Search Now:

Netsurfer Digest The Web's Oldest E-Zine. http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/

Netsurfer Free Trial Sign up for a free 30 day trial subscription to Netsurfer e-zines! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Editor's Choice

The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change

The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change Charles Wohlforth North Point Press; ISBN: 0865476594 So far, the earth's people most affected by global warming are the Eskimos of Barrow and other Alaskan coastal towns and villages where, since the 1950s, the average annual temperature has increased by 7 degrees F. With shorter winters, earlier springs, less densely-frozen ice, and melting permafrost, their lives are changing. In the absence of the extensive sea ice that provided a buffer for their towns, fiercer storms are reaching and eroding the shoreline, destroying houses, making fishing and whaling more dangerous. And scientists are coming to the Arctic to measure and study these consequences of the accelerating burning of fossil fuels and growing release of carbon dioxide into earth's atmosphere, trapping the sun's heat (think SUVs, coal-burning power plants, increasing auto use around the world). Charles Wohlforth, a lifelong Alaskan and a sharp observer, brings together in this book a look at how scientists are studying the global warming phenomenon and how Eskimos understand and are coping with its consequences. His interviews with members of the Barrow Eskimo community convey how they, like their predecessors for 150 years, are adjusting their lives to new conditions, learning to use new tools, but are recovering elements of their traditional culture at the same time as they deal with the influx of scientists and aspects of mainstream culture at odds with their traditions. A scary but fascinating story. [CW]

History, Biography, Society

Before Lewis and Clark: The Story of the Chouteaus, the French Dynasty that Ruled America's Frontier

Before Lewis and Clark: The Story of the Chouteaus, the French Dynasty that Ruled America's Frontier Shirley Christian Farrar, Straus & Giroux; ISBN: 0374110050 Except for New Orleans history, one hears little about the French in the U.S. in the 18th century. Shirley Christian's book is the engrossing story of the French founders of St. Louis and Kansas City, several generations of the family of Auguste Chouteau who established an extensive business based on trade in furs with the Plains Indians. Well before Lewis and Clark made their way up the Missouri, Chouteau had established trading posts throughout the Louisiana territory, eventually reaching from the Arkansas River all the way to Fort Union at the confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone near the Canadian border, with the great rivers as the mode of transportation. The Chouteau family's assistance to Lewis and Clark produced life-long friendship. Unlike many of the westward pioneers of later generations, they established good relations with the Indians, based not on fear but mutual interest and respect. They learned Indian languages and skills and made friends with various tribes, especially the Osages. As the village the Chouteau family founded grew to a city, so did their ability to shift between life on the open plains and running an international business, building and furnishing homes, seeing to their children's education. They gracefully finessed changes from French to Spanish to U.S. control of the territory in which they made their business. After the first steamboat made its way from New Orleans to St. Louis, they had steamboats built to travel the extent of the Missouri River, taking along the artists George Catlin in 1832 and Karl Bodmer in 1833, both of whom who gave us magnificent portraits of Plains Indians. A rewarding book. [CW]

Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War

Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War T.J. STILES Vintage; ISBN: 0375705589 The period immediately following the US Civil War, known as the era of Reconstruction, suffers from being far less romantic than the Civil War era. There are far fewer books and memoirs of this era, and yet in terms of its impact on the society of today it is of surprisingly critical importance. This biography of the notorious outlaw of the period takes the reader through the era by following the career of its most famous criminal. This is not simply a literary device however; the author considers James's notoriety to be directly tied to the political changes and crisis of the times. Indeed he considers James to be a model for the successful "terrorist" of today. Jesse James and his brother Frank participated in the most heinous of the partisan outrages committed in Kansas and Missouri during war, riding in the Quantrill and Anderson gangs of bushwhackers. When the war was over they did not fade away, but continued the fight to keep the Negro subservient, and to subvert the gains hard fought for by the North. The fighting was not just with guns, but also with words. James himself wrote dozens of self-aggrandizing letters, and he was aided by sympathetic newspaper writers and editors. His exploits were an important element in the eventual dismemberment of Negro voting and property rights, and the rolling back of many social policies enacted by the Federal government. In the end he died as he lived, but he was more victorious than he has been given credit for. [MA]

Once A Grand Duke

Once A Grand Duke Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia Farrar & Rinehart, 1932

Always A Grand Duke

Always A Grand Duke Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia Farrar & Rinehart, 1933 I write this as another in my series of very out-of-print books that ought to be in print. I picked Once a Grand Duke off its dusty shelf because the title and the title of its companion volume made me laugh. After finishing the first volume I had to applaud. There is a photograph of the Grand Duke in the frontispiece that speaks the first thousand words of this memoir. He stands in front of a railroad car in the simple military tunic of Russia's World War I Air Force, which he founded and commanded. His cap is tilted just to the right, his stance a trifle off center, cigarette in holder dangling at his side, and some sort of whistle or device hanging from a lanyard in his left hand. The eyes laugh. A man born to wealth and power, but one who has not been crushed by it, like his doomed first cousin the last Czar of Russia, Nicolas II. Alexander was born in 1866 and was there with Nicky at the deathbed of Nicky's father the murdered Czar Nicolas I, and he coolly observed that nine of those present were to be shot by the Bolsheviks 37 years later. An unrepentant monarchist, the Grand Duke Alexander was not a dunderhead reactionary. He could see with his own eyes, and he was there at the seat of power during an era of catastrophic change to see the rise of the anarchists, the assassinations, the First World War, the Bolsheviks' rise to power, and the fall of imperial Russia. Every student of this era should read Alexander's analysis of the causes of the war, and the end of the dynasties. Readers of memoir will find themselves reading out passages aloud of his droll wit and keen observations. [MA]

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival Dean King Little Brown & Company; ISBN: 0316835145 In 1815 the trading ship Commerce was wrecked on the shore of Saharan Western Africa. This was an area feared and dreaded by sailors as being populated by wild cannibal savages. They were not so very far wrong. True cannibalism was unknown, but the nomadic desert Muslim tribesmen of the area considered the Christian whites to be little better than animals, their only value as slaves, or perhaps as hostages to be redeemed for money. This is of course somewhat ironic, in that the traders were often involved in the slave trade themselves. The 12 crewman of the Commerce were split up and bartered between various sub-clans of the tribes that found them wandering without food and water in the desert. The captain persuaded his owner that he and his crew were worth a substantial reward if they could be delivered to the Consul in Swearah Morocco. What follows is a trek of almost unbelievable misery. They are given almost no food, and barely enough water to survive weeks of tramping across blazing desert rocks and sand. The closer they get the more dangerous become the inhabitants of the lands they must cross through. In the end their owner and the consul's assistant double- and triple-cross various powerful figures to get the captives to freedom. A few others of their crew were later rescued, and several disappeared forever. The captain wrote of his adventures, his book a huge best seller of its era, admired by all including the future president Abraham Lincoln. That memoir forms the basis of this expanded history, which itself reads like a ripping adventure tale. [MA]

Evolution of Nuclear Strategy

Evolution of Nuclear Strategy Lawrence Freedman Palgrave Macmillan; ISBN: 0333972392 In the post-Cold War era it would seem that the study of superpower nuclear strategy is mostly an academic exercise. To some extent that may be true, but this denies the overwhelming importance of considering a period of time when two opposing forces could easily obliterate the fabric of society over most of the planet. While almost universally acknowledging the unthinkable tragedy of a nuclear war, the Cold War strategists also were driven to think about fighting and winning nuclear conflicts. One can perhaps take some comfort in knowing the vast majority of the thinking was all about limiting the damage and in deterring such a war in the first place. Lawrence Freedman has produced an exhaustive history of nuclear strategic thinking, mostly from the U.S. and NATO point of view, delving now and then into the still scarce Soviet and Chinese material on the subject. Nuclear strategy in the superpower era posed the kind of problems which no nation had ever faced before. The search for a solution to the nuclear dilemma - how to survive the unthinkable - produced innovations not only in military thought, but also in diplomacy, in military-industrial complex management, and even in mathematics (e.g. game theory). The book is extensively researched - the bibliography alone runs to over 40 pages - and for an academic history of an esoteric subject it is surprisingly readable. The final chapter addresses the problems of nuclear strategy when there is no fundamental nuclear tension between the superpowers, and when the major threats are from so called "rogue states". An academic book about a little appreciated subject, but much more engrossing then you may think. [AB]

Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia

Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia Ingrid Betancourt Ecco; ISBN: 0060008903 I understand why this book became a best seller in France. Though a biography, it offers more dramatic tension than most fiction. Betancourt engagingly tells the story of her life and entry into politics in Colombia. Her parents held office themselves and instilled a conviction for integrity and perseverance. As Betancourt launched into her work to aid in reforming Colombia, she had no idea the depth of corruption, cynicism, and challenging adversaries she would have to confront. Colombia is infamous for its drug cartels, guerrilla uprising, and government-sponsored right wing paramilitary death squads. This book makes it clear Colombia also has a timid press, if not to say completely in the pocket of the entrenched parties. The common folk of Colombia haven't had good prospects for a long time. Betancourt ran a series of escalating campaigns for political office. Her platform was consistently an uncompromising confrontation with government corruption. This made her few friends in the long run, but in the short run, all sorts of two-faced characters made alliances with her. OK, in some way this book is a page turner and Betancourt is somewhat given to melodrama. The contrast of her personal sacrifice and activism to the banal ingenuity of her craven opponents is genuinely inspiring. If you are tired of politics as usual and would like to see how a single person can make a difference, pick up this one. [EG]

Toward the Livable City

Toward the Livable City Emilie Buchwald, Editor Milkweed Editions; ISBN: 1571312714 We may think we haven't the time or resources to improve our neighborhood or our town, but this is a cop-out and we and our children pay for it by tolerating noise, dangerous traffic, urban blight, and too few oases of calm and green. What's more important, finally, than making the place you live as pleasing as possible? Here we read of towns and cities that, often sparked by just a few people, have found solutions to traffic problems, affordable housing, inadequate public transportation, or urban sprawl. Portland, Oregon is one such success story, where the city turned the freeway along the river into a park, replaced auto traffic with light rail, and converted a decaying industrial neighborhood into housing, with the locally-owned shops and cafes that make a neighborhood walkable and give it character. Or Curitiba, Brazil, where the mayor had the vision to see that buying up land adjacent to the river and making it parkland would absorb flood water more effectively than channelizing it and dumping all its accumulated pollution into the sea. Minneapolis has converted its obsolete industrial area along the Mississippi to vibrant new uses. Boston has cleaned up its harbor by installing a state-of-the-art water treatment plant and funneling auto traffic under the river. One of the contributors is Ken Avidor, a cartoonist whose concise and funny comic strip Roadkill Bill conjures the madness of commute hour traffic, road rage, the planning of U.S. cities for cars rather than humans. Howard Kunstler has the last word, in a thought-provoking piece about what we can expect in this century as oil supplies dwindle and it becomes less cost-effective to drill. This is an engrossing book worth the time of anyone who cares about their environment. [CW]

T. A. Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone

T. A. Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone Hakim Bey Semiotext(e); ISBN: 1570271518 This volume collects remarkable and eclectic essays that articulate a workable anarchist strategy for our times. The title essay is the crown of this book. The TAZ is a vision of social organization devoted to freedom which is not an abstract end, a pot of gold at the end of a steep rainbow of revolutionary struggle. Bey draws together historic anecdote and evocative comparisons to elaborate his argument: Utopias are transient though no less real or worth striving to join. Society as it should be can be formed spontaneously and invisibly to those who would crush it, crash the party or cash in on it. The other essays included in this book were originally short pamphlets. The style borders on prose poetry which will challenge many readers. One used to poetry and philosophy and found Bey's message clear, provocative, and dense with dangerous ideas. Written from the late 1980s through to the early 1990s, the author presciently described the growing importance of information technology. At the same time, he asserts that technology itself is of little importance—it's what we do with our lives that matters. Bey terms his aim 'Ontological Anarchy,' rather spiritual than cut and dry. Best of all, the book is forward-looking with only brief reference to the inward (rather boring) focus of other anarchist writers. I re-read portions of this book often. [EG]

21 Days to Baghdad: A Chronicle of the Iraq War

21 Days to Baghdad: A Chronicle of the Iraq War Journalists of Reuters Reuters Books; ISBN: 013143165X Now that major combat is over (insert laugh track here) we can revisit the three-week offensive to remove the government of Saddam Hussein. From March 20th through April 9, 2003 coalition forces pounded Iraqi positions until tanks rolled in and symbolically toppled a statue of Saddam in a central Baghdad square. Traveling with military forces, imbedded reporters, photographers, and other members of world media outlets documented nearly every move. Reuters has compiled scores of photographs from their staff and organized them into a day-by-day accounting of these harrowing times. They cover events leading up to the "liberation" of the Iraqi people and wonderfully illustrate the effects felt by both sides throughout the conflict. Each chapter is introduced with a textual narration of major events of that particular day, and each photograph contains a brief caption describing its contents. Regardless of your support for or opposition to the war, that it happened is historical fact, and this fleeting moment is brilliantly captured between the covers of this lavish coffee table book. [GB]

