Nonfiction Book Reviews: 11/23/2009

The 30 years Pope (Sons of the Conquerors) has spent living and traveling in the Middle East, from a 1980 visit as an Oxford student through a decade-long stint as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, color this reflection on the region's recent history. Moving back and forth through time in vignettes set in Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia, this fascinating memoir of his career tackles subjects as varied as the sexual attitudes of Middle Eastern men, the murder of Daniel Pearl, the Iraq-Iran War, and the poetry of the mystic Persian poet Hafez. The text has a loose episodic structure that sometimes feels desultory, though it does end with a series of chapters that focus on Iraq in the years before and after the American invasion. The author's writing is journalistic but imbued with the author's personality and long involvement in the region—he decries uncritical American support for Israel and the West's tendency to treat Islam and Muslim cultures monolithically. Pope's exquisite photographs accompany his vivid panorama of the region. (Mar.)

Though it covers the same time frame as Erway's “Not Eating in New York” blog, this isn't a repurposing of her posts—rather, it's a memoir with recipes, a rapidly growing genre. The premise is simple: adding up the money's she spent on repeatedly eating out for lunch and ordering takeout for dinner, the 20-something Brooklynite decides she'll start preparing all her meals at home, and sticks with it for two years. (All that saved money comes in handy when her boyfriend breaks up with her and she has to find her own apartment, but then there's a new dilemma; as her mother points out: what do you do for dates when you can't go out for dinner?) Erway is up for just about any food-related adventure, whether it's making inroads into New York's underground supper club scene, pulling discarded food out of trash bags, or testing the power of menudo (a Mexican stew) to cure hangovers. And the recipes—ranging from a simple asparagus salad to chipotle cornbread stuffing and a soy-sesame filet mignon with wasabi mashed potatoes—will have readers racing to their stoves. (Feb.)

In this pleasant memoir about learning to live and eat à la française, an American journalist married to a Frenchman inspires lessons in culinary détente. Bard was working as a journalist in London and possessed of the “wonderful puppy-dog” enthusiasm of young Americans when she first met her husband-to-be, Gwendal, a computer engineer from Brittany. Soon he had the foresight to put her name on the gas bill of his Parisian apartment in the 10th arrondissement, and they were destined to marry—and cook together. Her memoir is really a celebration of the culinary season as it unfolded in their young lives together: recipes for seduction (onion and bacon); getting serious over andouillette; learning to buy what's fresh at the Parisian markets (four and a half pounds of figs); surviving a long, cold winter in an unheated apartment; and warming up their visiting parents over profiteroles. Bard throws in some American recipes “that feel like home,” such as noodle pudding, and comforting soups for a winter's grieving over the death of the father-in-law. Bard carefully observes the eating habits of her impossibly slender mother-in-law for tips to staying slim (lots of water and no snacking). Bard keeps an eye to healthful ingredients (“Three Fabulous Solo Lunches”), and, as a Jewish New Yorker, even prepares a Passover seder in Paris, in this work that manages to be both sensuous and informative. (Feb.)

Intelligence veteran Nance offers a problematic prescription for defeating al-Qaeda in this disappointing polemic. Arguing that bin Laden's objective is “the destruction of traditional Islam” and the “real ideological conflict... is about control of Islam itself,” the author contends that “if we break [al-Qaeda's] spiritual link to the Muslim community, they will be quickly defeated.” Moreover, victory can be achieved not only quickly but also “simply and inexpensively” by employing “simple counter-ideological tools of compassion and debate.” Such an approach requires that the U.S. “reframe ourselves” as “Well-Meaning Ones Who Want to Help” and reframe al-Qaeda “as an exceptionally dangerous armed militant cult.” Toward this end, the author recommends that the U.S. “employ the national bullhorn,” appoint “a new czar” of counterideological warfare, and organize conferences. Noting President Obama's “ability to make people believe his words,” Nance calls the president “[t]he best tool in our quiver.” If the author's conclusions are controversial, the underlying material is mostly derivative, the format approximates PowerPoint, and the style alternates among melodramatic (“raindrops of chaos”), preachy (“[t]he Muslim dream is the American dream”), and pedantic. (Feb.)

Doctor spent 21 years working in various capacities for the Knight Ridder media empire until the company's sale in 2006, and he offers an overview of the very changes that swept him out the door. But far from expressing bitterness about the barrage of blogs and Web sites that have brought old media giants like his former employer to their knees, Doctor is an enthusiastic, even giddy champion of how advances in digital technology are reshaping news media. He reels off buzzwords and corny catchphrases (“It's all beta, baby”; “I'm not a Chump, I'm a Champion”), but sheds little in the way of insight, analysis, or, frankly, news. His rules for “newsonomics” tend to be disappointingly obvious: “Create multimedia, aggregate, blog, master the technology, and market virally.” Perhaps to compensate for the lack of substance, Doctor has tricked out the book with sidebars, bullet-point lists, and interview transcripts, emulating the eye-catching style so prevalent in the blogosphere. In doing so, he inadvertently draws attention to what some might consider the chief limitation of the digital boom—that for all the technical innovation, there's still no substitute for good writing and solid reporting. (Feb.)

Admitting that he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the latest economic downturn “by doing everything exactly right,” Milevsky (Are You a Stock or a Bond?) revises personal finance planning now that “all the received wisdom is out the window.” He introduces readers to a simpler model employing basic arithmetic: assessing the value of assets (addition), allotting funds for future liabilities (subtraction), planning for even spending over time (division), and preparing for unanticipated occurrences (multiplication). He examines the nine major money milestones including paying off student loans, having children, purchasing a home, and retiring—with a decidedly contrarian twist: he insists that most people should not purchase a home until they are in their 50s or 60s, when they have unlocked most of their labor or “human capital” and converted it into financial capital. With helpful chapter summaries and designed for readers to pick and choose which chapters are most germane to their current stage of life, this is a comprehensive and readable introduction to wealth management. (Feb.)

Harvard historian Plokhy (Unmaking Imperial Russia) enhances his stature as a scholar of modern Russia in this convincing revisionist analysis of the February 1945 Yalta conference. Plokhy makes sophisticated use of Soviet sources to make a case that Yalta was anything but the diplomatic defeat for the West so often depicted in cold war literature. He describes Yalta in the context of a clash between different approaches to international relations. FDR was a liberal internationalist. Churchill and Stalin saw the world in terms of power and interests. And with the Red Army only 50 miles from Berlin, “Stalin held the trump cards.” Plokhy's detailed and highly engrossing narrative of the negotiations shows that the West did reasonably well. Roosevelt's agenda was global. He secured Stalin's commitment to join the war against Japan and participate in the U.N. Churchill, focused on Europe, preserved British interests in the Mediterranean. Stalin achieved recognition of the U.S.S.R.'s great-power status and a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. The Yalta agreement was not the first conflict of the cold war but just a step toward a cold war that emerged only after three more years of failed negotiations. Maps. (Feb.)

Goodman (The Rattlesnake), an honorary research associate at London's Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, chronicles the dangerous 1910s quest of British activist Roger Casement to publicize the human rights abuses against local Indians by brutal Peruvian rubber baron Julio César Arana's Peruvian Amazon Company. British envoy Casement's 700-plus–page report on the mass violence and deaths of 30,000 natives to produce an international rubber surplus was published by the House of Commons, and Arana's empire was eventually dismantled, but not before economic and political pressures were used to threaten Casement and Britain's global colonial policy as well. The book is most fascinating when detailing Arana's bold skirmishes with Casement in the media and in the courts. Well researched and exquisitely told, Goodman's account of one brave man bringing down a cruel business empire is worthy of attention. 8 pages of b&w illus.(Feb.)

Whether you've dreamed of a future with easy “genetic face-lifts and chocolate-flavored broccoli” or shivered from nightmares of “viral warfare and biologically enhanced Richard Simmons clones,” this book will set you straight on the facts behind genetics and cloning—and keep you entertained all the way. Humans, they say, have been practicing genetic engineering for millennia, beginning with early agricultural practices and the domestication of wolves and cattle. But now that scientists have sequenced the human genome, and stem cell research offers potential cures for everything, bioengineers Kurpinski and Johnson want to warn us away from extreme future dystopian scenarios such as eco-collapse and “ultraintelligent überclones” or a utopian paradise where “Money grows on trees. Pigs fly.” Your clone may have the same “DNA blueprint as you, but it won't be you....” Your younger, stronger, healthier clone probably could defeat you in a stand-up fight, but having read this book, you'll be prepared to outsmart it. Kurpinski and Johnson have written a science book that is irreverent, timely, accessible, and, best of all, compulsively readable.(Feb.)

The rise of Pakistan's most popular rock musician—unfamiliar to most Americans—is the subject of this well-meaning autobiography. Ahmad, the leader of the band Junoon, recounts his wealthy upbringing at an elite British school in Lahore and then as a Beatles obsessed teenager in New York. He describes his return to Pakistan in the midst of General Zia's military dictatorship, which introduced fundamentalist Muslim codes of conduct into public life. Ahmad is at his best describing the mishmash of 1960s American rock, '80s pop songs and Bollywood music that made up the repertoires of Pakistan's youth musicians in that same decade. Ahmad joins a band called the Vital Signs, which sweeps the country with its patriotic rock song “Dil Dil Pakistan,” even getting to meet Benazir Bhutto after her election. He leaves the group at the height of its fame to pursue artistic freedom and becomes even more popular with Junoon and its hit song “Jazba-e-Junoon,” which was the official song of the cricket World Cup. In what is well-intentioned but ultimately clichéd and egocentric memoir, Ahmad describes his more recent years as a self-appointed musical ambassador for peace, standing up for Muslims on Bill Maher's TV show and playing a concert at the U.N. General Assembly Hall, while still finding time to show Mick Jagger the Pakistani nightlife. (Jan.)

In his refreshing biography, Biskind (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls) examines Beatty's dual—and often dueling—status as Hollywood legend and notorious womanizer without letting either subsume the other. Beatty's film career began with a starring role in director Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass opposite Natalie Wood, the first of his co-stars with whom he had relationships (the list includes Leslie Caron, Julie Christie, Diane Keaton, and Annette Bening, whom he married). As producer and star of 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, Beatty inhabited the brief and violent life of the titular bank robber in a film Pauline Kael called “the most exciting American movie since The Manchurian Candidate.” From 1971's McCabe & Mrs. Miller, now considered one of the finest westerns of all time, to his Oscar-winning turn as director in 1981's Reds (which he both produced and starred in), Beatty had a hand in some of New Hollywood's most important films. But Biskind does not gloss over the fact that Beatty has not had a box office hit since 1990's Dick Tracy, nor does he ignore the string of flops that have deflated the actor's career (Ishtar, Bugsy, Love Affair, etc.). Yet his respect for Beatty never dwindles, and readers are left with a complicated portrait of a complicated man, arguably a great actor of his generation. (Jan. 5)

Watkins first wrote about Carlo Gesualdo (1566–1613) more than 35 years ago (Gesualdo: The Man and His Music), and even before that he was in close contact with those who produced the earliest recordings of the Renaissance composer's work for modern audiences. Some of the most interesting passages in this analysis of Gesualdo's shifting reputation stem from Watkins's recollections of encounters with classical music icons like Nadia Boulanger and Igor Stravinsky. But it is also an academic consideration of the changing nature of historical reputation, and of what elements of the Gesualdo legend have inspired later musicians (and other artists, including Werner Herzog and the novelist Wesley Stace) and why. A particularly engaging section draws parallels with Arnold Schoenberg, showing how tremendously innovative composers also continue to draw upon their earliest influences without stylistic discontinuity. Gesualdo's transitional voice “belonged to its time,” Watkins concludes, and “later ages, noting its equivocal position, prized it largely for that reason and noted its power.” Readers without access to Gesualdo's music may feel somewhat lost, but for those who are familiar with the material, Watkins provides thoughtful insights into its staying power. 25 illus. (Jan.)

Two respected media authorities, McChesney, a radio host of Media Matters, and Nichols, the Nation's Washington, D.C., correspondent, spell out the rapid decline of and possible financial solutions for American journalism in their new book. The “Old School” print journalism empire, the authors write, is crumbling: weeklies and daily newspapers closing down; thousands of reporters and editors getting the pink slip, and Washington bureaus and other areas of federal government assigned less coverage. Although McChesney and Nichols point out the true culprits in the fall of the national press, such as the Internet, the ownership of the press and TV news shows by profit-hungry large media conglomerates, and hard economic times, they are excessively upbeat when calling for “a new era of experimentation” in which a hybrid of old and new media emerges. In this powerful book on the shrinking American media, the authors accurately explain its current crisis, but fall somewhat short in solving the many challenges confronting journalism, including major subsidies when the public has little stomach for that. (Jan.)

Celia Lee, a member of the International Churchill Society, and John Lee, a former executive officer of the British Commission for Military History, have produced an interesting overview of the modern Churchill family. Written partly to remind the world of the existence of Sir Winston Churchill's younger brother, Jack, and partly to clear away the myths shrouding the family's history, the narrative describes the impact of the boys' politician-father, Lord Randolph Churchill, and their mother, the beautiful and self-centered American-born Jennie Jerome Churchill, on Britain's society, politics and legacy. While Winston and Jack's parents were often unable to see beyond their own needs and ambitions, the boys absorbed a strong sense of family duty. Winston, by far the more flamboyant of the two, quickly captures the reader's attention, though Jack could accurately be described as the steadier, more serious sibling. The death of Lord Randolph Churchill, Jennie's multiple affairs and massive debts, the service of Winston and Jack in the Boer War and WWI, and Winston's rise to power in WWII provide a sometimes repetitive tale but one worthy of classical drama. Photos. (Jan.)

Using a combination of firsthand accounts of Japanese A-bomb survivors, American aviators, and classified documents of government officials, Pellegrino (The Jesus Family Tomb) reconstructs two horrifying days and their aftermath when the age of atomic warfare was introduced over Japan. He is fascinated with the “strange alchemy” of these cruel weapons (“One ten-millionth of a second later, a sphere of gamma rays escap[ed] the core at light speed”) as the bomb fell on Mrs. Aoyam tending her garden at Point Zero, literally before she could see it coming. Pellegrino is equally interested in the grotesque effects the blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki inflicted on the human body with its gamma rays, neutron spray and poisonous black rain. The stories of the few Japanese survivors includes a group of 30 civilians fleeing from Hiroshima to Nagasaki where they arrived to endure the second bomb, are heart-stopping. Pellegrino dissects the complex political and military strategies that went into the atomic detonations and the untold suffering heaped on countless Japanese civilians, weaving all of the book's many elements into a wise, informed protest against any further use of these terrible weapons. 16 pages of b&w photos, maps. (Jan.)

Eminent Holocaust historian Bauer (Rethinking the Holocaust) examines the death under Soviet and then Nazi occupation of the shtetls, small Jewish communities where lived 30% to 40% of prewar Polish Jewry and one-fifth of all Jews killed in the Holocaust. Burdened by poverty and anti-Semitism, shtetl Jews demonstrated solidarity and devotion to Judaism and family. With the establishment in 1939 of Soviet rule, these traditions and the institutional structures of the Jewish communities collapsed quickly and with little resistance; Bauer speculates on why this was so. From the German occupation in the summer of 1941 until the winter of 1942, Jewish resistance was mainly unarmed, in the form of educating children, baking Passover matzos, and smuggling food. Most of the Polish shtetl Jews were brutally killed between March and December 1942 by Einsatzgruppen (specialized German murder units) or by local militias under German command. The behavior of Jewish leaders ran the gamut from heroic to corrupt, and attitudes of gentile neighbors were usually indifference, suspicion, hostility, and murderous anti-Semitism. Although too specialized for lay readers, Bauer's valuable addition to Holocaust scholarship spotlights an under-researched aspect of the Jewish genocide. Maps. (Jan.)

