Social Science
BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS
The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia in the Cold (Oct., $46.95) by Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy evaluates how activity in a resource-rich but inhospitable Siberia now burdens today's Russia with huge problems and costs.
CROWN
The Thanksgiving Ceremony: New Traditions for America's Family Feast (Sept., $14) by Edward Bleier encourages a formal ceremony designed for family and friends of all ages to be read aloud at the Thanksgiving table. Author publicity.
DUKE UNIV. PRESS
New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture, and the Class of '58 (Sept., $29.95) by Sherry B. Ortner. An anthropologist turns to her New Jersey high school class to examine American social structure.
FSG/NORTH POINT PRESS
The Mourner's Dance: What We Do When People Die (Sept., $24) by Katherine Ashenburg explores the death rituals of various cultures.
GALLAUDET UNIV. PRESS
What's Your Sign for PIZZA?: An Introduction to Variation in American Sign Language (Oct., $45) by Ceil Lucas et al. introduces different regional differences in signing.
GOTHAM books
Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care (Oct., $26) by John McWhorter. A linguist discusses how the English language is being turned upside down with serious consequences for our writing, our music and our society. Author tour.
HARPERCOLLINS
The Girl Watchers Club (Feb., $24.95) by Harry Stein is a meditation on the meaning of honor told through the words of men who lived life according to the oft-forgotten rules of trust and responsibility. 50,000 first printing.
JUSTIN, CHARLES
Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt (Nov., $23.95) by Suzi Parker offers a saucy look at Southern sin. Author tour.
MCGILL-QUEEN'S UNIV. PRESS
The American Empire and the Fourth World: The Bowl with One Spoon, Part One (Sept., $39.95) by Anthony J. Hall explores the encounter between indigenous peoples and the European empires, national governments and global corporations on the moving frontiers of globalization since 1492.
PICADOR
Growing Up Fast (Nov., $25) by Joanna Lipper interviews six teen mothers she met when they were enrolled at the Teen Parent Program in Pittsfield, Mass.
PUBLICAFFAIRS
Beyond Choice: A New Argument for the Morality of Reproductive Rights (Jan., $26) by Alexander Sanger. The Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council and grandson of Margaret Sanger offers a controversial new argument for the pro-choice movement. Author tour. Radio satellite tour.
LYNNE RIENNER
Race in the Schools: Perpetuating White Dominance? (Sept., $49.95) by Judith R. Blau presents evidence that our schools set a white advantage to the detriment of all students.
ROUTLEDGE
Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture (Nov., $26) by Sharon Zukin shows the impact shopping has had on American life from the mid-19th century to today. Advertising. Author publicity.
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
Poor Kids in a Rich Country: America's Children in Comparative Perspective (Dec., $35) by Lee Rainwater and Timothy M. Smeeding compares child poverty in the U.S. with other wealthy countries.
TEXAS A&M UNIV. PRESS
A Muslim Woman in Tito's Yugoslavia (Oct.; $50, paper $27) by Munevera Had?išehoví, trans. by Thomas Butler and Saba Risaluddin, mourns the loss of the orderly world of a Muslim childhood and the secular, multiethnic world of communist Yugoslavia.
UNIV. OF HAWAI 'I PRESS
The Melodrama of Mobility: Women, Talk, and Class in Contemporary South Korea (Oct.; $60, paper $24.95) by Nancy Abelmann chronicles the rapid development of South Korea through the lives of eight women.
UNIV. OF IOWA PRESS
Fauna & Flora, Earth & Sky: Brushes with Nature's Wisdom (Nov., $29.95) by Trudy Dittmar takes a look at human nature through the prism of the natural world.
UNIV. PRESS OF COLORADO
Insult to Injury: Libel, Slander, and Invasions of Privacy (Dec., $45) by William K. Jones recommends a new method for dealing with defamatory falsehoods.
UNIV. PRESS OF FLORIDA
Orange Journalism: Voices from Florida's Newspapers (Oct., $27.95) by Julian M. Pleasants. Eighteen influential writers, editors and publishers comment on the critical role that Florida newspapers play in politics, economics and the environment.
WARNER
Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite (Nov., $26.95) by Bernard Goldberg. The author of Bias exposes the culture of narrow-minded elitism in the media and suggests changes. Ad/promo. Author tour. Radio satellite tour.
America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans (Jan., $25.95) by Henry Louis Gates Jr. discusses the evolution of African-American society and how it has split into two distinct communities: the privileged and the disenfranchised; tie-in to a four-part PBS and BBC-TV documentary airing in 2004. Ad/promo. 6-city author tour.