Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 12/3/2007

Historian Masur (1831: Year of Eclipse) has written a gem of a book based on an iconic, Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph by Stanley Forman. Taken on April 5, 1976, at a Boston rally against forced school busing, it's a stark, frightening image of an angry white teenager brandishing an American flag at a well-dressed African-American man, apparently trying to impale him. Published on the front page of newspapers across the country, the photo crystallized the complex issues that enflamed Boston during the city's school busing crisis. Masur addresses the source of the picture's power on a multitude of levels, bringing uncommon wisdom and explanatory skills to his analysis of the collision of the Civil Rights movement, racism and community concerns about court-ordered busing programs. Masur is superb when deconstructing the photo, pointing out the elements of its composition that infused it with meaning, while at the same time asking provocative questions that illuminate how the interpretation of a photograph can affect our perception of an event. Equally compelling is Masur's discussion of the shifting and potent historical symbolism of the American flag, which stands at the metaphorical center of the photo. (Apr.)

Award-winning science writer Johnson (A Fire in the Mind; Strange Beauty) calls readers away from the “industrialized” mega-scale of modern science (which requires multimillion-dollar equipment and teams of scientists) to appreciate 10 historic experiments whose elegant simplicity revealed key features of our bodies and our world. Some of the experiments Johnson describes have a sense of whimsy, like Galileo measuring the speed of balls rolling down a ramp to the regular beat of a song, or Isaac Newton cutting holes in window shades and scrambling around with a prism to break light into its component colors. Other experiments—such as William Harvey's use of vivisected animals to demonstrate the circulation of blood, and the “truncated frogs” Luigi Galvani used in his study of the nervous system—remind us of changing attitudes toward animal research. Joule's effort to show that heat and work are related ways of converting energy into motion, Michelson's work to measure the speed of light, Millikan's sensitive apparatus for measuring the charge of an electron: these experiments toppled contemporary dogma with their logic and clear design as much as with their results. With these 10 entertaining histories, Johnson reminds us of a time when all research was hands-on and “the most earthshaking science came from... a single mind confronting the unknown.” 73 b&w illus. (Apr. 9)

This engrossing volume of newly published material from French novelist and memoirist Duras's wartime notebooks contains writing as roiled and violent as the years that produced it. Selections range from novella-length down to paragraph- or sentence-long fragments and include stories, polemics, notes and even an ad for a maid; the mix of fiction and nonfiction lets us follow characters, events and themes from Duras's autobiographical writings through various drafts into fictional form. Landmarks include her memoir of youth in Indochina in an impoverished, déclassé French family—beaten viciously by her mother and brother, then embarking on an affair with a repulsive, wealthy Vietnamese man who seems her only ticket out; this supremely rancid vision of colonial rot would become her celebrated novel The Lover. Duras's experiences in the French Resistance yield harrowing stories about the torture of a suspected collaborator, and several nonfiction pieces recount her agonizing wait for her husband's return from a German concentration camp at war's end. Even her quieter writings have an edge to them, as in a study of early morning street life in front of her apartment that sparks a meditation on class warfare. Duras's fans will recognize and thrill to her unique voice as it develops—feverish, sometimes feral, yet pitilessly unsentimental. (Mar.)

Neuroscientists Aamodt, editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience, and Wang, of Princeton University, explain how the human brain—with its 100 billion neurons—processes sensory and cognitive information, regulates our emotional life and forms memories. They also examine how human brains differ from those of other mammals and show what happens to us during dreams. They also tackle such potentially controversial topics as whether men and women have different brains (yes, though what that means in terms of capabilities and behavior, they say, is up in the air) and whether intelligence is shaped more by genes or environment (“genes set an upper limit on people's intelligence, but the environment before birth and during childhood determines whether they reach their full genetic potential”). Distinguishing their book are sidebars that explode myths—no, we do not use only 10% of our brain's potential but nearly all of it—and provide advice on subjects like protecting your brain as you get older. The book could have benefited from a glossary of neurological terms and more illustrations of the brain's structure. Still, this is a terrific, surprisingly fun guide for the general reader. B&w illus. (Mar.)

Multitasking is the great buzz word in business today, but as developmental molecular biologist Medina tells readers in a chapter on attention, the brain can really only focus on one thing at a time. This alone is the best argument for not talking on your cellphone while driving. Medina (The Genetic Inferno) presents readers with a basket containing an even dozen good principles on how the brain works and how we can use them to our benefit at home and work. The author says our visual sense trumps all other senses, so pump up those PowerPoint presentations with graphics. The author says that we don't sleep to give our brain a rest—studies show our neurons firing furiously away while the rest of the body is catching a few z's. While our brain indeed loses cells as we age, it compensates so that we continue to be able to learn well into our golden years. Many of these findings and minutiae will be familiar to science buffs, but the author employs an appealing style, with suggestions on how to apply his principles, which should engage all readers. DVD not seen by PW. (Mar.)

Novelist and nonfiction writer Pearson (When She Was Bad) was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder at 23 in 1987; she had suffered a nervous breakdown after discovering that her lover was sleeping with another woman. In a rambling fashion, she traces the roots of her anxiety to a youth spent in tumultuous New Delhi, where her diplomat father was posted when an Indian-Pakistani war broke out over Bangladesh. Genetically, she traces her anxiety to a grandmother whose famous biting wit was likely, she surmises, a manifestation of anxiety and depression. Pearson quotes a range of sources, including the 2002 World Mental Health Survey and angst-ridden Kierkegaard, Keats and Whitman. Pearson's anxieties constantly shift according to the stresses in her life, and an adverse reaction to antidepressants once caused her to make sexual advances to her daughter's friend's mother. Citizens of affluent U.S. and Canada are more prone to dread and panic than Mexicans, says Pearson, who herself grew up in a privileged Canadian family with a grandfather who was prime minister and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Although often self-indulgent and overwritten, Pearson's quirky memoir should strike a chord with some of the 40 million American adults suffering from clinical anxiety. (Mar. 4)

This guide for retired career women or those about to make this life change starts out coolly but warms up to a friendly support-group style discussion of the psychological pitfalls associated with leaving a life of work. The authors, a psychologist and a workplace-issues expert who founded a networking organization by the title's name, illustrate their approach to retirement as renewal. The book's businesslike title is a bit misleading; chapters are short and punchy and lacking detailed how-tos on the practical points of retirement, such as exit strategies or financial planning. The book's strengths lie in its “you're not alone” tone, with anonymous anecdotes and quotes from the mostly married, 60-somethings in Project Renewment groups throughout Southern California. Also useful is the book's “Guide to Creating a Project Renewment Group,” which gives a step-by-step how-to for finding like-minded women at or about to embark on the same life stage. Skeptics may identify this self-help book as a disguise to expand the Renewment brand, but it works on its own terms. Illus. (Mar.)

