Nonfiction Reviews: 6/8/2009

English (Armed Struggle), a professor of politics at Belfast's Queen's University, applies lessons learned from the sectarian struggle in Northern Ireland to the broader issue of international terrorism in this provocative primer. The author lambastes the “war on terror” for nurturing the “disaffection from which terrorist activity is generated.” Effective response is contingent on a “sharper, more accurate, and more integrated” historical perspective, he posits, making selective comparisons between Irish and Islamic terrorism to tease out what conditions incite and sustain “significant terrorism campaigns.” English's seven-point proposal (approaches the U.S. has “disastrously” ignored in its response to September 11) warns against “a primarily military response” and recommends instead a coordinated policy of security as well as financial and technological measures, with an emphasis on military intelligence—not force—as “the most vital element in successful counter-terrorism.” More controversial is his advice to “learn to live with terrorism as part of our political reality” and his contention that terrorism, historically ubiquitous, can never be defeated, merely contained while we strive to address its “root problems.” (Sept.)

DeFronzo (Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements) delivers a straightforward summary of the Iraq war's historical roots and future possibilities. He argues that the war is “best understood within the context of the importance of Iraq's energy resources” and that the “U.S. and British intervention in Iran in 1953 set in motion a series of momentous processes... [that led] eventually to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.” For all his research, the author doesn't prove either theory. He makes frequent statements to the effect that America's need for Iraq's natural resources “appear to have influenced the decision to invade” or that many “suspected” or “believed” as much, and quotes Alan Greenspan saying that the war was about oil —but such speculations don't amount to hard evidence. Furthermore, DeFronzo consistently draws a straight line from the events of 1953 to 2003, but there is far too little in the way of explanation or analysis—given the 50-year time span and the sheer number of players and regional upheavals. (Sept.)

De Waal (Chimpanzee Politics), a renowned primatologist, culls an astounding volume of research that deflates the human assumption that animals lack the characteristics often referred to as “humane.” He cites recent animal behavior studies that challenge the “primacy of human logic” and put animals on a closer behavioral footing with humans. Based on the studies of mammals, from primates to mice, de Waal proposes that empathy is an instinctual behavior exhibited by both lab rats and elephants. But de Waal's aim isn't merely to show that apes are transactional creatures with a basic understanding of reciprocity—but to reveal that the idea that humans are naturally calculating, competitive and violent is grounded in a falsehood willfully and selfishly perpetuated. Throughout the book, de Waal illustrates how behaving more like our wild mammalian cousins may just save humanity. His contention, colored by philosophical musings and fascinating anecdotes of observed emotional connections between animals, argues persuasively that humans are not greedy or belligerent because animals are; such traits are far from organic or inevitable but patently manmade. (Sept.)

In this sensationalist account of the unconventional private and public lives of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Seymour-Jones (Painted Shadow) offers Sartre's “incestuous” relationship with his mother as a psychosexual backdrop to his adult life as Beauvoir's lover. While generally more sympathetic to Beauvoir, the author presents her with distaste as an exploitative manipulator, a “paedophile” with a predilection for “girl-on-girl action” who busied herself procuring young women for Sartre's “harem.” Woven through these accounts of sexual exploits is the story of their intellectual development, the genesis of their writings and their deeply problematic relationship to Marxism and the Soviet Union. However, all too often, we are returned to cheap psychologizing (“murder was in Beavoir's heart”) and prurient detail. With frequently unreferenced quotes and claims, the book offers little more than insinuation, eschewing clear evidence and demonstration in favor of conflating the lives of the writers with their fictional characters. Any value such a biography might have as a revisionist antidote to its subjects' own hagiographic tendencies is fatally undermined by the author's questionable use of source material, judgmental tone and preference for cheap effects. (Sept.)

