Nonfiction Reviews

The latest communiqué from the emerging genre of traveling the world in the footsteps of climate change is an intelligent, nuanced report on the complex relationships between increasingly unstable weather patterns and politics, ecology and lifestyles. Journalist Faris shows how the genocide in Darfur has roots in desertification and may be “a canary in the coal mine, a foretaste of climatically driven political chaos,” and how the resulting emigration of Africans to Europe is causing economic pressures that are being met with fascistic movements in Italy and Britain. Locals are abandoning Key West and New Orleans due to unsustainable insurance premiums; Bangladesh is likely to be flooded out of existence; and drought may wipe out the Amazon rain forest within 70 years. Faris cites a study predicting a “world depicted by Mad Max, only hotter, with no beaches and perhaps with even more chaos.” But, depressingly, he admits that his travels researching this book released nine times an average person's annual carbon use and that “the world many have opened its eyes to climate change, but we're far from taking effective action.” (Jan.)

Former Time magazine science writer Lemonick provides an entertaining and illuminating look at a pathbreaking astronomical partnership. When William Herschel, in 1781, discovered Uranus (which he named the Georgian Star in hopes of getting much-needed funding from King George), he was a self-taught amateur astronomer earning his living as a musician. When the king offered Herschel £200 per year—a 50% drop in income—the astronomer gladly accepted the chance to become the king's astronomer. His goal was to discover how the universe was constructed, and Herschel, an obsessive observer, made a remarkable number of discoveries, including infrared radiation. He also taught his sister Caroline to help with his work, and soon she was publishing her own discoveries, hunting comets and cataloguing thousands of stars and nebulae. When the king agreed to give her a salary, she became the first paid woman scientist. Lemonick (Echo of the Big Bang) paints a vibrant and revealing picture of these two scientists whose painstaking observation and cataloguing paved the way for modern astronomy. 9 illus. (Nov.)

In time for Darwin's 2009 bicentennial, the complete correspondence both to and from Charles Darwin during his five years circumnavigating the globe on the HMS Beagle, beginning in 1831, documents his growth as a naturalist and offers a picture of life in the England he left behind. With one exception, the letters were published in volume one of the projected 30-volume Correspondence of Charles Darwin. It's a pleasure to have the correspondence from this critical period in an accessible volume. It is fascinating to watch Darwin attempt to come to grips with the huge amount of data he collected and make sense of the patterns he observed. We get an intimate look at an adventurous young Darwin, so unlike his more familiar, sedentary older self who would write On the Origin of Species. The late Burkhardt, who founded the Darwin Correspondence Project, has filled in details and context as needed, and the introduction by Darwin biographer Browne is a joy to read. Drawings made by Conrad Martens, the Beagle's official artist for part of the voyage, not seen by PW. (Nov.)

In his astonishing frankness and sweep, Walt Whitman is the quintessential visionary American poet. His life spanned the beginnings of modern urbanization, the rupture of the Civil War and almost into the 20th century. In keeping with this larger-than-life figure, Roper (Fatal Mountaineer) skillfully weaves several books into one. Framed as an insightful literary critique, especially of Whitman's coded writings, as well as a biographical chronicle of his remarkable and dysfunctional family, the book is also a historical examination of Civil War battlefield traumas and tragedies, principally as the poet experienced them. At the center of the book, Roper focuses on Whitman's emotional relations with the young wounded soldiers he nursed, showing in effect that these homoerotic bonds can be seen as the semipaternal manifestation of his relationships with his much younger brothers, George Washington Whitman—with whom he was closest, and who had a distinguished war record—and Thomas Jefferson Whitman. The “brothers” of the subtitle refer not only to George and Jeff, but to the poet's many comrades. 35 b&w illus. (Nov.)

British mathematician Wilson (Four Colors Suffice) paints a charming picture of Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, in this slender biography. Skipping over the most chronicled aspects of Dodgson's life with only a sharp side note deriding rumors of his pedophilia as “bad history and bad psychology,” Wilson focuses on Dodgson's mathematical and educational accomplishments: pamphlets and books on Euclid, an efficient way of calculating determinants, astute analysis of election methods, and systems of mnemonics and ciphers. Wilson also includes puzzles (some with unsatisfying solutions); a number of Dodgson's photographs, for which Wilson labels him “one of the most important photographers of the nineteenth century”; and humorous and satirical letters suggesting political postulates such as, “Let it be granted, that a speaker may digress from any one point to any other point.” Though Dodgson was apparently not always a brilliant teacher or writer in his field, Wilson chooses some of his best work for the examples, and any fan of Victorian mind-benders or mid-level mathematics will enjoy the Dodo's witty and eager explanations of logical puzzles and games. 100 illus. (Nov.)

