Nonfiction Reviews

A Fast Food Nation for dog lovers, this astute and amusing investigative report offers a “journey into the $41-billion-a-year world of the modern American pet.” Each chapter focuses on “a different realm of the pet universe,” and the total effect is reminiscent of Tom Wolfe's New Journalism essays on the sociology of pop culture. Schaffer explores baby boomers who devote themselves to “fur babies” after their children have grown up and moved out. He attends the 2008 Global Pet Expo to take stock of the 2,400 display booths of retail pet items. He observes New York's “burgeoning canine social scene.” In San Francisco, he looks at how arguments over dog leash laws are case studies in how cities need to “navigate the controversies” of a new pet-friendly world. And his fascinating piece on the evolution of pet toys—from the first “purportedly educational” ones made in a Colorado garage in the 1970s to today's “veritable arms race”—is essential reading for anyone whose dog has become hooked on Kong bounce balls. (Apr.)

Wells, a practicing veterinarian in a rural Colorado clinic, delivers a humorous and insightful look at his life and work with a wide range of animals. His memoir begins immediately after graduation as he takes a job at a South Dakota clinic with “no idea” that he is in for a variety of patients, including a pregnant cow that needs a cesarean section, a trio of feisty Jack Russell terriers that keep pursuing porcupines despite getting their faces full of quills and a traveling circus that needs blood tests for its animals: “At no time during veterinary school had anyone mentioned how to go about finding a vein on an elephant.” The author conveys not only the great joy he takes in helping animals but also his growing awareness of another aspect of his job that isn't taught in vet school—the role of “counselor/psychologist” a vet must play when dealing with someone who's lost a pet or recommending a tough treatment decision. While Wells's writing style is plain and straightforward, his stories would be suitable—and should be required—reading in even the most sophisticated veterinary school programs. (Apr.)

This lively work makes a case not often advanced these days: that the United States owes much to thinking men and women from the days of the Puritans until after the Civil War. Goetzmann, winner of the Pulitzer and Francis Parkman prizes for Explorations and Empires, robustly challenges those who scorn the role of thinkers and contend that the nation was built only by “doers.” He provides a history of lines of thought owing much to Europe but rooted firmly in native ground. Although he tries to knit together his story with a theme of growing American cosmopolitanism and openness to new knowledge, what gives coherence to Goetzmann's survey is the seriousness with which he treats every figure. John Winthrop, James Madison, Margaret Fuller, Frederick Douglass: they and countless others, many scarcely known (including scientists, often omitted from studies of American thought) tread these pages. The result is an authoritative, readable survey of what from others' pens has proved heavy going. Unfortunately, despite his subtitle Goetzmann fails to cover the Pragmatists, arguably the nation's most distinctive thinkers. (Mar.)

In a stimulating introductory essay accompanying this collection of extraordinary photographic portraits, Jackson (The Story Is True) recalls visiting in 1975 Arkansas's Cummins state prison farm, where an inmate invited him to fill his pockets with about 200 discarded prisoner identification photographs, likely dating from 1915 to 1940. Drawn at random from a forgotten drawer, these worn and badly yellowed artifacts were (absent the dossiers they served and enhanced) anonymous traces of both a system of control and the lives—male and female, African-American and white—lived inside it. Their publication in large portrait format awaited 21st-century digital technology to make their restoration and reclamation possible. Shrewdly, Jackson balances their remarkable refurbishment with a strong sense of provenance (retaining staple holes and creases, for example), while eschewing any attempt to connect each haunting image with a particular crime or narrative. Given unprecedented and (from the perspective of their original purpose) utterly unintended scope, the human dimensions of these images grant each an irreversible dignity for the first time, while simultaneously taking on the essential characteristic Jackson names: they become “mirrors” of ourselves. (Mar.)

