Booklist articles from July 2007

Booklist archives from July 2007

American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy. By C. David Heymann. July 2007. 624p. Atria, $27.95 (0-7434-9738-4). 973.922092. The first dual biography of JFK's children is a far cry from the glitzy, superficial star bios that...

How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live like Everyone Else.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live like Everyone Else. By Michael Gates Gill. Sept. 2007. 266p. Gotham, $23 (9781592402861). 647.95092. Yale graduate, prosperous ad exec: Gill has it all. Then he turns 60 and...

The Bible: A Biography.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Bible: A Biography. By Karen Armstrong. Oct. 2007. 288p. Atlantic Monthly, $21.95 (9780871139696). 220. For the Books That Changed the World series of brief "biographies" of momentous books, Armstrong accepted the arguably most...

Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency. By Nigel Hamilton. July 2007. 728p. Public Affairs, $30 (1-58648-516-4). 973.929. In the wake of the almost simultaneous publication of two biographies of Hillary Clinton (Gerth and Van Natta's Her...

Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton. By Jeff Gerth and Dave Van Natta. 2007.448p. illus. Little, Brown, $29.99 (0-316-01742-6). 328.73092. Since New York Times reporters Gerth and Van Natta's book on Hillary Clinton...

The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World. By Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein. Nov. 2007. 320p. Bloomsbury, $25.95 (1-59691-417-3). 333.95. Believing that "people will protect what they...

Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business. By Robert B. Reich. Sept. 2007. 288p. Knopf, $25 (9780307265616). 320.97301. Reich, professor of public policy and former secretary of labor, argues that as the U.S. has grown stronger as a...

The Diana Chronicles.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * The Diana Chronicles. By Tina Brown. 2007. 560p. Doubleday, $27.50 (97803855 1 7089). 941.085. Is this a total dis job? Does the former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker do a number on the late Princess of Wales, whom she counted...

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. By David Halberstam. Sept. 2007. 736p. Hyperion, $35 (1-4013-0052-9). 951.904. Halberstam's shockingly sudden death in an April 2007 automobile accident was an irreplaceable loss of a great...

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. By A. J. Jacobs. Oct. 2007. 337p. illus. Simon & Schuster, $25 (0-7432-9147-6). 220.22. Jacobs does projects, not just books. For The Know-It-All...

Cheating at Canasta.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Cheating at Canasta. By William Trevor. Oct. 2007, 232p. Viking, $24,95 (9780670018376). General Fiction. This is Trevor's twenty-sixth book of fiction, and he has long been recognized as a master of the short story. What requires...

The Almost Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Almost Moon. By Alice Sebold. Oct. 2007. 304p. Little, Brown, $24.99 (0-316-67746-9). General Fiction. In her highly anticipated second novel, after the groundbreaking The Lovely Bones (2002), Sebold strikes two notes: grim and grimmer....

Blonde Faith.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Blonde Faith. By Walter Mosley. Oct. 2007. 320p. Little, Brown, $25.99 (0-316-73459-4). Crime Fiction. Mosley, a smart and daring writer, has tried his hand at everything from political essays to erotica, but his most anticipated books are...

The Careful Use of Compliments.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Careful Use of Compliments. By Alexander McCall Smith. Aug. 2007. 249p. Pantheon, $21.95 (0-375-42301 -X). Crime Fiction. The fourth installment in McCall Smith's mystery series featuring moral philosopher Isabel Dalhousie finds the...

The Cleft.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Cleft. By Boris Lessing. Aug. 2007. 272p. HarperCollins, $25.95 (9780060834869). General Fiction. Outspoken, prolific, and influential, Lessing has cycled through an array of literary genres in her quest to tell stories that protest...

Dark of the Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Dark of the Moon. By John Sandford. Sept. 2007. 384p. Putnam, $26.95 (0-399-15477-9). Crime Fiction. Headed to rural Bluestem to assist local law enforcement with the seemingly motiveless murder of an elderly couple, Minnesota Bureau of...

The 47th Samurai.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * The 47th Samurai. By Stephen Hunter. Sept. 2007. 384p. Simon & Schuster, $26 (0-7432-3809-5). Crime Fiction. This is the novel Hunter's fans have been waiting for, the book that brings together his father-and-son protagonists: Earl...

Acts of Nature.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Acts of Nature. By Jonathon King. Aug. 2007. 272p. Dutton, $24.95 (9780525950080). Crime Fiction. The latest entry in the Max Freeman series (King won an Edgar with the debut of cop-turned-recluse Freeman in 2002's Blue Eye of Midnight)...

