Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 2/12/2007
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 2/12/2007
Independent biographer Smith (1996's John Marshall: Definer of a Nation and 2001's Grant) crafts a magisterial biography of our most important modern president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Scores of books have been written about Roosevelt, exploring every nook and cranny of his experience, so Smith breaks no "news" and offers no previously undisclosed revelations concerning the man from Hyde Park. But the author's eloquent synthesis of FDR's complex and compelling life is remarkably executed and a joy to read. Drawing on the papers of the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library as well as Columbia University's oral history collection and other repositories, Smith minutely explores the arc of FDR's intertwined political and private lives. With regard to the political, the biographer seamlessly traces Roosevelt's evolution from gawky, aristocratic, political newcomer nibbling at the edges of the rough-and-tumble Dutchess County, N.Y., Democratic machine to the consummate though physically crippled political insider—a man without pretensions who acquired and performed the jobs of New York governor and then United States president with shrewd, and always joyous, efficiency. As is appropriate, more than half of Smith's narrative deals with FDR as president: the four terms (from 1933 until his death in 1945) during which he waged war, in turn, on the Depression and the Axis powers. As for the private Roosevelt, Smith reveals him as a devoted son; an unhappy husband who eventually settled into an uneasy peace and working partnership with his wife and cousin Eleanor; an emotionally absent father; and a man who for years devotedly loved two women other than his wife—Lucy Mercer Rutherford and Missy LeHand, the latter his secretary. This erudite but graceful volume illuminates FDR's life for scholars, history buffs and casual readers alike. Photos not seen by PW. (May) In his latest absorbing travel epic, Thubron (In Siberia; Mirror to Damascus) follows the course—or at least the general drift—of the ancient network of trade routes that connected central China with the Mediterranean Coast, traversing along the way several former Soviet republics, war-torn Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. The author travels third-class all the way, in crowded, stifling railroad cars and rattle-trap buses and cars, staying at crummy inns or farmers' houses, subject to shakedowns by border guards and constant harassment—even quarantine—by health officials hunting the SARS virus. Physically, these often monotonously arid, hilly regions of Central Asia tend to go by in a swirl of dun-colored landscapes studded with Buddha shrines in varying states of repair or ruin, but Thubron's poetic eye still teases out gorgeous subtleties in the panorama. Certain themes also color his offbeat encounters with locals—most of them want to get the hell out of Central Asia—but again he susses out the infinite variety of ordinary misery. The conduit by which an entire continent exchanged its commodities, cultures and peoples—Thubron finds traces of Roman legionaries and mummies of Celtic tribesmen in western China—the Silk Road becomes for him an evocative metaphor for the mingling of experiences and influences that is the essence of travel. (July 3) The granddaughter of Bloomsbury notables Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson chronicles the minutiae of the hot, sunny summer of 1911, when the rich crammed in a succession of parties as industrial strikes almost brought the country to a standstill, and WWI loomed on the horizon. Under Nicolson's lavish attentions, "upstairs" and "downstairs," the weighty and frivolous spring to vivid life. While Mary approached her upcoming coronation as queen with dread, Leonard Woolf fell in love with his Cambridge pal's sister, the budding novelist Virginia Stephen. The bewitching marchioness of Ripon arranged for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes to perform at Covent Garden, and the Times revealed that certain servants were selling juicy tidbits about their aristocratic employers to American newspapers. Trade unionist Mary Macarthur's fight for women's rights meshes artfully with racy novelist Elinor Glyn's adulterous affair with ambivalent lover Lord Curzon. Lady Diana Manners's tart observations of her debutante season segue to a rendezvous between a footman and a kitchen maid. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources—from Churchill's memoirs to the tell-all What the Butler Winked At—journalist Nicolson's debut, a British bestseller, serves up a delightfully gossipy yet substantial slice of social history. Photos not seen by PW. (June) Curran solicits tart tales from 27 writers, normally willful and independent women, who, for the most part, have taken reluctant swan dives into the consumerist culture of the bridal industry. Contributors including Curtis Sittenfeld, Lisa Carver and Amy Sohn never thought they'd catch the bridal bug. Still, they each get lost in the fantasy but come out the other end with a meaningful realization. The essays delve into the fraught conversations, negotiations and neuroses around wedding vows, dress shopping, etiquette, registries and budgeting. Sticker shock is a common theme, among women who subvert the wedding industry with a DIY approach (Rory Evans topped cupcakes with handmade clothespin bride-and-groom figures), and others who pay a price despite saving money. Julie Powell's entertaining experience trying "to make a meal for hundreds into an expression of who you are" illuminated an incontrovertible equation: "hundreds of guests + unreasonable expectations + catering – billions of dollars = rubber chicken." Some of the more heartfelt pieces include Jennifer Armstrong's story of how she called off her wedding, and Lara Vapnyar's poignant recollection of a $16 gown and the leap of faith that marriage entails. Brides-to-be or women who've been there will easily see themselves in these true stories. (May) The founders of the popular Lonely Planet travel guides deliver a lively autobiography that is as interesting, informative and amusing as their series itself. After meeting cute in 1970 on Belfast-native Maureen's first week in London, the couple went off on a planned one-year trip through the Far East that ended up with them stranded penniless in Australia, where they decided to publish a short travel guide on Asia that became the basis of their now multinational company. This look back at their almost 40-year career divides neatly into thirds, with the first energetically covering their various travels while they get their business off the ground, such as "incidents in Turkey that began ambiguously and ended with gratuitous acts of kindness"; the second frankly detailing why their early and "often fairly shoddy productions" became popular because they "were still better than anything else around"; and the third refreshingly discussing their current business ventures. Their chapter "All About Guidebooks" serves as an excellent short look at the history and the current state of the travel book market, and they convincingly argue that guidebooks such as theirs have not wrecked once-mysterious locations. (May) There are 141 wine tasting rooms open to the public in California's Napa Valley, and Kushman, the TV columnist for the Sacramento Bee, decided he was going to visit them all with Beal, an executive wine buyer for a supermarket chain, offering his expert perspective. Both men are listed as coauthors, but it's Kushman alone who narrates their tours. He offers plenty of engaging vignettes, along with practical advice—don't wear white if you haven't gotten the hang of spitting yet—and accessible mini-lectures on subjects ranging from the history of white Zinfandel to the proper technique for fermenting wines in oak barrels. The stories, originally published as a series of newspaper columns, are consistently upbeat, reveling in Napa's image as "the heartbeat of American winemaking," and even Kushman marvels at how polite everyone at the wineries is during their visits. The generous spirit extends to the detailed tasting room guide that follows the main narrative, where about the worst they'll say is that the service in a popular place gets slow during busy hours. So the ratings won't tell tourists if one tasting room is better than another, but they do offer a workable idea of what to expect at each venue. (May) In this ruminative memoir, Mowat chronicles the disappearance of a way of life in Newfoundland and the chance encounter that brought him the love of his life. As a young writer in 1957, Mowat decided to travel on a tramp steamer among the small fishing villages known as outports that dotted the Newfoundland coast. These outports were the home of hardy and colorful fisherfolk of Basque, English, Irish and French descent. Government policy and the depletion of the regional fisheries by huge commercial trawlers were slowly forcing the locals out of their centuries-old homes. Mowat enjoyed the area so much that he bought a schooner for further exploration. Soon afterward, a young woman fleeing the overeager attentions of an amorous mutt stumbled on board his ship and romance quickly followed. Mowat and Claire Wheeler spent the next decade sailing in the rocky bays, thick fogs and sudden squalls of the region. The author of 40 books, mostly on nautical and adventure themes, Mowat has a deep understanding of the sea and the natural world. His observations of the outporters are equally perceptive and provide a fascinating window into a little known corner of North America. In this tender elegy to a lost Newfoundland, Mowat shows an amused tolerance for almost everything except the human greed that has inexorably destroyed his adopted home's cultures and environment. (May) When swimsuit-clad young women cavorted in the freshwater springs of Weeki Wachee, Fla., in October 1947, it seemed so fantastic, many visitors couldn't believe the performers were actually underwater. In this era before scuba, people were expected to drown if they stayed under for more than a few minutes. They certainly didn't dance ballet or eat bananas and drink soda pop underwater, like the Weeki Wachee mermaids did. For the next three decades, an ever-renewing roster of mermaids entertained growing crowds of roadside travelers and celebrity guests (Elvis himself hugged and kissed those mermaids). If Disney hadn't opened Magic Kingdom, and overdevelopment hadn't threatened the aquifer, Weeki Wachee might still be going strong today. But thanks to writer Vickers and designer Dionne, readers have backstage access to this classic American roadside attraction. From Vickers's interviews with retired "mermaids" and other employees, and Dionne's illustrative materials (over 200 publicity photos, advertising cards and other ephemera), readers get a feeling for the homegrown quality of this whole wonderfully quirky enterprise. While detail on their technological innovations and business decision making is interesting, what lingers with readers is a sense of how simply Americans amused themselves on the road, before all the franchises and theme parks took over. (May) According to reporter Thomas, modern marketers believe that "the moment a baby can see clearly, she becomes a consumer." Indeed, as investigative journalist Thomas discovered, some marketers start earlier, with an array of fetal "education" gimmicks designed to broadcast music and vocabulary to the mother's womb. Thomas interviewed a wide range of child development experts, product developers, marketing consultants and educators to write this well-researched exposé of the brave new world of American babies. Parents no longer believe that unstructured, baby-directed play and exploration is a valid use of baby's time. Parents buy videos and toys marketed as tools so that baby's every free moment can be a learning opportunity, even if there's no evidence that babies learn anything from these products. The phenomenon of KGOY—kids getting older younger—has passed from tweens down to toddlers and lap babies. Younger and younger children are watching more and more television and videos, she argues, and identifying with more "licensed character" products. Some of the problem lies with today's Gen-X parents, says Thomas, who's one herself. Having grown up with latchkeys and divorced parents, with only television for comfort, they want to give their own children everything—and marketers know how to play to their insecurities. Thomas ends with Pooh's plea for "Doing Nothing"—an idea many parents may be relieved to embrace. (May) In this rather bland attempt at the humorous sensitive-man memoir that seems to be a prerequisite for a certain type of middle-aged comic (e.g., Cosby, Reiser, Romano), Engvall tries to cram his whole life into one book rather than stick to one theme (marriage, fatherhood, etc.). The end result is 46 micro-chapters that never really deliver the same laughs that have made him a part of the successful Blue Collar comedy quartet. But there is interesting material: Engvall reminisces about starting at the bottom of the entertainment business, first as a stand-in and extra on movie sets and later playing chauffeur to some of the biggest names of comedy. But these tales are given short shrift so Engvall can focus on his childhood love of baseball, his favorite car as a teenager and his partying a lot in college. In the end, Engvall realizes that "all guys are the same," and that's why the sensitive parts of the book—Engvall's parents' divorce or the pain of leaving his family to go on the road—are the ones that truly stand out. (May) British historian Neillands, who died in January 2006, enthusiastically affirmed British military performances in the World Wars just as Stephen Ambrose heralded the "greatest generation." Here, he reopens the long-simmering controversy on command and strategy in the post D-Day campaign, asserting that Dwight Eisenhower may have been a "superb" supreme commander, but was "frequently lamentable" as a field general. Neillands particularly indicts Eisenhower for failing to understand the challenges to his broad-front strategy, and for failing to control George Patton and Omar Bradley. He describes U.S. policy as shaped by determination to control a campaign our resources dominated, and a near-toxic Anglophobia manifested in an enduring prejudice against British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Monty is, predictably, Neillands's hero, whose single-thrust concept promised better results than Eisenhower's diffused efforts, and whose understanding of modern war marked him as a professional among American amateurs—Patton included. His difficult personality obscures the fact that he obeyed Eisenhower more loyally than Ike's own countrymen, Neillands argues. Montgomery emerges as a near-martyr to the Anglo-American alliance—an image sharply at variance with his own account of events. Despite constant praise of American GIs, Neillands's revisionist interpretation is likely to generate more heat than light—especially without providing significant new evidence. (May) Negotiating expert Jim Camp teaches his readers how to be less emotional and close more deals—whether job interviews or sales—in this useful, occasionally hyperbolic guide. "The 'No' system is not just contrarian," he promises in the introduction. "It creates an entirely new paradigm for negotiation—one that makes common sense, then intellectual sense, then practical sense in your life and work." He also warns against popular compromise-based negotiating: "If you're a devotee of required compromise and endless assumption, there are many businesspeople—I'm one of them—who have you for lunch every day." Instead, he introduces a 12-chapter program on how to avoid neediness in a negotiation, how to develop a mission for your deal and vision for your overall business, how to find the real decision maker and use practical techniques like repeating the crux of your negotiation three times. He's most insightful about not letting desire get the best of you and the