Found four diverse nonfiction books released in the last couple of years and one novel written by Now Write! Nonfiction contributors.  Pretty fascinating lineup here.  – Laurie

Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man’s Quest to Preserve the World’s Great Animals by Jay Kirk
Henry Holt and Co., 2010
A sweeping historical narrative of the life of Carl Akeley, the famed explorer and taxidermist who changed the way Americans viewed the conservation of the natural world. During the golden age of safaris in the early twentieth century, one man set out to preserve Africa’s great beasts. In this epic account of an extraordinary life lived during remarkable times, Jay Kirk follows the adventures of the brooding genius who revolutionized taxidermy and created the famed African Hall we visit today at New York’s Museum of Natural History.

The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume by Tilar J. Mazzeo
Harper, 2010
The unauthorized biography of the world’s most famous, seductive, and successful perfume.  A blend of evocative history and thoughtful research, here is a glittering account of where art and sensuality mingle with dazzling entrepreneurship and desire.

The Secret Lives of Boys: Inside the Raw Emotional World of Male Teens by Malina Saval (you can download her Now Write! Nonfiction exercise here)
Basic Books, 2009
This unprecedented look into the lives and social groups of boys across America is a parent and teacher’s key to understanding the hidden hopes, fears, pains, and passions of their sons and students. This book asks the pertinent questions: Who are these boys? What do they think of themselves? How can we advise them properly in a way that they will not resist? Saval digs deep to uncover what binds these boys, what makes them different, what they want you to know.

The Silent Season of a Hero: The Sports Writing of Gay Talese
 Walker & Company, reprint edition, 2010
Chronicling Talese’s writing over more than six decades, from high school and college columns to his signature adult journalism and including several never-before-published pieces (such as one on sports anthropology), a new introduction by the author, and notes on the background of each piece.

Habit of a Foreign Sky a novel by XuXi
Haven Books, 2010
Somewhere between Hong Kong and New York, life does an abrupt shift for Gail Szeto when her last family member is killed in an accident. For Gail, a mixed-race, single mother who had buried her young son less than two years prior, all she has left is a hard-won career at a global investment bank. Life rapidly goes into free fall for this woman with a complicated past, who was once so sure of her direction in life. An international cast of characters in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai.