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March
2008 Book Reviews: Non-Fiction |
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Horse
Conformation: Structure, Soundness and
Performance

(Click Cover to Buy)
By Equine Research—Juliet Hedge DVM, Veterinary Editor and Don
Wagoner, Editor
The Lyons Press, $24.95 US
496 pages
ISBN 1-59228-487-6
reviewed by
Nicole Persun |
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Horse Conformation, Structure, Soundness and Performance
is one of the best books written for horse buyers and owners
everywhere. It is a great and complete guide to have on hand when
buying or selling a horse, and is filled with helpful insights into
all areas of horse anatomy. This straightforward book has numerous
professional photos to give the reader a better understanding of the
sometimes-complex text. * Besides horse conformation, readers
receive a good explanation of a horse’s basic body anatomy,
including the positioning of the bones of the head and neck--both
important conformational elements. Further chapters highlight and
explain the bones, veins and conformational ideals and flaws of each
body part. Throughout the book there are explanatory pictures and
diagrams to help the reader better understand the structures of the
horse being detailed. * The final chapters bring readers additional
information about the colors and markings of the horse, including
the different breeds and types, as well as chapters on teeth and
ageing and other bodily systems of the horse. This book is a handy,
must-have guide for horse enthusiasts and professionals. |
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The Hamburger: A History
 (Click
Cover to Buy)
Josh Ozersky
Yale University Press, $22.00
160 pages
ISBN
978-0-300-11758-5
reviewed by
Kevin Lauderdale
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The opening of the West in the mid-1800s led to vast cattle herds,
as they were almost the only creatures that could eat what grew
there. Add refrigerated railway trains, and suddenly inexpensive
beef was everywhere in America. This, Ozersky argues, was the first
step in the making of an American icon. The Hamburger traces
the burger’s rise via the history of two fast food establishments.
First, Ozersky takes us through the 1920s, where the Machine
Age’s obsession with standardization, combined with the quest for
cleanliness brought on by the horrors of meat processing depicted in
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, resulted in White Castle. This,
the first store dedicated to selling the burger on the bun, was also
the first to make sure that all of its stores sold them exactly the
same way every time. Then on to the McDonald brothers, who perfected
the assembly-line process, and Ray Kroc, the marketing king who saw
franchising as a way of spreading small business everywhere, and
created the empire we know today. By the time of the backyard
barbecue of the post-war suburbs, a burger cookout was not merely a
way of socializing with the neighbors, but of living the life of
simple abundance that separated America from the Communists. The
Hamburger is a short history of its topic. Scholarly (with
sources as diverse as a 1763 cookbook, R. Crumb cartoons, and
industry propaganda films), it succeeds in routing fact from legend
while still maintaining a breezy tone. Filled with anecdotes (White
Castle once promoted its sliders as a replacement for finger
sandwiches at tea parties) and enthusiasm, this book does what very
few can do: it makes you hungry. |
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Fiction |
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Song Yet Sung
 (Click
Cover to Buy)
By James McBride
Riverhead Pub, $25.95
359 pages, ISBN
978-1594489723
Review by Jen
Baker
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Best known for The
Color of Water: a Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, McBride also
wrote a novel casting a unique perspective on World War II history, The
Miracle at St. Anna: the story of a black military patrol caught behind
enemy lines in Italy and the villagers who shelter them. In this fabulous new
historical novel, the author transports modern readers into the mid-nineteenth
century, just prior to the Civil War—a society on the cusp of industrial change,
confounded by the subjugation of one race by another. In this story, as in his
previous novel, McBride sheds light on the everyday choices facing the average
citizen, rather than focusing on wealthy slave owners and politicians. This
approach invites readers to consider the question: what would I do in these
circumstances? The novel begins with a graphic scene involving a beautiful
captive slave woman and her cruel jailor, each facing such a dilemma.
