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Table of Contents
Reviewer's Choice
Propaganda and Conflict
Market Connelly, et al.
Bloomsbury Academic
c/o Bloomsbury Press
175 Fifth Avenue, Suite 315, New York, NY 10010
www.bloomsbury.com
9781788314039, $120.00, HC, 368pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Propaganda is information that is not objective and is used primarily to influence an
audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular
synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational
response to the information that is presented. Propaganda is often associated with material
prepared by governments, but activist groups, companies, religious organizations and the media
can also produce propaganda. (Wikipedia)
Propaganda has always played a key role in shaping attitudes during periods of conflict and the
academic study of propaganda, commencing in earnest in 1915, has never really left us. We
continue to want to understand propaganda's inner-workings and, in doing so, to control and
confine its influence. We remain anxious about pernicious information warfare campaigns,
especially those that seemingly endanger liberal democracy or freedom of thought.
What are the challenges, then, of studying propaganda studies in the twenty-first century? Much
scholarship remains locked into the study of state-led campaigns, however an area of special
concern in recent years has been the loss of official control over the basic instruments of mass
communication. This has been seen in the rise of 'fake news' and the ability of non-state actors to
influence political events.
Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by the team of Mark Connelly (Professor of Modern
British History, University of Kent), Jo Fox Director at the Institute of Historical Research and
Professor of Modern History, University of London), Ulf Schmidt (Reader in Modern British
History and Director of the Centre for the History of War, Media and Society, University of
Kent), and Stefan Goebel (Professor of Modern History and Director of the Centre for the
History of Medicine, Ethics and Medical Humanities, University of Kine), "Propaganda and
Conflict: War, Media and Shaping the Twentieth Century" presents the latest research in
propaganda studies, featuring contributions from a range of leading scholars and covering the
most cutting-edge scholarship in the study of propaganda from World War I to the present.
Critique: With the collapse of the Soviet Union which ended the Cold War, a new conflict
emerged from the ashes with Russia engaging in a new form of warfare -- Cyber War using the
new technologies of social media to sabotage American democracy. This new form of warfare
made even more effective by helping to elect Donald Trump to the presidency with his overt
program of using propaganda to denigrate the American political institutions of a free press, the
judiciary, the congress, the military, American international relations, and the traditional
protocols of the American presidency itself.
All of this makes the publication of "Propaganda and Conflict: War, Media and Shaping the
Twentieth Century" a timely and invaluable contribution to enabling the citizenry of America and
the European Union (including Great Britain) to become aware of our current perilous situation.
The first condition to solving a problem is to become aware that there is one. The first condition
of winning a propaganda war is to become aware that we are in one -- and currently losing.
Informed and informative, "Propaganda and Conflict: War, Media and Shaping the Twentieth
Century" should be a part of every community, college, and university library collection in the
country. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, governmental
policy makers and elected officials, as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in
the subject that "Propaganda and Conflict: War, Media and Shaping the Twentieth Century" is
also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $86.40).
Literary Trails: Haworth and the Brontes
David F. Walford, author
Catherine Rayner, author
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526720856, $29.95, PB, 176pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Set in and around the town of Haworth it gives a dual introduction to tourists, visitors,
and lovers of the literature generated by the Brontes when they are exploring this unique area of
Yorkshire and walk in the footsteps of those who knew and loved this town and its moorlands
two hundred years ago.
With guided tours around special buildings as well as outdoor walks and the history of people
and places who lived and worked in Haworth over centuries, it offers an insight into life and
death in the melee of the Industrial Revolution.
Its joint authors, Walford and Rayner, have combined their lifelong interests in Victorian
literature and social history with writing, walking, photography and cartography and have
included quotes from the Brontes' poetry and novels.
Critique: The collaborative work of David F. Walford and Catherine Rayner, "Haworth and the
Brontes" is a deftly written, impressively informative, lighthearted but deeply researched study
that will be of particular interest and informative guidance to on-site tourists, social historians
and those who would enjoy learning about of the Bronte family, their lives and works. An
extraordinary and original study that is especially recommended for personal, community,
college, and academic library Literary Studies, Travel, and British History collections in general,
and Bronte supplemental curriculum studies in particular, it should be noted for the personal
reading lists of on-site travelers, studies, and academia that "Literary Trails: Haworth and the
Brontes" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.37).
The Writing/Publishing Shelf
Everybody Has A Book Inside of Them
Ann Marie Sabath
Career Press Inc.
12 Parish Drive, Wayne, NJ 07470
www.careerpress.com
9781632651693, $16.95, PB, 192pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In "Everybody Has a Book Inside of Them: How To Bring It Out", aspiring authors will learn firsthand from Ann Marie Sabath and her army of author colleagues the answers to the roster of questions so often asked about the writing process ranging from how to get their writing motor revved, to ridding themselves of those debilitating writing doubts, or learning the power of KITA for meeting deadlines.
Showing how to make a dream of becoming an author a reality, the 49 topics specifically addressed range from: How long does it take to write a book?; Why knowing your reader is a must before you begin; and What motivates authors? Love or money?; to Why to stop writing while you are ahead; What seasoned authors would tell their younger selves; and How bestselling authors structure their books.
With her honesty, sense of humor, and encouragement, Ann Marie will provides the steps for creating a book, including easy-to-follow guidelines, trade tips, and valuable insights from other experienced authors will get an aspiring author's 'writing engine' started up.
Critique: As 'real world practical' and informational, as it is inspirational and motivating, "Everybody Has A Book Inside of Them: How To Bring It Out" is very highly recommended to the attention of anyone who has ever felt like they would like to create a book whether it would be fiction or non-fiction. I should be noted for personal reading lists that "Everybody Has A Book Inside of Them: How To Bring It Out" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.98) would be of special and particular relevance for anyone contemplating getting published what they have already begun whether it be a memoir, a book of their poetry, an attempt at the next Great American Novel, or anything else that would seek a readership for their work.
Writing for the Cut
Greg Loftin
Michael Wiese Productions
12400 Ventura Blvd., #1111, Studio City, CA 91604
www.mwp.com
9781615933006, $26.95, PB, 190pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Editing is what makes a movie a movie. Consulting with master film editors including
Walter Murch, Juliette Welfling, Eddie Hamilton, and Anne V. Coates (whose insights and
wisdom anchor the book), script writer and author Greg Loftin engagingly, smartly details the
storytelling nuances and tricks screenwriters can learn from their film-editor peers in "Writing for
the Cut: Shaping Your Script for Cinema".
Cutting-room veterans have long maintained that visual juxtaposition fuels film storytelling.
Over-lapped images spark fresh ideas in the minds of viewers, encouraging them to become
active partners in your storytelling and discover your story for themselves.
In later chapters, "Writing for the Cut" shows how we can bring our stories closer to the screen
by writing not only with text, but with images and sounds. The screenwriter is taken deep into the
edit suite to learn the secrets of the sizzle reel.
Critique: A complete course of instruction under one cover, "Writing for the Cut: Shaping Your
Script for Cinema" should be considers essential reading for all aspiring script writers.
Comprehensive and thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "Writing for the
Cut" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library
Writing/Publishing collections in general, and Screen/Script Writing supplemental studies lists in
particular. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Writing for the Cut" is also available
in a digital book format (Kindle, $25.60).
Editorial Note: Greg Loftin wrote and directed his first feature film in 2007 -- the award-winning
urban western Saxon. He is also course leader of the very first undergraduate program in film
editing and postproduction in the UK. His world-class program of master classes has attracted
visiting master editors such as Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather), Paul Machliss
(Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver), Tom Rolf (Taxi Driver, Heat), Mick Audsley (Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Murder on the Orient Express), and Lisa Gunning (Nowhere Boy,
Seven Psychopaths). "Writing for the Cut" is the result of a practice-based PhD that the
University of Exeter awarded Loftin in 2016.
The Hollywood Standard, second edition
Christopher Riley
Michael Wiese Productions
12400 Ventura Blvd., #1111, Studio City, CA 91604
www.mwp.com
9781932907636, $29.95, PB, 208pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: A professional screen writer with his wife and writing partner, Kathleen Riley,
Christopher Riley ran the script processing department at Warner Bros. Studio. Now in a fully
updated and expanded second edition, "The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and
Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style " by Christopher Riley describes in clear, vivid
prose and hundreds of examples how to format every element of a screenplay or television
script.
A reference for everyone who writes (or aspires to writing) for the screen, from the novice to the
veteran, "The Hollywood Standard" is the dictionary of script format, with instructions for
formatting everything from the simplest master scene heading to the most complex and
challenging musical underwater dream sequence.
This new second edition includes a quick start guide, plus new chapters on avoiding a dozen
deadly formatting mistakes, clarifying the difference between a spec script and production script,
and mastering the vital art of proofreading. For the first time, readers will find instructions for
formatting instant messages, text messages, email exchanges and caller ID.
Critique: Simply stated, "The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to
Script Format and Style" fully lives up to its subtitle and is comprehensive, 'user friendly', and
unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Script
Writing instructional reference collections and supplemental studies lists.
Authors and Apparatus
Monika Dommann
Cornell University Press
512 East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu
9781501709920, $41.95, HC, 282pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Copyright is under siege. From file sharing to vast library scanning projects, new
technologies, actors, and attitudes toward intellectual property threaten the value of creative
work. However, while digital media and the Internet have made making and sharing perfect
copies of original works almost effortless, debates about protecting authors' rights are nothing
new.
"Authors and Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright" is sweeping account of the evolution of
copyright law since the mid-nineteenth century in which Monika Dommann (Professor of
Modern History, University of Zurich) deftly explores how radical media changes ranging from
sheet music and phonographs to photocopiers and networked information systems -- have
challenged and transformed legal and cultural concept of authors' rights.
Dommann provides a critical transatlantic perspective on developments in copyright law and
mechanical reproduction of words and music, charting how artists, media companies, and
lawmakers in the United States and western Europe approached the complex tangle of
technological innovation, intellectual property, and consumer interests.
From the seemingly innocuous music box, invented around 1800, to BASF's magnetic tapes and
Xerox machines, Dommann demonstrates how copyright has been continuously destabilized by
emerging technologies, requiring new legal norms to regulate commercial and private copying
practices.
Without minimizing digital media's radical disruption to notions of intellectual property,
Dommann uncovers the deep historical roots of the conflict between copyright and media -- a
story that can inform present-day debates over the legal protection of authorship.
Critique: An intrinsically fascinating and meticulously presented history of copyright in
relationship to the ever advancing progress of the technologies affecting the intellectual property
rights of authors (and their publishers!), "Authors and Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright"
is ably translated from the original German into English for an American readership by Sarah
Pybus.
Enhanced for academia with the inclusion of a list of illustrations, a list of abbreviations, and
informative Introduction (A Media History of Legal Norms), a summarizing Conclusion (Legal
Histories of Media Transformation), a four page Bibliography Essay (Further Reading), thirty-
four pages of Notes, a thirty page Bibliography, and a six page Index, "Authors and Apparatus: A
Media History of Copyright" is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic
library Writing/Publishing collections in general, and Copyright supplemental studies lists in
particular. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of authors, publishers, students,
academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Authors and
Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$20.99).
Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks, second edition
Wendy Laura Belcher
University of Chicago Press
1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
www.press.uchicago.edu
9780226499918, $60.00, PB, 442pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in a fully updated and expanded second edition, "Writing Your Journal Article in
Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success", by Professor Wendy Belcher takes
the seemingly overwhelming task of writing an article for a peer-reviewed scholarly or scientific
journal and breaks it down into small, manageable steps.
With this new edition, Professor Belcher expands her advice to reach beginning scholars in even
more disciplines. She builds on feedback from professors and graduate students who have
successfully used the workbook to complete their articles. A new chapter addresses scholars who
are writing from scratch. This new edition of "Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks"
also includes more targeted exercises and checklists, as well as the latest research on productivity
and scholarly writing.
"Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks" is the only reference to combine expert
guidance with a step-by-step workbook. Each week, readers learn a feature of strong articles and
work on revising theirs accordingly. Every day is mapped out, taking the guesswork and worry
out of writing. There are tasks, templates, and reminders. At the end of twelve weeks, graduate
students, recent PhDs, postdoctoral fellows, adjunct instructors, junior faculty, and international
faculty will feel confident they know that the rules of academic publishing and have the tools
they need to succeed.
Critique: Academia is known as a 'publish or perish' environment for anyone seeking to advance
their career, establish tenure, or otherwise share their discoveries and insights with their fellow
academicians, researchers, and scientists. It is no overstatement to say that it being thoroughly
'user friendly' instructional manual and guide that is also available in a digital book format
(eTextbook, $48.00), "Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic
Publishing Success" is the key to successfully be published in a peer-reviewed publication.
Editorial Note: Wendy Laura Belcher is Professor of African literature at Princeton University
with a joint appointment in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department for
African American Studies. She wrote (and updated in this second edition) "Writing Your Journal
Article in Twelve Weeks " based on her experiences as an author, a managing editor of a
peer-reviewed journal, and the designer of academic writing workshops that have helped
hundreds of students, scholars and academicians from around the world to publish their
work.
The Education Shelf
About Becoming a Teacher
William Ayers
Teachers College Press
1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
www.tcpress.com
9780807761496, $24.95, PB, 96pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Education activist William Ayers invites new and prospective teachers to consider the
deepest dimensions of a life in teaching in "About Becoming a Teacher" such as: Should I
become a teacher? How can I get to know my students? What commitments come with me into
the classroom? How do I develop my unique teaching signature?
In the pages of "About Becoming A Teacher", Ayers muses on 10 such questions (and a little
more) to shape and structure into an indispensable guide that features hands-on advice and
concrete examples of classroom practice, including curriculum-making, building relationships
with students and parents, fostering an effective learning environment, and teaching toward
freedom.
With a brilliant and concise text, "About Becoming a Teacher" offers a conception of teaching as
both practical art and essentially ethical practice and features: Specific strategies for becoming a
successful classroom teacher; Foregrounds the ethical and intellectual qualities of excellent
teaching; Recognizes the complexity of teaching even as it provides a map to achieve excellence:
Accessibility without oversimplifying the content and reducing teaching to something anemic
and superficial.
Critique: An absolute 'must read' for anyone contemplating teaching as a profession, "About
Becoming a Teacher" is unreservedly recommended as a core addition to college and university
library Teacher Education collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "About
Becoming a Teacher" is also available in a digital book format (eTextbook, $16.99).
Editorial Note: William Ayers is Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University
Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired), education activist, and author of
Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom (with Rick Ayers), To Teach:
The Journey of a Teacher, Third Edition, and To Teach: The Journey, in Comics (with Ryan
Alexander-Tanner).
Adventures in Teacher Leadership
Rebecca Mieliwocki & Joseph Fatheree
ASCD
1703 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, VA 22311-1714
www.ascd.org
9781416627166, $24.95, PB, 135pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Have you ever imagined yourself as a teacher leader but weren't quite sure whether you
really had (or could develop) the necessary skills? Have you wondered what the first steps toward
becoming a teacher leader might be, what kinds of approaches work best, and how you could
overcome the inevitable challenges that come with leading your colleagues on a journey toward
improvement as professionals?
In "Adventures in Teacher Leadership: Pathways, Strategies, and Inspiration for Every Teacher",
authors and educators Rebecca Mieliwocki (California and National Teacher of the Year for
2012) and Joseph Fatheree (Illinois Teacher of the Year for 2007) answer these questions and
more in this engaging guide to becoming a successful teacher leader.
Organized around five key tools (communication, collaboration, professional development, data,
and advocacy) "Adventures in Teacher Leadership" covers every aspect of what is involved in
taking on leadership responsibilities. Firsthand accounts of the authors' experiences and those of
more than a dozen other State Teachers of the Year describe the various pathways to leadership,
strategies for success, and pitfalls to avoid. These teacher voices add powerful credibility to the
research on teacher leadership and show how leaders can not only improve their schools and
districts but also influence state and national policies and practices.
Both informative and inspiring, "Adventures in Teacher Leadership" invites others to expand
their professional reach, empower the profession of teaching, and, ultimately, make a big
difference in the lives of students everywhere.
Critique: Featuring an informative introduction by Katherine Bassett (who is an education
innovator and advocate who spent 26 years in the classroom as a middle school librarian and is
New Jersey's 2000 State Teacher of the Year), "Adventures in Teacher Leadership: Pathways,
Strategies, and Inspiration for Every Teacher" will prove to be a critically important and core
addition to school district, college, and university library Teacher Education instructional
reference collections. Especially recommended reading for anyone considering a career in
teaching, "Adventures in Teacher Leadership" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$18.50).
The American History Shelf
The Disaffected
Aaron Sullivan
University of Pennsylvania Press
3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
9780812251265, $39.95, HC, 304pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Elizabeth and Henry Drinker of Philadelphia were no friends of the American
Revolution. Yet neither were they its enemies. The Drinkers were a merchant family who, being
Quakers and pacifists, shunned commitments to both the Revolutionaries and the British. They
strove to endure the war uninvolved and unscathed.
They failed when in 1777 the war came to Philadelphia and the city was taken and occupied by
the British army.
In "The Disaffected: Britain's Occupation of Philadelphia During the American Revolution",
Aaron Sullivan explores the British occupation of Philadelphia, chronicling the experiences of a
group of people who were pursued, pressured, and at times persecuted, not because they chose
the wrong side of the Revolution but because they tried not to choose a side at all. For these
people, the war was neither a glorious cause to be won nor an unnatural rebellion to be
suppressed, but a dangerous and costly calamity to be navigated with care.
Both the Patriots and the British referred to this group as "the disaffected", perceiving correctly
that their defining feature was less loyalty to than a lack of support for either side in the dispute,
and denounced them as opportunistic, apathetic, or even treasonous. "The Disaffected" shows
how Revolutionary authorities embraced desperate measures in their quest to secure their own
legitimacy, suppressing speech, controlling commerce, and mandating military service. In 1778,
without the Patriots firing a shot, the king's army abandoned Philadelphia and the perceived
threat from neutrals began to decline -- as did the coercive and intolerant practices of the
Revolutionary regime.
By highlighting the perspectives of those wearied by and withdrawn from the conflict, "The
Disaffected" reveals the consequences of a Revolutionary ideology that assumed the nation's
people to be a united and homogenous front.
Critique: A seminal work of scholarship, "The Disaffected: Britain's Occupation of Philadelphia
During the American Revolution" is further enhanced with the inclusion of forty pages of Notes,
a fourteen page Bibliography, and a ten page Index. A valued and informative addition to the
growing library of American Revolution histories and commentaries, "The Disaffected" is an
especially recommended addition to both community and academic library 18th Century
American History collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students,
academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Disaffected"
is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $34.45).
