Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 2/19/2007
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 2/19/2007
[Signature] Reviewed by John Vaillant In this radical departure from Preston's bestsellers on catastrophic diseases (The Demon in the Freezer, etc.), he journeys into the perpendicular universe of the world's tallest trees. Mostly California redwoods, they are the colossal remnants of a lost world, some predating the fall of Rome. Suspended in their crowns, hundreds of feet above the forest floor, is a primeval kingdom of plants and animals that only a handful of people have ever seen. Now, thanks to Preston and a custom-made tree-climbing apparatus called a "spider rig," we get to see it, too. According to Preston, it wasn't until the 1980s that humans made the first forays into the tops of "supertall" trees, in excess of 350 feet high. The people who pioneered their exploration are a rarefied bunch—equal parts acrobat, adventurer and scientist. The book revolves around botanist Steve Sillett, an exceptional athlete with a tormented soul who found his calling while making a borderline suicidal "free" climb to the top of an enormous redwood in 1987, where he discovered a world of startling complexity and richness. More than 30 stories above the ground, he found himself surrounded by a latticework of fused branches hung with gardens of ferns and trees bearing no relation to their host. In this Tolkienesque realm of sky and wind, lichens abound while voles and salamanders live and breed without awareness of the earth below. At almost the exact moment that Sillett was having his epiphany in the redwood canopy, Michael Taylor, the unfocused son of a wealthy real estate developer, had a revelation in another redwood forest 200 miles to the south. Taylor, who had a paralyzing fear of heights, decided to go in search of the world's tallest tree. Their obsessive quests led these young men into a potent friendship and the discovery of some of the most extraordinary creatures that have ever lived. Preston's tireless research, crystalline writing style and narrative gifts are well suited to the subject. Sillett, Taylor and their cohorts, who include a Canadian botanist named Marie Antoine, are fascinating, often deeply wounded characters. Their collective passion and intensity have illuminated one of the most vulnerable and poorly understood ecosystems on this continent. Preston adds a personal twist by mastering the arcane tree climber's art of "skywalking" and partnering with Sillett and Antoine on some of their most ambitious ascents. As impressive as this is, Preston's cameo appearance disrupts the flow of the main narrative and somewhat dilutes its considerable power. John Vaillant is the author of The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed (Norton) and winner of the Canadian Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction (2005). In this intriguing first book, Philadelphia-based journalist Issenberg roams the globe in search of sushi and takes the reader on a cultural, historical and economic journey through the raw-fish trade that reads less like economics and more like an entertaining culinary travelogue. In the years since the end of WWII, the practical protein-and-rice delicacy once unknown outside Japan has become so commonplace that the elements of its trade affect a far-flung global network of fanatics, chefs, tuna ranchers and pirates. While the West reached out for things Japanese, from management techniques to Walkmans, the growth of the market for quality fish, especially maguro, the bluefin tuna beloved by sushi eaters everywhere, paralleled Japan's rise from postwar ruin to 1980s economic powerhouse and into its burst-bubble present. Issenberg follows every possible strand in this worldwide web of history, economics and cuisine—an approach that keeps the book lively with colorful places and characters, from the Tokyo fish market to the boats of North Atlantic fishermen, from tuna ranches off the coast of Australia to the sushi bars in Austin, Tex. He weaves the history of the art and cuisine of sushi throughout, and his smart, lively voice makes the most arcane information fascinating. (May) In its nascence in the American lexicon, the term "Bridezilla" has inspired articles, reality television and watercooler tales of brides gone mad. This phenomenon piqued New Yorker staff writer Mead's interest, sending her on a three-year investigation of the current American wedding and the $161-billion industry that spawned it. "Blaming the bride," she writes, "wasn't an adequate explanation for what seemed to be underlying the concept of the Bridezilla: that weddings themselves were out of control." Interviewing wedding industry professionals and attending weddings in Las Vegas, Disney World, Aruba and a wedding town in Tennessee, Mead ventures beyond the tulle curtain to reveal moneymaking ploys designed around our most profound fears as well as our headiest happily-ever-after fantasies. Goods and services providers alter marital traditions—and even invent new ones—to feed their bottom line. Stores vie for bridal registry business in hopes of gaining lifelong customers. Women swoon for what retailers call "the 'Oh, Mommy' moment" in boutique fitting rooms—an unsettling contrast to the Chinese bridal gown factory workers who make them possible, sleeping eight to a room and scraping by on 30 cents an hour. Part investigative journalism, part social commentary, Mead's wry, insightful work offers an illuminating glimpse at the ugly underbelly of our Bridezilla culture. (May) Holland, a prolific and wide-ranging writer (Gentlemen's Blood, among others), distills a considerable tonnage of fact and trivia into this casual, shot-sized volume, the kind once found in every libation-related library, tucked behind every bar next to the Mr. Boston guide and a dog-eared paperback joke collection. She has a breezy, whimsical style, perfectly suited to her swift romp across the histories and cultures of alcohol down through the ages. While disclosing facts about the drinking habits—and abuses—of characters like Mark Anthony, Samuel Pepys and Pope Leo XIII, Holland includes summaries of how various kinds of fermentations and distillates were developed, often accidentally, in cultures from ancient Arabia to present-day America, and in times from Ptolemy's to Prohibition. She includes several recipes for home-style "remedies" like elderberry wine and applejack, as well as diagrams and instructions for the construction of your own backyard still. It's the sort of book-length essay that makes a perfect Father's Day gift, with stocking-stuffer backlist potential in seasons to come. (May) In this rambling tale, author Scanlan (The Man Who Listens to Horses) declares his intention to explore the relationship between Triple Crown winner Secretariat and his long-time groom, Eddie Sweat. For Scanlan, the African-American