October 2004, Issue #66

Guide to Current Issue

Anthropology, Nineteenth Century Art, Lost in Tibet, The American Worker, Management, Tourism and Transition, Leadership Within, Web Development, Wine, Education, Italian Country Recipes, The Perfect Cocktail, Economic Development, Mental Retardation, Teaching Language Arts, Van Morrison: A New Biography, Transcaucasus Republics, Sex Addiction, Children with Neuro-developmental Disabilities, Self-Help Happiness, Yoga for Awareness, Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War, Election Crisis of 1800, World War II, Who Invented the Steamboat? Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia, How to Create a Waterwise, Drought-Tolerant Garden, Homes in the Country, Antique Glass, Gay Mystery: Biceps Of Death, Radio Theatre Audio Production of Anne of Green Gables, Eliza Haywood's Female Spectators, Death of a Relationship, Disease Detectives, Talking Heads Story Songs, Chief Inspector Barnaby, U.S. National Parks, Duck-Hunting Clubs in Louisiana, Religious Odyssey of Orestes A. Brownson, Politics, Ethics, and Religion, Arguing About War, Japanese Media High Jinks, Congressional Quarterly Guide to Current American Government, Pathological Gambling, Architectural Pattern Book for Neighborhoods, Horticulture, Architecture Today, Story and Emotion Woven Around Saved Objects, Classic Tarot Deck and Kit, Spirituality of the Sword, Stories of Immortality, Ouspensky's Shadow, A Pilgrimage Tale, Christian Ethics, Buddhism Speech of Delight, Masterworks of Technology, Crime and Delinquency, Life of an Extraordinary Aboriginal Woman, Narratives of Memory, Body, Media, Language, and Protest, Father Edward Malloy Travel Tales, New Perspectives on Masculinity

Anthropology

Resistance in an Amazonian Community by Lawrence Ziegler-Otero (Berghahn Books)

Like many other indigenous groups, the Huaorani of eastern Ecuador are facing many challenges as they attempt to confront the globalization of capitalism in the 21st century. In 1991, they formed a political organization, Organización de las Nacionalidades Indígenas de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana (ONHAE) as a direct response to the growing threat to Huaorani territory posed by oil exploitation, colonization, and other pressures. Lawrence Ziegler-Otero explores the structures and practices of the organization, as well as the contradictions created by the imposition of an alien and hierarchical organizational form on a traditionally egalitarian society.

In Resistance in an Amazonian Community Ziegler-Otero, who teaches in the Department of Anthropology at SUNY Plattsburgh in Philadelphia, after having had a first career as a trade union organizer in the United States, tells of his study conducted among the group. Ziegler-Otero approached ONHAW officers explaining to them exactly what he wished to study, offering bring the office a computer, on which he would train them. This gave him access to the day-to-day workings of the organization. He rented and furnished an apartment directly below the office of OPIP/Amazanga in Puyo, and made that apartment a place where Huaorani leaders or those visiting town could drop in or stay. He worked with the leadership of ONHAE in their office in Shell-Mera and accompanied them on frequent visits to Huaorani communities in the forest, as well as to Quito. This permitted him to work alongside the organization's activists on a daily basis. He spent regular business days working in the office, socialized with the leaders in the evening, and frequently hosted the leaders and their relatives in his home in Puyo. He participated directly in the planning of events, and observed the interactions of the leaders with rank-and-file Huaorani, oil company representatives, environmentalists, tourists, and others. He was the only outside observer at the annual assembly of the organization, and he helped to organize a conference, at the leaders' behest, to discuss the international environmental movement. At the end of his fieldwork he conducted life history interviews with current and former leaders of the organization, as well as leaders of other indigenous organizations who have worked closely (or attempted to work closely) with ONHAE. These interviews are quoted extensively throughout this work.

Resistance in an Amazonian Community begins Chapter 1 by providing some background information about the region in which the Huaorani live, including a synthesis of the available geographical, environmental, and historical information based on secondary ethnographic and other works, as well as some of his own observations. The effects of contact with "outsiders" are discussed. The Huaorani have experienced several distinct periods of contact, marked by very different consequences. The rubber boom, of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the beginnings of oil exploration from the 1930s and, most significantly, the penetration of North American evangelical missionaries from the 1960s are discussed. The book focuses on the ongoing penetration of Huaorani territory, examining the political, theological, and personal motivations of the missionaries.

Chapter 2 provides an account of the fieldwork with ONHAE, examining it in detail. The organization's history, its founding, and the struggles of its first years are described, including the flawed but ultimately successful fight for legal recognition of Huaorani territorial rights, and the history of agreements between the organization and the oil companies. The individuals who have led the organization are introduced, and the characteristics of the principals are described, along with the practices of the organization and the nature of its activities. Finally the organization is placed within the framework of the progressive movements and the other interested actors.

"Power" can come from a myriad of sources. An organization like ONHAE, which does not wield institutionalized power, or power supported by the threat of coercion, depends on the continued acknowledgment of its role and legitimacy both by the Huaorani people and by the non-Huaorani actors it confronts. Chapter 3 looks at the structures and practices that reproduce not just the organization qua institution, but its legitimacy and authority. By examining two events in detail – one involving the organization's internal relationship with the Huaorani people and the other rooted in the relations of ONHAE with the broader Ecuadorian society – it is possible to glimpse how the structures developed by the organization have permitted it to maintain its apparent legitimacy in representing the Huaorani people. There is an account of the Biye, or annual assembly, of ONHAE in 1996. The Biye, a gathering of Huaorani from all of the scattered communities, is the prime source of ONHAE's legitimacy within Huaorani society and the group's highest governing body. The chapter also examines the Huaorani participation in the annual 12 May parade in Puyo, where Huaorani representations of themselves are juxtaposed with the very different participation and behavior of the ONHAE leadership.

Chapter 4 looks at the goals, successes and failures of ONHAE and attempts to provide the beginnings of an evaluation of the organization’s work. The chapter reviews the stated goals of the organization over time, and examines the compromises that have been made. The relationships of power and persuasion that exist between ONHAE and the oil companies, missionaries, environmental movement, and the state are explored. These elements have generated new challenges to Huaorani culture and society, fostering changes in gender relations and roles, community identity, and pan-Huaorani consciousness, all of which have been reflected in the organization's actions.

Finally, Ziegler-Otero presents his conclusions about ONHAE and begins looking for ways in which the experience of ONHAE can provide practical lessons for future generations of Huaorani leaders, as well as other indigenous organizations. The central theses of Resistance in an Amazonian Community are revisited, and the relationship and importance of the study to anthropology and anthropological theory are discussed.

... a good book ... clearly written ... that raises a number of important general issues relevant to the contemporary political, cultural and economic struggles of indigenous peoples of the Amazon and elsewhere. – Terence Turner, Cornell University

This study has broad implications for those who work toward "cultural survival" or try to "save the rainforest." The author states that anthropology has a historic relationship with indigenous peoples and a responsibility to them, but the unanswered question implicit in this work remains: What is the most effective way for indigenous people to organize in the face of capitalist penetration? More broadly, how is it possible for the dispossessed of the periphery (indigenous or non) to claim rights and develop a voice against oppression? Resistance in an Amazonian Community offers a case study, not a solution to the question.

Arts & Photography

19th-Century Art, Revised and Updated Edition by Robert Rosenblum & H. W. Janson (Pearson Prentice Hall)

Since it was first published in 1984, 19th-Century Art has been influential in cementing the reputations of many painters and sculptors, and this new edition adds more artists to the pantheon. This revised and updated edition remains true to the original, with its magisterial survey of painting and sculpture presented in four historical parts, beginning in 1776 and ending with the dawn of the new century at the Paris Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) of 1900. The text, with the “Painting” section written by Robert Rosenblum and the “Sculpture” section by H. W. Janson, draws on the historical documentation of the period, tracing the dynamics of the making and viewing of art, and examining the reciprocal influences of art and technology, art and politics, art and literature, art and music.

19th-Century Art also explores for the first time the work of photographers, who themselves provoked new ways of looking at nineteenthcentury painting. Historical perspective is enhanced in this edition with a selection of sparkling critical and artistic responses to many of the key works of art since their creation, such as Gericault on the public response to his famous Raft of the Medusa, John Ruskin on Turner, and poet Baudelaire on the sculpture of the day.

Two decades have passed since the first publication of 19th-Century Art, and in that time, our knowledge of nineteenth-century art has made countless quantum leaps. For one, there is the often overwhelming quantity of new information that monographs and exhibition catalogues have brought us, a bounty that is reflected in this new edition's updated bibliography. But there is also the constant changing of viewpoints from which the nineteenth century can be seen. Many issues began to loom large. Feminists made us aware of the hundreds of nineteenth-century women artists who seemed to be buried forever but who deserved resurrection. And feminists also made us look differently at how women fitted into the various social structures implied by the roles they play in nineteenth-century paintings. For a century that witnessed one dehumanizing crisis after another – slavery, factory life, slums, famine, desperate migrations of workers – it also became necessary to come to grips with the ways in which artists confronted or concealed these painful truths. There were, comparably, new questions about the issues of nationalism and imperialism, which required a new reading of the way in which Western artists generated patriotic fervor or confronted the problem of depicting people and cultures remote from their own. And a waning of modernism's inherited hostility to academic art opened yet another huge vista, demanding reconsideration of hundreds of painters who had been thrown into the dustbin of history. Moreover, the welling interest in photography similarly fostered new ways of looking at those nineteenth-century painters whose hyper-realism had once disqualified them from the category of respectable art.

Revising and republishing a historical survey now twenty years old entailed, among other things, a reconsideration of how old- or new-fashioned the text would be today. The answer, of course, should be left to the readers, young or old; but author Rosenblum, at least, has his own strong opinions. As for the section on sculpture, written by the late H. W. Janson, this was, in fact, the first survey that approached the subject in a democratic way, rejecting the earlier twentieth-century's exclusive focus on an under-populated pantheon of great sculptors, from Canova to Rodin, and exploring a multitude of lesser figures from both sides of the Atlantic and from all parts of Europe. Inherited standards of what was boring, silly, or ugly in nineteenth-century sculpture were swept away in favor of fresh readings of this vast, unstudied body of work. Pointing forward, not backwards, the survey of sculpture in 19th-Century Art laid many of the foundations of books and exhibitions to come. It now stands as a pioneering work for charting new maps in the ongoing explorations of nineteenth-century sculpture, and this revision benefits from the inclusion of additional illustrations to accompany Janson's original text.

As for the section on painting, in retrospect, this also seems futureoriented, not only in its interpretations but in its selection of works. There are, for instance, far more works by women than had ever before appeared in a comparable survey; and the social roles of women in the nineteenth century, whether as ideal mothers, adulteresses, prostitutes, or mythical temptresses, were emphasized. Grinding poverty, class structures, social reforms were also viewed as essential to understanding the period, much as the rapidly changing image of the ruler, whether king, empress, or president, was seen in its role as mirroring political history. Academic art, vilified by almost all earlier surveys, was for the first time given its due, looked at with an eye to integrating it with the acknowledged masters of modern painting instead of using it as a foil for the avant-garde. And for the first time in an international survey, American painting was treated together with its European counterparts, and an African-American painter made his textbook debut. This reach for less familiar material also extended far beyond the conventional Franco-centric confines. Not only were European artists from countries as far afield as Portugal, Russia, Denmark, and Hungary part of this new United Nations of painters, but even artists from Canada, Mexico, and Australia appeared for the first time in a general history of nineteenth-century art. In short, in 1984 this survey was a path-breaker, pointing to many new directions that have become ever more relevant to the early twenty-first century.

According to Rosenblum, publishing this revised edition has provided the possibility of correcting not only the kind of error that gives authors sleepless nights, but of offering new information about many of the works discussed. Moreover, this updated edition has allowed him not only to add several paintings by artists whose reputations have soared since 1984 but also many illustrated references to the history of photography, from Nadar to Strindberg, which clarify both the range and variety of this new medium as well as the ways in which it may now be seen as an essential part of the history of nineteenth-century painting.

A book that broke new ground when it was first published, 19th-Century Art today reads with the same authority and scholarly verve as it has for the past twenty years. This new edition of 19th-Century Art continues to offer an open-minded guide to the endless possibilities of seeing and interpreting nineteenth-century art.

Biographies & Memoirs / Travel / Adventure

Lost in Tibet: The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive by Richard Starks & Miriam Murcutt (The Lyons Press) is the story of a doomed mission, which sets five young Americans in a forbidden and hostile land.

November 1943. Caught in a violent storm and blown far off their intended course, five American airmen – flying the dangerous Himalayan supply route known as “The Hump” – were forced to bail out just seconds before their plane ran out of fuel. To their astonishment, they found they had landed in the heart of Tibet.
Miraculously, all five survived the jump. But their ordeal was just beginning.
Authors Miriam Murcutt and Richard Starks, extensive travelers, tell the story of their harrowing trek in Lost in Tibet. After crossing some of Tibet’s most treacherous mountains, the five airmen rode on borrowed mules into the fabled city of Lhasa. Their arrival was not a matter of choice; instead they were escorted to Lhasa by a suspicious Tibetan government, trapped in a tightening vise between China and the West.
The five were among the first Americans ever to enter the Forbidden City (two years before Heinrich Harrer, author of Seven Years in Tibet), and among the last to see it before the Chinese launched their invasion.
While in Tibet, the five Americans had to confront what, to them, seemed a bizarre – even alien – people. At the same time, they had to extricate themselves from the political turmoil that even then was raging around Tibet’s right to be independent from China.
To avert an international incident – and to assure their own safety – the five men were forced to leave Lhasa in a hurry. They set out, in the middle of winter, on a perilous journey across the Tibetan plateau – only to find themselves caught in a desperate race against time.

A well-rendered story, with pleny of twists. For fans of Into Thin Air and other tales in the man-vs.-the-elements vein. – Kirkus Reviews

This book will be fascinating to anyone even casually interested in the politics of my country. – Losang Gyatso, Tibetan artist and actor in Martin Scorsese film, Kundun

A gripping, detailed account of a time and place that most Americans have never glimpsed. – Joint Forces Journal

This book tells about an incident that has been hidden for too many years. It's a fascinating adventure that stands out from all the other war-time experiences I have heard about. – Charles Martin, former ''Hump" pilot and Lt. Col., Air Force Reserves (retired)

This is a 'must read' for all mountaineers and history butts alike – a true adventure in high and unexplored lands... – Amanda Daflos, director, special projects, International Mountain Explorers Connection

Lost in Tibet is an extraordinary story of high adventure, cultural conflict, and political intrigue. It also sheds light on the remarkable Tibetan people, just at that moment when they were coming to terms with a hostile outside world. Murcutt and Starks relate the story of these five young men’s unwitting embroilment in an international incident and their journey home, of interest to historians and adventurers alike.

Business & Investing / Social Sciences

The Mind At Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker by Mike Rose (Viking)

In the tradition of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Studs Terkel’s Working, The Mind At Work is a reassessment of American labor – the conclusion: American blue-collar workers are undervalued.

Testimonials to physical work have always celebrated the dignity, the economic and moral value, even the nobility of blue-collar labor, but rarely the thought required to get the job done right. The lightning-fast organization and mental calculations of the waitress; the complex spatial mathematics of the carpenter; the aesthetic and intellectual dexterity of the hair stylist – our failure to acknowledge or respect these qualities has undermined a large portion of America’s working population. In The Mind At Work award-winning writer Mike Rose, faculty member of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, sets the record straight by taking a long hard look at the intellectual demands of common work. His powerful and affecting descriptions and analyses of the skills required to perform many blue collar and service jobs will challenge popular beliefs about the nature of the common worker and change – for the better – the reader's everyday interactions with those who work in the service industries, the construction trades and on the factory floors.

In The Mind At Work, Rose touches upon hot-button issues – such as the narrowness of our traditional IQ tests – and urges the reader to define intelligence in broader terms. He argues that if we continue to think that whole categories of people – identified simply by class and occupation – are not that bright, then we reinforce social separations and render true democracy impossible. We will also shut down possibilities not only for growth on the job, but for the effective education of vocational students.

This is an eloquent – as well as scholarly – tribute to our working men and women ... It knocked me out. – Studs Terkel

Mike Rose shows how a reductive idea of intelligence contracts the meaning of democracy. This book is brilliant, exciting – and essential. – Michael Katz, author of The Undeserving Poor

Mike Rose startles us by suggesting that most of us have a narrow, cramped view of intelligence – one that doesn't permit us to see the ordinary kinds of work. His book is a refreshing re-examination of what traditionally is meant by intelligence. Conventional assumptions are overturned. and we begin to see that he is saying something profound about democracy. – Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

The Mind At Work raises basic questions about the way we define intelligence, determine what counts as valid knowledge, and classify each other by the work we do – all of which have important implications for economic and educational policy and for the kind of society we create for ourselves. Integrating personal stories of his own working-class family with interviews, vivid snapshots of people on the job, and current research in social science and cognitive psychology, Rose draws a brilliantly original portrait of America at work.

Business & Investing / Management & Leadership / Training

Learning Paths: Increase Profits by Reducing the Time It Takes Employees to Get Up-to-Speed by Steve Rosenbaum & Jim Williams (Pfeiffer, copublished with ASTD)

Using this indispensable resource, readers can map out and implement the revolutionary Learning Path training approach for their organization – a method claimed to reduce the start-up time for new employees by 30% and to guarantee measurable bottom-line results.

Written by Steve Rosenbaum and Jimmy Williams, consultants and training and development leaders, Learning Paths is a down-to-earth practical resource that is filled with illustrative examples, methods, techniques, strategies, processes, and tools for making company-wide, real-time training possible. Created to be feasible, the Learning Path approach is customizable to fit all organizations no matter what type or size. Learning Paths is divided into three sections:

The Learning Path Methodology: Walks the reader through the major steps and strategies needed for building Learning Paths.
Doing the Right Training: Offers a wide-range of strategies, methods, and techniques that can be targeted to the training within a Learning Path and tied to an organization’s particular business need.
Doing the Training Right: Shows how to ensure the training within a Learning Path is delivered in the most cost-effective manner and introduces methods for structuring training so that it transfers to the job easily and effectively.

In addition, Learning Paths answers frequently asked questions and contains a CD-ROM that includes a PowerPoint presentation of the Learning Paths process and the forms and templates needed to help readers build and implement Learning Paths and implement a 30/30 Plan, the plan to reduce Time to Proficiency by 30 percent in thirty days.

Co-published by the American Society for Training and Development, Learning Paths is for human resources professionals as well as business leaders. The book is comprehensive and practical. The measurement piece is critical; the applications are unlimited; and there is a good blending of strategy and tactics.

Business & Investing / Management & Leadership

Tools for Team Leadership: Delivering the X-Factor in Team eXcellence by Gregory Huszczo (Davies-Black Publishing) urges readers to be the X-factor in their organization's effort to build excellent teams.

Collective action – not individual heroism – is what makes teams effective and creates sustainable change in organizations. In this much anticipated follow-on to his best-seller Tools For Team Excellence, Gregory Huszczo unlocks the secret of what separates great teams built on collaboration and partnership from the also-rans. Tools for Team Leadership introduces the critical "X-factor" in team success – leadership – and delivers an advanced set of tools and strategies to help anyone master the role of team leader.

Huszczo, award-winning teacher and researcher, industrial/organizational psychologist, consultant and trainer, professor of organizational behavior and development at Eastern Michigan University, covers team building for both new and existing teams, with special help for team building at the top, and includes a self-study assessment at the end of each chapter to help turn key learning concepts into a plan of action. Huszczo asserts that if readers are willing to give up their desire for perfectionism and control while steadfastly adhering to a desire to make a difference, they will benefit. Grounded in the author's practical frontline experience with hundreds of teams and backed by solid research and instruments, including the powerful Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, Tools for Team Leadership explores the essence of leadership in a team environment. It identifies the chief responsibilities of every team leader and delivers a toolbox for use in analyzing a team's strengths and weaknesses, creatively brainstorming strategies and tactics, generating options and facilitating consensus, and implementing action plans that help teams help themselves. Readers learn how to help a team establish a clear sense of direction, improve communications, ensure systematic problem solving and decision making, resolve dysfunctional conflicts, motivate and coach team players, build diplomatic ties in the organization, and help teams get unstuck.

The main theme of chapter 1 – that team leaders must help others help themselves – is carried throughout all subsequent chapters.

This self-study training guide puts the power of participative leadership into the hands of every manager, trainer, consultant, and team member struggling to help teams succeed. Packed with more than eighty new and field-tested tools, Tools for Team Leadership solves the mystery of why some teams – regardless of talent – succeed while others fail and delivers everything you need to master the "X-factor" skills of team leadership.

A great fit with Toyota Way principles of developing internal leaders, teaching employees to become problem solvers, and continuous inmprovement. This book will join Huszczo's Tools for Team Excellence in my practical tool kit. – Scott Fenton, Senior Specialist, HR & OD, Toyota

The tools Huszczo describes can lead to better job design and content, new learning, and new skill development. His book is a vision of more democratic workplace that is both enabling and innovative. – Michael Schippani, International Representative, United Auto Workers

Uses actual experiences that can be directly related to the needs of industry going to lean and team environments. A great resource. – Patrick McDonnell, Production Manager, La-Z-Boy Canada Ltd.

Tools for Team Leadership was written for both the person attempting to provide leadership to a single team within an organization and the leader overseeing the development of multiple teams within a larger organization. While the text is generally addressed to the former, the lessons are equally applicable to the latter. Filled with more than 80 tools – all-new and field-tested diagnostic questionnaires, needs assessments, organizational surveys, sample training modules, and exercises – this guide puts the power of participative team leadership into the hands of every manager, trainer, consultant, and member struggling to help teams succeed.

Business & Investing

Tourism and Transition: Political, Economic and Social Issues edited by Derek Hall (CABI Publishing) presents current research on the roles and importance of tourism. The book discusses tourism’s interrelationships with governance and development in societies that are moving or have moved from authoritarian to liberal democratic economic and political models, and those adjusting to the accession requirements of an enlarged European Union. Although the geographical coverage ranges across Central and Eastern Europe, the Central and Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asia, China and South Africa, the identification of common themes and frameworks is a distinguishing characteristic of Tourism and Transition.

In this volume, edited by Derek Hall, Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruive, UK, the discussion of tourism and transition focuses on Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Estonia, Romania and Central and Eastern Europe more generally, Malta, Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean, Kyrgyzstan, China and South Africa. It is therefore far from being a geographically comprehensive review of tourism within transforming countries, however defined. Rather, it attempts to articulate key themes and frameworks which may help readers understand the contemporary and simultaneous local and global variables, both influencing and influenced by the processes and structures of tourism development in transforming societies, during the first decade of the 21st century.

Chapter one comprises the introduction, and Chapter 2 outlines key themes and frameworks. The range of chapters (3-8), based on contemporary post-communist experience in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, can be seen to reflect, in turn, optimism, pessimism and paradox, in terms of trends, relationships and impacts. Drawing on research and consultancy experience from Central and Eastern Europe, in Chapter 3, Lesley Roberts introduces themes subsequently echoed in a number of chapters, by highlighting the importance of social capital for rural areas where the highly localized nature of tourism is most evident. Emphasizing that the locality – including local people – provides the services produced and delivered and the experiences created, an endogenous base for development is viewed as being most likely to provide a sustainable means of regional rural development. But as indicated subsequently from Estonia (Chapter 6) and Kyrgyzstan (Chapter 8), there can be substantial problems and paradoxes attached to this.

Chapter 4 sees Waclaw Kotlinski drawing out themes of under-investment and declining tourist numbers in Poland. Crucially, he identifies a growing gap between income derived from tourism to support state budgets and actual national expenditure for tourism infrastructure and development, and offers recommendations for state action to stimulate tourism and enhance the recognition of its economic role within the country. This would seem to be particularly important given the boost to tourism Poland's EU entry is likely to stimulate. In Chapter 5, Zsuzsanna Behringer and Kornelia Kiss detail and evaluate the apparently rising level and nature of foreign direct investment in Hungary's tourism industry in a national context where international tourist arrival numbers have been declining since 1995, and where per capita spending is still relatively low. Such a paradox would appear, superficially, difficult to reconcile. To what extent will this be ameliorated or exacerbated by Hungary's accession to the European Union? In the face of the disastrous collapse of Serbia's tourism industry after 1989, Jovan Popesku and Derek Hall argue in Chapter 7 that coordinated sustainable development based on natural resources with planned, limited growth, represents the only reasonable forward strategy for the reconstruction of an international tourism industry in landlocked Serbia, where any likely EU membership is still some way off.