Wounded, shackled and
dreaming of the future in a slave stealer’s attic, Liz Spocott awakens to an old
woman’s voice quietly whispering “the Code,” forcing her to repeat and remember
words that make no sense–yet. Liz’s dreams have shown her a confusing future in
which some blacks squander their freedom and others fight to be heard. Without
thinking, she commits an astonishingly violent act of desperation that frees her
and her fellow slaves from their attic prison. Then she disappears into the
swamplands of Maryland’s eastern shore, chased by vicious Patty Cannon and her
gang of slave stealers, finally hiding in an old Indian burial ground. Stories
about Liz pass quickly among local slaves, as the Dreamer who sees a free future
for black people, then among the whites, who call her a devil and send one of
the fiercest slave catchers, Denwood Long, to capture her. Amber, slave and
friend to a widowed landowner, loves Liz and the hope she represents, and vows
to save her even at the cost of his life. The drama unfolds: its characters are
the everyday people of 1850, both black and white, trapped in roles they are
powerless to change and faced with moral decisions created by the abomination of
slavery. Only the Code’s secret signals–the quilt hung upside down or the phrase
spoken sotto voce–and the fearless heroes like Amber can move the Dreamer
onto the Underground Railroad, though she refuses to go.
In addition to fascinating
references to the Code (“it ain’t the song, but the singer of it,” p. 49;
“scratch a line in the dirt to make a friend,” p. 81), the heroes along the
Underground Railroad, and the troubled enemies of freedom, McBride makes a
powerful historical connection between a Dreamer in 1850 and Dr. Marin Luther
King Jr., the Dreamer for our day, urging us to be worthy of their sacrifice. As
moving as Morrison’s Beloved and as immediate as Octavia Butler’s
Kindred, this unforgettable novel creates a bridge between our history and
our future--one we all need to cross.
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The Princess Diaries, Volume IX: Princess Mia
 (Click
Cover to Buy)
By Meg Cabot
HarperTeen, $16.99
288 pages
ISBN
978-0060724610
Review by
A.B. Mead
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The Princess Diaries
series continues with a volume that is a marked improvement over
recent entries. For those who might have missed the earlier books
(or the Disney movies which the books delightfully criticize), Mia
Thermopolis is a New York City teenager who learns that she is next
in line to rule a tiny European nation. The basic conceit of the
series is that, as an awkward kid who's just trying to fit in, being
a princess is not a dream come true, but rather a colossal
embarrassment.
In this volume, Mia is growing up, and her friends and family are
finally getting tired of her self-centeredness. Granted, Mia's
self-absorption and over-analysis of situations is what lends the
series its charm. There is no one more self-absorbed than a
teenager, and you don't have to be a princess to relate to her
relationship and academic woes. This is, however, the ninth book,
and it's good to see Mia stretched in other directions. Here she's
broken up with her boyfriend Michael, and the funk she falls into
forces her parents to send her to a therapist who's more cowboy than
Freud. When she's dragooned into giving a speech before a
businesswomen's group, Mia finds strength (and an unexpected plot
twist) in the diary of another young lady who briefly ruled her
country long ago. Cabot also returns to one of the staples of the
earlier volumes: pop culture as a guide to real life. In a great
aside, Mia and a friend examine the entire Drew Barrymore oeuvre in
terms of her predicament.
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The Commoner
 (Click
Cover to Buy)
By John Burnham Schwartz Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $24.95386 pages
ISBN
978-0-385-51571-9
Review by
Jen Baker
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Haruko grows up in a privileged Japanese family in the mid-twentieth
century; protected from the harshness of life, she attends the best
private schools, plays competitive tennis and has loving parents.
After meeting her at a tennis match, the Crown Prince becomes
enamored of Haruko’s high spirits, beauty and determination, and
asks for her hand in marriage. Haruko agrees, not fully realizing
the consequent upheaval this will cause. The royal family in Japan
had for centuries cloistered itself from its citizenry as a mark of
divinity and honor. Even wealthy commoners rarely penetrated this
bubble of propriety. Haruko faces huge challenges, such as Mrs.
Oshima, the Queen’s confidant, whose disapproval reaches down to the
very pinpricks during Haruko’s dress fittings. Because she
eventually rises above her difficulties and accepts her proscribed
royal role, Queen Haruko’s position disallows compassion when her
son marries a commoner. This fascinating novel is reminiscent of
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden: a glimpse into the
rigidity of social roles in historical Japan and the cruelty of the
women forced to perpetuate tradition. |
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The Guilty
(Click Cover to Buy)
By Jason Pinter
Mira Books, $7.99
384 pages ISBN
978-0-778302463-8
Review by
Kevin Lauderdale
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Although this is the second thriller featuring young investigative
journalist Henry Parker, those who missed his debut in The Mark
are quickly brought up to speed. After surviving a manhunt where he
was mistaken for a killer, Henry and his girlfriend Amanda are just
trying to lead a normal life again. But violence has a way of
following him, and the murder of a wealthy socialite launches Henry
on the search for an antique Winchester ’73 rifle and the killer
wielding it. Parker is decidedly twenty-something, and cell phones,
references to YouTube, and the like abound. But they’re not just
there to give the characters “net cred.” In an era where anyone can
be a celebrity, the book’s take on the nature of celebrity and
legend (and their use and misuse) gives the novel just enough heft.
