"In Cooked, Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements--fire, water, air, and earth--to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the...

When Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. "Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we'd know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle...

"Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would happen to an astronaut's body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral?In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician's knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious,...

"Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. Every fall, her father would pack the family into the car and they would drive across the country, in search of their next adventure. The seeds were planted: Steinem would spend much of her life on the road, as a journalist, organizer, activist, and speaker. In vivid stories that span an entire career, Steinem writes about her time on the campaign trail, from Bobby Kennedy to Hillary Clinton; her early exposure...

"In her debut collection, Made Holy, Emily Arnason Casey explores loss, longing, and the ever-shifting lens of time. Memory and the art of noticing form the basis of these lyric essays that meditate on family, addiction, motherhood, and home. Shifting nimbly between time and place--from the lakes of her childhood in Minnesota to the landscape of her adult life in Vermont--Casey returns to certain memories as though worrying a stone in search of answers....

In this landmark autobiography, five years in the making, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, elected to the Senate in 1962 tells his extraordinary personal story--of his legendary family, politics, and fifty years at the center of national events. He discusses his distinguished career, his relationships with his brothers John and Robert Kennedy, and the tragedies that have befallen his family over the many years.

In this gorgeous, moving memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caldwell reflects on her own coming-of-age in midlife, as she learns to open herself to the power and healing of sharing her life with a best friend.

Combines ethics, history, law, and science with a personal narrative to describe how to move beyond the awareness of racism and contribute to making society just and equitable.

Ashley Judd is best known as the acclaimed actress in films such as De Lovely and Double Jeopardy, but these days she is more likely to be found wading through an African refugee camp or Asian brothel than on a film set. For most of the past decade Judd has been visiting human rights hotspots around the world to spread the word of hope, health, and gender equality on behalf of one of the leading public health nonprofits, PSI/YouthAIDS. Her work has...

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private. A deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily...