Professional Media

Holt, Leslie Edmonds & Glen E. Holt. Public Library Services for the Poor: Doing All We Can. ALA. 2010. 168p. illus. index. ISBN 978-0-8389-1050-4. pap. $48. PRO MEDIA At a time when the news is More...

Professional Media: The Tech Set

The Tech Set. 10 vols. ed. by Ellyssa Kroski. ISBN 978-1-55570-714-9. pap. $550. ea. vol: Neal-Schuman with ALA’s Library & Information Technology Assoc. (LITA). 2010. bibliog. index. pap. $55. PRO MEDIA Series editor Kroski (Information More...

Professional Media

Giesecke, Joan & Beth McNeil. Fundamentals of Library Supervision. 2d ed. ALA. 2010. 189p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-8389-1016-0. pap. $55.It's not unusual for librarians to be promoted into supervisory positions without the benefits of a More...

Professional Media

Maatta, Stephanie L. A Few Good Books: Using Contemporary Readers' Advisory Strategies To Connect Readers with Books. Neal-Schuman. 2009. c.400p. illus. index. ISBN 978-1-55570-669-2. $69.95. PRO MEDIAReaders' Advisory (RA) is more important than ever owing More...

Professional Media

Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook. ALA. 2009. 204p. ed. by Carol Smallwood. index. ISBN 978-0-8389-1006-1. pap. $55. PRO MEDIAThirty-seven public, school, and academic librarians here share "how we did outreach good" and produce More...

Professional Media

Pantry, Sheila & Peter Griffiths. How To Give Your Users the LIS Services They Want. Facet, dist. by Neal-Schuman. 2009. 224p. index. ISBN 978-1-85604-672-5. pap. $85. PRO MEDIAThough written by British authors and imported from More...

Professional Media

Digital Inclusion: Measuring the Impact of Information and Community Technology. Information Today. 2009. 200p. ed. by Michael Crandall & Karen E. Fisher. illus. index. ISBN 978-1-57387-373-4. $59.50. PRO MEDIAThis book describes the spread of technological More...

Professional Media

Bodart, Joni Richards. Radical Reads 2: Working with the Newest Edgy Titles for Teens. Scarecrow. 2010. c.464p. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-8108-6908-0. $45. PRO MEDIAVeteran author Bodart continues the work she began with Radical Reads: 101 YA More...

Check This Out!

Johnson, Marilyn. This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. c.288p. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-06-143160-9. $24.99. SOC SCI Librarians and archivists, in all their eccentric, tech-savvy, and service-oriented More...

The Crusades

Asbridge, Thomas. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land. Ecco: HarperCollins. Mar. 2010. c.784p. ISBN 978-0-06-078728-8. $34.99. HISTCovering the 200-year period of the Crusades in a single volume is a More...

Social Sciences

BiographyFried, Stephen. Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West. Bantam. Mar. 2010. c.528p. illus. index. ISBN 978-0-553-80437-9. $27. BIOGHave you heard of the Harvey More...

EPWs/POWs

Doyle, Robert C. The Enemy in Our Hands: America's Treatment of Prisoners of War from the Revolution to the War on Terror. Univ. Pr. of Kentucky. May 2010. c.496p. photogs. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-8131-2589-3. $34.95. More...

Self-Help

Birnbach, Lawrence & Beverly Hyman. How To Know If It's Time To Go: A 10-Step Reality Test for Your Marriage. Sterling. Mar. 2010. c.224p. ISBN 978-1-4027-6643-5. pap. $14.95. SELF-HELP Psychoanalyst Birnbach and organizational consultant Hyman More...

Social Sciences

Anthropology & CustomsAdamson, Thelma. Folk-Tales of the Coast Salish. Univ. of Nebraska. 2009. c.448p. maps. ISBN 978-0-8032-2668-5. pap. $25. FOLKLOREAdamson originally published this collection of oral narratives of the Pacific Northwest in 1934 after conducting More...

In the Tombs

Freed, Rita. The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC. MFA: Museum of Fine Arts. 2009. c.208p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-87846-747-1. $60. ARCHAEOL Tomb 10A, belonging to Djehutynakht, governor (or nomarch) in Deir el-Bersha, More...

Job Searching

Levit, Alexandra. New Job, New You: A Guide to Reinventing Yourself in a Bright New Career Light. Ballantine. 2009. c.192p. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-345-50880-5. pap. $15. ECONLevit (Success for Hire) outlines seven motivations for career changes, More...

