Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 5/28/2007

By Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 5/28/2007

Nonfiction

Cleopatra's Nose
Judith Thurman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.50 (336p) ISBN 978-0-374-12651-3

While this delightful new collection of essays is culled from 20 years at the New Yorker, most have appeared since 2000. Thurman's writing in the past seven years, despite a tangent or two, displays the qualities that best serve a cultural critic: intelligence, curiosity, sharp wit and little tolerance for fools. There's an edge of imperiousness about Thurman, which is reflected in many of the people she writes about, such as the Italian performance artist Vanessa Beecroft, designers Elsa Schiaparelli and Rei Kawakubo, and Madame de Pompadour. Thurman writes primarily about fashion, its personages, trends and history, but there is room in this collection for some extracurricular interests, too; in addition to some fine book reviews and historical pieces, we get personal looks at the art of making tofu, the history of New York row houses and a lovely vignette of an evening spent with Jackie Onassis, smoking cigarettes and talking about men. Fashion, no longer ghettoized as a trifling women's concern, has grown increasingly popular in our cultural imagination, but it is ephemeral, dependent upon seasonal change. It is to Thurman's credit that she not only celebrates the creative exuberance of fashion but, in her intellectual probing, considers its lasting significance, too. (Oct.)

Boone: A Biography
Robert Morgan. Algonquin, $29.95 (576p) ISBN 978-1-56512-455-4

Many historical figures are more interesting in reality than in myth. Daniel Boone was one of them. Brilliant explorer, trapper and pathfinder, renowned marksman and revolutionary militia officer, he was also a loner, parent, legislator, settler and failed speculator. Poet and fiction writer Morgan (Gap Creek) portrays Boone in lively prose but also in excessive detail. Must we know of Boone's life week by week or of favored Shawnee coital positions? And must he give us references to Emerson, Thoreau and Faulkner? Morgan is a trustworthy, up-to-date authority who needs no support from others. Boone comes fully alive in his pages. Morgan's objectivity gives us a completely realized man, the greatest pioneer of the Trans-Appalachian west, who helped open Kentucky to settlement but kept going, settling eventually in Missouri. His luck was as legendary as his deeds, given what he seems to have escaped. Yet Morgan skillfully assesses and often questions the validity of all the tales of good fortune and heroism attached to Boone. Most appealing today, Boone was deeply respectful of the native tribes, a respect returned by the Indians, many of whom he befriended even when he was in conflict with them. If only others had possessed his wisdom and character. Illus., maps. (Oct. 16)

Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir
Shalom Auslander Riverhead, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-59448-955-6

Auslander, a magazine writer, describes his Orthodox Jewish upbringing as “theological abuse” in this sardonic, twitchy memoir that waits for the other shoe to drop from on high. The title refers to his agitation over whether to circumcise his soon to be born son, yet another Jewish ritual stirring confusion and fear in his soul. Flitting haphazardly between expectant-father neuroses in Woodstock, N.Y., and childhood neuroses in Monsey, N.Y., Auslander labors mightily to channel Philip Roth with cutting, comically anxious spiels lamenting his claustrophobic house, off-kilter family and the temptations of all things nonkosher, from shiksas to Slim Jims. The irony of his name, Shalom (Hebrew for “peace”), isn't lost on him, a tormented soul gripped with dread, fending off an alcoholic, abusive father while imagining his heavenly one as a menacing, mocking, inescapable presence. Fond of tormenting himself with worst-case scenarios, he concludes, “That would be so God.” Like Roth's Portnoy, he commits minor acts of rebellion and awaits his punishment with youthful literal-mindedness. But this memoir is too wonky to engage the reader's sympathy or cut free Auslander's persona from the swath of stereotype—and he can't sublimate his rage into the cultural mischief that brightens Roth's oeuvre. That said, a surprisingly poignant ending awaits readers. (Oct.)

Sick Girl
Amy Silverstein Grove, $24 (256p) ISBN 978-0-8021-1854-7

Silverstein's memoir offers a rare glimpse at life as an organ-transplant recipient. She was a young law student when the first signs of a deadly virus in her heart appeared. When her doctor said she merely needed to keep her stress in check and add salt to her diet, she happily complied. At 25, after several months of terrifying symptoms and misdiagnoses, she received a heart transplant. Like all organ recipients, to prevent her body from rejecting her new heart, she depends on high doses of immunosuppressants—bitter “poison” that leaves her nauseous, trembling, aching, and highly vulnerable to infection—for the rest of her life, which was only expected to last another 10 years. To better her chances, she heeded her doctors' advice, sacrificing everything from coffee to alcohol to pregnancy. Still, it seemed that the best she could hope for was the illusion of a normal life, so she kept her body's punishing blows from her friends, her adopted son and at times even from her loving husband, her “ever-confident coach” through years of devastating illness. “[T]o make myself 'normal' again would be the most extraordinary feat that I would never quite accomplish,” she writes. Now, more than 17 years after her transplant, Silverstein reflects on the often misunderstood journey through “the torments of being saved” in a stirring story of survival and unyielding love. (Oct.)

Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram
Dang Thuy Tram, trans. by Andrew X. Pham, intro. by Frances Fitzgerald. Harmony, $25 (225p) ISBN 978-0-3073-4737-4

In 1970, while sifting through war documents in Vietnam, Fred Whitehurst, an American lawyer serving with a military intelligence dispatch, found a diary no bigger than a pack of cigarettes, its pages handsewn together. Written between 1968 and '70 by Tram, a young, passionate doctor who served on the front lines, it chronicled the strife she witnessed until the day she was shot by American soldiers earlier that year at age 27. Whitehurst, who was greatly moved by the diary and smuggled it out of the country, returned it to Thuy's family in 2005; soon after, it was published as a book in Vietnam, selling nearly half a million copies within a year and a half. The diary is valuable for the perspective it offers on war—Thuy is not obsessed with military maneuvers but rather the damage, both physical and emotional, that the war is inflicting on her country. Thuy also speaks poignantly about her patients and the compassion she feels for them. Unfortunately, the writing, composed largely of breathless questions and exclamations, is monotonous at times, somewhat diminishing the book's power. (Sept.)

