Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 6/2/2008

Not many today know about the New Jersey Quaker, mystic and social activist John Woolman (1720–1772). But William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience, characterized Woolman as a saint. John Greenleaf Whittier called him the founding father of the abolitionist movement. As Slaughter (The Whiskey Rebellion) shows in this superb narrative, it may be argued that the pious, simple-living Woolman—by rejecting not only slavery but also the accumulation of wealth, economic exploitation of all kinds and all forms of violence—created the prototype for every pacifist and nonconformist to come after. Woolman always dressed simply in clothes he stitched himself, white clothes meant to mark him as a man of God. He advocated his causes in lectures and sermons across the eastern United States and England (where he died of smallpox) and through extensive writings. He made a point of owning nothing he did not need and giving away every and anything he could not use. In our own age of conspicuous consumption, the complex soul Slaughter so ably and beautifully resurrects is full of contemporary relevance as an example of principled living. (Sept.)

Carlsen (Reader’s Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual) gives a solid history of wood as he travels the world, analyzing the vast number of uses of a mundane natural resource. In doing so, Carlsen also uncovers the wide variety of personalities that work with wood every day, from the chainsaw artist appropriately named the “Wild Mountain Man” to the blind cabinetmaker who “can see things with [his] fingers that you may not see with your eyes.” He uncovers places where wood golf clubs are still manufactured today; explains which type of wood is best for a baseball bat; takes readers through the painstaking process used to make the beautiful Stradivarius violins and Steinway grand pianos; he also demonstrates how the gondola is a “floating work of efficiency and ergonomic art.” At one point, Carlsen visits a company in Maine that produces 50 billion toothpicks and 12 billion wooden matches each year. Carlsen includes photographs throughout this engaging and exhaustively researched work. (Sept.)

Pearce’s quest to discover “the hidden world” sustaining Western consumption habits is fulfilled with varying degrees of success in this, his third book. Tracking the routes taken by the items in his home—his coffee, cellphone, computer, green beans, chocolate, socks—from raw ingredient to finished product, the author presents fascinating firsthand investigations, as when he visits a group of fair-trade coffee farmers, follows the trail of his donated shirts to markets in Africa, visits Uzbek communities whose health, infrastructure and environment have been devastated by the cotton industry, and interviews female sweatshop workers who view their factory jobs as empowering. When Pearce strays from these journalistic portraits, however, he is prone to flaccid opining about the greenest fuel sources and simplistic boosting for urban planners designing “small-footprint” cities. The most effective chapters puncture the feel-good myths surrounding fair trade and recycling and introduce unique characters, such as the farmers and middlemen responsible for getting prawns from Bangladesh to a London curry shop. Although a timely effort, Pearce’s diffusion of his reportorial mission with green-pleading mires his refreshing discoveries in moralizing and familiar cant. (Oct.)

In this accessible gem of a narrative, Weston makes a special contribution to the conversation (and glut of ethnographies) that seek to describe how the “other half lives.” Raised in the working-class outskirts of Chicago and trained as an anthropologist, the author is devoid of condescension or naïve astonishment as she zigzags across the country by bus—one of the last “quasi-public” spaces—swapping advice, snacks, favors, worldviews and nuggets of profound wisdom with her fellow travelers. Within these shared stories, Weston interweaves her own experiences in traveling on a limited budget with acute anthropological analysis. Attuned to the hardships of bus travel (no guaranteed seats after long waits to board, bad food at rest stops, hiked up prices for the poorest travelers ), Weston is also refreshingly self-reflective on her own relative privilege (being white and a citizen, having a credit card). Although her writing occasionally reads like choppy journal entries, her simple observations are marked by a spare grace: “Arrival is not all. Often the road is the thing.” This book is a piece of 21st-century Americana in motion, and its characters and cities will resonate and linger with readers. (Sept.)

Country boy makes good in this down-home tale of self-made multimillionaire Wyly. In his humble post-Depression Louisiana roots, Wyly learned his first business lessons from football strategy, his father’s tiny newspaper business and his mother’s bargaining skills. A lucky meeting propelled him to the University of Michigan’s Business School and his first corporate job at IBM, where he had to work fast to keep from succumbing to culture shock as he discovered “there ain’t no Bubbas in Michigan.” Energetic and restless, he soon left IBM for Honeywell and then created his own technology companies, rescuing failing businesses, founding Green Mountain Energy and devoting himself to environmentalism. Citing Sam Walton as a hero and Ross Perot as a personal friend, Wyly stresses the power and privilege of self-creation and speaks honestly about what he’s learned: that failure is crucial to achieving success, independent thought is imperative, luck serendipitous and power useless unless it is wielded for good. Though the message is a good one, the meandering storytelling and not well-known author might make this book a hard sell to a trade audience. (Sept.)