power of silence; the mission and vision sections are more familiar. Sometimes negotiation slips into manipulation, as when the author steers his wife toward buying a boat by convincing her that the purchase was her idea. Still, many of his tactics clearly work. (May) Psychologist Zimbardo masterminded the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, in which college students randomly assigned to be guards or inmates found themselves enacting sadistic abuse or abject submissiveness. In this penetrating investigation, he revisits—at great length and with much hand-wringing—the SPE study and applies it to historical examples of injustice and atrocity, especially the Abu Ghraib outrages by the U.S. military. His troubling finding is that almost anyone, given the right "situational" influences, can be made to abandon moral scruples and cooperate in violence and oppression. (He tacks on a feel-good chapter about "the banality of heroism," with tips on how to resist malign situational pressures.) The author, who was an expert defense witness at the court-martial of an Abu Ghraib guard, argues against focusing on the dispositions of perpetrators of abuse; he insists that we blame the situation and the "system" that constructed it, and mounts an extended indictment of the architects of the Abu Ghraib system, including President Bush. Combining a dense but readable and often engrossing exposition of social psychology research with an impassioned moral seriousness, Zimbardo challenges readers to look beyond glib denunciations of evil-doers and ponder our collective responsibility for the world's ills. 23 photos. (Apr. 3) Surgeon and MacArthur fellow Gawande applies his gift for dulcet prose to medical and ethical dilemmas in this collection of 12 original and previously published essays adapted from the New England Journal of Medicine and the New Yorker. If his 2002 collection, Complications, addressed the unfathomable intractability of the body, this is largely about how we erect barriers to seamless and thorough care. Doctors know they should wash their hands more often to avoid bacterial transfer in the ward, but once a minute does seem extreme. Using chaperones for breast exams seems a fine idea, but it does make situations awkward. "The social dimension turns out to be as essential as the scientific," Gawande writes—a conclusion that could serve as a thumbnail summary of his entire output. The heart of the book are the chapters "What Doctors Owe," about the U.S.'s blinkered malpractice system, and "Piecework," about what doctors earn. Cheerier, paradoxically, are the chapters involving polio and cystic fibrosis, featuring Dr. Pankaj Bhatnagar and Dr. Warren Warwick, two remarkable men who have been able to catapult their humanity into their work rather than constantly stumble over it. Indeed, one suspects that once we cure the ills of the health care system, we'll look back and see that Gawande's writings were part of the story. (Apr.) A scrappy kid with a violent stutter, novelist Steinke (Milk; Suicide Blonde) is the oldest child of an aloof Lutheran minister and a clinically depressed former Miss Albany. The household is steeped in the word of God; Steinke grows up brewing her own communion wine, baptizing the neighborhood cats and craving, even at age six, spiritual transcendence. It's a wish that never leaves her, and she's tireless in her pursuit of this elusive state of oneness, first seeking it in a sexually obsessive relationship with a man who turns out to be gay, and then in her doomed marriage. Her writing on these topics is blunt and powerful. When her husband confides that a teenage girl of their acquaintance has been e-mailing him, Steinke doesn't pull her punches. "Michael believed that getting close to young girls and hearing about their love life was so exciting that anyone, even his own wife, would understand the Masonic pull." When it comes to her personal relationship with God—the real meat of the book—Steinke is relatively brief, almost distant: "The idea of church still has a grip on my imagination, but I realize now that what I thought was held only inside those walls—grace and divinity—is actually located directly and authentically inside myself." Steinke is a gifted writer, and this only leaves readers wanting more. (Apr.) True's history of the superstar 1990s band gets off to a rough start when he invokes the "live fast, die young" cliché and declares, "Kurt Cobain left one of the best-looking corpses around," perhaps not the most tasteful epitaph given the singer' s shotgun suicide. Subsequent chapters on Cobain' s early years are bogged down with interviews with just about anyone who ever met him, many with little apparent editing from the original transcripts. Fortunately, the pace picks up as Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl join the band, and the trio rocket to fame. True trades heavily on his role as one of the first music journalists to write about the Seattle scene, as well as his status as Cobain's "drunken English buddy" and an ambiguously close relationship with Courtney Love (he also takes credit for introducing the two to each other). His insider perspective, combined with a tighter control over the interview selection, brings thoughtful insight to Cobain's dramatic crash-and-burn. Yet though largely respectful, True is somewhat ambivalent, questioning the extent of Cobain's talent and openly wondering if Nirvana had any real influence on rock. His opinionated, idiosyncratic take on the band is sure to set tongues wagging and respark the debate over how things went so wrong for Cobain so fast. 32 pages of photos. (Apr.) Anyone looking for insight into the late Mickey Mantle will be disappointed in this memoir by a founder and former owner of the sports bar that bears the ballplayer's name. Telling few stories about Mantle himself, Liederman instead focuses on his own life story, the Central Park South restaurant's opening and its day-to-day anecdotes. He shares details on no less than four sexual encounters inside the restaurant, including a public fornication between a waitress and a prep cook at the employee Christmas party and a ménage à trois among wait staff in the locker room. Near the end of the book, Liederman writes that after a failed attempt at opening a second Mantle's location in upstate New York, he was forced to file for personal bankruptcy and lost his ownership share. He ultimately was arrested on charges of breaking and entering and grand larceny after he returned for his personal items, spending a night in jail before the charges were dropped. Unfortunately, the chapters often lapse structurally into a bullet-style format more commonly found in business reports, and he regurgitates one exhausted cliché after another. (Apr.) When asked by Amelia Earhart's husband what her ambitions were, Jackie Cochran sneered, "To put your wife in the shade." Cochran succeeded. History has proven Earhart to be the favorite, but Cochran undoubtedly was the superior pilot: determined to be not just the best woman pilot but to be the best pilot, period, she broke countless aviation records for speed, altitude and distance. In this biography, Rich (Amelia Earhart) documents the life of the first woman to break the sound barrier and who was instrumental in creating a fleet of female pilots (which she helmed) in World War II. Along the way, she also created a cosmetics company for which the motto was "Wings to Beauty." That's not to say that Cochran was always likable. She was scheming, manipulative and known to bend the truth so it would work to her advantage. Rich thoroughly researched Cochran's life, a challenge given that Cochran frequently created facts to best suit her needs (she said, for instance, that she was an orphan, a claim that has been disputed by her family). Aeronautics buffs will appreciate the details of the aircraft Cochran flew, and while the drama of Cochran's many harrowing flights and near-miss accidents is never fully realized, Rich gives Cochran her rightful place in aviation history. (Apr.) Thyre, an actress, fashions a somewhat flat memoir about growing up in the middle-class South of the 1970s. Corny and unfocused, her work ambles episodically, from the early years living with her parents and younger sisters in Kansas City, Mo., where her mother took turns holding the Catholic Prayer Group at their house and mixing up the martinis for Father Don, to their move to the sticks of Louisiana and celebrating their hostile parents' eventual divorce. Thyre as the young narrator is a kid with moxie, known as the "liar in the family" and not above correcting her teacher's grammar. The memoir proceeds by anecdotes (stealing money from their skinflint father's bank account for camp and vacation, managing her asthma medication, watching her mom run over a turtle with the lawn mower, losing her virginity to Tommy Cusimano after her Our Lady of Prompt Succor's Autumn Celebration), but Thyre's writing lacks a cohesion determined by strong, memorable characterization. There are, however, many iconic '70s moments, e.g., listening to "Little Willy" on her mother's Gremlin AM radio, learning about rape from a Barnaby Jones TV episode, reading Paul Zindel books; and experiencing her sexual awakening while watching Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Packed with dippy dialogue and only a little raunchy and irreverent, Thyre's work amuses in small doses. (Apr.) Leader delivers a scrupulously researched and unfailingly entertaining account of the life of one of postwar Britain's funniest and most famous writers. Amis (1922–1995) asserted that many writers lead dull lives, but his was especially high-spirited, particularly once he left his restrictive parents for Oxford and beyond. Known first as a poet, Amis began an academic career in Wales at University College of Swansea after marrying Hilary Bardwell (mother of his three children, including contemporary British writer Martin Amis), but his springboard to literary celebrity was the 1954 publication of the comic classic Lucky Jim. Leader (editor, 2001's The Letters of Kingsley Amis) combines exhaustive biographical detail with trenchant literary analysis for a complex, remarkable portrait of Amis and his work: his prodigious output (more than 40 books, including novels, poetry, anthologies and nonfiction), his notorious womanizing and boozing as well as his friendships, including his central relationship (illuminated by lively excerpts of correspondence) with poet Philip Larkin. This massive, splendid biography bears out Leader's contention that Amis was "a compelling person, a man of alarming appetites and energies, the funniest man most people had ever met, or the cleverest, or the rudest." 24 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) This is the valedictory work of British music professor Brown, a reduction to manageable length of his own massive and magisterial four-volume study of the composer and his work—superbly crafted for a general reader. Brown's style is easy and confiding, managing to be knowledgeable and illuminating about the music without burying it in technical jargon, and he has devised an excellent scoring system to guide his readers through the key works and explain why he has chosen these above all others. (His personal favorites, incidentally, are, rather surprisingly, Eugen Onegin, The Sleeping Beauty and the Sixth Symphony.) It is hard to imagine the works, especially the lesser-known ones, better described and evoked than here; Brown would be wonderful at concert notes or CD booklets. About the life he has little that is new to add, but offers some remarkable insights from Tchaikovsky himself on his working methods and the nature of his inspiration. The story of his ghastly marriage and his bizarre relationship with Nadezhda von Meck is given in great and sympathetic detail. On the vexed question of the composer's mysterious death—did he deliberately drink unboiled water and poison himself so as not to bring dishonor on his old school because of a homosexual liaison?—Brown is noncommittal but, as usual, thorough in setting forth what is known and what only surmised. The book is a triumph of biographical and musical scholarship. (Apr.) In this remarkably thorough, articulate portrait of Hezbollah, Norton, a Boston University anthropology and international relations professor and former U.S. Army officer and U.N. military observer, analyzes how the organization was formed, how it evolved and its current role in Lebanese politics. More than just an Iranian-funded terrorist organization, Hezbollah is a comprehensive provider of social services to Lebanon's disenfranchised Shiite masses, and a highly respected political player, known to forswear corruption. Formed in 1982 under Iranian tutelage, and prompted by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Hezbollah has made a goal of fomenting Islamic revolution in Lebanon and authorizes violence to this end. In the 1990s, its policies in support of this goal began to include parliamentary participation. After the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah has emerged invigorated, flexing its military might and winning support through its rigorous postwar reconstruction. Norton's authoritative account is rooted in such important Middle East themes as the historical division between Sunni and Shiites and the origins of Iranian influence in Arab affairs. It is also personal, speckled with anecdotes from more than three decades of experience. Given the contentious subject, Norton's tone is remarkably even: Hezbollah is an organization he respects, but whose actions he does not condone. 10 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) While all eyes focus on the oil-rich Middle East as the nexus of conflict in a world addicted to crude, the future belongs to Africa, writes British journalist Shaxson in this page-turning, character-driven narrative. Illuminating African postcolonial (and neocolonial) history through the prism of oil, he reveals the central and dangerous role that Africa's oil states now play, casting the precious fuel as a poison not only for the continent but "to liberty, democracy, and free markets around the globe." An acute observer of the vast and secretive industry, Shaxson draws on his own reporting in key areas like Nigeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Angola as well as the work of experts like the late François-Xavier Verschave. In this stark portrait, the paradox of African oil is that, time and again, enormous wealth for a few translates into increasing poverty and political and economic insecurity for the majority. Shaxson sketches a system largely outside the purview of international law involving the highest levels of French, U.S. and other Western governments, financial institutions and elites. Although he proposes practical legislative steps, Shaxson makes clear that the grievous mix of politics, mafia-style operations and endless oil profits not only subverts democratic reforms, but in places like the Niger Delta gives rise to exactly the kind of conditions that produced September 11. (Apr.) In 2003, with the release of Guide to Jewish Women, the Jewish Publication Society launched its paperback JPS Guide series, designed for the general reader as basic introductions to topics of Jewish interest. The second volume was Guide to Jewish Traditions (2004), and this book is the third effort to provide ready access to concise and fundamental information. American Jewish history has been addressed in a number of scholarly volumes. Unlike those erudite books and in keeping with the goal of the JPS Guides, this simple primer reviews the rudimentary elements of American Jewish history. Finkelstein, a former school librarian in Brookline, Mass., who won the National Jewish Book Award for Heeding the Call, includes photos, maps, feature boxes and brief biographies throughout the text. The material is divided into six chronological chapters, beginning in the mid-1300s, with the Sephardic predecessors of the 23 settlers from Brazil who landed in New Amsterdam in 1654, and ending with a chapter on 1948 to the present. At the end of each chapter, a page is devoted to a "Timeline," identifying