Winter 2007

The Beatles is a collection of original photographs from August 21, 1965. As such it adds a new chapter to the Beatles' story. In it, Bill Carlson, accomplished photographer and cinematographer, brings to Beatles fans, photography aficionados, and history buffs more than 160 never-before-published photographs that document one day in the life of the Beatles on tour.

The Beatles brings together strands of several stories. First, there is the story of the Beatles themselves as phenomenal artists who changed music and culture forever. Second, Carlson tells his own story of how he interacted with the Beatles on that one day. Third, there is the story of the 25,000 or more screaming, shouting, cheering, swooning, clapping, crying, and singing Minnesotans who were transformed by what they experienced that day – even though most of them probably couldn't hear a single note.

While a high school student, Carlson apprenticed with the prestigious photographer Merle Morris. When the press passes for the Beatles' day in Minneapolis came through, he grabbed one, picked up his Hasselblad and Nikon cameras, and headed out to Met Stadium, where the Minnesota Twins and Vikings performed and where the Mall of America now stands. He went not so much as a Beatles fan but as a photography-hungry youth determined to seize every opportunity to learn and perfect his art.

"The press officers were blanketing the area, trying to get as much publicity as possible," Carlson recalls. "Basically, there was no interest from the other photographers at Morris. But for me, it just seemed like a cool event and I was scouting around for something interesting to shoot."

Carlson gained access not only to the concert – which occurred that evening – but also the Fab Four's arrival at the airport, and the afternoon press conference at WDGY radio. He even rubbed elbows with George Harrison, complimenting him on his new Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar that was presented by B-Sharp Music that day. Later, Carlson made a few prints for himself, and his high school newspaper ran a few shots with a short story. He then filed the negatives away for nearly 40 years.

In 2004, Carlson resuscitated the negatives from a file cabinet, and the now classic black and white photos are finally given their due in The Beatles.

As revealed in The Beatles, his images show the public faces of the Beatles at their press conference at the stadium as they pose and trade quips with reporters. They show the fans, who look so young, hardly even teenagers, putting Minnesota youth on the same footing as those in London and New York. They also show the more familiar scenes of Beatlemania, and the long shots of the concert stage recall that security was so strict that even photographers were banned from the field.

With a foreword written by noted Beatles expert Larry Kane, the book documents a day in the life of the legendary band on tour with over 140 images of the band, recollections from fans who were there, and local newspaper accounts of the magical concert. Paul, John, George and Ringo were relaxed, funny, and affable, and Carlson captures the smiling lads in candid moments during the pre-concert press conference. One shot shows Paul accepting the gift of a cigar; in another, John smilingly tweaks his ear.

Bill Carlson's wonderful images of John, Paul, George, and Ringo are an exciting new addition to Beatles photography. Their candor is endearing and so lovely to see. – Paul Saltzman, Beatles photographer and author of The Beatles in Rishikesh

1965 was a year I will never forget. A local disc jockey, Bill Diehl, introduced the Beatles by saying, ‘a funny thing happened to me on the way to the stadium today . . . THE BEATLES. I had goose bumps and my teenage heart was pumping. I remember thinking, ‘So this is how a real rock concert was supposed to feel.’ – Tom Hopp, concertgoer

The Beatles captures a day in the life of the Fab Four, adding a new chapter to the Beatles' story. In this book, Carlson brings to Beatles fans, photography aficionados, and history buffs more than 100 never-before-published photographs that document one day in the life of the Beatles on tour. There are other books by Beatles photographers, but there is no other book like this that documents one day, one concert, one place. It was a day that brought high fun and high art to the Twin Cities and changed many Beatles fans forever.

Arts & Photography / Performing Arts / Dance / Health, Mind & Body

Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology by Karen Clippinger (Human Kinetics)

All dancers are looking to achieve optimal performance – and Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology will help them do just that.

This text helps dancers learn anatomical and biomechanical principles as they apply to dance performance. It focuses on optimal dance movement and the related principles for understanding the function of body joints. By applying those principles, dancers can reduce their risk of injury and enhance their performance longevity. The book incorporates strength, stretching, and technique exercises for major regions of the body.

In addition, Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology includes special practical applications:

Concept Demonstrations provide hands-on exercises to try.

Tests and Measurements are specific to selected regions of the body.

Dance Cues help analyze cue effectiveness and promote optimal movement execution.

Study Questions and Applications help apply chapter concepts.

Attachments provide the pronunciations, attachments, and key actions of the primary muscles covered in the text.

Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology, written by Karen Clippinger, professor at California State University at Long Beach, where she teaches functional anatomy for dance, Pilates, placement for the dancer, prevention and care of dance injuries, and dance science related to teaching technique, contains eight chapters. The first two chapters provide a foundation for the rest of the text by presenting anatomical and kinesiological concepts and terminology that are particularly relevant for dance and that are utilized in the remaining text. Chapter 1 covers bones, joints, body orientation terminology, and joint movement terminology. Chapter 2 focuses on muscle structure, levers, types of muscle contractions and their function in human movement, and an approach to learning muscle names and actions.

Chapters 3 through 7 deal with the various regions of the body. The first of these chapters (chapter 3) focuses on the spine because of its central structural and functional role in movement. The next three chapters (chapters 4 through 6) cover the lower extremity, moving proximally to distally from the hip to the knee and then to the ankle and foot. A single chapter (chapter 7) covers the upper extremity. The lower extremity is discussed first and in more detail because of the preponderance of injury in this area, the important use of the lower extremity for weight bearing and force generation in many dance forms, and the tendency to emphasize the spine and the lower extremity in dance anatomy and kinesiology courses due to time constraints.

Each of these five chapters in Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology addresses the primary bones, joints, muscles, alignment deviations, and mechanics for the given region, with special considerations for dance. Sample strength and flexibility exercises are also presented. These exercises

are included to help readers better understand the function and location of muscles as well as the purpose of classic strength or flexibility exercises for improving dance technique and helping prevent common injuries. In the final section of each of these chapters, common dance injuries for the given region are described. The purpose of these injury sections is not for self-diagnosis and self-treatment; they provide a better understanding of the anatomical basis of selected injuries so that teachers and dancers have a sound basis for evaluating risk, deciding on temporary modification, or designing sequential class progressions that will allow execution of dance repertoire with the desired aesthetic and lower injury risk. Through the material in the injury sections the dancer can be better informed when seeking treatment from a qualified medical professional should an injury occur.

The concluding chapter of Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology provides a schema that will help readers analyze full-body dance movements. The purpose of this chapter is to present a tool that can be used to increase understanding of strength, flexibility, and technique issues that will influence optimal execution of a dance movement. This understanding allows dancers and dance instructors to be more specific in cueing and in the use of supplemental exercises so that dance performance is enhanced.

Karen Clippinger's Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology is most likely to become the definitive textbook in dance anatomy, kinesiology, and conditioning classes in colleges and universities in the United States. … In short, few texts approach the breadth and depth of this compelling, evidence-based work. If a picture is worth 1,000 words then this must be a 200,000 page book, and thus, good value for the money. … In 20 years of reviewing dance science books, rarely have I seen one so comprehensive, accurate, detailed, and practical. I emphasize the latter because here is a book that is loaded with practical applications for dance... both science text and dance handbook. – Gigi Berardi, Journal of Dance Medicine & Science

Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology offers valuable scientific knowledge and understanding for dancers, helping them to blend anatomical and kinesiological principles with artistic expression. Such a blend of science and art will empower dancers to realize their potential and expand their artistic vision.

Audio / Health, Mind & Body / Self-Help / Psychology & Counseling / Hypnosis

Stress Free Surgery: A Self Relaxation Program to Help You Prepare for and Recover from Surgery by Linda Thomson (2 Audio CDs; running time 89 minutes) (Crown House Publishing Limited)

Forty years of research has shown that patients who are psychologically prepared for surgery have vastly improved outcomes. It has been shown that self-hypnosis, when used in addition to anesthesia, can decrease anxiety and pain and hasten healing. According to author Linda Thomson, nurse practitioner, Certified Consultant in Clinical Hypnosis (The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis), hypnotically prepared patients have shorter hospital stays, less post-operative pain and nausea, use fewer pain medications, and suffer less anxiety and blood loss than patients who receive routine care.

The techniques used in Stress Free Surgery combine imagination with building belief and expectation to create a safe, gentle and effective way to reduce stress and relieve pain. They allow patients to tap into their own inner resources so that they are in the best frame of mind for surgery. This results in less pre-operative anxiety, less post-operative discomfort and faster healing.

Stress Free Surgery contains two CDs, one to play before having surgery to reduce stress and anxiety and to sow the seeds of rapid recovery, and one to play after surgery to promote healing and recovery.

Linda Thomson’s Stress Free Surgery will make a wonderfully helpful contribution to people needing comfort and support at a most vulnerable time in their medical care. Linda Thomson's positive, supportive and gentle hypnotic encouragement to move through surgery and post-surgery with a calm and positive frame of mind, can make a big difference in how well and how quickly someone recovers. Anyone going through surgery can benefit from listening to these well-constructed sessions. – Michael D. Yapko, clinical psychologist and author of Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis
Linda Thomson, PhD is a very skilled and experienced hypnotherapist. This is a valuable and powerful technique which can be used effortlessly by any individual who has to undergo surgical procedures. – V.M. Mathew, Consultant Psychiatrist
… an excellent adjunct to conventional, modern surgical treatment of patients. – Robert Novoa, Director, Cardiovascular Surgery, Aultman Hospital

Stress Free Surgery contains everything that patients need to help them prepare for the surgery they are about to undergo, and to recover from the surgery postoperatively.

Business & Investing / Management & Leadership / Organizational Behavior / Psychology

Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life, 2nd edition by Barry Oshry (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.)

When breakdowns occur in organizational life, the tendency is to blame them on the personalities, motivations, and abilities of the individuals involved or on the specific characteristics of one's organization. In Seeing Systems, Barry Oshry demonstrates how everyday breakdowns stem from our failure to see how human systems shape our feelings about ourselves and our relationships with other individuals and groups. He shows how readers can transform ‘system blindness’ into system sight, enabling them to live and work together in productive partnership. Oshry is the founder of Power + Systems, Inc., and developer of the Power Lab and the Organization Workshop on Creating Partnership.

Based on Oshry's 30+ years of studying human interaction in social system life, Seeing Systems is profound in its implications while being accessible. The book explores the powerful and uncomfortable truths of Oshry's 25 years of experience with workshops on power. The book discusses unlocking the mysteries of organizational life.
In it, Oshry explains why so many efforts at creating more satisfying and productive systems end in disappointment, and proposes a new framework for dealing with human behavior. Oshry shows readers how teams of top executives regularly fall into turf battles with one another; why organizational improvement efforts inevitably create tensions between the ‘good’ cooperative workers and the ‘bad’ resistant ones; how marriages seemingly ‘made in heaven’ disintegrate. Oshry demonstrates how these breakdowns in organizations result from blindness to the human systems of which we are a part. Finally, he shows how powerful, productive, and satisfying partnerships are created when we are able to recognize and stop these destructive ‘dances’, and create new ones in which people understand and are respectful of one another.

In addition to illustrative cases and solid systems theory, Seeing Systems is populated with pinballs; talking body parts; mysterious ‘swimmers’; amoebocytes, slugs, and earthworms; dances of blind reflex; and tunnels of limited options. The result is a foundation for revolutionizing readers’ understanding of system life. Oshry tells readers of the first edition, to rest assured, the old favorites are here – from Pinball to the Dance of Blind Reflex, the He/She dialogues, and the Dance of the Robust System. There is also much that is new: new cases, a new Power Lab story, a deepened exploration into the Dance of Blind Reflex, and a new section on Uncertainty and the Tunnel of Limited Options.

Oshry says this second edition has given him the opportunity to continue the exploration into the human and system costs of system blindness and the new level of humanity that comes with system sight. This new edition of Seeing Systems is revised throughout and features an extensive new section on having the wisdom and courage to face and work with the reality of uncertainty, a hopeful antidote to today's righteous battles of certainty versus certainty. This new edition features a new epilogue describing how Oshry is currently using theater, blogs, and pod casts to extend his multi-pronged revolution aimed at transforming system blindness into system sight.

Seeing Systems helps us grasp what really happens beneath the surface in organizations... regardless of whether you are an executive, executive coach, middle manager or individual contributor, Seeing Systems provides powerful insights and applications for enhancing your effectiveness. – Julian D. Kaufmann, Vice President, Leadership & Organization Development, Tyco International

Barry Oshry is the world's master teacher about power and systems, and now he has put his wisdom on the pages of this much-awaited book. Seeing Systems makes paradoxes comprehensible, dilemmas resolvable, and complexities easier to grasp. It will help people in every walk of life or ethnic group gain insights into what drives their behavior, and tools for coping with their roles in social systems at work and at home. – Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard University Business School, author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End, When Giants Learn to Dance and The Change Masters
This is an incredibly wise book about how each of us behaves in the systems of our lives. Its abundant insights can profoundly affect our perceptions of why we do what we do. And it creates hope that with greater consciousness, we can participate with more humaneness and love in a world that insists we form more and more relationships. – Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science
I have read with enormous interest your book Seeing Systems, and must say that through many years of being involved in entities dedicated to systemic thinking, this has been the most exciting reading. – Enrique G. Herrscher, Dean, Graduate School of Business Administration, ICED, Argentina

Based on more than thirty years of research and packed with illustrative cases and solid systems theory on human interaction, Seeing Systems provides a penetrating look at the dynamics of systems and a unique foundation for revolutionizing our understanding of system life. Seeing Systems is the most accessible, penetrating book available on the dynamics of systems, taking readers to a whole new level of understanding ourselves as human beings. In addition to those struggling to improve their business and community organizations, the book may also be of use to couples looking to improve the communication in their marriages.

Business & Investing / Science / Mathematics / Statistics

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres (Bantam Books)

Why would a casino try and stop you from losing?
How can a mathematical formula find your future spouse?
Would you know if a statistical analysis blackballed you from a job you wanted?

Today, number crunching affect readers’ lives in ways they might never imagine. More and more, choices that have traditionally been made by experts based on experience, intuition and trial and error are now being made – much faster and much more accurately – by individuals and organizations crunching massive databases.

In Super Crunchers, Ian Ayres shows how today's best and brightest organizations are analyzing massive databases at lightening speed to provide greater insights into human behavior. From internet sites like Google and Amazon that know readers’ tastes better than they do, to a physician's diagnosis and their child's education, to boardrooms and government agencies, this new breed of decision makers are calling the shots.

According to Super Crunchers, we are in the midst of a global decision-making revolution. Ayres – an econometrician, lawyer, and William K. Townsend professor at Yale Law School – calls these people Super Crunchers and reveals how this new breed of decision makers is calling the shots that affect readers’ lives in ways that most of them don't even realize.

In Super Crunchers, Ayres shows how Super Crunching is already upon us: doctors increasingly rely on statistical analysis to diagnose an illness where they used to rely on personal intuition and expertise; schools implement curricula whose results have been tested in a 20-year, $600 million Super Crunching study; an economist actually out-predicts the world's most notable ‘wine experts’ in determining the best vintages. Ayres also describes the ways in which anyone can take advantage of the powers of Super Crunching. For example, a website can accurately determine when to buy airline tickets in order to get the best price – and they offer a guarantee. According to Ayres, the prediction is based on a ‘serious super crunch’ which analyzes a database of 50 billion prices for airline tickets and crunches those numbers based on 115 indictors that are reweighed every day for every market.

But there is a dark side to Super Crunching and Ayres introduces readers to a world where marketers and retailers use sophisticated data analysis to predict what readers want better than they can themselves, and then determine the very highest prices they are willing to pay for an item or service. Yet Ayres reveals the ways that readers as consumers can protect themselves from those insidious marketing practices – and how the solutions to these problems are found through Super Crunching.

In this brave new world of equation versus expertise, Super Crunchers shows the benefits and risks, who loses and who wins, and how super crunching can be used to help, not manipulate.

Yale Law School professor and econometrician Ayres argues in this lively and enjoyable book that the recent creation of huge data sets allows knowledgeable individuals to make previously impossible predictions. … Although Ayres presents both sides of this revolution, explaining how the corporate world tries to manipulate consumer behavior and telling consumers how to fight back, his real mission is to educate readers about the basics of statistics and hypothesis testing, spending most of his time in an edifying and entertaining discussion of the use of regression and randomization trials. He frequently asks whether statistical methods are more accurate than the more intuitive conclusions drawn by experts, and consistently concludes that they are. Ayres skillfully demonstrates the importance that statistical literacy can play in our lives, especially now that technology permits it to occur on a scale never before imagined. – Publishers Weekly
In the past, one could get by on intuition and experience. Times have changed. Today, the name of the game is data. Ian Ayres shows us how and why in this groundbreaking book Super Crunchers. Not only is it fun to read, it just may change the way you think. – Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics
Super Crunchers shows that data-driven decision-making is not just revolutionizing baseball and business; it's changing the way that education policy, health care reimbursements, even tax regulations are crafted. … Data-driven policy making forces government to ask the bottom line question of 'What works.' That's an approach we can all support. – John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress
A lively and yet rigorously careful account of the use of quantitative methods for analysis and decision-making.... Both social scientists and businessmen can profit from this book, while enjoying themselves in the process. – Dr. Kenneth Arrow, Nobel Prize winning economist, and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University
Ian Ayres [is] a law-and-economics guru. – Chronicle of Higher Education

Gone are the days of solely relying on intuition to make decisions. No businessperson, consumer, or student who wants to stay ahead of the curve should make another keystroke without reading Super Crunchers. This lively and groundbreaking new book is a fascinating exploration of this new world of equations versus expertise, its benefits and risks, who loses and who wins, and how, whether we like it or not, Super Crunching is here to stay.

Children’s / Ages 4-8 / Animals

D Is for Dinosaur: A Prehistoric Alphabet by Todd Chapman & Lita Judge, illustrated by Lita Judge (Science Alphabet Series: Sleeping Bear Press)

Mary Anning found fossils
in the cliffs by the sea.
When she was twelve years old
she made her first great discovery. – from the book

All kids seem to love dinosaurs. With D Is for Dinosaur, young readers take a trip back to the Mesozoic era. From the ferocious Giganotosaurus (the biggest meat-eater known) to the most famous dinosaur that never lived (Ultrasaurus), budding paleontologists will discover new facts and explore challenging theories in D Is for Dinosaur.

One thing young readers are sure to enjoy learning is that paleontologists aren't the only ones who have made contributions to the study of dinosaurs. Some important discoveries were found by children – one of the first discoverers of dinosaurs was a little girl.

After graduating from college with a degree in Design Arts, author Todd Chapman began his first job as a toy designer. His career has since taken him into many areas of the high tech world, including printing and publishing, film and animation, networking and the World Wide Web.

Author and illustrator Lita Judge has a degree in geology from Oregon State University. Her fascination with dinosaurs led her to work on paleontology digs with the Tyrell Museum at Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. Judge writes and illustrates children's books in her home in the woods. D Is for Dinosaur is Judge’s second picture book.

Did dinosaurs really die out or is it possible they are still with us today? And what's bigger and scarier than the T-rex? Dino-kids can learn the answers and current theories behind these questions, along with other fascinating aspects of prehistoric life in D Is for Dinosaur. Dramatic, action-filled paintings let readers of all ages roam the prehistoric world. The book is part of the Science Alphabet series which features two levels of information: succinct, large-print messages like the one reprinted above and full color illustrations take up the main part of double pages but a side bar contains more in-depth information for older kids, making the book appropriate for a wider age range.

Children / Ages 9-12 / Social Issues

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko (Harcourt, Inc.)

This is lame but I’m actually looking forward to school this year, because every day this summer was like crap: dog crap, cat crap – I even had a few elephant crap days. Trust me, it was bad.
For starters I hardly saw my best friend in the whole world, Rory. She was always in camp or on Maui.
They probably don’t even have crap on Maui.
Besides Rory being gone all summer, my only other friend in the whole world, Nellie, moved away and my mom and dad fought all the time. They stopped seeing my little sister, Kippy, and me, and they definitely stopped hearing what we said. We even tried a little experiment on them. Kippy said there was a colony of worms living in the laundry hamper and my mom said: “Leave your muddy shoes outside.” And I said Brad Pitt had invited me to a slumber party and my mom said: “You already had your snack.”
It was funny for a while. Then it wasn’t. – from the book

In If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, written by award-winning author Gennifer Choldenko, the worlds of two kids collide.

Kirsten McKenna's world is crumbling. Her parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has fallen under the spell of the school's queen bee, Brianna. It seems like only Kirsten's younger science-geek sister is on her side.

Walker Jones's goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him to because she thinks he's going to screw up like his cousin. But Walk is a good kid. So is his friend Matteo, though no one knows why he’ll do absolutely anything that hot blond Brianna asks of him.
But all of this feels almost trivial when Kirsten and Walker discover a secret that shakes them both to the core.

You knew all along," Walk says.

"No I didn't."

"You're lying....You found out and then you told the whole world."

The issues raised are spot-on for this age group. . . . (an) under-the-microscope examination of the often cruel, always dramatic dynamics of junior high. – Publishers Weekly

Choldenko convincingly covers the middle school scene . . . sparkling characterization and touches of humor . . . tumultuous twists that ultimately convince Kirsten that, indeed, she does matter. – School Library Journal

Choldenko’s talent for characters and conversation brings the two voices instantly to life in alternating points of view...This will appeal to a wide range of middle-school readers and would make a great book-club or classroom discussion. – Kirkus Reviews

Two kids’ lives intersect to create one compelling story. Fast paced, marvelously funny, and brutally honest, If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period touches on universal truths about human nature.

Cooking, Food & Wine

The Country Cooking of France by Anne Willan, with photography by France Ruffenach (Chronicle Books)

Why is the country cooking of France so compelling, and why does it exert such fascination and evoke so much respect? The answer lies in the terroir of its pays (regions), the fresh produce and specialty foods that are unique to each area and are then transformed into such traditional favorites as Soupe au Pistou and Choucroute Alsacienne.

Anne Willan combines her years of experience writing about French cuisine with extensive research, hands-on experience, and a deep appreciation of the current culinary trends in France to create The Country Cooking of France. Willan is well known for her highly respected cooking school in France, La Varenne, founded thirty years ago, as well as her many best-selling cookbooks. She operates La Varenne, her cooking school, at Chateau du Fey in Burgundy, France. Willan was honored as Grande Dame of Les Dames d'Escoffier International. The International Association of Culinary Professionals recognized her with their prestigious Lifetime Achievement award, and in Australia at the World Food Media ceremonies she was inducted into their Hall of Fame. At the American Food and Entertainment Awards, Bon Appetit magazine named Willan ‘Cooking Teacher of the Year.’

More than 235 recipes range from the time-honored La Truffade with its crispy potatoes and melted cheese to the Languedoc specialty Cassoulet de Toulouse, a bean casserole of duck confit, sausage, and lamb. And it wouldn't be a French cookbook without desserts: Crepes au Caramel et Beurre sale (crepes with a caramel filling), Pets de Nonne (deep-fried cream puffs), and Galette Landaise (a rustic apple tart) are beyond delicious.

Dishes with a quintessentially French touch are organized into chapters that focus on each specialty: Fish stews such as Bouillabaisse; rustic sauces that convey a strong sense of place including Sauce Bordelaise au Vin Rouge from Bordeaux and Sauce Vin Jaune et Morilles from the Jura; savory tarts, from an Alsatian Zewelwai (onion quiche) to Pissaladiere from the Pays Nicois, bordering Italy, which reveals it close relationship to Neapolitan pizza; not to mention game birds, frogs, and snails.

Using ingredients readers can find at just about any supermarket and farmer's market, Willan offers healthy, imaginative recipes. Sprinkled throughout The Country Cooking of France are historical tidbits about individual regions and the French people. More than 275 photos of the food markets, villages, harbors, fields, and homes make this a beautiful book. Willan provides instructions on growing, storing, and, most of all, cooking the dishes and demystifying the art of cooking authentic French faire.

Anne Willan is the perfect tour guide for this fascinating journey into the heart of French culture and cuisine. She writes with such clarity, passion, and authority that one can't help but feel drawn in and transported to the French countryside. Every dish and culinary term is explained and put into historical context, providing the reader with so much more than just wonderful recipes. This book will stimulate your mind as well as your appetite. – Patrick O'Connell, Chef/Proprietor, The Inn at Little Washington

This very complex, extensive, and beautiful book with well-known recipes and stunning photography is proof that there is always something more to learn about the cuisine of France, even for a French-trained professional chef. – Jacques Pepin, Chef, Cookbook Author, and PBS-TV Cooking Series Host

Readers will be enchanted by the delights of The Country Cooking of France. More than 250 recipes including magnificent desserts capture the vitality of French cooking in a large and stunning volume. Willan combines years of hands-on experience with extensive research to create a new classic. The mouthwatering, healthy and easy-to-follow recipes use the freshest of ingredients, and the enchanting photos by France Ruffenacher, a San Francisco-based photographer, make this large volume is a celebration of French culinary culture.
Cooking, Food & Wine

Tassajara Cookbook: Lunches, Picnics & Appetizers by Karla Oliveira, with photography by Patrick Tregenza (Gibbs Smith, Publisher)

Eat modestly, widely, don't take seconds, and enjoy yourself. – Julia Child

What's for lunch? We all need to eat. And we have lunch in various ways: bag lunch, cafeteria, diner, burger place, deli or restaurant.

The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, a legendary Buddhist monastery set deep in California's Ventana Wilderness, is famous for its healthy gourmet vegetarian cuisine. Tassajara is owned by the San Francisco Zen Center, which also started Green's Restaurant, a popular vegetarian restaurant (and cookbook) in the San Francisco area. Tassajara hosts guests and retreats from April to September, offering beautiful and peaceful surroundings complete with hot springs, creek, Japanese bath houses and food.

Guests rave about one particular Tassajara tradition: the Bag Lunch. The Bag Lunch provides as many as twenty different colorful spreads, several roasted vegetables, salads, marinated tofu, cheeses, fresh baked bread, olives, pickles, chutneys and delicious desserts to name a few. Now the Tassajara Cookbook by professional chef Karla Oliveira, with photographs by Patrick Tregenza, shares these never-before-published recipes for savory spreads, pates and loaves, sandwich fillings, granolas, salads, chutneys, sauces, and marinades, as well as baked goods and sweet treats. For picnics, snacks, appetizers and small plates, Tassajara Cookbook is filled with recipes that can be prepared in advance. From a delectable Persian Olive, Walnut, and Pomegranate Tapenade to the sweet and sour vegetables of Antipasto Agrodolce, to the addicting Spicy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, this is gourmet vegetarian cuisine for the new age of culinary consciousness.

Tassajara Cookbook was created in response to Tassajara guests who have requested the Bag Lunch recipes over the years. These recipes have been adapted from other cookbooks by the Guest Cooks and Bag Lunch Crew at Tassajara. The Guest Cooks and Bag Lunch Crew are Zen residents and students who usually have no formal cooking experience or training, but work in the kitchen as a part of their Zen practice. The recipes are simple but they are prepared with care. The Zen students bring their zazen practice (meditation) into their work, taking the leap out of the conditioned small mind, into the freedom and generosity of the mind that is accepting, fresh, and full of possibility. It is the unfettered mind of a beginner, otherwise known as ‘Beginner's Mind.’

So, it being said that if the Zen students cook with a Beginner's Mind, then we all can. As with any cookbook, the recipes are meant as guidelines. One needs to taste for his or her own and decide whether or not a recipe needs more of this or less of that or if it needs an ingredient at all.

Food is, in fact, one reason people keep returning to Tassajara. – The New York Times

Tassajara Cookbook is perfect for vegans and vegetarians on the go, or anyone who wants to add healthy, tasty snacks to his or her diet. Readers will find an array of finger foods that are easy to put together when there is little time to cook a meal. The cookbook is a valuable resource for recipes to use when camping or when traveling. And it provides ideas for alternatives for those suffering from allergies, whether dairy, wheat, or soy, and for those desiring to eat fewer carbohydrates or animal products.

Education

Curriculum Theory: Conflicting Visions and Enduring Concerns by Michael Stephen Schiro (Sage Publications, Inc.)

I first encountered the four curriculum ideologies described in this book when I was teaching in public schools in the 1960s. I taught first in a high school, then in a middle school, and finally in an elementary school. I was under constant pressure in these schools to believe in and teach in accordance with several conflicting philosophical viewpoints. In addition, during the 1960s I saw curriculum developers create very different types of curricula and argue about which curriculum ideology should be the dominant one in schools.

Later, as a faculty member at Boston College during the 1970s, I witnessed faculty members' vigorous debate over whether we should orient our teacher education programs around the Scholar Academic or the Social Efficiency perspective. During the 1980s, the faculty argued over whether the Social Efficiency or the Learner Centered ideology should provide the underpinnings for our programs. During the 1990s, the debate was over whether the Learner Centered or the Social Reconstruction perspective should be our guiding light. Now, during the first years of the 21st century, we have ‘social justice’ as our overarching educational theme at Boston College.

… Over the last 30 years I have attempted to help educators deal with these issues. This book is my attempt to help a larger audience struggle with philosophical issues I have seen many educators deal with on a daily basis. – from the book

As told in Curriculum Theory, for almost a hundred years, educators have been at war with each other over what the nature of the American school curriculum should be. Underlying this war are four visions of what the school curriculum should look like. These visions are based on four curriculum ideologies – or curriculum philosophies – that advocate very different purposes for schooling and very different methods of achieving those respective purposes. The competition between the four visions of education has stimulated advocates of each to develop increasingly powerful curricula, instructional methods, and research bases. The result is improved instruction for children.

The competition between the four visions of education has also made it difficult for educators and the general public to reach a consensus on the nature and purposes of the American school curriculum. Seemingly irresolvable disagreements include the reading controversies over whether it is more important to teach decoding (phonics) or comprehension (whole language), the mathematics disputes over whether it is more important to teach mathematical understanding or mathematics skills, and the history conflicts over whether it is more important to teach knowledge of the past or to build strategies for critically analyzing and reconstructing society in the future. These disputes have recently become so fierce that they have become known as the reading wars, the math wars, and the history wars. Each of the four visions of curriculum embodies distinct beliefs about the type of knowledge that should be taught in schools, the inherent nature of children, what school learning consists of, how teachers should instruct children, and how children should be assessed. Each vision has its own value system, its own purposes of education, its own meanings for words, its own heroes whose beliefs it repeats, and its own villains whose beliefs it rails against.

A description of the major curriculum philosophies that have influenced educators and schooling over the last century, Curriculum Theory analyzes four educational visions – Scholar Academic, Social Efficiency, Learner Centered, and Social Reconstruction – to enable readers to reflect on their own educational beliefs and allow them to more productively interact with educators who might hold different beliefs. Author Michael Stephen Schiro, former chair of the Department of Teacher Education and School Administration at Boston College, describes the effects that these competing visions can have on the professional lives of educators over the span of their careers. Schiro was born in the slums of Washington, DC. He specializes in mathematics education, and has taught courses in mathematics education, curriculum theory, computer education, literacy, and multicultural education at Boston College since 1974.

Key features of the book include:

Provides a historical perspective on the origins of curriculum ideologies.
Offers a model of how educational movements can be critically analyzed.
Highlights the complexities of curriculum work in a social context.
Pays careful attention to the way educators use language to give meaning to frequently unspoken assumptions.

Curriculum Theory is organized into an introductory chapter, four main chapters that examine each of the major curriculum ideologies, a chapter that compares the four ideologies, and a chapter that examines the ways in which debate over the ideologies influences the personal lives of individual educators over their life span.

Each of the four main chapters that examine a curriculum ideology is structured in the same way. Each chapter (1) opens with a brief overview of the ideology; (2) continues with a description of curricula that illustrate the ideology under discussion; (3) examines the ideology's educational vision, global assumptions, and conceptual framework while referencing descriptions of the curricula; (4) describes the historical evolution of the ideology over approximately the last hundred years; (5) examines in detail the ideology's aims, view of children, perspective on learning, concept of teaching, conception of knowledge, and beliefs about assessment; and (6) presents concluding perspectives on the ideology.

Each of the four main chapters provides readers with an understanding of an ideology from the perspective of educators who advocate that ideology, without reference to other ideologies. However, each ideology's underlying myths and assumptions are made clear, and the hidden meanings in its use of words such as learning and knowledge are closely examined – using critical analysis in the spirit of poststructuralism and postmodernism. The four ideologies are compared in a separate chapter designed to highlight their similarities and differences.

The book also attempts to help educators understand how their own personal educational philosophies have been shaped during their lives and how their beliefs might evolve during the future span of their careers. The book includes a short inventory to help readers place themselves on a graph of their own curriculum beliefs.

Curriculum Theory is intended to help both experienced and pre-service educators understand the educational philosophies (or ideologies) they are likely to encounter in their everyday lives. The book provides readers with a clear, sympathetic and unbiased understanding of the four conflicting visions of curriculum that will enable them to more productively interact with educators who might hold different beliefs. The book stimulates readers to better understand their own beliefs and also provide them with an understanding of alternate ways of thinking about the fundamental goals of education.

The model employed in the book demonstrates how to analyze and question one's thoughts and those of one's colleagues, official policies and agendas, and new curriculum fads promoted by politicians, textbook salesmen, school boards, curriculum consultants, and others attempting to influence schools. This enables readers to more effectively contribute to the public debate about educational issues.

The book highlights in a rigorous way the complexities of curriculum work in a social context in which ideological struggles dominate current educational discourse and in which educators are constantly pressured to act in accordance with a variety of conflicting ideological perspectives. Having a clear understanding of the ideological pressures exerted by others helps readers put pressures into perspective and maintain their own values, beliefs, and practices.

Entertainment / Gambling

Championship Hold'em Satellite Strategy by Tom McEvoy & Brad Daugherty (The Championship Series: Cardoza Publishing)

Chris Moneymaker did it when he parlayed a $39 satellite win into a world championship title and $2.5 million, as did Grey Raymer in 2004 when he turned $150 into $5 million.

The first satellite in history was a one-table satellite for the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas in the late 1970s. Eric Drache, the tournament director of the WSOP in the early days, was continually encouraging players to sign up for the $10,000 championship event because he always wanted to top the previous year's figures by at least one player. Drache had been having trouble getting people to enter the tournament when he noticed a pot-limit hold'em cash game with $5-$10 blinds going strong.

All of the players at the table, mostly Texas road gamblers, had about $1,000 each, making around $10,000 total on the table – the cost of a buy-in for the championship event. "Why don't you gentlemen put up $1,000 apiece and play a freezeout for a seat in the Big One?" he suggested. They did, and the first tournament satellite was born. – from the book

Two world champions show players how to win their way into big tournaments offering millions of dollars in prize money for a fraction of the cost by playing in small-entry-fee tournaments. These exciting mini-tournaments, called satellites, made the authors millions of dollars and now they share their secrets with their audience.

In Championship Hold'em Satellite Strategy, authors Tom McEvoy and Brad Daugherty show readers how to win their way into big money tournaments that have turned amateurs into multi-millionaires almost overnight. In the past ten years, six amateurs – Noel Furlong (1999), Robert Varkonyi (2002), Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), Joe Hachem (2005), and Jamie Gold (2006) – have parlayed nominal investments into winnings totaling more than $30 million and world championship titles. And lots of other players have won tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars playing satellite tournaments.

Eleven major sections in Championship Hold'em Satellite Strategy give readers specific strategies for winning no-limit and limit hold'em satellites and earning entry into any tournament they want to play. Step-by-step, readers learn insider strategies for beating limit and no-limit hold'em satellites, as well as one-table, multi-table, online, and super satellites. And since readers will use many of the same strategies to win satellites and tournaments, they will also improve their chances of winning the big events.

McEvoy, 1983 World Champion of Poker, and Daugherty, 1991 World Champion of Poker, have earned millions of dollars by mastering the art of satellite play, and in the book they share their secrets with readers. Even if readers have never played a satellite before, the authors say, have no fear. They explain where to find them, which ones to enter, how to play, and then how to beat these mini-tournaments.

According to McEnvoy and Daugherty, as satellites have become increasingly popular among players, so has their level of competence. Players are studying poker books, discussing with friends what works and what doesn't, and practicing on the Internet. Playing Internet satellites is particularly valuable because players can access hand histories, which can assist them in getting a line on how their opponents play, as well as allow them to study their own statistics. For example, players can download the last 150 hands they have played. Using this information, they can determine which types of hands they have won with and which they have lost with. And they can get a full account of what has gone on in the pots that they have played, which will help them determine whether they have been playing too many hands or too few, too loose or too tight.

If you want to turn a toothpick into a lumberyard like I did in 2003, read this book. – Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Champion of Poker

Nobody knows how to win poker tournaments better than McEvoy. – Russ Hamilton, 1994 World Champion of Poker

Brad Daugherty knows how to win satellites. Nobody has a better record in the one-tables or supers. Brad and Tom share valuable information that would take a lifetime to learn on your own. – Vince Burgio, World-Class Tournament Champion

McEvoy and Daugherty are two of the winningest satellite players in World Series of Poker history. If you want to join them at the championship table, read this book. You'll be glad you did. – T. J. Cloutier, Tournament Player of the Year, 1998 and 2002

Championship Hold'em Satellite Strategy can be a step to earning a shot at fame and fortune; written for readers who want a chance at big money for just a small investment, this indispensable book will show them how it's done.

Entertainment / Humor / Comics & Graphic Novels

Blondie: The Bumstead Family History by Dean Young & Melena Ryzik (Thomas Nelson)

Over the years I have often wondered what my father, Chic Young, would have to say about the amazing durability of the characters that he created almost eight decades ago. I'm sure he would be thrilled to know that the world is still enjoying a daily dose of his wacky creation.

And every day, I thank my lucky stars for this magical menagerie of zany comic strip characters that became my responsibility to protect, honor, and keep funny. What a thrill it is to work with characters that literally explode like chemicals when they come in contact with one another. Sometimes I just turn them loose and let them do whatever they want. It's almost like the strip could write itself. With this cast of characters, even a monkey could do it! – from the book

Blondie – the comic strip – was born on September 8, 1930. Dagwood was the rich but awkward son of millionaire industrialist J. Bolling Bumstead, while Blondie was a poor and beautiful nobody. Dagwood's parents were opposed to the marriage, but love won out even though Dagwood had to give up his inheritance to marry Blondie in February, 1933.

For more than 75 years Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead have been one of America's favorite couples. Through war and peace, through boom and bust, through sexual revolution and social upheaval, Blondie has become the most widely read comic strip in syndication – in 35 languages and in 47 countries.

As told in Blondie, over the years, the particulars of the Blondie comic strip have changed. Traveling salesmen have been replaced by telephone salesmen. Dagwood no longer takes the bus to work; he now rides in a car pool. But the themes have remained the same – eating, sleeping, making a living, and raising children – all tied together by Blondie and Dagwood's undying devotion to each other.

Here in Blondie are stories of the lives of Blondie and Dagwood and their interactions with their children Alexander and Cookie, their neighbors Herb and Tootsie Woodley, the family dog Daisy, Dagwood's boss Mr. Dithers, the mailman Mr. Beasley, and the neighborhood kid Elmo Tuttle. The book includes early history: Blondie and Dagwood's courtship, their early beaus, their wedding, Dagwood at work, Blondie starting her catering business. Then there are the cartoonist's favorite strips and the story of Chic and Dean Young, the father and son, creators of Blondie. Co-author with Dean is Melena Ryzik, a New York writer.

Young says that the strips on the pages of Blondie are some of his personal favorites. He hopes readers enjoy them as much as he has enjoyed creating them.

Blondie: The Bumstead Family Album is a celebration of family at its most genuine. This enduring domestic comedy continues to make an impression in the hearts and minds of Blondie fans who connect with the Bumsteads' ability to cope, without losing sight of the things that count. People recognize and relate to the Bumstead family because they see themselves and their loved ones reflected inside the paneled walls of the comic strip. It’s all here in Blondie, the definitive book for the Blondie fan.

Entertainment / Movies / Biographies & Memoirs

King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema by Anupama Chopra (Warner Books)

Shah Rukh Khan is a modem-day god. On streets in India, his posters are sold alongside those of religious deities. Shrines have been erected in his name. For Indians and the varied non-Indian lovers of popular Hindi cinema, Shah Rukh is bigger than Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt combined. Over fifteen years and fifty films he has straddled Bollywood like a colossus. In the paan-stained studios of Mumbai, Shah Rukh's story, how a middle-class Muslim boy from Delhi became one of the biggest movie stars in the biggest film industry in the world, is legend. So when he flicks away cigarette butts people pick them up as souvenirs. – from the book

King of Bollywood is the true story of Bollywood, a portrait of a country finding its identity, a movie industry that changed the face of India, and one man's struggle to become a star. Shah Rukh Khan is the superstar of the Bollywood industry and the face of a glittering new India. An international phenomenon, he generates Beatlemania-like hysteria around the world, at appearances and performances across the U.S., throughout Europe, and beyond. Shah Rukh's larger than life tale takes readers through the colorful and idiosyncratic Bollywood movie industry, where fantastic dreams and outrageous obsessions share the spotlight with extortion, murder, and corruption.

After graduating from high school, Shah Rukh moved from theater to television to movie acting, gradually finding his niche with brooding antihero roles, the sort that other actors rejected for fear of spoiling their leading-man image. Shah Rukh broke into this $1.5 billion business despite the fact that it has always been controlled by a handful of legendary film families and sometimes funded by black market money. As Shah Rukh has become a bigger star, playing a variety of roles, he also helped the industry expand. His films range from traditional themes (Asoka) to remakes of classics (Devdas), song-and-dance romances and even Mission Impossible-type films. As a Muslim in a Hindu majority nation, exulting in classic Indian cultural values, Shah Rukh has come to embody the aspirations and contradictions of a complicated culture tumbling headlong into American-style capitalism. His story is also the mirror to view the underbelly of the culture of Bollywood.
Author of King of Bollywood, Anupama Chopra, renowned film critic and journalist, combines her knowledge of Bollywood with firsthand interviews and exclusive photographs for an insider's look at Shah Rukh, a country finding its identity, and an industry that helped to change the face of India.

Although he's not a household name in America, Shah Rukh Khan, sometimes called the Tom Cruise of Hindi film, is a world-famous superstar, the kind who generates Elvis-level hysteria wherever he goes. … Chopra, a Mumbai-based freelance journalist who comes from a filmmaking family herself, offers readers both the life story of Shah Rukh and a condensed history of the Indian film industry. Even if you know nothing about Indian cinema, her prose style (Bollywood now recoiled from the mafia like a man shrinking from a sore-covered leper on the street) makes this a bizarrely fun read. – Publishers Weekly
A bounty for cinema lovers everywhere. – Mira Nair, Director, The Namesake and Monsoon Wedding
King of Bollywood is the all-singing, all-dancing back stage pass to Bollywood. Anupama Chopra chronicles the political and cultural story of India with finesse and insight, through fly-on-wall access to one of its biggest, most charming and charismatic stars. – Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend it Like Beckham
The ‘Easy Rider Raging Bull’ of the Bollywood industry and essential reading for any Shah Rukh Khan fan. – Emma Thompson, actress
Anu Chopra infuses the pivotal moments of Shah Rukh Khan's life with an edge-of-your-seat tension worthy of the best Bollywood blockbusters. – Kirkus

The legendary success story of Shah Rukh Khan is brought to life in King of Bollywood, a fascinating look at Bollywood, told through the story of its iconic star. The first comprehensive narrative account of Bollywood published in the U.S., this story serves as a scintillating introduction to India’s billion-dollar movie industry.

Foreign Languages / Linguistics / Psychology & Counseling

A Language in Space: The Story of Israeli Sign Language by Irit Meir & Wendy Sandler (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates)

This English version of A Language in Space, which received the Bahat Award for most outstanding book for a general audience in its Hebrew edition, is an introduction to sign language using Israeli Sign Language (ISL) as a model. Authors Irit Meir and Wendy Sandler offer a glimpse into a number of descriptions of the ISL community to which linguists and other researchers may not have access. An underlying premise of the book is that language is a mental system with universal properties, and that language lives through people.
A Language in Space addresses relevant aspects of sign language, including the most abstract questions and matters related to society and community. Divided into three parts, the book covers the linguistic structure of ISL; the language and its community; and a broad depiction of ISL and the contribution of sign language research to linguistic theory.

The book, which assumes no prior knowledge of linguistics or sign language, offers a detailed description of this young, relatively unknown sign language, accompanied by 250 illustrations. Alongside the linguistic analysis, Meir and Sandler present the human side of the story: The development of the Deaf community in Israel, from its earliest days in the 1930s to the present, including personal narratives by three of its members. The authors also show how research on sign languages in general and on ISL in particular can help to answer one of the most compelling questions in modern linguistics: What are the basic properties that characterize all human language?

Meir, lecturer in the Department of Communication Disorders and the Department of Hebrew Language at The University of Haifa and a researcher in the Sign Language Research Laboratory; and Sandler, professor of linguistics in the Department of English Language and Literature at The University of Haifa and director of the Sign Language Research Laboratory say it has been their privilege to study ISL for more than fifteen years. They have investigated and analyzed this language in the context of research on other sign languages and of spoken languages as well. By studying sign languages, linguists have learned much more about the human language faculty than they ever could have done by studying spoken languages alone.

It is commonly known that spoken languages have different levels of structure. They have sounds that go together to make words, and meaningful word bits that go together to make more complex words; they have syntactic rules for combining those words into sentences; and semantic principles for interpreting the whole thing. The fundamental question that has driven their research and that of like-minded linguists has been: How do sign languages do all that? They ask: Do sign languages have the equivalent of sounds? Are there complex words in sign language? Complex sentences? Can a language without sound have intonation? How much of language is shared universally by all languages?

A major goal of A Language in Space is to provide an up-to-date introduction to the nature and structure of sign languages in general by focusing on ISL. They do so by examining this language in detail, but in non-technical language that any interested reader – linguist, school teacher, or interpreter; parent or other family member of a deaf child; firefighter or movie director – can understand and appreciate.

A lot can be learned about sign language in general by the careful study of any one sign language. The first sign language to be studied extensively was ASL. In A Language in Space, Meir and Sandler point out both similarities and differences between ISL and ASL in particular, and include information about other sign languages as well. In this way, they show specific parameters along which the grammatical structure of sign languages converge and diverge from one another.

In Part I, Describing the Language, which constitutes the core of A Language in Space, Meir and Sandler unfold the answers that they have found to questions about ISL in particular, about sign languages in general, and about how these languages encode the same kinds of information that spoken languages do, often using similar types of structure. Using traditional tools of linguistic investigation, they take the language apart, and describe the way words are built up from meaningless elements, how more complicated words can be constructed from meaningful parts, the way in which sentences are put together, and how the whole system is given more meaning and expressiveness through the intonation expressed on the face of the signer.

Part II, The Language and Its Community, explores the idea that even if all languages have certain organizing principles in common, each language is refined and expanded by its community of users. Just as a community defines its language, so does a language define its community. This bond between language and community is doubly clear in the case of the language of Deaf people. In Part II of A Language in Space, Meir and Sandler take a closer look at the language in its social context. They describe the history of the Deaf community in Israel and the birth and development of ISL. Their interest in the history of this community was sparked by a presentation given by one of the Deaf sign language consultants associated with their lab, an architect by profession, Meir Etedgi. Together with Etedgi, they set about trying to learn more about that community by interviewing its oldest members and by reading its annals in the archives of the National Association of the Deaf in Israel. In Chapter 11 they report the story that unfolded: when and under what conditions Deaf people discovered each other and began to congregate, how the idea arose to form an association – how a community originated. As the Israeli Deaf community is relatively young, they have the advantage of learning firsthand about its formation from its founders and their families. But it is likely that Deaf communities the world over have experienced some of the same growing pains and achievements, and they hope that their local account will be of more general interest, and will also encourage similar documentation elsewhere.

In the years in which the country was forming, Deaf people brought with them whatever signing they had used in their country of origin, and Israeli Sign Language was born. They have managed to learn something about that process and about earlier forms of the language, which they report in Chapter 12 of A Language in Space.

But the human side of ISL cannot be told fully by linguists or chroniclers. It must be told also by the people whose language it is. In Chapter 13 they bring to readers four narratives. Three were first presented in ISL at a symposium conducted at The University of Haifa in 1996, called ‘Seeing Voices’, and have been translated to English in the book. One was written more recently. Each presents the point of view of a different Deaf person; collectively they convey something of the essence of ISL in the lives of Israeli Deaf people – and of the place of sign language in the lives of Deaf people everywhere.

Part III, The Big Picture, discusses more theoretical issues. In the past 30 years or so, the study of sign language has left the realm of the arcane, and entered the mainstream of theoretical linguistic research. The realization that language exists in two modalities, spoken and signed, means that researchers must commit themselves to the serious study of both. Languages in the two modalities share certain defining properties, properties which Meir and Sandler deduce must be the essential universals of human language. Sign languages, like spoken languages, have word structure, syntactic structure, and even phonology, the equivalent of a sound system. But other properties distinguish the two. In this part they ask, What have we learned about language through cross-sign-linguistic research, and What is the relevance of sign language research for linguistic theory in general? They conclude that it is only by comparing language in the two modalities in which it naturally manifests itself that we can fully understand this remarkable human capacity.

A Language in Space is based on an earlier version written in Hebrew for an Israeli audience. They have revised, cut, and added to that version considerably, with the goal of making it interesting and relevant for an international audience. They are aiming at a wide audience, and they take it for granted that different readers may be interested in different parts or chapters of A Language in Space.

One difference from the earlier version is the inclusion in Chapter 15 of a synopsis of their more recent work on a new sign language that developed among a community of Bedouins in the Israeli Negev, conducted with colleagues Carol Padden and Mark Aronoff. This language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), is one of a number of distinct sign languages used by small groups of Deaf people in Arab, Druze, and Bedouin towns and villages in Israel. This language has a lot to teach readers about the most basic elements of human language.

A superb book from every point of view. A Language in Space offers the reader a view of sign language in general, and of Israeli Sign Language in particular. The book is clear, extremely readable, and fascinating....It touches on every topic relevant to sign language, from the most abstract theoretical issues to matters of society and community. All this it does with charm, simplicity, and clarity, from a perspective that is well developed, theoretically deep, and informed by the most up to date research in the field. The figures and illustrations are wisely selected and tastefully presented. – Yosef Grodzinskv, McGill University

This original and timely book will definitely be an important addition to LEA's growing list in signing and deaf studies. – Dan Slobin, Berkeley

Fascinating, A Language in Space is clear and engaging read, appealing and accessible to a wide variety of readers. The personal narratives are illuminating and moving and the illustrations are lively. The book is intended for linguists, psychologists, educators, sociologists of all stripes, students, and also for anyone interested in finding out more about the essence of human language.

HHealth, Mind & Body / Biographies & Memoirs

Face to Face by Audrey Kishline & Sheryl Maloy (Meredith Books)

What would you say to the drunk driver who killed your child?/p>

After her 12-year-old daughter and ex-husband were killed in a head-on crash, Sheryl Maloy came to a startling decision: Her path to healing would lead her to an incredible meeting – to prison, to the driver of the lethal vehicle, to say "I forgive you.”

Brought together by unspeakable tragedy, Face to Face is the true story of two women whose lives connected in a way neither could have imagined. It is a story of hope, faith and what the power of forgiveness can accomplish even in dark times.

On the night of March 25, 2000, 911 operators began answering calls from worried motorists on Washington's Interstate 90, who reported a pickup truck headed west in the eastbound lanes. Within minutes, the calls changed to reports of a violent crash.

The driver of the pickup, Audrey Kishline, was on the road with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit. In a wide-awake blackout, she slammed into a car, killing a young girl and her father.

The tragedy of the crash was compounded by the fact that Kishline, who recovered from serious injuries, was the founder of Moderation Management, a controversial program that suggested steps to moderate drinking for people who were concerned about controlling their alcohol consumption.

For Sheryl Maloy, the tragedy landed full force on the already wearying struggles of a single parent and on her hopes to restore her marriage to her ex-husband. As she struggled to recover from the loss of her daughter and ex-husband and searched for a new future, she realized the key to her healing lay in an incredible step. Compelled by her Christian faith, Maloy visited Kishline in prison, not to angrily confront the woman who had killed her loved ones, but to hold her in her arms and offer forgiveness.

In Face to Face, they tell their stories in alternating chapters: Kishline shares her battle with alcohol, injuries, and prison, while Maloy attempts to overcome the loss of her family and the deep scars of her past.

The relative of the victims of a drunk-driving accident extends forgiveness to the criminal driver in this stark, improbable memoir of tragedy. In alternating chapters reflecting the points of view of the two authors (streamlined by the writer Laura Morton), the woeful tale unfolds. … The aftermath was bittersweet: although Maloy was supportive, Kishline continually faltered before she could put her life back together. The stories of these women are wrenching and real, and now they plan to travel and speak publicly together. – Publishers Weekly

Face to Face is the gripping and unforgettable account of two women struggling to rebuild their lives. Maloy's ability to forgive will inspire anyone who is struggling to move forward with life after tragedy or hardship.

Health, Mind & Body / Science / Medicine / Research

The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research by Kenton Kroker (University of Toronto Press)

We tend to think of sleep as a private concern, a nighttime retreat from the physical world into the realm of the subconscious. Yet sleep also has a public side; it has been the focal point of religious ritual, philosophic speculation, political debate, psychological research, and more recently, euroscientific investigation and medical practice.

In The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research, the first ever history of sleep research, Kenton Kroker draws on a wide range of material to present the story of how an investigative field – at one time dominated by the study of dreams – slowly morphed into a laboratory-based discipline. The result of this transformation, Kroker, assistant professor in the Science and Technology Studies Program at York University, Toronto, argues, has changed the very meaning of sleep from its earlier conception to an issue for public health and biomedical intervention.

Examining a vast historical period of 2500 years, Kroker separates the problems associated with the history of dreaming from those associated with sleep itself and charts sleep-related diseases such as narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep apnea. He describes the discovery of rapid eye movement – REM – during the 1950s, and shows how this discovery initiated the creation of ‘dream laboratories’ that later emerged as centers for sleep research during the 1960s and 1970s.

Sleep research began to coalesce only around 1900, once investigators began to describe sleep as a positive, rhythmic process that served a biological function. According to the book, it seems counter-intuitive to suggest that anyone could ever have imagined that sleep did not serve a function, but sleep was generally framed in terms of individual psychology before 1900. Sleep, so the reasoning went, is little more than nothingness, and how can nothingness have a function? Of course, most people dream, and on this basis psychologists suspected sleep is not the simple elimination of consciousness.

The dynamic interaction of dreaming and sleep as scientific objects has not, however, been at all straightforward, so The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research shows how the intimacy of their relationship has oscillated over the past twenty-five hundred years. When sleep emerged as an object of modern biomedical analysis over the past century, dreams were effectively set outside the investigative domain. They were reunited, briefly, in mid-century by virtue of the discovery and dissemination of REMs around 1953. But, by the mid-1970s, they had begun to separate again, as the sleep clinic began to take shape and biomedical interest in establishing sleep as a public-health problem trumped engagement with the idea of using laboratories to comprehend dreaming.

The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research tries to incorporate aspects of all approaches by concentrating on the diversity and dynamism of the ways in which sleep has been made into an object of scientific knowledge. Both dreaming and sleeping were found, in different configurations, within the spheres of the personal and the public, of the visible and the invisible, of the animal and the human, of the clinical and the experimental, and even of the sacred and the profane. Kroker offers an overview of how those different configurations ultimately generated a new view of sleep that transformed it from an intimate experience to an impersonal and public object.

Sleep had, of course, been part of medical practice since antiquity. As the first chapter indicates, ancient medical interests in sleep were encapsulated by the role dreams played in the Asclepian cults. Galen acknowledged the value of such dreams for medical diagnosis, but it was his emphasis on sleep as a ‘non-natural’ that was ultimately formalized by the medieval medical schools, as dreaming was separated from medical practice and became part of philosophical psychology.

Chapter 2 introduces some nineteenth-century aspects of the scientific study of sleep. There were two dominant approaches to the problem of sleep in this period: one from the clinical point of view, and one from the perspective of physiological psychology. The most prominent clinical problem concerning sleep was insomnia. Many investigators were enthusiastic about using hypnosis as a tool that could probe the unconscious mind. By the time war broke out in Europe in 1914, hypnotism had fallen from grace, and its status as a form of ‘artificial sleep’ was thoroughly rejected.

The study of fatigue, on the other hand, was just getting started. Etienne Jules Marey's ‘graphical method’ offered a means of describing physiological phenomena without disturbing the organism's natural state, regardless of whether it was an animal, a patient, or a laborer. The graphical method allowed the construction of an image of sleep from the perspective of the body, rather than the mind.

But, if sleep was becoming more and more grounded in the body in the early twentieth century, psychoanalysis, which took dreaming as a model of mental activity, seemed headed in the opposite direction. The third chapter of The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research deals with two distinctive approaches to dreaming in the early twentieth century: those of Sigmund Freud and Henri Bergson. Both produced important contributions to the study of dreaming around 1900, although only Freud has attracted much attention from historians. For Kroker’s purposes, his original significance lies in the fact that he turned dreaming into a vital function, linking it to health rather than to a pathological alteration of consciousness. Bergson, on the other hand, took dreams to be a primitive experience of time as duration, which he contrasted to the mechanized, scientific vision of time as a succession of instants that could be represented by space. The fate of sleep as a function is charted in chapter 3 through the early career of Henri Pieron, a psychologist who had studied under Pierre Janet and Theodule Ribot. Pieron's study of sleep revolved around his method of ‘experimental insomnia,’ a technique that involved depriving his animal subjects of sleep until they slipped into a coma and died. Such research reinforced the belief that sleep should be studied through the observation of comportement, or ‘behavior,’ rather than through the methods of introspective psychology.

At this point, the story shifts, in part, to the New World. Chapter 4 discusses the epidemic of ‘sleeping sickness’ that spread through North America in the wake of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. American neurologists began to focus on this mysterious disease that often left its victims in varying states of dementia. Their interest in sleep brought the topic out of the doldrums of hygiene and into the world of organic brain disease. Constantin von Economo, the Viennese clinician who first described ‘encephalitis lethargica’ in 1917, visited the United States in 1929. Drawing on Pavlov's description of sleep as inhibition, Economo argued that natural sleep was the product of a regulatory ‘sleep centre’ in the brain, which was somehow damaged over the course of the disease.

Chapter 5 examines the very local conditions of early sleep research at the University of Chicago during the interwar period. According to The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research, when Pavlov visited the A.J. Carlson's Physiology Department in 1923, a young student named Nathaniel Kleitman was just publishing the first of a series of papers on the physiology of sleep. Kleitman, who would eventually establish himself as the first physiologist to dedicate his entire career to sleep, had adapted Pieron's method of ‘experimental insomnia’ to the unique conditions of physiological research at Chicago. He used human subjects for many of his experiments, preferring to rely on innovative physiological recording techniques rather than post-mortems to frame his questions about sleep.

The electroencephalograph (EEG), the topic of chapter 6, was first discovered by a German psychiatrist named Hans Berger in 1925. But it did not receive much scientific attention in the United States until 1934. Alfred Lee Loomis, who had a long-standing passion for precision instruments and timekeeping, used his extensive financial resources to construct an enormous kymograph that was able to record eight hours' worth of sleep at a time. By late 1935, his work had established a standardized set of five ‘sleep stages’ based on distinctive EEG tracings, through which the brain ‘cycled’ throughout the night. This image of sleep as a phenomenon of brain-regulated timekeeping was to dominate sleep research for the remainder of the century. Chapter 6 also examines the conditions under which REM finally appeared to scientific perception in the year that led up to Eugene Aserinsky and Kleitman's publication of their discovery in 1953. Once the province of an elite group of neurologists and ambitious psychiatrists, psychoanalysis had assumed a dominant role in the sciences of mind and brain by the early 1950s, and the systematic study of dreams outside the clinic was high on the agenda. William Dement, a young medical student with a keen interest in psychiatry, recognized the potential of REM to bridge the gaps between the physiological laboratory and the psychiatric clinic. By the mid-1960s, his experiments with psychiatric patients and his theories about ‘dream deprivation’ had brought sleep research out of the backwaters of physiology and onto the center stage of the neurosciences.

Chapter 7 discusses the gradual shift toward more clinically oriented research brought about by the formation of a social organization to promote it. When it emerged in the early 1960s, members of the Association for the Psychophysiological Study of Sleep (APSS) took seriously the idea that laboratories would reveal the truth about dreaming. Many of them also felt that the ‘dream laboratory’ would finally bring psychoanalytic concepts and practices into the domain of the biomedical sciences, precisely because they took REM to be an unproblematic and objective index of dreaming that could be effectively detached from its instrumental and cognitive context. Dement became instrumental in shifting the trajectory of the laboratory towards clinical problems. Narcolepsy, in particular, became a pivotal disease that was remade by laboratory-based sleep research. The ‘laboratory test’ for narcolepsy ultimately redefined it as a state-specific pathology that could be accurately diagnosed only through identification of its victims' aberrant REM periods. With this development, sleep research began to shift towards the biomedical field and away from neuroscientific investigation. In the process, the APSS was itself transformed, as an ever-greater proportion of its members identified themselves as clinicians, not psychophysiologists.

Narcolepsy, however, had always been understood to be a relatively rare disorder. It was not until insomnia was brought within the purview of the sleep laboratory that sleep medicine began to emerge as a medical specialty and sleep itself came to be depicted as a public-health issue. This process, described in chapter 8, was by no means a linear progression from laboratory-based knowledge to its application in clinical practice. As consumers of a vast amount of pharmaceuticals to treat their condition with a minimum of medical supervision, insomniacs were perceived to be at risk for addiction and even death by accidental or intentional overdose. While narcolepsy had justified the sleep laboratory's entry into the clinic, the evolution of insomnia as a public-health issue presented the prospect of an entirely different scale of expansion.

The final chapter evaluates the rise of sleep apnea following sleep medicine's first forays into public health through the problem of insomnia. The latter disorder was cursed, as it had always been, by indeterminacy. Insomnia was both mental and physical, and such a position was difficult to negotiate during the 1980s, when the American psychiatric establishment began a full-scale purge of psychoanalytic ideas from its diagnostic canon. Insomnia also fell victim to a recriminalization of drug addiction in the United States. Instead, biomedical interest turned towards sleep apnea. Practically unknown before the 1980s, the problem of sleep apnea had blossomed into a major public-health debate ten years later.

This is the best systematic account of how people have tried to understand sleep. The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research presents not only the memorable innovations such as Freud on dreams, REM, and sleep apnea, but also the strange byways, some well forgotten, and others in need of another look. Kenton Kroker offers a deep analysis of how measuring devices, crude electrodes placed on the head, and a new institution, the sleep laboratory, completely changed what had been the most private, solitary, and perhaps non-existent time in our lives – when we are asleep. – Ian Hacking, Chair of Philosophy and History of Scientific Concepts, College de France
In The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research, the history of scientific investigations into sleep and sleep-related problems unfolds as a rich and complex territory. Incorporating a vast amount of material, in terms of periods covered as well as in the numbers of evaluated printed and archival sources, Kenton Kroker offers a fascinating account of research into sleep. – Cornelius Borck, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, Canada Research Chair in Philosophy and Language of Medicine, McGill University

The Sleep of Others and the Transformations of Sleep Research is an extended essay in cultural history, written from the perspective of a history of knowledge. A fascinating study, it covers a wide range of material, telling of the metamorphosis over time of the psychological study of dreams into the biomedical discipline of sleep research. Kroker’s work is unique in subject and scope and will be enormously useful for sleep researchers, medical historians, and anybody who’s ever lost a night’s sleep.

History / Americas / West

Let' er Buck:: A Story of the Passing of the Old West by Charles Wellington Furlong, with a new introduction by W.K. Stratton (The Overlook Press)

Long before the popular participatory journalism of George Plimpton and Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Wellington Furlong wrote about his experience in the bull-riding competition at the 1914 Pendleton, Oregon Round-Up in Let' er Buck. He broke his wrist, but won the competition seated aboard a notorious bucking-bull called Sharkey – ‘a ton of living dynamite.’

First published in 1921, Furlong's classic account of the Pendleton Round-Up was a bestseller that extolled the virtues of the Old West. Out of print for over eighty years, Let' er Buck brings the book back to life with a new edition, faithful to Furlong's original volume, with more than 50 authentic black-and-white photographs.

Furlong's monumental bestseller was first published in 1921 to educate the ‘blasé, effete, lily-livered youths’ of America about the values of an ‘honorable physical contest’ – the rodeo.

Each fall in Pendleton, Oregon, there is great carnival that epitomizes the most dramatic phases of the pioneer days of the West. The epitome of the great human virtues with which the West was replete – courage, daring, belief in work, love of play, optimism, and, above all, that balance-wheel of life – humor. There the real, practical work of the trail, cow camp and range is shown through the sports of the pioneer.

Let' er Buck is the story of the passing of the Old West, illustrated from photographs of bucking horses, cow-pony races, bulldogging Texas longhorns, Indians, cowboys, fancy ropers, and old time scouts as seen as the annual cowboy carnival, the Round-Up, held in Pendleton, Oregon, each September.

Charles Wellington Furlong (1871-1967) was an explorer, painter, explorer, writer, university professor, lecturer, publicist, soldier, and the author of numerous books and magazine articles. In 1966, at age 91, Furlong returned to the Round-Up to lead the annual Westward Ho! Parade, billed as the largest parade in the world without any motorized entries.

Furlong spent years studying and participating in the life and culture of the American West, including four Pendleton Round-Ups where cowboy contests epitomized the most dramatic phases of the pioneer days of the West and its spirit. "In all the world there is no more thrilling and impressive spectacle," wrote Furlong. "It nurtures the wonderful heritage our forefathers created for us, it puts a glow into the minds of youth; it strikes you squarely behind the eyes, and reveals the great living, painting the West before you."

Let' er Buck is the classic account of the famous Pendleton round-up and rodeo, back in print for the first time in eighty years. Both a call to action and a cowboy's lament, Furlong's lively classic is an unforgettable piece of the story of the American past. Recalling a phase of Americana that has all but passed, here is the work and life of the Old West, eternally engraved upon history. Beautifully and remarkably photographed, this reproduction is faithful to the original.

History / Ancient / World

Books on Fire:: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History by Lucien X. Polastron (Inner Traditions)

Hebrew, Hindu, Nordic, and Islamic traditions share the belief of a vast library existing before the creation of the world. The Vedas say that this library predated the creator’s creation of himself. Yet, almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to destroy it. The reasons cited for this are many: educated people are much harder to govern, and some proclaim that only the illiterate can save the world. There are also great destructions brought about by weather, worms, and even the paranoia of the library’s owner. br /> Books on Fire traces the history of this perpetual destruction, from the burning of the great library of Alexandria on three separate occasions and the libraries of the Chinese Qing Dynasty to more modern catastrophic losses such as those witnessed in Nazi-occupied Europe and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The author, ancient historian Lucien X. Polastron, examines the causes for these disasters, the treasures that have been lost, and where the surviving books, if any, have ended up. His investigation also reveals a new danger facing libraries today with the digitalization of books threatening both the existence of the physical paper book and the very idea of reading for free. According to Books on Fire, the promise of an absolute library offered by the computer may well turn out to equal the worst nightmares of Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell.
Lucien X. Polastron is a historian specializing in Chinese and Arab studies and has written several books on calligraphy as well as a monumental study of paper, Le Papier: 2000 ans d’histoire [Paper: 2000 Years of History].

In his acclaimed Double Fold (2001), Nicholson Baker expressed outrage over newspapers and books turned into landfill by librarians who chose microfilm over paper. French historian Polastron picks up where Baker left off, writing with equal passion yet punctuating his pages with wit. A specialist in Chinese and Arab studies, Polastron surveys the annihilation of libraries from ancient Mesopotamia and China to potential problems looming with the cyber contents of today's virtual books. Although Polastron learned of lost libraries while writing a history of paper, it was the 1992 destruction of the National Library in Sarajevo that triggered his desire to explore all nooks and crannies of history in the attic of every civilization. … Lamenting the loss of the ancient Alexandria library, the author covers books that perished during the Inquisition, the French Revolution and in Nazi Germany. Polastron's exhaustive research and vast scope make this detailed, authoritative study a revelatory read. – Publishers Weekly
This book contributes to a new understanding of the devastation caused by book burning. Every reader's worst nightmare is recorded with horrid fascination. – Fernando Báez, author of A Universal History of the Destruction of Books

The exhaustively researched Books on Fire is a comprehensive and authoritative historical survey of the destruction of knowledge from ancient Babylon and China to modern times. Books on Fire received the 2004 Société des Gens de Lettres Prize for Nonfiction/History in Paris.

History / Europe / Biographies & Memoirs

Henry VIII:: Court, Church and Conflict by David Loades (The National Archives)

Henry VIII's reign changed the lives of nobles and commoners, priests and laymen, and sent shock waves well beyond England's shores. Yet this clever and charismatic monarch survived rebellion, religious turmoil and the enmity of Catholic Europe, manipulating the most powerful and ambitious personalities of the age. From Renaissance prince to bloated monarch, Henry VIII dominated his country and court for almost 40 years. Destined for the centre stage of Europe, united with the royal line of Aragon, Henry's dramatic break with the Church of Rome led his kingdom into years of turmoil. Yet the headstrong monarch was also a shrewd operator who managed the powerful personalities around him to build one of the most momentous – and controversial – of English reigns./p>

Henry VIII focuses on the fluctuating, often fraught relationships between the king and his court, his Church and his people – and with the other powers of continental Europe, relations who were thrown into turmoil by Henry's successive marriages. The book explores Henry's policies and strategies and his manipulation of key players such as Wolsey, Cromwell, Fisher and More. It also probes the intriguing nature of the man behind the monarch, especially his complex religious beliefs that changed the direction of England's history.

David Loades, an authoritative historian of Tudor England, begins by explaining how historians have treated Henry and the expectations contemporaries had of the renaissance prince who ascended the throne. He describes the England that the young king inherited and explores his rich and varied reign in detail. Henry VIII considers the king's role in the wars, law enforcement, the succession question, the court, the rebellions and the problem of Ireland, illustrating the narrative with original National Archives documents and full color portraits of those involved. Finally Loades, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wales and Research Professor of History at the University of Sheffield, unravels the ambiguous but still tangible legacy that this most high-profile of monarchs has left.

The book shows how the larger-than-life ruler wielded his power – at court, in wars, in government, over his nobles and in his turbulent, politically driven quest for an heir.

Henry VIII reveals the strategies that bolstered Henry's power, from the shaping of his royal image, to navigating the shifting alliances of continental Europe. The narrative charts the king's struggles – against northern rebels, the religious establishment, the ‘wild Irish’ and, vitally, to secure the survival of his Tudor dynasty. Loades also probes the nature of the man behind the monarch, and dashes some modern misconceptions about Henry the tyrant, or Henry the gullible, or Henry the feckless slave to sexual appetite.

Henry VIII is a fascinating and compelling portrayal of an iconic king in his realm.

As intriguing as its subject, Henry VIII examines articulately and in detail the king's volatile relations. Historian Loades draws on a wealth of knowledge of the Tudor period to reveal the man behind the monarch and the lasting legacy of England's most celebrated king.

History / Military / Religion & Spirituality

MMaking War in the Name of God by Christopher Catherwood (Citadel Press)

Christian versus Muslim.br /> Sunni verses Shiite.
Catholic versus Protestant.

You cannot reason with people who believe God is on their side. – Vince Flynn, author of Consent To Kill

As religious zeal and sectarian strife set the opening years of the new millennium ablaze, they ushered in the latest chapter of a story that began centuries ago. From Bali to Beirut, humanity has inherited an idea that is as old as religion itself: killing in the name of God.

In Making War in the Name of God, renowned historian Christopher Catherwood, recounts a saga of passion, prejudice, and imperialism that laid the foundation for this troubled age. Beginning in the year 632, Muhammad – as much political leader and general as prophet – commenced the breathtaking spread of Islam that, under his successors, eventually conquered an empire larger than Rome's at its height. Even as this realm broke apart into Sunni and Shiite factions, the Christian retaliation – ruthlessly and unscrupulously unleashed in 1095 with the First Crusade – sparked a clash between East and West that continues to this day.

According to Catherwood, history professor at Cambridge University and at the University of Richmond, the pattern would repeat itself again and again. Catherwood goes back almost two millennia, researching the impetus behind religious warfare, from the first Jihads of the seventh century and the Crusades of the Middle Ages, to the wars of the Reformation and the sectarian terrorism of today. Episodes include the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans, in which the same Islamic faith that had once been an institution for tolerance in places like Spain became an instrument of expansion; the wars of the Reformation, when Catholics and Protestants slaughtered each other in the name of the Prince of Peace; and the endless conflicts of the modern Middle East, savagely fought over by three faiths that all worship the same God.

Making War in the Name of God is a look at the past altercations that have forged our violent present and the long history behind the powder keg of Islamic extremism. The book exposes a history of dissent and distortion that is seemly doomed to continue to repeat itself. Based on exhaustive research and written with an eye toward revealing the often painful truth, the book unveils humanity's habit of sanctifying bloodshed – and exposes a past that we forget at our peril. Catherwood traces the history of holy war, revealing complexities and subtleties that are vital to understanding a subject that continues to divide us. As the war in Iraq, the war on terror and the endless battles in the Middle East rage on, Making War in the Name of God offers a sobering look at the strange and terrifying connection between war and religion. Catherwood vividly reexamines these devastating struggles, answering questions that are timeless, vital, and unsettling.