Surveying the American occupation of Iraq, Tulane political science professor Fettweis maintains that the war is a “lost—and utterly pointless—cause” and that the only rational course for America is to accept defeat and withdraw so that the process of national recovery—marked by four distinct stages (shock and denial, anger, depression and acceptance)—can begin. Precipitous withdrawal is possible because none of the feared consequences of such an action—humanitarian disaster, regional instability or loss of U.S. credibility—is remotely likely, in Fettweis’s view. Linking the “debacle” in Iraq to the post-WWII grand strategy of internationalism, the author argues for a return to the founding fathers’ favored foreign policy of strategic restraint. Such a retreat from the world, the author claims, is virtually risk-free because today’s threats are minimal, and the resulting peace dividend would be better spent at home on priorities like Hurricane Katrina recovery. Fettweis’s thesis—although well-intentioned—rests on several narrowly argued assumptions: the war in Iraq is unwinnable and the “national security implications [of withdrawal] will be minimal.” More polemic than scholarship, this book will likely generate more heat than light. (Sept.)

Ulanski (The Science of Fly Fishing) takes readers on a dizzying trip within, afloat and around the Gulf Stream, the “mighty oceanic river, powerful enough to be readily seen from space,” containing mysterious, scary and tasty creatures: the reclusive, 2,000-pound giant squid; swarms of tentacled, stinging Portuguese man-of-wars and a complex food chain, with tiny drifting phytoplankton (“the grasses of the sea”) at the bottom and the “almost mythic” bluefin tuna at the top. The book also depicts human life along the Gulf Stream: Columbus following the trade winds and the North Atlantic gyre to reach the New World; buccaneers and pirates of the Caribbean; Benjamin Franklin, “intrigued by the idea of a 'stream’ flowing through... the Atlantic Ocean” and hoping to speed up mail delivery, measuring and “meticulously recording” water temperatures on trips back and forth to Europe. Although the potentially urgent issue of the Gulf Stream in relation to climate change is given short shrift, this multifaceted treatment of “the blue god” offers something for almost every kind of ocean lover. (Sept.)

Another study of Thomas Jefferson, but with a difference: this one focuses on Jefferson’s thought, especially on its development from his youth. The book’s freshness and immediacy lie in the author’s emphasis on the libraries Jefferson accumulated and the marginal notes he left in the books he read. Hayes, a scholar of reading habits and print culture, takes us through Jefferson’s hugely wide and eclectic reading with an ease and lightness often missing from a subject central to American history: how Jefferson came to possess the ideas that have resonated through America’s concept of itself. The result is lengthy—necessarily so, for no contemporaries (John Adams excepted) read and collected books as widely as Jefferson. His marginalia and correspondence and the books he purchased yield a remarkable record of one man’s responses to what his mind encountered, absorbed and rejected. While the book won’t appeal to those who want to learn more of Jefferson’s active life, it will enlighten and delight all those drawn to Jefferson and the early years of so many classic American ideas. 12 b&w illus. (Aug.)

Paice, a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, has written what is by a significant margin the best book to date on the Great War in East Africa. Paice integrates an impressive spectrum of archival and printed sources into a comprehensive analysis based on the premise that, for economic and emotional reasons, “Africa mattered to the European powers.” Paice accurately and evocatively describes a campaign in which modern technology was consistently frustrated by terrain, climate and disease. He acknowledges the tactical brilliance of German Gen. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. He demonstrates as well that the Germans sustained their operations through systematic brutality that has led too many historians to mistake Africans’ fear for loyalty. In that respect there was in practice little difference among the combatants. In East Africa horse transport was ineffective; supplies had to be moved by humans. Among more than a million Africans recruited by Britain alone, at least a tenth died. Subsistence economies were wracked by famine and disease, culminating in the influenza epidemic of 1918. While the voices of East Africa’s Great War remain largely Western, the burdens were disproportionately borne locally. 16 pages of photos; maps. (Aug.)

