Nonfiction
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 5/29/2006
White Masai: An Exotic Tale of Love and Adventure
Corinne Hofmann. Amistad, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-113152-0
One glance at a Masai warrior "wearing almost no clothes—just a short loincloth—but lots of jewelry," and Hofmann, a Swiss business woman on vacation in Kenya, abandons all in obsessive pursuit of Lketinga who has "never been to school, can't read or write and barely speaks English." The passion is palpable and sometimes purple ("I feel myself at one with this man and now, this night, I know that despite all the barriers between us, I have already become a captive of his world"). Seekers of romance and adventure will be amply rewarded, but the power of Hofmann's memoir rests in her hard-won capacity to take the reader inside the domestic world of the African bush as she learns to be Lketinga's wife (living in her own dung hut), grappling with unfamiliar sexual and gender manners and struggling to balance her commitment to bush life with the knowledge and resources she has as a European woman (acquiring a car, starting a business). The idyll, spoiled by Lketinga's bouts of jealous fits, ends after four years when Hofmann, with their daughter, flees to Switzerland. Hofmann's commitment, however, lingers and infuses her account with an affecting richness that defies the reader to ridicule her decision to give "up [her] whole life back in Switzerland for Lketinga." (Oct.)
Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory Days of BasketballGus Alfieri, foreword by Bill Bradley. Lyons, $22.95 (288p) ISBN 1-59228-869-3
Alfieri offers a good-hearted, reverential homage to basketball great Joe Lapchick that's colored by the author's own experiences playing for Lapchick at St. John's in the 1950s. A lanky kid from Yonkers who grew up with the game as it was growing up in the early 1900s, Lapchick was a pioneer as both a player for the traveling Original Celtics and later as a coach at St. John's and with the New York Knicks. Alfieri's book rings with respect for Lapchick's career and demeanor both on the court and along the sidelines. While its strength does not lie in thrilling or lyrical prose, it's carried forward by the energy Alfieri clearly brings to the subject. The extent of his research coupled with his own firsthand recollections allow him to dip into occasional re-created scenes and conjure images of the game's past, including bygone protective padding and oversized balls that got beat out of shape during a single contest. Still, testimonies from people as disparate as Bobby Knight and Bill Bradley make clear that the author is not alone in his admiration of Lapchick. (Oct.)
Catch Me Before I FallRosie Childs with Diane Taylor. Virgin (Holtzbrinck, dist.), $21.95 (240p) ISBN 1-85227-360-7
Childs, born Clare Malone, was dropped into the world on the couch of her mother's dirty house in Liverpool in 1954. In this heart-wrenching read, Childs tells of growing up as a lone mixed-race child in an all-white area, where she is the shamefully visible product of her dissolute mother's extramarital trysts. Filthy and neglected, she and her siblings scrape by with stolen bread and lice-filled heads until Childs is nine and they are removed from her mother's custody into an orphanage, run by punishing nuns. Childs rebelliously adapts to their vigilantly tough custody until she is discharged at the age of 15, unadopted and afraid. She is subsequently placed with foster parents found by her mother, with whom she has sporadic contact, and makes the first of her many lifetime name changes. After a period of success as a nanny and preschool teacher, she enters college at 30 and has a breakdown that sends her on an ugly carousel of self-mutilation and eating disorders. Somehow this horrible existence remains hopeful: her indomitable spirit is heartening, and the book is hard to put down. Vulnerable but without self-pity, Childs tells a story of survival that's a shot across the bow from the many unwanted children. (Oct.)
The Discomfort Zone Jonathan Franzen. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23 (208p) ISBN 0-374-29919-6
National Book Award–winner Franzen's first foray into memoir begins and ends with his mother's death in Franzen's adulthood. In between, he takes a sarcastic, humorous and intimate look at the painful awkwardness of adolescence. As a young observer rather than a participant, Franzen offers a fresh take on the sometimes tumultuous, sometimes uneventful America of the 1960s and '70s. A not very popular, bookish kid, Franzen (The Corrections) and his high school buddies, in one of the book's most memorable episodes, attempt to loop a tire, ring-toss–style, over their school's 40-foot flag pole as part of a series of flailing pranks. Franzen watches his older brother storm out of the house toward a wayward hippe life, while he ultimately follows along his father's straight-and-narrow path. Franzen traces back to his teenage years the roots of his enduring trouble with women, his pursuit of a precarious career as a writer and his recent life-affirming obsession with bird-watching. While Franzen's family was unmarked by significant tragedy, the common yet painful contradictions of growing up are at the heart of this wonderful book (parts of which appeared in the New Yorker): "You're miserable and ashamed if you don't believe your adolescent troubles matter, but you're stupid if you do." (Sept.)
Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia BuffsKen Jennings. Villard, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 1-4000-6445-7
Did you know that Trivia was a Roman name for the goddess Hecate or that Jeopardy! tapes a week's worth of shows in a single afternoon? Jennings's record-setting 2004 six-month stint on the syndicated TV quiz show won him $2.5 million and instant fame as he landed on Letterman, Leno, Sesame Street and Barbara Walters's "Ten Most Fascinating People" list. Sprinkling trivia questions throughout his first book, the former computer programmer is a charmingly self-deprecating guide to the subculture of esoterica as he relates how he answered his first trivia question about the Wright brothers at four and made his chops on the ego-driven college quiz bowl circuit; confides how he mastered the "tricky" Jeopardy! buzzers; bonds with professional trivia writers; and describes being bested by the puzzler "Most of this firm's seven thousand seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year" (Jennings answered FedEx; H&R Block is correct). You don't have to be a couch potato to answer this: what's an eight-letter word for a highly entertaining, fast-paced read that demystifies "America's most popular and most difficult quiz show" while pondering how trivia is a cultural phenomenon that offers a tidy alternative to life's messiness as well as instant camaraderie between people from different walks of life? (Sept. 12)
Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous IdeasChuck Klosterman. Scribner, $24 (336p) ISBN 0-7432-8488-7
Fans of Klosterman's Ritalin-paced pop culture criticism (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs) will eagerly devour this collection of previously published essays. Whether investigating Latino fans of British pop icon Morrissey, interviewing female tribute bands like Lez Zeppelin and AC/DShe or eating nothing but Chicken McNuggets for a week, Klosterman is always entertaining and often insightful. But other than a sympathetic profile of Billy Joel, Klosterman rarely strays from his favorite topics: heavy metal music, television, sports and sex. Perhaps this career overview is his way of recycling old themes into some kind of new "defining endeavor," as he describes the title inspired by Led Zeppelin IV (as it is unofficially called). This would make perfect sense given his work so far: Fargo Rock City was an original and confident debut (like Led Zeppelin I); his newest book definitely has kick, but overall it's a mixed bag of collected essays—strong and not-so-strong performances—its parts are greater than the whole. (Sept.)
Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest to See the Last Wild TigersRuth Padel. Walker, $35 (448p) ISBN 0-8027-1544-3
Padel's memoir of her trips to various parts of the Eastern hemisphere to spot tigers in the wild begins with a string of personal setbacks at home in London, including the dissolution of a long romantic relationship. Although her thoughts return intermittently to this man and his stereotypically insensitive behavior after their breakup, the attempt to inject an emotional undercurrent into the story of her travels is distracting. Fortunately, more of her tale shows a poet's eye for the details of her exotic surroundings and a deep sympathy with the people who serve as her guides (Padel is a poet and chair of U.K.'s Poetry Society; her title is taken from a Wallace Stevens poem). As she hangs out with the scientists and other conservators who work at tiger reserves throughout the Indian subcontinent and Asia, Padel slowly learns that keeping the great beasts from extinction is not a clear-cut issue, as preservationists must also take into account the impact of tiger populations on neighboring communities. "How can you sympathize with tigers when you haven't enough to eat?" she wonders. The indifference of some governments to illegal poaching adds increased difficulties, but despite the many reasons to be pessimistic, Padel still manages to find cause for hope, passing on the names of tiger-focused charities for concerned readers' donations. (Sept.)
