Smithsonian.com

Little understood until now—because the giants of the deep spend 95 percent of their time beneath the ocean surface—whales are yielding up their secrets as advanced technology makes new research possible. Douglas Chadwick offers cutting-edge science and an eloquent paean to our connection with the largest creatures ever to inhabit Earth.

The Grandest of Lives: Eye to Eye with Whales by Douglas H. Chadwick (Sierra Club Books/UC Berkeley, $24.95)

The author of The Boys of Summer turns to his own saga, told with grace and conviction. His homage to books, baseball and the spirit of his son, who died at age 23, will linger long in the memory.

Into My Own: The Remarkable People and Events That Shaped a Life by Roger Kahn (Thomas Dunne, $24.95)

In 1991, when David Houze was 26, he discovered a stunning truth. His South African mother, who had married an American and brought her then-two-year-old son to the U.S. in 1965, had left behind three young daughters. Houze’s search for his long-lost sisters becomes a suspenseful foray into two worlds: the South of the Civil Rights Movement and South Africa in the time of apartheid.

Twilight People: One Man’s Journey to Find His Roots by David Houze (University of California Press, $24.95)

Henry Nicholls, an evolutionary biologist, unfolds an absorbing—and, of course, cautionary—extinction tale. In 1971, scientists discovered George, a 5-foot-long, 200-pound tortoise, on the Galapagos Island of Pinta. Since then, researchers at the Charles Darwin Station on Santa Cruz island have attempted to devise a method for reproducing the tortoise, the last of his species, whether by natural or high-tech means.

Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon by Henry Nicholls (MacMillan, $24.95)

Just in time for Pirates of the Caribbean: the author, drawing from a wealth of sources, including a wide range of historic documents, vividly conveys the life and times of the 18th century’s scourge of the sea.

Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorious Pirate by Angus Konstam (Wiley, $24.95)

The father of our country as we never knew him! The author, a veteran journalist and foreign correspondent, conveys and nuanced and intimate portrait of the man behind the public figure. Transcending the image of Washington as a general beloved by his men and statesman revered by all, Harlow Unger introduces us to the charismatic “husband, father and friend” who “loved women, children, flowers, plants, dogs, horses, and fine wines,” and who “slept on forest floors as soundly as in mansion beds.”

The Unexpected George Washington by Harlow Giles Unger (Wiley, $27.95)