British journalist Jeffreys (Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug) pre-sents a compelling account of the comprehensive collaboration of Germany’s major chemical conglomerate with Adolf Hitler’s genocidal dictatorship. The fourth largest industrial concern in the world, IG Farben was a key element of German foreign policy. Its employees were well treated. Its scientists won Nobel prizes. Its administrators created an international network controlling the production and sale of everything from plastics to camera film—and poison gas. Jeffreys tells the story from the rise of Germany’s chemical industry in the 19th century to its support of the Nazis’ ascent to power starting in 1932. National Socialism was good for business. The increasingly lucrative contracts came with a price: first accommodation, then collaboration, as one compromise after another enmeshed the cartel ever deeper in the Nazi system. Eventually, from Farben’s perspective, Auschwitz was no more than a source of labor for producing the synthetic rubber and oil that kept the war machine operating. Ignominiously dissolved in the early ’50s, IG Farben remains a monument to willful and unapologetic moral blindness. (Aug. 1)

In this brief, standard survey, University of Alabama historian Jones (Mutiny on the Amistad) concludes that the 1961 “CIA-engineered” Bay of Pigs invasion marked “a new direction in [U.S.] foreign policy” by combining military force and assassination. When Castro’s seizure of power in 1959 led to mass executions and bellicose anti-American rhetoric, President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to draft a plan for Castro’s overthrow. The plan included Castro’s assassination and landing a brigade of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs. Pressed by building Cold War anxiety in his ranks, President Kennedy approved the plan after taking office in 1961, but reduced air cover in order to conceal U.S. involvement, and an invasion “built on questionable premises and dubious assumptions” quickly foundered. While the abortive invasion “solidified” Castro’s rule, the author says, failure didn’t deter Kennedy, whose administration made the overthrow of Castro its “central focus.” Extensively researched and cogently reasoned, Jones’s update of this Cold War turning point for the Pivotal Moments in American History series is a cautionary account of a disastrous foray into regime change. 30 b&w illus; maps. (Aug.)

The 2006 poisoning of the former KGB agent turned dissident Alexander Litvinenko by radioactive polonium captured the world’s imagination. In this less than crystalline account, New York Times London bureau chief Cowell plays up the spy-thriller intrigue. Building Litvinenko almost into a miniseries protagonist—he was “[h]usband, father, traitor, whistleblower, son, spy, lover, fugitive”—Cowell recaps his career as a KGB functionary and then critic of Russia’s postcommunist kleptocracy; his relationship with tycoon Boris Berezovsky; his exile in London’s murky Russian expat community and outspoken attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he denounced, from his deathbed, as his killer. Cowell’s analysis of the crime and the investigation, especially his retracing of the tell-tale trail of polonium, is repetitive and often confusing. He characterizes the murder sometimes as a brazen act of “nuclear terrorism” intended to restart the Cold War, sometimes as a careful, surreptitious hit. The question of whodunit—Putin? Berezovsky? vengeful KGB veterans? Russian businessmen exposed by Litvinenko’s private sleuthing? to protect the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, of all people?—flounders inconclusively among competing conspiracy theories. Cowell relishes the mystery of the case, but doesn’t dispel it. (Aug. 5)

In 1924, Nathan Leopold, 19, and Richard Loeb, 18, both intellectually precocious scions of wealthy Jewish Chicago families, kidnapped and brutally murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in an attempt to commit the “perfect” crime. Historian Baatz, of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, replays the crime (on which Meyer Levin’s 1956 novel Compulsion was based) from the killers’ point of view, detailing their intense, often sexual, relationship that culminated in the murder. But they left a crucial piece of evidence and eventually confessed to the murder. Clarence Darrow cleverly had the boys plead guilty to avoid a trial, and the legendary defense attorney went head to head with State’s Attorney Robert Crowe in a sentencing hearing before Judge John Caverly. Both sides trotted out psychiatrists to testify whether Leopold and Loeb were mentally ill. Darrow’s gamble paid off in life sentences. Loeb was murdered in prison in 1936; Leopold was eventually paroled in 1958. Baatz gives an acute portrait of the two murderers bound together in a web of fantasy, but his heavy reliance on novelistic techniques (“there!—he had done it”) and meandering pacing prevent this from being as convincing as his exhaustive research deserves. B&w photos. (Aug.)