The chapter (6) by Barry Worthington raises interesting paradoxes concerning the endogamous-exogenous dimension when addressing relationships between national heritage and tourism in the context of post-Soviet Estonia. Within the Soviet Union, the Estonians' ‘minority’ culture was commodified for passive consumption, yet Estonians themselves regarded their heritage as dynamic and participatory, and employed it subversively to recreate a civil society as an alternative to Soviet institutions. However, according to Worthington's analysis, regaining independence in 1991 removed this imperative, and the harnessing of heritage for tourism remained perceived in pejorative terms especially as (Western) tour companies continued to echo Soviet practice in the depiction of Estonian heritage. How will Estonia's EU accession change this? In the case of a second former Soviet territory with contrasting cultural, economic and environmental characteristics, Peter Schofield argues in Chapter 8 that Kyrgyzstan's tourism product has been poorly positioned and the development and projection of an appropriate image is critically required to address this. Although cultural icons are available to assist in raising awareness of identity and distinctiveness, Schofield points to a lack of capital resources and political instability as continuing constraints on an adequate response to this need.

Turning to the Mediterranean basin, Maria Attard and Derek Hall evaluate some of the impacts of transition towards EU accession for Malta's tourism and transport sectors in Chapter 9. New brand images and marketing programs, coupled with an emphasis on high value niche development, have been outward signs of a restructuring of the Maltese tourism. While physical replacement of ancient public service buses – regarded as a heritage attraction and experience in their own right – is part of the accession agenda, potentially negative images are reflected in growing traffic congestion and pollution and the long overdue need for a comprehensive upgrading of transport infrastructure. The interplay of these factors is underscored by an uncertain and divisive domestic political context.

Division is certainly a salient theme for Habib Alipour and Hasan Kilic's appraisal of the context in which tourism in northern Cyprus has been developed since that island's political partition in 1974 (Chapter 10). The focus of the chapter is inadequate tourism governance, the reasons for which vary – governments often lack the will to implement policies, tourism plans may be narrowly defined and implemented without reference to wider development strategy or the state may be incapable of implementing policy due to inefficiency and/or corruption – although the expansion of tourism activity may trigger government action. In the case of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, Alipour and Kilic offer a number of reasons why institutions overseeing tourism development have failed to address, define and formulate clear policy, which has resulted in an absence of integrated development. They point to the need to restructure institutions and to establish an appropriate legislative framework supported by confidence-building measures to attract investment and increase the perpetually low numbers of tourists. Such measures will reflect the significance of both internal and external factors. The path of EU accession for Cyprus and Turkey may prove to be a significant political and economic catalyst in this respect.

Global tourism experienced exceptional years in 2000 and 2001. In 2000 international tourism grew by 45 million arrivals, while in the following year international arrivals declined by 0.6%, the first year of negative growth since 1982. Of course, the events of 11 September 2001 greatly influenced the year's final figures, particularly adversely affecting American destinations and certain sectors such as the ocean cruise market. A year later, in October 2002, bombings at tourist attractions in Bali helped to sustain some negative trends. Providing a strong methodological emphasis, in Chapter 11 Antonis Theocharous argues the need for assessment, evaluation and analysis of the interrelationships between such destabilizing events and the tourism industry, in relation to four eastern Mediterranean destination countries. His neural networks application provides a useful approach to tourism demand modeling and a spur to further research in this little-explored field.

In a relatively short time China has become the unrivalled leader of Asian tourism. Themes of economic liberalization within a still relatively rigid state political-bureaucratic framework permeate the two chapters looking at Chinese experience. Rong Huang in Chapter 12 identifies and evaluates the roles played by the Hunan provincial government in developing its international and domestic tourism development policies. Placed within the wider context of China's tourism development phases, Huang foresees new roles for the provincial government to play and makes a number of recommendations for responding to the challenges facing the development of Hunan tourism as it draws further away from strategy based on a centrally planned economy.

Issues relating to the tensions between the local and the global, and endogenous and exogenous development factors, are emphasized in the chapter (13) by Takayoshi Yamamura, who looks at the World Heritage Site of the old town of Lijiang, in an ethnic minority area of Yunnan Province. Until the later 1970s, when tourism was severely restricted, handicrafts and traditions of ethnic minorities were largely suppressed. An open-door policy from 1978 increasingly involved foreign capital, and allowed a revival of ethnic minority religions and traditions which were portrayed to tourists as examples of the diversity of Chinese culture. Previous research has emphasized how ethnic groups may be differentially placed to take advantage of their newly-discovered tourism roles in response to the Chinese government's commoditizing such ethnicity. Following an earthquake in 1996 and since designation by UNESCO as a WHS in 1997, there has been a dramatic increase in tourism businesses in Lijiang, largely driven by an influx of Chinese Han majority peoples from outside of the region selling goods largely devoid of local character. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that the local Naxi people tend to lack business and management know-how and cannot draw upon government support policies. Yamamura argues that there would appear to be a need for policies to promote local entrepreneurial endeavor through support for indigenous organizations and networks to help stimulate high added value goods and services which can draw upon and illuminate local culture and heritage.

Finally, in relation to a country in transformation following its own particular restructuring processes of the 1990s, in Chapter 14 Jenny Briedenhann and Steve Butts argue that a tourism boom, projected by government as a panacea for the country's economic ills, has not materialized in South Africa. The country is by far the most important international tourism destination in the whole of Africa, receiving a fifth of the continent's arrivals and one quarter of its international tourism receipts. Yet, the absence of a national funding strategy for tourism development has resulted in unilateral action by provinces, with negative consequences for national development coherence, public-private partnerships and industry integration. Crucially, the authors contend that a coherent national organizational structure, with a clear delineation of functions and responsibilities, continuously monitored, is urgently required.

The issues, problems, paradoxes and opportunities presented in these chapters are diverse and pursued from different perspectives, yet they share common themes of tourism within processes of transformation. They also emphasize the important influences of, and the need for tourism analysts to better appreciate underlying political cultures, their inheritances and influences – both formal and informal – on social, economic and environmental transformation. Such transformation is a key influence on, and component of, contemporary local and global tourism trajectories.

Tourism and Transition will be of significant interest to those working in the areas of tourism, development studies, geography, sociology and economics, identifying common themes across Europe, Asia and Africa.

Business & Investing / Management & Leadership / Self-help

The Leader Within: Learning Enough About Yourself to Lead Others by Drea Zigarmi, Ken Blanchard, Michael O'Connor, & Carl Edeburn (Financial Times, Prentice Hall) helps readers understand themselves better... so they can change, grow, and become more effective.

The action of thought is excited by the irritation of doubt, and ceases when belief is attained. – Charles Saunders Pierce, How to Make Our Ideas Clear (1878)

Authored by four renowned leadership experts, including the legendary Ken Blanchard (co-author of The One Minute Manager), and Drea Zigarmi, (co-author of Leadership and The One Minute Manager), The Leader Within draws on seven years of research centered around how successful executives exert influence. The book tells readers they can become the leaders they have always wanted to be. They can develop an understanding of how they behave at their key "moments of influence," reinvent their approach for better results and happier people, and build more effective teams and organizations, without compromising their values.

The Leader Within gives readers new models for understanding leadership itself – what it means, how it works, and what it's for. It helps them find a leadership approach that works for them, that fits their personality and values, and generates commitment and success. The book helps readers:

See how they really look to their colleagues and team members.
Understand why many leaders never improve and overcome the barriers to change.
Redefine their leadership behaviors around their followers' needs.
Analyze their leadership disposition so they can change what they can change, and build on what they can't change.
Understand the four leadership styles, and when to use each.
Define a vision that's strong and motivating.

I found this book not only an excellent, comprehensive guide on leadership, but it was also very thought provoking. Our world needs a breakthrough in the improvement of our leadership – the kind of leadership this book teaches and inspires. In the meantime, you can learn from this book and make your world better for yourself and those around you. – Tom Cleveland, President, H.O. Penn Machinery Company, Inc.

If you truly want to succeed at the highest level, you owe it to yourself and those around you to read this incredible insight on leadership. – Nicolas de Segonzac, CEO, Debtco, Inc.

If there’s any one message in The Leader Within that is most crucial, it is that self-change is the most urgent leadership challenge; that values, beliefs, and personality drive success or failure whether leaders realize it or not. The authors have written a must-read book for present and future leaders who are focused on serving their organizations and staff.

Computers & Internet / Web Development

The Complete Idiot's Guide To Creating A Web Page And Blog, 6th edition by Paul McFedries (Complete Idiot's Guide to Series: Alpha Books)

The Internet is home to millions of sites, representing both commerce and the people who share their thoughts and experiences with anyone who visits. And although professional designers earn big bucks creating and maintaining websites, anyone can stake a claim of their own on the net.

More people are overcoming their digital fears and producing Internet content rather than just absorbing it. Whether their product is a collection of essays, stories, reviews, jokes, or shopping lists, they want to share it with everyone – from family and friends to strangers across the globe. How do they do it?

The Complete Idiot's Guide To Creating A Web Page And Blog by Paul McFredries helps readers build and maintain an Internet website or blog. In this sixth revision, McFedries, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Microsoft Windows XP, and the proprietor of Word Spy, a blog devoted to recently coined words and phrases, covers:

Step-by-step instructions for building a site from the ground up
Important HTML tags
Tips on using fonts, colors, and images
Incorporating tables, forms, style sheets, and JavaScripts
The new blog technology
Tips on how to choose the best web host or blogging platform.

A "Webmaster’s Toolkit" on a companion CD-ROM, provides the files used in the book. Other features include search features, chat rooms, or bulletin boards, forms for visitor feedback, posting pictures as hypertext links, animation, video, and audio.

The Complete Idiot's Guide To Creating A Web Page And Blog, is one of the few books around to help readers by translating HTML into a language they can understand and showing them how to start their own blog.

Cooking, Food & Wine

Planet Wine: A Grape by Grape Visual Guide to the Contemporary Wine World by Stuart Pigott (Mitchell Beazley)

Internationally renowned wine writer Stuart Pigott presents an original approach to understanding the new global diversity of wine – in Planet Wine readers learn about the world's top grape varieties by following a series of stories that are told through a selection of iconic images.

For hundreds of years, winemakers around the world have experimented with different grape varieties to create a vast range of styles, tastes, and textures in their wines. In recent years there has been nothing less than a global revolution in wine, and the world has experienced an explosion in the range of wines available. Today, this diversity has become even richer and more complex.

One of the major reasons for this growth lies in the humble grape. From Syrah to Sauvignon Blanc to Cabernet Sauvignon, Pigott offers a grape-by-grape tour. He explores the origins and natural flavor of the principal varieties and examines the role of the winemaker, the effect of winemaking techniques, and the impact of environmental factors on the taste and development of wines around the world. What emerges is an accessible explanation of why, for example, a single grape variety can make a soft, fruity wine in one wine-producing region and a robust, age-worthy wine in another. Each grape is described giving details of its origin and natural flavor. There is also information about external influences including where it is grown, the intervention of the winemaker, winemaking techniques, and environmental issues.

Piggott has traveled extensively in the world's wine regions. Born in London, he wandered into wine writing while studying painting at St. Martins School of Art and Cultural History. After tiring of the convention-ridden London wine scene, he left for Germany and settled in Berlin where he developed a new style of wine writing. Now a household name there, he writes a weekly column in the Sunday issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. He also contributes to Der Feinschmecker/WeinGourmet, Decanter (UK), and WINE (Australia).

In Planet Wine Pigott introduces his unique concept for understanding the incredible, new global diversity of wines. Using over 140 photographs, Planet Wine takes a visually evocative approach to describe how the major grape varieties taste – from Chardonnay to Merlot to Sangiovese. The book combines a provocative text with evocative images to describe the taste of the major grape varieties and to explain how and why each variety produces very distinct styles of wine depending on where in the world it grows. This radical, easy-to-read guide is the first chance for English readers to experience Pigott's outrageously original take on the pleasure of wine.

Education

Teaching and Learning through Inquiry: A Guidebook for Institutions and Instructors edited by Virginia S. Lee (Stylus Publishing, LLC)

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) refers to an array of classroom practices that promote student learning through guided and increasingly independent investigation of complex questions and problems. Rather than teaching the results of others' investigations, which students learn passively, instructors assist students in mastering and learning through the process of active investigation itself. IGL develops critical thinking, independent inquiry students' responsibility for their own learning and intellectual growth and maturity.

North Carolina State University is at the forefront of the development of IGL both at the course level and as part of a faculty-led process of reform of undergraduate education.

Teaching and Learning through Inquiry, edited by Virginia S. Lee, the then Associate Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, North Carolina State University, documents and explores NCSU's IGL initiative from a variety of perspectives: how faculty arrived at their current understanding of inquiry-guided learning and how they have interpreted it at various levels – the individual course, the major, the college, the university-wide program, and the undergraduate curriculum as a whole. The contributors show how IGL has been dovetailed with efforts and programs, and how they have assessed its impact.

Teaching and Learning through Inquiry provides examples from disciplines as varied as ecology, engineering, foreign language learning, history, music, microbiology, physics and psychology. It also outlines the potential for even broader dissemination of inquiry-guided learning in the undergraduate curriculum as a whole, describing two IGL programs for first year students and the ways in which NCSI 's university-wide writing and speaking program, and growing service learning program, support inquiry-guided learning. The book documents how the institution has supported instructors as well as the methods used to assess the impact of inquiry-guided learning on students, faculty, and the institution as a whole.

Virginia Lee hits the mark with her book on inquiry based learning. Most books addressing pedagogical practices are either too theoretical or so practically oriented that they lack a theoretical grounding. Lee combines both in a way that is attractive to any reader. She moves us from the theoretical to the practical in thirteen different classroom situations across just as many disciplines. The reader can easily find his/her discipline among the chapters in this section. The final portion of the book brings the reader full circle when Lee addresses inquiry based learning in relation to critical thinking, writing, service learning, faculty development and assessment. – Devorah A. Lieberman, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Wagner College

Teaching and Learning through Inquiry was written with three audiences in mind: instructors who want to use inquiry-guided learning in their classrooms, faculty developers considering supporting comparable efforts on their campuses, and administrators interested in managing similar undergraduate reform efforts. It will also appeal to instructors of courses in the administration of higher education who are looking for relevant case studies of reform.

Cooking, Food & Wine

Trattoria: Italian Country Recipes for Home Cooks by Maxine Clark, with photography by Martin Brigdale (Ryland Peters & Small)

Traditional trattoria cooking is the essence of Italian food – honest, fresh, and satisfying dishes prepared by chefs who have great cooking in their blood. It's not expensive, it's not complicated, and it never goes out of fashion. In Trattoria, chef-teacher Maxine Clark has collected delicious trattoria recipes from all over Italy and adapted them for home kitchens:

Antipasti include a Parma Ham with Figs, as well as three ways with marinated vegetables.
Primi Piatti recipes include deliciously simple soups, pasta, risotto, gnocchi, pizza, and bread.
Secondi Piatti include Grilled Tuna with Peperonata, Marinated Chicken Grilled over Charcoal, and Beef on a Bed of Arugula.
Contorni include Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic, fennel simmered in olive oil, and Grilled Dark Mushrooms.
Sweet Things include Zabaglione, gelato and sorbet, frozen chocolate profiteroles, and more. Drinks include Negroni and Limoncello.
Trattoria Basics include Pesto, Tomato Sauce, and dough for tarts and pasta.

Clark, a leading food writer and a gifted cooking teacher for well-known schools such as Leith's in London and Alastair Little's "Tasting Places" in Sicily and Tuscany, with the help of Martin Brigdale, food photographer for twenty years, describes more than great food – this is a beautiful and practical book that will help readers create classic Italian small family restaurant fair in their own kitchens.

Cooking, Food & Wine

Michael Jackson's Bar And Cocktail Companion: The Connoisseur’s Handbook by Michael Jackson (Running Press)

The perfect drink is never far away with Michael Jackson's Bar And Cocktail Companion written by the world-renowned authority on spirits, Michael Jackson. Jackson's award-winning drink books have sold more than 3 million copies and have established him as the world's foremost expert on beer and whisky. Jackson is a five-time winner of the Glenfiddich Award. His Discovery Channel series has been shown on television in more than two dozen countries, and his articles have appeared in Esquire, GQ, Playboy, The Washington Post, Wine Spectator, and other leading publications throughout the world.

Jackson provides recipes for more than 250 cocktails, from the Aberdeen Angus to the Zombie, from the perfect Manhattan to the classic Pina Colada. Jackson describes the content, origin, and character of each drink and its ingredients, as well as the best way to serve it.

In the chapter, The A - Z of Drinks, Jackson covers major types of spirits as well as many lesser-known drinks. From Acquavite to Drambuie to Lillet, Jackson describes the origins and character of each drink, laced intermittently with his own humor, along with its ingredients and the best way to serve it. The chapter, Cocktails and Other Mixed Drinks, offers recipes for such delicious refreshments as the Acapulco, Bullshot, Daiquiri, El Presidente, Flying Scotsman, Ginger Highball, Mai-Tai, Moscow Mule, Pisco Punch, Road Runner, and The Stinger.

Other chapters include: Travel and Drink, that features different regions of the world and their most popular native drinks; and Serving Drinks which includes a list of useful glasses. Another essential chapter titled, The Hangover: How to Cure It, offers 11 tips to avoiding and dealing with the miserable hangover – such as drinking a glass of milk beforehand to a good supply of Vitamin C to help the liver detoxify the blood. Jackson also offers a long list of suggested further reading on drinks.

Jackson provides in Michael Jackson's Bar And Cocktail Companion the quintessential, handy guidebook with an extensive list of the world's greatest drinks, accompanied by color photos throughout. With complete descriptions of bartending equipment and its uses, it's the bar-side companion every cocktail aficionado needs.

Economics / Policy Studies / International Relations

Catching Up: The Limits Of Rapid Economic Development by Vladislav L. Inozemtsev (Transaction Publishers)

Disparities between the economic development of nations have widened throughout the twentieth century, and they show no sign of closing. In the nineteenth century, the economic potential of developed countries was three times that of the rest of the world. Today the gap is twenty times greater. And the trend is increasing.

Vladislav L. Inozemtsev, professor of economics at Moscow State University and director of the Moscow-based Centre for Post-Industrial Research, reviews the experience of the Soviet Union, as well as that of Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. He finds that those countries that have moved forward most rapidly have successfully adapted new technology to old processes. But even then, they face daunting odds, as they grapple with the need to change their population's ideas and behavior. And in the 1990s, their rates of development have noticeably declined. Catching Up assesses prospects for successful application of theories of accelerated development in the global economy. Inozemtsev's pessimistic conclusion is that rapid industrial progress is not achievable in the information society of the twenty-first century. He reaches this conclusion after reviewing theories of accelerated development thinking from the diverse viewpoints of the 1940s and 1950s, to the more intensive ideological polarization of the 1960s. Inozemtsev believes it will be impossible for non-Western nations to "catch up" with the West because of their inability to generate or control information and knowledge. Catching Up also says that the successes of the "catching up" development model are confined to the limits of the system of industrial production.

Inozemtsev sets the stage within the context of the new world economic order taking shape in the world today. By opting for the evolutionary way of development, the United States and the European Union countries have guaranteed their people a high standard of living, which prepared them for accepting post-materialistic values. Although they have largely lost their mobilizing capacity, these nations have proved equal to producing, on an ever larger scale, new knowledge and new technologies – the basic production asset of the twenty-first century. Other countries' attempts at accelerated modernization have, indeed, led to a rise in their industrial potential but failed to produce a sustainable socio-economic system. These countries continue to depend on the Western world as a source of knowledge and as a market for their products, and decades of importing new technologies have not led to scientific breakthroughs of their own. The above cannot but suggest the conclusion that it is impossible to "catch up with" post-industrial nations by industrial methods, while mobilization-based construction of material requisites sufficient for launching post-industrial transformation causes mutations of the public mind which take more time to rectify than promoting economic progress does. In the context of the present-day reality, the nations not belonging to post-industrial civilization at the moment may expect elements of the post-industrial system to crystallize out in their social order only given the immediate involvement of the leader nations in the process, the eastern lands of reunified Germany being the case in point.

This conclusion will hardly go down well with those who would like to see Russia the leader of world progress in the coming century. In Catching Up, therefore, Inozemtsev provides a rational explanation of why the "catching up" development doctrine – which, in various forms, has become one of the outgoing century's most popular social theories – no longer makes scientific and practical sense as we are approaching a new landmark in human history and ought, therefore, to be abandoned by Russia and the world at large.

Inozemtsev provides an intriguing look at the prospects for development in the industrializing countries.... Some of Inozemtsev's ideas will be controversial, to say the least, but he succeeds in raising interesting questions concerning why development is uneven and, in some cases. apparently unsustainable. Recommended. – Choice

In Catching Up, a provocative and thoughtful reexamination of theories of accelerated development, or "catching up," Inozemtsev traces the evolution of thinking about how countries lagging behind can most swiftly move forward, and assesses their prospects for success in this effort. While pessimistic and certainly not popular, this well reasoned discussion, by a noted Russian professor of economics, is important reading.

Education

Mental Retardation: Historical Perspectives: Current Practices, and Future Directions by Ronald L Taylor, Michael Brady & Stephen B Richards (Pearson Allyn & Bacon) provides thorough coverage of the causes and characteristics of mental retardation as well as detailed discussion of the validated instructional approaches in the field today.

Mental Retardation is an up-to-date introductory textbook. As they imply in the name of the book, authors Ronald L Taylor, Michael Brady, and Stephen B Richards have attempted to provide a comprehensive treatment of information related to individuals with mental retardation. Taylor and Richards, both from Florida Atlantic University, and Brady, University of Dayton, strongly believe that in order to understand all the issues related to the field of mental retardation, there must be appreciation of its rich history, knowledge of research-based information related to current practices, and informed predictions of future trends.

Mental Retardation is divided into five parts, each covering an important aspect of the field of mental retardation. Part 1, "Introduction to Mental Retardation," consists of three chapters. Chapter 1, "Historical Concepts and Perspectives," chronicles the history of mental retardation, from ancient times to the present. It focuses on changing philosophies, attitudes, and approaches to the treatment of individuals with mental retardation. Chapter 2, "Definition and Classification of Mental Retardation," looks at the evolution of the terminology, definitions, and classification systems used for individuals with mental retardation. Emphasis is placed on the various definitions and classification systems proposed by the American Association on Mental Retardation. Chapter 3, "Assessment for Identification," investigates the procedures used in the identification and diagnosis of mental retardation, including information on both intelligence testing and adaptive behavior assessment.

Part II, "Causes of Mental Retardation," includes two chapters. Chapter 4, "Genetic and Chromosomal Factors," focuses on the medical aspects that cause mental retardation. Although these causes represent a relatively small percentage of those individuals who have the condition, they are important to study because many are preventable or treatable. Chapter 5, "Environmental and Psychosocial Causes," identifies prenatal, peri-natal, and postnatal factors that cause mental retardation. Also included is a discussion of environmental correlates to mental retardation – factors that do not necessarily cause mental retardation but are highly associated with it.

There are three chapters in Part III, "Characteristics of Mental Retardation." Chapter 6, "Cognitive and Learning Characteristics," includes areas such as attention, language, meta-cognition, and memory. Chapter 7, "Educational, Psychological, and Behavioral Characteristics," focuses on skill deficits related to an individual's school performance as well as characteristics such as learned helplessness and poor interpersonal relationships that can affect overall functioning. Chapter 8, the last chapter in Part III, is called "Societal, Family, and Multicultural Characteristics." Too often the influence of an individual's environment is overlooked. This chapter provides an ecological approach to understanding the characteristics of individuals with mental retardation within an environmental context.

Part IV, "Instructional Considerations," consists of four chapters. Chapter 9, "Instructional Assessment," discusses primarily informal techniques that teachers can use to help develop instructional programs, make instructional decisions, and monitor progress. In addition, instruments used to measure important skills such as independent living, community living, and vocations are discussed. Chapter 10, "Instructional Content," includes information on content that all students need to know and information related to what individuals with mental retardation need to be taught. Principles for deciding appropriate instructional content are also discussed. Chapter 11, "Instructional Procedures," focuses on the various instructional techniques that have proved to be successful in teaching individuals with mental retardation. It highlights the guidance, organization, and delivery of instructional programs. Chapter 12, "Instructional Settings," looks at the very important issue of educational placement and the most appropriate educational environment to maximize learning. Also included is information on accommodating instruction that makes the instructional setting relevant.

The last part, "The Future of Mental Retardation," includes a chapter called "Future Perspectives." This comprehensive chapter includes information related to philosophical issues, legal issues, medical issues, and educational issues. Included in this chapter are interviews with experts in the field who share their perspectives on these important issues.

