Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 1/15/2007

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 1/15/2007

Writing in an Age of Silence
Sara Paretsky. Verso, $22.95 (192p) ISBN 978-1-84467-122-9

In this brief, potent memoir, bestselling novelist Paretsky (Fire Sale) proves as sharp and straight shooting as V.I. Warshawski, the female private investigator she's made famous in 12 novels. Carefully sketching her conjoined lives as an artist and activist who cut her political teeth on the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s, she paints a moving portrait of herself as an engaged intellectual looking to make a substantive and life-affirming mark on society. Paretsky can be pointed in recollecting childhood influences—including Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and her realization that the only woman writer taught in school was named "George"—and how they play into silences faced now by writers and citizens. Paretsky is also passionate about the religious right and the Patriot Act, but her views on how the current administration treats women's sexual and reproductive freedoms are among the most powerful. "The junior Mr. Bush has given free rein to corporate venality," she asserts, " but he is adamant about controlling the sexual behavior of women both at home and abroad. Little girls, you must get Daddy's permission for what you want to do in the privacy of your bedroom." Paretsky's informed views illuminate her fiction and add dimension to discussions of the political responsibilities of the artist. (May)

Why Classical Music Still Matters
Lawrence Kramer. Univ. of California, $26 (247p) ISBN 978-0-520-25082-6

Classical music isn't necessarily that bad off, Kramer admits; there's still a diverse range of concert performances, and many listeners are choosing to download works from the Internet. But "something still feels wrong," something he identifies as the loss of the genre's crucial role in our cultural lives. The reasons Kramer, a music and literature professor at Fordham University, offers for why one ought to appreciate classical music fall back on the usual high-culture arguments that it "asks its listeners to imagine a work with more fullness and complexity than most other music does," converting emotions into tangible sound yet somehow not reducing them to abstraction. The problem with writing about classical music, of course, is that no matter how passionately you describe a Brahms quintet, it's not the same as hearing an actual performance. At times, Kramer's enthusiasm becomes overwrought, as when he rhapsodizes about the piano's harp and hammers uniting to create an instrument of " magic and engineering." He's more convincing when he describes the effect a young busker's Bach sonata has on the crowds at a New York subway platform. Such moments of direct observation are sprinkled throughout the erudite text—if only they appeared more consistently. (May)

The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made
Norman Lebrecht. Anchor, $14.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4000-9658-9

British novelist and music critic Lebrecht (The Song of Names) revisits the question raised in the title of his 1997 exposéWho Killed Classical Music? Here he delivers a barbed requiem for the classical recording industry, reviewing its historical and technological arc from "Caruso's first scratchings to the serenity of the CD," while measuring the rise and fall of classical music in terms of its popularity, availability, producers and performers. His dishy, personality-driven prose features both intelligence and point of view, while his commentary and list of the best and worst recordings—arguably the freshest element in the book—make plain the author's pugnacious, critical tastes. With subjectivity acknowledged, the author's pick of the best includes discs that have influenced public imagination or the development of recording. The worst recordings note the "things that can go wrong when we aspire to the highest." Finding favor is a 1987 release of Debussy's La Mer and Elgar's Enigma Variations performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. The Debussy, says Lebrecht, "shimmered like the English Channel at Eastbourne on a summer's day, a pointillist's paradise." Among the worst is a 2000 recording of Verdi's Requiem featuring tenor Andrea Bocelli, whose technique is deemed so insufficient that he "is exposed as cruelly as a Sunday morning park footballer would be in the World Cup final." In its arguments and attitudes, this is a lively approach to this art form. (Apr.)

The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among the Lost and Left Behind
Terry Glavin. St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-36231-7

Five major epochs of mass extinction have marked the past 440 million years, but in this striking and original work, Glavin (The Last Great Sea) argues that the most devastating is today's "sixth" extinction—in which the world is losing many of its cultures, languages and local traditions along with its wildlife. In a fresh and eloquent synthesis of diverse phenomena, Glavin describes some of the consequences. In the Russian Far East, for example, where the rivers have been depleted of their fish, aboriginal fishing communities are losing knowledge of the old means of survival as well as their livelihood. On the Lofoten Islands in Norway, environmental laws protect the whales but lock the whalers out of their traditional way of life. Along North America's west coast, many plant species have been lost to industrial agriculture—along with the words for them in native cultures. Glavin finds a few bright spots, such as in Costa Rica, where nearly extinct birds survive because land is protected, and a village in the eastern Himalayas that consciously fosters diversity. He argues that humanity's only hope lies in places like these, where diverse ideas, choices and living things are allowed to flourish. His extensive annotated bibliography, embedded in the end notes, adds to the significance of this insightful and poignant book. (Apr.)

The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir
A.M. Homes. Viking, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-670-03838-1

Novelist Homes's searing 2004 New Yorker essay about meeting her biological parents 31 years after they gave her up for adoption forms the first half of this much-anticipated memoir, but the rest of the book doesn't match its visceral power. The first part, distilled by more than a decade's reflection and written with haunting precision, recounts Homes's unfulfilling reunions with both parents in 1993 after her birth mother, Ellen Ballman, contacted her. Homes (This Book Will Change Your Life,) learns that Ballman became pregnant at age 22, after being seduced by Norman Hecht, the married owner of the shop where Ballman worked. But Ballman's emotional neediness and the more upwardly mobile Hecht's unwillingness to fully acknowledge Homes as a family member shakes Homes's deepest sense of self. The rest of the memoir is a more undigested account of how Ballman's death pushed Homes to research her genealogy. Hecht's refusal to help Homes apply to the Daughters of the American Revolution based on their shared lineage elicits her "nuclear-hot" rage, which devolves into a list of accusing questions she would ask him about his life choices in a mock L.A. Law episode. The final chapter is a loving but tacked-on tribute to Homes's adoptive grandmother that may leave readers wishing the author had given herself more time to fully integrate her adoptive and biological selves. (Apr.)

