feb09c.indd George M. Eberhart N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s Crunch! A History of the Great American Potato Chip, by Dick Burhans (203 pages, August 2008), chronicles the potato chip industry from its accidental begin­ nings in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the 1850s to Lau­ ra Scudder’s inven­ tion of the airtight paper bag in the 1920s, the PepsiCo monopoly proceed­ ings in the 1960s, the Pringles contro­ versy (“is it a chip?”) in the 1970s, and the reemergence of small­time kettle­chip mak­ ers in the 1990s. A chapter on nutrition re­ views chip calories (Snyder’s of Hanover has one of the lowest counts), trans fats, olestra, carbs, and acrylamide. Burhans salts his nar­ rative with quotes from many potato chip producers and cites facts and statistics from an impressive number of industry sources. $26.95. University of Wisconsin. 978­0­299­ 22770­8. David Lynch: Beautiful Dark, by Greg Ol­ son (731 pages, September 2008), analyzes the personality and films of director Da­ vid Lynch (b. 1946), who achieved a sur­ realist and quirky cult status for Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Twin Peaks (1990–1991), and Mulholland Drive (2001). Olson’s insights into the director’s syner­ gies are fi ne­tuned: “In Blue Velvet, the inner chambers of an ear, which dissolved into the front door of a beautiful high school girl’s house, were the entryway to adventures of self­discovery for a Lynchian hero, and in Mulholland Drive the open, unattended door of a Hollywood apartment is a similar gateway for our anonymous accident survi­ George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org vor.” With unprecedented access to Lynch, his parents, family, and colleagues, Olson has captured and defined the raw, mysteri­ ous energy that flows through the works of this iconoclastic auteur. $49.95. Scarecrow. 978­0­8108­5917­3. Julian Rice’s analysis of six Stanley Kubrick films, in Kubrick’s Hope (281 pages, November 2008), pales by com­ parison, although his blow­by­blow de­ scription of the complexities of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut helps uncover the Jungian sources of Kubrick’s perspective. Other cogent analyses of these films include Stanley Kubrick: Es­ says on His Films and Legacy, edited by Gary Don Rhodes (McFarland, 2008), and Stanley Kubrick: Seven Films Analyzed (McFarland, 2005). $40.00. Scarecrow. 978­0­8108­6206­7. Foundations of New World Cultural Astron­ omy: A Reader with Commentary, edited by Anthony Aveni (826 pages, September 2008), brings together some 35 hard­to­fi nd articles, papers, and book extracts that are important to the study of what used to be called archaeoastronomy but is increasingly known—especially among New World researchers—as cul­ tural astronomy. The contributions exam­ ine the many ways in which the knowledge and use of astronomical principles can be deduced from ethnographic information, in conjunction with written records (for the Classic Maya culture at least) and Old World techniques of establishing astronomical alignments. Aveni also includes studies that take a hard look at several sites that have entered popular culture as “great mysteries” C&RL News February 2009 128 mailto:geberhart@ala.org (the geoglyphs of Nazca, rock art records of the Crab Nebula supernova, and the Chaco Canyon sun dagger). A superlative supple­ mentary reader for courses in both astron­ omy and archaeology. $34.95. University Press of Colorado. 978­0­87081­900­1. From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor, by Steven M. Cahn (84 pages, August 2008), hands out solid advice for graduate students who wish to pursue a career in academia. Cahn dis­ cusses writing a dissertation, job interviews, teaching techniques, turning research into publications, acquiring tenure, and making the right choices. $49.50. Columbia Univer­ sity. 978­0­231­14532­9. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Literature: A Genre Guide, by Ellen Bosman and John P. Bradford, and edited by Robert B. Ridinger (422 pages, June 2008), serves as a readers’ advisory for adults seeking in­ teresting fiction, biography, and drama with a GLBT theme or written by GLBT authors. Introductory chapters provide a historical overview of gay and lesbian literature, in­ formation on GLBT book awards, and an examination of the genre’s appeal, myths, and controversies. Reviews are arranged by popular genre or format (fantasy, romance, mystery, HIV/AIDS, coming out, comics, drama) and tagged according to orientation. Award­winning titles are prominent. $60.00. Libraries Unlimited. 978­1­59158­194­9. George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter, by P. H. Carder (239 pages, September 2008), chronicles the life of renowned songwriter and music teacher George Frederick Root (1820–1895), whose “Battle Cry of Freedom” became one of the most popular songs of the Civil War and the campaign song for Lincoln’s reelection in 1864. Root lost his business in the Chicago fire of 1871, but continued writing popular songs, including an operetta based on the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves story. $45.00. McFarland. 978­0­7864­3374­2. The Handy Astronomy Answer Book, by Charles Liu (332 pages, October 2008), pro­ vides concise answers to commonly posed questions about planets, stars, space explo­ ration, and the universe, and thus serves both as a ready­reference source and be­ ginner’s guide to the cosmos. Liu, an as­ trophysicist at the College of Staten Island and columnist for Natural History, is adept at describing dark matter and dark energy, explaining the importance of active galaxies and quasars, summarizing the discoveries of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, and detailing what would happen if you were to get too close to a black hole. As with other titles in this series, the book is lavishly illus­ trated with photographs, diagrams, and art. $21.95. Visible Ink. 978­1­57859­193­0. Indexing for Editors and Authors, by Fred Leise, Kate Mertes, and Nan Badgett (148 pages, May 2008), is intended for those who are either writing or editing books, but oth­ ers may be interested in discovering the characteristics of a good index, different types of indexes, tactics for reducing index space and length, and the relationships be­ tween author, editor, and indexer. The chap­ ter on how editors should assess an index can be useful for librarians who are apprais­ ing an index in a reference book for a book review. $40.00. American Society of Index­ ers. 978­1­57387­334­5. The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret, by Seth Shulman (256 pages, January 2008), makes a good case that Alexander Graham Bell stole a key con­ cept for his telephone from a caveat fi led at the U.S. Patent Office by inventor Elisha Gray on the same day as Bell’s patent ap­ plication. The smoking gun is a sketch in Bell’s laboratory notebook, digitized and placed online by the Library of Congress in 1999, that resembles a drawing in Gray’s ca­ veat. The similarity was close enough that Shulman decided to look into some of the telephone’s historical secrets. $24.95. W. W. Norton. 978­0­393­06206­9. February 2009 129 C&RL News