referencebooks

Encyclopedia of Water

By David E. Newton

Published by Greenwood, 2003

This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 401 pages including the index, plus a preface, an introduction, and a classified guide to the articles.

See my entry for October 30, 2005, for the same author's Encyclopedia of Air, also published by Greenwood in 2003, along with another one called Encyclopedia of Fire.

Like Encyclopedia of Air, this encyclopedia looks at its subject in a vastly multi-disciplinary way, with articles covering topics in chemistry, biology, meteorology and other earth sciences, literature, mythology and religion, transportation, technology, visual arts, and history, as well as also providing many biographical entries on people whose work related to water and organizations that have to do with water. Here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the "H" sequence, "See Also" references included:

• Haliae See Nymphs
  
• Hard Water
  
• Heavy Water
  
• Holy Water
  
• Holy Waters See Sacred Waters
  
• Hookah
  
• Hovercraft See Boats and Ships
  
• "Hubbly-Bubbly" See Hookah
  
• Human Water Needs See Biological Functions of Water; Desalination
  
• Humidity
  
• Hydrate
  
• Hydraulic Device
  
• Hydraulic Press See Bramah, Joseph
  
• Hydraulics, Hydrostatics, and Hydrodynamics
  
• Hydroelectric Power
  

The entries are written in relatively simple prose given the scientific subject matter of many of them. Since it's such a multi-disciplinary encyclopedia it wouldn't be appropriate to assume too much significant background knowledge, and the author doesn't. However, he doesn't shy away from providing mathematical formulae where relevant. So, there is a fairly decent amount of information included given the breadth of scope.

Reference books like this that take a feature of the world like water and air and look at it from such a wide range of disciplines are interesting, fun, and rather odd from a practical standpoint. Usually when someone is studying something like water it is from the perspective of a particular discipline, and they will find deeper information in a resource that is created specifically for that discipline. This stems from the fact that the work that people do is usually of a certain kind. When I try to think of who would find a book like this most useful, I keep coming back to the notion of a literary writer or a visual or conceptual artist who needs to pull together ideas about water for thematic, exploratory reasons. It is difficult to say who else might find a good use for this book, but you never know. It does have a lot of good information relating to water in it.

Just a Note to Say... The Perfect Words for Every Occasion

By Florence Isaacs

Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, 1996

This is a small book, 5" by 7", attractively printed and bound for bookstore sales. It's 159 pages long.

The book is a guide to how to write notes to people for different types of occasions where the well-bred person knows that he or she should write a note, but isn't quite sure what to say. Among the occasions covered are things like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, rites of passage, illness, death and loss, holidays, and thank-you notes. The book includes advice about how to approach the process of writing a note, that is, now to think about what to say, as well as important tips about writing for various types of occasions that may involve some special background knowledge.

This book may seem to some to be kind of superfluous - who doesn't know how to write a note? And isn't it essentially an etiquette book, and aren't those irritating? And anyway, an honest note writer should say what they think and not rely on a reference book. But the book answers a real need. I made use of it when I had a reference question from a genuinely perplexed and troubled person who wanted to write a note to a friend or a relative who had been diagnosed with cancer and didn't know what to say. This book turned out to have three pages of advice about how to write a note for exactly that purpose. So I was glad that we had the book on our shelves.

This is a handy how-to book for real-life situations.

Encyclopedia of Diet Fads

By Marjolijn Bijlefeld and Sharon K. Zoumbaris

Published by Greenwood Press, 2003.

This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 242 pages including seven appendices and an index, plus an introduction. The book is laid out two columns to a page, in larger type.

The introduction says:

This volume introduces a wide variety of weight loss means and methods. Some entries describe a particular diet; some describe a support group or service; and some entries focus on the people who have changed the way Americans eat. It combines advice from nutritionists and physicians, weight loss gurus, and government and private agencies whose role it is to oversee the weight loss industry.

No doubt, there will be disagreements about the effectiveness of a certain diet plan. One person may swear by the high-protein diet while another may swear by a plan that restricts or permits only certain foods. Entries may contain a description of the diet plan and arguments from those who say it is unsafe.

The introduction goes on to discuss the history of our culture's obsession with thinness in a critical way, which is oddly in contrast with the body of the work itself.

Here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the book:

• aerobic activity
  
• amphetamines
  
• anaerobic activity
  
• anemia
  
• antioxidants
  
• anorexia nervosa
  
• appetite suppressants by prescription
  
• artificial sweetners
  
• Atkins Nutritional Approach
  
• Atkins, Robert C.
  
