Booklist articles from February 2009

Booklist archives from February 2009

The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellin Cartel.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellin Cartel. By Roberte Escobar and David Fisher. Feb. 2009. 304p. Grand Central, $26.99 (9780446178921). 363.45092. By the time of his death at the hands of a special...

Closing Time.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Closing Time. By Joe Queenan. Apr. 2009. 340p. Viking, $26.95 (9780670020638). 974.8. After eviscerating everyone from filmmakers to sports fans, cultural critic and humorist Queenan takes the hatchet to himself in this memoir of...

The Birthday Present.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Birthday Present. By Barbara Vine. Mar. 2009. 336p. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $25 (9780307451989). Crime Fiction. Vine, the pen name of Ruth Rendell (whose Reginald Wexford mysteries are among the best of contemporary British...

Gone Tomorrow.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Gone Tomorrow. By Lee Child. May 2009.432p. Delacorte, $27 (9780385340571). Crime Fiction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The last time we saw Jack Reacher, he was cleaning up a nasty little burg called Despair, Colorado (Nothing to...

Hold Love Strong.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Hold Love Strong. By Matthew Aaron Goodman. Apr. 2009. 384p. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, $24.99 (9781416562030). General Fiction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Abraham was born on the bathroom floor of an apartment in the...

How It Ended: New and Collected Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * How It Ended: New and Collected Stories. By Jay McInerney. Apr. 2009. 352p. Knopf, $24.95 (9780307268051). General Fiction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] McInerney's name is most associated with his splashy first novel, Bright...

Dante's Numbers.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Dante's Numbers. By David Hewson. Mar. 2009.400p. Delacorte, $24 (9780385341486). Crime Fiction. It was to have been the triumphant swan song for a revered Italian film director--the premiere in Rome of his long-awaited movie...

In the Courts of the Sun.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... In the Courts of the Sun. By Brian D'Amato. Mar. 2009. 672p. Dutton, $28.95 (9780525950516). Fantasy. According to the ancient Maya, December 21, 2012, could be the day the world ends. In this ambitious novel, a modern-day...

Look Again.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Look Again. By Lisa Scottoline. Apr. 2009. 352p. St. Martin's, $26.95 (9780312380724). Crime Fiction. Ellen Gleeson was balancing life as a single mother and a feature reporter as well as could be expected. She had taken on single...

The Perfect Poison.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Perfect Poison. By Amanda Quick. Apr. 2009. 352p. Putnam, $24.95 (9780399155802). Crime Fiction. If Lucinda Bromley doesn't discover who stole her fern, she could end up being charged with murder. Lucinda frequently used her...

True Detectives.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... True Detectives. By Jonathan Kellerman. Mar. 2009. 384p. Ballantine, $27 (9780345495143). Crime Fiction. Instead of the usual Delaware/Sturgis investigative duo, Kellerman returns to two relatively new crime solvers, stepbrothers...

A Quiet Flame.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * A Quiet Flame. By Philip Kerr. Mar. 2009.400p. Putnam/Marian Wood, $26.95 (9780399155307). Crime Fiction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The fifth Bernard Gunther novel finds the former German PI and reluctant SS member on a boat...

Road Dogs.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Road Dogs. By Elmore Leonard. May 2009. 272p. Morrow, $26.99 (9780061733147). Crime Fiction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's homecoming for a handful of Leonard's most entertaining characters. When last seen, all-world bank...

How We Decide.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... How We Decide. By Jonah Lehrer. Feb. 2009. 288p. Houghton, $25 (9780618620111). 153.8. Various arenas such as athletics, finance, or combat illustrate Lehrer's popular presentation of the neurobiology of decision making. Noting...

The Last Witch of Langenburg: Murder in a German Village.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Last Witch of Langenburg: Murder in a German Village. By Thomas Robisheaux. Feb. 2009. 384p. illus. Norton, $26.95 (9780393065510). 133.43094346. By 1672, Count Heinrich Friedrich of Langenburg had restored order and...

Brush Cat: On Trees, the Wood Economy, and the Most Dangerous Job in America.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Brush Cat: On Trees, the Wood Economy, and the Most Dangerous Job in America. By Jack McEnany. Mar. 2009. 240p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (9780312368913). 331.7. Although the logging industry is a lightning rod for green concerns,...

Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World. By Amy Seidl. Mar. 2009. 192p. Beacon, $24.95 (9780807085844). 363.738. Ecologist Seidl blends a well-researched environmental study with observations of...

First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army. By Peter Eichstaedt. Feb. 2009. 320p. illus. Lawrence Hill, $24.95 (9781556527999). 303.6. With a high literacy rate and AIDS seemingly under...

The Future of Liberalism.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Future of Liberalism. By Alan Wolfe. Feb. 2009. 352p. Knopf, $25.95 (9780307266774). 320.51. In Return to Greatness (2005), political-science scholar Wolfe criticized his fellow liberals for losing their vision for the U.S.,...

The Manley Arts.(February Funk)(Column)
February 1, 2009... It's time for my annual depression column. T. S. Eliot was wrong. February is the cruelest month. In most of the country, it is cold, bleak, and damp. The novelty of a winter wonderland ended when the local Wal-Mart finally took down its...

How the World Makes Love: What the World Taught a Jilted Groom about Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... How the World Makes Love: What the World Taught a Jilted Groom about Love. By Franz Wisner. Mar. 2009. 288p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (9780312340834). 306.7309. Here's another provocatively tided book from the author of the...

Midnight on the Line: The Secret Life of the U.S.-Mexican Border.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Midnight on the Line: The Secret Life of the U.S.-Mexican Border. By Tim Gaynor. Mar. 2009. 304p. illus. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $25.95 (9780312366711). 364.1. Gaynor is a Reuters reporter, living in Phoenix and specializing in...

Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution. By Richard Beeman. Mar. 2009.496p. Random, $28 (9781400065707). 342.7302. A biographer of Patrick Henry (1974), historian Beeman takes up what the Virginia patriot...

A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebels, Reactionaries, and the Making of American Freedom.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebels, Reactionaries, and the Making of American Freedom. By Jedediah Purdy. Mar. 2009. 304p. Knopf, $23.95 (9781400044474). 320.97301. Purdy is perhaps best known for For Common Things (1999), in which he...

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education. By Craig Mullaney. Feb. 2009. 386p. Penguin, $28.95 (9781594202025). 355. Young Captain Mullaney's admirable, literate autobiography, that of a veteran of combat in Afghanistan, adds...

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University. By Kevin Roose. Mar. 2009. 280p. Grand Central, $24.99 (9780446178426). 378.755. Brown University student Roose didn't think of himself as being...

The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness. By Noah St. John. Feb. 2009. 224p. Collins Business, paper, $19.99 (9780061715747). 650.1. St. John, author and entrepreneur, offers a blueprint for readers...

Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. By Julia Angwin. Mar. 2009. 384p. Random, $27 (9781400066940). 338.7. MySpace, the most popular social-networking site on the Internet, was not created...

The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution. By Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending. Feb. 2009. 256p. illus. Basic, $27 (9780465002214). 599.93. Cochran and Harpending dispute the late Stephen Jay...

Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe through the Islamic World.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe through the Islamic World. By John Freely. Feb. 2009. 320p. illus. Knopf, $27.95 (9780307265340). 509. A historian of science, Freely chronicles the transmission of scientific ideas...

Prairie Spring: A Journey into the Heart of a Season.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Prairie Spring: A Journey into the Heart of a Season. By Pete Dunne. Mar. 2009. 192p. illus. Houghton, $22 (9780618822201). 508.315. Dunne, birder extraordinaire and author of numerous books (including Tales of a Low Rent Birder,...

Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World. By Tom Zoellner. Mar. 2009. 352p. Viking, $26.95 (9780670020645). 546. In an element low on the periodic table, Zoellner discovers the focus for events at the top of the...

The Young Charles Darwin.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Young Charles Darwin. By Keith Thomson. Feb. 2009. 288p. illus. Yale, $28 (9780300136081). 576.8. If you feel the cause swamped the man in Desmond and Moore's Darwin's Sacred Cause (2009), turn to Thomson. There's no...

Child Care Today: Getting It Right for Everyone.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Child Care Today: Getting It Right for Everyone. By Penelope Leach. 2009. 352p. Knopf, $24.95 (9781400042562). 649. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Leach, author of the wildly popular Your Baby and Child, which has sold more than two...

