Salida Book Review

Magic Seeds, by V. S. Naipaul. ISBN 0375407367. At the end of Half a Life, Naipaul's previous novel, Willie, a young Indian in late 1950s London, travels to Africa. At the beginning of his new novel, Willie is in Berlin with his bossy sister, Sarojini. It is 18 years later. Revolution has uprooted Willie's African existence. Sarojini hooks him up with a guerrilla group in India, and Willie, always ready to be molded to some cause, returns to India. The guerrillas, Willie soon learns, are "absolute maniacs." But caught up, as ever, in the energy of others, Willie stays with them for seven years. He then surrenders and is tossed into the relative comfort of jail. When an old London friend (a lawyer named Roger) gets Willie's book of short stories republished, Willie's imprisonment becomes an embarrassment to the authorities. He is now seen as a forerunner of "postcolonial writing." He returns to London, where he alternates between making love to Perdita, Roger's wife, and looking for a job. One opens up on the staff of an architecture magazine funded by a rich banker (who is also cuckolding Roger). Willie's continual betweenness—a state that makes him, to the guerrillas, a man "who looks at home everywhere"—is the core theme of this novel, and the story is merely the shadow projected by that theme. Sometimes, especially toward the end of the book, as Willie's story becomes more suburban, there is a penumbral sketchiness to the incidents. At one point, Willie, remarking on the rich London set into which he has been flung, thinks: "These people here don't understand nullity." Naipaul does—he is a modern master of the multiple ironies of resentment, the claustrophobia of the margins. In a world in which terrorism continually haunts the headlines, Naipaul's work is indispensable. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wodehouse: A Life, by Robert McCrum. ISBN 0393051595. To Evelyn Waugh he was simply "the Master." He wrote ninety novels and story collections, and among his immortal characters are Jeeves, Psmith, and the Empress of Blandings (who is, of course, a pig). Equally impressive is the range of his devotees: Dorothy Parker, John Updike, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Salman Rushdie, John le Carré, and Seamus Heaney. Wodehouse had an extraordinary Broadway career, working with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, and even dared to rewrite Cole Porter's Anything Goes for the London stage.

Robert McCrum's magisterial biography chronicles the achievements and shadows of a gilded life. The ill-judged broadcasts from Berlin, where Wodehouse was interned during World War II, produced a violent backlash in England and tarred him, unfairly, as a Nazi sympathizer. His long love affair with America was compromised by endless acrimony with the IRS. This is the book all Wodehouse fans have been waiting for; it eclipses all previous accounts of his life. 16 pages of illustrations.

Downtown: My Manhattan, by Pete Hamill. ISBN 0316734519. A rich historical and personal portrait of Manhattan from the bestselling writer who is for many the living embodiment of the city. Manhattan, the keystone of New York City, is a place of ghosts and buried memory. One can still see remnants of the British colony, the mansions of the robber barons, and the speakeasies of the 1920s. These are the places that have captivated the imaginations of writers for centuries. Now Pete Hamill brings his unique knowledge and deep love of the city to a New York chronicle like no other.

During his 40 years as a newspaperman, Pete Hamill has been getting to know Manhattans neighborhoods and inhabitants intimately, bearing witness to their greatest triumphs and tragedies. From the winding, bohemian streets of Greenwich Village to the seedy alleyways of the meatpacking district and to the weathered cobblestones of South Street Seaport, Hamill peels back the layers of history to reveal the citys past, present, and future. More than just history or reporting, this is an elegy by a native son who has lived through some of New Yorks most historic moments, and who continues to call this magnificent, haunted city his home.

The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of WWII's Most Decorated Platoon, by Alex Kershaw. ISBN 0306813041. From the author of the best-selling The Bedford Boys, the remarkable story of America's most decorated platoon that miraculously halted Hitler's massive offensive at the Battle of the Bulge. On a cold morning in December, 1944, deep in the Ardennes forest, a platoon of eighteen men under the command of twenty-year-old lieutenant Lyle Bouck were huddled in their foxholes trying desperately to keep warm. Suddenly, the early morning silence was broken by the roar of a huge artillery bombardment and the dreadful sound of approaching tanks. Hitler had launched his bold and risky offensive against the Allies-his"last gamble"-and the small American platoon was facing the main thrust of the entire German assault.