Things I Didn't Know: A Memoir Robert Hughes. Knopf, $27.95 (416p) ISBN 1-4000-4444-3
Cultural critic Hughes (The Fatal Shore) slices into his own life with his ever-ready scalpel of penetrating analysis, opening his saga in 1999 with his near-fatal car accident at age 60 in his native Australia. Glimpsing death, he perceives its mouth as "the bocca d'inferno of old Christian art," a sampling of the rich, wide-ranging corpus of knowledge he brings to bear upon every aspect of his life. His improbable recovery touches off both earnest and acerbic reflections on his upbringing, his native country and the manifold influences that power his works and wanderings through Europe and America. Recognizing his life as an act of rebellion against his sanctimonious war-hero father, he re-enacts his virulent rejection of military aggression and his punitive boarding at Catholic school, where the priests vilify him for reading James Joyce in secret. His immersion in the artistic ferment of the '60s echoes the worldwide convulsions—both cultural and political—of that decade, pulling him into the avant-garde circles that girded his critical career. Hughes's vivid ruminations and sharp-eyed insights combine in bold, definitive strokes to yield a rich portrait of the art expert. 75,000 first printing. (Sept)
Never Despair: Sixty Years in the Service of the Jewish People and the Cause of Human RightsGerhart M. Riegner, trans. from the French by William Sayers. Ivan R. Dee, $35 (480p) ISBN 1-56663-696-5
Riegner is best known for having alerted the world to the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews, so it's not surprising that the strength of this memoir is its first section, in which Riegner details his activities during the war as a staffer with the World Jewish Congress. This includes the "Riegner Telegram," sent to leading American rabbi Stephen Wise in August 1942, with information about the Final Solution. He also describes the fascinating ways he and his colleagues obtained the information in the telegram. Riegner is not shy about criticizing institutions, such as the Catholic Church, for their failure to do more to stop the genocide. He attributes this less to anti-Semitism than to their inability to comprehend the scope of the Nazis' behavior. Riegner, who died in 2000, was known for his tact and magnanimity, and as he traces the rest of his career—he was deeply involved in interfaith efforts and in pushing the U.N. on human rights and Israel-related causes—these qualities are on display. Though the rest of the book is less compelling, it highlights a life well lived. 15 b&w photos. (Sept.)
Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil WarNicholas Lemann. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24 (256p) ISBN 0-374-24855-0
Historians agree that Reconstruction was a conflict in which the good guys lost. Lemann (The Promised Land) hammers the point home with a grim account of post–Civil War Mississippi. His central figure is Adelbert Ames, a Union general and war hero who fought to preserve the Union, despised abolitionists and considered African-Americans an inferior race. Appointed provisional governor of postwar Mississippi, he was horrified at the violence that whites, a minority, used against blacks trying to vote. As military commander, he provided enough security to ensure a Republican victory in 1869 state elections (blacks voted Republican until the 1930s), became an advocate of civil rights and was elected senator in 1870 and governor in 1873. He worked hard to protect the freedmen but failed, and Lemann's description of the terror campaign against Mississippi blacks makes depressing reading. The book's title refers to the popular version of Reconstruction in which valiant Southern whites "redeemed" their states from corrupt carpetbaggers and ignorant freedmen. Agreeing with recent scholars who consider this another Civil War myth, Lemann delivers an engrossing but painful account of a disgraceful episode in American history. (Sept.)
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children John Wood. Collins, $25.95 (272p) ISBN 0-06-112107-X
It's a rare business book that not only provides savvy insights for better business practices but transcends the category altogether, to rank as an infectiously inspiring read. Wood takes the reader on an engaging journey from his life as a rather ordinary marketing director at Microsoft through the transformative decision to launch the nonprofit organization Room to Read (www.roomtoread.org), which has created more than 2,000 schools and libraries for children across Asia. From his first trip to Nepal, where he was struck by the country's 70% illiteracy rate, through his courageous decision to leave Microsoft, to the logistics of growing and expanding the Room to Read initiative, Wood endears himself to the reader with his introspection and honesty. Crediting his former employer with giving him the business skills and drive to aim high, he outlines the concrete steps he took to make his vision a reality. Marked by sincerity and savvy, this is the kind of book that business colleagues will discuss with their acquaintances, spouses and friends. (Sept.)
Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of ToleranceIan Buruma. Penguin Press, $24.95 (220p) ISBN 1-59420-108-0
Van Gogh, a provocative media personality in the Netherlands, was shot and stabbed on an Amsterdam street in November 2004 by a young radical, the son of Moroccan immigrants, who accused him of blasphemy against Islam. When Buruma (Bad Elements) returned to his homeland in an effort to make sense of the brutal murder, he quickly realized there was more to the story than a terrorist lashing out against Western culture. Exploiting the tensions between native-born Dutch and Muslim immigrants, van Gogh drew attention to himself with deliberately inflammatory political theater that escalated beyond control. Buruma refuses to blame the victim, though, giving equal weight to critics who insist Islam must adapt to European culture rather than the other way around, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch politician who scripted van Gogh's final film, an avant-garde indictment of the religion's treatment of women. There is a strong sense of journalistic immediacy to Buruma's cultural inquiry, and if the result is a slim volume, that's because his dense, thoughtful prose doesn't waste a single word. (Sept. 11)
Five Germanys I Have Known Fritz Stern. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26 (416p) ISBN 0-374-15540-2
In 1944, upon visiting the desolate ruins of Stalingrad, Gen. Charles de Gaulle reportedly said, with a touch of awe, "Quel peuple!" He was referring not to the Russians but to France and Russia's mutual enemy, the Germans. According to Stern (Einstein's German World), former provost of Columbia University and among the most venerable of America's German historians, de Gaulle grasped the "deep ambiguity that hovers around German greatness": Germans were not only the destroyers of historic Europe but also its creators. In this fascinating memoir, Stern looks back over the "five Germanys" his generation has seen—the Weimar Republic, Nazi tyranny, the post-1945 Federal Republic, the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic and, lastly, the reunited Germany of the present—and explains how he came to reconcile himself with his birth country (which his Jewish family fled in 1938) as it has come to terms with its new place in today's more cohesive and peaceful Europe. His history, says Stern, can be read as "a text for political and moral lessons, as a drama in dread and hope." The book's intriguing structure makes it a wonderful combination of history, memoir, analysis and even poetry. (Aug.)