The book is filled with pedagogical features too numerous to list here. The E-Source list offers an annotated description of Web sites appropriate for the chapter's content. To further assist students and instructors, Mental Retardation has an accompanying companion Website for student use. This Web site serves as a study guide for students and includes overviews, activities, sample test items, and Web links. Also available is an Instructor's Manual that includes detailed chapter outlines, chapter objectives, activities, additional readings, and a test bank of almost 400 test items.

This will prove helpful to students who are training to be teachers as it will give them something concrete and meaningful to which to attach their own learning ... very useful is the bridge that is drawn between educational theory and the field of mental retardation. – Professor E. Amanda Boutot, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

It is clear, accurate, and presents the major issues in the field of mental retardation. They present current and historical events that make this book interesting and fresh. – Professor Harold C. Griffin, East Carolina University

Several features in Mental Retardation will be especially valuable to both students and instructors – one is the "Research That Made a Difference" feature throughout the text, which provide students with valuable insight into research-based practices that have had an impact on the field. Another is the unique Chapter 13, "Future Perspectives," which presents interviews with leading experts and with a young woman with mental retardation, exploring the legal, medical, educational, and personal issues people with mental retardation face. And Chapters 9 through 12 present the strongest coverage available in any introductory text on instructional issues and applications for teaching students with mental retardation.

Education

Teaching Language Arts: A Student- and Response-Centered Classroom (with Student Activities Planner) (5th Edition) by Carole Cox (Pearson Allyn & Bacon) is a popular text, honed and enhanced again, noteworthy for its focus on assessment, with heavy emphasis on second language learners.

Teaching Language Arts, Fifth Edition, is designed for use as a main text in undergraduate and graduate language arts methods courses. Like previous editions, this new one takes a consistent student- and response-centered approach to literature-based teaching in today's culturally and linguistically diverse classroom. Written by Carole Cox, field-based language arts methods courses teacher at California State University, Long Beach, where she won the Outstanding Professor Award in 2001, the book is firmly grounded in current social constructivist learning theory.

What continues to make this book a bestseller?

Heavy emphasis on English language learners (ELL) throughout:
- A full chapter on First- and Second-Language Development (Chapter 3).
- A full chapter on Emergent Literacy and Biliteracy (Chapter 4).
- Snapshots of real teachers in real classrooms with real students, many of whom are ELL. Some are illustrated with video clips online.
- ELL and Scaffolding marginal notes contain content-specific guidelines and resources for ELL students and others who need additional support.
- New Supporting boxes provide specific ideas for supporting the learning of ELL, students, struggling readers and writers, students with disabilities, and students who speak a nonstandard dialect of English.
Strong coverage of assessment:
- A new Chapter 2, Assessing Language Arts.
- New and updated Assessment Toolboxes.

This fifth edition of Teaching Language Arts has been substantially reorganized and updated to reflect current issues and developments in teaching language arts. It is divided into five parts.

Part I, Constructing a Classroom Foundation, contains Chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1, Learning and Teaching Language Arts, begins by defining the language arts and identifying their role in integrating subjects across the curriculum. The Standards for the English Language Arts, written jointly by the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), are introduced here, and then referenced throughout the text. Chapter 1 also introduces the three theoretical perspectives that underlie the book’s approach – that learning language arts is an active, constructive process; a social interactive process; and a transactional process. The foundational elements of teaching language arts are also presented, including the nature of a student- and response-centered classroom, the sources available for planning curriculum content, the structure of the classroom environment, and approaches to scheduling and grouping.

New to this edition, Chapter 2, Assessing Language Arts, presents assessment in the context of the social constructivist theory of learning and recommends the authentic assessment of language and literacy on a day-to-day basis. Many types of assessment are discussed, and numerous examples of forms and checklists are provided as Assessment Toolboxes; a number of these tools are intended for use with English language learners. Chapter 2 also examines the current national debate about the use of standardized tests in so-called highstakes testing, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Part II, Spoken Language and Emergent Literacy, includes Chapters 3 through 5. Chapters 3 and 4 have been extensively revised to consider the increasingly diverse nature of today's classroom. Chapter 3, First- and Second-Language Development, explains how learning a second language is both similar to and different from learning a first language. Strategies are offered for creating a suitable context for the instruction of students who are English language learners (ELL). Chapter 4, Emergent Literacy and Biliteracy, considers how views of children's developing literacy have changed over the years and how teachers can support the emergent literacy of both English-speaking and ELL students. Readers experience the teacher's role directly when they visit both a kindergarten and a first-grade classroom in which every child comes to school speaking only English and a bilingual kindergarten classroom in which students are learning to speak and write in both English and Spanish.

Chapter 5, Listening and Talking, looks at what can be considered the neglected and the suppressed language arts, respectively. Strategies are provided for teaching oral language, and special guidelines are provided for adapting these strategies for ELL students. Drama is now introduced in this chapter, as well. Dramatic activities provide countless ways to teach listening and talking and to develop literacy. The chapter ends with a discussion of the special concerns in assessing students' oral language skills.

Chapters 6 through 8 make up Part III, Literature and Reading. Chapter 6, Reading, identifies theoretical models that have been proposed to describe how meaning is constructed during reading and then focuses on what is called a balanced approach to teaching: one that includes phonemic awareness, phonics, direct instruction in reading, methods for using literature and writing, and specific suggestions for struggling readers and writers. Shared reading, guided reading, reading workshop, and writing to read are among the methods recommended in this approach. The ongoing controversy about phonics instruction is examined in a section on word study.

The use of children's literature is considered in detail in Chapter 7, Teaching with Literature. Basic theory is presented about how readers make meaning from their experiences with text and the range of responses, or stances, they may have. Guidelines for choosing children's books are provided along with strategies for teaching with literature. These concepts are extended in Chapter 8, Multicultural Education and Children's Books, which has been extensively revised for this edition. The chapter begins with a detailed discussion of current models of culturally sensitive teaching and how multicultural content can be integrated across the curriculum. The use of multicultural children's books is recommended for these purposes – in particular, the use of literature circles and literature focus units. Chapter 8 is rich with support materials, such as lists of quality multicultural children's literature and ideas for author, genre, and core book units.

Part IV, Written Language, includes Chapters 9 through 11. Chapter 9, The Writing Process, presents writing not as a product but as a recursive process, one that involves multiple starts. Writing workshop is discussed as both a collaborative and an individual approach to writing, in which students consult one another and the teacher to rethink, revise, and edit their work. Students write for real purposes and for real audiences, and writing conventions and skills are taught and assessed against this backdrop. The needs of students with cultural and language differences are considered in detail.

The conventions involved in written language are discussed in Chapters 10 and 11. Chapter 10, Spelling, opens with an explanation of the stages of spelling development and then uses these stages as a basis for assessing and teaching children of different developmental levels. The teaching strategies that are recommended all present spelling in the context of using language for meaningful purposes, not as an isolated skill. A similar approach is recommended in Chapter 11, Grammar, Punctuation, and Handwriting – that grammar and other language conventions should be taught and assessed as part of the writing process, especially the editing and revising stages. Writing workshop is revisited and other approaches are introduced, such as mini-lessons, teacher conferences, peer editing, and self-editing. Children's literature is presented as an excellent resource for teaching about the style, structure, and conventions of written language.

Chapters 12 through 14 comprise Part V, Integrated Teaching. Also new to this edition, Chapter 12, Viewing and Visually Representing, focuses on the two newest language arts in the IRA/NCTE standards. Viewing and visually representing have always been essential to teaching language arts across the curriculum, and media literacy has never been more important than in today's world of mass-mediated communication. This chapter provides strategies and examples across a range of experiences in viewing and visually representing, from film, video, and television to the visual and dramatic arts.

Chapter 13, Technology in the Classroom, begins with a discussion of the role of technology in the classroom and specifically in the language arts classroom. Technology is presented not as an end in itself but as another means by which teachers can help children learn. The writing process and writing workshop are both reconsidered in this chapter in a discussion of word processing. Other projects and activities include electronic messaging, Internet research, and hypermedia and multimedia projects.

Chapter 14, Language across the Curriculum, draws on the information provided in previous chapters to demonstrate how the language arts can be used to integrate teaching in the content areas. Thematic teaching, sometimes defined using terms such as units and cycles, has long been used for the purpose of integrating the various content areas. In fact, numerous examples of thematic teaching can be found throughout this text. Literary and informational texts are recommended not only for reading but also as models of writing. This chapter provides a wealth of support materials, including lists of literary and informational texts and numerous examples of student-created materials.

There are a number of special features. New to this edition, video clips and related materials on the Companion Website for the text are integrated throughout.

Chapter-opening questions raise basic issues about the chapter topic. Following these questions, readers are asked to write a Reflective Response, drawing on their own experiences and ideas in this area. Chapter-ending answers go back to the same questions, providing summaries of chapter content.

Looking Further, another end-of-chapter feature, suggests opportunities for exploring chapter content more deeply: discussion questions, group activities focused on understanding how language is used, suggestions for observing and interacting with children, and ideas for participation and teaching applications to try out in the classroom.

The section of Children's Books, Films, and Software found at the end of each chapter identifies publication information for the children's literature and other resources discussed in text. These resources are all included in a special Index of Children's Books, Films, and Software, found at the end of the book. All professional source materials have been compiled at the end of the book in the References section. Both the children's and professional resources have been substantially updated for this edition.

Visuals richly illustrate the book, showing samples of children's drawing and writing and photos of teachers and children actually discussed in the text. Many are new to this fifth edition.

Supplements include a companion resource to this textbook, Schoolyear Activities Planner provided free with every student text and a Companion Website for the text.

This text is also accompanied by an Instructor's Manual with additional resources for professors using the fifth edition of Teaching Language Arts.

The style with which this book is written distinguishes it from others in the field. In addition, the resources it offers make it more practical and less theoretical than other texts in the field. – Alicia Mendoza, Florida International University

As I read through Cox's text, I found it to be readable and quite comprehensive. It is clear that the author really knows what she is talking about. Excellent examples are given throughout the book, with actual excerpts of student work given as well. I believe that these are of the utmost value as they help pre-service teachers to visualize student work before going into the classroom. – Cecile Arquette, San Diego State University

Teaching Language Arts continues to emphasize a student- and response-centered approach to literature-based teaching in today's culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. With lesson plans, teaching ideas, and online video case studies that accompany each chapter, this practical text reinforces what instructors teach in class.

Cox brings this vision of a classroom to life not only through clear explanations of these guiding principles but also through examples of real teachers in real classrooms with real children, applying the ideas that have shaped the development of this fifth edition. In Teaching Language Arts, Fifth Edition, Cox has created a readable, student-friendly, engaging, and practical text built on a strong theoretical and research base. Written with an eloquent writing style and packed with practical information, Teaching Language Arts brings content to life for students.

Entertainment / Music / Biographies & Memoirs

Can You Feel The Silence?: Van Morrison: A New Biography by Clinton Heylin (Chicago Review Press)

Van Morrison is full of contradictions. He is a white, Irish singer, who cut his musical teeth on African American jazz and blues. A superstar who shuns fame and snarks at the media, he thrives on the adoration of the audiences and critics he scorns. Best known for his hit "Brown-eyed Girl," he refuses to perform it and has been know to curse at audience members requesting it.

Clinton Heylin flies in the face of Morrison's objections with Can You Feel The Silence? to create this portrait of the man, his life and his music. From his birth in working class Belfast in 1945 to his current musical endeavors, Heylin offers the complete and unabridged story of George Ivan Morrison. The book is based on more than 100 interviews, including an extensive, exclusive and unpublished interview with Morrison's ex-wife, Janet Planet, and with musicians Morrison has worked with throughout his career. Heylin, author of celebrity biographies of Bob Dylan and Sandy Denny, lets those who were there – the friends, musicians and industry execs – tell the story in their own words, extensively quoting his sources.

Can You Feel The Silence? explores Morrison's roots, including the influence of his mother's love of Irish folk music and his dad's impressive record collection of American jazz and blues. It recreates Morrisons's early struggles in Ulster, London, New York and Boston and his rapid succession of self-destructing bands. Heylin details Morrison's disastrous business arrangements, the breakdown of his marriage, his troubles with stage fright and his ongoing struggle with alcoholism. In addition, this biography attempts to explain Morrison's paranoia and misanthropy.

The book reports the details that Morrison would perhaps rather forget, but never forgets the music, offering insights into the creation of each of Morrison's albums, including little-known details about the recording sessions and gigs. Fans will find each of their favorites covered – the circumstances behind its creation, recording and subsequent performances. To help navigate the maze of Morrison's life, a detailed cast of characters as well as a Morrison sessionography spanning 1964-2001 is included in the appendixes.

A terrific, detailed look at Van Morrison’s life ... should prove indispensable for Morrisonites – and a must for anyone who enjoys tales of tortured stars behaving badly. – Entertainment Weekly

Heylin analyzes his every lyric . . . nobody can doubt his attention to the music. – Blender
It’s unlikely that we’ll see as detailed a biography of ‘Van the Man’ again in the near future. – Library Journal
A portrait of an artist who shuns intimacy . . . frozen in the emotional adolescence. – Shepherd Express
Provides page after page of examples of Morrison’s bad behavior. – Boston Herald
Fascinating, exhaustively researched. – Chicago Sun-Times

Can You Feel The Silence? is a groundbreaking biography of a brilliant but disturbed performer exploring the paradox of the man and the artist. This telling of the story is as painstakingly thorough as it is intelligent.

Europe / Young Adult

The Caucasian Republics: Nations in Transition by Margaret Kaeter, introduction by Justin Burke (Nations in Transition Series: Facts on File) examines the three republics of the Transcaucasus – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – which are situated in the area between Europe and Asia extending from the Greater Caucasus to the Turkish and Iranian borders, between the Black and Caspian Seas.

Although small and isolated by mountain chains, the region's location at a crossroads between major world cultures has historically enhanced its importance. Today, the region's oil and gas resources and its geopolitical importance have attracted the attention of both Western and Russian business interests.

The Caucasian Republics was written by Margaret Kaeter, a freelance writer whose work has appeared in magazines such as New Woman, Entrepreneur, and Training, and it contains an introduction by Justin Burke, managing editor of EurasiaNet. The book is an introduction to the current political and economic situation in the Caucasus region. Following is a section that explores the common history of the area up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The second part of the book discusses the geography, history, government, economy, culture, religion, daily life, and cities of each country, ending with a general assessment of the present problems of the three Caucasian republics and future solutions.

The Caucasian Republics is part of the Nations in Transition series, which explores the independent governments formed after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Central Asia. The series gives readers and researchers clear and thought-provoking portraits of each of these nations. Each volume surveys the history, culture, and political and social changes of the past few years and includes 25-35 photographs, a chronology of key events, easy-to-understand maps, and a further reading section.

The Caucasian Republics is a richly informative volume, an ideal starting point for students and general readers interested in the countries and peoples of this region.

Health, Mind & Body

The Sex Addiction Workbook: Proven Strategies to Help You Regain Control of Your Life by Tamara Penix Sbraga & William T. O'Donohue, with a foreword by John Bancroft (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbooks: New Harbinger Publications) presents the only scientifically supported treatment method for sex addicts.

It's a hunger never satisfied: the allure of singles' bars and strip clubs, party lines and X-rated Internet sites. An uncontrollable need for sexual gratification, just like an addiction to alcohol or drugs, can cause serious problems for anyone. Some people use sex to medicate their feelings and/or cope with stress much in the same way as others would use alcohol or drugs. Lack of sexual self-control can lead to multiple infidelities, risky sexual behavior, bankruptcy, or the loss of a job due to out of control behaviors. Rooted in shame and low self-esteem, there is little satisfaction gained from the sexual activities and rarely an interest in intimacy or emotional connection. The Sex Addiction Workbook addresses readers with a lack of sexual self-control where their behavior is interfering with their relationship, job, and reputation. Tamara Penix Sbraga and William T. O'Donohue, leading clinical psychologists specializing in the treatment of sexual self-control problems, offer the first workbook to use proven cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, strategies to help sexual addicts. Individuals who risk their finances, reputations, marriages and even their lives for a quick sexual fix learn easy, step-by-step strategies to help them overcome their addiction to sex and restore their relationships.

The Sex Addiction Workbook helps readers:

Explore the root causes of the addiction.
Reduce high-risk sexual behavior and the use of online porn, phone sex, strip bars
Put an end to affairs forever.
Rediscover a healthy attitude toward sex.
Learn skills to help increase motivation to change.
Improve intimate relationships.

Sbraga, assistant professor of clinical psychology at Central Michigan University and O'Donohue, licensed psychologist and adjunct professor of philosophy and psychiatry at the University of Nevada, Reno, guide readers as they assess their level of sexual-self control problems, teaching relapse prevention methods and helping readers increase motivation and commitment to change. Readers then set goals and assess their choices. The second section of the book delves into the cognitive restructuring necessary to produce change, helping readers examine their behaviors, decision-making process, cognitive distortions (need for immediate gratification, deviant sexual fantasizing). In the third section, readers deal with the impact of their emotions on their behaviors and lead them toward self-acceptance. Finally, readers learn to increase intimacy and live a more balanced life.

This is an excellent book. It speaks directly to individuals with sexual addiction problems in a down-to-earth and respectful manner. The quality of the psychological knowledge contained in the book is first rate and the book is beautifully written. It is obvious that Sbraga and O'Donohue have total mastery of their subject matter and are compassionate yet challenging therapists. This book would be an ideal adjunct to therapy or a valuable treatment resource for individuals wanting to work on sexual addiction problems on their own. I am sure it will become a classic. – Tony Ward, Ph.D., clinical director of the School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and coauthor of Sexual Deviance: Issues and Controversies and Remaking Relapse Prevention with Sex Offenders

The Sex Addiction Workbook is for readers who believe they are struggling with a serious sexual disorder or wish they could more easily manage sexual behaviors that interfere with their lives. Without taking a strong moral position on sexual behaviors, the scientifically based techniques in the book guide readers to making better sexual choices that are in line with their own values. By following the program they learn how to lead a sexually fulfilling life that promises security, stability, and peace of mind.

Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling

Caring for Children With Neuro-developmental Disabilities and Their Families: An Innovative Approach to Interdisciplinary Practice edited by Claudia Maria Vargas & Patricia Ann Prelock (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers)

Children with neuro-developmental disabilities such as mental retardation or autism present multiple challenges to their families, health care providers, and teachers. Professionals consulted by desperate parents often see the problems from their own angle only and diagnosis and intervention efforts wind up fragmented and ineffective. Caring for Children With Neuro-developmental Disabilities and Their Families presents a model multidisciplinary approach to care, family-centered and collaborative, that has proven effective in practice. A pillar of the approach is recognition of the importance of performing a competent assessment and adjusting service delivery so that it is responsive to cultural differences. Detailed case stories illuminate the ways in which the approach can help children with different backgrounds and different disabilities. Most chapters include, besides references, study questions, lists of resources, and glossaries to facilitate easy comprehension by professionals with different backgrounds – in special education, communication sciences and disorders, clinical and counseling psychology, neuro-psychology and psychiatry, social work, pediatrics – and program administrators as well as students, trainees and educated parents.

The annals of medicine, anthropology, and history are filled with horrific stories of the inhumane treatment of persons with disabilities. Even the most advanced societies have skeletons in the closet: maltreatment, abuse, even experimentation, as during the Holocaust. Although institutionalization was advanced to provide a safe place for persons with disabilities who, until then, were imprisoned in jails, this too, was recognized as cruel for children who were condemned to a life isolated from family and community. Yet, de-institutionalization is a recent phenomenon even in the state of Vermont, where editors Claudia Maria Vargas & Patricia Ann Prelock (University of Vermont) write, and institutionalization continues to be practiced in other states and in other countries. Nationally, parents of children with disabilities, inspired by the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, came to realize that their children were also victims of segregation.

The field of disabilities has evolved in leap and bounds in the last 30 years in the United States, and although much has been accomplished, more remains to be done in this country as well as internationally.

Caring for Children With Neuro-developmental Disabilities and Their Families demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary practice in addressing the needs of children with neuro-developmental disabilities and their families by sharing the experiences and lessons learned from the Vermont Interdisciplinary Leadership Education for Health Professionals (VT-ILEHP) Program, one of the 35 Leadership Education in Neuro-developmental Disabilities (LEND) programs throughout the country funded by the United States government through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).

The book was structured by real stories of the children and families with whom the editors and contributors have worked. Caring for Children With Neuro-developmental Disabilities and Their Families introduces each component of the clinical process through the story of a child with complex health needs. Thus, the contributors focus attention on the challenges, hopes, and dreams of these families and children. They interweave the perspective of child, family, and that of service providers as they struggle through the health care system maze to obtain specialized services for their child with disabilities.

The experience captured in the book has been profoundly touching for the editors and collaborators. It presents not only the clinical experience of each but also the personal histories of children with disabilities – sons, daughters, cousins, sisters, brothers, relatives, or friends. The book invites the readers to embark on a journey they have traveled together with the families who graciously allowed the contributors into their lives.

The model is anchored by five competencies: family-centered care, cultural competence, interdisciplinary practice, leadership, neuro-developmental disabilities, and policy and leadership. The program provides advanced graduate training for health professionals in 12 disciplines: pediatrics, speech and language pathology (SLP), nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, psychology, social work, nutrition, audiology, policy and public law, family support, and education. The interdisciplinary model is applied to practitioners serving infants to young adults. Each chapter illustrates how the program put into practice the five core competencies while working with individual families and systems of care. The chapters are designed to invite readers, as members of the interdisciplinary team, to put into practice each of the components of the program. Caring for Children With Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and Their Families begins with an introduction to the entire program, specifically, a definition of the five competencies, a description of each curricular and clinical component, and the frameworks that guide clinical and leadership practice. Although the program focuses on training, its goal is to change the systems in place by modeling directly not only to the trainees and fellows but also to the community and school teams that may already be in place.

Caring for Children With Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and Their Families constitutes a useful addition to current theory and research, and it provides a model clinicians, policymakers, and parents can apply to their own efforts. It is intended, above all, to help parents and professionals develop the potential of children with disabilities to live as normal lives as possible. The chapters are easily accessible yet clinically sound. The style is clear without compromising the substantive knowledge and evidence-based practice. A glossary of terms and diagnoses is provided to facilitate understanding. To help parents and professionals, a list of pertinent resources is provided at the end of each chapter. The book was written for undergraduate and graduate students, health care professionals, educators, administrators, policymakers, and leaders in the field of disabilities as well as for families with children with disabilities.

Health, Mind & Body

Shining Through: Switch on Your Life and Ground Yourself in Happiness by Hugh Prather (Conari Press)

Shining Through by Hugh Prather is an easy-does-it, 30-day course in finding peace and happiness. Prather encourages readers to take a few minutes every day to read his "Essays of Encouragement" and reflect on and practice the accompanying 30 "Affirmations and Guides." Prather shares his own pain, observations, and ways of coping with modern life to helps readers discover their own ways to be happy in a complicated, often frightening world.

To quote the man himself, in this book I attempt to present a few ways that our mind can begin to hear the song of our heart and experience a growing faith in a truth that exists beyond our tragedies and fears.... It is vital to find an approach that permits us to experience a reality greater and more reliable than the confusing and surprisingly short journey of our body. I will suggest ways this can be done.

Prather, author of 16 books, whom The New York Times dubbed "an American Kahlil Gibran," suggests, for reflection and practice, for example:

Let my first step be stillness.
I will make no effort to step ahead of God. My body is a means of communicating love.
Today I will not project.
I will not use my mind to build a case against freedom. Let me at least try.

The gifts of wisdom and the treasured insights of Hugh Prather flow to us once again from the generosity of his Spirit in this wonderful book. Here will be found blessings for the soul, comfort for the heart, and peace for the mind. One could scarcely ask for more. –Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God

Urgently needed! Hugh Prather's wisdom will lift your spirits, rejuvenate your soul and plant your feet on solid ground. – Judy Ford, author of Wonderful Ways to Love a Child and Single: The Art of Being Satisfied, Fulfilled and Independent

Wise words, important reminders, guided meditations from Hugh Prather that can set you free, open up your heart, and let love come Shining Through. – David Marell, author of Be Generous

Prather's books have provided readers with a new way of seeing, with comfort in hard times, the words to articulate sorrow and celebration, to find the heart of the matter in the self. Shining Through once again is an example of Prather's gentle teaching style. This is a book readers may return to again and again for inspiration as they continue their search for a deeper meaning and understanding in today's chaotic and complicated world.

Health, Mind & Body / Religion & Spirituality

Self-Awakening Yoga: The Expansion of Consciousness through the Body's Own Wisdom by Don Stapleton (Healing Arts Press)

When artist and professor Don Stapleton discovered yoga, it marked the beginning of a journey into the awakening powers of prana – the energy of yogic purification – and the natural spiritual and healing properties of his own body. After 30 years of extensive yoga training, an accident left him with a severe injury to the spine. Faced with the challenge of physical recovery, Stapleton, a teacher and the director of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health for 19 years, drew upon his knowledge of yoga to create a series of exercises that allowed him to recover freedom of movement, release emotional blockages and unleash his spiritual and physical potential. Self-Awakening Yoga is the synthesis of Stapleton's practice. More than 100 exercises – from focusing on the breath to accessing primal sound – show how to unlock the wisdom and power of prana to engage the body's healing powers. Readers learn how to listen to what the body is saying before engaging in each specific yoga posture. The exercises and meditations focus on natural movements that encourage body awareness. The book shows

Simple techniques that enhance the free flow of prana to promote physical and emotional healing, self-discovery, and spiritual evolution.
How to release the body's inefficient, painful patterns and to access unknown potentials through kinesthetic inquiries.

Also included is a 60-minute audio CD of four guided meditation exercises.

What an awesome and inspiring book. It beautifully illustrates how an external teacher can lead a person to the lotus feet of his or her own inner authority. – Erich Schiffmann, author of Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

Don is an adept, an amazing contemporary yogi who has gone beyond ordinary convention. His mastery of the spiritual inquiry and his brilliance radiates through every chapter of this book. – Todd Norian, certified Anusara Yoga teacher, former director of Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training

Self-Awakening Yoga takes yoga back to its roots as a creative learning process and an expansion of consciousness, not just a technique for health and fitness.

History / Military / Biographies & Memoirs

Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story by Chuck Gross (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series, No. 1: University of North Texas Press)

Here is a chance to see the war in Vietnam through the eyes of an inexperienced pilot as he transforms himself into a seasoned combat veteran.

Chuck Gross joined the army in November 1968 at age 18 to fly helicopters – he thought the Vietnam War would be over by the time he completed his flight training – it wasn’t. When Gross left for Vietnam in 1970, he was fresh out of flight school. He spent his entire Vietnam tour with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company flying UH-1 Huey helicopters, logging more than twelve hundred hours of combat flying and achieving Senior Aircraft Commander status.
Soon after the war he wrote down his adventures, while his memory was still fresh with the events. Rattler One-Seven (his call sign) is written as Gross experienced it, using these notes along with letters written home to accurately preserve the mindset he had while in Vietnam.

During his tour Gross flew Special Operations for the MACV-SOG, inserting secret teams into Laos. He notes that Americans were left behind alive in Laos, when official policy at home stated that U.S. forces were never there. He also participated in Lam Son 719, a misbegotten attempt by the ARVN to assault and cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail with U.S. Army helicopter support. It was the largest airmobile campaign of the war and marked the first time that the helicopter was used in mid-intensity combat, with disastrous results. Pilots in their early twenties, with young gunners and a Huey full of ARVN soldiers, took on experienced North Vietnamese antiaircraft artillery gunners, with no meaningful intelligence briefings or a rational plan on how to cut the Trail. More than one hundred helicopters were lost and more than four hundred aircraft sustained combat damage. Gross himself was shot down and left in the field during one assault.

Exciting reading! Chuck Gross vividly tells the dramatic account of being a combat helicopter pilot in such a way that you feel you are there. Gross sets the story of combat aviation with a graphic backdrop of chaos and carnage. Rattler One-Seven is a compelling memoir of what it was like to fly combat helicopters in Vietnam. A must read for all military and aviation enthusiasts. – Chuck Carlock, author of Firebirds

Chuck Gross's book tells exactly what it was like to fly a Huey slick in combat in the Vietnam War. The only things missing are the smells of gunpowder and the incredible noise as he takes the reader on combat assaults into hot landing zones. – James Joyce, author of Pucker Factor 10

As a helicopter pilot with combat experience in Vietnam, I could readily relate to Gross's experiences – several of them had the hair on the back of my neck standing up! Rattler One-Seven will make an important contribution to the Vietnam War literature. There's nothing else like it out there. – John F. Guilmartin, Jr., Lt. Col. USAF (Ret), and professor of history, Ohio State University

Rattler One-Seven is a vividly detailed account of Gross’s day-to-day activities and it will appeal to those interested in the Vietnam War and to all armed forces, especially aviators, who have served their country.

History / United States

Jefferson's Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800 and the Triumph of Republicanism by Susan Dunn (Houghton Mifflin)

As we prepare for the upcoming election and a possible transfer of power in the White House, award-winning historian and author Susan Dunn, professor of humanities at Williams College, looks back at the tumultuous election of 1800, a seminal moment in American history, in Jefferson's Second Revolution. Standing as the first real test of democracy for a young nation, the election of 1800 established the principle of the legitimacy of opposition and the beginnings of the first American party system.

The hotly contested election of 1800 was a revolution in the modern sense of a radical new beginning; but it was also a revolution in the sense of a return to the point of origin – the principles of 1776. Federalist incumbent John Adams, an elitist who believed in strong central government, faced off against Republican Thomas Jefferson, who championed individual rights. Jefferson defeated Adams but, through a quirk in Electoral College balloting, tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr. A constitutional crisis ensued. Congress was supposed to resolve the tie, but would the Federalists hand power over peacefully to their political enemies, Jefferson and his Republicans? For weeks on end, nothing was less certain. The Federalists delayed and plotted, while Republicans threatened to take up arms.

The year 1800 marked the end of Federalist elitism, pointed the way to peaceful power shifts, cleared a place for states' rights in the political landscape, and set the stage for the Civil War.

As Dunn writes, "For generations of Americans after Jefferson, the most enduring gift of the revolution of 1800 was not unity but conflict, not family but parties – the healthy, invaluable strife of competitive parties, the essential feature – the sine qua non – of democracy." Today, more than two hundred years later, "many Americans are still nostalgic for a politics of harmony and consensus, still drawn to politicians who talk earnestly about bipartisanship while misunderstanding the very essence of politics – which is conflict."

A ripping tale of political intrigue, slander, mayhem, mudslinging, and powdered wigs. – Kirkus Reviews

A dramatic account of the nation's struggle to establish political legitimacy ... Dunn does a superb job of recounting the campaign, its cast of characters, and the election's bizarre conclusion in Congress. – Publishers Weekly (starred)

In a way no previous historian has done, Dunn, in Jefferson's Second Revolution, illuminates the many facets of this watershed moment in American history: She captures its drama, gives us fresh, finely drawn portraits of the founding fathers, and examines the enduring significance of the crisis.

History / Military

World War II by H. P. Willmott, Robin Cross, & Charles Messenger (DK Publishing, Inc.)

Do you want total war? Do you want a war, if necessary, more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today? – Josef Goebbels, 18 February, 1943

From the invasion of Poland to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Hiroshima, World War II was the most destructive war the world has ever seen. Forty million people died, Hitler sent 6 million European Jews to their deaths in the holocaust, and the atomic bomb was unleashed upon the world.

The Second World War was fought on an unprecedented scale and claimed the lives of many, from soldiers to civilians. Providing an analysis of its causes and momentous consequences, as well as a narrative and explanation of the course of the war, World War II examines the objectives and concerns of all the combatants in one of the most deadly conflicts of the 20th Century. The book has a striking set of authors: H.P. Willmott, widely published military historian, former senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England; Robin Cross, World War II author and journalist; and Charles Messenger, former officer in the Royal Tank Regiment, military historian and defense analyst. Forty full-color digital maps reveal the strategic and tactical situations faced by the commanders on both sides, while the descriptions of the fighting itself – propel the reader into the terrible realities of battle – Stalingrad, Normandy, Guadalcanal, Pearl Harbor, El Alamein, Kursk war on land, sea, and air in all its brutal intensity. Approximately 500 images give a complete picture of the conflict across its many theaters – the Eastern and Western fronts, Scandinavia and Italy, the Balkans and the Mediterranean, and China and Southeast Asia, as well as the Western Pacific.

Divided into nine chapters, World War II covers every aspect of the war from its political, economic and social roots through the first campaigns and the allied offensive to the final victory and the legacy of the war. Unique in its global scope, the objectives and concerns of all the combatants are examined. The home fronts in Germany, Britain, the USA and Japan are discussed in detail, but the book also reveals a rarely seen picture of the conflict in China and Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Balkans, Scandinavia and Italy.

World War II evokes the sheer epic scale of combat, ranging from the battlefronts in Europe, Africa, Russia, and the Pacific to its impact on civilian populations across the globe. The book is a dramatically illustrated account, bringing this conflict to life as never before. First-hand accounts from combatants and civilians blend with compelling images and unique graphics and timelines to create a complete picture of the war. Combining archive and commissioned photography with narrative text and evocative eyewitness accounts, World War II is both an authoritative historical guide and a stunning photographic record that will appeal to military history enthusiasts, students, and general readers alike.

History / Science

Who Really Invented the Steamboat?: Fulton's Clermont Coup by Jack L. Shagena (Humanity Books)

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. – Niccolo Machiavelli

Contrary to accounts found in school textbooks, and the claims of Robert Fulton himself, Fulton did not invent the steamboat. Who Really Invented the Steamboat? is the first work to chronicle the entire story of the steamboat and to place Fulton's contribution in perspective. Jack L. Shagena, retired professional engineer and aerospace electronics executive, clarifies the nature of invention and examines various individuals who contributed to the steamboat's development.

How could authoritative sources like school textbooks be wrong for almost two hundred years? Shagena skillfully lays out the evidence, unraveling the complex factors that have led to past confusion. He makes the point that historians have erred in describing the development of steam navigation as one person's work.

By contrast, Shagena, from a scientific and engineering perspective, examines the entire spectrum of the achievements by many individuals in the science, technology, invention, product development, and marketing of steamboat travel. Within this framework, he considers the work of William Henry, James Rumsey, John Fitch, Oliver Evans, Samuel Morey, Robert Fulton, John Stevens and others, arriving at the most creditable candidate for the title of "inventor of the steamboat."

He tells the story that in reading conflicting steamboat accounts, it became apparent that almost none was written from a historical technologist's vantage point. Most writers, lacking a technical background, have approached the subject as historians or biographers without the requisite understanding of science, technology, and invention necessary to arrive at a conclusion that is grounded in a technical conscientiousness.

To bring a different perspective and hopefully avoid this pitfall, the underlying systems engineering development process that was intrinsically involved in the steamboat development, though not understood at the time, is used as an overlay to objectively gauge and evaluate the efforts of these various players. With this vantage point the contributions of each individual and his relative importance to steam navigation is brought into better focus, allowing a few conclusions to be drawn.

Reader may apply their own knowledge to modify or rework the filter overlay and draw their own conclusions. In any case, a better understanding will likely result, and perhaps sometime in the future most researchers who delve into this subject will converge on a small number of deserving candidates, or even perhaps a single candidate worthy of recognition as the inventor.

Who Really Invented the Steamboat? is richly illustrated for two reasons: first, a picture can quickly convey more information to readers than text, second, a few of the illustrations have been included to relate to readers the whimsical nature of how steamboats have been presented to the public over the years. In nearly all cases the illustrations are described, so readers can peruse the caption and obtain a greater insight into the information shown.

Jack Shagena has finally given us the multiple contexts for deciding among seventeen candidates that have claimed this invention in history. In this thoroughly researched book, Shagena places the invention of the steamboat into such contexts as the idea of the steamboat as a system, the early American patent process, the competition for priority, product development from concept to marketing, and rich, individual biographies of the candidates. See if you agree with the candidate he settles on! – R. John Brockmann, Professor of Business and Technical Writing, University of Delaware

Jack Shagena's book attacks the well-established and perpetuated axiom that 'Fulton invented the steamboat'. To build his case, Shagena examines each of the candidates' entrepreneurial motives, their mechanical inventiveness, and their engineering foresight, along with the unique emotional bent that drove them to undertake what was then a monumental task. This approach is made both interesting and understandable by combining historical and general technical information with the details of the ego drives for fame and fortune. The conclusion may be surprising, but each candidate's contribution to the ultimate success of the steamboat makes rewarding reading. – Phillip J. Woodall, Consulting Systems Engineer

Who Really Invented the Steamboat? is a well-researched, entertaining, and enlightening contribution to the history of science, important reading for students of history, science, technology, engineering, invention and development.

Home & Garden / Collectibles

Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia by Peter Doggett & Sarah Hodgson (Billboard Books)

What makes yesterday’s pop memorabilia into tomorrow’s auction room rarity?

How can readers distinguish what’s valuable from what’s not?

Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia is an authoritative guide to one of the fastest growing collectors’ markets of the twenty-first century.

Over the last 20 years, rock and pop memorabilia has moved out of the junk shops and into the auction houses. The market in rock and pop memorabilia is eclectic and diverse. It includes everything from original manuscripts and artwork by global superstars to mass-produced artifacts which were aimed at teenage pop fans in the 1950s and 1960s. The most exclusive items associated with legends like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, and Jimi Hendrix have begun to attract the same prices as the paintings of the old masters. Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia offers the first comprehensive survey of this worldwide market. Included is everything from autographs, letters, manuscripts, posters, artwork, and guitars to mass produced artifacts that today are scarce and valuable collector's items. Represented in over 120 fabulous photographs are such collectibles as Eric Clapton's prized Fender Stratocaster, Elvis Presley's love letters, Elton John's outrageous outfits, and Madonna's famous black bustier.

The book surveys the most important areas of the contemporary, auction market, including autographs and manuscripts; rare recordings and records; guitars and other instruments; costumes and personal effects; printed material, from concert programs to sought-after pop magazines; merchandizing and commercial memorabilia; gold discs and other awards; and original artwork, paintings and cartoons.

Lavishly illustrated and full of fascinating anecdotes and key collecting information, Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia explains how and why the supposedly ephemeral world of popular music has spawned a thriving market and regular auctions, attracting remarkably high prices. Written by two acknowledged experts in the field, Peter Doggett and Sarah Hodgson, who together have twenty-five years of experience in valuing and selling rock and pop items for Christie's London office, Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia is the fascinating introduction to this expanding and potentially lucrative field.

Home & Garden

Gardening the Mediterranean Way: How to Create a Waterwise, Drought-Tolerant Garden by Heidi Gildemeister (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers)

In Gardening the Mediterranean Way Heidi Gildemeister provides a look at gardening in harmony with a distinctive and challenging climate.

When Gildemeister moved to a small Mediterranean island off the coast of Spain, with mild winters and long, hot, and dry summers, she began to learn about an entirely different way of gardening. In her first summer there, with five inches of water left in the tank and many weeks of burning sun ahead, she realized that if she wished to look out on anything other than a parched lawn and wilting vegetation, it was imperative to grow drought-tolerant plants. Over the last 25 years, Gildemeister has converted a dry landscape on the western Mediterranean coast into a gorgeous, thriving ten-acre garden. Her own experience and research have taught her the secrets of utilizing water-wise gardening practices to allow the soil and plants to absorb enough winter rain so they can survive the dry summer.
Now this expert gardener, founding member and former president of the Mediterranean Garden Society, shares her wealth of knowledge. Her presentation of 20 dream gardens – among them an olive grove in bloom, a haven by the sea, and a scented shade garden, each with extensive plant lists and practical advice – is at the heart of her book, illustrated with more than 200 of her own, exquisite full-color photographs. Chapters such as "Becoming a Mediterranean Gardener," "A Garden in Harmony with its Surroundings," and "Mediterranean Dream Gardens: Choosing Your Personal Eden," tell the story of the endeavor to create an environmentally sound Mediterranean garden. Chapters such as "Renewing an Urban Garden" (which includes a list of pollution-tolerant plants), "Hedges, Screens and Boundaries: Protecting Your Privacy" (which includes a list of plants that tolerate drought and wind), "Gardening among Rocks," "The Lazy Person's Dream Garden: Labor-Saving Methods," "The Container Garden: A Moveable Feast," "A Garden in the Hills: The Art of Terracing," "The Swimming Pool Garden: An Escape from the Heat," and "The MiniGarden: A Showcase for Collectors' Items" provide food for thought.

In addition to the areas around the Mediterranean Sea, areas as diverse as California and parts of Chile, South Africa, and Australia all have Mediterranean climates, making this book a useful resource for gardeners around the world. For those not in Mediterranean regions, Gardening the Mediterranean Way is also useful as a look at the process of gardening with respect to our surroundings.

Let us learn to garden according to the season, to plant with respect for the limited water resources, and to embrace the annual sumnier dormancy perhaps by relaxing in the cool shade of a vine-covered pergola and reading a good book, such as Heidi Gildemeister's brilliant, informative, and enabling Gardening the Mediterranean Way. – Richard G. Turner Jr, editor of Pacific Horticulture, in foreword

Gardening the Mediterranean Way is a well-researched, informative and practical book, each chapter concluding with a thorough listing of appropriate plants.

Home & Garden / Interior Design

Country Escapes: Inspirational Homes in the Heart of the Country by Ryland Peters & Small with contributing editors Bo Niles & Katherine Sorrell (Ryland Peters & Small)

Inside most of us is a profound, almost primeval, yearning for the spiritual and material joys of living in the countryside. Many have discovered their piece of rural paradise, while others still dream of it, but it is hard to overestimate the strength of our desire to get close to nature. Even devoted city-dwellers often introduce rural elements into their urban surroundings.

Country Escapes showcases 32 beautiful rural houses that embody the spirit of their location, each lavishly illustrated and vividly described by acclaimed interiors writers from Ryland Peters and Small’s staff.

The first part of the book, Traditional, looks at heritage locations ranging from a farmhouse in Texas to an 18th-century island chateau. Rustic focuses on homes where wood and other natural materials are the dominant features, for example, an eccentric crooked house in Wales or a restored French watermill. Romantic covers a range of homes that are particularly pretty or feminine in character, including a converted barn in the English Cotswolds and a hilltop village house in Provence. Simply Tranquil takes a look at pared-down rural architecture, where whites and neutrals dominate the color palette; it includes a modern brick and clapboard house in Belgium and a classic Scandinavian interior recreated in Connecticut.

From North Carolina to the Swiss Alps, the homes featured in Country Escapes are exciting to explore and of lasting interest. Whether traditionally elegant or unusual and experimental, they all belong to the rural landscape and capture the allure of country living.

Written by Bo Niles, former senior editor of Country Living magazine, and Katherine Sorrell, former associate editor of Homes & Gardens magazine, with the other editors at Ryland Peters and Small, showcasing beautiful country houses, in places as various and far apart as the prairies of Indiana and the coast of Denmark, Country Escapes is a tribute to the rural idyll. Filled with lavish photographs, it celebrates an array of homes that reflect the many aspects of rural interior design.

Home & Garden / Antiques & Collectibles

American Studio Glass, 1960-1990 by Martha Drexler Lynn (Hudson Hills Press) is an interpretive study.

Consider the dilemma facing post-World War II American studio glass: Can art be fashioned out of glass, or do the utilitarian associations embedded within the medium preclude it from being considered an acceptable art form?

Strikingly illustrated, American Studio Glass, 1960-1990 is among the first to explore answers to this question, revealing both the early history of the movement and the clash of ambitions and power that marked the relationship between the worlds of so-called crafts and high art.

Martha Drexler Lynn, former associate curator in the Decorative Arts Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, explains how the social and political winds began to change in the late 1950s. Likewise the attitudes toward studio glass began to change, and such seminal events as the Asilomar Conference of 1957, the founding of The Corning Museum of Glass, and the Glass 1959 exhibition took place.

The establishment of real change would not have been possible without the acceptance of glass into university curricula. The 1960s witnessed the impact of the Object USA exhibition of 1969, burgeoning collector activity, the tentative movement of glass into museums, and the challenge of creating content-driven art with glass, all of which led to increased recognition of studio glass in universities throughout the United States.

In the fifteen years between 1975 and 1990, the patronage for American Studio Glass expanded exponentially, and that interest continues today. American Studio Glass, 1960-1990 catalogues this evolution with vivid photographs and a comprehensive interpretation of a uniquely beautiful art form. Lynn's precise analysis of the philosophical and circumstantial factors that shaped studio glass, the state of glassmaking practice before the proto-studio glassmakers, and the emergence of pioneering artisans, Maurice Heaton and Edris Eckhardt among them, creates a living picture of the movement's struggle for respect and acceptance in America.

Humor / Mysteries & Thrillers / Gay & Lesbian

Biceps Of Death by David Stukas (Kensington Books)

Oops – he did it again! David Stukas, author of Someone Killed His Boyfriend and Wearing Black to the White Party, unleashes his popular – and outrageously funny – trio of sleuths on the unsuspecting world in Biceps Of Death. This time, Robert, Michael, and Monette are up to their pectorals in sex, blackmail, washboard abs, and murder...

It ain't easy being pretty. And it ain't pretty NOT being pretty in Chelsea. That's what has Robert doing an excruciating set of leg presses under his roommate Michael's preening tutelage – when Michael isn't admiring his new leather workout shorts or going on about how the super-buff trainer, Flex, keeps checking him out. Of course, Michael has the equation down pat: pretty plus rich equals nonstop scoring. So it takes Robert by complete surprise in the locker room when Flex grabs Robert, hands him a CD-ROM, kisses him, and takes off running with a promise to retrieve the disk – and Robert – later.

But Robert doesn't have long to ponder a roll in the hay with Mr. Uber Body.The next morning, Flex is found murdered, pushed from his high-rise Madison Avenue apartment – the latest victim of what the newspapers are calling "the body-builder serial killer." Suddenly, Michael and Robert are feeling like the wrong guys in every Hitchcock film ever made. Whoever was after that CD-ROM doesn't mind killing to get it back, and had no trouble tackling a 250-pound trainer to do it. He certainly doesn't mind ransacking Robert's apartment to find it, or making it clear that he won't stop until he finds what he's looking for ... and the guys who took it. But when the going gets tough ... the tough run and hide at their lesbian friend Monette's apartment for protection. The first question: what's a trainer doing in a chi-chi Madison Avenue apartment? Where does that kind of money really come from?

The only thing to do is check out the CD-ROM. From the first picture, it's clear that somebody's been doing some training that goes way beyond personal and right into kinky. Not only is the CD stocked with incredibly raw and racy images, but they all seem to star prominent men who would do anything to avoid this kind of, er, exposure. Before Robert, Michael and Monette can say, "How limber do you have to be to do that?" the suspects are lining up faster than the ticket buyers for a midnight showing of Mommie Dearest. There's charismatic Republican mayoral candidate,Tom Sheffield; New York's squeaky-clean fashion designer Frank Adams; Chet Ponyweather, a waspy, married, straight man whose old money background won't take kindly to scandal; Texas televangelist Allen Firstborn, and John Bekkman, a mysterious playboy with a sizable trust fund. Now, as they muscle their way into a hidden world of escorts, fetishists, drug dealers, and pampered men leading double lives, the trio dive deeper into a mystery that has more layers than Michael has Frette towels. And when the killer strikes dangerously close to home, New York's most wanted sleuths will have to give it everything they've got.

More comedy than mystery, sexy, catty, and hilarious, Biceps Of Death skewers everything in sight, gay or straight, as well as the cult of the body while delivering a mystery that actually hangs together. This editor couldn’t help but think about another incredibly gifted gay humor writer, David Sedaris.

Literature & Fiction / Classics / Children (5th-8th grades) & All Ages

Anne of Green Gables (Radio Theatre) [UNABRIDGED] by L. M. Montgomery (3-CD Set, approximate running time 240 minutes, Tyndale House Publishers) is the dramatized adaptation of the beloved novel of 1908.

Anne of Green Gables tells the story of Anne Shirley, an endearingly talkative and precocious 11-year-old who comes to live on a farm on Canada’s Prince Edward Island. Anne, an orphan, has been sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on the farm, and she proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.
As soon as Anne arrives at the snug, white farmhouse called Green Gables, she know she wants to stay forever... but will the Cuthberts send her back to the orphanage?

Anne knows she's not what they expected – a skinny girl with decidedly red hair and a temper to match. If only she could convince them to let her stay, she'd try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes or blurt out the very first thing she had to say. Anne was not like anybody else, everyone at Green Gables agreed; she was special – a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreamed of the day when she could call herself Anne of Green Gables.
Author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) was born in Clifton on Prince Edward Island, Canada. As a young girl she learned to love reading and writing, and after attending college she was briefly employed by a newspaper in Halifax. She soon returned to her beloved home to live with her grandmother and to become a teacher. There she began to write a series of tales about the adventures of Anne, who rapidly became everyone's favorite redhead. Her stories are all set in the area of her childhood home and have become popular throughout the world.

