Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 10/6/2008

-- Publishers Weekly, 10/6/2008

NONFICTION

Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. Basic, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 9780465005154
In this critical but optimistic overview, academics Palfrey (of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society) and Gasser (of the Swiss U. of St. Gallen) share their concern about the legal and social ramifications of the Internet with regard to the generation of “Digital Natives” born after 1980. In a wide-ranging examination of “the future opportunities and challenges associated with the Internet as a social space,” Palfrey and Gasser find most young people fail to recognize the vulnerability of their information—that internet posts are never really private—and suggest tactful parental and school oversight. They find a more serious problem in the failure of the U.S. to regulate data mining by search engines, which even now have the potential to create cradle-to-grave dossiers on individuals, including online medical and financial records; they compare the U.S. system with Europe’s policies, which have put in place much more effective data protection. Parents and educators will benefit from Palfrey and Gasser's discussion of issues like safety, content control and illegal file sharing; with proper attention from them, the authors see a bright future for the Internet that should foster “global citizens” with a “spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and caring for society at large.” (Sept.)

Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities and Rivalries that Made Modern Chemistry
Patrick Coffey. Oxford Univ., $29.95 (416p) ISBN 9780195321340
Chemist and scholar Coffey brings to life the struggles of pioneering chemists who modernized the field. Many of these scientists met tragic ends and twists of fate, such as Fritz Haber, who developed the pesticide that would be used in Nazi gas chambers to kill his own relatives. Other scientists, like Marjorie Wrinch, became so attached to disproved pet theories that they sank into endless resentment. Coffey begins with some giants of European chemistry—Arrhenius, Nernst, Ostvald, van’t Hoff—and proceeds through a number of their followers, including Americans Gilbert Lewis and Irving Langmuir. WWI saw Haber achieve infamy for his invention of mustard gas; soon, Langmuir was working to replicate the Germans’ chemical weapon for the U.S., and Lewis was training gas officers for the frontlines. WWII also saw important chemistry advances; Lewis, his student Harold Urey, and Glen Seaborg pioneered techniques of nuclear chemistry essential to the creation of the Bomb. When told the loss of Jewish scientists would irrevocably damage German science, Hitler replied, “Then we will do without physics and chemistry for the next hundred years”; in this engrossing, often somber history, Coffey reminds us not just that science trumped by ideology is a damning proposition, but that even the most complex science starts with the efforts of mere humans. (Sept.)

Counting Every Vote: The Most Contentious Elections in American History
Robert Dudley and Eric Shiraev. Potomac, $24.95 (176p) ISBN 9781597972246
In six elections, authors and professors Dudley and Shiraev relive, to surprisingly dull effect, the contests that most divided the American people. Perhaps you had to be there; probably the most exciting contest is the 2000 presidential election in which Bush took Gore to the Supreme Court and introduced America to “the chad.” The authors also capture some of the thrill of 1960’s Kennedy-Nixon race, in which Kennedy famously took Illinois with only nine of the 99 counties. Following the specifics of each case, the authors speculate on how the results might have been reversed and what it would have meant for history. But even those speculations prove tame: if Humphrey had beat Nixon in the 1968 campaign, for example, the authors conclude that he would have tried to end the Vietnam war prior to 1972 and on America’s terms. Further, the authors themselves conclude that “close elections had a negligible impact on the course of history”; this slight read has all the facts, but fails to find the heart of the conflict. (Oct.)

Flash of Genius: And Other True Stories of Invention
John Seabrook. St. Martins Griffin, $13.95 paper (320p) ISBN 9780312535728
Author Seabrook (Nobrow: The Culture of Marketing, the Marketing of Culture), a staff writer for The New Yorker (where these 15 essays first appeared), says in his introduction that he has “always been interested in the circumstances, unforeseen obstacles, and unimagined outcomes of ‘inventive acts.’” It’s clear that he’s also fascinated by interconnectedness: how the prospector in Nevada links to investors in gold futures, how the business of scrap metal links American trash to Chinese entrepreneurship. Each story is a brief but detailed look inside what might seem arcane businesses, projects and ideas (like the research into an anachronistic Greek artifact called the Antikythera Mechanism), made clear and compelling by Seabrook’s focus on personal satisfaction over business success, though the themes of human inventiveness and human acquisitiveness twine throughout (with a few exceptions, money is a huge driving force in these stories). Especially entrancing are the “Fruit Detective,” the founding of the Weather Channel, the efforts of a Hollywood animatronic designer and an MIT scientist to build a “lovable” robot, and the title essay, following windshield wiper revolutionary Bob Kearns’s long fight with Ford Motors (and basis for the current feature film). (Sept.)

