Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 3/24/2008

Shevelow (Women and Print Culture) documents the history of animal cruelty and the slow, controversial and much maligned rise of the animal protection movement in 17th- and 18th-century England. This thoroughly researched and impressively detailed account limns the atrocities committed by humans against “dumb brutes,” the popularity of English “blood sports”—bullbaiting and dog-fighting—the ubiquity of bear gardens and cockpits and animals dying from overwork, beatings and neglect. Shevelow charts England's slowly evolving beliefs about animals and paints vivid portraits of the crusaders, misfits and radicals who rallied for animal protection—Margaret Cavendish, William Hogarth and Richard “Humanity Dick” Martin—and traces the foundation of the SPCA and the passage of Martin's Act, the world's first animal-protection law. This is a fascinating, often disturbing and frequently funny book, a must read for anyone concerned with the treatment of animals and a call to action for the next generation of animal rights activists. (July)

Ellis (The Book of Sharks) covers everything one could want to know about the “biggest, fastest, warmest-blooded, warmest-bodied fish in the world,” describing the various species of tuna and giving a thorough account of the history of recreational and commercial tuna fishing. The bluefin tuna—on the brink of extinction—receives the most attention, and Ellis contends that the Japanese fondness for tuna sashimi—and Japanese willingness to violate fishing restrictions—is largely to blame. Tuna farms, where bluefin are fattened, were once thought to be the answer, but Ellis argues that they are contributing to the problem as young tuna do not have time to breed and replenish the stock in the ocean; the fish fed to the bluefin are themselves being overfished; and waste from the pens causes pollution. Ellis presents an overload of information—too many facts and figures on weights, measurements and numbers of fish caught and sold—however, his impassioned message comes through clearly: someone must figure out how to breed the bluefin in captivity, because as things stand now, it will not survive in the ocean. Photos not seen by PW. (July)

In this scholarly examination of Iroquois diplomacy through the 17th and 18th centuries, historian Shannon rejects the depiction of the Iroquois as “noble savages” and “fierce warriors” during the colonization of North America. Instead, he posits, “They were flesh and blood participants in a scramble for dominion in North America, and diplomacy was their tool of choice.” By maintaining official neutrality during the colonial wars, the Iroquois became key interlocutors in the New World—their diplomatic language and rituals became the lingua franca of New World multicultural deal making. Shannon credits the Iroquois strategy of diplomacy and “occasional subterfuge” with securing their survival as a political entity, pointing out, “Other Indians might have fought bravely against the European invaders, but only the Iroquois created a confederacy that was capable of withstanding the juggernaut of colonialization for so long.” Shannon meticulously chronicles Iroquois political maneuvering, and although many readers will find the highly technical account tedious, true aficionados of Native American history will relish this serious and sympathetic account of the Iroquois' skilled, if ultimately doomed, diplomacy. (July)

This evocative, detailed account of the compulsive search for a sensitive, highly responsive concert piano by Canadian musical wunderkind Glenn Gould combines the parallel histories of one of the most controversial and brilliant pianists of the last century and the incredible keyboard instrument on which he played for some of his most important recordings. Hafner, a New York Times correspondent, presents a fascinating biography of Gould, who was known for his quirks, including his wearing of winter gear on summer days, his donning of fingerless gloves while playing, his manic fear of germs and hand shaking. The book will greatly appeal to those intrigued by the history of the influential German-bred Steinway piano company, but it is the close interaction of Gould and Charles Verne Edquist, the nearly blind piano tuner, with a Steinway CD 318 concert piano, that lift the book above the usual biography. This book will aid the reader to fully appreciate Gould's creative work in interpreting the early sonatas of Mozart and his majestic rendition of the Goldberg Variations. (June)

In this sensitive if mildly overwritten memoir of long-held secrets, betrayal and denial, Maalouf, who won the 1993 Prix Goncourt for Rock of Tanios, traces his familial history from a tiny mountainside village in Lebanon to Cuba and back. Presented, upon the death of his father, with a “trunkful of documents,” Maalouf sifts through the detritus of letters, journals and diary entries in search of information on his great uncle Gebrayel, whose life is swathed in family legends. “At eighteen, he simply boarded a ship leaving for America,” Maalouf writes of Gebrayel, but after a three-year sojourn in New York City, he emigrated to Cuba. Maalouf pieces together Gebrayel's Cuban life, quoting extensively from his letters. The author also exerts much literary effort conjuring up the internal machinations of a family torn asunder by societal changes, the internecine clash of local religious beliefs and growing family enmity toward their wayward uncle. In the end, Maalouf travels to Cuba and, with the help of a plucky distant relative, finds the location of Gebrayel's house. For all his personal struggles, Maalouf never really manages to lift this book from mere family recollection to any larger cultural insight. (June)

This slender guide to home buying for single women offers a plethora of emotional support and anecdotal entertainment, but only a smattering of practical advice. Musselman (The Hip Girl's Handbook for the Working World) extols the benefits of independently pursuing happiness and security and refusing to wait for or depend on a partner. A solo home buyer herself, the author champions home ownership as the ultimate safety net capable of providing women with security and confidence. She arms her readers with the tools they'll need to navigate treacherous real estate waters: the fundamentals of credit approval, mortgages, house hunting, negotiations, contracts—and she even addresses buyer's remorse, renovations and refinancing. The text is peppered with helpful sidebars and long success stories, forming a comfortable, chatty narrative that makes the process of buying a home seem manageable. However, the information Musselman provides is simplistic and acts more as reassurance to those struggling with the emotional roller coaster that is home buying, rather than as a real aid to the planning and logistics of the purchase. First-time homeowners seeking solid information would be better off looking elsewhere. (June)

