Nonfiction Reviews

Campbell decided as a junior at Princeton that attending Marine Corps Officer Candidate School would look good on his résumé. Three years later, in the spring of 2004, he was in Iraq commanding a platoon known by its radio call sign, “Joker One.” Campbell tells its story, and his, in an outstanding narrative of the Iraq War. Joker One counted around 40 dudes: country boys and smalltown jocks; a few Hispanics and a single black. Some were college men with futures; some had pasts they preferred to forget. The battalion was assigned to one of Iraq's worst hot spots: the city of Ramadi, where faceless enemies found shelter among 350,000 Iraqi civilians. Joker One fought from street to street, house to house and ambush to ambush for seven straight months. By the end of the tour, “even the Gunny's hands had started ceaselessly shaking,” Campbell writes. Faced with urgent life-and-death decisions, Campbell had learned that “there are no great options... you live with the results and shut up about the whole thing.” For all his constant self-questioning, Lt. Campbell brought Joker One home with only one KIA—a record as impressive as his account. (Mar. 17)

Bass (The Eudaemonic Pie) expands his New Yorker profile of Vietnamese journalist-spy Pham Xuan An into this atmospheric study of tangled war-time loyalties. Working from 1965 to 1976 in Time magazine's Saigon bureau, An became known as a well-informed and connected reporter. Meanwhile, he passed clandestine reports and top-secret South Vietnamese and American military documents to the Communists; his intelligence purportedly helped decide several important battles. The ironies of An's character—the Communist agent who admired Americans while working to defeat them, the honest reporter (American colleagues insist he never slanted his coverage of the war) who was a little too honest with the wrong people—aren't as profound as Bass wants them to be. Nor do An's loquacious but cagey reminiscences yield much insight into the war's dynamics. (The author seems a bit credulous: “[W]ith 21 bullets remaining, he killed 21 enemy soldiers,” he writes of another Vietcong agent allegedly surrounded by 700 attackers.) Bass's account succeeds mainly as an evocation of a murky Saigon during war, where truth was a rare commodity and virtually everyone had an ulterior motive. Photos, maps. (Feb.)

In this accessible and very sensible analysis, Collier (The Bottom Billion) argues that the spread of democracy after the end of the Cold War has not actually made the world a safer place, as the West has “promoted the wrong features of democracy: the façade rather than the essential infrastructure.” The author hypothesizes that an insistence on elections without a system of checks and balances has led to widespread corruption, nations mired in ethnic politics and economic underperformance. Collier examines the effect of civil wars, coups and rebellions on burgeoning democracies, founding all arguments on methodology and data sets that provide a hard, quantitative view of political violence. While many of his observations are insightful and occasionally prescient, his analysis weakens when it strays from the data and enters more theoretical territory. However, the author maintains an approachable style and reaches beyond jargon to provide a highly readable account of the complex realities facing the developing world. Collier's suggestions are pragmatic, and although they may incense ideologues, most readers will connect with this common sense approach matched with obvious expertise. (Feb.)

As a young student, award-winning Canadian journalist Wong (Red China Blues) spent a year in Beijing on a foreign exchange program during the cultural revolution, and in this suspenseful, elegantly written book, she recounts her return to the city in an effort to find a former classmate she betrayed with grave consequences. As a fervent young Maoist eager to fit in with her compatriots, the author had voluntarily informed on Yin Luoyi, who had been interested in visiting America at a time when expressing approval for the “imperialist running dogs” could lead to expulsion, ostracism or worse; Yin was expelled from the school. Wong returns to a transformed Beijing. Gone is the semirural capital where the author's “revolutionary” course of study included bouts of hard labor and “self criticism” sessions. In its place are eight-lane expressways lit up “like Christmas trees,” shiny skyscrapers and the largest shopping mall in the world. Wong is a gifted storyteller, and hers is a deeply personal and richly detailed eyewitness account of China's journey to glossy modernity. (Feb.)

Discovered after de Beauvoir's death and published in French in 1990, these seven notebooks—beginning September 1, 1939, and concluding in January 1941 during the occupation of Paris by the Nazis—describe the crisis faced by Europe in relation to the philosopher's own separation from her lover, Jean-Paul Sartre. He was serving in the military and was subsequently detained. De Beauvoir describes her obsessive love for Sartre's student Jacques Bost, as well as sexual relations with several young women, particularly a clingy Russian. Throughout, de Beauvoir works on her novel She Came to Stay, which editor Simmons argues was a precursor to Sartre's Being and Nothingness. What gives these notebooks additional zest and texture are allusions to an unexpectedly wide range of writers the diarist read during these searing days, including Gide, Malraux, Lawrence, Jack London, Agatha Christie, Dostoyevski and Margaret Mitchell (“quite delightful”), not to mention her deriving entertainment from low comedies starring the Ritz Brothers and W.C. Fields. Last and shortest, notebook seven is pure philosophy. English readers are now afforded a very different portrait of the feminist philosopher approaching middle age in this well-annotated volume. (Jan.)