Greasy Rider: Two Dudes, One Fry-Oil-Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future
Greg Melville. Algonquin, $15.95 paper (257p) ISBN 9781565125957
Early on in this eco-travelogue, mechanically-disinclined magazine writer Melville notes, “I simply needed to look at my reflection in the rearview mirror to realize that nearly anyone can operate and maintain a french-fry car.” Indeed, it turns out Melville is easily able to convert a diesel-engine Mercedes into a vehicle powered entirely on fryer oil, collected (usually for free) from restaurant grease dumpsters. Joined by his college friend, Iggy, Melville embarks on the first oil-powered cross-country road trip. There isn’t really much suspense to the quest, especially once it’s clear that they can use oil purchased at the supermarket. Unfortunately, greasy restaurant backlots don’t make for great anecdotes, and the duo’s banter isn’t as funny or insightful as Melville seems to think. What keeps it from reading like a padded magazine article are Melville’s side trips: he learns how Fort Knox has converted to geo-thermal heating and cooling, investigates just how eco-friendly Al Gore’s mansion really is, and talks to representatives of various “green” U.S. Government agencies. These insights, and the simplicity of his grease-powered transport, propel an otherwise slight read into a thought-, and perhaps action-provoking lesson in alternative fuel. (Oct.)

Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently
Gregory Berns. Harvard Business Press, $29.95 (256p) ISBN 9781422115015
Psychiatry professor Berns (Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment) describes an iconoclast as “a person who does something that others say can’t be done.” Though keeping his promise to reveal the “biological basis” for the ability to think outside the box, Berns keeps technical explanation to a minimum, instead using themes like perception, fear and networking to profile a number of famous free-thinkers. While the ordinary person perceives the world based on his past experience and “what other people say,” the iconoclast is both willing and able to risk seeing things differently; in the case of glass sculptor Dale Chihuly, his creative breakthrough (departing from symmetry in his ice-sculptures) came after a car crash blinded him in one eye, literally changing his view of the world. The will to take risks is also paramount; Cardinals baseball coach Branch Rickey and his controversial hire Jackie Robinson, the first black man in the Majors, provide models of imagination and fearlessness. Berns also looks at iconoclasts like Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Ford, the Dixie Chicks, Warren Buffett and Picasso, relating in lucid terms the mindsets that set them apart. (Oct.)

Lost at School: Why Our Behaviorally Challenging Kids Are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them
Ross Greene. Scribner, $25 (304p) ISBN 9781416572268
Psychiatrist and Harvard professor Greene follows up The Explosive Child with an in-depth approach to aid parents and teachers to work together with behaviorally challenging students. Greene’s philosophy is driven by the recognition that “kids who haven’t responded to natural consequences don’t need more consequences, they need adults who are knowledgeable about how challenging kids come to be challenging.” Greene’s “Plan B” system, which is fully and clearly explained in the course of the book, emphasizes identifying challenging behaviors—acting out, hitting, swearing, poor performance in class—and then working with students to find actual, practical ways to avoid them. Helpfully, Greene uses a fictional school for examples, devoting several pages to illustrative anecdotes in each chapter, greatly increasing the material’s accessibility. Greene’s technique is not fail-proof, principally because it requires the good will and hard work of all participants; a section on implementing Plan B in the face of real disagreement or apathy would have been helpful. However, Plan B has all the qualities of accessibility, logic and compassion to make it a solid strategy for parents and educators. (Oct.)

