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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

Vineland

Vineland Thomas Pynchon Penguin; ISBN: 0141180633 Pynchon's novel about paranoia in the FBI-infested 70s in California is all too timely in the new millennium. But with his zany wit and unparalleled store of esoterica, it's entertaining as well as horrific, from the opening scene with dog-food-stealing blue jays who come "screaming down out of the redwoods" and then, fortified, chase cars and pickups. It's a story about folks in the LA and SF Bay areas who were subjected to tapped phones, COINTELPRO agent provocateurs who infiltrated student anti-war groups and Black Panthers and incited violence. Anyone who publicly objected to the killing in Vietnam or took the Constitution and Bill of Rights too seriously was fair game. The hippie communes that moved north and grew marijuana on their farms became the target of midnight helicopter raids by flamethrower-equipped agents. Pynchon's pitch-perfect dialogue is spiced with his lyrics to rock-and-roll tunes, TV lore, effortless forays into several streams of California pop culture, and a clutch of savvy (or dopey) characters including a beautiful redhead trained in Japan as a ninja, a hippie kid named Prairie in search of her mother lost to the FBI's witness protection program, a TV-addicted Chicano DEA agent escaped from his residential Tubal Detox program, and the elusive, infamous, out-of-control Federal Prosecutor Brock Vond. If you're a Gibson or Stephenson fan, if you loved the layered visual/aural richness of Ridley Scott's Bladerunner and haven't yet read this one, do it now. [CW]

History, Biography, Society

The Ship of Fools

The Ship of Fools Sebastian Brant Dover Publications; ISBN: 0486257916 The Ship of Fools has had the longest lasting success and greatest fame of any work written in the German language besides Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. In 111 short chapters Brant wittily describes and lays into different kinds of fools. He considers liars, cheats, gamblers, quack doctors, hedonists, spendthrifts, among others. Many of his scathingly funny remarks have become commonly-known proverbs and idioms in the German language. Though he wrote over five hundred years ago, his keen observations of human nature still apply. Typical of the late medieval and early modern period, Brant built his arguments upon the authority and presumed wisdom of the Bible and Greek mythology. This challenges a modern reader who lacks the classical education required to recognize and appreciate these references. The perspective from which Brant excoriates his contemporaries expresses the uncompromising Christian values of the time in which it was written. This glimpse into views of a distant time is fascinating, especially when one considers how little has changed. Brant's acute and witty assessment of human foibles is timeless. Fine original woodblock illustrations illuminate the wacky proclivities discussed. The title of this work refers to the late medieval to early modern custom of relegating the mentally ill to a boat that would be cast adrift in rivers, to drift from town to town. In Brant's work, the boat is the world itself. It is easy to identify with one or more of the fools catalogued here and benefit from Brant's admonishments. [EG]

Napoleon's Expedition to Russia: The Memoirs of General de Segur

Napoleon's Expedition to Russia: The Memoirs of General de Segur Christopher Summerville (Editor), General Count Philippe de Segur Carroll & Graf; ISBN: 0786711744 Napoleon's invasion of Russia is one of the most mythic and dramatic events in Western history. General de Segur was one of the survivors of the expedition, a lucky man indeed given that only about 10,000 came back from an army of 500,000 - a 98% casualty rate! De Segur was one of Napoleon's aides and he wrote a best-selling memoir of his experiences. Christopher Summerville has edited the two volume memoir into this very readable and concise book. Summerville places de Segur's account in its proper context with extensive historical notes at the beginning of each chapter explaining the background of the events and giving the big picture of all the forces that were maneuvering around Napoleon's doomed Grand Army. While Napoleon must bear the ultimate responsibility for the debacle, it is the bravery and skill of his top officers - particularly Marshall Ney, famously the last man out of Russia - that must be credited for rescuing even that small number of troops who made it out alive. This is an amazing story of incredible suffering, immense bravery, and bigger-than-life personalities in an age when the word "glory" and "war" could still be used in the same sentence without irony. De Segur's eloquent and passionate memoir and Summerville's first rate commentary will only whet your appetite to read more about the subject. Highly recommended. [AB]

Man's Search For Meaning

Man's Search For Meaning Viktor Frankl Washington Square Press; ISBN: 0671023373 Viktor Frankl carried a scientific manuscript on psychotherapy with him to Auschwitz. Though he survived, his manuscript did not. Frankl dedicated himself to bearing witness to the psychological conditions of prisoners in concentration camps. He was determined to persevere, to rewrite his book and augment it with insights gleaned through the suffering and horror of internment and extermination. Frankl's account of Auschwitz is distinguished from other survivors' narratives by the profundity of his observations into the mental life of prisoners. While several anecdotes accompany the "Experiences in a Concentration Camp," these serve to express and investigate the importance of hope, of hanging onto a sense of value and, despite everything to say 'Yes' to life. As with Viktor Klemperer's remarkable LTI, (previously reviewed for Netsurfer Books 05.04) the eventual writing of this book served Frankl as a goal which sustained him. Generalizing this lesson, Frankl developed a distinct school of psychotherapy which he describes in the second part of this book, "Logotherapy in a Nutshell." Essentially, the goal is to bring a patient to find and sustain a sense of higher purpose in life. Though this book concerns self help, there is nothing unrealistic or sentimental to be found here. Inspiration and dedication, he teaches, is the remedy for apathy and despair. [EG]

Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller

Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller Gregg Herken Owl Books; ISBN: 080506589X Robert J. Oppenheimer is my personal hero of the 20th century. A left-wing radical who personally fathered the atomic bomb. A man who read Sanskrit poetry in the original language who helped father the military-industrial complex. A man who fought for international control of atomic energy while fighting for his top military security clearance. In short a man of profound talent and deep personal conflict. Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and the recently departed Edward Teller had the most crucial roles in the development of atomic and thermonuclear weaponry. For a time they all worked together, and were even close friends, but by the time WWII ended their relationships had begun to shred and by the fifties they were in deep conflict. Not just a personal conflict but a conflict that played out in public and which shaped national nuclear policy for generations. Recent declassification of both US and Soviet archives shed light on much of what went on then, but for those familiar with the period these files mostly enlarge and enhance what was already known. During congressional hearings on Oppenheimer's loyalty Teller famously questioned his one-time collaborator's trustworthiness, losing Oppenheimer his security clearance and losing Teller the respect and friendship of many of his fellow scientists. [MA]

Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming

Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming Tom Athanasiou & Paul Baer Seven Stories Press; ISBN: 1583224777 This is an essential book, especially useful to read after the failure of the World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, Mexico. It posits the urgent need for an international commitment to reduce global warming if we are to prevent the deadly consequences of the increasing release of carbon into our atmosphere. The Bush Administration's withdrawal failed to kill the Kyoto Protocol, but the next stage must be developed now. Few can remain skeptical in the face of obvious, measurable evidence - record-breaking heat waves, floods, droughts, increasingly fierce hurricanes, melting glaciers and retracting polar icecaps. As the Cancun meetings showed, the southern countries no longer trust the countries of the northern hemisphere who want the freedom to sell their goods to poor countries and to extract their resources, but who refuse to terminate subsidies to their own producers or to curb their excessive use of fossil fuels. The challenge then is to make an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases radically that treats all nations fairly. Since northern hemisphere countries with 25% of the world's population emit 75% of the greenhouse gases, the authors argue that a just climate policy is one based on acceptance of the earth's atmosphere as a global commons with equal per capita emissions rights as the first step to achieve an overall reduction of emissions. They offer a concise demonstration of the problem and a fair, politically-savvy, constructive map for solution. We can't leave this one to our children and grandchildren. [CW]