Lost Genius: The Curious and Tragic Story of an Extraordinary Musical Prodigy
Kevin Bazzana Carroll & Graf, $27.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-78672-088-0

Ervin Nyiregyházi (1903–1987) dazzled concert audiences in the early 20th century with his volcanic performances, playing so intensely that his fingers bled on the keys. Alas, his keyboard virtuosity was drowned out by a discordant symphony of neuroses. Unable even to tie his shoes properly, Nyiregyházi, who was born in Budapest, Hungary, and settled in L.A., wrestled with crippling stage fright; drank and womanized compulsively (his seventh wife was a prostitute he met six days before marrying her in Vegas); exhausted others with his neediness, paranoia and grandiose posturing; and sabotaged a potentially brilliant career in the name of artistic purity. Bazzana, biographer of eccentric pianist Glenn Gould, follows Nyiregyházi's life from early acclaim through decades of poverty, obscurity and debauchery to his brief, celebrated comeback in the 1970s as the “skid row pianist.” Although Bazzana can be reductionist—he diagnoses Nyiregyházi with borderline personality disorder brought on by a domineering stage mother—he tells this lurid story sympathetically, without excusing Nyiregyházi's excesses. Even better, he writes about his subject's music in a lucid and evocative way. A tormented, self-destructive artist and the creator of thrilling, emotionally supercharged music, Nyiregyházi is, in Bazzana's compelling portrait, a study in the upside and downside of romanticism. Photos. (Sept. 17)

Paper Tiger: One Athlete's Journey to the Underbelly of Pro Football
Ted A. Kluck Lyons, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-59921-043-8

A less-than-mediocre football player turned ESPN.com columnist refuses to give up at age 30, playing for the Battle Creek Crunch in the Great Lakes Indoor Football League, which he describes as “the end of the football world.” His dream turns to nightmare on the poorly managed team that sees players—who all work such day jobs as cops, teachers and fry cooks—go without getting paid and scramble to find enough jerseys, helmets and pads. Kluck loses his job as long snapper in the second game and gets very little playing time until the final game of the regular season, when he actually makes a tackle. Of this glorious culmination of the book's journey, he writes, “I'm in the record books. I'm a statistic.” Kluck recounts a litany of mundane details such as what the players do to kill time before the games start, what they get to eat at gas station stops or what radio stations he listens to on the way to practice. He refers to the movie Slapshot so many times he even parenthetically asks how many times he can get away with quoting it. And as if trying to fill space within the narrative, he includes the full text of e-mails he wrote and received while working on the book. (Sept.)

Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football Jim Dent St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-30872-8

Dent, who told the story of Bear Bryant's brutal preseason training of the 1954 Aggies in The Junction Boys, turns to the incredible story of Rusty Russell and his undersized team of orphans who dominated the gridiron of Texas high school football for the better part of the 1930s. True underdogs, most boys from the Masonic Home never held a real football; they used two socks stuffed together as footballs and, when Russell first took over, used Clabber Girl baking cans during practice. But the lean, scrappy Mighty Mites—as they were later dubbed—achieved an 8-2 record their first season of play in Class B. A few years later, in 1932, they moved up to Class A, the big leagues of high school football at the time. There, the Mites would face teams that outweighed them by as much as 50 pounds per man and fielded 47 players to their 12, and the orphans would win. Dent's strength is his play-by-play accounts of key games, but descriptions of personal interactions are often forced and lifeless. Also, many characters and events that are introduced at length don't factor significantly into the larger story line. Dent does more to mythologize the team and its players than to give them flesh and blood. (Sept.)

Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (so far)
Dave Barry Putnam, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-399-15437-9

Although Barry retired his column in 2004, he continues to examine current events with his annual “Year in Review” surveys, and the ones he wrote between 2000 and 2006 are collected here. He opens with a 33-page outline of history (from 1000 to 1999) in which we learn that the first book Gutenberg mass produced in 1455 was Codpieces of Passion by Danielle Steel, and that computer pioneer Charles Babbage “died in 1871, still waiting to talk to someone from Technical Support.” In 2002, airline industry losses prompted “America West, in a cost-cutting measure, to eliminate the cockpit minibar”; 2003: Jayson Blair, leaving the New York Times “thoroughly disgraced, is forced to accept a six-figure book contract”; 2004: Abu Ghraib photos revealed “soldiers repeatedly forcing prisoners to look at the video of Janet Jackson's right nipple”; 2006: Osama bin Laden released “another audiotape, for the first time making it downloadable from iTunes.” As a time line of humor, some of Barry's jokes were probably funnier the year they were written, but it's still a breezy and entertaining read. The 32 clever cartoon illustrations brighten the book's pages. (Sept. 17)

For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War
Melvyn P. Leffler. Hill & Wang, $35 (624p) ISBN 978-0-8090-9717-3

Drawing on extensive research in American and Soviet archives, Bancroft Prize–winner Leffler (A Preponderance of Power) offers a scintillating account of the forces that constrained Soviet and American leaders in the second half of the 20th century. Leffler begins by admitting that he was shocked by the rapid demise of communism. If Reagan and Gorbachev could end the Cold War, why hadn't earlier leaders been able to do so? To answer that question, Leffler examines five crucial moments when Washington and Moscow “thought about avoiding or modulating the extreme tension” between them. At the end of WWII, Leffler says, Stalin thought that cooperation with the West might be preferable to entrenched hostility. Yet he and Truman were pressed by an “international order that engendered... fear” to make decisions that led to Cold War and shaped policy for decades. Leffler examines why Eisenhower and Malenkov couldn't wipe the slate clean after Stalin's death; how Khrushchev, Kennedy and Johnson reacted to the pressures of international allies and domestic political enemies; why détente foundered under Carter and Brezhnev, and what circumstances allowed leaders of the 1980s to focus on common interests rather than differences. Leffler has produced possibly the most readable and insightful study of the Cold War yet. 47 b&w illus., 6 maps. (Sept.)

Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy
Richard D. Kahlenberg. Columbia Univ., $29.95 (496p) ISBN 978-0-231-13496-5

Century Foundation senior fellow Kahlenberg, who has written previously about the public school wars (All Together Now), paints a gripping portrait of the iconoclastic and often contradictory teacher's union leader Albert Shanker (1928–1997). Born to working-class Russian-Jewish parents on New York's Lower East Side, Shanker worked on a doctorate in philosophy at Columbia by night while teaching by day in East Harlem. During the late '50s he was involved in organizing New York City's United Federation of Teachers, becoming its president in 1964. In 1974 he also became president of the national American Federation of Teachers. In this perceptive biography, Kahlenberg shows that the firebrand union militant who led illegal strikes that closed New York City's public schools in 1967 and 1968 was at the same time a forward-looking educational reformer who, despite pronounced liberal credentials, pushed initiatives that are today associated mostly with conservative educational agendas. Among Shanker's passions were lofty standards, teacher accountability and charter schools. Kahlenberg applauds all this, along with Shanker's fervent anticommunism and his many efforts—regardless of the black-Jewish antagonism the school strikes engendered—to reach out to people of color. The reader comes away admiring a man who navigated troubled times deftly and left behind a record of great accomplishment. (Sept.)

The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party Bruce Miroff Univ. Press of Kansas, $29.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-7006-1546-9

Miroff (Icons of Democracy: American Leaders as Heroes, Aristocrats, Dissenters, and Democrats), a political science professor at SUNY-Albany, deconstructs the few successes and many failures of McGovern's Democratic “insurgency.” Miroff names several factors underlying the magnitude of his defeat by Richard Nixon (McGovern carried only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia), among them organized labor's desertion, orchestrated by AFL-CIO president George Meany, an old school anticommunist at odds with McGovern's anti–Vietnam War stance; the failure of mainstream Democratic regulars to embrace McGovern; McGovern's so-called “Jewish problem,” based on fears that he was not sufficiently pro-Israel; and the charge—instigated by the Nixon campaign and perpetuated by the media—that McGovern was too radical. Miroff notes that the 1972 campaign presaged a number of political trends, some good, some bad. On the positive side, the campaign showed the power of grassroots politics; on the negative side was an identity crisis in the Democratic Party, caught between liberal ideals and political pragmatism. Thorough, well sourced (the author was able to interview McGovern) and well written as it is, this will be primarily of interest to '60s survivors and political junkies. 21 photos. (Sept. 14)

Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man
Jonathan D. Spence. Viking, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-670-06357-4

Zhang Dai (1597–1689), subject of this absorbing and evocative literary-biographical study, was a Chinese essayist and historian whose long life bridged the conquest of China by the Manchus and the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644. The upheaval inspired him to write a history of the Ming as well as personal recollections of his youth, which Spence (Mao Zedong), a MacArthur fellow and a leading historians of China, mines for insights into the culture of this period. Zhang's reminiscences about his earlier life as a well-to-do scholar and aesthete are full of poetic reveries—a treasured blend of tea, evening lanterns in his hometown of Shaoxing, an exquisite courtesan, plum blossoms in the moonlight—which contrast with his later circumstances of poverty, coarse food and wizened, querulous concubines. The memoirs are studded with biographical sketches of his vast extended family, a gallery of eccentrics whose lives furnish handy illustrations of moral precepts. They also open a window on the social world of the late Ming scholarly caste, whose lives revolved around eternal cramming for the examinations that controlled entrée into the imperial bureaucracy; Zhang's father was 53 when he finally passed and was able to get his first job. Through Zhang's Proustian sensibility, Spence retrieves a portrait of a civilization imbued with esoteric obsessions as well as sensuality. (Sept. 24)

Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire
Alex von Tunzelmann. Holt, $30 (416p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8073-5

The transfer of power from the British Empire to the new nations of India and Pakistan in the summer of 1947 was one of history's great, and tragic, epics: 400 million people won independence, and perhaps as many as one million died in sectarian violence among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. In her scintillating debut, British author von Tunzelmann keeps one eye on the big picture, but foregrounds the personalities and relationships of the main political leaders—larger-than-life figures whom she cuts down to size. She portrays Gandhi as both awe inspiring and, with his antisex campaigns and inflexible moralism, an exasperating eccentric. British viceroy Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten comes off as a clumsy diplomat dithering over flag designs while his partition plan teetered on the brink of disaster. Meanwhile, his glamorous, omnicompetent wife, Edwina, looks after refugees and carries on an affair with the handsome, stalwart Indian statesman Nehru. Von Tunzelmann's wit is cruel—“Gandhi... wanted to spread the blessings of poverty and humility to all people”—but fair in its depictions of complex, often charismatic people with feet of clay. The result is compelling narrative history, combining dramatic sweep with dishy detail. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Aug.)

Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe
Robert Gellately. Knopf, $35 (720p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4005-6

Historian Gellately's (Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany) new work insists on Lenin's inclusion in any effort to understand the two major and deadly dictatorships of 20th-century Europe, Soviet communism and Nazism. Every horrendous act of the Stalin era had been seeded by Lenin, the author argues. Moreover, the Soviet and Nazi systems developed in tandem, each carefully eying the other, learning from each other, as they both reached an apex of brutality and terror. In developing this analysis, Gellately provides informed but somewhat plodding accounts of the two systems. Not all of the arguments stand up to scrutiny. “In the 1930s, the struggle between Communism and Nazism became a deadly rivalry for world domination,” the author writes. But in the 1930s Stalin cared for little beyond the Soviet Union and was hardly bent on global conquest. Gellately's approach is relentlessly one-sided in its focus on ideology as the causative factor in history. Even the civil war that followed the Bolshevik revolution is treated as backdrop for the implementation of ideology, rather than as an earthquake-like event that well into the 1950s shaped the thinking of Soviet leaders. Gellately is better on the Third Reich, but overall this is an unsatisfying and uninspired history. 16 pages of photos. (Aug. 20)