With great care, attention to the scientific evidence and a wonderfully accessible style, Coyne, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Chicago, presents an overwhelming case for evolution. Ranging from biogeography to geology, from anatomy to genetics, and from molecular biology to physiology, he demonstrates that evolutionary theory makes predictions that are consistently borne out by the data—basic requirements for a scientific theory to be valid. Additionally, although fully respectful of those who promote intelligent design and creationism, he uses the data at his disposal to demolish any thought that creationism is supported by the evidence while also explaining why those ideas fall outside the bounds of science. Coyne directly addresses the concept often advanced by religious fundamentalists that an acceptance of evolution must lead to immorality, concluding that “evolution tells us where we came from, not where we can go.” Readers looking to understand the case for evolution and searching for a response to many of the most common creationist claims should find everything they need in this powerful book, which is clearer and more comprehensive than the many others on the subject. Illus. (Jan. 26)

Dunn, a biologist at North Carolina State University, does an admirable job of exploring the human drive to find and understand the manifold forms of life that surround them. With his light and enjoyable style, he also provides fascinating character sketches of some of the scientists (“often obsessive, usually brilliant, occasionally half-mad”) who made the most important discoveries, with enough scientific context for readers to understand their significance. Dunn ranges from Antoine van Leeuwenhoek's amazing microscopic discoveries in the scientific backwater of 17th-century Delft to a major 20th-century undertaking to explore life near deep sea vents where the ocean floor is expanding. But Dunn has a deeper message: “life is more diverse and less like us than we had imagined.” Indeed, he says, humans are far from central in the story of life's evolution on Earth; most life is microscopic, living in and deeply below the soil and likely comprising at least half of the planet's biomass. Finally, Dunn writes about scientific hubris: virtually every scientific prediction about conditions limiting life have been proven incorrect. (Jan.)

Although most people can recite Einstein's famous little equation, even if we don't know quite what it means, who has heard of the 18th-century mathematician Leonhard Euler, let alone know anything at all about his famous equation? Crease, a Stony Brook philosophy professor and popular science writer, has already taken on “the ten most beautiful experiments in science” in The Prism and the Pendulum, and in this enjoyable book he explores 10 rather beautiful equations. He begins with the beguiling simplicity of the equation that bears Pythogoras' name (although he says the Greek wasn't the first to discover it) and moves on to Newton's second law of motion and law of universal gravitation, the second law of thermodynamics, Maxwell's celebrated equations, discoveries by Einstein and Schrödinger and, finally, Heisenberg's famous uncertainty principle. Crease explains the significance of each of these formulas for science and, in brief “interludes” between chapters, explores the “journeys” these scientists took “from ignorance to knowledge,” and the “social lives” of their theories—their impact on the larger culture. Any reader who aspires to be scientifically literate will find this a good starting place. 43 illus. (Jan.)

In science it is axiomatic that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Powell, a neuropsychiatrist who has taught at Harvard Medical School, certainly makes extraordinary claims about “the four basic psychic abilities”: telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance and precognition. But her evidence is consistently below par. She relies on self-reported claims by psychics, hundred-year-old newspaper accounts and the results of studies published by organizations like the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research rather than in reputable, peer-reviewed scientific journals (and sometimes she cites no source at all). Powell is woefully short on mechanisms to explain the phenomena she claims are so common, although she does turn to quantum physics to assert that molecular resonance and the space-time continuum are likely responsible, and she finds evolutionary explanations for the existence of psychic phenomena. She claims, for instance, that psychic events are related to dreaming, which may have evolved so babies, who mostly sleep, can detect threats and communicate them psychically to their parents. Undaunted by the weak evidence, Powell asserts that she is on the forefront of a “Copernican revolution” of the mind. (Jan.)

Created in 1974 and comprising skilled scientists and engineers, the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) deals with threats of nuclear terrorism, tracks down lost or stolen nuclear material and provides technical assistance in disposing of it. In fact, according to Richelson, most threats are hoaxes or extortion schemes, and no genuine nuclear terrorist plot has come near to succeeding. Despite the lack of cliffhangers, Richelson tells plenty of gripping stories of H-bombs dropping out of planes, reactors misbehaving and a nuclear-powered Russian satellite crashing to earth. A National Security Archive senior fellow, Richelson (Spying on the Bomb) devotes most of the book to a meticulous history of NEST's makeup, training, the persistent squabbling over who controls it (currently the Department of Energy), and many important if undramatic missions such as helping ex-Soviet nations secure their nuclear stockpiles. The book makes a convincing and troubling case that much of the world's nuclear material remains in the hands of institutions and governments incompetent to protect it—a situation that promises to keep NEST busy. 16 pages of illus., 4 maps. (Jan.)

