A MAGNIFICENT LOVE LETTER to the city of Venice, in the form of an engaging, richly detailed work of history.

FASCINATING SOCIAL HISTORY of “pseudoscience” debates focuses on Velikovsky’s “worlds in collision” theory.

ENGAGING, IMPECCABLY RESEARCHED account of a high-profile divorce trial that scandalized Victorian England.

OFFBEAT, ENTERTAINING SCHOLARLY study of the US Jewish community’s role in our alcohol industry and culture.

FASCINATING, DEEPLY RESEARCHED account of the creation of “heterosexuality” as a medical and legal category.

FASCINATING TRUE STORY of a 1919 confidence game (and the victim’s revenge) sheds light on the history of scams.

ENGAGING LOOK INSIDE the recent rebirth of Argentina’s wine industry; fun for aficionados and casual sippers!

FASCINATING TRUE TALES of the scholars, zealots, and eccentrics who have searched for an actual Garden of Eden.

POET/CULTURAL CRITIC Wayne Koestenbaum’s meditations on the Big Idea of “humiliation” are quirky, fascinating.

APOSTATE FROM THE US’s Christian Right Frank Schaeffer looks at his childhood’s mixed messages on sex, love.