Sweat is a symbol of the exploited, underappreciated workers who make the sport of kings run but receive a pittance of the winnings and even less recognition. Scanlan's mission is a noble one, but although he's right there in the subtitle, the groom is strangely absent from the text, and the quest becomes a McGuffin that allows the writer to travel to racetracks around the country. The journey is not without its pleasures, however. Scanlan has written over a dozen books on horses, and this volume bulges with insight into and sensitivity toward the world of Thoroughbred horse racing. He offers hundreds of racing anecdotes and endless minutiae about Secretariat's career. More interestingly, he introduces readers to the marginal figures—grooms, hot-walkers, exercise riders, smalltime trainers, breeders and owners—whose love for horses and hope for a lucky break outweigh their desire to make a decent living. Sadly, he also explains that all too many broken-down Thoroughbreds end their careers in the abattoir. In this backstretch meditation, Scanlan's scope is encyclopedic, but his narrative never finally coheres. (May) Crowe, founding editor of Zembla magazine, and Oltermann asked 67 authors to tell them about meaningful objects in their work spaces. The answers, revealed in this playful and snappily designed book of text and photographs revolve around the things writers use for inspiration or to ward off their demons—insufficient inspiration, procrastination and writer's block. Lucky charms abound. Luis J. Rodriguez keeps a statuette of the Hindu lord of success on his desk; Siri Hustvedt has a set of abandoned keys to symbolically unlock the doors to her stories. Writing implements are important: Hanif Kureishi's pens; John Byrne's old Olympia portable typewriter; Peter Hobbs's generic red and blue notebooks. Furniture matters, too, including Alain de Botton's huge desk and Jonathan Franzen's squeaky office chair. Some writers depend on food or drink—chocolate for Douglas Coupland, tea for Tash Aw and Benjamin Markovits. And there are Arthur Bradford's dogs, Nicholson Baker's earplugs and Jay McInerney's 500,000-year-old hand ax. Each writer's short explanation of his or her relationship to a particular talisman is accompanied by a full-page color photograph of the device, making this handsome coffee-table book an intriguing object in its own right. (May) Henderson, on the faculty of Auburn University, offers a survey of the Mexican War from a Mexican perspective. Instead of the common depiction of Mexico as the victim of the U.S. and its racist Manifest Destiny, Henderson emphasizes Mexican agency in going to war, which reflected a profound sense of weakness. Mexico's revolutionary experience had produced a virulent factionalism based on divisions of race, class, region and ideology. The Texas revolt of 1836 only made it more clear that Mexico was too weak to populate, control and defend its northern territories, but that opinion was derided within Mexico. Instead, politicians of every stripe denounced the policies of their rivals. The only common denominator was that Texas must be reconquered, even if that meant war with overwhelmingly superior U.S. military and economic power. But the Mexican people remained largely indifferent—otherwise Winfield Scott's landing at Vera Cruz and his decisive march on Mexico City would have been impossible. Mexico, unable to pursue a pragmatic strategy of negotiation and compromise, suffered—and celebrated—a "glorious defeat" that further unraveled a disunited nation. 8 pages b&w photos not seen by PW. (May) Montgomery (King of Fish), a geomorphologist who studies how landscapes change through time, argues persuasively that soil is humanity's most essential natural resource and essentially linked to modern civilization's survival. He traces the history of agriculture, showing that when humans exhausted the soil in the past, their societies collapsed, or they moved on. But moving on is not an option for future generations, he warns: there isn't enough land. In the U.S., mechanized agriculture has eroded an alarming amount of agricultural land, and in the developing world, degraded soil is a principal cause of poverty. We are running out of soil, and agriculture will soon be unable to support the world's growing population. Chemical fertilizers, which are made with lots of cheap oil, are not the solution. Nor are genetically modified seeds, which have not produced larger harvests or reduced the need for pesticides. Montgomery proposes an agricultural revolution based on soil conservation. Instead of tilling the land and making it vulnerable to erosion, we should put organic matter back into the ground, simulating natural conditions. His book, though sometimes redundant, makes a convincing case for the need to respect and conserve the world's limited supply of soil. Illus. not seen by PW. (May) Denton (American Massacre) produces an intriguing take on the life and times of John C. Frémont (1813–1890), explorer of the West, traveling partner of Kit Carson, California senator, unyielding abolitionist and the Republican Party's first presidential candidate (he lost the 1856 election to James Buchanan). This is not a conventional political biography but a portrait of the five-decade-long marriage between Frémont and Jessie, a daughter of Missouri Democratic senator Thomas Hart Benton, set against the tumultuous background of 19th-century America. It is certainly the first narrative in which Jessie Frémont is accorded equal weight, and is by far the most sympathetic—not just to her, but also to him. John, all too often depicted as a semicompetent and fraudulent megalomaniac, emerges as an immensely talented explorer, overtrusting soul and introverted scientist. Jessie's historical caricature as a hysterical shrew and control freak is sensitively tempered by Denton into a complex amalgam of indomitability and idealism constrained by her times into playing second fiddle. Jessie's accomplishments, writes Denton, "were attained not through John as her surrogate, but with John as her partner." As Denton shows, Bill and Hillary are not the first American power couple. 