French cultural historian DeJean presents an entertaining account of how home life was virtually reinvented in Paris from 1670 to 1765 as sofas, running water and flush toilets appeared in modern residences: the city became “a giant workshop in which inventions in the arts and crafts and innovative technologies were tried out.” Louis XIV's and Louis XV's royal mistresses displayed a bold vision for integrating architecture, interior decor and fashion, thus influencing modern comfort. In private mansions, French architects subdivided interior space to allow for varying degrees of privacy. As bathing became a pleasurable, commonplace activity, tubs became more comfortable and were redesigned as decorative objects in their own right. Men fell in love with the superexpensive flush toilet; the sofa—created by the architect Meissonnier—attained instant celebrity status; and interior decoration became a subset of the new architecture of private life as Parisians discovered that domestic interiors should be the expression of their personal taste. DeJean's latest (after The Essence of Style) is well researched and brimming with anecdotes and architectural and design details. Illus., color insert, b&w photos throughout. (Sept.)

Birnes (The Day After Roswell), star of the History Channel's UFO Hunters, and veteran paranormal expert Martin chronicle a wide variety of what they view as occult and mystical experiences in a comprehensive account that spans centuries, from colonial times to 9/11. There may well have been black magic practice in Salem, they speculate, and recount George Washington's purported prophetic vision at Valley Forge, strange sightings of Washington's apparition at Gettysburg and elsewhere, the Bell Witch of Tennessee and Lincoln's precognitive dreams, while introducing such key figures as the charismatic Franz Mesmer and Margaret Fox, whose controversial spirit rappings prompted the surge of 19th-century spiritualism, even after her later revelation that she was just cracking “the joint of her big toe.” Covering chicanery and conjurers, demons and guardian angels, skeptics and believers and a woman who's convinced her recurring dreams prefigured 9/11, Birnes and Martin have produced an informative and entertaining overview that will leave fans of the occult eager for future collaborations by these authors. (Sept.)

An exhaustive analysis of the 2008 Boston Consultive Group Global Inquiry into Women and Consumerism, which surveyed 12,000 women from all walks of life about their spending habits. In painstaking detail, and employing every available scrap of corporate history, the authors describe how to reach the group which controls the spending in most categories of consumer goods, but who are sometimes misunderstood by the companies that seek to serve them. Through many examples of the women interviewed for the survey, we see pictures of the modern woman globe-wide—struggling between roles of caregiver, wife, and mother, stressed out, saddled with men who don't help with the housework, pressed for time, over-concerned with expensive beauty products, frustrated with condescending financial advisors and determined to do good with their dollars. The scope of the survey itself is interesting, but the repetitive detail makes the book more useful as a doorstop than a business guide, and there's a disconcerting bemused tone to the analysis—as if the authors were observing exotic zoo animals rather than a powerful consumer group. Others have done it better—and far more succinctly. (Sept.)

The title of well-known science writer Clegg's newest is a bit of a teaser: as Clegg (A Brief History of Infinity) himself admits: “we may never have a definitive answer to the question, “What came before the Big Bang?” But there are lots of theories running around waving their hands to be noticed and get funding. Clegg devotes the first half of his book to the problems that face big bang theorists (when did the bang happen? How big was it? what caused it?). He then gives equal time to those who are looking to send that theory the way of phlogiston. Many alternative origin-of-the-universe theories postulate either that there have been cyclical universes—each ending in a Big Crunch, followed by another Big Bang, or that our universe really exists in a giant black hole,or that universes can bud off one another.Most astronomy and science fiction buffs will bl familiar with this material, but Clegg's relatively jargon-free style makes for a good introduction for general readers, even if it leaves them still wondering what did come before the big bang. (Aug.)