Home & Garden / Crafts & Hobbies / Knitting / Children

Essential Baby:: Over 20 Handknits to Take Your Baby from First Days to First Steps by Debbie Bliss (Trafalgar Square Publishing)

The period immediately before the arrival of a baby is a unique time for nesting, perfect for creating special hand knits to welcome a newborn infant home. With this in mind, in Essential Baby, Debbie Bliss, one of the foremost designers of hand knits, has designed a capsule collection to take babies through from their first few days to their first few steps. This knitwear collection includes 20 designs for babies ranging in age from zero to 18 months. Divided into three sections – Coming Home, At Home, and On the Go – this book provides parents with the key knitted pieces needed for baby's first eighteen months.

Coming Home includes a snuggle-into shawl, a hooded carrying bag in a cashmere mix, and a simple crossover top, pants, and coat to provide a contemporary feel to the classic layette. In addition to those items to wrap up little ones and keep them cozy, this section also contains projects such as a knitted house picture and a cuddly toy lamb for baby's first room.

At Home is for downtime, with a cozy cotton bathrobe – a wraparound for after the bath – and slip-on felted slippers. Soft vintage-style, knee-length shorts and romper panties are for crawlers, while for playtime there is a squashy beanbag for baby to kick back on and a heart mobile to hang over the crib.

On the Go includes outdoor basics to keep baby snug on trips out and about: a changing mat that doubles as a carrying bag, a double-sided patchwork and striped blanket to tuck around baby in the stroller, a reversible hat, chunky cable-knit socks, and a double-breasted duffle coat.

According to Bliss, all the yarns used in Essential Baby have been chosen for comfort and practicality. There are cashmere mixes, extra-fine merino wools, and classic cottons, which are all machine washable but at the same time soft against young skin. She has designed the projects to cover a range of knitting skills, but most are simple, reflecting a new life balance when nurturing may take over from knitting.

Essential Baby is a complete knitwear collection for new babies, featuring, practical must-have items in Bliss' softest yarns to keep newborns pampered and peaceful from first days, to first steps. Photographs throughout illustrate color, texture, and fit.

With step-by-step instructions, and helpful charts and templates, Essential Baby is the perfect project book for anyone preparing for a new arrival, from moms and dads to grandmas. And by the way, the pictures of babies are so cute that it is almost reason enough to check out the book!

Home & Garden / Crafts & Hobbies / Models / Engineering / Design

Forbidden LEGO:: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against! by Ulrik Pilegaard & Mike Dooley (No Starch Press)

It can be dangerous to have candy shot into your eye or to have your head pummeled with ping-pang balls. Similarly, a speeding paper airplane could cause untold injuries. Take appropriate cautions when following the directions in this book and don't call us if you're injured by a piece of LEGO. In fact, don't tell anyone. We wouldn't want you to embarrass yourself. – Pilegaard and Dooley, from the book

It just may be impossible to exhaust the creative potential of LEGO bricks. With an active imagination as a guide, there are endless possibilities – provided readers follow the LEGO Company's official [and sensible] rules. This means no cutting or tampering with bricks, creating models that shoot unapproved projectiles, or using non-standard parts with any LEGO product. After all, those little precision-molded ABS bricks can be dangerous in the wrong hands!/p>

Well, toss those rules out the window.

Written by former master LEGO designers, Forbidden LEGO is a full color book containing projects that break the LEGO Company's rules for building with LEGO bricks – rules against building projects that fire projectiles, cutting or gluing bricks, and using non-standard parts. These are backroom projects that LEGO's master designers build under the LEGO radar, just to have fun. Using LEGO bricks in combination with common household materials (from rubber bands and glue to plastic spoons and ping-pong balls) along with some unorthodox building techniques, readers learn to create working models that LEGO would never endorse.

Readers learn how to build catapults, launchers, vehicles, and other useless but fun inventions. Tips and tricks give readers ideas for inventing their own creative model designs. According to authors Ulrik Pilegaard, former senior designer and studio manager at LEGO, and Mike Dooley, former senior product manager and director of development at LEGO, once readers get into the spirit, they will want to try inventing their own rule-breaking models. Projects covered in the book include:

Paper Plane Launcher (PPL)

Candy Coated Catapult (CCC)

Ping-Pong Cannon (PPC)

All-Terrain LEGO (ATL)

High Velocity Automatic LEGO Plate Dispenser (HVALPD)

Pilegaard and Dooley say they wrote Forbidden LEGO to share the raw energy and inventiveness they experienced at LEGO but that they could never fully express in their products. The book is about taking advantage of the creative freedom available outside the company. It encourages readers to unleash an extra bit of creative energy to build great and wonderful things. Forbidden LEGO helps readers learn how the LEGO designers create, so they may begin to think of ways to master, bend, and break the rules themselves, making the most of LEGO and their own imaginations.

Home & Garden / Landscape Design

Hacienda Courtyards by Karen Witynski & Joe P. Carr (Gibbs Smith, Publisher)

Hacienda Courtyards/span> was born in the secluded courtyards of Mexico’s haciendas and colonial homes, visited while we conducted book research and antiques-buying trips for our design business. Our passion to build and live in a hacienda-style home with a central courtyard germinated in large part from these early design pilgrimages to Mexico. Even though our hacienda courtyard home is rooted in Texas, we delight in the feeling of being in Mexico, thanks to the architectural design, paint colors, and our collection of Mexican antique furniture, old pottery, and once-utilitarian objects that blend together to create our outdoor living room. – from the book

Towering walls covered in flowering vines, carved stone columns, graceful arcades, tranquil water fountains and seductive palm-lined pools create the serene oasis that is the hacienda courtyard. Today, architects and designers are drawing inspiration from hacienda architecture and its age-old water heritage to create imaginative, secluded spaces: tiled wall fountains spill agua from old hacienda rainspouts into aquatic gardens with papyrus-filled stone feeding troughs. Swimming spaces include hacienda water tanks-turned-pools and a dramatic contemporary water space that flows beneath grand portal arches – allowing swimmers to encircle stone columns.

Hacienda Courtyards takes readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of gracious outdoor living areas, from the Yucatan's colonial estates to the centuries-old homes and haciendas of Morelia, Alamos and Oaxaca. Cobbled courtyards boast sculptural stone spheres and breezy, hammock-strung portales reveal old stone pavers, handmade clay bricks and wooden beams.
Based in Austin, authors Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr have designed and renovated homes and haciendas throughout the United States and Mexico and have collaborated on numerous commercial design projects, including boutique hotels and restaurants. Award-winning authors of the popular Mexican design book series – Mexican Country Style, The New Hacienda, Casa Adobe, Adobe Details, Casa Yucatan, Mexican Details, and Hacienda Home –Witynski and Carr were awarded La Pluma de Plata (The Silver Pen) from Mexico's Ministry of Tourism for The New Hacienda. As designers and antiques dealers, they have been at the forefront of the Mexican design movement for twenty-five years. Individually, Witynski photographs homes and gardens for national publications and Carr is a hacienda consultant and furniture designer.

With the beautifully photographed Hacienda Courtyards, readers explore the architectural elements, private water havens, furniture and garden vessels that can help readers create a courtyard paradise in their own home.

Law / Politics / International Law

Terrorism:: The Bottom Line by Nathan I. Yungher (Pearson Prentice Hall)

I am petrified of flying. … I felt as if I had a monopoly over the dread of airports and flying. [But] What a contrast a few years make! Terrorism is on the minds of many, and so many articles on terrorism appear daily that I have stopped reading or collecting them all. Terrorism is no longer the obscure subject it once was and textbooks on the subject abound. – ungher, from the book

One could hardly find a more timely and relevant topic that is also of great importance to learn about than terrorism. Preoccupation with the subject is pervasive, almost inescapable: from the corridors of power in Washington and other world capitols through the news media to the realm of ordinary people's conversations and everyday concerns.

Terrorism is thematic in structure and, on occasion, explores the nature of the phenomena under investigation according to a historical timeline. In addition to a discussion of numerous relevant topics, this book elaborates on significant theoretical global and historical aspects behind the practice of terrorism. Terrorism offers objective explanations of the nature of terrorism and of the motives of those practicing or supporting its use.

This work moves away from the encyclopedic approach to engage readers in the subject of terrorism. It is written in practical language and uses common terms, anecdotes, thought-provoking questions and case studies to help readers understand terrorism and its impact on society. Terrorism offers 17 chapters, which educate and provoke thinking rather than purport to render definitive answers to complicated existential issues of our times. The six sections cover topics such as a brief history of terrorism; foundations of terrorism; terrorism as a universal plague; weapons of mass destruction; counterterrorism on the domestic front; and terrorism in our future. The book, written by Nathan I. Yungher who teaches courses on terrorism and international relations at Rutgers University, is built on his lectures.

To make this textbook suitable to the academic calendar, it is structured in a way that offers enough material to cover all of the meetings planned for the semester. Thus, if a class meets twice a week, each meeting during the semester is covered by a chapter, or parts thereof. (Some chapters, such as those on Islam and weapons of mass destruction, require more than one meeting.) In cases where the course features approximately weekly meetings, Terrorism offers professors the flexibility to skip a couple of chapters according to their preference.

Yungher says that scholars and experts bestow advice on how to manage future policy in the era of terrorism. A few seem ready to give up in exasperation at the forgiving attitude Western elites exhibit toward terrorism. Other writers, such as terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, observed even before 9/11 that "until recently people underestimated the magnitude of the problem [of terrorism]." Today, the enormity of the terrorism challenge dictates "nothing less than a sea change in our thinking about terrorism and the policies required to counter it." However, even with the best of intentions, what is to be done?

The final chapter of Terrorism offers a review of five perspectives on the future, a summary that Yungher says hardly does justice to the voluminous body of work generated on the subject.

The "Grand Strategy" – Audrey Kurth Cronin, a specialist on terrorism, advocates a ‘grand strategy’, a counterterrorism policy that mixes a ‘negative’ strategy of arrests and killing of terrorists with a ‘positive’ strategy of foreign aid and promotion of human rights – to separate the terrorists from their audiences.

The Changing Face of International Conflict – Professor Steve Smith offers the following observations: States are no longer the main ‘actors’ in international relations; ‘identity’ politics has become more important than the traditional organizing principles of international relations. Future conflict will be one of asymmetrical warfare; ‘virtual war’ will gain in importance. It will become increasingly difficult to use military force to attain political objectives; the meaning of ‘victory’ will become vaguer and more difficult to define. Globalization and liberal democracy are not a universal inevitability; negotiating with non-Westerners is likely to be more complicated. ‘You are either with me or against me’ thinking will not work well in a future dominated by a need to forge alliances with non-Western cultures.

Nuclear Terrorism as First Priority – Professor Graham Allison, of the Kennedy School of Government warns that preventing nuclear terrorism must be an ‘absolute national priority.’ He suggests fighting a strategically focused war on terrorism, complementing that with ‘a humble foreign policy’ because “America's … international standing has fallen to the lowest point in modem history." Allison recommends building elaborate alliances against nuclear terrorism, improving intelligence, and applying a multilayered defense.

Multipronged Approach – Paul Pillar, former deputy director for intelligence at the CIA, offers a list of recommendations for fighting terrorists that includes: (1) Policy makers should always take the counterterrorism implications of their decisions into account; (2) they must develop a greater awareness of the entire gamut of terrorism threats; (3) terrorist infrastructures worldwide must be disrupted; (4) all methods possible must be used to counter terrorism; (5) policy makers must devise a variety of policies to meet different terrorist threats; (6) they must maintain proper, updated, and fair lists of suspects; (7) the United States must work with its allies; and (8) it must ‘give peace a chance.’

Protect the Home Front – Yungher ends Terrorism with a sample of the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission in its report. The report calls for better screening at the borders; tightening immigration laws and enforcing them better; focusing attention on aviation and transportation security without impacting civil liberties; and not neglecting the private sector.

According to Yungher in Terrorism, there is no historical precedent to the type of conflict should terrorists obtain weapons of mass destruction; the result could be catastrophic. Avoiding this requires responsible men and women of foresight and goodwill to come together to stop the threat before it is too late. Instead, today, empty declarations are routinely recycled by world leaders, and the elites in the West seem more occupied with squabbling and finger-pointing than with leading the campaign to unify the West to prevent the potential for a future calamity.

Military historian Martin van Creveld foresees a future in which states will crumble, and instead of conventional militaries, gangs and other small-scale formations motivated mainly by fanatic ideologies, greed, and survival will be fighting under the leadership of charismatic leaders. This process will lead to the blurring of the difference between combatants and civilians, ‘front’ and ‘rear,’ and the distinction between war and crime. Battles will become increasingly barbarous. Classic ‘strategy’ will become an anachronism and ‘bases’ will be replaced by hideouts and shelters. Sophisticated weapon systems and uniforms will disappear and warfare will become a mixture of gang warfare and SWAT teams. This vision has begun to manifest itself throughout some swaths of the globe, as in western Africa and northern Pakistan. It is quite possible that terrorism is well on its way to morphing again, becoming the new mainstream strategy for conflict in certain areas of the world.

Properly told, the subject of terrorism should be riveting, and this book, designed specifically for undergraduate students, is. Yungher does not attempt to have all the answers. Terrorism uses common terms and includes anecdotes, case studies, and thought provoking questions aimed at enticing readers to think for themselves. Based on his popular lectures, the book is written in a reader-friendly fashion. Easy-to-read and entertaining, an educational guide for learning about terrorism, the book will motivate students to want to learn more about the subject.

Literature & Fiction / Mysteries & Thrillers

Interred with Their Bones:: A Novel by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Dutton)
Interred with Their Bones/span> is a debut literary thriller written by Jennifer Lee Carrell, a former teacher in the history and literature program at Harvard and former director of Shakespeare for Harvard’s Hyperion Theatre Company.

A long-lost work of Shakespeare, newly found.

A killer who stages the Bard’s extravagant murders as flesh-and-blood realities.

A desperate race to find literary gold, and just to stay alive. . . .

In Interred with Their Bones, on the eve of the Globe’s production of Hamlet, Shakespeare scholar and theater director Kate Stanley’s eccentric mentor Rosalind Howard gives her a mysterious box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery. But before she can reveal it to Kate, the Globe burns to the ground and Roz is found dead . . . murdered precisely in the manner of Hamlet’s father. Inside the box Kate finds the first piece in a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her on a deadly, high-stakes treasure hunt.
An expert in occult Shakespeare, Kate knows better than anyone the secrets, curses, and folklore surrounding his life and work, none greater than the mystery of who Shakespeare really was. Kate discovers how the story of his collected works didn't end 400 years ago, but came to involve Jesuit spies, Miguel de Cervantes, copper mines in Arizona, ciphered Biblical texts, a first edition of the famous First Folio, and a madwoman who would do anything to expose Shakespeare's true identity.

From London to Harvard to the American West, Kate races to evade a killer and decipher a tantalizing string of clues, hidden in the words of Shakespeare, which may unlock literary history’s greatest secret.

But in Interred with Their Bones Kate is not alone in this hunt, and the buried truth threatens to come at the ultimate cost....

Carrell, the author of the much-praised nonfiction book The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox, has proven that she knows how to write a fast-paced, highly entertaining novel. Erudite and complex, Interred with Their Bones draws readers into an allusive labyrinth embellished with the words and plots from the plays of the ‘upstart Crow,’ as one contemporary dubbed the Bard. Here is a novel that will appeal to mystery-thriller fans as well as Shakespeare aficionados. – Bookpage

Carrell, a Harvard Ph.D. and Shakespeare specialist, crafts an exciting debut literary thriller. Kate Shelton left academe to direct Shakespeare plays …Can she find the manuscript of the lost play Cardenio, and will it reveal whether Shakespeare really wrote Shakespeare? Kate's use of her academic skills to decode letters and other historical artifacts will appeal to Da Vinci Code fans, the fast-paced globe-trotting action to Robert Ludlum readers, and the exploration of the Shakespeare mysteries to English majors everywhere. Highly recommended for all popular fiction collections. – Library Journal

Plot twists worthy of The Da Vinci Code dominate this agile first novel from Carrell, a thriller involving a lost Shakespeare play, The History of Cardenio. On a June day in 2004, at London's rebuilt Globe theater, Rosalind Howard, ‘flamboyantly eccentric Harvard Professor of Shakespeare,’ gives her friend Katharine Stanley, who's directing a production of Hamlet at the Globe, a small gold-wrapped box. …Roz's mysterious gift, which contains a Victorian mourning brooch decorated with flowers associated with Ophelia, propels Kate on a wild and wide-ranging quest that takes her to Utah; Arizona; Washington, D.C.; and back to London. Every step of the way, as the bodies pile up, Kate narrowly escapes becoming the next murder victim. From Shakespeare conferences to desert mines, from the present to the past, this spirited and action-packed novel delivers constant excitement. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

At once suspenseful and elegantly written, Interred with Their Bones is poised to become the next bestselling literary adventure in the tradition of The Thirteenth Tale and The Historian; the publicity material says rights have already been sold in 20 countries. Bard lovers will revel in the sumptuous prose, swift-moving plot and Shakespearean clues that pepper this debut novel.

Literature & Fiction / Mysteries & Thrillers

The Reincarnationist:: A Novel of Suspense by M. J. Rose (MIRA)

Internationally bestselling author M.J. Rose offers up her ninth novel, a psychological thriller of history and secrets: The Reincarnationist,

A bomb in Rome, a flash of bluish-white light, and photojournalist Josh Ryder's world exploded. From that instant nothing would ever be the same.

As Josh recovers, his mind is increasingly invaded with thoughts that have the emotion and the intimacy of memories, but they are not his memories. They are ancient – and violent. A battery of medical and psychological tests can't explain Josh's baffling symptoms. And the memories have an urgency he can't ignore – pulling him to save a woman named Sabina – and the treasures she is protecting.

But who is Sabina?

Determined to find the cause of the episodes, Josh turns to the New York-based Phoenix Foundation, a scientific group dedicated to the possibilities of reincarnation, specializing in past-life memories in children. Memories of his past lives in ancient Rome as Julius, a pagan priest in a desperate mission to save his love, and in Victorian New York as Percy Talmage, son of the Phoenix Foundation founder, haunt Josh as he tries to bring his episodes under control.

Josh teams with the Phoenix Foundation on an expedition to Rome to explore a newly excavated fourth-century tomb. The tomb may contain pagan memory stones that incite past-life regressions and will, by proving the existence of reincarnation, challenge the church. But at the tomb, the Memory Stones are stolen, flinging Josh and archaeology professor Gabriella Chase into a race to find the stones. The stakes rise after it becomes clear that dangerous outside forces are also seeking the stones.

The Reincarnationist author Rose, also on the board of directors of the International Thriller Writers, is the author of eight previous novels, including Lip Service and three titles in the Butterfield Institute series: The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex and The Venus Fix.

Best known as an author of erotic thrillers, Rose (Lip Service) delves into religious myth and past-life discovery in her well-paced ninth novel. In present-day Rome, a terrorist bomb explosion triggers flashbacks of pre-Christian Italy in photographer Josh Ryder. …In a series of memory lurches, the narratives of Josh and Julius slowly wind together to reveal a Da Vinci Code-esque tale of intrigue that's more believably plotted and better meets its ambitions than Dan Brown's ubiquitous book. – Publishers Weekly, starred review
One of the most original and exciting novels I've read in a long time, with a premise so delicious I'm sick with envy I didn't think of it myself. It will open your mind to some of the incredible mysteries of the past and the greatest secrets of existence. The Reincarnationist is more than a page-turner – it's a page-burner. Don't miss it. – Douglas Preston, author of The Book of the Dead

A breakneck chase across the centuries. Fascinating and fabulous. – David Morrell, author of Creepers
A compelling, ferocious read, an intelligent thrill ride, intricately plotted, with enough twists to keep the reader firmly in M.J. Rose's grasp. – Robert Ferrigno, author of Prayers for the Assassin
Packed with unforgettable characters, breath-taking drama, and fascinating research, The Reincarnationist cements M.J. Rose's reputation as a master storyteller. Pick your millennium, folks. You're in for a timeless ride. – Gayle Lynds, author of The Last Spymaster
The exploding bomb in Rome that nearly took news photographer Josh Ryder's life triggered in him a series of wildly strange historical flashbacks…. Rose's engrossing thriller effortlessly leaps to and fro through the centuries. Dramatic suspense and intriguing characters expertly set the stage for this first in a series. Strongly recommended for all popular fiction collections. – Library Journal, starred review

International bestselling author Rose in The Reincarnationist offers a spellbinding, psychologically riveting epic thriller of secrets, history and murder that will challenge the way we think about who we are and who we were.

Literature & Fiction / Mysteries & Thrillers

Speaking of Love:: A Novel by Angela Young (Beautiful Books)

You must take care of love; if not it goes bad. – a six-year-old girl, recorded in my grandmother's commonplace book /p>

When you know that love exists but it isn't spoken about, she said, ‘it can be very hard to bear. It's worse, I sometimes think, than a complete absence of love because it's so confusing. You sense it, but if it is never talked about you doubt what you sense.’ – from the book

If you are born into a family that never talks about love, how do you learn to say the words?

Speaking of Love is a five-part novel about what happens when people who love each other don’t say so. It deals with human breakdown. And it tells of our need for stories and how stories can help make sense of the random nature of life.

If a mother had told her daughter that she loved her, they might not have spent years apart. If a man had found the courage to tell a woman that he loved her she might never have married another man. And if a father had told his daughter that he loved her when her mother died, she might not have suffered the breakdown that caused the rift with her own daughter.

Author Angela Young says she always wanted to be a writer; she worked as secretary to a couple of screenplay writers before joining The Economist where she worked for 10 years. In 1994 she was commissioned by BBC Books to finish Edith Wharton's unfinished novel The Buccaneers which was published in 1995. In 2002, Angela graduated from Middlesex University with an MA in Creative Writing, and in May 2003 was the first unpublished writer to be awarded a grant by Arts Council England to begin researching her second novel. Speaking of Love is her first novel.

Speaking of Love is a book of intriguing, interwoven stories about love and mental illness. Passionately and honestly it deals with human breakdown.

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures:: Stories by Vincent Lam (Weinstein Books)

A #1 bestseller in Canada, this literary Grey’s Anatomy follows the careers and relationships that develop among a group of young doctors. Written by thirty-two-year-old Vincent Lam, the youngest recipient of the iller Prize, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is the first debut short story collection in the award's history. Lam, a native of London, Ontario, whose family is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam, is an emergency physician at Toronto East General Hospital.

Twelve interwoven stories follow the young doctors as they move from the challenges of medical school to the intense world of emergency rooms, evacuation missions, and terrifying new viruses. Fitz, Ming, Chen, and Sri are the four ambitious protagonists of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. They fall in love as they study for their exams, face moral dilemmas as they split open cadavers, confront police who rough up their patients, and treat schizophrenics with pathologies similar to their own.

Through the eyes of Fitz, Ming, Chen, and Sri, Lam finds conflict – and humanity - in the most surprising moments. Together these doctors test the boundaries of intimacy. Lam explains the first-hand inspiration behind the book: "I wanted to write about the way in which a person changes as they become a physician – how their world view shifts, and how they become a slightly different version of themselves in the process of becoming a doctor. I wanted to write about the reality that doing good and trying to help others is not simple. It is ethically complicated and sometimes involves a reality that can only be expressed by telling a story."

From the very first page, Lam brings to life the disparate but interdependent worlds of school and home, heartbreaking young love and life-altering fear, In "How to Get into Medical School," the impulsive Fitz and the ultra-rational Ming explore the possibilities of a relationship that is tested, first by the vigilance of a disapproving family and then by the extraordinary commitment demanded of medical students. In "Take All of Murphy," three students face the challenge of their first dissection of a corpse – and the unusual quandary of deciding whether following the anatomy textbook or keeping a tattoo intact is more important. And in "Contact Tracing," a harrowing story, Lam draws from his own firsthand experience during the 2003 Toronto SARS crisis, when 375 people were infected with the respiratory virus and 44 died. In it, two of these doctors suddenly become the patients.

Winner of Canada's Giller Prize, Lam puts all the sex and death and sleep deprivation crucial to any hospital drama in his debut story collection about doctors in the making. Thankfully Lam, an emergency room physician, looks beyond blood and guts to examine the conflicted hearts and minds of the four medical students sleepwalking their way through the required tests, dissections and all-night emergency room shifts. … The stories' quiet strength lies not in the doctors' education but in Lam's portrayal of the flawed humans behind the surgical masks. This collection made a big splash in Canada, and, as Weinstein Books' first title, is poised to do the same in the U.S. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A searing, perfectly paced set of linked stories that explores the careers and relationships of four Toronto doctors. Ming, Chen, Fitzgerald and Sri are young physicians whose lives intertwine both casually and intimately as they navigate the painstaking (and often painful) road to becoming physicians. … The stories culminate in a health crisis of a much larger scale, when Fitzgerald contracts the SARS virus from a patient, and then passes it to Chen, who examines him. … Tender insight into the fascinating emotional and social implications of a career that is, inherently, so much more than a job. – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Direct in style, unsparing though compassionate in observation, subtle in emotion, and occasionally gruesome in humor, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures follows four medical students from widely different backgrounds as their stories intertwine, as their illusions shatter, and as the meanings of many lives expand around them. The good news is that doctors are human beings. The bad news is that doctors are human beings. The other good news is that this book marks a stunning debut. – Margaret Atwood, upon introducing Vincent Lam at the Giller Prize ceremony
Vincent Lam illuminates where strength and resilience reside when body and soul are tested by illness. This artfully crafted, deeply moving, and profoundly intelligent book is a remarkable debut of a new voice in medical literature. – Jerome Groopman, New York Times bestselling author of How Doctors Think and Recanati Professor of Medicine at Harvard University
Vincent Lam's book is amazing, beautiful, and painful. I cannot believe that a writer can emerge, so fully-formed and incisive, with his first book. This guy is a star. – Sherman Alexie, bestselling author of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Flight
...examines modern life with Chekhovian grace. – Vogue

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures invites readers into a world where the ordinary becomes the critical in a matter of seconds. As a practicing ER physician, Lam delivers a precise and intimate portrait of the medical profession in his fiction debut. The book is a profound and unforgettable depiction of today’s doctors, patients, and hospitals. It looks with rigorous honesty at the lives of doctors and their patients and illuminates a deeper understanding of the fears, choices, and temptation that face us all. Provocative, heartbreaking, and darkly humorous, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures introduces readers to a masterful new voice in fiction. The book marks the arrival of a deeply humane and preternaturally gifted writer.

Literature & Fiction / World Literature / Americas / Classics

Jack Kerouac:: Road Novels 1957-1960: On the Road / The Dharma Bums / The Subterraneans / Tristessa / Lonesome Traveler / Journal Selections by Jack Kerouac, edited by Douglas Brinkley (Library of America)
Jack Kerouac's On the Road was a landmark event in American fiction when it was published in 1957, a counter-culture credo that made Kerouac the reluctant figurehead of a generation that saw itself mirrored in his cast of restless seekers, "mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time." /p>

The Library of America celebrates the 50th anniversary of On the Road with a deluxe collector's edition of the writer who defined the Beat Generation: Jack Kerouac.

In Jack Kerouac, for the first time in one volume, Kerouac's masterpiece is joined with four other autobiographical works of the late 1050s and early 1960s about his life on the road – The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Tristessa, and Lonesome Traveler published during a remarkable four-year period.

Jack Kerouac's On the Road instantly defined a generation upon its publication: it was, in the words of a New York Times reviewer, "the clearest and most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as ‘beat.’" Written in the mode of ecstatic improvisation that Allen Ginsberg described as ‘spontaneous bop prosody,’ Kerouac's novel remains electrifying in its thirst for experience and its defiant rebuke of American conformity.
In his portrayal of the fervent relationship between the writer Sal Paradise and his outrageous, exasperating, and inimitable friend Dean Moriarty, Kerouac created one of the great friendships in American literature; and his rendering of the cities and highways and wildernesses that his characters restlessly explore are a hallucinatory travelogue of a nation he both mourns and celebrates.
The Dharma Bums (1958), at once an exploration of Buddhist spirituality and an account of the Bay Area poetry scene, is notable for its thinly veiled portraits of Kerouac's acquaintances, including Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Kenneth Rexroth. The Subterraneans (1958) recounts a love affair set amid the bars and bohemian haunts of San Francisco. Tristessa (1960) is a melancholy novella describing a relationship with a prostitute in Mexico City. Lonesome Traveler (1960) collects travel essays that evoke journeys in Mexico and Europe, and concludes with an elegiac lament for the lost world of the American hobo. Also included in Jack Kerouac are selections from Kerouac's journal, which provide a perspective on his early impressions of material eventually incorporated into On the Road.

Hard to believe, but this year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the celebrated Mr. K's Beat bible, On the Road, a book that came out of nowhere and knocked everyone on their butts. … Road's anniversary will lure new readers as well as old ones looking for another fix, and this collection is a wonderful bargain. Happy anniversary, Jack." – Library Journal, July 15, 2007

On the Road, an offbeat travelogue, remains raucous, exuberant, and often wildly funny. Assembled by the noted historian and Kerouac scholar Douglas Brinkley, the collection Jack Kerouac illuminates Kerouac’s unique and meteoric career. It affords a timely opportunity to discover anew one of America's most important and influential writers.

Politics / U.S.

Follow the Money:: How George W. Bush and the Texas Republicans Hog-Tied America by John Anderson (Scribner)
Getting George W. Bush elected, was just the tip of the iceberg....

With its barbecues, new Cadillacs, and $4,000 snakeskin cowboy boots, Texas is all about power and money – and the power that money buys. This detailed and wide-scope account shows how a group of wealthy Texas Republicans quietly hijacked American politics for their own gain.

In Follow the Money, award-winning journalist and sixth-generation Texan John Anderson demonstrates how power in Texas has long been vested in the interconnected worlds of Houston's global energy companies, banks, and law firms – not least among them Baker Botts, the firm controlled by James A. Baker III, the Bush family consigliere. Anderson, former deputy editor of American Lawyer, explains how the Texas political system came to be controlled by a sophisticated, well-funded group of conservative Republicans who, after elevating George W. Bush to the American presidency, went about applying their hardball, high-dollar politicking to Washington, D.C.

When George Bush reached the White House, he brought with him not only members of the Texas legal establishment (among them former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales) but empowered swarms of Republican lobbyists who saw in Bush's arrival a way to make both common cause and big money.

According to Anderson, another important Beltway Texan was Congressman Tom DeLay, the famous ‘Exterminator’ of Houston's Twenty-second District, who became majority leader in 2003 and controlled which bills made it through Congress and which did not. DeLay, in turn, was linked to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who used his relationships with both DeLay and Karl Rove on behalf of his clients, creating a flow of millions of dollars among Republican lobby groups and political action committees. Washington soon became infected by Texas-style politics. Influence-peddling, deal-making, and money-laundering followed – much of it accomplished in the capital's toniest restaurants or on the fairways and beaches of luxurious resorts, away from the public eye.

The damaging fallout has, one way or another, touched nearly all Americans, Democrat and Republican alike. Follow the Money reveals the hidden web of influence that links Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Texas Republicans to the 2000 recount in Florida; the national tort-reform movement; the controversial late-hour, one-vote passage of the Medicare Reform Act; congressional redistricting schemes; scandals in the energy sector; the destruction of basic constitutional protections; the financial machinery of the Christian right; the manipulation of American-Indian tribe casinos; the Iraq War torture scandals; and the crooked management of the Department of the Interior.

According to Follow the Money, some of the actors are in federal prison, others are on their way there, and many more have successfully eluded a day of reckoning.

In the book's epilogue, Anderson touches on the administration's success in packing the Supreme Court, the latest revelations about the Rove-inspired efforts to remove Democratic office holders and curtail the votes of the elderly and the poor, along with those of African Americans and Latinos; and the politicization of the Justice Department. Most troubling of all, the author poses a question that arose out of the recent firing of eight sitting U.S. attorneys – including one who had been the force behind the prosecution and guilty plea of a senior member of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee which oversees some $300 billion in annual appropriations. Anderson asks, "What if the global war on terror had, at least in part, been the public face used to conceal millions – perhaps even billions – of dollars in corrupt appropriations being siphoned into top-secret contracts? What if a small coterie of Appropriations, Homeland Security, and Intelligence committee members were, in fact, on the take and engaged in a massive giveaway of federal funds?"

John Anderson's Follow the Money shows that when George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, and others arrived in Washington, D.C., in 2000, they brought with them the Texan Republican way of getting things done. While Americans were fixated on terrorism and the war in Iraq, the corruption never stopped in Washington. Combining the curiosity of a journalist with the perspective of a historian, John Anderson brilliantly lays it all out for the reader, whose jaw will drop when seeing what – even today – passes for political leadership and representation of the people in our nation's capital. – Craig Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud and the forthcoming The Fall of the House of Bush

Follow the Money is a harrowing, behind-the-scenes account of how a group of powerful, connected, Texas Republicans hijacked American politics for their own gain. It is the first book to connect the dots and provide historical context to the numerous scandals that continue to ripple through Washington, and the moral collapse of the Bush administration. It contains the first full exposé of the hidden web of influence that links Bush and the Texas Republicans to the 2000 recount in Florida and a full account of the Abramoff lobbying scandals. Told with verve, style, and a not-so-occasional raised eyebrow, Anderson's account arcs into tomorrow's headlines. Startling in its revelations, groundbreaking and provocative, Follow the Money is guaranteed to spark controversy and much-needed debate concerning which direction this county goes next.

Religion & Spirituality / Christianity / Discrimination & Racism / History / Reference

African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619-1860 by Lawrence Neal Jones (The Pilgrim Press)

Based on a lifetime of study and research, Lawrence Neal Jones has written a challenging discourse on the emergence of African American Christianity in America from 1619-1860. African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619-1860 is a history of the introduction of enslaved and free African Americans to the Christian faith. The book explores the strategies white church people devised to accommodate Jesus' mandate to spread the Gospel while preserving structures that continued their dominance and power. It also explores the solutions discovered by Africans in the gospel and institutions they created that affirmed them and contradicted the prejudices of the dominant culture and the responses African religious institutions made to the gospel in a society not of their own making.

Traditions discussed in African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619-1860 include Anglican/Episcopal, Baptist, Catholic, Congregational, Methodist, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Puritan, Quaker/Friends and Wesleyan. Historically black traditions discussed are African Baptists, African Presbyterians, and African Methodists.

Jones is dean emeritus of Howard University Divinity School; former dean of students, dean of faculty, and acting president of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York; and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619-1860 recounts the early efforts of white Christians and their religious institutions to ‘instruct the slaves’ in the fundamentals of the faith while at the same time affirming the institution of slavery. At the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, many young militants contended that Christianization of enslaved Africans and the subsequent growth of Christianity among African Americans was part of a ‘racist strategy’ calculated to make them compliant in their oppression. Black Christians were maligned and mocked for their faith, and religious institutions were accused of being irrelevant if not detrimental to the whole struggle for civil and social justice. This criticism had little impact among black Christians because the whole movement led by Martin Luther King was rooted in black churches and much of its leadership was made up of clergy and laity. The civil rights revolution made African American congregations and individual believers conscious of their African past and of the continuing struggle to achieve full freedom in America. The recovery of ‘black’ music, hymnody, and religious history was pursued in a variety of sectors. Equally important, the assertion of the right to be different was affirmed. Moreover, the focus upon ‘Black Theology’ in academic settings and within local churches was an outgrowth both of the social ferment and the concomitant perception that there was no necessary correlation between truth and white skin color. Of equal importance was the growing consciousness among African Americans that celebration of their history and culture was both desirable and right.

By whichever term, African, African American, Negro, black, or colored, used to designate them as an ethnic group, persons of African lineage have been a ‘problem’ for European American religious institutions and for the larger culture. African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619-1860 delineates how religious institutions sought to respond to the command of the gospel to ‘spread the gospel’ throughout the world, and at the same time to retain positions of dominance for the white community. According to Jones, the problem was compounded by the dilemma of how to incorporate African members into the organized bodies of believers. The Christian religion was not a ‘problem’ for the Africans and their descendants. They overheard the accounts of Jewish freedom highlighted in the Old Testament along with their exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As they became increasingly aware of the full import of the biblical text, it became divine affirmation of their innate sense of value, a basis upon which to contend for justice and fairness, and a guarantor that the God of the universe was not in league with their oppressors. Jones in African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619-1860 shows how appropriation of the faith enabled them to establish their own independent institutions and provided a means by which to address the pressing social problems in their communities, to extend a benevolent hand to ‘the least among them,’ to establish educational institutions, and to exercise their leadership abilities.

Jones has written an excellent history of African American churches. His most important contribution is related to the spirited debate among African American leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Richard Allen about the value of creating independent black churches and denominations. Jones wisely concludes the work by raising important questions about their future – Lawrence H. Mamiya, Paschall-Davis Professor of Religion and African Studies, Vassar College, and co-author of The Black Church in the African American Experience

Jones' eloquent historical voice invites us to appreciate anew the adaptive and innovative genius of African American Christians from 1619 to the start of the Civil War. Scholars and pastors should read and discuss this important book. – Robert M. Franklin, former president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, and Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics

There is now a definitive, racially inclusive documentation of those significant contributions and contours that African American Christians etched out on the landscape of American religion. A highly readable survey of African American religious history. Page after page of engaging narratives that at once captivate and cause a number of us to pause and reconsider that vital aspects of religion in America, especially in our nation's formative years, have risen above mere civil religion to protect the status quo. – Cain Hope Felder, professor of New Testament Language and Literature, and editor of The Journal of Religious Thought, Howard University Divinity School

African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619-1860 is a valuable resource for persons interested in American Christianity, especially for classes in American religious history. It is also an accessible reference for historians of Africans in America and will be valuable to church men and women who are interested in the early histories of denominations. It is also a vital resource for persons interested in the persistence of separate religious institutions in a time when racial segregation has officially ended. Comprehensive, compelling and challenging, the book answers the recurrent question of how Africans, enslaved and free, interpreted the Christian faith and found their salvation in it.

