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(Alphabetical by author's last name) 

CHRISTOPHER ANDREW
(Corpus Christi)

[new!] Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 ($40, Knopf, November 2009)

"Mr. Andrew is no stranger to the secret world of Britain's intelligence community...[He] is used to reconciling the sensitivities of top-secret intelligence with the exigencies of providing a credible narrative.... Mr. Andrew has succeeded in producing a highly readable book that offers important new insights into MI5's operations over the past century." - The Wall Street Journal

"It will be enthusiastically scrutinised by historians, intelligence buffs and conspiracy theorists...[there are] anecdotes and operational details as gripping as any thriller." -Financial Times 

Click here to view video of Christopher Andrew on the C-Span Video Library.

[new!] It’s Not That I’m Bitter…or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World ($14.99, St. Martin’s Press, paperback, June 2010)

Essays by a professor of English and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut, who earned a B.A. and M.A. at New Hall, Cambridge. 

“Between the snappy observations, Barreca takes an opportunity to liken the progression of contemporary feminist thought to a car accident—it's not so much that we're in a backlash as we're in a whiplash.” – Publishers Weekly

While some may debate whether Barreca’s collection of short essays are painfully funny or humorously painful, many will agree these eminently readable pieces will have people laughing out loud, then sighing thoughtfully.... Many readers, especially women, will enjoy, discuss, and reread this quick, breezy work of commentary, a book that stirs up dust long after its covers are closed.” – Booklist

MARY BEARD
(Classics; Newnham)

SARAH BILSTON
(Clare Hall)

[new!] Sleepless Nights ($24.99, Harper, August 2009)

Sequel to the author’s first novel, Bed Rest (HarperCollins, 2006). Bilston, who teaches English literature at Trinity College, Hartford, was a junior research fellow at Clare Hall in 2000-01. 

“Bilston's sequel to Bed Rest describes new parenthood with emotion and humor.... Bilston's plucky heroines are sympathetic, and she pulls no punches when describing the difficulties of parenting a newborn.” —Publishers Weekly

PIERS BRENDON
(Churchill, Magdalene)

[new!] The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 ($20, Vintage, February 2010).  The author, a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge, is the former Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

"Starting with Cornwallis's surrender to Washington, Brendon moves from one continent to another, drawing on sources from official archives to Victorian memoirs.  The narrative is necessarily complex but always well informed, and entertaining digressions enliven the story." - The Sunday New York Times Book Review

"A colorful and often brilliant examination of the imperial experience from the American Revolution to the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. [Brendon] combines the genres of narrative history, travelogue, and biographical sketch to capture the richness, majesty, squalor, and injustice that created and maintained a vast edifice that has left an indelible imprint on the contemporary world." - Booklist 

 [new!] The Children's Book ($26.95, Knopf, October 2009)

"Brilliant...multilayered...bristling with life and invention.... A seductive book by an extraordinarily gifted writer.... All [the] characters connect in a tangled web, often erotic and frequently just this side of madness.... That Byatt marries this novel of ideas with such compelling characters testifies to her remarkable spinning energy.” - The Washington Post

"A tour de force.... In a dumbed-down world, what a pleasure it is to dive into the allusive, uncompromisingly erudite novels of A. S. Byatt. In the end, The Children's Book brings to vivid life the often irreconcilable demands of being an artist and being a human being." – The Wall Street Journal

PAUL CARTLEDGE
(Clare, Faculty of Classics)

[new!] Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities ($19.95, Oxford Univ. Press, November 2009)

PETER CLARKE
(Faculty of History; Trinity Hall)

[new!] Keynes: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the 20th Century’s Most Influential Economist ($20, Bloomsbury Press, October 2009)

The author was Professor of Modern British History from 1991 to 2004 at Cambridge and Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, from 2000 to 2004. 

“...[B]rings the suave iconoclast to life in a succinct and balanced account.... Keynes in these pages proves a protean figure - a man with a taste for mischief-making and a willingness to change his mind, again and again.” – Bloomberg News

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
(Trinity)

[new!] Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India ($26.95, Knopf, June 2010)

"Dalrymple interviews nine very different individuals, four of them women, and sets their live stories in social and political context.... He elicits from his subjects long, often intimate histories, recorded in their own words.... The narratives Dalrymple unearths are fascinating and sometimes painfully moving, and he surrounds them with generous knowledge.  This is the India we seldom see, populated by obscure people whose lives are made vivid by their eloquent troubles and reckless piety." - Sunday New York Times Book Review 

MIKE DASH
(Peterhouse)

[new!] The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia  ($27, Random House, August 2009)

"Decades before the Five Families emerged and more than half a century before Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather, Giuseppe Morello and his family controlled all manner of crime in New York City. Bestselling historian Dash presents an enthralling account of this little-known ‘boss of bosses'.... Dash depicts the balance between loyalty and betrayal as an ever-changing dance and nimbly catalogues the endless gruesome murders committed in the name of revenge and honor. Readers may think they know the mob, but Morello's ruthless rule makes even the fictional Tony Soprano look tame." - Publishers Weekly

"New Yorkers had heard about the Mafia before 1892, but Mike Dash makes a convincing case...that the modern notion of Italian organized crime was rooted in Giuseppe Morello's surreptitious arrival in the city that year from Sicily." - The New York Times

Click here to view video of Mike Dash on the C-Span Video Library.

EAMON DUFFY
(Divinity, Magdalene)

JENNIFER EGAN
(St. John's)

[new!] A Visit from the Goon Squad ($25.95, Knopf, June 2010)

"Readers will be pleased to discover that the star-crossed marriage of lucid prose and expertly deployed postmodern switcheroos that helped shoot Egan to the top of the genre-bending new school is alive in well in this graceful yet wild novel." - Publishers Weekly

 "Clever. Edgy. Groundbreaking.... For all of its cool, languid, arched-eyebrow sophistication...the novel is actually a sturdy, robust, old-fashioned affair. It features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn't, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human." - Chicago Tribune

"In her audacious, extraordinary fourth novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan uses the pop-music business as a prism to examine the heedless pace of modern life, generational impasses, and the awful gravity of age and entropy.... A Visit from the Goon Squad is fascinating for its daring scope and fractured narrative, but along the way, Egan crafts some brilliant scenes.... A rich and rewarding novel."-Philadelphia Inquirer 

[new!] The DNA of Prejudice: On the One and the Many ($13.95, Upper West Side Philosophers Inc., January 2010)

GRAHAM FARMELO

[new!] The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom ($29.95, Basic Books, August 2009). Paul Dirac (1902-1984) came to St. John's College, Cambridge, to do research in 1923 and spent most of his career there; he was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1932 to 1969 when he moved to Florida.  He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933. A New York Times Notable Book of 2009.

“[B]oth wonderfully written...and a thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations and the relations between the two...the most satisfying and memorable biography I have read in years.”—Louisa Gilder in the New York Times Sunday Book Review

"Farmelo proves himself a wizard at explaining the arcane aspects of particle physics. His great affection for his odd but brilliant subject shows on every page, giving Dirac the biography any great scientist deserves." —Publishers Weekly

"Paul Dirac was a giant of 20th-century physics, and this rich, satisfying biography does him justice.... [A] nuanced portrayal of an introverted eccentric who held his own in a small clique of revolutionary scientific geniuses." —Kirkus Reviews

JULIAN FELLOWES
(Magdalene)

[new!] Past Imperfect ($24.99, St. Martin's Press, September 2009).  Second novel from the Oscar-winning Gosford Park screenplay author.  

"Deservedly compared to Tom Wolfe, Fellowes, with his ability to document the aristocracy with a sociologist's eye, fashions intriguing narratives." - Publishers Weekly

"Past Imperfect shows Mr. Fellowes's satirical talents to be undiminished.... He offers a narrative crowded with incident and memorable ­characters." - The Wall Street Journal

STEFAN HALPER
(Magdalene; Centre for International Studies)

[new!]  The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century ($28.95, Basic Books, April 2010)

“Halper cogently rejects the conventional wisdom that suggests America's relationship with China is on track in this lucid, probing text...he concludes this sobering, excellently argued book with a series of concrete policy recommendations....” – Publishers Weekly

“Halper’s perspective and advice to American policy makers is a clearly conceived, jargon-free appreciation of China as ideological rival as well as commercial partner.” – Booklist

Click here to view a video of Stefan Halper speaking at a Cambridge in America event. 

