ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


616 / C&RL News ■ JulyAugust 2000

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

A Field Guide fo r the Sight-Impaired 
Reader, by Andrew Leibs (247 pages, January 
2000), is an introduction, for both blind stu­
dents and academic librarians who work with 
them, on how to locate, obtain, and integrate 
many different resources to create a world of 
reading equal to that of the fully sighted. In 
addition to providing annotated listings of tech­
nological, Internet, Braille, and large-print aids, 
it offers chapters on how to find and manage 
readers and winning strategies for many aca­
demic reading tasks. Appendixes include a 
state-by-state resource guide and a list of com­
mercial audio publishers. The type is large and 
the scope is broad. $49.95. Green­
w ood Press. ISBN 0-313-30969-8.

Historical Encyclopedia o f 
Atom ic Energy, by Stephen E. 
A tkins (491 p a g e s , J a n u a r y
2000), includes more than 450
entries that trace the history of 
nuclear energy from the discov­
ery of uranium to the Com pre­
hensive Test Ban Treaty. Topics 
encom pass scientific processes, 
terms and concepts, nuclear ac­
cidents, test sites, protest m ove­
ments, treaties, international or­
ganizations, and biographies of 
scientists and leaders involved with the d e ­
velopment of atomic energy. Suggested read­
ings accom pany each essay. $65.00. G reen­
w ood Press. ISBN 0-313-30400-9.

Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, by
E. J. Fleming (281 pages. May 2000), pro­
vides directions for 16 driving tours that e n ­
compass famous graves, haunted celebrity 
homes, the locations of famous murders and 
deaths, and scandalous locations. Yes, this 
book will be difficult to justify as a curricu­
lar expense; however, if your film-collection 
budget is liberal, give this a try. Where else 
will you find photos of the houses w here 
Ida Lupino, Keenan Wynn, Peter Lorre, and

George M. Eberhart is senior editor o f American 
Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ala.org

Bugsy Siegel died; the graves of Joan Hackett, 
Mack Sennett, Rita Hayworth, Sharon Tate, 
and Bela Lugosi; the hom es haunted by the 
ghosts o f G eorge Wolf, Jean Harlow, and 
Ozzie Nelson; and the m urder sites of Phil 
H artm an , T h elm a T odd, N icole B row n 
Simpson, Dorothy Stratten, Bobby Fuller, Ray 
Raymond, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca? 
A com prehensive index allows you to lo­
cate your favorite stars and their infamous 
activities. $35.00. McFarland & Company. 
ISBN 0-7864-0160-5.

In the Footsteps o f Eve: The Mystery of 
Human Origins, by Lee Berger, 
w ith Brett H ilton-B arber (304 
pages, June 2000), tracks the dis­
co v ery  o f fossil h o m in id s in 
South Africa and the origins of 
Berger’s hypothesis that hum an 
ancestors evolved in South Af­
rica, not East Africa—the theo­
retical favorite since the finding 
o f th e  b o n e s  o f Lucy 
(A ustralopithecus afarensis) in 
Ethiopia by Donald Johanson’s 
team  in 1973. Berger tells the 
story in a largely autobiographi­
cal fashion, enticing readers into 
the excitement of the search in a 

s u b t le , p e r s o n a l w ay . T h e  r o b u s t 
australopiths of South Africa, according to 
the author, share more characteristics with 
our remote ancestor Homo ha bilis than Lucy, 
w ho was an evolutionary dead end. The 
answ er lies in the postcranial fossil bones
(those below  the head), w hich are much 
rarer than crania and have not been studied 
as closely. Read this book and you w on't 
ever again consider tibias trivial. $26.00. 
National G eographic Adventure Press. ISBN 
0-7922-7682-5.

The Inca World: The Development of Pre­
Columbian Peru, A.D. 1000-1534, edited 
by Laura Laurencich Minelli (240 pages, 
March 2000), is an English translation of a 
1992 Italian w ork that examines the social, 
political, and artistic structures of the Late In-

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


C&RL News ■  July/August 2000 / 677

termediate and Inca Empire periods in Peru. 
Various contributors look at the ceramic styles 
o f the different señ oríos or chiefdoms; the 
Sicán, Chimú, and Chincha cultures; ceramic, 
goldwork, and textile arts; the cultural im­
portance o f the Ceja de Selva region in sup­
plying coca and exotic bird feathers; the ori­
gins o f the Incas and their enem ies, the 
Chanca; the economic and political system 
o f the Inca Empire at its height; the use of 
the quipu; and the prodigious stoneworks 
that constitute Incan architecture. One find­
ing is that the instability o f the Inca state, and 
the discontent of its inhabitants who were 
continually forced to till the state lands as 
serfs, was responsible for the collapse o f the 
empire, rather than a handful o f adventur­
ous Conquistadors. $49-95. University o f 
Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3221-3.

M i l e n i o s  d e  M é x ic o ,  by H u m berto
Musacchio (3,384 pages, 3 vols., July 2000), 
is a lavishly illustrated, full-color, hardcover, 
Spanish-language encyclopedia about every­
thing and everyone Mexican. Antiquities, 
geography, science, art, sports, popular cul­
ture, music, literature, food, religion, and 
social and educational institutions are all cov­
ered in some depth with a large number of 
specific entries. The biographical information 
in these volumes alone justifies their acquisi­
tion, and the number and type o f graphics 
leave many American encyclopedias o f simi­
lar size and scope behind in a cloud o f dust. 
Musacchio is an internationally recognized 
journalist and contributor to such periodicals 
as R eform a and ¡Siem pre! A superb reference 
work for anyone studying Mexican history 
or the Spanish language. $289.00. Whitehurst 
& Clark, 100 Newfield Ave., Edison, NJ 08837. 
ISBN 968-6565-34-5.

A  N a t u r a lis t 's  G u id e  t o  t h e  Tro p ics, by 
Marco Lambertini (312 pages, May 2000), 
covers the flora and fauna o f all tropical re­
gions in Asia, Africa, and South America. Di­
rected at tourists who return home “with only 
the memory o f large hotels and restaurants, 
or o f beaches that all seem ed to b e about 
the sam e,” this guide intends to inspire lofty 
ecotourism in the most jaded o f beach bums. 
The chapters describe the clim ate, soils, 
plants, animals, mangroves, forests, coral 
reefs, savannas, deserts, and ecology o f those

latitudes betw een 230 north and south. As 
Lambertini proclaims, “It is time that the natu­
ral life o f our planet b e felt as a common 
patrimony.” This is a text for “responding to 
many o f the curiosities and questions that 
arise spontaneously in the tropical tourist 
w ho has taken an interest in the natural 
w orld.” A field guide to skim and savor. 
$25.00. University o f Chicago Press. ISBN 0- 
226-46828-3.

O n ce  u p o n  a n  A m e r ic a n  D re a m : The 
S t o r y  o f  E u r o  D is n e y la n d , by Andrew 
Lainsbury (292 pages, March 2000), ponders 
w hether the French them e park was an 
American exp ort or a E uropean import. 
Lainsbury, a Disney fan and form er em ­
ployee, looks at its vision, its blunders, and 
its rescue by a Saudi Arabian prince. This is 
the story o f how Disney imagineers rein­
vented their narrow American entertainment 
concept to becom e a global corporate en­
terprise. $35-00. University Press o f Kansas. 
ISBN 0-7006-0989-X.

T h e  O r a n g u t a n s , by Gisela Kaplan and 
Lesley J. Roberts (192 pages, May 2000), does 
for the red tree apes o f Indonesia what Jan e 
Goodall and Dian Fossey did for chimps and 
gorillas. The authors give an intimate, first­
hand account o f orangutan mothering skills, 
learning capacity, problem-solving abilities, 
tool use, visual and vocal signaling, and mat­
ing activities. An introductory section ex­
plains the evolution o f the great apes and 
explains the orangutan’s specialized adap­
tations. Unfortunately, given their rapidly 
dwindling rain-forest habitat, orangutans face 
a bleak future. Kaplan and Roberts provide 
many photos that capture characteristic or­
angutan facial expressions. $23.00. Perseus. 
ISBN 0-7382-0290-8.

Anne E. Russon’s O rangutans: W izards 
o f  th e R ain  Forest (222 pages, March 2000), 
is an excellent, well-illustrated supplement 
that documents the behaviors o f a group of 
red apes at a research site, Camp Leakey, in 
Borneo. These orangutans’ ability to mimic 
human behaviors resulted in their helping 
to wash clothes, weed camp paths, hammer 
and chop wood, sw eep porches, and per­
form other tasks that kept the camp func­
tioning. $29.95. Firefly Books. ISBN 1-55209- 
453-7. ■