new nonfiction

The stunning, never before told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the Amazon

In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself, along with its golf courses, ice-cream shops, bandstands, indoor plumbing, and Model Ts rolling down broad streets. Fordlandia, as the settlement was called, quickly became the site of an epic clash. On one side was the car magnate, lean, austere, the man who reduced industrial production to its simplest motions; on the other, the Amazon, lush, extravagant, the most complex ecological system on the planet. Ford’s early success in imposing time clocks and square dances on the jungle soon collapsed, as indigenous workers, rejecting his midwestern Puritanism, turned the place into a ribald tropical boomtown. Fordlandia’s eventual demise as a rubber plantation foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest. More than a parable of one man’s arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world, Fordlandia depicts a desperate quest to salvage the bygone America that the Ford factory system did much to dispatch. As Greg Grandin shows in this gripping and mordantly observed history

From living the rock star life to wading through the world's war zones, refugee camps, and brothels, Aaron Cohen left behind his closest friends, his dying father, and his partnership with a legendary musician to take on treacherous rescue missions in search of modern-day slaves Years of drug addiction and late-night partying led Aaron Cohen, one-time best friend and business partner to Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, on a path of spiritual discovery that has both transformed and endangered his life -- a path that has drawn him into the shantytowns of Cambodia and the hidden brothels of Latin America, across the sweltering savannahs of Sudan, up to the Dalai Lama's Himalayan retreat, and through the unforgiving jungles of Burma and the deserts of Iraq. At a time when more people than ever before are enslaved somewhere on the planet, Aaron Cohen is a slave hunter -- working to find and free human beings from various forms of bondage. The flesh trade is the world's fastest-growing and most deadly illegal enterprise -- even more profitable and easier to hide than guns, drugs, and precious gems. Free from diplomatic restrictions and political agendas, Cohen is a unique asset to government agencies, think tanks, and anti-slavery organizations. He navigates the oppressive territory of pimps and drug lords, cloaked in the all-too-familiar world of substance abuse, oversized egos, and changing rules. Working alone and posing as a sex tourist, he slips into brothels, urged by madams to select from a lineup of women and girls as young as six. Sometimes he can save them from their captors, but more often than not, he must leave them behind, taking only the evidence he hopes will eventually lead to their rescue. Struggling to make ends meet on his own negligible salary, Cohen faces temptations few could resist and witnesses atrocities his friends and family cannot understand. And though many assignments over the years carry him away from his ailing father, his commitment to protect, assist, and empower human trafficking victims -- and to disrupt the patterns that lead to all forms of enslavement -- is unyielding.In a remarkable exposé of a sinister trade most of us will never experience first-hand, rocker-turned-antislavery activist Aaron Cohen reveals the fast-paced, timely, inspiring, and unforgettable story of a real life Slave Hunter.


In our ecologically aware times, composting is one smart way to minimize our carbon footprint and help the earth. This new entry in the highly successful Specialist series gives gardeners all the guidance they need to start making, storing, and using their own compost. It offers Information on different types of compost and their ingredients, advice on constructing a compost bin, and detailed explanations of wormeries, green manuring, and seed and potting composts. There’s no better or easier-to-follow guide for the eco-smart gardener!



This unprecedented look into the lives and social groups of boys across America is a parent and teacher's key to understanding the hidden hopes, fears, pains, and passions of their sons and students.
Male teenage cliques have come a long way since the days of the Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, when most adolescents could be lumped together as either Jocks, Druggies, or Nerds. After crisscrossing the country--meeting with boys from varying cultures, creeds and socio-economic backgrounds, and geographic regions ranging from Seattle to Miami, Boston to Chicago--investigative journalist Malina Saval introduces readers to the next generation of male teens by creating a new series of archetypes and redrawing the ever-expanding social map.
The Secret Lives of Boys is an uncensored look into boyhood culture and reveals with unabashed honesty spine-tingling confessions, heartrending sadness and isolation, unbridled optimism and seemingly boundless resilience. By listening without judging, Saval has created an authoritative entrée into the clandestine culture of boyhood, lending a voice to a demographic undeservedly jilted. This book asks the pertinent questions: Who are these boys? What do they think of themselves? How can we advise them properly in a way that they will not resist? Saval digs deep to uncover what binds these boys, what makes them different, what they want you to know.

Using long-forgotten WPA files archived in the Library of Congress, bestselling author Mark Kurlansky paints a detailed picture of Depression Era Americans through the food that they ate and the local traditions and customs they observed when planning and preparing meals.