New Book List

August 2004

FICTION

The Great Fire    -    Hazzard, Shirley

Winner of several awards, including the 2003 National Book Award for Fiction. " Despite this Australian writer's absence from the world's fiction stage--since the 1981 publication of The Transit of Venus , which earned her great acclaim, including the National Book Critics' Circle Award--her readers have continued to hold hands in devotion and anticipation. Their thrill over her new novel will be completed; the long days and nights of waiting will be forgotten. Time and place have always been exactly evoked in Hazzard's fiction, and such is the case here. The time is 1947-48, and the place is, primarily, East Asia. Obviously, then, this is a locale much altered--by the events of World War II, of course, and, as we see, physical destruction and psychological wariness and weariness lay over the land. Our hero, and indeed he fills the requirements to be called one, is Aldred Leith, who is English and part of the occupation forces in Japan; his particular military task is damage survey. He has an interesting past, including, most recently, a two-year walk across civil-war-torn China to write a book. In the present, which readers will feel they inhabit right along with Leith, by way of Hazzard's beautifully atmospheric prose, he meets the teenage daughter and younger son of a local Australian commander. And, as Helen is growing headlong into womanhood, this novel of war's aftermath becomes a story of love--or more to the point, of the restoration of the capacity for love once global and personal trauma have been shed. - Booklist

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time    -    Haddon, Mark

When a teen discovers his neighbor's dog savagely stabbed to death, he decides to use the deductive reasoning of his favorite detective to solve the crime. Employing Holmesian logic is not an easy task for even the cleverest amateur sleuth and, in Christopher's case, it is particularly daunting. He suffers from a disability that causes, among other things, compulsive behavior; the inability to read others' emotions; and intolerance for noise, human touch, and unexpected events. He has learned to cope amazingly well with the help of a brilliant teacher who encourages him to write a book. This is his book-a murder mystery that is so much more. Christopher's voice is clear and logical, his descriptions spare and to the point. Not a word is wasted by this young sleuth who considers metaphors to be lies and does math problems for relaxation. What emerges is not only the solution to the mystery, but also insight into his world. Unable to feel emotions himself, his story evokes emotions in readers-heartache and frustration for his well-meaning but clueless parents and deep empathy for the wonderfully honest, funny, and lovable protagonist. Readers will never view the behavior of an autistic person again without more compassion and understanding. The appendix of math problems will intrigue math lovers, and even those who don't like the subject will be infected by Christopher's enthusiasm for prime numbers and his logical, mathematical method of decision making. - School Library Journal

Songs of the Kings       -    Unsworth, Barry

Join Booker Prize winner Unsworth on another one of his greatly atmospheric visits to times past, in this case, ancient Greece on the eve of the Trojan War. Adverse winds are keeping the allied forces of King Agamemnon from sailing across the Aegean Sea in their planned siege of Troy, wherein inhabits Paris, who stole the beautiful Helen, wife of Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus. The Greeks cannot enjoy revenge unless the atmosphere shifts, and what god in the first place is so angered that contradictory winds are the manifestation of divine ire? Agamemnon's advisors plot a way for the king to seem to be in full command of the winds and thus retain the undisputed command of the increasingly fractious invasion coalition; their plot involves the sacrifice to Zeus of the king's own daughter, Iphigenia. This classical time when history and myth intersect provides ample opportunity for the distinguished novelist to accomplish his usual gracious exploration of the unique textures of past cultures, and his many fans will not be disappointed. - Booklist

We Have Always Lived in the Castle    -    Jackson, Shirley

Visitors call seldom at Blackwood House. Taking tea at the scene of a multiple poisoning, with a suspected murderess as one's host, is a perilous business. For a start, the talk tends to turn to arsenic. "It happened in this very room, and we still have our dinner in here every night," explains Uncle Julian, continually rehearsing the details of the fatal family meal. "My sister made these this morning," says Merricat, politely proffering a plate of rum cakes, fresh from the poisoner's kitchen. We Have Always Lived in the Castle , Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel, is full of a macabre and sinister humor, and Merricat herself, its amiable narrator, is one of the great unhinged heroines of literature. A stranger arrives--cousin Charles, with his eye on the Blackwood fortune. Unable to drive him away by either polite or occult means, Merricat adopts more desperate methods. Jackson's novel emerges less as a study in eccentricity and more--like some of her other fictions--as a powerful critique of the anxious, ruthless processes involved in the maintenance of normality itself. - Amazon.com

Shadowmancer    -    Taylor, G. P.

This was a huge hit in England, where it gave Harry Potter a run for his money.   Part of its charm is the story of its publication: it was written by a Church of England priest and was rejected by publishers, so he cashed in his savings and published it himself.   An enthusiastic reader sent it to a her publisher uncle and soon a publishing contract and movie deal ensued.   Don't you love happy endings?   "An apocalyptic battle between good and evil is vigorously, violently fought in British author G.P. Taylor's suspenseful, action-packed fantasy. The story, set in the 1700s on the Yorkshire coastline, revolves around Vicar Obadiah Demurral, a corrupt-but-inept, dead-conjuring "shadowmancer" who desires to control the universe by overthrowing God, or Riathamus. When two hard-luck near-orphans, (13-year-old Thomas Barrick, a bitter enemy of Demurral, and his troubled friend Kate Coglund) band together with a young African stranger named Raphah, they spend the rest of the book trying to stop the wicked Vicar as if their very souls are at stake...they are. Along the way, the three youths meet an enormous cast of friends and foes, some agents of Riathamus, others of Satan (Pyratheon), and some godless (but not for long) smugglers." - Amazon.com

Guardian     -    Haldeman, Joe

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Haldeman gives us a tale in which the future of humanity is intertwined with the destiny of Rosa Tolliver--an ordinary woman in the days after the Civil War, trying to make a new life for herself in the Alaska gold fields and feeling an odd sense of being watched. - from the publisher

Miss Julia Hits the Road    -    Ross, Ann B.