Reading the Bible and Jewish history “both literally and symbolically,” this eclectic and passionate, wide-ranging history of Israel and Zionism by the author of Tough Jews decodes the story of Jonah in the whale's belly as the Diaspora Jew in Nazi concentration camps. Cohen catalogues the accomplishments of first-century Jewish scholar Jonathan ben Zakkai in the way Willie Dixon catalogues a man's deeds in a blues song, and summons Kierkegaard and Allen Ginsberg as he muses about Abraham, a crazy old man willing to murder his son to earn God's blessing: “Everything in Judaism is a repetition of this scene,” Cohen asserts. Of Herzl, he says it was his career writing whimsical newspaper essays that made his mind fluid and open to the vision of Zionism. He sees Ariel Sharon as a tragic Shakespearean character who was driven to dismantle the settlements in Gaza out of a great love for Israel. Finally, Cohen does not believe that the Holocaust justifies the state of Israel—or that Israel needs to be justified. Cohen's idiosyncratic yet often lyrical take on Israel is sometimes exasperating but always deeply felt and refreshing. (Aug.)

This pioneering biography of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920–1977)—a genius of character as much as a literary magician—captures the luminescent and singular author for an English-speaking audience that may not be familiar with her. She was born Chaya Pinkhasovna in 1921; soon after, her family left pogrom-torn Ukraine, arriving in Brazil in 1922. She became a law student seeking justice for prisoners and then a journalist, and in 1943, around the time of her marriage to a career diplomat, Lispector published her first book, the critically esteemed Near to the Wild Heart. The life of the roving diplomatic wife took its toll on the visionary and strikingly beautiful Lispector, who also had a longtime love for the homosexual poet Lúcio Cardoso among others. One of her sons was diagnosed as schizophrenic, which further fostered Lispector's sense of isolation. Among her champions was Elizabeth Bishop, but Lispector remains under the Anglo-American literary radar. This well-researched biography by Moser, New Books columnist for Harper's, should send readers in search of this indescribable author, whose work in many ways is closer to cabalistic writing than to more contemporary modernists like Woolf, Kafka or Joyce. 37 b&w photos. (Aug.)

Cyriacus Pizzecolli of Ancona was the first to travel solely to discover, observe and analyze historic monuments and, Belozerskaya convincingly argues in this charming and intriguing book, a key figure in the birth of archeology. A clerk in the bustling Renaissance port city, Pizzecolli's business trips took him to Greece and Asia Minor. He was unrelentingly curious and restless and while fascination with classical texts was widespread in the mid-15th century, few investigated the ancient physical remains. Pizzecolli educated himself in classical civilization in order to understand and preserve thousands of artifacts from ancient Greece and Rome, his true profession being, according to Cyriacus himself, “to wake the dead” of antiquity. Art historian Belozerskaya (The Medici Giraffe) writes with verve and aplomb, transporting us to 15th-century Rome, Constantinople, Florence, Greece and its islands, where he made sketches of antiquities later used by Raphael and da Vinci. Belozerskaya has written a well-researched history of an important yet relatively unknown figure that deftly integrates Renaissance social, cultural and political history. 25 illus. (Aug.)

Prothero, a prolific paleontologist (From Greenhouse to Icehouse) at Occidental College, says the goal for his new book is simply “to inject the human side of the profession into the story of the research topics” he has worked on during his 40-year career—to show science as a human quest, not just dry conclusions. While the goal is admirable, the result is disappointing, largely because, unlike his previous books, this one doesn't have a central theme: it touches on a range of questions paleontologists have addressed and tentatively answered, such as how dinosaurs could have lived in the Earth's polar regions (as fossil evidence suggests). Prothero's constant shifting of focus makes it difficult to grasp all of the technical content, while the overwhelming minutiae he provides makes you feel like you are viewing an endless series of photographs from a friend's summer vacation. While small sections are powerful—such as a discussion of how “global warming might paradoxically trigger the next ice age” and do so incredibly rapidly—the book never gels into a coherent whole. Photos, illus. (Aug.)