On March 9, 1976, an explosion in the Scotia mine in eastern Kentucky widowed 15 women. They asked Stern, a public interest lawyer, to represent them in suing the coal company based on his successful fight against the corporate coal companies that he’d recounted in his book The Buffalo Creek Disaster. Here Stern offers a spare, lucid account of how the widows won a lawsuit against their husbands’ employer despite obstacles that included community obloquy for suing the job-providing mining company, unfavorable laws designed to protect corporate mining, abusive defense tactics and the active hostility of the trial judge. What sets Stern’s effort apart from other David and Goliath legal stories is his impressive ability to explain in the simplest language complex legal issues, trial dynamics and strategy, and the role played by the intangibles of personality, bias and local culture in a lawsuit’s outcome. Stern is also adept at keeping himself out of the story and allowing readers to come to their own conclusions based on the facts of the case and the moving words of the widows. (Aug. 26)

Eleanor Rigby might have been in worse shape than the Beatles imagined: not only lonely but angry, depressed and in ill health. University of Chicago research psychologist Cacioppo shows in studies that loneliness can be harmful to our overall well-being. Loneliness, he says, impairs the ability to feel trust and affection, and people who lack emotional intimacy are less able to exercise good judgment in socially ambiguous situations; this makes them more vulnerable to bullying as children and exploitation by “unscrupulous salespeople” in old age. But Cacioppo and Patrick (editor of the Journal of Life Sciences) want primarily to apply evolutionary psychology to explain how our brains have become hard-wired to have regular contact with others to aid survival. So intense is the need to connect, say the authors, that isolated individuals sometimes form “parasocial relations” with pets or TV characters. The authors’ advice for dealing with loneliness—psychotherapy, positive thinking, random acts of kindness—are overly general, but this isn’t a self-help book. It does present a solid scientific look at the physical and emotional impact of loneliness. 12 illus. (Aug. 25)

Charles Darwin meets the Beatles in this attempt to blend neuroscience and evolutionary biology to explain why music is such a powerful force. In this rewarding though often repetitious study by bestselling author Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music), a rock musician turned neuroscientist, argues that music is a core element of human identity, paving the way for language, cooperative work projects and the recording of our lives and history. Through his studies, Levitin has identified six kinds of songs that help us achieve these goals: songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love. He cites lyrics ranging from the songs of Johnny Cash to work songs, which, he says, promote feelings of togetherness. According to Levitin, evolution may have selected individuals who were able to use nonviolent means like dance and music to settle disputes. Songs also serve as “memory-aids,” as records of our lives and legends. Some may find Levitin’s evolutionary explanations reductionist, but he lightens the science with personal anecdotes and chats with Sting and others, offering an intriguing explanation for the power of music in our lives as individuals and as a society. (Aug.)

This is a chilling look at the questionable safety of nearly everything we store food in, drink from, wear, walk on, rest on and drive. Chemicals used to make everything from water-repellant jackets and flame retardants to unbreakable plastics used for food storage are building up in our bodies and the environment with possible far-reaching consequences, says journalist Baker. She focuses on “endocrine disruptors” that alter hormone levels, even in fetuses. Individual chapters consider the weed killer atrazine; phthalates found in many cosmetics; and perfluorooctanoic acid, used in nonstick and stain-repellant coatings. Lab studies have linked these chemicals to cancer, diabetes, obesity and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, among other problems. Baker blasts both Democrats and Republicans in Congress for the “toothless” Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which leaves testing and reporting results to the manufacturer. But the companies rely on skilled public relations firms to attack scientists who raise safety concerns. The current pro-business administration also takes some licks from Baker. Although she offers suggestions for reducing exposure to these chemicals, “No place—and no one—is immune.” (Aug. 12)

“For everyone who loves someone with Alzheimer’s,” Geist observes, “there are markers and moments that tell you the disease is on the way.” Her account of two years spent “helping a person with Alzheimer’s stay in this world” is both travel guide and love story—neither in the conventional sense. As Geist makes her way, “trying new things, failing, scratching plans, making mistakes, and starting all over again,” she uses her professional skills as a journalist and TV anchor to incorporate conversations with other caregivers, consultation with experts and wide reading in the literature. Sensitive that “Alzheimer’s disease affects patients and spouses in many different ways,” Geist offers helpful suggestions (“using his words instead of trying to teach him mine”) and practical advice (“Doing activities alone is imperative to the survival of a caregiver”). True, there was “a downside to having to come home to help care for my father,” but Geist’s love of her parents and their love for one another is as palpable as the sadness wrought by the disease. To all readers, she offers a deeply affecting account of personal growth: “I define myself and my life in a whole new way. These days, it is the measure of the heart that matters most to me.” (Aug.)

