LIGHT-HEARTED COMPENDIUM of facts about science and superstition in ancient Greece and Rome is surprising fun.

MEMOIR OF A COMPLICATED girlhood in 1960s Buffalo and beyond has clarity and charm amid all the craziness.

POETIC, CHARMING LITTLE reverie on the most famous photograph by “Lewis Carroll” of his girl-muse Alice Liddell.

ENGAGING HISTORY of the early 20th century’s most influential anarchists, communists, Utopians, fringe thinkers.

CHARLIE CHAN LIVES in this utterly absorbing look at the real Hawai’i cop who inspired the fictional detective.

INSIDE LOOK AT the 1939 World’s Fair contrasts its official optimism with corruption, terrorism, world war.

ENGROSSING MEDITATION on Russia’s history and geography by an English expatriate scholar is witty, informative.

AMERICA’S OBSESSION with money explored through quirky biographies of 18th and 19th- century counterfeiters.

IDEALS OF UTOPIA explored in the context of today’s planned environments; reportage adds fun to philosophizing.

FASCINATING, WITTY LITTLE book about the history of the George Washington mythology and its relation to truth.