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New Books
March 31, 2003
Nonfiction
1001 Things Everyone Should Know about World War
II - VanDiver, Frank E.
Organized chronologically, 1001 Things Everyone
Should Know About World War II looks at the war
with a truly global perspective, covering all the
warring nations and examining not only the crucial
battlefields but also the strategy, the technology,
and the cultural forces that influenced the
war.
AAAS Atlas of Population & Environment -
Harrison, Paul
An analysis through text, maps, and diagrams of
the relationships between human population and the
environment. Discusses how factors such as rates of
growth, density, movement, resource consumption,
and the use of certain technologies affect the
world's ecosystems and natural resources both
in the short and long term.
Along the Silk Road - Ten Grotenhuis,
Elizabeth
This beautiful volume of pictures and
observations grew out of cellist Yo-Yo Ma's
Silk Road Project, a nonprofit foundation that
promotes the living arts of the lands through which
the fabled trade route ran. Blessed with one of the
most fascinating, cosmopolitan histories on Earth,
the region of the route manifests the closest thing
to a culture of East-West synthesis that can be
found. The book's perceptive essays on topics
ranging from astrology to technological evolution
come alive in the stunning accompanying pictures,
which convey the tremendous vitality and the
haunting isolation found along the Silk Road.
Particularly captivating is the photo sequence of
holy sites and monasteries, which in
black-and-white resemble ruins on a lunar
landscape. - Booklist
American Skin: Pop Culture, Big Business, and the
End of White America - Wynter, Leon
Making the case for non-white influence on
American culture, Wynter, an NPR commentator and
former Wall Street Journal columnist, chronicles
the dissolution of America's once-clear racial
delineations into a "transracial"
culture. With vivid, witty prose, Wynter carefully
explicates the influence of black musical idiom on
mainstream ragtime, jazz and Tin Pan Alley in the
1920s; the black roots of rock and roll and disco;
the emergence of black-urban-inspired clothing, and
many more object lessons in cultural exchange.
– Publisher's Weekly
Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers
Deceive You - Gigerenzer, Gerd
Cognitive scientist Gerd Gigerenzer says that
because we haven't learned statistical
thinking, we don't understand risk and
uncertainty. In order to assess risk —
everything from the risk of an automobile accident
to the certainty or uncertainty of some common
medical screening tests — we need a basic
understanding of statistics. But in the
twenty-first century, we are often overwhelmed by a
baffling array of percentages and probabilities as
we try to navigate in a world dominated by
statistics. Gigerenzer deftly intersperses math
lessons explaining concepts like frequency and risk
in layperson's terms with real-life stories
involving doctors and detectives. This eye-opening
book explains how we can overcome our ignorance of
numbers and better understand the risks we may be
taking with our money, our health, and our
lives.
Cartoon History of the Universe: from the Big
Bang to Alexander the Great - Gonick, Larry
In seven wild and witty chapters, cartoonist
Larry Gonick takes us on an uproarious joyride
through the ancient world. Gonick's brilliant
insights, exuberant humor, and delightful drawings
combine to make a truly unique work that is sure to
be a valuable resource as well as a great escape
for all ages.- Ingram
Charleston : City of Memory - photography by
N. Jane Iseley ; text by Harlan Green
A tribute to a lovely and gracious city.
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and
Madness at the Fair That Changed America - Larson,
Erik
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events
surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with
such drama that readers may find themselves
checking the book's categorization to be sure
that The Devil in the White City is not, in
fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the
stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the
architect responsible for the fair's
construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer
masquerading as a charming doctor. Combining the
stories of an architect and a killer in one book,
mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd
choice but it works. The magical appeal and
horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are
both revealed through Larson's skillful
writing. – Amazon.com
Gutenberg: How One Man Remade the World -
Man, John
Gutenberg! What a guy! "If you think that
the Information Age began with the Internet, think
again. With his innovative movable type and
printing press, Johann Gutenberg ignited an
unprecedented explosion of new information in 1450.
Within fifty years, the number of books available
in Europe grew from thousands to millions, with
breathtaking consequences. Science, literature, and
the study of history blossomed; Christian unity
collapsed; kings formed nation-states; and
explorers revealed new worlds. Gutenberg, simply
put, helped found the Modern Age." Gutenberg:
How One Man Remade the World with Words reveals
this remarkable inventor as a complex and dynamic
figure whose brilliance and determination were
matched only by his ambition and daring. It traces
the sources of his inspiration and explores the
intrigues and legal battles that punctuated his
decades-long, covert research and development
program. It also explores Gutenberg's constant
need for capital, which drove him at times to take
desperate measures, such as having a city official
thrown in debtors' prison until he paid
Gutenberg the money he owed him. - from the
publisher
Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of
Socialism - Muravchik, Joshua
Socialism was man's most ambitious attempt
to supplant religion with a doctrine claiming to
ground itself in "science." Indeed, no
religion ever spread so far so fast. Yet while
socialism had established itself as a fact of life
by the beginning of the 20th century, it did not
create societies of abundance or give birth to
"the New Man." Each failure inspired new
searches for the path to the promised land:
revolution, communes, social democracy, Communism,
Fascism, Third World socialism.
In Heaven on Earth, Joshua Muravchik traces this
trajectory through sketches of the thinkers and
leaders who developed the theory, led it to power,
and presided over its collapse. We see such
dreamers and doers as the French revolutionary
Gracchus Babeuf, whose "Conspiracy of
Equals" were the first to try to outlaw
private property; Robert Owen, who hoped to plant a
model socialist utopia in the United States;
Friedrich Engels, who created the cult of Karl Marx
and "scientific" socialism; Benito
Mussolini, self proclaimed socialist heretic and
inventor of Fascism; Clement Attlee, who rejected
the fanatics and set out to build socialism
democratically in Britain; Julius Nyerere, who
merged social democracy and communism in the hope
of making Tanzania a model for the developing
world; and Mikhail Gorbachev, Deng Xiaoping and
Tony Blair, who became socialism's inadvertent
undertakers. Muravchik's accomplishment in
Heaven on Earth is to tell a story filled with
character and event while at the same time giving
us an epic chronicle of a movement that tried to
turn the world upside down--and for a time
succeeded. – from the publisher
Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the
World's Fastest-Growing Faith - Spencer,
Robert
Going beyond the shallow distinction between a
"true" peaceful Islam and the
"hijacked" Islam of terrorist groups,
Robert Spencer probes the Qur'an and other
sacred documents, as well as Islamic traditions and
history and the present-day situation of the Muslim
world, to find out why the world's
fastest-growing faith tends to arouse extremism. -
from the publisher
The Knight - Baker, Alan
A brisk, fact-filled introduction to the
elements of knighthood and its evolution in the
11th through 15th centuries. Baker tells his
readers how such near-mythic beings were groomed
and ordained and what vows they took in military
service to the liege lord. The author first takes
on the feudal system and breaks it down into
regions, thereby giving a taste of the localized
character of the period's political, economic,
and military power structure. He explains the
purpose of jousting tournaments and describes a
weeklong jousting challenge that took place in
France. The development of weaponry is covered, as
are castle architecture and foodstuffs, from the
great feasts with entrées of swan and
porpoise, to the humble beans and peas that were
the daily fare of page and squire. Baker captures
the nature of siege warfare through stories of the
great operations against Antioch, Nicaea, and the
castle of Richard the Lionhearted. He lavishes
considerable time on the knights and their
relationship to the crusades, in part because
notions of virtue and honor are inextricably
entangled with the recapture of the Holy Land, and
the religious aspects of courtly love came to be
identified with knighthood. Finally came the
decline: when mercenaries took over the
knight's role, and gunpowder spelled the end of
swordplay and lancework. A blessing for any fancier
of knights, from the smitten 12-year-old to the
older guy who can't believe his bad luck at
having been born 900 years too late. -Kirkus
The Law in America: A Brief History -
Friedman, Lawrence Meir
Introduction -- In the beginning : American law
in the colonial period -- Economy and law in the
nineteenth century -- Family, race, and the law --
Crime and punishment in the republic -- The
twentieth century and the modern
administrative-welfare state -- American law at the
dawn of the twenty-first century.