Editorial Note: Aaron Sullivan holds a Doctorate from Temple University and a Bachelor's
Degree from Letourneau University. He has also served as a history instructor at Temple
University and Holy Family University in Philadelphia and Rider University in New Jersey.
The World History Shelf
Blood on the Snow
Elisabeth Heresch
Paragon House
3600 Labore Road, Suite 1, St. Paul, MN 55110-4144
www.paragonhouse.com
9781557781130, $24.95, HC, 250pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In "Blood on the Snow: Eyewitness Accounts of the Russian Revolution", Elisabeth
Heresch dramatically reveals, in a chronological story through eye-witness accounts, how the
Russian Empire fell in 1917 to a handful of revolutionaries unknown to the masses. Heresch
reveals the role of Germany in supporting the revolutionaries as an attempt to undermine the
regime it was unable to defeat on the battlefield. And, "Blood on the Snow" shows the role of the
US in financing the revolutionaries in order to get exclusive exploitation rights and contracts
mainly for oil and coal.
Prince Felix Yusupov tells of the night that he, along with others, killed the notorious Rasputin.
Tatyana Botkina, daughter of the Czar's personal physician, witnessed her father, along with the
Czar and his family, driven from exile to execution. P. N. Malyantovich, Justice Minister of the
provisional government, recalls the night that the provisional government was overthrown, and
he and the other members of that government had their lives threatened by an armed mob.
Varvara Levitova, a volunteer nurse who was shot in the battles between the Whites and the
Reds, recounts the horrors of the frontline where Russian battled Russian.
The witnesses question commonly held assumptions about the revolution. Was Czar Nicholas II
an incompetent and aloof autocrat bent on preserving his own power? Was Lenin a brilliant and
popular leader of a popular revolution? Were the people truly clamoring for a revo-lution to
transform Russia into a class-less society? From these stories the reality of the Russian
Revolution is revealed and we can see the Czar and Lenin, the battles, and the secret meetings,
the people, and the events that changed tbe world.
Critique: An impressively researched, written, organized and presented history, "Blood on the
Snow: Eyewitness Accounts of the Russian Revolution" by Elisabeth Heresch is an inherently
fascinating and extraordinarily informative addition to community and academic library 20th
Century Russian History collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students,
academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Blood on the
Snow" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.95).
Editorial Note: Elisabeth Heresch is an expert on Russian affairs, publicist, and translator from
Russian and French into German. She traveled throughout Europe, the United States, and the
Soviet Union seeking out and interviewing witnesses of the Russian Revolution. She is a
graduate of the Institute for Slavic Studies and Romanic Studies at the University of Graz, in her
native Austria. She is the author of 12 books on Russian history, culture, and music.
Creating Hitler's Germany
Tim Heath
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526732972, $39.95, HC, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Germany's devastating defeat in the First World War and the punitively exploitive
Treaty of Versailles that followed were national disasters, with far-reaching consequences not
just for the country but for the world itself.
Weaving the stories of three German families from the beginning of Germany's territorial
aspirations of the First World War to the shattered dream of a thousand-year Reich in the Second
World War, Tim Heath's rich narrative in "Creating Hitler's Germany: The Birth of Extremism"
deftly explores a multitude of rare and untapped resources to explore the darkest recesses of
German social and military history.
Hitler's Germany presents a nation's journey not only through everyday life and war, but through
its own conscience, pain and inevitable search for some form of absolution from its past. It is
real, painful and incredibly human -- and an essential history to further understand the mind-set
of Germany during the most tumultuous years of the nation's history.
Critique: If we do not learn the lessons of history we will be doomed to repeat the behaviors,
national and personal, that have resulted in the tragedies of the past. One outstanding 20th
Century example is how Germany was treated at the end of World War I and how she was treated
at the end of World War II -- that latter treatment having prevented a World War III for the past
75 years. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Tim Heath's "Creating Hitler's
Germany: The Birth of Extremism" is very highly recommended for community and academic
library 20th Century History collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that
"Creating Hitler's Germany" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99).
Plants Go to War
Judith Sumner
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476676128, $49.95, PB, 336pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II" examines military history
from the perspective of plant science. From victory gardens to drugs, timber, rubber, and fibers,
plants supplied materials with key roles in victory. Vegetables provided the wartime diet both in
North America and Europe, where vitamin-rich carrots, cabbages, and potatoes nourished
millions. Chicle and cacao provided the chewing gum and chocolate bars in military rations.
In England and Germany, herbs replaced pharmaceutical drugs; feverbark was in demand to treat
malaria, and penicillin culture used a growth medium made from corn. Rubber was needed for
gas masks and barrage balloons, while cotton and hemp provided clothing, canvas, and rope.
Timber was used to manufacture Mosquito bombers, and wood gasification and coal replaced
petroleum in European vehicles.
Lebensraum, the Nazi desire for agricultural land, drove Germans eastward; troops weaponized
conifers with shell bursts that caused splintering. Ironically, the Nazis condemned non-native
plants, but adopted useful Asian soybeans and Mediterranean herbs. Jungle warfare and
camouflage required botanical knowledge, and survival manuals detailed edible plants on Pacific
islands. Botanical gardens relocated valuable specimens to safe areas, and while remote locations
provided opportunities for field botany, Trees surviving in Hiroshima and Nagasaki live as a
symbol of rebirth after the vast nuclear destruction
Critique: A unique blend of botanical and military history by botanist Judith Sumner, "Plants Go
to War: A Botanical History of World War II" in an original and meticulous study that is as
informed and informative as it is accessible organized and reader friendly in presentation. "Plants
Go to War" is an ideal and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college,
and university library World War II histories and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
The Legitimacy of Bastards
Helen Matthews
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526716552, $49.95, HC, 248pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: For the nobility and gentry in later medieval England, land was a source of wealth and
status. Their marriages were arranged with this in mind, and it is not surprising that so many of
them had mistresses and illegitimate children. John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, married at the
age of twenty to a ten-year-old granddaughter of Edward I, had at least eight bastards and a
complicated love life.
In theory, bastards were at a considerable disadvantage. Regarded as 'filius nullius' or the son of
no one, they were unable to inherit real property and barred from the priesthood. In practice,
illegitimacy could be less of a stigma in late medieval England than it became between the
sixteenth and late twentieth centuries. There were ways of making provision for illegitimate
offspring and some bastards did extremely well in the church, through marriage, as soldiers, and
a few even succeeding to the family estates.
"The Legitimacy of Bastards: The Place of Illegitimate Children in Later Medieval England" by
Helen Matthes is the first extensive study of the Medieval era in England to consider the
individuals who had illegitimate children, the ways in which they provided for them and attitudes
towards both the parents and the bastard children. It also highlights important differences
between the views of illegitimacy taken by the Church and by the English law.
Critique: It is interesting to note that Helen Matthews studied medieval history at UCL and Royal
Holloway when a chance remark in a footnote inspired her to embark on the thesis on medieval
bastards, on which "The Legitimacy of Bastards" is based. Enhanced for academia with the
inclusion of a one page Glossary, a fifty-nine pag Anex (Dramatis Personae), a five page
Bibliography, and a five page Index, "The Legitimacy of Bastards" is certain to be an enduringly
appreciated and valued addition to both community and academic library English Medieval
History collections and supplemental studies lists. It should be noted for students, academics, and
non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Legitimacy of Bastards" is
also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.98).
The Ismaili Assassins
James Waterson
Frontline Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526760821, $29.95, PB, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The Ismaili Assassins were an underground group of political killers who were ready
to kill Christians and Muslims alike with complete disregard for their own lives. These devoted
murderers were under the powerful control of a grand master who used assassination as part of a
grand strategic vision that embraced Egypt, the Levant and Persia and even reached the court of
the Mongol Khans in far away Qaraqorum.
The Assassins often slayed their victims in public, cultivating their terrifying reputation. They
assumed disguises and their weapon of choice was a dagger. The dagger was blessed by the
grand master and killing with it was a holy and sanctified act poison or other methods of murder
were forbidden to the followers of the sect.
Surviving a mission was considered a deep dishonor and mothers rejoiced when they heard that
their Assassin sons had died having completed their deadly acts. Their formidable reputation
spread far and wide. In 1253, the Mongol chiefs were so fearful of them that they massacred and
enslaved the Assassins women and children in an attempt to liquidate the sect. The English
monarch, Edward I, was nearly dispatched by their blades and Richard the Lionheart's reputation
was sullied by his association with the Assassins murder of Conrad of Montferrat.
Enhanced with eyewitness accounts from Islamic and Western sources, "The Ismaili Assassins:
A History of Medieval Murder" by author and historian James Waterson explores the origins,
actions and legacy of this notorious sect.
Critique: An inherently fascinating, deftly written, and impressively informative read from
beginning to end, "The Ismaili Assassins: A History of Medieval Murder" will prove to be an
enduringly popular addition to both community and academic library Medieval History
collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading
lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that
"The Ismaili Assassins" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.61).
Parliament's Generals
Malcolm Wanklyn
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781473898363, $49.95, HC, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Waller, Essex, Fairfax, Manchester and Cromwell are among the most famous military
men who fought for the British Parliament during the English Civil War. While their
performance as generals has been explored in numerous books on the campaigns, comparatively
little has been written by military historians about the political aspects of high command, namely
the ever-changing and often fractious relationship with the English Parliament and its executive
committees. That is why "Parliament's Generals: Supreme Command and Politics During the
British Wars 1642-51", Professor Malcolm Wanklyn's study of these men, is of such value, for it
sheds new light on the qualities they employed in their attempts to achieve their military and
political aspirations.
In a series of insightful chapters "Parliament's General's follows their careers through the course
of the conflict, focusing on their successes and failures in battle and the consequences for their
reputations and influence. Dissatisfaction with the leadership of Essex, Manchester and Waller in
the inconclusive early campaigns is examined, as are the contrasting strengths of Fairfax and
Cromwell. This reassessment sheds new light on how these commanders managed promotions,
outmaneuvered their fellow generals and controlled their subordinates.
Critique: An impressively detailed and meticulously researched history, "Parliament's Generals:
Supreme Command and Politics During the British Wars 1642-51" is an extraordinary and highly
recommended as an essential and core addition to both community and academic library 17th
Century British History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted
for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and the non-specialist general reader that
"Parliament's Generals" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.97).
Editorial Note: Malcolm Wanklyn was for many years head of the history and war studies
division at the University of Wolverhampton, and he is now Emeritus Professor in the History
Department. He has made a special study of the English Civil War, concentrating on the written
records upon which modern understanding of the military history of the era is based. His
best-known books are A Military History of the English Civil War 1642-1646: Strategy and
Tactics, written in collaboration with Frank Jones, Warrior Generals: Winning the British Civil
Wars, Reconstructing the New Model Army and Decisive Battles of the English Civil War.
Dragon Lords
Eleanor Parker
I. B. Tauris Publishers
www.ibtauris.com
c/o Bloomsbury Academic
175 Fifth Avenue, Suite 315, New York, NY 10010
www.bloomsbury.com
9781784537869, $35.00, HC, 288pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Why did the Vikings sail to England? Were they indiscriminate raiders, motivated
solely by bloodlust and plunder? One narrative, the stereotypical one, might have it so. But
locked away in the buried history of the British Isles are other, far richer and more nuanced,
stories; and these hidden tales paint a picture very different from the ferocious pillagers of
popular repute.
In the pages of "Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Viking England", academician and
historian Eleanor Parker unlocks secrets that point to more complex motivations within the
marauding army that in the late ninth century voyaged to the shores of eastern England in its
sleek, dragon-powered longships. Exploring legends from forgotten medieval texts, and across
the varied Anglo-Saxon regions, Professor Parker depicts Vikings who came not just to raid but
also to settle personal feuds, intervene in English politics and find a place to call home.
Native tales reveal the links to famous Vikings like Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons; Cnut; and
Havelok the Dane. Each myth shows how the legacy of the newcomers can still be traced in
landscape, place-names and local history. "Dragon Lords" uncovers the remarkable degree to
which England is Viking to its core.
Critique: Meticulously researched, impressively informative, thoughtfully insightful, and an
inherently fascinating read from cover to cover, "Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of
Viking England" is an extraordinary work of scholarship that is exceptionally accessible for both
academia and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject. While unreservedly
recommended for both community and academic library Viking History and English History
collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-
specialist general readers with an interest in Viking history that "Dragon Lords" is also available
in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.20).
Editorial Note: Eleanor Parker is Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College,
Oxford. Her DPhil, obtained in 2013 from the University of Oxford, addressed the subject of
Anglo-Scandinavian literature in post-Conquest England. Professor Parker writes an acclaimed
blog in her guise as 'A Clerk of Oxford', described as 'an orchard of golden apples' by Christopher
Howse in the Daily Telegraph. In 2015 her blog won the Longman - History Today Award for
Digital History, and she now writes a regular column for History Today.
Richard III
Matthew Lewis
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526727978, $22.95, PB, 192pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: King Richard III (2 October 1452 - 22 August 1485) remains one of the most infamous
and recognizable monarchs in English or British history, despite only sitting on the throne for
two years and fifty-eight days. His hold on the popular imagination is largely due to the fictional
portrayal of him by William Shakespeare which, combined with the workings of five centuries of
rumor and gossip, has created two opposing versions of Richard. In fiction he is the evil,
scheming murderer who revels in his plots, but many of the facts point towards a very different
man.
Dissecting a real Richard III from the fictional versions that have taken hold is made difficult by
the inability to discern motives in many instances, leaving a wide gap for interpretation that can
be favorable or damning in varying degrees. It is the facts that will act as the scalpel to begin the
operation of finding a truth obscured by fiction.
Richard III may have been a monster, a saint, or just a man trying to survive, but any view of him
should be based in the realities of his life, not the myths built on rumor and theater. How much of
what we think we know about England's most controversial monarch will remain when the facts
are sifted from the fictions? That is a question that is more than satisfactorily responded to by
Matthew Lewis in his historical biography of this controversial English monarch.
Critique: The informed and informative result of remarkably painstaking and meticulous research
that is deftly organized and presented so as to be of especially impressive value to scholars and
non-specialist general readers alike, this edition of "Richard III" by Matthew Lewis will prove to
be an enduringly popular addition to community and academic library late Medieval English
Biography collections in general, and King Richard III supplemental studies reading lists in
particular.
Editorial Note: Matthew Lewis trained in law and is now a full time author of historical fiction
and non-fiction. He also blogs on his website, Matt's History Blog, and can be found on Twitter
as @mattlewisauthor. His main interest is medieval history and he has a number of books on that
topic, including The Wars of the Roses: The Key Players in the Struggle for Supremacy and
Richard, Duke of York: King by Right.
The Philosophy Shelf
Spoiler Alert!
Richard Greene
Open Court Publishing Company
70 East Lake Street, Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60601
www.opencourtbooks.com
9780812694697, $19.95, PB, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Spoilers get folks upset -- wanting to resort to violence upset! Spoilers have a long
history, going back to the time when some Greek theater-goer shouted "That's Oedipus's mom!"
But spoilers didn't use to be so intensely despised as they are today. The new, fierce hatred of
spoilers is associated with the Golden Age of television and the ubiquity of DVR/Netflix/Hulu,
and the like. Today, most people have their own personal "horror story" about the time when they
were subject to the most unfair, unjust, outrageous, and unforgivable spoiler.
A first definition of spoiler might be revealing any information about a work of fiction (in any
form, such as a book, TV show, or movie) to someone who hasn't encountered it. But this isn't
quite good enough. It wouldn't be a spoiler to say "The next Star Trek movie will include a
Vulcan." Nor would it be a spoiler to say, "The story of Shawshank Redemption comes from a
short story by Stephen King." But there has to be something at least a bit unexpected or
unpredictable about the information, and it has to be important to the content of the work. And
you could perpetrate a spoiler by divulging information about something other than a work of
fiction, for example details of a sports game, to someone who has Tivo'd the game but not yet
watched it.
Critique: A unique and inherently fascinating study about the philosophy of spoilers, "Spoiler
Alert!" by Richard Green is certain to be a welcome and enduringly popular addition to
community and academic library Contemporary Philosophy collections in general, and the impact
of spoilers in today's social media driven worlds of television and the movies. As informed and
informative as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking, it should be noted for the personal reading
lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that
"Spoiler Alert!" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Philosophy
James K. Dew Jr. & Paul M. Gould
Baker Academic
c/o Baker Publishing Group
6030 East Fulton, Ada, MI 49301
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
9781540961556, $49.99, HC, 304pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: James K. Dew Jr. (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD, University
of Birmingham) is vice president for undergraduate studies and distance learning and associate
professor of philosophy and the history of ideas at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Wake Forest, North Carolina. Paul M. Gould (PhD, Purdue University) is the author of Cultural
Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted
World, the coauthor of Stand Firm: Apologetics and the Brilliance of the Gospel, and the
coeditor of Four Views on Christianity and Philosophy and Is Faith in God Reasonable?
In "Philosophy: A Christian Introduction", these two experienced educators offer an up-to-date
introduction to philosophy from a specifically Christian perspective that covers the four major
areas of philosophical thought: epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and ethics.
Written from an analytic perspective, "Philosophy" deftly introduces key concepts and issues
within the main areas of philosophical inquiry in a comprehensive yet accessible way, inviting
readers on a quest for goodness, truth, and beauty that ultimately points to Jesus as the source of
all.
Critique: Exceptionally well organized and presented, "Philosophy: A Christian Introduction" is
enhanced for academia with the inclusion of a six page Glossary, a sixteen page Bibliography, a
two page Scripture Index, a four page Author Index, and a six page Subject Index. While very
highly recommended for community, college, university, and seminary library collections, it
should be noted for personal reading lists of students, seminarians, academia, clergy, and non-
specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Philosophy" is also available in a
paperback edition ($9780801097997, $26.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.51).
The Military Shelf
Saipan
James H. Hallas
Stackpole Books
5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-6921
www.stackpolebooks.com
9780811738439, $34.95, HC, 592pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The World War II story of the Battle of Saipan has it all. Marines at war: on Pacific
beaches, in hellish volcanic landscapes in places like Purple Heart Ridge, Death Valley, and
Hell's Pocket, under a commander known as "Howlin' Mad". Naval combat: carriers battling
carriers from afar, fighters downing Japanese aircraft, submarines sinking carriers. Marine-army
rivalry. Fanatical Japanese defense and resistance.
