The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady,...

The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady, Brian Kates (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). “Kates explores the factors contributing to a growing population of homeless wanderers and discusses in considerable detail the efforts of those determined to help them . . . unadorned social realism . . . a chilling tale” (Elaine Kendall).

FDR: A Biography, Ted Morgan (Simon & Schuster). “How he climbed one formidable barrier after another on his remarkable odyssey from a sheltered, privileged childhood to become a champion of populist causes and the only four-term President of the United States, is the subject of this carefully crafted” work (Marshall Berges).

Giacometti: A Biography, James Lord (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) “is a careful, well-balanced and thorough description of a life that well deserves such a solid reassesment . . . . While being abstract in mood, (Giacometti’s astonishingly inventive constructions) were also highly evocative in visual terms and somewhat disquieting” (Meryle Secrest).

The Good Terrorist, Doris Lessing (Knopf). This “novel is a brilliant account of the types of individuals who commit terrorist acts, but it’s about much more than terrorism in the world. It’s about how patterns of behavior wear different rhetorical cloaks but remain little changed underneath . . . . (Lessing) is a writer who understands the world of violence and change” (Judith Freeman).

A Gardener Touched With Genius: The Life of Luther Burbank, Peter Dreyer (University of California). “There is surprisingly little in print about Luther Burbank. Dreyer’s biography fills that gap with a spirited portrayal that is nonetheless comprehensive and scholarly” (David Graber).

Eight Sacred Horizons: The Religious Imagination East and West, Vernon Ruland SJ (Macmillan). “Urging people to bring their customary religious practices into contact with horizons where unfamiliar ways prevail, (Ruland’s) book encourages not the mocking laughter of disillusioned secularity but the liberating joy of spiritual enlightenment” (John K. Roth).