New Books

January 2006

REFERENCE

Headlines in History (set)

Each volume covers one century from   the 1000s to the 1900s.   "Each of these entries in the new Headlines in History series looks at one century, with eyewitness accounts as well as articles and commentary by historians who discuss major events, people, and cultural patterns of the time across the world. Each volume includes a bibliography, chronology, and maps. The combination of big picture, detailed focus, and authoritative voices makes this a strong series for discussion and research."
-- Booklist

 

Sample essays:   The Islamic Reaction to the Crusades, Chivalry and Courtly Love, Vertical Cathedrals: The Rise of Gothic Architecture, The Samurai Code of Honor, Confucianism in Twelfth-Century China, The Rise and Fall of the Anasazi Indians, The Rise of Genghis Khan, Talking Pottery: The Chimu Indians of Peru, Rise of feudalism, William the Conqueror's claim to the English throne, Printing's contribution to literacy and education, Toltec conquest of the Maya, Golden age of the kingdom of Ghana, Mound builders of Cahokia, Islamic Art, Women, land, and inheritance in England, Religious thought in the fourteenth century, Long-term effects of the plague on society, Tughluq dynasty in India, Establishment of the Ming dynasty, Politics in fifteenth-century Europe, Keeping clean in the Middle Ages, Medieval medical practices, Growing up in Inca society, African kingdoms in the 1400s, Trial and execution of Charles Stuart, Glorious revolution of 1688, Rise of Swedish influence, Golden age of Dutch commerce, Golden age of the theater, Matsuo Basho: Master of haika and renga, Day in the life of Louis XIV, Slavery in New England, Philosophy of Rousseau, Child laborers in the industrial revolution, English convicts populate Australia, Louisiana purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, Communist Manifesto, Irish potato famine brings national tragedy,   First women's rights convention, Reign of terror in the Congo Free State, Revolution ravages Mexico, Battle of Britain, Gandhi responds to world war II, Who started the Cold War, Emergence of the western youth culture, After apartheid.  

The Firefly Encyclopedia of Trees    -    Cafferty, Steve

An essential resource for both serious botanists and amateur gardeners. Editor Cafferty marshals the salient facts required for identifying and understanding the properties inherent in complex communities of trees. Delineating the principle genera of trees, from primeval cycads to ancient conifers, deciduous broadleaves to tropical tree ferns, the compendium augments its extensive background on the horticultural, ornamental, and economic significance of each species with factual sidebars and distribution maps, as well as distinctive color photography and minutely detailed illustrations. - Booklist

The Depression and New Deal: A History in Documents    -    McElvaine, Robert S.

A vast assortment of diary entries, newspaper articles, campaign memos and speeches, political cartoons, songs, poetry, art, advertisements, photographs, and personal letters provide students with a political, economic, and social picture of this nation during the Depression. McElvaine first explains the significance of a primary document and advises how best to read one, e.g., understanding how its origin might be a source of bias. He prefaces each of the 14 chapters with a brief explanation and then allows the pieces, whether text or illustration, to speak for themselves. Every aspect of the economic collapse is portrayed, including breadlines, riding the rails, the bank panic, the dust bowl, Hoovervilles, Roosevelt's attack on the Supreme Court and big business, and the First Lady's identification with the common man. The important voices are here, too-Father Coughlin, Huey Long, Frances Perkins, and Lorena Hickok are represented as are John Steinbeck, Langston Hughes, Woody Guthrie, Irving Berlin, Harry Gottlieb, Philip Guston, and Kindred McLeary. - School Library Journal

Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary 3 rd edition

Acclaimed by language professionals the world over, The Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary leads the way in modern bilingual lexicography. The first ever French dictionary to be based entirely on the statistical evidence of vast electronic databanks of real language, both written and spoken, it is the most comprehensive, reliable, and up-to-date dictionary of French and English available today. This major new edition provides new up-to-date vocabulary and extensive in-text cultural notes on many aspects of the French-speaking world, from political and educational systems, to festivals, important historical facts, famous places, and national newspapers. The edition also boasts a revised correspondence section that provides 75 model letters, with information on business correspondence via email and the internet. A new text design makes every entry easy to navigate, so that you can find the information you require quickly and effortlessly, and in-text boxes throughout provide extended treatment of complex function words. Overall, the Dictionary still provides the finest coverage available of the general, scientific, and technical vocabulary of contemporary French and English--with 360,000 words and phrases and more than 542,000 translations. As an aid to students of French literature, the Dictionary provides excellent coverage of vocabulary used by writers such as Zola, Dumas, Proust, and Hugo. There are also more than 90 pages of practical guidance for those who plan to reside in France, including help in writing job applications and CVs, and a section on using the telephone in France. With more words and phrases than any other single-volume French dictionary, plus special features designed to help both students and travelers, the new edition of The Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary remains the first choice in bilingual dictionaries. - from the publisher

Oxford Dictionary Of Quotations , 6th Ed.

This is no ordinary book of quotations. As one would expect from the publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary , this work is thoroughly cross-referenced, packed with special features, and, most importantly for a collection of quotations, provides citations and context for each entry. Among the special features set off in boxes throughout the text are lists of epitaphs, catchphrases, borrowed titles, misquotations, opening lines, last words, and film lines and titles. The keyword index is exhaustive. - Booklist

American Immigration (Oxford Student Companion)

A comprehensive, up-to-date encyclopedia. After a fine overview, extensive space is devoted to ethnic groups: when they came, where they settled, what they did, organizations they formed, important individuals, and statistics through 1996. Other alphabetical entries discuss major immigration legislation; key terms and concepts, such as "green card" and "nativism"; the differing categories of immigrants, such as "indentured servants" and "refugees"; and various religious groups and churches. The entries are followed by numerous cross-references and short bibliographies. Carefully chosen black-and-white illustrations, including photographs, cartoons, engravings, and maps, add interest. The valuable appendixes include a chronology; an annotated listing of immigration, ethnic, and refugee organizations; and a guide suggesting further reading, museums, and Web sites. This invaluable resource should be in every basic immigration collection. - School Library Journal

World War II (Oxford Student Companion)       

From frank evaluations of ordinance and strategy ("MacArthur's defense of the Philippines could hardly have been worse'') to accounts of the treatment of women and African-Americans in the armed services, this wide-ranging alphabetical compendium of topical and biographical articles goes a long way toward filling in the blanks for young students of the war. O'Neill keeps jargon to a minimum, ends most entries with reading lists, uses plenty of cross references, and includes World Wide Web sites in the back matter. The illustrations, a perfunctory smattering of tiny black-and-white maps and photos, are a weak point, but the author presents information with the succinct clarity that is essential in the best quick-reference tools. - Kirkus

Civil War & Reconstruction (Oxford Student Companion)

This alphabetical reference guide has well-written, concise entries that are supplemented by useful period photographs, charts, maps, and chronologies. Coverage is broad, including articles on the military, political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the war and its aftermath, as well as biographical sketches of major figures. Each entry includes suggestions for further reading and plentiful "see" and "see-also" references. A list of Civil War museums and historic sites is appended. A useful handbook that offers students an objective perspective in an accessible, appealing format. - School Library Journal

NONFICTION

Immigration & American Religion     -    Joselit, Jenna Weissman           

A chapter each is devoted to Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, and the Asian religions. The interesting, well-written text, rich in quotations from immigrants and their religious leaders, tells as much about these new Americans as it does about their religions. The Protestant experience moves from Pilgrims and Puritans into the groups succeeding them in the 18th and 19th centuries-Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, and Lutherans. "Catholicism" focuses on the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the demands of different ethnic groups--Irish, German, Italian, Czech, and Polish--challenged the church to create a truly American institution. Discussions of the recent impact of Spanish-speaking populations and descriptions of the Santeria and Vodou (Voodoo) sects conclude the chapter. While concentrating on the early 20th century, the chapter on the Jewish experience gives a good picture of the history of Judaism in the U.S. and the changes from European tradition. Much of the text concerning Asian religions covers Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans at the turn of the 20th century, with all-too-brief comments on the Asian-Indian and Muslim communities. Carefully chosen period illustrations round out the volume. A competent look at America's religions through immigrant eyes. - School Library Journal

Play Guitar : A Practical Guide to Playing Rock, Folk & Classical Guitar

How to play.

America's Constitution: A Biography    -    Amar, Akhil Reed

Starred Review. You can read the U.S. Constitution, including its 27 amendments, in about a half-hour, but it takes decades of study to understand how this blueprint for our nation's government came into existence. Amar, a 20-year veteran of the Yale Law School faculty, has that understanding, steeped in the political history of the 1780s, when dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation led to a constitutional convention in Philadelphia, which produced a document of wonderful compression and balance creating an indissoluble union.Amar examines in turn each article of the Constitution, explaining how the framers drew on English models, existing state constitutions and other sources in structuring the three branches of the federal government and defining the relationship of the that government to the states.Amar takes on each of the amendments, from the original Bill of Rights to changes in the rules for presidential succession. The book squarely confronts America's involvement with slavery, which the original Constitution facilitated in ways the author carefully explains.Scholarly, reflective and brimming with ideas, this book is miles removed from an arid, academic exercise in textual analysis. Amar evokes the passions and tumult that marked the Constitution's birth and its subsequent revisions. Only rarely do you find a book that embodies scholarship at its most solid and invigorating; this is such a book. Publisher's Weekly

Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House    -    Goffman, Ken

Although typically defining themselves in opposition to dominant cultures--hence the name--countercultures through history have more in common with each other than previously supposed. In fact, argues this book, breaking with tradition is itself a longstanding tradition. Goffman steers clear of overtheorizing and keeps readers hooked with hip contemporary comparisons (declaring Calvin Coolidge the Reagan of the early 1900s, for example. Always engaging, often inspiring. - Booklist

The Fifties     -    Halberstam, David

The Fifties were more than just a mid-point decade in a century; they were to be the crucible in which the rest of the 20th century was forged. Halberstam ( The Next Century , LJ 1/92) here touches every thread in the warp and woof of the national fabric. This is the true drama of history: President Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur, the Eisenhower years, Senator Joe McCarthy's red-baiting, the early U.S. involvement in Indochina, the H-bomb, the purging of atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Supreme Court ordering the integration of schools, troops in Little Rock to enforce it, the Montgomery bus boycott, the rise of Martin Luther King, Russia's sputnik launch, and Castro's revolutionary Cuba. Halberstam also explores major social and cultural changes--the advent of national television, fast-food restaurants, the flight to the suburbs, huge cars with fins, the phenomenon of Elvis Presley, the contraceptive pill, and much more. A superb book; recommended for all libraries. - Library Journal

Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater   -    Richman, Alan

A compilation of Richman's magazine columns across the last decade, this volume brings together critic Richman's deftly worded ruminations on food and restaurants. Richman's storytelling ability serves him well, especially in such essays as his description of a historic New York City Jewish deli, whose waiters' Yiddishisms constituted a form of theater, bestowing insults on all comers, foreign and domestic. Typical of restaurant critics everywhere, Richman's dislikes make for the most striking and most memorable reading: bad pizza in Naples, inedible Chinese food in Shanghai, overpriced sushi in Los Angeles, dreadful service in the Hamptons. In an original, clever, courageous, and well-reported piece, Richman delves into both food and culture at Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam restaurant and mosque, surviving the experience intact despite his Jewish origins. A survey of cuisine in Montreal says as much about the region's politics as about the food. - Booklist

Rocks and Fossils: A Visual Guide    -    Coenraads, Robert R.

A basic introduction to geology and paleontology, this predominantly pictorial treatment will lure newcomers to the subjects. Baiting the hook are a series of ancient-life illustrations depicting creatures from different segments of geologic time, from the Cambrian period forward. Accompanied by photographs of modern living descendants, the graphical design is immediately appealing and implicitly stresses a chain-of-being concept. Coenraads presents the essential facts of how fossils are formed, how rocks are formed, and how plate tectonics work. His popular point: "With a little skill and knowledge, it is not difficult to read and interpret the rocky pages of Earth's history." While not writing a field manual, Coenraads explains what people on a rock-hunting field trip should look for and opens their imaginations to the former environmental conditions that the discoveries of a fossil, rock, or mineral will conjure. A science work perfectly suited for general use. - Booklist

Gold!: The Story of the 1848 Gold Rush and How it Shaped a Nation    -    Rosen, Fred

In this account of the fabled California gold rush, Rosen chooses representative participants to tell the story. He introduces sawmill owner John Sutter and his employee James Marshall, who espied that glinting first nugget and pondered what to do with it. Future Union general William Sherman, who rejected Sutter's claim on the gold-bearing area, is in Rosen's cast, as is President James Polk, who precipitated the stampede to California with an 1848 message confirming the discovery of gold. For an Everyman who left his home and sweetheart behind and went west, Rosen selects Ohioan Samuel MacNeil, who compensated for his failure with the gold pan by writing a memoir that author Rosen regards as the "best contemporary account." A condensation of MacNeil's Travels (1850) is therefore this narrative's biggest element, supplying readers with eyewitness details of the dangerous journey west and California's atmosphere of avaricious anarchy. A fast--moving, satisfying production of popular history. - Booklist

Hands-On Environmentalism    -    Haglund, Brent

When the first Earth Day catapulted environmental awareness onto the global mindset in 1970, average citizens felt that they finally could have a stake in protecting their surroundings from the ravages of pollution, overpopulation, and resource depletion that were bringing the planet to the brink of ecological catastrophe. What developed instead was a quagmire of government bureaucracy, political expediency, and legal strategy that espoused a reactive rather than proactive approach that Haglund and Still dub "command-and--control." Promoting an alternative concept called "civic environmentalism," the authors outline a fundamental paradigm shift in the way concerned citizens, elected officials, and industrial leaders can wrest responsibility away from the regulatory professionals. By focusing on results rather than retribution, and looking toward the future rather than the past, this dynamic method of addressing local, national, and global environmental challenges boasts impressive success stories. Offering practical advice for individuals and grassroots organizations, this guidebook furnishes proven strategies and positive messages designed to invigorate the environmental movement. - Booklist

Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England   -    Flanders, Judith

Starred Review. London journalist-author Flanders provides a book so fascinating that it yields at least one surprise--and often many more than that--on each page. Ignore the title; it is no more a static treatise on different Victorian rooms than Sir Terence Conran's books comprise an ordinary approach to home decor. Instead, we find a real sense of Victoriana, its "occupants'" lives, struggles, habits, and styles, portrayed through the eyes of contemporary novelists (Dickens, Trollope, and other less-recognized names) and nonfiction writings. Consider, for example, the evolution of the woman as "the ministering angel to domestic bliss." In the parlor, she was transformed into a bride, ready for all the exigencies of marriage, beginning with a trousseau that might have cost 20 pounds. The morning room, exclusively female, was dedicated to the business of organizing and running a household. And the nursery symbolized a child-centered universe, with mothers responsible for teaching and nurturing their young offspring, and fathers for supporting the family. More than a window into the past. - Booklist

It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy     -    Behrendt, Greg

Behrendt, coauthor of the wildly popular dating guide He's Just Not That into You (2004), teams up with his wife to offer a how-to guide for coping when a relationship goes south. Both Greg and his wife, Amiira, went through extremely traumatic, drawn-out breakups before finding happiness with each other, and they share the stories of what they did wrong (and what they eventually did right) as they go through the basics of how to survive a breakup: stop calling him or waiting for him to call, don't sit at home moping, avoid wearing sweats (unless exercising), and find a friend to help you through it. They also include letters seeking advice and Greg's responses to them, breakup horror stories, and "psycho confessionals," real tales of women who went too far in reacting to a breakup. The authors take a lighthearted and positive tone throughout their boisterous guide. - Booklist

A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation    -    Eck, Diana L.

Eck, professor of comparative religion at Harvard University, delivers a stunning tour de force that may forever change the way Americans claim to be "one nation, under God." Drawing on her work with the Pluralism Project, an ongoing study of religious diversity in the United States, Eck focuses here on the explosion of Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist communities in America, particularly since 1965. How has the growth of these religions changed the American landscape? And just as important, how are the religions themselves changing because of America? Eck's travels take her (and us) to major cities, but also to places such as Greenville, S.C.; Portland, Maine; and Toledo, Ohio. Eck is a highly skilled ethnographer who delicately balances the challenge of interpreting events while also participating in them. The success of this portrait lies in the details: in the Nikes and Reeboks that adorn the shoe racks in Sikh gurdwaras, Islamic mosques and Hindu temples; in the Muslim Girl Scout who promises to "serve Allah and my country"; in the consecration rituals at a Massachusetts Hindu temple, where the waters of India's sacred Ganges River are mixed with the Mississippi and poured freely over the building. Eck does far more than simply document the presence of religious diversity in America; she places it in historical context and illustrates the ongoing challenges it presents by describing legal battles and pivotal court cases. The last chapters address the rise of religiously motivated hate crimes and, conversely, the innovative ways some communities have welcomed religious pluralism. This is not just a book; it is a celebration. - Booklist

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie    -    Goldsmith, Barbara

Best-selling historian Goldsmith incisively chronicles the intensely dramatic life of the first woman scientist to win the Nobel Prize, neatly explicating both scientific breakthroughs and complex personal and societal conflicts. Curie, born Marya Salomee Sklodowska, endured and triumphed over a tough childhood in Russian-occupied Poland as well as depression, sexism, and poverty. A brilliant and profoundly committed scientist who achieved many firsts, she found her soul mate in fellow scientist and maverick Pierre Curie, who helped her conduct the grueling experiments that enabled her to discover polonium, radium, and radioactivity, thus throwing "open the door to atomic science." A humanist who hoped that radiation would only be used for good, Marie Curie also invented a mobile X-ray unit that her courageous scientist daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie, who also won a Nobel Prize, operated on the front lines. Marie, Pierre, and Irene were all made fatally ill by their work with radioactive substances, and decades later, the Curie papers that Goldsmith has made such superb use of were still "hot." Marie Curie's life, Goldsmith concludes, was "tragic and glorious." Her powerful portrait reveals a woman of great passion, genius, and pain who changed the world in ways she would have deplored. - Booklist

