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The Art of Nonfiction

Pulitzer winner Tracy Kidder and his longtime editor Richard Todd have been friends for 40 years, and they have loved talking about one topic: nonfiction. In ‘Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction,’ they record that obsession. Here are six of their favorite narratives, essays, and memoirs.

Colorful stylists, whatever their other virtues, make dangerous models. Aspiring writers might look instead to the pure. Here are six works of nonfiction to cleanse the palate of the reader dining on too-rich prose.Reporting By Lillian RossThis is the collection in which Ross’s classic profile of Hemingway appears—as fresh as it was in 1950 and more valuable, especially for its preservation of the literary manners of a disappeared era.

Read These F**king Books

‘Go The F**k to Sleep’ author Adam Mansbach returns with a novel about New York's graffiti scene. He picks his favorite books on the Big Apple.
John Moore/Getty; inset: Matthew L. Kaplan

New York Jew By Alfred KazinA dense memoir, both lyrical and incisive, from one of the great intellectuals of the 20th century. Though it’s brimming with famous writers—Kazin’s collaborators on the slew of magazines and journals he founded and wrote for—the real star here is the New York Public Library, where Kazin first discovered himself.

A Haiti Book Bag

The author of the new book ‘Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti,’ picks the five essential reads about the colorful and troubled country.
Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty

Haiti: The Aftershocks of History By Laurent Dubois I’ve written about Haiti for a long time now, and thought about it for a long time, and whenever I get blue, or stuck, or think I’m over it, Laurent Dubois, newer to the scene than I and far more erudite, publishes a new book on Haitian history.

André Aciman’s Favorite Novellas

The author of ‘Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere’ picks the short novels that move him most—and they’re about unconsummated loves.

Everyone knows what a novella is, but try to define the genre. The easiest and most flat-footed definition would be the one I frequently use: a novella is a long short story that is not a novel. But this can hardly pass for a definition.

Pete Hamill’s Christmas Book Bag

Think of Pete Hamill and you think of Brooklyn. Perhaps it’s time to add Christmas to that association? The author of the new ‘The Christmas Kid: And Other Brooklyn Stories’ tells us what he’s been reading—you should curl up with these books during your Christmas nights, too.

Winter Journal By Paul Auster More than simply a memoir by one of the finest American novelists. This is also a reflection on time, age, mistakes, work, the closing of some doors, and the opening of others. For me it’s a perfect book for a season usually marked by reflection, regret, and, yes, hope.

The Best Letter Collections

R. Blakeslee Gilpin, the co-editor of ‘Selected Letters of William Styron,’ on his favorite correspondences.

The Letters of John Cheever Edited by Benjamin CheeverNobody put things quite like Cheever. On life in Iowa (something everyone, from Styron to Vonnegut, describes differently): “I’m having a great time but I’m getting tired and I am having trouble with alcohol again.

The Renaissance Book Bag

The author of ‘Leonardo and the Last Supper’ picks his favorite biographies of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance.

The Lives of the Artists By Giorgio Vasari, translated by Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella This is the book, first published in 1550, that kicked off both art history and artist biographies. Vasari was a painter, architect, and friend of Michelangelo.

Andrew Solomon’s Book Bag

The National Book Award-winning author of ‘Far From the Tree,’ a monumental study of parents and children, picks his favorite books about family love.

Five books that deal with the complexity, nuance, and fearful intensity of family love.Torn in Two By Rozsika Parker In an era when people gamely put themselves on network television to talk about the most unlikely sexual practices or personal criminal activity, few parents are willing to admit to ambivalence about their own children.

5 Great Literary Subjects

Robert Gottlieb, author of the new book ‘Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens,’ on writers who led extraordinary lives.

There are certain historical figures of such importance that we need to know everything about them, which is why books about Napoleon, Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, and the great religious founders continue to proliferate; these lives require constant reevaluation and interpretation.

Five Books on Madness

The author of the new book ‘Lost at Sea,’ ‘The Psychopath Test,’ and ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’ chooses his favorites.

3,096 Days in Captivity: The True Story of My Abduction, Eight Years of Enslavement, and Escape By Natascha Kampusch Her brilliant memoir about being kidnapped and held captive for eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil. I had the pleasure of interviewing her a few years ago.

Book Bag: Military Edition

The author of ‘The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today’ and ‘The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008’ picks his favorite books on recent U.S. military history.
Courtesy of Penguin Press

World War IIThis is almost impossible. Where to start? There are so many good histories, so many powerful memoirs, starting with Winston Churchill’s and Field Marshal Slim’s. Also, Rick Atkinson’s trilogy on the Army’s war in Europe—the last volume will come out next year—is a must read.

The Obama Vs. Romney Reading List

As the candidates face off in the election, the books they’ve read recently and their professed favorites also go head to head. Who wins?
Getty Images ; AFP / Getty Images

1. Favorite BooksSong of Solomon by Toni Morrison (Obama) vs. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Romney)Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Obama) vs. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Romney)Shakespeare’s Tragedies (Obama) vs.

Nick Harkaway’s Book Bag

The author of the rollicking spy novel ‘Angelmaker,’ just out in paperback, tells us why reading novels is difficult for him.

I’m usually reading too many books—in fact I’m usually reading enough books that if the stack fell on me I’d be injured. They break into two main groups: novels I am reading because the story grips me, and nonfiction I am reading because it is too extraordinary to miss.

Edmund Morris’s Book Bag

The great presidential biographer and author of an erudite new collection of essays, ‘This Living Hand,’ shares some of the favorite books he’s read lately.

I am that most boring of list-compilers, a guy who avidly falls upon “new” books that other people donated to their local libraries in the era of Jimmy Carter.James Gould Cozzens’s Guard of Honor, anyone? Guess not. Well, you’re missing the greatest of all American novels about World War II.

Timothy Egan’s Book Bag

Egan’s new book tells the epic story of photographer Edward Curtis, and he celebrates the adventurer by picking his five favorite travel books.

Roughing It By Mark TwainTravel writing isn't what it used to be, but a young, smart-ass Mark Twain set a standard with his romp through the wacky West, published in 1872, that has rarely been surpassed. By horseback and hoof, Twain takes us from the Mormon Theocracy of Utah to the wide-open craziness in the Sierra mining fields.

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