The Pacific Corridor

Recalling harrowing rescue missions, gun battles and the knee-deep swamp mud that forced soldiers to hold up their comrades' heads while they slept to keep them from drowning, veterans from elite WWII units relive the Pacific theater in Into the Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat. Editor Patrick K. O'Donnell (Beyond Valor) interviewed hundreds of veterans for this oral history of the battles at Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and other locations. Brief testimonies of horrifying violence and hair-raising close calls are sometimes described with emotion, other times in brutally honest deadpan. (Free Press, $27 384p ISBN 0-684-87385-0; Mar.)

Civil War Miscellany

The legendary Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was the first successful underwater warship—that is, the first to sink an enemy ship. As chronicled in Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine, the sub disappeared without a trace in 1864, crippled by a Union ship, and finding it became something of an obsession for many Americans until the vessel was finally brought to shore in 2000. Based on interviews with scientists and historians who studied the Hunley's remains, Charleston, S.C., Post and Courierjournalists Brian Hicks and Schuyler Kropf reconstruct the sub's final voyage in this dramatic slice of Civil War history. (Ballantine, $25 304p ISBN 0-345-44771-9; Apr.)

Lushly illustrated with hundreds of paintings, photographs, sketches and reproductions of original documents, The American Heritage New History of the Civil War is a comprehensive overview edited by Princeton University American history professor James M. McPherson and author Noah Andre Trudeau. First published in 1960, this new edition retains the narrative of the late Pulitzer Prize—winning historian Bruce Catton (This Hallowed Ground). The beautifully reproduced illustrations are mostly new, and many of these—Winslow Homer's painting of slave laborers appended to the Union army, or a two-page photographic spread of the ghostly, charred remnants of the Richmond business district—are mesmerizing. (Friedman/Fairfax, $24.98 640p ISBN 1-58663-198-3; Feb.)

"You fight us like devils and nurse us like angels," one Confederate soldier is quoted as saying of the Union army in My Brother's Keeper: Union and Confederate Soldiers' Acts of Mercy During the Civil War. Allegheny University liberal arts and applied sciences professor Daniel N. Rolph's book is a scholarly but accessible look at how enemy soldiers fraternized, cared for one another in hospitals and sometimes even saved each other from death in battle. Rolph quotes extensively from moving, first-hand accounts of soldiers who shared blankets and food and proudly insisted on recognizing the humanity of their enemy. (Stackpole, $24.95 144p ISBN 0-8117-0893-4; Feb.)

Considered the high watermark of Civil War literature, the autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs, has now been abridged to focus exclusively on the war. The Civil War Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, put together by scholar Brian M. Thomsen, covers battles and campaigns from Shiloh to Richmond, and includes correspondence with Generals Sherman and Lee. (Forge, $25.95 592p ISBN 0-765-30242-X; Mar.)

Thomsen is also the editor of Shadows of Blue & Gray: The Civil War Writings of Ambrose Bierce, which collects 27 stories along with some memoirs and reportage by the journalist, writer, literary critic and former Union Army soldier. Famous for their unflinching look at the brutality of the war, the pieces include "Two Military Executions," about the execution and revenge of a young soldier sentenced to death for striking an officer; "Bivouac of the Dead," the classic plea for the recognition of unknown Confederate soldiers in a West Virginia hillside; and "Four Days in Dixie," Bierce's account of his own imprisonment and escape from Confederates in Alabama. (Forge, $24.95 288p ISBN 0-765-30244-6; Mar.)

Whether one believes that patriotism is "the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons," (Bertrand Russell) or that "the man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife" (Teddy Roosevelt), one will find something provocative in The Military Quotation Book. Editor James Charlton (The Executive's Quotation Book) has expanded an earlier edition to include musings in categories like "Fear," "Air Power" and "Revolutions." Quotes come from military leaders and civilians through the ages, from Pyrrhus to George Bernard Shaw to Mohammed Daoud. (St. Martin's, $16.95 160p ISBN 0-312-26644-8; Mar.)