In this engrossing text, the history of American health-care policy, from the New Deal to the Medicare Modernization Act of George W. Bush, becomes a frame through which the authors illuminate the leadership qualities of late-20th-century presidents in the arena of domestic affairs. The authors present biographies of presidents from FDR on, investigating potential influences (e.g., heart attacks, abusive parents, deceased siblings) on their attitudes toward health policy. Blumenthal, a Harvard Medical School professor, and Brown University political scientist Morone (The Democratic Wish) draw on White House telephone tapes and memos in a laudatory chapter on Johnson's role in passing Medicare, and reserve their harshest criticism for Jimmy Carter, whose administration unwittingly “killed the late effort at health reform.” The authors offer evenhanded critiques and conclude with lessons for future chief executives about the importance of political savvy, economic flexibility and popular appeal in determining the success of health-care initiatives. More than an excellent primer on American health policy, the book offers a thorough, incisive look at the presidency as an institution and the men who have occupied the office. (Aug.)

In this cumbersome if intriguing extended essay, Griffin (The New Pearl Harbor) argues that Osama bin Laden is dead and that the tapes attributed to him are fakes designed by the U.S. to maintain support for antiterror initiatives and the Iraq war. Griffin sifts through a mountain of circumstantial evidence including statements from such officials as former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who have both stated that bin Laden may have been killed shortly after September 11. Keeping him alive serves propaganda purposes, Griffin contends, and he meticulously, if not entirely convincingly, dissects each message, of bin Laden's messages, from December 2001 to October 2008, to reveal how these communications have been conveniently timed and constructed to suit the needs of the Bush administration (particularly when it came to linking al-Qaeda to Iraq), going so far as to suggest they were fabricated with voice morphing technology. Griffin's research is worthy of consideration, but as the war in Afghanistan intensifies, the question of whether or not Osama bin Laden remains alive becomes an afterthought as newer challenges emerge. (Aug.)

Krassner (Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut), publisher of the Realist magazine, ruminates on American social and political hypocrisy in these essays that drift between current events and the heyday of the 1960s counterculture when the author dropped acid with the Merry Pranksters and palled around with Abbie Hoffman. Krassner weighs in on the last election cycle, the decriminalization of marijuana, and racism, with a stated (and largely achieved) goal of illuminating the gulf between what society says and what it does. The essays focus mostly on other humorists, and while he points out that today “sarcasm passes for irony,” he's far from a curmudgeon and praises such current comics as Sacha Baron Cohen and Sarah Silverman. Krassner says, “It doesn't have to get a belly laugh, it just has to be valid criticism, which is the classic definition of satire,” and while this book lingers too long on nostalgic remembrances and tackles serious issues too directly to get constant laughs, it makes a convincing case for the importance—and political necessity—of irreverence. (Aug.)

University of Mississippi historian Eagles turns a critical eye on his own university in this exhaustive and exhausting look at racism at Ole Miss. Although James Meredith, the school's first black student, figures prominently in the title, he takes center stage only in the book's second half, which examines the opposition to his historic 1962 enrollment. With painstaking research and detail, Eagles explores the university's history, from its founding in 1848 as an alternative to Northern universities, where students might be exposed to abolitionist ideas. Eagles also shows how the foundation for Meredith's enrollment was laid by earlier black applicants, who included Medgar Evers (turned down for the law school in 1954) and a pastor named Clennon King, also rejected and placed in a mental hospital for 12 days following a politically motivated “lunacy hearing” after his rejection. In chapters dense with material from court rulings and memoirs by the parties involved, Eagles traces the legal and political standoff before Meredith's first day on campus and the university's eventual confrontation, with the fatal riot that ensued. Photos. (Aug. 1)

The timely question, “What caused the current global financial crisis?” provokes answers usually aimed at the level of institutions and the more abstract “market logic.” Ho's refreshing ethnography of the daily lives of Wall Street investment bankers takes another tack and outlines a web of practices, beliefs and structures that may be vital to understanding what keeps the market system in place despite built-in instabilities. Ho, a former business analyst and now an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, unpacks constant downsizing, high risk/high reward job liquidity, shortsighted compensation structures, prestige and the ruse of shareholder value. Her keen eye for the significance of space illuminates workplace narratives, e.g., segregating staff by floor, function and prestige; constant and lavish recruiting events at Princeton and Harvard; and anticlimactically tawdry office space for most workers. The author exposes how elite undergraduates are immersed in a culture promoting finance as the only legitimate job, how educational pedigrees reinforce the financial world's self-image—while the actual jobs remain rigidly hierarchical (stratifying women, people of color and non–Ivy League graduates), highly unstable and isolating, encouraging a culture in which making money is the only value. (Aug.)

