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Library Bookwatch

Volume 14, Number 7 July 2019 Home | LBW Index

Table of Contents

Reviewer's Choice Writing/Publishing Shelf Education Shelf
American History Shelf World History Shelf Philosophy Shelf
Military Shelf Literary Studies Shelf Fiction Shelf
Mystery/Suspense Shelf Fantasy/SciFi Shelf Western Fiction Shelf
Art Shelf Science Shelf Political Science Shelf
Civil War Shelf Nautical Shelf Psychology Shelf
Technology Shelf Biography Shelf Journalism Shelf
Genealogy Shelf Library Science Shelf Theatre/Cinema Shelf
Social Issues Shelf Environmental Studies Shelf Cookbook Shelf
Mythology Shelf Comix/Graphic Novel Shelf Library CD Shelf
Library DVD Shelf Native American Studies Shelf Railroading Shelf
Health/Medicine Shelf Economic Studies Shelf Criminology Shelf


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).


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Diane C. Donovan, Editor
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