In Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need Them, David Anderegg uses Sleepy Hollow as one tool to explore the nerd stereotype in America and its effects on our society, especially on our children. 

When delving into the roots of our nation's nerd stereotype, Anderegg engages two bright American icons: Ralph Waldo Emerson's speech about the American Man of Action; and Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow. 

Most of us have come to view Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman as a vital piece of Americana after reading the story as children.  However, here, Anderegg causes the reader to step back and see this story from a fresh perspective: As the "nerd," Ichabod, lanky and bookish and interested in unnatural pursuits, is defeated by the strapping and not-so-bookish Brom Bones. 

Accordingly, Old European learning is defeated by American Action. And in the end, it is American Action who gets the girl.  Yet, just what kind of message, Anderegg argues, is this sending to our children? 

Sit back and contemplate the question for a moment and you begin to see his point. 

The nerd stereotype seems to be a permanent part of modern life.  At first, it seems harmless enough, a topic we can joke about, because, after all, we know that nerds can get by just fine on their own; thus, what's the harm in joking about them? 

But children see the equation much differently. Utilizing humor and thought-provoking analysis, Anderegg illustrates that the nerd stereotype is harmful to a child's development, evidencing his points by-way of pertinent pop-culture references, research data and a poignant series of interviews with young people on the subject.

"We act like it's all in good fun to communicate to our kids that people who are smart and do well in school and like science fiction and computers are also people who smell bad and look ugly and are so repulsive that they are not allowed to have girlfriends. And then we wonder why it's so hard to motivate kids to do well in school."  (p.33)

In short, Nerds is a call to arms for America.  As a society, we shame kids when they use stereotypes for race or disability, so why then, Anderegg asks, do we foster this hurtful stereotype that ridicules those whose personalities deviate from the accepted norm? 

Anderegg completely exhausts the topic of "nerdity" in this book. For example, in the opening chapter, The Field Guide to Nerds or Why Nerds Are so Gay, he defines the universal face of the nerd and then effectively explores the connection between nerds and magic.  Packing the pages with detailed information, Anderegg makes Nerds a delight to read, giving us a fresh perspective on this harsh stereotype while inspiring readers to think twice before they use the word in the future.

Moreover, this book will prove itself invaluable to parents as they start to teach their kids what words and nicknames can do to the one being labeled.  Basically, if we want our children to succeed in disciplines like math and science and to have a true love for learning, we must nip this stereotype in the bud. 

Ultimately, Anderegg wrote Nerds to make us aware of the stereotype and of the problems it causes. And that, it seems, is the first step to our collective recovery. 

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Initially, I was going to assign this book to a contributing writer to The Electric Review, more specifically, I was going to assign it to a female writer who I thought might better be able to deal with the vast female perspective of Louise Sloan's very personal memoir.

However, after being sucked into the vortex of this story by Sloan's evocative and layered writing, I decided that perhaps that tact would not do justice to the passion of her book or to its important message, the purpose of this book to bring attention to the changing perspectives of the culture and its traditional familial structure.

Here, Sloan tells the story of her choice to become pregnant without having a husband, carefully escorting her readers into the every nuance of that decision. In Knock Yourself Up, we learn of the random things bouncing through Sloan's head as she sought a sperm donor as she grappled with questions about the inevitable changes that motherhood would bring to her life.

Tough questions, indeed , with no formulaic answers at the ready. Instead, it's all comes down to individual eyes and how to make the process applicable to your own path.

In Knock Yourself Up, Sloan throws down the gauntlet and frankly confronts the idea of single parenthood by choice. Stepping back and looking at this equation objectively is difficult, since everything we've been taught is centered in the tradition of the mother-father family unit (as evinced by our television culture where "Leave it to Beaver" serves as everyone's picture of the perfect home-life).

Yet, as Sloan shows us, "Leave it to Beaver" isn't everyone's dream, and there are women out there who hunger to know the wonders of motherhood without being married; and Sloan writes:

"My original intention with this book was to start with the idea that a mature single woman with adequate resources having a baby thoughtfully on her own was an OK thing to do, and move on from there."

You see, above all else, Sloan is writing about freedom, writing about the idea of liberty, writing about the concept of individuality. Basically, this book says that it is perfectly fine to be yourself and act in your best interests, saying that it's perfectly acceptable to live your life as you see fit rather than as someone else expects you to live.

Yet, going further, Sloan makes an even deeper statement, that individuality doesn't have to stop at questions of dress or sexual orientation; instead, these questions can extend to how you choose to structure your family and how you choose to help further the collective cause of the world.

As readers will quickly learn, Knock Yourself Up transcends 'straight versus gay,' transcending 'right versus left.' Rather, the book's about the idea that single parents can in fact present a child with an ordered and happy home life, if they themselves are strong individuals with self-actualized cores and a true understanding of their place in the world.

I surmise that many traditionalists will take umbrage with Sloan's point of view and with the family unit she has created. However, even if you disagree with her ideals, you must tip your hat to this lady's guts, for it takes a strong stomach to step out alone into these uncertain times and raise a child without 'dad' around.

In addition, it takes much courage to step out as a writer and tell the world such a personal story. Accordingly, readers will be touched not only by Sloan's writing but by her passionate honesty and fragile human-ness.

Recommended to all women thinking of becoming mothers, even if your married, the themes Sloan touches on here are universal in tone and speak to the mission of mothers in both traditional and non-traditional relationships.

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Can you tell me a bit about your background?

I grew up in upstate New York and Western Massachusetts, in a devout Roman Catholic home.  My parents were of German and Irish ancestry.  My father was an elementary school administrator, and my mother often did substitute teaching.  I also have a sister, ten years older.  My great-aunt, Louise Edwards (my namesake) lived with us for a good part of my childhood. My father died suddenly of a heart attack when I was eleven years old, leaving my mother in a precarious financial condition. Although my mother was no feminist, she was stalwart in her support of my ambitions to develop a career of my own; I suspect her struggles after my father's death bolstered her resolve to make me an independent young woman. I was able to attend Syracuse University on a scholarship, where I majored in philosophy, and graduating in 1975. I continued my education at Harvard University, and eventually met my husband, Joe Levine, there [Levine was a graduate student in philosophy at the time and is a contributor to Philosophers Without Gods]. As I described in my essay "For the Love of Reason," it was my burgeoning interest in philosophy that led to my loss of religious faith. I have found the pursuit of philosophy to be both intellectually and personally rewarding, and have never had the slightest inclination to return to the Church. In fact, I have been involved for a long time in peace activism, and have also worked for reproductive rights for women.

What was the genesis of this book and how did you become interested in approaching the idea of religion on this level?

The immediate inspiration was another book published by Oxford University Press, God and the Philosophers, in which a number of prominent analytic philosophers explained the bases of their religious faith. Quite a few of the contributors described conversion experiences, and many discussed the apparent conflict between religion and reason, or religion and science, offering views on how reconciliations could be effected. But the tone of the essays was not academic; instead, the authors were speaking from the heart, in a personal vein wholly unlike their usual professional voices. At that point, it occurred to me that those of us in the discipline who had had "anti-conversions," or who had examined religious doctrine and found it intellectually or morally lacking, should speak up, too -- that the public perhaps needed to see that thoughtful and morally engaged persons sometimes rejected religion, and that we felt as passionately and deeply about our own commitments -- to morality, to rationality, and to the truth -- as religious people felt about theirs. Finally, I discussed the idea of this sort of complementary volume with an editor at Oxford, Peter Ohlin. He was enthusiastic about the project, and encouraged me to move ahead. I contacted a few close personal friends, whose views on religion I knew well, and then, through word of mouth, assembled a roster of -- I think -- extremely distinguished philosophers willing to speak in this personal way about their own experiences as non-believers.
   
There is an interesting dynamic to this work, namely the study of philosophy without adhering to the idea of a greater 'being.' What has the reception been to the book in the vast realms of the academic world?

 I'm not sure what you mean when you speak of our not adhering to the idea of a greater 'being.' While none of the contributors believe in supernatural beings of any sort, we all believe in truth -- that is, we all believe that there is a definite way the world is, independent of what human beings think of it.  We also all consider that the rules of logic and evidence ought to govern all of our inquiry, and that the rules of morality, the facts about what is good and what is not, ought to govern all of our actions. So we do all think that there is something "larger" than human experience, in a sense. But we don't think that it's mysterious or occult -- it's accessible to anyone with a willing mind and an open heart.  Tony Laden, Ken Taylor, and Simon Blackburn discuss these issues in detail in their essays. That's not to say that nothing is lost when one turns away from religious belief.  Joe Levine, Dan Farrell, Dan Garber, and David Owens all discuss, in their essays, ways in which they feel somewhat bereft in a world that has been (as Owens puts it) "disenchanted."  Levine talks about losing the sense he used to have (when he was an Orthodox Jew) of a personal connection with the Creator of the Universe -- an intoxicating feeling, he reports. Farrell describes his loss of a sense of absolute purpose in life.  Garber speaks longingly of a community whose belief system he can admire and study, but cannot come to share. Owens suggests that our most fundamental conception of self probably rests on the myth that there is something beyond our own goals and desires to give guidance to our choices. But for all that, none of them can embrace theism, because they simply do not see how it can be true.  That seems courageous to me. As for the book's reception in the academic world: I won't know in a general way for a while, not until the reviews start coming in. But quite a few philosopher friends, and some in other disciplines, have written me to say they liked the book. No hate mail, as yet...

What was your mission with this work? What is the lesson that the reader should ultimately walk away with?

I wanted to demonstrate a few things about atheists: first, that we are not all arrogant know-it-alls. Second, that we have moral commitments every bit as serious and as demanding as those held by religious people. And third, that we are extremely various in our attitudes toward religion and our reasons for rejecting it. Ultimately, I'd like to "normalize" atheism -- make it seem just as respectable a position as any religious position, and containing the same degree of diversity as theism does. I'd love it if this book challenges religious people to consider the possibility that they do not have a lock on moral value. In sum, I wanted to demonstrate that one can believe in good, without believing in God.

Much of the underlying premise to this book builds into the ultimate question of life (i.e.): Is our time on earth 'it' or does it serve as but a stepping stone to a greater experience in the afterlife? Accordingly, do you want readers to use this book as a means to think deeper about their place in the universe, or is it meant to only be a historical record detailing how some philosophers approached the question?

I think that any kind of serious reflection is a good thing, regardless of whether it concerns one's "place in the universe," so if the book provokes deep thought about anything, I'll be very pleased. That's what philosophy is all about, after all. So I reject the idea that there is some one "ultimate question." There are lots of extremely puzzling and disconcerting things about human existence, and about non-human existence, for that matter, and there's absolutely no reason why any of them have to be addressed through a religious perspective. Many of the contributors in the book discuss what they think becomes of some of these questions when they are "secularized" and they don't all agree with each other. That's generally the way it is with philosophers. As I mentioned, Laden, Taylor and Blackburn give very specific explanations of the ways in which they think such notions as the "transcendent" and the "sacred" can be reconceived in secular terms.

Have any readers shared stories with you after having read this book in terms of it changing their perception of God/faith/religion?

Quite a few people have expressed some surprise at the variety of reasons people give in the book for rejecting theism, so I think the book may succeed in showing people that atheism is not itself some kind of creed. No one has yet told me that their own views on religion have been altered. But it's not a proselytizing book.  Although there are several argumentative essays in the volume (and mine's one), it really wasn't intended as an anti-religion tract. If, for some religious people, it raises some questions that they haven't so far considered, I'd be delighted. And if religious people raise some considerations that we contributors haven't taken into account, that would be terrific, too -- a really interesting challenge...  

~John Aiello

By John Aiello

The Western has captivated Americans for decades, spanning Gregory Peck to Johnny Cash, spanning Billy-the-Kid and Pat Garrett to the bloody hawk-like film-hymns of Sam Peckinpah - this genre that illuminates the seminal core of our history and brings us face-to-face with our many triumphs and betrayals and inhuman failures.

Yes, even after all the movies and books and documentaries that have come and gone, we still want to know more; simply, we must know more as we strive to revisit a world that defines us.

In Blood and Thunder, award-winning Memphis writer Hampton Sides presents a book that offers a step back in time to a place we just can't leave behind. At once lyrical, at once poetic in the barest of senses, Blood and Thunder provides a mystical journey across the saddle-sore prairies at dawn as we come upon these ghosts who settled the new Americas.

And the author writes:

"Carson was present at the creation, it seemed. He had witnessed the dawn of the American West in all its vividness and brutality. In his constant travels he had caromed off of or intersected with nearly every major tribal group and person of consequence. He had lived the sweep of the Western experience with a directness few other men could rival...."

Blood and Thunder tells the story of our taking of the Western heartlands, chronicling the mechanics of how we came to put the grand doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" in motion and then made it seem rational. However, in actuality, it was all anything but rational. And anything but humane.

For decades (up to the mid 1800s), the Navajo people (guided by Narbona), tried to beat back the endless battalions of soldiers. To the Navajo warriors, these roaring platoons of storms clad in matching blue uniforms were the personification of the devil. Make no mistake, the Navajo people were not just fighting a war, but instead, they were defending the roads of their holy land, defending the very realm where the ghosts of their ancestors roamed.

Inasmuch as it's a story of ultimate American victory, what's best about Sides' narrative is that he does not run away from the questions of contradiction that linger: Was this just a grand maneuver to steal away the land from the natives that was everything we wanted and needed, or was it a true settlement of a wild and torn country-side?

It's a difficult plot-line, indeed, and Sides is quite gutsy to have written his treatise in a way that leaves his readers grappling with tough questions about themselves. In light of America's invasion of Iraq, it makes this picture of the Old West all the more relevant, all the more revealing and timely.

Insofar as his mission as a writer, Sides understands that he has an ultimate obligation to make his audience think about the bigger picture. Accordingly, he does not run from the challenge; to the contrary, he embraces it.

Still, as much as Blood and Thunder is about the settling of the West, it is also a book that seeks to crack the kernel of Kit Carson: The legendary American scout and trapper was also a paradox of deep emotion, split by myriad motivations, a man hunting for his identity amid a tumultuous era when man killed man in order to survive to the next hour.

And the author writes:

"In the two decades he had lived and wandered in the West, Christopher Carson had led an unaccountably full life. He was only thirty-six years old, but it seemed he had done everything there was to do in the Western wilds, had been everywhere, met everyone...At first glance, Kit Carson was not much to look at, but that was a curious part of his charm. His bantam physique and modest bumpkin demeanor seemed interestingly at odds with the grandeur of the landscapes he had roamed. He stood only five-feet four-inches, with stringy brown hair grazing his shoulders. His jaw was clenched and squarish, his eyes a penetrating gray-blue, his mouth set in a tight little downturned construction that looked like a frown of mild disgust. The skin between his eyebrows was pinched in a furrow, as though permanently creased from constant squinting. His forehead rose high and craggy to a swept-back hairline. He had a scar along his left ear, another one on his right shoulder, both left by bullets. He appeared bowlegged from his years in the saddle, and he walked roundly, with certain ungainliness, as though he were not entirely comfortable as a terrestrial creature, his sense of ease and familiarity of movement tied to his mule."

In the end, Blood and Thunder is a glorious and compelling dissection of a period in time that has been lost to TV Land depictions which often skin these great characters into hollow caricatures with half-born faces. But when Hampton Sides enters the equation, he is able to reconnect us to the subtle truths of the Old West- the triumphant reign of the American settlement forever shadowed by the corpse-drunk stench of greed and immorality now impossible for any of us to run from.

Blood and Thunder ends as a stunning book beyond ridicule, full of intensity and great purpose: This mystical ride through the bloody thunder of our collective past.

Recommended to all aficionados of the American West and anyone interested in how these western territories came to be settled. Further recommend to all libraries in both the public sector and at the college level as general resource with long-term reference value.

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By John Aiello

This volume by weaponry expert Peter Brookesmith serves as the definitive reference manual on sniper warfare. For centuries, soldiers in the field have been trained to fear the sniper, fearing these deadly marksmen who possess the ability to embrace the rifle as an extension of the self, these icy-cold and emotionless men who can sever the heart of a target from distances as great as 1,000 yards.

Here, Brookesmith presents a historical overview of the sniper in terms of training, shooting techniques and weapons. As background, Brookesmith chronicles the history of the sniper from the English Civil War and the American War of Independence through the World Wars and the modern-day actions in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. This historical record traces how the sniper-specialist has evolved over the years and how military squads have used these deadly shooters as a means to secure territory and drive back the enemy.

In addition, Brookesmith provides deep introspection into the mind of the sniper, and this material serves as the true centerpiece of the book. At this juncture, we come to be given entr饠into the brain-centers of these trained killers: What enables a man to detach himself from his emotions and exist only in the moment, without past or future? What enables a man to detach himself from all points in the distance except the point of his target? What enables a man to breathe through his weapon and visualize the mystical moment when bullet tears flesh? And finally, just how much of this skills-set is innate and how much is learned technique?

Brookesmith carefully dissects the mind of the sniper in a way that provides us with an intimate glimpse into these components of war, stripping away the myths of media in order to paint this realistic and practical picture of our war-time history.

Also particularly note-worthy is the material on the different weapons that snipers have employed through the years. This data is presented in crisp and clear terms as Brookesmith uses illustrations and short capsules on each rifle to give students of military history useful data in an immediately accessible package.

Readers will find Peter Brookesmith to be a fine writer with deep knowledge of the military and its place within world history. In sum, what's best about this book is that it creates a captivating read not only for students of the discipline, but also for novice readers curious as to just how common techniques of warfare have evolved to their present-day point.

Recommend to all students of military history as a practical and easily accessible summary documenting the evolution of sniper warfare. In addition, this text could be used in college level military history courses as a supporting class text. Finally, recommended to all libraries in both the public sector and at the college-level as a general reference text.

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A Publicist's View 

Authors and publishing-insiders alike should take note of Lissa Warren's book, The Savvy Author's Guide To Book Publicity (reviewed above), since Warren (Senior Director of Publicity at Da Capo Press) is a veteran of the East Coast publishing world and full of insight on how to maximize a title's potential for media attention (and, consequently, sales). Warren, like her book, is a refreshing conversation, direct and ever-attentive, a careful listener who has the innate ability to read between the lines of a book and its writer and see where they might fit into the cultural landscape at a given moment. In this interview (which took place in early November as she enjoyed a break from a work-filled weekend), Warren shares a few remarks on her background and how she got here: Propping open half-hidden doors, offering writers in all genres a few secrets on how to win the battle for publicity in an ever-evolving business. ~John Aiello

Tell me a bit of your background Lissa.

Well, I went to college first at Miami University in Ohio. I took a B.A. in English Education with a double-minor in American Literature and creative writing. Afterwards, I went to Bennington College and took my M.F.A. in poetry.

And how, then, did you find your way into book publicity?

While I worked through my Master's program, I got a job at Godine Publishing as an unpaid intern. After working my way up the ladder at Godine [Lissa was there for 4-plus years), I was hired by Houghton Mifflin and worked as a senior publicist in Mifflin's adult-trade division. And just a short year later, I was stolen away from Mifflin by the Perseus Books Group. Eventually, after changes within the structure of Perseus, I became the Director of Publicity at Da Capo Press [an imprint of Perseus]. All totaled, I've been at Perseus for seven years. And in that time I've been a part of some wonderful projects. For example, at Da Capo we've been able to establish the Life-Long imprint which serves as a place for us to house and spotlight all our health and women's titles. Looking back, when I left college, I always thought I would get a job as an editor. But, actually - and this might seem strange to a lot of people, you get to do more writing as a publicist, creating different kinds of press releases, exchanging correspondence with media and authors and editors.

I think the thing that stands out about Savvy is its clear-honed focus. How did you come to want to write a book about the inner workings of book publicity?

Well, one day, I was sitting in Marnie Cochran's office (the Executive Editor at Da Capo) moaning about one of my authors, who was hitting me with a barrage of questions about publicity for his book. And as I told Marnie, I was in a position where I could either spend my time answering all of his questions and educating him about the process, or I could actually go out and find publicity for his book. At this point, Marnie said that maybe I should consider writing a book about what I had just said and what I was going through with this author. So that night I went home and started shaping an outline and the skeleton of a proposal. And the book just took off from that point.

And what were you trying to get at with your project? What was the mission?

I wanted to write a book that could educate all authors, not just the ones I worked with or the ones who write for Perseus, but authors everywhere. I believe that we all benefit from having an educated author-pool. My goal is for authors to compete for publicity in the world of books and entertainment; in turn, this strengthens the work we are all doing.

Was there a particular model that you used in the construction of Savvy?

No, not at all. I simply did a data-dump, taking everything that was in my head and putting it on paper in my own voice. Working full-time, I didn't have time for endless research; plus, I only had four months to write it. So I was forced to take everything I knew about book publicity and write it in my own voice. I think, though, I was very fortunate to have Keith Wallman as an editor: In keeping with what the best editors do, Keith just steps back and gets out of the way and lets the writer write.

What has the response from other publicists and book people been?

It's been very favorable. I am often told by publicists that they have purchased the book for some of their authors, and that is a great compliment. And sometimes I am told by publicists that they have purchased the book for junior members of their staff , and that is an even bigger compliment. The truth of the matter is that senior publicists don't always have time to mentor young staff, and Savvy is able to do some of that work for them. Many publicists have also expressed relief that they now have a resource they can point authors to - a book that tells it like it is and doesn't sugar-coat things. People sometimes make it sound easy to get high-level publicity. And it is anything but easy.

Looking back on your decade-plus in publishing, what projects stand out?

There are so many! I immediately think of all those first-time authors who were such a joy to work with, people who were so grateful for all the publicity you got them, both big and small. I enjoyed working with David Wolman a great deal; he is a very bright and interesting person. And Dr. Berry Brazelton, who is one of the country's leading pediatricians having written 40 books. Of those 40 books, I've worked on about 10. Berry is now in his late 80s, always appreciative and energetic. An absolute joy to work with.

Do you think that by sharing some of your secrets in Savvy you will make authors more effective with regard to the process of dealing with the media?

I think it's really very difficult for authors to be effective in getting publicity for themselves. My book is meant to make them more effective in working with their own in-house publicist, or to assist them with getting freelance media opportunities. In actuality, the media is not open to hearing directly from authors. So writers are extremely limited on what they can do for themselves.

Given the substantial responsibilities of your job at Da Capo, how were you able to simultaneously take on the task of writing a book?

By reducing my hours of sleep to 4 per-night! [laughing briefly] Plus, I wrote every weekend and every night. I actually found it very helpful to be working full-time, because when I got home I had rich examples to use while I was writing. My job gave me a lot of fodder for the book I was creating.

Can you give a snapshot of a typical day for you?

There's no such thing as a typical day for a publicist, as we are all slaves to breaking news. I always start the day by listening to NPR. And if some news has broken that one of my authors can speak as an expert to, then that becomes my focus. A 'typical' day might include writing press releases and galley letters, reviewing media lists, preparing for author meetings, fulfilling media requests, things of this nature.

So if you could offer one piece of advice to writers who have just published books ? what would that be?

Get on your publicist's good side. Publicity is a business of relationships. And the one you have with your publicist is the most important one you are going to have. So make it good. In the course of my job, there are books I have to work hard on because we have spent a great deal of money producing them. And then there are other books produced on a smaller scale that I don't have to work so hard on because nobody's watching me. But if I like a book and the writer, I am going to work just as hard for them whether the book is big or small.

