Distributed Presses

Another round of good reviews has poured in for Kasia Boddy's Boxing: A Cultural History. First up is a short but positive review in the June 19th issue of The Economist. The reviewer notes that "[Boddy] provides much merriment along the way as she explores the ways professional fighters excite the imagination of writers, artists and intellectuals."

Right behind it was a praise-filled review in the June 20th issue of The Times of London. The Times reviewer declared

The merit of Kasia Boddy's meticulously researched and deeply intelligent examination of boxing through the ages is that it refuses to take the pop historian's route of lazy simplification. The political and moral ambiguity of the fights that have played such a seminal role in shaping human consciousness are chronicled in all their rich and equivocal detail. . . . Her volume is one of the most intelligent sporting books of recent times.

The June 23rd review in the Australian paper The Age was a little more lukewarm, but the reviewer notes

Kasia Boddy is no faint-heart. She appears to have tracked down every last reference to boxing in prose, poetry, painting, sculpture, film and video. . . . As Boddy shows at scholarly length, in American books and plays and paintings and films, boxing came to carry a heavy symbolic freight. The gloves and the ring stood for pride and courage, sacrifice and nobility, salvation and redemption. They also stood for corruption, greed, betrayal, pain and death. No other sport - indeed, perhaps no other human activity - has been so fraught with meaning.

Read the full review in The Economist
Read the complete Times review
Read the full review in The Age
Learn more about Boxing: A Cultural History, newly published by Reaktion Books

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Posted to Books for the News | History | Reaktion | Reviews

Panikos Panayi's Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food was reviewed in the June 1st issue of the Washington Times. Reviewer Martin Rubin gives the book a good review, concluding

Wearing his twin hats of foodie and social historian, Panikos Panayi can appall as well as engender salivation on his tour d'horizon of the multicultural history of British food. His book demonstrates convincingly that whether drawing on its former colonial and imperial possessions (including the United States, with its ever- popular hamburger and other fast foods) or on its European neighbors, the openness of British society has truly enriched its diet and produced its present-day variegated cuisine.

Read the full review in the Washington Times
Learn more about Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food, newly published by Reaktion Books

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

Kasia Boddy's newly published Boxing: A Cultural History received several good reviews from the other side of the Atlantic over the last couple weeks:

The Sunday Telegraph enthusiastically praised Boxing in its May 25th issue, noting:

If one author deserves real praise for stamina, it is Kasia Boddy. The research she has put into this book, combined with her awesome understanding of Western culture, is staggering. She can write with authority about everything from classical Rome to the Dada movement of the 1920s, from the work of George Bernard Shaw to Samuel Pepys' diary. . . . Her book is a magnificent achievement.

The New Statesman also had high praise for the book, saying:

Boddy's book is a superb work of scholarship, spanning ancient Greece to Mike Tyson. Its reproduced lithographs and colour plates make the book, in its way, a handsome work of art in itself. . . . Boddy referees this heavyweight 15-rounder with elegance, aplomb and rigour.

The Daily Telegraph wasn't quite as enamored with Boxing in its June 5th issue, but overall, the reviewer called the book "compendious, and thoroughly fascinating" and declared it was "an excellent, well-written and beautifully illustrated book."

Read the full Sunday Telegraph review
Read the entire New Statesman review
Read the complete Daily Telegraph review
Learn more about Boxing: A Cultural History, newly published by Reaktion Books

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

The recently published Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain is reviewed in the June issue of Harper's Magazine. Gary Greenberg discusses the book with several other newly published titles on neuroscience and society in a long and wide-ranging essay. He notes:

If you are going to live, whether you like it or not, in thrall to your brain, then your future belongs in some way to the doctors who claim to be the only people qualified to explain you to yourself. . . . The prominent neuroscientists who contribute to Best of the Brain are sure that a full explication of its operation is just a supersized technical challenge that will soon be met.

Read the full Harper's Magazine review
Learn more about Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain, published by Dana Press

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Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Reviews

Kasia Boddy's Boxing: A Cultural History continues its successful start with a short but laudatory review in the June issue of The Atlantic Monthly. The reviewer praises Boddy's work, saying:

"Boddy intelligently takes up—via art, literature, film, and the media—the many issues that have historically veined the sport: 'nationality, class, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, and different versions of masculinity,' plus dialectics like 'brawn versus brains, boastfulness versus modesty, youth versus experience.' Her reach is considerable, but so is her grasp. The result is a sweeping critical history and a perfect power-to-weight ratio."