• Barnard, Neal
  
• Beverly Hills Diet
  
• Body for Life
  
• body mass index
  
• bulimia nervosa
  

A typical entry for a diet plan is a few pages long, summarizes it, talks about its origin and the theory behind it, talks about the person behind it and his or her background and qualifications (usually providing a black and white photograph as well), and gives some citations for further reading. In the entries for diet plans and people, there is very little in the way of critical viewpoints; those are reserved for chemicals and practices about which there is a scientific consensus as to their danger.

This is a fairly interesting book but not as scholarly as it might be. It seems most useful to people wanting to decide on a diet program. It could also be used by people researching the whole weight-loss industry and culture. For both potential types of uses it is somewhat lacking in critical information.

The Librarian's Guide to Public Records 1998

By the Public Records Research Library

Published by BRB Publications, Inc., 1998

This is a 7" by 10" paperback running to 554 pages.

What this book is is a directory of locations of public records "at over 11,500 major Federal, State and County public record locations." The introduction defines "public records" as:

...records of incidents or actions filed or recorded with a government agency for the purpose of notifying others about the matter - the "public." The deed to your house recorded at the county recorder's office is a public record - it is a legal requirement that you record it with the county recorder. Anyone requiring details about your property may review or copy the documents.

Public records are distinguished from public information, like telephone listings, which are furnished freely rather than required to be made public, and personal information, which is usually considered private or confidential.

The book lists locations of public records and public information by state. The introduction describes twenty-three categories of public information and public records, but these categories aren't used in organizing the information on locations of records. Much of the information in these twenty-three categories is stuff that most people ordinarily consider private, but which is shared so often that it becomes public information and possible to access if you have the right resources (like this book). Privacy laws as well as laws requiring records to be public vary from state to state.

The information provided for each state is very nuts and bolts and includes little more than contact information; there's very little guidance about how to search for records and what types of records have what types of information. The book really is a simple directory for librarians who already know what they are doing, rather than a guide to public records. As far as that goes, though, it is an impressive compilation and very useful, probably essential. A must-have for a library reference collection.

The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fossils

By Ida Thompson. Photographs by Townsend P. Dickinson. Visual Key by Carol Nehring.

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1982.

This is a 4" by 7.5" book with a flexible plastic cover. It runs to 848 pages of thin paper. It's a compact little volume that will fit easily into a coat pocket.

Audubon field guides are standard resources for birdwatchers, amateur geologists, and all sorts of other nature lovers who want a quick reference to information about what they're seeing out in the field. This book is the Audubon Society's guide to fossils commonly found on this continent.

The book is organized into three parts, plus a 98 page introductory section that provides information about geological eras, about geology, etc. The first part has about 500 color plates, which are very clear photographs of examples of different fossil types, divided by broad zoological classification but also by shape. This section also has maps, a thumb-guide tab, and other guides to using the plates. The next part has the textual descriptions of the fossils, about 430 pages worth, divided by classification. These descriptions are mostly just under a page in length and provide detailed descriptions, age ranges, and other useful information for fossil-hunters. The third section has appendices including such things as Phylum Illustrations, a guide to collecting and preserving fossils, a glossary, a list of fossil discoveries, a list of geological surveys, and a list of specimen localities.

This is a very handy book for anyone interested in fossils.

Mosby's Pocket Guide to Cultural Assessment, 2nd Edition

By Elaine M. Geissler

Published by Mosby, 1998

This is a 4.25" by 7.25" paperback running to 326 pages including the index plus a brief foreword and preface.

This is a practical guide to cultural differences intended for medical professionals to use as a quick reference to help them better understand patients and clients from diverse backgrounds. The preface says,

"The purpose of this guide is to help focus your attention on the potential variations a culturally diverse client may, or may not, exhibit. It is based in generalizations that must not be mentally converted into stereotypes by the user. Pull out this guide when you are faced with someone from a culture that is unfamiliar to you. Use this guide to start quickly and efficiently increasing your awareness and understanding of potential similarities and differences--the generalizations. For unless you are conscious of the cultural patterns of behavior a patient might exhibit, you will not think to address them in your assessment. To be culturally competent with the many cultures with which you may on occasion be faced is unrealistic. To not use a guide such as this for fear of stereotyping only impedes movement toward delivery of culturally relevant health care. I am willing to risk criticism for stereotyping; but in return, I ask you to thoughtfully build on the information inside these pages with an individualized cultural assessment...

