Take Me to Your Leader

From recipes for the world's biggest sushi roll to a survey of man-made islands to the surprising mating habits of animals around the world, author and ""part-time inventor"" Harrison (The Book of Firsts) doesn't leave anything out of this illustrated roundup of the strange and unlikely. Filled with all kinds of photos, charts, diagrams and illustrations, the volume contains entries on a number of broad subjects: food and drink, customs and etiquette, sports and leisure, myths and legends, technology and communication. The book's structure is itself amusingly bizarre: none of its seven chapters are named, or even themed, but rather used as a placeholder for a list of trivia on that chapter's number (which jump from three to seven to nine to 12). Though it's not entirely appropriate for the whole family-parents may want to keep young children away from sections on ""90's Booty"" and ""Backhanders"" (an index of volleyball behind-the-butt hand signals)-this colorful book makes up in presentation and scope what it lacks in restraint, and makes for great coffee table browsing. Color illus. throughout.