A Short Survey of Surrealism

A Short Survey of Surrealism David Gascoyne City Lights; ISBN: 0872861376 History written close to the events it chronicles rarely escapes from the times. Gascoyne's book, written in 1935, is more a document of the surrealist period than an assessment from afar. The reader follows the development of the surrealist movement and is introduced to key ideas, written works, and images. The illustrations are excellent, though not what have since become the most famous images. The selection of translated poetry throughout the text and at the end is also outstanding. Gascoyne's enthusiasm and insight pull together disparate characters and aspects of the period. Surrealism had from its beginnings political, aesthetic, and theoretical aspects, all flying in the face of traditional values and sensibilities. To many, surrealism meant an effort to efface the distinction between dream and reality, to do away with the limitations of sanity and morality—at least in their art. The survey mentions many works of art and literature in the context of the times and the interaction of the artists. When I read this book years ago, I followed up many of the references and have never been sorry I did. The book is lively, informative, and concise. Surrealism was a brief explosion of twisted, irreverent and often shocking creativity. You will enjoy this immersing tour. [EG]

Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975

Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975 Patrick Rosenkranz Fantagraphics Books; ISBN: 1560974648 I remember surreptitiously reading National Lampoon when I was an adolescent. It was one of the publications I read that was carefully hidden from my parents until I reached my late teens. This self-imposed rule was mostly due to the illustrations and comics pages (Cheech Wizard, for example) that were, to say the least, over the top. (Refreshingly distasteful is probably more appropriately descriptive.) Little did I know that these were just the tip of the iceberg of underground comix. Rosenkranz has collected hundreds of representative examples of a genre that defies description. These are not the Sunday funny pages. They are raw, explicit, quirky, probably drug-induced and undoubtedly offensive to many. This coffee table book (keep it away from the kiddies) is divided into chapters covering two-year increments of the genre's heyday from 1963 through 1975. The illustrations and descriptive text provide insight into the background and social influences of artists such as Spain Rodriguez, Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Lynch, Art Spiegelman and many, many others. The last chapter "Where They Are Today" tells just that. A terrific book: wonderful, yet somehow disturbing. [GB]

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating Fergus Henderson Ecco; ISBN: 0060585366 This is emphatically not a book for the casual cook. Yes, it's all about using every bit of your basic animal as food, but it is also about the little known techniques used to prepare them. For example, consider the art of the confit: you basically marinate the meat in rendered fat from the beast in question. Some of these recipes take up to two weeks to come to fruition, so clearly this is not stuff for on-the-go amateurs. What's more, you'll have trouble finding a lot of the ingredients used to prepare these meals unless you have an intimate relationship with your local butcher - do you even know if you have a local butcher? The book is not all meat, since it does include good sections on preparing stocks, soups, fish, and so on. Overall, it's a good guide to the outer limits of the culinary landscape for the curious cook looking for a challenge. [AB]

The Unauthorized Guide to Choosing a Church

The Unauthorized Guide to Choosing a Church Carmen Renee Berry Brazos Press; ISBN: 1587430363 Social norms are changing faster than line widths on integrated circuits. People change as they incorporate more and different life experiences. Adapting to these changes is hugely difficult for organized religion. Many rise to the challenge and update their approach to better meet the needs of their congregations. Others retain their traditional practices. The overriding question for folks looking for guidance is "which one is right for me?" Berry has taken the mystery out of the practices of the various branches of Christian faith. At a minimum, this is a readable reference for comparative Christianity, written in a friendly, witty prose. It also provides extensive insight into the historical foundations, traditions, and practices of the most common denominations. The first section illustrates a process for sorting through approaches to spirituality, basic terminology, and evaluating personal needs. Section two describes churches by denominational groupings and organizes them according to worship styles and historic sequence. A handy reference section at the end provides contact information, size, founding dates, and whether or not women can be ordained. If you are simply curious or truly open for a change in Christian spiritual practice, this is the only reference you'll ever need. [GB]

Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction

Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction Nick Montfort MIT Press; ISBN: 0262134365 Will Crowther and Don Woods are generally credited with the invention of what is now known as "interactive fiction". Crowther wrote the original text-based game Adventure ("You are in a twisty maze of passageways, all alike....") in 1972, and Woods greatly expanded Adventure into the classic familiar to most early players. There have been countless successors to the game, notably Infocom's highly influential Zork series. Modern descendants like Neverwinter Nights embed a compelling interactive story within a gorgeous graphical package. This book is new major academic treatment of this type of storytelling as a form of literature. Fortunately, Nick Montfort keeps the tone light and short on obtuse literary-theory jargon, and tells an entertaining and thoughtful story of how interactive fiction made the leap from geek pastime to commercial success, and how it ultimately evolved into the tremendously varied forms in which it manifests today. This book is worth getting just for the extensive list of references to interactive fiction works, many of which you can even find online. [AB]