The Oregon Trail: An American Saga    -    Dary, David

Starred Review. The fabled Oregon Trail was traversed by a quarter of a million people whose experiences, as often is the way with history, then faded into oblivion. In 1906, an old pioneer who had taken the trail in 1852 determined to commemorate it with an oxen-drawn reenactment of his journey. Alas, Twist the ox expired trailside, but Ezra Meeker's campaign succeeded in restoring the Oregon Trail to American historical consciousness. Meeker's tale typifies Dary's steady storytelling style in this superb chronicle of the trail: he eschews embellishment and hews to fact, permitting readers an unadorned but palpably realistic rendition of what traveling the trail was like. For many, as Dary aptly observes, the migration was "a monumental event in their lives," one documented by the anecdotes Dary selects from the 2,000 extant journals and recollections. Tracing the routes and topography of the trail, Dary integrates the attraction Oregon and the West held for mountain men, missionaries, Mormons, and forty-niners into a comprehensive history. It is bound to become a staple in collections about the Old West. - Booklist

Contents:   The exploration of Oregon -- Astoria -- Discovering the Oregon Trail -- John McLoughlin and the missionaries -- The American occupation of Oregon -- The emigrants of 1843 -- Self-rule and more emigrants -- Fifty-four forty or fight -- The year of decision -- New Zion, more emigrants, and a massacre -- A lull before the rush -- The gold rush of 1849 -- The hectic year of 1850 -- The changing road -- More change and civil war -- Decline of the trail -- Rebirth of the trail.

The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook: An Actor's Guide to over 1000 Monologues and Scenes from More Than 300 Contemporary Plays   -    Hooks, Ed

A catalogue of monologues and scenes, broken down by gender and number of actors required per scene.

The Year of Magical Thinking    -    Didion, Joan

Starred Review. Many will greet this taut, clear-eyed memoir of grief as a long-awaited return to the terrain of Didion's venerated, increasingly rare personal essays. The author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and 11 other works chronicles the year following the death of her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, from a massive heart attack on December 30, 2003, while the couple's only daughter, Quintana, lay unconscious in a nearby hospital suffering from pneumonia and septic shock. Dunne and Didion had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years, and Dunne's death propelled Didion into a state she calls "magical thinking." "We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss," she writes. "We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes." Didion's mourning follows a traditional arc—she describes just how precisely it cleaves to the medical descriptions of grief—but her elegant rendition of its stages leads to hard-won insight, particularly into the aftereffects of marriage. "Marriage is not only time: it is also, paradoxically, the denial of time. For forty years I saw myself through John's eyes. I did not age." In a sense, all of Didion's fiction, with its themes of loss and bereavement, served as preparation for the writing of this memoir, and there is occasionally a curious hint of repetition, despite the immediacy and intimacy of the subject matter. Still, this is an indispensable addition to Didion's body of work and a lyrical, disciplined entry in the annals of mourning literature. - Publisher's Weekly

American Theatre Book of Monologues for Women     -    Coen, Stephanie, editor

The best monologues from 15 years of American Theatre magazine plays. These monologue books present the best audition pieces for actors selected from over 80 plays first published in American Theatre magazine since 1985. The magazine has published many of the most important contemporary American plays over the last 15 years, including Angels in America , Three Tall Women , M. Butterfly , Talk Radio , The Baltimore Waltz , Buried Child , to name a few.

The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction    -    Amar, Akhil Reed

"The Bill of Rights stands as the high temple of our constitutional order--America's Parthenon--and yet we lack a clear view of it," Akhil Reed Amar writes in his introduction to The Bill of Rights . "Instead of being studied holistically, the Bill has been broken up ... with each segment examined in isolation." With The Bill of Rights , Amar aims to put the pieces back together and take a longer view of a document few Americans truly understand. Part history of the Bill, part analysis of what the Founding Fathers' intentions really were, this book provides a unique interpretation of the Constitution. It is Amar's hypothesis that, contrary to popular belief, the Bill of Rights was not originally constructed to protect the minority against the majority, but rather to empower popular majorities. It wasn't until 19th-century post-Civil War reconstruction and the introduction of the 14th Amendment that the notion of individual rights took hold. Prior to that, the various amendments to the Constitution that make up the Bill of Rights were more about the structure of government and designed to protect citizens against a self-interested regime. Yet so great has been the impact of the 14th Amendment on modern legal thought that the Bill's original intentions have almost been forgotten. Through skillful interpretation and solid research, Amar both reconstructs the original thinking of the Founding Fathers and chronicles the radical changes that have occurred since the inclusion of the 14th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The results make for provocative reading no matter where you stand on the political spectrum. - Amazon.com

The Figure in Clay: Contemporary Sculpting Techniques by Master Artists    -    Tourtillott, Suzanne J. E.

