About Netsurfer Books

Netsurfer Books is a bi-monthly e-zine offering short reviews of books and related items. We include listings based on recommendations from our staff and reviews from other individuals. Are we bribed to include any of these items? No. Do we receive a commission if you purchase an item through one of the links included here? Yes. Are we waiting to hear from you about what you'd like to see reviewed? Definitely.

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
by Edward R. Tufte, Bonnie Scranton (Illustrator), Dmitry Krasny
Graphics Press; ISBN: 0961392126

Edward Tufte is a living legend among students of statistics and design. It's difficult to explain, but we never think of Edward Tufte without thinking too of Joseph Campbell. Maybe it's the elegance of their quests; it might be how multi-layered they manage to make even a single one of their observations. Think for just a moment, for instance, of the depth in Tufte's description of Washington's Vietnam Veterans Memorial as macro/micro design. If you've been trapped by the graphing capabilities of your Office package, you'll be astonished by the poetry of Tufte's philosophy and practice in presenting graphical information. Utility and efficiency never looked so good or said so much.

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien, Chris Coffin (editor)
Houghton Mifflin Co (Trd); ISBN: 0395974682

Fantasy fans are all a-twitter about the imminent filming of all three books of the dark and shining Tolkien classic. We can't blame them; even our hard hearts flutter at the prospect. If you've never read the saga of Middle-earth, brace yourself. Without ever resorting to the cute or coy, Tolkien wove uniquely lyrical lore of elves and hobbits, sorcerers and dragons, ents and orcs, runes and rings. Other, more recent filmed trilogies might have been shortchanged, but here you have complexity of motivation, action, and character, cloaked in a quest that deserves to be called sweeping. These are books to keep and guard jealously, books that satisfy you from childhood to old age. If this trilogy isn't already on your shelves, now's the time to fill the gap.

BUSINESS

How to Invest in E-Commerce Stocks

How to Invest in E-Commerce Stocks
Bill Burnham
McGraw-Hill; ISBN: 0070092389

Dazzled by the rocketship ascent of e-commerce stocks such as Amazon or eBay but not sure where to start? Bill Burnham, the respected (if less headline-grabbing) analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, describes the industry structure, key players, and strategies that investors can use to build their holdings in this highly volatile sector.

The Crisis of Global Capitalism

The Crisis of Global Capitalism
George Soros
Public Affairs; ISBN: 1891620274

The Asian flu of October '97 and the meltdown of summer '98 have put a dent into the triumph of global capitalism in emerging markets. Soros - believed to have garnered 9- or 10-digit profits in the process - has written a treatise on the pitfalls of the system. A bit heavy reading at times, one nevertheless glimpses a message of "Please fix this mess and stop me before I beat the living @#$%! out of you again".

How to Meet the Rich: For Business, Friendship, or Romance

How to Meet the Rich: For Business, Friendship, or Romance
Ginie Polo Sayles
Perennial Pubns; ISBN: 0425166856

Featured in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, and Fortune, author Ginie Sayles is America's foremost authority on relationships with the rich. Her runaway hit, How to Marry the Rich, made her an overnight star, with frequent television appearances, seminars, and lectures. Now, back by popular demand, Ginie Sayles expands the scope of her high society insights, to include a broader range of connections that are professional and social, as well as romantic. Are you up for it?

NONFICTION

The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War

The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War
Robert B. Strassler
Touchstone Books; ISBN: 0684827905

Mythology is always popular, but the real histories of the classical world don't seem to garner the same interest. The Peloponnesian War, for instance, probably provokes little more than a yawn. Too bad, because it holds all the emotional intensity and tragedy that mark the more metaphorical and mythic Trojan War or Odyssey. Strassler has used a seminal translation of Thucydides' work, but he's made the work come alive with 100 maps and a wealth of annotations that put every line into perspective. Highly recommended.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
Barbara Tuchman
Ballantine Books (Trd Pap); ISBN: 0345349571

Tuchman, one of the best historical writers, uses the life of one European noble to illustrate the best and worst of the 14th century. This is the time of the Dark Ages, brought on by the Black Plague, the shifting wars and loyalties between city-states, intolerance, the aftermath of the last Crusades, exploitation of the poor, and the Church's resistance to any idea that challenged its supremacy. This is the way Europe was as it stood on the threshold of Renaissance. Tuchman also draws instructive parallels between the 14th century and this one.