History of Medicine

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of The Deadliest Plague in History

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of The Deadliest Plague in History John M. Barry Viking Penguin; ISBN: 0670894737 The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 probably started in rural Haskell County, Kansas, in January of 1918 and quickly infected the U.S. Army troops mobilizing for The World War at nearby Camp Funston. The troops from Funston dispersed to other Army posts around the United States carrying the infection with them. The Army carried the infection on to Europe and from there it spread to the rest of the world, sweeping around the globe three times before it finally died out in Australia in the first months of 1920. No one really knows how many people this influenza killed, but the consensus of epidemiologists is that about 100 million out of a world population of about 1.8 billion is a good guess. (Compare 100,000,000 out of 1,800,000,000 in 24 months to the death toll from AIDS: about 25,000,000 out of a current world population of 6,000,000,000 in 24 years, for a sense of the magnitude of the devastation: roughly four times as many dead in a population one third the size in one twelfth the time.) It is possibly somewhat comforting, now, to recall that probably half of the doctors in the United States and Europe in 1918 still didn't really believe in the "germ theory" of disease and treated their patients accordingly. That was then, and this is now. But, even now, are we much better prepared? The influenza viruses mutate very, very rapidly which makes the preparation of vaccines a slow and chancy affair. There is still no known cure for viral influenza, and treatment for the bacterial pneumonia which usually follows is dependent on antibiotics whose effectiveness is rapidly deteriorating. In a nutshell, that's what this book is about. Recommended. [WW]

Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis

Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis Deborah Hayden Basic Books; ISBN: 0465028810 It wasn't all that long ago when the worst thing a casual tryst could yield was guilt, a child, an easily-cured reminder of your indiscretions, or any combination thereof. Then came herpes and HIV. Now the consequences of casual sex can be as extreme as they were half a millennium ago, long prior to modern antibiotics. Syphilis was the AIDS of the past five centuries: it was mysterious, debilitating and incurable. In this eminently readable book, Hayden shows us that the history and progression of the disease is also morbidly fascinating. She begins with a brief medical description of the disease and some of the early ineffective (and in retrospect, entertaining) treatments. Hayden also suggests syphilis' possible origins in the new world. (It seems that Columbus' crew returned to Europe with several billion of their newfound intimate friends.) Later chapters explore 19th and 20th century historical figures with an eye towards forensic evidence that much of their troubles were due to rampant syphilitic infection. Such luminaries as Beethoven, Mary Todd Lincoln, van Gogh, Joyce and Hitler are examined. This is not mere rumor-mongering. The citations are well researched, explained and documented, with copious notes, bibliography and index sections. Hayden never talks down to the reader; she uses proper medical and scientific terminology, but it is in no way overwhelming. This is one pox you do want to catch. [GB]

Fiction

The Murder Room

The Murder Room P.D. JAMES Knopf; ISBN: 1400041414 P. D. James is the gold standard of the British murder mystery. I bought this volume in the airport bookstore during a layover on a vacation trip to the Caribbean. I did not put it down until nearly midnight the next day. This contains all the classic elements of the genre—the isolated house, the ghoulish museum, the battling siblings, and a sharp undercurrent of sex and betrayal. In any other author one might feel a twinge of cliché, but not with James. As with all of her mysteries the story is driven by its characters; you are not so much consumed with the mysteries of the plot, but with the mysteries of their souls. If you can understand the motivations of the suspects, then the murderer becomes visible as well. Inspector Adam Dalgleish is on hand, and he finds himself struggling to balance his life between love and career, and even his poetry and his career, and yet his professionalism will not allow him to cut corners with the case at hand. Dalgleish's observational powers are key to his success, and the power of his descriptions, and of James' detailed observations of the novel's surroundings, are one of the chief pleasures of the book. This author takes her own time in the writing of her mysteries; this is her first since 2001. Read it, and join the world-wide wait for the next . . . [MA]

