In this meticulous and engaging biography, University of Georgia history professor Mattern (Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing) writes that Galen, a Greek aristocrat of great ambition and dazzling intelligence, was already a superstar physician when he arrived in Rome in 162 C.E. Educated in medicine and philosophy, Galen left his provincial medical practice at the age of 32 to come to the center of the world’s largest empire, where he treated the prominent—including Emperor Marcus Aurelius, a feverish philosopher named Eudemus, and gladiators—and the common populace, in a city regularly assaulted by malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, syphilis, and (in 168 C.E.) a devastating plague. “Visits to patients were a normal part of his daily life,” Mattern writes. The book covers Galen’s upbringing by an adored father and a despised mother, as well as his medical and philosophical training, and his astounding repertoire of medical work—including anatomy, surgery, and voluminous writings. Mattern’s rigorous scholarship also unveils the rich, vivid layers of Galen’s life and times, and Galen’s own words paint a portrait of an astounding physician whose motivation was “not fame or wealth” but “the love of mankind.” 18 b&w illus. & 3 maps. (July 2)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Social historian Flanders (Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England) does a superb job of demonstrating the role that the press and fiction writers played in shaping the British public’s attitudes toward crime during the 19th century. She captures perfectly the appeal of bloody fiction and macabre news stories: “Crime, especially murder, is very pleasant to think about in the abstract: it is like hearing blustery rain on the windowpane when sitting indoors.” But it’s unlikely that the British thought of murder much at all during the first decade of the 19th century—in 1810, there were a mere 15 murder convictions in England and Wales combined. The public’s perception of random lethal violence changed with the horrific 1811 Ratcliffe Highway killings, brutal mass murders in London’s East End that coincided with technological advances that enabled swifter and cheaper production of broadsheets describing the crimes. Flanders’s convincing and smart synthesis of the evolution of an official police force, fictional detectives, and real-life cause célèbres will appeal to devotees of true crime and detective fiction alike. B&w illus. throughout. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

If the piles of books proffering rule after hidebound dating rule make your palms sweaty before you’ve even left the house, then this one’s for you. Syrtash, author of He’s Just Not Your Type (And That’s a Good Thing), and Wilser (The Maxims of Manhood) address many of the popular “rules” of dating in a he said/she said format by assessing each in light of their own opinions and experiences, as well as those of numerous interviewees, both male and female. From long-distance relationships to Facebook stalking and the eternal question of whether to call or text, Syrtash and Wilser cover all the ground between the first meeting and the last goodbye. For the most part, they suggest throwing out any rule that feels outdated or inflexible. After all, advice that rigidly employs the words “always” and “never” is often simply bad advice. So should you sleep with him (the book is geared primarily toward women) on the first date or not? Well, do you want to? Does he? If so, then go for it. Combining sage wisdom with refreshingly down-to-earth wit, this one’s a keeper. Agents: (for Syrtash) Rob Weisbach, Rob Weisbach Creative; (for Wilser) Ryan Harbage, Fischer-Harbage Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

In this thoroughly engaging history, Duggan (The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796), an expert on Italian history, chronicles Mussolini’s rise, reign, and fall through a close examination of journals, letters, telegrams, and other textual artifacts from before and during WWII. Taken together, they capture by turns the Italian people’s love and hatred of their leader, as well as the sheer strangeness of living in a fascist state. Mussolini’s “broad church” of fascism brought many of his countrymen and women into the fold, and Duggan’s account presents jaw-dropping examples of their attachment to Il Duce. One author wrote a book called The Imitation of Mussolini; schoolchildren were taught a poem about Mussolini and his mother; female admirers wrote love letters. Others, however, furtively recorded their principled opposition to the violence of the fascist regime. In a powerful shift to the present, Duggan ends the book with a selection of laudatory entries recently penned in the guestbook at Mussolini’s tomb—a sobering reminder that though Il Duce is dead, his strange and mercurial allure lives on. 2 maps. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

A Newsday reporter working the criminal justice beat depicts the sensational trajectory of the flamboyant and lethal New York crime boss Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano from a neighborhood kid “who hung out with mobsters” to the pinnacle of the Mafia world. Hollywood handsome with the cold edge of a killer, Basciano loved the mob life and assumed the lead role of the Bonanno crime family when its former boss, Joseph Massino, wound up in federal detention. But then, in 2004, Massino turned informer—the first boss of the Cosa Nostra’s Five Families to do so—and a wired meet-up between the two landed Basciano in court. Throughout the book, DeStefano (Mob Killer) describes his subject as smart, naturally charismatic, and lucky—at least for a while. After managing to avoid conviction due to legal irregularities in his case, Basciano was finally found guilty of murder in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison. This is a dark, informed, and effective bio, and DeStefano is a master at cutting through the secrecy of the Mafia hierarchy. B&w photos. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

