Booklist articles from January 2008

Booklist archives from January 2008

Top of the list: editors' choice, 2007.(Bibliography)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Adult Fiction Falling Man, by Don DeLillo (Scribner) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Youth Nonfiction The Wall: Growing Up behind the Iron Curtain, written and illustrated by Peter Sis (Farrar) [ILLUSTRATION...

Adult Books.(Editors' choice, 2007)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Adult Books editors have selected the following titles as representative of the year's outstanding books for public-library collections. Our scope has been intentionally broad, and we have attempted to find books that combine literary,...

Adult books for young adults.(Editors' choice, 2007)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Selected by the Books for Youth editors, the following titles constitute the year's best personal reading for teenagers among adult books published in 2007. More on each book's content and suggested audience can be found in the full-length...

Books for Youth.(Editors' choice, 2007)(Bibliography)
January 1, 2008... Committed to providing a broad selection of outstanding books that mixes popular appeal with literary excellence, the Books for Youth editorial staff has chosen the 54 titles below as best-of-the-year fiction, nonfiction, and picture books. ...

Video & DVD.(Media)
January 1, 2008... Video & DVD Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film. 2006. 4hr. PBS, DVD, $54.95 (0-79369288-1). Acclaimed filmmaker Ric Burns traces Warhol's path from sickly child to art-world superstar. Filled with vintage footage, photos, and commentary,...

Audio for adults.(Media)(Audiobook review)
January 1, 2008... The Dead Fathers Club. By Matt Haig. Read by Andrew Dennis. 2007. 7hr. HighBridge, CD, $32.95 (9781598870879). The ghost of 11-year-old Philip Bobel's father appears, telling his son to exact revenge on Uncle Allen, who supposedly is...

Audio for youth.(Media)(Children's review)(Audiobook review)
January 1, 2008... Airborn. By Kenneth Oppel. Read by David Kelly. 2006. 10hr. Full Cast, CD, $57 (9781933322544). Gr. 6-8. Numerous talented performers assist Kelly in re-creating this remarkable fantasy adventure featuring 15-year-old Matt, a cabin boy on...

Reference sources.(Editor's choice, 2007)(Bibliography)
January 1, 2008... Titles were reviewed in RBB from February 2007 through January 2008. All the titles are intended for a general readership at the high-school level and up. For our pick of the crop for students, see "Twenty Best Bets for Student Researchers" in...

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. By Julie Andrews. Apr. 2008. 352p. Hyperion, $26.95 (9780786865659). 792.028. Famous singer and actress Andrews details her turbulent and often lonely childhood, unusual upbringing, and the difficult...

Shakespeare's Wife.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Shakespeare's Wife. By Germaine Greer. Apr. 2008. 416p. HarperCollins, $26.95 (9780061537158). 822.33. In 1979, noted feminist Greet wrote The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work, which helped save several women...

A Step from Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... A Step from Death. By Larry Weiwode. Mar. 2008. 288p. Counterpoint, $24 (9781582433738). 813. Guided by the now legendary William Maxwell, Woiwode reached the literary big time with his early novels, including Beyond the Bedroom Wall...

Change of Heart.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Change of Heart. By Jodi Picoult. Mar. 2008. 460p.Atria, $26.95 (0-7434-9674-4). General Fiction. Picoult engineers high-impact plots involving murder, car accidents, child abuse, medical ethics, and a school shooting not simply to sweep...

The Plague of Doves.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * The Plague of Doves. By Louise Erdrich. May 2008. 320p. HarperCollins, $25.95 (9780060515126). General Fiction. Every so often something shatters like ice and we are in the river of our existence. We are...

Charley's Web.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Charley's Web. By Joy Fielding. Mar. 2008.432p.Atria, $24.95 (0-7432-9601 -X). Crime Fiction. Fresh off the solid thriller Heartstopper (2007), prolific, perennially best-selling Fielding delivers another suspenseful tale. Feisty Charley...

Compulsion.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Compulsion. By Jonathan Kellerman. Apr. 2008. 368p. Ballantine, $29.95 (9780345465276). Crime Fiction. L.A. psychologist Alex Delaware's insights into human behavior once again prove invaluable to his friend, Lieutenant Mild Sturgis. In...

Dead Time.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Dead Time. By Stephen White. Mar. 2008. 368p. Dutton, $368 (9780525950066). Crime Fiction. White constructs a deeply layered, character-driven meditation on "dead times," as in times of mourning, times of personal paralysis in the face of...

The Girl with No Shadow.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Girl with No Shadow. By Joanne Harris. Apr. 2008. 444p. Morrow, $24.95 (9780061431623). General Fiction. Harris, a Brit whose childhood was filled with folklore and food, brought her background to vibrant life in her luminous 1999...

Plum Lucky.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Plum Lucky. By Janet Evanovich. Jan. 2008. 176p. St. Martin's, $17.95 (9780312377632). Crime Fiction. Evanovich has been producing these short and sweet bonbons in the Stephanie Plum Trenton universe around holidays: Christmas (Visions of...

Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis. By George Makari. Jan. 2008. 580p. HarperCollins, $29.95 (9780061346613). 150.95. With psychoanalysis under intellectual siege in recent decades, Makari retrieves its original radicalism...

The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang. By Binka Le Breton. Feb. 2008. 256p. Doubleday, $21.95 (9780385522182). 271. Environmental activist and social justice advocate Sister Dorothy Stang made...

Reasons to Believe: One Man's Journey among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Reasons to Believe: One Man's Journey among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind. By John Marks. Feb. 2008. 384p. Ecco, $26.95 (9780060832766). 289.9. In 2003, Marks, then a 60 Minutes producer, interviewed Texans Don and Lillie...

You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith without Fanaticism.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith without Fanaticism. By Brad Hirschfield. Jan. 2008. 288p. Harmony, $24.95 (0-307-38297-4). 201. Rabbi Hirschfield posits that this book recounts his journey from the moment he...

The Age of Empires.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Age of Empires. Ed. by Robert Aldrich. 2007. 320p. illus. Thames & Hudson, $50 (9780500251362). 325.32. A historical overview of imperialism from the sixteenth to the late-twentieth century, this volume dedicates chapters to 10 European...

Out of the Storm: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... * Out of the Storm: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther. By Derek Wilson. Jan. 2008.416p. illus. St. Martin's, $29.95 (0-312-37588-3). 284.109. In this sequel to Charlemagne:The Great Adventure (2006),Wilson scrutinizes the man who...

The Manley Arts.(New Jersey)
January 1, 2008... Mention the words New Jersey, and people automatically talk about parking lots, hazardous waste dumps, abandoned factories, junkyards, decayed cities, Jimmy Hoffa's corpse, and the Soprano family. What annoys me the most is the absurd comment...

American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work. By Nick Taylor. Feb. 2008. 640p. Bantam, $27 (9780553802351). 331.13. When Franklin Roosevelt assumed the presidency in March 1933, the rate of unemployment...

The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California. By Richard Rayner. Jan. 2008. 224p. Norton/Atlas, $23.95 (9780393059137). 385.092. Taking satirical glee in the unapologetic rapacity of the Associates, the moniker for the quartet...

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. By Maude Barlow. Feb. 2008. 208p. New Press, $24.95 (9781595581860). 333.91. Activist Barlow has written a follow-up to Blue Gold (2002) that addresses...

Confessions of a Political Hitman.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Confessions of a Political Hitman. By Stephen Marks. Jan. 2008. 416p. Sourcebooks, $23.95 (9781402208546). 324.7092. The public professes to hate it, advocates of civil dialogue deplore it, yet no political campaign unilaterally dispenses...

The Fighting 69th: One Remarkable National Guard Unit's Journey from Ground Zero to Baghdad.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Fighting 69th: One Remarkable National Guard Unit's Journey from Ground Zero to Baghdad. By Sean Michael Flynn. Jan. 2008. 295p.Viking, $25.95 (9780670018437). 356. The Sixty-ninth Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard has a...

Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... * Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival. By Margaret B. Jones. Feb. 2008. 304p. Riverhead, $24.95 (1-59448-977-7). 364. Jones was only five years old when she was taken away from her family after a teacher noticed signs of...

Hell Hath No Fury: True Stories of Women at War from Antiquity to Iraq.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Hell Hath No Fury: True Stories of Women at War from Antiquity to Iraq. By Rosalind Miles and Robin Cross. Feb. 2008. 400p. Three Rivers, paper, $14.95 (0-307-34637-4). 355.008. Contrary to popular belief, women have always actively...

The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting. By John L. Plaster. Feb. 2008. 704p. illus. Paladin, $89.95 (9781581606324). 356. Plaster's sprawling, copiously illustrated history of sniping as a military strategy pays special attention to the...

Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal. By Randall Kennedy. Jan. 2008. 240p. Pantheon, $22 (0-375-42543-8). 323.1196. Having had his own race loyalty attacked on occasion, Kennedy, a black Harvard law professor, examines the controversial...

A Short History of the American Stomach.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... A Short History of the American Stomach. By Frederick Kaufman. Feb. 2008. 224p. Harcourt, $23 (9780151011940). 394. 1. Americans' penchant to binge and purge, to regularly visit the extremes of eating and dieting, has a long and noble...

They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons. By Jacob Heilbrunn. 2007. 320p. Doubleday, $26 (0-385-51181-7). 320.5. As the Iraq War has made neoconservative something of an epithet among political commentators, the publishing...

Dare to Prepare: How to Win before You Begin.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Dare to Prepare: How to Win before You Begin. By Ronald M. Shapiro and Gregory Jordan. Jan. 2008. 304p. Crown Business, $26 (0-307-38326-1). 658.4. Why an entire book devoted to the art of preparation? Is it because in this time-starved,...

The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear: Valuable Lessons, True Stories, and Tips for Using What You've Got (a Brain!/) to Make Your Worklife Work for You.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear: Valuable Lessons, True Stories, and Tips for Using What You've Got (a Brain!) to Make Your Worklife Work for You. By Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio. Jan. 2008. 240p. Broadway, $23.95...

Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day--and What You Can Do about It.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day--and What You Can Do about It. By Bob Sullivan. 2007. 368p. Ballantine, paper, $14.95 (0-34549613-2). 351.3. What is the difference between your cell-phone company's quoted monthly...

Treasure-House of the Language: The Living OED.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Treasure-House of the Language: The Living OED. By Charlotte Brewer. Jan. 2008. 336p. illus. Yale, $35 (9780300124293). 423. The "treasure-house of the language," the Oxford English Dictionary, has inspired its own treasury of books, of...

Group Theory in the Bedroom and Other Mathematical Diversions.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Group Theory in the Bedroom and Other Mathematical Diversions. By Brian Hayes. Apr. 2008. 264p. Hill & Wang, $25 (0-8090-5219-9). 500. These essays, collected from Hayes' writings for American Scientist, are quite accessible to a...

The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World out of Balance and the Cutting Edge Science That Promises Hope.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World out of Balance and the Cutting Edge Science That Promises Hope. By Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Feb. 2008. 352p. Touchstone, $25 (0-7432-7775-9). 616.97. ...

When Science Goes Wrong: Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... When Science Goes Wrong: Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery. By Simon LeVay. 2007. 304p. Plume, paper, $15 (9780452289321). 500. LeVay, a neuroscientist and author of popular-science books, relates a dozen stories involving...

Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby. By Lynda Fassa. Jan. 2008. 256p. NAL, paper, $14 (0-451-22289-X). 649. Fassa, founder of an organic baby-clothing line, has written a friendly and accessible...

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. By Michael Pollan. Jan. 2008. 176p. Penguin, $21.95 (9781594201455). 613. Expanding on a theme from his popular The Omnivore's Dilemma (2007), Pollan mounts an assault on a reigning theory of the...

Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World. By Wendy Johnson. Feb. 2008. 464p. illus. Bantam, paper, $25 (9780553378030). 635. Perhaps a more appropriate subtitle would have been Zen and the Art of...

Taming the Truffle: The History, Lore, and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Taming the Truffle: The History, Lore, and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom. By Ian R. Hall and others. Feb. 2008. 282p. illus. Timber, $34.95 (9780881928600). 635. Anyone who's ever tasted a fresh truffle appreciates firsthand the...

Swallow the Ocean.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... * Swallow the Ocean. By Laura M. Flynn. Feb. 2008. 288p. Counterpoint, $23 (1-58243-385-2). 616.890092. What is a child to do when the parent who's the center of her universe becomes desperately ill? That's the wrenching reality Flynn...

Chicago Cooks: 25 Years of Chicago Culinary History and Great Recipes from Les games d'Escoffier.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Chicago Cooks: 25 Years of Chicago Culinary History and Great Recipes from Les games d'Escoffier. Ed. by Carol Mighton Haddix. 2007. 208p. illus. Surrey, $30 (1-57284-090-0). 641.5. Women have always played a central role in Chicago's vast...

Dandy in the Underworld.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Dandy in the Underworld. By Sebastian Harsley. Mar. 2008. 352p. HarperCollins/Perennial, paper, $13.95 (9780061461255). 759.2. London artist Horsley's debut memoir is evidence that truth can be stranger--and infinitely more unsettling--than...

Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey. By Perri Knize. Jan. 2008. 384p. Scribner, $25 (0-7432-7638-8). 786.2. Having grown up with classical music, Knize returned to the piano when in her forties. Finding no piano she liked in Montana, she went...