The story of quantum mechanics and its lively cast of supporters, “heretics” and agnostics has always fascinated science historians and popular science readers. Gilder's version differs from the familiar tale in two important ways. First, by focusing on the problem of entanglement—the supposed “telepathic” connection between particles that a skeptical Einstein called “spooky action-at-a-distance”—Gilder includes more recent developments leading to quantum computing and quantum cryptography. Second, Gilder exercises—not wholly successfully—a daring creative license, drawing excerpts from papers, journals and letters to construct dialogues among the scientists. “Science is rooted in conversations,” Werner Heisenberg once wrote, and Gilder's created conversations reveal personalities as well as thought processes: “Do you really believe the moon is not there if no one looks?” asks Einstein. Less comfortable aspects of the era are also part of Gilder's story, the uncertainty and fear as one scientist after another fled Nazi Germany, the paranoia of the Manhattan Project and the McCarthy era. Gilder's history is rife with curious characters and dramatizes how difficult it was for even these brilliant scientists to grasp the paradigm-changing concepts of quantum science. 20 illus., 15 by the author. (Nov. 12)

Fifty years ago scientists and futurists glowingly predicted a future in which cars would run on little fusion cells and the world would extract deuterium from the oceans for an inexhaustible supply of energy. Like all too many shining visions, fusion turned out to be a mirage. Award-winning science journalist Seife (Zero) takes a long, hard look at nuclear fusion and the failure of one scheme after another to turn it into a sustainable energy source. Many readers will remember the 1989 “cold fusion” debacle, but Seife explains why tabletop fusion isn't all that difficult to achieve. The problem, as with all fusion devices except the hydrogen bomb, is to produce more energy than the fusion process consumes. The two most promising approaches today use plasma and lasers, but again, Seife reports, scientists have been repeatedly frustrated. The United States and several other industrial nations recently agreed optimistically to sink billions of dollars into a 30-year fusion power project. Seife's approachable book should interest everyone concerned about finding alternative energy sources. (Nov. 3)

Charles Dickens was almost 32 in late 1843, and his career trajectory was downward. Since the megasuccess of The Old Curiosity Shop, dwindling sales of his work and problems with his publisher left little doubt in his mind: he would support his growing household as a travel writer on the Continent. As the disappointing Martin Chuzzlewit continued its serialization, A Christmas Carol appeared in a richly illustrated edition. Although initial sales were brisk, high production costs coupled with spotty advertising and a low retail price made the book unprofitable. But, says Standiford, this modern fable had a profound impact on Anglo-American culture and its author's career. If Dickens did not precisely invent Christmas, his ghost story created a new framework for celebrating it. Standiford (The Last Train to Paradise) covers an impressive amount of ground, from the theological underpinnings of Christmas to Dickens's rocky relations with America, evolving copyright laws and an explanation of how A Christmas Carol became responsible for the slaughter of more turkeys than geese in the months of November and December. (Nov.)

Poet, novelist and literary critic Parini (The Last Station) examines the books he believes represent the soul of the American republic. Some of these books are masterpieces, others icons of a moment in American history. Throughout, Parini makes his case while wearing his learning lightly. All of these works, from William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation to Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, had a profound impact on America's complex identity. The evolving American dynamic is noted in the way the subjects cluster: the American experiment (The Federalist Papers); exploration of a continent (The Journals of Lewis and Clark); a new connection with nature and self (Walden); issues of race and urban ethnicity (Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Souls of Black Folk, among others); business and its opposite, the counterculture (How to Win Friends and Influence People and On the Road). A terrific chapter explores Dr. Spock's The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (“Spock said no to no”). A listing of 100 additional books with seismic impact rounds out this engaging discussion, which ought to be on the syllabus of American studies courses. (Nov. 4)

French literature professor and psychoanalyst Bayard (How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read) returns to the close reading and iconoclastic analysis of classic detective fiction he did in Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? with this audacious revisionist view of one of the best-known mysteries of all time. As always, Bayard playfully counters the ways literary academics read with the way real people read as he explains his theory of “detective criticism.” Arguing that Sherlock Holmes often drew false conclusions, Bayard picks apart the apparently airtight case Holmes assembled in The Hound of the Baskervilles and offers an alternative solution. He goes a step further than with the Agatha Christie whodunit by suggesting that Holmes erred in his identification not only of the murderer but of the murder victim. Readers may be more impressed with Bayard's cleverness than his tongue-in-cheek arguments, but his logic will lead many to hope that his opinion on who really killed Hamlet's father (in Enquête sur Hamlet) will be translated into English as well. (Nov.)