My River Home: A Journey from the Gulf War to the Gulf of Mexico
Marcus Eriksen. Beacon, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8070-7275-2

The dream, shared with a fellow grunt on long night watches during the Gulf War, was to raft more than 2,000 miles, from the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Fantasizing about the journey got Eriksen through days of scorching sun, toxic oil fires, dysentery and the stench of Iraqi soldiers' rotting bodies. Thirteen years later, the once gung-ho marine reservist had become a committed antiwar activist and set out from central Minnesota on a ramshackle vessel constructed of 232 empty two-liter soda bottles, a Ford Mustang driver's seat and a paddle wheel powered by a 10-speed bicycle. Eriksen's vivid vignettes from his experience in Kuwait conjure the gritty realities of war with a mix of affection for his fellow soldiers and bitterness about a conflict that "no one fought for democracy. No one fought for human rights. And no one fought for the safety of America." That candid anger is tempered by the first-time author's often-humorous accounts of his misadventures on the river, including his discovery that it was impossible to float his precarious raft through the swampy first miles of the Mississippi; he used a canoe for the first leg instead. (Apr.)

Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language
Seth Lerer. Columbia Univ., $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-231-13794-2

Lerer is not just a scholar (he's a professor of humanities at Stanford and the man behind the Teaching Company's audio and videotape series The History of the English Language); he's also a fan of English—his passion is evident on every page of this examination of how our language came to sound—and look—as it does and how words came to have their current meanings. He writes with friendly reverence of the masters—Chaucer, Milton, Johnson, Shakespeare, Twain—illustrating through example the monumental influence they had on the English we speak and write today (Shakespeare alone coined nearly 6,000 words). Anecdotes illustrate how developments in the physical world (technological advances, human migration) gave rise to new words and word-forms. With the invention of the telephone, for instance, a neutral greeting was required to address callers whose gender and social rank weren't known. America minted "hello" (derived from the maritime "ahoy"), and soon Twain enshrined the term in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Whether it's Lerer's close examination of the earliest surviving poem in English (the seventh-century Caedmon's Hymn) or his fresh perspective on Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the book percolates with creative energy and will please anyone intrigued by how our richly variegated language came to be. (Apr.)

Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919
Ann Hagedorn. Simon & Schuster, $30 (560p) ISBN 978-0-7432-4371-1

Former Wall Street Journal staffer Hagedorn (Beyond the River) makes a stylish entry into the history-of-a-year genre with this account of America in upheaval in the wake of WWI. In 1919, both the world and the U.S. were in need of reconstruction: soldiers returning from war needed jobs, and the influenza epidemic wasn't quite under control. Two threads Hagedorn follows are middle-class Americans' fear of Bolshevism, and the struggles of black Americans. U.S. Attorney-General Palmer instigated raids to try to root out leftist activists, and in what may have been "the State Department's first official interference in African-American politics," the agency denied black Americans' request for passports to travel to France and speak to the Paris Peace Conference about racial equality. In a year rife with lynchings in the Deep South, W.E.B. Du Bois, who had urged black Americans to shelve their grievances and fight the Germans, now argued that blacks, having served the nation, deserved to be accorded civil rights. Still, some exciting cultural developments presaged the roaring '20s: F. Scott Fitzgerald's star rose, and the nation's first dial telephones were installed in Norfolk, Va. This vivid account of a nation in tumult and transition is absorbing, and the nexus of global and national upheaval is chillingly relevant. (Apr.)

Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives
David Sloan Wilson. Delacorte, $24 (400p) ISBN 978-0-385-34021-2

Evolution is far more than just dinosaurs and fossils, Wilson says, and he enthusiastically explains, with a clear and pleasing style, how it affects our everyday lives. This is Wilson's fourth book on evolution (Darwin's Cathedral, etc.) and is by far the most accessible account of evolution for a general audience, as well as the farthest ranging. Building on diverse examples, Wilson demonstrates that evolution is completely relevant to modern human affairs, including how we use language, create culture and define morality. The discussion is as entertaining as it is easy to follow, covering topics as seemingly unrelated as why the burying beetle commits infanticide and why so many domestic animals have floppy ears. For readers seeking a more technical presentation, Wilson offers both a complete bibliography and list of Web sites for reference. Readers who've grown weary of the usual treatment of evolution as a deadly foe to religion will find Wilson's book a cheerful antidote, breaking new ground in its sweeping breadth and offering much to think about. (Apr. 3)

Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs
Morton Meyers, M.D.Arcade, $27.95 (408p) ISBN 978-1-55970-819-7

Meyers, professor emeritus of radiology and internal medicine at SUNY–Stony Brook, has a simple message: the most significant breakthroughs in medical research usually came about when people were looking for something else entirely. Lithium's effect on bipolar disorder, for example, was discovered because a scientist was taking advantage of its solubility to run toxicity tests on patients. Likewise, Viagra was developed during experiments on medications designed to treat angina. Meyers has dozens of stories like this, in the areas of antibiotics, cancer treatments, cardiovascular therapy and antidepressants. The anecdotes are lively and filled with miniportraits of important doctors like Paul Ehrlich (who pioneered the use of chemistry to develop medical treatments) and Arthur Voorhees (who stumbled onto the treatment for abdominal aortic aneurysms), but some chapters feel forcefully wedged in. The role of accident in creating the thalidomide molecule is glossed in one sentence, and too little information is given about contemporary research into the therapeutic use of LSD to draw any meaningful conclusions (although it's a good excuse to revisit the story of Albert Hofmann's bicycle ride). But it will be hard to argue with Meyers's criticism of a rigid scientific culture that discourages experimenters from keeping an eye out for the unexpected. (Apr.)

More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics
Steven E. Landsburg. Free Press, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4165-3221-7

Economics books full of "uncommon sense" are more common after the success of Freakonomics, but this rambling survey of hot-button and quotidian issues viewed from a libertarian economic perspective doesn't measure up. Landsburg (The Armchair Economist) is sometimes pleasantly counterintuitive, but too often simply contentious. In using cost/benefit calculations to argue in favor of racial profiling or why we shouldn't care about the looting of Baghdad's museums, he strains to celebrate "all that is counter, original, spare and strange." While positing multiple solutions to interesting problems, he forces logical readers to confront uncomfortable positions—as in the title essay, urging chaste citizens to sleep around, thereby diluting the pool of potential sex partners with AIDS. But the chapters typically conclude without resolution—at one point, the author shrugs: "It's not easy to sort out causes from effects." One suspects that a rival economist could swiftly debunk many of Landsburg's arguments—for instance, his chapter praising misers (who produce but don't consume) depends on the assumption that all resources are fixed and finite. By the time he makes the head-scratching case that "it's always an occasion for joy when other people have more children," the reader may be in the mood for some plain old common sense. (Apr.)

