Blessed Order for Rage

Malignant rage, mischievous rage, moral rage. New York University psychology professor Michael Eigen (Ecstasy) offers a taxonomy of anger in his appropriately titled Rage. Eigen looks to the Bible, Sophocles, modern geopolitics and, most of all, case studies from his own practice to examine why wrath, in its many forms, has been such a vital and driving force through human history. Eigen's lyrical, meandering, open-ended style ("Congealed hate and fear, trauma corpses that never let go, a sickly tail one drags through the center of one's being. What have I done with it?") is not for everyone, but he does manage to identify some of the subtle, complicated ways that rage makes itself felt in people's lives. (Wesleyan, $45 202p ISBN 0-8195-6585-7; $17.95 paper -6586-5; Oct.)

"I will not tolerate hatred silently." "I will own up when I lapse into one of the flawed thought processes or language patterns that underlie hatred." "I will consume popular culture critically." These may be tall orders, but they're among the resolutions that Ripon College speech communication professor Jody Roy recommends in Love to Hate: America's Love Affair with Hatred and Violence. Roy looks at the glamorization of violence and hatred in American culture, showing that, whether cowboys or serial killers, violent criminals have long been "icons of cool." Roy also discusses how readers can disengage themselves from this national obsession, and suggests self-assessment questions and activities for both adults and children. (Columbia Univ., $52 336p ISBN 0-231-12568-2; $22 paper -12569-0; Oct.)

Combining anthropology, zoology and neuroscience, Why We Hate: Understanding, Curbing, and Eliminating Hate in Ourselves and Our World attempts to explain the scientific underpinnings of the emotion that leads to prejudice, violence and genocide. The far-ranging—if sometimes digressive—book by journalist and science writer Rush Dozier Jr. (Fear Itself) uses plenty of present-day examples of racial, religious and political conflicts—the Russians' war in Chechnya, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Oklahoma City bombing—as a launching point for his explanations of how the primitive reptilian brain and the fight-or-flight response lie at the root of our cultural prejudices. (McGraw-Hill, $24.95 344p ISBN 0-8092-2483-6; Sept.)

The word "evil" gets thrown around pretty frequently, especially in connection with certain Axes, but Einstein Forum director and former philosophy professor Susan Neiman reminds us that the existence of evil is a theological and intellectual dilemma through modern Western intellectual history—in fact, she argues in her erudite and accessible Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy, the question of evil is at the heart of modern philosophy. Neiman looks at how philosophers and writers—Leibniz and Arendt, Pope and Sade—have sought to explain evil, and traces two divergent strains of thought: one that insists we must try to understand moral evil, and another that maintains we must not. (Princeton, $29.95 372p ISBN 0-691-09608-2; Sept.)

She's the Boss

Literary critic and London Review of Books contributor Terry Castle says, "It's a sad life one leads as a Female Literary Critic. All that pressure to live up to masculine expectations." She has penned a challenging and thought-provoking collection of essays that serve as "a kind of brief on behalf of female authority," entitled Boss Ladies, Watch Out! Essays on Women, Sex and Writing. The book's first part features longer, somewhat formal, scholarly pieces; the second portion is composed of essays that began as "review-articles." The fiery pieces address Jane Austen, Ann Radcliffe, Gertrude Stein, Edmund White and others. (Routledge, $22.95 paper 256p ISBN 0-415-93874-0; Sept. 1)

In Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs: How Eleven Women Escaped Poverty and Became Their Own Bosses, journalist Martha Shirk and Ms. Foundation program director Anna S. Wadia celebrate women who went from low-income employees to small business owners. Their stories are inspiring: America Ducasse immigrated from the Dominican Republic and eventually launched a home-based day-care business in Massachusetts, while Lucille Barnett Washington started working as a clerk at an auto parts store in Detroit in 1961 and today runs an auto parts and repair business. Each of the women received assistance from nonprofit organizations supported by the Ms. Foundation for Women. Photos. (Westview, $26 352p ISBN 0-8133-3910-3; Sept.)

Inside 'The Sopranos'

In The Psychology of The Sopranos: Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family, psychoanalyst Glen O. Gabbard puts into words what millions of people discuss every week around office water coolers. In chapters titled "Bada Bing and Nothingness" and "Scenes From a Marriage: Godfather Knows Best," Gabbard—who coleads an online Sopranos chat group on Slate.com that has an audience of over 100,000—analyzes the psyche of the mob family. Despite its lack of revelatory information (e.g., most viewers have probably already picked up on Tony's split personality), loyal fans will snatch this up. (Basic, $24 224p ISBN 0-465-02735-0; Aug.)

Canadian author Maurice Yacowar takes a more general and less forced approach in his study of the popular show, The Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series. Yacowar dissects each episode, character and plot line from the show's first three seasons. It's enough to make even an aficionado's head spin. This comprehensive examination also includes a cast of characters, listing all actors from Dominic Chianese (Corrado "Junior" Soprano) to Michele DeCesare (Hunter Scangarelo), and a list of selected Web sites. Casual viewers will easily bore reading Yacowar's book, but die-hard fans will surely want it for their collections. (Continuum, $18.95 paper 208p ISBN 0-8264-1401-X; July)

Finding Inspiration

Ray Materson, a good student who wanted to be a priest when he grew up, began doing drugs in college and got into trouble with the law. He was sent to jail for a car-jacking (in which he used a toy gun), and while there, learned how to embroider. Sewing with the threads of unraveled socks, Materson made intricate works that depicted everything from his favorite football team to the confinement he felt in prison. Along with his wife, Melanie Materson, he tells the story of how he found hope and salvation through art in Sins and Needles: A Story of Spiritual Mending. The book includes illustrations of 50 pieces of Materson's needlework. (Algonquin, $21.95 224p ISBN 1-56512-340-9; Sept. 27)

According to authors Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Arline McGraw Oberst, John T. Boal and Tom and Laura Lagana, over 200 million people around the world offer their time to volunteering. Dozens of them tell their stories in Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul: Stories to Celebrate the Spirit of Courage, Caring and Community. Norma Reedy tells of the Big Brother volunteer who befriended her son, who had been recently diagnosed with leukemia, while Rotary International volunteer Carolyn E. Jones explains how she raised money for cancer patients in Russia. Most entries end with information on how readers can become involved in the volunteering organization described. (Health Communications, $12.95 paper 368p ISBN 0-7573-0014-6; July 15)