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About Netsurfer Books

Netsurfer Books is an 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

In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the Key to Future Prosperity

In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the Key to Future Prosperity Eamonn Fingleton Houghton Mifflin; ISBN: 0395899680 Seems obvious: the manufacture of essential and valuable material goods is bound to benefit any economy more than ephemeral, elective "services" such as investment advice and the panoply of minimum-wage service jobs that have replaced the work this country used to do. Fingleton identifies the main drawbacks of a post-industrial economy as 1) an unbalanced mix of jobs, 2) slow income growth, and 3) poor export prospects. A freak excess of virtual wealth and absurdly overvalued stocks during the dot.com bubble briefly seemed to have matched the prosperity derived from the production of real goods. But as the U.S. economy has deflated, urged along by the Bush-Cheney team to justify their huge tax cuts, it has become clear that a service economy cannot provide a livable income for most workers. It comes as a shock to read that the average hourly income in Japan is nearly double that in the US. Manufacturing jobs, many now exported to the cheapest source of labor by multinational corporations, are the basis for a healthy U.S. economy. Fingleton stresses the capacity of manufacturing industries to train and employ high school graduates in many ordinary blue-collar jobs as well as to provide highly sophisticated jobs in research and design. Well-paid mid-level and blue-collar jobs are key to improving the overall economy. Fingleton offers a range of ideas and examples of new areas for development of industry. For example, the excess ship capacity of the 70s and 80s has cleared and burgeoning world trade is guaranteeing a growing need for ships. The necessity to reduce pollution will require many new products and mechanisms. Improved transportation is another fertile area. Fingleton writes engagingly and with conviction and challenges inventors and entrepreneurs to reinvigorate our economy. [CW]

Biography, History, Society

A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic

A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic John E. Ferling Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0195159241 There is no period in American history more scabbed over with politico-educational cant than that period during which this country was formed. Everyone uses the founding fathers to further their own limited partisan squabble. This has turned me and others off to the reading of American revolutionary history; compare the inches of shelf space devoted to it as opposed to Civil War era history. This is too bad, because it was a fascinating and important time. The forces of history, geography, geopolitics, partisan bickering, and intellectual ferment created a nation out of a collection of colonial entities, and created a democratic vision of governance that is the dominant model over 200 years later. The personalities who accomplished these things resonate with us still - Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams - and are themselves the object of several recent studies. John Ferling's book A Leap in the Dark is an excellent place to start the study of the birth of this nation. He covers all of the many factors that made this a critical time, and does so in an interesting narrative manner, taking the reader from the first glimmerings of revolution through to the inauguration of Jefferson in 1801. Once started in on this period, I think it will be hard to stop. [MA]

On Great White Wings: The Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight

On Great White Wings: The Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight Spencer Dunmore, Fred E. C. Culick Hyperion; ISBN: 0786866861 It's difficult to believe that it's been 100 years since the Wright brothers' bicycle business literally took off. This December 17th marks the one-hundredth anniversary of manned, powered flight. On that date, Orville took the controls and made three successful flights, the first of which covered 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds. (That distance would not even cover the 200-foot wingspan of a modern Boeing 747!) Jetliners and space shuttles all find their origins in the work of Orville and Wilbur, two dedicated businessmen with a dream to fly. Culick and Dunmore have produced a fitting tribute to these origins of flight. They take us through the early days in the Wright family and the brothers' struggles to turn their dreams into reality. They describe the spirit of competition the brothers faced from Samuel Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian and another aviation pioneer, as he attempted to best them with his Aerodrome aircraft. You'll witness the societal changes that came about as the science of aviation grew in the coming decade. The photographs and illustrations are superb, while the accompanying text is easy to read and wonderfully descriptive. This is a terrific book that would be at home in any public or private library. If you're an aviation buff, don't miss it. [GB]

Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron

Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron Mimi Swartz, Sherron Watkins Doubleday; ISBN: 0385507879 It was recently announced that Enron's creditors were going to get a lot less than most bankruptcy creditors, about 18 cents on the dollar, and with Enron's bankruptcy being one of the biggest of all time, that makes for a lot of lost dollars. The story of how one of the world's largest companies with enormous international operations, billions of dollars in equity, and so politically connected that it bankrolled the current president's victory and had many former employees ensconced in the administration, revealed itself as the proverbial house of cards makes for page-turning reading. There are plenty of bad-guys to go around here, from founder Kenneth Lay who seemed adept at maintaining plausible deniability, to Jeffrey Skilling who browbeat anyone who questioned him. But the most astonishing is Andy Fastow, the Enron CFO who, while supposedly representing Enron's interests, set up multiple bogus corporations ostensibly to help shield Enron from financial risk, which coincidentally put tens of millions of dollars into his own pocket. Co-author Sherron Watkins was the famous whistle blower (although she only blew her whistle internally) who worked for years in several different divisions. Her inside insight pins the blame not on one person, but rather on Enron's culture of pure, unadulterated, greed. [MA]

