ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born (Oct., $24) by Tina Cassidy explores the factors—political, anthropological, religious, physical—that influence how new life enters the world.

COLLINS

Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives (Nov., $29.95) by former senator John Edwards explores the meaning of home via narratives from people around the country.

COLUMBIA UNIV. PRESS

Food Is Culture (Nov., $22.50) by Massimo Montanari, trans. by Albert Sonnenfeld, looks at how food—its cultivation, preparation and consumption—relates to culture and identity.

ECCO

Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul (Feb., $25.95) by Edward Humes charts the struggle between scientific and faith-based notions of evolution in our schools

FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX

The Old Way: The Story of the First People (Oct., $25) by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas shows how the skills of the hunter-gatherer have much in common with the survival tactics of our animal predecessors.

GALLAUDET UNIV. PRESS

Women and Deafness: Double Visions (Oct., $38), edited by Brenda Jo Brueggemann and Susan Burch, brings together essays from 14 scholars on subjects pertaining to women and deafness.

LYONS PRESS

Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After the White House (Oct., $24.95) by Mark Updegrove chronicles the postpresidential lives and careers of the modern American presidents.

MCGILL—QUEEN’S UNIV. PRESS

Digital Shock: Confronting the New Reality (Sept., $34.95) by Hervé Fischer advocates the development of a cyberphilosophy to confront the invasive reality of the digital revolution.

LYNNE RIENNER

The Black Middle Class: Social Mobility—and Vulnerability (Nov., $49.95) by Benjamin P. Bowser probes the inner workings of contemporary class dynamics.

RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION

Century of Difference: How America Changed in the Last 100 Years, 1900—2000 (Nov., $45) by Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout shows how the social, cultural and economic fault lines in American life shifted in the last century.

Working and Poor: How Economic and Policy Changes Are Affecting Low-Wage Workers (Dec., $49.95), edited by Rebecca M. Blank et al.

SCHOCKEN/NEXTBOOK

The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews (Oct., $19.95) by David Mamet examines the ways in which Jews have internalized the hatred that has been directed at them.

SYRACUSE UNIV. PRESS

Straightedge Youth: Complexity and Contradictions of a Subculture (Sept., $19.95) by Robert T. Wood studies the social dynamics of straight-edge youth through the diversity of this punk-influenced subculture.

TEXAS A&M UNIV. PRESS

Human Origins: What Bones and Genomes Tell Us About Ourselves (Jan., $24.95) by Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall is the companion volume to the American Museum of Natural History’s permanent exhibit, which opens in November.

UNIV. OF HAWAI’I PRESS

Waikiki: A History of Forgetting and Remembering (Sept., $29) by Gaye Chan and Andrea Feeser explores one of the world’s most famous vacation destinations.