A turning point of the Pacific War, in "Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II"
journalist and military historian James Hallas reconstructs the full panorama of Saipan in a way
that no recent chronicler of the battle has done. In its comprehensiveness, attention to detail,
scope of research, and ultimate focus on the men who fought and won the battle on the beaches
and at and above the sea, it rivals Richard Frank's modern classic Guadalcanal.
Critique: The definitive military history of the Battle of Saipan, "Saipan: The Battle That
Doomed Japan in World War II" is an essential, core addition to community and academic library
World War II Pacific Theatre collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of
military history buffs that "Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" is also
available in a digital book format (Kindle, $21.33).
German Submarine U-1105 'Black Panther'
Aaron Stephan Hamilton
Osprey Publishing
4301 21st St, Suite 220B, Long Island City, NY 11101
www.ospreypublishing.com
9781472835819, $35.00, HC, 128pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in its final resting place at the bottom of the Potomac River in Maryland, the
U-Boat U-1105 is unique among German World War II submarines. Technologically innovative,
it was the only U-Boat to conduct a wartime patrol while equipped with the snorkel, GHG
Balkon passive sonar and a rubberized coating known as Alberich designed to reduce its acoustic
signature and hide from Allied sonar.
After the end of World War II, it was the subject of intense testing and evaluation by the Allies,
before finally being sunk to the bottom of the Potomac River. "German Submarine U-1105
'Black Panther': The Naval Archaeology of a U-Boat" is profusely illustrated study by Aaron
Stephan Hamilton that uses many new and previously unpublished images to tell the full story of
this remarkable U-Boat, evaluating the effectiveness of its late World War II submarine warfare
technologies.
Critique: Meticulously researched, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "German
Submarine U-1105 'Black Panther': The Naval Archaeology of a U-Boat" by Aaron Stephan
Hamilton is unique, impressively informative and unreservedly recommended addition to both
community and academic library World War II collections in general, and German Submarine
History supplemental studies reading lists in particular. It should be noted for the personal
reading lists of dedicated naval warfare history buffs that "German Submarine U-1105 'Black
Panther': The naval Archaeology of a U-Boat" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$14.46).
Editorial Note: An academically trained historian who holds a Bachelors and Master's degree in
History, as well as the Field Historian designator awarded by the U.S. Army's Combat Studies
Institute, Aaron Stephan Hamilton has spent the last twenty-five years researching and analyzing
the final year of military conflict during World War II in Europe. The focus of his research has
been the primary documents related to the last year of fighting along the Eastern Front. A
time-period and geographic area often negated by Western researchers due to a lack of easily
availability primary sources. His multi-volume, The Oder Front 1945 became the basis for the
U.S. Army Europe's (USAREUR) first Staff Ride and Battle Book about the Battle of the Seelow
Heights. Over the past five years he has transitioned his interests from land combat to naval
operations, specifically the last year of Battle of the Atlantic that foreshadowed the evolution in
undersea warfare. He has a number of books and articles on the topic of late war U-Boat
operations and tactics forthcoming from Osprey Publishing.
US Navy Battleships 1886 - 98
Brian Lane Herder
Osprey Publishing
4301 21st St, Suite 220B, Long Island City, NY 11101
www.ospreypublishing.com
9781472835024, $19.00, PB, 48pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "US Navy Battleships 1886 - 98: The Pre-Dreadnoughts and Monitors that Fought the
Spanish-American War" by Brian Lane Herder is fully illustrated study examines the US's first
six battleships. This is a naval history of political compromises, clean sheet designs, operational
experience, and experimental improvements. These ships directly inspired the creation of an
embryonic American military-industrial complex that enabled a permanent outward-looking shift
in American foreign policy, and laid the foundations of the modern US Navy.
After the American Civil War, the US Navy had been allowed to decay into complete
insignificance, yet the commissioning of the modern Brazilian battleship Riachuelo and poor
performance against the contemporary Spanish fleet, forced the US out of its isolationist posture
towards battleships.
The first true US battleships began with the experimental Maine and Texas, followed by the
three-ship Indiana class, and the Iowa class, which incorporated lessons from the previous ships.
These initial ships set the enduring US battleship standard of being heavily armed and armored at
the expense of speed.
Critique: A succinct but definitive history enhanced with captioned illustrations, charts, an
informative commentary, a Select Bibliography and an Index, "US Navy Battleships 1886 - 98:
The Pre-Dreadnoughts and Monitors that Fought the Spanish-American War" is an especially
recommended addition to personal, community, college, and university library 19th Century
American Naval History collections and supplemental studies reading lists. It should be noted for
the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an
interest in the subject that "US Navy Battleships 1886-98" is also available in a digital book
format (Kindle, $10.99).
U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels
Ken W. Sayers
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476672564, $45.00, PB, 361pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: For more than a century, the U.S. Navy's battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines
and amphibious warfare vessels have depended on a small group of specialized auxiliary ships to
provide fuel, food, ammunition, parts and other material support and services. Without these
workhorse vessels, the U.S. Fleet could not have won in World War II and it could not today
deploy and remain on station in the far distant waters of the world.
In the pages of "U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels: A History and Directory from World War I to
Today", Ken W. Sayers (an IBM veteran who is a former naval officer serving on board a Pacific
Fleet destroyer escort and then in the Pentagon on the staff of the Assistant Secretary of Defense)
provides the rosters, histories, specifications and illustrations of 130 different auxiliary ship types
in the last 100 years, including the little-known ones, the latest expeditionary fast transports and
future towing, salvage and rescue ships.
Critique: Nicely illustrated throughout with black/white ship photos, "U.S. Navy Auxiliary
Vessels: A History and Directory from World War I to Today" is a very specialized and highly
recommended addition to the growing library of American Naval military histories and is
especially commended for personal, community, college, and university library collections and
supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Barnsley at War 1939 - 45
Mark Green
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526721877, $24.95, HC, 208pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The 'eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month' of 1918 was supposed to
be the conclusion of the 'war to end all wars'. But just twenty-one years after the armistice ending
World War I was signed, Barnsley, its borough and the world braced itself for a global conflict
that history would eventually testify to be deadlier than the war that destroyed a generation of
Barnsley men and boys.
After the Great War, the famous market town stumbled into a new era that promised social
change, including universal suffrage, economic and political stability and establishments of new
international organizations such as the League of Nations to steer the masses. In reality, the town
suffered in poverty, endured pit disasters, countless industrial deaths all the while still lamenting
its lost generation, mercilessly butchered on The Somme.
In "Barnsley at War 1939 - 45", historian and author Mark Green explains in detail Barnsley's
transition from its interwar years, to the euphoria of victory in 1945, supported by a timeline of
national events that helped shape the town. It steers away from the common two-dimensional
viewpoints some people had on the Home Front and the endless reusing of the same themes - 'the
Great British spirit,' Churchillian greatness, D-Day, Dunkirk and VE day. Although one cannot
dismiss those remarkable qualities the town developed during the war, it also explores
controversial topics such as social impacts, the rise in juvenile delinquency, misplaced optimism,
increase in crime and the acceptance of the status quo by some members of the ruling
council.
Indeed, Barnsley rose to the challenge as it did years earlier, women once again revealed their
rightful place in society as equals, miners smashed productivity records, men and women took up
arms in anticipation of invasion.
The Second World War had arguably the same impacts on Barnsley as the Great War, further
local names etched on the memorials as a timeless reminder of the men, women and children
who died or gave their life for their town, county and country. Never to be forgotten.
Critique: An exemplary and impressively presented history of a single but representative British
community during the war years, "Barnsley at War 1939 - 45" is an extraordinary and
exceptionally informative contribution to the growing library of World War II literature. While
very highly recommended for both community and academic library Military History collections,
it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, military buffs, and non-
specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Barnsley at War 1939 - 45" is also
available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.97).
The Literary Studies Shelf
Reading Homer's Odyssey
Kostas Myrsiades
Bucknell University Press
Bucknell University, 1 Dent Drive, Lewisburg, PA 17837
www.bucknell.edu/UniversityPress.xml
9781684481361, $24.95, PB, 364pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Homer's Odyssey is the first great travel narrative in Western culture. A compelling
tale about the consequences of war, and about redemption, transformation, and the search for
home, the Odyssey continues to be studied in universities and schools, and to be read and
referred to by ordinary readers.
"Reading Homer's Odyssey" by Kostas Myrsiades (Professor Emeritus of Comparative and Greek
Literature) offers a book-by-book commentary on the epic's themes that informs the
non-specialist general reader and engages the seasoned academic reader in new perspectives.
Among the themes discussed are hospitality, survival, wealth, reputation and immortality, the
Olympian gods, self-reliance and community, civility, behavior, etiquette and technology, ease,
inactivity and stagnation, Penelope's relationship with Odysseus, Telemachus' journey, Odysseus'
rejection of Calypso's offer of immortality, Odysseus' lies, Homer's use of the House of Atreus
and other myths, the cinematic qualities of the epic's structure, women's role in the epic, and the
Odyssey's true ending.
Footnotes clarify and elaborate upon myths that Homer leaves unfinished, explain terms and
phrases, and provide background information. "Reading Homer's Odyssey" concludes with a
general bibliography of work on the Odyssey, in addition to the bibliographies that accompany
each book's commentary.
Critique: An eloquently erudite and insightful analysis of one of the world's most famous works
of literature from Ancient Greece, "Reading Homer's Odyssey" should be considered a core
addition to both community and academic library Homeric Literature collections and
supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students,
academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Reading
Homer's Odyssey" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.95).
Machado de Assis and Narrative Theory
Earl E. Fitz
Bucknell University Press
Bucknell University, 1 Dent Drive, Lewisburg, PA 17837
www.bucknell.edu/UniversityPress.xml
9781684481132, $99.95, HC, 222pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Machado de Assis and Narrative Theory: Language, Imitation, Art, and
Verisimilitude in the Last Six Novels" by Earl E. Fitz (Professor of Portuguese, Spanish, and
Comparative Literature at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee) makes the argument
that Machado de Assis, hailed as one of Latin American literature's greatest writers, was also a
major theoretician of the modern novel form.
Steeped in the works of Western literature and an imaginative reader of French Symbolist poetry,
Machado creates, between 1880 and 1908, a "new narrative," one that will presage the
groundbreaking theories of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure by showing how even the
language of narrative cannot escape being elusive and ambiguous in terms of meaning. It is from
this discovery about the nature of language as a self-referential semiotic system that Machado
crafts his "new narrative." Long celebrated in Brazil as a dazzlingly original writer, Machado has
struggled to gain respect and attention outside the Luso-Brazilian ken. He is the epitome of the
"outsider" or "marginal," the iconoclastic and wildly innovative genius who hails from a culture
rarely studied in the Western literary hierarchy and so consigned to the status of "eccentric." Had
the Brazilian master written not in Portuguese but English, French, or German, he would today
be regarded as one of the true exemplars of the modern novel, in expression as well as in
theory.
Critique: A masterwork of original and seminal scholarship that rescues a critically important
Latin American writer from an undeserved obscurity, "Machado de Assis and Narrative Theory:
Language, Imitation, Art, and Verisimilitude in the Last Six Novels" is enhanced for academia
with the inclusion of a prefacing article (A Note on Translations), sixteen pages of Notes, a six
page Bibliography, and a seven page Index. While unreservedly recommended for college and
university library Latin American Literary Studies collections in general, and Machado de Assis
supplemental studies lists in particular, it should be noted for students, academia, and non-
specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Machado de Assis and Narrative
Theory" is also available in a paperback edition (978-1684481125, $34.95) and in a digital book
format (Kindle, $33.20).
Arid Dreams: Stories
Duanwad Pimwana, author
Mui Poopoksakul, translator
The Feminist Press
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
www.feministpress.org
9781936932566, $16.95, PB, 216pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Arid Dreams: Stories" is comprised of thirteen short stories by Duanwad Pimwana
that investigate ordinary and working-class Thailand through memorable characters who aspire
for more but remain suspended in routine. They bide their time, waiting for an extraordinary
event to end their stasis. A politician's wife imagines her life had her husband's accident been
fatal, a man on death row requests that a friend clear up a misunderstanding with a sex worker,
and an elevator attendant feels himself wasting away while trapped, immobile, at his station all
day.
With curious wit, this original collection of stories offers revelatory insight, subtle critique, and
an exploration of class, gender, and disenchantment in the changing Southeast Asian country of
Thailand.
Critique: Adroitly translated into English for an American readership by Mui Poopoksakul (a
lawyer-turned-translator with a special interest in contemporary Thai literature), Duanwad
Pimwana's "Arid Dreams: Stories" showcases the impressive literary talents of an accomplished
and original storyteller. While highly recommended for both community and academic library
Contemporary Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Arid
Dreams: Stories" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.98).
Editorial Note: Duanwad Pimwana (b. 1969) is consistently regarded as an important female
voice in contemporary Thai literature. She won the S.E.A. Write Award, Southeast Asia's most
prestigious literary prize, in 2003 for her novel Changsamran, and is one of only six women to
have won the Thai section of the award. Born to farmer parents, Pimwana attended a vocational
school and started off as a journalist at a local newspaper. She published her first short story at
the age of twenty and quickly gained recognition, earning awards from PEN International
Thailand and the acclaimed Thai literary magazine Chorkaraket. Known for fusing touches of
magic realism with social realism, she has written nine books. English translations of her work
have appeared in Words Without Borders and Asymptote's Translation Tuesday column. She
currently lives in her native seaside province of Chonburi, located on the Thai east coast.
The Fiction Shelf
Elizabeth of Bohemia
David Elias
ECW Press
www.ecwpress.com
9781770414631, $16.95, PB, 360pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: October 1612. King James I is looking to expand England's influence in Europe,
especially among the Protestants. He invites Prince Frederic of the Palatinate to London and
offers him his 16-year-old daughter Elizabeth's hand in marriage.
The fierce and intelligent Elizabeth moves to Heidelberg Castle, Frederic's ancestral home, where
she is favored with whatever she desires, and the couple begins their family. Amid much turmoil,
the Hapsburg emperor is weakened, and with help from Bohemian rebels, Frederic takes over
royal duties in Prague. Thus, Elizabeth becomes the Queen of Bohemia.
But their reign is brief. Within the year, Catholic Europe unites to take back the Hapsburg throne.
Defeated at the Battle of White Mountain, Frederic, Elizabeth, and their children are forced into
exile for a much-reduced life in The Hague. Despite tumultuous seasons of separation and
heartache, the Winter Queen makes every effort to keep her family intact.
Critique: David Elias is a novelist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His work has been nominated
for several awards, and he has travelled extensively in the footsteps of Elizabeth of Bohemia to
examine rare historical documents and artifacts in places such as the British Library, Heidelberg
Castle, and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. As a result of his meticulous research he has written
with his own distinctive and cinematic flair an historical novel that brings in key figures such as
Shakespeare and Descartes as it recreates the drama and intrigue of 17th-century England and the
Continent. As an historical note, Elizabeth's children included Rupert of the Rhine and Sophia of
Hanover, from whom the Hanoverian line descended to the present Queen Elizabeth II. While
very highly recommended, especially for community and academic library Historical Fiction
collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Elizabeth of Bohemia" is also
available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Honoring the Enemy
Robert N. Macomber
Naval Institute Press
291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402
www.nip.org
9781682474198, $29.95, HC, 368pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Capt. Peter Wake, USN, is a veteran of Office of Naval Intelligence operations inside
Spanish-occupied Cuba, who describes with vivid detail his experiences as a naval liaison ashore
with the Cuban and U.S. armies in the jungles, hospitals, headquarters, and battlefields in the
1898 campaign to capture Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish. His younger friend, and former
superior, Theodore Roosevelt, is included in Wake's story, as the two of them endure the hell of
war in the tropics.
Wake's account of the military campaign ashore is a window into the woeful incompetence,
impressive innovations, energy-sapping frustration, and breathtaking bravery that is always at the
heart of combat. His description of the great naval battle, from the unique viewpoint of a prisoner
onboard the most famous Spanish warship, is an emotional rendering of how the concept of
honor can transform a hopeless cause into a noble gesture of humanity.
Critique: Pure entertainment from cover to cover, Robert N. Macomber's "Honoring the Enemy"
is the fourteenth book in the award-winning Honor Series of historical naval novels from the
Naval Institute Press. The newest Captain Peter Wake novel, "Honoring the Enemy" will prove
to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to community library collections. It should
be noted for personal reading lists that "Honoring the Enemy" is also available in a digital book
format (Kindle, $20.28).
Yours Truly, Thomas
Rachel Fordham
Revell
c/o Baker Publishing Group
6030 East Fulton, Ada, MI 49301
www.revellbooks.com
9780800736330, $29.99, HC, 322pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: A young woman working at the Dead Letter Office in 1883 opens a series of
heartbreaking love letters. She's determined to find their rightful owner and make things right.
But a trip to Azure Springs, Iowa, may provide love and healing for more than just the letter
writer.
Critique: A deftly penned and original novel by an author with a genuine talent for originality and
reader engagement, "Yours Truly, Thomas" by Rachel Fordham is a compulsive page-turner of
an entertaining read offering a story that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long
after the book itself is finished and set back upon the shelf. While an extraordinary and highly
recommended addition to community library Historical Romance Fiction collections, it should be
noted for personal reading lists that "Yours Truly, Thomas" is also available in a paperback
edition (9780800735388, $15.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
White Hell Of Pity
Norah Lofts
Isis Large Print
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781785416118, $35.50, HC, Large Print, 294pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The Bacons live in a charming little village with a Saxon church, green lanes and
comfortable farmhouses called Swything. But the Bacons themselves are anything but charming.
They are slovenly, dirty and poor. There are too many children, and Mrs. Bacon cordially resents
them all. But she hates Emmie the most because it is Emmie that offends the most. Emmie is
different. Then, when Emmie turns twelve, the miracle happens. The chance arrives for her to
learn about a world the other Bacons do not know of. For when Emmie is twelve, she meets Miss
Stanton!
Critique: Another gem of an original and deftly crafted novel by Norah Lofts, this large print
edition of "White Hell Of Pity" is certain to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to
community library Contemporary General Fiction collections and is a 'must' for the legions of
Norah Lofts fans.
