Booklist articles from December 2008

Booklist archives from December 2008

Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor. By Brad Gooch. Feb. 2009. 416p. Little, Brown, $30 (9780316000666). 813.54. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Esteemed biographer Gooch (author of City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara,...

Things I've Been Silent About: Memories.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Things I've Been Silent About: Memories. By Azar Nafisi. Jan. 2009. 352p. illus. Random, $26 (9781400063611). 973. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nafisi's book about clandestine gatherings with other Iranian women to discuss works...

Heart and Soul.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Heart and Soul. By Maeve Binchy. Mar. 2009. 432p. Knopf, $26.95 (9780307265791). General Fiction. A Dublin hospital cardiac care center forms the figurative heart, and forges the symbolic soul, of Binchy's latest tour de force...

One Day at a Time.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... One Day at a Time. By Danielle Steel. Feb. 2009. 320p. Delacorte, $27 (9780385340298). General Fiction. Steel does not depart from her typical formula in this latest offering, which centers on the life of Coco Barrington, a young...

Runner.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Runner. By Thomas Perry. Jan. 2009. 448p. Houghton/Otto Penzler, $26 (9780151015283). Crime Fiction Perry returns to his Jane Whitefield series (The Face-Changers, 1998) after several stand-alones and picks up right where he...

Scarpetta.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Scarpetta. By Patricia Cornwell. Dec. 2008. 512p. Putnam, $27.95 (9780399155161). Crime Fiction. Twenty years after launching the Kay Scarpetta series, Cornwell returns to form (the last few entries have been disappointing)in this...

The Second Opinion.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Second Opinion. By Michael Palmer. Feb. 2009. 384p. St. Martin's, $25.95 (9780312343552). Crime Fiction. Palmer, a medical-thriller writer who has been producing A-list-quality novels for years, turns in another excellent...

Inner workings.(BooklistOnline)(Keir Graft )(Interview)
December 1, 2008... What goes on behind the scenes at Booklist Online? We asked Senior Editor Keir Graft to share some details. If you're a Booklist Online subscriber, you'll find a longer version at www.booklistonline.com. MEQ: What does the senior editor of...

An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith. By Barbara Brown Taylor. Feb. 2009. 240p. HarperOne, $24.95 (9780061370465). 283.09. In this lovely book, one of the best-known preachers in the country offers equal amounts of wisdom...

Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds. By Joel L. Kraemer. 2008. 640p. Doubleday, $35 (9780385511995). 296.1. Kraemer's comprehensive study of the great medieval philosopher and Jewish theologian...

The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * The Big Rich: The Rise end Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes. By Bryan Burrough. Jan. 2009.464p. Penguin, $29.95 (9781594201998). 338.2. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Texas oil fortunes forged by independent oilmen, known...

The She-Apostle: The Extraordinary Life and Death of Luisa de Carvajal.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The She-Apostle: The Extraordinary Life and Death of Luisa de Carvajal. By Glyn Redworth. Dec. 2008. 288p. illus. Oxford, $34.95 (9780199533534). 282.09. Hardly a household name, even for Catholics, Luisa de Carvajal (1568-1614)...

Crazy Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Crazy Love. By Leslie Morgan Steiner. Apr. 2009. 336p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (9780312377458). 362.82. As a young editor at Seventeen magazine, recovering from a history of alcoholism that permeated her family, Steiner met a man she...

Waiting 'til next year. (The Manley Arts.
December 1, 2008... It started in 1991. That's the first time someone mistook me for Lou Piniella. At the time, Lou was the manager of the Seattle Mariners baseball club, and I was a librarian in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Mariners' spring-training home...

Earth Talk: Expert Answers to Everyday Questions about the Environment.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Earth Talk: Expert Answers to Everyday Questions about the Environment. Feb. 2009. 304p. Plume, paper, $15 (9780452290129). 333.72. "If hemp is a renewable, environmentally friendly crop, why can't I grow it?" "Should I buy a...

Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look. By Jonathan Walford. 2008. 208p. illus. Thames & Hudson, $45 (9780500514290). 391.009044. What's past can be present: in this worldwide perspective on pre-, during, and post-World...

Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran. By Azadeh Moaveni. Feb. 2009. 336p. Random, $26 (9781400066452). 305.48. In this intimate look at the modern Iranian middle class, Moaveni, a journalist and the author of...

Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan. By Kim Phillips-Fein. Jan. 2009. 320p. illus. Norton, $26.95 (9780393059304). 320.520973. Although many books have been written about American...

Live through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Live through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love. By Debra Gwartney. Feb. 2009. 240p. Houghton, $24 (9780547054476). 362.74. "I was never going to accept that this was our real life." "A real mother...

My Father's Daughter: A Story of Family and Belonging.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... My Father's Daughter: A Story of Family and Belonging. By Hannah Pool. Jan. 2009. 256p. Free Press, $25 (9781416593690). 362.734092. Following her mother's death in childbirth--and the erroneous notation of her father's death as...

Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment. By Emma Walton Hamilton. Dec. 2008. 208p. Beech Tree, paper, $14.95 (9780981583303). 372.4. A quote from B. F. Skinner sums up the goal of this book: "We...

Speaking Up: The Unintended Costs of Free Speech in Public Schools.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Speaking Up: The Unintended Costs of Free Speech in Public Schools. By Anne Proffitt Dupre. Jan. 2009. 282p. Harvard, $29.95 (9780674031142). 342.7308. Law professor Dupre explores the delicate balance between the protection of...

To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells. By Mia Bay. Feb. 2009. 352p. Hill & Wang, $22 (9780809095292). 323.092. Part of the first post-emancipation generation, Ida B. Wells faced the tumult of a southern society...

Unpolished Gem.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Unpolished Gem. By Alice Pung. Jan. 2009. 288p. Palgrave, paper, $15 (9780452290006). 305.89. Pung's edifying memoir illuminates not only the cultural clash experienced by her Cambodian family after they landed in Australia in...

Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Other Economic Leaders.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Other Economic Leaders. Ed. by Michael Kinsley. Dec. 2008. 224p. Simon & Schuster, $26 (9781416599418). 330.12. The content of journalist, editor, and author...

The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash That Follows the Greatest Boom in History. By Harry S. Dent. Jan. 2009. 384p. Free Press, $27 (9781416588986). 330.97. Dent, author and consultant, predicts the economy is...

Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity. Ed. by Michael Lewis. Dec. 2008. 352p. Norton, $27.95 (9780393065145). 338.5. Lewis, author and journalist, presents an anthology of financial writing done immediately before, during,...

The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History--and How We Can Fight Back.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U. S. History--and How We Can Fight Back. By Alan Michael Collinge, Feb. 2009. 256p. Beacon, $22.95 (9780807042298). 378.3. Collinge is a writer and political activist committed to...

Childhood Unbound: Saving Our Kid's Best Selves--Confident Parenting in a Sky's the Limit World.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Childhood Unbound: Saving Our Kid's Best Selves-Confident Parenting in a Sky's the Limit World. By Ron Taffel. Jan. 2009. 320p. Free Press, $26 (9781416559276). 649. Taffel, psychologist and family therapist, explores the paradoxes...

Feed Me!(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Feed Me! Ed. by Harriet Brown. Jan. 2009. 272p. Ballantine, paper, $15 (9780345500885). 616.85. This collection of essays by women addresses food, fat, and body image, issues challenging so many women in today's media-dominated,...

Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir. By Cara Muhlhahn. Jan. 2009. 256p. Kaplan, $25.95 (9781427798213). 618.2. A practicing certified nurse-midwife in New York for more than a dozen years, Muhlhahn has the battle scars to prove it,...

The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself. By Hannah Holmes. Jan. 2009. 368p. Random, $25 (9781400065417). 612. "Who are we, animally speaking?" asks Holmes in this engaging look at Homo sapiens that uses the same cool...

Art: Over 2,500 Works from Cave to Contemporary.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Art: Over 2,500 Works from Cave to Contemporary. Ed. by Vivienne Brar and Janet Mohun. 2008.612p. illus. DK, $50 (9780756639723). 700. What must a big book of art contain to make it a great big book of art? Many color...