The Jews in Mussolini's Italy: From Equality to PersecutionMichele Sarfatti, trans. from the Italian by John and Anne C. Tedeschi. Univ. of Wisconsin, $65 (397p) ISBN 0-299-21730-2
Tracking the plight of Italian Jews from Fascism's rise to power in 1922 to its defeat in 1945, historian Sarfatti asserts that Mussolini and his regime, rather than being passive participants in Hitler's master plan, were actively responsible for passing and enacting anti-Jewish legislation in Italy. Jews, who numbered from 40,000 to 50,000, had been so fully integrated as equals into Italian society since the second half of the 19th century and held such diverse political views that in two key 1921 rampages that birthed Fascism—in Pisa and Modena—Jews figured prominently among the sparring Fascists, Socialists and monarchists. Yet the Fascist government that was established in October 1922 and headed by the pragmatically anti-Semitic Mussolini immediately gave dominance to Catholicism over minority religions, and in 1927, Mussolini announced his intention to "nurture the Italian race." By 1937, various industries were aryanized; Mussolini initiated a search for Jewish surnames among the higher army officers; and a new anti-Semitic weekly humor magazine began publishing. By 1943, Italy was confiscating Jewish property and partnering with the Nazis in the Final Solution. Although this tome is prodigiously documented and definitive, its dry, opaque prose and high price tag unfortunately preclude a lay readership. Illus. (Aug. 15)
LBJ: Architect of American Ambition Randall B. Woods. Free Press, $35 (704p) ISBN 0-684-83458-8
Why, after major works by Robert A. Caro and Robert Dallek, do we need another biography of Lyndon B. Johnson? The answer is that Johnson was so complex that every new biographer willing to do the tough spadework of original research discovers fresh layers of Johnsonian reality to explain, new psychological and political corridors to explore. Such is the case with this excellent new work by University of Arkansas historian Woods (Fulbright, a Biography). Woods finds Johnson's key motivation to be largely altruistic, emerging from righteous outrage over the poverty and racism he'd witnessed while growing up in Texas. Woods serves up a Johnson who is less cynical, less self-serving and more heroic and tragic than the man portrayed elsewhere. Woods's Johnson is a man who saw his greatest personal ambitions realized with the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964, and the Great Society programs. Not inappropriately, Woods concludes his eloquent and riveting account by quoting Ralph Ellison, who noted that Johnson, spurned at the end of his life by both liberals and conservatives, would "have to settle for being recognized as the greatest American President for the poor and for the Negroes, but that, as I see it, is a very great honor indeed." 16 pages of b&w photos. (Aug.)
Shady Ladies: Seventeen Surprising and Rebellious American WomenSuzann Ledbetter. Forge, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 0-765-30827-4
Biographer and novelist Ledbetter (A Lady Never Trifles with Thieves) illuminates the lives of 17 19th- and early 20th-century women who bucked a system that relegated them to the home to meet the needs of their husbands and children. Some are well known, like the "unsinkable" Margaret (Molly) Brown, survivor of the Titanic, who rose from a poor Irish background to become the toast of Denver society; a liberal, she espoused a separate justice system for juveniles and an international fair that others tried to shut down for featuring Chinese and Native Americans. Other subjects have been buried by time, and Ledbetter fills a gap in feminist history with her short descriptive bios. Henrietta Green, "the Witch of Wall Street," parlayed an inheritance into an estate valued at over $100 million dollars, but was noted for her miserliness. Sara Parton, with advanced ideas about women, left an abusive husband to become a successful columnist and novelist under the pen name Fanny Fern. Frances Benjamin Johnston was an early photojournalist whose work spanned a 50-year career. Although at times the author's colloquial language is clunky, these stories of independent-minded females are well worth recounting. (Aug.)
Jewels: A Secret HistoryVictoria Finlay. Ballantine, $25.95 (496p) ISBN 0-345-46694-2
Gems seem to be moving to the literary forefront, with The Hope Diamond out in May and The Heartless Stone: A Journey through the World of Diamonds, Deceit and Desire due in August. In her follow-up to Color, Finlay looks at diamonds and eight more of the world's most coveted gemstones. In each chapter, she discusses the jewel's history and travels to the stone's place of origin: abandoned emerald mines in Egypt, working opal mines in Australia, a pearl-fisher's home in Scotland and an Apache reservation that holds most of the world's supply of peridot. Finlay is also fascinated by the lengths to which people will go to fabricate jewels: one company manufactures diamonds from cremated human remains. While each journey holds its own charms—Finlay's trek to Sri Lanka to uncover the pedigree of a family heirloom sapphire is particularly enjoyable—they don't fully gel into a cohesive whole, and detailed stories about, say, the way one Japanese entrepreneur transformed the world's pearl market are juxtaposed with historical trivia. Still, Finlay's winning personality may well be enough to keep readers turning the pages. 8 pages of color and b&w illus. throughout. (Aug.)
Sensuous Seas: Tales of a Marine BiologistEugene H. Kaplan, drawings by Sandy Chichester Rivkin and Susan L. Kaplan. Princeton Univ., $24.95 (272p) ISBN 0-691-12560-0
The feeding and mating habits of some of the ocean's strangest creatures are the subject of these 31 entertaining essays by Hofstra ecologist Kaplan. He introduces each chapter with a story dramatizing the factual information—such as the tale of his painful encounter with the tentacles of a Portuguese man o' war—but the inducement is unnecessary, as the biology is fascinating in its own right. His man o' war, for example, is a jellyfish that has "[n]o brain, no blood, no heart, no anus," yet is able to paralyze its prey with "poison arrows." The other creatures he describes are equally bizarre. They include barnacles that live in the bodies of crabs, eating all the hosts' internal organs except those necessary to keep the crabs alive; sinister fish in the Amazon basin that can enter a human body through the genitals and tear up the person's innards; sea anemones and clownfish that live in a symbiotic relationship in which the fish feed the anemones and are in return protected by the anemones' tentacles. Kaplan's lively essays, accompanied by 150 exquisite line drawings, are a wonderful introduction to the mysteries of the ocean. (Aug.)
Lessons in Mortality: Doctors and Patients Struggling TogetherAllen B. Weisse. Univ. of Missouri, $24.95 (312p) ISBN 0-8262-1666-8
The issues and conflicts that arise in medicine today are often poignantly illustrated in this engrossing anecdotal collection from Weisse's years as a physician. He begins by sharing a journal he kept during his own battle with testicular cancer at the age of 25. This close call with death led Weisse (Heart to Heart: The Twentieth Century Battle Against Coronary Disease) to an understanding of both seriously ill people and the doctors who try to diagnose and treat their conditions. Offering brief episodes from the lives of colleagues, patients and friends, Weisse illuminates the ongoing dynamic between physician and patient. "The Case of the Baffling Boy" tells of a five-year-old whose psychologically damaged mother deliberately tries to make her son appear to have kidney disease by tampering with his urine samples. "Victims All" is an account of a lawsuit brought by a woman dying of breast cancer against the physicians who, she alleges, did not diagnose her condition early enough; Weisse presents both sides of this heartrending piece in a nonjudgmental, empathetic manner. Readers of medical histories will enjoy these compelling personal narratives. (Aug.)
The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate LifePiero Ferrucci, trans. from the Italian by Vivien Ferrucci, foreword by the Dalai Lama. Tarcher, $22.95 (240p) ISBN 1-58542-519-2
Kindness is synonymous with mental health," writes Ferrucci, whose belief that kindness benefits both the giver and the receiver informs this study. Honesty, forgiveness, trust and humility are among the qualities that make up kindness. Italian psychotherapist Ferrucci (What Our Children Teach Us), who writes in a soothing, humane manner, studied with psychiatrist Roberto Assagiolli, founder of psychosynthesis, a school that focuses on spiritual growth and positive qualities such as faith and joy. Laced with stories from religion and philosophy, anecdotes from patients and personal experience, the book explores how Ferrucci's ideas can be applied to everyday life. In "Forgiveness," he describes how a Holocaust survivor was able to forgive those who murdered his family and explains that forgiveness is the only remedy for unspeakable suffering. In the section on service, he suggests small ways one can benefit the lives of others, such as telling a joke to lift a friend's spirits or offering to make dinner for someone who needs time to rest. Ferrucci offers a fine reminder of how good, and how easy, it is to be kind. (Aug.)