The Mystery/Suspense Shelf
The Circus Train Conspiracy
Edward Marston
Isis Large Print
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781785416088, $35.50, HC, Large Print, 384pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In 1860 and following a string of successful performances, the Moscardi Circus is
traveling by train to Newcastle for their next show. Amongst the usual railway hubbub, the
animals have been loaded, the clowns (now out of their make-up and costumes are incognito) are
aboard, and Mauro Moscardi himself is comfortable in a first-class compartment with a
cigar.
Yet when there is a collision on the track with a couple of sleepers pandemonium breaks out as
passengers are thrown about and animals escape into the night making the future of the circus
looks uncertain.
Then when the body of a woman is discovered in woodland next to the derailment, Inspector
Colbeck is despatched to lend assistance, believing the two incidents might be connected. It is up
to Colbeck to put the pieces together to discover the identity of the nameless woman and unmask
who is targeting Moscardi's Magnificent Circus
Critique: An exceptionally well crafted and thoroughly reader engaging mystery from beginning
to end, this large print edition of "The Circus Train Conspiracy" by Edward Marston will prove
to be an enduringly popular addition to both personal reading lists and community library
Mystery/Suspense collections.
The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
Spine of the Dragon
Kevin J. Anderson
Tor
c/o Tor/Forge Books
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
9781250302106, $26.99, HC, 528pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Two continents at war, the Three Kingdoms and Ishara, are divided by past bloodshed.
When an outside threat arises with the reawakening of a powerful ancient race that wants to
remake the world. The two warring nations must somehow set aside generational hatreds and
form an alliance to fight their true enemy.
Critique: Once again Kevin J. Anderson showcases his complete mastery of the sword & sorcery
genre with "Spine of the Dragon: Wake of the Dragon". A complex world, an enormous roster of
deftly scripted characters and creatures, a seemingly non-stop roller coaster ride of unexpected
plot twists and turns, "Spine of the Dragon" is a page turner of a read from cover to cover -- and
one of Anderson's very best fantasy novels to date! While unreservedly recommended for
community library Fantasy Fiction collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of
the legions of Kevin J. Anderson fans that "Spine of the Dragon" is also available in a digital
book format (Kindle, $13.99).
To Clear Away the Shadows
David Drake
Baen Books
PO Box 1188, Wake Forest NC 27588
www.baen.com
9781481484022, $25.00, HC, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The truce between Cinnabar and the Alliance is holding, and the Republic of Cinnabar
Navy is able to explore regions of the galaxy without the explorers being swept up in great power
conflict. The Far Traveller is probing sponge space to open routes for Cinnabar traders -- and for
RCN warships if war breaks out again. But besides astrogation, the Far Traveller is to survey and
catalog life forms on the worlds it touches.
Harry Harper has just been posted to the Traveller. He's an RCN officer by convention, a scientist
by training -- and a member of one of leading aristocratic families on Cinnabar by birth.
Lieutenant Rick Grenville would rather serve on a warship in the heart of battle, but peace and
the whim of the Navy Board have put him on an exploration vessel instead. He finds that the
dangers on the fringes of civilization are just as great as those from missiles and gunfire that he
expected to face.
As internal struggles cause the Alliance to relax its iron grip, regional forces are attempting to
increase their own power -- and they're not fussy about the means they use. Besides the biological
answers that officials on Cinnabar expect the Far Traveller to find, the ship's Director of Science,
Doctor Veil, has her own agenda: to learn more about the Archaic Spacefarers who roamed the
universe tens of thousands of years before humans reached the stars.
The crew of the Far Traveller is poised to clear more of the shadows away from the deep past
than ever before in human history -- if they survive!
Critique: David Drake is a master of the science fiction action-adventure genre and with his latest
novel in the Cinnabar nave series "To Clear Away the Shadows" is still another of his inherently
riveting, page-turner epic that is certain to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to
community library Science Fiction collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of
the legions of David Drake fans that "To Clear Away the Shadows" is also available in a digital
book format (Kindle, $9.99).
The Western Fiction Shelf
Six-Gun Law: A Western Duo
James Reasoner & L. J. Washburn
Five Star Publishing
10 Water Street, Suite 310, Waterville, ME 04901
http://gale.cengage.com/fivestar
9781432857196, $25.95, HC, Library Binding, 311pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Ransom Valley: The Wyoming Territory town of Wind River has gotten so peaceful
that some people think it's downright civilized. But they don't know that a gang of outlaws is
planning a raid that will clean out the bank. Anyone who gets in their way will be cut down in a
hail of bullets. A beautiful young woman finds herself taken prisoner by the outlaws, and it's up
to Marshal Cole Tyler and Texas cowboy Lon Rogers to rescue Brenda Durand . . . if they don't
wind up on the receiving end of some outlaw lead first!
Outlaw Blood: Outlaw Blade Kendrick's wife runs away from him, taking their two young sons
with her. Knowing that he will come after her, she leaves the boys with different families to raise.
Kendrick does catch up to her and she dies accidentally during their confrontation. Kendrick is
sent to prison for another crime. When he gets out ten years later, he starts tracking down the
boys. The older son is with a family that's moved recently to Wind River to start a new church.
When Kendrick arrives with his younger son, whom he has found and recruited into his gang, the
older brother tries to turn bad in order to save his adopted family, but he can't do it. Instead he
ruins his outlaw father's plans, which leads to a showdown between Marshal Cole Tyler and the
dangerous gang.
Critique: Two great western stories by masters of the genre under one cover, "Six-Gun Law: A
Western Duo" (the seventh volume in the'Wind River Series' from Five Star Publishing) is a
terrifically entertaining read from cover to cover. While very highly recommended, especially for
community library collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of all dedicated
western novel buffs that "Six-Gun Law: A Western Duo" is also available in a digital book
format (Kindle, $7.99).
Dusk Along the Niobrara
John D. Nesbitt
Five Star Publishing
10 Water Street, Suite 310, Waterville, ME 04901
http://gale.cengage.com/fivestar
9781432858292, $25.95, HC, Library Binding, 215pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The man known as Dunbar, while working on a ranch in the Niobrara country in
Wyoming, connects the death of a hardscrabble homesteader with the death of an old horse trader
some fifteen years earlier.
As Dunbar goes to work on a corral project in town and then on fall roundup, more murders take
place -- a wandering drunk who has picked up gossip in an alehouse, and then the proprietor of
the alehouse. People who know too much are being silenced.
An old woman named Verona tells of an ancient crime on Old Woman Creek, where a
sheepherder was killed and his partner escaped. In a final scene at the new shipping pens, Dunbar
brings forth the witnesses, and a showdown erupts, with Dunbar bringing justice to the Niobrara
country.
Critique: With "Dusk Along the Niobrara", western novelist John D. Nesbitt is a Spur award
winning author who has once again penned a truly riveting, compulsive page turner of western
that will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to community library
Western Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Dusk Along the
Niobrara" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
High Shoulders
Dale Mike Rogers
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444840148, $20.99, PB, Large Print, 192pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: As young drifter Tim Jackson rides through the high country, he realizes he is not
alone: shots begin to rain down on him from the undergrowth, and he barely escapes with his life.
As his mount comes to a halt at the edge of the forest, Jackson notices a town ahead. Hoping to
find work, and believing he has outrun the ambusher, he rides in. Accepting the job of sheriff
quickly makes him enemies, however - and soon there are bullets coming at him from every
direction!
Critique: A deftly written western with a surprising and quite satisfying under story of two
professional gunmen, a crooked businessman, and an old debt paid off in coin and blood, the
primary story is one of a gun-gifted young man putting on a star and taking on a master-minded
and ruthless criminal gang that had murdered several other town sheriffs before him, "High
Shoulders" is a simply riveting read from cover to cover -- and this large print edition is
unreservedly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library Western
Fiction collections.
Bonachon Blood
Caleb Rand
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
9781444840773, $20.99, PB, Large Print, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Bonachon is a law-abiding town on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. But
waiting on the outskirts is someone who wants to change all that. Colvin Datch carries a grudge
from a crooked past, and when Sheriff Jeff Kayte is killed in a shoot out with a notorious
gunman, and then that gunman is in turn shot down by Colvin's son Bruno , the townsfolk are
shaken -- especially when Colvin has the barroom crowd suddenly elect Bruno to take a deputy
sherif's position as a result of all that sudden gunplay. But Ruben Ballard can't stand by and
watch a small group of desperate men take over. When a few loyal townsfolk offer their support,
he decides to pick up a Colt - but Datch and his allies are ready to fight.
Critique: "Bonachon Blood" is another deftly penned page turner of a western by Caleb Rand that
is very highly recommended for the personal reading lists of devoted western novel fans. This
large print edition of "Bonachon Blood" is particularly recommended for community library
Western Fiction collections as well.
Long Trail To Nirvana
Scott Connor
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444840742, $20.99, PB, Large Print, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Bounty hunter Dean Kennedy returns to Dry Creek after another successful hunt, only
to find that his wife Emily has struck up a friendship with outlaw Wolfe Lord. Kennedy reckons
his problems are over when the sheriff runs Lord out of town, but then his wife and young son
disappear. It takes him fifteen years to track Lord down, and the trail eventually leads him to the
lawless town of Nirvana - where, with the help of a minor outlaw named Brewster who insists
that he is now partners with Dean, makes some disturbing discoveries about the fates of those he
has sought so long -- including that his now full grown son is part of a vicious outlaw gang!
Critique: "Long Trail To Nirvana" is a fully absorbing and original western novel by Scott
Connor, an author with a full mastery of the genre. This large print edition from the Linford
Western Library is wholeheartedly recommended for both community library collections and the
personal reading lists of all dedicated western fans. Highly recommended.
Bad Deal In Buckskin
Ethan Flagg
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444840421, $20.99, PB, Large Print, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Two unemployed cowboys are given a gold nugget for helping out an old prospector
named Huggy Johnson when his wagon breaks down. Alamo Todd Heffridge and his partner Kid
Streater unwittingly sell the nugget to an unscrupulous assay agent in the Arizona town of
Buckskin who then passes on the information about Huggy's gold strike to the boss of a gang of
unscrupulous killers. When Huggy is shot dead over a map that pin-points the location of the
infamous Lost Dutchman Mine, it is the two wranglers are accused of the crime by Huggy's
daughter and the local sheriff and arrested for murder. But they have an unexpected ally that
allows them to escape from jail and find the real killers -- if they can survive that long!.
Critique: Still another terrific western action/adventure novel by a complete master of the genre,
author Ethan Flagg's most recent western, "Bad Deal In Buckskin" is a true and compulsive page
turner of a read making it unreservedly recommended in this large print edition from the Linford
Western Library series for both the personal reading lists of western fans and community library
Western Fiction collections.
Back From Boot Hill
Colin Bainbridge
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444827507, $20.99, PB, Large Print, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: After finding himself inside a coffin on the way to Boot Hill, Clay Tulane wants
answers. Whilst local townsfolk Miss Winona and the boy Pocket help him piece together the
story of how he got there, Tulane finds himself drawn into a violent struggle against local
landowner Marsden Rockwell and his Bar Nothing outfit, who want to take over the neighboring
Bar L. As tension mounts, the search for the truth throws up many more questions.
Critique: Nobody writes a riveting western better than seasoned author Colin Bainbridge. With a
plot having more twists and turns than a Coney Island roller coaster, "Back From Bott Hill" hits
all the basis -- a pretty woman in distress, a range war between two ranchers, a lost gold mine,
and gunplay galore! This Lindford Western Library large print edition of "Back From Boot Hill"
will be an immediate and enduringly appreciated addition to personal reading lists and
community library Western Fiction collections.
The Art Shelf
Painting Culture, Painting Nature
Gunlog Fur
University of Oklahoma Press
2800 Venture Drive, Norman, OK 73069
www.oupress.com
9780806162874, $34.95, HC, 368pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In the late 1920s, a group of young Kiowa artists, pursuing their education at the
University of Oklahoma, encountered Swedish-born art professor Oscar Brousse Jacobson (1882
- 1966). With Jacobson's instruction and friendship, the Kiowa Six, as they are now known,
ignited a spectacular movement in American Indian art. Jacobson, who was himself an
accomplished painter, shared a lifelong bond with group member Stephen Mopope (1898 -
1974), a prolific Kiowa painter, dancer, and musician. Painting Culture, Painting Nature explores
the joint creativity of these two visionary figures and reveals how indigenous and immigrant
communities of the early twentieth century traversed cultural, social, and racial divides.
"Painting Culture, Painting Nature: Stephen Mopope, Oscar Jacobson, and the Development of
Indian Art in Oklahoma" by Gunlog Fur (Professor of History and Dean of Arts and Humanities,
Linnaeus University, Sweden) is a story of concurrences. For a specific period, immigrants such
as Jacobson and disenfranchised indigenous people such as Mopope transformed Oklahoma into
the center of exciting new developments in Indian art, which quickly spread to other parts of the
United States and to Europe. Jacobson and Mopope came from radically different worlds, and
were on unequal footing in terms of power and equality, but they both experienced, according to
author Gunlog Fur, forms of diaspora or displacement. Seeking to root themselves anew in
Oklahoma, the dispossessed artists fashioned new mediums of compelling and original art.
Although their goals were compatible, Jacobson's and Mopope's subjects and styles diverged.
Jacobson painted landscapes of the West, following a tradition of painting nature uninfluenced
by human activity. Mopope, in contrast, strove to capture the cultural traditions of his people.
The two artists shared a common nostalgia, however, for a past life that they could only re-create
through their art.
Critique: A seminal work of original and meticulously presented scholarship that is enhanced for
academia with the inclusion of thirty pages of Notes, a fourteen page Bibliography, a thirteen
page Index, as well as full-color reproductions of the artists' works and rare historical
photographs, "Painting Culture, Painting Nature: Stephen Mopope, Oscar Jacobson, and the
Development of Indian Art in Oklahoma" is an extraordinary study that is unreservedly
recommended for personal, community and academic library 20th Century Native American
Studies and American Art History collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that
"Painting Culture, Painting Nature" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$29.95).
Decoding Dictatorial Statues
Ted Hyunhak Yoon
Onomatopee
c/o Distributed Art Publishers
155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10013-1507
www.artbook.com
9789491677984, $35.00, PB, 192pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In the words of Hannah Arendt, "Half of politics is image-making, the other half is the
art of making people believe the image."
From South Africa to Charlottesville, heated discussions over statues, their removal and their
vandalism frequently make the news. "Decoding Dictatorial Statues" by Korean graphic design
researcher Ted Hyunhak Yoon is a collection of images and texts exploring the visual rhetoric of
statues in public space. How can we decode statues and their languages, their objecthood and
materiality, their role as media icons and their voice in political debates?
"Decoding Dictatorial Statues" responds to urgent concerns about the representation of our
heritage by not only asking us to examine what history gets put on a pedestal, but also to consider
the visual rhetoric of the statue itself.
Critique: A timely and informative contribution to our current on-going national discussion over
Confederacy statuary and Religious Monuments in public places, "Decoding Dictatorial Statues"
is an extraordinarily thoughtful and thought-provoking study that is unreservedly recommended
for personal, social activists, community, college, and university library Contemporary Social
Issues collections and supplemental studies lists.
The Science Shelf
The Handy Science Answer Book
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Visible Ink Press
43311 Joy Rd., #414, Canton, MI 48187-2075
www.visibleinkpress.com
9781578596911, $22.95, PB, 540pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Science is everywhere, and it affects our understanding of everything from DNA and
CRISPR. artificial sweeteners, sea level changes caused by melting glaciers, to gravitational
waves, bees in a colony, the human body, microplastics, and virtually everything else around us
in the world. Now celebrating it's twenty-fifth year this newly updated and completely revised
fifth edition of "The Handy Science Answer Book" makes science and its impact on the world
fun and easy to understand.
Clear, concise, and straightforward, this informative primer covers hundreds of intriguing topics,
from the basics of math, physics, and chemistry to the discoveries being made about the human
body, stars, outer space, rivers, mountains, and our entire planet, "The Handy Science Answer
Book" covers plants, animals, computers, planes, trains, and cars. This thoroughly 'user friendly'
resource answers more than 1,600 of the most frequently asked, most interesting, and most
unusual science questions in a succinct and fully accessibly presentation.
For anyone wanting to know how the universe, Earth, plants, animals, and human beings work
and fit into our world, this informative compendium also includes a helpful bibliography, and an
extensive index.
Critique: Long a standard library reference and compiled by the staff of the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh, this newly updated and expanded fifth edition of "The Handy Sicence Answer Book"
is unreservedly recommended as a core addition to personal, family, school, and community
library Science reference collections.
Exoplanet Science Strategy
Engineering & Medicine National Academies of Sciences
National Academies Press
500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
www.nap.edu
9780309479417, $65.00, PB, 186pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first
evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917, but was not recognized as such. The first scientific
detection of an exoplanet was in 1988; it was confirmed to be an exoplanet in 2012. The first
confirmed detection occurred in 1992. As of 1 June 2019, there are 4,071 confirmed planets in
3,043 systems, with 659 systems having more than one planet. (Wikipedia)
As the past decade has delivered remarkable discoveries in the study of exoplanets, hand-in-hand
with these advances, a theoretical understanding of the myriad of processes that dictate the
formation and evolution of planets has matured, spurred on by the avalanche of unexpected
discoveries. Appreciation of the factors that make a planet hospitable to life has grown in
sophistication, as has understanding of the context for biosignatures, the remotely detectable
aspects of a planet's atmosphere or surface that reveal the presence of life.
"Exoplanet Science Strategy" highlights strategic priorities for large, coordinated efforts that will
support the scientific goals of the broad exoplanet science community. This report outlines a
strategic plan that will answer lingering questions through a combination of large, ambitious
community-supported efforts and support for diverse, creative, community-driven investigator
research.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Exoplanet Science Strategy" is an
especially appropriate and highly recommended addition to both community, college, and
university library Science & Astrophysics collections and supplemental studies lists. It should be
noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject
that "Exoplanet Science Strategy" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $53.79).
The Political Science Shelf
Institutional Theory in Political Science
B. Guy Peters
Edward Elgar Publishing
9 Dewey Court, Northampton, MA 01060-3815
www.e-elgar.com
9781786437921, $145.00, HC, 304pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: How are institutions formed and how do they change? How do institutions interact to
produce action? And how formal do institutions need to be to become effective actors of
governance? Now in a fully updated and significantly expanded fourth edition, "Institutional
Theory in Political Science: The New Institutionalism" by B. Guy Peters, (the Maurice Falk
Professor of Government, University of Pittsburgh) is a comprehensive textbook that provides a
thorough examination of institutions from a number of theoretical perspectives to identify their
key characteristics.
