jan09c.indd


George M. Eberhart N e w  P u b l i c a t i o n s  

A Basket of Leaves: 99 Books That Capture 
the Spirit of Africa, by Geoff Wisner (289 
pages, April 2008), consists of reviews and 
brief excerpts from books, both fi ction and 
nonfiction, that encapsulate the best writing 
about each country in Africa. The authors are 
African (Chinua Achebe), Caribbean (V. S. 
Naipaul), American (Maya Angelou), and Eu­
ropean (Lawrence Durrell); some are white, 
others black; the original languages include 
English, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, 
and Arabic; 28 were written or coauthored 
by women; and some will be difficult to lo­
cate. All are enticingly described and should 
inspire some budding Africanists to engage in 
some fascinating reading. An appendix lists 
Wisner’s suggestions for further study—nov­
els, poetry, plays, history, academic works, 
and photography—all arranged by country. 
$25.95. Jacana Media. 978­1­77009­206­8. 

Faces of the Confederacy: An Album of 
Southern Soldiers and Their Stories, by 
Ronald S. Coddington (320 pages, Decem­

ber 2008), brings to 
life the fragmented 
backgrounds of 82 
Confederate soldiers 
pictured on cartes de 
visite of the 1860s. 
Coddington has hit 
upon a unique and 
fascinating niche in 
the seemingly end­
less march of Civil 
War books. This one 
is a sequel to his 

Faces of the Civil War (2004), which matched 
the images of ordinary Union privates, ser­
geants, lieutenants, and captains with brief 
memoirs of their war experiences. With 
Southern veterans the documentary trail is 
much harder to pick up, making the author’s 

George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, 
e-mail: geberhart@ala.org 

biographical vignettes all the more extraor­
dinary. The earnestness, defiance, and des­
peration on the faces of these men resonates 
with a modern audience, once their stories 
are known. $29.95. Johns Hopkins Univer­
sity. 978­0­8018­9019­2. 

Introduction to Fire in California, by David 
Carle (195 pages, August 2008), serves as a 
field guide to the physics, ecology, history, 
deterrence, and management of wildfi res in 
California. Carle, who has already written 
similar guides to the state’s water and air, ex­
amines the types of vegetation that are con­
ducive to fi re, fi refighting tactics and weap­
ons, and how best to become a fi re­adapted 
resident. Online resources, references, and a 
glossary are provided. $18.95. University of 
California. 978­0­520­25577­7. 

The Marco Polo Odyssey, by Harry Rutstein 
(270 pages + DVD, September 2008), tells the 
story of three separate expeditions (1975, 1981, 
and 1985) in which the author became the fi rst 
person, according to the Royal Geographic So­
ciety, to successfully follow the same eastward 
route to China as the 13th­century Venetian travel­
er Marco Polo. Rutstein intersperses the narrative 
of his own adventures with comparable passages 
from Marco Polo’s Description of the World and 
numerous color photos. The DVD contains the 
1981 documentary On the Roof of the World 
with Marco Polo that chronicles his second 
expedition over the rugged Hindu Kush and 
Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan. 
$27.95. Marco Polo Foundation/Bennett & 
Hastings. 978­0­9802076­0­6. 

For those who want to know more about 
Marco Polo, the book to get is Laurence Ber­
green’s Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu 
(Alfred A. Knopf, 2007); a useful index makes up 
somewhat for its lack of maps. If you enjoy mod­
ern epic voyages, you might want to try Who 
Needs a Road? by Harold Stephens and Albert 
Podell (1968, reprinted in 1999 by Wolfenden), 
who traveled around the world in 1965 driving a 

C&RL News January 2009  60 

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


Toyota Land Cruiser 
and camper; Paddle 
to the Amazon, by 
Don Starkell (1989, 
reprinted 1994 by 
McClelland & Stew­
art), who paddled a 
canoe with his son 
Dana all the way 
from Winnipeg to 
the mouth of the 

Amazon River in 1980–1982; and Long Way 
Round, by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boor­
man (Atria Books, 2004), who traveled around 
the world by motorcycle (the event was also 
made into a documentary TV series available 
on DVD). 

The Portable MLIS: Insights from the Ex­
perts, edited by Ken Haycock and Brooke E. 
Sheldon (296 pages, July 2008), presents 18 
different perspectives on the core competen­
cies needed for a career in library and infor­
mation science, from leadership and mana­
gerial skills to search and research expertise. 

Charles McClure provides a useful chapter 
on evaluation of library services, and Richard 
E. Rubin contributes a lively chapter on the 
past and future missions of libraries. $50.00. 
Libraries Unlimited. 978­1­59158­547­3. 

Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical 
Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 
1494–2007, by Micheal Clodfelter (831 pages, 
3d ed., July 2008), is a modest update of the 
author’s 2002 effort. A new chapter on 21st­
century conflicts consists of descriptions and 
statistics on the September 11 and later terrorist 
attacks, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion of 
Iraq and the insurgency, and the Israeli­Hizbol­
lah War. Ten other conflicts have been added, 
including the Anabaptist War of 1534–35, the 
Taiwan Rebellion of 1915, the Darfur and So­
mali rebellions, and the Second Intifada. Ten 
sections offer expanded coverage, among 
them the Chechnya Wars, the Buhutu upris­
ings, the Congolese Civil War, and Burmese re­
bellions and massacres. An excellent purchase 
if you don’t own the earlier edition. $245.00. 
McFarland. 978­0­7864­3319­3. 

January 2009  61 C&RL News