In July 1864, President Lincoln visited a besieged fort on the edge of the nation’s capital and, according to Cooling (coauthor of Mr. Lincoln’s Forts), put his life—and along with it, the emancipatory goal of the war—at risk. It’s old news that Lincoln walked away without a scratch (though he was dead nine months later), but this is nevertheless a fresh history. Cooling sets the stage by explaining Washington, D.C.’s importance in the war, as well as the Union’s struggles with a surging Rebel offensive and Lincoln’s surprising level of engagement with his army. Confederate leaders saw an attack on Fort Stevens as a critical step toward capturing the capital, and they recruited tough troops for the task. But Lincoln shored up the resistance, and toured the fort on two days, despite the fact that his towering frame made an easy target for sharpshooters. While Cooling makes much of what might have happened to the war effort had Lincoln been wounded or killed, he spends most of his time speculating as to why he was there in the first place, and what his presence says about his role as president and commander-in-chief. This is a detailed and skilled account of a faded chapter in the annals of Civil War history that should not be ignored. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Comedian and Chelsea Lately regular Loni Love has long been sought out by friends and strangers alike for relationship advice. Here, she collects their questions and her responses, general romance tips, and hilarious anecdotes from her own life. She helps a woman in love with a married man refocus her romantic energy, and advises another on how to deal with her boyfriend’s life-sized Beyoncé poster. She provides guidance on getting what you want in bed and knowing when a relationship is over, and describes signs indicating he’s not looking for a wife; Love also helps readers spot signs of infidelity. Other standouts include Love’s six-step plan for meeting Mr. Right, and pithy comebacks to the question, “Why aren’t you married yet?” (“I like checking the ‘single’ box on my tax returns.”) Drawing from her own experiences, she recalls, among other nightmares, her wig being blown off by the wind during a date, and a calamitous encounter with a stripper pole. Love’s advice is witty and wise, and there’s something for readers at every stage in their love lives. Agent: Brandi Bowles, Foundry Literary + Media. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

The duo behind 2012’s No Way Out: A Story of Valor in the Mountains of Afghanistan team up again to recount the capture and execution of America’s primary Cold War-era bête noire and the world’s most recognizable rebel: Che Guevara. Along with Fidel Castro, Che helped orchestrate the Cuban Revolution and the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. His efforts would make him an idol for 1960s left-wing youth. But when Che and his guerillas turned their attention in the mid-’60s to bringing communism to U.S.-backed Bolivia, the United States decided enough was enough. A U.S. military Special Forces team was sent south to guide a battalion of Bolivian soldiers through a four-month-long crash course in fighting the insurrection. Weiss (a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist) and Maurer (coauthor of No Easy Day) focus primarily on the American operation to take down Che, detailing the tactics and personnel involved, as well as the dramatic play-by-play leading up to the rebel’s execution. The authors are palpably unsympathetic to Che and his cause, and they take a novelist’s license in recreating dialogue and inner thoughts. Fans of by-the-book nonfiction will be skeptical of the docudrama prose, but for more tolerant readers, this offers an entertaining new perspective. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (July 2)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Corballis (The Recursive Mind) goes for a long shot but falls far short: in attempting to pack nearly half a century of research on the human mind into just over a hundred pages, he gives each subject short shrift. The author, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Auckland, dives right into his discussion of some of the brain’s most interesting features and functions, addressing topics as far-ranging as left-handedness, “lies and bullshit,” the interstices of language and music, facial recognition, and the synesthetic title of a Nabokov novel (Ada). Each gets a two-to-four-page treatment—some accompanied by illustrations—and every entry is interesting. But Corballis isn’t kidding when he calls these “short walks.” Many chapters feel conspicuously incomplete; one entitled “Why Italians Gesticulate,” for example, suffers from a glaring lack of, well, Italians. Add another demerit for no discernible guiding principle. At the end, readers will fell less like tourists in the hands of a well-informed guide, and more like sheep behind a lost shepherd. Illus. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Artist Ellis (who runs a blog with the same title as the book) had an epiphany when a fellow student in his undergraduate art class won praise for submitting a cheap plastic figurine of the Virgin Mary encased in a condom for her senior project. Ellis decided it was time to move on. He left Boston for Portland, Ore. Once there, he recounts his struggles to find a decent apartment, friends, and most importantly, a job. What follows is a series of often self-deprecating vignettes, as Ellis throws himself into situations with the best intentions (camping, for example) that take a turn for the worse (he wakes up to find a stranger defecating next to his tent), many of which are accompanied by his crisp, humorous drawings. Readers looking for melodrama or hipsters looking for detached, ironic superiority will be sorely disappointed; Ellis is an affable, likable narrator, and his “can you believe this?” tone is well suited to this slim, amusing tale. Agent: Monika Verma, Levine Greenberg. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink