Review by New York Times Review
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, by Colson Whitehead. (Anchor, $16.95.) Whitehead's boldly inventive novel follows Cora, a slave in Georgia making her escape to freedom on a literal underground railroad. As she encounters horror after horror, the story trains an eye on aspects of black history too often co-opted by white narrators. This book, one of the Book Review's 10 best of 2016, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017. CANNIBALISM: A Perfectly Natural History, by Bill Schutt. (Algonquin, $16.95.) It wasn't just the Donner party. Cannibalism is often the rule, not the exception, for many species. Schutt's breezy tone helps keep disgust at bay, and the book is full of surprising detail: In China, for example, elites during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) regularly feasted on humans, and the practice continued well into the late 1960s. A PIECE OF THE WORLD, by Christina Baker Kline. (William Morrow/HarperCollins, $16.99.) Kline imagines the inner life of the woman with polio crawling across a desolate field in Andrew Wyeth's iconic painting, "Christina's World." "Both painter and writer have a fine-grained feel for the setting," our reviewer, Becky Aikman, wrote. "Christina's yearning, her determination, her will to dream, occupy the emotional center in both the novel and the painting." PHENOMENA: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigation Into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis, by Annie Jacobsen. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $17.99.) For decades, the military has tried to harness the supernatural - to find hostages, for example, or to read foreign governments' minds. Jacobsen's account is full of entertaining anecdotes; she catalogs the seers, the spoon-benders and the researchers who administered ESP tests to plants, all funded in the interest of national security. ILL WILL, by Dan Chaon. (Ballantine, $17.) This dark literary thriller deals with recovered memories, satanistic ritual and childhood trauma. Dustin, a psychologist in his 40s, is grappling with a tragic past: His parents, aunt and uncle were murdered and his adopted brother, Rusty, was convicted of the crime. But new DNA evidence helped overturn the ruling, and Rusty's exoneration stirs up long-repressed guilt and fear. MY UTMOST: A Devotional Memoir, by Macy Halford. (Vintage, $17.) "My Utmost for His Highest," a book loved by evangelicals, was central to Halford's faith when she was growing up. Years later, as her beliefs shifted, she investigated the book's origins and its author, Oswald Chambers. Her memoir is both a mediation on "a complicated nostalgia" for the faith of her childhood and an intellectual biography of Chambers.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 29, 2018]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cannibalism is more widespread than generally believed, argues zoologist Schutt in this thorough and oddly enticing study of the different ways species eat their own. Common practices among tadpoles, chimpanzees, sand tiger sharks, polar bears, and other animals are covered, but the book's most fascinating sections deal with instances of cannibalism in human history. Schutt identifies 50 different types of human cannibalism, including more common but less obvious practices like eating one's fingernails and placenta. Actor Perkins brings a breezy, confident style of reading to the audio edition. His pacing is just right for a text that is both informative and humorous, and he evinces no discomfort when reading the more explicit passages, making those parts of the book a whole lot easier to stomach. An Algonquin hardcover. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Schutt (biology, LIU Post, NY; Dark Banquet) presents a serious examination of the practice of eating members of your own species both throughout history and throughout the animal kingdom. Striving for understanding and nuance, this work shies away from the sensationalistic and instead looks at the circumstances that drive this behavior. The Donner Party is heavily featured and used as a lens to view the many facets of cannibalism as it is understood as a biological and cultural process. Modern and historic news coverage of the 1846-47 expedition is used to demonstrate how sensationalism obscures the facts of the case. There is also an interesting discussion of the diseases passed on by cannibalism, such as mad cow. Tom Perkins is such a natural reader that one would think it was the author himself sharing the story of the woman who invited him to eat her placenta. Verdict While perhaps not for the faint of heart, this is a reasoned view of something so often used for shock value. Highly recommended for those interested in zoology, virology, biology, anthropology, criminology, history, and nature. ["The writing is delightfully accessible, rarely boring, and utterly captivating": LJ 11/15/16 starred review of the Algonquin hc.]-Tristan Boyd, Austin, TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