In July 1984, Thompson-Cannino, a white college student in Burlington, N.C., was raped by a black intruder. She identified her assailant in a lineup as Cotton; he was sentenced to life plus 50 years. When he secured a new trial in 1987, he found himself charged with a second attack and sentenced to two life sentences plus 54 years. DNA evidence at a new trial, eight years later, exonerated him of both charges. Authors Thompson-Cannino and Cotton offer this riveting account of their separate, yet connected, lives through those years. The first two parts describe their dreadful experiences: for her, in the “[s]aliva swabs, vaginal swabs, pubic hair combings” of the rape kit; for him, being “sprayed like a dog getting defleaed” at the prison. Thompson-Cannino describes the invasive procedures following a rape, unsettling police procedures (the lineup), unfamiliar legal stages (such as a probable cause hearing) and the disturbing trial. Cotton leads readers through the events following a conviction (the several prisons, adjustments to the prison norm, the alternating hope and despair of the judicial stages). Redemption is the subject of the third part, where Thompson-Cannino and Cotton forge a path to genuine friendship in advocating for the wrongfully convicted. Together they have produced a well-modulated and generously balanced memoir—at once a devastating and uplifting crash course in the criminal justice system. (Mar.)

In this bleak, sad and occasionally funny memoir, Joseph (Happy or Otherwise) explores life through the lens of the male relationships, both human and canine, woven into her life. It is not an easy task. She admits she's never really been part of a female circle of friends (“I'm a girly girl who enjoys a good fart joke”) and ponders why this is so. Maybe it's because she grew up with brothers; maybe it's because her father was such a mysterious and godlike presence in her life that she spent most of her time seeking out male approval. Joseph adeptly scrutinizes the often opposing female and male sensibilities. She has a great eye for telling details that complete a character or scene. She routinely ends with men who don't suit her, or places she dislikes. “They didn't know I didn't belong at any gathering where people took tidy sips of wine, then remarked upon its bouquet or nibbled on stuffed mushrooms or spread a thin layer of hummus across pita bread.” Whether describing a friendship with her alcoholic boss; her younger brother, a cop nicknamed Bye-Bye; or her father, who never reads books for pleasure but always reads the newspaper, Joseph strives to tell the straight story while not ignoring the potholes along the way. (Mar.)

Youthfully upbeat, Gilman (Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress) delivers an entertaining memoir of her ill-starred attempt to circumnavigate the globe after college graduation in 1986. Eager to embark on life but unsure exactly how to do it, the author, a New Yorker, and her fair-haired Connecticut trust-fund friend, Claire, both graduates from Brown, resolved to backpack around the world for a year and become heroines in their own epic stories. Starting in Hong Kong, the two naïve 21-year-olds, armed with Linda Goodman's Love Signs, volumes of Nietzsche and a year's supply of tampons, ran into shoals fairly immediately, freaked out by fleabag hotels, vermin, importunate fellow travelers and the debilitating effects of illness, homesickness and the sole company of each other. As they roughed it through Communist China, Claire grew increasingly paranoid and delusional, eventually bolting on a bizarre bus trip that got her picked up by the police. Gilman's amusing journey focuses tightly on these first shaky seven weeks, offering the full wallop of disorienting, in-the-moment, transformative travel adventures. (Mar.)

All that the author, a California transplant, wanted was to find the perfect pub in his Dublin neighborhood, an easy task since Barich had “been in training for the job most of my life.” What should be a breeze morphs into a countrywide pub crawl and journalistic investigation, as the author discovers that the romanticized Irish pub of The Quiet Man has become commercialized, while stricter drunk driving laws and Ireland's changing social dynamics don't bode well for the future of the places beloved by everyone from Joyce to the working class. Barich (Laughing in the Hills) also talks about the various aspects of Irish pub culture, from its music to its literary denizens. Barich crams in a lot of intriguing elements—history, sociology, autobiography, travelogue, character study—without deciding on a focus. Consequently, his effort feels less like a book than a collection of loosely connected facts and observations, which gradually languish as the author strays from the revelatory and informative (e.g., the nutritional qualities of Guinness; Ireland's attempts at temperance) for the quaint. (Mar.)

Wisner's earlier book, Honeymoon with My Brother, was based on the two years he spent visiting 53 countries with his brother after being jilted by his fiancée. This sequel follows the Wisner brothers on a quixotic search for “how people in different countries meet, fall in love, have sex.” Chapters on visits to seven countries, including Egypt, Brazil and New Zealand, alternate with descriptions of Wisner's own on-again-off-again love lives back in Los Angeles. In the style of Dave Barry, the author relates his experiences with self-deprecating humor: “Only in America can a person get dumped at the altar and turn it into a career.” The peripatetic siblings look for the meaning of love in such places as a market in Nicaragua and a nightclub in Prague, turning up such stereotypes as people in India favor arranged marriages. The earlier book is being made into a movie, and the sequel has cinematic potential as well. Both would be of interest to readers searching for love without commitment and a relationship without obligations. Like a television sitcom, this book provides more laughs than wisdom. (Mar.)