Newman's Own Organics: The Guide to the Good Life

Newman's Own Organics: The Guide to the Good Life Nell Newman with Joseph D'Agnese Villard; ISBN: 081296733X First an admission: as an adherent (not to say addict) of Newman's Own all-organic chocolate bars (full of anti-oxidants and they support organic cacao farmers! who could resist), I was no doubt predisposed to like this book. Without being preachy, Newman aims to enlighten and encourage the reader to begin to make small changes that can both reduce our impact on our environment and benefit our health. In her food chapter, she lists the most pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables (strawberries, peppers, and spinach top the list) and urges us to read labels, buy organic, avoid over-packaged foods. She exposes the short-sightedness of industrial agricultural methods and the pleasures and benefits of small-scale, local agriculture. Bt corn, bioengineered to produce its own toxin, not only kills pests; it also poisons butterflies whose larvae consume the pollen. And when the plant decays, its toxic roots may damage beneficial organisms in the soil. So, even if humans don't consume it, it's damaging our environment. Chapters full of sound advice on transportation, energy and water use, pet care, cleaning and household pests, and gardening follow. With up-to-date references and resources and contacts for each subject, this is a useful book that can help us as individuals support the goals of the Kyoto Accords to reduce greenhouse gases and bequeath our children and other living creatures a healthier future. [CW]

The File: A Personal History

The File: A Personal History Timothy Garton Ash Vintage Books; ISBN: 0679777857 The German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany, left a curious legacy: the Stasi (secret police) archives. An enormous number of ordinary citizens contributed, formally and informally, to a massive state surveillance apparatus which minutely recorded every detail of people's lives. After the fall of the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany took the unprecedented step of opening these archives. Anyone may access their own records, though some information is obscured by archivists to protect the privacy of third parties. Timothy Garton Ash, a noted historian and political essayist, availed himself of the opportunity to read his own file. What follows mixes memoir, thriller and political philosophy. Ash is forced to reevaluate his experiences as a British expatriot in East Berlin in the late 70s and early 80s. The engaging writing tells a story in which mistrust is necessary and informants destroy lives. He discovers that some folks he trusted were actually informing on him. Such a reminiscence alone would be interesting, but this book succeeds in three additional projects. Ash considers both past (as documented) and present of those close to him whose lives had been negatively affected by the Stasi. He then proceeds to interview the informants, working his way up the command hierarchy. This gives an intimate and nuanced view of the process and social consequences of a surveillance society. One realizes the inexact nature of the records and of memory itself. More interesting still, Ash discovers that even those not involved with the Stasi nevertheless could play a role in surveillance. Casual conversation and the patterns of everyday life could have sinister consequences if observed by malicious or creative gossip mongers who 'informally' delivered information to the Stasi for pay. The last and most interesting arc in this book is that of personal discovery, where Ash learns things about himself he didn't know until he began to research his own past. [EG]

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity Lee Smolin Basic Books; ISBN: 0465078362 Physics is the new LSD. Forget the ingestion of mind-altering substances, simply try to wrap your head around what's happening today in the particle accelerators of academia and not only will the walls breathe, they'll cease to exist. Lee Smolin writes this cutting-edge-science-for-liberal-art-majors text in an easily understandable style, using simple illustrations and examples, but the material he's presenting is so utterly counter-intuitive and bizarre that you'll be hard pressed to make any real sense of it. Start with this: everything you know about reality is wrong, in fact everything you know about what was wrong with reality is wrong too. I can't honestly summarize the book for you, I'm going to have to reread it a couple of times to do that. But among the weirder things it has to say about current thinking in quantum physics is that space is granular, that in fact there is a smallest piece of space, beyond which you can no further divide. Another factoid which caught my fancy is that the big bang wasn't a big bang, but rather a big freeze. The universe is the result of a big cool-down from the Planck temperature which is so hot that the geometry of time and space melts. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, bub. [MA]