Seizing Destiny: How America Grew from Sea to Shining Sea
Richard Kluger. Knopf, $35 (672p) ISBN 978-0-375-41341-4

In an admirable and important addition to his distinguished oeuvre, Pulitzer Prize–winner Kluger (Ashes to Ashes, a history of the tobacco wars) focuses on the “darker side” of America's rapid expansion westward. He begins with European settlement of the so-called New World, explaining that Britain's successful colonization depended not so much on conquest of or friendship with the Indians, but on encouraging emigration. Kluger then fruitfully situates the American Revolution as part of the story of expansion: the Founding Fathers based their bid for independence on assertions about the expanse of American “virgin earth,” and after the war that very land became the new country's main economic resource. The heart of the book, not surprisingly, covers the 19th century, lingering in detail over such well-known episodes as the Louisiana Purchase and William Seward's acquisition of Alaska. The final chapter looks at expansion in the 20th century. Kluger provocatively suggests that, compared with western European powers, the United States engaged in relatively little global colonization, because the closing of the western frontier sated America's expansionist hunger. Each chapter of this long, absorbing book is rewarding as Kluger meets the high standard set by his earlier work. 10 maps. (Aug.)

Fire and Knowledge: Fiction and Essays
Péter Nádas, trans. from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26 (432p) ISBN 978-0-374-29964-4

Hungarian author Nádas is the kind of writer who manages to be wry without being funny—the graveyards of Europe's recent past are too fresh for that. His trenchant works fit comfortably into a continental literary tradition of high seriousness that encompasses writers as disparate as W.G. Sebald, Thomas Bernhard and Imre Kertész. A palpable literary hero in Germany, Nádas has produced novels of Proustian theme if not length (A Book of Memories). This volume collects shorter pieces from 1962 to 2000. Essays and stories in one volume can strike Americans as an uneasy fit, but Nádas's essays are so distinctively associative that they have the force of stories. Judging from these short works, a childhood in Stalinist Budapest left Nádas with a healthy respect for the secret, the unspoken. In the title essay, a multiple arson (someone “set fire to the four corners of Hungary”) leads an impromptu outbreak of candor on the television—in a police state, a decidedly attention-getting act. In the story “Liar, Cheater,” the consequences of a childhood lie become increasingly inscrutable. Bracing and subtle, this thought-provoking volume has a rightful place on the shelf of any serious lover of literature. (Aug.)

Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier
Robert A. Emmons Houghton Mifflin, $25 (256p) ISBN 978-0-618-62019-7

This fine, succinct contribution to the relatively new field of positive psychology (which seeks to promote emotional wellness, rather than treat disorder) focuses on what a French saying calls “the memory of the heart.” Emmons (The Psychology of Gratitude), a leader in the field and professor at UC-Davis, looks at gratitude from an interdisciplinary perspective, including literature, psychology, religion and anthropology. He demonstrates how it contributes to emotional equanimity and pleasure, richer personal relationships and greater health. Perhaps Emmons's most interesting chapter is on ingratitude, which Kant called “the essence of vileness” and which Emmons sees as resulting from “the grudging resentment of one's own dependence” on others. “Gratitude is more... than a tool for self-improvement. Gratitude is a way of life,” Emmons says, and he ends by offering 10 ways to cultivate gratitude, including keeping a gratitude journal and learning prayers on gratitude. Emmons introduces an important topic through deftly synthesizing scientific and popular inspirational literature. (Aug. 6)

No Ordinary Heroes: 8 Doctors, 30 Nurses, 7,000 Prisoners, and a Category 5 Hurricane
Richard Demaree Inglese, with Diana G. Gallagher. Citadel, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-8065-2831-1

In the brutal aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Inglese, medical director of the Orleans Parish Jail in New Orleans, struggled to keep his wards alive for a full week after the levees broke. As his straightforward account illustrates, it was no easy task. Power went first, then potable water, then food, while the prisoners, abandoned to the stifling heat of the cell blocks, began to riot. A former army officer, Inglese possessed the determination and organizational skills to rally his staff in the chaos, and their professionalism undoubtedly saved many. Despite his M.D. and military background, Inglese seems like a regular guy—a regular guy who barely mentions his hobbies, opinions, past, friends or life outside his job and thereby never really takes shape as a character. The prose is pedestrian and abounds with clunkers like “My stubborn streak kicked in.” Yet Inglese's single-minded focus on the minutiae of navigating the disaster slowly brings out the inherent drama of his story—from swimming through the sewage-fouled water to facing down desperate prisoners. Inglese never assigns blame, but the fact of his isolation and the dangers faced by his little group highlight the absolute incompetence of the official response. Despite the book's shortcomings, Inglese brings the human scale of the tragedy to life. (Aug.)

Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean
Michael Erard Pantheon, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-375-42356-7

Journalist and language expert Erard believes we can learn a lot from our mistakes. He argues that the secrets of human speech are present in our own proliferating verbal detritus. Erard plots a comprehensive outline of verbal blunder studies throughout history, from Freud's fascination with the slip to Allen Funt's Candid Camera. Smoothly summarizing complex linguistic theories, Erard shows how slip studies undermine some well-established ideas on language acquisition and speech. Included throughout are hilarious highlight reels of bloopers, boners, Spoonerisms, malapropisms and “eggcorns.” The author also introduces interesting people along the way, from notebook-toting, slip-collecting professors to the devoted members of Toastmasters, a public speaking club with a self-help focus. According to Erard, the “aesthetic of umlessness” is a relatively new development in society originating alongside advents in mechanical reproduction, but it may be on its way out already. Take President Bush, who exemplifies that “the quirky casual, whether it is intentional or spontaneous, can inspire more trust than the slick and polished.” Erard closes by examining our own propensity toward verbal missteps, demonstrating how the interpretation of blunders is inextricable from social expectations. While Erard's conclusion that meaning is socially and historically embedded may not be unfamiliar, his work challenges the reader to think about his or her own speech in an entirely new way. (Aug.)