This extended essay, in the form of a dozen entertaining profiles of great Americans—an unexpected cross-section, from Ben Franklin to Elvis Presley—provides an unusual look at the varieties of educational experience that shaped these groundbreakers. Along the way, many of the prejudices and misunderstandings that are part of the American fabric are shown to be overcome by each through his or her mode of learning. Poet Wolff (4th of July, Asbury Park) shows how the studied yokel Ben Franklin created an American archetype, and how Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan would inspire Maria Montessori on the instruction of all children. Wolff wears his learning lightly, and there is a subtlety to his contrasting biographies. For example, the education of Lincoln, whose formal schooling ended at the age of 15, could not be further from the privileged world of JFK's; auto pioneer Henry Ford and environmental pioneer Rachel Carson, both Midwesterners, could not be more different. Above all, Wolff observes that in our national tradition “an American education is going to bear the marks of rebellion.” (Mar.)

Sandweiss (Print the Legend) serves a delicious brew of public accomplishment and domestic intrigue in this dual biography of the geologist-explorer Clarence King (1842–1901) and Ada Copeland (c. 1861–1964), a “black, working-class woman” who was “born a slave.” Rendered as fiction, this true tale, would seem quite implausible—“a model son of Newport and one of the most admired scientists in America,” Clarence kept secret for 13 years his marriage to Ada and their apparently contented domestic life. He kept his patrician past and celebrated present concealed as well from his wife, who believed herself the wife of James Todd, a black Pullman porter. Sandweiss provides a fascinating account of King's “extraordinary double life as an eminent white scientist and a black workingman”; Ada's struggle “through the legal system to assert her rightful name, give her children their true familial history, and [unsuccessfully] claim the trust fund she believed to be hers”; and rich insights into the “distinctive American ideas about race” that allowed King to “pass the other way across the color line, claiming African ancestry when he had none at all.” (Feb.)

Diner (Beyond the Conceivable) offers an unsettling “intervention” into why the Middle East is “falling behind” and deprived of “the fruits of modernity.” While the book raises worthy questions, they are undermined by the author's apparent contempt for both Arabs and Islam. Diner's refusal to acknowledge the extent to which outside factors have played a role in the development of the modern Middle East, his apparent scorn for the faith of a billion people and his occasional lapses into ahistorical judgment (dispensing with centuries of centralized Ottoman rule, for instance, by asserting that because Turkey and the Arab countries were once part of the Ottoman Empire “we can assume that they started out from similar, or even identical, conditions for development”) mean that this book will more likely become the source of angry argument than serious deliberation. Few cultures or faith communities would take kindly to Diner's suggestion that “the West, as a burning preoccupation, might be able to enlighten Middle Easterners about themselves.” (Feb.)

Signer, senior policy adviser at the Center for American Progress, delivers hope, confidence and a vision for diplomacy amid a discussion of why the United States has eluded the grip of the demagogue via its collective “constitutional conscience.” While the U.S. has created opportunities for demagogues abroad, it has consistently marginalized and suffocated demagogues at home, from Huey Long to George W. Bush, not by definition a demagogue, but whose attempts to trump the Constitution met with “vigilance against... [his] bullying.” According to the author, these charismatic leaders typically emerge during times of national crises; their identification with the common people elicits deep emotional responses—yet societies can be immune if the rule of law supersedes the power of the individual charged with enforcing it. The book signals the need for a new direction in foreign policy, revealing how the U.S. frequently gives demagogues just “what they seek... an easily hated enemy for them to agitate the masses against.” “The story of America's struggle with demagogues,” Signer writes, “is the story of America herself.” (Feb.)

Greenberg (The Two Americas), polling adviser to Gerhard Schröder and Al Gore, among others, recounts his experiences working for five world leaders during their campaigns and governance. He begins with a candid look at his first major campaign, Bill Clinton's 1992 victorious run for the presidency. Greenberg went on to work with many others, including Nelson Mandela in his presidential run, Tony Blair as he unveiled “New Labour” (modeled on Clinton's New Democrat strategy, which Greenberg helped to create) and Ehud Barak's attempts to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. While there is plenty of talk about focus groups and polling numbers, Greenberg doesn't get bogged down in jargon, and the strength of the book lies in his insider perspective on the leaders who helped shape this century. He astutely assesses their strengths and weaknesses to discover why some succeeded and others failed in bringing their governing vision to fruition. Perhaps his most important contribution is his perspective on the role of pollsters, which he sees as bringing public opinion into the realm of politics, as he writes, “The fundamental lesson is that people matter because elections matter.” (Feb.)

From three distinguished academic authorities on vote suppression comes this comprehensive historical assessment of the corruption of American electoral procedures. From the founding of the two political parties to the 2008 election campaign, the authors describe how both parties have manipulated crucial African-American, immigrant and minority voters. As late at 1956, African-Americans wishing to register to vote were made to take literacy tests with questions like “What is due process of law?” and “How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap?” The authors argue that much of what is termed “election reform,” “ballot security” and “electoral process integrity” serves much the same purpose as the old legal obstacles to universal suffrage. The authors' analysis of Reagan's second successful presidential campaign uncovers how both parties pay lip service to voter registration, while not wanting to identify too strongly with disenfranchised groups. The National Voter Registration Act, signed into law by Clinton in 1993, is also meticulously evaluated, highlighting the problems inherent in implementing federal regulations on state and local levels. (Feb.)

Beyond the hot-button issue of abortion, feminist lawyers and scholars have worked a quieter but equally far-reaching revolution in law and jurisprudence, argues this fascinating history. Strebeigh, a journalist who teaches nonfiction writing at Yale, chronicles 40 years of changing law on employment discrimination, sexual harassment and rape, as a growing movement of women lawyers, professors and judges challenged a primordial legal sexism. (Courts, for example, used to insist that rape victims fight their attackers almost to the death to prove lack of consent.) The author lucidly explains the intricacies of evolving legal doctrine (the federal Violence Against Women Act hung awkwardly from the Constitution's commerce clause) and the devilishly complex litigation strategies lawyers pursued to insinuate new concepts into case law. But his account is really the story of an insurgency—percolating up from consciousness-raising groups and feminist law school seminars; pioneered by theorists like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Catharine Mackinnon; fought out by plucky, underpaid lawyers working in hostile courts; and climaxing in constitutional and political showdowns deep inside the Supreme Court. The result is a keen assessment of how far the law has come—and of the struggle that propelled it. (Feb.)

Beijing-born, London-based writer Xinran, traveling across the expanse of the Chinese Republic over the years, sought out those who had witnessed the rise of communism more than half a century ago. The result is this stirring, startlingly honest account of life under Chairman Mao and the current reformers revamping the socialist state. If the reader wants proof of how resilient and tough the Chinese people are, witness the incredible stories related by Lin Xiangbei, a loyal Communist later branded a counterrevolutionary, or Teacher Sun and her husband, former political prisoners, or Mr. Changzheng, a survivor of the infamous Long March. Xinran (The Good Women of China) does not leave out the average people who were the backbone of the republic, such as an acrobat, an oil explorer, a tea-house news singer, all of whom reveal a rich, multifaceted national history that celebrated individualism as well as collective achievement. Along with a series of love letters from comrades on the political front, the author puts a bow on these candid interviews with a final set of astute observations in an especially noteworthy book. Illus., maps. (Feb.)

Young, a professor of history at NYU, and Tanaka, of the Hiroshima Peace Institute, bring together eight essays by American, Japanese and European scholars on a disturbing subject: why has aerial warfare, beginning in WWI, emphasized civilian targets? Aerial bombing affects civilian morale, a vulnerable element in a country mobilized for total war. Tanaka demonstrates that during the interwar years the British considered air strikes in Iraq a cheaper, more “humane” way of maintaining imperial control than conventional ground operations. Ronald Schaeffer, Robert Moeller and Mark Selden each show that area bombardment was regarded, in particular by Britain and the U.S., as a shortcut to victory long after evidence ceased to support the belief. Selden goes so far as to assert that “[m]ass murder of civilians has been central to all subsequent U.S. wars.” Discussing the morality of bombing, C.A.J. Coady is the only contributor who engages the moral principle of double effect: keeping collateral damage under the restraints of morality, reason and law. Still, this is better read as advocacy than scholarship. (Feb.)