Carlin offers the final dramatic chapters of how then president Nelson Mandela and his wily strategy of using a sporting event—the Sprinkboks rugby team in the 1995 World Cup—to mend South Africa. Carlin, a senior international writer for El País, quotes Mandela: “Sports has the power to change the world.... It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.” After giving an informed capsule history of apartheid’s bitter legacy and Mandela’s noble stature as a leader, the scene is set for the influential rugby match between the solid New Zealand team and the scrappy South African squad in the finals of the World Cup, with 43 million blacks and whites awaiting the outcome. All of the cast in Afrikaner lore are here—Botha, DeKlerk, Bernard, Viljeon—as they match wits with Mandela. Carlin concludes this excellent book of redemption and forgiveness with chapters that depict how a divided country can be elevated beyond hate and malice to pride and healing. (Aug.)

Oscar-winner Borgnine reflects on a career spanning six decades and totaling more than 190 film and television roles. After a nomadic childhood (Connecticut to Chicago to Italy), Borgnine, born in 1917, returned to Connecticut for high school. Following 10 years in the navy, he studied drama at Hartford’s Randall School and began acting at Virginia’s Barter Theater, advancing to live TV and Broadway roles. His striking performance as the sadistic Fatso in From Here to Eternity (1953) catapulted his career, and two years later he won an Academy Award for his portrayal of the lonely Bronx butcher in Paddy Chayefsky’s Marty. In the 1960s, he was reluctant to do a TV series until an encounter with a teen who recognized Borgnine but couldn’t name any of his films prompted the actor to immediately do the TV series McHale’s Navy. Summoning up on-set movie memories, Borgnine unleashes an arsenal of anecdotes, such as Joan Crawford’s hatred of Mercedes McCambridge: “Joan thought she was mocking her... and she let fly a fusillade of insults like I’ve never heard, not even in the Navy.” With astute observations on the Hollywood hierarchy and tales about everyone from Lee Marvin and Steve McQueen to Bette Davis and Kim Novak, he writes with an unassuming, no-nonsense tone. His love of filmmaking and his respect for his fellow actors permeates the pages of this engaging and satisfying memoir. (Aug.)

In this provocative and brilliantly argued work, philosopher Zizek takes readers on an intellectual and artistic tour—drawing upon Picasso’s Guernica, Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan’s films, Michel Houellebecq’s novels, jokes, Lacanian psychology and a Kantian analysis of Hurricane Katrina—to demonstrate how societies understand, obscure and deny the sources of violence. His is not an examination of offenses but an argument that violence can perhaps be best defined by the bystanders and not by its perpetrators or victims. Zizek enumerates the varieties of violence (subjective, objective, systemic) and how it inheres in language, economics and religion, urging readers to discern the “violence that sustains our very efforts to fight violence and to promote tolerance.” In meditations on the events of 9/11, the Abu Ghraib scandal and the 2005 Paris riots, the book turns numerous familiar arguments on their ear (he proposes that the guards at Abu Ghraib represent the true underside of American society). His unrelenting scrutiny and host of cultural and literary references dazzle, and this bracing and rewarding read will challenge anyone unwilling to recognize his or her complicity in systems of institutional and interpersonal violence. (Aug.)

This mélange of memoir, travel-writing and business blueprint chronicles the author’s attempt to set up shop in Europe after the catastrophic crash of his American business. Having mortgaged his house and other assets to finance his move to Paris, the author embarks on trying to interest Europeans in his scheme of shopping malls specializing in imperfect and off-season designer goods. He runs into unanticipated obstacles: a backlash against American developers due to the failure of Euro Disneyland, organized opposition from existing retailers, a national political movement against hypermarkets, complex zoning and property laws—not to mention his unfamiliarity with the French language and business customs. Murphy perseveres and manages to get several centers open—all of which are spectacular successes with shoppers and manufacturers. A slapdash collage of genres, the book also includes a mild thriller subplot concerning a rival development company and some even milder romance. While smoothly written, the book suffers from an unfocused narrative and the author’s grating insistence in emphasizing his naïveté. (Aug.)

In this informative and entertaining essay collection, Foy largely succeeds at breaking down the “artificial barriers” between American politics and popular culture. Referencing films, television programs and other forms of mass entertainment—from Bob Dylan song lyrics to Dave Chappelle’s show—as a lens through which to view abstract political ideas and teachings, each chapter breaks down a specific aspect of American government. Particularly illuminating are the essays distilling Hobbes and Locke’s “social contract” theory through the dystopian eye of the Wachowski brothers’ V for Vendetta and the world of political lobbying through Jason Reitman’s satire Thank You for Smoking. For every fresh insight, however, there exists a simplistic summary of an overly examined film—Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, for example—that dulls the collection, as do the essays that only peripherally link entertainment subjects to their intended ideas. Overall, however, Foy has compiled an energetic assortment of analyses that convincingly argue that an interest in popular culture can counterbalance the growing tide of political apathy in the United States. (Aug.)

In this heavily researched analysis of the conservative media establishment, Jamieson and Cappella (coauthors of Spiral of Cynicism) contend that Rush Limbaugh, the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal and “key players” at Fox News share evidence, arguments and “tactical approaches in their defense of conservatism and their attack on its opponents.” The authors argue that these three news outlets disseminate Reagan-era conservatism by creating a “common rogues’ gallery of enemies,” which they fight by forming an “echo chamber”—a “bounded, enclosed media space that has the potential to both magnify the messages delivered within it and insulate them from rebuttal,” turning audiences into a “balkanized cohort.” The authors take pains to note that they are not arguing that “the conservative media menace the country’s well-being”; rather, they are interested in the way changing media influence contemporary electoral politics. Their highly academic approach and chart- and citation-laden narration might be slow and difficult reading for those unfamiliar with the social sciences. However, readers seeking a carefully researched view of the changing face of news media will be rewarded for their efforts. (Aug.)

With friends like the dictators with which it regularly sides, the United States doesn’t need enemies, argues this wide-ranging critique of American foreign policy. Root (Capital & Collusion) posits that, in the search for securing access to natural resources and investment opportunities in developing countries, American leaders find it cheaper and more expedient to prop up corrupt autocrats than deal with democracies. The consequences are dire, he contends: American aid lets dictatorships consolidate power while ignoring the needs of their people; when they inevitably fall, America often gets dragged into futile military interventions that leave it disgraced and unpopular. Root elaborates these themes in case studies of U.S. relations with South Vietnam, the Philippines, Iran, Iraq and other countries; his surveys proffer intriguing insights into the failings of America’s allies and the surprising successes of enemies like Communist China and Islamic Iran. Root’s discussions, citing everything from game theory to the marginal utility of supporting the Vietcong, can be dry and excessively technical, which is a shame, because his prescriptions for American foreign policy—less focus on military security, more on economic development and social reform—are well-grounded and compelling. (July)

In this graceful personal and political history, Pelosi describes growing up as the daughter of a congressman in an Italian-American Catholic world (“growing up Catholic had an enormous impact on me”) and her burgeoning political interest (“I always knew that I did not want to deal only with the meals, the laundry, the house”). She details making history twice—becoming the first daughter to follow her father into Congress and in her groundbreaking election as the first female Speaker of the House in 2007. Pelosi writes passionately about the experiences of congressional women (“Nothing has been more wholesome for the politics and the government of our country than the increased participation of women”) and takes on George W. Bush, who she maintains lacks “the vision, knowledge or judgment to be the leader our country needs.” Careful to separate the person from the policy, Pelosi deals courteously with the former even when she condemns the latter. Pelosi’s book is a simply crafted acknowledgment of the support of her family, mentors and helpful colleagues without rhetorical flourishes, insider scandal or intimate revelations—a gentle account from a tough politician. (July)

In this thought-provoking work, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker Gunderson takes aim at the social “brainwashing” and financial planners and institutions that are constricting Americans’ financial freedom and undermining their abilities to prosper with misguided and dangerous advice. The author debunks various investment “myths”—offering a fresh look at 401(k) “fallacies”—and “false beliefs” (“high risk = high returns”). In a book studded with anecdotes and historical tidbits, Gunderson excels in his description of the prevalent psychological beliefs that hinder success: the “scarcity mindset” in which financial success is understood as a zero-sum game; the American equation of happiness with prosperity; and the misconception that money holds power. In appeals more befitting a self-help guide than financial primer, the author argues that individuals need to embrace a mindset of self-reliance and identify their “Soul Purpose.” In the vein of The Secret and the classic Think and Grow Rich, Gunderson suggests that prosperity is a state of mind from which value and wealth flow. Readers will find his assault on traditional financial nostrums fresh, eye-opening and emboldening. (July)

British writer Foster (It Cracks Like Breaking Skin) chronicles the many trials and misadventures of first-time dog ownership as he and his girlfriend consider various breeds, traipse through the woods with an eccentric vizsla breeder, scour animal shelters—and finally meet their match in Ollie, a fearful, stubborn saluki-greyhound mix. Resembling a Giacometti sculpture and profoundly defiant with strong ideas of his own about everything from mealtime manners to walks in the park, Ollie dispels Foster’s hopes for a gentle canine companion; he leads the author into a series of comedic calamities—an unsuccessful attempt at discipline known as “the Incident of the Smack,” a visit with Attila the animal psychologist, a wild chase through the park and across several busy streets and the disastrous afternoon of the fishing competition. Along the way, Foster and Ollie meet new human and canine friends, attempt to grow into their new roles as owner and pet, and ultimately discover how to love each other. Ollie makes for an entertaining and completely unpredictable subject, and this book will delight animal lovers with its warmth and wit. (July)