Reviewed by Frank Aiello

On New Years Eve, 1946, what remained of the crew of the George I lay in the wreckage of its fuselage, this small group of men lying in the oil soaked snow just moments after their plane had crashed into a mountainside of Antarctica. Since none of the crew had any survival training (except for one member who had been an Eagle Scout), the severe blizzard conditions left little reasonable chance for rescue.

Looking at these events with an objective eye notes that the survival of such an ordeal would require the use of common sense in concert with a deep understanding of nature in one of the most desolate places on earth. For this crew, this seemed like an impossible task.

Where Hell Freezes Over is the story of a thirteen day nightmare told by the son of co-pilot Bill Kearns, who was at the control of the George I when it crashed. And except for Kearns' text, little would be remembered of this tale of survival, since the rescue was quickly forgotten in the wake of America's growing conflict with North Korea (and President Truman's re-election campaign).

A two-page accident report blames a pair of the survivors for the crash, stating that the plane commander should not have continued through "unfavorable weather" in unreliably charted terrain, adding that pilot Kearns "misinterpreted" a snow covered mountain for open air space. Yet, in reality, it was the patriotism and stoicism of young men just back from World War II that allowed the U.S. Navy to map out the uncharted wilderness of Antarctica with the limited technology of the day.

In essence, Bill Kearns' story (and that of his crew) is a gripping tale of rational beings who did everything they could to maximize their chances of survival "without receiving the slightest reward from fate." It's the story of a group of men who simply refused to die.

Well-written general interest/adventure title which will likely appeal to myriad readers (and especially to historians of the World-War Two era). Where Hell Freezes Over is also recommended to all public sector libraries as a general reference with broad appeal. ~The Editor

Reviewed by Frank Aiello

This seminal correspondence between William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg tracks Burroughs' search for the hallucinogenic properties of the yage vine, while also serving as a robust travelogue of South America in the 1950s, the book chock full of Burroughs' dry observations of last gasp towns at the edge of rotting jungles as the sly brujos (medicine men) plied their trade on so many unsuspecting westerners.

As a novelist, Burroughs was the ultimate remittance-man searching for that final fix, the gems of his cynical but ever-observing eye exposed here time and again in these pithy excerpts which shine and burn in living detail:

"The boat gave out with a broken propeller at Las Playas half way between Manta and Guayaquil. I rode ashore on a balsa raft. Arrested on the beach suspect to have floated up from Peru on the Humboldt Current with a young boy and a tooth brush (I travel light, only the essentials) so we are hauled before an old dried up fuck, the withered face of cancerous control. The kid with me don't have paper one. The cops keep saying plaintively: 'But don't you have any papers at all.' "

And this:

"Now you must understand that this is average non queer Peruvian boy, a bit juvenile delinquent to be sure. They are the least character armored people I have ever seen. They shit or piss anywhere they feel like it. They have no inhibitions in expressing affection. They climb all over each other and hold hands. If they do go to bed with another male, and they all will for money, they seem to enjoy it. South America is a mixture of strains all necessary to realize the potential form. They need white blood as they know 'Myth of White God' and what did they get but the fucking Spaniards. Still they had the advantage of weakness. Never would have gotten the English out of here. They would have created that atrocity known as a White Man's Country."

And finally:

"Rolled again. My glasses and my pocket knife. Losing all my fucking valuables in the service. This is a nation of kleptomaniacs. In all my experience as a homosexual, I have never been the victim of such idiotic pilferings..."

The Yage Letters has been around for awhile and is known among students of the Beat Generation for having captured two friends in an intimate conversation. However, this edition also contains a meaty introduction by Burroughs' scholar Oliver Harris that sheds an interesting light on the events leading up to the publication of the first edition of the book (including Ginsberg's tireless promotion of Burroughs' work).

For instance, Harris points out that only one quarter of the manuscript came from real "letters," the remainder of the text manufactured from Burroughs' notes, illustrating that Burroughs and Ginsberg were themselves consummate literary brujos plying their trade in the marketplace.

By John Aiello

Even though it's not always remembered these days, journalists in the four corners of the world owe much to John Wilkes, whose dedicated spirit and tireless work helped to formulate the British free press (in turn forging the path for media freedoms throughout the world).

As a journalist, Wilkes realized he would have to battle the government in order to insure that the press be able to serve as watch dog and conscience for the community. However, this noble cause did not come without a stern price, as Wilkes often clashed with the politicos of his day. True to his cause, he was even imprisoned for raging against the constraints of the Parliament.

In Scandalous Father, Cash has written a biography that teems with many little-known facts, thus illuminating the man-within-the-man, deftly sketching a definitive portrait of Wilkes now set against the time in which he lived. More than anything else, Wilkes' life is a testament to the old adage that says the environment shapes the man. And if this is indeed true, than the man is ultimately powerless to do little else but go along for the ride.

But no matter how the persona of John Wilkes came to be formed, every writer who enjoys the privilege of speaking without fear of censorship owes a great debt to this "scandalous man" who seemingly lived to test the limits of the boundaries. His mission was to stretch these limits until they gave way to the depths of a greater, stronger world.

Accordingly, Arthur Cash tells John Wilkes' story in tight and erudite prose, compassionate and incisive, in turn presenting us a resource that will come to assist generations of students in their pursuit of personal freedom.

Recommended to instructors in World History courses that investigate the growth of British culture. Would further be a useful supporting text in advanced Journalism courses: it's not enough to teach young journalists the mechanics of the profession; instead, they also must be made aware of how the ideals of a free press came to blossom. To this end, Scandalous Father provides a magnificent and eloquent road map.

 MODERNISM IN AMERICAN SILVER: 20th Century Design. Jewel Stern. With Kevin Tucker and Charles Venable. Yale University Press.

This book is the first reference that we have seen to investigate the influx of modernism into 20th-Century silver design. To the general reader, this may seem like rarefied territory, with some wondering, "just how does this touch my life?" The answer to that would be: "In many many ways." Think silverware. Think the average household. Much of what we use on a daily basis is owed to silver design, and Stern's text is a marvelous examination of ways modern designers (and their techniques) have expanded the industry and widened the breadth of its artistic expression. Discussion includes the work of designers Michael Graves, Tommi Parzinger and Belle Kogan, as well as lesser known artists like Donald Colflesh (who is turning the heads of scholars in the field).

Recommended to students looking to chart the changes in silver design over the last century. Also recommended to University-level libraries as a unique and one-of-a-kind reference text.

 EDVARD MUNCH. Behind The Scream. Sue Prideaux. Yale University Press.

Just as Hitchcock's suspense thrillers imbedded themselves into the conscience of the cinema, so, too, has Edvard's Munch's great painting, The Scream, come to define our perceptions of the subconscious pain of the individual. Munch was an original and influential artist whose work helped to shape the invisible canvass for so many painters and sculptors that followed him. In her book, Prideaux does a masterful job at revealing the core of the man at the heart of the artist, this great dissection that serves to expose the face behind the painter, the mind behind the eye of his art. What's best about Prideaux's chronicle is the way that she is able to examine Munch's life both in an intellectual and a spiritual sense: the mission here is to realize that the growth of the artist occurs over many landscapes over a sustained period. Consequently, the audience can never come to truly appreciate a work of art until they understand the history of the soul that created it. In addition to the wealth of information she presents, Prideaux augments her text with stunning illustrations that help to carry this book to another level.

Recommended as a supporting class text in Art History courses that go beyond superficial study of the period, bringing students unto the most dynamic artists of each period. Would further prove indispensable to University-level libraries as a general reference text.

Composers: Voices creates an erudite summary of the work and artists that came to define the most influential period in American music (1900-1930). Perlis and Van Cleve are exhaustive in their coverage of the period, and the authors analyze myriad topics, including Ragtime and Eubie Blake; the road of the early modernists, with chapters on Leo Ornstein, Edgard Varese, Carl Ruggles, Dane Rudhyar, Charles Seeger and Henry Cowell; the Jazz Age/Gershwin; and the other major ground-breakers of the era who helped to change the face of the idiom for decades to come (Nadia Boulanger, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, Roy Harris). Moreover, the text features wonderful illustrations, sidebar-articles and interviews with the likes of Copland and Cowell, thus peeling away the masks from those artists responsible for changing the focus of the American landscape and her music. Includes 2 CDS that capture the subject matter of the text in the sounds of its times.

Recommended as a primary class text in music appreciation courses centered on the early 20th-Century. Further recommended as a general reference text in libraries at both the University level and in the public sector.

~John Aiello

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 UNDER THE LOVING CARE OF THE FATHERLY LEADER: North Korea And The Kim Dynasty. Bradley K. Martin. Thomas Dunne Books/St.Martin's.

Reviewed by Frank Aiello

This book, by Bradley K. Martin, a respected journalist and former bureau chief of both The Asian Wall Street Journal and Asia Times, is a trapdoor into the mind of North Korea and its leaders, Kim Il-sung (who ruled North Korea with a iron fist for almost a half-century), and his son, Kim Jong-il.

Accordingly, Martin is to be complimented for exposing, in these personal vignettes of North Korea's struggling populace, the fabric of a society which has become insane. For example, the extent of mind control used by North Korea's leaders on its citizens was described to Martin in the following incident:

"When I was in the third grade in elementary school my friend Yong-il had a bowel movement and it froze. He said, 'It looks like Mount Paektu.' Others reported him and he had to write statements of repentance in his notebook for a couple of months. After all, Mount Paektu was where Kim Il-sung participated in the Japanese struggle." [p. 233.]

In societies built upon a cult of personality, of which there has been no shortage in the Twentieth Century, it is expected that a 'pecking order' be created based upon one's socioeconomic status. And in this respect, North Korea is no different than any other country. What is different with North Korea, however, is that this socioeconomic position, or songbun, extends into the countryside's violent teenage street gangs which are born in its school yards:

"Most interesting in Dong's account, I thought, was his description of the makeup of the gangs. 'here were basically four groupings throughout the grades,' he said, and all of those were from the elite. 'Ordinary people's children could hardly be part of the gangs. Say you had a fight and hurt someone. You'd go to prison. If your parents were influential, they could get you out. But the ordinary people would have no chance of getting out, so they didn't join . . . The leader of each gang was whoever had the most important father.' " [pp. 227-228.]

Moreover, consider the first impressions of Pak Su-hyon, once a member of Kim Il-sung's bodyguard service for seven years, uttered after he defected to South Korea (by way of China) in 1993:

"I first looked at people's shoes, because in North Korea shoes are often stolen. South Koreans are much taller than North Koreans. And I noticed that compared with North Koreans, South Koreans are heavy. They have more meat on them, look like they have drunk a lot of milk. If there's a war between North and South, the North Koreans don't have a chance physically . . . I saw a sign after I arrived in South Korea that said, 'Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.' I was astonished to think that South Koreans had the concept of love." [p.431.]

As Kim Il-sung's power grew, he intensified his march toward complete control of the region. In turn, his desire to be a nuclear player on the world stage also intensified (at a human price which he apparently considered negligible):

"Kim Dae-ho, one of the teenaged gang fighters featured in chapter 12, matured enough to become a model soldier and was able to land a job with many special benefits including extra food rations. However, it was a job that turned out to have some serious disadvantages. Starting in 1985, he treated waste water at the Atomic Energy April Industry, so named because it had been founded in the month of Kim Il-sung's birthday . . . 'he authorities claimed they're concerned about the environment, but it's not the case,' Kim Dae-ho told me. 'he trees next to the river died and so did all the fish. Worker's white blood cell counts were down. They had liver problems and their hair fell out. In 1990, I had to work in vanadium processing, using sulfuric acid. I worked in that for about a week. For a long time blood seeped out of my mouth. Even now if I put something in my mouth and suck on it I can see blood.' " [pp. 437-438.]

As his text moves forward, Martin notes that some American scholars, following the arguments advanced by I.F. Stone, felt that Truman and his aides had intentionally overstated the danger posed by North Korea's invasion of the South in the summer of 1950 (for reasons other than America's security interests in the region). And then, over a half-century later, following the attack on the World Trade Center, the Bush Administration likewise advanced the argument that North Korea poses an immediate nuclear danger to the world and must be resisted (presumably like Iraq, at all costs).

Although Martin asserts that Kim Il-sung was rumored to have stated that he would destroy the world rather than accept military defeat, Stanford scholar John L. Lewis has identified recent radical changes in Il-sung's position, including the emergence of the beginnings of a market economy in the North. However, as Michael Breen, the author of Kim Jong-il; North Korea's Dear Leader, has cautioned: " Kim Jong-il is neither insane nor evil, but he benefits from being at the top of a system which . . . is both." [p.849.]

At its very core, Bradley Martin's treatise is an expert journey into the politics and culture of North Korea's Kim Dynasty, serving as a stark reportage on the evolution and intellect of this still-growing nation.

Recommended to all libraries in both the public sector and at the college level as a general reference text. Should further be considered as either a primary or secondary teaching text in history courses which touch on this unique region of the world.

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Frank Aiello. 2005. All rights reserved. Frank Aiello and The Electric Review.

By John Aiello

New York, in tandem with Paris, is probably the most photographed city in all the world -seemingly every artist with brush and pen tries to bring his own particular vision to these great mystical places. Thus, with so much material already out there, it's really a challenge to come up with an original slant on the subject.

However, Charyn and Moireau have cleared this hurdle by personalizing New York, infusing it with their own unique take on the magnificent metropolis. In watercolor and bare-boned sketch, the authors have come up with a layered and deeply introspective look into the naked soul of New York City:

"The curse of bin Laden has shown us how precious we are, how we have to protect what we have, how we can no longer take our history for granted, how we have to guard our past, even as it slips away from us. Standing on the corner of Sullivan Street in SoHo a couple of weeks ago, long after nightfall, I looked uptown and saw the spire of the Empire State Building, decorated for Thanksgiving in red and green. Perhaps it's a bit banal, the emblematic colors of American pilgrims and their turkey dinner on top of the Empire State, but it still stirs me, because a building almost two miles away seems to sit right in my lap."

(Page-17)

The key to this collection is in its depth -- by taking on the images through this "simplified" approach, Charyn and Moireau have achieved an extra dimension, allowing us to look at these scenes as if we're the mirror dissolving into the holy shape of the eye. And the colors envelop us. And the streets assume a perfect and secret identity. And the buildings loom over the moon like giant cool misty storm-lit clouds.

There are numerous high-lights, and they strike with snake-like quickness. Note the image of "City Hall" -- the building itself almost secondary to the street. And Moireau has captured it all: The people. The street lamp hanging over the taxi in the shadow of an Indian Restaurant in the shadow of the sad storefront morning.

More than anything else, the authors have captured the real scenes of New York in real time -- unadorned soft pale staring out from the picture like the lost faces of our ancestors:

"The rambla ends abruptly at 116th, where the streetscape disappears and is replaced by colleges, cathedrals, and seminaries, with very little for the eye to catch. But it picks up again around 135th, in West Harlem, a Latino fiefdom, where the storefronts reflect a culture of constant movement - old men playing dominoes, younger women, boys, and girls parading in the streets, along their very own ramblas...."

(Page-16)

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Reviewed by Frank Aiello

Origins of European Printmaking marks a spectacular publication which chronicles the passage of the religious medieval mind. The woodcut depictions collected here are absolutely extraordinary, while the text provides fascinating insights that will engage both historian and casual reader alike.

The depiction of The Man of Sorrows with the Arma Christi (Instruments of the Passion) and the Five Wounds of Christ, colored woodcuts in a manuscript, circa. 1480-1490, are especially illuminating:

"Although the woodcuts are not unusual in their subject matter, the way in which they have been integrated into the manuscript is startling. Instead of creamy vellum, the single-sheet prints are glued to folios that are painted to appear as if they are bleeding. . . [T]he manuscript opens with three pages which seems to foreshadow the book's contents. Each is painted black with several bright-red drops of blood raining down. . . In addition to the lance and sponge, twenty other Instruments are displayed in the compartments of the framing border. These emblematic objects are designed to promote mental recreations of the key events of Christ's suffering . . ." [pp. 185-186.]

Apparently, the late medieval period produced what amounted to a cottage industry centered around the Passion, including "the desire to quantify not only five, but the thousands of the wounds of Christ . . .One typical formula yielded 5, 575 wounds and 547,500 drops of blood . . ." [p. 186.]

As the authors note in their comments on another manuscript, Sister Regula's Life of Christ, these works were intended to instruct the medieval viewer not only to meditate on aspects of Christ's life, but to also graphically envision the suffering of the Passion. For instance, in a depiction of Christ in the Winepress, taken from Isaiah 63:3, the Messiah is seen as a wine treader in a great wine-press -- wounded and bleeding:

"Beneath his feet, his blood mingles with the juice of red grapes and pours into a chalice in the foreground . . .Here, word and image are inseparable . . ." [p. 255.]

The sheer variety of the manuscripts and woodcuts compiled on these pages is astonishing: from the ghostly image of St. Jerome in a dark wood depicted in the Girdle Book of the Fifteenth century merchant, Hieronymus Kress [p. 195], to the Munich woodcut of a Buddha-like Christ-Child embracing a parrot [p. 199], each selection comes to represent a true medieval consciousness of the world.

As passive readers, we immediately note that this realm is often over-run with violence. Yet, for the faithful, it ultimately remains a place of celestial order.

This selection is highly recommended as a supporting class text in advanced Art History courses that survey the period and its focus. Also would be useful to libraries at both the college-level and in the public sector for its long-term reference value.

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Frank Aiello. 2005. All rights reserved. Frank Aiello and The Electric Review.

In California, and in many other parts of the country, Spanish-speaking laborers are vital to the American work-force. Specifically, Spanish and Mexican workers are prevalent in industries like produce and construction, and because of this, it has become necessary for English-speaking supervisors to be able to competently direct their work crews (VERY important in terms of construction jobs, since this work is so dangerous).

Here, Eddy and Herrera have developed a pocket-sized dictionary specifically for individuals directing Spanish-speaking construction workers (a book for those who must blend English with Spanish as it pertains to construction). Accordingly, the book covers everything the foreman and crew will encounter, rising slowly from quick phrases to more complex material (like Spanish pronunciation). At this point, once the reader has become competent with the basics, he will be equipped to learn the foundations of sentences (nouns and verbs), allowing for declarative and directive sentences to be constructed:

"In construction, it appears, you talk, talk, talk in whatever way you can, and then, some months later, there's a building to show proof that the act -- and art -- of communication was successful."

-From Stavans' Foreword-

Eddy and Herrera have done a fine job in not losing the ultimate mission of their text: to make sure that English-speaking workers can communicate with Spanish-speaking workers in a clear and concise way allowing for maximum productivity on the work-site. In light of this, readers of Spanglish are not going to get a college-level course dedicated to every aspect of the Spanish dialect. Instead, they will find here a manual meant to help direct workers from different ethnic backgrounds around a building site in a practical way.

Unique in scope and mission, with English/Spanish and Spanglish/English glossaries that help readers find their way to phrases on-the-fly, with hammer in hand. This book is indispensable for any builder who employs Spanish-speaking workers. There should be racks of these dictionaries in all building-supply stores -- there to be sold along-side the hammers, nails and dry-wall.

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By John Aiello

OK, so you're actually brave enough to be doing your own taxes without the guidance of a CPA? Well, if so, you should be well aware that the extension deadline for late filing is quickly approaching. And since August 15 is roughly 6 weeks in the offing, it's high time you take a refresher course on the finer points of the Federal Tax Code.

Thus, if you're really going forth without the advice of a CPA, you should attempt to obtain the correct information from a trustworthy source. Enter the 2005 Federal Tax Handbook from RIA.

This volume is a handy reference that does a sparkling job at paring down the code into digestible segments which can be followed relatively easily by anyone with a working knowledge of the vernacular (however, it is presumed that if you're doing your own taxes and filing different schedules that you already have some basic understanding of taxation).

Federal Handbook offers a comprehensive compilation of Federal tax rules. It is indisputable that America has one of the most complicated tax systems in all the world. And books like this make it easier for non-accounts to gain some insight into what their specific obligations are under the tax code. Accordingly, new information is provided on the Alternative Minimum Tax, the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 and the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004.

The aforementioned issues (among many others represented herein) demonstrate how vast the coverage is here: Instead of putting together some flimsy/abridged manual that gives sparse and uninformed definitions, RIA has published a handbook that sets forth substantive analysis of myriad tax subjects in an effort to provide the tax professional, attorney and lay reader with a resource that can be directly applied to the preparation of a return.

Anyone doing their own taxes should consult this book immediately. Recommended to attorneys and CPAs as an in-office reference. Finally, should be included in all libraries in the public sector as a general reference with community-wide value.

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Rodger Streitmatter, in his book Sex Sells!: The Media's Journey From Repression To Obsession, describes the explosion of sexual content in the media (from the socially oppressive Eisenhower era to our current milieu of "Zippergate" -- including sexually explicit reality television).

Streitmatter breaks down this progression into eighteen readily accessible chapters, each analyzing a moment within the last fifty years that heralded a new wave of sexual acceptance (and literacy) into our culture. From the advent of the birth control pill to the emergence of such groundbreaking television shows as All In the Family, Three's Company and the contemporary Sex In the City, Streitmatter describes the content of his subject through the idea of its sexual controversy.

A former reporter for the Roanoke Times (Virginia) & World News, Streitmatter approaches this material from an objective, journalistic point-of-view, withholding his own personal judgments on these often incendiary topics that discuss the repercussions of sexual explicitness on society.

However, this is not to say that Sex Sells! is a strict historical analysis. To the contrary, Streitmatter reveals an ulterior motive for his chronicling of American media's sexual progression: Sexual literacy. Due to the incredible influx of sexual content in the media - whether through television, popular music, cinema, magazines or the internet - Streitmatter argues that it is essential for the young media consumer to develop important critical thinking skills in order to recognize and analyze the myriad sexual messages we are bombarded with on a daily basis.

As Streitmatter maintains, it is not necessarily the sole responsibility of artists and entertainers to censor their product; instead, this duty ultimately rests in the critical eye of each viewer (no matter the medium). Thus, the best defense against a sexually debauched society (and likewise, a censorious, oppressive state) is education -- it takes an acutely sharpened intellect to separate the wheat from this chaff.

In the end, Sex Sells! is truly an entertaining effort. Whether reliving the absurdity of the Clinton scandal or the birth of advertising's unabashed use of sexuality to sell products as varied as tube socks and avocados, Streitmatter rarely fails to engross and enlighten us.

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Reviewed by Jacob Aiello 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ross Gelbspan, in his book Boiling Point (How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis and What We Can Do To Avert Disaster), details the imminent threat of a global climate change on our economy and our environment -- calling into question our ability to survive this phenomenon.

By synthesizing myriad scientific data gleaned from some of the world's most respected environmental scientists, Gelbspan outlines the various factors leading to an inevitable climate change and further identifies those who have consciously fueled the crisis.

Interspersed between these sobering essays, Gelbspan paints us seven Snapshots of the Warming, each a vignette of the various fronts of global warming (from the melting of the Arctic ice caps to the rise in malnutrition and the resurgence of disease-carrying insects).