State of the Heart: A Medical Tourist's True Story of Lifesaving Surgery in India
Maggi Ann Grace New Harbinger, $24.95 (280p) ISBN 978-1-57224-492-4

In this inspiring, informative narrative, Grace explains how she and her partner decided to search abroad for health care. Grace and Howard Staab were just falling in love when, during a routine physical, he discovered he had a leaking mitral valve in his heart. A self-employed 53-year-old construction contractor, he had no health insurance. The hospital estimated his surgical bills would come to $200,000—if all went well. Grace, an artist who'd once worked in medical billing, tried to argue the fees down to what an insurance company would pay, but she was unpersuasive. They researched other options, including her medical student son's recommendation of a private hospital in India. Before long, the couple had a room at the Escorts Heart Institute in New Delhi. A skilled team of doctors performed pre-op tests and then surgery—first to repair the valve, and then, when that didn't work, to replace it. The fee for both operations, plus extensive postoperative care, came to less than $10,000, which included looking after Grace's needs as well. Not only was the surgery successful, the hospital staff was well trained and well coordinated. While the North Carolina couple never got to do much tourism during their one-month stay, they do shed pleasant light on what seems to be a growing industry. (Aug.)

I Wear the Maternity Pants in This Family
Susan Konig St. Martin's/Dunne, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-312-36818-0

In this witty collection of motherhood tales, Konig (Why Animals Sleep So Close to the Road) recalls waving good-bye to her third child as he got on his first school bus. After three children, she was looking forward to some daytime peace and quiet—only she felt an all-too-familiar surge of nausea. At the suburban ob-gyn's office, the way they stared at her, “you'd think Grandma Moses” had walked in, so she retreated to her old city doctor, who acted like pregnant-over-40 was no big deal. Her husband and daughter and two sons cheerfully welcomed the newest family member—after all, “there's always room for another baby—kind of like Jell-O.” In 45 vignettes, Konig shares episodes of family life—singing to baby, sibling rivalry, Little League ups and downs. Such familiar turf is often more poignant than funny, although when she reaches deeper into her family's idiosyncrasies, she can be hilarious. Her husband, for instance, is an amusingly obsessive neighborhood wood scavenger; still, it took them so long to hook up their wood stove properly that their baby “smelled like a campfire.” Some sketches, like the one where Konig's figuring out her sons' Tamagotchi virtual pets, are surprisingly dated. But in the great tradition of Erma Bombeck, Konig makes it okay to be a little retro. (Aug.)

C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America
Geoff Williams Rodale, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59486-319-6

Pyle, a sports agent and promoter, came up with the idea of a footrace (mockingly known as “the Bunion Derby”) from Los Angeles to New York that promised $48,500 in cash, including $25,000 to the first-place winner. For a $125 entry fee, male participants got the chance for a nice payday while subjecting themselves to harsh weather, primitive housing and Pyle's ego and shady business practices. They also had to run 3,500 miles over 84 days (the equivalent of 40 miles a day) long before comfortable running shoes and sophisticated sports nutrition. Williams, a contributor to Entrepreneur magazine, has evocatively recreated a long-forgotten sports event, mixing colorful anecdotes from the race with vivid portraits of the runners. There's Brother John, a bearded zealot who raced in a sackcloth, and 20-year-old Andy Payne, a part-Cherokee Oklahoman who competed to pay off his family's farm and to win the attention of the girl he loved. What could have been one long injury report or a sappy piece of nostalgic nuttiness is a breezy, entertaining read that properly balances the runners' integrity with the comedy of errors that was Pyle's grand experiment and his life. Photos. (July)

Have You Met Miss Jones? The Life and Loves of Radio's Most Controversial Diva
Tarsha Jones Random/One World, $21.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-345-49748-2

Jones, who is New York's hip-hop Hot 97-FM morning DJ, traces her rocky trajectory from the Astoria projects to fame in dishy, inelegant detail. The early years were tough for Jones, born to an epileptic mother who divorced Jones's father early on, remarried periodically, but taught her daughter how to fight and prodded her singing career. Jones attended Manhattan's prestigious High School of Music and Art with Ricky Walters, aka MC Slick Rick, and attended Syracuse University. She was introduced to rapper Doug E. Fresh, who became instrumental in igniting Jones's early singing career in the early 1990s; toured with Fresh's Get Fresh Crew; romanced hip-hop superstar Busta Rhymes; recorded the song “Two Way Street”; then was asked to join Ed Lover and Dr. Dre on their Hot 97 morning show. Although she considered herself a singer first, being a DJ became her bread and butter. Jones has her axes in work and love to grind, and it makes for cluttered, pedestrian reading. (July)

The People's Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, from Those Who Knew Her Best
Edited by Larry King Crown, $19.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-307-33953-9

The subtitle notwithstanding, at least three of the essayists in this warm collection edited by CNN talk-show host King not only didn't know Diana best, they never met her. On the positive side, those who did know the princess, including her own secretary, Patrick Jephson, as well as less intimate acquaintances like Joan Collins, share some lovely memories of the woman they remember as compassionate, warm, loving and, above all, funny. British journalist Piers Morgan recalls that she had “a great laugh. A really earthy, infectious cackle.” The queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter remembers professing mock horror at a British princess driving a German car, to which Diana retorted, “Well, at least it's more reliable than a German husband.” While most of the contributors are admiring, several, including actor Robert Powell, mention her shortcomings as well, citing her temper and questioning her status as royal victim. Some of the pieces are simply maudlin, but one of the most genuinely touching ones is by Tessa Dahl (daughter of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal), a childhood friend of Diana's. Interspersed with recollections of her chum, Dahl reveals painful details of her own life, and a writing talent that leave one hoping she'll write a memoir of her own. (July)

