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Don’t forget to visit our Featured Books section for some very special books you may only find here. It’s also a great place for authors and small publishers to promote their titles.
Then there’s a book that should be mandatory reading for high school and college students, as well as quite a few grownups. Nerve’s Guide to Sex Etiquette For Ladies and Gentlemen ($12.00, Plume softcover). Em and Lo write a monthly sex advice column for Men’s Journal and are contributors to various publications, as well as Nerve.com. It’s about more than sex, advising, for example, not to gesture with your silverware, to avoid getting drunk, but it’s okay to be just a tad tipsy. Hygiene is high on their list of important factors to maintain and avoiding sexually transmitted diseases is essential. In general, the advice is both hip and excellent, and for the poor soul who never had the facts of life explained in detail, this book will save one from making embarrassing mistakes. A famed publisher of health books offers Great Sex: A Man’s Guide to the Secret Principles of Total-Body Sex by Michael Castleman ($24.95, Rodale) which is filled with excellent, no-nonsense advice that will enhance and improve this aspect of any man’s life. Since 1973, the author has been writing and advising on sex and health. This is a serious book about a topic men take very seriously. Have a son or daughter in college? You might want to pick up a copy of Broke! A College Student’s Guide to Getting By on Less by Trent Anderson and Seppy Basili ($10.00, Kaplan, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, softcover). It is filled with the kind of information and advice a student, perhaps having to manage his or her own finances for the first time needs to know and it does so in an easily comprehended manner. There are warnings, for example, not to get ripped off at the campus bookstore, but to buy textbooks from Amazon.com and E-Bay. There’s advice on how to save money while enjoying tasty, nutritious foods. It is page after page this kind of thing. I wish I had this book when I was in college a million years ago. Readers of Bookviews know that I love to read about history. I recently received The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Cold War by John Swift ($19.95, St. Martin’s Press) and the author has managed to make this multifaceted subject easy to understand with maps and an excellent text. An enormously complex struggle of ideologies, Swift takes the reader on a guided tour of the issues surrounding Cuba and Berlin, the way the end of WWII shaped the events and how proxy wars were fought in Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere. From Eastern Europe to the emergence of Red China to the fall of communism in Russia, it is all captured in this slim volume. To understand the dynamics of what is occurring in this first century of the new millennium, you have to know what happened in the latter half of the last century. It is the story of "containment", a policy that worked to avoid war and saw the downfall of the Soviet Union, but which is unsuited to present dangers posed, not by nation-states, but a network of Islamic fanatics.
By contrast, William Shawcross has written Allies: The US, Britain, Europe, and the War in Iraq ($20.00, Public Affairs, division of Perseus Books) which reviews the many reasons the US led a coalition to effect regime change in Iraq. The US and other nations risked war rather than, as in the past, wait for a dictator to acquire weapons of mass destruction and use them. The author, a foreign correspondent for 35 years, carefully reviews the situation before the invasion, noting Saddam Hussein’s long record of making war on his neighbors, Iran and Kuwait, firing Scud missiles into Israel, and the decision, after 9-11, to address the threat he posed before it worsened. Not everyone agreed. France, Germany, and Russia, for their own reasons---mostly financial---preferred to turn a blind eye to the problem Iraq posed. Reviewing the failure of Europe to respond to threats to the peace in the past century, Shaw factually and dispassionately, demonstrates that the war in Iraq, ultimately, was the right thing to do. Recently I visited a Staples store to check out computer printers and came away thinking there were so many different conformations to the various products offered, it was difficult to know how to make an intelligent choice. My problem has been solved by Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses ($29.95, Amacom). Published last month, this guide by Ramon Ray will help anyone faced with the many choices today’s technology provides. Does one network with wired or wireless technology? How can you decide between various printers, scanners and other peripherals? What do you need to insure data security? How to assess the features of desktop computers, pricing, etc? What’s the best business software? Here’s the practical advice you’ve been seeking and it is well worth the price. Let’s say you’re a Russian who wants to emigrate to America or is already here and having difficulty adapting to a new culture and society. This is a very common problem, but it has now been solved by Vitaliy Demin and Olga Demin Lambert who have published a combined English/Russian edition of The Complete Guide for Immigrants: Welcome to America ($69.95, ViOLa Publishing, LLC., PO Box 297, Saco, ME 04072. Tel. (207) 283-1437. www.violapublishing.com). This book, of course, will also work for those immigrants who need only read the English text. It is 1008 pages filled with tables, charts, and tons of information about how to rent an apartment, buy a car, open a bank account, find a job, pay taxes, and so much more that it is a virtual encyclopedia to successfully assimilating into American society. The authors represent two generations of a family that moved to the US from Russia in 1993. They arrived speaking no English and yet have made a successful transition. Their knowledge and experience infuses this reference to make the transition for other immigrants. This book is an American success story. Of course, if you want to learn about The Lazy Way to Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything, you have to read Fred Gratzon’s book ($27,95, Soma Press, 1930 Cherry Tree Lane, Fairfield, Iowa 52536). This is an hilarious look at the work ethic which, despite having none of it, the author still managed to start successful business and, in general, "do well" in life. He essentially says that keeping your nose to the grindstone means missing out on enjoying your life. Moreover, he propounds the theory that "Success is inversely proportional to hard work." Interested? Then I recommend this entertaining, insightful book on how, indeed, to be successful while still holding onto your inner child, discovering your true calling, and thoroughly enjoying your life. Coming next month is The Playmakers: Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys by Tim Walsh ($50.00, Keys Publishing, 5370 Clark Road, Suite A, Sarasota, FL 34233-3227). Granted that’s a hefty price for a book. However, if you have ever wondered who came up with Play-Doh, Clue, Frisbee, Lego, Nerf, Monopoly, Barbi, the Magic 8 Ball, and others whose stories are told in this interesting history of the people and companies that manufactured and sold these toys and games, you will find this a very satisfying reading experience. It is filled with more than 130 images of vintage ads, patents, illustrations and historical photographs and there are more than 420 color photos to enhance the author’s text. Those of us of a "certain age" will surely enjoy reading about the games with which we grew up, many of which are still around, entertaining whole new generations. For more information, visit www.theplaymakers.com.
There are many books published every year on health topics and one has to take care to select those of real quality. Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld’s Breakthrough Health ($14.95, Rodale) fits that description with its review of 167 new medical discoveries, treatments, and cures. The author has reviewed the many new medical research studies to identify those of greatest value and his discusses them in terms that anyone can understand, free of medical jargon or hype. For anyone interested in their own or loved one’s health, this book is a real bargain of useful, new information. Where Have All the Nurses Gone? That’s the question Faye Satterly, R.N., asks in her recently published book ($21.00, Prometheus Books) and this behind-the-scenes look at America’s healthcare system should be a wake-up call before its quality declines as the result of the failure to encourage young men and women to take up this important profession. Today, the average age of a nurse today is 45 and planning their retirement. Only 12% of nurses are under the age of 30. To make matters worse, just as nurses are becoming scarce, the aging population is growing and in need of their services. This is an important book, a copy of which should be sent to every member of Congress. Are you starting off 2004 with a new baby? Two excellent softcover books from Da Capo Press, Feeding and Toilet Training in a series called "The Brazelton Way", feature the advice of T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., and his colleague, Joshua D. Sparrow, M.D. ($9.95 each). The authors note that both feeding and toilet training are key issues for children, full of pitfalls and opportunities. The books represent concise, practical, age-by-age, issue-by-issue advice that provides a window into the mind of the child. For example, they note that there are critical periods for introducing a child to solid foods and new foods. On the issue of toilet training, the authors point out that control is up to the child and they advise how to encourage the right responses as the child matures.
Born Talking by David Lippert ($14.95, Borntalking.com, 34116 Blue Heron Drive, Solon, OH 44139-5641) discusses a newborn’s very limited capacity for speech (which is why they tend to cry a lot!) and then gives new or expectant parents an easy crash course on how to communicate with their infants. Using his strategies, Lippert says that newborns as young as three weeks of age are capable of using words to communicate their needs and often use sentences by age six months. The book explains how to listen for the words a newborn is capable of saying and to model the use of words known to be easily said by an infant. Before It Happens to You: A Breakthrough Program for Reversing or Preventing Heart Diseases ($26.00, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA) by Dr. Jonathan Sackner Bernstein, M.D., the Director of the North Shore University Hospital’s Health Failure Prevention Program, is filled with excellent advice on how to lower high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the first symptoms of hidden heart disease. A few simple blood tests can help your doctor determine what is right for you with medications that include an aspirin, an ACE-inhibitor, a statin, and a beta-blocker. Everyone is different, so it is important for a physician to make accurate analysis and this book helps the reader help their doctor. Considering that heart disease is America’s leading cause of death, anyone with a reasonable concern for their health will benefit from reading this book. What If it’s Not Alzheimer’s? A Caregiver’s Guide to Dementia ($22.00, Prometheus Books, softcover) is an important book for a nation whose elder population is living longer and often requires care. The book, edited by Lisa and Gary Radin, takes a look at various types of other dementias and is the first comprehensive guide to frontotemporal dementia, one of the largest groups of non-Alzheimer’s dementias. Designed as both a resource and a reference guide, this useful handbook offers twenty-five chapters full of practical information that caregivers of FTD patients need every day. Just interested in maintaining your health through exercise? Consider Core Performance by Mark Verstegan and Pete Williams ($29.95, Rodale) a book devoted to a fitness program that offers a workout the authors promise will work for you. Extensively illustrated and highly detailed, with some excellent medical data, this will book provides lots of good advice. Been thinking about taking up Yoga? Mastering the Secrets of Yoga Flow by Doug Swenson ($19.95, Perigee Trade softcover, St. Martin’s Press) is also extensively illustrated. The author is a renowned yoga instructor and is an introduction to Sadhana Yoga, which connects traditional yoga postures with flowing movement to enhance the experience that helps both relaxation and builds strength. Of novels there is no end. What drives these authors to conjure up their stories? Perhaps it’s the same instinct that led to storytelling around the fires burning in the caves of ancient man?
For a good mystery, look for anything published by the Mysterious Press, an imprint of Warner Books. That’s the case with Aphrodite by Russell Andrews ($23.95). When a young woman is found brutally murdered in a small Long island town, detective Justin Westwood, who has moved there to escape a dark, disturbing past, is jolted from his quiet life to solve the crime. Seems the victim had stumbled on an astonishing secret project run by a sinister, powerful group. The closer he comes to finding out what it is, the closer he comes to being their next victim. Suffice it to say you will want to find out how this story ends as soon as you begin to read this compelling mystery. Due out next month, Dead Heat, by Caroline Carver ($23.95) is an excellent follow-up to Blood Junction, a winner of the Crime Writer’s Association New Writer’s Award. The author takes you to one of the wildest places on earth, the Australian outback. Having survived a place crash, Georgia Parrish discovers someone sabotaged the plane. Which of the passengers was the intended victim? In the process, she comes across a Chinese gang that smuggles people into the country. The suspense mounts from page to page. Fans of the Owen Archer suspense series by Candace Robb will be happy to learn that The Cross Legged Knight is now available from Mysterious Press in softcover ($12.95). Set in the year 1371, in England, a wealthy knight hires Owen Archer, a master spy, to determine if an assassination plot against him is real or not. A dark scheme involving knights, bishops and even kings emerges. From Viking Press comes Joseph Gangemi’s novel, Inamorata, ($24.95) set in Philadelphia in the 1920s. It was a time when spiritualism was quite popular and was beginning to bump up against science. In 1922, Scientific American offered five thousand dollars for any evidence of "conclusive psychic manifestations." This is where Gangemi starts, as Martin Finch attempts to determine whether the Philadelphia socialite, Mina Crawley, can actually summon up the dead. As he participates in the séances, he is drawn to the beautiful and guileless Mina. This intriguing novel is filled with all kinds of interesting characters and plot twists that will keep you turning the pages. I am growing convinced that Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer, the authors of a series of "Cape Light" novels set in "a quaint New England town" is, in fact, a factory somewhere filled with writers who just churn out these popular stories. I say this because I have just received A New Leaf ($23.95, Berkeley), yet another novel, the second in Cape Light, a Norman Rockwell community of friends, neighbors and dreamers. This story centers on a single mom recovering from a bitter divorce who has given up her dream of opening a catering business and of finding love again. Until, of course, a man enters her life and both discover the power of new love. Your move!
