New Books September 2007


	In Flagrante Collecto (Caught in the Act of Collecting) Marilynn Gelfman Karp Circulating : AM231 .K37 2006 First-time author Karp (art, NYU) is a sculptor who collects Depression glass, which she rightly describes as valuable, but she also finds herself drawn to unloved objects like soda bottle caps. This volume gives joyous exhibition to many valueless collections. In 21 chapters, from The Art of Collecting to Just in Time, Karp details with care, knowledge, insight, experience, and humor 1000 items from nearly 200 collections. Readers get more than just mere descriptions—they are also supplied with the broader sociological context of the knickknacks' production. To boot, every item is photographed in full color and extraordinary in presentation, particularly in regard to the utility and ease with which they represent and support the text. This book may be used as a browser but can also be used as a beginning and intermediate point for serious study (thanks, in part, to the solid index). The analysis is serious, while an acknowledgment of the collection obsession is not. A substantial and finely crafted volume, exceptionally produced in the Abrams manner and delightful on many levels. Highly recommended.—Alex Hartmann, Infophile, Williamsport, PA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


	Streetwise : How Taxi Drivers Establish Their Customers’ Trustworthiness Diego Gambetta and Heather Hamill Circulating : HD8039.T16 G36 2005 Oxford University professors Gambetta and Hamill present an interesting analysis of how taxi drivers in New York City and Belfast look for clusters of signs or clues to distinguish good from bad passengers in this very vulnerable occupation. Drivers use three basic sources of knowledge: statistical, experiential, and causal influences. Drivers' trust may be based on beliefs regarding customers' religion, gender, age, race, ethnicity, inebriation, and neighborhood. Taxi dispatchers and drivers must quickly screen and probe for more personal clues, including clothes, eye contact, choice of seating, nervousness, and conversation. A silent passenger could be absorbed by business or family, or planning a robbery. Often drivers rely on their "gut feeling," but they still keep an eye out for each other. There are interesting interviews of screeners and drivers that provide rich data of the screening processes in Belfast and New York. After 9/11 in New York and the end of "the troubles" in Belfast, differences in settings may be less apparent. An excellent work. Summing Up: Recommended. Social psychology or qualitative research methods courses, perhaps urban sociology collections, and general interest. All levels. Copyright 2006 American Library Association.


	Meditation and Relaxation in Plain English Bob Sharples Circulating : BF637.M4 S52 2006 Meditation is supposed to help people cope with stresses encountered each and every day, but many books on the subject are so complex that they end up being stressors themselves. "Meditation and Relaxation in Plain English" avoids this pitfall, presenting techniques that focus on achieving calmness and clarity without a ton of confusing language. Written by a meditation instructor with years of experience, the prose is easy to follow and informed by the author's learned expertise. For anyone who has ever wanted to enjoy pain management, better health, and greater relaxation, "Meditation and Relaxation in Plain English" provides potent tools that are easy to learn and easy to enjoy. Book jacket.


	Sex with the Lights On : 200 Illuminating Sex Questions Answered Ducky Doolittle Circulating : HQ31 .D715 2006 With experience as a peep-show stripper, erotica writer, and sex-toy salesperson, DooLittle is well qualified to conduct workshops that interweave burlesque comedy with sex education. Her first book answers in a friendly and informal style questions that have been posed to her over the years by her audiences, offering broad, solid, safer-sex information. Coverage encompasses sexual anatomy and body parts; body image and health; orgasms; foreplay; manual, oral, coital, and anal sex; and sex toys. For each topic, her initial overview is followed by a series of questions and answers. In many cases, the questions address concerns/curiosities overlooked in other manuals, e.g., prostate sensitivity, cuticle-biting and safer sex (wear latex gloves for finger insertion), and testicle stimulation. The sex-toy chapter is especially detailed and objective, and the resources section, too, is very good. However, the illustrations are only adequate. The informal yet well-crafted writing combined with the expansive content, strong and sex-positive messages about safety, and low price makes this a smart purchase for most libraries, especially with large young adult clientele.—Martha Cornog, Philadelphia Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