“Setting foot in a street makes it yours in a way that driving down it never does,” says Nicholson (Sex Collectors), and mundane though walking may be, Nicholson tells us in this leisurely, charmingly obsessive literary stroll, pedestrianism is not without drama, from pratfalls like the one in which he broke his arm on an innocuous Hollywood Hills street to getting lost in the desert of western Australia. Walks, he reminds us, have inspired writers from Thoreau and Emerson to Dickens and Joyce, as well as musicians from Fats Domino to Aerosmith. Nicholson guides readers from the streets of L.A.—where walkers are invariably regarded with suspicion—to New York City and London. He considers the history of “eccentric” walkers like the “competitive pedestrian” Capt. Robert Barclay Allardice, whose early 19th-century walking feats gave him the reputation of a show-off. From street photographers to “perfect” walks—the first at the Poles, the first on the moon—and walks that never happened, Nicholson's genial exploration of this “most ordinary, ubiquitous activity” is lively and entertaining. (Nov.)

Pulitzer Prize–winner Huxtable (Frank Lloyd Wright)—architecture critic for the Wall Street Journal and formerly for the New York Times—presents her penetrating and tough-minded criticism spanning half a century, including several pieces never before published. Centering largely on modernism, its masters and “its discontents,” the volume opens with an overview of the past four decades, including startlingly powerful pieces on the late '60s urban decay and the '90s reinvention of architecture by Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry and Christian de Portzamparc. Subsequent sections cover such architectural icons as the new Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (“the most awesomely perverse building I have ever seen”) and the new MoMA (where “there is no repose”). Huxtable's highly influential essays on the cultural history of the skyscraper and the World Trade Center site are remarkable. Three charming, short pieces on the critic's personal landmarks, from the Beaux Arts building she grew up in to the Colt Firearms Building near Hartford, Conn., conclude this collection of learned analyses, fluent and exuberant. 25 b&w illus. (Nov.)

Four dominant themes in Irish-American history emerge from this new study by Dolan (The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present), professor emeritus of history at the University of Notre Dame. These four are politics, religion, labor and nationalism. Beginning in 1729, when a decline in the linen trade and a poor harvest sparked a rush to America, Dolan traces the exodus to the beckoning colonies, swelling to 400,000 Irish in the U.S. by 1784. Millions more arrived after the 1840s potato famine, etched here in a vivid portrait of hunger and death. Over the next century, the American Catholic Church grew in prestige, as did Irish-American political power, confirmed by Al Smith's 1928 presidential campaign and capped in 1960 by the “razor-thin victory” of JFK. Closing chapters cover the post-WWII changes in urban Irish neighborhoods, Hollywood's celebration of Catholic culture and the Irish “who rode the economic escalator up to middle-class respectability.” Dolan doesn't whitewash history: he notes the “rogues' gallery of Irish politicians” and continuing pockets of Irish-American poverty. His writing is colorful and comprehensive with impeccable scholarship evident throughout. (Nov.)

The man who headed America's top-secret atom-bomb program was branded a security risk in 1954 because of personal enmities, past associations with leftists and his opposition to the hydrogen bomb. Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer seemed ruined. This near-worshipful biography charts Oppenheimer's comeback as liberal icon and scientific sage. Oppenheimer, writes journalist Wolverton (The Science of Superman), became a globe-trotting “philosopher-poet of science,” extolling freedom of inquiry and delivering physics lectures to lay audiences that didn't understand his equations but were enraptured by “the steady gaze, the soft but powerful voice, the precisely measured gestures, the subtle facial expressions of his mind at work.” He proved equally hypnotic as a political symbol. Right-wingers tried to bar him from campus speaking engagements while liberals and the scientific community championed him as a martyr to McCarthyism. Wolverton, who intersperses a rehash of Oppenheimer's rigged 1954 security hearing and reproduces documents from his ridiculous FBI surveillance file, comes down on the latter side. Filled with speeches and minor furors, Oppenheimer's third act lacks drama, but it opens a revealing window onto the intellectual climate of the cold war. 5 b&w photos. (Nov.)

“Do not waste much time on hysteria in men. Leave hysteria to women and children,” advised a German doctor in 1887 in response to noted French physician Jean-Martin Charcot's notions that men could manifest hysteria. Micale, an associate professor of history and the history of medicine, University of Illinois–Urbana Champaign, has uncovered a wealth of information that rebuts much of the traditional medical and popular thinking about men and emotional distress. Micale charts nervous diseases in men from the 17th century until Freud. It was only in 1859, in a medical text by Pierre Briquet, that detailed attention was paid to male hysteria, and he noted that doctors didn't see the condition because “they did not want to see it.” Micale's canvas is broad and, while the book has a history of science slant, it is also a work of cultural criticism, charting the changes in acceptable masculine affect, as exhibited in works like Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Micale brings much fascinating information together with élan. 18 b&w photos. (Nov.)

