For anyone trying to make sense of a very dangerous world, I strongly recommend that you read Enemies: How America’s Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets—and How We Let It Happen by Bill Gertz ($26.95, Crown Forum), a top investigative reporter with the Washington Times, the author of Treachery and Breakdown, Gertz is probably better wired into the intelligence community than any other journalist in the nation. The result is a book that will give you cause to wonder how we are going to survive in a world where our enemies run circles around us while the CIA, FBI, the Pentagon, and other agencies charged with protecting us are too busy running their own little turf battles and fiefdoms. You will learn how Communist China, Russia, Cuba and others have skillfully infiltrated the U.S. government to steal our most vital secrets and use them against us. The Chinese run the most sophisticated spy and disinformation operations, rivaled only by Russia, which has more spies working in the United States today than the height of the Cold War! The revelations in this book will keep you up at night!

We tend in the run-up and celebration of Christmas to lose sight of the fact that it is a major Christian holiday, albeit one that has been adopted by other cultures around the world for its gift giving and general message of good will toward mankind. Last year I thought Garry Wills, arguably one of the finest writers on religion today, had written a brilliant book, "What Jesus Meant", that cast him in a whole new light. He has done this again with What Paul Meant ($24.95, Viking) examining the historical context in which Paul lived and the authenticity of the writings ascribed to him. What emerges is an extraordinary story of a man who never met the living Jesus and whose writings occurred some two decades after his death. It is the story of the man who literally created what is accepted as Christianity today, reinterpreting the Judaism into which he was born to create a God-in-man messiah later refined by Christian theologians into a formal religion derived from Paul’s and Jesus’ Judaism. As Wills says, "He became the only founder of Christianity, leaving the misunderstood Jesus without a religion of his own." This is a book that deserves the attention of Christian and non-Christian alike for its extraordinary insights and facts. Catholics will welcome news that Wills’ earlier book The Rosary ($15.00, Penguin) is now available in a softcover edition.

For Christians seeking to deepen their devotion and looking for ways to celebrate the Advent season, there’s The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent by Calvin Miller ($9.99, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, TN) that features brief, everyday devotions for the entire month of December that brings readers back to the very first Christmas. There’s also a useful guide to be found in Geza Vermes’ Who’s Who in The Age of Jesus ($16.00, Penguin, softcover). A renowned biblical scholar, the author provides useful, interesting information on the major figures of that transformative era. This isn’t just for theology students. It’s an interesting look at the history and the personalities who gave shape to it.

We all need a good laugh every day and two books are here to provide them. The first is The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design ($19.95, Dutton) by Wendy Northcutt with Christopher M. Kelly. What began as an award winning website became a bestselling series of books, and is now a film. The concept is simple enough. Collect stories of people who managed to kill themselves in astonishingly stupid ways. In this way, they help "thin out the herd" of human beings and presumably improve the species in the process by eliminating themselves from the gene pool. The new book has more than a hundred fatal mishaps. Mitch Albom wrote a bestseller about The Five People You Meet in Heaven and it now has a parody, Ray Zardetto’s The Five Jerks You Meet on Earth ($12.95, Andrews McMeel Publishing, softcover). In this book, the victim of a fatal merry-go-round accident finds himself in heaven, but encounters those people who made his life a misery and, with the help of a bumbling angel, is able to finally get his revenge. If you have ever daydreamed about the same thing, you will enjoy this an amusing satire.

Politics in America is a full contact sport. Increasingly it is played out in books advocating the liberal or conservative "take" on events and issues. For example, there’s S.T. Joshi’s The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong ($25.00, Prometheus Books) that profiles twelve leading conservatives and asserts, "that conservatives long ago lost the hearts and minds of the American people." How he can say that when conservatives control Congress and the White House, and popular conservative talk show hosts own the airwaves is beyond me. Indeed, his book sets up one straw man after another for him to knock down. Do conservatives say some occasionally outrageous things? Yes, but this is not exclusive to them. To learn why many conservatives are unhappy with the Republican Party these days, all you have to do is pick up Richard A. Viguerie’s Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause ($24.95, Bonus Books). Viguerie’s credentials make him one of the leading conservatives in the nation. It was his direct mail fundraising that created the base for the election of men like Ronald Reagan. I expected a real diatribe, but was pleased to read one of the most carefully documented and calm examinations of why so many conservatives today are so unhappy with the President and the Republican Party. There is no denying they have been on a massive spending spree, that the President has ignored the problems of massive illegal immigration, and the social issues that are of concern to conservatives have not been addressed as they would want. For a careful analysis of what has occurred instead, this is the book to read.