Social Sciences

Anthropology & CustomsShankman, Paul. The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy. Univ. of Wisconsin. (Studies in American Thought and Culture). 2009. c.312p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-29923454-6. $29.95. ANTHROIn 1983, Australian anthropologist More...

Hollywood Crime

Décharné, Max. Hardboiled Hollywood: The True Crime Stories Behind the Classic Noir Films. Pegasus. 2010. c.304p. index. ISBN 978-1-60598-078-6. $25; pap. ISBN 978-1-60598-083-6. $14.95. CRIME British band member Decharne (of the Flaming Stars) here looks More...

BookSmack! Hits You Might've Missed

October 2008 marked the first birthday of LJ's e-newsletter BookSmack! Published the first and third Thursday of every month, BookSmack! aims to alert librarians and book fiends to damn good books, whether forthcoming, in print, More...

By Road and Rail

Conover, Ted. The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today. Knopf. Feb. 2010. c.336p. photogs. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-1-4000-4244-0. $26.95. SOC SCI The title is both More...

Self-Help

Self-HelpDriver, Janine. You Say More Than You Think: A 7-Day Plan for Using the New Body Language To Get What You Want. Crown. Feb. 2010. c.240p. ISBN 978-0-307-45397-6. $25. SELF-HELP To Driver, who has taught More...

Social Sciences

BiographyPomper, Philip. Lenin's Brother: The Origins of the October Revolution. Norton. Jan. 2010. c.288p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-393-07079-8. $24.95. BIOGSerious students of the Bolshevik Revolution know that its leader, Lenin, had an older brother More...

Professional Media

Engard, Nicole C. Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways To Deliver Library Data. Information Today. 2009. 352p. illus. index. ISBN 978-1-57387-372-7. pap. $39.50. PRO MEDIACombining multiple Web 2.0 technologies into one vital interface enhances the user More...

Social Sciences

Anthropology & CustomsSalmond, Anne. Aphrodite's Island: The European Discovery of Tahiti. Univ. of California. Jan. 2010. c.550p. illus. maps. index. ISBN 978-0-520-26114-3. $29.95. ANTHROMention of Tahiti still conjures up images of a South Pacific paradise, More...

Self-Help

Borchard, Therese J. Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes. Center Street. Jan. 2010. c.288p. ISBN 978-1-59995-156-0. $21.99. SELF-HELP More than a firsthand account of depression, this book is More...

Professional Media

Dow, Elizabeth H. Electronic Records in the Manuscript Respository. Scarecrow. 2009. c.208p. index. ISBN 978-0-8108-6708-6. pap. $45. PRO MEDIAAll librarians confront the issues associated with preserving digital materials. Though aimed primarily at archivists, this book More...

Social Sciences

BiographyCaistor, Nick. Che Guevara: A Life. Interlink: Interlink Pub. Group. Dec. 2009. c.160p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-1-56656-759-6. pap. $15. BIOGForty years after his death, Ernesto "Che" Guevara remains larger in death than he ever was More...

Iran

Arjomand, Said Amir. After Khomeini: Iran Under His Successors. Oxford Univ. Dec. 2009. c.272p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-0-19-539179-4. $24.95. INT AFFAIRS The Iranian revolution that overthrew the country's pro-Western monarchy and established an Islamic republic More...

Reexamining Keynes

Clarke, Peter. Keynes: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the Twenieth Century's Most Influential Economist. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. 2009. c.224p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-1-60819-023-2. $20. Lewis, Hunter. Where Keynes Went Wrong: And Why World More...

Social Sciences

BiographyJones, Allen & Mark Naison. The Rat That Got Away: A Bronx Memoir. Fordham Univ. 2009. c.224p. illus. ISBN 978-0-8232-3102-7. $29.95. AUTOBIOGJones pursued two successful careers in Europe: professional basketball player and banker. If you More...

African America Celebrates

Arts Farebrother, Rachel. The Collage Aesthetic in the Harlem Renaissance. Ashgate. Dec. 2009. 226p. ISBN 978-0-7546-6198-6. $99.95. King-Hammond, Leslie. The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art: Vol. 8: Hughie Lee-Smith. Pomegranate. Feb. 2010. More...

Military History

World War IHerwig, Holger H. The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World. Random. Dec. 2009. c.416p. photogs. maps. index. ISBN 978-1-4000-6671-1. $28.This is the story of More...

What should we do about higher education?

Bowen, William G. & others. Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities. Princeton Univ. Oct. 2009. c.392p. index. ISBN 978-0-691-13748-3. $27.95. Three expert authors—two are past college/university presidents—have produced an important and More...

Social Sciences

BiographyAllen, Peggy Vonsherie. The Pecan Orchard: Journey of a Sharecropper's Daughter. Univ. of Alabama. Oct. 2009. c.368p. ISBN 978-0-8173-1672-3. $29.95. AUTOBIOGAllen grew up the daughter of a sharecropper in Greenville, AL, in the 1960s and More...

Greening our businesses

Anderson, Ray C. with Robin White. Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose—Doing Business by Respecting the Earth. St. Martin's. 2009. c.320p. index. ISBN 978-0-312-54349-5. $25.99. Anderson, called by Time magazine "a hero of More...

Social Sciences

BiographyCnaimhsi, Padraig Ua. Roise Rua: An Island Memoir. Mercier: Irish American. Nov. 2009. 288p. tr. from Irish by J.J. Keaveny. photogs. index. ISBN 978-1-85635-624-4. pap. $31.95. AUTOBIOGThis is the first English edition of an oral More...

Military History

OverviewsBuellesbach, Alfred (photogs.) & Marcus Cowper (text). Battlescapes: A Photographic Testament to 2,000 Years of Conflict. Osprey. 2009. 224p. photogs. maps. index. ISBN 978-1-84603-414-5. $29.95. Through magnificent color photographs, this coffee-table book takes readers to More...

Self-Help

Battat, Stacey K. Thin Threads: Real Stories of Life Changing Moments. Kiwi Pub. Nov. 2009. c.272p. ISBN 978-0-9800564-5-7. pap. $17.95. SELF-HELP Reminiscent of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, the 50 stories collected here More...

Social Sciences

Anthropology & CustomsVisser, Margaret. The Gift of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2009. c.464p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-15-101331-9. $27. ETIQUETTEFollowing the trend of her previous, successful titles (e.g., The Rituals More...

Past Lives

Freely, John. The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II—Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire. Overlook, dist. by Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2009. c.288p. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-1-59020-248-7. $26.95. Mehmet II conquered Constantinople More...

Social Sciences

BiographyBin Laden, Najwa & others. Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World. St. Martin's. Nov. 2009. c.320p. photogs. maps. index. ISBN 978-0-312-56016-4. $25.99. AUTOBIOGThere have of course been More...

Were they great presidents?

Cooper, Jr., John Milton. Woodrow Wilson. Knopf. Nov. 2009. c.704p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-0-307-26541-8. $35. BIOG Cooper (history, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; Breaking the Heart of the World), arguably our leading Wilson authority, offers a More...

Reagan Redux

At Reagan's Side: Insiders' Recollections from Sacramento to the White House. Rowman & Littlefield. 2009. c.280p. ed. by Stephen F. Knott & Jeffrey L. Chidester. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-7425-6625-5. $44.95. HISTWhatever Ronald Reagan achieved during More...

Social Sciences

BiographyBrinkley, Douglas. The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America. Harper: HarperCollins. 2009. c.960p. photogs. maps. index. ISBN 978-0-06-113912-3. $34.99. BIOGBrinkley (history, Rice Univ.; The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the More...

Business Advice

Alper, Noah with Thomas Fields-Meyer. Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today's Entrepreneur. Wolfeboro. Sept. 2009. c.168p. ISBN 978-0-9840722-4-8. pap. $14.95. BUSAlper (founder, Noah's Bagels), with journalist Fields-Meyer, offers a quick-reading business memoir with both personal More...

Self-Help

Barash, Susan Shapiro. Toxic Friends: The Antidote for Women Stuck in Complicated Friendships. St. Martin's. Oct. 2009. c.288p. ISBN 978-0-312-38639-9. $24.99. Levine, Irene S. Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend. Overlook, More...

Social Sciences

BiographyAyub, Awista. However Tall the Mountain: A Dream, Eight Girls, and a Journey Home. Hyperion. Aug. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-1-4013-2249-6. $23.99. AUTOBIOGHow do you tell the varied stories of eight fiery Afghan teenagers as well More...

Military History, Part 3: Studies of Current Hotspots

AfghanistanJones, Seth G. In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan. Norton. Jul. 2009. c.432p. illus. maps. index. ISBN 978-0-393-06898-6. $27.95. Jones (RAND Corp.) examines American successes and failures in Afghanistan and argues for More...