Key features of this new fourth edition include: Eight consistent questions are used to highlight
the similarities and differences between institutions, using both formal and informal examples;
Two new chapters focus on informal institutions and the process of institutionalization and
deinstitutionalization; A wide range of theories are highlighted, giving students a broad overview
of institutional theory in political science; The application of these institutional theories is
demonstrated using a variety of international examples.
For students of comparative politics, political theory and institutions, "Institutional Theory in
Political Science" is an essential guide to understanding and analyzing institutions in political
science.
Critique: Deftly organized into seven sections (Varieties of Institutional Reform; Applications of
Institutional Theories; Issues in Institutionalism; Wrapping Up), "Institutional Theory in Political
Science: The New Institutionalism" is a seminal contribution that is unreservedly recommended
for college and university library Contemporary Political Science collections and curriculum
supplemental studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, political scientists, and non-
specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Institutional Theory in Political
Science: The New Institutionalism" is also available in a paperback edition ( 9781786437945,
$50.00).
Our Politics
Douglas Kane
Southern Illinois University Press
1915 University Press Drive, SIUC Mail Code 6806, Carbondale, IL 62901
www.siupress.com
9780809337095, $26.50, PB, 254pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In "Our Politics: Reflections on Political Life", Douglas Kane is an American
politician and economist who offers his readers a straightforward and personal account of what it
is like to run for and hold public office, including all the demands, conflicts, temptations, and
rewards created by political, economic, and social forces.
Throughout "Our Politics", Kane references Illinois and Wisconsin politics. The campaigns of his
wife, Kathleen Vinehout, and her years in the Wisconsin state senate show that the centralization
of political power, the structure of campaign organizations, and the policy decisions that Kane
experienced as an Illinois legislator are not unique to any one state.
Also in "Our Politics", Kane reflects on his nearly fifty years of active engagement in state and
local politics. In a series of essays, he seeks to understand the forces, motivations, incentives and
technologies that shape our politics and produce the consequences that we live with every day.
He describes how candidates and officeholders deal with the fundamental contradictions inherent
in the democratic process, and how and why the political power structure has changed. He also
explores the personal experience of being a legislator, from deciding how to vote to building
relationships with party leaders, fellow legislators, the governor, and the voters in the district.
Kane concludes by considering the possibility of change, how it might happen, and the steps that
candidates, political parties, activists and others might take to better our politics with results
more to our liking.
While many journalists record politics from the outside, and numerous political memoirs focus
on personalities and what happened to whom and when, "Our Politics" gives an true insider's
view of politics at the level of state government. Fundamentally, "Our Politics" is not about those
politicians but about our politics, which together we have created and together we must deal
with.
Critique: Candid, informative, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Douglas
Kane's "Our Politics: Reflections on Political Life" is an extraordinary account of contemporary
American politics as rarely provided to the general public. An extraordinary, unique, and highly
recommended addition to community, college, and university library Contemporary Political
Science collections and supplemental studies lists, it should be noted for the personal reading
lists of students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest
in the subject that "Our Politics" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $25.17).
The Civil War Shelf
Targeted Tracks
Scott L. Mingus Sr. & Cooper H. Wingert
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611214611, $32.95, HC, 288pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The American Civil War was the first conflict in which railroads played a major role.
Although much has been written about their role in general, little has been written about specific
lines. The Cumberland Valley Railroad, for example, played an important strategic role by
connecting Hagerstown, Maryland to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Its location enhanced its
importance during some of the Civil War's most critical campaigns. Despite the line's
significance to the Union war effort, its remarkable story remains little known. The publication
of "Targeted Tracks: The Cumberland Valley Railroad in the Civil War, 1861-1865", by Scott L.
Mingus Sr. and Cooper H. Wingert, rectifies that oversight.
Because of its proximity to major cities in the Eastern Theater, the Cumberland Valley Railroad
was an enticing target for Confederate leaders. As invading armies jostled for position, the
CVRR's valuable rolling stock was never far from their minds. Northern military and railway
officials, who knew the line was a prized target, coordinated (and just as often butted heads) in a
series of efforts to ensure the railroad's prized resources remained out of enemy hands. When
they failed to protect the line, as they sometimes did, Southern horsemen wrought havoc on the
Northern war effort by tearing up its tracks, seizing or torching Union supplies, and laying waste
to warehouses, engine houses, and passenger depots.
In October 1859, Abolitionist John Brown used the CVRR in his fateful Harpers Ferry raid. The
line was under direct threat by invading Confederates during the Antietam Campaign, and the
following summer suffered serious damage during the Gettysburg Campaign. In 1864, Rebel
raiders burned much of its headquarters town, Chambersburg, including the homes of many
CVRR employees. The railroad was as vital to residents of the bustling and fertile Cumberland
Valley as it was to the Union war effort.
"Targeted Tracks" is grounded on primary sources including the railway's voluminous reports,
the letters and diaries of local residents and Union and Confederate soldiers, official reports, and
newspaper accounts.
Critique: A welcome and seminal work of meticulous scholarship and exhaustive research,
"Targeted Tracks: The Cumberland Valley Railroad in the Civil War, 1861-1865" is an
extraordinary and original study that will be an especially appreciated contribution to the growing
library of American Civil War histories. While an especially and highly recommended for both
community and academic library American Civil War History collections, it should be noted for
the personal reading lists of students, academia, and Civil War History buffs that "Targeted
Tracks" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99).
Editorial Note: Scott Mingus, is the author of a biography of Confederate General William
"Extra Billy" and has won multiple awards, including the Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Literary
Award for Confederate history. He has also written articles for many publications including
Gettysburg Magazine.
Cooper Wingert is the author of a dozen books and numerous articles on slavery and the
American Civil War. His book "The Confederate Approach on Harrisburg" won the 2012 Dr.
James I. Robertson, Jr. Literary Award for Confederate history. His other works include "Slavery
and the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania", "Abolitionists of South Central
Pennsylvania", and "Harrisburg and the Civil War". Cooper has also written articles for
Gettysburg Magazine and has appeared on C-SPAN Book TV and Pennsylvania Cable Network.
Wingert received the Camp Curtin Historical Society's inaugural General Joseph F. Knipe Award
in recognition for his research on the Harrisburg area during the Civil War.
"Too Much for Human Endurance"
Ronald D. Kirkwood
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611214512, $34.95, HC, 384pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In ""Too Much for Human Endurance": The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the
Battle of Gettysburg" and using a massive array of firsthand accounts, Ronald D. Kirkwood
re-creates the sprawling XI Corps hospital complex and the people who labored and suffered
there - especially George and Elizabeth Spangler and their four children, who built a thriving
166-acre farm only to witness it nearly destroyed when war paid them a bloody visit that summer
of 1863. Stories rarely if ever told of nurses, surgeons, ambulance workers, musicians, teenage
fighters, and others are weaved seamlessly through gripping, smooth-flowing prose.
A host of notables spent time at the Spangler farm, including Union officers George G. Meade,
Henry J. Hunt, Edward E. Cross, Francis Barlow, Francis Mahler, Freeman McGilvery, and
Samuel K. Zook. Pvt. George Nixon III, great-grandfather of President Richard M. Nixon, would
die there, as would Confederate Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, who fell mortally wounded at the
height of Pickett's Charge. In addition to including the most complete lists ever published of the
dead, wounded, and surgeons at the Spanglers' XI Corps hospital, this study breaks new ground
with stories of the First Division, II Corps hospital at the Spanglers' Granite Schoolhouse.
Kirkwood also establishes the often-overlooked strategic importance of the property and its key
role in the Union victory. Army of the Potomac generals took advantage of the farm's size, access
to roads, and central location to use it as a staging area to get artillery and infantry to the
embattled front line from Little Round Top north to Cemetery Hill just in time to prevent its
collapse and a Confederate breakthrough.
Critique: An original and unique work of meticulous and exhaustive research, "Too Much for
Human Endurance": The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg" is
further enhanced for academia with the inclusion of six appendices, a ten page bibliography, and
a nine page index. A truly extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community,
college, and university library American Civil War history collections, it should be noted for the
personal reading lists of students, academia, and dedicated American Civil War buffs that ""Too
Much for Human Endurance": The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of
Gettysburg" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $20.99).
Gettysburg's Peach Orchard
James A. Hessler & Britt C. Isenberg
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611214550, $34.95, HC, 408pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: On July 2, 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered skeptical subordinate Lt.
Gen. James Longstreet to launch a massive assault against the Union left flank. The offensive
was intended to seize the Peach Orchard and surrounding ground along the Emmitsburg Road for
use as an artillery position to support the ongoing attack. However, Union Maj. Gen. Daniel
Sickles, a scheming former congressman from New York, misinterpreted his orders and occupied
the orchard first.
What followed was some of Gettysburg's bloodiest and most controversial fighting. General
Sickles's questionable advance forced Longstreet's artillery and infantry to fight for every inch of
ground to Cemetery Ridge. The Confederate attack crushed the Peach Orchard salient and other
parts of the Union line, threatening the left flank of Maj. Gen. George Meade's army. The
command decisions made in and around the Sherfy property influenced actions on every part of
the battlefield. The occupation of the high ground at the Peach Orchard helped General Lee
rationalize ordering the tragic July 3 assault known as "Pickett's Charge."
Collaboratively written by James A. Hessler and Britt C. Isenberg, "Gettysburg's Peach Orchard:
Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg
Road" is a richly detailed study that is based upon scores of primary accounts and a deep
understanding of the terrain. Hessler and Isenberg (who are both Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield
Guides), deftly combine the military aspects of the fighting with human interest stories in a
balanced treatment of the bloody attack and defense of Gettysburg's Peach Orchard.
Critique: Enhanced with the inclusion of an informative introduction (A Fatal Mistake),
photographs, illustrations, and Appendix (Select Order of Battle), a twenty-four page
Bibliography, and an eleven page Index, "Gettysburg's Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and
the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg Road" is an impressively
informative and exceptionally well presented study that is very highly recommended as a core
addition to personal, community, and academic library American Civil War military history
collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Gettysburg's Peach
Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the
Emmitsburg Road" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).
Gettysburg: The Living and the Dead
Kent Gramm, author
Chris Heisey, photographer
Southern Illinois University Press
1915 University Press Drive, SIUC Mail Code 6806, Carbondale, IL 62901
www.siupress.com
9780809337330, $29.95, HC, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In "Gettysburg: The Living and the Dead", writer Kent Gramm and photographer Chris
Heisey tell the famous battle's story through the eyes of those who lived and died there. Unlike
histories that simply recount the three furious days in July 1863, this volume deftly combines
commentary with memorable images to transport readers onto the battlefield and into the event's
historical echoes, making for a delightful, immersive experience.
Creative nonfiction, fiction, dramatic dialogue, and poetry combine with full-color photographs
to convey the essential reality of the famous battlefield as a place both terrible and beautiful. The
living and the dead contained here include Confederates and Yankees, soldiers and civilians,
male and female, young and old. Visitors to the battlefield after 1863, both well known and
obscure, provide the voices of the living. They include a female admiral in the U.S. Navy and a
man from rural Virginia who visits the battlefield as a way of working through the death of his
son in Iraq. The ghostly voices of the dead include actual participants in the battle, like a fiery
colonel and a girl in Confederate uniform, as well as their representatives, such as a grieving
widow who has come to seek her husband.
Utilizing light as a central motif and fourscore and seven voices to evoke how Gettysburg
continues to draw visitors and resound throughout history, alternately wounding and stitching the
lives it touches, Gramm's words and Heisey's photographs meld for a historical experience unlike
any other. "Gettysburg: The Living and the Dead" offers a panoramic view wherein the battle and
battlefield of Gettysburg are seen through the eyes of those who lived through it and died on it as
well as those who have sought meaning at the site ever since.
Critique: Offering a unique perspective on one of the major conflicts of the American Civil War,
"Gettysburg: The Living and the Dead" would aptly serve as a template for similar volumes
focusing on other Union/Confederate conflicts. Informative, thought-provoking, and ultimately
inspiring as a memorial to those who died in one of the bloodiest engagements of the conflict,
"Gettysburg: The Living and the Dead" is very highly recommended for personal reading lists, as
well as both community and academic library collections as an absolutely essential and
enduringly valued contributions to the growing library of American Civil War literature.
Opdycke's Tigers in the Civil War
Thomas Crowl
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476675923, $45.00, PB, 306pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Organized in the fall of 1862, the 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was commanded by
the aggressive and ambitious Colonel Emerson Opdycke, a citizen-soldier with no military
experience who rose to brevet major general.
Part of the Army of the Cumberland, the 125th first saw combat at Chickamauga. Charging into
Dyer's cornfield to blunt a rebel breakthrough, the Buckeyes pressed forward and, despite heavy
casualties, drove the enemy back, buying time for the fractured Union army to rally. Impressed
by the heroic charge of an untested regiment, Union General Thomas Wood labeled them
"Opdycke's Tigers."
After losing a third of their men at Chickamauga, the 125th fought engagements across
Tennessee and Georgia during 1864, and took part in the decisive battles at Franklin and
Nashville.
Drawing on both primary sources and recent scholarship, "Opdycke's Tigers in the Civil War: A
History of the 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry" by Thomas Crowl is the first full-length history of
the regiment in more than 120 years.
Critique: A inherently fascinating, meticulously researched and impressively detailed account,
"Opdycke's Tigers in the Civil War: A History of the 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry" is an
extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and
university library American Civil War History collections and supplemental studies reading
lists.
The Nautical Shelf
Reeds Weather Handbook
Frank Singleton
Adlard Coles
c/o Bloomsbury Press
175 Fifth Avenue, Suite 315, New York, NY 10010
9781472965066, $14.00, PB, 144pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Weather determines when we sail, where we sail to and whether we arrive safely.
"Reeds Weather Handbook" by Frank Singleton is an essential pocket-sized guide that equips the
reader with all the necessary tools to predict and deal with local and distant weather conditions,
whether on a day trip or a longer cruise, along the coast or further offshore.
Each topic is broken down into digestible chapters, explaining the origins and effects of the full
spectrum of weather conditions, including: Using and evaluating weather forecasts; Depressions,
fronts, isobars and other coastal effects; Waves and swell; Weather lore and sky watching.
Meteorology is still advancing and sources of forecasts are changing. This newly updated and
revised second edition of the "Reeds Weather Handbook" keeps the little handbook up-to-date,
with a particular focus on the increasing use of GRIB files, computer weather modeling and
sources of forecasts, especially with the proliferation of computer forecasts becoming available
free of charge.
With practical explanations and helpful diagrams and photographs, the "Reeds Weather
Handbook" is the ideal guide for skippers and crew, especially those studying for their Day
Skipper and Yachtmaster exams.
Critique: Compact, accessibly organized and presented, the "Reeds Weather Handbook" should
be considered an essential instructional reference for anyone who sails any kind of ship of any
size upon the open ocean or sea. While very highly recommended for both community and
academic Maritime reference collections, it should be noted for personal use that this newly
published second edition of the "Reeds Weather Handbook" is also available in a digital book
format (Kindle, $11.99).
The Psychology Shelf
Engaging the Ineffable
David Krueger, M.D.
Paragon House
3600 Labore Road, Suite 1, St. Paul, MN 55110-4144
www.paragonhouse.com
9781557789372, $19.95, PB, 310pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Every day we use words like "desire," "time," "story," "hope," and "mastery," thinking
we know what they mean. But these concepts are beyond words -- ineffable. Understanding each
concept passes through neuro filters shaped by our societies and life stories. Each concept,
ubiquitous and elusive like Rorschach's inkblots, shows that it is not just what we think but how
we engage the inexpressible that matters. Engaging the Ineffable is unique in that each of the 21
topics is treated from the perspective of a psychoanalyst, neuroscientist, and Mentor Coach.
The 21 topics discussed in "Engaging the Ineffable Engaging the Ineffable" by David Krueger are
desire, time, memory, nostalgia, belief, hope, story, serendipity, synchronicity, self, feelings,
mastery, gender, secrets, attachment, empathy, psychoanalysis, unlived, joy, fairytales, and
death.
These notions are ineffable, in part, because there is no single place in the brain you can point to
and say, "This is the location of memory, hope, nostalgia, mastery, desire, or serendipity." Nor
are these functions even located in a single hemisphere of the brain.
Standard psychoanalytic literature tends to focus on the pathological aspects of the subjects of
these chapters, but not to address happiness, creativity, hope, humor, inspiration, joy, and other
positive transformations. The insights in "Engaging the Ineffable" will lead to mindfulness and
meaning, guiding us to perspectives that will lead to rewarding choices and happiness.
Critique: An informative, absorbing, thoughtful and thought-provoking read, "Engaging the
Ineffable" is exceptionally well written and thoroughly accessible in organization and
presentation making it an unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional,
community, and academic library Contemporary Psychology collections and supplemental
studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of psychologists, psychiatrists,
students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that
"Engaging the Ineffable" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.95).
Editorial Note: David Krueger is an Executive Mentor Coach and CEO of MentorPath, an
executive coaching, training, publishing, and wellness firm. His work integrates psychology and
neuroscience with strategic coaching to help executives and professionals write the next chapter
of their lives. His earlier book, "The Secret Language of Money" is a Business Bestseller that has
been translated into ten languages.
The Technology Shelf
Digital Radiography in Practice
Quinn B. Carroll
Charles C. Thomas, Publisher
2600 South First Street, Springfield, IL 62704
http://www.ccthomas.com
9780398092719, $39.95, PB, 220pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Radiography is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing
radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of
radiography include medical radiography ("diagnostic" and "therapeutic") and industrial
radiography. (Wikipedia).
Hospital programs, as well as college, and university library medical radiography collections will
appreciate "Digital Radiography in Practice" by Quinn B. Carroll which is an economical
textbook that focuses on the practical aspects of digital radiography. This edition of "Digital
Radiography in Practice" will provide an accurate and adequate description of all the aspects of
digital images and digital equipment, and their implications for radiographic technique and
clinical application in a student-friendly way by providing crisp, clear illustrations along with
readable text. Indeed, many of the lucid illustrations in comprehensive textbook are from the
Quinn Carroll's own collection.
It should be noted that the focus in "Digital Radiography in Practice" is specifically and
exclusively on digital topics and the facts are stated with such brief explanatory material as each
topic will allow. Many digital topics are intimidating, and every attempt is made to reduce these
topics to a descriptive, non-mathematical level that can be intuitively understood by the average
student. A helpful glossary is included whenever a concise definition is needed for a
particular
Critique: Comprehensive and impressively organized and presented, "Digital Radiography in
Practice" is an ideal textbook that should be considered a core addition to all medical radiography
libraries and is especially appropriate for classroom curriculums and supplemental study
lists.