Here's a pain medication you can't get at the pharmacy. Biro, an M.D. with a Ph.D. in literature from Oxford, asserts that language itself can alleviate pain—particularly its daunting power to isolate and silence. “Illness and especially pain give rise to a wall that separates a person from the world,” because pain literally leaves us speechless, Biro finds. What sufferers must do, he asserts, is find the words and images to describe what nobody else feels in exactly the same way. “We need to think like Joyce and Tolstoy,” Biro declares, and search for metaphors that are universal. His thoughtful, lyrical challenge is, in essence, a study guide to some of the last century's most powerful writers, their metaphors of pain and suffering parsed and pondered. Biro even turns to evocative artist Frida Kahlo to illustrate the look of pain (portraying herself as a wounded deer, for example). And here's why we should pay attention to Biro's difficult, complicated lesson: “as long as the conversation lasts, we are not alone.” (Jan.)

The overachievers on the hit TV show Grey's Anatomy stand on the shoulders of M.D.s from decades of medical dramas. But health journalist Holtz finds more than a kernel of truth in the ABC white-coat soaper and notes, “[O]ur attitudes and beliefs about surgery and medicine shift and adapt unconsciously” while we take in the fiction from Seattle Grace Hospital. What unfolds in the book is a Cliff's Notes for surgical residents: the grueling hours—a max of 80 a week; the weird operating flukes—a flame bizarrely ignites from the gas in a surgery patient's gut; the need to give good care even to bad people. The anecdotes, however, seem as likely to come from Grey's as from real life. On the struggle in treating ailing criminals, one resident confides, “I don't feel like my care was compromised by being aware that he was a criminal, but it definitely made me think about it.” There's little new in these tales from the sick ward, but Holtz gives them all a Hollywood glow. (Jan.)

Television director Monaghan and author Cawthorne (Serial Killers and Mass Murderers) fail to prove their case that Jack the Ripper, who murdered and mutilated five prostitutes in London's Whitechapel area in 1888, and a pseudonymous author known only as “Walter” were one and the same. The authors spend most of the book re-telling portions of Walter's story from his 11-volume erotic memoir, My Secret Life, and attempting to prove that Walter—who raped his first girl as 18 and had a lifelong obsession with raping virgins—was responsible for the Ripper killings. But the links Monaghan and Cawthorne try to establish with the Ripper (they note Walter's links to older prostitutes, the type of women Jack killed; they count the number of times certain common words appear in both the book and a letter Jack allegedly sent to the authorities) are flimsy. Whoever Walter was, the authors do not close the case of Jack the Ripper—a case that has mystified the public for well over a century. (Jan.)

In this sweeping and absorbing history of black activism, Tuck, an American history lecturer at Oxford University, highlights the achievements of community organizing from the mid-19th century to Barack Obama's dexterous grassroots campaign for the presidency. Tuck argues that there is no one black protest movement or agenda and casts his net over 150 years of black political engagement to reel in untold stories and unsung heroes. He is particularly attentive to the first 20 years of the 20th century, which saw protest, empowerment, and the rise of galvanizing figures from Marcus Garvey to boxer Jack Johnson. While the civil rights movement of the 1960s has become emblematic in the chronology of black history, according to Tuck, it does not define the ongoing fight for social justice and freedom among blacks in America. With rich detail and a strong narrative, Tuck fills in gaps in the story, from the lesser known backroom dealings of Booker T. Washington to the noble efforts on behalf of black women by Anna Julia Cooper. (Jan.)

