Extreme Birds - Dominic Couzens

Holy heck! Who knew birds were so interesting and diverse? I mean, yes, lots of colors, some in the tundra, some in trees, some in water, big feathers, little bills, twit twit, caw caw. But birds with neurotoxins on their feathers? Or ones that create and use tools? How about birds that perform dances cross-species to help one species mate? Here are birds that kick their prey to death...including humans! Some birds spend their entire lives building intricate nests, replete with pebbled walkways up to the "gate" for no other purpose to interest a mate... who then builds her own nest. Other birds don't mate until they are 18 years old. And let's not forget the ugliest birds, smelliest, worst fliers, longest tongued and the heaviest testes- making up 8% of the birds weight and weighing more than their brains.

Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America-and Found Unexpected Peace - William Lobdell

Lobdell's journey from non-belief, to fervent Christianity and back again is a surprisingly rational one. With his life falling apart on all fronts, a young Lobdell's friend and mentor suggests he give Christianity a try. Following a conversion at a retreat, Lobdell reorders his life and soon finds the success and peace he had been searching for. As a journalist, he turned his newfound faith into a living, writing a religion beat. After years of covering upbeat stories of folks whose faith carried them through the worst life has to offer, Lobdell found himself covering the numerous accusations against the Catholic church. As afraid as he was to proclaim his Christianity he again found himself afraid to admit to others, and himself, that he no longer had faith in a god. Tightly written, introspective and gripping. An excellent book written by an excellent journalist.

The Bizarre and Incredible World of Plants, Seeds: Time Capsules of Life, Fruit: Edible, Inedible, Incredible - Wolfgang Stuppy and Rob Kesseler

Kesseler and Stuppy have produced a few of the most beautiful micro-photography books I have ever seen. Focusing on the minutiae of plants - seeds and fruits - they highlight these miniscule life-capsules that we rarely see or think about. Tiny seeds and exotic fruits are blown up into gorgeous art-forms. The text of the books is also quite interesting, but is totally overshadowed but images.
http://images.google.com

Speech*less: Tales of a White House Survivor - Matt Latimer

Matt Latimer is one of those fortunates who has a dream, a plan and the ability to reach his goals. Not so fortunately, once he obtained his dream job, he found his dream was not all he had hoped. A political junkie and the only conservative in a family of liberals, Latimer single-mindedly worked his way up he political ladder, starting as a speechwriter for minor politicians. But when his his uber-goal of working as a speech-writer for the POTUS comes true, Latimer was thrown into the fast-disintegrating world of George W. Bush's regime. The politicians and law-makers were nothing like Latimer had imagined. Their behavior is often bizarre and irrational; they have little knowledge of many of the topics of the day. Finding words to make them sound intelligent is often an extreme challenge. Aids and advisors are often just as confused as the politicians the work for:

In the middle of explaining the economic horrors that awaited us, Keith reached for something near his chair.  It was a Musketeer cap.  As in Mickey Mouse... Without an word of explanation, he placed the cap on his head.  Then he continued talking as if nothing at all strange was happening...As we sat there on the top floor of the White House, at the center of power, I couldn't help wondering how it had all come to this.

Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present - Hank Stuever

Hank Stuever ventures into the heart of...lightness? Researching his book on Christmas he spends three holiday seasons in Frisco Texas, the home of glitter, country, Jay-szus, more glitter, mega-churches and mega-malls. Stuever follows Tammie, a professional Christmas decorator, trolls the malls daily, befriends a single mom and her daughter at dawn on black Friday and visits the YouTube Christmas light sensations - the Trykoskis.  The crushing desire to provide the biggest, best, and most overblown Christmas is like a car accident.  You just can't stop looking at the lives of these people. They want so much to provide perfection and nearly destroy themselves in the attempt.  Often darkly funny, Stuever takes a good look at some cogs in the Christmas machine. A  wonderful, if mildly disturbing, book.

Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish - Heeb Magazine

As A.J. Jacobs points out in his foreword, there are some experiences so awful that you know, as they are happening, they are already a classic anecdote...along as you can survive them. Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish is a collection of hand-over-mouth gad-awful stories; a painful combination of humor and horror.  While they mostly for and by Jews, I think anyone can appreciate the horribly embarrassing Grandma, hair-plugs failure, being a waiter at a bachlorette party (pasty legs and all), the very very gay bar mitzvah, being held up at Weight Watchers and more.

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Series

My Dad clued me into the the insane world of big-haired Jersey-girl bounty-hunter Stephanie Plum. Now on her 15th title in the series, Evanovich manages to make every book a riot. Characters are colorful, dangerous and very very Jersey. The action is non-stop, the doughnuts flow like wine and Grandma Mazur's one-liners are brilliant. Not much for the redeeming intellectual qualities but wholly fun and funny reads.

Crazy for the Storm - Norman Ollestad

Ollestad's memoir of his survival of a plane crash that killed his father, father's girlfriend and pilot on a snowy mountain would not be as nearly as interesting had it been a straight account. Instead, Ollestad recalls growing up with his free-spirited father, his mother and her often abusive boyfriend and the unsettling life he had as a child. Ollestad's father pushed him to excel at sports - surfing and skiing. At the time he wanted nothing to do with sports and found his father overwhelming. But his father's perseverance is probably what most saved Ollestad and propelled him to keep moving on the mountain. Krakauer-esque at times, Crazy for the Storm is as much a tribute to Ollestad's father as it is an adventure/survival book.