Nonfiction Stars of 1998 Overbooked: a resource for readers

A selected list of titles.

Annotated lists of books receiving at least one starred review from one of four major review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, LJ and PW. The review source assigns the star.

This reading list is based on personal preferences. It reflects interests in history, science, nature, travel, biography, memoirs and a few assorted odd topics. Titles are listed by approximate date of publication, then alphabetically by author.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

December

Standing in the Sun: A Life of J.M.W. Turner
by A. Bailey
Publisher: Harpercollins ISBN: 0061180025 $35
PW
"Written with flair and imagination, drawing on vivid background material" (Sunday Times, London), this extraordinary biography of Britain's greatest painter is the first comprehensive account of Turner's life in a generation.
Inventing Wyatt Earp
by Allen Barra
Publisher: Carroll & Graf ISBN: 0786705620 $ 27
LJ
The first Earp biography in 65 years, this splendid retelling of a fabulous life that still influences Americans' understanding of their history is the only book to tell the entire story of Wyatt Earp's amazing life and those who knew him best.
Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple
by Deborah Layton
Publisher: Anchor ISBN: 0385489838 $ 23.95
Kirkus
From Waco to Heaven's Gate, the past decade has seen its share of cult tragedies, but none quite so dramatic or compelling as Jonestown. In this very personal account, Layton opens up the shadowy world of cults and shows how any race, culture, or class of individuals can fall prey to a cult's strange allure. Seductive Poison is both an unflinching historical document and an enthralling story of intrigue, power, and murder.
Fanny Trollope: The Life and Adventures of a Clever Woman
by Pamela Neville-Sington
Publisher: Viking ISBN:0670859052 $ 29.95
PW
The life, work and times of Anthony Trollope's brilliant mother is told in a biography that was chosen by two separate reviewers as one of The Times (London) Best Books of 1997. Now this rejected literary matriarch emerges as an unforgettably "clever woman".

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

November

The Life of Thomas More
by Peter Ackroyd
Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 0385477090 $30
BL PW Kirkus LJ
England's famous "man for all seasons" comes to vivid life in this dramatic new biography by the acclaimed novelist and biographer of T.S. Eliot and William Blake.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Tibet: Through the Red Box
by Peter Sis
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux ISBN: 0374375526 $25
PW
While Peter Sis's father was in China and Tibet, he kept a diary, which was later locked in a red box. No one was allowed to touch the red box. Years later, in New York City, Peter Sis receives a letter from his father. "The Red Box is now yours", it says. Sis draws from his father's diary and from his recollections of his father's incredible tales to reach a spiritual homecoming between father and son.
Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents
by Paul Theroux
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin ISBN: 0395907284 $25
PW
In this intimate portrait, Paul Theroux chronicles his life as a writer from the beginning, when he was introduced to the literary world by acclaimed writer V.S. Naipaul, as well as his friendship and mentorship with the author - spanning 35 years and five continents.
~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

October
Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
by Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: Harmony ISBN: 0609601415 $25
Kirkus
In this collection, the scientist consciously and unconventionally formulates a humanistic natural history, a consideration of how humans have learned to study and understand nature, rather than a history of nature itself. These are Dr. Gould's popular essays from Natural History magazine.
Suggested Reading: Nature
Driving to Detroit: An Automotive Odyssey
by Lesley Hazelton
Publisher: Free Press ISBN: 0684839873 $25 Date: 1998
Kirkus
In this moving and captivating memoir, a British expatriate, car junky, and veteran travel writer takes the wheel and crosses the country in search of the elusive American dream. Along the way, she discovers herself and what America is all about.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales | Driven Stars
Dawn Powell
by Tim Page
Publisher: Henry Holt ISBN: 080505068x $30
PW Kirkus
Gore Vidal once referred to her as "our best comic novelist", yet Dawn Powell died when all her books were out of print. Tim Page gracefully and intelligently explores all the fascinating ironies and often sad complexities of Powell's life and work, paying homage to her as one of the giants of 20th century literature.
Piercing the Darkness
by Katherine Ramsland
Publisher: Harper Prism ISBN: 0061050628 $24
PW
Anne Rice's personal biographer and the author of Vampire Companion digs deep into the terrifying world of vampires in America today to expose the myths and realities of this dark community.
The Lost Tomb: The Most Extraordinary Archaeological Discovery of Our Time - The Burial Site of the Sons of Ramesses
by Kent R. Weeks
Publisher: William Morrow ISBN: 068815087x $27.50 Date: 1998
Dr. Weeks, an Egyptologist with the American University in Cairo, draws on his own diaries, as well as those of his wife and foreman to describe the excitement and risks that surrounded the most significant archaeological discovery of our time: the burial site of the sons of Ramesses II.
Related website: Theban Mapping Project - Information about K5, the Valley of the Kings, the Theban Necropolis and Egyptology.
Suggested Reading: Egyptian Stars

