Social Sciences users, Lynch warns that those human users the novelist, the cabinet secretary started
the novelist, the cabinet secretary started his
The Battle for Room 314: IVIy Year of
Hope and Despair in a New York City
High School.
By Ed Boland.
Feb. 2016. 256p. Grand Central, $26.00 (9781455560615);
e-book, $13.99 (9781455560608). 373.11092.
Bolands mother couldnt believe it: he was
going to take an $80,000 pay cut to teach in
a public school. As the development director
for a nonprofit program that prepared minor
ity children for stellar academic careers, Boland
had a hand in plucking some outstanding
students from their disadvantaged neighbor
hoods and into a new life. But he wanted to
give back more directly and so made his radical
announcement that he was changing careers.
The year he then spent teaching in a tough
New York City high school was harrowing and
eye-opening. To a white man from Chelsea
and a gay one at that the students could be
brutal. But just as tough were the odds that
these kids would get the support they needed
from an overstuffed and underfunded system.
Boland has a knack for capturing the stakes
in seemingly small moments and the inten
sity of clashes between personalities. Ruthless
in his evaluation of himself, his students, and
the larger educational system, Boland provides
a clear look at the challenges facing public
schools today. Bridget Thoreson
The Importance of Being Little: What
Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups.
By Erika Christakis.
Feb. 2016 .400p. Viking, $27.95 (9780525429074). 372.21.
Christakis doesnt just hypothesize about
preschool education; she teaches it and backs
it up with extensive, solid research then
makes it accessible. The Harvard College,
Johns Hopkins, and Annenberg School alum
taught preschoolers at the University of Chi
cago Lab School and taught college students
early childhood education at Yale Universitys
Child Study Center. (If those qualifications
arent enough, she is also a parent of three.) In
this book, Christakis includes many examples
of the ways Americans fail to teach young
children, but rather than leaving the reader
depressed, she empowers readers by explain
ing how preschoolers learn and how adults can
have a better understanding of them. She also
teaches how to get out of their way enough to
have a better relationship with them. Christakis
says her book is geared toward parents, educa
tors, and policymakers, but it could also be
required reading for all forms of pediatric ther
apists and school-board members. Although
the authors credentials are quite academic, her
book is written for everyone. Joyce McIntosh
The Internet of Us: Knowing More and
Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data.
By Michael P. Lynch.
Mar. 2016. 288p. Norton/Liveright, $27.95
(9780871406613). 303.4.
As the Google search engine grows ever
more adept at completing the sentences of its
www.booklistonline.com
may be losing their power to think through
their sentences on their own. Though hardly
a Luddite, Lynch fears that by relying too
heavily on the Internet as a source of ready
information, we risk the erosion of our power
to reason, to think creatively, to gain knowl
edge through direct experience, and then to
take social and political responsibility for that
knowledge. To be sure, frequent use of the
Internet may teach us how to recognize corre
lations in data and to use those correlations to
make helpful predictions. But Lynch worries
that these skills may mask deficiencies in our
critical capacity to interrogate the assump
tions that give correlations and predictions
their cultural meaning. Consequently, these
deficiencies leave us too imaginatively sterile
to explore new conceptual horizons. Worse,
these deficiencies expose us to the machina
tions of Internet con artists and governmental
Big Brothers. A bracing challenge to Internet
enthusiasts. Bryce Christensen
Splitopia: Dispatches from Today's Good
Divorce and How to Part Well.
By Wendy Paris.
Mar. 2 0 1 6 .304p. Simon & Schuster, $26
(9781476725512).306.89.
Paris has been-there-done-that, enduring a
divorce and wondering how to make it work.
Hence, in this nuts-and-bolts handbook on
the big Z)-word, she starts at the beginning,
the split her own and others. Her prose
is filled with quotes from experts, so read
ers can take Paris word, or they can choose
from a vast number of experts who have also
tackled the relationship problem. Paris voice
is chipper and cheery, even when shes spell
ing out what can go wrong, in such chapters
as Friends . . . and Lack Thereof and Hur
ricane, described as the upside of feeling
down. Readers undergoing changes (or fo
menting changes) in their personal lives can
start with whatever chapter seems most ap
plicable (e.g., Does This Couch Match My
Personality?, on creating a new home), or
they can start at the very beginning (The
Joy of Ex). Either way, they are bound to
discover ways to face the often unthink
able divorce, with kids or without and
how to not only make it work but make it
work well. Eloise Kinney
The Statesman and the Storyteller:
John Hay, Mark Twain, and the
Rise of American Imperialism.
By Mark Zwonitzer.
Apr. 2016. 704p. Algonquin, $35 (9781565129894).
327.73.