Social Sciences

Butler, Sana. Sugar of the Crop: My Journey To Find the Children of Slaves. Lyons: Globe Pequot. 2009. 254p. ISBN 978-1-59921-375-0. $24.95. AUTOBIOGWhat a fascinating-even tantalizing-subject for study! Who would have imagined that any offspring More...

Business 2.0

Culwell, Lori. Million Dollar Website: Simple Steps To Help You Compete with the Big Boys-Even on a Small Business Budget. Berkley: Penguin Group (USA). 2009. c.240p. ISBN 978-0-7352-0441-6. pap. $19.95.This do-it-yourself guide shares the web-design More...

Military History, Part 2

The first installment of this roundup of new military history/studies titles (LJ 5/1/09) looked at what's on the horizon in studies of World War I and World War II. This second installment considers coverage of More...

Social Sciences

Castro, Raul H. & Jack L. August Jr. Adversity Is My Angel: The Life and Career of Raul H. Castro. Texas Christian Univ. 2009. c.136p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-87565-378-5. pap. $21.95. AUTOBIOGThis is not More...

Xpress Reviews

LJ's free weekly web evaluations for the weeks of April 24 and May 1, 2009. Go to Reviews on our homepage, then click on Xpress Reviews.Fiction Austen, Jane and Seth Grahame-Smith. Pride and Prejudice and More...

Financial Guides for Hard Times

The global economy is facing financial turbulence unknown since the 1930s. Home owners have seen their home values plummet. Investors have seen their nest eggs shrink. Retailers cannot find customers. The job cuts keep on More...

Social Sciences

BiographyAffonco, Denise. To the End of Hell: One Woman's Struggle To Survive Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. Reportage. May 2009. c.232p. illus. maps. ISBN 978-1-906702-07-6. pap. $15.95. AUTOBIOGIn 1975, Affonco, a French citizen (her father was French More...

Self-Help

Bemis, Judith. The Power of Acceptance: Finding Peace from Anxiety and Panic Attacks. Cold Tree. Jul. 2009. c.248p. ISBN 978-1-58385-277-8. pap. $12.95. SELF-HELP Recovered agoraphobic Bemis (Overcoming Anxiety) aims to help the more than 40 More...

Military History

Genres come and go in popularity, but interest in military history remains high. World War II continues to inspire the greatest number of titles and is well represented in this first of two roundups of More...

Social Sciences

BiographyGelles, Edith B. Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage. Morrow. 2009. c.352p. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-06-135387-1. $26.99. BIOGThere have been numerous biographies, scholarly works, and even novels on the lives of both John Adams, the More...

Short Takes: 50 Summer Memoirs for the Beach, Backwoods, or Flu Bunker

Memoirs are the new novels-and I don't mean that snarkily. True or not, artfully or artlessly enhanced autobiography now commands the kind of front-list attention usually reserved forheavyweight novelists. Glance at any best-sellers list, and More...

Social Sciences

Rudd, Mark. Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen. Morrow. Apr. 2009. c.336p. maps. ISBN 978-0-06-147275-6. $25.99. AUTOBIOGRudd, a leader of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) during the Columbia University student strike of More...

Election Journey '08

Ceaser, James W. & others. Epic Journey: The 2008 Election and American Politics. Rowman & Littlefield. Apr. 2009. c.208p. index. ISBN 978-0-7425-6135-9. $49.95; pap. ISBN 978-0-7425-6136-6. $24.95. POLITICS Here's a useful book, by three academics, More...

Social Sciences

Chang, David Wen-Wei & Alden R. Carter. The Scholar and the Tiger: A Memoir of Famine and War in Revolutionary China. Rowman & Littlefield. 2009. c.168p. photogs. ISBN 978-0-7425-5761-1. $34.95. AUTOBIOGThis is the gentle, touching More...

Holocaust Memoirs

Traditionally, Holocaust memoirs have been either contemporary diaries from the era, memoirs drawn from diaries or notes, or oral history interviews from recollectionor personal reconstruction. Recently, new subgenres have appeared, such as memoirs in which More...

Social Sciences

BiographyDanisi, Thomas C. & John C. Jackson Meriwether Lewis. Prometheus. Mar. 2009. c.384p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-1-59102-702-7. $28.98. BIOGMeriwether Lewis was famous for two things: leading the Corps of Discovery expedition (1804–06) and committing suicide. More...