DAISY HAY
(New Hall / Murray Edwards)

“[I]t’s as a biographer pure and simple that Hay shines. Despite being almost as youthful as her subjects — she only recently received her doctorate from Cambridge, and Young Romantics is her first book — she is a skilled and sure-footed chronicler. In firm, clear, often elegant prose, she narrates the main events in the lives of her subjects.... Moving swiftly and purposefully, her story has no longueurs whatsoever, nor even a single lurching transition; it represents a triumph of artful selection and synthesis.... However tormented, this episode remains one of the most riveting in literary history, an operatic tale brimming with color and variety and passion. To hear it told so nimbly and concisely is to be helplessly swept up into it all once again.” – Sunday New York Times Book Review

Click here to watch an interview with Daisy Hay.

DARA HORN
(Jesus)

[new!] All Other Nights: A Novel ($14.95, W.W. Norton, March 2010). The author, who lives in New Jersey, has published two prior novels, In the Image (2002) and The World to Come (2006).

“A Civil War spy page-turner...enthralling.... Horn propels the love story at a thriller's pace; the mix of love and loyalty played out in a divided America is sublime.” – Publishers Weekly

“...Horn is too gifted and ambitious an artist to settle for easy reassurances or a facile happy ending; she instead offers her readers the deeper satisfactions of complexity and generosity as she limns a world of agonizing, implacable moral ambiguities and guides her imperfect yet lovable protagonist toward a tentative redemption.” – The Washington Post

“...Horn both unearths a fascinating, relatively unexplored aspect of American history—the role of Jewish Americans in the Civil War—and delivers a novel rich in human emotion and ambiguity. A triumph.” – Booklist

“...[A]n enjoyably fast-paced amalgam of historical romance, spy novel and political thriller...a rare and memorable portrait of Jewish life during the Civil War.” – The Wall Street Journal

NICK HORNBY
(Jesus)

 [new!] Juliet, Naked: a Novel ($25.95, Riverhead/Penguin, September 2009)

“Hornby returns to his roots – music, manic fandom, messy romance – in his funny and touching latest.” – Publishers Weekly

“Hornby’s books are almost shamefully readable...his characters are always richly, sympathetically drawn.... The story is tinged with despair, and though the ending offers little by way of hope, its bittersweet ambiguity lends it maturity.”—The New Yorker
 
Nick Hornby has also written the screenplay for the 2009 film An Education, which features actress Emma Thompson (Newnham).  The author was interviewed on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” in October 2009. 

Click here to view video of Nick Hornby on the C-Span Video Library.

LISA JARDINE
(Newnham)

[new!] Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory ($18.99, Harper Perennial, September 2009)

"Jardine understands and appreciates her sources, and she writes exceptionally lively history. A pleasure to read...."  – Library Journal 

"Jardine meticulously studies the exchange of ideas between England and Holland, displaying an impressive ability to look at the bigger picture and tie together seemingly disparate strands of culture.... She leaves no stone unturned as she documents just how many significant figures from Holland held sway over English culture. Absorbing, enjoyable reading." – Kirkus Reviews

Click here to view video of Lisa Jardine on the C-Span Video Library. 

JOSEPH KANON
(Trinity)

[new!] Stardust: A Novel ($27.99, Atria. September 2009)

“Gritty look at post-WWII Hollywood from Edgar-winner Kanon (Los Alamos, The Good German).... Kanon perfectly balances action and introspection, while smoothly integrating such real-life figures as actress Paulette Goddard into the plot.” – Publishers Weekly

“[Kanon] operates with an intelligence that briskly evokes the atmosphere of a vanished era." - The New York Times Book Review

KEVIN LEWIS
(St. John's, Wolfson)

[new!] Lonesome: The Spiritual Meanings of American Solitude ($85.00, I.B. Tauris / Palgrave Macmillan, October 2009)

The author is Associate Professor and Graduate Director in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of South Carolina. He earned his BA and MA at St. John's College, Cambridge, and was a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in 1999 and 2006. 

