Lynn Monahan has done a superb job of capturing the feel of Andean Latin America—the shabby metropolis of middle-class Lima, the precariousness of a bus ride up the ragged side of a mountain, the poverty and rich culture of the rural Quechua people.

Mary Robinson argues that “to deal with climate change we must simultaneously address the underlying injustice in our world and work to eradicate poverty, exclusion, and inequality.”

Adam Fisher's oral history of Silicon Valley chronicles the genesis and sometimes fall of every tech giant, the invention of key technologies and the development of cultural institutions around the industry.

Noteworthy books on the Bible from the past year address a broad range of issues, including the relationship of religion to science and what the Bible has to say about wealth and poverty.

Jane Leavy chronicles Babe Ruth’s life and times, with a heavy emphasis not only on the culture Ruth played in, but the ways he radically altered that culture, with the help of his visionary agent Christy Walsh.

The simultaneous pull of love and sadness is pure Cheever and permeates his Christmas story.