THE GLOBAL RECYCLING INDUSTRY, explored in unexpectedly entertaining depth. Informative, but never dry! B PLUS

JUNKYARD PLANET: TRAVELS IN THE BILLION-DOLLAR TRASH TRADE
Bloomsbury Press
2013

SEXUAL POLITICS IN the Arab world, presented in depth (via years of interviews), with compassion, with wit. B PLUS

SEX AND THE CITADEL
Pantheon
2013

BEST WORST MOVIE ever? It might be THE ROOM; an inside account of how this glorious turkey was made delights. A MINUS

THE DISASTER ARTIST
Simon & Schuster
2013

A MONTAGE OF MEMORIES, a love letter to New York; Roger Rosenblatt’s latest memoir is bittersweet, thoughtful. B PLUS

THE BOY DETECTIVE : A NEW YORK CHILDHOOD
Ecco Press
2013

INSIDE THE SHIPPING INDUSTRY, from midocean boredom to pirate watch to shipwreck. Great, engaging reporting! B PLUS

NINETY PERCENT OF EVERYTHING
Metropolitan Books
2013

ENCHANTING BIOGRAPHY OF Marianne Moore reveals the rich inner life of this famously reserved poet. Wonderful! B PLUS

HOLDING ON UPSIDE DOWN
Farrar
2013

It might not be surprising that a third-generation farmer can make an eloquent case about getting back to his own roots, but Gary Romano’s Why I Farm: Risking It All for a Life on the Land goes far beyond that, creating a persuasive argument that small family farms are a crucial element in American society—and one that’s currently at risk.

Romano’s book is that rare thing, a successful hybrid of memoir and manifesto. He grounds his ideas in his own experience of family farming, and in the changes he’s had to make to adapt to a different economy, and environment, than the ones in which his parents and grandparents farmed for decades.

Romano draws on his family traditions in creating a new model of farming; he says “growing organically was just the way the old Italians farmed anyway,” but in today’s market, organic certification can give smaller farms a competitive edge. Similarly, he looks back to a youth spent at the old-school farmers’ markets when reinventing a local distribution culture.

One of the most convincing arguments Romano puts forward in his enlightening and entertaining book is about the serious impact that regulations and subsidies favorable to big agribusiness, and unfavorable to small farms, have had on America’s food culture. This is the piece that’s too often missing from public discourse about food production, and Romano has some important insights to add to the debate.

A FARMER’S MEMOIR AND MANIFESTO: a nice mix of common sense, family history, and heritage farming techniques.

FASCINATING TRUE CRIME story of a brilliant academic whose career was cut short by his high-profile felonies.

LIFE WITH HOARDING PARENTS, and its impact on a writer’s psyche, told with compassion, frankness, and love.