Travel and Leisure

Lawyer and travel writer Alan Behr spent the days he wasn't suited and sitting behind a desk bouncing around Europe, visiting cathedrals and strip clubs, gambling and, against his better judgment, drinking beer for breakfast. It's all well and good, but it gets much better when Behr, back in New York, meets Julie Hackett, and after a false start or two, embarks upon a life of companionship and travel with her. In Once Around the Fountain (the title refers to when Behr insists Julie carry her suitcase from his apartment to Lincoln Center's fountain a few blocks away—and back—to make sure it's light enough) Behr and his new love revisit the old European haunts in a memoir that charts geographic and emotional voyages in refreshing, often humorous prose. Photos not seen by PW. (Welcome Rain, $25 224p ISBN 1-56649-224-6; Dec.)

In a historical moment when the Western world's antennae are zeroed in on all things Middle Eastern, books about that part of the world, such as Scott C. Davis's The Road from Damascus: A Journey through Syria, take on heightened significance. In 1987, five years after the Hama massacre, and with Syria seemingly on the brink of war with Israel, a naïve Davis made his first visit. Fourteen years later he returned to find the country radically different: less militarized, less uneasy, less frightening. Refreshingly candid about his pre-1987 ignorance about the Arab world and about his sometimes overblown but very real fears, Davis chronicles his meetings with Christian, Muslim and Jewish members of all stations of Syrian society, painting a cultural portrait that is vivid, moving and wise in its humble, wide-eyed approach. Photos and maps. (Cune [911 N. 6th St., P.O. Box 31024 Seattle, Wash. 98103-5315], $29.95 372p ISBN 1-885942-84-2; Dec. 15)

What do Ward Morehouse III and Kay Thompson's Eloise have in common? The theater critic, playwright and author of a previous hotel biography (The Waldorf-Astoria: America's Gilded Dream) and the six-year-old scamp both did some growing up at New York's fabled Plaza Hotel. In Inside The Plaza: An Intimate Portrait of the Ultimate Hotel, Morehouse details its sparkling history, from the architectural (the hotel's gables and balconies were fashioned by hand) to the social (at the masked ball Truman Capote threw for Katherine Graham, Candice Bergen wore a mask topped with bunny ears). Toss in stories (and black-and-white photographs) of nightclub chanteuses, rock stars and American royalty, as well as tidbits about underground railroad tracks for transporting coal and Prohibition-era liquor sales, and it's an entertaining read for travelers and homebodies alike. (Applause, $ 27.95 252p ISBN 1-55783-468-7; Nov.)

Business Savvy

In Making It Personal: How to Profit from Personalization without Invading Privacy, Bruce Kasanoff, founder of the consulting site HowPersonal.com, advises business execs on how to win customers via personalization, or "when companies use technology to treat individuals like, well, individuals." First and foremost, he says, companies must modify indiscriminate telemarketing, mass mailing and other often invasive marketing practices. Zeroing in on psychological, legal and financial aspects of interactions between individuals and enormous corporations, Kasanoff has high hopes for a dynamic that will satisfy both parties: individuals will feel taken care of and remembered (e.g., once they give their personal information to a company, they won't have to go through that rigmarole again); companies will win loyal customers and won't waste resources (e.g., having their telemarketers hung up on). Businesses looking for slicker approaches in today's iffy economy will appreciate this cutting-edge advice. (Perseus, $26 240p ISBN 0-7382-0536-2; Dec.)

The global economy has ushered in competition from all corners of the earth, and manufacturers haven't changed their ways to accommodate the new order, says Richard J. Schonberger in Let's Fix It!: Overcoming the Crisis in Manufacturing. Having conducted research on 500 companies, Schonberger (World Class Manufacturing) believes that the top manufacturers are resting on their laurels and will soon regret their neglect of the principles of lean production, i.e., getting rid of inventory. GE, GM, Mercedes and Toyota are just a few of the companies that come under his gimlet eye. He proposes a four-step solution involving new product development and acquisition, streamlining production, eliminating manufacturing wastes and, of course, looking at manufacturing possibilities overseas. Regardless of the market's state, companies will need to heed such thoughtful advice in the face of rapid-fire economic changes. (Free Press, $28 272p ISBN 0-7432-1551-6; Dec.)