The Biography Shelf
Dr. David Murray
Benjamin Duke
Rutgers University Press
106 Somerset St., 3rd Floor, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
9780813594972, $69.95, HC, 426pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Dr. David Murray: Superintendent of Education in the Empire of Japan, 1873-1879"
by Benjamin Duke (Professor Emeritus of International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan) is
the first biography in English of an uncommon American, David Murray, who was a professor of
mathematics at Rutgers College, and who was appointed by the Japanese government as
Superintendent of Education in the Empire of Japan in 1873.
The founding of the Gakusei (the first public school system launched in Japan) marks the
beginning of modern education in Japan, accommodating all children of elementary school age.
Professor Murray's unwavering commitment to its success renders him an educational pioneer in
Japan in the modern world.
Professor Duke has compiled this comprehensive biography of David Murray to showcase
Murray's work, both in assisting around 100 samurai students in their studies at Rutgers, and in
his unprecedented role in early Japanese-American relations. This fascinating story uncovers a
little-known link between Rutgers University and Japan, and it is the only historical study to
conclude that Rutgers made a greater contribution to the development of modern education in the
early Meiji Era than any other non-Japanese college or university in the world.
Critique: A unique and meticulous work of substantive and meticulous scholarship, "Dr. David
Murray: Superintendent of Education in the Empire of Japan, 1873-1879" is an extraordinary
biography that tells an extraordinary and hitherto obscure story about an American university's
influence with respect to establishing a modern Japanese educational institution and tradition.
Enhanced for academia with the inclusion of forty pages of Notes and a six page Index, "Dr.
David Murray: Superintendent of Education in the Empire of Japan, 1873-1879" is unreservedly
recommended for college and university library 19th Century American Biography collections in
general, and Japanese Education History supplemental studies reading lists in particular.
Finding W.D. Fard
John Andrew Morrow
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
www.cambridgescholars.com
9781527521995, $119.95, HC, 510pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Wallace D. Fard, also known as Wallace Fard Muhammad (reportedly born February
26, c. 1877 - circa 1934), was the founder of the Nation of Islam. He arrived in Detroit in 1930
with an obscure background and several aliases, and taught an idiosyncratic form of Islam to
members of the city's black population. In 1934 he disappeared from public record, and Elijah
Muhammad succeeded him as leader of the Nation of Islam. (Wikipedia)
Since his arrival in Detroit on July 4, 1930, W.D. Fard, had over fifty other aliases and has
elicited an enormous amount of curiosity. Fard claimed that he was both the Messiah and the
Mahdi, and who was identified as God in Person by his disciple, Elijah Muhammad, whom he
reportedly appointed as his Final Messenger.
The people who actually met him, and the scholars who have studied him, have suggested that he
was variously an African American, an Arab from Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco or Saudi
Arabia, a Jamaican, a Turk, an Afghan, an Indo-Pakistani, an Iranian, an Azeri, a white
American, a Bosnian, a Mexican, a Greek or even a Jew. In an attempt to determine the origins of
W.D. Fard, most scholars have relied on his teachings as passed down, and perhaps modified, by
Elijah Muhammad. Some have suggested that he was a member of the Moorish Science Temple
of America or the Ahmadiyyah Movement. Others have suggested that he was a Druze or a
Shiite.
"Finding W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam" by John
Andrew Morrow provides an overview of the scholarly literature related to this mysterious
subject and the theories concerning his ethnic and racial origins. This biographical study provides
the most detailed analysis of his teachings to date in order to identify their original and
multifarious sources.
"Finding W.D. Fard" considers the conflicting views shared by his early followers to decipher the
doctrine he actually taught. Did W.D. Fard really profess to be Allah, or was he deified after his
death by Elijah Muhammad? A meticulous study of any and all subjects who fit the profile of
W.D. Fard and providing the most detailed information regarding his life to date, "Finding W.D.
Fard" also offers an overview of turn-of-the-20th-century Islam in the state of Oregon,
demonstrating how much Fard learned about the Muslim faith while residing in the Pacific
Northwest. This study then finishes with a series of conclusions and suggestions for further
scholarship.
Critique: An impressively and meticulously presented work of simply outstanding scholarship,
"Finding W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam" will prove to
be of intense interest to students of the Nation of Islam and is an unreservedly recommended
addition to both community and academic library 20th Century American Biography collections
in general, and National of Islam supplemental studies lists in particular.
The Gatsby Affair
Kendall Taylor
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706
www.rowman.com
9781538104934, $27.00, HC, 320pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre has been celebrated as one
of the greatest of the 20th century. From the beginning, their relationship was a tumultuous one,
in which the couple's excesses were as widely known as their passion for each other. Despite
their love, both Scott and Zelda engaged in flirtations that threatened to tear the couple apart. But
none had a more profound impact on the two (and on Scott's writing) as the liaison between
Zelda and a French aviator, Edouard Jozan. Though other biographies have written of Jozan as
one of Scott's romantic rivals, accounts of the pilot's effect on the couple have been superficial at
best.
In "The Gatsby Affair: Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal That Shaped an American Classic", Kendall
Taylor examines the dalliance between the southern belle and the French pilot from a fresh
perspective. Drawing on conversations and correspondence with Jozan's daughter, as well as
materials from the Jozan family archives, Taylor sheds new light on this romantic triangle. More
than just a casual fling, Zelda's tryst with Edouard affected Scott as much as it did his wife - and
ultimately influenced the author's most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. Were it not for Zelda's affair
with the pilot, Scott's novel might be less about betrayal and more about lost illusions.
Exploring the private motives of these public figures, Taylor offers new explanations for their
behavior. In addition to the love triangle that included Jozan, Taylor also delves into an earlier
event in Zelda's life (a sexual assault she suffered as a teenager) one that affected her future
relationships. Both a literary study and a probing look at an iconic couple's psychological
makeup, "The Gatsby Affair offers readers a bold interpretation of how one of America's greatest
novels was influenced.
Critique: A critically meticulous and deftly written blend of biography and literary study, "The
Gatsby Affair: Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic" is unreservedly
recommended as a core addition to both community and academic library collections. It should
be noted for personal reading lists that "The Gatsby Affair" is also available for the personal
reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the
subject in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.68) and as a complete and unabridged audio book
(Tantor Audio, 9781515938682, $29.99, CD).
Madame Tussaud: Her Life and Legacy
Geri Walton
https://www.geriwalton.com
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
1526734087, $34.95, HC, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Madame Marie Tussaud (1 December 1761 - 16 April 1850) is known worldwide for
the chain of wax museums she started over 200 hundred years ago. Less known is that her
original wax models were often of the famous and infamous people she personally knew during
and after the French Revolution. These were people like Voltaire, Robespierre, and Napoleon --
people who changed the world. Even more, the wax figures were depicted in scenes drawn from
the horrors she experienced during the reign of terror in Paris during her early adult years.
"Madame Tussaud: Her Life and Legacy" by Geri Walton shows how the traumatic and
cataclysmic experiences of Madame Tussaud's early life became part of her legacy. She created a
succession of scenes in wax, telling events as she personally experienced them. Her wax
sculptures were visceral. She made them herself, at times from the living person's head and at
other times from the recently guillotined head of a former house guest. As a result, people were
drawn to her wax displays in those days because they were the most intense way of experiencing
those events themselves.
Madame Tussaud's story is told through a series of unique and informative stories drawn from an
in-depth study of both Madame Tussaud's life and the dramatic times in which she lived. This
narrative style makes learning about history rewarding for both avid history readers and people
with a casual interest in this unique story.
Critique: A meticulously researched and deftly written biography of a remarkable woman and the
times she lived in, "Madame Tussaud: Her Life and Legacy" is certain to be an immediate and
enduringly popular addition to both community and academic library biography collections. It
should be noted for personal reading lists that "Madame Tussaud: Her Life and Legacy" is also
available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.78).
Editorial Note: Geri Walton has long been fascinated by history and the people who create it. As
a child growing up in a large family, she loved to sit around in a big circle with family members,
sharing stories. Her father's many stories (from not only his own childhood but the lives of their
ancestor's) particularly fascinated her. After a long career in technical writing and publishing in
the computer industry, Geri returned to history as her first love. She worked on several different
books, articles, and blog ideas before realizing her passion was around the history and people of
the 1700s and 1800s. So, she started her current blog in 2013 and has her own web site at
https://www.geriwalton.com
The Journalism Shelf
The Best American Newspaper Narratives: Volume 6
Gayle Reaves, editor
University of North Texas Press
1155 Union Circle #311336, Denton, TX 76203-5017
www.untpress.unt.edu
9781574417524, $19.95, PB, 392pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Compiled and edited by Gayle Reaves (the former editor of the alternative newspaper
Fort Worth Weekly), Volume six of "The Best American Newspaper Narratives from the
University of North Texas Press is an anthology that collects the eleven winners of the 2018 Best
American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest held at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction
Conference -- an event hosted by the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the
University of North Texas.
Featured are: First place winner: Kale Williams, "The Loneliest Polar Bear" (The Oregonian),
relates the tale of Nora, a baby polar bear raised by humans in a zoo after being abandoned by her
mother.
Second place: Patricia Callahan, "Doomed by Delay" (Chicago Tribune), reveals the experiences
of Illinois families with children diagnosed with Krabbe - a deadly disease that healthcare
professionals could have screened for at birth, and ultimately treated, if it weren't for government
bureaucracy.
Third place: Christopher Goffard, "Dirty John" (Los Angeles Times), is an investigative story
that explores the dynamics of domestic violence with a nuanced, psychologically complex
narrative of family and survival.
The runners-up include John Woodrow Cox, "Twelve Seconds of Gunfire" (The Washington
Post); Tom Hallman Jr., "His Heart, Her Hands" (The Oregonian); Jenna Russell, "The Last
Refugee" (The Boston Globe); Lisa Gartner and Zachary T. Sampson, "Wrong Way" (Tampa Bay
Times); Casey Parks, "About a Boy" (The Oregonian); Jennifer Emily, "Hope for the Rest of Us"
(The Dallas Morning News); Kent Babb, "There's Nowhere to Run" (The Washington Post); and
Lane DeGregory, "The House on the Corner" (Tampa Bay Times).
Critique: Instructive, informative, exemplary, "The Best American Newspaper Narratives"
showcases the best work that journalism has to offer the general reading public and this latest
volume (Number 6) is unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as
community, college, and university library Contemporary Journalism Studies collections.
The Genealogy Shelf
Tracing Your Female Ancestors
Adele Emm
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526730138, $29.95, PB, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Everyone has a mother and a line of female ancestors and often their paths through life
are hard to trace. That is why "Tracing Your Female Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians"
by Adele Emm is of such value -- especially for the novice genealogists. A detailed, accessible
handbook, "Tracing Your Female Ancestors" explores the lives of female ancestors from the end
of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 to the beginning of the First World War.
In 1815 a woman was the chattel of her husband; by 1914, when the menfolk were embarking on
one of the most disastrous wars ever known, the women at home were taking on jobs and
responsibilities never before imagined. AdŠle Emm's work is the ideal introduction to the role of
women during this period of dramatic social change.
There are chapters that cover the quintessential experiences of birth, marriage and death, a
woman's working and daily life both middle and working class, through to crime and
punishment, the acquisition of an education and the fight for equality. Each individual chapter
comprising "Tracing Your Female Ancestors" gives advice on where further resources, archives,
wills, newspapers and websites can be found, with plentiful common sense advice on how to use
them.
Critique: A unique and information packed instructional reference and guide, "Tracing Your
Female Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians" is an extraordinary and thoroughly 'user
friendly manual that is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library
Genealogy collections and supplemental studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading
lists of genealogists and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that
"Tracing Your Female Ancestors" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Tracing Your Insolvent Ancestors
Paul Blake
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526738653, $29.95, PB, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Debtors' prisons are infamous but very little has been written about the records of those
confined within them in London or elsewhere in the country. Even less has been written about
the trials of those who were often incarcerated or sentenced to forced overseas relocation
following misfortune or mismanagement rather than criminal intent. That is why Paul Blake's
handbook "Tracing Your Insolvent Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians" will be so useful
for genealogical researchers who want to find out about forebears who may have been caught up
in the insolvency system.
In a series of information-filled chapters Blake covers the historical background to the handling
of debt and debtors, and bankruptcy and bankrupts. In addition he describes the courts and
procedures faced by both creditors and debtors, and the prisons where so many debtors were
confined.
Throughout "Tracing Your Insolvent Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians" details are given
of the records that researchers can turn to in order to explore the subject for themselves. Many
are held at The National Archives, but others are to be found at local record offices around the
country.
Paul Blake's "Tracing Your Insolvent Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians" will be
appreciated by local, social and family historians, as well as those with an interest in debtor crime
and punishment, and bankrupts in general.
Critique: While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.38), "Tracing Your Insolvent
Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians" is a unique, impressively informative, and
unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library
Genealogy instructional reference and resource collections.
The Library Science Shelf
Creativity for Library Career Advancement
Vera Gubnitskaia & Carol Smallwood, editors
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476674018, $65.00, PB, 264pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: One of the late Steve Jobs famous observations was that 'creativity is just connecting
things'. In today's diverse, ever-changing job market, creativity is more necessary than ever. In a
profession offering a broad range of job opportunities, librarians are surrounded by myriad
connections to be made. They are trained to recognize them.
Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by Vera Gubnitskaia and Carol Smallwood, "Creativity
for Library Career Advancement: Perspectives, Techniques and Eureka Moments" is an
insightful collection of thirty succinct essays by contributors that collectively cover a wide
spectrum of methods for cultivating creativity as a skill for career fulfillment and success in the
field of library science. Topics include learning through role-playing games, libraries as
publishers, setting up and using makerspaces, developing in-house support for early-career staff,
creating traveling exhibits, creative problem solving, and organizing no-cost conferences.
Critique: Expertly organized and presented, "Creativity for Library Career Advancement:
Perspectives, Techniques and Eureka Moments" is an extraordinary, informative, comprehensive,
and insightful contribution that is very highly recommended for personal, professional,
community, college, and university 'Library Science' collections and supplemental studies
reading lists.
The Theatre/Cinema Shelf
Acting for Film, second edition
Cathy Haase
Allworth Press
www.allworth.com
c/o Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
9781621536642, $22.99, PB, 272pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in a fully updated and expanded second edition, "Acting for Film" by Cathy
Haase is an essential guide for aspiring performers, acting teachers, and anyone interested in
gaining a greater understanding of the craft. Acting students will learn how to apply theatrical
training to film acting and hone a personal approach to rendering a character.
"Acting for Film" also includes: Advice on dealing with new technology including CGI and
motion capture; Concentration and relaxation exercises that will enhance facial expressiveness;
Exploration of sense memory techniques for on-camera work; Animal exercises and their usages;
Tips for maintaining proper eye focus in front of the camera and conveying the "beats" of a
scene, even in the shortest takes.
For any performer who intends to make a living in front of the camera, this new edition of
"Acting for Film" is the most authoritative resource currently available for anyone seeking and
hoping to land the film role they've been dreaming of.
Critique: A comprehensive and thoroughly 'user friendly' instruction manual and guide, this new
edition of "Acting for Film" is a critically important addition to personal, professional,
community, academic, and acting school instructional reference collections. It should be noted
for personal reading lists that "Acting for Film" is also available in a digital book format
(eTextbook, $16.99).
Editorial Note: Cathy Haase has been acting professionally for more than thirty years. She is also
a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and a workshop leader for the Actors Studio.
The Social Issues Shelf
Connecting Generations
Hayim Herring
Rowman & Littlefield
c/o Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706
www.rowman.com
9781538112168, $34.00, HC, 200pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Social isolation, loneliness, and suicide are conditions we often associate with the
elderly. But in reality, these issues have sharply increased across younger generations. Baby
Boomers, Gen X'ers, Millennials, and post-Millennials all report a declining number of friends
and an increasing number of health issues associated with loneliness.
Even more concerning, it appears that the younger the generation, the greater the feelings of
disconnection. Regardless of age, it feels as though we're living through a period of ongoing
disequilibrium because we're not able to adapt quickly enough to the social and technological
changes swirling around us.
These powerful changes have not only isolated individuals from their own peers but have
contributed to becoming an age-segregated society. And yet we need fulfilling relationships with
people our own age and across the generations to lead lives that are rich in meaning and
purpose.
Even in those rare communities where young and old live near each other, they lack organic
settings that encourage intergenerational relationships. In addition, it isn't technology, but
generational diversity that is our best tool for navigating the changes that affect so many aspects
of our lives - whether it's work, entertainment, education, or family dynamics.
We can't restore yesterday's model of community, where only those who were older transmitted
wisdom downward to the generation below. But we can relearn how much members of different
generations have to offer each other and recreate intergenerational communities for the 21st
century where young, old, and everyone in between is equally valued for their perspectives, and
where each generation views itself as having a stake in the other's success.
In "Connecting Generations: Bridging the Boomer, Gen X, and Millennial Divide", Hayim
Herring focuses more deeply on how Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials perceive one
another and looks underneath the generational labels that compound isolation. He offers ways we
can prepare current and future generations for a world in which ongoing interactions with people
from multiple generations become the norm, and re-experience how enriching intergenerational
relationships are personally and communally.
Critique: An exceptionally informative and impressively presented study "Connecting
Generations: Bridging the Boomer, Gen X, and Millennial Divide" is enhanced for academia
with the inclusion of 15 pages of Notes, a twelve page listing of Works Cited, and a five page
Index. An exceptional work of seminal scholarship, "Connecting Generations" is especially and
unreservedly recommended for college and university library Contemporary Psychology, and
Contemporary Social Issues collections in general, and Inter-Generational Communications
supplemental studies lists in particular. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of
students, academia, demographic researchers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest
in the subject that "Connecting Generations" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$32.00).
Editorial Note: A proven organizational visionary and entrepreneur who works to "create today's
leaders for tomorrow's organizations", Hayim Herring is an author, presenter and nonprofit
organizational futurist, with a specialty in faith-based communities. A former congregational
rabbi and "C-suite" nonprofit executive, Hayim blends original research and real-world
experience to inspire individuals and organizations to achieve their greatest impact. He has
published over 60 scholarly and popular articles and studies about the intersection of technology,
spirituality, and community. Recent publications include Leading Congregations and Nonprofit
Organizations in a Connected World: Platforms, People, and Purpose (Alban Books 2016),
co-authored with Dr. Terri Elton, and Tomorrow's Synagogue Today: Creating Vibrant Centers
of Jewish Life (Alban Institute 2012).
Beating Guns
Shane Clairborne & Michael Martin
Brazos Press
c/o Baker Publishing Group
6030 East Fulton, Ada, MI 49301
www.brazospress.com
9781587434136, $19.99, PB, 288pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Parkland. Las Vegas. Dallas. Orlando. San Bernardino. Paris. Charleston. Sutherland
Springs. Newtown. These cities are now known for the people who were shot and killed in them.
More Americans have died from guns in the US in the last fifty years than in all the wars in
American history.
With less than 5% of the world's population, the people of the US own nearly half the world's
guns. America also has the most annual gun deaths (homicide, suicide, and accidental gun
deaths) at 105 per day, or more than 38,000 per year. Some people say it's a heart problem.
Others say it's a gun problem. The authors of Beating Guns believe it's both.
"Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence" is for people who believe the
world doesn't have to be this way. Inspired by the prophetic image of beating swords into plows,
"Beating Guns" provides a provocative look at gun violence in America and offers a clarion call
to change our hearts regarding one of the most significant moral issues of our time.
With "Beating Guns", author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne and Mennonite paster
Michael Martin show why Christians should be concerned about gun violence and how they can
be part of the solution. The authors transcend stale rhetoric and old debates about gun control to
offer a creative and productive response.
Full-color images show how guns are being turned into tools and musical instruments across the
nation. Charts, tables, and facts convey the mind-boggling realities of gun violence in America,
but as the authors make clear, there is a story behind every statistic.
"Beating Guns" allows victims and perpetrators of gun violence to tell their own compelling
stories, offering hope for change and helping us reimagine the world as one that turns from death
to life, where swords become plows and guns are turned into garden tools.
Critique: A badly needed and very timely contribution to our on-going national dialogue over the
role of guns in American society and culture, "Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary
of Violence" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to every community,
college, and university library in the country. Deserving of the widest possible readership, it
should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, gun control activists, and
non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Beating Guns" is also available
in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.47).
The Environmental Studies Shelf
Investigating Groundwater
Ian Acworth
CRC Press
6000 NW Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487
www.crcpress.com
9781138542495, $199.95, HC, 598pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Investigating Groundwater" by Ian Acworth provides an integrated approach to the
challenges associated with locating groundwater. Uniquely, this comprehensive study provides a
review of the wide range of techniques that can be deployed to investigate this important
resource. Many of the practical examples given are based upon Australian experience but the
methods have worldwide applicability. "Investigating Groundwater" is published in color and
includes many original diagrams and photographs. Particular effort has been made to provide
consistent terminology and SI units are used throughout the text.
Key features of "Investigating Groundwater" include: A presentation of the theoretical
background and a detailed description of the techniques used in the investigation of groundwater;
A description of the general occurrence of groundwater in different rock types; surface water
hydrology and interconnected surface and groundwater systems; The provision of detailed
descriptions of geophysical techniques (seismic, electrical, gravity and heat) and an account of
available geophysical logging methods; Reviews hydrochemical and isotope methods, followed
by an account of drilling techniques; A detailed account of radial flow to a well, including
appropriate modeling and pump-testing techniques and a consideration of non-linear flow.
Critique: A comprehensive textbook on the subject, "Investigating Groundwater" will prove to be
of immense interest and value to anyone involved in the development of groundwater resources,
either for domestic supply, for agriculture or for mining. While unreservedly recommended for
corporate, governmental, college, and university library Environmental, Geology, and
Hydrogeology collections and supplemental curriculum textbook lists, it should be noted for the
personal reading lists of students, academia, professionals, environmentalists, and non-specialist
general readers with an interest in the subject, that "Investigating Groundwater" is also available
in a digital book format (eTextbook, $162.92 Buy / $37.63 Rent).
Editorial Note: Ian Acworth graduated with a degree in Earth Sciences from Leeds University in
the UK and followed up with a Master's in Hydrogeology and a PhD in Groundwater from
Birmingham University. Ian has spent 45 years as a practicing hydrogeologist with 15 years as a
consultant and the remainder at the University of New South Wales Australia, where he has
taught and researched groundwater.
Ian established the Connected Waters Initiative Research Centre at the University in 2006 and
was a team leader in the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training. During his
career he has maintained a major focus on the use of field techniques in the investigation of
groundwater. He has held patents in the use of geophysical techniques applied to groundwater
investigation and has published widely in the area with many well cited papers.
Ian has been an active member of IAH and served on the IAH Council as a Vice President
representing Australia and the Pacific for 8 years. He retired in 2015 but is still actively engaged
in research at UNSW where is appointed as an Emeritus Professor. In 2015 he received the
President's award for contributions to Hydrogeology.
Holistic Management Handbook, third edition
Jody Butterfield, Sam Bingham, Allan Savory
Island Press
2000 M Street NW Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036
www.islandpress.org
9781610919760, $35.00, PB, 264pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Holistic management is a systems-thinking approach developed by biologist Allan
Savory to restore the world's grassland soils and minimize the damaging effects of climate
change and desertification on humans and the natural world. Now in a newly updated and
expanded third edition of "Holistic Management Handbook: Regenerating Your Land and
Growing Your Profits" was crafted under the direction of Savory's longtime collaborator Jody
Butterfield. This instructional handbook is the key to developing a comprehensive holistic land
plan based on Savory's principles that will help you to restore health to your land and ensure a
stable, sustainable livelihood from its bounty.
Thoroughly revised, updated, and streamlined, this third edition of the "Holistic Management
Handbook" explains the planning procedures described in Holistic Management, and offers
step-by-step instructions for running a ranch or farm using a holistic management approach.
Butterfield and her coauthors, Sam Binham and Allan Savory describe how to use the handbook
in conjunction with the textbook to tailor a management plan for your unique combination of
land, livestock, and finances. Their mantra is "plan, monitor, control, and replan." Using a
four-part approach, the authors walk readers through basic concepts and techniques, help them
put a plan onto paper, monitor the results, and adjust the details as needed. Appendixes provide
updated worksheets, checklists, planning and monitoring forms, and detailed examples of typical
scenarios a user might encounter. The handbook includes a comprehensive glossary of
terms.
Critique: Comprehensively informative and thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and
presentation, "Holistic Management Handbook" should be considered essential reading for
ranchers, farmers, pastoralists, social entrepreneurs, government agencies, NGOs, environmental
activists, and anyone else working to address global environmental degradation through
environmentally restorative and effective land management. An indispensable guide to putting
the holistic management concept into action with tangible results they can take to the bank,
"Holistic Management Handbook" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional,
community, governmental, and academic library Environmental Restoration, Agriculture,
Agronomy, Soil Science, and Land Management collections. It should be noted for personal
reading lists that "Holistic Management Handbook" is also available in a digital book format
(eTextbook, $19.24 - Amazon.com).
Editorial Note: Jody Butterfield is a former journalist specializing in agriculture and the
environment. She is a cofounder of the Savory Institute. Sam Bingham, a Savory Network
Accredited Educator, is the author of five books and numerous articles on the land and the people
who make a living from it. Allan Savory is a former wildlife biologist and farmer who conceived
of and developed Holistic Management. He is a cofounder and President of the Savory
Institute.
The Cookbook Shelf
Recipes from the Garden of Contentment
Translated and annotated by Sean J.S. Chen
Berkshire Publishing Group
122 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230
www.berkshirepublishing.com
9781614728528 $140.00 hc / $125.00 pbk amazon.com
Synopsis: Recipes from the Garden of Contentment: Yuan Mei's Manual of Gastronomy is the
first English edition of the Suiyuan Shidan , one of the world's most famous books about food. It
is both a culinary treatise and a cookbook, written in the late eighteenth century by the poet Yuan
Mei. This translation by Sean J. S. Chen conveys the charm, humor, and erudition of one of
China's greatest writers. The book includes recipes for well-known yet exotic dishes such as
bird's nest and shark's fin, and offers modern readers a unique perspective on Chinese history and
culinary culture.
Critique: Recipes from the Garden of Contentment is a bilingual, English/Chinese translation of
a classic text about Chinese food. Both culinary treatise and cookbook, Recipes from the Garden
of Contentment is a bountiful font of insight about the flavors and subtleties of authentic Chinese
cuisine (not the Americanized fast-food that may come to mind when one thinks of Chinese
food). Detailed annotations, explanatory sidebars, and a glossary round out this treasure for
connoisseurs and library culinary studies shelves, highly recommended.
Eat What You Love
Marlene Koch
www.marlenekoch.com
Running Press
c/o Perseus Book Group
250 W. 57th St., Suite 1500, New York, NY 10107
www.runningpress.com
9780762466207, $28.00, HC, 272pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Who doesn't love the creamy, cheesy, gooey, sweet, and fried foods that restaurants
dish up? Now they can all be enjoyed at home guilt-free thanks to "Eat What You Love:
Restaurant Favorites: Classic and Crave-Worthy Recipes Low in Sugar, Fat, and Calories" by
Marlene Koch!
Showcasing recipes that range from a creamy Alfredo pasta, to a cheesy queso dip, fried chicken
'n waffles, as well as both Asian and Steakhouse favorites, along with Starbucks-style drinks, and
more at a fraction of sky-high sugar, fat, calories, carbs and sodium.
With plenty of unbelievable "Dare to Compares" Marlene shows just how much you enjoy
creating a cornucopia of delicious dishes and drinks inspired by The Cheesecake Factory,
Carrabba's, California Pizza Kitchen, P.F. Chang's, Starbucks, Chipotle, McDonald's, Morton's,
Panera, and more!
Eat What You Love: Restaurant Favorites guarantees to satisfy every craving with over 140 easy,
family friendly recipes that provide: Satisfying (not skimpy!) portions; Gluten-free dishes and
all-natural sugar substitute options; Nutrition information with every recipe including weight
watcher freestyle smart point comparisons and diabetic exchanges; Fuss-free, flavorful, fast
recipes made with easy-to-find everyday ingredients.
Just one example of the 'Dare to Compare' feature: A typical order of General Tso's chicken
serves up 1,300 calories including 3,200 milligrams of sodium, over 70 grams of fat, and 3 days'
worth of added sugar! Marlene's equally crave-worthy version is just 300 calories with 80% less
fat, 85% less sodium, and 90% less sugar!
Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated throughout, each showcased recipe comprising
"Eat What You Love: Restaurant Favorites: Classic and Crave-Worthy Recipes Low in Sugar,
Fat, and Calories" is thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly' in organization and step-by-step
presentation. While unreservedly recommended for family and community library cookbook
collections, it should be noted that "Eat What You Love: Restaurant Favorites" is also available
in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Cookbook author Marlene Koch is known as a "magician in the kitchen" for her
extraordinary ability to make sugar, fat and calories simply disappear! Marlene's "Eat What You
Love" cookbooks have sold over 1 million copies. She is a regular guest on QVC, and she and
her sought after better-for-you recipes have been featured everywhere from the Today Show to
the Food Network, in print in publications such as Cooking Light, Men's Fitness, and Diabetes
Health, and across the web from Shape and Prevention to Oprah.com. Marlene has her own
website at www.marlenekoch.com
Asian Salads
Maki Watanabe
Tuttle Publishing
364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436
www.tuttlepublishing.com
9780804851039, $14.99, PB, 96pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Showcasing 72 recipes from the cuisines of Vietnam, China, Korea, Thailand and
India, "Asian Salads" shows with illustrated step-by-step instructions on how anyone can prepare
an amazing variety of delicious Asian vegetables, herbs, and seasonings from ingredients found
in any local supermarket, farmers market, and world food market. "Asian Salades presents an
impressive series of salad based recipes that will excite and awaken even the most inexperienced
of palates and thereby open up new food horizons!
Dozens of fragrant herbs like cilantro, Thai basil, and lemongrass are combined with delicious
fresh Asian vegetables like Napa cabbage, spicy kimchi, daikon, and many more!
These healthy recipes are simple and very easy to prepare. Many of the salads have meat or
seafood options, and are perfect as side dishes or as complete and satisfying one-dish meals!
Easy step-by-step instructions and photos provide shortcuts and substitutes to save you time with
exotic salads that range from Marinated Bean Sprouts with Black Vinegar Dressing; Cucumber
Salad with Yogurt & Garlic Dressing; and Korean White Fish Carpaccio; to Crispy Pork with
Watercress Salad; Pork, Kimchi and Leek Salad. Of special note are the multiple homemade
salad dressings and vinaigrettes!
Critique: Beautifully illustrated throughout and a salad-lovers dream to browse through and plan
menus with, "Asian Salads" will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to
personal, professional, family, and community library cookbook collections. It should be noted
that "Asian Salads" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.87).
The Mythology Shelf
Mythical Irish Beasts
Mark Joyce
Currach Press
c/o Dufour Editions, Inc.
PO Box 7, 124 Byers Road, Chester Springs, PA 19425-0007
www.dufoureditions.com
9781782189053, $47.00, HC, 128pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Leprechauns aren't the Irish mythical creatures! Ireland's mythology is bursting with
mysterious and fantastical characters and "Mythical Irish Beasts" by writer and artist Mark Joyce
is the perfect way to explore that mythological heritage.
Showcased in the illustrated pages of "Mythical Irish Beasts" are such supernatural creatures as
the banshee, the Suileach (a monster with 400 eyes who is the namesake of the River Swilly
where it lurks), or the Airetech (a creature from the underworld who has three beautiful daughters
who can transform into werewolves).
In this beautifully designed volume of enhanced folklore, Mark Joyce brings the reader on a
fantastic journey through Irish stories of monsters and enchanted creatures, all brought to life
through his original illustrations!
Critique: An inherently fascinating and elegantly presented study into Irish mythology, folklore,
and fairyland creatures, "Mythical Irish Beasts" will prove to be an impressively and enduringly
popular addition to personal, community, and academic library collections.
The Comix/Graphic Novel Shelf
For Better or For Worse The Complete Library, volume 3 1986-1989
Lynn Johnston
IDW Publishing
2765 Truxton Road, San Diego, CA 92106
www.idwpublishing.com
9781684054268 $49.99 hc / $29.99 Kindle amazon.com
Synopsis: The beloved newspaper comic strip that chronicled the saga of the Patterson family in
real time, over three decades, continues in this, the definitive edition.
No phone, no light, no motor car, not a single luxury--John and Phil's canoe trip turns them into
castaways on an island! Once back in civilization, John solves his mid-life crisis by buying a
sportscar, and Elly improbably winds up in front of a judge as a result! Michael enters junior high
school, but not before learning a different sort of life lesson at summer camp with a girl named
Martha, while Liz loses her first tooth, gets her ears pierced, and finds herself in a "Mean Girls"
situation with her friends at school. Then it's wedding bells for Uncle Phil, and Lawrence moves
back to town--with a new family of his own!
Volume Three, which collects the complete daily and Sunday comics from July 6, 1986 through
December 9, 1989, brings to a close the first decade of Lynn Johnston's modern masterwork, but
of course the story is just getting started...
Since their debut in 1979, the Pattersons have felt like family to an audience of over 220 million.
This nine volume series devotes three volumes to each decade of the strip. Each volume also
contains a number of annotations by Lynn Johnston detailing motivations for certain strips, funny
anecdotes, observations about the reaction from fans, and much more!
Critique: A joy to page through from cover to cover, Volume 3 of the complete For Better or For
Worse compilation is packed with more than 1,200 sequential daily and Sunday comic strips
from 1986 to 1989. All Sunday strips are reproduced in full color, and many of the strips are
annotated by author Lynn Johnston. The laugh-out-loud loves, losses, trials, and tribulations of
the Patterson family are as delightful to read today as they were three decades ago! Highly
recommended, especially for public library collections.
The Library CD Shelf
Still the River Flows
David M. Edwards
davedwardspiano.com
Higher Level Media
$11.98 CD / $9.49 MP3 amazon.com
Still the River Flows is the first solo piano album created by composer and pianist David M.
Edwards. The original, New Age songs create a soothing, dreamlike soundscape inspired by the
rhythm of daily life - from building energy through mid-day to winding down at eveningtime.
Beautiful and evocative, Still the River Flows is a welcome contribution to personal and public
library New Age solo piano collections, highly recommended. The tracks are "Morning Song",
"Summer Dance", "Still the River Flows", "Just a Simple Song", "For a Long, Long Time",
"Nineteen in 69", "On a Cloudy Day", "Take Me With You", "Evening Song", "Wistfully", "I
Remember That", "Wherever You Are", "Walking by the Shore", and "Won't You Stay".
World Peace
Putumayo Presents
www.putumayo.com
$15.98 CD / $9.49 MP3 amazon.com
Inspired by search for peace and justice by 1960's world leaders including President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., World Peace is an anthology of songs
by a variety of talented music artists championing the causes of peace, tolerance, and love for
one's fellow human beings. World Peace is a treasure for both personal and public library music
collections, highly recommended. The tracks are "Wake Up Everybody", "Africa Unite", "It Is
One", "Redemption Song", "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free", "Love Train",
"One", "Freedom for Everyone", "Think of Others", "East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem", and
"Imagine".
Hushabye
Rick Sparks
www.ricksparksmusic.net
Privately Published
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3 amazon.com
Pianist and composer Rick Sparks presents Hushabye, a new age music album crafted to promote
rest and relaxation for the whole family. Harmonic, multi-part wordless vocals intertwine with
the drifting, peacful melodies. Hushabye is a beautiful treasure, highly recommended especially
for personal and public library collections. The tracks are "My Soul To Keep", "Love Can Make
You Happy", "Dreams of Peace", "Little Flower", "No Greater Love", "When the Stars Come
Out", "Jesus Loves Me", "Cloud Pillow", "And She Dreams", "Angel Song", and "We Are
Loved".
The Library DVD Shelf
To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor
A film by Donna Zaccaro
First Run Features
630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 1213, New York, NY 10036
$19.95 www.firstrunfeatures.com
To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor is a documentary on DVD about the landmark
Supreme Court ruling that set a landmark precedent for same-sex couples and the ideal of
marriage equality. When Edie Windsor outlived her spouse, she had to pay a tremendous estate
tax bill because her spouse was a woman, and the federal government denied federal benefits to
same-sex couples. Edie Windsor and her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, sued the U.S. government
and won, making history in the process. To a More Perfect Union includes an in-depth portrait of
Windsor's and Kaplan's legal and personal sagas, as well as testimony from Lillian Faderman, a
leading scholar on LGBTQ history; Evan Wolfson, also known as the "godfather of marriage
equality"; and more. Highly recommended, especially for public library DVD collections. 63
min.