Superman vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Superman vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon. By Jake Rossen. Feb. 2008. 336p. illus. Chicago Review, paper, $16.95 (1-55652-731-4). 791.43. Superman started out in the...

200 Crochet Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... 200 Crochet Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets. By Jan Eaton. 2007. 160p. illus. St. Martin's, $27.95 (0-312-36187-4). 746.43. A familiar name in needleworking takes her latest bow with a book joining 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws,...

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... * Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. By Neil Shubin. Jan. 2008. 240p. illus. Pantheon, $24 (0-375-42447-4). 611. The antievolution crowd is always asking where the missing links in the descent...

Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... * Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood. By Mark Harris. Feb. 2008. 473p. Penguin, $27.95 (9781594201523). 791.43. Film critics and historians can turn out some of the deadliest prose on the planet, so...

Beading with Charms: Beautiful Jewelry, Simple Techniques.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Beading with Charms: Beautiful Jewelry, Simple Techniques. By Katherine Duncan Aimone. 2007. 128p. illus. Sterling/Lark, $24.95 (1-60059-019-5). 745.594. You had better like heavyweight bracelets, necklaces, and earrings if you intend to...

Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia. By Susan Meller and Don Tuttle. 2007. 205p. illus. Abrams, $50 (0-8109-9381-3). 667. The lure and lore of Russia infuses Meller's homage to its printed cloth over the 100...

Textiles Today: A Global Survey of Trends and Traditions.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Textiles Today: A Global Survey of Trends and Traditions. By Chloe Colchester. 2007. 208p. illus. Thames & Hudson, $50 (9780500513811). 677.009. The author discovers fibers with amazing qualities--Morphotext, for instance, which mimics the...

High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed. By Michael Kodas. Feb. 2008. 368p. Hyperion, $24.95 (9781401302733). 796.52. Kodas, a veteran newspaper journalist and avid climber, knows his subject. He has been on Mt. Everest, and he...

The Mad Fisherman: Kick Some Bass with America's Wildest TV Host.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Mad Fisherman: Kick Some Bass with America's Wildest TV Host. By Charlie Moore and Charles Salzberg. Apr. 2008.240p. illus. St. Martin's, $22.95 (0-31237472-0). 799.17. Moore hosts two popular fishing shows, Charlie Moore Outdoors and...

500 Tiles: An Inspiring Collection of International Work.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... * 500 Tiles: An Inspiring Collection of International Work. Jan. 2008. 420p. illus. Sterling/Lark, paper, $24.95 (1-57990-714-8). 738.6. The humble clay tile is one of humankind's most ancient, enduring, and versatile inventions. From the...

Alfred Kazin.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Alfred Kazin. By Richard Cook. Jan. 2008. 464p.Yale, $35 (9780300115055). 809. A smart, solitary boy who found sanctuary in books, Kazin emerged from the cave of Jewish immigrant poverty in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood primed to add...

The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again. By Sven Birkerts. Jan. 2008. 192p. Graywolf, paper, $12 (9781555974893). 818. Time in memoir? Most analyses of this maligned literary form revolve around the fact-versus-fiction debate, but...

The Next Rodeo: New and Selected Essays.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Next Rodeo: New and Selected Essays. By William Kittredge. 2007. 256p. Graywolf, paper, $15 (9781555974794). 818. All but the title piece in this collection of Kittredge's essays have appeared previously, several of them in his earlier...

Please Excuse My Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Please Excuse My Daughter. By Julie Klam. Mar. 2008. 272p. Riverhead, $22.95 (1-59448980-7). 813. Fortysomething Klam's debut memoir is alternately funny, touching, and tiresome. A quintessential Jewish American princess raised in a...

Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir. By David Rieff. Jan. 2008. 177p. Simon & Schuster, $21 (0-74329946-9). 818. Rieff has described himself as a "critic of everything." A bold policy analyst whose essays and articles appear in...

The Modern Element: Essays on Contemporary Poetry.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Modern Element: Essays on Contemporary Poetry. By Adam Kirsch. Jan. 2008. 288p. Norton, $24.95 (9780393062717). 811. The skill of these essays, most written for the New Republic, is breathtaking. Kitsch puts his finger on exactly what...

Selected Poems, 1945-2005.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Selected Poems, 1945-2005. By Robert Creeley. Ed. by Benjamin Friedlander. Jan. 2008. 358p. illus. Univ. of California, $55 (9780520251953); paper, $21.95 (9780520251960). 811. A true iconoclast, Creeley was one of the last defending...

Valentines.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Valentines. By Ted Kooser. Feb. 2008.60p. illus. Univ. of Nebraska, $14.95 (9780803217706). 811. Even the best things come to an end, and a better end than this little book to Kooser's 21-year practice of sending a Valentine's Day poem to,...

Near Death on the High Seas: True Stories of Disaster and Survival.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Near Death on the High Seas: True Stories of Disaster and Survival. Ed. by Cecil Kuhne. Mar. 2008. 448p. Vintage, paper, $14.95 (9780307279347). 910.4. The first in a promising series of nonfiction adventure anthologies deals with...

The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World. By Andy Merrifield. Feb. 2008. 256p. Walker, $19.95 (0-8027-1593-I). 914.4. Donkeys are misunderstood. At least, that's the impression left by Merrifield's gentle meditation on...

The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin. By Cioma Schonhaus. Tr. by Alan Bance. Jan. 2008. illus. Da Capo, $23 (9780786720583). 940.53. Schonhaus was born in Berlin in 1922, the only child of immigrant Russian Jews...

A Gift from Brittany: A Memoir of Love and Loss in the French Countryside.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... A Gift from Brittany: A Memoir of Love and Loss in the French Countryside. By Marjorie Price. Apr. 2008. 256p. Gotham, $24 (9781592403509). 944. As a young woman in the 1960s, Price lived a life that was the stuff of dreams. Leaving behind...

Israel at Sixty: An Oral History of a Nation Reborn.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Israel at Sixty: An Oral History of a Nation Reborn. By Hart Strober and Gerald S. Strober. Feb. 2008. 240p. illus. Wiley, $30 (9780470053140). 956.940. Over the past 60 years, Israel has facilitated the "ingathering of the exiles" from...

Lee and Grant.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Lee and Grant. By William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton. 2007. 360p. illus. D. Giles, $65 (9781904832362). 973.70922. As this lavishly illustrated volume reflects, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant became such icons of the Civil War...

One Soldier's War.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... One Soldier's War. By Arkady Babchenko. Tr. by Nick Allen. Feb. 2008.416p. Grove/Atlantic, $25 (0-8021 1860-7). 947.085. With the U.S. mired in Iraq, it is useful to be reminded that another powerful nation continues to wage a confusing,...

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn-the Last Great Battle of the American West.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn-the Last Great Battle of the American West. By James Donovan. Mar. 2008. 544p. Little, Brown, $26.99 (0-31615578-0). 970.00497. Despite the passage of 131 years, our national interest in...

My Life: A Spoken Autobiography.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... * My Life: A Spoken Autobiography. By Fidel Castro and Ignacio Ramonet. Tr. by Andrew Hurley. Jan. 2008. 736p. Scribner, $40 (1-4165-5328-2). 972.910. Spanish journalist Ramonet sat down with Castro over the course of many hours, engaging...

The Age of Shiva.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Age of Shiva, By Manil Suri. Feb. 2008, 448p. Norton, $24.95 (9780393065695). Suri follows his exceptional debut, The Death of Vishnu (2001), with an unflinchingly honest portrait of Meera, a vibrant young Indian woman who in 1955...

The Book of Other People.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Book of Other People. Ed. by Zadie Smith. Feb. 2008. 284p. Penguin, paper, $15 (0-14303818-4). Novelist Smith asked the contributors to this diverse collection to "make somebody up." What writer could resist the invitation to create a...

The Chocolate Lovers' Club.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Chocolate Lovers' Club. By Carole Matthews. Feb. 2008. 320p. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $23.95 (0-312-37666-9). Lucy Lombard is a chocolate addict. When her life is in shambles--which it often seems to be--she heads down to the local...

Civil & Strange.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Civil & Strange. By Clair Ni Aonghusa. Mar. 2008. 320p. Houghton, $24 (0-618-82936-9). A failed marriage prompts Ellen, a Dublin teacher, to relocate to Ballindoon, a tranquil yet insular rural town where she spent her summers as a child....

The Cure for Modern Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Cure for Modern Life. By Lisa Tucker. Mar. 2008. 321 p. Atria, $24.95 (0-7434-9279-X). This is Tucker's fourth book in as many years, and with each new title, she shows herself to be a natural-born storyteller who is developing an...

David Golder: The Ball; Snow in Autumn; The Courilof Affair.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair. By Irene Nemirovsky. Tr. by Sandra Smith. Jan. 2008. 340p. Knopf/Everyman, $25 (0-307-26708-3). The Nemirovsky restoration continues. Living in exile in France after the Russian...