From the last couple of issues of Booklist, here are a few titles that caught my eye:

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Written as a travelogue this title follows the author in 1955 after being sent on assignment far from his native Russia to China, Iran and Africa. He took with him Herodotus's Histories and "in this amazing memoir Kapuscinski compares his own wanderings to those of the Greek historian." I've been intrigued by Herodotus ever since seeing The English Patient (read the book, saw the movie, finally understood the book). Then he showed up again in NIcholas Christopher's The Bestiary and now, after seeing this book, I've decided really I need to know more about Herodotus. This looks like a relatively easy (and interesting) way to start.

Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles, 1910-1939 by Katie Roiphe. The couples in question include HG Wells and Rebecca West, Vanessa and Clive Bell (and how their marriage affected her sister, Virginia Woolf), Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murray, etc. There is so much about this book that I find appealing - it is really gossip of sorts, but gossip of the most utterly fascinating literary people and the manner in which their relationships affected their awesome creativity. I'm fascinating by Mansfield and West in particular, so to see them both here makes it irresistible. It received a starred review in Booklist from my wonderful editor, Donna Seaman. (And I simply adore Roiphe's book about Lewis Carroll, Still She Haunts Me.)

Guernica and Total War by Ian Patterson. Part of the Profiles in History series (which looks at "iconic events and relationships in history"), this is a book that I have been hoping to find. Guernica played such a huge role in the transfer of war from the battlefield (WWI) to cities and towns (WWII) and of course inspired Picasso's infamous painting. The way in which we have all become so accustomed to making war on civilians both intrigues and repels me. When did dead civilians become a fair price for dead "insurgents"? This will not be an enjoyable book, but sounds like an important one to be read.

Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song by Ted Anthony. This kind of pop culture history really fascinates me. Anthony went off in search of the history behind "The House of the Rising Sun". He looks at who recorded it, the many different versions and ends up in New Orleans, looking for the house that started the song. Very cool.

Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Met by Danny Danziger. Meet the people who work there, curators with odd collections of their own and folks who do the more mundane jobs from waitress to security. 52 interviews in all - sounds like a very off the beaten path for curious kids in particular.

The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman. I reviewed Goodman's last mystery for Bookslut and I have to say, she does a great job with crafting contemporary mysteries with historic literary twists. There's always something nice and spooky (in a ghosty kind of way) and very smart literary types to unfold what is going on. This time up Rose is a poet and Renaissance scholar teaching for a small college who ends up in Italy, where they offer a summer program. One of her former students died (mysteriously!) at the haunted villa the school occupies. Did he discover the long lost work of an unknown Renaissance woman poet? Was she the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets? It's a "stunningly intricate, slyly satiric, and darkly romantic mystery of lust and privilige, love and poetry." Starred review - sounds like perfect beach reading!