ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ July/August 2003 / 479 N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s George M. Eberhart E-Book Functionality: W hat Libraries and Their Patrons W ant and Expect from Elec­ tronic Books, by Susan Gibbons, Thomas A. Pe­ ters, and Robin Bryan (138 pages, June 2003), out­ lines the m ost useful characteristics o f e-books, concluding that library users expect them to have all the same features as paper books w ith such added benefits as m ultimedia capability, linking, forms, and access to relevant discussion lists. An annotated bibliography o f materials on e-book features serves as the core o f this publication. $34.99. ALA Library and Inform ation Technology Association. ISBN 0- 8389-8229-8. Encyclopedia o f Christmas and New Year’s Celebrations, by Tanya Gulevich (977 pages, 2d ed., April 2003 ), is a major expansion o f the 1999 edition, containing nearly 240 entries on the his­ tory, legends, customs, symbols, and worldwide ob­ servances o f C hristm as and western N ew Year’s traditions. Find o u t about the symbolism o f St. Basil’s bread in Greece, the star o f Bethlehem, was­ sailing the fruit trees, Christmas in Lebanon and Iraq, the first Christmas card in 1843, and the win­ ter goddesses o f northern Europe. A handy guide with a substantial bibliography and webliography. $68.00. Omnigraphics. ISBN 0-7808-0625-5. Encyclopedia of Cuba, edited by Luis Martínez- Fernández, D . H . Figueredo, Louis A. Pérez Jr., and Luis Gonzalez (688 pages, 2 vols., January 2003), encompasses all o f Cuban history and society from the colonial period to the present. D ivided in to 12 subject areas (including geography, literature, performing arts, and the C u b a n diaspora), the book’s 81 contributors offer a balanced view o f the isla n d ’s c u ltu re and p o litic s , se e k in g to avoid such distortions as crediting all progress in C uba to the Revolution or blaming it for every misfortune. T he essays are George M. Eberhart is senior e d ito r o f Am erican Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org both biographical (Reinaldo Arenas, José M artí) and topical (educational system, Cienfuegos Province, Cubans in the U.S. music industry), with many black- and-white illustrations and several pages o f color plates. An excellent choice for either general or Latin American collections. $174.95. Greenwood. ISBN 1-57356-334-X. Encyclopedia o f Food and Culture, edited by Solomon H . Katz and William Woys Weaver (3 vols., Decem ber 2002), contains 600 articles on food, festivals, food production, nutrition, and eat­ ing customs around the world. Though written for a college-level audience, the essays range from the scientific and historical to the provocative and in­ triguing w ith numerous sidebars and subsections on such topics as “T he French Influence on Lunch,” “H ow to Use Chopsticks,” and the lyrics to “Great Green Globs o f Greasy Grimy G opher G uts.” Par­ ticularly useful for students o f anthropology and sociology as well as cuisine. $ 3 9 5 .0 0 . C harles Scribner’s. ISBN 0-684-80658-5. G o o g le Hacks, by T ara Calishain a nd Rael D ornfest (330 pages, M arch 2003), contains a wealth o f tips and tools to enhance the Google searching experience. T he first two chapters delve in to special syntaxes (site:, inurl:, phonebook:) and special services (groups, images, news), which alone are w orth a close look. M ost o f the rest o f the book requires you to obtain a Google W eb A PI, w hich allows program m atic access to the Google index and the ability to run scripts using Perl or Java, b u t the last chapters offer Google pranks a nd games, and tips on maximizing the Google effectiveness o f your W eb site. $24.95. O ’Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00447-8. Library: An U n q u ie t History, by M atthew Batdes (245 pages, June 2003), examines the chal­ lenges and redefinitions that the library as an insti­ tution has survived throughout the ages. In a series o f essays on the social function o f libraries, Battles covers ancient and medieval collections, Jonathan Swift’s satire “The Batde o f the Books,” the accom­ plishments o f Antonio Panizzi and Melvil Dewey, Nazi book burnings, and the destruction o f Bosnian libraries by Serbian nationalists. Harvard’s collec­ tions are also m entioned frequently, as Battles is mailto:geberhart@ala.org 480 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2003 coordinating editor o f the Harvard Library