The nostalgic charm of Avonlea comes alive in Lucy Maud Montgomery's heart-warming tale set on the quaint island of Prince William about an aging brother and sister, Mathew and Marilla Cuthbert, and their decision to adopt a young boy to help with chores around their farm. However, as the result of a misunderstanding the boy turns out to be a feisty, independent, and wildly imaginative redheaded girl named Anne. Marilla's first reaction to this news is, "What use is she to us?" Wherein Mathew replies, "We might be of some use to her." Throughout this moving story these two statements mix and meld together so richly and completely that they become one truth…Each new day brings a new set of adventures, often hilarious and always uplifting. Anne's vivid and overactive imagination is the cause of many mishaps, but her saving grace is her heart of gold. Her best friend and "kindred spirit," Diana, and her handsome admirer, Gilbert Blythe, often find themselves unintentional victims of Anne's escapades. – School Library Journal

The delightful story, Anne of Green Gables, of the arrival of talkative Anne at the reserved Green Gables is a perennial favorite of children and adults. The joyful growing up of Anne is marked by adventures of all kinds as the impulsive girl proves she is much smarter than she appears. The dramatized audio version is well done, a joy to listen to with children, and it will give grandma’s vocal cords a break.

Literature & Fiction / Women’s Studies

Beyond Spectacle: Eliza Haywood's Female Spectators by Juliette Merritt (University of Toronto Press)

Theories of sight and spectatorship captivated many writers and philosophers of the eighteenth century and, in turn, helped to define both sexual politics and gender identity. Eliza Haywood was thoroughly engaged in the social, philosophical, and political issues of her time, and she wrote prolifically about them, producing over seventy-five works of literature – plays, novels, and pamphlets – during her lifetime. Examining a number of works from this prodigious canon, Juliette Merritt in Beyond Spectacle focuses on Haywood's consideration of the myriad issues surrounding sight and seeing and argues that Haywood explored strategies to undermine the conventional male spectator/female spectacle structure of looking.

Merritt, lecturer in the Department of English at McMaster University and in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, combines close readings of Haywood's work with twentieth-century debates among feminist and psychoanalytic theorists concerning the visual dynamics of identity and gender formation. She explores insights into how the gaze operates socially, epistemologically, and ontologically in Haywood's writing, ultimately concluding that Haywood's own strategy as an author involved appropriating the spectator position as a means of exercising female power.

The benign exchange of glances between lovers facilitates courtship, but the longing gaze of the lover can also become sinister, as voyeuristic practices proliferate in Haywood's texts. Women are repeatedly spied upon covertly by men – an act presented as ultimately threatening. Haywood also lingers over the pleasure women derive from being looked upon. The self-regarding ‘coquette,’ perpetually chastised in eighteenth-century literature, is the central character in Idalia as well as in Bets Thoughtless. Haywood does not, however, simply condemn female vanity; rather, she explores vanity's important role in the formation of female subjectivity itself. Women construct themselves to be seen, and the desire to be desirable is central to their identity and their sexuality. Not only does Haywood reveal the effects of male looking on women's psychic life, she also shows how, on a broader social level, a self-censoring, internalized patriarchal gaze is essential to the regulation of female conduct. Her examination of women's lack of social power depends largely on the complexity of her understanding and representation of the specular elements of female experience. – from the Introduction

Beyond Spectacle will cement Haywood's deservedly prominent place in the canon of eighteenth-century fiction and position her as a writer whose work speaks not only to female agency, but to eighteenth-century writers, gender relations, and power politics as well.

Literature & Fiction / Biographies & Memoirs

After the Fire by J. A. Jance (The University of Arizona Libraries)

That fire can cleanse as well as destroy is no mystery to J. A. Jance. Jance's eighteen-year involvement with an alcoholic helped shape the experience and personality of Detective J. P. Beaumont, a character in sixteen of her novels; her most recent novel is Exit Wounds.

For years she composed poetry in secret and kept it locked away. Finally it was published as After the Fire in 1984, the year before her debut novel. After the Fire chronicled the death of a relationship as Jance's marriage to her first husband gradually collapsed under the weight of his addiction – aided and abetted by her own unwitting denial and co-dependence – while she struggled to find herself. "I will not be the price of your redemption," she wrote then. "I will not pay my life to ransom yours." Now this deeply personal work is available in a new annotated edition. In it, Jance offers insights into where she was and what was happening when each of these poems was written – remaking After the Fire as more than a collection of poetry. Now it is a portrait of addiction and the insidious ways in which it destroys relationships.

As Jance now observes while reflecting on these poems, "I could remember that spring morning sitting at the Formica table in my Phoenix kitchen and writing 'The Collector' while bags of unpacked groceries waited on the table beside me. I recalled everything about that long, long New Year's Eve vigil at my dying former husband's bedside. I felt once again the velvet smoothness of 'Fog' as I walked through a Seattle September morning on my way to a new life. . . . My life is far richer because of this book. My hope is that others will find answers here as well – answers and their own share of strength and courage."

In this new annotated edition, Jance’s insights into these searing poems is unblinking – remaking After the Fire as a portrait of addiction and the insidious ways in which it destroys relationships. A work of crushing defeat and ultimate triumph, After the Fire relates an emotional journey that will be recognizable to anyone who has seen love destroyed and then found the strength to go on. It will inspire others who are struggling with similar issues as it allows fans of Jance's mysteries to better know the mind – and heart – of a favorite author.

Medicine / Diseases

Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna (Free Press)

They always keep a bag packed. They seldom have more than twenty-four hours' notice before they are dispatched. The phone calls that tell them to head to the airport, sometimes in the middle of the night, may give them no more information than the country they are traveling to and the epidemic they will tackle when they get there.

These are the doctors who run toward epidemics instead of away from them. They are the disease detective corps of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the federal agency that tracks and tries to prevent disease outbreaks and bioterrorist attacks around the world – the EIS.

If the CDC is the Pentagon of public health in America – the place where threats are identified and control strategies are launched – then the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) is its Special Forces. In the 53 years since the corps was founded, its members have been the first on the scene of outbreaks of AIDS, Ebola, hantavirus, and, most recently, monkey-pox and SARS. And they will be at the next outbreak, whenever and wherever it occurs.

In Beating Back the Devil, award-winning science and medical writer Maryn McKenna – the first journalist ever given full access to the EIS – gives readers an inside look at the little-known corps that has fought to protect the world from every emerging disease and bio-terror threat of the last half-century.

The EIS is a rapid-reaction force, founded out of Korean War fears of biological weapons. Fighting a war against diseases, the EIS’s "disease detectives" had, until 2001, performed their jobs in anonymity. But that fall they became the backbone of the federal response to the World Trade Center attacks and the anthrax crisis. Their work was suddenly visible, not just to a few citizens dealing with an isolated outbreak, but to the entire country.

In riveting chapters, McKenna, a senior medical writer at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, juxtaposes the history of the EIS and some of the health threats EIS officers have encountered – including polio, smallpox, and AIDS – with details of the group's recent forays against the 2001 anthrax attacks and last year's SARS epidemic. Drawing on first-hand interviews with many of the EIS officers who were at the forefront of these investigations, diaries, medical journal articles, and CDC records, McKenna brings readers face to face with the dangers epidemiologists encountered as they worked to isolate and contain outbreaks. Describing what happened in each case, as well as how and why, she also profiles the heroes responsible for much of our knowledge about infectious diseases today, including Wayne X. Shandera, a young EIS officer stationed in Los Angeles who reported the first cases of AIDS; Don Sharp, who traveled to Zaire in 1994 to help control the spread of cholera among Rwandan refugees, where he witnessed horrific violence and was told there were too many doctors there already; and Martha Iwamoto, who was among the EIS investigators to locate and isolate the blood from a donor that had been infected with West Nile virus, the first time on record that the virus had been passed from person to person.

Taking readers further inside the EIS, McKenna also details a year in the life of the EIS class of 2002, the first to enter the force after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the first trained under the assumption that there will be another terrorist attack of some kind that the EIS will need to respond to. She shadows them through routine work and emergency investigations at CDC headquarters in Atlanta and in several states, Africa, and Southeast Asia. She is with them as they don protective suits for the first time in a poison-gas attack simulation, and then again months later when they reassembled in their dress uniforms for their basic officer training course. In their two years in the force, the members of the EIS endure low pay and extremely long hours. They are challenged to the limits of their training and their physical stamina.

The men and women of the Epidemic Intelligence Service epitomize public service at its finest. McKenna paints a compelling portrait of their fearless sacrifice and unfailing commitment to protecting our nation against the terror of bioweapons and other public health threats. This book will surely inspire the scientists and biologists of tomorrow to answer their nation's call to serve. – Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service

Even people who think they know about the CDC and its elite corps of physicians, the Epidemic Intelligence Service, will be surprised by Beating Back the Devil, a rare inside account of how EIS works in an age of terrorist threat. McKenna hopscotches the globe, from a malaria outbreak in Malawi to SARS in Vietnam, to bring to life some of the most compelling mysteries confronted by these fearless disease detectives. – Robin Marantz Henig, author of A Dancing Matrix

Beating Back the Devil is both an accessible and detailed account of how these microbe hunters survey, contain, and combat deadly germs in the 21st century. It's also a great read. – Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., author of When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics

In this unprecedented and inspiring narrative, McKenna follows the first class of disease detectives to come to the CDC after September 11, the first to confront not just naturally occurring outbreaks but the man-made threat of bioterrorism. McKenna’s personal portraits of these dedicated health professionals illuminate the bravery as well as the anxiety that accompany this demanding work.

Music / Biographies

Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime: The Stories Behind Every Song by Ian Gittins (Hal Leonard)

Forget Blondie, the Ramones and Patti Smith – Talking Heads were arguably the most singular band to emerge from the late seventies New York punk scene based around the club CBGB. Even when this angular, askew rock group were playing the music world's most famous seedy dive in 1975, it was clear they were anything but rudimentary thrash merchants.

Formed in the mid 1970s by Rhode Island art school chums David Byrne, Chris Franz and Tina Weymouth, Talking Heads exploded out of New York's punk breeding ground to become one of the most artistically adventurous and influential bands ever. Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime by Ian Gittins tells an intriguing story about these four geeks who inherited the Earth.

Critics were intrigued by Talking Heads' fledgling cerebral rock, and particularly by skittery, herky-jerky frontman Byrne, but it was when producer Brian Eno came on board for 1978s More Songs About Buildings And Food, 1979s Fear Of Music and the following year's virtuoso Remain In Light that the band's appeal spread from a knowing cult to the mainstream. Under Eno's tutelage, Talking Heads incorporated electronica, funk, Afrobeat and an audacious degree of experimentation into their music.

At the heart of the band stood Byrne, a wide-eyed, faux-naive presence whose lyrics about suburbia, consumer culture and human absurdity were frequently touched by genius. Byrne's bizarre persona beguiled fans and critics alike and drove a string of Talking Heads hits, including "Psycho Killer", "Once In A Lifetime" and "Road To Nowhere".

Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime explores an in-depth examination of stories, events, places and characters that inspired the birth of the group's 79 songs. The book reveals how burning buildings had been a spasmodically recurring lyrical theme of the Talking Heads that launched "Love Building On Fire" and "Burning Down The House." In addition, it exposes the ironic story behind the song "Psycho Killer" that favors 1977s serial killer, David Berkowitz and the accidental recycling of a different popular tune created the hit song "Road to Nowhere."

From the onset, Talking Heads made complex profound music that created its own context. They wrote songs as if they were out-of-body experiences and performed them with a dash of stunningly flamboyant theatricality. Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime takes readers behind-the-scenes and gives them a look at the creativity of this very eclectic band.

With a song-by-song history of this most peculiar entity in post-punk and modern rock music, filled with inside stories, Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime is superbly illustrated, containing more than 80 black-and-white and color photos.

Mysteries & Thrillers

A Ghost in the Machine by Caroline Graham (Chief Inspector Barnaby Series: St. Martin’s Minotaur) is the seventh in the Chief Inspector Barnaby Series, the first of which was selected as one of the Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time by the Crime Writers' Association.

In this cross between a murder mystery/horror story and an English-village melodrama, caustic police inspector Barnaby is again on the case, and with an entire village full of delightfully eccentric characters whose stories are nearly as enthralling as the murder itself.

In A Ghost in the Machine Dennis Brinkley is a warm-hearted, if slightly odd, fellow: he's a solicitor helping out with the business affairs and estates of some of Forbes Abbot's wealthiest villagers. But he's also a collector of vintage torture devices and brutal, ancient war weapons, the likes of which most of the tiny hamlet's residents would rather not know exist, gathering dust in Brinkley's museum-like home near the outskirts of town. Still, he's well liked, so when his bloody, pulverized body is found, quite dead, laying beneath the rustic timbers of an authentic torture device so vicious and complicated as to be blood-curdling, there is sufficient unrest in town to call in Chief Inspector Barnaby and his faithful, plodding partner Troy. Barnaby and Troy are experts at uncovering the sordid details of the lives of the English countryside's most secretive residents, and they soon go to work at Forbes Abbot. Was Dennis Brinkley done in by crooked business partners, a teenage seductress, or a couple of would-be publishers who've just inherited – and then lost – millions? Or perhaps it was tired, timid little Benny Fraye, who wouldn't hurt a fly – would she? Barnaby and Troy will soon find out just who set in motion the gruesome machine that crushed the unfortunate victim.

Graham writes in an old-fashioned way with leisurely grace, ironic wit, real-seeming characters, ongoing; suspense, and a corker of a plot. The result: top-flight entertainment. – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie. – The Sunday Times of London

Intricate and shocking ... the conclusion of this excellent novel is truly surprising – plausible and satisfying.... Lovers of British mysteries who haven't yet sampled Graham's work will find this an excellent place to start. – Booklist

Fawcett Green: an ideal setting for a comfortable English cozy, you'd think. For only about a page or so, until Caroline Graham’s incisive, almost savage take on village quaintness opens your eyes. And then come the surprises. – Philadelphia Inquirer

Graham's delightful village cozy mysteries have been fan-favorites through six installments. A Ghost in the Machine is sure to cement her reputation as one of the best mystery writers of her generation.

Outdoors & Nature / Environment

Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872-1916 by Kathy S. Mason (Michigan State University Press)

In 1872 the world's first national park was founded at Yellowstone. Although ideas of nature conservation were not generally embraced by the American public, five more parks were created before the turn of the century. By 1916, the year that the National Park Service was born, the country could boast fourteen national parks, including such celebrated areas as Yosemite and Sequoia. Kathy Mason, assistant professor of history at University of Findlay, Ohio, demonstrates that Congress, park superintendents, and the American public were forming general, often tacit, notions of the parks' purposes before the new bureau was established.

Although the Park Service has recently placed some emphasis on protecting samples of North America's ecosystems, the earliest national parks were viewed as natural museums – monuments to national grandeur that would edify visitors. Not only were these early parks to preserve monumental and unique natural attractions, but they also had to be of no use to mining, lumbering, agriculture, and other "productive" industries. In 1916 in an attempt to alleviate departmental rivalry between the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture and to eliminate some management inconsistencies, Congress created the National Park Service, which would be controlled by the Department of the Interior.

Although the difficulties of balancing the recreational interests of visitors with notions of nature conservation would continue to plague park managers throughout the twentieth century, the park service, under the leadership of Steven T. Mather (from 1917 to 1928), began to set standards for the national park system that are maintained as ideals today. Mason says that the significance of Mather's tenure as head of the National Park Service should not be underestimated. Natural Museums explores the origins of national park strategies for recreation, wildlife protection, and the preservation of natural monuments, and the difficulties that park managers, federal departments, and eventually the National Park Service had in implementing them.

In 1872, with the creation of Yellowstone National Park, Congress set a precedent for the preservation of the monumental, the extraordinary, and even the bizarre in nature. Early visitors to the parks expected to see grand natural phenomena that would rival Old World architectural attractions. Although Congress was concerned with protecting particular, distinctive natural attractions, many of its members also wanted to be assured that these parks would not restrict natural resources valuable to American industry. For most Americans, the interests of mining, agriculture, and lumbering were far more important than the protection of scenery. As a consequence, the parks tended to be located on agriculturally marginal lands, particularly in the arid West.

Because the early national parks were designed to protect nature's monuments, wildlife protection was a secondary concern. The late nineteenth-century urban middle class, however, became increasingly interested in the "wilderness" experience that national parks supposedly offered. By 1916, Americans viewed national parks as wilderness and wildlife reserves, as well as tourist attractions. Ironically, roads, concessions, and other facilities that catered to tourists often undermined wildlife protection.

Wilderness preservation has been one of the most problematic national park ideals to implement, because of Americans' ambivalent feelings toward nature, and because "wilderness" has often been difficult to define. By the early nineteenth century, a minority of Americans had developed a romantic, aesthetic appreciation of nature. Transcendentalists, such as Henry David Thoreau, celebrated the sublime in nature and argued that contact with wilderness could rejuvenate the soul of the city dweller. John Muir, perhaps America's most celebrated environmental activist of the nineteenth century, embodied the romantic view of nature.

By examining individual parks, Natural Museums traces the development of park ideas and management standards before 1916. It demonstrates how these general notions were used to evaluate particular parks, shows the unique management problems that some parks presented, and addresses the differences between civilian and army park supervision. Lesser-known parks and units that are no longer included in the national park system are also featured prominently in Natural Museums. An examination of these supposedly inferior areas, which are usually ignored by historians, highlights what Congress and the public deemed worthy of preservation and what steps managers were willing to take to ensure a park's status.

The first chapter examines the precursor of the national parks – Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas. This reserve set a precedent for the protection of natural recreation areas. Chapter two turns to the world's first national park – Yellowstone. The importance of monumentalism and industrial "worthlessness" in the creation of this park is emphasized, as well as the management and funding difficulties that resulted in an army administration for the park. The army's role as park protector at Mackinac, Sequoia, General Grant, and Yosemite National Parks is also examined in chapters three and four. Mackinac National Park, which has been neglected by most park literature, is an especially interesting case. Unlike the earliest western parks, it drew large numbers of tourists and served as both a historical and a natural attraction. Nonetheless, Mackinac's superintendent had to face the typical challenge of balancing the protection of natural scenery with the recreational interests of visitors, often with little federal funding.

Chapter five examines three less famous parks – Wind Cave in South Dakota, Sullys Hill in North Dakota, and Platt in Oklahoma. Soon after they received national park status, these parks were labeled "inferior" by the secretary of the interior and by many park writers. Nonetheless, the Interior Department (which controlled these parks) and individual superintendents attempted to improve the parks' wildlife and recreational attractions, thereby making the reserves "worthy" of their status. For Wind Cave and Sullys Hill, this meant the addition of wildlife preserves, which would be maintained by the Department of Agriculture.

The final chapter examines the creation of the National Park Service. The army's rejection of its role as park protector and the conflicting land management philosophies of the Agriculture and the Interior Departments are discussed.

By examining the parks in the order that they were founded, Mason demonstrates the evolution of park concepts, including those of monumentalism, wildlife protection, and public recreation. She highlights the unique challenges that each park presented – especially before a single agency controlled all of the parks.

This book makes an important contribution to the history of America's greatest idea, the national parks. By chronicling the early parks, it brings into bold relief debates about the purpose and management of the parks that continue today. It offers engaging history and revealing analysis. – Dave Dempsey, author of On the Brink: The Great Lakes in the 21st Century

Natural Museums examines the notions of park monumentalism, "worthlessness," and national significance, as well as the parks' roles as wilderness preserves and recreational centers. As the nation contemplates the future of its national parks at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it will have to confront the difficulties of establishing, funding, and developing national parks – problems that park supporters faced at the dawn of the twentieth century. The wilderness ideal and the "Worthless Lands Thesis" are still factors in park service planning, as demonstrated by the high concentration of parks in the West and Alaska. These issues will become even more critical as opportunities to experience nature in a non-urban setting diminish. While the U.S. National Parks do stand as monuments to the wonder of nature and the country's frontier past, so, too, do they illustrate the limitations of the nation's conservation and preservation policies. Natural Museums will help readers look at these issues with more information and more understanding.

Outdoors & Nature / Hunting & Fishing

Vanishing Paradise: Duck Hunting In The Louisiana Marsh by John R. Kemp, with photography by Julia Sims (Pelican Publishing Company) profiles duck-hunting clubs as well as outdoor life in the Louisiana marsh.

One of the most important ecosystems in the world, The Louisiana Gulf Coast produces one-third of the nation's seafood and a significant percentage of its oil and natural gas. Unfortunately, erosion threatens the existence of this Edenic marshland.

Among the most fervent champions of the shrinking Louisiana wetlands are the members of the twenty-six private and commercial duck-hunting clubs profiled in Vanishing Paradise. Author John Kemp and renowned wildlife photographer Julia Sims visited these exclusive enclaves to capture – in words, pictures, and recipes – their vanishing traditions.

Kemp, deputy director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, former staff writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and regent with the Louisiana Board of Regents for Higher Education, tells readers how some organizations, including Lulu's Hunting Club, founded in 1928, have hosted celebrities like John Wayne and Henry Ford. Others, like the Lake Arthur Club, have rosters limited to family members. Many hunting clubs are simple, rustic buildings, but some feature elaborate decor, such as the plush upholstery and mirrors that belie the 4 Square Duck Club's sporting-house past. Though each club has its own personality and customs, every member and guest shares a love of the sport and of the land.

Packed with stunning outdoor photography, Vanishing Paradise offers a glimpse of this elusive environment. From the hunters' breakfast, well before dawn, to a hearty supper of the day's catch, Kemp and Sims chronicle an unforgettable day in Sportsman's Paradise.

Philosophy / Religion

Orestes A. Brownson: A Bibliography, 1826-1876 compiled and annotated by Patrick W. Carey (Marquette Studies in Theology, #10, Marquette University Press)

Early Works of Orestes A. Brownson: Volume IV: The Transcendentalist Years, 1838-39 edited by Patrick W. Carey (Marquette Studies in Theology, #34, Marquette University Press)

Early Works of Orestes A. Brownson: Volume V: The Transcendentalist Years, 1840-41 edited by Patrick W. Carey (Marquette Studies in Theology, #38, Marquette University Press)

In this series Marquette University Press gives us back Orestes A. Brownson, a guide to the intellectual journey of the 1800s most of us didn’t know existed.

Brownson was one of the more prolific, hard-hitting, uncompromising, volatile, polemical, creative, mutable, and many-sided American intellectuals. As an author of seven books and twenty-five pamphlets, as a writer of over 1500 essays in more than thirty journals, and as an editor of six popular as well as elite journals of opinion, he commented on various central issues in American religious, philosophical, political, and literary life. His writings, as Arthur Schlesinger Jr. noted some years ago, belong to all Americans, and are especially significant for the history of American intellectual life.

Brownson was a prominent figure in nineteenth-century America and has been so recognized at least since Schlesinger's 1939 biography and Perry Miller's works on transcendentalism. Fifteen percent of the entries in Miller's anthology on The Transcendentalists (1950) came from Brownson's works – that is, more selections (16) from Brownson than any other person included in the text. Even in Miller's American Transcendentalists: Their Prose and Poetry (1957) two of the thirty-six entries are from Brownson. Miller claimed that Brownson was "in many respects the most powerful of the Transcendentalists at any rate, the hardest hitting." From 1834 to 1844, Brownson was a "major spokesman" for the new school of Coleridge and Carlyle, German literature, and especially of Victor Cousin's eclecticism; however, his frequent intellectual and religious transformations, and particularly his conversion to Catholicism in 1844, made him, according to Miller, a persona non grata among subsequent nineteenth-century intellectuals who "shamefully neglected" his "immense contribution" to American thought. – From the Editor's Foreword

In Orestes A. Brownson: A Bibliography we have the complete bibliography of Orestes A. Brownson's (1803-76) works, long overdue. Brownson's writings are important and creative contributions to the history of American intellectual life, and are reflective of some major currents in American and European thought during the early and mid-nineteenth century. Yet, there has been no comprehensive bibliography of his contributions. This bibliography provides the first useful guide to his numerous writings and to the many central intellectual issues that he addressed.

The fourth volume, Early Works of Orestes A. Brownson: Volume IV: The Transcendentalist Years, covering the period from August of 1838 to October of 1839, contains a collection of essays that reflects Brownson's transcendentalism. In these essays on theology, philosophy, literature, politics, and education Brownson defines what he calls his own eclectic transcendentalism. He defines his own position within the American transcendentalist movement by reacting on the one hand to what he calls the subjectivism and logical pantheism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Amos Bronson Alcott, and on the other to the rational empiricism and supernaturalism of Andrews Norton. Like Emerson he calls for a new American literature, although he emphasizes its social dimensions and benefits and provides his own romantic-idealist interpretation of poetry. He supports the work of George Ripley, especially his attempts to promote German and French philosophy and romantic literature. Essays during this period also focus on the religious socialism of the French Catholic Felicite-Robert de Lamennais and Brownson's attempts to underline the reciprocal relationship between democracy and Christianity. Brownson also continues his battles with William Lloyd Garrison and the immediate abolitionists, evaluates and criticizes the new science of phrenology, supports the Democratic administration's Indian removal policies, and censures Francis Lieber's theory of politics. The essays review and comment on most of the major intellectual and social movements within American culture.