Religion & Spirituality / Christianity / Science & Religion

The Evolution Controversy:: A Survey of Competing Theories by Thomas B. Fowler & Daniel Kuebler (Baker Academic)

Most people are aware that there is some type of controversy surrounding evolution. However, given the complex and expansive nature of the subject matter and the emotional nature of the discussion, it can be difficult to pinpoint what the main issues are or what exactly is at stake. Compounding this problem is the fact that most of the literature on the subject is written by partisans who have a vested interest in the outcome. br /> Therefore, it is often difficult to cut through the competing agendas to gain an unbiased understanding of the scientific issues involved.

According to authors Thomas B. Fowler, senior principal engineer at the Center for Information Technology and Telecommunications at Noblis, and adjunct instructor at George Mason University and Christendom College; and Daniel Kuebler, assistant professor of biology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, most books on the topic are one dimensional, attempting to sway readers to join a particular camp. They, however, take a different approach to the subject in The Evolution Controversy.

Instead of advocating a particular position, the authors present various sides in the debate, leaving aside the profound philosophical and religious issues involved in the controversy in favor of a balanced and critical examination. Not only do they trace evolution’s development from the ancient Greeks to the present but they also summarize and critique four leading schools of thought: Neo-Darwinism, Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Meta-Darwinism. Numerous diagrams, tables, and comparison charts are included to help readers master the content. In addition, a technical glossary covers terms from abiogenesis to vestigial structures, and a helpful bibliography includes books, articles, web sites, and organizations for further research.

The Evolution Controversy focuses on an objective evaluation of the scientific merits of each school, as well as an examination of areas of agreement and disagreement among the schools. Because the evolution controversy is so multifaceted, and the literature on it is so voluminous, no single book, including this one, can do justice to every important question. With this in mind, The Evolution Controversy provides an objective look at (1) the relevant scientific facts regarding evolution and (2) the scientific merits of the major schools of thought regarding evolution. Other issues such as the theological and cultural aspects of the controversy are discussed only insofar as they impact the scientific arguments.

The Evolution Controversy is structured around the following topics:

The historical development of the theory of evolution, up to the present time.
The observable facts that need to be explained.
The principal points in dispute.
The kind of reasoning employed in discussing the subjects, and common errors.
The major schools of thought and their positions.
The evidence and principal arguments for and against each school.
The public policy implications of the evolution controversy.

Fowler and Kuebler assert that The Evolution Controversy/span> is more objective than any other book they know of on the subject. To buttress their claim, they offer their definition of objectivity in the context of the evolution controversy:

None of the schools of thought regarding evolution are assumed, a priori, to have a ‘corner’ on the truth.

All arguments are considered on an equal basis, regardless of religious or philosophical persuasion of the authors.

Arguments are evaluated strictly on their scientific merits and stand on their own.

There is no presumption that one of the schools of thought must emerge as the winner. All may be found defective.

There is no presumption that science can explain all observed phenomena associated with evolution and the history of flora and fauna. However, it is permitted as a working hypothesis, one that may or may not be verified.

They have received no funding in any form to write The Evolution Controversy. They are not answerable to any of the schools of thought, nor are they vulnerable to any pressure from them as regards employment, grants, tenure, or any other venue.

Much of the discussion in The Evolution Controversy, including much of the criticism and many of the examples, concerns the dominant school of thought, Neo-Darwinism, but that is inevitable.

The book is intended for those who are aware of the scientific controversies swirling about the theory of evolution and who seek an objective reference that will help them critically evaluate the myriad articles and books on the subject that appear every year.

The book equips readers, whether they are students, church leaders, or the general public, with the background necessary to read and analyze other books and articles and come to their own informed conclusions. The broad range of information presented is of value in helping readers discern which schools have made a viable scientific base for their position. Fowler and Kuebler fully explore the subject, putting all important issues on the table. They ask some questions that certain schools would prefer to leave unasked, explore issues from which others shy away, and prod readers to think about the subject in ways that some schools may find uncomfortable.

Science / Biology

Culture of Human Stem Cells edited by R. Ian Freshney, Glyn N. Stacey & Jonathan M. Auerbach (Culture of Specialized Cells Series: Wiley-Interscience)

The explosion of interest in human stem cells over the past few years has created a discipline able to explore the regulation of cellular differentiation from the most primitive cell to fully functional differentiated cells such as neurons, ardiomyocytes, and hard tissue cells such as bone and cartilage. Not only has this provided models for the investigation of regulatory mechanisms, but it has also created significant opportunities for engineering suitable grafts for tissue repair. Embryonal stem cells, stem cells from umbilical cord and tooth germs, and adult stem cells from bone marrow and other locations all offer potential sources of allograft or autograft tissue.

Much has been written about characterization of stem cells, the exploitation of markers to identify them, and the control of changes in marker expression accompanying the expression of the differentiated phenotype in normal stem cells and in embryonal carcinoma. The objective of Culture of Human Stem Cells, however, is directed toward the methodology of the culture and characterization of stem cells. Although many of these techniques are still at a developmental stage, there is now a widening repertoire of established techniques that need to be made more generally available to the large influx of workers into the field.

The book follows the tradition of previous books in the Culture of Specialized Cells series in that it describes a limited number of representative techniques across a wide spectrum of stem cells from embryonic, newborn, and adult tissue. The emphasis is on practical guidance, and it should be possible to follow all of the protocols without recourse to the primary literature or other publications, other than for background. Hence Culture of Human Stem Cells is an introductory text designed to allow incomers to the field, including students and established researchers, both from basic science and a clinical background, to become familiar with some of the techniques in current use, to increase their knowledge of the discipline, or to develop their own research program.

Culture of Human Stem Cells collects and focuses on commonly used and cutting-edge methods and protocols for deriving and culturing human embryonic and adult stem cells. Each methods and protocols chapter is laid out exactly like the next, with stepwise protocols, preceded by specific requirements for that protocol, and a concise discussion of methods illustrated by data. The book also includes three general chapters on quality control, legal and ethical issues, and cryopreservation.

The first book to collect the most effective and cutting-edge methods and protocols for deriving and culturing human embryonic and adult stem cells – in one resource

Culture of Human Stem Cells includes a comprehensive list of suppliers for equipment used in the protocols presented, with Web sites available in an appendix. Additionally, there is a chapter on quality control, and other chapters covering legal and ethical issues, cryopreservation, and feeder layer culture.

Editors of the volume are R. Ian Freshney, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Oncology and Applied Pharmacology at the University of Glasgow; Glyn N. Stacey, Director of the United Kingdom Stem Cell Bank, and Head of the Cell Biology and Imaging Division at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control; and Jonathan M. Auerbach, former director of the Stem Cell Center, American Type Culture Collection, in Manassas, Virginia, now a Project Leader with GlobalStem, Inc., in Rockville, Maryland.

Culture of Human Stem Cells progresses from basic quality control issues in the first chapter by Glyn Stacey and Jonathan Auerbach, to deal with the derivation of human embryonal stem (hES) cell lines from the early embryo by Jessica Cooke and Stephen Minger, their differentiation (and that of embryonal carcinoma) into neural cells by Jamie Jackson, Peter Tonge, and Peter Andrews and into cardiomyocytes by Christine Mummery, and then on to primary culture and characterization of primitive germ cells by Lee Turnpenny and Neil Hanley and of embryonal carcinoma by Stefan Przyborski. These six chapters cover the characterization and differentiation and the cryopreservation of these lines. A new and exciting source of stem cells has been found in the newborn, and two chapters describe examples, one from umbilical cord by Young-Jin Kim and another from tooth germ by Wataru Sonoyama, Takayoshi Yamaza, Stan Gronthos, and Songtao Shi. The last five chapters deal with adult mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow stroma by Carl Gregory and Darwin Prockop, cartilage by Charles Archer, Sarah Oldfield, Samantha Redman, Laura Haughton, Gary Dowthwaite, Ilyas Khan, and Jim Ralphs, cornea by Yiqin Du and James L. Funderburgh, mammary stem cells by Mark Labarge, Ole Petersen, and Mina Bissell, and stem cells from adipose tissue by Kristine Safford and Henry Rice.

Culture of Human Stem Cells is a concise text, an introduction to the field of stem cell biology and culture, and a one-stop resource for researchers, clinical scientists with interests in tissue replacement therapies and students involved in this crucial area. It presents clear information that is immediately useful and applicable.

The book contains a good cross section of topics. The editors describe a limited number of representative techniques across a wide spectrum of stem cells from embryonic, newborn, and adult tissue, yielding a versatile guide to the field of stem cell biology and culture. The style, format, and coverage of Culture of Human Stem Cells will prove valuable to those entering the field from a wide spectrum of disciplines as well as those who already have some prior experience. It is also an essential textbook for teachers and students who are involved with the therapeutic potential of stem cell research.

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarpe (Tor Books)

Matthew arpe launches his SF career with a bang.

In the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress but with a strong dose of cyberpunk, Radio Freefall is about a plot to take over the Earth by a power-mad, sociopathic, computer-geek billionaire. It's up to a strange cast of rock stars and oddballs to stop him.

Set in the 2030's, Radio Freefall’s Walter Cheeseman wants to rule the world; that is his dream; and, so far, getting there hasn’t been much of a challenge. As the CEO of WebCense, the biggest and best tech company on the planet, he's practically drowning in wealth, fame, and admiration. More importantly, several juicy government contracts have made him the de facto head of international web security and the foremost information czar in a world where information is the blood of life. Sure, he has problems: a disgruntled employee has declared a vendetta against him and a rogue virus that has evolved into some form of wild A.I. is stalking the nets, embedding itself in every computer produced almost as soon as it is built. None of those problems pose more than a temporary distraction, however. The government is still effectively under his control, and as the promised Unification of the world's peoples approaches, more and more former nations are slipping under the wings of that government. Of course, some people are making a fuss about Unification, but there's no such thing as bad PR – not when you have total control over every media channel in the world, anyway.

WebCense and geopolitics don't mean much to Aqualung. The aging guitarist is busy engineering the comeback of Feedback music, a genre that pretty much dropped off the map twenty years ago when its pioneers all got into trouble with the law, or flamed out and died young. Feedback musicians chart their audiences' emotions with face-reading software and adjust their songs in realtime, giving every concert a unique sound tailor-made to match what the fans are feeling. With his new Machine, Aqualung can even manipulate a crowd's emotions, creating light shows of joy and sadness and excitement that ripple through stadiums in patterns to match the music. With the help of tricks like these, Aqualung's Snake Vendors are rocketing toward the top of the charts, and he's too busy enjoying the ride to think much about Unification – or anything else outside the world of rock and roll.

Unfortunately for Aqualung, the people on the outside are thinking about him. Before he shed his name and his past and became Aqualung, the guitarist witnessed the birth of the rogue A.I. virus plaguing Walter Cheeseman, an entity known as the Digital Carnivore. The Carnivore can't stand blocked channels of data transfer: whenever it finds a hyperlink stagnating, it overrides all conceivable security and reroutes the link somewhere, to the devilment of anyone who wants to keep information private. Control over such a powerful entity would mean a lot to Walter Cheeseman, and he has come to suspect that Aqualung might hold the key to that control. Luckily, there are ways of getting the information he needs out of Aqualung's head. Not all of those ways require the presence of Aqualung's body.

Tipped off by an unknown ally, Aqualung goes into hiding on the space station Freefall, one of the few places out of WebCense's long reach. While he's there, he finds himself drawn into the anti-Unification movement, which battles for human diversity and free choice among nations. Aqualung's no freedom fighter, but it's been his life's work to give voice to the thoughts and passions of those who cannot express them themselves. The anti-Unificationists are being silenced by WebCense on the Earth, the Moon, and Freefall alike, and it's up to Aqualung and his friends to give them their minute on the airwaves, no matter what desperate measures it takes to get them there.

Jarpe has written original lyrics to two songs from Radio Freefall, put to music and recorded by Rajnar Vajra.

The novel is an odd mix of hard science and cyberpunk, space opera and dystopia, melodramatic with a touch of humor. It's the kind of seductive mix that has the potential to spread outside the field like the early works of William Gibson... like Chester Anderson's The Butterfly Kid, it's likely to have a very devoted group of fans. – Critical Mass SF Reviews

If you can't quite believe that Californian rock 'n' roll, space cowboys, and liberated AIs can save the world from the fascist mediocrity of Unification, this book explains how it might be done, in a blithe spirit of which Noel Coward would surely have been proud, and with enough technical detail to gladden the heart of the most hardened technofetishist. – Brian Stableford

The writing held me.... It depicts the bleak prospect of world government, some believable near-future technology, and characters I cared about. What can I say? I enjoyed this and think that those whose obsessions are SF and music will rave about it. – Neal Asher

Rock and roll and old-school hard SF go together like peanut butter and jelly in Jarpe's debut novel... fans of Nirvana, Buddy Holly and Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress will gladly soak up the Spandex and Doc Martens atmosphere. – Publishers Weekly

Jarpe's masterfully crafted debut fires on all cylinders, offering a winning combination of Heinleinesque wit and mind-bending technological speculation that should garner major attention during the next awards season. – Booklist

Jarpe has mixed Stephenson's knack for creating unusual yet accessible settings with Vinge's rigid extrapolation of technology and topped it off with an interesting protagonist... If you like near future Earth stories, Radio Freefall should be on your reading list. – SF Signal

Jarpe has made an explosive debut with Radio Freefall, a deeply resonant, thought-provoking and often hilarious cyberpunk rock opera. With wild riffs off of Heinlein, this is a novel not only of cyberpunk but also of rock and roll, of technology, and of artificial intelligence. The book is an old-school rock epic in a new-tech world, and it will leave its chords and drumbeats ringing in readers' ears long after they've turned the final page.

Social Sciences / Anthropology / Archaeology / History / Americas

Slavery in the Age of Reason:: Archaeology at a New England Farm by Alexandra Chan (University of Tennessee Press)

In 1783 an angry, illiterate, and elderly African woman, known simply as Belinda, dramatically entered Boston's historical stage when she recalled for her transcriber, thought to be Prince Hall, how she had been kidnapped at age 12 from her home on the banks of the Rio de Volta, by men ‘whose faces were like the moon’. She is of interest not just because she belonged to the Isaac Royall family and would have spent nearly 50 years of her life on its Medford, Massachusetts, estate, which is the topic of Slavery in the Age of Reason, and not just because her story, as recounted in the petition, is dramatic, tragic, and consummately human. She is also of interest because she managed to break the bonds of anonymity that held the vast majority of her comrades in suffering – the thousands of African and Creole slaves who lived and labored and died in colonial New England – and causes readers to focus their intellectual curiosity and academic inquiry on the African and African American experience in bondage there. But Belinda's plight can do little more than pique readers’ curiosity. The details of her life are painted in a single document in broad brush strokes, and her ultimate fate is completely unknown. Even less can be said about her fellow slaves who had labored beside her for the Royalls during their tenure in Medford from 1737 to 1775.

Offering a rare look into the lives of enslaved peoples and slave masters in early New England, Slavery in the Age of Reason analyzes the results of extensive archaeological excavations at the Isaac Royall House and Slave Quarters, a National Historic Landmark and museum in Medford.

Isaac Royal (1677-1739) was the largest slave owner in Massachusetts in the mid-eighteenth century, and in Slavery in the Age of Reason the Royall family and their slaves become the central characters in a cultural-historical narrative. The family's ties to both Massachusetts and Antigua provide a comparative perspective on the transcontinental development of modern ideologies of individualism, colonialism, slavery, and race. Alexandra A. Chan examines the critical role of material culture in the construction, mediation, and maintenance of social identities and relationships between slaves and masters at the farm. Chan, archaeological consultant and principal investigator, formerly assistant professor of anthropology at Vassar College, project director of the excavations at the Isaac Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, explores landscapes and artifacts discovered at the site not just as inanimate objects or ‘cultural leftovers,’ but rather as physical embodiments of the assumptions, attitudes, and values of the people who built, shaped, or used them.

Using traditional archaeological techniques and analysis, as well as theoretical perspectives and representational styles of postprocessualist schools of thought, Slavery in the Age of Reason portrays the Royall family and the people they enslaved ‘from the inside out.’ Objects, architecture, or landscapes can in many ways be seen as physical embodiments of the assumptions, attitudes, and values of the people who built, shaped, or used them. They can communicate messages – both among the actors in the past who used them and between them and us. Quite simply artifacts open a portal into the mindset of people long gone.

According to Slavery in the Age of Reason, The Royalls' estate was first known as Ten Hills Farm and was part of the original land grant from the Crown to Governor John Winthrop in 1637. The Royall House, as it stands today, has been owned and managed as a historic house museum by the Royall House Association since 1908. Adjacent to this property, to the northeast, is Royall House Park, now owned by the City of Medford, but originally part of the Royall mansion's frontage on the main highway to Medford Square. Here archaeologists actively probed the earth with remote sensing and subsurface test excavations during the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2001. The features, artifacts, ecofacts, and evidence for landscaping activities discovered in the park and in the yards surrounding the mansion and slave quarters provide the physical data for this venture.

The Royall House and its slave quarters are one of the last relicts of slavery in New England. In some ways, then, the most obvious contribution of archaeology to our understanding of this site might be seen to lie in what it can reveal about the daily lives of what has come colloquially to be known as the ‘historically invisible.’ At the Royall House, these ‘historically invisible’ people represent the majority of the inhabitants at the site: at the very least, some 64 black men, women, and children who lived, labored, and died to support a lavish lifestyle for the Royalls, who owned them.

Slavery in the Age of Reason is not just a book about the cruelties of enslavement; nor is it even just about black people. The Royalls and the people they held as slaves led vastly different lives, occupying the very highest and the very lowest strata of the social spectrum. And yet they were inextricably linked, partners in the same dance. By studying them together readers come to the richest understanding of who they were on their own, as well as how they all contributed – black and white – to the forging of a new nation, as indebted to the drama and tragedy, triumphs and individual human episodes, of their lives as to those of any other.

According to Chan, without criticizing or dismissing the importance and value of the pioneering work done on plantations, one can maintain that archaeology has inadvertently reinforced stereotypes in public consciousness that link African Americans only with plantations and slavery, and systems of forced servitude only with the American South or the Caribbean. Though the slave populations in New England were never as numerous as in plantation America, slaves and free blacks have been a significant part of the population, economy, and society of the North as well, and that since the end of the 17th century. Massachusetts was the first colony legally to sanction the institution of slavery, incorporating it into its Body of Liberties of 1641, and the slave trade was one of the foundations of the colonial economy. Africans had been present in the colony at least since 1638 and were found in all walks of life. There was entrenchment of slavery and the slave trade in the New England economy and the profitability of the labor and products of slaves. Their importance in relieving the generalized labor shortage in New England – working in everything from domestic service, to industry, to agricultural production – made it inevitable that they would leave a large mark on the ‘economic, political, social and religious institutions of their masters’. Enslaved people often followed their masters' calling and even assumed high-level positions from time to time under their masters' tutelage. Indeed enslaved people in colonial New England were likely to be highly skilled, either in a particular craft or in carrying out a variety of tasks – as jacks-of-all-trades – that were critical to the running of a business, farm, or household. These were not "extenuating" circumstances of slavery, but alternative incarnations of it. Bondage was a bitter fate whatever the circumstances or setting of its existence. One cannot understand the process of colonization and ethnogenesis in the Americas without taking into consideration the profound impact that Africans, imported as slaves, had on the emergence of a uniquely American culture.

Slavery in the Age of Reason is the result of three seasons of archaeological investigation at the Royall House and its slave quarters in Medford, Massachusetts. It was a multi-disciplinary, multistage project aimed at interpreting the daily existence and modes of cultural creation and expression among enslaved African Americans on the Royall estate, as well as the nature of their interactions with the Royall family who owned them. It is about discourses of colonialism in the Age of Empires. It examines how social action transformed material objects into dynamic and creative expressions of self and group belonging and how that self was continually reinvented in response to the Other, within a particular social and historical context of exploration, colonization, secularization, and burgeoning capitalism.

It is also concerned with the process by which racial boundaries arose between African and European Americans. Orser has called this process ‘racialization,’ and the term refers to the way in which ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness’ were constructed in a particular time and place. Race, of course, has no biological or scientific validity, but it remains an appropriate framework for understanding social phenomena and can in fact be engaged archaeologically, because even though race is not real, racism is. On consideration of the various lines of evidence available at the Royall House too – documentary, material, and otherwise – it does seem that race and discourses of colonialism are the proper interpretive frameworks for making sense of the data at this site.

According to Slavery in the Age of Reason, this is an issue with which all scholars of slavery must continually struggle: how to simultaneously – and explicitly – recognize the creativity and resilience of the enslaved, without disregarding or downplaying the dehumanizing social and economic impositions of slavery and American racialization within which such creativity was negotiated. The African American expressions of identity at the Royall House cannot be understood simply as a cultural phenomenon – even a dynamic one – but must take into consideration the social and economic roles and relationships that slavery, emergent notions of race, and poverty imposed. Thus the material culture at this site should be read in terms of what it can tell us about the respective roles of African heritage, American resources, social relationships of slavery, and real-world consequences of racialization in the forms of self-expression present there. In some ways, then, the ideology of race is at the very beating heart and soul of a capitalist society, and at its broadest level archaeology at the Royall House offers us an opportunity to see how these categories of black and white, laborer and gentry, were originally constructed. It also reveals them as constructions in the first place.

Chan, while being as objective as possible, reminds readers that the truths presented in Slavery in the Age of Reason are grounded in evidence but are still interpretations of an author, a person – incomplete, open to criticism, debate, and reinterpretation. The stories Chan tells in Slavery in the Age of Reason strive to bring the Royalls and their slaves more to life, but by establishing her presence as an author and a narrator, Chan diffuses criticisms of simply putting herself in another's place. The stories are all tied in some way to hard data recovered from or pertaining to the site (that is, the Royalls did have a New Year's Eve Party in 1737; handmade artifacts of leisure were recovered from the grounds; and there would have been one or more boatmen to take produce from Ten Hills Farm to Boston), but they are not supposed to be a true representation of real events. While recognizing that Isaac, Sr., Isaac, Jr., Jemmy, and the boatman were unique as individuals, she has also abstracted them, within a contextualized historical ethnographic framework, into figures whose particular stories, speculative though they may be, are grounded enough to shed light on the wider human experience of master and slave in the colonial era. As such they are intended to provide some small clue as to what it was like to live as master or slave at Ten Hills Farm but certainly do not purport to tell what happened there.

Slavery in the Age of Reason uses a historical archaeological perspective and an accessible style to focus on the experiences of master and slave at a large 18th-century estate in eastern Massachusetts – far distant from the cane and cotton fields of popular imagery of American slavery. Using traditional archaeological techniques and analysis, as well as theoretical perspectives and representational styles of post-processualist schools of thought, Slavery in the Age of Reason is an innovative volume that portrays the Royall family and the people they enslaved ‘from the inside out.’ This compelling cultural-historical narrative gives readers a rare look into the lives of slaves and their masters. It should put to rest any lingering myth that the peculiar institution of slavery was any less harsh or complex when found in the North.

Social Sciences / Biographies & Memoirs

A Place to Call Home:: The Amazing Success Story of Modern Orphanages by Martha Randolph Carr (Prometheus Books)

Jamie Foxx, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Angelina Jolie: These are just a few of the famous faces who have gotten involved in the world crisis of homeless children. What is in the best interests of the child is once again a hot topic. /p>

‘Orphanage’ conjures up dark, often sinister images from the pages of Charles Dickens and Little Orphan Annie. In A Place to Call Home, Martha Randolph Carr, journalist, creator and executive director of the Shared Abundance Foundation and the Family Tree Project, discovers that residential education facilities are not facilities at all – they are homes to children and young men and women who grow up in safe and loving environments. Carr reveals that most residents have been and are ‘social’ orphans – children of single parents who for economic or personal reasons cannot take care of them.

In this first study of orphanages in over sixty years, Carr talks with the young residents, teachers, counselors, house parents, and administrators about how the schools, many of which have existed for well over a century, have adapted to modern needs.

In her opening chapter, Carr introduces herself as a divorced mother with a troubled son, before segueing into a brief history of American orphanages. Then Carr tells the story of five residential education facilities (REFs) from the heart of urban America to the plains of Texas. Carr opens the doors of REFs and shows the cottages, resident couples, dining halls, gyms, flute lessons, bowling trips, hayrides, karate lessons, graduations, and other glimpses into the lives of the thousands of children who now live and thrive in these places and call them home. Readers learn how the tools for successful reinvention used in these academies can be adapted by anyone who is facing great changes such as divorce or career shifts.

Former residents from each of the featured homes tell their stories of the journey from troubled youth to successful adult in A Place to Call Home. And they are not alone. Carr reports that those who live in residential education facilities are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college than children in foster homes – and at less cost to the public. And per capita, REFs have succeeded in sending more children to colleges and trade schools than the general population has.

In light of the demonstrable successes of REFs in helping homeless children, Carr questions why there should be any controversy about them, especially considering the decline in the number of available foster families. She argues that REFs are a less-expensive option for public money, providing wrap-around care and structure to the world’s most vulnerable population. With nearly 600,000 children in foster care in need of stable and loving homes, residential education facilities are needed now more than ever.

The number of facilities is growing: Carr writes about a unique facility in San Diego that was part of a successful effort to reduce the youth crime rate, about a new public charter school in Washington, DC, that has begun to board students, and about the much publicized new facility for girls in South Africa sponsored and funded by Oprah Winfrey. As she visits a handful of REFs to admire their successes, she interweaves accounts of her own son's deepening problems. In fact, the last REF she visits, the Mercy Home in Chicago, becomes her son's home when she can no longer parent him herself.

Finally, in A Place to Call Home Carr describes her own foundation, the Shared Abundance Foundation, a national college scholarship fund for children who have grown up in US residential education facilities, plus the Family Tree Project, which works to reunite the thousands of alumni of orphanages who cannot find each other.

For all who face life changes – Martha Randolph Carr has ‘roadmapped’ a guide to get readers to the ‘other side’ and know that change and challenge is worth embracing. She invites the reader to that journey through the engaging mechanism of the 'change stories' in those facilities once known as orphanages. You will see the parallels in your own life-change victories. – Bob Danzig, former CEO, Hearst Newspapers
Martha Randolph Carr captures the story of a mother's journey to save herself and her son by letting go and finding miracles in America's orphanages. Children's homes are a success story that have been hidden away for too long and Carr's message is inspirational for us all. – Lillian Vernon, founder of Lillian Vernon Corporation

The American public needs light shed on the important and reemerging option of boarding schools and children's homes for children and youth whose families cannot care for them! Martha Randolph Carr has the will, the skills, and the passion to do this. She will share both the overall struggles of individuals and communities to help these young people, and the individual success stories. With people looking at alternative schools, charter schools, and new ways of learning, let us reconsider the former ‘orphanage’ as a valuable solution for at-risk youth. – Heidi Goldsmith, Founder, Executive Director, CORE: Coalition for Residential Education

A Place to Call Home is a moving story of the dedicated people who are succeeding in providing a better life and a hopeful future for more and more homeless children. Part study of modern-day orphanages and part memoir, Carr takes readers on her journey through America's hidden and successful residential education facilities and to a new relationship with her son. Carr works to show readers this effective solution for America's troubled families, shattering the myths that surround what are now called residential education facilities.

Social Sciences / Religion & Spirituality / Christianity

Shaking the System:: What I Learned from the Great American Reform Movements by Tim Stafford (IVP Books)

Saving the environment. Helping the poor. Stopping abortion. Feeding the hungry. Eliminating pornography. Increasing fair trade. Housing the homeless. Ending racism./p>

Thousands are active today seeking to make the world a better place. It is a great American tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Sometimes such reform movements were very effective and sometimes they weren't. What made the difference? How come some grand ideals were fulfilled and others faded away?

In Shaking the System, Tim Stafford explores the patterns of successful and failed reform movements to highlight what activists today can learn. How can activists keep from burning out? How can they avoid the lure of violence? What are ways to engage politics that are at once practical and ethical?

The great American reform movements of the last two centuries have an abundance of down-to-earth guidance to offer on these and other vital questions. Stafford, senior writer for Christianity Today and author of a trilogy of historical novels centering on many of the reform movements considered in this book, weaves the stories of the abolitionist movement, the temperance movement, the suffrage movement and the civil rights movement into this practical study with application to those today who are motivated by the gospel to make a difference in the world.

Shaking the System provides

Key principles to guide Christian activists today.
The opportunity to learn from history rather than repeat its mistakes.
An overview of some of the key reform movements in American history.

Stafford thinks activists of the past, and their experiences, have a lot of lessons for our time. The book offers both an inspiration – because reform movements have made a powerful difference in America – and a warning. Take ‘slavery is sin,’ which revolutionized the discussion of slavery in nineteenth-century America. It is inspiring to learn how such a great and fundamental truth went to work on American society. But while abolitionist activists took in that truth so that it changed their lives, the rest of American society was powerfully resistant, and that resistance caused the abolitionists great discouragement, even despair.

Stafford says that significant change rarely happens in a day, or a year, or even a decade. Activists need to have staying power, because what they are hoping to accomplish may take many years. Activist movements need to be more intentional about creating an environment that sustains people, spiritually and physically. The saddest part of the great reform movements is the number of idealistic people who drop out and break down in the process.

Another key point according to Shaking the System is the temptation of violence. Most American reform movements start out committed to nonviolent means, and it never crosses their minds in the beginning that any of them might be drawn into violence. Anti-slavery is a potent example. They started out absolutely committed to persuading and pleading with slaveholders to repent. They ended up supporting (or ignoring) John Brown's murderous campaigns, and buying rifles for Kansas settlers who were ready to fight. A similar process happened in the civil rights movement. Violence creeps in, as it has in the anti-abortion movement, the animal rights movement and the ecology movement.

Stafford, author of Never Mind the Joneses, presents another book of great clarity and insight – this time for the socially conscious Christian. With easy-to-follow analysis, … Stafford is nuanced and therefore persuasive – he does not entirely rule out violence and politics, but uses compelling stories to warn about their limitations. … This is required reading for every evangelical Christian with a social conscience. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Many of America's great social movements – abolition, temperance, women's suffrage, civil rights – had their roots in the Christian faith. In his thoughtful and eminently practical analysis of these movements, Tim Stafford counsels would-be Christian activists in how to be 'as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.' – Russell Jeung, associate professor of Asian American studies, San Francisco State University

Insightful, probing reflection on Christian activist struggles to change America. Wisely cautionary, firmly encouraging. A must-read for all activists who want to change the world. – Ronald J. Sider, president, Evangelicals for Social Action

Shaking the System is a brilliant analysis of Christian attempts at needed social reforms, heavily focused on the abolitionist and civil rights movements. This is not a romantic or idealistic analysis, but it is brutally realistic about the pitfalls and problems as well as the limited successes of these movements. Very few white evangelicals write with the insight and wisdom of Stafford. – John Perkins, John Perkins Foundation

Shaking the System contains great stories of people who have given their lives to bring about change because, as Stafford says, American activism is full of fascinating characters and events – real people who are like us. Stafford pulls out intriguing details that readers won't have learned in civics class to illustrate the pros and cons of pressure tactics, the inevitable temptation to violence and the dangers of political compromise. The audience for this highly readable volume includes culture-watchers, history buffs, mission and evangelism organizations, and missionaries.

Transportation / Railroads

Railroads across North America:: An Illustrated History by Claude Wiatrowski (Voyageur Press)

From the first steam-powered locomotives of the early nineteenth century to the high-speed commuter trains of today, the American railroad has been a great engine powering the nation’s growth and industry. Railroads across North America celebrates the glory and grandeur of that legacy with a tour of the history of the American railroad and the culture surrounding it. Illustrated with vintage photographs, modern images, maps, timetables, tickets, brochures, and all manner of memorabilia, this volume offers a look at the rail industry’s beginnings and development, as well as its place in American history.

Beginning with a few tentative steps in the 1820s and continuing through the robber barons, the depression, prosperity and merger, right up to today’s rail renaissance, the railroad remains essential to North American industry and our everyday lives. In Railroads across North America author Claude Wiatrowski examines the development of the industry with nearly 90 features covering more than three dozen railroads past and present, including railroads in film and music, specialty railroads, and life and travel on the rails.

Although the rich tapestry of iconic rail lines that once crisscrossed the continent has been merged, contracted, and otherwise cut down to more appropriate proportions, today’s rail industry continues the spirit of technological innovation that has been its hallmark, supported by seven robust ‘Class 1’ railways, a host of thriving regional short lines, and renewed public interest in passenger transport.
Wiatrowski, a rail author and award-winning video producer, illustrates Railroads across North America with an array of material, including vintage black-and-white and modern color photographs, period advertisements, maps, brochures, timetables, postcards, posters, menus, and other collectibles – nearly 600 pieces in all, many of them rarely seen. Also included are a list of Web resources, contact information for museums, preserved railways and historic sites throughout the United States and Canada.

From the might of yesteryear’s rail empires to the railroad’s current roles, the book is the fabulously colorful story of the industry that moved nations and stirs imaginations. In this authoritative volume, Wiatrowski offers a celebration befitting that legacy. Railroads across North America is an entertaining account of railroading in the United States and Canada, lavishly illustrated. Wiatrowski leaves no stone unturned, presenting the railroad’s beginnings, its evolving role in daily life, the technological marvels, and its intersections with popular culture.

Travel / Asia

Central Asia:: Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan by Bradley Mayhew, Greg Bloom, John Noble, & Dean Starnes (Lonely Planet Travel Guides: Lonely Planet Publications)

For decades, even centuries, Central Asia has been out of focus, a blank on the map. Even today, to those not in the know, the center of Asia is synonymous with the middle of nowhere./p>

Yet for two millennia, known variously as Transoxiana, Turkestan or Tartary, these lands were a major thoroughfare for Silk Road traders, nomadic empires and migrating invaders, tying together Europe and Asia on the Eurasian steppes. The backdrop to this drama is a vast arena of desert, steppe and knotted mountain ranges that stretches from the Caspian to China, Siberia south to the Hindu Kush.

As told in Central Asia, Central Asia's storybook history, from Alexander the Great to the khans of Khiva, litters the land at every turn. Travelers get more than a whiff of the Silk Road when standing downwind of an Uzbek kebab seller and glimpse more than a hint of a nomadic past in the eyes of a Kazakh moneychanger. At times the caravan stops of Samarkand and Bukhara, with their exotic skyline of minarets, mosques and medressas, seem lifted directly from the days of Timur (Tamerlane).

Further east the snowcapped Pamirs and Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan host fantastic trekking and mountain adventures. Community-based tourism projects bring travelers face to face with semi-nomadic Kyrgyz herders, meeting them in their yurts and on their terms. The region's little-visited oddities, namely Turkmenistan and parts of Kazakhstan, offer an offbeat interest all their own.

Central Asia describes how travelers to central Asia can

Lose themselves among the blue domes and mosaics of the Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Play Marco Polo, exploring Silk Road forts while bathed in the light of the snowcapped Hindu Kush in the Wakhan Valley, Tajikistan.

Watch a Kyrgyz eagle hunter in action and taste the delights of fermented mare's milk in Kyrgyzstan.

Follow in the footsteps of British spies, Chinese pilgrims and Russian explorers and embark on their own Great Game.

In Central Asia five authors (one of the anonymous) tell the story of five 'stans, 27 visa stamps (78 visa checks), 182 pots of green tea, and one (short) detention by the KGB. The book entices readers to trek into remote alpine valleys and to follow herders on horseback or ride camels with a newly added Activities chapter. Whether readers want to explore the architectural gems of Bukhara or horse trek across the high Pamirs, Central Asia offers something for every taste. And everywhere they will be greeted with instinctive local hospitality, offering a shared meal, a helping hand or a place to stay.

Authors include Bradley Mayhew, Tajikistan, who has coordinated the last three editions of Central Asia; Greg Bloom, Uzbekistan; John Noble, Kazakhstan; and Dean Starnes, Kyrgyzstan.

Central Asia isn't the easiest place to travel through. Travelers will need to invest some serious time tracking down visas, permits and the latest travel information, preferably months before they depart. Readers won't meet many travelers on the road and there are certainly no video cafes serving banana muesli, but this is part of the attraction of a land that has been largely off-limits to travelers for the last 2000 years. According to Central Asia, travel today is getting easier every year, with new accommodation options, vastly improved food and a network of shared taxis that will shuttle travelers around cheaply and in relative comfort. Some highlights include:

Kazakhstan – One of the last great blanks in the map, with interesting and quirky sites separated by vast amounts of nothing. Good hiking in the southeast and increasingly popular ecotourism options. Sub-Siberian Russian cities in the north.