We all recognize the importance of understanding cultural differences in a multicultural society, but usually find it very uncomfortable to actually make any generalizations about a cultural group that actually say what those cultural differences are. It's dicey. So it's not surprising that one of the only types of reference books out there that simply provide access to the soundest available generalizations about cultural groups come from medical field, where everyone acknowledges the good intentions involved. (Business books that tell you how to act in other countries are also pretty common and often good.)

Entries in this book are by country and are usually about a page long. Opening the book at random and I'm at the entry for Bulgaria, which is a shorter entry. This entry gives brief statments about Bulgaria's geography, it's languages, ethnic groups and religions, some group-specific data on prevelance of AIDS (other diseases show up in this section for other countries), food practices and intolerances, childhood immunizations used, and "other characteristics" (for Bulgaria, it says "The head motions for yes and no are the opposite of those used in the United States") followed by a bibliography of three sources for the information given. The entry on the Philippines is longer, just over three pages. It includes some additional information, like "predominant sick care practices," "health care beliefs," "health team relationships," "family's role in hospital care," "dominance patterns," "eye contact practices," ("Some may fear eye contact; however, if it is established it is important to return and to maintain eye contact") "touch practices," "perceptions of time," ("Time generally moves ahead slowly. Life is lived from day to day.) "pain reactions," ("People may appear stoic if they believe that pain is the will of God and that God will give them the strength to bear is."), etc.

This is a very useful and interesting little book.

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Irish Culture

Edited by Joe Cleary and Claire Connolly.

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2005.

This is a 6" by 9" hardbound book running to 363 pages including the index, plus a list of illustrations, notes on contributors, a preface, acknowledgments, a chronology, and a map.

An introductory page that appears before the title page in this book says:

This Companion provides an authoritative introduction to the historical, social and stylistic complexities of modern Irish culture. Readers will be introduced to Irish culture in its widest sense and helped to find their way through the cultural and theoretical debates that inform our understanding of modern Ireland. The volume combines cultural breadth and historical depth, supported by a chronology of Irish history and arts. A wide selection of essays on a rich variety of Irish cultural forms and practices are complemented by a series of in-depth analyses of key themes in Irish cultural politics. The range of topics covered will enable a comprehensive understanding of Irish culture, while the authors gathered here - all acknowledged experts in their fields - provide stimulating new essays that together amount to an invaluable guide to the shaping of modern Ireland.

This overview of Irish culture is divided into two parts and eighteen chapters. The two parts are "Cultural politics" and "Cultural practices and cultural forms." The eighteen chapters are:

1. Introduction: Ireland and modernity
   
2. The survival of the Union
   
3. Language, ideology and national identity
   
4. Religion, identity, state and society
   
5. Republicanism, Nationalism and Unionism: changing contexts, cultures and ideologies
   
6. Irish feminism
   
7. Migration and diaspora
   
8. The cultural effects of the Famine
   
9. Modernism and the Irish revival
   
10. Poetry in Ireland
    
11. Irish sport
    
12. Projecting the nation: cinema and culture
    
13. Folk culture
    
14. Irish prose fiction
    
15. Irish music
    
16. Modern architecture and national identity in Ireland
    
17. The visual arts in Ireland
    
18. Irish theatre
    

The writing is at a high level, but the knowledge it assumes is of a pretty general sort. The essays are very substantial and informative. This is a valuable reference book for anyone needing to know about modern Ireland.

Artists & Writers Colonies: Retreats, Residencies, and Respites for the Creative Mind

Researched, edited, and written by Robyn Middleton, Mindy Seale, Martha Ruttle, Emily Stephens, Stacey Loomis, Nicole Peterson.

Published by Blue Heron Publishing, 2000.

This is a 6" by 9" paperback book running to 330 pages including a classified index, plus twenty pages of preferatory material. The binding of this book is not of particularly good quality.

The "How to Use This Book" section begins,

Artists & Writers Colonies includes residency, retreat, and fellowship opportunities for all types of creative people, including artists, writers, performers, and scholars. This book focuses on opportunities that provide either the time, space, or money for you to work on creative projects that the conditions of your everyday life prevent you from completing. Artists and writers are simply in search of a place where they have the luxury to make their art their top priority. Luckily, there are people who understand this and have made a career out of supporting the creative efforts of their fellow artists by maintaining these colonies and programs.

The listings in the book fall into five categories: Residencies; Retreats; Fellowships and Grants; Opportunities for Playwrights; and Artist-in-Residence Programs. Within the different categories, the opportunities vary in terms of the competitiveness, the amenities offered, length, the degree of seclusion offered, and cost (except for fellowships and grants). Entries are grouped by geographical region and then by state.