The fifth volume, Early Works of Orestes A. Brownson: Volume V: The Transcendentalist Years, covering the years 1840 and 1841, contains essays revealing Brownson's increasing hostility to the lingering effects of the Great Depression of 1837 and his defense of a Transcendentalism that was coming under mounting criticism. The most important essay of these years, the essay on "The Laboring Classes" (July 1840), fell like a bombshell on the politicians' playground in the midst of the presidential campaign of that year. In that essay he called for the abolition of the priesthood and institutional Christianity, the resuscitation of the Christianity of Christ, and the destruction of all laws protecting the inheritance of property – all provisions in his plan to elevate the working class. The Whigs were delighted. The essay allowed them to paint the Democrats as agrarians. Many Democrats were appalled. Brownson had been imprudently audacious and as impolitic as ever. That essay on the elevation of the working class fit into Brownson's lifelong concerns and demonstrated the direction of his own form of Transcendentalism during these years. The multiple attacks on that essay forced Brownson to write a number of defenses of his proposal for justice for the working class and to work out in those defenses his own form of social Transcendentalism. As in the immediate past, he supported the writings of the French Catholic Felicite de Lamennais who had identified Christianity with social democracy – a view that coincided with his own.

Other essays in this fifth volume defend Transcendentalism, at least his own version of Transcendentalism, and demonstrate how his intuitive-empirical understanding of knowledge influenced his understanding of politics and literature as well as religion and Christianity. He defines his own form of Transcendentalism in this volume, as in the previous one, vis-a-vis the empiricism and anti-Transcendentalism of Andrews Norton and the Princetonian professors Charles Hodge, James Waddel Alexander, and Albert Baldwin Dod. In his defense of Transcendentalism he sides with Emerson and especially with Theodore Parker, even though he did not entirely share their philosophical or religious views.

These books restore Brownson as a key thinker of American intellectual though in the mid-nineteenth century. The bibliography is particularly helpful for researchers of this prolific writer.

Philosophy

Covenant and Contract: Politics, Ethics, and Religion by Adela Cortina (Morality and the Meaning of Life Series, Volume 14, Peeters)

In today's world two narrations are vital for understanding human bonds: the account of reciprocal recognition, the Covenant, as told in the book of Genesis, extended in the works of G.H. Mead, dialogical personalism and discourse ethics; and the Contract, as this is expounded in Hobbes' Leviathan, which continues to be seen in all kinds of hues in the liberal tradition. The Aristotelian account of the republic, of the political community "prior" to any other form of community would seem to be connected with these. Covenant and Contract originated as a series of conferences on "Ethics, Politics and Religion: From Individualism to the Moral Community" given in 1999 sponsored by the Joan Maragall Foundation. The first version of the lectures was published in Catalan by Cruilla Publishers. This book is a translation of the revised and extended Spanish version, published in 2001 in Madrid.

Covenant, Republic and Contract have become the three formulae for understanding human bonds. Modern republicanism nevertheless turns liberal and opts for the contract between independent beings as fiat of the political world. But the contract is not self-sufficient, since anyone who looks back to their roots will come to the narration of reciprocal recognition. The Covenant falls similarly short, as those who forget the parable of independence may well have a disregard for justice.

Politics, ethics and religion, whether in this same order, or arranged some other way, are three un-renounceable dimensions of the human being. According to Adela Cortina, Professor for Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of Valencia (Spain) and Director of the Foundation ĖTNOR (for Business Ethics and Ethics of the Organizations), in the history of the West, and not only here, politics, ethics and religion have essentially been understood from the standpoint of two accounts. That is, two parables, two stories about human bonds, the one told in the book of Genesis, the account of "reciprocal recognition" ("and Adam said: this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh"), and that of Hobbes' Leviathan, where the fiat, the "let us make man", the creative word uttered by human lips, is the contract by means of which parts are joined in an artificial political community.

It is the second story that has gradually been absorbing all forms of understanding human bonds. This dislodgement of the Covenant account has not taken place without a serious loss for the three human dimensions. Democratic politics is deprived of its deepest roots and is turned into weak liberal democracy, ethics becomes a fragile morality by agreement, and religion so often becomes a weapon for use against others or canon law.

In view of the weakening of political virtue a group of thinkers invokes what seems to be a third way of understanding bonds in the city: republicanism, the renaissance of the Aristotelian account, according to which the political community is the home of any other form of relationship, the res publica is "prior to" any other form of community. Covenant, Republic and Contract would from this standpoint be the three master formulae for understanding human bonds. Israel (for Covenant), Athens (or the Italian Renaissance Republics, for the Republic) and London (for the Contract) are their native lands.

Nevertheless, Modernity has not prospered in vain. Republicanism, if it wishes to be modern, turns into liberal republicanism and forgets the community which, according to Aristotle, was such by nature and not by contrivance, opting for commitment to the contract between independent beings as fiat of the political world.

But the Contract is not self-sufficient. Anyone who dares to follow the path back to its roots will come to the account of reciprocal recognition. The Covenant is not enough either. Whoever forgets the parable of autonomy will easily disdain justice.

In a dialog with the most relevant philosophical currents of the age, Covenant and Contract proposes an articulation of politics, ethics and religion appropriate for our time, starting from the contract between independent beings and from the reciprocal recognition of those who know themselves to be human. The text reveals the mysterious links between the two stories in our political, ethical and religious worlds, proposing that these should continue to be told and above all made material.

Philosophy / Politics / War

Arguing About War by Michael Walzer (Yale University Press) is a timely discussion of recent wars and the issues that surround them, written by a preeminent political theorist.

Michael Walzer, UPS Foundation Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is one of the world's most eminent philosophers on the subject of war and ethics. Now, for the first time since his classic Just and Unjust Wars was published almost three decades ago, Arguing About War brings together his provocative arguments about contemporary military conflicts and the ethical issues they raise.

The essays in the book are divided into three sections. The first deals with issues such as nuclear deterrence, humanitarian intervention, and terrorism. The second consists of Walzer's responses to particular wars, including the first Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And the third presents an essay in which Walzer imagines a future in which war might play a less significant part in our lives. He provides, not a utopian account of international society, but a description of a less-bad arrangement than our current one. "The point of seeking justice even under the cloud of war is to avoid disasters," he writes. "When we aim at more than that, as we should, we will need the guidance of different political theories."

Theories invite disagreement, of course, which Walzer says are welcomed: disagreements don't invalidate a theory; the theory, if it is a good one, makes the disagreements more coherent and sometimes require revisions of a theory. In his introduction, Walzer reveals that his own thinking has changed over time: "faced with the sheer number of recent horrors – with massacre and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo; in Rwanda, the Sudan, Sierra Leon, the Congo, and Liberia; in East Timor (and earlier on, in Cambodia and Bangladesh) – I have slowly become more willing to call for military intervention.”

Walzer's discussion about war and ethics are always provocative, well argued, and insightful. He is able to transform complex issues into readable, understandable, and persuasive prose. – Jean Bethke Elshtain, author of Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World

Written during a period of intense debate over the proper use of armed force, Arguing About War gets to the heart of difficult problems and argues persuasively for a moral perspective on war. At his most provocative, writing before the Iraq War, he proposes an argument, which is counterintuitive, that European countries such as France, Germany and Russia, bear responsibility for the United States' decision to preemptively attack the country.

Politics

A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West by Adam Gamble & Takesato Watanabe, with a foreword by Ellis S. Krauss (Regnery)

In Japan, a combination of weak libel laws, little formal journalistic training, and government protected media guilds has produced a media culture where investigative reporting is nearly forbidden; scandals are routinely overlooked; and readers are fed a steady diet of half-truths and lies.

A Public Betrayed shows how the average Japanese gets his news from two sources: large newspapers that function as lapdogs for the government, and the weekly newsmagazines that feature pornography along with hysterical, nationalistic, and sensational “news.” Authors Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe, marshal evidence showing how the Japanese news industry routinely distorts the news, deceives its customers and misleads the world. Gamble, investigative reporter based in Cape Cod, MA and Watanabe, Professor of Media Ethics at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan and former visiting scholar at Harvard University, expose the lack of ethics in the media industry. Having interviewed over 150 people in three years of research, A Public Betrayed exposes deceptions, lies, and abuses of power in Japan that have led to such profound misunderstanding, confusion, and suffering that they have inspired the phrase "media atrocities."

Examples include:

Vilifying victims of terrorist attacks.
Denying the Holocaust and supporting anti-Semitism.
Smearing a prominent Buddhist leader.
Whitewashing and denying one of history's worst war crimes, the Nanjing Massacre.
Defaming Second World War Japanese military sex slaves or "comfort women".

Anyone embarrassed by how little they know about the country with the second-largest economy in the world should read this fascinating book. It examines a phenomenon without parallel in the West: mass-circulation newsmagazines that combine porn with high culture, the worst excesses of tabloid journalism with serious political investigations. While these remarkable magazines can be viewed as a healthy alternative to the "press clubs" and consensual politics of Japan, the authors of this important study reveal a dark side: their virulent anti-Semitism, historical amnesia, ardent nationalism, and bullying intrusions into private lives. This well-written book offers revelatory insight into the popular culture of a great nation. – James Curran, professor of Communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London and the author of Media and Power

A Public Betrayed paints a sordid picture of the least free and most irresponsible press of any democratic society in the world. Thoughtful and provocative, this book reveals the mechanisms and motivations behind the abuses. And as the examples show, the factors that have contributed to such injustices in Japan have been increasingly in the news-media sectors of the West – factors such as extreme industry consolidation, the growth of nationalism, intense commercialism, and the erosion of media ethics.

Politics / Reference

CQ Guide to Current American Government: Fall 2004 (CQ Press, A Division of Congressional Quarterly Inc.)

Published every six months, CQ Guide to Current American Government is a collection of the best recent Congressional Quarterly reporting, explanation, and analysis on issues and events affecting the United States as published in the highly acclaimed CQ Weekly magazine. The selections in this volume present balanced, nonpartisan reporting and analyses of many of the most important current political issues. Arranged in four sections – foundations of American government, political participation, government institutions and politics and public policy – the Guide complements introductory American government textbooks and is designed for research or general reading.

The fall issue includes presidential analysis by former CQ senior political writer Rhodes Cook and in-depth analysis of elections and political parties drawn from CQ's award-winning Guide to Congress.

To facilitate additional research, the original date of publication along with the page number references related and background articles in the CQ Weekly and CQ Almanac.

Topics include:

America's Vulnerability to Terrorism
Reforming Domestic Intelligence Operations
Congressional Oversight of the War on Terror
Polarized Politics on Capitol Hill
Winning the Swing Vote in the 2004 Elections
Divisions in the Republican Base

An appendix offers accessible explanations of the legislative and budget processes, a reader-friendly description of how a bill becomes a law, a glossary of legislative terms and a selection of congressional information sources on the Internet. The book also includes a detailed index.

Ideal for either specific research or general reporting, CQ Guide to Current American Government provides up-to-date examination and analysis of these current issues and controversies and allows readers to put today's headlines into historical perspective. This issue provides readers with a complete understanding of the fall elections.

In general, CQ Guide to Current American Government volumes are excellent reference tools for students, scholars, researchers, and everyone who wants a more complete perspective on the major issues of our day.

Professional & Technical / Psychiatry

Pathological Gambling: A Clinical Guide To Treatment edited by Jon E. Grant & Marc N. Potenza (American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.)

In the last five years, the volume of research on pathological gambling has grown significantly. Thus, as a textbook devoted exclusively to pathological gambling, Pathological Gambling reflects an exciting moment in the history of pathological gambling research.

According to editors Jon E. Grant and Marc N. Potenza, the study of pathological gambling is important from both clinical and research perspectives. Pathological gambling is a prevalent disorder (with prevalence estimates surpassing those for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia) that is associated with significant morbidity (decreased self-esteem, co-morbid substance use disorders, financial and legal difficulties, stress on relationships and families, and suicidality). In recent years, the understanding of the phenomenology, epidemiology, neurobiology, psychology, and treatment of this disorder has rapidly increased. Unfortunately, although many clinicians encounter pathological gamblers (elevated rates of pathological gambling are observed in patients with mental health disorders), clinicians often do not diagnose pathological gambling and are frequently unaware of the treatment options for the disorder.

Many clinicians are also unaware of the personal and social consequences of pathological gambling. This lack of awareness in turn often leads physicians to ignore pathological gambling evaluations in both psychiatric and primary care settings. In Pathological Gambling, 32 contributors and editors Grant, J.D., M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown Medical School and Director, Impulse Control Disorders Clinic, Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island and Potenza, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut seek to change that situation.

In the first chapter, Shaffer and Kidman discuss the significant public health implications of pathological gambling ("Gambling and the Public Health"). They provide an initial review of definitions for recreational, problem, and pathological gambling; examine the relationship between the different levels of gambling severity; and explore the effects of gambling on societal, familial, and individual health and well-being. An understanding of the prevalence of pathological gambling (Chapter 2, "Epidemiology") will help clinicians see how likely they are to encounter the problem. Assessment instruments that are useful in diagnosing pathological gambling and monitoring symptom change are discussed (Chapter 14, "Screening and Assessment Instruments") and provided for the clinician in the Appendixes.

The primary purpose of Pathological Gambling is to document the clinical phenomenology, etiology, and treatment of pathological gambling. Current clinical approaches that are most likely to lead to early identification, symptom remission, and maintenance of improvement are highlighted. Argo and Black (Chapter 3, "Clinical Characteristics") provide a comprehensive description of the symptoms and sequellae of pathological gambling. The book also provides contributions on how pathological gambling differs in the adolescent population (Chapter 5, "Adolescents and Young Adults"), among older adults (Chapter 6, "Older Adults"), and between men and women (Chapter 7, "Gender Differences").

Much of the treatment literature on pathological gambling has been based on different theories regarding the categorization of the disorder. Treatment has varied depending on whether pathological gambling has been characterized as an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder, an affective spectrum disorder, an addiction, or an impulse control disorder. As discussed by Moreyra and colleagues, a range of evidence indicates that pathological gambling often shares important features with all of these disorders (Chapter 4, "Categorization").

To further enhance treatment options, both clinicians and researchers look to possible psychological and behavioral etiologies, as well as to a deeper understanding of possible neurobiological underpinnings. Therefore, these two important realms of explanations for the behavior of pathological gambling are examined. Abrams and Kushner (Chapter 8, "Behavioral Understanding") discuss behavioral, cognitive, and dispositional theories of the etiology of pathological gambling and provide an association between psychological models and neurobiological systems that have been linked to pathological gambling. To augment the psychological basis for pathological gambling, Shah and colleagues (Chapter 9, "Biological Basis for Pathological Gambling") examine the evidence that supports the involvement of the noradrenergic, serotonergic, dopaminergic, and opioidergic systems, as well as familial and inherited factors in pathological gambling. The psychological and biological understanding of pathological gambling may be useful in understanding a range of addictive and impulsive disorders.

Although effective treatments for pathological gambling currently exist, with Pathological Gambling, editors Grant and Potenza seek to enhance clinicians' abilities to identify and provide early intervention for individuals with pathological gambling. Toward that end, Potenza and Griffiths (Chapter 10, "Prevention Efforts and the Role of the Clinician") provide information regarding the important role for the clinician in prevention efforts. These authors argue for close communication between mental health professionals and generalist physicians in early identification and treatment. Adolescents and young adults have been consistently found to exhibit high rates of problem and pathological gambling (two to four times higher than in general adult populations). To address this issue, Derevensky and colleagues provide a prevention strategy tailored specifically for this age group (Chapter 11, "Prevention and Treatment of Adolescent Problem and Pathological Gambling").

Tremendous advances in the treatment of pathological gambling have been made within the past few years. As a result, clinicians caring for patients with pathological gambling have many treatment options at their disposal. Hodgins and Petry (Chapter 12, "Cognitive and Behavioral Treatments") discuss the current understanding of the behavioral treatment approaches and their effectiveness in helping individuals with pathological gambling. They evaluate the rationale behind, empirical support for, and practical aspects of a variety of behavioral interventions, including participation in 12-step programs, financial counseling, motivational interviewing, motivational enhancement, brief interventions, and cognitive-behavioral treatment. Furthermore, these authors discuss self-help-based and professional-based interventions targeting family members. In a related chapter, Hollander and colleagues (Chapter 13, "Pharmacological Treatments") discuss the rationale of the various pharmacological approaches to pathological gambling and review the current status of drug treatments. They examine the evidence for the use of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, serotonin receptor antagonists, mood stabilizers, opioid antagonists, and dopaminergic agents in treating pathological gambling.

Pathological gambling is highly prevalent, increasingly so; usually co-morbid with other psychopathology, especially substance abuse; and predictive of significant morbidity. Yet few psychiatrists and psychologists have taken the time to date to familiarize themselves with its diagnostic features, clinical characteristics, and effective treatments. This comprehensive textbook, the first devoted exclusively to this syndrome, has been edited and largely written by the researchers and clinicians most responsible for the growing literature on pathological gambling. At its publication, it will become the indispensable guide to this important clinical condition for everyone who treats or studies pathological gamblers. – Peter E. Nathan, Ph.D., University of Iowa Foundation, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
This book provides a comprehensive overview of some of the latest research in this fast-growing but often overlooked field. In particular, it will help clinicians to recognize and appropriately treat clients with gambling problems. The understanding we have today of pathological gambling research and treatment is rooted in a foundation established by a number of pioneering researchers and advocates. – Keith Whyte, Executive Director, National Council on Problem Gambling

Pathological gambling is an important clinical condition that often results in significant personal difficulties for patients. As the chapters of Pathological Gambling eloquently attest, extraordinary progress has been made regarding the epidemiology, phenomenology, co-morbidity, and possible etiology of this disorder. Prevention and treatment interventions including cognitive, behavioral, and pharmacological treatments – have made it possible for patients with pathological gambling to often find relief from this disabling disorder. Clinicians now have available an array of treatment options that can appreciably improve the lives of patients with pathological gambling, and the information provided by books like this one will narrow the gap between what is know and the treatment patients receive.

Professional & Technical / Architecture

The Architectural Pattern Book: A Tool for Building Great Neighborhoods by Urban Design Associates Ray Gindroz & Rob Robinson, Donald K. Carter, Barry J. Long, Jr., Paul Ostergaard, David R. Csont Donald Kaliszewski, James H. Morgan, Donald G. Zeilman (W.W. Norton)

From the firm that produced The Urban Design Handbook, Urban Design Associates (UDR), a Pittsburgh-based national practice, comes a practical guide to developing and using pattern books – a tradition stretching back to Vitruvius and Palladio, and the source of many beautiful houses – to design neighborhoods today. The Architectural Pattern Book describes techniques and working methods for contemporary development and construction processes.

According to principal authors Ray Gindroz and Rob Robinson, UDR’s goal is to create beautiful and congenial streets, parks, and squares in which the character of individual buildings is in harmony with other buildings, with the treatment of the ground plane, and with the scale of the space. Beginning in the mid-1970s, the design firm began to search for ways of working with the homebuilding industry to find effective ways of implementing urban designs.

It was not necessary to go very far to find keys to a solution. According to Gindroz and Robinson, all around us, in every American town and city, we have traditional neighborhoods in which collections of interesting and diverse houses and sequences of small shops join together to create beautiful streets and public spaces. Mostly, they were built between 1880 and 1930, often rapidly, as part of a building boom that resulted from the great urban expansions that followed the industrial revolution.

The authors became convinced that the tradition of pattern books could be revived to provide an effective means of communication between architects and builders. To be effective, however, the traditional form of pattern books needed to be modified to suit today's needs. These needs include:

Creating a shared vision among all those involved in building neighborhoods.
Providing clear definition of the character and form of the public spaces on
which houses are located.
Providing a primer on well-proportioned, correctly styled architecture.

For this reason, UDA Pattern Books have three sections:

The Overview describes the vision for the particular development and includes documentation of the local traditions for public spaces and architecture.
The Community patterns section provides guidance for the relationship between houses and public spaces.
The Architectural patterns section provides the elements appropriate to each of several architectural styles for houses in the neighborhood.

To put the contemporary usage of pattern books into its proper context, Part 1 of The Architectural Pattern Book first surveys the development and use of pattern books from their beginnings with Vitruvius in Rome in the first century A.D. to their application today. Then Gindroz and Robinson provide a discussion of the method UDA has developed for creating a pattern book responsive to twenty-first century needs. Part 2 offers a representative collection of pages from UDA's Pattern Books, demonstrating the broad-reaching applicability of this approach, regardless of project scope or geographic location, in helping to inform and shape the desired form and character of urban communities, their streetscapes, and their houses. The collection of pattern book pages is organized into three chapters that parallel the three sections of a typical UDA Pattern Book: Overview, Community Patterns, and Architectural Patterns. Within each chapter, readers will find reproductions of selected pages from several UDA Pattern Books, illustrating how UDA’s approach translates into finished pattern books for clients.

The Architectural Pattern Book documents the revival of the traditional architectural pattern book as a means of implementing urban design by describing techniques and working methods of preparing guides for current design and construction processes, and it shows exemplars that will serve as models for contemporary designers. The book will help advance the process of bringing architects, developers, planners, and builders closer together in working collaborations in order to re-establish the consensus that once existed among all those involved in building and rebuilding our towns and cities. The book is beautifully and fully illustrated with the firm’s architectural drawings and sketches as well as photographs of finished houses and neighborhoods.

Professional & Technical / Gardening & Horticulture

Biocontrol in Protected Culture edited by Kevin M. Heinz, Roy G. Van Driesche, & Michael P. Parrella (Ball Publishing)

There are over 140 species of insects and mites known to be pests in greenhouses, glasshouses, and various other protected agricultural production schemes. Myriad reasons exist for employing biological controls: ever-changing government regulations, costs of chemicals and application, pests developing resistance to chemical classes, and public relations benefits of growing “environmentally friendly” products.

An authoritative reference on the subject of using non-chemical controls on greenhouse-grown crops, Biocontrol in Protected Culture explains the latest in crop-management techniques from around the globe. It outlines the principles and applications of biological control for management of arthropod pests infesting protected-cultures greenhouses, glasshouses, and shaded structures.

The book is edited by Kevin Heinz, Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station; Roy G. Van Driesche, Department of Entomology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Michael P. Parrella, Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis. The 46 contributing authors come from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Asia; each of the contributors is a researcher who works closely with commercial greenhouse growers.

Biological control factors and the various types of controls – predators, parasites, nematodes, and pathogens – are described. Information is also provided on greenhouse structures, sampling, quality control, specific pests on both ornamental and vegetable crops – whiteflies, spider mites, leafminers, thrips, aphids, other minor pests – and soilborne pests. Specific crops are also discussed, including chrysanthemums, poinsettias, cut flowers, foliage plants, woody ornamentals, bedding plants, cucumbers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms. With introduction, augmentation, and preservation of natural enemies as a basic principle, other compatible techniques may be integrated to develop economic, effective, and sustainable management strategies for these arthropod pests.

After presenting the fundamental principles of biological control-based pest management within protected culture, several chapters address the prerequisites for a successful program in terms of greenhouse/glasshouse structure, working with providers of natural enemies, practical aspects of sampling, and management of insecticides. Several chapters address biological control of specific pests and identify those practices that work and those that do not in vegetable and ornamental crop production systems. Current implementation and the future of biological control-based pest management systems in the most important protected crops worldwide are presented in the concluding chapters.

Biological control within protected cultivation is practiced to varying degrees throughout the world under quite different social, economic, and technical conditions. Contributions to the book reflect such a diversity of situations: from the total reliance on biological control in the high-technology glasshouses of northern Europe and Canada to difficulties of its use in the open-air structures common to the Mediterranean region, temperate eastern Asia, and South America. Furthermore, the ensemble of authors represents a global view of the subject in terms of geographic location, expertise, and perspective (including research, extension, allied industries, and regulator). Yet the structure of Biocontrol in Protected Culture permits easy comparison of viewpoints associated with the different pests and crop production systems. Probably no book published to date has offered such a complete treatment of biological control in protected culture.

The book provides well-researched information about biological control theories and tools available to growers using greenhouse and shade-house environments across the globe. It is the most comprehensive overview to date of challenges encountered in developing practical biological control solutions to arthropod pest problems, and it provides an elaborate menu of biological control options for a diverse array of pest problems occurring on various crops grown in equally diverse environments.