The Soul of a New Machine

The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder Back Bay Books; ISBN: 0316491977 Picture a team of young rookie electrical engineers being thrown at a problem of unimaginable complexity that they will resolve in an unbelievably short amount of time simply because they don't know it "can't be done." Consider what it's like to be highly motivated (some may even say obsessed) simply by a personal desire to see a design evolve into a functioning product. Imagine this band of zealots going into work at any time, day or night, not because they have to, but because they want to. Add in 24-hour overtime insanity, working breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and you'll get disintegrating relationships along with your sleep deprivation. All of this for the love of the machine. Kidder captures the spirit of the development of Data General's "new" 32-bit minicomputer in the late 1970s. The before-desktop PC technology may be dated, but the human interaction still rings true, especially since the radical workplace commitment shown by this team twenty-five years ago is commonplace today. This exceptionally well-written and accurate accounting of life at DG will captivate you, making it difficult to put down. Kidder is a master in this highly recommended work. One of my top ten favorite books. [GB]

Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took over America and How We Can Take It Back

Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took over America and How We Can Take It Back Jane Holtz Kay University of California Press; ISBN: 0520216202 Have you ever pondered, while sitting in traffic breathing exhaust fumes, how it is that the country that produces some of the most sophisticated technology in the world lags far behind most other industrialized nations in efficient transportation? And if it's really sluggish traffic, you may have time to calculate the annual costs of buying, servicing, insuring, and fueling this vehicle whose convenience has diminished while the dangers associated with driving it increase? If this gives you pause, you'll find Asphalt Nation illuminating, as Jane Holtz Kay lays out how we got here and what solutions are underway. Kay, longtime architecture critic for The Nation, considers not just the health, environmental, and economic issues but the consequences to America's cities of paving over vast areas and wasting valuable space for the storage of cars all day. She assesses the damaging effect on the design of our towns and cities, where urban planning is based on the needs of cars rather than people. She notes the hypocrisy of huge subsidies for highway-building and airlines while our rail system is supposed to make a profit. It is understood, in countries with high speed rail systems, that efficient transportation is a public good, it benefits the economy, and it's well worth federal funding. Each chapter opens with a great photo and Kay is a lively writer. Strongly recommended. We need to deal with this! [CW]

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein Routledge; ISBN: 0415255627 Wittgenstein began this book in the trenches of World War I and completed it in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp. The slim masterwork calls into question whether philosophy can effectively address many of its central perennial concerns. Many of the tersely-written arguments cannot be understood without prior study of the writings of Frege, Russel and their contemporaries. Despite this, the remarkable clarity of Wittgenstein's writing enables a receptive reader to appreciate a significant portion of the text, even without much background in philosophy. The Tractatus concerns what one can meaningfully say about the world, how facts get represented in language. Wittgenstein describes the properties of a logically ideal language, perfectly precise in its expressive power. Even with this language, the argument goes, there are limits to the questions one can sensibly ask. Specifically, what these limits are precisely and what lies beyond them cannot be conceived. The famous closing passage "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" decries the futility of much metaphysical philosophy. This expresses a tantalizing mysticism in its enigmatic though precise rendering of the inexplicable. One is left with the sense that Wittgenstein has contradicted himself in that the Tractatus succeeds in evoking if not an understanding at least a sense of the inexpressible. [EG]

Albertus Seba Cabinet of Natural Curiosities

Albertus Seba Cabinet of Natural Curiosities Irmgard Musch, Albertus Seba TASCHEN America Llc; ISBN: 3822816000 Wow! It's difficult to convey through mere digital pictures or words on the Web the impact this book makes in real life. First of all, it is huge, 20" high by 13" wide, with 636 pages of the most beautiful and bizarre color illustrations you can imagine. Clearly this is a collector's item, and those of you who do collect books, or indeed who collect any sort of art, will want to seriously look into buying this volume despite its $150 price tag. Albertus Seba (1665-1736) was an Amsterdam pharmacist who collected animal and plant specimens from around the world. In 1731 he commissioned a four volume series of books containing illustrations of his massive collection. This book is a reproduction of one of the hand colored originals. It is filled with an admittedly ad-hoc but stunning collection of very vivid illustrations of plants, animals, and fish, some of them now extinct. It is no exaggeration to say that every page could on its own hang in an art gallery and garner rave reviews. At press time Amazon only had a measly three pictures, but the publisher's web site has more. All we can do is to encourage you to take a look, and if at all possible find a copy you can touch and experience without the filter of a computer screen - the visual impact in person is truly striking. [AB]