This study is haunted by the great unanswered question of U.S. relations with Catholicism's tiny citadel—why bother having any at all? For much of its existence, the author notes, a virulently anti-Catholic America didn't bother, and it wasn't until 1984 that Ronald Reagan appointed America's first ambassador to the Vatican. Franco, a columnist for Corriere della Sera, devotes most of his attention to the last three decades, when John Paul II's anticommunism and the emergence of conservative Catholics as a cornerstone of the Republican base raised the Vatican's profile in American foreign policy. Franco susses out harmonies and dissonances in the current relationship: while the Vatican and the Bush administration line up on social issues like abortion and gay marriage, John Paul II irritated the White House by speaking out against the Iraq War and other American adventures, fearing they would nourish global “Christianophobia.” Franco's is a nuanced, informative look at this relationship, but his styling of the Vatican and U.S. as “the West's two parallel empires” overstates a marginal dimension of world affairs. (Jan. 20)

In this last book before his death in 2006, Deakin (Waterlog) delights with his curiosity and affection for rambling forests in Europe and Australia. The book is as much about the woodland animals and humans engaged with forest life as it is about the trees, the rooks “flinging themselves into a strong wind and somersaulting wildly upward, then diving straight down again into the woods like bungee jumpers”; the Essex Moth Group clustering around a mercury lamp to view moths with poetic names like “the willow beauty, the dingy footman, the clouded silver”; and artists engaging with nature, like John Wolseley, inspired by the fire-struck Australian Whipstick Forest to create works expressing “all the urgency and energy of the racing bushfire itself.” Deakin's lyrical, sometimes anthropomorphic portraits of trees and wood are saturated with his scientific knowledge and passion: a hazel branch, “more of a magician's staff than a walking stick... naturally fluted and spiraled by the strangling effect of the honeysuckle stem that still encircled it like an asp... was a masterpiece of nature, the voluptuous embrace of the honeysuckle exciting the hazel into a frenzy of cell division.” (Jan.)

If Fortune columnist Miller's eerily prophetic book had come out earlier, it could have served as a wakeup call for Wall Street leaders and Washington, D.C. lawmakers before the failure of several venerable financial institutions required government bailouts. The author's prescient observations make a persuasive case for how an American attitude of entitlement and outdated beliefs about government, education, taxes, business, corporate excess and health care threaten our national well-being and our position as a world leader. The author denounces such cherished and longstanding beliefs as “Your Company Should Take Care of You,” and “The Kids Will Earn More than We Do,” and examines their historical provenances—for example, he traces the adoption of pensions to the early 20th century, when employers like Proctor and Gamble and G.E. “acted as feudal lords” offering benefits to recruit and retain employees—strategies that are now strangling these same corporations at the expense of global competitiveness. Rather than a petulant indictment of our political and economic myopia, this book offers a fair-handed critique. (Jan.)

Historian Marshall (Keep Going) looks to the life and accomplishments of Lakota warrior Crazy Horse for lessons on leadership in this curious and ultimately disappointing book. Best known for his 1876 defeat of General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse was renowned for being the consummate Lakota leader: resolute in battle, courageous, magnanimous, generous to his people and conscious of the example he set. From the events of Crazy Horse's life, the author abstracts four principles of leadership: “Know Yourself,” “Know Your Friends,” “Know Your Enemies” and “Take the Lead.” While the biographical sections on Crazy Horse are tightly detailed, the personal development advice is fuzzy and unfocused. Marshall insists that anyone can and should become a leader, but his examples are almost all drawn from politics and provide few examples on how to guide families, workplaces and communities, thereby stressing the importance of choosing leaders wisely but neglecting to show readers how to grow into leadership themselves. (Jan.)

This book by the coauthors of Chakra Yoga follows yoga veteran Repka through an anxious first year in New York, her disappointment with intimidating yoga classes—bastions of chic slimness—and her serendipitous meeting with “Supreme Yogi” Alan Finger. She is inspired by the yogi's tantric knowledge, and Finger recognizes Repka's skill and passion. He makes her his assistant, and the two embark on private sessions in which Finger reveals the advantages of breath work in ameliorating stress, resolving problems and increasing well-being. The breathing exercises at the end of each chapter increase in difficulty, and the authors suggest audio-taping each assignment (rather than trying to follow them in written form) for ease of completion. While Repka's happy ending might feel suspiciously neat, the universality of her need to find focus and balance, as well as the time-honored application of the breathing remedy, make this book an illuminating endeavor. The pairing of day-to-day problems with a distinctive antidote is anything but pedestrian. A quick read, the book conjures a powerful portrait of the mentor-pupil dynamic. (Jan.)

