Nonfiction Reviews: 2/8/2010

Feb 08, 2010

Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War Megan K. Stack. Doubleday, $26.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-52716-3

An American reporter takes in one Middle East cataclysm after another in this searing memoir. Los Angeles Times correspondent Stack covered the war in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, then bounced around to other hot-spot postings, including Israel during the second Intifada, occupied Baghdad, and southern Lebanon during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Stack offers gripping accounts of the sorrows of war, especially of the traumas Afghan and Lebanese civilians endured under American and Israeli bombing, but she also writes evocatively of quieter pathologies: Libya’s jovially sinister totalitarian regime, corruption under Egypt’s quasi-dictatorship, and lyric anti-Semitism at a Yemeni poetry slam. Dropping journalistic detachment in favor of a novelistic style, she enters the story as a protagonist whose travails—fending off a lecherous Afghan warlord, seething under the humiliating restrictions of Saudi Arabia’s gender apartheid system—illuminate the societies she encounters. The big-picture lessons Stack draws—“The Middle East goes crazy and we go along with it”—are none too cogent, but her vivid, atmospheric prose and keen empathy make her a superb observer of the region’s horrific particulars. (Jun.)

The Price of Stones: Building a School for My Village Twesigye Jackson Kaguri with Susan Urbanek Linville. Viking, $25.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-670-02184-0

So many people die of AIDS in Uganda that at times bodies are stacked in city mortuaries like firewood. Moved by the plight of more than one million AIDS orphans in a nation with a population of 30 million, Kaguri, a human rights advocate returning home after studying at Columbia University, decided to build a school for children who had lost one or both parents to the syndrome. Kaguri and his American wife used their modest resources and contributions from friends and churches to open the two-classroom Nyaka AIDS Orphans School and initiate advocacy campaigns to counteract the superstitions that have stigmatized HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Anecdotes about the students, the author’s family—his own brother and sister died from the disease—and his dealings with donors and corrupt officials, reveal Kaguri to be at once vulnerable and ferociously determined. Written in simple, straightforward style, the book is an affecting and accessible tribute to the difference one person can make in the world. (Jun.)

Rage and Time: A Psychopolitical Investigation Peter Sloterdijk, trans. from the German by Mario Wenning. Columbia Univ., $34.50 (288p) ISBN 978-0-231-14522-0

A brilliant and conceptually rich analysis of the influence of rage on the development of Western culture. Tracing rage from its earliest Greek articulation as Thymos in the Iliad, Sloterdijk (Critique of Cynical Reason) argues for a notion of rage both as a motivating force in man’s struggle for reward and recognition and as a foundational feature of the human understanding of time. According to the author, modernity has downplayed the primacy of rage in favor of a Freudian focus on desire as more fundamental to psychic life. These claims provide the framework for a demonstration of how rage has operated in the development of the “psychopolitical” history of the West, a history characterized by various attempts to “save” and “invest” rage, utilizing its force to further particular ideological ends, primarily religious and revolutionary. Though frequently hampered by excessive academic jargon and a theoretically questionable oscillation between the non-equivalent notions of Thymos and rage, the book offers a fascinating account of the historical dynamics of social development, one capable of holding a vast array of phenomena, from Biblical psalms to the 2005 Paris riots, within its purview. (May)

The Plundered Planet: Why We Must—and How We Can—Manage Nature for Global Prosperity Paul Collier. Oxford Univ., $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-19-539525-9

How can poor countries escape the cycle of environmental degradation and poverty? Collier (The Bottom Billion) argues that technological innovation, environmental protection, and regulation are key to ensuring equitable development. Environmentalists and economists must work together so resources can be responsibly harnessed; if diamonds have sustained Sierra Leone’s bloody feuds, Botswana’s diamond industry has given it the world’s fastest growing economy. Collier explores where and how corruption insinuates itself during the discovery and resource extraction processes, how taxation and royalty on extraction may redistribute wealth to society, how to reinvest this wealth for the future, and how to use renewable resources sustainably. Despite the narrow treatment of “nature” as commodity and some questionable contentions that organic farming is “antiquated,” and that factory farming and genetically modified crops are the only way to alleviate hunger—claims easily challenged by more seasoned agronomists—Collier’s arguments are compassionate and convincing, and his straightforward explanations of economic principles are leavened with humor and impressively accessible. (May)

Undaunted: My Struggle for Freedom and Survival in Burma Zoya Phan with Damien Lewis. Free Press, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4391-0286-2

In this aptly named memoir, Phan, the international coordinator at the Burma Campaign UK, lets her life story document the ongoing struggle for democracy against Burma’s military dictatorship. Born in the jungles of eastern Burma, Phan is Karen, one of the country’s eight main ethnic groups, a people for whom “persecution,” she writes, “has been going on for centuries.” Vividly told, her eventful story moves from childhood idyll in a village of bamboo huts to that of a teenage refugee running from the Burmese Army towards the Burma-Thailand border—and eventually to an academic scholarship in Great Britain. Every danger brings a lesson about the resiliency of family, the necessity for education, or the fragility of hope. As in American slave narratives, Phan gives voice to the voiceless. Not surprisingly, Phan evokes anxiety and urgency in moments of possible despair, including historical travelogue and chiding political analysis. Such tonal shifts contextualize Phan’s message, but can give the narrative a disjointed feel. Still, in Phan’s memories of her influential father and the logic in her expanding political awareness, readers will find a compelling wake-up call. (May)

Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema Gary Giddins. Norton, $18.95 paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-393-33792-1

Critic Giddins (Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Miracles) gleans fresh insights from novel juxtapositions in these essays drawn from his newspaper reviews of DVD collections. The DVD collection’s raison d’etre is to group movies around organizing principles, which here run the gamut from Hitchcock retrospectives to Disney nature docs to Hollywood literary adaptations to charming oddities like a collection of silents starring Harry Houdini. The downside to reviewing them is that Giddins must glance at lesser works with little to recommend them, though he’ll often notice a fine performance, catchy score or radiant lighting scheme gleaming through the dross. The payoff is the themes that emerge as he sifts a wealth of comparisons and contrasts. These range from the failings of Rodgers and Hammerstein (The Sound of Music is “the happiest of all musicals involving Nazis”) to keen evocations of a movie star’s aura, the “casually authoritative stance” of an Edward G. Robinson or the “mulish twisting between bashful affability and cries de coeur” of a Jimmy Stewart. Giddins is the ideal couch companion, erudite but relaxed and witty; his perceptive commentary shows that it’s not what you watch, it’s how you watch it. (Apr.)