Convicted serial bank robber Cooper steals the show in the road to redemption genre for 2009 with this gripping narrative about his slide from petty theft to hostage-taking bank heists. Shot down mid-robbery, captured and sentenced in 1982 to 99 years, the author takes readers into the prison with grotesque scenes of predators and brutality. In prison, Cooper reflects on the double life that led to his incarceration; he worked for a Christian college, but also robbed banks to medicate the loss of his wife. Finding freedom, even in lock down, and forgiveness for his crimes, including his disregard for God and his stepson, becomes a quest that will have readers hanging on till the end of this surprisingly well-narrated book. The power of God's love and of prayer for enemies leads to the transformation of an entire cell block from heinous rape and sex games to a place of peace and love of neighbor. This new voice will be a runaway favorite for fans of the redemption narrative. (Aug.)

As a minister who simply cannot say no, Stevens (Find Your Way Home), an Episcopal priest in Nashville, suddenly and unexpectedly finds herself officiating at the funeral of a woman she knows nothing about. Beginning with her initial decision to accept and ending as she leaves the grave site, the book progresses through a clear narrative structure. Stevens's personal meditations, memories and musings on such an uncommon opportunity shape themselves into more than simply an inspirational memoir. It is also a parable with two themes, using the framework of the funeral to illuminate two difficult steps on the journey of belief: confronting the inevitability of death and finding compassion for the strangers around us. Each brief chapter offers a precise perspective on either theme, sometimes musing on the funeral itself but more often drawing from the author's past experiences, the voices of others and biblical theology. In discussing loss and grief, Stevens's sincerity and insight lends the slim volume a deep, comforting strength, although her discussions on charity for others only offer a hint of their potential. Overall, however, the book will be loving, spiritual balm to those who, regardless of Christian denomination, feel the pangs of loneliness and loss. (Aug.)

A professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, Gibbs catalogues the latest church trends, from so-called “missional” and “emerging” church formats to new monastic communities and alternative worship. The book is intended for a professional audience of ministry students and church leaders and provides short summaries of innovative churches in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. It calls attention to cultural and geographic changes that will challenge church leaders to adapt to new circumstances if they are to engage people in a 21st-century context. For example, Gibbs points out that preconceived church models, such as the big box megachurch, may not be culturally appropriate to today's ethnically diverse urban communities. In these settings, church members may be more eager to engage with social justice issues such as substandard housing and education in contrast to more self-focused, consumerist suburban churches. Still, Gibbs's book is intended more as a resource than an argument. He commends churches of all types that succeed in advancing the Christian mission. (Aug.)

This second book by Jefferts Schori (A Wing and a Prayer), presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church (USA), is, like her earlier work, a collection of sermons and speeches given by the bishop at conferences and gatherings around the world, as the title suggests. Her themes are consistently sounded: work for peace and justice, care for the least of these. Doing this work and being the prophetic voice that decries injustice and lack of care are particular duties of those who follow Jesus; Jefferts Schori's reading of the gospels makes them social blueprints for the New Jerusalem. The bishop's reflections on leadership and on religion and science are particularly interesting because they reflect her unique experience as a professional oceanographer and the first female primate within the Anglican Communion. To read her public addresses is also to see the public face of the Episcopal Church today. Those who disagree with her and find her theology narrow will not be convinced by this new round of reflections; those who are encouraged by her leadership will be impressed by the scope of her globe-trotting work for peace and justice. (Aug.)