When judging media reports on science, one person's fact is another person's hooey, and in this brisk little book Seethaler helps readers decide for themselves which is which. Seethaler, a science writer and columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune, begins by explaining how the scientific process works in reality versus popular belief, and then discusses such subjects as how to identify the stakeholders in a scientific controversy and how science and public policy intersect. The author suggests other questions: what advocacy groups are the source for information reported in articles? is a “trend” really just a temporary blip in the data? Seethaler offers concrete advice on how to sort through such matters (“Beware of the 'Lake Wobegon effect' ”), as well as useful tables and charts. While science buffs will be familiar with most of the material, news consumers who are puzzled by scientific debates will learn how to make sense of them, and high school and beginning college science students will find the book useful for putting science in a real-world context. (Feb.)

Just in time for the 50th anniversary of Barbie is this behind-the-scenes look at her eccentric, determined inventor. Ruth Handler (1916–2002)was the ambitious and entrepreneurial 10th child of poor Polish immigrants. Disappointed with the unsophisticated dolls of the time, Ruth envisioned a doll that would allow young girls to act out their fantasies of the stylish young women they wanted to become. She modeled her creation on the Swiss doll “Bild-Lilli,” a curvaceous plastic bombshell originally sold as a sex toy/gag gift and named her after her daughter Barbara. Handler fought indefatigably to establish herself in a male-dominated field, and history was made: 50 years later, Mattel is the biggest toy company in the world, and Barbie is sold at a rate of three dolls per second, worldwide. But Handler's rising star was short-lived; battered by breast cancer and convicted of shady business dealings in 1978, she wrenched her attentions away from Mattel and devoted herself to creating realistic, affordable prosthetic breasts for women who had lost one to a mastectomy. This stirring biography is a fine study of success and resilience. (Feb.)

The legendary financier and Kennedy-clan patriarch impressed even Hollywood with his heartlessness, according to this meticulous but chilly narrative of his stint as a movie mogul. Entertainment journalist Beauchamp (Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood) follows Kennedy's 1926–1931 sojourn in the movie industry, when he amassed several studios and theater chains that became the nucleus of RKO Studios. Beauchamp's Kennedy is a charming, ruthless snake with a “ 'dollar sign implanted in his heart,' ” who used, betrayed and discarded a string of investors, stockholders, friends, employees and stars, including his longtime mistress, Gloria Swanson. That's Hollywood, but Kennedy, in Beauchamp's portrayal, lacked a crucial redeeming feature—the eye for talent and feel for moviemaking that led other studio chiefs to nurture great films along with great fortunes. Caring more about the biz than the show, he gutted his studios' creative potential through ruthless cost cutting and layoffs; the author's styling of him as a “visionary” empire builder rings hollow given how casually he disposed of his squeezed-dry holdings. Beauchamp adds a touch of Tinseltown glamour to her account of Kennedy's byzantine deal making and financial schemes, but he's not a lead that audiences will warm to. Photos. (Feb. 3)

If you think today's economy is scary, check out the Jazz Age horrors chronicled in this financial history of the interwar years and the central bankers who blighted them. Ahamed, an investment manager, surveys the economic upheavals of the 1920s and 1930s, when crushing war debts and reparations from WWI sparked hyperinflation in Germany and a host of lesser eruptions, all of it climaxing in the American stock market crash and the Great Depression. He tells the story through the central bank chiefs of Britain, France, Germany and the United States as they confront unprecedented crises while “shackled” by the “dead hand” of the gold standard, the era's reigning financial orthodoxy (economist John Maynard Keynes, foe of gold and apostle of economic activism, is the book's hero). The author injects unnecessary commentary about the bankers' neuroses and marital difficulties into his coverage of interest rate and currency fluctuations (New York Federal Reserve head Benjamin Strong, he notes, possessed a “large nose that spoke of ruthlessness”). Fortunately, his protagonists' high-wire efforts to stave off national bankruptcies furnish Ahamed with plenty of drama to highlight his engrossing analysis of the complexities of monetary policy. Photos. (Jan.)