16 pages of b&w illus. (May) The late 19th-century Arts and Crafts Movement resonated anywhere artists feared that rising industrialization would result in a loss of individuation and creativity, particularly in the decorative arts. Cultural, socioeconomic and political concerns, as well as indigenous style, gave each country's version of the movement a particular emphasis and flair. Blakesley, a senior lecturer in art history and fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in this lavish survey of the journey that Arts and Crafts took through Europe, Russia and the United States, shifts the focus from the movement's British and American giants—William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Greene brothers—to the many artists and artistic communities that made the movement a worldwide phenomenon. Such a thorough catalogue is not always easy to manage in text, but it's the 250 color images that communicate the true range of the movement and its regional influences, from the folk embroidery of the Hungarian Laura Nagy to Russian kustar, or handicrafts, the magisterial stained-glass of Ireland's An Túr Gloine (the Tower of Glass) and the rediscovery of fine letterpress printing by Morris's Kelmscott Press. Photographs luxuriate in a glorious open design, beautifully printed on thick, rich paper, creating a feast for the eyes. (Apr.) An enlightening and engaging collection of photographs and historical accounts is interspersed with personal anecdotes in this companion to a PBS documentary of the same name scheduled to air March 21. This is an ideal introduction for anyone who has ever puzzled over the difference between deaf and Deaf (the latter refers to deaf culture). How a physical disability leads to a culture is a fascinating process, one the writers reveal by exploring the history of deaf education, the development of a Deaf community, the contentious debate that arose in the 19th century between oralists (who favored the use of lipreading and speech) and those who supported sign language, and the battle to convince the hearing world that an inability to hear was not tantamount to an inability to think and learn. Given these elements, the development of Deaf culture was inevitable. Even today, when technological advances have made it possible for the deaf and hearing communities to communicate more easily, there are still deaf people who prefer to remain within their world. Whether you agree or disagree with that philosophy, there's no question this book provides a context to better understand it. (Apr.) Allawi, until recently a senior minister in the Iraqi government, provides an insider's account of the nascent Iraqi government following the American invasion. His scholarly yet immensely readable exposition of Iraqi society and politics will likely become the standard reference on post-9/11 Iraq. It convincingly blasts the Coalition Provisional Authority for failing to understand the simmering sectarian animosity and conflicting loyalties that led Iraq into chaos. Beginning during Saddam's reign, among the motley gang of liberal democrats, Islamists and Kurdish nationalists that formed the opposition-in-exile, of which Allawi was a prominent member, he chronicles the fortunes and aspirations of the political parties, personalities and interest groups that now are tearing Iraq apart. In one representative episode, after the siege of Fallujah in 2004, the Marines initiated an ill-fated attempt to create a Fallujah Brigade of local men who would be loyal to the CPA. "[Head of the CPA L. Paul] Bremer... learned about it from newspaper reports.... The defense minister [Allawi himself] went on television, denouncing the Fallujah Brigade.... The 'Fallujah Brigade,' after a few weeks of apparent cooperation with the Marines, began to act as the core of a national liberation army. Any pretense that they were rooting out insurgents was dropped." (Apr. 9) In time for the 150th anniversary of the Great Mutiny, the uprising that came close to toppling British rule in India, Dalrymple presents a brilliant, evocative exploration of a doomed world and its final emperor, Bahadur Shah II, descendant of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. Bahadur, more familiarly known as Zafar, was a reluctant revolutionary: the mutinous sepoys who had murdered every Christian in Delhi proclaimed him their commander, an honor he hadn't sought. British besiegers took the capital in September 1857, followed by massacre, purges and destruction. Zafar died five years later in penury and exile. Dalrymple (White Mughals), however, is primarily concerned with compiling "a portrait of the Delhi he [Zafar] personified, a narrative of the last days of the Mughal capital and its final destruction." In this task, he has been immeasurably aided by his discovery of a colossal trove of documents in Indian national archives in Delhi and elsewhere. Thanks to them Dalrymple can vividly recreate, virtually at street level, the life and death of one of the most glorious and progressive empires ever seen. That the rebels fatefully raised the flag of jihad and dubbed themselves "mujahedin" only adds to the mutiny's contemporary relevance. 24 pages of illus., 16 in color; 2 maps. History Book Club featured selection. (Apr. 1) This highly readable account of the founding of Jamestown moves from the English throne to the daily struggles of the colony's first settlers and the experience of Virginia's Indians as their relations with colonists became increasingly strained. Here are the famous tales from early Virginia, like Pocahontas's marriage to John Rolfe. But well-known explorers sit cheek by jowl with fascinating, lesser-known people, such as the colonists' wives, who consulted an astrologer to reassure themselves about their husbands' fate on the open seas. Woolley emphasizes both the financial and religious aims of colonization: English backers expected to get rich on the bounty the settlers would uncover and produce (though the first ships of wood and iron ore sent back disappointed the London Company). But Englishmen also saw Virginia as a "religious mission," an opportunity to spread Protestantism abroad. Woolley persuasively argues that the settlers' aggressive response to a 1623 Indian attack became the "defining moment" in the history of English settlement of Virginia—it was through this event, more than any other, that the colonists articulated their connection to their new land and "crafted and honed their American identity." Woolley blends nuanced analysis with fast-paced narrative. 16 pages of color illus. (Apr.) Craughwell (Saints Behaving Badly) provides an intriguing glimpse at a macabre but interesting footnote to the story of Abraham Lincoln: the tale of how, on election night of 1876, several Chicago counterfeiters attempted to abduct and hold for ransom the 16th president's corpse. As Craughwell demonstrates, authorities received advance warning, and Lincoln's bones never, in the end, left his Springfield, Ill., tomb—even though the would-be abductors did succeed in wresting the casket from its sarcophagus. In telling this story, Craughwell also provides something of a biography of Lincoln's cadaver, chronicling its long voyage to final rest. After the 1876 attempt, the "sacred remains" spent 11 years half-buried in a subbasement of the tomb, covered with boards, as a security measure, while thousands of pious citizens paid their respects to the empty sarcophagus above. Then, from 1887 through 1889, the dead president's body lingered in a specially constructed catacomb immediately beneath the sarcophagus room (again, secretly). Not until 1901—after several prominent Springfieldians