WWII: Two Reports from the Burma Campaign

The Marauders

The Marauders Charlton Ogburn, Jr Overlook Press; ISBN: 1585672343 Charlton Ogburn Jr knew well enough that if an assignment was desirable there was no need to ask for volunteers, but he really wanted to do his fighting in a warm climate. He got his wish. Merrill's Marauders were assigned an almost impossible task. To push back the Japanese in some of the most inhospitable jungles in the South Pacific, and to do so with minimal support, with nearly all supplies to be air-dropped in. The men were nearly all volunteers, some were combat veterans of brutal Pacific Island fighting, and others were either volunteering or headed to the brig. Their mission from General Stilwell was to help drive the Japanese out of Burma. They would fight alongside the Chinese, but the Chinese were poorly armed, poorly trained, and often of mixed allegiance. In a series of surprise flank attacks the Marauders succeeded in pushing back the numerically superior Japanese, but they were ultimately used up, creating something of a scandal in its day. This book documents their missions from the beginning until the unit nearly melted away. The Marauders reads like a movie, which of course had to be made by Sam Fuller. [MA]

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 Barbara Tuchman Grove Press; ISBN: 0802138527 "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell was a famous SOB, but he could get the job done. He was in charge of a neglected theater of war, with few resources and allies with distinctly mixed motivations. He drove the men fighting for him to the limit of their ability and beyond (see above). He drove his superiors crazy. Barbara Tuchman uses her portrait of the general to show us a neglected but critically important corner of history. She uses the man to show us the times, and the maddeningly slippery relationship between personality and history. Stilwell, Chennault and Chiang Kai Shek were allies and competitors. Great historical trends are at work and find their protagonists in these men. Like all of Tuchman's works this doesn't read like history, it is gripping and entertaining. It's only later you realize how much better informed you are having read it. The later wrenching controversies of "Who lost China" and "How did we get into Vietnam" find at least part of the answer here. Anyone with an interest in the times or place will enjoy. [MA]

Fiction

Effi Briest

Effi Briest Theodor Fontane Penguin USA; ISBN: 0140447660 What are the chances for a successful marriage between a bright, lively, beautiful girl of seventeen and a handsome, well-established, somewhat reserved man of forty? In this classic of German literature, made into a remarkably faithful film by R. W. Fassbinder, Theodor Fontane explores the question with verve and subtlety. His Effi Briest is an irrepressible but ambitious teenager when her loving, well-intentioned parents encourage the marriage proposal tendered by a former Hussar once in love with her mother. This strange fact gives the reader pause, and Effi's father is uneasy, but she herself is flattered and looks to a gratifying future as wife to a prosperous and influential man. Since he must serve out his term as provincial governor before going on to bigger things, Effi is brought to live in a strange house in a melancholy seaside town far from home, where she finds few friends. Fontane reveals the tension between a free spirit, charming, natural, intelligent but not intellectual, and the constraints imposed by social mores that govern even the loving parents who indulge her until she disregards those mores. Both child and parents fail to anticipate the consequences of trading her freedom, at age seventeen, for an ambitious marriage to a paragon of social tradition. Called the German Madame Bovary, this novel deals more tenderly with its heroine. [CW]