important events and the year in which they occurred. For students and those with limited knowledge of the subject, this book is a useful introductory guide. (Apr.) Acclaimed biographer Isaacson examines the remarkable life of "science's preeminent poster boy" in this lucid account (after 2003's Benjamin Franklin and 1992's Kissinger). Contrary to popular myth, the German-Jewish schoolboy Albert Einstein not only excelled in math, he mastered calculus before he was 15. Young Albert's dislike for rote learning, however, led him to compare his teachers to "drill sergeants." That antipathy was symptomatic of Einstein's love of individual and intellectual freedom, beliefs the author revisits as he relates his subject's life and work in the context of world and political events that shaped both, from WWI and II and their aftermath through the Cold War. Isaacson presents Einstein's research—his efforts to understand space and time, resulting in four extraordinary papers in 1905 that introduced the world to special relativity, and his later work on unified field theory—without equations and for the general reader. Isaacson focuses more on Einstein the man: charismatic and passionate, often careless about personal affairs; outspoken and unapologetic about his belief that no one should have to give up personal freedoms to support a state. Fifty years after his death, Isaacson reminds us why Einstein (1879–1955) remains one of the most celebrated figures of the 20th century. 500,000 firsr printing, 20-city author tour, first serial to Time; confirmed appearance on Good Morning America. (Apr.) Physicist and former New Yorker staff writer Bernstein presents a scientifically rigorous (equations and all) but clearly written explanation of the recondite reasons why plutonium is supremely suited for bomb-making material—and little else. From the discovery of uranium in 1789 to the Manhattan Project, Nazi attempts at a nuclear bomb and the post-WWII efforts of the U.S.S.R. to become a nuclear power, Bernstein reviews the element's storied past. Although the discovery of the atom's structure has been covered before, Bernstein spins an accessible, insightful description of how the great scientists Curie, Bohr, Rutherford and Fermi, among others, deconstructed the atom through a combination of individual brilliance, a spirit of collaboration and serendipity. He also brings his acquaintance with several Los Alamos scientists (he interned at the laboratory in 1957) to the less canonical subject of the scientific and engineering problems inherent to building a working nuclear bomb. Here the search for the elusive element comes to center stage in this challenging but rewarding account (after 2005's Secrets of the Old One: Einstein 1905). (Apr.) The Greek philosopher Zeno sought to reveal that motion and speed were logical impossibilities; one of his famous four paradoxes argued that a moving object can never reach its destination, because it must first travel half the distance, then half the remaining distance, and so on. In this entertaining, informative diversion, Mazur (Euclid in the Rainforest) spins out the discoveries of the mathematicians and scientists who have grappled with the riddles of time and space over the last two millennia, from Aristotle up to Heisenberg and contemporary string theorists. Yet for all their answers, the fundamental premise that motion is an illusion created by consciousness still remains. Many elements of the story, such as the astronomical breakthroughs of Galileo and Tycho, or the simultaneous development of calculus by Leibniz and Newton, have been discussed in greater detail in other recent books. But Mazur spins a good yarn, and his conversational tone holds readers' attention even as the mathematical formulae pile up in later chapters. (Apr.) Cape Codder columnist O'Connor ("Ask the Bird Folks") illuminates his intricate, arcane area of expertise through jovial insider explanations that will enlighten as well as entertain ornithiphiles, average backyard birdwatchers and even nonbirders. O'Connor's humorous birding columns are organized into sections on ways to attract specific species, food, unusual birds, habitats, equipment and more. Among many wry but practical answers to tongue-in-cheek and sincere questions, O'Connor explains why birdseed is healthier for birds than white bread (empty calories), but plain (not sugared) doughnuts are also better than bread. He debunks the "old wives' tale" of ostriches hiding their heads in the sand—on the open savanna they just drop their heads to the ground hoping to appear like a bush to a predator in the distance. As for the woodpecker, it has "evolved a rather tough head. Its larger brain case prevents concussions, and the muscle and bone structure at the base of the bill serves as a shock absorber. The avian equivalent in tone and expertise to NPR's Car Talk Magliozzi brothers, O'Connor should net a wider audience with this amusing collection. (Apr.) Wildlife Conservation Society vice president Schaller (The Last Panda) presents 19 short pieces culled from the dozens of articles and books he has published during half a century spent observing animals around the world. The selections include studies of the daily lives of such exotic beasts as jaguars in Brazil; tigers in central India; lions, wildebeest and cheetahs in Tanzania's Serengeti Plain; giant pandas in China; snow leopards in Pakistan; and chiru (antelope) in the uplands of the Tibetan Plateau. Entwined with his descriptions of the animals are vivid pictures of his own life in the field—treks to remote places, camps established in tents and huts, hours perched in trees and other uncomfortable posts. Schaller began his career as a field biologist but, as these essays show, broadened his outlook over the years to become an outspoken advocate for wild animals and their habitats, helping to establish many wildlife conservation programs. He states in his introduction that as he looks back over his career, he finds today's conservation discourse lacking in heart, with people speaking of nature as "natural resources." His delightful book, imbued with his own unabashed sense of wonder before nature's beauties, is an antidote to this pragmatic trend. 75 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) Talent is "often overrated and frequently misunderstood," observes leadership expert Maxwell (The 360 Degree Leader), who advises readers on building their strengths to become a "Talent-plus person." In the first chapter, he examines how "belief lifts your talent," whether it's belief in your potential, yourself and your mission that empowers and encourages you. He then introduces a dozen other factors that can be combined with talent to achieve your goals: passion, initiative, focus, preparation, practice, perseverance, courage, teachability, character, relationships, responsibility and teamwork. Synthesizing the work of business gurus like Marcus Buckingham and Peter Drucker with inspiring anecdotes from the lives of famous athletes and coaches, Christian leaders, writers and artists, Maxwell engages the reader with his enthusiasm for his subject matter and clear insights. Well organized and focused, the book conveys how talent can be enhanced through historical and contemporary examples of "Talent-Plus" people in action—from Charles Dickens to Vince Lombardi and Tom Hanks. (Apr. 3) Frustrated by his own self-defeating behavior and inspired by Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle, talk show host Wholey (PBS's This Is America) explains repetition compulsion—a tendency to repeat behavior that has already proved unhealthy—using interviews with mental health experts and the testimony of ordinary people who have conquered their problems. Dealing with pitfalls such as people pleasing, procrastination and rage, these regular people explain their specific problems, theorize about what drives their "compulsion to repeat" and offer their commonsense suggestions for change. The experts—including Peter Kramer (Listening to Prozac), Nathaniel Branden (Six Pillars of Self-Esteem), Harvard clinical psychiatry