Cushnir (Unconditional Bliss) introduces fascinating and iconoclastic ideas about health and healing in this book, which argues that “emotions are physical. Our bodies are the only places they can ever be found.” The author, a spiritual teacher, suggests treating depressions, addictions and compulsions by identifying uncomfortable physical sensations in the body as roots of suppressed emotions. His process—“finding the flinch”—allows people to acknowledge and connect to internal sadness, fear or anger (“whenever emotions are shunned or considered inappropriate, they rule most forcefully behind the scenes”), slow down and allow the feelings to arise and depart. What remains is a softer, expansive frame of mind where one can identify deeper patterns or unearth old stories without any resistance. Emotions “don't need to be felt forever, or obsessively, but just long enough to have their say,” contends Cushnir, who fleshes out his “core concepts” with a welcome abundance of profiles; case studies of using his techniques to quit everything from cigarettes to sexual addiction, and practical tips and exercises. (Jan.)

Fleming, who directed most of The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, and all of The Virginian and Bombshell, was not just a consummate studio craftsman but a distinctive artist, contends this rapt biography. Film critic Sragow has a tough case to make. Fleming's varied oeuvre suggests no signature onscreen style; instead, Sragow celebrates his feel for action and fantasy, and his intuitive way of directing actors. He also credits Fleming with inventing the Hollywood masculinity embodied by screen idols like Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. Fleming, a big-game hunter and a polished bon vivant known for bedding his female stars, was both “a man's man and a ladies' man,” Sragow writes, who made male characters correspondingly tough but chivalrous (though offscreen Fleming wasn't above twisting Lana Turner's arm or slapping Ingrid Bergman to draw on-camera tears). Sragow's intricate, engrossing accounts of the making of Fleming's films convey his on-set charisma (and form a fine montage of Hollywood's evolution), but the real auteur is the studio system itself and its well-honed myth-making machinery (Fleming's last movie, Joan of Arc, an independent production, was a fiasco). Sragow's Fleming is a man who personified Old Hollywood, but didn't transcend it. Photos. (Dec. 9)

According to Dávila (Barrio Dreams), the huge and heterogeneous Latino population has been treated to facile and contradictory representations in the public sphere as both “problem” (immigrant) and “opportunity” (voters, consumers). Her invaluable scholarly treatment unearths the competing interests and race-inflected ideological tendencies behind characterizations of Latino political identity in the mainstream media. Those scholars, pollsters, marketers and policymakers hitching Latinos to an image of the American middle class have larger motivations and interests to satisfy, the more partisan of which use Latinos to narrow the permissible definition of the “patriotic American” in the first place. Obscured in pervasive media portraits of the “equation-altering” Latino vote is the fact that only 18% of Latinos went to the polls in 2004 and their relative lack of representation in government points to their overwhelming disenfranchisement. The image of the “Latino middle class” masks as much as it reveals, not least the embattled state of the American middle class as a whole. Latinos are indeed “at the heart of the remaking of America,” argues Dávila shrewdly, “[b]ut not in the optimistic ways described by political pundits” (Dec.)

Rufus (Party of One) investigates why in a time when “no population anywhere has ever been so free... somehow we all feel stuck,” sorting various feelings of paralysis into six major categories: we are stuck in the past, stuck in the present, creatures of habit, addicted to trauma, co-dependent and unwilling to find job fulfillment. Almost immediately, the author becomes hopelessly tangled in an entire nation's neuroses that won't conform to neat classifications that are meant to accommodate afflictions as diverse as shellshock, obesity, procrastination, infidelity and being constantly late. Rufus undermines her own points often, because she provides scant evidence to buttress her frequent lament that things just aren't the way they used to be. “It's as if a generation has lost faith in going out to seek their fortunes,” she contends, but provides no data to prove that more adult children are living with their parents than in previous generations. The book combines an uneasy mixture of pop psychology and glib analysis. While Rufus's premise is provocative, it remains mired in poor presentation and groundless assertions. (Dec.)

