Over the past few issues, we've told you about some of the great fall fiction we're looking forward to. This time, we look at nonfiction.
The Oath: The Obama White House v. the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin (Doubleday, September) Toobin, senior legal analyst at CNN, has been writing about the Court for some time (The Nine). He knows whereof he speaks, and has waited until after the momentous health care decision to finish this book.
Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo (Knopf, October) Pulitzer Prize winner Russo's memoir about his childhood is certain to be thoughtful, moving and witty.
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October) Beginning in 1900, Edward Curtis documented more than 80 Native American tribes. Egan has written both a biography and an adventure story about an artist who had remarkable resolve.
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe (Knopf, October) Will and his mother begin reading the same books and having conversations about them while she undergoes chemotherapy. This book is an elegy for his mother, and a paean to the written word.
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson (Basic Books, October) Wilson is interested in how we have satisfied our need for and delight in food. Cutting, measuring, grinding--it's not been a straight trajectory at all, with the exception of the knife.
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen (Norton, October) Quammen is one of our premier natural science writers. Recounting adventures with the world's leading disease scientists, he explains that the strange new diseases emerging have one common thread: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans in a process called spillover. --Marilyn Dahl, book review editor, Shelf Awareness