At age 25, author Roscher, a self-described rich, white North American overachiever, decided to spend a year in Lascano, Uruguay. What Roscher discovered during that year was that the American culture, especially its Christian subculture, has many layers of insulation. She was abruptly thrust into the physical antithesis of the comfortable, cushy existence she was used to and immediately realized how her personal desire for control would be tested on every level. Experiencing chronic constipation (thus the newfound need for daily coffee), bouts of lice, language barriers and feelings of loneliness, depression and isolation, Roscher in her diary reveals how she struggled for survival physically and emotionally. Her spirit, too, was tried and tested and, eventually, flourished beautifully. The author's yearlong mission is riveting and wildly adventurous in both the content and style of this poignant memoir. Readers will be rightly amazed and pleased at how much aged wisdom emanates from such a young soul. (Aug.)

In this eclectic work, which combines relaxed scholarly analysis with theological reflections, personal anecdotes, exclamations of praise and interwoven prayers, theologian and educator Dawn (Joy in Divine Wisdom) argues, in an informal, conversational tone, that today's narcissistic culture distorts biblical reading by focusing on humanity rather than God. Applying “a hermeneutics of adoration” to the Genesis creation accounts, Dawn suggests that a foundational trust in God's steadfastness will result in an increased desire to worship God, while also accepting God's mystery. Stating a desire “to try to get Christians not to fight about Genesis,” Dawn offers her own analysis of contentious topics, such as Eve's role in the Fall, human sexuality and the nature of sin. Although vague subheadings and numerous references to other sections give the book a choppy, unsophisticated feel, Christian educators and worship leaders may appreciate Dawn's intriguing analysis of the creation stories as a hymn of praise, and the chapter “Keeping the Sabbath Wholly” invites sober reflection for harried faithful. (Aug.)

With a lyric sensibility and journalist's eye, Rhodes documents the six years that he and his family spent in a Hutterite colony in Minnesota , a place that some of his friends called a “religious Alcatraz.” A chronicle of his existential journey from privileged son of the South and agnostic writer to member of a communal religious sect that opposes war, this is no titillating exposé or angry account from a disillusioned exile. While Rhodes and his wife and three children ultimately left the colony because of internal conflicts and concern for their daughters' circumscribed futures, the author manages to find a voice that is equal parts critical and compassionate. He and his family learned what it was like to be “strangers among strangers,” he writes, adding, “It was not always a bad kind of loneliness.” Rhodes at times reveals less than readers might desire (for example, what drew him and his family to the Hutterites other than a vague sense of “looking for something new in our lives”); still, his unaffected spirituality, historical acumen and prairie-studded prose make a lovely and moving read. (Aug.)

Who says death can't be funny? Boyett, the author of two other Pocket Guides (to Sainthood and to the Bible), has a gift for irreverent, humorous prose that is also quite informative. This guide is a hodge-podge mix of factoids, kitsch and jokes about what various religions teach regarding what happens after we die. The author covers a wide swath of material, from Mayan and Aztec religions to the invention of the defibrillator and its connection to increased near-death experiences. Boyett also takes a walk through the Bible to highlight what it states about heaven and hell and who is likely to end up in each. The Lettermanesque “Afterlists” are quite amusing—such as “18 symbols of death throughout the ages” and “11 highly attractive synonyms for heaven.” The author should be commended for the user-friendly layout and for laboring to explicate non-Western religious traditions to a largely Western audience. Here's hoping this pocket guide series does not die off anytime soon. (Aug.)

