A year-end roundup of books from staff members all around Yale University Press!

Field Guide to the Southeast Coast & Gulf of Mexico, by Noble S. Proctor and Patrick J. Lynch

This is the perfect book to take with you when you head to the seashore or to give to your favorite beachgoer. For beachcombers, birdwatchers, deep-sea fishers, or anyone who is simply curious about our beautiful coasts, this fully illustrated field guide is packed with information and fits easily in a beachbag.

–Laura Jones Dooley, Senior Manuscript Editor

Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, by David Margolick

The story of the women behind the infamous photograph, Elizabeth and Hazel analyzes the way issues of race continue to resonate in our society and taint our relationships.

David Margolick’s Elizabeth and Hazel gives humanity to two icons of the civil rights struggle; it is inspiring, sad, and surprising.

–Dan Heaton, Senior Manuscript Editor

The Anatomy of Influence, by Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom reflects on 50 years of thinking about literature and literary influence in this lyrical literary autobiography.

The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible, by Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom’s meditation on the literary power of the King James translation of the Bible encompasses thoughts on the magnificence of the prose, the agon between the Greek and Hebrew testaments, and the “outrageous” Yahweh.

Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of “Tropic of Cancer”, by Frederick Turner

You can practically smell the cheap gin, latex rubbers, and garbage in the alleys of Miller’s life in Paris, all of which he poured straight into his lurid masterpiece.

–Phillip King, Senior Manuscript Editor

Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict, by Donna Hicks

Renowned conflict-resolution expert Donna Hicks offers insight into dealing with relationships, from wars between nations to strife between political factions to the daily conflicts inherent in all human relationships. Hicks provides useful, usable tools for responding to the dignity in others and for protecting your own dignity against the violations of others.

Donna Hicks’ Dignity is an inspiring antidote to our culture of outrage and ad hominem attacks–thought-provoking, sensible, and wise.

–Christina Coffin, Publishing Director

The Very Hungry City, by Austin Troy

A fascinating look at cities’ energy consumption and what that means for their future.

Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books, edited by Leah Price

I just love Unpacking My Library. Not only is it fascinating to read what great writers are reading and why, but I also love the photographs to see how their books are displayed and what trinkets accompany them.  I hope this grows into a long series.

–Meredith Phillips, Reprints Editor

Blinky Palermo: Abstraction of an Era, by Christine Mehring

As the recent retrospectives at Dia, Beacon and Bard made clear, the German artist Blinky Palermo was an important figure in the transformation of German and modern art in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the famous Düsseldorf academy class of Joseph Beuys,Palermoworked with Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Imi Knoebel, and others to create a new kind of international art. Christine Mehring’s detailed analysis offers key insight into this major figure.

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition–for the reader seeking peace, and detail—and Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism: what to be caught reading, or at least carrying.

–Jay Cosgrove, Sales Director

Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform, by Paul Starr

When I read this book, I was astonished by how little I knew about our health care system. I learned a lot from this book!

Savonarola, by Donald Weinstein

Do you secretly wish to see religious fanatics burned at the stake? Read how this fate befell a fifteenth-century book-burning, art-destroying Italian Dominican friar who tried to reform the clergy a bit too vigorously.