Magick, Mayhem, and Mavericks: The Spirited
History of Physical Chemistry - Cobb, Cathy
Those who think chemistry is a forced march
through dreary formulas may be surprised to learn
that many of the makers of those formulas lived
lives of wild unpredictability and fearless
defiance. Readers learn, for example, how Napier
risked going to the stake as a warlock for his
investigations into logarithms and how Bunsen's
laboratory enthusiasms cost him both his own eye
and the heart of a neglected fiancee. In the feats
of these cross-grained geniuses, the author limns
the rise of a rigorous new science, founded on the
skeptical analysis of all data and on quantifiable
tests of every theory. Cobb particularly excels in
illuminating how and why daring minds abandoned old
perspectives and created new paradigms (as, for
example, when Dalton transformed the early work of
Lavoisier and Richter into a justification for
atomic theory). Nonspecialists will find few more
accessible and entertaining guides to an
often-opaque science. - Booklist
Musicians with a Mission: Keeping the Classical
Tradition Alive - Pincus, Andrew L.
Classical music critic Pincus (Tanglewood: The
Clash Between Tradition and Change) has written a
captivating study of the lives and careers of six
influential musicians or musical groups: cellist
Yo-Yo Ma, singer Phyllis Curtin, composer/conductor
Gunther Schuller, conductor Robert Spano, the
Juilliard String Quartet, and violinist Midori.
Beyond their international renown as performers,
each has been influential in advancing the status
and renewal of the classical music tradition
through teaching, conducting, and involvement in
education. - Library Journal
North Carolina Gardener's Guide - Bost,
Toby
Beautifully illustrated, this book offers advice
on planning, planting, and maintaining your North
Carolina garden.
Paranoid's Ultimate Survival Guide : Dust
Mites to Meteorites, Tsunamis to Ticks, Killer Clouds
to Jellyfish, Solar Flares to Salmonella -
Barnes-Svarney, Patricia
In a highly entertaining, avuncular "for
dummies" style, the authors provide brief, if
sketchy, information about threats from many
sources. The far-ranging material is organized into
eight chapters, each with a chatty but informative
introduction, on such subjects as geology, climate,
space, travel, medicine, and the environment
(indoors and out). As the title promises, each
warning is accompanied by advice on "judging
the danger" and "help from danger."
Sidebars and photos further enliven the
proceedings. The lighthearted approach might be
distressing to those who have actually suffered
some of the disasters described, but it should
appeal to most readers. For those who have grown up
in a culture in which urban myths and media
misrepresentations encourage anxiety without
offering a sense that the individual can affect the
outcome, this book provides a much-needed antidote.
Endnotes provide a starting point for further
research on each topic. – School Library
Journal
Politics of Hate: Anti-Semitism, History and the
Holocaust in Modern Europe - Weiss, John
The author shows how anti-Semitism and racism
developed as a major element in the European
political process from the late nineteenth century
to the Holocaust.
Restaurant Confidential: The Shocking Truth About
What You're Really Eating When You Are Eating
Out - Jacobson, Michael F.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest
publishes the calories, fat, and saturated fats in
America's favorite restaurant foods. This book
is a compilation of those reports. It begins with a
brief overview of the American habit of eating out,
the study's methodology, and a basic guide to
eating out in a healthy way. The reports are
arranged by food type, e.g., breakfast, Mexican,
Greek drinks, sweets, etc. Each item ends with a
tip on eating it in the most nutritious way.
Sidebars highlight special findings, which include
the 10 best and worst restaurant meals, the foods
highest and lowest in saturated fats, food
contamination, etc. An appendix lists the major
restaurant chains tested. The bad news is delivered
in an easy-to-read style free of scientific jargon.
Teens who spend so much of their time in
restaurants and fast-food chains will find these
reports highly informative and extremely helpful in
planning a nutritional strategy when eating out.