Chaplin.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Chaplin. By Stephen Weissman. Dec. 2008. 320p. illus. Arcadia, $27.99 (9781559708920). 791.4302. Psychiatrist Weissman offers a fascinating, analytic portrait of a most complex man, who from 1915 to the mid-1930s was the most...

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. By Michael Davis. Dec. 2008.406p. illus. Viking, $27.95 (9780670019960). 791.43. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Now viewed as an American institution, Sesame Street revolutionized...

Trees & Forests of America.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Trees & Forests of America. By Tim Palmer. 2008. 223p. illus. Abrams, $40 (9780810972940). 779. Palmer, an award-winning photographer, writer, and conservationist, creates books that combine art and science in the hope of evoking...

Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees. By Jane Heller. Feb. 2009. 272p. Rodale, $24.95 (9781594868986). 796.357. In May and October 2007, Heller published two charming op-ed pieces in the New...

Rebound!(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Rebound! By Michael Connelly. Dec. 2008. 320p. illus. Voyageur, $25 (9780760335017). 796.323. Bill Russell was the key player on Boston Celtics teams that won 11 championships in 13 years in the 1950s and 1960s. Yet Russell never...

Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master. By Michael Sragow. Dec. 2008. 656p. illus. Pantheon, $40 (9780375407482). 791.4302. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fleming (1889-1949) was a D.W. Griffith assistant on Intolerance and...

Love Junkie.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Love Junkie. By Rachel Resnick. Dec. 2008. 256p. Bloomsbury, $24 (9781596914940). 813. In this excruciatingly honest memoir, novelist and journalist Resnick relays how a childhood bereft of love brought about her addiction to...

Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963. By Susan Sontag. Ed. by David Rieff. Dec. 2008. 318p. Farrar, $24 (9780374100742). 818. Rieff sensitively portrayed revered critic and novelist Sontag during her last days in Swimming in a...

Somewhere towards the End.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Somewhere towards the End. By Diana Athill. Jan. 2009. 192p. Norton, $24.95 (9780393067705). 828.91. Noted British editor and writer Athill decided at 91 to "have a go" at writing about the process of getting old. In this...

Talking Animals and Others: The Life and Work of Walter R. Brooks, Creator of Freddy the Pig.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Talking Animals and Others: The Life and Work of Walter R. Brooks, Creator of Freddy the Pig. By Michael Cart. Jan. 2009. 269p. illus. Overlook, $29.95 (9781590201701). 813.54. Cart, whose lifelong love of the Freddy the Pig books...

Everyday People.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Everyday People. By Kevin Coval. Dec. 2008.94p. EM, paper, $15 (9780970801272). 811. A hip-hop writer writing against type, given his white, Jewish, suburban origins, Coval is more seasoned and tapped into the depths of Chicago...

The Death of Captain Cook: A Hero Made and Unmade.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Death of Captain Cook: A Hero Made and Unmade. By Glyn Williams. Jan. 2009. 208p. illus. Harvard, $19.95 (9780674031944). 910.92. Williams posits that Captain Cook's enduring claim to fame is that he redrew the map of the...

1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History. By Charles Bracelen Flood. Feb. 2009. 500p. Simon & Schuster, $30 (9781416552284). 973.9092. Flood follows Abraham Lincoln's fourth year as president, ranging across matters that arose in his...

In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Jan. 2009. 448p. illus. Crown, $27.50 (9780307382405). 973.0496073. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Following up on the...

The Best American History Essays on Lincoln.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Best American History Essays on Lincoln. Ed. by Sean Wilentz. Jan. 2009. 272p. Palgrave, paper, $16.95 (9780230609143). 973.7092. Lincoln's reputation peaked with Carl Sandburg's multivolume biography; inevitably, historians...

Dirty Secrets, Dirty War: The Exile of Editor Robert J. Cox.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Dirty Secrets, Dirty War: The Exile of Editor Robert J. Cox. By David Cox. Dec. 2008. 232p. illus. Evening Post, $26.95 (9780981873503). 982.06. David Cox is the son of Robert J. Cox, former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald and...

Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People. By William L. Iggiagruk Hensley. Jan. 2009. 288p. Farrar/Sarah Crichton, $24 (9780374154844). 979.8. In 1966, Hensley, then a member of the U.S. House of...

The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan. By Gregory Feifer. Jan. 2009. 336p. illus. HarperCollins, $27.95 (9780061143182). 958.104. Feifer's account of the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion and 10-year occupation of Afghanistan...

Haunted City: Nuremberg and the Nazi Past.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Haunted City: Nuremberg and the Nazi Past. By Neil Gregor. Jan. 2009. 336p. Yale, $45 (9780300101072). 943.32408. The Nuremberg Laws of September 15, 1935, defined "Reich Citizenship" and set out rules of the "Protection of German...

The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat. By Bob Drury and Tom Clavin. Jan. 2009. 288p. illus. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (9780871139931). 951.904. The authors of Halsey's Typhoon (2007) are back with an...

Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America. By Adam Cohen. Jan. 2009. 355p. Penguin, $29.95 (9781594201967). 973.917092. Written by an editor of the New York Times, this...

Mrs. Lincoln.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Mrs. Lincoln. By Catherine Clinton. Jan. 2009.416p. HarperCollins, $26.95 (9780060760403). 973.7. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This biography of the wife of the sixteenth president is perfectly timed: it will be published in the...

The Ties That Bind: A Memoir of Race, Memory, and Redemption.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Ties That Bind: A Memoir of Race, Memory, and Redemption. By Bertice Berry. Jan. 2009. 240p. Broadway, $23.95 (9780767924146). 973.7. Berry explores her personal journey of broader racial understanding since she wrote the novel...

Young Che: Memories of Che Guevara by His Father.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Young Che: Memories of Che Guevara by His Father. By Ernest Guevara Lynch. Tr. by Alvarez de Toledo. 2008.400p. Vintage, paper, $14.95 (9780307390448). 980.03. This narrative combines two earlier memoirs written by Che's father,...

The Atom and the Apple: Twelve Tales from Contemporary Physics.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Atom and the Apple: Twelve Tales from Contemporary Physics. By Sebastien Balibar. Tr. by Nathanael Stein. Dec. 2008. 200p. illus. Princeton, $29.95 (9780691131085). 530. Casting himself as more a dreamer than a detail-obsessed...

The Bomb: A New History.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Bomb: A New History. By Stephen M. Younger. Jan. 2009. 256p. illus. Ecco, $26.95 (9780061537196). 623.4. From a designer of nuclear weapons, this primer discusses the history, strategic rationales, and technical and industrial...

Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe. By Evalyn Gates. Feb. 2009. 288p. illus. Norton, $25.95 (9780393062380). 523.1. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cosmology has been upended by the...

Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West. By James Lawrence Powell. Jan. 2009. 288p. illus. Univ. of California, $27.50 (9780520254770). 363.6. For some, "dead pool" is a betting game involving...

The End: Natural Disasters, Manmade Catastrophes, and the Future of Human Survival.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The End: Natural Disasters, Manmade Catastrophes, and the Future of Human Survival. By Marq de Villiers. Dec. 2008. 352p. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $25.95 (9780312365691). 363.34. In this narrative survey of catastrophes to...

Energy in America: A Tour of Our Fossil Fuel Culture and Beyond.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Energy in America: A Tour of Our Fossil Fuel Culture and Beyond. By Ingrid Kelley. Dec. 2008. 288p. illus. Univ. of Vermont/Univ. Press of New England, $29.95 (9781584656401). 333.79. Those wishing to board the...

The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena. By Diane Hennacy Powell. Jan. 2009. 200p. Walker, $25 (9780802716064). 133.8. Psychic power has had trouble gaining scientific respectability, but Powell makes a game...

Evolutionary Writings.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Evolutionary Writings. By Charles Darwin. Ed. by James A. Secord. Feb. 2009. 528p. illus. Oxford, $25 (9780199208630). 576.8. The collected Works of Charles Darwin is a 29-volume set. Each of Darwin's three best-known books--On the...

Evolution: The First Four Billion Years.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Ed. by Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis. Feb. 2009. 992p. illus. Harvard, $39.95 (9780674031753). 576.8. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If ever there were an education in a book, there's one in...

