Here is a quick look at the most noteworthy nonfiction titles being released this April. Visit our catalog for a more extensive list.
Top Picks
“D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win WWII” by Sarah Rose
In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was fighting. Churchill believed Britain was locked in an existential battle and created a secret agency, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharp-shooting. Their job, he declared, was “to set Europe ablaze!” But with most men on the frontlines, the SOE did something unprecedented: it recruited women. Thirty-nine women answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. Half were caught, and a third did not make it home alive. In “D-Day Girls,” Sarah Rose draws on recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the story of three of these women: Odette Sansom, Lise de Baissac, and Andrée Borrel.
“K: A History in Ten Pitches” by Tyler Kepner
The baseball is an amazing plaything. We can grip it and hold it so many different ways, and even the slightest calibration can turn an ordinary pitch into a weapon to thwart the greatest hitters in the world. Each pitch has its own history, evolving through the decades as the masters pass it down to the next generation. From the earliest days of the game, when Candy Cummings dreamed up the curveball while flinging clamshells on a Brooklyn beach, pitchers have never stopped innovating. In “K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches,” Tyler Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the ten major pitches. Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball. Infusing every page with infectious passion for the game, Kepner brings readers inside the minds of combatants sixty feet, six inches apart.
“Mutual Rescue: How Adopting a Homeless Animal Can Save You, Too” by Carol Novello
In a nation plagued by illnesses — 16 million adults suffer from depression, 29 million have diabetes, 8 million in any given year have PTSD, and nearly 40% are obese — rescue pets can help: 60% of doctors said they prescribe pet adoption and a staggering 97% believe that pet ownership provides health benefits. For people in chronic emotional, physical, or spiritual pain, adopting an animal can transform, and even save, their lives. Each story in “Mutual Rescue” takes a deep dive into one potent aspect of animal adoption, told through the lens of people’s personal experiences with their rescued pets and the science that backs up the results.
Best of the Rest
- “American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race” by Douglas Brinkley
- “Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales” by Oliver W. Sacks
- “The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper” by Hallie Rubenhold
- “What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence” edited by Michele Filgate