Kyrgyzstan – Vowel-challenged republic of Alpine mountains, yurts and high pastures. The best place in Central Asia for hiking and horse riding. Community tourism programs and a wide network of homestays give travelers a grassroots adventure on the cheap.

Tajikistan – The region's most outlandish high-altitude scenery, home to Central Asia's best road trip, the stunning Pamir Highway – this is the cutting edge of adventure travel. Obtaining permits requires some preparation. Fabulous trekking and the region's most humbling hospitality.

Turkmenistan – The 'North Korea of Central Asia'. Hard to get into (tourist visas require travelers to hire a guide) but fascinating once they are there, not least for the bizarre personality cult of Turkmenbashi. An uncertain future follows the death of President Niyazov in December 2006 and the election of Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow on 11 February 2007, though reforms are promised.

Uzbekistan – Home to historic Silk Road cities, epic Islamic architecture and the region's most stylish private guesthouses – the heart of Central Asia.

Central Asia provides details on costs and money. By traveling with a friend, staying in homestays, eating in chaikhana (tea-houses) and hiring the odd taxi when there is no public transport, travelers can get around Central Asia for around US$15 to US$20 per person per day (more like US$20 to US$40 in Kazakhstan). Readers can shave down costs further by self-catering in shops and bazaars, staying in private homes and the occasional bottom-end place, sharing hotel rooms with other travelers, getting around town by local bus instead of taxi, riding overnight trains to save hotel costs, and spending less time in (expensive) cities.

As told in Central Asia in general Central Asia is a pretty safe place to travel despite the media's presentation of the region as a hot spot of environmental disaster, human rights violations and Islamic insurgency. Most travelers eventually come face to face with crooked officials, particularly policemen, as checks are endemic throughout the region. But travelers shouldn't have any problems as long as their documents are in good shape.

Readers can count on Lonely Planet to provide everything they need to know about visas, travel permits and crossing Asia's remotest borders. Travel information is provided by independent authors who are dedicated travelers. They travel widely and off the beaten track. The authors of Central Asia, who have visited their regions since the last edition, offer travelers rich travel advice. They personally visit thousands of hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, galleries, palaces, and museums. They find the special, the unique and the different for travelers wherever they are – and they take pride in getting all the details right.
Travel / Middle East / Literature & Fiction / Poetry / Religion & Spirituality

The New Jerusalem:: A Millennium Poetic/Prophetic Travel Diary 1959-1962 by Robert Eisenman (North Atlantic Books)

In Deuteronomy 18:14-22, when speaking of ‘the True Prophet,’ the believer or adept is cautioned not to pre judge the individual in question but rather to listen to and see which of his words come to pass. In the case of The New Jerusalem, it is hoped the reader will take this admonition to heart and in the end judge for him or herself which have or whether they have. – from the book

In the tradition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Robert Eisenman's The New Jerusalem is a unique literary document – a backpacker's journal in free verse. A poetic quest for spiritual and political enlightenment which tells a story and can actually be looked upon as ‘an Anti-Beat Manifesto,’ it is sometimes ‘quasi-prophetic.’ This poetic diary documents Eisenman’s life-changing backpacking journey through Europe, the Middle East, and Asia in the early 1960s. Eisenman’s search for meaning took him to San Francisco and its Beat culture, to Paris, to Lebanon, Israel, and beyond. The author's eye catches it all: pre-hippie hotels, midnight encounters with beautiful women, ‘India’s ceaseless fever,’ the lure of distant cities and landscapes.
Eisenman is the author of several books on the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Christian history. Currently Professor of Middle East Religions and Archaeology and Director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins at California State University, Long Beach, a Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College, Oxford, England, Eisenman was a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and a U.S. Endowment for the Humanities Fellow-in-Residence at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, where the Dead Sea Scrolls first came in. He was the leader of the 1987-1992 worldwide campaign to break the academic monopoly over the Dead Sea Scrolls, freeing them for research by all interested persons, regardless of affiliation or credentials.

In The New Jerusalem, beginning in San Francisco, the protagonist – after throwing his registration cards away while on line at U.C. Berkeley – hitchhikes across America to return to Paris. After staying at the legendary ‘Beat Hotel’ when people like William Burroughs were in residence there (but not sharing their lifestyle or views), he sets off for Israel where, working on kibbutzim in Northern Galilee, he discovers his connection to the land, its people, and encounters his own hitherto unknown family. Returning to follow a lost love, then working on the Kennedy campaign and being chosen for the first Peace Corps group in the field, he demurs to continue his travels through Persia on to India and be a witness to issues concerning Jewish identity, Jerusalem, and the relation between Arabs and the Holy Land.

Details of bus rides and late night conversations with fellow travelers are interspersed with revelations about the formation of a Zionist Holy Land, stays in Christian monasteries where he encounters a nascent Jewish Christian Movement, and a climactic fight with the future Israeli ‘Peace Pilot’-to-be at the cafe he owns in Tel Aviv. More personal poems evoke a mind filled with political fervor, youthful uncertainty, and nostalgic memories of a lost love.

From disillusioned to hopeful, despondent to ecstatic, these poems not only provide an intimate portrait of a young traveler, but also a view of the psyche at a politically turbulent time in the world (including a Walt Whitman-like greeting of John Kennedy). A detailed photo section gives glimpses into the author's personal journal and personages and images encountered in his travels. The book concludes off Sinai on the Red Sea on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis and with an Afterword on the Six-Day War which is both prescient and prophetic, since the publication of The New Jerusalem coincides with its 40th anniversary – as well as interesting for readers wondering: what comes next?

The poems in The New Jerusalem were written from 1959-62 just as they appear; they have not been altered or improved. They represent, at once, a travel diario in free verse and a bildungsroman depicting a young man's passage from boyhood to manhood. They also represent a spiritual journey or quest and, in parts, are even what some might call ‘prophetic.’

The New Jerusalem is meant to be read as an answer to those who thought all intellectual and artistic endeavor in the late Fifties and early Sixties began and ended with ‘the Beats’ and for those who did not agree with the ideological orientation of their approach or of that ‘Generation’ – a movement the author considers to have contributed much to the intellectual malaise and artistic decline of the country. According to Eisenman, it is also meant to be read for whatever uplift and spiritual and religious insight and exhilaration it might provide. In particular, those who are either monotheistically-inspired or immersed in or enamored of the Bible and its prophetical approach may find something that will be congenial or moving in it. Also as he states, the voice in the free verse/poetry or prophecy is not that of the writer today but his of some forty or more years ago – ‘forty years in the wilderness’ as it were. Eisenman also says he hopes that readers from whatever denomination or political/religious orientation will be able to participate in the biblically-inspired and sometimes even intoxicated mindset herein expressed, taking it in the spirit in which it was intended – that of fellowship and communion and not of confrontation.

The style is sometimes poetic and sometimes prophetic, a style that has particular relevance for the present day lack of new and vital religio-poetic expression. The New Jerusalem is at once a unique collection of poetry from a writer better known for his blockbuster works of early Biblical history as well as an unexpected and intimate portrait of a young man at a turning point in his spiritual development as reflected through his travels in tumultuous religious and political terrain. Eisenman also reveals an unexpectedly lyrical voice, written on the overland trail to India via Paris, Greece, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Iran, Beleuchistan, and Pakistan. Alternately hopeful and critical, these poems vividly etch the pleasures and perils of a bygone era and their profound effect on one young poet.

True Accounts / Law

Until Proven Innocent:: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case by Stuart Taylor Jr. & KC Johnson (Scribner)

What began that night shocked Duke University and Durham, North Carolina, and it continues to captivate the nation: the Duke Lacrosse team members’ alleged rape of an African-American stripper and the unraveling of the case against them.br /> For 47 members of the Duke University men's Lacrosse team, March 13, 2006 became their personal Day of Infamy. Former New York Times, and Pulitzer-nominated, reporter Stuart Taylor Jr., and legal expert KC Johnson, lay out the facts in the betrayal of the American legal system in their new book on this case, Until Proven Innocent.

Taylor, columnist for National Journal and nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution; and Johnson, distinguished history professor at Brooklyn College and CUNY, argue that law enforcement, a campaigning prosecutor, biased journalists, and left-leaning academics repeatedly refused to pursue the truth while scapegoats were made of these young men, tarnishing their lives. Until Proven Innocent harbors multiple dramas, including the actions of a DA running for office; inappropriate charges that should have been apparent to academics at Duke many months earlier; the local and national media, who were slow to take account of the publicly available evidence; and the appalling reactions of law enforcement, academia, and many black leaders.
Until Proven Innocent covers all five aspects of the case – personal, legal, academic, political, and media. According to Taylor and Johnson, the events of that evening at an off-campus house in Durham made national headlines – a party hosted by the members of the Lacrosse team hired two young strippers for their evening's entertainment. The dancers, Kim Roberts and Crystal Gail Mangum, arrived late in the evening. At or around midnight, when the two women began their dance routine, Mangum was stumbling and falling. Twenty-plus time-stamped photos attested to this fact as well as to the embarrassment of the players there. The players felt cheated and the women stormed out of the house amidst a brief moment of back-and-forth racial slurs.

What happened that night at the house on North Buchanan? What the analysis shows is that no rape occurred and that Mangum has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was on several prescription drugs at the time. She had also made a previous unproven claim of being gang-raped. Taylor and Johnson say it is also now known that former Duke University Lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, Dave Evans, and Colin Finnerty, ran the gamut of emotions from that night in March 2006 until late spring 2007 when the case was dismissed.

The public has now come to learn the details of the case, but many questions remain. What were District Attorney, now disbarred, Mike Nifong's motives for behaving so irresponsibly? Why were the Durham police as much to blame for this whole sordid mess as the District Attorney's office? Taylor and Johnson had access to the Durham police involved, particularly Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, the prosecutors and the trainee sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE), Tara Levicy, whose conduct at the Duke Medical Center while examining Mangum has come under great scrutiny. The authors had access to all three Duke players, their families, and their defense teams' presentations to the court in complete legal narrative as well as to all documents exposing misconduct of the police, prosecutors, and Duke Hospital nurse (who gave no interviews). The authors go into detail on the radical ‘Group of 88’ Duke University professors who tried to railroad the accused players.

A chilling, gripping account of how our judicial system can go terribly wrong. This is an important book that brings the Duke story to life and exposes troubling facts about our justice system and our citadels of higher learning. You may think you know the Duke story – but you don’t until you read this book. – Jan Crawford Greenberg, ABC News legal correspondent and author of Supreme Conflictbr /> Guilty until proven innocent was a concept expressed by Duke University's president Richard Brodhead, among others, betraying a stunning misapprehension of America's justice system in the case of the Duke lacrosse players wrongfully indicted for raping a black stripper in 2006. … the facts of the case speak for themselves … But these facts are embedded in repetitiously hammering home the basic points, sarcasm and ranting against the political correctness (i.e., obsession with the race-class-gender triad) of academia and the media. … In total contrast, the closing chapters offer balanced, tautly argued discussions of, and remedies for, the central problems: prosecutorial abuse, the frequency of false rape accusations and academic groupthink. – Publishers Weekly
Brutally honest, unflinching, exhaustively researched, and compulsively readable, Until Proven Innocent excoriates those who led the stampede – the prosecutor, the cops, the media – but it also exposes the cowardice of Duke’s administration and faculty. Until Proven Innocent smothers any lingering doubts that in this country the presumption of innocence is dead, dead, dead. – John Grisham
In what surely is this year’s most revealing, scalding and disturbing book on America’s civic culture, the authors demonstrate that the Duke case was symptomatic of the dangerous decay of important institutions – legal, academic, and journalistic. . . . With this meticulous report, the guilty have at last been indicted and convicted. – George F. Will
A gripping, meticulous, blow-by-blow account of the whole grotesque affair. It is beautifully written, dramatic, and full of insights, exposing how vulnerable the prosecutorial system is to abuse and how ready the liberal media and PC academics are to serve as leaders of the lynch mob. A must read for anyone who cares about individual rights and justice. – William P. Barr, former attorney general of the United States

The context of the Duke case has vast import and contains likable heroes, unfortunate victims, and memorable villains – and in its full telling, it is captivating nonfiction with broad political, racial, and cultural relevance to our times. Until Proven Innocent stands out as the complete source account for readers who want to know exactly what happened. Taylor and Johnson‘s coverage of the Duke case, if somewhat sensationalist, was the earliest, most honest, and most comprehensive in the country. In the book they take the idiocies and dishonesty of right- and left-wingers alike head on, shedding new light on the dangers of rogue prosecutors and police and a cultural tendency toward media-fueled travesties of justice. If you like your facts over the top, this is the book to read.

Arts & Photography / Crafts & Hobbies / Computers & Internet / Digital Photography

Digital Family Album Special Occasions: Tools for Making Digital Memories by Janine Warner (Watson-Guptill Publications)

From Christmas to Mother's Day to the Fourth of July, there is no better way to remember the fun, laughs, and good times, than by having a photograph to look back on, and digital cameras have made it easier to record these special occasions. However, even several years after the popularity of digital photography has captured the imagination of the public, many photographers remain perplexed as to how to put these images to good use.

Digital Family Album Special Occasions shows readers how to turn digital photos, prints, and other keepsakes into dynamic crafts and gifts for special occasions and holidays. Janine Warner provides the direction and ideas photographers need to do something fun, creative, and useful with their bounty of pictures. With step-by-step directions, Warner, herself a technology expert, helps ‘laypeople’ become comfortable with using technology creatively, whether they are scanning and downloading on a Mac or a PC, editing images in Adobe Photoshop Elements, or designing layouts in Microsoft Word. Warner shows readers how to turn digital photos, prints, and other keepsakes into:

A scrapbook, combining text and photos, for Father's Day.
A calendar with photos of loved ones to mark the highlights of each month.
Custom-made websites with digital slideshows of family and friends.
Specialized greeting cards and gifts for everyone on the holiday list.

Fun party invitations.

Online photo galleries and digital slideshows that won't put the audience to sleep.

Digital Family Album Special Occasions packs in a year's worth of ideas for celebrating all the major holidays and special occasions. With Warner’s instructions, readers can choose the right equipment and software, know what to look for when buying a digital camera, take better pictures and edit them, create personalized cards, holiday letters, and other gift items, share projects via e-mail and the Web, and edit, repair, and enhance photos. Instructions show readers how to design dozens of digital photo projects, many of which use templates they can download free from DigitalFamily.com.

Digital Family Album Special Occasions combines digital photography, crafting, and special occasions to make it easy to share good times with friends and family, whether they live around the corner or around the globe. In this easy-to-use book, readers will find everything they need to turn their family photos into festive cards, scrapbook pages, cookbooks, web-sites, and whatnot.

She helps scrapbookers cross the bridge from paper and glue to a more digitized world.

Arts & Photography / Entertainment / Music / Biographies & Memoirs

Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience (with 70 minute CD) by Janie Hendrix & John McDermott (Atria Books)

Over the course of just four years, Jimi Hendrix left an indelible stamp on the world, shaping popular music and culture with his creativity. He remains the most innovative guitarist of his era, literally creating the vocabulary of the guitar while redrafting the parameters of electric blues. Jimi Hendrix celebrates the life of Jimi Hendrix as told through text, rare photographs, removable documents, reproductions of memorabilia featuring drawings from Hendrix's childhood, his rare handwritten song lyrics, and never-before-seen archival photographs, and a 70-minute audio CD.

With exclusive access to the private family archives, co-authors Janie Hendrix and John McDermott tell the story of Jimi's life, from his formative years in hardscrabble Seattle through his short-lived days in the eye of a fanatic and dedicated public, to the aftermath of his sudden death and his legacy.

In addition to 30 interactive features, the book includes a 70-minute audio CD with interviews and commercially unreleased recordings of live concert music and a Record Plant jam session. Listening to Hendrix work out musical riffs, holding pieces of the ephemera that chronicle his life, readers experience Hendrix the way they were meant to.

Assembled by Janie L. Hendrix, Jimi's sister, head of the family companies of Experience Hendrix and Authentic Hendrix and John McDermott, catalog manager for Experience Hendrix, and authorized by the Hendrix Estate, Jimi Hendrix is a package that illuminates the life Hendrix.

According to Jimi Hendrix, rooted in the Delta blues of Muddy Waters, Hendrix had an intense curiosity that propelled him to cast a wide net, discovering the stylistic elements that informed early rock 'n' roll. Hendrix drew encouragement from greats like Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and later, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. This blurring of musical and cultural styles composed an essential element of Hendrix's appeal, both explaining and making it hard to fathom how long the guitarist languished in impoverished obscurity before finally achieving success in the United Kingdom. Given the scope of his achievements, it is still difficult to believe that established music impresarios passed on Hendrix time and again, until Animals bassist Chas Chandler changed Hendrix's fortune, plucking him from the depths of Greenwich Village in 1966. It was Chandler's passion and belief in Hendrix's abilities that provided the guitarist with the opportunity he had sought since, as a child in Seattle, he had strummed a broom as his first guitar.

Hendrix came to prominence in a fast-changing world. While Carnaby Street and Swinging London embraced him quickly, America took longer. Hendrix worked diligently, carrying his message and music to a burgeoning youth culture struggling for racial equality and agonizing over Vietnam. Hendrix spoke to them through his music, challenging his listeners to ‘learn instead of burn,’ and to hear his ‘Message to Love.’ In ‘Machine Gun,’ Hendrix invoked the power of the Delta blues as he challenged man's inhumanity to man; ‘I Don't Live Today’ was dedicated to the plight of the American Indian and other repressed minority groups; and in his unconventional and controversial rendering of the national anthem, he spoke to a youth culture that felt increasingly alienated from its country. In time, the interracial, intercontinental Jimi Hendrix Experience emerged as the biggest grossing concert act of the era.

As his popularity blossomed, Hendrix stood as a figure of rebellion, a counterculture outlaw focused on his music and altogether disinterested in the machinery of pop stardom. Throughout his career, Hendrix would refuse to be classified – by the fans, the press, his labels – and both his life and music exuded a sense of freedom. An artist committed to innovation, he bristled at labels others applied to him and to his music. "What I hate is society these days trying to put everything and everybody into little tight cellophane compartments," Hendrix complained. "I hate to be in any type of compartment unless I choose it myself. They don't get me in any cellophane cage. Nobody cages me."

Jimi Hendrix details the rich life and remarkable career of one of the world's most important and influential musicians. Despite his early death, Hendrix was not a tragic figure, but he remains an enigma, an innovator frozen in time at the age of twenty-seven. An indispensable addition to any music lover's library, the hands-on, boxed book set is a truly interactive experience.

Arts & Photography / Science Fiction & Fantasy / Popular Culture / Comics

Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes by Chris Knowles, illustrated by Joseph Michael Linsner (Weiser Books)

Was Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor based on Aleister Crowley?
Can Captain Marvel be linked to the Sun gods on antiquity?
What role did the pulps play linking the occult and comic books?
What involvement did famous writers like Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle have in Occultism?

With the popularity of occult comics writers like Invisibles creator Grant Morrison and V for Vendetta creator Alan Moore, the vast ComiCon audience is poised for someone to seriously introduce them to the esoteric mysteries. Christopher Knowles is doing just that in this book. Knowles, presently associate editor and contributing writer for the award-winning magazine Comic Book Artist and a contributing writer to Classic Rock Magazine, has worked in the comics industry for over 20 years, as both an artist and writer. Joseph Michael Linsner is creator of popular comic book goddess Dawn and has painted covers for many of the major comic book companies.

In Our Gods Wear Spandex, Knowles answers these questions and brings to light other links between superheroes and the world of esoterica. Occult students and comic-book fans alike will discover connections, from little known facts such as that DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz started his career as H.P. Lovecraft's agent, to the extensive influence of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy on the birth of comics, to the mystic roots of Superman. Our Gods Wear Spandex also traces the rise of the comic superheroes and how they relate to several cultural trends in the late 19th century, specifically the occult explosion in Western Europe and America. Knowles reveals the four basic superhero archetypes – the Messiah, the Golem, the Amazon, and the Brotherhood – and shows how the occult Bohemian underground of the early 20th century provided the inspiration for the modern comic book hero. Chapters include: Ancient of Days, Ascended Masters, God and Gangsters, Mad Scientists and Modern Sorcerers, and more.

Our Gods Wear Spandex explains how superheroes have come to fill the role in our modern society that the gods and demi-gods provided to the ancients. It catalogs the movements and magicians who played a crucial part in the development of social phenomena like the Batman or X-Men films, or of TV shows like Heroes or Smallville.

Knowles traces the histories of both American comic books and the superheroes who came to define them. It reveals the deep and abiding religious, occult and magical roots of legendary characters like Superman, Spiderman, and Wolverine. Ultimately, this work argues that these fantastic characters are not mere entertainment, but also serve as de facto deities for our modern technological society.

You think superheroes are something new? Wait'll you read the exciting spin that Knowles and Linsner put on them! – Stan Lee

Anyone who wants to investigate the archetypal and esoteric roots of comics – the secret history – could hardly do better than to read this encyclopedic and up-to-the-minute study. – Greg Garrett, Professor of English, Baylor University, and author of Holy Superheroes! and The Gospel According to Hollywood.

I didn't realize just how much of an effect my pretending to be Doctor Strange when I was six (with, yes, cape, fake mustache and talcum-powered hair) really had on me as an adult until I read Christopher Knowles' Our Gods Wear Spandex, the definitive history of the comics and mysticism crossover. Finally something new for both comics fans and occult readers alike. – Richard Metzger, author of Disinformation

Knowles very entertainingly brings fresh insights to the enduring appeal and mysterious power of superheroes. – Gerard Jones, author of Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book

A lively and compelling history of mankind's eternal need for heroes and gods and the superhuman figures who answer the call. – Clint Marsh, Wonderella.org

Our Gods Wear Spandex has convinced me that magic, mysticism and esoteric knowledge shaped superhero comics from the beginning. As much as any interpreter of the comics, Knowles helps us understand superhero tales as theologies for today's young people. – John Shelton Lawrence, author of The Myth of the American Superhero

Our Gods Wear Spandex belongs on every college student's bookshelf, right next to the copy of the Joseph Campbell book he or she bought and pretended to read. The comic book protagonist has long been overlooked as the contemporary American hero figure. Knowles has written the anthropological companion to Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. – Bucky Sinister, author of All Blacked Out and Nowhere to Go and King of the Roadkills

From the ghettos of Prague to the halls of Valhalla to the Fortress of Solitude and the aisles of Book Expo and ComiCon, Our Gods Wear Spandex is the first book to show the inextricable link between superheroes and the enchanted world of esoterica; readers will discover countless fascinating connections.

Arts & Photography / Museums & Collections / Reference

Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art edited by Gary Tinterow, Lisa Mintz Messinger & Nan Rosenthal (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with Yale University Press)

Yale University Press, in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art announces the publication of Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works. The book features the Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, comprising sixty-three modern paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by fifty artists, which was given to the Metropolitan Museum in 2006. These additions greatly augment the Metropolitan's holdings of modem art, particularly the works of the Abstract Expressionists.

The Newman collection includes the only extant grouping of Abstract Expressionist art collected at the time of their creation. Long recognized for its preeminent Abstract Expressionist works, the collection includes major canvases by the great painters of the movement, among them De Kooning, Pollock, and Rothko, and sculptures by David Smith. Also featured are Americans of the succeeding generation as well as a selection of works by early European modernists. Among the outstanding works in that genre are four pieces by Arshile Gorky; Franz Kline's first painting in his mature style, Nijinsky of 1950; Attic of 1949, a Willem de Kooning masterpiece; Number 28, 1950, a major example of Jackson Pollock's revolutionary work; and an early signature painting by Clyfford Still. In addition, the collection includes works by such other well-known American artists as Joseph Cornell, Arthur Dove, Anne Ryan, the abstract painters Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, and the Pop artist Claes Oldenburg. A number of fine examples of earlier twentieth-century European modernism include paintings by Max Ernst, Fernand Leger, and Joan Miró, a mixed media collage by Kurt Schwitters, and a 1930 relief by Jean Arp.

Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works opens with an interview by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator in Charge of the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modem, and Contemporary Art, with Muriel Kallis Newman. Comprehensive entries on all sixty-three pieces in the collection follow. Each work of art is reproduced in a color illustration, and the entries have been written by prominent art historians who are experts in their fields. The catalog features texts by 22 leading scholars, including David Anfam, Diane Kelder, and Richard Shiff. Forty-five additional illustrations further enhance the texts.

The Abstract Expressionist paintings that form the heart of this collection were nearly all created in New York City. The Museum's director, Philippe de Montebello, states in his Foreword: "Her [Muriel Kallis Newman's] intelligence and her unwavering enthusiasm sparked a deep awareness and a dedicated involvement with the art and artists of her generation. Mrs. Newman is a Chicagoan, but she has always loved New York, a city she has visited often.... Mrs. Newman's gift represents a New York homecoming for a group of remarkable works of art by many of the outstanding New York artists of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s."

Newman started collecting during the years just after World War II, a fortuitous time when American art was reaching new heights of accomplishment and was on the verge of worldwide prominence. Her intelligence and her enthusiasm sparked a deep awareness and a dedicated involvement with the art and artists of her generation. Beginning in 1949 Newman began meeting with the Abstract Expressionist artists at The Club, a favored hangout, and as she was also an artist, she was readily accepted. Between 1951 and 1954 she assembled the core of her collection. The depth and breadth of the collection are formidable.

As explained in the foreword, Newman is one of the rare collectors who grasped the importance of a radical new development in the visual arts and acted on that understanding immediately and with almost pitch-perfect accuracy. Affluent but neither wealthy nor particularly well connected, through a fortuitous introduction in 1948 she and her husband discovered the work of a few New York artists – Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, among others – who, though already represented by galleries, were still seeking recognition and collectors. Yet, she avows, "I wasn't aware of such a thing. . . . I knew that they were poor. They were. But I had no idea that they were really struggling. Now I know, of course:" As far as she was concerned, she met the artists, befriended some of them, and bought their work.

Upon learning that Newman wished to transfer the collection to the Metropolitan, Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator in Charge of the Museum's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, immediately planned this catalogue to celebrate its arrival; assisted by Lisa Mintz Messinger, Associate Curator; Nan Rosenthal, Special Consultant; and Christel Hollevoet-Force, Research Associate.

Newman herself has said: "This is a collection of New York art, and I had always felt it belonged in New York." The fact that she has held firm to her 1980 promise to the Museum, despite the astronomical rise in the monetary value of her collection, indicates once again her commitment to the art she loves and her disdain for the financial speculation that has nothing to do with the aesthetic values she prizes.

This outstanding collection greatly enhances the Metropolitan's permanent collection. Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works is a handsome and scholarly large format book with color illustrations throughout. The opening interview with Newman by Tinterow captures the donor’s intelligence, commitment, and charm. The publication also benefits greatly from the contributions of the many prominent art historians who have contributed texts.

Business & Investing

The Point of the Deal: How to Negotiate When Yes Is Not Enough by Danny Ertel & Mark Gordon (Harvard Business School Press)

Why do so many business deals that look good on paper end up in tatters once they’re put into action? Because deal makers often treat the signed contract as the final destination in their bargaining journey – instead of the start of a cooperative venture.

Traditional wisdom treats negotiation as separate from implementation. Deal makers see their job as getting the deal done and assume that someone else will worry about implementation. This ignores the reality that usually the deal is just a means to something else. Negotiating for implementation means that the value of the deal is not achieved when the parties say ‘yes’, but when they actually implement their agreement. Separating the negotiation from implementation leads negotiators to do things during the negotiation – some deliberately and some inadvertently – that actually hurt them during implementation and even produces deals not worth doing.

In The Point of the Deal, Danny Ertel and Mark Gordon show what negotiation looks like when the players involved strive to make the deal work in practice – not just on paper. Authors Vantage Partner cofounders Ertel and Gordon have advised thousands of negotiators – diplomats, entrepreneurs, labor leaders, lawyers, salespeople, consultants, and Fortune 500 CEOs – and discovered that most underestimate the importance of implementation in the success of their deal. In this book, readers discover how to make the transition from concentrating on getting the deal done to focusing on what it takes to achieve value after the ink has dried.

The Point of the Deal goes beyond advice to individual negotiators on how to negotiate more effectively – it contains chapters on how to manage negotiators as though they are engaged in a real business process and on what organizations must do to ensure that they do deals worth doing. Ertel and Gordon explain how to transition from a deal-maker mentality focusing on making the agreement to an implementation mind-set. The authors show readers how to:

Treat the deal as a means, not an end, by asking what the negotiators need from their counterparts over and above a ‘yes.’
Consult stakeholders, determining whom they will need to get to ‘yes’ and beyond.
Set precedents that will help guide joint behavior after they have signed the deal.
Air their concerns – in ways that still get to ‘yes’ and beyond.
Help their counterparts avoid over-committing – maximizing the likelihood they'll be able to deliver on their part of the bargain.
Run past the finish line – by articulating how they will get from ‘yes’ to the final destination.

With a wealth of examples from multiple industries, countries, and functions, the authors illustrate how their approach to instilling an implementation mind-set works in a variety of familiar contexts for business deals.

Ertel and Gordon are right: it's not only the deal that matters, but what happens afterward. The Point of the Deal provides practical advice on how to negotiate when implementation matters. – Douglas L. Braunstein, head of Americas Investment Banking, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.

In this important and refreshing book, Ertel and Gordon remind us all: in every negotiation, know your purpose and don't forget it. – Roger Fisher, coauthor of Getting to Yes

Ertel and Gordon are real-world practitioners, passing on invaluable insight gained from around the negotiation table. They show how to achieve real success in your negotiations and, more importantly, how to build long-term, sustainable relationships in which the deal is only the first of many steps. – Darren Childs, Managing Director, Global Channels, BBC Worldwide

Negotiation today requires new skills and approaches beyond the 'yes' to create value. The Point of the Deal provides excellent insights on the importance of – and ways to instill – an `implementation mind-set' for successful business negotiation. – Ulf Weinberg, President, Wyeth Europe

If implementation of the deals you negotiate is important – and it almost always is - this book is for you. It overflows with practical advice on how to really get what you want. – John S. Hammond, coauthor of Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions

The Point of the Deal, shows that negotiation is not the end, but the beginning of a process of realizing value for both parties.

Through a wealth of scenarios – including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances, outsourcing arrangements, and customer and supplier relationships – The Point of the Deal shows what negotiations look like when the players involved strive to make the deal work in practice – not just on paper.

Business & Investing / Marketing & Sales / Popular Culture

Generation Ageless: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Live Today . . . and They're Just Getting Started by J. Walker Smith & Ann Clurman (Collins)

"The essential thing to know about Boomers is simple yet profoundly important: Do not count them out because they are aging. They are going to continue to matter," write J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman, both of Yankelovich, Inc, in their new book Generation Ageless. "Baby Boomers, more than any other demographic group, will shape the future of the marketplace."

Boomers, Yankelovich, born between 1946 and 1964, are all of one generation, but they don't speak in the same voice. Their shared experiences created a common set of new values: an emphasis on self, an acceptance of less structured lifestyles, and a desire for more enriching personal experiences. But as Smith and Clurman show, those values are expressed in a variety of ways.

Boomers are the dominant generation in America. Their values and aspirations set the tone for everyone. Advances in medicine and health mean that this youth-obsessed generation is now focused on an everlasting prime of life. In the book, Yankelovich president Smith, and senior partner Clurman, Boomers themselves, dig into what makes this generation tick. According to Generation Ageless Yankelovich Inc. actually coined the term ‘Baby Boomer’ back in the late 1960s, when they first started collecting data on this influential generation. Now, more than thirty years later, they have the most complete information on Boomers yet assembled. To better understand the implications for society and the marketplace, Yankelovich conducted a new study of that generation's hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The results of this ‘Boomer Dreams’ study are presented in Generation Ageless, and they transform and expand our understanding of the Boomer generation.

According to Smith and Clurman, this study of Boomers covered three broad areas. First, Boomers were asked to score various aspects of their current situation. Second, they were asked to rate their worries and concerns about the future. Finally, they were asked to gauge their commitment to different values and aspirations for the future. Generation Ageless reveals what Boomers believe and how those beliefs have changed over time. The book emphasizes three main ideas that motivate them – Youthfulness, Impact, and Empowerment – and the primary dynamics of Spirituality, Self, and Society. They dissect Boomers into six major segments to provide new insights into the world's most talked about generation:

Straight Arrows: This is the one group of Boomers for whom spiritual priorities are foremost. They make up one-third of Boomers. They are driven by traditional values and religion. They look forward to sharing their beliefs with others.
Due Diligents: This is one of the three groups for which personal priorities are most important. They represent 10 percent of Boomers. They think ahead and plan for the worst. They are willing to take risks, though, as long as they feel protected.
Maximizers: Personal priorities are at the top for this group. They account for 15 percent of Boomers. They want to do as much as possible and get the most from life. They seek fulfillment by immersing themselves in everything possible.
Sideliners: Personal priorities matter most for this group, too. They make up 20 percent of Boomers. They are less involved in all activities and amusements. They are very private, self-contained, and undemanding.
Diss/Contenteds: This is one of two groups for which societal priorities are highest. They account for only 8 percent of Boomers. They see social problems they would like to fix, and their sympathies are with protestors. However, they shy away from getting involved to the point of compromising their own comfort.
Re-Activists: Societal priorities are highest for this group as well. They represent 15 percent of Boomers. They are ready to join campaigns in support of social causes. They want to get involved while they still can, before age makes it difficult for them to have an impact.

As told in Generation Ageless, this generation is nearing the traditional age of retirement, but is in no mood to slow down. They are literally middle age-less: holding onto their position at the top of the pyramid for as long as possible, and not fading away into their golden years. Today's fifty- and sixty-year-old Boomers are not eagerly anticipating lives of disengaged retirement. Instead, middle age-less Boomers expect another twenty or thirty years of impact and influence – albeit in a variety of ways reflective of a surfeit of agendas and ambitions they have yet to fulfill.

If you want to know what Boomers are thinking and doing, read this book. Boomers aren't slowing down; they're speeding up. Read this book if you don't want to be left in the dust. – Richard Florida, bestselling author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class

As a creaky-kneed Boomer and longtime political reporter, I saw myself reflected on every page and marveled at the stunning, against-the-grain insights about my generation. In 2017 and 2027, as the Boomers refuse to fade into the twilight, Generation Ageless will be hailed as the book that first predicted the social implications of this we-shall-not-be-moved defiance. – Walter Shapiro, Washington bureau chief, Salon.com

Decision makers have forever underestimated the impact of seventy-eight million Boomers. And they are about to do so again. Save yourself from that mistake. Pay attention and read this book. You will never think of aging Boomers in the same way again. – Carol Coletta, president & CEO, CEOs for Cities

After this book, there is nothing else a marketer will ever need to know about Baby Boomers. My mind was racing with ideas before I even got past the Introduction, and there were nonstop insights from that point forward! – Jody Bilney, CMO, Outback Steakhouse

Once again, generational gurus J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman have tapped deeply and brilliantly into another significant cultural and economic mega-trend. The real Echo Boom is not the children of Baby Boomers but ageless Boomers themselves! – Ed Winter, chairman, Tracy Locke

Generation Ageless is an authoritative and eye-opening look at the past, present, and future of Baby Boomers. For anyone who hopes to sell to, do business with, or just understand this powerful demographic group, Generation Ageless is essential reading.

Children’s / Ages 4-8 / Issues

Times Tables Cheat (Library Binding) by Anastasia Suen, illustrated by Jeff Ebbeler (Main Street School Series: ABDO Publishing Group)

At the Main Street School, a series focusing on common issues, all the kids have character! Latasha, Sophia, and Isaiah are a few of Miss K's students. Their stories offer standard situations and examples of good character, such as patriotism, caring, and respect.

The books ask kids: What would you do in their shoes?

In Times Tables Cheat, Isaiah's first-person narratives teach about cheating through Jeff Ebbeler’s illustrations and Anastasia Suen’s text.

The story in Times Tables Cheat starts out with the kids on the school bus:

Alex sat behind Isaiah on the bus.
I know all my threes,” said Alex.
“Do not,” said Isaiah.
“Do so,” said Alex. “3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 20, 33, 36!”
"Okay," said Isaiah. "But do you know your fours?"
"Sure," said Alex. "4, 8, 12 ..."
"What is it with you two?" asked Dalton. Click! Click! Click! He didn't look up from his handheld game.
Alex turned to look at Dalton. "We're practicing our times tables."
"I know that," said Dalton. "But we're not in school yet.”
"What if we have a pop quiz?" asked Alex.
"Miss K doesn't give one every day;" said Dalton. His thumbs kept moving on the game.
"That's just it;" said Isaiah. "You never know when it's coming."
Click! Click! "Yes!" said Dalton. "I've reached Level 14!"