The Zenith Angle

The Zenith Angle Bruce Sterling Del Rey/Ballantine/Random House; ISBN:0345460618 As you are reading a book review online it probably means that you are a geeky sort of person and, if so, probably already familiar with Bruce Sterling's social and cultural commentaries published in Wired magazine, his work as a futurist consultant to megacorporations, and his science fiction stories and novels. Basically all of Sterling's work involves looking at where we and our technologies are now, and where we will both be in the not-too-distant future. He is an insightful observer and his predictions seem better than most. That's what this, his newest novel, is about: where we are and where we are going. It is set in the weeks following 9/11. The hero, Derek "Van" Vanveeder, is a software engineer and internet security expert, generally acknowledged the best in his field. His plucky wife Dottie is, not surprisingly, a brilliant astronomer. They have a cute baby, Ted. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Van is recruited by the government to prevent cyberterrorism and take care of some other security chores in the Star Wars line. The principal villain is a dot.com billionaire who went broke when the bubble burst. The supporting cast of assistant heros and villains is mostly comprised of various kinds of really spooky government spooks. Lots of stuff happens. Some blood is shed. In the end, Van and the white hat hackers come blazing through, the villains are foiled, truth and justice prevail. This is an entertaining read with a fair amount of really interesting speculation about some of the weirder things that might be happening down in the black bowels of our government's security apparatus. Highly recommended to all geeks and science fiction fans, but not to those already seriously battling paranoia. [WW]

Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp

Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp Donald Goines Holloway House Pub Co; ISBN: 0870679945 This "semi-autobiographical" novel by Donald Goines was the first of his seventeen novels of black ghetto life. He wrote this one while he was still in prison; he was finishing his final novel when he was shot dead at his typewriter. There's not a lot of uplift here; this isn't an amusing tale of colorful ghetto characters battling their way to a tidy conclusion. This is a book that will put readers into a place it is unlikely they have ever been. Whoreson Jones grew up on the laps of prostitutes, and learned how the game worked from his earliest days. His one ambition was to be a successful pimp, and at that he succeeded. He carefully studied and practiced all the psychological tricks and physical threats he used to break a woman down so that she would put herself out on the streets to make him his money. No relationship meant a thing to him, except as a tool to further his business. Cruelty was a virtue; sentiment was for suckers. Goines' writing is fast and brutal, and nearly impossible to put down. Reading him is like being inside a 70s-era blaxploitation film, and indeed several of his novels were made into movies including the recently released, well regarded, but rapidly disappeared Never Die Alone. [MA]

The Plutonium Blonde

The Plutonium Blonde John Zakour, Lawrence Ganem DAW Books; ISBN: 0756400066 Zachary Johnson is the last private detective on Earth in 2057. He shares his skull with a super-intelligent and, tragically, wise-cracking computer called HARV. Johnson's working for B.B. Starr, the ex-exotic dancer who is CEO of ExShell, who hired him to find her missing robotic double. Naturally, the android duplicate is smarter and stronger than any human and is, of course, a homicidal maniac. The cool cover alone (who can resist a flying toaster?) should clue you in on where the story leads - it's a hilarious send-up of hard-boiled detective fiction in an unholy mind meld with the pulp SF paperbacks of yore. The puns and jokes - some of them atrociously bad - fly thick and fast and make the book a delight to read. If you like the goofy fun found in this book, you won't want to miss the further adventures of Zachary Johnson and HARV in " The Doomsday Brunette". [AB]

The Organ Grinders

The Organ Grinders Bill Fitzhugh HarperTorch; ISBN: 0380798352 This one, a satire about an entrepreneur out to make his fortune in human organ procurement and "harvesting" who sees promise in new bio-technology procedures, brings to mind Edward Abbey's The Monkey-Wrench Gang. Full of schemes for fast bucks and angst over the many ways humans are wrecking their own habitat, the novel also tracks idealist Paul Symon, who's beginning to see that his years of legal protests against environmental depredations have been ineffectual, and his beautiful and athletic girlfriend Georgette, who shares his concerns but not his methods. Fitzhugh, who can get laughs out of some unpromising situations, gives us a biotech-thriller (as the movie producer exclaims towards the end of the book when presented with the concept for a movie based on its story). His sharp-edged satire exposes characters in the organ transplant and bio-tech business motivated more by greed than any desire to serve humanity, and he serves up some gratifying justice to very-deserving megalomaniacs willing to do just about anything to get very rich. Thrills and chills on this ride. [CW]

Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Part 1

Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Part 1 Richard F. Burton Kessinger Publishing Company; ISBN: 0766134229 In my teens, I read as much fantasy as I could get my hands on, mostly from paperback racks at local libraries and book stores. The Thousand Nights and a Night marked the absolute highlight of my fantasy reading. I bought a collection of the most famous tales—you know: the voyages of Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, etc. The stories in faithful translation exceeded all my expectations. What has reached us of these stories? Mostly Popeye and Disney cartoons and their like! I understand the original includes primarily folk tales of Persia. In Burton's translation you find beautifully-rendered poetry and the lustre of exotic places and people, boundless possibility and power, with room for adventure and the effectiveness of those with courage, virtue, and intelligence. This is definitely not a children's book! Sexual violence and such topics are treated with a discreet distance, though there is quite a bit that is lewd and—to a modern reader—offensively racist. Some years later I discovered the complete translation in my university's library. Here were thousands of pages of glorious stories, of unique variety and scope. Many tales feature stories themselves—sometimes one finds oneself reading a story in a story several levels deep. The edition I recommend is a reproduction of the first volume of this series. While the most famous sections appear in later volumes, the initial stories are excellent and the initial context fills out all that is to come. You will relish this peerless fantasy, its magnificent illustrations, extensive cultural notes and unabashed language—shocking to many Victorian readers and a great treat today. [EG]

