Jose Manuel Venegas is a gun-toting, horse-breaking man raised on a hardscrabble ranch in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. He's also the father and unshakeable nemesis of Maria Venegas, whose memoir not only follows the many paths of her father's serendipitous life but also traces her own bootstrap upbringing, from her arrival in Chicago as a four-year-old Mexican immigrant to her professional  career in theater and literature in New York City.

Bulletproof Vest is a story of contrasts. Rural Mexico is held up beside suburban Chicago, where Venegas grows up as the only Mexican in her grade at school--criticized for her accent and stereotyped. Her father, quick to anger, drunkenly kills a man in Chicago and jumps bail to hide at his family's mountain ranchero, La Peña, while she studies her way into college and a graduate program.

Venegas can't escape the ghosts of a father she hardly knew, a father who abandoned her twice. She comes to realize that she also ostracized him from her life, "assembling a shield, something that would protect me from ever being hurt again--my own bulletproof vest."

With the pace, character and plot of good fiction, her memoir is the pulsing saga of how she returns to Mexico to try to connect with him. Bulletproof Vest is Venegas's meandering ballad to her father as she comes to appreciate the struggles he faced amid the violence, superstition and poverty of his own upbringing. In sharing his life, Venegas discovers her family roots and reconciles the contrasts in her own life. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

On December 11, 2000, attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies gave oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on opposing sides in Bush v. Gore, the case that ended the Florida recount in favor of presidential candidate George W. Bush. More than 12 years later, the Supreme Court issued another landmark decision, striking down California's Proposition 8, a voter initiative that denied same-sex couples the right to marry in the state. Again, Boies and Olson were in the courtroom--but this time, they fought on the same side.

Redeeming the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality details Boies and Olson's five-year project to bring the Proposition 8 case through the courts. The two attorneys detail their argument's basis in the due process and equal protection guarantees of the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent, making the legal foundations for their case clear to non-lawyer readers through careful and compelling descriptions of the planning and preparation that preceded each courtroom hearing. They also convey the drama and adventure of their courtroom battles while preserving the sense of frustration--and the requisite perseverance and tenacity--that is endemic to any long legal battle.

Throughout the book, Boies and Olson maintain the fundamental rightness of their view of the case, but they continue to couch their position in legal and social perspective, never devolving into partisan bickering or self-aggrandizement. Redeeming the Dream offers an inspiring and intimate account of a case that is likely to become a landmark in American civil rights. --Dani Alexis Ryskamp, blogger at The Book Cricket

Thanks to the superb David Lean film, Doctor Zhivago is known to millions. However, few know the full story of the publication (or non-publication) of the novel. For this revelatory and fascinating tale, Peter Finn and Petra Couvée obtained previously classified CIA documents that shed light on an unknown aspect of one of the 20th-century's greatest books.

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) was a highly successful poet and translator in Russia before he penned his first novel. In 1956, while he was living in Peredelkino, a writer's colony created by Stalin, he sent the novel to one of Russia's most esteemed journals, Novy Mir, but it was rejected because it was deemed anti-Soviet.

Pasternak felt Doctor Zhivago was his greatest work and wanted it widely read; however, since 1929, no Russian author had broken the rule against foreign publication without approval from the authorities. When the opportunity to publish the book in Italy came along, the manuscript was smuggled into Milan and published in 1957. In 1958, the CIA's books program printed a special Russian-language edition and secretly distributed it in the Vatican's pavilion at the World's Fair in Brussels. Copies began turning up in Russia, and additional copies were given to students, tourists, diplomats, even Russian truck drivers and sailors, to smuggle into the Soviet Union. This represented one of the first efforts by the CIA to leverage books as instruments of political warfare. The book's growing popularity infuriated the Soviet government, and when Pasternak won the Nobel Prize in 1958, he had to decline it--had he accepted it, he could never return home. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher

The Most Dangerous Book is striking not only for its intricate recounting of the arduous path Joyce's groundbreaking book followed to legal publication, but also for its history of the founding of Modernism and its literary biography of a giant in 20th-century literature. Kevin Birmingham, a Harvard lecturer in history and literature, has written a history that reads like a Dickens novel, telling a story of individual courage amid social disruption, a world where one dedicated writer takes on the machinery of centuries of rigid convention and censorship... and wins.