At the end of the story, after Dalton tries to cheat, Times Tables Cheat shows the kids helping each other:

"The sevens are just football scores;" said Alex. "7, 14, 21 ..."
"I got those three," said Dalton. "It's the other ones I didn't know."
"You can practice with us;" said Alex.
Dalton looked at his paper. "Okay, okay, but not on the way home. I have to play my game, too."
"Can you help me get to Level 4?" asked Alex.
"Sure;" said Dalton "It just takes practice."

Times Tables Cheat closes by asking kids what they think about what has just happened:

Why didn't Dalton want to practice his times tables on the bus?
How did Dalton get to Level 14 in his game?
Why did Dalton try to cheat?
Do you think Alex should have told Dalton the answer?

And finally, there are Miss K's Classroom Rules:

Ask for help if you don't understand what the teacher is saying.
Make time to study.
Do your own work. Putting your name on someone else's work is cheating, too.
Don't give your work to someone else.

Other books in the Main Street School Series include

Cutting in Line Isn't Fair!
Scissors, Paper, and Sharing
Helping Sophia
Show Some Respect
Raising the Flag

The books in this series, including Times Tables Cheat, through common classroom situations, help kids think about acceptable and expected behavior in school. The illustrations in the book are brilliant and the text is humorous.

Children’s / Ages 6-10 / Education / Anatomy & Physiology

The Body Box: See How Your Body Works by Anita Gareri (Barron’s Educational Series)

The Body Box , developed by Anita Gareri, creator of more than 100 children’s books including Little Box of Princess Treasures, is an interactive kit packaged in a box the shape of a book aimed at older children, which includes an information book and specially created anatomical models.

A human kidney, a brain, a heart, an eyeball, and a plastic skeleton with removable parts are assembled in this instructive kit for budding junior biologists. The shapes of all organs are rendered in plastic and packaged in a box. The Body Box includes a booklet describing the human body in a series of 14 two-page spreads filled with full-color illustrations, which explain the human body’s organs and functions. The booklet slips into a pocket on the box’s inside cover, and a see-through window shows all model body parts when the imitation book cover is lifted.

The body parts and functions described include the senses, brain, lungs, heart, blood, muscles, bones, stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, and cells. This interactive pack actually contains replicas of:

skin
brain
intestine
lung
muscle
eyeball
skeleton
heart
liver
kidney

Illustrated overlays show the human body’s skeletal and muscle systems.

Using The Body Box young readers will begin to understand how the body works from the inside out. Models of organs are attractively packaged. Fact filled, the kit is unusual and educational, hands-on, and facilitates active learning through manipulation. The shapes of all organs are accurately rendered, and the accompanying book contains full-color illustrations and descriptions, written at a level that is easily understandable by older children.

Children’s / Ages 9-12 / Literature & Fiction / World Mythologies

Lost Cities (Library Binding) by Sue Hamilton (Unsolved Mysteries Series: ABDO Publishers)

Children love mystery and adventure, and the books in the Unsolved Mysteries Series offer them a unique opportunity to study some of the world's most interesting, unsolved puzzles. From bizarre creatures on the land and sea to unsolved disappearances of ships, planes, and even cities, this series will appeal to readers of many ages. Quotes and perspectives from scientists, researchers, and historians, as well as everyday people thrown into the midst of these perplexing mysteries, provides an overall viewpoint from which children can draw their own conclusions.

Lost Cities starts out by asking: How do you lose a city? With today's technology – tracking devices, heat-sensitive locators, and global positioning systems – it seems impossible to lose something so big. But hundreds of years ago, cities did indeed disappear. Some were mysteriously abandoned. Many cities were destroyed because of violent wars. Others were deserted because of famine or disease.

Whatever the reason, complete cities disappeared, abandoned by all who once lived there. Some were lost to the swirling yellow sands of the desert, others vanished into the cold blue depths of the oceans, and still others disappeared behind green walls of thick-growing jungle plants. According to author Sue Hamilton, stories and rumors are all that remain of these once-thriving places.

Some lost cities have been rediscovered. Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, was found in 1911. Perched high on a mountain ridge in Peru, its buildings and streets are now filled with archaeologists, researchers, and historians, all trying to find out exactly what happened to this city and its people. Other places remain out of reach. Even today, researchers and treasure hunters seek the legendary underwater city of Atlantis. From the Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean Sea, they continue searching for this sunken city. Lost Cities asks: But did Atlantis ever really exist? Is El Dorado out there – a city of gold waiting to be found? Or is it only a legend? Lost Cities discusses these lost cities:

Atlantis: The City Under the Sea
Camelot: King Arthur's Castle-City
El Dorado: The City of Gold
Shangri-La: Where Life is Perfect
Ubar: Atlantis of the Sands
Yonaguni: Real or Myth?

Lost Cities also contains a glossary and index.

Other books in the Unsolved Mysteries series include:

Air & Sea Mysteries
Creatures of the Abyss
Ancient Astronauts
The Bermuda Triangle
Monsters of Mystery

These little 32 page books, aimed at children ages 9-12, feature full-color photographs, full-color maps, quotations, and an index. This unique series with interesting unsolved mysteries, as in Lost Cities, will fascinate readers of all ages. With adult themes, they would also work for adult literacy classes.

Children’s (Grades 7-9) / Biography / Political

Nancy Pelosi (Political Profiles) (Library Binding) by Sandra Shichtman (Morgan Reynolds Publishing)

As told by Sandra H. Shichtman, former teacher and editor, in Nancy Pelosi, a book aimed at the middle-school audience, Pelosi grew up surrounded by politics. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, served five terms in Congress, and three as the mayor of Baltimore. As a child, Nancy helped him campaign.

Pelosi seemed destined for a political career herself, but instead chose the path of marriage and family. However, she never strayed far from her interest in politics: even as she raised five children, Pelosi worked tirelessly as a volunteer for the Democratic Party, raising money and spreading awareness about Democratic candidates.

It wasn't until all of her children were grown and she was in her late forties that Pelosi accepted a dying friend's request to take over her seat as a representative for California in the United States House of Representatives. Though she was an inexperienced and unseasoned politician, Pelosi drew from her life in the political world and won the election. Soon, she rose to become one of the most powerful people in the House of Representatives and made history when she became the first woman elected to serve as the Speaker of the House. All the while, she held onto values and family and never strayed far from the lessons taught to her as a child growing up in Baltimore.

Shichtman sets Nancy Pelosi in the near present: January 4, 2007, which fell on a Thursday, was hardly an ordinary Thursday in the Congress of the United States. The Democratic Party had taken control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives as a result of the elections the previous November. On January 4th, the 110th Congress gathered in Washington, D.C. to swear in their leaders. The floor was filled with the members of both houses. The galleries were packed with their families and friends as well as invited members of the public. Representative Pelosi of California was sworn in as Speaker of the House, the most important position in American government following the president and the vice-president. For Representative Pelosi it was the culmination of a long political career.

In accepting the position, Pelosi told the Congress and the American people, "This is an historic moment. It's an historic moment for the Congress. It's an historic moment for the women of America. It is a moment for which we have waited for over 200 years."

Author Shichtman in Nancy Pelosi says that Pelosi had come a long way from her beginnings in Baltimore, Maryland, but she still retained the values she had learned as a child living at home.

Nancy’s father Tommy D'Alesandro served five terms as a U.S. congressman. In 1947, he was elected mayor of Baltimore and served three terms. By that time he was married and the father of six children. Seven-year-old Nancy stood beside her father as he took the oath of office. She recalled an incident that took place when her parents took her to a voting place for the first time. A worker for the Republican Party saw little Nancy and gave her a toy elephant (the elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party). Nancy quickly gave it back. "He thinks I don't know what this is. I was offended. In our family, it was about whose side are you on; the whole idea of working for families and the opportunity they had," she explained later.

Nancy Pelosi tells how during their father's reelection campaigns, the D'Alesandro children stuffed envelopes with letters appealing for votes. The letters included reminders of what favors the mayor had done for them in the past and suggested that they could return the favor by voting for the mayor. It was here that young Nancy learned how the game of politics was played.

Nancy Pelosi tells the story from a point of view emphasizing family values, the female point of view, Pelosi’s Italian and Catholic heritage, growing up in the midst of politics and rooted in the New Deal values of service to others. It shows how Pelosi was able to achieve her position through the support of family and community. It should be an inspiration to many, boys and girls alike.

Computers & Internet / Education / Research / Reference

Beyond the Internet: Successful Research Strategies by Barbara A. Chernow (Bernan Press)

Whatever their interests, researchers need to diversify their resources and go Beyond the Internet. Author Barbara Chernow, historian, encyclopedist, and reference book editor, challenges the perception that the Internet is a complete research tool. Although the Internet offers a seemingly limitless array of information, cyberspace does not provide all the resources one needs to learn about all subjects. Beyond the Internet reminds researchers, librarians, teachers, parents, and students that the vast majority of material in libraries and archives is not digitized nor will it be in the foreseeable future. This includes documents, and government records that provide the thread that links our past to our present, allowing us to reach back into history, studying memoirs and correspondence.

Beyond the Internet also explores the difference between acquiring facts that answer a specific question and the process of analytical thinking that goes into accessing and assessing nonelectronic documents. The issue is not what readers cannot find on the Internet, which is a wonderful resource, but what they miss if they only consult the Internet. Serendipitous finds and new interpretations based on previously unknown sources require research in original materials.

Chernow, adjunct assistant professor of publishing at New York University, uses research challenges culled from her own work in American history and as a reference book editor to illustrate the different research resources described. These real-world anecdotes lend a personal element to the practical advice contained in the chapters. These challenges cover such diverse subjects as the Reynolds Affair, America’s first scandal involving charges of insider information and sexual misconduct, the Whiskey Rebellion, the creation of the fifth edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia, a personal search for family history, and interviews with librarians and scholars.

According to Beyond the Internet, if readers want to understand the origins of terrorism, study war tactics, or appreciate the culture of the Middle East, they need to consult original correspondence and documents. If they want to reverse an educational policy that is ‘dumbing down’ America, teachers and parents need to provide the next generation with knowledge of all the sources available to them. Students must also learn the skills necessary to access these sources, so they can make informed decisions about everything from their personal health to selecting a presidential candidate to forming opinions on the war in Iraq to social security and educational policy.

The skills taught in Beyond the Internet have broad application in better evaluating events in our world today. Chernow shows how to access sources that broaden our understanding of issues; for example, the failure to understand the people of Iraq – their culture, history, and geography – has significantly contributed to the failure of U.S. policy. Another example is understanding the arguments surrounding changes to the Electoral College.

What a delight young researchers are missing if they don’t take their fill from the granaries of libraries – books, manuscripts, journals, archives, collections, correspondence, photographs. By comparison the Internet is as intellectually scant as People magazine. Read Beyond the Internet and learn how to make the knowledge of the ages yours! – Charles J. Shields, best-selling author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee

Beyond the Internet presents an informative and entertaining read with useful tips and techniques on how to utilize a wide range of available resources to enrich the research experience and expand and enhance research findings. Real world anecdotes culled from the author's years researching American history add a personal element to complement the practical advice. Chernow`s insider tips and techniques for developing research skills apply to anyone searching for information, including professionals, teachers, researchers, scholars, students, and general readers.

Computers & the Internet / Programming / Business & Investing / Entertainment / Education / Design & Development / Training

Game Development Essentials: Game Simulation Development (with DVD) by William Muehl & Jeannie Novak (Thomson Delmar Learning)

As an increasing number of Fortune 500 companies, as well as educational and governmental heavyweights take notice of the potential usefulness of game simulations for training, the demand for developers who can skillfully integrate educational tasks with gaming features is increasing dramatically.

Game Simulation Development provides an in-depth look at how games are using a variety of different simulations to incorporate educational and training-based elements. By investigating a wide range of successful games, the book offers critical knowledge regarding why certain game simulations are effective in each genre. Game Simulation Development also explores the ways expert developers consider how players respond to visual, aural, and tactile feedback to make the simulation as convincing and immersive as possible. Additional coverage includes intrinsic and extrinsic knowledge, constructivist theory, social interaction and lateral learning, and how these principles apply to game simulation development.
Authors are William Muehl and Jeannie Novak. Muehl, formerly Development Director for the central animation, cinema, audio, character, environment, concept, and user interface departments, is Senior Producer at Midway’s headquarters in Chicago, where he facilitates the development of globally shared technology, art, and design initiatives across six studios and multiple game teams. Novak, with extensive experience as a game instructor and course developer, is Lead Author and Series Editor of Thomson's Game Development Essentials series and Academic Program Director of the Game Art & Design and Media Arts & Animation programs at the Art Institute Online. Through Indiespace Novak consults with creative professionals in the music, film, and television industries to help them migrate to the game industry.

The book’s coverage of simulations extends to multiple industries, demonstrating the full range of game simulations beyond entertainment. It features full-color screenshots and detailed illustrations. Real-world development challenges and strategies give aspiring game developers an opportunity to apply what they learn. Interviews with industry experts and informative case studies enhance the learning experience. The companion DVD includes game engines, 3D modeling and animation software, documentation, game demos, and articles.

Game Simulation Development is loaded with content and follows a meaningful line of recent publications by Novak in this field. The book includes highly appropriate contributions by industry professionals. Each chapter is well organized and concludes with excellent chapter summaries that promote critical thinking. – Brad Anderson, Chair, Department of Art & Division of Fine Arts, Kansas Wesleyan University

Game Simulation Development is a timely book providing a well-rounded resource for aspiring game developers. For the first time, professional and aspiring game developers have a comprehensive, in-depth resource, complete with hands-on experience, that goes beyond the entertainment-focused aspects of game simulation to delve into its escalating impact on the outside worlds of business, education, and training.

Cooking, Food & Wine

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food (How to Cook Everything) by Mark Bittman (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

Hailed as ‘a more hip Joy of Cooking’ by the Washington Post, Mark Bittman's award-winning book How to Cook Everything has become the bible for a new generation of home cooks, and the series has more than 1 million copies in print. Known for simple recipes, great-tasting food, and straight-shooting advice, Bittman has inspired a new generation of cooks. Now Bittman has written a guide to meatless meals – a book that for everyone who wants to cook simple but delicious meatless dishes, from health-conscious omnivores to passionate vegetarians.
Everyone knows a diet that includes a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes is healthier than one that doesn't. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is the cookbook with the potential to make vegetarian cooking accessible to everyone. The book includes more than 2,000 recipes and variations – far more than any other vegetarian cookbook. As always, Bittman's recipes are straightforward and unfussy – producing dishes that home cooks can prepare with ease and serve with confidence. The book covers the whole spectrum of meatless cooking – including salads, soups, eggs and dairy, vegetables and fruit, pasta, grains, legumes, tofu and other meat substitutes, breads, condiments, desserts, and beverages. Special icons identify recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or less and in advance, as well as those that are vegan. The book is illustrated throughout with line drawings and brimming with Bittman's opinionated advice on everything from selecting vegetables to preparing pad Thai. And throughout the book, charts, sidebars, and lists give readers ideas and tips for everything from spicing up tomato sauce to grilling vegetables.
Bittman says, "I wrote this book to convince everyone (and to be sure, me) to increase the proportion of plant-based foods in our diets." How to Cook Everything Vegetarian shows cooks how vegetarian meals can be delicious, simple to make, easy to vary, and enjoyable to explore. To name just a few of the dishes readers will find inside: Cherry Tomato Salad with Soy Sauce, Rich Zucchini Soup, Pan-Grilled Corn with Chile, Eggplant-Tofu Stir-Fry, Pasta with Caramelized Onions, Lentils and Potatoes with Curry, and Breakfast Polenta ‘Pizza.’ The variety of options with many of the recipes is remarkable. For example, with the Essential Bean Salad recipe, there are seven variations including Italian, Japanese, or Indian flavorings. With Butternut Squash, Braised and Glazed, there are six variations, including with Coconut Milk and Curry or with Saffron and Almonds. With Vegetable Lasagna there are White, Pesto, and Vegan variations.

… a wealth of recipes that don't scream vegetarian and plentiful guidelines to make cooking vegetarian as intuitive as cooking with meat. Like his now classic How to Cook Everything, this book opens with terrifically useful, straightforward discussions of essential ingredients, appliances and techniques, which Bittman builds on throughout in to-the-point sidebars and illustrated boxes. The recipes flow thick and fast in his theme-and-variations style: … New vegetarians and vegetarians cooking for omnivores will appreciate Bittman's avoidance of faux meat products in favor of flavorful high-protein dishes like Braised Tofu in Caramel Sauce and Béchamel Burgers with Nuts. Even owners of the original book will find much new to savor while benefiting from Bittman's remarkable ability to teach foundational skills and encourage innovation with them, which will help even longtime vegetarians freshen their repertory. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

An essential purchase for all cookery collections. – Library Journal, starred review

Mark Bittman's category lock on definitive, massive food tomes continues with this well-thought-out ode to the garden and beyond. Combining deep research, tasty information, and delicious easy-to-cook recipes is Mark's forte and everything I want to cook is in here, from chickpea fries to cheese soufflés. – Mario Batali, chef, author, and entrepreneur

How do you make an avid meat eater (like me) fall in love with vegetarian cooking? Make Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian part of your culinary library. – Bobby Flay, chef/owner of Mesa Grill and Bar Americain and author of the Mesa Grill Cookbook

Recipes that taste this good aren't supposed to be so healthy. Mark Bittman makes being a vegetarian fun. – Dr. Mehmet Oz, Professor of Surgery, New York Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center and coauthor of You: The Owner's Manual

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is packed with an unprecedented number of ways for readers to enjoy satisfying meals without missing the meat. Bittman delivers the ultimate guide to meatless meals – this masterwork is comprehensive, authoritative, contemporary, and approachable – a book that sets a new standard and finally makes vegetarian food accessible to every home cook. Written not only for vegetarians but for those who – like Bittman himself – are omnivores striving for a more health-conscious, planet-friendly diet, it provides everything readers need to build meals around delicious meatless recipes. And because he is a self-taught home cook, not a restaurant chef, his recipes are straightforward, resolutely unfussy, and unfailingly delicious – dishes that readers can prepare with ease and serve with confidence. Like all of Bittman's work, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is thorough and particularly accessible; much work has gone into making the wealth of information, ideas, and recipes as easy to use as possible. This is a book that cooks will use often, rave to friends about, and buy as a gift.

Education / Creativity

A Handbook of Creative Learning Activities (Spiral-bound) by Steve Bowkett (Network Continuum)

A Handbook of Creative Learning Activities is a hands-on manual for stimulating creative thinking, talking and writing in the classroom. It combines recent ideas of educational importance – such as multiple intelligence theory, emotional intelligence and preferential learning styles – with strategies for implementing these concepts via a range of practical activities. These can be used throughout the curriculum and across a wide age-range with children of all abilities.

The book outlines a model of the mind that incorporates recent findings in brain research with activities to promote learning and creativity. It explores the nature of creative thinking and how it can be effectively driven through an ethos of positive encouragement, mutual support and celebration of success and achievement. It links content and process within the learning environment and addresses the emotional components of the educational experience, and how these can be optimized to enhance self-esteem and confidence in the learner.

Author Stephen Bowkett, who taught English for 18 years in Leicestershire High Schools is now a full-time writer and trainer. Bowkett has arranged A Handbook of Creative Learning Activities into a number of broad sections. Each section contains activities which teachers can use on a stand alone basis. Some activities take just a few minutes, providing stimulus games or warm up sessions. Others are more elaborate: they need preparation and could last for a number of lessons or time slots. The main value of the activities, however, is in using them in combination and in a wide range of subject areas. This will help teachers to develop their pupils' creative thinking across the curriculum.

The activities, designed for use in the British educational system, link strongly with English language study. A Handbook of Creative Learning Activities provides pupils with a wide range of opportunities to develop their English reading skills. The book is also compatible with the speaking and listening programs of study and provides opportunities for different modes of writing. The activities also have clear links with drama and personal and social education. In addition, they are relevant to the curriculum requirements of other subjects – they can develop the use and application of mathematics, help learners investigate scientific knowledge, and help them discover the characteristics of materials in design and technology. The activities can develop pupils' awareness of chronology and change in history; provide motivating techniques to investigate places and themes in geography; and enhance visual literacy in art.

The Activities/National Curriculum matrix provides examples of how the activities can be used when teaching the National Curriculum (British). Of course, teachers will develop their own repertoire of favorite techniques to use with their learners and apply these across the curriculum. For example, a dice journey can be used to explore a medieval village, trace the life cycle of flowering plants, track the course of a river from source to estuary, and create a narrative story.

The following will help teachers make the most of A Handbook of Creative Learning Activities:

Equipment and Techniques. The introduction contains a section outlining some of the equipment teachers will need and some of the basic teaching and classroom organization techniques which underpin the book.
The Sections. Bowkett divides A Handbook of Creative Learning Activities into sections, each one containing activities which relate to the overall theme of the section. He has also provided an introduction for each section, which considers the benefits and potential uses of the activities.
The Activities. Each activity consists of a basic/core activity plus suggestions for extension and variation. Links with other activities in the book are also listed.
Practicalities Box. Each activity has a Practicalities Box which provides at-a-glance information about organizing the activity: grouping the students; how much time teachers will need; equipment required; and any other important points they need to know before they begin.

At the back of the book is a section aimed at teachers. The section gives them a chance to develop their own creative thinking skills through a series of tasks and activities.

According to Bowkett, ideas happen because we want them to. Ideas seem to come from some place other than the intellectual conscious part of the mind; and they are accompanied by powerful emotions that have a lot to do with the motivation required to see that idea through to completion. He says he spent many years relying on the Muse before he came across a simple, effective and verifiable model of the mind that accounted for all the characteristics of what he calls the Ping Process – wanting ideas, having lots of them, and turning the most useful ones into finished projects: stories, poems, pieces of non-fiction, or the best way to use up the scraps of food left in the fridge.

For Bowkett, creative thinking boils down to ways of opening up the channels of communication between the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind. The Ping Process involves a large and vital emotional component – creative thinking necessarily needs to be fun. Once that link is established, creativity and enjoyment will feed each other beneficially, leading in the end to the more valuable emotional rewards of increased confidence and self-esteem, satisfaction, pride-in-achievement, and a deep sense of fulfillment based on individual endeavor.

The point also needs to be made that the content of any subject or area of knowledge is of little use unless it is fuel to feed the fire of creative thought. That creative thought, in an ideal world, would be independent and energetic, the property of the individual: it would be judged by the individual, partly on its ‘fun factor’, but more lastingly on its usefulness in furthering the understanding of the thinker. It would not be manipulated or otherwise controlled by outside 'authorities' unless such input respected the principles of the Ping Process and the uniqueness of the individual.

Bowkett asserts that children will do their best (in all senses of the word) if the facts they are fed mean something to them personally, and if the process of meaning-making is an enjoyable one. Those aims are not beyond the scope or abilities of any teacher or parent reading A Handbook of Creative Learning Activities, and the activities in the book go a long way towards achieving them. The book is an imaginative and creative handbook, a user friendly manual providing a straightforward and workable model for teaching creativity using a variety of powerful activities. Teachers will find that by using the book regularly, the techniques will become second nature and the ability to think creatively will develop rapidly. What teachers will especially value is the degree of pupil engagement which the activities generate. This leads to the pupils remaining on task, and when pupils are on task, the quality of their learning is enhanced.

Education / Early Childhood

Easy Daily Plans: Over 250 Plans for Preschool Teachers (Early Childhood Education) by Sue Fleischmann (Gryphon House)

Learning takes place throughout the day in preschool – from the time the children hang up their coats in the morning to the end of the day when they reconnect with their families.

Children are active learners who learn by doing, and active learning allows children to explore and solve problems in their own way.

Aimed at teachers, Easy Daily Plans contains daily plans with developmentally appropriate activities for young children. The book is written by Sue Fleishmann, who taught for 15 years in a Birth to Three Program and was a Child and Family Specialist in a National Center of Excellence Head Start.

Organized by month, this grab-and-use curriculum has over 250 daily plans that teachers can use to plan enriching activities for young children. The book is organized by month, beginning in September. Listed at the front of each chapter are month-long celebrations (such as National Strawberry Month), week-long celebrations (such as National Pet Week), special days (Thomas Edison's birthday, for example), holidays (such as Cinco de Mayo), and general daily plans.

Each lesson plan in Easy Daily Plans is complete with:

An opening group time activity.
Story time book suggestions.
Center activities for a variety of centers, including art, blocks, dramatic play, music, fine motor skills, science, math and literacy skills.
Extension activities, such as small group activities, games, outdoor activities, snack suggestions, and additional center activities.

Each daily plan includes a Story Time book list, Group Time activity, and Learning Center Ideas. Additional activities for rhythm and rhyme, small group, projects, outdoor experiences, movement, and games are included throughout the book. Transition and snack ideas are also included in many plans. All of the activities encourage children to improve listening skills, increase vocabulary, follow directions, develop oral and written language skills, cooperate in a group setting, work on fine and gross motor skills, and develop new skills in the content areas. It is simple for teachers to choose the plans that they wish to do that month, read them, collect the necessary supplies, and get started.

The activities are open ended so it is possible to adjust them to suit the range of ages and abilities of the children in the classroom. The daily plans are appropriate for many types of programs, including preschools, Head Start programs, cooperatives, home school programs, and family day care programs.

New or experienced teachers can add energy and excitement to the classroom using the unique ideas in Easy Daily Plans. Supplying a complete year’s worth of daily plans, the book is perfect for busy teachers and caregivers to grab and use. The ideas are creative, fun, and easy to implement.

Education / Test Guides / Statistics / Advanced Placement

Barron's AP Statistics 2008 with CD-ROM, 4th Edition by Martin Sternstein (Barron’s)

FACT: The number of students who take a statistics course in college will soon surpass the number who take a calculus course.

Barron's AP Statistics 2008, written by Martin Sternstein, Professor of Mathematics, Ithaca College, is a test guide to help students prepare for the advanced placement statistics examination.

Six full-length Advanced Placement (AP) practice statistics exams are presented in this manual. Barron's AP Statistics 2008 provides Sternstein’s 15-chapter topic review, which covers everything students will encounter on the actual exam. Topics for review are divided into four general themes: Exploratory Analysis, Planning a Study, Probability, and Statistical Inference. Additional multiple-choice and free-response questions with answers are presented at the end of all 15 chapters. Detailed appendices include exam-taking advice, an AP scoring guide, and a guide to basic uses of TI-83/TI-84 calculators. This version of the manual comes with an enclosed CD-ROM containing two additional full-length practice exams, thus giving students a total of eight practice exams.

The contents of Barron's AP Statistics 2008 cover the topics recommended by the AP Statistics Development Committee. Detailed explanations are provided for all answers. Some of the topic questions are not typical AP exam questions but rather are intended to help review the topic. The six full-length practice exams are made up of 276 questions, all with instructive, complete answers. The two new, fell-length exams (with 92 more questions) on the CD-ROM come with answers, full explanations, and automatic scoring of the multiple-choice questions.

Barron's AP Statistics 2008 includes plentiful guidance on test taking. For example, students taking the AP Statistics Examination will be furnished with a list of formulas (from descriptive statistics, probability, and inferential statistics) and tables (including standard normal probabilities, t-distribution critical values, χ2 critical values, and random digits). While students will be expected to bring a graphing calculator with statistics capabilities to the examination, answers should not be in terms of calculator syntax. Many students have commented that calculator usage was less than they had anticipated. However, even though the calculator is simply a tool, to be used sparingly, as needed, students should be proficient with this technology.

The official examination consists of two parts: a 90-minute section with 40 multiple-choice problems and a 90-minute free-response section with five open-ended questions and an investigative task to complete. In grading, the two sections of the exam are given equal weight. Students have remarked that the first section involves ‘lots of reading,’ while the second section involves ‘lots of writing.’ The percentage of questions from each content area is approximately 25% data analysis, 15% experimental design, 25% probability, and 35% inference. Questions in both sections may involve reading generic computer output.

Sternstein advises students that a correction factor compensates for random guessing in the multiple-choice section; however, students should guess if they can eliminate even one incorrect choice.

As explained in Barron's AP Statistics 2008, multiple-choice questions are scored as the number of correct answers minus one-quarter the number of incorrect answers. Blank answers are ignored. Free-response questions are scored on a 0 to 4 scale, with each open-ended question counting 15% of the total free-response score and the investigative task counting 25% of the free-response score. The first open-ended question is typically the most straightforward, and after doing this one to build confidence, students might consider looking at the investigative task since it counts more. Each completed AP examination paper will receive a grade based on a 5-point scale, with 5 the highest score and 1 the lowest score. Most colleges and universities accept a grade of 3 or better for credit or advanced placement or both.

A good piece of advice according to Sternstein is for students from day one to develop critical practices (like checking assumptions and conditions), to acquire strong technical skills, and to always write clear and thorough, yet to the point, interpretations in context. Final answers to most problems should not be numbers, but rather sentences explaining and analyzing numerical results. To help develop skills and insights to tackle AP free response questions (which often choose contexts students haven't seen before), the book advises students to pick up newspapers and magazines and figure out how to apply what you are learning to better understand articles in print that reference numbers, graphs, and statistical studies.

Students who use Barron's AP Statistics 2008 should study the text and illustrative examples carefully and try to complete the practice problems before referring to the solution keys. Simply reading the detailed explanations to the answers without first striving to work through the problems on one's own is not the best approach. Teachers clearly may use this book with a class in many profitable ways. Ideally, each individual topic review, together with practice problems, should be assigned after the topic has been covered in class. The full-length practice exams should be reserved for final review shortly before the AP examination.

Barron's AP Statistics 2008 fully prepares students for the exam – there’s no other way to say it – with eight, count them, eight, practice exams. Multiple full-length practice exams are complete with all questions answered and fully explained. Equally valuable to prospective test takers is Sternstein’s topic review, covering virtually everything they will encounter on the actual exam. Practice, practice and more practice. The book is especially strong in the area of free response questions.

While a review book such as Barron's AP Statistics 2008 can be extremely useful in helping prepare students for the AP exam, nothing can substitute for a good high school teacher and a good textbook.

Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling

Attachment and Sexuality edited by Diana Diamond, Sidney J. Blatt, & Joseph D. Lichtenberg (Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series, Volume 21: The Analytic Press)

The papers featured in Attachment and Sexuality create a dense tapestry, each forming a separate narrative strand that elucidates different configurations of the relationship between attachment and sexuality.

As a whole, the book explores the areas of convergence and divergence, opposition, and integration between these two systems. Attachment and Sexuality suggests that there is a bi-directional web of influences that weaves the attachment and sexual systems together in increasingly complex ways from infancy to adulthood. Editors are Diana Diamond, associate professor in the doctoral program in clinical psychology, City University of New York and adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical Center, Cornell University; Sidney J. Blatt, professor of psychiatry and psychology, Yale University and chief of the psychology section, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine; and Joseph Lichtenberg, practicing psychoanalyst in Washington and editor-in-chief of Psychoanalytic Inquiry.

Contributors include Massimo Ammaniti, Anna Buchheim, Morris Eagle, Carol George, Jeremy Holmes, Horst Kachele, Alicia Lieberman, Mario Mikulincer, Giampaolo Nicolais, Phillip Shaver, Robin Silverman, Anna Maria Speranza, Maria St. John, Lissa Weinstein, and Frank Yeomans.

The papers in Attachment and Sexuality investigate the myriad ways in which sexuality may consolidate, converge, or conflict with attachment relationships and may foster or curtail attachment security at different developmental points. Each contributor in his or her own way attempts to locate sexual and attachment processes and their corresponding internal representations ‘in one history they both express, which is that of the social existence of a developing self’.

The unifying thread of Attachment and Sexuality is the idea that the attachment system, and particularly the degree of felt security, or lack thereof, in relation to early attachment figures provides a paradigm of relatedness that forms a scaffold for the developmental unfolding of sexuality in all its manifestations. Such manifestations include infantile and adult, masturbatory and mutual, and normative and perverse. Also central to the papers is the idea that the development of secure attachment is predicated, in part, on the development of the capacity for mentalization, or the ability to envision and interpret the behavior of oneself and others in terms of intentional mental states, including desires, feelings, beliefs, and motivations.

In his paper, "Attachment and Sexuality," Eagle stipulates that the integration of attachment and sexuality is a developmental challenge, most likely to be successfully negotiated by those with secure attachment organization. Those with insecure attachment organization are more likely to rigidly segregate passion and attachment (in the case of those with avoidant attachment), or to confuse the two (in the case of those with ambivalent attachment). In these formulations, Eagle introduces conflict back into attachment theory in that he sees attachment and sexuality as not only functionally separate behavioral systems, but also as mutually antagonistic, particularly in men. He reinterprets the split between love and desire observed by Freud to the split between attachment and sexuality, which he hypothesizes has an evolutionary root. Drawing on studies in anthropology, neurobiology, and ethology, Eagle traces the process by which romantic love is divided into adult pair bonding on the one hand and erotic passion on the other. Eagle explores how the consolidation of secure versus insecure attachment not only allows for the integration of passion and attachment over time, but also establishes specific pathways for oedipal resolution or lack of it.

Mikulincer and Shaver, in their paper "A Behavioral Systems Perspective on the Psychodynamics of Attachment and Sexuality," as did Eagle, apply an attachment theoretical framework to their investigations of sexual and romantic relationships in adults. They view the attachment behavioral system, and specifically the anchoring of attachment security, as the foundation for the development of mutually satisfying intimate relationships. The authors present an impressive number of empirical studies, in which show that individuals with secure attachment status are more likely to experience pleasurable positive feelings and to take a more playful and exploratory attitude toward sex. By contrast, those with insecure ambivalent attachment status tend to subordinate their sexual needs and desires to the quest for attachment security. Mikulincer and Shaver also take on the thorny issue of how oedipal conflict and resolution may vary in individuals with different attachment organization with a set of ground-breaking studies.

In Ammaniti, Nicolais, and Speranza's paper, "Attachment and Sexuality During Adolescence: Interaction, Integration, or Interference," the authors apply both research and clinical investigations to explore the linkages between attachment organization and sexual maturation and development in adolescence. Ammaniti and colleagues observe that there is often an initial period of sexual experimentation in adolescence, after which sexual behavior seems to be patterned after attachment status. Those with secure attachment have the internal solidity and freedom to seek out and maintain committed sexual relationships that integrate affection and sexuality. Avoidant adolescents, on the other hand, either shun sexual encounters altogether or seek out casual exploitative sex, while ambivalent adolescents have trouble maintaining relationships, although they perpetually seek them out. Ammaniti and colleagues observe that the mores of the peer group may override the state of mind with respect to attachment in motivating adolescents' behavior, "especially when in the peer group, adolescents engage in risky behaviors that impact on the pleasure and reward brain related systems". Ammaniti and colleagues' clinical analyses of interviews yielded some similarities in mother-daughter dynamics across the generations, including unresolved issues around mourning and separation in the mothers vis-à-vis their own family of origin, that were not evident in the research classification. This disjunction between the clinical and research analysis of the interview illustrates that sometimes overall attachment classification provides delimitation for a more dynamic clinical exploration of the interview.

Weinstein's paper, "When Sexuality Reaches Beyond the Pleasure Principle: Attachment, Repetition, and Infantile Sexuality," like Ammaniti and colleagues' paper, investigates how both infantile sexuality and attachment serve the function of regulating and channeling bodily needs and excitement. Although the attachment system patterns bodily imperatives through the responsiveness of the other, the sexual system, particularly in its infantile version, does so through idiosyncratic fantasies that are by-products of the psychic awakening of endogenous excitement, experienced as part of the self. Most important in Weinstein's view, attachment relationships may determine the set point for the child's tolerance for intimacy, dependency, and mutuality in intimate relationships. In Weinstein's view, theory and research on the attachment systems do not in the end explicate the arena of fantasy, bodily experience, and shifting identifications between self and other that contribute to the enduring mystery and creativity of sexuality.

Holmes, in his paper, "Sense and Sensuality: Hedonic Intersubjectivity and the Erotic Imagination," emphasizes less the creative tensions between attachment and sexuality, than the areas of creative overlap between the two. At the intersection of attachment and sexuality is an arena that he terms ‘hedonic intersubjectivity’ that encompasses the pleasurable, playful, sensual aspects of attachment bonds and their rootedness in both mutually gratifying physical exchanges between child and caregiver and in flights of erotic imagining. Holmes makes the point that not only does bodily pleasure cement secure attachment, but secure attachment renders such physical transactions gratifying. Further, Holmes stipulates that such a secure base, based on gratifying physical exchanges, provides the platform not only for the emergence of infantile sexuality with its associated wishes and fantasies, but also of adult intersubjective sexuality, which enables the individual to give free rein to creative exploration with the partner, to share in the plea-sure of one's attachment figure, and to integrate erotic imagining into the ongoing sexual relationship.