Fourth in a popular humorous series about a Southern widow with perfect manners and a taste for trouble, Ross's latest will bring a chorus of "Thank you, Lord"s from faithful readers. This time out, she finds herself championing her longtime housekeeper, Lillian. A greedy landowner is about to raze Lillian's home-in fact, the entire Willow Lane neighborhood, which houses low-income blacks. In order to save them, Julia gambles her own home and flouts her sense of propriety by donning Hazel Marie's leather pants and participating in a high-stakes motorcycle marathon and poker game, along with the minister's previously stodgy wife. - Publishers Weekly

The Alchemist    -    Coelho, Paulo

This inspirational fable by Brazilian author and translator Coelho has been a runaway bestseller throughout Latin America. The charming tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy, who dreams of seeing the world, is compelling in its own right, but gains resonance through the many lessons Santiago learns during his adventures. He journeys from Spain to Morocco in search of worldly success, and eventually to Egypt, where a fateful encounter with an alchemist brings him at last to self-understanding and spiritual enlightenment. The story has the comic charm, dramatic tension and psychological intensity of a fairy tale, but it's full of specific wisdom as well, about becoming self-empowered, overcoming depression, and believing in dreams. The cumulative effect is like hearing a wonderful bedtime story from an inspirational psychiatrist. Comparisons to The Little Prince are appropriate; this is a sweetly exotic tale for young and old alike. - Publishers Weekly

Farewell, My Queen       -    Thomas, Chantal

As revolution rages outside the palace walls, inside the court of Versailles--the court of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI--denial reigns before giving way to alarm, which in turn degenerates into panic and chaos. Thomas spins the familiar events of the 1789 French Revolution into a compelling novel, with the central character less the famously ill-fated queen than the insular and ritualized society of the palace. The story is told by a woman looking back 30 years, to when it was her job to read books aloud to Marie Antoinette. Her status as courtier makes her the best kind of narrator--at once an insider and an observer of the royals. She describes the final days before revolution engulfs the palace with insight and surprising slices of humor. Some passages read almost like satire, as the indulged inhabitants of Versailles cling to the privileges that have defined their now-threatened lives--royals are reluctant to leave the palace without proper traveling attire, courtiers try to flee while lugging heavy possessions. Thomas' formidable skills as a researcher give the book authenticity, and her keen eye for human behavior and talent for storytelling make it sing. - Booklist

Final Witness   -    Tolkien, Simon

With an easily recognizable surname, a formidable Oxford education, and a successful career as a London barrister, the grandson of the author of Lord of the Rings is bound to create a stir with this debut novel. Sir Peter Richardson has it all: a country house, a promising career in government as the British minister for defense, and a young, bright, and very ambitious personal assistant, Greta Grahame. Sir Peter's fatal flaw is that he neglects his wife and young son, Thomas, while focusing on his job and his personal assistant. Greta is from the working class, and Lady Anne resents her as much as Greta envies Lady Anne's finery, social position, and husband. Soon, there is a break-in at House of the Four Winds, and the intruders kill Lady Anne while Thomas watches from a nearby hiding place. Meanwhile, Greta seizes the opportunity to become the next Lady Richardson. Still grieving for his mother and certain of Greta's involvement in her death, Thomas convinces the police to pursue the case and does a bit of sleuthing on his own. Tolkien's skill as a storyteller is worthy of notice in this taut, well-paced legal thriller. The excellent courtroom drama and well-drawn, believable characters make this a good choice for popular fiction collections. - Library Journal

Bastard Out of Carolina    -    Allison, Dorothy

At her birth in Greenville, South Carolina, Ruth Anne Boatwright is nick-named Bone because she is so long and skinny. Because her Mama is fifteen and single when Bone is born, a stamp in "oversized red-inked block letters" reading "Illegitimate" blots the bottom of Bone's birth certificate, and Bone's Mama never gives up her efforts to have this stamp removed. The Boatwright family is large and stormy, especially Bone's talented, handsome, hard-drinking, womanizing uncles. Granny Boatwright and her daughters are known for how beautiful they used to be, before too many children and not enough money carved deep lines into their faces and bent their backs. Bone understands and supports her Mama's desperate need for love until it leaves Bone with scars that won't go away. Bastard Out of Carolina is an emotionally stunning story of criminally familiar pain; of the strength and struggle it takes to survive it; and of the importance of having at least one person smart enough to tell you to "get out there and do things, girl. Make people nervous and make your old aunt glad." - review from 500 Great Books by Women (Jesse Larsen)

Flashforward      -    Sawyer, Robert J.

