Nonfiction Reviews 02/09/2009
The American Future: A History Simon Schama . Ecco , $29.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-053923-8 Past performance may not guarantee future returns, but it's the best we have to go on, contends this lively meditation on American history. Looking back from the tumultuous 2008 election campaign, historian Schama (NBCC-award winner for Rough Crossings) ponders four themes in American history as they pl...
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 1/26/09 01/26/2009
This Week's Web: Israeli and Palestinian writers interviewed in Norweigian; an ancient mechanical artifact of Indiana Jones; Kiyosaki gets spiritual; and more confessions than you require. Plus: literary roundup with books on Ginsberg, Snyder, Richard Matheson, and refugee writers.
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Nonfiction Reviews 01/26/2009
Closing Time: A Memoir Joe Queenan . Viking , $26.95 (340p) ISBN 978-0-670-02063-8 Humorist and pop culture writer Queenan (Queenan Country) turns the mirror on himself in this somber and funny memoir about life with father in the projects of Philadelphia. Queenan closes the chapter on his life with a verbally and physically abusive alcoholic father.
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Nonfiction Reviews 01/12/2009
That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution Lars Schoultz . Univ. of North Carolina , $35 (768p) ISBN 978-0-8078-3260-8 In time for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, Schoultz, a University of North Carolina political science professor, offers an exhaustive study of the relationship between the U.
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Nonfiction Reviews 12/15/2008
The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty Peter Singer . Random , $22 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6710-7 Part plea, part manifesto, part handbook, this short and surprisingly compelling book sets out to answer two difficult questions: why people in affluent countries should donate money to fight global poverty and how much each should give.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 12/08/2008 12/08/2008
This week's Web: a lurid gallery of pulp illustration, a clever tribute to small town dead folk, a guided tour of New York's graffiti scene, a Chinese dolphin's long odds, a philosophical approach to being right all the time, and the uncollected works of fascinating and repulsive multimedia trailblazer Ana Mendieta. Plus: more Lincoln, more audio, and poetry from Hilda Raz.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 12/01/2008 12/01/2008
This week's Web: the manufacture and maintenance of American racism, the disappearing culture of California cetaceans, trance states in human learning and self-help, and the long rise of women in advertising (no, Peggy was not the first). Plus! An audio fiction bonanza: Dafoe and Woods read King, Weiner reads Dick, Stuart Masterson and Glass read together—and more.
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Nonfiction Reviews 12/01/2008
One Nation Under Dog: Adventures in the New World of Prozac-Popping Puppies, Dog-Park Politics, and Organic Pet Food Michael Schaffer . Holt , $24 (304p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8711-6 A Fast Food Nation for dog lovers, this astute and amusing investigative report offers a “journey into the $41-billion-a-year world of the modern American pet.
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Nonfiction Reviews 11/24/2008
Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life Judith Orloff, M.D. Harmony , $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-307-33818-1 Orloff (Second Sight) offers a superbly written series of psychological strategies for maximizing positive emotions and minimizing toxic ones. A practicing psychiatrist, the author straddles the worlds of mainstream medicine and alternative h...
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Nonfiction Reviews 11/17/2008
The Painter’s Chair: George Washington and the Making of American Art Hugh Howard . Bloomsbury Press , $26.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-59691-244-1 Patron of the arts is not the first association one makes with George Washington, but Howard elegantly makes the case that the founder of the nation also helped establish America’s art.
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Nonfiction Reviews 11/10/2008
Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds Olivia Gentile . Bloomsbury , $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59691-169-7 In this biography of bird enthusiast Phoebe Snetsinger, former journalist Gentile wonders whether there is a “line between dedication and obsession, and when does obsession cross the line into pathology?” Married, with four children, Phoebe was...
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Nonfiction Reviews 10/27/2008
Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America Julia Angwin . Random , $27 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6694-0 Angwin, an award-winning journalist for the Wall Street Journal, recounts the history of MySpace.com in this well-written, entertaining and drama-filled chronicle. From its founding by Chris DeWolfe to its surprising purchase for nearly $600 million by Rupert ...
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In Profile 10/27/2008
Barbara Dianne Savage Diversity Reigns in the Black Church In the clash between Sen. Barack Obama and his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barbara Dianne Savage sees the conflict between the African-American political experience and the so-called “black church” writ large. “One of the problems is that both Obama and Wright spoke as if there was such a thing as the black ch...
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Nonfiction Reviews 09/22/2008
The Numbers Game: A Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot . Gotham , $22 (192p) ISBN 978-1-592-40423-0 Americans are assaulted by numbers, whether it's the latest political poll or most recent clinical study on caffeine.
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Nonfiction Reviews 08/25/2008
Digging for Dirt: The Life and Death of ODB Jaime Lowe . Faber and Faber , $23 (240p) ISBN 978-0-86547-969-2 Ol’ Dirty Bastard was one of the founding members of hip-hop’s Wu-Tang Clan, “the heart and soul of the group” in its early years, although he had embarked on a solo career before he died of an accidental drug overdose.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 8/4/2008 08/04/2008
This week's Web: a schlub's moment in the sun, habits of the consumer class, a friendly owl, art iconoclast Jeff Koons, George Costanza channels Kirk Douglas, and a UK fantasy behemoth makes it to the U.S. Plus: When you're sick, you get sad, and you get high.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 7/14/2008 07/14/2008
This week: American dreams get analysis, archaeology shines a new light on the Dark Ages, a professional wrestler's murder-suicide, behind the scenes of the world's wine market, and a dazzling tour of historical Chinese art. And for the rockers: the Beatles in America and No Wave in New York.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 6/30/2008 06/30/2008
This week on the Web: death and what you can do about it, death and what a war zone reporter does about it, more speculative history from China enthusiast Gavin Menzies, an author's memoir of the tour supporting her last memoir, scientists examine the human-centric importance of all Earth's critters, and a classic of American photography turns fifty.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 6/9/2008 06/09/2008
This week on the Web: the voices of undocumented America; how gardens and math explain the world; an idiot girl, a pastor's daughter and two unlikely Hollywood stars reveal all (to varying degrees); family recipes for including, not deceiving, your loved ones; and two new novels from Harry "When Does He Sleep?" Turtledove. Plus: the new Patricia Cornwell and a roundup of children's titles.
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