	You’re Wearing That? : Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation Deborah Tannen Circulating : HQ755.86 .T366 2006b Mothers and daughters speak the same language-but often misunderstand each other as they struggle to find the right balance between closeness and independence. Why do daughters complain that their mothers always criticize, while mothers feel hurt that their daughters shut them out? Why do mothers and daughters critique each other on the Big Three-hair, clothes, and weight-while longing for approval and understanding? And why do they scrutinize each other for reflections of themselves? Deborah Tannen answers these and many other questions as she explains why a remark that would be harmless coming from anyone else can cause an explosion when it comes from your mother or your daughter. With ground-breaking insights, pitch-perfect dialogues, and deeply moving memories of her own mother, she examines every aspect of this complex dynamic, from the dark side of the relationship that can shadow a woman throughout her life to the new technologies like e-mail and instant messaging that are transforming mother-daughter communication. Most important, she gives mothers and daughters the key to improving their relationship by helping them learn to understand each other. Book jacket.


	A Well-Paid Slave : Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports Brad Snyder Circulating : GV865.F45 S69 2006 An extraordinarily gifted centerfielder, Flood helped the St. Louis Cardinals to three World Series in the 1960s. In 1969 the Cardinals traded Flood to Philadelphia. Flood refused to accept the sale of his contract and sued Major League Baseball (Flood v. Kuhn) in order to end the reserve system that bound a player for life to the team that "owned" him. Snyder (a lawyer and former clerk to a federal judge) provides a detailed narrative of Flood's trial, appeal, and subsequent defeat before the US Supreme Court. Flood emerges as a moody, sensitive, principled man of artistic temperament, but one whose demons compelled him to pursue his freedom regardless of the cost to himself. Snyder clearly admires Flood, and thus handles his subject's alcoholism, womanizing, and questionable business activities with discreet sympathy. He is less generous in his treatment of major league owners and the commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn. Kuhn emerges as a pompous blowhard who shilled for the "lords of baseball" and regarded all who challenged the reserve clause as dishonest, deluded, or obtuse. This is a more thorough, skillful account than that of Alex Belth (Stepping Up, 2006), though neither is a critical scholarly resource. Summing Up: Recommended. Comprehensive academic collections; general readers. General Readers. Reviewed by D. R. Bisson. (Choice)


	The Interpreter Alice Kaplan Circulating : D810.N4 K37 2005 Starred Review. Kaplan (romance studies, literature, & history, Duke Univ.; The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach) has written a brilliant account of the trials of two American soldiers accused of murdering French citizens in the waning days of World War II. One of the accused soldiers, a black man named James Hendricks, was sentenced to death, while the other, George Whittington, a white who had been proclaimed a war hero, was acquitted. French political novelist Louis Guilloux served as an interpreter at these trials, and Kaplan draws from Guilloux's diaries as well as from a novel he based upon the trials as important sources for this multifaceted work. Kaplan studies the two cases as symbols of racial prejudice, noting that of the 70 American soldiers executed for such crimes in World War II Europe, 55 were African American, although they made up only 8.5 percent of the armed forces. She also weaves in brief interviews with relatives of Hendricks and of the French man he was convicted of killing. Inventive, moving, and beautifully written, this is a major contribution to investigative history. Highly recommended.—Anthony Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, IN Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


	Inside and Other Short Fiction : Japanese Women by Japanese Women Foreword by Ruth Ozeki, Compiled by Cathy Layne Circulating : PL782.E8 I57 2006 This anthology opens with a foreword by Japanese American author Ruth Ozeki (My Year of Meats) that sets the stage for an important showcase of eight short stories by contemporary Japanese women writers. Although the contributors are all known in Japan, here their power and style is introduced into English. The stories don't focus on the stereotypes of old Japan but explore the issues of female identity in modern Japan. The title piece by Rio Shimamoto is an intimate portrait of a teenage girl's first sexual experience in the midst of her parents' divorce. Shungiku Uchida's My Son's Lips follows the travails of a working mother. Amy Yamada (Bedtime Eyes) adds a sophisticated psychological piece, Fiesta, about a sexually repressed woman. The span of the collection ranges from the sexually explicit to the sophisticated and subtle. Featuring the work of a group of powerful writers, it will fit well into academic and literary collections with a focus on Asian studies and women's literature.—Ron Samul, New London, CT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