Religious or not, most people have contemplated what happens after death. One particularly common question: is the afterlife a fantasy concocted to give us hope that the end of earthly life is not the end of our story? Garlow (Cracking Da Vinci's Code) a pastor, and Wall, a writer and editor, are certain there is an afterlife. They draw upon scientific studies of near-death experiences, biblical scholarship and personal anecdotes to make their case. At times their project appears objective and scholarly, drawing upon the likes of Kübler-Ross and her seminal work on death and dying. But it also uses literalist interpretations of Christian scripture that, unsurprisingly, prove that anyone who does not accept Jesus had better invest in a flame-retardant suit for the afterlife. The authors' attempt to describe what heaven is actually like seems arbitrary—there is music but no sex or marriage—and based on debatable exegetical premises. The most compelling passages are those that comment on how the living deal with the death of loved ones. These sections could give hope to readers suffering from personal loss. (July)

The story of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah stands at the threshold of the three great Western religions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam—although each appropriates the story differently. Although God's command of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, is an oft-told story, his expulsion of his concubine, Hagar, and the son he had by her, Ishmael, is often ignored. In this sometimes provocative, though often pedestrian, rereading of the Hagar story, Gordon (Mistress Bradstreet) gives new power to a woman often left in the shadows. Focusing on Hagar's vision of God in the desert (Genesis 16:13), Gordon argues that Hagar is a prophet and a mystic who names God El-Roi, or “the God of my seeing.” Because of her experience of God, Gordon argues, Hagar's relationship with God is one that Abraham might envy, for God offered Hagar clear and direct guidance, while God offered Abraham no clarity or guidance about his future but simply expected Abraham to obey. Although her prose is often plodding, Gordon provides some glimpses of the power of Hagar's story for modern religions. (July)

In 1897, author Charles Monroe Sheldon penned a volume titled “In His Steps” that went on to become an international bestseller. It is from this book that the popular WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) movement emerged. MacArthur, bestselling author, pastor of Grace Community Church and president of the Master's College and Seminary, begins with this notion and expands it to ask the question, “What did Jesus do?” He acknowledges that knowing the mind of Christ can be a challenge, especially when confronting the widespread influence of secularism and irreligion. But he also notes that Jesus encountered the same kinds of challenges. By studying the gospels, a modern pilgrim can get a sense of how Jesus handled similar situations, and extrapolate from his example ways in which we, today, can live. “His [Jesus'] style of ministry ought to be the model for ours,” the author writes. MacArthur insists that we can engage contemporary culture using the same techniques that Christ used to meet head-on the challenges of his day. (July)

A Reform rabbi in Albany, Ga., Kaplan has edited a collection of essays on American Judaism and written three books on Reform Judaism. His newest contribution focuses on American Judaism since the end of WWII, emphasizing recent innovations in the religion of the Jewish people. The first chapter provides a broad overview of both religious and historical developments, including the impact of the Holocaust and Israel. Changes in religious identity are sketched. The next seven chapters flesh out the fundamentals identified in the introductory chapter. Kaplan discusses spirituality, Jewish denominationalism, intermarriage, feminism, Jewish Renewal, mysticism and synagogue revitalization. He concludes by emphasizing the need to transform Judaism, implying that a more orderly structure is needed but not necessarily achievable. He fails to mention the value of ferment and debate as guarantors of survival, an odd omission given his insightful description of radical changes in American Judaism. (July)

In this autobiography, author and retired pastor Simon traces the path of his life to show how he began and developed Bread for the World, the influential religious lobby on hunger. Simon's past experience with the civil rights movement laid the groundwork for a life championing rights for the oppressed and underprivileged. While taking leave from pastoral duties to study hunger, Simon saw Christianity as the social force that could push government to change hunger policy, thereby aiding the impoverished. He forged a lobbying organization that gained congressional approval for two grain reserves; amassed more than 58,000 members; attracted leaders like Bono and Bob Dole; and obtained $15.5 billion in funding for poverty-stricken countries in 2008 alone. As he takes readers through a crash course on hunger policy and the workings of a Christian nonprofit, Simon applauds all those who helped leave their fingerprints on the struggle to overcome world hunger. If readers can have patience through the chapters on Simon's early years, they will find themselves cheering on a humble, mission-driven organization—and perhaps be persuaded to join the movement. (July)