Coren's insights into dog-human interaction in such books as Why Does My Dog Act That Way? and How to Speak Dog have attracted large numbers of devoted readers who will delight in this collection of shorter essays on “our relationships with and our emotional bonds to our dogs.” Topics explored include the influence of technological advancement on the development—and in some cases extinction—of various dog breeds; how the author helped diffuse the tension between his wife and his Cairn Terrier, who is bred to loudly bark when it is the least bit excited (Jack Russell Terrier owners should be required to read this essay); and whether dogs “love” their owners (Coren says, “yes”). Fascinating sections detail how humans have shaped canine temperaments and the various health and psychological benefits of dog ownership. The essay form allows Coren to display a lighter, humorous and often more personal tone than is found in his other books, and his affection and vast knowledge are on full display in this engaging collection that will leave his fans hankering for further installments. (Dec.)

In a grand synthesis, one of our most distinguished classicists relates all that we know—and don't know—about ancient Pompeii, devastated by a flood of lava and volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Beard splendidly recreates the life and times of Pompeii in a work that is part archeology and part history. She examines the full scope of life, from houses, occupations, government, food and wine to sex, and the baths, recreation and religion. In this bustling seaside town, makers of garum, a concoction of rotten seafood and salt, did a modest business, but Umbricius Scaurus marketed his product as “premium” garum and became one of Pompeii's nouveaux riches. Focusing on the restored houses, Beard refutes the common notion that most Romans ate their meals while reclining on a triclinium. Rather, they ate wherever they could within the home. Finally, Beard reminds us that everybody except the very poorest went to the baths, which served as a great social leveler. Beard's tour de force takes the study of ancient history to a new level. 23 color and 113 b&w illus. (Dec.)

Milner and O'Connor, two leading historians of the American West, deliver an outstanding history of Granville Stuart (1834–1918), a Gold Rush miner, Montana cattle baron and hanging-hungry vigilante as well as a master of languages, a U.S. ambassador to Paraguay and Uruguay, and the author of an intriguing autobiography, Forty Years on the Frontier. Stuart's various successes were based not only on hard work, but on the unbridled exploitation of resources and native peoples, particularly the Shoshone. Although he learned the Shoshone language and married a Shoshone woman, Stuart disavowed their 11 children after 26 years, at the time of his second marriage, to a white woman. Stuart spent his final days in reduced circumstances, the one resource he had left to peddle being his romanticized memories of the early West. He left behind a room full of diaries—material that Milner and O'Connor, a husband-and-wife team and both history professors at Arkansas State, put to superb use as they probe the complexities of this archetypal Western settler. B&w illus., maps. (Dec.)

The crimes of Argentina's late-1970s military dictatorship emerge through the eyes of a courageous journalist in this stirring homage, written by his son. Robert Cox was the editor of the English-language Buenos Aires Herald, the only Argentinean paper that consistently covered kidnappings and murders by government security forces during the “dirty war” against leftists and other opponents. Testimonials reprinted here attest that Robert's reporting and editorials, many reprinted here, saved the lives of many of the “disappeared” and helped break the press establishment's conspiracy of denial. Memoiristic accounts of cheerful family vacations clash with the grim atmospherics, and once Robert and his family flee the country in 1979, the author drops the story of the Herald and Argentina's ongoing travails. Still, it's a riveting tale. As Robert pushes the envelope of dissent under a brutal dictatorship—seeking out victims' relatives, verbal fencing with outraged military officials, weathering death threats and government thugs—we get an acute sense of the fear bred by repression and of the bravery required to combat it. Photos, b&w photos. (Dec. 2)

Historian Gelardi (Born to Rule) focuses on the fates of three pairs of royal mothers and daughters: Isabella of Castile and Catherine of Aragon, Maria Theresa and Marie Antoinette, and Queen Victoria and Empress Frederick. The unusual melding of Spanish, English, Austrian, French and Prussian history into one sweeping project is done with remarkable clarity and verve. Excerpts of her subjects' letters are integrated flawlessly into the sequence of events. Gelardi is also skilled in placing actions within the larger historical framework of international relations, as well as genetics—Gelardi traces the devastating effects of hemophilia on royal families in one of her most interesting tangents. The personal relationships portrayed are layered and complex, and tidbits regarding fashion and Queen Victoria's childhood love of dolls are not to be missed. Gelardi's incessant need to justify connecting the three monarchs and their daughters through similarities in personality, political accomplishments and unusually loving relationships is annoying, but she still produces an excellent, comprehensive study of six fascinating women and the troubled times that shaped their lives. 16 pages of color photos. (Dec.)

