Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 5/7/2007
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 5/7/2007
India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
Ramachandra Guha. Ecco, $34.95 (912p) ISBN 978-0-06-019881-7
India is the country that was never expected to ever be a country. In the late 19th century, Sir John Strachey, a senior British official, grandly opined that the territory's diverse states simply could not possess "any sort of unity, physical, political, social or religious." Strachey, clearly, was wrong: India today is a unified entity and a rising global power. Even so, it continues to defy explanation. "India's existence," says Guha, an internationally known scholar (Environmentalism: A Global History), "has also been an anomaly for academic political science, according to whose axioms cultural heterogeneity and poverty do not make a nation, still less a democratic one." Yet India continues to exist. Guha's aim in this startlingly ambitious political, cultural and social survey is to explain why and how. He cheerfully concludes that India's continuing existence results from its unique diversity and its refusal to be pigeonholed into such conventional political models as Anglo-American liberalism, French republicanism, atheistic communism or Islamist theocracy. India is proudly sui generis, and with August 15, 2007, being the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, Guha's magisterial history of India since that day comes not a moment too soon. 32 pages of b&w illus., 8 maps. (Aug.)
Napoleon's Egypt: The Invention of the Middle EastJuan Cole. Palgrave Macmillan, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4039-6431-1
In July 1798, Napoleon landed an expeditionary force at Alexandria in Egypt, the opening move in a scheme to acquire a new colony for France, administer a sharp rebuff to England and export the values of French republicanism to a remade Middle East. Cole, a historian of the Middle East at the University of Michigan, traces the first seven months of Napoleon's adventure in Egypt. Relying extensively on firsthand sources for this account of the invasion's early months, Cole focuses on the ideas and belief systems of the French invaders and the Muslims of Egypt. Cole portrays the French as deeply ignorant of cultural and religious Islam. Claiming an intent to transplant liberty to Egypt, the French rapidly descended to the same barbarism and repression of the Ottomans they sought to replace. Islamic Egypt, divided by class and ethnic rivalries, offered little resistance to the initial French incursion. Over time, however, the Egyptians produced an insurgency that, while it couldn't hope to win pitched battles, did erode French domination and French morale. Perplexingly, Cole ends his account in early February 1799, with Napoleon still in control of Egypt but facing increasingly effective opposition. Napoleon's attack on Syria is only mentioned, not detailed, and his return to Cairo and eventual flight to France are omitted altogether. In a brief epilogue, Cole makes an explicit comparison between Napoleon's adventure in Egypt and the current American occupation of Iraq. Though at times episodic and disorganized, this doesn't detract from the value of Cole's well-researched contribution to Middle Eastern history. Illus. (Aug.)
Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Random, $24.95 (248p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6281-2
In a dazzling new biography, noted historian Fernández-Armesto (Columbus) captures the exploits of the now mostly forgotten adventurer for whom the New World was named-a man the author characterizes as a self-promoter lacking in talent and accomplishment. Born into a Florentine family, the young Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) entered the seagoing life to make his fortune; his earliest expeditions were in search of pearls. As a result of his later voyages, however, Vespucci presented himself as a celestial navigator and "master of the art of reading latitude and even longitude." As Fernández-Armesto points out, Vespucci's own accounts of his voyages were largely colored by his readings, so that he exaggerated the physical beauty of the new worlds and the new peoples he encountered, and he promoted himself as an expert in cosmography when his skills were far more modest. Although Vespucci claimed to have navigated beyond the Pole Star and to have measured longitude by lunar distances, Fernández-Armesto shows that these claims were false. But Vespucci promoted himself so well that mapmakers in 1507 chose to name America after him. Fernández-Armesto weaves an elegant tale of Vespucci's ability to transform himself from a merchant into an explorer and conqueror of new worlds. (Aug. 7)
An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the AtmosphereGabrielle Walker. Harcourt, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-15-101124-7
Most of the time we hardly notice that we're moving through air. But when a storm system whips it into a whirling mass that grows into a tornado or a hurricane, then the air around us makes headlines. Science consultant Walker (Snowball Earth) presents a lively history of scientists' and adventurers' exploration of this important and complex contributor to life on Earth, from Galileo's early attempts to show that it has weight to the explorations by 20th-century scientists Oliver Heaviside and Edward Appleton of the ionosphere, which acts as a giant mirror bouncing radio waves from one side of the globe to another. Walker provides readers with easy-to-follow discussions of the science behind the discovery that carbon dioxide levels are rising exponentially; the theoretician who left her computer for Antarctica and discovered a huge ozone hole created by chlorofluorocarbons; why hurricanes form only in the tropics and why global warming may lead to more violent storms. She goes far afield at times, spending too much time on the Van Allen belts, for instance, but readers will find this informative book to be a breath of fresh air. (Aug.)