Without question, Gelbspan focuses a large portion of his attack on the corporate officials of big oil and coal: What began as a normal business response by the fossil fuel lobby 'denial and delay' has now attained the status of a crime against humanity.

Yet, the author's criticism does not rest solely on these figureheads. Indeed, Gelbspan ascribes the blame to humanity itself -- from the stubborn denial of our national government to the apathy of our news media who ignore what is happening.

However, despite the sobering, apocalyptic vision that Gelbspan paints for us, our climate crisis is still a problem with a readily available solution. In the final chapters of his treatise, Gelbspan discusses three separate solutions to the situation, followed by his own solution: The World Energy Modernization Plan.

Whether or not Gelbspan's proposed solution would be successful is arguable, but what is not debatable is the imminent threat of global warming. Boiling Point could not have been published at a more propitious moment, as our nation's officials convene for the G8 Summit in an effort to tackle this potentially life-threatening cycle.

Each of the eight men charged with this task would do well to read this book. And so would you. The lives of your grandchildren could depend on it.

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Reviewed By Frank Aiello

"The Goddess of Political Lying flies with a huge Looking-glass in her hands to dazzle the Crowd, and make them see, according as she turns it, their Ruin in their Interest and their Interest in their Ruin."

This text is comprised of intensely personal and inventive vignettes by volunteer workers who mobilized a thirty-day campaign on behalf of Matt Gonzales in his failed attempt to win the Mayor's office in San Francisco during the last election. Even though Gonzales was defeated, his campaign exposed the effects Willie Brown's use of political cronyism (disguised as land use politics) had on the city.

It is no secret that the economic and social structure of the Bay Area is fueled by corporate and government subsidies. To paraphrase Thomas Carlyle, in San Francisco, the hell most feared is the hell of not making money. Accordingly, "Da Mayor" made no secret of the fact that "[i]f you don't make $50,000 a year in San Francisco, then you shouldn't live here."

Further, as Quintin Mercke's essay, McFrisco makes clear, the dot.com frenzy was effectively fueled in da Mayor's City Hall: "[T]he transformation during Mayor Brown's administration of what was once the Department of City Planning into a Department of Development Facilitation stunned even the most jaded observers." But even more ominous was the inaccessible bureaucratic gobblespeak of the land use planning mavens and developers: "Deploying this language are the translators and native speakers, the real players and dealmakers who are found every Thursday in City Hall's room 400 for the weekly meetings of the Planning Commission. Within that room social engineering is allowed by law and is driven by language that reinforces and strengthens our society's historical divisions of race, class and gender."

Matt Gonzales was the true antithesis of Brown -- a former public interest lawyer, punk rocker, and member of the Green Party whose original supporters apparently consisted of a ragtag group of neighborhood and anti-war activists, artists, squatters, as well as a former Barnard College alumnus and North Beach dominatrix (Marlena Sonn). Yet, as this book documents, these disenfranchised and often desperately urban poor were able to organize a grass roots mobilization ("130 parties in 30 days") which posed a genuine threat to San Francisco's entrenched real estate developers and vested corporate interests .

Gonzales' opponent in the election was Gavin Newsom, a confidant of the Gettys and no stranger at all to the wheeling-and-dealing of City Hall, and there is little shortage of venom in Michelle Tea's description of the young mayor:

"Gavin Newsom. A name born to be shunted out from the mouth in a tone I'd recently heard described as 'WASP-y lockjaw.' You know the accent. Think James Spader in any movie he did during the the 1980s. Gavin with his famously bad hairdo, rising like an Exxon oil-slick tsunami above his bony brow."

But Tea's venom is not reserved exclusively for Newsom:

"He pulled up to the curb before the Bell Market parking lot, and behold- it is Gavin Newsom. It is him in the flesh, in the hair. He stands with his wife, Kimberly Newsom, who I was once sort of hot for, watching her cool in the background in footage from the dog-mauling trial, but when I learned she was married to Gavin I lost respect for her. And to be honest, she seemed slightly less hot in person, but again, this could have been due to the proximity to her husband."

(Note: Kimberly Newsom, after a short stint as an Assistant District Attorney, is now reported to have exited the Mayoral bed and joined the current crop of television hyenas posing as legal analysts for one or another of America's diversionary show trials.)

Although the dramatization of the Gonzales campaign and the collective hangover resulting from his loss make interesting and enjoyable reading, Quintin Mecke bluntly describes the social failure in exclusively utilizing political campaigns and electoral politics as the preferred method of change:

"What became of all that energy, excitement and talk of a movement after the campaign ended ? It was quickly deflated as the chosen progressive vessel, Matt Gonzales, bowed out of public life only months after proclaiming that he, or rather he-representing-us, would act as loyal opposition to the Newsom administration when needed. And with that simple decision, the Left was presented with a self-reflective scathing critique of why communities need to invest in themselves and not in politicians."

After reading this captivating account of the sordid face of San Francisco politics, we should perhaps heed the words of William Cowper Brann (the long dead fiery editor of The Iconoclast), who once remarked that most of the martyrs, saints and heroes whose memories we so revere are one-third fraud and two-thirds fake.

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Frank Aiello. 2005. All rights reserved. Frank Aiello and The Electric Review.

Dr. Barry Sears (author of The Zone and known throughout the world for his analysis of how hormonal balance is impacted by different foods) wrote this unique text that addresses how silent inflammation occurring undetected within the body can lead to an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease and malignancies.

The phenomenon of silent inflammation is not well understood in the medical community, and Sears' text intends to clarify and illuminate the differing theories on the subject:

"You may be asking yourself, What on earth is silent inflammation? Even more perplexing, How can inflammation be silent? Silent inflammation is simply inflammation that falls below the threshold of perceived pain. That's what makes it so dangerous. You don't take any steps to stop it as it smolders for years, if not decades, eventually erupting into what we call chronic disease...If you have high levels of silent inflammation in your body, even if you are not actively sick, it means that you simply can't be well."

(Pages 3&4)

Sears (whose book The Zone spoke out against the dangers of high-carb maverick diets) addresses the idea of inflammation in detail here, looking at how obesity increases the occurrence of this condition -- which then increases an individual's susceptibility of falling victim to heart attack, dementia, diabetes or cancer:

"Obesity is one of the biggest generators of silent inflammation. Since nearly two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, this means that the epidemic of silent inflammation is also out of control. By the same token, our diabetes epidemic has also grown by 33 percent in the last decade. It should come as no surprise that all three epidemics have worsened in recent years. All three are intricately connected with a condition known as insulin resistance."

(Page 235)

According to Sears (and taking off where The Zone left off ), inflammation is directly related to hormone balance; moreover, Sears contends that hormone balance can be achieved and maintained in accordance with proper nutrition. In addition to explaining these theories, Anti-Inflammation includes sample meal plans and sample exercise programs that allow its readers to help take control of their own bodies and well-being.

Even though this subject is quite complex, Dr. Sears has done a laudable job speaking to a mass audience -- the material well-organized and presented in a logical and meaningful manner, the writing well-detailed and easily accessible. The idea here was to create a book that would be of long-term use to the reader, and that goal has been achieved nicely.

The incidence of silent inflammation is an acutely important one, and it has the potential to alter the lives of millions of people. Individuals throughout the world need to become aware of this potential, in turn taking steps on their own to mitigate the risk; this book offers a natural starting point. Beyond the lucid health information, you will also note several recipes and meal plans that are easy to prepare, flavorful, and nutritious.

As Anti-Inflammation shows, the state of your health cannot be left up to your doctor alone. Instead, each of us must begin to take an active role in how we combat the risk of debilitating disease. Read this book. It holds answers to several pressing questions.

Recommended to the general reader for its relevant consumer health value. Further recommended to all libraries in the public sector as a general reference text: as more research is done on this topic, it is likely that Dr. Sears' book will come to be hailed as a ground-breaking achievement.

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Reviewed By Frank Aiello

Like fellow revolutionary John Reed, Agnes Smedley grew up in the American West and was ultimately laid to rest far from her native land in a cemetery for revolutionary martyrs. Agnes Smedley is known now, if at all, for her fiery feminist novel, Daughter of Earth, and for her firsthand accounts of the Chinese Revolution (Chinese Destinies, China's Red Army Marches and Battle Hymn of China).

However, as author Ruth Price notes, the same Western hardpan independence that made Smedley a heroine to the generation of post-Sixties American feminists came at both a heavy personal (and political) price. Smedley drove herself into an early marriage, which produced only sadness (as well as two abortions).

But Smedley, fueled by the ideas and oratory of Upton Sinclair, Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs and the IWW Free Speech Fights, had bigger fish to fry. She would write her husband: "I do not want to be married; marriage is too terrible and I should never have endured it ... I want my name back also." (Page 54).

Alone again, Smedley would first reinvent herself in Greenwich Village as a cub reporter for the Socialist New York Call and then as an office manager for Margaret Sanger's Birth Control Review - proving herself a defiant, uncompromising and self-taught agitator who did not consider herself bound by any form of journalistic ethics.

Smedley's first person reporting of the march of the Red Army is equaled only by John Reed's account of the Bolshevik Revolution:

"By summer's end, Agnes wrote that she had observed rickshaw coolies fall dead in their shafts. she had seen poverty, disease, starvation, and physical and spiritual exhaustion to a depth she had previously thought unimaginable; she had learned of hundreds who were weekly being arrested, imprisoned, shot and beheaded, their skulls paraded on poles in the streets under the KMT's reign of anti-Communist terror."

(Page192)

Smedley returned to the United States after twenty years, finding a Cold War America that had little patience with idealistic radicals. Smedley's books were soon targeted for a "cleansing campaign" by Senator Joseph McCarthy, and she also was investigated by General Douglas McArthur, who considered her a dangerous Soviet operative. In addition, she was accused of being a spy in the finest tradition of Hearst tabloid journalism.

Smedley died in 1950 before the full force of HUAC and McCarthyism rose against her - lonely and troubled, but forever unrepentant. Accordingly, Smedley's last will says it all. Cursing "American Fascism," she instructs that her "ashes ... lie with the Chinese revolutionary dead..."

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Frank Aiello. 2005. All rights reserved. Frank Aiello and The Electric Review.

 THE RISE AND FALL OF JIM CROW. Richard Wormser. St Martin's/Griffin.

Reviewed By Frank Aiello

This book by Richard Wormser comprises the companion text to the Peabody Award winning PBS series, chronicling the complex phenomenon of "Jim Crow" in an enthralling compendium of pictures.

Like the PBS series, this compilation of still photos speak the language of a thousand ghosts, telling the story of "free" blacks who work in the cotton fields under the gaze of a white overseer on horseback. In one particular stunning picture that depicts the aftermath of a lynching, we see a member of the mob cut off the victim's toes to take home as a souvenir.

In this land, Jim Crow was alive and well for over a hundred years.

In 1898, the Democratic Party of North Carolina launched an openly racist campaign using posters depicting black vampires symbolizing "Negro Rule" as a threat to white women. America's rise into the Twentieth Century ushered in the worst of times for blacks, prompting "a malicious negrophobia- a pathological fear and hatred of blacks" which was not confined to the South. For instance, Edward Drinker Cope, a noted professor of zoology, claimed that black mental growth was permanently arrested at age fourteen. And whites openly sang the ditty:

"Coon, coon, coon, I wish my color would fade.

Coon, coon, coon, I'd like a different shade."

Sadly, Jim Crow also widened a gap between those middle class blacks who felt that disenfranchisement was appropriate for "poor" blacks, but not for "educated, economically successful and morally upright blacks." As an example, Booker T. Washington made it a point to socialize with rich philanthropists willing to fund black education, thus acquiring the political power to determine which black schools would be able to survive.