Perdido Street Station

Perdido Street Station China Miéville Del Rey Book/Random House, Inc.; ISBN: 0345459407 This science fiction-fantasy novel is set in another time on another world, of course, but if you think of mid-Victorian London complete with difference engines, flintlock guns and colorful Cockneys, you won't go far wrong. The hero is a churlish but lovable renegade scientist who believes that he can power a dynamo with the surplus psychic energy produced in "crisis" situations. His lover is a lady with the head of an ant. His sidekick is a man-sized raptorial bird whose wings have been sawed off for crimes committed. His main allies in the fight against evil are a giant "mad" spider god who flits unnervingly through time and space mumbling doggerel verse, and the city dump which has become selfconscious and assembled itself into a functional mechanism after being infected with a computer virus. The chief villains are some giant bat-like creatures who hypnotize folks and then suck out their minds. They are really bad. The cast is rounded out with man-sized frog-like folk who mostly work as longshoremen, some smaller bat- like folk who mostly work as couriers, various "Remade" folk, androids really, and various rather disgusting genetic anomalies. Plotwise, stuff happens, and then all is satisfactorily resolved in the last couple of chapters. 623 mindnumbing pages for $7.99. This is highly recommended for long plane flights or lonely nights in hotel rooms far from home. [WW]

The Kalahari Typing School for Men

The Kalahari Typing School for Men Alexander McCall Smith Pantheon; ISBN: 037542217X Somehow this novel manages to convey a fresh lightheartedness without disregarding some of the problems of contemporary Africa. At the local level, some of these problems are held at bay by the can-do will and intelligence of Mma Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Gabarone, Botswana. As Mma deals with the needs of her clients - lost or stolen children, errant husbands, a man who needs to search out the victims of his youthful misdeeds to make amends - she is confronted by an upstart rival, a blustering and evasive fellow, whose claims to superiority are based first upon his gender and then upon his experience of having lived in New York and worked as a policeman in Johannesburg. But he lacks her assiduousness and integrity. Our heroine's life is also complicated by the generosity of her admirable fiancé Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, who has unexpectedly agreed to provide foster care to a brother and sister orphaned by AIDS. Mma Ramotswe's assistant, who cares for her disabled brother and needs a larger salary than the detective agency can afford, finds a need and fills it (and provides the title to this book), and the professionalism of the heroine, a lady who reveres the traditional values of her country, anchors the novel. Although the fourth in a series, this novel can be enjoyed without having read the others. [CW]

Dreaming Pachinko

Dreaming Pachinko Isaac Adamson Dark Alley; ISBN: 0060516232 Really rather an odd sort of novel. Japanese magical realism? Psychedelic travelogue? This is the third Billy Chaka novel (although the first for me), and it rocks right along. Chaka is a correspondent for a Cleveland-based teen magazine called Youth in Asia (yes, yes, I know), hunting down a facially mauled has-been pop-star half-a-duo (the other half is dead) who has descended to pachinko parlor habitue for a "Where Are They Now" sort of story. He meets up with a woman with a strangely attractive mole who suffers an immediate seizure and then turns up dead. Her girlfriend befriends him, her boyfriend seemed to think she was somebody else, and then there's the ghost behind the welded-shut door downstairs. Meanwhile the city of Tokyo itself is the novel's counter-protagonist. Its violent past, chaotic present and uncertain future all intertwine with the characters and their actions. This is all great stuff, and has me hooked. I'm going to back-read the first two Chaka novels, and maybe by then there'll be a fourth. [MA]

A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success and a Very Large Rabbit

A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success and a Very Large Rabbit Marianne M. Jennings AMACOM; ISBN: 0814471978 Jimmy Stewart's Elwood Dowd may have had his "imaginary" rabbit friend Harvey, but in this story Edgar's rabbit Ari has more business savvy. Jennings has taken the ideals of business ethics and wrapped them around a parable for the new millennium. This is the story of Edgar and his imaginary ethos Ari. Throughout his life, Edgar was guided by Ari always to do what was right and just, but he constantly came in second to his friends who "maximized the odds" (cheated). After he graduates from college Edgar's old friends each get him one of a series of jobs where he uncovers dishonest practices. As his nature dictates, Edgar tries to get his friends to correct these problems but winds up quitting because they don't see the errors of their ways and his conscience (Ari) won't allow Edgar to continue. Edgar eventually impresses a funds manager with his sense of ethics and founds his own successful company to expose and correct the others' problems. He meets and marries the girl of his dreams, while the unscrupulous "friends" end up in jail. This book is obviously intended for business seminars or ethics classes and includes an extensive ending section providing thought-provoking discussion topics and questions. A charming story that that would hold your interest even if it were a simple fantasy novel, this book's message is loud and clear: "there is no happiness in a life scraped clean of integrity..." Destined to be a best seller. [GB]