Seek: Selected Nonfiction

Seek: Selected Nonfiction
Rudy Rucker
Four Walls Eight Windows; ISBN: 1568581335

The essays and memoirs collected in Seek! trace Rudy Rucker's trajectory through the final decade of the second millennium. His topics include artificial life, chaos, the big bang, Pieter Brueghel, the church of the subgenius, live sex, mathematics, science fiction, and TV evangelism. A computer scientist and programmer, Rucker is an articulate, engaging guide to the world on either side of the computer screen.

The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon

The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon
James L. Schefter
Doubleday; ISBN: 0385492537

Beneficiaries of the spoils of war, both the United States and Russia suddenly found themselves in possession of the technology and people that had driven Nazi Germany's rocket program. Of course, the next use to which it the science was put was to deliver the one-time allies burgeoning nuclear arsenal. And then came the most telegenic Cold War conflict - the public relations race into space. Schefter exposes the infighting and tight PR controls that deliberately clouded the public's view of the race. One reader recommends balancing this chronicle with the equally revealing Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, apparently available only from Amazon.com.uk.

Is Data Human? The Metaphysics of Star Trek

Is Data Human? The Metaphysics of Star Trek
Richard Hanley
Basic Books; ISBN: 0465045480

Richard Hanley, philosopher, takes his Star Trek very seriously. In just his first chapter, he cogitates on how Starfleet personnel know new life when they see it and whether there are cognitive and linguistic universals. From there he moves on to questions raised by transporter accidents when Kirk splits, Tuvok and Neelix fuse, and Riker doubles up. Along the way Hanley considers the philosophy of artificial intelligence. This may be serious philosophy but it's completely accessible.

FICTION

Havana Bay

Havana Bay
Martin Cruz Smith
Random House; ISBN: 0679426620

Smith transplants his smart but put-upon Arkady Renko of "Gorky Park" from the cold violence of Moscow to the sunny decay of Cuba, and places him in the middle of another oddly fragmented mystery. Arkady, who seems so literal on the surface, is at his best when the world he enters is oblique. Cut from the same fatalist fabric as the denizens of le Carre's world, he manages to suggest that as long as one man sees the world this darkly, there's hope for the rest of us after all.

War of the Rats

War of the Rats
David L. Robbins
Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd); ISBN: 0553108174

David Robbins offers here a fictionalized account of a brutal true event. While the Nazi fighting machine stalled in its conquest of Stalingrad, its troops came under fatal fire from Zaitsev, one of the first modern artillery snipers. Stymied on so many counts, the Germans countered by bringing to the front their own master sniper, Thorvald. The novel, certainly not an ode to the glories of war, recounts the savage sudden death match and battle of detached egos that marked their grim duel.

BIOGRAPHY

Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills

Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills
Winston Churchill, Mary Soames (Editor), Clementine Churchill
Houghton Mifflin Co (Trd); ISBN: 0395963192

Finally! Personal revelations about world leaders that don't make us feel that a bath is the appropriate follow-up to a quiet read. Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine Hozier exchanged thousands of letters throughout their courtship and marriage. And they were unfailingly caring, touching, and respectful. This collection, selected and edited by their daughter, is a revelation about the man whose bulldog countenance personified the British resolve through the dark years of World War II. The man prepared to "fight them" in any venue, also scribbled kisses to his "sweet and beloved Clemmie cat". Curious how that seems so dignified in relation to contemporary revelations.

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
Gary Paulsen
Harcourt Brace; ISBN: 0151262276

Talk about extreme sports! How about a race of more than a thousand miles.... through Alaska ... in March ... being dragged by dogs? The Iditarod is the annual 1158-mile dog sled race between Anchorage and Nome, fuelled by extreme sleep deprivation and run in stages that sometime extend the event to more than two weeks - longer even than the Tour de France. At the heart of the race are the single-mindedness of the racer, the sledder's team of dogs, and the fierceness of the course. Three-time winner, the astonishing Susan Butcher, once lost two dogs to a charging moose that injured 13 other dogs. Readers testify that Paulsen has found all the horror and humor in this most unusual and elemental of races.