What Colleges Don't Tell You (and Other Parents Don't Want You to Know)Elizabeth Wissner-Gross. Penguin/Hudson Street, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 1-59463-031-3
A self-styled "educational strategist" and mother of two high achievers, journalist Wissner-Gross has found a keenly sought after niche in helping parents "package" their children for college admission. The author's approach is to endow the student's advocate, usually a parent who has the most time to devote to the task, with the skills to elicit and enhance the student's natural accomplishments, rendering him or her desirable to colleges. Through sound experience, and the use of scattered case profiles, Wissner-Gross demonstrates that even students with extremely unlikely prospects for admission to good colleges can succeed handsomely when they are wisely packaged—i.e., when their specific academic passions ("the current buzzword") are extracted and polished. The author highlights 272 "secrets" to winning at the college application process, from answering the Big Question of why a specific college would take one's son or daughter to preparing for standardized testing and interviews with college admissions officers. Most helpful is the author's advice gleaned from admissions officers about the best and worst kinds of application essays ("Avoid writing an essay about a luxury tour"), and her reminder to stay persistent even when a student is waitlisted at her college of choice. (Aug.)
College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-Eds, Then and NowLynn Peril. Norton, $16.95 paper (352p) ISBN 0-393-32715-9
Will her B.A. ruin her chances for an M-r-s.? Will too much study endanger her procreative organs? And if higher education is truly safe for a young woman, what sort of curriculum is appropriate? Greek and Latin? Home economics? According to Peril (Pink Think), in this history of women in colleges, ever since the first young ladies went off to their "dame schools" in early America, people have been debating such questions. Underlying these mentionable fears was one more worrisome: who would protect a girl's virtue when she lived away from home, surrounded by hormonal young men? As Peril makes clear, throughout history "[a]dults inevitably get their granny-sized panties in a bunch when it comes to the sexcapades of the younger generation." True, she's focused on prescriptive material more than the actual experiences of co-eds in various eras, but it's eye-opening to see how consistently advice-givers and advertisers have played on the same few anxieties regarding the female student. The material that Peril has included on student experiences—particularly the stories of women at historically black colleges—helps balance the text. Peril's witty, irreverent style, her generous use of old advertisements and photos and her careful footnotes make this text unusually user-friendly. (Aug.)
Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle ClassJan Whitaker. St. Martin's, $35 (352p) ISBN 0-312-32635-1
The American department store is "not quite a dinosaur," says Whitaker (Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn), but it has certainly seen better days, and it's that robust era—from the turn of the 20th century to the 1960s—that she chooses to celebrate in this lively pop history. At their peak, department stores were the nation's largest booksellers and many major chains also sold groceries. But it was clothes that made the stores a prime destination for women of all social classes, and Whitaker discusses at significant length the subtle movements through which major chains from one end of the country to the other cultivated their reputations for being up-to-date with the latest Paris fashions, then tapped into additional markets for young adult and children's wear. More than 100 photographs and illustrations are integrated into the text, aptly demonstrating the lengths to which stores went in order to present themselves as elegant yet modern and convenient. Legendary New York chains like Macy's and Gimbel's get much of the attention, but outposts from other regions, such as San Francisco's Emporium or Philadelphia's Lit Brothers, also get due notice, adding an additional aura of comprehensiveness to Whitaker's richly detailed account. 8-page color insert. (Aug.)
Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A MemoirKevin Jennings. Beacon, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-8070-7146-3
This rags-to-riches story, about growing up poor and eventually reaching Harvard has bite and pathos. The youngest son of a born-again Southern Baptist preacher originally from Massachusetts, and a mother from Appalachian Tennessee, Jennings led an itinerant youth among trailer parks in Southern towns where his dad would try to find work. The boy couldn't make his father proud on the football field, and already he had learned that "being a real man meant taking advantage of anyone smaller or weaker than you." With his father's abrupt death when Jennings was eight, he became a "mama's boy," introverted, brainy and overweight, and ridden by guilt at his incipient homosexuality. Supported by his scarcely educated mother, who became the first woman manager at McDonald's, Jennings excelled in school and on the debate team and was accepted to Harvard by 1981. Jennings became a high-school teacher, at Concord Academy among others, agonizing over the decision to out himself; he promoted the creation of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) to protect students from the kind of harassment he experienced firsthand. When his national crusade brought him back home to speak at the same Winston-Salem school system where his "young soul had almost been crushed," Jennings writes of his journey with graciousness and candor. (Aug.)
Babylon by BusRay Lemoine and Jeff Neumann with Donovan Webster. Penguin Press, $24.95 (316p) ISBN 1-59420-091-2
What do you get when you mix a couple of booze-guzzling, Valium-addled, 20-something slackers from urban America with centuries-old sectarian hatred and a dubious war? Well, you get this alternately lame, alternately compelling tale from the first year after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. At loose ends, T-shirt merchants (selling "Yankees suck" at Fenway) Lemoine and Neumann decide to head out to Iraq by way of Israel. Having passed on an opportunity to go to Baghdad earlier in the war—"During Iraq's looting, the thought of loading up a stolen Lamborghini with Persian rugs and Baathist booty had crossed our minds. Stupid, I know"—these scalawags quickly find themselves in the middle of the Green Zone in Baghdad, scamming their way into jobs managing an NGO, dodging angry mobs in Sadr City and partying with just about everybody in town. Along with the boozing ("Jeff and I awoke at the NPR house with searing hangovers from a night of booze and pills"), there's a lot of name-dropping (among many others, Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker). Not entirely without merit, the book does capture a sense of the madness of postwar Iraq. (Aug.)
Wins, Losses, and Lessons: An AutobiographyLou Holtz. Harper Entertainment, $25.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-084080-3
With a strong overtone of moral teaching, college football coaching legend Holtz offers a prosaic but endearing memoir. It's clear from the beginning that Holtz sees coaching as nurturing more than mere athletic achievement; it's an opportunity to mold promising student-athletes into superlative young men: "Coaching gives one a chance to be successful as well as significant." Holtz grew up in a hardscrabble West Virginia mining town in the 1940s and '50s, keeping a determinedly working-class and strictly religious attitude no matter how high he climbed as a coach. His stories of assistant and then head coaching at institutions from Ohio State to North Carolina State—as well as run-ins with big names like Bill Cowherand Bill Clinton—are full of funny anecdotes and neat little lessons, but they tend to blur in the mind. A standout is Holtz's long-term position at Notre Dame, of special importance not just because of his devout Catholicism but also his refreshing devotion to strict academic standards for the players. In fact, what stands out is his modesty and adamant belief that football is ultimately less important than education. (Aug.)
On Looking: EssaysLia Purpura. Sarabande, $14.95 paper (152p) ISBN 1-932511-39-3
Looking, Purpura writes, is a way of paying attention; it is an almost spiritual practice, and it was "the sole practice I had available to me as a child." In these 18 pieces, the essayist (Increase) looks at colors (brown and red seem to be favorites), at shape and time, at dead bodies, weather, fear. The most trenchant essay muses about women being seen. These pieces are not so much essays as prose poems, lyrical hymns to beauty and aesthetics. Purpura describes single objects beautifully: Chinese lanterns are "those orange, papery pods gone lacy in fall, with a dim, silver berry burning inside." Though her putative topic is the visual, Purpura also ponders language, explaining word games and playing with the precision of diction (which verb best describes the things you do to drapes, she wonders: do you draw them, shut them or pull them?). Indeed, Purpura's prose is sometimes a tad too opaque: "If I can call the pin image, memento, moment suspended, then the whole northeastern Ohio sky draws close...." This slim volume requires careful, slow parsing, but readers who persevere will be rewarded with Purpura's deep intelligence. (Aug.)
BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch MagazineEdited by Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $15 paper (400p) ISBN 0-374-11343-2
This often mind-stretching, occasionally predictable and generally entertaining collection of articles from Bitch magazine has something for every feminist, postfeminist and reactionary. Bitch was founded in 1996 in response to "post-feminism" by "freshly minted liberal arts graduates with crappy day jobs and a serious media jones." With refreshing depth, literacy and humor, these essays explore questions surrounding puberty, gender identity, sex, "domestic arrangements," beauty, pop culture and mainstream media, and media literacy/activism. Tammy Oler examines menarche and female puberty in horror films; Gaby Moss analyzes the media's obsession with "mean girls"; and Lisa Jervis gives a rundown of sex scenes and pride in YA lesbian novels. Leigh Shoemaker puts down Camille Paglia's contention that males are superior due to their urinary "arc of transcendence" by evoking the Virgin Mary's breasts squirting milk through the air into Jesus' mouth. Audry Bilger protests the use of "guys" as gender neutral. Conspicuously absent is any discussion of women and aging. Maybe we'll just have to wait for Bitch's 20th anniversary, when its editors will be pushing 50. (Aug. 15)
I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen: Coming to California in the Age of SchwarzeneggerAmy Wilentz. Simon & Schuster, $26 (352p) ISBN 0-7432-6439-8
For those living outside the Golden State, it's easy to forget that somewhere "out west" there is a land of sunshine and Schwarzenegger that may be a bigger force in shaping America's idea of itself than any self-respecting New Yorker would admit. Into this California—"the New World's new world, America's America" as Wilentz describes it—plunges the former Jerusalem correspondent for the New Yorker and lifelong East Coaster. Her book is both social criticism and the memoir of a self-described "catastrophist," who fled New York not long after 9/11 (having first bought an inflatable boat to escape her Upper West Side apartment in case of emergency). With pessimistic wit that is pure East Coast, Wilentz regards California, and Los Angeles in particular, as the same kind of strange and dark-hearted place it was for Nathanael West. Through Wilentz's Gulliveresque chronicles of the gubernatorial recall, natural disasters and Hollywood, there surfaces a clear affinity for the "showmanship" and "blowhardism" upon which California is founded. It is, Wilentz writes, America's "sunny coast of the imagination"—a dreamworld with all the confusion and awesomeness that implies. (Aug.)
My City Was Gone: The Poisoning of a Small American TownDennis Love. Morrow, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 0-06-058550-1
Anniston, Ala., where decades of PCB contamination from a Monsanto chemical plant led to a massive lawsuit and a $700 million settlement—twice the celebrated "Erin Brockovich" payout—is also where journalist Love grew up. Love's retelling of this toxic tort saga—and an unrelated battle between environmentalists and the Pentagon over a plan to incinerate chemical weapons at a local army depot—also tries to outdo the movie Erin Brockovich in drama, flamboyant characterizations and feisty populism. Almost every participant in the tussle gets an overdrawn profile—"David Baker was back, baby"—and almost every development gets ominously foreshadowed ("there was something out there on the edge of town that had scared these Monsanto folks half to death"). Thrown in are lengthy musings on the town's history and troubled race relations—most of the Monsanto plaintiffs were from Anniston's poor, mostly black West Side—and the author's idyllic childhood there. The space given to extraneous human interest would have been better used filling out the author's sketchy, inadequate exposition of the science behind the competing environmental, medical and legal claims. (Aug. 15)
Jeans: A Cultural History of an American IconJames Sullivan. Gotham, $26 (304p) ISBN 1-592-40214-3
According to Sullivan, Brigham Young was on the right track in 1830 when he called a pair of trousers with buttons on the front "fornication pants." The denim blue jean studied here is the perfect mix of form and function (five pockets, durable fabric and comfortable fit), democratically priced (ranging from less than $30 to $1,000-plus for artfully torn and destroyed designer jobs), American, iconic and, most importantly, sexy. In his telling of the story behind the storied garment, Sullivan introduces readers to "Big E" Levi's collectors (who only wear Levi's produced before 1971), provides a surprisingly nuanced history of indigo dye and charts the ascension of "lifestyle brands" like Diesel and Lucky that made $100 (and then $200) jeans commonplace. He also devotes plenty of attention to how Levi's, once the dominant denim purveyor, is now struggling to keep a foothold in the market it created. Sullivan, a San Francisco Chronicle culture reporter, keeps the writing brisk and the major players (and their places within large apparel conglomerates) distinct while ranging across continents and decades, giving devotees the definitive account of the development of the denim that decorates their derrieres. (Aug.)
Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World Colin Wells. Delacorte, $22 (368p) ISBN 0-553-80381-6
In this deft synthesis of scholarship, classicist Wells shows how the Byzantines exerted a profound influence on all neighboring civilizations. Concrete examples still exist that testify to that influence—such as Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy—but this book focuses on the more ineffable products of culture that traveled from the Bosporus, influencing Western, Islamic and Slavic cultures. The story of Renaissance Europe's embrace of pagan learning is familiar, but Wells tells of a fascinating intellectual circuit that begins with the transmission of Greek learning to the newly powerful Arabs and leads to Averroës's commentary on Aristotle, Aquinas's use of this commentary and finally to the Byzantine Cydones's translation of Aquinas in the 14th century. By then, the dominant Orthodox movement of Hesychasm deemed pagan learning incompatible with Christian faith, forcing many humanists to the Catholic West. Wells devotes much space to the Hesychasts and blames them for this betrayal of Greek heritage and for weakening the empire before its final collapse in 1453, but duly credits them with shaping the Russian Orthodox Church and positioning Moscow as the Third Rome. This volume, which contains a useful glossary of historical figures, detailed maps and a time line, is a superb survey of Byzantium's many cultural bequests. (July 25)
The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music Dunstan Prial. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (352p) ISBN 0-374-11304-1
Built upon interviews with musicians, family and colleagues, this admiring biography delivers a solid portrait of the famed 20th-century critic, journalist and producer. Known for his square crew cut, protuberant eyes and toothy grin, the sometimes arrogant, blues-loving Vanderbilt heir "seemed to know what America wanted to hear before America knew it," writes first-time author Prial. Besides recording Bessie Smith's last studio sessions and Billie Holiday's first, Hammond is the nudge that gets Count Basie to leave Kansas City and the driving force behind Benny Goodman's decision to integrate his band by adding black vibraphonist Lionel Hampton—all this roughly two decades before he signs Bob Dylan to Columbia Records. Prial's sedulous work pays off in the consistency of his narrative. His even-toned, chronological book is light on anecdotes, but his smart use of music histories, jazz autobiographies and Hammond's own Downbeat and Melody Maker writings results in an impressive and authoritative text. Moreover, Prial's insights into Hammond's youth and two marriages transform his work from the tale of a jazz buff with money into an engaging study of a man with two obsessions—"making music and promoting social reform." (July)
A Keeper of Bees: Notes on Hive and HomeAllison Wallace. Random, $23.95 (208p) ISBN 1-4000-6271-3
When she's talking bees, beekeeper and American studies professor Wallace rolls right along, her affection for the little buzzers quite apparent. In a chatty voice, she reflects on all things bee, from how their senses work to what the tendency to swarm is all about (to establish a new hive in response to overpopulation in the first hive) and how each bee serves the hive through various stages of life. She reveals how honey is made (spit is involved) and how the hive, itself an organism of sorts, functions. At times Wallace touches briefly, and sometimes all too glibly, on global environmental issues. Her narrative leaves traces of her personal involvement with bees, though the reader only really gains insight into her personality late in the book: In a section full of potential, she reveals that without the social link her ex-husband provided, she "could happily have holed up in the bottomland woods and gone slowly, ecstatically mad" and describes her tension with the hive of human society as a single woman in midlife. Still, Wallace leaves much unsaid, and this is as close as we get to understanding how the hive is linked to her own life. (July 11)