What would you do if you got a glimpse of your own personal future and it looked bleak? Try to change things, or accept that the future is unchangeable and make the best of it? In Flashforward , Nobel-hungry physicists conducting an unimaginably high-energy experiment accidentally induce a global consciousness shift. In an instant, everyone on Earth is "flashed forward" 21 years, experiencing several minutes of the future. But while everyone is, literally, out of their minds, their bodies drop unconscious; when the world reawakens, car wrecks, botched surgeries, falls, and other mishaps add up to massive death and destruction. Slowly, as recovery efforts continue, people realize that during the Flashforward (as it comes to be called) they experienced a vision of the future. Those who saw everyday life 20 years hence have to come to grips with evidence of dreams forsaken (or realized). Soon, the physicists who caused the Flashforward are struggling to help the world decide whether the future is changeable--and whether the experiment is worth repeating. Robert J. Sawyer has captured a truly compelling idea with Flashforward , and he fully explores what such an event might mean to humanity. Fans will find this to be his best work to date. - Amazon.com

Golden Fleece   -    Sawyer, Robert J.

The unexpected death of a crew member of the spaceship Argo during a ten-year voyage to a newly discovered, potentially habitable planet plunges the space-weary crew into a nightmare of suspicion as one man attempts to expose a murderer. Sawyer's first novel expertly combines mystery and sf in a fast-moving thriller recommended for sf collections. - Library Journal

Terminal Experiment      -    Sawyer, Robert J.

Winner of the Nebula Award.   In this fast-paced thriller, Dr. Peter Hobson's investigations into death and afterlife lead him to create three separate electronic versions of himself: one has no memory of physical existence and represents life after death; one has no knowledge of death or aging and represents immortality; and the third is left unaltered as a control. But all three have escaped into the worldwide matrix...and one of them is a killer. - Amazon.com

Factoring Humanity       -    Sawyer, Robert J.

Rather than a galactic vision of war and peace, this novel is localized in the extreme: the plot revolves around Heather, a psychology professor struggling to decipher extraterrestrial messages, and her estranged husband, Kyle, on the brink of the biggest computer science breakthrough of all time. What makes Factoring Humanity work is that Sawyer deals with vast ideas such as alien contact, quantum mechanics, and the human overmind, but does so to a deeply personal effect. T his is exciting, readable science fiction that will take you where no one has gone before--and you'll never forget the ending. - Amazon.com

The Collected Stories of Dylan Thomas

Contents: After the fair -- The tree -- The true story -- The enemies -- The dress -- The visitor -- The vest -- The burning baby -- The orchards -- The end of the river -- The lemon -- The horse's ha -- The school for witches -- The mouse and the woman -- A prospect of the sea -- The holy six -- Prologue to an adventure -- The map of love -- In the direction of the beginning -- An adventure from a work in progress -- The peaches -- A visit to Grandpa's -- Patricia, Edith, and Arnold -- The fight -- Extraordinary little cough -- Just like little dogs -- Where Tawe flows -- Who do you wish was with us? -- Old Garbo -- One warm Saturday -- A fine beginning -- Plenty of furniture -- Four lost souls -- Quite early one morning -- A child's Christmas in Wales -- Holiday memory -- The crumbs of one man's year -- Return journey -- The followers -- A story -- Brember -- Jarley's -- In the garden -- Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar.

The popular series of Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries novels by Ellis Peters has some paperback additions:

              The Virgin in the Ice

Brother Cadfael solves the murder of a nun and is delighted to learn more about his own past. This chronicle ranks as a favorite in the series. - Audiofile

              The Pligrim of Hate

This entry in Peters's Brother Cadfael series finds the sixteenth-century monk hosting pilgrims who have traveled to Shrewsbury to commemorate the translation of St. Winifred's bones to the Benedictine abbey. The murder of a knight has political implications which reach Cadfael and involve him and some of the pilgrims in a mystery. - Audiofile

              The Raven in the Foregate

Ellis Peters brings medieval England to life with rich and wonderful descriptions of scenery, clothing, manners, and ritual. Our hero, Brother Cadfael, is a Benedictine monk, late of the Holy Crusades, through which he acquired his medicinal knowledge from the better-educated Muslims. In Shrewsbury, 1141, he needs all the wisdom he can evoke to solve a murder with no forensic medicine extant. When the harsh and unpopular Father Ailnoth is found murdered one viciously cold winter morning, there are more than enough suspects to go around. - Audiofile

              The Potter's Field

The body of a woman is unearthed in the freshly plowed fields that once belonged to a local potter — now a Benedictine monk. The woman is revealed to be his beautiful young wife, thought to have run away. Medieval Benedictine monk Brother Cadfael must determine if one of his own order is guilty of the crime. - from the publisher

              The Hermit of Eyton Forest

After the death of Lord Ludel, his son Richard, a student at the Benedictine Abbey, becomes the new lord of Eaton. Meanwhile, a hermit has taken up residence in Eyton Forest, a holy man's arrival causes confusion among the Monks, Richard disappears, and a corpse is found in the forest. It is time for Brother Cadfael to leave his peaceful herb garden and track down a ruthless murderer. - Ingram

The Yearling    -    Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan

A Pulitzer Prize-winning classic originally published over 50 years ago, Rawling's timeless story of backwoods Florida and the tender relationship of a young boy and his tame fawn continues to delight and enthrall readers. - Ingram

REFERENCE

The Order of Things: How Everything in the World is Organized into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders    -    Kipfer, Barbara Ann