Opening the book at random, I'm looking at pages 100 and 101, which have two entries and the beginning of a third; however, the first entry is just a note to inform readers that the Ossabaw Island Project is discontinued; this note only take a few lines. The full entry on these pages is for the Penland School of Arts and Crafts' Artist-in-residence program. This entry, a typical one, gives three lines on "Who Can Apply;" seven lines of "Provisos" or qualifications; information on the dates of operation and location of the program; four lines on its history; seven lines on "What They Offer;" three lines describing the facility, seven lines on how to apply, and information on the application deadline and the cost of the program ($250 per month).

This is a very useful book for artists and writers. The team of author/editors, who were all interns at Blue Heron when they compiled this directory, should be congratulated.

The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do

Compiled by Samantha Ettus

Published by by Clarkson/Potter Publishers, 2004.

This is a cute, 5.5" by 7" pale yellow hardbound book running to 326 pages.

Classified in TX in our library, which is where books on the kinds of things that used to be called "home economics" are held, this handy volume provides simple, basic instructions on how to do 100 things that "everyone should know how to do." Divided into sections called "Morning Life," "Home Life," "Weekend Life," and "The Big Life," the how-to's are of a much wider range than you usually see in books like this. Not only do you find instructions on things like how to sew a button, make a bed, tie a bow tie, use chopsticks, and change your oil, but you also find brief, practical advice on how to eat right, how to manage your time, how to flirt, how to tell a story, how to deliver bad news, how to save money, how to be a good houseguest, and how to relax.

These instructions are usually given in two to four of the book's smallish pages, so there's not much there. However, the book also points to other resources in the sense that each section credits an author who is usually the author of one or more self-help or do-it-yourself book related to what's being discussed, and those books are either cited fully or referred to as a body. At the same time, it is impressive how much useful information about these subjects can be communicated in a few pages.

I would more expect to see this book in a personal collection than a library because of how it's designed, but it would also be useful in a library reference collection.

Encyclopedia of Air

By David E. Newton.

Published by Greenwood Press, 2003.

This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 252 pages including the index, plus a brief introduction and a classified list of entries.

This is an interesting reference book for its mix of scientific and cultural entries on the subject of air. There are entries having to do with chemistry, physics, and meteorology all in the same sequence as the entries having to do with mythology, military topics, government and civic organizations, biography, sports, transportation, law, and other aspects of culture.

The full list of entries from the "B" and "C" sequences is as follows:

• Baghouse
  
• Balloons
  
• Barometer
  
• Barotrauma
  
• Beaufort, Sir Francis
  
• Bernoulli's Principle
  
• Boyle, Robert
  
• Brush, Charles F.
  
• Buoyancy
  
• Carbon Dioxide
  
• Center for Clean Air Policy
  
• Civil Air Patrol
  
• Clean Air Acts
  
• Clean Air Trust
  
• Clean the Air
  
• Cariolis, Gaspard Gustave
  
• Cariolis Effect
  
• Ctesibius (Second Century B.C.)
  
• Cyclones and Anticyclones
  

Entries are very readable and informative, often getting into the history of what's being discussed. The longest entries are just a few pages in length.

It's not a very long book, and the type is on the large side, so there really isn't a whole lot here.

On the whole it is a rather odd book, seemingly a personal project from a guy whose favorite subject is air. It's not easy to see what its main uses would be, other than for associative browsing.

The Bird Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Essential Facts and Figures of the World's Birds

By David M. Bird, PhD.

Published by Firefly Books, 1999.

This is a paperback book measuring 5.25" by 8". It's rather thick, running to 460 pages not including the contents pages and preface.

The book is a very handy and compact compilation of information about birds and information of use to bird-lovers.

The major sections of the book are as follows:

• World Checklist of Birds [the longest part]
  
• Classification of the Class Aves
  
• Suggested Fossil History of Birds
  
• Anatomy
  
• Physiology
  
• Reproduction
  
• Mortality
  
• Threatened and Endangered Bird Species
  
• Mascot Birds
  
• Assemblages of Birds
  
• Records in the Bird World
  
• History of Who's Who in Bird Biology and Conservation
  
• Presidents of Major Ornithological Societies
  
• Presidents of Major Bird-Watching Societies
  
• Distinguished Awards Won by Ornithologists
  
• Bird Watching Record Holders
  
• New Jersey Audubon Society's World Series of Birding
  
• Ward World Bird-Carving Championships
  
• United States Federal Duck Stamp Artists
  
• Bird-Watching
  
• Attracting Birds to the Backyard
  
• Resources for Bird Lovers
  
• Resources for Ornithologists
  
• Glossary
  

Among the information included in these sections are such things as contact information for birding festivals by month of the year; listserv addresses for getting rare bird reports; contact information for ornithological and bird-watching organizations in most countries of the world; tips for choosing a pair of binoculars; pictures of different egg shapes and patterns of pigment on eggs; data on altitudes, flight speeds and distances covered by different kinds of birds; data on heart weight, heart rate, and blood content of different birds; British/English/Latin translations of bird names; and a long list of all the known birds in the world, by zoologic Order.

This is a great little book for anyone interested in birds.

The Facts On File Dictionary of Numerical Allusions

By Lawrence Urdang.

Published by Facts On File, 1986. Copyright held by the author.

This is a hardcover book measuring 6" by 9" and running 324 pages including the index.

This is a book listing all kinds of things that are associated with particular numbers. So, you look up any number and for that number you get an alphabetical list of things that go with it somehow, and then for each of those things you get a definition that includes something about why it's associated with that number. Whole numbers from zero to 13 have the largest numbers of entries. There are a few entries for some negative numbers and fractions, with the highest number being infinity (right after googolplex). The lengthy index in the back lets you look up anything that's defined in the book and tells you what number it is associated with.

The first 10 entries under the heading "7" are as follows (with a note on why they're included):

• alchemy (because it has seven "bodies")
  
• Associated Counties (the seven English counties that combined to join parliament's side in the English Civil War)
  
• B (7th musical tone in the diatonic scale in the key of C)
  
• Barbarossa (said to change his position in sleep every seven years)
  
• candelabrum (in Christian tradition, has seven branches symbolizing seven gifts of the holy ghost)
  
• Canonical Hours (seven hours of prayer in Christianity offered daily in fulfillment of the Scriptures)
  
• Champions of Christendom (a group of saints)
  
• Chapter 7 (a chapter in U.S. bankruptcy law)
  
• Charlemagne (said to "start in his chair from sleep" every seven years)
  
• Chicago Seven, the
  

It is fairly obvious how arbitrary and culturally biased this collection is, so I won't harp on that issue.

It's a fun book to browse or to use when you're engaging in a literary or artistic project where associations with numbers are useful.

The Global Etiquette Guide to Asia

By Dean Foster

Published by John Wiley and Sons, 2000.

This is a 6" by 9" paperback running to 341 pages including the index.

This is not an academic book per se, but a handy guide to etiquette and customs for travellers to Asia, with a business slant to it. It is part of a series of similar guides for all parts of the world.

The book is divided into sections geographically - first into broad regions and then into chapters for individual countries. Each chapter begins with some background information on the country it's covering, including a summary of the historical context and short paragraphs on politics, education, and demographics. This is followed by a section discussing fundamental cultural orientations through specific cultural variables ("Other-Independent vs. Other-Dependent," "Hierarchy-Oriented vs. Egality-Oriented," "Rule-Oriented vs. Relationship-Oriented," etc.). These cultural orientations are in sections for how people relate to each other, how people view time, and what is the best way for society to work with the world at large. From there each section begins to go into the specifics of a society's customs: greetings and introductions; communication styles (including okay and not okay topics; tone, volume, and speed; use of silence; physical gestures; etc.); protocol in public (walking styles and waiting in lines; behavior in public places like airports and the market); dress; dining and drinking (including table manners; seating plans; etc.); being a good guest or host; gift giving; holidays; and business culture (including such things as daily office protocol; management styles; boss-subordinate relations; conducting meetings; and negotition styles).

Besides being an extremely useful book for travellers, it is very interesting as a quick source of insight into aspects of life that are culturally determined but seem to us to be simply natural, as well as sometimes revealing the greater development of Asian cultures in certain respects.

Westerner that I am, I can't resist copying down a brief paragraph to give you a sense of the kind of information the book is absolutely filled with. This is in the chapter on Indonesia, in the section on Communication Styles, under the heading, "Silence:"

"Passive silence -- allowing time to pass simply, without words -- can be a form of proactive communication in Indonesia. There may be long pauses between comments, but rarely extending over several minutes. When confronted with silence, for whatever reason, the best response is to remain silent yourself, although this may be difficult and appear unproductive for time-conscious Westerners. This is perhaps the most subtle form of communication, yet communication it is. If you must say something, bring up something positive, even if it is unrelated to the previous statement. Remember, in Asia, "silence is golden"; those who speak too much are considered immature, given how careful one must be with what one says. Because some Westerners find silence disconcerting, they may tend to fill up the space with more talk; resist this impulse, as it only enhances the effectivness of the silence, by forcing the Westerner to say more than he or she might be inclined to."