professor E. Virginia Demos and others—reinforce Freud's belief that such behavior is rooted in childhood experience. Wholey (The Miracle of Change) himself sticks to pep talks and questionnaires designed to illuminate the reader's problems. This encouraging guide offers the fundamental advice that one should seek professional help. Though readers stuck in negative patterns may recognize themselves in Wholey's case studies, those who have already graced a therapist's couch won't find any new insight here. (Mar.) Sellers, who has written for GQ and the Atlantic, was born in 1970, so his radio was ready when the "indie rock" scene took off in the '80s. Even as a youngster, he had rejected his dad's favorite—Bob Dylan—in favor of pop music. Before long, he was trying to one-up his schoolmates by listening to only the very coolest bands. As he got older, he drank a lot of beer, went to clubs and even bluffed his way into frat parties, where he discovered that "dancing is a nice prelude to nonconsensual sex." Ultimately, he came to understand his own musical taste: "I required complex, pretty, inscrutable songs turned up very loud to help me avoid thinking that I didn't like myself very much." He idolized many groups, including Joy Division, Sonic Youth, Pavement and Guided by Voices. He collected their music, went to their gigs and even drank beer with Guided by Voices' Robert Pollard. Pollard "drinks capably," Sellers confides, although when he doesn't, that's also "[a]wesome." Sellers carries on debates with himself in footnotes, which can go on for pages (yielding howlers like "Ian Curtis... who hung himself on his coatrack"). More a blog (his blog name is Angry John Sellers) than a book, there's little of lasting substance here. (Mar.) Correction: The title of George Konrad's memoir (Reviews, Jan. 22) is In My Own Country: A Hungarian Life. Religion As author of several spirituality-cum-science titles including The Hidden Messages in Water, Emoto introduced the world to his claim that a sample of water is capable of responding to human words. Using a high-powered microscope camera, he demonstrated that water reacts to positive language by the formation of beautiful, snowflake-like crystals and to negative terms by forming ugly or distorted shapes. This breakthrough was featured in the hit underground film, What the Bleep Do We Know? While Emoto's earlier works were generally focused on health and healing, his new book attempts to extrapolate a religious narrative of the origins of life on Earth. The hypothesis—which includes the assertion that the water on earth was delivered by God in comets sent from somewhere near the Big Dipper, as well as the claim that humans were "sent to the earth in the form of water crystals"—is mostly incoherent and unsatisfying. Worse, it strays from the simplicity of his powerful earlier work with the water samples. Still, newcomers will be pleased that Emoto rehearses much of his earlier material, and serious fans will doubtless find his flights of fancy intriguing. 40 color photos, not seen by PW. (Apr. 17) Benson, well known for his books on prayer and meditation, turns his heart toward home in this lovely book about putting down roots. When he and his wife, whom he calls the "master planner," moved to a Victorian cottage in a city neighborhood, its yard, sloped and nearly bare of grass, became their canvas. Fencing, rose garden, fountain, pool and studio were all added, vicarious treats for readers as Benson transplants into words the spiritual truths he unearthed during each project. He's a gentle guide through the ups and downs of lawn care, fence painting, fountain placement and pool installation. Throughout, he combs his memories, encouraging readers to do the same. He laughs at himself as he takes the small, quotidian details of creating a home and life and nurtures them into the larger spiritual meaning of how to live in "this place where we have dug ourselves in." Benson's words soothe and lull, but just as often burst into a glorious bloom of epiphanies that will dazzle readers, gardeners or not. "If we are to have any roots at all, we must find them in the places where we are now, on this day," he says. (Apr. 17) Buddhism emphasizes direct experience and devalues conceptual thinking, but that doesn't mean it is devoid of philosophical reasoning and inquiry. This book by Karr, a teacher and investment banker, is formidably philosophical. "We need to use thought to get beyond thought," he writes, in laying the groundwork for a step-by-step presentation of various schools of Buddhist analytical meditation. In that practice, Buddhists contemplate ultimate reality by asking themselves questions or by reflecting on short and profound teachings. Various schools have different emphases, and Karr patiently explains and singles out these varied analytic methods. He is a friendly teacher of difficult material: exercises offer ways of helping students reach conclusions; demanding chapters of philosophical explication are relieved by quirky "interludes" of poetry and comedy; and appendixes contain helpful biographies of historical Buddhist teachers and a chart of philosophical systems. Missing, however, is a glossary that could help with Sanskrit and Tibetan terms. Both practice and study are needed for Buddhist understanding, and this volume advances study for Western practitioners. It will challenge the advanced student of Buddhism interested in the historical and intellectual richness of this wisdom tradition. (Apr. 10) Faith and doubt stand in loving tension in this splendid collection edited by Bole, a religion writer, and Abernethy, founder and host of the PBS program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. The book draws from the extensive interviews the series has conducted with religious luminaries and writers, some of whom appear more than once. The interviews are loosely arranged into themes of prayer; suffering and the problem of evil; encountering religious pluralism; preparing for death and the afterlife; and the varieties of religious practice. Not all of the contributors describe themselves as religious ("You know what an agnostic is?" asks the agnostic near-centenarian Studs Terkel. "A cowardly atheist"). Most of those profiled, however, have walked a long path of religious devotion, including Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Anne Lamott, William Sloane Coffin, Martin Marty, Frederica Mathewes-Green and Phyllis Tickle (PW's former contributing editor in religion). With such an amazing cast of characters, it's practically impossible to go wrong, and this collection doesn't miss a step. The section on suffering is particularly perceptive ("I know that where there is no suffering, nothing happens," novelist Madeleine L'Engle says). This is a rich feast of accumulated wisdom. (Apr. 3) Meyer, the spirited television preacher with more than 70 books in print, tackles the mystery of prayer with notable success. A prolific author (The Confident Woman; Battlefield of the Mind; Approval Addiction) known for delivering no-nonsense biblical commentary, does a first-rate job in this exhaustive, yet simply presented, guide. Each of the 14 chapters provides fans with a different facet of this spiritual discipline. Meyer says that for a fruitful prayer life, it's essential to understand the balance between praise, worship, thanksgiving and making petitions. She challenges Christians to both consecrate and fully commit themselves to God's service and to realize that though prayer is simple, it is also a work that requires persistence and perseverance. For Meyer, effective prayer is characterized by a life of obedience, righteousness, continual petition and submission to divine authority. Christians must be focused on others, kindhearted, forgiving and boldly expectant. While her large fan base will relish this resource, others not in the charismatic evangelical camp might be alienated by Meyer's take on "praying in a prayer language" and her assumption that blessing others automatically invites material blessings to rebound from God. Still, the book reminds Christians