This sometimes sexy, sometimes dry, but often lush collection of stories by Caribbean gay and lesbian writers is a mixed bag. Certain selections, such as Wesley E.A. Crichlow's “History, (Re)Memory, Testimony, and Biomythography” and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes's heavily footnoted “Postdata: metatextual wings of a dove” will likely put off all but academics. More accessible are Michelle Cliff's “Ecce Homo,” a tale of star-crossed male lovers in Rome during WWII, which has the romantic distance of a sepia photograph, and José Alcántara Almánzar's portrayal of a transvestite in “Lulú or the Metamorphosis.” Many of the writings from the 1990s tackle oppression and are tragic in tone. Shani Mootoo's sassy patois story, “Out on Main Street,” about how she and her girlfriend negotiate their sexuality in a sweet shop, is refreshingly upbeat, and Audre Lorde's two stories, one about rebuilding in St. Croix after hurricane Hugo, the other a meditation on home and her mother's nostalgia for Grenada—neither of which addresses sexuality—widen the book's somewhat claustrophobic focus. (June)

From its harrowing account of the events of September 11, 2001, to its elegant rendering of Tony Blair's final day at 10 Downing Street, this vibrant, richly detailed look at Blair's second and third terms as British prime minister makes for a riveting, if lengthy, read. Seldon has done a staggering amount of research in reconstructing Blair's tumultuous final years in office and surveying the significant domestic and foreign issues that dominated Blair's later years in office: the Iraq War, the London terrorist attacks, education reform, the Northern Ireland peace process and Blair's effort to push for the adoption of the euro, an issue about which he felt so strongly he may have been willing to sacrifice his political future to achieve his desired ends. The intricate, expansive text returns frequently to the increasingly fraught relationship between Blair and his successor, Gordon Brown, which was loaded with growing political and personal animosity. Aside from Brown, however, personal relationships and scandals play a secondary role in this page-turning political biography, an essential text for anyone interested in contemporary British politics. (June)

Traversing broiling deserts, snowy mountain passes and dank rain forests on its crooked way from Mexico to Canada, the Pacific Coast Trail is an epic challenge for die-hard backpackers. White and his girlfriend, Melissa, set out, late in the season and bereft of experience, to tread all 2,650 miles of it, leaving behind lousy reporting jobs and hoping to find self-definition and a deepened relationship. (They call their trek the Lois and Clark Expedition.) Hilarious greenhorn misadventures ensue—including the author's ill-advised chomp, while dizzy with dehydration, into a reputedly moisture-laden prickly-pear cactus—that tested their survival skills and commitment as a couple. The trail becomes less an itinerary than a world unto itself, full of squalor, discomfort and majestic scenery, and peopled by charismatic misfits and an austere cult of ultra-light speed-hikers, as the couple rely on arcane camping gear and bizarre gummy-bear-and-marshmallow diets. The wilderness authenticity the author seeks proves elusive; all journey and no destination, the story itself eventually trails off with the hero even more callow and confused than when he started. Still, White's vivid prose and hangdog humor make readers want to keep up. (June)

In his autobiographical Class: The Wreckage of an American Family, Douglas shed light on the dysfunctions of class in America. Returning again to his own story in this book, Douglas explores the experiences of his high school cohort at St. Paul's School, class of 1962. Forty years back, when Douglas attended this preppy boarding school, it was not only all male, but “a hard place... meant to harden and deprive.” The snobbish, Brooks Brothers–clad “Regs” (for regular guys) routinely humiliated the boys who didn't fit in; teachers freely abused students as well. For many, coming from generations of successful alums, St. Paul's was an “expectations mill,” the pressure to succeed relentless. The last classmate Douglas visited, former presidential candidate John Kerry, was one of the few unscarred by St. Paul's, although he's also the one interviewee Douglas couldn't connect with: their interview boiled down to “a senator not known for his looseness being solicited by an old classmate he only vaguely remembered who wanted to talk about old times... a bad script.” (June)

In her first memoir, British novelist and poet Greenlaw (Mary George of Allnorthover) tells of coming to know the world and her place in it through her love of music. The story begins as she first awakens to her inchoate senses, a tiny child waltzing with her father, lulled by her mother's singing and clamoring amid the boisterous play of her three siblings and the entire family's constant chatter. She discovers that outside her home, the world is a series of social rings she must struggle to break into, from joining Ring-a-ring o' Roses games to finding a sense of belonging as a plainly English girl in a culturally diverse school. Growing up in the late 1960s and '70s, she's captivated by her transistor radio and the shifts in pop culture that it heralds, from hippie music to glam rock to disco. As she matures, she swears her allegiance to the latter, moving en masse with primping and dancing girlfriends. She then turns to punk, which “neutralized and released” her from the weight of femininity, and then to new wave, which suited her “seriousness and pretensions.” Her punk sensibilities confuse her sense of how to love and be loved, “how to have feelings without ironizing them too.” Greenlaw's coming-of-age story is smartly and tenderly told, likely to snag readers like an infectiously catchy tune. (May)

What unites Mandela, Mother Teresa, Mozart and Keats? According to philosopher Tuan (The Good Life), it's not genius or even fame—it's that they were all preternaturally good people. Refuting the notion that “ 'good' is monotonously alike, whereas 'bad' or evil is endlessly colorful and various,” this remarkable book delights in the varieties and contradictions in goodness. Tuan examines what motivates kindness with an assortment of brief biographies, vignettes and examples from literature. Heroes of goodness are surprisingly often scientists and intellectuals—Schweitzer or Socrates—as fulfilling one's intellectual and physical potential is an essential component of Tuan's understanding of good behavior. As the age-old question goes: are humans naturally good or evil? Tuan finds them to be naturally empty, with the best choosing to fill that emptiness with what is most generous, grateful, vital and sensuous. In evaluating goodness, Tuan asks a simple question: “In his or her presence, does one feel oneself a better and more intelligent human being?” One might argue that readers will feel better and more intelligent for having read about these lives well-lived. (May)