Yet, black colleges and churches would somehow survive - and even thrive - in the midst of Jim Crow, while men like W.E.B. DuBois were not cut from the "conciliatory mold of Booker T. Washinton." Rather, DuBois, like Frederick Douglas before him, fired the first salvo against Jim Crow in The Souls of Black Folk and Bishop Henry Turner thundered that he preferred "hell to the United States," proclaiming the United States Supreme Court "an organized mob against the Negro."

As Wormser notes, change would come slowly through many unknown activists, like Ned Cobb, an Alabama tenant farmer, who organized for the rights of black sharecroppers and farmers in the 1930's. Cobb served thirteen years in prison for participating in a shoot-out involving a fellow union member. In fact, Cobb was offered a lighter sentence if he would supply the names of other union members, but he refused.

In the times of Jim Crow, personal belief was built on a road of unending sacrifice.

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Frank Aiello. 2005. All rights reserved. Frank Aiello and The Electric Review.

Virginia aristocrat, Richard Randolph, a nephew of Thomas Jefferson, died in 1796, and his Will served as an indictment of the institution of slavery, granting freedom and 400 acres of land to his slaves. This piece of land would later become known as "Israel Hill," as it was intended to be the promised land to Richard Randolph's black Israelites upon being freed from bondage.

Ely, a professor of history and black studies at the College of William and Mary, came upon an old textbook with an obscure reference to a social experiment before the Civil War and was determined to learn whether this experiment had succeeded or failed. However, he was aparently not prepared for what his investigation revealed about freedom, bondage and the inherent relationship between the two:

"[S]lavery and white supremacy corrupted everyone they touched: they made hypocrites of the nation's founders and their children, helped seduce masters like Richard's uncle into vice and parasitism, fed base impulses to tyrannize and torture other human beings, and put manly independence forever beyond the reach of the blameless black victims and their indolent masters alike."

(Page32)

Ely's research challenges present day assumptions about the institution of slavery. Unlike Jefferson, who disapproved of slavery but kept slaves, Richard Randolph was consumed with guilt. In his Will, written in his own hand, Randolph "humbly" begged forgiveness for "usurping the rights of our fellow creatures, equally entitled with ourselves to the enjoyment of Liberty and happiness."

Although Randolph's wife, Judyth, apparently shared her husband's views and proceeded to emancipate one slave, Syphax Brown, as soon as her husband's Will was proved, a decade would pass before Judith completed the emancipation her husband had envisioned. Judyth Randolph's personal and philosophical struggles to honor her husband's wishes graphically illustrate the intense economic pressures created by the institution - pressures that even had impact on "enlightened" whites.

Ely's research nonetheless refutes the stereotype accepted by black and whites today, a stereotype that said that black slaves, even freed black slaves, remained psychologically dependent on white society.

Reflects Ely at the end of this excellent historical text:

"I thought I knew a great deal about cruelty to slaves before I began this project. Then I discovered descriptions of Hillary Richardson's beating a slave repeatedly and mercilessly from eye to thigh and yanking out the man's teeth while compelling another slave to restrain the victim. I had read various accounts of masters and slave traders breaking up black families. But to encounter such breakups repeatedly in primary sources drove the point home more wretchedly than ever, especially since I myself by then was the father of young children. As my friend and former colleague, Christopher Brown, once remarked, there are times when a historian, reading the evidence of what some human beings have done to others, feels the need to leave the archives reading room and go outside and breathe some fresh air."

(Page 442)

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Frank Aiello. 2005. All rights reserved. Frank Aiello and The Electric Review.

This book is the culmination of more than two decades of research by Rosedale, during which time he explored the reasons why some people can only seem to gain weight and not lose it. We've all heard the statements: "I always seem to be hungry!" "I don't know what it is, but an hour after dinner I just wanna eat again - it's crazy. I just seem to get fatter!"

But why is it happening?

Finally, we might have a real answer to the mystery -- and it's not just because you have no will power and can't control yourself. Instead, Rosedale's research has uncovered a link between the hormone leptin and the reasons why we tend to gorge ourselves all day long. According to Rosedale's research, the body's intake of food is controlled by leptin, which basically tells the brain when to consume food. However, some folks produce an excess of leptin and eat much more than they need to - accumulating fat instead of burning it away.

But Diet, just released by Harpercollins Publishers, provides a way around this vicious circle: By combining a diet high in healthy fats with moderate exercise, the amount of leptin can slowly be taken back to its normal range, thus allowing the body to lose weight naturally.

Folks should take particular note of this book because of Rosedale's perspective, as he advocates a safe and conscientious way of losing those pounds. Ultimately, this diet is not about starving or denying yourself, but instead, it's about understanding exactly how the human body works and then giving it the kinds of food it needs to replenish itself.

Aside from the fountain of information that reports on the physiological reasons behind over-eating, Rosedale presents some really wonderful recipes to help get you used to the changes in your diet (working to create low-carb selections that offer healthy alternatives rather than bland substitutes).

In the end, most people will not diet if they feel they're suffering, or if they think they can't have anything that tastes good. Life is simply too hard these days, and most of us derive joy from what we eat. Consequently, there has to be some happy medium for a diet to succeed.

And that's what Rosedale promotes: a diet stressing safety and tasty dishes. It's a book most of us can't afford not to read. ~ John Aiello

Order at amazon.com. Or go to harpercollins.com

Patients receiving the wrong medicine. Doctors operating on the wrong person or leaving instruments buried inside of body cavities. Doctors ignoring tell-tale symptoms and delaying treatment to perilous results. Fatal drug interactions. The list seems endless.

According to their research, Wachter and Shojania estimate that a shocking 100,000 people die each year because of blunders doctors and nurses make in the course of treatment ("the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every day!"). This figure, based on a series of Harvard Medical Science studies, calls into question just how safe we are when we step into the hospital and turn over the "keys" to our bodies to our health care providers:

"Mr. Adam's autopsy showed he had suffered a massive pulmonary embolism - a big gooey blood clot had formed in his legs, broken off, and found its way to his lungs, in an instant knocking out half of his breathing capacity. Looking back, Bob realized his patient's presentation (the symptoms he reported and his findings on exam) was textbook - heavy perspiration, shortness of breath despite clear lungs, the time interval between major hip surgery and the onset of respiratory problems - all of it fit. The only problem was that it was a textbook the second-year med student hadn't yet read, and Bob was too naive, scared, insecure, proud, and anxious to fit it in to ask a real doctor to help out when it might have done some good."

(Page-187)

This is scary stuff. I know Wachter and Shojania didn't write this book to intimidate or frighten us; instead, they authored this work as a means to begin educating the medical community and its patients to the reality that grave problems exist in the way hospitals function. This notwithstanding, the ideas presented here are quite worrisome, because they demonstrate that there is a very real chance that human error by a doctor could kill you before your affliction ever does.

Initially, upon reading this material, there is a tendency towards denial (This can't be! Not with all the advances in medical science and technology. It just can't be!). But advances in technology don't guarantee safety. In point of fact, they contradict it: because hospitals are moving faster and faster, and because doctors are more and more stressed trying to fulfill multiple commitments, the chance of error rises dramatically. The concept of medical treatment may be better than it was fifty years ago, but it isn't necessarily safer: unfortunately, fancy x-ray machines and computer programs cannot insure a physician's (or nurse's) full attention to detail.

So where do we go from here? As the authors so aptly note, patients can be the first wall of defense and must take an active hand in protecting themselves:

"First, introduce yourself .... And don't be cowed by the hospital's intimidating, class-oriented dress code. Just because you're in an ugly, backless hospital nightgown and the person addressing you is in a suit and tie or crisp white lab coat, your well-being is still the focus of his or her attention. Ask questions politely and persist until they're answered."

(Page-365)

More than any other book we've seen this year in the arena of medical science, Internal Bleeding is truly written with an eye towards protecting people from needless harm -- a real and honest statement on behalf of the hospital consumer. The fact that Wachter and Shojania stepped out to tell painful truths about the clubhouse that one enters upon earning the distinction of M.D. could not have been easy (how many doctors or hospital administrators want to admit that these things occur and occur regularly?). Yet, both the authors (who remain active on the UCSF Patient Safety Committee) proceed forth nobly, writing in a sharp and evocative style, intent on educating us, intent on the prevention of needless and foolish deaths.

If you are at all concerned about your role in the health care systems of America, you should find a copy of this book: reading it could actually save your life some day.

Recommended to all college and public sector libraries as a general reference text on consumer health issues.

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For further reading on the subject, SEE: webmm.ahrq.gov.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

ROBERT WACHTER

ON

INTERNAL BLEEDING

Well, the answer should be that I like science and want to help people (laughs). In my case, I didn't like science that much. But I truly wanted to help people and solve interesting problems. I was Political Science major in college and enjoyed those classes more than Science and Chemistry. And it seemed to me that there was a role in medicine for somebody like me who wanted to solve interesting problems with a human dimension. I had a real interest in organization and how medical systems could work more efficiently. And the way the world has evolved, it has played into my strengths.

It's been a little bit of an evolution over the course of my academic career, the combination of a lot of interests coming together. When I first became interested in improving health care systems it was by-way of ethics and resource allocation - how to better deal with patient interests without bankrupting the system. From that, in the mid 1990s, I became interested in the investigation of hospital care. I've really been lucky. This was a new specialty - how to make the system work better for patients. As the Chief of Medical Service at a big academic hospital, I saw that the old approach of dealing with the problem of errors in hospitals - suing and shaming providers - was not the best model to follow. Obviously, there was an opportunity to make a real difference in the field, and I was able to meld several different disciplines, things like engineering and tort law, synthesizing different ideas, making a case for change.

My colleague Kaveh G. Shojania and I had this idea to use case studies to help people understand the issue of medical mistakes. In the history of medicine it's always been the practice to use case studies to teach. The drama of a case opens people's eyes to the true nature of the problem. There was never a time in American medical literature that I'm aware of when the case presented was about medical error instead of diagnosis and treatment. So you see, Kaveh and I had a very controversial idea and consequently we had a hard time placing it for publication. The first case we published was in the Annals of Internal Medicine in June 2002. The article was titled "The Wrong Patient," and it detailed a story where 17 different errors occurred on one patient. It was a train wreck in slow motion. The publication of that article was followed by a feature in the New York Times. And from that, Rugged Land became interested in the material and we began to explore writing the book. The true challenge came in making an academic subject engaging enough for the general audience to want to read.

Five to ten years ago it would have been quite difficult to expose the dark under belly of medicine. Today, however, the response has been surprisingly positive - very gratifying. Now the medical community has gotten past the idea that we don't have a problem, accepting the notion that hospitals are indeed more dangerous than they should be. I think the minimal backlash we've felt relates to this: doctors are concerned that they're not going to get credit for all the hard work and good things they do....Our book basically says that there needs to be a sharing of information and an openness. But with that comes a concern that we could be sued because of that openness - and this naturally stifles the discussion. It's a real issue. It's a tricky issue that has made it harder for physicians to talk about error.

The figure is as a good as we have - it's drawn from two studies, and that fact in itself speaks to how little research has been done in this area. The primary research was drawn from the Harvard Medical Study. I personally think the numbers are probably pretty close. Yet, whether or not the stats are right is not important: this is nevertheless a big nasty problem that we need to do something about. The system is basically fundamentally unsafe, and that needs to change.

I hope the book is saving lives. I've actually had an opportunity to speak to many groups, and the feedback we've now gotten is that people understand this problem in a richer, deeper way. And that is helping to point them toward a solution. People seem to like the fact that it's a fairly optimistic book which looks toward fixing the situation.

Patients should ask questions and remain vigilant at all times. Make sure nurses are addressing you by your full name when you're in the hospital, when they're taking you to procedures. Bring your medicines so they know what you're taking. However, the bigger issue patients need to understand is the way in which doctors and nurses communicate and the problems that relationship poses. It's about being an informed consumer. It takes people asking questions to drive the system to be safe. But the other piece of it is, in 2004, should a patient come into a modern hospital and have to worry that we're going to cut off the wrong leg? And the answer to that is 'no,' they shouldn't have to worry about that stuff on top of being sick.

I would say it's communication problems. Information in hospitals needs to move flawlessly across the system, whether it's from doctor to nurse or from nurse's station to x-ray. And we don't a system in place that can do this flawlessly. And this is actually the root cause for you being given the wrong medicine, being taken to the wrong procedure, having the wrong part cut off. It's a complex system. Time pressured. Fragmented. And it just can't be fixed by a smart doctor who is careful. It can only fixed by revising the system and creating a different culture with regard to the way that hospitals do things. ~John Aiello

 ATKINS DIABETES REVOLUTION. Based On The Medical Practice of Robert C. Atkins, M.D. With Mary C. Vernon, M.D. and Jacqueline A. Eberstein, R.N. William Morrow.

Along with hypertension and high cholesterol, diabetes is a serious condition that compromises organs, resulting in an increase in the risk for heart attack, stroke and cancer. However, as noted in the first chapter of Atkins, this is one phenomenon we can actually stop:

Are you interested in avoiding an early death by-way of diabetes? Atkins provides the insight, telling us in clear and unadorned prose just how we can protect ourselves. After moving through a well-defined lay explanation of the origins/causes of diabetes, the book begins to explore how both healthy individuals and at-risk patients can stave off this often deadly affliction. The key, according to the late Dr. Atkins (who authored several diet books) and many other endocrinologists, is in early detection of diabetes; the idea is not to delay, but instead to eradicate, the on-set of disease.

Still, before this can be done, a person must under-go testing to determine what their blood sugar levels are. Careful monitoring of blood-pressure, heart function and lipid levels should be evaluated in conjunction with glucose levels. Once readings of each of these is obtained, individuals should concentrate on lifestyle changes that promote exercise and proper dietary focus.

There are many note-worthy elements in Atkins (including detailed case studies and advice on fitness regimens), but the real gold here is in the meal plans and recipes that have been provided: in addition to giving the reader a few suggestions on what to eat, they force us to think about the things we are putting into our mouths and consuming.

Remember, diet and obesity are huge factors that promote diabetes: all too often our busy lifestyles force us to sit and eat a donut at our desks. And nothing could be worse. But these recipes help to remind us that if we are to reach a healthy retirement age, we must pay attention to how we're living today.

Recommended to the general reader as a consumer health title chock full of new and pertinent data. A must-have for diabetes-patients or individuals at high-risk for developing the disease. Further recommended to all public-sector libraries as a strong general health selection.

Order at amazon.com. Or go to harpercollins.com

Notable from Harper

 THE E MYTH. Michael E. Gerber. Harper Business. Innovative remarks focused on the practice of medicine and how doctors can make the profession more efficient and more profitable. Rather than just work on trying to accrue the most patients and the most cash, Gerber speaks about a radical mental over-haul that is necessary if doctors are to better manage their offices. Recommended to all physicians in private practice.

 SECOND ACTS. Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine. Quill. This book's about inspiring courage within the self, with the key being not only dealing with change as it occurs, but actually promoting it. Second Act is about giving yourself a second chance at life -- be it through a career change, a change in residence, or a second marriage. Change takes guts. But looking beyond this, we each have to learn to be gutsy. Pollan and Levine offer us some direction in this regard. Appropriate title for all libraries - both academic and public. Would be useful to psychologists as well, since Second Acts would have merit to individuals in therapy.

 THE GIRL'S GUIDE TO STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS. Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio. Harper Collins. Girl's Guide is a manual written specifically for women entering the business world -- not as subordinates, but as managers. For years, women played second fiddle to the male-dominated corporate world of America. But the times have indeed changed. The last two decades have finally seen women in decision-making roles, and this book offers insight into how a woman who is considering launching a business should do it. Written by a couple of ladies who've been there and conquered the obstacles. Highly recommended as a teaching text in women's studies courses -- blending social relevance with sharp business savvy.

 WINNING WITH THE DOW'S LOSERS. Charles B. Carlson. Harper Business. Wall Street is a very complicated world that exists unto itself. To make money there, it takes some true understanding of stock market trends. Here, Carlson tells us how to invest in "underdog" stocks -- revealing some of his secrets for buying at stripped low prices and then turning the portfolio over for a profit. Appropriate for the public sector libraries as a general reference title.

 WINTER WORLD. Bernd Heinrich. Ecco. Heinrich has been compared by some critics to nature poet Gary Snyder, and it's a wonderfully apt comparison, for this biologist brings a deep mind - obviously, Heinrich understands the exactness of nature on its most fundamental, primal and holy level. In Winter World, Heinrich observes animals in their natural habitats, reflecting and recording what he sees: the prose is at all times sharp and evocative, with the author's understated illustrations bringing each passage humming into life. Recommended to field biology instructors as a change-of-pace class text -- useful at both high school and university level.  

Order at amazon.com. Or go to harpercollins.com

Notable From Other Houses

 SHOOTERS. Myths and Realties of America's Gun Culture. Abigail A. Kohn. Oxford University Press.

In 1997, while a graduate student at the University of California, Abigail A. Kohn began an anthropological study of the American gun culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even in the heart of ultra-liberal America, Kohn discovered that active and enthusiastic "shooters" not only exist, but thrive. And as her project continued, Kohn herself began frequenting shooting ranges, taking self-defense courses and practicing cowboy action shooting.

As Shooters demonstrates, Kohn appears to have enjoyed herself. Most importantly here, Kohn documents a shooting culture which extends well beyond the conventional media cliche-depicted in Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine." In contrast to Moore's perspective, Kohn identifies vocal pro-gun groups among blacks (the Tenth Cavalry), feminists (the Second Amendment Sisters) and gays (the Pink Pistols), showing us that this American "shooters" culture extends far beyond the ideas of militias and vigilantism - concepts that so many misinformed people now view as synonymous with the word gun. 

Instead, Kohn is one in a growing number of academics who speak objectively and, perhaps somewhat sympathetically, about individuals who refuse to accept the current trend to politicize victimization (as one pro-gun lesbian and feminist/activist explained to the author): "I want the twenty year solution of improving the world. But I need the twelve second solution that will keep me around to do it ..."

Shooters constitutes a true break-through: readers will discover an even-handed analysis that examines the gun amid these American landscapes.

 Recommended to the general reader interested in the evolution of this important topic. Also recommended as an under-graduate teaching text for anthropology and sociology students. Would be useful to libraries at both the college and public level as a general reference text.

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Frank Aiello. 2004. All rights reserved.

 MORTIFICATION. Robin Robertson. Fourth Estate.

This book is impressive because it pulls the drape and mask away from the private lives of writers, revealing each of us at our most humbling and human. Instead of focusing on the sweet breath of the muse and the motivations which drive some folks to write, Mortification investigates the public shame of some of our most celebrated authors - an attempt to humanize the names and identities that have been so meticulously hidden in the shape of ink and paper and plot.

Robertson, a noted poet and editor (his "Slow Air" is a wonderfully insightful collection of verse), has compiled a book that is worth-while because it documents cold concepts of fear and self-loathing and self-condemnation, these things that propel us during those private holy moments when we kneel down to stare into these blank paper faces:

And here, the author seems haunted by the fetid deepness of his own honesty:

I like this book because it strips away the hype of the book world and talks about real people in real terms; sometimes the stories can be humorous, and at other times, the lines are riddled with a musty and disturbing pain. It is a fun read, yes, but it is also acutely educational, for it forces its reader to unwrap his hidden secrets and admit each fetid failure -- a catharsis in its purest, most primal sense.

Darkness. Fear. Mortification. Re-admissions of failure. We cower at times. Writers at their desks in the pitted light of dawn. Mortified. The silence pleads our case.

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Just a half century ago, miscegenation (inter-racial marriage) used to be a crime in America -- a crime that that could actually get you killed if you lived in certain parts of the country where ideas were narrow and men full of rage. In examining this aspect of our history, Wallenstein has done a first-class job in demonstrating just how wide-spread the power of the State used to be - power that could determine the person you were allowed to marry and the kind of life you were going to live.

To illustrate this point, Wallenstein tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a Virginia couple who was arrested for marrying outside their race. Hounded and run about the country, their case would become the impetus for the Supreme Court to review the topic of inter-racial marriage, and in doing so, re-regulating the government's ability to enter people's bedrooms and determine a marriage:

"Connecting race with privacy, Chief Justice Warren explained: 'To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law.' "

Wallenstein has done a fantastic job in organizing this book, and in taking us through the story of America. Through his careful analysis, he shows us that the way we've dealt with inter-racial marriage is directly related to how the country and its many different citizens have interacted. Tell The Court would be important for that reason alone, but given the present state of America -- the post 9/11 Patriot Act with its redefinition of the Constitution -- and this book becomes required reading. Look close: the way the government is trying to control the thoughts and ideas of its citizenry has led to the erosion of individuality and creativity. Look close: it's as though we've forgotten how hard it was to get here, forgetting the struggles we had to endure in order to emerge upon the limitlessness of the new millennium.

At its best moments, Tell The Court reminds us that these struggles were about the rights of a person superseding the dictums of the State (SEE San Francisco, California, where gays and lesbian couples fight for the right to be recognized as married people). Tell The Court is an important book on a timeless subject. In theory, it speaks to the same subjects which are supposedly at the root of why America is in Iraq fighting a war.

Order from amazon.com or go to http://www.palgrave.com

 BERNIE BURN. Sarah Cruz. With Christopher Cruz. Illustrated by Sarah Cruz. Little Boots Publishing.

By John Aiello

When you have a small child around the house, danger is literally lurking around every corner. Aside from choking, one of the most serious threats to any youngster comes in the form of  hot objects -- in a mere matter of seconds, one burn can alter a life forever.

Sarah Cruz, a Registered Nurse who resides with her family in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, learned this the hard way in 2001, after her infant daughter, Azurae, suffered a second-degree burn subsequent to an encounter with a blistering-hot oven door.

Once their child recuperated, the Cruzes decided their scare should serve as a wake-up call for parents and toddlers everywhere. To this end, they went to work and launched Little Boots Publishing and created Bernie Burn - a interesting and creative children's book meant to educate tots and their caregivers on ways to prevent burn injuries.

"Some things in a child's life cannot be controlled or prevented," notes Sarah Cruz on the Little Boots Web site. "But some things are preventable -- like burn injuries. Each year 250,000 children in the U.S. are seriously burned, 200,000 of them by contact with hot substances and objects. Through our own personal experience, we learned that it's never too early to begin protecting your child in the home and teaching them about burn injury prevention."

And this, then, cuts to the core of Bernie Burn -- a storybook focused on toddlers ages 6 months to four years written and illustrated by Cruz and her husband, Christopher. More than anything, Bernie Burn provides the very young with a road map of dangers that hide in a house -- an attempt through words and pictures to steer tiny hands away from things that could sear through skin and cause a serious burn. Cruz writes:

"Baby Rae doesn't want to sit and play anymore. She's curious and wants to explore. Mommy tells baby Rae, 'he Stove is hot! Bernie Burn! He's not cool. Don't touch Bernie Burn, or you'll get a boo boo!'"

The Cruzes have done a very imaginative job here, first creating a believeable narrative and then marrying it to well-honed illustrations that children will readily identify with - the images springing to life and striking interest in the mind of the young reader. The text is augmented by a pediatric First-Aid Guide for burns/scalds, as well as hints for helping your child avoid serious injury in the kitchen. Finally, as an added attraction, the Cruzes have included blank images at the end of the text which children can color themselves, in turn refreshing the young reader's mind on the lessons they've just learned.

Like the Captain Kangaroo show of yesteryear, Bernie Burn makes a fun ride out of the necessity of teaching your child about life-threatening dangers around the house. Further, instead of turning the task into a lecture, the Cruzes have chosen to make it an event that parents and children can experience together through a storybook hour - the pictures and true-to-life plot-line meant to make children see what they are not to touch.

Bernie Burn is recommended to all parents of children one to five years old, and should be shared as parent reads through the book page-by-page with the youngster. This selection would further be a useful teaching tool in pre-school classes a means to address dangers in the home.

For further information, SEE: littlebootspublishing.com

Other Children's Books Of Note

By John Aiello

This unique little book should become a standard among elementary-level instructors looking to excite kids about words, language and art.

Paint Me A Poem is the creation of poet Justine Rowden, who conceived of the book one day while at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.. Specifically, as Rowden was looking at Sam Francis's painting Speck she heard some invisible song play out in her head and saw the colors on the canvass move to the hooves of melody in her mind:

"Ziggidy, zaggedy

Lime jello greens..."

Turn the pages here, and you will quickly realize that you don't have to be a child to be moved by Rowden's deep love of language. More than anything, this book is about passion -- one writer's passion to try and capture the echoes she feels move across the mouth of her mind as she bears witnesses to the art of the great masters from centuries past:

WITH MY FATHER

"Come and I will tell you

Down quiet roads..."

This poem, inspired by Auguste Renoir's Madame Henroit, immediately calls to mind Frost's Stopping By The Woods -- at once vivid and poignant, awash in the memories of a child now lost within an older self.

Paint Me A Poem is comprised of fourteen verses that have been aligned with paintings by artists such as Henri Matisse, Renoir, Francisco de Goya and others - this splendid marriage of language to the visual arts. The ultimate goal here is for the child-reader to borrow from the book's vibrant - almost brazen - creativity, suddenly inspired enough to want to write what they themselves see in the paintings. No righteous censorship. No fear of what anyone else's perceptions might be -- instead, just write what you see. Create. Move to the rhythmic motion of your mind moving against rusty wheels of time.

More children's writers would be well-served to abandon the contrived formulas of past trends and move toward more original avenues of expression. This book by Justine Rowden lights a beautiful way.

Recommended for children 6-13 years of age, to be used as a classroom aid for any course material dedicated to bringing the language arts to life.

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 FIRST SALMON. Roxane Beauclair Salonen. Illustrated by Jim Fowler. Boyds Mills Press. This book takes a step toward trying to help youngsters come to grips with loss and death. The vehicle the authors use to tell their story is an inventive one -- the Salmon season in the Pacific Northwest. The story is told through the Native American point of view, as a young boy (Charlie) tries in vain to celebrate the dawning of the first salmon without his beloved Uncle Joe. The story moves swiftly, and uses individual character development to help Charlie see that his uncle isn't really gone at all; instead, the old man's spirit will forever be a part of him during the celebration of the First Salmon. ~John Aiello

 OLIVER's MUST DO LIST. Susan Taylor Brown. Illustrated by Mary Sullivan. Boyds Mills Press. Life in the 21st century moves FAST! Sometimes it's going so fast that our "things-to-do-lists" bulge to ridiculous proportions and we can scarcely make time for the kids. Oliver's Must Do is a book meant to teach kids how they might get our attention away from our pesky day-to-day worries -- and back on what's important in life. But going a step further, this book also can teach parents that kids don't really understand busy: in a child's eyes, a parent's mad work paces feels a lot like being ignored. ~John Aiello

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SPORTS

SHORTS

 THE ART OF THE X-MEN: THE LAST STAND. From Concept to Feature Film. Edited and designed by Christopher Measom and Timothy Shaner. Forward by Brett Ratner. Newmarket Press.

By John Aiello

This book sets out to document in stunning and explosive terms the making of the third installment in the X-Men trilogy. As Ratner notes in his evocative forward, the making of "comic book films" is a rarefied occurrence presenting a director with a unique chance to bring the magic of the illustrator's pen to big-screen life. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. It's all kind of a grand roll of the cinematographer's dice as multiple variables determine if the project succeeds or fails. Insofar as X-Men is concerned, the movie soared to epic proportions, thrilling its audience with myriad twists and turns, with abrupt jumps and jerks. Accordingly, this book is a beautiful companion to the film, chock full of the very same on-the-edge-tension that nailed viewers to their seats. Here, the editors have stitched together a book of illustrations and photos that tell the story of the film, placing readers in the director's mind as we come to examine set designs, story boards and special effects shots documenting each of the celluloid characters with whom we came to bond. Over 360 illustrations coupled with Ratner's well-defined introductory remarks serve to create this real-time 'biography' of the film and its genesis. Finally, once The Art Of X-Men is in your hands, the plot and sub-plot of this fantastic series of films becomes secondary to the idea of cinema and its creative labyrinth. As the title implies, this book is more about the process of art rather than the picture in the frame.

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 SPIES AMONG US. Ira Winkler. Wiley.

The internet is a wonderful resource and a tremendous tool that assists us in all facets of our lives - from finding maps/directions to discovering information about health and legal issues. However, because of its instant accessibility, it has also spawned several new types of criminal: the hacker; the identity thief; the fraud with a web site selling non-services for low monthly fees.

Here, Ira Winkler (formerly of the National Security Agency) has presented us with a book that no one can afford to live without. Believe me - that's no exaggeration; instead, it is the bottom line truth.

Spies Among Us is written for folks everywhere as a primer course on how to avoid falling victim to information thieves - these opportunistic marvels who prey on nonchalant folks like you and me (hunting down vital personal data that just might have been left unconcealed or unattended):

"Determining the value of the information in your business or personal life is an essential first step toward developing an effective security plan. If your information isn't worth anything - monetarily or otherwise - it won't matter how vulnerable you are to attack. No one normally spends time collecting worthless data...."

(Page-41)

Winkler has written this book as a means to teach us the methods these modern bandits use, further striving to teach us what measures we might take to help ourselves dodge disaster. Look at what stories are being broadcast on the news. Look at how many stories there have been recently about security breeches at banks and at major corporations. If these big corporate giants can fall victim (given all the firewalls and extra security) don't you think that you - John Q. Citizen with his E-Bay and Pay-Pal accounts- can be just as vulnerable?

It's time to really learn what's going on in this new world of electronic information and then take pro-active steps to protect yourself. Winkler's book is a necessary reference and has become required reading for anybody with a checking account. ~John Aiello

 DARKNET. Hollywood's War Against The Digital Generation. J.D. Lasica. Wiley. Another release by Wiley that investigates the changing landscape of our world is found here. Darknet discusses advances in technology and the impetus on the part of Hollywood and big-business to quash those advances and rein us in. Remember, a public listening to its own forms of media can't be readily controlled or manipulated and won't spend its cash as easily...Anyone with an ipod and a penchant for burning CDS will want to check Lasica's book out - it's a winner. ~John Aiello

Recommended to libraries at both the college and public sector level as a general reference text. Techno-heads will find the subject matter particularly interesting.

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 MY LIFE AS A QUANT. Reflections on Physics and Finance. Emanuel Derman. John Wiley. This autobiography by theoretical physicist Emanuel Derman provides keen insight into the behind-the-scenes world of Wall Street. The idea of stocks and bonds and how money moves is foreign stuff to most of us - this tenuous and sophisticated world built on intricate mathematical formulas and ever-changing strategies. In addition to standard practices, companies all across today's business landscape are using quantitative financial profilers ("quants" for short) to develop business models, manage product risk and track volatility. Enter Emanuel Derman. He's one of the most respected "quants" on the "Street" and has authored an array of financial models that are used by companies throughout the world. In the complex big money environment of Wall Street, it takes an acute understanding of just what is required to achieve your goal; writes Derman: "It takes only a good idea and a few good people to develop a model, but it takes many more people to turn that model into a usable tool." There's a reason why so many companies have sought out Derman's counsel, and this book shares the vision and business savvy of one of the masters of the market. Will prove a gripping read even for those who don't have a bundle of cash riding on stocks. ~John Aiello

Recommended to libraries at both the college and public sector level as a general reference text. Investors will find the subject matter particularly interesting.

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 THE EL-EVENTH HOUR. Lily G. Stephen. Blooming Rose Press. The El-eventh Hour (the second installment in a trilogy) written by Mount Shasta, California writer Lily Stephen marks a step away from the mainstream, stepping off alone in a unique direction. Ultimately, this novel is an extension of the fantasy genre, a book that modernizes Tolkien's vein and incorporates the idea of mythology with the pure imagination of fiction, this pure discourse of spirit leaping wild veils of time: "First Sappho, the shimmering goddess, and then Branicor, her handsome counterpart with the dance of humor in his eyes...dissolved into swirls, ribbons and spirals of myriad hues..." Here, every passage and every paragraph reads like the beginning line of an epic new poem. We are captivated. We are awash in the stark thirsty moonlit beauty of language. Spellbound, looking into the hallway, looks for the Door that will reveal thee.

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 VOLKSWAGEN MILITARY VEHICLES OF THE THIRD REICH. Blaine Taylor. Da Capo. Most folks are familiar with Volkswagen as an economical alternative to gas guzzler "American Boats" -- a little compact bug-shaped mobile born of 1960's ingenuity. However, nothing could be further from reality. In actuality, VW was the brainchild of Adolph Hitler born during the period of the Third Reich. Hitler in fact used the VW during the second World War in his efforts to take over Europe and the world, employing a hyped-up Jeep-version of the famous "Beetle." Yet, Hitlers's vehicle was designed for real "off road" battle, this jeep now truly amphibious, rugged and built indestructible, a distant cousin to the Hummer that has become the poster child of the American war effort in Iraq. Taylor's book proves exhaustive in nature, recapitulating the history of the Volkswagen during the Third Reich, recording the unique traits that would come to evolve into the modern-day version of the economy car so many have fallen in love with. Finally, the countless never-before-seen photographs serve to demonstrate just how advanced the German mechanical technology of the era really was.

Recommended to libraries at the college level and in the public sector for its long term reference value recollecting one of the most important periods in world history.

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Reviewed By Frank Aiello

Name dropping among the rich and famous is a tradition, and occasionally, it becomes a rarefied art. Oscar Wilde had the knack of it, as did photographer, artist, writer, designer and unrepentant snob, Cecil Beaton.

Beaton was living in London when this portion of his diaries begin. Even though Beaton had a cold on January 30, 1965 (the day of Winston Churchill's funeral), it doesn't stop him from shedding "lotions of tears" as he recalls the last time he saw Churchill and "Clemmie."

Beaton was at the height of his creative powers in the Sixties, and London was one of the epicenters of cafe society. Yet somehow, Beaton leaves the impression that he really didn't get the Sixties. For instance, Beaton recalls that the film classic Easy Rider left him "very much bewildered".

Instead, Beaton is on more familiar territory reminiscing about earlier times with Garbo, "Coco" and Kate. Although many of Beaton's entries appear dated after the passage of forty years and the entry into a new millennium, a few of his diary passages remain quite moving. Note this description of his secretary's funeral:

"Maud's funeral was pathetic. St Mary's Cadogan Street cold, dark and almost empty. Maud's coffin under a black velvet pall that had been used at so many hundreds of funerals that it had become shabby, poor and covered with stains. The flowers, too, were very meagre. Her sister had come over from Portugal and Francis Rose, wearing my old clothes, was introduced to her by Beryl Ashcroft."

Recommended to libraries at the college level and in the public sector for its interesting slant on one of the most studied decades of the modern era.

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Frank Aiello. 2005. All rights reserved. Frank Aiello and The Electric Review.

FROM THE BUSINESS DESK