Fresh off the immense success of her powerful book, Bushworld, the ever-controversial Maureen Dowd returns with a something of lighter but no less astounding fare in Are Men Necessary?, which is not nearly as man-hating feminist as the title sounds. Dowd’s wit and candour work well here in discussing, analyzing, and embracing the differences between the sexes. She gives plenty of anecdotes, from gender bias in the media (Elizabeth Vargas, anyone?) to her own experiences with men refusing to date her for having more power and money than them. While Dowd took a more direct, slash and burn approach with politics, here, her tone is conversational, ultimately giving the reader the impression that yes, perhaps men are necessary after all. While readers know how the journey is going to end, the real enjoyment is in the funny and insightful trip iteself.

Author John Banville has been receiving plenty of praise for his elegant and beautiful prose in his novel, The Sea (winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize) a story about life, death, love, and loss. The story begins with Max Morden, a man who is both mourning his wife’s recent death and unable to forget disturbing events of his past. Coming to a crossroads at his life, Max decides to return to a seaside town he had visited as a boy where he had a formative summer with the Grace family, particulary with seductive twins Myles and Chloe. Max hopes to come to terms with his loss, but will he be able to exorcise the memories that the Grace family left on him as well? Banville is subtle in unveiling shocking plot twists about past rememberances and characters who are not what they seem, giving an overall beautiful impression on the nature of life and the incomprehensibility of death.

Read a review of The Sea here.

Basketball star Michael Jordan has achieved a level of rare success that has expanded far beyond the court. As a global icon for sports, fashion, business, and marketing, Michael Jordan now shares the key to his success in his book Driven from Within, and hint: the title has something to do with it. “It all started with an appetite to prove. Whether it was competing with my siblings or trying to get attention from my parents, I wanted to show what I could do, what I was capable of accomplishing. I wanted results, and I was driven to find out the best way to get them.” Jordan’s skill, work ethic, competitiveness, philosophy, and personal style has affected every aspect of his life, whether it’s producing six MBA Championships for the Chicago Bulls or pushing Nike’s Air Jordan shoe into nearly $500 million in sales.

85-year-old P.D. James is back with her latest installment in the Alex Dalgliesh series, The Lighthouse. When a notable novelist, Nathan Oliver, is murdered on the elite resort Combe Island off the Cornish coast, Scotland Yard dispatches Dalgliesh, just settled into his new romance with Emma, and his team consisting of Inspector Kate Miskin and Sargeant Francis Benton-Smith, to solve the case. The commander checks alibis and motives in his trademark unobtrusive manner, eventually solving the case through deduction, as is the formula in James’ previous novels. But what makes James’ novels stunning are her characters, from Dalgliesh and his attempts to balance his new romantic interest with his police duties, to the tension between Kate and Francis, to the individual personal lives of the other suspects.

Society has become rude, Lynne Truss warns us in her latest book, Talk to the Hand where she wittily rants about the deplorable state of manners today. Quoting everyone from Y.B. Yeats to The Simpsons, Truss narrows down modern communication as the root of rude behavior. Mobile phones and iPods have left us operating in small, private bubbles where it’s easy to let rudeness rule, and the art of holding doors and saying “Thank you,” has been forgotten. “It used to be just CIA agents with earpieces,” Truss writes, “who regarded all the little people as irrelevant scum. Now it’s nearly everybody.” Though her chatty tone will leave readers chuckling, her arguments are serious regarding society’s decline.

Yossi Sheffi tells the extraordinary account of how some shewed companies, both large and small, weather the storm and keep themselves afloat during times of crisis. For instance, what do you do when a fire strikes the only manufacturing plant for brake pressure valves in every Toyota? How about when an earthquake in Taiwan shuts down chip manufacturers for Dell and Apple Computers? Sheffi shows readers how the fate of corporations such as General Motors, Nokia, the US Navy, and Southwest Airlines rests on decisions made before disaster occurs rather than the actions they take during it. Investments in resiliency and flexibility — balanced security, redundancy, and short-term profits — can reduce the risk of severe losses and gain competitive advantage in a tempestuous marketplace.

Check out the MIT Press’ website.

Scott Turow’s latest novel, Ordinary Heroes focuses this time on retired newspaperman Stewart Dubinsky, whom readers met in Turrow’s 1987 novel, Presumed Innocent. Coming upon a bundle of his late father’s letters, he is shocked to discover that his staid and boring father had been once been court-martialed at the end of WWII for assisting in the escape of a suspected spy, had a fiancée that no one ever knew about, and had written a lengthy manuscript detailing the atrocities of war and its heavy emotional toll upon Dubinsky’s father, Dubinsky himself, and the reader.

A reader’s initial reaction to Ordinary Heroes.

Bill Belichick has been one of the NFL’s most successful coaches, having led the New England Patriots to Superbowl victory three times in 2002, 2004, and 2005. Now Pulitzer-winning journalist David Halberstam explores Belichick’s life and uncovers the roots of his success that began with his father’s mentoring in The Education of a Coach. Belichick’s father was a teacher and college football coach who taught Bill how to scout players and form teams and instructed him on how to watch watch films of player at the age of nine. This early learning prepared Bill for his “football first” credo working as an assistant coach with Bill Parcell’s New York Giants in the 1980s and eventually crowning achievement with the Patriots. Halberstam brings his vast knowledge of football to his seventh sports book while also demonstrating his firm understanding of effective team leadership, the systematic roles of players, and an astute psychological profile of Belicheck himself as both a man and a coach.

Japanse women have the lowest obesity rate in the world at just 3% and the highest life expectancy at 85 years. So, what’s the secret? Authors Naomi Moriyama (a native of Tokyo) and her husband William Doyle explore how a wholesome, simplistic Japanese diet can prolong your life and better your health in their new book, Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat. Japanese cooking is often built on what is called “seven pillars,” in which dishes often consist of at least one of the following: fish, vegetables, rice, soy, noodles, tea, or fruit. Most dishes are easy and familiar to make, with plenty of cooking tips as well as eating tips in general (eat until you are 80% full, etc.). But this isn’t just another didactic health book, Moriyama personalizes the cuisine experience by sharing accounts of her mother Chizuko’s best non-Western cooking practices as well as explaining what her 6′x12′ Tokyo kitchen consisted of, from pantry ingredients like bonito (fish) flakes and daikon (radish) to cooking tools such as the rice cooker and wok. Readers not only get cooking recipes and tips, they get an entire cultural experience and an answer to living better and living longer.

Read what Japundit.com has to say about this book here.

To most people, the holidays are an enjoyable time of the season with good friends and, sometimes more importantly, good food. But for the cook in charge of planning and creating the sumptuous feasts we all enjoy, the holidays are often stressful and exhausting. Well now Leanne Ely is teaching holiday chefs how to be smart with their time, energy, and money while still providing delicious and elaborate meals in her new book Saving Dinner for the Holidays. Ely gives you menus, comprehensive shopping lists organized by grocery store section based on what’s seasonally available, heirloom recipes, and even the all-important timeline so your parties can go off without a hitch. You’ll receive useful tips and hints on what to do in the kitchen to save time and provide a meal that looks as good as it tastes.

Take a look at the official Saving Dinner website.