– School Library Journal
Snowboarding Skills: The Back to Basics
Essentials for All Levels - Kleh, Cindy
A visual feast. Graphically appealing, wonderful
color photographs show snowboarders involved in a
variety of activities. Captions, labels, and
step-by-step directions further extend the
usefulness of the pictures. Teens will find a
wealth of information on taking lessons, proper
nutrition before hitting the slopes, safety,
clothing, stretching and preseason exercises,
maintaining the equipment, basic moves, proper
etiquette, and riding in a variety of snow
conditions. The full-page diagram on what to look
for in a board and terms to know will be helpful to
potential buyers. - School Library Journal
Teachers with the Courage to Give: Everyday
Heroes Making a Difference in Our Classrooms (Call
to Action Book) - Waldman, Jackie
Presents essays by 42 incredible teachers who
articulate their passion for a crucial but
underappreciated profession. These teachers recall
the mundane and spectacular events of their school
days: helping children cope with family instability
and death, using everything from animal care to
fashion shows to reach unreachable children,
visiting a dying student in the hospital, and
continuing to teach while undergoing radiation and
chemotherapy. This is an inspiring book that offers
the teachers' perspective on why and how they
continue to do the hard work of nurturing and
educating children. Parents and teachers alike will
enjoy these powerful essays. - Booklist
Terrible Gift: The Brave New World of Genetic
Medicine - Carlson, Rick J.
A provocative, cautionary exploration of the
onrushing revolution in health care: its
science-fiction benefits, its hidden dangers, and
the disturbing choices it will force us all to
make. The mapping of the human genome and other
biological breakthroughs will have startling
practical implications for every one of us. Some
fruits of the new genetic medicine will be unmixed
blessings; others imply a chilling redefinition of
what it means to be human. And all will impose
enormous costs on society. Social and economic
inequality will worsen as the medical haves
outperform, outcompete, and outlive the have-nots.
The profit imperative will foster ever-costlier
biological upgrades in place of safer, simpler,
natural alternatives. Through patents and
commercialization of research, a handful of
corporations will come to control huge swaths of
the human genome. And health care costs will
continue to grow. The Terrible Gift is an
essential primer to the crucial choices we already
face as both citizens and consumers of health care.
– from the publisher
When the King Took Flight - Tackett,
Timothy
Booklist touted Tackett's
"thriller-novel-like tension, approachable
style, clear ideas, and excellent pacing" as
he "skillfully shows how Louis XVI's
infamous failed flight from his revolutionary
captors in Paris in 1791 led to the eventual
victory of radicalism and strengthened those
calling for terror to 'protect' the
revolution from its enemies. Attempting to escape
across the border to the Austrian Netherlands, the
king planned to march a counterrevolutionary army
back into France and reestablish Bourbon rule. As
Tackett's dramatic account makes clear, Louis
very nearly succeeded." - Publisher's
Weekly
American Fighter Plane - Williams, Ted
From the Hellcats in the Pacific and the
Mustangs in Europe during World War II to the F-4
Phantom in Vietnam and the F-16 in the Gulf War,
American fighter planes are the stuff of legends.
This book looks at 40 of the most famous ones, from
the Thomas-Morse MB-3 that was designed in 1919 to
the futuristic stealth F-22 Raptor. The author
provides detailed information on each vehicle,
including its design history, its capabilities and
weaknesses, where and when it was used in combat,
and how successful it was as a fighter aircraft.
– School Library Journal
Human Genome Project: What Does Decoding DNA Mean
for Us? - Boon, Kevin A.
Discusses genes, genetics, and the legal and
ethical issues involved in mapping DNA in the human
body. Chapters: To know ourselves -- Understanding
genes and genetics -- Human genome project --
Health, eugenics, and genetic counseling --
Project's effect on industry and science --
Social issues -- Legal and ethical issues -- Look
to the future -- Chronology.
Fiction
Bitten - Armstrong, Kelley
Armstrong puts a new spin on the old werewolf
tales and has created a well-written,
thought-provoking novel to boot. The only female
werewolf in existence, Elena Michaels was bitten by
her werewolf fiancé and learned to live
within the pack. Still struggling after 10 years to
accept her identity and feeling anger toward her
former lover and creator, she leaves the pack to
live a relatively normal life. Before long she is
called back to help discover and destroy some
dangerous non-pack werewolves. More than just
fast-paced action, this book offers an allegory of
the difficulties with which one struggles when life
takes an entirely unplanned and unwanted route.
Does Elena accept who she has become and learn to
live with it peacefully or does she continue to
struggle, rant, and fight that which she cannot
control? She is a feisty, tough character, easy to
like, and with a good lesson to share.- School
Library Journal
Children of the Shaman - Rydill, Jessica
Annat and Malchik are Wanderer children. Raised
in their aunt's sheltered home among the Doxoi,
a Christian-like people who hate and fear
Wanderers, they are now to spend six months
traveling with their father, the powerful shaman
Yuda, to the frozen northlands, where a tunnel is
underway beneath the Forest of Ademar to the
unknown regions beyond. Yuda's stated mission
is one of healing, but secretly he is to
investigate a series of murders that threatens the
tunnel's completion. Annat has inherited
shamanic talent that she is excited about expanding
with her father's help, but the scholarly
Malchik prefers reading about adventure to living
it. Within a day of arrival with their father,
however, the children are thrown into a world of
pure evil, wild magic, and interdimensional
shamanic travel. The world of this wonderful story
is a blend of familiar elements: languages are
satisfyingly almost French and almost Slavic;
religions are akin to Judaism and Christianity.
Spirited, fiercely individualistic Yuda is the most
fascinating character. Relationships are complex
and realistic. Answers aren't easy, and endings
aren't tritely happy, though the promise of
light and redemption lies shrouded by the
tale's heady dark mystery. Garnishing this
refreshing fantasy is Rydill's writing, which
holds a slightly foreign tone appropriate to the
setting yet remains relaxed and easy. A red-letter
debut! – Booklist starred review
Dating Hamlet: Ophelia's Story - Fiedler,
Lisa
Ophelia is generally regarded as an unfortunate,
weak character. She is known as the young woman
driven mad by her love for Hamlet and to despair
over her father's murder. The anger unleashed
by her suicide leads her brother to agree to fight
Hamlet with a poisoned rapier, a precipitating
factor in the ultimate death of every major
character in one of Shakespeare's great
tragedies. However, Fiedler's Ophelia is a
woman in love, willing to stand by her man, feign
madness, and do whatever is necessary to force
Claudius to admit to his despicable crimes. Dating
Hamlet is an intelligent, inventive roller-coaster
ride for teens who know the original story. They
will revel in the twists that Fiedler adds to
explain the characters' actions. Fans of the
Bard will applaud this highly imaginative, lyrical
text that plays with the story without damaging
it.- Library Journal
Enemy Women - Jiles, Paulette
Enemy Women is an outstanding first novel
that leads us into new terrain, both geographic and
historical, in the war between the states. Set in
the Missouri Ozarks during the Civil War, the story
focuses on the trying times of 18-year-old heroine
Adair Colley. When a group of renegade Union
militiamen attacks the Colley home, stealing family
possessions, burning everything down, and taking
away her father--an apolitical judge--Adair gathers
the remnants of her clothes and mounts a rescue
effort. Unfortunately, she is falsely accused of
being a Confederate spy. – Amazon.com
Fortune's Rocks - Shreve, Anita
At a time when women don't show their ankles
in public, Olympia Biddeford embarks on a summer
1899 idyll on the New Hampshire shore. With grace
and understatement, Shreve evokes 15-year-old
Olympias emerging sexuality, her family cottage on
Fortunes Rocks, and the bright, sea-clean season.
The perfect complement to the heroine's
enchanted world is Dr. John Haskell, a physician
and writer who provides care to the poor of a
nearby mill town. Despite his wife and children,
Haskell and Olympia fall in love and are soon
caught in flagrante. Disgraced, the Biddeford
family leaves Fortunes Rocks for Boston, where
Olympia discovers she is pregnant. - Kirkus
Reference
Ultimate Visual Dictionary
A visual feast! "From the smallest cells to
the largest planets, this ambitious dictionary
presents more than 31,000 subjects and their parts,
with clear labels and annotation. Comprehensive
coverage of the natural world, physical sciences,
technology, transportation, the arts, architecture,
music, and sports is given in graphic detail."
– Ingram
Oxford Companion to Shakespeare - Dobson,
Michael S.