Unique information that is useful, surprising, and enlightening. Here, reader's will find the 64 emperors of Byzantium; ranks in the British army; how a television dish is operated; the different layers of soil; coal sizes; the various ice ages; how your ear hears something; how all the languages in the world are organized -- and much, much more. Called "a definite reference must" by King Features Syndicate, The Order of Things is an illustrated collection of orders and classifications in science, religion, history, business, the arts, sports, technology, mathematics, society, and domestic life. - from the publisher
 

Guide to MLA Documentation    -    Trimmer, Joseph

Briefer and easier to use than the MLA's own handbook, A Guide to MLA Documentation includes numerous examples, a new student paper, an APA index with the 2001 updates, helpful hints on such topics as taking notes and avoiding plagiarism, and the 2003 MLA Guidelines. - from the publisher

NONFICTION

Historic Asheville - Terrell, Bob

Asheville was once a frontier town as tough as Tombstone or Dodge City. It had Indian fights, scalpings, shootouts, street brawls, hangings, cattle drives, wagon trains, saloons, and brothels.   Read all about it!

The Appalachians: America's First and Last Frontier    -    Evans, Mari-Lynn

Some 23 million people live in Appalachia, a region covering 200,000 square miles through 13 states. This anthology is the companion to a two-part PBS documentary. Over 30 contributors cover all aspects of Appalachian life and culture, from "living-water baptism," coal mining, feuds, folktales, Foxfire, moonshiners, mountain music and snake handlers to the stately grandeur of North Carolina's Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, a 3,840-acre wilderness. Citing stereotypes and pop culture connections (Snuffy Smith, The Andy Griffith Show, The Waltons, Deliverance), Santelli (The Big Book of the Blues) sets the scene with an overview of the real Appalachia's origins, hardships and triumphs. Evans, the film's executive producer, writes that book and film provide "a multifaceted glimpse [of] the history of Appalachia: who came to the land, why they came, what they found, what they did, and why they stayed." Former Rolling Stone Press editor George-Warren presents a "Hillbilly Timeline" from 1900 to 2000. Many of the contributors, among them scholars, writers and naturalists, offer nostalgic childhood memories. Sidebar embellishments, quotes, images, lyrics, poems and excerpts from 19th-century writing complement the text. Over 180 superb photos and illustrations include Archie L. Musick's scratch-board art, song sheets, engravings and R. Crumb drawings. - Publishers Weekly

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War    -    Coram, Robert

John Boyd (1927-1997) was a brilliant and blazingly eccentric person. He was a crackerjack jet fighter pilot, a visionary scholar and an innovative military strategist. Among other things, Boyd wrote the first manual on jet aerial combat, was primarily responsible for designing the F-15 and the F-16 jet fighters, was a leading voice in the post-Vietnam War military reform movement and shaped the smashingly successful U.S. military strategy in the Persian Gulf War. His writings and theories on military strategy remain influential today, particularly his concept of the "OODA (Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action) Loop," which all the military services-and many business strategists-use to this day. Boyd also was a brash, combative, iconoclastic man, not above insulting his superiors at the Pentagon (both military and civilian); he made enemies (and fiercely loyal acolytes) everywhere he went. His strange, mercurial personality did not mesh with a military career, making his 24 years in the Air Force (1951-1975) difficult professionally and causing serious emotional problems for Boyd's wife and children. Coram's worthy biography is deeply researched and detailed, down to describing the fine technical points of some of Boyd's theories. A Boyd advocate (he "contributed as much to fighter aviation as any man in the history of the Air Force," Coram notes), Coram does not shy away from Boyd's often self-defeating abrasiveness and the neglect and mistreatment of his long-suffering wife and children, and keeps the story of a unique life moving smoothly and engagingly. - Publishers Weekly

Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook    -    Angelo, Thomas A.

This revised and greatly expanded edition of the 1988 handbook offers teachers at all levels of experience detailed, how-to advice on classroom assessment--from what it is and how it works to planning, implementing, and analyzing assessment projects. The authors illustrate their approach through twelve case studies that detail the real-life classroom experiences of teachers carrying out successful classroom assessment projects. The book features fifty classroom assessment techniques, each including a concise description; step-by-step procedures for administering the technique; practical advice on how to analyze the data; pros, cons, and caveats; and more. - from the publisher

Eats, Shoots and Leaves : The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation   -    Truss, Lynne

Who would have thought a book about punctuation could cause such a sensation? Certainly not its modest if indignant author, who began her surprise hit motivated by "horror" and "despair" at the current state of British usage: ungrammatical signs ("BOB,S PETS"), headlines ("Missing Sons Photos May Be Released") and band names ("Hear'Say") drove journalist and novelist Truss absolutely batty. But this spirited and wittily instructional little volume, which was a U.K. #1 bestseller, is not a grammar book, Truss insists; like a self-help volume, it "gives you permission to love punctuation." Her approach falls between the descriptive and prescriptive schools of grammar study, but is closer, perhaps, to the latter. (A self-professed "stickler," Truss recommends that anyone putting an apostrophe in a possessive "its"-as in "the dog chewed it's bone"-should be struck by lightning and chopped to bits.) Employing a chatty tone that ranges from pleasant rant to gentle lecture to bemused dismay, Truss dissects common errors that grammar mavens have long deplored (often, as she readily points out, in isolation) and makes elegant arguments for increased attention to punctuation correctness: "without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning." Interspersing her lessons with bits of history (the apostrophe dates from the 16th century; the first semicolon appeared in 1494) and plenty of wit, Truss serves up delightful, unabashedly strict and sometimes snobby little book, with cheery Britishisms ("Lawks-a-mussy!") dotting pages that express a more international righteous indignation. - Publishers Weekly

1,000 Places to See Before You Die    -    Schultz, Patricia

This hefty volume reminds vacationers that hot tourist spots are small percentage of what's worth seeing out there. A quick sampling: Venice's Cipriani Hotel; California's Monterey Peninsula; the Lewis and Clark Trail in Oregon; the Great Wall of China; Robert Louis Stevenson's home in Western Samoa; and the Alhambra in Andalusia, Spain. Veteran travel guide writer Schultz divides the book geographically, presenting a little less than a page on each location. Each entry lists exactly where to find the spot (e.g. Moorea is located "12 miles/19 km northwest of Tahiti; 10 minutes by air, 1 hour by boat") and when to go (e.g., if you want to check out The Complete Fly Fisher hotel in Montana, "May and Sept.-Oct. offer productive angling in a solitary setting"). This is an excellent resource for the intrepid traveler. - Publishers Weekly

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation    -    Roberts, Cokie

Political correspondent Roberts has deep roots in American political families--her mother was a U.S. congresswoman from Louisiana, and an ancestor, William Claiborne, was a U.S. congressman from Tennessee in the 1790s. Here she offers a look at the women--mostly wives and mothers--who supported the men credited with creating the U.S. Lamenting the dearth of history about these women, Roberts primarily draws on letters and diaries to document their significant contributions. Among her subjects is Deborah Read Franklin, who was virtually abandoned for 16 of the last 17 years of her marriage to Benjamin, who held a post in England and left her to manage the home and businesses. She was forced to protect their home from a mob angry at her husband's position on the Stamp Act. Also among those profiled are Martha Washington, who used her considerable wealth to help finance the revolution; Abigail Adams, whose famous remark to her husband, John, to "remember the ladies" was thought to be a reference to women's rights; and Phyllis Wheatley, a former slave who earned the admiration of George Washington with her poetry. Roberts offers a much-needed look at the unheralded sacrifices and heroism of colonial women. - Booklist

How the Cows Turned Mad: Unlocking the Mysteries of Mad Cow Disease    -    Schwartz, Maxime

*Starred Review* Two and a half centuries ago, sheep in England started trying to scrape their wool off; in France, to shake uncontrollably. The Brits dubbed their phenomenon scrapie; the French called theirs tremblant. Between then and now, similar conditions in cows and humans were discovered and assigned the group name transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs): diseases that fill the brain with holes as in a sponge and spread from one organism to another. Their cause eluded researchers until quite recently. SOP since Pasteur sought an invasive bacterium or virus with increasingly powerful tools, which TSE agents eluded. Eventually, evidence pointed to a genetic cause involving transformation of a normal into a deviant gene by another deviant gene introduced orally into the affected organism. You had to eat something from a sick organism to become sick, and once that became popular knowledge after the concurrence of human and bovine TSE cases in England in the 1990s, there was a panic. That reaction seems unjustified; according to Schwartz, TSEs will continue to be a very minor cause of human death. Meanwhile, there may be much to learn from TSE research about such symptomatically similar illnesses as Alzheimer's disease. Writing with immense concentration and clarity, French molecular biologist Schwartz makes the long hunt for the unexpected culprit gene utterly engrossing. - Booklist

Letitia Baldrige's New Manners for New Times : A Complete Guide to Etiquette    -    Baldrige, Letitia

Baldrige was the first etiquette writer to advise extensively on the subject of manners in the workplace. With her legendary background in both the government and business worlds, she remains the prime authority on the integration of goals that often seem at odds with one another -- namely, family, work, and pleasure. Baldrige provides fresh guidelines on etiquette at work and in every form of communication, from letters to emails to cell phone calls. She also updates the way we approach the traditional rites of passage -- weddings, funerals, religious ceremonies, gatherings large and small. Here are authoritative answers to the etiquette questions and issues involved in nontraditional family relationships -- stepfamilies, adult children returning home, elderly parents moving in, gays and lesbians in the family, dating for the newly single, and the myriad complications that spring from divorce. - from the publisher

Library: An Unquiet History    -    Battles, Matthew

Battles, a contributor to Harper's and a Harvard librarian, offers a distinguished portrait of the library, its endurance and destruction throughout history, and traces how the library's meaning was questioned or altered according to the climate of the time. In accessible prose, Battles recounts the building and burning that have marked the library's long history. The Vatican Library built by Pope Nicholas V set the standard during the Renaissance, and the one built by the Jews in the Vilna ghetto during WWII showed the importance of books to a community under siege. Meanwhile, the mythic third-century B.C. book burnings by Chinese emperor Shi Huangdi were an effort to erase history, as was the catastrophic destruction of millions of books by the Nazis in the spring of 1933. Dynamic characters lend this history a novelistic tone: Julius Caesar began the library movement in Rome; Antonio Panizzi, an Italian revolutionary and exile, turned the library of the British Museum into one of the world's greatest in the 19th century; more recently, Nikola Koljevic, a scholar turned Serb nationalist, directed the siege of Sarajevo that led to a book burning at the Bosnian National and University Library. Battles also enlightens readers regarding the evolution of bookmaking, the card catalogue and the role of the librarian, including the most famous of all, Melvil Dewey, whose decimal system was only a small part of his influence. This always compelling history illustrates Battles's theme: despite the rule of barbarians or megalomaniacal kings, angry mobs and natural disasters, people's hunger for books has ensured the library's survival. - Publishers Weekly

Notes on Directing       -    RCR Creative Press

The classic guidebook to the director's craft. After 50 years in the theatre, English director Frank Hauser joins New York writer and director Russell Reich to bring you an inspirational and practical guide that critics are calling "provocative," "lucid," and "indispensable." Luminaries like Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Richard Eyre, Edward Albee, Moises Kaufman, Rosemary Harris, and Jerry Zaks have hailed "Notes on Directing" as "witty," "bold," "audacious," and "an instant classic." - from the publisher

Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success    -    Metcalf, Allan A.

An entertaining investigation of which new words have staying power, and why. He discusses winners (1941's teenager) and losers (1995's schmoozeoisie, "a class of people who earn their living by talk"); reveals the forgotten jokes behind familiar terms like couch potato and gerrymander; and shows that the success of a word has little to do with whether or not it fills a gap in the English language. Metcalf also describes his system for predicting the success of au courant words (he gives weapons-grade high marks for endurance, while consigning quarterlife crisis to the ash heap). Edifying and humorous, this little book is irresistible fun. - Publishers Weekly

The Reformation : A History     -    MacCulloch, Diarmaid

In this wide-ranging, richly layered and captivating study of the Reformation, MacCulloch challenges traditional interpretations, arguing instead that there were many reformations. Arranging his history in chronological fashion, MacCulloch provides in-depth studies of reform movements in central, northern and southern Europe and examines the influences that politics and geography had on such groups. He challenges common assumptions about the relationships between Catholic priests and laity, arguing that in some cases Protestantism actually took away religious authority from laypeople rather than putting it in their hands. In addition, he helpfully points out that even within various groups of reformers there was scarcely agreement about ways to change the Church. MacCulloch offers valuable and engaging portraits of key personalities of the Reformation, including Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli and Calvin. More than a history of the Reformation, MacCulloch's study examines its legacy of individual religious authority and autonomous biblical interpretation. This spectacular intellectual history reminds us that the Reformation grew out of the Renaissance, and provides a compelling glimpse of the cultural currents that formed the background to reform. MacCulloch's magisterial book should become the definitive history of the Reformation. - Publishers Weekly

Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches    -    Gottheimer, Josh

An incredible collection of inspiring speeches on the social movements that have changed America. Gottheimer examines speeches as tools of persuasion and relates the history behind the speakers and their movements and their fervor and passion, which caused them to put their careers and sometimes their lives at risk. Organized chronologically, beginning with an antislavery speech by an unknown freedman in 1789, the book focuses on five distinct social movements--African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, gay, and women's--from the colonial period to the present. The collection includes speeches by Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as lesser-known speakers. Gottheimer precedes each speech with historical context, emphasizing that many speakers drew on the experiences of African Americans, from uneducated freed slaves who relied on oral traditions to the more polished speeches of the civil rights era. - Booklist

Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII    -    Starkey, David

*Starred Review* Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived: these are the fates of the six wives of England's king Henry VIII, as taught to British schoolchildren in the form of a rhyme. It is a perennially popular story for history buffs: how the great Tudor king sought a male heir. But Starkey's (Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge) account is no rehash; his take on Henry's reign, most specifically Great Harry's sequence of consorts--a "turning point in English history second only to the Norman conquest"--is based on heretofore un- or at least under-investigated documentary evidence. He has new things to say about Henry's queens, especially the first and longest in tenure, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Spain's king Ferdinand and queen Isabella (their divorce began the whole Church of England business), and the last, Catherine Parr, a noblewoman usually relegated to the status of the least politically important of the half-dozen spouses but here elevated to "one of the most substantial." Detail is profuse but luscious; truly, this is history made as fluent and compelling as excellent fiction. - Booklist

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America    -    Drehle, David Von

Von Drehle has embedded the intense, moving tale of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in a fascinating, meticulously documented account of a crucial period in U.S. history. In addition to using an impressive list of secondary sources, the author has drawn heavily on newspaper articles, author Leon Stine's interviews with survivors, and trial transcripts. In a short prologue, he provides a poignant account of stunned, grieving relatives trying to identify burned bodies. To show why the tragedy occurred, he then goes back two years to the beginning of the 1909 general strike. The stifling, dingy tenements and the horrific conditions of the factories where immigrant workers toiled for 84-hour workweeks are described in evocative detail. Stories of the hardships they left behind in Italy and Eastern Europe contribute to the portraits of the victims and villains. Readers unfamiliar with Tammany Hall, the Progressive movement, or the rise of trade unions benefit from clear, concise background information. The account of the fire, the investigation, and the trial are both heartbreaking and enraging. The courtroom drama of defense attorney Max Steuer brazenly defending the factory owners overshadows any modern comparison. After concluding with the announcement of the trial verdict, the author provides an epilogue covering the final years of the key figures. An appendix gives the first complete list of victims. - School Library Journal

Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, 1903-2003     -    Brinkley, Douglas

