Booklist articles from February 2008

Booklist archives from February 2008

Havanas in Camelot: Personal Essays.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Havanas in Camelot: Personal Essays. By William Styron. Apr. 2008. 176p. Random, $23 (9781400067190). 813. In his last year Styron (1925-2006) was working on a retrospective collection of personal essays from the 1980s and 1990s, a project...

The Prince of Frogtown.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Prince of Frogtown. By Rick Bragg. May 2008. 288p. Knopf, $25 (9781400040407). 976.1. Whereas All Over but the Shoutin' (1997) provided a tribute to his resilient mother and Ava's Man (2001) chronicled his remarkable grandfather,...

The Sum of Our Days.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Sum of Our Days. By Isabel Allende. Apr. 2008. 320p. HarperCollins, $26.95 (9780061551833). 863.64. In this sequel to her memoir Paula (1995), about the year-long coma suffered by her daughter, Chilean novelist Allende tells of the...

Black Widow.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Black Widow. By Randy Wayne White. Mar. 2008. 352p. Putnam, $24.95 (9780399154560). Crime Fiction. What happens in the Caribbean--at least on the tiny island of Saint Arc--definitely doesn't stay there. Especially if you happen to be a...

Child 44.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Child 44. By Tom Rob Smith. May 2008. 439p. Grand Central, $24.99 (9780446402385). Crime Fiction. In the workers' paradise of Stalin's Russia, crime cannot exist. Loyal, hardworking citizens will have all their needs met by the state,...

A Dangerous Age.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * A Dangerous Age. By Ellen Gilchrist. May 2008. 256p. Algonquin, $23.95 (978156512542 I). General Fiction. Beloved southern fiction writer Gilchrist returns with her first novel since Sarah Conley(1997), and the legion of fans who...

Delusion.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Delusion. By Peter Abrahams. Apr. 2008. 304p. Morrow, $24.95 (9780061137990). Crime Fiction. Abrahams, who has been dividing his time lately between literary thrillers for adults (his stock-in-trade for years) and his award-winning Echo...

Dictation.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Dictation. By Cynthia Ozick. Apr. 2008. 176p. Houghton, $24 (9780547054001). General Fiction. Four novellas are gathered here, three previously published (in the New Yorker and the Atlantic) and one making its first appearance in print....

The Rosetta Key.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Rosetta Key. By William Dietrich. Apr. 2008. 352p. HarperCollins, $25.95 (9780061239557). General Fiction. The sequel to Napoleon's Pyramids (2007) picks up pretty much where that book left off. Ethan Gage, the American adventurer,...

Unaccustomed Earth.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Unaccustomed Earth. By Jhumpa Lahiri. Apr. 2008. 352p. Knopf, $25 (9780307265739). General Fiction. Following her thoughtful first novel, The Namesake (2003), which has been made into a meditative film, Lahiri returns to the short story,...

Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals. By Karen Dawn. Feb. 2008. 360p. illus. HarperCollins, paper, $19.95 (0-06-135185-7). 179.3. A fun book about the animal-rights movement? Dawn, an activist and author (online and...

God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. By John F. Haugbt. Feb. 2008. 156p.Westminster/John Knox, paper, $16.95 (0-664-23304-X). 211. Books disputing with other books normally don't outlive the...

God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Great Outdoors with the Adventure Rabbi.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Great Outdoors with the Adventure Rabbi. By Jamie S. Korngold. Apr. 2008. 160p. Doubleday/Three Leaves, paper, $11.95 (0-385-52049-2). 296.7. Korngold is a Reform rabbi who...

How to Believe: Teachers and Seekers Show the Way to a Modern, Life-Changing Faith.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... How to Believe: Teachers and Seekers Show the Way to a Modern, Life-Changing Faith. By Jon Spayde. Feb. 2008. 240p. Random, $24.95 (1-4000-6402-3). 277.3. Spayde's religious upbringing was typical for a middle-class baby boomer: Bible...

Where Did I Leave My Glasses?(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Where Did I Leave My Glasses? By Martha Weinman Lear. Feb. 2008. 245p. Grand Central, $22.99 (0-446-58059-7). 155.67. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Veteran journalist Lear takes an in-depth and lighthearted look at a phenomenon that is...

UFOs in the desert.(The Manley Arts)(unidentified flying objects)
February 1, 2008... Seven years ago, I took a detour from my library career to serve as the city manager of a good-sized southwestern community. A few months ago, I retired from that position and moved to California in order to focus on my new career as a...