Comprising more than 3000 entries, The Companion
covers topics such as Shakespeare's biography,
legend, works, literary features and terms,
individuals (both real and fictional), and a host
of topics such as Elizabethan and Jacobean
literature and theater, which help put in context
both the times and the works. Of particular note
are the entries on each play, which include
scene-by-scene explanations as well as examinations
of the play's particular artistic features,
critical history, and stage and screen history, and
a listing of recent editions and selected
criticism. There is enough in each play summary to
aid students from middle school to college. The
attention paid to the poetic work of Shakespeare is
also noteworthy: the treatment is as in-depth and
as helpful as that of the plays. Enlivened by
photos and illustrations and an excellent map keyed
to the history plays. - Library Journal
Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories -
Chantrell, Glynnis
The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories
describes the origins and sense development of over
11,000 words in the English language. Well-known
idioms such as "say it with flowers" are
highlighted with the dates of their original use
and how and when they came about. Colorful popular
beliefs are explored about the origins of words
like "posh" and "snob," and
insights are given into our social history revealed
by language development such as the connection in a
Roman soldier's mind of "salary" with
salt. Throughout, boxed word-building elements show
the various meanings of shared
"relationships" between words. –
from the publisher
Road Atlas: United States, Canada &
Mexico - Rand McNally
Hit the open road with confidence that you know
where you're going.
Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to
the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and
Innovations - Keoke, Emory Dean
While most Americans know the story of Squanto,
the Wampanoag Indian who taught the Pilgrims of
Plymouth Colony how to plant their first successful
crop, leading to the first Thanksgiving feast, many
do not know that 75 percent of the varieties of
food grown in the world today are indigenous to
North, Meso-, and South America. Encyclopedia of
American Indian Contributions to the World includes
more than 450 entries of offerings made by the
indigenous people of the Americas, alphabetically
arranged and fully cross-referenced. These
contributions are in a variety of areas such as
medicine, food preservation, military strategy,
architecture, science, language, and government.
Topics include, for example, the cultivation of
potatoes, xeriscaping for water conservation, home
insulation, the medicinal use of ipecac, and
flintknapping.
Wildlife Atlas : A Complete Guide to Animals and
Their Habitats - John Farndon
What animals live where? And why do animals live
where they do? This beautifully illustrated work
answers these and many other questions. Dividing
the world into eight broad habitat types, the
author offers a clear portrait of each. World maps
showing habitat locations begin each section,
emphasizing the fact that the habitat types are
found wherever conditions support them. These are
followed by write-ups covering each geographic
location and its keystone animals, along with
sections on the ecology of the habitat and sidebars
on endangered species. Charts illustrating
temperature and rainfall throughout the year allow
easy comparison between habitat types. All sections
are heavily illustrated with maps, photographs, and
descriptions of the ecology. The close
relationships between climate, vegetation type, and
the resident animals are stressed in each
description. Following these accounts are a short
section on animal classification and an animal
directory with a picture and short biography of
every species mentioned. - Booklist
Maps
Biodiversity & Diversity of
Life
The fragile balance of plants and animals on the
earth. Contents: Global forest distribution --
Projected status of biodiversity, 1998-2018 --
Global 200 ecoregions -- [Western hemisphere
showing hooded warbler migration route]
Physical Earth
Where were the continents long ago and how have
they moved? Where are the places on earth most
prone to earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. Contents: 650
million years ago -- 514 million years ago -- 390
million years ago -- 237 million years ago -- 94
million years ago -- 65 million years ago -- 50
million years ago -- 18,000 years ago
Ancient Mesoamerica &
Mesoamericans
2000 B.C.-A.D. 250, preclassic, setting the
state for civilization -- 250-900, classic, rise
and fall of cities and states -- 900-1521,
postclassic, world of trade and tribute -- 1521 to
present, colonial and modern, conquest to
independence -- The setting, land of highs and
lows, a natural abundance.
US - The Physical Landscape & Federal
Lands in the Fifty States
Topography of the US on one side and location of
federal lands on the other.
The Making of Canada - The Prairie
Provinces
Physical map on one side, historical map on the
other.
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