The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to HealGary E. Schwartz with William L. Simon. Atria, $25 (272p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9237-5
Are energy fields real? And if so, can they be used for healing and health? Yes, according to Schwartz (The G.O.D. Experiments), a professor of psychology, surgery, medicine, neurology and psychiatry at the University of Arizona. He tells marvelous stories of such healings and uses experiments to confirm that the human body is a bundle of energy that can be healed by another such bundle of energy. One story is of a four-year-old boy, Philip, whose heart rate dropped precipitously following surgery; a Hindu avatar, by merely touching Philip, increased his heart rate to 80 beats a minute. Through experiments with EEGs and EKGs, Schwartz says, he and others have found that our bodies are masses of biochemical energy, that such energy connects us to plants and other animals, that this energy can be harnessed for healing and that some people are in touch with their energy and use it to heal others. Schwartz's research has not appeared in peer-reviewed journals (due to their bias against such work, he says), so skeptics will want to wait for his experiments to be replicated. But those disposed to believe in the healing touch will find support for that belief. (Aug.)
Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full SpeedJoe Andoe. Morrow, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-06-124031-7
In this charming memoir, Andoe narrates his journey from his Tulsa childhood through redneck, hard-partying teen years to a highly successful career as a (hard-partying redneck) painter in New York City. While Andoe may not be a professional writer, his humor and offbeat artistic sensibility make up for any lack of prose-writing chops. Through discrete anecdotes that seldom run longer than two pages, Andoe assembles vivid portraits of his family and friends and of the various environments he inhabited-the working-class Tulsa neighborhoods of the 1960s, the high school and college drug culture at the end of the hippie era, and the New York art scene of the 1980s. Andoe rarely said "No" to drugs, and the marginal characters and dangerous encounters of the lowlife provide the book with a great deal of energy and pathos; at times his memoir reads like a more amateur version of Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son. Yet whenever the gonzo stories verge on tedium, Andoe modulates his tone and shows himself as the stay-at-home dad, the outdoorsman, the artist. While Andoe has an occasional tendency to settle scores (his ex-wife receives particularly brutal treatment) or trumpet his status as an outsider, for the most part his wide-eyed sense of wonder and keen observations make the everyday strange and fresh. (Aug.)
Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief: Inside the World of Indian MoviemakingStephen Alter. Harcourt/Harvest, $15 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-15-603084-7
Indian cinema goes by the shorthand Bollywood, which refers to Hindi-language films produced in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The style of filmmaking is distinct-elaborate plots, lots of song and dance and colorful costumes. It's got its own celebrities, and a fan base bigger than the combined population of Europe and America. Producing more than 900 movies a year, Bollywood is an exotic mystery to Westerners. Alter (Elephas Maximus) lives and works in India; he's a natural guide into this complex world. He explains that Bollywood films are made by entrepreneurs rather than studios, with hit songs propelling the films, and along the way discusses the plots, the stars and the creators. Because romance is a key plot device, the love thief, a character who steals another's heart, boasts enduring appeal. Much of the book is devoted to the making of Omkara, an updated, uniquely Indian take on Shakespeare's Othello. Alter clearly loves the medium and sprinkles in a history of this fascinating industry, but by covering the production of just one film-however evocative-he doesn't fully capture the industry. (Aug.)
Rat Salad: Black Sabbath, the Classic Years, 1969-1975Paul Wilkinson. St. Martin's, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-312-36723-7
The instant popularity and phenomenal sales of Black Sabbath's first two albums in 1970 created a generational divide within the rock music audience, with teenage listeners too young to have experienced the "Summer of Love" responding to Sabbath's dark vision of a violent world in songs like "War Pigs" and "Iron Man." In this witty and musically sophisticated appreciation, first-time author Wilkinson forcefully argues that Sabbath produced "six truly exceptional albums about which remarkably little of consequence has been written." Album by album and song by song, he shows how the gloomy tone of Sabbath's music resulted primarily from guitarist Tony Iommi's repetitive use of "the minor key tonic/subtonic shift of E and D" and the "frequent adoption of semitonal intervals." His short chapters on the historical and biographical context of each album will entertain his stated audience, "the grown-ups who were there at the time and who lived through it." Best of all, Wilkinson is never dull in his assessments, dismissing one song that "dissolves into a turgid and repetitive 4/4 riff on a B power chord," praising another that mixes "spectacularly intricate and weighty guitar work with passages of surprising, and enduring, melody" and noting that yet another is "breathtaking in its alternating ugliness and beauty." (Aug.)
