Alison Hood

LiteratureArts & Culture

Jane Austen’s enduring appeal

Review by Alison Hood

Do you, dear reader, dither over Mr. Darcy? Enthuse about the archness of Emma? Wail about the likes of Willoughby? If so, you just might be a Janeite. If that’s the case—and even if not—there is much to divert and please in Claire Harman’s well-blended biography and cultural commentary, Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World. Harman, an award-winning biographer, turns her sharp scholarly eye, acutely sensible prose and considerable wit on the life of the “divine Jane” in this gem of a book, tracing Austen’s early years and literary pursuits through to the present-day cult of Austenmania.

There is, nearly 200 years on, still much mystery surrounding Jane Austen’s life. Though she left behind, upon her death in July 1817 at age 41, various papers, manuscripts and correspondences, much of that catalog was destroyed, lost or sold off. This biography-history fills in many blanks, brimming with entertaining anecdotes and quotes, robust scholarship and ironic humor. Harman’s research exhaustively mines the materials and memorabilia contained in the body of institutions, trusts and Austenian scholarship as well as Austen’s own surviving letters, in which she declares that “tho’ I like praise as well as anybody, I like . . . Pewter too.” This pointed statement, though brief, gives insight into Jane, the hard-headed businesswoman—a characteristic most definitely not universally acknowledged in James Edward Austen-Leigh’s rather saccharine 19th-century biography of his famous aunt.

Harman insightfully portrays Jane, the writer and published author; tracks Jane’s rising fame and readership against the broad historical backdrop of the 18th and 19th centuries; identifies the trends of Austenian literary consumption and criticism (Mark Twain was not a fan); follows the “canonization” of all things Austen in print, theater and film; and finally, with tongue firmly placed in cheek, explicates how Jane Austen became a 21st-century brand through the power of TV and film—a phenomenon helped not a little by the memorable vision of Colin Firth in a clinging wet shirt. 

Do you, dear reader, dither over Mr. Darcy? Enthuse about the archness of Emma? Wail about the likes of Willoughby? If so, you just might be a Janeite. If that’s the case—and even if not—there is much to divert and please in Claire Harman’s well-blended biography and cultural commentary, Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered […]

In pursuit of a longer lifespan

Review by Alison Hood

In the next 20 years, as the baby-boom generation ages, the numbers of people ages 65 and older will increase from approximately 13 percent to 20 percent. Given the probability that more of us will live longer, perhaps even achieving centenarian status, journalist Greg Critser (Fat Land, Generation Rx) examines the range of scientific possibilities—from legitimate to dubious—of human life extension, the reversal of aging and the dream of immortality in Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging.

The prospect of reading about aging and longevity science might, for some, induce ennui. But Critser shoots straight from the hip about the antiaging industry with a grounded knowledge of the current science, informed insight and a soupçon of sharp-edged humor. After he suffered a concussion, which resulted in “an accelerated form of brain aging,” his investigation into the real science and confounding quackery that exist side by side in the antiaging “community” became personally charged. “A jock,” jokes Critser in his introduction, “would say that I’ve got skin in the game.”

Eternity Soup examines the origins and teachings of “longevity science,” its relationship with medical science and the impact it will have on our thinking about our own bodies. Under the microscope are the theory, practice and scientific claims of “caloric restriction” (you might live longer, but with no sex drive); the greed, deceit and legitimate science that surround the manufacture of many antiaging products and treatments (such as hormone therapy); a mind-bending look at cellular engineering; and the push toward new realms of research using a newer animal “bestiary” (beyond flies, mice, yeasts and rats) for modeling and testing.

Critser plots an accessible route through complex material, demystifying both the science and the political and economic implications of the antiaging movement. Especially revealing and entertaining are interviews with the groundbreaking and iconoclastic scientists, such as Aubrey de Grey, that form the cast of characters working toward the Shangri-La of vital later years—and, perhaps, human immortality.

Alison Hood writes from Marin County, California.