The core audience for Biocontrol in Protected Culture is agricultural professionals, yet the material is sufficiently thought-provoking that it is expected to find its way onto the bookshelves of biological control researchers and into college-level classrooms specializing in biological control or pest management.

Professional & Technical / Architecture

Architecture Today by Casey C.M. Mathewson (Feierabend)

Today's architecture is more diverse than ever before. Surprisingly so, as our tightly woven, information-age world facilitates the rise of standardized building methods. Architecture Today, by Casey C.M. Mathewson, demonstrates that, even in the face of globalization, architects have learned to respect the specific qualities of their building site's respective culture and place.

Accompanied with images by some of the world's premier architectural photographers, this book takes readers on an eye-opening tour of trend-setting public buildings, exciting new cultural facilities, skyscrapers and high-rises, stadiums, international museums, and churches, in addition to many other kinds of buildings. Mathewson, founder of Mathewson Architecture Berlin, an institute devoted to building and research in architecture, focuses on buildings designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects such as Sir Norman Foster, Frank 0. Gehry, Rafael Moneo, and this year's laureate, Zaha Hadid. Readers view fifty-six projects that demonstrate how architecture is rising to the challenge of solving the pressing problems facing cities and countries the world over.

The themes of Mathewson’s other publications include human focus in architectural design, urban design in Germany and the history of residential architecture and this volume is no exception.

Readers are presented with a diverse and fascinating variation of contemporary architecture through an inviting and engaging layout, which makes the material appealingly tangible. Architecture Today, with its impressive photographs, provides enrichment for everyone interested in contemporary architecture and urban design. Another strong feature is its four languages – English, German, French and Spanish.

Psychology & Counseling / Women’s Studies / Family Relationships

Treasures: The Stories Women Tell About the Things They Keep by Kathleen V. Cairns & Eliane Leslau Silverman (University of Calgary Press) is a book about memory and meaning.

The texts in Treasures bring to light the patterns of story and emotion that women have woven around the objects they have kept and treasured, objects which in the past may have seemed unimportant. These treasures contain and reveal each woman's life experience and act as vehicles for values and for the development of character. They are often passed along to other women or handed down to family members, thereby connecting generations and cultivating a collective women's history.

The women who were interviewed by authors Kathleen Cairns, professor and clinical psychologist with the Division of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary and Eliane Silverman, professor and head of Women’s Studies, also University of Calgary, were selected using the "snowball" technique. The first few were known to the authors as friends, family members, or students. They suggested other women they knew whom the authors had never met. Later Cairns and Silverman focused on adding women who belonged to a minority group that they particularly wanted to include and who were referred to them by women we had interviewed previously. They sought out the diversity that characterizes Canada, including particular attention to First Nations, immigrant, and refugee women. As a result, they conducted interviews in Ottawa, Calgary, rural Alberta, and the interior of British Columbia.

Not one woman turned down the request for an interview. The interview often took place in the woman's own home, in the interest of her comfort and familiarity, but sometimes several women met at a neighbor's house, taking turns being interviewed and, in between, sitting in a group and chatting informally with one another. For Treasures, some women decided to use self-chosen pseudonyms while others used their own names. Most interviews lasted about two hours, though many went on much longer and a few were shorter. Early in the process the authors interviewed each other; the results of these interviews appear in the second chapter of Treasures. Most of the interviews were characterized by intensity of feeling. Most women expressed pleasure at the end of the interview, no matter how difficult some parts of it might have been – in fact, several of them commented on the experience being a treat or "a marvelous piece of self-indulgence" that they had enjoyed. Plans were often made to sit down with a friend or a relative to share the stories again, in some cases to make sure that they were not lost with a woman's death.

The tapes were all transcribed with the participants' language unedited, except to delete conversational words such as "uhs", which interrupt the flow of written narrative. Cairns and Silverman met together to analyze the narratives, placing anecdotes, narratives, and participants' comments into an arrangement of themes. The authors believe that the themes they heard, which organize Treasures, emerged from the women's own words. Nevertheless, they recognize the intensity and subjectivity of their own involvement with the material, and works such as this are inherently and inescapably bounded by the authors' contexts. The keeping of these objects, and their use, is first and foremost a developmental process for women. Accordingly, women's collections are not static – they change and grow as the objects they contain acquire new meanings, as grief is overcome, and as new experience requires that new items be added.

Their listening, the authors say, also grew from their immersion in the scholarly literature about women's lives – feminist psychology, narrative and biography, and women's history. As an historian and a psychologist, therapist and researcher, as feminists, Caines and Siverman see opportunities for the use of these objects to support mutually caring discussions among women and to deepen connections between mothers and daughters and grandmothers and granddaughters in particular. Cairns and Silverman use many words and phrases in their writing to describe women's public and private roles as archivists and the uses they make of their treasured objects. Such objects are simultaneously gates to memory, historical artifacts, comforters, anchors, objects of attachment, transitional objects, continuity markers, symbols of the self, and objects of contemplation. They speak to women about personal development, relationship, achievement, loss, and the essential aspects of the self. They make it possible to connect generations of women, to manage moods, to find shelter in times of hardship and deprivation, and to work toward completing the unfinished business of formative relationships and events. They allow women to speak in a private code that simultaneously shares and conceals important meanings. No wonder women so often call them "treasures."

Selected from interviews with over one hundred different women, the selections in Treasures are rich, compelling and sometimes haunting stories, told in the women's own voices. This is a fine contribution to the feminist literature and rich resource material for students and all interested in women’s studies.

Religion & Spirituality

The Gilded Tarot [BOX SET] by Ciro Marchetti, with a companion book by Barbara Moore (Llewellyn) is a classic Tarot deck and kit.

Myths, fairy tales, and legends have played out their timeless themes for millennia in that magical twilight realm of the imagination, somewhere between fantasy and reality. Heralding archetypal elements of traditional Tarot, The Gilded Tarot teems with imagery. The Gilded Tarot invites readers to explore an enchanted world where ageless symbols and archetypal themes come to life as fair maidens and sage mystics wielding magincal tools. High priestesses in flowing robes, wise emperors, and knights on majestic steeds, and other intriguing characters from medieval times abound in the Major and Minor Arcana. This richly colored, easy-to-use deck also features standard symbols for the card suits: swords, cups, wands, and pentacles.

The book features stunning artwork by award-winning artist Ciro Marchetti. Using the popular symbolism and structure of the Rider-Waite Tarot as his muse, he has created this twenty-first century re-imagining of one of the most well-known and widely studied tarot decks. The kit also includes The Gilded Tarot Companion, a guidebook to the deck's structure and each card's significance, providing detailed instructions for learning and practicing Tarot.

The Gilded Tarot is visually stunning thanks to Marchetti’s skill with cutting-edge digital art techniques.

Religion & Spirituality / Biographies & Memoirs / Sports

Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings by Kenji Tokitsu (Shambahla)

Undefeated swordsman, master of battlefield strategy, martial arts icon – Miyamoto Musashi, who lived in Japan in the 1600s, is the most famous samurai of all time. His masterwork, the Book of Five Rings (Gorin no sho), is one of the most insightful texts on the subtle arts of confrontation and victory to emerge from Asian culture.

Over the centuries, Musashi's reputation has grown to mythic proportions, but, in fact, much about Musashi and his life remains a mystery. In Miyamoto Musashi, Kenji Tokitsu, a modern martial arts master and scholar, turns a critical eye on Musashi's life and writings, separating fact from fiction.

Tokitsu translates the Book of Five Rings and four shorter works, providing extensive commentary, and puts Musashi’s work into historical and philosophical context.

He also covers:

The main periods in the history of Japanese swordsmanship
Musashi's childhood and his first duel
The founding of Musashi's School of Two Swords
Musashi's influence on contemporary practice
The evolution of budo, or martial arts practice for self-cultivation

Musashi was also a respected artist, and this book contains color reproductions of his own calligraphies and paintings, with commentary by the well-known art historian Stephen Addiss.

Miyamoto Musashi is a close look at the legendary swordsman and his treatises on swordsmanship and strategy by a Japanese martial artist. Deeply informed, and with direct and extensive knowledge of martial arts, the book, to my knowledge, has no parallel in Japan – or elsewhere. – Hiroaki Sato, author of Legends of the Samurai

This is a unique and comprehensive view of the life and work of the legendary seventeenth century Japanese samurai. Tokitsu provides a vivid and meticulously researched biography and a fresh translation of the Book of Five Rings, along with four other texts on strategy, all with extensive commentary. He is a thoughtful and informed guide, putting the text into context, and providing a view of the man and his ideas that is accessible and relevant to today's readers and martial arts students.

Religion & Spirituality

Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living from a Forensic Pathologist by Janis Amatuzio (New World Library)

Written by a scientist in approachable, nonjudgmental language for anyone who has lost someone they love, Forever Ours offers stories that can't be explained in purely physical terms.

Forensic pathologist Janis Amatuzio, County Coroner in Minnesota and Wisconsin, first began recording the stories told to her by patients, police officers, and other doctors because she felt that no one spoke for the dead. She believed the real experience of death – namely, the spiritual and otherworldly experiences of those near death and their loved ones – was ignored by the medical professionals, who thought of death as simply the cessation of breath. From the first experience of a patient in her care dying to the miraculous "appearances" of loved ones after death, she began recording these experiences.

Over the years, several of those "left behind" shared a certain intimacy with Amatuzio through the death of their loved ones and they have revealed to her extremely personal accounts of visions and synchronicities surrounding those deaths.

For example, one woman reflects on the night when she was fast asleep, and was suddenly awakened by a very real visit from her husband, who died just moments before in a tragic car accident. He tells her that he loves her and where his body is located relative to the car he was thrown from on a desolate highway. Her 911 call to the police leads them to his body within 40 minutes.

As the author, Janis Amatuzio explains: "As a physician, forensic pathologist and coroner for several Minnesota counties, I have had the extraordinary privilege of caring for families and their loved ones when death comes suddenly, unexpectedly, or traumatically. My job is to speak for the dead, to solve the mystery of "what happened?" I have occasionally, however, been faced with mysteries I cannot solve or explain. These experiences always baffle me, partly because as a scientist, I seek to reach a reasonable degree of medical certainty, a rational explanation. But I have come to realize that for some experiences there is no explanation, just a deep knowing that I have encountered the Divine."

Here is a doctor with a heart. Her book brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart and that is what life is about. Though pathology is her specialty life is her teacher. Read and learn about life and the gifts of our mortality. – Bernie Siegel, MD author Love, Medicine & Miracles

Dr. Amatuzio, often called 'the compassionate coroner,' is an exemplar for the compassionate practice of forensic medicine. Forever Ours has much to teach us about healing, loving, and the deep connections with our loved ones. – Kathleen McMonigal, M.D.

As a forensic pathologist, Dr. Janis Amatuzio looks death in the eye every day, and she has come away from this confrontation with a message of promise and hope. Her vision is a stark contrast to the dismal pronouncements of modern science that death is the end of everything. Forever Ours is the only book I know that finds buoyant, optimistic meaning in the morgue. It could be written only by a physician of uncommon vision, who, although she attends to dead bodies, is a healer. – Larry Dossey, M.D., author, Healing Beyond the Body

In years of broadcast interviews few authors have written material with such universal meaning and healing content as you have. – Brad Walton, WCCO Radio

In one of the most amazing books we've seen, Amatuzio explores the mysterious realms of visions, experiences and communications by families at the threshold of the death of their loved ones. These unforgettable stories, never documented in autopsy reports, are recounted in Forever Ours, offering readers' profound lessons on living. A passionate storyteller, Amatuzio weaves her own life experience among the many diverse true-life stories she has collected, creating a stunning tapestry woven with common threads of love and hope. The book leaves readers comforted and hopeful about the continuum of life and death.

Religion & Spirituality / Biographies & Memoirs

In Search of P.D. Ouspensky: The Genius in the Shadow of Gurdjieff by Gary Lachman (Quest Books)

P.D. Ouspensky's brilliant In Search of the Miraculous was the first work to describe the psychology of G. I. Gurdjieff, the early twentieth-century esoteric master who still commands a worldwide following today. Yet Gurdjieff once described Ouspensky as "nice to drink vodka with, but a weak man," and some say their meeting was the catastrophe of Ouspensky's life.

Surprisingly little has been known about Ouspensky, other than that he was a follower of Gurdjieff, and that he first disseminated Gurdjieff's unsettling psychology in his masterwork. But as Gary Lachman reveals, Ouspensky was not Gurdjieff's parrot. To the contrary, he was himself a brilliant philosopher who influenced the avant-garde of his day and was already an advanced student of mysticism before his entanglement with his charismatic guru. Yet while Gurdjieff still attracts thousands of new readers each year, Ouspensky remains in his shadow.

For the first time, In Search of P.D. Ouspensky focuses on Ouspensky's own mystical view, in stark contrast to Gurdjieff's opinion of "man as machine." What attracted Ouspensky to Gurdjieff in the first place, and why did he then reject him? Did Ouspensky steal the "system," or had Gurdjieff turned black magician? And why did Ouspensky continue to teach the ideas of the man he had repudiated?

Lachman, a former student of Gurdjieff's psychology, author of Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius and New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation with Blondie, Iggy Pop and Others 1974-1981, a musician and performer with rock music groups, lecturer on the 60s occult underground and the 70s New York music scene, moves Ouspensky to center stage. Against a backdrop of the Russian Revolution, the First World War, and a cosmopolitan Europe entre deux guerres, here is the story of his dramatic spiritual struggle with the man who changed his life and from whom he was never able, finally, to separate. Like that of Castaneda and Don Juan – or Faust and Mephistopheles – it is a tale fraught with insight, humility, courage, and mystery.

[In Search of P.D. Ouspensky] Masterfully tells the fascinating tale of the entangled lives of two great esoteric thinkers. – Leonard Shlain, author of The Alphabet Versus the Goddess and Art & Physics

This unparalleled spiritual biography presents Ouspensky as a mystery to be solved. The answers unfold in a mystical adventure story that reveals the complex and sometimes dangerous relationship between guru and follower. One of the most interesting books to come out in a long time for those who were there in the occult scene in the 60s, it should fascinate every reader with a true interest in the farthest reaches of human nature.

Religion & Spirituality / Travel

Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago by Kerry Egan (Doubleday)

From the Pyrenees in Southern France through the valleys of Navarra, and westward through Spain to the Cathedral of the Santiago de Compostela, said to contain the remains of Saint James, Kerry Egan takes us along as she completes the time-honored experience of pilgrimage. “Pilgrimage” rests on the belief that in some places the Divine is especially available to human beings and that the journey itself – the time spent as a pilgrim – is transformative, cleansing, and purifying.

In Fumbling, with humor and honesty, Egan records her struggles to deal with muddy roads, blistering heat, and grouchy moods. Though well-educated in church doctrine and teaching, Egan’s father's death shattered the traditional image of God that she grew up with. Egan was well versed in theories about grieving, but it was through walking eight or ten hours a day that she first began to understand what grief really was and to recognize God's presence in everyday people and places. While traveling along the Camino de Santiago, as she encountered fellow pilgrims and spent nights in humble refugios, all the while bolstered by her boyfriend Alex's unfailing support, she came to find God exists in the most unlikely places.

Each incident, encounter, and hard-won mile shaped her internal journey. The repetitiveness of walking freed her to meditate for long periods, the rhythm of her breathing awakened an awareness of the connections of breath, life, and God so central to the teachings of Hebrew and Christian scriptures, and the most unlikely events – from discovering chickens in church to the pleasure of having a pizza at a train station – remind her that prayer is as at once as simple and as profound as seeing and acknowledging the joys and beauty of life.

The book is more than mere travelogue. Egan uses various events on the Camino as catalysts to explore such disparate topics as the history of the cult of relics, how she accidentally discovered breathing meditation and her own feelings of anger, sadness and guilt over her father's death. Indeed, when Egan embraces the essay form, particularly when she shares her moments of confusion and weakness on the journey, her writing is confident, sharp and engaging. – Publishers Weekly

Kerry Egan's Fumbling tugs the reader into the rich mystery of pilgrimage in her able hands, not only a physical trek to a spiritual hot spot but also a moving exploration of love, grief and wonder. This lovely book called me back every time I strayed away from it, and it will probably haunt me for years. – Kris Wilson, author of' Stalking the Divine

Fumbling is the poignant tale of how, on the pilgrimage, the traditions of her faith enabled Egan to overcome grief and anger, and rediscover herself. With refreshing sincerity, Egan shares stories that are both entertaining and spiritual. Ultimately finding joy and redemption, Fumbling illuminates the power of grief to enhance our relationship with God.

Religion & Spirituality / Christianity

Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics by Samuel Wells (Brazos Press) is an essay in theological ethics. That is to say, it doubts that there is such a thing as an ethic to which anyone can subscribe, regardless of tradition.

Improvisation in the theater is a practice through which actors seek to develop trust in themselves and one another in order that they may conduct unscripted dramas without fear. Improvisation is a study of how the church may become a community of trust so that it may faithfully encounter the unknown future without fear. It is a treatment of how the story and practices of the church shape and empower Christians with the uninhibited freedom sometimes experienced by theatrical improvisers. It is an account of the development of trust in self, church, and God. In the process it is a renarration of Christian ethics, not as the art of performing the Scriptures but as faithfully improvising on the Christian tradition.

Improvisation, written by Samuel Wells, Church of England priest, Cambridge, has three parts. In the first part Wells proposes that improvisation is an appropriate mode in which to understand the nature and purpose of Christian ethics. In the second part he outlines six practices that characterize improvisation in the theater and that might characterize Christian ethics also. In the third part he offers four examples of how these practices enable Christians and the church to engage with particularly significant contexts and issues.

In proposing that improvisation is a helpful way in which to understand the practice of Christian ethics, Wells takes the argument in four stages. The first stage, chapter 1, questions the notion of "ethics" as a discrete discipline by showing through a sweeping historical narrative that what constitutes ethics has always been subject to the church's understanding of God and to its location in society more generally. Thus the rest of Improvisation, being concerned with ethics, always has an eye to the imitation of God’s action and the recognition of the social location of the church. The second stage, chapter 2, takes another broad sweep, this time across the contemporary field of Christian ethics. Wells distinguishes between three strands, universal, subversive, and ecclesial, locating the present in the third strand. He then maintains that an ecclesial ethic is properly characterized by a narrative understanding of doctrine. This leaves the third stage, chapter 3, to show that, given that it portrays the action of God and the nature of human response, doctrine, particularly in an ethical vein, is inherently dramatic, rather than simply narrative, in character. Finally he breaks new ground in proposing that even drama is too static an understanding of theological ethics. Ethics cannot be simply about rehearsing and repeating the same script and story over and over again, albeit on a fresh stage with new players. This does not do sufficient justice to the unfolding newness of each moment of creation. The Bible is not so much a script that the church learns and performs as it is a training school that shapes the habits and practices of a community. This community learns to take the right things for granted, and on the basis of this faithfulness, it trusts itself to improvise within its tradition. Improvisation means a community formed in the right habits trusting itself to embody its tradition in new and often challenging circumstances; and this is exactly what the church is called to do.

In outlining the practices of theatrical improvisers and showing how they inform and describe the discernment and practice of a Christian community, he develops six modes of activity. Chapter 5 begins with the vital role in ethics of the formation of habits. Ethics is not about being clever in a crisis but about forming a character that does not realize it has been in a crisis until the "crisis" is over. It is just the same for improvisers in the theater. Improvisation is not about being spontaneous and witty in the moment, but about trusting oneself to do and say the obvious. The key to both ethics and improvisation is what the players regard as obvious, and thus the real issues in both lie in the imagination. In chapter 6 Wells reflects on status, a key notion in improvisation, and a neglected notion in Christian ethics. He suggests the benefits that consideration of status might make to writing on Christian ethics and offer humorous examples to demonstrate the significance and the universality of status transactions. In chapter 7 he describes perhaps the foundational notions in theatrical improvisation, those of accepting and blocking offers. He suggests how these notions help to display the frustrations of much ethics in the contemporary context. Chapter 8 is a more theoretical chapter, less explicitly linked to specific practices in improvisation, but necessary to the argument because it explores the difference between gifts and givens, which is central to the subsequent chapter. In a sense, chapters 7 and 8 are introductory chapters to chapter 9, perhaps the key chapter in the book. In chapter 9 Wells outlines the practice of over-accepting, in which a community fits a new action or concept into a larger narrative, into the greater drama of what God is doing in the world. Finally, in chapter 10, Wells introduces the second key practice, re-incorporation. This is an eschatological practice in which discarded elements in the drama are woven back into the story, and it is particularly appropriate in relation to those whom Jesus came to restore.

By this stage the community of readers is perhaps yearning for worked examples of how these practices may shape their imagination and habits. In part 3 Wells shows that the practices he commends, though they have not been given these names before, are not "original." Wells says he is not trying to commend "a new way of doing ethics," but to offer a coherent and suggestive series of practices that describe what the church's faithful social response has always been. And so he has taken two contexts in which particular authors have tried to show what faithful discipleship means under extreme pressure, and he has demonstrated how these authors' understanding of faithfulness is almost exactly the same as what he has portrayed, albeit without the explicit categories he is proposing.

In the last two chapters he engages with two further issues. Unlike the previous, they do not threaten to destroy faith and/or the church: on the contrary they offer to take away frustrating limitations to human life and promise a flourishing future. One is the question of human cloning, which promises to overcome the limitations of the human body and bring a kind of salvation short of heaven. The other is the case of genetically modified foods, which promise to solve the world's food shortages at a stroke. The response to these issues in Christian circles has not been coherent, and the arguments used have in many cases not been theological ones. Well’s treatments in these two chapters are an attempt both to use the practices proposed in this book to portray a theological response to these issues and meanwhile to test Improvisation proposals in two contexts of pressing public concern.

This is one of the most relevant, stimulating, and lucid books on Christian ethics to appear for some time. It provides an excellent introduction to current debates in Christian ethics while making its own vivid and sometimes controversial contribution. It is in many places profound and original, and it deserves to be widely read and discussed. – Duncan B. Forrester, University of Edinburgh

A book on improvisation cannot be a book about improvisation, but it must `be' that which it is about. No easy task, but both the content and execution of Improvisation do what the book says. With concepts such as `blocking' and `overaccepting,' Wells provides us with skills for the imagination that we might live more faithful (and humorous) lives as Christians. Like all great improvisers, Wells has a gift for telling the right but unexpected story at the right time. This extraordinarily sophisticated book can be read for profit by those well schooled in the literature of theology and ethics, but more important, this book will satisfy those who hunger and thirst for an account of what it means to live as a Christian in our day. – Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School

Improvisation indeed. Bold, creative, and yet showing a deep mastery of his craft, Samuel Wells charts a fresh course for Christian theological ethics that is at once artful, contemporary, and faithful both to the Bible and to the best of Christian ethical reflection. While Wells rightly refuses to concede that Christian ethics is primarily about problem solving, he nevertheless offers back to the church its own imaginative resources for confronting the more intractable dilemmas of our age. This is a very important book. – Michael Hanby, Baylor University

Samuel Wells is against originality, since he wants the church to do what comes naturally to it. Yet in this remarkable discussion of improvisation in Christian ethics he has given us a work of striking originality that will surely help the church to be more imaginative in its faithfulness and more faithful in its imagination. – Robert Song, University of Durham

Improvisation is an interesting and subtle take on Christian ethics, needing to be read by just about every thoughtful person in the church.

Religion & Spirituality / Buddhism

Speech of Delight: Mipham's Commentary on Śāntarakşita's Ornament of the Middle Way by Ju Mipham, foreword by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, translated by Thomas H. Doctor (Snow Lion Publications)

In his Ornament of the Middle Way, the great Indian master Śāntarakşita's reveals how the path of reasoning can lead the mind to increasingly profound insight and experience, and how the process of refining our view of reality through intelligent and open-minded inquiry can bring about complete liberation within the discovery of the natural state. Śāntarakşita's Madhyamakālamkāra is a condensed presentation of later Indian "Middle Way" philosophy and is structured around one recurring theme, namely, the impossibility of entities being consistently analyzable as either single individuals (i.e., wholes) or plural composites (i.e., parts). In contrast to Śāntarakşita's encyclopedic and multifaceted treatment of Indian philosophy in his well-known Tattvasamgraha, the tour de force of his Madhyamakālamkāra is to see all the seemingly diverse Buddhist and non-Buddhist ontologies as hinging on failed attempts to solve part-whole problems.

The philosophy of this Indian master, and that of his disciple, Kamalaśīla, has inspired thinkers from all the major indigenous schools in Tibet, one of the most important issues for Tibetans being how and where this so-called "Yogācāra-Svātantrika" philosophy is to be situated in the hierarchy of Indian Buddhist schools. Some of the best philosophy in Tibet has been done on precisely this question.