In this wide-ranging exploration of consumer behavior, Solomon (Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, Being) reveals 50 “truths” to explain what people buy and why. Each truth provides insight into the consumer mindset—including how people respond to scent, the link between sex and marketing, the recent boom in male beauty products and observations about the new breed of conscientious consumers—to help marketers and product developers to “understand consumers' motives” and behaviors to better “meet their needs.” The book demonstrates why companies need to have their customers in mind before—and even after—the product is purchased and that consumers should be incorporated into every facet of a successful marketing plan. Solomon also identifies burgeoning markets—such as the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population, and new marketing platforms including avatars and the virtual world, which he believes present huge opportunities. Full of quick-read tips and easy to navigate, this book will be of invaluable help to companies looking to target new markets and for those looking to increase sales in their current markets. (Nov.)

Historian Sumler-Edmond's book spotlights a mostly forgotten property dispute in 19th-century Savannah, Ga., that erupted into a “legal quagmire” revealing “a clandestine agreement between a matronly free woman of color and a young white man.” The Cruvelliers, “free mulattoes from Santo Domingo,” arrived in Georgia in 1800, fleeing the turmoil of the Haitian revolution; Aspasia built a successful business, but prohibited from purchasing property as a black person, she enlisted George Cally to make the bid and down payment with her money. The arrangement worked well—a romantic attachment between Aspasia's daughter and Cally is hinted at—but when mother and daughter died, the family “lost their two closest links” to Cally, who claimed sole ownership. Sumler-Edmond recreates the battle of the heirs with a wealth of research, legal documentation, trial records and local history. This carefully speculative history is heavy going at times, but scholars will find this chip in the monolithic view of antebellum Southern life worthy of attention, while general readers may want to wait for the novel this ought to inspire. (Nov.)

Erikson, a senior associate at the think tank Inter-American Dialogue, approaches his analysis of the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba with the verve of a journalist, filling the book with interviews with dissident leaders and civilians in Cuba and the Cuban-American community. He demonstrates how policy and politics intersect, especially in a U.S. presidential election year, when the voice of Cuban exiles in Miami's Little Havana, a community that has been pushing to keep the U.S. embargo against Cuba in place, sounds especially loud and influential. Erikson turns his attention to the intriguing and unknown future for the Cuban polity; since Castro formally ceded power to his brother Raul Castro Ruz in February 2008, both Cubans and Americans are watching for what comes next. There is a “revolution of expectations” underway, and Erikson presents the looming political and economic uncertainties, exploring the possibility that since Raul has already allowed for increased consumption and real estate privatization, Cuba—like China—might be gradually opening up to capitalism. (Nov.)

Moore's Jamaican parents immigrated to Cuba “in search of a better life,” but the author's own search took him from Cuba, “where black skin and African features were despised,” to the United States, where “Negroes were rich and famous and powerful,” and on to peripatetic global travels. He was present at historic moments around the world but oddly, takes a lackadaisical approach (in February 1960, four black students “initiated what was thereafter called a sit-in... in March, the massacre of unarmed black protestors... in South Africa brought the term apartheid into my vocabulary”). Moore's prose is uncommonly bland and wooden, though startling images surface occasionally; details of his teenaged sexual obsession with white women (“the ultimate conquest for me”) and details of his bureaucratic encounters are overdrawn. Moore's passion to reveal that “Castro's limitations on the questions of race were glaring from the start” is buried under too much self-absorption. According to Moore, Alex Haley told him, “It's one hell of a story.... You must write a book.” Perhaps in Haley's hands, Moore's story might have gained the clarity of focus and freshness of voice it lacks. (Nov.)

Schanzer, director of policy at the Jewish Policy Center and counterterrorism analyst for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Treasury, investigates the conflict between rival Palestinian factions with nuance and detail as he exposes the long-broiling tensions and violent eruptions between Fatah and Hamas—even as “the two sides attempted to pretend that the Palestinians were still united under one flag.” The author posits that “only by rejecting the platforms of both parties will the Palestinian people begin to break the self-destructive cycle” and provides a concise historical survey from the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood—the template for many Islamist groups—in 1928 to the recent conflict in Lebanon and a thorough comparison of Fatah's and Hamas's leadership. Neophytes to the tangled world of Palestine's internal conflict will be treated to a serious, no-frills account; those readers more familiar with the issues will enjoy how Schanzer weaves a web of connectivity between the Palestinian conflict with Israel, the conflicts involving Lebanon, the rise of al-Qaeda and American complicity. (Nov.)

Whether or not readers are already familiar with Cherokee history and culture, they will be gripped by this collection of lively essays from Conley, award-winning novelist, Oklahoma native and Cherokee Indian. The author weighs in with fresh and invariably personal emphasis on everything from the rise of Indian casinos to less generally appreciated topics and controversies like the history of Cherokee slavery and Cherokee freedmen. Also collected are rich reflections on Cherokee women and the legacy of the matriarchal clan, the (overlooked) breadth of Cherokee literature, renowned bank robber Henry Starr, Cherokee migration to California, Indian humor and much more. Conley roots his discussions in genial, deceptively unadorned prose that continually references real human beings, famous and otherwise, while maintaining a restless engagement with the relationship between politics, history and the use and misuse of language. His penchant for outspokenness may strike some readers as impulsive, but his prose and analyses, effortlessly blending indigenous and local knowledge with the larger Western cultural canon, have undeniable charm and enduring value. (Nov.)

Stromberg's subjects are the “crooked, lame, ordinary, old, blind, uncontrollable, disrespectful” horses he has found in sanctuaries spread across the United States. They are abandoned pets, racing horses too old to run, candidates for Canadian or Mexican slaughterhouses or brood mares past their prime. Such animals might seem unlikely subjects for a lavish coffee-table book, and despite the sense of mission and urgency that informs this project, the final work is only partially successful. Just as Stromberg's prose tends to slip into clichés about urbanized culture's need for a connection to the wilderness or society's “mantra of disposability,” his photographs often bathe his subjects in a yellow-gold light that becomes both repetitive and trivializing despite his high intentions. His horses look their best when they look their worst; in those photographs that emphasize their age and neglect, the issue—not the aesthetics—takes center stage. An appendix that lists 18 rescue services and sanctuaries reinforces the activist message of Stromberg's work. 200 color photos. (Nov.)

The language of clinical psychology can convey detachment—or, as in this starstruck study of the 42nd president, gushing admiration. Deploying his trademark diagnosis, Johns Hopkins psychologist Gartner (The Hypomanic Edge) pegs Clinton as a hypomanic personality with boundless energy and charisma, but prone to impulsive appetites and lapses in judgment. The author attributes much of Clinton's psyche to genes (many inherited, he argues, from an illegitimate father he tentatively identifies), but he also embraces Freudian notions: Clinton's relationships with women, Gartner contends, follow a pattern established in childhood when he felt torn between his bossy, Hillaryesque grandmother and his lushly erotic, Monica-like mother. Gartner sometimes overreaches—“We can almost see Clinton going through the stages of his relationship with [stepfather] Roger in his approach to Bosnia”—but his analysis of Clinton's political talents, right down to his mesmerizing facial expressions while on receiving lines, yields intriguing insights. The author himself unabashedly surrenders to Clinton's magnetism and “genius” intellect: “[H]e has been walking in the footsteps of moral giants,” Gartner rhapsodizes about Clinton during an AIDS-relief junket, comparing him to Jesus as a healer of the sick. Nevertheless, Gartner reminds us why this complex figure still fascinates. 17 pages of b&w photos. (Oct.)

Grogan follows up Marley & Me with a hilarious and touching memoir of his childhood in suburban Detroit. “To say my parents were devout Catholics is like saying the sun runs a little hot,” he writes. “It defined who they were.” Grogan and his three siblings grew up in a house full of saints' effigies, attended a school run by ruler-wielding nuns and even spent family vacations at religious shrines, chapels and monasteries. Grogan defied his upbringing through each coming-of-age milestone: his first impure thoughts, which he couldn't bare to divulge at his First Confession (the priest was a family friend); his first buzz from the communion wine he chugged with his fellow altar boys; and his coming to know women in the biblical sense. As Grogan matured, his unease with Church doctrine grew, and he realized he'd never share his parents' religious zeal. Telling them he's joined the ranks of the nonpracticing Catholics, however, is much easier said than done, even in adulthood. At 30, he fell in love with a Protestant, moved in with her and then married her—a sequence of events that crushed his parents. In this tenderly told story, Grogan considers the rift between the family he's made and the family that made him—and how to bridge the two. (Oct.)

In 1969 Hazan gave the private cooking class that launched her career as the Italian Julia Child. In an evocative memoir, she recounts her life from childhood to Florida Gulf Coast retirement. Hazan spent her earliest years on another coast, in Cesenatico, a village on the Adriatic; during WWII the family moved to a lake in the mountains between Venice and Milan. Fresh out of the university, she taught college math and science and met a young man who had returned to his Italian homeland after more than a decade in America. He loved food, and his worldliness and sophistication made a good match for the comparatively earthbound author. After they married, the couple moved several times between various places in Italy and America. During a long stay in New York, Hazan began to offer the Italian cooking lessons that later caught the attention of such chefs as New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne. This led to the writing and publication in 1973 of The Classic Italian Cookbook. Hazan's memoir is a terrific history of the expansive, postwar period when Americans were still learning the difference between linguine and Lambrusco, and an engaging chronicle of professional perseverance, chance and culinary destiny. Photos. (Oct.)

Fussell (My Kitchen Wars; The Story of Corn) follows beefsteaks from cattle pens in 17th-century Manhattan to Brooklyn's Peter Luger Steak House today. On her visits to an independent Vermont butcher, ranching couples in Colorado and Oregon and feedlot owners in Kansas, Fussell critiques the polemical meat writing of Michael Pollan and the mythology of a rare, bloodied “he-man food” by giving an evenhanded look at the many sides of beef. One visit with Temple Grandin explores the work of the “outsider” cattle researcher who wants to foster a cow's-eye view of animal husbandry; similarly, Fussell's research into the lives of the men—and, particularly, the women—who raise and research cattle presents a human-eye view of an industry riddled with impersonal jargon and machismo. Fussell also participates in grading and weighing cuts of beef, attending an industry conference and even dressing in a pair of heels to play a part as a rodeo cowgirl. The breadth of her observations is impressive—from congressional decisions to simplified anecdotes from the voyage of Lewis and Clark and quotes from Woody Allen—but such details might become tedious for casual readers. Illus., with recipes. (Oct.)

Best known for his groundbreaking musical works Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, Adams helped shape the landscape of contemporary classical music. Combining the narrative power of opera, the atonal themes of 20th-century classical music, the spooky modulations of jazz and the complex rhythms of the Beatles and the Band, Adams created a new music that could express the fractiousness of the political scene of the 1960s and 1970s. In this entertaining memoir, Adams deftly chronicles his life and times, providing along the way an incisive exploration of the creative process. A precocious musician, Adams began playing clarinet in the third grade, and, after hearing his teacher read Mozart's biography, tried his hand at composing music. During his undergraduate years at Harvard, he threw himself into performing and conducting when his own inadequacies as a composer began to dawn on him. By his final year at Harvard, however, the chaos of the late 1960s and the creative turbulence of the music scene drove him back to composing. After two years in graduate school, Adams set out for California, where he taught numerous composition classes and private clarinet lessons while working on his own music and with a who's who of the music world, from Cage and Leonard Bernstein to Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Adams's searingly introspective autobiography reveals the workings of a brilliant musical mind responsible for some of contemporary America's most inventive and original music. (Oct.)

“For me terror manifests itself through clear physical symptoms, an ache that grows behind my knees and a choking dryness in my throat,” writes British journalist Butcher in the preface of this devastating yet strangely exhilarating account of his six-week ordeal retracing the steps of 19th-century explorer H.M. Stanley's Victorian-era travels through the present-day hell that is the Republic of Congo. Setting out into the war-torn, disease-infested backcountry of Congo in 2000 against the wishes of just about everyone in his life—family, friends, editors and a wild assortment of government officials (the corrupt and the more corrupt)—Butcher quickly finds more horror than he'd previously experienced in his 10 years as a war correspondent (“With my own eyes I had peered into a hidden African world where human bones too numerous to bury were left lying on the ground”). His tale is chock-a-block with gruesome details about the brutal Belgian rule of the late 19th century as well as the casual disregard for life on the contemporary scene. Part travelogue, part straight-forward reportage, Butcher's story is a full-throated lament for large-scale human potential wasted with no reasonable end in sight. (Oct.)

If the sinking of the Titanic had occurred in the midst of a raging storm and with a fire creeping inexorably toward a gunpowder magazine, it would have approximated the plight faced by the 700-odd passengers and crew of the foundering British East Indiaman Kent in 1825. Even the appearance of a rescue ship hardly lessened the peril, so great were the hazards of transferring passengers on tiny lifeboats through mountainous seas. Historian Tracy (Nelson's Battles: The Art of Victory in the Age of Sail) fills in his telling of the story, based on firsthand accounts, especially the famous narrative of survivor Duncan MacGregor, with reams of occasionally obscure nautical lore and procedure. (The absence of a glossary for readers unfamiliar with sailing jargon is sorely felt.) He also makes the crisis an X-ray of early Victorian society in extremis; panic and the instinct for self-preservation clash with the period's elaborate codes of propriety and authority and its fierce evangelical piety as the victims struggle to maintain order and discipline in the face of near-certain death. The result is a naturally gripping adventure tale that sets its heroics in an insightful historical context. Photos. (Oct. 22)