Most compelling is Holmes's portrayal of the ways in which the transference in three cases becomes the arena in which both psychosexual and attachment histories converge. In the paper by Buchheim, George, and Kaechele, "’My Dog Is Dying Today’: Attachment Narratives and Psychoanalytic Interpretation of an Initial Interview," the authors investigate the areas of overlap and divergence between attachment and sexuality as it plays out in the transference-countertransference relationship in one particular case of a severely disturbed female, with a history of depressive breakdown, somatization, and conflictual, broken relationships with men. Certain ambiguous features of her presentation led the analyst to do a more formal research evaluation with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). The data obtained from the AAI, which revealed a classification of ‘unresolved’ with respect to loss of the father, provided a route to understanding some of the patient's enigmatic verbalizations and behaviors in the sessions. The authors found that the formal AAI classification in fact contradicted both the initial clinical reading of the interview and the initial assessment of the patients' attachment state of mind based on her presentation in sessions and the therapist's countertransference responses to it – the AAI revealed the existence of ‘segregated systems’ in the patient characterized by her inability to integrate multiple, disparate representations of her father as alternately seductive, threatening, and rejecting.

In the paper by Lieberman, St. John, and Silverman, "Passionate Attachments and Parental Exploitations of Dependency in Infancy and Early Childhood," the authors find in the infant's dependency, a concept that bridges the attachment and sexual systems. They insist that sexuality and aggression are inextricably intertwined with the attachment system, and that failure to theorize the relationships among these aspects of the infant experience has limited the extent to which attachment theory can be considered a comprehensive personality theory. They state that certain manifestations of perversion can best be understood as "sequelae of dependency experiences that are repudiated within the attachment relationship.... The pervert cannot act on his own; he needs another person, someone he can use for his own purposes, exploit and destroy".

In the paper by Diamond and Yeomans, "Oedipal Love and Conflict in the Transference/Countertransference Matrix: Its Impact on Attachment Security and Mentalization," the authors illustrate how attachment and oedipal/sexual themes are often condensed and intermixed in borderline patients. They present data from the AAI, which assesses attachment state of mind with respect to parental figures and is given to borderline patients at the beginning of a psychodynamic treatment. They provide empirical evidence for the idea that psychic representations of preoedipal conflicts are condensed with sexual/oedipal phase representations in patients with severe personality disorders. This condensation predisposes borderline patients to either severe inhibition in their access to erotic fantasy and sexual expression, or overt and persistent eroticization in the transference and the lingering of oedipal illusions. The authors stipulate that the waning emphasis on the centrality of oedipal conflicts, particularly in the case of the treatment of severely disturbed patients, has been accompanied by a renewed focus on the cognitive and symbolic processes that attend oedipal stage conflicts and their resolution.

In his discussion of the eight essays in Attachment and Sexuality, Lichtenberg in the final essay provides a coherent, and comprehensive metanarrative of how attachment and sexuality are conceptualized theoretically and explored empirically and in compelling clinical narratives in these papers. Lichtenberg's discussion incorporates the long tradition of psychoanalytic knowledge gleaned from the unfolding of data about sexuality in the clinical situation and integrates it with attachment concepts. His discussion not only provides a more comprehensive view of the integration of the attachment and sexual systems, but also raises questions about the limitations of such integration. Although playfulness, exploration, curiosity, and sharing are expressions of secure attachment, in Lichtenberg's view, the papers in Attachment and Sexuality may tend to underestimate their role in the development of sexuality in adolescence and beyond.

Historically, attachment theory and research have been weakest in their consideration of the role of sexuality in the formation and disruption of attachment bonds, hence this volume fills a significant theoretical gap. Unique in its integration of detailed clinical material and empirical studies.... Attachment and Sexuality is destined to take its place as a classic in the widening literature on the intersection of psychoanalytic thought and attachment research. – Otto F. Kernberg, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College, Cornell University

Until this book, attachment perspectives have not so clearly addressed romantic love and those sexual passions and drives that are equally core to human need across the lifespan. Each of the authors brings a clinically and scholarly rich integration of how passionate love and en-during love are necessarily woven together in all human relationships. This volume will soon be essential reading for all who work clinically with attachment perspectives and it sets a very clear clinical research agenda for all attachment scholars wishing to move the field forward. – Linda C. Mayes, M.D., Arnold Gesell Professor, Yale Child Study Center

Diamond, Blatt and Lichtenberg have assembled a radical set of original chapters exploring the many links, and interdependencies, between sexuality and attachment. Emerging from this indispensable volume are important implications for theory and research in developmental, evolutionary and social psychology, as well as for clinical practice. This groundbreaking book is essential reading both for advanced students and scholars in the social sciences, as well as for clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychoanalysts. – Howard Steele, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, New School for Social Research

The papers in Attachment and Sexuality show that a multifaceted research effort that combines clinical and empirical approaches to the investigations of the intersection between attachment and sexuality is well under way. Further, the compelling case material in this volume, and particularly the depiction of the transference and countertransference dynamics, reveals the subjective experiences and psychic mechanisms associated with the integration of attachment and sexual systems that might otherwise remain obscure and unintelligible.

Although the papers present much research and clinical evidence for the ubiquitous influence of early attachment bonds on sexual relationships throughout the life cycle, they also suggest that in and out of the consulting room one sees that human sexuality cannot be reduced to that which is singularly influenced by attachment. The papers leave hanging the question about whether certain aspects of erotic experience (e.g., the excessive, irrational, enigmatic, transgressive, and subversive aspects of sexuality) are comprehensible within the attachment framework. These topics will no doubt form the basis for future explorations, and the papers in Attachment and Sexuality will help shape the direction and tenor of further dialogues in the arena of attachment and sexuality.

Health, Mind & Body / Self-Help

The Elder Wisdom Circle Guide for a Meaningful Life: Seniors Across America Offer Advice to the Next Generations by Doug Meckelson & Diane Haithman (Plume)

How do I know my fiancé is ‘The One’?
How can I improve my relationship with my stepchild?
When should I talk to my child about sex?
How do I make time for spirituality in my overloaded schedule?
Should I accept a secure job even if it isn't my passion?

American seniors today seek to live more uniquely fulfilling lives than previous generations – whether by volunteering for political causes, sightseeing around the globe, or doling out advice in cyberspace. The Elder Wisdom Circle, via its popular website ElderWisdomCircle.org, embodies the adage, ‘age is wisdom’, putting advice seekers in touch with a network of ‘Cyber-Grandparents’, aged sixty to 105, who offer assistance on everything from love and relationships to family and work. The Elder Wisdom Circle is a group of volunteer senior citizens nationwide who offer sage advice for life's big and small moments.

In The Elder Wisdom Circle Guide for a Meaningful Life founder Doug Meckelson and Diane Haithman share a new collection of sage wisdom on an array of life's most universal and provocative questions. Meckelson, who climbed the corporate ladder for seventeen years within the financial services industry before he founded the Elder Wisdom Circle, and Haithman, a veteran staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, covering fine arts have compiled the material. The book is the result of a six-month project, where over sixty individual members, and nine groups across the country, answered letters from advice seekers on each of life's major phases, from childhood through maturity, love and finally, loss. Through e-mail, or through personal interviews, the Elders also provided insight into the personal life experiences that led to their responses. While not every answer submitted is included, a representative sample of the wisdom received on each topic is presented. The Elders cover a wealth of life know-how, including:

Advice for Parents and Children
Finding Lasting Love
Raising a Happy Child
Discovering Your Self
Making the Right Decisions

Launched in 2001, the Elder Wisdom Circle is a vital online community with more than six hundred Elders across North America, and a few in the United Kingdom, who offer help to anyone who e-mails their website. Featured on NPR and in USA Today, the site has grown to be one of the most popular online advice destinations. What stands out most in the Elder's responses are particular words and associated wisdom that reoccur throughout their collective answers. Their answers may be different, but the Elder's words of wisdom are strikingly similar. Here are some of the words that turn up frequently in the Elder's responses:

Action: Take It.
Attitude: Keep It Positive.
Change: Embrace It.
Curiosity: Don’t Lose It.
Fairness: Offer It, But Don't Expect It.
Help: Give It.
Humor: Laugh.
Love: Share It.
Mistake: Don't Be Afraid To Make One.
Perspective: Keep Things In It.
Self-esteem: Develop It.
Spirituality: Trust It.
Perseverance: Make It Happen.

A valuable book, full of common sense and time-tested advice. – Doris Crumbach, author of Extra Innings

Everyone needs a little advice sometimes and the elder wisdom circle's honest, inspirational guidance is just the ticket when you aren't sure of your next step. – Marci Shimoff, coauthor of Chicken Soup for a Woman's Soul

Inspired by his grandmother, Meckelson, a former worker in the financial services industry, founded the Elder Wisdom Circle in 2001. …Many engaging and thoughtful questions and responses are recounted. Although one respondent recommends trusting in God, the circle members are by no means all believers and are required to refrain from proselytizing. The elders are not afraid to discuss nontraditional family structures and also humanely and appropriately deal with inquiries about sexuality. Anyone looking for empathy and practical strategies for overcoming difficulties from those who have been there will profit from this light-hearted guide and be inspired to visit the Web site, elderwisdomcircle.org. – Publishers Weekly

Thoughtful and inspiring, The Elder Wisdom Circle Guide for a Meaningful Life is like a gift handed from one generation to the next. Seasoned by experience, these ‘Cyber-Grandparents’ surprise, delight, and inspire with refreshing advice for how to live a purposeful and fulfilling life at any age. Insightful and sometimes surprising, their guidance will put readers on a path to a more purposeful and fulfilling life at any age.

Health, Mind & Body / Self-Help / Family Relationships

It's All about You: Live the Life You Crave by Mary Goulet & Heather Reider (The Free Press)

I'm a woman. I'm a mom. I want my own identity. I want to spend time with my friends. I want to feel in love. I'm worried about getting older. I could use more sleep. I would love to work out more. Perhaps I could take up a sport or a hobby, but when? I'm short on time, short on energy, and I wonder every day what I will make for dinner. – Everymom, from the book

Being a mother is amazing, although motherhood is not always easy. After bundling the kids off to day care or school, a demanding schedule at the office, or maybe a packed day of running countless errands while shuttling kids to and from ballet, soccer, or other activities, moms get home, manage to throw together dinner; and then meet endless stacks of bills, laundry, and other projects they've been meaning to tackle await them once the kids have finally been put to bed. Meanwhile, their husbands are pushing for some private time, though the only action they can imagine in the bedroom is of the shut-eye variety. Once they do get to sleep, it's all too soon before the craziness begins again.

And these are just some of the daily challenges moms everywhere face. Wouldn't it be great to have a more peaceful and streamlined home life? Wouldn't it be great if all of these things could be made more enjoyable? Wouldn't it be nice to have a life and be the loving Mom? It's All about You is a book that looks to do just that – provide moms with real advice on how to balance love, family, work, money, health, and every other issue that life brings. And to bring back passion to the life that they crave.

Mary Goulet and Heather Reider are the founders of MomsTown, Inc., and the online radio hosts of The Mary & Heather Show. Now, in response to the hundreds of thousands of moms who ask for a plan on how to get their lives back – from having a healthy sex life to finding more time and earning more money – Goulet and Reider have assembled the real advice from their personal experiences as mothers as well as from other moms and specialists.

It's All about You is filled with support for overextended moms, with suggestions on how to find the perfect balance between living a richer, fuller life and being the best mother they can possibly be. Not only do they share their experiences of their busy lives as mothers and wives, but also of starting their business together and sharing secrets from the MomsTown Big Break, an opportunity for the entrepreneurial-minded mom.

It's All about You covers time management, organization, money, sex, meals, and business – issues that busy mothers struggle with, often alone or with little help or support. The book is divided into sections that break down these all-consuming issues – including money, sex, body image, diet, time management, multitasking, controlling chaos, home and office organization, and the importance of girlfriends. In addition to their own advice and that of experts they provide ‘Tips and Takes’ from women around the country, including real life stories they've heard and e-mails they've received. And their advice is tailor-made for their audience. Many of the action-steps are written as ‘Quickies’ – items that can be done in 15 minutes or less, whenever a busy schedule allows. "We know your time is valuable, your energy is treasured, and your thoughts cherished," write Goulet and Reider, "it means the world to us that you are joining us on a journey of renewal, a journey to discover the Unique You."

Goulet and Reider, radio talk-show hosts (The Mary & Heather Show) and founders of the Web site MomsTown.com, put their enterprising and inspiring ideas together in this chatty text that will appeal to busy moms who want to do it all. … Financial issues, sex after children and clearing clutter are also included, with plenty of practical and sometimes unusual tips (i.e., flossing is good for your sex life). The authors claim that many moms suffer from OCI (overwhelmed, confused and irritated), with their lives spinning out of control in their attempts to please everyone. Goulet and Reider encourage moms to follow their motto, Better Done Than Perfect, learning to manage time and use motherhood to empower and strengthen their lives. Their text addresses the busy and multidimensional lives of mothers, offering readers support and advice as they pursue their aspirations within and outside the home. – Publishers Weekly
For any woman who has been blessed with the honorable juggle of motherhood, marriage, work, and life, It's All about You is an incredible guide to finding our way back – back to life as we all once knew it. An empowering, touching, clever take on where and how we fit in our own world. – Liz Pryor, author of What Did I Do Wrong?: When Women Don't Tell Each Other the Friendship Is Over

Written in their trademark witty, fun, and honest voices that have drawn hundreds of thousands of women to their website and radio show, Goulet and Reider are "working to help moms carve out a little extra income, a little extra time, a little extra energy, a little extra joy." Accessible and entertaining, they know what it's like trying to have it all, and they've found the way to be successful at it. In It's All about You they tackle with gusto the challenges that mothers face every day providing insightful and easy-to-implement strategies to not only cope with the daily grind, but also to live life to its fullest. With inspiring examples, true stories, and sound advice and plans, they make all moms feel empowered about themselves and their opportunities.

History / Americas / World / Social Sciences / Slavery & Emancipation / African American Studies

Slaves were instructed on pain of injury not to protest an unhealthy relationship fixed by whites for the benefit of whites. Remarkably, slaves did not obey. They managed to bring on the Civil War; in the process, they destroyed the system of slavery and delivered a more fully realized American democracy.

…Daughters and sons of Africa, these children who bore the mark of the lash wanted free universal education for everyone, the right to vote for everyone, the right to own and work their land, the right to build communities, worship, and love each other without the threat of mob violence. The architects of a new nation . . . these are the people the Federal Writers' Project and others sought to restore to history during the 1930s and early 1940s. – from the foreword

In 1998, The New Press published Remembering Slavery, a book-and-tape set that offered a startling first-person history of slavery. Using excerpts from the thousands of interviews conducted with ex-slaves in the 1930s by researchers working with the Federal Writers' Project, the astonishing audiotapes made available the only known recordings of people who actually experienced enslavement – recordings that had gathered dust in the Library of Congress until they were rendered audible for the first time specifically for this set. Edited by Ira Berlin, award winning author of Many Thousands Gone; Marc Favreau, editorial director of The New Press; and Steven F. Miller, coeditor of the Freemen and Southern Society Project; with a foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor of History and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, Remembering Slavery received the kind of commercial attention seldom accorded projects of this nature – nationwide critical and review coverage as well as extensive coverage on prime-time television, including Good Morning America, Nightline, CBS Sunday Morning, and CNN. The tapes have been aired repeatedly on public radio stations across the country. Reviewers called the set "chilling . . . [and] riveting" (Publishers Weekly), "something, truly, truly new" (The Village Voice), "powerful and intense" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and "a minor miracle" (Ted Koppel, Nightline).
Now, after almost ten years, the groundbreaking – and bestselling – recordings of interviews with former slaves collected in the original book-and-audio set of Remembering Slavery is available in paperback for a new generation of readers and listeners on a remastered MP3 compact disc.

These, the only known audio recordings of former slaves, capture the texture of everyday slave life from about 1845 through 1865. Transcripts of 124 former slaves’ interviews include stories of family life, marriage, children, work and religion. They tell us what slaves wore, ate, enjoyed and thought. Overall the interviewees provide a day-to-day account of the lives of enslaved people, their work regimens, which varied with geography and the types of crops cultivated, and the culture they sustained under the oppressive conditions of slavery. They recall everyday minor rebellions that helped them maintain a sense of control and dignity and ongoing attempts to formulate families in a system that didn't respect marriage among slaves. The remembrances in Remembering Slavery are joyful when the tales are about fleeing or helping others to flee, and jubilant in the segments concerning emancipation following the Civil War.

Ira Berlin's fifty-page introduction is as good a synthesis of current scholarship as one will find, filled with fresh insights for any reader. – The San Diego Union Tribune

… Historian Berlin … is a master of allowing the natural drama of history to unfold. The tapes particularly are riveting, perhaps especially for those seeking their roots in Southern slavery. … Those wonderfully present voices describe family life, work ethic and recreational patterns, religious ethos and resistance in answer to questions posed in often unmistakably condescending terms by white interviewers. This project will enrich every American home and classroom. – Publishers Weekly
These original recordings … have been remastered using state-of-the-art equipment and sound remarkably clear. … the tapes really come alive when the former slaves are speaking. Their dignity and authenticity are most impressive as they describe family life, daily routine, and work expectations. Despite their rigors and tragedies, the dozen men and women on the selections are not bitter but instead are optimistic, open-minded, and well-adjusted. These are excellent primary historical audio sources that students and teachers will find invaluable. – Rob Tench, Newport News Public Library, VA, School Library Journal
This collection brings forth, through both sight and sound, as Remembering Slavery is a book-and-tape set, the poignant voices of people who had been slaves. … The interviewers included such luminaries as Zora Neale Hurston and John Lomax, who talked to the ex-slaves about their relationships with their former owners and their relationships with other slaves. The editors' interpolations are kept to a minimum and are used strictly to tie themes together, without disrupting the accounts of those who lived much of their early lives as slaves. … The work itself … gives voice to one of the most significant institutions in American history. – Vanessa Bush, Booklist
[A]n invaluable collection of firsthand accounts by former slaves... – Chicago Tribune
A chilling witness to slavery's persistent legacy. – Booknotes

History comes alive in this invaluable collection. As Robin Kelly says in the foreword to the book, if all of these disparate stories and diverse voices embody one single theme, it is humanity. Remembering Slavery offers inspiration that the human spirit endures and triumphs over the most extreme circumstances. Together the narratives reinforce the incredible ability of African Americans to maintain their dignity and self-worth, to offer the rest of the world a model of humanity that could emancipate ‘free’ people the world over. It is our recognition of the ex-slaves' humanity that enables us to discard the false dichotomies of ‘Sambo’ and ‘rebel’ and see these amazing black survivors as complicated human beings. Remembering Slavery is sure to enrich readers and listeners for years to come.

History / Europe / Biographies & Memoirs

Elizabeth & Leicester: Power, Passion, Politics by Sarah Gristwood (Viking)
Did they or didn't they?

Few relationships fire our imagination like that of Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley – the love affair immortalized in Philippa Gregory’s The Virgin’s Lover – but nearly fifty years have passed since a book has been dedicated solely to their lifelong love.
In Elizabeth & Leicester, writer Sarah Gristwood explores Elizabeth’s relationship with her confidant Dudley. The book examines this complex relationship in detail and the impact it had not simply on Elizabeth’s and Robert’s personal lives, but also on the intricate dance that was Tudor politics.

Elizabeth and her ‘bonnie sweet Robin’ were childhood playmates who came of age in the treacherous Tudor court. Both had parents executed as traitors. Both found themselves residing in the Tower of London courtesy of Elizabeth's sister ‘Bloody’ Mary.

Soon after Elizabeth became queen she scandalized the royal court with her passionate obsession with the married Dudley. When Dudley’s wife mysteriously died two years later, there was rampant speculation that Dudley had had his wife conveniently dispatched, that the two would marry, that the two would not marry. That Elizabeth had had Amy Dudley murdered knowing the inevitable suspicion clouding the relationship would forever destroy any prospect of formalizing an alliance with a man not of her station. And so it went.

Yet, over the next few decades, Elizabeth and Dudley remained steadfast friends and confidantes. Robert advised Elizabeth, serving as her counselor, unofficial consort, and army commander. He guarded her sickbed and represented her on state occasions. For this, Elizabeth bestowed upon him great titles and even greater lands.

But despite her trust and devotion, she also humiliated him, forcing him to serve as her go-between with numerous royal suitors and unceremoniously attempting to clap him in irons when he finally remarried. Fueled by scandal and intrigue, this royal relationship was never dull.
Elizabeth & Leicester is an intimate portrait of two people who transformed their age. Gristwood, formerly at Oxford, a journalist specializing in the arts and women’s issues, corrects the image of Leicester to shows readers a fierce champion of Protestantism, theater, medicine and exploration, and a major force at Oxford, where he was chancellor. She questions whether Elizabeth was only technically a virgin, whether she and Leicester practiced a form of chaste courtly love or whether Arthur Dudley, accused by Spain of espionage in 1587, was really the pair's illegitimate son.

Why did they never marry? What were Elizabeth's motives in offering Leicester to her half sister, Mary? How much of their passionate attachment – and their restraint – was actually political convenience? In Elizabeth & Leicester Gristwood reignites this smoldering four-hundred-year-old love story in her lush, intimate portrait of two people whose outsized personalities transformed their age.

…Gristwood (Arbella: England's Lost Queen) rightly revises the image of Leicester from the queen's preening and clownish lapdog to a fiercely ambitious political animal, warrior, landowner, philanthropist and patriot with clear policies of his own. … This vigorous, valuable and richly detailed study sheds welcome light on the psyche of a great stateswoman whose bending of traditional gender roles continues to tantalize. – Publishers Weekly

Quite simply one of the most enthralling history books I've ever read. Packed with riveting derail, it is full of engaging and perceptive insights into the truth about the Virgin Queen and the man who meant more to her than any other. You must read this! – Alison Weir, author of The Life of Elizabeth I

Passionately and compellingly tells the story of the secret love and political alliance of the Queen and her great favorite, Robert Dudley. A vivid, entertaining and accessible study of the seething Tudor court and, above all, a fascinating portrait of power, love and royalty in dangerous times. – Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar

Vivacious and absorbing. Gristwood is a mistress of the trivial details that enthrall. Full of intriguing suggestions, stimulating analogies and shrewd connections. – Miranda Seymour, The Sunday Times (London)

As well as producing an enthralling account of one particular relationship, Gristwood crams her book with fascinating details of life at court. – The Mail on Sunday

… This is rich terrain, taking us into the heart of our feelings about femininity, power and nationhood. Makes one feel that: Freud's question 'What do women want?’ might have been inspired by the enigmatic behavior of Elizabeth herself. – Telegraph

Vivacious and absorbing. Gristwood is a mistress of the trivial details that enthrall. – The Sunday Times (London)

A fascinating book which the London Times called ‘vivacious and absorbing,’ Elizabeth & Leicester by British writer Gristwood is an intimate, startling portrait of two figures who transformed their age, gripping, unconventional account of one of history's most fascinating alliances. For those who adore reading about the royals and the many fans of the Emmy Award-winning miniseries Elizabeth I and feature film Elizabeth, this is a story of enduring love that continues to speak to readers today.

History / Military / Aviation / Engineering

F-15 Eagle Engaged: The World's Most Successful Jet Fighter (General Aviation) by Steve Davies & Doug Dildy (Osprey Publishing)

With its twin tail, the F-15 Eagle is probably the most recognizable military jet fighter in the skies today, and is undoubtedly the most successful jet fighter of all time, having never been shot down in combat. Flown not only by the US Air Force but by the air forces of Israel, Saudi Arabia and Japan, and, with over 30 years service, the F-15 is the world's leading operational air superiority and intercept warplane.
Steve Davies and Doug Dildy in F-15 Eagle Engaged draw on a vast array of sources including combat records, technical documents, and unpublished first-hand accounts from the pilots themselves to tell the story of the plane, detailing such incredible feats as the Israeli F-15 which was successfully landed despite losing a wing.

Ret. USAF Squadron Commander Dildy has collaborated with aviation expert Davies to bring the plane to life in F-15 Eagle Engaged. According to Davies, what made the F-15 the dominant fighter jet from the time it was first put into service in 1976 was its incredibly simple radar interface. Using state-of-the-art computer technology, the radar designers at Hughes Aircraft designed a system that allowed the pilot to read the radar screen while flying the jet at the same time. This was a first-ever for an aircraft fighter. Says Davies, "The idea of a radar screen looking like a video game has become commonplace, but it didn't exist before the F-15." Dildy and Davies in F-15 Eagle Engaged provide details on every major F-15 engagement, including:

The Israeli Air Force's 1982 air-to-air combat with the Syrian Air Force.
The Saudi F-15 destruction of two Iranian F-4Es in 1984.
USAF deployment to the Saudi border during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 1990.
Extensive USAF combat missions during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Enforcement of the Iraqi no-fly zone by the USAF following Desert Storm.
Deployment over US airspace immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Since the adoption the F-22 Raptor in 2005, the Air Force has begun cutting back its Eagle squadron. Because of this, Dildy and Davies were able to obtain unequalled access to formerly classified technical specifications of the elite fighter. Says Davies, "It is our hope that by combining the first-hand accounts of those who flew her together with combat records and just about everything available on her technical specs, this will become the definitive resource for anyone interested in the Eagle."

F-15 Eagle Engaged superbly captures the ‘true personality’ of the F-15 by not only detailing the four decades of technologies that have given it unmatched combat performance, but also letting you meet the men and women who designed, flew, and maintained this magnificent jet, allowing it to be called ‘The World's Most Successful Jet Fighter.’ – Brigadier General (Ret.) Dick ‘Lips’ Banholzer, Director, Business Development, USAF Fighters and Weapons, The Boeing Company

A USAF Colonel and a leading aviation journalist combine in F-15 Eagle Engaged to pen the most comprehensive book ever published on the F-15 Eagle. Containing over 100 breathtaking color photographs, detailed technical information and fascinating combat stories, this definitive history and guide to the world's most successful jet fighter is a ‘must have’ for anyone interested in modern aviation.

Home & Garden / Antiques & Collectibles / Transportation

The Hemi in the Barn: More Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology by Tom Cotter, with an introduction by Jay Leno (Motorbooks)

Every car enthusiast dreams about finding an old car in a barn. I’ve been lucky to find a few cars that way, and two of those stories are in this book. Sometimes ‘barn finds’ are valuable; sometimes they’re not. But they’re usually great stories. Tom Cotter shared those stories in his first book, and he’s done it again with this one. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. – Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show

It’s every car lover’s fantasy: the perfectly preserved classic automobile discovered under a blanket in some great-granny’s garage. And as Tom Cotter, who writes regularly for Road & Track, showed readers in The Cobra in the Barn, it’s a fantasy that can come true. Cotter’s adventures in automotive archaeology continue in The Hemi in the Barn, with forty new stories of car finds and automotive resurrections.
Avid collectors big and small recall the thrills of the hunt, the tips and hunches followed, clues pursued, the heart-stopping payoff. There’s the forgotten Duesenberg – the only unrestored one around – that Jay Leno found in a Burbank garage. There’s another 1931 model Dusenberg Leno found in a parking garage in New York City that was parked in 1933 and was never moved. There’s a Plymouth Superbird found buried in a hedge out of sight in Alabama.
There’s the rescue of the first 1955 Corvette ever built. There’s the find of legendary race builder Smokey Yunick’s Boss 302 Trans-Am car. And there’s the story of the original Cobra Daytona Coupe built by Peter Brock and sold to Phil Spectre – a story that somehow involves a chauffeur’s daughter setting herself and her rabbits on fire.

With stories of cars long lost and eventually found, The Hemi in the Barn continues the search for amazing barn finds, detailing every tip and hunch followed along the way.

Tom Cotter's sequel to last year's best-selling The Cobra in the Barn relays one great tale after another, with players unearthing rare cars to die for. The treasures include an armored Mercedes-Benz Aktion P command car discovered in pieces in Russia, a desirable Dodge Daytona Hemi virtually abandoned behind bushes in a guy's yard, a bushel of Bugattis in a barn, the ‘Divorcee Cobra,’ and a GTO owned by a mobster. These are great stories about great cars. – Edmonds.com

The book is highly entertaining, often exciting and should hold universal appeal for all car enthusiasts. – Hemmings Muscle Machines

Tom Cotter tells fascinating tales of dream cars discovered everywhere…. the stuff of every enthusiast’s fantasy. – Road & Track

As entertaining as the tales in The Hemi in the Barn are, they’re also full of tantalizing hints and suggestions for readers’ next adventure in automobile archaeology. Time to stop dreaming and start hunting.

Home & Garden / Crafts & Hobbies / Computers & Internet

Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts: Must-Have Guide to Transforming & Printing Your Favorite Images on Fabric by Cyndy Lyle Rymer, with Lynn Koolish (C&T Publishing)

Warning. Creating Images on Fabric Can Be Addictive.

Everyone has a favorite picture of children, pets, houses, dogs, cats, goldfish…. With Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts, crafters can turn those photos into quilts that will be cherished for generations to come. Skill-building projects with instructions show how to create these heirlooms. A gallery of work from some of today’s most innovative quilters for inspiration gives ideas for capturing old memories and making new ones.

A decade after the first inexpensive digital cameras appeared, and eight years after C&T Publishing brought out its first book on using computers and printers to put images on fabric, what are quilt artists creating today with digital technology? That was the question on their minds when C&T put out a call for entries for a new book and a special exhibit on Innovative Fabric Imagery. As a digital quilt artist herself, author Cyndy Lyle Rymer expected to be surprised. But she still was not prepared for the breadth and quality of the entries they received.

While the works of art shown in the book cover a wide variety of styles and subjects, they all share one common element: digital technology played a vital part in their creation. Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts contains 13 projects with step-by-step instructions and digital techniques, a getting-started chapter on equipment, supplies, and image-editing and software; and a gallery of more than 40 entries selected for the Innovative Fabric Imagery special exhibit at the International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston in 2007.

Rymer, longtime quilter and author of the popular Photo Fun books, invites readers to enjoy the work and to try out some of the techniques for themselves. If readers are new to printing on fabric, she has included projects with step-by-step instructions, as well as tips and techniques readers can use to create similar projects or to learn a specific technique.

Rymer says she frequently asks herself: To sew or play with images in Photoshop? If readers are just getting into printing photos and other images on fabric, she says, beware: it is addictive. Sometimes great ideas don't work out exactly as planned, and she gets frustrated because she has ‘wasted’ a precious sheet or two of pretreated fabric. It is all part of the learning curve, however, and any time or materials spent making art are always a good investment.

She says she is a true Photoshop Elements junkie and can spend hours playing on her computer with the color, size, and shape of a photo. Filters are fun to experiment with – in just seconds, a photo can be transformed into a still-life painting. Readers can then venture into the realm of layers and stack multiple images to make collages.

There are many ways to get photos or other images onto fabric. Although Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts focuses on using an all-in-one (inkjet printer/copier/ scanner), there are other methods if readers don't own an all-in-one. If readers own an all-in-one, a computer, a digital camera, basic photo‑editing software, and a sewing machine, they will find that there is never enough time to experiment with all that is possible. Rymer advises readers to try working small, as in the Chic Music series which explores lyrics by female musicians. Pick a theme and explore a variety of techniques. Think about doing a series based on favorite books, childhood memories, favorite places, the homes they have lived in. If they do own an all-in-one, but the idea of using a computer and photo-editing software gives them sweaty palms, keep in mind that they don't have to connect their all-in-one to a computer to get great images. They can use the machine's copy function. They can convert a color photo to black and white simply by pushing the Black Copy button instead of the Color button. They can create an entire collage of images, text, and three-dimensional objects on the scanner bed.

Quilts that express a highly personal creative vision, quilts that make a political statement, quilts that will amuse, inspire, even astonish – readers will find all these in this collection. Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts offers a stunning and inspiring gallery of more than 40 innovative fabric imagery quilts. If they are quilters and need something to get them off their bums and buy a three-in-one printer or a digital camera (you know you need to), this may be just the ticket. And the getting-started chapter is perfect for beginners.

Home & Garden / Home Design / Remodeling & Renovation

New Rooms for Old Houses: Beautiful Additions for the Traditional Home (National Trust for Historic Preservation) by Frank Shirley (Taunton)

Who doesn't love an old house?

The most popular American house styles today are still the classics from yesterday – Capes, Bungalows, Victorians and Federals. The perennial struggle, however, is how to best live in them, because many of yesterday's homes lack enough space to accommodate the way we live today. The usual solution? An addition. The usual problem? Building it right.

Frank Shirley, respected old-house architect, shows how it should be done. Shirley understands that adding on is about creating a classic home that reflects contemporary lifestyles. He has had a hand in nearly two decades’ worth of old-house projects, so he knows the right and wrong way to expand any classic American home. According to Shirley, who owns an architectural firm in Cambridge and is co-chair of the Boston Society of Architects’ Residential Design Committee, in New Rooms for Old Houses, there were previously no books available for homeowners who were considering expanding a beloved old home.

Shirley loves old houses, and by that he means houses from what he considers the golden era of American residential architecture, 1740 to 1940. As he explains, "If I create an addition for your home and the result is a close marriage of the old and new spaces, the result will be a revitalized residence that remains perfectly composed and blended with its environment."

Walking readers through his design cornerstones, Shirley leads readers on a house tour through the golden age of American architecture. With over 300 photos, both before and after shots, and architectural drawings, the tips, techniques and materials presented in the book are the culmination of the author's vast experience. Insights are also drawn from the top architects and passionate homeowners included in New Rooms for Old Houses who have taken on the difficult but rewarding task of updating their homes for future generations.

Shirley has developed an approach using the guiding principle of ‘harmony’, that anything added must be in consonance with the whole house; he has made the process of building an addition into an art form. Harmony involves not only appearance, but also function. When Shirley designs an addition, he creates a floor plan for his clients to consider how the new house will be lived in – how people will move about the whole space and how the rooms are most likely to be used. Using the guiding principle of ‘harmony,’ Shirley walks readers through the four cornerstones of design: balance, public and private areas, the careful use of transitions, and the choice of appropriate materials.

Balance: Above all, the balance of design elements determines whether the addition will succeed or fail. Balance is achieved through the proper placement and sizing of the addition. The proportions of each design element must be correct for the whole design to look right and work well.
Public Versus Private Space: There was a clear distinction between the public and private areas in an American home built during the Golden era. Public areas such as the living room, dining room and foyer were formal and usually located on the first floor near the front of the house. Private areas such as kitchens and bedrooms were less formal and located at either the back of the house or upstairs.

Transitions: With all four sides of the house working in concert to present a balanced design, finding a place to expand can be difficult, which is why crafting the perfect transition between old and new is crucial. This is especially true when the functions of the rooms where the house and addition meet are incompatible, such as with a garage and a kitchen. An intervening space like a mudroom could be the answer.
Materials: Materials express the home's personality. A brick home feels different from a wooden home and a clapboard home feels different from a shingle home, no matter the design style. Materials also reinforce the distinction between the formal and informal areas of the house. Therefore, harmony is achieved when the materials for the addition are selected with an understanding of the original choice of materials.

Throughout New Rooms for Old Houses, Shirley applies these concepts to additions on houses of many design periods using examples from across the country. Home locations include Alexandria, VA; Bethesda, MD; Bronxville, NY; Cape Cod, MA; Chestnut Hill, MA; Hingham, MA; Irvington, NY; Lincoln, MA; Los Angeles, CA; Marblehead, MA; Marshalton, PA; New Canaan, CT; Newbury, MA; Oley, PA; San Francisco, CA; Sausalito, CA; and Washington, DC.

New Rooms for Old Houses is a comforting companion for anyone undertaking the delicate challenge of extending the life of an old house for modern living. – Russell Versaci, author of Creating the New Old House

Shirley carefully unpacks the mysteries of what makes for a `just right'
expansion of an old house. – Bruce Irving, renovation consultant and former executive producer of ‘This Old House’

New Rooms for Old Houses is a fascinating tour through the golden age of architecture. Through words and pictures, Shirley shows how to enlarge a historical home without sacrificing the charm and character of the original structure. With plentiful full-color photos, this beautiful design guide is an essential resource for anyone who loves classic American houses. Too bad: it appears he’s never worked in the South – we have some beautiful old houses down here too!

Literature & Fiction

Grub: A Novel by Elise Blackwell (The Toby Press)

A long overdue retelling of New Grub Street, George Gissing's classic satire of the Victorian literary marketplace, Grub, written by Elise Blackwell, English professor at the University of South Carolina, chronicles the triumphs and humiliations of a group of young novelists living in and around New York City.

Eddie Renfros, on the brink of failure after his critically acclaimed first book, wants only to publish another novel and hang on to his beautiful wife, ambitious Amanda, who has a talent for self-promotion, is tired of supporting Eddie and has a bit of a roving eye. Among their circle are writers of every stripe are the Machiavellian hustler Jackson Miller and the ‘experimental writer’ Henry Baffler, the poverty stricken ascetic, who lives in squalor while seeking the perfect sentence. Then there is sweet Margot Yarborough, a true talent, the daughter of an aging, cruel, once famous literary critic, painstakingly making her way through a novel about lepers in Louisiana.

Amid an assortment of scheming agents, editors, and hangers-on, in Grub each writer must negotiate the competing demands of success and integrity, while grappling with inner demons and the stabs of professional and personal jealousy. The question that nags at them is this: What is it to write a novel in the twenty-first century?