A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope. By Stanislaw Dziwisz. Tr. by Adrian J. Walker. Mar. 2008. 272p. Doubleday, $22.95 (0-385-52374-2). 282.092. Those looking for a little dirt on John Paul II will be...

Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith & Politics after the Religious Right.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith & Politics after the Religious Right. By E. J. Dionne. Feb. 2008. 256p. Princeton, $24.95 (9780691134581). 261.7. Liberal commentator Dionne foresees different relations between faith and politics now that the...

Zeus: A Journey through Greece in the Footsteps of a God.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Zeus: A Journey through Greece in the Footsteps of a God. By Tom Stone. Feb. 2008. 336p. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (1-58234-518-X). 292.2. The supreme deity of Greek mythology has his lusty, tempestuous story recast in engaging fashion by Stone....

Falling into Manholes: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Falling into Manholes: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl. By Wendy Merrill. Mar. 2008. 240p. Putnam, $22.95 (0-399-15455-8). 305.409. Memoirs recounting relationship woes might be a dime a dozen, but Merrill bravely lays bare her oft...

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. By Timothy Keller. Feb. 2008. 320p. Dutton, $24.95 (9780525950493). 239. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Keller has just made life harder for preaching atheists such as Richard Dawkins,...

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World. By Samantha Power. Feb. 2008.512p. illus. Penguin, $29.95 (9781594201288). 341.4. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Power was new to journalism when she first met Vieira...

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World. By Tim Harford. Feb. 2008. 304p. Random, $25.95 (1-4000-6642-5). 339. Harford writes "The Undercover Economist" column for the Financial Times and Slate, and his first book,...

On Empire: America, War, and Global Supremacy.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... On Empire: America, War, and Global Supremacy. By Eric Hobsbawm. Mar. 2008. 128p. Pantheon, $19.95 (0-375-42537-3). 327.73. An eminence grise in historiography, Hobsbawm here expresses his views about the future direction of international...

Reasonable Rx: Solving the Drug Pricing Crisis.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Reasonable Rx: Solving the Drug Pricing Crisis. By Stan Finkelstein and Peter Temin. Feb. 2008. 240p. Financial Times, $29.99 (0-13-234449-I). 338.4361510973. Finkelstein and Temin propose "solving the drug pricing crisis" by separating...

Reclaiming Conservatism: How a Great American Political Movement Got Lost--and How It Can Find Its Way Back.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Reclaiming Conservatism: Row a Great American Political Movement Got Lost--and How It Can Find Its Way Back. By Mickey Edwards. 2007. 208p. Oxford, $21.95 (9780195335583). 320.520973. When Edwards backed Goldwater in 1964, the new...

Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey through Africa's AIDS Epidemic.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey through Africa's AIDS Epidemic. By Jonny Steinberg. Feb. 2008. 368p. illus. Simon & Schuster, $26 (I-4165-5269-3). 362.196. Journalist Steinberg wonders how, in a rapidly evolving socioeconomic situation...

Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making. By David Rothkopf. Mar. 2008. 416p. Farrar, $26 (0-374-27210-7). 305.5. The 6,000 most powerful people in the world occupy Rothkopf's analysis of current global leaders in...

20-Something Manifesto: Quarter-Lifers Speak Out about How They Are, What They Want, and How to Get It.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... 20-Something Manifesto: Quarter-Lifers Speak Out about How They Are, What They Want, and How to Get It. By Christine Hassler. Mar. 2008. 400p. New World Library, paper, $15.95 (9781577315957). 646.7. The author of 20-Something,...

Home Rich: Increasing the Value of the Biggest Investment of Your Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Home Rich: Increasing the Value of the Biggest Investment of Your Life. By Gerri Willis. Feb. 2008. 288p. Ballantine, $24.95 (0-345-49044-4). 643. Willis, a financial columnist and real estate expert, offers a handbook for managing the...

The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics. By Michael Shermer. 2008. 336p. Times, $26 (0-8050-7832-0). 330. I. It is the Ripley's Believe It or Not of behavioral economics,...

The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird. By Bruce Barcott. Feb. 2008. 336p. Random, $25.95 (I-4000-6293-4). 598. Belize is a small Central American country, justifiably famous for its...

Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain. By Martha Sherrill. Mar. 2008. 256p. illus. Penguin, $25.95 (9781594201240). 636.73. One day in 1944, in the midst of World War II Japan, with people suffering and starving around him, Morie...

Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human. By Elizabeth Hess. Feb. 2008. 384p. Bantam, $23 (9780553803839). 636.9885092. Nim Chimpsky was born in a captive chimpanzee colony in 1973. Named as a play on Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist...

Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon. By Nick Trout. Mar. 2008. 304p. Broadway, $22.95 (9780767926430).636.089. Far from the rustic environs of James Herriot's Yorkshire Dales comes an...

I Am Not My Breast Cancer: Women Talk Openly about Love and Sex, Hair Loss and Weight Gain, Mothers and Daughters, and Being a Woman with Breast Cancer.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... I Am Not My Breast Cancer: Women Talk Openly about Love and Sex, Hair Loss and Weight Gain, Mothers and Daughters, and Being a Woman with Breast Cancer. By Ruth Peltason. Feb. 2008. 352p. Morrow, $25.95 (9780061174100). 616.99. The...

Native Ferns, Moss, and Grasses: From Emerald Carpet to Amber Wave; Serene and Sensuous Plants for the Garden.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Native Ferns, Moss, and Grasses: From Emerald Carpet to Amber Wave; Serene and Sensuous Plants for the Garden. By William Cullina. Feb. 2008. 272p. illus. Houghton/Frances Tenenbaum, $40 (9780618531189). 635.9, Reigning over a trove of...

Sunflowers: The Secret History.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Sunflowers: The Secret History. By Joe Pappalardo. Mar. 2008. 256p. illus. Overlook, $22.95 (9781585679911). 635.9. What do Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Osama bin Laden have in common? OK, besides the obvious. Would you believe...

Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food. By Gene Baur. Mar. 2008. 288p. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, $25 (0-7432-9158-1). 664.07. Activist Baur, who cofounded Farm Sanctuary in 1986 to rescue abused farm animals,...

Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure. By Cheryl Jamison and Bill Jamison. Mar. 2008. 272p. Morrow, $24.95 (9780060878955). 641.59. Loath to squander frequent-flier miles on pointless excursions, the Jamisons...

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. By Jennifer 8 Lee. Mar. 2008. 320p.Twelve, $24.99 (0-446-58007-4). 641.59. Lee traverses the U.S., China, and beyond in her quest to discover what has made Chinese...

American Photobooth.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... American Photobooth. By Nakki Goranin. Feb. 2008. 224p. illus. Norton, $45 (9780393065565); paper, $29.95 (9780393330762). 779.092. Like many other American inventions, the DIY photo-portrait machine was the brainchild of immigrants, each...

The Art of Bryan Talbot.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Art of Bryan Talbot. By Bryan Talbot. Feb. 2008.96p. illus. NBM, paper, $19.95 (1-56163512-X). 741.5. Talbot first gained comics fans' notice in the early 1980s as writer and artist of the fantasy epic The Adventures of Luther...

Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts. By Joseph Horowitz. Feb. 2008.480p. illus. HarperCollins, $27.50 (9780060748463). 791. There are many reasons why the...

Song Man: A Melodic Adventure; or, My Single-Minded Approach to Songwriting.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Song Man: A Melodic Adventure; or, My Single-Minded Approach to Songwriting. By Will Hodgkinson. Feb. 2008. 304p. Da Capo, paper, $16.95 (9780306815812). 782.42. In Guitar Man (2006), Hodgkinson reported on mastering the guitar. In the...

Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art. By Simon Louvish. Mar. 2008. 528p. illus. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $27.95 (0-312-37733-9). 791.43023. Although DeMille is best remembered for such overblown biblical blockbusters as The King of Kings and...

Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America. By Richard Zoglin. Feb. 2008. 256p. illus. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (1-58234-624-0). 792.7. How did 1970s stand-up comics change America? Not just by aping the Smothers Brothers, as...

Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon. By May Pang. Mar. 2008. 160p. illus. St. Martin's, $29.95 (0-312-37741-X). 782.42166092. Lennon was famously requested by wife Yoko Ono to have an affair with the couple's personal assistant,...

Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford; A Personal Biography.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford; A Personal Biography. By Charlotte Chandler. Feb. 2008. 336p. Simon & Schuster, $26 (1-4165-4751-7). 791.4302. If Christina Crawford's Mommie Dearest (1978) left readers feeling scaly, here is the...