“I have built up a stamp collection I can barely afford,” Garfield confesses, “and it has brought me to the brink of ruin.” Yet despite a significant amount of autobiographical candor, his story doesn't quite deliver the emotional wallop promised in those opening lines. His youthful enthusiasm for stamp collecting, as well as the rediscovery of that passion in his mid-40s, when he has the income to buy the stamps he always dreamed about owning as a boy, are richly detailed. The few passages depicting the personal consequences of that pursuit, however, are too detached. Several digressions into the history of stamps and stamp collecting slow the narrative, which picks up energy only when Garfield returns to his most intimate interest—his focus on collecting only rare stamps that contain printing errors, for example, or tracking down the young girl who won a design competition he entered as a young boy decades ago. Garfield hits upon some interesting psychological questions about the nature of collecting all sorts of material objects, but it often feels like he is writing around the heart of his story. (Jan. 20)

Most cookbooks start off with chapters dedicated to appetizers, soups or salads. Henry, food columnist for London's Sunday Telegraph magazine, cuts right to the heart of the matter—and the center of the plate—with sections devoted to chicken, chops, sausages, leg of lamb, fish and pasta. After all, the question “what's for dinner?” is never answered with “a platter of crudités.” Her latest collection of 150 recipes focuses on simple weeknight dishes, most of which can be prepared in under an hour and with only a handful of ingredients. Strong emphasis is placed on seasonal produce, with vegetable and fruit chapters broken down into “spring and summer” or “autumn and winter” categories. While Henry hails from Ireland and resides in London, her recipes reflect a distinct global influence: salmon ceviche garnished with mango and avocado; pork chops flavored with Thai spices and nam pla; and torrijas, the Spanish version of French toast. Endless variations for savory sauces, poultry stuffing, roasted potatoes and even whipped cream pepper the text, and many of the recipes contain footnotes offering simple substitutions. Even the baked desserts are streamlined, such as an all-in-one chocolate cake that employs self-rising flour and salted butter and is mixed entirely in the food processor. One hundred sumptuous, full-color photographs serve as both illustration and inspiration, making this reasonably priced title ideal for the novice home cook in need of a bit of encouragement in the kitchen. (Apr.)

Owens (My Brother Michael), who proudly calls herself a “Florida Cracker,” turns a derogatory term into a loving, humorous label for her people, at the same time inviting non-crackers to hear from and be fed by them as they usually cannot. Like an afternoon on a Southern porch, this book is filled with family stories and local legends delivered between mouthfuls of down-home cooking. Owens groups the recipes into 20 seasonal menus, including impress-your-rivals spring baby shower desserts, cold potato soup and fried catfish for summer, hearty fall tailgating fare and stick-to-the-ribs winter meals. She prefaces each menu and most recipes with lengthy, hilarious descriptions of the food and its cracker history, from the field peas her sister loves so much she refused to date anyone who didn't eat them to the stewed squirrels of her dad's childhood and her grandmother's chocolate gravy. Few of the recipes are very challenging if one commits to using all the butter or bacon drippings called for, but Owens does give shortcuts for “lazy Crackers,” as well as some lighter recipes for diet-minded “Metro Crackers.” But though some of the dishes may get onto the tables of crackers who didn't grow up eating proper ham with red-eye gravy, or even onto some non-cracker tables, this book is even better to curl up with and read cover to cover, meeting Owens's friends and family and basking in her comical, evocative storytelling. (Feb.)

From his own account, stress and mercury poisoning transformed Lenox, Mass., physician Hyman (UltraMetabolism) from a physical and mental titan to a depressed, anxious chronic fatigue sufferer. His journey to health included visits to a TCM practitioner and a Hawaiian naturopath. Here he cites the main culprits of his and other serious, now epidemic, conditions (mood disorders, Alzheimer's disease, ADHD, autism, etc.): 21st-century lifestyles, dangerous environmental toxins and genetic liabilities. Hyman contends that psychiatrists and neurologists prescribe cognitive therapy and medication, but do not address the physical damage causing brain dysfunction. His program to balance seven key body systems consists of a gluten- and dairy-free diet; 30 minutes of daily walking and morning and evening self-care rituals. Quizzes help readers determine their weaknesses and whether to follow the basic plan, optimize it or seek medical intervention. Hyman thoroughly explains each body system; the impact of poor diet, stress and environment; the best foods and supplements; and ways to detoxify and activate the body's own healing mechanisms. An online companion guide offers additional advice (for example, a more vigorous physical training regime, brain exercises and ways to ease detoxification side effects and constipation), as well as allergy-free recipes. (Jan.)

