A Selection of Books Available for eReaders

Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1979, Ben Lerner is the author of three books of poetry The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Northern California Book Award, a Fulbright Scholar in Spain, and the recipient of a 2010-2011 Howard Foundation Fellowship. In 2011 he became the first American to win the Preis der Stadt Münster für Internationale Poesie. Leaving the Atocha Station is his first novel. Click here for more.

Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices, by Brian McLaren (Thomas Nelson, $17.99 [on sale for $12.59])
Brian McLaren’s book comes highly recommended by the recently appointed Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, both in her January 12 blog posting and for the church’s Lenten book discussion. As with Salzman’s book, it also acknowledges struggles and doubts; McLaren addresses rediscovering a more “coherent and compelling way of life,” and looks at the faith experience as a practice in finding meaning in life rather than as defining a rigid system of belief. Click here for Bishop Budde’s book blog, and then sample the eBook with Google Preview by clicking here. (Also available as a $12.99 paperback.)

Both of these books are about building courage and character, about the way we choose to live, and about the way we become the people we wish to be. Try them out on our website before you buy them! I think you’ll soon be hooked

You will want to join us when we host Walter Isaacson for a book signing and author talk on Thursday, December 1, and of course, we have the hardcover edition of his new biography of Steve Jobs in stock (at 20% off for P&P members), but the eBook is also available. Why buy it from iTunes when you can get it from us?

To his string of bestselling biographies of Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Kissinger, and others, Isaacson now adds the life story of Steve Jobs. Written with the cooperation of its subject, this profile of the inventor, entrepreneur, leader, and visionary, offers a detailed profile of a man as imaginative as he was fiercely perfectionist.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

As with his dazzling debut Natasha: and Other Stories (Picador/Google eBook, $9.99), David Bezmozgis's first novel THE FREE WORLD focuses on the immigrant experience. In Natasha, it was that of the Berman family recently emigrated to Canada adjusting to their new lives. In The Free World, the Krasnansky family — three generations of Russian Jews — is stuck in bureaucratic limbo in Rome. Bezmozgis's strength lies in his compassion for his characters, their meditations on imperfect pasts and unsure futures told with black humor and keen insight.

-Sarah Baline

Geoff Dyer's writing can be acerbic, intellectual, critical, irreverent, hilarious, or any combination of these. All his essays, though, display his keen intelligence and insatiable curiosity. In the introduction to OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE HUMAN CONDITION, Dyer describes why he chose his particular literary path. "What," he asks, "could be nicer than one day to be writing a review of a novel or exhibition and the next to be going off to Moscow to write about flying a MiG-29?" He divides the book into sections he calls Visuals, Verbals, Musicals, Variables, and Personals, an arrangement that showcases the versatility of his critical eye. - Mark LaFramboise

How did obscure molybdenum change the course of World War I? And what ubiquitous element was briefly the most prized metal in the world? THE DISAPPEARING SPOON is a collection of mesmerizing tales about the greed, love and genius that it took to develop the periodic table of elements. You can read our interview with Sam Kean here.

The Tarahumara Indians in Mexico's hostile and remote Copper Canyon have a legendary ability to run for days on end. While regaling us with their story, Christopher McDougall introduces nutritionists, personal trainers, barefoot racers, and anthropologists who describe how Homo sapiens were BORN TO RUN. Ultimately, ultrarunners invite Tarahumara to the Colorado Rockies to compete in the Leadville Trail 100 Mile, and then return to Mexico to race on the Tarahumara's home turf. McDougall's wide-ranging documentation and the exuberance of the men and women he encounters will fascinate even those who have never hit the trails.

-Andrew Getman