Nonfiction encompasses a wealth of reading possibilities - history, essays, memoirs, scientific research, travel guides, cookbooks - essentially everything that is based on fact, real events and real people. Recent nonfiction titles for the Kindle that you might have missed:
Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners, by Michael Erard. Free Press, 2012. Print Length: 320 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (9 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled."We all learn at least one language as children. But what does it take to learn six languages, twenty...seventy? Such feats of linguistic prowess provide a glimpse into what the human brain is capable of - and hold up a mirror to our desire to live without language barriers on a shrinking planet. In Babel No More, Michael Erard, 'a monolingual with benefits,' sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like the nineteenth-century Italian cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages and was such a legend that when he died people all over Europe vied for his skull." - Publisher.
Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now - As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It, by Craig Taylor. Ecco, 2012. Print Length: 448 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (10 reviews). Kindle edition $14.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...Craig Taylor has spent years traversing every corner of the city, getting to know the most interesting Londoners, including the voice of the London Underground, a West End rickshaw driver, an East End nightclub doorperson, a mounted soldier of the Queen's Life Guard at Buckingham Palace, and a couple who fell in love at the Tower of London - and now live there. With candor and humor, this diverse cast - rich and poor, old and young, native and immigrant, men and women (and even a Sarah who used to be a George) - shares indelible tales that capture the city as never before. Together, these voices paint a vivid, epic, and wholly original portrait of twenty-first-century London in all its breadth, from Notting Hill to Brixton, from Piccadilly Circus to Canary Wharf, from an airliner flying into London Heathrow Airport to Big Ben and Tower Bridge, and down to the deepest tunnels of the London Underground." - Publisher. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. Crown, 2012. Print Length: 352 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (36 reviews). Kindle edition $13.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled 'quiet,' it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society - from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer. Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people...Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts - from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. " - from the hardcover edition. Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith, by Father Robert Barron. Image, 2011. Print Length: 306 p. While readable on any Kindle, this title has complex layouts and has been optimized for reading on devices with larger screens. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (28 reviews). Kindle edition $14.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"What is the Catholicism? A 2,000 living tradition? A worldview? A way of life? A relationship? A mystery? In Catholicism Father Robert Barron examines all these questions and more, seeking to capture the body, heart and mind of the Catholic faith. Starting from the essential foundation of Jesus Christ’s incarnation, life, and teaching, Father Barron moves through the defining elements of Catholicism – from sacraments, worship, and prayer, to Mary, the Apostles, and Saints, to grace, salvation, heaven, and hell – using his distinct and dynamic grasp of art, literature, architecture, personal stories, Scripture, theology, philosophy, and history to present the Church to the world." - from the hardcover edition.Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired - and Secretive - Company Really Works, by Adam Lashinsky. Business Plus, 2012. Print Length: 240 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"If Apple is Silicon Valley's answer to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, then author Adam Lashinsky provides readers with a golden ticket to step inside. In this primer on leadership and innovation, the author will introduce readers to concepts like the 'DRI' (Apple's practice of assigning a Directly Responsible Individual to every task) and the Top 100 (an annual ritual in which 100 up-and-coming executives are tapped a la Skull & Bones for a secret retreat with company founder Steve Jobs). Based on numerous interviews, the book offers exclusive new information about how Apple innovates, deals with its suppliers and is handling the transition into the Post Jobs Era." - Publisher.The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs. Oxford University Press, 2011. Print Length: 171 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (11 reviews). Kindle edition $9.32. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In recent years, cultural commentators have sounded the alarm about the dire state of reading in America. Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way. In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah's Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you - the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice: read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame...an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers." - Publisher. _______________________
Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.
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