*Starred Review* Coinciding with the Ford Motor Company centennial, historian Brinkley has produced an intimate portrayal of its founder, Henry Ford, and the four generations of Fords who have steered the company to this day. The great industrialist who forever changed transportation and the entire business landscape was a charismatic leader but contradictory and difficult to get to know. An obsessive inventor, futurist, environmentalist, and pacifist to a fault, he remained stubbornly unsophisticated. Although he dedicated himself to liberating the common man, and made it a point to hire minorities, especially blacks, he harbored paranoid anti-Semitic beliefs. Car lovers will appreciate this amazing account of the birth of the automobile industry, including funny anecdotes about the trusty Model T, the evolution of the V-8 engine, the artistic design of the Thunderbird, sophistication of the Lincoln Continental, and popularity of the Mustang. Drawing upon a massive store of oral histories and company archives not generally available to the public, Brinkley has created an unbiased monument to the Ford legacy that readers can really sink their teeth into. - Booklist

Lord Minimus: The Extraordinary Life of Britain's Smallest Man    -    Page, Nick

In 1626, as King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria enjoyed a lavish banquet hosted by the Duke of Buckingham, a pie was brought before the royal couple. From it emerged a fully proportioned, 18-inch boy named Jeffrey Hudson. Hudson would remain with the queen for the next 18 years, serving as the Queen's Dwarf and witnessing some of the seminal events in British history. Page succeeds outstandingly on two counts: first, in telling the extraordinary life of Hudson, and second, in recreating the Stuart court of Charles I in all its ill-fated brilliance. Page handles the political history and social milieu with impressive ease. Readers get engaging portraits of playwright Ben Jonson, designer Inigo Jones and architect Christopher Wren. Page tellingly juxtaposes the manufactured, perfect world of Inigo Jones's court masques with the darker discontent of the Puritans, who would trigger a bloody civil war and end up as king-killers. Throughout, the author goes from larger considerations of Stuart politics and society to the smaller context of Hudson's picaresque life. He was kidnapped by pirates, twice. His portrait was painted by Van Dyck. And then, after nearly two decades living in royal luxury (and becoming quite famous), he spent the next quarter-century as a slave in North Africa. Page's narrative is as fast-paced as a good historical novel. This is just plain fun reading for anyone interested in a different approach to Stuart England. - Publishers Weekly

Plains Indian Wars       -    Marker, Sherry

Reflects the recent changes in scholarship on the subject and includes a more balanced perspective of the Native American view of this period versus the traditional historical view of western expansion. Marker does an excellent job of detailing the cultural and social complexity of the many tribes of the Great Plains while offering both a political and social picture of the U.S. Army at this time. The work concludes with an excellent chapter on the history of the stereotypes of the Plains Indians from 19th-century journalism to present-day books and films. In both volumes, the content and visual appeal have been enhanced with boxed mini-essays and more maps and black-and-white period paintings or drawings taken from the Library of Congress and National Archives collections. Expanded bibliographies include an extensive list of sources designed for advanced high school students. High-quality writing allows each topic to unfold. - School Library Journal

A generous donation of books this summer has added to our collection of plays, theatre books, and history:

Representative Modern Plays:   American

Contents:   Introduction: Modern American drama.--Beggar on horseback, by G.S. Kaufman and M. Connelly.--The late Christopher Bean, by   S. Howard.--Biography, by S.N. Behrman.-- Mourning becomes Electra, by Eugene O'Neill.--Valley Forge, by Maxwell Anderson.--Waiting for Lefty, by Clifford Odets.--The glass menagerie, by Tennessee Williams.--Death of a salesman, by Arthur Miller.

Representative Modern Plays:   British

Contents:   Introduction: Modern American drama.--The admirable Crichton, by J.M. Barrie.--The doctor's dilemma, by B. Shaw.--Loyalties, by Galsworthy.--Riders to the sea,   by J.M. Synge.--Juno and the paycock, by S. O'Casey.--The constant wife, by W.S. Maugham.--The blithe spirit, by N. Coward.--Murder in the cathedral, by T.S. Eliot.--A phoenix too frequent, by C. Fry.

Drama in the Modern World : Plays and Essays

Contents: Wild duck / Henrik Ibsen -- Will and testament of Ibsen / Mary McCarthy -- Miss Julie / August Strindberg -- Author's foreword to Miss Julie / August Strindberg -- Cherry orchard / Anton Chekhov -- Anton Chekhov / Maxim Gorky -- Major Barbara / George Bernard Shaw -- Whisper about Bernard Shaw / Sean O'Casey -- Playboy of the Western world / John Millington Synge -- Extracts from the note books / John Millington Synge -- Preface to the Well of the Saints / William Butler Yeats -- Six characters in search of an author / Luigi Pirandello -- Desire under the elms / Eugene O'Neill -- Eugene O'Neill, the lonely revolutionary / Joseph Wood Krutch -- Trying to like O'Neill / Eric Bentley -- House of Bernarda Alba / Federico Garcia Lorca -- Poet and sex / Arturo Barea --- Ondine / Jean Giraudoux -- Giraudoux : an introduction / Maurice Valency -- Good woman of Setzuan / Bertolt Brecht -- Brechtian theatre : its theory and practice / Martin Esslin -- Glass menagerie / Tennessee Williams -- Valentine to Tennessee Williams / Kenneth Tynan -- Review of the Glass menagerie / Stark Young -- Bald soprano / Eugene Ionesco -- World of Ionesco / Eugene Ionesco -- Ionesco : man of destiny / Kenneth Tynan -- Reply to Kenneth Tynan : the playright's role / Eugene Ionesco -- Ionesco and the phantom / Kenneth Tynan -- All that fall / Samuel Beckett -- Shagreen shamrock / Roy Walker -- Beckett by the Madeleine / Tom Driver -- It happened in Irkutsk / Alexei Arbuzov -- Soviet drama / Alexander Korneichuk.

