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Table of Contents
Reviewer's Choice
The Smartphone Society
Nicole Aschoff
Beacon Press
24 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210
www.beacon.org
9780807061688, $25.95, HC, 216pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Our smartphones have brought digital technology into the most intimate spheres of
life. It is now time to take control of them, repurposing them as pathways to a democratically
designed and maintained digital commons that prioritizes people over profit.
Smartphones have appeared everywhere seemingly overnight: since the first iPhone was released,
in 2007, the number of smartphone users has skyrocketed to over two billion. Smartphones have
allowed users to connect worldwide in a way that was previously impossible, created
communities across continents, and provided platforms for global justice movements. However,
the rise of smartphones has led to corporations using consumers' personal data for profit,
unmonitored surveillance, and digital monopolies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon that have
garnered control over our social, political, and economic landscapes.
But people are using their smartphones to fight back. New modes of resistance are emerging,
signaling the possibility that our pocket computers could be harnessed for the benefit of people,
not profit. From helping to organize protests against the US-Mexico border wall through Twitter
to being used to report police brutality through Facebook Live, smartphones open a door for
collective change.
Critique: Enhanced for academia with the inclusion of a fourteen page bibliography of Works
Cited, fourteen pages of Notes, and an eleven page Index, "The Smartphone Society:
Technology, Power, and Resistance in the New Gilded Age" is an extraordinary and seminal
work of meticulous scholarship combined with insightful social/cultural commentary with
respect to the impact of the 'SmartPhone' on the American public. "The Smartphone Society" is
especially recommended for community, college, and university library collections in general,
and supplemental curriculum studies lists for the Social Aspects of Technology, Computer
Hacking, and the Politics of Privacy & Surveillance in particular. It should be noted for the
personal reading lists of students, academia, social/political activists, and non-specialist general
members with an interest in the subject that "The Smartphone Society" is also readily available in
a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99).
Editorial Note: Nicole Aschoff is the editor at large at Jacobin magazine, where she writes about
capitalism, technology, and labor. Her writing has also appeared in the Guardian, the Nation,
Dissent, and Al Jazeera. Aschoff is also the author of The New Prophets of Capital, and she
contributes frequently to podcasts, radio shows, and documentaries about corporate power.
Aschoff received her PhD in sociology from Johns Hopkins University and previously taught at
Boston University. She maintains a website at www.nicholeaschoff.com and can be contacted on
Twitter (@NicoleAschoff).
Shakespeare's First Reader
Jason Scott-Warren
University of Pennsylvania Press
3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
9780812251456, $45.00, HC, 344pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The man known as Richard Stonley has all but vanished from history, but to his
contemporaries he would have been an enviable figure. A clerk of the Exchequer for more than
four decades under Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I, he rose from obscure origins to a life of
opulence; his job, a secure bureaucratic post with a guaranteed income, was the kind of which
many men dreamed. Vast sums of money passed through his hands, some of which he used to
engage in money lending and land speculation. He also bought books, lots of them, amassing one
of the largest libraries in early modern London.
In 1597, all of this was brought to a halt when Stonley, aged around seventy-seven, was
incarcerated in the Fleet Prison, convicted of embezzling the spectacular sum of 13,000 British
pounds from the Exchequer. His property was sold off, and an inventory was made of his house
on Aldersgate Street. This provides our most detailed guide to his lost library. By chance, we also
have three handwritten volumes of accounts, in which he earlier itemized his spending on food,
clothing, travel, and books. It is here that we learn that on June 12, 1593, he bought "the Venus &
Adhonay per Shakspere" -- the earliest known record of a purchase of Shakespeare's first
publication.
In "Shakespeare's First Reader: The Paper Trails of Richard Stonley", Jason Scott-Warren (who
is a Reader in Early Modern Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge and a fellow
of Gonville and Caius College) sets Stonley's journals and inventories of goods alongside a
wealth of archival evidence to put his life and library back together again. He shows how
Stonley's books were integral to the material worlds he inhabited and the social networks he
formed with communities of merchants, printers, recusants, and spies.
Through a combination of book history and biography, "Shakespeare's First Reader" provides a
compelling "bio-bibliography" -- the story of how one early modern gentleman lived in and
through his library.
Critique: An inherently fascinating and impressively informative study of meticulous, detailed,
and documented scholarship, "Shakespeare's First Reader: The Paper Trails of Richard Stonley"
is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university
library Literary Studies collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students,
academia, dedicated bibliophiles, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the
subject that "Shakespeare's First Reader" is also readily available in a digital book format
(Kindle, $42.50).
The Writing/Publishing Shelf
The Public Relations Writer's Handbook
Whitney Lehmann
Routledge
711 - 3rd Avenue, Floor 8, New York, NY 10017-9209
www.routledge.com
9780815365297, $155.00, HC, 202pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: From pitches and press releases to news and feature stories to social media writing and
more, "The Public Relations Writer's Handbook" is a new book by author and communications
expert Whitney Lehmann, along with a handful of experienced contributors that breaks down the
most widely used types of public relations writing needed to become a PR pro.
"The Public Relations Writer's Handbook" serves as a guide for those both in the classroom and
in the field who want to learn, and master, the style and techniques of public relations writing.
Eighteen conversational chapters provide an overview of the most popular forms of public
relations writing, focusing on media relations, storytelling, writing for the web/social media,
business and executive communications, event planning and more. Chapters include
user-friendly writing templates, exercises and AP Style skill drills and training.
A dedicated eResource also supports the book, with writing templates and answer keys (for
instructors) to the end-of-chapter exercises in the text. www.routledge.com/9780815365280.
Critique: Offering a complete and comprehensive instruction manual and guide, "The Public
Relations Writer's Handbook" is particularly recommended to the addition of PR majors and/or
PR practitioners. While unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community,
corporate, college, and university library Writing/Publishing collections in general, and Public
Relations curriculum supplemental studies lists in particular. It should be noted for students,
academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Public
Relations Writer's Handbook" is also readily available in a paperback edition ( 9780815365280,
$64.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $61.70).
Editorial Note: Whitney Lehmann, Ph.D., APR, is an assistant professor of communication in the
Department of Writing and Communication at Nova Southeastern University, USA. Her industry
experience includes working for Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Miami International
Airport, Barry University and the Miami Herald.
The Author's Checklist
Elizabeth K. Kracht
New World Library
14 Pamaron Way, Novato, CA 94949
www.newworldlibrary.com
9781608686629, $15.95, PB, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The bad news for all aspiring writers seeking publication is that even really good
manuscripts can have weak spots that are enough to garner rejections from agents and publishers.
The good news is that most of these commonly encountered problems are easy to fix once the
writer sees and understands them.
After several years of evaluating manuscripts, literary agent Elizabeth Kracht noticed that many
submissions had similar problems, so she began to make a list of the pitfalls. "The Author's
Checklist: An Agent's Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript" is comprised of her
short, easy-to-implement bites of advice, illustrated by inspiring (and cautionary) real-world
examples. Most aspiring authors yearn for a friend in book publishing -- "The Author's
Checklist" is just that!
Critique: A critically important instructional resource that should be considered essential reading
for any writer (especially self-published authors) seeking publication of their work, "The
Author's Checklist: An Agent's Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript" is
impressively well organized and thoroughly 'user friendly' in presentation. While especially and
unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Writing/Publishing
instructional reference collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Author's
Checklist" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
The Health/Medicine Shelf
Exercises for Sciatica
William Smith, M.S., author
Wazim Buksh, MD, MPH, author
Hatherleigh Press
c/o The Hatherleigh Foundation
62545 State Highway 10, Hobart, NY 13788
www.hatherleighpress.com
9781578267880, $15.00, PB, 160pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Defined as back or leg pain caused by irritation to the sciatic nerve, sciatica is a
debilitating and painful condition that is only growing more prevalent with time. As lifestyles
become more and more sedentary, cases of sciatica become more common which is why a
complete lifestyle overhaul, one which includes targeted exercise routines aimed at easing
sciatica symptoms is required to help individuals with this condition live their lives
pain-free.
"Exercises for Sciatica: A Simple and Effective Self-Care Program for Pain Relief and the
Treatment of Sciatica" works as an integrated part of any sciatic or piriformis syndrome
treatment plan, optimizing mobility, increasing strength and minimizing pain, while providing
lifestyle tips to keep you motivated and moving forward.
"Exercises for Sciatica" also includes: A detailed overview of how exercise can relieve common
sciatica symptoms; Clear, informative pictures of safe, effective exercises; Detailed instructions
on how to perform each movement; Information on sciatica life-hacks for relaxation and
motivation; A complete fitness approach to restoring health and functionality.
Featuring expert-approved fitness techniques, with options ranging from resistance training to
mobility movements to light strength exercises, "Exercises for Sciatica" is the all-in-one resource
for anyone looking to take back control and live their best life.
Critique: Expertly and profusely illustrated, "Exercises for Sciatica: A Simple and Effective
Self-Care Program for Pain Relief and the Treatment of Sciatica" is an ideal DIY instruction
manual and guide that is especially commended to the attention of the non-specialist general
reader having to deal with Sciatica as a health issue for themselves or a loved one. While
unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Health/Medicine
collections, It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Exercises for Sciatica" is also
readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: William Smith, MS, NSCA, CSCS, MEPD, completed his B.S. in exercise
science at Western Michigan University followed by a master's degree in education and a
post-graduate program at Rutgers University. In 1993, Will began coaching triathletes and
working with athletes and post-rehab clientele. He was a Division I Collegiate Strength Coach
and has been competing in triathlons and marathons since 1998, recently finishing the Steelhead
Half Ironman in Michigan in 5 hours and 22 minutes. Will founded Will Power and Fitness
Associates and currently consults for fitness, healthcare, and wellness centers in New York and
New Jersey.
Wazim Buksh, MD, MPH, CAQSM, is board certified in both sports medicine and internal
medicine. He currently practices both specialties as the lead physician for Primary Care at
Novartis, an Atlantic Health System's practice, in New Jersey. He has worked with the New York
Jets and the athletic departments of Seton Hall and Drew Universities, respectively. In addition,
he has provided sports coverage for a multitude of high schools in the New Jersey area. Dr.
Buksh practices with a focus towards prevention.
Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout
National Academy of Medicine
National Academies Press
500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
www.nap.edu
9780309495479, $75.00, PB, 334pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Patient-centered, high-quality health care relies on the well-being, health, and safety of
health care clinicians. However, alarmingly high rates of clinician burnout in the United States
are detrimental to the quality of care being provided, harmful to individuals in the workforce, and
costly. It is important to take a systemic approach to address burnout that focuses on the
structure, organization, and culture of health care.
"Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being"
builds upon two groundbreaking reports from the past twenty years, To Err Is Human: Building a
Safer Health System and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st
Century, which both called attention to the issues around patient safety and quality of care. This
report explores the extent, consequences, and contributing factors of clinician burnout and
provides a framework for a systems approach to clinician burnout and professional well-being, a
research agenda to advance clinician well-being, and recommendations for the field.
Critique: A timely and much needed study in view of today's pandemic threat to every medical
resource in the country, "Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to
Professional Well-Being" is an urgent and unreservedly recommended addition to college and
university medical school library collections and would well served as a textbook for
supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of medical
students and practicing physicians that "Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems
Approach to Professional Well-Being" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$59.84).
Antimicrobial Stewardship for Nursing Practice
Molly Courtenay & Enrique Castro-Sanchez, editors
CABI
745 Atlantic Avenue, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02111
https://www.cabi.org
9781789242690, $32.95, PB, 160pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Drug-resistant infections are one of the greatest threats to human health, and with
resistance on the rise, appropriate antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is more important than ever.
This book, written by nurses for nurses, provides a clear and concise approach to good practice in
this vital area.
Expertly compiled and co-edited by Molly Courtenay (Cardiff University) and Enrique Castro-
Sanchez, (Imperial College, London) and exploring all aspects of AMS, "Antimicrobial
Stewardship for Nursing Practice" is underpinned by a competency framework endorsed by
scientific and professional societies, including the National Institute for Health and Care
Excellence (NICE). It explains the practices that ensure optimal use of antibiotics for the best
clinical outcome, with both minimal toxicity to the patient and minimal impact on subsequent
antimicrobial resistance.
The first book that is applied directly to antimicrobial stewardship for nurses, supports standards
of proficiency for registered nurses, and can therefore be used by regulators and professional
bodies to inform standards of proficiency and guidance, "Antimicrobial Stewardship for Nursing
Practice" covers infection prevention and control, antimicrobial resistance, diagnosis of infection
and appropriate antimicrobial use, patient engagement, collaboration between professions and
how to implement AMS in nursing practice. Including learning tools such as objectives, practical
case studies and questions throughout, as well as lecture slides, this book is an essential read for
undergraduate nursing students and specialist nurses worldwide.
Critique: An essential and core addition to college and university library Health/Medicine
collections, and an ideal textbook for nursing school curriculums, "Antimicrobial Stewardship
for Nursing Practice" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $31.12) for the
personal reading lists of medical students, nurses, and non-specialist general readers with an
interest in the subject.
The Education Shelf
What to Expect When You're Expected to Teach Gifted Students
Kari Lockhart
Prufrock Press
PO Box 8813, Waco, TX 76714-8813
www.prufrock.com
9781618219077, $22.95, PB, 140pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "What to Expect When You're Expected to Teach Gifted Students: A Guide to the
Celebrations, Surprises, Quirks, and Questions in Your First Year Teaching Gifted Learners" by
Kari Lockhart is a practical, easy-to-read guide for classroom teachings that: Reviews
expectations versus likely classroom realities that first-time gifted teachers may face; Includes
real-world advice for navigating the joys, surprises, and frustrations; Addresses specific topics
related to gifted education, including students' social-emotional needs: Includes considerations
for choosing appropriate curricular materials and working with parents and families; Features
ways to advocate for gifted and advanced programming and tips for continued professional
learning.
In each individual chapter the reader will dive into issues that are frequently cited as challenges
for new gifted teachers and emerge equipped with resources and strategies to build a successful
classroom that meets the needs of high-ability students.
Critique: Exceptionally well organized and presented, "What to Expect When You're Expected to
Teach Gifted Students" by Kari Lockhart is especially recommended to the attention of
classroom teachers who are new or inexperienced with respect to the education of gifted students
K-12 -- and should be a core acquisition for school district, college, and university library
Teacher Education & In-Service Training instructional reference collections.
Editorial Note: Kari Lockhart has served the public education system for 10 years in a variety of
roles, including gifted and talented teacher, campus coordinator, and district coordinator. She has
a master's degree in educational psychology, focusing on gifted education, and is now pursuing a
doctoral degree in the field.
Classroom Talk for Social Change
Melissa Schieble, Amy Vetter, Kahdeidra Monet Martin
Teachers College Press
1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
www.tcpress.com
9780807763490, $105.00, HC, 160pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: With "Classroom Talk for Social Change: Critical Conversations in English Language
Arts", classroom teachers can learn how to foster critical conversations in English language arts
classrooms. This guide encourages teachers to engage students in noticing and discussing
harmful discourses about race, gender, and other identities.
"Classroom Talk for Social Change" take readers through a framework that includes knowledge
about power, a critical learner stance, critical pedagogies, critical talk moves, and vulnerability.
The text features in-depth classroom examples from six secondary English language arts
classrooms. Each chapter offers specific ways in which teachers can begin and sustain critical
conversations with their students, including the creation of teacher inquiry groups that use
transcript analysis as a learning tool.
"Classroom Talk for Social Change" features: Strategies that educators can use to facilitate
conversations about critical issues; In-depth classroom examples of teachers doing this work with
their students; Questions, activities, and resources that foster self-reflection; Tools for engaging
in transcript analysis of classroom conversations: Suggestions for developing inquiry groups
focused on critical conversations.
