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Internet Bookwatch

Volume 32, Number 12 December 2022 Home | IBW Index

Table of Contents

Reviewer's Choice Christmas Shelf Writing/Publishing Shelf
Education Shelf Cookbook Shelf Environmental Studies Shelf
Pets/Wildlife Shelf Health/Medicine Shelf Library Science Shelf
Business Shelf Historical Fiction Shelf Literary Fiction Shelf
Romantic Fiction Shelf Mystery/Suspense Shelf Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
Wine/Beer/Spirits Shelf Christian Studies Shelf Metaphysical Studies Shelf
Travel Shelf Audiobook Shelf Library CD Shelf
Self-Help Shelf Theatre/Cinema/TV Shelf Art Shelf
Literary Studies Shelf American History Shelf World History Shelf
Civil War Shelf Military Shelf Sports Shelf
Architecture Shelf Mathematics Shelf Photography Shelf
Music Shelf Nautical Shelf Aviation Shelf
Philosophy Shelf Biography Shelf Holocaust Studies Shelf


Reviewer's Choice

Corporal Cannon: A Female Marine in Afghanistan
Savannah Cannon
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781636241661, $34.95, HC, 264pp

https://www.amazon.com/Corporal-Cannon-Female-Marine-Afghanistan/dp/1636241662

Synopsis: Not even old enough to drink, Corporal Savannah Cannon is a young enlisted United States Marine deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2010. As a tactical data networking specialist, she is sent away from everyone she knows and attached to a Regimental Combat Team where women are not allowed to repair communications. Her experiences over the next few months shed light on the unique and difficult positions women are placed in when supporting combat roles, while offering a raw look at the painful choices women must sometimes make.

Cannon finds herself in a combat zone, ostracized from family, friends, and even her fellow Marines as the men are told to avoid her. The connections she makes are born from trauma and desperation and the choices she makes will echo throughout many lives.

"Corporal Cannon: A Female Marine in Afghanistan" is not the story of a heroine; it is the hard-hitting account of just one of the flawed individuals who make up the United States' fighting forces. Mistakes in the battlefield can have dire consequences, personally and professionally. Reflecting on her time in service, Cannon deftly weaves a story of past and present, and the healing that can come with admitting our mistakes and moving past them.

Critique: A simply riveting and impressively candid military memoir from cover to cover, "Corporal Cannon: A Female Marine in Afghanistan" will be of special value to readers with an interest in the subject of women in the American military, America's involvement in the Afghanistan War. While especially recommended for community and academic library American Military Biography/Memoir collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Corporal Cannon: A Female Marine in Afghanistan" is also available from Casemate Publishers in a digital book format (Kindle, $20.95).

Editorial Note: Savannah Cannon spent five years in the United States Marine Corps, leaving in 2012. She spent years ignoring what she endured in Afghanistan before deciding to write her story as a way to process the events. She currently works as a network engineer on unmanned aircraft for the United States Navy.

Shopomania
Paul Berton
Douglas & McIntyre
https://douglas-mcintyre.com
9781771623346 $28.95

https://www.amazon.com/Shopomania-Obsession-Possession-Paul-Berton/dp/1771623349

Synopsis: Sassy and satirical, Shopomania is an economic, environmental and social study. This light-hearted, dark-souled dictionary of coined words, or "shoponyms," takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of avaricious antics and outrageous profligacy.

Shopping in one form or another has existed for millennia but, aside from a few slumps, each generation has outdone the previous one. In the past fifty years, shopping - and its associated carbon footprint - has grown exponentially.

Berton argues that if we invented today's consumer culture, then we can invent something to replace it. We can do a better job of making the cycle of stuff truly circular rather than linear. We can be more environmentally, socially and politically conscious of what we buy and how it comes to us - and where it will go after we are finished with it. A species that has made shopping ubiquitous can figure all these things out with little more than co-operation and creativity, and by asking if it is really necessary to "own it now" as we have been told - endlessly - since childhood. Must we possess a thing to enjoy it? Do we really need all that stuff?

Critique: Shopomania examines the modern first world's obsession with shopping and consumerism. Although author and award-winning journalist Paul Berton has engaged in extensive research, cited in a substantial section of notes, Shopomania is expressly for lay readers of all backgrounds; indeed, any shopper may see themselves described in the anecdotes and unique examination of today's shopping-centric society. Shopomania does not follow a typical chapter structure, but rather describes the many different aspects of retail consumption in its own unique vocabulary of newly created words derived from the verb "shop". Each definition is itself a brief "chapter". For example, one chapter is devoted to the word "unshop", which Berton uses to describe either returning a purchase or selling it at a profit; another is devoted to "deshop", which Berton uses to describe selling or discarding a purchase at a loss; "convershopping", which Berton uses to describe socializing about purchases; and much more. Amid all these definitions are countless insights into human impulses; stories of both celebrities and commoners shopping; and serious philosophical ponderings. At its heart, Shopomania poses questions worth every reader's time - why are our lives so shopping-centric? Are there ways to tame endless shopping- incitements in our lives? Do we really need to buy so much stuff? Shopomania is highly recommended, and since it encourages the reader to carefully reconsider their own consumption habits, it's one shop purchase that effectively pays for itself!

Untangle
Angela McKinney
DartFrogBooks
https://dartfrogbooks.com
9781956019414, $3.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9CHNYS8

Untangle: How to Create Big Possibilities Through Small Changes introduces self-help readers to process of working through confusion, entanglements, and feeling stuck to come out the other side of a conundrum stronger than before. While many self-help guides seem to have addressed this approach, Angela McKinney adopts a different perspective through not just exercises and admonitions, but a discussion of links between seemingly-small stressful situations and their connections and contributions to bigger patterns of habits that trap.

Clarity comes not from a singular path, but from a blend of lessons and examples from others and the analysis and direction McKinney provides to illustrate how individuals can untangle themselves from self-destructive or limiting patterns. McKinney acknowledges that this process may initially seem convoluted or challenging.

Notes based on the Untangle Workshops that McKinney conducts, provided by those who successfully employed specific strategies to improve their lives and modify their reactions to life, make important connections between tapping creative potential and understanding self-limiting messages and approaches that have held that possibility at bay. Without such creative solutions, untangling unconscious reenactment patterns can be challenging. Reality checks cover such disparate entanglements as overwork, aggressive energy, and self-limiting internal messages, offering methods to overcoming these in the form of play and creative problem-solving engagements, and venturing into new, unfamiliar territory on many different levels.

McKinney's proven strategy allows participants and readers to move ahead into their best lives. All that's required is a willingness to absorb the messages, experiences, and guidelines in Untangle, which ideally will be readily available in both general-interest and self-help libraries.


The Christmas Shelf

How Christmas Became Christmas
Nathaniel Parry
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476688282, $39.95, PB, 260pp

https://www.amazon.com/How-Christmas-Became-Christian-Origins/dp/1476688281

Synopsis: In some respects, the contrasts of Christmas are what make it the most delightful time of the year. It is a time of generosity, kindness and peace on earth, with broad permission to indulge in food, drink and gifts. On the other hand, Christmas has become a battleground for raging culture wars, marred by debates about how it should be celebrated and acknowledged as a uniquely Christian holiday.

With the publication of "How Christmas Became Christmas: The Pagan and Christian Origins of the Beloved Holiday", Nathaniel Parry argues that much of the animosity is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the holiday's core character. By tracing Christmas's origins as a pagan celebration of the winter solstice and its development in Europe's Christianization, this detailed and documented history explains that the true "reason for the season" has as much to do with the earth's movement around the sun as with the birth of Christ.

Individual chapters deftly chronicle how Christmas's magic and misrule link to the nativity, and why the carnival side of the holiday appears so separated from traditional Christian beliefs.

Critique: A simply fascinating and expertly presented historical study, "How Christmas Became Christmas: The Pagan and Christian Origins of the Beloved Holiday" features black/white historical images and is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a four page Bibliography, twenty-two pages of Chapter Notes; and a five page Index. "How Christmas Became Christmas: The Pagan and Christian Origins of the Beloved Holiday" will prove a welcome and enduringly valued addition to personal, community, college, and university library Christmas Holiday collections and supplemental curriculum reading lists.

Editorial Note: Nathaniel Parry is an American researcher and writer living in Denmark. He is the editor of several books and his work has appeared in outlets such as Consortium News, In These Times, Common Dreams, Global Research, and Truthout. Since 2008, he has worked at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, where he is currently head of communications.

Santa Claus Worldwide
Tom A. Jerman
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476680934, $29.95, PB, 248pp

https://www.amazon.com/Santa-Claus-Worldwide-Nicholas-Gift-bringers/dp/1476680930

Synopsis: With the publication of "Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers", author and Christmas historian Tom A. Jerman presents a comprehensive history of the world's midwinter gift-givers, showcasing the extreme diversity in their depictions as well as the many traits and functions these characters share.

"Santa Claus Worldwide" tracks the evolution of these figures from the tribal priests who presided over winter solstice celebrations thousands of years before the birth of Christ, to Christian notables like St. Martin and St. Nicholas, to a variety of secular figures who emerged throughout Europe following the Protestant Reformation.

Finally, "Santa Claus Worldwide" explains how the popularity of a poem about a "miniature sleigh" and "eight tiny reindeer" helped consolidate the diverse European gift-givers into an enduring tradition in which American children awake early on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought.

Although the names, appearance, attire and gift-giving practices of the world's winter solstice gift-givers differ greatly, they are all recognizable as Santa, the personification of the Christmas and Midwinter festivals. Despite efforts to eliminate him by groups as diverse as the Puritans of seventeenth century New England, the Communist Party of the twentieth century Soviet Union and the government of Nazi Germany, Santa has survived and prospered, becoming one of the best known and most beloved figures in the world.

Critique: Enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of b/w illustrations, an informative three page Epilogue (the Santas of Christmas Future), twenty-two pages of Notes, a six page Bibliography, and a three page Index, "Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers" is a fascinating, informative, and exceptional history that is exceptionally comprehensive and highly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Folklore/Mythology collections in general, and Christmas Traditions/History reading lists in particular. It should be noted that "Santa Claus Worldwide" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.49).

Editorial Note: After collecting Santa Claus figurines for thirty-five years while practicing law in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Tom A. Jerman retired at the end of 2015 and moved to Asheville, N.C., where he began writing a book on the history of Santa Claus. (https://acollectionofsantas.com/author-tom-a-jerman)


The Writing/Publishing Shelf

The Writers' Room Survival Guide
Niceole Levy
Michael Wiese Productions
12400 Ventura Blvd., #1111, Studio City, CA 91604
www.mwp.com
Dreamscape Media
https://www.dreamscapepublishing.com
9781615933464, $29.95, PB, 230pp

https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Room-Survival-Guide-Screw/dp/1615933468

Synopsis: A writers' room is a space where writers, usually of a television series, gather to write and refine scripts. The television industry has long had a collaborative model for writing shows. With the explosion of scripted shows, and the competition among the networks and streaming channels, a "fluidity has developed to the way shows are created." The writers room follows no single formula; it is an open-ended process with a range of set-ups. Room sizes vary from two to thirty, depending on the budget and number of episodes, each room with its own rules. "Mini-rooms" exist for limited series and smaller shows, mostly those haven't gotten the thumbs-up. (Wikipedia)

Writers' rooms can be a heaven or hell, depending on a few things. The best rooms foster inclusive and productive creative flow. The worst create a toxic stew of bad feelings and doubt. Both kinds and everything in between require basic knowledge of how the room works. These fundamentals are best learned before you go in. The mystery box of the writers' room need not stay sealed shut forever.

Critique: With the publication of "The Writers' Room Survival Guide: Don't Screw up the lunch order and other keys to a happy Writers' Room" by experienced film and television writer Niceole Levy provides aspiring script writers with a true insider's perspective on what its like to work on script developments as a group process in a room with two or more additional writers working on joint writing projects. A unique, informative, insightful, and fascinating read throughout, "The Writers' Room Survival Guide: Don't Screw up the lunch order and other keys to a happy Writers' Room" is a 'must' for all aspiring script writers and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject of how films and TV shows are made. While absolutely recommended as essential additions to professional, community, and academic library Writing/Publishing instructional reference collections, it should be noted that "The Writers' Room Survival Guide: Don't Screw up the lunch order and other keys to a happy Writers' Room" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Dreamscape Media, 9781666626704, $22.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Niceole Levy (https://niceolelevy.com/about) studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts which eventually yielded the epiphany that she preferred writing. She completed the Master of Professional Writing program, also at USC. She is also an alum of the CBS Writers Mentoring Program, NBC's Writers on the Verge, and the WGAw Showrunner Training Program, Niceole has written on Ironside, Allegiance, The Mysteries of Laura, Shades of Blue, Cloak & Dagger, Fate: the Winx Saga, and S.W.A.T. She also co-wrote a feature, The Banker, with former Allegiance showrunner and director George Nolfi, available on AppleTV+. Niceole is currently a co-executive producer on Graymail, which will air on Netflix, and has several TV and feature projects in development.


The Education Shelf

Create an Emotion-Rich Classroom
Lindsay N. Giroux, M.Ed
Free Spirit Publishing
6325 Sandburg Road, Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55427-3674
www.freespirit.com
9781631986567, $34.99, PB, 200pp

https://www.amazon.com/Create-Emotion-Rich-Classroom-Emotional-ProfessionalTM/dp/1631986562

Synopsis: With the publication of "Create an Emotion-Rich Classroom: Helping Young Children Build Their Social Emotional Skills", education specialist Lindsay Giroux provides frameworks for planning and implementing strategies to support emotional development in children.

This practical and easy-to-use resource helps early childhood educators develop the emotional literacy of the young children in their classrooms. Readers learn how to: Increase children's emotional vocabulary; Model how to recognize and cope with various emotions; Support self-regulation and reduce challenging behaviors; Discuss emotions in others and in storybook characters; Support and engage families in fostering emotional skills at home.

Experienced in emotional development in children and early childhood education, author Lindsay N. Giroux, M.Ed., shows readers how to effectively weave social and emotional instruction into the fabric of the school day. "Create an Emotion-Rich Classroom" focuses on individual skills, making social and emotional instruction specific and measurable. With consistently structured chapters, this book is easy to use and rich in ideas and strategies.

Of special note is that the digital content includes checklists, planning sheets, and other materials to support educators as they build an emotion-rich classroom. A free downloadable PLC/Book Study Guide is also available.

Critique: Exceptionally well organized and thoroughly 'teacher friendly' in presentation, "Create an Emotion-Rich Classroom: Helping Young Children Build Their Social Emotional Skills" is unreservedly recommended as an in-service textbook for school district, daycare center, preschool, and academic library Teacher Education collections and supplemental Early Education curriculum lists.

Editorial Note: Lindsay N. Giroux (https://www.lindsayngiroux.com) specializes in coaching preschool teachers on implementing the Pyramid Model to promote social-emotional development and prevent challenging behavior. She is a contributing author of Connect4Learning, a PreK curriculum and the ChooseFi Pre-Kindergarten financial literacy curriculum. Her professional interests include teacher training, social skill instruction, and inclusion of preschoolers with special needs. Lindsay received a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Special Education from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. She is currently the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (SEFEL) Coordinator for the Wake County Public School District and a North Carolina Preschool Pyramid Model Expert Coach.


The Cookbook Shelf

PlantPure Comfort Food
Kim Campbell
BenBella Books
www.benbellabooks.com
9781637742273, $29.95, PB, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/PlantPure-Comfort-Food-Plant-Based-Gluten-Free/dp/1637742274

Synopsis: Good health begins in the kitchen, and great recipes make switching to (or maintaining) a plant-based diet easy. "PlantPure Comfort Food: Over 100 Plant-Based and Mostly Gluten-Free Recipes to Nourish Your Body and Soothe Your Soul" by Kim Campbell is a culinary compendium that offers over 100 re-inventions of comforting culinary classics, including: Southern Style Polenta and Greens; Lasagna Stew; Spinach Quesadillas; Chickpea Tikka Masala; Samosa Burritos; Sweet Potato Spice Muffins; Apple Cranberry Crisps; and more!

Plus, Campbell offers helpful suggestions on how to swap out flavors and ingredients to truly make these recipes your own, as well as detailed guidelines for swapping meat, dairy, and egg for whole plant substitutes in your own family's favorite dishes.

Food is a vital part of who we are. It's what brings us together, connects us to tradition, and feeds us, physically and spiritually. Create for your family a new tradition of delicious, sustaining, health-promoting whole plant foods. Give them the gift of a plant-pure table.

Critique: Beautifully illustrated throughout with full color photos of finished dishes, "PlantPure Comfort Food: Over 100 Plant-Based and Mostly Gluten-Free Recipes to Nourish Your Body and Soothe Your Soul" will have a special appeal to those who are considering (and practicing) a vegetarian/vegan life-style. Each recipe is thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly' in organization and presentation. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99), "PlantPure Comfort Food: Over 100 Plant-Based and Mostly Gluten-Free Recipes to Nourish Your Body and Soothe Your Soul" is very highly recommended for personal, professional, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Kim Campbell (https://www.plantpurenation.com/products/ppn1000) has developed more than 250 delicious whole food plant-based recipes using no processed oils. Kim is also the Director of Culinary Education and Development at PlantPure, where she helps to develop new food products and deliver educational programming. Kim is gifted at creating traditional American cuisine using 100% accessible plant-based ingredients. She builds flavors and textures that are familiar to most people, helping to make the transition to plant-based diet easier for people.

Fish for You
Spencer Watts
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
www.fitzhenry.ca
9781770503649, $34.95, PB, 234pp

https://www.amazon.com/Fish-You-Inspired-Seafood-Recipes/dp/1770503641

Synopsis: With the publication of "Fish for You: Inspired Seafood Recipes from Market to the Plate", celebrity chef Spencer Watts showcases fun, exciting and globally influenced recipes with one-of-a-kind twists on seafood and fish. As a culinary expert, Spencer makes the ordinary not so ordinary and provides recipes that are celebrated by beginners and culinary superstars alike.

"Fish for You" is separated into 6 different sections including Happy Hour, Salads, Hand-helds, Pasta and more. "Fish for You" also includes a wide variety of recipes including: Crispy Fried Oysters, Brioche Shrimp Toast Bites, Warm Lobster/Potato Salad, Creole Shellfish Bisque, Jerk Rubbed Mahi Mahi Tacos, Nashville Style Crispy Fried Halibut Sandwich, Steamed Mussels and Clams, Salt Cod Filo Pie, Shellfish Cassoulet, Dungeness Crab Croquette, Baked Halibut in Puff Pastry, Miso Honey Glazed Salmon Rice Bowls and more!

Critique: Illustrated throughout with inspiring, instructive, and memorable full color photography, "Fish for You: Inspired Seafood Recipes from Market to the Plate" is thoroughly DIY friendly in organization and presentation, allowing even the most novice of kitchen cooks to produce fine restaurant quality seafood dishes suitable for any and all dining occasions. A pure culinary pleasure to plan menus with, "Fish for You: Inspired Seafood Recipes from Market to the Plate" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, and community library cookbook collections.

Comfort Baking
Stephanie Wise
Herald Press
P.O. Box 866, Harrisonburg, VA 22803
www.heraldpress.com
9781513810294, $34.99, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Baking-Feel-Good-Savor-Share/dp/1513810294

Synopsis: Emphasized with the pandemic lock down, for tens of thousands of men and women baking was an past-time hobby, a means to a delicious end, and now continues to be a source of solace, relief, and relaxation. With the publication of "Comfort Baking: Feel-Good Food to Savor and Share", baking expert Stephanie Wise focuses on easy-to-follow recipes that make people feel good from the inside out. For anyone who is looking for a moment in the kitchen as a time to create, worship, relax, or prepare a recipe for a friend in need, this is your guidebook.

In addition to over 100 recipes that exude comfort from beginning to end, baker Stephanie Wise of Girl vs. Dough includes plenty of helpful tips along the way to make the process as simple and enjoyable as possible. Whether preparing a quiche or whipping up a late-night batch of cookies, the recipes in comprising "Comfort Baking" are guaranteed to bring surcease from the stresses and worries of daily life.

Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated with full color photography throughout, "Comfort Baking: Feel-Good Food to Savor and Share" is a simple pleasure to browse through one page at a time -- and ideal for planning menus with for any and all dining occasions from a midnight snack to a full blown holiday dinner. A thoroughly 'kitchen cook' friendly compendium of clearly organized and presented step-by-step recipes for all manner of baked goods, "Comfort Baking" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library cookbook collections. It should be noted that "Comfort Baking is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99).

Editorial Note: Stephanie Wise (https://open.spotify.com/episode/2eTg8G9nJnfRdGocSrvDSZ) is the owner and sole creator of the food blog Girl Versus Dough, which is currently in its eleventh year online. On Girl Versus Dough, she develops, photographs, and writes delicious and easy recipes for decadent desserts, homemade breads, and family-friendly dinners.

The Italian Cooking Course
Katie Caldeis, author
Giancarlo Caldeis, author
Kyle Books
c/o Octopus Publishing
236 Park Avenue, New York NY 10017
http://www.kylebooks.com
www.LowCarbTogether.com
9781914239748, $49.99, HC, 512pp

https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Cooking-Course-Masterclasses-Ingredients/dp/1914239741

Synopsis: Katie Caldeis has travelled the rice fields of Italy's northern provinces and the lemon groves of the south, the richly diverse urban and rural terrains and patchwork regions. While doing so she has collated recipes, techniques and ingredients to create "The Italian Cooking Course: Techniques. Masterclasses. Ingredients. Traditional Recipes", a unique and comprehensive compendium devoted to Italian cuisine.

"The Italian Cookery Course" will guide kitchen cooks through the vast collection of famous recipes and lesser-known regional dishes, with clear instruction on how to replicate them at home. This culinary instructional compendium is broken down into straightforward chapters including 'Meat', 'Fish', 'Dolci' and 'Cheese'. Each chapter contains 'masterclasses' on technique, revealing the practical secrets of Italian cooking and giving the reader new confidence in the kitchen. All this is interwoven with fascinating narration about the culinary influences that have created this wonderful cuisine.

Critique: The perfect DIY textbook for becoming an expert with respect to Italian cuisine, "The Italian Cooking Course: Techniques. Masterclasses. Ingredients. Traditional Recipes" is profusely and beautifully illustrated throughout with full color photography enhancing the thoroughly kitchen cook friendly step-by-step recipes for all manner of palate-pleasing, appetite-satisfying, authentic Italian dishes. "The Italian Cooking Course: Techniques. Masterclasses. Ingredients. Traditional Recipes" is an impressive and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library ethnic cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi (www.caldesi.com) own restaurants Caldesi in Marylebone as well as Caldesi in Campagna in Bray. They are also the co-authors of The Diabetes Weight-Loss Cookbook, The 30 Minute Diabetes Cookbook, The Reverse your Diabetes Cookbook, Around the World in Salads and The Gentle Art of Preserving -- which was nominated for the Guild of Food Writers' Cookbook of the Year Award.

Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen
Chris Scott, author
Sarah Zorn, author
Brittany Conerly, photographer
Chronicle Books
680 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com
9781797207742, $35.00, HC, 272pp

https://www.amazon.com/Homage-Recipes-Stories-Amish-Kitchen/dp/1797207741

Synopsis: With the publication of "Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen", renowned chef Chris Scott (with the assistance of food writer Sarah Zorn) tells the remarkable story of his family over seven generations via comforting dishes and vivid narratives: From his enslaved ancestors to his great-grandfather, who migrated to Pennsylvania after the Emancipation Proclamation, to his own childhood in Amish country, and, ultimately, his successful restaurant career in Philadelphia and New York City.

Beautifully illustrated throughout with the full color photography of Brittany Conerly, "Homage" is a tribute to those who came before him. In this culinary compendium Chris Scott shares 100 dishes born of a unique blend of Southern, German, Dutch, and Amish cuisines, including Chicken Fried Steak with Sassafras Country Gravy, Charred Radicchio Salad with Roasted Grapes and Shaved Amish Cheddar, and the ultimate Whoopie Pies.

"Homage" is ideal for home cooks who enjoy soul flavors or Midwestern food, or who are drawn to cookbooks with vivid storytelling, a sense of place, and a new point of view.

Critique: More than just a cookbook, "Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen" is an epic culinary showcase for illustrative and inspiring commentary relating to the cuisine of the Black American Diaspora and the fusion of Black Southern cuisine with German and Dutch influences and dishes. A simple and informative pleasure to browse through one page at a time, and ideal for planning truly memorable and thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly' menus with, "Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, family, professional, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note #1: Chris Scott (https://ice.edu/newyork/explore-ice/chefs/chris-scott) is a New York - based chef and the previous owner of Brooklyn Commune and Butterfunk Kitchen, both in Brooklyn, as well as Birdman Juke Joint in Bridgeport, CT, which celebrates Black farmers and agriculture. He is the current owner of Butterfunk Biscuit, which highlights heritage baking at its finest. He was also a finalist on Top Chef, season 15. He lives in New Jersey with his family.

Editorial Note #2: Sarah Zorn (https://www.allrecipes.com/author/sarah-zorn) is a food writer and editor, as well as the coauthor of Sunday Best and Levant. She was the recipe tester for The Nom Wah Cookbook and Xi'an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York's Favorite Noodle Shop, and the author of Brooklyn Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes from Coney Island to Brooklyn Heights.

Editorial Note #3: Brittany Conerly (https://www.brittanyconerlyphotography.com) is a Dallas based food, lifestyle and travel photographer.

50 Things to Bake Before You Die
Allyson Reedy
Ulysses Press
PO Box 3440, Berkeley CA 94703-3440
www.ulyssespress.com
9781646043316, $24.95, HC, 144pp

https://www.amazon.com/Things-Bake-Before-You-Die/dp/1646043316

Synopsis: With the publication of "50 Things to Bake Before You Die" by Allyson Reedy, even the most novice of kitchen cooks can turn their home-baking skills into professional-grade desserts with this DIY illustrated compendium featuring recipes from some of the most incredible bakers and bakeries -- including Tieghan Gerard, Joanne Chang (Flour Bakery), Chelsey White, Christina Tosi (Milk Bar), Daniel Boulud, and more!

Written with a fun and friendly tone and featuring easy, step-by-step instructions, "50 Things to Bake Before You Die" offers world-class desserts including: Brown Butter Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Chelsey White); Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes (from Georgetown Cupcake); Brown Sugar Peach Cobbler (from Tieghan Gerard); and Chocolate Cheesecake Mochi Muffins (from Sam Butarbutar); to Chocolate Babka (from Duff Goldman); Cookies and Cream Macarons (from Cambrea Gordon); Ultimate S'mores Cake (from Courtney Rich) -- and more!

Critique: An accurate alternative title would be "50 Things to Eat before You Die!". With its impressive full page color photographs of finished treats, this magnificent culinary collection of world class baked goods is a mouth-watering pleasure to page through and an ideal DIY resource for truly memorable desserts for any and all occasions. While also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99), "50 Things to Bake Before You Die: The World's Best Cakes, Pies, Brownies, Cookies, and More from Your Favorite Bakers, Including Christina Tosi, Joanne Chang, and Dominique Ansel" is an elegant and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, family, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Allyson Reedy (http://www.allysonreedy.com) is a dessert-obsessed food writer and restaurant critic in Denver, Colorado. When she's not taste-testing or checking out new restaurants for a story, she's trying out cookie recipes. Oh, and eating batter and dough by the fistful before her kids ask to lick the bowl; there's a lot of that happening, too.

Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook!
Mary Ann Esposito
Mary Ann Esposito Inc.
www.nhcompanyregistry.com/companies/mary-ann-esposito-inc
9781942155485, $39.95, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ciao-Italia-Plant-Harvest-Cook/dp/1942155484

Synopsis: With the publication of "Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook!", Mary Ann Esposito takes the reader on a seasonal home garden vegetable journey focusing on simple growing tips for anyone interested in growing their own vegetables and how to cook them Italian style. In simple language, anyone interested in growing their own vegetables whether on a grand or small scale will find this book filled with helpful gardening advice. No former green thumb necessary!

Over 30 years of trial and error and getting down and dirty, have been the foundation for this culinary compendium, as well as a love for fresh homegrown food. "Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook!" highlights what's growing in the early spring garden, featuring such cool weather crops as lettuce, radishes and peas and as the pages turn, progresses to what's growing during the hot summer months with crops like tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.

Critique: Showcasing more than 100 healthy, palate pleasing, appetite satisfying, kitchen cook friendly recipes for memorable dishes for all dining occasions, and which are strikingly accompanied by beautiful full color food photography (and photos from Mary Ann Espositos' personal collection), "Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook!" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Mary Ann Esposito (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Esposito) is the creator and host of the nationally televised PBS series Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito.
The author of fourteen cookbooks, Mary has worked beside world-renowned chefs Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan, Jasper White, and countless others. In 2013 she received the Order of the Star of Italy Cavaliere from the President of the Italian Republic, as well as the Premio Artusi award for her work promoting Italian food. Johnson and Wales University presented her with the Distinguished Author Award. St. Anselm College conferred an honorary doctorate, and the Italian Trade Commission named her a 2010 Hall of Fame honoree.

A Return to Ireland
Judith McLoughlin
Hatherleigh Press
c/o The Hatherleigh Foundation
62545 State Highway 10, Hobart, NY 13788
www.hatherleighpress.com
9781578269358, $30.00, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Return-Ireland-Culinary-Journey-America/dp/1578269350

Synopsis: An exceptional cookbook featuring over 100 authentic recipes celebrating Irish-American heritage, "A Return to Ireland: A Culinary Journey from America to Ireland" showcases fresh, innovative food and drink recipes which celebrate Irish-American heritage as it weaves the culinary and cultural journey of these two places that the author have come to call home.

From the lush green fields of Gilford in County Armagh now settled in Atlanta, Georgia, culinary author Judith McLoughlin shares her love of whole, fresh Irish ingredients with readers, sending them, one plate at a time, back to a simpler time. With the publication of "A Return to Ireland" she also highlights stories and Irish food to celebrate the relationship between Ireland and America.

The 'kitchen cook friendly' recipes reange from: Paddy's Potato and Leek Soup with Chive Puree; Beef and Oyster Pie; Connemara Mountain Lamb with Mixed Carrots and Rosemary Jus; to Loin of Bacon with Crispy Cabbage; Irish Stout and Onion Soup with Blue Cheese Croutons; Dublin Lawyer Lobster, and Marmalade Bread Pudding with Irish Whiskey Sauce.

Critique: Beautifully illustrated throughout with full color photography of finished dishes, "A Return to Ireland: A Culinary Journey from America to Ireland" is an extraordinarily impressive compilation of DIY recipes showcasing authentic Irish cuisine. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99), "A Return to Ireland" is a pleasure to browse, inspiring to plan menus with, and unreservedly recommended as a core addition to personal, professional, and community library ethnic cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Judith McLoughlin (https://www.huckabee.tv/guests/judith-mcloughlin) is a professional Irish chef based in Georgia, an author, a tour guide and the owner of a gourmet food business called The Shamrock and Peach, specializing in Irish cuisine, in which she has created her own unique food fusion by blending the techniques of her homeland with the newfound flavors of the South. She has worked with Whole Foods, Cooks Warehouse, Aprons Cooking School, Tourism Ireland, and Kerrygold. She has also previously published a cookbook entitled "The Shamrock and Peach".

Is This A Cookbook?: Adventures in the Kitchen
Heston Blumenthal
Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781526621504, $35.00, HC, 368pp

https://www.amazon.com/This-Cookbook-Adventures-Kitchen/dp/1526621509

Synopsis: A culinary adventure from - but is it a cookbook?

With the publication of "Is This A Cookbook?: Adventures in the Kitchen", three-time James Beard Award-winning, Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal showcases a fascinating compendium of amazing recipes like pea and ham soup-in-a-sandwich and bacon and egg porridge, popcorn popcorn chicken and (r)ice cream. But in Heston's kitchen, to cook is to embark on a journey of quantum gastronomy: exploring the palate, feeding the inner child, and plunging headfirst through the plate and into the soul.

Each of the 70 simple, straightforward recipes comprising "Is This A Cookbook?: Adventures in the Kitchen" is accompanied by Heston's stories, insights, and hacks, turning each cooking session into a journey - and revealing a whole world of culinary possibilities and fresh perspectives. Brought to life by the incredible illustrations by Dave McKean, Heston's long-term collaborator and one of the greatest illustrators at work today, Is This A Cookbook? is the next best thing to having Heston as your sous-chef.

Critique: Far more than just an incredible cookbook, "Is This A Cookbook?: Adventures in the Kitchen" is an inherently fascinating read offering all manner of anecdotes and insights from a world class chef that will have immense appeal and interest for all dedicated Foodies and culinary connoisseurs. Certain to be a unique and prized addition to personal, professional, and community library cookbook collections, it should be noted for the reading lists that "Is This A Cookbook?: Adventures in the Kitchen" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.46).

Editorial Note: Heston Blumenthal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal) is entirely self-taught and one of the most progressive chefs of his generation. He's worked with food historians, perfumists, food physiologists, and biochemists the world over in a bid to change our perceptions and open our eyes to the food we eat, by engaging all of our senses. In 2004 he won the coveted three Michelin-stars in near-record time for his restaurant, The Fat Duck, which has twice been voted the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine's panel of experts. He also owns Dinner, a two-Michelin star restaurant in London, and two pubs in Bray, Berkshire. Heston has won a number of awards for his restaurants, tv shows, and books, and in 2006 he was awarded an OBE for his contributions to British gastronomy. He lives in Berkshire in the UK and can be followed on Twitter: @thehestonblumenthalteam

The Princess Bride: The Official Cookbook
Jenn Fujikawa
Smart Pop Books
c/o BenBella Books
www.benbellabooks.com
9781637741689, $35.00, HC, 192pp

https://www.amazon.com/Princess-Bride-Official-Cookbook/dp/1637741685

Synopsis: As a fantasy/adventure film, "The Princess Bride" captured the hearts and imaginations of its audiences. Based on the book by William Goldman, the 1987 film, directed by Rob Reiner and starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal, Andre the Giant, Carol Kane, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, Christopher Guest, Fred Savage, and Peter Falk is as universally beloved as it is quotable.