	Class 11 : Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class T.J. Waters Circulating : JK468.I6 W37 2006 The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center spurred thousands of Americans to apply for service in the CIA in the days and weeks following 9/11. Waters, who had worked in a private firm specializing in intelligence collection and training prior to September 2001, was one of the chosen few who were accepted into the CIAs secret intelligence community. His class, dubbed Class 11, reflected an assortment of individuals—pilots, bankers, single mothers, and others from backgrounds not usually associated with the spy game. Waters recounts his days as a student learning the espionage trade and provides many fascinating details about how contemporary spies are trained. Of course, since the CIA had to approve Waterss book, one is left wondering how much of his account is true and how much of it is manufactured by an agency that is expert at generating disinformation. Nevertheless, Waterss interesting look behind the curtain of the CIA should be of general interest to readers. For larger collections.— Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


	Easy Arabic Script : A Step-By-Step Guide to Handwriting Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar Circulating : PJ6123 .W54 2005 An exceptionally clear and accessible reference and workbook for students of Arabic. Whether you are a complete beginner or just want to sharpen your writing skills, you'll learn quickly from "Easy Arabic Script." Clear explanations and graphics, along with exercises and activities will help you develop fluency in both reading and writing Arabic. (Book jacket)


	Southern Farmers and Their Stories : Memory and Meaning in Oral History Melissa Walker Circulating : F208.2 .W35 2006 Walker (Converse College) presents an absolutely fascinating study of "communities of memory" found among those who experienced firsthand the 20th-century transformation of southern agriculture. Basing her book on analysis of nearly 500 oral history interviews, Walker "suggests that historians have tended to oversimplify the process of agricultural change and its effect on farm people." The book evolves thematically from case studies of three narrators, through analysis of common experiences emphasized in the interviews researched, to an examination of how these southerners explained and interpreted the transformations they experienced. Students and practitioners of oral history will benefit from reading and examining how Walker applies oral history in her scholarship. Readers and researchers interested in agricultural history will need to be conversant with Walker's perspectives. Finally, the book merits recognition for its contributions to the social history of the 20th-century South. College and university libraries will want this book, as will larger public libraries in the South. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty. Reviewed by B. M. Banta. (Choice)


	There Goes My Everything : White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975 Jason Sokol Circulating : F220.A1 S65 2006 The experiences of white Southerners during the period of the Civil Rights movement have, until now, gone largely unexplored. Sokol, a doctoral candidate in history at UC-Berkeley, traces the process of desegregation by drawing on public records and interviews conducted with white Southerners as they faced the tide of change brought by Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sokol actively resists easy generalizations or stereotypes of the men and women whose rejection of equal rights created the central tension of the Civil Rights movement. Instead of stock characters, Sokol presents individuals—such as Ollie McClung, whose opposition to integration stemmed, at least in part, from a belief in personal liberty—as well as hundreds of voices for whom change meant "their world would never be the same." Sokol never apologizes or attempts to mitigate the often brutal and violent consequences of Southern racism. His eloquent presentation, with all of its complications, provides an invaluable and much-needed addition to our understanding of how the Civil Rights movement was actually lived. Photos. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


	100 Semesters : My Adventures as Student, Professor, and University President, and What I Learned Along the Way William M. Chace Circulating : LA227.3 .C455 2006 Chace, former president of Wesleyan and Emory Universities, expounds on his half century in the academic trenches, drawing from his experiences as a student, professor and administrator at six different institutions. Through his memoir, Chace has set his sights on the larger issues of higher education, and at times is successfully illuminating. His discussions of the professor's cult of personality and the increasing economic stratification of modern higher education are particularly worthwhile, and Chace has the rare ability to take a strong stance without preaching. Perhaps inevitably, Chace's narrative returns occasionally to the introspection and self-indulgence that characterize the memoir form, but is at its best when Chace has a bone to pick, as when confronting D-1 athletics or contrasting the struggles of a professor with the role of a corporate CEO. He also tackles the ineffable quality of true education: how hard it is to explain and cultivate, and how citizens must continue to support colleges and universities to allow them to function without government or corporate oversight that could potentially change them for the worse. Rigorous but readable, this should hold interest for education professionals of all kinds. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


	The Shoelace Book : A Mathematical Guide to the Best (and Worst) Ways to Lace Your Shoes Burkard Polster Circulating : QA99 .P65 2006 In less than a page in Nature in 2002, Polster addressed the question, "What is the best way to lace your shoes?'' His article generated worldwide publicity and nearly 1,000 queries. This volume details and demonstrates how the mathematics of the familiar may evince relatively unfamiliar mathematics. It centers on various types of lacings--certain geometrically restricted classes of Hamiltonian circuits on complete graphs, which have nodes organized into two parallel rows of equal length. Polster studies enumerative problems (find the number of lacings in a particular class) and optimization problems (find the shortest, longest, strongest, weakest lacings in each class). As the application determines the selection of mathematical techniques and complexity of the arguments, the book has some sections that could attract even high school students (and those training to teach them) and others verging into calculus, combinatorics, and graph theory. Though shoe lacing may seem a light application, the tenor and technical dimension of this book show more affinity with research mathematics than with what is generally thought of as recreational mathematics. In a serious vein, the reader can learn something about some lacing issues arising in surgical suturing and orthopedics; charming episodes of shoelace history round out the book. Entirely unique. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates. Copyright 2007 American Library Association.


See also: Saving/Paying For College Circulating : LB2342 .S335 2006 Buying A Home Circulating : HD259 .B893 2006 Getting Married Circulating : HG179 .G467 2006 Surviving Divorce Circulating : HG179 .S863 2006 Surviving The Loss Of A Spouse Circulating : HG179 .S866 2006 Caring For An Aging Parent Circulating : HQ1063.6 .C365 2006 On The Road : Planning Your Estate Circulating : KF750.Z9 O5 2006	Starting Out Sheryl Garrett, series editor ; adapted and compiled by Ruth J. Mills Circulating : HG179 .S8113 2006 Certified Financial Planner™ Garrett (Money Without Matrimony: The Unmarried Couple Guide to Financial Security) has been named one of the best in her field by Investment Advisor and Financial Advisor magazines, so she is well equipped to dispense advice on preparing for life financial milestones. This eight-volume series, which she edits, helps readers navigate their particular stretches of the superhighway of life, whether they are just starting out, saving for their children college education, planning an estate, or surviving the loss of a spouse. The volumes are concise and practical with running motifs of roadmaps and travel. Caring for an Aging Parent, for instance, focuses on planning for the financial welfare of aging parents, but it offers advice that is equally useful to retirees themselves, covering practical issues such as budgeting, life insurance, and Medicare. The author makes complex concepts like reverse mortgages and living trusts easy to grasp and explains how early retirement affects social security benefits. A separate volume covers estate planning in more detail, but Garrett elucidates the basics here. Meanwhile, targeting the other end of the age spectrum, Starting Out addresses issues like establishing credit and keeping debt under control—with lots of emphasis on budgeting, mapping out assets and liabilities, and tracking credit card purchases. Plenty of sensible territory is covered, e.g., whether to buy a new or used car and renting an apartment and buying a house (explained more fully in Buying a Home). Negotiating and getting the most out of employment benefits packages and saving for the future are addressed, as well as the investment landscape of interest, stocks, bonds, and financial planners. All of the books are peppered with helpful financial work sheets, checklists, and questionnaires. Garrett even offers advice on mundane but important issues like home improvements to increase senior safety or used-car considerations. The volumes may be purchased individually, but the entire set would make a handy addition to any public library business collection.—Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.