The Body Broken: A Memoir.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Body Broken: A Memoir. By Lynne Greenberg. Mar. 2009. 240p. Random, $25 (9781400067428). 616. Greenberg's account of her efforts to be cured of chronic neck pain ought to inspire chronic-pain sufferers not to give up. Out of...

Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness. By Alva Noe. Feb. 2009.240p. Hill & Wang, $25 (9780809074655). 612.8. The notion that consciousness is confined to the brain,...

A Rose by Any Name.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... A Rose by Any Name. By Douglas Brenner and Stephen Scanniello. Feb. 2009. 320p. illus. Algonquin, $19.95 (9781565125186). 635.9. Enjoying some "Gourmet Popcorn" and "Barbra Streisand" alongside one's "Chrysler Imperial" does not...

One Hit Wonderland.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... One Hit Wonderland. By Tony Hawks. Feb. 2009. 324p. illus. IPG/Ebury, paper, $14.95 (9780091882105). 782.42166092. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The author of Round Ireland with a Fridge (2000), Playing the Moldovans at Tennis...

Under Their Thumb: How a Nice Boy from Brooklyn Got Mixed Up with the Rolling Stones.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Under Their Thumb: How a Nice Boy from Brooklyn Got Mixed Up with the Rolling Stones. By Bill German. Feb. 2009. 368p. illus. Villard, $25 (9781400066223). 782.42166092. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] German realized a rock...

A Pint of Plain: How the Irish Pub Lost Its Magic but Conquered the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... A Pint of Plain: How the Irish Pub Lost Its Magic but Conquered the World. By Bill Barich. Mar. 2009. 240p. illus. Walker, $25 (9780802717016). 647.95. Shhhhhh... Don't tell, but this is really a book about globalization, not...

'wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich into a Meal-and a Meal into a Sandwich.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... 'wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich into a Meal-and a Meal into a Sandwich. By Tom Colicchio and Sisha Ortuzar. Mar. 2009. 208p. illus. Clarkson Potter, $27.50 (9780609610510). 641.8. Colicchio, a well-known chef and mega-well-known head...

Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited. By Molly Haskell. Feb. 2009. 256p. illus. Yale, $24 (9780300117523). 791.43. Hasn't everything worth saying about Gone with the Wind been said? Maybe, but how about another book,...

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven. By Susan Jane Gilman. Mar. 2009. 306p. Grand Central, $23.99 (9780446578929). 915.104. Gilman's standout travel memoir follows the author and her friend Claire as they embark on a backpacking...

Ka-Ching!(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Ka-Ching! By Denise Duhamel. Feb. 2009. 96p. Univ. of Pittsburgh, paper, $14.95 (9780822960218). 811. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sound of a slot machine paying off entitles the reliably sharp and entertaining Duhamel s new...

1789: The Threshold of the Modern Age.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... 1789: The Threshold of the Modern Age. By David Andress. Mar. 2009. 456p. Farrar, $27 (9780374100131). 909,7. Author of The Terror (2006), a popular history about the most radical phase of the French Revolution, Andress is more...

1848: Year of Revolution.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... 1848: Year of Revolution. By Mike Rapport. Feb. 2009.496p. Basic, $29.95 (9780465014361). 940.284. In this account of a turbulent year in which most European thrones were shaken or toppled, Rapport smoothly blends drama of battles...

The Antelope's Strategy: Living in Rwanda after the Genocide.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Antelope's Strategy: Living in Rwanda after the Genocide. By Jean Hatzfeld. Mar. 2009. 242p. Farrar, $25 (9780374271039). 967.57104. International journalist Hatzfeld follows up Machete Season (2005), an account of the Hutu...

At the Edge of Ireland: Seasons on the Beara Peninsula.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... At the Edge of Ireland: Seasons on the Beara Peninsula. By David Yeadon. Feb. 2009.416p. illus. HarperCollins, $27.95 (9780061151262). 941.9. Travel writer Yeadon's current conceit is living for a year in a locale off the tourist...

The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal. By Julie Greene. Feb. 2009. 456p. Penguin, $30 (9781594202018). 972.87. Like preceding chronicles of the construction of the Panama Canal (Matthew Parker's Panama...

Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image. By Michael Casey. Apr. 2009. 384p.Vintage, paper, $15.95 (9780307279309). 980.03. On March 5, 1960, photographer Alberto Korda attended a state funeral in Havana for the victims of an...

A Comrade Lost and Found.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... A Comrade Lost and Found. By Jan Wong. Feb. 2009. 336p. Houghton, $24 (9780151013425). 951.156. In the 1970s, Wong, a Canadian student with idealized views of Communist China, got the opportunity to study at Beijing University....

Halliburton's Army: The Long, Strange Tale of a Private, Profitable, and Out of Control Texas Oil Company.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Halliburton's Army: The Long, Strange Tale of a Private, Profitable, and Out of Control Texas Oil Company. By Pratap Chatterjee. Feb. 2009. 296p. Nation, $26.95 (9781568583921). 956.7044 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As military...

Confessions of a Mullah Warrior.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Confessions of a Mullah Warrior. By Massed Farivar. Mar. 2009. 320p. Atlantic, $25 (9780871139825). 958.1. Farivar, an Afghan mujahideen before going to Harvard, here narrates the trajectory of his life. A child when the Soviets...

A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg. By John Guy. Mar. 2009.448p. illus. Houghton, $30 (9780618499151). 942.05. Renaissance historian Guy has penned a fascinating dual biography of Sir Thomas More and his beloved...

Last Rites.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... In these writings concerned with his thoughts and beliefs rather than his life per se, the great twentieth-century historian touches on two major themes of his interpretive (and imaginative) A Thread of Years (1997) and At the End of an Age...

Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years. By Carl Beauchamp. Feb. 2009. 512p. illus. Knopf, $35 (9781400040001). 973.9092. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The enduring images of Joseph P. Kennedy are that of a man overshadowed...

The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America. By William Kleinknecht. Feb. 2009. 352p. Nation, $26.95 (9781568584102). 973.927. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kleinknecht shares Will Bunch's...

Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed. By Kathy Marks. Feb. 2009. 352p. Free Press, $26.95 (9781416597445). 996.1. Marks probes the frisky...

My Hope for Peace.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... My Hope for Peace. By Jehan Sadat. Mar. 2009. 224p. Free Press, $25 (9781416592198). 956.05. Sadat, widow of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981, offers a passionate appeal for peace. A scholar, feminist,...

Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire. By Flora Fraser. Feb. 2009. 304p. Knopf, $28.95 (9780307265449). 944.05092. Scarlet women of Regency England (The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline, 1996) have inspired entertaining...

The Third Reich at War.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * The Third Reich at War. By Richard J. Evans. Mar. 2009. 800p. illus. Penguin, $40 (9781594202063). 940.53. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Evans is a professor of modern history at Cambridge University. This is the final volume in...

The Best Kept Secret: Single Black Fathers.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Best Kept Secret: Single Black Fathers. By Roberta L. Coles. Mar. 2009. 192p. Rowman & Littlefield, $34.95 (9780742564251). 306.874. Sociologist Coles challenges perceptions that too many black men run from the...

Bicycles: Love Poems.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Bicycles: Love Poems. By Nikki Giovanni. Feb. 2009. 128p. Morrow, $16.95 (9780061726453). 811. For four decades, poet, activist, and teacher Giovanni has been a polestar. Playful and profound, cutting-edge yet always looking back...

Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles. By Keith Black and Arnold Mann. Mar. 2009. 272p. Grand Central, $24.99 (9780446581097). 617.4. Black, chair of the neurosurgery department of Los Angeles'...

Cafe Society: The Wrong Place for the Right People.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Cafe Society: The Wrong Place for the Right People. By Barney Josephson and Terry Trilling-Josephson. Apr. 2009. 328p. illus. Univ. of Illinois, $29.95 (9780252034138). 792.7092. In 1938, months before the beginning of World War...

Freedom by Any Means: Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love, and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Freedom by Any Means: Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love, and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad. By Betty DeRamus. Feb. 2009.336p.Atria, $25 (9781416551102). 973.7. As with so many other aspects of American slavery,...

Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America. By Beryl Satter. Mar. 2009.512p. Holt/Metropolitan, $28 (9780805076769). 363.5. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Thirty years after her father's death, Satter...

Top 10 black nonfiction.(List)
February 1, 2009... The 10 best-reviewed African American nonfiction books between February 15, 2008, and January 1 & 15, 2009, cover half a millennium of history and an even larger span of achievement.--Ray Olson [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Beautiful...

Getting Ghost: Two Young Lives and the Struggle for the Soul of an American City.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Getting Ghost: Two Young Lives and the Struggle for the Soul of an American City. By Luke Bergmann. Feb. 2009. 336p. New Press, $27.95 (9781595581396). 364.3609774. Hoping to do research on community reintegration of youth who have...

I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts. By Larry Wilmore. Feb. 2009. 240p. Hyperion, $23.95 (9781401309558). 305.800973. Wilmore, the "senior black correspondent" with The Daily Show, who has made a career out of taking...

Read-alikes: Before Barack.(books about African Americans in public service)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Evan Thomas' "A Long Time Coming" For all his triumphant innovation and self-containment, President Barack Obama is part of a great tradition of reform and one of many forward-looking African Americans committed to public service. To place...

"A Long Time Coming": The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * "A Long Time Coming": The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama. By Evan Thomas and the staff of Newsweek. Feb. 2009. 256p. illus. PublicAffairs, $22.95 (9781586486075). 324.973. ...

Letters from Black America.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Letters from Black America. Ed. by Pamela Newkirk. Feb. 2009. 384p. Farrar, $26 (9780374101091). 305.896. The low literacy rates among African Americans during slavery and after emancipation has presented a challenge to collecting...

Mongrel Nation: The America Begotten by Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Mongrel Nation: The America Begotten by Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. By Clarence E. Walker. Feb. 2009. 122p. Univ. of Virginia, $22.95 (9780813927770). 306.84. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Thomas Jefferson's heroic stature...

Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb. By David Kushner. Feb. 2009. 256p. Walker, $25 (9780802716194). 305.896. The Levittown developments occupy a space in American...

Mrs. Dred Scott.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Mrs. Dred Scott. By Lea VanderVelde. Mar. 2009.496p. illus. Oxford, $34.95 (9780195366563). 937.7. Researching Harriet Scott (1821?-76), wife of the litigant in the infamous 1857 Supreme Court decision that declared blacks were not...

Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception across the Color Line.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception across the Color Line. By Martha A. Sandweiss. Feb. 2009. 320p. Penguin, $27.95 (9781594202001). 305.896. During America's Gilded Age, Clarence King was a famous geologist,...

Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays. By Eula Biss. Feb. 2009. 224p. Graywolf, paper, $15 (9781555975180). 305. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Biss calls our attention to things so intrinsic to our lives they have become...

Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... * Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington. By Robert J. Norrell. Feb. 2009. 420p. illus. Harvard/Belknap, $35 (9780674032118). 370.92. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute and author...

The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom. By Steven Hahn. Mar. 2009. 272p. Harvard, $21.95 (9780674032965). 306.3. Hahn, a University of Pennsylvania history professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize--winning A Nation under Our...

Sojourner Truth's America.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Sojourner Truth's America. By Margaret Washington. Apr. 2008.480p. Univ. of Illinois, $34.95 (9780252034190). 306.3. At a time in nineteenth-century America when the Progressive movement birthed exceptional speakers expounding on...

Use Trouble.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Use Trouble. By Michael S. Harper. Apr. 2009. 264p. Univ. of Illinois, $60 (9780252033506); paper, $24.95 (9780252075988). 811. Harper--the author of 16 books, recipient of numerous awards, and coeditor of the essential The...

What Obama Means ... for Our Culture, Our Politics, and Our Future.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... What Obama Means... for Our Culture, Our Politics, and Our Future. By Jabari Asim. Feb. 2009. 240p. Morrow, $21.99 (9780061711336). 305. The wade-into-deep-waters cultural critic who delivered The N Word (2007) now performs a...

Writing the Future of Black America: Literature of the Hip-Hop Generation.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... Writing the Future of Black America: Literature of the Hip-Hop Generation. By Daniel Grassian. Mar. 2009. 208p. Univ. of South Carolina, $29.95 (9781570037818). 810.9. In a generation gap writ large in music and literature, the...