Julius Caesar in Shakespeare, Shaw, and the Ancients    -    Harrison, G. B.

Full texts of Shaw's and Shakespeare's plays dealing with Caesar and a host of other sources.

Tragedy, History and Romance

Four plays with introductions and author biographies.   Contents: Oedipus the King, by Sophocles.--The Crucible, by A. Miller.--Henry IV, Part I, by W. Shakespeare.--Cyrano de Bergerac, by E. Rostand.

Plays for the Theatre:   An Anthology of World Drama

Contents:   Sophocles. Oedipus Rex.--Plautus. The Menaechmi.--The second shepherds' play (anonymous).--Shakespeare, W. King Lear.--Molière. Tartuffe, or The imposter.--Sheridan, R. B. The school for scandal.--Ibsen, H. The wild duck.-- Kaiser, G. From morn to midnight.--Brecht, B. The good woman of Setzuan.--Miller, A. Death of a salesman.-- Ionesco, E. The new tenant.--Rabe, D. Sticks and bones.

Seven Plays of the Modern Theater

Contents:   Waiting for Godot, by S. Beckett.--The quare fellow, by B. Behan.--A taste of honey, by S. Delaney.--The connection, by J. Gelber.--The balcony, by J. Genet.--Rhinoceros, by E. Ionesco.--The birthday party, by H. Pinter.

The Breath of Clowns and Kings : Shakespeare's Early Comedies and Histories    -    Weiss, Theodore

Contents:   In my beginning is my end:   The Comedy of Errors and Love's Labour's Lost --- No stoics nor no stocks : The Taming of the Shrew --- So musical a discord : A Midsummer Night's Dream --- In money and in love : The Merchant of Venice --- The anarch supreme : Richard III --- The breath of kings : Richard II --- Now of all humours : Henry IV, Parts I and II --- A dying fall : Twelfth Night.

Dressing the Part : a History of Costume for the Theatre    -    Walkup, Fairfax

Just what was a houppelande, exactly?   Some information on how to make costumes, too.

The Angry Theatre: New British Drama    -    Taylor, John Russell

Essays on the playwrights and plays of the "overnight revolution" in in British theatre in the 1950s begun by John Osborn's Look Back in Anger.

An Actor Prepares    -    Stanislavski, Constantin          

So much mystery and veneration surrounds the writings of the great Russian teacher and director Stanislavski that perhaps the greatest surprise awaiting a first-time reader of An Actor Prepares is how conversational, commonsensical, and even at times funny this legendary book is. After many productions with the Moscow Arts Company, Stanislavski sought a way to introduce his new style of acting to the world outside of his rehearsal hall. The resulting book is a "mock diary" of an actor describing a series of exercises and rehearsals in which he participates. He details his own emotional and intellectual reactions to each effort, and how his superficial tricks and mannerisms begin to disappear as he increasingly gives over his conscious ego to a faith in the creative power of his subconscious. Rarely has any writer on the theater achieved the sort of lucid and inspired analysis of the acting process as Stanislavski does here, and his introduction of such now-standard concepts as "the unbroken line," "the magic if," and the idea of emotional memory has laid the groundwork for much of the great acting of the 20th century. While much excess and nonsense was to follow in the steps of Stanislavski's writings, his original texts remain invaluable, and surprisingly accessible, to any actor or student of drama. - Amazon.com      

Building a Character    -    Stanislavski, Constantin

Stanislavski, assuming the reader's familiarity with the 'inner technique', proceeds to study costume and the wearing of costume, bodily movement, voice, speech and the use of language, and tempo and rhythm-- the more external but essential techniques whereby the actor learns to use his physical instrument . . . and he expounds them as only a master can; i.e., with the insight and authority of talent plus expeirence. Anyone who attempts to train actors or to direct plays will find here a great mine of practical wisdom. - Education Theatre Journal

The Dawn of European Civilization    -    Childe, V. Gordon

Without Professor Childe, the basis of our knowledge of Old World archaeology would never have been written. He traveled throughout Greece, Central Europe and the Balkans studying the literature. From this trip came The Dawn of European Civilization which shows how the elements of Near Eastern and Mediterranean civilization moved upward to the rest of the continent. - Minnesota State University Archaeology Department

The Greek Philosophers : From Thales to Aristotle -    Guthrie, W. K. C.

Concisely explains the basic ideas behind the major figures of that time. Though Guthrie obviously had to be extremely selective in such a small volume, the result is clear and concise, and also quite helpful. Of particular note is that Guthrie paid close attention to the definition of terms. Rather than quote the relevant philosopher, and then explain what was meant in the passage, he pointed out right in the first chapter that translating two and a half millennium old Greek into modern English is fraught with peril. For this reason he always introduces each important Greek word with a good explanation of just what it meant before continuing with the discussion. In short, this is a fine introduction to the field. - Amazon.com