New York Times sportswriter Robbins captures the world's “ultimate marathon,” the New York City race. Set during the 2007 marathon, the narrative follows several runners: male and female professional runners with more at stake than prize money (a recovering alcoholic trying to mend her family; a cancer survivor running his first marathon; a 67-year-old grandmother on her 12th New York marathon) as they make their way through the city's five boroughs. Robbins's journalist's eye is thorough as she intersperses stories of wheelchair athletes, volunteers, spectators and even the city workers who paint the course markers. Those who've read Fred Lebow's Inside the World of Big-Time Marathoning or Ron Rubin's book on the New York City marathon, Anything for a T-shirt, will appreciate the varied voices here. Using each mile to structure the 26.2 chapters, Robbins allows readers to experience the event without ever putting on a pair of running shoes. (Oct. 7)

Hamilton's acting image—a “rich, preppy, Eastern WASP” with a year-round suntan—is a far cry from his “just folks” childhood in the Arkansas town where he was born in 1939. Hamilton gives credit for this transformation, in this gossipy tell-all, to his charismatic divorced mother, Teeny, and inventive half-brother Bill, who taught him how to create the illusion of glamour on a budget. Hamilton also attended military and boarding schools, where a flair for comedy helped him adjust to his new surroundings. Once in Hollywood in 1959 and with a contract to star in Vincente Minnelli's Home from the Hill, Harrison acclimated to a life of jet-setting, detailing his risqué dating exploits and romances with Lynda Bird Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor. Hamilton is a witty raconteur and has a gift for capturing the flair of his mother, while exhibiting a genuine sense of humor about himself. (Oct.)

Though most of the text is merely serviceable, hundreds of illustrations of flora and fauna enthrall in this lavish history of 10 natural history expeditions spanning two centuries, from Hans Sloane's 1687 journey to Jamaica, which brought chocolate to Europe, to a seafaring expedition in 1872 that charted the ocean depths and aided in laying transatlantic telegraph cables. Short essays by Rice, formerly a curator at London's Natural History Museum, detail the adventures of peripatetic scientists whose curiosity charted the world from Ceylon to Surinam to Amazonia and beyond, but impart little that is new about James Cook's epic South Sea voyages, William Bartram's sometimes fanciful exploits in North America or Charles Darwin's momentous trip to the Galápagos. The mesmerizing discoveries here are the sketches and full-color illustrations of plants, mammals, birds, sea creatures and insects by the artists—“talented technicians”—who served the scientists. The stunning work, culled from more than half a million drawings and watercolors in the London museum—some never seen in print before—is augmented by Rice's captions, minihistories in themselves that contribute luscious grace notes to otherwise pedestrian prose. (Oct.)

Photographer Goldchain describes his family history as one “defined by exile”—many of his Polish-Jewish ancestors immigrated to North and South America; most of those who stayed in Europe perished in the Holocaust. The photographer conceived this “family album” as a means of rebuilding his “self-identity through affiliation with Polish-born ancestors and East European Jewry.” Working with reminiscences from elderly relatives, old photographs, his own memories and imagination, he has created a series of formal studio portraits in which he—with the help of makeup, elaborate costuming and digital retouching—poses as his relatives from the 19th century on. While a few images have the look of amateur theatrics, most of the images are deeply affecting; Goldchain summons up youth, age, heartbreak and hope, and his features, the one constant, reappear in every photograph to suggest family resemblance and continuity. Accompanying narratives lend an almost novelistic depth to the series of photographs, and an appendix that includes production stills, his jottings and pages of vintage family snapshots rounds out this fascinating, commemorative project. 56 duotone and 72 b&w illustrations. (Oct.)

Ten years have brought many changes to the U.S. culinary landscape, and Bittman's new edition of his contemporary classic reflects that, with hundreds of recipes added, out-of-date ones banished and few lines from the holdovers left untouched. The opening chapter offers invaluable new tips on basic kitchen equipment and techniques, and in the wake of the recent vegetarian version of the book, produce and legumes are now featured earlier and with more inspired meatless recipes. Overall, Bittman's globe-trotting palate shows even better than it did in the already quite international first edition, with intriguing recipes from every corner of the world. Considering these expansions, the most important change has been to the book's user-friendliness: a proliferation of charts, lists and boxes makes much more information immediately available—hardly a page goes by without an eye-catching sidebar about technique, a handy table organizing the basics of an ingredient or dish or the myriad suggestions of variations and new ways to think about a recipe that make it the best-value all-in-one volume available. At-a-glance coding to indicate what is fast to make, what can be made ahead and what is vegetarian, plus highlighted recipes that Bittman considers essential, help ensure that even with more of everything to cook, this massive tome is navigable. Whether the first edition is on their shelves or not, home cooks of all skill levels will want to get this one. (Oct.)