that prayer is a joyous task of partnering with God on eternal matters. (Apr. 3) In this deeply theological, welcome book, Peterson (Sing Me to Heaven) argues in favor of the idea—no longer fashionable—that Christian service and spiritual growth are inherent in the acts of keeping people fed, clean, housed and comfortable. Housekeeping, she says, is akin to a litany, a long public prayer to announce needs and requests. A litany is repetitive and focused on the basics: food, health, shelter. Similarly, housework is ongoing and incarnational, teaching us about Jesus' earthiness and decision to live among us; it requires perpetual tending, much like God's active sustaining of the world. "All the more is this so when our homes are not all we might wish them to be," Peterson points out. "God's world is not as he wishes it to be, either." Addressing such topics as laundry, cleaning, shopping and cooking, Peterson offers persuasive biblical interpretations and incisive theological and cultural commentary. The two chapters on food and its preparation are especially groundbreaking, with Peterson enumerating helpful criteria for how Christians in a food-obsessed culture might determine whether a particular food is worthy of eating. At times, her domestic opinions have the whiff of superiority, as when she speaks disapprovingly about microwaves and dishwashers, but these moments are far outweighed by the book's well-researched and generous approach to domesticity. (Apr.) Chapman, Charles Darwin's great-great grandson and a successful Hollywood screenwriter, describes the 2005 intelligent design (ID) trial in Dover, Pa. The native-born Brit loves his adopted American home, but is terrified at the rise of a belligerent fundamentalism that seems to him invincibly ignorant and contemptuous of such scientific commonplaces as evolution. The 40 days and nights of the trial convince him that ID should indeed be taught in every science classroom in America: as an exercise in removing the kid gloves with which religion is treated in this country, science teachers should demolish ID before their pupils' eyes. The strength of the book is its function as an old-fashioned courtroom drama, which stays lively even as readers know how the trial will turn out. Chapman rightly describes himself as unable to "maintain animosity toward people with whom I violently disagree once I get to know them." He even checks his own agnosticism to compliment Jesuit theologian John Haught for having "the most beautiful mind in the whole trial." Chapman's exploration of the American soul finds not only cause for fear but also much that is good and decent. The book bogs down in forays into theology, which are marked by egregious misstatements about evangelicals in general (as opposed to just in Dover), and with a side story paralleling Dover with the Scopes monkey trial, which feels like a clunky addendum. (Apr.) Just as Julia Cameron, in The Artist's Way, showed the hardened Harvard businessman he had a creative artist lurking within, MacBeth makes it astonishingly clear that anyone with a box of colors and some paper can have a conversation with God. Frustrated by a laundry list of what she calls "prayer dilemmas," and the unfortunate situation of more than half a dozen friends and family members on her "critical prayer list," MacBeth, a math professor by trade, spent an afternoon doodling before she realized she'd in fact spent the afternoon in prayer. As she takes particular care to emphasize, this method—most effective for intercessory prayer, but adaptable for other approaches—requires absolutely no skill, merely a desire to connect with God. (Readers should therefore ignore any lingering self-doubt planted by a first grade art teacher.) Amid gentle personal anecdotes, MacBeth illustrates each step of the process, providing not just instruction but inspiration, by sharing her own prayer pages as well as those of her students. She even includes a chapter on using one's computer for the process. Readers of all ages, experience and religions will find this a fresh, invigorating and even exhilarating way to experience time with themselves and their Creator. (Apr.) Her spare prose a mute rebuke to the anecdotal loquaciousness of many self-help books on the spiritual life, Silf aims to help her readers craft thoughtful decisions in a world in which options seem endless and decisions pressing. Stringing her sentences out like scavenger hunt clues in a white landscape, the British author of The Gift of Prayer, Wayfaring and other explorations of spirituality divides her book into five sections on such topics as how to figure out which choices are truly necessary, how to choose with integrity and how to follow up on a decision once made. The slim book is peppered with practical advice, as when Silf advises her readers to avoid the "if-onlys" "what-ifs" and "might-have beens" that often get in the way of decision making. In a particularly helpful segment, Silf includes several discernment tests readers can use to predict the potential consequences of a decision. Some of her longtime fans may be frustrated by the format, lack of illustrations and dearth of overtly Christian content, but they will not be surprised by her commitment to decision making that is careful, forward looking and informed by a sense of responsibility to oneself and to the world. (Apr.) Rabbi Ben David's goal—to encourage readers to develop a relationship with God—unfolds in computer jargon in this guide to Jewish prayer. "Click on the mouse of life," he writes, "[and] bring up the Godfile." To do so, he suggests transcribing moments of joy and despair, dialogue and its absence onto an imaginary computer file, and deepening the relationship through spiritual retreats and regular "check-ups." His self-created terminology gets in the way of otherwise valuable practical advice instead of elucidating it, but the book really shines in his description of 10 paradigms for prayer, each based on the views of various Jewish thinkers and suited to different personalities. He guides readers to experiment with prayer as an opportunity for self-reflection, for listening to the "voice of your soul," for expressing anger or experiencing the anguish of the world. Now a rabbi involved in Jewish spiritual education in the U.S. and Israel, Ben David shares his own experiences as a secular Jew who rediscovered traditional Judaism but never delved into what he really believed. Though Ben David addresses those of all faiths, Jewish readers will be most likely to benefit from his thoughtful attempt to revitalize the meaning and process of prayer. (Apr.) Many readers will probably not have heard of Esalen—but that doesn't mean they won't find its history fascinating. Esalen is a legendary sacred place, but legendary among the privileged few like Aldous Huxley, Henry Miller and Joseph Campbell, for whom Esalen was a spiritual playground. Kripal, a professor of religious studies at Rice University, tells the story of this beautiful retreat in California's Big Sur region—its history at once sexy, salacious, intellectual and political—with reverence and playfulness, alternating between the hushed tones of awe and the glee of partaking in Esalen's infamous sinful delights. The community itself, Kripal explains, is centered around the idea of a "religion of no religion," which provides "a kind of American Mystical Constitution" for its visitors and "a spiritual space where almost any religious form can flourish." Kripal jumps among a wide range of historical moments, from Esalen's alleged relationship to the collapse of the Soviet Union to the idea of the disembodied erotic. Readers shouldn't be scared off by the book's heft. Kripal is an engaging storyteller, Esalen a worthy subject (a kind of Us Weekly for the discerning intellectual), and it's as easy to jump from the introduction to chapter 14 as it is to continue in order. (Apr.) Breathtakingly ambitious in scope, written with the author's customary sober and reflective erudition, this wide-ranging exploration of the wonders of the child is both inspirational and slightly elegiac