The premise behind Roam's book is simple: anybody with a pen and a scrap of paper can use visual thinking to work through complex business ideas. Management consultant and lecturer Roam begins with a “watershed moment”: asked, at the last minute, to give a talk to top government officials, he sketched a diagram on a napkin. The clarity and power of that image allowed him to communicate directly with his audience. From this starting point, Roam has developed a remarkably comprehensive system of ideas. Everything in the book is broken down into steps, providing the reader with “tools and rules” to facilitate picture making. There are the four steps of visual thinking, the six ways of seeing and the “SQVID”– a clumsy acronym for a “full brain visual work out” designed to focus ideas. Roam occasionally overcomplicates; an extended case study takes up a full third of the book and contains an overload of images that belie the book's central message of simplicity. Nonetheless, for forward-thinking management types, there is enough content in these pages to drive many a brainstorming session. Illus. (Mar 13)

Readers will take an unexpected and entertaining journey—through culinary, social and cultural history—in this delightful first book on the origins of the customary after-Chinese-dinner treat by New York Times reporter Lee. When a large number of Powerball winners in a 2005 drawing revealed that mass-printed paper fortunes were to blame, the author (whose middle initial is Chinese for “prosperity”) went in search of the backstory. She tracked the winners down to Chinese restaurants all over America, and the paper slips the fortunes are written on back to a Brooklyn company. This travellike narrative serves as the spine of her cultural history—not a book on Chinese cuisine, but the Chinese food of take-out-and-delivery—and permits her to frequently but safely wander off into various tangents related to the cookie. There are satisfying minihistories on the relationship between Jews and Chinese food and a biography of the real General Tso, but Lee also pries open factoids and tidbits of American culture that eventually touch on large social and cultural subjects such as identity, immigration and nutrition. Copious research backs her many lively anecdotes, and being American-born Chinese yet willing to scrutinize herself as much as her objectives, she wins the reader over. Like the numbers on those lottery fortunes, the book's a winner. (Mar.)

At the age of 16, Wall Street Journal editor McKee (The Call of the Game) watched his 50-year-old father, John, drop dead of a massive heart attack. In this affecting memoir, he uses the trauma as a lens through which to view his family history. Early cardiac arrest was a hereditary constant for McKee's male relatives and an occupational hazard for postwar breadwinners like John, a World War II vet who smoked three packs a day, had a sedentary but hellishly stressful middle-management job and endured his first heart attack at age 44. McKee pens an homage to his father's way of life, with its dutifulness and web of family and community ties, but also a critique of its toll. Reacting against his father's apparent surrender, the author turns his life into a rebellion against the inevitability of heart attack. He eschewed a workaholic career for the creative life and maintained a fanatical fitness regimen—running, rowing, triathlons, all manner of health food diets and nutritional supplements—only to learn in middle age that cardiovascular disease had caught up with him. McKee includes illuminating medical lore about heart attacks and oral histories from survivors. But most of all, he discovers in the most ordinary way to die a perspective on how to live. (Feb. 1)

In this often fascinating collection of 60 short works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, editors Evaristo (Lara) and Gee (The Burning Book) collect the best new writing in English of the past year. The authors are for the most part British or Britain-based, though there is a strong emphasis on international themes and writers; some of the most intriguing pieces deal with Mideastern topics and other current geopolitical issues. The featured authors range from this year's Nobel laureate, Doris Lessing, to the relatively obscure, including a number of young poets unknown outside of U.K. poetry circles. Some of the highlights of this diverse group include a strongly tactile excerpt from Kerri Sakamoto's novel The Mongolian Spot, Wayne Burrows's ominous but beautiful poem “Under Surveillance” and the urgent, first-person short story “At the Institute with KM” by Helen Dunmore. Additionally, Julian Barnes offers a masterful essay on the creation of characters in fiction, Robert Ewing paints a propulsive but grim portrait of a drugged partygoer in Sydney, Australia, and Rahat Kurd, a Muslim, presents a refreshing and literary account of her choice to cover her hair in Western society. (Feb.)

The author of the wildly successful Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus now posits that men (Mars) and women (Venus) naturally react differently to everyday stress, which in turn causes more stress in their relationships. When Gray says “naturally,” he means hormones. When a man, after a stressful day, wants to veg out in front of the TV, he is not rejecting his wife. Rather, he is replenishing his depleted testosterone. And when a woman wants to talk about her day, she is not being a nag. It's just her way of replenishing her cuddle hormone, oxytocin. According to Gray, the fact that women have more body fat means they burn more energy than men, which makes their minds create endless to-do lists. Gray does not consider cultural differences figuring in the stress mix. If anything, Gray seems to come down hard—or focus more—on women, perhaps because women are his most likely audience. Thus, he discusses “Why Women Never Forget a Quarrel”; and “Making a Man Happier Is Easier than You Think” (in which he uses a devoted dog as an example). It's simplistic but easy to digest and no doubt headed for the bestseller lists. (Feb.)