The Mexican Mafia
Tony Rafael. Encounter (NBN, dist.), $25.95 (250p) ISBN 978-1-59403-195-3

Rafael's debut book—a study of the Southern California–based Mexican mafia told mainly from the perspective of veteran Los Angeles deputy district attorney Anthony Manzella—is a revealing but flawed work. Despite occasional national headlines about drive-by shootings that claim innocent lives (including the granddaughter of an LAPD chief), most Americans are probably unfamiliar with the powerful, loosely organized street gangs that make up the Mexican mafia. Rafael does a workmanlike job of tracing the rise of these gangs, despite the occasional factual error (e.g., the RICO statute was used to indict criminal groups besides La Cosa Nostra before the Mexican mafia), but fails to dramatize his overly detailed account of Manzella's trials. Manzella is an interesting enough figure—a dedicated workaholic throwback who doesn't use a computer, or even an electric typewriter. But Rafael gives short shrift to the sociology of the rise of the Mexican mafia. Instead, he offers a final quote from Manzella (“We know exactly the kind of families that produce criminals. I'd like to go in there and take them out. But we can't do that') will leave many with a sour taste that undercuts Rafael's attempts to make the deputy DA a hero. (July)

Lannie! My Journey from Man to Woman
Lannie Rose SterlingHouse, $18.95 paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-58-501109-4

Dear Diary, today I woke up, had lunch with a girlfriend, went shopping, and had sex reassignment surgery. Although you won't find that particular sentence in this male-to-female transsexual memoir, it sums up its tone. Writing in a journal-like style, Rose maps out her “transition” from Eddie to Lannie, but her delivery lacks depth, particularly compared to several penetrating and well-executed transsexual memoirs in recent months. Writing in clipped sentences, Rose more often opts for glibness than for insight. The 42 very short chapters, with titles like “Lannie Gets Her Ears Pierced,” “Two-Hundred-Dollar Jeans” and “Inside the Women's Locker Room,” tend to be focused on the superficial trappings of femininity. Overwhelmed with finally being allowed to play with the “girls,” Lannie is like a child lost in a candy store, except that instead of candy, it's shoes, makeup, clothes and breasts. There are brief moments when she succeeds in letting us into her deeper experiences, but even the chapter called “My Spiritual Journey” doesn't reveal too much. Though she offers a snapshot of one person's joys and journey through an important transition, the result isn't quite poignant enough to be enthralling, nor humorous enough to be sheerly entertaining. (July)

Religion

The Heart of a Saint: Ten Ways to Grow Closer to God
Bert Ghezzi The Word Among Us (Baker & Taylor, dist.), $16.95 (152p) ISBN 978-1-59325-108-6

According to popular speaker and author Ghezzi, a saint is a woman or man who has “a heart set on loving God above all.” This attribute does not make these people superhuman, but it does make them good spiritual mentors for those who want to grow in holiness. Ghezzi does not draw solely from the wisdom of the usual suspects. Aelred of Rievaulx, Angela Merici and Jane de Chantal are more obscure, but no less holy, people who embraced a vocation to live for others in a variety of ways. Others mentioned include those not yet officially canonized as Catholic saints, such as Dorothy Day, and popes Paul VI and John Paul II. Ghezzi claims that each of these men and women can teach important virtues, including mercy, kindness, service and respect for the poor. Each chapter ends with a section called “Think, Pray, and Act,” in which the author provides excellent points for reflection and action. By practicing these three disciplines, Ghezzi says, we can emulate the saints in understanding and responding to God's call. An excellent primer to the lives of these saints, this text would also be useful as a guide and discussion-starter for small church community groups. (Sept.)

Finding Home: An Imperfect Path to Faith and Family
Jim Daly with Bob DeMoss Cook Communications, $22.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7814-4533-7

Since 2005, Daly has been president and CEO of Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian organization founded by child psychologist and Republican activist James Dobson. Daly's childhood family sorely needed focus: the last of five children born to aging alcoholics, young Jimmy experienced his father's abandonment, his stepfather's rages, his mother's death and several years with a gloriously insane foster family living next to their own personal garbage dump. He apparently avoided beatings and sexual abuse, though his chirpy coauthor rarely plumbs the depths of Daly's probable anguish. Rather than looking inward, the young adolescent developed a pragmatic philosophy of survival: “Keep your expectations low. That way you don't get hurt.” Somehow, despite homelessness and lack of income, he made it through college, studied overseas, married a good woman, climbed the career ladder and, sadly, still advises low expectations. “I believe it's time we were open with one another about the brokenness that we all share,” he writes, though his story reveals much more of his family's brokenness than his own. Dobson fans—and they are legion—will find Daly's rags-to-(spiritual)-riches story inspirational; others may wish he had dispensed with his coauthor and spoken directly from the heart. (Sept.)

Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul
Brooke Boon. Hachette/FaithWords, $19.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-446-69915-0

Evangelical Christians are not often very enthusiastic about yoga, dismissing it as irrelevant at best and Satanic at worst. But for Boon, an Arizona yoga teacher who is the founder of the Holy Yoga ministry, yoga is a worship tool to enhance her relationship with Christ. Although Boon's writing is primitive and breathless, with excessive use of italics and exclamation points, she offers some decent ideas and memorable spiritual quotes from the likes of Eugene Peterson, Lauren Winner and Richard Foster. Boon first outlines the theological reasons for yoga practice, likening it to ancient Christian disciplines like fasting. This section can seem defensive and apologetic at times, as Boon expends energy answering her evangelical critics. Part two briefly highlights yoga as a healthy lifestyle (e.g., it can improve circulation, relieve stress and maintain a healthy weight) and offers tips on incorporating yoga into a neophyte's regular routine. The final, longest section presents various postures, with black-and-white illustrations. However, the instructions are brief and vague enough that Christians who are new to yoga will definitely want to supplement their fledgling practice with more detailed, step-by-step information, such as that contained in traditional yoga books or Susan Bordenkicher's more thorough Yoga for Christians. Note: DVD and photo insert not seen by PW. (Aug. 23)

