Lisa Kaufman - Editor

I helped to found and provided creative direction for this 'small but noisy' independent nonfiction trade book publishing company for 17 years, while also acquiring and editing books. Books I've acquired and/or edited have been New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and regional bestsellers; and winners of and finalists for the Overseas Press Club, Helen Bernstein, Ralph Gleason, Action Against Hunger, Harry Chapin, and Books for a Better Life awards; among others.

Acquiring editor for a now-defunct, pop-culture-oriented publisher. Specialized in self-help, spirituality, quiz books and travel guides.

Managed copywriting for and production of all annual catalogs, consumer ads, and promotional materials for Viking and Penguin imprints, and cover copywriting for all Penguin paperbacks. Wrote Penguin Classics reading group guides cited by booksellers as the best available from any publisher (Publishers Weekly).

Acquired and edited books in diverse genres for both hardcover and paperback imprints, with particular responsibility for mysteries. Some of my favorites: Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices (in print for 20+ years in two editions) by indie filmmaker Rick Schmidt and Rock Critic Murders by Austin-based rock guitarist Jesse Sublett.

Worked on books including the bestsellers "Hold on, Mr. President!" by Sam Donaldson, Reversal of Fortune by Alan Dershowitz, and All Fall Down by Gary Sick.

Assisted the internationally bestselling author during the writing of his novel Texas.

The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad

Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan

The authors of The Red Web examine the shifting role of Russian expatriates throughout history, and their complicated, unbreakable relationship with the mother country---be it antagonistic or far too chummy.From the time of the tsars to the waning days of Communist regime, Russian leaders tried to control the flow of ideas by controlling its citizens' movements. They believed strict limits on ... read more

The authors of The Red Web examine the shifting role of Russian expatriates throughout history, and their complicated, unbreakable relationship with the mother country---be it antagonistic or far too chummy.From the time of the tsars to the waning days of Communist regime, Russian leaders tried to control the flow of ideas by controlling its citizens' movements. They believed strict limits on ... read more

The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease

Marc Lewis

The psychiatric establishment in the Western world has unanimously branded addiction a brain disease. And the idea that an addict has an incurable illness, as opposed to a contemptible moral weakness, has served an historically important role in changing how addiction is understood, researched, and treated throughout the world. But as renowned developmental neuroscientist and recovered addict ... read more

The psychiatric establishment in the Western world has unanimously branded addiction a brain disease. And the idea that an addict has an incurable illness, as opposed to a contemptible moral weakness, has served an historically important role in changing how addiction is understood, researched, and treated throughout the world. But as renowned developmental neuroscientist and recovered addict ... read more

What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

Scott McClellan

In the bestselling book that provoked a media sensation, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan takes readers behind the scenes of the presidency of George W. Bush. Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to ... read more

In the bestselling book that provoked a media sensation, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan takes readers behind the scenes of the presidency of George W. Bush. Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to ... read more

How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick

Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Everyone knows someone who's sick or suffering. Yet when a friend or relative is under duress many of us feel uncertain about how to cope.Throughout her recent bout with breast cancer, Letty Cottin Pogrebin became fascinated by her friends' and family's diverse reactions to her and her illness: how awkwardly some of them behaved; how some misspoke or misinterpreted her needs; and how wonderful... read more

Everyone knows someone who's sick or suffering. Yet when a friend or relative is under duress many of us feel uncertain about how to cope.Throughout her recent bout with breast cancer, Letty Cottin Pogrebin became fascinated by her friends' and family's diverse reactions to her and her illness: how awkwardly some of them behaved; how some misspoke or misinterpreted her needs; and how wonderful... read more

Detroit Hustle: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Home

Amy Haimerl

Journalist Amy Haimerl and her husband had been priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Seeing this as a great opportunity to start over again, they decide to cash in their savings and buy an abandoned house for 35,000 in Detroit, the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy.As she and her husband restore the 1914 Georgian Revival, a stately brick house with no plumbing, no h... read more

Journalist Amy Haimerl and her husband had been priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Seeing this as a great opportunity to start over again, they decide to cash in their savings and buy an abandoned house for 35,000 in Detroit, the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy.As she and her husband restore the 1914 Georgian Revival, a stately brick house with no plumbing, no h... read more

Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong

Robert Bryce

In the face of today's environmental and economic challenges, doomsayers preach that the only way to stave off disaster is for humans to reverse course: to de-industrialize, re-localize, ban the use of modern energy sources, and forswear prosperity. But in this provocative and optimistic rebuke to the catastrophists, Robert Bryce shows how innovation and the inexorable human desire to make thi... read more

In the face of today's environmental and economic challenges, doomsayers preach that the only way to stave off disaster is for humans to reverse course: to de-industrialize, re-localize, ban the use of modern energy sources, and forswear prosperity. But in this provocative and optimistic rebuke to the catastrophists, Robert Bryce shows how innovation and the inexorable human desire to make thi... read more

The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game

Edward Achorn

Chris von der Ahe knew next to nothing about base¬ball when he risked his life's savings to found the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important—and funniest—figures in the game's history.Von der Ahe picked up the team for one reason—to sell more beer. Then he helped gather a group of ragtag professiona... read more

Chris von der Ahe knew next to nothing about base¬ball when he risked his life's savings to found the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important—and funniest—figures in the game's history.Von der Ahe picked up the team for one reason—to sell more beer. Then he helped gather a group of ragtag professiona... read more

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

Tamim Ansary

We in the west share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew ... read more

We in the west share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew ... read more

Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change

Morgan Simon

Impact investment--the support of social and environmental projects with a financial return--has become a hot topic on the global stage; poised to eclipse traditional aid by ten times in the next decade. But the field is at a tipping point: Will impact investment empower millions of people worldwide, or will it replicate the same mistakes that have plagued both aid and finance?Morgan Simon is ... read more

Impact investment--the support of social and environmental projects with a financial return--has become a hot topic on the global stage; poised to eclipse traditional aid by ten times in the next decade. But the field is at a tipping point: Will impact investment empower millions of people worldwide, or will it replicate the same mistakes that have plagued both aid and finance?Morgan Simon is ... read more

Re-Engineering Humanity

Brett Frischmann, Evan Selinger

Every day, new warnings emerge about artificial intelligence rebelling against us. All the while, a more immediate dilemma flies under the radar. Have forces been unleashed that are thrusting humanity down an ill-advised path, one that's increasingly making us behave like simple machines? In this wide-reaching, interdisciplinary book, Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger examine what's happening... read more

Every day, new warnings emerge about artificial intelligence rebelling against us. All the while, a more immediate dilemma flies under the radar. Have forces been unleashed that are thrusting humanity down an ill-advised path, one that's increasingly making us behave like simple machines? In this wide-reaching, interdisciplinary book, Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger examine what's happening... read more

More than Ready: Be Strong and Be You . . . and Other Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise

Cecilia Munoz

Advice and inspiration for women of color seeking new heights of influence, from the top Latinx advisor to President Obama Women of color are becoming more visible and more powerful than ever, achieving higher levels of success and blazing new paths for future generations. These women are pioneers, finding their own way in otherwise white-dominated arenas. As the first Latinx to direct nationa... read more

Advice and inspiration for women of color seeking new heights of influence, from the top Latinx advisor to President Obama Women of color are becoming more visible and more powerful than ever, achieving higher levels of success and blazing new paths for future generations. These women are pioneers, finding their own way in otherwise white-dominated arenas. As the first Latinx to direct nationa... read more

Overcoming Overwhelm: Dismantle Your Stress from the Inside Out

Samantha Brody ND

Do more. Be more. Try harder. It's the battle cry of our culture —and it's making millions of us sick, tired, and frustrated. Why? According to Dr. Samantha Brody, "We simply can’t solve stress and overwhelm by doing more and more of what we’ve been doing."With Overcoming Overwhelm, this pioneering naturopathic physician offers an alternative. In this step-by-step guide, she helps us restore b... read more

Do more. Be more. Try harder. It's the battle cry of our culture —and it's making millions of us sick, tired, and frustrated. Why? According to Dr. Samantha Brody, "We simply can’t solve stress and overwhelm by doing more and more of what we’ve been doing."With Overcoming Overwhelm, this pioneering naturopathic physician offers an alternative. In this step-by-step guide, she helps us restore b... read more

