The Fire. The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945 (Columbia University Press)

For five years during the Second World War, the Allies launched a trial and error bombing campaign against Germany's historical city landscape. Peaking in the war's final three months, it was the first air attack of its kind. Civilian dwellings were struck by-in today's terms-"weapons of mass destruction," with a total of 600,000 casualties, including 70,000 children.

In The Fire, historian Jörg Friedrich explores this crucial chapter in military and world history. Combining meticulous research with striking illustrations, Friedrich presents a vivid account of the saturation bombing, rendering in acute detail the annihilation of cities such as Dresden, the jewel of Germany's rich art and architectural heritage. He incorporates the personal stories and firsthand testimony of German civilians into his narrative, creating a macabre portrait of unimaginable suffering, horror, and grief, and he draws on official military documents to unravel the reasoning behind the strikes.

Evolving military technologies made the extermination of whole cities possible, but owing, perhaps, to the Allied victory and what W. G. Sebald noted as "a pre-conscious self-censorship, a way of obscuring a world that could no longer be presented in comprehensible terms," the wisdom of this strategy has never been questioned. The Fire is a rare account of the air raids as they were experienced by the civilians who were their targets. Order through Amazon.com

Historical Atlas of the United States (University of California Press)

Using more than five hundred historical maps from collections around the world, this stunning book is the first to tell the story of America's past from a unique geographical perspective. Covering more than half a millennium in U.S. history--from conception to colonization to Hurricane Katrina--this atlas documents the discoveries and explorations, the intrigue and negotiations, the technology and the will that led the United States to become what it is today. Richly detailed, visually breathtaking maps are accompanied by extended captions that elucidate the stories and personalities behind their creation.

Coasts and mountains, rivers and lakes, and peaks and plains are described by explorers encountering them for the first time. These maps can convey explorers' ideas of what lay over the mountains ahead, their notions about what was discovered, and their explanations of the land's potential for sponsors back home. The maps can also show a promoter's attempt to sell his project to settlers or a general's assessment of a coming battle. They chart the wars that created and molded the country: the French and Indian War and the War for Independence; the Mexican and Civil Wars; the numerous Indian wars; as well as more localized battles of conquest and survival. Readers can follow the progression of map creation and design as more knowledge was gained about the American continent.

Distilling an enormous amount of information into one handsome volume, the Historical Atlas of the United Stateshighlights the evolution of geographical knowledge at the same time that it presents a fascinating chronicle of the expansion and development of a nation. Available at Amazon.com

Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling (Texas Tech University Press)

Some humorous, some haunting, and some just late-night terrifying, these stories, gathered by two favorite Texas tellers, span a rich cultural heritage from the earliest Spanish explorers to the present, from La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) to the vanishing hitchhiker. Introduced by John O. West and John L. Davis, two of Texas’ most respected folklorists, the stories include tales adapted by European settlers to their new southwestern settings, more historically rooted legends about such early pioneers as Britt Bailey of the Gulf Coast prairie and Josiah Wilbarger of Austin, and those notorious contemporary cautionary tales known as urban legends. Order through Amazon.com

Form Radiating Life: The Paintings of Charles Rosen (Penn Press)

Charles Rosen (1878-1950) began his career as a photographer in western Pennsylvania but fell in love with painting while still a teenager. This interest led him to enroll at the National Academy of Design in New York, as well as the New York School of Art, where he studied under William Merritt Chase and Frank Vincent DuMond. Rosen began to develop an interest in landscape painting, and in 1903 he and his wife moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where he quickly became an important member of the Pennsylvania Impressionist school, producing large snowscapes and spring scenes. His New Hope canvases utilize a simple but elegant compositional style sometimes reminiscent of Japanese prints, and his mature landscape work demonstrates an interest in the decorative patterning of nature.

Rosen eventually became dissatisfied with the landscape style, and under the influence of Modernist ideas his work changed radically. In 1920, he moved to Woodstock, New York, to teach at and later direct the Art Students League summer school. In Woodstock he developed close friendships with painters George Bellows and Eugene Speicher, and began to work in a semiabstract, formalist style using buildings and other man-made structures as subject matter. This style would characterize his work from that time forward.

Form Radiating Life is an examination of the life and work of Charles Rosen, studying both phases of his career and featuring paintings that demonstrate this unusual range of styles. Lavishly illustrated, it represents the oeuvre of an artist of prodigious talent and vision but also tremendous sensitivity. Order through Amazon.com

The Floor of the Sky (University of Nebraska Press)

In the Nebraska Sandhills, nothing is more sacred than the bond of family and land—and nothing is more capable of causing deep wounds. In Pamela Carter Joern's riveting novel The Floor of the Sky, Toby Jenkins, an aging widow, is on the verge of losing her family's ranch when her granddaughter Lila—a city girl, sixteen and pregnant—shows up for the summer. While facing painful decisions about her future, Lila uncovers festering secrets about her grandmother's past—discoveries that spur Toby to reconsider the ambiguous ties she holds to her embittered sister Gertie, her loyal ranch hand George, her not-so-sympathetic daughter Nola Jean, and ultimately, herself.

Propelled by stark realism in breakneck prose, The Floor of the Sky reveals the inner worlds of characters isolated by geography and habit. Set against the sweeping changes in rural America—from the onslaught of corporate agribusiness to the pressures exerted by superstores on small towns—Joern's compelling story bears witness to the fortitude and hard-won wisdom of people whose lives have been forged by devotion to the land. Order through Amazon.com

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (University of Michigan Press)

Judy Doenges' brilliant first novel is the deeply affecting story of Robin Simonsen, a girl growing up in the 1960s and '70s on the wrong side of a Chicago suburb. After the death of her young mother, Robin is left with her kind but irresponsible father—a junkman turned drug dealer—and her grandmother, a retired Vegas showgirl, both of whom draw local fixers and ex-cons into the Simonsens' increasingly shady home life. Bright, wise, and observant, Robin is the quiet outsider to her hedonistic family, struggling to come to terms with her ardent love for girls.

Trapped in a house scarily alive with a rogues' gallery of hapless and often hilarious crooks, misfits, and hangers-on, Robin must look elsewhere for stability, befriending the son of the neighborhood's only African American family—a boy whose unimpeachable manners and flawless grades mask his own sexuality—and falling in love with the high-school beauty.

Wry, edgy, and smart, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World offers a new kind of young heroine, one who stands fearlessly at the precipice of her family's and her town's self-destruction, fighting to save herself. Order through Amazon.com