Living a Joyous Life: The Spirit of Jewish Practice
Rabbi David Aaron Shambhala/Trumpeter, $21.95 (192p) ISBN 978-1-59030-395-5

Aaron's mission, to “offer uncommon answers to common questions that people ask about Jewish identity, faith, and daily Jewish practices” begins with an unpacking of negative spiritual baggage. He encourages readers to take a deep look at the “oppressive, distorted” images of Judaism that hold them back from true delight in the tradition. Many Jews don't love being Jewish because they don't understand who they are or why they would want to live what Judaism teaches, asserts Aaron, a mystic and teacher (Inviting God In). In an analogy from the Zohar, the mystical classic, he compares those who do not know the “whys” of Judaism to a cow that chews its cud mindlessly. To go from “the oy to the joy,” he provides accessible, readable chapters on God, Torah, prayer, Shabbat and kashrut. Each chapter asks a complex theological question (Who is God? Why pray?), then proceeds to answer it simply and clearly, with personal anecdotes, analogies and teachings from Jewish sources. Because Aaron himself grew up without a strong religious background, his empathic insights strike a note resonant enough to reawaken the spiritual taste buds. (Aug. 15)

Untrain Your Parrot: And Other No-Nonsense Instructions on the Path of Zen
Elizabeth Hamilton. Shambhala, $14 paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-59030-363-4

This debut book by San Diego Zen teacher Hamilton boasts a quirky, appropriately Zen-ish title and a foreword from, surprisingly, the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks, with whom the author worked during Parks's later life. It offers plenty of meditation exercises with easy-to-follow directions. It thoroughly translates what can be the culturally foreign characteristics of Japanese Zen into contemporary American parlance and life situations. All these things commend the book to a beginner, but it's too often unclear and could have used more work. The diction is occasionally foggy (“both tinged with some degree of narcissistic attachment to a truncated self”). Attempts to simplify aspire to easy-to-remember lists, but these come out idiosyncratically obscure (“BBSTSBB is a palindrome composed of the first letters of seven words that beckon our awareness”). It is interesting that the center of a person's chest includes the acupuncture point Conception Vessel 17, but there is such a thing as too much information, particularly for beginners. Hamilton is very likely a good Zen teacher, funny and imaginative, but that doesn't automatically translate onto the page. (Aug. 14)

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe and Everything
Ken Wilber Shambhala, $15.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-59030-475-4

Philosopher, psychologist and mystic Wilber (A Brief History of Everything) delivers on the subtitle's far-reaching promise. In a scant 200+ pages chock-full of handsome illustrations and spare, Zen-like diagrams and tables, he forges ahead on his established path, posing, “What if we attempted to find the critically essential keys to human growth, based on the sum total of human knowledge now open to us?” His answer is a kind of meta-structure of human experience and, more importantly, human potential. His Integral Map, or Integral Operating System (IOS), of “quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types” is drawn from developmental psychology, worldviews, multiple intelligences, gender studies, the nature of consciousness, etc. If this sounds heady and extremely ambitious, it is. Wilber asserts that the IOS approach to life permits all fields of endeavor at last to speak with one another in a common language. Clearly, however, spirituality dominates much of his thought. Not for the faint of brain, Wilber's work is still accessible and at times surprisingly practical. Some language spirals up majestically, recalling great Eastern texts. Reminiscent in spirit and watershed import of Ram Dass's Be Here Now, Wilber's work may well become a popular classic for explorers on the frontiers of humanity. (Aug. 14)

Modeling Mary in Christian Discipleship
John Burns Judson, $11 paper (112p) ISBN 978-0-8170-1514-5

The idea of Mary as exemplar is hardly new; the church throughout history has recognized Mary's pivotal role in the sacred story. In this accessible, brief book, Burns suggests that one may study the life of Mary as written in the gospels and find an example of what he calls a “non-linear view of discipleship”—one that acknowledges that sometimes even the most dedicated Christians can fall backward. The problem, he believes, is that “we try to negotiate with God to get divine blessing on our own plans,” when we ought to be handing our agendas over to God and accepting His designs as ours. Each chapter is a literary rosary of Mary's life, meditating on her spiritual journey and her willingness to follow the Holy Spirit. Of course, the Bible contains little of Mary's story beyond the birth narratives and several later stories, but Burns makes a good case for these glimpses of Mary's experience as pointers on the road of Christian living. Avoiding the fanciful, his meditations are biblically based and often include experiences of his family and friends. He ends with the heady observation that “we are not the ruler of our world, but rather... God is sovereign.” Mary's way can and must, Burns asserts, become ours. (Aug.)

Spiritual Arts: Mastering the Disciplines for a Rich Spiritual Life
Jill Briscoe Zondervan, $13.99 paper (208p) ISBN 978-0-310-27324-0

In this extended reflection on Paul's letter to the Philippians, Briscoe, executive editor of Just Between Us magazine, sketches out eight “spiritual arts”—hallmarks of dedicated Christian living, including tenacity and serenity. These arts are simultaneously aspects of faithful Christian living that the Holy Spirit pours out upon believers and practices of the faith to which people can intentionally commit themselves. (As Briscoe puts it, “There is God's part in this program, and there is our part.... [W]e must cooperate.”) Briscoe calls readers to practice intentional peacemaking within the body of Christ; to laugh at themselves and learn to be humble; and to cultivate intimacy with God. One of her most insightful chapters focuses on the spiritual art of maturity, in which she suggests that Christians should always seek to grow in their faith. Mature Christians care deeply about “lost people” and lead lives worth imitating. Briscoe concludes the book with a fruitful discussion of the art of both giving and receiving—she especially encourages readers to cultivate receptive, “teachable” hearts. Her clear, accessible prose and the discussion questions and prayer prompts that close every chapter enhance this small, quiet, wise book. Briscoe's uniting biblical meditation with the popular language of spiritual disciplines is sure to resonate with evangelicals. (Aug.)

