Bulls Do It; Bears Do It

Financial journalist John F. Wasik (The Late-Start Investor; Retire Early—and Live the Life You Want Now) offers down-to-earth advice for those "seeking the middle road between the stratospheric highs and catastrophic lows" in The Bear-Proof Investor: Prospering Safely in Any Market. Wasik admits that he has no wizardry for profiting in a bad market, just tips for balancing one's portfolio and choosing the kinds of stocks that weather downturns. He finds "teachable moments" in the common mistakes made by novices (like holding on to loser stocks too long, or buying rapidly rising, overvalued stocks) as well as his own past blunders. (Holt/Owl, $14 paper 272p ISBN 0-8050-7019-2; Apr. 2)

It may be a truism that investors can't outperform the market in the long run, yet Edward M. Yanis, chairman of Yanis Financial Services, claims to have beat the system. His book Riding the Bull, Beating the Bear: Market Timing for the Long-Term Investor describes the "Y-Process," a mathematical model that supposedly allows investors to predict the upcoming fluctuations of the market. Yanis cautions, however, that this technique is only for "sophisticated" investors, and much of the book is taken up with more conservative and familiar advice (diversification, mutual funds) for beginner and intermediate players. (Wiley, $24.95 196p ISBN 0-471-20803-5; Mar.)

Geared to the skittish novice investor who may have been spooked by the September 11 fallout, The Informed Investor: A Hype-Free Guide to Constructing a Sound Financial Portfolio guides readers through the basics of investing with a reassuring tone and a relatively conservative long-term strategy. Frank Armstrong III, a former contributor to CNNMoney, explains how to assess risk, choose a mutual fund and interpret the advice of financial soothsayers. He weighs the relative advantages of mutual fund alternatives (like real estate investment trusts and variable annuities) and offers specific tips for parents worried about college tuition. (Amacom, $25 288p ISBN 0-8144-0676-9; Mar.)

Two University of Pennsylvania undergraduates (and Forbes contributors) gather advice from top investors in Bulls, Bears, and Brains: Investing with the Best and Brightest on the Financial Internet. Adam Leitzes and Joshua Solan interview 20 investors with successful track records and their own Web sites. Veterans like Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel (Stocks for the Long Run), Deutsche Bank strategist Ed Yardeni and Karin Housley (founder of Chicks Laying Nest Eggs Investment Club) share their varied investment philosophies. Along the way, Leitzes and Solan solicit practical advice (e.g., what to look for in an annual report) and lessons in economics (like why the Nasdaq rose so high and fell so hard). (Wiley, $24.95 336p ISBN 0-471-44294-1; Feb. 8)

Give Me a Home...

Joe Carroll, publisher of Furniture/Today magazine, surveyed furniture designers, interior decorators, consultants and celebrities on what makes a "perfect home." The result is The Perfect Home: Living in Style, a sumptuously illustrated volume using more than 100 room settings to teach would-be designers how to use style, personality, color, light, nature and more to create a comfortable living space. For Dudley Moore, a perfect home should have "unusual colors working together beautifully," while for painter and designer Bob Timberlake, it is "a place that makes you feel good and inspired and happy." (Ashley Group [Norton, dist.], $39.95 144p ISBN 1-58862-085-9; Mar.)

Gotham homeowners looking for home help will find the New York Home Book: A Comprehensive Hands-On Design Sourcebook for Building, Remodeling, Decorating, Furnishing and Landscaping a Luxury Home in New York City a godsend. Dana Felmly and her team of editors delve into chapters like "Custom Woodworking," "Flooring & Countertops" and "Architects," and teach readers how to find the right contractor, where to find one-of-a-kind antiques and more. The publisher offers editions for 23 other U.S. markets, from Washington, D.C., to L.A.; each one offers general advice and specific local resources. (Ashley Group [Norton, dist.], $39.95 736p ISBN 1-58862-028-X; Feb.)

Wars I Have Seen

Despite its broad subtitle, Crimes of War: Guilt and Denial in the Twentieth Century focuses mainly on WWII and mostly on Germany's struggle to come to terms with Nazi atrocities. Edited by historians Omer Bartov, Atina Grossmann and Mary Nolan, this anthology of 13 scholarly essays includes Saul Friedländer on German society's knowledge of Jewish extermination, Gudrun Schwartz's look at the role of women in the Nazi military and Robert G. Moeller on Germans' collective memory of the devastating battle of Stalingrad. There's also an investigation by Marilyn Young of American involvement in (and denial of) the civilian massacre at No Gun Ri during the Korean War. (Free Press, $25.95 384p ISBN 1-56584-654-0; Mar.)

A lawyer who spent 15 years as general counsel for the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Thomas Graham Jr. recalls the government's fiery battles over in his memoir Disarmament Sketches: Three Decades of Arms Control and International Law. The SALT, the START, the ABM—Graham had a role in them all, and his detailed descriptions of the skirmishes among presidents, cabinet secretaries and members of Congress through six White House administrations make for a comprehensive history of American arms control. Though its tone is probably too wonky for general readers, the book will be appreciated by historians and those interested in international law, and its observations will eventually trickle down. (Univ. of Washington, $35 400p ISBN 0-295-98212-8; June)

While individually they're not the longest nor the best-remembered wars, conflicts with Native Americans, like the Iroquois-Huron War and the Seminole Wars, make up most of American military engagements. This becomes clear in popular historian Alan Axelrod's America's Wars, a reference guide to all the armed struggles of the United States. Major wars are outlined battle by battle, and Axelrod also describes the development of smaller campaigns like the 1846 Bear Flag Rebellion over control of California, the Philippine Insurrection and the recent engagements in Somalia and Kosovo. (Wiley, $40 560p ISBN 0-471-327972; Apr.)