Speech of Delight was written by Ju Mipham (1846-1912), a universal genius writing on all aspects of Buddhist theory and practice, and on the traditional sciences, and translated by Thomas Doctor (born 1966), translator for the Ven. Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche and the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in Nepal since 1993.

Profound and vast in meaning, the Speech of Delight conveys the heart practice of all accomplished knowledge-holders and reveals the single path traversed to omniscience. Containing key points and oral instructions for all philosophies, it is like a single bridge that spans a hundred rivers. – Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

Thomas Doctor has presented us with a readable and reliable translation of a major commentary on the Madhyamakālamkāra by the nineteenth century rNying ma pa writer, Mi pham rgya mtsho. Although the Madhyamakālamkāra is short and condensed, Mipham's commentary is enormous in size and extremely detailed. Thomas Doctor's translation of this monumental work will be of substantial value to those who wish to better understand nineteenth and twentieth century rNying ma pa thought in its relationship with Indian sources. The book should thus be of benefit to historians, philosophers and practicing Buddhists alike. – Tom J.F. Tillemans, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Speech of Delight, Ju Mipham's illustrious commentary, highlights and explains the pithy reasoning of this classic treatise, and unfolds the expansive view of the Great Vehicle in a clear, engaging and compassionate way. Treasured as "The Eyes of Ju Mipham Rinpoche," this commentary is a key element in the curriculum of many of the monastic colleges in Tibet and South Asia. Simultaneously direct and profound, it displays the hallmarks of Mipham's accomplished authorship.

Science / Technology

Masterworks of Technology: The Story of Creative Engineering, Architecture, and Design by E. E. Lewis (Prometheus Books)

Bigger, faster, stronger – and smarter!

Human beings have always tried to find ways to make life easier. In ancient times, all but a privileged few could count on hard, physical labor to account for the bulk of their waking hours. Yet one of the gifts of the human race is the ability to innovate, to envision and to create the technology that allows work to be done easier, faster, more thoroughly, and more consistently. Through the centuries, engineers – our technological innovators – have not only striven to perfect older technologies but also established new technologies built upon their experience and the growing power of science.

In Masterworks of Technology, E. E. Lewis traces these steps along the path to our modern technological sophistication. Lewis's years in the engineering field have given him an authoritative perspective on the highlights of technological progress through the ages. Melding his own personal experience – from visiting the cathedral in Chartres, France, to flying aboard a Boeing 777 – with historical vignettes, Lewis, professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern University, demonstrates the importance of the craft tradition, scientific method, production organization, and economics, to the creation of modern technology. Topics that Lewis illuminates include pyramid construction in ancient Egypt; the evolution of the wheelwright's craft; the background and training of the architect-engineers who built Europe's medieval cathedrals; the importance of patrons and venture capitalists in realizing big ideas; the increasing use of visualization as seen in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks; Galileo's pioneering effort to bring science and engineering together; the increasing importance of basic science as the seedbed of engineering and design innovators; and the challenge of attempting unprecedented feats while minimizing risk, as exemplified by space flight.

From inventing the wheel to mastering rocket science, E. E. Lewis highlights the joys and challenges of successful engineering... .an interesting read... – Tom Kelley, General Manager, IDEO and author of The Art of Innovation

A fascinating exploration of engineering throughout history, from the pyramids of Egypt to the skyscrapers of today's cities... a lively and entertaining narrative describing many of the people, events, and technologies shaping our history and our lives through engineering. – James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University of Michigan

Whether discussing the distribution of weight among flying buttresses, the challenges faced by Samuel Morse in engineering the telegraph, or the Apollo program's monumental team effort, Lewis's gift for engaging, lively prose make for a fascinating exploration of science and engineering through the ages. His singular knowledge, evident in this culmination of a lifetime of work in the field, has resulted in Masterworks of Technology – a book that anyone who appreciates the beauty and complexity of brilliant tools, clever machines, and amazing structures will savor.

Social Sciences

Why Do Criminals Offend?: A General Theory of Crime and Delinquency by Robert Agnew (Roxbury Publishing Company)

Why Do Criminals Offend? focuses on what is probably the most frequently asked question about crime: Why do criminals offend?

Criminologist Robert Agnew draws on a broad range of crime theories and the latest research to present a general theory of crime and delinquency, rich with student-accessible examples. The general theory integrates the essential arguments from social learning, social control, self-control, strain, labeling, social support, bio-psychological, and other theories. And it draws on the latest research examining the relationship between crime, individual traits, and the social environment – including family, school, peer, and work environments.

While Why Do Criminals Offend? seeks to explain why some individuals are more likely than others to offend; the general theory is also used to explain group differences in crime rates and patterns of offending over the life course. Further, the theory is used to evaluate current efforts to control crime and suggest new crime control initiatives.

Agnew, widely published author and professor at Emory University, says that his efforts to construct a general theory faced a major challenge. The challenge was to balance the need to construct a theory that is reasonably complete against the need for a theory that is not so complex as to overwhelm readers. The general theory presented in Why Do Criminals Offend? takes a middle path. It does not attempt to list every cause of crime, describe all the relationships between these causes, and discuss all the ways in which these causes work together to affect crime. Nor does it limit its focus to a single, broadly defined causal variable. Rather, the general theory focuses on the major, direct causes of crime and groups these causes into a few well-defined clusters, organized by life domain. The theory then advances several general propositions that describe how these clusters are related to one another and how they work together to affect crime. This approach allows for the development of a reasonably complete theory of crime that is capable of guiding future research and crime-control efforts, but is not so complex that it impedes testing efforts.

Most of the propositions at the core of the general theory are derived from the work of others, including the integrated theories of Thornberry and Colvin. While the general theory does present some new arguments regarding the causes of crime, it is most distinguished by how it organizes existing theories and research into an integrated whole. The key propositions of the theory are described on a chapter-by-chapter basis:

Crime is most likely when the constraints against crime are low and the motivations for crime are high. (Chapter 2)
Several individual traits and features of the individual's immediate social environment directly influence the constraints against and the motivations for crime. Many of these traits and variables are strongly associated with one another, and they can be grouped into a number of "clusters" by life domain. These life domains include the self (comprised of the personality traits of irritability and low self-control), the family (poor parenting practices, no/bad marriages), the school (negative school experiences, limited education), peers (peer delinquency), and work (unemployment, bad jobs). (Chapter 3)
The life domains have reciprocal effects on one another, although some effects are stronger than others. (Chapter 4)
Crime sometimes affects the life domains in ways that increase the likelihood of subsequent crime. Further, prior crime sometimes directly increases the likelihood of subsequent crime. These effects are most likely when individuals already possess traits conducive to crime and are in environments conducive to crime. (Chapter 5)
The life domains interact with one another in affecting crime. Each life domain has a greater effect on crime when the other life domains are conducive to crime (i.e., the individual is already at risk for crime). (Chapter 6)
The life domains have largely contemporaneous effects on one another and on crime, although each life domain has a large lagged (delayed) effect on itself. (Chapter 7)
The life domains have nonlinear effects on crime, such that as a life domain increases in size it has an increasingly larger effect on crime. (Chapter 7)
Certain biological factors and features of the larger social environment affect the level and operation of the life domains. The key factors affecting the life domains are age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and the characteristics of the community in which the individual lives – especially the socioeconomic status of the community. (Chapter 7)

The general theory in Why Do Criminals Offend? is designed to explain why some individuals are more likely than others to engage in behaviors that are generally condemned and that carry a significant risk of sanction by the state if detected. The theory argues that some individuals engage in such behaviors because (1) they are in environments where the risk of condemnation and sanction is low; (2) they possess personality traits that reduce their concern with condemnation and sanction; and (3) they face strong pressures and incentives to engage in such behaviors. The theory, however, also applies to some other types of crime, including white-collar crime (discussed in Chapter 10). Although the theory focuses on the explanation of individual differences in the extent of crime, Chapter 9 describes how the theory can be extended to explain group differences in crime rates. Chapter 11 covers recommendations for controlling crime and Chapter 12 describes the general theory as an integrated theory of crime.

This is a brilliant integrative book.... an outstanding contribution to criminological theory and knowledge. – David Farrington, University of Cambridge

This book is a major contribution to the discipline.... Extremely well written and engaging. – Alex R. Piquero, University of Florida

… outstanding… It is logical in its organization, clearly articulated, empirically informed, and brilliant in its depth of scholarship.... This book should be required reading for anyone interested in the study of crime and criminals. – John Wright, University of Cincinnati

Agnew's general theory as explained in Why Do Criminals Offend? is concise and written at a level readily accessible to undergraduates. The text provides a good sense of the major causes of crime and how they mutually influence and interact with one another to affect crime. Key points are illustrated with examples from qualitative and quantitative research, and each chapter ends with a set of thought-provoking discussion questions.

Social Sciences / Anthropology / Minority Studies

Isabel Flick: The Many Lives of an Extraordinary Aboriginal Woman by Isabel Flick & Heather Goodall (Allen & Unwin)

Isabel Flick was always making trouble. Isabel Flick is the story of a remarkable woman, told in her own words and those of her family and friends. It begins on the riverbank camps of the country town of Collarenebri, Australia, where, because she was Aboriginal, Flick was barred from school and threatened by the Protection Board with ‘removal.’

The story, as told to Heather Goodall, history lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney, one of Australia's leading experts on Aboriginal history, paints a picture of the experience of Aboriginal people in Australia during the 20th century and of race relations in its rural towns.

Flick escaped from the harsh controls of Toomelah Mission to the cotton fields of Wee Waa, cooked for the upper classes in Sydney's Rose Bay, marched in the street protests of Redfern and lobbied in the halls of Parliament House. Throughout her life, she challenged the racism of rural Australia, demanding desegregation and justice in education, work, health and before the law. But Flick's fight was not only directed at the non-Aboriginal community; she was not afraid to speak openly about injustice among her own people.

Flick's life, from her childhood to her work fighting for reform in education and healthcare, is explored in detail. Her accomplishments, including laying the groundwork for the unrest preceding Australia's Freedom Ride in 1965 and her work with the union movement, are detailed, culminating in her 1991 nomination as town spokesperson for a small town in New South Wales with a long history of racism.

Flick's is a story of determination and success in the face of cultural barriers. All who knew Isabel were moved by her – she was the hub of a wide network within the Aboriginal community, linking the many people with whom she had worked and campaigned. She was extraordinary, too, in developing a strong network among non-Aboriginal people.

Eventually, returning to the riverbank where she grew up, Isabel's enormous political experience and courage were acknowledged by the non-Aboriginal people of her town. It was Isabel who was chosen by Collarenebri whites and blacks as their spokesperson during a crisis which threatened them all.

If I had to name five people who are true leaders, Isabel would be one of them. – Linda Burney, MP

Reflecting on the meaning of community, country and tradition, Isabel Flick is beautifully crafted story – an inspiration – of love, humor and courage, conveying a profound sense of justice and understanding.

Social Sciences / Women’s Studies

Not Just Any Dress: Narratives of Memory, Body, and Identity edited by Sandra Weber & Claudia Mitchell (Counterpoints: Studies in the Postmodern Theory of Education, Vol. 220, Peter Lang)

Dresses!

We love them, we hate them, we gawk at them, we covet them, we long for them, we disdain them, we buy them, we make them, we wash them, we iron them, we wear them, we refuse to wear them, we work in them, we dance in them, we stain them, we tear them, we mend them, we remodel them, we ridicule them, we take them for granted, we grow out of them, we curse at them, we give them away, we forget them, we remember them with shame or longing, we store them away lovingly, we toss them crumpled on the floor, we hang on to them for ages even when they no longer fit, we hand them down, and sometimes, we even burn them.

If dresses could talk, what stories might they tell?

According to editors Sandra Weber, professor of education and fellow at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University, Montreal, and Claudia Mitchell, professor and chair in the School of Education at the University of Natal, South Africa, if you ask women to talk or write about dresses, without much prompting, they will regale you with detailed snippets from their lives. They will tell anecdotes that start out ostensibly

about clothes, but end up being about so much more – events, family, community, relationships, body-image, feelings, aspirations, attitudes, beliefs and thoughts about all sorts of things. In the telling or writing of these autobiographical stories, an item of clothing becomes a springboard, an axis of rotation, or a structural grounding for a detailed account of life events.

Not Just Any Dress is a collection of short stories, essays, and poems in which dress is the structure and focus to generate autobiographical accounts from women's lives. Often personal in nature, these "dress stories" point unfailingly to matters of social and cultural import. Some of the dresses described inhabit the popular imagination: the little girl dress, the communion dress, the school uniform, the prom dress, the wedding dress, the little black dress, and the burial dress. Beyond the semiotic, tactile, and visual aspects of the dresses themselves, the narratives delve into what dresses reveal about fundamental aspects of human experience: identity, embodiment, relationship, and mortality. Bought or made, then worn, forgotten, remembered, re-constructed, and re-interpreted, each dress offers a new glimpse into how we construct meaning in our daily lives, and how dresses serve to reinforce or resist social structures and cultural expectations.

Convinced of the potential dress offers as a method of inquiry into identity processes and embodiment, Weber and Mitchell began writing stories about particular items of clothing, and invited a small number of writers, including scholars and poets who are connected with their interdisciplinary research group, The Image and Identity Research Collective (IIRC), which the editors co-founded. The result of this work is Not Just Any Dress, an edited volume of carefully crafted autobiographical and literary pieces. Academics and poets, it turns out, have a lot to say about their clothes.

This book thus draws together a number of dress stories – narrative essays, short stories, and poems in which dress becomes the organizing feature for looking at body and identity in women's lives within a birth-to-death framework in North American and Western society. In some cases, respondents chose to write about items that reflect a particular rite of passage of social and institutional significance; others have chosen garments that take on some sort of individual symbolism (as in "the dress I was wearing when ...").

Moving back and forth from private spaces to public ones, each chapter tells a compelling tale that revolves around at least one garment and features an unexpected twist of plot or language that interrogates the common assumptions usually associated with the buying or making or wearing of the dress. Thus for example, a communion dress becomes an affront to the clergy, a wedding dress, a declaration of defiance, a corset, a symbol of a mother's sternness, and a bathrobe, a teacher's garment. Whether bought or made, worn or forgotten, each dress offers new glimpses into how we construct meaning in our daily lives.

The narrative research methodology underlying this collection capitalizes on the ways that any woman's autobiography is in some respects every woman's biography, and on how no two experiences or images are exactly alike yet can have much to say to each other, even when they seem to be portraying contradictory world views or realities.

In Cultural Studies, Women's Studies, and Education, experiential accounts of wearing clothes are scarce indeed. As Tseelon points out, there is a plethora of semiotic and sociological analyses and historical accounts of dress and an abundance of philosophizing of the body, but approaches to the clothed body that are grounded in people's own accounts of their experience are too few in number. Through the use of various forms of "dress stories" – critical memoir, photography, poetry, autobiographical narratives Not Just Any Dress helps to address this imbalance.

For those readers interested in pursuing dress-body studies beyond this volume, in addition to detailed endnotes, the editors provide all the chapters' references into one convenient reference list at the end of the book.

The contributors to Not Just Any Dress are skillful in using dress to write thoughtfully and artfully about things that matter. The book is a compelling collection featuring dress as the structural grounding for autobiographical accounts from women's lives in Western society.

Social Sciences / Communication

Escaping The Global Village: Media, Language, And Protest by Niamh Hourigan (Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield)

We are witnessing a more general and progressive shift of the production of identity and of values from the places traditionally assigned to these (family, education etc.) towards other social arenas. The media intervene in the formation of public opinion and contribute to definitions of individual and collective identities. Therefore, an analysis of the emergence, operation and achievements of these campaign groups can provide insights into the links between language, media and power in European societies.

In the face of expanding global media, Europe's linguistic minorities have begun to resist the homogenizing forces of television. Escaping The Global Village documents and analyzes various campaigns by indigenous minority language advocates throughout Europe for alternative language television services. In this survey, Niamh Hourigan uses social movement theory as the framework for her comparison of indigenous minority language protest groups such as the Welsh, Basque, Scots Gaelic, Catalan, and Irish.

In characterizing national broadcasting executives and national politicians as members of an elite, Hourigan, lecturer in the Department of Sociology at University College Cork, Ireland, is not suggesting that members of these groups are innately superior to others; she is saying that they occupy positions which allow them greater access to power and greater control over representation and discourse than other groups within these societies. In accounting for the emergence of these campaigns, it is clear that minority language activists resented the discourse of national identity which was being delivered to them by these privileged groups through their control of broadcasting. Activists sought to challenge these definitions and dismantle the institutions and cultural elites who sought to impose a national identity on their communities.

The first chapter of Escaping The Global Village outlines the three major frameworks of social movement theory which have emerged in Europe and the United States during the last fifty years. For the purposes of this study, a social movement is defined as "a collective attempt to further a common interest or secure a common goal, through collective action outside the sphere of established institutions".

As a result of the emergence of the civil rights, women's and anti-war movements in the United States during the 1960s, classical formulations, which characterized social protest as irrational, began to appear increasingly inadequate, giving rise to the term "resource mobilization" (RM). Then new social movement (NSM) theory began to develop in Europe in the late '70s as resource mobilization was coming to the fore in the United States. Ideology and identity are the themes which preoccupy NSM theorists. In response to the activities of new social movements, advocates of resource mobilization have recently redirected attention to the role of ideology in social protest. These frameworks are used to compare the emergence, framing and operation of each social movement in Escaping The Global Village. The operation of each movement is examined in terms of movement structure, management of resources, leadership, tactics, inter-organizational networks, and movement dynamic and organizational effectiveness.

In chapter 2, a variety of potential frameworks are examined in order to construct a model which facilitates the comparison of the indigenous minority language services. The television stations examined are Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) in Wales, Televisio de Catalunya (TV3) in Catalonia, Euskal Telebista (ETB 1) in the Basque Country, Televisio de Galicia (TVG) in Galicia, the Comataidh Telebhisein Gaidhlig (CTG) in Scotland and Irish Language Television Service (TG4) in the Republic of Ireland. The construction of a suitable model involves an exploration of the links between identity, language and media.

Chapter 3 provides an analysis of five of the six campaigns reviewed in Escaping The Global Village. In the first section, the emergence, framing and operation of campaigns in Wales and Scotland are compared. First, this analysis examines the web of underground nationalist movements which operated in these regions during the rule of General Franco. Then it examines how minority language television services were successfully established after the dictator's death. This analysis includes a review of the transition to democracy in Spain and the creation of the autonomous regions of Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country.

The campaign for Irish language television is examined in greater depth in chapter 4. This campaign was conducted by a host of different movements over a twenty-year period. Therefore, the campaign provides a useful template for a detailed application of the major strands of social movement theory. It is surprising that the establishment of an Irish language television service required twenty years of protest. A deep analysis of the campaign indicates that the conflict between the state and Irish language groups was closely linked to conflicts about membership of elites.

In chapter 5, the services which were created as a result of these campaigns are compared using the framework of television as discursive space. The first section examines the operating structures of S4C, TVG, ETB 1, TV3, CTG and TG4.

The concluding chapter of Escaping The Global Village first reviews the comparison of the three major strands of social movement theory. A modification of the resource mobilization model is suggested and NSM debates about the distinction between new grievances and old nationalisms are revisited in light of the experience of media campaigners. Then the chapter places these campaigns in terms of broader patterns of social change in European societies. The chapter concludes with an analysis of minority language media campaigns in light of theories of global change. It is argued that these campaigns emerged in response to the activities of national elites and national broadcasting networks rather than the intrusive impact of global media systems into these communities. Minority language media campaigners are not reacting in a defensive manner to global change; rather, these groups are taking advantage of the opportunities created by global processes to dismantle or challenge oppressive national institutions.

For all the recent hype on the role of media, social movements, language.0and national and minority identities in contemporary society, works explicitly integrating all these different dimensions are still in short supply. Escaping The Global Village nicely contributes to filling this gap. It will be widely read – and well received – by social scientists across a range of disciplinary fields. - Mario Diani, University of Trento; European Editor of Mobilization

Hourigan offers penetrating accounts of the campaigns' strategies, obstacles, and successes, and insight into the television services achieved. Escaping The Global Village not only reveals an emerging modern form of social protest but also situates it within broader patterns of social change, particularly globalization.

Travel

Monk's Travels: People, Places, and Events by Edward A Malloy (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

As Father Edward Malloy traveled around the world, he recorded the stories of the people he met, the places he visited, and the events he experienced, never planning to share them. Affectionately known as "Monk," the president of the University of Notre Dame recounts his visits to destinations such as New York just after September 11, 2001, Europe, the Mediterranean, Latin America, Africa and the Far East in Monk's Travels. What began as a personal record of his many trips soon attracted the attention of numerous friends and fellow travelers, and now the book allows readers throughout the world to follow his journey.

With a talent for describing what he sees, Malloy paints a picture of everything he experiences. From his encounters with the local residents of the places he visits to his interactions with some of the most notable personalities of our time, including Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush, Martin Luther King Jr., and Pope John Paul II, Monk's Travels goes beyond the stories by sharing a reflection of Monk's personality, hopes, spirituality, and emotions. In retelling his journeys to places all over the globe, Monk shares those details that are necessary to imagine and appreciate where he visited and whom he met.

"Anne Tyler wrote a novel called The Accidental Tourist about a man who is forced to travel but does not want to have any new experiences.... My goal on my trips has been just the opposite: not to do anything too foolish, but to be open to an endless round of new experiences and possibilities," writes Malloy. Monk's Travels shares his many varied experiences, acquaintances, and encounters through eventful trips around the world.

Monk's Travels shares Malloy's personality, hopes, spirituality, and emotions. Wherever he goes, Malloy not only looks for but sees who and what is going on around him. His eye for detail is sharp, reflecting his long experience of speaking to wide and varied audiences. This is a book that will interest many – from those who are interested in higher education or Catholicism to those who are interested in travel and world events.

Social Sciences / Gender Studies

Eco-Man: New Perspectives on Masculinity and Nature edited by Mark Allister (Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism Series: University of Virginia Press)

The paradoxical role nature plays in American myth and history grows in part from the male's reverent fascination with the wilderness and his equally strong impulse to dominate it. Many canonical literary works – think of Thoreau, Melville, Hemingway, Faulkner – look to the wild as the site for establishing a man's selfhood. But nature is just as often subjected to his most violent displays of mastery.

According to Mark Allister, Professor of English at St. Olaf College, Virginia, this tension lies at the heart of Eco-Man, which brings together two rapidly growing fields: men's studies and ecocriticism. The two disciplines have rarely if ever touched each other; brought together, men's studies is freed from the typical limitation of an exclusively urban-centered perspective, while ecocriticism engages an "ecomasculine" lens through which to view the field.

The book's contents are diverse, but the contributors challenge our idea of masculinity as merely the social code of patriarchy. By complicating our cultural notions of nature and masculinity, the volume's twenty essays question whether we can construct a notion of manhood around ecological principles and practices – and if so, what this would look like, and how it would enrich men's studies. The essays contained in Eco-Man explore this paradoxical relationship between man and nature, from man's reverent fascination with the wilderness to his equally strong impulse to dominate it. From essays entitled "Deerslayer with a Degree," to "Consuming Cities: Hip-Hop's Urban Wilderness and the Cult of Masculinity," the volume complicates our notions of man's relationship to nature.

Though our culture often attributes characteristics such as reason and intellect to the idea of man," Mark Allister argues that ironically, when asked to name men we associate with the term "masculinity," we do not name men famous for their minds, but rather cite men who exhibit physical prowess in nature, outdoors, or in sports arenas.

Contributors include: John Tallmadge, Gretchen Legler, Mark Allister, Scott Russell Sanders, Thomas R. Smith, Scott Slovic, Alvin Handelman, David Copland Morris, Rick Fairbanks, Cheryll Glottelty, Barton Sutler, James Barilla, Timothy Young, O. Alan Weltzien, Julia Martin, Patrick D. Murphy, Jim Heynen, Lilace Mellin Guignard, Stephen J. Mexal, Ken Lamberton, and James J. Farrell.

Eco-Man is a refreshing, thoughtful and diverse expansion of the study of masculinity and its connection to nature. By requiring no unifying theme from its contributors, Allister allowed each to freely write from his or her nature and experience – free from the
handcuffs of predetermined theses. – Warren Farrell, Ph.D; author of Why Men are the Way they Are and The Myth of Male Power

The varied assembly of contributors to Eco-Man – including historians, philosophers, poets, both male and female – have written with the general reader in mind. The result is a book as approachable as it is groundbreaking.

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