With infectious, at times frenetic, excitement, Anelli presents two narratives in this hip report on how a boy wizard became a rock star. The first is a love letter to the fans of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter: a smart, creative, multinational, generation-spanning and technology-driven community. In the second, Anelli gives readers an exhaustive, if often jumbled, time line of Harry Potter's popularity. Appropriately for the webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron Web site, the author pays attention to the power of the Internet and its symbiotic relationship with fan communities, known as “fandoms.” Anelli attributes the evolution of fandoms principally to Harry Potter—an error that ignores other fandom phenomena like Star Trek or The X-Files. As she details her work with the Leaky Cauldron, readers get a view into the publishing world and the impressive tale of Harry Potter's ascension. Anelli also shares sweet scenes of meeting Rowling and the actors who portray the characters in the films. Fans will recognize themselves in these pages, and the curious might finally understand their friends. (Nov. 4)

Both a meditation on the powerful rites of cooking and serving a meal and a gentle but serious education in doing both, this book by the part-time head chef at Berkeley's renowned Chez Panisse is an impressive ode to the simple beauty of food. With 24 menus distributed over the course of a year, Tanis emphasizes seasonality with ingredients (blueberry-blackberry crumble in summer; celery root mashed potatoes in winter) and with the types of dishes provided for each menu (as with a divine, warming lobster risotto as part of a menu for a cold spring day). Anecdotes from his peripatetic life of enjoying good food around the world, from Venice to Morocco to New Mexico, add another intimate dimension and help the book appear written just for the reader by a kind, patient friend. Many of the recipes are almost as simple as the title implies: a summer menu features sliced tomatoes with sea salt, while a course for a fall lunch consists of nothing more than pears and Parmigiano cheese. Others, like a black paella with squid and shrimp, are more involved, but the detailed instructions make them accessible to any cook willing to put in the effort, and the results are delicious, never fussy. Taking a stand against the typical cookbook organization from appetizers through desserts, Tanis teaches how to think clearly about conceiving, preparing and enjoying simple but delicious meals. Full-color photos throughout. (Nov.)

Duck “sushi,” foie gras croquettes with yuzu marmalade, octopus carpaccio—such elaborate yet playful creations from Nobu Matsuhisa's Miami outpost would fit in at any trendy party. Matsuhisa and his Miami executive chef, Buckley, offer this thoughtful interplay of cuisines, with Latin American ingredients incorporated into Japanese dishes and vice versa, all executed with Buckley's European precision but infused with the colorful, fun approach that always inspires chefs in Miami. Chapters divide the book into finger foods, such as stuffed cucumber and sliders made with Kobe beef and daikon radish “buns”; larger dishes for luncheons and dinners (amped-up fish and chips; spicy marinated grilled short ribs); and, of course, an array of exotic desserts like banana harumaki with dulce de leche. Overall, most recipes have relatively few steps, but preparation methods and the multitude of unusual ingredients required are likely to daunt home cooks without a big budget and a kitchen full of assistants. Still, this gloriously photographed book will attract readers interested in the genesis of these dishes and ways to think about their flavors. (Nov.)

Enrobed in gold foil like a high-end chocolate bar, this fat tome offers chocolate lovers a rich variety of ways in which to enjoy their favorite treat. Cookies, brownies, cupcakes and cakes, mousses and every other decadent sweet dish imaginable—plus some unusual savory ones—are all featured in full-page, easy-to-read spreads accompanied by lavish photos. The recipes are ranked in three levels of difficulty, with the majority given the easiest rating, though not always deservingly, and their styles span the range from homey, traditional offerings such as no-bake chocolate squares and several chocolate chip cookie variations, to refined, restaurant-quality desserts like chocolate crème brûleé as well as a few more exotic creations (shortbread with passion fruit drizzle; white chocolate and lime Bundt cake). The book opens with a comprehensive overview of the science, history and business of chocolate, though any true chocolate lover will likely already be up to speed on the health benefits of the cacao bean. Unfortunately, after that introduction the authors forgo further tips or hints about ingredients or preparation. Nonetheless, this will make an attractive gift for anyone keen on chocolate, whether or not they choose to try their hand at the recipes. Full-color photos throughout. (Nov.)

As cocktail culture becomes ever more popular, mixed drinks grow ever more refined and complex. Beattie, barmaster for Cyrus Restaurant in the Sonoma wine country, embraces this trend with 50 recipes that are rich in rare fruits, fresh herbs and dried spices. Pickled hearts of palm and a chili pepper spice up the rum drink called a Hot Indian Date, and edible flowers color several concoctions such as the Sunny and Dry, which calls for black-eyed Susan petals, spearmint leaves, cucumber and gin. Even the mainstay simple syrup gets the treatment. Anise, fennel seed, cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns are blended in to create Chinese five-spice syrup. As the subtitle suggests, the recipes are grouped by season. Theoretically, this is a fine approach, but Beattie is a pure Californian. His view of winter is that it's “gray and rainy” and that California is “blessed with so much wonderful citrus.” Such warm-weather mentality perhaps explains why the margarita is a winter drink, the mint julep forgoes Derby Day for summer, and soul-warming options like the Manhattan and hot buttered rum turn up in the spring and fall, respectively. (Nov.)

