Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson is a master class in riveting storytelling, as well as an important event in world history. 

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack.

 Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.

If you have any interest in history, look to Erik Larson first! He is an amazing writer who brings history alive. 

Larson, Erik. (2015). Dead Wake. New York: Crown Publishing.

Bitch: On the Female of the Species

Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke is an update to Darwin's Victorian view for biology across species.

Cooke, a well-known science writer spent two years interviewing biologists in many, many fields across the fauna of our planet. Building on some of these scientists, Cooke has created an overview of the errors of Charles Darwin - looking at the male of the species as the only factor while also ignoring any animals who did not fit his view of the sexes.

Fans of Mary Roach and Bill Bryson who love animals will adore this book. Cooke presents science for the lay reader with care and humor. 

Read this book if you live on the planet Earth.

Cooke, Lucy. (2023). Bitch: On the Female of the Species. New York; Basic Books.

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Earth's Past Mass Extinctions

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Earth's Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen tells the history of our planet from the End-Ordovician to the present, exploring the causes of the five mass extinctions that have occurred on Earth.

This book is a fascinating look at the life on our planet from the beginning. With each extinction event, different species developed or sometimes grew exponentially in size. From single celled organisms to life in the oceans and on land, to the dinosaurs to humans, this is a great books. Both filled with information and easy to read. 

If you live on this planet, this book is for you. 

Brannen, Peter. (2017). The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Earth's Past Mass Extinctions. New York: Ecco.

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey is a nonfiction trill as she follows the possibility of massive waves around the globe with surfers, scientists, insurance agents and wreck salvagers.

Think of the wave at the end of Point Break - so big it is impossible to ride or even survive. Now consider that as larger waves were discovered by surfers, they adapted to the greater speed. Big wave surfers are towed to the wave crest by jet skis. 

What causes these waves? And the waves that are said to have eaten ships in the part of the map that used to say, "There be monsters?" And how can they be predicted for ships' safety?

Casey tells us the answers and current theories in this wonderful book. From Hawaii with Laird Hamilton to South Africa with a man who salvages ships in the most likely place for them to sink on the planet, she breaks down what is known and what it still to discover about the ocean and its waves, moods and forces.

If you are looking for an engaging, heart-pumping read in nonfiction, I wholly recommend this book.

Casey, Susan. (2010). The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean. New York: Doubleday.

The Sun is a Compass: My 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds

The Sun is a Compass: My 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds by Caroline Van Hemert is the story of two people traveling from Bellingham, Washington to the Arctic Circle, ending in Kotzebue wholly under their own power - rowing, skiing, paddling, hiking.

After finishing a degree in biology, that kept her in the lab so long that she needed a trip to remind her of her love of birds and nature. Joined by her husband, Pat, a builder who designed and built his first cabin in Alaska at nineteen, they came up with an ambitious route that they tackled in 2012.

Traveling through the Inside Passage, Coast Mountains, Yukon River, Yukon, Mackenzie Delta, Artic Coast, Brooks Range and Noatak River this was an incredible jouney.

Van Hemert includes information on the birds they see along the way, including the Roufus Hummingbird who has the longest documented migration, there is so much in this adventure for bird lovers. 

Van Hemert, Caroline. (2019). The Sun is a Compass. New York: Little, Brown Sparks. 

The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra

The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra by Alex Messenger is a harrowing tale set in a beautiful topography. 

After growing up going to kayaking camp each summer, Alex Messenger joins four other high school seniors and one adult for a six hundred mile trek / paddle across the Canadian taiga, tundra and lakes in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. 

The group is transported by small plane to Wholdia Lake to start their adventure. The planed route is forty-two days long. They will not likely see any other humans until they overlap with a group of young women doing a different path that leads to the same final village. 

The trip is gorgeous. It is land that few people see. The lakes and portages are beautifully described. It is the trip of a lifetime.

Then on the twenty-ninth day, a day of rest, Alex takes a short walk on an island in the middle of a huge lake. He has napped and missed the rest of the group who have just returned from their walk. He plans to climb the hill and get some photographs of the landscape.  

It is rate to even see a grizzly bear. The team had seen two already on the trail - both a safe distance away. But this day Alex surprises one. He fights back, using his hard-sided camera case to swing at the bear. But he is badly hurt. When he comes to, with no idea how long he was unconscious, he can see the bear leaving from the corner of his eye. 

