A Wide Range

To learn more about the books to your left, roll over their covers with your mouse.

Mark Adams

Mr. America

Harper/HarperCollins

This biography by journalist Mark Adams pulls Bernarr Macfadden, the eccentric health guru and rags-to-riches millionaire of his day, out of historical obscurity.  Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet has been praised by Thomas Mallon and Elizabeth Gilbert, who called it “a delightful and colorful piece of true Americana.”  It received raves in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Booklist says “Bravo to Adams for enabling the rediscovery of this phenomenal American.”  Film rights were optioned by Meredith Viera.

Michael Meyer

The Year That Changed the World

Scribner/Simon & Schuster

In this groundbreaking account of the events of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, author Michael Meyer—who was then Newsweek’s bureau chief for Germany, the Balkans, and Central Europe and is now the Director of Communications at the U.N.—portrays the exhilaration and enthusiasm of the time and rewrites an American historical myth that plagues our political dealings today.  The Year That Changed the World has received advanced praise from James Hoge of Foreign Affairs. Author and commentator Fareed Zakaria calls it “a riveting, rollicking read with many surprises along the way.”

Michael S. Malone

Bill and Dave

Portfolio/Penguin

In Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company, one of America’s most distinguished technology journalists tells the definitive history of Hewlett-Packard—from start-up to technological giant.  Michael S. Malone reveals what was really behind the HP Way in what the San Jose Mercury News calls “the best account so far of the lives of the two men who started Silicon Valley and created many of its lasting traditions and institutions.” According to Jim Collins, the book “does the legacy of Hewlett and Packard a great service….I hope it inspires a whole new generation of entrepreneurs to rise to the standards set by these two remarkable leaders.”

Erik Calonius

The Wanderer

St. Martin's Press

This meticulously researched work of history tells the story of a luxury yacht-turned-slaver which transported four hundred African slaves to Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1858, fifty years after the African slave trade had been outlawed.  Bestselling author Hampton Sides says the book is “rich in atmosphere, sprung with surprises, my favorite kind of history: a voyage into the turbid waters of a past we thought we knew, a past we scarcely could have imagined.”  Calonius is the former Miami Bureau Chief for Newsweek.

Rick Beyer

The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told

Harper/HarperCollins

Award-winning documentary producer and longtime history buff Rick Beyer reaches into the archives of The History Channel to uncover funny, interesting, and just plain strange presidential anecdotes.   The Greatest…Stories Never Told series—which includes books on topics as varied as war stories, and the histories of science and music—has been featured by the Charlotte Observer, the Chicago Tribune, Fox & Friends, NPR, and CNN Headline News.

Price Cobbs

My American Life

Atria/Simon & Schuster

Dr. Price M. Cobbs is a prominent American psychiatrist, a much sought-after lecturer and management consultant, and co-author of the 1968 breakout bestseller Black Rage.  In his compelling memoir, My American Life: From Rage to Entitlement, Cobbs recounts his own journey to success as well as America’s long trek away from racism.  Publishers Weekly calls My American Life “a nuanced portrait of mid-twentieth-century racial consciousness,” and the book has been praised by Derrick Bell and Herb Boyd.