David Holahan

Donovan Hohn’s narrative about his monomaniacal quest for the elusive yellow duck(s) bobbing somewhere upon the intractable oceans is more than a little Melvillian.

Eric Jay Dolin's fifth book, "Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America," chronicles the American fur trade from birth to extinction.

The remarkable life of Quanah Parker -- half Comanche, half white -- provides a backdrop for astounding tales of hardscrabble and bloody life on the Texas frontier in "Empire of the Summer Moon."

Yogi-isms aside, at times the facts clearly get the better of the author.