Still convinced money doesn't buy happiness? In Happiness & Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being, economists Bruno S. Frey (Inspiring Economics) and Alois Stutzer demonstrate how unemployment and inflation lead to unhappiness and argue that increased happiness comes with increased wealth. While this is no surprise, their next declaration may be. Far more important than wealth to well-being, they say, is democracy. Drawing on research conducted in Switzerland's single-economy, multi-state nation (where levels of democracy vary between cantons) the authors show how participation in governmental procedures and a sense of local autonomy empowers—and satisfies—people more than a full wallet. (Princeton, $55 200p ISBN 0-691-06997-2; paper $24.95 -98-0; Dec.)

Ole Evinrude, designer of the outboard boat motor; Stephanie Kwolek, creator of Kevlar; and Henry Ford, architect of the moving assembly line are just a few of the American inventors profiled in Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse by freelance writer and editor David E. Brown. Along with contributors Lester C. Thurow and James Burke, Brown simplifies technical data and uses an enthusiastic, almost proselytizing tone: "We can all be inventors, just like the ones in this book. They show us the way." These words may restrict the primary audience for this volume to those under legal voting age, but full color photographs, diagrams and intriguing tidbits like how a "tiny mistake led to the invention of the modern pacemaker" make this a good book for most to browse. (MIT, $29.95 200p ISBN 0-262-02508-6; Dec.)

Movie History

"An instrument which should do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear..." is what Thomas Edison had in mind when he created the kinetograph (a camera used for photographing motion pictures). History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophotograph is a facsimile edition of the first-ever published history of film written by W.K.L. Dickson and his sister Antonia Dickson more than 100 years ago. The book, acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, features a foreword by Thomas Edison. Photographs, cover and typesetting are all displayed in their original form. 59 b&w illus. (Abrams, $8.95 paper 55p ISBN 0-8109-6218-7; Dec.)

What would American film be without its filmmakers? John Ford: Interviews is the first collection of conversations with the acclaimed American filmmaker. Edited and collected by Gerald Peary, this compilation reveals Ford's blunt and candid responses to questions (legend has it he was "the interviewee from Hell"), interviews translated from the French and his words during the period before his death in 1973. Ford's discussions about his work and productions (including The Quiet Man and The Grapes of Wrath) will delight filmmakers and cinema buffs alike. (Univ. of Mississippi, $46 (178p) ISBN 1-57806-397-3, paper $18 -398-1; Dec)

20th-Century Literati

Inveterate 1950s-style Parisian slacker Jean-Michel Mension's first book, The Tribe: Conversations with Gérard Berréby and Francesco Milo (volume 1 of Contributions to the History of the Situationist International and Its Time), arrives in this country translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Published in France in 1998, the lengthy interview concerns Paris's Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood in the years 1952—1954, when the members of Letterist International and then of Situationist International, an even more Boho crowd than Sartre et al., were hanging around at Moineau's bar and, frequently, behind bars. Mension, who began submitting writing to the Letterist journal at 18, recounts life in this fascinating, emphatically improvident, quasi-anarchist subculture, delivering vivid anecdotes and a still-fresh scoff-law sensibility. B&w photos. (City Lights, $14.95 paper 136p ISBN 0-87286-392-1; Nov.)

Edward Seidensticker (Genji Days), longtime translator of Japanese literary works from The Tale of Genji to Yuko Mishima's novels, now turns to his own story in Tokyo Central: A Memoir. Introduced to Japan in 1942, at age 21, as a language officer, Seidensticker, professor emeritus of Japanese at Columbia University, served as a diplomat during the U.S. occupation of Japan. Here he recollects his wartime experience ("grime and boredom") and his postwar acquaintance and in some cases intimacy with members of Japanese political and literary society. Peppered with delightful insider bits—the widow of Junichiro Tanizaki tells Seidensticker that the theory-provoking last line of one of her husband's novels is not some ripely obscure allusion, as the critics would have it, but merely true—this memoir will appeal to a small but enthusiastic audience of expatriates and Far East enthusiasts. Illus. not seen by PW. (Univ. of Washington, $30 256p ISBN 0-295-98134-2; Feb.)