Brown, “[b]lack, urban, flamboyant, politically adroit,” is part hardworking politician and part legend. “A political career [had] never entered [his] mind,” when the teenaged Texas country boy arrived in San Francisco in 1951. Thirty years later, Brown became Speaker of the California Assembly, a triply historic event: he won with bipartisan support, was the first African-American to do so and served longer than any else in the position; then from 1996 to 2003, he was San Francisco's mayor. Brown's autobiography is a candid and fascinating how-to-succeed-in-politics, crammed with down-to-earth reality tips not common in civics texts. He advises how to dress, work a party and manage one's own scandals. But Brown did not achieve political power by merely window dressing and shares his mastery of the finer and lesser points of political strategy. He revisits the major controversies of his reign in the assembly and the successes of which he is most proud. “The real Slick Willie,” Clinton called him; Brown says simply, “I'm unique.” His always lively and often self-serving account is a candid tutorial for aspiring politicians and ordinary folk who enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at how local (and sometimes national) government works. Illus. (Feb.)

Behind the standard one man-one vote formula lies a labyrinth of bizarre dysfunction, according to this engaging study of the science of voting. America's system is “the least sensible way to vote,” argues Poundstone (Fortune's Formula), prone to vote-splitting fiascoes like the 2000 election. Unfortunately, according to the author, a famous “impossibility theorem” states that no voting procedure can accurately gauge the will of the people without failures and paradoxes. (More optimistically, Poundstone contends that important problems are solved by “range voting,” in which voters score each candidate independently on a 1–10 scale.) Poundstone provides a lucid survey of electoral systems and their eccentric proponents (Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, loved voting novelties), studded with colorful stories of election skullduggery by campaign consultants, whom he likens to “terrorists... exploiting the mathematical vulnerabilities of voting itself.” His lively, accessible mix of high theory and low politics merits a thumbs-up. Illus. (Feb.)

The authors, management consultants and partners of JeffersonLarsonSmith, offer a fascinating look at corporate tribes—groups of 20–150 people within a company that come together on their own rather than through management decisions—and how executives can use tribes to maximize productivity and profit. Drawing upon research from a 10-year study of more than 24,000 people in two dozen organizations, they argue that tribes have the greatest influence in determining how much and what quality work gets done. The authors identify the five stages of employee tribal development—“Life sucks,” “My life sucks,” “I'm great and you're not,” “We're great” and “Life is great”—and offer advice on how to manage these groups. They also share insights from the health care, philanthropic, engineering, biotechnology and other industries and include key points lists for each chapter. Particularly useful is the Tribal Leader's Cheat Sheet, which helps determine and assess success indicators. Well written and enlightening, this book will be of interest to business professionals at all levels. (Feb.)

Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government professor Kellerman (Bad Leadership) shifts the focus from leadership to “followership,” arguing that followers are every bit as important as leaders. Defining followers as subordinates who have less power, authority and influence than their superiors, and who usually, but not always, fall into line, she notes that we are all followers at different points in time. Followers, Kellerman argues, are getting bolder and more strategic, less likely to know their place and affecting work places, to mixed results. She identifies five types of followers based upon level of engagement: Isolate, Bystander, Participant, Activist and Diehard. She explores each type, with examples ranging from Nazi Germany to Merck to the U.S. military's Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. She also explores the relationships between leaders and followers, who, Kellerman argues, should be thought of as inseparable. Followership is not about changing the rank of followers, Kellerman states, but instead about changing their response to their rank, their superiors and the situation at hand. Thorough and insightful, Kellerman provides a fascinating look at a little-explored topic, which will be of great interest to both leaders and followers. (Feb.)

Chairman of McCann Erickson New York, part of one of the largest advertising networks in the world, DiSesa delivers a one-on-one mentoring session on working with, competing against and managing both men and women. Confirming that her nature is to nurture, she is thoughtful and confessional as DiSesa looks back at how she learned to defy her own bad habits—including in-office meltdowns—and to substitute charm in their stead. DiSesa also readily shares insights gained from such nongender-based blunders as letting clients take a break in the middle of a presentation (the clients failed to return to the conference room). Though she refers to manipulating and seducing and learning to exhibit “male” behavior throughout, DiSesa's hard work, talent and insight into human nature appear to be the real drivers behind her success. That DiSesa has managed to package her experiences into accessible form creates a welcome opportunity for both women and men hoping to duplicate her success. (Feb.)

Schwartz (Spectacular Realities) makes a sociological analysis of the interplay between French iconography and the American film industry. Mostly, she looks at the influence of French culture, from the belle epoque till today, on American movies such as Gigi, An American in Paris and Moulin Rouge. She notes the huge influence of the Cannes Film Festival, which serves as the major locus of global distribution, effectively “de-centering” Hollywood as the sole power broker. Finally, she zeroes in on the career of Brigitte Bardot as a quintessential image of 1960s France, an actress who seized attention by trumpeting sexuality. Ironically, what you won't find is any real discussion of French filmmakers, such as Truffaut and Godard. The latter is dismissed as too intellectual and his appeal short-lived; hence, the directors' significant influence on contemporary American filmmakers is ignored. Instead, the USC professor cites Mike Todd's Around the World in Eighty Days as an example of the globalization of filmmaking, specifically highlighting location shooting as the imperative for big-budget movies. Schwartz is passionate about the subject, but her writing can be dense; its primary audience is academia. (Jan.)

Vick, a film programmer at the American Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian, offers a useful overview of movies produced in Asian nations, discussing history and themes. Beginning with chapters on familiar film cultures, such as mainland China, Japan and India, Vick broadens the lens to include emerging filmmakers in Korea and Taiwan. While honoring homegrown genres, such as Hong Kong's kung-fu spectaculars, Vick also champions art-house directors, such as Wong Kar-Wai, responsible for the evocative In the Mood for Love. An added bonus is an examination of films from Indonesia, Vietnam and the former Soviet Union's republics, as well as a deeper look at Japanese cinema, which was reinvigorated with the 1985 smash hit Tampopo. Vick's enthusiasm is infectious, and his descriptions make readers want to see the movies firsthand. He contends there is “no such thing as a 'foreign' movie,” since even an Iranian film can “appeal to our common humanity.” Vick provides an informative and lively primer on global cinema, paying tribute to its distinct artistry. (Jan.)