Andrés (Tapas), chef-owner of seven D.C.-area restaurants and host of PBS's Made in Spain, brings everyday Spanish cooking to the American table. A native of Spain and protégé of elBulli's Ferran Adrià, Andrés offers an insider's perspective of his home country's cuisine and the varied approaches the different regions take to food. Dividing the book by food type and region, Andrés provides a culinary guide to regional specialties: Andalucia and salads, Madrid and soups, and Cataluña and pork, among others. Recipes require no special cooking techniques or equipment and stress the importance of quality ingredients, most of which are easy to find. Mouthwatering highlights include lobster and mushroom paella, Catalan pork with sausage and mushrooms, and chicken with peppers, tomatoes, onions and Spanish ham. One hundred lavish full-color photos make even the simplest of dishes (such as roasted vegetables, Mallorca style, and Manchego with tomato, thyme and walnuts) tantalizing. This collection will appeal both to cooks new to Spanish cooking and those familiar with it, and all will learn something from Andrés, who shows us why Spain is taking its rightful place at the top of the culinary ladder. (Nov.)

Crawford, a psychotherapist, approaches her topic from the perspective of a professional who has dealt with many intuitive children during the past 20 years, and also as an intuitive individual herself. Children who are highly intuitive and empathic, she explains, both present and face unique challenges, and parents who are not particularly intuitive themselves may be shocked, perplexed and even frightened by their offspring's unusual gifts. While certain indigenous cultures have long regarded intuitive children in a positive light (such as the Inuit and ancient Mayans), mainstream America—and its parenting books—have avoided the topic, the author claims. Crawford steps up to the plate, dealing with the intuitive child's difficulties at home and at school, and encouraging parents to offer love and acceptance. She explains that empathic children often take on the weight of the world, and may become overly stressed by and sensitive to injustice. In a useful chapter, Crawford outlines 10 important skills that parents can teach intuitive children ranging from learning how to tell the difference between random fears and intuition, to how to turn down the volume on “intuitive antennae.” While Crawford's audience may be somewhat limited, she offers sincere support and practical information to parents searching to aid and more deeply understand their highly intuitive child. (Dec.)

Londergan (I'm Too Sexy for My Volvo) turns her pen to parenting adolescents in this comical treatise on the teen years. Using the Kübler-Ross model of five stages of grief, Londergan divides the angst-ridden adolescent years into five tongue-in-cheek stages of parental denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. The author notes that puberty and menopause often occur simultaneously in families, providing a “perfect storm” of roiling emotions. With anecdotes and tips from other parents and teens, as well as her own experiences as the parent of four children, she tackles such issues as drugs and alcohol, sex, and teen privacy, coaching parents on how to talk to teens without seeming “dumb and weak.” Londergan notes that while male teens often disappear into their rooms (they are “subtle and defiant”), girls can be “hysterical and in your face.” Urging parents to give up the ideal of the perfect kid, Londergan delivers her “unvarnished truth” about teens with style and humor (e.g., “There is no EZ pass on the turnpike of teen parenting”). Though Londergan is anything but cheerful, readers seeking savvy practical advice as well as sympathy for their plight during the teen years won't be disappointed. (Nov.)

“Dairy products should be illegal,” proclaims leukemia survivor and Emmy Award–winner Pirello (Cooking the Whole Foods Way), giving readers a good idea of this crusader's uncompromising stance on the current state of the food industry, our environment and the need for change. Host of the public television series Christina Cooks and a noted authority on vegetarian cooking, Pirello studied with macrobiotic diet pioneer Michio Kushi and has eaten vegan for more than 20 years. The first section of the book grounds readers in vegan principles, arguing the case from a variety of perspectives (health, humanitarian, economic, environmental). Her plan for making the transition from standard American fat- and sugar-laden convenience foods to regularly scheduled whole-food meals consists of a 21-day, two-phase detoxification and weight-loss program, with tips on stress reduction and living more consciously, and a whole-body fitness regime (cardio, strength training and flexibility). Having beat leukemia and completed her first triathlon at age 51, Pirello is strong on setting intentions and achieving goals. With her, readers have a tireless, reliable guide to going vegan, and the many recipes she offers for delicious vegan meals will make foregoing meat easy. (Dec.)

