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New Nonfiction August 2024

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August's Nonfiction Titles PDF



Biography

The Art of Power: My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi

The Art of Power: My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi

The first woman to ascend to the most powerful legislative role in our nation, passing laws that save lives and livelihoods, tells the story of her transformation from housewife to House Speaker, becoming a prophetic voice on the major moral issues of the day who’s not afraid of a good fight.


Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and His Quest to Shape Our World by Anupreeta Das

Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and His Quest to Shape Our World by Anupreeta Das

Based on hundreds of interviews, the finance editor of The New York Times traces the journey of Bill Gates from technical visionary to ruthless capitalist and examines the ways in which our country is fixated on billionaires.


Drawn Testimony: My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist by Jane Rosenberg

Drawn Testimony: My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist by Jane Rosenberg

This memoir from a veteran courtroom sketch artist features her looks at history as its happening, with illustrations of such figures as Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell, Martha Stewart, Robert DeNiro and Tom Brady.


Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir by Anna Marie Tendler

Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir by Anna Marie Tendler

Recounting her experience in a psychiatric hospital as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed, a popular artist, in this stunning literary self-portrait, examines the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century as well as the insidious ways men impact their lives.


Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War Against the West by John J. Sullivan & Jim Mattis

Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War Against the West by John J. Sullivan & Jim Mattis

An American ambassador who was on the diplomatic front lines when Putin invaded Ukraine presents this first-hand account of this climactic period?—?among the most dangerous since WWII, showing how our relationship with Russia has deteriorated, where it’s headed and how it’s ending will be shaped by us.


The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady by Heath Hardage Lee

The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady by Heath Hardage Lee

The author of The League of Wives examines the life of First Lady Pat Nixon.


Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System - and Pocketed $40 Million by Tanya Smith

Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System - and Pocketed $40 Million by Tanya Smith

A money-grabbing tech genius shares her deeply personal story of how she, after the FBI said “these are not the kind of crimes Black people are smart enough to commit,” pulled off an ingenious white-collar scheme, stealing $40 million dollars, and after receiving an outrageous prison sentence, orchestrated her own release.


Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers by Ian O'Connor

Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers by Ian O'Connor

Drawing on original interviews to answer the most penetrating questions about the league’s most enigmatic player, a New York Times best-selling author takes on four-time the NFL MVP, revealing all sides of an all-time great and delivering a portrait of a complex man that will forever shape the way he’s viewed.


Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

The first researcher to explore the full depths of the life, work and enduring impact of the iconic writer shows how her ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands.


That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones

Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of America's vicious culture wars.


A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings

A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings

A former member of the Christian fundamentalist Quiverfull movement recalls how she was able to escape her role as a godly and submissive wife that included strict discipline, isolation and physical abuse and flee with her children.


A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson by Camille Peri    

A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson by Camille Peri    

This story of the partnership between Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife and muse, Fanny Van de Grift, focuses on both the romantic and creative bond that helped fuel some of the most celebrated and enduring literary masterpieces


Business and economics

10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation—And Making Your Own Life Easier by David Yeager, Ph.D.

10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation—And Making Your Own Life Easier by David Yeager, Ph.D.

An acclaimed developmental psychologist provides a guide for adults on how to best foster relationships with young people between the ages of 10 and 25 by creating a mentor relationship based on highly effective and easy-to-learn practices.


On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver

On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver

Taking us behind-the-scenes from casinos to venture capital firms to the FTX inner sanctum to meetings of the effective altruism movement, the founder of FiveThirtyEight investigates “The River,” or those whose mastery of risk allows them to shape — and dominate — so much of modern life. 


Family & Relationships

The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids by Kavin Senapathy

The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids by Kavin Senapathy

An award-winning science journalist and cofounder of SciMoms offers an evidence-based, social-justice-minded exploration of modern parenting.


General Nonfiction

Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I. by Mark Graham, Callum Cant, and James Muldoon

Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I. by Mark Graham, Callum Cant, and James Muldoon

This myth-exploding investigation of what “artificial intelligence” really means argues that humans have within their hands the capability and responsibility of creating a more just and equitable digital future.


Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World by Matt Parker

Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World by Matt Parker

In this entertaining and educational ode to trigonometry, which underpins all modern data technology, the stand-up comedian shares plenty of relevant and irreverent reasons we should show a lot more love for the triangles in our lives, relating extraordinary stories of mathematicians, philosophers and engineers who dared to take triangles seriously.


Health & Fitness

Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women by Ellen Atlanta

Weaving her personal story with others’ to reconfigure our obsession with the cult of beauty and explore the reality of living in a world of paradoxes, the author presents a fascinating account of what young women face under a dominant industry and unmasks the absurdities of the standards we suddenly find ourselves upholding.


History

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

Drawing on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters and interviews with leading booksellers, this ode to bookstores discusses its central place in American cultural life and offers a captivating look at this institution beloved by so many.


Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation by Brenda Wineapple

Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation by Brenda Wineapple

Taking us back to a period that exposed foundational divisions in America that still resonate today — freedom, censorship and religion — prize-winning historian recounts the 1925 trial of schoolteacher John T. Scopes who was charged with teaching evolution and how this case was used as a platform for factions to campaign for their own ideologies.


Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History by Anthony E. Kaye and Gregory P.  Downs

Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History by Anthony E. Kaye and Gregory P.  Downs

This bold new account of the causes and legacy of the enslaved preacher’s rebellion, claiming to receive visions from the Spirit urging him to act, takes those divine visions seriously, giving us a new understanding of one of the 19th century’s most decisive events.


Twenty Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation by Sune Engel Rasmussen

Twenty Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation by Sune Engel Rasmussen

Offers an intimate history of the Afghan war and the young Afghans whose dreams it enabled and dashed.


Nature

Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans by Bill Schutt

Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans by Bill Schutt

A fascinating journey through the natural, scientific, and cultural history of something right in front of—or in—our faces: teeth.


Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World by Edward Dolnick

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World by Edward Dolnick

The best-selling author of The Clockwork Universe presents the story of a group of eccentric 19th century Victorians who accidentally stumbled upon a huge tranche of dinosaur bones that changed our understanding of human history.


Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks by Marcia Bjornerud

Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks by Marcia Bjornerud

The author reveals how rocks are the hidden infrastructure that keep the planet functioning, from sandstone aquifers purifying the water we drink to basalt formations slowly regulating global climate. 


Performing Arts

What's Next: A Backstage Pass to the West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack

What's Next: A Backstage Pass to the West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack

A behind-the-scenes look into the creation and legacy of The West Wing as told by cast members Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, with insights from cast and crew exploring what made the show what it was and how its impassioned commitment to service has made the series and relationships behind it endure.


Political Science

At War With Ourselves: Overcoming Chaos in the Trump White House by H. R. McMaster

At War With Ourselves: Overcoming Chaos in the Trump White House by H. R. McMaster

The former National Security Advisor under Donald Trump recounts the good, the bad and the ugly of his tumultuous year at the White House and outlines what a second Trump term might look like.


Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze

Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze

Meticulously researched and brilliantly written, this exploration of the many laws in this nation reveals the human toll so much law can carry for ordinary Americans, in this must-read for every citizen concerned about the erosion of our constitutional system, and its insights for preserving our liberties for generations to come. 


Psychology

I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel J. Levitin

I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel J. Levitin

A neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music reveals the deep connections between music and healing.


Science

Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence by Sara Imari Walker

Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence by Sara Imari Walker

A physicist and astrobiologist proposes a bold new scientific theory that explains what life is and how it emerges, inviting us into a world of maverick scientists who seek not just answers but better ways to formulate the biggest questions we have about the universe.


The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life by Nathalie A. Cabrol

The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life by Nathalie A. Cabrol

One of the world’s leading astrobiologists takes readers on a 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?


When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future by Paul Bierman

When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future by Paul Bierman

An environmental scientist’s realization that Greenland’s ice sheet melted when Earth was no warmer than today sounds an alarm for our planet.


Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication by Arik Kershenbaum

Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication by Arik Kershenbaum

A leading zoologist explores animal communication and its true meaning.


Social Science

Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold

Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold

A Pulitzer Prize-winning author examines the trajectory of a Philadelphia-based Christian community as it strives to foster social justice and shows the challenges it struggles with in the face of generational change and increased political polarization.


Obitchuary: The Big Hot Book of Death by Spencer Henry, Madison Reyes, and Allie Kingsley Baker

Obitchuary: The Big Hot Book of Death by Spencer Henry, Madison Reyes, and Allie Kingsley Baker

Digging deep into the physical aspects of death while also carefully exploring what death says about our humanity, this shocking, macabre, hilarious and moving book, based on the popular podcast, guides us through a deadly, yet colorful history, traditions and contemporary practices to demystify taboo topics.


Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life by Joshua Leifer

Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life by Joshua Leifer

As esteemed journalist and scholar presents a deeply personal history of the fractured American Jewish present, beginning with the history of Jewish immigrants in America all the way up to the state of today’s burning Jewish issues, building on interviews with those living daily across the varied fault lines of the Jewish conversation.


Sports

The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller

The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller

Revealing a portrait of high school athletics, and deafness in America, this extraordinary true story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated looks back at their 2021 and 2022 season during which they chased history.


True crime

All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art by Orlando Whitfield

All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art by Orlando Whitfield

Describes the rise and fall of former best friends Orlando Whitfield and Inigo Philbrick, one an art gallery owner and the other an art dealer who navigated success, financial ruin and finally betrayal resulting in imprisonment for art fraud.


The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty by Valerie Bauerlein

The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty by Valerie Bauerlein

A veteran Wall Street Journal reporter tells the true story of Alex Murdaugh, an influential South Carolina lawyer who murdered his wife and son.


The Devil Behind the Badge: The Horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer by Rick Jervis

The Devil Behind the Badge: The Horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer by Rick Jervis

A Pulitzer Prize-winning USA Today journalist tells the gripping story of a U.S. Border Patrol agent — and family man — who violently executed four sex workers, shocking the small border town of Laredo, and along the way, raises serious questions about the border crisis and the abuse of law enforcement.