In the next 20 years, as the baby-boom generation ages, the numbers of people ages 65 and older will increase from approximately 13 percent to 20 percent. Given the probability that more of us will live longer, perhaps even achieving centenarian status, journalist Greg Critser (Fat Land, Generation Rx) examines the range of scientific possibilities—from […]
History

Ordinary life in an extraordinary place

Review by Alison Hood

The power of a personal story is wielded to strong effect in Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, a largely oral history “based upon seven years of conversations with North Koreans.” In an expertly constructed narrative that blends riveting storytelling, thorough research and astute investigate reporting, Demick paints a shocking picture of daily life in the socialist Republic of North Korea through the stories of six defectors now living in South Korea.

At the close of World War II, after Japan’s surrender in 1945, the U.S. military arbitrarily divided the Korean peninsula into two sectors, North and South, to be overseen by the Soviet Union and the United States. Kim Il-sung soon came to power in North Korea, creating an Orwellian socialist regime that plunged the country into economic chaos and famine. By the 1990s, manufacturing and trade had stopped, jobs and salaries dried up and government systems regulating health care and food distribution crumbled. Millions of people starved to death. Those who survived lived in darkness, both metaphorical and, due to the universal lack of electrical power, actual.

The book’s chilling opening, which shows an entirely darkened night sky over North Korea, stands in terrible contrast to the “enlightened” doctrine that every North Korean is taught: that their country is superior, that their “dear father” (now Kim Il-sung’s son, Kim Jong-il) is their loving protector-provider and that they have “nothing to envy.” The stories of the North Koreans profiled give the lie to this line of propaganda; theirs are lives of deprivation, secrecy and fear.

Nothing to Envy is an eye-opening book about a country that remains mostly hidden and off-limits to the rest of the world. Demick expertly balances her excellent grasp of North Korea’s history and culture with six sensitively presented personal stories, each rife with the emotional trauma of cultural betrayal, to create an indelible portrait of one of the last modern Communist regimes.

Alison Hood writes from Marin County, California.

The power of a personal story is wielded to strong effect in Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, a largely oral history “based upon seven years of conversations with North Koreans.” In an expertly constructed narrative that blends riveting storytelling, thorough research and astute investigate reporting, Demick paints a shocking picture of […]
Social Science

Foer offers food for thought on America’s taste for meat

Review by Alison Hood

The stories we tell ourselves about what is true in our lives have tremendous power, especially when those stories involve what we eat. We humans have strong convictions about food—many of these formed from memories ranging from sublime to scary—that are woven closely into our families and lives, affecting our choices about the foods we crave, purchase and consume. “We are made of stories. . . . Stories establish narratives, and stories establish rules,” writes novelist Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything Is Illuminated) in his first nonfiction book, Eating Animals, an idiosyncratic exploration of meat: what it actually is (and isn’t); how it is farmed in modern America; and the economic, social and environmental implications of eating it.

As a college student, Foer had no strong allegiance to any one diet manifesto. An on-again, off-again vegetarian, he maintained a diet of “unconscious inconsistency.” He admits sheepishly that he “just ate what was available or tasty, what seemed natural, sensible or healthy—what was there to explain?” It was not until he became a father that Foer perceived a lack of morality and responsibility inherent in his ongoing dietary vacillation. Now that he was responsible for nurturing and nourishing his son, what stories and lessons would he truly want to transmit to his children?

Two tales, of boyhood meals past and imagined future repasts with his wife and son, serve as bookends for Foer’s horrifically enlightening, thought-provoking examination of how farmed animals—hogs, chickens and cows—are bred, raised, distributed and consumed in our nation. Under cover of darkness, he sneaks into a chicken CAFO (aka “concentrated animal feeding operation”) to observe firsthand its hellish confines. He interviews farmers, like Bill and Nicollette Niman, who are trying to raise animals for consumption with kindness and conscience. He allows a multitude of voices to speak—CAFO workers, animal rights activists, farmers, scientists and literary figures—in order to build a case for conscious and ethical food consumption.

Foer employs an adroit blend of storytelling, philosophical reflection and rigorous investigative journalism to illustrate “how our food choices impact the ecology of our planet and the lives of its animals,” and to persuade us toward unflinching self-examination in how we choose our nourishment. He admirably presents fact and science, while pricking the reader’s conscience by recounting his own probing questions about dietary choice and moral acceptability. Eating Animals is “an argument for vegetarianism, but it’s also an argument for another, wiser animal agriculture and more honorable omnivory.”