From Hitler's invasion of Poland to the Nuremburg trials, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About World War II sketches each step of the combat in an easy-to-read, chronological overview that includes 124 b&w photos. The six chapters—one for each year of the war—feature short, numbered paragraphs that describe each maneuver made by the various nations, with some analysis of strategies and pitfalls by author Frank E. Vandiver (1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the Civil War), director of the Mosher Institute for Defense Studies at Texas A&M. Together, the entries paint a detailed portrait of the war's progression. (Broadway, $26.95 400p ISBN 0-7679-0685-3; on sale Apr. 30)

It's been 20 years since the British made quick work of Argentinean forces in the Falklands. In time for the anniversary comes With 3 Para to the Falklands, a memoir of the campaign by Graham Colbeck, then a sergeant in the 3rd Parachute Regiment. Colbeck recall his every advance and battle in careful detail, and also discusses his training for the parachute regiment and some of his earlier assignments, like peacekeeping in Belfast. Patriotic but generally unsentimental, Colbeck, now retired, doesn't shrink from conveying the brutality of the Falklands engagement, but also argues for an expanded post-Cold War British military. (Greenhill, $29.95 224p ISBN 1-85367-493-1; Mar.)

Taking Stock(pile)

The World's Elite Forces: Small Arms and Accessories is an encyclopedic guide to the guns used by special forces (mainly police and SWAT units) around the world. A companion to The World's Elite Forces: Arms and Equipment in the Greenhill Military Manuals series, the book includes a page-long entry for each weapon detailing the uses of the gun and the technical innovations that make it distinctive, with a focus on the development of specialized features like silencers or sights for sniping. Author John Walter (The Luger Story) has also written an introduction discussing trends in weapons design. (Greenhill, $24 144p ISBN 1-85367-496-6; Feb.)

The blunt-nosed 1948 Soviet MiG, the German-built Hoffman motor glider and the forthcoming 2005 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor are just a few of the planes catalogued and photographed in the Directory of Military Aircraft of the World. Aviation author Peter R. March (Military Aircraft Markings) writes entries for 400 military planes from around the world, and includes 700 glossy photos and more than 200 drawings. March describes the development of each plane as well as its current service, special features and various models. (Sterling, $75 480p ISBN 1-85409-527-7; May)

Native Autobiography

Using an oral history about the life of legendary "prophet chief" Circling Raven, as well as the stories still told by elderly Coeur d'Alene (or Schitsu'umsh) Indians, author and tribal member David Matheson reconstructs the world of an Idaho Native American family in the early 1700s. Told in the first person, Red Thunder follows a boy called Sun Bear as he learns the teachings of the tribe—lessons in when to wage war, the spiritual connection with the land and the relationship between humans and other animals—from his elders. (Media Weavers, $16 paper 320p ISBN 0-9647212-3-6; Feb.)

The history and culture of Coeur d'Alene Indians is also explored in Landscape Traveled by Coyote and Crane: The World of the Schitsu'umsh. University of Idaho anthropologist Rodney Frey quotes extensively from the first-person testimonies of contemporary Schitsu'umsh as he describes the landscape, precontact society, interactions with European colonists and the present-day culture of the people. He emphasizes the oral traditions by which myths and tribal histories are still passed on to younger generations. (Univ. of Washington, $40 320p ISBN 0-295-98171-7; paper $22.50 -98162-8; Apr.)

When he was a teenager, writer Basil Johnston (The Manitous) listened to his grandmother tell stories of how her people, the Ojibway (or Chippewa), were driven from their Wisconsin land to the Cape Croker Reserve in Ontario, where she—and Johnston himself—grew up. Johnston records this in Crazy Dave, a family and tribal history told mostly through the stories of Johnston's grandmother and her youngest son, David. The willful, inquisitive, mischievous David was born with Down's syndrome, but refused to accept his isolation from the rest of the world. He becomes a metaphor for the Ojibways' refusal to quietly placate white society. (Minnesota Historical Society, $16.95 paper 334p ISBN 0-87351-423-8; Apr.)

Born in Wisconsin in the mid—19th century to a mixed-race family of Chippewa, Scots and French, Eliza Morrison wrote her autobiography in a series of letters sent to her former employers in the Midwest. A Little History of My Forest Life: An Indian-White Autobiography, publishing them for the first time, giving a vivid, sometimes witty account of life in the mixed race ("métis") communities in the Great Lakes region. Morrison is the descendant of a long line of fur trading, French or Scottish men who took Chippewa wives and lived either among whites or other métis families in typically bilingual settlements. Edited and introduced by scholar Victoria Brehm, the book includes accounts of the Wisconsin Death March and the Chippewa-Dakota War. (Ladyslipper [ladyslipperpress.com], $18.95 paper 208p ISBN 0-9702606-2-8; Apr.)

February Publication

Harold Cruse is best known for 1967's The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, an influential call for black autonomy, warning against integration as a strategy. Edited by regular Washington Post contributor William Jelani Cobb, The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader includes essays from the early 1960s on race, bohemianism, James Baldwin and Cuba; three chapters of Crisis, three from Rebellion or Revolution (1968) and further essays and speeches from the Black Power era; one chapter from Plural but Equal (1987) and a selection of other post—Black Power writings that address theater and music. The introduction by cultural critic Stanley Crouch is useful, but a more complete and analytical intellectual biography is still wanted. (Palgrave, $19.95 paper 336p ISBN 0-312-29396-8)