Once billed as “The Funniest Man on Earth,” black comedian Bert Williams (1874–1922), in the midst of a current revival (e.g., Louis Chude-Sokei's The Last “Darky” and Caryl Phillips's Dancing in the Dark), gets solidly covered by Forbes, a UC–San Diego professor of African-American literature and culture. She delivers an in-depth documentation of his life set against the shadowy backdrop of 19th and 20th-century racism. Working within the limitations of blackface stereotypes, Williams regaled audiences with his creative characterizations. Born in the Bahamas, he was schooled in California, joining medicine shows and minstrel troupes before teaming with George Walker for vaudeville and Victor recordings. Williams's woeful “Nobody” became his signature theme song, and in 1903, he brought the first black musical to Broadway. When Ziegfeld ignored protests and cast Williams in 1910, his integrated Ziegfeld Follies became a theatrical milestone. Williams “had shown that blacks who break through to 'The Great White Way' can triumph and stay.” Forbes's foray through the Billy Rose Theatre Collection and other archives fills 52 pages of bibliographic notes, and her vivid, detailed descriptions of Williams's comedy routines bring his dynamic stage presence to life on the page. (Jan. 29)

In his third book, Leitch, the founding editor of the sports blog Deadspin.com, offers a collection of passionate, original essays about the good (fantasy football; the saga of the once promising pitcher Rick Ankiel) and the bad (ESPN, which he compares to the Imperial Forces from Star Wars; sports reporters' misguided attempts to become patriotic after 9/11) of sports, and how fans can navigate through the mess to enjoy the games and themselves. “If we all realized that, hey, we don't need to listen to these idiots on television screaming at us... they'd be out of a job,” Leitch writes in the introduction. The book sometimes strays off course from its stated purpose—memories of Leitch's popular blog subjects (Barbaro, Ohio TV reporter Carl Monday) and a host of cheeky sports glossaries are unnecessary and only disrupt the book's fervor. However, Leitch (who has also written for Playboy and New York) nicely balances potent humor with sharp and sometimes vicious insight without lapsing into clichés. He manages to be an astute sports critic while maintaining his enthusiasm as a fan, making his book an entertaining and enlightening read for anyone who roots for the home team a little too hard. (Jan.)

In 1964, architect Vladimir Ossipoff declared a “War on Ugliness” aimed at making Honolulu a “more beautiful place to live and work.” Born in Russia in 1907, raised in Japan and educated in California, Ossipoff settled in Hawaii in 1931 and pursued a 67-year career that saw the islands transformed from a “colonial backwater” to an international tourist destination. His approach to modernism adapted regional styles to new ideas. In his hands the lanai, the traditional Hawaiian porch for outdoor living, became an organizing principle, and years before the advent of green architecture, Ossipoff emphasized his buildings' relationship to their sites and climate, using locally available materials whenever possible. His projects included residences, schools and chapels, as well as corporate headquarters, apartment towers and an airline terminal. Described by one writer as “a man no less challenging than his name,” Ossipoff emerges as both an accomplished technician and a sophisticated modernist whose wife often soothed his clients with the statement, “You will like it when you see it.” Five essayists place the work in its aesthetic, historical and social context. A portfolio of 21 projects and a chronology of Ossipoff's life round out the discussions. 243 b&w, 36 color illus. (Jan.)

Franceschi, a retired French army officer and special historical consultant to the International Napoleonic Society (INS), and Weider (The Murder of Napoleon), a businessman and founder of the INS, seek to recast Napoleon Bonaparte as a “peaceful creative genius”—even a “pacifist”—in this provocative apologia. The authors set out to debunk the “myth” that Napoleon's “inexhaustible ambition” was responsible for the eponymous wars that marked his rule in France. Rather, the authors argue, Napoleon was not only “the person least responsible” but also the victim of Revolutionary France's enemies. The authors' favorite villain is the “warmongering” British, but they also apportion blame among Prussia, Spain, Austria and Russia. Napoleon's only ambition was the “great work of reconstructing France,” and “the unchanging foundation” of his foreign policy was “the principle of preventing war.” They also excuse him for French battlefield losses and attribute the Waterloo defeat to “the most inopportune of thunderstorms.” Franceschi and Weider's one-sided, revisionist defense of Bonaparte as “a sensitive soul” with a “pacifist disposition” promises to be controversial. Illus. (Jan. 31)

Everyone knows Americans are growing fatter, but health economist Finkelstein crunches the economic figures behind the nation's obesity epidemic and the results aren't pretty. Along with health-care writer Zuckerman, researcher Finkelstein delves into how modern technology reduces the cost of producing higher-calorie processed goods, decreases our activity level and puts our health in danger. Finkelstein debunks myths about the long-range cost of food production and consumption and scrutinizes the impact of genetics and U.S. fiscal policy on the nation's waistline, frequently using economics metrics in his analysis. Generous with summaries of major points, Finkelstein simplifies current stats to explain how the country's thunderous weight gain is straining Medicare and Medicaid and hurting our military readiness. The only positive effect he sees from the obesity epidemic is the creation of the “ObesEconomy”—a market sustained by gyms, diet drugs and other products and services designed to curb weight gain. Horrified by studies that reveal that obese children have a quality of life similar to children with cancer, the investigatory economist even throws in some health tips on dropping pounds. Despite a frequent reliance on economic tools and indicators, this combination study/motivational guide makes for a pleasant educational read, comparable to a vegetable puree snuck into a dessert. (Jan.)

Siegel, a controversial former NewRepublic.com blogger and past Slate.com art critic, provides a fascinating look at how the Internet is reshaping the way we think about ourselves and the world. Siegel explores how the Internet affects culture and social life, particularly the psychological, emotional and social cost of high-tech solitude. Arguing that the Internet's widespread anonymity eliminates boundaries, Siegel discusses the half-fantasy, half-realism of online personas. Internet pornography, Siegel intones, collapses public and private, transforming others into the instrument of the viewer's will. By experiencing virtual selves rather than other individuals, a danger arises: people run the risk of being reduced to personas that other Internet users manipulate toward their own ends. Insightful and well written with convincing evidence to support Siegel's polemic, this book is a welcome addition to the debate on the personal ramifications of living in a wired world. (Jan.)