America, the author believes, has made a choice between basing its meals around harvest or slaughter. And, collectively, we have chosen slaughter. Even using the most humane practices, consuming meat is a social act of war, of aggression. This is, he says, “the truest version of our story of eating animals.” Can we, Foer asks, tell another story instead? For the future of our race and of our fragile and heated planet, the question is timely and well worth any painful self-interrogation.

Alison Hood writes from Marin County, California.

RELATED CONTENT
Read an interview with Foer for Eating Animals.

The stories we tell ourselves about what is true in our lives have tremendous power, especially when those stories involve what we eat. We humans have strong convictions about food—many of these formed from memories ranging from sublime to scary—that are woven closely into our families and lives, affecting our choices about the foods we […]
NonfictionTrue Crime

Murder in post-Katrina New Orleans

Review by Alison Hood

Journalist Ethan Brown delves straight into the heart of darkness with Shake the Devil Off. Billed by the publisher as a true crime story, it is that—and more. Brown tells the true tale of a grotesque murder in New Orleans, but he also manages to chronicle the tragic effects of one large hurricane and a brutal, ongoing war.

When he was a young teenager in California, Zackery Bowen was sweet, shy and gangly. That changed when he turned 18 and found a different life in New Orleans—one that included a wife and baby son. More confident and charismatic, Bowen took his responsibilities as a provider seriously and enlisted in the army in May 2000. First sent to Kosovo, where he served in a unit of military police, Bowen was then posted to Germany and finally, Iraq. Bowen left the army in 2004 under a general, though honorable, discharge—one that did not allow for adequate veterans’ benefits or support. He and his family returned to New Orleans, where his marriage—and his morale—disintegrated. He found new love with a quirky bartender named Addie Hall and, together with a tenacious group of fellow residents, they toughed it out through Hurricane Katrina and its terrible aftermath.

On October 17, 2006, Bowen jumped off the roof of a French Quarter hotel. In his pocket authorities found a note confessing to a murder and directing them to Hall’s apartment where they found her dismembered and partially cooked body. One spray-painted message on the wall read: “Please help me stop the pain.”

Though it is well-investigated, well-written and tautly paced, this book is not a pleasant read. It aptly relays the terrible suffering that serves as a reminder of what still exists: the ongoing devastation and homicidal violence in New Orleans and the chaos and destruction wreaked by the Iraq war. Beyond the story of a gruesome murder, Brown has given us a unique portrait of tenacious New Orleans, pre- and post-Katrina, and a reflective—though utterly chilling—account of how veterans of the Iraq war are suffering from mental degradation and lack of support.

Alison Hood writes from Marin County, California. 

Journalist Ethan Brown delves straight into the heart of darkness with Shake the Devil Off. Billed by the publisher as a true crime story, it is that—and more. Brown tells the true tale of a grotesque murder in New Orleans, but he also manages to chronicle the tragic effects of one large hurricane and a […]
Memoir

Searching for the meaning of it all

Review by Alison Hood

Lots of ladies these days seem to be waxing not exactly poetic about their lives as wives and mothers. Some of these so-called memoirs are dubious rants rather short on epiphany, but Melanie Gideon’s The Slippery Year doesn’t slide down that precarious slope. This self-deprecating, wickedly funny and mildly philosophical reflection on marriage, mothering, middle age and the march toward life’s meaning will ring true for midlife women—whether they are mothers or not—as well as for men of a certain age.

Gideon’s chronicle of her year, written as a series of monthly essays, sprang from her realization that she had been “sleepwalking” through her life. “This realization wasn’t precipitated by some traumatic event. I did not have cancer. My parents had not abused me. I was in a good marriage to a kind man. But something wasn’t right. I felt empty.”

Who am I? Is this all there is to life? Gideon has the privileges of time, writing talent and a comfy American lifestyle to explore these existential questions—an expedition that could comprise a dreary tale. The Slippery Year, however, pokes edgy fun at the boundaries and markers of a modern American woman’s middle-class life: conundrums over a small son’s Halloween costume woes and school carpool lines, along with angst over summer soccer camp, disastrous visits to the beauty salon, the death of a beloved pet, a spouse in love with his monster camper van and the ongoing search for—and compromise about—the perfect marital mattress.