Booker, a weekly columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, expands on a global warming chapter from his previous book, Scared to Death, co-written with Richard North, to argue that the earth is not warming. According to him, efforts to mitigate what he claims to be an imaginary problem will devastate the global economy and shift the balance of power to favor Asia to the detriment of the European Union and the U.S. Much of the book will be familiar to readers of climate-change-hoax literature: climate change research relies on flawed computer models; the “hockey stick” graph of temperature rise, made famous by Al Gore, is based on inaccuracies; the costs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be huge, the political difficulties of realizing them untenable, and the results inadequate. Booker's stated purpose is to put all the “complex arguments” on both sides of the debate into chronological context, but his treatment is anything but balanced, and his credibility may be undermined by previous controversial claims, such as that white asbestos is identical to talc and secondhand smoke does not cause cancer. (Jan.)

Pagliarini (The Six-Day Financial Makeover) refreshes a tired premise with a snappy style that helps readers prioritize their commitments and divest their energies accordingly. Simple exercises target “LifeLeeches,” insidious activities that suck up free time—video games, meaningless meetings, social media, porn, and (rather bizarrely) reading and carpooling—in order to dedicate those freed up hours to make extra money, develop more job-related skills, blog for cash, expand a creative or entrepreneurial venture, or simply engage in more fulfilling hobbies. A large portion of the book is focused on becoming what the author calls a “Cre8tor,” someone who does not just settle for a paycheck but creates their own financial life. Even readers perfectly at peace with their career and paycheck will find the tips and a companion Web site, featuring downloadable templates for time management and a “Goal Achievement Plan,” useful catalysts for further professional and personal growth. (Jan.)

Leeds (One Year to an Organized Life), a “professional organizer,” and Wild, a financial adviser, apply Leeds's “Zen Organizing” philosophy to replace financial mayhem with method through digestible weekly steps over the course of one year. The authors begin by guiding readers through an emotional audit of their history with money, ridding their work spaces of clutter, and organizing key financial documents. January is “time to take control,” and the authors provide step-by-step instructions on preparing for tax season and retooling spending habits while laying the groundwork for protecting long-term assets. Savings and retirement vehicles are discussed at an extremely macro level—but the extensive resource section compensates for the oversight. By devoting the entire month of November to getting ready for end-of-year holidays, the authors drive home how planning ahead can alleviate the pain of unforeseen expenses. This is an excellent start to creating a solid financial foundation and future. (Jan.)

Overabundant quotation marks and occasional preaching aside, the recipes in this concise collection are simple and tempting. Organized by broad cuisine categories (Indian, Mexican and Southwestern, Greek, and so on), the dishes in this book don't school readers in the finer points of different cultures' cooking styles, but they do offer easy, tasty options for meat-free comfort food: slow-cooked grits with chili and cheese; polenta gnocchi in tomato sauce; wild mushroom stew on noodles. Appealing photos showcase prepared recipes that feel a step above traditional slow cooker fare, such as rustic potato and poblano gratin; risotto with lentils; polenta lasagna with tomato mushroom sauce; and Japanese-style braised tofu. The handful of surprisingly chic desserts sprinkled throughout—including red wine and cherry risotto; Mexican chocolate pudding cake; walnut and apple bread pudding—are a sweet bonus. (Mar.)

Fans of Vietnamese cuisine will flock to this stunningly beautiful paean to the food, culture, and history of this diverse land. Part cookbook, part travel guide, readers voyage with the authors as they tour the seven main regions, from Hanoi through Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta. Recipes are divided by region, from the north (fried sticky rice) and the center (squid filled with pork and noodles) to the coast (lemongrass tofu) and the central highlands (ginger chicken). In addition to gorgeous mouth-watering pictures of many of the dishes highlighted in the book, the reader is able to soak up more of the culture through the breathtakingly beautiful photos of local residents as they go about their daily lives. A useful section on the Vietnamese pantry helps demystify the unknown. This delightful and striking book will hold great appeal for home cooks and armchair travelers alike. (Dec.)