There are, last time I checked, some 55 million blogs operating in cyberspace and more being added every day. If you are contemplating having one of your own, by all means pick up a copy of Margaret Mason’s No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog ($19.99, Peachpit Press, Berkeley, CA, softcover). Mason is a professional writer, editor, and a long-time blogger who offers some very good tips on how to keep your blog lively and worth reading. I have bookmarked a dozen blogs that I regularly visit and it’s all about content, content, content! People will visit your blog if you provide them some new gem of knowledge or personal insight. That’s Not in My Science Book: A Compilation of Little-Known Facts by Kate Kelly ($14.95, Taylor Trade Publishing, imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, softcover) is a kind of book I have always enjoyed. It is filled with facts about things that just increase one’s understanding of the world while being constantly entertaining in the process. Did you know the phrase "Mad as a hatter" came from the fact starting in the mid-1700s exposure to a mercury compound by hat makers caused the workers to suffer tremors, insomnia, dementia and hallucinations? A book like this will make you the hit of any party simply for all the wonderful and useful trivia it possesses.

Every so often Bookviews receives a book that is so unique it requires special notice. That’s the case with Hollywood Be Thy Name: An Inside Look at Hollywood Actors and Extras by Jeff and Shirley Lawrence ($26.95, Outskirts Press, softcover). The authors recall the late 50s and the 60s that were final years of the studio system that established Hollywood as the epicenter of the film industry. In the many films we watch, we tend to forget that many of the people in those films were the anonymous extras who filled the screen with cheering crowds, bystanders to a shootout, people dining in a restaurant, or any one of the countless scenes in which the stars were the focus of our attention. The authors met and married while working in countless films. As a result they had a unique opportunity to meet, know and observe the stars, the directors, and the many others who contributed to the magic of films. Familiar names pop up on every page. Lesser known names reveal both the fun and seamier side behind the scenes. The authors were both talented singers as well, returning to Hollywood in the 80s, they continued their careers, always providing a good life for themselves and their three children. Their story, for anyone who loves the lore of Hollywood will prove very satisfying.

An interesting companion book is A Star is Found: Our Adventures Casting Some of Hollywood’s Biggest Movies by Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins ($25.00, Harcourt). These women are two of the top casting directors, responsible for such films as "A Beautiful Mind" and the Harry Potter films. The book will appeal to film students, actors, and others interested in the behind-the-scenes reality of what occurs in the making of a film as regards who gets what role. They share stories of discovering unknowns such as Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio and a host of others. For anyone who cannot get enough of Hollywood, it will prove a breezy, revealing read.

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Great Gift Books

This is the time of year we begin to look for gifts and, if there is someone in your life who loves haute cuisine, there is a new cookbook that will join the ranks of the great ones. It’s The Waldorf-Astoria Cookbook by John Doherty with John Harrison, featuring the photographs of Ellen Silverman ($50.00, Bulfinch Press). This is a coffee table-sized book and the first thing you notice are the gorgeous color photos of the various dishes. The next thing that leaps off the pages is, of course, the recipes. In the hands of the chefs even something like Oscar’s prime angus burger on an onion brioche becomes a gourmet treat, but it is dishes such as the herb-crusted rack of lamb, smoked salmon and quail eggs, or Jean-Claude’s chocolate extravaganza that make this cookbook so special. From appetizers to desserts, it challenges and inspires. There’s also a brief, interesting history of the famed hotel’s reputation for luxury and service that sets the tone, along with a brief look at some of the prominent guests, including U.S. Presidents.