Beautifully designed and filled with Rupp's elegantly enticing photos, this book—based on Bramley's “Eat Feed” podcast on Slate—features an excellent and timely premise: cooking seasonally and locally during the cold months of the year. Bramley points out that “in summer hordes of cooks and noncooks alike flock to their local farmers' markets.... But after these markets... disappear for winter... eager eaters displace their enthusiasm for the seasonal with excuses about ease.” Intriguing, comforting recipes such as Chicken Breasts with Pumpkin Seed Filling and Butternut Sauce and Beet Fries with Blue Cheese Sauce could inspire readers as intended. The book is divided by menus rather than meals, and finding an appropriate recipe in such menus as “guy fawkes” and “highlands hogmanay” can be a challenge. There are many gems to be found, however, like Chocolate Beef Stew with Butternut Squash and Amaranth, or Honey-Ginger Carrot and Parsnip Latkes with Crème Fraiche, among many delicious fall and winter dishes—and it's a lovely-looking addition to a collection. (Oct.)

Cooking school teachers Chung and Samuels offer an alluring array of Korean recipes designed for the Western kitchen. As an added bonus, the authors delve into the history of the cuisine, including the importance of balance in taste and color, medicinal qualities of ingredients, and construction of the typical Korean family meal. They also include a lengthy section introducing the reader to common ingredients of the cuisine. The dishes, some traditional, some modernized for contemporary tastes, are what the authors call a “starter kit”: the building blocks essential to Korean cooking. Staples include Kimchi Paste, Soy Scallion Dipping Sauce and a collection of homemade stocks. Because Korean meals often include a minimum of five dishes, recipes are quick and accessible. Some, such as Korean Dumplings, include handy sidebars with instructions on technique. Others, such as Asparagus Salad, Korean Hot Wings, and Stir Fried Beef with Vegetables clearly appeal to the American sense of familiarity, albeit with a Korean flair. For the more adventurous, recipes such as Roasted Corn Tea, Kimchi Soup, and Warm and Spicy Squid Salad are sure to appeal. Complete with full-color photos throughout, this collection offers a welcome and undaunting introduction into Korean cuisine. (Oct.)

This follow-up to Roizen and Oz's current bestseller YOU: Staying Young, targets three dimensions of beauty: looking beautiful, feeling beautiful and being beautiful. True to their holistic vision, they provide tools, tips and quizzes on physical appearance—caring for hair, skin, nails, teeth, etc.; forming healthy diet and exercise habits; reading labels and selecting products; and choosing cosmetic enhancements (breast implants, Botox, tattoos, piercing and LASIK, for example).They also include practical ways to manage energy levels, ease aches and pains, prevent injury, cope with mood disorders, end addictions and create positive home and work environments. Identifying work and finances as major stressors and loving relationships as key to health and happiness, they offer insights and suggestions for developing a big-picture, spiritualized view of life. A 24-hour “ultimate beautiful day” shows readers how to implement changes into their typical schedule. The blend of beauty advice with love, work, finances and spirituality could be smoother, and the impish humor throughout is a bit strained. Still, this volume is as entertaining and challenging as other titles in the series. (Oct.)

Bonner, who calls herself “the Question Doctor,” teaches CEOs how to be more effective by asking the right questions and is on the graduate business faculty at George Washington University and Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. After interviewing a number of experts in breast cancer oncology and surgery as well as in other fields, she divides her topic into three sections: Talking with Your Medical Team, Choosing Treatments and Living Your Life (including emotional, financial and social well-being). In each chapter, Bonner presents 10 important questions (as well as well-researched answers), and an additional “Magic Question” that many people never ask but later wish they had. Noting that a well-educated patient has the best chance of survival, Bonner encourages readers to become actively involved in their own care and to develop a communicative relationship with their cancer care team. Along with incisive questions, Bonner offers tips on how to be politely insistent to ensure questions get the responses they deserve. A chapter also addresses questions the reader might ask herself, and ways to impart the news of a breast cancer diagnosis to children (i.e., in an age-appropriate, honest and forthright manner). This will be a valuable guide for those with cancer as well as their families. Regrettably, 10 best questions regarding lifestyle and nutrition choices are not sufficiently addressed. (Oct.)