The Korean War, Max Hastings (Simon &...

The Korean War, Max Hastings (Simon & Schuster). “An important re-examination of the Korean conflict.” A military historian, Max Hastings interviewed veterans and researched archives “to provide a vivid retelling of the war” (Eun-Sik Yang).

Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman, Judy Taylor (Frederick Warne/Viking), “is like its subject, a rare jewel . . . . (Judy Taylor) provides new insight into a complex personality whose stories remain fresh, taut, and exciting” (Liz Ogren Krieger).

Cry of the Oppressed: The History & Hope of the Human Rights Revolution, Robert F. Drinan (Harper & Row). “A fine restatement of a most important theme . . . . (Robert) Drinan explains the evolution of worldwide concern over political and economic rights in the period since World War II” (Sanford Ungar).

In Sorcery’s Shadow: A Memoir of Apprenticeship Among the Songhay of Niger, Paul Stoller and Cheryl Olkes (University of Chicago). The authors “are wonderful writers, and their prose--so vivid and yet so graceful--occasionally achieves the quality of poetry” (Jonathan Kirsch).

Thinking Machines: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence, Vernon Pratt (Basil Blackwell), “offers persuasive and compelling arguments . . . . Pratt is skeptical about whether the ultimate goal of artificial intelligence--building a brain--can succeed” (Lee Dembart).

Agnes Smedley: The Life and Times of an American Radical, Janice R. MacKinnon and Stephen R. MacKinnon (University of California Press). This life of a woman who was both reporter of and tutor to the Communist Revolution shows her “a vagabond in life, so in emotion, a woman more rooted in moral and political convictions than in any temporal place or circle of associations. Her life story, skillfully reconstructed and interpreted in this first biography, makes compelling reading” (Joyce Antler).