Once the bear is out of site, Alex used his last adrenaline to get back to camp. Then he has to decide if his injuries can be taken care of in the wild, or a helicopter or plane should pick him up. The next part of the trek includes daily check ins on the satellite phone, consulting with doctors in Minnesota, where the guys live. Each day is a balance between staying (thought to be better for PTS) or getting medical attention from an actual doctor. 

Messenger used his journals and the input of his trip mates to put together his incredible story. Even in spite of the attack, after reading this, I would jump at the chance to canoe though Canada! Read this book for an amazing, real-life, adventure. 

Messenger, Alex. (2019). The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra. Oregon: Blackstone Publishing.

Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World

Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett tells the tale of the Grafton's shipwreck on the Auckland Islands, 285 miles from New Zealand in the year 1864.

Two businessmen in Sydney came up with the idea of a crew sailing to an uninhabited island in the frozen ocean south of Australia and New Zealand, find a rumored mine and fill the ship with wealth. Captain Musgrave, one of the men's nephew, and Francoise Raynal set about finding a small ship and a crew.

Joined by a cook and two seaman, the ship consists of men from 4 nations (England, France, Azores, and Norway), they embark on a get-rich-quick scheme that has them sailing some of the most dangerous waters on the planet.

Making it safely to the chosen island, there is no sign of a mine. To make up some of the revenue expended, the Musgrave and Raynal decide to stop in the Aucklands to hunt seals - something none of them has any experience with - to fill the ship.

A storm dashes them into the rocks of an island made of cliffs - scoured year round by wind and rain. Luckily, the ship remains partially intact, allowing them to make is safely to shore and take some supplies. What follows is a harrowing tale of survival accomplished by putting aside rank and focusing on needs, starting with building a shelter.

Told from survivor journals, and including the history of the Auckland Islands, the tale of the Grafton crew's two years on an inhospitable island is fascinating. The ingenuity of the crew and the ability to scavenge from the ship for materials to alter into tools is incredible. One of the best survival stories I have read.

Druett, Joan (2007). Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books.

Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering

Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering by Maurice Isserman is the history of mankind trying to conquer nature. From a man in the first colonies on North America through the present, this history tells of the reasons, the technical advances and the exploration of the higher altitudes.

When a man in the Massachusetts Bay colony wanted to walk up a mountain, the native guides he hired would not join him in the land they believed belonged to the evil spirits. His fellow colonists thought him very odd. He was the first man to climb up Mt Washington, then called Agiocochook.

Filled with familiar names in history, Isserman has written a wonderful book of exploration, covering walking, hiking and climbing. If you are a hiker, this is your favorite book! If not, you will want to ge out in nature when you are done reading. Look for names like John Muir, Annie Peck, John C Fremont, Yvon Chouinard and more.

Isserman, Maurice. (2016). Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering. New York: W W Norton & Co.

Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II

Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff is the tale of a series of plane crashes in Greenland near the end of WWII. As well as the current day plan to recover a Grumman Duck amphibious airplane lost on the ice with three Coast Guard men.

In WWII the United States had bases in Greenland, both to keep the Atlantic free of German boats and U-boats and used as a stop while ferrying planes to England. When a cargo plane goes down on the Ice Cap, a few search planes are sent to look for it. These planes include a B-17 bomber with 9 on board. Instead of finding sign of the cargo plane, the B-17 crashes. What follows is a series of rescue attempts in a climate not made for man or machine.

The B-17 will not be the last plane to crash in the Winter of 1942-1943. An amphibious plane called the Grumman Duck will also become lost – after one successful rescue of part of the crew of the B-17.

In 2012 an expedition back to Greenland was approved by the Coast Guard to find the Duck and bring back the missing men – the only MIA Coast Guardsmen unaccounted for. Zuckoff attaches himself to the expedition, becoming a subject in his own book.

The tale of the men trapped on the Ice Cap is one with the suspense of how and if they will survive. Zuckoff’s nonfiction tale flows with the narration of a good novel. If you are a fan of WWII, planes, extreme lands or daring rescues, this is the book for you!

Zuckoff, Mitchell (2014). Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II. New York: Harper.

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom - and Revenge by Edward Kritzler is the history of the Jewish men who traveled with explorers from Europe in the hopes of finding a land where their people could be safe and free.