The Penguin Complete Father Brown

The Penguin Complete Father Brown Gilbert Keith Chesterton Viking Press; ISBN: 014009766X I cannot fall asleep without reading. Most often I have an "upstairs book" I'm carrying on with, but occasionally find myself between readings and so keep a permanent collection of re-readable volumes within easy reach. G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories are always in that stack. Chesterton was an amateur Catholic theologian of some repute, and these very English detective stories all bear signs of that stigmata. And yet they do not suffer for it; rather they are enhanced, for Father Brown is not principally interested in bringing the transgressor to justice before the law, but rather to bringing the villain to his proper relationship with God. It gives these stories at times a curiously amoral effect. Like the great Sherlock Holmes, very often Brown forgoes the laws of man altogether, when he is satisfied that true justice has been done. The tales themselves partake of all that one could wish of the British whodunnit, and they are all of an easily digestible size, just the thing to encourage a gentle nodding off. [MA]

Impossible Places

Impossible Places Alan Dean Foster Del Rey; ISBN: 0345450418 According to Foster, when writers want a workout, they write short stories. How nice for us that he built up a good sweat with these nineteen brief exercises in fiction. Subject matter and plot lines run to exotic and, yes, even some impossible places. You'll never look at the hair on your brush the same way again after visiting Latin America in "Lay Your Head on My Pilose." It may not be long-dead Elvis spotted in a sleepy town off Highway 395 in "Diesel Dreams," but this gem provides a similar surprise. A very short and decidedly unsweetened "The Kiss" introduces us to a frog prince who is anything but charming. It's a bedtime story from which nightmares are made. Most pieces are in the ten to fifteen-page range, so it's easy to dip in for a quick and satisfying snack. There is even a short adventure about Flinx and his half-pint dragon Pip, characters familiar to those well read in the author's works. Foster has carried his craft to the short stuff with aplomb. A worthy read. [GB]

Aye, and Gomorrah: Stories

Aye, and Gomorrah: Stories Samuel R. Delany Vintage Books; ISBN: 0375706712 Delaney has been writing stories for well over 30 years, and many in this book are some of his classic shorts that have been published before. Regardless of their age or lineage, they hold up through the test of time. The prose remains quirkily effective, but there is no denying Delany's underlying talent to tell an engaging story of speculative fiction exploring the "human" element that exists in any setting. The title story is still very arousing in its overtly asexual theme and his early ideas about possible developments in human engineering explored in "Driftglass" are made more believable when juxtaposed with current technology. He also includes four previously uncollected pieces to round out this compilation of fifteen journeys that range in length from quite short to novella. The afterword finds Delany writing about Delany and the craft of writing, giving us a brief but fascinating glimpse into the mind of an artist. No collection could be considered well rounded without something by Samuel Delany. This would be a good choice. [GB]

Worlds Enough & Time : Five Tales of Speculative Fiction

Worlds Enough & Time : Five Tales of Speculative Fiction Dan Simmons Eos; ISBN: 0060506040 Since his first short story was published in 1982 as a result of winning the Rod Serling Memorial Award in the Twilight Zone Magazine Short Fiction contest, Dan Simmons hasn't looked back. Fortunately for science fiction fans he continues to look far forward, and he has garnered accolades (including a Hugo) for his efforts. In this collection of five novellas, Simmons shows that it doesn't take 300 pages to tell a compelling story: apparently it only takes about 50. These stories range from mountain climbing action adventure (including an alien twist) with "On K2 with Kanakaredes" to mutual death stalking between an alcoholic teacher and his goddess-like ex-student in "Looking For Kelly Dahl." There's even a short visit to the Hyperion universe in "Children of the Helix." Simmons provides his usual comfortable prose that flows the story across your mind like a fine wine upon your tongue. A very enjoyable respite from the epic novel, this vintage speculative fiction would be at home on any bookshelf. [GB]