Pulliam Weston (Your Credit Score), columnist for MSN Money and author of the nationally syndicated column “Money Talk,” provides a practical, easy-to-understand guide to taking control of personal finances and establishing financial security. Like most financial advice books, this collection covers the basics, such as creating a financial toolkit, investing, planning for retirement and saving for college. While Pulliam Weston provides insights into these areas—especially for those without a financial background—she also charts new territory with her “60 Percent Solution” and “50/30/20 Plan,” both aimed at spending control, as well as getting the most out of your credit cards and what to do if you've overspent on a car purchase. An advocate of online banking, Pulliam Weston maps out the right way to pay bills and advocates account aggregation and consolidation. She also provides a useful resource guide for finding a financial planner, a tax professional and an estate planning attorney. Checklists are included in each chapter, as well as helpful charts and tables that aid in getting and staying organized. This book will be a valuable guide on the path to financial control and security. (Jan.)

Departing from the “get rich” mantra of many personal finance books, Yeager, once dubbed the “Ultimate Cheapskate” by NBC's Today Show, instead advises readers to shift their priorities and live well on less in this sensible guide to frugal living. Yeager himself retired from a career as a nonprofit executive at age 46 by saving on expenses large (he and his wife renovated their home themselves and exercise and eat well to cut down on medical costs) and small (he soft-boils his eggs in the dishwasher during the wash cycle). Embedded in the sometimes juvenile humor and aw-shucks prose are some original ideas for conserving cash, such as trying a “fiscal fast”—going a full week or more without spending any money. Most of all, he urges readers to free themselves from the “Money Step,” the endless dance of having to earn more in order to spend more. By emphasizing the virtues and satisfactions of living cheaply, Yeager convincingly makes the case that frugality can free more time and cash for life's true pleasures—a passion-filled career, hobbies and giving back to one's loved ones and community. (Jan.)

Much of love's established, contemporary iconography comes from photography—Brassaï's couple embracing in a Paris cafe (included here) or Alfred Eisenstadt's post-WWII Times Square embrace, but in this beautiful volume, love is conveyed in both predictable and surprising ways. Images by famous photographers—inside and outside of National Geographic's stable—capture the emotion from across the decades and around the globe. Here love's iconography is expanded to include a heart-shaped balloon floating over the city of Jaipur and three babies crawling in a row across colorful, plaid blankets. The emotion's darker side is touched upon, as well as love between parents and children—a child kisses its mother's nose in Milan—and siblings. In some of the book's most surprising images, lovers pull the viewer's attention into the background of a picture that otherwise calls one's attention to discord or isolation. An essay by ARTnews contributing editor Protzman adds context to and commentary on some of the images, but the pictures speak for themselves. Though the point may be that love is expressed the same way in every culture, time and place, it's the differences among this broad range of settings and eras that keep one interested. A strong choice for any coffee-table. 150 color and b&w plates. (Jan.)

A celebration of Middle Eastern ingredients by the coauthors of Saha: A Chef's Journey Through Lebanon and Syria—one a renowned Australian chef and the other a Melbourne-based food writer—this collection provides a comprehensive overview of traditional dishes of the cuisine. With more than 40 tantalizing color photos, recipes are divided by main ingredient, from the familiar (artichokes, chickpeas, lentils) to the lesser known (rose water, sumac, quinces). Each section offers a brief history of the ingredient and includes tips for selection, storage and use. Most dishes focus on a short list of simple ingredients that highlight rather than disguise flavors. Blue Cheese and Walnut Terrine, Battered Scallops with Cumin Salt, and Fresh Figs Poached in Ginger Syrup all follow this credo. Others are more complex, such as Green Lentil Soup with Saffron Scrambled Eggs and Cardamom-Honey-Glazed Roast Duck. All recipes—170 in total, some including meat—are easy to follow, appropriate for beginning or experienced cooks. Many ingredients are readily available, while some may require a visit to a specialty store. Originally published in Australia, this collection is available in North America for the first time and is sure to appeal to a wide audience. (Feb.)

The playful title of this Southern-French cookbook belies its studious attitude to cookery. Willis, a chef who has cooked for the White House and stars like Aretha Franklin and Jane Fonda, grew up in Georgia and Louisiana, absorbing her mother's and grandmother's repertoire of grits, casseroles and gumbos before developing her professional skills at French cooking academies. The result is a hybrid cuisine she calls “refined Southern,” which applies traditional French technique and lighter ingredients to produce new versions of Southern staples. Her collard greens are cooked up with smoked salt instead of hog jowl; her cornbread is dressed with panko. Sprinkled liberally throughout are the Southern ingredients that Willis was raised on: Vidalia onions, okra, Georgia pecans and peaches. Willis's approach is faithful, yet she's unafraid to reinvent culinary clichés when necessary—like making pimiento cheese from scratch. Some of her creations—like a “tipsy” salad, riffing on the frat boy combo of watermelon and vodka; Yukon Gold and Edamame Mash; and Coca-Cola Glazed Baby Back Ribs—elevate mundane flavors with sheer ingenuity. Magnificent color photos; detailed, helpful tips; and Willis's cheerful, trustworthy guidance make this an original and welcome newcomer to a classic cookbook library. (Feb.)

The introduction explains that “scientists have identified 40 foods that can help reduce, prevent, and even reverse heart disease.” Those 40 foods—among them chocolate, red wine, tropical fruits, almonds and avocados—are the focus of this health-conscious cookbook. All 175 recipes include one or more of them, and the first section details, food by food, in easily understandable (even occasionally funny) language, why they're good for you. The recipes are accessible and appealing, if not especially original. The superstar ingredients are marked with a heart symbol; key nutritional information accompanies each entry. The full spectrum of basic food genres is covered, from breakfast foods like Broccoli and Cheese Strata (featuring egg whites), Asparagus Frittata (using egg substitute) and Green Tea–Oatmeal Pancakes to desserts such as Orange Pistachio Cake and an antioxidant-rich but still decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake. In between are plenty of soups, salads (including an elegant Grape and Fennel Salad), vegetable side dishes, grains, beans, pasta and main courses such as Sesame Salmon with Spicy Cucumber Salad, Oven-Fried Fish and Chips, Revamped Chicken Potpie and Make-Over Veal Marsala. The variety and simplicity make this a reliable—and lighthearted—resource for anyone trying to fight or prevent heart trouble. (Feb.)