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

September

Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo
by Roger Cohen
Publisher: Random House ISBN: 0679452435 $27.95 Date: 1998
PW Kirkus LJ
Through the sagas of four families caught in the chaos of Yugoslavia and the Bosnian war of 1991-95, Roger Cohen tells the story of a state and its struggles.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Former Yugoslavia
King Leopold's Ghost: The Plunder of the Congo and the Twentieth Century's First Great International Human Rights Movement
by Adam Hochschild
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin ISBN: 0395759242 $26
PW Kirkus LJ
This haunting portrait of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, this "outstanding study, unmatched by any other work on the Congo, reveals how all Europe - and the U.S.A. - contributed to the making of King Leopold's holocaust of the Congolese people" (Nadine Gordimer).
Suggested Reading: All Stars
An Empire Wilderness: Rediscovering America
by Robert D. Kaplan
Publisher: Random House ISBN: 0679451900 $27.50
BL PW
The bestselling author of Balkan Ghosts and The Ends of the Earth travelled through the American West to assemble this mind-changing preview of America's future.
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
by V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee
Publisher: William Morrow ISBN: 0688152473 $27
Kirkus
In the tradition of the works of Oliver Sachs, this fascinating journey into the deep architecture of the mind introduces readers to a range of patients suffering from strange neurological afflictions, explains Dr. Ramachandran's evaluations reveal what actually occurs in the brain, and explores what these findings reveal about dreams, laughter, memory, depression, body image, and language.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester
Publisher: HarperCollins ISBN: 0060175966 $22
Kirkus
The riveting true story of Dr. W.C. Minor - the ingenious but insane American Civil War veteran who contributed more than 10,000 definitions to the Oxford English Dictionary.

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

August
Tea That Burns: A Family Memoir in Chinatown
by Bruce Edward Hall
Publisher: Free Press ISBN: 068483989x $25 Date: 1998
BL LJ
A compelling saga of one man's journey through his heritage, his quest to know and exorcize the ghosts of his ancestors, and the ways they brought to a magical corner of New York known as Chinatown.
Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars
The American Way of Death Revisited
by Jessica Mitford
Publisher: Knopf ISBN: 0679450378 $25
PW
The classic anatomy of America's funeral practices has been brought up to date for a new generation. Thirty-five years ago, Jessica Mitford's savage and hilarious Number 1 bestseller occasioned new legislation intended to reform the funeral industry.
Suggested Reading: Six Feet Under
~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

July
Imagining Atlantis
by Richard Ellis
Publisher: Knopf ISBN: 0679446028 $27.50
BL
Ellis explores the lure of Atlantis, examining history, lore, archaeological evidence and more in this interesting book.
Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs
by Caroline Knapp
Publisher: Dial ISBN: 0385316984 $21.95 Date: 1998
PW
Knapp, the author of the acclaimed Drinking: A Love Story, tells the tale of her relationship Lucille, a mixed breed dog.
Suggested Reading: Dog Stars

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

June

Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris
by Michael Allin
Publisher: Walker and Company ISBN: 0802713394 $22
BL Kirkus
In October 1826 a ship arrived at Marseille carrying the first giraffe ever seen in France. A royal offering from Muhammad Ali, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, to King Charles X, she had already traveled 2,000 miles down the Nile to Alexandria, from where she had sailed across the Mediterranean standing in the hold, her long neck and head protruding though a hole cut in the deck. In the spring of 1827, after wintering in Marseille, she was carefully walked 550 miles to Paris, to the delight of thousands of onlookers. Zarafa chronicles the full story of this remarkable animal, revealing a kaleioscope of history, science, and culture that opens an exotic window on the early nineteenth century.
Suggested Reading: Nature
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell ISBN: 0767902513 $25
PW
A laugh-out-loud account of an outrageously rugged hike, by the beloved comic author of Lost Continent and Notes from a Small Island. Published in the 75th anniversary year of the Appalachian Trail.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory
by Barry Lopez
Publisher: Knopf ISBN: 0679434542 $24
PW Kirkus
The acclaimed National Book Award winner gives readers his first major work of nonfiction in a decade: a collection of spellbinding new essays that, read together, form a jigsaw puzzle portrait of an extraordinary man.
Annals of the Former World
by John McPhee
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux ISBN: 0374105200 $35
PW LJ
Originally published in stages, here at last, is the long-awaited complete geology chronicles based on author John McPhee's travels across North America since 1978. As clearly and succinctly written as it is profoundly informed, this is our finest popular survey of geology, and a masterpiece of modern nonfiction.
~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

