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Bill Bryson is known for exploring far-flung places, but he found inspiration for his most recent book after a hike through his own old, Victorian house in England. At Home: A Short History of Private Life explores the history of domesticity — from making beds, to the long history of hallways.

Reserved, remote, elusive and enigmatic, the childless Father of Our Country seems to many of us to have been born middle-aged, in uniform, with powdered hair and false teeth, atop his famous steed, Old Nelson. But in Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow makes the first president human again.

In fiction, Dominick Dunne's posthumous novel skewers the Manhattan elite he covered for Vanity Fair, while Wicked author Gregory Maguire reimagines "The Little Match Girl." In nonfiction, Ron Paul argues we should End the Fed, while a historian shows how Homer's view of war still rings true.

Gustave Flaubert was an apostle of le mot juste — using exactly the right word. Lydia Davis elegantly translates his masterpiece, Madame Bovary, in the same spirit. Davis' words lure readers back into Emma Bovary's sexy, scandalous and tragic tale.

Economist Robert Reich argues that the economy isn't going to get moving again until we address a fundamental problem: the growing concentration of wealth and income among the richest Americans. He explains his fears for America's economic recovery in Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future.

How do you talk people out of truly desperate situations? Gary Noesner, who spent 30 years as a hostage negotiator for the FBI, details some of his most noteworthy cases and explains the techniques he used to defuse tense, potentially life-threatening encounters.

For most of his life, music critic Tim Page felt like an outsider. Restless and isolated, he was uneasy around others. Finally, when he was 45, Page was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.

In Sarah, Robert Gottlieb paints an elegant and engaging portrait worthy of the legendary French actress. The biography separates fact from fiction — (she did, in fact, keep a coffin in her bedroom, and have an affair with a 70-year-old Victor Hugo) — to tell the tale of a beloved, masterful artist.

In her debut novel, Vida, Patricia Engel explores one woman's struggle to define her own life in a hard-boiled world of loss and disappointment. With searing and unsentimental prose, Engel demonstrates just how easy it is to stiffen into a person you never wanted to be.

In the spring of 1970, a daring new product hit American newsstands. It was called National Lampoon, and it made its name with sex- and drug-laden satire of everyday American life. Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead is Lampoon contributor Rick Meyerowitz's account of the magazine's best years.