Love Matters: Remarkable Stories That Touch the Heart and Nourish the Soul
Delilah. Harlequin, $16.95 (230p) ISBN 9780373892006
Popular nighttime light listening radio host Delilah serves as a cooing therapist for listeners on 250 radio stations across the U.S. and Canada, who write their stories of loss and inspiration in “Dear Delilah” letters she reads on air before offering relief in the form of “sappy love songs.” Here, she’s collected some of the more memorable listener stories from the thousands she receives each week, most involving love, tragedy, faith and letting go, and handily noting the song aired for each: a young woman’s journey from traumatized victim of (unnamed) violent crime to love is tagged with Lonestar’s “Amazed”; a Christmas Day Vietnam War story about “an enemy who performed the greatest act of friendship imaginable” prompts The Hollies’ “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother.” Though Delilah contributes some heartfelt introductions, these letters lose much of their power without the voice or the audio track to back them up. Though a fine gift for major Delilah fans, your time is probably better spent listening to her show. (Oct.)

New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine
Editors of New York Magazine. Random, $17 paper (624p) ISBN 9780812979923
In a delightful foreword, Tom Wolfe hits the ground running with a chronicle of New York Magazine’s humble beginnings, as a supplement to The New York Herald Tribune, and its growth, at the hands of fearless editor Clay Felker, to rival the untouchable New Yorker. For the mag’s 40th anniversary, the editors have collected some of its most memorable essays, including Mark Jacobsen’s 1975 “Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet” (which loosely inspired the television show Taxi, Nik Cohn’s Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night and, in turn, the film Saturday Night Fever), two Gloria Steinem essays (including her brilliant 1969 manifesto, “After Black Power, Women’s Lib”), and other articles from the likes of Jay McInerney, George Plimpton, Nora Ephron, Joe Klein, and current New York regulars Kurt Anderson and Emily Nussbaum. More recent favorites include Steve Fishman’s “The Dead Wives Club, or Char in Love,” about a group profile of Staten Island firemen’s wives widowed on 9/11, and Mark Jacobson’s “The $2,000-an-Hour Woman,” a 2005 piece on “America’s No. 1 escort” (whose colleague would later bring down Gov. Eliot Spitzer). Highlights abound, including Wolfe’s classic 1976 “The ‘Me’ Decade,” which details the yuppy phenomenon’s “great religious wave” of narcissistic self-discovery for “dreary little bastards” with money. A pleasure to read, this book will satisfy anyone wishing to reminisce about New York City and the birth of New Journalism. (Sept.)

Prophet's Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant
Erin Prophet. Lyons, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 9781599214252
In this extraordinary memoir, Prophet pulls the curtain back on the highest levels of life inside a cult, documenting her life inside as the daughter of cult leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet, of the Church Universal and Triumphant, from her birth through 1990, when the Church’s long-awaited apocalypse failed to materialize. Without judgment or reservation, but a remarkably clear-eyed view built on more than 10 years on the outside, Prophet’s account reveals cult life through the complex relationship with her charismatic, manipulative mother—a figure of equal reverence and alarm. Prophet’s straightforward voice makes the facts all the more disturbing and heartrending, but her empathy for her fellow sect-members is both touching and telling, drawing readers into the cult’s midst almost against their instincts. Those expecting sordid tales and angry judgments will be surprised by the subtlety and seeming safety of the cult; at heart, Prophet’s story is a classic coming-of-age tale, a young woman learning about the family business and facing the inevitable realization of her parent’s fallibility, but on a truly awesome scale. Like her own experience, Prophet’s intense tale is sure to stick with readers long after they make it through. (Oct.)

We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now
Edited by Murray Polner and Thomas E. Woods. Basic, $16.95 paper (368p) ISBN 9781568583853
This history of America in anti-war writing, “[c]oedited by a man of the left (Polner) and a man of the right (Woods),” is an insightful, relevant and varied collection that mines a strong tradition of American protest and principle. Covering the War of 1812 through “Iraq and the War on Terror,” the editors provide a brief background essay for each before ceding the page to essays, interviews, letters, poems and photos from the past 200 years. Contributors include Daniel Webster, Stephen Crane, Eugene V. Debs, Helen Keller and Howard Zinn, as well as presidents and other government officials, mothers, social justice activists, poets and songwriters. Parallels among wars and the present moment are easy to find, and the many warnings hang heavy, given the ambiguous aftermath of America’s conflicts. Eisenhower’s 1961 warning against the abuses of “the military-industrial complex” is a standby centerpiece worthy of another look, but much of the material is just as interesting, informative and impassioned. Foregoing any dry lessons, this history-in-protest is a valuable read for study and conversation in advance of the 2008 presidential election, and should be of interest to a wide audience not limited to history buffs, antiwar activists, and those seeking perspective on today’s war. (Sept.)