As a former city-dweller and self-described “lesbian, Elvis-loving shepherd,” Friend has a unique and intimate perspective on the morals, economics and practicalities of raising and eating meat humanely. With low-key, Midwestern humor, she takes readers on a tour of an abattoir, writes a love letter to her lambs heading for slaughter and relates how chivalry has been bred out of roosters. She delineates the differences between certified organic, certified humane, cage free, free range, and omega 3 eggs; the often-confusing nuances of organic, sustainable and conventional farming; and why, in her opinion, small farms are preferable to big ones. She encourages readers to get to know their local farms and provides questions to ask farmers and butchers about their produce. Readers interested in the subject will likely be familiar with Friend's overall treatment, but fostering a long-term commitment to the cause, she believes, is “an act of respect that will affect the lives of the millions of animals raised in this country every year,” and her suggestions are so reasonable that even the most rampant, mainstream meat-eater might consider trying them. (May)

“Meat is the new black,” declares Toronto-based journalist Bourette at the onset. She became a vegetarian after having once worked four days at a meatpacking plant for less than $10 an hour before disclosing herself as a reporter. Vegetarianism lasted less than six weeks before she resolved to find meat she felt good about eating. Her quest comprises the narrative's bulk and takes her from an old-fashioned Greenwich Village meat-shop butchering tutorial to the Inupiat whale blubber harvest. In Alaska, Bourette fathoms the relationship between meat and its provenance, and teases that out in subsequent chapters describing such topics as the workings of a Texas cattle ranch and moose-hunting season in Newfoundland. Throughout, she covers the broader subject of meat, including the history of American beef and its subcultures and controversies such as the impact of agribusiness and climate change on ranchers. The narrative moves swiftly and broadly at the gain of historical and cultural perspective but at the expense of well-thought-out conclusions and scene development so that the actual experience of eating meat often gets the shortest shrift. (May)

Lewis's first book, Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It as a Girl for Hire, focused on her career in the sex industry; her latest offering includes some sex stories but marries them to a new theme: eating for pleasure. As Lewis points out, we're so obsessed with needing to lose weight that we eat pseudo-food, which offers little satisfaction. Lewis suggests, instead, frying up some chicken or corncakes for your dinner date, and then taking him or her to bed for some great sex. Lewis can't stop herself from speculating on whether his body fluids or her “cooch” will taste garlicky, which is in keeping with her penchant for considering a lover's body as a sort of naked lunch. Her explicit rejection of condom use may outrage or upset some readers, but—in the same way that she celebrates bacon, sausage, whale meat and other politically incorrect food—Lewis is not interested in pleasing everyone. While her food discourses—particularly the how-to chapters—are often inspired, and her politics delightfully pleasure-positive, the many raunchy sex passages, though written with a joyful sensuality and a dash of humor, are not for everyone. (May)

In this entertaining oenological salvo, wine blogger and journalist Feiring makes an argument for wine authenticity through adherence to old techniques. She's against what she calls “Big Wine”—viticulture as business and technology—and blames the shrinking appreciation for hand-vinified, long-aged “Old World” wines (like the Barolo that eventually led to her career) on, among other things, the UC–Davis School of Enology and Viticulture and the wine writings of critic Robert M. Parker Jr. (of the book's title). But what sets her sprightly polemic apart is that her argument is pinned to a personal narrative of wine tours through Europe and California. Rounding out the Syrah-and-the-City parallels are several female characters who receive noms de vin like “Honey-Sugar” and the air-kissing “Skinny,” and most entertainingly of all, the author's Carrie-like relationships. Parker looms like Mr. Big over all Feiring's oenological relationships; they finally have a couple of phone dates that distill the differences between them down to quantifying (Parker) versus qualifying (Feiring). The author, who already has fans through her blog and other journalism, can count on new ones with this publication. (May)

In her fourth Italian memoir (after The Lady in the Palazzo), American writer de Blasi utilizes her personal narrative as merely bookends for a larger story. In 1995, De Blasi and her Italian husband sought a place to stay in the Sicilian mountains and were directed to the Villa Donnafugata, a grand hunting lodge populated by widows, farmers and an imperious mistress: Tosca Brozzi. When she was nine, Tosca was traded, in exchange for a horse, to a feudal prince, who took her to live with his wife and their two daughters. On her 18th birthday, she became the puttanina (mistress) of the prince, Leo (then exactly twice her age), and they lived together in an accepted “arrangement.” After WWII, Leo set about modernizing his estates, asking Tosca, a bookworm, to educate their children. The modernization brought down the wrath of the Sicilian mafia, and one day Leo simply disappeared, leaving Tosca an heiress. Eventually she modified Leo's reformist plans, developing the extraordinary community that the author and her husband stumble upon. This book reads like a suspense novel complete with a surprise ending, and though Tosca's story is compelling, it's in De Blasi's telling of it that the true magic lies. (May)

Coppola (Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now) has gathered together excerpts from 20 years of her personal journals and in the process she captures the experiences of being a wife, mother and artist trying to find her own self-expression in the midst of a talented family. While there's an emotional price to pay in supporting her family's careers, Coppola has expressed herself in painting, conceptual art pieces and her documentary, Hearts of Darkness, which chronicled the creation of Apocalypse Now. As the author confesses: “I'm an observer at heart.” As befits its source material, this book has a fragmented style; Coppola uses objects to spark memory, such as a pair of patent leather shoes found in 2002, which prompts her to recall a 1998 brunch when her husband advised their daughter about filmmaking. Some of the entries seem aimless and the jumps in time are occasionally forced, but Coppola's most touching memories, following the sudden death of her son Gio, are expressed with honesty and dignity. While this is certainly not a book for film buffs, it does supply an intriguing view of one of the central figures in the Coppola filmmaking dynasty. (May)