Parents today suffer from what Grolnick and Seal call “Pressured Parent Phenomenon,” constant anxiety over whether our children are as competitive as they could be. Both Grolnick, a professor of psychology at Clark University, and Seal, coauthor of Motivated Minds, are parents themselves, so they speak from both their own experiences and from research. Experiments have confirmed that competitive pressure actually dampens a child's motivation. But the authors say parents are biologically hardwired to pressure children because we know “that the more competent our children are, the more likely they will pass on our genes.” Plus, we have huge “ego-involvement” in our kids' progress. Parents need to convert their anxiety into “positive parenting” and encourage a child's “intrinsic motivation.” Parents should focus on developing children's autonomy, their confidence in their own abilities. This doesn't mean letting them do whatever they want; in fact, parents need to stay involved and connected with what the child is doing. Parents must also provide the structure a child needs to exercise competence, and Grolnick and Seal provide plenty of tips on better ways to handle those inevitable times when competitive anxiety threatens a parent's better judgment. (Jan.)

Bruner looks back on her younger life driving a VW Bug, wearing stylish clothes and teaching elementary school with fondness. Like many women, she gladly reprioritized her life to become what she called the ultimate stay-at-home soccer mom. She tells anecdotes about the mishaps as well as the victories of raising three sons and a daughter, offering advice to parents who may be dealing with similar situations. Though occasionally cute, it generally lacks the humor that might have made the book interesting. For example, a story about leaving her 10-year-old to babysit a bathing toddler (resulting in a naked, wet toddler knocking on the neighbor's door looking for her mommy) could have been presented in a comical light, but Bruner goes for the “lesson I learned” tract. The author is not a psychologist or sociologist, just a mother who finds strength and solace in her religion. She believes in passing on her Christian values through playing with her children, spending quality family time and making real-life comparisons to stories in the Bible whenever the opportunity presents itself. (Jan.)

“I want to be the doctor going to the doctor with you,” Dr. Goldberg tells readers as she opens this user-friendly handbook to women's health. Goldberg, who runs NYU's Women's Heart Program and other cardiac projects, knows women's bodies aren't just small versions of men's. Women have different medical needs and different ways of relating to treatment, so they may not be getting the care they need. First, though, women have to get in the habit of telling their doctors everything—what symptoms they have, what medicines and supplements they're using—without deciding in advance what their doctors need to know. Goldberg explores the range of medical problems that might bring a middle-aged woman to the doctor's office, from hormonal imbalances to heart disease. She explains what the doctor may ask you and why, as well as the benefits and risks of various treatments. She wisely includes discussions of procedures like chemical peels, Botox and breast implants, since women often imagine they don't need to advise their regular doctors about such “cosmetic” interventions. Happily, the closing section on healthy lifestyles, mostly diet and exercise advice, is geared to realistic expectations. By offering solid, up-to-date medical information in a comforting, woman-to-woman tone of voice, Goldberg's got just what the patient ordered. (Jan.)

Broadening his approach to diet and health beyond the four blood types, naturopathic physician D'Adamo (Eat Right 4 Your Type) profiles six GenoTypes and explains how readers can reprogram gene responses to lose and maintain weight, repair cells, avoid illness and age well. D'Adamo draws on epigenetics, the study of the interaction between genes and environment, to argue that tailoring diet and lifestyle to “GenoTypes” (genetic survival strategies that predate ethnicity and race and correspond to such external traits as body type, jaw shape and teeth patterns) is the most effective means to achieve optimum health. While conditions in the prenatal environment—our own and our ancestors—have profound effects on our genes, D'Adamo contends, readers can take control of their inheritance by turning on positive genes and silencing negative ones through methylation, histone acetylation and other biological processes. He provides methods for readers to determine their types; these include body measurements, fingerprints, and personal and family history. D'Adamo's dietary recommendations are flexible and consist of lists of foods that enhance each GenoType and foods to limit or avoid, but readers can find meal plans and recipes on the author's Web site. D'Adamo's engaging writing style, enthusiasm for his subject and personalized advice will appeal to those who enjoy taking a hands-on approach to their health and exploring new theories. (Jan.)

When television host Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, he started researching the links between food and exercise and health, to discover how he could feel less pain and have more positive energy. He firmly believes that everyone, whether they're suffering a chronic disease or not, should quit eating junk food and start eating more fruits and vegetables and exercising daily. So he's organized a week-by-week program for readers, featuring food and activity diaries to record everything that's eaten, the exercise done each day and a list of specific plans for how to live well. While his basic advice is not surprising, his chef's recipes are curious. Many include an alarming amount of salt, while others painstakingly avoid meat or dairy, like the pasta-free, cheese-free Green Squash Lasagna, even though Williams himself says he's a “flexitarian” who occasionally enjoys a “good juicy cheeseburger.” In addition to an illustrated guide to exercising, Williams has packed the book with statements from experts reiterating the health benefits of improved diet and exercise. Williams is a charismatic cheerleader—and his book will likely inspire fans—but even that may not be enough to sell “Green Drinks” or “salmon right out of the can” for breakfast. (Jan.)

The road to priesthood in the Society of Jesus is arduous. Jesuits, like most other Catholic religious orders, demand a lifetime of poverty, chastity and obedience. They also require years of postgraduate study and hard work before ordination. At age 27, Krivak joined the order, already equipped with two degrees as well as experience writing poetry and working in a boatyard. Over the next eight years he studied philosophy and theology, visited hospitalized AIDS patients, taught writing to college students, worked in the Dominican Republic, Russia and Slovakia—and fell in love. The search for love is an important theme running through this artfully written memoir: the love of God, the strong but imperfect love of Krivak's father and eventually the deep, reciprocated love of a woman. Life, he tells a friend, is “a long retreat”—an awareness that God is everywhere present and can be trusted. Now married and the father of a son, Krivak shows no bitterness as he explores his painful decision to leave the Society of Jesus. “I walked a long but worthy road that led to a place where I didn't belong,” he told his spiritual director. “I don't feel any resentment. I feel gratitude.” (Mar.)