Now, for the first time, "The Princess Bride: The Official Cookbook" by Jenn Fukikawa is an amazingly impressive compendium showcasing 50 recipes for dishes seen in, and inspired by, the film, including: Buttercup Buttermilk Scones; Hash You Wish; Six-Fingered Sandwiches; Vizzini's Sicilian Meatballs; Fezzik's Stew; Bread Pirate Roberts; Twu Wove's Kiss Cookies; Iocane Powder Punch; Inigo Montoya's Taste of Revenge, and more!

"The Princes Bride: The Official Cookbook" is the ultimate way to plate up the culinary aspects of the adventure, comedy, and romance as played out on screen.

Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated with full color photos of finished dishes and scenes from the film, "The Princess Bride: The Official Cookbook" is a pleasure to browse through and fun to plan menus with. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99), "The Princess Bride: The Official Cookbook" will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to personal, professional, family, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Jenn Fujikawa (https://justjennrecipes.com) is an author and content creator specializing in lifestyle and pop culture. She has created content for Disney, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, and more. Her recipes have been featured on Buzzfeed, LA Times, Food & Wine Magazine, and the cover of Food Network Magazine. Jenn was recently profiled in The New York Times, and is the author of The Official Parks and Recreation Cookbook, The Gudetama Cookbook, The I Love Lucy Cookbook: Classic Recipes Inspired by the Iconic TV Show, I Love Lucy: The Joys of Friendship, and the co-author of The Goldbergs Cookbook.

Bliss on Toast: 75 Simple Recipes
Prue Leith
Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781639730711, $26.00, HC, 192pp

https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Toast-75-Simple-Recipes/dp/1639730710

Synopsis: There is nothing more comforting and delicious than toast. And when you top it with a few cleverly paired ingredients, it becomes a full meal -- not to mention pure bliss. With the publication of "Bliss on Toast: 75 Simple Recipes", Great British Baking Show judge Prue Leith toasts sourdoughs, focaccias, baguettes, flatbreads and more, then pairs them with everything from seasonal vegetables to meat and fish.

This collection toast inspired recipes spans healthy, hearty, salty, and sometimes sweet. Ideal for a busy home cook who loves a full and balanced plate, the recipes are incredibly versatile and perfect for any time of the day: tomatoes, shallots, and oregano on black olive toast; grilled chicken tikka with yogurt on naan; smoked salmon, wasabi, and avocado on multigrain bread; and bananas and ice cream with brandy syrup on panettone.

"Bliss on Toast" is as much a toolkit for quick fridge-raids as it is inspiration for seasonal delights. With 82 years' experience of good eating and 60 years of cooking, writing about and judging food, there is no one who better knows what makes a meal bliss than Prue Leith.

Critique: A compendium of pure comfort food ideas, each involving a different toast topping combination, "Bliss on Toast: 75 Simple Recipes" is enhanced by the profuse and impressively full color photographs of finished dishes. The result is a beautiful and inspiring culinary collection to simply browse through and then plan menus with. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), "Bliss on Toast: 75 Simple Recipes" is an extraordinary and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Prue Leith (https://prue-leith.com) is internationally known for revolutionizing food and restaurants in London early in her career. She now serves as a judge on The Great British Baking Show. She is the published author of eight novels, an autobiography and fifteen cookbooks. She can be followed at @prueleith

Pasta Night
Deborah Kaloper
Smith Street Books
c/o Rizzoli
300 Park Avenue South, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10010
www.rizzoliusa.com
9781922417879, $19.95, HC, 136pp

https://www.amazon.com/Pasta-Night-Recipes-Nights-Party/dp/1922417874

Synopsis: Explore the delicious world of pasta "Pasta Night: 60+ Recipes for Date Nights, Lazy Nights, and Party Nights" from Deborah Kaloper provides over 60 incredible recipes ranging from rustic Italian classics to New World fusions, along with instructions for making your own fresh pasta.

With "Pasta Night" even the most novice of kitche cooks can now satisfy their whole family with recipes for Spaghetti and Meatballs or Traditional Macaroni and Cheese. Then experiment with the really long and fun-sounding Italian words: Penne Arrabbiata, Mussels with Fregola, Gorgonzola Gnocchi al Forno, and many more.

With pasta dishes to suit any night (whether you're cooking to impress friends or to curl up with a comfort food bowl on the couch) "Pasta Night" is a cookbook with a pasta based recipe for every occasion and every dedicated pasta enthusiast.

Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated throughout with full page color photographs of finished dishes, and 'kitchen cook friendly' step-by-step recipe instructions, "Pasta Night: 60+ Recipes for Date Nights, Lazy Nights, and Party Nights" is a compendium of palate-pleasing, appetite satisfying dishes that will produce memorable menus for any and all dining occasions -- making it a very special and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, family, professional, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note: Deborah Kaloper (https://www.deborahkaloper.com) is a California-raised, Melbourne-based food writer, chef, former pastry chef, and now sought-after food stylist. Deb works daily with the best photographers, chefs, and writers. She has previously authored Ramen-topia and Taco-topia, both cookbooks published by Smith Street Books.

Rice Is Life
Caryl Levine, author
Ken Lee, author
Kristin Donnelly, author
Chronicle Books
680 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com
9781797214900, $29.95, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Rice-Life-Recipes-Celebrating-Essential/dp/179721490X

Synopsis: Rice is so much more than just a pantry staple. It is the foundation of cuisines across the world, a grain that sustains half the world's people, and the start of a delicious meal at home.

With the publication of "Rice Is Life: Recipes and Stories Celebrating the World's Most Essential Grain", the visionaries and founders of Lotus Foods, Caryl Levine and Ken Lee, share 65 recipes that showcase the grain in easy-to-cook meals from around the world. From Arroz Con Pollo to Hainanese-Inspired Chicken and Rice, to Ramen "Carbonara" and Soba Noodles with Green Tea Broth and Smoked Salmon, this cookbook captures the diversity of flavors and helps transform simple, gluten-free pantry staples into flavorful and nourishing dishes.

Along the way, "Rice Is Life" also offers essays on rice culture and sustainable rice agriculture, showing how rice plays a part in uplifting people across the globe. With its bright and colorful interior, RICE IS LIFE finds the joy and freshness in the everyday beauty of rice not just as a pantry staple, but a staple of life.

Rice is central to global cooking: As the staple food for more than half the world's population, rice is ubiquitous and is the foundation of so many cultures, including Japan, Korea, China, India, the Persian Empire, Italy, Finland, West Africa, the Caribbean, Thailand, Vietnam, the American South, and many more.

Naturally gluten-free: Rice and rice noodle - based recipes are naturally gluten free. That makes this pantry staple a core component in the diet of people with celiac disease, are sensitive to gluten, or are trying to incorporate less gluten into their diet for other reasons. "Rice is Life" is cookbook helps home cooks prepare rice with confidence and explore all its glorious possibilities.

Critique: Rice is one of the oldest food grains know to human beings and dates from the very beginning of the discover of agriculture. Profusely and beautifully illustrated throughout with full page, full color photographs of finished dishes, "Rice Is Life: Recipes and Stories Celebrating the World's Most Essential Grain" is an informative, inspiring, welcome and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, family, and community library cookbook collections.

Editorial Note #1: Caryl Levine and Ken Lee are rice visionaries. Their pioneering introduction of Forbidden Rice(R), Bhutanese Red Rice, and other specialty rices has fundamentally changed how Americans think about, cook, and eat rice, transforming it from a starchy white side dish to a center-of-the-plate ingredient. They also introduced a new paradigm, using market incentives for social change. By paying farmers premium prices to conserve rice biodiversity, they help improve incomes, protect the environment, and provide consumers with healthier rice. (https://www.lotusfoods.com/blogs/blog/lotus-foods-co-founders-caryl-levine-ken-lee-inducted-into-specialty-food-associati on-hall-of-fame)

Editorial Note #2: Kristin Donnelly (https://www.kristindonnelly.com) is the author of Modern Potluck (Clarkson Potter, 2016) and Cauliflower (Short Stack Editions, 2018).


The Environmental Studies Shelf

Climate and Energy Decoded
Tushar Choudhary, Ph.D.
HopeSpring Press
9798986435800, $15.99 Paper/$8.99 Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Energy-Decoded-Low-Carbon-Transition/dp/B0B92L1MKV

Climate and Energy Decoded: A Realistic Overview of Climate Change, Renewable Energy & Low-Carbon Transition offers a realistic assessment of climate change and the discussions surrounding it and human energy use, and is recommended reading for libraries looking for reasoned debates that blend scientific with political analysis.

From the foundations of climate change science and the history of climate change to a survey of power and energy usage and reviews of advantages and challenges in each method (from nuclear to geothermal and hydropower), this book considers low-carbon alternatives, but incorporates some of the key debates surrounding renewable power issues and why and how various options either work or fail.

Of particular note here, which sets this book apart from similar-sounding discussions, is an attention to not only footnoted supportive references, but insights into why scholarly analysis often falls short in addressing these issues. The result is more than just a rehashing of familiar-sounding issues, but offers many new insights into the process of solid research and scholarship itself, shedding light on why so many inconsistencies are reported (and come to be seen) as true.

Decoding climate and energy problems thus faces the added burden of tackling the methods of investigation, analysis, reporting, and conclusions that lead to falsehoods that further muddy the waters of climate change issues.

While Climate and Energy Decoded lives up to its promise of providing more enlightening contrasts between different options, its added value lies in its meticulous pinpointing of how research, study, and reporting methods fail, and how readers can conduct better research more thoroughly grounded in a vetted approach to critical thinking.

Libraries strong in climate issues and research papers will find Climate and Energy Decoded an excellent acquisition. Ideally, it will be chosen for classroom and reading group discussions about not just climate change, but the methods used to represent its science.

Greenhouse Planet
Lewis H. Ziska
Columbia University Press
61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023-7015
http://cup.columbia.edu
9780231206709, $25.00, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Greenhouse-Planet-Rising-Changes-Plants/dp/0231206704

Synopsis: The carbon dioxide that industrial civilization spews into the atmosphere has dramatic consequences for life on Earth that extend beyond climate change. CO2 levels directly affect plant growth, in turn affecting any kind of life that depends on plants -- in other words, everything and everyone.

With the publication of "Greenhouse Planet: How Rising CO2 Changes Plants and Life as We Know It", Professor Lewis H. Ziska reveals the stakes of increased CO2 for plants, people, and ecosystems -- from crop yields to seasonal allergies and from wildfires to biodiversity.

A veteran plant biologist Professor Ziska describes the importance of plants for food, medicine, and culture and explores the complex ways higher CO2 concentrations alter the systems on which humanity relies. He explains the science of how increased CO2 affects various plant species and addresses the politicization and disinformation surrounding these facts.

Professor Ziska also confronts the claim that "CO2 is plant food", a longtime conservative talking point. While not exactly false, it is deeply misleading. CO2 doesn't just make "good" plants grow; it makes all plants grow. It makes poison ivy more poisonous, kudzu more prolific, cheatgrass more flammable. CO2 stimulates some species more than others: weeds fare particularly well and become harder to control. Many crops grow more abundantly but also become less nutritious. And the further effects of climate change will be formidable.

Critique: Impressively well written, organized and presented for readers with an interest in the effects of Climate Change on horticulture and botony, and detailing essential environmental and horticultural science with wit and clarity, "Greenhouse Planet: How Rising CO2 Changes Plants and Life as We Know It" must be considered as an indispensable book for all readers interested in the ripple effects of increasing CO2. While unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Climatology collections, it should be noted for students, academia, governmental and industrial policy makers, as well as non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Greenhouse Planet: How Rising CO2 Changes Plants and Life as We Know It" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).

Editorial Note: Lewis H. Ziska (https://research.com/u/lewis-h-ziska) is Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. He served for nearly twenty-five years as a scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, resigning in 2019 to protest interference by the Trump administration with his research into the effects of rising carbon dioxide on rice cultivation. His books include Agriculture, Climate Change, and Food Security in the Twenty-First Century: Our Daily Bread (2017).

Ripple Effects: How We're Loving Our Lakes to Death
Ted J. Rulseh
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299339609, $26.95, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ripple-Effects-Loving-Lakes-Death/dp/0299339602

Synopsis: Lakes are among the Upper Midwest's greatest treasures and most valuable natural resources. The Great Lakes define the region, and thousands of smaller lakes offer peace, joy, and recreation to millions. And yet, in large part because of the numbers of people who enjoy the local waterways, the lakes of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota face numerous challenges. Invasive species, pollution, defective septic systems, inadequate shoreland zoning laws, and climate change are present and increasingly existential threats. We are, quite possibly, loving our lakes to death.

With the publication of "Ripple Effects: How We're Loving Our Lakes to Death", and in his engaging and conversational style, Ted Rulseh details each of these challenges and proposes achievable solutions. He draws on personal experience, interviews, academic research, and government reports to describe the state of the lakes, the stresses they are under, and avenues to successful lakeside living for a sustainable future.

"Ripple Effects" will be a go-to source for all who love lakes and who advocate for their protection; its driving question is summed up by one of Rulseh's interviewees: "We love this lake. What can we do to keep it healthy?"

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of an Epilogue (Toward a Land and Water Ethic), sixteen pages of Notes, a six page List of Interviews, and a fourteen page Index, "Ripple Effects: How We're Loving Our Lakes to Death" is a clarion call and much needed warning of how we are environmentally damaging our lakes and rivers throughout the Great Lakes states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Ripple Effects: How We're Loving Our Lakes to Death" is an unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists of environmental activists, lake and river enthusiasts, and a critically important and urgent contribution to community and academic library Environmental Studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies syllabus.

Editorial Note: Ted J. Rulseh (https://www.thelakeguy.net/about) lives in the lake-rich region of north central Wisconsin and writes the newspaper column "The Lake Where You Live". He is active in lake-advocacy organizations, including the Wisconsin Citizen Lake Monitoring Network. The editor and publisher of several books on the Great Lakes region, he is also the author of "A Lakeside Companion".


The Pets/Wildlife Shelf

Display: Appearance, Posture and Behaviour in the Animal Kingdom
Steve Parker
Ivy Press
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
100 Cummings Center, Suite 265D, Beverly, MA 01915
www.quartoknows.com
9780711278523, $36.00, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Display-Appearance-posture-behaviour-kingdom/dp/0711278520

Synopsis: For many animals use of color is essential to surviving in the wild. Both a built-in defence mechanism and a cunning tactic for attack, this biological advantage helps animals hide from dangerous predators and catch unsuspecting prey. It is used in many different ways, primarily to mask one's identity, movement or location, and changes over time as animals evolve and adapt to live.

"Display: Appearance, Posture and Behaviour in the Animal Kingdom" offers simply stunning photographic collection showcasing 100 creatures from around the world paired with fascinating insights from leading UK zoology author Steve Parker. Each animal will have a profile of 300 words paired with striking photographic examples featuring a wealth of color and ingenious uses of color for display or disguise.

Critique: Categorically organized geographically (North America; Central and South America; Europe; Africa; Asia; Australasia; Islands, Seas and Oceans), "Display: Appearance, Posture and Behaviour in the Animal Kingdom" is a coffee- table style volume (8.85 x 1 x 10.3 inches, 2.71 pounds) that will be of immense interest to readers with an interest in Wildlife Biology, Endangered Species; and Plant/Animal Photography. An informative pleasure to simply browse through, and also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $27.49), "Display: Appearance, Posture and Behaviour in the Animal Kingdom" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library collections and supplemental curriculum Wildlife studies lists.

Editorial Note: Steve Parker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Parker_(writer)) is a British science writer of children's and adult's books. He has written more than 300 titles and contributed to or edited another 150.

Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin
M. Joshua Kapfer, editor
Donald J. Brown, editor
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299335205, $74.95, HC, 1176pp

https://www.amazon.com/Amphibians-Reptiles-Wisconsin-Joshua-Kapfer/dp/0299335208

Synopsis: Amphibians and reptiles represent an essential and interesting component of Wisconsin's wildlife. Eighteen species of amphibian and thirty-six species of reptile occupy landscapes across the state. They live in aquatic habitats that range from small streams to large lakes, and from open prairies to mature forests on land.

These species are vital members of the biological communities in which they occur, acting as important predators, prey, and competitors, while also providing a wide variety of additional ecological functions. However, many amphibians and reptiles have experienced drastic population declines and even local extinctions in Wisconsin due to habitat loss and degradation, overharvesting, the introduction of invasive species, pollution, and other factors.

"Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin" is comprehensive volume, by an expert team of editors and contributors, consolidates the current state of scientific knowledge, aims to expand public knowledge and appreciation of Wisconsin's natural legacy, and brings out the herpetologist in all of us.

This long-awaited, state-of-the-field synthesis also includes hundreds of color photographs and illustrations, state-level and North American range maps, dichotomous keys, and research and conservation anecdotes that will entertain and inform even the most dedicated nature lover. Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin is set to become a lasting resource and armchair companion for anyone in the Midwest interested in the state's natural history and amphibian and reptile fauna.

Critique: With its special appeal to students, academicians, biologists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in amphibians and reptiles, "Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin", collaboratively compiled and co-edited by certified wildlife biologists Joshua M. Kapfer and Donald J. Brown is this impressively comprehensive, expertly illustrated, exceptionally informative, accessibly organized and presented compendium, making it an absolutely essential and core addition for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Wisconsin Wildlife collections.

Editorial Note #1: Joshua M. Kapfer is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. https://www.turtlesfortomorrow.org/governing-board/dr-joshua-m-kapfer-wildlife-biologist

Editorial Note #2: Donald J. Brown ( is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and a research assistant professor of wildlife resources in the school of natural resources at West Virginia University. (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9uI3MREAAAAJ)


The Health/Medicine Shelf

The Doctor and the Algorithm
S. Scott Graham
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4314
www.oup.com/us
9780197644461, $49.95, HC, 264pp

https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Algorithm-Promise-Future-Health/dp/0197644465

Synopsis: For years, technologists and computer scientists have promised an AI revolution that would transform the very basis of how we imagine and administer modern medicine. AI-driven advancements in medical error rates, diagnostic accuracy, or disease outbreak detection could potentially save thousands of lives. But health AI also carries the potential for exacerbating deep systemic biases if left unchecked.

With the publication of "The Doctor and the Algorithm: Promise, Peril, and the Future of Health AI", Professor S. Scott Graham has combined insights drawn from science and technology studies, critical algorithm studies, and public interest informatics to better understand the promise and peril of health AI.

"The Doctor and the Algorithm" draws on case studies in automated diagnostics, algorithmic pain measurement, AI-driven drug discovery, and death prediction to investigate how health AI is made, promoted, and justified. It also explores the enthusiastic promises of health AI marketing communication and medical futurism while also analyzing the inequitable outcomes new AI technology often creates for already marginalized communities. Finally, "The Doctor and the Algorithm" closes with specific recommendations for regulatory frameworks that might support more ethical and equitable approaches to health AI in the future.

Interweaving textual analysis and original informatics, "The Doctor and the Algorithm" offers a sobering analysis of the promise of medical AI against the real and unintended consequences that deep medicine can bring for patients, providers, and public health alike.

Critique: A seminal and groundbreaking study that is timely, well written, impressively informative, exceptionally thought provoking, and enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of an eight page Technical Appendix, twenty four pages of Notes, a sixteen page listing of References, and a six page Index, "The Doctor and the Algorithm: Promise, Peril, and the Future of Health AI" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, medical school, college, and university library Health/Medicine and AI collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, members of the medical profession, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Doctor and the Algorithm: Promise, Peril, and the Future of Health AI" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $25.49).

Editorial Note: S. Scott Graham (http://sscottgraham.com) is Associate Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written extensively about communication in health science and policy. He is also the author of The Politics of Pain Medicine (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and numerous articles in journals ranging from the Journal of Medical Humanities and Rhetoric of Health & Medicine to Plos-One and the Annals of Internal Medicine. His research has been reported on in The New York Times, US News & World Report, Science, Health Day, AI in Health Care, and Scientific Inquirer.


The Library Science Shelf

Intermediate Horizons: Book History and Digital Humanities
Mark Vareschi, editor
Heather Wacha, editor
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299338107, $79.95, HC, 184pp

https://www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Horizons-History-Digital-Humanities/dp/029933810X

Synopsis: The collaborative work of co-editors Mark Vareschi and Heather Wacha, "Intermediate Horizons: Book History and Digital Humanities" is innovative collection tat examines how book history and digital humanities (DH) practices are integrated through approach, access, and assessment.

There are eight erudite essays by rising and senior scholars practicing in multiple fields (including librarians, literature scholars, digital humanists, and historians) that consider and reimagine the interconnected futures and horizons at the intersections of texts, technology, and culture and argue for a return to a more representative and human study of the humanities.

Integrating intermedial practices and assessments, the editors and contributors explore issues surrounding the access to and materiality of digitized materials, and the challenge of balancing preservation of traditional archival materials with access. They offer an assessment in our present moment of the early visions of book history and DH projects. In revisiting these projects, they ask us to shift our thinking on the promises and perils of archival and creative work in different media.

"Intermediate Horizons: Book History and Digital Humanities" reconsiders the historical intersections of book history and DH and charts a path for future scholarship across disciplinary boundaries.

Critique: Of special relevance and appeal to readers with an interest in the subjects of General Library & Information Science, Communications & Media Studies, and Continuing Education, "Intermediate Horizons: Book History and Digital Humanities" is collaboratively compiled and co-edited by Professors features fourteen illustrations, a four page listing of the contributors and their credentials, as well as a fourteen page Index. Impressively informative and thought-provoking throughout, "Intermediate Horizons: Book History and Digital Humanities" is a strongly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Library Science collections and writer/publisher/bibliophile reading lists.

Editorial Note #1: Mark Vareschi (https://english.wisc.edu/staff/vareschi-mark) is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the author of "Everywhere and Nowhere: Anonymity and Mediation in Eighteenth-Century Britain".

Editorial Note #2: Heather Wacha (https://ischool.wisc.edu/blog/staff/wacha-heather) is a former University of Wisconsin fellow and CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow and associate coordinator of the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She is also the coauthor of "The Cartulary of the Abbey of Premontre: A Dual Print and Digital Edition".


The Business Shelf

Smarter Collaboration
Heidi K. Gardner, author
Ivan A. Matviak, author
Harvard Business Review Press
60 Harvard Way, Boston, MA 02163
http://hbr.org/books
9781647822743, $30.00, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Smarter-Collaboration-Approach-Breaking-Transforming/dp/1647822742

Synopsis: Market volatility. Sustainability demands. Hybrid working. Opportunities and hazards of fast-changing technology and regulations. Companies and nonprofits face more daunting challenges than ever. How can we collaborate in our organizations (and with outside partners) to solve problems, innovate, and succeed?

With the publication of "Smarter Collaboration: A New Approach to Breaking Down Barriers and Transforming Work", co- authors Heidi K. Gardner and Ivan A. Matviak offer truly groundbreaking solutions. "Smarter Collaboration" lays out a pragmatic action plan blending rich stories, new empirical research, and loads of practical advice to help companies thrive by collaborating more effectively.

As Harvard professor Heidi K. Gardner and senior executive Ivan A. Matviak show, firms that collaborate smarter consistently generate higher revenues and profits, boost innovation, strengthen client relationships, and attract and retain better talent. In this successor to Gardner's bestselling first book, "Smarter Collaboration", the co-authors expand their mandate, illustrating the fundamental dynamics of collaborating well across industries like financial services, health care, biotech/pharma, consumer products, automotive, and technology.

Based on their research with thousands of executives from around the world, they share deep insights on how to implement smarter collaboration and avoid the potential pitfalls. They also help leaders troubleshoot thorny challenges like misaligned incentives, collaboration overload, and unintended consequences on diversity and inclusion. Complete with illustrative how-tos and cases, "Smarter Collaboration" concludes with inspiring examples of groups harnessing smarter collaboration to tackle society's biggest challenges such as saving the oceans, eradicating diseases, and tackling global warming.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Smarter Collaboration: A New Approach to Breaking Down Barriers and Transforming Work" must be considers as an essential and 'real world practical' instructional guide and 'how to' manual for corporate leaders at all levels to improve the way they work, and as a result, increase the impact and success of their corporate or non-profit organizations. Both Heidi K. Gardner and Ivan A. Matviak can be connected with at www.gardnerandco.co. While especially recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Business Management & Leadership collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Smarter Collaboration: A New Approach to Breaking Down Barriers and Transforming Work" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note #1: Heidi K. Gardner (https://hls.harvard.edu/heidi-k-gardner) is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and a former professor at Harvard Business School. Previously a McKinsey consultant and Fulbright Fellow, she is the author of "Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos", and was named by Thinkers50 as a Next Generation Business Guru and is cofounder of both the research and advisory firm Gardner & Co and Smart Collaboration International.

Editorial Note #2: Ivan A. Matviak (https://clearwateranalytics.com/authors/ivan-matviak) is a senior executive in the global financial services and fintech sectors. Formerly chair of multiple software companies, adviser to private equity firms, and Bain consultant, Matviak is a cofounder of Smart Collaboration International.

Digital Talent
Matt Alder, author
Mervyn Dinnen, author
Kogan Page Inc.
8 W 38th Street, Ste 902, New York, NY 10018
www.koganpage.com
9781789660197, $80.00, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Talent-recruit-business-transformation/dp/178966019X

Synopsis: With the publication of "Digital Talent: Find, Recruit and Retain the People your Business Needs in a World of Digital Transformation", co-authors Mat Alder and Mervyn Dinnen equip HR personnel with the tools they need to assess what these critical skills are, how to attract the people who have them, keep these people engaged, productive and performing to the best of their abilities. It also provides crucial guidance on how to continuously develop employees, including leaders, to ensure that the organization has the skills it needs both for today and the future.

"Digital Talent" also provides advice on how to create new processes that are fit for purpose in the age of digital transformation, build inclusion when digital culture is becoming more prominent and use digital abilities effectively to maximise productivity while maintaining employee wellbeing. "Digital Talent" is the ideal instructional guide on the acquisition and retention of talent that HR, talent acquisition professionals and business leaders need to make sure that their people, and the business as a whole, stay ahead of the competition.

Critique: An ideal instructional guide and 'how to' manual, "Digital Talent: Find, Recruit and Retain the People your Business Needs in a World of Digital Transformation" is especially recommended as a core addition to personal, professional, corporate, community, college, and academic library Business/Corporate Management collections and supplemental curriculum Human Resources, Business Education, and Economics studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of MBA students, academia, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Digital Talent" is also available in a paperback edition (9780749490959, $25.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.65).

Editorial Note #1: Matt Alder (https://mattalder.net) is a strategic consultant focusing on innovation and technology in HR and Talent Acquisition. He is the host of Recruiting Future, one of the world's most popular talent acquisition podcasts and over the last 20 years has built a reputation as a global thought leader, working with employers to optimize their digital strategies. He is based in Edinburgh, UK.

Editorial Note #1: Mervyn Dinnen (https://www.koganpage.com/author/mervyn-dinnen) is a researcher, writer, analyst and influencer on HR, Talent and WorkTech trends. Based in London, UK, he partners with HR and Recruitment technology businesses to create thought leadership reports that document the emerging trends impacting the hiring, retention, development and engagement of talent. He was recognized as a Top 100 Global Influencer in HR Technology in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and has also been identified as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Talent & HR Professionals in the UK for 2022.

The Entrepreneurs
Derek Lidow
Columbia Business School Publishing
c/o Columbia University Press
61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023-7015
http://cup.columbia.edu
9780231199148, $35.00, HC, 440pp

https://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurs-Relentless-Quest-Value/dp/0231199147

Synopsis: Entrepreneurs are among the primary shapers of our modern culture, yet their role in driving progress and influencing society has often been overlooked. As far back as we can trace human history, there have been entrepreneurs.

Almost five millennia ago, copper tool manufacturers set up a factory in what today is southwest Spain, profiting for hundreds of years from trade around the Mediterranean. Papyri document the diverse investments of an ancient Egyptian businessperson, from grain-yielding land to flax for linen cloth.

What do these figures have in common with renowned modern entrepreneurs, and how do their similarities help us achieve a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship as well as the potential for a healthier, wealthier, and more equitable and sustainable future?

With the publication of "The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value", Professor Derek Lidow delves into the deep history of innovation to deliver essential new insights into how entrepreneurs create value and bring about change. Telling the captivating stories of people from many different cultures over thousands of years, he shows how entrepreneurs transform the world through relentless innovation.

Professor Lidow also demonstrates that far from being heroic lone individuals, entrepreneurs copy and then add to the inventions of others. The cumulative innovations of swarms of entrepreneurs expand the scale, scope, and range of products and services. Lidow emphasizes how entrepreneurship can harm society as well as benefit it, and he underscores ways to mitigate its harmful side and harness its positive effects.

By highlighting the fundamental qualities of innovation throughout history, "The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value" provides indispensable new perspective on how it is shaping our present and future.

Critique: A fascinating, informative, impressively well written, exceptionally well organized and impressively insightful history, "The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value" by Professor Derek Lidow will have a special appeal to readers with an interest in the history of entrepreneurship, economic history, and environmental economics. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Entrepreneurship, Economics, and Capitalism History collections and supplemental studies curriculum lists, it should be noted for students, academia, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Entrepreneurs: The Relentless Quest for Value" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).

Editorial Note: Derek Lidow (https://dereklidow.com) is a Professor at the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at Princeton University. He is also the author of Startup Leadership: How Savvy Entrepreneurs Turn Their Ideas Into Successful Enterprises (2014) and Building on Bedrock: What Sam Walton, Walt Disney, and Other Great Self-Made Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us About Building Valuable Companies (2018) as well as more than a hundred articles on innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Lidow also has practical experience as the founder of a leading market-research firm and CEO of a global semiconductor company, and was a Hertz Foundation Fellow.

Ideaflow
Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn
Portfolio
c/o Penguin Group USA
www.penguin.com
9780593420584, $29.00, HC, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ideaflow-Only-Business-Metric-Matters/dp/0593420586

Synopsis: Ideaflow is the number of ideas you or your team can generate in a set amount of time We all want great ideas, but few of us actually understand how they're born. Innovation doesn't come from a sprint or a hackathon -- it's a result of maximizing ideaflow.

With the publication of "Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters", Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn (of Stanford's renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) offers a proven strategy for coming up with great ideas by yourself or with your team, and quickly determining which are worthy. Drawing upon their combined decades of experience leading Stanford's premier Launchpad accelerator and advising some of the world's most innovative organizations, like Microsoft, Michelin, Keller Williams Realty, and Hyatt, they'll teach you how to:

Overcome dangerous thinking traps
Find inspiration in unexpected places
Trick your own brain to be more creative
Design and deploy affordable experiments
Fill your innovation pipeline
Unleash your own creative potential, as well as the potential of others

Perhaps you have experienced low ideaflow. Have you been in that quiet conference room, with a half-filled whiteboard, and an unmet business target?. With the proven system laid out in "Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters", entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders will learn how to tap into surprising and valuable ideas on demand and fill the creative pipeline with breakthrough ideas.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters" combines inspiration and aspiration with 'real world' practicality. The result is a study that is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Business Management/Decisions Making collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of MBA students, academia, corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99).

Editorial Note #1: Jeremy Utley (https://www.jeremyutley.design) is the director of executive education at Stanford's d.school and an adjunct professor at Stanford's School of Engineering. He is the host of the d.school's widely popular program "Stanford's Masters of Creativity."

Editorial Note #2: Perry Klebahn (https://profiles.stanford.edu/perry-klebahn) is a cofounding member of Stanford's d.school faculty. He is an adjunct professor and director of executive education at Stanford's d.school. He has served as COO for Patagonia and as CEO of Timbuk2.

The Prepared Leader
Erika H. James, author
Lynn Perry Wooten, author
Wharton School Press
https://wsp.wharton.upenn.edu
9781613631652, $28.99, HC, 170pp

https://www.amazon.com/Prepared-Leader-Emerge-Crisis-Resilient/dp/1613631650

Synopsis: The next economic crisis might be here now, or it might be around the corner. With the publication of "The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before", two history-making experts in crisis leadership (James, dean of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Wooten, president of Simmons University) forcefully argue that the time to prepare is always.

In no other time in recent history have leaders in every industry and on every continent grappled with so many changes that have independently and simultaneously undermined their ability to lead. "The Prepared Leader" encapsulates more than two decades of the co-authors' research to convey how it has positioned them to navigate through the distinct challenges of today and tomorrow. Their insights have implications for every leader in every industry and every worker at every level.

In their fast-reading and actionable study, James and Wooten provide tools and frameworks for addressing and learning from crises, and they provide insight into what you need to know to become a Prepared Leader, including:

The five phases of crisis management and the skills you need for each phase. They examine how the National Basketball Association and its commissioner, Adam Silver, responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Making the right decisions under pressure and how to avoid common mistakes. They reveal how Burger King CEO Jose Cil began planning for the aftermath of a crisis right in the middle of one.
Building a crisis leadership team and how to lead one that you've inherited. They detail how Wonya Lucas, CEO and President of the Crown Media Family Networks, aligned and mobilized an executive team during a time of crisis.

In "The Prepared Leader, both James and Wooten argue that in addition to people, profit, and the planet, prepared leadership should be the fourth "P" in a company's bottom line. They bring decades of world-renowned research on crisis leadership, diversity and inclusion, management strategy, and positive leadership to the table to help leaders better prepare themselves to lead through crises - and for whatever lies around the corner.