Commonly characterized as a juggernaut monomaniacally focused on breakneck economic growth, China is actually riven by a lively, far-reaching debate over its future, argues this inquisitive study. Leonard (Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century) divides Chinese intellectuals into a New Right that wants to extend laissez-faire market reforms and an increasingly influential New Left that decries rising inequality, corruption and environmental destruction and wants a strong government to rein in capitalist elites and protect workers. Meanwhile, political reformers push cautiously for local and Communist Party elections against a consensus that associates democracy with chaotic mob rule or national dismemberment. China's foreign policy is split between liberal internationalists and truculent “neo-comms” who contend that China must be ready to use force against its enemies. The author notes that these ideological divisions resemble those in Western countries, but emphasizes the distinctiveness of Chinese ideas, like the concept of the “deliberative dictatorship” of a one-party state that stays responsive to popular pressures, or a “Walled World” where globalization enhances rather than erodes the autonomy of national governments. Leonard's is a lucid, eye-opening account of China's intellectual scene and its growing importance to the world. (May)

When a hospital employee whose hospital-supplied insurance doesn't cover her hospital-incurred bill finds her wages garnished, where's a political satirist to go for material? Feisty, fearlessly progressive Ehrenreich offers laughter on the way to tears in 62 previously published essays that show “the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.” She investigates pockets of poverty among undocumented workers, military families and recent college graduates. Ehrenreich's reach is capacious, encompassing not only unemployment, health insurance and inflation, but corporate spying, cancer studies, marriage education, the “abstinence training business” and “Disney's Princess products.” Her passion, compassion and wit keep these excursions lively and timely—even when yesterday's headlines provide the immediate provocation, e.g., JetBlue's “snow snafu.” The vignettes go down a bit like eating peanuts—too many at one time palls, but they're not unhealthy, unless you have an allergic reaction to Ehrenreich's message: “America is being polarized between the superrich few and the subrich everyone else.” Entertaining Ehrenreich certainly is, but she raises a hard, serious question: “How many 'wake-up calls' do we need, people...?” (May)

Astonishing in its power to move and inform, this fluent first-person narrative, a collaboration between a young Kenyan political refugee, Kenney, and his stalwart American attorney, Schrag, depicts the flaws and corruption at the heart of the U.S. asylum process. Kenney fled Kenya in 1995 after being arrested and nearly executed for leading a peaceful protest against the government's treatment of his fellow tea farmers; he survived torture and escaped to America where he was plunged into an incomprehensible and hostile immigration system. Kenney and Schrag's dealings with the Department of Homeland Security and federal immigration courts reveal a system that is “disquietingly random.” Applicants are victims of “refugee roulette,” their fates largely dependent on the sympathies of the government officials who hear their cases. Schrag's recommendations to make the system more consistent and compassionate give the book—and Kenney's heartbreaking story—an added sense of purpose and real practical potential. Kenya's recent political implosion lends this book added topical relevance, but its core concerns for justice and reform remain directed at American society, especially (though not only) its byzantine asylum system. (May)

In this fascinating pastiche of text, performance and illustration, artist Fusco goes undercover at a military interrogation training camp, unearths confidential FBI memos and channels Virginia Woolf as she investigates the use of female sexual aggression as an interrogation tactic authorized by the Pentagon, called “Invasion of Space by a Female.”. Fusco chillingly recounts how female officers and soldiers at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay endorsed and participated in the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners. According to Fusco, these soldiers cannot be dismissed as a few “bad apples,” but must be recognized as the products of an entertainment culture that depicts torture as effective and even sexy, and a military culture that embraces sexual and cultural stereotypes. Fusco chides feminists who have remained silent about the issue, saying, “It is high time that we recognize that it is nothing short of a lie to frame American women's experience exclusively in terms of powerlessness.” In the “intercultural theater” of military torture scenarios and “in the exercise of global power as Americans, women are called upon and agree to act in public capacities as aggressors, frequently by making strategic use of their femininity.” Fusco confronts her deeply disturbing material with unflinching bravery and characteristic originality. (May)

Derfner (Gay Haiku) recounts his forays into indignity, knitting and unlikely friendships in this engaging if uneven memoir. Derfner's affectionate portraits of the men he met at a Christian homosexual conversion retreat and his account of his dueling desires—to accept them or shepherd them toward self-acceptance—provide welcome gravity in a book that flirts with more substantive issues of intimacy, identity and masculinity but never fully engages them. The book's conversational tone suffers from a heavy reliance on hyperbole, and the author's carefully cultivated campy persona feels tiresomely derivative and forced. And while Derfner's foibles—losing his aerial cheerleading position to more capable females, making only $5 in his first night as a go-do dancer—are amusing, his kiss-and-tell accounts of hookups and bad sex rarely rise above their own prurience. The most forceful ruminations arise gracefully from unlikely sources: memories of his musical theater education digress into a discussion encompassing concentration camp artwork, ancient Hebrew concepts of creation and the Columbia space shuttle explosion. Derfner's essays on his struggle to form meaningful relationships benefit more from his emotional intelligence than his wit. (May 13)

This latest, full-color installment from former Nerve.com “sex advisers” Em & Lo (The Big Bang) bemoans sterile sex manuals that take all the fun and mystery out of sex. Their latest and most comprehensive guide tackles every variety of sexual congress and the minutiae of seduction, fantasy, filming erotic videos and capped with the obligatory public-service “sexual health” section. The text is concise and clear, replete with (fairly familiar) puns (“there's the rub,” “the ties that bind”)—but the real draw isn't the information, all of which is available elsewhere in more detail—it's the pictures. The images shot by the influential British fashion and portrait photographer Rankin feature a range of aesthetically pleasing yet satisfyingly real-looking and ethnically diverse—although exclusively heterosexual—couples that are soft-core, but still racy enough to inspire “naughty ideas,” one of the authors' stated aims. (May)

