Rock star. Whatever that term means to you, chances are it owes a debt to Led Zeppelin. No one before or since has lived the dream quite like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. From the opening notes of their first album, the band announced itself as something different, a collision of grand artistic ambition and brute primal force, of English folk music and African American blues. But the music is only part of the legend: LED ZEPPELIN is also the story of how the '60s became the '70s, of how innocence became decadence, of how rock took over. Led Zeppelin wasn’t the first band to let loose on the road, but as with everything else, they took it to an entirely new level. Not all the legends are true, but in Bob Spitz’s careful accounting, what is true is astonishing and sometimes disturbing.

Bob Spitz's REAGAN is a richly detailed chronicle of the full arc of Ronald Reagan's epic life --- giving full weight to the Hollywood years, his transition to politics, and his rocky but ultimately successful run as California governor. His iconic presidency, from Iran-Contra to "Tear down this wall!" to an assassination attempt, receives a balanced reckoning in the form of an absorbing, even revelatory narrative.

Bob Spitz, the author of a well-regarded biography of the Beatles, has now given us a hagiography of another 20th-century icon: Julia Child. His affection for television’s French Chef comes through on every page. This comprehensive book covers Child’s life from her privileged upbringing in Pasadena to her work in the OSS during World War II to her four decades as one of America’s preeminent cooking teachers.