No More Prisons

No More Prisons William Upski Wimsatt Soft Skull Press; ISBN: 1887128425 Wimsatt set out to write a book for poor minority youth in urban America, to explain and give examples of how to get active politically. He set himself an ambitious goal, since his intended audience tend to not be readers at all and suspicious of politics, if not outright cynical. He starts with the premise that America is filled with structural and institutional adversity, principally racism, inequity and injustice. Despite this, he maintains that possibilities abound for taking individual action, at the family, community, city and even state level. Wimsatt uses his own story and provocative style to engage the reader. The book contains a number of distinct essays, each of which demonstrates the possibility of political engagement with positive consequences. The primary topics are community issues, home schooling, organizing, philanthropy and progressive tactics. Wimsatt mixes personal anecdotes, polemic essays, provocative illustrations and interviews with successful progressives. I find his ideas fresh, appealing and uplifting if not immediately useful, since I am not a young person in urban America with few prospects. My main interest in the book was reading a fresh young progressive voice to better understand what is going on, what might get done and who is doing it. I had no idea about Black Home Schooling for instance. Wimsatt identifies some surprising novel philanthropic channels to sustain various causes. While there are no easy answers to the problems discussed here, this book shows how some folks vigorously and sometimes successfully confront the pressing problems they face. [EG]

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown Paul Theroux Houghton Mifflin Company; ISBN: 0618134247 If you are reading this book review, it's a good guess that you're already familiar with Paul Theroux, a very talented and prolific author who has published, in the past thirty years or so, two dozen highly-praised and widely-read novels, mostly about really interesting characters whom you probably wouldn't want to meet in real life, and about a dozen travel books which chronicle his tours through lands you probably wouldn't want to visit yourself. If you aren't already familiar with his work, this new book is a good place to start. Back in the 1960s Theroux went to Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and stayed on for a couple years more to teach school in the Malawi bush. The experience was definitely a high point in his life. In 2001 he decided to revisit the places he had known then, visit old friends, and generally see how things had changed in the past forty years. Starting in Cairo, he traveled slowly south through Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and finally through South Africa until he reached Cape Town. What he mostly found was collapse and decay and despair, seasoned with a bit of crime and violence. "It all went tits up!" one white farmer told him, and I think he would agree. You won't get a whole lot of cheer from reading this book, but you will get a whole lot of information. Recommended, if you need something new to think about and worry over. [WW]

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake Stan Redding, Frank W. Abagnale Broadway Books; ISBN: 0767905385 Frank Abagnale, the "hero" and co-author of this amazing true tale of mile-high con-artistry was a pioneer of modern check fraud and identity theft. Well not so much theft of identity, but rather theft of role. Passing himself off as an Airline Pilot, University Professor, Doctor, Lawyer and, when pressed, FBI agent, Abagnale pocketed millions of dollars, and bedded scores of pretty girls. Many of his most outrageous charades were accomplished when he was still in his teens. Combining limitless audacity, an observant eye for human behavior, and a delicate touch of forgery he begins his criminal career by passing himself off as an airline pilot, the height of early 60s cool. With a PanAm captain's uniform and fake papers he flies "deadhead" in the jump seat from city to city cashing bad checks wherever he goes. When things get a bit too hot, he passes himself off as sociology professor, a Harvard-trained lawyer (he even manages to pass the state bar exam with help from his friends), and a pediatrician - briefly heading the pediatrics department of a hospital in Atlanta. I read this book on a family vacation. We ended up reading chunks of it aloud to each other, it was so amazing and amusing. Also available in audio versions and as a very enjoyable movie. [MA]

Feral Future: The Untold Story of Australia's Exotic Invaders

Feral Future: The Untold Story of Australia's Exotic Invaders Tim Low Univ of Chicago Press; ISBN: 0226494195 Tim Low has been chronicling the Australian territory as wildlife photographer-cum-biologist for decades. In Feral Future, he presents a riveting documentary on the dangers wrought by ever-encroaching (mostly deliberately introduced) biological invaders in both outback and cityscapes. The cast of characters includes killer ants and hoards of other creeping things, lethal grasses, wallabies and weeds. But this serious book reads like a James M. Cain thriller, drawing a chilling portrait of the reasons behind and the potential remedies for this continental biological tragedy both in Australia and in those countries regularly exchanging living species. Low's call to ecological action is yet another reminder of just how deadly the planetary future might become. [JGA]

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Mary Roach W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393050939 You're driving and you spot something in the street. Carpet or road kill? You can't take your eyes off of it. There is a morbid curiosity that won't be satisfied until you get a good look. Dead things are repulsive yet fascinating, especially if the dead thing was human. Roach stokes the (funereal) pyres of fascination and provides us with a detailed look at the "lives" of dead people. You might think that a book of this nature would be dry, morbid or perhaps even macabre. It doesn't seem possible, but Roach has taken a typically humorless subject and injected wit with the embalming fluid. The prose is as captivating as the topic. You will be enthralled with the historical treatment of cadavers, grave robbing, surgical practice, detailed descriptions of decay, and many other topics ranging from crash testing to crucifixion. This winner is extremely well written and is surely destined to be on many best-seller lists. The buzz is already developing, and these are flying off the shelves at your local (virtual) bookstore. By the way, it was a brown shag area rug. Thought you'd want to know. [GB]

Gray's Anatomy: The Unabridged Running Press Edition of the American Classic

Gray's Anatomy: The Unabridged Running Press Edition of the American Classic Henry Gray Running Press; ISBN: 0894711350 What is that thing that hangs down in the back of the mouth? You know, that Lilliputian punching bag, begging to be throttled in all the old cartoons. If you check Gray's Anatomy under "The Palate," you'll find that it is called the uvula, and is comprised of mucous membrane. As for what it does, well, that would be physiology. This is an anatomy book, and it's a classic. If you're a medical school student, look elsewhere, because this gem was produced over 100 years ago, and some of the information is dated. (The names may have been changed to protect the innocent.) If you're casually curious, you would be well served by what has to be the least expensive treasure trove of information on human anatomy known to man. Over a thousand pages and nearly eight hundred illustrations grace the pages. It is highly detailed but well organized, making it quite accessible to even the lay reader. It is organized into sections including bones, joints, muscles, vessels, the nervous system and many others. If you ever wanted to know anything about the human body, it's here, plus much, much more. A great home bookshelf reference. [GB]

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker James McManus Farrar Straus & Giroux; ISBN: 0374236488 Now, I'm not what you might call a degenerate gambler, but I do enjoy the occasional game, which has mutated a bit over the years. Once we played all those goofy wild card games, Follow the Queen, Auction, Pass the Trash, etc., but now we're playing a bit more hard core: Texas Hold'em, and Hi-Lo Omaha. The pinnacle of Hold'em is the pinnacle of poker: The World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas. Harper's sent Jim McManus to Las Vegas to cover the 2000 World Series of Poker, as well as to cover the murder trial of Ted Binion, former host of the game and son of the notorious Benny Binion, founder of the World Series. Telling his wife that he needed to play the game in order to write about it, McManus sinks a goodish chunk of the family fortune into entering a satellite table which will feed into the big game. Not only does he win the satellite, but he goes on to become the only journalist/player ever to make it to the final table. Not only that, as a result he gets to meet the Binion family and be there with them when the final courtroom verdict is read. These twined tales, along with other Las Vegas nuggets, make for good seamy fun all around, and as an added bonus his bibliography contains all of the author's poker self-help books. They worked for him . . . [MA]

The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales

The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales Maria Tatar Princeton University Press; ISBN: 0691014876 Fairy tales fascinate children, many adults and not a few scholars. The title of this book suggests that it will expose the dirt (sex, violence and indecent behavior) in the Grimms' Fairy Tale collection. Tatar does discuss this, but it fills only a chapter of her penetrating assessment of the Grimms' work and related scholarship. She asks hard and interesting questions about the origin, role, allure and meaning of fairy tales. Tatar draws from a rich tradition of interpretation and folklore studies. These shed light on the structure and importance of the stories, but also on the scholars and their political and moral priorities. The Grimm brothers themselves edited and rewrote successive editions of their work to increase sales and diminish controversial aspects. In general, they increased the violence and removed sex, consistent with the Protestant values of their day. The first section of the book concerns fairy tales per se, the next considers heroes and the last section, villains. It is remarkable how consistently structured fairy tales are. I believe these patterns have a profound effect on how we expect all stories to go. Those with an enduring appreciation of fairy tales will enjoy Tatar's book. [EG]