Readers with little knowledge of–or even interest in–the outlaws and
heroes of The Old West will still find a lot to like in The
Guilty. Pinter sketches the applicable history (both ancient and
modern) and tosses in controversy and conspiracy theory (both real
and invented). The book’s snappy dialogue and view inside newspaper
bullpens, peppered with professional and romantic rivalries, all
combine to keep us turning the pages at a brisk pace.
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The Fiction Class
 (Click
Cover to Buy)
By Susan Breen
Plume, $14.00 304 pages ISBN
978-0- 452-28910-9
Review by
Peter Anderson
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The Fiction Class
is the gentle tale of Arabella Hicks, a 38-year old single woman who
teaches writing in New York City. Over the course of one term
Arabella juggles her class work, her students, her own stalled-out
novel, and weekly visits to her mother in a nursing home. As the
story progresses, these four disparate elements become very closely
connected.
Oddly, since the author herself teaches fiction, the book’s flaws
are typical of a fiction student. Her style is often loose, her
voice undefined, and she uses the present tense for reasons I can't
discern. Writers are often tempted to use the present tense to make
an uninteresting story more engaging, but Breen's story is already
quite interesting, and the present tense is a needless distraction.
Yet even with these flaws, her plot moves steadily toward a graceful
and worthwhile ending. The individual relationships are compelling
and genuine, whether on a broad canvas (such as mother-daughter) or
a smaller one (among staff at the nursing home). The nursing home
scenes are tender, frightening, sad, and funny. The progression of
the class itself is familiar–anyone who’s taken an evening class
(fiction or otherwise) knows that moment, usually around the fourth
session, when something happens to bond the class and raise them to
the next level. Breen lets this happen naturally.
Probably most appealing to writers, and female writers at that,
The Fiction Class is a charming effort by a first-time novelist.
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The Cure for
Modern Life
(Click Cover to Buy)
By Lisa Tucker
Atria Books, $24.95
336 pages ISBN
0-7434-9279-X
Review by Jen Baker
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When a brilliant researcher who wants to cure the world of disease
can’t love his own child; when a corrupt businessman, whose goal in
life is to be rich and powerful in pharmaceuticals, takes in two
homeless kids; and when the woman who loves them both is a
conflicted whistleblower, a solution is required. The premise for
Tucker’s thought-provoking, often hilarious novel: can anyone be a
completely moral, responsible and loving human being? The delivery
of this serious theme hovers between chick lit and sitcom – a unique
combination. Think David Schwimmer, Hugh Grant and Reese Witherspoon
vying for attention, conjuring lies and messing up. A “cure” slowly
emerges as each character struggles with the huge issues of modern
life: how to be compassionate, who to trust; what is integrity, does
the end justify the means? Despite a slow start, the novel is
compulsively readable for its winsome morality and appealing
characters, especially the children (lock-picking Danny and crack
baby Isabelle) whose basic needs and humor offset the philosophical
battles around them. A cross between book club literary and pop
fiction easy, this one’s a winner!
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Dakota

(Click
Cover to Buy)
By Martha Grimes Viking, $25.95
432 pages ISBN
978-0-670-01869-7
Review
Jen Baker
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Amnesiac Andi Oliver returns in this sequel to Biting the Moon,
hiking through North Dakota on her way to Alaska. Solitary
backpacking gives Andi plenty of time to invent her past and
intercept memory-flashes of the awful secret she hides even from
herself. After rescuing an abused mule, Andi drops into the town of
Kingdom and winds up staying long enough to get hired on at Klavan’s,
a pig farming facility. Andi’s affinity for animals leads her to
mount a one-woman animal rights crusade, which lands her in a heap
of trouble compounded by a threatening stalker and a hired assassin.
Only a clever author could write Andi out of this mess! Grimes’
shocking descriptions of the pig farm, the petty unthinking cruelty
and the horrific slaughterhouse conditions, are all scenes most
readers would prefer to skip. However, Grimes integrates her animal
rights message effectively with her compellingly vulnerable heroine,
creating a taut suspense story we can neither put down nor forget.
This is a great character study and a powerful cautionary tale
reminiscent of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungles.
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Atmospheric
Disturbances

(Click
Cover to Buy)
By Rivka Galchen
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $23.00
256 pages, ISBN
978-0374200114
Review
Judy Bryant
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This is a smart, clever book that deals with the disturbances of
love. Dr. Leo Liebenstein, a New York City psychiatrist, arrives
home to find a simulacrum instead of his wife: a woman who looks,
acts, talks, and even smells like his wife Rema, but who, he
insists, is not. From there proceeds his sometimes hilarious search
for the real Rema, from the cafes of New York City to the cafes of
her native Buenos Aires, accompanied at various times by Magda, his
mother-in-law, the simulacrum, and one of his patients who thinks he
can control the weather. Rivka Galchen relates that though the
narrator is “not exactly crazy, he nevertheless reveals himself most
through his rigorous misunderstanding of the situation, through the
very particular delusion he creates in order to protect himself from
the ordinary and extraordinary pains of a longtime love.”
Unfortunately, I found myself growing tired of Dr. Liebenstein, his
slightly skewed mind, his detailed interest in the science of
weather, his hopeless search. The writing is wonderful, but I longed
for more to happen outside the claustrophobia of his mind. Just like Rema, I wanted Dr. Liebenstein to just go home. We were both tired.
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Alphanauts

(Click
Cover to Buy)
By J. Brian Clarke
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, $14.95 US
325 pages ISBN
978-1-894063-14-2
Review
Terry Persun
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A small band of men and women leave Earth and colonize Genser’s
World, an earth-like planet of Alpha Centauri. In the vein of true
science fiction, Alphanauts builds on solid science, as well
as known science fiction elements, to create a unique and engaging
story about real people. The colony experiences contact with another
space-traveling race, empathic symbiots and cyborg intelligences
residing inside space ships.
J. Brian Clarke delivers the type of writing one expects from
literary works where character is as important as place and action.
He uses thought his book and characters in such a way that if the
plot doesn’t grab you the characters definitely will. Alphanauts
is a good example of the craft of writing: the characters
come alive, and you can’t wait to see how they’ll react to the
situations presented them on Genser’s World.
This is an intelligent and complex novel that will make you think
while never losing touch with its need to entertain the reader. It
was difficult to put down, and exciting to talk about. It was highly
entertaining and interesting. Alphanauts is one of those
books worth more than its cover price. If you enjoy science fiction,
this is the real stuff.
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Split Estate

(Click Cover to Buy)
By Charlotte Bacon
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, $24.00
304 pages ISBN
978-0-374-28183-0
Review
Peter Anderson
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When Laura King leaps to her death from the window of her tenth
floor Manhattan apartment, the lives of her husband and two teenaged
children are shattered. Split Estate is the moving tale of
the family’s struggle to deal with this singularly unbearable event.
The novel begins in the aftermath of Laura’s suicide. Arthur,
Laura’s widower, takes his two teenagers, Celia and Cam, to live on
his mother’s ranch outside of Callendar, Wyoming. Here the story is
played out, the chapters alternately highlighting Arthur, Celia,
Cam, and Arthur’s mother Lucy. Each character confronts grief on his
or her own terms, and the supporting cast of Wyoming locals helps
them move forward through scenes that are dramatic, funny, and
terrifying.
The book’s title provides a powerful metaphor: a split estate is
land whose surface is owned by one person but whose mineral rights
have been sold to someone else. While a subplot revolves around this
aspect of Lucy’s ranch, the split estate we really watch is the King
family itself, each character struggling to discover and control the
forces hidden beneath the surface.
For all her strengths in character and setting, Bacon’s style is
decidedly uneven. Some passages will take your breath away, like
“The silence between them was as worn as Lucy’s furniture.” Others,
such as “Mist curled off the water like pencil shavings of
moisture,” will leave you cold.
And yet even with this distraction you will care for each of these
characters, and you will hang on their brave, stumbling progress
toward healing to the very last page.
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