One of San Francisco’s most popular new restaurants, A16 is devoted to southern Italy’s rustic cuisine and robust wines. This book, by its executive chef and wine director, begins by exploring eight grape-growing areas in the south, from the region’s heart in Campania to mountainous Abruzzo and the isolated island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean. With a dizzying number of wines produced in each area, the focus is wisely kept on the grapes themselves, with eloquent essays on the history and qualities of both classic and less familiar red and white varietals, and food pairing tips as well as recommendations of wine producers. The second half presents some of those foods—“peasant cooking” like pasta with chunky, chili-spiked sauce, a rabbit mixed grill and, of course, Neapolitan pizza, with A16’s Bay Area location showing in occasional ingredient twists like the tangerines in an arugula salad and the zesty punch of preserved Meyer lemon in a grilled shrimp dish. Executive chef Appleman’s expertise is reflected in a chapter on “the pig,” including recipes for making pancetta and sausages, which are rather advanced for casual home cooks but, like the rest of the book, make fascinating reading for lovers of Italian food and wine. (Sept.)

While the trend of single-subject cookbooks continues, one might still question an entire volume dedicated to the seemingly simple dish, lasagna. Luckily for home cooks, this title isn’t just gimmick. Bruscino Sanchez, owner of Sweet Maria’s bakery in Connecticut and author of multiple Sweet Maria’s cookbooks, goes beyond sugar and flour in her latest collection. Straightforward, well-organized recipes are divided into easy-to-follow numbered steps (most fewer than 10), guiding even the amateur through a hearty one-dish meal. The “Classic Lasagnas” chapter includes just what it promises with crowd-pleasing selections such as Lasagna Bolognese and Vegetarian Lasagna. While the “New Flavors” chapter showcases creative gems (Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Lasagna, and Lobster Lasagna with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce), international flavor–inspired dishes such as Chinese Pork and Scallion Lasagna, and Middle Eastern Lasagna, and a surprising Breakfast Lasagna feel like a bit of a stretch, trying to cover all flavor bases. Short, yet worthy, chapters on “Starters,” “Salads and Dressings” and “Desserts” make it possible to create a balanced, three-course meal from this concise and upbeat title. (Sept.)

Through their Food Network reality show and this, their first print effort, the Two Dudes hope to prove the buddy system to be a winning formula. Owners of Caramelized Productions, a Hollywood catering company, the authors present 100 offerings inspired by their early days of minimal money, ingredients and cookware. The guys manage to concoct a fun, fresh collection. The chapters are based upon the recipes’ cooking vessels rather than their ingredients. There’s “The Big Bowl,” “Nonstick Skillet,” “Frying Pan,” “Dutch Oven,” “Roasting Pan” and “Baking Dish.” Seafood is their specialty, with dishes such as Sea Bass, Clams, Bacon and Leeks in White Wine, and a Crispy Dill Snapper, which breaks the book’s single-pan rule by utilizing an empty skillet to weigh down the fillets while they cook to keep them from curling. Four types of burgers hit the skillet including one made with lamb and feta cheese and another with pork and a Fennel-Apple Slaw. The Dutch oven is the source of comfort food like Clam Chowder and Buttermilk-Sage Fried Chicken, while the baking dish runs away with the spoon in desserts such as Chocolate-Hazelnut Bread Pudding and Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp. (Aug.)

Even devoted low-carb dieters have it easy compared to those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, who have no choice in giving up many foods. Ryberg (The Gluten-Free Kitchen) aims to make their sacrifices easier by recreating favorite dishes, from fried chicken to lemon pound cake, with alternative ingredients. For every meal and course, she offers a wide range of crowd-pleasing recipes (mini meat loaves; Caesar salad); those that are normally gluten-heavy get several versions using different flours for different effects. The first chapter discusses stocking the gluten-free kitchen and converting recipes, and helpful notes about preparation accompany many recipes, but her extensive experience doesn’t always translate to the page, particularly with baked goods, which are the trickiest to make. Though she provides extra details about baking, there is still not enough guidance about what to expect with these unusual batters and doughs, and the results may not live up to her claims. Fortunately, her constant enthusiasm and encouragement will keep people trying, and the growing gluten-free community will be thrilled to have this massive resource of ideas for making their meals more enjoyable. (July)