When Mark Twain praised the poetry
of John Hay private secretary to Lincoln
and secretary of state under McKinley and
Roosevelt Hay informed Twain that his lau
datory words left him comfortable beyond
measure. However, as Zwonitzer probes the
long-lived relationship between these two
titans of post-Civil War America, readers re
peatedly see episodes taut with tension. Like
ascent into prominence from a hardscrabble
town on the Mississippi. His origins thus gave
Hay a poetic vernacular that
Twain valued. But even as
their commonalities drew
the men together, Mrs. Hay
poured Methodist censure
on their masculine ban
ter. More seriously testing
their bond during the de
cade of primary interest to
Zwonitzer, Hay served as the willing agent of
presidents intent on global expansion, while
Twain vehemently decried the brutal tactics of
the American imperialists. Fascinated readers
will marvel at how mutual regard sustained
the tie between Hay and Twain, so fully that
in a 1900 letter Hays identified his friendship
with Twain as a most precious possession,
and four years later Twain found deep com
fort in the condolences Hay extended upon
the death ofTwains wife. A compelling narra
tive, opening rare insight into an exceptional
friendship played out in the shadow of epoch-
making geopolitics. Bryce Christensen
This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent
Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First
Century.
By Mark Engler and Paul Engler.
Feb. 2016. 368p. Nation, $26.99 (9781568587332).
303.6.
The authors dig deep into the history of
nonviolent protest in this highly readable
and well-organized title. To show the practi
cal application of their research, the Englers
draw from such historic events as the 1963
Birmingham civil-rights campaign, Gandhis
1930 salt march, the overthrow of Slobodan
Milosevic in 2000, and the recent Occupy
movement. They also cover less-established
subjects, especially the long-reaching and
positive work of community organizer Saul
Alinsky and political-science professor Gene
Sharp, weaving their stories throughout the
book as they survey nonviolent movements
around the world. Readers will be inspired by
the prescient quotes from activists and orga
nizers that the Englers share, all ringing with
timeless truths. Even a dictator cant collect
taxes on his own, says one Serbian protester,
expressing why it takes involvement from the
bottom up to create permanent change in
every society. Anyone who doubts that com
munity organizing is a significant part of the
social fabric will find such assumptions dis
pelled by this intriguing and illuminating
overview. Colleen Mondor
Until We Are Free: My Fight tor
Human Rights in Iran.
By Shirin Ebadi.
Mar. 2016. 304p. Random, $27 (9780812998870); e-book
(97808129988871.323.092.
Ebadis credentials as a human rights activist
are above reproach. A judge who lost her posi
tion following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, she
subsequently practiced law for decades before
February 1, 2016 Booklist 5
being forced into exile. In 2003, she became the
first Muslim woman awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize, which was later seized by the govern
ment. A tireless supporter of
U N TIL the Iranian people, especially
its women and children, she
has traveled the world speak
ing out against the human
rights violations and abuses
FREE
MV FIGHT FOR . that permeate the country
HUMAN RIGHTS '
IN IRAN
SHIRIN EBADI
she loves so much. As she
reveals here, for her dedica
tion to justice she has paid a bitter price. Her
marriage was destroyed through governmental
machinations, her home and possessions taken,
her family ripped apart, and she was left with
exile as the only option to avoid prison. Her elo
quent, straightforward assessment of how Irans
political processes were hijacked by religious
extremists and the deep roots of that extrem
ism, including the 1953 CIA-backed coup that
toppled Irans government, are eye-opening
and necessary to understand the turbulent
U.S.-Iran relationship. The story of Iran is the
story of my life, Ebadi writes. To say this is a
riveting tale would be a vast understatement.
Colleen Mondor
W hen W om en W in : EM ILY'S L is t and th e
Rise o f W om en in A m e ric a n P o litic s .
By E lle n R. M a lc o lm and C ra ig U nger.
Mar. 2016. 368p. Houghton, $28 (9780544443310).
320.08.
When Ellen Malcolm started EMILYs List
in 1985, no Democratic woman had ever been
elected to the Senate in her own right. Now,
both the success the political organization has
had and the rise of women in politics over the
last 30 years are undeniable. The groups non
establishment credentials are obvious even in
its name, which stands for Early Money Is
Like Yeast (it makes the dough rise). In prose
as polished as a campaign speech, Malcolm
and coauthor Unger recount how the group
grew from a few Rolodex parties encouraging
women to contribute to pro-choice Demo
cratic female candidates to a full-fledged force
for political organization. Watershed moments
such as Anita Hills testimony against Supreme
Court nominee Clarence Thomas heard by
an all-male Senate panelwere followed by
REFERENCE ALERT
Appearing below is a list o f all the print reference titles reviewed in this issue. Reference
librarians should also remember that all Booklist reference reviews can be accessed by
Booklist subscribers on Booklist Online.
Abolition and Antislavery: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic. Ed. by
Peter Hinks and John McKivigan. p. 11
Archaeology of Food: An Encyclopedia. Ed. by Karen Bescherer Metheny and Mary C.
Beaudry, p.8
Asian American Religious Cultures. Ed. by Jonathan H. X. Lee and others, p. 12
The Princeton History of Modern Ireland. Ed. by Richard Bourke and Ian McBride, p. 11
The World of Ancient Rome: A Daily Life Encyclopedia. By James Ermatinger. p.11
6 Booklist February 1, 2016
challenging periods where progress was hard to
come by. While the authors offer some tacti
cal insights that will be of interest to political
organizers, this is primarily a partisan narra
tive of sweeping change for women, coming
in the midst of a presidential campaign when
one woman in particular could make history.
Bridget Thoreson
Business
D e a ls to rm in g : The S e c re t W eapon
T h a t Can S o lve Y o u r T o u g h e s t S a les
C h a lle n g e s.
By T im S a n d e rs.
Feb. 2016. 256p. Portfolio, $27.95 (9781591848219).
658.85.
A well-known Silicon Valley solutions guy
and author makes his pitch for smart collabo
ration that closes the deal. The team theme, so
popular in this century, is further underscored
by Sanders as the way to winwhether in
terms of negotiations, monies, accounts, or
just plain relationships. He offers a seven-step
process qualify, organize, prepare, convene,
execute, analyze, and report and details the
success factors for each, emphasizing that to
days business complexity literally demands
that every phase be thought out and buttoned
up. In doing so, he includes real-life case his
tories: the launch of Pixars Toy Story (and the
companys subsequent IPO) and the re-wooing
of Allegis by CareerBuilder, among others. The
text is packed with good details and advice on
such topics as the roles of a facilitator, what a
deal brief needs to contain, and the right kind
of team members to recruit. The narrative
could have been broken up with bulleted text,
chapter summaries, and illustrations, but this
is a good reference for executives with time to
read and implement. Barbara Jacobs
The In d u s trie s o f th e F u tu re .
By A le c Ross.
Feb. 2016. 256p. Simon & Schuster, $28
(9781476753652); e-book (9781476753676). 338.
In his travels as senior advisor for innovation
under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ross
got an up-close view of the technological trends
emerging around the world, and he parlayed
his experiences into this wide-ranging and
smoothly written prospectus on the near future
of innovation. Its a whirlwind tour, incisively
covering economics, politics, cyberwarfare,
genomics, and the complexities of Big Data
among many other things in language for the
layperson interested in what tomorrow could
bring. A native of West Virginias once-vibrant
coal country, Ross bets big on robotics and the
code-ification of nearly everything, spotlight
ing the entrepreneurs who are already making
them happen in money, medicine, farming,
and elsewhere around the global economy. Ross
drops lots of informed predictions about which
advances will win the coming decade. Yet even
with plenty of data and anecdotal evidence to
draw from, this is a sunny-side-up, crystal ball
of a book, with bold proclamations and some
times only passing nods to their potentially
negative consequences. Primarily business fo
cused, this will still intrigue forward-looking
techies and entrepreneurs. Chad Comello
Science
H e rd in g H e m in g w a y 's C ats:
U n d e rs ta n d in g H o w O ur Genes W o rk .
By K a t A rn e y .
Mar. 2016. 288p. Bloomsbury, $27 (9781472910042).
572.86.
Breakthroughs in the 1960s and 70s in de
coding the DNA of microbes fired biologists
with hopes for genetic omniscience. But fresh
from the frontiers of twenty-first-century re
search, Arney reports that the genomes of many
species (including humans) have stubbornly re
fused to yield critical secrets, so dashing these
hopes. That fact, however, has hardly prevented
resourceful geneticists from launching new in
quiries. As readers look over the investigators
shoulders, they realize that the genes of mice,
cats, bats, and humans are far more dynamic,
slippery, and even chaotic than previously sup
posed. Struggling to come to grips with that
genetic chaos, intrepid biologists have learned
much about strangely hipless stickleback fish
in landlocked lakes, about curiously extra-toed
cats prowling Hemingways estate, and (of
course) about inexplicably brainy humans. But
even as assiduous investigators answer some ge
netic conundrums, they expose tantalizing new
mysteries. Only those conversant with genetic
biochemistry can actually probe these prolifer
ating enigmas, but Arney has well primed her
readers to share the intellectual excitement sure
to come when todays pioneers announce their
findings. Bryce Christensen
Sex in th e Sea: O ur In tim a te C o n n e c tio n
w it h S e x-C h a n g in g F ish , R o m a n tic
L o b s te rs , K in k y S q u id , and O th e r S a lty
E ro tic a o f th e Deep.
By M a ra h J . H a rd t.
Feb. 2016. 256p. illus. St. Martin's, $31.50
(97811372799721.591.77.
Its hard not to smile when reading this
cheeky, yet relevant survey of sexual relations
among marine creatures. Coral-reef ecolo-
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