Letters of a Woman Homesteader

Letters of a Woman Homesteader
Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Univ of Nebraska Pr; ISBN: 0803251939

Here's the unvarnished American frontier only 90 years ago, told in 26 letters by Elinor Pruitt Stewart, a widow and mother who undertook the challenge of claiming land and living in Wyoming in 1909. The university press that publishes the book has labelled it with "women's studies", but that unfortunately narrows its historic importance. If you want real perspective on how far frontiers have moved in only a few decades, you've found an excellent source here.

GENERAL

Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual

Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual
Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller
Ballantine Books (T); ISBN: 0345412923

OK, here's the thing. You gotta be a fan to like this book. And, if you're a fan, we have to assume you have the same pop culture reference points that serve up the best of Garofalo and Stiller. If you're tired of millionaire self-help gurus, having to register to be motivated, living someone else's spiritualism, or celebrity confessionals, these two smart-asses have a book for you.

Nerve: Literate Smut

Nerve: Literate Smut
Genevieve Field, Rufus Griscom (editors)
Bantam Books; ISBN: 0767902572

First online in 1997, Nerve.com has become, as New York magazine calls it, "the Web's most intelligent forum for erotica". This book is a collection of some of the best of contributions to Nerve. Says one review, "The only thing more difficult than writing well about sex is writing about it honestly.....[A] sampling of previously published essays, stories and photos preserved offline in the traditional way suggests that many of the contributors evidently felt up to the challenge." And another tells us, "This book is not about how to have great sex. It's about sex. Period. And it's wonderful."

The Illusion of Orderly Progress

The Illusion of Orderly Progress
Barbara P. Norfleet, Edward O. Wilson
Knopf; ISBN: 0375405585

You may be more familiar with William Wegman's stylish layouts featuring the high-end fashion sense of his cashmere clad Weimaraners. And, we'll grant you that cockroaches have somewhat less cachet. Still, the skitter critters reveal an unexpected sense of humor in these photographs that mimic and mock human vices and foibles. The colors and observations are top-notch. Here's where you start your Christmas shopping.

Gahan Wilson's Still Weird

Gahan Wilson's Still Weird
Gahan Wilson
Forge; ISBN: 0312857799

Gahan Wilson has proved his strange bent for years in cartoons and artwork for The New Yorker, The Addams Family and The Nightmare Before Christmas. He sees the horror of daily life very clearly and its humorous underpinnings better than most. Still Weird is Wilson's first major retrospective collection, including 100 cartoons, by one of America's most bizarre and popular cartoonists.

Joni Mitchell: The Complete Poems and Lyrics

Joni Mitchell: The Complete Poems and Lyrics
Joni Mitchell Three Rivers Pr; ISBN: 0609802186
Three Rivers Pr; ISBN: 0609802186

Says Amazon.com, "[Joni Mitchell's] writing, like that of Paul Simon and Bob Dylan, helped legitimize song lyrics as poetry by adding sophisticated shadings and nuances that earlier rock and folk music often lacked. What's more, as a woman writing in a medium dominated by men, Mitchell became an important role model for young women trying to make sense of their lives during turbulent times. ... Mitchell's has been an aural art, but having the words to read on the page without benefit of melody heightens one's appreciation of the lyrics as poems."

MUSIC TO READ BY

Amtrak Blues

Amtrak Blues
Alberta Hunter
Sony/Columbia; ASIN: B0000025IC

Alberta Hunter had a thriving blues career on two continents early in her career, but at midlife she retired to a nursing job. Late in life, she came back to music - and fans should be very, very grateful. Here she is, in an intimate live performance. You can hear the twinkle in her eye as she wends her way through the bawdy double entendres that admire the skills of her, ahem, handyman. Alberta Hunter was one of the longest-lived legends from the early blues. We don't know when this was recorded, but it can't have been long before her death in 1984 at the age of 89. She may have captured the life of blues in her early recordings. Here, her voice, richly lived-in, becomes the perfect instrument for the music.