LIFESTYLE

Getting Unstuck: Unravelling the knot of Depression, Attention and Trauma
Don Kerson . Greenpoint Psychiatric (www.greenpointpsych.com), $24.95 (304p) ISBN 9780976986720
While Kerson, a psychopharmacologist and psychotherapist with 20 years of experience, doesn’t break new ground in this self-help book, he provides a knowledgeable, practical overview, with detailed techniques, for people who find themselves “stuck” in mental or emotional straits. Looking at three major mental illnesses—attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression and dissociation—and how they overlap, Kern covers lucidly the varied medications available, but puts equal effort into explaining induced trance states (“the therapeutic wave of the future”), guided visualization and time management techniques. Kerson is convinced that the extent of mental illness in the U.S. is hugely underestimated given the expectations of modern American life, sufferers’ ability to cope successfully and a “broken” mental health system that separates “prescribers” (MDs) from therapists. Undiagnosed ADD patients may have serious trouble with authority and motivation, and have probably “half-convinced themselves that they’re just lazy...[and] need a good kick in the pants.” Though wide-ranging and at times technical, this is a thorough and easy-to-understand guide for certified patients as well as the worn-down, those who might not consider themselves sick but could probably use the help. (Oct.)

Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters: Recipes You Remember and Love
Marilyn Brass and Sheila Brass. Black Dog & Leventhal (Workman, dist.), $29.95 (304p) ISBN 9781579127848
The Brass sisters (Heirloom Baking) once again pore through their impressive collection of timeworn note cards, cookbooks and manuscripts to offer up an assemblage of culinary favorites from yesteryear. Those expecting a compilation of curiosities will be largely disappointed, as the duo focus on homemade dishes that have stood the test of time: Clam Chowder, Irish Lamb Stew, Meatloaf, Chicken Soup and Red Velvet Cake outnumber novelties like Candle Salad, a 1950s-era combo of lettuce, pineapple, bananas, green bell pepper, maraschino cherries and sour cream (or mayo). Recipes are straightforward and simple, and ingredients are easily sourced; this is the stuff of potlucks, church dinners and family get-togethers. The sisters’ collection is remarkable, if not exactly showy, with recipes for Split Pea Soup and Blueberry Buckle that are more than a hundred years old. Food historians will appreciate the sisters’ homey anecdotes (up to and including reproductions of original recipe cards). Though not definitive (and with no aspirations to be), this leisurely, nostalgic collection of homemade favorites brings a heaping portion of America’s cooking traditions to the modern table. (Oct.)

Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking: Quick and Easy Wholesome Homemade Dinners
Beth Hensperger. Harvard Common, $26.95 (320p) ISBN 9781558323674; $14.95 paper 9781558323681
Many of the 150 entries in this volume (the fourth in the popular Not Your Mother’s series) are as appealing as they are quick and easy, as the subtitle suggests. Paillards of Chicken with Sautéed Cherry Tomatoes, Spaghetti with Zucchini, Basil, and Mint, Golden Risotto with Fresh Corn and Ginger, and Peggy’s Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup strike the right balance of simplicity and allure. So do the Mustard-Soy Glazed Salmon with Brown Sugar and Ginger and the Verde Salmon in Parchment with Green Olives. Some recipes, however, have a last-minute feel, such as a Chicken Divan Casserole adapted from a Campbell’s Soup label. But for readers who simply want a handful of good recipes for the everyday arsenal—this one’s worth the price. (Oct.)