James Joyce's earthy, unconventional first fictional works found no conventional publishers until Ezra Pound championed them to a London magazine. With well-researched detail, Birmingham describes the destitute, alcoholic and sickly Joyce who filled scraps of paper with snippets of the words, phrases and structural outlines that gradually built his groundbreaking masterpiece. Like his other works, Ulysses ran first in magazines, so its notoriety spread well before it became a full book that could alarm censors. Birmingham carefully chronicles Joyce's 20 years of censorship before Random House founder Bennett Cerf and New York lawyer Morris Ernst finally took on the U.S. government in a 1933 precedent-setting case: The United States of America v. One Book Called Ulysses.

Cerf's and Ernst's success was built on the backs of many others, all honored here as Birmingham carefully details a hard-fought but conclusive victory against oppression that proclaimed "there was no absolute authority, no singular vision for our culture... towering over us." Given the current political milieu, it is a victory of which we should be strongly reminded. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

In Soul Contracts, intuitive coach and animal psychic Danielle MacKinnon has generously distilled her life lessons into an easy-to-read, thought-provoking package. Her journey to Soul Contracts began while she was "on the typical path of an MBA"; her puppy Bella's mysterious ailment prompted a friend to suggest a pet psychic. This psychic quickly ascertained the cause of Bella's distress: her Soul Contract with MacKinnon. Soul Contracts are the "many unseen and unconscious energies" that influence our ways of behaving, thinking and believing. MacKinnon came to believe that pets are brought into our lives to help us evolve and learn Soul Lessons. MacKinnon discarded her stifling job to forge a new career as an "animal communicator," but soon realized her true calling was to help humans uncover and release Soul Contracts by identifying past experiences and beliefs that are blocking them from achieving their full potential.

Soul Contracts includes step-by-step exercises intended to interpret existing blocks and challenges, identify their origins, clear the "discordant energies" and alter "root belief systems" to forge healthier patterns of behavior. MacKinnon believes all aspects of our lives--energetic, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual (not just behavioral)--must be addressed "in order to experience the greatest release and forward momentum" and provides concrete suggestions for targeting these areas. Since MacKinnon's work is based on intention, Soul Contracts is designed to work within any belief system, and she provides alternate language for readers who may be uncomfortable with the concepts of reincarnation, past lives or spirit guides. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics

At first glance, the Guide to Troubled Birds looks like any run-of-the-mill bestiary with acrylic paintings of nature's precious winged treasures. Soon, though, it's evident that beady-eyed devils--à la Alfred Hitchcock's avian nightmare The Birds--and snippets of deliciously cheeky prose have replaced nominally dry factoids. This is just the latest addition to the burgeoning collection of bird-related craziness from the Mincing Mockingbird (artist Matt Adrian), whose picture-perfect, museum-worthy paintings have graced the pages of Sunset magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle as well as films and television shows (Her, Modern Family). His paintbrush provides a forum for troubled, jealous, angry and even horny birds, and no subject is too taboo for the Mincing Mockingbird's judicious, discerning eye.

Ask the duck with the smoking gun what he thinks when it comes to foie gras ("Duck Would Like a Word") or the bird high on crystal meth ("Love in the Time of Crystal Meth"). Discover how hummingbirds in "Ounce Per Ounce, Tougher than a Wolverine" seek revenge for "every hummingbird brother or sister lost to" a cat's "feline featherlust." On the subject of blondes, even Hitchcock's classic gets due honor when the white-haired bluebird opines how much it loves Tippi Hedren as it stares the reader down with a wide-eyed, open-beaked expression of feigned innocence. That Adrian's quirky, sometimes potty-mouthed dark humor and mockumentaries manage to spark such curiosity and interest worldwide is a testament to his enduring artistry with brush and paint. Indeed, the bird is the word. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant

Kelly DiPucchio (Crafty Chloe; Zombie in Love) and Christian Robinson (Harlem's Little Blackbird) team up for a heartwarming story about how the true sense of belonging comes from the inside, not the outside.

