What Life Has in Store

Robert Kuttner, founder of the American Prospect, and his wife, Sharland Trotter (now deceased), a psychologist, have written Family Re-Union: Reconnecting Parents and Children in Adulthood, based on their own experience and Trotter's research into intergenerational relationships. The authors offer suggestions on how to negotiate what is essentially a new relationship dynamic, cautioning parents to "communicate trust and to cultivate skills of active listening" rather than immediately giving an opinion to an adult child who is learning to make decisions. Kuttner and Trotter's work is a thoughtful rumination on the nature and intricacies of adult child and parent relationships. (Free Press, $24 288p ISBN 0-684-82722-0; May)

In some respects, Evelyn Stefansson Nef's life story—chronicled in Finding My Way: The Autobiography of an Optimist—follows the patterns of other women who atained prominence through their relationships with men of achievement. Born in 1913 Brooklyn, Nef was raised by Hungarian-Jewish immigrants. Over the course of her life, she had three husbands: master puppeteer Bil Baird; polar explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson; and John Nef, a founder of the University of Chicago's elite Committee on Social Thought. All opened new worlds to her, and Nef's zest for learning and determination to better herself are admirable. Female readers may find inspiration in her success in becoming a cultivated woman of accomplishment. Photos. (Francis Press, $26 320p ISBN 0-9665051-5-8; May 1)

Former NYC ballerina and independent scholar Toni Bentley offers a study of four famous women who created versions of the legendary femme fatale Salome (popularized by Oscar Wilde) in Sisters of Salome, a cultural study and the story of an obsession. Bentley explores the experiences of women who have tapped into the power of the nude female body, particularly four who found fame by portraying Salome: Maud Allen, Mata Hari, Ida Rubenstein and Colette. Bentley gives a sketch of each woman's life and what compelled them to dance their own versions of Salome, showing how she was "not only a misogynist, masochistic male fantasy, but a heterosexual, sadistic female fantasy as well." (Yale Univ., $27.95 288p ISBN 0-300-09039-0; May)