May
The King's Midwife: A History and Mystery of Madame du Courdray
by Nina Rattner Gelbart
Publisher: University of California Press ISBN: 0520210360 $35
LJ
This unorthodox biography explores the life of an extraordinary Enlightenment woman who, by sheer force of character, parlayed a skill in midwifery into a national institution.
~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July ~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

April
A Tribe Apart: A Journey Into the Heart of American Adolescence
by Patricia Hersch
Publisher: Ballantine ISBN: 0449907678 $25
Kirkus LJ
For three fascinating, disturbing years, writer Patricia Hersch journeyed inside a world that is as familiar as our own children and yet as alien as some exotic, hostile culture, attempting to see adolescents as the see themselves, without prejudice or stereotype. A Tribe Apart is the result of her efforts - a work of luminous truth and gripping revelation.
Portrait of Dr. Gachet: A Story of a Van Gogh Masterpiece, Modernism, Money, Politics, Collectors, Dealers, Taste, Greed and Loss
by Cynthia Saltzman
Publisher: Viking ISBN: 0670862231 $25.95
PW LJ
Portrait of Dr. Gachet was one of van Gogh's last paintings, completed just weeks before his suicide. Cynthia Saltzman's book reconstructs the journey of this revolutionary and haunting painting, in which, van Gogh wrote, he strove to capture the "heartbroken expression of our time". As Saltzman superbly shows, this painting not only evokes the ethos of modern life but also illuminates the ways in which art, politics, and the market have intersected with the twentieth century.

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

March

Tender at the Bone
by Ruth Reichl
Publisher: Random House ISBN: 0679449876 $23
Kirkus
Tender at the Bone is the story of a life determined, enhanced, and defined in equal measure by unforgettable people, the love of tales well told, and a passion for food.
Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica
by Sara Wheeler
Publisher: Random House ISBN: 067944078x $25
PW
Sara Wheeler weaves together her own fascinating experiences on the ice with the grueling adventures of Antarctica's most mythic figures.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Red-Tails in Love: Mysteries of Urban Wildlife
by Marie Winn
Publisher: Pantheon ISBN: 0679439978 $24
BL Kirkus
The scene is New York's Central Park, but the rich natural history that emerges here - the loons, raccoons, woodpeckers, owls, and hundreds of visiting songbirds - will appeal to wildlife lovers everywhere. At its heart is the saga of the Fifth Avenue hawks, which begins as a love story and develops into a full-fledged mystery.
Suggested Reading: Nature

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

February

The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death and America's Dilemma
by Kotlowitz, Alex
Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 0385477201 $24.95
BL PW Kirkus
In The Other Side of the River, Kotlowitz brings readers to two Michigan towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Separated by the St. Joseph River, they are geographically close, yet worlds apart: St. Joseph is a 95 percent white, prosperous lakeshore community, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and 92 percent black. When the body of a black teenage boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions surface . . . Beautifully written and painstakingly reported. The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery and others - and reveals attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America.
Suggested Reading: All Stars

~ December ~ November ~ October ~ September ~ August ~ July
~ June ~ May ~ April ~ March ~ February ~ January

January

The Road to Ubar: Searching for the Atlantis of the Sands
by Nicholas Clapp
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin ISBN: 039587596x $24
BL Kirkus
The most fabled city in ancient Arabia was Ubar, described in the Koran as "the many columned city whole like has not been built in the whole land" . . . Over the centuries, many people searched unsuccessfully . . . Then in the 1980's Nicholas Clapp stumbled on the legend. Poring over medieval manuscripts, he discovered a slip of the pen in A.D. 1460 had mislead generations of explorers. In satellite images he found evidence of ancient caravan routes that were invisible on the ground. Finally he organized two expeditions to Arabia . . . After many false starts, dead ends and weeks of digging, they uncovered the remains for a remarkable walled city with eight towers, thirty-foot walls, and artifacts dating back 4,000 years - they had found Ubar.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Space: A Memoir
by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Publisher: Algonquin ISBN: 1565121465 $18.95 Date: 1998
BL LJ
The author of The Dogeater and The Museum of Happiness presents a memoir in the tradition of Tobias Wolff's This Boys Life. Weaving personal and public concerns inextricably, this brilliant rendering of an era tells the story a nation's love affair with its space program and one girl's search for herself.
Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars