Adult Non-Fiction
New adult non-fiction books
A voyage long and strange: rediscovering the new world by Tony Horwitz
SignatureReviewed by Robert SullivanAs opposed to the Pilgrims, Tony Horwitz begins his journey at Plymouth Rock.Plymouth Rock is a myth. The Pilgrims who, Horwitz notes, were on a mission that was based less on freedom and the schoolbook history ideas the president of the United States typically mentions when he pardons a turkey at the White House and more on finding a cure for syphilis may or may not have noticed it. In about 1741, a church elder in Plymouth, winging it, pointed out a boulder that is now more like a not-at-all-precious stone. Three hundred years later, people push and shove to see it in summer tourist season, wearing T-shirts that say, America's Hometown. Which eventually leads an overstimulated (historically speaking) Horwitz to come close to starting a fight in a Plymouth bar. Not to Virginians it isn't, he writes. Or Hispanics or Indians.Forget all the others, his bar mate says loudly. This is the friggin' beginning of America!A Voyage Long and Strange is a history-fueled, self-imposed mission of rediscovery, a travelogue that sets out to explore the surprisingly long list of explorers who discovered America, and what discovered means anyway, starting with the Vikings in A.D. 1000, and ending up on the Mayflower. Horwitz (Blue Latitudes; Confederates in the Attic) even dons conquistador gear, making the narrative surprisingly fun and funny, even as he spends a lot of time describing just how badly Columbus and subsequently the Spanish treated people. (Highpoint: a trip to a Columbus battle site in the Dominican Republic, when Horwitz gets stuck with a nearly inoperable rental car in a Sargasso Sea of traffic.) In the course of tracing the routes of de Soto in, for instance, Tennessee, and the amazing Cabeza de Vaca (Daniel Day Lewis's next role?) in Tucson, Ariz., Horwitz drives off any given road to meet the back-to-the-land husband-and-wife team researching Coronado's expeditions through Mexico; or the Fed Ex guy who may be a link to the lost colonists of the Elizabethan Roanoke expedition.Horwitz can occasionally be smug about what constitutes custom who's to say that a Canadian tribe's regular karaoke night isn't a community-building exercise as valid as the communal sweat that nearly kills Horwitz early on in his thousands of miles of adventures? But as a character himself, he is friendly and always working hard to listen and bear witness. I hate the whole Thanksgiving story, says a newspaper editor of Spanish descent, a man he meets along the trail of Coronado. We should be eating chili, not turkey. But no one wants to recognize the Spanish because it would mean admitting that they got here decades before the English.Robert Sullivan is the author of Cross Country, How Not to Get Rich and Rats (Bloomsbury). Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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The Splendid table’s, how to eat supper: by Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Starred Review. A joint effort between Kasper, public radio host of The Splendid Table, and her producer and fellow foodie, Swift, this superb book should grace the shelves of even the most infrequent of cooks. Full of tantalizing, fast and easy-to-assemble meals, this collection also focuses on the ideas behind the techniques: what to look for as the food cooks, what kind of pot ensures success, and where substitutions will work. Helpful information such as why buying imported Italian pasta and why salting pasta water are important help the less experienced extract flavor from basic ingredients. Recipes center on quick and nutritious dinner options, including Dressing-in-a-Bowl Supper Salad, North Shore Shrimp Scampi, and Lamb Chops with Crossover Spice Crust. The authors also provide valuable references such as a tasting guide to salad greens, advice for imparting flavor to frozen shrimp and suggestions for using pasta water in sauces. Given the show's popularity, the accessibility of the recipes and the authors' practical and useful advice, this excellent book is sure to become a kitchen staple. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Gandhi: the man, his people, and the empire by Rajmohan Gandhi
The author, Professor Gandhi of the Univ. of Ill., was 12 years old when his grandfather was assassinated by a Hindu extremist. Besides being the global symbol of nonviolent resistance, Mohandas Gandhi (called Mahatma, "the great soul," by his people) is still venerated in India today. In his rigorous account of Mahatma's life, Gandhi (Gaffar Kahn) writes movingly of the man, his family and his ideas, culminating in his monumental stand against India's British rulers. Born in India in 1869, Mahatma studied in London and then practiced law in South Africa, where he opposed both the color bar against Indians and inter-Indian discrimination against "untouchables," their lowest caste. Joining the radical wing of the Congress Party, Mahatma returned to India, insisting on nonviolent protest despite British provocations like the Amritsar massacre, in which soldiers shot into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators. His tactics resounded with his followers; his fasts kept them inspired and won concessions from the British. Along the way, the author provides interesting glimpses of a family baring the brunt of Mahatma's rejection of the typical middle-class lifestyle afforded an Indian professional. This thorough, inspiring account is notable not just for the author's personal ties and obvious passion, but for his considerable research and the enormity of his undertaking. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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A remarkable mother by Jimmy Carter
Former president Carter (author of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid as well as many inspirational books) now offers readers the story of his extraordinary mother, Lillian Carter (1898 1983). After laying out some family history, he comes to Lillian's teen years, when she trained as a nurse at the onset of World War I. Health conditions in rural Georgia, especially later, during the Depression, were so dire that nurses were often diagnosticians as well as caregivers. Nursing also brought Lillian close to the black community, building personal bonds that paved the way for later political alliances. After her husband died, Lillian moved from wife and mother to full-fledged matriarch, and later volunteered for the Peace Corps and worked in India. Being able to help such needy people was intensely satisfying, although she never got preachy about it. She'd write home, for example, that the Indian doctor she worked with was so damned good you can't imagine him going to the bathroom. Modern readers who assume that church-going Southern Baptists don't swear, drink or work to promote birth control will find Lillian an eye-opener. She played an unofficial though vital role as the Carter administration's goodwill ambassador around the world she almost persuaded our government to let Muhammad Ali bargain with Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for our hostages taken in 1979. Carter offers wonderful stories about a great woman. B&w photos throughout. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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