Journalist Skillings aims to rescue Americans from corporate tedium in this entertaining and informative guide to walking away from an established—albeit stultifying—job and forging a more rewarding career. With insight and humor, Skillings enumerates the stages of “Corporate Disillusionment” and the features of the “toxic workplace”—the bullying bosses, moronic co-workers, “terminal boredom” and rampant racism and sexism. A multitude of questionnaires, exercises and worksheets helps readers determine their dream job, assess expenses and assets, and plot an escape plan to break free of corporate life without going bankrupt. Skillings also provides pointers to those readers who simply want to be happier in their current jobs—including negotiating for more flexible hours, telecommuting and taking sabbaticals. Vignettes of successful fugitives from the corporate world populate the book and an extremely useful “Escape Tool Kit” supplies information on where and how to find career coaches, health insurance, job listings and a wealth of other much needed resources when embarking on career change. Comprehensive, informative and witty, this book will be indispensable to those looking to start new careers with concrete plans and well-defined goals. (May)

In her foreword to this first volume of a four-volume work, Atwood writes that women “are not a footnote” to history, but rather “the necessary center around which the wheel of power revolves.” That is the view that novelist and memoirist French (The Women's Room) satisfyingly supports. As in any survey, much of this volume reads schematically (“For 99 percent of hominid and human existence, people lived in egalitarian matricentry”), and like many historians, French has an agenda—but she backs up even her more controversial theories with an impressive accumulation of academically accepted historical, anthropological and sociological sources. French covers her material vividly as she discusses the formation of the gendered state in Peru, Egypt, Sumer and China and then surveys the differences between the formation of secular and religious states. The volume ends with a detailed analysis of the position of women in early Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and it's here that French's precise methodology really comes to life, though some will debate her interpretations. Written in concise, understated language, this is a significant addition to literature on women's studies and history. (May)

This second of four volumes, moves quickly from feudalism to the French revolution. Firmly rooted in more modern history, novelist and scholar French (The Women's Room) writes less theoretically and more concretely than in volume 1. Beautifully sourced and referenced, the book shows, for instance, that in the 1400s Protestant and Catholic theologians transformed marriage from a private arrangement “into a complex public ceremony” that granted men more power. Women came to have less and less say in when and whom they would wed. Discussing the colonization of Africa, French illustrates how traditional, more egalitarian African gender roles were altered under European property-based, Christian social structures. French also begins to focus on how female sexuality was interpreted by a male-dominated culture. Marie Antoinette, for example, was convicted and executed not only for supporting her husband but for sexually corrupting the dauphin and thus “the body politic.” Filled with fascinating detail and powerful arguments, this second volume of French's massive and valuable work is an example of scholarship and clear vision. (May)

Davis (bestselling Don't Know Much About History and other books in his Don't Know Much... series) provides insight into American history by telling these “tales the textbooks left out.” Christopher Columbus serves as a springboard into the “extraordinary odyssey'' of castaway Cabeza de Vaca, who was stranded during a 1527 expedition and spent eight years wandering from Florida to the Pacific. Davis asks whether the 22-year-old George Washington was a “war criminal” for having his Virginia militiamen launch a surprise attack on a French diplomatic party when England and France were at peace, setting in motion the French and Indian War. The half-dozen historical narratives also offer different perspectives on horrific Indian attacks on New Englanders during the 1690s; the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord; and “idealistic patriot” Benedict Arnold. While some of these episodes are no longer as “hidden” as Davis claims, he skillfully illuminates the role of human foibles in historic events. With these “fulcrum moments” ending in 1789, Davis has enough leverage for another successful series. (May)

Patton (The Pattons: A Personal History of an American Family) turns his attention to an often overlooked aspect of the Revolutionary War: maritime privateering, or legalized piracy. Patton is careful to distinguish the mixed motives of these “patriot pirates,” for often there was less patriotism than simple greed. Nevertheless, their work fulfilled George Washington's strategic aim to win the war by exhausting Britain into giving up the struggle. In what Patton terms “a massive seaborne insurgency” that dwarfed the efforts of the colonists' small navy, thousands of privateers nettled British shipping, sometimes gaining vast fortunes. Privateering also turned into a handy political issue when Benjamin Franklin, the American representative in France, succeeded in persuading his hosts to allow Yankee skippers to sell their booty in French ports—a breach of the country's neutrality that aggravated diplomatic tensions, as Franklin knew it would, and helped cement Paris's commitment to American independence. Patton gives an absorbing exhumation of an undersung subject that will be of particular interest to Revolution buffs. (May 20)

Having written a family memoir (American Daughter) and a study of women in screwball comedy (The Runaway Bride), Kendall now retells her own life—from the perspective of her omniscient wardrobe. “Soundless and mute, but extremely expressive,” the wardrobe calls the author “B,” for body: “I am B.'s wardrobe, her ever-evolving second-skin.” Wardrobe opens by remembering a pair of red corduroy overalls B. loved as a toddler and continues with descriptions of B.'s Midwestern-girlhood clothes, followed by the outfits B. chose when she left home for Radcliffe. Finally, B. comes to know her place in the world and breaks through into self-confident dressing. Women of a certain age will recognize B.'s brand names (Lanz, Marimekko, Charivari) and styles (saddle shoes, bell bottoms, ponchos). Wardrobe's musings reveal how changing attitudes toward women's roles (needing makeup and heels to use the Harvard Library, the shunning of seductive clothing in feminist circles) kept women's closets bulging with outfits, while its asides on fashion history are often quite insightful. Still, this first-person narration by a collection of clothing can be annoying and affected. Ilene Beckerman's Love, Loss, and What I Wore, with its sparer prose and fetching illustrations, is a more successful memoir-through-clothing. (May)

A searing, emotional portrait of a son who wants nothing more than the love his father will not grant him, Burroughs's latest memoir (after 2004's Dry) is indeed powerful. Absent is the wry humor of Running with Scissors and the absurd poignancy of Burroughs's years living with his mother's Svengali-like psychiatrist. Instead, Burroughs focuses on the years he lived both in awe and fear of his philosophy professor father in Amherst, Mass. Despite frequent trips with his mother to escape his father's alcoholic rages, Burroughs was determined to win his father's affection, secretly touching the man's wallet and cigarettes and even going so far as to make a surrogate dad with pillows and discarded clothing. Only after his father's neglect—or cruelty—leads to the death of Burroughs's beloved guinea pig during one of the family's many separations does the son turn against the father. Avoiding self-pity, Burroughs paints his father with unwavering honesty, forcing the reader to confront, as he did, a man who even on his deathbed, refused his son a hint of affection. His father missed so much, Burroughs muses, not knowing his son. Luckily, Burroughs does not deny the reader such an enormous pleasure. (Apr.)