The Town that Food Saved: How One Rural Community Found Vitality in Local Food Ben Hewitt. Rodale, $24.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-60529-686-9

Through the last decade the Northern Vermont town of Hardwick, population 3200, gradually evolved into a nationally respected source of “local food” and began to reap benefits. Hewitt, an area resident and family farmer, previously wrote about the area as a potential example of localized agriculture and economics, especially for a population whose residents’ median income was below state average. But curiosity and healthy skepticism, along with his own investment, spurred him to this deeper investigation into the local personalities (and characters) driving the movement, and to observe, participate and reflect upon such odiferous activities as pig slaughtering. The resulting blend of analysis and reflection highlights the possibilities and perils of what Hewitt argues will impact the agricultural and economic future for better or worse. (Apr.)

To Win and Die in Dixie: The Birth of the Modern Golf Swing and the Mysterious Death of Its Creator Steve Eubanks. Ballantine/ESPN, $26 (256p) ISBN 978-0-345-51081-5

Eubanks (Golf Freek) tells the story of long-forgotten golf professional J. Douglas Edgar, an Englishman from Newcastle who was one of the best players of the early 1920s. Edgar, who Eubanks argues created the modern golf swing, moved to Atlanta in 1919, where he influenced young Bobby Jones. Edgar died there on West Peachtree Street on an August night in 1921 at the age of 36 from a mysterious puncture wound to his thigh. Comer Howell, a 20-year-old reporter and son of Clark Howell, influential owner of the Atlanta Constitution, was one of three newspapermen who found a bleeding Edgar in the street and witnessed his last moments. The key question is whether Edgar was hit by a car, as first believed, or was the victim of murder by a jealous husband whom Edgar might have cuckolded. It makes for a fascinating tale, reviving Edgar’s legend and portraying the city of Atlanta and the game of golf in that era. Students of golf history and Atlanta’s past will find much of interest here. However, the narrative suffers from a lack of focus, with meandering passages that drift from the central story and overuse of dialect to recreate Edgar’s North English accent. (Apr.)

Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the International Hunt for his Assassin Hampton Sides. Doubleday, $27.95 (480p) ISBN 978-0-385-52392-9

The counterpoint between two driven men—one by a quest for justice, the other by an atavistic hatred—propels this engrossing study of the King assassination. Sides, author of the bestselling Ghost Solders, shows us a King all but consumed by the flagging civil rights movement in 1968 and burdened by presentiments of death. Pursuing him is escaped convict James Earl Ray, whose feckless life finds a belated, desperate purpose, perhaps stimulated by George Wallace’s presidential campaign, in killing the civil rights leader. A third main character is the FBI, which turns on a dime from its long-standing harassment of Kingto a massive investigation into his murder; in Sides’s telling, the Bureau’s transoceanic hunt for Ray is one of history’s great police procedurals. Sides’s novelistic treatment registers Ray as a man so nondescript his own sister could barely remember him (the author refers to him by his shifting aliases to emphasize the shallowness of his identity). The result is a tragedy more compelling than the grandest conspiracy theory: the most significant of lives cut short by the hollowest of men. Photos. (Apr. 27)

Muriel Spark: The Biography Martin Stannard. Norton, $35 (608p) ISBN 978-0-393-05174-2

Having agreed at her request to write British author Muriel Spark’s (1918-2006) biography, Stannard (Evelyn Waugh) has acquitted himself with distinction after a decade of researching the elusive author’s transformation from a socially insecure would-be poet to a sleek, elegant, literary eminence. Spark became, Stannard concludes, a “great comic artist of the macabre.” Born in working-class Edinburgh, Spark was half-Jewish, which, contends Stannard, was a source of her life-long alienation and divided personality. A hasty marriage at 18, a difficult divorce, the permanent deposition of her son to live with her own mother, not to mention a conversion to Catholicism were all prelude to Spark’s climb to literary fame, culminating in 1961 with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Spark, hypersensitive, liable to turn on editors and agents with fury, was also a canny businesswoman whose contractual demands taxed the patience of everyone who dealt with her. Stannard has dug deeply, and with keen and sympathetic insight. His prose is graceful and assured, his literary judgments discerning, and his biography is as definitive as we can expect to find. 16 pages of photos. (Apr.)

The Letters of Sylvia Beach Edited by Keri Walsh; preface by Noël Riley Fitch. Columbia Univ., $29.95 (376p), ISBN 978-0-231-14536-7

A respectable and resourceful young American woman christened Nancy Woodbridge Beach (1887-1962) would become famous as the revolutionary publisher of Ulysses. and proprietor of Shakespeare and Company, the bohemian Left Bank lending-library and bookstore to the literary stars. Sylvia Beach left behind a trail of correspondence with major figures: Joyce, of course,and his ever-patient benefactor, Harriet Weaver; Gertrude Stein; Marianne Moore; Hemingway;the Fitzgeralds; Ezra Pound; William Carlos Williams; Richard Wright; and Alfred Knopf among them. Beach’s most historically significant letter appears as an appendix—a protest againstthe pirating of Ulysses by one Samuel Roth, signed by dozens of noted literati, from T.S. Eliot to Jose Ortega y Gasset, which created an international sensation and serves as a reminder of the centrality of intellectual proprietorship long before the Internet age. Letters about her falling out with the Joyce camp will be of interest to today’s scholars. While overall, many of these letters are slight, others reveal the difficulties faced head on by this patron saint of independent booksellers who altered the course of expression in print. The footnotes and editing by Walsh, an assistant professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College, are top-drawer. 30 photos. (Apr.)

The Pox and the Covenant: Mather, Franklin, and the Epidemic That Changed America’s Destiny Tony Williams. Sourcebooks, $24.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4022-3605-1

Historian Williams (Hurricane of Independence) explores a fascinating aside to American medical history—how “a Puritan minister and one lone doctor... stood up to the medical establishment” by carrying out the first-ever American inoculation program during Boston’s 1721 smallpox epidemic. Here’s the brilliant Puritan minister Cotton Mather, also a member of the prestigious British Royal Society, and Zabdiel Boylston, the doctor whom Mather persuaded to test out the theories of inoculation. The results were stunning. Out of 242 persons inoculated against smallpox, only six died. Despite this success, the public—including the young and brash Ben Franklin—loudly disapproved. If this account of the raucous, turbulent times is often stilted, the compelling details of the momentous experiment and the epidemic’s devastating human toll speak for themselves. Williams argues that the campaign of Mather, the greatest preacher of his day, for inoculation illustrates the error of assuming that religion has always been “an impediment to the progress of modern science and reason.” But his better story is the one of Mather, a spiritual man and loving father who—despite being the target of an attempted assassin—wanted nothing more than to save his family and city.Map. (Apr.)

Seeking the Cure: A History of Medicine in America Ira Rutkow. Scribner, $26 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4165-3828-8

Surgeon and historian Rutkow (Bleeding Blue and Gray) takes on an ambitious survey of “the events of medicine within the full tapestry of the American experience.” It’s a daunting piece of terrain, and Rutkow traverses it with ease through the stories of an array of fabulous physicians. Among them is William Morton, the self-taught dentist who in 1846 demonstrated ether’s effectiveness in relieving the pain of surgery. Also present are William Welch, the “dean of American medicine,” who emphasized the novel idea of the importance of laboratory research to medicine. Abraham Flexner was a muckraker about the failings of medical training in the vein of his contemporary, Upton Sinclair.By the mid-20th century, Rutkow writes, “Science had finally vanquished the bugbears of superstition and tradition. Physicians turned a once-suspect profession into a respected one. America, as well, had achieved prestige as a place where new treatments were found. The trends in the late 20th century are just as exhilarating, Rutkow finds, albeit far more complex and troubling: “Modern medicine has become an arena of trade-offs, a balance between costs, organization, expectations, and ethics.”Rutkow reminds us just how satisfying history can be in the hands of a good storyteller. (Apr.)

Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service Mark Pendergrast. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28 (432p) ISBN 978-0-15-101120-9

Plucky epidemiologists track the world’s ailments in this hectic public health saga. Pendergrast (For God, Country and Coca-Cola) chronicles the exploits of the doctors, nurses, statisticians, and sociologists of the Centers for Disease Control’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, who jet around investigating the causes and remedies of disease outbreaks from Alabama to Zaire. Looming large is the ever-present, life-threatening problem of diarrhea, whose outbreaks they trace variously to contaminated water, iffy tofu, and Oregon cultists who in 1984 sprinkled salmonella into restaurant salad bars. The investigators also take on more exotic cases, including Ebola outbreaks, the post-9/11 anthrax letters, and a grade-school itching epidemic that turned out to be mass hysteria. These epidemiologists have also led long campaigns to eradicate smallpox—in Pendergrast’s telling, an epic struggle against both germs and cultural prejudices—and tried to abate social ills like smoking, obesity, and gun violence. There’s not much story-telling frippery in Pendergrast’s episodic six-decade narrative, just bare-bones accounts of barely individuated sleuths busting one microbial perp after another by collecting samples and conducting surveys. Still the scientific fight against these cunning, deadly pathogens makes for an often engrossing browse. Photos. (Apr. 13)

101 Theory Drive: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for Memory Terry McDermott. Pantheon, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-375-42538-7

Memory takes on a physical presence in this raucous scientific saga. Former L.A. Times reporter McDermott (Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers) profiles UC-Irvine “psychobiologist” Gary Lynch and his decades-long effort to understand the biochemical processes and structural changes in neurons that underlie memory. (His research has identified drugs that could stem memory loss and treat Alzheimer’s and ADHD.) In McDermott’s portrayal, Lynch comes off as a hippie-ish, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed visionary at odds with the neuroscientific establishment, who both inspires and exploits the students and post-docs under his sway. McDermott is a bit too taken with his charismatic protagonist,and loves to quote Lynch’s profane, inarticulate ramblings for pages on end (“Memory’s continuous. You walk through the day. Da duh da duh da dah”). Fortunately, his own exposition of the science is lucid, and his first-hand account of Lynch’s seething laboratory is riveting, full of prickly egos, desperate battles for grants, and epic experiments—Lynch’s students spent years slicing up and photographing thousands of rat brains—that become daily roller-coasters of triumph and despair as results trickle in.This is an engrossing story of science and the brilliant, flawed people who make it. Photos. (Apr. 6)

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27 (34p) ISBN 978-0-15-101423-1

Amassing stuff is normal in our materialistic culture, but for millions it reaches unhealthy levels, according to the authors of this eye-opening study of the causes of hoarding, its meaning for the hoarder, and its impact on their families. Frost, a professor of psychology at Smith College, and Steketee, dean of the social work school at Brown, gather much anecdotal material from conversations with extreme hoarders and find that for such people, “intense emotional meaning is attached to so many of their possessions… even trash.” For some, this meaning inheres in animals: one interviewee has 200 cats. The effects of hoarding on the hoarder’s spouse, parents, and children can be severe, the authors find. Frost and Steketee write with real sympathy and appreciation for hoarders, and their research indicates “an absence of warmth, acceptance, and support” during many hoarders’ early years. They even speculate that a hoarder’s “attention to the details of objects” may indicate “a special form of creativity and appreciation for the aesthetics of everyday things.” This succinct, illuminating book will prove helpful to hoarders, their families, and mental health professionals who work with them. (Apr. 20)

In the Fullness of Time: 32 Women on Life After 50 Edited by Emily W. Upham and Linda Gravenson. S&S/Atria $16 paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-4391-0923-6

Writers, poets, actors, musicians, and a gynecologist are among the 32 contributors, almost all past 60, gathered by pianist Upham and freelance journalist Gravenson to explore the high and low points of aging. Among them are the unexpected pleasures of living alone; the loss of parents, friends, and spouses, of health, sexual power, and power in the workplace.The best piece by far is by Vivian Gornick, who articulates what it means—both positive and negative—for a middle-aged woman to lose her youthful beauty and become invisible to strangers. Other strong pieces are by Erica Jong, about the difficulty of letting go of her dying 92-year-old father, and Carolyn See, about the meaning of moving to different homes at various stages of her life. Less successful as literary efforts are Joan Nicholson’s poem about coping with her emotionally disturbed adopted daughter after being diagnosed with a heart condition, and Jenny Allen’s self-disgust and panic at the prospect of taking a new passport photo. Nonetheless, all these pieces showcase honest, heartfelt voices that should provide solidarity to other women pondering the passage of time. (Apr.)

What If the Earth Had Two Moons: And Nine Other Thought-Provoking Speculations on the Solar System, Neil F. Comins. St Martin’s, $26.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-59892-1

Armchair astronomers and hard SF fans who love a good game of cosmological “What If?” will find this an entertaining follow-up to physicist Comins’s WhatIf the Moon Didn’t Exist? Here he presents 10 more intellectual puzzles that explore new worlds, and imagine what life there might be like. Each chapter opens with a vivid glimpse of a hypothetical new world, such as in the title scenario, where Earth’s gravity captures a second moon—a scenario that ends in destruction. Equally disastrous would be an Earth with a thicker crust—unable to form new volcanoes, hot magma would simply burn through the crust’s surface, melting continents and the ocean floor. In another scenario, our solar system forms 15 billion years later than it did, prompting Comins to conjecture that aliens would have more time to traverse great distances to the planet and colonize it. This is a lucid, thoroughly accessible presentation of what might have been that is sure to make this volume as popular as its predecessor. 25 b&w line drawings. (Apr.)

Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America Christina Snyder. Harvard Univ., $29.95 (344p) ISBN 978-0-674-04890-4

“The American South, a familiar setting for bondage, reveals a new story,” in the hands of Indiana University assistant professor of history Snyder, who explores the Indian practice of enslaving prisoners of war in this instructive and remarkably readable book. “The South is more than the Confederacy,” she asserts; the major Native American nations (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole) were not merely “villains or victims or foils, but leading players” in slaveholding. She reaches back to early Indian captivity practices—and how conceptions of captives and their roles in Indian communities changed with the arrival of Europeans and Africans. During the colonial period, captives were chosen on the basis of gender and age, not race, but as a nativist movement (“a collective identity as red people”) emerged in the late-18th century, Americans, black and white, became the “common enemy.” By the early 19th century—when, among other factors, black slaves became more highly valued—Africans were specifically targeted. Snyder breaks new ground in this study reveals pre-colonial Southern history and restores visibility to Native American history in the region.(Apr.)

Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace Dominic Lieven. Viking, $34.95 (672p) ISBN 978-0-670-02157-4

Lieven, professor of history at the London School of Economics, uses Russian archives as the basis for this seminal reinterpretation of Napoleon’s defeat in 1812-1814. Russia’s leaders cleverly engaged Napoleon in a kind of drawn-out campaign the French system was least able to wage. Russia’s armies outfought Napoleon’s, thanks in good part to the “courage, endurance, and loyalty” of soldiers led by officers whose central virtues were honor and courage. Russian staffs and administrators kept the troops supplied despite the long and increasing distances between bases and theaters of operations. And coordinating the effort was Tsar Alexander II, whose “courage, skill, and intelligence”held together the final alliance against Napoleon all the way from Moscow to Paris. Lieven weaves these threads together with flair and offers insight into the specifics of everything from infantry tactics to diplomatic negotiations. He concludes that Russian and European security were mutually dependent, and that Russia’s war was seen by Europeans a one of liberation from Napoleon’s exactions and ambitions. While debatable, neither point can be dismissed. Illus., maps. (Apr. 19)

Franklin Pierce Michael F. Holt. Times, $23 (176p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8719-2

Like many historians, Holt considers Franklin Pierce’s administration (1853-1857) to be so inept that perhaps the greatest praise is that the succeeding administration, James Buchanan’s, was worse. Son of a prominent New Hampshire governor, Pierce (1804-1869) served in the Houseand Senate, resigning in 1842 but remaining leader of the Democrats in New Hampshire, where he remained extremely popular. This stood him in good stead when he was chosen in 1852 as a dark-horse presidential candidate by a deadlocked Democratic convention. He drubbed Winfield Scott in the presidential election to become the country’s 14th president. However, Pierce saw abolitionism as a threat to the Union, and his sympathy with Southern views helped lead the nation to civil war. Holt (The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party) argues that Pierce’s support of 1854’s Kansas-Nebraska Act helped trigger the expansion of slavery into the territories. This bitterly divided the party in the North, which denied Pierce renomination in 1856. Holt writes well, delivering a lively, opinionated account of a president who served in turbulent times and did not improve matters. This is an admirable addition to the already admirable American Presidents series.(Apr.)

The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 Evan Thomas. Little, Brown, $29.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-316-00409-1

America acquired an empire in a fit of neurosis, according to this shrewd, caustic psychological interpretation of the Spanish-American War by well-known. Newsweek editor and bestselling author Thomas (Sea of Thunder). The book focuses on three leading war-mongers—Teddy Roosevelt, his crony, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, whose fanciful New York Journal coverage of the Cuban insurrection and the sinking of the USS Maine fanned war hysteria. Ashamed of their fathers’ failure to fight in the Civil War, according to Thomas, these righteous sons trumped up a pointless conflict with Spain as a test of manhood, conflating the personal with the national. To Thomas they represent an American ruling elite imbued with notions of Anglo-Saxon supremacy over alien races and lower orders, but anxious about its own monied softness. As foils, Thomas offers Thomas Brackett Reed, the antiwar speaker of the House, and philosopher William James, who advanced an ethic of moral courage against the Rooseveltian cult of physical aggression.Thomas’s thesis is bold and will undoubtedly be controversial, but his protagonists make for rich psychological portraiture, and the book serves as an illuminating case study in the sociocultural underpinnings of American military adventurism. 45 b&w photos, 2 maps. (Apr. 27)

Winston’s War: Churchill 1940-1945 Max Hastings. Knopf, $35 (544p) ISBN 978-0-307-26839-6

Military historian Hastings (Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944—45) adds to his illustrious reputation with this magnificent analysis of Winston Churchill’s years of greatness. In 1938 Churchill seemed a man bypassed by history. By 1945 he had become the greatest war leader Britain ever knew and has since achieved mythic status, “standing higher than any other single human being at the head of the forces of light.” During WWII Churchill wielded more power than any British prime minister in history but remained a democrat. He raised his nation far higher in the Grand Alliance than its material contributions justified. Hastings recognizes Churchill’s strategic errors, his misplaced enthusiasms. Britain’smilitary leaders and military systems often disappointed his soaring hopes. His understanding of the empire and its peoples was limited and unenlightened. His indifference to building a new society resulted in his being turned out of office as the guns fell silent. But “the outcome justified all,” in his eyes. Churchill’s strength of will, rhetoric, and personality enabled the British to understand the reasons for their sacrifices and made Britain’s end as a great power a heroic one. 32 pages of photos, 8 maps. (Apr. 30)

Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles Alexandra Schwartz. MIT, $29.95 (312p) ISBN 978-0-262-01364-2

If Schwartz’s book of four essays has a unifying theme, it is to highlight the self-fashioning that has dominated both Hollywood and Los Angeles artists like Ruscha. The book ranges across pop art, film, masculinity, feminist art, Dennis Hopper’s filmmaking, and Los Angeles’s urban landscape (a.k.a. art’s “second city”). Schwartz (who has edited a collection of Ruscha’s writings) says that her book is “the first critical study to foreground the place of Ruscha’s work within the social and cultural history of 1960s Los Angeles,” and, indeed, her essay on gender roles and gender fashioning reveals much about how artistic identities are forged in the City of Angels. As for Ruscha, Schwartz roots his curious brand of hyper-masculinity in “anxiety about women—or, put somewhat differently, gender and sexuality.”Given its critical sensibilities, the book may appeal more to academic readers than a general audience. Photos. (Apr.)

The End of Wall Street Roger Lowenstein. Penguin Press, $27.95 (334p) ISBN 978-1-59420-239-1

Lowenstein (When Genius Failed) offers an overview of the causes and consequences of the financial crisis that rises above the glut of similarly themed books with its juicy behind-the-scenes detail and thoughtful analysis. He sets out to prove that the current financial difficulties began long before the summer of 2008, and long before the failure of Lehman Brothers. He begins with the history of Fannie Mae and the rise of mortgage-based securities and a dangerously burgeoning housing bubble, and hits the high points of the 2008-2009 news cycles, including Washington Mutual’s unwise loan strategies, the panic following Bear Stearns’s near-demise, a rash of foreclosures, TARP, and the woes of Citigroup. The insider knowledge lends flavor and context to many of these stories—a ranting Jim Cramer, Ben Bernanke’s loss of confidence, and Alan Greenspan’s astonishing 2008 testimony to Congress. Lowenstein’s strong knowledge of the source material and flair for the dramatic—and doomsday title—should draw readers who still wonder what went wrong and how. (Apr.)

The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century Stefan Halper. Basic, $29 (304p) ISBN 978-0-46501-361-6

Halper cogently rejects the “conventional wisdom” that suggests America’s relationship with China is “on track” in this lucid, probing text. Moving beyond approaches to China that focus on its burgeoning economic dominance, the book—in the vein of Martin Jacques’s recent When China Rules the World—underscores the political and cultural challenge that a rising China presents. Halper (coauthor of America Alone), a fellow at the University of Cambridge, contends that there is little possibility of a genuine partnership between China and the U.S.; continued growth will not lead China’s political system to become any more free or open, and its brand of authoritarian capitalism will compete with the West’s democratic ideal as a possible model for the developing world. Though his position may seem pessimistic, the author does believe that China’s concern with its prestige in the world gives the United States leverage in its attempt to shape the geopolitics, and he concludes this sobering, excellently argued book with a series of concrete policy recommendations to that end. (Apr.)

Lifestyle

Food

The Gloriously Gluten-Free Cookbook: Spicing up Life with Italian, Asian and Mexican Recipes Vanessa Maltin. Wiley, $19.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-470-44088-9

The latest addition to the rapidly expanding universe of gluten-free cookbooks is a breezy, friendly, and straightforward volume from the food and lifestyle editor at Delight Gluten-Free Magazine. It’s full of no-nonsense advice (“cheating on the diet is not an option and can lead to long-term complications, so resist temptation to cheat!”) and—better yet—flavor. Divided into four sections, the book covers an array of recipes in the Italian, Asian, and Mexican genres, plus desserts. It’s not for food snobs (the note at the start of the Italian section comes from the executive chef of the Maggiano’s chain), but it does have a lot of accessible, tasty options. Italian dishes include creamy crab and green pea risotto, chicken marsala, and spinach gnocchi with gorgonzola cream sauce. (Note: The food is gluten-free, decidedly not fat-free). In the Asian section, there are shrimp and mint summer rolls; pineapple fried rice; and chicken with cashews. Papaya-cilantro salmon with coconut rice and strip steak with black beans, corn, and cilantro represent Mexico. Desserts range from bananas foster (easy to make sans gluten) to a more complex chocolate fudge cake. With this book, following a gluten-free diet is a fairly sweet prospect. (Apr.)

Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen: Recipes from the East for Health, Healing, and Long Life Yuan Wang, Warren Sheir, and Mika Ono. Da Capo/Lifelong, $19.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-7382-1325-5

For the uninitiated, using Chinese herbs can be intimidating. Admitting that “entering the world of traditional Chinese medicine is like learning a new language,” the three authors of this well-penned title highlight key concepts of east Asian herbal cooking, and lucidly explain their holistic approach to cooking. Recipes from China, Japan, and Korea, arranged by course, include informative headnotes, ingredient variations, and notes on how the recipe ties into Chinese medicine. While cynics may snicker at recipe titles such as Life-Force Chicken and Mushrooms in Wine, Change-of-Pace Chicken, Mushroom and Lotus Seed Soup, Take-A-Deep-Breath Baked Lime Apple, and Expanding-Horizons Chrysanthemum Tea, dishes that may be more familiar to some American cooks, such as Korean seaweed soup, Garlic Green Beans, and pot stickers round out the offerings. A section titled “Recipes for Common Health Concerns” is a must-read, and the detailed resources/suggested places to find ingredients will get any cook well stocked for the recipes, no matter where they live. (Mar.)

Impossible to Easy Robert Irvine with Brian O’Reilly. Morrow, 29.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-147411-8

The conceit of the Food Network show Dinner: Impossible is that dinner is always possible, and in this quirky cookbook, host Irvine (Mission: Cook!) brings his show-tested know-how (frogs leg’s over an open fire, anyone?) to home cooking. In his Mise-En Place chapter, for instance, he outlines an approach for getting organized, developing a personal arsenal of tools and ingredients and using the freezer as a strategic weapon, then includes a series of recipes that demonstrate the importance of setting up ahead of time, like dishes of flour, egg and breadcrumbs for a veal cutlet that needs breading or assembling different components in a logical order for duck confit with three-bean cassoulet. Irvine’s dishes range from the prosaic (chicken pot pie; scalloped potatoes) to the wild (venison potatoes brandade; sea scallops over leeks with mango curry chocolate sauce) but his can-do attitude, emphasis on technique and helpful timelines make them equally approachable. While readers may find that the order of the book is a bit unconventional, those willing to delve into it will find Irvine’s advice practical and illuminating and his recipes solid. Photos. (Mar.)