Critique: Expertly organized and presented, "Classroom Talk for Social Change: Critical
Conversations in English Language Arts" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended
addition to school district, college, and university library Teacher Education collections and
supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for student teachers, classroom
instructors, education administrators, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the
subject that "Classroom Talk for Social Change" is also readily available in a paperback edition
(9780807763483, $34.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $34.95).
Editorial Note: Melissa Schieble is an associate professor of English education at Hunter College
of the City University of New York. Amy Vetter is a professor in English education in the School
of Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Kahdeidra Monet Martin is a
presidential research fellow and doctoral candidate in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of
the City University of New York.
Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming
April Wells
Prufrock Press
PO Box 8813, Waco, TX 76714-8813
www.prufrock.com
9781618218773, $24.95, PB, 150pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming: Dismantling Barriers and Tapping
Potential" offers practical, research-based programming implementations to increase equity in
gifted education.
"Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming" also: Helps educators understand diverse learners'
identification and needs; Calls educators to act in response to the disproportionate participation
of diverse students in gifted programs; Builds off of research on talent development, cultural
awareness, and social justice in education; Tasks educators with exploring their own implicit and
explicit biases; Asks educators to focus on culturally responsive teaching.
Each individual chapter poses an opportunity for educators to address under representation and
their own understanding of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse learners. Under
representation in gifted education can be addressed -- it does not have to go on in perpetuity.
Critique: Expertly organized and accessibly presented, "Achieving Equity in Gifted
Programming: Dismantling Barriers and Tapping Potential" is an ideal instructional guide that
would well serve as a curriculum textbook for school district in-service training programs, and is
an essential, core addition to both college and university library Teacher Education collections. It
should be noted for personal reading lists that "Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming" is also
readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note: April Wells is a district administrator in the second largest school district in
Illinois. She facilitated the comprehensive redesign of the district's gifted program. She believes
advocacy is key to achieving equitable access for gifted learners.
The Principal Reboot
Jen Schwanke
ASCD
1703 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, VA 22311-1714
www.ascd.org
9781416628811, $29.95, PB, 172pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Today's school principals face unprecedented challenges that can overwhelm even the
most dedicated among them. What can they do when their initial enthusiasm for the job begins to
deflate, when the demands of the job seem to outnumber the rewards? How can they regain the
energy that propelled them early in their career?
"The Principal Reboot: 8 Ways to Revitalize Your School Leadership" by Jen Schwanke answers
these questions with specific advice on how to reignite passion in addressing the many aspects of
the principalship, including: Defining a school's values and mission through rebranding;
Strengthening relationships with staff, students, and community; Leading renewed efforts to
improve instruction; Developing teacher leadership; Using data effectively and innovatively;
and
Improving operational procedures and processes.
Sharing the wisdom gained from colleagues and her own experience as a principal, author and
school administrator Jen Schwanke offers an engaging, accessible account of the ups and downs
of the job, along with helpful, step-by-step suggestions for how to reinvigorate a flagging career
and restore the joy that comes with making a school the best that it can be.
Critique: As thoughtful and thought-provoking as it is informed and informative, "The Principal
Reboot: 8 Ways to Revitalize Your School Leadership" offers an extraordinary, practical, and
effective instructional guide that should be required reading of all school administrators and a
core addition to school district, college, and university library Education Administration
collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Jen Schwanke has been an educator for more than 20 years, teaching or leading at
all levels. She is the author of You're the Principal! Now What? Strategies and Solutions for New
School Leaders, published by ASCD. She has written for Choice Literacy, Education Week
Teacher, Principal, and Principal Navigator and presented at conferences for ASCD, as well as
NAESP, Battelle for Kids, and various state and local education organizations. She has provided
professional development to various districts in the areas of school climate, personnel, and
instructional leadership. She is an instructor in educational administration at Miami University
and has served on several state-level committees and workgroups focused on best practices in
school leadership. She is currently a principal for the Dublin City School District in Dublin,
Ohio.
Research in Special Education, third edition
Phillip D. Rumrill, Jr., Bryan G. Cook, & Nathan A. Stevenson
Charles C. Thomas, Publisher
2600 South First Street, Springfield, IL 62704
http://www.ccthomas.com
9780398093167, $44.95, PB, 300pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in a newly updated and expanded third edition, the primary purpose of "Research
in Special Education: Designs, Methods, and Applications" is to offer a broad-based examination
into the role of scientific inquiry in contemporary special education -- and to provide a
comprehensive overview of the philosophical, ethical, methodological, and analytical
fundamentals of social science and educational research.
Aspects of special education research that distinguish it from scientific inquiry in other fields of
education and human services are specified. Foremost among these distinctions are the research
beneficiaries children with disabilities, their parents, the special educators; availability of federal
funds for research and demonstration projects that seek to improve educational outcomes; and
the historical, philosophical, and legislative bases for the profession of special education.
This new third edition represents a revision of more than 30 percent with over 250 new
references. Each individual chapter is thoroughly updated with new developments in research
topics, designs, and methods that have emerged over the past decade in the field of special
education. "Research in Special Education: Designs, Methods, and Applications" is a unique
resource guide for graduate-level students, practitioners, teachers in the field of special
education, disability studies, early intervention, school psychology, and child and family
services.
Critique: With this updated and expanded third edition, "Research in Special Education: Designs,
Methods, and Applications" continues to be an extraordinary and impressively informative
volume that would well served as a curriculum textbook for Special Education coursework. The
collective work of Phillip D. Rumrille, Jr. (Human Development Institute, University of
Kentucky), Bryan G. Cook (Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education), and
Nathan A. Stevenson (School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences, Kent State
University), "Research in Special Education: Designs, Methods, and Applications" is an essential
and unreservedly recommended addition to college and university library Contemporary
Education Issues collections and supplemental studies reading lists.
Student Conduct Practice, second edition
Diane M. Waryold & James M. Lancaster, editors
Stylus Publishing, Inc.
22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012
www.styluspub.com
9781642671049, $125.00, HC, 312pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in a fully updated and considerably expanded second edition, "Student Conduct
Practice: The Complete Guide for Student Affairs Professionals" maintains the objectives of the
first edition originally published in 2008 to constitute a compendium of current best practices in
the administration of student conduct, to summarize the latest thinking on key issues facing
practitioners today, and to provide an overview of the role and status of conduct administrators
within their institutions.
This text invites student conduct administrators to examine current programs and policies to
ensure that the spaces that they create during interactions with students are spaces in which all
students feel welcome and heard. As we strive to prepare students not only to be productive
members of today's workforce, and more importantly to be good people and upright citizens, this
text accentuates the delicate balance between responding to regulatory mandates and meeting the
educational aims of student conduct. The aim is to offer those with an interest in student conduct
and those professionals who are new or seasoned student conduct administrators with both a
compendium of chapters on best practices and the background to grapple with the
thought-provoking situations they will encounter.
In close collaboration with the leadership of the Association for Student Conduct Administration
(ASCA) the editors identified the most pressing conduct issues on our campuses and
practitioners and faculty who offer related expertise and a necessary diversity of voices.
Critique: Enhanced for academia with the inclusion of a complete listing of the contributors and
their credentials, "Student Conduct Practice: The Complete Guide for Student Affairs
Professionals" is comprised of fifteen erudite and informative articles and a succinct conclusion.
While especially recommended for college and university library Education Administration
collections and supplemental studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, teachers,
administrators, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this second
edition of "Student Conduct Practice: The Complete Guide for Student Affairs Professionals" is
also readily available in a paperback edition (9781642671056, $37.50) and in a digital book
format (Kindle, $29.99).
Editorial Note: Diane M. Waryold is also an Assistant Professor of Human Development and
Psychological Counseling at Appalachian State University. Prior to this position, Dr. Waryold
served as the Executive Director for The Center for Academic Integrity and Program
Administrator for The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University in Durham, NC.
James M. Lancaster is currently an Assistant Professor of Human Development and
Psychological Counseling at Appalachian State University. Prior to taking this position, Dr.
Lancaster was Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at The University of North Carolina
at Greensboro.
The Psychology Shelf
Evaluating ADHD in Children and Adolescents
Gene Carroccia, Psy.D.
Charles C. Thomas, Publisher
2600 South First Street, Springfield, IL 62704
http://www.ccthomas.com
9780398093204, $53.95, PB, 388pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental disorder of the
neurodevelopmental type. It is characterized by difficulty paying attention, excessive activity and
acting without regards to consequences, which are otherwise not appropriate for a person's age.
Some individuals with ADHD also display difficulty regulating emotions. For a diagnosis, the
symptoms should appear before a person is twelve years old, be present for more than six
months, and cause problems in at least two settings (such as school, home, or recreational
activities). In children, problems paying attention may result in poor school performance.
Additionally there is an association with other mental disorders and substance misuse. Although
it causes impairment, particularly in modern society, many people with ADHD can have
sustained attention for tasks they find interesting or rewarding (known as hyperfocus).
"Evaluating ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A Comprehensive Diagnostic Screening
System" is the ADHD diagnostic guide that assists clinicians to accurately conduct
evidence-based ADHD evaluations, as well as identify and better understand the numerous other
possible coexisting conditions that may present along with and worsen true ADHD, or cause
ADHD-like presentations when ADHD does not exist.
"Evaluating ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A Comprehensive Diagnostic Screening
System" diagnostic clinicians to: Confidently conduct ADHD evaluations; Identify conditions
that coexist with, worsen, or mimic ADHD; Improve the accuracy of diagnosing ADHD and
other conditions; Better understand and provide referrals for other suspected conditions.
"Evaluating ADHD in Children and Adolescents" is deftly organized into three major
sections:
Part One presents the 10-Step ADHDology Evaluation Model, which provides the steps to
comprehensively evaluate ADHD.
Part Two presents numerous medical, sleep, psychological, trauma, neurodevelopmental, sensory
processing, and fetal substance exposure conditions. These chapters describe the conditions in
detail, how they coexist with or appear similar to ADHD, how to distinguish them from true
ADHD, and how mental health clinicians and specialists can further evaluate and treat these
disorders.
Part Three is composed of the Comprehensive Diagnostic ADHD Screening System (CDASS), a
unique approach to improve the accuracy of evaluating ADHD by utilizing checklists to help
identify: the risk factors associated with ADHD, the many possible conditions presented in Part 2
that may exist so these can be further considered and evaluated by specialists, and little-known
and not typically considered conditions that can cause ADHD-like presentations.
Critique: Expertly written, organized and presented, "Evaluating ADHD in Children and
Adolescents: A Comprehensive Diagnostic Screening System" is comprehensive and thoroughly
detailed, making it an ideal curriculum textbook for ADHD diagnostic curriculums and an
essential, core addition to college, university, and medical school library Psychology Testing &
Measurement collections in general, and ADHD supplemental studies reading lists in
particular.
Editorial Note: Gene Carroccia is a licensed clinical psychologist and author who has extensive
experience working with individuals with ADHD, as well as other conditions, including
psychological trauma and maltreatment. For over twenty years, he has evaluated and treated
hundreds of children, adolescents, and adults with ADHD. Dr. Carroccia works at a large
not-for-profit health care system as a vice president of behavioral health care services.
Previously, for many years, he supervised doctoral psychology interns and was the director of
training of an accredited doctoral clinical psychology internship program. Dr. Carroccia is the
author of two ADHDology books, Treating ADHD/ADD in Children and Adolescents: Solutions
for Parents and Clinicians and Evaluating ADHD in Children and Adolescents: A
Comprehensive Diagnostic Screening System. He was also the editor of the clinical workbook
Treating Sexual Abuse and Trauma with Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults with
Developmental Disabilities, published by Charles C. Thomas.
Healing Childhood Trauma
Robin Marvel
Loving Healing Press
5145 Pontiac Trail, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
www.lovinghealing.com
9781615994977, $26.95, HC, 106pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Post-traumatic stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, substance abuse, depression, a lack of
confidence and many other mental and physical ailments may be a result of childhood trauma
you have endured. Uncovering, accepting and healing this childhood trauma will allow you to let
go of the pain, releasing yourself from the guilt, shame and self-destruction you have been living
with. "Healing Childhood Trauma: Transforming Pain into Purpose with Post-Traumatic
Growth" by Robin Marvel (who is a multi-published author and motivational speaker in the field
of self development) will provide you with tools and strategies to heal your childhood trauma
allowing you to live fully.
"Healing Childhood Trauma" pinpoints the areas of struggle in your life now that are a reflection
of the childhood trauma you endured. It also: Tackles limitations by learning how childhood
trauma can be healed and forgiven; Strategizes an effective plan that will take you from struggle
to success; Reveals hands-on strategies and plans to heal, recover and let go of the limits
imposed on your daily living due to childhood trauma.
Critique: Thoroughly 'reader friendly' in tone, commentary, organization and presentation,
"Healing Childhood Trauma: Transforming Pain into Purpose with Post-Traumatic Growth" is
ideal for non-specialist general readers having to deal with the aftermath of childhood trauma in
their adult lives. While unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library
Contemporary Psychology & Counseling collections, it should be noted for the personal reading
lists of students, academia, practitioners, and anyone else with an interest in the subject over
overcoming childhood trauma and personal emotional growth.
Healing the Heart
Christine Fonseca
Prufrock Press
PO Box 8813, Waco, TX 76714-8813
www.prufrock.com
9781618218957, $17.95, PB, 200pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Trauma permeates America's families, and no one is immune to its impact. Natural
disasters such as the current pandemic, community and institutional violence, adverse childhood
experiences -- all of these kinds of events impact the developing brains and bodies of our
youth.
Trained as an educational psychologist, Christine Fonseca is dedicated to helping children and
adults connect with their personal truth. She is also an award-winning author of fiction and
nonfiction, a nationally recognized speaker, and an international consultant and coach.
In the pages of "Healing the Heart: Helping Your Child Thrive After Trauma" Christine:
Provides parents with specific tools to help their trauma-impacted children; Combines the
research on adverse childhood experiences and other traumatic events, positive psychology, and
resilience: Is presented in an easy-to-read, conversational style; Uses evidence-based strategies,
inspirational stories, and role-playing scenarios; Includes the information and tools needed to
heal the negative impact of traumatic events.
With specific strategies to address diverse forms of trauma and diverse populations, "Healing the
Heart" is an essential and must-read resource for any parent wanting to reestablish safety,
increase resilience, and help heal the long-term impact of trauma their child is subject to.
Critique: Thoroughly 'reader friendly' in tone, commentary, organization and presentation,
"Healing the Heart: Helping Your Child Thrive After Trauma" will prove to be a timely,
welcome, and enduringly useful addition to personal, professional, community, and academic
library Parenting collections.
The General Fiction Shelf
Love, Death & Rare Books
Robert Hellenga
Delphinium Books
https://www.delphiniumbooks.com
9781883285852, $26.95, HC, 350pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Grandfather, father and son, Chas. Johnson & Sons has been a family operation for
three generations. But when it comes time for Gabe Johnson to take the reins of the business, the
world of books has changed, and the combination of the internet and inner city rents forces the
bookstore to close.
But instead of folding his hand, Gabe decides to risk everything he has and reopen the shop (and
in a sense restart his life) in a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan. Haunted his entire life
by an obsession with a former lover, he finds her again only to be faced with yet another even
more difficult challenge that threatens the well-being of the revival of the bookstore as well as
the fate of his rekindled relationship.
Critique: With the publication of "Love, Death & Rare Books", author Robert Hellenga once
again demonstrates his effective narrative storytelling style and impressive flair as a novelist for
originality and reader engagement. While certain to be an especially popular addition to
community library Contemporary General Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal
reading lists that "Love, Death & Rare Books" is also readily available in a digital book format
(Kindle, $17.99).