in tone. Although it covers topics such as the tension between nature and nurture in child development, this is no ordinary child guidebook. Professor emeritus at the University of Chicago and a prolific writer on religion, culture, history and theology, Marty's deeply personal and sometimes dauntingly scholarly book urges his readers to abandon seeing a child as a problem to be controlled. Instead, he calls adults not only to nurture wonder in children, but to seek their own "childlikeness," or what, near the end of the book, he terms "childness." While the book is written with a general audience in mind, Marty's understanding of mystery and of childhood is unabashedly rooted in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. A random sampling of sources includes writers as diverse as the late Catholic theologian Karl Rahner and evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker. Aimed at all who care for children, this volume is, at least in part, the fruit of Marty's work in Emory University's three-year study of "The Child in Law, Religion and Society." (Apr.) Mirandette made headlines when he and two friends were severely injured by a terrorist bomb in Cairo, Egypt, in April of 2005. His brother, Alex, who was weeks away from his 19th birthday, died in the attack. It was a tragic end to a journey that began in Cape Town, South Africa, months earlier when three young men (a fourth joined them later) set out on the journey that would change their lives. Mirandette had felt God's insistent call while studying at the U.S. Air Force Academy; he left the U.S. to help a relief organization in Melilla, Spain, then to assist earthquake victims in Morocco. But he felt he needed to see and experience the rest of Africa, so the young men took off together. His account of their 9,000-mile motorcycle journey is riveting. They faced wild animals, hostile people, civil wars, a lack of food and several crashes along the way, but this intrepid group never wavered in their resolve to finish the trip—until a bomb ripped their worlds apart. Mirandette reveals his own religious searching, questions and qualms, yet urges readers to make the choice to "follow and believe." This is a tale of spiritual quest and huge adventure that ends in tragedy but not regret. (Apr.) Harline, an acclaimed historian and author of A Bishop's Tale, adopts a brilliant day-in-the-life strategy to explore the history of the Christian Sabbath in various cultures and times. Rather than attempting a sweeping and methodically exhaustive approach, Harline investigates the topic episodically, portraying, for example, a medieval English Sunday in one chapter, a decadent fin-de-siècle Parisian Sunday in another, and a 1950s American Sunday in the last and longest chapter. Along the way we also visit the earliest Roman Christians; a Dutch Reformed family in the 17th century; some battle-weary soldiers during World War I; and England again during the interwar years. Harline is a marvelous storyteller, combing the diaries, popular periodicals and letters of the various periods to bring the people and their times to life. There are some surprising revelations; until the fifth century, Sunday was a day of worship but also one of work, as early Christian leaders were anxious to distinguish it from the Jewish Sabbath. And Sunday has sometimes given rise to unlikely leisure pastimes: in Holland 400 years ago, it was the preferred day for courting; and in America today, it seems sacrosanct for professional sports. Harline's engaging and wonderfully written popular history deserves a wide readership. (Mar. 27)
FDR
Jean Edward Smith. Random, $35 (880p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6121-1
Shadow of the Silk Road
Colin Thubron. HarperCollins, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-123172-8
The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm
Juliet Nicolson. Grove, $25 (304p) ISBN 978-0-8021-1846-2
Colleen Curran. Vintage, $13.95 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-3072-7763-3
Tony and Maureen Wheeler. Tuttle/Periplus, $16.95 paper (376p) ISBN 978-0-7946-0523-0
Rick Kushman and
Hank Beal. Wiley, $18.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-471-79386-1
Farley Mowat. Carroll & Graf, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-78671-994-5
Lu Vickers and
Sara Dionne. Univ. Press of Florida, $34.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8130-3041-8
Susan Gregory Thomas. Houghton Mifflin, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-618-46351-0
Bill Engvall with Alan Eisenstock. St. Martin's, $19.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-312-36267-6
Robin Neillands. Overlook, $27.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-58567-787-0
Jim Camp. Crown, $23 (256p) ISBN 978-0-307-34574-5
Philip Zimbardo. Random, $27.95 (592p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6411-3
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
Atul Gawande. Metropolitan, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8211-5
Darcey Steinke. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-58234-530-7
Everett True. Da Capo, $19.95 paper (688p) ISBN 978-0-306-81554-6
William Liederman. Lyons, $19.95 (248p) ISBN 978-1-59228-843-4
Doris L. Rich. Univ. Press of Florida, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8130-3043-2
Sarah Thyre. Counterpoint, $22.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-58243-359-2
The Life of Kingsley Amis
Zachary Leader. Pantheon, $39.95 (1,008p) ISBN 978-0-375-42498-4
David Brown. Pegasus (Consortium, dist.), $28.95 (512p) ISBN 978-1-933648-30-9
Augustus Richard Norton. Princeton Univ., $16.95 (168p) ISBN 978-0-691-13124-4
Nicholas Shaxson. Palgrave, $26.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4039-7194-4
Norman H. Finkelstein. Jewish Publication Society, $18 paper (200p) ISBN 978-0-8276-0810-8
Walter Isaacson. Simon & Schuster, $32 (641p) ISBN 978-0-7432-6473-0
Jeremy Bernstein. Joseph Henry, $27.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-309-10296-4
Joseph Mazur. Dutton, $24.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-525-94992-3
Mike O'Connor. Beacon, $9.95 paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-8070-8574-5
George B. Schaller. Sierra Club, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-57805-129-8
John C. Maxwell. Nelson Business, $25.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-78521403-8
Dennis Wholey. Health Communications, $21.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-7573-0582-5
John Sellers. Simon & Schuster, $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7432-7708-2
Masaru Emoto. Doubleday, $18.95 (196p) ISBN 978-0-385-51837-6
Robert Benson. WaterBrook, $12.99 paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-4000-7173-9
Andy Karr. Shambhala, $16.95 paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-59030-429-7
The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World
Edited by Bob Abernethy and William Bole. Seven Stories, $29.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-58322-758-9
Joyce Meyer. FaithWords, $22.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-446-53196-2
Margaret Kim Peterson. Jossey-Bass, $21.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7879-7691-0
Matthew Chapman. Collins, $25.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-117945-7
Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God
Sybil MacBeth. Paraclete, $16.95 paper (96p) ISBN 978-1-55725-512-9
Margaret Silf. BlueBridge (IPG, dist.), $14 paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-93334-604-5
Aryeh Ben David. Devora [Ingram and Baker & Taylor, dist.], $16.95 (136p) ISBN 978-1-932687-93-4; $12.95 paper ISBN 978-1-932687-94-1
Jeffrey J. Kripal. Univ. of Chicago, $30 (512p) ISBN 978-0-226-45369-9
Martin E. Marty. Eerdmans, $24 (254p) ISBN 978-0-8028-1766-2
Erik Mirandette. Zondervan, $12.99 paper (308p) ISBN 978-0-310-27435-3
Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Superbowl
Craig Harline. Doubleday, $26 (464p) ISBN 978-0-385-51039-4
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