Storms: My Life with Lindsay Buckingham and Fleetwood MacCarol Ann Harris. Chicago Review, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-1-55652-660-2
This is a fascinating if overlong look at the megasuccess of Fleetwood Mac in the mid-1970s, after the former British blues band recorded the laid-back rock songs of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks that made the album Rumours one of the most popular of its era. While working at the band's recording studio, Harris, currently a music business costume designer, became Buckingham's girlfriend and constant companion from 1976 through 1984, and she gives a detailed look-more so than drummer and original member Mick Fleetwood's biography-at this already well-chronicled story of how the success of Rumours provided the income for extravagant cocaine-fueled excesses before, during and after performances. Harris too often uses clichés, such as her view of the band's "beautiful insanity." But she does candidly recount Buckingham's rage and his repeated physical assaults on her. Along the way, she offers great descriptions of the band's recording sessions, especially her account of Buckingham's desire to "create something new, something completely" different for Tusk, the more experimental (and less profitable) follow-up to Rumours. (July)
Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of the Most Tragic, Mysterious, and Controversial Disasters in Mountaineering HistoryJames M. Tabor. Norton, $26.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-393-06174-1
Tabor's exhaustive look at the doomed 1967 expedition to scale Alaska's Mt. McKinley is an often gripping, detailed account of the infamous climb that remains controversial. Only five of the 12-man team survived the ascent to the 20,320-foot summit, making it one of the deadliest mountaineering disasters in North America. The journey was fraught with tension from the beginning: the National Park Service (NPS) required a group of nine men, led by Joe Wilcox, to merge with a three-member party of Coloradoans, led by Howard Snyder. Wilcox and Snyder clashed almost immediately. Both men survived and went on to retell the trip in books: Snyder in his 1973 version that mostly blamed Wilcox's leadership; Wilcox's account in 1981 cited an overpowering storm as the culprit in the deaths. Tabor (who hosted PBS's Great Outdoors) shows that the NPS was very slow to react and might have saved the climbers with quicker response. His writing about the brutal difficulties of climbing Mt. McKinley in subfreezing temperatures with hurricane-like wind in blizzard conditions is breathtaking, although he lapses into minutiae and repeats details, particularly regarding the accident's investigation. His profiles of the expedition's survivors 40 years later make for a strong conclusion to the book. (July)
The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of BridgeEdward McPherson. HarperCollins, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-112764-9
McPherson is an amusing writer who believes that "bridge is a battle between fate and chance mediated by skill." In this lighthearted book, he relates bridge's history and tours its contemporary universe. Originally derived from the British game of whist, the modern version of contract bridge was developed in 1925 by railroad heir Harold Stirling Vanderbilt. McPherson provides snapshots of men such as Ely Culbertson and Charles H. Goren, whose writings and activities spurred a bridge craze in the '30s and '40s. Traveling to Kansas City, Gatlinburg, Tenn., Las Vegas and London, among other locations, McPherson attended tournaments and visited clubs, interviewing famous players and collecting fascinating anecdotes. During classes at the Manhattan Bridge Club, the author became friends with 83-year-old Tina and persuaded her to accompany him to Chicago where the two played as partners in an annual tournament. The author says the bridge-playing population is aging, a process exacerbated by the current preference for poker among younger card players. Although McPherson provides a brief introduction to the rules, those who have played bridge will derive the most enjoyment from this breezy, absorbing account. (July 3)
The First Modern Campaign: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960Gary A. Donaldson. Rowman & Littlefield, $70 (208p) ISBN 978-0-7425-4799-5; paper $22.95 ISBN 978-0-7425-4800-8
There will be no serious dispute about this book's basic, and frequently repeated, argument-that the 1960 election was the first modern presidential election, principally because of the centrality of the nation's very first televised debates. Nor will any of the details about which the author writes be new to knowledgeable readers. But what Donaldson (Liberalism's Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964) does achieve is to gather everything about that pivotal election season in a fast-paced, comprehensive tale. He brings the day's leading historical characters alive in all their complexity, diversity and skills. Sympathetic to them yet objective about their strengths and weaknesses, he lets contemporaries do the criticizing in their own words while he observes them from above the fray-all, save John Kennedy, making their way through the usual political thickets to defeat. Donaldson is particularly good at analyzing the divisions within the two major parties, especially those of the Republicans, and in assessing the role of religion in the campaign. One comes away with a heightened appreciation of Nixon's clarity of understanding, Kennedy's distinctive energy and the origins of the right's grievances, which eventually led to its takeover of the Republican Party. (July)
The Culture Broker: Franklin D. Murphy and the Making of Los AngelesMargaret Leslie Davis. Univ. of California, $34.95 (512p) ISBN 978-0-520-22495-7
Franklin D. Murphy (1916-1994) may not be a household name, but, as Davis (Dark Side of Fortune: William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles) shows in this informative biography, he was singularly influential in the academic, journalistic and artistic development of Los Angeles. Once dubbed the "doge" of that city, he left an indelible imprint on UCLA, of which he was chancellor during the '60s and expanded its academic programs to make it a world-class university (he resigned in 1968, beleaguered to the point of depression by student protesters on one hand and conservative alumni and politicians on the other); on the media, as CEO of Times Mirror, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times; on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as a philanthropist and trustee. Because Davis tells not just Murphy's story but the story of Los Angeles coming into its own, many important Californians-Ronald Reagan, fund-raiser Dorothy Chandler, Eldridge Cleaver-make cameo appearances. Although Davis occasionally gets bogged down in the minutiae of institutional history, this is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the history of California or of American higher education. 33 b&w photos. (July)
33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to AskThomas E. Woods Jr. Crown Forum, $25.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-307-34668-1
Woods (The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History) argues that the history lessons schoolchildren learn are ideologically driven distortions aimed at producing citizens who believe that big government is good and big business is evil. He aims to set the record straight. He says that Americans have been fed propaganda about the origins of Social Security, which is nothing more than a tax. Indeed, Woods thinks nothing good came out of the New Deal, which, far from lifting the U.S. out of the Great Depression, actually prolonged the nation's economic woes. Much of the book touches on issues of race: desegregating public schools hasn't really helped black children; racial discrimination is not the main cause of the gap between blacks' and whites' salaries; and Martin Luther King Jr. was a dangerous radical who "sought an immediate, palpable improvement in blacks' material condition," a vision he thought could be achieved by "racial quotas" and socialism. Blacks, according to Woods, should model themselves not on King, but on an enterprising if oft forgotten 20th-century self-made man, S.B. Fuller. (July 10)
Gin Before Breakfast: The Dilemma of the Poet in the NewsroomW. Dale Nelson. Syracuse Univ., $24.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-8156-0888-2
Nelson (Who Speaks for the President: The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton), who spent 40 years as an Associated Press reporter, contemplates the chasm separating poetry and journalism, observing, "Newspaper stories tell us about names and titles, distances and populations, fatality totals and investigations. Poems tell us about ourselves." Exploring influences of one form on the other in this insightful study, he profiles famous and obscure British and American poets who labored as journalists. Poets had been told to avoid journalism as they would "gin before breakfast," said Archibald MacLeish, who landed his job with Fortune because "Luce... believed it was easier to turn a poet into a business journalist than to make a writer out of a bookkeeper." Analyzing the lives and language of Coleridge, Poe, Kipling, Sandburg and others, Nelson finds a few, notably Hart Crane and Dylan Thomas, were ill-suited for journalism, but many benefited. With Whittier's antislavery poems, poetry and journalism merged: "Whittier the editorialist and Whittier the poet had come together triumphantly," Nelson concludes. "The concreteness that is important to journalism can help avoid the vagueness that sometimes afflicts poetry, and fresh metaphors can serve the newspaper writer as well as the poet." Illus. (July)
Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the UnconsciousGerd Gigerenzer. Viking, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-670-03863-3
Gigerenzer's theories about the usefulness of mental shortcuts were a small but crucial element of Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller Blink, and that attention has provided the psychologist, who is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, the opportunity to recast his academic research for a general audience. The key concept-rules of thumb serve us as effectively as complex analytic processes, if not more so-is simple to grasp. Gigerenzer draws on his own research as well as that of other psychologists to show how even experts rely on intuition to shape their judgment, going so far as to ignore available data in order to make snap decisions. Sometimes, the solution to a complex problem can be boiled down to one easily recognized factor, he says, and the author uses case studies to show that the "Take the Best" approach often works. Gladwell has in turn influenced Gigerenzer's approach, including the use of catchy phrases like "the zero-choice dinner" and "the fast and frugal tree," and though this isn't quite as snappy as Blink, well, what is? Closing chapters on moral intuition and social instincts stretch the central argument a bit thin, but like the rest will be easily absorbed by readers. Illus. (July 9)