Salt the Snow
Carrie Callaghan
Amberjack Publishing
c/o Chicago Review Press
814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610
www.chicagoreviewpress.com
9781948705646, $24.99, HC, 304pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Salt the Snow" by novelist Carrie Callaghan is the story of the trailblazing and
liberated Milly Bennett, an American journalist Milly Bennett who has covered murders in San
Francisco, fires in Hawaii, and a civil war in China. But the Russian city of Moscow in the 1930s
presents her greatest challenge yet.
When Milly's young Russian husband is suddenly arrested by the secret police, she tries to get
him released. But his arrest reveals both painful secrets about her marriage and hard truths about
the Soviet state she has been working to serve. Disillusioned, and pulled toward the front lines of
a captivating new conflict, Milly must find a way to do the right thing for her husband, her
conscience, and her heart.
Critique: Based on the life of one of the first female war correspondents whose work has been all
but lost to history, "Salt The Snow" is an inherently interesting and impressively crafted novel
that is certain to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to community and academic
library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists
that "Salt The Snow" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49).
Miss Austen
Gill Hornby
Flatiron Books
c/o Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.macmillan.com
9781250252203, $26.99, HC, 288pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: England, 1840. For the two decades following the death of her beloved sister, Jane,
Cassandra Austen has lived alone, spending her days visiting friends and relations and quietly,
purposefully working to preserve her sister's reputation. Now in her sixties and increasingly frail,
Cassandra goes to stay with the Fowles of Kintbury, family of her long-dead fiance, in search of a
trove of Jane's letters. Dodging her hostess and a meddlesome housemaid, Cassandra eventually
hunts down the letters and confronts the secrets they hold, secrets not only about Jane but about
Cassandra herself. Will Cassandra bare the most private details of her life to the world, or
commit her sister's legacy to the flames?
Critique: Residing in Kintbury, England, Gill Hornby is the author of the novels The Hive and
All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for young
readers. In "Miss Austen" Hornby deftly movies back and forth between the vicarage and Cassandra's
vibrant memories of her years with Jane, interwoven with Jane's brilliantly re-imagined lost
letters. Exceptionally well written in a distinctively effective and narrative driven storytelling
style, Hornby does full literary justice to one of literature's most enduringly popular novelists
with the publication of "Miss Austen". While unreservedly recommended for both community
and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal
reading lists that "Miss Austen" is also readily available in a digital book format ($13.99) and as
a complete and unabridged audio book (Macmillan Audio, 9781250260598, $45.99, CD).
The Great Concert of the Night
Jonathan Buckley
New York Review of Books
435 Hudson Street, Suite 300, New York, NY 10014
www.nybooks.com
9781681373959, $15.95, PB, 304pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: David has just spent New Year's Eve alone, watching Le Grand Concert de la Nuit, a
film in which his former lover Imogen starred. In the early hours of the new year, consoled and
tormented by her ethereal presence, he begins to write. What follows is a brilliantly various
journal, chronicling a year in the life of a thinking man.
David works as a curator at the ailing Sanderson-Perceval Museum in southern England, whose
small collection of porcelain, musical instruments, crystals, velvet mushrooms, and glass jellyfish
is as eccentric and idiosyncratic as the long-dead collectors' tastes. David himself is a
connoisseur of the derelict and non-utilitarian, of objects removed from the flow of time.
Refusing the imposed order of a straightforward chronology, his journal moves fluidly back and
forth in time, filled with fragments of life remembered, imagined, and recorded, from memories
of his past life with Imogen or with his ex-wife, Samantha, to reflections on the lives and relics
of female saints or the history of medicine.
There are quotations from Seneca, Meister Eckhart, and the Goncourt brothers mixed in with the
equally compelling imagined words of fictional film directors, actors, and, always, the
fascinating Imogen, who is alive now only "in the perpetual present of the sentence."
"The Great Concert of the Night" by Jonathan Buckley expertly interweaves sexual despair,
cultural critique, the plot lines of one man's quietly brilliant life, and the problems and paradoxes
of writing, especially writing about and to the dead.
Critique: Showcasing the author's genuine flair for originality and a pitch-perfect narrative
storytelling style, "The Great Concert Of The Night" by Jonathan Buckley is especially and
unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary Literary
Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Great Concert Of The
Night" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.79).
The Romantic Fiction Shelf
Duke In Danger
Fenella J. Miller
Linford Romance Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444843972, $21.49, PB, Large Print, 328pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Lady Helena Faulkner agrees to marry only if her indulgent parents can find a
gentleman who fits her exacting requirements. Wild and unconventional, she has no desire for
romance, but wants a friend who will let her live as she pleases. Lord Christopher Drake, known
to Helena as Kit, her brother's best friend, needs a rich wife to support his mother and siblings. It
could be the perfect arrangement. But when malign forces do their best to separate them, can
Helena and Kit overcome the disasters and find true happiness?
Critique: Fenella J. Miller is a master of the historical romance genre and her latest novel, "Duke
in Danger" is an expertly crated and extraordinarily entertaining read from first page to last. This
large print edition of "Duke in Danger" is particularly recommended for the personal reading lists
of all dedicated historical romance fans and community library Romance Fiction collections.
Love's Promise
Jean Robinson
Linford Romance Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444843996, $21.49, PB, Large Print, 320pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Having worked the cruising circuit a number of years ago, Hannah now steps on board
as a passenger, hoping for a relaxing break from her hectic life as a single parent. It's great to see
some familiar faces and catch up with old friends. What she didn't bargain for was meeting her
ex, and the father of her young son Charlie, on that ship! Then there's the bad-tempered Claudia,
who won't leave him alone... Is Nick still that reckless adventurer, or could love really be lovelier
the second time around?
Critique: A thoroughly 'reader engaging' and exceptionally entertaining romance novel that
showcases author Jean Robinson's impressive knack for originality in her storytelling, this large
print paperback edition of "Love's Promise" is certain to be an immediate and enduringly popular
addition to the personal reading lists of all romance fans, as well as community library Romance
Fiction collections.
The Western Fiction Shelf
Lonely Is The Hunter
Dale Graham
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444841404, $21.49, PB, Large Print, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: When outlaw Caleb Ollinger and his gang stop in the New Mexico town of Carrizozo,
a few drinks and a game of poker suddenly turn into a double killing. The gambler who was
caught cheating matters little, but an innocent boy run down by Ollinger as he rode out of town
was the son of New Mexico's territorial governor. Bounty hunter Chance Newcombe is hired to
bring the killer in, though he hasn't reckoned on competition from an old comrade who's been
promised amnesty for his past crimes if he secures the prize first.
Critique: A classic western novel of revenge, this large print edition of Dale Graham's "Lonely Is
The Hunter" is a fully absorbing read from cover to cover and a 'must' for all dedicated western
action/adventure fans -- and certain to be an enduringly popular addition to any and all
community library Western Fiction collections.
Valeron's Range
Terrell L. Bowers
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444842357, $21.49, PB, Large Print, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: When Scarlet Valeron, poised to be married in Pueblo, Colorado, she is kidnapped and
her betrothed killed by a ruthless gang of outlaws. A desperate call goes out to the extensive
Valeron family. Brothers, cousins, and hired help unite in an effort to find her and bring her back.
They learn Scarlet is on her way to Brimstone, a bandit stronghold of over a hundred outlaws.
Most would look at the incredible odds and figure Scarlet was lost forever. The Valerons and a
lady Pinkerton agent, however, see it as a matter of honor to get their kin back -- and settle the
score, in blood if necessary!
Critique: Once again veteran western novelist Terrell L. Bowers has written an action packed
western with all manner of unexpected plot twists and turns -- including a surprising showdown
at the end. Simply stated, This large print edition of "Valeron's Range" is very highly
recommended for personal reading lists and community library Western Fiction collections.
Revenge Burns Deep
Ethan Flagg
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444842722, $21.49, PB, Large Print, 248pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Army scout Green River Jim Claymaker's journey south is disrupted by a devastating
prairie fire which claims the life of an old friend who has been scouting for a wagon train. The
devious Ira Gemmel has his own reasons for preventing the wagon train from reaching New
Mexico; so when he shoots the son of a Comanche chief, he puts the blame on Claymaker and
the settlers. Claymaker's proficiency and courage are tested to the limit to bring the real
perpetrator to justice and save the pioneers from the avenging Indians.
Critique: With more unexpected plot twists and cliff-hanger turns than a Disney Land roller
coaster ride, "Revenge Burns Deep" by Ethan Flagg is western action/adventure at its very best.
This large print edition from the Linford Western Library collection is especially recommended
for the personal reading lists of all western novel enthusiasts and community library Western
Fiction collections.
The Vigilance Committee War
Bill Sheehy
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444842395, $21.49, PB, Large Print, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: A gang of vigilantes calling themselves the Vigilance Committee have gone on a
lynching spree of rustlers and possibly non-rustlers who are just men in the wrong place at the
wront time. This group of vigilantes are preventing part of the Indian Territory from becoming a
state, and former Texas Rangers Buck Armstrong and Louie Lewis are being paid by local
businesses and ranchers to bring them in -- when noone knows who they are! Making their job
even more difficult is the fact that most of the area's ranchers don't care, or even approve of the
hangings carried out by the Committee. When the Buck and Louie get too close to Committee
members, Louie himself ends up at the end of a hangman's noose -- and things only get worse
from there!
Critique: Combining a 'whodunnit' style mystery with a rousing western action novel, "The
Vigilance Committee War" is a welcoming and entertaining treat for all dedicated western
action/adventure buffs and will prove to be a cherished addition to any and all community library
large print and/or Western Fiction collections.
Marshal Of The Barren Plains
I. J. Parnham
Linford Western Library
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781444842753, $21.49, PB, Large Print, 232pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: When Marshal Rattigan Fletcher failed to stop Jasper Minx raiding the Ash Valley
bank, he and his deputy Callan McBride were forced to leave in disgrace. In the town of
Redemption, the pair are hired to find out why men from the Bleak Point silver mine have been
disappearing - and when they discover that Jasper works there, they don't have to look far for a
culprit. But as the miners side with Jasper, Rattigan will need all his instincts as a lawman if he is
to bring his nemesis to justice.
Critique: Featuring and inherently riveting plot featuring many an unexpected twists and cliff
hanger turns, "Marshal Of The Barren Plains" by I. J. Parnham is a superbly crafted and
unrelentingly entertaining read from beginning to end. This large print edition from the Linford
Western Library is an especially and highly recommended addition to the personal reading lists
of all dedicated western action/adventure fans, as well as an enduringly popular inclusion to
community library Western Fiction collections.
The Mystery/Suspense Shelf
Death on the Page
Essie Lang
Crooked Lane Books
2 Park Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10016
www.crookedlanebooks.com
www.dreamscapeab.com/audiobooks
9781643852942, $26.99, HC, 330pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: There are a thousand stories arising from New York's scenic Thousand Islands, and
when they are published, Bayside Books co-owner Shelby Cox tries to stock them all. But lately,
the Blye Island bookseller's life is more about investigation than inventory. True-crime writer
Savannah Page caps off two successful signings at Bayside Books with a night in Blye Castle.
She's there to research Joe Cabana, a colorful Prohibition-era mobster who owned the castle --
until he was found dead in the island Grotto.
But crime becomes all too true for Savannah. Her body turns up the next morning, in a secret
passage at the bottom of the stairs. The last thing Shelby Cox wants is to sleuth another murder,
but she's intrigued about how a killer could have reached the island after hours. She's not at a
lack for suspects either. It could have been anyone from Savannah's fiance, Liam Kennelly, who
argued with her the evening before, to island caretaker Matthew Kessler, recently cleared of his
wife's murder. Can Shelby keep regular store hours, elude the police chief, and assemble the
clues into a hard-bound case without getting permanently shelved?
Critique: Another exquisitely crafted murder mystery by an author with a genuine flair for the
genre, "Death on the Page" is the newest edition to novelist Essie Lang's 'A Castle Bookshop
Mystery' series. Certain to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to any and all
community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists
of all dedicated mystery buffs that "Death on the Page" is also readily available in a digital book
format (Kindle, $9.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Dreamscape Media,
9781690590972, $19.99, CD).
Restless Coffins
M. P. Wright
Isis Large Print
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print (USA), Inc.
PO Box 1230, West Seneca, NY 14224-1230
www.ulverscroftusa.com
9781785418235, $35.50, HC, Large Print, 452pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Bristol, 1967: JT Ellington, ex-cop and reluctant private eye, is still trading in favours,
helping those scared of the police or trying to stay one step ahead of the law. But when news
arrives of a tragedy that's unfolded thousands of miles away, life gets even tougher. He needs to
journey home to Barbados to pay his final respects - but first he must travel to New York, where
his cousin Vic is boss of a criminal empire. There, JT discovers a web of violence that stretches
to Barbados and back, and connects him to the deaths of his own beloved wife and daughter.
Embroiled in a world of drugs, corruption, voodoo and the legacy of slavery, can JT escape the
demons of his past as he returns to the island of his birth?
Critique: Showcasing author M. P. Wright's impressive and narrative storytelling skills, this large
print edition of "Restless Coffins" is a deftly crafted mystery lover's delight and an unreservedly
recommended addition to both the personal reading lists of dedicated suspense/thriller fans and
community library Mystery/Suspense collections.
The K Team
David Rosenfelt
Minotaur Books
c/o St. Martin's Publishing Group
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.minotaurbooks.com
9781250257192, $27.99, HC, 304pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, Simon Garfunkel, have recently retired from the
police force. Not ready to give up the life yet, they come up with a proposal for fellow former
cop, Laurie Carpenter, and her investigating partner, Marcus. Laurie and Marcus (who help out
Laurie's lawyer husband Andy on cases) have been chafing to jump back into investigating on
their own, so they are in.
They call themselves the K Team, in honor of Simon. Their first job as private investigators
comes to them from Judge Henry Henderson, who's known as a very tough but fair judge, and
they've all come up against him in court at one time or another. Though it's hard to believe, Judge
Henderson is being blackmailed and extorted, and he doesn't want to involve the police -- he
needs the K Team to figure out why.
Critique: David Rosenfelt is a master of the mystery/suspense genre and with "The K Team" he
has launched a new and inherently entertaining series. While enthusiastically and unreservedly
recommended for community library collections where it will prove to be an immediate and
enduringly popular addition to their collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists
of all dedicated mystery buffs and the growing legion of David Rosenfelt fans that "The K Team"
is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and
unabridged audio book (Macmillan Audio, 9781250260819, $29.99, CD).
The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
The Glass Magician
Caroline Stevermer
Tor Books
c/o Tor/Forge Books
120 Broadway, 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10271
www.tor-forge.com
9780765335043, $26.99, HC, 288pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In 1905 New York City the Vanderbilts, the Astors, and the Morgans are the cream of
society -- and collectively they pretty much own the nation on the cusp of a new century.
Thalia Cutler doesn't have any of those family connections. What she does know is stage magic
and she dazzles audiences with an act that takes your breath away. That is, until one night when a
trick goes horribly awry. In surviving she discovers that she can shapeshift, and has the potential
to take her place among the rich and powerful.
But first, she'll have to learn to control that power -- before the real monsters descend to
feast!
Critique: A superbly crafted and thoroughly entertaining fantasy with many an unexpected plot
twist and turn, "The Glass Magician" showcases author Caroline Stevermer's remarkable
originality and storytelling skills as a novelist able to blend magic and romance. While very
highly recommended, especially for community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections, it
should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Glass Magician" is readily available in a
digital book format (Kindle, $13.99).
The Theatre/Cinema/TV Shelf
Cinematography for Directors
Jacqueline B. Frost
Michael Wiese Productions
12400 Ventura Blvd., #1111, Studio City, CA 91604
www.mwp.com
9781615932740, $35.95, PB, 300pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Through interviews with current ASC cinematographers, and a balance between technical, aesthetic, and historical content, "Cinematography for Directors: A Guide for Creative
Collaboration" by Jacqueline Frost guides the director into a powerful collaboration with their
closest on-set ally. Topics include selecting a cinematographer, collectively discussing the script,
choosing an appropriate visual style for a film, color palette, film and digital formats, lenses,
camera movement, genres, and postproduction processes - including the digital intermediate (DI).
Interwoven are quotes from working ASC cinematographers.
Critique: Impressively informed and informative, expertly written, organized and presented,
"Cinematography for Directors: A Guide for Creative Collaboration" is ideal as a DIY
cinematography curriculum textbook and instructional reference resource. Essential reading for
anyone seeking to create a work of film regardless of the technology or format to be utilized,
"Cinematography for Directors: A Guide for Creative Collaboration" is especially and
unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library
Theatre/Cinema/TV collections and supplemental studies reading lists.
Editorial Note: Jacqueline Frost has been teaching the language of motion pictures (production,
history, and cinematography) for thirty years at various universities. Currently a full professor at
California State University, Fullerton, she is also an Adjunct Professor at Farleigh Dickinson
University in Madison, NJ. She has taught Cinematography for Directors at the UCLA extension
program, and for three lucky summers taught documentary production in Florence, Italy, as part
of the CSUF study-abroad program. Additionally, Jacqueline has been the cinematographer or
producer on numerous short films, independent features, and documentaries that have screened at
festivals around the world. She is a partner and freelance cinematographer at Corazon
Pictures.
The Military Shelf
Designing the T-34
Peter Samsonov
Gallantry Books
c/o Pen & Sword Books
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
c/o Casemate
www.casematepublishers.com
9781911658306, $19.99, PB, 90pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: When the German army launched Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet
Union) on June 22, 1941, it was expecting to face and easily defeat Russia's outdated and
obsolete tanks -- and for the most part it did. But it also received a nasty shock when it came up
against the T-34.
With its powerful gun and sloped armour, the T-34 was more than a match for the best German
tanks at that time and the Germans regarded it with awe. German Field Marshal von Kleist, who
commanded the latter stages of Barbarossa, called it 'the finest tank in the world'. Using original
wartime documents in "Designing the T-34: Genesis of the Revolutionary Soviet Tank" author
and military historian Peter Samsonov, (who is the creator of the Tank Archives blog at
https://www.tankarchives.ca/) expertly explains how the Soviets came to develop what was
arguably the war's most revolutionary tank design.
Critique: Profusely illustrated throughout, "Designing the T-34: Genesis of the Revolutionary
Soviet Tank" is impressively and comprehensively informative -- making it an ideal and
unreservedly recommended addition to the personal reading lists of dedicated military buffs, as
well as to community and academic library World War II military history and armaments
collections and supplemental curriculum studies reading lists.
Infantry Small Arms of the 21st Century
Leigh Nevill
Pen & Sword Books
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
9781473896130, $42.95, HC, 320pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Soldiers in today's modern armies have access to ever more advanced infantry
weapons; lighter, more compact and more accurate than anything seen in the last century. These
new battlefield weapons include combat pistols, personal assault rifles, submachine guns, sniper
rifles, shotguns, light machine guns and squad automatic weapons.
"Infantry Small Arms of the 21st Century: Guns of the World's Armies" by Leigh Nevill features
all these weapons and more in exhaustive detail. "Infantry Small Arms of the 21st Century"
features information drawn from the operational combat experience of the users in war zones
such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. As well as assessing and comparing the potency of
different nations weapon systems, "Infantry Small Arms of the 21st Century" also looks to the
future demands of the infantry man.
Critique: Profusely illustrated throughout, "Infantry Small Arms of the 21st Century: Guns of the
World's Armies" is an extraordinarily detailed and impressively informative study that is an
especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library
Contemporary Military History & Armaments collections and supplemental curriculum studies
lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and dedicated
military buffs that "Infantry Small Arms of the 21st Century: Guns of the World's Armies" is also
readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99).
Editorial Note: Leigh Nevill is an Australian national who has written over a dozen titles on
modern special operations forces, small arms, sniping, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He
has also professionally consulted on military topics for several wargame companies and
television documentary makers. He maintains an informative website at
www.leighneville.com
When The Tempest Gathers
Andrew Milburn
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781526750556, $32.95, HC, 336pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "When the Tempest Gathers: From Mogadishu to the Fight Against ISIS, a Marine
Special Operations Commander at War" is an account of the combat experiences of the first
Marine to command a special operations task force, recounted against a backdrop of his journey
from raw Second Lieutenant to seasoned Colonel and Task Force Commander; from leading
Marines through the streets of Mogadishu, Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul to directing
multi-national special operations forces in a dauntingly complex fight against a formidable
foe.
The journey culminates in the story's centerpiece: the fight against ISIS, in which the author is
able to use the lessons of his harsh apprenticeship to lead the SOF task force under his command
to hasten the Caliphate's eventual demise.
Milburn has an unusual background for a US Marine, and this is no ordinary war memoir. Very
few personal accounts of war cover such a wide breadth of experience, or with so discerning a
perspective. As Bing West comments: "His exceptional skill is telling each story of battle and
then knitting them into a coherent whole. By the end of the book, the reader understands what
happened on the ground in the wars against terrorists over the past twenty years."
Milburn tells his extraordinary story with self-effacing candor, describing openly his personal
struggles with the isolation of command, post-combat trauma and family tragedy. And with the
skill and insight of a natural story teller, he makes the reader experience what it's like to lead
those who fight America's wars.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "When the Tempest Gathers:
From Mogadishu to the Fight Against ISIS, a Marine Special Operations Commander at War" is
a unique and especially recommended addition to the personal reading lists of all dedicated
military history buffs and a core addition to community, college, and university library American
Military History collections and supplemental studies reading lists.
Editorial Note: Col. Andrew Milburn was born in Hong Kong and grew up in the United
Kingdom where he attended St Paul's School and University College London. After graduating
from law school, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps as a private. He was commissioned from
the ranks, and as a Marine infantry and special operations officer, has commanded in combat at
every grade. As the commanding officer of the Marine Corps' special operations regiment, he
was selected to lead a multi-national task force given the mission of defeating ISIS in Iraq. He
retired in 2019 as the Chief of Staff of Special Operations Command, Central (SOCCENT), the
headquarters responsible for the conduct of all US special operations throughout the Middle East.
He and his wife Jessica live in Tampa, Florida with their two children and a coterie of rescued
dogs.
Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front: Volume II
Hans Heinz Rehfeldt
Greenhill Books
Pen & Sword Books
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
c/o Casemate
www.casematepublishers.com
9781784383657, $32.95, HC, 352pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Returning to his old unit, the grenade launcher, in May 1944, Hans Heinz Rehfeldt
experienced the heavy defensive battles in Romania as a German army platoon commander and
from August 1944 in East Prussia and Lithuania. After being transferred by ship from Memel to
K”nigsberg in late 1944, he took part in the battles for Ostprussen in the winter of
1944/1945.
Constantly exposed to the attacks of Russian bombers and fighter planes and severely wounded
by shrapnel on the leg, he manages, with the help of a Russian volunteer and a horse-drawn
vehicle from Balga to Rosenberg, from there by ship transport via Pillau to Swinoujscie and by
train to Schwerin.
Fleeing the impending Russian imprisonment to the west, he falls into American captivity on 3
May 1945 and is released in July 1945 in the home.
Critique: "Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front: Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, and the Battle for
East Prussia" is the second volume of Hans Heinz Rehfeldt's World War II military memoirs.
Ably translated into English by Geoffrey Brooks and featuring an informative Foreword by
Gilberto Villahemosa and unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library
World War II History & Biography collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of
all dedicated military buffs that it is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99). Also
very highly recommended is "Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front: The Memoir of Dr Hans
Rehfeldt. Volume 1: From the Moscow Winter Offensive to Operation Zitadelle"
(9781784383619, $32.95 HC, $15.82 Kindle, 352pp).
Editorial Note: Dr Hans Heinz Rehfeldt was born on 21 April 1923 in Hagen/Westphalia. He left
for the Front on 27 October 1941, at which point his story begins. He went on to receive several
awards for valor in the face of extreme adversity. He went on to become a veterinarian following
his studies of veterinary medicine. He died in 2017.
Special Forces Berlin
James Stejskal
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781612004440, $32.95, HC, 336pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Highly classified until only recently, two U.S. Army Special Forces detachments were
stationed far behind the Iron Curtain in West Berlin during the Cold War. The units' existence
and missions were protected by cover stories, their operations were secret.
The massive armies of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies posed a huge threat to the
nations of Western Europe. US military planners decided they needed a plan to slow the
juggernaut they expected when and if a war began. The plan was Special Forces Berlin. The first
40 men who came to Berlin in mid-1956 were soon reinforced by 60 more and these 100 soldiers
(and their successors) would stand ready to go to war at only two hours' notice, in a hostile area
occupied by nearly one million Warsaw Pact forces, until 1990.
Their mission should hostilities commence was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines, and buy time
for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality it was an
ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal. Highly trained and fluent in German,
each man was allocated a specific area. They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage,
intelligence tradecraft and able to act as independent operators, blending into the local population
and working unseen in a city awash with spies looking for information on their every move.
Special Forces Berlin was a one of a kind unit that had no parallel. It left a legacy of a new type
of soldier expert in unconventional warfare, one that was sought after for missions such as the
attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the U.S. government
officially acknowledging their existence in 2014, their incredible story is now being told in
"Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956 - 1990"
by James Stejskal.
Critique: An extraordinary and seminal study, "Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War
Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956 - 1990" is impressively informative, expertly organized
and presented, making it a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to community,
college, and university library Cold War era Intelligence & Espionage 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 "Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War
Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956 - 1990" is also available in a paperback edition
(9781612008431, $22.95), in a digital book format ($11.99), and as a complete and unabridged
audio book (Tantor Audio, 9781541458192, $29.99, CD).
Editorial Note: James Stejskal is an author, military historian, and conflict archaeologist. To gain
inspiration and research his writings, he spent 35 years serving with the US Army Special Forces
and the Central Intelligence Agency in such interesting places as Africa, Europe, the Balkans, the
Near and Far East. He is also the author of numerous articles and the well-received book "The
Horns of the Beast: The Swakop River Campaign and World War I in South-West Africa,
1914-15".
Taking Fire!
David L. Porter
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476680514, $29.95, PB, 182pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: As a first lieutenant in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, U.S. Army pilot David
Porter was section leader in an Aerial Scout platoon in Vietnam. Their mission was to conduct
reconnaissance in OH-6 aircraft (a.k.a. Light Observation Helicopter or "Loach") near the
Cambodian border. Finding and engaging the enemy at low altitude in coordination with an
AH-1 Cobra gunship circling above, these units developed a remarkable method of fighting the
Viet Cong: Hunter-Killer Operations.
The tactic had great local success but died with the war. Few today are aware of the hazards these
pilots faced during times of intense combat. Porter's vivid memoir recounts the internal workings
of a legendary air cavalry troop, in-the-cockpit combat actions, and the men who were key
players on this perilous battleground.
Critique: "Taking Fire! Memoir of an Aerial Scout in Vietnam" is an impressively informative,
vividly written, inherently fascinating read from cover to cover -- making it an ideal and
unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library 20th Century
American Military History collections in general, and Vietnam War supplemental studies lists in
particular. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, military history
buffs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Taking Fire! Memoir
of an Aerial Scout in Vietnam" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$15.99).
Editorial Note: David L. Porter is a retired Regular Army Colonel with twenty-seven years'
service as an Army Combat Arms officer. In addition to his year in Vietnam, he served multiple
tours in the inter-zonal border between East and West Germany during the cold war. He also
served tours in combat divisions, the Armor School, and various staff positions including the
Pentagon. Upon retirement, he became the Director of Admissions at Colorado Technical
University, in Colorado Springs, Colorado followed by a nineteen year career as a Government
contractor. His contractor responsibilities focused on training American Soldiers at various
locations throughout the United States and Germany.
Japan's Spy at Pearl Harbor
Taken Yoshikawa, author
Andrew Mitchell, translator
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476676999, $35.00, PB, 308pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Takeo Yoshikawa (1912-1993) was an ensign in the Imperial Japanese Navy and a
naval intelligence officer assigned the task of spying on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl
Harbor.
Assuming the alias "Morimura" and the role of secretary at the Japanese Consulate-General in
Honolulu in March of 1941, Yoshikawa was able to travel all over the Hawaiian Islands to gather
intelligence. His reporting during the nine months preceding the outbreak of the Pacific War
would help pave the way for Japan's surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.
Yoshikawa's memoirs (published here in Andrew Mitchell's English translation for the first time)
offer a gripping spy story, personal confessions, and a Japanese eyewitness view of the war in the
Pacific.
Critique: A unique and unreservedly recommended addition to the growing library of World War
II biographies and memoirs, "Japan's Spy at Pearl Harbor: Memoir of an Imperial Navy Secret
Agent" is an important acquisition for community, college, and university library collections, and
a 'must read' choice for the personal reading lists of all dedicated military history buffs.
Editorial Note: Takeo Yoshikawa was born in Matsuyama, Japan, in 1912 and was trained at the
prestigious Etajima Naval Academy in the early 1930s.
From Omaha Beach to Nuremberg
Daniel Altman & Fawn Zwickel
McFarland & Company
PO Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476679235, $29.95, PB, 208pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Sgt. Daniel Altman grew up in the Bronx, New York. He enlisted in the Army at 21
and served in the ETO. When he came state-side he integrated back into civilian life and
repressed his memories of the war. "From Omaha Beach to Nuremberg: A Memoir of World War
II Combat and the International Military Tribunal" is his personal memoir and history of what he
experienced, what he saw, and what he now remembers with the assistance of his granddaughter
Fawn Zwickel.
A tough Jewish kid from the Bronx, Dan Altman enlisted in the Army when the U.S. entered
World War II. Adapting street smarts to soldiering, he became a skilled sharpshooter and attained
the rank of sergeant in the 1st Infantry Division. On D-Day, Altman's unit was among the second
wave to assault the German defenses at Normandy. Surviving the invasion, the fighting in the
lethal hedgerow country, the Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge, he was later assigned to
gather information on the Nazi atrocities performed at the concentration camps for the trials at
Nuremburg.
Critique: A simply riveting read from first page to last, "From Omaha Beach to Nuremberg: A
Memoir of World War II Combat and the International Military Tribunal" is an invaluable and
enduringly appreciated contribution to the every growing library of World War II Histories &
Biographies. While unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library
collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, military buffs,
and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "From Omaha Beach to
Nuremberg: A Memoir of World War II Combat and the International Military Tribunal" is also
readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.59).
Attack at Chosin
Xiaobing Li
University of Oklahoma Press
2800 Venture Drive, Norman, OK 73069
www.oupress.com
9780806164991, $29.95, PB, 280pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: For members of the U.S. Army's "Task Force Faith" and the First Marine Division, the
Battle of Chosin Reservoir is an epic story of survival, courage, and ingenuity. Their exploits are
well known and woven into the storied histories of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. Now, for
the first time, "Attack at Chosin: The Chinese Second Offensive in Korea" recounts this battle
from the Chinese perspective, describing the advance that forced General MacArthur to reorient
his strategy, which not only marked a turning point in the Korean War but impacted events in
Asia in ways that still resonate today.
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir, as the Chinese commanders foretold, determined the fate and
length of the Korean War. Author Xiaobing Li describes the fighting that began on November
27, 1950, when 150,000 soldiers from the Chinese Ninth Army Group attacked the First Marines
and elements of the 7th Infantry Division in the remote mountains of North Korea. It was a
calculated attempt to repel MacArthur's "home-by-Christmas" offensive and to deter UN forces
from further advances toward the Chinese border.
The fierce fighting that followed, combined with the bitter cold, made Chosin one of the
deadliest battles of the war. By December 17, after suffering more than 40,000 casualties and
failing to achieve their campaign objectives to destroy the American divisions, the Ninth Army
Group was forced to withdraw. One day later, on December 18, 1950, the remaining survivors
were recalled to China.
As the first book to explore the role of command and control, technology, and combat
effectiveness from the point of view of the Chinese, and to examine cooperation and friction
between Beijing and Pyongyang, "Attack at Chosin: The Chinese Second Offensive in Korea"
sheds new light on the ultimate military success of the UN forces during the Korean conflict. Li
also provides invaluable insights into Chinese military doctrine, strategy, and tactics that
continue to influence foreign policy and American military institutions today.
Critique: Offering a unique perspective on a key battle of the Korean War, "Attack at Chosin:
The Chinese Second Offensive in Korea" is an impressively informative contribution that is
unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library American
Military History collections in general, and Korean War supplemental studies lists in particular.
Enhanced for academia with the inclusion of an eighteen page Selected Bibliography, a fourteen
page Glossary of Names and Terms, fifty pages of Notes, and an Index, it should be noted for
students, military historians, and non-specialist general readers that "Attack at Chosin" is also
readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.95).
Editorial Note: Xiaobing Li is the Professor of History and Director of the Western Pacific
Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma. He is the executive editor of the Chinese
Historical Review and the author or coauthor of numerous books, including China's Battle for
Korea: The 1951 Spring Offensive and The Cold War in East Asia.
The Art Shelf
Degas at the Opera
Henri Loyrett
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110-0017
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500023396, $60.00, HC, 320pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 - 27 September 1917) was a French artist famous for his
pastel drawings and oil paintings of ballerinas. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints,
and drawings. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his
works depict dancers.
From his debut in the 1860s up to his final works after 1900, the Paris Opera formed a focal point
of Edgar Degas's paintings. He explored the theater's various spaces (auditorium and stage,
private boxes, foyers, and dance studios) and painted those who frequented them: dancers,
singers, orchestral musicians, audience members, and subscribers watching from the wings. This
theater presented a microcosm of infinite possibilities, allowing him to experiment with multiple
points of view, contrasting lighting, motion, and the precision of movement.
A magnificently produced catalog "Degas at the Opera" by Henri Loyrette was created in concert
with an exhibition at the Muse e d'Orsay in Paris, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington,
DC, to consider the Paris Opera's influence on Degas as a whole by examining not only his
passionate relationship with the house and his musical tastes, but also the infinite resources of the
opera's marvelous toolbox.
Critique: Showcasing some 300 full color reproductions of Degas's work, and enhanced with the
inclusion of insightful essays by leading curators and scholars Kimberly A. Jones, Leila Jarbouai,
and Marine Kisiel, "Degas at the Opera" by Henri Loyrette (who is the former director of the
Louvre Museum and former curator and director of the Muse e d'Orsay) is certain to be a much
appreciated and enduringly popular addition to personal, community, and academic library Art
History collections in general, and Edgar Degas supplemental studies lists in particular.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Guide to the Collections
Maureen Melton
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
www.mfa-publications.org
9780878468621, $24.95, PB, 440pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in a newly updated and expanded edition, "Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A
Guide to the Collections" by Maureen Melton is the definitive guide to the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston's most enduring masterpieces and provides an enticing, informative, beautifully
illustrated introduction to a collection that circles the globe and spans thousands of years.
Featuring more than 500 works of art ranging from Native American ceramics to European
silver, Egyptian funerary arts to Warhol silkscreens, and alongside world-renowned paintings and
sculpture (all reproduced in vibrant color) "Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Guide to the
Collections" is substantial guide that invites readers and visitors alike to experience the surprise,
delight and inspiration offered by the collections of a major museum.
Critique: A beautifully composed and impressively informative guide to one of the nation's
premier museum collections, "Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Guide to the Collections" is a
pleasure to simply browse through and an essential, practical, and thoroughly 'user friendly'
reference for getting the most out of a trip to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
The Environmental Studies Shelf
Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity
Sandra Postel
Island Press
2000 M Street NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036
www.islandpress.org
9781610917902, $35.00, HC, 336pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: We have disrupted the natural water cycle for centuries in an effort to control water for
our own prosperity. Yet every year, recovery from droughts and floods costs billions of dollars,
and we spend billions more on dams, diversions, levees, and other feats of engineering. These
massive projects not only are risky financially and environmentally, they often threaten social
and political stability. What if the answer was not further control of the water cycle, but repair
and replenishment?
In "Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity", Sandra Postel takes her readers
around the world to explore water projects that work with, rather than against, nature's rhythms.
In New Mexico, forest rehabilitation is safeguarding drinking water; along the Mississippi River,
farmers are planting cover crops to reduce polluted runoff; and in China, "sponge cities" are
capturing rainwater to curb urban flooding.
Efforts like these will be essential as climate change disrupts both weather patterns and the
models on which we base our infrastructure. We will be forced to adapt. The question is whether
we will continue to fight the water cycle or recognize our place in it and take advantage of the
inherent services nature offers. Water, Postel writes, is a gift, the source of life itself. How will
we use this greatest of gifts?
Critique: An impressively informative and timely contribution to our national dialogue over
water use and dealing with the stresses on our water systems because of Climate Change,
"Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity" is an extraordinary and unreservedly
recommended addition to both community and academic library Hydrology & Water
Environmental Issues collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students,
academia, governmental policy makers, environmental activists, and non-specialist general
readers with an interest in the subject that "Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and
Prosperity" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781642830101, $26.00) and in a
digital book format (Kindle, $16.49).
Editorial Note: Sandra Postel is the director of the Global Water Policy Project and co-creator of
Change the Course, the national water stewardship initiative awarded the 2017 US Water Prize
for restoring billions of gallons of water to depleted rivers and wetlands. From 2009-2015, she
served as Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society. Postel is author of Pillar of
Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? and Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity, the basis for a PBS
documentary. Her work has appeared in Science, Natural History, and Best American Science
and Nature Writing.
The American History Shelf
Enterprising Waters
Brad L. Utter
Excelsior Editions
c/o State University of New York Press
State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246-0001
www.sunypress.edu
9781438478265, $39.95, PB, 432pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: One of the largest public works projects in American history, the Erie Canal inspired a
nationwide transportation revolution and directed the course of New York and American history.
When completed in 1825, the engineering marvel unlocked the Western interior for trade and
settlement, boomtowns sprang up along the canal's path, and New York City grew to be the
nation's most powerful center of international trade. Millions of people poured into New York
(and some through it) to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities provided by the canal,
influencing settlement and the social, political, and commercial landscapes of America.
Produced in honor of the bicentennial of the beginning of construction of the canal, "Enterprising
Waters: The History and Art of New York's Erie Canal" by Brad L. Utter (who is a Senior
Historians and Curator at the New York State Museum) is a companion catalog to the New York
State Museum's exhibition of the same name and includes reproductions of objects and images
from the collections of more than thirty-five different institutions and individual lenders. It also
contains reproductions of fifty-nine works of art used in the companion exhibition "Art of the
Erie Canal." Themes of politics, engineering, commerce, life on the canal, and more are paired
with full color images of artifacts, documents, and images to bring this unique American story to
life, from its inception to today.
Critique: Profusely illustrated with captioned period photography throughout, "Enterprising
Waters: The History and Art of New York's Erie Canal" is enhanced for academia with the
inclusion of a two page Bibliography, two pages of Notes, and a fourteen page Index, making it
an exceptional work that is unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university
library American Transportation History collections in general, and Erie Canal history
supplemental studies lists in particular. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-
specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Enterprising Waters: The History
and Art of New York's Erie Canal" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$36.22).
The Old West's First Power Couples
William R. Nester
Rio Nuevo Publishers
PO Box 5250, Tucson, AZ 85703
www.rionuevo.com
9781940322445, $24.95, PB, 344pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: A century and a half before the Kennedys and the Clintons, the Fremonts and the
Custers were American power couples. John and Jessie Fremont and George and Libbie Custer
pioneered that American cultural phenomenon. -- So what made the Fremonts and the Custers so
famous?
Fremont mapped swaths of the West in five expeditions and helped lead America's conquest of
California. He was nominated as the newborn Republican Party's presidential candidate in the
1856 election. During the Civil War, Custer was the boy-general who led cavalry charges that
routed rebel forces in a score or more combats. He achieved immortality for his last stand with
262 of his men against thousands of Indian warriors during the battle of the Little Bighorn. But
above all he and his wife helped spearhead Manifest Destiny, the belief that Americans have a
God-given right to expand their nation across the continent and beyond to the ends of the
earth.
Although little known today, their wives, Jessie and Libbie, were nearly as famous as their
husbands. Each served as her husband's political muse, offering candid advice and spurring him
to higher ambitions. They were vivacious women who loved entertaining and being the center of
attention. They were also courageous and followed their husbands into the dangers of war, the
frontier, and the wilderness.
Proudly backed by their wives, Fremont and Custer committed epic acts in epic times that
brought them enormous fame. Yet eventually each self-destructed. The reason was simple but
serious character flaws and hubris that made each man his own worst enemy. Becoming adored
heroes at an early age warped each to believe that he could get away with anything. Once
extolled as symbolizing America's greatest traits of courage, decisiveness, and ingenuity, with
time John Fremont, George Custer, and, by extension their wives, have increasingly been reviled
in later generations for representing imperialism, racism, and genocide.
"The Old West's First Power Couples: The Fremonts, the Custers, and Their Epic Quest for
Manifest Destiny" by William Nester (who is a professor at St. John's University in New York
and the author of numerous books on American national security, global politics, military history,
and the nature of power) neither celebrates nor demonizes the Fremonts and the Custers. Instead
each couple is explored as an extraordinary, gifted, flawed, unique individuals who were half of a
unique matrimonial pair that made history and advanced America's Manifest Destiny -- for better
or worse.
Critique: An inherently fascinating and absorbing read throughout, "The Old West's First Power
Couples: The Fremonts, the Custers, and Their Epic Quest for Manifest Destiny" is an
impressively well written work of meticulous scholarship, making it a unique and truly
extraordinary contribution to personal, community, and academic library Western American
History and 19th Century American Biography collections.
The World History Shelf
God's Viking: Harald Hardrada
Nic Fields
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
9781473823426, $44.95, HC, 336pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Harald Hardrada (c. 1015 - 25 September 1066) is perhaps best known as the inheritor
of 'seven feet of English soil' in that year of fateful change, 1066, when he was defeated by the
invading Normans under the leadership of William the Conqueror. But Stamford Bridge was just
the terminal point of a warring career that spanned decades and continents.
Prior to forcibly occupying the Norwegian throne, Harald had an interesting (and lucrative)
career in the Varangian Guard, and he remains unquestionably the most notable of all the
Varangians who served the Byzantine emperors. In the latter employment he saw active service
in the Aegean, Sicily, Italy, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine and Bulgaria, while in Constantinople he
was the hired muscle behind a palace revolution.
A man of war, his reign in Norway was to be taken up with a wasteful, vicious and ultimately
futile conflict against Denmark, a kingdom (like England) he believed was his to rule. "God's
Viking" also follow Harald's life from Stiklestad, where aged fifteen he fought alongside his
half-brother king Olaf, through his years as a mercenary in Russia and Byzantium, then back to
Norway, ending with his death in battle in England.
Critique: An extraordinary and inherently interesting historical study of meticulously detailed and
deftly written scholarship that is enhanced for academia with the inclusion of three Appendices
(Skald, Saga, Serpent Slayer, Son of Odinn; Mosfell Archaeological Project; He, Her, Hero,
Heroine); a two page listing of Abbreviations; an eighteen page Bibliography; and a fourteen
page Index, "God's Viking: Harald Hardrada" will prove to be a welcome addition to both
community and academic library Medieval History collections in general, and Harald Hardrada
supplemental studies lists in particular. It should be noted for students, academia, medieval
history buffs, Viking history fans, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the
subject that "God's Viking: Harald Hardrada" is also readily available in a digital book format
(Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Nic Fields started his career as a biochemist before joining the Royal Marines.
Having left the military, he went back to university and completed his doctorate in Ancient
History at the University of Newcastle. He was Assistant Director of the British School at
Athens, then a lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh. He is now a freelance
author and researcher based in southwest France, specializing in ancient military history.
The Civil War Shelf
Emotional Gettysburg: Paintings & Essays
Bruce E. Mowday, essayist
Karl J. Kuerner, artist
Regent Press
2747 Regent St., Berkeley, CA 94705
www.regentpress.net
9781587904820, $34.99, HC, 98pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In a series of historic vignettes that deftly combine the contemporary paintings of artist
Karl J. Kuerner and the essays of Bruce E. Mowday explore the Civil War battlefield of
Gettysburg in a way never before depicted in the pages of "Emotional Gettysburg: Paintings &
Essays".
For Karl, the spirit of art has spurred him to create a series of paintings that are peaceful and
tranquil despite the death and destruction that took place here. Also, there are tears for those who
sacrificed so much.
For Bruce, he calls upon his years of Civil War historical research to recount some of the heroic
deeds of the conflict that threatened the very existence of the United States of America.
Ten of thousands of soldiers.... Ten of thousands of emotional stories each with a life of its own.
So many stories will never be told, lost along with those who sacrificed their lives at Gettysburg
during three days of July in 1863. What took place in Gettysburg, documented or not, forever
will have profound meaning for Americans, a soul and a spirit.
Critique: A thoughtful, informative, beautifully enhanced, and moving volume, "Emotional
Gettysburg: Paintings & Essays" is an extraordinary, unique, inherently fascinating, and
unreservedly recommended contribution to personal, community, college, and university library
American Civil War collections and supplemental studies reading lists.
Editorial Note: Bruce Mowday is an award-winning journalist who was given the Local Author
Hero Award by the West Chester, Pennsylvania, library during its 2008 Literacy Heroes event at
Longwood Gardens. Bruce is also listed on the author's mural at the Chester County Library,
Exton. Bruce has authored books on history, true crime, sports and business. Mowday gives talks
on his books and also offers help to other authors on publishing issues, and maintains a web site
at www.mowday.com
Karl Kuerner's artwork has been exhibited in Belgium, Nigeria, and Togo through the "Arts in
Embassies" program, as well as at the Brandywine River Museum and Berman Museum at
Ursinus College. Karl exhibited his Places to Go, Things to See series at West Chester University
where he received an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service. Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian
Art, Nebraska, plans to feature Karl's creations in 2020. Karl has been featured in many books
and publications, recently appearing in PBS's American Masters Series documentary Wyeth. A
well respected teacher of 38 years, Karl has carried the "Art Spirit" throughout his time. Those
interested can visit the web site at www.karljkuerner.com to explore Karl's paintings, books,
news and more.
The Literary Studies Shelf
All of the Belles
F. Scott Fitzgerald
NewSouth Books
105 South Court Street, Montgomery, AL 36104
www.newsouthbooks.com
9781588384232, $23.95, HC, 112pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: During his Roaring Twenties heyday, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote three stories about the
belles of Tarleton, Georgia, a setting readers recognized as a thinly veiled version of his wife
Zelda's hometown of Montgomery, Alabama.
Inspired by Fitzgerald's own belle, Zelda Sayre, whom he met in Montgomery while stationed at
Camp Sheridan training for the Great War, these stories are minor masterpieces long regarded as
the very best of the 160-plus short stories the writer published during his short life.
"All of the Belles: The Montgomery Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald" collects these stories("The Ice
Palace," "The Jelly-Bean," and "The Last of the Belles") in a single volume for the very first
time. This very special book is being released to commemorate the centennial anniversary of
Scott and Zelda's marriage and in recognition of the many hundredth anniversaries of Fitzgerald's
work which will be celebrated starting in 2020.
The heroines of these still remarkable tales rebel against Southern expectations of women, revel
in the newfound freedoms young people enjoyed at the outset of the modern age, and ultimately
discover that home is far harder to run away from than they ever expected. The stories capture all
the winsome qualities that readers love about F. Scott's writing: the keen observation of manners,
the comic insights, the lyricism, and the poignant, powerful sense of loss. The Jazz Age may
have begun a century ago, but Fitzgerald's works remain among American literature's most
powerful writing, as will become clear with a reading of "All of the Belles".
Critique: Simply stated, every personal, community, highschool, college and university library in
the country should have a copy of "All of the Belles: The Montgomery Stories of F. Scott
Fitzgerald" in their American Literature collections in general, and F. Scott Fitzgerald literary
curriculum studies reading lists in particular.
Editorial Note: Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald first came to Alabama in
the summer of 1918 as an Army lieutenant stationed at Camp Sheridan while training for the
Great War. According to legend, that's where he met Montgomery belle Zelda Sayre at a
country-club dance. The pair married on April 3, 1920 and, thanks to the success of Fitzgerald's
debut novel (published eight days before the wedding) instantly became symbols of the Roaring
Twenties. Over the next two decades, Fitzgerald published three more novels (including his
masterpiece, The Great Gatsby) and 160-plus short stories. He died in 1940, having fallen out of
public favor. Within a decade, however, readers and academia rediscovered his brilliance and he
continues to be celebrated as one of America's greatest authors today.
Affect and Literature
Alex Houen, editor
Cambridge University Press
One Liberty Plaza, Fl. 20, New York, NY 10006
www.cambridge.org
9781108424516, $120.00, HC, 470pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Expertly and knowledgeably compiled and edited by Alex Houen, the twenty three
articles and essays comprising "Affect and Literature" collectively considers how 'affect', the
experience of feeling or emotion, has developed as a critical concept within literary studies in
different periods and through a range of approaches.
Stretching from the classical to the contemporary, the first section of the book, 'Origins',
considers the importance of particular areas of philosophy, theory, and criticism that have been
important for conceptualizing affect and its relation to literature. "Affect and Literature" also
includes ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, eighteenth-century aesthetics, Marxist theory,
psychoanalysis, queer theory, and post-colonial theory.
The chapters of the second section, 'Developments', correspond to those of the previous section
and build on their insights through readings of particular texts. The final 'Applications' section is
focused on contemporary and future lines of enquiry, and revolves around a particular set of
concerns: media and communications, capitalism, and an environment of affective relations that
extend to ecology, social crisis, and war.
Critique: A seminal body of meticulous, informative, and deftly presented scholarship, "Affect
and Literature" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community and
academic library Literary Criticism & Theory collections and supplemental curriculum reading
lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest
in the subject that "Affect and Literature" is also readily available in a digital book format
(Kindle, $96.00).
Editorial Note: Alex Houen is author of Terrorism and Modern Literature (2002), and Powers of
Possibility: Experimental American Writing since the 1960s (2012). His edited publications
include: a special issue on 'Affects, Text, and Performativity' of Textual Practice (March/April
2011); and (with Jan-Melissa Schramm), Sacrifice and Modern War Literature: Battle of
Waterloo to the War on Terror (2018). He also co-edits the international journal of poetry,
Blackbox Manifold.
The Computer Shelf
A First Course in Network Science
Filippo Menczer, Santo Fortunato, Clayton A. Davis
Cambridge University Press
One Liberty Plaza, Fl. 20, New York, NY 10006
www.cambridge.org
9781108471138, $44.99, HC, 300pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Networks are everywhere: networks of friends, transportation networks and the Web.
Neurons in our brains and proteins within our bodies form networks that determine our
intelligence and survival. "A First Course in Network Science" by the team of Filippo Menczer,
Santo Fortunato, Clayton A. Davis (all from Indiana University, Bloomington) is modern,
accessible textbook introduces the basics of network science for a wide range of job sectors from
management to marketing, from biology to engineering, and from neuroscience to the social
sciences.
Students will develop important, practical skills and learn to write code for using networks in
their areas of interest - even as they are just learning to program with Python. Extensive sets of
tutorials and homework problems provide plenty of hands-on practice and longer programming
tutorials online further enhance students' programming skills. This intuitive and direct approach
makes the book ideal for a first course, aimed at a wide audience without a strong background in
mathematics or computing but with a desire to learn the fundamentals and applications of
network science.
Critique: Enhanced for academia with two appendices (Python Tutorial & NetLogo Models), a
ten page listing of References, and a two page Index, "A First Course in Network Science" is an
impressively informative and expertly presented introduction to Network Science and an original,
highly recommended addition to both college and university library Physics collections in
general, and Mathematical Physics collections in particular. It should be noted for the personal
reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the
subject that "A First Course in Network Science" is also readily available in a digital book format
(Kindle, $21.99).
The Pets/Wildlife Shelf
Butterflies: Their Natural History and Diversity
Ronald Orenstein, author
Thomas Marent, photographer
Firefly Books Ltd.
www.fireflybooks.com
9780228102496, $24.95, PB, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Butterflies: Their Natural History and Diversity" is a visual feast that informatively
showcases a multitude of butterfly and moth species from around the globe. Here featured are
some of the most colorful, spectacular and sometimes weird examples of the world's butterflies
and moths. Vibrant color photographs and macro images by Thomas Marent complement the
enlightening text written by zoologist Ronald Orenstein, who explains the scientific curiosities of
these amazing insects. "Butterflies: Their Natural History and Diversity" makes clear how to
differentiate between butterflies and moths; how caterpillars camouflage themselves; and how
their feeding strategies and evolutionary adaptations help them prevail in the wild.
Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated with truly stunning photography, "Butterflies:
Their Natural History and Diversity" is an impressively written, organized and presented natural
history of the butterfly and their role in the ecosystems of earth. This coffee-table style volume
(8.9 x 0.7 x 10.9 inches) is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional,
school and community library Pets/Wildlife collections in general, and supplemental Lepidoptera
curriculum studies lists in particular.
Editorial Note: Ronald Orenstein is a zoologist, lawyer and wildlife conservationist who has
written extensively on natural history issues. His most recent books are Ivory, Horn and Blood
and Hummingbirds.
Thomas Marent is a wildlife photographer based in Switzerland. His previous books include
Frog, Rainforest and Life in the Wild.
The Agriculture Shelf
Cucumber Mosaic Virus
Peter Palukaitis & Fernando Garcia-Arenal, editors
APS Press
3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121
www.shopapspress.org
9780890546093, $255.89, HC, 380pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) has the broadest host range of any virus, and
among the 1,000-plus host plants it affects are economically important food crops such as
tomato, pepper, and lettuce. New species of host plants are being identified every year, mostly
among weeds and ornamental plants as the latter become more popular. This is especially true in
the developing world, where many plant species have not yet been surveyed.
Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by Peter Palukaitis and Fernando Garcia-Arenal,
"Cucumber Mosaic Virus" is the first collective study on the pathology and molecular biology of
the virus, as well as CMV's exceptional ability to override host defense mechanisms (referred to as
'RNA silencing suppression') and evaluations of disease detection methods and management of
strategies.
Critique: Drawing upon contributions from an international group of 29 experts that are
exceptionally well organized and informatively presented, "Cucumber Mosaic Virus" is an ideal
and authoritative reference that is unreservedly recommended for college and university library
Gardening/Horticultural collections, as well as the supplemental curriculum studies reading lists
for students, academia, and plant disease researchers.
The Technology Shelf
Structural Steel Design, third edition
Abi O. Aghayere & Jason Vigil
Mercury Learning
c/o Stylus Publishing, Inc.
22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012
www.styluspub.com
9781683923671, $99.95, HC, 900pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Now in a fully updated and significantly expanded third edition, "Structural Steel
Design" by Abi O. Aghayere (who is a licensed professional engineer and a professor of
structural engineering at Drexel University) and Jason Vigil (who is a consultant in Rochester,
New York, and an adjunct professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology), is a simple,
practical, and concise guide to structural steel design using the Load and Resistance Factor
Design (LRFD) and the Allowable Strength Design (ASD) methods -- that equips engineering
and architectural students with the necessary skills for designing real-world structures.
Civil, structural, and architectural engineering students intending to pursue careers in structural
design and consulting engineering, and practicing structural engineers will find the text useful
because of the holistic, project-based learning approach that bridges the gap between engineering
education and professional practice. The design of each building component is presented in a
way such that the reader can see how each element fits into the entire building design and
construction process. Structural details and practical example exercises that realistically mirror
what obtains in professional design practice are presented.
Critique: This new third edition of "Structural Steel Design" is comprised of updated
content/example exercises that conform to the current codes (ASCE 7, ANSI/AISC 360-16, and
IBC); Additional coverage to ASD and examples with ASD to parallel those that are done LRFD;
Follows a holistic approach to structural steel design that considers the design of individual steel
framing members in the context of a complete structure. Expertly written, organized and
presented, "Structural Steel Design" is an ideal textbook for Architectural Materials, Metallurgy
Materials Engineering, and Cvil Engineering curriculums, and an unreservedly recommended
addition to college and university library collections. It should be noted for the personal reading
lists of students and academia that "Structural Steel Design" is also readily available in a digital
book format (Kindle, $49.95).
Telecommunication Electronics
Dante Del Corso, et al.
Artech House
685 Canton Street, Norwood, MA 02062
www.artechhouse.com
9781630817367, $179.00, HC, 260pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: All model parameters are fundamentally coupled together, so that directly measured
individual parameters, although widely used and accepted, may initially only serve as good
estimates. "Telecommunication Electronics" by the team of by Dante Del Corso, Vittorio
Camarchia, Robert Quaglia, and Paolo Bardella is comprehensive resource presents all aspects
concerning the modeling of semiconductor field-effect device parameters based on
gallium-arsenide (GaAs) and generative adversarial network (GaN) technology.
Metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs), high electron mobility transistors
(HEMTs) and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), their structures and functions, and
existing transistor models are also classified. The Shockley model is presented in order to give
insight into semiconductor field-effect transistor (FET) device physics and explain the
relationship between geometric and material parameters and device performance. Extraction of
trapping and thermal time constants is discussed.
Of special note is a section that is specifically devoted to standard nonlinear FET models applied
to large-signal measurements, including static-/pulsed-DC and single-/two-tone stimulation. High
power measurement setups for signal waveform measurement, wideband source-/load-pull
measurement (including envelope source-/load pull) are also included, along with high-power
intermodulation distortion (IMD) measurement setup (including envelope load-pull).
"Telecommunication Electronics" is the publication to cover of all aspects of semiconductor FET
device modeling in a single volume.
Critique: Expertly written, organization and presented, "Telecommunication Electronics" is an
ideal textbook for curriculum courses and unreservedly recommended for college, university
library Telecommunications Technology collections and supplemental studies lists.
Editorial Note: Artech House provides today's professionals and students with books and
software from the world's authorities in RF/microwave design, wireless communications, radar
engineering, and electronic defense, GPS/GNSS, power engineering, computer security, and
building technology. Artech House is a subsidiary of Horizon House Publications, Inc., publisher
of Microwave Journal.
The Political Science Shelf
The Hidden History of the War on Voting
Thom Hartmann
Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.
1333 Broadway, Suite 1000, Oakland CA, 94612
www.bkconnection.com
9781523087785, $15.99, PB, 192pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In today's America, only a slim majority of people register to vote, and a large
percentage of registered voters don't bother to show up: Donald Trump was elected by only 26
percent of eligible voters. Unfortunately, this is not a bug in our system, it's a feature.
In "The Hidden History of the War on Voting: Who Stole Your Vote and How to Get It Back",
Thom Hartmann unveils the strategies and tactics that conservative elites in this country have
used, from the foundation of the Electoral College to the latest voter ID laws, to protect their
interests by preventing "the wrong people" (such as the poor, women, and people of color) from
voting while making it more convenient for the wealthy and white. But he also lays out a wide
variety of simple, commonsense ways that we the people can fight back and reclaim our right to
rule through the ballot box.
Critique: A timely and much needed contribution to our on-going national dialogue concerning
voter suppression efforts by conservative right-wing political establishments, "The Hidden
History of the War on Voting: Who Stole Your Vote and How to Get It Back" should be a part of
every community, college, and university library collection in the country. It should be noted for
the personal reading lists of students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general
readers with an interest in the subject that "The Hidden History of the War on Voting: Who Stole
Your Vote and How to Get It Back" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$9.99).
Editorial Note: Thom Hartmann is a progressive national and internationally syndicated talk
show host. Talkers Magazine named him America's #1 most important progressive host and the
host of one of the top 10 talk radio shows in the country every year for over a decade. A
four-time recipient of the Project Censored Award, Hartmann is also a New York Times
bestselling author of thirty-two books, translated into multiple languages.
A Short History of Presidential Election Crises
Alan Hirsch
City Lights Publishers
261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133
www.citylights.com
9780872868298, $16.95, PB, 224pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In 2000, the American public learned that an exceptionally close presidential election
can produce chaos, because we have no reliable Constitutional mechanism for resolving
disputes.
Since 2016, we have learned that foreign countries such as Russia and North Korea (and perhaps
other malevolent actors) have been covertly attacking U.S. election systems. In the age of
hacking, our elections are more vulnerable than ever, and yet we have failed to adequately
prepare for all possible scenarios. It is time for us to think about how we can prevent and/or deal
with disaster before it strikes.
In "A Short History of Presidential Election Crises: And How to Prevent the Next One",
constitutional scholar Alan Hirsch addresses these issues with urgency and precision. He presents
a concise history of presidential elections that resulted in crises and advocates clear,
common-sense solutions, including abolishing the Electoral College and the creation of a
permanent, non-partisan Presidential Election Review Board to prevent or remedy future
crises.
Critique: In our present era of social media based misinformation, Russian troll bots, and a
president who is an infamously compulsive, pathological liar of things both significant and
insignificant, "A Short History of Presidential Election Crises: And How to Prevent the Next
One" is an impressively timely (given the 2020 Presidential election cycle) and seminal work of
meticulous and informative scholarship that should be considered as an essential and
unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library Contemporary
Political Science collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students,
academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that
"A Short History of Presidential Election Crises" is also readily available in a digital book format
(Kindle, $10.99).
Editorial Note: Alan Hirsch, is the Instructor in the Humanities and Chair of the Justice and Law
Studies program at Williams College, is the author of a number of books including Impeaching
the President: Past, Present, and Future (City Lights) and For the People: What the Constitution
Really Says About Your Rights (Free Press) (coauthored with Akhil Amar). He received a J.D.
from Yale Law School and B.A. from Amherst College. His work has appeared in the
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Newsday, and the Village Voice.
Hirsch also serves as a trial consultant and expert witness on interrogations and criminal
confessions, testifying around the nation.
Beyond Populism
Jeff Maskovsky & Sophie Bjork-James
West Virginia University Press
1535 Mileground, Morgantown, WV 26506
www.wvupressonline.com
9781949199451, $99.99, HC, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Across the world, politics is lurching to the right, ethnic nationalism is on the rise, and
people are furious. In "Beyond Populism: Angry Politics and the Twilight of Neoliberalism", the
team of Jeff Maskovsky (Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Urban Studies at Queens
College, City University of New York) and Sophie Bjork-James (Assistant Professor of
Anthropology, Vanderbilt University) collaborate to compile and edited a number of essays that
collectively examine the new destructive projects of resentment that have surfaced in the political
spaces opened by neoliberalism's failures, particularly since the financial collapse of 2008.
"Beyond Populism" contextualizes the recent history of the Global North (notably Brexit and the
Trump election) among wider comparative politics, with chapters on India, Colombia, Eastern
Europe, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and other parts of the globe marked by populist
insurgencies.
The essays collected here explore how global, regional, national, and local structures of power
produce angry politics. They go beyond conventional academic debates about populism to
explore the different kinds of anger that shape politics today and to make legible the multiplicity
of forces, antagonisms, conflicts, and emergent political forms that mark the present.