Stealing Your Life: The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan
Frank W. Abagnale. Broadway, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7679-2586-0

Offering spine-tingling terror for anyone who has a Social Security number and birth date, counterfeiting expert Abagnale (author of Catch Me if You Can—a memoir detailing his former life in crime) chronicles the means and aftereffects of identity theft. Studded with alarming case histories, the first half of the book reads like a how-to for would-be thieves, offering a closeup look at financial and criminal fraud and Americans' particular vulnerability to it. By page 100, many readers will be willing to do anything to prevent a future fraud against them. Fortunately, Abagnale supplies a 20-step prevention plan in the second half, including basic tips such as regularly checking your credit report, using a shredder and avoiding questionable Internet sites and ATMs. For those unlucky enough to be victimized, he offers step-by-step instructions on filing a police report and contacting the Fair Trade Commission. Above all, this heart-pounding guide drives home the point that identity theft can come from any direction at any time to anyone—whether a careless credit card user, diehard check-writer, "cash-only" buyer or even the deceased. (Apr. 24)

The Making of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain, 1789–1837
Ben Wilson. Penguin Press, $27.95 (464p) ISBN 978-1-59420-116-5

In this stimulating cultural history, Britain starts out vulgar, drunken, plain-spoken, unruly and sexually relaxed, but ends up prim, abstemious, euphemistic, conformist and sexually repressed—a reversal that was bitterly contested at every step. British historian Wilson links the sea change to fears of French invasion, domestic revolution and the demands of a burgeoning but unstable industrial capitalism. In response to these upheavals, he contends, a Scroogeian alliance of evangelical philanthropists, secular utilitarians and free-market ideologues blamed individual moral turpitude for crime, poverty and social turmoil, insisting that only imposed values of sexual propriety, hard work, self-denial and refined manners could save society. But creeping Victorianism, Wilson notes, was resisted by populists, Romantics and those "nostalgic for the free and easy, tolerant and gregarious culture of previous generations." These resisters denounced moral reformers as snobs, joyless Puritans, bullies and champions of a hypocritical "age of cant." Wilson's heart is with these dissidents, though his head doesn't entirely reject high-minded proto-Victorian impulses. He traces the conflict through a discursive, elegantly written survey of a wide range of subjects, from quack patent medicines to aristocratic sex scandals to London theater riots. The result is an insightful portrait of a culture war that's strongly reminiscent of modern-day America's. Photos. (Mar. 19)

Virgin: The Untouched History
Hanne Blank. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-59691-010-2

By any material reckoning, virginity does not exist," writes Blank in this informative, funny and provocative analysis of one of the most elusive—and prized—qualities of human sexuality. Blank, an independent scholar, has pieced together a history of how humans have constructed the idea of virginity (almost always female and heterosexual) and engineered its uses to suit cultural and political forces. Blank has no shortage of fascinating facts: since Western virginity was symbolized by the color white, missionaries viewed nonwhite peoples as sexually immoral; late medieval and Renaissance moralists thought they could detect whether a woman was a virgin by examining her urine ("a virgin's was clear, sparkling, and thin"). Blank also has a pleasing, highly readable style that allows her to convey large amounts of information with wit and agility. But she becomes most animated, and political, when she probes contemporary ideas about virginity. Taking on a range of questions—why is virginity considered sexy? how does the idea of virginity fuel violence against women?—she makes the case that contemporary culture is as obsessed with, and benighted about, virginity, as those of the past. Thoroughly researched, carefully argued and written with a sly sense of humor, this is a bright addition to the popular literature of women's and cultural studies. (Mar.)

Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus
Alex Halberstadt. Da Capo, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-306-81300-9

One of America's most popular songwriters was Jerome Felder, better known as "Doc Pomus." For decades he wrote big hits ("Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment," "A Teenager in Love") for such artists as Dion, Fabian, the Drifters, Elvis and Dr. John. Pomus (1925–1991) himself was more of a blues story than anything he could have written. Halberstadt, who writes on music and pop culture, can be awkward writing about Pomus's intimate life, although he definitely knows his music history. The son in a New York working-class Jewish family, Pomus contracted polio when he was seven and lost the use of his legs. From then on, his life was all about music; he started bands, wrote music and promoted artists until the day he died. Halberstadt's understanding of how Jewish and African-American "hipster" subcultures fit together in the music world is particularly sharp. He takes readers to 1940s nightclubs where Pomus was the only white man around; hotel lobbies where Pomus spent afternoons listening for "the random brilliance of overheard speech"; and Pomus's hotel room when Bob Dylan came calling. This strangely affecting biography follows a straight chronology, including wonderful excerpts from Pomus's own diaries and a great selection of rarely seen photos. (Mar.)

Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone
Larry Devlin. Public Affairs, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-1-58648-405-7

In this vivid, authoritative account of being CIA station chief in Congo during the height of the Cold War, Devlin brings to life a harrowing tale of postcolonial political intrigue, covert violence and the day-to-day reality of being a key player in a global chess match between superpowers. Posted to Congo in 1960, Devlin quickly found himself at the swirling center of conflict— the Belgian colonial rulers had pulled out, the local strongmen had begun what would be a decades-long struggle for power and the Soviet Union was sending agents to influence events. Arriving on the scene with his wife and young daughter in tow, Devlin finds "central authority had broken down; there was no one in control who could prevent random acts of barbarity." As the country begins to fall apart and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba starts flirting with the Soviets, orders come from Washington for "his removal." Within weeks Lumumba is not only out of power but dead. While the rest of the book is full of exciting cloak-and-dagger derring-do and scrapes with death, it is this incident that haunts Devlin. He devotes the last chapter of the book to a point-by-point refutation of his or the agency's involvement in Lumumba's death. That alleged assassination is often used to illustrate the hypocrisy in U.S. foreign policy. Devlin's straightforward, plainly written approach to the task lends credence to his assertion of innocence. (Mar.)

Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas
Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher. Doubleday, $26.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-385-51080-6

The conservatism of the nation's second African-American Supreme Court justice has made him a pariah in the black community, an irony that centers this probing biography, expanded from the authors'Washington Post Magazine profile. Thomas's rise from disadvantaged circumstances to Yale Law School, a meteoric government career and appointment to Thurgood Marshall's Court seat, Merida and Fletcher note, seems an affirmative action success story. Yet Thomas has opposed affirmative action, prisoners' rights, abortion and other planks of the liberal agenda, leading to ubiquitous complaints—the authors cite black leaders, prison inmates, even Thomas's relatives—that he's forgotten his roots. Merida and Fletcher present a lucid, well-researched account of Thomas's controversial life and jurisprudence, including evidence supporting Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations, and a nuanced discussion of the politics of black authenticity. They portray Thomas as a conflicted man: a committed conservative with an ethos of self-reliance, who took advantage of affirmative action only to have his achievements tarnished by his own insecurities and others' suspicions of incompetence or hypocrisy. The authors' attempts to link his convictions to his psyche—they make much of his alleged resentment of light-skinned black professional elites—don't always click, but Thomas still emerges as a fascinating and emblematic figure. (Mar. 20)

Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics
Earl Black and Merle Black. Simon & Schuster, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7432-6206-4

Politics by the numbers is the modus operandi of the Black brothers, twins who teach political science (Earl at Rice University, Merle at Emory University). Having focused on politics in the Southern states in three previous academic collaborations, the Blacks now divide the United States into five regions (South, Northeast, Pacific Coast, Midwest, Mountains/Plains), and explain how and why national electoral politics have become a close contest between two parties, Democrats and Republicans, that cannot claim permanent majority status. Most of the election data they examine comes from presidential elections; their analysis of races for the House of Representatives and the Senate come toward the end and are out of kilter with the results of the November 2006 House and Senate elections. Still, the Blacks' generalizations deserve consideration. They believe the Democrats are quite likely to retain advantages in the Northeast and Pacific Coast regions, while the Republicans are quite likely to win the South and Mountains/Plains regions in the 2008 election. That leaves the Midwest as the swing region. (The Blacks define the Midwest as 10 states, including Kentucky and West Virginia.) Though the book will probably fascinate politics junkies, the emphasis on statistics rather than lively anecdotes means rough going for qualitative rather than quantitative minds. 34 charts and tables. (Mar.)

The Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World
Phillip F. Schewe. Joseph Henry, $27.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-309-10296-4

With an appreciation of the technical ingenuity, human drama and cultural impact of the electrical grid, physicist and playwright Schewe illuminates how electricity has catalyzed both the best and worst of modernity since Thomas Edison devised the first electrical network in 1882. Even as the grid delivered light and mechanization, foremost minds like Westinghouse, Tesla and Insull continued to refine it, creating a society totally dependent on its invisible wonders. In the 1965 Northeast blackout, for example, New York shut down for lack of a product that barely existed half a century before. The grid's complexity demands predictability, Schewe shows, but even a minor short circuit can trigger a systemwide avalanche. Peppering his narrative with quotations from cultural critics Lewis Mumford and Henry David Thoreau, he argues that, economically, "we can't afford to throw away two-thirds" of energy as waste, and explains how nuclear and renewable resources can reduce pollution. Schewe also explores how Africa and Asia's dearth of electricity affects the participation of impoverished people in society. Though the final chapter on how astronauts took energy with them to the moon seems unnecessary, overall Schewe crafts an entertaining narrative with enlightening scientific and historical detail. (Mar. 15)

Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before
Alastair Fothergill. Univ. of California, $39.95 (309p) ISBN 978-0-520-25054-3

In this gorgeous coffee-table book, an offshoot of the Discovery Channel/ BBC series of the same name, zoologist and BBC producer Fothergill takes readers on a kaleidoscopic tour of the flora, fauna and natural history of the Earth's poles, forests, plains, deserts, mountains and oceans. The series of jaw-dropping photographs starts with a view of Earth from the moon (and pointing out the obvious but shocking fact that no one has been able to see it live since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission). Other images reveal the astonishing variety of geology and life around the globe, including an emperor penguin eyeing an enormous jade-green iceberg; a grove of ancient monkey puzzle trees on the slopes of the Andes; a wild (and endangered) two-humped Bactrian camel strolling with her calf across the Gobi Desert; a long-furred, red-eyed gelada (a kind of primate) perched on a cliff in the Ethiopian highlands; a cave explorer parachuting into Mexico's 1,100-foot-deep Cave of Swallows; a blimplike nerpa (the only known fresh-water seal) swimming through Siberia's Lake Baikal; and the lacy undulations of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta captured by satellite. The book's only drawback is its large size and heavy weight, which makes for cumbersome reading. (Mar.)

A Weekend with Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures
Randy Cepuch. Thunder's Mouth, $22.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-56025-954-1

Few investors show up at annual shareholders' meetings or return proxy forms because the agenda is usually technical and the votes foregone conclusions. But Cepuch shows readers how much they're missing with this highly entertaining account of 24 meetings rated for Educational Value, Entertainment Value, Freebies, and Food and Drink. The meetings range from elaborate productions at companies like Berkshire Hathaway and Wal-Mart to dull affairs staged at lawyers' insistence, at companies like Playboy and Microsoft. Managers are feisty or embattled or folksy or worshipped; shareholders are probing or gushing or disgruntled or incoherent. Yet Cepuch unobtrusively works in valuable material for investors about knowing your companies, thinking like an owner and paying attention. It requires no specialized training to judge whether managers are honest, competent and focused on running a sound and profitable business, he points out. There's a bit more discussion of fonts and other presentation items than most readers will appreciate, but this can be forgiven in a former annual report writer. Overall, this ranks among the best commonsense investment books, and is certainly one of the most fun to read. (Mar.)

The Red Parts: A Memoir
Maggie Nelson. Free Press, $24 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4165-3203-3

The grisly 1969 Michigan murder of 23-year-old law student Jane Mixer is evocatively re-examined here by her niece, poet Nelson, in light of new evidence in the case. Just as Nelson was completing a book of poetry about her aunt in 2004 (Jane: A Murder)—after 35 years of a closed case for which John Collins had been convicted in 1970—new DNA evidence linked a retired, now elderly nurse, Gary Leiterman, to Mixer's murder. Nelson's intimate memoir chronicles how she and her mother, older sister Emily and grandfather managed to harness their emotional pain and "bear witness" at the Ann Arbor trial and conviction of Leiterman. Nelson's search for answers in the murder of Mixer, who hitched a ride from a stranger and was shot twice at close range, strangled, then dragged to a cemetery, dilates into excruciating details about other cases of girls missing and mutilated. Nelson's cathartic narrative encompasses closure of unrelated events in her own life, such as mourning her dead father, dealing with a recent heartache and reconciling with her once-wayward sister. Her narrative is wrenching, though readers come no closer to understanding the character of Mixer or the motive for her murder. (Mar.)