Another cookbook that has just debuted is The Good Home Cookbook ($29.95, Collectors Press). Edited by Richard J. Perry, it is a collection of more than a thousand classic recipes that commemorates and preserves our distinctly American cuisine. This fat volume offers recipes from breakfast to dinner, soup to dessert. Editor and chef Perry recruited more than 700 American families in all 50 States to take part in testing each recipe before it was accepted for inclusion. Nothing says home like real home cooking and in America that runs the gamut from southern barbequed park spareribs to cheese blintzes to seafood paella! My late Mother, a cookbook author in her own right would have loved the duck a’l’orange, the pasta primavera, and all of the desserts! Leafing through this great cookbook was a walk through some very delicious memories for me.

Another big coffee table book will especially please art lovers. It is The Design of Dissent by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilie ($30.00, Rockport Publishers) that was named by Amazon.com as one of the top fifty books of 2005. It is now available in softcover format, but that does not make it any less formidable for its nearly 240 pages whose full color images leap off at you, demanding your attention with their message. This compendium of international posters and other artwork includes work from the 1960s to the present. Playwright Tony Kushner provides the foreword about the way such art is intended to shatter our cynicism or apathy. For the politically attuned, much of the art presented offers a leftist/liberal point of view. It is hard to thumb through the pages of this book without being astonished, delighted, or appalled, but that is what art is supposed to do.

There’s yet another large format book that would make a great holiday gift. It’s the National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animals ($24.95, National Geographic) by Karen McGhee and George McKay, Ph.D. It is surely the definitive guide to the entire animal kingdom, filled with extraordinary full color artwork of more than a thousand species, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and even insects. It has, of course, an authoritative text, plus range maps, cross sections, and cutaways that reveal the inner workings of animals. The photos, too, are marvelous. The parent that gives this book to any child is opening an entire world of knowledge to them while providing the family library with a book that can be consulted for years. In a comparable fashion, from Time Inc. comes Exploring the Unexplained: The World’s Greatest Marvels, Mysteries and Myths ($31.95). This large format book will please anyone who is fascinated by things such as extrasensory perception and Bigfoot. This is a serious effort in which the editors attempt to provide a basis for the mysteries of the past, of nature, of space, of mind and matter, and of the spirit. There’s hours of intriguing reading to be had from this extensively illustrated text.

What do you get when you combine or blend quantum physics, metaphysics, graphic novel, and philosophy into an extraordinarily illustrated book? You get The Museum of Lost Wonder by Jeff Hoke, an award-winning creator of museum exhibits, artist, and former curator of the Field Museum ($49.95, Weiser Books, San Francisco, CA). This book boldly and entertainingly examines life’s big questions. Who am I? What is reality? Where do I fit in the world? In the process of exploring these questions, Hoke’s book provides seven paper models that become a carousel or a theatre of the mind. My first reaction, frankly, was that the book was too weird to appeal to anyone, but as I moved through it, I could see that anyone who loves to test their mind, their perceptions of the world around them, and to learn more about their place in the world was in for hours of brain teasing and testing that, in all likelihood, improve you by the time you reached the end…only to begin at the beginning again!

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People’s Lives: New Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs

One of the best ways to gain some insight into one’s own life or about a particular era in history is to read about the lives of others. From pure fun to a serious quest for the meaning of one’s life, biographies, autobiographies and memoirs open doors.

A wonderful, comedic actress who has brought so much fun into our lives is Teri Garr who gained fame for her roles in films as diverse as Young Frankenstein to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Tootsie. Along the way she began to notice her body was displaying troublesome aches and pains that doctors for two decades were unable to diagnose. In October 2002, she announced she had multiple sclerosis and since then has sought to raise awareness of this debilitating illness. She has written Speedbumps: Flooring it Through Hollywood with Henriette Mantel ($14.00, Plume softcover) that Mel Brooks calls "hysterically funny" and "a lesson in courage." I could not have said it better and, if you are as big a fan of Teri Garr as I am, you will want to read this marvelous memoir.

Would you believe that the Rolling Stones grossed more money on tour this year than any other group, raking in $147.3 million? They have been around since the 1970s! Robert Greenfield has written Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones ($24.00, Da Capo Press), just published this month. It is about the making of the band’s legendary double album as the Stones laid down the tracks to Exile On Main Street amidst a crowd of wives, girlfriends, and assorted groupies who drank, smoked, snorted, and injected themselves with any drug they could acquire. Celebrities and drug dealers drift in and out a villa along the French Riviera. Campy and scary, it is sure to please their many fans. Literati will enjoy The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems 1937-1952 by Allen Ginsberg, the now iconic American "beat" poet who died in 1997. ($27.50, Da Capo Press, 523 pages) From the age of 11, he recorded his innermost thoughts in journals so candidly he insisted they not be published until after his death. He includes conversations with prominent writers of his time that include Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. The book includes 100 poems of which 65 have never been published anyone before.

In Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and Their Son, Peter Manseau weaves together three religious journeys ($15.00, Free Press, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, softcover); his father’s into Catholic priesthood, his mother’s, a teaching nun through the 1960s, and his own. It is the story of the family’s struggle to reconcile the obligations of faith and the necessity for love. His father was censured and his mother found herself at the center of another storm in the volatile history of the city of Boston and the church. This is a deeply personal memoir of his family. Though marriage is denied by church dogma to a priest, this 900-year-old rule may yet give way to changing times. For Catholics in particular, this book will prove to be a very moving experience and, it should be said, for others as well. As a people, Jews in the last century suffered the horror of the Holocaust and the triumph of the re-birth of Israel as their nation. For Those I Loved by Martin Gray ($21.95, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Charlottesville, VA) is published this month in a completely revised, updated edition of a most memorable memoir of a life filled with personal sorrows, triumphs and hopes for the future. It is a story of an indomitable will to survive and a testimony to the courage and nobility of the human spirit. In a new era of genocides, it is also a warning.

World War II generated libraries of books, but it is always the individual soldier’s story that strikes the deepest chord in our lives. Clinton Frederick has edited a true story of love and war in WWII: A Legacy of Letters, One Soldier’s Journey ($26.95, Zonicom Press LLC, 7807 E. Oberlin Way, Scottsdale, AZ 85262) from the letters his father, Capt. George Frederick, sent his mother as he served in the Pacific, engaging in some of its most memorable battles. His son who researched the history of those battles has given us all a precious gift of an eyewitness account in the most human terms. As the members of "the greatest generation" pass from the scene with every day, we are indebted to them for their valor and to those who preserve their memory. Another war, the one in Vietnam, has likewise generated its own literature and Charles Henderson has written a powerful story in Jungle Rules: A True Story of Marine Justice in Vietnam ($24.95, Berkley Caliber, an imprint of the Penguin Group). It has been twenty years since this author’s Marine Sniper and Silent Warrior became instant classics about the Vietnam War. As a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors since the 1970s, I am aware that this new book earned its 2006 Outstanding General Nonfiction Award for its true story of murder among the ranks and the military trial that followed. I guarantee anyone who reads this book will gain a deep understanding of war and the toll it takes on all who partake in one.

Rachel Manija Brown tells the story of "an American misfit in India" in All the Fishes Come Home to Roost ($14.95, Rodale Books, softcover), her memoir of a very unique childhood. Her hippie parents left Los Angeles to join an ashram devoted to Meher Baba, an Indian mystic best known for coining the slogan, "Don’t worry, be happy." At age seven, this whip-smart young lady was plunked down in a cobra-ridden, drought-stricken, backwater town in India. She was the only foreign child in a hundred-mile radius. She survived by imagining herself to be a woman warrior and finding humor is the sheer weirdness of life. Born Jewish, she was sent to Holy Wounds of Jesus Christ the Savior Convent School because it was taught in English. As funny as it is sometimes heartbreaking, this is a grand, real-life story of how to thrive under the most challenging of circumstances. She now lives in—again—in Los Angeles and has won awards for her playwriting, comedy writing, and literary criticism.

Wellington: The Maras, The Giants, and the City of New York by Carlo Devito ($24.95, Triumph Books, Chicago, IL) is a book that will delight fans of this fabled football team as it tells the never-before-told saga of one of the oldest lineages in all professional sports. For three generations the Mara family wielded power in the worlds of boxing, horseracing, and professional football. The author has captured the story of one of New York’s quietest, yet most glamorous families, and especially of Wellington Mara, whose integrity and vision built one of the greatest teams to ever play the game after it was founded by his father, Timothy J. Mara. Wellington devoted his entire life to the Giants organization and the National Football league. His was an extraordinary Irish-American family and DeVito explores Mara’s relationships with some of the 20^th century’s most colorful and successful sports figures such as Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, Grantland Rice, Toots Shor, as well as the dynasties of the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, and the Belmonts. For anyone who loves sports, this book will prove a treasure trove of great stories.