Nine artists who focus on the figure and use clay, an ancient medium, share their visions and techniques. Glen R. Brown's introductory essay orients readers to sculptors unbound by academia or cultural tradition in their approach to figurative representation. Adrian Arleo presents a life-size, coil-built figure, and in her essay explains her use of pencil sketches as sources for initial ideas, then details her concern with suggesting the inner or spiritual being via external rendering of the human form. Crystal Boger explains that although her narrative figures seem traditional at first glance, they actually embody the angst of contemporary culture. Mark Burns draws on pop culture to achieve affectionate nods to arts of the past, including the work of Rene Magritte and novelty lamps of the 1930s. Following each artist's amply illustrated essays are equally well-illustrated step-by-step descriptions of the techniques used. In all, this book provides rare insights into both the conceptual and practical concerns of artists working in clay. - Booklist

Jefferson's Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800 and the Triumph of Republicanism    -    Dunn, Susan

As the 19th century dawned, the war for independence may have been over, but the true outcome of the American Revolution was still very much in doubt. The choices in 1800 election could not have been starker: Federalist Adams championed the need for a strong central government that would forge an image of honor and national unity. The Republican Jefferson prized the rights of individuals to criticize their government and viewed the Federalist vision as a dangerous slide into monarchy and a reversal of the Revolution's ideals. The author does a superb job of recounting the campaign, its cast of characters, and the election's bizarre conclusion in Congress. That tense standoff could have plunged the country into a disastrous armed conflict, but instead cemented the legitimacy of peaceful, if not smooth, transfers of power. What sets this effort apart, however, is the earnest portrait of Jefferson, and his ideals. While careful to acknowledge his "blind spots" and internal conflicts, the author eloquently illustrates that it was Jefferson's faith in the ideals of the Revolution that galvanized in our nation "the legacy of a political culture energized by the creative conflict of opposing parties." - Publisher's Weekly

A Religious History of the American People (second edition)   -    Ahlstrom, Sydney E.

This classic work, winner of the 1973 National Book Award in Philosophy and Religion and Christian Century's choice as the Religious Book of the Decade (1979), is now issued with a new chapter by noted religious historian David Hall, who carries the story of American religious history forward to the present day. - from the publisher.   “An unusual and praiseworthy book. . . . It takes a modern, almost anthropological view of history, in which worship is a part of a web of culture along with play, love, dress, and language.”—B.A. Weisberger, Washington Post Book World

The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage    -    Gitlin, Todd

Nobody is better equipped to write a definitive history of the extraordinary 1960s than Gitlin. An astute observer of the media, he was also at one time president of Students for a Democratic Society and remained prominent in their councils until the excesses of the Weathermen and the student risings that followed the 1970 killings at Kent State combined to bring the end of the New Left. In political terms, it was a period that could not be measured or evaluated by any previous American standards; and the great value of The Sixties is that Gitlin, from his thoughtful insider's position, is able to trace the ebb and flow between new radicals and old party-liners, between the hippies and such arcane groups as the Diggers and the Yippies, between those on the fringes of liberal power in Washington and members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. He makes the agonized thrashings of the period understandable in terms of personal liberation, frustration, idealism and guilt about being born lucky in an unlucky world; he also manages to make it a logical sequel to the comfortable, complacent '50s. The detailed and informed political history is the core of the book, but nothing significant is missed: the music, the clothes, the obsession with drugs, the flowering of the underground press and, of course, the key moments: the assassinations, the demonstrations, the People's Park in Berkeley, the "police riot" at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, the Weathermen Manhattan townhouse blast--it's all here, and vividly recorded. And finally, as Gitlin convincingly and elegiacally shows, we are still in many subtle ways, living the legacy of that time, however unlikely that may seem. The Sixties is a triumph of lucidly written popular history. - Booklist

Doubletalk: 50 Comedy Duets for Actors    -    Majeski, Bill

Concise, incisive and very funny! These professional-level satirical dialogs are an actor's delight. The characters are exaggerated, talking cartoons. Each short skit gets big laughs because the dialog bites, stabs and tackles with wit and insight. Simple staging and costumes. Excellent for drama competitions. Choose from fifty comedy duets. Arranged for two men, two women, one man and one woman or optional men or women. More of the best from a top comedy writer who wrote for Johnny Carson, Phyllis Diller, Bob Newhart, and others. - from the publisher

The Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906     -    Winchester, Simon

Starred review:   In this brawny page-turner, bestselling writer Winchester ( Krakatoa , The Professor and the Madman ) has crafted a magnificent testament to the power of planet Earth and the efforts of humankind to understand her. A master storyteller and Oxford trained geologist, Winchester effortlessly weaves together countless threads of interest, making a powerfully compelling narrative out of what he calls "the most lyrical and romantic of the sciences. "Using the theory of plate tectonics introduced in 1968 by an obscure geologist, J. Tuzo Wilson, Winchester describes a planet in flux. Across the surface of the earth, huge land masses known as plates push and pull at each other. At 5:12 a.m. in 1906, the North American and Pacific plates did precisely that. Along a 300-mile fault east of the Gold Rush city of San Francisco, the earth, in Winchester's word, "shrugged." While the initial shock devastated large parts of the city, it was the firestorm that raged in the days following that nearly wiped San Francisco off the map. The repercussions of the disaster radiated out from the epicenter for years to come. Locally, Winchester finds in the records at City Hall that the destruction led to a huge rise in Chinese immigration. Winchester also cites the tragedy in the rise of the nascent Pentecostal movement, whose ranks swelled in the months and years after in the belief that the catastrophe had been a sign from God. With fabulous style, wit and grace, Winchester casts doubt on the very notion of solid ground and invites the reader to ponder the planet they live on, from both inside and out. Publisher's Weekly