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming Stephen LaBerge, Howard Rheingold Ballantine Books; ISBN: 034537410X My older brother and I had a good friend, David Brown, who died a tragic, early death in a boating accident. Some time later, I dreamt of David: my brother and I were at a pool party and I spotted David across the pool in animated conversation. (Drink in hand, he was obviously enjoying himself.) I mentioned to my big brother "hey, there's Dave. Maybe I should go tell him he's dead in real life." "Oh, no!" my brother replied. "If you do that, he won't let you wake up." That was my introduction to lucid dreaming, and it's been a wondrous (but usually less evocative) part of life since. If you weren't aware, lucid dreaming is being asleep and dreaming, but being conscious of the fact. LaBerge and Rheingold provide numerous effective practical techniques for increasing the frequency and clarity of these experiences. They also explore the psychological and historical foundations of lucid dreaming and describe some of the key findings from LaBerge's work at the Stanford University sleep research laboratory. They suggest that manipulating lucid dreams can contribute to a healthier and more fulfilling waking life. I can attest to the fact that it is indescribably amazing. Be a god in your own private universe. No rules, no inhibitions, no one looking over your "shoulder." There is nothing virtual about it. Lucid dreaming is a journey into a reality created by your own consciousness. Go inward. [GB]

Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution

Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger Univ of Chicago Press; ISBN: 0226115631 Why study dogs? Hands down, this book is THE best response so far, describing the science and history of our "most popular carnivore with the widest geographic presence." (There are almost 14,579 titles on the planet's 400,000,000 dogs at Amazon.com). The authors are biologists, long-time dog breeders, and dog trainers (especially of amazing sled-dogs). They argue clearly that Canis familiarus is no mere subspecies of wolf, having shapes and behaviors unheard of in the wolf, nor were they domesticated by early humans around cave fires. Rather, the dog is to the wolf as man is to the Bonobo: their theory suggests that dogs evolved (as an off-shoot, while the wolf continued along their common ancestral branch) through natural selection to scavenge from Mesolithic human village dumps, then got captured and put to work where only the best of them survived genetically. Then the household dogs got captured from this working-dog population, and some of these new breeds are now trapped in a dead-end of genetic isolation. Analyzing the village, livestock-guarding, herding, sled-pulling, pointing, retrieving, hound, assistance, and garden-variety house dogs, the authors show how characteristic behaviors have evolved from nature times nurture! In examining these various symbiotic alliances, we get a biologically-informed view of what we humans are actually doing to the dogs. The Coppingers ask us: does the tail wag the dog? Are we really the dog's best friend? A formidable essay. [JGA]

The Difficulty of Being a Dog

The Difficulty of Being a Dog Roger Grenier Univ of Chicago Press; ISBN: 0226308286 This is a splendid book on the literature and legend of the dog, superbly translated from the French by Alice Kaplan (author of French Lessons: A Memoir). No surprise that it is a long-time bestseller in France, where dogs are proffered their own chairs in restaurants and are everywhere more visible than kids. Grenier charmingly recounts the lives of some famous canines from literary history: Ulysses' faithful old Argos, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker Flush (originally immortalized by Virginia Woolf), Freud's chow-chow Lun, FDR's scotty Fala, Michael and Jerry in Jack London, Queneau's Dino. Plus, he regales with tales of his own much-loved, long-departed Ulysses who led him on countless adventures through labyrinthine Paris streets. Author of some 30 novels, short story and essay collections, Grenier knows well how to tell a story deftly in a page or two, and each of these 43 "chapters" is a gem. The human+canine connection remains a delicious mystery for Grenier, and this collection of sketches gives us much to gnaw on. [JGA]

Fiction

That Old Ace in the Hole

That Old Ace in the Hole Annie Proulx Scribner; ISBN: 0684813076 In The Shipping News, set in Newfoundland, Annie Proulx captured a sense of the history and surprising drama as well as day-to-day life of a place little known to outsiders. Proulx, who divides her time between Newfoundland and Wyoming, has set her funny, poignant new novel in another unlikely locale, the Texas panhandle. She's particularly good at creating characters that seem authentically of their time and place - in this case a place perched on the edge of change that could wipe out a culture built over several generations. The old-time ranchers that didn't get displaced by the "awl" boom are being bought out by agribusiness or, even more obnoxious, by "industrial" hog farms. Her narrator, industrious, observant recent college-graduate Bob Dollar, takes the time to get to know the place as he tries to fulfill his job with Global Pork Rind to locate land for new hog operations. The oddities of his own upbringing suit him well to make friends and gain the trust of this crusty lot, and he comes gradually to find his loyalties shifting. Evenings, usually pretty quiet, he reads the journals of a 19th-century explorer of the region and as he scouts the area and meets its long-time residents, he is told many stories of their forebears, so the reader gains a sense of the place back through several generations. Proulx gives us the story in the words of its inhabitants, but they don't all just look back - some are right up to the minute in understanding the power struggle, and its ramifications, that's underway between big business and the locals. Proulx doesn't preach - she gives us her story in sharp and funny dialogue and carries the reader to another place, limning the intense experiences of seemingly ordinary lives. [CW]