In the fifteenth century, many Jews fled Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, others become Conversos. At the time, it was not safe for Jews anywhere in Europe - where they were scattered after being expelled from the land of what is now Israel with the destruction of the Second Temple. There were restrictions on where they could live, the type of jobs they could hold (which were often in commerce as the Christians of the time felt the fields were below them), and with whom they could interact. This was true all over Western Europe, creating a kind of loose alliance of people who knew they were the only ones who would look out for each other.

With the explorers of the new world, each ship had a Jewish man aboard - both doing his job and hoping to discover a land where he could move his family to safety.

During this time, the first country to openly welcome Jewish people, Holland, let to the oldest Jewish community in Europe, in Amsterdam. Rabbi Samuel Palanche ran the community as well as being an explorer and pirate who participated in many raids against the Spanish and visits to North and South America.

This book includes great tales of part of Jewish history few know about. Including in places like Jamaica, Barbados, Brazil, and the southern United States. Even the famous savior of New Orleans Lafayette is included. If you are interested in history or pirates, this is a must read.

Kritzler, Edward. (2008). Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean. New York: Anchor Books.

Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens by Steve Olson is an account of the worst volcanic event in US history and its scientific and social backstory.

For months in early 1980 the Cascadia fault line under Mount St. Helens in the southwest Washington state began rumbling - concerning scientists and nearby residents and exciting media and sightseers. Scientists (volcanologists) at the time new little about the type of eruption that was to happen, but swarmed the area trying to both study the mountain data and give locals a warning if any large-scale events.

The government officials danced between restricting access to potentially dangerous area and popularity with hikers and residents. After a couple of weeks of shaking and some ash expulsion, things seemed to quiet down. But on one side of mountain a bulge began to grow. At some point, it could slide downhill or, if enough pressure built, erupt.

On the morning of Sunday, May 18, 1980 at 8:33am Mount St. Helens exploded. Instead of the stereotypical eruption straight up into the air, the bulge opened and slid, with a destructive, boiling cloud heading north, northeast and northwest. The sideways angle allowing the destruction to travel farther that anyone thought possible.

Olson tells the story of the people in the area that morning, including the 57 people killed and the survivors to made it through the eruption / ash storm, but starting earlier with the lumber tycoon who owned miles of forest around the mountain and early efforts to protect our wild land. Eruption is a great narrative nonfiction book that brings both the science and people of the Mount St. Helens 1980 eruption to life.

I remember where I was the day it erupted. I was 10 years old, in third grade, living in a small town in Northern California. A friend and I were playing in the backyard. The sky filled with ash that day - giant flakes - as the sun dimmed even though we were about 700 miles south of Mount St. Helens. Ash affected eleven US states and five Canadian provinces. I cannot fathom the power behind such an event.

Olson, Steve. (2016). Eruption. New York: WW Norton and Company, Inc.

Honor Girl

Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash is an autobiographical graphic novel of the summer she figured out that she likes girls - and the first girl she loved.

Maggie spent every summer at Camp Bellflower for Girls in Appalachia. Most of the other girls at the camp are from Kentucky, but her parents drive her from Atlanta. Her mother and her grandmother went to Camp Bellflower and Maggie is sure that nothing has changed in the entire history of the camp.

Each morning the girls start their day with a Civil War reenactment, where they yell Gray and Blue at each other for twenty minutes. The girls are separated by age and choose activities for the summer. Maggie is improving her shooting skills and is one of two girls competing for an award.

Maggie is joined by a cast of girls, from her best friend Shannon, to her new friend Tennis Bethany, to her first love Erin, in this lovely coming out story. Thrash tells her story with wit and sensitivity. Though it has a different feel, fans of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home will delight this novel.

Thrash, Maggie. (2015). Honor Girl. New York: Candlewick Press.

The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir

The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir by Gaby Rodriguez is the story of one young woman faking a pregnancy during high school to study people's reactions.

Gaby Rodriguez grew up in a family where her older siblings were setting a trend of becoming teen parents. Gaby felt like it was expected that she would follow this pattern, but she had already decided she wanted to go a different route - college.

When considering her upcoming senior project - on a topic of her choosing - one of her brothers made a comment. He said that he drank because his father drank. It was genetic. He got Gaby to thinking about who people are perceived by others and the stereotypes that form - and that people did not have to live up to.

