016. 232p. Engine, paper, $15.95 (9781938126406); e book, $15.95 (9781938126444). In his third short story collection, Schwartz (Little Raw Souls, [...]

Dinosaurs on Other Planets. By Danielle McLaughlin. Aug. 2016. 256p. Random, $27 (9780812998429). The key to writing about the ordinariness of life, which is the objective of most short-story writers, [...]

* A House Full of Daughters: A Memoir of Seven Generations. By Juliet Nicolson. June 2016. 336p. Farrar, $26 (9780374172459). 306.874. Nicolson (The Perfect Summer, 2007) is the granddaughter of [...]

Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years. By John Guy. May 2016.448p. Viking, $35 (9780670786022). 942. Many readers love a good Tudor story, whether in nonfiction or fiction form, but still the question [...]

The Little Red Chairs. By Edna O'Brien. Mar. 2016. 320p. Little, Brown, $27 (9780316378239). While O'Brien retains every element of her gorgeous writing--significantly, a mastery of relevant detail, expressed with […]

This list of 'sure bet' book discussion titles is adapted from former Booklist Adult Books Editor Brad Hooper's forthcoming book The Librarian's Guide to Book Programs and Author Events (ALA […]

* Tasting Wine and Cheese: An Insider's Guide to Mastering the Principles of Pairing. By Adam Centamore. Oct. 2015.160p. illus. Quarto/Quarry, $24.99 (9781631590672). 641.22. This very focused and gorgeously illustrated [...]

* Barn Find Road Trip. By Tom Cotter. 2015.192p. illus. Quarto/Motorbooks, $35 (9780760349403). 628.222. This road-trip travelogue isn't simply a chronicle of general-item, what-we-saw-and-did-today events. The narrative flourishes as a […]

* Deep South. By Paul Theroux. Oct. 2015. 448p. Houghton, $29.95 (9780544323520). 975. The idea that Theroux is one of the preeminent travel writers today needs neither proof nor explanation […]

Everyone agrees: it costs a bundle. The books on this list don't offer a simple solution to the crisis, but they do help all interested parties understand the problem, both […]

* Do Less, Get More: How to Work Smart and Live Life Your Way. By Shaa Wasmund. 2015. 224p. Portfolio, $27.95 (9781591847168). 158.1. 'Keep things simple' is the mantra of [...]

Anthony Doerr's vivid, captivating novel All the Light We Cannot See is the winner of the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. The applause the novel has received […]

By Kent Haruf. May 2015. 192p. Knopf, $24 (9781101875896). The latest novel by the highly regarded author of Plainsong (1999), Eventide (2004), and Benediction (2013) is also, sadly, his last […]

* The Green Road By Anne Enright. May 2015. 320p. Norton, $26.95 (9780393248210). Domestic fiction as a genre can often be humdrum in its intended goal of capturing the quotidian […]

God Help the Child. By Toni Morrison. 2015.192p. Knopf, $24.95 (9780307594174). This novel is brief for Morrison--brief for most any major novelist. There is a lot of foundational information for [...]

17 Carnations: The Royals, the Nazis, and the Biggest Cover-up in History. By Andrew Morton. Mar. 2015.341 p. illus. Grand Central, $28 (9781455527113). 941.084. It has become common knowledge--more or [...]

* Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. By Erik Larson. Mar. 2015. 464p. Crown, $28 (9780307408860); paper, $28 (9780307408877); e-book, $13.99 (9780553446753).940.4. The sinking of the British ocean […]

* Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World It Made. By Richard Rhodes. Feb. 2015. 304p. Simon & Schuster, $30 (9781451696219).946.081. When King Alfonso XIII of [...]

The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer. By Norman Mailer. Ed. by Lennon J. Michael. Dec. 2014. 896p. Random, $40 (9781400066230); e-book (9780812986099).813.54. Lots of people didn't care for Norman Mailer [...]

Sisters. By Lily Tuck. Sept. 2017.176p. Grove/Atlantic, $20 (97808021271121. Tuck is widely admired for her economy of phrase in tandem with a richness of expression, as demonstrated in such previous [...]

Logical Family. By Armistead Maupin. Oct. 2017. 304p. Harper, $27.99 (9780062391223). 813.54. Born in the American South and, at first, submitting to that region's traditionally conservative political and social mind-sets, [...]

Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty. By John B. Boles. May 2017. 640p. Basic, $35 (9780465094684); e-book (9780465094691). 973.4. For many decades, the historical narrative concerning the third president of the [...]

The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to the Seventeenth Century, 1660-1699. By Ian Mortimer. Apr. 2017. 464p. illus. Pegasus, $28.95 (9781681773544). 942. Displaying an impressive [...]

House of Names. By Colm Toibin. May 2017. 288p. Scribner, $26 (9781501140211); e-book (9781501140235). 'Now it is your duty as the son of Agamemnon to revenge his murder,' the late [...]

Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Obsessions That Forged Modern Europe. By John Julius Norwich. Apr. 2017. 304p. Atlantic Monthly, $26 (9780802126634). 940. [...]