Vastly outnumbered, they repulsed three German assaults in a fierce day-long battle, killing over five hundred German soldiers and defending a strategically vital hill. Only when Bouck's men had run out of ammunition did they surrender to the enemy. As POWs, Bouck's platoon began an ordeal far worse than combat-survive in captivity under trigger-happy German guards, Allied bombing raids, and a daily ration of only thin soup. In German POW camps, hundreds of captured Americans were either killed or died of disease, and most lost all hope. But the men of Bouck's platoon survived-miraculously, all of them. Once again in vivid, dramatic prose, Alex Kershaw brings to life the story of some of America's little-known heroes-the story of America's most decorated small unit, an epic story of courage and survival in World War II, and one of the most inspiring stories in American history.

Shakespeare After All, by Marjorie Garber. ISBN 0375421904. In Shakespeare After All, Marjorie Garber—professor of English and director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University—gives us a magisterial work of criticism, authoritative and engaging, based on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over the past thirty years. Richly informed by Shakespearean scholarship of the latter half of the twentieth century, this book offers passionate and revealing readings of all thirty-eight of Shakespeare’s plays, in chronological sequence, from The Two Gentlemen of Verona to The Two Noble Kinsmen. With erudition lightly carried, Garber illumines the overarching patterns and lush details of the plays, closely attentive to what matters most in Shakespeare: language, theme, plot, and character.

Here are fresh meditations on plays we have come to know and love, such as Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest, and fruitful engagements with others not often read or produced—Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3; The Merry Wives of Windsor; King John; Timon of Athens; Pericles; and Cymbeline. Garber affords us a rare chance to trace Shakespeare’s stylistic development as a writer of verse and prose, an artful designer of dramatic scenarios and revelations, a masterly sketcher of woman and man, and a keen observer of society high and low. Complete with a comprehensive introduction to Shakespeare’s life and times and an extensive bibliography, Shakespeare After All is a landmark work that enlarges our understanding of the most celebrated writer of all time.

When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Choices Today, by Harvey Cox. ISBN 0618067442. Over the fifteen years that Harvey Cox taught his Harvard undergraduate class Jesus and the Moral Life, the course grew so popular that the lectures had to be taught in a theater usually reserved for rock concerts. The overwhelming response was a clear signal of the hunger for guidance in today's confusing world, where moral guidelines seem to shift daily. How can we ask today "What Would Jesus Do?," when Jesus never had to cope with an unintended pregnancy, or confront a teenage daughter about her drug use, or decide whether to put an ailing parent in a retirement home?

In his new book, Cox brings the moral wisdom of Rabbi Jesus into the twenty-first century by way of the questions, arguments, responses, and doubts of centuries of rabbinic and Christian theological exploration, as well as the voices of the thousands of Harvard students who attended his course over the years. Cox shows how we can extrapolate from Jesus' parables and bridge the gap between the ancient and modern worlds. As an example, he recalls his experience while locked in a southern jail during the civil rights movement, when the song "We Shall Overcome" rang from nearby cells. The message he takes is from the story of the Resurrection: transcendent hope rising from the depths of injustice. When Jesus Came to Harvard is not another look at the "historical Jesus," but it considers Jesus' contemporary significance by concentrating on the stories he told and those told about him. For youth and adults, Christian and non-Christian, When Jesus Came to Harvard is urgently relevant.

The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition, by Nathan Brackett. ISBN 0743201698. For the first time since 1992, Rolling Stone's definitive classic returns to the scene, completely updated and revised to include the past decade's artists and sounds. When it comes to sorting the truly great from the merely mediocre, the enduring from the fleeting, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide provides music buffs and amateurs alike with authoritative guidance from the best voices in the field. Filled with insightful commentary, it not only reviews the most influential albums of all time, but also features biographical overviews of key artists' careers, giving readers a look at the personalities behind the music.

This fourth edition contains an impressive -- 70 percent -- amount of new material. Readers will find fresh updates to entries on established artists, hundreds of brand-new entries on the people and recordings that epitomize the '90s and the sounds of the 21st century -- from Beck to OutKast to the White Stripes and beyond -- along with a new introduction detailing changes in the music industry. Celebrating the diversity of popular music and its constant metamorphoses, with thousands of entries and reviews on every sound from blues to techno, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide is the only resource music lovers need to read.

Art Of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion, by Paul Grushkin, Dennis King. ISBN 081184529X. Authoritative, eye-popping, and massive, Art of Modern Rock is the first and last word on contemporary concert posters. An art form that has grown hand-in-hand with the independent music scene, heralding small and large gigs alike, the posters have emerged from visually creative street-level notices to prized collectibles rendered in a variety of styles and media. Today's poster artists combine the expressive freedom pioneered in the poster revolution of the 1960s with the attitude and the do-it-yourself approach of the punk scene, creating an unprecedented surge of innovative poster production on an international scale. Featuring over 1,600 exemplary rock posters and flyers from over 200 international studios and artists, Art of Modern Rock is the long-anticipated sequel to coauthor Paul Grushkin's The Art of Rock. Profiles and quotes from the pioneers in the field and their emerging heirs share nearly 500 gloriously packed pages of poster after mind-blowing poster. As brash and colorful as the burgeoning scene it documents, Art of Modern Rock is the must-have book for music and poster fans and collectors.

Greendale, by Neil Young, James Mazzeo. ISBN 1860746225. In Greendale, Neil Young masterfully blended his activist bent with a poetic perversity and the irresistible musical hooks that have made him a legend. In his compelling tale of a multi-generational family living in a small town in California, a cop is murdered, Cousin Jed is arrested, Grandpa confronts the subsequent media onslaught with tragic results and granddaughter Sun Green becomes an environmental activist. Joining the music CD, the elaborately-staged concerts, the movie, and the DVD, this book provides a satisfying literary and visual complement to the multimedia masterpiece that is Neil Young's Greendale.

Loop Group, by Larry McMurtry. ISBN 0743250796. In perhaps his finest "contemporary" novel since Terms of Endearment, Larry McMurtry, with his miraculously sure touch at creating instantly recognizable women characters, and his equally miraculous sharp eye for the absurdities of everyday life in the modern West, writes about two women, old friends, who set off on an adventure -- with unpredictable and sometimes hilarious results. As Loop Group opens, we meet Maggie, whose three grown-up daughters have arrived at her Hollywood home to try and make her see sense about her life, which isn't easy, first of all because their own lives are a mess, and secondly because as far as Maggie is concerned her own life makes perfect sense. She is self-supporting, running a successful "loop group" dubbing movies, she has a lover (admittedly he is married, and her psychoanalyst, and very old), and leads a busy life that intersects with lots of interesting -- all right, bizarre -- people.

Still, her daughters push her into having a few second thoughts about her life, and these are reinforced when her best friend, Connie, seeks an escape from her own world of complex and difficult relationships with men. Since neither high-end nor low-end shopping seems to relieve their angst, and since a succession of sad events takes place that shakes Maggie to the core, she conceives the idea of driving to visit her Aunt Cooney's ranch near Electric City, Texas, and the two women prepare for the trip by buying a .38 Special revolver (which leads to unexpected trouble along the way). This road trip will end by changing their lives.

Tangling along the way with Hopi Indians, with a bearded vagrant who turns out to be an old acquaintance, with the theft of their car (and their revolver), and with every possible variety of cardsharp, faker, charmer, and crook, the two women eventually proceed through the desert landscape to Electric City and discover some home truths about life. When they return to Hollywood, they find that one of Maggie's old friends, an ancient MGM producer, has left her a gift that enables her to make a new start to her life and to bring a new measure of sanity to her family and friends. Alternately hilariously funny and profoundly sad -- even tragic -- Loop Group is a major Larry McMurtry novel and a joy to read.

Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2, by Annie Proulx. ISBN 0743257995. The stories in Annie Proulx's new collection are peopled by characters who struggle with circumstances beyond their control in a kind of rural noir half-light. Trouble comes at them from unexpected angles, and they will themselves through it, hardheaded and resourceful. Bound by the land and by custom, they inhabit worlds that are often isolated, dangerous, and in Proulx's bold prose, stunningly vivid. In "What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?" rancher Gilbert Wolfscale, alienated from his sons, bewildered by his criminal ex-wife, gets shoved down his throat the fact that the old-style ranch life has gone. Several stories concern the eccentric denizens of Elk Tooth, a tiny hamlet where life revolves around three bars. Elk Toothers enter beard-growing contests, scrape together a living hauling hay, catch poachers in unorthodox ways. "Man Crawling out of Trees" is about urban newcomers from the east and their discovery, too late, that one of them has violated the deepest ethics of the place. Above all, these stories are about the compelling lives of rapidly disappearing rural Americans.

Through Proulx's knowledge of the history of Wyoming and the west, her interest in landscape and place, and her sympathy for the sheer will it takes to survive, we see the seared heart of the tough people who live in the emptiest state. Proulx, winner of the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, and many other prizes, has written a collection of spectacularly satisfying stories.

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie, by Barbara Goldsmith. ISBN 0393051374. The myth of Marie Curie—the penniless Polish immigrant who, through genius and obsessive persistence, endured years of toil and deprivation to produce radium, a luminous panacea for all the world's ills including cancer—has obscured the remarkable truth behind her discoveries. Curie's shrewd though controversial insight was that radioactivity was an atomic property that could be used to discover new elements. While her work won her two Nobel Prizes and transformed our world, it did not liberate her from the prejudices of either the male-dominated scientific community or society. Here is an all-too-human woman trying to balance science, love, and the family values that constitute her legacy. Using original research (diaries, letters, and family interviews) to peel away the layers of myth and reveal the woman behind the icon, the acclaimed author and historian Barbara Goldsmith offers a dazzling portrait of Curie, her amazing discoveries, and the price she paid for fame. 15 photographs.

The Most Beautiful Gardens in the World, by Alain Le Toquin. ISBN 0810955849. Gardens are unique creations, reflecting not only the landscape, flora, and climate of their environments but also the heritage-the history, architectural styles, and influences-of the cultures that made them. From the fountain gardens of the Iranian desert to the whimsical "Garden of Cosmic Speculation" in Scotland, from the Zen gardens of Buddhist temples to the Impressionist gardens in Giverny, the huge variety of gardens around the globe is a testament to our age-old desire to tame and refashion nature.

In The Most Beautiful Gardens in the World photographer Alain Le Toquin celebrates the diversity of these manmade landscapes, capturing 31 of the greatest public and private gardens on five continents, including Majorelle in Morocco, the Versailles gardens outside Paris, the Keukenhof flower show park in The Netherlands, and the Huntington Gardens in California. With more than 150 images and 12 gatefolds featuring spectacular panoramic photographs, this gorgeous book will captivate travelers and garden admirers alike, and will inspire gardeners themselves with fresh ideas for design, horticulture, and use. AUTHOR BIO: Alain Le Toquin, a former specialist in ornithology and animal ecology at the Natural History Museum in Paris, has been a photographer specializing in both culture and nature for more than 20 years. Jacques Bosser, a writer and translator for design and photography books, was a contributor to Abrams' The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World. Michel Baridon leads a history and research group for the French National Council of Parks and Gardens. He has published several books on gardens.

A Year at the Supreme Court, by Neal Devins, Davison M. Douglas. ISBN 0822334488. The United States Supreme Court’s 2002–03 term confounded Court watchers. The same Rehnquist Court that many had seen as solidly conservative and unduly activist—the Court that helped decide the 2000 presidential election and struck down 31 federal statutes since 1995—issued a set of surprising, watershed rulings. In a term filled with important and unpredictable decisions, it upheld affirmative action, invalidated a same-sex sodomy statute, and reversed a death sentence due to ineffective assistance of counsel. With essays focused on individual Justices, Court practices, and some of last year’s most important rulings, this volume explores the meaning and significance of the Court’s 2002–03 term. Seasoned Supreme Court advocates and journalists from The New Republic, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, National Journal, Slate, and Legal Times grapple with questions about the Rehnquist Court’s identity and the Supreme Court’s role in the political life of the country.

Some essays consider the role of "swing" Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy within a Court that divides 5–4 more than any other group of Justices in the nation’s history. Others examine the political reaction to and legal context of the Court’s Lawrence v. Texas decision declaring a Texas law criminalizing homosexual sodomy unconstitutional. Contributors analyze the Court’s rulings on affirmative action and reassess its commitment to states’ rights. Considering the Court’s practices, one advocate explores the use and utility of amicus curiae, or "friend of the court" briefs, while another reflects on indications of an increased openness by the Court to public scrutiny. Two advocates who argued cases before the Court last year—one related to hate speech and the other to a "three strikes and you’re out" criminal statute—offer vivid accounts of their experiences. Intended for general readers, A Year at the Supreme Court is for all those who want to understand the Rehnquist Court and its momentous 2002–03 term.

Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation, by James R. Spotila. ISBN 0801880076. With its conversational writing style and exciting first-hand stories about researching giant sea turtles on rain-soaked tropical beaches, this beautiful illustrated reference should appeal to both students of marine biology and those with a causal interest in the sciences. Each of the seven kinds of sea turtle—from the 80-pound Kemp’s Ridleys to the 2000-pound Leatherback—receives its own chapter, and sidebars highlight the contributions of individual scientists. Other chapters are devoted to the sea turtle’s biology, history, life cycle and conservation. Photos range from magnificent underwater tableaus and stunning close-ups of cute, inquisitive young hatchlings to stark but accurate reflections of the dangerous world these underwater reptiles inhabit. Spotila, a professor of environmental science at Drexel University and founder of the International Sea Turtle Society, makes useful connections throughout to help readers better understand the sea turtle’s biology, contrasting them with humans, dinosaurs and other animals ("Green turtles literally fly through the water using their front flippers to provide both lift and thrust just like the wing of a bird"). But the book’s primary emphasis is on conservation. As Spotila writes, "these beautiful swimmers have survived for 110 million years and yet are threatened with extinction after only a few centuries of exposure to humans." Informative and entertaining, this guide will raise readers’ awareness of the plight of these extraordinary animals and may even motivate some to take part in Spotila’s conservation efforts. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hope In Hell: Inside The World Of Doctors Without Borders, by Dan Bortolotti. ISBN 1552978656. The humanitarian organization, Doctors Without Borders, (also known as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) delivers emergency aid to victims of armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and those who lack reliable health care. Each year, more than 2,500 volunteer doctors, nurses, and other professionals join locally-hired staff to provide medical aid in more than eighty countries. At the forefront are the volunteer doctors who risk their lives to perform surgery, establish or rehabilitate hospitals and clinics, run nutrition and sanitation programs, and train local medical personnel. This book follows these volunteer doctors as they risk their health and lives to treat patients in desperate need.

Combining engaging text with dramatic color photographs from around the world, Hope in Hell examines the lives of individual MSF volunteer medical professionals. Topics include: - Performing emergency surgery in the war torn regions of Africa and Asia - Treating the homeless in the streets of Europe - Understanding cultural customs and societal differences that affect health care - Witnessing and reporting genocidal atrocities.

Also, the most recent world events are explored and how MSF is reacting to them. These include the challenges of delivering aid during the Rwandan massacre and the controversial decision to criticize the U.S. for delivering humanitarian aid to Afghan citizens while at war. The book also covers the raucous founding of Doctors Without Borders in 1971 as the first non-governmental organization to both provide emergency medical assistance and publicly bear witness to the plight of the populations they served. In 1999, the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Hope in Hell is a fascinating and often harrowing account of the men and women who struggle to improve the lives of people in desperate need.

Gilead : A Novel, by Marilynne Robinson. ISBN 0374153892. In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son. This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten. Gilead is the long-hoped-for second novel by one of our finest writers, a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part.

Adventures of a Sea Hunter: In Search of Famous Shipwrecks, by James P. Delgado, Clive Cussler. ISBN 1553650719. Leading archaeologist and consummate storyteller James Delgado takes readers on a rollicking deep-sea dive into his highly unusual life's work: locating and exploring the world's most famous shipwrecks. Colorful characters, near misses, and the thrill of standing - or floating - in history's footprints make for a highly entertaining look at the fascinating history and glittering bounty beneath the waves. Included are accounts of Pearl Harbor, the Titanic, and Bikini Atoll, site of the world's first nuclear tests.