Bulle­ tin. $24.95. W . W. N orton. ISBN 0-393-02029-0. M ale Witches in Early Modern Europe, by Lara Apps and Andrew Gow (190 pages, April 2003), examines the significance o f the arrests and trials o f male witches during the European witch craze of the 15th– 18th centuries. Although Apps and Gow do n ot dispute the feminist analy­ sis that patriarchy and misogyny were primary causes o f the persecution, they effectively chal­ lenge the marginalization of male witches by such authors as Anne Barstow ( Witchcraze, 1994) and the assumption by Stuart Clark ( Thinking with De­ mons, 1997) that male witches were conceptually impossible for contemporary demonologists. The authors examine the Malleus malefìcarum and other texts, including the narrative o f Johannes Junius, who was burned at the stake in Bamberg, Ger­ many, in 1628. $ 24.95. Manchester University. ISBN 0-7190-5709-4. Nostradamus: L’éternel retour, b y Hervé Drévillon and Pierre Lagrange (127 pages, April 2003), is a solid 21st-century reassessment o f the famous 16th-century French physician, astrolo­ ger, prophet, and poet Michel de Nostredam e, b e tte r k n o w n as Nostradam us. A well- researched overview by historian Drévillon and sociologist Lagrange, this French-language pa p erb a ck highlights the differing interpre ta tio n s o f N o s tr a d a m u s ’s p u r posely obscure prophe cies, and includes the hoaxed q u a tra in s on the Internet that fooled people into thinking he had predicted the September 11 terrorist attacks. T he historic illustrations will appeal to bibliophiles. In short, a good update to such comprehensive works as Edgar Leoni’s Nostradamus and His Proph­ ecies (1961) and Peter Lemesurier’s Nostradamus Encyclopedia (1997). E U R 11.60. Gallimard. ISBN 2-07-076748-5. The Secrets o f W ild flowers: A Delightful Feast of Little-Known Facts, Folklore, and History, by Jack Sanders (304 pages, April 2003), fits well into the genre of the old-style natural- h is to ry b o o k th a t weaves b o ta n y , fo lk lo re , herbalism, and poetry (including some verse o f his own) into satisfying descriptions o f 74 N o rth American wildflowers, arranged by the season in which they bloom. Sanders also provides color photos o f each flower and an annotated bibliogra­ phy o f other wildflower books. $24.95. Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-668-1. Stagolee shot Billy, by Cecil Brown (296 pages, April 2003), tells the real-life story o f the 1895 m urder in St. Louis o f Billy Lyons by Lee Shelton, also known as Stagolee or Stack Lee. T he incident has been commemorated in jazz, folk, r&b, and rock ballads ever since. Brown makes a good case for the persistence o f Stagolee as an archetypal “bad m an” figure in African-American culture, b ut he is on a bit shakier ground when he assumes a historical basis for certain recurring elements in the music. H e also appears to be unaware of the details or even the date o f Shelton’s second trial in 1 897 a n d seems obsessed w ith p ro v in g the m urderer’s occupation as a pim p even though the documentary evidence is thin. Nevertheless, his treatm ent o f the Stagolee folklore and musical variants is w orth exam ining. $29.95. Harvard University. ISBN 0-674-01056-6. Strategic Bombing by the United States in World War II: The Myths and the Facts, by Stewart Halsey Ross (244 pages, January 2003), calls into question the supposed precision o f the air raids in Europe and Japan during the war and argues that the indiscriminate bom bing of civilian centers actually did little to hasten the end o f the war. Ross, who participated in bom b accuracy tests for the U .S. A rm y O rd n a n c e C o rp s at Edwards Air Force Base in the mid-1950s, also discusses the stress levels among the airmen, who knew that the likelihood o f their completing a 25- mission tour w ithout getting killed, wounded, or c a p tu re d w as ro u g h ly 50 p e rc e n t. $ 3 9 .9 5 . McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1412-X. You Can Prevent Global W arm ing (And Save M o n e y !): 51 Easy Ways, by Jeffrey Langholz and Kelly Turner (370 pages, April 2003), provides many practical tips on energy efficiency, from using less paper and installing sun-control window screens to car pooling and composting. Each section gives an estimate on the annual cost savings as well as the am ount o f carbon dioxide n ot emitted by adopting the featured suggestion. An easy read, b ut lacks an index. $ 10.95. Andrews McMeel. ISBN 0-7407-3327-3. ■