In this sometimes provocative, often pedantic memoir of his own attempts to answer the great theological question about the persistence of evil in the world, Ehrman, a UNC–Chapel Hill religion professor, refuses to accept the standard theological answers. Through close readings of every section of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, he discovers that the Bible offers numerous answers that are often contradictory. The prophets think God sends pain and suffering as a punishment for sin and also that human beings who oppress others create such misery; the writers who tell the Jesus story and the Joseph stories think God works through suffering to achieve redemptive purposes; the writers of Job view pain as God's test; and the writers of Job and Ecclesiastes conclude that we simply cannot know why we suffer. In the end, frustrated that the Bible offers such a range of opposing answers, Ehrman gives up on his Christian faith and fashions a peculiarly utilitarian solution to suffering and evil in the world: first, make this life as pleasing to ourselves as we can and then make it pleasing to others. Although Ehrman's readings of the biblical texts are instructive, he fails to convince readers that these are indeed God's problems, and he fails to advance the conversation any further than it's already come. (Mar.)

Clark (Every Thought Captive) offers what first appears to be a book on discerning the will of God, addressing the tricky question, “What does God want me to do with my life?” But what Clark actually provides is a much broader look at a discerning life, or living wisely. She encourages young Christian women to experience their emotions fully without basing decisions on them, to appreciate their bodies as a beautiful place where God resides, to get rid of sarcasm and fill their words with love, and to explore their desires and gifts as they look for their life calling. Each chapter includes questions for group discussion and thoughts for personal meditation. Occasionally chapters take an unexpected approach—like one about finding your place in the church, which addresses postmodern angst over Christian culture—but there's little new. Clark relies so much on quotes from others that chapters often feel like little more than a collection of what other leading Christians are saying (she leans heavily on Dallas Willard and Evelyn Underhill). However, her fan base will likely appreciate this comprehensive perspective on creating a meaningful life. (Mar.)

Founding pastor of Atlanta's Church of the Apostles and a syndicated radio host, Youssef (Discover the Power of One) offers fellow evangelicals a subtle word distinction on the power of positive living rather than positive thinking. Youssef explains that it is not enough to simply think positive thoughts; Christians must allow God's power to flow through them and into others by living positively. For Youssef, the positive thinking model is inferior because it requires constant self-motivation, self-elevation and self-affirmation to maintain a positive attitude. Over time, this emphasis on the self is discouraging and exhausting. Instead, Christians should focus on God and allow his love to flow through them. Through engaging personal narratives and stories, Youssef uses the book of 2 Corinthians as the biblical foundation for detailing 15 secrets of positive living, including overcoming timidity, extending and receiving forgiveness, leading by example, receiving blessings through self-sacrificial giving and combating pride and jealousy. Youssef's premise will pique readers' interest, but it is his sincerity and servant-minded spirit that will keep them thoughtfully engaged. (Mar.)

In her previous memoir, Parched, King wrote about two decades of “squandering my talents, sleeping around, smoking cigarettes, and swilling Sea Breezes at 8 a.m. in Sullivan's Tap,” saving her conversion to Catholicism for the epilogue. Here she looks at what she considers the more interesting part of her story (“nothing is more boring than degradation”)—her everyday life without alcohol, with God and yet still full of struggle and pain. “Sometimes I think anyone as drawn as I am to suffering would have had to become a Catholic,” she writes. The book starts off as straight memoir: sobriety, frustration, attraction, conversion. In the fifth chapter, however, she shifts to topical essays with a pronounced theological bent. King, familiar to many from her commentaries on NPR's All Things Considered, maintains her signature self-deprecatory humor throughout, at the same time offering readers plenty to chew on as she reflects on her father's death, her bout with breast cancer, the end of her marriage, the importance of humility and the inevitability of loneliness. Though suffering is a constant theme, King's faith sees beyond the pain: “heaven is not some other world, but shot all through the broken world where we already live.” (Feb. 18)

Very few religious believers are called upon to give their lives for their faith, but those individuals are often remarkably inspiring. Contemporary martyr Sister Dorothy Stang (1940–2005) was no exception. She lived a rich and full life and laid down that life for her friends. Her story is captured beautifully by British journalist Le Breton, author of Voices of the Amazon. Eighteen years after entering a convent for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Dorothy was granted her desire to serve the poor as a missionary in Brazil. Her somewhat naïve imagination about missionary life was quickly transformed by the harsh realities of the dire poverty she witnessed. During the almost 40 years she served in Brazil, Sr. Dorothy fell in love with the people and the country, and courageously aided in the struggle of poor farmers for land rights against logging and development companies. The story is heartbreaking and Le Breton's prose is gripping throughout, as she weaves in several personal narratives from Dorothy's family and close friends. These lend a gentle warmth to an account that is at times harrowing and cruel. This story deserves to be read. (Feb 5)

Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, offers the most balanced and thoughtful example of the recent spate of books on evangelicals in politics. Rather than telling evangelicals how to vote, he teaches them how to think, using biblical and historical examples as well as contemporary findings to persuade his readers. When evangelicals entered political life in great numbers in the 1970s and '80s, he says, they did so without careful judgment; their approach was “Ready. Fire. Aim.” This book can be seen as a kind of remedial course, exploring when and why political action is important for Christians. It offers a methodology of ethical discernment rather than a laundry list of hot-button issues, though Sider does tackle tough questions such as abortion, same-sex marriage, environmentalism and what constitutes a “just” war. While he supports democracy and a free market economy as the two best devices for promoting fundamental human rights for the greatest numbers of people, he argues that Christians need to concern themselves more with “the least of these”—the poor and disabled who often get trampled when materialism is unchecked. Powerful, well-researched and timely, Sider's book has the potential to shape a new generation of evangelical activists. (Feb.)

