the late neurosurgeon paul kalanthi in his memoir, "when breath becomes air." our look at the best selling nonfiction books at washington, d.c.'s politics & prose bookstore continues with national book award-winning author ta'nehisi coates. his look at the current black tate in america is called "between the world and me." jasmine ward is next with "the fire this time," a collection of essays and poems about race written by more than 15 contributors. nancy isenberg examines class in america and the political significance of poor quites from reconstruction to the new deal in "white trash." and carlo rovelli in "seven brief lessons on physics." that's a look at some of the current nonfiction bestsellers according to politics & prose bookstore in washington d.c. many of these authors have

appeared or will be appearing on booktv. you can watch them on our web site, booktv.org. >> host: and now on booktv, we want to introduce you to bill thomas, editor-in-chief and publisher of doubleday books. mr. thomas, what kind of books does doubleday publish? >> guest: ing doubleday publishes approximately 50 books a year, about half nonfiction and half fiction. we publish a lot of literary novelists, and on the nonfiction side we publish a lot of narrative nonfiction, politics, history and science. >> host: how long has doubleday been in business? >> guest: 1897. >> host: founded by? >> guest: someone named mr. doubleday. [laughter] >> host: okay. well, we're here to talk to you about previewing some of the fall books. who do you have coming up? >> guest: well, i think we have three books that are of particular mote to your viewers. in august we are publishing jeffrey toobin's book about patty hearst, her kidnapping,

what she did while she was in the sudanese liberation army and her trial. new york staff writer and cnn's chief legal correspondent and the author of several bestsellers, the nine, the oath and also book on the o.j. simpson case which was recently made into a television series. and what is so fantastic about this book from my perspective is everyone in any era says, oh, we're living through this terribly tumultuous time, but in the early 1970s, it felt like country was having a nervous breakdown. there were an average of 1500 terrorist bombings every year during this period. of course, nixon was being impeached, economic malaise, and in the midst of in this, this fantastically sensational crime happens. patty hearst was kidnapped and two months later declared she was now to be known as tonya and enlisted in the sla. the story has amazing twists and turns. for one thing, the largest

police shootout took place in l.a. where everyone except for patricia hearst and two comrades were killed. and something that also happened for the first time on live national television, because the mini cam had just been invented. and then we get to the trial which has incredible twists and turns. it's a symbolic story of sort of a nation falling apart but also the cost of political radicalism. he's a fabulous writer. then in september candace my lard has written two best sellers, one about assassination of one of the most gift canned men ever elected -- gifted men ever elected to the presidency, james a. garfield, and live of doubt, how theodore roosevelt discovered a river in the amazon and almost died. she's incredibly good at taut narratives about famous individuals and periods in their life. in this case she's telling a story that i sort of knew had happened but didn't realize how dramatic it was, which is that winston churchill as a young man, who always believed he was destined to be prime minister of

england, had a complete faith in his own greatness, felt he had to do something incredible to get public notice. he had tried to put himself in danger in india in the army, as a war correspondent. he went to south africa where the boer war had just erupted. he was a correspondent be, but he volunteered to go on an armored twain. the train was attacked, he was captured and put in a prison camp, and because he was the son of the aristocracy, the boers made great propaganda value out of this. he escaped by himself and made his way across 30 to 0 miles of enemy territory, gets to neutral territory, reenlists in the british army, comes back, fights many battles and frees the prettier of war camp -- prisoner of war camp in which he'd been held captive. it's an incredible story by one of the most gifted narrative historians, i think, writing today. and third book in october is

h.w. brands, two-time finalist for the pulitzer prize for his biographies of franklin roosevelt and of benjamin franklin has written a book about a moment many history which was during the korean war, a faceoff between the very unpopular president truman and the exceedingly popular general douglas macarthur during the period when mccarthyism was just coming to the fore. the chinese had overrun korea, and macarthur wanted to use nuclear weapons to stem the flow x -- and truman disagreed. ..

mac this is what we are most excited about the small. >> you'll all three authors on book to be this fall. bill thomas is the editor in chief at double they. >> doubleday. >> [applause]. >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome. i am jeffrey russell president of this wonderful institution witt lewis randolph would've been insp b