Down River.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Down River. By John Hart. Oct. 2007. 336p. St. Martin's/Minotaur/Thomas Dunne, $24.95 (0-312-35931-4). Crime Fiction. King of Lies (2006), Hart's debut, was gripping stylishly written, but it pales and in comparison to this complex,...

Exit Ghost.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Exit Ghost. By Philip Roth. Oct. 2007. 304p. Houghton, $26 (9780618915477). General Fiction. The latest novel to feature famous writer Nathan Zuckerman finds Roth's close alter-ego in the "winter" of his life: at age 71, suffering the...

The Elves of Cintra.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Elves of Cintra. By Terry Brooks. Aug. 2007. 400p. Del Rey, $26.95 (0-345-48411-8). SF/Fantasy. In a sequel as riveting as its postapocalyptic predecessor, Brooks meticulously draws out the threads running through Armageddon's Children...

Pandora's Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Pandora's Daughter. By Iris Johansen. Oct. 2007. 384p. St. Martin's, $25.95 (0-312-36804-6). Crime Fiction. Dr. Megan Blair has been living a lie. She heard voices up until her mother died in an accident. Raised by her mother's...

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Street of a Thousand Blossoms. By Gall Tsukiyama. Sept. 2007. 432p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (0-312-27482-3). General Fiction. Tsukiyama is a mesmerizing storyteller who focuses on family, tradition, and the solace of nature and art. Of...

Trespass.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Trespass. By Valerie Martin. Sept. 2007. 304p. Doubleday/Nan A. Talese, $25 (9780385515450). General Fiction. Winner of the Orange Prize for her 2003 novel Property, Martin is a coolly dispassionate storyteller with a narrative voice that...

The Worst Thing I've Done.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Worst Thing I've Done. By Ursula Hegi. Oct. 2007. 272p. Touchstone, $25 (1-4165-4375-9). General Fiction. Annie is addicted to talk radio, especially the dueling doctors who dispense psychological advice to the desperate. It makes her...

A Free Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * A Free Life. By Ha Jin. Nov. 2007.672p. Pantheon, $26 (9780375424656). General Fiction. A poet as well as a fiction writer, Ha Jin writes of sacrifice, isolation, and valor with uncommon perception. In his earlier novels, including...

Now and Then.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Now and Then. By Robert B. Parker. Oct. 2007. 304p. Putnam, $25.95 (0-399-15441-8). Crime Fiction. In his Spenser novels, when he's writing at the top of his game (which he is here), Parker is like a brilliant musician. From the opening...

Upcoming in upfront nonfiction.(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The titles listed below are scheduled for fall or early winter 2007 publication. Look for part 2 of our Upcoming in Upfront, which will feature fiction titles, in the August issue. The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World. By Alan...

What Good Is Journalism?(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... What Good Is Journalism? Ed. by George Kennedy and Daryl Moen. 2007. Univ. of Missouri, $37.50 (9780826217301); paper, $19.95 (9780826217318). 070.4. In this compilation of essays, journalism professors look beyond recent surveys to talk...

The Optimistic Jew: A Positive Vision for the Jewish People in the 21st Century.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Optimistic Jew: A Positive Vision for the Jewish People in the 21st Century. By Tsvi Bisk. Aug. 2007. 268p. Maxanna, paper, $19.95 (9781934515723). 296.6. This interesting book is divided into two parts. Part 1, called "Where We Are...

And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman beside the Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman beside the Man. By Connie Schultz, July 2007. 288p. Random, $24.95 (1-4000-6573-9). 324.9771. In 2005, when her husband, Congressman Sherrod Brown, announced his intention to run for the U.S....

Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor. By Angola J. Davis. 2007. 272p. Oxford, $29.95 (0-19-517736-3). 345.73. Davis, an experienced public defender, provides an excellent critique of prosecutorial power in the American...

Armed and Dangerous: The Hunt for One of America's Most Wanted Criminals.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Armed and Dangerous: The Hunt for One of America's Most Wanted Criminals. By William Queen and Douglas Century. July 2007. 224p. Random, $22.95 (1-4000-6577-1). 364.1. ATF agent Queen seemed the only one likely to apprehend pot-grower and...

Becoming a Woman: A Biography of Christine Jorgensen.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Becoming a Woman: A Biography of Christine Jorgensen. By Richard F. Doctor. Sept. 2007. 355p. Haworth, $49.95 (1-56023-666-3); paper, $19.95 (1-56023-667-1). 306.76. The most famous transsexual before the term came into use, Christine...

Tom Sawyer and the art of good management.(The Manley Arts)
July 1, 2007... Yesterday I bought some items at my favorite bookstore and was rewarded with a coupon good for 30 percent off any business book in the store. Today I returned to buy a new copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain. When I presented...

Desiring Arabs.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Desiring Arabs. By Joseph Massad. 2007.448p. Univ. of Chicago, $35 (0-226-50958-3). 306.70917. With this scholarly, intellectual history, Columbia professor Massad critiques how Arabs have narrated their sexual desires in scholarship and...

Enter the Past Tense.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Enter the Past Tense. By Roland W. Haas. July 2007. 320p. Potomac, $24.95 (9781597970860). 327.12730092. When he was in college in 1971, Haas was recruited by the CIA. After extensive field training, he embarked on a life of deception,...

Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism. Ed. by Mike Davis and Daniel Bertrand Monk. 2007.352p. New Press, $26.95 (9781595580764). 320.51. As neoliberal economic policies are increasingly applied to city planning, urban spaces...

Feingold: A New Democratic Party.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Feingold: A New Democratic Party. By Sanford D, Horwitt. Aug. 2007. Simon & Schuster, $26 (1-4165-3492-X). 328.73. Feingold's name is likely most often recalled in tandem with Senator John McCain's as part of campaign-finance-reform law....

If I Am Missing or Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... If I Am Missing or Dead. By Janine Latus. 2007. 320p. Simon & Schuster, $25 (0-7432-9653-2). 362.82. Having suffered through a childhood of rebellion against an abusive father and escaped to an uncertain early adulthood, Latus maintained...

Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement. Ed. by Jonathan Isham and Sissel Waage. July 2007. 200p. island, paper, $18.95 (9781597261562). 363.738. It is one thing for citizens to recognize a problem; it is...

Inside the Red Mansion: On the Trail of China's Most Wanted Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Inside the Red Mansion: On the Trail of China's Most Wanted Man. By Oliver August. 2007. 288p. Houghton, $26 (0-618-71498-7). 387.544092. Assigned to the London Times' Beijing bureau in 1998, August was initially confounded by how to...

Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces, 1990-2005.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces, 1990-2005. By Luc Sante. Aug. 2007. 300p. Yeti, $17.95 (9781891241536). 306.0973. Creative social critic Sante has electrifying things to say about intriguing subjects, ranging from New Year's to Walker...

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. By Tim Weiner. Aug. 2007. 704p. Doubleday, $27.95 (9780385514453). 327.1273009. National-security journalist Weiner supports an American clandestine espionage service but flays the one that has been...

Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life. By Ted Gup. 2007. 304p. Doubleday, $24.95 (0-385-51475-1). 323.44. Investigative reporter Gup examines the increasing obsession with secrecy in the U.S., its causes,...

No Speed Limit: The Highs and Lows of Meth.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... No Speed Limit: The Highs and Lows of Meth. By Frank Owen. July 2007. 256p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (0-312-35616-1). 362.29. As Owen notes early and often, methamphetamine is merely the latest drug to threaten the very fabric of American...

The Notorious Ph.D.'s Guide to the Super Fly '70s.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Notorious Ph.D.'s Guide to the Super Fly '70s. By Todd Boyd. 2007. 202p. Broadway/Harlem Moon, paper, $12.95 (0-7679-2187-9). 305.896. Boyd's implied irreverence, reflected in his use of street slang, does not distract from the quality...

Once upon a Quinceanera.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Once upon a Quinceanera. By Julia Alvarez. Aug. 2007. 278p. Penguin, $23.95 (9780670038732). 395.2. Alvarez, a much-loved author--Saving the World (2006) is her most recent novel--offers an insightful look at the Latino tradition of the...

Parts per Million: The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Parts per Million: The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School. By Joy Horowitz. July 2007. 464p. Viking, $24.95 (9780670037988). 346.79403. At her thirtieth reunion, Horowitz was astonished to learn that so many of her former classmates...

Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul. By Karen Abbott. July 2007. 354p. Random, $25.95 (9781400065301). 306.7409773. Chicago, the saying goes, ain't ready for reform. It certainly wasn't in...

Doing Business in China: How to Profit in the World's Fastest Growing Market.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Doing Business in China: How to Profit in the World's Fastest Growing Market. By Ted Plafker. July 2007. 304p. Warner, $24.99 (0-446-57896-7). 658. Plafker, an 18-year veteran correspondent living in Beijing, offers advice on all aspects...

Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class. By Robert H. Frank. July 2007. 168p. illus. Univ. of California, $50 (9780520251885); paper, $19.95 (9780520252523). 305.5. Economist Frank argues that rising economic inequality...

What Made Jack Welch Jack Welch: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... What Made Jack Welch Jack Welch: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders. By Stephen H. Boom and Dave Conti. Aug. 2007. 288p. Crown Business, $24.95 (0-307-33720-0). 658.4. Baum is a leadership coach who works behind the scenes...

Lives of the Planets: A Natural History of the Solar System.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Lives of the Planets: A Natural History of the Solar System. By Richard Corfield. July 2007. 352p. illus. Basic, $30 (9780465014033). 523.2. Modulated for a general audience, Corfield's tour of the solar system rides on space missions...

The New Time Travelers: A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The New Time Travelers: A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics. By David Toomey. July 2007. 367p. illus. Norton, $25.95 (9780393060133). 530. 11. Kip Thorne's Black Holes and Time Warps (1994) remains the best general-audience book about...

The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them: Observing Eclipses, Bright Comets, Meteor Showers, and Other Celestial Wonders.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How to See Them: Observing Eclipses, Bright Comets, Meteor Showers, and Other Celestial Wonders. By Fred Schaaf. Aug. 2007. 288p. illus.Wiley, $19.95 (9780471696575). 520. This would make a perfect gift...

An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere. By Gabrielle Walker. Aug. 2007. 288p. Harcourt, $25 (9780151011247). 551.509. With global warming such a pressing topic, Walker's scientific history of the major...

What's Science Ever Done for Us?(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... What's Science Ever Done for Us? By Paul Halpern. July 2007. 272p.Wiley, paper, $14.95 (9780470114605). 500. Just in time for the release of the big-screen Simpsons movie, and in the tradition of numerous others in the Science of......

The Lost Fleet: A Yankee Whaler's Struggle against the Confederate Navy and Artic Disaster.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Lost Fleet: A Yankee Whaler's Struggle against the Confederate Navy and Artic Disaster. By Mark Songini. July 2007. 422p. illus. St. Martin's, $25.95 (0-312-28648-1). 639.2. Songini's book chronicles Thomas William Williams'...

Embryo Culture: Making Babies in the Twenty-First Century.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Embryo Culture: Making Babies in the Twenty-First Century. By Beth Kohl. Aug. 2007. 282p. Farrar/Sarah Crichton, $23 (0-374-14757-4). 618. 1. Until a few decades ago, making a baby was a highly intimate act involving two people. It's still...

Gone to the Crazies.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Gone to the Crazies. By Alison Weaver. 2007. 245p. illus. HarperCollins, $24.95 (0-06-1 18958-8). 616.86092. Weaver's uneven memoir recounts how a wealthy Manhattan upbringing led a pretty young girl to a life of substance abuse and...

The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever. By David M. Friedman. Sept. 2007. 352p. illus. Ecco, $26.95 (9780060528157). 629.13. A. Scott Bergs masterful biography Lindbergh (1998)...

Poisoned Nation: The Deadly Link between Pollution and Cluster Illnesses, Cancer, Asthma, and Autism.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Poisoned Nation: The Deadly Link between Pollution and Cluster Illnesses, Cancer, Asthma, and Autism. By Loretta Schwartz-Nobel. Aug. 2007. 256p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (0-312-32797-8). 615.9. Every microorganism and chemical that humans and...

The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink. By Robert D. Morris. July 2007. 320p. HarperCollins, $24.95 (0-06-073089-7). 614.4. As physician and outspoken public health expert Morris recounts, with crystal clarity, some of...

Seven Deadly Sins of Gardening: And the Vices and Virtues of Gardeners.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Seven Deadly Sins of Gardening: And the Vices and Virtues of Gardeners. By Toby Musgrave and Mike Calnan. Aug. 2007. 176p. illus. National Trust, $24.95 (1-905400-46-2). 635.09. What gardener hasn't lusted over his neighbor's luscious...

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone. Ed. by Jenni Ferrari-Adler. July 2007.288p. Riverhead, $22.95 (1-59448-947-5). 641.5. In this celebration of the meal for one, Ferrari-Adler connects...

Evocations of Place: The Photography of Edwin Smith.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Evocations of Place: The Photography of Edwin Smith. By Robert Elwall. 2007. 176p. illus. Merrell, $59.95 (1-85894-373-6). 779. This is an ardent work of revival. Elwall feels that Smith (1912-71) has been forgotten, and he marshals...

Arf Forum: Arf Puts the Strip in Comic Strips.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Arf Forum: Arf Puts the Strip in Comic Strips. Ed. by Craig Yoe. July 2007. 120p. illus. Fantagraphics, paper, $19.95 (9781560978329). 741.5. For his third exploration of "the unholy marriage of art and comics," cartoonist-designer Yoe...