opened the casket and verified the identity of its occupant—was Lincoln's corpse permanently installed within his monument beneath several feet of poured cement, never again to be disturbed. Craughwell offers an entertaining account of one of the stranger incidents in American history. (Apr.) Freehling follows up his highly praised Secessionists at Bay, 1776– 1854 in this exhaustive, scholarly look at the collisions between the lofty American goals of freedom and democracy and the strong desire of Southern slave owners and their supporters to subvert those ideals by defending whites enslavement of blacks. Beginning where the last volume left off, with the bloody aftermath of the pivotal 1854 passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the new work includes revealing analyses of the violence in "bleeding Kansas," the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, among many other incidents. A good deal of the book focuses on differences of opinion on secession throughout the South, and includes a sharp analysis of the generally underappreciated role of the pro-slavery, pro-secessionist "fire-eaters," such as William Lowndes Yancey and Preston Smith Brooks. Most, like Brooks, were South Carolinians. Like its predecessor, this volume is an important work that will appeal mainly to scholars and students of the Civil War. (Apr.) Modern Manhattan is a miracle in many ways, but all of its imports, commuters included, must traverse at least one river to get there. In 1900, the New York Central, owned by the Vanderbilts, already gave Manhattan a northern connection over the narrow Harlem River. A southern connection over the mile-wide Hudson would be a whole different story. Alexander Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was the visionary on the project. But how to do it? A bridge plan fell through due to expense; a tunnel would lack the oxygen needed for steam engines. The breakthrough lay in the cutting-edge electrified locomotives developed in Paris. Historian Jonnes (Empires of Light), demonstrating impressive immersion in the Gilded Age, ably spins the tale, which bears some similarities to The Devil in the White City. This is a vivid story of hardball Tammany Hall maneuvering and mind-boggling engineering. Once construction began, the two-track narrative settles on the daunting construction of the tunnels and Charles McKim's much-admired design of the terminus at Pennsylvania Station, prized by New Yorkers only after its ill-considered demise in 1963. Jonnes can claim an important addition to the popular literature of how New York became the archetype of a great American metropolis. (Apr. 23) Atlantic Monthly editor Beatty (The Rascal King) clearly invokes a comparison with the present in writing of how, he says, corporations, not the people, ruled America in the Gilded Age. He examines the role of the railroads as the engine of capitalism, the role of protectionist tariffs in raising prices for the common man and how "representative government gave way to bought government." But Beatty ignores the latest literature on that period by the likes of Charles R. Morris, Maury Klein, David Nasaw and David Cannadine. Instead, the post–Civil War industrial boom depicted by Beatty mimics that described by the now largely discredited Matthew Josephson—author in the 1930s of The Robber Barons—whose works Beatty cites. Beatty also references other now-marginalized class-warrior historians, such as Gustavus Myers, in portraying capitalism as a sort of zero-sum game where a dollar pocketed by one individual is inevitably a buck stolen from someone else, overlooking the notion of visionary entrepreneurs creating a surging tide of capital upon which all boats rise. Beatty's view of history seems guided by his liberal impulses and his disillusioned view of American democracy today—not the best way to approach history. B&w illus. (Apr. 16) A Polish aristocrat born in Austria, Countess Lanckoronska (1898– 2002) became an art history professor at the University of Lvov, Poland. When the Soviets invaded in September 1939, the countess joined the resistance and eventually evaded arrest by fleeing to German-occupied Kraków, where she worked with the Polish Red Cross and continued her resistance activities. At Stanislawow, where she had been delivering care packages to prisoners, Lanckoronska was briefly imprisoned and local Gestapo chief Hans Krüger confessed to her that he had murdered 23 University of Lvov professors, a war crime she made it her mission to publicize. Imprisoned at Ravensbrück because of her political activities, the ever-resilient Lanckoronska cared for victims of medical experiments and taught art and European history. She eschewed her privileged status to join the ranks of prisoners, but as a Christian Lanckoronska never shared the ordeal of Jewish concentration camp prisoners, and her memoir says little about atrocities committed against European Jewry. Although the style is stilted and restrained, this is still a worthy, unsentimental eyewitness account that sheds welcome light on a tumultuous era of modern Polish history. 8 pages of b&w photos; map. (Apr. 5) Combining a reporter's eye for detail, the breathless narrative rush of an action movie and the generous heart of a hometown boy desperately trying to make sense of a place gone terribly wrong, Downs examines the social and economic disintegration of Hartford, Conn., in the 1990s through the coming-of-age of five African-American teenage boys. These young men—track stars, football players, scholars—try to make the right decisions while local and state politicians squabble over money, drug gangs roam the streets and the middle class—both white and black—flees to the suburbs. Harvey, Derrick, Eric, Hiram and Joshua make a pledge that no matter their future path, they will return to Hartford to rebuild their shattered city. The first half of the book flows with the power and grace of a finely tuned magazine article. Then Downs loses his focus and gets bogged down in a lengthy recounting of the boys' track coach's trial. The narrative shifts from the boys—now young men with growing families and burgeoning careers—to Downs's own struggle with his identity and the declining health of his grandfather. If the narrative splinters, perhaps it is an apt metaphor for the boys' pledge. Just one—Joshua—returned to Hartford. (Apr.) This memoir by a former New York heroin kingpin—reportedly the inspiration for the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and the movie New Jack City, among others—pulsates with the criminal street life it depicts so well. In the 1970s, Barnes, a former junkie, built a heroin operation that delivered tens of millions of dollars worth of dope annually to the New York area. He became a street hero for his flamboyant lifestyle. Using a heavy dose of street slang to add flavor, Barnes portrays a dangerous but exciting life, the allure