China to Me

Emily Hahn. Beacon Press (MA), $9.95 (429pp) ISBN 978-0-8070-7101-4

Hahn (Eve and the Apes) was considered scandalous when she published this 1944 memoir of her nine years in China and Hong Kong. Contemporary readers will discover that the keen prose is suffused with an intellectual freedom and freshness of perspective that vivify the concerns of a long-gone world. (June)

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Bruce Chadwick

The Battle of Gettysburg was a dramatic combination of pathos and absurdity, according to this remarkable selection of primary sources from historian Chadwick (The Cannons Continue reading »

Joshua Howe, Alexander Lemons

Howe (Behind the Curve), a professor of environmental history at Reed College, and U.S. Marine veteran Lemons team up for a searing mix of wartime memoir and scientific Continue reading »

Rich Benjamin

Benjamin (Searching for Whitopia) delivers a devastating memoir about the ripple effects of the coup that ousted his grandfather, Haitian president Daniel Fignolé, in 1957. Continue reading »

Marlene L Daut

Historian Daut (Awakening the Ashes) offers a powerful biography of Henry Christophe (1767-1820), who fought for, defected from, and ultimately ruled over Haiti. She first Continue reading »