Other publishing houses, of course, are producing their own softcover novels. Walker & Company has just released James Sallis’s Ghost of a Flea ($8.95), the sixth and final in his "Lew Griffin" crime fiction series set in New Orleans. This is a relationship novel as well as a search for a missing person, and the demand to face his own mortality. Sallis has a gift for poetic and masterful prose. For some heart-pounding suspense, pick up Adreline ($12.95, Bethany House, Minneapolis) by John B. Olson. The author has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and has won awards for his previous novels. This one is a biotech page-turner set within the high stakes world of medical research when a possible solution to muscular dystrophy turns out to have some bizarre side effects. Thomas Dunne Books is an imprint of St. Martin’s Press and just released The Angel With One Hundred Wings: A Tale from the Arabian Nights ($13.95) by Daniel Horch. You can reach back to 9th century Baghdad in this novel in which a young prince who has fallen in love with the sultan’s mistress seeks the help of an alchemist to help them both escape. It’s high romance and suspense. One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash ($13.00, Picador/Henry Holt & Co.) has a very different setting, a small town in southern Appalachia. A local thug has been murdered and the sheriff can find neither a body, nor anyone to testify to it. Southern authors have a special gift for such stories and Rash is no exception in his debut novel. Another gifted writer is Mary Allen Redd whose novel, The Dogwood Tree, was published last October ($12.00) by Cascade Books of Provo, Utah. It is "a love story about divorce" and how to survive it. It took awhile to get to it in the stacks, but it was well worth it. Another graceful and insightful novel is Risa Miller’s Welcome to Heavenly Heights ($12.95, St. Martin’s Griffen), a novel of Israel today as it looks at a group of American Jews who come to live in one of the most contested places on earth. They are orthodox Jews who leave the US to return to the ancient homeland and they move to a settlement on the West Bank. The place is anything but heavenly and this novel paints a chilling portrait of life there that is easier to read about than to have to live every day. Gold Raid by Ed Mitchell ($15.95, California Coast Publishing) is his second novel in his Gold Lust series and it focuses on the greed and evil that arises from the discovery of gold. Everybody gets into the chase to own or control it. Nolen Martin, his fiancée, and his cancer-stricken foster-mother are under attack by international conglomerate Continental Mining and Refining after his finds a new vein of gold in northern California. Murder, theft, sabotage, stock manipulation, and kidnapping are all part of the tactics employed. The story of his struggle to survive is deftly told amidst one plot twist after another. Mitchell’s One of my favorite authors of mystery and suspense is P.J. Parrish and among the dozens of paperbacks that have arrived, I was delighted to received Island of Bones ($6.99, Pinnacle). Set in the late 1980’s,when a young woman’s bullet-ridden body is found in a mangrove along a Florida seacoast, Louis Kincaid, a former cop turned private investigator, is hired by a woman who fears her father may be a serial killer. Neither his confession, nor his apparent suicide, satisfies Kincaid and you’ve only just begun to turn the pages to get to the bottom of this story. Publisher’s Weekly notes that Parish’s second Kincaid mystery earned an Edgar Award nomination and thinks this one should as well. I agree! New Children’s & Young Reader’s Books The books National Geographic publishes for younger readers are consistently of high quality, so it is always a pleasure to recommend them. George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War by Thomas B. Allen ($16.95) will evoke a greater interest in this essential chapter of our nation’s history. The best part of this book is how interesting it is! Washington learned the value of spycraft when he first participated in the French and Indian Wars. Ironically, he was fighting for the British at the time, but that’s where he made his reputation that led to his being chosen to lead the Revolutionary forces. This book is ideal for the younger readers, aged twelve and up. It worked for me and I am a lot older than that! Another founding father, Thomas Jefferson, is the subject of a brief, but excellent biography written and illustrated by Cheryl Harness ($17.95, National Geographic). She brings him to life with an excellent text that is greatly enhanced by her artwork. Readers at the seventh to tenth grade level would enjoy this one. It