Read the full Atlantic Monthly review
Learn more about Boxing: A Cultural History

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Posted to History | Reaktion | Reviews

Kasia Boddy's newly published Boxing: A Cultural History has hit the ground running with a review by none other than Joyce Carol Oates in the latest issue of The New York Review of Books. In her relatively positive review, Oates notes:

At nearly five hundred densely packed pages, Boddy's investigation into 'the intricate conceptual and iconographic constructions' that surround boxing has the heft of a work twice its length—the equivalent, in book form, of the old-style championship boxing matches that ran as long as thirty rounds, often in the broiling sun. . . . . Boxing: A Cultural History would seem to include everything that has ever been written, depicted, or in any way recorded about boxing no matter how obscure, whimsical, or trivial; a treasure trove for boxing historians and aficionados that might evoke vertigo in less committed readers. . . .

As Kasia Boddy's masterwork of bricolage sweeps on, there comes to be something wonderfully Joycean—oceanic, indefatigable, slightly deranged—in the very quantity of data she has amassed. . . . To read Boddy's book is to confront dozens—hundreds?—of inspired mini-essays.

Read Joyce Carol Oates' entire New York of Review of Books review
Learn more about Boxing: A Cultural History

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Posted to History | Reaktion | Reviews

Donato Ndongo's novel Shadows of your Black Memory, recently published in English translation by Swan Isle Press, received a glowing review in the March 2nd issue of The Independent:

This accomplished novel describes the love of something mercilessly elusive: a magical and transitory space floating between the past and the future, an eternal present wherein the moon is 'round and red, stained with the blood of the sun hidden behind the mountains.' Originally written in Spanish, Donato Ndongo's remarkable and strikingly original novel appears now in a subtle and elegant translation by Michael Ugarte, which does full justice to the dreamily poetic nature of the narrative.

Read the full Independent review
Learn more about Shadows of your Black Memory, published by Swan Isle

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Posted to Fiction | Reviews | Swan Isle

Donato Ndongo's novel Shadows of your Black Memory, recently published in English translation by Swan Isle Press, was reviewed by Emmanuel Harris in the most recent issue of PALARA:

Ugarte's text brilliantly captures the tone and cadence of the original novel and renders a thoughtful, compassionate narrative that readers will undoubtedly cherish. . . . Ndongo weaves an unforgettable tale that is at once Hispanic, bildungsroman and intensely and undeniably African. . . . Shadows of Your Black Memory is a work of outstanding quality and Donato Ndongo is without question an exceptional talent.

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

Learn more about Shadows of your Black Memory

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Posted to Fiction | Reviews | Swan Isle

The publicity train keeps rolling for Your Brain on Cubs with a review by acclaimed news columnist George Will in his March 31st Newsweek column. He notes

It is not nice to joke about a neurological affliction. Fortunately, we can now comprehend the condition, thanks to a new book, 'Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans,' a collection of essays by doctors and others knowledgeable about neuroscience and brain disorders associated with rooting for a team that last won the World Series a century ago.

Read the full Newsweek column by George Will
Learn more about Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans

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Posted to Dana Press | Reviews

Eluned Summers-Bremner, author of the newly published Insomnia: A Cultural History, was recently interviewed in Macleans Magazine about the book. An excerpt from the interview:

Q: Your book questions current assumptions about sleep. For instance, as a dominant sleep model, is the eight-hour stretch relatively new?

A: It is specific to us, and it hasn't got such a very long history. A couple of centuries. Before that, there were lots of different ways of doing sleep.

Q: So how were ancient sleeping rituals different?

A: It made a big difference whether there was moonlight or not because early cultures had no real source of lighting other than the hearth or the fire. In ancient Athens, religious ceremonies were held by moonlight. With us, we really tend to separate day and night, and we regard sleep as supportive of our daytime activity.

Q: Didn't they see sleep as a way to rejuvenate for the next day's work like we do?

A: Sleep had a mystical quality. Quite often, it was seen as a time when divine messages might arrive. It was interpreted as a time when things happen that the gods intended, that were out of your control, so dreams were seen as being prophetic.

Read the full Macleans Magazine interview with Eluned Summers-Bremner
Learn more about Insomnia: A Cultural History

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Posted to Books for the News | Reaktion | Reviews

Eluned Summers-Bremner's Insomnia, newly published by Reaktion Books, was both reviewed and excerpted last Friday in the Wall Street Journal. The reviewer noted, "Her account of literary usages of insomnia, from Gilgamesh to Garcia Márquez, is a rich one, sufficient to make the case that insomnia is a recurrent theme in Western culture."

Read the full Wall Street Journal review
Read the Wall Street Journal's excerpt of Insomnia: A Cultural History
Learn more about Insomnia: A Cultural History

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

The Bodleian Library's newly published How To Be a Good Wife and How To Be a Good Husband were featured in a Valentine's Day article in the Chicago Tribune. The article excerpts maxims from each book and notes in its introduction:

In 1936, King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne for the American divorcee he loved. Romance apparently was in the air that year, because that's when a pair of "Do's and Don'ts" books were published to help English husbands and wives figure out how to make their marriages work.

History does not tell us if the books turned up among the former king's wedding presents, but we can benefit from the advice ourselves, thanks to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

Read the Chicago Tribune article
Learn more about How To Be A Good Wife and How To Be a Good Husband

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Posted to Bodleian Library | Books for the News | Reference and Writing | Reviews

How To Be a Good Wife, newly published by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, was featured today on the blog Jezebel. Jezebel excerpted some of the most apt pieces of advice from the book, including:

Husbands are not terribly difficult to manage. Certainly, they are not nearly as difficult as they imagine in their own hearts. If your husband is of the awkward class, you either picked a bad one or you don't know the elementary rules of 'husband management.'

The companion volume to How To Be A Good Wife is How To Be a Good Husband, also published by the Bodleian LIbrary.

Read about How To Be a Good Wife on Jezebel

Learn more about How To Be A Good Wife and How To Be a Good Husband

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Posted to Bodleian Library | Reviews

Michael Chandler and Rohan Gunaratna's recently published Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence? received a glowing review in the January issue of CHOICE:

"A thorough analytical work with the potential to transform thinking about the present strategies on the war against terror, this book should be required reading for White House, Pentagon and State Department officials responsible for counterterrorist operations. Highly recommended."

Other recent praise for Countering Terrorism:
"Chandler and Gunaratna say Western liberals still woefully underestimate the scale of the threat. They are right. The seeds of our destruction are within ourselves."—The Mail on Sunday

"[Chandler and Gunaratna] have written one of the more sharp-eyed books on counter-terrorism. It's a pithy analysis of recent international politics and raises some tough questions."—Professional Security Magazine

"Essential reading for anyone with an interest in counter terrorism."—Military Books Review

Learn more about Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence?

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Posted to Politics and Current Events | Reaktion | Reviews

Stephen Eisenman's The Abu Ghraib Effect was reviewed last week on the Art Blog By Bob blog. It was also reviewed last month in CAA Reviews:

Continue reading "Book Review: The Abu Ghraib Effect" »

Posted by HG at 12:28 PM | Permalink
Posted to Art and Architecture | Publicity | Reaktion | Reviews

Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke, one of American Photo's 2007 Best Retrospectives of the Year, was also featured on several photography blogs near the end of 2007.

The 5B4 blog reviews Frank Gohlke's entire oeuvre of photography books and declares that Accommodating Nature is his latest success:

Throughout his other books, Frank has exhibited not only his talent for making images but also his remarkable talent for writing. What is an added joy about this new book is that Frank ties all of his various projects together with a running narrative of text that covers his life with photography as a near constant companion. Uncharacteristic of most retrospective type books, this one is not constructed with a strict chronological order to the images. The photographs follow the text in this regard and pleasurably serve as flash back and memory alongside Frank's steady narration. . . . If you are not familiar with the work of Frank Gohlke then this book would be a perfect introduction.

The muse-ings blog links to this review and also praises the exhibition of Accommodating Nature photographs at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Accommodating Nature exhibition runs through January 6th at the Amon Carter Museum and will then move to the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts from April 16 through July 13.

Read the full book review at 5B4 and notes about the exhibition at muse-ings

Learn more about the Accommodating Nature photography exhibition

Learn more about Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke

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Posted to Art and Architecture | Center for American Places | Reviews

Neil Pearson's Obelisk, recently published by Liverpool University Press, was highly praised in the December 8th issue of The Guardian:

Neil Pearson's book is a work of enthusiastic bibliographical scholarship, a brief biography, and a series of well-turned pen portraits. . . . Pearson is as adroit a writer as he is watchable an actor. . . . Everyone with an interest in literary history will enjoy Pearson's narrative. His portraits of minor figures such as Marjorie Firminger, who had the misfortune to became infatuated with Wyndham Lewis, are particularly touching and sympathetic.

Read the full Guardian review
Learn more about Obelisk

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Posted to Liverpool University Press | Reviews

In this week's American Prospect, political analyst Mark Schmitt takes a hard look at the latest edition of Michael Barone's Almanac of American Politics. He ultimately tries to make a case for the irrelevancy of the Almanac today, arguing that most of the information in the Almanac is now widely available on the Internet, and the starkly partisan nature of today's politics renders individual Congress members' views less important than before. He also provocatively contends that Barone's publicly espoused ideological views hinder the book from adequately addressing recent upheavals in American politics and government, such as the 2006 election that catapulted the Democrats back into power and political scandals of Republicans such as Tom DeLay:

Continue reading "Book Review: Almanac of American Politics" »

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Posted to National Journal | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

John Harvey's Photography and Spirit was glowingly reviewed on GhostVillage.com this week. Reviewer Lee Prosser praises the book saying

This is a journey through the surreal, an active and in-depth examination of the numerous myths and cultural history surrounding spirit photography. The photographs cover the period from 1860 through the present, and reveal enduring artifacts of cultural history. The book is also a telling statement about the various meanings of death in Western culture. . . . Literate, well-written, and highly entertaining are the three words to best describe this book by John Harvey. Highly recommended!

Read the full GhostVillage.com review

Learn more about Photography and Spirit

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

An Italian translation of the English-language LOGOS review of Danny Postel's Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran was published in the Italian magazine RESET: Dialogues on Civilizations. An excerpt:

Il "liberalismo" nell'Iran di oggi è un concetto alquanto rivoluzionario: la lotta per i diritti umani, per i diritti delle donne, per le libertà civili, per il pluralismo, per la tolleranza religiosa, per la libertà di espressione e per una democrazia multipartitica in realtà non sono altro che un tentativo radicale di portare la libertà alla maggioranza degli iraniani che per secoli è stata sottoposta al giogo di varie forme di tirannia. Le forze progressiste, le ong e gli intellettuali possono fare molto di più che limitarsi ad opporsi a un'eventuale guerra in Iran: possono e devono sostenere attivamente il processo riformistico nel paese. L'appello di Postel in questo senso—nel suo ultimo libro Reading Legitimation Crisis in Iran (Prickly Paradigm Press)—è oltremodo utile e persuasivo.

Read the Italian review in RESET: Dialogues on Civilizations

Read the original LOGOS review

Learn more about Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran

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Posted to Prickly Paradigm | Reviews

The release of National Journal's Almanac of American Politics, 2008 has been creating a buzz lately.

This week's Washington Post and the Swamp, Chicago Tribune's political blog, feature trivia questions from the creators of the Almanac. (Quick: which member of Congress delivered his 2002 opponent's baby?)

Matthew Continetti from the Weekly Standard, meanwhile, quotes the recent Almanac to suggest that political polarization rather than economic data is behind the re-emergence of the debate over income inequality. Continetti says little about the relation between overall macroeconomic growth and the distribution of wealth, though.

Finally, Reid Wilson, writing in Real Clear Politics, uses the Almanac's figures to suggest some implications for future political campaigns.

Time to get out the Almanac!

Visit National Journal

Learn more about the Almanac

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Posted to Books for the News | National Journal | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune recently reviewed Against the Grain: The Literary Life of a Poet, a Memoir by Reed Whittemore, calling it, "A witty and close-to-the-bone account of one poet's life—one that deeply explores the tough choices to be made between life and art."

Read the Review

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Posted to Poetry | Reviews | University of Alaska Press

Rohan Gunaratna and Michael Chandler's Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence? was recently reviewed in the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. The reviewer notes,

The authors reserve their harshest criticism on the failure of the United Nations to provide the necessary leadership for the global War on Terror. They decry the failure to carry out the comprehensive and collaborative response after 11 September 2001 and the failure to fulfill the initial expectations of improved international cooperation. . . .

Their urgent warning of the failures thus far, and the need for urgent redress given that these very failures are contributing to an obvious worsening of the threat of global terrorism, are messages that governments and policymakers need to hear. In sum, this is therefore a timely and valuable book, and as Loretta Napoleoni has said on the back cover in her endorsement, 'required reading for Number 10 and the White House.'

Learn more about Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence?

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Posted to Politics and Current Events | Reaktion | Reviews

Cerebrum 2007, an annual anthology of the best articles from Dana Press's acclaimed journal Cerebrum, was recently reviewed in PsycCRITIQUES, the book review publication of the American Psychology Association. The reviewer notes,

Bruce McEwen lays the foundation for this thoughtful integration of ideas from experts in various neuroscientific disciplines addressing real-world programs. . . . There are interesting glimpses at the neurogbiologic basis of superstition, autism, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and a somewhat whimscial glance at whether animals have an esthetic sense. . . . I found this volume to be unusually elegantly written its genre and worthwhile enough that I went online and asked to be included in the Dana Foundation's distribution list for future such compiliations.

Learn more about Cerebrum 2007

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Posted to Dana Press | Psychology | Reviews

New York Calling was reviewed in the November 4th New York Times by Sam Roberts in his "Reading New York" column. Sam Roberts notes,

Many of the 28 contributors to New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg seesaw between lionizing the lunacy that characterized the city during those years—some of us euphemistically described the mood as "vibrant"—and dismissing the latest incarnation of New York as antiseptic. What results is uneven, though often revealing and almost always poignant.

The book, which is tellingly illustrated with black-and-white photographs, is divided into sections on the city's public spaces, its public institutions and people's personal pursuits. The contributors focus more on what has changed over three decades, generally devoting greater attention to what has been lost—I can still admire Keith Haring without being nostalgic for subway cars smothered in graffiti—than to what has been gained.

Read the full New York Times review
NY1 News's "The New York Times Close Up"
Check out Brian Berger's official New York Calling blog
Learn more about New York Calling

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

New York Calling received moderate praise in the October 27th issue of the Daily Telegraph, although the review tended to extol the virtues of London compared to the increasingly gentrified New York:

"Fascinating collection of essays . . . The essays often suggest that the real New York is to be found in Brooklyn or Queens, but prefer to focus on Manhattan, usually in tones of rueful melancholy or savage disgust. . . . The deregulated, liberatingly anonymous city to which generations of outsiders flocked in order to lose themselves is morphing into something altogether safer and tidier. It makes for comfortable living. But at what cost to New York's soul?"

Read the full Daily Telegraph review
Check out Brian Berger's official New York Calling blog
Learn more about New York Calling

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Posted to Reaktion | Reviews

Library Journal recently published a glowing review of Peter Whitfield's London: A Life in Maps:

Whitfield, the author of several books on maps, including Cities of the World, has produced a fascinating history of London organized around some 100 of the countless maps, panoramas, and plans created of the city over the last 500 years, going back to the earliest extant map. . . . Whitfield serves up an enjoyable mix of facts, both familiar and obscure, handsomely supported with contemporary illustrations in addition to the maps. As with any book reproducing graphics in a reduced size, some detail is lost, but anyone with an interest in the history of London or of maps generally will find much to enjoy. Recommended highly for public and academic libraries.

Read the full Library Journal review
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Posted to British Library | Cartography and Geography | Publicity | Reviews

Donald Pfaff's forthcoming The Neuroscience of Fair Play recently was reviewed in the October 8th issue of Publishers Weekly:

"[Pfaff] claims he's surveyed the world's religions and found some variant of the Golden Rule in every one, leading him to conclude that this trait is likely to be under some sort of genetic control. . . . The author goes into great detail about how neurobiology and neurochemistry interact to help shape behavior. His sections on parenting, sexual love, and aggression are intriguing, but the technical information will make this appeal primarily to those with a strong interest in the brain and the science of behavior."

Read the full Publishers Weekly article
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Posted to Dana Press | Psychology | Publicity | Reviews

Danny Postel's Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran was recently reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Society and Culture:

In Persian there is a piece of proverbial wisdom that praises a statement, a report, an analysis, or even a book, for being brief—and thereby beneficial. To a person who is not getting to the point, Iranians politely plead to be "brief and beneficial." Danny Postel's book, Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran, does a good deal of justice to this Persian wisdom by succinctly broaching very important issues about the current political struggle in Iran and the attitude of western progressive forces to it. . . .

This is very timely book that addresses a crucial question in our time, namely, the solidarity and sympathy that the progressive forces in the west and the United States can extend to their counterparts in Iran. The progressive forces, the NGOs, and intellectuals can do much more that just opposing a war in Iran; they can and should actively get involved in supporting the reforms in Iran. Postel's plea in this direction is quite helpful and persuasive. We can fruitfully compare the current situation of Iran to that of the last years of Soviet time and the failure of the progressive forces in the west to support the movement of the people in the Soviet societies and the disastrous consequences thereof. Hence the importance of Postel's warning and plea.

Read the full Logos review
Learn more about Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran

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Posted to Philosophy | Politics and Current Events | Prickly Paradigm | Publicity | Reviews

A slew of Dana Press titles were featured in the October 1st issue of Library Journal. Titles highlighted include:

Dana Guide to Brain Health:
"Compiled by three leading brain experts with contributions from over 80 physicians, this volume is divided into four broad sections, covering brain development, brain health, and 72 major neurological and emotional conditions. A broad and affordable overview on the topic."

Floyd E. Bloom, Best of the Brain from Scientific American:
"This collection of essays drawn from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind offers an excellent, readable overview of the latest brain research since 1999."

Jonathan D. Moreno, Mind Wars:
"Bioethics expert Moreno investigates the ties between neuroscience and national security, asking difficult ethical and national policy questions in a nontechnical and readable manner."

Read the Library Journal article
Learn more about Dana Press titles

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Posted to Books for the News | Dana Press | Reviews

Antonio Gonçalves Filho recently reviewed Enemies of Promise: Publishing, Perishing, and the Eclipse of Scholarship and interviewed author Lindsay Waters in Estadão, a Brazilian newspaper:

Lindsay Waters, executive editor for the Humanities at Harvard University Press, has issued a challenge to academics and publishers: to publish less, with more relevance. . . . Waters criticizes the "publish-or-perish" mentality that has produced an avalanche of books of little or no importance.

Read the Review and Interview (in Portuguese)

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Posted to Author Events | Philosophy | Prickly Paradigm | Reference and Writing | Reviews

Floyd E. Bloom's Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain has been garnering positive attention on blogs and sites throughout the neuroscience community:

Talking Brains

Mind Hacks

Neuromarketing

Dr. Shock, M.D., Ph.D

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 10:14 AM | Permalink
Posted to Dana Press | Reviews

Jason Warshof of the Financial Times recently gave a glowing review to New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg edited by Marshall Berman and Brian Berger.

Warshof calls New York Calling ". . . a mind-opening collection of 28 essays," that offers, ". . . a near-unforgettable impression of an era."

Read the Review

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Posted to Cultural Studies | Reaktion | Reviews

Steven Alford and Suzanne Ferriss's Motorcycle receives some attention in the "Book Club" section of the October edition of Cycle World.

The motorcycle is a global icon of untamed freedom, symbolizing a daring and reckless lifestyle of adventure. Yet there are few books that chronicle how and when this legendary vehicle roared down the open road. Motorcycle explores the roots of the rebel's ultimate ride.

Visit the Cycle World Site

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Posted to Cultural Studies | Reaktion | Reviews

The Times (UK) recently ran a review of Intellect Books' Performing Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring. In addition to recounting an anecdote about an ill-fated encounter with Uri Geller, reviewer Mark Stafford discusses the struggles of jugglers, court performers, and conjurers through the ages, who were often regarded as dangerous occultists by their contemporaries. He praises Performing Dark Arts for its unparalleled scope and erudition amongst a glut of how-to guides for amateur magicians:

If you want a book that reveals "the secrets of street magicians" you will be disappointed. If you want to learn about the one trick that all good conjurers have up their sleeve, the oldest in the book—here it is, rehearsed across the centuries. It is to make sure that whichever cup the audience looks under—mere chicanery or actual sorcery—the ball is not there. It is to "leave us balanced between two explanations," where we can enjoy the possibility of phenomenal powers, without the genie escaping the bottle.

Read the review

Learn more about Performing Dark Arts

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Posted to Intellect Books | Reviews

From Politico.com: senior political writer Jonathan Martin blogs on the upcoming edition of the Almanac of American Politics, one of his favorite summer reads.

"Whether you're on the beach or at the lake," Martin writes, "prop up your feet and dive into a random state or district. You'll come away with an invaluable political education."

Read more at Politico.com

Learn more about the book

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Posted to National Journal | Reviews

Katie Haegele reviewed Bodleian Library's The First English Dictionary, 1604 in the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 25th, 2007.

She also interviewed John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, who also edited Cawdrey's dictionary and wrote its introduction. Simpson and Haegele discuss the relative obscurity of Cawdrey's dictionary, the standardization of the English language, and the importance of alphabetical ordering.

Learn More about the Book

Read the Review and Interview

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Posted to Bodleian Library | Reference and Writing | Reviews

Publisher's Weekly reviewed Reaktion's forthcoming New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg edited by Marshall Berman and Brian Berger in the July 9th, 2007 issue.

Publisher's Weekly highlights the "bonding of firsthand recollection to broader historical issues," and suggests that "this multivoiced collec