The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold    -    Ehrlich, Gretel

In this lyrical meditation on deep cold and its potential demise through global warming, Ehrlich backpacks among the glaciers of the southern Andes, winters in a Wyoming cabin and sails with the research ship Noorderlicht to the Greenland ice pack. Her prose is as sharply observed as poetry and nearly as compressed, and her narrative favors short scenes as fragmented as the breaking ice sheets she encounters. Though it occasionally dips into underpowered assertion ("We're spoiled because we've been living in an interglacial paradise for twenty thousand years"), it often soars to the sublime ("We are made of weather and our thoughts stream from the braid work of stillness and storms"). Ehrlich includes plenty of facts (the area covered by glaciers has diminished by 75% since 1850; increased meltwater from Greenland may actually make Europe colder), but her book is less about science than about sensation: loneliness and the relentless circling of the snowed-in mind; the rumbling of a glacier as its azure ice crumbles away; the whistling, ululating calls of the bearded seal. It does not lay out the workings of global warming nor attempt to provide blueprints for how to rescue what we are losing. It stands, instead, as a passionate elegy to what is melting away. - Publisher's Weekly

Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion    -    Seckel, Al

Rings of seahorses that seem to rotate on the page. Butterflies that transform right before your eyes into two warriors with their horses. A mosaic portrait of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau made from seashells. These dazzling and often playful artistic creations manipulate perspective so cleverly that they simply outwit our brains: we can't just take a quick glance and turn away. They compel us to look once, twice, and over and over again, as we try to figure out exactly how the delightful trickery manages to fool our perceptions so completely. Of course, first and foremost, every piece is beautiful on the surface, but each one offers us so much more. Some, including Sandro del Prete's charming "Window Gazing," construct illusionary worlds where normal conceptions of up, down, forward, and back simply have no meaning anymore. Others, such as Jos De Mey's sly "Ceci n'est pas un Magritte," create visual puns on earlier work. From Escher's famous and elaborate "Waterfall" to Shigeo Fukuda's "Mary Poppins," where a heap of bottles, glasses, shakers, and openers somehow turn into the image of a Belle Epoque woman when the spotlight hits them, these works of genius will provide endless enjoyment and food for thought.   - from the publisher

Contents: Introduction -- Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), composite portraits -- Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), visual surprise -- Sandro del Prete (1937- ), a change of perspectives -- Jos de Mey (1928- ), paradoxical worlds -- M.C. Escher (1898- 1972), master of mind and soul -- Shigeo Fukuda (1932- ), visual scandal -- Rob Gonsalves (1959- ), magic realism -- Matheau Hamaekers (1954- ), optical constructivism -- Scott Kim (1955- ), ambigrams -- Akiyoshi Kitaoka, illusion op art -- Ken Knowlton (1931- ), mosaic portraits -- Guido Moretti (1947- ), transforming sculptures --Vik Muniz (1961- ), a change of medium -- Octovio Ocampo (1943 - ), metamorphic art -- István Orosz (1951- ), anamorphoses -- John Pugh (1957- ), trompe l'oeil -- Oscar Reutersvärd (1915-2001), impossible figures -- Roger Shepard (1929- ), mind sights -- Dick Termes (1941- ), spherical worlds -- Rex Whistler (1905-1944), inversions - - Recommended reading -- Artist information & websites -- Index.

The Physics of Superheroes    -    Kakalios, James

This terrific book demonstrates a number of important points. First, a subject that everyone "knows" is difficult and boring can, in the hands of a master teacher, be both exciting and fun. Second, it's a myth that only people particularly adept at mathematics can understand and enjoy physics. Third, superhero comic books have socially redeeming qualities. By combining his love for physics with his love of comic books, University of Minnesota physicist Kakalios has written a book for the general reader covering all of the basic points in a first-level college physics course and is difficult to put down. Among many other things, Kakalios uses the basic laws of physics to "prove" that gravity must have been 15 times greater on Krypton than on Earth; that Spiderman's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, died because his webbing stopped her too abruptly after she plunged from the George Washington Bridge; and that when the Flash runs, he's surrounded by a pocket of air that enables him to breathe. Kakalios draws on the Atom, Iron Man, X-Men, the Ant-Man and the Hulk, among many others, to cover topics as diverse as electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, string theory and thermodynamics. That all of this is accomplished with enough humor to make you laugh aloud is an added bonus. - Publisher's Weekly

