ABC-CLIO
Sexual enslavement of girls and women worldwide.
Parrot (human ecology, Cornell U.) and Cummings (PhD candidate, Cornell U.) study the worldwide sex slavery trade, drawing parallels to the victims regardless of their nationality or the circumstance of their entry into sex slavery. Broad sections study sexual slavery in context, types of sexual slavery, and attempts to reduce or eliminate sexual slavery. Appendices include the texts of several international conventions and declarations. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Shakespeare's family.
Pogue (drama, University of Houston-downtown) has done a masterful job of research on the family of Shakespeare. She firmly believes that the man from Stratford wrote the plays and the lives of his relatives are reflected in them. She divides the chapters by relationship, starting with his great-grandfather, through siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, down to his grandchildren. She also explores the relationship between Shakespeare and his wife, Anne. As a finale, Pogue looks at family relationships in the plays. An appendix lists the role of relatives by the plays they seem to appear in. This is a sensible and entertaining view of the bard. Knowing Shakespeare's family gives the reader a deeper understanding of his work. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The singing top; tales from Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.
In her fifth volume for the series, McDonald collects stories of the Malay, Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei people in southeastern Asia. A folklorist, storyteller, and children's librarian, she has drawn from archival literature and local storytellers. She includes proverbs and poems in the pantun form, and children's songs and games. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Soldiers of conscience; Japanese American military resisters in World War II.
Castelnuovo (Northeastern Illinois U.) has written this book about the Japanese-Americans who actually resisted the internment camps during World War II, most notably the 200 soldiers who were drafted but refused to serve while their families were detained. These conscientious resisters viewed the internment camps as racist and immoral, and the author follows these individuals into the post-war years as they assess the consequences of their actions. Written for general audiences, this book also looks at the response of the Japanese-American community as a whole to these individuals, and the long road toward reconciliation. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Spanglish.
Ten American academics, journalists, writers and activists contribute 11 sociolinguistic essays on the history and linguistic development of Spanglish and the challenges it poses in a number of areas, among them education. Included are opinion pieces, both pro and con, as well as representative artistic samples, and a chronology about the politics of language in the U.S. Designed for students, specialists, and general readers, the text is intended to enrich the reader's understanding of the richness and complexity of Latinos in the U.S., to invite people to engage in critical thinking, to generate debate and foster research. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Spiritual reflections; a journey through the Scriptures.
An ordained minister with the United Church of Christ, Covert shares his meditations into such matters as supernatural love, compassion, facing trials, gifts of the spirit, miracles and signs, and disobedience and the end times. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Sports scandals.
From the beginning of competitive sports there have been scandals. They generally involved cheating in some way. Recently scandals have been just as much from behavior off the plying field. Peter Finley and Jeffrey Fountain are both in sports administration at Nova Southeastern University; Laura Finley is a sociologist. All are sports players and fans. Their book is arranged by the nature of the scandals. The subject of violence ranges from brawls to murder. Sex scandals vary from verbal harassment to brutal rape. There are chapters on gambling, throwing games and point shaving. The use of steroids and other drugs and academic fraud are also covered. Unplanned comments by athletes and sports management reveal the level of racism and other bigotry still in existence. The authors make a point of commenting on the level of tolerance and even support for even criminal behavior by popular sports figures from high school through professionals. The work is intended for the general reader and could profitable be read by high school players who long for a life as a professional athlete. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
States without citizens; understanding the Islamic crisis.
Jandora (a supervisory analyst with US Army Special Operations Command) argues that the "crisis of the Islamic world" stems from the failure to construct and adopt civic values compatible with the words and institutions of modernity that have been adopted or imposed, mainly because the associated values are of the West and not indigenous to Islam itself. He provides recommendations on how to develop civic values of modernization such as interdependence, well- being, community, objectivity, value of job output, and mutual benefit that are rooted in the Islamic world and not transferred in from the West. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Stealing from each other; how the welfare state robs Americans of money and spirit.
Comparing it to global warming, Browning (economics, Texas A&M U.) argues that what he calls the welfare state costs American taxpayers much more than politicians or the media will admit, and turns recipients into slime mold. The fundamental problem, he says, is the rise of egalitarian ideological principles. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The story biz handbook; how to manage your storytelling career from the desk to the stage.
American author, storyteller, and teacher De las Casas discusses such aspects of the trade as working with stories, performing, sound system, setting up an office, printed promotion, developing an Internet presence, making headlines, touring, recording and promoting, and planning retirement and other futures. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Stone cold souls; history's most vicious killers.
A therapist specializing in child sexual abuse and trauma, Moffatt tells stories of basement torturers, serial killers, devil worshipers, Nazis, killer doctors and preachers, and others. Mass murderers he conveniently overlooks include war profiteers and their political tools, soldiers who laugh while they torture prisoners to death, and pilots who bomb village weddings and get back to base in time for drinks. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Strategy and the national security professional; strategic thinking and strategy formulation in the 21st century.
In the United States government, contends Yarger (national security policy, US Army War College), thinking about strategy is so muddled and misinformed that it leads to confusion among policy, strategy, and planning. This confusion confines strategic possibilities to near-term political aspirations, planning processes, and inappropriate and confining details while also limiting flexibility of strategic thought and setting inappropriately detailed expectations of outcomes. He provides a framework for understanding strategic theory, strategic thinking, and strategy formulation as they relate to grand strategy, national security strategy, national military strategy, other national-level strategies, and regional or theater strategy. He also addresses the proper place of planning in relation to policy and strategy. His focus is on those aspects of strategic theory that appear to have universal application. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Teaching integrated reading strategies in the middle school library media center.
Alley, a library media specialist at a Florida middle school, provides library media specialists with a resource for integrating research-based reading strategies into the middle-school library curriculum as part of the library lesson. The strategies she discusses are those commonly used by classroom teachers and are easily adapted to use in the library media center, allowing library teachers to support school-wide reading initiatives through instruction while sharing appreciation of literature. Chapters include step-by-step instructions and reproducible student worksheets for reading strategies that can be used before, during, and after reading, with explanations of the benefits to the students and to the library media program, plus reviews of relevant research. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Terrorism, 2005-2007; a chronology.
Mickolus defines terrorism as the use or threat of violence by any individual or group for political purposes either in support to opposition to established government authority. There are of course exceptions: US, European, and Israeli governments are frequently subject to terrorism, but never, ever commit it. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Term paper resource guide to nineteenth-century U.S. history.
The term paper is still a staple in high schools and colleges but the explosion of available resources, some more reliable than others, has made research confusing. Craver, the head librarian at Washington D.C.'s National Cathedral School, has compiled a guide for students working in nineteenth-century U.S. history. She has selected one hundred topics, chosen for their importance. Reflecting recent emphasis on the Other in history, she includes topics on Native Americans, slavery and emancipation, women's rights, Hispanic history and the experience of the Chinese and Japanese in America. Each topic is briefly described and specific sub-topics are suggested. The Craver lists primary and secondary references both on paper and on line. She has attempted to give the most accurate and up-to-date sources while considering their cost and availability. This guide is intended for teachers and librarians as well as students. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The torture and prisoner abuse debate.
Writing for general readers, Finley (women's studies, Florida Atlantic U.) considers the controversy over torture and prisoner abuse in America, discussing the Abu Ghraib photographs, abuse allegations from the Guantanamo Bay prison and those in Afghanistan and Iraq, and both sides of the debate. She also chronicles the origins of torture and gives examples from after the Civil War and World War II, and outlines the role of the CIA. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Toyota.
In this volume from a series on influential corporations, Chambers (advertising and marketing communications) describes the genesis of the Toyota company (including a brief history of Japan) which began by creating industrial looms around WWI, and the shrewd entrepreneurship that made the carmaker today's model for the rest of the industry. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Uncle Sam's shame; inside our broken Veterans Administration.
Having spent many years working within the US Veterans Administration, Kantor (now a psychiatrist in private practice) says that its medical treatment system is broken. The problems go beyond the neglect issues that made recent headlines concerning the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, encompassing problems of medical mismanagement and mistreatment as well, he argues as he describes what he perceives as the systemic problems within the Veterans Administration and provides recommendations on how to fix them. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Understanding and treating depression; ways to find hope and help.
Writing for general readers, Nydegger, a clinical and consulting psychologist and professor of management and psychology at Union College, provides a survey of depression that outlines its rates and risks, costs, diagnosis, types, theories, and treatment, and effects on people in connection to age, gender, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Both medical and psychological therapies are covered, including alternative treatments. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Understanding paranoia; a guide for professionals, families, and sufferers. (reprint, 2004)
Kantor, a psychiatrist in private practice, wrote this book for professionals as well as families of sufferers and the sufferers themselves. The bulk of the material comes in the thematic section of descriptions, including chapters on prominent characteristics of paranoid individuals, the adverse ways paranoid individuals affect others, covert and missed paranoia, and forensic issues; other sections discuss the causes and therapy of paranoia, and self-help. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
United we fall; ending America's love affair with the political center.
Political pundits such as David Brooks of The New York Times endlessly decry the dangers to American democracy posed by political "extremists" and just as frequently advocate for the ultimate health to democracy of cleaving to what they imagine is the political "center." But in this book, Neisser (politics, State U. of New York at Potsdam) argues that people like Brooks have it exactly wrong. He contends that the peaceful clash of deeply opposed partisan ideas is inherently democratic, community building, and antitotalitarian. He makes this argument by discussing cases from American history, by describing his own beliefs about political viewpoints from across the American political spectrum, and speculating about the learning that might happen in a society that was more disagreement-friendly (e.g. about race and terrorism). (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