“A magnificent mind starts with a healthy brain,” claims psychiatrist Amen (Change Your Brain, Change Your Mind). His program begins with a nuclear medicine diagnostic—S(ingle) P(hoton) E(mission) C(omputed) T(omography)—of the brain for anyone presenting symptoms of emotional distress or lack of success in personal or professional life. After observing patients' SPECT images for two decades, Amen is certain that problems such as ADD, dementia, alcohol/drug abuse, lack of impulse control, PMS, anxiety/depression, insomnia, memory problems, OCD, stroke, seizures and other disorders are due to damage in one (or more) of the brain's six functional sections from past undiagnosed trauma or short circuits. Amen outlines protocols that include a different combination of dietary change, exercise, natural supplements, prescription medication, talk therapy and positive reinforcement to rebalance and repair each affected part of the brain and its symptoms. His superficial but decent explanation of basic neurological physiology helps readers understand why they act as they do and how they can recover, and develop motivation, creativity, and good social skills to boot. Full of bulleted lists, rules, point-by-point lists of factual information, reproduced SPECT images, worksheets, self-tests, FAQs and individual patients' stories to resonate with readers, this is a useful volume, despite its simplistic writing. (Jan.)

Venerable British child psychologist Leach, author of the classic Your Baby & Child, addresses the overarching question of who is caring for today's children. Based on current research (including her own longitudinal study conducted by Families, Children & Child Care in the U.K.), Leach reports that nonparental child care is an indisputable fact of modern life, and that “discussing whether it is bad for children is no more useful than discussing whether we would all be better off without television or the Internet.” The question, instead, is “How can we make any part of children's lives that they spend in child care good for them?” Urging the abandonment of outdated 1950s standards—when most mothers cared for their children at home—Leach blames attitude even more than scanty financial resources for lack of progress. She examines numerous child care options, from au pairs to day care centers, probing the difficult, exhausting decisions that parents face. She also compares and contrasts the child care practices of various countries, noting, for instance, that the U.S. has no mandatory paid maternity leave while in Sweden mothers are offered 480 days with 80% of their monthly wage. Until we embrace children as everyone's responsibility, Leach insists, the “working/caring conundrum” will continue to plague parents, and society will forgo the high dividends that result when an investment is made in quality child care. (Jan.)

Psychologist/author and popular lecturer Taffel (The Second Family) claims that in the postboomer era of parenting, children enjoy unprecedented freedoms. The “Free-est generation,” which knows “no bounds,” is ensconced in youth and pop culture. But while the peer group seems omnipresent, Taffel believes that parents are just as important as ever. The problem, as he sees it, is that parents need new child-rearing techniques to keep pace with the changing world of their offspring. To that end, Taffel presents various methods to help parents stay “engaged” with their children. While he rightly observes that the generation gap has narrowed (with kids often feeling free to tell their parents just about anything), many parents have become distant, two-dimensional managers of their kids' busy schedules, hesitant to reveal their inner thoughts and opinions, and cowed by their kids' independence. Taffel coaches readers to open up to children in ways that will foster true connection: for instance, he suggests setting enforceable limits, giving only authentic praise and honoring the ways and times when children are most available for conversation. While this generation is prone to high-risk behaviors, Taffel also notes that it's the most philanthropic, and that many kids thrive when encircled by forces of family, spirituality, community and school. Taffel offers parents food for thought as well as practical ways to reconnect with their kids. (Jan.)

Who better than Desmond and Moore, Darwin's acclaimed biographers, to bring a fresh perspective to Darwin's central beliefs? “No one,” they say, “has appreciated the source of that moral fire that fuelled his strange, out-of-character obsession with human origins.” This masterful book produces a perspective on Darwin as not only scientist but moralist. Darwin's deep abolitionist roots, say the authors, led him to ask the questions he did. Homing in on Darwin's moral and intellectual formation, and drawing on notebook jottings and marginalia, Desmond and Moore argue persuasively that the centerpiece of Darwin's work was demonstrating the “common descent” of all human races, using science rather than activism to subvert the multiple origins view promoted by slavery's advocates. His humanitarian approach to science, the authors say, makes him more of a moral agent than his critics would concede, while the moral drive behind his science goes against today's ideal of disinterested scientific objectivity. Desmond and Moore build a new context in which to view Darwin that is utterly convincing and certain to influence scholars for generations to come. In time for Darwin's bicentennial, this is the rare book that mines old ground and finds new treasure. (Jan. 28)