Convincing her school to let her do the project, she told only a few people what she was planning. Her boyfriend had to be in on the secret. Her mother knew. And one sister and one friend from school who could keep track of the comments said about her. Gaby was convinced she could handle the comments because the pregnancy would not be real.

The Pregnancy Project is the story of Gaby's project and how people reacted - both during and after she announced the truth. Her project gained so much attention that she ended up on nation wide news and Lifetime made a movie about her story.

Rodriguez, Gaby and Jenna Glatzer. (2012). The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir. New York: Simon and Schuster.

A House in the Sky: A Memoir

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett is a memoir of a time when Amanda was kidnapped and held for ransom in Somalia.

At nineteen, Amanda decided she wanted to travel. She saved money earned as a cocktail waitress and she and her boyfriend went to Venezuela - where she became enamored of discovering new places.

For the next few years Lindhout alternately spent enough time at home in Canada to save money then spent it on travel. By 2008 she had been to more than forty countries. Along the way she had met some great people who became her friends. One, Nigel, was a photographer and gave her the idea to pursue a job that could be part travel.

Amanda worked a freelance journalist and photographer, and even as a news anchor for an English language station in Baghdad.

In August of 2008, she traveled to Somalia to follow a story on the civil war there. Nigel flew in to join her. As with any country where it is dangerous for Westerners to travel, she wisely found a guide to keep them safe and help plan their days. After arriving in Mogadishu, they planned to visit a refugee camp that was helping people displaced by the war and differing factions fighting in the city. On the way to that camp, their car was stopped by men with guns.

Amanda, Nigel and their three guides were kidnapped. A ransom of 1.5 million dollars was demanded for the release of each Amanda and Nigel. Amanda's family had no where near that amount of money. What followed was more than a year of captivity.

Written in a fast-paced, gripping narrative, A House in the Sky is engrossing and will keep readers up late while they devour the pages. Knowing Amanda survived to write a book does little to ease the tension you will feel while reading. Read this gut-wrenching tribute to the human spirit.

Lindhout, Amanda and Sara Corbett. (2013). A House in the Sky. New York: Scribner.

Bomb

Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin is a book of science, espionage and war.

In 1938 a German chemist discovered it was possible to split an atom - by putting uranium next to radioactive material - a thing previously thought of as impossible. Because this phenomenal advancement in physics happened while Nazi Germany was attempting to take over Europe, scientists thought about how to harness the energy created during the fission.

Sheinkin looks at the Manhattan Project. The best physicists and chemists collected by the government to work on a secret weapon in the American Southwest. He describes the British and Norwegian plan to sabotage the German effort to create a weapon - including kidnapping prominent German scientists. And third, an exploration of Soviet attempt to steal the bomb's plans from the Americans.

Sheinkin is a masterful researcher and storyteller. His narrative nonfiction flows in a way that few others writing for children have achieved (others include Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Jim Murphy). This fascinating time in history comes alive in this book.

Sheinkin, Steve. (2012). Bomb. New York: Roaring Book Press.

The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson is the story of the Chicago World Fair and one of the first known serial killers in the United States.

After the Paris World Fair, that included the impossible construction of the Eiffel Tower, some people felt that the United States needed to answer with an event of our own to show our place in the world. A few different cities put their names in the hat and Congress voted to have the Fair in Chicago.

The design of the grounds, from where to build, to what to build and how to surpass the Paris event was rife with so many committees that by the time decisions were made there was doubt about time left to build. Architects Root and Burnham who were the top architects in Chicago were put in charge. They recruited architects from around the country and the landscape architect Olmsted. The one decision that had left to be made was who was going to build something that could surpass the Eiffel Tower?

While the Fair grounds began construction, a man calling himself H.H. Holmes moved to Chicago. Through dishonest that had not yet been seen in business, Holmes build himself a small empire beginning with the purchase of a pharmacy. Eventually he built his own building with hidden rooms. Not only was he a dishonest business man who made up people on whom to pile debt, people had a tendency to disappear around him.

Larson is a master story teller and a consummate researcher. His narrative nonfiction flows in a way that others strive to match. If he writes about anything you are remotely interested in, buy the book.

Larson, Erik. (2003). The Devil in the White City. New York: Vintage Books.

