Non-Fiction

This is travel writing without a touch of cliché: a lengthy, lurid snapshot of a country existing beneath the ghosts of communism, pollution and its mighty populace. Beginning in Beijing, Mexico's expedition eases the reader into a new depiction of China's topography, highlighting the urban and visceral characteristics of the rapidly changing nation. Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll dominate these pages, making China's cities seem like 1960s New York, full of kids in love with art and rebellion, stimulants and booze. Mexico's excursion intersects with the vivid narratives of punk-rock Uighurs, homosexuals ("rabbits") and college students; in the shadow of communism's boycott on creativity, Mexico's book reaffirms that self-expression is pervasive, impossible to contain. Within the haze of what reads like a party scene, Mexico discovers the highs and lows of Chinese subculture in an intimate and delicate way, leaving the good, the bad and the ugly all spread out. Managing to avoid melodrama and stuffy statistics, Mexico holds nothing back, telling the story of his travels without apology or qualms, reinventing our notions of China, youth and the Far East.

-Dianca Potts

The Scavengers' Manifesto

Manifestos are supposed to be balls-out declarations of the superiority of your lifestyle (see "communist" and "hacker"), so why does this book seem so apologetic? The husband-and-wife authors meekly defend their love of anti-consumerism while describing how many people in their weird classist world find their found-stuff-is-better mentality gross. Supplemented with boring historical anecdotes about the evolution of fashion and orgiastic descriptions of quality finds, there's a lot of junk in this trash bin. But just as the authors stress that the art of good scavenging comes from vigilance, diligence and patience, there's some stuff of serious worth inside this book. Scavenging — which covers everything from coupon-clipping and discount shops to Dumpster diving and beachcombing — really is a good way to save money in the current economy. It's more environmentally conscious. And as anyone who's hung out near the Penn dorms come the end of the semester knows, people throw away amazing stuff. If you can swallow the irony that this book will probably be sold at Urban Outfitters next to retooled thrift store clothes, pick this book up. Comb through it. Keep the good parts. Compost the rest.

-Alli Katz

I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing but True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother and Friend to Man and Dog

Once in a lifetime, if you're lucky, you fall in love with a man who's big and strong and never wrong. Whatever his failings — and they are many — he is yours and you are his. You never quite get over your father, but you move on to other men — men who don't measure up, or hurt you in the same way Daddy did, or find tricks you never imagined you'd fall for. Diana Joseph didn't set out to write a memoir that revolves around the men in her life, but after she sensed a pattern to her essays — first one about her son, then his father, then her own — she kept going. Each chapter of I'm Sorry You Feel That Way reveals something about its author by studying one of her intimates, but because life is the way it is, the monkeys don't wait patiently in their cages for their names to be called or exit on cue. Old resentments against her ex resurface in her relationship with her kid, just as childhood memories of church influence her feelings about the friendly Satanist who lives in her building. It's those complications that make these guys so relatable, so realistic. We all have a good friend who needs a kick in the balls sometimes; we all have a boss who makes us feel special or like shit, depending on his mood. And if we didn't already know these guys so well, Joseph's wry observations would make us feel like we did.

-M.J. Fine

The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self

Brain science gives me a nasty case of cognitive dissonance. On one hand, I'm glad as hell paraplegics are getting better-and-better prosthetics because of it — but on the flip side, it makes me feel like all of mankind is just a bunch of neurons. This, says Thomas Metzinger, is 100 percent correct. He posits, in a very nonesoteric way, that modern neurology proves that the self doesn't exist. Everything we experience — our true loves, nervous breakdowns and cherished memories — is just an internal image dreamt up by our minds; a "virtual self in a virtual reality." Trippy, right? It's also kind of bleak, seeing as how the lack of a "self" could erode moral accountability. Addressing this issue is where Metzinger is strongest. He argues that a new ethical code is in order, one that would require neurologists, psychologists and philosophers to get together. And it's about time those three groups merged minds — er, virtual selves — right?

-Holly Otterbein

Like I Give a Frock

Subscribers to Michi Girl's fashion forecast e-mails can look away from their inbox. Australia's sharp but modest girl-next-door is now in book form, assembling her most with-it advice for your couture consumption. Michi decodes the runways and forewarns of future fashion crimes in an easy jaunt of illustrated pages. At times, Frock is more of a secret read for those quizzical boyfriends who have long wondered what the difference between stilettos and heels is. There isn't a whole lot that the rest of us don't already know or haven't absorbed from our fad-infested mag of choice, but Michi tells it best. Are fishnets appropriate for the workplace? Depends on ... NO.

-Kelly White

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

"At times," David Grann writes in his preface, "I had to remind myself that everything in this story was true." Indeed, as The New Yorker writer traces the life and actual journey of Amazonian explorer Percy Fawcett on his final, fatal quest for a lost city in the jungle, some encounters are almost impossible to believe: snakes the size of trees, treasure maps that crumble when touched, Indian legends that corroborate architectural findings, and a man who faces an onslaught of poisoned arrows and emerges unscathed. The Lost City of Z is meticulously researched, riveting and horrifying, guided by a core mystery that seems unimaginable and an author driven into the depths of the jungle by his daring to imagine it. -Lauren F. Friedman

The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty

If you think you're too broke to donate to the poor, Peter Singer will tell you otherwise. In The Life You Can Save, he argues that even in an economic crisis, people in the United States are still better off than those living in extreme poverty in developing countries — hence our lattes and bottled water. A bioethics professor at Princeton, Singer is best known for his 1975 book Animal Liberation, often credited with starting the animal rights movement. (A second edition was released in 2001.) His latest work presents ethical arguments, thought experiments and hard facts to show that those living in affluent countries should do all they can to eradicate world poverty. Singer's prose is incredibly readable despite its complex subject matter and will challenge you to think hard about what you can give — and give up. He never resorts to guilt-tripping, but rather provides parables and economic statistics to help you figure out how and where to donate. Singer's doing his part: He's donating 100 percent of the book's proceeds to Oxfam America and GiveWell.

-Lori Litchman

My Little Red Book

Someone finally managed to find a way to tastefully — and entertainingly — bring "Aunt Flo" to the forefront. That someone is 18-year-old Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, who created an impressive compilation of first-period narratives from women of all ages and cultures. The stories range from cutesy (bestselling author Meg Cabot's run-in with the coolest girl in school at the tampon machine) to serious (Jewish immigrant Nina Bassman's discovery of her period right before being strip-searched by Nazis), all in celebration of the segue into adulthood that every woman experiences. More impressive still: All proceeds from the book are being donated to women's charities, including Kenya's Health and Water Foundation, providing sanitary supplies and private toilets to women in Africa.It's a great cause, a great read for young girls expecting their first, and a relief to mothers preparing for "the talk."

-Tiffany Jackson

Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins

Given the subject matter — Donald Johanson's discovery of the most complete skeleton of a 3-million-year-old Australopithecus, the famous "Lucy," and the quest to figure out her place in the human family tree — this book should've been a brain-feeding page-turner: part treasure hunt and part detective story. Unfortunately the two stories never click. Still, Johanson's obvious enthusiasm for the material is reason enough to recommend this book. So, while you may not find yourself excitedly leafing through it, you will definitely walk away with a greater appreciation of your local anthropologist as well as the ability to impress/annoy colleagues with your newly acquired knowledge Homo heidelbergensis.

-Rodney Anonymous

The Book of Dead Philosophers

Simon Critchley's own (future) death is the shortest entry in his witty and searching account of the lives and deaths of some 190 philosophers: the famous stage direction from The Winter's Tale, "exit, pursued by a bear." In these clever but rarely breezy memento mori, the philosopher and New School professor begins with the pre-Socratics and continues to the very near past, including on the way good sections on Chinese, Jewish, Islamic and other non-Western thinkers. The real aim of this short, unconventional history of philosophy is to ask what the banal, tragic, noble and comic deaths of philosophers can teach us about the purpose and limits of philosophy itself: "My wager is that in learning how to die we might also be taught how to live."

-Rachel Frankford

Revolution in a Bottle

Those totes made from recycled Target bags show just how far Tom Szaky and his company, TerraCycle, have come from being vendors of worm poop. But don't call that original product by its name, "vermicompost," says Szaky, or you'll scare off the big-box buyers who seem to have proved his theory that folks will buy earth-friendly if it's competitively priced, readily available and aesthetically pleasing. He is generous with his details of the early years: Anybody with the fortitude to live in a questionable part of Trenton with 30 or so of your closest intern pals could easily follow his path. The part he glosses over is how fuel prices affect things like shipping oak compost barrels from California, and how the overall downturn in spending has affected his company.

-Mary Armstrong