Jenna Schnuer

American Way: Know ThisMay 1, 2011

Break out of your reading rut with five books that will teach you things you didn’t think you needed to know about, but you’ll be grateful that you do. 

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American Way: Fun with HistoryApril 1, 2011

Sarah Vowell has a distinctive take on what makes for an entertaining read. From the New England Puritans to the spots where U.S. presidents were assassinated, Vowell has spun the good, the bad and the odd of American history into enlightening and hilarious literary gold. Now, in Unfamiliar Fishes (Riverhead Books, $26), the author dishes on the United States' annexation of Hawaii in 1898.

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American Way: Pony ExpressJanuary 1, 2011

Ten years after author Stanley Gordon West self-published his novel Blind Your Ponies, the book gets called up to the big show.

Nearly 30 years ago, Stanley Gordon West was living and working as a camp director in southwestern Montana, an area that had become a hotbed for Hollywood scribes and others of that ilk. Inspired by the creative energy, he decided to try writing a book. “I jumped in, got out an old manual typewriter and started pounding out a novel,” he says.

Find out what happened next.

One+: Ideas ManJanuary 2011

Patience and Fortitude, the pink Tennessee marble lions that laze about outside the main branch of the New York Public Library, were not impressed. Behind them, the library's façade glowed purple with lights that signaled nifty event going on inside. The clipboard-carrying women checking attendees in were all wearing fashion-forward high heels. There were lots of air kisses.

"This isn't for the innovation panel, is it?" I asked one of the clipboardistas.

Read the profile of author Steven Berlin Johnson.

National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel Blog: The Atlas of Remote IslandsOctober 6, 2010

The first five times (or so) that I paged through the Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, I fell deeply in love with the book. But I also didn't see it for what it really is. The problem wasn't that of the early stages of romance between people: I wasn't blinded to the book's faults but, instead, I underestimated the extent of its charms. Though the elegantly-lettered first words of the preface caught my eye, "Paradise is an island. So is hell," I skipped over the text and went straight to the maps.

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One+: Let's TalkSeptember 2010

Conversational crickets be gone. Author Daniel Menaker's got chatter on the brain. In A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation, Menaker writes that conversation—especially of the aimless, non-agenda'd variety—can help people find common ground. And that can be a pretty darn helpful tool for getting people to move past their differences and get the most out of a meeting.

"In any really good conversation, what will come out is an honest—even if it's indirect—confession of uncertainty of some kind," he says. "To make a real contact with someone, you need to admit your vulnerabilities or your concerns."

Read the piece in One+.

One+: Enduring MotivationAugust 2010

Dan Pink loved baseball as a kid. But, looking back, it's pretty clear that it wasn't the end-all be-all hobby for him. Pink's true passion is work.

No, not working--though he does a whole lot of that. Pink studies the how and why of work itself.

"I used to sneak behind store counters," Pink says. "It [gave me] a window into adult life—and wondering what [it was] like, almost like a foreign land that isn't overseas."

Read the piece in One+.

American Way: Confessions of a Genre SnobJuly 15, 2010

Mystery readers will scoff at my "discovery." They've been following author Tana French since her debut novel, In the Woods, was published in mid-2007. But late last year, French's name started popping up on my friends' Facebook pages. Friends who wouldn’t describe themselves as mystery readers. Friends who are genre snobs and who, with an air of haughtiness, say--or, pre-French, said--"I don’t read mysteries." I admit it: I was part of that group.

Now I love mysteries. Find out why.

American Way: Inside JobJuly 1, 2010

It was 1:43 a.m. on a Monday when I realized for the first time ever that there’s a streetlight on my block. I made this discovery while standing on the front steps of my house with a near-dead cell phone in one hand, a flashlight in the other and a carbon monoxide detector screeching away inside. Other than three (very lucky) houses in the middle of the block and that one streetlight, my neighborhood was completely in the dark and without electricity.

The guy on the phone at the power company didn’t have any ideas for me. Well, he had one: If the house was well ventilated, I could wait inside. So I sat in the front seat of my car. For 10 minutes. Then I called my neighbors, walked next door and crawled into the bed in their spare bedroom.

And started laughing.

Read the article to find out why all the laughing and about author Peter Lovenheim's book, In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time.

American Way: Bore No MoreJuly 1, 2010

There's a good chance somebody out there is about to be offended. They'll cry, "What do you mean, you don't find the science of waves instantly and completely fascinating?" For that, we sincerely apologize. But as the saying goes, it's different strokes for different folks, and chances are we aren't the only ones who typically find subjects like classical music history and bread-making techniques a little, well, dry.

Turns out, though, all it takes is a stylishly written guide on these topics to find the "how cool" in the otherwise ho-hum. Here are some books that turn the fascinating factor up full blast.

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