In this stunning collection of photographs, Silvester (Ethiopia: Peoples of the Omo Valley) celebrates the unique art of the Surma and Mursi tribes of the Omo Valley, on the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. These nomadic people have no architecture or crafts with which to express their innate artistic sense. Instead, they use their bodies as canvases, painting their skin with pigments made from powdered volcanic rock and adorning themselves with materials obtained from the world around them—such as flowers, leaves, grasses, shells and animal horns. The adolescents of the tribes are especially adept at this art, and Silvester's superb photographs show many youths who, imbued with an exquisite sense of color and form, have painted their beautiful bodies with colorful dots, stripes and circles, and encased themselves in elaborate arrangements of vegetation and found objects. This art is endlessly inventive, magical and, above all, fun. In his brief text, Sylvester worries that as civilization encroaches on this largely unexplored region, these people will lose their delightful tradition. 160 color photographs. (Apr.)

Published in conjunction with an exhibition at Paris's Musée des Arts Décoratifs, this handsome volume presents a selection of fashions by noted designer Lacroix together with dresses and gowns by great couturiers who have inspired him—Worth, Pasquier, Balmain, Lanvin, Schiaparelli, Dior and others. All the fashions have been chosen by Lacroix from the museum's collection and arranged by theme, such as colors, exotic styles, stripes, spots and sculpted shells. Lacroix introduces each motif with a few words about why it's important to him and discusses influences, such as his childhood in Provence, where he began drawing clothing at an early age, reveled in colors, and drew inspiration from the traditional costumes of Arles. “Haute couture should cling tightly to its obsession with the unusual,” he states, and that maxim is amply realized in the extraordinary fashions shown from the past and from the House of Lacroix. Saillard, curator at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and Mauriès (Cabinets of Curiosities) explore the designer's work. The appeal of this beautifully designed book is enhanced by the inclusion of some of Lacroix's colorful sketches. (Apr.)

One contributor to this retrospective asks: “How is it that an artist whose career spans some seventy years continues to appear vital and contemporary...?” Bourgeois's work, sometimes abstract and sometimes not, is sculpture or installation, may be sewn out of fabric or carved out of wood, and is ever intimate, feminist, eccentric and interesting. The difficulty of memorializing the work of such an extraordinary living artist is handled through a “glossary” of terms, a neat trick that puts “Etching” next to “Existentialism” and “Materials” next to “Maternity.” This treatment pairs shorter and longer essays by art critics with excerpts from Bourgeois's diaries and interviews, providing a deep and textured sense of the artist's biography. Personally and creatively, Bourgeois was deeply affected by her mother's tolerance of her father's affair with the daughter's own tutor. Bourgeois's work doesn't follow any clear trajectory, so the episodic nature of this presentation displays her work appropriately. It can be difficult to connect a piece of text to the hundreds of reproductions of the artist's work (many in full spreads), but the overall impression is very effective—a suitable presentation for this intriguing and multifaceted artist. (Apr.)

After learning that his grandfather's late cousin would soon be canonized (declared a saint), Catanoso, a journalist, made several trips to southern Italy, taking part in family feasts and funerals and listening to stories about Padre Gaetano Catanoso's holy life and amazing miracles. Back home again, he researched the American branch of the family founded by his grandfather, Carmelo, Born eight years and half a mile apart, the two young men would take differing paths. Gaetano stayed in Calabria and became a priest; Carmelo emigrated to America in 1903, fathered nine children and rarely spoke of his Italian roots. The book starts slowly, with a barrage of information about the saint, the province of Reggio Calabria and the immigrant experience. A hundred pages in, the writing becomes more personal: Catanoso meets his Italian cousins and begins reflecting on his own experience as a Catholic Italian-American. Informative and thought provoking throughout, the chapters on his brother's bout with cancer are especially poignant. Why, he wonders, would a family saint answer some prayers for healing, but not others? (June)

This arcane treatise aims to familiarize Jews with the New Testament. According to Cook, Jews shortchange themselves by failing to learn about the New Testament since they live in a Christian environment where their ignorance is a handicap. He wrote this manual to help Jews overcome this limitation, which he contends is a departure from the value Jews place on knowledge. At Hebrew Union College, where Cook teaches Judeo-Christian studies, rabbinical students have to learn the New Testament, a requirement that he feels should be mandated for all Jewish seminarians and college students. His handbook lays out the content for such courses for the benefit of non-Jews and secularists as well as Jews. Unfortunately, instead of presenting a primer, Cook offers a complicated text, replete with esoteric diagrams. His assumption of a base of knowledge contradicts his assertion that Jews know little about the New Testament. He examines the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation, discussing their abstruse and often contradictory meanings. Most beginning readers will get lost in Cook's perplexing consideration of minutiae, despite his comprehensive expertise. (June)

Drawing on his fundamentalist upbringing and experience teaching physics at an evangelical college, Giberson has a native understanding of how conservative Christians feel and think about evolution. As a Christian evolutionist, he finds himself occupying a frequently misunderstood middle ground in the midst of “a culture war, fought with culture-war weapons by culture warriors.” Behind the culture war, Giberson sketches an engaging historical narrative including Darwin's background in intelligent design, what really happened at the Scopes “monkey trial” and how catastrophist geology derived from Seventh Day Adventism found an audience among the evangelical mainstream in the post-Sputnik era. By tackling the debate in cultural as well as scientific terms, Giberson does greater justice to the motivations of Christians who reject evolution. Yet he does not conceal his frustration—on theological as well as scientific grounds—with the “rubbish” of scientific creationism, which “has climbed onto the radar screens of American intellectual culture only as a bad joke.” Giberson's sarcasm, however honestly come by, may cause the book to alienate an evangelical audience it might otherwise engage. (June)