The Native American Studies Shelf
Plains Indians Regalia and Customs, second edition
Bad Hand
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310
www.schifferbooks.com
9780764357619, $49.95, HC, 272pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in a fully updated and significantly expanded second edition, "Plains Indians
Regalia and Customs" is an original study of Plains Indian cultures of the 19th century that is
presented through the use of period writings, paintings, and early photography that relate how life
was carried out.
The author, Bad Hand, deftly juxtaposes the sources with new research and modern color
photography of specific replica items. The comprehensive text documents many of the major
tribes, such as Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan, Lakota, and others.
Observations of Plains Indian men's and women's experiences include procuring food, dancing,
developing spiritual beliefs, and day-to-day living.
This newly published second edition contains new color photos and text, adding to the richness
and depth of detail in the well-received original. Through original photos and re-creations, rare
primary sources, and updated content, Bad Hand provides an invaluable resource not only on
Plains Indians, but on bringing past peoples to full, colorful life.
Critique: Impressively informative and beautifully illustrated throughout, "Plains Indians Regalia
and Customs" will prove to be a valued and enduringly appreciated addition to personal,
community, college, and university library Native American Culture collections and
supplemental studies reading lists.
Editorial Note: Bad Hand is a Native American author, lecturer, historian, replica maker, artist,
model, actor, and stuntman who has worked on and appeared in over 40 Native American films,
television shows, and documentaries. He lectures regularly across the country on Plains Indian
culture from Native schools in Maui, Hawaii, to the American Museum of natural History in new
York City.
The Railroading Shelf
The Great Eastern Railway in South Essex
Charles Phillips
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526720573, $49.95, HC, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: With the publication of "The Great Eastern Railway In South Essex: A Definitive
History", railway enthusiast and historian Charles Phillips presents an illustrated history of the
Great Eastern's lines from Shenfield to Southend, Wickford to Southminster and Woodham
Ferrers to Maldon including their ancestor.
This is the only comprehensive history of all three lines and was researched using both
previously published and unpublished material. The history covers not only the history of the
lines in question but also a sample of services from the opening of them to the present day, the
motive power that was and is used on them and a topographical description of them.
"The Great Eastern Railway in South Essex " will have a particular appeal to wide audience: but
most especially to those with an interest in the local history of the area served by the lines, those
interested in the history of Essex, and railway enthusiasts interested in the railways of the eastern
counties in general and the Great Eastern Railway in particular.
Critique: Nicely illustrated throughout, "The Great Eastern Railway in South Essex" A Definitive
History" is an inherently interesting read that is impressively informative and exceptionally well
organized and presented. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal,
community, and academic library Railroading History collections, it should be noted for personal
reading lists that "The Great Eastern Railway in South Essex" is also available in a digital book
format (Kindle, $23.98).
Editorial Note: Charles Phillips lives in the village of Stock in Essex. He went to school in
Chelmsford and then joined the civil service from which he retired in 2005. Hi main interest is
transport, the First World War and history in general. He has written a number of books
including Great Eastern Since 1900 (Ian Allan, 1985) and The Story of Billericay. (History Press,
2011).
A Railway History of New Shildon
George Turner Smith
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
152673639X, $49.95, HC, 208pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: On the 27th September 1825, the first public railway steam train left New Shildon for
Stockton-on-Tees. The driver was George Stephenson and the engine he was driving was the
'Locomotion No.1'. It set off from a settlement which would become New Shildon.
At the time New Shildon consisted of just a set of rails and four houses, none of which had been
there less than a year before. The four houses became a town with a five-figure population; a
town that owed its existence to the railway that made its home there - the 'Stockton and
Darlington'(S&DR).
Some of the earliest and greatest railway pioneers worked there, including George and his son
Robert, the Hackworth brothers, Timothy and Thomas, and the engineer William Bouch. Their
story is part of New Shildon's story.
The locomotive works, created to build and maintain steam locomotives, morphed into the
world's most innovative works whose demise had more to do with politics than productivity.
"A Railway History of New Shildon: From George Stephenson to the Present Day" by railway
historian George Turner Smith covers Shildon's years between 1820 and today, including the war
interludes when the wagon works was manned by women and the output was mostly intended for
the MOD.
The story of the creation of the town's railway museum and the arrival of Hitachi at Newton
Aycliffe brings the history up to date and , to complete the picture, there is also a description of
the on-going new build G5 steam locomotive project on Hackworth Industrial Estate, the very
site where the S&DR locomotive and wagon works was located. Although the story of a railway
town, it is also the story of people who lived there and made it what it is today.
Critique: Another beautifully produced railway history from Pen & Sword Books, "A Railway
History of New Shildon: From George Stephenson to the Present Day" is an extraordinarily
informative and profusely illustrated volume that is unreservedly recommended for the personal
reading lists of dedicated railroading buffs, as well as community and academic library British
Railway History collections.
The Health/Medicine Shelf
Recreational Therapy for Older Adults
Nancy E. Richeson and Betsy Kemeny
Sagamore Publishing Company
1807 North Federal Drive, Urbana, IL 61801
www.sagamorepub.com
9781571679499 $90.00 pbk / $60.00 e-text
Synopsis: The purpose of the book, Recreational Therapy for Older Adults is to provide a
comprehensive textbook for any college or university teaching an undergraduate or graduate
course in recreational therapy or therapeutic recreation for older adults within their curriculum. A
textbook that provides information that connects to health and human service competencies in
the field of geriatric, gerontology, and interprofessional practice is desperately needed. Therefore,
the textbook will provide an overview of gerontology and geriatric topics in addition to best
practices in recreational therapy.
Currently there are no textbooks in existence for teaching this course. This textbook will be key
to providing a workforce that is qualified to provide services to an aging world. In addition, the
approximately 30% of the CTRSs who work with older adults will want to purchase this book for
their professional libraries.
Each chapter will include objectives, key words, an introduction, specific content for each
chapter, conclusion, reading comprehension questions, suggested classroom activities, test
questions, and references. In addition, many chapters will provide case studies and text boxes
highlighting best practices.
Critique: Recreational Therapy for Older Adults lives up to its title as an educational reference
and resource about therapeutic recreation for older adults. Chapters are structured for use in a
curriculum, although Recreational Therapy for Older Adults also makes an excellent self-study
tool. An invaluable resource for improving the quality of health care especially for America's
aging Baby Boomer population, Recreational Therapy for Older Adults is highly recommended
for college and medical school libraries as well as gerontology courses. It should be noted for
personal reading lists that Recreational Therapy for Older Adults is also available in an e-text
edition ($60.00), which can be read on any device with a browser and an internet
connection.
Addiction Nation
Timothy McMahan King
Herald Press
P.O. Box 866, Harrisonburg, VA 22803
www.heraldpress.com
9781513804071, $30.99, HC, 272pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: When a near-fatal illness led his doctors to prescribe narcotics, media consultant
Timothy McMahan King ended up where millions of others have: addicted. Eventually King
learned to manage pain without opioids -- but not before he began asking profound questions
about the spiritual and moral nature of addiction, the companies complicit in creating the opioid
epidemic, and the paths toward healing and recovery.
We have become a society not only damaged by addiction but fueled by it. In "Addiction Nation:
What the Opioid Crisis Reveals about Us", King investigates the ways that addiction robs us of
freedom and holds us back from being fully human. Through stories, theology, philosophy, and
cultural analysis, King examines today's most common addictions and their destructive
consequences. In stark yet intimate prose, he looks not only at the rise of opioid abuse but at
policy, pain, virtue, and habit. He also unpacks research showing patterns of addiction to
technology, stress, and even political partisanship.
Addiction of any kind dims the image of God and corrupts who we were created to be.
"Addiction Nation" nudges us toward healing from the ravages of addiction and draws us toward
a spirituality sturdy enough to sate our deepest longings.
Critique: Impressively and candidly informative, exceptionally well written, organized and
presented, ultimately inspiring, "Addiction Nation: What the Opioid Crisis Reveals about Us" is
an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic
library Health & Medicine, Contemporary Social Issues, and Opioid Addiction collections and
supplemental studies lists. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Addiction Nation" is
also available in a paperback edition (9781513804064, $17.99) and in a digital book format
(Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: A graduate of North Park University with degrees in theology and philosophy,
Timothy McMahan King is a writer, nonprofit professional, and the owner of Vagabond
Consulting. He has worked as a community organizer in Chicago, a chief strategy officer with
Sojourners, and currently serves as a consultant for the Center for Action and Contemplation.
King's work has been published in Christianity Today, Sojourners, and other venues, and he has
been interviewed by ABC, the BBC, TIME, CNN, and the Daily Beast.
The Hospice Team
Chaim J. Wender & Patricia E. Morrison, editors
Health Professions Press
PO Box 10624, Baltimore, MD 21285-0624
www.healthpropress.com
9781938870835, $32.99, PB, 200pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Hospice care is a type of care and philosophy of care that focuses on the palliation of a
chronically ill, terminally ill or seriously ill patient's pain and symptoms, and attending to their
emotional and spiritual needs. In Western society, the concept of hospice has been evolving in
Europe since the 11th century. Then, and for centuries thereafter in Roman Catholic tradition,
hospices were places of hospitality for the sick, wounded, or dying, as well as those for travelers
and pilgrims. The modern concept of hospice includes palliative care for the incurably ill given in
such institutions as hospitals or nursing homes, but also care provided to those who would rather
spend their last months and days of life in their own homes. The first modern hospice care was
created by Cicely Saunders in 1967. (Wikipedia)
Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by Chaim J. Wender (a retired Rabbinical Coordinator of
the Hospice of Palm Beach County, Florida) and hospice social worker Patricia E. Morrison,
"The Hospice Team: Who We Are and How We Care" is singular and unique work that offers a
truly interdisciplinary team perspective on caring as collectively presented by 21 veterans of
hospice service representing the array of disciplines in effective teams including physicians,
nurses, certified nurse assistants, social workers, chaplains, music therapists, bereavement
counselors, a volunteer coordinator, and a volunteer of more than 26 years.
The individual contributors share professional and personal experiences that encompass the
medical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, interpersonal, social, cultural, and economic
dimensions of dying and bereavement. These are brought together through a person-centered
approach that champions knowing each person being cared for to create the necessary
opportunity for communication and trust that are the hallmarks of high-quality hospice care.
Critique: Impressively informative, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "The
Hospice Team: Who We Are and How We Care" is a critically important and unreservedly
recommended basic core addition to community, hospice care facilities, college, and university
library Hospice Care collections in general, and End of Life supplemental studies reading lists in
particular. It should be noted for medical students, hospice staff workers, and non-specialist
general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Hospice Team: Who We Are and How
We Care" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $31.34).
The Economic Studies Shelf
A Brief History of Doom
Richard Vague
University of Pennsylvania Press
3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
9780812251777, $29.95, HC, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Financial crises happen time and again in post-industrial economies -- and they are
extraordinarily damaging. Building on insights gleaned from many years of work in the banking
industry and drawing on a vast trove of data, in "A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years
of Financial Crises", Richard Vague argues that such crises follow a pattern that makes them
both predictable and avoidable.
"A Brief History of Doom" deftly examines a series of major crises over the past 200 years in the
United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and China -- including the Great
Depression and the economic meltdown of 2008. Vague demonstrates that the over-accumulation
of private debt does a better job than any other variable of explaining and predicting financial
crises. In a series of clear and gripping chapters, he shows that in each case the rapid growth of
loans produced widespread overcapacity, which then led to the spread of bad loans and bank
failures. This cycle, according to Vague, is the essence of financial crises and the script they
invariably follow.
"A Brief History of Doom" is the story of financial crisis presented as fundamentally the story of
private debt and runaway lending. Convinced that we have it within our power to break the cycle,
Vague provides the tools to enable politicians, bankers, and private citizens to recognize and
respond to the danger signs before it begins again.
Critique: Ably written with the clarity that makes it equally accessible to the non-specialist
general reader and academia alike, "A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial
Crises" is a particularly timely and informative contribution to our on-going national discussion
with respect to governmental economic policies, private capital investment trends, and our
deeply divided political responses to the national debt, corporate taxation policies, and the Trump
administrations tariff wars with China, Mexico, and others. While unreservedly recommended
for corporate, community, and academic library Contemporary Economics collections and
supplemental studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, governmental policy
makers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "A Brief History of
Doom" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.92).
Editorial Note: Philanthropist and former banker Richard Vague is a managing partner of Gabriel
Investments, Chairman of The Governor's Woods Foundation, and author of "The Next
Economic Disaster: Why It's Coming and How to Avoid It", which is also available from the
University of Pennsylvania Press.
The Criminology Shelf
Measuring Crime: Behind the Statistics
Sharon L. Lohr
www.sharonlohr.com
CRC Press
6000 NW Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487
www.crcpress.com
9780367192310, $99.95, HC, 166pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Crime statistics are everywhere, but how do you know when they're valid? If a
newspaper report says "the rate of overall violent crime decreased by 0.9 percent," how can you
tell where that statistic came from, what it measures, and how accurate it is? Is it worth repeating
or sharing?
In "Measuring Crime: Behind the Statistics", gives you the tools to interpret and evaluate crime
statistics' quality and usefulness while focusing on ways of thinking about crime statistics (not
formulas!) and features: Eight questions you should ask before quoting a statistic; The two
sources of information about homicide; FBI statistics with respect to what they measure; How
victimization surveys can reflect your experiences even though you were not asked to participate;
Special considerations when interpreting statistics about sexual assault and fraud; Examples of
experiments and studies on how to improve crime statistics; Two online supplements containing
additional details and links to data sources.
Critique: Thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "Measuring Crime:
Behind the Statistics" will tell you how to read statistics as a statistician would and should be
considered essential reading for all law enforcement professionals, crime beat journalists, judicial
studies students, social activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject.
While very highly recommended, especially for college and university library Criminology
Studies collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Measuring Crime: Behind
the Statistics" is also available in a paperback edition ( 978-1138489073, $29.95) and in a digital
book format (eTextbook, $28.45 Buy / $5.63 Rent).
Editorial Note: Sharon Lohr, is also the author of Sampling: Design and Analysis, and has
published widely about statistical methods for education, public policy, law, and crime. She has
been recognized as Fellow of the American Statistical Association, elected member of the
International Statistical Institute, and recipient of the Gertrude M. Cox Statistics Award and the
Deming Lecturer Award. Formerly Dean's Distinguished Professor of Statistics at Arizona State
University and a Vice President at Westat. She is now a freelance statistical consultant and writer
and her website is at www.sharonlohr.com.
The Mayfair Mafia
Dick Kirby
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526742612, $29.95, PB, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: It is a little known fact that one immigrant Italian family ran London's thriving vice
trade unchecked from the mid-1930s for some twenty years. The five Messina brothers imported
prostitutes from the Continent on an industrial scale, acquiring the women British citizenship by
phony marriages. Demanding 80% of earnings, the Messina family became fabulously wealthy,
purchasing expensive properties, cars and influence.
"The Mayfair Mafia: The Lives and Crimes of the Messina Brothers" by Dick Kirby is a
revealing and absorbing account that describes in historical detail how the brothers ruled with a
ruthless combination of charm, blackmail and all too credible threats of disfigurement and
death.
It took a sensational Sunday newspaper expose to get the authorities to act. A series of dramatic
arrests and trials followed and one by one the brothers were imprisoned and deported for crimes
including immoral earnings, attempted bribery and firearms offenses. Such was their fortune that
numerous potential beneficiaries came forward -- most recently in 2012.
Critique: A detailed and inherently fascinating account of the rise and fall of an organized crime
family, "The Mayfair Mafia: The Lives and Crimes of the Messina Brothers" will prove to be an
immediate and enduringly popular addition to community and academic library Criminology
collections and supplemental studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of
students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subect that "The
Mayfair Mafia" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.37).
Editorial Note: Dick Kirby was born in the East End of London and joined the Metropolitan
Police in 1967. Half of his twenty-six years' service was spent with Scotland Yard's Serious
Crime Squad and the Flying Squad. Kirby contributes to newspapers and magazines on a regular
basis, as well as appearing on television and radio. The Guv'nors, The Sweeney, Scotland Yard's
Ghost Squad, Brave Line Death on the Beat, Scourge of Soho, Crime and Corruption at The Yard
and London Gangs at War are all published under the Wharncliffe True Crime imprint and he has
further other published works to his credit. On retirement he lives near Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk, Kirby can be visited at his website: www.dickkirby.com.
Blonde Rattlesnake
Julia Bricklin
The Lyons Press
www.lyonspress.com
c/o The Globe Pequot Press
246 Goose Lane, Suite 200, Guilford, CT 06437
www.globepequot.com
9781493037896, $24.95, HC, 200pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Nineteen-year-old Burmah Adams, a hairdresser and former Santa Ana High School
student, spent her honeymoon on a crime spree. She and her husband of less than one week,
Thomas White, an ex-con, robbed at least twenty people in and around downtown L.A. at
gunpoint over an eight-week period. But the worst of their crimes was the shooting of a popular
elementary school teacher, Cora Withington, and a former publisher, Crombie Allen, who was
teaching her how to drive his new car.
A few days later, a watchful pair of patrolmen in a Westlake neighborhood called their detective
colleagues at the Los Angeles Police Department; they had spotted a car that looked like one the
duo had stolen days before. Two of these detectives dressed as mechanics and kept an eye on the
apartment building until Burmah and Thomas appeared one afternoon. As police swarmed the
building, Burmah tried to hurl herself out of a third - story window, while Thomas shot at
officers and was immediately gunned down and killed.
"Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrorized Los
Angeles" by historian and author Julia Bricklin reveals the events that brought Adams and White
together and details the crime spree they committed in the sweltering hot days and nights of Los
Angeles in the height of the Great Depression. It describes the terror of citizens in their path and
the outrage they directed at the female half of the duo. Politicians exploited Burmah's
incarceration and trial for their own purposes as the press battled for scoops about the "Blonde
Rattlesnake" and created sensation while trying to make sense of her crimes.
Critique: An inherently fascinating and exceptionally well presented case study, "Blonde
Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrorized Los
Angeles" is unreservedly recommended for community and academic library Criminology &
True Crime collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Blonde Rattlesnake" is
also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.66).
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
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