Short Takes: Memoirs

Welcome to a third set of Short Takes: Memoirs (the first two appeared in LJ 9/15/08 and LJ 12/08). Last fall's deluge continues this winter and spring, with especially impressive investigations into the nature of More...

Social Sciences

BiographyBuckholtz, Alison. Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War. Tarcher: Penguin. Apr. 2009. c.320p. bibliog. ISBN 978-1-58542-695-9. $24.95. AUTOBIOGBuckholtz here offers a vivid and sensitive account of the More...

Social Sciences

BiographyAdams, Mark. Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet. Harper: HarperCollins. Mar. 2009. c.304p. photogs. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-06-059475-6. $25.99. BIOGJournalist Adams provides a More...

Self-Help

Driscoll, Richard & Nancy Ann Davis. You Still Don't Understand: Typical Differences Between Men and Women—and How To Resolve Them. Westside Psychology. Mar. 2009. c.156p. ISBN 978-0-9634126-5-2. pap. $18.50. SELF-HELP In the nature vs. nurture More...

Social Sciences

BiographyGuy, John. A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg. Houghton. Mar. 2009. c.400p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-618-49915-1. $30. BIOGThomas More (1478–1535), Henry VIII's lord chancellor, a humanist scholar, and a canonized Catholic More...

Social Sciences

BiographyFraser, Flora. Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire. Knopf. Feb. 2009. c.304p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-307-26544-9. $28.95. BIOGFraser (The Unruly Queen), a prolific biographer in the tradition of her mother, Antonia Fraser, tells the story More...

Self-Help

Altoonian, Linda. Living Agelessly: Answers to Your Most Common Questions About Aging Gracefully. DiaMedica. Jan. 2009. c.256p. ISBN 978-0-9793564-4-5. pap. $16.95. McGraw, Robin. What's Age Got To Do With It?: Living Your Happiest & Healthiest More...

Business (and Life) Self-Help

Best Seller ReprintedHill, Napoleon. The Law of Success: The Master Wealth-Builder's Complete and Original Lesson Plan for Achieving Your Dreams. Tarcher: Penguin. Jan. 2009. 640p. index. ISBN 978-1-58542-689-9. pap. $16.95. BUSNapoleon Hill (1883–1970), one of More...

Social Sciences Short Takes: Memoirs

In LJ 9/15/08, we did our first set of Short Takes on memoirs. As promised, here's a second focusing on anticipated early winter pubs. So far, there are no copycats of David Carr's rapturously received More...

Social Sciences

Anthropology & CustomsLutkehaus, Nancy C. Margaret Mead: The Making of an American Icon. Princeton. Dec. 2008. c.392p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-691-00941-4. $29.95. ANTHROWhat led to Margaret Mead's becoming the best-known anthropologist of the 20th More...

Social Sciences: On the Ground in Iraq

Campbell, Donovan. Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood. Random. Mar. 2009. c.313p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6773-2. $26. INT AFFAIRSCampbell does not come from a military family. Enhancing his résumé served as his More...

Self-Help

Alasko, Carl. Emotional Bullshit: The Hidden Plague That Is Threatening To Destroy Your Relationships—and How To Stop It. Tarcher: Penguin. Jan. 2009. c.272p. ISBN 978-1-58542-666-9. pap. $14.95. SELF-HELP According to clinical psychologist Alasko, deception is More...

Social Sciences

BiographyBuckley, William F., Jr. The Reagan I Knew. Basic Bks: Perseus. Nov. 2008. c.240p. ISBN 978-0-465-00926-8. $25. BIOGBuckley, the icon of conservative intellectuals, founder of the National Review and host of Firing Line, wrote almost More...

Social Sciences Q&A: Donovan Campbell

In Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership and Brotherhood, Donovan Campbell describes how, as a new Princeton graduate, he chose to join the U.S. Marines, deploying to Iraq, rather than opting for More...

Q&A: Tony Rose

Formerly a record producer, Tony Rose (coauthor, Is Modeling for You? The Handbook and Guide for the Young Aspiring Black Model) is now publisher and CEO of Amber Communications Group. He was an architect of More...

Amazon Dreams

Everett, Daniel L. Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle. Pantheon. Nov. 2008. c.320p. photogs. ISBN 978-0-375-42502-8. $26.95. ANTHRO Everett (languages, literatures, & cultures, Illinois State Univ.) has crafted a More...

African American Views: 40 Titles for Black History Month

Founded in 1909, the NAACP has since been the major civil rights group in the United States, and it's still around. Next year, the organization celebrates its centennial in conjunction with the publication of NAACP: More...

Social Sciences

BiographyFeld, Marjorie N. Lillian Wald: A Biography. Univ. of North Carolina. 2008. photogs. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-8078-3236-3. $35. BIOGIn her profile of progressive social activist Lillian Wald (1867–1940), Feld (history, Babson Coll.) sets out to reexamine More...

Social Sciences

BiographyD'Este, Carlo. Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874–1945. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2008. c.864p. photogs. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-06-057573-1. $39.95. BIOGOver 500 books have been written-just in English-recounting the life and career More...

From Thermopylae to Iraq

Robert E. Lee opined, "It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it." Nevertheless, war remains one of the most popular of human activities. Its language infuses our cultures, More...

Q&A: Gen. Wesley K. Clark

Say you're going to present a series of biographies of American military leaders whose commands significantly affected the course of U.S. history. Say you want it overseen by someone who has both studied and lived More...

Short Takes: Presidents and Veeps

These books are timed to appear with the culminatation of the 2008 presidential election season. Like the McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden teams, they are sometimes perplexing hybrids, mixing some serious content with some partisan opinion (the More...

Social Sciences

BiographyBerg, Pierre with Brian Brock. Scheisshaus Luck: Surviving the Unspeakable in Auschwitz and Dora. AMACOM: American Management Assn. 2008. c.320p. ISBN 978-0-8144-1299-2. $24.95. AUTOBIOGSoon after the end of Word War II, French-born Berg first drafted More...

How We Vote

Gelman, Andrew with David Park & others. Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do. Princeton Univ. Sept. 2008. c.240p. illus. index. ISBN 978-0-691-13927-2. $27.95. POL SCI As More...

Self-Help

Babits, Marty. The Power of the Middle Ground: A Couple's Guide to Renewing Your Relationship. Prometheus. Oct. 2008. c.275p. ISBN 978-1-59102-662-4. pap. $17.95. SELF-HELP According to couples therapist and educator Babits, the "middle ground" is More...

Social Sciences

BiographyAshton, Nigel J. King Hussein of Jordan: A Political Life. Yale Univ. Sept. 2008. c.464p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-300-09167-0. $35.Shlaim, Avi. Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace. Knopf. Sept. More...

Short Takes: Memoirs

James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, Margaret B. Jones's Love and Consequences, Misha Defonseca's Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years-these works have marred the memoir genre but certainly not endangered it. As this bundle More...

The Way We Were

According to library legend, the annual presentation of New York Public Library's Best of Reference committee, which I have been on for three years, was once a somewhat staid affair. Committee members would take turns More...

Q & A: Annette Gordon-Reed

Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of law at New York Law School and of history at Rutgers University, has for decades investigated the controversial relations between Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence and More...

Social Sciences

BiographyClaridge, Laura. Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners. Random. Oct. 2008. c.544p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-0-375-50921-6. $30. BIOGClaridge (Norman Rockwell: A Life), a former English professor, has produced what is More...

More To Learn from Lincoln

In 1876, Frederick Douglass observed that "no man can say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln." On that count, the usually prescient Douglass was wrong. Even today, with the enormous body of work on More...

Self-Help

Casey, Karen. Codependence and the Power of Detachment: How To Set Boundaries and Make Your Life Your Own. Conari: Red Wheel/Weiser. Sept. 2008. c.176p. ISBN 978-1-57324-362-9. pap. $14.95. SELF-HELPWorkshop leader and author Casey (Change Your More...

Social Sciences Short Takes: Think-Tank Titles

Early on in What Happened, Scott McClellan points readers to The Permanent Campaign and Its Future (American Enterprise Inst.), coedited by Washington think-tank scholars Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann, one from "the conservative-oriented More...

Social Sciences

BiographyBrown, Meredith Mason. Frontiersman: Daniel Boone and the Making of America. Louisiana State Univ. (Southern Biography). Sept. 2008. c.416p. illus. maps. index. ISBN 978-0-8071-3356-9. $34.95. BIOGGood biographies of Daniel Boone abound, the recent ones being More...

Nonfiction: 2008 Reviewer of the Year

Five months before autism made the cover of Time magazine, Corey Seeman answered my call for reviewers with knowledge of this developmental disorder. A baptism by fire ensued, but Corey never balked at his monthly More...