Critique: The only certainty in a capitalist economy is that there are no enduring certainties. There are inevitable cycles of boom and bust, of Bull & Bear markets, of technology driven changes to social, cultural, and political forces that will have impact (for good or ill) on market driven businesses and corporate affairs. "The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before" is an ideal instruction guide and manual for corporate leaders at all levels to prepare to deal successfully with the unanticipated but inevitable fluctuations of the market place. While highly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Business Leadership & Management collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of MBA studies, academia, corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers that "The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before" is also available in a paperback edition (9781613631638, $18.99), and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.50).

Editorial Note #1: Erika H. James (https://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/ehjames) became the dean of the Wharton School on July 1, 2020. Trained as an organizational psychologist, James is an expert on crisis leadership, workplace diversity and management strategy. Prior to her appointment at Wharton, James was the John H. Harland Dean at Emory University's Goizueta Business School from 2014 to 2020. An award-winning educator, accomplished consultant, and researcher, she is the first woman and first person of color to be appointed dean in Wharton's 141-year history. As such she has paved the way for women in leadership both in education and corporate America.

Editorial Note #2: Lynn Perry Wooten, a seasoned academic and an expert on organizational development and transformation, is the ninth president of Simmons University and the first African American to lead the institution. Before coming to Simmons, she served as the David J. Nolan Dean and Professor of Management and Organizations at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Prior to that, she served on the faculty of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business for nearly 20 years.


The Historical Fiction Shelf

Anywhere You Run
Wanda M. Morris
wandamorriswrites.com
William Morrow
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063082502 $17.99 pbk / $11.99 Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Anywhere-You-Run-Wanda-Morris/dp/0063082500

Synopsis: From the award-winning author of All Her Little Secrets comes yet another gripping, suspenseful novel where, after the murder of a white man in Jim Crow Mississippi, two Black sisters run away to different parts of the country... but can they escape the secrets they left behind?

It's the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right to vote. Against this backdrop, twenty-one year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than she's ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack of her own, she kills the man responsible. But with the color of Violet's skin, there is no way she can escape Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before anyone can find the body or finger her as the killer, she decides to run. With the help of her white beau, Violet escapes. But desperation and fear leads her to hide out in the small rural town of Chillicothe, Georgia, unaware that danger may be closer than she thinks.

Back in Jackson, Marigold, Violet's older sister, has dreams of attending law school. Working for the Mississippi Summer Project, she has been trying to use her smarts to further the cause of the Black vote. But Marigold is in a different kind of trouble: she's pregnant and unmarried. After news of the murder brings the police to her door, Marigold sees no choice but to flee Jackson too. She heads North seeking the promise of a better life and no more segregation. But has she made a terrible choice that threatens her life and that of her unborn child?

Two sisters on the run - one from the law, the other from social shame. What they don't realize is that there's a man hot on their trail. This man has his own brand of dark secrets and a disturbing motive for finding the sisters that is unknown to everyone but him...

Critique: Award-winning author Wanda M. Morris presents Anywhere You Run, a suspenseful historical fiction novel set in 1960s Mississippi. Two African-American sisters are each forced to run - one had kill a man in self-defense, and fears retaliation; the other is pregnant and unmarried, and fears that social shame will consign her to lifelong poverty and misery. But both sisters are being relentlessly pursued! An unforgettable period piece of crime, racial discrimination, and resistance, Anywhere You Run keeps the reader's attention riveted to the final page. Highly recommended. It should be noted for personal reading lists that Anywhere You Run is also available in a Kindle edition ($11.99).

The Opera Sisters
Marianne Monson
Shadow Mountain Publishing
P.O. Box 30178, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0178
www.shadowmountain.com
www.blackstoneaudio.com
9781639930463, $26.99, HC, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Opera-Sisters-Marianne-Monson/dp/1639930469

Synopsis: British sisters Ida and Louise Cook enjoy their quiet, unassuming lives in south London. Ida writes romance novels, and Louise works as a secretary. In the evenings, the sisters indulge in their shared love for opera, saving their money to buy records and attend performances throughout England and Europe, becoming well-known by both performers and fellow opera lovers.

But when Hitler seizes power in 1933, he begins targeting and persecuting German Jews, passing laws that restrict their rights and their lives. The sisters continue their trips to the German opera houses, but soon, Jewish members of the opera community covertly approach the sisters, worried that they will be stripped of their wealth and forced to leave their homes and the country. Danger looms on the horizon, threatening to spill across all of Europe's borders.

Ida and Louise vow to help, but how can two ordinary working-class women with limited means make a difference?

Together with their beloved opera community, the sisters devise a plan to personally escort Jewish refugees from Germany to England. The success of the plan hinges on Ida and Louise's ability to smuggle contraband jewelry and furs beneath the watchful eyes of the SS soldiers guarding various checkpoints. But how many trips can they make before someone blows a whistle? Or before the final curtain falls on Germany's borders?

Critique: Although a work of fiction, "The Opera Sisters" by Marianne Monson is based on the true story of the Cook sisters, two women who smuggled valuables out of 1930s Nazi Germany to finance a daring and secret operation to help German Jews find hope for a new life in England. Inspiring, inherently fascinating, and deftly crafted page turner of a read from cover to cover, "The Opera Sisters" will be an enduringly appreciated and valued addition to community and academic Historical Fiction library collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Opera Sisters" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212013956, $31.95, CD).

Editorial Note: Marianne Monson (www.mariannemonson.com) received her MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and primarily writes on topics related to women's history. She has taught English and Creative Writing at the community college and university levels and is the author of twelve books for children and adults, including the novel Her Quiet Revolution and her nonfiction works Frontier Grit and Women of the Blue and Gray. She is the founder of The Writer's Guild, a literary nonprofit.


The Literary Fiction Shelf

Rocked in Time
Charles Degelman
Harvard Square Editions
2152 Beachwood Terrace, Hollywood, CA 90068
www.harvardsquareeditions.org
9781941861882, $22.95, PB, 408pp

https://www.amazon.com/Rocked-Time-Charles-Degelman/dp/1941861881

Synopsis: "Rocked in Time" by Charles Degelman slips behind the scenes of a blasphemous theater company hell-bent on toppling America's Vietnam-era establishment with punch lines, pratfalls, and comic rebellion. Along the way, the protagonist pursues a love for the stage and a passion for resistance amid the tear-gassed campuses and burning cities of a nation at war with itself.

We've heard about the generation that changed the politics and culture of the 1960s. But how did that rebellion change those who made it happen? "Rocked in Time" delivers that tale from a unique theatrical perspective. - Tony Kahn, writer, producer, PBS, NPR

Critique: A fictional reflection of an historical era, "Rocked in Time" by novelist Charles Degelman is a compelling and compulsive page turner of a read that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. W compelling work of historical/literary fiction, "Rocked in Time" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists and community/academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Charles Degelman (https://www.charlesdegelman.org) is an author, performer, and producer living in Los Angeles. His recent novel, A Bowl Full of Nails, set in the counterculture of the 1970s, collected a Bronze Medal from the 2015 Independent Publishers Book Awards and was a finalist in the Bellwether Competition, sponsored by Barbara Kingsolver. His novel Gates of Eden, set during the anti-war movement of the 1960s, won an Independent Publishers book award, and his first screenplay, "FIFTY-SECOND STREET", garnered an award from the Diane Thomas Competition, sponsored by UCLA and Dreamworks. He is also on the Faculty of California State University where he teaches writing in the Television, Film, and Media Studies/Communications Studies program.

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories
Clark Blaise
Biblioasis
www.biblioasis.com
9781771964890, $19.99, PB, 416pp

https://www.amazon.com/This-Time-That-Place-Selected/dp/1771964898

Synopsis: "This Time, That Place: Selected Stories" draws together twenty-four short stories that span the entirety of Canadian/American author Clark Blaise's career -- including one never previously published.

The stories move swiftly across place and time, through and between languages ranging from Florida's Confederate swamps, to working-class Pittsburgh, to Montreal and abroad. They each demonstrate Blaise's impressive mastery of the short story format and reveal the range of his lifelong preoccupation with identity as fallacy, fable, and dream.

Critique: With the publication of "This Time, That Place: Selected Stories confirms", author Clark Blaise is clearly documented as being one of the best and most enduring masters of the short story literary form. While very highly recommended, especially for community, college, and university library short story anthology and literary fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "This Time, That Place: Selected Stories" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49).

Editorial Note: Clark Blaise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Blaise) is the author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction. A longtime advocate for the literary arts in North America, Blaise has taught writing and literature at Emory, Skidmore, Columbia, NYU, Sir George Williams, UC-Berkeley, SUNY-Stony Brook, and the David Thompson University Centre. In 1968, he founded the postgraduate Creative Writing Program at Concordia University; he after went on to serve as the Director of the International Writing Program at Iowa (1990-1998), and as President of the Society for the Study of the Short Story (2002-present). Internationally recognized for his contributions to the field, Blaise has received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature from the American Academy (2003), and in 2010 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

The Easy Life
Marguerite Duras, author
Emma Ramadan & Olivia Baes, translators
Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781635578515, $18.00, PB, 208pp

https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Life-Marguerite-Duras/dp/1635578515

Synopsis: Francine Veyrenattes is a twenty-five-year-old woman who already feels like life is passing her by. After witnessing a series of tragedies on her family farm, she alternates between intense grief and staggering boredom as she discovers a curious detachment in herself, an inability to navigate the world as others do.

Hoping to be cleansed of whatever ails her, she travels to the coast to visit the sea. But there she finds herself unraveling, uncertain of what is inside her. Lying in the sun with her toes in the sand by day while psychologically dissolving in her hotel room by night, she soon reaches the peak of her inner crisis and must grapple with whether and how she can take hold of her own existence.

Critique: "The Easy Life" by Marguerite Duras is a compelling examination of a young woman's estrangement from the world and offers a memorable exploration of the depths of what it means to be human. With a special appeal to readers with an interest in deftly crafted, eloquent, and original storytelling, and ably translated into English by the linguistic team of Emma Ramadan and Olivia Baes, "The Easy Life" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library French/English Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note #1: Marguerite Duras (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Duras) was one of France's most important and prolific writers. Born Marguerite Donnadieu in 1914 in what was then French Indochina, she went to Paris in 1931 to study at the Sorbonne. During WWII she was active in the Resistance, and in 1945 she joined the Communist Party. Duras wrote many novels, plays, films, and essays during her lifetime. She is perhaps best known for her internationally bestselling novel The Lover, which won the Prix Goncourt in 1984. She died in Paris in 1996.

Editorial Note #2: Emma Ramadan (http://emmaramadan.com) is a literary translator of poetry and prose from France, North Africa, and the Middle East. She is the recipient of a Fulbright, an NEA Translation Fellowship, the 2018 Albertine Prize, and the 2021 PEN Translation Prize.

Editorial Note #3: Olivia Baes (https://www.catranslation.org/person/olivia-baes) is a Franco-American multidisciplinary artist who grew up between France, Catalonia, and the United States. She holds a Master of the Arts in Cultural Translation from the American University of Paris.


The Romantic Fiction Shelf

Christmas at the Amish Market
Shelley Shepard Gray
https://shelleyshepardgray.com
Hallmark Publishing
https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/hallmark-publishing
9781952210778, $15.95, PB, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Amish-Market-Shelley-Shepard/dp/1952210771

Synopsis: Wesley is so busy running his family's Amish market at the holidays, he barely has time for Liesl, the young woman he's been courting for years. When she suggests her aunt Jenny could help Wesley out, he agrees to the plan. But Liesl neglected to mention her aunt is only twenty-six years old -- and as charming as she is hard-working.

Jenny, still healing after a painful breakup, welcomes the distraction of working at the market. She soon realizes Wesley is everything she ever dreamed a man could be. But how can Jenny even think about romance with the man Liesl expects to marry?

But Liesl's own feelings are more complicated than she's willing to admit. With humor, faith, and a little help from their friends in the community, everyone might just find what their hearts are looking for this Christmas at the Amish market.

Critique: The stuff of which Hallmark movies are made, and with a very special appeal to readers with an interest in Amish/Mennonite themed romance novels, "Christmas at the Amish Market" by novelist Shelley Shepard Gray will prove to be an immediate and enduringly welcome addition to community library Romance Fiction collections. A fun and fascinating read from first page to last, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Christmas at the Amish Market" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (9781666617436, $24.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Shelley Shepard Gray (https://shelleyshepardgray.com) is a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time HOLT Medallion winner.

Twelve Days of Christmas
Debbie Macomber
Ballantine Books
c/o The Random House Publishing Group
www.randomhouse.com
9780425286937, $24.99, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Days-Christmas-Novel/dp/0553391739

Synopsis: Friendly and bubbly, Julia Padden likes nearly everyone, but her standoffish neighbor, Cain Maddox, presents a particular challenge. No matter how hard she's tried to be nice, Cain rudely rebuffs her at every turn, preferring to keep to himself. But when Julia catches Cain stealing her newspaper from the lobby of their apartment building, that's the last straw. She's going to break through Cain's Scrooge-like exterior the only way she knows how: by killing him with kindness.

To track her progress, Julia starts a blog called The Twelve Days of Christmas. Her first attempts to humanize Cain are far from successful. Julia brings him homemade Christmas treats and the disagreeable grinch won't even accept them. Meanwhile, Julie's blog becomes an online sensation, as an astonishing number of people start following her adventures. Julia continues to find ways to express kindness and, little by little, chips away at Cain's gruff fa ade to reveal the caring man underneath.

Unbelievably, Julia feels herself falling for Cain -- and she suspects that he may be falling for her as well. But as the popularity of her blog continues to grow, Julia must decide if telling Cain the truth about having chronicled their relationship to the rest of the world is worth risking their chance at love.

Critique: Novelist Debbie Macomber at her very best, "Twelve Days of Christmas" is a 'must read' for her legions of fans and will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in deftly crafted holiday romance stories. While unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Romance collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Twelve Days of Christmas" is also available in a paperback edition (9780553391756, $5.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99). Librarians note that there is also a large print paperback edition for "Twelve Days of Christmas" (Random House Large Print, 9781524708344, $20.00, 400pp).

Editorial Note: Debbie Macomber (https://debbiemacomber.com) is also the author of Sweet Tomorrows, A Girl's Guide to Moving On, Last One Home, Silver Linings, Love Letters, Mr. Miracle, Blossom Street Brides, and Rose Harbor in Bloom. Five of her beloved Christmas novels have been hit movies on the Hallmark Channel, including Mrs. Miracle and Mr. Miracle. Hallmark Channel also produced the original series Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove, based on Macomber's Cedar Cove books.

Never Cross a Highlander
Lisa Rayne
Entangled: Amara
https://entangledpublishing.submittable.com/submit/19016/amara
9781649370952, $8.99, PB, 448pp

https://www.amazon.com/Never-Cross-Highlander-Lisa-Rayne/dp/1649370954

Synopsis: Ailsa Connery has waited three long years to finally escape her enslavement at Stirling Castle and reunite with her clan. But her carefully laid plans are completely destroyed by the arrival of the infamous Highland warrior known as Dubh Mahoun, the Black Devil -- a man who has plans of his own.

Kallum MacNeill's fearsome reputation has long allowed him to keep hidden his secret double life of freeing enslaved captives across the land. It's only when he kidnaps a servant lass (quite by accident!) that he finds himself facing a wee predicament. He must accompany the lass home or risk her exposing his true identity. It'd be easy enough, that is if the feisty hellion didn't fight him at every turn.

As they make their way to the Highlands, the perils the two must face are surpassed only by their constant sparring. Soon, their heated sniping sparks heat of a totally different kind. The kind that ignites a hunger that could consume them both. Yet the difficult journey is no match for the dangerous secrets they're about to uncover.

Critique: A delightful and original blend of action/adventure with historical Scottish romance, "Never Cross A Highlander" effectively showcases the impressive narrative storytelling talents of novelist Lisa Rayne. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $5.99), "Never Cross A Highlander" is a very special and unreservedly recommended addition to community library Historical Romance collections.

Editorial Note: Lisa Rayne (https://lisarayne.com) a four-time Emma Award Winner and writes sexy contemporary and banter-laden historical romance. For all the latest news on her books, giveaways, and appearances, fans can follow her @AuthorRayne on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Cinderella and the Duke
Lydia Drake
Entangled: Amara
https://entangledpublishing.submittable.com/submit/19016/amara
9781649373144, $8.99, PB, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Cinderella-Duke-Lydia-Drake/dp/1649373147

Synopsis: The Weatherford Ball is the last chance Julia Beaumont has to escape the clutches of her horrid stepmother. Any potential husband will do be he rich, poor, and even a reasonably well-groomed walrus. But all of Julia's matrimonial chances are completely obliterated -- thanks to the actions of an infuriating and utterly rakish duke.

Gregory Carter, Duke of Ashworth, would never risk his cherished bachelorhood by flirting with marriage-starved debutantes. But one look at the luscious and refreshingly clever Julia, and he simply can't resist a stolen kiss -- scandal be damned. Then just as things start getting deliciously interesting as the lady flees leaving only a slipper behind.

And it must have been one dandy of a kiss. Because now Julia has proposed to him. After all, the lady needs a husband, and this roguish duke will certainly do. It's simply a matter of making him the perfect scandalous offer!

Critique: All the more impressive when considering that "Cinderella and the Duke" is author Lydia Drake's debut as a novelist. Of special appeal to fans of the Regency Romance genre, "Cinderella and the Duke" is a fun read from cover to cover. While very highly recommended, especially for community library Romance Fiction collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated Regency Romance (and Cinderella) fans that "Cinderella and the Duke" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $5.99).

Editorial Note: Lydia Drake (https://tantor.com/author/lydia-drake.html) is a reader of all things romance and a drinker of all the tea. A New Jersey resident, her favorite activities include taking the train to New York City, scouring used bookstores, spending time with her family, and wrangling her hyperactive cockapoo puppy. She loves talking romance with her fans. She can be followed on Instagram: the_lydia_drake


The Mystery/Suspense Shelf

Holmes Coming
Kenneth Johnson
Blackstone Publishing
31 Mistletoe Road, Ashland, OR 97520
www.blackstoneaudio.com
9798200706884, $25.99, HC, 350pp

https://www.amazon.com/Holmes-Coming-Kenneth-Johnson/dp/B09QHN7DW3

Synopsis: With the publication of "Holmes Coming", Dr. Amy Winslow tells the following story: In foggy, nighttime San Francisco a jogging SFPD captain is savagely attacked by a Bengal tiger which then vanishes. In her ER, Amy labors unsuccessfully to save the captain's life, then consoles his aggrieved closest friend, Lt. Luis Ortega. Neither suspects their lives will intertwine in a life-or-death mystery.

The next day, checking on former patient Mrs. Hudson at her Victorian house isolated in Marin County's forest, Amy discovers in the cellar a secret, cobweb-covered 1899 electrochemical laboratory containing a Jules Verne-esque steam-punk sarcophagus out of which springs a wild-eyed, half-mummified, crypt-keeper-like man who injects himself with something before falling dead at her feet. Amy barely revives him.

He claims to be a real-life Victorian master chemist and detective named Holmes, who allowed Conan Doyle to write stories based on his cases, though was slightly annoyed when Doyle changed his real first name to the catchier Sherlock. Becoming uninspired by 1890s crime, Holmes devised this method to hibernate for a century to investigate future mysteries.

Amy assumes he's a lunatic. His Scotland Yard identity papers were stolen while he slept, so it takes her a while to realize his amazing story is true.

Respectably handsome when cleaned up, Holmes is still the same brash, egoistic, uber-English, cocaine-addicted, non-feminist genius (but now a century out of sync) so his still-brilliant deductions are sometimes laughingly or dangerously wrong. Holmes and Amy, his reluctant new Watson, find themselves unexpectedly attracted to each other while perilously involved in reclaiming his proof of identity, aided by cybersavvy street teen Zapper. It's all connected to the horrific death-by-tiger, only the first of several bizarre, mystifying murders being committed by an exquisitely fiendish descendant of Holmes' Victorian archenemy, Professor Moriarty.

Critique: The tone of "Holmes Coming" by novelist Kenneth Johnson is an iconic blending of Edwardian Era science fiction and the deductive mystery solving Sherlock Holmes, blended with a refreshing twist of fish-out-of-water humor and a surprising spark of genuine romance. A 'must' for the legions of Sherlock Holmes fans and available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798200706037, $31.95, CD), "Holmes Coming" is an unabashedly recommended addition to community library collections.

Editorial Note: Kenneth Johnson (www.KennethJohnson.us) is the author of numerous books including The Man of Legends, The Darwin Variant, V The Second Generation. He is a successful writer-producer-director of film and TV. Creator of the critically acclaimed landmark TV miniseries V, Kenneth also produced The Six Million Dollar Man and created such iconic Emmy-winning series as The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, and Alien Nation. Recipient of multiple Saturn Awards from the Academy of Science Fiction. He can be followed on Facebook at: www.Facebook.com/KennethJohnsonAuthor

Doomed Legacy
Matt Coyle
Oceanview Publishing
1620 Main Street, Suite 11, Sarasota, FL 34236
www.oceanviewpub.com
9781608094790, $27.95, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Doomed-Legacy-9-Rick-Cahill/dp/1608094790

Synopsis: Private investigator Rick Cahill has been running from his past and chasing the truth his whole life. But his past is relentless -- and so is his CTE, a disease caused by repeated head traumas that has attacked his body and his mind. As his CTE progresses, he realizes that the disease not only threatens his life but also endangers his family's wellbeing.

As Rick struggles to keep his family together, he does a favor for Sara Bhandari, a business contact. Then, Sara is murdered, and the police believe her to be yet another victim of a serial rapist who has been terrorizing greater San Diego. But Rick has reason to question their theory. Determined to find the truth at any cost, and against his wife's warnings, he investigates on his own.

Along the way, he bumps up against a sinister private investigative agency and a shady shell corporation that may be hiding more than company secrets. As Rick digs for the truth about Sara's death, he risks his own life and the lives of countless innocents caught in his relentless crusade. Ultimately, Rick must decide if his quest is worth the risk of losing his family forever.

Critique: Another deftly crafted suspense thriller of a private eye novel by Matt Coyle, "Doomed Legacy is the ninth in the author's Rick Cahill series and a simply riveting read from first page to last. While also available for the legions of Matt Coyle fans in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49), "Doomed Legacy" is an especially recommended and welcome addition to community library Contemporary Mystery/Suspense collections.

Editorial Note: While all of the novels in the Rick Cahill PI Crime Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is: Yesterday's Echo; Night Tremors; Dark Fissures; Blood Truth; Wrong Light; Lost Tomorrows; Blind Vigil; Last Redemption; Doomed Legacy.

Bleeding Heart Yard
Elly Griffiths
Mariner Books
www.marinerbooks.com
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
www.blackstoneaudio.com
9780063289277, $27.99, HC, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Bleeding-Heart-Yard-Elly-Griffiths/dp/006328927X

Synopsis: When Cassie Fitzgerald was at school in the late 90s, she and her friends killed a fellow student. Almost twenty years later, Cassie is a happily married mother who loves her job -- as a police officer. She closely guards the secret she has all but erased from her memory.

One day her husband finally persuades her to go to a school reunion. Cassie catches up with her high-achieving old friends from the Manor Park School -- among them two politicians, a rock star, and a famous actress. But then, shockingly, one of them, Garfield Rice, is found dead in the school bathroom, supposedly from a drug overdose. As Garfield was an eminent (and controversial) MP and the investigation is high profile, it's headed by Cassie's new boss, DI Harbinder Kaur, freshly promoted and newly arrived in London. The trouble is, Cassie can't shake the feeling that one of them has killed again.

Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies? It's in Cassie's interest to skew the investigation so that it looks like it has nothing to do with Manor Park and she seems to be succeeding. Until someone else from the reunion is found dead in Bleeding Heart Yard!

Critique: Of special appeal to fans of police procedurals, "Bleeding Heart Yard" by Elly Griffith is a riveting read from cover to cover and will prove to be a prized addition to the personal reading lists of dedicated suspense/thriller fans and community library Contemporary British Mystery collections. It should be noted that "Bleeding Heart Yard" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212222587, $41.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Elly Griffiths (https://ellygriffiths.co.uk) is the author of the Ruth Galloway and Brighton mystery series, as well as the standalone novels The Stranger Diaries, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and The Postscript Murders. She is also the recipient of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award and the Mary Higgins Clark Award.

A Streetcar Named Murder
T. G. Herren
Crooked Lane Books
2 Park Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10016
www.crookedlanebooks.com
9781639101320, $28.99, HC, 296pp

https://www.amazon.com/Streetcar-Named-Murder-Orleans-Mystery/dp/1639101322

Synopsis: When the mysterious letter arrives by courier, Valerie Cooper doesn't know what to make of it. She's become the beneficiary of her late husband's estranged uncle's will (a man she never knew) and inherited a majority partnership in the family's company, New Orleans Fine Antiques. Valerie knows nothing about antiques, but she decides to learn the business and become an active partner. She's also got her hands full fending off Collette, a woman who wants to sell the huge old house in the Irish Channel neighborhood that Valerie and her husband had painstakingly renovated.

Valerie isn't interested in selling -- but when her best friend Lauren, drags her to a costume party for the women's Mardi Gras club, the Krewe of Athena, she stumbles over Collette's body, a jeweled dagger sticking out of her chest. In a rush of panic, Valerie recognizes the dagger from her shop -- and before she knows it, she's become murder suspect number one.

Egged on by Lauren, she starts digging into Collette's business dealings, and the deeper she digs, the dirtier it gets. Now all fingers are pointing at Valerie. In a desperate bid to clear her name, Valerie frantically tries to find who could have gotten hold of the dagger. But among a cadre of guests in full costume, it could be impossible to find the thief -- and unmask the real killer.

Critique: A skilled veteran of the cozy mystery genre, T. G. Herren once again demonstrates her originality anf flair for writing 'whodunnit' novels featuring an amateur sleuth caught up in a web of circumstances. The result is an original and fun read from first page to last. While also available for the personal reading lists of dedicated cozy mystery fans in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Dreamscape Media, 9781666622102, $22.99, CD), "A Streetcar Named Murder" is a strongly recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections.

Editorial Note: T.G. Herren (https://crookedlanebooks.com/t-g-herren) is the pen name of an award-winning author who has published over thirty-five books and over fifty short stories under various names. A long-time resident of New Orleans, where every day is an Anything Can Happen Day, he has also worked as a sports and fitness journalist and an editor and has spent far too many years working in the airline industry.

Death in the Margins
Victoria Gilbert
Crooked Lane Books
2 Park Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10016
www.crookedlanebooks.com
9781639101306, $28.99, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Margins-Ridge-Library-Mystery/dp/1639101306

Synopsis: It's early summer, and while Richard Muir and his dance partner, Karla, are preparing their new choreographic piece, Richard's wife, Amy, is gathering the dance's source materials. Based on folktales and the music of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the production is set to premiere at an old cinema that has been converted to a theater. But when dancer Meredith Fox (Richard's former fiance) is found dead backstage, Amy is once again propelled into a murder case that threatens the careers and lives of those she loves.

After Amy teams up with Chief Deputy Brad Tucker and the sheriff's department to discover the killer, they find that there's no shortage of suspects: Meredith's wealthy ex-husband, several fellow dancers, a romantically spurned accompanist, and others whom the talented but haughty dancer dismissed or betrayed over the years.

With Richard and Karla's help, and information gleaned from locals who know a wealth of small-town secrets, Amy desperately tries to unveil the killer before the premiere. But she's pursuing a ruthless murderer who's willing to kill again - and who might just be waiting for Amy in the wings.

Critique: Another fully entertaining cozy mystery by an expert in the genre, "Death in the Margins" showcases author Victoria Gilbert's enviable expertise as a novelist who has a genuine flair for originality, deftly crafted characters, and a narrative driven storytelling style that keeps her readers fully engaged from first page to last. Of special attraction to fans of 'whodunnit' novels feature amateur women sleuths, "Death in the Margins" is strongly recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted that "Death in the Margins" is also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99).

Editorial Note: Victoria Gilbert (https://cozy-mystery.com/victoria-gilbert.html) turned her early obsession with reading into a dual career as an author and librarian. Victoria has worked as a reference librarian, research librarian, and library director. he is a also member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.

Peril in Paris
Rhys Bowen
Berkley Prime Crime
c/o Penguin Group (USA)
www.penguin.com
9780593437858, $27.00, HC, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Peril-Paris-Royal-Spyness-Mystery/dp/0593437853

Synopsis: A pregnant Lady Georgiana Rannoch and her dashing husband, Darcy, are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their bundle of joy, but an unexpected trip to Paris thrusts them straight into a tangled web of international intrigue in "Peril In Paris", an all-new mystery in the 'Royal Spyness Mystery' series from accomplished novelist Rhys Bowen.

Critique: With her usual flair for originality and the kind of storytelling skill set that continues to distinguish novelist Rhys Bowne, "Peril In Paris" is a deftly crafted and inherently riveting read for her legions of fans. While also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99), "Peril In Paris" is an exceptional and unreservedly recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections.

Editorial Note: Rhys Bowen (https://rhysbowen.com) is the New York Times bestselling author of two historical mystery series, "In Farleigh Field" and "The Tuscan Child", as well as three other historical novels.

Sinister Graves
Marcie R. Rendon
Soho Crime
c/o Soho Press
853 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
www.sohopress.com
9781641293839, $27.95, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Sinister-Graves-Cash-Blackbear-Mystery/dp/1641293837

Synopsis: A snowmelt has sent floodwaters down to the fields of the Red River Valley, dragging the body of an unidentified Native woman into the town of Ada. The only evidence the medical examiner recovers is a torn piece of paper inside her bra: a hymnal written in English and Ojibwe.

Cash Blackbear, a 19-year-old Ojibwe woman, sometimes helps Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, on his investigations. Now she knows her search for justice for this anonymous victim will take her to the White Earth Reservation, a place she once called home.

When Cash happens upon two small graves in the yard of a rural, "speak-in-tongues kinda church", Cash is pulled into the lives of the malevolent pastor and his troubled wife while yet another Native woman dies in a mysterious manner.

Critique: A deftly crafted 'whodunnit' novel, "Sinister Graves" by Marcie R. Rendon will have a special and particular appeal to readers with an interest in a Native American murder mystery. A riveting read from start to finish, "Sinister Graves" is an especially recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated mystery buffs that "Sinister Graves" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note: Marcie R. Rendon (https://www.marcierendon.com) is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, a Pinckley Prize-winning author, playwright, poet, freelance writer, and a community arts activist. Rendon was awarded the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award for 2020. She is also a speaker on Native issues, leadership, and writing. Her second novel in her Cash Blackbear mystery series, "Girl Gone Missing", was nominated for the Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Rendon was recognized as a 50 over 50 Change-maker by Minneapolis AARP and Pollen in 2018.

The Body Falls
Andrea Carter
Oceanview Publishing
1620 Main Street, Suite 11, Sarasota, FL 34236
www.oceanviewpub.com
9781608094301, $27.95, HC, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Body-Falls-Inishowen-Mystery/dp/1608094308

Synopsis: It's April in Florida and Benedicta (Ben) O'Keeffe is enjoying balmy temperatures during the last few days of a six month stint with a U.S. law firm. A week later, she returns to Glendara, Inishowen, where a charity cycle event is taking place. The town is abuzz with excitement, but it starts to rain, causing the cyclists to postpone the start of their event and stay overnight in the town. The rain doesn't stop -- it becomes increasingly relentless, torrential.

In the middle of the night, Police Sergeant Tom Molloy is called out to Mamore Gap, where a body, dislodged from a high bank by the heavy rain, has fallen onto a passing vehicle. It is identified as Bob Jameson, a well-known charities boss and the organizer of the cycling event. Stunned, the local doctor finds evidence of a recent snakebite. Terrible weather persists and soon bridges are down and roads are impassable. Glendara is completely cut off and since there are no native snakes in Ireland, could there be a killer trapped in the community? With no help from the outside world, it's left to Molloy (with Ben's assistance) to find out who is responsible for Bob Jameson's bizarre death.

Critique: A classic 'whodunnit' of a mystery read by novelist Andrea Carter, "The Body Falls" is the fifth title in the author's simply outstanding 'Inishowen Mystery' series. Original, entertaining, and a compulsive page turner of a read from cover to cover, "The Body Falls" is enthusiastically recommended for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted that "The Body Falls" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781472131126, $14.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49)

Editorial Note: Andrea Carter (https://andreacarterbooks.com) grew up in Laois and studied law at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland, where she ran the most northerly solicitors' practice in the country. In 2006 she returned to Dublin to work as a barrister before turning to write crime novels. Carter is the author of the Inishowen Mysteries, most recently The Well of Ice and Murder at Greysbridge. Her books are published by Little, Brown in the UK, Goldmann Verlag in Germany, Oceanview in the US and will be adapted for television next summer.

Duplicity
Shawn Wilson
Oceanview Publishing
1620 Main Street, Suite 11, Sarasota, FL 34236
www.oceanviewpub.com
9781608095100, $27.95, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Duplicity-2-Brick-Kavanagh-Mystery/dp/160809510X

Synopsis: After the trauma of his last case, and after three months spent recovering in Ireland, life is looking up for newly retired homicide detective Brian (Brick) Kavanagh. Back home in Washington, D.C., a new job shows promise when he's asked to train criminology students in cold case techniques.

Then he's off to a whirlwind weekend in Chicago with Nora, an Aer Lingus flight attendant he'd met in Ireland. There he receives shocking news that his former partner's wife and twin infants have been kidnapped. Brick rushes to D.C. to support Ron, the man who's always had his back -- but as days pass, Brick questions how well he really knows this man.

Brick's cold case (the unsolved hit-and-run death of a college student) is heating up. Brick finds gaping holes in the original investigation. Is it possible diplomatic immunity granted someone a "get-out-of-jail-free card"?

Meanwhile, Ron's family tragedy unfolds in a most bizarre manner, and the escalating cold case points to D.C. corruption at the highest level. Things are getting very complicated and increasingly dangerous!

Critique: A deftly crafted and thoroughly fun read from cover to cover for any and all mystery fans, "Duplicity", the second title in author Shawn Wilson's 'Brick Kavanagh Mystery' series, is unreservedly recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Duplicity" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49).

Editorial Note: Shawn Wilson (https://shawnwilsonauthor.com) is a produced playwright and the author of the Brick Kavanagh Mystery series. "Duplicity" is her second novel following Relentless, the first of that series.

The Poison Machine
Robert J. Lloyd
Melville House
46 John Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
https://www.mhpbooks.com
9781612199757, $29.99, HC, 464pp

https://www.amazon.com/Poison-Machine-Hunt-Hooke-Novel/dp/1612199755

Synopsis: London, 1679 -- A year has passed since the sensational attempt to murder King Charles II, but London is still a viper's nest of rumored Catholic conspiracies, and of plots against them in turn. When Harry Hunt (estranged from his mentor Robert Hooke) is summoned to the remote and windswept marshes of Norfolk, he is at first relieved to get away from the place.

But in Norfolk, he finds that some Royal workers shoring up a riverbank have made a grim discovery -- the skeleton of a dwarf. Harry is able to confirm that the skeleton is that of Captain Jeffrey Hudson, a prominent member of the court once famously given to the Queen in a pie. Except no one knew Hudson was dead, because another man had been impersonating him.

The hunt for the impersonator, clearly working as a spy, will take Harry to Paris, another city bedeviled by conspiracies and intrigues, and back, with encounters along the way with a flying man and a cross-dressing swordswoman -- and to the uncovering of a plot to kill the Queen and all the Catholic members of her court. But where? When?

Critique: "The Poison Machine" is the sequel to author Robert J. Floyd's novel "The Bloodless Boy" and is an incandescent historical suspense thriller and compulsive page turner of a read. While especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of all dedicated historical mystery fans that "The Poison Machine" is also available in a paperback edition (9781685890407, $16.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note: Robert Lloyd (https://www.writersdigest.com/author/robert-lloyd) studied for a Fine Art degree, starting as a landscape painter, but while studying for MA degree in The History of Ideas that he first read Robert Hooke's diary, detailing the life and experiments of this extraordinary man. After a 20-year career as a secondary school teacher, he has returned to painting and writing. He is also the author of "The Bloodless Boy", which was selected by Publishers Weekly as a Mystery Book of the Year and The New York Times as a Best New Historical Novel of 2021.


The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf

Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree
Tor Trade
c/o Tor/Forge Books
www.tor-forge.com
9781250886088, $17.99, PB, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Lattes-Travis-Baldree/dp/1250886082

Synopsis: After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success -- not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone. But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

Critique: A laugh out loud fantasy richly laced with humor, "Legends & Lattes" is a memorable novel of 'High Fantasy and Low Stakes'. An impressively original, fun, and thoroughly entertaining read fro cover to cover, it should be noted that this paperback edition of "Legends & Lattes" by Travis Baldree also includes a very special, never-before-seen bonus story, 'Pages to Fill.' While available for the personal reading lists of all dedicated fantasy fans in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99), "Legends & Lattes" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections.

Editorial Note: Travis Baldree (https://travisbaldree.com) is a full-time audiobook narrator who has lent his voice to hundreds of stories. Before that, he spent decades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. And now with the publication of "Legends & Lattes" he has also begun to write books.

The Lost Metal
Brandon Sanderson
Tor Books
c/o Tor/Forge Books
www.tor-forge.com
9780765391193, $29.99, HC, 528pp

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Metal-Mistborn-Novel-Saga/dp/0765391198

Synopsis: For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set (with his late uncle and his sister being among their leaders) since they started kidnaping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines.

When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate (whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose) and Bilming is even more entangled.

After Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial's god, Harmony, reveals that Bilming has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set.

And Trell isn't the only factor at play from the larger Cosmere -- Marasi is recruited by offworlders with strange abilities who claim their goal is to protect Scadrial at any cost!

Wax must choose whether to set aside his rocky relationship with God and once again become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. If no one steps forward to be the hero Scadrial needs, the planet and its millions of people will come to a sudden and calamitous ruin.

Critique: Another brilliantly scripted and imaginatively original novel in Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy series 'Mistborn', "The Lost Metal" is a fun and fascinating read from first page to last. While highly recommended as a popular addition to community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists of dedicated heroic fantasy fans that "The Lost Metal" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99). It should be noted that the three previous novels comprising the 'Mistborn' series are: "Mistborn: The Final Empire"; "The Well of Ascension"' and "The Hero of Ages".

Editorial Note: Brandon Sanderson (https://www.brandonsanderson.com) teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. He is the author of such bestsellers as the Mistborn trilogy and its sequels, The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, and The Bands of Mourning; the Stormlight Archive novels The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance; and other novels, including The Rithmatist, Steelheart, and Skyward. In 2013, he won a Hugo Award for Best Novella for The Emperor's Soul, set in the world of his acclaimed first novel, Elantris. Additionally, he was chosen to complete Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time sequence.

The Prisoner of Tartarus
Richard Lee Byers
Aconyte Books
https://aconytebooks.com
9781839081576, $16.95, PB, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-Tartarus-Marvel-Legends-Asgard/dp/1839081570

Synopsis: A hero has fallen: Deprived of the mystical Gjallarhorn, his enchanted sword Holfund, his winged steed, and even his memory, Heimdall flees across the underworld of Tartarus with the minions of the dark god Pluto in pursuit. Aided only by his friend Kamorr, Heimdall must piece together the mystery of his memory loss and escape the realm of the dead. For his amnesia masks a far greater threat: The dark elf Malekith's infernal machinations have corrupted the newly created Bifrost. Racing against the clock and his own memories, Heimdall must defeat Malekith and his allies before they can use the Rainbow Bridge to destroy both Midgard and Asgard.

Critique: A part of the simply outstanding 'Legends of Asgard' series from Aconyte Books, "The Prisoner of Tartarus" by Richard lee Byers is an original, fun and exciting read from first page to last. A 'must' for the legions of Marvel Universe fans, and also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.95), "The Prisoner of Tartarus" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal and community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections.

Editorial Note: Richard Lee Byers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lee_Byers) is the author of over fifty fantasy and horror novels, including a dozen set in the Forgotten Realms universe.

Baen Books
P.O. Box 1403, Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com

Two new books from Baen are highly recommended picks for libraries seeking lasting, memorable reads.

https://www.amazon.com/Deathless-Gods-Kencyrath-P-C-Hodgell/dp/198219216X

P.C. Hodgell's Deathless Gods (9781982192167, $17.00) is a fantasy filled with intrigue and action. Jamethiel Knorth has returned from battle, but faces further struggles between political forces and administrators of the land. As she faces betrayal and danger on the home front, she confronts a heir willing to do anything to depose her house and position, including employing invisible assassins. Combine that with her charge to compete in a game which holds deadly possibilities and what results is a compelling read packed with intrigue, political twists, and a memorable character whose world shifts not from unknown but too-well-known influences at home.

https://www.amazon.com/Janus-File-Gordian-Division/dp/1982192151

David Weber and Jacob Holo's The Janus File (9781982192150, $25.00) is a Gordian Division novel about time, crime, and a human/AI partnership that involves time machines and freak accidents. Detective Isaac Cho's investigation with a new sidekick with an attraction to violence is further complicated not just by his partner, but their forced association together as a case of murder evolves to be so much more. Readers interested in lively sci-fi and investigative stories alike will find much to relish in this story.

Baen Books
P.O. Box 1403, Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Road-Simon-Green/dp/1982192216

Simon R. Green's The Dark Side of the Road (9781982192211, $16.00) is a novel of supernatural intrigue and investigation and displays Ishmael Jones's latest supernatural mystery. Ishmael is trying to stay under the radar, but an invitation to spend Christmas at his employer's mansion brings him out of his preferred darkness and into the light of a strange disappearance. Fenced in by expectations and blizzards alike, Ishmael Jones finds himself boxed in by a dangerous killer and his own limitations.

https://www.amazon.com/1824-Arkansas-War-Eric-Flint/dp/1982192178

Eric Flint's 1824: The Arkansas War (9781982192174, $17.00) provides yet another alternate history story that invites readers to rethink possibilities of "what if" were history different. A social and political crisis packed with racial strife emerges as a hybrid nation of blacks, Indian tribes, and political ambitions result in the build-up of an army in Arkansas. Familiar historical figures appear in this re-envisioned sequence of events to provide thought-provoking action that will especially attract alternate history sci-fi enthusiasts.

Both of these new novels from Baen Books are fine additions to libraries looking for stories that hold allure beyond their genre boundaries.


The Wine/Beer/Spirits Shelf

The Little Book of Whiskey Cocktails
Bryan Paiement
The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, KY 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
9780813195469, $14.95 hc / $14.20 Kindle, 136pp

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Whiskey-Cocktails/dp/0813195462

Synopsis: With the publication of "The Little Book of Whiskey Cocktails", professional bar tender Bryan Paiement shares the stories of the whiskey-making world and recipes suitable for whiskey enthusiasts of all expertise levels.

Paiement takes a practical approach to exploring the various ways in which the spirit can be mixed and enjoyed. Beginning with a brief history of whiskey, he answers many questions that even aficionados can't help but stumble over: What is the difference between "whiskey" and "whisky"? Does bourbon have to come from Kentucky? How many times does Irish whiskey need to be distilled?

Forty classic whiskey cocktail recipes and ten original recipes are showcased in this pocket-sized gift book. Each carefully curated recipe is introduced with details on the cocktail's origins and concludes with bartenders' tips for mixing the perfect concoction. Paiement also includes award-winning recipes like the Paper Plane, time-tested classics like the Old Fashioned and the Rusty Nail, and handcrafted originals like the Scotch Smash.

Adorned with a key to whiskey ware and bar tools and an extensive repertoire of jokes, Paiement brings whiskey's terminology and mixology to any home bar.

Critique: Thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "The Little Book of Whiskey Cocktails" is an ideal and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Wines/Spirits/Beer collections. It should be noted for whiskey cocktail fans, party planners, amateur and professional bar tenders that "The Little Book of Whiskey Cocktails" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.92).

Editorial Note: Bryan Paiement (https://www.kentuckypress.com/author/bryan-paiement) is a professional bartender at the Dunraven restaurant in Estes Park, Colorado. He is also the author of "Sports Bar: Cocktails and Sports Trivia".


The Christian Studies Shelf

Be Healed
Bob Schuchts
Ave Maria Press
PO Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556
www.avemariapress.com
Blackstone Audiobooks
www.blackstoneaudio.com
9781646801664, $24.95, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Be-Healed-Guide-Encountering-Powerful/dp/1646801660

Synopsis: Based on retired Catholic therapist Bob Schuchts's popular program at the John Paul II Healing Center, "Be Healed: A Guide to Encountering the Powerful Love of Jesus in Your Life" offers hope in the healing power of God through the Holy Spirit and the sacraments and incorporates elements of charismatic spirituality while being steeped in scripture and the wisdom of the Church.

Schuchts's trusted process for finding inner peace and healing is boldly Christ-centered, maintaining focus on the person of Jesus as "the life-giving and ever-present physician of our souls." Schuchts will help you recognize your brokenness and find your hope and healing in the risen Christ. Schuchts shares his own journey of healing after enduring a series of betrayals in high school including his father's infidelity, his parents' divorce, his older brother's drug addiction, and his own subsequent periods of struggle with God and faith.

"Be Healed" also includes helpful tools such as charts, tables, lists, reflection questions, and personal challenges to guide you on your own healing.

Critique: Originally published almost ten years ago and now available in a hardcover edition for a new generation of readers, "Be Healed: A Guide to Encountering the Powerful Love of Jesus in Your Life" by Bob Schuchts has established itself as the classic guide to spiritual healing. This durable hardcover edition includes a new preface from the author and is ideal for use by group leaders, individuals, and therapists. Highly recommended for personal, professional, community, church, and academic library Christian Self-Help collections, it should be noted that "Be Healed" is also available in a paperback edition (9781594714764, $16.95), in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99), and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798200475612, $34.99, CD).


The Metaphysical Studies Shelf

Chibi Tarot
Editorial Staff
Ulysses Press
PO Box 3440, Berkeley CA 94703-3440
www.ulyssespress.com
9781646043637, $14.95, Card Deck, 144pp

https://www.amazon.com/Chibi-Tarot-78-Card-Guidebook-Characters/dp/1646043634

Synopsis: With the publication of "Chibi Tarot", we can now celebrate our love of all things kawaii and fortune-telling with this charming take on the classic 78-card tarot card deck and guidebook.

The invitation of "Chibi Tarot" is to make the next step into any spiritual journey a fun one as tarot users learn how to divine the future with adorable chibi versions of traditional tarot archetypes. From the Empress to the Fool, each of the favorite Major and Minor Arcana cards get a mangafied treatment to reveal the past, future, and present.

Inspired by the classic Rider-Waite illustrations, these vibrant, beautifully designed cards and their step-by-by step guidebook will reveal a delightful tarot reading that's as cute as it is divine. Whether you're a beginner to tarot readings or a collector of fun decks like Cat Tarot and Kawaii Tarot, "Chibi Tarot" is here to make divination an entertaining experience for everyone!

Critique: Fun, whimsical, inspiring, unique, and thoroughly 'user friendly', "Chibi" is an impressively entertaining, delightfully effective, and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library Tarot Fortune Telling collections.

The Witch's Book of Numbers
Rebecca Scolnick
Hierophant Publishing
https://www.hierophantpublishing.com
Hampton Roads Publishing Company
65 Parker St., Ste. 7, Newburyport, MA 01950
www.hrpub.com
9781950253272, $23.99, PB, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Witchs-Book-Numbers-Enhance-Numerology/dp/1950253279

Synopsis: Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in words and names. When numerology is applied to a person's name, it is a form of onomancy. It is often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology and similar to divinatory arts. (Wikipedia)

With the publication of "The Witch's Book of Numbers: Enhance Your Magic with Numerology", numerology expert Rebecca Scolnick reveals how you too can apply the incredible power of numerology to amplify your magic using only pen, paper, and a simple calculator (no complex mathematics required)!

"The Witch's Book of Numbers" reveals: How to find your Significant Six (the six important numbers that reveal powerful clues to your unique path in this lifetime); How to use the ancient Magic Square technique; How to use the power of numerology to amplify and enhance your spellwork.

Whether you're a beginner witch or have years of experience, "The Witch's Book of Numbers" will deftly guide you through the history and relevance of numerology for today's practitioner, offering exercises, spellwork, correspondences, and activities all designed to help boost your practice and enrich and empower your journey as a witch.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, comprehensive, and thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "The Witch's Book of Numbers: Enhance Your Magic with Numerology" is the ideal introduction to a major Metaphysical Studies subject. Essential reading for aspiring and novice numerologists, and also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99), "The Witch's Book of Numbers: Enhance Your Magic with Numerology" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library collections.

Editorial Note: Rebecca Scolnick (https://www.rebeccascolnick.com) is an emotional witch, forever seeker, queer human lady (she/her), and professional numerologist. Her passion is helping others learn how they can harness the universal language of numbers to uncover their deepest purpose and grasp the greater themes steering our days, weeks, and years on earth.

King Solomon the Magus
Claude Lecouteux
Inner Traditions International, Ltd.
One Park Street, Rochester, VT 05767
www.innertraditions.com
9781644112434, $35.00, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/King-Solomon-Magus-Master-Traditions/dp/1644112434

Synopsis: Looking at the Solomonic magical tradition and Solomon's profound influence on esoteric traditions around the world, with the publication of "King Solomon the Magus: Master of the Djinns and Occult Traditions of East and West", Professor Claude Lecouteux reveals King Solomon not only as one of the great kings of prehistory but also as the ancient world's foremost magician and magus.

Examining the primary sources on Solomon, such as the Bible, the Koran, and the writings of Flavius Josephus, "King Solomon the Magus" explores Solomon's judgments, his explorations, his literary and scientific works (including an herbal), and his constructions beyond the eponymous temple, such as the copper city in Andalus built by the djinns and the baths of Sulayman.

"King Solomon the Magus" also covers Solomon's magical possessions, such as his famous ring and the Philosopher's Stone. Of special note is the examination of the supernatural powers granted to Solomon by his ring, which he received from the angel Gabriel, including command over animals, weather, and demons, and explores in detail Solomon's power over genies and djinns.

Following the esoteric threads hidden within the primary sources on Solomon, "King Solomon the Magus" reveals the work of Solomon the Magician, exploring his amulets, remedies, exorcisms, charms, and his influence on Arab and Western magic.

Providing illustrations of sigils, talismans, and other magic symbols related to Solomon, "King Solomon the Magus" examines the schools of Solomonic Folklore magic and works such as The Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon the King and The Hygromancy of Solomon. Also covered is the extensive presence of Solomon in folklore worldwide, including in Armenia, Israel, Malaysia, Eastern Europe, Russia, Morocco, India, Mongolia, and among the Abyssinians of Ethiopia and the Copts in Egypt -- as well as Solomon's role within the Bulgarian tradition from which the Cathars derived.

Painting an in-depth portrait of Solomon the Magician-King, "King Solomon the Magus" reveals how this legendary magus left a deep impression upon the occult, magical traditions, and philosophies of the ancient world that can still be felt to this day.

Critique: An inherently fascinating, informative, and thought-provoking read from cover to cover, "King Solomon the Magus: Master of the Djinns and Occult Traditions of East and West" by Professor Claude Lecouteux is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Metaphysical Studies collections, and Occult/Magic Studies supplemental curriculum studies lists. A truly seminal work of research and scholarship, "King Solomon the Magus: Master of the Djinns and Occult Traditions of East and West" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.99).

Editorial Note: Claude Lecouteux (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Lecouteux) is a Professor Emeritus of Medieval Literature and Civilization at the Sorbonne. He is the author of numerous books on medieval beliefs and magic, including The Pagan Book of the Dead and Dictionary of Ancient Magic Words and Spells.


The Travel Shelf

The Serpent Coiled in Naples
Marius Kociejowski
Haus Publishing
https://hauspublishing.com
c/o The University of Chicago Press (dist.)
https://press.uchicago.edu
9781909961807, $27.95, HC, 464pp

https://www.amazon.com/Serpent-Coiled-Naples-Armchair-Traveller/dp/1909961817

Synopsis: In recent years the city of Naples has become, for better or worse, the new destination in Italy. While many of its more unusual features are on display for all to see, the stories behind them remain largely hidden.

"The Serpent Coiled in Nables" is author Marius Kociejowski's travelogue portrait of this baffling city where the serpent can be many things: Vesuvius, the mafia-like Camorra, the outlying Phlegrean Fields (which, geologically speaking, constitute the second most dangerous area on the planet). It is all these things that have, at one time or another, put paid to the higher aspirations of Neapolitans themselves.

Naples is simultaneously the city of light, sometimes blindingly so, and the city of darkness, although often the stuff of cliche. The boundary that separates death from life is porous in the extreme: the dead inhabit the world of the living and vice versa. "The Serpent Coiled in Naples" is a travelogue, a meditation on mortality, a tribute to an ancient community in modern times, and so much else besides.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "The Serpent Coiled in Naples" will have a very strong appeal to readers with an interest in Italian travel and history. While highly recommended for both community and academic library Travel Guide & Travelogue collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Serpent Coiled in Naples" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $20.99).

Editorial Note: Marius Kociejowski (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_Kociejowski) is a poet, essayist and travel writer. He is the author of several books, including The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool: A Syrian Journey and The Pigeon Wars of Damascus.


The Audiobook Shelf

The American Indians and Their Music
Frances Densmore, author
Shaun Taylor-Corbett, narrator
Brilliance Audio
www.brillianceaudio.com
9781799784807, $9.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/American-Indians-Their-Music-AmazonClassics/dp/1799784800

Synopsis: During the early twentieth century, the American government's standing expectation was that Native Americans should be adopting Western customs. In the face of that prospect, anthropologist and musicologist Frances Theresa Densmore sought to preserve Native American culture -- particularly as it was expressed through music. In her extensive writings on Native American lifestyles, music, and history, Densmore opened a window onto American experiences that had been obscured by stereotypes, and encouraged a better appreciation of the varied traditions of tribes nationwide. In the various essays collected here (covering everything from dances and games to love songs and instruments) Densmore overturned the misrepresentation of a rich heritage and shared the vital importance of music as a gateway to knowledge and understanding.

Critique: An 'Amazon Classic' audio book production from Brilliance Audio, this complete and unabridged edition features the vocal narrative skills of Shaun Taylor-Corbert whose superbly crafted reading of "The American Indians And Their Music" is very highly recommended for personal, family, highschool, community, college, and university library audio book collections in general, and supplemental Native American Studies curriculum lists in particular. (MP3-CD, 1 disc, 3 Hours, 31 Minutes).

Editorial Note #1: Frances Theresa Densmore (1867 - 1957) was an American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist born in Red Wing, Minnesota. After studying music at Oberlin College, she devoted her life to recording and transcribing Native American music and documenting its cultural significance. Collecting thousands of recordings, Densmore worked with tribes nationwide, including the Chippewa, Sioux, Pawnee, Seminole, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Pueblo, and many more. Throughout her career, she wrote monographs for the Smithsonian Institute; contributed to American Anthropologist, among other journals; and, in 1926, published The American Indians and Their Music.

Editorial Note #2: An American actor, singer and writer, Shaun Michael Taylor-Corbett (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Taylor-Corbett) is the son of choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett and Music Executive Michael Corbett. Shaun Michael Taylor-Corbett is of Native American descent.

The Raven Song
Luanne G. Smith, author
Susannah Jones, narrator
Brilliance Audio
www.brillianceaudio.com
9781713668725, $14.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/Raven-Song-Novel-Conspiracy-Magic/dp/1713668726

Synopsis: Forever untangling the branches of her strange family tree, Edwina Blackwood is at a turning point. Her parents' disappearances still strike her as unaccountably odd. Her sister's questionable life and untimely death have left her shaken. Spellfire has transformed her home and livelihood to ash. And now a devious stalker is on her trail. With supernatural detective Ian Cameron by her side, Edwina can't get out of London fast enough.

Gaining safe passage, she finds refuge with Sir Henry Elvanfoot, famed wizard of the north, and is promised protection from ill-aimed curses. But in this unfamiliar city of fair folk and witches, where the veil between Earth and the Otherworld is about to be lifted, something is amiss. How else to explain Edwina's sudden prophetic visions? Or the fear that surviving whoever pursues her will require the powers of an ancient bloodline she's only beginning to comprehend?

Whatever destiny awaits, it's Edwina's to finally control. Where will it lead? Only time, cunning, and magic (in this world or the Other) will tell.

Critique: Now brought to life in a vivid and memorable 'theatre of the mind' experience by narrator Susannah Jones' remarkable vocal talents, this complete and unabridged audio book production from Brilliance Audio Luanne G. Smith's fantasy novel "The Raven Song" is an especially welcome and recommended addition to personal and community library audio book collections. (MP3-CD, 1 disc, 8 Hours, 47 Minutes).

Editorial Note #1: Luanne G. Smith (www.luannegsmith.com) is also the author of The Raven Spell, The Vine Witch, The Glamourist, and The Conjurer.

Editorial Note #2: Susannah Jones (https://www.beeaudio.com/narrator/susannah-jones) is an audiobook narrator, writer and actress with over 150 books under her own name and her pseudonym.

A Christmas Candy Killing
Christina Romeril, author
Bernadette Dunne, narrator
Dreamscape Media
https://www.dreamscapepublishing.com
9781666616675, $22.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Candy-Killing-Christina-Romeril/dp/1666616672

Synopsis: Identical twin sisters Alex and Hannah are the owners of Murder and Mayhem, a mystery bookshop that sells their famous poison-themed Killer Chocolates. But now, there's a real killer in their midst.

Shortly before Christmas, their septuagenarian neighbor, Jane, confides to Alex that a murderer from a true-crime show has taken up residence in the village. Unfortunately, she's also shared her suspicions with town gossip Netta. The next morning, Alex shows up at Jane's house to watch the show, but instead she discovers Jane's body, with a box of Killer Chocolates nearby.

The sheriff quickly zeroes in on two suspects: Alex, a beneficiary in Jane's will, and Zack, a handyman who was seen leaving the crime scene. But Alex maintains her innocence and sets out to draft a list of other potential suspects -- townsfolk who'd recently been seen arguing with Jane. When Alex gets hold of Jane's journal, she begins to understand the truth. But a bearer of ill tidings is arriving early this year -- and Alex just might not make it to Christmas.

Critique: One of novelist Christina Romeril's classic cozy mysteries, "A Christmas Candy Killing" is superbly performed by the vocal talents of Bernadette Dunne in this complete and unabridged MP3-CD edition from Dreamscape Press. A 'must' for all dedicated cozy mystery fans, "A Christmas Candy Killing" is unreservedly recommended for both personal and community library audio book collections.

Editorial Note #1: Christina Romeril (https://christinaromeril.com) is a cozy-mystery writer. She grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, and has been devouring stacks of books since third grade when the Trixie Belden series sparked her love of the genre.

Editorial Note #2: Bernadette Dunne (http://www.bernadettedunne.com) has been honored to narrate the work of some of the finest fiction and nonfiction writers of our time, including Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, and Sandra Day O'Connor. The winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and a three-time Audie Award nominee, she has voiced countless bestsellers, including Memoirs of a Geisha, The Devil Wears Prada, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She studied at The Royal National Theater and lives in New York.

When Life Gives You Vampires
Gloria Duke, author
Meg Sylvan, narrator
Dreamscape Media
https://www.dreamscapepublishing.com
9781666614466, $22.99, MP3-CD

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-life-gives-you-vampires-gloria-duke/1140788894

Synopsis: Twenty-five-year-old Lily Baines is used to waking up hungover, overweight, and underemployed. Waking up with fangs? Not so much. But when a little light necking has more serious consequences than she ever imagined, Lily is determined to get to the bottom of it or die (again) trying.

Tristan hadn't meant to turn Lily (it's against vampire law) but now that she's here, they need to team up to save both their hides. They strike an uneasy truce, fending off other vampires, Lily's work-rival-turned-slayer, and her mother's tone-deaf romance and fitness advice -- all while Lily faces down her insecurities about the fact that she lives in a diet-obsessed world with a body that will never age, never die, and never change.

Falling for her maddeningly gorgeous sire? Easy. Surviving an ancient vampire Master determined to see her twice-dead? Piece of cake. But can Lily ever truly learn to love the woman she'll be forevermore?

Critique: Fun, funny, and a vampire fans delight from beginning to end, "When Life Gives You Vampires" by Gloria Duke is exceptionally well narrated in a superb vocal performance by Meg Sylvan. This complete and unabridged MP3-CD edition from Dreamscape Media is a 'must' for personal and community library audio book collections.

On Good Authority
Briana Una McGuckin, author
Lauren Irwin, narrator
Brilliance Audio
www.brillianceaudio.com
9781713667827, $14.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Authority-Novel-Suspense/dp/1713667827

Synopsis: When lady's maid Marian Osley and footman Valentine Hobbs assume their positions at the cliff-top estate of Valor Rise, they already share a history. Raised together as paupers in a London workhouse, they escaped through games of imaginary crimes and sublime punishment. Now they've been unexpectedly reunited -- in subservience to the brooding Wythe Bornholdt and his frail wife, Diana. A master and mistress with their own dark secrets.

In private, Marian and Valentine return to their playful and addictive games -- now tinged with BDSM. But when lecherous Wythe sees something he desires in Marian, he turns the pair's diversions violently against them. The line between servitude and bondage is drawn, and the dynamics of dominance and submission will shift in this sensually charged story of Gothic suspense.

Critique: The stuff of which BBC movies are made, author Briana Una McGuckin's historical thriller "On Good Authority" is now available as a riveting, complete and unabridged audio book ably and effectively narrated by an outstanding vocal performance by Lauren Irwin. In a 1 disc MP3-CD edition from Brilliance Audio, "On Good Authority" is an ideal addition to personal and community library audio book collections.

Editorial Note: Briana Una McGuckin writes Gothic Romance/Romantic Suspense and fabulist fiction. Her work appears in the Stoker-nominated Not All Monsters, an anthology of women's horror (Rooster Republic), as well as The Arcanist, Breath & Shadow, and Hides the Dark Tower (Pole-to-Pole Publishing). She has an MFA from Western Connecticut State University. She can be followed on Twitter @BrianaUna, and has a blog at: http://brianaunamcguckin.com

Beautiful Graves
L. J. Shen, author
Cassandra Campbell, narrator
Brilliance Audio
www.brillianceaudio.com
9781799790228, $14.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Graves-L-J-Shen/dp/1799790223

Synopsis: They say first loves are oftentimes the end of one's innocence. Those words couldn't ring truer for Everlynne Lawson, whose first brush with romance came with a heartbreak and the thing that seems to follow her everywhere she goes -- Death.

After a great tragedy, Everlynne loses all she cares about -- her dreams, her family, and her soulmate, Joe. Guilt-ridden, Everlynne decides to isolate herself in Salem, Massachusetts. A shell of the woman she once was, she takes her days one at a time, careful not to allow herself the joy she believes others in her life were robbed of.

But when the mysterious, handsome Dominic storms into her life, it becomes more difficult to stay in solitude. Dominic is different: adventurous, joyous, with lust for life and a passion to make her his. Everlynne is on the cusp of reinventing herself once again when the old wounds of her past are resurrected, rawer than ever.

There is nothing worse than being in love with two men. Especially when one of them hates you!

Critique: A unique, clever, fascinating, engaging, and with a special appeal to fans of angst riddled contemporary romance, L. J. Shen's new novel, "Beautiful Graves" is brought to life in the mind's eye by the superbly performed narration of Cassandra Campbell in this Brilliance Audio complete and unabridged MP3-CD edition. With a running time of 11 Hours 46 Minutes, "Beautiful Graves" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal and community library audio book collections.

Editorial Note #1: L. J. Shen (www.authorljshen.com) is a an author of contemporary, new adult, and young adult romance. Her books have been sold in twenty different countries. She can be followed on Instagram (@authorljshen), or her Facebook group at http://goo.gl/QZJ0NC. Fans can sign up for her newsletter at https://bit.ly/3LhsIrb, and text SHEN to 313131 to get new release alerts (United States only).

Editorial Note #2: Cassandra Campbell has hundreds of audiobook credits to her name each one with refreshing clarity and honesty. (https://www.audible.com/ep/narrator-cassandra-campbell).

The Last Hill
Bob Drury, author
Tom Clavin, illustrator
George Newbern, narrator
Macmillan Audio
www.macmillanaudio.com
9781250866738, $39.99, CD

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Hill-Ranger-Battalion-Defined/dp/1250866731

Synopsis: In the European Theatre of World War II, "Rudder's Rangers" was the most elite and experienced attack unit the American Army had. In December 1944, they would be the spearhead into Germany, taking the war into Hitler's homeland at last. Their colonel was given this objective: Take Hill 400. The second objective: Hold Hill 400. To the last man, if necessary. The battle-hardened battalion had no idea that the German Volks-Grenadiers, who greatly outnumbered the Rangers, had been given the exact same orders. The clash of the two determined forces was one of the bloodiest and costly ones of World War II.

Castle Hill, the imposing 400-foot mini-mountain the grunts simply called Hill 400, was the gateway to still-powerful Nazi Germany. Even an entire division had been repulsed by the desperate defenders. The Allies had to have it to drive a dagger into Germany's heart. Hitler had to hold onto it because hidden behind it was the massive army of men and machines poised to smash their way through Allied lines in the Battle of the Bulge.

The stalemate could not continue. For Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and his top brass, there was only one solution: Send in the Rangers. After two days, when they were finally relieved, only 16 Rangers remained to stagger down from the top of Hill 400. The Last Hill is filled with unforgettable action and characters -- a gripping, finely detailed saga of what the survivors of the battalion would call "our longest day."

Critique: Unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library audio book and WWI military history collections, this complete and unabridged audio book edition of Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's "The Last Hill" from Macmillan Audio is brilliantly narrated by the vocal performance of narrator George Newbern who brings this bit of World War II history vividly to life as a true 'theatre of the mind' production.

Editorial Note #1: Bob Drury (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Drury) is the recipient of several national journalism awards, a three-time National Magazine Award finalist, as well as a Pulitzer Prize nominee. Drury honed his investigative skills writing for all four New York City newspapers as well as a variety of national publications. His journalism career has arced from sports to crime to adventure travel to foreign correspondence. He is also the author, co-author, or editor of ten non-fiction books, including Blood and Treasure, Valley Forge, and Lucky 666.

Editorial Note #2: Tom Clavin (https://us.macmillan.com/author/tomclavin) has worked as a newspaper editor, magazine writer, TV and radio commentator, and a reporter for The New York Times. He has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and National Newspaper Association. His books include the Frontier Lawmen trilogy (Wild Bill, Dodge City, and Tombstone) as well as Blood and Treasure with coauthor Bob Drury.

Yule Be Sorry
Kim M. Watt, author
Patricia Gallimore, narrator
Isis Audio
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print, Inc.
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781399124331, $98.95, MP3-CD

https://www.ulverscroft.com/store/us/search/Yule%20Be%20Sorry

Synopsis: One should never meddle in the affairs of dragons, but someone has been doing just that. They've been making imitation dragon scale baubles that are nothing short of lethal, and kidnapping delivery drivers all over the Yorkshire Dales. They've also been leaving behind some distinctly dragon-ish traces.

Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly Dragons, is hot on the trail - or would be, if he wasn't having certain political problems at home. That leaves Alice and Miriam to track down the real culprits, rescue the hostages, and salvage Mortimer's bauble reputation, all while misleading the police regarding the of existence of dragons, and hopefully without being blown up by unexpectedly aggressive Christmas decorations in the process. Luckily they have the full resources of the Toot Hansell Women's Institute at their disposal. They'll need it.

And then there's the small question of who stole all the Christmas turkeys...

Dragons, the Women's Institute, and one very suspicious cat. What could possibly go wrong?

Yule Be Sorry is the perfect Christmas cozy mystery for anyone who likes their crime funny, dragonish, and full of cake and friendship.

Critique: A festive tale of kidnapping, explosions, & stolen turkeys, "Yule Be Sorry" is Book 2 of the Beaufort Scales Cozy Mysteries by novelist Kim M. Watt. This Isis Audio edition is a complete and unabridged production featuring the impressively entertaining narrative storytelling skills of Patricia Gallimore. With a running time of 11 Hours 5 Minutes, (and featuring dragons!) "Yule Be Sorry" is especially recommended to fans of the Cozy Mystery genre and community library audio book collections.

Editorial Note #1: Kim M. Watt (https://kmwatt.com) is renowned for her originality, humor, and narrative storytelling skills. A listing of her books can be found at https://kmwatt.com/books

Editorial Note #2: There is a complete listing of audio books narrated by Patricia Gallimore at https://www.audiobooks.com/browse/narrator/3722/patricia-gallimore

Murder in Tuscany
T. A. Williams, author
Simon Mattachs, narrator
Boldwood
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print, Inc.
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781804832233, $88.95, MP3-CD

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-in-tuscany-t-a-williams/1142057304?ean=9781804832233

Synopsis: A remote retreat nestled high in the Tuscan hill, Villa Volpone is home to renowned crime writer Jonah Moore and his creative writing course. It's also the last place retired DCI Dan Armstrong expected to spend his retirement! Dan's no writer, but maybe this break will help him to think about the next chapter in his own life story?

Then there is a gruesome murder only days into the course. Jonah Moore is found stabbed to death with his award-winning silver dagger! And Dan finds himself pulled out of retirement with a killer to catch.

There are eleven possible suspects (the other guests) each of whom seem shocked by Jonah's death. But Dan knows that one of them must be lying. And as he and Italian Commissario Virgilio Pisano begin to investigate it quickly becomes clear that everyone at Villa Volpone has secrets to hide. But can Dan discover who the murderer is before they strike again?

Critique: "Murder in Tuscany" is a gripping new murder mystery series launched by novelist T.A. Williams that is brought vividly to life in a true 'theatre of the mind' experience for dedicated fans of the Cozy Mystery genre by the narrative skills of Simon Mattacks. 7 hours and 15 minutes of pure entertainment, this MP3-CD audio book edition of "Murder in Tuscany" will prove a prized and appreciation addition to personal and community library audio book collections.

Editorial Note #1: An accomplished novelist, there is a complete listing of books by T. A. Williams at https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/t-a-williams

Editorial Note #2: Simon Mattacks (https://www.simonmattacks.com) has been and continues to be a prominent voiceover actor/performer for more than 30 years.

The Wrong Bridesmaid
Lauren Landish, author
C.J. Bloom & Teddy Hamilton, narrators
Brilliance Audio
www.brillianceaudio.com
9781799798897, $14.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/Wrong-Bridesmaid-Lauren-Landish/dp/1799798895

Synopsis: Wyatt Ford hightailed it out of Cold Springs to get away from his influential family and the unwanted privilege that came with it. Returning for his brother's wedding dredges up every reason he left. One unexpected bright spot: a curvy knockout who slings burgers, hustles pool -- and hates the last name Ford.

Hazel Sullivan is fiercely independent and happy to be maid of honor for her best friend's wedding, but she isn't looking for romance. Especially not with a man whose family is dividing her town into a battleground with their development plans. Fighting the family is easy. Fighting Wyatt? Not so much. Why does the enemy have to be so drop-dead gorgeous?

The sparks that fly between Hazel and Wyatt might start out as combat, but one kiss and it's total surrender. How is a happy ever after even possible for two people with so little in common? Except, of course, for an overwhelming attraction and that growing temptation to say "I do" themselves.

Critique: Complete and unabridged, this audio book production of "The Wrong Brides Maid" from Brilliance Audio features romance author Lauren Landish's fun and funny novel to life thorough the dual (and dueling) narrative skills of C.J. Bloom and Teddy Hamilton. Providing 9 Hours and 29 Minutes of pure entertainment in a 1 disc MP3-CD format, "The Wrong Brides Maid" will be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to personal and community library audio book collections.

Editorial Note #1: Lauren Landish (www.laurenlandish.com) writes books that have garnered praise from her legion of readers and is the author of the Truth or Dare series, the Irresistible Bachelors series, and the Bennett Boys Ranch books. She can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lauren.landish.

Editorial Note #2: C.J. Bloom (https://www.silvertonagency.com/narrator-samples/cj-bloom) is an actress and voice-over artist. She can be heard on commercials, video games, and promos. She comes to narration with a passion for performance along with the capability to span several genres, from romance to children's literature and thrillers.

Editorial Note #3: Teddy Hamilton (https://www.facebook.com/TeddyHamiltonIII) is a seasoned and highly skilled romantic audio book narrator with a dreamy and the steamy -- and swoon worthy.

Murder at Black Oaks
Phillip Margolin, author
Therese Plummer, narrator
Macmillan Audio
www.macmillanaudio.com
9781250867100, $29.99, CD

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Black-Oaks-Robin-Lockwood/dp/125086710X

Synopsis: Defense Attorney Robin Lockwood is summoned by retired District Attorney Francis Melville to meet with him at Black Oaks, the manor he owns up in the Oregon mountains. The manor has an interesting history -- originally built in 1628 in England, there's a murderous legend and curse attached to the mansion. Melville, however, wants Lockwood's help in a legal matter - righting a wrongful conviction from his days as a DA.

A young man, Jose Alvarez, was convicted of murdering his girlfriend only for Melville, years later when in private practice, to have a client of his admit to the murder and to framing the man Melville convicted. Unable to reveal what he knew due to attorney client confidence, Melville now wants Lockwood's help in getting that conviction overturned.

Successful in their efforts, Melville invites Lockwood up to Black Oaks for a celebration. Lockwood finds herself among an odd group of invitees -- including the bitter, newly released, Alvarez. When Melville is found murdered, with a knife connected to the original curse, Lockwood finds herself faced with a conundrum -- who is the murder among them and how to stop them before there's another victim!

Critique: Philip Margolin is a true master of the suspense thriller genre and the impressive narrative skills of storyteller Therese Plummer does full justice in bringing to life all of the deftly crafted characters embedded in the this fascinating 'whodunnit' mystery. Complete and unabridged on 5 CDs, "Murder at Black Oaks" is an especially recommended addition to personal and community library audio book and mystery/suspense collections.

Santa's Little Yelpers
David Rosenfelt, author
Grover Gardner, narrator
Macmillan Audio
www.macmillanaudio.com
9781250867087, $29.99, CD

https://www.amazon.com/Santas-Little-Yelpers-Carpenter-Novel/dp/1250867088

Synopsis: 'Tis the season in Paterson, New Jersey: Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever, Tara, are surrounded by holiday cheer. It's even spread to the Tara Foundation. The dog rescue organization, not used to having puppies, has their hands full with a recent litter. Eight puppies are a lot to handle, and Andy is relieved when his co-worker Chris Myers agrees to foster them.

Myers, a newer employee at the Tara Foundation, did time for a crime he swears he didn't commit. When Myers discovers a key witness against him lied on the stand, he goes to Andy to ask for representation in getting the conviction overturned. Myers thinks they can have this wrapped up by Christmas, no problem.

But when the witness is murdered, and Myers is arrested for the crime, things go from bad to worse. Suddenly, it's all elves on deck to make a list and check it twice, so they can prove Myers is innocent.

Critique: Another brilliantly plotted 'whodunnit' addition to author David Rosenfelt's 'Andy Carpenter Mystery' series, "Santa's Little Yelpers" is superbly narrated by vocal performance artist Grover Gardner. A compelling 'theatre of the mind' experience for any and all dedicated mystery buffs, this complete and unabridged audio book edition of "Santa's Little Yelpers" from Macmillan Audio is an especially recommended addition to both personal and community library audio book collections. (6 CDs).

The Brilliance of Stars
J'nell Ciesielsky, author
Areil Hanson & Callan Friesen, narrators
Brilliance Audio
www.brillianceaudio.com
9781978694941, $16.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/Brilliance-Stars-Jack-Ivy-Novel/dp/1978694946

Synopsis: Washington, DC, 1914. Ivy Olwen knows how to survive on the streets without two coins to rub together. But when destiny thrusts her into the nest of a covert agency of assassins sworn to drive back the world's darkness, she acquires a new set of lethal skills. Her education (from explosives to etiquette, sharpshooting to sabotage) is as far-reaching as the organization's missions. But it's the hours she spends among the towering bookshelves in the library and stargazing on the roof with Agent Jack Vale that make her heart fly.

Jack knew plenty of hardship before the agency refined his rough edges, transforming him into the man who never misses. But he didn't know the feeling of home until Ivy entered his world. Now, Jack's heart drums with a singular purpose: he will fight for her, fight alongside her. No matter the cost.

When the pair is sent on a seemingly simple mission to take down Russia's newest and most dangerous arms dealer (a soulless man using the Great War as an opportunity to further his own depraved agenda) they discover that no amount of training could have prepared them for a manhunt that takes them across the frozen tundra, to the Crimean Peninsula, and along the Trans-Siberian Railway -- only to discover that there is evil in the world they are just beginning to understand.

Critique: Brilliantly narrated by the vocal storytelling talents of Ariel Hansen and Callan Friesen, "The Brilliance of Stars" is the first book of an epic duology by novelist J'nell Ciesielski and fully incorporates her signature blending of thrilling adventure, glamorous espionage, and sweeping romance. With a special appeal for readers who appreciate wholesome historical war time romance, this complete and unabridged audio book edition of "The Brilliance of Stars" is strongly commended for inclusion into personal and community library collections. (12 Hours, 24 Minutes).

Editorial Note #1: An author with a passion for heart-stopping adventure and sweeping love stories, J'nell Ciesielski (https://jnellciesielski.com) weaves fresh takes into romances of times gone by. She can be followed on Instagram: @jnellciesielski and Facebook: @J'nellCiesielski

Editorial Note #2: Ariel Hanson (https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Ariel-Hansen) and Callan Friesen (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13727334) are experienced and professional voice actors.

You Were Made for This Moment
Max Lucado
Brilliance Audio
www.brillianceaudio.com
9781713637332, $26.99, MP3-CD

https://www.amazon.com/You-Were-Made-This-Moment/dp/1713637332

Synopsis: Queen Esther concealed her Jewish identity. As far as anyone knew, she was pure Persian. But then came the royal decree that would annihilate her people. She had to make some tough choices. Would she remain silent or would she speak up? Would she blend in or would she stand out? Esther could have refused. She could have cowered in fear. But she spoke up. She stood out. And God used her to save the nation. It's not hyperbole to say that her courage changed the course of history. Nor is it an overstatement to say that God can do the same with you.

Like Esther, you may be staring down a seemingly impossible situation. And what's true for Esther is true for you: deliverance will come. God will have his victory. He will rescue his people. He will right the wrongs of this world. The question is not, Will God prevail? The question is, Will you be part of the team?

With the publication of "You Were Made for This Moment: Courage for Today and Hope", pastor and author Max Lucado will help you: Reclaim your eternal identity as a citizen of heaven; Put your hope in the God of grand reversals; Cultivate courage for your challenging times; Discover your role in God's story. You don't need to become undone by tough times, you can become unleashed by our triumphant God because we were all 'made for this moment'.

Critique: Superbly performed by voice actor Ben Holland, this complete and unabridged audio book edition of "You Were Made for This Moment: Courage for Today and Hope" by Pastor Max Lucado is especially and unreservedly recommended listening for all members of the Christian community regardless of denominational affiliations. (4 Hours, 4 Minutes).

Editorial Note: Max Lucado (https://maxlucado.com) is a pastor, speaker, and bestselling author who, in his own words, "writes books for people who don't read books." He serves the people of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, and his message is for the hurting, the guilty, the lonely, and the discouraged: God loves you; let him. Known for combining poetic storytelling and homespun humor with the heart of a pastor, all of his trade books began as sermon series at Oak Hills Church, and his sermons all begin with Max asking himself this question: "What can I say on Sunday that will still matter on Monday?" He's been dubbed "America's Pastor" by Christianity Today, and "The Best Preacher in America" by Reader's Digest.


The Library CD Shelf

Shimmer: Ambient Flute from the Tank
Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy
Mystic Journey
www.mysticjourney.net
$17.00

https://mysticjourney.net/cds

Shimmer: Ambient Flute from the Tank is a beautiful, instrumental album recorded in a seven-story former water tank with acoustic reverberation of up to 40 seconds. These original compositions feature low flutes, bamboo flutes, ocarina, Mayan flute and Native American flute, as well as hand pan drums, Turkish lute, and more. A rich, ambient soundscape ideal for fostering meditation, creativity, or spiritual awakening, Shimmer: Ambient Flute from the Tank is a treasure to experience and highly recommended for both personal and public library collections. The tracks are Hanging Lake, Shimmer, And the Crickets Sing, Mother and Child, Harmonic Dance, Catch Me if You Can, Golden Temple, Farewell Miranda, Calling the Raven, Sounding the Bell, The Crossing, and Una.

A Country Boy Singing His Heart Out
Webb Pierce
Country Rewind Records
https://www.countryrewindrecords.com
$10.98 CD / $9.49 MP3

https://www.amazon.com/Country-Boy-Singing-His-Heart/dp/B0B5F8T5HX

A Country Boy Singing His Heart Out presents recordings long thought lost by American honky-tonk vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Webb Pierce (1921-1991). These classic country songs are as vivid and stirring today as they were decades past. A Country Boy Singing His Heart Out lives up to its title, and is a welcome contribution to both personal and public library country music collections. A Country Boy Singing His Heart Out also makes an excellent gift for fans of the genre, during the holidays or any day! Highly recommended. The tracks are I Ain't Never; Why Baby Why; I Don't Care; Slowly; Wondering; Memory #1; Back Street Affair; There Stands The Glass; That Heart Belongs To Me; I'm Walking The Dog; Fool, Fool, Fool; Yes, I Know Why; How Do You Talk To A Baby; Goodbye City, Goodbye Girl; and It's My Way.

Oasis: The Music of Gregg Hill
Rodney Whitaker
Origin Records
$TBA

https://open.spotify.com/album/40vKB8KZo2FBz149mN7OWu

Oasis: The Music of Gregg Hill is the third album co-produced by Rodney Whitaker and composer Greg Hill. All songs were composed by Greg Hill except for "Blues for Gregg", which is composed by Rodney Whitaker. The songs are vivaciously performed by Terell Stafford on trumpet and flugelhorn, Tim Warfield on tenor and soprano saxophone, Bruce Barth on piano, Rodney Whitaker on bass, Dana Hall on drums, and Rockelle Fortin lending vocals to four tracks. Rapturous, varied, and thoroughly immersive, Oasis: The Music of Gregg Hill is a jazz treasure, sure to delight connoisseurs of the genre! Highly recommended for both personal and public library collections. The tracks are Betty's Tune, Puppets, Minorabilia, Interlude, Sunday Afternoon, The Jazzdiddy Waltz, S'Cool Days, Blues for Gregg, Fan-O-Gram, To the Well, and Oasis.

The Dryad
If I Had a Hi Fi
Composed, arranged, and produced by Gideon Frankel
Privately Published
$18.00 AUD CD / $TBA digital

https://ifihadahifi1.bandcamp.com/album/the-dryad

The Dryad is an extraordinary, unconventional album composed, arranged, and produced by Gideon Frankel. Beginning as a passion project during Melborune, Australia's extended pandemic lockdowns, The Dryad evolved into a collaborative instrumental work with contributions on flute by Jamichael Frazier in Los Angeles, vibraphone by Gianluca Manfredonia in Italy, and additional music artists worldwide. A smoothly crafted hybridization of jazz, world, folk, classical, reggae, blues and more elements into a transcendent soundscape, The Dryad is a choice pick for listeners in search of a groundbreaking new experience and highly recommended. The tracks are Broken Dreams, The Dryad, Burning Blues, Chocolate Box, Sweet Tears, The Phoenician, Catch Some Honey, Spirit Dance, The Start of Something, Evenings, and Mellow Jive.

Avi Granite's In Good Hands
Avi Granite, composer
avigrantie.com
Pet Mantis Records
petmantisrecords.com
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3

https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BKR6458P

Avi Granite's In Good Hands is a unique album in which Canadian composer and guitarist Avi Granite collaborates with eleven different instrumental musicians. Each of the eleven contributes a solo performance interpreting one of Granite's unique compositions. The result is a jazz showcase spotlighting a divergence of styles with the unifying theme of Granite's musical creativity. Highly recommended, especially for instrumental jazz connoisseurs! The tracks are Like a Magazine (Pat LaBarbera - tenor saxophone), 19 Seconds or Less (Ted Warren - drums), Wayne Winks at the Radio (Scott Peterson - bass), Rigar Breaks the Cage (Jim Lewis - trumpet), Like John (Ted Quinlan - electric guitar), My Sunken Ship (Brian Kobayakawa - bass), Y Not (Peter Lutek - bassoon), Basho (Neal Davis - bass), Tricycle Dreams (Brian Dickinson - piano), Boston (Tom Richards - trombone/prepared room), and Critical Eddie (Nick Fraser - drums).

Heyday
RJ LeBlanc
remijeanleblanc.com
Bent River Records
$TBA CD / $8.99 MP3

https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0B8DSH9QT?

Heyday is a jazz album featuring Remi-Jean LeBlanc on bass and keyboards, supported by a host of additional talented performers on piano, keyboards, guitar, drums, and some vocals. All compositions are by Remi-Jean LeBlanc, except for two songs that LeBlanc co-created with Erika Angell. Heyday spans a wide gamut of inspirations and styles; different tracks draw upon elements of 90's rock, groove, R&B, and dubstep. Heyday is a fresh, eclectic listening experience, highly recommended especially for adventurous jazz connoisseurs. The tracks are Flamme, Casa Perdida, Chanson pour Marguerite, Into The Sun, Saturnales, EZ Drummers, Heyday, and Childlike (pour Roland).

Lush Life
Heather Ferguson
Privately Published
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3

https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BH2M57GD

Resonant jazz singer Heather Ferguson presents her debut album Lush Life, featuring her evocative performances of arranged jazz classics. Her intense, passionate performances offer a grand and beautiful re-experience of beloved songs. Lush Life is a welcome addition to personal and public library jazz music collections, and also makes an excellent gift for connoisseurs of the genre. The tracks are Lush Life (Strayhorn), Bewitched (Rogers/Hart), Body & Soul (Green Heyman), At Last (Gordon/Warren), The Look of Love (Bacharach/David), All The Things You Are (Kern/Hammerstein III), Stardust (Carmichael/Parish), Cry Me a River (Hamilton), Lover Man (Davis/Ramirez/Sherman), and Round Midnight (Monk/Hanighen).

A Little Louder Now
Lauren Falls
www.laurenfallsmusic.com
Privately Published
$17.55 CD / $7.92 MP3

https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BGJJLKC7

Toronto bassist and composer Lauren Falls presents A Little Louder Now, an album of seven original creations plus a classic song by Victor Youmans. A Little Louder Now features Lauren Falls on bass, David French on tenor saxophone, Trevor Giancola on guitar, Todd Pentney on piano, and Trevor Falls on drums. Together, they create a vibrant performance inspired by the highs and lows of everyday life, and the personal growth that comes from confronting each day of one's journey. A Little Louder Now is an inspirational and thoroughly satisfying listening experience, highly recommended. The tracks are New View, A Little Louder, Jupiter, Disagree to Disagree, TTB, Take Me, Labyrinth, and I Want to Be Happy (V. Youmans).

Songs of the Doomed: Some Jaded, Atavistic Freakout
Dan McCarthy
vibraphonedan.com
TPR Records
tprrecords.ca
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3

https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BHHTQXQF

Songs of the Doomed: Some Jaded, Atavistic Freakout is a music album inspired by the writings of American political journalist Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005), well-known for his writings on the (arguably doomed) counterculture movement. Dan McCarthy on vibraphone, Don Scott and Luan Phung on guitars, Daniel Fortin on Bass, and Ernesto Cervini on drums have applied their talents to original music created through a unique cypher process applied to Hunter Thompson's own words. Songs of the Doomed is adventurous, weird, wild, and unforgettable, an album for listeners craving something as unique, unexpected, and standout as American counterculture itself! The tracks are Morning in Woody Creek; Hell's Angels; Some Jaded, Atavistic Freakout; Irresponsible Gibberish; We Were Somewhere Around Barstow; Kingdom of Fear; What Limes?; Strange Rumblings in Aztlan; The High-Water Mark; Owl Farm; Gonzo Journalism Article; White Rabbit (featuring Jenn McCarthy); and Evening in Woody Creek.

Urbanessence
Tito Carrillo
Origin Records
$15.98 CD / $9.49 MP3

https://www.amazon.com/Urbanessence-Tito-Carrillo/dp/B0BBSBF58T

Trumpeter, composer, and educator Tito Carrillo presents Urbanessence, an original music album that balances elements of Afro-Caribbean musical traditions and modern jazz. All compositions are by Tito Carrillo; the music surges in an exuberant performance with Tito Carrillo on trumpet, Troy Roberts on saxophones, Ben Lewis on piano, Clark Sommers on bass, Jay Sawyer on drums, and Victor Gonzalez on congas. Passionate, exciting, and overflowing with vivacious energy, Urbanessence is a "must-have" for connoisseurs of genre-bending jazz. Highly recommended! The tracks are Momentum; Fire & Ice; Bliss Point; Urbanessence; Crazy, Stupid Fine (bass intro); Crazy, Stupid, Fine; Poor to Rico; Up the Down Staircase; Justice & Mercy (for Bryan Stevenson); Fly By Night; and Sublime (for Roy Hargrove).


The Self-Help Shelf

The Anxiety Audit
Lynn Lyons
Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-8190
www.hcibooks.com
9780757324253, $16.95, PB, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Anxiety-Audit-Lynn-Lyons-LICSW/dp/0757324258

Synopsis: Ask people to describe anxiety and they'll start with the familiar physical symptoms: racing heart, sweaty palms, difficulty breathing. Anxiety, they might add, is "freaking out", a panic attack, or a frightening loss of control. But anxiety isn't always what we think it is, especially now. Anxiety has become the new normal, constant and simmering, disguising itself in patterns and responses we don't even recognize as anxiety.

These anxiety patterns include: Ruminating and worrying (and mistaking it for problem solving); Going global, or seeing the world through an overwhelming, all-or-nothing lens; Isolating and disconnecting, all too common in our "new normal"; Creating chaos and "busy-ness", for example, over-scheduling and multitasking; Embracing irritability; Confusing self-medication with self-care.

With the publication of "The Anxiety Audit: Seven Sneaky Ways Anxiety Takes Hold and How to Escape Them", psychotherapist Lynn Lyons provides a guide for us all and lays it out with no overly scientific or diagnostic language -- just real talk and time-tested tactics from a respected therapist.

"The Anxiety Audio" is a relatable and practical guide to untangling yourself from the grips of worry and fear that uses stories, real-world examples, and helpful dialogues to retrain the way you think and react. It helps its readers to recognize the sneaky ways these anxious patterns and cycles of worry take hold in their life. By making small and consistent adjustments, we can learn to reverse their negative impacts and move forward with renewed clarity and confidence.

Critique: An ideal choice for a DIY instructional guide to dealing with the manifold stresses and uncertainties of daily life in the world today, "The Anxiety Audit: Seven Sneaky Ways Anxiety Takes Hold and How to Escape Them" is exceptionally well written, organized and presented for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in dealing with anxiety and chronic worrying. While also available in a digital book format ($12.99), "The Anxiety Audit" is highly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, Self- Help/Self-Improvement collections and reading lists.

Editorial Note: Lynn Lyons, LICSW, is psychotherapist in Concord, New Hampshire. She has been in practice for 30 years specializing in the treatment of anxiety in adults and children. She travels internationally as a speaker and trainer on the subject of anxiety, its role in families, and the need for a preventative approach at home and in schools. With a special interest in breaking the generational cycle of worry in families, she has authored several books and articles on anxiety, including (with co-author Reid Wilson) "Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children", and the companion book for kids, "Playing with Anxiety: Casey's Guide for Teens and Kids".


The Theatre/Cinema/TV Shelf

The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman: Radical Acts in Filmmaking
Alicia Kozma
University Press of Mississippi
3825 Ridgewood Road, Jackson, MS 39211
www.upress.state.ms.us
9781496840998, $99.00, HC, 280pp

https://www.amazon.com/Cinema-Stephanie-Rothman-Radical-Filmmaking/dp/1496840992

Synopsis: The rare woman director working in second-wave exploitation, Stephanie Rothman (b. 1936) directed seven successful feature films, served as the vice president of an independent film company, and was the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America's student filmmaking prize. Despite these career accomplishments, Rothman retired into relative obscurity.

With the publication of "The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman: Radical Acts in Filmmaking", author and cinema historian Alicia Kozma uses Rothman's career to create an in-depth case study that intertwines historical, archival, industrial, and filmic analysis to grapple with the past, present, and future of women's filmmaking labor in Hollywood.

Understanding second-wave exploitation filmmaking as a transitory space for the industrial development of contemporary Hollywood that also opened up opportunities for women practitioners, Kozma argues that understudied film production cycles provide untapped spaces for discovering women's directorial work. The professional career and filmography of Rothman exemplify this claim. Rothman also serves as an apt example for connecting the structure of film histories to the persistent strictures of rhetorical language used to mark women filmmakers and their labor. Kozma traces these imbrications across historical archives.

Adopting a diverse methodological approach, "The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman" reveals the problems and successes of the memorialization of women's directorial labor, connecting historical and contemporary patterns of gendered labor disparity in the film industry. This detailed biographical and historical study is simultaneously the first in-depth scholarly consideration of Rothman, the debut of the most substantive archival materials collected on Rothman, and a feminist political intervention into the construction of film histories.

Critique: A valued and substantial contribution to the growing library of literature concerning the role of women in filmmaking, "The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman: Radical Acts in Filmmaking" is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a twelve page Bibliography, twenty-seven pages of Notes, and seven page Index. While also available for personal reading lists in a paperback edition (9781496841001, $30.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $28.50), "The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman: Radical Acts in Filmmaking" is a significant and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, film school, and academic library Cinematic History & Biography collections.

Editorial Note: Alicia Kozma (https://www.aliciakozma.com) is director of the Indiana University Cinema. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is co-editor of ReFocus: The Films of Doris Wishman and Mobilized Identities: Mediated Subjectivity and Cultural Crisis in the Neoliberal Era, and her work has been published in Media Industries, Film Comment, Camera Obscura, Television and New Media, and other publications.

Suspense with a Camera
Jeffrey Michael Bays
Michael Wiese Productions
12400 Ventura Blvd., #1111, Studio City, CA 91604
www.mwp.com
9781615932733, $29.95, PB, 220pp

https://www.amazon.com/Suspense-Camera-Filmmakers-Hitchcocks-Techniques/dp/1615932739

Synopsis; In today's prolific and competitive world of film making, preventing cinematic audience boredom is more important than ever. With the publication of "Suspense with a Camera: A Filmmaker's Guide to Hitchcock's Techniques" screenwriters and directors have an easy DIY guidebook for making their films more captivating, spine tingling, and suspenseful.

"Hitchcock Whisperer" Jeffrey Michael Bays brings the secrets of suspense out of the shadows. It should be noted that bonus material are included: Q&A with 'Bourne' director Paul Greengrass, 'Bourne Identity' editor Saar Klein, '10 Cloverfield Lane' director Dan Trachtenberg, and a foreword by Film Riot's Ryan Connolly.

Critique: Expertly organized and presented, "Suspense with a Camera: A Filmmaker's Guide to Hitchcock's Techniques" by Jeffrey Michael Bays is essential reading, especially for independent film makers working on tight budgets and wanting to successfully compete for movie audience success. Alfred Hitchcock is an acknowledged master of film making and with this informed and informative combination of DIY instructional guide and 'how to' manual drawing upon his expertise by Hitchcock expert Jeffrey Bays, "Suspense with a Camera: A Filmmaker's Guide to Hitchcock's Techniques" is unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Screenwriting and Video/Movie Direction & Production collections.

Editorial Note: Jeffrey Michael Bays (https://borgusfilm.wixsite.com/jeffrey) is author of "Between the Scenes: What Every Director, Writer, and Editor Should Know about Scene Transitions", and was producer of the award-winning Not from Space on XM Satellite Radio. He holds a Master of Arts in Cinema from La Trobe University. Jeffrey's productions have earned the prestigious Mark Time Award, the Communicator Award of Excellence, and have been listed in Time Out magazine. Jeffrey is a frequent speaker and panelist at film festivals, and contributor to MovieMaker Magazine, No Film School, and Peter D. Marshall's Director's Chair. He is producer of the docuseries Hitch20, a four-hour examination of Hitchcock's twenty works of television, and author of the experimental eBook How to Turn Your Boring Movie into a Hitchcock Thriller, written in the voice of Hitchcock himself. Jeffrey also directed the Australian film Offing David, a Hitchcock homage.


The Art Shelf

Mesozoic Art: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art
Steve White, editor
Darren Naish, editor
Bloomsbury Wildlife
c/o Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781399401364, $40.00, HC, 208pp

https://www.amazon.com/Mesozoic-Art-Dinosaurs-Ancient-Animals/dp/139940136X

Synopsis: Dinosaurs are endlessly fascinating to people of every age, from the youngest child who enjoys learning the tongue-twisting names to adults who grew up with Jurassic Park and Walking with Dinosaurs. As our knowledge of the prehistoric world continues to evolve and grow, so has the discipline of bringing these ancient worlds to life artistically. Paleoart puts flesh on the bones of long-extinct organisms, and illustrates they world they lived in.

Collaboratively compiled and edited by the team of Steve White and Darren Nais, "Mesozoic Art: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art" beautifully showcases twenty of the best artists working in this field, representing a broad spectrum of disciplines, from traditional painting to cutting-edge digital technology. Some provide the artwork for new scientific papers that demand high-end paleoart as part of their presentation to the world at large; they also work for the likes of National Geographic and provide art to museums around the world to illustrate their displays. Other artists are the new rising stars of paleoart in an ever-growing, ever-diversifying field.

Arranged by portfolio, "Mesozoic Art" is an ideal introduction of dramatic artwork to a wide, contemporary, and appreciative audience. The art is accompanied by an informed and informative text on the animals and their live, written by palaeontologist Darren Naish. Paleoart is dynamic, fluid and colourful, as were the beasts it portrays, which are showcased in a truly magnificent book.

Critique: A unique and fascinating presentation of museum quality art, "Mesozoic Art: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended coffee-table style (11.1 x 1 x 12.35 inches) volume that will have particular attraction to readers with an interest in the natural history and biology of dinosaurs. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.12) for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject, "Mesozoic Art: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art" would be a choice and elegant selection for community and academic library Memorial Fund acquisition.

Editorial Note #1: Darren Naish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darren_Naish) is an author, researcher and qualified scientist, based in England, UK, who writes about animals living and extinct. His special interests include dinosaurs, ancient marine reptiles, the flying pterosaurs, mystery animals, conservation biology and the portrayal of ancient animals in art. Dr Naish has published several books on all of these things: several more are in preparation.

Editorial Note #2: Steve White (https://stevewhiteart.co.uk) had his first credit as a colourist on Care Bears. Since then he has worked as an editor for Marvel UK, Tundra UK and Titan Comics, as well as writing, illustrating, inking and colouring numerous and varied titles including not just comics but children's non-fiction. He has also edited a line of artbooks for Titan Books, including the critically acclaimed "Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart".

The Hidden Language of Symbols
Matthew Wilson
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110-0017
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500025291, $45.00, HC, 272pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Language-Symbols-Matthew-Wilson/dp/0500025290

Synopsis: With the publication of "The Hidden Language of Symbols", art historian Matthew Wilson covers a wide-ranging selection of visual culture and art under one unified theme: symbols. Often not immediately apparent, our day-to-day lives abound with symbols of various kinds, from national emblems to emojis, allegories to logos, all of which have a fascinating story.

Organized across four all-encompassing themes (power, faith, hope, and uncertainty) "The Hidden Language of Symbols" is a stimulating and illustrated account of forty-eight key symbols from global art history is aimed at museum-goers, armchair art sleuths, or anyone who wants to understand the history of their visual environment from an unusual and creative angle.

Drawing on artistic examples from the imaginary, natural, physical, and religious worlds, from dragons to eagles, butterflies to labyrinths, and rainbows to wheels, Wilson discusses the lives of these different types of symbols. Analyzing their development, why they evolved, and the various ways they have been interpreted, Wilson also explains in what way symbols are markers of identity, that is, how they gain the power to unite and divide societies.

Looking at how they have shaped the world beyond the museum, Wilson reveals the impact of visual symbols on the appearance of our cities, the language of advertising, and even the design of corporate logos.

Critique: A simply fascinating and impressively insightful work of meticulous scholarship, "The Hidden Language of Symbols" is an extraordinary and beautifully illustrated volume that is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a two page listing of Illustrations Sources, seven pages of Notes, and a four page Index. Aptly organized and presented, "The Hidden Language of Symbols" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Art History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Matthew Wilson (https://www.matthewwilson.uk) is an art historian, educator, and writer. He has written for numerous publications and media on art and culture. He is also the author of the Symbols in Art in the Art Essentials series.

Roman Warriors: The Paintings of Graham Sumner
Simon Elliot, author
Greenhill Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781784387198, $70.00, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Roman-Warriors-Paintings-Graham-Sumner/dp/1784387193

Synopsis: Showcasing the truly stunning artwork of historian and artist Graham Sumner's impressive, expansive portfolio, featuring never-before-seen illustrations of Ancient Rome's military through paintings, "Roman Warriors: The Paintings of Graham Sumner" is a colorful and comprehensive anthology.

Introduced with a foreword by historian and author Adrian Goldsworthy, Sumner's beautiful color reconstructions of Ancient Roman warriors over time are complemented expertly with informative, enlightening text by renowned historian and author Simon Elliott.

This combination of Sumner's illustrations and Elliott's writing leaves no stone unturned as they divulge information about this fascinating period of military history in mesmerizing, intricate detail. Readers will swiftly become fully immersed in this ancient world, and will leave it with a wealth of knowledge about and a profound understanding of the warriors of Ancient Rome, and a great appreciation for Sumner and Elliott's expertise in the area.

Critique: "Roman Warriors: The Paintings of Graham Sumner" is a coffee-table style (11.65 x 1.14 x 9.02 inches, 3.26 pounds) volume comprised of a stunning compilation of museum quality artwork and informative commentary. Especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Roman Military History collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Roman Warriors: The Paintings of Graham Sumner" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note #1: Graham Sumner is an accomplished archaeological and historical artist. (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/graham-sumner-9186a099)

Editorial Note #2: Simon Elliott (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10980790/bio) is an historian, archaeologist and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent where he studied for his PhD in Archaeology on the subject of the Roman military in Britain. He also has an MA in War Studies from KCL and an MA in Archaeology from UCL. For a day job he runs his own PR company, and is a former defense and aerospace journalist at titles including Jane's Defence Weekly and Flight International. He frequently gives talks on Roman themes and is co-Director at a Roman villa excavation.

How I Draw: Scott McKowen Sketchbooks
Scott McKowen
Firefly Books Ltd.
www.fireflybooks.com
9780228103660, $29.95, HC, 232pp

https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Scott-McKowen-Sketchbooks/dp/0228103665

Synopsis: For many artists, drawing is both vocation and avocation. Drawing for pleasure keeps our skills sharp and allows us to expand our horizons by trying new materials and media -- to say nothing of providing countless hours of enjoyment.

As an artist, Scott McKowen has enjoyed a successful four-decade career as an award-winning illustrator and designer known across North America. Drawing is his livelihood, but he also makes a constant practice of observational drawing from life. He always travels with a sketchbook, drawing everywhere from museums, restaurants, theaters and zoos, to cities, parks and on holiday.

"How I Draw: Scott McKowen Sketchbooks" provides an overview of Scott's draftsmanship in various media, with insights and tips guaranteed to help anyone who shares his love of drawing.

"How I Draw: Scott McKowen Sketchbooks" features Some Basics, Travel Sketchbooks, Cabinet of Curiosities, and Life Drawing, to Portraiture, Animals/Vegetables/Minerals, Lucid Drawing, and Ephemera.

Critique: Offering a delightful and inspiring tour through highlights of Scott McKowen's impressive drawing portfolio, "How I Draw: Scott McKowen Sketchbooks" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and art school library collections -- and will have a very special appeal and value for readers with an interest in creating personal and professional art through sketching.

Editorial Note: Scott McKowen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_McKowen) is a renowned and prolific artist, chiefly known for his scratchboard illustrations, which have been featured in hundreds of books, magazines, theater posters and comic books. He may be best known for illustrating Neil Gaiman's Marvel Comics series 1602 and for several titles in the Sterling Unabridged Classics children's book series, as well as theater posters that capture the essence of plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Moliere and other great playwrights. He was selected as one of the jurors for the 53rd Communication Arts Illustration Annual.

The Art of Louis Shabner
Stuart Webb
Telos Publishing Ltd
https://telos.co.uk
9781845832001, $44.13, PB, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Louis-Shabner-Stuart-Webb/dp/1845832000

Synopsis: As an artist, Louis Shabner began his career producing shop window advertising for brands such as Every Ready, Ovaltine and Chivers jams, amongst others, but is best known for his paintings of sultry sirens. During the 1960s and 1970s his prints, which were available through shops such as Boots chemists and by post through Freemans catalogues, adorned lounge walls up and down the UK. Many of his women made it onto hugely popular calendars during the same period.

Under the pseudonym Sheldon, Shabner also produced numerous book cover paintings for Pan and other publishers. At the time, mass-produced art of this kind was viewed as having only 'throw away' value, but now Shabner's work (often mentioned in the same breath as that of contemporaries Vladimir Tretchikoff and J H Lynch) is highly sought-after by collectors, with copies of his original prints and calendars being snapped up for high prices.

With the publication of "The Art of Louis Shabner", researcher Stuart Webb presents the most comprehensive account ever published of Shabner's life and work, lavishly illustrated with beautiful color images of a wealth of his paintings.

Critique: Of particular appeal to aficionados of vintage art and book cover illustration, "The Art of Louis Shabner" is a coffee-table style (8.5 x 0.57 x 11 inches) volume that showcases the memorable and distinctive artwork and style of a memorably gifted artist whose work was especially appreciated as cover art for paperback books in a number of genres as well as dramatic portraits of attractive women. A pure pleasure to browse through and supported by the descriptive commentary of author, researcher, and Louis Shabner expert Stuart Web, "The Art of Louis Shabner" will be of special interest as an addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library 20th Century Pop Culture Art collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Stuart Webb has written for a number of magazines, including a two year stint with the now sadly defunct Book and Magazine Collector. An award winning short story author, Stuart has also penned three novels for children, Aurora's Tears, Lyme Hall and Time Traveller Jenny at Chatsworth. The first print of his debut novel sold out on the day of publication. More recently, his passion for all things vintage, and particularly kitsch art, has resulted in Stuart writing a number of articles on this subject for Vintage Explorer magazine. He has also contributed to a writer's handbook titled A Seriously Useful Author's Guide to Marketing and Publicising Books. His Instagram is @stuart_webb_

Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965
Colin Lurkin
Telos Publishing Ltd
https://telos.co.uk
9781845839888, $30.69, HC, 264pp

https://www.amazon.com/Cover-Me-Vintage-Books-1950-1965/dp/1845839889

Synopsis: With the publication of "Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965" author Colin Larkin presents an affectionate and thoroughly-researched celebration of the classic Pan Books paperbacks published between 1950 and 1965 in a coffee-table style (8.5 x 0.62 x 11 inches) volume that is beautifully illustrated with sumptuous full-color reproductions of over 300 of the original cover artworks.

Pan books represented a cultural beacon as Britain recovered from World War II and slowly moved from the harsh austerity and rationing of the 1950s into the more upbeat 1960s. While in many respects the public of that period had to endure a life in monochrome (black-and-white TV, low-budget B-movies and grainy holiday snaps) Pan books presented escapist images in glorious color. They perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the era, as people sought out cheap reading material that astutely reflected contemporary tastes: crime novels, westerns, historical fiction, movie tie-ins, true-life war memoirs and early science fiction.

"Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965" also presents the highlights of a unique archive of original Pan cover paintings, many of them iconic images of the era. Larkin has owned this major art collection since 1990, and has lovingly researched the Pan Books history, the many superb artists who worked with the company, and the fascinating production process. His own experience makes him ideally qualified to chronicle a subject that has been a passion of his since childhood.

Critique: A 'must' for the personal collections of all dedicated bibliophiles, "Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965" demonstrates the old cliche that 'covers sell books' and for some of us is a wonderfully nostalgic trip down memory lane. An entertaining and informative volume to simply page throughout one page at a time, still another benefit for the current generation of bibliophiles is its being a wonderful source for identifying literary and pulp fiction classics in a variety of genres to at to a personal reading list. While also readily available in a paperback edition (9781845832032, $36.30), "Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965" is a very special and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Literary Studies, Pop Culture, Art History, and Book Design collections.


The Literary Studies Shelf

The New Annotated Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson, author
Leslie S. Klinger, editor
The Mysterious Press
https://penzlerpublishers.com
c/o W.W. Norton (distribution)
https://wwnorton.com
9781613163214, $39.95, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Strange-Case-Jekyll-Hyde/dp/1613163215

Synopsis: There's no question that "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is one of the most influential texts of all time. The now iconic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson has confounded and thrilled readers for more than a century. It was described by one scholar as the only detective-crime story in which the solution is more terrifying than the problem. And even as its plot gets continually reinterpreted and reimagined in literature, film, and theater, the main themes persist, as do the titular characters, now so familiar as to have become a part of the English language.

This new edition of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" gives the classic tale of depraved murder and unrelenting horror its most complete and illuminating presentation yet. Heavily illustrated with over a hundred and fifty full color images from the history of this cultural touchstone -- including reproductions of rare books, film stills, theatrical posters, and the true-life people associated with the adventure - and extensively annotated by Edgar Award winning editor and noted Victorian literature expert Leslie S. Klinger, this thorough and authoritative approach is both an invaluable resource for scholars and a sumptuous treat for fans of the text.

Introduced by a compelling and erudite essay from novelist and short story writer Joe Hill, this complete illustrated and annotated edition of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is the ultimate tribute to an enduring classic, combining revelatory and surprising information and in-depth historical context with beautiful illustrations and photographs. It is sure to please anyone interested in the Victorian era, mystery fiction, and horror tales.

Critique: An absolute 'must' for the legions of Robert Louis Stevenson fans, this literary study of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library collections. It should be noted for anyone with an interest in Occult Fiction, Historical Mysteries, and Traditional Detective Mysteries that "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).

Editorial Note #1: Robert Louis Stevenson was a Victorian author born in Scotland in 1850. He is best known for his novels Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He died in Samoa in 1894. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson)

Editorial Note #2: Leslie S. Klinger (https://lesliesklinger.com) is considered to be one of the world's foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Frankenstein, and H. P. Lovecraft. Klinger is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars and Treasurer of the Horror Writers Association. His nonfiction works have won numerous awards.

Eclogues and Georgics
Vergil, author
James Bradley Wells, translator
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299337407, $29.95, HC, 248pp

https://www.amazon.com/Eclogues-Georgics-Vergil/dp/0299337405

Synopsis: With the publication of Vergil's "Eclogues and Georgics", Professor James Bradley Wells combines creative practice and intimate knowledge of contemporary poetry and classical antiquity in this thought-provoking new translation of two early works by ancient Rome's most well-known and most esteemed poet, Vergil's Eclogues and Georgics. With its emphasis on the musicality of English, Wells's translations honor the original spirit of Latin poetry as both a written and performance-based art form.

The accompanying introductory essays situate Vergil's poems in a rich literary tradition. Professor Wells provides historical context and literary analysis of these two works, eschewing facile interpretations of these oft examined texts and ensconcing them in the society and culture from which they originated. These annotated essays, a pronunciation guide, and a glossary, alongside Professor Wells's bold vision for what translation choices can reveal, guide readers as they explore this ancient and famously difficult poetry.

Critique: Erudite, informative, insightful, thought-provoking, and superbly translated into English for an American readership by Professor James Bradley Wells, "Eclogues and Georgics" by the Roman poet Vergil includes a Chronology, a statement on Translation, a Pronunciation Guide, a thirty-eight page Glossary, twelve pages of Notes, and a four page Bibliography -- making it a significant and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Ancient & Classical Poetry collections in general, and supplemental curriculum Roman Poetry/Vergil studies lists in particular.

Editorial Note #1: Publius Vergilius Maro (15 October 70 - 21 September 19 BC), who is usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, were attributed to him in ancient times, but modern scholars consider his authorship of these poems as dubious. Virgil has been traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid is also considered a national epic of ancient Rome, a title held since composition.

Editorial Note #2: James Bradley Wells is an associate professor of classical studies at DePauw University. He has worked widely as a poet, translator, and critic. He is author of Pindar's Verbal Art and his own original poetry has been collected and published in Bicycle and The Kazantzakis Guide to Greece.


The American History Shelf

The Fortress Kingdom
Paul Hill
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399010610, $42.95, HC, 264pp

https://www.amazon.com/Fortress-Kingdom-Aethelflaed-Edward-899-927/dp/1399010611

Synopsis: "The Fortress Kingdom: The Wars of Aethelflaed and Edward the Elder, 899-927" is the second part of historian Paul Hill's four-volume military and political history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom and follows the careers of Aethelfl d, Alfred the Great's eldest daughter, and Edward the Elder, Alfred's eldest son, as they campaigned to expand their rule after Alfred's death. They faced, as Alfred had done, the full force of Danish hostility during the early years of the tenth century, a period of unrelenting turbulence and open warfare. But through their military strength, in particular their strategy of fortress building, they retained their hold on the kingdom and conquered lands which had been under Danish lords for generations.

Aethelfl d's forces captured Derby and Leicester by both force and diplomacy. Edward's power was always immense. How each of them used forts (burhs) to hold territory, is explored. Fortifications across central England became key. These included Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Chirbury and Runcorn (Aethelfl d) and also Hertford, Witham, Buckingham, Bedford and Maldon (Edward), to name a few.

Paul Hill's absorbing narrative incorporates the latest theories and evidence for the military organization and capabilities of the Anglo-Saxons and their Danish adversaries. "The Fortress Kingdom" gives the reader a detailed and dramatic insight into a very sophisticated Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

Critique: Exhaustively researched, impressively well written, exceptional in both organization and presentation, "The Fortress Kingdom: The Wars of Aethelflaed and Edward the Elder, 899-927" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community and academic library Medieval British History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "The Fortress Kingdom" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $18.99) for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject.

Editorial Note: Paul Hill (https://www.paulhillauthor.co.uk) is the former curator of Kingston Upon Thames Museum in Surrey, and is well known as a lecturer, author and expert on Anglo-Saxon and Norman history and military archaeology. He has written several books on these subjects, among them The Age of Athelstan: Britain's Forgotten History, The Viking Wars of Alfred the Great and The Anglo-Saxons at War 800-1066.

The Anglo-Saxons At War 800-1066
Paul Hill
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781848843691, $39.95, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Anglo-Saxons-at-War-Paul-Hill/dp/1848843690

Synopsis: In the time of the great Anglo-Saxon kings like Alfred and Athelstan, 'thelred and Edmund Ironside, what was warfare really like - how were the armies organized, how and why did they fight, how were the warriors armed and trained, and what was the Anglo-Saxon experience of war?

As Paul Hill demonstrates in his compelling new study, "The Anglo-Saxons at War 800-1066", based on documentary records and the growing body of archaeological evidence, answers these questions with authority. Hill's broad, detailed and graphic account of the conduct of war in the Anglo-Saxon world in the unstable, violent centuries before the Norman Conquest will be illuminating reading for anyone who wants to learn about this key stage of medieval history.

The role of violence and war in Anglo-Saxon society is explored, in particular the parts played by the king and the noblemen, and the means by which, in times of danger, the men of the fyrd were summoned to fight. The controversial subject of the Anglo-Saxon use of cavalry is also explored. Land and naval warfare are central sections of "The Anglo-Saxons at War 800-1066", and also covers the politics and diplomacy of warfare -- the conduct of negotiations, the taking of hostages and the use of treachery.

The weapons and armor of the Anglo-Saxons are described including the spears, the scramsaxes, axes, bows, swords, helmets, shields and mail that were employed in the close-quarter fighting of the day. Among the most valuable sections of this historical study are those dealing, in vivid detail, with actual experience of battle and siege -- with the brutal reality of combat as it is revealed by campaigns against the Danes, in the battles of Ashdown, Maldon and Stamford Bridge, and sieges at Reading and Rochester.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of maps, tables, figures, an appendix (Rulers of the English c. 871-1066), a bibliography and an index, "The Anglo-Saxons at War 800-1066" is a key addition to both community and academic library Medieval British History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Anglo-Saxons at War 800-1066" is also avalable in a paperback edition (9781399077156, $26.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.99).

Editorial Note: Paul Hill ((https://www.paulhillauthor.co.uk) is the author of a number of history books about Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman warfare, including "The Age of Athelstan - Britain's Forgotten History" Paul has explored the strengths and weaknesses of the western military powers of the medieval period in each of his books, but has recently branched into a long overdue analysis of how one particular crusading group (the Knights Templar) prosecuted their wars. Paul has appeared on TV in 'Battlefield Detectives - Massacre at Waterloo' and 'Bloodbath at Hastings' in which he focused on the military consequences of the challenges of the landscape.

Military History of Late Rome 565-602
Ilkka Syvanne
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781848848528, $52.95, HC, 432pp

https://www.amazon.com/Military-History-Late-Rome-565-602/dp/1848848528

Synopsis: With the publication of "Military History of Late Rome 565-602", Professor Ilkka Syvanne provides a new fresh analysis of the Roman Empire in the aftermath of the reconquests of Justinian I (527-65). It is often claimed that Justinian overstretched the Roman resources, but this analysis proves that view wrong. It demonstrates that the initial troubles were largely the result of the mistakes of Justin II (565-78) and that his successors, Tiberius II (578-82) and Maurice (582-602), not only restored its fortunes but were, at the time of the death of Maurice, actually poised to complete the reconquests of Justinian.

It was thanks to the reforms of Maurice, which were codified in the military treatise the Strategikon, that the Roman army had achieved a position of relative superiority over all of its enemies so that by 602 the Romans had decisively defeated the Persians, Slavs and Avars and were poised to complete the project of reconquest. These gains, however, were lost when Maurice was murdered in a military mutiny which brought Phocas to power.

"Military History of Late Rome 565-602" explains why the Roman army overthrew one of the greatest Roman emperors who ever lived. This was an era of epic battles so it is not a surprise that the author also pays particular attention to the period tactics and analyses all of the period battles in great detail. These include for example such battles as Melitene, Constantia, Sirmium, Nymphius River, Solanchon, Lake Urmiah, Plain of Canzak, Iatrus, and the epic battles of Priscus and Comentiolus in the Balkans.

Critique: "Military History of Late Rome 565-602" continues Professor Ilkka Syvanne's Roman military history series that began with "Military History of Late Rome 518 - 565". Informatively enhanced with the inclusion of maps, diagrams, a section of full color plates, two Appendices (The First Turkish Empire; The Couched Lance Technique and the Strategikon), twenty-nine pages of Notes, a six page Bibliography, and a twenty-nine page Index, "Military History of Late Rome 565 - 602" is a prized and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Roman History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Military History of Late Rome 565-602" is also available to students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Military History of Late Rome 565-602" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.99).

Editorial Note: Ilkka Syvanne (https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ilkka-Syvanne/a/2164) gained his doctorate in history in 2004 from the University of Tampere in his native Finland. Since then he has written extensively about ancient and medieval warfare and his publications include: 'The Age of Hippotoxotai, Art of War in Roman Military Revival and Disaster 491-636' (Tampere UP 2004), 'The Reign of Gallienus' (Pen & Sword, 2019), the multivolume 'Military History of Late Rome' published by Pen & Sword and the critically acclaimed Caracalla. He is the co-author with Professor Katarzyna Maksymiuk of the 'Military History of Third Century Iran' (Siedlce UP, 2018) and the 'Military History of Fifth Century Iran' (Siedlce UP, 2019). He was Vice Chairman of the Finnish Society for Byzantine Studies from 2007 until 2016. Currently residing in Kangasala, Finland, he has been an Affiliated Professor of the University of Haifa since 2016.

Women of the American Revolution
Samantha Wilcoxson
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399001007, $29.95, HC, 192pp

https://www.amazon.com/Women-American-Revolution-Samantha-Wilcoxson/dp/1399001000

Synopsis: With the publication of "Women of the American Revolution", author Samantha Wilcoxson explores the trials of war and daily life for women in the United States during the War of Independence. What challenges were caused by the division within communities as some stayed loyal to the king and others became patriots? How much choice did women have as their loyalties were assumed to be that of their husbands or fathers?

The lives of women of the American Revolution will be examined through an intimate look at some significant women of the era. Many names will be familiar, such as Martha Washington who traveled to winter camps to care for her husband and rally the troops and Abigail Adams who ran the family's farms and raised children during John's long absences. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, popularized by Lin Manual Miranda's Hamilton, was also an early activist working tirelessly for multiple social causes. Decide for yourself if the espionage of Agent 355 or the ride of Sybil Ludington are history or myth.

Not all American women served the side of the revolutionaries. Peggy Shippen gambled on the loyalist side and paid severe consequences. From early historian Mercy Otis Warren to Dolley Madison, who defined what it means to be a US First Lady, women of the American Revolution strived to do more than they had previously thought possible during a time of hardship and civil war.

Critique: A simply fascinating, comprehensive, and informative study, "Women of the American Revolution" by Samantha Wilcoxson is a factual history that reads with the narrative style of a deftly crafted historical novel. Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of eighteen pages of Notes, a two page Bibliography, and a three page Index, "Women of the American Revolution" is unreservedly recommended for community and academic library American History and Women's History collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist readers with an interest in the subject that "Women of the American Revolution" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49).

Editorial Note: Samantha Wilcoxson (https://www.facebook.com/PlantagenetEmbers) is an author of historical fiction and administrator of a history blog. She has written four full-length novels, three novellas, and two middle grade chapter books. Topics of her writing have ranged from the Wars of the Roses to America's Civil Rights Movement. Samantha is passionate about history and exploring the personal side of events. In her writing, she urges the reader to truly experience what it might have felt like to live through a moment in history. Samantha's most recent novel is biographical fiction featuring Catherine Donohue, one of America's "radium girls." She features in Hauntings, an anthology published by the Historical Writers Forum.

A Contest of Civilizations
Andrew F. Lang
University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
https://uncpress.org
9781469672496, $37.50, HC, 568pp

https://www.amazon.com/Contest-Civilizations-Exposing-Exceptionalism-Littlefield/dp/1469660075

Synopsis: Most mid-nineteenth-century Americans regarded the United States as an exceptional democratic republic that stood apart from a world seemingly riddled with revolutionary turmoil and aristocratic consolidation. Viewing themselves as distinct from and even superior to other societies, Americans considered their nation an unprecedented experiment in political moderation and constitutional democracy.

But as abolitionism in England, economic unrest in Europe, and upheaval in the Caribbean and Latin America began to influence domestic affairs, the foundational ideas of national identity also faced new questions. And with the outbreak of civil war, as two rival governments each claimed the mantle of civilized democracy, the United States' claim to unique standing in the community of nations dissolved into crisis. Could the Union chart a distinct course in human affairs when slaveholders, abolitionists, free people of color, and enslaved African Americans all possessed irreconcilable definitions of nationhood?

"A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era" is sweeping history of political ideas as Professor Andrew F. Lang reappraises the Civil War era as a crisis of American exceptionalism. Through this lens, Lang shows how the intellectual, political, and social ramifications of the war and its meaning rippled through the decades that followed, not only for the nation's own people but also in the ways the nation sought to redefine its place on the world stage.

Critique: An impressive work of detailed and erudite scholarship by historian and academician Andrew F. Lang, "A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era" is enhanced with the inclusion of a Prologue (The Young Men's Lyceum), an Epilogue (The Paradox of Civilization), a four page listing of Acknowledgments, seventy-two pages of Notes, a fifty-four page Bibliography, and a nineteen page Index. Comprehensive, insightful, thought- provoking, exceptional, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "A Contest of Civilizations" is unreservedly recommended as a core addition to community and academic library 19th Century American History collections in general, as well as supplemental curriculum American Slavery/Abolition/Emancipation studies in particular. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "A Contest of Civilizations" is also available in both a paperback edition (9781469672496, $29.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99).

Editorial Note: Andrew F. Lang (https://www.history.msstate.edu/directory/afl78) is Beverly B. and Gordon W. Gulmon Scholar in the Humanities and associate professor of history at Mississippi State University.

This Land Was Saved for You and Me
Jeffrey H. Ryan
Stackpole Books
5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-6921
www.stackpolebooks.com
9780811771665, $26.95, HC, 232pp

https://www.amazon.com/This-Land-Was-Saved-You/dp/0811771660

Synopsis: "This Land Was Saved for You and Me: How Gifford Pinchot, Frederick Law Olmsted, and a Band of Foresters Rescued America's Public Lands" by Jeffrey H. Ryan is the story of how America's public lands (our city parks, national forests, and wilderness areas) came into being, the history of which can be traced to a few conservation pioneers and proteges who shaped policy and advocated for open spaces. Some, like Frederick Law Olmsted and Gifford Pinchot, are well known, while others have never been given their due.

Ryan covers the nearly century-long period between 1865 (when Olmsted contributed to the creation of Yosemite as a park and created its management plan) to the signing of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Olmsted influenced Pinchot, who became the first head of the National Forest Service, and in turn, Pinchot hired the foresters who became the founders of The Wilderness Society and creators of the Wilderness Act itself.

This fascinating history emphasizes the cast of characters (among them Theodore Roosevelt, Bob Marshall, Benton MacKaye, Aldo Leopold, and Howard Zahniser) and provides context for their decisions and the political and economic factors that contributed to the triumphs and pitfalls in the quest to protect public lands.

It is of interest to note that in researching this history, Ryan traveled to the places where these crusaders lived, worked, and were inspired to take up the cause to make public lands accessible to all.

Critique: Fascinating, informative, exceptional, and unreservedly recommended for inclusion in community and academic library American Environmental History collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, environmental activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "This Land Was Saved for You and Me: How Gifford Pinchot, Frederick Law Olmsted, and a Band of Foresters Rescued America's Public Lands" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.49).

Editorial Note: Jeffrey H. Ryan (https://www.jeffryanauthor.com) is passionate about the outdoors and the conservation of public land, whose work has been cited in Forbes, USA Today, Appalachia and other notable publications. He is the author of Appalachian Odyssey (2016) and Blazing Ahead (2017).


The World History Shelf

When Women Ruled the World
Maureen Quilligan
Liveright
c/o W. W. Norton & Company
www.wwnorton.com
Blackstone Audiobooks
www.blackstoneaudio.com
9781631497964, $29.95, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/When-Women-Ruled-World-Renaissance/dp/1631497960

Synopsis: The sixteenth century in Europe was a time of chronic destabilization in which institutions of traditional authority were challenged and religious wars seemed unending. Yet it also witnessed the remarkable flowering of a pacifist culture, cultivated by a cohort of extraordinary women rulers (most notably, Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de' Medici) whose lives were intertwined not only by blood and marriage, but by a shared recognition that their premier places in the world of just a few dozen European monarchs required them to bond together, as women, against the forces seeking to destroy them, if not the foundations of monarchy itself.

Recasting the complex relationships among these four queens, Maureen Quilligan, a leading scholar of the Renaissance, rewrites centuries of historical analysis that sought to depict their governments as riven by personal jealousies and petty revenges. Instead, with the publication of "When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe", Professor Maureen Quilligan shows how these regents carefully engendered a culture of mutual respect, focusing on the gift-giving by which they aimed to ensure ties of friendship and alliance. As Professor Quilligan demonstrates, gifts were no mere signals of affection, but inalienable possessions, often handed down through generations, that served as agents in the creation of a steep social hierarchy that allowed women to assume political authority beyond the confines of their gender.

Professor Quilligan also reveals how eleven-year-old Elizabeth I's gift of a handmade book to her stepmother, Katherine Parr, helped facilitate peace within the tumultuous Tudor dynasty, and how Catherine de' Medici's gift of the Valois tapestries to her granddaughter, the soon-to-be Grand Duchess of Tuscany, both solidified and enhanced the Medici family's prestige. Quilligan even uncovers a book of poetry given to Elizabeth I by Catherine de' Medici as a warning against the concerted attack launched by her closest counselor, William Cecil, on the divine right of kings -- an attack that ultimately resulted in the execution of her sister, Mary, Queen of Scots.

Beyond gifts, "When Women Ruled the World" also delves into the connections the regents created among themselves, connections that historians have long considered beneath notice. "Like fellow soldiers in a sororal troop," Professor Quilligan writes, these women protected and aided each other. Aware of the leveling patriarchal power of the Reformation, they consolidated forces, governing as "sisters" within a royal family that exercised power by virtue of inherited right -- the very right that Protestantism rejected as a basis for rule.

Vibrantly chronicling the artistic creativity and political ingenuity that flourished in the pockets of peace created by these four queens, Professor Quilligan's lavishly illustrated work offers a new perspective on the glorious sixteenth century and, crucially, the women who helped create it.

Critique: A brilliant presented and extraordinarily informative contribution to personal, professional, community, college, and university library European Renaissance History collections and supplemental curriculum studies reading lists, (and featuring an 8-page color insert and 40 black-and-white images) it should be noted for students, academia, and non- specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe" is also available in a paperback edition (9781324092377, $18.95), in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.16), and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798200921515, $46.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Maureen Quilliganis (https://whenwomenruled.blog) is the R. Florence Brinkley Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Duke University. The author of books about medieval and Renaissance literature, she was also co- editor of the groundbreaking essay collection "Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe".

The Bletchley Park Codebreakers in Their Own Words
Joel Greenbert
Greenhill Books
c/o Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781784388119, $39.95, HC, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Bletchley-Park-Codebreakers-Their-Words/dp/1784388114

Synopsis: With the publication of "The Bletchley Park Codebreakers in Their Own Words", historian Joel Greenberg tells the story of Bletchley Park through countless letters written by key players to former colleagues and loved ones as the war unfolded.

Having intercepted millions of German communications, the codebreakers had felt bound by the Official Secrets Act and said little about their wartime activities. Some who had stayed on at GCHQ after the war, were concerned that speaking out could jeopardize their pensions.

Over one hundred letters have been included in this informative volume and have either been recovered from family members or declassified by GCHQ. They reveal fresh information about the clandestine operation and disclose the true feelings of the participants at Bletchley Park.

In contrast to early accounts, which lacked detail and were occasionally inaccurate, "The Bletchley Park Codebreakers in Their Own Words" thoroughly lays bare the day-to-day experiences at Bletchley Park and uncovers the operational and technical reasons behind the organization's successes and failures.

Simultaneously intimate and comprehensive, it will interest historians, World War II researchers, and anyone who wants to learn the secrets of Britain's signal intelligence effort.

Critique: A unique and substantial contribution to the growing number of World War II histories, "The Bletchley Park Codebreakers in Their Own Words" is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of an Appendix (Letters to the Editor), ten pages of Notes, a three page Bibliography, and a five page Index. An extraordinary 'eye-witness' based history, "The Bletchley Park Codebreakers in Their Own Words" is a critically important and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II History/Biography collections. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject of World War II military intelligence that "The Bletchley Park Codebreakers in Their Own Words" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note: Joel Greenberg (https://www.joelgreenberg.co.uk) is an author and historian who researches and writes about signals intelligence and its impact on two world wars. He is the author of "Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park's Architect of Ultra Intelligence". This book is the basis of "The Forgotten Genius of Bletchley Park" -- a joint BBC/Smithsonian Network 2015 documentary about Welchman.

Celtic Warfare
Gioal Canestrelli
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399070171, $42.95, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Celtic-Warfare-Fifth-Century-First/dp/1399070177

Synopsis: Warfare was a crucial aspect of Celtic society, deeply linked to the spreading of their culture through all Europe. Between the fifth century BC, when La T ne Culture Celts developed in Europe, and the first century AD, when they faced the complete subjugation or annihilation of most of their communities, their approach to warfare was subject to constant evolution, driven both by contact with Mediterranean cultures and different requirements closely related to social issues that were in constant flux.

With the publication of "Celtic Warfare: From the Fifth Century BC to the First Century AD", historian Gioal Canestrelli offers an interdisciplinary approach, combining archaeological and literary sources and examining Celtic warfare from both a practical perspective, linked to weapons structure and military tactics, and a social perspective, analyzing the cultural implications of Celtic military development. Furthermore, "Celtic Warfare" analyses the different areas of the Keltike, from Britain to Gaul, from Spain to the Alpine region, with more than 120 black & white drawings of the archaeological finds and a number of original color artworks of Celtic warriors.

Critique: In addition to a number of color plates, "Celtic Warfare: From the Fifth Century BC to the First Century AD" also features an Appendix (Stratagems and Poliorcetics - Siege War); a seven page Dictionary; twenty pages of Notes; an eleven page Bibliography; and a four page Index. Of special appeal to students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject, "Celtic Warfare: From the Fifth Century BC to the First Century AD" is highly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Celtic History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Celtic Warfare: From the Fifth Century BC to the First Century AD" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $18.99).

Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia, second edition
Lawrence N. Langer
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706
www.rowman.com
9781538119419, $150.00, HC, 322pp

https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Dictionary-Medieval-Dictionaries-Civilizations/dp/1538119412

Synopsis: The emergence of Russia or Rus', as it was known, from a group of scattered Slavic tribes into one of the most powerful states of medieval and modern European history is an extraordinary story. It is a story filled with much struggle as there were historical periods when Russia almost ceased to exist as it underwent invasion and conquest.

Now in a newly updated and expanded second edition, "Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia" by Professor Lawrence N. Langer features a chronology, a glossary, an informative introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section itself has more than 300 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country's politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture.

Critique: With both an editor's Foreword and a Reader's Note, this newly published second edition of "Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia" is an excellent and impressively informative resource and a highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Medieval Studies collections in general, and supplemental curriculum Russian History studies lists in particular. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that the "Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $125.94).

Editorial Note: Lawrence N. Langeris (https://history.uconn.edu/person/lawrence-n-langer) retired from the University of Connecticut, where he taught in the history department and served as director of Slavic and East European Studies. He is currently an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, and is the editor in chief of the journal Russian History.

In the Shadow of a Queen
Heather B. Moore
Shadow Mountain Publishing
P.O. Box 30178, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0178
www.shadowmountain.com
www.blackstoneaudio.com
9781639930500, $26.99, HC, 384pp

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Queen-Heather-B-Moore/dp/1639930507

Synopsis: Princess Louise's life is upended after her father's untimely death. Captive to the queen's overwhelming mourning, Louise is forbidden to leave her mother's tight circle of control and is eventually relegated to the position of personal secretary to her mother -- the same position each of her sisters held until they were married.

Already an accomplished painter, Louise risks the queen's wrath by exploring the art of sculpting, an activity viewed as unbefitting a woman. When Louise involves herself in the day's political matters, including championing the career of a female doctor and communicating with suffragettes, the queen lays down the law to stop her and devotes her full energy to finding an acceptable match for her defiant daughter.

Louise is considered the most beautiful and talented daughter of Queen Victoria, but finding a match for the princess is no easy feat. Protocols are broken, and Louise exerts her own will as she tries to find an open-minded husband who will support her free spirit.

"In the Shadow of a Queen" by Heather B. Moore is the story of a battle of wills between two women: a daughter determined to forge her own life beyond the shadow of her mother, and a queen resolved to keep the Crown's reputation unsullied no matter the cost.

Critique: Compelling, eloquent, original, featuring a roster of deftly crafted characters and a fully engaging, narrative driven storytelling style, Heather Moore's latest novel, "In the Shadow of a Queen" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Historical Fiction collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of Heather Moore fans that "In the Shadow of a Queen" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212014359, $31.95, CD).

Editorial Note: Heather B. Moore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_B._Moore) is the author of more than seventy publications, including The Paper Daughters of Chinatown. She has lived on both the East and West Coasts of the United States, as well as Hawaii, and attended school abroad at the Cairo American Collage in Egypt and the Anglican School of Jerusalem in Israel. She loves to learn about history and is passionate about historical research.


The Civil War Shelf

The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865
William Royston Geise, author
Michael J. Forsyth, editor
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611216219, $32.95, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Confederate-Military-Forces-Trans-Mississippi-1861-1865/dp/1611216214

Synopsis: The late William Royston Geise was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1970s when he researched and wrote The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861- 1865: A Study in Command in 1974. Although it remained unpublished, it was not wholly unknown. Deep-diving researchers were aware of Dr. Geise's work and lamented the fact that it was not widely available to the general public. In many respects, studies of the Trans-Mississippi Theater are only now catching up with Geise.

"The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865: A Study in Command"is an intriguing study that traces the evolution of Confederate command and how it affected the shifting strategic situation and general course of the war. Dr. Geise accomplishes his task by coming at the question in a unique fashion. Military field operations are discussed as needed, but his emphasis is on the functioning of headquarters and staff -- the central nervous system of any military command. This was especially so for the Trans-Mississippi.

After July 1863, the only viable Confederate agency west of the great river was the headquarters at Shreveport. That hub of activity became the sole location to which all isolated players, civilians and military alike, could look for immediate overall leadership and a sense of Confederate solidarity. By filling these needs, the Trans-Mississippi Department assumed a unique and vital role among Confederate military departments and provided a focus for continued Confederate resistance west of the Mississippi River.

Dr. Geise's work mining primary archival sources and published firsthand accounts, coupled with a smooth and clear writing style, helps explain why this remote department (referred to as "Kirby Smithdom" after Gen. Kirby Smith) failed to function efficiently, and how and why the war unfolded there as it did.

In the role of editor, Trans-Mississippi Theater historian and Ph.D. candidate Michael J. Forsyth (Col., U.S. Army, Ret.) has resurrected Dr. Geise's smoothly written and deeply researched manuscript from its undeserved obscurity. This edition newly published by Savas Beatie, with its original annotations and Forsyth's updated citations and observations, is bolstered with original maps, photographs, and images. Students of the war in general, and the Trans-Mississippi Theater in particular, will delight in its long overdue publication.

Critique: A skillfully edited and treasured contribution to the ever expanding library of American Civil War histories, "The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865: A Study in Command" by the late William Royston Geise is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. Nicely enhanced with the inclusion of numerous maps and photographs, "The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865: A Study in Command" is also available in a digital format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note #1: William Royston Geise graduated from the Missouri Military Academy in 1936 and was attending the University of Texas at Austin when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He joined what would become the Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1961. He earned Bachelor's in English from the University of Arizona and his Master's in English and Ph.D. in American History in 1974 from UT-Austin. Geise taught history at San Antonio College for 15 years and published articles in a variety of periodicals before passing away in 1993. (https://www.savasbeatie.com/the-confederate-military-forces-in-the-trans-mississippi-west-1861-1865)

Editorial Note #2: Michael J. Forsyth (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael-Forsyth) is a retired U.S. Army field artillery colonel and currently an assistant professor in the Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational Operations at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He is a veteran of Operation DESERT STORM, served three tours in Afghanistan, and is a Ph.D. candidate at the Royal Military College of Canada. Michael is the author of many articles and four books, including The Great Missouri Raid: Sterling Price and the Last Major Confederate Campaign in Northern Territory (2015).

Yours Affectionately, Osgood
Sarah Trace Burrows, editor
Ryan W. Keating, editor
The Kent State University Press
1118 Library, P.O. Box 5190, Kent OH 44242
http://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com
9781606354407, $58.00, HC, 350pp

https://www.amazon.com/Yours-Affectionately-Osgood-1862-1865-Interpreting/dp/160635440X

Synopsis: More than 3 million men served in the American Civil War. With the publication of "Yours Affectionately, Osgood: Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy's Letters Home from the Civil War, 1862 - 1865", co-editors Sarah Tracy Burrows and Ryan W. Keating have assembled a collection of letters from one of those soldiers -- Osgood Vose Tracy of the 122nd New York Infantry.

Sarah Tracy Burrows, a descendant of Col. Osgood Tracy, has compiled this expansive collection from her family's private papers. Paired with illuminating discussion and historical context from noted Civil War historian Ryan W. Keating, Tracy's letters home follow his journey as a soldier and prisoner of war from his enlistment in August 1862 through the end of the war in May 1865, as Tracy then readjusted to civilian life.

The letters in "Yours Affectionately, Osgood", were primarily written to his mother and provide a uniquely detailed perspective of everyday life in the Army of the Potomac, adding considerably to the existing literature on the experiences of citizen soldiers in America's Civil War.

A well-educated young man, Tracy offers his opinion on pressing social and political issues of the time, including his definite abolitionist sentiments; ruminates on the Union war effort and its campaigns; and demonstrates his deep commitment to family, as well as his sweetheart, Nellie Sedgwick, back home.

Tracy's letters constitute an incredibly rare primary source volume that will be both fascinating and foundational in the scholarly community and for more general interest readers of the history of the Civil War.

Critique: An invaluable contribution to the growing library of American Civil War History/Biography/Memoir studies, "Yours Affectionately, Osgood: Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy's Letters Home from the Civil War, 1862 - 1865" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library American Civil War collections.

Editorial Note #1: Sarah Tracy Burrows (https://sarahtracyburrows.com) is a graduate of Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a BA in English and history. She worked for CFO Publishing Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts, and is currently a trustee and chair of steering for the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, named for her 8x great-grandfather.

Editorial Note #2: Ryan W. Keating (https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/author/rkeating) is Professor of History and Director of the Office of Student Research at California State University San Bernardino, where he teaches and researches on the Civil War era. He is also the author of "Shades of Green: Irish Regiments, American Soldiers, and Local Communities in the Civil War Era" and "The Greatest Trials I Ever Had: The Civil War Letters of Margaret and Thomas Cahill".

Civil War Monuments and Memory
Jon Tracey, editor
Chris Mackowski, editor
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611216332. $29.95, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Monuments-Memory-Perspectives/dp/1611216338

Synopsis: The American Civil War left indelible physical and emotional marks on the country. In the century and a half since the war, Americans have remembered the war in different ways. Veterans placed monuments to commemorate their deeds on the battlefield. In doing so, they often set in stone and bronze specific images in specific places that may have conflicted with the factual historical record.

Erecting monuments and memorials became a way to commemorate the past, but they also became important tools for remembering that past in particular ways. Monuments honor, but they also embody the very real tension between history and the way we remember that history - what we now today call "memory".

Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by historians Ion Tracey and Chris Mackowski, "Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War" explores some of the ways people monumented and memorialized the war -- and how those markers have impacted our understanding of it.

This collection of essays brings together the best scholarship from Emerging Civil War's blog, symposia, and podcast (all of it revised and updated) coupled with original pieces, designed to shed new light and insight on the monuments and memorials that give us some of our most iconic and powerful connections to the battlefields and the men who fought there.

Critique: Unique, special, and unreservedly recommended compendium of erudite, informative, and insightful articles by experts in their fields, "Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War" must be considered a core addition to professional, community, and academic library American Civil War collections. It should also be noted that "Civil War Monuments and Memory" is also readily available for students, academia, and American Civil War buffs in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.49).

Editorial Note #1: Jon Tracey is a public historian focused on soldier experience, memory, and veteran life in the Civil War era. He holds a BA in History from Gettysburg College and an MA from West Virginia University in Public History with a Certificate in Cultural Resource Management. He currently serves as the chair of Emerging Civil War's Editorial Board, and works in historic preservation.

Editorial Note #2: Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor in chief of Emerging Civil War. He is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University and the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield. He has authored or coauthored more than a dozen books on the Civil War.


The Military Shelf

Taking Berlin: The Bloody Race to Defeat the Third Reich
Martin Dugard
Caliber Dutton
c/o Penguin Group USA
https://www.penguin.com
9780593187425, $30.00, HC, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Berlin-Bloody-Defeat-Third/dp/0593187423

Synopsis: Fall, 1944. Paris has been liberated, saved from destruction, but this diversion on the road to Berlin has given the Germans time to regroup. The American and British armies press on from the west, facing the enemy time and again in the Hurtgen Forest, during the Market-Garden invasion, and at the Battle of the Bulge, all while American general George Patton and British field marshal Bernard Montgomery vie for supremacy as the Allies' top battlefield commander.

Meanwhile, the Soviets begin to squeeze Hitler's crumbling Reich from the east. Led by Generals Zhukov and Konev, the Red Army launches millions of soldiers, backed by tanks, artillery, and warplanes, against the Germans, leaving death and scorched earth in their wake, pushing the Wehrmacht back toward their fatherland. As both the Anglo-American alliance and the Soviets set their sights on claiming the capital city of Nazi Germany, Churchill seeks to ensure Britain's place in a new world divided by Roosevelt's America and Stalin's Soviet Union.

With the publication of "Taking Berlin: The Bloody Race to Defeat the Third Reich" and featuring a sweeping cast of historical figures, author and historian Martin Dugard reveals a pulse-pounding race into the final, desperate months of the Second World War and toward the fiery destruction of the Thousand-Year-Reich -- chronicling a moment in history when allies became adversaries.

Critique: Enhanced for scholars with a twelve page Index, and engendering all the compulsive fascination of a finely crafted novel for the non-specialist general reader, "Taking Berlin: The Bloody Race to Defeat the Third Reich" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library World War II military history collections. It should be noted for students, academia, and military history buffs that "Taking Berlin" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note: Martin Dugard began writing professionally in 1988. Bored by an unfulfilling corporate marketing job, he began writing articles for endurance sports magazines such as Competitor and Runner's World in the mornings and on weekends. In 1993, inspired after covering the Raid Gauloises adventure race in Madagascar, Dugard left the corporate world to pursue a full-time writing career. Now he is the author of several books of history, among them the Killing series, "Into Africa", and "The Explorers". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dugard_(author)

Information in War
Benjamin M. Jensen, author
Christopher Whyte, author
Scott Cuomo, author
Georgetown University Press
3240 Prospect Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007
www.press.georgetown.edu
9781647122638, $149.95, HC, 266pp

https://www.amazon.com/Information-War-Innovation-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1647122635

Synopsis: In the coming decades, artificial intelligence (AI) could revolutionize the way humans wage war. The military organizations that best innovate and adapt to this AI revolution will likely gain significant advantages over their rivals. To this end, great powers such as the United States, China, and Russia are already investing in novel sensing, reasoning, and learning technologies that will alter how militaries plan and fight. The resulting transformation could fundamentally change the character of war.

With the publication of "Information in War: Military Innovation, Battle Networks, and the Future of Artificial Intelligence, the team of Benjamin Jensen, Christopher Whyte, and Scott Cuomo provide a deeper understanding of the AI revolution by exploring the relationship between information, organizational dynamics, and military power. The authors analyze how militaries adjust to new information communication technology historically to identify opportunities, risks, and obstacles that will almost certainly confront modern defense organizations as they pursue AI pathways to the future. Information in War builds on these historical cases to frame four alternative future scenarios exploring what the AI revolution could look like in the US military by 2040.

Critique: Informative enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of illustrations, a twenty-two page Bibliography, and an eight page Index, "Information in War: Military Innovation, Battle Networks, and the Future of Artificial Intelligence" must be considered essential reading for anyone with an interest in the subject of artificial intelligence and its impact on military science and history, military intelligence and espionage. Exceptionally well organized and presented, informed and informative, "Information in War: Military Innovation, Battle Networks, and the Future of Artificial Intelligence" is a critically important and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic Contemporary Military Studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, governmental policy makers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Information in War: Military Innovation, Battle Networks, and the Future of Artificial Intelligence" is available in a paperback edition (9781647122645, $49.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $37.49).

Editorial Note #1: Benjamin M. Jensen (https://www.benjaminmjensen.com) is a professor at the Marine Corps University's School of Advanced Warfighting, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and an officer in the US Army Reserves with multiple deployments.

Editorial Note #2: Christopher Whyte is an assistant professor at the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. (https://wilder.vcu.edu/people/faculty/christopher-whyte-.html)

Editorial Note #3: Lt. Col. Scott Cuomo (USMC) is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, served as the Marine Corps representative on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, and is currently assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy focused on Strategy and Force Development. (https://www.usni.org/people/scott-cuomo)

Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia, second edition
Arnold R. Isaacs
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476686356, $49.95, PB, 446pp

https://www.amazon.com/Without-Honor-Vietnam-Cambodia-Updated/dp/1476686351

Synopsis: Originally published in 1983 and now release in a newly updated second edition, "Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia" by journalist Arnold R. Isaacs provides a detailed review of the end of the Vietnam War.

Drawing on the author's eyewitness reporting and extensive research, this new edition of "Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia" relies on carefully reported facts, not partisan myths, to reconstruct the war's last years and harrowing final months. The catastrophic suffering those events brought to ordinary Vietnamese civilians and soldiers is vividly portrayed.

The largely unremembered wars in Cambodia and Laos are examined as well, while new material in an updated final chapter points out troubling parallels between the Vietnam War and America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Critique: A simply fascinating and impressively informative read, "Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia" will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in the history of America's military and political involvement in the Vietnam War. While highly recommended for both community and academic library collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers that this a significantly updated edition has a special relevance today given the American military and political involvement with Afghanistan and now Ukraine.

Editorial Note: Arnold R. Isaacs (https://dartcenter.org/bio/arnold-r-isaacs) is a freelance writer and educator. He reported on the closing years of the Vietnam war during six years in Asia as a correspondent for the Baltimore Sun. Following his career in daily journalism, he continued to travel widely as a teacher and international journalism trainer.

To Save An Army: The Stalingrad Airlift
Robert Forsyth
Osprey Publishing
4301 21st St, Suite 220B, Long Island City, NY 11101
www.ospreypublishing.com
9781472845412, $35.00, HC, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Save-Army-Stalingrad-Airlift/dp/1472845412

Synopsis: Using the diaries of Luftwaffe commanders, rare contemporary photographs and other previously unpublished sources, with the publication of "To Save An Army: The Stalingrad Airlift" military historian Robert Forsyth analyzes the human, strategic, tactical and technical elements of one of the most dramatic operations arranged by the Luftwaffe.

Stalingrad ranks as one of the most infamous, savage and emotive battles of the 20th century. It has consumed military historians since the 1950s and has inspired many books and much debate. "To Save An Army" tells the story of the operation mounted by the Luftwaffe to supply, by airlift, the trapped and exhausted German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43. The weather conditions faced by the flying crews, mechanics, and soldiers on the ground were appalling, but against all odds, and a resurgent and active Soviet air force, the transports maintained a determined presence over the ravaged city on the Volga, even when the last airfields in the Stalingrad pocket had been lost.

Yet, even the daily figure of 300 tons of supplies, needed by Sixth Army just to subsist, proved over-ambitious for the Luftwaffe which battled against a lack of transport capacity, worsening serviceability, and increasing losses in badly needed aircraft.

Critique: Once again Robert Forsyth has contributed another deftly researched, exceptionally well written, organized and presented study that is unreserved recommended to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. Informatively enhanced with the inclusion of illustrations, maps, a Glossary, a Table of Ranks, four Appendices, a Bibliography, twenty-seven pages of Notes, and an extensive Index, it should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "To Save An Army: The Stalingrad Airlift" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.46).

Editorial Note: Robert Forsyth (https://ospreypublishing.com/us/author/robert-forsyth) is an author, editor and publisher, specializing in military aviation and military history. He is the author of over 25 titles for Osprey Publishing, on the aircraft, units and operations of the Luftwaffe, including Luftwaffe Special Weapons 1942-45 and DUEL 97 Tempest V vs Fw 190D-9: 1944-45.

Dunkirchen 1940: The German View of Dunkirk
Robert Kershaw
Osprey Publishing
4301 21st St, Suite 220B, Long Island City, NY 11101
www.ospreypublishing.com
9781472854377, $30.00, HC, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/D%C3%BCnkirchen-1940-German-View-Dunkirk/dp/1472854373

Synopsis: The British evacuation from the beaches of the small French port town of Dunkirk is one of the iconic moments of World War II military history. The battle has captured the popular imagination through LIFE magazine photo spreads, the fiction of Ian McEwan and, of course, Christopher Nolan's hugely successful Hollywood blockbuster movie.

But what is the German view of this stunning Allied escape? Drawing on German interviews, diaries and unit post-action reports, with the publication of "Dunkirchen 1940: The German View of Dunkirk", historian Robert Kershaw creates an iconoclastic history of a battle that we thought we knew.

"Dunkirchen 1940" is the first major history on what went wrong for the Germans at Dunkirk -- from the German perspective. As supreme military commander, Hitler had seemingly achieved a miracle after the swift capitulation of Holland and Belgium, but with just seven kilometres before the panzers captured Dunkirk (the only port through which the trapped British Expeditionary force might escape) they came to a shuddering stop. Hitler had lost control of his stunning advance. Only a this detailed interpretation of the German perspective (historically lacking to date) can provide answers as to why.

Drawing on his own military experience, his German language skills, and his historian's eye for detail, Robert Kershaw creates a new history of this familiar battle. With a fresh angle on this famous conflict, "Dunkirchen 1940" delves into the under-evaluated major German miscalculation both strategically and tactically that arguably cost Hitler the war.

Critique: Simply stated, no World War II European Theatre history collections can be considered comprehensive or up-to- date without the inclusion of Robert Kershaw's "Dunkirchen 1940: The German View of Dunkirk". Featuring an impressive insert of black/white historical photographs, illustrations, maps, sixteen pages of Notes, a six page Bibliography, and a nine page Index, "Dunkirchen 1940: The German View of Dunkirk" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.60) and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II Military History & Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Robert Kershaw (https://robertjkershaw.com) joined the Parachute Regiment in 1973. He served numerous regimental appointments until selected to command the 10th Battalion the Parachute Regiment (10 PARA). He attended the German Staff College spending a further two years with the Bundeswehr as an infantry, airborne and arctic warfare instructor. His active service includes several tours in Northern Ireland, the First Gulf War and Bosnia. He has exercised in many parts of the world and served in the Middle East and Africa. His final army appointment was with the Intelligence Division at HQ NATO in Brussels Belgium. On leaving the British Army in 2006 he became a full-time author of military history as well as a consultant military analyst. He has recorded for BBC radio and interviewed on numerous TV documentaries including Dutch TV and National Geographic, and published frequent magazine and newspaper articles including The Times, The Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph.

Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matthaus Hetzenauer
Roland Kaltenegger, author
Introduction by Martin Pegler
Greenhill Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781784382162, $32.95, HC, 192pp

https://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Front-Sniper-Hetzenauer-Greenhill/dp/1784382167

Synopsis: Mathaus Hetzenauer, the son of a Tyrolean peasant family, was born in December 1924. He was drafted into the Mountain Reserve Battalian 140 at the age of 18 but discharged five month's later.

He received a new draft notice in January 1943 for a post in the Styrian Truppenubungsplatz Seetal Alps where he met some of the best German snipers and learned his art. Hetzenauer went on to fight in Romania, Eastern Hungary and in Slovakia. As recognition for his more than 300 confirmed kills he was awarded on the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 17, 1945.

After nearly five years of Soviet captivity Mathaus Hetzenauer returned to Austria on January 10, 1950. He lived in the Tyrol's Brixen Valley until his death on 3 October of 2004.

Critique: A fascinating and informative military biography, "Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matthaus Hetzenauer" by the team of military historians Roland Kaltenegger and Martin Pegler is a comprehensive biography of one of Germany's most accomplished snipers on the Eastern Front in the dark days of World War II. Ably translated into English by Geoffrey Brooks, "Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matthaus Hetzenauer" is a singular and riveting read from first page to last. While also available in a paperback edition (9781784387945, $22.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99), "Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matthaus Hetzenauer" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II History/Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note #1: Roland Kaltenegger is the author of more than ten books on World War II including The Mountain Troops Of the Waffen-SS 1941-1945 and Weapons and Equipment Of the German Mountain Troops In World War II.

Editorial Note: Martin Pegler is a well-known military historian and writer who has made a special study of historic firearms and the battles of the Great War. He was Senior Curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds and is the author of many articles in military history journals and magazines and has written seven books.

Hitler's Armed SS: The Waffen-SS at War, 1939-1945
Anthony Tucker-Jones
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399006910, $34.95, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Armed-SS-Waffen-SS-1939-1945/dp/1399006916

Synopsis: The Waffen-SS was one of the most formidable German military formations of the Second World War. It was feared for its tenacity and ruthlessness in battle, and infamous for the atrocities it committed.

As a distinct fighting force derived from the Nazi Party's SS organization, it stood apart from the other units of the German army. Its origins, structure and operational role during the war are often misunderstood and the controversy still surrounding its conduct make it difficult today to get an accurate picture of its actions and its impact on the fighting.

With the publication of "Hitler's Armed SS: The Waffen-SS at War, 1939-1945", military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones provides a concise and fluently written account that provides the reader with an absorbing and clear sighted introduction to it.

"Hitler's Armed SS" traces its development under Himmler from modest beginnings in the early 1930s as Hitler's personal protection squad of elite soldiers to a force which eventually amounted to thirty-eight divisions. Towards the end of the war many Waffen-SS units were formed from foreign volunteers and proved to be of poor quality, but its premier panzer divisions thoroughly deserved their reputation as tough fighters.

Through accounts of the Waffen-SS's major battles on the Eastern Front, in Normandy and finally in defense of Germany, a detailed picture emerges of the contribution it made to the German war effort, especially when Hitler's armies were in retreat. The parts played by the most famous Waffen-SS formations (Das Reich, Totenkopf, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler among them) and their commanders (men like Dietrich and Hausser) can be seen in the wider context of the war and Germany's defeat.

Critique: An up-to-date history and assessment of Germany's once elite fighting force in the European theatre of World War II, "Hitler's Armed SS: The Waffen-SS at War, 1939-1945" is an extraordinarily informed and informative account that will prove to be a welcome and enduringly appreciated contribution to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II history collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. Students, academia, military buffs, and non- specialist general readers with an interest in the subject should note that "Hitler's Armed SS: The Waffen-SS at War, 1939- 1945" is also availble for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).

Editorial Noe: Anthony Tucker-Jones (https://www.atuckerjones.com) is a former defense intelligence officer and a widely published expert on regional conflicts, counter-terrorism and armored and aerial warfare. He is the author of over thirty books, is security and terrorism correspondent for intersec, The Journal of International Security.

Consolidated B-24 Liberator
Graham M. Simons
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781848846449, $34.95, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Consolidated-B-24-Liberator-Images-War/dp/1848846444

Synopsis: The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was almost certainly the most versatile World War II Bomber. Apart from its bombing role in all theaters of operation, the B-24 hauled fuel to France during the push towards Germany, carried troops, fought U-boats in the Atlantic and, probably most important of all, made a vital contribution towards winning the war in the Pacific. Its most famous single exploit is possibly the raid on the Ploesti oil fields in August 1943.

The B-24 ended World War Two as the most produced Allied heavy bomber in history, and the most produced American military aircraft at over 18,000 units, thanks in large measure to Henry Ford and the harnessing of American industry. It still holds the distinction as the most produced American military aircraft. The B-24 was used by several Allied air forces and navies, and by every branch of the American armed forces during the war, attaining a distinguished war record with its operations in the Western European, Pacific, Mediterranean and China-Burma-India theaters.

With the publication of "Consolidated B-24 Liberator", military aviation historian Graham M. Simons focuses on the design, engineering, development and tactical use of the many variants throughout the bomber's service life and presents the reader with all the information available on the B-24!'

Critique: "Consolidated B-24 Liberator " is enhanced for the reader with dramatic photographs coupled with the clarity of commentary that creates an engaging and entertaining history of this iconic Allied bomber -- a key component in several of their biggest victories and a marvel of military engineering. While also available for personal the reading lists of students, academia, and military aviation fans in a paperback edition (9781399019651, $26.95) and in digital book format (Kindle, $8.99), "Consolidated B-24 Liberator" is recommended as a core addition to World War II History and Military Aviation collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: English professional aviation writer, publisher and historian Graham M Simons is one of the founders of the world famous aviation museum at Duxford near Cambridge (https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford) where his interest was piqued watching the making of the 'Battle of Britain' film there in the late 1960's and from the days when you could go 'aircraft spotting' at London Heathrow and other airports.

Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942-43
Prit Buttar
Osprey Publishing
4301 21st St, Suite 220B, Long Island City, NY 11101
www.ospreypublishing.com
9781472851819, $35.00, HC, 464pp

https://www.amazon.com/Meat-Grinder-Battles-Salient-1942-43/dp/1472851811

Synopsis: The fighting between the German and Russian armies in the Rzhev Salient during World War II was so grisly, so murderous, and saw such vast losses that the troops called the campaign 'The Meat Grinder'. Though millions of men would fight and die there, the Rzhev Salient does not have the name recognition of Leningrad or Moscow. It was simply a vast tract of forests and swamps in the heart of Mother Russia that has been largely ignored by Western military historians.

With the publication of "Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942-43", Prit Buttar, a world expert on the Eastern Front during World War II, reveals the depth and depravity of the bitter fighting for the Rzhev Salient in this astonishing new history. He details how the long-ignored region held the promise of a renewed drive on the Soviet capital for the German Army -- a chance to turn the tide of war. Using both German and Russian first-hand accounts, Buttar examines the four major offensives launched by the Red Army against the salient, all of which were defeated with heavy losses, exceeding two million killed, wounded or missing, until eventually, the Germans were forced to evacuate the salient in March 1943.

Drawing on the latest research, "Meat Grinder" provides a new study of these horrific battles while also examining how the Red Army did ultimately learn from its colossal failures and how its analysis of these failures at the time helped pave the way for the eventual Soviet victory against Army Group Centre in the summer of 1944 -- leaving the road to Berlin clear.

Critique: Informative enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of Maps, Illustrations, an eight page listing of 'Dramatis Personae', sixteen pages of Notes, a six page Bibliography, and a seven page Index, "Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942-43" is a comprehensive detailed history that is a simply fascinating read from first page to last. A welcome and highly prized addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II Military History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted by students, academia, military history buffs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942-43" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.46).

Editorial Note: Prit Buttar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prit_Buttar) is an established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th-century military history. His previous books include the acclaimed Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944-45 and Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II. He is also the author of The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944 (Osprey, 2020). Prit originally studied medicine at Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. He latterly worked as a General Practitioner for several years. He now writes exclusively from his home in rural Scotland.

Bitter Peleliu
Joseph Wheelan
Osprey Publishing
4301 21st St, Suite 220B. Long Island City, NY 11101
www.ospreypublishing.com
9781472849502, $30.00, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Bitter-Peleliu-Forgotten-Struggle-Battlefield/dp/1472849507

Synopsis: In late 1944, and as a precursor to the invasion of the Philippines, U.S. military analysts decided to seize the small island of Peleliu to ensure that the Japanese airfield there could not threaten the invasion forces. "Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield" by Joseph Wheelan is important new study that explores the dramatic story of this 'forgotten' battle and the campaign's strategic failings.

"Bitter Peleliu" reveals how U.S. intelligence officers failed to detect the complex network of caves, tunnels, and pillboxes hidden inside the island's coral ridges. More importantly, they did not discern (nor could they before it happened) that the defense of Peleliu would represent a tectonic shift in Japanese strategy. No more contested enemy landings at the water's edge, no more wild banzai attacks. Now, invaders would be raked on the beaches by mortar and artillery fire. Then, as the enemy penetrated deeper into the Japanese defensive systems, he would find himself on ground carefully prepared for the purpose of killing as many American soldiers as possible.

For the battle-hardened 1st Marine Division Peleliu was a hornets' nest like no other. Yet thanks to pre-invasion over-confidence on the part of commanders, 30 of the 36 news correspondents accredited for the campaign had left prior to D-Day. Now some 78 years latter, "Bitter Peleliu" reveals the full horror of this 74-day battle, a battle that thanks to the reduced media presence has never garnered the type of attention it deserves.

Critique: Pacific War historian Joseph Wheelan deftly dissects the American intelligence and strategic failings, provides an insightful analyses the shift in Japanese tactics, and candescently recreates the Marines' horrific experiences on the worst of the Pacific battlegrounds. "Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield" is a compelling, detailed, and comprehensive study rescuing from obscurity a forgotten but critically important battle. While also available for the personal reading lists of World War II military history buffs, "Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War's Worst Battlefield" is a very highly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library World War II Pacific Theatre collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Joseph Wheelan (https://www.josephwheelan.com/biography.html) is the author of ten books about 19th- and 20th-century American history including Midnight in the Pacific (2017) and Bloody Okinawa (2020). Previously, he was an editor and reporter for The Associated Press for 24 years.


The Sports Shelf

The Black Athlete as Hero
Joseph Dorinson
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476678863, $39.95, PB, 307pp

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Athlete-Hero-American-Breakers/dp/1476678863

Synopsis: Part history, part biography, "The Black Athlete as Hero: American Barrier Breakers from Nine Sports" is an informative and seminal study by Joseph Dorinson (who is a retired history professor from Long Island University) that examines the Black athlete's search to unify what W.E.B. DuBois called the "two unreconciled strivings" of African Americans -- the struggle to survive in black society while adapting to white society.

Black athletes have served as vanguards of change, challenging the dominant culture, crossing social boundaries and raising political awareness. Champions like Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Wilma Rudolph, Roberto Clemente, Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe, Serena Williams, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James make a difference, even as many in the Black community question the idea of athletes as role models.

Professor Dorinson deftly argues the importance of sports heroes in a panic-plagued era beset with class division and racial privilege.

Critique: A fascinating, ground-breaking sports history, "The Black Athlete as Hero: American Barrier Breakers from Nine Sports" is a seminal and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library American Sports History collections in general, and African-American Sports Biography reading lists in particular.


The Architecture Shelf

Uncrating the Japanese House
Yuka Yokoyama, editor
William Whitaker, editor
Elizabeth Felicella, photographer
August Editions
c/o Distributed Art Publishers
155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10013-1507
www.artbook.com
9781947359093, $45.00, HC, 144pp

https://www.amazon.com/Uncrating-Japanese-House-Yoshimura-Nakashima/dp/1947359096

Synopsis: In 1953, Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura designed a now-classic Japanese house and garden that he called Shofuso. It was built in Nagoya, Japan, and shipped to New York in 1954, where it was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and then relocated to Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The curators of MoMA's House in the Garden exhibition highlighted its synthesis of historic Japanese architecture with modern architecture: the clarity of the house's post and beam structure, its flexibility of use and the close relationship of indoor and outdoor spaces.

"Uncrating the Japanese House: Junzo Yoshimura, Antonin and Noemi Raymond, and George Nakashima" is an extensively illustrated volume that centers on Yoshimura's design for Shofuso and two allied sites located in New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Raymond Farm (1939-41), a live-work residence built by Antonin and Noemi Raymond within the fabric of an existing 18th-century Quaker farmhouse; and Nakashima Studios, a complex of structures designed by George Nakashima over three decades (1947 - 77) to serve his furniture-making business and as his family's home. Each site, in its own way, is the embodiment of the personal relationships and cross-cultural collaborations among this group of architects and designers.

The Raymonds, along with Yoshimura, Nakashima and others, came to understand Japan's changing environment through the act of building, through collaboration and travel. Together, they extended these lessons into the furniture and furnishings of modern living in both Japan and the United States.

"Uncrating the Japanese House: Junzo Yoshimura, Antonin and Noemi Raymond, and George Nakashima" documents an exhibition of objects and ephemera mounted at Shofuso. New York - based architectural photographer Elizabeth Felicella captures each site in a portfolio of newly commissioned images. Essays by Ken Tadashi Oshima and William Whitaker, illustrated with historical photographs, family snapshots and architectural drawings, further elucidate this important chapter in the history of modern architecture and design.

Critique: Collaborative compiled and co-edited by the team of Yukoyama and William Whitaker, and profusely illustrated throughout with the full color photography of Elizabeth Felicella, "Uncrating the Japanese House: Junzo Yoshimura, Antonin and Noemi Raymond, and George Nakashima" is a unique, informative, and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Architectural Studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.


The Mathematics Shelf

Linear Algebra
Lina Oliveira
Chapman & Hall
c/o CRC Press
6000 NW Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487
www.crcpress.com
9781032287812, $160.00, HC, 328pp

https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Lina-Oliveira/dp/1032287810

Synopsis: The narrative of "Linear Algebra" takes a matrix approach: the exposition is intertwined with matrices either as the main subject or as tools to explore the theory. Each chapter contains a description of its aims, a summary at the end of the chapter, exercises, and solutions. The reader is carefully guided through the theory and techniques presented which are outlined throughout in "How to..." text boxes. Common mistakes and pitfalls are also pointed out as one goes along.

"Linear Algebra" is written to be self-contained and ideal as a primary textbook for an undergraduate course in linear algebra. Applications of the general theory which are of interest to disciplines outside of mathematics, such as engineering, are also a part of "Linear Algebra".

Critique: "Linear Algebra" by mathematician Lina Oliveira is intended primarily as an undergraduate textbook but is written in such a way that it can also be a valuable resource for independent learning as well. Exceptional in organization and presentation, "Linear Algebra" is unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library Applied Mathematics, Albegra and Trigonometry collections and curriculums. It should be noted for students, academia, and non- specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Linear Algebra" is also available in a paperback edition (9780815373315, $64.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $64.95).

Editorial Note: Lina Oliveira (https://www.math.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/~linaoliv) earned her DPhil in Mathematics from the University of Oxford, UK and is a faculty member of the Department of Mathematics of Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal. She has taught several graduate and undergraduate courses at Instituto Superior Tecnico where she regularly teaches Linear Algebra since 2001. Her research interests are in the areas of Functional Analysis, Operator Algebras and Operator Theory. She is currently the head of the Linear Algebra course at the Portuguese Air Force Academy.


The Photography Shelf

Ernst Haas: The American West
Ernst Haas, photographer
Paul Lowe, author
Prestel Publishing
www.prestel.com
9783791388250, $55.00, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ernst-Haas-American-Paul-Lowe/dp/3791388258

Synopsis: With the informative commentary of Paul Lowe, "Ernst Haas: The American West" showcases a memorable collection of striking photographic color images from the American West with which photographer Ernst Haas provides both a visually moving national portrait as well as a celebration of analog color photography.

The photographer behind Life magazine's first ever all-color photographic essay, Ernst Haas made (and captured) history as an early adopter of Kodachrome film.

The Austrian-born artist had already established himself as a black and white photographer when he moved to America in 1951. But as a member of the renowned Magnum agency, he transformed the genre with his color-saturated images, the perfect medium for capturing America's geographic and cultural landscapes.

From desert storms, Route 66 gas stations, and Las Vegas neon to rolling prairie, dilapidated farms, small-town parades, and city sidewalks, Haas' perfectly composed images, contain a distinct pictorial language, suffused with poetry, pattern, and light. At the same time his pictures communicate a journalist's point of view, whether the subject is rural poverty, suburban comfort, or the myth of the American West.

This remarkable compendium of the work of Ernst Haas offers a magnificent vision of America as captured through the lens of a camera combined with an artist's eye for form and feature.

Critique: Ernst Haas (1921 - 1986) is acclaimed as one of the most celebrated and influential photographers of the 20th century and considered one of the pioneers of color photography. Haas was born in Vienna in 1921, and took up photography after the war. His early work on Austrian returning prisoners of war brought him to the attention of LIFE magazine. He declined a job offer as staff photographer in order to keep his independence. At the invitation of Robert Capa, Haas joined Magnum in 1949, developing close associations with Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Werner Bishof. Enhanced with an informative essay by photography expert Paul Lowe, the coffee-table style (9.88 x 0.94 x 11.75 inches, 1.25 pounds) volume is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library 20th Century American Photography collections. (https://ernst-haas.com/biography)

Editorial Note: Paul Lowe (https://viiphoto.com/profile/paul-lowe) is a senior lecturer in photography and an award-winning photographer. He teaches at the London College of Communication. His photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Life, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Observer, and the Independent, among others.

Pools From Above
Brad Walls
Smith Street Books
c/o Rizzoli
300 Park Avenue South, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10010
www.rizzoliusa.com
9781925811971, $40.00, HC, 176pp

https://www.amazon.com/Pools-Above-Brad-Walls/dp/1925811972

Synopsis: With the publication of "Pools From Above", aerial photographer Brad Walls showcases his photographic images that capture the unexpected beauty, curves, hues, and textures of unique aquatic architecture from around the world. Produced over a span of three years in four countries, this photo collection is the culmination of Walls' long journey to discover the beauty in commonplace landscapes seen from unexpected vantages.

Critique: A simply fascinating coffee-table style (9.18 x 0.81 x 10.99 inches, 2.6 pounds) volume, "Pools From Above" by expert aerial photographer Brad Walls will have a very special appeal to anyone with an interest in aerial photography and photography equipment/techniques. "Pools From Above" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Contemporary Photography collections.

Editorial Note: Brad Walls (https://www.bradscanvas.com) is an aerial photographer based in Sydney, Australia. His work has garnered prestigious awards and international acclaim and been published by The Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN, and The New York Times.


The Music Shelf

Riders Of The Purple Sage: The Making Of A Western Opera
Zane Grey, author
Craig Bohmler, composer
Kristin Atwell Ford, director
First Run Features
630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 1213, New York, NY 10036
www.firstrunfeatures.com
B0BDVSXJ87, $17.99, DVD, 1 disc (1 Hour, 22 Minutes)

https://www.amazon.com/Riders-Purple-Sage-Making-Western/dp/B0BDVSXJ87

Synopsis: "Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera" follows a classically trained composer as he adapts a dime novel masterpiece into a grand opera. In 1912, Zane Grey's 'Riders of the Purple Sage' flew off bookshelves around the world and today is recognized by the Library of Congress as "One Hundred Books that Shaped America."

A century later, composer Craig Bohmler takes shelter in Zane Grey's cabin during a rainstorm. There, amidst posters from Grey's Hollywood Westerns, Bohmler discovers a story with the grand dimensions of opera; he decides then and there to mount the legendary frontier novel for the operatic stage.

Alongside a team of designers, musicians, singers, and fine art painter Ed Mell, Bohmler translates America's cowboy culture and sprawling beauty of the West into the realm of Puccini and Verdi.

Critique: "Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera" is a DVD that will have special appeal to fans of musicals, westerns, and behind the scenes production insights into the making of a musical adaptation of one of a legendary western novel by one of the best known western and enduringly popular authors of westerns. Simply stated, this DVD edition of "Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera" from First Run Features is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Music Documentary collections.


The Nautical Shelf

Olympic Titanic Britannic
Simon Mills
Adlard Coles
c/o Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781472988652, $35.00, HC, 272pp

https://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Titanic-Britannic-anatomy-evolution/dp/1472988655

Synopsis: The Olympic Class liners were conceived as the largest, grandest ships ever to set sail. Of the three ships built, the first only lost the record for being the largest because she was beaten by the second, and they were both beaten by the third. The class was meant to secure the White Star Line's reputation as the greatest shipping company on earth. Instead, with the loss of both the Titanic and the Britannic in their first year of service, it guaranteed White Star's infamy.

"Olympic Titanic Britannic: The anatomy and evolution of the Olympic Class" by Simon Mills is unique maritime history that tells the extraordinary story of these three extraordinary ships from the bottom up, starting with their conception and construction (and later their modification) and following their very different careers. Behind the technical details of these magnificent ships lies a tragic human story -- not just of the lives lost aboard the Titanic and Britannic, but of the designers pushing the limits beyond what was actually possible, engineers unable to prepare for every twist of fate, and ship owners and crew who truly believed a ship could be unsinkable.

A fascinating maritime history enhanced with rare photographs, new computer-generated recreations of the ships, and unique wreck images that explore how well the ships were designed and built. "Olympic Titanic Britannic: The anatomy and evolution of the Olympic Class" offers unparalleled access to shipbuilders Harland & Wolff's specification book for the Olympic Class, including original blueprints and (being made widely available for the first time) large fold-out technical drawings showing how these extensive plans were meant to be seen.

Critique: An incredibly impressive, profusely illustrated, definitively researched, well organized and presented maritime history of three now legendary ocean liners, "Olympic Titanic Britannic: The anatomy and evolution of the Olympic Class" is a singular and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library 20th Century Maritime History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Simon Mills (https://eurotek.uk.com/simonmills-2) has helped to research a number of maritime-themed documentaries, authored or edited 11 books, and has for many years written articles on the Britannic and the Olympic class liners for maritime periodicals. All of this now takes second place to coordinating the development of the Britannic project, the wreck of which he bought in 1996.


The Aviation Shelf

Ace in a Day
Lt. Col. Wayne K. Blickenstaff, author
Graham Cross, editor
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781636242095, $39.95, HC, 360pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ace-Day-Memoir-Eighth-Fighter/dp/163624209X

Synopsis: Wayne K. Blickenstaff, known as "Blick," was a stalwart member of the 350th Fighter Squadron of the 353rd Fighter Group based at Goxhill, Metfield and Raydon, England as part of the Eighth Air Force prosecuting the strategic air campaign against Germany. As an original cadre member, he rose steadily through the ranks from a Second Lieutenant Element Leader to Flight Leader, Squadron Operations Officer, Squadron Leader and finally to a Lieutenant Colonel and Group Operations Officer. Flying the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang, he completed two tours of operations between 1943 and 1945 encompassing 133 missions and claims of 10 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air. His double "ace" status included a Me262 jet fighter and the destruction of five aircraft in one mission -- giving him rare "ace in a day" status.

With editorial assistance by Graham Cross, "Ace in a Day: The Memoir of an Eighth Air Force Fighter Pilot in World War II" is Blick's candid and gritty personal memoir of his air war experiences in Europe. His vivid writing places you in the cockpit as he and his comrades battle the enemy in the skies or attack ground targets across Europe. His account conveys a true sense of just how dangerous flying World War II fighters, in all weather conditions, really was. It was not just the enemy that could kill you. A moment's inattention, overconfidence or simple mistake could be deadly.

As a keen observer of character, Blick's pen portraits of those around him, including many of those who sadly did not survive the war, offer a poignant and deeply moving tribute to those with whom he served.

Anyone wanting an understanding of the dynamics of a working fighter squadron at war and the dilemmas faced by those in command should read this book. Supported by an impressive array of original documentation, photographs, and detailed appendices, including Blick's never-before published wartime journal, "Ace in a Day" provides a unique and valuable insight into the harsh realities of the air war in Europe from one of the "Mighty Eighth's" top fighter pilots.

Critique: An inherently fascinating and 'eye-witness informative' account, "Ace in a Day: The Memoir of an Eighth Air Force Fighter Pilot in World War II" is a valued and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II History/Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. Of special note to students, academia, military history buffs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Ace in a Day: The Memoir of an Eighth Air Force Fighter Pilot in World War II" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $20.95).

Editorial Note #1: Having achieved his childhood dream of learning to fly, Wayne K. Blickenstaff set aside his wings and turned his artistic talent and love of adventure strip illustrations into a successful career as an advertising, editorial and book illustrator. He later became a teacher and art director. People gravitated to him because of his calm demeanor, great listening skills and insight. In 1989 Blick and his wife moved from Connecticut to North Carolina to be closer to family and spend time at their beloved summer home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. During retirement he pursued his interest in writing and this book was his passion project. Thanks to his friend and editor, Graham Cross, his dream to have it published has finally been realized.

Editorial Note #2: Graham Cross earned his doctorate in History from the University of Cambridge, and he specializes in twentieth century American military, diplomatic and political history and particularly the era of the two World Wars, the Allied air campaign and the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He has taught American history at Cambridge, University College Dublin, the University of Glasgow and Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a respected expert on the history of the 8th Air Force and for thirty-five years has been the historian and UK contact for the 353rd Fighter Group. He wrote what many consider to be the definitive fighter group history - Jonah's Feet Are Dry-The Experience of the 353rd Fighter Group During WWII (2001).


The Philosophy Shelf

Punk Rock and Philosophy
Joshua Heter and Richard Greene, editors
Open Universe
c/o Carus Books
www.carusbooks.com
9781637700228, $24.95

https://www.amazon.com/Punk-Rock-Philosophy-Pop-Culture/dp/1637700229

Punk Rock and Philosophy: Research and Destroy adds to the publisher's series Pop Culture and Philosophy with a 7th volume designed to especially appeal to pop music fans of punk rock. This audience will find the book offers thought-provoking discussions suitable for contemplation and group debate as they consider the essence of punk rock and its relationship to controversial thinking. From early punk's history and its relationship to political situations to the philosophical and ethical foundations of many of its major groups and songs, readers receive diverse essays that are compelling, passionate, contemporary links between philosophical thinking and modern musical culture.


The Biography Shelf

Remarkable Women series
TwoDot/Globe Pequot
http://globepequot.com
c/o Rowman & Littlefield
www.rowman.com

Two new editions of titles in the "Remarkable Women" series are top picks for libraries looking for biographical profiles of women who made their marks in different states.

https://www.amazon.com/Remarkable-Utah-Women-Fascinating-Females/dp/1493066846

The second edition of Christy Karras's Remarkable Utah Women (9781493066841, $19.95) selects seventeen strong women who made a name for themselves in a state oddly known for its religious rigidity and women's rights alike. The women featured here have achieved many things, from Emmeline B. Wells, who was president of both the Mormon Relief Society and the Women's Suffrage Association, and Reva Beck Bosone, the state's first female judge. New biographies have been added for this edition to profile activists and historians.

https://www.amazon.com/Remarkable-Arizona-Women-Fascinating-Females/dp/1493066862

The third updated edition of Wynne Brown's Remarkable Arizona Women (9781493066865, $19.95) selects seventeen women of quite remarkable, diverse backgrounds, from poets and historians to lady bandits, educators, and activists. Each of these women broke free from social and political restrictions to change others' lives and make a mark on their state.

Each book provides riveting insights that readers will find perfect for studying the states in general and women's lasting impact in particular, and deserves a place in any women's history collection that's strong in biographical inspection.

In the Heart of It All
Richard F. Celeste
The Kent State University Press
1118 Library, P.O. Box 5190, Kent OH 44242
http://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com
9781606354452, $29.95, HC, 350pp

https://www.amazon.com/Heart-All-Unvarnished-Account-Service/dp/1606354450

Synopsis: With the publication of "In the Heart of It All: An Unvarnished Account of My Life in Public Service", former Ohio governor Richard F. Celeste recounts his childhood in Lakewood, Ohio, where his politically ambitious father eventually served as mayor. Awarded a scholarship to attend Yale University, Celeste studied history and later became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford; while living overseas, he met and quickly married his first wife, Dagmar Braun. Upon returning from Oxford, Celeste expected to begin a teaching career but was recruited to serve as a liaison for Peace Corps volunteers in Latin America, and the young couple relocated to Washington, DC, where they became friendly with Chet and Steb Bowles. When President Kennedy appointed Chet Bowles US ambassador to India, he invited Dick to work as his personal assistant. There, under Bowles's tutelage, Dick began to consider a political career of his own.

Celeste returned to Ohio and successfully ran for the Ohio House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1970. After serving two terms, he was elected lieutenant governor in 1974 but lost the 1978 governor's race by a slim margin. Celeste worked in DC as director of the Peace Corps while plotting his next move, and in 1982, his gubernatorial campaign resulted in a landslide victory. He served two terms as Ohio's governor, tackling an epic savings and loan crisis along with mental health reform and job creation.

Celeste describes candidly why he considered and dismissed a presidential campaign in 1988. He went on to serve as ambassador to India under President Clinton, traveling there with his second wife, Jacqueline Lundquist, and bringing his career full circle. Shortly after that position ended, Celeste became president of Colorado College, serving from 2002 to 2011.

In each position, Celeste has used his grandmothers' wisdom to guide his decision making, putting the needs of his various constituents - Ohio citizens, Peace Corps volunteers, diplomatic colleagues, and college students - above his ego and popularity ratings, and, as he poignantly reflects, sometimes even before his family. In the Heart of It All offers a remarkably frank and expansive account of Celeste's personal and professional life, including his disappointing defeats and thrilling victories.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "In the Heart of It All: An Unvarnished Account of My Life in Public Service" will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in political biographies and memoirs. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49), "In the Heart of It All: An Unvarnished Account of My Life in Public Service" will prove a welcome and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library American Biography & Memoir collections.

Editorial Note: Richard F. Celeste (https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Richard_F._Celeste) was the governor of Ohio from 1983 to 1991. He has held a variety of positions in government and public service, most recently serving as president of Colorado College. He is currently a trustee of the Gates Family Foundation and Global Communities. The father of seven children, Celeste resides in Colorado with his wife, Jacqueline, and is involved with numerous charities.

At First Light
Walt Larimore
Knox Press
https://permutedpress.com/knox-press
Recorded Books
8400 Corporate Drive, Landover, MD 20785
https://rbmediaglobal.com/audio-brands
9781642939590, $35.00, HC, 480pp

https://www.amazon.com/At-First-Light-Bravery-Amazing/dp/1642939595

Synopsis: Growing up in the 1930s in Memphis, Tennessee, Phil Larimore was the ultimate Boy Scout -- able to read maps, put a compass to good use, and traverse wild swamps and desolate canyons. His other great skill was riding horses.

Phil does poorly in school, however, leading his parents send to him to a military academy. After Pearl Harbor, Phil realizes he is destined for war. Three weeks before his eighteenth birthday, he becomes the youngest candidate to ever graduate from Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Landing on the Anzio beachhead in February 1944, Phil is put in charge of an Ammunition Pioneer Platoon in the 3rd Infantry Division. Their job: deliver ammunition to the frontline foxholes - a dangerous assignment involving regular forays into No Man's Land.

As Phil fights his way up the Italian boot, into Southern France and across the Rhine River into Germany, he is caught up in some of the most intense combat ever. But it's what happens in the final stages of the war and his homecoming that makes Phil's story incredibly special and heartwarming.

Critique: An impressive and memorable story of genuine courage, daring, and heroism, "At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library World War II History & Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "At First Light" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Recorded Books, 9798212050531, $41.95, CD).

Number One Is Walking
Steve Martin, author
Harry Bliss, illustrator
Celadon Books
120 Broadway, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10271
https://celadonbooks.com
9781250815293, $30.00, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Number-One-Walking-Movies-Diversions/dp/1250815290

Synopsis: Steve Martin has never written about his career in the movies before. With the publication of "Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions", he shares anecdotes from the sets of his beloved films (Father of the Bride, Roxanne, The Jerk, Three Amigos, and many more) bringing his readers directly into his world.

He also shares charming tales of antics, moments of inspiration, and exploits with the likes of Paul McCartney, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, and Chevy Chase. Martin details his forty years in the movie biz, as well as his stand-up comedy, banjo playing, writing, and cartooning, all with his unparalleled wit.

With gorgeously illustrated cartoons and single-panel "diversions" combining the talents of entertainer Steve Martin and artist/illustrator Harry Bliss, "Number One Is Walking" is a compendium of the everyday moments that make up a movie star's life, capturing Steve Martin's singular humor and acclaimed career in film.

Critique: An absolute 'must' for the legions of Steve Martin fans, "Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions" will also introduce readers to the whimsical cartooning style of Harry Bliss as he gives a visual emphasis to Martin's wit, wisdom and life story. Simply stated, "Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community/academic library American Biography/Memoir/Humor collections.

Editorial Note #1: Steve Martin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Martin) is one of the most well-known talents in entertainment. His work has earned him an Academy Award , five Grammy awards, an Emmy, the Mark Twain Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors. As an author, Martin's work includes the novel An Object of Beauty, the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel, a bestselling novella, Shopgirl, and his memoir Born Standing Up. Martin's films include The Jerk, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Roxanne, Parenthood, L.A. Story, Father of the Bride, and Bowfinger.

Editorial Note #2: Harry Bliss (https://store.harrybliss.com) is a cartoonist and cover artist for the New Yorker magazine. His syndicated single-panel comic 'Bliss' appears in newspapers internationally. He has written and illustrated over 20 books for children and is the founder of the Cornish CCS Fellowship for Graphic Novelists in Cornish, New Hampshire.

The Scandalous Hamiltons
Bill Shaffer
Citadel Press
c/o Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street, Floor 21, New York, NY 10018-2522
www.kensingtonbooks.com
9780806542256, $26.00, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Scandalous-Hamiltons-Disgraced-Descendant-Journalism/dp/080654225X

Synopsis: With the publication of "The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Fathers Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism", author Bill Shaffer presents a historical story of true crime that almost too tawdry to be true -- a con woman prostitute who met the descendant of a Founding Father in a brothel, duped him into marriage using an infant purchased from a baby farm, then went to prison for stabbing the couple's baby nurse -- all while in a common-law marriage with another man.

The scandal surrounding Evangeline and Robert Ray Hamilton, though little known today, was one of the sensations of the Gilded Age, a sordid, gripping tale involving bigamy, bribery, sex, and violence.

When the salacious Hamilton story emerged in during Eva's trial for the August 1889 stabbing, it commanded unprecedented national and international newspaper coverage thanks to the telegraph and the recently founded Associated Press. For the New York dailies, eager to capture readers through provocative headlines, Ray and Eva were a godsend.

As lurid details emerged, the public's fascination grew -- how did a man of Hamilton's stature become entangled with such an adventuress? Nellie Bly, the world-famous investigative reporter, finagled an exclusive interview with Eva after her conviction. Hamilton's death under mysterious circumstances, a year after the stabbing, added to the intrigue.

Through personal correspondence, court records, and sensational newspaper accounts, "The Scandalous Hamiltons" explores not only the full, riveting saga of ill-fated Ray and Eva, but the rise of tabloid journalism and celebrity in a story that is both a fascinating slice of pop culture history and a timeless tale of ambition, greed, and obsession.

Critique: An exceptionally well written and riveting read -- and with an extraordinary appeal to dedicated fans of historical true crime stories, "The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Fathers Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism" is a highly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library 19th Century American History & Biography and American 'Yellow Journalism' history collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of all true crime fans that "The Scandalous Hamiltons" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.99).

Editorial Note: Bill Shaffer (https://www.billshafferbooks.com) is the author of Emotion In Motion: 55 Baranger Displays (Vitra Design Museum 2021). He has been published on www.designobserver.com and the online site of Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, where he was a Smithsonian Fellow. Shaffer also holds an M.A., History of Design and Curatorial Studies from Parsons, The New School.

Save the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army
Wilhelm Langbein, author
Heidi Langbein-Allen, author
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399072397, $32.95, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Bullet-Soldier-Hitlers/dp/1399072390

Synopsis: Willi Langbein was just thirteen when the Nazis took him away from his parents under the pretense of protecting him. Their real reason was to turn him into cannon-fodder for use against Hitler's enemies. Deployed to the collapsing Eastern Front in the last days of the war, Willi, now aged fourteen, and his schoolmates were ordered to stave off the relentless Russian advance. None were expected to return alive from the final battles of the Third Reich.

Yet, against all odds, Willi did survive but his ordeal was far from over. He returns home to find everything he knows destroyed. Numb and confused, he is mandated to serve one year of forced farm labor. After his release, he gradually realizes that all he was taught to believe in was a lie and he sinks into depression. Eventually, thanks to his friendship with a kind British soldier, he begins to heal. It begins to dawn on him that he can play a part to ensure that the evil he witnessed is never repeated. Ultimately, he succeeds by earning the Medal of European Merit in 1979 for his contribution to the advancement of European democracy.

Willi's graphic and moving story, told from a Nazi child soldier's perspective, is an inspiring memoir of lost innocence and despair, but also of determination and hope restored.

Critique: Given the current rise in anti-democratic influences in Europe (and America), "Save the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army" is a timely and timeless expose of what happens (especially to children) when democracy gives way to authoritarianism. A riveting personal memoir of Willhelm Langbein's daughter, Heidi Langbein-Allen drawing upon her father's records and accounts, "Save the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army" is a highly recommended and valued addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II History/Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Save the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49).

Editorial Note #1: Having lost two school years as a child soldier in Hitler's Army, Wilhelm Langbein graduated from high school in 1951, aged 21. In 1959, he married his Spanish pen pal, Teresa Vives. They had two daughters, Heidi and Graziella. After gaining a degree in law and philology from the University of Cologne, he joined the German Department of Defense in 1962. In 1979, he was awarded the medal of European Merit for his contribution to the advancement of democracy in Europe. He spent his final assignment as head of the Legal Division of the NATO EFA Development, Production and Logistic Management Agency before retiring in 1992. He passed away in 2018.

Editorial Note #2: Heidi Langbein-Allen was raised in Germany, France and Spain and lives in the USA with her husband, a retired US Navy veteran. She wrote her Father's memoirs from his taped recollections and records of interviews. An excerpt aired in the top-rated World War Two podcast fightingthroughpodcast.co.uk in May 2021 and a chapter appeared in the San Diego Writer's Association 2021 Anthology A Year In Ink.

The Reign Of Emperor Antoninus Pius
John S. McHugh
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526773982, $36.95. HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Fortress-Kingdom-Aethelflaed-Edward-899-927/dp/1399010611

Synopsis: The reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius is widely seen as the apogee of the Roman Empire yet, due to gaps in the historical sources, his reign has been overlooked by modern historians. He is considered one of the five good emperors of the Antonine dynasty under whom the pax Romana enabled the empire to prosper, trade to flourish and culture to thrive. His reign is considered a Golden Age but this was partly an image created by imperial propaganda. There were serious conflicts in North Africa and Dacia, as well as a major revolt in Britain. On his death the empire stood on the cusp of the catastrophic invasions and rebellions that marked the reign of his successor Marcus Aurelius.

Antoninus Pius became emperor through the hand of fate, being adopted by Hadrian only after the death of his intended heir, Lucius Aelius Caesar. His rule was a balancing act between securing his own safety, securing the succession of his adopted heir, and denying opportunities for conspiracy and rebellion. 'Equanimity' was the last password he issued to his guards as he lay on his death bed. In the face of the threats and challenges he remained calm and composed, providing twenty-three years of stability; a calm before the storms that gathered both within and beyond Rome's borders.

Critique: A fascinating, informative, and detailed biography that is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $18.99), "The Reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius, AD 138 - 161" by John S. McHugh is an extraordinary and welcome contribution to the growing library of Ancient Roman Histories & Biographies. Informatively enhanced with the inclusion of a section of b/w plates, maps, a timeline, an Appendix (Thye Ancient Sources Historical and Biographical Works), twenty-eight pages of Notes, a nine page Bibliography, and a five page Index, "The Reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius, AD 138 - 161" must be considered a core addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library second century A.D. Roman Empire History & Biography collections.

Editorial Note: John S. McHugh has a BA and MA in Ancient History. He is currently an Assistant Headmaster at a secondary school in Bolton. He is the co-author of a text book on Boltons connections with the slave trade and is currently assisting Bolton Museum with a project to record the oral history of the local populace with the aim of promoting understanding between people of different generations or ethnic and social backgrounds.

Robert the Bruce: Scotland's True Braveheart
Phil Carradice
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399002608, $34.95, HC, 200pp

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Bruce-Scotlands-True-Braveheart/dp/1399002600

Synopsis: With the publication of "Robert the Bruce: Scotland's True Braveheart", historian Phil Carradice provides readers with a detailed account of the life and times of the Scottish hero and monarch. This impressive biography covers his life from childhood to death, as well as the political, social and military life of Scotland before, during and after the time of Robert the Bruce.

"Robert the Bruce: Scotland's True Braveheart" also looks at the relationship between The Bruce and people like Edward I and Edward II of England, William Wallace and the other contenders for the Scottish crown. The main thrust of this biography is a chronological account of how The Bruce clawed his way to power, his struggles and battles and his eventual victory which gave Scotland independence and freedom from an acquisitive and warlike neighbor. It looks in detail at the murder of John Comyn, of which The Bruce stood accused, and the political ramifications of the killing.

Robert the Bruce was no saint. He was a ruthless, cunning warrior, a man of his times, dedicated to what he saw as his mission in life. Flawed he may have been, he was also a great King, a worthy warrior and a man who deserves to emerge from the shadow of William Wallace -- a position to which he has been relegated ever since the film Braveheart.

Critique: A fascinating, documented, and informative historical/biographical study, historian Phil Carradice's "Robert the Bruce: Scotland's True Braveheart" also features four pages of Endnotes, a two page Bibliography, and a three page Index. While available for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject, "Robert the Bruce: Scotland's True Braveheart" is an impressively and highly recommended addition to both community and academic library Scottish History, Military & Biography collections and supplemental curriculum syllabus.

Editorial Note: Phil Carradice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Carradice) is a well-known poet, story teller, and historian with over 60 books to his credit. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio and TV, presents the BBC Wales History program The Past Master and is widely regarded as one of the finest creative writing tutors in Wales.

Baldur von Schirach: Nazi Leader and Head of the Hitler Youth
Oliver Rathkolb, author
John Heath, translator
Frontline Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399020954, $42.95, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Baldur-von-Schirach-Leader-Hitler/dp/1399020951

Synopsis: Though three of his four grandparents were from America and the first language he learned at home was English, Baldur von Schirach became one of the Third Reich's most influential individuals. He joined the Nazi Party as early as 1925 at the age of eighteen and three years later became a member of its National Leadership. He also married Henriette, the daughter of Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann.

Von Schirach continued to rise through the ranks of the Nazi Party, reaching the rank of SA-Gruppenfuhrer. It was as the leader of the Hitler Youth organization, however, for which von Schirach is best remembered, becoming Reichsfuhrer of the Hitler Youth on 16 June 1932, and the following year was given responsibility for all youth organizations in Germany. He also became a member of the Reichstag as a representative of the Party.

Despite his influential position, he was called up for military service and served in the French campaign of 1940. Following this he became Reich Governor and the Nazi's Gauleiter Reichsstatthalter in Vienna -- powerful positions he retained until the final collapse of the Third Reich in May 1945. His responsibilities as Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter included overseeing the deportation of Vienna's Jews to ghettos and concentration camps in occupied Poland. Though a confirmed anti-Semite, later in the war he pleaded for a moderate treatment of the eastern European peoples and criticized the conditions in which Jews were being deported. This caused a breach with Hitler and the Nazi leadership, though he managed to retain his position in Vienna.

Following his capture by US troops, von Schirach was among the major war criminals put on trial at Nuremburg. Found guilty of crimes against humanity on 1 October 1946, von Schirach was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. He served out his time in the company of Rudolf Hess and Albert Speer in Spandau prison. He admitted his crimes and his role in the deportations and in his autobiography, "I Believed in Hitler", he explained how he was drawn into the world of the Nazis. He also said that his aim was destroy any belief in the rebirth of Nazism as well as blaming himself for not having done more to prevent the concentration camps.

With the publication of "Baldur von Schirach: Nazi Leader and Head of the Hitler Youth" author Oliver Rathkobl provides detailed and balanced analysis of Baldur von Schirach that reveals the true and ambivalent nature of a complex and fascinating individual who played a key role in the events leading up to, and during, the Second World War.

Critique: A fascinating and impressively informative biography by Oliver Rathkolb, "Baldur von Schirach: Nazi Leader and Head of the Hitler Youth" is ably translated into English by John Heath. Also featuring a seven page Select Bibliography, twenty-nine pages of Notes, and a six page Index, "Baldur von Schirach: Nazi Leader and Head of the Hitler Youth" is a welcome and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library World War II Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Baldur von Schirach: Nazi Leader and Head of the Hitler Youth" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $18.99).

Editorial Note: Professor Oliver Rathkolb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Rathkolb) is the head of the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna. The author of numerous publications on Austrian and international contemporary, cultural and music history, Professor Rathkolb has also been the editor of the journal Zeitgeschichte since 2002 and is chairman of the scientific advisory board of the House of Austrian History.


The Holocaust Studies Shelf

The Devil's Workshop
Adolf Burger
Frontline Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781399019156, $26.95, PB, 296pp

https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Workshop-Memoir-Counterfeiting-Operation/dp/1399019155

Synopsis: One of the most remarkable episodes of the Second World War was the German attempt to forge currency and trigger the economic collapse of the Allies. The counterfeit operation was one of the largest the world has ever seen and lead to the post-war reissue of sterling.

At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin, Jewish prisoners of 13 different nationalities were forced to work on producing counterfeit pound and dollar notes worth billions. The plan was known as Operation Bernhard.

The forgeries that were produced were virtually undetectable. Only the most senior forgers were able to spot the fakes -- even staff at the Bank of England failed to do so.

"The Devil's Workshop: A Memoir of the Nazi Counterfeiting Operation" is an extraordinary memoir in which the sole surviving Czech counterfeiter, Adolf Burger (12 August 1917 - 6 December 2016), describes his wartime experiences. He recounts the harrowing facts surrounding the murder of his wife Gizela in Auschwitz, as well as his own time as a prisoner in four concentration camps. He was working as a counterfeiter until his liberation from a concentration camp at Ebensee on 5 May 1945.

Supported by hitherto unseen documentation and photographs that Burger took of his fellow prisoners after the war, this is a shocking account which sheds fresh light on the calculated barbarity of the Nazi war machine.

Critique: An invaluable and singular contribution to the growing body of World War II History/Biography collections, "The Devil's Workshop: A Memoir of the Nazi Counterfeiting Operation" is an essential, important, and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Holocaust and World War II History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Currently residing in Prague, Adolf Burger was born in Slovakia in 1917. He was arrested in August 1942 together with his wife and both were sent to Auschwitz. Burger was transferred to the forgery workshop at Sachsenhausen in Berlin in 1944. He is one of the last surviving witnesses of the Nazi counterfeiting operation and was a consultant for the film The Counterfeiters, winner of the 2008 Foreign Language Oscar. His memoir 'The Devil's Workshop' has been published in Hungarian, Persian, Japanese and Czech. He continues to travel to speak about his wartime experiences. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Burger)


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