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New Book List

April 2003

Nonfiction

For those of us who enjoyed the recent visit to CDS by author Mark Mathabane (we also have copies of his first book, Kaffir Boy ):

Kaffir Boy in America: An Encounter with Apartheid: Kaffir Boy (1984), one of the best books ever written about apartheid, became a bestseller everywhere but in South Africa, where it is banned. This absorbing sequel, about Mathabane's life in the U.S. since he arrived here at age 18 in 1978 on a tennis scholarship, describes his painful experiences at three colleges in one year and in American society generally. – from the publisher

African Women: Three Generations: Mathabane vividly describes the shocking, heartbreaking stories of his great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother in South Africa as they struggle for independent incomes to support themselves and their children; while resisting apartheid, they must also resist the traditions imposed by their own society and the oppresion imposed by their men. The stories are an inspiration and tribute to millions of women worldwide in similar conditions. A thought-provoking book that is sure to deliver a strong message all who read it. – Library Journal

Miriam's Song: A Memoir: From the South African–born Mathabane (Kaffir Boy, 1986; African Women, 1994, etc.) comes this unsparingly graphic account of his sister's growing up in the last days of apartheid--when violence turned black townships into killing fields and schooling ceased as young Comrades insisted on liberation before education. The story told by Miriam, now studying in the US, is a searing indictment of the violence to women engendered both by apartheid and by traditional African attitudes. Both quashed human potential and aspirations, and good daughters and students like Miriam were as penalized as their more recalcitrant sisters. – Kirkus

Love in Black and White: The Triumph of Love over Prejudice and Taboo: Never timid about confronting prejudice, Mark Mathabane, the South African-born writer of Kaffir Boy (1986) and Kaffir Boy in America (1989), now tackles with his white wife, Gail, that most enduring of racial taboos--intermarriage. Illegal in many states as late as the mid-60's, interracial marriage--Gail and Mark learned as they met, courted, and wed- -continues to evoke hostility from both races. In alternating chapters, the pair chronicle their initial reactions to each another, their ensuing concerns, and each milestone in their time together--from their meeting as graduate students in New York to their present life with two children in North Carolina. - Kirkus

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Jefferson's Great Gamble: The Remarkable Story of Jefferson, Napoleon and the Men Behind the Louisiana Purchase
- Cerami, Charles A.

Cerami does not shy away from offering vigorous opinions on the actions of the principals in the Louisiana Purchase. This propensity might jaundice professional historians, but Cerami's readers are not pros but peers: those who enjoy their history packaged as a fast-paced and muscular story. Cerami produces this effect by attending to the diplomatic instructions that Jefferson and Madison sent to Robert Livingston and James Monroe in Paris and likewise those of Napoleon to his ministers and legate in Washington, the otherwise obscure Louis-Andre Pichon. Cerami fairly revels in commenting about dispatches and audiences, giving Monroe laurels for closing the deal in 1803 but scoring Livingston for falsifying the record in an attempt to gain glory. History buffs will find satisfying new nuggets in Cerami's synthesis. – Booklist

Shadow Enemies: Hitler's Secret Terrorist Plot Against the United States: The incredible story of one of Hitler's most diabolical plans: to wreak havoc and terror in America's cities through the hands of carefully trained German agents whose goal was to sabotage manufacturing plants, cut off New York City's water supply, and bomb train stations and Jewish-owned department stores. Shadow Enemies follows in absorbing detail the astonishing facts of this episode, from the recruitment and training of the agents to their landing on the shores of New York and Florida and their successful infiltration into American society, and from there to the desperate attempts of the FBI to apprehend them before they could put their plans into effect. Shadow Enemies not only follows the unfolding of the plot from the outside but also affords a fascinating glimpse of the internal motivations and fears of a key member of the Nazi cell. Equally fascinating is the second part of the story: the capture and subsequent trial of the agents. Fearful that a civilian court would not hand down the death sentences he wished, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a military tribunal convened to try the defendants, without the civil rights common in jury trials. The tribunal led to the execution of six of the eight conspirators only two months after their arrest. Shadow Enemies not only provides a thrilling picture of an astonishing World War II story, but also affords a timely examination of pertinent questions relating to civil rights, justice, and how wartime necessity affects these central principles of American life. – from the publisher