SIMON LEWIS
(Christ's)

[new!] Rise and Shine: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Journey from Near Death to Full Recovery ($24.95, Santa Monica Press, May 2010)

First-person account of the author's lengthy recovery from a near-fatal car crash.  Mr. Lewis is a film and television producer and writer who lives in Los Angeles.   

BEN MACINTYRE
(St. John's)

[new!] Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory ($25.99, Harmony Books, May 2010)

“Mr. Macintyre writes about spies so craftily, and so ebulliently, that you half suspect him of being some kind of spook himself.... Utterly thrilling.... What makes Operation Mincemeat so winning, in addition to Mr. Macintyre’s meticulous research and the layers of his historical understanding, is his elegant, jaunty, and very British high style.” – The New York Times

"[An] edge-of-your-seat history...unveiling previously classified files and even unearthing living witnesses to the grand conspiracy."—Kirkus Reviews

Click here to view Ben Macintyre discuss Operation Mincemeat on YouTube.

G.M. MALLIET
(St. Edmund's)

[new!] Death at the Alma Mater: a St. Just Mystery  ($14.95, Midnight Ink, January 2010)

“This third in the series is every bit as good as its predecessors. Longtime cozy fans will be reminded of Golden Age classics starring Dorothy Sayers' Harriet Vane and Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen.”—Booklist

THOMAS MALLON
(St. Edmund's 1982)

"It looks beautiful, it's meant to be read in eight-minute increments, it's as full of learning as a candy bar chock-full of nuts...." - Washington Post

Click here to view video of Thomas Mallon on the C-Span Video Library.

[new!] The Way of Herodotus: Travels with the Man Who Invented History ($16.95, Da Capo Press, February 2010).

“Marozzi notes that Herodotus was the first historian, travel writer, anthropologist, political theorist, foreign correspondent, and prose stylist…. an imposing and remarkable travel history.” – Booklist.

ROBERT McCRUM
(Corpus Christi)

[new!] Globish: How the English Language Became the World's Language ($26.95, W.W. Norton, May 2010)

"Distinguished by its historical focus and accessibility to a general audience, this book successfully appeals to language lovers and history buffs alike." - Library Journal

"[G]ripping and profoundly informative." - Kirkus Reviews

"The history of English is inherently fascinating, and McCrum tells the story well." - Washington Post 

Click here to view video of Robert McCrum on the C-Span Video Library. 

JOHN MCPHEE
(Magdalene)

[new!] Silk Parachute ($25, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, March 2010).  Latest collection of non-fiction pieces - on lacrosse, grandchildren, golf, and more - by the longtime New Yorker contributor.

"In the age of blogging and tweeting, of writers' near-constant self-promotion, McPhee is an impressive counterweight, a paragon of both sense and civility." - Sunday New York Times Book Review 

Click here to view video of John McPhee on the C-Span Video Library.

CHINA MIÉVILLE
(Clare)

[new!] Kraken ($26, Del Rey, June 2010). 

“British fantasist Miéville mashes up cop drama, cults, popular culture, magic, and gods in a Lovecraftian New Weird caper….[a] dizzying whirl of outrageous details and fantastic characters.” – Publishers Weekly.

“Miéville's fantasy is a rich literary work, full of wordplay and imagery that will appeal to literary-fiction fans as much as to fantasy readers.”—Booklist.

WENDY MOFFATT

[new!] A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster ($32.50, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, May 2010)

Forster (1879-1970) was an alumnus (1897) and honorary Fellow of King’s, living in College for the last 25 years of his life.

“...[A]n impressive first-time biographer...a vigorous storyteller.... [O]ffers an insightful, revelatory portrait....”—The New York Times

ARUN MOTIANEY
(King's)

[new!] SuperCycles: The New Economic Force Transforming Global Markets and Investment Strategy ($27.95, McGraw Hill, January 2010)

MARK MOYAR
(St. John's)

[new!] A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq ($30, Yale Univ. Press, October 2009). A wide-ranging history of counterinsurgency, from the Civil War and Reconstruction to Afghanistan and Iraq, that draws on the historical record and interviews with hundreds of counterinsurgency veterans, including top leaders in today’s armed forces.