Empire of Dreams and Miracles: The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology

Empire of Dreams and Miracles: The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology Orson Scott Card (Editor), Keith Olexa (Editor), Lawrence M. Krauss Phobos Books; ISBN: 097200260X It's very safe to sample a collection of short stories by an already-appreciated author, but there is nothing quite like venturing into an anthology of carefully-selected new talent. This collection contains twelve stories chosen from over 200 submissions to the 2001 Phobos Fiction Contest and is the first foray into publishing for Phobos Books. Thank you Phobos for some truly fascinating looks at alternate possibilities and realities to come. Virtual communication is taken to the extreme in "22 Buttons." Invisible soldiers in "They Go Bump" find out that invisibility is a two-edged sword. "Great Theme Prisons" makes so much sense it's funny AND scary. Not bad for a bunch of rookie authors, judges, and publishers. The stories are first rate, and run about twenty (large type) pages, on average. Each includes a short introductory paragraph by Card, and there are short biographies of the authors and the panel of judges in the back. Expect to see more by these up and coming new talents. Truly terrific. [GB]

Computers and The Internet

eBay Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools

eBay Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools David A. Karp O'Reilly & Associates; ISBN: 0596005644 Continuing to add to their terrific hacks series O'Reilly takes on everybody's favorite online bazaar. These days eBay is a very complex beast and it can pay off - literally in real cash - if you know its more obscure nooks and crannies. This book will certainly expose you to many of the less well known aspects of eBay. It covers feedback, searching, bidding, selling, working with graphics, running a full blown business on eBay, and the more esoteric technology of the eBay programming interface. Pair this book up with one of our earlier recommendations, the best selling " Starting an eBay Business for Dummies," and you can confidently go off to try and supplement your income on the service. [AB]

Children's Books

Hands

Hands Lois Ehlert Harcourt Brace & Company; ISBN: 015201506X Here's a satisfying book about hand work, its cute cover in the shape of work gloves, with measuring stick, screws and nuts at the bound edge. It's a playfully tactile book that requires hand work to peruse its illustrations. Clear, simple photos on bright flat backgrounds show the bird house the young narrator's father has built and the pencil and measuring stick he used to plan it. His care in planning it is noted and the narrator tells how his (her?) father is teaching the use of hammer, nails, paint and mother is teaching the use of scissors and materials for sewing, making clothes and toys. There are inviting photos of the tools one can use to imagine and create a cat toy, for example, and a description of the child's own work space and scraps of material for projects. And then the story moves outside, where the child helps the parents by weeding the flower and vegetable garden. I like this book for making clear that although there may be a division of labor between the parents, the child can learn from both and choose his or her own direction (if more of us worked with our hands, doing even the smallest of creative projects, we'd probably be happier!). This book pleases me greatly - a good one for kids three to six. [CW]

Break a Leg!: The Kid's Guide to Acting and Stagecraft

Break a Leg!: The Kid's Guide to Acting and Stagecraft Lise Friedman, Mary Dowdle (Photographer), Julia Stiles Workman Publishing Company; ISBN: 0761122087 Everybody knows one. The kid who was just born to be in the spotlight. They strut and fret upon the living room stage and amaze assorted aunts with their theatrical personality. You might as well go with the flow and buy the kid this book. It's an astonishingly packed little volume which touches on literally every aspect of theater production. Yes, of course, there are all the little bits about knowing stage right from stage left, emoting a death scene, taking the final bow, and the ever popular "Fake Kissing". But the book goes much further. There are sections on an amazing variety of things which go on behind the scenes: makeup, lighting, creating scenery, props, wardrobe. It gets better. The book has a whole chapter on film editing, and sections on doing commercials, voice overs, and even showbiz related print work. And what theatrical manual would be complete without information about dealing with agents, casting directors, and unions. Yep, a kid's book that mentions unions. The book is a capsule overview of the whole theatrical biz aimed squarely at the pre-adolescent diva-in-the-making, of either sex. Last but not least, this being the 21st century there's an extensive listing of related web sites. Heck, an adult who wants to break into the theatrical biz would be hard pressed to find a better guide then this book. [AB]