By examining the politics of anger, "Beyond Populism" also considers what is needed to
transform anger from a reactionary to an emancipatory force.
Critique: Enhanced for academia with a complete listing of the contributors and their credentials,
and a seven page Index, "Beyond Populism: Angry Politics and the Twilight of Neoliberalism" is
an extraordinary and timely contribution to both community and academic library Contemporary
International Political Science collections and supplemental studies reading lists. It should be
noted for students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an
interest in the subject that "Beyond Populism" is also readily available in a paperback edition,
(9781949199468,$26.99).
The Biography Shelf
Lost in Ghost Town
Carder Stout
Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-8190
www.hcibooks.com
9780757323546, $16.95, PB, 304pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Lost in Ghost Town" by psychologist to the Hollywood elite Dr. Carder Stout is a
page-turning memoir about his fall from grace into the gritty underbelly of crack addiction,
running drugs for the Shoreline Crips, surviving homelessness, escaping a murder plot, and
finding redemption in the most unlikely of places.
Dr. Carder Stout's clientele includes Oscar-, Golden Globe-, Emmy-, Tony- and Grammy
winners, bestselling authors, and billionaires. He may not be able to share their dark secrets, but
for the first time, everyone will know his.
At the age of thirty-four, Carder would have gladly pawned the silver spoon he was born choking
on for a rock of crack. His downfall was as swift as his privilege was vast -- or had he been
falling all along?
Raised in a Georgetown mansion and educated at exclusive institutions, Carder ran with a crowd
of movers, shakers, and future Oscar-winners in New York City. But words like "promise" and
"potential" are meaningless in the face of serious addiction. Lost years and a stint in rehab later,
when Carder was a dirty, broke, soon-to-be-homeless crackhead wandering the streets of Venice,
California. His lucky break came thanks to his old Ford Taurus: he lands a job of driving for a
philosophical drug czar with whom he finds friendship and self-worth as he helps deliver quality
product to LA's drug enthusiasts, from trust-fund kids, gang affiliates, trophy wives, hip-hop
producers, and Russian pimps. But even his loyalty and protection can't save Carder from the
peril of the streets--or the eventual contract on his life.
From a youth of affluence to the hit the Shoreline Crips put on his life, Carder delves deep into
life on the streets.
Critique: Incredibly candid, impressively well written, inherently fascinating, "Lost in Ghost
Town: A Memoir of Addiction, Redemption, and Hope in Unlikely Places" is an insightfully
informative study of "the power of addiction, the beauty of redemption, and finding truth
somewhere in between". An extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to both
community and academic library Contemporary American Biography collections, it should be
noted for personal reading lists that "Lost in Ghost Town" is also readily available in a digital
book format (Kindle, $12.99).
The Travel Shelf
The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad
Emily Thomas
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4314
www.oup.com/us
9780198835400, $18.95, HC, 256pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: How can we think more deeply about our travels? This was the question that inspired
Emily Thomas' journey into the philosophy of travel.
Part philosophical ramble, part travelogue, "The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad"
begins in the Age of Discovery, when philosophers first started taking travel seriously. It
meanders forward to consider Montaigne on otherness, John Locke on cannibals, and Henry
Thoreau on wilderness.
On our armchair travels with Emily Thomas as we page through "The Meaning of Travel", we
discover the dark side of maps, how the philosophy of space fuelled mountain tourism, and why
you should wash underwear in woodland cabins. We also confront profound issues, such as the
ethics of 'doom tourism' (travel to 'doomed' glaciers and coral reefs), and the effect of space
travel on human significance in a leviathan universe.
The first ever exploration of the places where history and philosophy meet, "The Meaning of
Travel" will reshape our understanding of travel in unexpected and often surprising ways.
Critique: A kind of 'philosophy meets travelogue' study, "The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers
Abroad" is a unique and extraordinary read that is as informed and informative as it is thoughtful
and thought-provoking. Enhanced with occasional illustrations, "The Meaning of Travel" is a
meticulous work of engaging scholarship that is enhanced for academia with the inclusion of a
twelve page Bibliography, fourteen pages of Notes, and an eight page Index. While an especially
and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library Travel &
Philosophy 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 "The Meaning of Travel" is
also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99).
The Family Travel Handbook
Lonely Planet Publications
150 Linden Street, Oakland CA 94607
www.lonelyplanet.com
9781788689151, $17.99, PB, 168pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Full of practical advice, ideas and inspiration from Lonely Planet's parents to you, "The
Family Travel Handbook" is an essential guide offers a wealth of amazing travel experiences
around the world, as well as cogent advice and commentary on how to plan and enjoy them with
the family.
Also included is a section of recommendations on the best places to go, whatever sort of trip is
being planned for the family ranging from the top five places for infants, toddlers, tweens and
teenagers, and the top five budget destinations, to favorite family-friendly cruises,
wildlife-spotting adventures and beach holidays.
Critique: Profusely illustrated throughout, expertly organized and thoroughly 'user friendly' in
presentation, "The Family Travel Handbook" is certain to be an immediate and invaluable
addition to family and community library Contemporary Travel Guide collections. It should be
noted for personal use that "The Family Travel Handbook" is also readily available in a digital
book format (Kindle, $12.82).
The Parenting Shelf
Parenting Made Simple
Dr. Sarah Huges
EK Books
c/o Exisle Publishing
www.exislepublishing.com.au
c/o The Quarto Group (dist.)
www.quartoknows.com
9781925820324, $19.99, PB, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Parenting Made Simple: Straightforward, Practical Strategies for Common Childhood
Challenges" is a practical, easy-to-implement guide in which specialist child psychologist Sarah
Hughes gives parents the tools they will need for every age and stage of their child's
development.
"Parenting Made Simple" focuses on six key areas that include: Challenging behavior; Emotions
and tantrums; Confidence; Social skills and friendships; Anxiety; Parenting well through
separation and divorce.
Parents will learn all the do's and don'ts, and discover effective techniques for raising
well-adjusted children because Dr Hughes uses real-world examples and scenarios to delve deep
into the emotional and behavioural development of children, including rooting out just why kids
can't always behave well (hint: because their brains haven't finished developing yet).
Critique: A thoroughly 'user friendly' compendium showcasing a commonsense and effective
approach that all parents can benefit from, "Parenting Made Simple: Straightforward, Practical
Strategies for Common Childhood Challenges" fully lives up to the promise of its title and is an
especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and
academic library Contemporary Parenting instructional reference collections.
Editorial Note: Sarah Hughes is a clinical psychologist and the founder and director of Think
Clinical Psychologists. She completed her clinical training at the University of Sydney and holds
a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in child and adolescent anxiety disorders. She has
a decade's worth of experience working with kids, teens, adults, and families experiencing a wide
range of difficulties, including: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and relationship issues.
Sarah is also the author of the successful self-help guides, Skip the Drama: Practical, Get-Ahead
Strategies to Survive Your Daughter's Teenage Years (Exisle) and Parenting Made Simple
(Exisle), and regularly appears on Channel 7's The Morning Show as their parenting expert.
The Library Science Shelf
Cultivating Civility
Jo Henry, Joe Eshleman, Richard Moniz
ALA Editions
c/o American Library Association
50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611
www.alastore.ala.org
9780838947166, $59.99, PB, 232pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Like other workplaces, libraries can sometimes be stressful, with library workers
bearing the brunt of such problems as uncivil patrons, poor communication, inadequate
leadership, and toxic behaviors by fellow employees. In "Cultivating Civility: Practical Ways to
Improve a Dysfunctional Library, librarians Jo Henry, Joe Eshleman, and Richard Moniz present
proactive solutions and guidance culled from their own research, including interviews with
library administrators and staff. Sharing their valuable insights that will stimulate thought and
discussion towards the goal of a healthier and more harmonious workplace.
"Cultivating Civility": Addresses the subject from four viewpoints (individual, team, leader, and
organization) focusing on solutions and practical steps in each area; Shows how self-reflection
and self-awareness can be key starting points for exploring workplace issues; Offers numerous
suggestions for wellness and self-care; Provides tips for improving interpersonal communication
and conversations in ways that prevent silos and span boundaries; Sheds light on forming and
sustaining cohesive library teams, then provides solutions for misaligned teams and dissenters;
Discusses why effectively conveying vision, role modeling, and demonstrating empathy are all
crucial behaviors of library leaders; Shares actions library leaders can take to engage employees
in the change process; Examines how organizational structures can either detract or contribute to
a library's success; Details types of training that can be utilized to minimize dysfunction,
including training for bias, empathy, conflict management, and diversity.
Critique: An expertly organized and presented compendium of beneficial and 'real world
practical' advice, "Cultivating Civility: Practical Ways to Improve a Dysfunctional Library" is
very strongly recommended resource that will help public, academic, corporate, and
governmental libraries to be better workplaces for library staff, administrators, and ultimately the
library patrons. Simply stated, "Cultivating Civility: Practical Ways to Improve a Dysfunctional
Library" should be considered mandatory reading by all librarians, an ideal textbook for Library
Science curriculums and in-service training programs, as well as a core addition to college and
university library collections.
Editorial Note: Jo Henry is reference and instruction librarian at the Horry- Georgetown
Technical College Library (Georgetown Campus), South Carolina. Previously she was a librarian
at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and the information services librarian at South Piedmont
Community College. She obtained her MLIS from the University of North Carolina Greensboro
and a master's degree in public administration from Georgia Southern University. She has
coauthored four books: Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison (2014), The Personal Librarian:
Enhancing the Student Experience (2014), The Mindful Librarian (2016), and The Dysfunctional
Library: Challenges and Solutions to Workplace Relationships (2017). Henry has presented at
numerous library conferences and has co-facilitated library workshops (alongside Richard Moniz
and Joe Eshleman) both online and in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Joe Eshleman is senior librarian at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North
Carolina. He was previously the instruction librarian at the Johnson & Wales University Library -
Charlotte from 2008 to 2015 and was head librarian for two years at the JWU Providence library.
He received his MLIS degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2007. He
has completed the Association of College & Research Libraries' Immersion Program, an
intensive program of training and education for instruction librarians. Eshleman is a coauthor of
Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison (2014), The Mindful Librarian (2016), and The
Dysfunctional Library: Challenges and Solutions to Workplace Relationships (2017). He is also a
coauthor of Librarians and Instructional Designers: Innovation and Collaboration (2016) and a
contributor to The Personal Librarian: Enhancing the Student Experience (2014). He has
presented at numerous conferences on instructional librarianship and other topics.
Dr. Richard Moniz is the director of library services at the Horry-Georgetown Technical College,
which has campuses in Conway, Georgetown, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He previously
served as the director of library services for Johnson & Wales University's North Miami campus
from 1997 to 2004 and was director of library services for Johnson & Wales University's
Charlotte campus from 2004 to 2018. He is also an adjunct instructor for the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro's LIS program. In addition to publishing numerous articles, Moniz is the
sole author of the textbook Practical and Effective Management of Libraries (2010) and the
coauthor or coeditor of six other books: Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison (2014), The
Personal Librarian: Enhancing the Student Experience (2014), The Mindful Librarian (2016),
Librarians and Instructional Designers: Innovation and Collaboration (2016), The Dysfunctional
Library: Challenges and Solutions to Workplace Relationships (2017), and Recipes for
Mindfulness in Your Library (2019).
The Money/Finance Shelf
Find More Money
Art Rainer
B&H Publishing Group
1 LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234
www.bhpublishinggroup.com
9781535971072, $17.99, PB, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: What do you do when cutting your budget is no longer effective in managing your
expenses? From pastors in the pulpit to people in the pews, many people have cut and cut, but
still find themselves struggling to pay the bills. Their full-time job is giving them barely enough
to get by; how could they even begin to think about eliminating debt, saving, and living
generously?
In "Find More Money: Increase Your Income to Tackle Debt, Save Wisely, and Live
Generously", financial expert and author Art Rainer helps answer these questions by pointing
readers to the reality of the gig economy. When a full-time job doesn't provide what you need,
finding a "gig" may be the answer to your problems.
"Find More Money" is not just about financial stewardship, but about stewarding your talents,
time, and abilities -- not so you can get rich, but so you can live generously on mission for the
kingdom.
Critique: Taking a Christian and professional perspective to money management, dealing with
debt, and effectively handling financial issues, "Find More Money: Increase Your Income to
Tackle Debt, Save Wisely, and Live Generously" is impressively 'user friendly' in organization
and presentation. While very highly recommended for community and academic library Money
Management & Finance collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that Find More
Money: Increase Your Income to Tackle Debt, Save Wisely, and Live Generously" is also readily
available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.55).
Editorial Note: Art Rainer is the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Southeastern
Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration from Nova
Southeastern University and an MBA from the University of Kentucky. He writes widely about
issues related to finance, wealth, and generosity, and is the author of The Money Challenge: 30
Days of Discovering God's Design for You and Your Money, and The Marriage Challenge: A
Finance Guide for Married Couples.
Women With Money
Jean Chatzky
Grand Central Publishing
c/o Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
www.hachettebookgroup.com
9781538745380, $28.00, HC, 288pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Ask successful women what they want from their money and they'll tell you:
independence, security, choices, a better world, and way less stress -- not just for themselves but
for their kids, partners, parents, and friends. Through a series of HerMoney Happy Hour
discussions (when money is the topic, wine helps) and one-on-one conversations, Jean Chatzky
gets women to open up about the one topic we still never talk about. Then she flips the script and
charts a pathway to this joyful, purpose-filled life that today's women not only want, but also,
finally, have the resources to afford.
Through Chatzky's candid three-part plan was formed through detailed reporting with the world's
top economists, psychiatrists, behaviorists, financial planners, and attorneys, as well as her own
two decades of experience in the field, In "Women with Money" her readers will learn to:
Explore their relationships with money; Take control of their money; Use their money to create
the lives they want.
"Women With Money" shows readers how to wrap their hands around tactical solutions to get
paid what they deserve, become inspired to start businesses, invest for tomorrow, make their
money last, and then use that money to foster secure relationships, raise independent and
confident children, send those kids to college, care for their aging parents, leave a legacy, and
bring them joy!
Critique: A complete, comprehensive, and thoroughly 'user friendly' instruction guide and
manual for women with respect to managing their finances, "Women with Money: The
Judgment-Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (and, Yes, Rich) Life You
Deserve" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and
academic library Money/Finance budgeting and investment collections. It should be noted for
personal reading lists that "Women with Money" is also readily available in a paperback edition
(9781538745397, $17.99), in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99), and as a complete and
unabridged audio book (9781478995913, $35.00, CD).
Editorial Note: Jean Chatzky launched HerMoney Media and HerMoney.com in 2018 to provide
women with information about money they can actually trust. The award-winning financial editor
of NBC Today, Jean has also appeared on shows including Oprah, MSNBC, CNN, The View,
The Talk and many others. Millions have tuned into her podcast, HerMoney with Jean Chatzky
which has received shoutouts from The New York Times, Yahoo Finance and Refinery29. The
best-selling author of 11 books and an in-demand motivational speaker, Jean is also AARP's
Financial Ambassador and a fierce advocate for financial literacy. In 2015, she partnered with the
PwC Charitable Foundation and Time for Kids to launch Your $, an in-school magazine that
reaches 2 million schoolchildren each month.
The Anthropology Shelf
Anthropology and Radical Humanism
Jack Glazier
Michigan State University Press
1405 South Harrison Road, Suite 25, East Lansing, MI 48823-5245
http://msupress.org
9781611863505, $45.95, HC, 260pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Paul Radin, famed ethnographer of the Winnebago, joined Fisk University in the late
1920s. During his three-year appointment, he and graduate student Andrew Polk Watson collected autobiographies and religious conversion narratives from elderly African
Americans. Their texts represent the first systematic record of slavery as told by former slaves.
That innovative, subject-centered research complemented like-minded scholarship by African
American historians reacting against the disparaging portrayals of black people by white
historians. Radin's manuscript focusing on this research was never published.
Utilizing the Fisk archives, the unpublished manuscript, and other archival and published
sources, "Anthropology and Radical Humanism" revisits the Radin-Watson collection and allied
research at Fisk. Radin regarded each narrative as the unimpeachable self-representation of a
unique, thoughtful individual, precisely the perspective marking his earlier Winnebago
work.
As a radical humanist within Boasian anthropology, Radin was an outspoken critic of racial
explanations of human affairs then pervading not only popular thinking but also historical and
sociological scholarship. His research among African Americans and Native Americans thus
places him in the vanguard of the anti-racist scholarship marking American anthropology.
In "Anthropology and Radical Humanism: Native and African American Narratives and the Myth
of Race", Jack Glazier (Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Oberlin College) sets Paul Radin's
findings within the broader context of his discipline, African American culture, and his
career-defining work among the Winnebago.
Critique: A meticulous work of detailed scholarship, "Anthropology and Radical Humanism:
Native and African American Narratives and the Myth of Race" by Professor Jack Glazier is an
extraordinary and seminal work that is enhanced for academia with the inclusion of a fourteen
page Bibliography, thirty pages of Notes, and a six page Index. While an exceptional and
unreservedly recommended addition to college and university library Contemporary Cultural
Anthropology collections in general, and Racial Discrimination supplemental curriculum studies
reading lists in particular, it should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general
readers that "Anthropology and Radical Humanism: Native and African American Narratives and
the Myth of Race" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $37.78).
The Gardening Shelf
Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening
Matt Mattus
Cool Springs Press
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401-1722
www.quartoknows.com
9780760366271, $30.00, HC, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening: A Gardener's Guide to Growing Flowers,
from Today's Favorites to Unusual Varieties" is gorgeously illustrated instructional gardening
book by Matt Mattus that is based on decades of first-hand experience in his own garden and
greenhouse that was made popular on his blog 'Growing with Plants'.
Every variety or species presented is one that he has personally trialed and grown. Mattus sets
you up for success by providing everything you need to know about starting seeds, soil, sowing,
hardening off, to transplanting, and growing on. Then, in the following chapters, you'll find tips
for growing over 100 different annuals from seed and many summer bulbs, vines like wisteria
and even blooming shrubs like lilacs. Every flower includes detailed information based on his
hands-on experience, going beyond the information typically available on the seed packet or a
nursery tag.
Aspiring flower gardeners can now learn useful, practical details and cultural facts that will help
them to grow better flowers while introducing them to many more they may not be familiar with.
This is a profusely illustrated compendium of tips for topics like how to grow challenging annual
poppies and biennials from seedand forcing flowers for winter blooms. Just a small selection of
the flowers covered: heirloom and exhibition chrysanthemums, larkspurs and annual poppies,
delphiniums, peonies, lilacs and wisteria. Bulbs include spring and summer bulbs such as
anemone, ranunculus, tulips, lilies, gladiolus, and cut flower dahlias, while winter indoor bulbs
cover every aspect of forcing bulbs indoors like narcissus, amaryllis, South African bulbs -- and
even how to force Lily of the Valley.
Critique: Expertly organized and presented for maximum instructional value, "Mastering the Art
of Flower Gardening: A Gardener's Guide to Growing Flowers, from Today's Favorites to
Unusual Varieties" is an extraordinary and thoroughly 'user friendly' instructional guide and
manual that will prove to be an enduringly popular addition to personal, professional,
community, and academic library Gardening & Horticulture collections and supplemental studies
reading lists.
The Blue Garden
Arleyn Levee
Giles
c/o Giles D. Limited
www.gilesltd.com
9781911282594, $49.95, HC, 212pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: "The Blue Garden: Recapturing an Iconic Newport Landscape" by landscape historian
Arleyn A. Levee is the compelling story about the decline and rebirth of a 100 year old garden.
Until recently, the Blue Garden, an icon of Gilded Age splendor in Newport, Rhode Island, was
known only from hand-tinted slides dating from 1917.
Originally designed in collaboration with the garden's original owner by Frederick Law Olmsted,
Jr, and the Olmsted firm (founded by his father, the great landscape architect responsible for
Central Park, New York City) it has now been brought back to life.
"The Blue Garden" skillfully interweaves the garden's design and social history, and stories of its
founders and the Olmsted firm, with historical photos, original drawings and sketches, and
images of the restored garden from 2015. "The Blue Garden" is a timeless and inspiring account
of the devoted patrons, skilled artisans and great designers behind the creation and revival of a
masterpiece, made possible by the vision of a devoted patron, and the relevance of historic
preservation of gardens in the 21st century.
Critique: Profusely illustrated throughout, "The Blue Garden: Recapturing an Iconic Newport
Landscape" is an inherently fascinating, impressively informative, and exceptionally well written,
organized and presented study, making it especially and unreservedly recommended for personal,
professional, community, college, and university library Gardening & Horticultural Studies
collections.
The Architecture Shelf
Cairo Since 1900: An Architectural Guide
Mohamed Elshahed
www.Cairobserver.com
American University in Cairo Press
200 Park Avenue, Suite 1700, New York, NY 10166
www.aucpress.com
9789774168697, $39.95, PB, 407pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: The city of a thousand minarets, Cairo is also the city of eclectic modern constructions,
turn-of-the-century revivalism and romanticism, concrete expressionism, and modernist design.
Yet while much has been published on Cairo's ancient, medieval, and early-modern architectural
heritage, the city's modern architecture has to date not received the attention it deserves. "Cairo
Since 1900: An Architectural Guide" is the first comprehensive architectural guide to the
constructions that have shaped and continue to shape the Egyptian capital since the early
twentieth century.
From the sleek apartment tower for Inji Zada in Ghamra designed by Antoine Selim Nahas in
1937, to the city's many examples of experimental church architecture, and visible landmarks
such as the Mugamma and Arab League buildings, Cairo is home to a rich store of modernist
building styles. Arranged by geographical area, the guide includes entries for more than 220
buildings and sites of note, each entry consisting of concise, explanatory text describing the
building and its significance accompanied by photographs, drawings, and maps.
This significant compendium is an ideal companion for the city's visitors and residents as well as
an invaluable resource for scholars and students of Cairo's architecture and urban history.
Critique: Profusely illustrated throughout with black-and-white photography and maps, "Cairo
Since 1900: An Architectural Guide" is enhanced for academia with the inclusion of a ten page
Glossary, two pages of Notes, a four page Bibliography, and a two page Index of Architects. A
unique, seminal and detailed study, "Cairo Since 1900: An Architectural Guide" is an
extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community, professional, and academic
library Architecture collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Mohamed Elshahed is a researcher, curator, and specialist on architecture, design,
and material culture in Egypt. He holds a PhD from New York University and an MA from MIT.
He is the curator of the Modern Egypt Project at the British Museum and founder of the website
www.Cairobserver.com.
The Music Shelf
Raising Hell
Jon Wiederhorn
Diversion Books
443 Park Avenue South, Suite #1004, New York, NY 10016
www.diversionbooks.com
9781635766493, $30.00, HC, 480pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: In his song "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" Ozzy Osbourne sings, "Rock and roll is my
religion and my law." This is the mantra of the metal legends who populate Raising Hell - artists
from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slipknot, Slayer, and Lamb of God to Twisted Sister, Quiet
Riot, Disturbed, Megadeth, and many more! It's also the guiding principle for underground
voices like Misery Index, Gorgoroth, Municipal Waste, and Throwdown.
Through the decades, the metal scene has been populated by colorful individuals who have
thwarted convention and lived by their own rules. For many, vice has been virtue, and the
opportunity to record albums and tour has been an invitation to push boundaries and blow the lid
off a Pandora's box of riotous experiences: thievery, vandalism, hedonism, the occult, stage
mishaps, mosh pit atrocities, and general insanity.
To the figures showcased in "Raising Hell: Backstage Tales from the Lives of Metal Legends" by
Jon Wiederhorn, metal is a means of banding together to stick a big middle finger to a society
that had already decided they didn't belong. Whether they were oddballs who didn't fit in or angry
kids from troubled backgrounds, metal gave them a sense of identity.
Drawing from 150-plus first-hand interviews with vocalists, guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, and
drummers, music journalist Wiederhorn offers this collection of wild shenanigans from metal's
heaviest and most iconic acts -- including the parties, the tours, the mosh pits, the rage, the joy,
the sex, the drugs that made up the heavy metal life!
Critique: Impressively informative, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Raising
Hell: Backstage Tales from the Lives of Metal Legends" is an extraordinary read from cover to
cover. While especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and academic
library American Music History collections in general, and Heavy Metal supplemental studies
lists in particular, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of all dedicated heavy metal
fans that "Raising Hell" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.99).
Editorial Note: Jon Wiederhorn is the author of Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of
Metal (with Katherine Turman) and the co-author of My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts &
Glory (with Roger Miret), Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen (with Al
Jourgensen) and I'm the Man: The Story of That Guy from Anthrax (with Scott Ian). He has
written for Rolling Stone, SPIN, MTV, Guitar World, and Revolver, among others.
The Audiobook Shelf
The Book of Delights: Essays
Ross Gay
Recorded Books
www.recordedbooks.com
9781501977534 $TBA
Synopsis: The winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyric
essays, written daily over a tumultuous year, reminding us of the purpose and pleasure of
praising, extolling, and celebrating ordinary wonders. Ross Gay's The Book of Delights is a
genre-defying book of essays- some as short as a paragraph; some as long as five pages-that
record the small joys that occurred in one year, from birthday to birthday, and that we often
overlook in our busy lives. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the
complexities, even the terrors, in his life, including living in America as a black man; the
ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture; the loss of those he loves.
Critique: Read by the award-winning author, The Book of Delights: Essays is the unabridged
audiobook rendition of author Ross Gay's collection of essays about making space in life for joys
great and small, and a wide variety of other reminiscences, observations, and insight. From the
dark side of consumer-driven culture, to the everyday realities of life as an African-American
man, to the difficulty of coping with loss, The Book of Delights: Essays covers topics that are
thought-provoking and insightful. Highly recommended. 4 CDs, 5 hours.
Pearls of Wisdom
First Lady Barbara Bush
Read by Susan Larkin, et. al.
Hachette Audio
www.HachetteAudio.com
9781549129476 $25.00
Synopsis: First Lady Barbara Bush was famous for handing out advice. From friends and family
to heads of state and Supreme Court justices, and certainly to her staff, her advice ranged from
what to wear, what to say or not say, and how to live your life.
She especially loved visiting with students of all ages, from kindergartners to college graduates.
When she turned 80, she owned up to all her advice-giving and explained it this way: After all, in
80 years of living, I have survived 6 children, 17 grandchildren, 6 wars, a book by Kitty Kelly,
two presidents, two governors, big Election Day wins and big Election Day losses, and 61 years
of marriage to a husband who keeps jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. So, it's just possible
that along the way I've learned a thing or two.
At the end of the day, she taught all of us some valuable lessons. As First Lady, she made a point
of cuddling a baby with AIDS and hugging a young man who was HIV positive and whose
family had rejected him, showing us by example the importance of compassion and the myth of
fear. As a mother, she made sure we all knew that your children must come first, and one of the
most important things you can do is to read to them. As a friend and mentor, she showed that you
had to be true to yourself, and even at the end of her life, she taught us how to die with
grace.
Full of Barbara Bush's trademark wit and thoughtfulness, Pearls of Wisdom is a poignant
reflection on life, love, family, and the world by one of America's most iconic -- and beloved --
public figures.
Critique: Pearls of Wisdom is the unabridged audiobook rendition of First Lady Barbara Bush's
insights and inspirations. Here is the wisdom of a mother and matriarch, a woman of dignity and
boundless compassion. Read aloud by a wide diversity of performers, and enhanced with a PDF
of supplemental materials, Pearls of Wisdom is a motivational listening experience and highly
recommended especially for public library audiobook collections. 4 CDs, 4 hours.
The Mirror & the Light
Hilary Mantel, author
Read by Ben Miles
Macmillan Audio
www.macmillanaudio.com
9781427289513 $59.99
Synopsis: With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy
she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.
She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights
of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present
and past, between royal will and a common man's vision: of a modern nation making itself
through conflict, passion and courage.
The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a
hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with
the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue
his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived
happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.
Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army.
Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's
regime to the breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of
the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as
fortune's wheel turns, Cromwell's enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question
remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry's cruel and capricious gaze?
Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell's
journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed
by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a
politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
Critique: The Mirror & the Light is the complete and unabridged audiobook rendition of a
sweeping historical novel, concluding a trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, a consummately skilled
and powerful politician of 16th century England. A vivid, engaging, and powerful portrait of a
complex individual, brought to life with a masterful performance by Ben Miles, The Mirror &
the Light is highly recommended. Bonus materials include a conversation between the author and
narrator, and a PDF featuring the cast of characters and two family trees. 30 CDs, 39 hours.
The Library CD Shelf
Celtic Women
Putumayo
www.putumayo.com
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3 amazon.com
Celtic Women is a music album anthology of contemporary songs inspired by Irish and Scottish
traditions, performed by a variety of female singers. Some songs showcase the beauty of the
Gaelic language. Celtic Women is a treasure for connoisseurs of Gaelic music, a choice pick for
public library collections, and also makes an excellent gift. Highly recommended!
The Long Road
Monica Logani
www.monicalogani.com
Privately Published
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3 amazon.com
The Long Road an original, new age, solo piano album that music artist Monica Logani crafted in
tribute to the all too brief yet thoroughly vibrant life of a dear friend. Wistful and wonderous, The
Long Road is a welcome contribution to both personal and public library collections. The tracks
are "Birds", "Daybreak", "Juliette", "Poette", "Temporality", "Mantra", "The Long Road",
"Storyteller", "Space", "Dreamer", "Valencia", "Devotion", "Savior", "Summer's End", and "The
Last Embrace". 35 min.
A Classical Meditation
Gary Schmidt
www.apianist.com
Privatetly Published
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3 amazon.com
A Classical Meditation is a new age, solo piano album of performances selected from the works
of timeless masters including Bach, Beethoven, Dvorak, and more. These songs were chosen
especially to draw upon the intrinsic, mind-expanding beauty of classical style music to promote
meditation and relaxation. A Classical Meditation is a welcome addition to personal and public
library solo piano music collections, and also makes an excellent gift. Highly recommended. 1
hour.
The Martial Arts Shelf
The Art and Science of Stick Fighting
Joe Varady
YMAA Publications
www.ymaa.com
9781594397332 $22.95 amazon.com
Synopsis: The Art and Science of Stick Fighting is a unique, non-style specific, approach to
fighting with the short stick. Its curriculum is streamlined and divided into nine logical stages of
training that allow the reader to quickly and methodically learn and develop the skills needed for
fighting with the stick. Whether you are just starting out, or have been practicing stick fighting
for years, there is something for everyone in this book. Also included are systematic workouts
and descriptions of how to make and use specific training equipment as you learn and master The
Art and Science of Stick Fighting.
This book stands apart from other stick fighting training manuals because it emphasizes the
dynamics of combat. Many other books focus on forms and twirling. The author draws on thirty
years of martial experience, presenting the best of both Eastern and Western traditions.
Whether you already study the stick or are just starting out, if you want to learn how to get an
edge, The Art and Science of Stick Fighting is for you!
Critique: Black-and-white photographs on nearly every page illustrate The Art and Science of
Stick Fighting, an in-depth, instructional guide to stick fighting. Chapters cover all aspects of this
martial art, and offer recommendations for developing one's own stick fighting skills. A top-
notch reference and resource for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of or
personally practicing stick fighting, The Art and Science of Stick Fighting is highly
recommended and a welcome addition to personal and public library Martial Arts
collections.
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
Midwest Book Review
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Oregon, WI 53575-1129
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