“A Question of Command stands out because it reaches back quite far, and to unexpected destinations.” - Wilson Quarterly

Click here to view video of Mark Moyar on the C-Span Video Library.

ADAM NICOLSON
(Magdalene)

[new!] Sissinghurst, An Unfinished History: The Quest to Restore a Working Farm at Vita Sackville-West's Legendary Garden ($27.95, Viking, May 2010)

The author, grandson of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, grew up at Sissinghurst and now lives there.

“Nicolson's love of language is equal to his love of the land, and his poetic prose evokes the richness of the landscape he strives to save.” – Publishers Weekly

MICHAEL O'BRIEN
(Faculty of History; Fellow of Jesus; Trinity Hall 1966)

[new!]  Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860: An Abridged Edition of Conjectures of Order  ($39.95, Univ. of North Carolina Press, April 2010)

[new!] Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon ($27, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2010)

In the winter of 1815 Louisa Catherine Adams made a forty-day journey by carriage from St. Petersburg to Paris to reunite with her diplomat husband John Quincy Adams. Cambridge historian Michael O’Brien, winner of a Bancroft Prize in American History, reconstructs this dramatic tale, and explores Mrs. Adams’s life and place in the world.

“Innovatively and creatively told...bristles with insight into the era. Witty, informed, sophisticated, and moving; essential reading.” – Library Journal

“A wide-sweeping historical survey and original intellectual journey.” – Kirkus Reviews

“This compelling combination of biography, travelogue, and adventure does an admirable job resurrecting one of the many forgotten females in the annals of American history.” – Booklist  

ROBERT OLBY

[new!] Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets ($45, Cold Spring Laboratory Press, September 2009). Nobel Laureate Crick (1916-2004) earned his PhD at Caius and was an Honorary Fellow at Churchill; he spent much of his career at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. Biographer Robert Olby is a research professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

DAVID REYNOLDS
(Faculty of History; Christ's)

[new!] America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States ($35, Basic Books, October 2009)

“In an animated overview up to the present time, Cambridge historian Reynolds captures the sprawling chronicle of a nation forged from the fires of revolution, populated by immigrants and constantly evolving politically and culturally.... Readers will find Reynolds’s epic overview provocative and enjoyable.” – Publishers Weekly

“Concise...teeming...an evenhanded distillation of America's story from a singular outside observer.” – Kirkus Reviews

Click here to view video of David Reynolds on the C-Span Video Library.

EDWARD RUTHERFURD
(Francis Whittle, Gonville & Caius 1968)

[new!] New York: The Novel ($30, Doubleday, November 2009).  The author lived in New York during the 1980s and 1990s.

“...[W]hat makes this novel so entertaining is the riotous, multilayered portrait of a whole metropolis. Rutherfurd offers the reader a chance to watch a rural outcrop grow into one of the world's greatest cities in a mere 350 years. He delivers magnificently on the challenge; it is hard to imagine any other writer combining such astonishing depth of research with the imagination and ingenuity to hold it all together.” – Washington Post

ROXANA SABERI
(Hughes Hall)

[new!] Between Two Worlds: My Life in Captivity in Iran ($25.99, Harper, March 2010). New Jersey-born, Iranian-American Saberi, who earned a journalism degree at Northwestern and a Cambridge MPhil in international relations, has reported since 2003 from Iran, where she was charged with espionage and imprisoned in January 2009 and released, after worldwide protests, the following May.

“Saberi spent five months in [Tehran’s] Evin Prison fighting for her life. She would say that she fought for her soul as well. Her redemption is this compassionate and courageous memoir.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Click here to view video of an interview with Roxana Saberi from C-Span.  

[new!] Imran Khan ($32.95, HarperCollins, September 2009)

CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH
(King's)

[new!] The National Gallery: A Short History ($24.95, Frances Lincoln, July 2009).  The author, who was director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, from 1994 and director of the National Gallery, London, from 2002 to 2007, is now chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts.  

