Best Nonfiction of the Year... So Far
| Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed | Nine Lives by Dan Baum | 
The best book to read on our current financial crisis may well be one written about another economic collapse, almost a century ago. In Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, his first book after a career in public and private finance, Liaquat Ahamed returns from historical obscurity four men who wielded enormous power as central bankers for the Western powers after World War I--and used it disastrously, giving us a cautionary tale for our age.
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An outsider in a city that many outsiders have tried to understand, Dan Baum arrived in New Orleans to report on Katrina for The New Yorker and came to realize that the way to tell the story of the storm was to step back and tell the story of the city. From the '60s through the aftermath of the hurricane, Baum follows, with empathy and joy, nine lives that could only happen in the Crescent City.
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| Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford | Columbine by Dave Cullen | 
Philosopher and motorcycle repairman Matthew Crawford could be the Robert Pirsig for the information age, though the ideas he puts forth in Shop Class as Soulcraft are decidedly more practical than spiritual. His inquiry into the benefits of physical labor (versus the pitfalls of "knowledge" labor) is a refreshing and persuasive wake-up call to the increasingly more obvious ways in which our lives are--literally--no longer in our own hands.
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10 years after the events that defined an era of school violence, Dave Cullen returns in Columbine to re-examine the details of the tragedy and attempt to unearth the motivations of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Cullen draws mesmerizing portraits of two kids who, through divergent problems, end up at the same point, and reveals how the abundant clues they left in their wake were overlooked.
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| Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman | How Rome Fell by Adrian Goldsworthy | 
While this latest memoir from Susan Jane Gilman looks like a saucy account of international sexcapades, it quickly reveals its smarts and nails that cataclysmic collision of idealism and reality that so often characterizes young adulthood. It's 1986, and newly minted ivy league grads Susy and her friend Claire hatch a plan to circle the world, starting in China, just opened to tourists. So they gleefully leap from their comfort zone--and find themselves in freefall.
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A worthy successor to Caesar, Adrian Goldsworthy's How Rome Fell speeds the both the casual and Rome-savvy reader through 400 years of tumultuous and world-changing history in just over 400 pages, focusing on the forces that ultimately destroyed the Roman Empire while challenging traditional assumptions. Drawing parallels to modern societies might be tempting, but Goldsworthy is interested in Rome and resists foreboding or moralistic tones--even making a point of acknowledging the different dynamics that drive the rise and fall of current powers.
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| A Strange Eventful History by Michael Holroyd | The Unforgiving Minute by Craig M. Mullaney | 
There are few things harder to recreate than theatrical celebrity, but Michael Holroyd, the acclaimed biographer of Bernard Shaw, among others, has taken the lives of two of the 19th century's most famous Britons, actors Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, and fashioned a vast, fast-paced, and wonderfully enjoyable ensemble biography of the actors and their gifted and eccentric children that brings the daily dramas of the Victorian theater to vivid life.
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Craig Mullaney--valedictorian, West Point grad, and Rhodes Scholar--could not have been more decorated in his civilian life, but he knew his true test would come when he had to lead his platoon into battle in Afghanistan. There have been a remarkable number of soldier's stories coming out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Mullaney's suspenseful but reflective memoir of education and combat has quickly become one of the most acclaimed.
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| Ratio by Michael Ruhlman | When Skateboards Will Be Free by Said Sayrafiezadeh | 
A lot of cookbooks promise to show you how to cook like a chef, but
Michael Ruhlman's Ratio is the first book that actually delivers, giving home cooks the keys to the culinary kingdom by explaining how the basic formulas behind a single recipe can open the door to a thousand more.
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As the son of an Iranian father and Jewish-American mother--two souls united by a commitment to an impending socialist revolution--young Said Sayrafiezadeh spent his childhood working to make the comrades proud. When Skateboards Will Be Free describes a politically-charged childhood with an innocence that forces smiles in unexpected places and reveals the heartache of a home soaked in idealism.
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The Rest of the Best
Check out more of our favorites at the halfway point of 2009 featured in the lists below, and scroll down for a sneak preview of some our favorite new fall releases. The Big Burn by Timothy Egan
National Book Award winner Timothy Egan turns his keen narrative skills to the largest-ever forest fire in America, chronicling in intimate detail the people who fought it and survived to lay the the groundwork for conservation (available October 19).
American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
In his hilarious and moving memoir, TV's Craig Ferguson cops to having been, among other things, a chronic bed-wetter, a skirt-chaser, a punk rock musician, and an alcoholic. We'd add gifted storyteller and passionate American to the list
(available September 15).
Hope for Animals and Their World by Jane Goodall
As the pace of extinction accelerates and bad environmental news abounds, Jane Goodall offers inspiring examples of animal populations bouncing back from the brink of extinction in Hope for Animals and Their World (available September 2).
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
The inspiring story of William Kamkwamba, a self-taught inventor who created a better life for his family through old bicycle parts and PVC pipe, is a true tale of hope and perseverance (available September 29).
Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser
Ever hear of the stunningly brilliant Clarice Lispector? Not to worry. Harper's columnist Benjamin Moser has done the heavy lifting for you in his remarkable and highly readable biography of the life and times of this legendary figure of Brazilian arts and letters (available August 4).
The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons
Mike Dunleavy and Isiah Thomas beware: the self-made blogger who has become ESPN's voice of the fan (and the L.A. Clippers' second-most-famous season-ticket holder) releases his long-awaited book on the NBA (available October 27).
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