BOB THIEL

Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings ($35).  Following the acclaim awarded Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-45, Hastings turns now to the Pacific theater and the culmination of that horrific story. The author not only provides profiles of the major players—MacArthur and Nimitz, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao, Roosevelt, Churchill

and Stalin—but equally telling portrayals of the ordinary soldiers and sailors caught in some of the war's  bloodiest campaigns. Hastings consistently shows his ability to look at events in the context of the times in which they occurred. This is particularly evident in his analysis of the decision-making process that led to unleashing atomic bombs and his insights into the Japanese wartime mind-set.  Readers of his earlier work will not be disappointed. New readers will find that this is a highly readable and accessible history.  (Autographed copies available)

Escape From the Deep by Alex Kershaw ($26) If Retribution is history examined on the grand scale, Escape From the Deep brings it to the personal level. This is the story of the U.S. Navy submarine Tang, which sank more enemy ships and rescued more downed fliers than any other

allied submarine in the Pacific.  Tragedy struck, however, in her fifth patrol when her last torpedo malfunctioned, in effect sinking the sub and instantly killing half the crew. Trapped nearly 200 feet below the surface and the target of Japanese depth charges, just nine members of the 87-man crew escaped. Picked up by a Japanese patrol boat, they endured the duration of the war in an interrogation camp known as the "torture farm.”  Relying on official records, letters, diaries, and—most striking of all—personal interviews, Kershaw pulls together a page-turning story of heroism. (Autographed copies available.) 

The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace ($24.95).  In 1985, at an auction at Christie's of London, a 1787Chateau Lafite Bordeaux—unearthed in a Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—sold for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. Intrigued by rumors as to its actual provenance, Wallace recreates the path from Jefferson's cellar to the auction room, pursuing the story from London to Zurich to Munich and beyond. His cast of characters can only be described as Dickensian in their colorfulness, including the discoverer of the treasure, a band manager turned wine collector with a knack for finding extremely old vintages. Was the bottle as advertised or an elaborate con? Wallace spins his story with a light, irresistible touch.