The father of us all : war and history, ancient and modern

 by Victor Davis Hanson / Since 9/11, Davis, director of the Hoover Institution's group on military history and contemporary conflict, has emerged as a major commentator on war making and politics. This anthology brings together 13 of Hanson's essays and reviews, revised and re-edited. They have appeared over the past decade in periodicals from the American Spectator to the New York Times. Hanson's introductory generalization that war is a human enterprise that seems inseparable from the human condition structures such subjects as an eloquent answer to the question "Why Study War?" a defense of the historicity of the film 300, about the Persian Wars, in a masterpiece of envelope pushing, and a comprehensive and dazzling analysis of why America fights as she does. He explains why, though a lesser historian than Thucydides, Xenophon retains a "timeless attraction" and analyzes war and democracy in light of America's decreasing willingness to intervene in places like Rwanda or Darfur. The pieces are well written, sometimes elegantly so, and closely reasoned. They address familiar material from original and stimulating perspectives. Hanson's arguments may not convince everyone, but cannot be dismissed. His critics and admirers will be pleased to have these pieces available under one cover. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Shadow tag

 by Louisse Erdrich. Erdrich steps out of the deep river of her great Native American saga, last manifest in The Plague of Doves (2008), and into a feverish drama of a marriage and household in peril. The intensity of this exquisite, character-driven tale, its searing efficiency in encompassing the painful legacy of the Native American genocide, and its piercing insights into sex, family, and power are breathtaking. Irene America, of Ojibwe descent, hopes to complete her doctorate in history in spite of the demands of her volatile painter husband, Gil, and their three children: sons Florian, a secretive math prodigy, and gentle little Stoney, and daughter Riel, named after Louis Riel, a Metis resistance leader. Irene's subject is the nineteenth-century artist George Catlin, whose portraits of Native Americans raise disturbing questions about exploitation. As do Gil's erotic paintings of Irene, icons of violation born of his maniacal possessiveness, violent rage, and paranoia. Once Irene, who is drinking heavily, realizes that Gil is reading her diary, she begins writing entries calculated to push him to the brink. As their domestic civil war escalates, Irene remembers her mother's stories about how a soul can be captured through a shadow, a vision with profound implications in this masterfully concentrated and gripping novel of image and conquest, autonomy and love, inheritance and loss. --Booklist. (Check Catalog)

Orange is the new black : my year in a woman's prison

 by Piper Kerman. Relying on the kindness of strangers during her year's stint at the minimum security correctional facility in Danbury, Conn., Kerman, now a nonprofit communications executive, found that federal prison wasn't all that bad. In fact, she made good friends doing her time among the other women, many street-hardened drug users with little education and facing much longer sentences than Kerman's original 15 months. Convicted of drug smuggling and money laundering in 2003 for a scheme she got tangled up in 10 years earlier when she had just graduated from Smith College, Kerman, at 34, was a "self-surrender" at the prison: quickly she had to learn the endless rules, like frequent humiliating strip searches and head counts; navigate relationships with the other "campers" and unnerving guards; and concoct ways to fill the endless days by working as an electrician and running on the track. She was not a typical prisoner, as she was white, blue-eyed, and blonde (nicknamed "the All-American Girl"), well educated, and the lucky recipient of literature daily from her fiance, Larry, and family and friends. Kerman's account radiates warmly from her skillful depiction of the personalities she befriended in prison, such as the Russian gangster's wife who ruled the kitchen; Pop, the Spanish mami; lovelorn lesbians like Crazy Eyes; and the aged pacifist, Sister Platte. Kerman's ordeal indeed proved life altering. --Publishers Weekly. (Check catalog)

The silent sea : a novel of the Oregon files

 by Clive Cussler. In the winning seventh entry in the Oregon Files nautical adventure series from bestseller Cussler and Du Brul (after Corsair), Juan Cabrillo, the heroic skipper of the Oregon, a state-of-the-art warship disguised as a tramp steamer, faces a multitude of difficulties and challenges. A fabulous pirate treasure may lie at the bottom of a deep well on Pine Island in Washington State. In Argentina, a junta of generals has seized power and turned the country into a police state with designs on the rest of South America. The discovery of the remains of a WWII-era blimp in the Argentine jungle ups the ante. At the bottom of the sea off Antarctica, where the Argentines have opened a secret oil field, lies a huge, ancient Chinese vessel, which could help the Chinese, who are in league with the Argentines, in any legal claim to Antarctic territory. The action seesaws from subtropical jungles to the bitter cold of the Antarctic as Juan leads his band of intrepid scientist warriors into battle against a host of nefarious enemies. A cliffhanger ending will leave fans panting for more. --Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

Scent of the missing : love and partnership with a search-and-rescue dog

 by Susannah Charleson. Humans have long used dogs, with their remarkable scenting abilities, to find lost, injured, or dead people. However, recent tragedies and disasters-9/11, Hurricane Katrina-have brought search-and-rescue recovery to the forefront. Charleson introduces us to this world as she trains her dog Puzzle to work with Dallas's elite Metro Area Rescue K9 unit. Interspersed with stories of such routine activities as housebreaking and walking on a leash are the hold-your-breath moments when the author describes actual rescue/recovery missions such as the shuttle Columbia explosion. Verdict This memorable tribute to the dedication of these dog-handler teams is an essential read for dog lovers. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Parrot and Olivier in America

 by Peter Carey. Olivier-Jean-Baptiste de Clarel de Garmont is French nobility, son of survivors of the French Revolution. Olivier has had every privilege and is acutely aware of his relative social position. Imagine his surprise and discomfort when he is banished, for his own safety, to newly emerging democratic America. Son of an itinerant English printer, with a colorful and varied past, Parrot proves an unlikely companion. Parrot is sent to accompany Olivier as his servant and secretary, with the secret mission of reporting Olivier's activities back to his mother in France. The story alternates between Parrot and Olivier, who narrate from their widely different points of view. Featuring well-developed and multifaceted characters (the novel was inspired by the life of Alexis de Tocqueville), this book is rife with humorous details and turns of phrase, and the language is sophisticated (readers might want to have a dictionary handy). Verdict Written by a two-time Booker Prize winner, this engaging book will be particularly appreciated by readers interested in early 19th-century American history, the French aristocracy, and emerging democracy. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Stuff : compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things

 by Randy O Frost. Amassing stuff is normal in our materialistic culture, but for millions it reaches unhealthy levels, according to the authors of this eye-opening study of the causes of hoarding, its meaning for the hoarder, and its impact on their families. Frost, a professor of psychology at Smith College, and Steketee, dean of the social work school at Brown, gather much anecdotal material from conversations with extreme hoarders and find that for such people, "intense emotional meaning is attached to so many of their possessions. even trash." For some, this meaning inheres in animals: one interviewee has 200 cats. The effects of hoarding on the hoarder's spouse, parents, and children can be severe, the authors find. Frost and Steketee write with real sympathy and appreciation for hoarders, and their research indicates "an absence of warmth, acceptance, and support" during many hoarders' early years. They even speculate that a hoarder's "attention to the details of objects" may indicate "a special form of creativity and appreciation for the aesthetics of everyday things." This succinct, illuminating book will prove helpful to hoarders, their families, and mental health professionals who work with them. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Anthill : a novel

 Edward O Wilson. A Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction author and Harvard entomology professor, Wilson (The Ants) channels Huck Finn in his creative coming-of-age debut novel. Split into three parallel worlds-ants, humans, and the biosphere-the story follows young Raff Cody, who escapes the humid summers in Clayville, Ala., by exploring the remote Nokobee wilderness with his cousin, Junior. In one adventure, sneaking onto the property of a reputed multiple murderer to peek at his rumored 1,000-pound pet alligator, 15-year-old Raff faces down the barrel of a rifle. Raff's aversion to game hunting, ant fascination, Boy Scout achievements, and Harvard education all support his core need to remain a "naturalist explorer." A remarkable center section meticulously details the life and death of an ant colony. Nearing 30, Raff's desire to preserve the Nokobee reserve from greedy real estate developers galvanizes an effort to protect the sacred land and a surprise violent ending brings everything full circle. Lush with organic details, Wilson's keen eye for the natural world and his acumen for environmental science is on brilliant display in this multifaceted story about human life and its connection to nature. --Publishers Weekly. (Check catalog)

Birdology : adventures with a pack of hens, a peck of pigeons, cantankerous crows, fierce falcons, hip hop parrots, baby hummingbirds, and one murderously big living dinosaur

 by Sy Montgomery. Nature books can be downers, but this book is different. The people we meet-the researchers, rehabbers, enthusiasts, and fanciers with whom the author, in Plimptonesque fashion, immerses herself in order to get closer to her avian subjects-are all well-intentioned, compassionate folks. A "birdologist" seeks the divinity of creation revealed in birds, and it is this faith that drives Montgomery (The Good Good Pig) to restore her readers' "awe and connection to these winged aliens.." She writes of just seven species (ranging from the exotic New Zealand cassowary to the common crow), but her clever chapter arrangement gives a sense of their marvelous diversity. But Montgomery's impressionistic account is as much about humans as it is birds, as much about the author's own transformative experience as it is about the feathered vehicles of her change; indeed, some readers may well wish for less author and more bird. Verdict This volume will appeal to backyard birders and animal lovers as the author has a knack for making abstruse science palatable. Hers is a poetic sensibility expressed in prose; readers looking for bird poetry may want to consider Billy Collins and David Allen Sibley's Bright Wings. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

The lotus eaters

 by Tatjana Soli. Seen through the lens of young American freelance photographer Helen Adams, this evocative debut novel is a well researched exploration of Vietnam between 1963 and 1975, when the United States pulled out of the conflict. Helen, who has come to Vietnam partly to discover what really happened to her brother, is determined to see the real Vietnam, combat and all. The narrative focuses on Adams, Pulitzer Prize-winning combat photojournalist Sam Darrow, and his Vietnamese assistant, Linh, revealing their relationships, loyalties, and ambitions and the terrible toll the war takes on them all. As readers, we come to understand the characters' attraction to and ambivalence about the war, how love can survive and thrive under such extreme conditions (Helen and Linh have an affair), the courage needed to report under war conditions and the journalistic principles involved, and the fragile beauty of this war-torn country and its people. Verdict Like Marianne Wiggins's Eveless Eden and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried before it, Soli's poignant work will grab the attention of most readers. A powerful new writer to watch. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)

Journal of the plague year : the inside chronicle of Eliot Spitzer's short and tragic reign

 by Lloyd Constantine. In November 2006, Eliot Spitzer was on top of the political world, having won the New York Governorship by the greatest margin ever—far outdistancing his predecessors Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. Sixteen months later, in March 2008, Spitzer resigned from the governorship during a brief public appearance, and “Client No. 9” entered our vernacular. It was a story imbued with exquisite irony, and it made news around the world.nbsp;Journal of the Plague Yearis an intimate account of 61 hours, from the moment on March 9, 2008, when Lloyd Constantine, senior advisor to Spitzer, received a phone call from Spitzer revealing facts the entire world would learn the next morning, until Spitzer’s March 12 news conference. It is also an inside account of the 16 tumultuous months of Spitzer’s administration that preceded the resignation.nbsp;Told with candor, brutal honesty, and knowledge unique to the author, this is a story about spectacular achievement, boundless political promise, and a shared vision for rebuilding a state and the nation, squandered in little more than a year. Constantine gives us personal insight and understanding into the dramatic implosion of Spitzer’s career. More than a recounting of one man’s political downfall, it is also the story of male rivalry and a deep and abiding friendship between two complex men. --Publisher (Check catalog)

The three Weissmanns of Westport

 by Cathleen Schine. Drawing on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Schine (The New Yorkers) has written a witty update in which a late-life divorce exiles Betty Weissmann and her adult daughters, Annie and Miranda, from a luxurious life in New York to a shabby beach cottage in Westport, CT. Annie is the serious daughter and Miranda the drama queen. Both women find unexpected love, while Betty, a sweet, frivolous spendthrift, struggles with her newly impoverished state. What comfort the Weissmanns enjoy is owing to the generosity of Cousin Lou, a Holocaust survivor and real-estate mogul, whose goal in life is to rescue everyone, whether or not rescue is needed. While beautifully preserving the essence of the plot, Schine skillfully manages to parallel the original novel in clever 21st-century ways-the trip to London becomes a holiday in Palm Springs; the scoundrel Willoughby becomes a wannabe actor. Verdict Austen lovers and those who enjoyed updates like Paula Marantz Cohen's Jane Austen in Boca and Jane Austen in Scarsdale should appreciate this novel. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Trust the dog : rebuilding lives through teamwork with man's best friend

 by Gerri Hershey. Imagine yourself in a dark, sightless world. How would you function in your daily life? Now imagine that someone has raised, trained, and provided you with a dog that can not only be a companion but help you get through an otherwise difficult day. For 50 years the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation (www.fidelco.org) has been doing just that, and this book celebrates this organization's exceptional service to the blind. Journalist Hirshey introduces Fidelco clients like Vicky Nolan, a middle-school reading and math teacher whose gradual loss of vision pushed her to the point of desperation. Well written and not self-serving or overly promotional as one might expect, the book encourages readers to learn about locally available services for the visually impaired. Verdict This original entry in the canine memoir genre should touch the reader's soul. For a personal, more in-depth look at the historical development of guide dogs, consider Morris Frank and Blake Clark's classic First Lady of the Seeing Eye. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)

Heresy : a thriller

  S. J. Parris.  Readers first meet Dominican monk Giordano Bruno as he examines a prohibited text in the monastery privy. Discontented with the Church's teachings, Bruno is a believer of Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the universe. After escaping the Inquisition, he spends years on the run, offering his services as a teacher and ever on the lookout for Hermes Trismegistus's divine Egyptian text. To be Catholic in 1583 England is synonymous with sedition, and an odd twist of fate sees Bruno employed by Queen Elizabeth. His cover: to participate in a debate at Oxford; his purpose: to ferret out heresy at the university. What Bruno finds is a lovely young woman, a group of secretive Fellows, and a series of brutal murders. VERDICT Parris's debut historical thriller shines a light on the religious turmoil of 16th-century England, when men swore an oath to one faith but practiced another. Narrator Bruno (based on the real-life philosopher) is lively and sympathetic, and dedicated readers will be wholly satisfied in the end. Recommended for fans of historical thrillers along the lines of Katherine Neville's The Eight and Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)

Switch : how to change things when change is hard

 by Chip Heath. Old habits die hard. Whether on the communal or the individual level, maintaining the status quo is always the easiest course. So how do companies or people change? Chip Heath (organizational behavior, Graduate Sch. of Business, Stanford Univ.) and his brother, consultant Dan Heath, coauthors of Made To Stick, have teamed up again to show us that change can be a lot less painful than we fear. In their previous book, they explored how ideas catch on. Here they analyze what must be addressed if societal, organizational, and personal habits and practices are to be instilled with new ideas. They draw upon numerous behavioral studies, business case studies, and hypothetical examples to illustrate their principles. VERDICT This practical and entertaining work could easily be classified as a self-help tool. But since the authors also focus on organizational change and include dozens of vignettes from real companies, it's also a good managerial prescription for transformation. While it won't displace John Kotter's Leading Change as the classic text for "change managers," this catchy book offers fresh ideas and a breezy style that will work equally well for company executives, undergraduates, and average joes. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Going away shoes : stories

 By Jill McCorkle. Here is another bright, sassy, funny, and sad collection of stories from North Carolinean McCorkle, the author of three other collections as well as five novels (e.g., The Cheerleader). Like the title story, in which a woman is trapped as caretaker to her critical but now diminished mother while her married sisters just visit, these works delineate the lives of women as they seek out love and meaning, blundering through their own mistakes. Whether struggling with the reality of the men they have chosen or imagining the perfect guy, the women in these stories, whether married, divorced, or single, are real, familiar, and searching. Verdict This collection by a contemporary master of short fiction should be considered by all fiction readers. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

The town that food saved : how one community found vitality in local food

 by Ben Hewitt. Through the last decade the Northern Vermont town of Hardwick, population 3200, gradually evolved into a nationally respected source of "local food" and began to reap benefits. Hewitt, an area resident and family farmer, previously wrote about the area as a potential example of localized agriculture and economics, especially for a population whose residents' median income was below state average. But curiosity and healthy skepticism, along with his own investment, spurred him to this deeper investigation into the local personalities (and characters) driving the movement, and to observe, participate and reflect upon such odiferous activities as pig slaughtering. The resulting blend of analysis and reflection highlights the possibilities and perils of what Hewitt argues will impact the agricultural and economic future for better or worse. --Publishers weekly. (Check Catalog)

Matterhorn : a novel of the Vietnam War

 by Karl Marlantes. Even as the Vietnam War recedes into the past, the despair, confusion, and mythology it generated retains a grip on our culture. Debut novelist Marlantes offers a realistic, in-the-trenches look at that war. Matterhorn is a remote jungle base of operations held by the marines. We follow a young reserve lieutenant, Waino Mellas, as he nervously begins command of a squad ordered to take out a North Vietnamese machine gun nest; afterward, the squad is sent into the jungle for obscure reasons. This is the beginning of a long and murderous journey, with little food or water, constant rain, impassable terrain, and enemy ambushes. The soldiers bond with one another, but their faults and divisions are magnified, as racial tensions mount and cultural differences are revealed. The battle scenes, at which the author excels, are frequent, brutal, and viscerally energetic, and the skillfully rendered dialog reveals a bunch of strangers attempting to communicate in life-defeating circumstances. In the end, there are no real victors. Verdict Obviously not a brief, cheery read, this is a major work that will be a valuable addition to any permanent collection. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)

Supreme power : Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court

 by Jeff Shesol. Franklin Delano Roosevelt owes his presidential greatness to his handling of the Great Depression and World War II, but he was also capable of blunder. This book considers his first major political mistake in the White House-how he dealt with the Supreme Court, which had begun to declare his New Deal economic reforms unconstitutional. Though this story is well known, Shesol (Mutual Contempt) presents it in a fuller and more balanced manner, pitting a great President against an equally great justice, Charles Evans Hughes. Unlike James MacGregor Burns's recent Packing the Court, on the same topic, Shesol sides with Hughes while recognizing FDR's multiple talents. Both books are necessary to appreciate the tug of war between the elected and nonelected branches of government, with Shesol's the more complete account of FDR's ill-fated court-packing plan. If a dimension is missing here, it's that FDR inherited a "mom and pop" presidency at a time when many abroad and some at home considered democracy outdated, so although Shesol mentions that FDR's judicial reorganization was tied to his executive reorganization effort, he doesn't explain its context or fate. VERDICT An accessibly written page-turner; essential reading for both general readers and specialists. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)