Edited by ROYCE FLIPPIN ’80, with an introduction by Matt Taibbi

(Public Affairs)

Culled from The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and Washington Monthly, among other ­publications, these political essays and profiles cover major figures and issues — from how John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate and Barack Obama’s campaign ­strategy to the CIA’s policy toward ­suspected terrorists and the economic meltdown. Contributors include Jennifer Senior ’91 and Princeton professor Paul Krugman. Flippin is the series ­editor of The Best American Political Writing.

(Bloomsbury Press). In this history of the making and meaning of Springsteen’s seminal album, the author, who first heard the song “Born to Run” when he was 18, describes each song on the 1975 album and its original reception. He also explores why the songs’ themes still resonate today. Masur is a professor of American institutions and values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

(Sheep Meadow Press)

In this collection of poems, the author examines marriage, falling in and out of love, the soul and its journey through life and death, and Ladin’s own sometimes-painful journey transitioning from living as a man to living as a woman. Ladin, who was Jay Ladin at Princeton, holds the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College of Yeshiva University.