Contents: Introduction : secret origins : how science saved superhero comic books -- Up, up, and away : forces and motion -- Deconstructing Krypton : Newton's law of gravity -- The day Gwen Stacy died : impulse and momentum -- Can he swing from a thread? : centripetal acceleration -- Flash facts : friction, drag, and sound -- Like a flash of lightning : special relativity -- If this be my density : properties of matter -- Can Ant-Man punch his way out of a paper bag? : torque and rotation -- Is Ant-Man deaf, dumb, and blind? : simple harmonic motion -- Does size matter? : the cube-square law -- The Central City diet plan : conservation of energy -- The case of the missing work : the three laws of thermodynamics -- Mutant meteorology : conduction and convection -- How the monstrous menace of the mysterious melter makes dinner preparation a breeze : phase transitions -- Electro's clinging ways : electrostatics -- Superman schools Spider-Man : electrical currents -- How Electro becomes Magneto when he runs : Ampere's law -- How Magneto becomes Electro when he runs : magnetism and Faraday's law -- Electro and Magneto do the wave : electromagnetism and light -- Jouney into the microverse : atomic physics -- Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary tale! : quantum mechanics -- Through a wall lightly : tunneling phenomena -- Sock it to Shellhead : solid-state physics -- Me am Bizarro! : superhero bloopers -- Afterword : Lo, there shall be an ending! -- Ask Dr. K! -- Key equations.

A Short History of Myth    -    Armstrong, Karen

"The history of myth is the history of humanity; our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, link us to our ancestors and each other. Myths help us make sense of the universe. Armstrong takes us from the Palaeolithic period and the myths of the hunters right up to the "Great Western Transformation" of the last five hundred years and the discrediting of myth by science." Heralding a major series of retellings of international myths by authors from around the world, Armstrong's book serves as a thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense - and why we dismiss it only at our peril. - from the publisher

The Works: Anatomy of a City    -    Ascher, Kate

In this captivating book, the innards of New York City come alive. Wonderfully illustrated, the book combines text, maps, and other graphics to tell the story of the systems that keep America's greatest city running smoothly. How are traffic lights coordinated? How do potholes form and which areas have streets with the best "smoothness score"? How is mail processed? What happens when you flush the toilet? Ascher, who has a PhD in government from the London School of Economics and is now executive vice president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, dissects the colorful workings of all these systems and much more. The Works contains a section on pretty much every aspect of the Big Apple's infrastructure. You'll learn the mystery of the shiny silver tanks that have become a familiar sight on New York streets. (They prevent moisture from damaging underground phone lines.) Ascher explains how the city's 23 million daily pieces of mail are processed. We also learn about the 27-mile underground pneumatic mail tube that used to carry canisters with 500 letters up to 30 miles per hour around Manhattan. Also interesting: the story of the nine-foot-long, 800-pound robot submarine that city engineers send to probe leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct--which, it might interest you to know, is the world's longest continuous underground tunnel. And you'll find out all about Colonel Waring and his "White Wings." A great coffee table book for New York lovers or anyone with a curiosity bone. - Amazonn.com

FICTION

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus       -    Atwood, Margaret

"Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey , especially for the details of Penelope's parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumors circulating about her. I've chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey : What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in the Odyssey doesn't hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I've always been haunted by the hanged maids and, in The Penelopiad , so is Penelope herself." The author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin presents a cycle of stories about Penelope, wife of Odysseus, through the eyes of the twelve maids hanged for disloyalty to Odysseus in his absence. - from the publisher

Light from Heaven    -    Karon, Jan

The last in the wildly successful Father Tim in Mitford series.   But if you are a fan, take heart:   Karon promises another series about Father Tim and his travels.

MEDIA

Speak French    -    CD-ROM

Accompanies the Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (see Reference section above).   Using technology developed by ScanSoft, the leading supplier of speech simulation software, the Text-to-Speech engine is able to read, understand, and convert text into the most human-sounding voice.   Simply type in or cut and paste words, sentences, even paragraphs from any source, then click to hear them spoken back to you.   This is the perfect way for students to boost their pronunciation skills.

Ellis Island    -    DVD

Immigrants of every ethnic background recall their extraordinary adventures, historians explore the sometimes insensitive national policies, and the Ellis Island Oral History Project reveals what the immigration experience was actually like. Features rare photographs and film.   150 minutes.   DVD features: interactive timeline of key Ellis Island historical events, interactive menus and scene selection.