Three no-longer-so-young irony boys and their put-upon wives and girlfriends write, drink, pace the streets of contemporary New York City and occasionally manage to publish a novel or two in this biting remake of George Gissing's 1891 novel New Grub Street. … The milieu is familiar; the characters' grasping behaviors blur and strain credibility. Caricature, however, is the point here: Blackwell nails the contemporary forms taken by some very old ambitions. – Publishers Weekly
… Here she skewers the publishing world with an insider's perspective. … A cautionary tale for aspiring writers. – Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist
A fizzy contemporary-Manhattan retelling of New Grub Street.... A quick-paced, amusing novel. – Kirkus Reviews
Grub is a mordantly witty, thoroughly stimulating, absolutely wonderful, satire of the New York literary world and of the price of being a literary success in America. – The Islamorada Free Press
The pressures of and on 21st-century literary creativity ... are portrayed with biting and often gleefully hilarious truth. – Library Journal (starred review)
What does it take to become a celebrity novelist is the question Elise Blackwell answers in Grub. – Sydney Morning Herald
Elise Blackwell moves into the front rank of American satirists. ... an uproarious lampoon of the American drive for success. – San Francisco Chronicle

Grub strikes hard at writers, readers and publishers. Engaging, compassionate and pointedly funny, the book reveals what the publishing industry does to writers – and what writers do to themselves and each other – for the sake of art and in pursuit of celebrity.
Literature & Fiction

A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel by Meir Shalev, translated from the Hebrew by Evan Fallenberg (Schocken Books)

Shalev creates a world that has the richness of invention and obsessiveness of dreams. He delivers both startling imagery and passionate, original characters whose destinies we follow through love, loss, laughter, and death. – The New York Times Book Review

From the internationally acclaimed Israeli writer Meir Shalev comes A Pigeon and a Boy, a novel of two love stories, separated by half a century but connected by one act of devotion.
During the 1948 War of Independence – a time when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages – a gifted young pigeon handler is mortally wounded. In the moments before his death, he dispatches one last pigeon. The bird is carrying his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence. Intertwined with this story is the contemporary tale of Yair Mendelsohn, who has his own legacy from the 1948 war. Yair is a tour guide specializing in bird-watching trips who, in middle age, falls in love again with a childhood girlfriend. His growing passion for her, along with a gift from his mother on her deathbed, becomes the key to a life he thought no longer possible.

Inside the pigeon's message holder lay the Baby's final love letter and, what Yair does not yet know or understand, the key to his own conception and birth. In uncovering this story, Yair begins a journey into his family's complicated legacies and his own uncertain future with the women he loves.
Meir Shalev (1948- ) was born on Nahalal, Israel’s first moshav, and is one of Israel’s most celebrated novelists. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and have been best sellers in Israel, Holland, and Germany. In 1999 Shalev was awarded the Juliet Club Prize (Italy). He has also received the Prime Minister’s Prize (Israel), the Chiavari (Italy), the Entomological Prize (Israel), the WIZO Prize (France, Israel, and Italy), and for A Pigeon and a Boy, the Brenner Prize, Israel’s highest literary recognition. A columnist for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Shalev lives in Jerusalem and in northern Israel with his wife and children.
The translator of the work, Evan Fallenberg, who translates fiction by well-known and upcoming Israeli writers, teaches creative writing at Bar Ilan University in Israel.

In this stunning tale, Shalev masterfully interweaves two remarkable personal stories. … This gem of a story about the power of love, which won Israel's Brenner Prize, brims with luminous originality. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
An excellent book [that] touches and breaks your heart and leaves you deep in thought about what was and what could have been. – Hatzofeh (Tel Aviv)

Magical realism works beautifully in this powerfully suffused novel of love, loss and the need for home. Highly recommended. – Library Journal

A captivating and moving story....Not only are [Shalev's] characters rich but his writing is powerful. Through his words he expands the reader's imagination and succeeds in disconnecting one from the present to enter a different reality altogether. – Jerusalem Post

A romantic lush story of Israel on the eve of Independence juxtaposed against the present. More than anything I have read, in the rhythm of the stories, the romantic longing, the intense love, this beautiful book reminds me of Love in the Time of Cholera. – Carla Cohen, Politics and Prose

A wonderfully told story. – Toby Cox, Three Lives

This is a war novel on the epic order of, say, Dr. Zhivago: the dust rises off the pages, and the pigeons that are so essential to the plot become true characters in their birdliness (which appears next to Godliness in this novel). Shalev's humor easily morphs into plangent memories, which always return to the novelist's natural state of necessary ebullience. – Steven Shapiro, Rainy Day Books

A haunting and magical story about the legacies of love, Shalev's A Pigeon and a Boy interweaves a powerful love story between two pigeon handlers during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence with a contemporary love story of a middle-aged tour guide and the woman he has loved since childhood. In a voice that is at once playful, wise, and beguiling, Shalev tells this story, as universal as war and as intimate as a winged declaration of love. The story is deeply moving, rich in its setting yet universal in its meaning. It is a tale of lovers then and now – of how deeply we love, of what home is, and why we, like pigeons trained to fly in one direction only, must eventually return to it.

Literature & Fiction / Drama / Anthologies

Best Black Plays: The Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting edited by Chuck Smith, with a foreword by Woodie King, Jr. (Northwestern University Press)

In 2007, when these award-winning plays reach publication – a time when the cost of everything from gas to housing to education is rising and a non-musical Broadway production hovers around $2 million, off-Broadway nearly $750,000, and regional theater upward of $150,000 – where does a black playwright go? Especially since in the aforementioned venues, cost does not always equal quality.

When we look forward into the first decade of the twenty-first century, we see the problems within the black community being solved by the people within that community, within the families of these communities. Of course the diverse voices that distinguish each playwright propose diverse solutions.

Ultimately, no matter how difficult, these playwrights are saying we must attempt to solve our own problems. And that is what Theodore Ward did sixty years ago; what black theater did forty years ago; and what Chuck Smith and Columbia College Chicago began with the Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting twenty years ago. – from the Foreword by Woodie King Jr.

Over its twenty-year history, the Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting has offered a rich reflection of the accomplishments of black playwrights and their importance in shaping contemporary theater. Best Black Plays showcases three recent winners of the Theodore Ward Prize: Leslie Lee's Sundown Names and Night-Gone Things tells of the sordid shenanigans of a Depression-era burial society; Mark Clayton Southers' Ma Noah recounts a mother's heartbreaking battle to save her children's souls; and Kim Euell's The Diva Daughters DuPree shares the poignant and achingly funny reunion of three sisters after their parents' deaths. Selected for Best Black Plays by the contest facilitator, Chuck Smith, these plays, in their unique quality and subject matter, fill a need for African American plays today.

Smith is a resident director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where his productions have included The Story, Proof, The Death of Bessie Smith, The Gift Horse, The Amen Corner, A Raisin in the Sun, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, A Christmas Carol, and The Meeting. Smith is also a faculty member in the theater department of Columbia College Chicago.

To get black plays to a wider audience, to expand boundaries, they must get productions or they must get published. The award-winning plays of the Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting are now able to get both a production and published, thus these plays will find the exposure they need.

The compelling plays in Best Black Plays, in their distinctive quality and dynamic subject matter, answer an important demand for African American dramatic work today. Best Black Plays is the second in a series that will be published every three years. Seven Black Plays was the first. Its target audiences are African American theater students and theater professionals across the nation.

Literature & Fiction / History & Criticism / Reference / Essays

Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda (Harcourt)

Classics for Pleasure? To some readers this may seem an oxymoron. Aren't classics supposed to be difficult, esoteric, and a little boring?

This is the common view, even if it is largely wrong. Classics are classics not because they are educational, but because people have found them worth reading, generation after generation, century after century. More than anything else, great books speak to us of our own all-too-real feelings, confusions, and daydreams.

But Classics for Pleasure is not your father's – or your mother's – list of classics. In these essays, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda, book critic for The Washington Post, introduces nearly ninety of the world's most entertaining books. Writing with affection as well as authority, and moving along at a good clip, Dirda covers masterpieces of fantasy and science fiction, horror and adventure, as well as biography and history, poetry and children's literature. Organized thematically, these are the works that have shaped imaginations and inspired dreams and adventures. Here are Sappho's yearnings and the Arthurian romances, the exploits of Sherlock Holmes and the ghost stories of M. R. James, classic fairy tales and the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer.

In Classics for Pleasure Dirda sums up the complete works of Christopher Marlowe in five eventful pages and makes Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire sound so essential over the course of three pages that one forgets it would take the better part of a year to actually read. He arranges his selections into nontraditional categories, from ‘Playful Imagination’ to ‘Heroes of Their Time’. The collection covers, among others, Sappho, Anna Akhmatova, Lao-Tzu, Edward Gorey, Beowulf, Mary Shelley, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Bram Stoker, Daniel Defoe, Jules Verne, Isak Dinesen, Elizabeth Gaskell Willa Cather, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Ezra Pound, and Philip K. Dick.

Dirda approaches each of his titles primarily as a passionate reader rather than as a critic or scholar. He points us to new authors, less familiar classics, and major genre titles too often excluded from the canon.

Each week, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Dirda answers readers' questions on all matters related to books in his online column for the Washington Post, ‘Dirda on Books.’ He enthusiastically guides readers on topics that include new novels, neglected classics, door stoppers of biographies, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, poetry, the occasional children's book, and pretty much anything in the category of ‘arts and letters.’

In this casually brilliant collection of great book recommendations …Dirda is a charming and exceedingly well-read host, erudite without slipping into pretension. He is more generous and less canonical than Harold Bloom, to whose work Dirda owes a debt in style and substance. The book creates a pleasurable but somewhat maddening sensation in the committed reader, who will be tempted to read most of Dirda's selections based on his brief summations. … Dirda's greatest accomplishment, however, is rescuing many formerly illustrious masters from the dustbin of our culture's pitifully short memory: James Agee, G.K. Chesterton and Ernst Junger are just three who benefit from their inclusion in this indispensable volume. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
… It is Dirda's conviction that "great books speak to us of our own very real feelings and failings, of our all-too-human daydreams and confusions," and to broadcast that sentiment widely, he supplies energetic, even exciting, 3-page essays on approximately 90 authors. … Provides true inspiration to shut off HBO and start reading. – Brad Hooper, Booklist
Michael Dirda's honest and careful perceptions have been crafted for people who read. He has the wonderful ability to make us feel as intelligent as he is. – Guy Davenport

This book is full of short, sharp loving shocks of appreciation, cunningly arranged in sequences we would have never dreamed up – I doubt George Meredith, C. P. Cavafy, Georgette Heyer, and Anna Akhmatova have ever been juxtaposed before – but which add up to a vision far greater than the sum of its parts. – John Clute

It's hard to think of another writer who loves books so passionately, who has such broad tastes and impeccably high standards - and who writes about literature with such intelligence, generosity and enthusiasm. Michael Dirda is a cultural treasure. – Francine Prose

A superb literary essayist. – Harold Bloom

Michael Dirda may be as close to the ideal critic as we are likely to get. Widely read, intelligent, imaginative, himself a good writerly hand at lucid prose, a champion of books. – Annie Proulx

Whether writing about Petronius or S. J. Perelman, H. P. Lovecraft or the Icelandic sagas, Dirda makes literature come alive. Full of surprises and wit, Classics for Pleasure is a perfect companion for any reading group or lover of books.

Mysteries & Thrillers

Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown and Company)

Praise for prize-winning Walter Mosley’s work includes:

searing and unforgettable – Los Angeles Times
one of America's most exciting and incisive writers – George Pelecanos
powerful – Time Out New York
brilliant – Philadelphia Inquirer
a literary artist – New York Times Book Review
terrifically entertaining – People
fresh and poignant – USA Today

In Blonde Faith, Easy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find finds more trouble on his doorstep in a day than most men encounter in a lifetime. First, Easter, the daughter of his friend Christmas Black, has been left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that the ex-marine is probably dead, or will be soon. But Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems.

The love of his life Bonnie tells him she is marrying another man. His closest friend Mouse, has disappeared too – and Mouse's wife tells Easy that he is wanted for murder. Mouse has been a thorn in the police's side for so long that Easy is convinced that this time they will kill him as soon as they find him.

Easy knows he had better find Christmas before those who want to destroy him do. As he's searching for a clue to Christmas's whereabouts, two suspicious MPs hire him to find him on behalf of the U.S. Army. Easy's investigation brings him to Faith Laneer, a blonde woman with a dark past who might hold the key to more than one life. As Easy begins to put the pieces together, he realizes that Black's disappearance has its roots in Vietnam, and that Faith might be in a whole lot of danger.

In Blonde Faith Easy strikes out on his own to try to find one friend, save another, and save himself from the pain that is driving him out of his mind. On his path he meets drug dealers, corrupt officials, every manner of criminal and con.

Set in 1967, Mosley's brilliant 10th Easy Rawlins thriller finds the middle-aged Easy still fighting some of the same battles he fought in his first outing, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), as an angry young WWII vet trying to make his home in postwar Los Angeles. His family has grown from none to many over the years, and now Easy is dealing with the loss of the love of his life, Bonnie, and his decision to make her leave him. Despite Easy's vulnerability and anguish, he's a staunch friend and a fierce protector of those he loves. …Mosley knows his territory as intimately as a lover knows his beloved, and Easy's tortuous progression from man-child to man may have reached its climax in this searing and moving novel. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Mosley, a smart and daring writer, has tried his hand at everything from political essays to erotica, but his most anticipated books are those featuring the sleuth that made him famous: Easy Rawlins. In the tenth series installment, it's 1967 and Easy is emotionally on edge after learning that his true love, Bonnie Shay, plans to marry an African prince. …Easy's need to reconcile his role in his relationship's end seems to trump even mayhem and murder. One of the remarkable traits of this series has been its portrayal of the sleuth not as a loner but as a man intricately connected with family and community. For Easy, who ages and changes with each book, the past is always present. …Here it's Vietnam, as Easy penetrates an army drug-smuggling ring unaccompanied by Mosley's usual penetrating insights. But if this extraordinary series is beginning to drift, there are indications that suggest Mosley may be thinking about wrapping it up. – Keir Graff, Booklist

In his tenth Easy Rawlins novel, Mosley, one of the finest writers in the genre, writes with a grace and insight that few writers ever achieve. Blonde Faith is another chance to be a while with Easy and to return to the 60s in the color of blue; which is to say, reading an Easy Rawlins novel is a little like listening to Billie Holiday sing a song… slightly different time period, but still….

Mysteries & Thrillers

Life Blood by Penny Rudolph (Poisoned Pen Press)

Children don't just disappear....

Downtown Los Angeles has a reputation for violence. But people don't usually vanish into thin air.

In Life Blood, Rachel Chavez, a recovering alcoholic, owns and lives in an apartment on the top floor of her parking garage business in downtown Los Angeles, the sole legacy of a family impoverished by her fathers’ incessant gambling. She leases parking space and the use of the rooftop helicopter pad to nearby businesses. Tough but vulnerable, she is struggling to stay sober and keep her business financially afloat.

Horrified when she discovers two unconscious young Mexican boys locked in an apparently abandoned van in the garage, she rushes them to the emergency room at the nearby hospital. Doctors declare one dead on arrival. The other, dehydrated but alive, is admitted to the hospital. But when Rachel checks back the next day, the Medical Center has no record of either child.

What could these boys possess worth killing for? And just who is trying to keep Rachel from discovering the truth?

Meanwhile a major client for parking spaces pulls out and the hospital steps in, asking also for use of the helipad on the roof. When someone plants oxycontin on her and the cops step in, Rachel gains a double stake in the game – but what game?

Wary of the police because of her own checkered past, Rachel's determination to find an explanation becomes an obsession that meshes with a search for her own Mexican roots. It also creates a problem in her relationship with her fiancé, Hank, a workaholic water quality engineer, who wants to marry her when his divorce finally comes through. Rachel, however, isn't certain marriage is for her.

In Life Blood, with the emotional support of her friends, an eclectic band of misfits and outsiders – the elderly Irene, a homeless fortuneteller (with cell phone), who baby-sits the garage; mouthy and muscular Goldie, the big-hearted leader of the late-night cleaning crew of mentally handicapped workers; and Rachel's dad Marty, a compulsive gambler – she searches for answers. Then things become very complicated. And dangerous....

[Rachel Chavez] is a refreshingly original addition to the ever growing list of female sleuths. – Booklist

Likable Rachel Chavez, a recovering alcoholic who lives above the parking garage she owns in downtown LA., displays curiosity, grit and stamina.... – Publishers Weekly

A quality follow-up to Rachel's first adventure (Thicker Than Blood, 2005). – Kirkus Reviews

… solidly drawn characters always ready with advice and more substantive assistance – Publishers Weekly
Things are looking up for recovering alcoholic Rachel Chavez. The pretty Angeleno has a steady boyfriend and a steady job managing a downtown parking garage. … her heroine … is a refreshingly original addition to the ever-growing list of female sleuths. – Allison Block, Booklist

Life Blood, written by Penny Rudolph, who has worked as a bartender, truck driver, chili picker, science writer, medical writer, and teacher of high school and college English, creative writing, and journalism, is the sequel to Thicker Than Blood, a novel The Chicago Tribune claims "gets it all right: the daily dirty work of running a small garage, the conflicting emotions of a woman trying to stay afloat and alive, the mixed motives of everyone from activists to bureaucrats." Rudolph won the 2003 EPPIE Award for Listen to the Mockingbird, a historical mystery/thriller set in New Mexico during the Civil War, and has also earned awards from the National Writers Association, Southwest Writers, Florida First Coast Writers, and Pan-handle Professional Writers.

Rachel is an original in the pantheon of female sleuths. And in Life Blood Rudolph has given Rachel two sidekicks (Irene and Goldie) readers will not be able to resist.

Mysteries & Thrillers / Thrillers

The Pandora Prescription by James Sheridan (Cambridge House Press)

What if conspiracy theory became conspiracy fact?

What if the biggest medical cover-up in history was still a secret?

What if that cover-up was linked to the most famous assassination conspiracy in the 20th century?

How do you expose the truth when everyone’s a conspirator?

Are YOU unknowingly part of the conspiracy?

FACT: In the late seventies, a splinter group of doctors secretly formed a resistance movement deep in the heart of the medical establishment. They called themselves The Second Opinion Underground. – from the book

According to James Sheridan in The Pandora Prescription, the pharmaceutical giants have a big skeleton in their closet and will fight tooth and nail to keep it there. In this novel, the fictional author is Dan Travis, notorious unsolved mystery specialist, and he is on another book tour when a cryptic message from a desperate stranger blows his life apart. He is sucked into a silent war which hinges on an incriminating data file. Finding it is Travis's only hope for surviving a deadly chase across America. But to find its location, Travis must discover the link between the biggest medical cover-up in history and the greatest assassination conspiracy of the twentieth century.

The key lies within the secret underground of doctors sworn to an ancient oath.

Author Sheridan is a former unofficial US government contract pilot who flew the secretive diplomatic mail flight between Miami and Havana, Cuba. He says that what he learned during those missions changed his life forever and was the influence for this book. According to Sheridan, the facts in The Pandora Prescription are numerous and pervasive, and some of them are details the pharmaceutical industry, and American industry in general, do not want readers to know, or look into: that a certain fruit extract known as laetrile might hold a clue to the cure for cancer, and that the assassination of JFK might have had something to do with the American citizenry being on the brink of finding that out.

According to Sheridan in an interview: “The ‘silent war’ my protagonist gets sucked into isn't that far removed from fact. You're not hearing about studies because they are illegal in the United States. Ronald Reagan briefly supported laetrile until lobbyists got to him. But research into the purified apricot kernel extract, or laetrile, is banned in the United States…. Now, why would you ban research? The head of the National Cancer Institute for over three decades, Dr. Dean Burke, was a lifelong supporter of the benefits of laetrile. But in this country, it's simply taboo to discuss it.… every year tens of thousands of Americans successfully cure themselves in clinics in Germany, Switzerland and Mexico where laetrile is legal. Steve McQueen died in Mexico undergoing laetrile treatment and most recently, Farrah Fawcett left the country to seek what ABC News called an ‘illegal cancer cure’ in Germany.”

Sheridan says he decided to write the story as fact-based fiction and the facts he discovered were so amazing it was a ready-made thriller. There are questions to be asked and during his research, in asking those questions, some very strange and facts popped up, both in terms of laetrile and the JFK assassination. The other reason he did the book: an academic paper on the subject was not going to interest Americans. A thriller that used facts as the basis for the plot seemed to be a more effective way of generating discussion, and it was, he says, more fun to write.

The facts behind the fiction create a rollercoaster, page-turning thriller. Highly recommended. – USA Booknews

I could not put it down. Behind this breakneck-speed story lies a sobering message for us all. – Jonathan Javitt, M.D., adjunct professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Just when I thought I was ahead of him, Sheridan expertly yanked another rug. Shocks, re-shocks and goosebumps! The Pandora Prescription is a big winner. – Thomas B. Sawyer, award winning screenwriter and bestselling author, The Sixteenth Man
To the best of our knowledge, we have never known of a petition signed by thousands of people to ensure a book would not be banned. – American Library Association

The book is unusual in that it is a fast paced thriller based on facts and a plausible conspiracy theory. The plot of The Pandora Prescription hinges on a key factual link between a laetrile cover-up and the JFK assassination, and the facts are certainly compelling. Readers will have to draw their own conclusions. And it is enthralling as a fictional story, though a little unsettling. Certainly makes one wonder.

Mysteries & Thrillers / Suspense

Stone Cold by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing)
The #1 bestselling author of The Collectors and Simple Genius returns with Stone Cold, a novel of revenge, conspiracy, and murder that brings a band of unlikely heroes face-to-face with their greatest threat. With his books published in more than 40 languages in more than 80 countries, and with nearly 55 million copies in print globally, David Baldacci, author of thirteen previous consecutive New York Times bestsellers, is one of the world's most popular novelists.

In Stone Cold Oliver Stone, the leader of the mysterious group that calls itself the Camel Club, is both feared and respected by those who have crossed his path. Keeping a vigilant watch over our leaders in Washington, D.C., the Camel Club has won over some allies, but it has also earned formidable enemies – including those in power who will do anything to prevent Stone and his friends from uncovering the hidden, secret work of the government. Annabelle Conroy, an honorary member of the Camel Club, is also the greatest con artist of her generation. She has swindled forty million dollars from casino king Jerry Bagger, the man who murdered her mother. Now he's hot on her trail with only one goal in mind: Annabelle's death. Stone and his colleagues Reuben, Milton, and Caleb marshal all their resources to protect Annabelle. But as the Camel Club circles the wagons to protect Annabelle, a new opponent, who makes Bagger's menace pale by comparison, suddenly arises. One by one, men from Stone's shadowy past are turning up dead. Behind this slaughter stands one man: Harry Finn. To almost all who know him, Finn is a doting father and loving husband who uses his skills behind the scenes to keep the country safe. But the other face of Finn is that of an unstoppable killer who inevitably sets his lethal bull's-eye on Stone. When this happens, Finn’s reason will be a shock for readers, making them reconsider their beliefs in good and evil. And with Finn, Stone may well have met his match. As Annabelle and the Camel Club fight for their lives in Stone Cold, the twists and turns whipsaw, leading to an explosive finale. And when buried secrets are at last violently resurrected, as bodies and institutions topple, the members of the Camel Club left standing will be changed forever.

The modern-day paladins of the Camel Club are back in their third exciting adventure (after 2006's The Collectors). Justice-seekers Milton, Caleb, Reuben and honorary member Alex Ford, a Secret Service agent, are led by feisty Oliver Stone, aka former CIA assassin John Carr. … Gripping, chilling and full of surprises, Baldacci's latest reveals the anarchy that lurks under the slick facade of corrupted governments. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

With unrelenting pacing, stunning reversals, and two of the most compelling characters in modern fiction, Stone Cold is Baldacci writing at his best. As this dangerous adventure rockets toward a shattering finale, it will leave readers of this unforgettable tale changed forever.

Parenting & Families / Special Needs / Biographies & Memoirs / Social Sciences

Spelling Love with an X: A Mother, a Son, and the Gene That Binds Them by Clare Dunsford (Beacon Press)

Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental retardation, affects the lives of over a million people in the U.S., including those with the full mutation, their families, and treatment professionals. With symptoms ranging from learning disabilities to full mental retardation, fragile X syndrome is a genetic condition that affects 1 in 4000 males and 1 in 6000 females. Triggered by changes in the X chromosome, it is the most common known cause of inherited mental impairment and the most common known genetic cause of autism. About 1 in 259 women and 1 in 800 men carry fragile X and could pass it to their children.

Spelling Love with an X is a medical memoir and poetic meditation on raising a child with this genetic disorder. Clare Dunsford is the mother of a twenty-one-year-old son with Fragile X. When her son was first diagnosed, at age seven, Dunsford received the devastating news that she and three of her four siblings carry the Fragile X premutation and had therefore unknowingly passed on the full mutation to several of their children. An English professor by training, Dunsford draws on classic poetry to explore her new identity as a genetically ‘flawed’ individual and reflect on her life with her son, J.P., a colorful young man with great verbal dexterity and a lovably cheeky streak. "My instinct to find order and consolation in literature," she writes, "lends a distinct voice to the story of my family's DNA."

In Spelling Love with an X, Dunsford, associate dean at Boston College, chronicles her experience as a carrier of the fragile X premutation. Throughout her story, Dunsford chronicles the difficulties and joys of raising a child with fragile X, the impact the inherited condition has had on her siblings and other family members, and her eventual acceptance of a life predestined by genetics.

Dunsford examines not only the implications of fragile X, but also the countless struggles and obstacles faced by the parents of children with retardation. Her description of J.P.'s excessive energy and hyperactivity is not an embellishment; his sensitivity to everyday stimuli is disquieting. "In fragile X, there is too much," writes Dunsford, "too much of a stretch of DNA, too much sensitivity to the world, too much activity, too much fear, the body surging with too much adrenaline. It is a mutation of excess, leading to behaviors that go beyond what society finds acceptable." Yet, J.P. also exudes a disarming charisma and intelligence, and wields poetic language and a verbal dexterity not uncommon in those with fragile X. "Metaphor is J.P.'s forte," Dunsford observes. "The moon is a cinnamon cookie, J.P. declared one crisp autumn night at age eight. The summer he attended a special school for children more severely affected by their disabilities than he is, he struggled with his self-image and seemed anguished that his parents thought he belonged there. The other kids, he wailed, were ‘diaper-wipes’! Recently, when I asked why he had put mayonnaise on his peanut butter sandwich, he answered happily, `See, it looks like snow!'"

Ultimately, Dunsford paints a powerful portrait of a common but little understood genetic disorder, shot through with the realization that her son's hardships come from her own genetic defect. While acknowledging the power of scientific discovery to predict our medical futures, she reminds us that such discoveries can take us to unexpected places. The courage that she has found within herself, she notes, has come from observing the determined, spirited, and brave life of her son. "Nothing moves me more than J.P.'s everyday heroism," she writes. "Each day that goes by, he takes back a little more of the world that we take for granted, and though he will always face a greater challenge than most of his peers, he celebrates victory after victory."

Unlike autism or Down syndrome, fragile X does not strike like a bolt of lightning, leaving its mark on just one person; it spreads through-out a family like a tidal wave. When a child is diagnosed with fragile X, a mother faces the devastating fact that she carries the premutation and has unwittingly passed on the condition. When Dunsford first shared the news about J.P., three of her siblings soon found that they carried the premutation as well, so three of J.P.'s cousins also live with the cognitive and social challenges of fragile X. Such a family must, Dunsford writes in her gripping account, ‘reexamine its past and reassess its future.’

Part poetry, part scientific inquiry, this wonderful memoir is, above all, the story of being complexly human in a world filled with fragility and strength, shadow and light. Clare Dunsford navigates the X that has mapped her own and her son's paths with humor, honesty, and clear-sighted intelligence – and in prose that sings. – Elizabeth Graver, author of The Honey Thief and Awake
Clare Dunsford does much more than inform us concerning a disorder we know too little about. Through a prose both lucid and beautiful, she is able to communicate the strangeness, even the poetry, of fragile X. – Clara Claiborne Park, author of The Siege: A Family's Journey into the World of an Autistic Child and Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter's Life with Autism
Spelling Love with an X is a beautifully written journey of a woman toward understanding – of herself, her son, and the twists of fate and DNA that bind them and all of us. Clare Dunsford's powerful and moving memoir is rich with humor, poetry and, most of all, love. – Mitchell Zuckoff, author of Choosing Naia: A Family's Journey

Spelling Love with an X is the first personal memoir about living with fragile X and a reflection on the fragility of human identity in the age of the gene. Brimming with warmth and intelligence, the book shares the disarming insights of a compassionate scholar on motherhood, literature, and genetic inheritance. Eloquent and intimate, Spelling Love with an X tells the story of a boy who is proud to be ‘just who I am.’

Political Science / Americas / Criminology

The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 759 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison by Andy Worthington (Pluto Press)

But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood ... William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5

Who are the men imprisoned in Guantanamo and how did they come to be there? Held illegally without charge or trial, they remain for the most part entirely unknown to the outside world. Who can speak for them?

Based on the Pentagon's own documents, The Guantánamo Files brings the stories of Guantanamo’s prisoners to the world for the first time. As explained by Andy Worthington in the book, it would not have been possible without the efforts of those at the Associated Press, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights to force the US government to release the documents relating to the prisoners in Guantanamo that formed the basis of Worthington’s research. Worthington says it is a testament to the importance of the American legal system – and its beleaguered Constitution – that Freedom of Information legislation exists to compel an administration bent on unfettered executive power to release documents which, on close inspection, reveal the errors, ineptitude and cruelty underpinning the Guantanamo regime. He further asserts that it is a sign of the current US administration's dismissal of established legal principles that, after nearly six years of imprisonment, a book like this is required to tell their stories.

The Guantánamo Files tells how, on January 11, 2002, exactly four months after the events of 9/11, the first of 774 prisoners arrived at a hastily erected prison – Camp X-Ray – located on a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A territorial anomaly, leased from Cuba since 1903, Guantanamo was specifically chosen as a prison for those captured in the ‘War on Terror,’ because it was presumed to be beyond the reach of the American courts.

Until recently says Worthington, it was impossible to tell the stories of these men. Held without charge, without trial, without access to their families, and, initially, without access to lawyers, they are part of a peculiarly lawless experiment conducted by the US administration, which has chosen to disregard both the Geneva Conventions and the established rules of war, holding the men not as criminals or as prisoners of war, but as ‘illegal enemy combatants,’ a category of prisoner recognized only by the White House and the Pentagon.

As the administration fashioned Guantanamo into what Lord Steyn, a British law lord, described as a ‘legal black hole,’ – those in overall charge of the prison – President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld – maintained such a strict veil of secrecy that for four years they refused even to reveal the names of the prisoners. Although some reporters – in particular, teams at the Washington Post and the British-based website CagePrisoners, run by Muslim volunteers – built up partial lists of the prisoners, and a number of shocking stories were told by some of the 260 prisoners who were released during this period, it was not possible to provide a comprehensive overview of the prisoners and their stories until spring 2006, when, in response to Freedom of Information legislation filed by the Associated Press, the Pentagon was forced to reveal the names and nationalities of all the prisoners held in Guantanamo, as well as 7,000 pages of transcripts of tribunals convened by the authorities to assess their status as ‘enemy combatants.’

The tribunal process was, according to Worthington, both illegal and deeply flawed. The prisoners were not allowed legal representation, and were prevented from seeing the classified evidence against them, which often consisted of allegations based on hearsay or torture, but they were at least allowed to tell their own stories, which were otherwise completely unknown. Through a study of the releases documents, as well as discussions with lawyers representing the prisoners, and an analysis of press reports, interviews with released prisoners and other reports compiled by human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Worthington was able to put together a history of Guantanamo and its prisoners, resulting in The Guantánamo Files.

Beginning with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the chapters in the book explain in detail, the genesis of the prison, its counterparts in Afghanistan, its development from 2002 to the present, its role as a prison devoted to interrogation and torture, the legal challenges that have been launched against the administration, and the network of secret prisons that underpins Guantanamo's brutal illegality. More importantly, they also tell the stories of the prisoners themselves, allowing them to explain who they are and where and when they were captured. In contrast to the administration's claims that the Guantanamo prisoners are the ‘worst of the worst,’ what the stories reveal – filtered through the abuse to which they have been subjected – is that few of them had anything to do with 9/11 or al-Qaeda, and the vast majority were either Taliban foot soldiers, recruited to fight an inter-Muslim civil war in Afghanistan that began long before 9/11, or humanitarian aid workers, religious teachers and economic migrants, who were, for the most part, sold to the Americans by their allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Worthington says he hopes that the commitment of decent Americans to the rule of law will prevail over the forces that are in charge of their country's counter-terror policies. Bush and Cheney and their advisors were jubilant about David Hicks' ‘confession,’ but Hicks chose not to raise the issue of his treatment in US custody because he was informed that a guilty plea would enable him to return home. As a result, torture was never mentioned, and his lawyers proposed defense – that ‘material support for terrorism’ is not a war crime as defined by the Geneva Conventions – was never tested. But what will happen when the administration comes to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and tries desperately to keep quiet about what it did to him in the three and a half years that he was in their secret prisons? Can they really keep quiet about the waterboarding? "The policymakers hadn't thought what to do with them," he told Jane Mayer, adding that once a prisoner's rights were violated there was no way of reintegrating them into the court system. "All we've done is create a nightmare," he added. "Are we going to hold these people forever?" Remarkably, doubts have also surfaced within the administration itself. One of the first proposals made by Robert Gates, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary in November 2006, was to close Guantanamo and conduct trials on the US mainland. Gates declared that Guantanamo's reputation was so tainted that any verdicts would lack legitimacy in the eyes of the international community, but although his opinion was backed by Condoleezza Rice and the State Department, he was overruled by Dick Cheney and the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Worthington concludes that those in charge of America's ‘War on Terror’ have been responsible for the failure of justice chronicled in The Guantánamo Files, which on every front – from Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq to the Military Commissions and the still-unknown ‘ghost’ prisoners subjected to ‘extraordinary rendition’ – will haunt successive administrations for years to come.

Guantanamo Bay is a legal black hole. This book is the closest many of the prisoners will come to a fair trial. Andy Worthington [uses] the US government's own documents to prove that innocent people were swept up in the post-9/11 panic. This is important work, impressively written. – Clive Stafford Smith, Legal Director of Reprieve, and author of Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay and the Secret Prisons

Extraordinary rendition, false imprisonment, inhumane treatment – including torture and death in secretive detention sites – has forever destroyed the lives of hundreds of men, of whom I was one. This book is the first of its kind to collate accounts from the prisoners themselves. – Moazzam Begg, former Guantanamo detainee and spokesman for CagePrisoners

A meticulous [book] about torture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. [Written] with poignancy, compassion and outrage. – Marty Fisher, Co-Producer of the film Taxi to the Dark Side

Stunning ... [Worthington] undermines claims that the prison camp is filled with vicious killers and terrorists. – Marc Falkoff, lawyer for 17 Yemeni prisoners

[The Guantánamo Files is] an important tool for coming to grips with how we as a nation allowed indefinite detention without charge, extraordinary rendition and torture to become national policies. – Candace Gorman, lawyer for two Guantanamo prisoners

An important book. If you care about our government's complicity in these illegal acts then this book provides the evidence. Carefully researched, it reveals a story of appalling brutality. – Ken Loach

This passionate and brilliantly detailed book brings to light the atrocities of Guantanamo, more precisely, The Guantánamo Files is the first book to tell the story of every man in Guantanamo. The findings in the book are similar to the results of a statistical analysis by lawyers at the Seton Hall Law School, who published a ground-breaking report on the prisoners in 2006, but The Guantánamo Files brings to life the stories behind these statistics, and demonstrates the human cost of the administration's ‘War on Terror.’ It would be hard not to agree that the country has run amok after a full reading of the details carefully presented here, and good for our democracy if everyone would read this book.

Political Science / Politics / Americas

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman (W.W. Norton)

My generation grew up in a nation of strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But both those values and that shared prosperity hare been slipping away. We can reverse that trend. Political and economic reform turned the oligarchic America of the Gilded Age, a place of vast inequality, bigotry, and corruption, into the imperfect but far better society of the postwar era. The challenge now is to do again what the New Deal did: to create institutions that will support and sustain a decent society. – Paul Krugman

In The Conscience of a Liberal, The New York Times columnist and best-selling author, Paul Krugman challenges America to reclaim the values that made it great.

Krugman, ‘the heir apparent to Galbraith’ (Alan Blinder) and, today's most widely read economist, studies the past eighty years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the harsh inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a ‘new New Deal,’ Krugman creates a work that weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis.

According to Krugman, America emerged from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal with ‘strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity’. But for the past thirty years American politics has been dominated by a conservative mov

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Review Essays of Academic, Professional & Technical Books in the Humanities & Sciences

Winter 2007

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Review Essays of Academic, Professional & Technical Books in the Humanities & Sciences

Winter 2007

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