The Bug: A Novel

The Bug: A Novel Ellen Ullman Doubleday; ISBN: 0385508603 In her first novel/memoir, Close to the Machine, Ellen Ullman successfully depicted the interior life of a computer programmer (herself), and, more improbably, made it interesting and fun to read. In The Bug, Ullman achieves something even more improbable - she builds a novel around the desperate programming struggles of a software coder. She does this entirely honestly, with no resorting to plot gimmickry. Ethan Levin is a thwarted academic writing software at the dawn of the graphical interface era for a start-up database company. He is writing at the limit of his abilities, but proud to be keeping ahead of his deadlines, when a new and particularly stubborn bug turns up. Already short of interpersonal skills (a programmer stereotype, yes, but an earned one), his deepening focus on solving the problem begins a cycle of interpersonal damage that erodes his career, and his relationships with fellow humanity. I suspect this book will appeal less to code warriors themselves than to the rest of us who live amongst them. It is an illuminating glimpse into the mental landscape of those for whom machines are more fascinating than those who use them. [MA]

Fear Itself

Fear Itself Walter Mosley Little, Brown and Company; ISBN: 0316591122 Finding a new Walter Mosley mystery thriller at the local bookstore is always a welcome surprise, even though you know you'll be staying up far too late that night flipping page after page. No wonder President Clinton named Mosley his favorite mystery writer: you can't get too deeply in trouble while actually reading an engaging mystery. I wish our present President spent more of his time reading thrillers and less of his time____ (you fill in the blank.) OK, moving on. Mosley has two series of mysteries under way, one featuring as main characters Easy Rawlins and Mouse, and another, which includes this book, featuring Fearless Jones, a WWII infantry hero, and Paris Minton, a rather nerdish used book store owner. Both series are set in the early 1950s in the predominantly black Watts section of south central Los Angeles. Almost all of his characters are black, with the exception of the principal bad guys, who are usually white, and the police, who are almost always white and often pretty bad too. Most of his characters were drawn from the southern and midwestern states to fill jobs in the defense industry factories that sprang up throughout the Los Angeles area during the Second World War and then stayed on there into the 1950s in hopes of building new communities and better lives for themselves. Mosley's novels offer a very thick and rich description of this culture, and it is one of their main attractions. Another attraction, at least for me, is Mosley's really dense, convoluted, tightly-knotted and generally complicated plots. You will never guess by page 20 who did it to whom. His plots keep you guessing. So, buy this book. Treat yourself to a romp with Fearless and Paris through 50s LA. [WW]

Cosm

Cosm Gregory Benford Avon; ISBN: 0380790521 What does it feel like to be the god of a universe you have created? Alicia Butterworth knows. She is the heroine of this Benford foray into science, politics, and passion. Alicia is performing experiments at a high-energy particle accelerator when an accident occurs. In the middle of the smoking bent metal, she finds a mysterious dull black sphere. Quickly realizing that it might be scientifically important, and fearing that her findings might be stolen (remember Rosalyn Franklin?), Alicia brings the object back to her labs at UC Irvine. What follows is a brilliant combination of intrigue, politics and hard science. Benford is a master of physics-based story lines, and this is a wonderful example of his craft. It's refreshing to find a female lead in a traditionally male environment, and Benford convincingly portrays Alicia as a hard-driving highly competitive woman of science without resorting to the sort of stereotypical characterizations you may find elsewhere. You'll find yourself contemplating the nature of time, the origins of our universe, and perhaps even reexamining the meaning of faith and religion. Not bad for 350 pages of well-written prose. Its fast pace and action-adventure feel keep the pages turning. A great summer read. [GB]

