Discover Zen: A Practical Guide to Personal Serenity

David Fontana. Chronicle Books, $14.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-8118-3196-3

Introductory books on Buddhism are a dime a dozen these days, with bookstore shelves scarcely able to accommodate the many primers available. One that stands out in the throng is Discover Zen: A Practical Guide to Personal Serenity, distinguished by its specific application of just one Buddhist tradition, as well as its colorful, vibrant illustrations. (Chronicle, $14.95 paper 160p ISBN 0-8118-3196-5; June)

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Daniel Saldaña París

Novelist París (Ramifications) reflects in these striking essays on the complicated relationship between place and identity. Traversing the cities “that have marked my life,” Continue reading »

John Gilbert McCurdy

The 1774 trial of British army chaplain Robert Newburgh (1742–1825) for “vicious and immoral behavior” sheds valuable light on contemporaneous ideas about homosexuality, Continue reading »

Dean Jobb

Jobb follows up The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream with a top-shelf work of true crime focused on lovestruck “gentleman thief” Arthur Barry (1896–1981). A con artist since his Continue reading »

Corinne Fowler

“Colonialism... affected the remotest corners” of Britain’s landscape, demonstrates historian and curator Fowler (Green Unpleasant Land) in this revelatory Continue reading »