Marc Chagall
Jonathan Wilson. Schocken/Nextbook, $19.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-8052-4201-0

Born Moishe Shagal in 1887, the son of a poor Orthodox Jewish laborer drew lifelong inspiration from his native Vitebsk, Belorussia. Chagall became famous for painting explosively colorful rooftop fiddlers, airborne cows and lovers floating above onion-domed churches, and a tallith-wrapped crucified Jesus. A victim of anti-Semitism who was ambivalent about his role as a Jewish artist, Chagall adorned churches and synagogues with stained-glass windows and often chose Christ as his symbol of martyrdom when depicting Jewish tragedies. Chagall's road to fame is mapped out by Wilson: his exposure, as a St. Petersburg student, to Matisse's dazzling palette; feverishly productive early years in Paris, where he absorbed an array of artistic influences; his immersion in politics in postrevolution Vitebsk, where he founded an art school; his return to Paris, where the legendary Vollard became his art dealer; and his New York exile during the Holocaust, where his beloved wife, Bella, died (he lived on for four more decades). Wilson's critiques (particularly of Chagall's "slippery" identity and his work's supposed sentimentality) are familiar, and this is less a fresh biography than a synthesis of writings by Benjamin Harshav, Chagall and his intimates. But Wilson (A Palestine Affair) is an incisive, lively writer. Domestic photos are included, but the omission of color reproductions of Chagall's oeuvre in this entry in the Jewish Encounters series is frustrating. (Mar. 13)

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
Sharon Begley, foreword by the Dalai Lama, preface by Daniel Goleman. Ballantine, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6390-1

The Dalai Lama, Buddhist monks and some of the world's leading neuroscientists all gather once a year at a conference on the latest discoveries in neuroplasticity: the study of how the human brain can change itself. (This is the second book the subject due out in March, along with Norman Doidge's The Brain That Changes Itself). This remarkable conference serves as the center of Wall Street Journal science columnist Begley's account of neuroplasticity. Until recently, the reigning theory was that neurons in the brain didn't regenerate. Begley walks readers through the seminal experiments showing that in fact new neurons are created in the brain every day, even in people in their 70s. With frequent tangents into Buddhist philosophy, Begley surveys current knowledge of neuroplasticity. Most interesting is a series of experiments with Buddhist adepts who have spent over 10,000 hours meditating. What these experiments show is tantalizing: it might be possible to train the brain to be better at feeling certain emotions, such as compassion. No less interesting are the hurdles the scientists face in recruiting participants; yogis replied that if these scientists wanted to understand meditation, they should meditate. Despite the title, the book holds no neuroplasticity tips, but it is a fascinating exploration of the ways the mind can change the brain. (Mar. 13)

Corrections: The author of The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession (Reviews, Dec. 18, 2006) is Ken Alder.

The title of Heather Ewing's biography of James Smithson is The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution and the Foundation of the Smithsonian (Reviews, Jan. 1).

Lifestyle

Food & Entertaining

Cooking from the Hip: Fast, Easy, Phenomenal Meals
Cat Cora with Ann Krueger Spivack. Houghton Mifflin, $30 (272p) ISBN 978-0-618-72990-6

Cora, the lone woman to be anointed an "Iron Chef" in the Food Network's American version of the series, aims to translate the fast, flashy style of that high-pressure kitchen into recipes that home cooks who have similar time constraints but comparatively modest gadgets and pantries can enjoy. The results are generally pleasing and more accessible than many of the concoctions presented on TV by battling chefs. Four sections break the food into "fast," "easy," "fun," and "phenomenal" categories that are a welcome change from the traditional progression through each course and show Cora's spontaneous, easygoing yet stylish way to its best advantage. Simple variations on classics stand out, as in a Curried Broccoli Salad ("fast") and spiky, flavorful Watermelon Gazpacho ("easy") even when some recipes' placements are questionable: a silky Potato-Celery Root soup is nice, but hardly phenomenal, and beginning or busy cooks may find recipes like hand-rolled Dolmathes or sushi more frustrating and time-intensive than fun, even if friends help. Fortunately, Cora's sunny, can-do attitude and the boxed tips on ingredients and preparation sprinkled throughout will help to dispel many doubts. Home cooks will appreciate the way they expand the repertory of recipes that are upscale enough to impress company, but simple enough to encourage use throughout a busy week. Color photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)

The MediterrAsian Way
Ric Watson and Trudy Thelander. Wiley, $27.50 (320p) ISBN 978-0-470-04558-9

Watson and Thelander, creators of MediterrAsian.com, combine the sensible, down-to-earth principles of the Mediterranean diet with those of south and east Asia to create a blend that is about lifestyle as much as cuisine. Their concept is appealing, but the book is more wishful than convincing in delivery. It begins by "unlocking the secrets" of the two diets, examining both regions' nutritional pyramids and citing much research to bolster claims for their superiority, but many subsequent parts emphasize exercise, of both mind and body, with overly obvious suggestions like "dance to the beat" and "go for a scenic walk" for burning calories and "get a pet" and "visit the library" for combating stress. An outline of two weeks on the diet demonstrates Watson and Thelander's "MediterrAsian" balanced meals, heavy on grains and vegetables and sparing with meat and fats. This philosophy lends itself to one-dish meals, which many of the recipes are, from Lemony Tuna, Olive and Vegetable Pasta to Fragrant Chicken Curry. Unfortunately, few rise above their appearance of being stylistic approximations of such dishes as Grilled "Tuscan" Chicken or the inevitable "Greek" salad; the fused cuisine feels both more familiar and homogenous and less lively and life-changing in the way a new diet must be to achieve great results. B&w and color photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)

Health

Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment
Bikram Choudhury. Collins, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-056808-5

Choudhury (Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class) has been called the "Bill Gates of Yoga," but readers may detect a bit of P.T. Barnum in this "hot yoga" showman. Born in India, Choudhury has lived in Hollywood since the early 1970s, when he founded his Yoga College of India. His brash style and personal wealth have drawn fire from the media and American yogis. His somewhat militant, "no pain, no gain" rhetoric and franchised, one-size-fits-all approach may seem contrary to the principles of yoga; Bikram claims his system is the most authentic yoga taught in the U.S. The Bikram Yoga sequence consists of 26 postures, two breathing exercises and brief resting periods performed in a room heated above 100 degrees. This method, Choudhury claims, can cure everything from physical injuries and serious illnesses to troubled relationships and spiritual poverty. Some readers may be put off by frequent name-dropping of famous students (Shirley MacLaine) and those who have received miraculous cures (former President Nixon). (Apr.)