Airborn

Airborn Kenneth Oppel Eos; ISBN: 0060531800 In this alternate history, the skies are ruled by majestic zeppelins that cruise above the Atlanticus and the Pacificus Oceans. Matt Cruse, a cabin boy aboard the huge airship Aurora, participates in the rescue of an old man, a stranded solo balloonist who tells him of mysterious, beautiful creatures who sail through the vast sky. A year later, the balloonist's daughter shows up with his journal, air pirates attack the Aurora, and the story is afoot. This wonderfully written book evokes the pleasures of reading Jules Verne and his ilk and provides the kind of adventure that leaves you wanting to lose yourself in a world grander and more mysterious than your own. The entire book is suffused with a delightful retro feel, nicely realized on the accompanying Airborn Web site, where you can read an excerpt from the book and peruse clever facsimiles of a newspaper set in the book's world. It's a grand adventure, highly recommended. [AB]

Martian Time-Slip

Martian Time-Slip Philip K. Dick Vintage; ISBN: 0679761675 PKD can be read, re-read, and read again with each reading revealing one's previous misapprehensions of the text. For instance I remembered Martian Time-Slip as a science fiction novel; it takes place on Mars, there are rocket ships, canals, colonists and Martians. But on this reading it becomes clear to me that this is a tale of horror. It is a horror that has nothing to do with things extraterrestrial, but rather it is the interior horror inherent in the commonplace of our existence. This is, of course, Philip K. Dick's Mars. It has a breathable atmosphere, real canals that are filled with scummy water doled out by UN representatives, and Martians who seem to most closely resemble earth aborigines, who are treated by the colonists with the casual disrespect and neglect typical throughout history. Schizophrenia, psychosis, and birth defects stalk the inhabitants. Land speculators, union bosses, and black marketeers viciously elbow each other in search of thin profits, while bored housewives swap adulterous stories and their children are educated by robotic simulacra teaching lessons of an earth they've never known. An "anomalous" child has the ability to see into his own bleak future and it is filled with rot and decay. Gubbish. He can also move backwards but the past too is filled with gubbish, gubbish and more gubbish. Just gubble gubble gubble gubble gubble . . . [MA]

Lathe of Heaven

Lathe of Heaven Ursula K. Le Guin Perennial; ISBN: 0060512741 LeGuin is best known for her 1969 classic The Left Hand of Darkness. Her 1971 novel, Lathe of Heaven fits more neatly into the traditional science fiction genre with its "universe of possibilities" theme. This effort garnered nominations for Hugo and Nebula Awards but lost to Niven's Ringworld and Silverberg's A Time of Changes. It is nonetheless a well-written and compelling story. Our hero is George Orr, a nondescript man who discovers that he has the strange ability to alter reality through his dreams. While seeking help to suppress these "effective" dreams, he is instead sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. In the hospital he meets Dr. Haber, who ultimately finds that what he thought were delusions of a troubled mind were in fact shifts in universal reality. Haber ultimately molds Orr into a tool to achieve his ideals for a reshaped world with devastating consequences. An artistically well-written story (as with all of Le Guin's work) that should be on every science fiction bookshelf. [GB]

The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin Ace Books; ISBN: 0441478123 When Mrs. Black, my 10th grade English teacher, learned that I was an avid reader of science fiction, she suggested that I read The Left Hand of Darkness. It was my first exposure to literature containing themes of a sexual nature. I was immediately fascinated. Ace Books has recently reissued this Hugo and Nebula Award winner and the story is still as fresh as it was in 1969. This tale revolves around Genli Ai, an envoy from a galaxy-wide empire who has come to the planet Gethen to explore a possible invitation to membership. Unfortunately the planet is on the brink of war. Ai befriends Karhider Estraven, and their association transcends traditional views of social relationships, sexuality, and politics. (The Gethens are a hermaphroditic people who are asexual most of the time, but become either male or female during a portion of their cycle.) While not an action/adventure story, this will take you on a journey of introspection, forcing a redefinition of the meaning of "humanity." This is a science fiction classic in every sense of the word, but with whiz bang technology taking a back seat to the behavioral and social sciences. Not to be missed. [GB]

