Booklist articles from March 2009

Booklist archives from March 2009

About Face.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... About Face. By Donna Leon. Apr. 2009. 288p. Atlantic, $24 (9780802118967) Crime Fiction. In his eighteenth case, Leon's Venetian commissario Guido Brunetti once again puts human feeling before the need to close cases. And, as...

The Angel's Game.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Angel's Game. By Carlos Ruiz Zafon. June 2009. 470p. Doubleday, $24.95 (9780385528702). Crime Fiction Zafon's international best-seller, The Shadow of the Wind (2004), a book-steeped fantasia set in post-World War II Barcelona,...

The Birthing House.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Birthing House. By Christopher Ransom. Aug. 2009. 320p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (9780312385842) Horror. Conrad Harrison takes a wrong turn out of Chicago and winds up buying an old Victorian house in a small Wisconsin town-just...

In the Kitchen.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * In the Kitchen. By Monica Ali. June 2009.448p. Scribner, $26 (9781416571681) General Fiction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gabriel Lightfoot has a lot on his plate. As executive chef at London's luxurious Imperial Hotel, he must...

Borderline.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Borderline. By Nevada Berr. Apr. 2009.416p. Putnam, $25.95 (9780399155697) Crime Fiction. Unable to shake the despondency and self-doubt that settled on her after her horrific experiences at Isle Royale (Winter Study, 2008), Anna...

Corsair.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Corsair. By Clive Cuseler and Jack Du Brul. Mar. 2009.448p. Putnam, $27.95 (9780399155390) Crime Fiction. In the sixth entry set onboard the Oregon (and the third co-written with Du Brul), Juan Cabrillo, the one-legged "chairman"...

Home Safe.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Home Safe. By Elizabeth Berg. Apr. 2009. 272p. Random, $25 (9781400065110) General Fiction. Helen Ames is a popular and prolific writer living in Oak Park, Illinois, much like Elizabeth Berg. But Helen has lost her ability to...

Outcast: Star Wars; Fate of the Jedi.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Outcast: Star Wars; Fate of the Jedi. By Aaron Allston. Mar. 2009. 320p. Del Rey, $27 (9780345509062) SF/Fantasy. Jacen Solo is dead, but the damage caused by his time as a Sith can still be felt, and suspicion of the Jedi runs...

Shanghai Girls.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Shanghai Girls. By Lisa See. June 2009. 336p. Random, $25 (9781400067114) General Fiction. Today they would be called fashion models. But in early-twentieth-century China, sisters Pearl and May were known quaintly as "beautiful...

The Language of Bees.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * The Language of Bees. By Laurie R. King. Apr. 2009. 433p. Bantam, $25 (9780553804546) Crime Fiction. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Intricate clockworks, wheels within wheels, a kaleidoscope of patterns that periodically locks into...

Pygmy.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Pygmy. By Chuck Palahniuk. May 2009. 240p. Doubleday, $24.95 (9780385526340). General Fiction [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a time of justifiable concern about terrorism, Palahniuk has written a hilarious novel about an unlikely...

Trouble.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Trouble. By Kate Christensen. June 2009. 320p. Doubleday, $24.95 (9780385527309) General Fiction. At the start, this feels like a stylishly sexy, midlife-upheaval novel featuring upscale New Yorkers--a spa treatment for the mind....

Turn Coat.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Turn Coat. By Jim Butcher. Apr. 2009.432p. Roc, $25.95 (9780451462565). SF/Fantasy. Butcher's series star, wizard detective Harry Dresden, has been facing ever more varied and dangerous trials. Once just Chicago's only wizard PI,...

The Wedding Girl.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Wedding Girl. By Madeleine Wickham. June 2009. 336p. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $24.95 (9780312383435). General Fiction Best known for the Shopaholic series (Confessions of a Shopaholic, 2001) written under her pseudonym,...

The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons in Love, Death, and Happiness.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons in Love, Death, and Happiness. By Mark Rowlands. Apr. 2009. 256p. Pegasus, $25 (9781605980331). 156. "The wolf... is the clearing in the human soul. The wolf uncovers what is hidden." A...

The Philosophers' Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Philosophers' Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding. By Robert Zaretsky and John T. Scott. Mar. 2009. 264p. illus. Yale, $27.50 (9780300121933). 192. In a remarkable salvage operation, Zaretsky and...

Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory. By Stacy Horn. Mar. 2009. 288p. Ecco, $24.95 (9780061116858). 133. This is a fond look at...

The Hindus: An Alternative History.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Hindus: An Alternative History. By Wendy Doniger. Mar. 2009. 688p. illus. Penguin, $35 (9781594202056). 294.5. Note that Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of Religions at the University of Chicago and...

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing. By Kyria Abrahams. Mar. 2009. 352p. Touchstone, $25 (9781416556848). 289.9. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Given that Abrahams is now a stand-up comic and...

A child of the depression.(The Manley Arts)(Books about the Great Depression )(Personal account)
March 1, 2009... My father was A child of the Great Depression. He was born in 1917 and died in 1998. His formative years as a young adult were shaped by hard times. I was reminded of this many times during my own childhood. He taught me how to get every last...

Inquisition: The Reign of Fear.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Inquisition: The Reign of Fear. By Toby Green. Mar. 2009.464p. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $29.95 (9780312537241). 272. For this historical exploration of Catholicism's Inquisition, Green focuses on Spain, Portugal, and their...

Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller. By Kim E. Nielsen. May 2009. 328p. illus. Beacon, $27.95 (9780807050460). 371.91. Nearly a footnote to history, Anne...

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World. By Jacqueline Novogratz. Mar. 2009. 272p. Rodale, $24.95 (9781594869150). 339.4. Acumen Fund founder Novogratz blends two narratives in this...

Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire. By Gerard Koeppel. Mar. 2009.464p. Da Capo, $27.95 (9780306818271). 386. A historian of an aqueduct crucial to the nineteenth-century growth of New York City (Water...

The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. By Donalyn Miller. Mar. 2009. 224p. Jossey-Bass, $22.95 (9780470372272). 372.4. Because she couldn't find a book that showed her how to use her own love of books to...

The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court. By Cliff Sloan and David McKean. Mar. 2009. 304p. Public Affairs, $26.95 (9781586484262). 347.73. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 1800, when...

A Reenchanted World: The Quest for a New Kinship with Nature.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * A Reenchanted World: The Quest for a New Kinship with Nature. By James William Gibson. Apr. 2009. 320p. Holt/Metropolitan, $26 (9780805078350). 304.2. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If today's environmental catastrophes are traceable...

Clintonomics: How Bill Clinton Reengineered the Reagan Revolution.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Clintonomics: How Bill Clinton Reengineered the Reagan Revolution. By Jack Godwin. Mar. 2009. 304p. AMACOM, $27.95 (9780814413982). 330.973. Political scientist Godwin presents Bill Clinton's ideas on power, strategy, and...

Old World Daughter, New World Mother: An Education in Love and Freedom.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Old World Daughter, Now World Mother: An Education in Love and Freedom. By Maria Laurino. Apr. 2009.224p. Norton, $23.95 (9780393057287). 306.874. From Chaucer's ribald "Wife of Bath" and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own to...

Alibaba: The Inside Story behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World's Biggest Online Marketplace.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Alibaba: The Inside Story behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World's Biggest Online Marketplace. By Liu Shiying and Martha Avery. Mar. 2009. 240p. Collins Business, $25.99 (9780061672194). 381. Jack Ma had the odds stacked...

Dear Success Seeker: Wisdom from Outstanding Women.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Dear Success Seeker: Wisdom from Outstanding Women. By Michele R. Wright. May 2009. 256p. Atria, $23 (1-4165-7079-9). 650.1082. Written in the form of personal letters to other women, this book offers inspiration and words of...

Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy. By Isadore Sharp. Apr. 2009. 300p. Portfolio, $29.95 (9781591842446). 647.94092. This memoir by the founder of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is the story of his life and work....

The New Coffee House Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On with Your Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The New Coffee House Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On with Your Life. By Bill Schultheis. Apr. 2009.208p. Portfolio, $22.95 (9781591842453). 332.6. This little how-to-invest book, which elegantly...

Rule Your Freakin' Retirement: How to Retire Rich by Actively Managing Your Assets.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Rule Your Freakin' Retirement: How to Retire Rich by Actively Managing Your Assets. By Michael Parness. Mar. 2009. 288p. St. Martin's, $25.95 (9780312375751). 332.024. The advice given here prompts every American, wealthy or not,...

I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime ... and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime... and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech. By Ralph Keyes. Apr. 2009. 320p. illus. St. Martin's, $25.95 (9780312340056). 422. In his excellent introduction to...

Bear-ology: Fascinating Bear Facts, Tales & Trivia.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Bear-ology: Fascinating Bear Facts. Tales & Trivia. By Sylvia Dolson. Mar. 2009. 192p. illus. PixyJack, paper, $18 (9780977372454). 599.78. Naturalist-writer Dolson is the executive director of the Get Bear Smart Society, a group...

Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science. By Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Eric Scigliano. Apr. 2009. 304p. illus. Smithsonian, $26.99 (9780061558412). 551.46. ...

Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. By Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong. Mar. 2009. 296p. Harmony, $25 (9780307396396). 569.9. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Johanson's fourth book trading on the Beatles-derived name he gave...

Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity. By Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor. Mar. 2009. 256p. illus. Harvard/Belknap, $25.95 (9780674032934). 510.947. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How...

The Must-Have Mom Manual: Two Mothers, Two Perspectives, One Book That Tells You Everything You Need to Know.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Must-Have Mum Manual: Two Mothers, Two Perspectives. One Book That Tells You Everything You Need to Know. By Stephanie Triplett and Sara Ellington. Apr. 2009. 544p. Ballantine, $17 (9780345499875). 649. Hosts of the Sirius radio show...

A Child's Journey out of Autism: One Family's Story of Living in Hope and Finding a Cure.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... A Child's Journey out of Autism: One Family's Story of Living in Hope and Finding a Cure. By Leeann Whiffen. Mar. 2009. 336p. illus. Sourcebooks, paper, $14.99 (9781402218385). 618.92. Bookended by photos of Clay Whiffen--one as a...

Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt. By Leslie F. Miller. Apr. 2009. 336p. illus. Simon & Schuster, $25 (9781416588733). 641.8. American cooks, especially...

You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe. By Christopher Potter. Mar. 2009. 304p. illus. HarperCollins, $26.99 (9780061137860). 523.109. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sixteen hundred years after Augustine pondered the...

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. By Michael Ruhlman. Apr. 2009. 336p. Scribner, $26 (9781416566113). 641.5. Ruhlman, who explained the basic ingredients, tools, and cookbooks essential to the home chef...

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious-and Perplexing-City.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious-and Perplexing-City. By David Lebovitz. May 2009. 304p. illus. Broadway, $24.95 (9780767928885). 641. American baker Lebovitz, alumnus of California's famed...

It's Not Necessarily Not the Truth: Dreaming Bigger Than the Town You're From.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... It's Not Necessarily Not the Truth: Dreaming Digger Than the Town You're From. By Jaime Pressly. Mar. 2009. 256p. Morrow, $25.99 (9780061454141). 791.45028092. Actors' autobiographies usually trace their evolution as professional...

The Big One: An Island, an Obsession, and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Big One: An Island, an Obsession, and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish. By David Kinney. Apr. 2009. 272p. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (9780802118905). 799.1. The Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby is a five-week...

The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Los Vegas.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Los Vegas. By Alan Jay Zaremba. Mar. 2009. 242p. Univ. of Nebraska/Bison, paper, $19.95 (9780803213838). 796.323. The seasonal madness of the NCAA basketball tournament...

Sonny Liston: His Life, Strife and the Phantom Punch.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Sonny Liston: His Life, Strife and the Phantom Punch. By Rob Steen. Apr. 2009. 256p. illus. Trafalgar/JR, paper, $16.95 (9781906217815). 796.83. Sonny Liston was one of the most controversial boxers of all time, and while this...

Color: Essays on Race, Family, and History.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Color: Essays on Race, Family, and History. By Kenneth A. McClane. Mar. 2009. 120p. Univ. of Notre Dame, paper, $19 (9780268035150). 814. Acclaimed poet and literary scholar McClane follows Walls (1991), observations on life as an...

The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys. By Lilian Pizzichini. Apr. 2009. 384p. illus. Norton, $29.95 (9780393058031). 823. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The pain expressed in Rhys' sexually frank, devastating fiction is so authentic,...

A Human Eye: Essays on Art in Society, 1996-2008.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... A Human Eye: Essays on Art in Society, 1996-2008. By Adrienne Rich. Apr. 2009. 208p. Norton, $24.95 (9780393070064). 814. Humanitarian poet Rich is a live-wire essayist, taking measure here of what she describes as a "permeable...

Yellowstone Autumn: A Season of Discovery in a Wondrous Land.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Yellowstone Autumn: A Season of Discovery in a Wondrous Land. By W. D. Wetherell. Mar. 2009. 178p. Univ. of Nebraska, $24.95 (9780803211308). 813. Approaching his fifty-fifth birthday, Wetherell felt he needed to take stock of his...

Evidence.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Evidence. By Mary Oliver. Apr. 2009. 88p. Beacon, $23 (9780807068984). 811. Oliver has been publishing poetry collections since 1963, and her latest is gloriously alive, inquisitive, and welcoming. A prolific and cherished poet,...

Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme. By Tracy Daugherty. Mar. 2009. 592p. illus. St. Martin's, $29.95 (9780312378684). 813. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mold-breaking writer Donald Barthelme (1931-89) could have been a...

Sonata Mulattica: A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Sonata Mulattica: A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play. By Rita Dove. Apr. 2009. 224p. Norton, $24.95 (9780393070088). 811. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If only the violinist hadn't flirted with the pretty wench and enraged...

The Glass House.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Glass House. By Daniel Mark Epstein. Mar. 2009. 88p. Louisiana State, $50 (9780807134108); paper, $17.95 (9780807134115). 811. Epstein has been the biographer of Aimee Semple McPherson, Nat King Cole, Edna St. Vincent Millay,...

In Search of Small Gods.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... In Search of Small Gods. By Jim Harrison. Apr. 2009. 120p. Copper Canyon, $22 (9781556593000). 811. Harrison's welcoming poems are musings, prayers, vignettes, and fragments of a self-deprecating self-portrait-in-progress. Hoping...

The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue. By Michael Tougias end Ceeey Sherman. Mar. 2009. 224p. illus. Scribner, $25 (9781416567219). 910.9163. In a 1952 nor'easter, the distress of two...

First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: How a Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third World Adventure Changed My Life.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: How a Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third World Adventure Changed My Life. By Eve Brown-Waite. Apr. 2009. 320p. Broadway, $23.95 (9780767929356). 918.66. College graduate Eve is looking for...

China High: A Memoir.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... China High: A Memoir. By ZZ. Apr. 2009. 368p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (9780312531089). 951.05. Born in Shanghai but raised in America, ZZ, an adventurous young lawyer, moves to Beijing to make his fortune. After a stint at a Chinese...

Spring Travel Guides.(Adult)(list of travel books)(List)
March 1, 2009... Forget those stock-market woes and worries, and tell yourself, what the heck, I deserve to spend some bucks on getting away for a while. For librarians wishing to help such intrepid travelers with their plans, here is our latest roundup of...

Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival. By Clara Kramer and Stephen Glantz. May 2009. 352p. Ecco, $25.99 (9780061728600). 940.53. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For 18 months, a young teen hid with 17 other Polish Jews in a...

Escape from Bellevue: (A Dive Bar Odyssey).(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Escape from Bellevue: (A Dive Bar Odyssey). By Christopher John Campion. Apr. 2009. 288p. Gotham, $26 (9781592404261). 974.7. Campion, lead singer of the (almost) nationally famous indie band Knockout Drops, is no polished writer....

Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946. By Deborah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt. Apr. 2009. 608p. illus. Norton, $35 (9780393062298). 940.53. Most Holocaust studies understandably focus on the plight of the victims in...

Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America. By Chesa Boudin. Apr. 2009. 224p. Scribner, $25 (9781416559115). 980.04092. "My four parents had always decried the labor abuses perpetuated around the world." Four? Yes. When Boudin's...

The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World, 1776-1914.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World, 1776-1914. By Gavin Weightman. Apr. 2009. 432p.Atlantic Monthly, $27.50 (9780802118998). 909.81. The author of some fine business histories, including Signor...