Mary Smith

Mary Smith Andrea U'Ren Farrar, Straus and Giroux; ISBN:0374348421 As recently as the 1920s in England, before alarm clocks were common, there were still people employed by their neighbors to wake them in time for work. Andrea U'Ren has based her charmingly-illustrated book on the actual work of one Mary Smith, a "knocker-up" who went out early each work day with a pea-shooter and pocket watch to shoot dried peas at the bedroom windows of those who paid her to wake them. If they didn't show themselves to prove they were up, she aimed another pea at their window to make sure she'd got them out of bed. Besides provoking thought about how we do such basic things as wake up in time for work or school, this attractive book conveys the kinds of work done by various people in the village. It opens with a 1927 photograph of the real Mary Smith on a cobbled street aiming her peashooter toward an upstairs window, which gives it a historical authenticity I think kids will appreciate. The handsome paintings show a village under the stars when Mary first goes out, sunrise by the time she reaches the mayor's house, early morning at the market when Mary stops for a bun, and full day when she gets home only to find her own child still snuggled under the covers (but with a funny surprise ending). [CW]

Rootabaga Stories, Part One

Rootabaga Stories, Part One Carl Sandburg Odyssey Classics; ISBN: 0152690654 This collection of strangely-spun abbreviated tales won't make much sense to anyone old enough to have learned how stories should be told. Each chapter invents its own rules and plays them out. Characters with funny names explain or discover how things work in the Village of Liver and Onions. The dialog, too, is stylized and unique to each situation and character. Sandburg strings together sequences of non sequiturs with such cleverness that they somehow make sense. As cautionary tales, misadventures, accounts of great deeds - the stories are too short and simple to convince an older child. For five year olds, or so, the charm of the language and the brevity of the stories make for an ideal read-aloud bedtime story. One or two fine pen and ink illustrations accompany each chapter. Their simplicity and quirky content complement and clarify the situations which otherwise might baffle the child hearing the story. The rest of the Rootabaga Stories are found in Rootabaga Stories, Part Two. These stories are best for children who delight in whimsical situations, the humor of juxtaposing the unexpected or impossible with ordinary life. [EG]

Bedknob and Broomstick

Bedknob and Broomstick Mary Norton Viking Childrens Books; ISBN: 0140304452 The greatest challenge faced in this fine children's book is how to take full advantage of opportunities while they are within reach. The protagonists are three siblings who are spending the summer with a strict aunt in the English countryside. The story begins when the youngest child, Paul, informs his siblings one night that something is moving in the garden. They investigate and find their neighbor Miss Price has fallen off her broom and twisted her ankle. Miss Price hasn't quite mastered witchcraft yet. To Paul's disappointment, she doesn't perform a wicked spell to keep the children quiet about what they've discovered. Instead the children promise to keep her secret in exchange for an enchanted object: a bed-knob. Unlike the mediocre Disney movie derived from this book, the children's misadventures are episodic, centered on children's concerns more than cinematic storytelling. The children can go wherever they want and are left to their own devices. This leads to dangerous situations and narrow escapes. The only trouble the children ultimately face is losing their opportunity to have further adventures. Fortunately for the kids (and the reader), Miss Price doesn't have much good adult sense - almost as if being a witch makes her less prone to restrict the children's curiosity and activity. Children appreciate this absence of moralizing, and rightly so. From a child's perspective consequences, even when serious, are often more impediments to the pursuit of fun than something to learn from. Precious few fantasy stories allow kids the freedom to pursue fun with impunity. [EG]