NEW BOOKS

Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper (Harper; $30)

When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal.Now, the Commodore’s great-great-greatgrandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family’s empire, basked in the Commodore’s wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other.

Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan (Mariner Books; $31.50)

Say “Dorie Greenspan” and think baking. The renowned author of thirteen cookbooks and winner of five James Beard and two IACP awards offers a collection that celebrates the sweet, the savory, and the simple. Every recipe is signature Dorie: easy—beginners can ace every technique in this book—and accessible, made with everyday ingredients. You’ll find ingenious twists like Berry Biscuits. Footlong cheese sticks made with cream puff dough. Apple pie with browned butter spiced like warm mulled cider. A s’mores ice cream cake with chocolate sauce, salty peanuts, and toasted marshmallows. It’s a book of simple yet sophisticated baking. The recipes are unexpected. And there are “Sweethearts” throughout, mini collections of Dorie’s all-time favorites. Don’t miss the meringue Little Marvels or the Double-Decker Caramel Cake. Like all of Dorie’s recipes, they lend themselves to being remade, refashioned, and riffed on. Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever by Robin Wigglesworth (Portfolio; $30)

From the Financial Times’s global finance correspondent, the incredible true story of the iconoclastic geeks who defied conventional wisdom and endured Wall Street’s scorn to launch the index fund revolution, democratizing investing and saving hundreds of billions of dollars in fees that would have otherwise lined fat cats’ pockets. Fifty years ago, the Manhattan Project of money management was quietly assembled in the financial industry’s backwaters, unified by the heretical idea that even many of the world’s finest investors couldn’t beat the market in the long run.

The motley crew of nerds—including economist wunderkind Gene Fama, humiliated industry executive Jack Bogle, bull-headed and computer-obsessive John McQuown, and avuncular former WWII submariner Nate Most—succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Passive investing now accounts for more than $20 trillion, equal to the entire gross domestic product of the US, and is today a force reshaping markets, finance and even capitalism itself in myriad subtle but pivotal ways.

Feels Like Home: Relaxed Interiors for a Meaningful Life by Lauren Liess (Abrams; $45)

A house is a feeling. That is the conceit behind designer Lauren Liess’s third book, which explores the emotional connection between the way we decorate our homes and our daily lives. She advises readers to think beyond just the objects in their homes and explore how design informs an intentional, happy, and authentic life. The book includes practical design information, with never-beforeseen case studies on a variety of homes including a beach cottage, a farmhouse, a home in the woods, a Spanish colonial, and other more traditional homes. Each case study explores a hardworking design aspect (such as proportion, scale, and color), while also focusing on the emotional aspect of the home. The chapters are inspired by the following themes: comfort, calm, excitement, belonging, carefree, love, and contentment. Enemy at the Gates by Vince Flynn (Atria; $28.99)

Mitch Rapp has worked for a number of presidents over his career, but Anthony Cook is unlike any he’s encountered before. Cunning and autocratic, he feels no loyalty to America’s institutions and is distrustful of the influence Rapp and CIA director Irene Kennedy have in Washington. When Kennedy discovers evidence of a mole scouring the Agency’s database for sensitive information on Nicholas Ward, the world’s first trillionaire, she convinces Rapp to take a job protecting him. In doing so, he finds himself walking an impossible tightrope: Keep the man alive, but also use him as bait to uncover a traitor who has seemingly unlimited access to government secrets.

As the attacks on Ward become increasingly dire, Rapp and Kennedy are dragged into a world where the lines between governments, multinational corporations, and the hyperwealthy fade. An environment in which liberty, nationality, and loyalty are meaningless. Only the pursuit of power remains.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty (Henry Holt and Co.; $22.99)

The Delaney family love one another dearly―it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? This is the dilemma facing Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke, the four grown Delaney siblings. One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on parents Stan and Joy Delaney’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

When Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure― but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.

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