Weimar in Exile: Exile in Europe, Exile in America Jean-Michel Palmier, trans. from the French by David Fernbach. Verso, $55 (896p) ISBN 1-84467-068-6
One of the many sobering lessons of the Third Reich was the failure of Germany's intellectual elite to stop the rise of Hitler. Starting in 1933, with Hitler's assumption of power, German poets, philosophers, playwrights, artists and scientists—including Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann, Walter Benjamin, Stefan Zweig and thousands of others—seeing the writing on the wall, packed up and found new homes. French scholar Palmier has written a well-nigh exhaustive work on this cultural diaspora. His staggering achievement is to portray the exquisite poignancy of these exiles' situation: powerless Germans forced to watch their country implode from abroad. Palmier's deceptively straightforward structure cloaks a far more cunning and generous approach. "Europe" ends in Barcelona, while the American phase ends with McCarthy; thus, he shows, these cultural stalwarts were learning new forms of political disappointment with each passing day. Palmier's command of this vast subject is truly breathtaking; he finds space to address exiles in Turkey, China and Latin America; exiles in American academia; and the legal problems they faced. And all the while, the story of these exiles is really, by indirection, the story of the Third Reich itself constantly agitating against them. (July)
Conservatives Without ConscienceJohn Dean. Viking, $25.95 (234p) ISBN 0-670-03774-5
In his seventh book, Dean, the former Nixon legal counsel whom the FBI has called the "master manipulator" of the Watergate coverup, weighs in with a rebuke to Christian fundamentalists and other right-wing hard-liners. A self-described Goldwater conservative (indeed, Goldwater had planned to collaborate on this book before his death), he rails against the influence of social conservatives and neoconservatives within his party. Suffused with bitterness stemming from the controversies in which he has been embroiled, Dean's book paints a thin social science veneer over a litany of mostly ad hominem complaints. Purporting to show that social conservatives and neoconservatives are, on the whole, demonstrably authoritarian, bigoted, irrational and amoral, Conservatives Without Conscience offers helpful hints such as "Conservatives without conscience do not have horns and tails," and evinces a telling fascination with politicians' shady book deals. Though there is clearly much to condemn in the policies and tactics Dean deplores, assailing everyone from French political theorist Joseph de Maistre to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to the chairman of Yale University's conservative association as "Double High" social- dominance-oriented authoritarians undermines his journalistic credibility. Dean's lurid accusations may be entertaining, but they add little to the reasoned debate that Washington so sorely lacks today. (July 11)
True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based BusinessMark Albion. Berrett-Koehler, $12 paper (120p) ISBN 1-57675-378-1
For those whose dreams involve using a small business "as a force for social change," entrepreneur Albion offers encouragement and valuable counsel. The second entry in the publisher's Social Venture Network series, this is a guide to leading "a company that reflects your values" and, along the way, building "a better world for us all." Assuming that the reader is already a believer, but just isn't sure how to reconcile principle and practice, Albion frames his advice in terms of compassionate, socially responsible leadership, though a lot of it is just plain good management. It's about how to build a company with the right priorities from the beginning, not just adding a veneer of responsibility. The book is grounded in the voices of earnest entrepreneurs and unusual case studies you don't see in every business book—including stories of failure as well as of success. While some readers may find Albion insufficiently hard-nosed ("It's better to fail trying to do what you really care about," he writes, "than to succeed at something else"), his sincerity is undeniably compelling. (July)
One Special SummerJacqueline and Lee Bouvier. Rizzoli, $24.95 (68p) ISBN 0-847827879
It took most of spring 1951 for Jacqueline Bouvier, age 22, and sister Lee, 18, to convince their mother to let them board the Queen Elizabeth for Europe. In her preface, Lee Bouvier Radziwill describes the scrapbook of the trip they made for their mother as "a period piece." In fact, it evokes any European grand tour undertaken by two pretty and smart young things—even those who don't have society connections or extended correspondences with famous art historians like Bernard Berenson. The two women gaily write out their adventures in longhand, embellished with artful and amusing illustrations and a snapshot here and there. A delicious sense of respectable naughtiness underlies the text. Next to a photo of Jacqueline being embraced too tightly by a distinguished gentleman, mischievous Lee writes: "they treat us just like their children and really seem interested in showing us their country." Next to a photo of Lee in shorts and Jacqueline in capris: "We never go out in big cities except in what we would wear to church in Newport on Sundays." Jacqueline's often elaborate and colorful illustrations show genuine talent and humor. Created in 1951, published originally in 1974, then unavailable for many years, the book is a fun rediscovery. (June)
Andy Warhol Screen Tests: The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue RaisonnéCallie Angell. Abrams, $60 (320p) ISBN 0-8109-5539-3
In 1963, Warhol began making short, silent films of the people who came through his New York studio, accumulating personalities in the same way he collected Campbell's soup cans or Brillo boxes. The first in a two-volume catalogue (which will eventually encompass all of Warhol's cinema), this book offers some surprisingly engrossing entries, while serving as a basic reference guide to the films. In addition to supplying the expected cataloguing data (dates, running time, cast, credits and other notations), the capsule biographies of the subjects and film action narratives reveal the fascinating and creative world of the Factory. Here is the tragic Freddy Herko, who "danced out the window of John Dodd's fifth-floor apartment"; models Ivy Nicholson and Imu; poets John Ashbery and Ted Berrigan; and musicians Lou Reed and Bob Dylan. Equally interesting are blurbs about the unknowns: "A young man named Stevie, with an illegible last name. Near the end of the roll, someone throws water on his face from offscreen." Several essays speculate about Warhol's overarching intentions for the films and discuss their mysteriously limited showings. Extravagantly produced with 780 photographs, the book reinforces the sense of Warhol as an expert in subverting notions of celebrity. (June)
Religion
Gospel of the Living Dead: George A. Romero's Visions of Hell on EarthKim Paffenroth. Baylor Univ., $19.95 (210p) ISBN 1-932792-65-2
You don't have to be a fan of zombie movies to learn from them, but it probably helps. Paffenroth, an associate professor of religious studies at Iona College, is one fan who has turned his fascination into a detailed narrative analysis of the George Romero zombie films (Night of the Living Dead; Dawn of the Dead; Land of the Dead), which he calls "secular descendants of Dante's Inferno." He finds ample social criticism and illustration of old-fashioned "sin" in each film, which gives him optimism for the future of the zombie genre. Written with academic rigor but not with academic jargon, Paffenroth invites us to search the sometimes silly and profane zombie films for deeper religious meanings about how we, the living, act with less humanity at times than the "undead." Paffenroth weaves Christian theology, social criticism and allusions to Dante's Inferno throughout his discussion of films that feature cannibalism, mayhem and terror—a feat that probably has to be read to be believed. This is an excellent resource not just for fans of low-budget zombie films, but for anyone who wants to understand the appeal of the genre. (Oct.)
The Seeking Heart: A Journey with Henri Nouwen Charles Ringma. Paraclete, $15.95 paper (164p) ISBN 1-55725-446-X
Written for spiritual sojourners, this "reflective reader" combines the wisdom of retired Regent College mission studies professor Ringma with themes, quotes and stories from the life of the late Henri Nouwen, a prolific writer and teacher of Christian spirituality. Proclaiming that "heart matters," Ringma follows a typical journey of the heart through travails that lead to transformation, understanding, service and finally to its "true home," described as "God's final future." In each brief chapter, Ringma begins with his own reflection and then ties it to a related musing from one of Nouwen's vast library of publications. Although the book contains a good deal about Nouwen, it never places him on a pedestal as a divine authority. It's more like a conversation begun by Ringma, drawing us in and helping us listen to Nouwen's thoughts on the theme. Ringma understands—as Nouwen did—how the many voices of culture today bombard us. He invites us to an inner renewal that results in "the gift and ability to hear another voice," one that is contrary to culture. The conversation between Ringma and Nouwen echoes this "voice of love," making this written journey an inspiring one indeed. (Oct.)