As we follow Gideon through a year of months and seasons, her July reflection that “marriage changes passion. Suddenly you’re in bed with a relative” slowly morphs, after a short separation from her husband, into a renewed love and appreciation of the man she married 20 years before. The year ends with a peaceful family moment by the seashore, in which Gideon realizes she has come full circle and finally arrived home from her archeological inner journey: “Home—the ways in which we are bound to one another. Not by chance . . . but by choice.”

Alison Hood writes from the sometimes culturally slippery slopes of Marin County, California. 

Lots of ladies these days seem to be waxing not exactly poetic about their lives as wives and mothers. Some of these so-called memoirs are dubious rants rather short on epiphany, but Melanie Gideon’s The Slippery Year doesn’t slide down that precarious slope. This self-deprecating, wickedly funny and mildly philosophical reflection on marriage, mothering, middle […]
Nonfiction

A writer’s life in words

Review by Alison Hood

I must confess: I have never read one of Graham Swift’s novels. But reading his first long work of nonfiction, Making an Elephant: Writing from Within, made me want to rush to my local library and gather up a stack of his fictional tales (especially his Booker Prize-winning novel, Last Orders). I had met the man, telling of his literary and day-to-day life, in his own fine and witty words; now I wanted to meet the novelist.

Making an Elephant is a funny sort of book, in that it is not easily categorized. It contains interviews, memoir, a lecture on writing, various personal memories about Swift’s friendships and career, a small collection of poems and an elegant essay on the French writer Michel Montaigne. But this veritable curio cabinet of detailed reminiscences makes for an extraordinary autobiographical look into the literary and otherwise ordinary life of an accomplished, though wryly self-deprecating novelist—one who taught himself to write.

The book’s title, taken from an essay about Swift’s father, is a wonderfully tender, poignant, yet cogent analysis of his father’s life and legacy. Hoping to please his straight-arrow, responsible, handyman father, Swift endeavored to fashion a wooden silhouette of an elephant, which he then painted a realistic gray hue, even after his father fancifully encouraged him to paint it pink or yellow. “Grey it was. . . . The strange reversal stays with me . . . that I should have been the realist, he the fantasist.”

Several other pieces in this literary collection shine brightly as well: Swift’s local history of the town in which he lives, combined with a catalog of his writing habits and credo; a determinedly merry Christmas celebration spent with the beleaguered Salman Rushdie; meditative fishing forays with poet Ted Hughes; shopping for a guitar with author Kazuo Ishiguro; and my favorite, a moving tribute, called “Negronis with Alan,” to his former mentor and editor, Alan Ross. A pleasure to read, from first word to last, Making an Elephant is sure to move writers and readers alike to join the legions of Graham Swift fans.   

I must confess: I have never read one of Graham Swift’s novels. But reading his first long work of nonfiction, Making an Elephant: Writing from Within, made me want to rush to my local library and gather up a stack of his fictional tales (especially his Booker Prize-winning novel, Last Orders). I had met the […]
NonfictionBiography

Go Down Together

Review by Alison Hood

Bonnie Parker, gun-toting girlfriend of trigger-happy Clyde Barrow, didn’t smoke cigars; she wrote poetry. The title of investigative journalist Jeff Guinn’s latest book, Go Down Together, is taken from one of Parker’s poems, the haunting “The End of the Line,” in which she predicts death at the hands of “the laws.” Guinn, who has previously written fictional musings about Santa and Mrs. Claus, now takes on a more nitty-gritty topic: the desperate, violent and short lives of Bonnie and Clyde.

This meticulously researched and cleanly written narrative, which draws upon family memoirs, letters, diaries, historical documents, interviews and the most definitive books done by Barrow historians to date, effectively strips away the romantic fancies fed to the American public about Bonnie and Clyde over the last 75 years, especially those in the 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Guinn’s superior investigation of his subject, focused through an objective lens, blends almost seamlessly with skillful pacing and appropriately placed tension–storytelling at its best.

