Opening with a harrowing account of attempting to cut his newborn daughter's umbilical cord as a cocktail of intoxicants coursed through his system, Pearcy's story of life in one of America's biggest hard rock bands of the '80s runs the gamut from charming to saddening to deplorable, sometimes within the space of a paragraph. Growing up in a dysfunctional family with a heroin-addicted father, Pearcy developed an early fondness for drinking, drugging, and riding his bike at top speeds through San Diego, the latter of which led to a horrific accident that left him in the hospital for months. While recovering, he began learning guitar, which he quickly abandoned in favor of singing. Once he found his medium, Pearcy eventually made his way to Los Angeles and founded the band Ratt. Hanging out with the likes of David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, and Mötley Crüe, Pearcy and his cohorts worked tirelessly to get stage time before getting signed. Once there, the escapades with women, drugs, and alcohol escalated until the misbehavior caught up with them. It's a common cautionary tale, but Pear-cy's humility and sense of humor make engaging reading for those who were there—and those who wish they were. (May)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Planetary scientist and professor Bell (Postcards from Mars) highlights significant events in the for-mation of the universe in chronological order. He covers the Big Bang through the formation of the Milky Way, the discoveries and theories of ancient scientists and philosophers like Pythagoras, and the development of celestial navigation including modern exploration of Mars. Bell doesn't end with 2013, however; he completes this history of the universe with projected events such as the evaporation of Earth's oceans, the dying of the last stars, and the universe's eventual end. He acknowledges the difficulty in selecting only 250 events from across the existence of time and space, addressing his de-sire to include significant events from ancient through modern history. Each event occupies a two-page spread, with clear, concise explanations accompanied by a full-color photograph. The accessible format and captivating photos invite readers to explore at their leisure, and Bell provides a list of comments and additional references for further study, many of which are online. Space and science lovers as well as the generally curious will appreciate this volume, which is appropriate even for pre-cocious youth. Photos. (May)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Farmer, Harvard professor and founder of Partners in Health, offers an anthology of 19 speeches on global health initiatives delivered between 2001 and 2012. Since his med school days in the 1980s, Farmer has been committed to building a viable health care system in Haiti. On January 12, 2010, he witnessed the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince and participated in the rescue effort. Despite self-deprecating remarks about being the "terminally unhip" successor of commencement speakers like Ali G, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bono, and Will Ferrell, Farmer has addressed top-tier institu-tions like Oxford, Brown, and Johns Hopkins. Divided into four sections, the book opens with the sub-ject of social injustice in medical care, explores the future of medicine and "instruments of mass salva-tion" following natural disasters, and closes on the issue of human suffering. Addressing "insignificant others" along with newly-minted public servants, he urges today's graduates to become "accom-pagnateurs"—a Creole term he uses to describe a committed doctor. While Farmer admits to sermon-izing, readers will emerge with a heightened sense of the responsibilities and sacrifices required of fu-ture public servants. (May)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

In this celebration of life and career, Bourbeau (Surviethon) narrates his evolution from frog-hunting boy to wilderness-surviving young man to canoeing-with-a-baby father. He lays bare his mistakes, from misidentifying plants to choosing lousy campsites, with plenty of humor, mild chagrin, and a touch of cheekiness. This is not a wilderness survival manual, though it imparts some riotous lessons on what not to do, but rather a biography of the man known to his University of Quebec students as "Doc Survival." Bourbeau gives a play-by-play description of some of his wilderness adventures, par-ticularly a one-month stint in the backwoods of Quebec. In his conclusion, he explains how to assess risks and draws a line between good and bad risk taking. Bourbeau also outlines the four factors of wilderness survival–physical capacity, psychological outlook, specific technical skills, and decision-making–and how to improve them for maximum survival chances. Readers get a sense of Bourbeau's awe for and connection with the wilderness, and he exhorts them to protect it in its natural, wild form, sans chalets, lookouts, and even hiking paths. Unfortunately, the tone is surprisingly juvenile for a pro-fessor emeritus and at times the language borders on foul, but, despite these drawbacks, Bourbeau has crafted an engrossing read. Canadian distribution: UTP. U.S. Distribution: Ingram (May)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Music journalists Easlea and Fiegel unveil the personality behind this entertainer who has fascinated fans for over 45 years. They offer a chronology of her music career and work as an actress, revealing a woman admired by audiences and peers alike. Blunt, yet kind, she is shown to be a survivor, a diligent worker, and a rare talent. From asides on first husband Sonny Bono to her involvement with the Black Rose Band, and then on to her acclaimed films—including Mask and Moonstruck (for which she won an Oscar)—she confides, "You can either swim or die in your career. I swam. I'm a gutsy kind of gal." Peers have their say, including actor/writer Chazz Palminteri, who adds, "She's also one of the smart-est people I've ever met." Her so-called "final" tours covered three continents in a 350-performance extravaganza featuring spectacular staging, riding a papier-mâché elephant, and appearing in flamboy-ant and often risqué costumes. While the real passion in the book is postponed until the last few chap-ters, Easlea and Fiegel make it clear that Cher's talent is matched by her personal warmth. B&W photo insert. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

In these disjointed autobiographical essays, L.A.-based writer, Twitter celebrity, and mom Oxford per-forms a flatfooted exercise in pointlessness. Framed by silly dialog with her three children ("Did you write this book to make dough?" eight-year-old Hen asks), Oxford's erratic chapters relay cherished memories from a not-so-long-ago youth: her early attempts to stage a production of Star Wars at her French Canadian immersion school, a first job washing dishes at the popular Schitzelhaus, pot-smoking teenage shenanigans with her best friend Aimee (such as traveling to Las Vegas to meet the about-to-be-a-big-star Leonardo DiCaprio), finding her future husband while working at a diner, and freaking out after becoming a mother in her early twenties without a "backup" secondary degree. Though pithy moments can be found, these stories often succumb to aimlessness. A trip to Las Vegas to meet magician David Copperfield, who provides a gracious reception after becoming a fan of Ox-ford's on Twitter, and a trip to Disneyland with her family prove feeble fodder for hilarity. The humor is wackily contrived, nearly slapstick, possessing little irony, tension, or subtlety. Instead, exclamation points lead the way like a banal laugh track and scatological references seem like a desperate plot for reaction. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Folberg's ambitious premise is to retell "the primal biblical myth of Adam and Eve's sin and their punishment, expulsion from the Garden." The series of staged photographs is shot from the snake's perspective: "No one sees me moving in the grass, though I see all. The grasses, trees and flowing wa-ter in my garden encompass all existence and every instant." Folberg's images are undoubtedly im-pressive, and he has exhibited work in galleries and museums around the world. The landscapes here, for example, taken in Rosh Pina, Israel, are lush yet haunting, inviting but foreboding. Tangled branches and dark, thick trunks create a weary sense of doom. Folberg (Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionists) gets help from Shai Partush, Renana Rendi, and members of the Kibbutz Contem-porary Dance Company, who remain in character, gamely playing their parts. In general, however, the project's awkward aims fail to cohere with the reality of the photographs. The series becomes a photo-graphic document of inaccessible, esoteric performance art; it requires too much explanation, and in this case is difficult to fully appreciate. What the artist intends and what his audience perceives unfor-tunately prove dissimilar. With 37 duotone and full-color photos. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Wilde-Menozzi guides the reader along her slow perambulations through Italy, from Parma to Mandu-ria. Her loving remembrances meander much like the Tiber. She reconstructs the scenes that shaped her love for the country: her first trip to Italy, encounters with the legacy of earthquakes and volcanoes that irrevocably altered the human landscape, reflections on the power of the Slow Food movement which helped her redefine eating habits and transformed the pace she uses to approach new experienc-es. She visits the frescoes of both San Giovanni Evangelista and Santa Maria Assunta in Parma, paus-ing to meditate on the overwhelming power of the depiction of Mary, "bathed in a vision that all but put a woman on par with Christ." Her encounter with the Tiber launches her into exalted reflections on the capacity of the river to shape her life: "I visited the Tiber almost daily, like a shrine…. The Tiber, though held by its banks and borders, told an unshapable story every day. I absorbed the wide perspec-tive of what it means to live the experience of an ancient river. Two observations that have stayed with me: It's never empty and never pitch-black." Part memoir and part travel guide, Wilde-Menozzi's ru-minations creates a vibrant excursion through her adopted homeland. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

With a literal ocean of options for seafood, Hunt looks to make choosing and cooking fish as easy as possible. With sections on each of the major kinds of fish, including bivalves, crustaceans, and also "sometimes forgotten seafood," all aspects of preparing a pescetarian feast are covered. Each variety receives the hook-to-plate treatment, from buying seafood in the market and proper storage techniques to cleaning, cooking, and preparation. For anyone interested in finding a healthy alternative to red meat, this book is a helpful resource. With classic dishes like "Beer-Battered Cod" and "Mussels Pro-vencal," and more adventurous dishes like "Octopus, Crushed Tomatoes, and Kalamatas over Pap-pardelle" and "Malaysian Fish Soup" there is something for everyone. Unfortunately, lacking photo-graphs, some of the more intricate instructions become too technical for easy comprehension. A few choice photos would have made the cleaning and cooking of certain fish more approachable. It's a frustrating flaw in this otherwise fine guidebook for learning to deal with a cornucopia of seafood. (May)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink

Those searching for the key to happiness may feel like they've been here before. Motivational speaker Bowen (A Complaint Free World) imparts a lot of familiar advice to readers, like "believe you deserve happiness"; "see yourself as a happy person"; and "write a new story" for yourself. Still, Bowen be-gins this book with the example of a prosperous, but unhappy individual, and moves on to provide simple and specific questions and exercises to help readers reframe their thinking and increase their happiness. At the end of each chapter, Bowen provides helpful recaps and reminders, and offers a ho-listic approach that moves beyond reframing thinking to include physical fitness and lifestyle. There are some unexpected surprises, like why readers should avoid horror movies, or how his simple "Combo" formula (based on the anticipation of good deeds) might make a difference in personal out-look. Bowen also includes a wide variety of references and quotes to expand his appeal—from the Bi-ble, Bart Simpson, Thoreau, and George Carlin. Whether readers buy into his program remains to be seen, but Bowen is serious about his approach and insists that a strictly disciplined life is worth the payoff. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2013 | Details & Permalink