The Freedom of a Christian: Grace, Vocation, and the Meaning of Our HumanityGilbert Meilaender. Brazos, $22.99 paper (192p) ISBN 1-58743-193-9
Meilaender, a theologian and bioethicist who teaches at Valparaiso University, sees true freedom not as unconstrained choice, but as "the freedom of those who have been claimed and called by God," a freedom that can coexist with human limits and divine grace. "We can imagine," Meilaender writes, "a world in which the overall good is very important but also very complex, far too complex for any individual agent always to be sure of how his work contributes to achieving it." Whether directly or indirectly, the essays collected here suggest that such a world is not only imaginable; it is the world we inhabit. Themes of God's call and human responsibility recur as Meilaender discusses the relationship between theology and ethics, Christian understandings of vocation, and topics in bioethics. While unapologetic about his Lutheran theological roots, Meilaender engages a range of contemporary thinkers from Pope John Paul II to bioethicist Arthur Caplan. More broadly, Meilaender collaborates with a range of literary and theological classics—the Aeneid and the Iliad, Augustine, Dante, Kierkegaard—with a freshness that may send readers back to the bookshelf (or the backlist) to read or reread them, as Meilaender does, with contemporary issues in mind. (Sept.)
A History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Western CivilizationJonathan Kirsch. Harper San Francisco, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 0-06-081698-8
The question of how and when the world will end has captivated thinkers for centuries. Wars, natural disasters, social upheaval and personal suffering often send believers back to the writings of their prophets and seers, whose gift is to bring satisfying answers to such questions. The book most studied in the Western tradition is Revelation, the last entry in the Christian canon. Kirsch, an attorney and book columnist for the Los Angeles Times, takes the reader on a delightful 2,000-year journey as he explores a text he describes as "a romantic tale, full of intrigue and suspense" and shows how churches, philosophers, clergy and armchair interpreters have promoted their political, social and religious agendas based on their belief that the end was imminent. Some of this history can be quite sobering, as the powerful have waged wars and built societies based on their varying perceptions of Revelation's message. However, consistent with Kirsch's earlier literary efforts, in particular The Harlot by the Side of the Road, the author exercises great care while treating his material with both sobriety and a healthy sense of the ironic. Written clearly and for a general audience, this is a fine book that merits wide readership. (Sept.)
A Catalogue of Angels: The Heavenly, the Fallen and the Holy Ones Among UsVinita Hampton Wright. Paraclete, $16.95 paper (192p) ISBN 1-55725-421-4
Whether they stare austerely from stained-glass windows in churches or sit among the collectibles in Hallmark stores, angels are a ubiquitous part of American popular culture. In this combination of angelic history and encyclopedia, acclaimed novelist Wright (Dwelling Places), who describes herself as a believer in angels, investigates their manifestations in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the book's first section, she examines scripture, tradition, mysticism and (occasionally) occult materials to explore such topics as where angels are said to dwell, what caused some of them to "fall," how they interact with humankind, and what the angelic hierarchies are in the Abrahamic traditions. Angel narratives, she observes, help connect us to "a universe we will never understand yet in which we hold a position of great esteem, as those loved by God and ministered to by God's many angels." The other half of the book is an alphabetical angelology, spanning Abaddon (an angel of devastation and hell) to Zohar (the major text of the mystical Jewish tradition of the Kabbalah, which tradition states was transmitted through angels). The narrative portion of the book's opening section ends abruptly, and it is not entirely clear whether the book's overall purpose is scholarly or devotional. However, the encyclopedia is a useful tool for those who wish to pursue more advanced studies. (Sept.)
The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of What Jesus Believed and How It Was CorruptedObery M. Hendricks Jr. Doubleday, $26 (384p) ISBN 0-385-51664-9
Thundering like a biblical prophet against social and economic injustice, racism and political deceit ("Jesus did not establish a bureaucratic institution, weekly social gatherings, or houses of religious entertainment"), Hendricks, professor of biblical interpretation at New York Theological Seminary, proclaims Jesus as a political revolutionary who overturned the unjust social policies of his day. Rather unoriginally, Hendricks suggests that Jesus employed seven political strategies (e.g., "treat people's needs as holy"; "give a voice to the voiceless"; "expose the workings of oppression") in his challenge to the status quo. With cunning insight, however, Hendricks fervently examines the politics of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush—two U.S. presidents who have professed to be following the politics of Jesus—and argues that these leaders fall woefully short of living out Jesus' message of justice, righteousness and steadfast love. Hendricks also indicts church leaders for their complicity with these political figures, condoning unjust wars and corrupt economic practices and not calling judgment on them in Jesus' prophetic voice. Overall, Hendricks echoes the call to Christian social justice that John Howard Yoder proclaimed over 30 years ago in his own book of the same title. (Aug. 29)
Overcoming Life's Disappointments Harold S. Kushner. Knopf, $21.95 (192p) ISBN 1-4000-4057-4
When life does not unfold as planned, Rabbi Kushner (When Bad Things Happen to Good People) strongly but sympathetically urges his readers to take inventory, learn from their experiences and move on with an open heart. Who better to learn from, he contends, than Moses, the greatest hero of the Jewish people? Moses not only led the Jews from slavery in Egypt and through the desert for 40 years to receive the Torah, but had to continually bear the ingratitude and complaints of his people, and relegate his personal life to a distant second place. Threading vignettes of Moses' resiliency into his discussion, Kushner advises that when personal difficulties arise—whether in the form of illness, marital problems or job frustrations—readers should not allow their faith and dreams to die. Rather, they should draw upon hope and forgiveness to become stronger, channeling their love and fear toward a dream that incorporates the best of who they are. Kushner does not shy away from difficult issues and awkward dilemmas, and his years of rabbinical experience in dealing with congregants' troubles make him well suited to offer advice. This readable and sensitive discussion of "Life is tough; let's be strong enough not to be broken by it" should appeal to anyone who has ever been disappointed. (Aug. 16)
Billy Graham: A Narrative and Oral BiographyDeborah Hart Strober and Gerald S. Strober. Jossey-Bass, $21.95 (192p) ISBN 0-7879-8401-9
In June of 2005 Billy Graham preached his final "crusade" in New York. Nine months later, the once-indefatigable evangelist, 87 years old and slowed by Parkinson's disease, admitted that a sermon preached in New Orleans might possibly be his last. This timely tribute to the beloved elder statesman of evangelical Christianity is based on interviews with about 30 of Graham's longtime friends and associates. Interspersing topically arranged reminiscences with narrative and commentary, the book is less biography than encomium, occasionally veering into eulogy ("He will... be remembered as one of the few evangelists that led an impeccable life"). The Strobers, authors of numerous biographies including two previous books on Graham, take particular interest in his relations with Jews and his stance on Israel (during the Nixon era, Gerald worked for the American Jewish Committee as evangelical liaison). Some readers may be surprised to learn of Graham's friendship with Martin Luther King Jr.; his worldwide influence through four decades; and the fierce opposition he has sparked among some Christian fundamentalists. Graham fans will discover few surprises, and some may find the anecdotes repetitive and treacly, but many will enjoy the contributors' warm personal appreciation of Graham's life and work. (Aug.)