Watson and DNA: Making a Scientific Revolution - McElheny, Victor K.: For over half a century, James Watson has maintained his position as the dominant star within a constellation of Nobel prize winners and outstanding scientists. Eccentric, elusive, and iconoclastic, he lacks tact and grace, and his behavior can be shocking. Yet he is insightfully sharp in science and is also known to be a skillful administrator. Attempting to capture the essence of this genius, distinguished science journalist McElheny catalogs the highlights of Watson's career from his unraveling the mystery of DNA with Francis Crick to current genome projects. – Library Journal

DNA: The Secret of Life: What makes this book different from hordes of competitors purporting to help readers understand genetics is that it is written by none other than James Watson, of Watson and Crick fame. He and his co-author Andrew Berry have produced a clear and easygoing history of genetics, from Mendel through genome sequencing. Watson offers readers a sense of immediacy, a behind-the scenes familiarity with some of the most exciting developments in modern science. He gleefully reports on the research juggernaut that led to current obsessions with genetic engineering and cloning. Aided by profuse illustrations and photos, Watson offers an enthusiastic account of how scientists figured out how DNA codes for the creation of proteins--the so-called "central dogma" of genetics. But as patents and corporations enter the picture, Watson reveals his concern about the incursions of business into the hallowed halls of science. – Amazon.com

All Else Equal: Are Public and Private Schools Different?: Food for thought.

Gearheads: The Turbulent Rise of Robotic Sports: Casual fans of Comedy Central's Battlebots (fights between human-size robots) will be shocked at the Machiavellian intrigue behind the scenes of the radio-controlled robotic warfare. Newsweek journalist Stone's original and surprisingly engaging account of the rise of "robotic sport" depicts a world hardly anyone not passionate about these gladiatorial gear fests would have ever suspected. And yet all the elements of a taut thriller (or pro wrestling championship) are here: paranoid geeks, rabid lawyers, killer machines, violent threats worthy of Belfast paramilitaries, and the startling revelation that kids who go to MIT are just as devious and twisted as the rest of us. Even the guy who destroyed Run-DMC's career puts in a key appearance. Stone manages to find the universal elements in a story most people not intimately familiar with Robot Wars can appreciate, and he lets those elements do the heavy lifting. Let the gear heads worry about gyroscopes and such: the real entertainment for the rest of us is the conniving and betrayal. The layperson will be fascinated not so much by engine technology as by the unique opportunity to watch a sport in its nascent stages develop rapidly from slightly obsessive leisure pursuit to corporate entertainment industry. Stone phrases his tale within a context accessible to all readers, with plenty for the genuine propeller heads to chew on as well. – Publisher's Weekly

Building the Great Pyramid: Equipped with only basic tools, how were Ancient Egyptian builders able to achieve such an extraordinary degree of accuracy in The Great Pyramid's construction? How were stones, some weighing as much as 40 tons, hauled into position so precisely? What was life like for the conscripted laborers who built it, and how long did it take them to complete their task? Building the Great Pyramid traces the history of the exploration of the Giza site, from the earliest Greek and Roman travelers, through the investigations of the Arabian prince Abdullah AlMamun in the ninth century AD, to the work of Athanasius Kircher and John Greaves eight hundred years later. Other highlights include an examination of the origins of Egyptology, links with Freemasonry and the effects of mass tourism. Finally the book considers the less orthodox theories of pyramidologists and looks at how the Great Pyramid has become a magnet for all manner of charlatans, heretics and cranks. – from the publisher

Chicken Soup for the Romantic Soul: Inspirational Stories About Love and Romance: Another selection of inspiring stories from the Chicken Soup franchise celebrates romance. Perfect for a long road trip or a cozy evening by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate.

Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History: Cantor has rewritten about a third of his 1963 classic overview of the Middle Ages in Europe. The new edition incorporates recent research and gives more attention to topics that have become of more concern, such as women's experience, family history, piety and heresy. It will probably remain the standard undergraduate text for many years. - Book News, Inc.

Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert: Frank Herbert's oldest son paints an extraordinary portrait of the visionary behind the ecological SF classic Dune (1965), its bestselling sequels, the David Lynch film and many other works. Compulsively readable, despite the often extraneous detail, the biography explores the evolution of a "modern day Socrates" who "tore into... unexamined linguistic and cultural assumptions," extrapolating "words and traditions he thought might exist in the future." At age eight, Herbert, the child of impoverished, "on-again, off-again alcoholic" parents, announced, "I wanna be a author" and went on to sell his first short story at 17. Brian charts the influences on his father's masterpiece, from T.E. Lawrence and Jung to world religions, particularly Zen Buddhism. – Publisher's Weekly

Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age: McKibben (The End of Nature, 1989) turns a passionate and revealing spotlight on our headlong rush into technology. He explains an array of procedures--including germline engineering and therapeutic cloning--that represent a slippery slope. For although they hold the promise to cure disease, they also offer the option of "improving" or "perfecting" human beings, providing the ability to choose a child's sex, boost intelligence, or implant a predisposition to music. If we're not careful, we could end up engineering our children to the point that they're no longer human, he cautions. Technological advancements are proceeding so rapidly that we will soon need to make decisions about how much technology is enough. McKibben makes genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechology understandable even to those readers who are not techno-savvy, and he makes a strong and compelling case for examining the medical, social, ethical, and philosophical arguments against certain technological advancements that come eerily close to leaving behind humanness and, thus, all the intangible irrationalities that make us who we are. This is a disturbing though ultimately optimistic book that explores the possibility of technology replacing humanity and rouses within us the impulse to declare: enough. - Booklist

First Scientist: A Life of Roger Bacon: The first full-length biography in 50 years of the medieval monk who brought science out of the Dark Ages. Legend transformed the thirteenth-century English friar Roger Bacon into the Faustlike sorcerer "Doctor Mirabilis," but today he is recognized as science’s first pioneer in Europe. Science writer Brian Clegg bypasses the vicissitudes of Bacon’s reputation, which range from miracle-worker to charlatan, and places the true individual in the often contentious intellectual atmosphere of the late medieval era. In this vivid biography, he portrays Bacon as not only a lucid observer of nature, rigorous experimenter, and gifted mathematician, but also an original theologian and philosopher—a man who, like Galileo, would suffer imprisonment in his quest for the true nature of the world. – from the publisher

Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld: Journalist Asbury pulled this book together from several official sources, including police records as well as unofficial ones such as the rough memories of criminals. True to the title, the book is a history of crime both organized and not that permeated the dirty underbelly of New York City and its boroughs in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of these gangs were so vicious they would post signs warning police to stay out of their neighborhoods or else! The 1927 volume is the basis of Martin Scorsese's film of the same name starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio. – Library Journal

Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves: Berlin charts the dynamic quality of American slavery by placing it into the changing context of American history and various generations overall. The experience of the original settlement population adapting to their new environment produced what Berlin calls the chartered generation. Most often associated with slavery is plantation life and the plantation generation, which reflected the western and southern expansion of the nation as cotton became king of the economy. Following the plantation generation was the revolutionary generation, when worldwide views on slavery and freedom influenced domestic politics and culture. Finally, Berlin examines the migration generation, the substantial shift in the black population to the north and west. - Booklist
Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News: You'll never work in this town again! Emmy-winning report Goldberg makes his case that the media are not always objective in their reporting of the news. See what all the fuss is about in this New York Times #1 bestseller.

Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II: Although he served in a variety of high-level economic and diplomatic positions during the Clinton administration, Eizenstat will likely go down in American history as the father of the State Department's Office of Holocaust Issues and architect of a series of agreements designed to compensate Jews and others for atrocities suffered in World War II. His story begins with an old woman's attempt to locate her father's wartime Swiss bank account and spirals quickly into an emotionally charged, multibillion-dollar international knot of lawyers, bankers, and politicians. Eventually, the pursuit of reparations extends to the governments of Germany, Austria, and France, as well as to corporations profiting from slave labor on both sides of the Atlantic. The settlements reached are indeed "imperfect justice," but Eizenstat's personal narrative illustrates just how amazing it is that such settlements were reached at all. His highly detailed blow-by-blow of the negotiating process is an illuminating look at the nitty-gritty of human-rights law, but more satisfying for general audiences will be the author's noble vision of conciliation, which rises above petty legal vindictiveness. - Booklist

Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam: Gilles Kepel's Jihad is an intense, detailed examination of the militant Islamist movement over the last quarter-century. Kepel divides his book into two parts--"Expansion" and "Decline"--and posits that the September 11, 2001, attacks, rather than demonstrating "strength and irrepressible might," highlighted the "isolation" and "fragmentation" of a "faltering" and probably doomed extremist ideology. – Amazon.com