The Bone Gatherers: The Lost Worlds of Early Christian Women
Nicola Denzey Beacon, $27.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8070-1308-3

In late antiquity, pious Christian women buried the remains of saints and martyrs, sometimes on land the women themselves owned. The legends of these “bone gatherers” launch Denzey's investigation into the experiences of third- and fourth-century Roman women based on the complex visual and archeological evidence they left behind in the city's catacombs. Denzey, a lecturer at Harvard University, uses a technique “akin to feminist midrash” to decipher what these women's lives were really like as the feminine ideal shifted from pagan Rome's devoted wives to Catholic Christianity's virgin martyrs. Sometimes delving into the macabre, the author probes into the meanings revealed by underground burial spaces and wall paintings that reflect women's presence. The study concludes with an analysis of Pope Damasus's impact in the fourth century: a “stunning masculinization of Rome's sacred space,” the privatization of women's roles, and the end of the female tradition of bone gathering. Although the book's black-and-white photographs are sparse and hard to decipher, Denzey's prose paints vivid pictures of the sites she visits. Some readers may find her imaginative interpretations of the visual evidence too speculative, but her densely layered inquiry is insightful and haunting. (Aug.)

Pure Magic: A Complete Course in Spellcasting
Judika Illes Red Wheel/Weiser, $16.95 paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-57863-391-3

While millions have been drawn into the magical worlds of Harry Potter, Charmed, and Sabrina, how many have realized that the art of spellcasting should not be considered out of reach? Enter Illes (The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells) who provides an elegantly written introduction to the magical arts. In recent years there have been scores of Wicca and witchcraft books published for “beginners,” but Illes distinguishes hers by summoning a broad spectrum of traditions rather than restricting it to one culture, such as Celtic, or one instrument, as in candle magic. Illes sees magic as the birthright of every daughter and son of Earth. She writes, “Magic in its purest form consists of a dialogue between Earth and yourself... whereby you are able to express your desires, receive and recognize a response and are then able to make your wishes and desires come true.” The first half of the book imparts an overview of the magical arts, with a particular focus on how animals, spirits, dreams and the four elements are harnessed. The second half offers dozens of spells, many quite simple, to help achieve various practical goals. Many will find this new book to be a fine place to start their magical journey. (Aug.)

Hullabaloo: Discovering Glory in Everyday Life
Timothy Paul Jones Cook Communications, $11.99 paper (192p) ISBN 978-0-7814-4483-5

The title, Hullaballoo, is a quirky word, and this is an equally quirky book, full of Jones's wit, sarcasm and humorous stories. It's also deeply serious as it reveals the oft-forgotten Christian truth that the craving of the soul for the glory of God is “already embedded in the hullabaloo of your present life.” Glory, he says, was there all along; it's hullabaloo—“the ordinary stuff of life”—that gets in the way. Jones (Misquoting Truth) writes as a musician, dividing his book into three movements that each open with a poetic recitative. Chapters include a play list that includes music from U2, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and others, all available for download from Jones's Web site. The melody of this book is clear: “God designed this glory to be poured into you.” The harmony of how we find that glory—by cultivating imagination, relinquishing control, expressing gratitude and walking in company with others—is a vital undercurrent. Jones offers counterpoint by describing how glory can be found in the “if only's,” right in the middle of interruptions and even darkness. This is a well-written and much-needed book for evangelical Christians searching for God amid life. Study guide included. (Aug.)

Everyday Herbs in Spiritual Life: A Guide to Many Practices
Michael J. Caduto SkyLight Paths, $16.99 (176p) ISBN 978-1-59473-174-7

Caduto, a storyteller, accomplished author and Aesop Prize winner, reminds readers that Eastern and Western medicine grew in large part out of a relationship to healing properties found in the natural world, and he offers this book to help us remember this powerful spiritual connection to “a gift from the Creator.” Caduto's passion for the power of herbs is brightly reflected in his thorough, well-researched, engaging multicultural volume. In seven chapters exploring healing, aesthetics and virtue, meals and rituals, the balance of life, the sacred cosmos, meditation, and practical tips, Caduto explores practically every pistil, stem, blossom and more of the herbal world. Arcane facts about Egyptian embalming rest comfortably alongside advice on growing and harvesting herbs. Herbal experts will treasure the extensive spiritual application contexts, and beginners will find comfort in the cultivation basics. Especially soothing and bonding are the Islamic connections summoning the exquisite, sumptuous gardens of the Middle East. Each chapter has more than a handful of activities, ceremonies and projects. Some, such as “Bathing Balms” and “Valentine's Day Cards,” seem overly simplistic, but all recall the sweet elemental connection among aspects of the living world. (Aug.)

A Different Kind of Crazy: Living the Way Jesus Lived
Lawrence W. Wilson Wesleyan Publishing, $14.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-89827-348-9

Wilson (Why Me? Straight Talk About Suffering) gets in the face of evangelicals as he writes in a somewhat acerbic style, posing challenges to today's church on matters both personal and societal. This book will spur readers to examine their motives, actions and reactions to life's dilemmas in light of Jesus' teaching and example. Tackling those niggling character qualities that Christians often make excuses for not exhibiting, Wilson uses personal narratives and brief vignettes from today's news to expound upon the Christ-like responses the world requires of God followers: authenticity, vision, significance, holiness, purity, forbearance, charity, trust, tolerance, faith, integrity and commitment. Throughout this work, Wilson generates a good share of his material by citing stories from his own childhood and past. This works both for and against him; some Christian readers will relate to his frankness and the criticisms he lodges against the church, finding his jeremiad hard-hitting but necessary. Others, however, will wince as he describes his own missteps in relating to others, as the book's tone alternates between cynicism and contrition. Rather than encourage change, this book can leave a bitter aftertaste. (July)