Eight Lessons for a Happier MarriageWilliam Glasser, M.D., with Carleen Glasser. Harper, $12.95 paper (112p) ISBN 978-0-06-133692-8
Psychiatrist William Glasser, founder of an eponymous institute, and his wife, Carleen, who teaches relationship workshops there, follow earlier relationship books (Getting Together and Staying Together) by laying out the secrets to a happy marriage through what they refer to as choice theory, a simple enough, commonsense theory based on the premise that every action and reaction is a personal choice and can therefore be controlled. Many of the Glassers' tips are mere rehashings of what other books on the market already have to offer. The Glassers list the Seven Deadly Habits of marriage (criticism, blaming, complaining, nagging, threatening, punishing and bribing) and recommend replacing them with positive habits like supporting and encouraging. Another concept the authors introduce is the "quality world," which is defined as "a feel good world created from our own most pleasurable feelings." It's necessary to know and negotiate around each other's quality worlds (he likes wine with dinner; she abhors it). At a mere 112 pages, this is a quick read, and the comics and case studies at the beginning of each chapter aid in illustrating the lessons in a way that makes them even easier to understand. (July)
Desperate Engagement: How a Little Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American HistoryMarc Leepson. St. Martin's/Dunne, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-36364-2
How small can a Civil War battle be and still claim the mantle of war-changing decisiveness? That proposition is tested in this engaging account of the 1864 Battle of Monocacy Junction, in which some 16,000 Confederate troops trounced 5,800 bluecoats on a Maryland field. Not a surprising outcome, but Leepson (Flag: An American Biography) contends that Union Gen. Lew Wallace's doomed stand held up Confederate Gen. Jubal Early's surprise lunge at Washington, D.C.-which was held only by a hapless force of invalids, militia and government clerks-by one crucial day. The result was a photo finish, with Union reinforcements arriving in the nick of time to save the capital from capture (hence the decisiveness). Leepson lucidly narrates the campaign, adding color commentary about Early's "panoply of abhorrent personal traits" and the incompetence, apathy and possible drunkenness that prevailed among Union commanders, along with plenty of vignettes of the horror and pathos of war. He also debunks the campaign's premier anecdote, which has Lincoln coming under rebel fire while looking out from Washington's ramparts (true, he finds) and getting chewed out-"Get down, you fool"-by a young Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (false). Gettysburg it ain't, but it's still a hard-fought, dramatic episode that Leepson brings vividly to life. Photos. (July)
Darfur's Sorrow: A History of Destruction and GenocideM.W. Daly. Cambridge Univ., $22.99 paper (372p) ISBN 978-0-521-69962-4
Daly (A History of the Sudan), arguably the world's most knowledgeable authority on Darfur, enlists history, politics, economics and geography to disentangle the reasons why up to 400,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced in the continuing genocide. A frontier province that resembles the Wild West, Darfur blends plague, famine, drought, cattle rustling, messianic revivalism and Great Power politics with benign and not-so-benign neglect from the centers of power in Khartoum, Cairo and London; as Daly puts it, "[a]bility to conquer but inability to rule might have been the epitaph of successive regimes in Darfur." But the subject matter is often obscured by Daly's overly pedantic tone and compendia of eminent personages and their tribal and religious affiliations. The dedicated reader will require a detailed flowchart to keep the cast of characters straight. The first sections recount Darfur's time as an independent sultanate, a colony and finally part of an independent Sudan; only the last 50 pages or so deal directly with the current crisis. Though Daly makes no explicit predictions, he is less than sanguine about the prospects of the peace process in the near term. (July)
Peeling the OnionGünter Grass, trans. from the German by Michael Henry Heim. Harcourt, $26 (432p) ISBN 978-0-15-101477-4
The German edition of this memoir by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Grass caused a stir with its revelations about the author's youthful service in the Waffen SS combat unit during the last months of WWII. According to his deliberately disjointed, impressionistic account of the war, Grass never fired a shot and spent his time fleeing both the Russians and German military police hunting for deserters, but he dutifully shoulders a "joint responsibility" for Nazi war crimes and a guilt and shame that "gnaw, gnaw, ceaselessly." With less to repudiate in his postwar life as a budding sculptor and poet up to his 1959 breakthrough with The Tin Drum, he grows more engaged in his story as he recounts love affairs, bohemian idylls (he once played in an impromptu jazz quartet with Louis Armstrong) and his attempts to sift emotional wreckage from the past. Along the way, Grass notes people and events that he reworked into fictional characters and plots, and does quirky profiles of influential figures, including his penis and typewriter. In this otherwise very novelistic memoir, there's not much of a narrative arc, beyond the satisfaction of the author's perpetual "hungers" for food, sex and art, but Grass's powerfully evocative memories are spellbinding. (June)
Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles, and Other Quinceañera Stories Edited byAdriana Lopez. Rayo, $14.95 paper (332p) ISBN 978-0-06-124192-5
The quinceañera celebration, with its crowds of admiring family and friends focused on a 15-year-old Latina as she officially comes of age, often evokes wistful, reverential memories-the priest's blessing, the quinceañera's "court" members in their elaborate matching gowns, the opening slow dance of the "quince" with her father. The stories in this collection, however, recall different sorts of memories: a father who's out on parole; the lesbian mother who beds her daughter's boyfriend; the horny bad boys smoking doobies in the parking lot; the drunks in tuxedos puking in the bushes; the former girlfriends catfighting on the dance floor. Instead of sentimentalizing the Hispanic family and the sacred quinceañera, these 15 authors (a third of whom are men) take off the white gloves and talk about what goes on in real families. They talk about not having a "quince" because their families were too poor or their mamis too liberated. They talk about dysfunctional relatives and getting wretchedly drunk at parties and falling in love with the wrong people-just like everyone else in this world. Lopez, writer and former editor of Críticas magazine, writes in her introduction that the stories she's selected are "linked by humor, sadness, and a lot of self-discovery." Many readers-especially 20 or 30-somethings-will find the honesty liberating. (June)
Hungry Hill: A MemoirCarole O'Malley Gaunt. Univ. of Massachusetts, $19.95 paper (296p) ISBN 978-1-55849-589-0
Playwright Gaunt was 13 when her father went out one morning to do errands with her seven brothers in the family car. He told her to let the priest in, if he knocked-neglecting to mention that the priest was coming to administer Last Rites to her dying mother. After the funeral, her father told her that since she was so tough, he'd rely on her to look after her brothers. This being 1959, no one discussed her mother's cancer or her father's alcoholism. Still, Gaunt already understood how her father's behavior changed after a few drinks, how his hangovers became more and more debilitating. Before long, he found another woman to marry. He knew the stepmother slapped his children too freely, that she was emotionally erratic, but he enjoyed having an adult drinking companion. When alcohol made a widow of the nasty stepmother, Gaunt and her brothers endured a few more years of her unpleasantness before they were old enough to escape their loveless home. The saddest part of Gaunt's story is her feeling that she spent her youth parenting her brothers and her irresponsible father: "I was always a mother, never a daughter." In the end, Gaunt has written a poignant, heart-wrenching memoir. (June)
Anchored in Love: The Life and Legacy of June Carter CashJohn Carter Cash. Thomas Nelson, $24.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-8499-0187-4
The only son of country legends Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash pens a heartfelt narrative of his mother's life that nicely combines biography, autobiography and inspirational guidebook into a fitting tribute to a woman whose life and career embodied modern country music. Musician and producer Cash spends the first half of his book reviewing his mom's early days performing with the legendary Carter Family in 1939, and her later marriage to Johnny Cash. This story has been notably told before in June's two autobiographies and Mark Zwonitzer's definitive Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?, which Cash dutifully cites, while adding some fascinating stories, such as a possible more-than-flirtation with the young Elvis Presley and various aspects of Johnny and June's courtship that he feels "the film Walk the Line lacked." But the book really begins to soar in its second half. Cash unflinchingly details the addictions that beset himself and many of his sisters-as well as June and Johnny's addictions late in their lives-while lovingly showing how throughout this time, and until her death in 2003, June's "unshakable" religious faith infused her life and helped inspire her children to continue the legacy of "her family's music and its strong work ethic." (June)
Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor Perri Klass, M.D. Basic, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-465-03777-3
