New & Notable Adult Nonfiction - August Highlights

Selected new additions published this month

Updated September 5, 2024
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In France profound : the long history of a house, a mountain town, and a people
Allman, T. D.
Paper Book
From the National Book Award-longlisted author of Finding Florida, a sparkling, sweeping chronicle of the author's life and discoveries in an ancient town in "Deep France," from nearby prehistoric caves to medieval dynastic struggles to the colorful characters populating the area today<...
Billionaire, nerd, savior, king : Bill Gates and his quest to shape our world
Das, Anupreeta (Journalist)
Paper Book
From the finance editor of The New York Times, an insightful and illuminating examination of Bill Gates--one of the most powerful and provocative figures of the past four decades--and an exploration of our national fixation on billionaires. Few billionaires have been in...
Christopher Isherwood inside outInside Out
Bucknell, Katherine
Paper Book
A stunningly intimate exploration of the writer and gay cultural icon and of his lifelong search for authenticity. The story of Christopher Isherwood's life is one of pilgrimage: away from the constraints of inheritance and empire and toward authenticity and spiritual...
Drawn Testimony : My Four Decades As a Courtroom Sketch Artist
Rosenberg, Jane
Paper Book
From America's top courtroom sketch artist, a penetrating, compulsively readable memoir about her dramatic four-decade career "A mesmerizing look at this rarest of professions..."-Bookpage STARRED review "Readers will be hard-pressed to...
Gray matters : a biography of brain surgery
Schwartz, Theodore H.
Paper Book
We've all heard the phrase 'it's not brain surgery.' But what exactly is brain surgery? It's a profession that is barely a hundred years old and profoundly connects two human beings, but few know how it works, or its history. How did early neurosurgeons come to understand the human brain - an...
The bookshop : a history of the American bookstore
Friss, Evan
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER One of Time's 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 "A spirited defense of this important, odd and odds-defying American retail category." --The New York Times "It is a delight to wander through the...
Men Have Called Her Crazy : A Memoir
Tendler, Anna Marie
Paper Book
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* "This book is so many things I didn't know I needed: a testament to the work of healing, a raw howl of anger, and an indictment of misogyny's insipid, predictable, infuriating reign." --Carmen Maria Machado, author of the National Book Award...
Midnight in Moscow : A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War Against the West
Sullivan, John J./ Mattis, Jim (FRW)
Paper Book
2025 Winner of The Fletcher School's Best Book on U.S.-Russian Relations A memoir of service by the American ambassador who was on the diplomatic front lines when Putin invaded Ukraine, Midnight in Moscow is the first behind-the-scenes account of how U.S.-Russia...
Never Saw Me Coming : How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System - and Pocketed $40 Million
Smith, Tanya
Paper Book
Named Amazon Editor's Pick and one of the Best Books of the Month for August 2024.  A riveting true story of an unsuspecting woman who creates an ingeniously clever white-collar scheme that manipulates the Federal banking system out of millions--who eventually...
The Slow Road North: How I Found Peace in an Improbable Country
Schaap, Rosie
Paper Book
From the acclaimed author of the "wonderfully funny and openhearted" (NPR) Drinking with Men comes a poignant, wrenching, and ultimately hopeful book--equal parts memoir and social history--that follows the author, after a series of tragic losses, to Northern Ireland, where she finds a path...
The art of power : my story as America's first woman Speaker of the House
Pelosi, Nancy
Paper Book
The most powerful woman in American political history tells the story of her transformation from housewife to House Speaker--how she became a master legislator, a key partner to presidents, and the most visible leader of the Trump resistance. When, at age forty-six, Nancy Pelosi,...
Wanted : toddler's personal assistant : how nannying for the 1% taught me about the myths of equality, motherhood, and upward mobility in America
Kiser, Stephanie
Paper Book
National Bestseller! "Stephanie Kiser's emotionally honest memoir about nannying for New York's elite is a thoughtful meditation on the way social class separates our realities, even amid the universality of motherhood and maturation." - Blythe Grossberg, author of I Left...
A wilder shore : the romantic odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson
Peri, Camille
Paper Book
A portrait of the fascinating, unusual and fruitful creative partnership of the writers Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson The romance between Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson was an unlikely Victorian love story- he was an ambitious but drifting college-educated writer from a...
All that glitters : a story of friendship, fraud and fine art
Whitfield, Orlando
Paper Book
AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A dazzling insider's account of the contemporary art world and the stunning rise and fall of the charismatic American art dealer Inigo Philbrick, as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow dealer In development as a series for HBO<...
Feeding the Machine : The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.i
Graham, Mark/ Cant, Callum/ Muldoon, James
Paper Book
For readers of Naomi Klein and Nicole Perlroth, a myth-dissolving exposé of how artificial intelligence exploits human labor, and a resounding argument for a more equitable digital future. Silicon Valley has sold us the illusion that artificial intelligence is a frictionless...
Bite : an incisive history of teeth, from hagfish to humans
Schutt, Bill
Paper Book
From three-inch fang blennies to thirty-foot prehistoric crocodiles, from gaboon vipers to Neanderthals, Bite is a fascinating journey through the natural, scientific, and cultural history of something right in front of--or in--our faces: teeth. In Bite<...
Life as no one knows it : the physics of life's emergence
Walker, Sara Imari
Paper Book
An intriguing new scientific theory that explains what life is and how it emerges. What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None...
The Secret Life of the Universe : An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life
Cabrol, Nathalie A.
Paper Book
One of the world's leading astrobiologists takes us on an awe-inspiring journey across the cosmos to investigate some of humanity's most profound questions: Are we alone in the universe? And how did life on Earth begin? We are in a golden age in astronomy, living on the cusp of...
Turning to stone : discovering the subtle wisdom of rocks
Bjornerud, Marcia
Paper Book
Earth is vibrantly alive and full of wisdom for those who learn to listen. Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years, keeping a record of its experiments in the form of rocks. Yet most of us live our lives on the planet with no idea of its...
Why animals talk : the new science of animal communication
Kershenbaum, Arik
Paper Book
"Animal communication doesn't need to resemble human language to be full of meaning and nuance. Arik Kershenbaum delivers an expert overview of the astonishing discoveries made in the last few decades" --Frans de Waal From leading zoologist Arik Kershenbaum, a delightful and...
10 to 25 : the science of motivating young people : a groundbreaking approach to leading the next generation-and making your own life easier
Yeager, David S.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Acclaimed developmental psychologist David Yeager reveals the new science of motivating young people ages ten through twenty-five in this groundbreaking book that is a must-read for managers, parents, educators, coaches, and mentors everywhere. ...
Embracing Hope: On Freedom, Responsibility & the Meaning of Life
Frankl, Viktor E.
Paper Book
A highly anticipated, rediscovered collection from Viktor Frankl, published for the first time in the United States, exploring freedom, responsibility, and how we can draw meaning from the temporary nature of our lives From the bestselling author of Man's Search for Meaning...
I Heard There Was A Secret Chord : Music as Medicine
Levitin, Daniel J.
Paper Book
Music is one of humanity's oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind. In his latest work,...
Dinosaurs at the dinner party : how an eccentric group of Victorians discovered prehistoric creatures and accidentally upended the world
Dolnick, Edward
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Clockwork Universe and The Writing of the Gods, an "utterly delightful...hugely entertaining" (Air Mail) book about the eccentric Victorians who discovered dinosaur bones, leading to a whole new understanding of human history.

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