Khomeini's Ghost: The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of Militant Islam.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Khomeini's Ghost: The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of Militant Islam. By Con Coughlin. Mar. 2009. 384p. Ecco, $26.99 (9780061687143). 955. Probably no single person embodies the American image of Islamic Fundamentalism better...

A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy. By Thomas Buergenthal. Apr. 2009. 240p. illus. Little, Brown, $24.99 (9780316043403). 940.53. You think you've heard it all: the roundups, deportations, transports,...

Open Wound: The Long View of Race in America.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Open Wound: The Long View of Race in America. By William McKee Evans. Mar. 2009. 328p. Univ. of Illinois, $34.95 (9780252034275). 973. Historian Evans critiques race in America, as reflected in our economic and political systems,...

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister. By Nonna Bannister and others. Apr. 2009. 299p. Tyndale, $19.99 (9781414325460). 940.53. How this story came to be written is a big part of the drama. The only...

The Weight of a Mustard Seed: An Iraqi General's Moral Journey during the Time of Saddam.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Weight of a Mustard Seed: An Iraqi General's Moral Journey during the Time of Saddam. By Wendell Steavenson. Mar. 2009. 304p. HarperCollins, $24.95 (9780061721786). 956.704. Steavenson, a journalist who has lived in and...

Vicksburg, 1863.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Vicksburg, 1863. By Winston Groom. Apr. 2009.496p. Knopf, $30 (9780307264251). 973.7. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Among the most visited of Civil War battlefields, Vicksburg here receives a narrative equal to its significance and...

An Accomplished Woman.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... An Accomplished Woman. By Jude Morgan. Apr. 2009. 416p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (9780312539665). Lydia Templeton is a rare woman who eschews convention and declares herself content, even joyful in her unmarried state. After all, she...

Best Intentions.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Best Intentions. By Emily Listfield. May 2009. 304p. Atria, $25 (1-4165-7671-1). Seeds of doubt find fertile soil in Listfield's latest mordant examination of marital discord and betrayal among a group of longtime friends whose...

Castle.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Castle. By J. Robert Lennon. Apr. 2009. 224p. Graywolf, $22 (9781555975227). Returning to his hometown in upstate New York, Eric Loesch buys a large tract of forested land and the rundown house upon it. Emotionally constricted and...

The Cradle.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Cradle. By Patrick Somerville. Mar. 2009. 208p. Little, Brown, $23.99 (9780316036122). Matt enjoys the missions his pregnant wife, Marissa, sends him on until she remembers the cradle. It's a family heirloom, and she must have...

The Dakota Cipher: An Ethan Gage Adventure.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Dakota Cipher: An Ethan Gage Adventure. By William Dietrich. Apr. 2009. 368p. Harper, $25.95 (9780061568008). Ethan Gage, the expatriate American who starred in The Rosetta Key (2007) and Napoleon's Pyramids (2008), returns for...

The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund. By Jill Kargman. Apr. 2009. 272p. Dutton, $25.95 (9780525950981). Kargman, the author of Momzillas (2007), returns with another skewering look at life in Manhattan's elite classes, this time focusing on the...

Love or Something Like It.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... * Love or Something Like It. By Deirdre Shaw. Apr. 2009. 256p. Random, $25 (9781400067701). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Shaw's piercingly insightful first novel depicts a woman in her thirties redefining her life. Lacey Brennan and...

Adventure is back!(At Leisure)(adventure stories)
March 1, 2009... There's nothing like spending a year reading, thinking, and writing about fiction genres to give one some perspective on the way genres continue to evolve. Adventure is one genre that has recently experienced a rebirth. Classic adventure...

The Family Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Family Man. By Elinor Lipman. May 2009. 320p. Houghton, $25 (9780618644667). After 25 years, Henry Archer has been reunited with his ex-stepdaughter, Thalia, and he couldn't be happier. In fact, he is tickled pink. He gets to...

Far Bright Star.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Far Bright Star. By Robert Olmstead. May 2009.224p.Algonquin, $23.95 (9781565125926). This relatively short novel packs a potent emotional wallop. It takes place in the Mexican desert during the 1916 buildup to World War I. The...

The Faraway War.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Faraway War. By Enrique Clio. Apr. 2009.288p. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne, $24.95 (9780312379582). The Cuban struggle to gain independence from Spain was prolonged, brutal, and attracted a variety of foreigners to the cause....