Leave the Building Quickly.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Leave the Building Quickly. By Cynthia Kaplan. 2007. 224p. Morrow, $23.95 (0-06-054851-7). 791.092. What is more life-affirming than the ability to laugh at oneself?. In her second collection of true stories (after Why I'm Like This,...

Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television. By Lee Siegel. July 2007. 362p. Basic, paper, $14.95 (9780465078103). 791.45. Why are we so fascinated with television, and how does the medium manage to reflect or deflect American culture? New...

Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only; The Life of America's First Great Black Filmmaker.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only; The Life of America's First Great Black Filmmaker. By Patrick McGilligan. July 2007. 29.95p. illus. HarperCollins, $29.95 (0-06-073139-7). 791.43023. The author of George Cukor (1991) and AlfredHitchcock...

Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. By Douglas Wolk. July 2007. 352p. illus. Da Capo, $22.95 (0-306-81509-5). 741.5. Wolk has emerged as perhaps the nation's leading comics critic not just because he has been doing...

Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwod Mac. By Carol Ann Harris. July 2007. 400p. illus. Chicago Review, $24.95 (1-55652-660-1). 782.42166092. Fleetwood Mac abandoned its blues roots to pursue mainstream commercial success...

C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run across America.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... C. C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run across America. By Geoff Williams. July 2007.336p. Rodale, $25.95 (1-59486-319-9). 796.42. On March 4, 1928, 199 men set off from Los Angeles on foot. Their...

Charging the Net: A History of Blacks in Tennis from Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to the Williams Sisters.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Charging the Net: A History of Blacks in Tennis from Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to the Williams Sisters. By Cecil Harris and Larryette Kyle-DeBose. July 2007. 272p. Ivan R. Dee, $26.95 (1-56663-714-7). 796.342. Despite what many might...

Hurricane Season: A Coach, His Team, and Their Triumph in the Time of Katrina.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Hurricane Season: A Coach, His Team, and Their Triumph in the Time of Katrina. By Neal Thompson. July 2007. 320p. Free Press, $26 (1-4165-4070-9). 796.332. Press coverage of Katrina's devastation and the region's painful, halting recovery...

Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art. Ed. by Sebastian Peake and others. July 2007. 216p. illus. Dufour/Peter Owen, $84.95 (0-7206-1284-5). 709.2. Writer-artist Peake (1911-68) seems ever about to be vaulted into the front rank of...

Made to Be Broken: The 50 Greatest Records and Streaks in Sports.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Made to Be Broken: The 50 Greatest Records and Streaks in Sports. By Allen St. John. 2006. 160p. illus. Triumph, $29.95 (1-57243-857-6). 796. As Barry Bonds nears breaking Hank Aaron's career home-run record, this gloriously illustrated...

Salaam Stanley Matthews.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Salaam Stanley Matthews. By Subrata Dasgupta. Aug. 2007. 256p. Granta, paper, $22.95 (1-86207-812-2). 796.334. The cultural scars inflicted by colonialism have been so well chronicled that it comes as almost a surprise--and perhaps a...

Twelve Mighty Orphans.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Twelve Mighty Orphans. By Jim Dent. Sept. 2007. 304p. illus. Thomas Dunne, $24.95 (0-312-30872-8). 796.332. The Masonic Home, an orphanage outside Fort Worth, became a high-school football dynasty in Depression-era Texas. Despite having...

Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright into the Bard.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright into the Bard. By Jack Lynch. July 2007. 320p. illus. Walker, $24.95 (0-8027-1566-4). 822. Not long after Shakespeare's death, in 1616, the puritans closed...

Free Fire Zone.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Free Fire Zone. By Theresa Rebeck. Aug. 2007. 224p. Smith & Kraus, paper, $17.95 (1-57525-240-6). 812. Many playwrights aspire to big money in TV, while many TV writers covet the artistic satisfaction only the stage seems to afford. Rebeck...

Brother, I'm Dying.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... * Brother, I'm Dying. By Edwldge Danticat. Sept. 2007. 288p. Knopf, $23.95 (1-4000-4115-5). 813. In 2004, Danticat's uncle Joseph, a pastor in poor health at 81, fled Haiti after his church was burned, only to die under appalling...

I, California.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... I, California. By Stacey Grenrock Woods. July 2007. 256p. Scribner, $24 (0-7432-7491-1). 814.54. Readers in the same age bracket as 35-year-old Esquire sex columnist Grenrock Woods are most likely to enjoy this mildly amusing memoir about...