Latitude: How American Astronomers Solved the Mystery of Variation: Readers who thrill to the unlikely triumphs of amateurs will greatly enjoy the compelling story of Seth Carlo Chandler Jr., a Boston actuary who astounded the scientific elite by solving one of the nineteenth-century's most intractable astronomical problems with an inexpensive instrument of his own design. In chronicling Chandler's improbable life, the Carters (father and daughter) illuminate a defining moment in American science, the moment when European-based astronomers first began to take American colleagues seriously. - Booklist

Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery: 2004 is the bicentennial of the commencement of the expedition of the Corps of Discovery, commanded by Lewis and Clark. Lewis never fulfilled his assigned task of organizing the pair's voluminous journals into a coherent whole suitable for publication. That task was first attempted in 1905, but the most comprehensive and definitive version was a 13-volume edition published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2001, edited by Moulton, a professor of history at that university. This abridgment, better suited for the general reader, is an invaluable and easily digestible account of the epic journey. Lewis is revealed here as the more emotional, even romantic, observer, while Clark often writes like a detached technocrat. Yet, through the eyes of both men, one can experience the excitement and sense of wonder as the Corps encountered fascinating and awe-inspiring physical beauty, wildlife, and myriad Native American cultures. The narrative is enhanced by Moulton's occasional insertions of the observations of lesser-known members of the Corps. This timely edition is a wonderful and inspiring reminder of the skill and bravery of those men who trekked across the continent when they and their nation were young. – Booklist Starred Review

Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun: Follows the journey of a handgun, from its manufacture through its violent odyssey into the hands of a disturbed teenager who uses it to kill a teacher, and raises painful questions about the legal and cultural realities of firearms. - Ingram

London: The Biography: Biographer/novelist Ackroyd offers a sweeping, highly readable account of London's colorful and complicated history. In encyclopedic detail, he discusses everything from the city's crime and its theater to the notorious fog, plagues, and Great Fire of 1666, from which the city had to be almost built. He also provides a useful travelog, discussing London's many notable buildings, neighborhoods, and other features rich with stories, among them Newgate Prison, "an emblem of death and suffering," the "dirty" East End, and, of course, the Thames, London's "river of commerce." – Library Journal

Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: Wurtzel records her life as an intellectually gifted but emotionally deprived young woman struggling with clinical depression. She describes her adolescence and her acceptance to Harvard despite a checkered high school career. At the university, she lived constantly on the precipice of a nervous breakdown-and slipped down into the abyss from time to time. Always, she fought back-relying on therapy, drugs (both licit and illicit), friends, and an innate inner strength-and found some salvation in the recognition she received for her writing. Ultimately, treatment with a combination of lithium and prozac allowed her to maintain her stability, but she is unwilling to accept a fate of life-long drug dependence. Graphically written, this book expresses the pain and anger of Wurtzel's unremitting protest against her disability. It will appeal to young readers seeking stories of depression they can relate to. – Library Journal

Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941 – 1963 and 1963 – 1973: This collection captures the long, arduous struggle for civil rights. The two-volume set begins with A. Philip Randolph's 1941 urgent call for black Americans to march on the nation's capital and ends with Alice Walker's poignant 1973 recollection of that march. In between are nearly 200 articles, essays, and book excerpts recalling the purpose and power of the civil rights movement and its profound influence on changing the status quo of race relations in the U.S. Volume 1, chronicling developments from 1941 through 1963, includes Carl Rowan on school desegregation, Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham jail, Charlayne Hunter on her harrowing experience integrating the University of Georgia, and Howard Zinn's criticism of John F. Kennedy as a "reluctant emancipator." Volume 2, which covers 1963 through 1973, includes Russell Baker on the 1963 March on Washington, Claude Sitton on the Birmingham church bombing that killed four black girls, Marc Crawford on Malcolm X's break with the Nation of Islam, and Earl Caldwell on the assassination of Martin Luther King. Other contributors include James Baldwin, Jimmy Breslin, Robert Coles, Joan Didion, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks, Lillian Smith, John Steinbeck, Calvin Trillin, and Tom Wolfe. Both volumes include inserts of news photographs, biographical sketches of the contributors, and explanatory notes. An important anthology for readers interested in the history of the civil rights movement. – Booklist starred review

Rise of the New Woman: The Women's Movement in America, 1875-1930: Before there were "feminists," there were "suffragists." Before there was a "woman's movement," there was a "woman's era." Subtle distinctions, but ones whose significance becomes evident via Matthew's incisive, inclusive, and impressive look at a critical period in American history. Now that historians are reflecting on the "second wave" of the American feminist movement, Matthews reconstructs how and why the first wave came along. From the aftermath of the Civil War to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, America endured a volatile half-century that witnessed massive upheavals on social, legal, cultural, moral, and political fronts in which the role of women was questioned and a so-called new woman emerged, one who was arguably better educated and more independent than her predecessors but one who was still subjected to pervasive discrimination. - Booklist

Watching Movies: The Biggest Names in Cinema Talk about the Films that Matter Most: For a series in the New York Times, Lyman watched and discussed movies that each of 21 directors, actors, screenwriters, and other film professionals considers influential on him- or herself. A subject's choice is often as revealing as the discussion. Action director Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor) selects West Side Story, and--surprise--Woody Allen, the ultimate urbanite, picks the classic Western, Shane. Other participants include directors Ron Howard (who chose The Graduate) and Steven Soderbergh (All the President's Men); actors John Travolta (Yankee Doodle Dandy) and Sissy Spacek (To Kill a Mockingbird); and producers Brian Grazer (Blazing Saddles) and Harvey Weinstein (Exo dus). One plaint surfaces over and over as the enduring classics are pondered: under Hollywood's current regime, which is only interested in mass-appeal, commercial blockbusters, few of the films chosen could be made today. This inside look at the filmmaking process gives movie buffs the opportunity to see movie luminaries being movie buffs themselves. - Booklist

The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life: Divided into three sections, "The American Dilemma," "The Retreat from Equality" and "Reconstructing Racial Politics," this work is nothing less than a working summary of America's history of race relations and a survey the current sociopolitical scene, from hip-hop to September 11. Marable, founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia, is compellingly interested in class and economic issues as more than subsets of race politics. And he maintains a surprisingly uncynical belief in the possibilities of democracy. – Publisher's Weekly

14 – 18 : Understanding the Great War: It seems impossible to escape the legacy of World War I. The collapse of Communist regimes in eastern and Central Europe certainly removed one legacy of that conflict. Yet that collapse triggered a resurgence of the extreme nationalism and interethnic hatreds that were both a cause and a result of the war. Audoin-Rouzeau and Becker have written extensively on the causes, course, and effects of the war. Here they have written a reappraisal of both the nature and the effects of the war that is striking and likely to evoke considerable controversy among both historians and laymen. They begin by examining the sheer and unprecedented violence of the war, during which many of the previous restraints were dropped. They proceed to explore the role of a "crusading" spirit in generating enthusiasm for the war among the populace. The authors reject facile efforts to portray gullible lambs led to slaughter; rather, war enthusiasm seems to have bubbled up from below, and there were strong sentiments on both sides to "exterminate" the enemy. Finally, the phenomenon of mass mourning as a reaction to the scale of death is suggested as a constant strain in European consciousness over the past nine decades. This is an important and provocative work that offers new perspectives on a seminal conflict. - Booklist

You Be Me : Friendship in the Lives of Teen Girls: Girls in their teens form friendships that are astonishingly intense, yet these relationships are often broken and reformed, filled with confidences and betrayals, loyalty and fickleness. In these deeply honest essays, seven women present humorous, poignant, and revealing accounts of their own adolescent friendships. Readers may feel less fearful after learning how liberating it was for one writer to move away from a clique with whom she had little in common. Or perhaps they will come to terms with the idea that beauty sometimes comes with a price. Some will identify with the rebel in all of us as captured in a couple of the essays, or the odd experience of being thrown together with a stranger. Readers will be introduced to the ultimate parting in a friendship: the death of a loved friend. Many will understand the despair and confusion when a friend inexplicably moves on and the relief that follows when a new one steps in to take her place. This anthology is a powerful profile of teen girls and of the complex and rewarding nature of friendship. – from the publisher

The Illustrated History of Canada: The first comprehensive, authoritative one-volume history of one of America's closest allies, our neighbor to the north. The text - from seven of Canada's leading historians - and the pictures - hundreds of engravings, lithographs, cartoons, maps, posters, and photographs - together create a sweeping chronicle of Canada from its earliest times to yesterday's news. Now fully updated to bring readers into the last decade of the twentieth century, this new edition (4^th, 2002) includes contemporary material on such topics as the aftermath of the Free Trade Agreement, the constitutional crisis, the rise of the new political parties, and the Quebec referendum. – from the publisher

Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science: Surveys the historical literature of the origins and achievements of the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. Although this is mostly just a survey work, he doesn't shy away from drawing conclusions or making arguments. He is largely sympathetic with many of newer "revisionist" historians who insist that there is less of clear demarcation between science and alchemy than has previously been supposed and who suggest that the empiricism might not have been quite as empirical as its practitioners claimed. - Book News, Inc.

Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution: Jardine's engrossing book consists mainly of well-told stories of scientific work during the intellectual revolution of the 17th and early 18th centuries. She takes the reader intimately into the personalities and achievements of prominent scientists of those centuries, enriching her account with illustrations of the people and the work. Among her topics are what Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek saw under their primitive microscopes, what Edmond Halley and Isaac Newton discovered about the orbits of comets, and what Gian Domenico Cassini and Christian Huygens contributed to determining longitude and to cartography. – Scientific American

Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century: National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee. Eminent medievalist Cantor explains how the Middle Ages were created in the 20th century, by showing the relationship between the life situation of influential writers and their interpretations of events between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance. In addition to historians such as Marc Bloch and Richard Southern, he considers fantasists C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. – Book News

Next American Essay: Editor D'Agata avows love of the diversity of the essay form, and it is palpable on every page of this unique, esoteric, beautiful book. A fantastic, myth-making perspective runs through each entry of this anthology, whose contributors include such master essayists as John McPhee, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion and Annie Dillard. Hopping from one genre to another--biography, poetry, philosophy, travel writing, memoir--D'Agata makes the point that the essay is not just one form of writing but can be every form of writing. – Publisher's Weekly

Some new art and craft books:

Easy Watercolor
Stained Glass in an Afternoon
How to Be Creative If You Never Thought You Could: Sixteen craft projects, instructions, and advice to help you spark your creativity. Includes collage, decoupage, metal and wire crafts, bookmaking, papermaking, mosaics, decorative painting, rubber stamping, and silk flower arranging.

Some new literary criticism and analysis:

Women of the Harlem Renaissance: For her multidimensional study, Wall chooses to use the most expansive definition of the Harlem Renaissance in order to include writers whose work was published during the Depression and women like Ann Spencer, who lived outside of Harlem. But while Wall discusses the significant contributions of Spencer, Marita Bonner and Georgia Douglas Johnson, her focus is firmly on three central figures: Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston. Wall offers a wealth of information and insight on their work, lives and interaction with other writers. Wall offers strong critiques of these women's work, uncovering certain similarities, including, most importantly, the travel motif as not only a reflection of the mass migrations of the day but also a larger dislocation. – Publisher's Weekly

Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Casebook
Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present
The Jungle: An Authoritative Text, Contexts and Background, Critcism: Criticism and commentary on Upton Sinclair's famous novel. Also includes the text of the novel.

Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front

Fiction

Alas, Babylon: The classic apocalyptic novel that stunned the nation with its vivid portrayal of a small town's survival after nuclear holocaust devastates the country. – from the publisher

Born Confused: Seventeen-year-old Dimple, whose family is from India, discovers that she is not Indian enough for the Indians and not American enough for the Americans, as she sees her hypnotically beautiful, manipulative best friend taking possession of both her heritage and the boy she likes.

Crow Lake: For generations, learning has been the valued goal in Kate's family, but when her parents die, oldest brother Luke's college acceptance must be put aside so that he can keep the family together. Real help comes from their community in rural northern Canada, and the initial efforts of the two oldest brothers make it possible for the younger children, including seven-year-old Kate, to remain in a household filled with love and humor. As an adult, however, Kate, a professor of environmental science in Toronto, looks back with a sense of tragedy and loss, not so much for her parents, but for her brother Matt. The reader knows that something terrible is going to happen, although which of the dire events is deemed worst is based on the child Kate's values and judgment. Lawson achieves a breathless anticipatory quality in her surprisingly adept first novel, in which a child tells the story, but tells it very well indeed. – Booklist

Follow the River: Based on a true story: Mary Ingles was twenty-three, married, and pregnant, when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement, killed the men and women, then took her captive. For months, she lived with them, unbroken, until she escaped, and followed a thousand mile trail to freedom—an extraordinary story of a pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her people. – from the publisher

The Hours: In Cunningham's novel, one gray suburban London morning in 1923, author Virginia Woolf awakens from a dream that will soon lead to her novel Mrs. Dalloway. In the present, on a beautiful June day in Greenwich Village, 52-year-old Clarissa Vaughan is planning a party for her oldest love, a poet dying of AIDS. And in Los Angeles in 1949, Laura Brown, pregnant and unsettled, does her best to prepare for her husband's birthday, but can't seem to stop reading Woolf. These women's lives are linked both by the 1925 novel and by the few precious moments of possibility each keeps returning to. – Amazon.com