POETRY

Burn and Dodge
Sharon Dolin. Univ. of Pittsburgh, $14 (120p) ISBN 9780822960058
Whatever else she does with the American language, Dolin (Heart Work) has fun: the New York City-based poet’s fourth volume combines great verbal ingenuity with a vast set of subjects, some quite serious (motherhood, sex) some near the upper limits of light verse (eavesdropping on “the summer au pair”), and some in between (a walking tour of Venice, “Tai Chi in Fog”). At home with the personal lyric, she sounds at least as happy when she can be self-consciously literary: when “Envy Speaks,” the personified emotion calls herself “a naked 500-year-old woman/ riding Death, saddled with a quiver of arrows.” Dolin works, to witty or masterful effect, in Marianne Moore’s syllabic stanzas, a sonnet sequence, ghazals, ultra-short-lined and fragmentary free verse, chatty prose poems, and deliberate imitations (of, among others, Moore, the Portuguese genius Fernando Pessoa, and the English peasant poet John Clare). Dolin’s best lines display both learning and wit—sometimes they sound comic, or flirtatious: “A lick over the foot doesn’t qualify as a crime,/ though a cigarette butt or a soda can not thrown in a can/ can in the Netherlands.” Among contemporary poets, she may appeal both to fans of the very accessibly urbane (say, Deborah Garrison), and to those who admire more demanding wordplay (say, Kay Ryan). Attentive readers will find credible emotions, real problems of divided love and of middle-aged worry, amid the sometimes baroque surfaces of Dolin’s poems. But the surfaces matter: they are the gift she brings. (Oct.)

FICTION

Ashes, Ashes
Charles Atkins. Severn, $27.95 (224p) ISBN 9780727866400
This lackluster thriller from Atkins (The Cadaver’s Ball) strains reader credulity to the breaking point. Attractive forensic psychiatrist Barrett Conyors receives an emergency call on the way to her Manhattan gynecologist to terminate the pregnancy caused by the rapist who killed her husband. She must act immediately to try to block a judge’s decision to transfer four extremely dangerous murderers from a maximum security prison in Stormville, N.Y., to a less secure facility in Croton. When the transfer goes through, Richard Glash, the deadliest of the inmates, escapes and gets his hands on some bubonic plague. In addition, Glash takes two hostages, Conyors and Carla Phelps, her legal adversary (and a former patient she’d diagnosed as bipolar), who desperately try to stop his plan to unleash the Black Death on New York City. Unconvincing actions sequences undercut the suspense. (Oct.)

The Bone Box
Bob Hostetler. S&S/Howard, $13.99 (352p) ISBN 9781416566472
Are there secrets, long hidden, which could prove that Christianity is the one true faith? This tantalizing premise underlies the latest excursion into religious fiction by Hoestetler (American Idols), a pastor-writer. Randall Bullock, an archaeologist who recently lost his wife, agrees to investigate a cave in Israel that turns out to contain not only the bones of Joseph, son of Caiaphas, but also an ancient scroll that appears to verify Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. The author knows his ancient history and labors to explain rituals, texts and biblical geography. He develops the Bullock character, making him a believable and sympathetic figure. Other characters, such as Bullock’s daughter Tracy and his love interest, Miri Sharon, do not propel the plot forward much at all. The Christian apologetics toward the end seem heavy-handed. Bullock faces a crisis in his own faith as he attempts to convince the world that he has found unquestionable proof that Jesus is indeed the Messiah; the author generates theological questions that will give Christian readers much to contemplate. (Oct.)

Tranquility
Attila Bartis, trans. from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein. Archipelago (Consortium, dist.), $15 paper (296p) ISBN 9780980033007
The first work by Bartis to be translated into English follows Ander Weer through 15 years dominated by his oedipal relationship with his agoraphobic mother, Rebeka, while, outside, Hungary transitions from Soviet satellite to independent state. Star of Hungarian stage and screen, Rebeka is humiliatingly demoted from lead actress to supporting role in an underhanded bid to pressure her into convincing her daughter, a concert violinist, to return to Hungary. Instead, Rebeka declares her daughter dead and retreats into her apartment, where she remains until her death. Ander becomes complicit in his mother’s isolation and fuels the growing oddity of their relationship by writing brief letters to his mother as though they were written by his sister. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Eszter, grows increasingly unstable as Ander refuses to leave his mother for her. Oddly beautiful and unsettling, the novel boldly illustrates the lengths people go to in securing their own private hells. (Sept.)