Probst, a clinical social worker and educator, argues that our society has become too quick to diagnose and label children who think or act outside the box as having a psychiatric disorder or disease. Although there are times when a diagnosis and medication are called for, Probst believes that the “diagnosis explosion” is over the top (adding up the medical statistics, she concludes that “44 percent of all American children are pathologically depressed, anxious, defiant or hyperactive”). Probst presents fresh tactics for dealing with difficult children, using temperament as a basis for understanding and intervention. Guiding parents through a temperament questionnaire, she maps 11 core traits, including energy source, attention and sensory sensitivity. She then offers practical strategies and tools parents can use when a child’s social or physical environment clashes with his temperament (for instance, a simple timer can help a child who has problems with transitions; discussing a “backup plan” may help a child who has trouble adapting to unexpected situations.) The author encourages parents to “reframe” their own thinking and focus on their child’s strengths (i.e., a label such as “antisocial” can be seen as “self-sufficient,” or “hyper” as “lively”). Readers seeking innovative ways to handle a challenging child will be drawn to Probst’s bright and benevolent approach. (Aug.)

An indispensable tool for new fathers, this sequel to The Caveman’s Pregnancy Companion delivers an entertaining and instructional guide to “one of the toughest stretches you’ll ever experience.” Once again, the authors feature Gronk—who earlier made the prebirth journey “from modern throwback to full-fledged Homo sapiens status”—as a “role model of sorts” for men who need to learn the basics of fatherhood. As drawn by Kendall, Gronk’s confused but loving gaze is turned toward Peanut, his baby girl, as the authors offer vital and to-the-point information about everything from breast feeding, clothing and medicines to excellent examples of meals and massages that modern cavemen can offer their deserving mates, “the Carmella to our Tony.” The best chapter, “Health and Wellness,” offers solid facts and advice on how to deal with medical providers, vaccinations and common health issues such as allergic reactions, along with a list of the “10 most commonly held medical myths and misconceptions about babies.” (July)

Correction: The correct ISBN for In the Jaws of the Dragon: America’s Fate in the Coming Ero of Chinese Hegemony by Eamon Fingleton. St. Martin’s/Dunne, reviewed in our May 19 issue, is 978-0-312-36232-3; the correct price of the paper edition is $25.95.

Two physicians bring women’s issues in Darfur and Saudi Arabia into the examining room.

Writing with BBC correspondent Lewis (Slave), Bashir, a physician and refugee living in London, offers a vivid personal portrait of life in the Darfur region of Sudan before the catastrophe. Doted on by her father, who bucked tradition to give his daughter an education, and feisty grandmother, who bequeathed a fierce independence, Bashir grew up in the vibrant culture of a close-knit Darfur village. (Its darker side emerges in her horrific account of undergoing a clitoridectomy at age eight.) She anticipated a bright future after medical school, but tensions between Sudan’s Arab-dominated Islamist dictatorship and black African communities like her Zaghawa tribe finally exploded into conflict. The violence the author recounts is harrowing: the outspoken Bashir endured brutal gang-rapes by government soldiers, and her village was wiped out by marauding Arab horsemen and helicopter gunships. This is a vehement cri de coeur—“I wanted to fight and kill every Arab, to slaughter them, to drive them out of the country,” the author thought upon treating girls who had been raped and mutilated—but in showing what she suffered, and lost, Bashir makes it resonate. (Sept.)

This memoir is a journey into a complex world readers will find fascinating and at times repugnant. After being denied a visa to remain in the U.S., British-born Ahmed, a Muslim woman of Pakistani origin, takes advantage of an opportunity, before 9/11, to practice medicine in Saudi Arabia. She discovers her new environment is defined by schizophrenic contrasts that create an “absurd clamorous clash of modern and medieval.... It never became less arresting to behold.” Ahmed’s introduction to her new environment is shocking. Her first patient is an elderly Bedouin woman. Though naked on the operating table, she still is required by custom to have her face concealed with a veil under which numerous hoses snake their way to hissing machines. Everyday life is laced with bizarre situations created by the rabid puritanical orthodoxy that among other requirements forbids women to wear seat belts because it results in their breasts being more defined, and oppresses Saudi men as much as women by its archaic rules. At times the narrative is burdened with Ahmed’s descriptions of the physical characteristics of individuals and the luxurious adornments of their homes but this minor flaw is easily overlooked in exchange for the intimate introduction to a world most readers will never know. (Sept.)