The hidden history of the haunted and beloved city of New Orleans, told through the intersecting lives of nine remarkable characters.“Nine Lives is stunning work. Dan Baum has immersed himself in New Orleans, the most fascinating city in the United States, and illuminated it in a way that is as innovative as Tom Wolfe on hot rods and Truman Capote on a pair of murderers. Full of stylistic brilliance and deep insight and an overriding compassion, Nine L...

Dan Baum is a gun fanatic. He is also Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey. In Gun Guys, he takes us on a guided tour of gun stores and gun shows, shooting ranges and festivals, contests and auctions, trying to figure out what draws so many of us to guns in the first place. Is it just part of being American? Introducing a wide cast of characters, Baum shows both sides of the gun culture in America, bringing an entire world vividly to life, and in doing so helping to ...

How does Southern food look from the outside? The form is caught in constantly dueling stereotypes: It’s so often imagined as either the touchingly down-home feast or the heartstopping health scourge of a nation. But as any Southern transplant will tell you once they’ve spent time in the region, Southerners share their lives in food, with a complex mix of stories of belonging and not belonging and of traditions that form identities of many kinds.Cornbread Nation 7, edited ...

Nines Lives is a multivoiced biography of a dazzling, surreal, and imperiled city, told through the lives of nine unforgettable characters and bracketed by two epic storms: Hurricane Betsy, which transformed New Orleans in the 1960s, and Hurricane Katrina, which nearly destroyed it. Dan Baum brings this kaleidoscopic portrait to life, showing us what was lost in the storm and what remains to be saved.

Here is armed America—a land of machine-gun gatherings in the desert, lederhosened German shooting societies, feral-hog hunts in Texas, and Hollywood gun armories. Whether they’re collecting antique weapons, practicing concealed carry, or firing an AR-15 or a Glock at their local range, many Americans love guns—which horrifies and fascinates many other Americans, and much of the rest of the world. This lively, sometimes raucous book explores from the inside the American love affai...

A career-spanning anthology from the greatest traveler—and travel writer—of the twentieth century.The adventures of Patrick “Paddy” Leigh Fermor, Britain’s most beloved traveler, began in 1933, when he embarked on a walk from Holland to Constantinople—the entire length of Europe—at the tender age of eighteen. Sleeping in barns, monasteries, and, on occasion, aristocratic country houses, the young adventurer made way his through the Old World just as everything was ...

"An exquisitely detailed account of the 400-year history of Harlem." — Booklist, starred reviewHarlem is perhaps the most famous, iconic neighborhood in the United States. A bastion of freedom and the capital of Black America, Harlem's twentieth-century renaissance changed our arts, culture, and politics forever. But this is only one of the many chapters in a wonderfully rich and varied history. In Harlem, historian Jonathan Gill presents the firs...

A "masterful and moving" saga of 1909 New York City, where locals new and old seek to find their dreams—and themselves ( Booklist )."Terrific fun. . . . Historical fiction at its most entertaining." — New York Times Book ReviewA New York Times Notable BookIn a stunning work of imagination and memory, aut...

The renowned religious historian "preaches the gospel truth . . . explaining how the spiritual guide . . . came into being and evolved over the centuries" ( Vanity Fair ).As the single work at the heart of Christianity, the world's largest organized religion, the Bible is the spiritual guide for one out of every three people in the world. It is also the world's most widely distributed book and its bestselling, with an esti...

The international bestselling author records his many insights and adventures traversing the world by train in these 3 classic travel memoirs.The Great Railway BazaarIn 1973, Paul Theroux embarked on his now-legendary journey from the United Kingdom through Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Asia's fabled trains—the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the...

In two short essays and one long piece of reportage, author and screenwriter Mark Childress ("Crazy in Alabama," "One Mississippi," "Georgia Bottoms") explores New Orleans before, during, and after Katrina. Essays: "What It Means to Miss New Orleans" originally appeared in the New York Times, "Disaster Tourism" in Salon magazine, and "The Tragic City Laughs" in The Birmingham News. All proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity. Approximately 10,000 words, with illustrations.

Inspired by Depression-era travel guides, an anthology of essays on each of the fifty states, plus Washington, D.C., by some of America's finest writers.State by State is a panoramic portrait of America and an appreciation of all fifty states (and Washington, D.C.) by fifty-one of the most acclaimed writers in the nation.Anthony Bourdain chases the fumigation truck in Bergen County, New JerseyDave Eggers tells it straight: Illin...