In a series of meditations on nature and wildness, religion and spirituality, sojourning and home, Herriot (River in a Dry Land) demonstrates both the contemplative mysticism that returned him to his Catholic roots and the sharp eye of a naturalist distinctly aware of his physical surroundings. In the first half of the book, “Ascending Hakkarmel,” Herriot describes the intimate practice of living occasionally in a tipi on “the Land,” his family's retreat, in chapters alternating with meditations on the Bible, such as the conflict between Jacob and Esau, and religious or spiritual teachings and experiences, such as Teilhard de Chardin's. In the book's second half, titled “From Mount Carmel,” the author continues, in writing that is lush and evocative, to toggle between personal anecdote and thoughts on scripture and religious tradition. The chapter titles of this half, such as “Wild Grace,” “Scapular 1” and “Into the Presence of God—1. Descend,” belie the author's poetic style. Herriot provides, rather than a sustained ecological or theological argument, an engaged reflection on nature and God. (July)

Guthrie, author of bestselling Holding On to Hope, continues her theme of suffering in her newest book, written for “those of us who find ourselves in places of deep sorrow and suffering.” She mines with skill the many treasures found in Jesus' words that “we might have skimmed over in the past, the ones we're so familiar with that they have little impact.” Ten chapters tap into 10 phrases of Jesus, from “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death” in the gospel of Matthew to “My grace is all you need” in 2 Corinthians. She doesn't offer platitudes, but instead speaks honestly from her own broken heart (she's buried two infants). “We want to see the ways God is using our loss for good. Sometimes God... draws back the curtain and shows us;... other times we have to wait.” Chapters end with paraphrased versions of Jesus' words, with discussion questions at the end of the book. Guthrie's work is an important study of suffering that offers readers an honest, provocative, grace-filled and soothing salve to their souls. (July)

While Bell's books Velvet Elvis and Sex God received generally strong reviews, this effort to understand the relationship between suffering and creativity feels superficial and overly self-conscious. Few readers will dispute Bell's gentle assertions: that life can be extremely difficult and capricious, that it is often difficult to find God amid suffering, that suffering has a great potential to unify disparate people, and that great bursts of creative energy can arise from pain. Bell explores these issues not by covert biblical exegesis—which was a surprising and welcome highlight of Velvet Elvis—but new-fashioned storytelling. Bell weaves inspiring stories of people who turned their suffering into something transformative, and many of these stories are memorable. They are certainly accessible: Bell draws from fiction, movies, real-life situations and his own life. These anecdotes do not make a book, however, and Bell's spare prose lacks original insights into age-old theodicy questions. Although the design and layout are first-rate, $35 is a lot of money for a 160-page book that is mostly white space. (Aug.)

With a massive “youth exodus” from heartland America, small towns face extinction.

Thousands of small towns in rural America are being depopulated, or “hollowed out.” The brightest and most ambitious young people, dubbed “Achievers” by husband and wife researchers Carr and Kefalas, abandon the heartland for greater challenges and rewards in cities. Their less talented and/or less ambitious brothers and sisters, the “Stayers,” remain in places like smalltown Iowa, where the ethnographers surveyed 275 graduates of a local high school. Deft and detailed case studies bring the population to life, making the poor prognosis heartrending. While the authors insist that “with a plan and a vision” smalltown America can be revitalized, evidence to the contrary seems overwhelming. Globalization, the growth of agribusiness and the Achievers' hunger for “cultural vibrancy” suggest that the brain drain will not be replaced with a “brain gain”—despite the addition of scattered “Returners” and immigrants. Some analysts suggest that remaining human populations be relocated from the Great Plains and the land be restored to a vast Buffalo Commons, a “venue for bison and prairie restoration”; others foresee the region becoming a bastion for sustainable agriculture and green energy. Whatever the future may hold, the authors alert readers to this major change with clarity and compassion. (Oct.)