of the money and power he and his associates accrued, even as the drug trade sowed the seeds of their destruction. With documentary filmmaker Folsom's help, Barnes shows how he built his empire, creating a ruthlessly efficient drug organization modeled after the Mafia and known as "The Council." Barnes's ability to elude prison earned him the nickname Mr. Untouchable, but eventually prosecutors caught up to him, and in 1977 he was sentenced to life in prison. Eventually, Barnes turned state's evidence, earned his release in 1998 and joined the federal Witness Protection Program. But even now, Barnes's lack of regret gives this captivating work an added air of authenticity. (Apr.) A revolution is taking place and it's being driven by the most fundamental of all human urges—the desire to reproduce. This revolution is the subject of Mundy's utterly fascinating book on assisted reproduction. The breadth and thoroughness of Mundy's investigation makes it nearly impossible to come away without having your opinions challenged if not changed altogether. Mundy, a feature writer for the Washington Post, combines a science reporter's objectivity with a mother's understanding, and she delivers her emotionally charged and often scientifically complex material in clear, bright and eminently readable prose. Mundy's research starts with the facts: 80 million people worldwide suffer from infertility; 500,000 frozen embryos exist in America alone; and fertility drugs are a $3-billion a year business. From there she interviews mothers, fathers, infertility doctors, surrogate mothers, egg donors, sperm donors and adult children conceived through surrogacy and in vitro fertilization. The picture that emerges is one of a social experiment so new and untested—legally, medically, ethically and socially—that it behooves us all to be as informed as possible. There couldn't be a better starting point than this book. 75,000 first printing. (Apr. 24) Men have been complaining about failed erections ever since Ovid, but as University of Victoria historian McLaren (Sexual Blackmail: A Modern History) shows, their significance, and with it our conceptions of masculinity, have changed over the centuries. In the medieval world, for example, the primary concern was with whether a man was capable of consummating his marriage; it would take centuries for the physical and psychological causes to take center stage. And though everything from excessive masturbation to coitus interruptus was put forth as an explanation, just about every era, from the ancient Greeks to modern antifeminists, has found some way to put the blame on women. (In the 19th century, doctors claimed men could be put off not just by women who were reluctant but those who were too eager.) After considering the early 20th-century "quack" remedies of gland injections and vacuum pumps, McLaren devotes his final chapter to the cultural changes wrought by Viagra and other drugs created to treat "erectile dysfunction." Far from eliminating the fear of impotence, he suggests such medications may actually lead to more anxiety, as pharmaceutical companies attempt to convince men that sexual activity is vital to their well-being. Perhaps one day McLaren will write about those problems with the wide-ranging verve of this lively history. 8 illus. (Apr.) Americans are going through a crisis of identity these days, writes Souza, founder of Paragon Holdings LLC, which teaches personal and organizational success worldwide. Clinical depression rates are skyrocketing, he says. And while our living standards have improved in the past century, we have lost our sense of purpose. Souza has his finger on the discontentment epidemic facing many working professionals, since he used to be in the same boat—by age 27 he was a high-powered executive with a six-figure salary, but he finally realized he hated his job and wasn't satisfied with the external trappings of wealth. By finding his own sense of purpose in helping people discover theirs, he found his path. In each chapter, Souza draws lessons from the lives of successful people, some famous, who found their passion early, such as Lance Armstrong, Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey. But it's the psychological astuteness with which he analyzes the fearful life patterns many Americans fall into that makes this book most valuable. In his view, so-called identity crises are natural and ongoing: we are supposed to change, try new experiences and evolve at every stage of our lives. "There are no shortcuts to success," Souza says, arguing for persistence, hard work and the ability to deal with failure. Not in the least preachy, Souza pushes readers to commit to a goal and follow through. Happiness, he says, is the goal, "but it never comes directly. It comes only as a by-product of living in truth and committing ourselves with everything we've got to discovering our gift and sharing it with the world." Readers looking for inspiration and moral support in following their dreams will find it here. (Apr.) Anyone who thinks math is dull will be delightfully surprised by this history of the concept of symmetry. Stewart, a professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick (Does God Play Dice?), presents a time line of discovery that begins in ancient Babylon and travels forward to today's cutting-edge theoretical physics. He defines basic symmetry as a transformation, "a way to move an object" that leaves the object essentially unchanged in appearance. And while the math behind symmetry is important, the heart of this history lies in its characters, from a hypothetical Babylonian scribe with a serious case of math anxiety, through Évariste Galois (inventor of "group theory"), killed at 21 in a duel, and William Hamilton, whose eureka moment came in "a flash of intuition that caused him to vandalize a bridge," to Albert Einstein and the quantum physicists who used group theory and symmetry to describe the universe. Stewart does use equations, but nothing too scary; a suggested reading list is offered for more rigorous details. Stewart does a fine job of balancing history and mathematical theory in a book as easy to enjoy as it is to understand.Line drawings. (Apr.) He doesn't have an exploratory committee, but the former Democratic senator and one-time presidential hopeful certainly has a platform in this thoughtful policy agenda. Bradley (Time Present, Time Past) scathingly critiques Republican ideology and presents a liberal-centrist program for change that advances a multilateralist foreign policy, spending cuts (including Pentagon sacred cows) and tax hikes to reduce the deficit. There are also detailed, often far-reaching proposals to shore up (not privatize) Social Security and reform private pensions, health care, education and energy policy. His insightful account of the politics of Republican ascendancy and Democratic eclipse in recent decades is coupled