The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person
Judith Beck. Oxmoor House (www.oxmoorhouse.com), $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8487-3173-1

Can thinking and eating like a thin person be learned, similar to learning to drive or use a computer? Beck (Cognitive Therapy for Challenging Problems) contends so, based on decades of work with patients who have lost pounds and maintained weight through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Beck's six-week program adapts CBT, a therapeutic system developed by Beck's father, Aaron, in the 1960s, to specific challenges faced by yo-yo dieters, including negative thinking, bargaining, emotional eating, bingeing, and eating out. Beck counsels readers day-by-day, introducing new elements (creating advantage response cards, choosing a diet, enlisting a diet coach, making a weight-loss graph) progressively and offering tools to help readers stay focused (writing exercises, to-do lists, ways to counter negative thoughts). There are no eating plans, calorie counts, recipes or exercises; according to Beck, any healthy diet will work if readers learn to think differently about eating and food. Beck's book is like an extended therapy session with a diet coach. (Apr.)

Lean and Hard: The Body You've Always Wanted in Just 24 Workouts
Mackie Shilstone. Wiley, $24.95 (282p) ISBN 978-0-470-03763-8

Shilstone (The Fat Burning Bible) uses science to design a program that creates lean muscle. Though women will find useful information here, men seem to be the main audience for this book, that is men serious enough about their hard body to endure a regimen of supplements, a strict meal plan and several weeks of high-intensity workouts. Students of fitness science will have the chance to learn all about things like "Positive Nitrogen Balance," "The Anabolic State" and the "Lactic Acid System." Formulas are provided to calculate recommended daily calories, target heart rate during workouts and current muscle-to-fat percentage. Exercises and stretches come with pictures and drawings to demonstrate, and a daily exercise checklist and food journal demand accountability. The fact that Shilstone can take credit for the athletic bods of heavyweight champion Michael Spinks, NBA star Manute Bol and baseball legend Brett Butler proves his techniques are sound. But his writing doesn't serve to entertain, and his textbooklike tone makes reading a chore. (Mar.)

Parenting

Taming the Spirited Child: Strategies for Parenting Challenging Children Without Breaking Their Spirits
Michael Popkin. Fireside, $14 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8689-3

Psychologist and parenting expert Popkin, a frequent Oprah guest, devotes his latest title to helping parents "tame" kids who are difficult or spirited. Popkin has a fondness for acronyms, such as CAPPS to describe the spirited child as Curious, Adventurous, Powerful, Persistent and Sensitive. Parents may very well recognize their child's traits in these pages and appreciate the author's understanding of the frustration spirited kids often inspire. Popkin offers parents strategies to calm and defuse their child's anger, and ways to build a nurturing relationship without fighting or giving in, such as using his FLAC process ("meant to reduce the amount of flack in your relationship with your child," using Feelings, Limits, Alternatives and Consequences). Many books offer pick-and-choose options, but Popkin encourages readers to read his complete work before trying his tactics, as his methods are interwoven in a manner than helps build and balance the parent/child relationship. Included are plenty of hands-on activity suggestions parents can employ to avoid power struggles and give spirited kids the time, space and behavior structures they need. Tackling the book in its modest entirety will be easy for most readers as Popkin is an entertaining writer with keen insights; his own son was a spirited youngster, and the author draws from personal experience as well as his professional expertise. (Mar.)

The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business with Babies—And How You Can, Too
Cate Colburn-Smith and Andrea Serrette. Penguin/Tarcher, $13.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-58542-544-0

Colburn-Smith and Serrette aim to make the impossible a little less so with their guide for working nursing moms. "We are thoroughly convinced," they write, "that you don't have to choose between having a career and being a great mom." The genesis of the book was in a tiny lactation room at IBM, where an impromptu mothers' group formed. Pumping away in the former janitor's closet, the IBM moms communicated with each other through notebooks about their struggles, woes and joys. Sections of the notebooks are reproduced, interwoven with practical advice. While at times the book reads like an ad for Medela breast pumps, the guidance is sound. Choosing child care, spilled breast milk, picking the right pump, evil bosses, plugged ducts, low milk production (breasts that turn out to be "Milk Duds") and the like are written about both informatively and humorously. In this solid resource, Colburn-Smith and Serrette do their best to be all-inclusive, careful not to judge those who supplement with formula or decide to wean before the baby's first birthday. (Mar.)

Religion

What We Were Made For: Christian Reflections on Love
Sondra Wheeler. Jossey-Bass, $21.95 (220p) ISBN 978-0-7879-7738-2

With unflinching honesty, this meditation on the nature of varied forms of love wrestles with a central enigma of the Christian faith: how can flawed and sinful humans find the wherewithal to love others as God does? Wheeler, a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary, approaches this complex issue by looking at the moral dilemmas that attend our attempts to love other people. Beginning with a short exploration of the scriptural foundation of the call to love others as God loves us, Wheeler uses the work of Christian writers like Anders Nygren and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, current events and a sparing helping of autobiographical anecdotes effectively in the service of her central points. While human love is not sufficient to meet the challenges of human relationships, Wheeler argues that if it is disciplined by Christian practice, informed by God's grace and modeled on God's love revealed in Jesus Christ, it can be a powerful instrument for healing. Wheeler's journey offers many rewards for the reader who appreciates clarity, a chastened realism and the gift of ethical reflection on a complex subject—all presented in prose lacking any trace of pedantry. (Apr. 13)

Hippies of the Religious Right: From the Counterculture of Jerry Garcia to the Subculture of Jerry Falwell
Preston Shires. Baylor Univ., $29.95 paper (242p) ISBN 978-1-932792-57-0

Shires, who teaches history at a community college in Nebraska, contends that a surprising number of teens and young adults who participated in the 1960s counterculture eventually made their way to the "robust evangelical movement" of the 1970s and 1980s. The counterculture itself fostered an interest in spirituality, and the charismatic renewal offered youth a way to rebel against their parents' mainline Christianity. Shires's most innovative claim is that the counterculture actually led to the development of the religious right. While so-called "Jesus Freaks" and other countercultural Christians were primarily on a spiritual, not political, quest, the organic, integrated life they sought led them to apply their faith to politics. Shires concludes with a prediction: the next decades may see the rise of a more politically moderate evangelicalism, as a younger generation, concerned with inclusion and caring for the poor, matures. If Shires does not make an airtight case, his argument is certainly intriguing. Although the book is marred by occasional clunky academic prose and overuse of the passive voice ("This has been the argument"), Shires makes a real contribution to the nation's current discussions about evangelicals and political activism. (Apr.)