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Getting Down to Business Books

The Economic Policy Institute has published its biennial edition of The State of Working America 2006/2007, a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. labor market summarizing the problems and challenges facing American workers, along with a wide variety of data to show how the economy is affecting living standards ($59.95/$24.95, hard and softcover, Washington, DC). Ask anyone in the middle class and they will tell you that, no matter how much they are earning, it is just not enough to keep up with the rising cost of property taxes, sales taxes, health care and all the other expenses. This book will be especially useful for journalists, government leaders, policy makers and others who want a comprehensive portrait of the nation’s economic state of health.

Corporate Crooks: How Rogue Executives Ripped Off Americans…and Congress Helped Them Do It! ($25.95, Prometheus Books) Greg Farrell has taken a bead on the bad guys and, as the former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Arthur Levitt, says, produced "a fascinating, fast-moving narrative to guide stockholders in understanding how self-serving executives, seduced boards, and politicians poisoned our markets during the go markets of recent years." A veteran USA Today investigative reporter, Farrell examines how the most trusted financial system in the world became a breeding ground for the massive corruption uncovered in the Enron and Worldcom scandals. Written in a style anyone can comprehend, it’s a very scary story. On the lighter side, there’s Ambitious Brew by Maureen Ogle ($25.00, Harcourt), subtitled "The Story of American Beer." You will meet all the familiar names, Pabst, Anheuser-Busch, and Miller, but will also discover how these and other German immigrants came to the land of opportunity and made beer the drink of choice for generations that followed. Innovations in marketing, advertising, and packaging are now part of the American story and it is one you will thoroughly enjoy reading.

It seems like everyone is interested in finance these days and Bruce Helmer has written Money and the People You Love ($16.95, Syren Book Company, Minneapolis, softover), subtitled "A new approach to financial planning based on what matters to you most." Helmer presents a comprehensive, step-by-step way to understand your money and then use it in the most efficient way. For anyone who has not paid attention or never received any instruction regarding how to safeguard, invest, or spend money, I would have to say this book will prove extremely helpful. Wealth Without A Job: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Freedom and Security Beyond the 9-to-5 Lifestyle ($24.95, John Wiley & Sons) is the work of Phil Laut and Andy Fuehl. This book instructs the self-employed reader on how to either achieve financial security or to protect it if it already exists. It explains the fundamental changes in today’s economic structure and how to adopt the characteristics that separate the wealthy from others. The bottom line is that we live in a society in which working for oneself is now the best choice for a lot of people.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Investing: How to Conquer Your Worst Impulses and Save Your Financial Future by Maury Fertig ($23.00, Amacom) demonstrates how recognizable human weaknesses account for many of the errors investors make. Based on his long, successful career at Salomon Brothers, the author shows how even the smartest people make bad investment decisions and what to do to avoid those mistakes. Or you pick up a copy of The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin ($19.95, Perigee, an imprint of Berkley Publishing Group). Did you know that 100 million individual investors in America own $8 trillion in stocks? According to the author, $7.5 trillion is invested "the wrong way" by money managers who practice "hyperactive management" buying and selling as they try to "beat" the market. This book explains in four easy steps that individual investors can take do a lot better and it can be read in about 90 minutes. Since I know nothing about investing, you’re on your own, but I can tell you the author knows his way around the stock market.

The Geek Gap: Why Business and Technology Professionals Don’t Understand Each Other and Why They Need Each Other to Survive ($25.00, Prometheus Books) is one of those titles the pretty much eliminate the need to describe a book! Bill Pfleging and Minda Zetlin relate how business managers and technology professionals have become warring camps in too many companies because they speak different languages and neither side wants to really understand the other. If this situation fits a situation in which you find yourself, I recommend you read this book.