Children's Books

Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science

Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science J.Patrick Lewis; illustrations by Frank Remkiewicz Harcourt; ISBN: 0152166815 Intended for 6 to 9-year-olds, this is a brand new, cheerfully-illustrated collection of riddle-poems. Each appears as if hand-printed on a notebook page, surrounded by clues provided by the illustrator. The riddles concern everything from germs, the laser, humidity, and the planet Neptune, to oxygen, Einstein, and the Galapagos Islands. I like "Gee": "It keeps you from flying/Off into space./It's what makes you fall/Flat on your face./And if it could talk/Like you and I do,/I think it would say, "I'm pulling for you.'" Some are fairly obvious and others more challenging, especially if read aloud without reference to the illustrations' helpful hints. Both of my kids went through a compulsive joke and riddle period; if this is a widespread phenomenon, here's a book that will appeal widely and provoke some curiosity too, maybe start some budding scientists on their way. You may know the author and illustrator from their earlier Arithme-Tickle. The final page of the book provides notes that expand a bit on the answer to each riddle in a way that will inspire readers to investigate the subject further. [CW]

The King of the Golden River

The King of the Golden River John Ruskin Dover Publications; ISBN: 0486200663 Years before Ruskin wrote his ground-breaking volumes on the social history of art, he composed a children's book. A gift for his lady friend, later his wife, this book has become a classic of the Victorian era. Although schematically a fairy tale, several aspects of the story distinguish it. Foremost among them, the tale features a strong environmentalism. Rapacious exploitation of nature is associated with immorality and eventual decline of fortune. In 'Treasure Valley' a family of three farmers run a successful farm. Their ruthless treatment of the land, livestock, and customers extends to others as well. The youngest in the family is named Gluck, and he gets the short end of every stick. Where his brothers are avaricious and dishonest, he's kind and sincere. His name is very close to "glück", a German word, meaning Happiness or Luck. The older brothers go too far and fail to extend common decency to a spirit of nature. When disaster strikes, their entire operation goes awry and all the older brothers can do is sell off their savings. All is not lost—Gluck discovers a way to fortune and recovery of the valley. Clever use of language and quaint nineteenth-century illustrations keep the reader's interest and establish a unique style. This would be a fine addition to the bookshelf of your favorite 4-7 year old. [EG]

The Children of Green Knowe

The Children of Green Knowe L. M. Boston; illustrations by Peter Boston Odyssey Classics; ISBN: 0152024689 This is the first in a series of books whose central character is in some ways a historic stone house in rural England. L. M. Boston plays on the reader's suspension of disbelief to range from the present back to the children who lived at Green Knowe three hundred years earlier. She doesn't emphasize the differences, however, but the similarities of interest and concerns with the present owner's motherless great-grandson, Toseland (Tolly for short; the earlier Toseland was Toby ). A lonely little boy whose father remarried after his mother's death, Tolly has a lively imagination and a hunger for a family. With his father and step-mother living in Burma, he has been at boarding school but his mother's grandmother has invited him to spend the holidays with her at Green Knowe. His first introduction to the children who preceded him there is their portrait. And then his great-grandmother's stories, and small artifacts, toys and other things of theirs, gradually make the children from long ago real to him. A gratifying story for children whose imaginations run free, this is as good as I remember it from years ago when it captured the interest of my kids. I'm so glad to find it still in print. [CW]

A Wild Ride Through The Night

A Wild Ride Through The Night Walter Moers Arrow Books Ltd ; ISBN: 0099450178 From the first page to the last, this novel races forward. The situations are all humorous yet somehow grim, lighthearted and at the same time insightful. As in another of my favorite books The Phantom Tollbooth a boy makes his way through a crazy world whose rules make no sense and are badly in need of revision. The magnificent illustrations by Gustave Doré accompany each turn of the story. The protagonist is none other than Doré as a child. The story begins on his ship. He is the captain of an ill-fated expedition. After a disaster I won't spoil for you, Doré is confronted with Death and his sister Dementia. Our hero has one chance to escape fate. He must accomplish ten immensely far-fetched tasks in the course of a single night. These bring him into contact with mythological characters and perennial problems. Each turn of the story amounts to a narrow escape that the reader could not have guessed, yet it all fits together. For a young reader, this is a charming page-turner offering a continual assortment of treats—silly, at times disgusting, and always clever. An adult reader will appreciate the profound issues Moers playfully resolves. This book appeared a couple of years ago in German and fortunately for English language readers, the translation has just appeared. [EG]