Magic and Megacheese

"Cat Chiropractor," "Funnel in Pants," "Fingertip Eyeballs" and "A Trick with Ben Franklin's Head" are just a few of the Tricks with Your Head: Hilarious Magic Tricks to Disgust and Delight offered by Las Vegas magician Mac King, who performs on NBC's annual World's Greatest Magic, and book wholesaler Mark Levy (Magic for Dummies). With clear (and joke-filled) instructions and 68 line-drawings, even the most inept should find something to amaze the experts and tyros alike. (Crown/Three Rivers, $11 paper 208p ISBN 0-609-80591-6; Feb.)

In the tradition of Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese, which featured endless takedowns of Hollywood glitterati, comes Mike Nelson's Mind over Matters, some 50 short essays covering up everything from "Portal to Hell: The Radio Shack Experience" to "Grumpy Floppy and the Flo-Flo," or the pet names of friends for their loved ones. Michael J. Nelson, head writer of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 for 10 seasons (and its host for five), has an endless supply of good-natured bile, and here turns it on the annoyances and idiocies of everyday life. (HarperEntertainment, $14.95 paper 288p ISBN 0-06-093614-2; Mar. 1)

Black Studies

African-American burial and embalming rituals, funeral services and undertaking industry are all examined in Passed On: African American Mourning Stories, a cultural analysis of death and dying among 20th-century black Americans. Duke University English professor Karla F.C. Holloway combines historical research with interviews of present-day undertakers and others as she chronicles the discrimination and violent threats faced by black funeral parlor owners; the development of rituals like open-casket services and processions; and the influence of disproportionately violent black deaths on mourning practices. Punctuated with Holloway's personal stories (including that of her son's death), the book is an elegantly written survey for general readers and cultural historians alike. (Duke Univ., $24.95 240p ISBN 0-8223-2860-7; Feb.)

From Sanford and Son to Snoop Doggy Dog, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic looks at the last three decades of black images and representations. State University of New York, Albany, professor of English and Africana Studies Mark Anthony Neal focuses on the way that music, film and television were altered on the one hand by integration and on the other hand by the pessimism and social unrest among black Americans in the '70s and '80s. Neal also discusses the work of young black intellectuals of the "post-soul" generation, the first to be part of an integrated—yet increasingly isolated—academy. (Routledge, $19.95 paper 224p ISBN 0-415-92658-0; Feb.)

Money: Heavy and Light

Whimsical artist and writer SARK (Succulent Wild Woman; Living Juicy) urges readers not to let lucre take over their lives in Prosperity Pie: How to Relax About Money and Everything Else. With her trademark line drawings, handwritten text and autobiographical asides, SARK guides readers through self-awareness excercises and philosophical musings aimed at keeping money in proper perspective. Some of her handmade worksheets exploring financial history and anxieties are reminiscent of Suze Orman's guides, but most of the book is taken up with broader questions of personal identity and fulfillment. (S&S/Fireside, $16 paper 208p ISBN 0-7432-2920-7; Apr.)

From Charlemagne's introduction of the silver penny in 800 AD to about the middle of the 19th century, small denomination coins were a headache for governments (due to production costs and constant shortages and depreciations); it was often more profitable for owners to melt down the small coins to make larger denominations. In The Big Problem of Small Change, Stanford University economics professor Thomas J. Sargent and Federal Reserve Bank economist François R. Velde describe how economists finally solved this problem by introducing fiat money (coins whose value was symbolic), paving the way for modern forms of currency and credit. This elegantly written, scholarly work will appeal to those interested in financial history or monetary theory. (Princeton Univ., $39.50 432p ISBN 0-691-02932-6; Feb.)

The discount superstore is "the best thing to happen to [independent retailers] since they opened their doors," insists sales trainer and retail consultant Eddy Kay in Thriving in the Shadow of the Giants: How to Find Success as an Independent Retailer. That's because it forces them to concentrate on their best features: knowledgeable, friendly customer service and presentation. Kay offers advice for the frustrated retailer on training salespeople, implementing commission plans, décor and lighting, cost-effective advertising and, most importantly, how to compete with superstores' low prices. Throughout, he profiles successful independent retailers selling jewelry, hardware, electronics, model trains and more. (Armarium [8391 Beverly Blvd., #451, West Hollywood, Calif. 90048], $20 paper 136p ISBN 0-9707825-0-0; Feb.)