Denay (The Hot Mom's Handbook), blogger and founder of the online community Hot Moms Club, focuses on the mom-to-be in this reissue with a snappy cover and design. Denay explains that a “hot mom” is a woman who is confident and empowered, and who embraces motherhood without giving up her sense of self. The single mom of a nine-year-old boy, Denay covers a wide range of subjects of interest to pregnant women, including healthy eating, baby showers, the latest trends in “babymoons” (a romantic, before-baby trip), and where to find a masculine-looking diaper bag for dad. Along with practical information on how to design an eco-friendly nursery and useful special sections called “bump on a budget,” “eco-minded mamma” Denay touches upon topics that may be of limited appeal, such as what to do about piercings and nipple rings (i.e., nix the latter if breastfeeding) or how to look gorgeous in a “HOT” nursing bra. Though readers seeking more solemn fare will no doubt quickly lose patience with Denay's chatty prose, many moms-to-be will warm up to the Hot Moms Club discounts and shopping tips, and others may simply enjoy indulging themselves with a breezy read before baby arrives. Pages for journaling dropped into the text seem out of place in this busy guide to shopping, staying “hot,” and pampering the mom-to-be. (Feb.)

Why do so many preteens treat each other so badly? Why is intentional meanness so prevalent in the middle school years? Early adolescence, a time of major physical and psychological change, is also when preteens suffer harassment, stalking, intimidation, humiliation, and fear—and haven't a clue how to handle or stop this deliberate treatment. Psychologist Pickhardt identifies and examines the causes and behaviors that make up what he calls “social cruelty” among kids, clearly explaining that it appears in ages nine to 13 because that is when kids feel vulnerable about separating from childhood and desire more social independence. At the same time, they seek to protect their own diminishing self-worth by either derogating others' worth or going on the attack (to pre-empt getting hurt first) in order to assertively claim a place in school society. There are five major ways kids act out (teasing; exclusion; bullying; spreading rumors; and ganging up), and Pickhardt devotes one chapter to each of these, offering examples of different kinds of situations including fights and cyberbullying, dialogue for countering attacks, and encouragement for making good choices. Most importantly, there are instructions for parents, teachers, school administrators and counselors so they can effectively and consistently keep episodes of social cruelty under control. Pickhardt accurately and compassionately captures the voice and concerns of children and parents alike. This should find shelf space with Rosalind Wiseman's Queen Bees and Wannabes and Giannetti and Sagarese's Cliques. (Jan.)

Author of the bestselling 5-Factor Diet, Pasternak is a fitness trainer and nutritionist to big-name celebrities like Halle Berry, and Jessica Simpson. Accompanying his clients on international tours and to far-flung film sets, he discovered and now shares food preparation techniques, recipes, and weight-loss secrets from the world's healthiest countries—China, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea , Spain, and Sweden. Pasternak lists the five reasons Americans are overweight—caloric overload, portion distortion, on-the-go eating, animal product excess, and lazy lifestyle—and suggests remedies borrowed from nations with leaner, healthier populations. The original 5-Factor diet couldn't be more basic: five meals a day to elevate metabolism and decrease body fat; five specific nutrients for each meal (protein, carbohydrates, fiber, healthy fat, and water or tea); five-minute prep time for meals with five core ingredients; and a 25-minute workout five days a week. There is also, once a week, a free, eat-whatever-you-want day. The book's 120 recipes and five-week menu plan are appealing, and there are tips for understanding exotic ingredients and smart shopping. (Jan.)

[Signature]

Reviewed by Amy Sohn

How does an author follow up a smash international bestseller that has catapulted her from obscurity into fame and riches she never dreamed of? Very carefully.

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, Elizabeth Gilbert's first book since the multimillion-selling Eat, Pray, Love, was written so carefully that it's actually her second attempt (she scrapped the first one after she decided the voice was wrong). The good news is her voice is clear and winning. The bad news is the structure doesn't work. Part history, part travelogue, Committed often makes for a jumpy read. Still, Gilbert remains the spirited storyteller she was in EPL, and her central question is a good one—how can a divorce-scarred feminist make a case for marriage?

EPL ended in Bali with Gilbert falling in love with Felipe, a hot, older Brazilian divorcé. Book clubs across the country passionately debated her message: “Is Gilbert saying I need a man to be happy?”; “What if I go to Bali and don't meet the love of my life?”; and “How did a woman who didn't want children land the only Latino hottie with a vasectomy in all of Indonesia?”

In the year following their meeting, Felipe and Gilbert cobbled together a long-distance relationship; he would stay with her in the U.S. for 90-day jaunts, and the rest of the time they'd live apart or travel the world. One day in the spring of 2006, they returned to the Dallas Airport and Felipe was detained at the border. A customs agent said he could not enter the country again unless he married Gilbert.

Gilbert spent the next year in exile with Felipe—straining the relationship—and did a lot of reading about marriage. In jaunty, ever-curious prose she tells us that today's Hmong women in Vietnam don't expect their husbands to be their best friends; that in modern Iran young couples can marry for a day; and that early Christians were actually against marriage, seeing it as antireligious.

It's all fascinating stuff, but ultimately Gilbert is more interested in the history of divorce than marriage. The reader can feel both her excitement when she tells us that in medieval Germany there were two kinds of marriages, one more casual than the other, and her rage when she recounts the ill effects of the Church on divorce as it “turned marriage into a life sentence.”

For all of its academic ambition, the juiciest bits of Committed are the personal ones, when she tells us stories about her family. There's a great scene involving the way her grandfather scattered her grandmother's ashes, and a painfully funny story of a fight Gilbert and Felipe had on a 12-hour bus ride in Laos.

The bus is bumpy, the travelers exhausted, and both feel the frustration of not being able to make a home together. They bicker, and she tries and fails at a couples-therapy technique, and a “heated silence went on for a long time.” Later in the story, when she is hemming and hawing about the Meaning of It All, he says, “When are you going to understand? As soon as we secure this bloody visa and get ourselves safely married back in America, we can do whatever the hell we want.” I am happy for Gilbert that she did a lot of research before tying the knot again, but she already did the most important thing a gun-shy bride can do: choose the right mate.

Amy Sohn is the author of the novel Prospect Park West.

Hits and misses in the burgeoning genre of personal finance books targeting women.

Broker and life coach Olszewski tackles money woes in this fluffy “success GPS” for women who want to take control of their finances. She stresses the importance of financial literacy and champions famous and ordinary women who expertly handle their money. Fine ideals all, but Olszewski's advice ranges from the obvious to the downright infantilizing—it's one thing to instruct women to claim their power, but a book purporting to be a financial guide surely should not include such advice as “take a bubble bath” or “wear a flower in your hair.” Though her tone is admirably positive and her emphasis on visualization and similar techniques may appeal to the dilettante, this spacey attempt won't be taken seriously by anyone attempting to take control of her financial life. (Jan.)

A kitschy framework yields surprisingly sensible advice. Owens (Confident Investing) incorporates commonplace language and everyday experiences to render complex or foreign finance concepts comprehensible, and though she errs on the side of cutesy—a thought exercise is a “purser-cize”— she generally strikes an admirable balance. She emphasizes becoming knowledgeable about the stock market and investing as a way to build personal wealth and independence, and underscores her point with examples of dozens of women who've made it. Her firm, cheerful tone—she encourages developing a “Wealthy Outlook” and “Wealthy Habits”—and a plethora of resource listings and sound suggestions make this a winner for women looking to gain financial freedom, as long as said women don't mind learning about investing in dieting terms. (Jan.)

The book melds two fads: “Deal with having less during the recession,” and the “Girl, get a clue!” category popularized by books like He's Just Not That into You. A former department store buyer and marketing executive, Hoffman echoes the often trotted-out advice that women should “invest in” a few quality items they'll enjoy wearing, looking at or using for years to come, and cut back on everything else. Much of her suggestions are obvious—shop at cheaper retail stores, for example, or get haircuts less often. Rather than being about saving money, the book is about spending it—the Hoffman way. This contradiction aside, a sassy tone and abundant—if not always successful—ribald jokes make frugality seem fun. (Jan.)