Embellished Crochet: Bead, Embroider, Fringe, and More; 28 Stunning Designs to Make Using Caron International Yarn.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Embellished Crochet: Bead, Embroider, Fringe, and More; 28 Stunning Designs to Make Using Caron International Yarn. By Carl Clement. 2007. 160p. illus. St. Martin's/Griffin, paper, $19.95 (0-312-36439-3). 746.43. Formerly behind the scenes...

The Game of My Life: A True Story of Challenge, Triumph, and Growing Up Autistic.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * The Game of My Life: A True Story of Challenge, Triumph, and Growing Up Autistic. By Jason "J-Mac" McElwain and Daniel Paisner. Feb. 2008. 272p. illus. NAL, $23.95 (9780451223012). 616.85. February 15, 2006, was going to be a special day...

The Great Swim.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * The Great Swim. By Gavin Mortimer. Feb. 2008. 336p. Walker, $24.95 (0-8027-1595-8). 797.2. In 1926 four American women--Gertrude Ederle, Mille Gade, Lillian Cannon, and Clarabelle Barrette--competed to do II something no woman had ever...

The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78. By Richard Bradley. Mar. 2008.256p. Free Press, $25 (1-4165-3438-5). 796.357. Carl Yazstremski, Goose Gossage, Bucky Dent, Carlton Fisk--the names resonate in the...

The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street. By Charles Nicholl. Feb. 2008. 224p. illus. Viking, $24.95 (9780670018505). 822. In the warmly readable Shakespeare Un bound (2007), Rend Weis extrapolated a whole biography from...

The Thing about Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Thing about Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead. By David Shields. Feb. 2008.288p. Knopf, $24 (9780307268044). 813.54. It's not every day that a novelist tells unsuspecting readers the dimensions of his erection. But it's just one among...

The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters, and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the Great Lakes.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters, and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the Great Lakes. By Ted McClelland. Feb. 2008. 352p. illus. Chicago Review, $24.95 (1-55652-721-7). 917.704. ...

A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity. By Jan Egeland. Mar. 2008. 364p. Simon & Schuster, $27 (1-4165-6096-3). 909.82. It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of a billion lives could, indeed, rest in the...

The Age of American Unreason.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * The Age of American Unreason. By Susan Jacoby. Feb. 2008. 384p. Pantheon, $26 (0-375-42374-5). 973.91. Many writers have parsed the dumbing down of American culture, but none bring quite the deep historical perspective, razor-sharp...

Black Glasses like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Black Glasses like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan. By Terese Svoboda. Feb. 2008. 195p. illus. Graywolf, paper, $14 (9781555974909). 940.54. To Svoboda, her uncle Don was Superman. Movie-star handsome and physically imposing,...

Casualty Figures: How Five Men Survived World War One.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Casualty Figures: How Five Men Survived World War One. By Michele Barrett. 2007. 224p. Verso, $24.95 (9781844672301). 940.3. During World War I, the syndrome of "shell shock" was recognized, and now designations of post-traumatic stress...

General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse. By Joseph T. Glatthaar. Mar. 2008. 624p. Free Press, $30 (0-684-82787-5). 973.7. Confederate general Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia have become jointly enshrined in the hearts...

Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon. By Andrea di Robilant. 2008. 384p. Knopf, $24.95 (1-4000-4413-8). 945. Using letters and diaries found in his family home and in archives, Italian journalist di Robilant presents a vivid...

Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter. By Susan Nagel. Apr. 2008.432p. Bloomsbury, $27.95 (1-59691-057-7). 944. Most people who know about the sad end of Queen Marie Antoinette of France also know that...

Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918. By James Bart. Feb. 2008. 352p. Norton, $27.95 (9780393060409). 940.4. Many laypersons are familiar with T. E. Lawrence and the Arab revolt only...

"Strong Medicine Speaks": A Native American Elder Has Her Say; An Oral History.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... "Strong Medicine Speaks": A Native American Elder Has Her Say; An Oral History. By Amy Hill Hearth. Mar. 2008. 224p. Atria, $22.95 (0-7432-9779-2). 974.004. The author of Having Our Say (1993), the moving story of two elderly African...

This Glorious Struggle: George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... This Glorious Struggle: George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters. By Edward G. Lengel. 2008. 320p. Smithsonian, $25.95 (9780061251313). 973.4. A scholar of Washington's military career (General George Washington, 2005), Lengel samples...

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square. By Ned Sublette. 2008. 352p. illus. Chicago Review/Lawrence Hill, $25.95 (1-55652-730-6). 976.3. In the rush to analyze New Orleans after Katrina, this articulate and...

Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race. By George M. Fredrickson. Feb. 2008. 168p. Harvard, $19.95 (9780674027749). 973.7092. The debate over the fourteenth president's true attitude toward slavery and...

The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction. By Charles Lane. Mar. 2008. 336p. Holt, $26 (0-8050-8342-1). 976.3. On Easter Sunday in 1873 in small-town Colfax, Louisiana, rebellious...

Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union. By Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick. Feb. 2008. 320p. illus. Walker, $26.95 (0-8027-1523-0). 973.7. Frederick...

The Echo from Dealey Plaza: The True Story.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Echo from Dealey Plaza: The True Story. By Abraham Bolden. Mar. 2008. 320p. Harmony, $25.95 (9780307382016). 363.2092. As the first black Secret Service officer and an admirer of newly elected president John E Kennedy, Bolden was...

The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South. By Gilbert King. Apr. 2008. 340p. Basic, $26 (9780465002658). 364.66092. In 1946 in the small town of St. Martinsville, Louisiana, 17-year-old...

Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers. By Richard S. Newman. Mar. 2008. 341 p. NYU, $34.95 (9780814758267). 287. Born a slave in colonial Philadelphia, Richard Allen bought his freedom...

Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History. By Milton Sernett. Feb. 2008, 392p. Duke Univ., $89.95 (9780822340522); paper, $24.95 (9780822340737). 973.7. Rather than offer another biography of the woman most famous as a conductor on the...

Knowing Who I Am: A Black Entrepreneur's Struggle and Success in the American South.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Knowing Who I Am: A Black Entrepreneur's Struggle and Success in the American South. By Earl M. Middleton and Joy W, Barnes. Feb. 2008. 216p. Univ. of South Carolina, $29.95 (9781570037153). 338.092. Middleton, a successful real-estate...

Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation it! American Art. Ed. by Angela D. Mack and Stephen G. Hoffius. 2008. 240p. illus. Univ. of South Carolina, $49.95 (978157003719 I); paper, $24.95 (9781570037720). 704.9. Plantation paintings have been...

Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved out of Slavery and into Legend.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved out of Slavery and into Legend. By Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. 2008. 272p. illus. HarperCollins/Amistad, $24.95 (9780060510732). 306.362. Abijah and Lucy Prince...

Ida: A Sword among Lions; Ida B. Wells and the Campaign against Lynching.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... * Ida: A Sword among Lions; Ida B. Wells and the Campaign against Lynching. By Paula J. Giddings. Mar. 2008.816p. HarperCollins/Amistad, $35 (0-06-051921-5). 920.72. An iconic figure in American history, Wells was not always celebrated by...

Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa. By Colin Grant. Mar. 2008. 518p. Oxford, $27.95 (9780195367942). 320.5. This is a comprehensive biography of Marcus Garvey, the center of attention in...

Polynomials and Pollen: Parables, Proverbs, Paradigms, and Praise for Lois.(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Polynomials and Pollen: Parables, Proverbs, Paradigms, and Praise for Lois. By Jay Wright. Apr. 2008. 132p. Dalkey Archive, paper, $12.95 (9781564784995). 811. The Presentable Art of Reading Absence. By Jay Wright. Apr. 2008.88p. Dalkey...

President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman. By William Lee Miller. Feb. 2008.512p. Knopf, $30 (1-4000-4103-1). 973.7092. Miller's Lincoln's Virtues (2002) extolled the qualities of the future president; this companion volume considers...

Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine. By Scott E. Casper. Feb. 2008. 304p. Hill &Wang, $25 (0-8090-8414-7). 973.4. Mount Vernon, the home of the nation's first president, has evolved into a national...

Scottsboro and Its Legacy: The Cases That Challenged American Legal and Social Justice.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Scottsboro and Its Legacy: The Cases That Challenged American Legal and Social Justice. By James R. Acker. Feb. 2008. 280p. illus. Praeger, $49.95 (0-2759-9083-4). 345.761. In 1931, nine black teenagers were accused of raping two white...

Standing Tall: Lessons on Turning Adversity into Victory.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Standing Tall: Lessons on Turning Adversity into Victory. By C. Vivian Stringer and Laura Tucker. Mar. 2008. 304p. illus. Crown, $24.95 (9780307406095). 796.323. Stringer is the head coach of the women's basketball team at Rutgcrs...