The apparition of Mary, the mother of Christ, to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917 has long fascinated Roman Catholics and others intrigued by the vision's prophetic messages, particularly the so-called “Third Secret.” Journalist De Carli explores the meaning of the visions and puts them in historical context in this extended interview with Bertone, the Vatican official charged with verifying the last secret. Before its release in 2000, Bertone met with the only surviving visionary, Sister Lucia, for confirmation. In subsequent meetings before her death, Bertone gained her assurance that no further secrets remained. This book also discusses the significance of the visions to the late Pope John Paul II, who believed his assassination attempt was foretold in the last secret and emphasized the visions' essential purpose of calling people to conversion. Included are a chronology, theological commentary written by Pope Benedict XVI when he was head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the last secret's text. This guide will be of special interest to Fatima devotees. (May 6)

Prolific author and pastor McLaren is a big-picture guy. One of the most influential thinkers in the emergent church movement, he likes to analyze and categorize. This book, which inaugurates a series about traditional spiritual practices, paves the way for future installments by elaborating the big-picture rationale for spiritual disciplines: they cleanse us, enlighten us and bring us closer to God. As the title signals, they will also help us find our way past the unsatisfactory alternatives of secularism, dangerous fundamentalism and “mushy spirituality.” The former English teacher has a gift for the pithy phrase that nails a concept: “faithing our practices” is seeing the sacred value of everyday activities, for example. McLaren fans will enjoy his usual breadth of vision, easy style of exposition and synthesis of big ideas. His more conservative detractors may find him too generous in his references to the other two Abrahamic faiths in discussing spiritual practices. This book nicely opens the door for a series as well as a more disciplined Christian life. (May 6)

In this practical handbook for pagans in the military, Barner reviews a wide selection of topics that could potentially confront this small group and their families. As the wife of a career Air National Guardsman who has seen two tours of duty in Iraq, she writes with firsthand knowledge about the difficulties pagans face in the military where the majority of personnel and chaplains are evangelical Christians. Barner spells out what rights pagans have and even includes an excerpt from the Wicca section of the U.S. Army Chaplain's Handbook. More importantly, she lists the potential roadblocks thrown up by military chaplains and shows how best to overcome them without risk of punishment. The book is rounded out with several excellent spells and ceremonies for such things as deployment, going into battle and returning to the home front. It also includes a ritual for a pagan military funeral. Interviews with a pagan soldier, a spouse and the child of a soldier give additional insight into the struggles they confront. Barner writes fluently and with compassion about the warrior's path in today's world. (May)

At the dawn of the 21st century, Americans are more divided than ever across political, economic, social, racial and religious lines. In this unoriginal call to action, Korzen and Kelley bemoan this division, urging American society to return to its unified roots by focusing on the common good. According to the authors, a politics of division encourages everybody to look out for themselves and not for each other. They trace the roots of poverty, war, climate crisis, abortion and inadequate health care to such division and point to a rich Catholic social tradition as a way of recovering an emphasis on the common good. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church teaches that human dignity and human rights—such as the rights to food, housing, work and education, among others—provide the foundation for the common good. The authors provide a short survey of Catholic social teaching (though they mysteriously leave out John Courtney Murray, the most famous Catholic proponent of the common good) and explain key themes of that social teaching, including solidarity and the preferential option for the poor. (May)

After complimenting the Puritans for a vibrant spirituality grounded in sound biblical and church theology, Lancaster Bible College professor Nichols shows how subsequent generations of Americans have reduced Jesus to whatever best fits their needs. The book demonstrates in humorous detail how Jesus has proved to be a malleable figure in American culture and politics, from Jefferson's moral-exemplar Jesus to the manly Jesus of Billy Sunday, or from a “trivialized” Precious Moments Jesus to Focus on the Family's Republican Jesus. Nichols contends that reducing Jesus in this way is harmful. Although the book spotlights “the Jesus of American evangelicalism,” its chapters on contemporary images of and ideas about Jesus are filled with references that any modern American reader will recognize. For nonevangelical Americans, bemused by the proliferation of Jesus paraphernalia among believers, such discussion offers welcome perspective. Nichols's critique may not persuade his fellow evangelicals to tune out the ubiquitous “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs or turn off Veggie Tales. But his call to humbly accept that Jesus is more complex than a slogan or plaything strikes a chord. (May)

This ripped-from-the-headlines exposé uncovers the rise and fall of polygamist Warren Jeffs, former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Based on interviews with ex-members, newspaper stories and trial records, it provides a raw and bracing account of Jeffs's sex crimes and fugitive years. Unfortunately, Singular's account is not burdened by nuance or significant attention to history or theology, ignoring important prior research on Mormon fundamentalism and painting all polygamists with the same broad brush. Some of this could be forgiven if Singular's lapses in understanding Mormon fundamentalism were not exacerbated by his frequent tactic of comparing the FLDS to Islamic extremists, which evokes the intended fear response but remains tenuous. However, the book's second half, which hews closely to the chronology of Jeffs's flight from the law and the individuals who helped to bring him to justice, is more balanced than the first. Singular is a strong writer who uses pacing, dialogue and drama to good effect. Readers will find this a troubling and fascinating, if careless, account. (May)