When Klass's son decides to follow in her footsteps and apply to medical school, she writes a series of letters, advising him and every other young doctor on the intricacies of the field they're about to enter. But even though her subject is medicine, pediatrician and noted author Klass (The Mystery of Breathing) effortlessly transcends all professions, ages and interests, appealing to anyone who has ever stepped inside a hospital or watched one of television's ever-popular medical dramas. She guides readers gently through the medical field, behind closed doors into the staff rooms and into the sharp minds of doctors, giving readers a glimpse of what it is like to work 100-plus hours a week, the intensity of interning and the overwhelming responsibility of getting it right, and what can be done when a mistake happens (as it inevitably will). Her advice is moral as well as practical: she speaks of the need for feeling a sense of common humanity with the homeless alcoholic who arrives at the emergency room. Klass concludes, "I write about medicine because people want to read about medicine... a world that many people see as closed, inaccessible, and full of fascinating life-and-death secrets... of characters and stories and plots" (June)
The Curt Flood Story: The Man Behind the MythStuart L. Weiss. Univ. of Missouri, $29.95 (262p) ISBN 978-0-8262-1740-0
With his wiry frame and stern countenance, Curt Flood is the storied Cardinals center fielder who became a 1960s civil rights cause célèbre; however, a hagiographic shroud has enveloped Flood, making accurate assessment of his legacy difficult. This last year has seen three Flood biographies, and there is good reason to believe that Weiss, a history professor (The President's Man) who takes a skeptical position toward Flood, has produced one of the most enlightening. Angered over being traded to the Phillies in 1969, Flood responded by suing Major League Baseball to do away with the reserve clause (which permitted the teams to "own" the players in perpetuity), which would secure him the right to negotiate freely with other teams. Flood's case went to the Supreme Court, where he lost. Behind the bland title lurks a carefully researched and cogently reasoned account. Weiss, unafraid to ruffle a few feathers, shows that, far from being motivated solely by high ideals, Flood's decision to sue arose out of financial and familial turmoil and wounded pride. Flood later turned himself into a sort of professional victim, exaggerating the racial strife of his Oakland boyhood and papering over his alcoholism and unpaid child support bills. Weiss has written a fine, passionate biography. (June)
Lifestyle
Food & Wine
Bubby's Homemade PiesRon Silver Jr. and Jen Bervin. Wiley, $29.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7645-7634-8
Bubby's, in New York City, known for its comfort food, began simply in 1990 with pie. Owner Silver, who was trying to find a way to support his writing habit, started a wholesale pie business (which later morphed into two restaurants). This publication celebrates the once-humble dessert that helped launch the popular TriBeCa and (later) Brooklyn outposts. Silver and coauthor Bervin strike a balance with recipes that are doable for the new baker and dynamic enough for the experienced pie maker. A primer on crusts covers flaky, sweet crumb and savory, and is accompanied by how-to illustrations. The authors also prime readers on fruit pies before launching into chapters including cream and custard pies and savory pies. In addition, seasonal pie chapters and recipes for deep-dish desserts (such as buckles, crisps and cobblers), dumplings and sauces fill the collection. The majority of pies are classics such as Blackberry Pie and Coconut Custard, but the inventive (Fried Apple-Whiskey Pies and Paella Pie) also have a presence. "Ask Bubby" highlighted boxes offer solutions for common preparation problems, while concise, well-written headnotes provide useful information and inspiration. This carefully compiled text addresses all experience levels as well as classic and contemporary pies, giving it a broad appeal. (Aug.)
The Wine Lover's Guide to Auctions: The Art & Science of Buying and Selling WinesUrsula Hermacinski. Square One, $17.95 paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-757-00275-5
Aforeword by wine guru Michael Broadbent intimates that this book is a serious authority on its subject-and it is. Hermacinski, who's been a wine auctioneer for more than 20 years (most of them at Christie's), presents a guide to the wine auction experience that even the most studied oenophile can learn from. The first 48 pages include an entertaining history of wine, auctions and, of course, wine auctions. There's also a solid overview of wine basics, covering grape varieties, regions, bottle shapes and sizes, storage, serving, glasses and food pairing, because understanding wine fundamentals, the author explains, is "an integral key to your success at wine auctions." Though the topic is narrow, anyone with a strong interest in wine might find it worth exploring, because auctions allow buyers to "acquire wines that are not available elsewhere because they are very old or very rare." This book takes readers through auctions' pros and cons, terminology and process. Hermacinski wraps up with information on wine collections and furthering one's wine education. Throughout are tidbits of wine-related trivia and an engaging, unpretentious writing style that makes the potentially intimidating world of wine auctions accessible. (July)
Jean Carper's Complete Healthy Cookbook: A Comprehensive, Science-Based Nutrition Guide with More Than 200 Delicious RecipesJean Carper. Avalon, $18.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-56924-326-8