Strategic Hiring: Tomorrow’s Benefits Today by Stephen J. Blakesley ($24.95, available from author at 14550 Torrey Chase, Suite 255, Houston, TX 77014) anticipates a shortage of more than ten million workers by 2010, as predicted by the Bureau of Labor. In a society of 300 million people, that may be hard to believe, but a lot of those people will be too old or too young to be in the work force. Blakesley makes the case that technological advances, the aging of the workforce, the impact of global economy, and the increasing mobility of workers will pose real challenges for those who do the hiring. This book should be mandatory reading for everyone in human resources and for top management. The author is the CEO of Global Management Systems and the book has been available from the major online retailers as of October. The Human Asset Manifesto: What Happens When Organizations Allow People the Freedom to Be by Jonathan Ledwidge ($19.95, Morgan James Publishing, New York, softcover) sets out to demonstrate that organizations are socially dysfunctional and remain steeped in the scientific management principles of the past. Thus, they emphasize technology, process, and control over relationships, engagement, and motivation. I cannot tell you if the author is correct or not, but if you are prepared to take a look at your organization in a new way, this is a good place to start. Mr. Ledwidge is based in London where, ironically, the industrial revolution got its start!

Everything in life is a negotiation and Jeffrey Krivis has written Improvisational Negotiation ($35.00, Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley), a book about negotiating workplace conflicts. A renowned mediator, Krivis notes that, in a global economy, the implications of conflict are more profound than ever before. Having good mediation and negotiating skills is crucial in a world where companies can locate anywhere and people can work anywhere. Clients can stay with you or go with a competitor halfway around the globe. Being able to settle disputes quickly and amicably has become a high priority. This book will prove very useful to those smart enough to spend the time reading it.

A famed merchant of the past allegedly said, "I know half my advertising dollars are wasted. I just don’t know which half." Now John Michelet has written Advertising: Industry in Peril ($14.95, Olympian Publishing, Tigard, OR, softcover) in which he asserts that most American advertising is worthless. The author is an advertising industry insider with 35 years experience and 42 awards for his work. As far as he’s concerned, among the ten leading problems are ads that are more entertainment than a serious argument to make a purchase, fail to use research correctly, and are more interested in getting awards than making sales. For anyone who has to make advertising decisions or is involved in the profession of advertising, this is one heck of an indictment and one heck of a lesson plan to get it right the next time!

In the eternal quest for the consumer, Mary Brown and Dr. Carol Orsborn, PhD, have written Boom: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer—The Baby-Boomer Woman ($24.00, Amacom). Some 80 million strong, Baby-Boomers are now all past age 40 and the majority are women who span an 18-year range, live diverse lives, and have established careers and money to spend on themselves. They make more than 80 percent of their household’s purchasing decisions. Interested? If so, this comprehensive, myth-busting guide will help a company clearly define and consistently reach these crucial women.

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Books for Kids & Younger Readers

It is too soon for a new rendition of The Night Before Christmas? No! Indeed, when it is splendidly illustrated by Gennady Spirin ($16.99, Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books), the Clement Clark Moore classic poem comes to life with the aid of an artist who has won five gold medals from the Society of Illustrators. Four times The New York Times bestowed "The Best Illustrated Book of the Year" upon him. Sit your child upon your lap and open up this book to read aloud. It will create memories.

A new, delightful Christmas story can be found in The Perfect Christmas Gift featuring "Gigi, God’s Little Princess" by Sheila Walsh and wonderfully illustrated by Meredith Johnson ($12.99, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville). Ideal for those 4 to 7 years old, this is the third installment of this series as Gigi awaits Christmas day, thinking she is going to receive a royal crown! She gets something much, much better. Most Americans, when asked, say they believe in God. For them, Max Lucado has written a wonderfully warm, sensitive parable, The Oak Inside the Acorn, beautifully illustrated by George Angelini ($16.99, Tommy Nelson, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers). I would guess this book can be read and understood by anyone age 8 and older. Its message is simple, inside of every child is a purpose for which God gave them life and parents need only observe and help their children achieve that purpose. Children can take comfort in knowing that growing up is part of God’s plan for them.

Paula J. Miller writes Christian fiction and the first book in her Faces of History series is One-Eyed Jack ($8.95, Blooming Tree Press, PO Box 140934, Austin, TX 78714-0934, softcover). Set on a Montana cattle ranch in the 1880s, it is a story a puppy found near death by Nate and grudgingly allowed to keep by his grandfather. A timeless tale, young readers 7 and up will enjoy it.

Today’s teenager lives in a far more technological world than any previous generation. Thus, books designed to hold their attention are more graphic and interactive. A brilliant example of this is Cathy’s Book by Sean Stewart and video game developer Jordan Weisman ($17.95, Running Press, Philadelphia). Taking place in the San Francisco Bay area, it begins when high school student, Cathy, questions why her older boyfriend Victor suddenly breaks up with her. The story is told in the form of Cathy’s journal in which she chronicles everything that happens to her for her friend Emma to discover. The book comes with a packet in which clues are found as Cathy pursues the mystery of the breakup in a fast-paced adventure. Younger girls aged 8 and up are the market for American Girl books and among the latest are Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front in 1944. The world is at war, her father is far away caring for wounded soldiers and her mother works for the Red Cross. Molly has plans for a Halloween costume, but her younger brother begins a war of his own that escalates. This book is the first of a Molly series about growing up during World War II. Brave Emily is about a young British girl who has come to stay with Molly’s family to escape the bombing of London. It’s a lovely story of friendship. Both books are by Valerie Tripp and priced at $6.95. Check out all the other books available at www.americangirl.com.

National Book Award winner, Kimberly Willis Holt’s new novel is Part of Me: Stories of a Louisiana Family ($16.95, Henry Holt and Company). Her previous books for young adults have been "Keeper of the Night", "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town", and "My Louisiana Sky." Every one of them earned a slew of awards and there’s little doubt this one will as well. She has a way of inviting the reader to connect up with a Louisiana family that begins a journey in 1939 from rural Texas to live with their estranged grandfather on a bayou. Rose connects with her new community by driving a bookmobile and we follow that family from her son to his daughter to the present day. This is the kind of book one remembers years after having read it.

National Geographic continues to produce one excellent book after another for the younger reader. The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman and a Faithful History of the Oregon Trail is told by Cheryl Harness ($16.95) who previously authored "The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish." This author specializes in making history come alive and in this book she evokes the Indians of the West, the trappers, the mountain men, and the people who braved much to travel into the wilderness under the most difficult conditions. Any younger reader, 8 and up would enjoy this story. I am looking forward to her next one about Theodore Roosevelt and the rise of "empire America." Exposed to so much information on television, younger readers can make sense of some of it when they read the National Geographic Investigates series, $17.95 each, about Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Inca. Brilliantly illustrated with full color photos and artwork, authors Jacqueline Ball and Richard Levey make history come alive in ways that capture the imagination and make any young reader want to learn more.

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Novels, Novels, Novels!

In the fall, all the publishers, big and small, send countless books, among which are novels—scads of them.

In no particular order, we will begin with Goodnight, Texas by William J. Cobb ($24.95, Unbridled Books) is the story of Goodnight by the Sea, a town that lies on a peninsula between two bays. For years its people, many of them immigrants, have struggled to get by, but there is a growing crisis caused by over-fishing. This is a poignant, powerful, comic and surprisingly hopeful story about love between a Hispanic and his beautiful Vietnamese-Hispanic girlfriend, plus a cast of other folks us city people are never likely to meet. When a killer hurricane arrives to wreak its havoc, the reader will be swept up in the struggle for personal survival amidst the collapse of small town American life. It’s a winner. Texas is also the setting for Final Audit by Jim Worth ($27.95, Mistrigue Press, JW publishing, Anaheim, CA). It is an intriguing mystery involving corporate corruption, executive avarice, and the murder of a former CEO of an energy company in an exclusive neighborhood of Houston. That death leads a veteran detective, Dave Duncan and his new partner, Stephanie Fox, to investigate other similar deaths in Maui and Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Clues are pursued from San Francisco to South Beach in Miami. The author makes an impressive debut with a novel filled with a vast group of characters from today’s high pressure, high stakes business world.

In the case of South Beach Shakedown by Don Bruns ($24.95, Oceanview Publishing) it’s Miami’s famed South Beach and it’s the story of Mick Sever, a journalist known for covering the rock scene, who has to use his investigatory skills when Gideon Pike, a music icon, goes missing, though he has "disappeared" before. As Mick and friend Ginny, commissioned to do a biography of Pike, dig deeper into Pike’s world, they are introduced to an unseemly cast of shady characters. They aren’t the only ones look for Pike. A ruthless Korean mobster is as well—all in all, a lively tale. From the big city to a small town, murder still leaves someone dead and Martha Powers, the author of Death Angel ($24.95, Oceanview Publishing, Ipswich, MA) has written a novel that seems ripped from the headlines. It is a violent crime by an unconscionable killer who has taken a souvenir from the victim, a bracelet with a winged gold angel charm. It matches the one that Kate Warner wears on a chain around her neck. Will the killer be back to collect the other angel? Suspicion falls on her husband, Richard. By the time you’re into this story, you will be checking the locks on the doors and windows to your home or apartment.

Among the softcover novels we’ve seen is a debut by Doug Lalli, Peter and Beth, ($16.95, Hats Off Books, Tucson, AZ). A man, Peter, is on the way to a first-ever psychotherapy appointment, the result of his having recently separated from his wife, sees a familiar-looking woman getting on a crosstown bus in Manhattan. She is Beth, a close friend from college and a woman he "made the mistake" of sleeping with five years earlier. That’s how this spare novel begins as we watch Peter become obsessed with the idea that Beth may have become pregnant, spending months thinking about finding her to learn if that occurred. They do meet, but he doesn’t believe what she tells him. If you are into angst, this novel will provide enough to keep you turning the pages.

One sees the difference between small publishing ventures and those with established literary credentials in a novel by Christopher Castelli, The Saint of Lost Things, ($14.00, Berkley Signature Edition, softcover) that captures the rich and textured stories of hardship and hope reflected in the lives of some two million Italians who migrated to the United States between 1900 and 1940. Set in 1953 in one of Wilmington, Delaware’s tight-knit Italian neighborhoods, we are introduced to Maddalena Grasso who left behind her beloved family in Italy and, despite high hopes for marriage to Antonio, is now filled with sadness and doubt. Be of good cheer, this is America where dreams do come true. What enhances this novel is the author’s intimate knowledge of its setting where he was born and raised, his Italian-American heritage, and his sharp eye and ear for the way people grapple with life. One again location plays a central role in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami ($$13.00, Harvest, an imprint of Harcourt). This novelist debuts with a story set in modern Morocco from which four desperate Muslims illegally cross the Strait of Gibraltar in an inflatable boat headed for Spain. What has driven them to risk their lives in this fashion? Halima is fleeing her drunken husband and the slums of Casablanca. Two others simply want to make more money and another is a religious fanatic. This is an invitation to learn about a very different culture in turbulent times. This short novel is packed with unusual insight and well worth reading.

A very different story is that of Zoe Rose as told in Miss Understanding by Stephanie Lessing ($12.95, Avon softcover). Zoe was the only kid in kindergarten with an enormous red Afro hairstyle and thus taunted by the other little girls. In second grade she saw her best friend ridiculed and became obsessed with why so-called normal girls are so cruel to the girls who never seem to "get it." By 30, Zoe is the editor of Issues magazine and ready to reform an entire nation of women! It’s the feminist versus the fashionistas. And it is a whole lot of fun to read! For anyone who loves a good mystery, there’s The New Woman by Jon Hassler ($14.00, Plume), the latest in a series that began in 1977 in which the town of Staggerford is center stage with a cast of eccentric characters. Among one of its favorites is Agatha McGee, now 87 years old and just beginning to physically slow down. She has moved from her former large home into Staggerford’s Senior apartments on Main Street, worrying she may lose her prized independence. Nothing else is slowing down, however, as Agatha begins to deal with a variety of events from a missing shoebox that is mistakenly buried in a friend’s coffin, her nephew’s worrisome mental state, a fellow resident with a crush on her, and, to everyone’s surprise, a kidnapped girl left on her doorstep. This is a gently satiric tale of life in a small town and a thoroughly satisfying reading experience.

That’s it for November! Watch for our December edition with ideas for gift books and some others to help tide you over the cold nights and days. Don’t forget to visit our Featured Book section with its descriptions of some truly unique and interesting books on a variety of topics.

And don’t forget my new book, "Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy" with a collection of my 2003-2005 commentaries on a wide range of headline grabbing issues of our times. The perfect gift for the "news junky" in your life!

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