It's rare for an edited anthology to be consistently good, let alone exceptional, but this unassuming collection of essays on 12 novels with religious themes offers rich satisfaction. The essayists—all Calvin College professors and staff members—formed a group called “the Emmaus readers” in 2006 to better understand the role of faith in creating and interpreting fiction. The novels include overtly religious books, like Mr. Ives' Christmas and Mariette in Ecstasy, as well as less predictable choices, like Life of Pi and the graphic novel Road to Perdition. Each chapter offers a plot synopsis, an analysis, questions for discussion and suggestions for further reading. Readers will be introduced to some novels for the first time, and will attain deeper understandings of others they already love. Fans of Peace Like a River, for example, will delight in exploring the biblical and literary allusions of Leif Enger's Midwestern masterpiece, and many who neglected P.D. James's Children of Men will expand their understanding of her story's projected dystopia. Perhaps the Emmaus readers can pen a sequel taking on novels by the likes of Graham Greene, Chaim Potok, Gail Godwin or Vinita Hampton Wright. (May)

Spiegel, philosophy professor at Indiana's Taylor University, takes deep issues of the Christian faith and dumps them smack into real life with a little help from his children. Their questions—“Dad, where does God live?” “Dad, does God speak English?” and “What does God know?”—open the door to discussions about God that solicit satisfying answers from Dad. Spiegel's responses and ensuing comments will satisfy adults as well, especially those looking for beginning and intermediate study on topics such as God's omniscience, the Golden Rule, God's presence and human origin and destiny. Spiegel ponders the great issues of the faith with a light touch, thanks to the innate comedy of kids, but also to his own brand of humor. No doubt some readers will wish for more depth when it comes to doctrinal fundamentals, but rather than exhaustive study, the point is that God touches human hearts through geckos, hide-and-seek tag and the occasional possum. Spiegel shares his own wonder as he fields FAQs from the fertile, imaginative, earthy minds of his children. (May)

Historian Ownby examines the controversial Falun Gong movement in this detailed study of its origins in China and its status among the Chinese diaspora, particularly in North America. Addressing Falun Gong within the context of “Chinese popular religions” and the post-Mao state's “ongoing search for political and cultural identity” rather than human rights discourse, Ownby (Université de Montreal) sifts through conflicting evidence to explain why neither Falun Gong's development nor the Chinese government's strong reaction were historical anomalies. He describes how Falun Gong, a spiritual cultivation system rooted in China's “redemptive societies” and the recent enthusiasm for qigong, began in 1992. He also chronicles the events that led the Chinese government to crack down on this popular movement in 1999, including the aftermath in China and abroad. The book includes extensive quotes from founder Li Hongzhi's writings as well as “witness statements” from practitioners. Despite the book's title, China's future given the persistence of Falun Gong's adherents is not extensively addressed. Ownby's account, while strongly written, is perhaps most suited for academic collections. (May)

What can the dying teach the living? That is the question that educators Bob and Judy Fisher set out to answer when they interviewed 104 hospice patients ages five to 98. There are no surprises in this slim volume: people talk about family more than work, and about living in the present. The book is organized thematically around topics like priorities, simple pleasures, regrets and forgiveness. This leads to some repetition and overlap, but also helps each chapter stand alone for individual study. The tone is comfortably conversational and liberally peppered with tie-ins to popular songs, although sometimes the authors' commentary gets in the way of their subjects' more powerful words. This is not a soul-shaking book, but it is an effective invitation to self-reflection. It stands out among the growing number of books about death and dying in that it is aimed back at the living: readers can find inspiration in these voices to make better choices in the here and now, find deeper joy in every day and live life with no regrets. (May)

This penetrating miscellany of meditations on the dialogue between human limitations and divine grace successfully blends inspiration with practicality, the therapeutic with the theological. A writer, psychotherapist and former minister at New York's Riverside Church, Kolbell asserts that in a contemporary climate of incivility, religious intolerance, poverty and war, we could use a “second chance” more than ever. It is in this context that he mines the Latin prefix “re,” or returning, to explore the scriptural foundations and modern applications of words like reconciliation, reflection, retreat and restoration. Weaving his encounters with friends and patients into his reflections on Old and New Testament figures like Moses and Nicodemus, the author manages to strike a tone both realistic and encouraging—no mean feat. While there is little that would be offensive to conservative readers, the book is more likely to appeal to those who share Kolbell's passion for social change and his conviction that modern believers urgently need to align their wills with the God who keeps forgiving them and inviting them to try again. (May)

Author and evangelical minister Copeland cohosts the Believer's Voice of Victory television broadcast with her husband, Kenneth Copeland. In this inspirational self-help guide, Copeland offers Pentecostal Christians 10 keys to fulfilling God's destiny. They must accept Jesus as Lord and Savior; receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit; trust God's path and believe His plans are best; make time for Bible study; speak God's promises aloud; faithfully persevere past personal limitations; turn from sin and obey; be grateful and offer praise continually; let patience do its inner soul work; and cultivate God's word in the heart so that it produces spiritual fruit. As Copeland repeatedly reminds readers, God always has a purpose for us, though his children sometimes don't act on the promises and therefore forfeit God's “master” plan. Fans of the Copelands' ministry will be delighted with the author's personal story of faith through the years and the growth of the television program. Though well-written and engaging in scope, some Christians will take issue with themes of faith healing and name-it-and-claim-it theology sprinkled throughout. (May)

Correction: In our February 25 issue, PW incorrectly identified the title of Suzanne Strempek Shea's book. The title is Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith.

Jill Price outs herself as the scientific phenomena known as “AJ.”

Price has been known to scientists only as “AJ,” a woman with a memory so unprecedented they had to coin a term for it: “hyperthymestic syndrome.”With this book, she is coming out publicly for the first time to discuss her condition. Not only is Price powerless to stop remembering, but each memory brings with it an emotion “every bit as potent as it was the first day I had it.” That means constantly reliving not just the good times—hanging out at the Ed Sullivan Show with her father, a William Morris agent, or having her cheeks pinched by Milton Berle—but the painful times as well. Tormented by her total recall, at age 34 Price contacted memory expert James McGaugh and finally began the process of controlling her memory. Not all the details of Price's life are so compelling, but her insights into the nature of memory, forgetting and the formation of our sense of self will resonate with a wide audience. Appearances on 20/20 May 9 and Good Morning America May 12. (May 6)