Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Nonfiction this week begins with a history of World War I by David Stevenson called “With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918”. This book brings “a laser-like focus to its ominous end - the Allies’ incomplete victory, and the tragic danger to world peace just two decades later.” Ryan Smithson’s “Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-year-old GI”, is nonfiction with some names and identities changed, written to reflect the essence of the mood and spirit of his experiences in Iraq as an Army engineer.

Views of the world follow. “Top Secret America” is Dana Priest’s view of “the rise of the new American security state” that followed 9/11. Over 850,000 people now have top-secret security clearance. “The Price of Civilization” by Jeffrey Sachs aims “to reawaken American virtue and prosperity”; he feels America’s “single biggest failure is its inability to come to grips with the new global economic realities”. William Gibson’s “Distrust That Particular Flavor” is a collection of essays that report the technological and cultural frontiers of our evolving world.

“Stone of Kings” searches for the lost Jade of the Maya; it focuses on jade hunters searching for the most precious and powerful substance in their universe. Gerard Helferich writes it like detective fiction, involving geologists, archaeologists, entrepreneurs, and poachers, all true tales. “Into the Blue” edited by Joseph Corn, is selections of American writing on aviation and space flight.

On to fiction. “The Odds” by Stewart O’Nan shows a couple treating their misfortune in a way we probably wouldn’t. Terri Blackstock’s “Shadow in Serenity” asks if an irresistible smile behind an unforgivable scheme can win another’s heart. Yannick Murphy’s story “The Call” begins by telling us a hunting accident has left an eldest son in a coma. A walk in Manhattan amongst crowds results in a feeling of isolation as a resident doctor reviews his life in “Open City” by Teju Cole.

Arthur Phillips’ “The Tragedy of Arthur” is about a young man struggling with a larger-than-life father, an unreliable parent who lives and loves Shakespeare. Sara Paretsky’s “Breakdown” involves daughters of Chicago elites who (literally) stumble on a corpse while holding a ritual in an abandoned cemetery. “Vaclav & Lena” by Haley Tanner is about teenage best friends. One disappears for seven years. The book describes young protagonists who express joy and innocence along with true friendship. “The Street Sweeper” by Elliot Perlman is introduced thus, “From the civil rights struggle to Nazi crime, there are more stories to tell than there are people passing one another every day on the bustling streets of every crowded city.”