"Saumarez Smith is particularly good on the architectural history and neatly summarises each director's contribution. Detail is telling." – The Independent (London)

"[A]n intelligent synopsis of the achievements of successive directors from 1824 to 2002.... There are judicious assessments of earlier directors.... Many good stories are amusingly retold...." – Country Life

HELEN SCALES
(St. John's)

[new!] Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality ($20, Gotham, August 2009)

"A true natural history book, covering all aspects of the seahorse's involvement in the world.... Scales is a marine biologist, and her fascination with the subject (she learned to scuba dive in order to observe this remarkable creature) shines through in her easy-to-read style and the way she uses the seahorse as a hook to discuss broader subjects...." - Library Journal

"Effectively examines the seahorse's chameleon qualities, as well as the phenomenon of males giving birth--the only such instance in the animal kingdom. The author is also adept at delineating the seahorse's alleged healing powers...makes a solid case for a rare and wondrous creature." - Kirkus

ALWYN SCARTH
(St. Catharine's)

[new!] Vesuvius: A Biography ($29.95, Princeton Univ. Press, August 2009)

"Scarth gives detailed accounts of each of the volcano's known eruptions, including the possible geological causes, remarkably precise (considering the large historical distance) analysis of lava and pyroclastic flow patterns, and the aftermath.... Readers interested in the earth sciences, antiquity or just a good read will find Scarth's book hard to put down." - Publishers Weekly

"A veritable eruption of words is required to do the story justice, and Scarth is up to the task." - Library Journal

CHLOE SCHAMA
(Christ's)

[new!] Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman ($24, Walker & Company, March 2010)

The author earned an MPhil in English Literature as a Gates Scholar at Cambridge, and has written for The New Republic and The Guardian.

“Schama breathes new life into the story of one woman’s dogged determination to salvage her tattered reputation and forge an independent life for herself in the aftermath of a publicly debated scandal and a failed marriage.” – Booklist

“Chloe Schama’s retelling of the history of one of Victorian England’s most notorious scandals reads like a novel itself. History buffs and those who enjoy a good, old-fashioned scandal will find charm here.”—Library Journal

ZADIE SMITH
(King's 1994)

[new!] Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays ($26.95, Penguin, November 2009)

“Smith (White Teeth; On Beauty) had a successful debut as a writer shortly after completing college; reading her essays, one understands why. Her examinations of a wide range of subjects confirm her writing talents with wit, candor, occasional self-deprecation, and insight.” – Library Journal

JANET SOSKICE
(Faculty of Divinity; Jesus)

[new!] The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels ($27.95, Knopf, August 2009). The story of how identical twin sisters Margaret and Agnes Smith, Cambridge residents, journeyed to St. Catherine’s Monastery in 1892 and discovered the earliest New Testament manuscripts. The author, a Canadian-born alumna of Cornell, is a University Reader in Philosophical Theology at Cambridge and Fellow of Jesus College.

"[B]y turns a rattling adventure yarn – thick with roving Bedouin and ancient tombs – and a testament to the power of perseverance." - The Washington Post

"You needn't follow a particular religion to become engrossed in this enthralling narrative...a tale of grand adventure and far-flung travels.... Soskice is so adept at making a rarefied subject accessible and vivid that the narrative seems almost cinematic.... Thanks to Soskice's compelling, well-researched book, these extraordinary women have been given the tribute they deserve." - Christian Science Monitor  

NICHOLAS WADE
(King's)

[new!] The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures ($25.95, The Penguin Press, Nov. 2009)

"[L]ongtime New York Times science reporter Wade deftly explores the evolutionary basis of religion.... Sure to be controversial for its reduction of religion to a product of natural selection, Wade's study compels us to reconsider the role of evolution in shaping even our most sacred human creations." - Publishers Weekly

"[P]rovocative...highly intriguing.... A turning point, and advancement, in the science-religion debate." - Kirkus Reviews
 

SOFKA ZINOVIEFF
(New Hall/Murray Edwards)

[new!] Red Princess: The Revolutionary Life, Love Affairs, and Adventures of Princess Sophy ($15.95, Pegasus, December 2009)

"No Hollywood fantasy is more exciting than this true story of a Russian princess in exile [the author's grandmother] who becomes a bohemian, free lover and Communist.... The power of this biography is in its historical breadth as well as Zinovieff's ability to conjure the specificity of time and place through Sofka's experiences of the 20th century's major political and culture events. A notable story told with élan and an eye for historical and social detail." – Publishers Weekly