2025 NONFICTION AUTHOR SERIES

Monday, January 20, 2025

The Art Thief, a New York Times best-seller, tells the riveting story of Stéphane Breitwieser, a Frenchman who, at the age of 24, began to steal high-priced art with abandon.  Like many other art thieves, Breitwieser identified valuable art located in museums and cathedrals.  But unlike other art thieves, Breitwieser did not abscond the art to enrich his life with money.  Instead, he situated the art in secret rooms where he and his girlfriend – who often acted as a lookout – could admire the beauty of their heists.  Their world came crashing down after almost eight years of unbridled success because Breitwieser wrongly believed that his ingenuity and athleticism could overcome any risk.  The Wall Street Journal said The Art Thief is a “mesmerizing true-crime psychological thriller,” and the Washington Post called the book “enthralling.”  Amazon identified it as one of the ten best books of 2023.

Michael Finkel, a journalist of national repute, is the author of True Story: Memoir, Murder, Mea Culpa, which was made into a movie starring Jonah Hill and James Franco, and The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit, which was also a New York Times best-seller.

Photo Credit:  Doug Loneman

Monday, February 3, 2025

The Counterfeit Countess tells the astonishing story of Josephine Janina Mehlberg, a Jewish mathematician who used a false ID to portray herself as a Polish aristocrat – Countess Janina Suchodolska – and then invoked her status to orchestrate the release of thousands of Poles from Nazi concentration camps.  The saga unfolded in the General Government, the area of Poland occupied by the Nazis, and required Mehlberg to fool the SS leaders who operated out of Lublin – knowing that disclosure of her true identity would lead to her immediate execution.  The Wall Street Journal called the book “a memorable, inspiring tale of individual heroism.”  The Jewish Book Council agreed, saying that The Counterfeit Countess is “a gripping tale of one woman’s grit and courage in the face of unimaginable terror.”

Elizabeth B. White recently retired as the Research Director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide.  Prior to her service with the Holocaust Memorial Museum, she was the Deputy Chief of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the United States Department of Justice, an office which investigated and prosecuted former Nazis.

Photo Credit:  Erica Land

Monday, February 24, 2025

The Demon of Unrest, a New York Times best-seller, draws upon personal diaries, slave ledgers, and plantation records to tell the gripping story of America in the months between Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in November 1860 and the Confederacy’s shelling of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April 1861.  Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of those five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”  People magazine said the book encompasses a “tale of tension and tragedy, clashing egos, miscommunication, power, and betrayal.”  And the Los Angeles Times said the book provides “a riveting examination of a nation in tumult.”

Erik Larson is the author of six other New York Times best-sellers, including The Spendid and the Vile and The Devil in White City.

Photo Credit:  Nina Subin

Monday, March 17, 2025

The Wingmen examines the 50-year friendship between two American icons: John Glenn, the ever-courteous military pilot who achieved fame as the first astronaut to circle the globe, and Ted Williams, the foul-mouthed left fielder for the Boston Red Sox who was then – and remains – the last baseball player to hit over .400 in a season.  The friendship was forged in 1953 when they served as wingmen in the Marine Corps who piloted separate Panther jets during the Korean War.  It was a friendship that remained intact for the rest of their lives.  Sports commentator Bob Costas said the book presents a “compelling story of the enduring bond between two geniune American heroes.”  A finalist for the 2023 Casey Award as the Best Baseball Book of the Year.

Adam Lazarus is the author of several sports books, including Hail to the Redskins: Gibbs, the Diesel, the Hogs, and the Glory Day of D.C.’s Football Dynasty, and Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, and the Miracle at Oakmont.

Photo Credit:  Headshots Photography, LLC, Atlanta Georgia