In That Time: Michael O'Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam

Daniel H. Weiss

Through the story of the brief, brave life of a promising poet, the president and CEO of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art evokes the turmoil and tragedy of the Vietnam War eraIn That Time tells the story of the American experience in Vietnam through the life of Michael O'Donnell, a promising young poet who became a soldier and helicopter pilot in Vietnam. O'Donnell wrote with great sensit... read more

Through the story of the brief, brave life of a promising poet, the president and CEO of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art evokes the turmoil and tragedy of the Vietnam War eraIn That Time tells the story of the American experience in Vietnam through the life of Michael O'Donnell, a promising young poet who became a soldier and helicopter pilot in Vietnam. O'Donnell wrote with great sensit... read more

The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection

Tamim Ansary

A sweeping global human history that describes the separate beginnings of the world's major cultural movements - Confuscianism, Islam, Judeo-Christianity and Nomadism - and the dramatic, sometimes ruinous, sometimes transformative effects of their ever closer intertwinement that is the defining feature of our world today.Forty thousand years ago, the human species existed as thousands of small... read more

A sweeping global human history that describes the separate beginnings of the world's major cultural movements - Confuscianism, Islam, Judeo-Christianity and Nomadism - and the dramatic, sometimes ruinous, sometimes transformative effects of their ever closer intertwinement that is the defining feature of our world today.Forty thousand years ago, the human species existed as thousands of small... read more

Illegal: How America's Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All

Elizabeth F. Cohen

A political scientist explains how the American immigration system ran off the rails -- and proposes a bold plan for reform Under the Trump administration, US immigration agencies terrorize the undocumented, target people who are here legally, and even threaten the constitutional rights of American citizens. How did we get to this point? In Illegal, Elizabeth F. Cohen reveals that our current ... read more

A political scientist explains how the American immigration system ran off the rails -- and proposes a bold plan for reform Under the Trump administration, US immigration agencies terrorize the undocumented, target people who are here legally, and even threaten the constitutional rights of American citizens. How did we get to this point? In Illegal, Elizabeth F. Cohen reveals that our current ... read more

I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era

William Knoedelseder

Now a Showtime original seriesIn the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they crea... read more

Now a Showtime original seriesIn the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. There, in a late-night world of sex, drugs, dreams and laughter, they crea... read more

The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace

Lynn Povich

It was the 1960s--a time of economic boom and social strife. Young women poured into the workplace, but the "Help Wanted" ads were segregated by gender and the "Mad Men" office culture was rife with sexual stereotyping and discrimination.Lynn Povich was one of the lucky ones, landing a job at Newsweek, renowned for its cutting-edge coverage of civil rights and the "Swinging Sixties." Nora Ephr... read more

It was the 1960s--a time of economic boom and social strife. Young women poured into the workplace, but the "Help Wanted" ads were segregated by gender and the "Mad Men" office culture was rife with sexual stereotyping and discrimination.Lynn Povich was one of the lucky ones, landing a job at Newsweek, renowned for its cutting-edge coverage of civil rights and the "Swinging Sixties." Nora Ephr... read more

A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations

Robert Bryce

In the ancient world it was guns, germs, and steel that determined the fates of people and nations; now, more than ever, it is electricity.Global demand for power is doubling every two decades, but electricity remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and do so reliably. Today, some three billion people are still living in places where per-capita electricity use is less than ... read more

In the ancient world it was guns, germs, and steel that determined the fates of people and nations; now, more than ever, it is electricity.Global demand for power is doubling every two decades, but electricity remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and do so reliably. Today, some three billion people are still living in places where per-capita electricity use is less than ... read more

Haiti After the Earthquake

Paul Farmer

“Paul Farmer, doctor and aid worker, offers an inspiring insider's view of the relief effort.”—Financial Times “The book's greatest strength lies in its depiction of the post-quake chaos In the book's more analytical sections the author's diagnosis of the difficulties of reconstruction is sharp.” —Economist “A gripping, profoundly moving book, an urgent dispatch from the front by one of our fi... read more

“Paul Farmer, doctor and aid worker, offers an inspiring insider's view of the relief effort.”—Financial Times “The book's greatest strength lies in its depiction of the post-quake chaos In the book's more analytical sections the author's diagnosis of the difficulties of reconstruction is sharp.” —Economist “A gripping, profoundly moving book, an urgent dispatch from the front by one of our fi... read more