Mary Collins Capital Books ($16.95) by Scott F. Parker The kinds of facts a reader finds in Mary Collins’s American Idle are easy enough to predict (Americans

Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc Kamera Books ($24.95) by Emy Farley Animation is a lively and innovative art form that, when done well, can

Carol Kaesuk Yoon W. W. Norton & Co. ($27.95) by Ryder W. Miller In Naming Nature, science reporter Carol Kaesuk Yoon tells a fascinating story about

Jean-Luc Nancy translated by Charlotte Mandel Fordham University Press ($16) by Charisse Gendron Best known, with his colleague Maurice Blanchot, for his investigation of the

Sharon Doubiago Wild Ocean Press ($20) by Dottie Payne “My soul looks back and wonders how I got over.” —James Baldwin Consider how the seminal

James Rosenquist with David Dalton Knopf ($50) by Mason Riddle In his autobiography, Painting Below Zero, American artist James Rosenquist offers a darting account of his

Mircea Eliade translated by Mac Linscott Ricketts State University of New York Press ($24.95) by Spencer Dew “The blank spaces in a private diary are

Carole A. Travis-Henikoff Santa Monica Press ($24.95) by Kelly Everding Discomfort with death has become ingrained in the modern American psyche. Unless you are a

Juliet Koss University of Minnesota Press ($29.50) by John Pistelli In 1849, fired by the ideals of the democratic revolutions that erupted across the European

Ben Yagoda Riverhead Books ($25.95) by Don Messerschmidt A definitive study of the art of autobiography, Ben Yagoda’s Memoirtakes an historical approach to the subject. Its comprehensive