Clyde and Bonnie were both from the wrong side of the tracks in Dallas: poor, uneducated and trying to survive, along with their extended families, the devastation of the Depression years. Before they met at a party on January 5, 1930, Bonnie was unemployed and hoping for fame and glory as a poet, or as a Broadway starlet. Then she met Clyde, well-dressed but not tall or particularly handsome, someone who “liked making all the decisions.” Petite, feisty Bonnie fell immediately in love and the attraction was mutual. Clyde, who barely had a high school education, started out with odd jobs, supplemented his meager income with stealing chickens, then, influenced by his big brother, Buck, graduated into car theft (the Ford V-8 was his favorite, and he even sent Henry Ford a complimentary letter extolling the virtues of the car).

From 1930 to 1934, Bonnie and Clyde, with the help of other ne’er-do-wells who comprised the ever-shifting Barrow gang, inexpertly robbed small businesses, banks and eluded the law, shooting their way (although Bonnie never fired a shot) to the open road and yet another heist. They zigzagged around the South, always returning to their families in Texas, and lived mostly in the cars they stole, camping in the countryside or staying at motor courts. Their lives were harried, cramped and tense. The media loved them and the public–with many people seeing the couple as latter-day Robin Hoods who were getting the jump on rich, corrupt bankers–did too.

Guinn clearly explicates Bonnie and Clyde’s journey into crime and mayhem. Included is an excellent overview of Depression-era America and an interesting look at the U.S. law enforcement system in the 1930s–especially illustrated by how the posse that brought the lovers down was formed. Guinn takes us through the bad decisions, robberies, car chases and ill-judged shooting sprees to the inevitable end of these outlaw lovers, who died in a brutal barrage of bullets on a lonely Louisiana dirt road on May 23, 1934. It was as poet Bonnie had predicted: “Some day they’ll go down together .  .  . to a few it’ll be grief–to the law a relief–but it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.”

Alison Hood writes from Marin County, California.

Guinn takes us through the bad decisions, robberies, car chases and ill-judged shooting sprees to the inevitable end of outlaw lovers Bonnie and Clyde.
Animals

The lion’s share of affection

Review by Alison Hood

In 1969, Anthony Bourke and John Rendall, two Aussies new to London, wandered into Harrods. There in the second-floor “zoo” were two caged lion cubs. One cub regally pretended they didn’t exist, enchanting them. One hefty price tag and many negotiations later, the boys took the lion they ironically dubbed “Christian” home to a flat over a Chelsea furniture shop named (appropriately) Sophisticat. Soon, Christian had the complete adoration of his owners, the shopkeepers and London at large, often posing in the front shop window to the delight of fans and passersby.

By late 1970, Christian, to his owners’ consternation, had outgrown his bijou digs. What follows is a wondrous, serendipitous tale that tracks Christian’s migration from London streets to Kenyan wilderness and the new friends, both lion and human (notably lion expert George Adamson of Born Free fame) that he finds there. Most astonishing, however, is that in 1971, after a year’s absence, Bourke and Rendall returned to Africa and successfully reunited with Christian who, though magnificently mature, greeted them exuberantly: Christian never forgot the men who had first fed, sheltered and played with him.

The heart of A Lion Called Christian, which first was published in 1970 (and has since been updated due to the appearance of the widely viewed 1971 reunion footage on YouTube), highlights the remarkable, enduring bond between the authors and their regal pet. Written in a simple, straightforward style, this book is not great literature, but is a memorable story that tells of the life and work of George Adamson, the African wilderness and the mysterious, life-affirming connection between man and animal.

In 1969, Anthony Bourke and John Rendall, two Aussies new to London, wandered into Harrods. There in the second-floor “zoo” were two caged lion cubs. One cub regally pretended they didn’t exist, enchanting them. One hefty price tag and many negotiations later, the boys took the lion they ironically dubbed “Christian” home to a flat […]
Biography

Double life: Lincoln & Darwin

Review by Alison Hood

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin: two great men, both born on February 12, 1809, are scrutinized in New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik’s Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life. In this year of their bicentennial birthdays, essayist Gopnik (Through the Children’s Gate) reveals a lifelong respect for these heroes and renders a finely considered, thought-provoking examination of their lives, their visions and the influence of their literary eloquence, borne of their public and private lives and “predicaments” of their times. Well-crafted essays form a double portrait, which avoids the shoehorn of mere comparison, illustrating that “it is not what they have in common with each other that matters; it is what they have in common with us,” namely, how Lincoln’s oral brilliance and exactitude and Darwin’s finely layered writings influence how we speak, think and live, publicly and privately, individually and collectively, and form our evolving democratic culture.

Gopnik perceives Lincoln and Darwin as symbols of the “twin pillars” upon which our modern-day society rests: democracy and science. Beyond his timely thesis that “literary eloquence is essential to liberal civilization,” the author gives abbreviated biographies of the two eloquent men—an unsentimental analysis of politician Lincoln’s devotion to law, and a softer sketch of scientist Darwin as storyteller and student of deep time. He further refines the portrayal by showing both men at work and standing in the public eye, as well as sequestered in private life, contrasting how their work helped them gain “masterly knowledge of the common experience”—most notably, death—while this knowledge was of no use as consolation when tragic deaths touched the two men’s families.

This conundrum, which leads to the question of reconciliation, of where and in what space an authentic life is lived, is one that demands our individual and collective intelligence and eloquence. For that space, Gopnik says, is the ironic condition that bedeviled our two heroes. Its resolution calls for us (ape-like and angelic) humans to “be men and women possessed by the urgency of utterance, obsessed by the need to see for themselves and to speak for us all.”

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin: two great men, both born on February 12, 1809, are scrutinized in New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik’s Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life. In this year of their bicentennial birthdays, essayist Gopnik (Through the Children’s Gate) reveals a lifelong respect for these heroes and […]
PhotographyNatureHistoryArts & CultureArt

Know it all

Review by Alison Hood

Life lessons, love, work, peace and the future of our precious planet: these are the subjects under idiosyncratic discussion by 50 notable individuals interviewed in writer/photographer Andrew Zuckerman's sublime, engaging book Wisdom, which is accompanied by a DVD of the author's documentary of the same name. Zuckerman, who says he has always enjoyed meeting accomplished older people spent months traveling the globe to glean words of wisdom from an eclectic, over – age – 65 group of luminaries, which includes Nelson Mandela, Kris Kristofferson, Chinua Achebe, Judi Dench, Jane Goodall, Andrew Wyeth, Billy Connolly, Vaclav Havel and Clint Eastwood.

For each interview, the author composed seven original questions, asking for candid thoughts on the definition and nature of wisdom and human life here on Earth.

The far-ranging, pointed and often surprising responses, along with dramatic color photographic portraits of the interviewees, make for a hope-filled, inspirational book for all generations, as evidenced by this graceful and succinct contribution from Nelson Mandela: "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

HEADLINE NEWS
The New York Times, that dominant icon of the Fourth Estate, is celebrated in all its page-one glory in The New York Times: The Complete Front Pages, 1851-2008. This is a heavyweight knockout of a book, a reprinted compilation of more than 300 front pages organized into 16 historical eras—from the Civil War (one notable, oddly low-key headline from September 1862 touts Lincoln's controversial Emancipation Proclamation by stating "Highly Important: A Degree of Emancipation") to the Cold War to our post-9/11 times of uncertainty.

This amazing encyclopedia of journalism is finely enhanced by pertinent, reflective essays written by Times staffers such as William Safire, William Grimes, Gail Collins and Thomas L. Friedman. From its witty, trenchant opening by Times executive editor Bill Keller to the final front-page weigh-in on the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal, much of the news "that's fit to print" is here, along with a magnifying glass (thankfully) and a three-DVD set of all the Times front pages, with indexing and online links to complete articles. The featured front pages have been selected with significant historical insight and artfully arranged to make an exceptional reference for aficionados of journalism, history and world affairs. A newspaper's front page is, by design, an eclectic and far – ranging mix of stories and is, says Keller, "imperfect, evolving and quite possibly endangered."

This extraordinary, eye-popping collection of reportage may, at least for now, ensure its survival.

AROUND THE WORLD
Though the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have passed, the world still has its collective eye on China. China: Portrait of a Country compiled by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Liu Heung Shing, and with thoughtful, intelligently nuanced essays on Chinese history and photography by journalist James Kynge and art critic Karen Smith, focuses on an often mysterious and complex culture. This groundbreaking photographic book relays a stunning visual story of the birth and growth of modern China, from 1949 to present day, in photos from 88 Chinese photographers (along with their individual biographies), including those by Chairman Mao's personal photographer, Hou Bo. From formalized propaganda shots and portraits of Party leaders to the candid recordings of daily life in cities and rural regions, China offers readers incredible insight into the country's physical, emotional and spiritual infrastructures, an intimate perspective ably enhanced by cogent, well-researched captions and quotes from Chinese intellectuals and artists, as well as international historians, diplomats and academicians. The collected images are disturbing, memorable and moving—from the frame of carnage and crushed bicycles in Tiananmen Square, to a toddler exuberantly waving a copy of Mao's Quotations, to the quiet delight of four elderly women as they totter around the Forbidden City on tiny bound feet.

Emblazoned across the cover of Canadian artist and writer Patrick Bonneville's Timeless Earth: 400 of the World's Most Important Places are Kofi Annan's wise words: "We should emphasize what unites us much more than what divides us." This gorgeous book shows, in hundreds of pages of incomparable color photos, cogent fact and wake-up-call quotations, the absolute necessity of that statement. This is a book with sweeping breadth: it is a rallying call to support mankind's common heritage, as well as an atlas and guide to at least 400 UNESCO World Heritage sites, which are natural and cultural places vital to mankind. It is a virtual passport for the armchair globetrotter and an enticement to those who long to explore our planet.

Divided into three sections, "The Natural World," "Human Culture" and "The Modern World," Timeless Earth offers concise data about each site and its present state of preservation, accompanied by sumptuous photography that almost makes the text superfluous (almost). A maps section, which locates hundreds of World Heritage Sites, rounds out the volume. Timeless Earth represents an adventure that transports readers to wilderness preserves, parks and waterways, monuments, cities and mountain ranges from the Amazon to the Serengeti, from Versailles to Istanbul and back to the Rockies. As a peerless tour leader, this information-packed reference will not disappoint.

FINE ART
Remember that art history class you took in college? Well, if you're a bit fuzzy on your ancient artifacts, Florentine frescoes, Klee, Klimt or Kandinsky, pick up Art—and you'll need strong biceps to do it. This stupendous compendium explores everything to do with artistic expression: use of color, composition and medium; theory and technique; themes, schools and movements, artworks and artists. Kicked off by a small poetic essay by Ross King (Brunelleschi's Dome), a team of international art experts offers a crash course in art appreciation, then leads readers through six chronological sections (from prehistory to contemporary) devoted to pre-eminent artworks and artists. Chock-full of gorgeous color reproductions and images, helpful timelines, detailed close – ups, artists' biographies, and with histories and explanations written in clear, concise prose, Art is a standout book for any student or aficionado, a volume King aptly describes as "an admirable feat and a true joy."

Norma Stephens, longtime colleague of the late, legendary photographer Richard Avedon, knew well his love of performance, especially the theater. "He looked with a reverent, unsentimental eye at performers, always acknowledging the craft and the complexity," she says in Performance: Richard Avedon, a bold, intriguing archive of more than 200 portraits capturing the performers—actors and directors, musicians, comedians and dancers—who dominated 20th-century stage and screen.

This predominantly black-and-white collection of images includes many of Avedon's best – known photos, notably the stunning nude of dancer Rudolf Nureyev and the sexy-vampy headshot of Marilyn Monroe, but also features lesser-known photo galleries of theatrical performers, musicians and dancers exuberantly engaged in their art. Enlivened by personal recollections and memoi- style essays from critic John Lahr and artists Mike Nichols, Andre Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida and Twyla Tharp, this volume will help readers appreciate anew the carefully crafted underpinnings—Avedon's own brand of staging and, thus, performance—and psychological insight of this artist's work and photographic legacy.

Life lessons, love, work, peace and the future of our precious planet: these are the subjects under idiosyncratic discussion by 50 notable individuals interviewed in writer/photographer Andrew Zuckerman's sublime, engaging book Wisdom, which is accompanied by a DVD of the author's documentary of the same name. Zuckerman, who says he has always enjoyed meeting accomplished […]
Animals

A beloved bird on the brain

Review by Alison Hood

In Dr. Irene Pepperberg's avian memoir, Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence – and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process, the common – usually derogatory – epithet of "birdbrain" takes on an entirely new meaning. Readers who meet the "one pound ball of feathers" that is Alex, an African Grey parrot, and follow his educational adventures may marvel at the playful intelligence of this celebrated bird with "a brain the size of a shelled walnut."

Pepperberg, an animal cognition specialist, begins with sad recollections of Alex's unexpected death, recounting with proud astonishment how the media and legions of fans mourned his passing and lauded his extraordinary accomplishments: after decades of her persistent coaching, Alex knew more than 100 English words (sounding out words he did not know), identified shapes and colors, and was capable of rudimentary conceptual thought, intention and affection. The night before he died, his last words to the author were "You be good. I love you… . You'll be in tomorrow?"

While Pepperberg's earlier work, The Alex Studies, clinically documents scientific findings of her 30 years of cognitive experiments with Alex, this memoir – which from necessity includes much of the same information – is a straightforward, innocently moving, personal narrative. This book accents their emotional bonding, Pepperberg's struggles to keep her research activities afloat and accepted by the scientific establishment, the poignancy of her failing marriage, and – best of all – chronicles many touching and amusing moments of daily life with Alex. "Sometimes … . Alex chose to show his opinion of the boring task at hand by playing with our heads… . We would ask him, 'What color key?' and he would give every color in his repertoire, skipping only the correct color."

Alex & Me is neither a work of sparkling prose nor an in-depth scientific study, but its ingenuous narrative humanizes the scientific process and reminds us of our interconnection with nature. Pepperberg roundly challenges notions about man's superior intelligence and consciousness and celebrates the cognitive capabilities of the animals that share our hearts, homes and planet.

 

In Dr. Irene Pepperberg's avian memoir, Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence – and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process, the common – usually derogatory – epithet of "birdbrain" takes on an entirely new meaning. Readers who meet the "one pound ball of feathers" […]
Nature

Niagara over a barrel

Review by Alison Hood

Just when you think you know your iconic American landmarks, someone comes along and bursts your (large) bubble. Environmental writer Ginger Strand gets down to the business of illusion-busting in her iconoclastic expose of Niagara Falls, Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies. Strand investigates the foundations of Niagara's story with wit and passion, showing that man's eager, sometimes Machiavellian, manipulation of nature often destroys Earth's glories, leading to appalling environmental and spiritual degradation, what she calls a "boulevard of broken dreams."

Strand, a self-proclaimed "hydrogeek," set off on a New York state road trip to explore "hydroinfrastructure" (aqueducts, reservoirs, canals) and ended up at Niagara Falls. Upon learning that the waters can be turned up or down (either for impressing tourists or generating hydroelectricity), she became obsessed with the fakery behind this so-called "natural" wonder. Seeking Niagara's past, one of "elisions, artifice and outright deception," Strand delves into the numerous streams of its history: its mythical beginnings as Native American land; its role in the Underground Railroad; its aesthetic heyday under Frederick Law Olmstead; and its ongoing exploitation by merchandisers, sensationalist stuntmen, tourists and honeymooners, preservationists, big industry, rapacious politicians and the military. From the creation of the silly "Maid of the Mist" myth to the advent of Love Canal and the industries that helped create the atomic bomb, Strand reveals and sometimes laments Niagara's secrets – although with cogent humor and insight – making for a sometimes heartbreaking portrait of a ruined Eden.

Inventing Niagara is not only an entertaining, enlightening blend of history, aesthetics, science and cultural commentary, it is Strand's important plea for our future: "Environmentalism is a way of seeing. It's time to look the world squarely in the face and try to understand our role in it. . . . we must consider the natural world not as merely waiting to be of service or to be saved, but must respect it as equal partner in shaping the future of our planet."

Alison Hood writes from Marin County, California.

Just when you think you know your iconic American landmarks, someone comes along and bursts your (large) bubble. Environmental writer Ginger Strand gets down to the business of illusion-busting in her iconoclastic expose of Niagara Falls, Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies. Strand investigates the foundations of Niagara's story with wit and passion, showing that […]

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