This bountiful collection of nutritional facts and wellness-promoting recipes gives readers both the motivation and the know-how for getting their nine servings of fruits and vegetables in every day. Carper, USA Weekend's EatSmart columnist (Food: Your Miracle Medicine; Stop Aging Now!), boils down the basic nutritional concepts on which her diet advice is based. Among her 10 Rules for Smart Eating are to include plenty of fish, tea, whole grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables and avoid meat, trans fats and overeating. Though most of these ideas will not be new to health-conscious consumers, the following chapters contain scientific evidence backing them. Carper has also compiled her favorite low-calorie, high-in-good-fat, low-sodium and low-sugar creations for everyday cooking. Recipes like Moroccan Chicken with Prunes, and Yogurt Vegetable Salad are simple to make, with enough variety of flavor to liven up the ordinary dinner table. On the other hand, no one will mistake dishes like Low-Fat Creamed Spinach or Coconut Pecan Chicken Fingers for their richer counterparts. While Carper at times overloads her book with factoids, she makes a good case for the philosophy on which she's built her career-that what we eat can either heal or harm us. (June)
A Slice of Organic LifeEdited by Sheherazade Goldsmith, foreword by Alice Waters. DK, $25(400p) ISBN 978-0-7566-2873-4
This smorgasbord of organic recipes, tips and suggestions has something for everyone, but like a Jack-of-all-trades, it's a master of none. With an emphasis on food, from gardening and buying to preserving and preparing, it also covers household hints on such subjects as conservation (turn down the thermostat), safe cleaning products (baking soda) and the three R's of green living: reduce, reuse and recycle, with recipes for such products as baby food, sauerkraut and exfoliating skin scrub. Some of these slices of organic living are appealing and accessible, like instructions for growing potted herbs, making compost and drying tomatoes. Others, like the information on renewable energy and keeping honey bees, are too sketchy to be of real use. The six pages devoted to raising pigs (with one entire page on selecting your breeds) borders on the absurd for most people. The selections are randomly ordered, with churning butter next to "Make Organic Drinks." Profusely illustrated, the book may make an inspiring gift for those wishing to make their lives greener, but it's apt to frustrate and confuse novices trying out "organic," and those seeking in-depth information will have to look elsewhere. (June)
Parenting
The No-Cry Discipline Solution: Gentle Ways to Encourage Good Behavior Without Whining, Tantrums & TearsElizabeth Pantley. McGraw-Hill, $16.95 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-07-147159-6
The author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution returns with this guide to helping parents remain in control of their two-to -eight-year-olds. "A child," Pantley points out, "is emotion in motion." She provides a variety of techniques to help rein in out-of-control children, based on a four-part plan that corrects the current behavior, teaches a lesson, helps the child learn control and builds the relationship between the parent and child. Her techniques are not unusual, ranging from telling stories and giving timeout warnings to distractions and simply looking away ("Every once in a while, the best thing you can do for family peace is to turn around, pretend you didn't see it, take a deep breath, and move on to something else"). Where Pantley does break away from the parenting pack is explaining how parents can control themselves. Her suggestions won't be easy for parents to follow, but they make solid sense. The final part of the guide will be the most thumbed-through section: concrete advice for specific problems such as bossiness, sleep issues and sibling disagreements. Attachment parents as well as those looking for a gentle approach will appreciate the wisdom Pantley shares. (July)
Understanding Your Moods When You're Expecting: Emotions, Mental Health, and Happiness-Before, During and After PregnancyLucy J. Puryear. Houghton Mifflin, $24 (256p) ISBN 978-0-618-34107-8
Puryear, a psychiatrist specializing in women's reproductive mental health and director of the Baylor Psychiatry Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine, notes that pregnancy and motherhood are hard work both physically and psychologically. Yet, the author points out, most obstetricians and gynecologists have no training in psychological disorders, and women are often left to attend to their emotional issues without support. Puryear offers an informative resource that takes women from before conception to postpartum, drawing on her own practice and personal wisdom as the mother of four as well as current research. With pregnancy comes a surge in hormones that can make women feel both physically ill and cognitively foggy, and when the first movements of the fetus are sensed, the impending reality can be overwhelming. The third trimester and postpartum period can also bring problems: worries about being a good mother, ambivalence about the baby, concerns about sex or anxiety about returning to work. Puryear reveals that medication and psychotherapy are both options for mothers in distress, pointing out that there are many medical choices moms can make that won't harm the baby. All women, she argues, need more information and support concerning emotional issues during pregnancy: this is a worthy place to start. (June)
