New January Bestsellers

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Library Journal –

Popular nonfiction writer Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything), an American-born UK resident, uses his home—a former Victorian parsonage—to explore how the contents of the rooms—in both his and others' dwellings—are reflections of our history. Changes in how we cope with hygiene, sex, death, sleep, amusement, nutrition, and various manufacturing and service trades all leave legacies on the domestic front. Looking at so many aspects of quotidian culture, Bryson understandably risks leaving out some parts, unlike microstudies such as Mark Kurlansky's Salt. Concentrating on the last 150 years of industrial society, thus including those advances showcased at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (the year his house was built), he often wanders back several centuries. The digressions can be overwhelming, especially as the chapters do not provide clear organization. A dedicated wordsmith writing in a colloquial style, Bryson evidently enjoys his musings and trusts that his public will do the same. VERDICT Readers might best use this anecdotally constructed book by dipping into, rather than methodically reading, it. Its eclectic, ambulatory arrangement will delight many but baffle others. Bryson fans will want to read it. With a bibliography listing print sources but no websites and no endnotes.

All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera

From Barnes & Noble –

According to the United States National Bureau of Economic Research, the global recession began in December 2007; but although it has been nearly three years since the meltdown's onset, experts are still divvying up the blame. Who was at fault: Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? Was it cynical derivative dealers, foolish homebuyers or negligent regulators? Business journalists Bethany McLean (The Smartest Guys in the Room) and Joe Nocera delve beneath the surface in this history of financial folly over two decades. (P.S. The book borrows its title from a line from Shakespeare's Tempest: "Hell is empty. All the devils are here.")

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Publishers Weekly –

Mukherjee's debut book is a sweeping epic of obsession, brilliant researchers, dramatic new treatments, euphoric success and tragic failure, and the relentless battle by scientists and patients alike against an equally relentless, wily, and elusive enemy. From the first chemotherapy developed from textile dyes to the possibilities emerging from our understanding of cancer cells, Mukherjee shapes a massive amount of history into a coherent story with a roller-coaster trajectory: the discovery of a new treatment--surgery, radiation, chemotherapy--followed by the notion that if a little is good, more must be better, ending in disfiguring radical mastectomy and multidrug chemo so toxic the treatment ended up being almost worse than the disease. The first part of the book is driven by the obsession of Sidney Farber and philanthropist Mary Lasker to find a unitary cure for all cancers. (Farber developed the first successful chemotherapy for childhood leukemia.) The last and most exciting part is driven by the race of brilliant, maverick scientists to understand how cells become cancerous. Each new discovery was small, but as Mukherjee, a Columbia professor of medicine, writes, "Incremental advances can add up to transformative changes." Mukherjee's formidable intelligence and compassion produce a stunning account of the effort to disrobe the "emperor of maladies."