The Ship and the Storm

The Ship and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome by Jim Carrier is the story of a category 5 hurricane that destroyed much of the Caribbean in 1998.

The Windjammer Barefoot Cruise ship Fantome was a popular sailing ship in the eastern Caribbean run by a charismatic captain. Many of the passengers became Windjammer fans for life and booked multiple cruises on the 1927 tall ship.

In many ways this book is an update in weather science and knowledge from the book Isaac's Storm which tells of a hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. And in spite of 100 years of progress, determining the course and strength of a tropical storm is still not exact.

The unpredictable nature of Mitch combined with a fairly trapped position for a ship of its size caught the Fantome in a terrible position with nowhere to shelter. Trying to run from the storm to open sea, but being followed by the storm resulted in the loss of the ship and all 31 crew when the eye of Mitch hovered over the island of Guanaja for 27 hours.

Carrier wrote an easily readable narrative nonfiction book filled with both personal accounts and science of weather. Anyone who has lived where hurricanes flourish would relate to the tales in this book. And weather nerds will love it.

Carrier, Jim. (2001). The Ship and the Storm. New York: Harvest Books.

The Murder of the Century

The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age of Crime that Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins is a narrative nonfiction look at a grisly murder in 1897 that turned New York City into chaos and allowed a change of guard in the newspaper world.

In June of 1897, parts of a body are found floating in the Hudson followed by other parts from the same body turning up in Harlem. Identifying the body, without its head, became the next order of business. Put together painstakingly due to the science available in that time period, the newspapers (and to less a degree, the police) build a case for no only who the murdered man was, but who killed him.

At the time, the largest circulating newspaper in New York was Joseph Pulitzer's World battled with the new Journal owned by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst went so far as to hire a team of detectives to search for clues. And the murder gave them the canvas to create a new style of journalism - the tabloid. News with more story than fact.

Collins has done extensive research of the time period and collected many sides to the story of the murder of the century. Though I do not usually read true crime novels, this is more of a complex look at our history using the lens of the one murder.

Collins, Paul. (2011). Murder of the Century. New York: Broadway Paperbacks.

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky recounts the history of New York and the surrounding waterways...and how we destroyed an ecological marvel to rival the Everglades.

Told from the time of the first European contact with the Lenape Indians up through the year 1999, Kurlansky explains the history of New Yorks estuaries through the life and consumption of oysters. At one time New York was famous for oysters, which grew in most of the waterway from the Hudson to the Gowanus canal. At one time oysters were New York's biggest export.

Oysters, along with apparently being delicious, clean the water in which they live. They pull in sea water and extract the nutrients expelling the water cleaner than it was.But with colonization and the influx of more people than the land was used to supporting, plus their habit of dumping waste and sewage in the water, the beautiful and clean water around Manhattan began to show signs of oyster die off.


Highlighting some of the many colorful characters who helped shape the city of New York, Kurlansky tells the ecological impact of the area. He shows how a rich, beautiful estuary can become what it is today - including the once oyster-rich Gowanus canal that is now a Superfund site of toxic waste. The Big Oyster is a fascinating and important read for all New Yorkers.

Kurlansky, Mark. (2006). The Big Oyster. New York: Random House.

Isaac's Storm

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson is the story of man's quest to understand (and conquer) weather.

In September 1900 a massive hurricane hit Galveston, Texas killing over 6000 people and destroying most of the island. At the time, the US Weather Bureau was not doing much more than recording daily weather around the country. It was not issuing predictions or forecasts because of past criticism. So even though there was some forewarning in the skies around Cuba and in the view from the shore of Galveston, the people were not told of a likely coming disaster.

Larson uses the 1900 Galveston Hurricane (they were not yet given names unless someone famous was associated with them) as the focal point to look back and forward in time in man's struggle to understand weather. Told in a flowing narrative that reads like fiction but is packed with information, Isaac's Storm is a fascinating read for anyone who have ever experience extreme tropical weather. This book is informative and gives readers a basic, if essential, understanding of the forces that combine to create our world's deadliest storms. And now that those storms are reaching new and terrifying locations, everyone should read it. (A new edition including Hurricane Katrina and Super Storm Sandy would be greatly coveted. Hint. Hint.)
 
Larson, Erik. (1999). Isaac's Storm. New York: Vintage Books.