The Red Ember in the White Ash: Letting God Reignite Your Spiritual PassionLloyd John Ogilvie. Harvest House, $12.99 (176p) ISBN 0-7369-1592-2
Prolific author Ogilvie, former pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Southern California and chaplain of the United States Senate, can communicate simple matters of faith engagingly and complex matters with humble unpretentiousness. In this encouraging text, Ogilvie's intent is to awaken the Christian church from its slumber. To ignite its dormant faith, he presents a living parable of the rekindling of a near-extinguished ember of faith that is coaxed into a roaring inferno of success on behalf of God's kingdom. The author states that believers must open the "damper" by way of spiritual commitment, both when they initially decide to follow God, and then as a daily habit of faith evidenced by relinquishment, reassurance and rejuvenation. Throughout each chapter, Ogilvie offers poignant narratives of faith renewed. Some of these stories are personal, while others are drawn from biblical texts. Every chapter specifies a different aspect of fire-tending paired with spiritual disciplines such as stoking with strength, flaming with faithfulness, warming up the "frozen chosen" and quelling the fire-quenchers. Ogilvie's work is so charming, kindly framed and warmly extended that readers will gladly cozy up to his lovingly proffered summons for authentic heart rekindling. (Aug.)
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for BeliefFrancis S. Collins. Free Press, $26 (304p) ISBN 0-7432-8639-1
Collins, a pioneering medical geneticist who once headed the Human Genome Project, adapts his title from President Clinton's remarks announcing completion of the first phase of the project in 2000: "Today we are learning the language in which God created life." Collins explains that as a Christian believer, "the experience of sequencing the human genome, and uncovering this most remarkable of all texts, was both a stunning scientific achievement and an occasion of worship." This marvelous book combines a personal account of Collins's faith and experiences as a genetics researcher with discussions of more general topics of science and spirituality, especially centering around evolution. Following the lead of C.S. Lewis, whose Mere Christianity was influential in Collins's conversion from atheism, the book argues that belief in a transcendent, personal God—and even the possibility of an occasional miracle—can and should coexist with a scientific picture of the world that includes evolution. Addressing in turn fellow scientists and fellow believers, Collins insists that "science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced" and "God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible." Collins's credibility as a scientist and his sincerity as a believer make for an engaging combination, especially for those who, like him, resist being forced to choose between science and God. (July 17)
The Suburban Christian: Finding Spiritual Vitality in the Land of PlentyAlbert Y. Hsu. InterVarsity, $15 paper (176p) ISBN 0-8308-3334-X
Hsu (Grieving a Suicide), an associate editor at InterVarsity Press, provides a unique book examining the social and economic forces that created the suburbs, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses and providing a thoughtful critique of what living Christianly in the suburbs should look like. Hsu is writing to a divided Christian culture: one segment would call the suburbs evil and equate them with unhealthy selfishness and excess (which he acknowledges they may promote), while another unquestioningly accepts the suburban ethos without reflecting on how faith should influence suburban life. He reminds readers that the burbs do not inherently prevent a thriving and genuine Christian faith, and stresses that since over half the population now resides there, Christians must figure out how to do suburban living well. They can integrate faith into a suburban life by, say, going out of their way to remember the needs of those around them, giving generously, doing more business in their immediate local area, questioning the urge to buy what advertisers are pitching, getting out of their cars and getting to know their neighbors. Hsu avoids heavy-handed directives, but provides a number of thoughtful alternatives for the way different Christians may work their faith out in suburbia. Every suburban pastor should read this book. (July)
Minding What Matters: Psychotherapy and the Buddha WithinRobert Langan. Wisdom, $14.95 paper (224p) ISBN 0-86171-353-2
Aspiring to a new genre of "literary self-help," this work by psychoanalyst and Buddhist practitioner Langan requires patience. The first sentence ("People do things for different reasons, though sometimes their reasons are the same") will winnow the impatient, who will dismiss this as pretentious, from those who welcome the prospect of an intensely ruminative book. It's uniquely organized, alternating chapters written as essays on aspects of Buddhism and psychology with italicized vignettes that describe the relationship between a fictional analyst and his patient. Then follows a section of quasi-footnotes—"sources and associations"—that are difficult to correlate with the text because they are marked by asterisks, unnumbered and often woolly ("This play of shifting forms is quite the opposite of the cri de guerre of the British Victorian poet William Ernest Henley...."). Langan's free-associative writing style is appropriate for a therapy session, but becomes a little idiosyncratic in a book, as though the reader has been handed a first draft. "I can choose to assimilate you. (Resistance is futile.)" could be clever, but such allusive exposition slides past those who don't recognize the slogan of the Borg, the villainous assimilators of Star Trek. Langan is ambitious, but his literary aspirations sometimes obscure rather than illuminate his meaning. (July)
Praying: Finding Our Way Through Duty to DelightJ.I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom. InterVarsity, $18 (220p) ISBN 0-8308-3345-5
Easy is never the word that fits real praying," say evangelical Christian heavyweight Packer and Nystrom, a freelance writer who has penned more than 70 books and Bible study guides. Packer's series of talks on prayer combined with Nystrom's transcription and input blend to create this definitive work that will deepen readers' understanding of a difficult subject. Both authors admit struggles with prayer, which makes their words even more reassuring for Christians who rarely confess to similar wrestlings. The book covers all aspects of prayer: the God we pray to, meditation (what Packer calls "brooding"), prayer checkups, petitions and even corporate prayer. The pair also discuss fundamental questions: why must we praise God? and can we really complain to God? Readers shouldn't expect an easy, breezy read from Packer. Nystrom works to keep Packer's original voice strong, which means deep thinking, even deeper explanations and sentences of some length. His love of history is evident through his many references to C.S. Lewis and church fathers such as Luther and Augustine. The work of reading this book pays off in a much more thorough understanding of prayer, its hindrances and its joys. Study questions for each chapter encourage personal reflection and broader understanding. (July)
Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz Jan T. Gross. Random, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 0-375-50924-0
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Reviewed by Deborah E. Lipstadt
Rarely does a small book force a country to confront some of the more sordid aspects of its history. Jan T. Gross's Neighbors did precisely that. Gross exposed how in 1941 half the Polish inhabitants of the town of Jedwabne brutally clubbed, burned and dismembered the town's 1,600 Jews, killing all but seven.
The book was greeted with a terrible outcry in Poland. A government commission determined that not only did Gross get the story right but that many other cities had done precisely the same thing.
Now Gross has written Fear, an even more substantial study of postwar Polish anti-Semitism. This book tells a wartime horror story that should force Poles to confront an untold—and profoundly terrifying—aspect of their history.
Fear relates, in compelling detail, how Poles from virtually all segments of society persecuted the poor, emaciated and traumatized Holocaust survivors. Those who did not actually participate in the persecution, e.g., Church leaders and Communist officials, refused to use their influence to stop the pogroms, massacres and plundering of the Jews. The Communists used the anti-Semitism to consolidate their rule. Church leaders justified the blood libel charges. Even Polish historians have either ignored or tried to justify this anti-Semitism.
Gross builds a meticulous case. He argues that this postwar persecution is "a smoking gun," which proves that during the war Poles not only acquiesced but, in many cases, actively assisted the Nazis in their persecution of the Jews. Had they been appalled by Germany's policies toward the Jews or tried to help the victims, Poles could never have engaged in such virulent anti-Semitism in the postwar period. Gross notes that when the Germans were trying to put down the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Poles—including children—not only cheered as Jewish snipers were spotted and killed but gleefully showed the Germans where Jews were hiding. Those Poles who helped Jews were often persecuted or even killed by their neighbors.
I am troubled by references to "Polish death camps." They were not Polish death camps but camps the Germans placed in Poland. I have taken even stronger issue with the opinion voiced by many Jews that the "Poles were as bad as—and maybe worse than—the Germans." I argue that while there was a strong tradition of anti-Semitism in Poland, Poles never tried to murder Jews in a systematic fashion. After reading Fear, the next time I hear someone say the Poles were as bad as the Germans, I will probably still challenge that charge —after all the damage wrought by the Germans cannot be compared to what the Poles did—but my challenge will be far less forceful. I may even keep silent. 8 pages of photos. (July 4)
Lipstadt is director of the Rabbi Donald Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University and the author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving.