Parenting

Eat Sleep Poop: A Common Sense Guide to Your Baby’s First Year—Essential Information from an Award-Winning Pediatrician & New Dad Scott W. Cohen. Scribner, $15 paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-4391-1706-4

Cohen, a Beverly Hills pediatrician on the Cedars Sinai Medical Center teaching staff, penned this guide during his daughter’s first year of life. Neither starchy reference tome nor sentimental diary, the book weaves useful facts and information with Cohen’s often comical, personal accounts of being a regular dad who is also a pediatrician (sidebars called “Daddy vs. Doctor” probe such topics as sleeping through the night, Apgar scores, and birthmarks). In keeping with the book’s title, Cohen maintains that three mundane activities—eating, sleeping, and defecating—make up “most of baby’s agenda.” He devotes a good portion of his text to these three subjects, but also delves into a flurry of other concerns, such as vaccinations, why babies cry, and what to do about colic (presenting a viable theory relating to stress). For each issue, Cohen concludes with “common sense bottom line” summaries, advising parents to stick to the essentials, whether planning a nursery or choosing a pediatrician. Doing what works for one’s individual family is what counts—for instance, he counsels moms that breast is best but not to feel guilty if they choose to bottle-feed. Cohen’s practical approach is sure to pacify and entertain first-time parents who can easily become overwhelmed by both the joys and challenges of baby’s first year. (Apr.)

The Smart Parent’s Guide to Children’s Health Care: An Insider’s Handbook for Getting Your Kids through Illnesses, Accidents and Checkups Jennifer Trachtenberg with Ron Geraci and Eileen Norris. Free Press, $15 paper (240p) ISBN 978 1-4391-5292-1

Trachtenberg (Good Kids, Bad Habits), a pediatrician and chief pediatric officer for RealAge.com, teams up with the Joint Commission (which advocates for patient safety) to help parents deal with medical problems and emergencies. According to “Dr. Jen,” parents have good reason to be concerned about such issues as the over-use of antibiotics, the rise of superbugs, and dosage mishaps, but without making parents paranoid, she reveals that being “a little scared” is okay. Instead of becoming paralyzed by fear, the author advises parents to devise an emergency plan: investigate the best emergency room even before it’s needed, locate a trusty pediatrician, and stay on top of medical personnel by asking questions and being informed. Trachtenberg covers a variety of topics—from how to find Dr. Right and when to go to the ER, to how to approach the problems of special-needs children. She also answers “sticky” questions, ranging from whether to skip or postpone vaccinations to whether to bank blood from the umbilical cord. This wide-ranging resource will be useful to parents hoping to calmly manage and/or avoid childhood illnesses and accidents. (Mar.)

Religion

Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul G. Jeffrey MacDonald. Basic, $25.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-465-00932-9

A journalist and United Church of Christ ordained minister, MacDonald, an occasional PW contributor, bemoans the rise of “America’s religious marketplace,” taking church leaders to task for caving in to pressure to provide inoffensive, low-threshold environments that keep members comfortable. Critically examining contemporary efforts such as small group ministries, which he considers insular, and short-term missions, which he regards as misguided efforts to satisfy participants’ demands, MacDonald rebukes both fast-growing megachurches and mainline Protestants for not holding members to high Christian standards. He suggests that spiritual disciplines such as fasting and honoring Lent as a “structured time for introspection” are tools available to address such prevalent social problems as debt, obesity, and divorce. Compellingly arguing against measuring success by attendance or pledge revenue, MacDonald provides examples of communities engaging a “new ethic of asceticism.” The author’s extrapolations from his four-year pastorate of a 40-member congregation occasionally ring bitter, and Christians of good faith may disagree with stances such as “fencing” the communion table—the practice of setting criteria for who can receive communion. Overall, however, MacDonald’s journalistic prowess makes this book a thought-provoking challenge to today’s church. (Apr.)

To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World James Davison Hunter. Oxford Univ., $27.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-19-973080-3

“To change hearts and minds” has been the goal of modern Christians seeking to correct a culture deemed fallen and morally lax. Hunter (Culture Wars), a distinguished professor of religion, culture, and social theory at the University of Virginia, finds this approach pervasive among Christians of all stripes and in every case deeply flawed. It can even “undermine the message of the very gospel they cherish and desire to advance.” In three “essays”—groups of chapters developing a concept—Hunter charts the history of Christian assumptions and efforts, investigates the nature of power and politics in Christian life and thought, and then proposes a theologically sound alternative: what he calls the practice of “faithful presence.” This practice has “benevolent consequences... precisely because it is not rooted in a desire to change the world... but rather it is an expression of a desire to honor the creator of all goodness, beauty, and truth.” Well reasoned and thought provoking, Hunter’s corrective argument for authentic Christian engagement with the world is refreshing, persuasive, and inspiring. (Apr.)

Imaginary Jesus Matt Mikalatos. Tyndale/BarnaBooks, $14.99 paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-4143-3563-6

The Apostle Peter punches Jesus in the face, then chases him out of a coffee shop. And that’s just chapter 0. In this quirky tale the publisher describes as “not-quite-true,” former missionary and comic book store clerk Mikalatos disguises his critique of Christian life in an action-based quest to find the real Jesus. It’s A Christmas Carol meets Oz, but instead of ghosts and tin men, it’s a talking donkey, a motorcycle rider, and Mikalatos himself. The cast of characters drags the reader through the streets of Seattle and ancient Judea to introduce a host of fake Jesuses: Magic 8 Ball Jesus, Harley Jesus, even Liberal Social Services Jesus. They’re constructs of the human mind. “People invent a Jesus for one specific reason and then discard him when they don’t need him anymore,” says one of the Jesuses (the one with an expensive suit). Peter teaches Mikalatos that he must quiet falsehoods and mold a deeper relationship with the living, historical Jesus. Mixing questions of suffering and free will with “a nexus of weirdness,” Mikalatos throws Christian fiction into the world of Comic-Con and Star Wars. His silly quest is startling, contemporary, meaningful, and occasionally exhausting when the reader is puzzled. It begs for a comic book counterpart. (Apr.)

The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion Herman Wouk. Little, Brown, $23.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-316-07845-0

At age 94, Wouk embarks on an autobiographical journey through his monumental writings (The Caine Mutiny; The Winds of War; War and Remembrance), people he has met in his life, world events, and books he has read (including the Talmud) to weave a testament of faith. Throughout the book, he returns to his friendship with Nobel laureateRichard Feynman, whose work as a scientist on the atomic bomb and life as a humanist challenge the author’s Orthodox Jewish beliefs. Along the way the reader meets other scientists and their accomplishments and also some of Wouk’s fictional characters. What most impresses Wouk is the big bang (“the first three minutes”) and the small bang (“the universe giving birth to the mind”) so that humans could comprehend God. Ever so faithful to his Jewish heritage, he discusses how research in the scientific and secular world strengthened his faith. This book will interest any person of faith who has followed Wouk’s storied career and read his fiction. (Apr.)

Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide Grant Hardy. Oxford Univ., $29.95 (360p) ISBN 978-0-19-973170-1

Too often, the Book of Mormon has been dismissed out of hand by scholars who think it a fraud (without having read it) or the faithful who accept it as gospel truth (without having read it carefully). In this long-overdue corrective, historian Hardy takes the Book of Mormon seriously as a complex, multivocal document by analyzing the contributions and perspectives of the three men who purport to be its primary narrators: Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. Hardy teases out the unique voice of each narrator, showing particular nuance as a student of character. He has great skill in reading between the lines—in the Book of Mormon, what is implied is often more intriguing than what is made explicit, and the editorial omissions of a redactor like Mormon can be revealing gaps. In Hardy’s hands, the Book of Mormon begins to come alive as a kind of Shakespearean tragedy as Hardy nimbly employs various tools of literary criticism. It is past time for a study like this, which eschews tiresome debates about the Book of Mormon’s historical authenticity in favor of a careful, lucid exploration of the book’s construction, themes, and characters. Hardy’s writing is clear, sometimes even piercing. This will be a classic work in the field of Mormon studies for decades to come. (Apr.)

Kings of the Jews: The Origins of the Jewish Nation Norman Gelb. Jewish Publication Society, $22 paper (190p) ISBN 978-0-8276-0913-6

Although Saul, David, and Solomon are the best known kings of Israel, a total of 52 men and two women served as monarchs between the years 1020 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. Their stories are told in this well-researched account by historian Gelb. After Solomon died in 931 B.C.E., his realm was divided into Judah and Israel. For the next 109 years, each kingdom had 19 kings and, in addition, Israel had one queen. They fought with each other and with neighboring states; the rulers often came to a bloody end. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. and little is known about the fate of its inhabitants. The Jews of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, were exiled into Babylonia in 587 B.C.E., and upon their return became subjects of the Persians, then Greeks and Syrians, until the rebellion of the Maccabees. Maccabean rule was followed by the Hasmoneans, who gave way to Herod, king under the Romans, from 37 to 4 B.C.E.. When the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the Jewish monarchy finally ended. This useful narrative recalls the contributions of Israel’s many kings and brings them back to life. (Apr.)

The Ten Things to Do When Your Life Falls Apart: An Emotional and Spiritual Handbook Daphne Rose Kingma. New World Library, $14.95 paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-57731-698-5

Known primarily for books on relationships (Coming Apart), Kingma’s latest is a lifeline for those in the isolating depths of personal tragedy. Its purpose is to hold, to heal, and to listen, and it comes from a very real place: a friend of the author’s in the midst of physical and financial hardships asked for a list of 10 practices to survive his crisis. With chapters dedicated to the necessity of tears, the freedom of letting go, and the fulfillment found in simple living, these techniques are all about practicality. Realistic indeed, yet underlying the straightforward advice is an enlivening spiritual message that isn’t content with just soldiering on through the darkness. “Rather than being random assaults from an uncaring universe, the difficulties you are going through have meaning and purpose,” the author writes. Kingma relates her worldly and spiritual survival tools in graceful prose and includes illustrative, though somewhat broad, real-life stories of people who rise above catastrophe. This work is about more than just getting by; it directs the reader toward transcendence and peace. (Apr.)

An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit Vinson Synan. Baker/Chosen, $17.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-8007-9485-9

A historian of Pentecostalism and a highly regarded denominational leader, Synan has written a summary of the seminal moments in the North American Pentecostal movement. Less a memoir and more of a guide to newcomers, the book presents the rise of practices such as speaking in tongues and healings in the first decade of the 20th century and their spread to Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in the 1960s. The book breathlessly portrays events with tired adjectives such as “amazing” and “awesome” and “incredible.” But its simplicity of presentation is a useful shorthand for conveying big events such as the racial breakthroughs of the 1990s and the phenomenal spread of exuberant worship styles to churches outside the movement. A retired dean of Pat Robertson’s Regent University divinity school, Synan argues in favor of the “prosperity gospel,” though he acknowledges excesses on the part of some of its vocal proponents. He is more critical in his views of the “new apostolic movement,” in which pastors of large churches declare themselves apostles, as holding the potential for abuse. (Apr.)

Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife Lisa Miller. Harper, $25.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-055475-0

Heaven. The word evokes all kinds of images and feelings in the hearts of people virtually everywhere. In some corners, heaven is seen as a vague sense of euphoria, a state of everlasting bliss. In other corners, heaven is a busy place, where eternal progression is the challenge of eternity. In this fine work, Miller, religion editor for Newsweek, surveys this fascinating subject from the earliest days of Judaism to contemporary expressions of faith. Beneath her pleasing prose and often amusing observations about the afterlife, there is a longing, a desire to be part of what heaven really is. And it is this sense of personal yearning that informs her delightful and insightful study. Heaven is hope, “a constant hope for unimaginable perfection even as we fail to achieve it.” This marvelous work is a readable and wonderfully realized study of this “constant hope” that we share. And whether we align with Augustine or with the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, whether we’re informed by scripture or by popular culture, Heaven will delight and edify readers at every level. (Mar. 23)

Tattoos on the Heart: Stories of Hope, Compassion, and Unconditional Love Gregory Boyle. Free Press, $25 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4391-5302-4

In this artful, disquieting, yet surprisingly jubilant memoir, Jesuit priest Boyle recounts his two decades of working with “homies” in Los Angeles County, which contains 1,100 gangs with nearly 86,000 members. Boyle’s Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention program in the country, offering job training, tattoo removal, and employment to members of enemy gangs. Effectively straddling the debate regarding where the responsibility for urban violence lies, Boyle both recounts the despair of watching “the kids you love cooperate in their own demise” and levels the challenge to readers to “stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it.” From moving vignettes about gangsters breaking into tears or finding themselves worthy of love and affirmation, to moments of spiritual reflection and sidesplittingly funny banter between him and the homies, Boyle creates a convincing and even joyful treatise on the sacredness of every life. Considering that he has buried more than 150 young people from gang-related violence, the joyful tenor of the book remains an astounding literary and spiritual feat. (Mar.)

Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements Christine Valters Paintner. Ave Maria/Sorin, $14.95 paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-933495-22-4

In a warm, personable manner, Paintner, a Benedictine oblate and spiritual director, invites the reader to engage creation as a sacred text by prayerfully exploring theological dimensions of the elements. Drawing on Celtic tradition, Paintner explores religious and cultural symbolism; for example, water’s associations with the direction west, the season autumn, and its physical forms and spiritual dimensions, such as tides, thirst, tears, baptism. Suggestions for reflection and action include the application of lectio divina, a practice of “sacred reading” typically used with scripture, to nature, encouraging the reader “to listen deeply for the stirring of the holy in sacred texts around us.” In each chapter, Paintner offers reflections on her prayer life during the book’s composition, demonstrating how she applied the spiritual practices she suggests (such as lighting a candle when contemplating “Fire”). Quotes from scripture, poets, essayists, and Christian mystics encourage the reader to seek divine revelation and comprehension of God’s love for all creation by “cultivating a contemplative relationship to nature.” Simple and powerful, this book will be a welcome new resource for individuals and groups seeking spiritual connection to creation. (Mar.)

Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference Desmond M. Tutu and Mpho A. Tutu. HarperOne, $25.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-170659-2

Nobel Peace Prize—winner Desmond Tutu, who lived through South African apartheid and helped to clean up its criminal consequences by chairing the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, could write a grocery list and people would get something out of it. With his daughter Mpho, an Episcopal priest in Washington, D.C., the retired Anglican archbishop writes a relatively personal book about his fundamental, faith-based beliefs about human nature: people are basically good because they are made in God’s image. He maintains this in the face of the horrific events he has witnessed in his country and elsewhere, and he bases his belief in part on simple experiences throughout his life that have involved family and, significantly, his failures. Tutu’s humility is striking; he is comfortable in his own skin despite being raised in a culture that officially deemed his skin color second-class. This book is not nearly as dramatic or compelling as No Future Without Forgiveness, based on his work with the Reconciliation Commission; on the other hand, it is heartening to know, or remember, that faith can be learned, reinforced, and expressed as much around the dinner table as in the public square. (Mar.)

Prayers of the Faithful: The Shifting Spiritual Life of American Catholics James P. McCartin. Harvard Univ., $25.95 (268p) ISBN 978-0-674-04913-0

McCartin, assistant professor of history at Seton Hall University, uses the theme of prayer to tie together the diverse ways in which American Catholics have changed over the last century. Tracing shifts in Catholics’ beliefs, concerns, and relationship with the church and its leaders, he begins by describing the “immigrant church” of the late 19th century as a community “bounded by shared beliefs and devotions,” but placing ordinary lay people at the bottom of the power pyramid. McCartin examines such subsequent movements as Father Patrick Peyton’s Family Rosary Crusade, the charismatic renewal and liberation theology, casting these phenomena as preludes to a day in which many lay Catholics link prayer with public action and exercise spiritual autonomy to the point of disagreeing with church teachings. This has occurred, he writes, even as other Catholics seek to restore the earlier order and respect for the hierarchy. Despite its brief treatment of a very big topic, McCartin’s book provides a good overview and will appeal to readers interested in contemporary church movements and history. (Mar.)

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist Stephen Batchelor. Random/Spiegel & Grau, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-0-385-52706-4

Batchelor’s Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997) described a “secular” approach to the Eastern philosophy stripped of doctrines such as karma and rebirth; how a young British monk ordained in the Tibetan tradition turned into a “Buddhist atheist” is revealed in this new book. On the dharma trail in India and Korea, and later as a lay resident at the nonsectarian Sharpham community in England, Batchelor was beset by doubts about traditional Buddhist teachings. Finally convinced that present-day forms of Buddhism have moved far beyond what founder Gotama had intended, Batchelor embarked on a study of the Pali canon (very early Buddhist texts) to find out what the Buddha’s original message might have been. Batchelor’s own “story of conversion” is woven effortlessly with his analysis of Buddhist teachings and a 2003 pilgrimage to Indian sites important in the Buddha’s life. He is candid about his disillusionments with institutionalized Buddhism without engaging in another “new atheist” broadside against religion. While Batchelor may exaggerate the novelty of his “Buddhism without beliefs” stance, this multifaceted account of one Buddhist’s search for enlightenment is richly absorbing. (Mar. 2)

Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide? (’Cause I Need More Room for My Plasma TV) Karen Spears Zacharias. Zondervan, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-310-29250-0

Zacharias (Where’s Your Jesus Now?) pours on the Southern charm in this not-so-gentle diatribe against what she calls the “golden-calf theology” in America. “There are a lot of folks prancing around treating the Bible like an algebra book and God like their personal banker,” Zacharias writes, and she is out to find them. She lambastes folks like an unnamed evangelist and adults who exploit children to make money off the faithful, while also sharing stories like that of Sister Schubert and an unnamed Marine, who live with generosity and faith. Zacharias will draw chortles with her colloquialisms and colorful language—“he has a buttload of money”—but she also exposes how “we’ve started mistaking Christianity for capitalism.” The book is long on stories but short on theology, pointed in criticism yet lost in indignation. Some may wish for a more reasoned approach, but none will argue with the solution: “Stop imagining all the ways in which the universe can serve you and start figuring out how you can serve others.” (Mar.)

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years Diarmaid MacCulloch. Viking, $45 (1,132p) ISBN 978-0-670-02126-0

Where does Christianity begin? In Athens, Jerusalem, or Rome? How did the early creeds of the church develop and differentiate? What was the impact of the Reformation and the Catholic Counterreformation? How have vital Christian communities emerged in Asia, Africa, and India since the 18th century? Award-winning historian MacCulloch (The Reformation) attempts to answer these questions and many more in this elegantly written, magisterial history of Christianity. MacCulloch diligently traces the origins and development of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christianities, and he provides a more in-depth look at the development of Christianity in Asia and Africa than standard histories of Christianity. He offers sketches of Christian thinkers from Augustine and Luther to Desmond Tutu and Patriarch Bartholomew I. Three appendixes contain a list of popes, Orthodox patriarchs, and a collection of Christian texts. Assuming no previous knowledge on the part of readers about Christian traditions, MacCulloch traces in breathtaking detail the often contentious arguments within Christianity for the past 3,000 years. His monumental achievement will not soon be surpassed. (Mar.)

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Crossway, $22.99 (464p) ISBN 978-0-4335-0625-3

From the authors of Vintage Jesus comes a tome elaborating the 13 teachings they say every Christian should believe. Driscoll, a controversial pastor for his often brash teaching, and Breshears, professor of theology at Western Seminary, combine for this book that describes the heart of Christian truth claims or doctrines. The pair attempt—and accomplish—vigorous interaction with biblical texts, systematic doctrine, culture, and flawed thinking; they directly address the reader, urging repentance and faith. Drawing on orthodox Reformed and Protestant theology, the book moves from God, stays on God, and ends with God. The book is organized around the actions of God: God is, speaks, makes, loves, judges, pursues, comes, dies, saves, sends, transforms, gives, reigns. The book could be used in universities, churches, or seminaries for systematic teaching of this particular strain of Christianity; it makes the most plainspoken and comprehensive case for the new Reformed Protestant Christianity today. (Mar. 31)