The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray
Lindsey Crittenden. Harmony, $22 (240p) ISBN 978-0-307-34735-0

Ten years ago Crittenden walked timidly into an Episcopal church in Berkeley, Calif. Overwhelmed with grief, she needed something to sustain her. Therapy had helped her deal with her beloved younger brother's death, but it was not enough. A priest suggested prayer. In this exquisitely written memoir, she traces her experience of prayer from hesitant beginnings—"I left 'God' out of it, as I repeated the simple statement. 'You are here, I am here' "—to regular, disciplined practice. Prayer, she told an uncle, was like writing. "If I waited for inspiration, I'd never write a word.... I had to make prayer a habit, to go to it the way I went each morning to the desk. Not to summon prayer, but to tap into what was already there." Crittenden, whose essay on her mother's death appeared in Best American Spiritual Writing 2004, faced repeated bereavement as she learned to trust God, herself and others. Nowadays, she writes, "being in community holds me like a trapeze harness for sailing out over the void." Fans of Nora Gallagher and Patricia Hampl will welcome her narrative of spiritual exploration and discovery. (Mar. 20)

Hidden in Plain Sight: Seven Old Things That Can Make Your Life New
Mark Buchanan. W, $17.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8499-0174-4

A book on virtue may seem a thing of the past, but pastor Buchanan (Your God Is Too Safe; Things Unseen) puts a modern twist on its study and practice. "How do I get more of God in my life?" he asks himself. The answer has been obvious since the Apostle Peter, a follower of Jesus Christ, reputedly penned the words of the Bible's 2 Peter 1:1–9 nearly 2,000 years ago. Peter, who Buchanan describes as "by turns rash, dithering, cocky, [and] cowering," lists in that passage seven virtues faithful Christians must seek to grow closer to God: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. Buchanan first digs deeply into the faith that undergirds these virtues, then studies each one in depth. He defines, explains, details and applies each virtue to the Christian life, building one upon the other with the expertise of a master. Buchanan's creative and image-filled writing brings life to what could be a dry subject, and his spiritual depth reveals Peter's heart: "Possess [these virtues] in increasing measure, and the life of Christ can flow unimpeded through you" (2 Peter 1:8). This is a startlingly honest, newly revealing look at both Peter and these virtues left unmined for too long. (Mar. 13)

The Bishop of Rwanda: Finding Forgiveness Amidst a Pile of Bones
John Rucyahana with James Riordan. W, $19.99 (216p) ISBN 978-0-8499-0052-2

Bishop John Rucyahana, an ethnic Tutsi refugee, was a leader in the Anglican Church of Uganda during the genocide of his people in Rwanda. He moved back in 1997 with his family to lead the largest and most devastated diocese there. The bulk of his narrative recounts the same story that others have told of the incomprehensibly brutal extermination of nearly one million Tutsis in 100 days. What this powerful, if unevenly edited, book adds is a deeper understanding of the role of the churches in the genocide. Although many Hutu pastors died protecting the Tutsis of their flocks, often religious clergy participated in the abhorrent violence, killing or betraying members of their congregations. The people of Rwanda have lost trust in authority of any kind, including religion, and so Rucyahana notes that the healing work that must now be accomplished can only be done through integrity and pure love. Bishop John has built ministries for both genocide survivors and perpetrators, releasing the pain from both sides and acting as a beacon for other communities suffering from their own destructive divisions. To anyone who has ever struggled to forgive or felt too far gone to repent, this book plumbs the depth of God's grace and finds no bottom. (Mar. 6)

Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church
Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea. Vanderbilt Univ., $24.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-8265-1547-6

Frawley-O'Dea, a clinical psychologist who has worked with victims of sexual abuse, examines the Catholic clergy's sexual abuse crisis in this well-documented compendium that incorporates her analysis of what went wrong. The co-author of Treating the Adult Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse speaks both as a professional and as a Catholic whose relationship with the church was affected by the crisis. She now attends an Episcopal church.) Contributing factors she identifies include Catholic teachings about the status of bishops and acceptable sexual behaviors, the church's tendency to valorize suffering and its dualistic view of body and soul. Controversially, she also points to what she calls "the Irish Factor," noting that over half the hierarchy were of Irish heritage and thus "freighted with the status insecurities and sexual repressiveness endemic to that culture," leaving them "psychosocially unprepared" to confront the problem. Yet as the only mental health professional to speak to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the 2002 meeting where the crisis was first discussed significantly, Frawley-O'Dea believes that the zero-tolerance policy for any priest credibly accused of sexual misconduct was, in hindsight, "unpastoral." She warns that improvements to screening future priests will not eliminate abuse and urges Catholics to remain vigilant in holding their leaders accountable. (Mar.)

You Were Made for Love: Embracing the Life You Were Meant to Live
Philip Carlson. Cook Communications, $14.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7814-4432-3

Carlson straddles two professional worlds as the pastor of an Evangelical Free Church and a part-time family physician. His propensity for offering compassionate care and practical counsel to church folk and patients alike shines through in this book, which exudes substantive and hopeful inspiration. Similar to Max Lucado's easy-on-the-heartstrings style, Carlson provides sound theological truth intermixed with true stories of faith-pursuing men and women. He focuses first upon understanding where love comes from as cited in 1 John 4:7–21, then explores what love looks like from the classic love passage in 1 Corinthians 13 and concludes with learning ways love grows best as found in Isaiah 58:1–12. Carlson touches on Christians' obligations to see commitments through, humbly defer to others, harness the power of a gentle spirit, sacrifice in costly ways to be kind and develop a robust trust in God. One particularly moving lesson speaks of the "compelling agents of transformation" that the words and actions of kind people represent to a hurting, broken world. Carlson proposes that people will not listen to a Christian message until they see it first in a human life. Evangelicals from every camp will find comfort in this book, and be sparked to revive their faith after reading it. (Mar.)