Primo Levi, Colette, Angela Carter, Sinclair Lewis, Boris Pasternak, D.H. Lawrence and Agatha Christie are a few of the luminaries featured in History of 20th-Century Literature, by writer and literary critic Simon Beeseley and poet and short-story writer Sheena Joughin. Divided into categories such as "Magic Realism" (including Márquez and Rushdie), "African-American Writing" (Baldwin, Wright and Ellison), "Metafictions" (Calvino, Eco), "Cult Fiction" (Richard Brautigan, John Kennedy Toole) and "Feminine Perspectives" (Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark), and replete with movie stills and photographs of many authors and their times, this accessible study treats highlights of mainstream world literature. (Hamlyn [Sterling, dist.], $29.95 192p ISBN 0-600-59807-1; Nov.)

Writers' Ed

For writers determined to publish their own work, Kwame Alexander, with the help of Nina Foxx, offers Do the Write Thing: 7 Steps to Publishing Success. Alexander, a writer, publishing consultant and founder of the independent press BlackWords, advises readers in a friendly and practical manner on everything from writing and editing your manuscript, starting a publishing company and printing your book to marketing, sales and author tours. Besides furnishing a lexicon of publishing terms, a list of helpful reading materials, inspirational and cautionary anecdotes and savvy regarding hiring editors of all sorts, Alexander endows writers with the confidence they need to self-publish. (Manisy Willows [701 Capital of Texas Highway South, PO Box 1202, Building C, Austin Tex. 78746], $17.95 160p ISBN 0-9678959-6-0; Jan.)

Jewell Parker Rhodes presents another, genre-specific guide for writers, The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Nonfiction, and this one puts more emphasis on the process of writing—not, however, at the expense of valuable publishing know-how. For the first three-quarters of the book, alongside excerpts and suggestions from Maya Angelou, Edwidge Danticat, James McBride and other luminaries, Rhodes, former director of Arizona State University's graduate-level creative writing program, intersperses writing exercises with writerly insight into issues like "Finding Your Voice," "Gathering Ideas" and "Turning Points and Revelations." The last section, which concentrates on publishing, discusses the "explosion of... bestselling African American talents" in the last 20-odd years; it also talks specifically about finding an agent and lists dozens of resources. African-American writers seeking inspiration and practical advice will appreciate this warm, thoughtful guide. (Broadway, $12.95 paper 368p ISBN 0-7679-0578-4; On-sale: Dec. 26)

January Publication

Media insiders Linda Amster and Dylan Loeb McClain present Kill Duck Before Serving: Red Faces at the New York Times, a collection of the paper's more unusual corrections. From misidentifying the Albanian national animal where it was "emblazoned on t-shirts worn by" Miss Albania USA contestants, to confusing Rambo for Rimbaud, Times reporters make nearly as many fumbles as the rest of us. In his introduction, assistant managing editor Allan M. Siegal traces the history of the paper's handling of errors. Only in 1970, we learn, did A.M. Rosenthal make a specific section wherein the Gray Lady could fess up. This funny, fast read will please media folks. Line drawings by Tom Bloom. (St. Martin's/Griffin, $13.95 paper 256p ISBN 0-312-28427-6; Jan.)

November Publications

Walking with Prehistoric Beasts is designed to be a "prehistoric safari"; author and guide Tim Haines (Walking with Dinosaurs) leads readers through the world of ancient (and often strange) mammals. The 16-foot-long Andrewsarchus, for example, was the largest known land carnivore, but it was also an ungulate—in other words, more sheep than wolf. Plentiful illustrations and sidebars punctuate text that is as much adventure story as history: "Relationships within the group [of australopithecines, which were primates that walked upright] are highly political. Although Graybeard is still very much in charge, he knows Bruiser is waiting to challenge him." Published in conjunction with the BBC to accompany the Discovery Channel's Walking with Beasts television series, of which Haines is executive producer. (DK, $29.95 262p ISBN 0-563-53763-9; Nov.)

In September 11, 2001, the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school, has assembled front page reports of the attack from 150 newspapers around the country. With an introduction by former New York Times executive editor Max Frankel, these headlines and images—from Extra editions printed on the 11th and from papers the day after—provides a catalogue of the nation's collective disbelief, horror, fear and anger. The sense of immediacy that the media offered to many Americans on September 11 highlighted the crucial role that newspapers and journals play in the world today. The first printing is 100,000. Profits and royalties will go to the United Way's September 11th Fund. (Andrews McMeel, $14.95 paper 160p ISBN 0-7404-2492-4; Nov.)