Sunday, December 6, 2009

“New and Notable book reviews - AZCentral.com” plus 2 more

“New and Notable book reviews - AZCentral.com” plus 2 more

New and Notable book reviews - AZCentral.com

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 03:41 AM PST

Get out your gift lists and jot these titles down. They are good books released for the holiday season, and at reasonable prices.

'Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera'

Ron Schick

(LB, $40)

Behind the famous paintings, there were photographs. "I still feel guilty about it," Rockwell said more than 30 years into his career. This book gathers Rockwell's "study photographs" and the stories behind them. He seldom manned the camera, but he dressed and posed models, coaxed their facial expressions, pulled back coats to suggest wind, propped toes on books to imply the act of walking. There's even a wonderful photo of him adjusting the angle of a beagle's paw (the dog looks gamely over at us and all but rolls its eyes). Most paintings are eerily true to the photos, as in 1956's "The Discovery," his last Christmas cover for the Saturday Evening Post. In others, Rockwell changed or omitted details. He stole his mailman's car to photograph it for the painting that appears on this book's cover. And when he hired a professional model to pose nude for a work called "Mermaid," his photographer was so unnerved that he never emerged from his black focusing cloth.

'Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History 1955-Present'

Gail Buckland

(Knopf, $40)

That's Tina Turner on the cover. I thought it might be Little Richard (as would you, if you know his album covers) but was relieved to be wrong. The choice of this image, cropped as it is, for the cover is a flaw in an otherwise interesting and nostalgic book. It includes Ed Caraeff's pictures of Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar afire at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (Caraeff was 17 when he shot them - he was so close that he could feel the heat); Norman Seeff's 1974 photo of Sly Stone and Kathy Silva tongue-to-tongue (ditto Alfred Wertheimer's famous image of Elvis Presley t-to-t backstage with a pretty fan); Lynn Goldsmith's photo of a heartbreakingly young Bruce Springsteen; and Richard Avedon's 1967 portraits of the Beatles. There also are unsettling images, including Albert Watson's double exposure of a leopard's face with Mick Jagger's mouth and eyes, and Ian Tilton's photo of a weeping Kurt Cobain. The book is drawn from an exhibit now at New York's Brooklyn Museum.

'Galapagos: Preserving Darwin's Legacy'

Edited by Tui De Roy

(Firefly, $49.95)

When she was almost 2, De Roy's adventurous parents moved with her from Belgium to the Galapagos Islands, where they lived in a homemade tent atop a log platform (the latter built so they could avoid the attentions of feral cattle and pigs). This book is not about De Roy and her family, but about the place with which she became intimately familiar, a place that 170 years ago was Charles Darwin's "natural laboratory of evolution." The essays she commissioned for this book were written by scientists and conservationists who love and understand Galapagos almost as much as she does. Some of them live there now. After you read what they have to say and look at the accompanying photographs, you'll understand why they're smiling. This book is attentive not only to the grand views but also to the life of the islands, the iguanas, birds, sea lions, penguins, sharks and plants that survive there. The foreword is by biologist Sarah Darwin, Charles Darwin's great-great granddaughter.

'Lincoln, Life-Size'

Peter B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt, Peter W. Kunhardt Jr.

(Knopf, $50)

In this book, you will witness the moment when Lincoln mania jumps the shark. It occurs on Page 77, which contains a full-page view of . . . something. Is it an amoeba? A distant galaxy? No, it's Abraham Lincoln's face, blown up from the 1861 inauguration-day photo that sits across the spine on page 76 (good luck finding Lincoln in that one, too). There are lots of fuzzy pictures in this book because its creators - Peter B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt Jr. - have paired familiar photographs of Lincoln with full-page close-ups in which Lincoln's face has been isolated and enlarged, allegedly to "life size." At least 10 of these close-ups are indecipherable, including those taken at Antietam and Gettysburg. The ones that are clear (the cover photo is a good example) become repetitive. The project would have been more effective if the authors had been selective and published a slimmer book. Instead, they've shown that a little life-sized Lincoln goes a long way.

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Book reviews: 'American Original' by Joan Biskupic and 'Louis D ... - Dallas Morning News

Posted: 05 Dec 2009 09:57 PM PST

In her 20th year covering the Supreme Court for newspapers (currently for USA Today), Joan Biskupic has labored mightily to understand the mind-sets of the justices, who influence every aspect of American life while rarely disclosing information about themselves.

Previously, Biskupic published a biography of Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the court and quite often the swing vote. Because O'Connor tried to avoid controversy in her private life and her Supreme Court service, the biography, while informative, rarely exhibited fire. But Antonin Scalia, appointed to the court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, seems to thrive on controversy in his private and judicial lives, perhaps more so than any other justice in U.S. history, except maybe William O. Douglas.

As a result, Biskupic has written a biography filled with fire, a book almost certain to anger Scalia's fans on many pages because she offers candid assessments of his flaws, as well as his strengths. Scalia's detractors will find lots of material with which to demonize him even further.

Scalia styles himself a jurist forever true to the original intent of the Constitution's framers when writing his court opinions. Biskupic's tireless reporting demonstrates something else: Scalia's hypocrisy. She also depicts, convincingly, his gigantic ego and his intentional meanness. On the positive side, she shows his considerable intellect, his dynamic storytelling during public appearances and private parties and his love of family. He has a wife and nine children plus dozens of grandchildren.

The book is not so much an exposé written by Biskupic as one written by Scalia himself; she is often just the transmitter. Biskupic presents information allowing Scalia to hang himself.

Perhaps the 5-to-4 ruling in which Scalia most obviously abandoned his alleged faithfulness to the Founding Fathers' intent appeared in late 2000. By a one-vote majority, the justices halted a ballot recount in Florida meant to decide whether George W. Bush or Al Gore would become the next president of the United States. Biskupic explains in detail how the Supreme Court's intervention violated Scalia's principles.

Biskupic also covers how his allegiance to the Roman Catholic faith, his love of hunting with guns and his concern about a son serving in the military influenced Scalia's jurisprudence at least as much as his overall judicial philosophy.

I have read hundreds of Scalia rulings and usually, but not always, disagree with his decisions. I mostly disagree with the rulings of other justices, too, but Scalia is in a class by himself.

Scalia had little in common with Louis D. Brandeis, the subject of a biography by Melvin Urofsky, who teaches laws and history at Virginia Commonwealth University and is a lifelong scholar of Brandeis' career. Both Scalia and Brandeis had degrees from Harvard Law School and lengthy careers on the Supreme Court. (Brandeis served 23 years, the same as Scalia so far.) But Brandeis viewed the U.S. Constitution as a living document, meant to be interpreted centuries later to improve contemporary society. Unlike Scalia, Brandeis never became obsessed with precisely what the Founding Fathers intended.

Urofsky is so respectful of and enamored of Brandeis that the book borders on hagiography, but never quite crosses the line.

It was a remarkable career. Brandeis was a lawyer, a social reformer and a champion of a Middle Eastern homeland for those of the Jewish faith.

Urofsky notes how an early Brandeis initiative involved "helping the liquor lobby beat back Prohibition in Massachusetts." Why? "People were going to drink, Brandeis conceded, therefore make the laws regulating liquor fair to all, so that they could be effective and keep the liquor dealers out of politics."

Of course, it was in his more than two decades on the Supreme Court, Urofsky writes, that Brandeis established important bases of our modern jurisprudence, "including a right to privacy and the rationale for why free speech is important in a democratic society."

Because Brandeis accomplished so much outside the Supreme Court before and after becoming a justice, Urofsky felt compelled to tell a four-pronged chronological narrative. He manages the juggling act well.

I finished the two biographies wishing Scalia would retire and that Brandeis could be reincarnated.

Steve Weinberg occasionally covered the Supreme Court as a Washington correspondent. He has also written about the criminal justice system for The American Lawyer and other magazines.

books@dallasnews.com

American Original

The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Joan Biskupic

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28)

Louis D. Brandeis

A Life

Melvin I. Urofsky

(Pantheon, $40)

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Book reviews - Green Valley News and Sun

Posted: 27 Nov 2009 04:09 PM PST

Trial by Fire,

by J.A. Jance

Simon & Schuster, 2009

(Available Dec. 1)

Hardcover $25.99, 357 pages

J.A. Jance fans, especially fans of the Ali Reynolds series, will not be disappointed with this new novel. It's a page turner.

Ali is asked by Yavapai County Sheriff Gordon Maxwell to stand in temporarily as the media relations person for the department. Her qualifications are outstanding considering her background as a TV anchorwoman in several major television markets, including L.A. The job does not require detective work but, as Ali Reynolds fans know, she can't help getting involved when a new subdivision goes up in flames and is tattooed with the logo of a domestic terrorist group called the Earth Liberation Front. The crime becomes major news after a local fireman hears a moan inside one of the burning structures and rescues a woman who is barely alive and beyond recognition.

Ali has a full-time job keeping the news media at bay and circumventing question about the arson and the link to the ELF group. The focus of the media is the Phoenix hospital where the burn victim is hanging on to life by a thread. She comes in and out of a coma but can only communicate by blinking her eyes. Initially, she has amnesia and the hospital is filled with reporters as the case goes nationwide and the world waits to find out who the woman really is.

Finally, the mystery of her identity is solved, and her relatives assemble. Sister Anselm, a hospital patient advocate, asks Ali to help her protect the patient as it appears one or more of the family members may have been involved, and now have even more need to finish the job.

Despite the danger to the patient, to Sister Anselm, and to herself, Ali fearlessly charges ahead and discovers a secret that is even darker and more twisted then she ever could have imagined.

J.A. Jance will talk about her book at 3 p.m. Dec. 10, at Joyner-Green Valley Branch Library, 601 N. La Canada Dr., Green Valley.

— Ned Lord

Sneakaboard Press

Broken Promises, Next Generation,

by Dolores Allen

Authorhouse, 2009

242 pages

"Broken Promises, Next Generation" is the sequel to Dolores Allen's first novel. This one takes off with Joey, the son of the first novel's protagonists, Millie and Jacob. He comes home to find his wife murdered, but unlike most novels the story line is not as much about solving the murder as it is about the dramatic changes it brings to the lives of the victim's family and friends.

Like any historical novel, it is complicated and rich in characters as it follows not only the protagonist but his family through a maze of life-changing events including marriage, divorce, birth, death and numerous sexual encounters.

Religion plays a major role in this novel with the ministers sometimes being greater sinners than anyone in the congregation.

— Ned Lord

Metro Girl,

by Janet Evanovich

Harper, 2005

384 pages

I must state up front that I did not read the book.

I listened to the unabridged version on my last trip to Monterey, Calif. It was 12 hours of pure Evanovich!

This story was so thoroughly entertaining I missed one of my exits on the freeway and had to double back.

If you've never read Janet Evanovich you need to know up front this is not an epic masterpiece. Just laugh-out-loud fun!

Metro Girl introduced a whole new crop of oddballs, starring Alexandra Barney Barnaby and her NASCAR guy buddy, Sam Hooker.

The plot was shallow, but well-written and the characters were colorful and interesting.

Barney, a former family trained garage guru-turned-insurance adjuster, heads from Baltimore down to Miami looking for her brother, Wild Bill, who has dropped off the face of the earth after a middle-of-the-night phone call to his sister that ended with a woman's scream.

Big sister, Barney and Sam join forces to find her brother and Sam's missing yacht. Brother Bill is on a mission all his own to help out the newest love of his life find a treasure she believes her father and grandfather hid during the Cuban Embargo.

I love the wit and barbed dialogue between Sam and Barney as they flirt outrageously staying one step ahead of the bad guys page after page. Both characters are quirky and go out of their way to give folks the wrong impression of their true selves. They tangle with one another as they stumble through the confusing mess Wild Bill leaves in his wake.

Besides Barney and Nascar Guy we meet politicians, federal agents and Cuban nationals. They run blockades, search for sunken treasure, jump out of helicopters and are wrongfully imprisoned. The threat of chemical warfare, kidnapping, explosions, murder and true mayhem keep you hanging on every word as Janet Evanovich pulls you into the world of her new heroine, Barney.

— Lacy Nathan

2nd Look Books

My Pal Valentine,

by Heather MacLeod

Publish America, 2009

$14, 42 pages

This is a short book that tells the story of the life and death of an extraordinary Labrador Retriever mix and her interaction with the author and her other dogs, cats and horses.

It is written in a narrative fashion filled with anecdotes about the author and Valentine.

The publisher, Publish America says they have "allowed this work to remain exactly as the author intended, verbatim, without editorial input." You might feel as if you were sitting in Ms. MacLeod's living room, enjoying a glass of wine and listening to her tell stories about Val.

It's a love story.

— Ned Lord

The Art of Racing in the Rain,

by Garth Stein

Harper

Paperback $14.99, 336 Pages

For anyone that has ever wondered what their dog thinks about, you may not want to read this book. They may know more about you than you think. In Garth Stein's book, Denny Swift's intuitive dog Enzo chronicled their life together before and after Denny's marriage. This unique look will leave you with a new perceptive of dogs and the strength of the human and canine spirit.

Denny Swift is an up and coming race car driver and racing is a passion that the two of them share. In addition to seeing the world through Enzo's eyes, throughout the book auto racing analogies are used to compare navigating a race track with navigating through life.

There are a few surprising twists and a few dark moments in the book that will leave you having thoughts about reality, perception and good and evil The end left me smiling with the promise of the ever after!

You need not be a dog lover or a race fan to enjoy this book. It is a story that you read with mixed emotions and after all, isn't that why we read?

— Dianne Sevick

The Book Shop

Smilies are Naturally Bald,

by Irena Monticelli

RCM Biomedical Vis-Com, 2007

Soft cover, 54 pages; $26

"Smilies are Naturally Bald" is a book about living with cancer, and it's written in a sometimes painful, but mostly humorous fashion.

The subtitle is "Warped humor for the twisted path of cancer." I think it is a helpful little book, but then I don't have cancer. I found the book interesting enough that I put it in my library along with books like "How to Deal with Internet Explorer" and "All You Need to Know about Sailing," and other helpful manuals. It will be there if I need it.

This book is written by a Stage 2b cancer patient, edited by a Stage 4 cancer patient, and illustrated by the caretaker. They are sisters. It may be a good tool for a cancer patient or for the caregiver of a cancer patient. It is presented in a cartoon format and follows Joe the Lab Rat through his cancer diagnosis and treatment in a down-to-earth comic graphic style. The publisher says it is about surviving the absurdity of cancer.

The writing describes the journey of the two women, disguised as Joe, who decided to laugh a little as they traveled the well-worn path. Some parts of this book will make you laugh, some might make you afraid, and some are a little sad. Overall, I think it is a worthwhile read for the caregiver, everyone who has cancer, or for anyone in the age group for whom each visit to the doctor carries with it a deep fear of bad news.

The art work is very nice and the little smilie faces on each page are cute.

— Ned Lord

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