with a cogent call for Democrats to "abandon the star system" of celebrity candidates (take that, Hillary and Barack!), develop a coherent governing philosophy and rebuild the party from the grass roots. Bradley's proposals range from the bold—free college tuition for the top third of every high-school class—to the niggling—"Ban trans fats." He loses his nerve on health care, as he won't unequivocally endorse the "Medicare for all" insurance system he obviously prefers. Still, Bradley puts forward a tough, plainspoken indictment of the Republicans and a vigorous and substantive Democratic reform program that deserves to be read and debated. (Apr. 3) Former magazine editor Tsui asked 20 writers aged 30 and under to reflect on ways in which they have connected with nature, and in this collection presents their original, often humorous answers. In the essay that inspired the book's title, Tim Neville tells how he spent his senior year in high school living in a tent in his parents' suburban yard, imagining he was having a Thoreau-like experience. Some of the writers tried to emulate explorers of the past. Sam Moulton and three friends, for example, made a three-month-long canoe trip to the Arctic Circle with little know-how and ridiculously inappropriate supplies. Thoughts of Ernest Shackleton inspired Traci Joan Macnamara to take a disillusioning job at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Others fulfilled their need for nature in unlikely places—Adam Baer on an outdoor tennis court, Christine DeLucia in Massachusetts's Mount Auburn Cemetery, Liesl Schwabe in a Brooklyn, N.Y., greenmarket. No matter what the approach, all the essays are imaginative and unusual, harbingers of what we may expect from nature writing as the last truly wild places disappear, and people have to take nature wherever they can find it. (Apr.) Turning 60 in April, "Godfather of Punk" Iggy Pop still displays the body and energy of a 20-year-old, and in this volume Trynka (Portrait of the Blues) captures Iggy's debauchery in an obsessively detailed and compulsively readable biography that is as high-energy and entertaining as its subject. Trynka covers all phases of the "driven, talented, indomitable creature" born James Newell Osterberg Jr. in 1947, with special attention paid to how his band the Stooges roared out of Detroit in the late 1960s, then crashed in a "slow, painful" drug-addled disintegration in the early '70s. While he expertly details Iggy's many comebacks, especially those involving David Bowie, Trynka is most sympathetic to how the Stooges' "brutal, monotonous riffing" was the perfect musical support to Iggy's outrageous gender-bending performances, in which "the blood running down Iggy's chest would become a defining image in his career." Ending with a look at how the Stooges' 2004 reunion shows attracted both older fans and younger postpunks, Trynka shows how every aspect of Iggy's work has now become "an integral element of today's rock and alternative music." (Apr.) In this hefty, thoroughly enjoyable biography of Gertrude Bell (1868–1926), English journalist Howell describes her subject as not only "the most famous British traveler of her day, male or female" but as a "poet, scholar, historian, mountaineer, photographer, archaeologist, gardener, cartographer, linguist and distinguished servant of the state." As Howell observes, "Gertrude always had to have a project," and she manages to bring those multitudinous projects, studies and adventures to life on the page. "I decided," Howell writes, "to use many more of her own words than would appear in a conventional biography": a felicitous decision when the subject's letters, diaries and publications are as seamlessly incorporated in Howell's engaging text as they are. Bell's role in the creation of Iraq and the placement of Faisal upon the throne, is fully detailed, both to honor her power and to haunt us today. But the strength and delight of Howell's superb biography is in the fullness with which Bell's character is drawn. Having clearly fallen in love with her subject (though not blind to her warts), Howell leaves no stone unturned—family history, school days, Bell's clothes, sometimes her meals, her friendships, her servants, her thousands of miles traveled, her fluency in languages (Persian, Turkish, Arabic) and, yes, her romances. 16 pages of b&w illus. (Apr.) One day, while trying to straighten up her elderly father's apartment, Franks discovered Nazi military paraphernalia, inspiring the Pulitzer-winning reporter and novelist (Wild Apples) to investigate what he really did during the Second World War. The painstaking inquiries are hampered by his reluctance to discuss his work in military intelligence, attached to the navy's Bureau of Ordnance. Some of that reluctance may have to do with the onset of dementia tearing away his memories, but he's also profoundly traumatized by some of his missions. In one moving passage, he is persuaded to describe his experience as one of the first American observers at a liberated concentration camp, every sentence still painful to get out even 50 years later. As Franks perseveres with her questions, she begins to understand how those experiences shaped their disintegrating postwar family life, but she acknowledges how difficult it is to achieve closure with this past, especially when she's afraid to confront the reality of his present condition. Even the most painful moments—as when she throws a particularly harrowing revelation back in her father's face to score revenge for adolescent resentments—are recounted with unflinching honesty as the military history takes a backseat to the powerful family drama. (Mar.) Harris has focused in the past on writing about African diasporic food traditions, so her tackling of the Martha's Vineyard's food landscape may come as a surprise. The Vineyard Harris knows and loves is infinitely more colorful and diverse than the one most visitors may glimpse when they rent a cottage for a week. Hers is one born of years of home ownership and a deep understanding of the island legacy of African-American homeowners, Portuguese immigrants and Mexican restaurant laborers. Her page-long descriptions of each area of the island capture the essence of Menemsha, Edgartown and Vineyard Haven; readers will instantly feel like insiders. The easy, simply written recipes don't so much reflect quintessential Martha's Vineyard as they reflect Harris's personal background and experiences of a lifetime of weekends and summers, incorporating all cuisines from Jamaican (Red Pea Soup with Spinners—made with kidney beans and dumplings) through Portuguese (Kale Soup with chorizo) to Southern African-American (Corn Fritters), and old island classics like Smoked Bluefish Salad, Quahog Stew and Cranberry-Apple Crisp. Harris's prose, combined with the clean, crisp photos (by Susie Cushner) make a perfect Martha's Vineyard guidebook. Harris