NEW BOOKS

The Nation City: Why Mayors Are Now Running the World Rahm Emanuel Knopf

At a time of anxiety about the effectiveness of our national government, Rahm Emanuel provides a clear vision, for both progressives and centrists, of how to get things done in America today—a bracing, optimistic vision of America's future from one of our most experienced and original political minds.

Emanuel argues that cities are the most ancient political institutions, dating back thousands of years and have reemerged as the nation-states of our time. He makes clear how mayors are accountable to their voters to a greater degree than any other elected officials and illuminates how progressives and centrists alike can best accomplish their goals by focusing their energies on local politics. The Nation City maps out a new, energizing, and hopeful way forward. Chasing Eden Renny Reynolds and Jack Staub Timber Press

One of the most spectacular private gardens in America, Hortulus Farm on Thompson Mill Road in Wrightstown, PA, is the masterpiece of Reynolds and Staub, renowned experts in the fields of design, gardening, and entertaining. It is beautifully captured in a lavishly illustrated roadmap to creating a personal Eden.

Hortulus Farm is a not only a model of classical tenets, but also a showcase of how traditions can be successfully broken. Gardeners will discover information on specific design principles, from vistas and allées to hardscaping and water features. They will also learn how to adapt these principles to less-than-optimal settings without sacrificing a site’s sense of place. Both aspirational and practical, Chasing Eden will inspire home gardeners to create their own earthly paradise.

Separation Anxiety Laura Zigman Ecco

Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan. Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking a nose dive. Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional “snackologist” who she can’t afford to divorce. On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself

Wickedly funny and surprisingly tender, Separation Anxiety offers a frank portrait of middle-aged limbo, examining the ebb and flow of life’s most important relationships. Tapping into the insecurities and anxieties that most of us keep under wraps, and with a voice that is at once gleefully irreverent and genuinely touching, Laura Zigman has crafted a new classic for anyone taking fumbling steps toward happiness.

The NRA: The Unauthorized History Frank Smyth Flatiron Books

For the first time, the definitive account of America’s most powerful, secretive, and controversial nonprofit, and how far it has strayed from its origins. As Smyth shows, the NRA evolved from an organization which supported most government efforts around gun control for a hundred years to one that resists all attempts to restrict guns in any way. At the same time, the organization has also buried its own remarkable history.

Here is that story, from the NRA’s surprising roots in post-Civil War New York City to the defining event that changed its culture forever—the so called “Cincinnati Revolt” of 1977—to the present day, where President Donald Trump is the most ardent champion in the White House the NRA has ever had. For anyone who has looked at access to guns in our society and asked “Why?”, this is an unmatched account of how we got here, and who got us here.

Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife Bart D. Ehrman Simon and Schuster

A New York Times bestselling historian takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from, and why do they endure?

What happens when we die? A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven, 58% in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught.

So where did the ideas come from? In clear and compelling terms, Bart Ehrman recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers.

Broken Don Winslow William Morrow

In six intense short novels connected by the themes of crime, corruption, vengeance, justice, loss, betrayal, guilt and redemption, Broken is #1 international bestseller Don Winslow at his nerveshattering, heart-stopping, heartbreaking best. In Broken, he creates a world of highlevel thieves and low-life crooks, obsessed cops struggling with life on and off the job, private detectives, dope dealers, bounty hunters and fugitives, the lost souls driving without headlights through the dark night on the American criminal highway.

With his trademark blend of insight, humanity, humor, action and the highest level of literary craftsmanship, Winslow delivers a collection of tales that will become classics of crime fiction. “One of America’s greatest storytellers.” – Stephen King No matter how you come into this world, you come out broken . . .