Ritual Sacrifice: Blood and Redemption
Brenda Ralph Lewis. Sutton, $19.95 paper (356p) ISBN 978-0-7509-4500-4

Although many might dismiss ritual sacrifice as cruel, Lewis—a seasoned journalist and historian who is a specialist on the Aztecs—reveals it as a highly complex activity, one deeply entrenched even in the rituals of contemporary Christianity, and alive and well in the recent rise of neopaganism in the West. In fact, Lewis goes so far as to frame sacrifice as "the final step in the intellectual separation of humans from animals"—a claim that may give some readers pause. Peppered with vivid photographs and a full-color insert of images, from altars to funeral pyres, Lewis shows readers why, for many civilizations both ancient and recent, even the most extreme blood sacrifices were deemed essential not only to general survival but for preventing such atrocities as the end of the world. Her study canvases civilizations on six continents and assesses questions like why those chosen for human sacrifice embraced their fate so willingly. Lewis endeavors to hold her subject at arm's length so as not to disrupt this history with personal bias—though occasionally her partiality for science's superiority over religion is evident. Luckily, this does not disrupt her overall presentation of a topic that readers may be tempted to view with a misplaced, morbid fascination. (Mar.)

Crossing the Desert: Learning to Let Go, See Clearly, and Live Simply
Robert J. Wicks. Ave Maria/Sorin, $18.95 (192p) ISBN 978-1-933495-08-8

Wicks (Riding the Dragon) uses his experience as a veteran psychologist to introduce fourth-century desert wisdom to readers of all faiths. According to Wicks, the ancient desert fathers and mothers can "provide proven guidance on how to let go and live with a refreshing sense of freedom in the world." His book makes for a compelling read when he blends his understanding of the world's wisdom traditions—drawing from a variety of thinkers such as Henri Nouwen, Zen Master Joseph Goldstein and Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche—with his knowledge of human behavior. One of his great strengths is grounding abstract theological concepts in engaging stories, like when he introduces the virtue of gratitude with a tale of the "barefoot brother" he met in India, who had lived through many tragedies yet was so appreciative of Wick's presentation to the Jesuits. At points, the text tackles too much in too little space. For example, the first of the four desert questions—What am I filled with now?—includes five rather complicated ancillary questions for reflection. Still, the book is an excellent guide to the wisdom and insight of the early pilgrims who fled to the desert to better hear and live out the word of God. (Mar.)

The Mandala of Being: Discovering the Power of Awareness
Richard Moss. New World Library, $15.95 paper (284p) ISBN 978-1-57731572-8

For more than 100 years, Eastern insights about the quest for peace possible in the present moment have filtered into the West. Just so, Moss chooses the perfect visual map for this important book about self-awareness: a mandala. A mandala is a geometric, usually circular figure in Hindu and Buddhist thought that represents the universe. In the psychoanalytic realm, this figure represents the quest for self-unity and completeness. Using the mandala, Moss elegantly and with great elucidation and precision offers a place for modern seekers to stand centered in the now amid the four directions of past and future, you and me. His volume presents much clear thought about a potentially complicated topic. Readers who enjoyed Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now and are ready to take the next step should gravitate easily to Moss's probing marriage of psychology, the transcendent nature of self, fear, faith and love. The fruits of Moss's many workshop experiences and exercises are cited throughout so as to make this potentially dense subject surprisingly accessible. A charity of spirit and extension to all religious traditions percolates through this volume. Concluding thoughts on the present climate of politically and culturally generated terror make this an especially potent offering. (Mar.)

Jesus for the Non Religious
John Shelby Spong. Harper San Francisco, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-076207-0

Spong, the iconoclastic former Episcopal bishop of Newark, details in this impassioned work both his "deep commitment to Jesus of Nazareth" and his "deep alienation from the traditional symbols" that surround Jesus. For Spong, scholarship on the Bible and a modern scientific worldview demonstrate that traditional teachings like the Trinity and prayer for divine intervention must be debunked as the mythological trappings of a primitive worldview. These are so much "religion," which was devised by our evolutionary forebears to head off existential anxiety in the face of death. What's left? The power of the "Christ experience," in which Jesus transcends tribal notions of the deity and reaches out to all people. Spong says Jesus had such great "energy" and "integrity" about him that his followers inflated to the point of describing him as a deity masquerading in human form; however, we can still get at the historical origin of these myths by returning to Jesus' humanity, especially his Jewishness. Spong so often suggests the backwardness and insecurity of those who disagree with him that his rhetoric borders on the fundamentalist. His own historical and theological reconstructions would be more palatable if he seemed more aware that he too is engaged in mythmaking. (Feb. 27)

Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion
Sara Miles. Ballantine, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-345-48692-9

Where is it written that literary women must move to coastal California (if they don't already live there), become Episcopalians and write conversion memoirs? Miles, like recent memoirists Diana Butler Bass, Nora Gallagher and Lindsey Crittenden, loves Jesus and detests the religious right, though she is also critical of "the sappy, Jesus-and-cookies tone of mild-mannered liberal Christianity." Mild-mannered she is not. Converted at age 46 when she impulsively walked into a church and received communion for the first time, the former war correspondent suddenly understood her life's mission: to feed the hungry. What her parish needed, she decided, was a food pantry—and within a year (and over opposition from some fellow parishioners) she had started one that offered free cereal, fruit and vegetables to hundreds of San Francisco's indigent every Friday. Not willing to turn anyone away, she raised funds and helped set up other food pantries in impoverished areas, occasionally "crossing the line from self-righteous do-gooder to crusading zealot." For Miles, Christianity "wasn't an argument I could win, or even resolve. It wasn't a thesis. It was a mystery that I was finally willing to swallow." Grittier than many religious memoirs, Miles's story is a perceptive account of one woman's wholehearted, activist faith. (Feb. 20)

Turning Grief into Gratitude: Reflections and Recommendations on Mourning and Condolence
Reuven P. Bulka. Paper Spider (Baker & Taylor, dist.), $14.95 paper (156p) ISBN 978-0-9732523-6-1

Bulka (Chicken Soup with Chopsticks), a rabbi and psychologist, blends personal stories with practical advice in this brief memoir. Despite the self-helpish title, it's more an autobiography than a how-to manual for either mourners or those who wish to comfort them. The first half of the book is primarily a love letter to Bulka's parents, who passed away within weeks of each other in March 2006, followed just a few weeks later by Bulka's mother-in-law. The rabbi had already endured his share of mourning, having lost an infant son years before to SIDS and his first wife to cancer. Bulka speaks lovingly, even hagiographically, of his deceased parents, and then turns in chapter four to questions of grief and mourning etiquette. His discussions of Jewish mourning rituals are helpful, though some readers will wish for more detail. His final chapter on "How to Console" will be valuable to those who wish to offer comfort but are terrified of saying something inappropriate. ("Those coming to visit mourners will need to think about what they will say before they come calling," he advises.) Jewish readers who have lost one or both parents will find consolation in this warm and deeply personal guide. (Feb. 20)