Central America Books

I read Mark Noll's work while in seminary. I found it an excellant exposition of the development of Christianity within America. Since reading it myself, I have recommended it as a basic reading in adult education for understanding today's political melieu. The topic is helpful in understanding the development of religious thought that has invaded our understanding of democracy.

In this fascinating book, Professor Mark A. Noll of Wheaton College in Illinois traces the evolution of the various Christian denominations throughout American history. The bulk of the book is taken up with the history of the United States, examining the past very well, and present trends excellently! Following this, the author has 4 chapters that look at certain particulars: theology in America, the Church in Canada (good) and Mexico (excellent!), the fate of European traditions-Lutherans and Roman Catholics, and day-to-day spirituality and the Bible.

Overall, I thought that this was a simply fantastic book! I found the author's analysis to be both fascinating and convincing. Also, I must say that I have not seen a look at recent trends that could compare. So, as you might expect from all of this gushing, I loved this book, and highly recommend it to you!

I read Mark Noll's first foray into this subject, his 1992 History of Christianity in the US and Canada. I thought it was good, but a little too academic and scholarly for most people.

This book is a tight condensation of what appeared in that previous volume, plus a good deal more about African-American Christian history, as well as Mexican Christian history.

The thesis of the book seems to be how the separation of church and state in the USA made it possible for many different kinds of Christianity (and of other sects) to flourish.

We read about the influential preaching ministry of George Whitefield and thr writings of Jonathan Edwards in the 1740s and how their ministries impacted thousands of people for Christ.

We learn about the indefatigable ministry work of Francis Asbury, who started Methodist study groups and congregations all through the states.

We learn about Harriet Livermore, the first woman to preach the word in the US Congress.

We also see how the black community drew strength and inspiration from the biblical narratives, both during and after the slavery years.

We see how Catholicism has had a tremendous influence in Mexico and in Canada.

We also see the formidable influence of Pentecostalism, both in the USA and in Mexico.

I appreciated the afterword's mentioning of the some of the influences that impacted American Christianity: The slavery issue, the first amendment which guaranteed that the government would not pass legislation with respect to the establishment of a religion, the ministries of Edwards, Whitefield, and other revivalists, and the westward expansion.

One way this excellent book could be strengthened would be the addition of material about the impact of postmodernism on biblical Christianity. Perhaps there could also be added sections on the influence of Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and other evangelical megachurch pastors.

This book is great, and it will help you to get a sense of the lay of the land as you seek to learn more about what God has done and what others have done in His name, both good and bad.

There's an implicit question raised by The Other Game, which is relevant to all of us. Which is the game we want to play? Dahl-Bredine and Hicken depict lives that are productive and rich in meaning, wisdom, and sharing. They demonstrate how the unwritten protocols of this Oaxacan village keep the society tending towards a more inclusive distribution of wealth. This is accomplished through festivals of generosity, self-funded and rotating leadership roles, and work projects in which everyone contributes to the community's well-being.

In an interlude at the center of the book, the authors detail the unwritten assumptions by which we operate. I found this a good common ground for discussion.

This book is particularly useful for those of us trying to figure out how we can be *individually* such good people and *collectively* doing such terrible things. We're focused on winning a game whose rules benefit the casino owners. It's time to walk outside and see how the other 80% lives. It will prepare us to walk back inside and change the game.

There is much to learn from other cultures. We can look at them and then examine ourselves to see what's really important. "The Other Game: Lessons from How Life Is Played In Mexican Villages" is an historical survey focusing upon villages that have existed for thousands of years, and a look at their inhabitants and their way of life. Alternatives to our culture are presented to make a better future for ourselves, and while it is far from being a romantic view of the past and in the Mexican villages, it is simply meant to offer another option for life. Recommended for religion and social issue community library collection shelves, and those who seek to learn about how others live day to day.

Authors Dahl-Bredine and Hicken have given us a very clear description and analysis of the situation in the Mixteca Alta Region of Oaxaca, Mexico. They show in a detailed and documented fashion the damage done by agricultural policies and trade practices coming from the North. Then based on the life experiences and stories of the local people, they show us another way to live and produce food. Reaching back to the wisdom of the Mixtec ancestors they offer a vision of hope for the future.

If you are interested in the rural poor of Latin America, or have anything to do with Panama and improvement projects here, this is the bible. I have been in areas like the ones the author describes in her book, and even as a Panamanian, I was appalled to see how poor the poor can be. Evertyhing Rudolf said is true. Even so, the humanity she portrays in the lives of her characters, prevent them from being caricatures. They are real people, living their lives.

The community of Loma Bonita comes to life for the reader and we begin to understand how the rural poor live in Panama, who they are, and the forms of human agency they have. Rudolf has an informed view, after spending more than twenty years interacting with the community of Loma Bonita. Highly recommended.

Rudolf gives us a unique look at the forgotten voices of Panamanian politics, society and culture. In the 1980s, we were led to believe that somehow, someway Panamanians were not well-suited for democracy. In Panama's Poor, we learn that the weak and poor of Panama have been struggling for a voice for countless years. When much of the writing on Panama focuses on the United States, the Canal and the elite in Panama City, Rudolf opens our eyes to what we should really be looking at: the authentic Panamanain.

Trimble gives careful, in-depth and complete descriptions of each tribe of the Southwest (here defined as New Mexico, Arizona, southern Utah and Colorado and southeastern California). Each tribe is studied on its own grounds except to develop linguistic and other inter-tribal connections.

Even if you are familiar with major tribes such as the Navajo, Apache and the best-known Puebloan peoples, Trimble still has a wealth of information for you.

A decade of research and a number of photographs by Trimble himself underscore the interest, depth and care he brings to this book and the tribes of his study.

An invaluable bonus at the end is Trimble's calendar of major religious ceremonies of the various tribes, a helpful vacation planning assistant.

This one of my favorite books. It is an excellent resourse for information on Native American peoples of the Southwest conveniently divided into three parts and includes personal as well as scholarly information on the Pueblo, Navajo, Pai, Yavapai, Apache, Ute, Southern Paiute, O'odham, Maricopa, Mojave, Chemehaevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and the Yaqui people. The writing of such a book by one author must have been a huge undertaking but the author pulled it off exceptionally well and as other noted authors have declared, "it will probably become a classic in Native American studies." If you have an interest in Native American culture - past/present/and future - this book belongs in your library!

Stephen Trimble's The People is an excellent account of Southwestern Native American history and culture. Trimble outlines the history of the several groups inhabiting these three divisions of the Southwest: the Pueblo people, the Upland people, and the Desert people. His ten years of ethnographic field research have given him personal relationships with many Native Americans, allowing him to share the words and emotions of the people he studies. Trimble's well-taken photographs also add to the understanding the reader gains of the cultures of the Southwestern groups. This ethnography does more than outline history and bring the reader up to date with the most recent accomplishments of the people, but also illustrates the strong traditions of the culture that are still practiced today.

The Southwest is an area with a diverse environment, and the groups of people living in the many areas practice different lifestyles to coexist in harmony with their surroundings. Trimble's photographs are helpful in giving examples of these varied environments, some so surprising that they could not be equaled in the reader's imagination. By seeing the places that these people call home, the reader has a greater understanding of lives that Trimble describes. Trimble approaches this extremely varied area by describing one group at a time...After fully describing their history up to present living conditions, he moves on to the next group. For example, when studying the Pueblo people, Trimble first describes the Anasazi, the people who first practiced the ancient Archaic tradition of adobe and masonry building. As time went on, the Anasazi became several groups of Pueblo people practicing the same traditions. As Trimble says, "The Anasazi grew corn, Pueblo people grow corn" (47).

American movement into the Southwest is the single force that most drastically changed the lives of these Native Americans. Trimble not only states the facts of the events involved in this history, but also gives accounts of the highly emotional attitudes of these people when recalling such events. Thus, the reader is presented with accounts given by the people whose lives were radically changed in our country's history. The Quechan are one of the Colorado River Tribes that used to thrive on the rich farmland around the river...Trimble describes decades of poverty suffered by these people. Harold Chaipos, a Quechan, is quoted by Trimble, saying, "I really miss that big river. Those were good old times" (410).

Personal accounts are also important in Trimble's description of the present status of the Southwestern groups. In his conclusion, called "We Are The Land," Trimble emphasizes the connectedness that these people have with the land. This is something that most Americans do not understand...The attachment that these people have to the land makes attempted relocations and constant environmental threats that have come along with the spread of American inhabitation all the more devastating. According to Trimble, many Southwestern Native Americans feel that they live a life in which they practice a balancing act. In order to survive and protect their land, the groups need to be able to interact with Americans while still upholding their traditional culture...[T]he Southwestern Native Americans continue to live rooted in their homeland, while taking what they know from their cultural traditions and applying it to modern American culture. They say, "We are the people. We are the land. We will persist" (457).

Trimble provides a wonderful source of information about the widely diverse groups of Southwestern Native groups...In The People, Trimble captures the attitudes of the native people of the American Southwest and presents them in a form that educates the rest of the world on aboriginal lifestyles and present Native American values.

This book was mentioned in the last few pages of "Guests of the Ayatollah" by Bowden - which is another fantastic read.

Colonel Charles Scott was one of the hostages unjustly captured and imprisoned in November 1979. He does a superb job taking the reader through the entire crisis, including the preamble, the takeover, the internment and the build-up to the release.

The book is exceptionally well-written and has the easy flow of a fictional novel. One of Colonel Scott's strengths is his ability to retell the events with such clarity and detail, that you feel it is happenning in real time - and that you are somehow part of the ordeal.

One of the most fascinating subplots of the book, is his relationships with his captors. Colonel Scott's undying resolve both frustrates and impresses those that imprison him. However, he is able to analyze and evaluate the Iranians and is even able to forge a few (dare I say) friendships - especially with Akbar, an educated and reasonable Iranian who slowly grows frustrated with the hostage situtation and is compelled to engage the Colenel in both personal and political discussions.

It is unfortunate the the Iranian hostage crisis is passed over in a few paragraphs in our schools. This book should be added to any high school reading list, and certainly should be part of any curriculum related to US History and our relationships with our friends in the Middle East.

I hope that the success of "Guests of the Ayatollah" will give more readers the opportunity to read this great book as well.

This book is a lavishly written and easy to read first person account of the siege of American embassy in Iran written by one tough as nails army colonel. It is unfortunate, that given today's events this book is now out of print. It's important to understand as time has gone on many of the hostage takers have become important figures in Iranian education and government.

Aspects of the book I really enjoyed were the first hand perspective of the remarkable people in our embassy, the history of the region and the reason behind the Iranian revolution.

In the past I worked for one the hostages taken by the Iranians and I questioned some of what he had to say. Interestingly, enough Col. Scott's book provided the answers the questions that have puzzled me for years.

One of the most striking aspects about the book is the fact that so many of the "intellectual elite" who took over a nation have used an educational system to pigeon hole a nation's people into a system of "group think" that allows them to be manipulated. In this way the book should be on the shelve of anyone interested in the future of the near east and how it affects us as a nation.

One thing is certain. We can be proud to know that our country produces men like Col. Scott. His self reliance, devotion to faith, attention to detail, and his ability to never give in or give out to his interrogators are a credit to him and his service.

Col. Scott's book is, quite simply, one of the very best personal narratives I have ever read. He traces the entire hostage ordeal from its political roots in Iran, including the deposition of the Shan and its effect on everyday Iranians, to its overwhelming conclusion, over a year later. Col. Scott takes great pains to ensure that the reader fully understands what is happening at every point, and the depth and clarity of the actual writing is breathtaking.

Of interest to many readers will be the time Col. Scott takes to fully develop (in the mind of the reader) his relationship with his "benevolent terrorist", Akbar. He also gives a significant portion of the book to Akbar's history, and I really felt, at the end of the book, as if I had been right there in the midst of things, listening, feeling, and watching the story unfold. A fantastic read by an extraordinarily talented man.

You learn about the life of this child and experience his triumph over adversity. The book makes you want to read the child's original words even though they are in Spanish.

How would you feel if your former master, who had loved you and cared for you like you were her own child, had said that once she died, you and your family would be free. Happy, right? Well what if no one paid any attention and you were sold to another master who punishes you for crimes you didn't commit?
That is the dilemma Juan Fransisco Manzano faces when his former owner, who took him to parties and had him wow her guest with his uncanny ability to recite poems and verses from the bible. At his baptism, Dona Beatriz, his former owner, declares that once she dies, he and his family will be free, for the price of 300 pesos, and any new-born babies will be born free. But once Dona Beatriz dies, Juan's family discovers they don't have enough money to buy Juan's freedom. So he is sold to La Marquesa De Prado Amendo, whose son, Don Nicolas, takes a liking to Juan, and befriends him. But La Marquesa frequently and brutally punishes Juan for sneaking peaks at her books. But she is grateful enough to let Juan watch her sons take art classes, and Don Nicholas gives Juan some parchment and a stub of crayon to draw with. Eventually, Don Nicholas helps give Juan the courage to run away, and Juan flees in search of his mother.
In really enjoyed this book for three reasons: the poetry, the character development, and the Spanish vocabulary sprinkled into the text.
The first reason I liked this book was in was written in free verse poetry form. This made the book very quick and easy to read, which made me like it more. It was also very unique, and was very well done.
The second reason I liked this book was the character development, mainly Juan. He grows up a lot in the book, from age eleven to age sixteen. But he also develops, by not abiding to La Marquesa's rules or caring about the consequences. He also learns that he doesn't need to keep sneakily buying pen and paper using the money he receives at parties. He can just store all the knowledge in his head.
And finally, I enjoyed the Spanish vocabulary sprinkled in. I take Spanish class on B days and found that the Spanish words were very useful. I also like how the author used in text definitions to explain to you what the word was.
In conclusion, I thought this was a fabulous book and would recommend it to someone looking for either a book written in poetry of a book with Spanish sprinkled into the text.

C. Davidson

The verse novel is a tricky fickle thing. Though no one to the best of my knowledge has ever put down the rules that govern the creation of a verse novel, there are always a couple unwritten understandings. No verse novel should tell its tale through poetry when it would make more sense to tell it through prose. Also, just breaking up a bunch of sentences into lines doesn't mean you're writing poetry or anything. The ideal verse novel is one where it makes sense to write a story through poetry AND just happens to have an ear for beautiful language. Such is the case with Margaraita's, "The Poet Slave of Cuba". In the book it says that, "The life of Juan Francisco Manzano haunted her for years before she finally realized that to do justice to the Poet Slave's story, she needed to write it in verse". The result is an achingly beautiful and horrific story that deserves to be read by teens everywhere.

Born a slave in Cuba in 1797, Juan Francisco Manzano grew up the toast of his owner Dona Beatriz. His ability to memorize speeches, plays, and words of all sorts made him a kind of sought over pet to the Spanish aristocracy. Though she promised to grant him his freedom when she died and she allowed both his parents to buy their freedom, Juan Francisco remained a slave after Dona Beatriz's death and was handed over to the dangerously psychotic Marquesa de Prado Ameno. The Marquesa resents Juan from the moment he is put into her possession and every attempt he makes at reading or writing is put down with shocking violence. A biography told in poems, this book shows the worst of slavery's cruelties and the sheer will it takes to not only survive under such conditions but escape.

The text in the book alternates between different points of view on almost every page. In a sense, the villains have just as much of a say as the heroes. Juan, for his part, sometimes will have three pages in a row of thoughts, each with its own separate poem. Alongside this format are illustrations by Sean Qualls. Qualls has a style that usually doesn't do much for me. In this case, however, he's the perfect complement to Engle's tale. The white aristocracy with their blank eyes and sharp pointed teeth are positively horrific. These images magnify the storyline. Here, for example, are two ladders that lead suggestively against a wall. Now a shiny coin. Now a butterfly. They are rough unfinished drawings that show far better Juan's situation than any polished colored print could ever convey.

At first I was a little perturbed that for all the book's poetry and loveliness, I couldn't find any actual poetry by the real Juan Francisco Manzano. Then I reached the end of the title and in the back found that author Margarita Engle not only offers us a biography of the true Juan Francisco, but reprints his bibliographic details as well.

Now, there is a debate surrounding this book. It is not a debate that questions whether the story is told well or whether or not Engle gets her point across to the reader. It's more a question of audience. Though published by Henry Holt, Inc's young reader division, and not a specific teen imprint, there is little doubt in my mind that this is not exactly kiddie fare. It's repeatedly violent, often to extremes. There is more bloodshed, torture, screams, and pain in this book than you'll find in most children's literature. To put it plainly, this is the "Beloved", of kiddie lit. Which, when you think about it, doesn't make it very kid-friendly at all. Teens, on the other hand, will find much to appreciate here. Juan Francisco spends much of this book as a teen, after all. His thoughts and actions are not those of a young boy, but rather a man trapped in an untenable situation. As such, I'd steer this book clear of the shorter set and aim towards kids with some maturity.

You read about the main character's pain, and to some extent a kind of apathy has to take place or the story's too difficult to bear. As a reader, you actually find yourself wondering how a person could live under such grueling conditions without a hope of a reprieve and still want to live. And there is a moment in the book when someone says that good always triumphs over evil. That it is amazing that the devil even tries. Words like these and phrases of this sort have been turning about in my brain ever since I put, "The Poet Slave of Cuba" down. Engle's text has a kind of staying power that wordsmiths everywhere should envy. Envy and admire.

I guess I should point out that while, "The Poet Slave of Cuba" is well-written, smart, and beautiful, it is not a pleasant book to read. Teens who pick up this book should be informed right off the bat as to what the book consists of. Just the same, it's definitely one of the more honest treatises on slavery I've ever had the chance to read. Engle does a magnificent job with her subject. She does the man's memory proud.

The work describes constitutional issues considered by the
United States Supreme Court over the past 200 years. Judicial
power has been exercised in the following types of situations:

- disputes between citizens of different states

- appellate jurisdiction of law and fact

- the 14th amendment requiring that no state should enforce
laws abridging the rights of citizens nor deny equal
protection under the laws

- the Supreme Court may balance or weigh state powers as against
individual rights

- strict scrutiny utilizes a rational basis or relationship test

- important criteria include whether or not an important
government objective is served or the issue at bar is
substantially encompassed by the governmental objective

- there is a right to sue when injured by a private person
in the common law

- there is an implied constitutional right of action

- federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of age,
medical condition and physical handicap according to the
American Disabilities Act of 1990.

This work will appeal to a very wide constituency of legal
scholars, American History enthusiasts and others in academia.

Professor Lieberman teaches Constitutional Law at New York Law School. I was privileged to study under him in 1998. He is an immensely knowledgeable man with an unmatched talent for clarity of communication. I am pleased to be able to recommend this book to all readers. For further insight regarding our highest court, I also recommend New York Law School's Dean Harry H. Wellington's very fine book, Interpreting the Constitution: The Supreme Court and the Process of Adjudication.

The bulk of A Practical Companion to the Constitution is in dictionary form and provides throrough but concise accessible explanations of the key concepts and terms of art of constitutional analysis. Each entry is also cross-referenced with other related concepts and definitions to aid the reader in fully understanding the concepts discussed. Professor Lieberman also places each entry into a historical context so that the reader may trace the development of doctrines and concepts and understand not only where a doctrine originated but where the state of the law or doctrine stands today. For example, under the entry for "Incorporation Doctrine," Professor Lieberman provides us with a brief explanation of the concept, and then traces the concept through its history and application. At the end of the entry, we find a list of which amendments have been incorporated onto the states, the rights implicated in the incorporation, and the year the amendment was incorporated. Indeed, I was most impressed with how Professor Lieberman has throughout the book explained the abstract concepts of Fourteenth Amendment analysis into easily understandable terms without oversimplifying or doing violence to the concepts. Other sections of the book provide summaries of the cannons of constitutional interpretation so that the reader has a basic understanding of the tools of textual interpretation. Finally, Professor Lieberman provides a thorough table of cases and brief biographical sketches of the justices who have served on the Supreme Court. I give this reference book my highest recommendation. It is a must for law students. It is an excellent resource for lawyers looking for the vocabulary to explain in accessible terms the abstractions of constitutional analysis. It is invaluable for the non-lawyer seeking to understand better the constitution.

AMERICA is a continent bearing a name only for 500 Years. It has been proposed such a name to honor Amerigo Vespucci (the first to recognize the New World as a new part of the world), by an exciting circle of Renaissance scholars from France and Germany in a booklet (103 pages) entitled "COSMOGRAPHIAE INTRODUCTIO" printed in ST-DIE-DES-VOSGES , a little city in the heart of the VOSGES blue mountain range between Lorraine and Alsace (Eastern France), on Marcus' day, (April the 25th), 1507, maybe remembering of Marco Polo, the first narrator of the Indies. This giant wall worldmap, with the name AMERICA, one of both maps along with a small globe-gores map, to accompany that booklet is the most exciting and mysterious map of the early Renaissance.

In 1507 a German cartographer working in Saint Die crated a world map for included the newly-discovered Western Hemisphere land masses for the first time, calling them "America' to honor one Amerigo Vespucci, who had been credited with setting foot on South American soil before Columbus. From this error did 'America' become the accepted name of the land mass - amid centuries of controversy since. The map was lost for four centuries before it was discovered in 1901 in a German castle - and finally purchased by the Library of Congress for some, $10 million - and this history of the map brings to life its colorful background in a fine recommendation for any college-level collection strong in world history.

"Want to know what 10 million dollars looks like? It's the first map naming us as "America" instead of Columbus. This map was lost for four centuries before it was discovered in a German castle and eventually sold to the Library of Congress for 10 million dollars."

This is an excellent, highly readable book on the cultural meanings behind and around several of the medical "miracles" of postwar America, including prosthetics, plastic surgery, hormones, and sex-change operations.

You do not have to be an academician or versed in medical knowledge to enjoy this look at how these technologies changed the way Americans viewed "the body," and how certain alterations (or lack of) had consequences to one's sexual/gender identity and even one's standing as a good American citizen. This book is perfectly balanced to provide the rigorous research a historian would require as well as the sheer fun a pop culture reader like myself seeks. (Although parts of this book have truly heartbreaking stories, there is also a lot of unintentional hilarity from the "expert" pronouncements of the 1950s medical establishment and the media treatment of individuals.)

Serlin's work is really a view of the 1950's from a unique angle--one that doesn't repeat the same old stereotypes about repressed housewives. He uses fascinating archival sources (i.e., the Hiroshima Maidens chapter includes personality profiles of the maidens by their Quaker patrons plus an appearance on the TV show "This is Your Life" where the maidens, hidden behind a screen due to their 'hideous' burned faces, are surprised with meeting the co-pilot who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima!) and photographs to vividly recreate the 1950s milieu and mindset. The chapter on Christine Jorgenson, the first transsexual "star" is worth the price of the book alone.

As this book explores concepts such as race, gender, sexual orientation, national identity, and all their intersections, I would recommend it to readers interested in disability studies, gay/lesbian/transgender/queer studies, American-Japanese relations, the Harlem Renaissance (amazing story on cabaret singer Gladys Bentley), and of course, the history of the cold war. I'm looking forward to the author's next book!

I really enjoyed Replaceable You. Overall the book was excellent-a well-written, lively, and often surprising mix of insightful analysis of how medical advances had such a huge impact on the American psyche and, above all, body, in the decades following WWII. It's also clear from the start that Replaceable You is, as the first review noted, by no means straight history of science, but rather social history at its best. The conclusions Serlin draws in his four fascinating case studies about how people (often with much societal pressure) wished to remake their identities were quite convincing. In addition, the expert discussions which frame the specific analyses are especially effective in illuminating the larger context of Cold War America, on issues like McCarthyism, civil rights, consumer culture, and prescribed gender roles. Serlin also does a very good job showing how these issues intermingled-both with one another, and perhaps most importantly, within the discourse of what it meant to be "American" at the time. As William Smith says in the second review above, the result is a fresh look at the often stereotyped late 1940s and 1950s. What also made the read so entertaining were the artifacts of popular and high culture the author chose to analyze in presenting his arguments. Serlin doesn't limit himself to written primary sources, but makes skillful use of photographs, advertisements, pamphlets, comics, etc., of which he conducts close readings. In taking this kind of approach, where the reader is guided by the author as they together examine documents for historical meaning, Serlin makes the book not only more accessible to any reader with a general interest in science and society or the Cold War, but also more enjoyable. To go along with the author's vibrant narrative as he looks at the intersection of patriotism and prosthetics, race and hormone therapy, the bombing of Hiroshima and plastic surgery, or gender and Americanism, is to gain a more nuanced understanding of Cold War culture, and more specifically, how as a result of social, political, and medical developments people go about making themselves both look and feel more like... themselves. Replaceable You also struck me as having a special relevance given today's obsession with the body in popular culture, especially evident in television shows like the "The Swan," where plastic surgery is performed on women so as to make them into pageant girls. David Serlin's original book reveals not only that interest in medically changing one's body has been around for longer than we may think (and is ever increasing), but also that this interest has a distinctly American face.

At least in my historical imagination, the 1950s tend to stand out as an extremely stereotyped decade. It reads as the triumph of the (imagined, and demographically limited) white, middle-class, suburban family of extremely confirmative values. David Serlin's Replaceable You is a fine contribution to 1950s socio-cultural studies; it subtly and meaningfully drawing out stories that focus roughly on the fifteen years from 1945 until the end of the 1950s. It fleshes out an array of interesting issues from this period which leaves the historiographical face of this period in a more complex and exciting state than popular imagination (mine included) would normally have it. Moreover, these stories provide gripping and accessible entrance points to larger issues of the era, but without forfeiting either the integrity of the personal stories nor reducing them to merely their historical context. While all the stories involve 'working' on the body in some form (from hormones to prosthetics), David Serlin manages to become neither too scientific nor too specific in his writing (he does not burden the reader with an endless technical vocabulary; instead he deftly crosses issues ranging from race, gender (masculinity, femininity, and stuff inbetween), sexuality, economic location, all the way to architecture. If nothing else and, perhaps, most importantly, David Serlin's book is accessible, readable, and, most laudably, human.

Susan Figliulo's delightful guide to Chicago's romantic side is a "must-read" for any out-of-towner seeking romance in one of America's most compelling cities. Gracefully written and focusing on how those of us with romantic tendencies can explore both the geography of a city and our own hearts, "Romantic Days" serves both purposes. As a San Franciscan somewhat proud of my city's reputation as a romantic haven and heaven, I must admit that Ms. Figliulo has presented Chicago as a worthy challenger.

I particularly enjoyed her tempting treatment of romantic sites for bibliophiles; that section alone exemplifies the wonderful range of places that pose romantic possibilities. Though I don't get to Chicago as much as I'd like to, whenever I pass through the Windy City, Susan Figliulo's booklet is a treasured companion.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and, oh, how I miss that city! Reading Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago rekindled so many memories. The chapter on the Wrigleyville neighborhood, with its affectionate portrait of the Music Box Theatre, took me back to my first date with the man I would later marry (a double feature: Flying Down to Rio and 42nd Street, with a serenade by the Mighty Wurlitzer in between movies). My husband is a musician and I work in the music industry, so our courtship was filled with music. I especially enjoyed The "Food of Love" chapter, detailing the remarkable spectrum of music available in Chicago, from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the folk music scene. My favorite chapter, though, is called "Opera Lovers Tryst." It's all about the romance of attending Lyric Opera of Chicago performances at the gorgeous Civic Opera House. Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago isn't limited to Chicago proper. As a North Shore native, I was overjoyed to read Susan Figliulo's beautiful description of the pastoral drive along the ravines of Sheridan Road. It was almost like being home again. If you know and love Chicago, you'll love Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago. If you're looking for a new city to know and love, this book is your key to a real treasure.

Romantic Days and Nights in Chicago is full of terrific information about all parts of the city. Even as a Chicago native, I found lots of hidden gems and new neighborhoods to visit. This would make a terrific Valentine's present! Visitors to the city will get tons of terrific ideas too. There is even a chapter with romantic ideas at and near O'Hare (and that takes some creativity!)