Native American Quotations

Compiled and Edited by Howard J. Langer.

Published by Greenwood Press, 1996.

This is a hardbound book measuring 6.5" by 9.5" and running to 261 pages.

This book is a compilation of quotations by Native Americans, from the mid-sixteenth century to the present day. There are about 800 quotations in the book altogether. The quotations are almost all about the relationship between the Native Americans and the Europeans in North America. The book is divided into a section for each person quoted. Each speaker's section begins with a couple of biographical sentences and then goes on to give some quotations - sometimes just one, sometimes a couple of pages worth - each cited thoroughly. Additionally there is a section at the end with anonymous quotations, prayers and proverbs. There is also an index of people, a subject/keyword index, and a tribe index.

The compiler's purpose is to communicate Native American history in a living way, so that we can connect it to actual people, rather than understanding it through the usual stereotypes. Unfortunately, the selected quotations have a sameness in terms of their focus and point of view that does little to bring the image of Native Americans to life and give it the complexity it deserves. Also, in an odd way, the sincerity and truth of many of the simpler statements in the book tend to be lost in the print format, where it might be more deeply present in audio/visual recordings.

Nevertheless the book is an important compilation and serves a necessary purpose.

Black and white photographs of many of the people in the book enrich it by showing the variety among Native Americans, both physically and in terms of lifestyle and social identity.

Dictionary of Pseudonyms: Third Edition

By Adrian Room

Published by McFarland, 1998.

This is a 7" X 10" cloth-bound book of 404 pages including the bibliography.

It's a dictionary that lets you look up the name of a famous person, whether a writer, politician, artist, or major musician, and find out their real, or original given, name, and get a sentence or two with the story behind the person's adopted name.

Owing to the many issues surrounding such a project, the introduction is long and has seven different chapters to it.

A book like this has to be somewhat arbitrary in deciding whom to include and whom to exclude. When it is the work of a single person, the decisions are likely to be less systematic than they are dependent on the knowledge and interests of the author. So, when I noticed that Hakim Bey, the pseudonym for Peter Lamborn Wilson, is not included, I have no way of knowing whether it is because the influential anarchist writer is not known to the author of the dictionary or because his identity is still too controversial. (As Hakim Bey he is known as the theorist of the Temporary Autonomous Zone, or TAZ; as Peter Lamborn Wilson he is known as a literary proponent of pedophilia. The identity of the two names in one person is important to his intellectual biography and is a controversial issue among many anarchists, who tend to value anonymity.)

Pseudonyms shared by anarchist, situationist and neoist literary movements, such as Luther Blissett, Monty Cantsin and Karen Elliott, which present an interesting problem in name authority, are also not included.

The scope of the book spans recorded history, but is a bit too Eurocentric. (The introductory section even refers to first names as "Christian names.")

Still, this is a valuable and interesting resource.

The Illustrated Book of World Rankings, 5th Edition

Edited by George Thomas Kurian

Published by M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001.

This is a hardbound book of 8.5" by 10" running to 471 pages plus some preferatory material.

The book is a compilation of comparative international statistics. The book is divided into topic areas with specific measures under each in the table of contents. The topic areas are as follows:

1. Geography and Climate
   
2. Population
   
3. Vital Statistics and Family
   
4. Race and Religion
   
5. Politics and International Relations
   
6. Military Power
   
7. Economy
   
8. Business and Investment
   
9. Finance
   
10. Trade
    
11. Agriculture
    
12. Industry
    
13. Energy
    
14. Labor
    
15. Transportation and Communication
    
16. Environment
    
17. Consumption and Housing
    
18. Health and Social Services
    
19. Food
    
20. Education
    
21. New Technologies
    
22. Crime and Law Wnforcement
    
23. Media
    
24. Cities
    
25. Culture
    
26. Women
    
27. Global Indexes
    

For an example of the depth of coverage, the section titled "Women," which is smaller than most of the sections, has the following data:

• Gender-Related Development Index
  
• Gender Empowerment Measure
  
• Women's Share of Earned Income
  
• Seats Held by Women in National Legislatures
  
• Female College and University Students
  
• Female College and University Science Enrollment
  
• Female Administrators and Managers
  
• Female Professional and Technical Workers
  
• Women in Government
  

Data tables rank the countries of the world in order of what is being measured. Most of these tables are introduced with a paragraph-long explanation of the statistic being reported and what it measures, with caveats sometimes noted.

The information is usually depressingly unsurprising, in that most of the tables look like a ranking of countries by general economic development. There are many exceptions, however, and these are what make the book interesting. For example, the United States ranks 70th in literacy, behind countries as diverse as Samoa, Armenia, Barbados, Romania, Cuba, and most of the former Soviet countries. It's also a surprise that the United States ranks fourth in film production, behind India, China and the Philippines, and that the country with the most libraries is Russia, followed by Germany and then Poland. Also, the United States is rather heavily policed compared to other countries, with many more police officers per capita than North Korea as well as the European countries. (Middle Eastern countries and dictatorships in Asia, Africa and South America have the most.)

Many of the statistics, as acknowledged in the introduction, suffer from the difficulty of comparing numbers that were collected differently. For example, the high reported crime rates of Scandinavian countries versus African countries likely has to do with what is defined as a crime and handled (and recorded for statistical purposes) by the legal system.

The ten-page appendix consists of an impressively long list of the international statistical sources used in compiling the book, however, these statistical sources are not cited directly from the tables, which is a real shortcoming. The index is well-done and pretty thorough.

The book has a lot in it but doesn't have every statistic that you might be of interest to you. For example, I have often heard about the ranking of the United States in prison population as a percentage of total population. (I have heard that it ranks first at times and at other times that it ranks second behind Russia.) This statistic doesn't seem to be reported in the book.

Generally speaking, a very nice and useful compilation.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture

Edited by Alex Hughes and Keith Reader

Published by Routledge, 1998.

This is an attractive hardbound book of 7" by 10", running 618 pages plus 22 pages of preferatory material.

On the back of the book they've printed a good description of it:

"The international team of contributors and consultants have provided over 700 entries offering wide-ranging coverage and crossing the traditional boundaries between disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. French culture is defined in its broadest sense and areas covered include:

• Economy
  
• Education
  
• Film
  
• Food and Wine
  
• Gender and Sexuality
  
• Intellectual life
  
• Language and Identity
  
• Literature
  
• Media
  
• Music
  
• Performing arts
  
• Politics
  
• Religion
  
• Society
  
• Visual Arts
  

Entries range from short factual items to longer essays on broad topics.

The frontmatter includes a classified contents list that breaks up the articles into the categories shown above.

For a sense of scope, depth, and orientation, the first sixteen items in the "M" sequence are as follows:

• M6
  
• Madelin, Alain
  
• Maeght Foundation
  
• maisons de la culture
  
• Malle, Louis
  
• Malraux, André
  
• Malraux act
  
• Man Ray
  
• management style
  
• Manessier, Alfred
  
• Manet, Éduardo
  
• Mano Negra
  
• manufacturing industry
  
• Marais plan
  
• Marceau, Félicien
  
• Marceau, Marcel
  
• Marceau, Sophie
  

The longest of the entries above is the one titled "manufacturing industry," running to about two thirds of a page. There are many articles in the Encyclopedia that run to a few pages.

Entries all have "see also" references, usually leading to the topical articles. Many also have one or two items for further reading. Each entry is signed by the expert responsible.

"Contemporary" in the work's title seems to mean less "what is happening now" than "post-WWII." Very little about French culture from the ten or twenty years prior to publication is included. However, the period covered is essential for understanding the present, and is within the memory of contemporary French people.

This book is good for looking up basic information about figures in or aspects of French culture, or for light, browsy reading for francophiles.

The Quotable Lover: Words of Wisdom from Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Robert Burns, and More

By Carol A. Turkington.

Published by McGraw-Hill, 2000.

This is a cloth-bound book of 5.5" X 8.5", running 204 pages including the index. (Every decent quotation book has to have an index.)

Carol Turkington has written other books of quotations based on themes. This one has quotations from literature, all about aspects of love relationships. It is divided into numerous, brief topical sections. I will only list the ones beginning with A:

• Absence
  
• Advice
  
• Affairs
  
• Affection
  
• Age
  
• Alcohol
  
• Alone
  
• Anniversary
  
• Anxiety
  
• Appearance
  
• Applause
  
• Arguments
  
• Attraction
  

The authors and other figures quoted are numerous and diverse, which is a strength of the book. It is primarily writers who are included, but actors, politicians and other celebrities are also represented. Folk sayings and proverbs are present as well.

Very few of the quotations are more than a sentence in length, excluding poetic excerpts of four lines or so.

Not all of the quotations are remotely romantic or happy; some are even misogynistic. Consider: "It is only rarely that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman. - Andre Dumas, attributed remark."

In any book of quotations, citation information is important, but it is often skimpy to save time and to avoid boring casual readers. In this book, original sources are cited as titles (of books or articles) and years, which is more than you often get but not as much as you might like for scholarly purposes.

Here are a couple of quotations under the heading "Fear:"

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."
- Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness, 1930.

"Love, like fire, cannot survive without continual movement, and it ceases to live as soon as it ceases to hope or fear."
- Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 1678

Encyclopedia of Gardens: History and Design

Published by Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001

Edited by Candice A. Shoemaker.

This is a three volume set, hardbound, measuring 8.5" X 11" and running a total of 1545 pages. It has numerous black and white photographs of the gardens featured within the entries and a section of full-page color plates in each volume.

Entries are mostly for individual famous gardens, landscape architects and botanists, with additional entries for other individuals, for countries and for aspects of garden history and design (such as "Botanic Garden," "Amphitheater/Theater," "Herbs, Medicinal," "Grass," "Color," "Modernism," "Sculpture in the Garden"). All the entries are in a single alphabetic sequence.

Opening the first volume at random, I find myself in the middle of the entry for Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England. This entry is about four (large) pages long and has two half-page photographs of the fountains and pools of this majestic garden, with Blenheim Palace in the background. The entry consists of a rather detailed physical description of the park intermixed with a discussion of its development through history (what parts were added when by whom). It ends with a brief chronological synopsis of the park's development and then a bibliography of six items for further reading about the park.

The introduction acknowledges that the Encyclopedia is Eurocentric, giving the excuse that not much research has been done into gardens in other parts of the world. This may be true, or it may be that such literature is less accessible to the chosen advisers and contributors, and that a fair number of Asian, South American and African contributors could have been, but weren't, sought out. It seems to me that it is rather late in history for a new work on a topic of such global reach to be as Eurocentric as this. There is an entry on China, running eight pages in length, that contains sections on a number of Chinese gardens, but there is no reason that these gardens shouldn't have been given the full treatment with entries of their own in the Encyclopedia's regular alphabetic sequence. Gardens, as manifestations of a civilization's particular relationship with nature, can provide insight into a culture at the time of the garden's creation. This would make a more multicultural and comparative work especially useful.

That said, I have to acknowledge what a nice collection of information about the world of gardens this work represents, and that it would be useful for many purposes.

Just browsing through it can give you the feeling of visiting a relaxing, leafy garden.

The New York Public Library African American Desk Reference

Published by John Wiley & Sons, on their Stonesong Press imprint, 1999.

Editorial credit to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

This is a high-quality hardbound book of 8" X 9.5", running 606 pages including the index, plus the table of contents and a foreword.

As a desk reference, the book is similar to an almanac, in that it compiles statistics, biographical information, directory information, chronologies and lists, and bibliographic information. Additionally, it has encyclopedic sections with articles about Black history, issues, culture, and intellectual currents.

The book is divided into 19 sections, each with a number of subsections. The 19 sections are:

1. The Saga of African American History
   
2. Slavery and Freedom
   
3. Politics and Civil Rights
   
4. The Diaspora
   
5. Family and Heritage
   
6. Religion
   
7. Education
   
8. Health
   
9. Business and Enterprise
   
10. Science and Technology
    
11. The Military
    
12. The Law
    
13. Literature and Language
    
14. Music
    
15. Performing Arts
    
16. Fine and Applied Arts
    
17. The Media
    
18. Sports
    
19. Resources
    

The index is 40 pages long and filled with proper names. Not only are the likes of Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks and Huey Newton included, but so are Spike Lee, Dr. Dre (Andrew Young), Father Divine, Teddy Pendergrass, Kirby Puckett, Gil Scott-Heron, Professor Longhair, Bobby Seals, Sun Ra, and of course hundreds of people I've never heard of. Also in the index are things like smoking; slave suicide; the Quaker condemnation of slavery; the Second Maroon War; samba; several sub-entries under Pulitzer Prize; kola nuts; Black Jews; literary societies; eight sub-entries under Gender; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Atonin Dvorák; Communism; Nok culture; 92nd Infantry Division; and several subentries under Physicians.

This is a very useful and informative book, good for looking up facts or for educating oneself in a very general, quick and superficial way about aspects of African American culture and history.