House of Blue Mangoes: The Dorai family of southern India is fortunate to have the contemplative patriarch Solomon at the helm in 1899, a time of violent unrest. Solomon has high hopes for his good-looking and athletic son, Aaron, but the heir apparent gets drawn into a radical terrorist group, so it's shy and studious Daniel, who makes a fortune in cosmetics, who takes his father's place. An avid student of the history and cultures of India, the author tracks the fortunes of the Dorais over the course of five turbulent decades as the independence movement coalesces, British rule ends, and India is drawn into two world wars. A skilled and charming if conventional storyteller, Davidar works on a panoramic scale not unlike that of James Michener as he dramatizes conflicts over caste, religion, race, imperialism, and the status of women, and depicts everything from mango and tea growing to siddha medicine, riots, and weddings, in this enormously appealing and welcoming novel. - Booklist

Murphy's Law: Conveys a nice sense of place and period with its spunky, turn-of-the-century Irish heroine, Molly Murphy. Defending herself from the unwelcome advances of the local landowner's son, Molly accidentally kills him and flees her village to escape hanging. She heads for the anonymity of America. On board ship, Molly attracts the loud attentions of a crude, boisterous type named O'Malley. Her public argument with him comes back to haunt her when he is found murdered on Ellis Island. – Publisher's Weekly

The Lottery: When Sal Hanson "wins" the lottery run by the secret Shadow Council at her high school, her fate seems set--she will be shunned by all. But her refusal to be a victim might ultimately set her free. – from the publisher

Secret Life of Bees: This sweeping debut novel, excerpts of which have appeared in Best American Short Stories, tells the tale of a 14-year-old white girl named Lily Owen who is raised by the elderly African American Rosaleen after the accidental death of Lily's mother. Following a racial brawl in 1960s Tiburon, SC, Lily and Rosaleen find shelter in a distant town with three black bee-keeping sisters. The sisters and their close-knit community of women live within the confines of racial and gender bondage and yet have an unmistakable strength and serenity associated with the worship of a black Madonna and the healing power of honey. In a series of unforgettable events, Lily discovers the truth about her mother's past and the certainty that "the hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters." The stunning metaphors and realistic characters are so poignant that they will bring tears to your eyes. – Library Journal

South of Reason: Eppes' first novel is an intriguing and beautifully written family saga mixing adolescent and adult worlds. Set in the late 1960s, the story is told by 13-year-old Kayla Sanders, whose parents have moved the family back to their hometown of Rosalita, Texas. Kayla is immediately drawn to Lou Jean Perry, the cool Mom next door, a widow with a long black braid and two boys. On page one, Kayla says, "Lou Jean Perry was the only person I ever knew who could scare both my mother and my grandmother. Neither of them was afraid of Jesus, and only one of them was afraid of God, but both were afraid of Lou Jean." Kayla eventually sees that the fear is mixed up with love when she learns that Lou Jean's son, Charles Perry, is her half-brother. So why did her church-loving, Bible-toting Mom want to live next door to this symbol of her past? The answer is definitely way "south of reason," and Kayla has an amazing adventure coming to understand it all. - Booklist

The Uplift novels: Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War - Brin, David: David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War (a New York Times bestseller) together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind? - from the publisher

Reference

Penguin Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Why: From the excessive use of grain to satisfy meat-eating demands to the safety of new food technologies, The Penguin Atlas of Food utilizes ninety-six pages of maps and graphics to show how the food chain is affected by historical events, political economy, natural disasters, and changing lifestyles. - from the publisher

American Heritage Spanish Dictionary: Lots of new terms.

Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 6^th edition: Find out what ails you.

Maps

Dawn of Humans (Eastern Hemisphere]: Shows hominid fossil sites, text, time line, and color illustrations. Insets: 125,000 years ago, exploiting a climate of opportunity : [eastern hemisphere] -- Four million years ago, hominids take a stand : [eastern Africa] -- 65,000 years ago, ice age routes to new homes : [eastern hemisphere] -- Olduvai Gorge, source for prehistory -- Today, prospecting for hominids : [eastern hemisphere].

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Middle School
April 2004 November 2004 February 2004 November 2003