instructs where to find the classic summer pies or a good loaf of bread, and what to serve your guests as they laze on the porch with a gin and tonic in one hand and a deviled egg in the other. (May) Lebovitz, a former Chez Panisse pastry chef and author of The Great Chocolate Book, credits his "first and craziest, most insane summer job"— as an ice cream scooper at a soda fountain—with inspiring his lifelong devotion to ice cream. The author's 25 years of experience as a frozen-dessert maker are put to excellent use in this wittily written, detailed volume. Step-by-step photos and advice on selecting an ice cream machine will reassure ice cream amateurs. Experts and novices alike will appreciate tips for selecting the best citrus and creating unusual but complementary pairings (apricots go nicely with Olive Oil Ice Cream). An impressive array of flavors is available for the making, like Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream, Vanilla Frozen Yogurt, Fresh Fig Ice Cream and Pear Pecorino Ice Cream. Sorbet, sherbet and granita also are explored in depth, as are ice cream "vessels," such as brownies and crepes. Great photos and plenty of practical advice combine to make this an appealing and useful resource for the dessert aficionado. (May) Readers of Dusoulier's ebullient food blog, chocolateandzucchini.com, won't be disappointed by this wonderful mélange of new creations and old favorites. Dusoulier's charm lies in her culinary curiosity and enthusiasm, and she deftly conveys both through 75-plus recipes and narrative commentary. The 27-year-old Parisian arranges her book into three sections. The first, Simplicité (Simplicity), includes salads, sandwiches, savory tarts, soups and eggs. Part two is Invitation (Entertaining) and features recipes for hors d'oeuvres, "impromptu" dinners like Hand-Cut Steak Tartare, dinner party fare such as Comté Cheese Soufflés, buffet items and sides. The final portion concerns sweets, clearly Dusoulier's favorite. With scintillating recipes for cakes (Apricot and Pistachio Ricotta), tarts (Blueberry Amandine), desserts (Chocolate Hibiscus Crème Brûlée) and "sweet bites" (Orange Flower Shuttle Cookies), this section brims with innovation. Overall, newcomers to French cuisine will learn to make some classics, like Pistou Soup and Beef Bourguignon, while those seeking to expand their repertoires will enjoy the author's idiosyncratic creations. Dishes like Broccoli and Apple Quiche (born out of a "greenmarket run one fall morning") and, of course, Chocolate & Zucchini Cake (which may sound "a little odd," but is "surprisingly successful" and features "real teamwork at play") are just some of Dusoulier's delightful and unusual offerings. (May) In this small but tasty collection of Italian recipes, Quinn, host of the PBS series Everyday Food and author of Lucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen, draws on her travels and ancestral past for classic home-cooked dishes. In bringing rustic Italian food to the busy American table, Quinn cuts out several steps such as homemade stock and freshly rolled pasta (although she does include a recipe for pizza dough that can be topped with escarole and Gaeta olives or served Margherita-style). Technique is perhaps not as important as ingredients: Her "Notes to the Cook section" covers some basic territory such as how to control the flavor of garlic, the merits of salted capers and her secret dredging weapon, Wondra flour for gravy. Though selections like Carolina's Wine Taralli (cookies) and Tuna Gremolata Dip have a sophisticated flair, there are plenty of earthy, elemental pleasures, like Polpette (a meatball in Italian, but Quinn turns it into a meatloaf), which is baked with mortadella slivers and pistachios, and Tuscan kale sautéed with olive oil and seasoned only with salt and pepper. Along with plenty of color beauty shots by Quentin Bacon, Quinn's book demonstrates that even at its very humblest, Italian cooking yields extraordinary flavors. (Apr.) With its red recipe titles, wavy blue rules that might have been cut with a pastry crimp and lots of white space on every page, this Good Housekeeping compendium fairly shouts All-American bake sale. This is the place to look for clear, simple instructions on how to make Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chewy Gingersnaps and Strawberry Shortcake. But some of the best recipes in the book are the exception to the rubric—for instance, an Upside-Down Apple Tart (Tarte Tatin) that uses a short crust, not a puff pastry. The editors tell you what and how; they do not tell you why—even when it comes to their far-reaching, against-the-grain decision to base all recipes on salted butter (those who neglect to read up on fats in the introduction may get slightly different results from those intended). This is nevertheless a solid dessert cookbook. (Apr.) Health & Beauty Readers seeking the key to everlasting life will find some clues in neurosurgeon Gupta's survey of the latest research on longevity. Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, touches on recent breakthroughs as he offers some basic guidelines for adding years to what he and other aging experts call "health span." The goal, Gupta says, is not merely to live longer. To help readers live longer and better, he boils down conflicting health advice and makes some surprising prescriptions. For example, it is not what you eat, but how much you eat that affects longevity; vitamin supplements may be a waste of time and money; and a little upper-body strengthening is far more effective than an hour on a StairMaster. To support this advice, Gupta relates the experiences of a 103-year-old woman from Okinawa; a former executive who began training at age 86 and is a record-breaking sprinter at age 92; and others who are aging well by staying active, eating wisely, being positive and maintaining strong social networks. While stem cell injections, nanotechnology, cryonics and other possible therapies are on the horizon, Gupta tells readers that extending life today is as easy as eating less, moving more and exercising the brain. While Gupta's mix of futuristic science and do-it-yourself advice is far from seamless, many readers will find the lessons in his tales of the long lived worthwhile. (Apr.) There are a plethora of books aimed at women who have tried various workout regimes and abandoned them, but Lessig's stands out for its focus on "functional-training" (her exercises are designed to "mimic the movements of everyday life") and for its gradual approach: the book offers plenty that may be unfamiliar to the already-active, but really shines in taking one from total inactivity to an effective routine in manageable, injuryless increments. Lessig, who has produced three popular fitness videos, appears in more than 100 b&w photos illustrating the components of her mix-and-match regime, which combines fitness balance (cardio, flexibility and strength training are all covered) and accessibility (no gym membership required, and workouts can be done piecemeal rather than in big, blocked-out chunks of time). The book's focus on sculpting has the effect of making the workouts seem less monumental (and thus less impossible to maintain), and every other page features an affirmative aphorism offset in a "Minna Says" speech bubble ("All success inspires a little bit of fear. Let your fears inspire you to rise to the challenge"). Lessig's is a friendly, doable regime. (Apr.) Parenting Neither Odes nor Morris is a doctor, but as eager authors and recent mothers themselves, they aim, in this chick-friendly guide, to dish out Internet-accessible information and you-go-girl supportive advice. Their approach is to consider the authorities with a mere grain of salt, while seeking a supportive environment in which to nurture one's pregnancy and child-rearing. And while sorting through the opinions along the way, from choosing a health-care provider, coping with loss, birthing strategies, breastfeeding and sex, and baby-care basics, among other topics, the authors provide on most pages plentiful belly-shaped bubbles containing lively quotes from "anonymoms." Hear the mothers from the trenches express what they really feel, from one mom who enthuses, "The belly—I loved everything about it, and it makes people—strangers, even—feel enthralled with you") to the sadly modern refrain of another, "Sometimes I bury myself in work so I don't feel the sadness, fatigue and stress of having the baby waiting for me at home." The authors' are upbeat and well informed, and their useful back-of-the-book references address sensitive specific needs such as adoption and surrogacy, teen and older parents, and breastfeeding controversies. (May) Goodstein isn't a parent and hails from Generation X (just after the boomers), but she has a keen interest in teenagers, a background in teen media and writes a blog (Ypulse.com) which is devoted to teen media and marketing. The author explains that she's spent her career trying to be a "voice of reason" for teens and for adults trying to reach them; in this book she continues her quest to help parents understand their kids by offering a window into their digital world. Goodstein covers the bases, including cyber bullying, blogs and "social-networking sites" such as MySpace. She asks boomer parents to remember talking on the phone for hours or writing in a diary, which she compares to chatting online and blogging. Today's teens are developmentally identical to teens who listened to Elvis and wore poodle skirts, Goodstein argues, but they have a new venue—the Internet—for exploring their hopes, desires and voices. Goodstein urges parents to take the plunge into cyberspace not only in order to keep their children safe but also to build closer relationships. "Ask them about their digital lives," she advises, "and they'll start talking about the rest of their lives." Focusing on the pros rather than the risks, Goldstein presents a solid and accessible guide to help understand the wired generation. (Apr.)
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring
Richard Preston, Random, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6489-2
The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy
Sasha Issenberg. Gotham, $26 (352p) ISBN 978-1-592-40294-6
Rebecca Mead. Penguin Press, $24.95 (236p) ISBN 978-1-59420-088-5
Barbara Holland. Bloomsbury, $14.95 (160p) ISBN 978-1-59691-337-0
Lawrence Scanlan. St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-36724-4
Edited by Dan Crowe with Philip Oltermann. Rizzoli, $35 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7893-1538-0
Timothy J. Henderson. Hill & Wang, $25 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8090-6120-4
David R. Montgomery. Univ. of California, $ 24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-520-24870-0
Sally Denton. Bloomsbury, $32.50 (480p) ISBN 978-1-59691-019-5
The Arts and Crafts Movement
Rosalind P. Blakesley. Phaidon, $69.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-7148-3849-6
Douglas Baynton, Jack Gannon, Jean Lindquist Bergey. Gallaudet Univ., $40 (168p) ISBN 978-1-56368-348-0
Ali A. Allawi. Yale Univ., $28 (400p) ISBN 978-0-300-11015-9
William Dalrymple. Knopf, $30 (528p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4310-1
Benjamin Woolley. HarperCollins, $27.50 (496p) ISBN 978-0-06-009056-2
Thomas J. Craughwell. Harvard/ Belknap, $24.95 (234p) ISBN 978-0-674-02458-8
William W. Freehling. Oxford Univ., $35 (752p) ISBN 978-0-19-505815-4
Jill Jonnes. Viking, $27.95 (318p) ISBN 978-0-670-03158-0
Jack Beatty. Knopf, $28.95 (496p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4028-5
Countess Karolina Lanckoronska, trans. from the Polish by Noel Clark, preface by Eva Hoffman. Da Capo/Merloyd Lawrence, $26 (368p) ISBN 978-0-306-81537-9
Michael Downs. Univ. of Nebraska, $19.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8032-6012-2
Leroy "Nicky" Barnes and Tom Folsom. Rugged Land, $24.95 (312p) ISBN 978-1-59071-041-8
Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World
Liza Mundy. Knopf, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4428-3
Angus McLaren. Univ. of Chicago, $30 (344p) ISBN 978-0-226-50076-8
Brian Souza. Harmony, $24 (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-34662-9
Ian Stewart. Basic, $26.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-465-08236-0
Bill Bradley. Random, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6507-3
Edited by Bonnie Tsui. Sierra Club, $19.95 paper (312p) ISBN 978-1-57805-127-4
Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed
Paul Trynka. Broadway, $23.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7679-2319-4
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
Georgina Howell. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27 (522p) ISBN 978-0-374-16162-0
Lucinda Franks. Miramax, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4013-5226-4
Jessica B. Harris. Chronicle, $35 (204p) ISBN 978-0-8118-4999-9
David Lebovitz. Ten Speed, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-58008-808-4
Clotilde Dusoulier. Broadway, $18.95 paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-7679-2383-5
Lucinda Scala Quinn. Wiley, $17.95 (128p) ISBN 978-0-471-79381-6
Editors of Good Housekeeping Magazine. Hearst, $29.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-58816-550-3
Sanjay Gupta. Warner Wellness, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-446-52650-0
Minna Lessig. Rodale, $18.95 paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-59486-562-6
Rebecca Odes and Ceridwen Morris. Three Rivers, $21.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-307-23708-8
Anastasia Goodstein. St. Martin's/Griffin, $13.95 paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-312-36012-2
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