On the title page, Robinson shows a beautifully groomed white pampered poodle, pushed in a peach-toned baby carriage with a matching peach bow on her head; the pooch passes by a wide-eyed French bulldog peeking over the edge of a corrugated box. DiPucchio then introduces Mrs. Poodle and her new puppies: Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, Ooh-La-La and Gaston. As the puppies grow, "three were no bigger than teacups." But the fourth (guess which one) "continued to grow. And grow." Poor Gaston! As Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo and Ooh-La-La politely sip from their bowls, quietly "yip" and walk on their "Tip. Toe. Tippy-toe[s]," Gaston spills his water, barks loudly and races around the house. When Mrs. Poodle meets another canine family in the park, puppies Rocky, Ricky and Bruno resemble Gaston, while Antoinette looks more like Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo and Ooh-La-La. Might there have been "a terrible mistake?"

Readers will likely predict what will happen--and be thrilled by the surprise twist. To Mrs. Poodle's and Mrs. Bulldog's credit, they let their pups decide how to handle the situation. Robinson plants subtle (visual) red herrings, such as a mother duck and her identical four ducklings enjoying the park. This is the story of choosing the home where you feel that you belong, not necessarily where you look like you belong. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

Sarah Massini's (Trixie Ten) artwork starring adorable toddlers of all shapes, sizes and skin tones steals the show in Jane Blatt's ode to the necessity of books.

The toddlers' books, too, come in all sizes for all sorts of occasions. A mouse and a curly-topped toddler open a giant book featuring an elephant, which fills the first spread ("Book big"), and on the next page, the mouse itself stars with a crawling blond child ("Book small"). With books "wide" (with a crocodile character) and books "tall" (a giraffe stars), and taking refuge inside a book fort that substitutes for a house of cards, toddlers gather around books in all kinds of settings. One especially endearing spread pictures a king-size bed full of toddlers in various states of sleepiness (yawning, stretching, slumbering), surrounded by the sheep they're meant to count (one book's title is Counting Sheep).

All of the toddlers (and nearly all of the supporting cast) gather for the final two-page spread. Littlest ones will enjoy discovering all the ways that books may be incorporated into their daily routines, and also searching for the little mouse in every illustration. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

An innovative group of middle graders outsmart a privileged bully in Varian Johnson's (Saving Maddie) funny, intelligent caper involving a Student Council election.

Jackson Greene is still subject to weekly meetings with Principal Kelsey after getting caught breaking into the man's office for the last stunt he pulled. But when Keith Sinclair, a sore loser after the "Blitz at the Fitz"--in which Jackson and Gaby de la Cruz outscored Sinclair's team--slides into the election for president of the Student Council, Jackson cannot sit by and watch Keith fix the voting against Gaby. Keith would strip most of the clubs of their budgets just for spite. The trouble is, Gaby is still upset with Jackson after the "Mid-Day PDA" (a smooch with Keith's significant other--payback by both of them to unscrupulous Keith). So Jackson pulls together a team--including his best friend, Charlie de la Cruz, Gaby's twin--to beat Keith at his own game. And Keith has plenty of enemies that the Greene team can enlist for the cause. Jackson recruits just the right people for his mission, from Hashemi Lariyani, a tech whiz and Star Trek fan, to Victor Cho, who helps bankroll their efforts. Girls come through, too: The Tech Club's Megan Feldman (who's also a beautiful cheerleader) and Gaby prove indispensible at the 11th hour.

This likable group of characters not only delivers a comeuppance to the school bully but also to a principal on the take and his prejudiced senior administrative assistant. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness