Prose Assessments

Tackling works by Rushdie, Naguib Mahfouz, Doris Lessing, Borges and A.S. Byatt, Stranger Shores: Literary Essays collects critical work by South African author and two-time Booker-winner J.M. Coetzee. Coetzee posits in "What Is a Classic" that "[c]riticism... is duty-bound to interrogate the classic" and thereby "may be what the classic uses to define itself and ensure its survival." None of these thoughtful, deft and erudite essays, all but one of which were previously published, land heavily or obviously (if at all) on any side of a literary, critical or political issue—like Coetzee's poised fiction. (Viking, $24.95 304p ISBN 0-670-89982-8; Aug. 27)

A different set of subjects turns up in William Corbett's All Prose: Selected Essays and Reviews, which have all been previously published. The Boston critic (New York Literary Lights) and poet, currently a lecturer on writing and the humanities at MIT, here tracks artists Artaud and Bonnard, Joe Brainard and Richard Diebenkorn. Writers include Charles Olson ("To read Olson today is to feel again how stale the current moment is"), Michael Palmer, Allen Ginsberg, Fanny Howe, Ange Mlinko and Robert Creeley. Helen Vendler's critical "Butcher Shop" comes under fire, as do the films Das Boot, The English Patient and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. (Zoland, $17 paper 356p ISBN 1-58195-102-7; Oct. 1)

Arte Publico

The recent, somewhat surreptitious loosening of the U.S. embargo and Castro's concurrent opening up of state-regulated tourism has yielded a flurry of student programs, professional conferences, books, movies and general enthusiasm in this country for all things Cuban. In Art Cuba: The New Generation, editor Holly Block, executive director of New York's Art in General, explores how Cuban artists have worked in and around the constraints of Castroism ("Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing") and Cuba's severely depressed economy. (During the "Special Period," 1991—1994—after Soviet funds stopped, the sugar crop failed and the U.S. reinforced the embargo—artists in Cuba relied on the relatively few visitors to bring supplies from other countries.) The book includes more than 100 color plates and essays by, among others, Gerardo Mosquera and Antonio Eligio. (Abrams, $49.50 176p ISBN 0-8109-5733-7; July) "Addressing volatile issues of sexism, racism, Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States and the dual nature of Puerto Rican existence, [installation artists] transcend the formally conservative, nationalistic character of Puerto Rican art as defined by earlier generations," writes Laura Roulet, a curator and freelance writer from Washington, D.C. In Contemporary Puerto Rican Installation Art: The Guagua Aerea, the Trojan Horse and the Termite, Roulet traces (with 29 color prints) the movement from its inception in the 1960s (when Rafael Ferrer's seminal works and attitudes "really freaked out the establishment," the artist notes—not just in Puerto Rico but also in New York's art scene) through to the mode's present incarnations, where artists like Antonio Morales explode "otherness" with industrial detritus and other found objects. (Univ. of Puerto Rico [Bilingual Publications, 270 Lafayette St., #705, New York, NY 10012], $45 paper 114p ISBN 08477-0197-2; July)

American Historiography

Famous, iconic and oft-maligned, The Plains Indians Photographs of Edward S. Curtis, taken in the early 20th century, are here winnowed to a tiny fraction of their bulk and considered within their artistic and cultural contexts by scholars Martha H. Kennedy, Martha A. Sandweiss, Mick Gidley and Duane Niatum. However one feels about Curtis's project, it's hard not to be impressed by its scope: The North American Indian, which constitutes about one-third of his total oeuvre, consists of 20 volumes of large photogravures and 20 volumes of illustrated text on more than 80 tribal groups—which the 91 photos here can only begin to suggest. Kennedy notes "a widespread tendency to regard Plains Indians as representative... of all American Indians." Sandweiss describes how Curtis conceived of himself "as the Herodotus of a dying race" in his systematic cataloguing of his subjects. (Univ. of Nebraska, $50 186p ISBN 0-8032-1512-6; Aug. 23)

The "tale about the triumph of civilization has played a central role in shaping the American national identity," contend Frederick E. Hoxie (A Final Promise), Peter C. Mancall (Valley of Opportunity) and James H. Merrell (The Indians' New World), editors of American Nations: Encounters in Indian Country, 1850 to the Present. Twenty-three essays by academics consider the historical, cultural, religious and political circumstances of various Native American peoples. Melissa L. Meyer presents "Signatures and Thumbprints: Ethnicity Among the White Earth Anishinaabeg"; Sergei Kan explores "Shamanism and Christianity: Modern Tlingit Elders Look at the Past"; Ward Churchill discusses "The Bloody Wake of Alcatraz: Political Repression of the American Indian Movement During the 1970s"; and Terence M. Cole addresses "Jim Crow in Alsaka: The Passage of the Alsaka Equal Rights Act of 1945." (Routledge, $32.95 542p ISBN 0-415-92750-1; Sept. 1)

In the Comfort Zone

New York Times bestselling author Joan Borysenko (Minding the Body, Mending the Mind; A Woman's Book of Life) offers Inner Peace for Busy People: 52 Simple Strategies for Transforming Your Life. Using anecdotes from her personal experience, Borysenko identifies the elusive sense of inner balance we all seek and suggests practical, and often small, changes—such as keeping track of energy reserves and practicing patience—that "crazy busy" readers can make over the course of each week to feel a bit more balanced. Agent, Ned Leavitt. (Hay House, $17.95 paper 176p ISBN 1-56170-870-4; Aug.)

In this dog-eat-dog world, says psychologist Gary S. Aumiller, it's important to remember that we're all animals. In Walk Like a Chameleon: Use Your Animal Instincts to Improve Your Relationships and Your Life, he identifies eight basic types of personalities (the Avoider, the Blender, the Clinger, the Combiner, the Caretaker, the Asserter, the Gamer and the Attacker) and their positive and negative characteristics (e.g., the Gamer, characterized by the fox, is creative and motivated, but on the flip side wants to win at all costs). Not only will readers better understand themselves, Aumiller (coauthor of Red Flags: How to Know When You're Dating a Loser) maintains, they will also better understand how to interact effectively with others. Agent, Arielle Eckstut.(Plume, $13 paper 192p ISBN 0-452-28249-7; Aug. 1)

Still building on the long-running success of their Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen team up with coeditors Nancy Mitchell Autio and LeAnn Thieman, both nurses and previous contributors to the series, with Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul. This paean to nurses and their mission of caretaking is heartwarming, invigorating and may in some small way help reverse the current shortage of nurses nationwide. (Health Communications, $12.95 paper 416p ISBN 1-55874-933-0; Aug.)

August Publications

Educational counselor Jane Bluestein (21st-Century Discipline) challenges educators, parents, communities and corporate citizens to consider school safety beyond the presence or absence of violence. School safety can be measured psychologically, she claims, and is influenced by everything from a school system that does not respect the expertise and individual styles of its teachers to teachers who use grades and pop quizzes to ridicule slow learners and students who tease and harass even one classmate. In Creating Emotionally Safe Schools: A Guide for Educators and Parents, Bluestein brings together social, biological, educational and environmental perspectives in a weighty and timely book. (Health Communications, $14.95 paper 496p ISBN 1-55874-814-8) "The face you see in the mirror had its beginnings in the primeval slime—at the bottom of the sea," begins this large-format, picture-laden study The Human Face, by psychologist, biologist and sometime acting coach and director Brian Bates, with actor John Cleese. As early as "nine minutes after being born... we prefer to gaze at faces," they report. Noting that the face is "an identity tag," they explore "how we became so dependent on our visual senses, and how that helped to shape the evolution of our features." Moving from issues of beauty to "a realm of hype and superhype: the phenomenon of fame," they question why certain faces are able to convince us, mesmerize us and sell us products. Based on a BBC series, this engaging, thoughtful and sometimes funny treatment will bring smiles to many faces. (Dorling Kindersley/BBC, $29.95 240p ISBN 0-7894-7836-6)

"I was left with the understanding that the Bollywood musical and its outrageous tragicomic storytelling succeeded because of a deal that exists between the film and its audience... the pretence that what is to be experienced is in any way real is swept away," explains Baz Luhrmann in Moulin Rouge! A Film Directed by Baz Luhrmann of his original inspiration for the movie. Absinthe; gaslight; sultry, pallid, Toulouse-Lautrec—inspired characters; drag; more absinthe; contortionists, Siamese twins, song, dance, sets and cinematography to set the mind reeling characterize this unprecedented musical film set in the "real artificiality" of Luhrmann's Parisian/Bohemian/modernized-turn-of-the-century vision. Cinematic and plot highlights, behind-the-scenes shots and confessions by producers, choreographers, cinematographers, editors, etc., along with images by guest photographers Ellen Von Unwerth, Mary Ellen Mark and Douglas Kirkland, give fans a chance to luxuriate in the stunning visual array that whirls dizzyingly by in the film. (Newmarket, $34.95 176p ISBN 1-55704-507-0; Aug.)

July Publication

In Rose Center for Earth and Space: A Museum for the Twenty-First Century, put together by the American Museum of Natural History, readers are treated to the facts and visual stimuli available at the museum's latest, greatest project. The book guides readers through the Hall of the Universe (which houses the Hayden Planetarium and its "three-dimensional map of the real universe, carefully calculated and drawn from the best astronomical observations and data"; the Big Bang Theater; and the Cosmic Pathway) and the Hall of Planet Earth, which provides in-depth studies of the life of the planet, with billion-year-old rock samples, re-creations of earthquakes and recently solidified pure sulfur from volcano tops. Readers then get an insider's view of the building and workings of the impressive Rose Center (how, for instance, does one clean the glass walls and the huge metal sphere?). Children and adults, regular visitors, newcomers or people who have never been to the museum will delight in this well-produced, large-format guide, complete with dozens of color photos and illustrations. (Abrams, $19.95 paper 96p ISBN 0-8109-2969-4)