King Bongo

King Bongo Thomas Sanchez Alfred A. Knopf; ISBN: 0679406964 Two or three years ago, when the media were all busy compiling lists of the 20th century's best this and that, the San Francisco Chronicle listed Thomas Sanchez's first novel Rabbit Boss as "one of the most important books of the twentieth century." Since Rabbit Boss in 1973, Sanchez published Zoot- Suit Murders in 1978, Mile Zero in 1989, and Day of the Bees in 2000. These are all good novels, well worth your attention. Sanchez's new novel King Bongo is set in Havana, Cuba, in 1957, a world rife with political corruption and intrigue, extreme police brutality, idealistic rebel terrorists, santeria religion, American gangsters and movie stars, casinos and whore houses, prophetic shoeshine boys, orchid-growing Chinese laundrymen, and a rank and maybe even rancid atmosphere of sweaty tropical sensuality and sexuality. Mystery plotwise, the protagonist, King Bongo, a drummer of mythic talents, searches for his sister, the Panther, Havana's most exotic exotic dancer who disappeared in an explosion in a nightclub on New Year's Eve. Stuff happens. In the end, all is revealed. The perfect book for a hot summer night. [WW]

The Wanderer

The Wanderer Henri Alain-Fournier Viking Press; ISBN: 0140182829 The original French title of this novel is Le Grand Meaulnes, The Great Meaulnes. This title reflects the intensity of admiration felt by Francois, the narrator, for Meaulnes, especially during the first two thirds of the novel. Initially the story takes place in a boarding school for boys. Seurel, a rather withdrawn teen-age boy, and Meaulnes, an extrovert, become friends. Meaulnes' charm arises from the vigor and earnestness with which he applies himself to whatever plan or opinion he takes up. The decisive event in the story occurs when Meaulnes takes off on an adventure. He wanders off and discovers a secluded house where a remarkable party for a young man named Frantz is taking place. He meets and falls for Yvonne, Frantz's sister. Meaulnes has an extraordinary time; he later idealizes this experience. Having fallen asleep on the return trip from the party, Meaulnes has no idea how to find the house again. School life becomes less important now that Meaulnes is driven by a passionate desire to find the house and Yvonne again. The rest of this book concerns the obsessive attempt to recapture an idealized experience. This unrealistic romantic effort has serious consequences. While there are elements of boarding school drama, mystery, and tragedy here, this novel's greatness arises from its attention to adolescence. Meaulnes' fixed enthusiasm rings true, as does the allure of unrecapturable excitement. Seurel relates the charming and sad story just past the threshold of adulthood, convincingly involved and moved by the story he tells. [EG]

The Losers' Club

The Losers' Club Richard Perez Ludlow Press; ISBN: 0971341591 If you feel some nostalgia, or some curiosity, about life in New York City's Lower East Side in the 90s, you'll like this one. Narrated by a writer, a poet who's accumulating a pile of rejection letters, this is a moody but amiable novel. Martin Sierra, searching for a little love as well as a publisher, is a laconic but likable fellow and it doesn't take long for the reader to begin to root for him. He spends his days arranging deliveries for a faceless Japanese-owned import company and his nights in favorite East Village clubs before going home to Queens (more affordable and keeps the exotica of the East Village fresh). After a several-month dry spell, his ad in the Village Voice personals finally gets a couple of interesting responses. As he and his date sample the nightlife, the reader gets colorful glimpses of the costumes and customs of the natives, the look and sounds of their clubs. But underlying the color and style of the 90s East Village retro clubs is the quandary of the artists. New York is full of aspiring artists and writers, only a few of whom will have the luck or innate talent to make their mark. So, Martin's life is a little melancholy but well-grounded in an affectionate relationship that promises, finally, to become something more. [CW]

The Core

The Core Dean Smith Pocket Books; ISBN: 0743463986 You probably missed the movie. It came and went pretty quickly. (I'll probably catch it shortly when it comes out on DVD.) If you didn't see the TV spots, it goes like this: there is something wrong with the Earth's core. If it's not fixed, we are all going to die. Enter the avant-garde inventor, heroic pilot, and intrepid scientists who will save us all. Throw in some danger, intrigue, adventure, and a couple of plot twists and voila, instant sci-fi blockbuster. Oops, somebody forgot the blockbuster part. So what. Formulaic plot? Yes. Stereotypical characterizations? Sure. Underlying romance? Of course. Abrasive antagonist? Absolutely. It's not rocket science, and in fact, it's pretty poor geologic science, but none of this really detracts from the fact that it is an entertaining summer read that will probably last longer than the movie from which it was made. You'll never find this on any shelf with the classics, but heck, I got a couple hours of good "in head" time from it. Read it anyway, it's not that bad. What do you want for seven bucks and a lousy screenplay? Shakespeare? [GB]

Children's Books

Father Bear Comes Home

Father Bear Comes Home Else Holmelund Minarik; pictures by Maurice Sendak HarperCollins; ISBN: 0060242302 Books for beginning readers needn't be silly or dumb, though many seem to be. A book in the superlative Minarik-Sendak Little Bear series, Father Bear Comes Home combines sprightly, lovable drawings with fresh glimmers of wit to make a book for beginning readers that delights and demonstrates to a six-year-old why learning to read is worth the trouble. Comprising four short stories that offer new words at the same time that they reinforce those already familiar, the characters and their adventures build on some of a child's own experiences and introduce new ones. Father Bear is coming home from a deep-sea fishing trip. As Little Bear shares his excitement with his friends, the possibility of a mermaid returning with Father Bear is mentioned, and Little Bear's friends add to the story until it becomes an expected thing. But Father Bear is nonplussed when asked by Little Bear's friends where the mermaid is. It's only with the last story, when the Bear family and friends picnic by the river (clothes and setting evoking Seurat's painting La Grande Jatte) that the mermaid appears, or at least bubbles that show where she might be... [CW]

The Book of the Dun Cow

The Book of the Dun Cow Walter Wangerin, Jr. HarperCollins; ISBN: 0062509373 Set in a fairy tale time, this fantasy book features an allegorical battle between Good and Evil. Speaking animals hold Evil in check by leading simple, virtuous lives. Nations are represented as regions dominated by a chicken coop, ruled by a rooster. The focus of the story is one such coop, whose monarch is Chauntecleer. Another 'nation' goes astray when its aging monarch, desperate for an heir, succumbs to a satanic offer. This results first in corrupting his nation; the animals cease to cooperate and trust one another and begin to lose the power of speech. Once Evil is set loose, it begins to destroy everything in its path. The story pits Chauntecleer and a cast of sympathetic characters who are subjects in his domain against this one-sided adversary. The best aspects of the book are its unique and charming prose style and delightful heroic character development. Wangerin's story-telling evokes a mythic time and accentuates various endearing flaws of the protagonists. The message is that protagonists must overcome themselves in order to defeat Evil. Unfortunately, the Evil figures in the story receive almost no characterization or development. Wangerin has no interest in exploring Evil, though. As an American protestant theologian writing during the cold war, Wangerin expressed moral conflict in terms of a cut and dry political parable. The antagonists lack any identifiable characteristics besides their animosity. This leaves center stage for moral development of the principle protagonists. This children's book would read aloud well and has enough substance to merit discussion. [EG]

The Daydreamer

The Daydreamer Ian McEwan Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub; ISBN: 0385498055 Meet Peter Fortune, a British kid with an extremely active imagination. Peter has such difficulty keeping his mind in check that he often cannot distinguish between daydream and reality. Ian McEwan takes this premise as far as it can go with six superb short stories. Peter's fantasies lead him to exchange bodies with others or perform other magical feats. I don't want to give anything away, since the freshness of these surreal episodes is much of their charm. While this book will appeal to an older child or young adolescent, it also has a lot to offer an adult reader. The conflicts present in Peter's daydreams work out dramas and issues in his life. Though strange and magical, the stories never stray from the boundaries of Peter's childhood experience. I found the narration quite clever and at times hilarious. Normally description of events and settings are objective and definitive. In these stories, one is never sure how much of the story is taking place in Peter's head. Further, he has only limited experience, so many 'facts' are obviously a child's constructs. Appreciation of these subtleties will escape a young reader who will more readily identify with 'kid reality' in any case. [EG]

Wings and Rockets: The Story of Women in Air and Space

Wings and Rockets: The Story of Women in Air and Space Jeannine Atkins; pictures by Dusan Petricic Farrar Straus Giroux; ISBN: 0374384509 This one caught my attention because my daughter flew a plane solo before she learned to drive, thanks to her grandpa's encouragement. When she was 16, she flew me from Billings to the small Miles City, Montana airport where she took flying instruction for several summers. It was an exhilarating experience for both of us, and it's the thrill of flight that runs through Atkins' book as she charts the history of women who knew they had to fly, no matter the obstacles. At every stage they confronted obstructionists, who were sure women shouldn't pilot a plane, in addition to the hazards that any pilot faces. From Blanche Stuart Scott and Bessie Coleman to Amelia Earhart, Jackie Cochran and the women who flew during WW II but weren't recognized for their service until 1977, to Sally Ride, Eileen Collins, and the other women astronauts, it's a story for anyone who loves flight and especially for girls who think they might. Atkins captures the spirited and courageous personalities of these women who followed their dreams, and the witty and beautiful pen-and-ink and watercolor images complement the vibrancy of the story. [CW]

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