Forecast: The Consequences of Climate Change, from the Amazon to the Arctic, from Darfur to Napa Valley.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Forecast: The Consequences of Climate Change, from the Amazon to the Arctic, from Darfur to Napa Valley. By Stephan Faris. Jan. 2009. 256p. Holt, $25 (9780805087796). 551.6. A journalist concerned with on-the-ground evidence...

How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet. By Robert Zubrin. Dec. 2008. 224p. illus. Three Rivers, paper, $13.95 (9780307407184). 813. In The Case For Mars (1997), Zubrin outlined a...

Hubble: Imaging Space and Time.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Hubble: Imaging Space and Time. By David DeVorkin and Robert W. Smith. 2008. 225p. illus. National Geographic, $50 (9781426203220). 522.29. The Hubble Space Telescope began taking spectacular photographs of the cosmos just as the...

Top 10 sci-Tech books.(Adult)(List)
December 1, 2008... The top 10 science and technology books of the last 12 months cover subjects at once earthy and esoteric--from birds and bees to the workings of the brain and the invention of the telephone--with verve and expertise.--Donna Seaman ...

Core collection: Darwin and evolution.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... On February 12, 1809, the naturalist Charles Darwin was born. Fifty years later, he published On the Origin of Species. Since no other man and no other book of the nineteenth century survive as vigorously in the twenty-first, 2009 will be a...

The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America. By Steven Johnson. Jan. 2009. 256p. illus. Riverhead, $25.95 (9781594488528). 540. Johnson uses only some of the important ideas of chemist,...

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. By Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Jan. 2009. 160p. illus. Norton, $23.95 (9780393065206). 523.49. Tyson, the high-profile impresario of astrophysics, offers this lighthearted...

Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities. By Ian Stewart. Jan. 2009. 336p. illus. Basic, paper, $16.95 (9780465013029). 510. For an exceptional reader, this book could mean a million dollars. For among the many doors...

Is God a Mathematician?(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Is God a Mathematician? By Marie Livio. Jan. 2009. 320p. Simon & Schuster, $26 (9780743294058). 510. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Four centuries after church inquisitors accused Galileo of dangerous skepticism, a modern...

Sand: The Never-Ending Story.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Sand: The Never-Ending Story. By Michael Welland. Jan. 2009. 304p. illus. Univ. of California, $24.95 (9780520254374). 553.6. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sand is "an unsung hero of our world," declares geologist Welland, an...

The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty-Six.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty-Six. By Jonathan Keats. Feb. 2009. 240p. Random, paper, $13 (9780812978971). Keats' world is a fun one. His allegorical world resembles some hybrid of Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest and...

Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts. By Laura Benedict. Jan. 2009. 352p. Ballantine, $25 (9780345497697). Roxanne, Del, and Mice have been friends since childhood, with Roxanne taking the dominant role. Roxanne is a force to be reckoned...

College Girl.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... College Girl. By Patricia Waltz. Jan. 2009. 336p. Riverhead, $24.95 (9781594488535). Weitz's assured debut follows the trials one painfully shy college student faces when she ventures beyond the safety of the library. A senior...

Daemon.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Daemon. By Daniel Suarez. Jan. 2009. 448p. Dutton, $26.95 (9780525951117). The homicidal computer program in this action-packed, cyber-thrill debut--originally self-published under a pseudonym by software developer Suarez--makes...

Disguise.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Disguise. By Hugo Hamilton. Dec. 2008. 272p. HarperCollins, $23.95 (9780060784683). In simple prose, this gripping novel sets the elemental adoption story against the weight of a country's shame and rage across generations. When a...

Fifty-First State.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Fifty-First State. By Hilary Bailey. Jan. 2009. 256p. Severn, $28.95 (9780727866936). English writer Bailey presents a wryly chilling, totally entertaining, and all-too-believable tale of political machination that explores the...

Doghead.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... * Doghead. By Morten Ramsland. Tr, by Tiina Nunnally. Feb. 2009. 384p. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $24.95 (9780312376543). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Already a huge success in Europe, Doghead is the bizarre saga of three...

Fireflies in December.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Fireflies in December. By Jennifer Erin Valent. Jan. 2009. 277p. Tyndale, paper, $12.99 (9781414324326). Little does anyone realize that simple Christian charity will inflame the bigots and hatemongers in this small Virginia town....