has all the facts, but it also renders him as a real person, not some icon of perfection. Coming in April, National Geographic will publish The Human Story: Our Evolution from Prehistoric Ancestors to Today ($21.95) by Christopher Sloan. It has a foreword by Drs. Meave and Louise Leakey, famed anthropologists, and will surely inspire any younger reader to want to learn even more about the development of mankind from the cave to the city. Handsomely illustrated, as are all National Geographic books, this one handles its subject in a way that makes me envy today’s younger reader. A good companion book is a cartoon prehistory of life before dinosaurs, When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and Tetrapods Stalked the Earth ($16.95) by Hannah Bonner, due off the press next month. In a completely entertaining fashion, a remarkably vast amount of information is imparted to describe the world that existed before humans even existed! For slightly younger readers, but not beginners, there’s the fanciful Once Upon a Starry Night: A Book of Constellations ($16.95) by Jacqueline Mitton and Christina Balit. This could be the book that gets someone on the way to becoming an astronomer with its tales of how the constellations were named after various myths. This book is so beautifully illustrated it will fascinate any younger reader. After reading this book, a youngster can stare up into the night sky and pick out Andromeda or Orion. From the great gang at Kane/Miller Book Publishers, La Jolla, California, comes a batch of great new books for children and younger readers. The very young, from pre-school to first grade, will enjoy In Front of an Ant: Walking with Beetles and Other Insects by Ryuichi Kuwahara with great photos by Satoshi Kuribayashi ($8.95) that will fascinate as they take the reader on a walk with an ant as he bumps into a variety of other insects. Learning to count is fun when you are Counting with Apollo by Caroline Gregoire ($13.95) who offers a funny looking dog to teach numbers one through ten. For the early reader, there’s What Eddie Can Do by Wilfried Gebhard ($15/95), a delightfully illustrated story of how one’s imagination can take one everywhere. Imagination plays a role in Playing with Stuff: Outrageous Games with Ordinary Objects by Ferry Piekart and Lars Deltrap ($9.95) that demonstrates how to create a variety of games with just the ordinary "stuff" in most homes. Good for the fourth to sixth grade crowd. Paul Needs Specs by Bernard Cohen and Geoff Kelly ($15.95) tells the story of a boy who needs eyeglasses but is afraid of being teased because he does. This one too is for the early reader. Its illustrations are excellent and it makes its point without being preachy. Finally, there’s Little Fish by Sanne te Loo ($15.95), a magical story of a little Mexican girl who adopts a fish that jumps into her lap one day. She takes it home and it grows larger and larger until the day comes when it must be returned to the sea. Beautifully illustrated, this will entertain young readers aged seven and up.
No More Handprints ($18.95, Webster Henrietta Publishing, PO Box 50044, Myrtle Beach, SC 29579) began as a gift from a novelist to his wife on Mother’s Day. Michael Hetzer, best known for his thrillers, tells the story in verse of a mother’s efforts to keep little boy’s dirty handprints off the walls. Illustrated by Kim Clayton, it is a touching story of love, ideal for the youngest reader or a youngster to whom it can be read. This one has the look of a classic about it. Coming in March is The Magical, Marvelous Megan G. Beamer: A Day in the Life of a Dreamer ($14.95, hardcover/$8.95 softcover, GR Publishing, 460 Brookside Way, Felton, CA) by Karen Gedig Burnett and illustrated by Laurie Barrows. Just right for those five years of age and up, it tells the story of Megan, full of spirit and imagination, who keeps hearing "No", "Don’t" and "Act your age" as she makes her way around the neighborhood. She ignores this as much as possible, but finally returns home dejected. Her mother tells her "No matter what, I love your dreams." This is the kind of love and encouragement we all need and the story conveys that message beautifully. To learn more about the other titles from this publisher, visit www.GrandmaRose.com. Lastly, from Blue Mountain Arts, a terrific publisher of books for young readers, there’s The Redhead Handbook by Cort Cass ($10.95, Rabbits Foot Press, a division, PO Box 4549, Boulder, CO 80306) that is, of course, for the redhead in your life. It contains information about famous redheads in history, fashion and makeup tips, the biggest myths about redheads and lots more. No matter what age your redhead is, he or she will enjoy this book.
Additionally, Blood for Dignity by David P Colley ($13.95, St. Martin’s Press) tells the story of the first integrated combat unit in the US army during World War II. Up until then, blacks fought in all-black units. When, in March 1945, two thousand black infantrymen entered the front lines in Germany to fight alongside white soldiers, it changed the minds and hearts of a lot of people. Based on exhaustive interviews with the survivors of fifth platoon, K Company, 394 Infantry Regiment, 99 Infantry Division, the author go to war once again with brave men fighting for their nation and their race. They disproved the widely held belief that blacks could not fight on a par with white soldiers. By 1949, the segregation of the armed forces ended. Mississippi Harmony: Memoirs of a Freedom Fighter by Winson Hudson and Constance Curry ($15.95, Palgrave Macmillan) is a lively recall of the civil rights movement as it played out in am all-black, rural town called Harmony. From voting rights to health care, school desegregation to Head Start programs, Ms. Hudson led the struggle for racial justice. This is a slice of a real life well lived. As the days of the Civil Rights movement fade into history, the need to acknowledge the advances made by blacks in America and to look at why so many have not shared that success is important. Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority ($13.00, Gotham Books, division of Penguin Group) by John McWhorter does just that. The author, a professor of linguistics, has written a number of books, the best known of which is Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. He is an articulate advocate for joining mainstream America in the way so many immigrants did, through hard work and taking personal responsibility for one’s life. He believes that, decades after the Civil Rights Act, blacks remain "a race apart" in America. He offers a very different view of blacks than those identified in the media as black leaders and that may account for why he is not widely heard or seen in the media. If racial issues interest and concern you, this softcover collection of his essays will prove well worth reading. That’s it for February! Don’t forget to come back in March for more news of the best in new fiction and non-fiction! And check out our Featured Book section for news about some of the most unique books available, many of which you will find only here! |
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Since Valentine’s Day celebrates love, the perfect book for this month is Shakespeare On Love as edited by Michael Kerrigan ($10.00, Penguin Books). In one volume, Kerrigan brings together Shakespeare’s most romantic speeches and sonnets. From star-crossed lovers and tragic jealousy, to unrequited passion and romantic courtship, the great playwright and poet seems to have just the right words. A great gift for someone you love!
In what can only be described as an insight into the paranoid mindset of Arabs in particular and Muslims in general regarding America’s role in the world, Nafeez M. Ahmed has authored Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle for Iraq ($16.95, New Society Publishers). In this Alice-in-Wonderland look at America, everything that has occurred in the Middle East is said to be the result of a vast conspiracy by the US to control its oil and the region. Thus, 9-11 becomes our fault, the invasion by Iraq of Kuwait was our idea, and everything else that has occurred since WWI and the fall of the Ottoman Empire has nothing whatever to do with Islam or the despots it seems to spawn with such ease. Though heavily documented throughout, the author manages to achieve answers that ignore the radical Islamic Revolution that began in earnest in Iran during the late 1970s and all the attacks on American embassies and our military up to 9-11 and since. Summarily acknowledging the repressive regimes of the Middle East, the author concludes they exist because, not despite, of the United States and its Western allies. This merely shifts the blame from the real problem, radical Islam.
Book reviewers live for the one book that is so unique, so entertaining, so filled with insight that, after reading it, the book has become a part of your life thereafter. Chinqua Where? ~ The Spirit of Rural America, 1947-1955 ($24.95, Willow Creek Publishing Co., North Myrtle Beach, SC) in one of those books. It reflects the very years I was growing up in suburban America, so I could identify with the time period, but more importantly, it took me to a place I had never been and which is part of the legend of this nation. The title comes from Fred B. McKinley’s hometown. Chinquapin, Texas. The author, through a series of essays, takes you back to a time and place where there was no electricity, indoor plumbing, running water or central heating. It is a place where you took a bath in a big washtub, where boys and girls wore clothes made from flour sacks. In the summer, they went barefoot. The Saturday afternoon movie was the main entertainment. The best aspect of this book is the way it makes you feel like you know the various people in it and it may make you yearn for a time when there weren’t ten thousand rules and regulations about everything you can or cannot do. And it is filled with humor. To learn more about this wonderful book, visit our 
There are plenty of books about pregnancy, but one that has been around awhile with considerable success is Young Pregnancy: Week by Week that is now in its fifth edition. Dr. Glade B. Curtis, OB/GYN and Judith Schuler, MS, are the authors ($15.95, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA) and literally millions of copies have been sold. Now it has been brought up-to-date to reflect changes in obstetric practice and technologies, offering a wealth of information on 3D ultrasound and pre-natal testing, methods for controlling pain during childbirth, dietary information, and so much more. Pelvic Health & Childbirth: What Every Woman Needs to Know by Dr. Magnus Murphy, M.D. and Carol L. Wasson ($21.00, Prometheus Books, softcover) responds to the way almost every woman who has experienced vaginal childbirth has sustained some damage to her "pelvic floor." This term describes the network of muscles, fascia, and nerves at the base of the pelvis that provides support for organs that include the vagina, urinary bladder and rectum, among others. It is usually mild and has temporary side effects. For those experiencing more serious injuries resulting in incontinence and other symptoms, this book offers a lot of hope with its advice on seeking effective treatments.
The AOL Time Warner Group is going to be smaller in the days to come as this odd conglomerate breaks up. Whoever thought there was some kind of synergy among these disparate entities must have smokingsome funny stuff. That said, they have published four novelists who are unfailingly entertaining. There’s John Le Carre who, since the end of the Cold War has been looking for a theme big enough for his talent. His latest effort, Absolute Friends ($26.95, Little Brown), is the story of Ted Mundy, failed writer and former Cold War spy. As the story begins, he is a down-at-the-heels tour guide in Southern Germany despite being a British citizen. An old German student friend and former spy shows up. He has spent his years since the fall of the Berlin Wall as an itinerant university lecturer in the Middle East. Enter next a mysterious billionaire philanthropist. The downside of this novel is that the author uses it to complain about the US liberation of Iraq. I recommended Brad Meltzer’s The First Counsel a few months ago and now I can recommend The Zero Game ($25.95, Warner Books). Set in Washington, DC, the author takes us behind closed doors where two aides to powerful senators and congressman discover they are not the players they thought they were, but pawns in a game that gets one of their associates killed. Now they are being hunted by the killer. This is a first rate thriller. Walter Mosley, author of great detective novels, has penned The Man in my Basement ($22.95, Little Brown) in which the beautiful house in which his family has lived for generations may be lost because Charles Blakey has lost his job. When a stranger shows up to rent a room in his basement, he not only needs the money, but is intrigued because the man is white and he is black. Their relationship explores inconceivable worlds of power and manipulation. Mosley has written a book that takes him and his reader in a new direction. It’s a winner. Lastly, there’s Elisabeth Robinson’s The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters ($23.95, Little Brown), the story of a former hotshot Hollywood producer, Olivia Hunt, who has hit bottom thanks to a failed film, a kiss-off from her boyfriend, and dreams of a life that just did not pan out. When she gets word that her beloved sister, Maddie, is seriously ill, she flies to her side. What follows is a wonderful story about values and choices we all make in our lives. 
I am sitting here beside a stack of eight softcover novels, all published by Plume, an imprint of Penguin Putnam. They’re all pretty good in their own way, so here’s a quick précis. "Sharp and bright" were adjectives The Washington Post used to describe Emily Barr and now her third novel, Cuba, due out in April is proof of that and more. It’s about eavesdropping and a lot more as young woman, recovering from a breakup with her boyfriend, becomes part of the lives of a young couple. Can’t tell you more, but this one’s good. Just out in January, In Full Bloom by Caroline Hwang is a hilarious look at the relationship between a chic, young Korean-American and her mother, determined to marry her off to a man who shares their heritage before her "bloom" fades. Some disastrous dates follow in this funny, hip story of the ancient mother-daughter bond. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan was a big hit when published originally in 2002. It is the story of a woman who has what she thinks is a perfect life; a great husband, a great job, children, and a garden. Then her husband tells her he’s leaving her for a young woman! Starting over and making it work is told with wit and authenticity. A very different change of pace comes in Domino by Ross King, an historical thriller set in the hurly-burly world of 1770’s London. I recommended this story of a young, ambitious artist when it first was published and happily do so again. Ireland is the setting for John McGahern’s The Barracks. This is not a happy story, but one of a closed-in Irish community and life’s choices that often lead to unexpected challenges. Well-written, the author has been praised by John Updike and he’s quite a novelist in his own right. Once Two Heroes by Calvin Baker tells the story of Mather, a young black man who has grown up in France and Lewis, the son of a genteel, old, white Mississippi family. Both have fought in WWII, but back in Mississippi, their lives intertwine by way of a murder, altering them forever. I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company is a novel by Brian Hall based on the journey of discovery by Lewis and Clark. It is told from four perspectives, the two leaders of the expedition, Sacagawea, the Shoshone girl, and Toussaint Charbonneau, the French fur trade who was her husband. If you like history, you will thoroughly enjoy this novel. Finally, there’s Parallel Text, short stories in German, but with the English version on the opposite page, so you can read them in either language! The prices of these Plume softcovers range from $12 to $14 and are a real bargain for the entertainment they provide.
first book one the National Publishers Freedom Award for Best New Fiction from a small press. To learn more, visit 
Mondo Publishing of New York seems to be picking up momentum because a number of new books are available. For ages four to eight, they offer The Big Rock Candy Mountain illustrated by John Kanzler ($15.95) and based on a folksong. "Oh, the buzzing of the bees in the lollipop trees" will get any child’s attention and the artwork will hold it. Hotel Jungle by Donna Jo Napoli and Shelagh Johnston, and illustrated by Kenneth J. Spengler ($15.95) will delight the same age group with its story of a vacation at a California hotel that includes visits from a bunch of baboons for whom it is home. This one is just terrific. Slightly older readers, aged six to twelve, will enjoy Tea Leaves ($15.95) is set in the mountains of Sri Lanka where vast tea crops are grown. Written by Frederick Lipp and illustrated by Lester Coloma, it is the story of a young girl’s dream to see the ocean. For those aged seven to twelve, Dennis Brindell Fradin tells the story of Nicolas Copernicus: The Earth is a Planet ($15.95). Illustrated by Cynthia Von Buhler, it is a straight-foreword story of how Copernicus, a century before the invention of the telescope, figured out that the Earth goes around the Sun and was not the center of the universe. For the youngster who asks a lot of questions about this galaxy, this is a good book to fire up his thirst for more.
February is Black History Month and several books reflect its theme. Following the Civil War, the emancipation of the nation’s slave population, and the Reconstruction, the South looked for ways to control thefreed Blacks and the way they found led to decades of oppression, a system and era called Jim Crow. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow by Richard Wormser ($17.95, St. Martin’s Press) is filled with the history of that period since the end of the Civil War up to the 1960s. It is an ugly one, too, complete with lynchings, segregation, and every form of mental and physical abuse one can imagine. This was not just a southern phenomenon, as forms of it existed in the north as well. This book is an excellent look at this sad period of US history, out of which the Civil Rights Movement came in the 1960s.