Alsdorf, founder of Design4Living Conferences, passionately counsels, speaks to and writes for evangelical women. Here, she calls them to live beyond what she terms “Christianity Lite” or “the Stepford Woman reality” in order to experience God's deeper truth where “theology matches reality.” Alsdorf tells readers of her status as a pastor's wife, then an unwilling divorced mother of two, and how she lost herself amid the shock and pain. Even after remarrying, when Alsdorf should have been happy, depression clung to her tenaciously. When a poor physical reaction meant she was not a good candidate for prescription medication for her depression, she learned to access God's powerful promises by hourly studying Psalm 139. As its truth permeated her heart and mind, she found freedom from fear and self-rejection and learned to redefine her life by mindfully internalizing her position as God's child, her passion to share Jesus' love and her purpose for serving him. Alsdorf's candor is refreshing, as is her confidence in meditating upon biblical principles and promises for lasting inner change. She skillfully takes readers by the hand and journeys with them from valleys of crippling pain and disappointment to revolutionary transformation for women of faith. (Feb.)

Award-winning author and speaker Tickle (Rediscovering the Sacred; The Divine Hours), who is PW's former contributing editor in religion, chooses to take the “red letter” Bible one step further in this excellent study tool. The first section of this slim volume is a reflective essay on what Tickle learned from extracting the words of Jesus out of their narrative context in the Gospels. She writes of Jesus gradually becoming “the heard” rather than “the seen,” stripped of the sentimental images she had grown up with. She argues that the sayings, taken on their own merit, offer a third way between biblical literalists and literary critics: “Jesus was an actualist, not a literalist or a metaphorist... [the words] don't mean; they are.” As such, they must be absorbed with both heart and mind together. Tickle divides the sayings into five categories: public teaching, private instruction, healing dialogue, intimate conversation and postresurrection encounters. Each saying stands alone but has been given a brief descriptive title. Tickle used an amalgam of biblical translations and chronologies to produce a version that is accessible and vibrant. These sayings of Jesus will be a valuable tool to Christians looking for new ways to study and assimilate his core teachings and character. (Feb.)

Schakel (The Way into Narnia), an English professor at Hope College, bases this book on C.S. Lewis's idea that our conception of God should grow as we grow. As Aslan tells Lucy in the Narnia series' Prince Caspian, “Every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” Each chapter addresses a practical or theological aspect of the Christian life (like prayer, grace, church and the problem of pain), summarizing Lewis's writing on the topic and tracing how his thinking changed as he matured in his faith. Chapters begin with a Bible passage and are filled with quotes from Lewis's books and letters, the musings of his Inkling friends, and other writers he admired, like George MacDonald. Each chapter also refers to how the idea is expressed in Lewis's popular Narnia series. It's a testimony to Schakel's deep familiarity with Lewis that all of this is seamless and easy to read in spite of the vast source material. Readers may find that the book does not entirely live up to the title's premise, but it's a valuable summary of Lewis's thoughts on Christian living, which will be especially useful for small groups. Readers new to Lewis will find the book approachable, and longtime fans will find something new or be reminded of passages they love. (Feb.)

Rosaries, rituals, crucifixes and canonized saints: Sweeney, an Episcopalian, enthusiastically embraces these trappings of the Catholic faith, even as many Protestants find them unbiblical and some Catholics have abandoned them. In his latest book, Sweeney talks about his chosen state of being “almost Catholic,” explaining how Catholicism's practices and outlook help connect him to the divine and expand his worldview. Raised as an evangelical Protestant, Sweeney tells how he grew up believing “Catholics were going to hell unless they found our brand of true salvation.” Later, as a church planter in the Philippines, his thinking started to shift when he stepped inside a Catholic church for the first time. Overwhelmed by the sensory experience, he came to love Catholicism as an approach to faith that “lands in the heart and the body as well as in the head.” He has stopped short of converting, however, saying that those who remain outside the institution can still access Catholic life. Although Sweeney's love of Catholic practice makes for interesting reading, he saves his best for describing the differences between Catholic and Protestant thought, providing a depth that goes beyond fascination with externals. (Feb.)

Few of the recent books on atheism have been worth reading just for wit and style, but this is one of them: Paulos is truly funny. De-spite the title, the Temple University math professor doesn't actually discuss mathematics much, which will be a relief to any numerically challenged readers who felt intimidated by his previous book Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences. In this short primer (“just the gist with an occasional jest”), Paulos tackles 12 of the most common arguments for God, including the argument from design, the idea that a “moral universality” points to a creator God, the notion of first causes and the argument from coincidence, among others. Along the way, he intersperses irreverent and entertaining little chapterlets that contain his musings on various subjects, including a rather hilarious imagined IM exchange with God that slyly parodies Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God. “Why does solemnity tend to infect almost all discussions of religion?” Paulos asks, clearly bemoaning the dearth of humor. This little book goes a long way toward correcting the problem, and provides both atheists and religious apologists some digestible food for thought along the way. (Jan. 3)

Georgetown University professor Berlinerblau (The Secular Bible) makes the unoriginal argument that American politicians on the left and right use Scripture in their speeches, and that policy wonks on both sides of the aisle draw on the Bible to defend positions on the environment, stem-cell research and foreign policy. Berlinerblau finds politicians' use of Scripture to be shallow—they offer “poor and tendentious readings,” throwing in a verse here or there and failing to acknowledge Scripture's internal diversity and contradictions. A few of Berlinerblau's sweeping historical assertions are questionable—did the U.S. really undergo a “thoroughgoing” secularization in the first 75 years of the 20th century? A wealth of scholarship on the persistence of conservative religion and the extent to which religion shaped liberal agendas such as feminism would suggest not. His tone has the faint veneer of sarcasm (“Enter, as if on cue, the Evangelical Climate Initiative”), so when he gives speechwriters tips about using Scripture effectively—be vague, avoid “theological depth”—it is hard to tell if he is being sincere or snide. Two concluding chapters assess the ways leading presidential candidates, from Clinton to McCain, present their religious bona fides. (Jan.)