Losing weight gets more difficult as women get older, and those in menopause have the added problem of dealing with the physical and emotional stress of huge hormonal changes. Cheung and Balen (a health/nutrition writer and gynecologist, respectively) speak specifically to women who would like to address the symptoms of menopause without going the hormone replacement therapy route. The word “diet” in the title is misleading, as the book is less about losing weight than about overall wellness. Nutrition is only a part of the program, which also advocates proper exercise, stress release, detoxification, etc. Most of the advice is standard: drink lots of water, eat more fish, go organic and so on. It's sensible but hardly original; readers can find the same advice in any current health-and-diet book. However, the authors have tweaked the information to speak to women of a certain age, and their holistic approach to dealing with menopause (and pre- and post-) may hit their target. (Nov.)

“Iwas abruptly assailed by the feeling that I had to describe reality,” writes Berr midway through this urgent firsthand account of the devastation of Paris's Jewish community during WWII. This journal, which begins in 1942 as the record of a young woman's “intense and buzzing” inner life, becomes over time a record of human suffering: “How will the world be cleansed unless it is made to understand the full extent of the evil it is doing?” Berr, daughter of a prosperous assimilated Jewish family, was forced to quit her studies at the Sorbonne, joined an underground network to save Jewish children, saw her father arrested and beloved friends deported. But as compelling as external trials are the thoughts and feeling of this brilliant, passionate and brave young woman. As the noose tightens around Paris's Jews, Berr wonders if she still has the right to find momentary pleasure in reading; she questions herself for falling into “instinctive, primitive” hatred of Germans. Yet in one overpowering moment of rage, she rails against impassive Parisian Christians who “crucify Christ every day.” Berr died in Bergen-Belsen in 1944, five days before the camp's liberation, but her vibrant voice—full of anguish, compassion, indignation and defiance—springs from these pages—as extraordinary a document of occupied France as Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française. Photos. (Nov.)

Fans can load up their coffee tables this fall with music-themed books.

While a “punk encyclopedia” seems like an oxymoron, music writer and musician Cogan nicely succeeds in producing a “useful resource” illustrating “the urgency and importance of punk rock” from its mid-1970s start to “the movement's vitality in the present day.” A plethora of great photos—from the Clash and the Sex Pistols to newcomers Groucho Marxists and the Shemps—accompany knowledgeable, fascinating and fast-paced entries that illuminate punk bands' struggle to survive (the Ramones were paid only $5,000 for their starring role in Rock 'n' Roll High School in 1979) while avoiding being co-opted by the mainstream music biz. (Nov.)

This obsessively detailed and completely entertaining chronicle by Victor (The Marilyn Encyclopedia) of every possible aspect of Elvis Presley's life is mesmerizing and deserves a wide audience. Elvis fans will delight in the many famous and rare photos illustrating entries on the King's every song, album and movie as well as his complete last will and testament. But nonfans will marvel at such meticulously researched entries as “Religion” (a vision of “Stalin and Jesus in a high bank of cloud” made Elvis consider “joining a monastery”), as well as a comprehensive state-by-state list of “Hotels Where Elvis Stayed.” (Oct.)

In this extensive collection of interviews, band memorabilia and photographs, longtime Minneapolis Star Tribune music critic Bream assembles the ultimate guide to the infamous rock group Led Zeppelin. Veteran performers Joe Perry, Peter Frampton, Ray Davies and Steve Earle, among many others, contribute commentary about Zeppelin and its tremendous impact on popular music. The book is a treasure trove of information, featuring tour dates, copies of limited-edition concert posters, delightfully fluorescent foreign advertisements and a wide variety of photographs from live performances. This is the ideal resource for obsessive fans yearning to absorb every bit of minutiae related to Led Zeppelin. (Oct.)

Steffens, founding editor of The Beat, and Simon, photographer and coauthor of Reggae Bloodlines, fuse their talents to create this vibrant and all-encompassing history of the Jamaican music phenomenon that swept through the U.S. in the mid-1970s. While paying homage to “reggae royalty” icons such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff, the authors go to great lengths to explore lesser-known musicians in glossy photographs, essays, copies of advertisements and detachable postcards. The editors successfully use the reggae aesthetic in a burst of bright primary colors and a flurry of marijuana leaves (with accompanying clouds of thick smoke). The result is a thoroughly enjoyable scrapbook with equally captivating design and content. (Oct.)

This early entry in the flood of books that will be celebrating the 40th anniversary next summer of the 1969 Woodstock music festival has the virtue of being straightforward. At age 18, Walter took many photos featured here while he worked as one of Woodstock's building crew, and his brief accompanying text too often displays a teenage simplicity (“Saturday was a lot of fun”). But Walker's basic “point and shoot” style—probably similar to photos taken by many in the festival's half-million audience—captures (perhaps unintentionally) the wet, slightly dazed look on teens and young adults awash in a sea of mud and garbage. The only thing missing is the smell. (Oct.)