As my co-workers well know, I am a massive fan of U2, and after several years of hinting about a band autobiography, The Boys, as I like to call Bono, Edge, Adam, and Larry, have delivered the goods. U2 by U2 arrives in stores September 26, but it arrived in the bookroom a week or so ago in all its coffee-table-sized glory (see my review in LJXPress, 9-26-06). Told in chronological order (1975–2006), the book alternates first-person accounts from each member and bursts with rare and previously unpublished photos. (My favorite so far: class pictures of the Boys as boys, at Dublin’s progressive Mount Temple school.) I’ve only just dipped into this trove of all things I love, but I’m proud to say their written voices match what they put forth in interviews and public appearances (check their intelligent and moving Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speeches from 2005). Although there was no doubt some degree of editing, Bono & Co. don’t need any doctoring to express their personalities and aims clearly. Just as in their music, they communicate both individuality and solidarity. This book is about four people, but moreover what happens when four people make beautiful music together.

Although LJ’s official word on The 9/11 Report: The Graphic Adaptation will come from longtime Graphic Novel columnist Steve Raiteri in the 9/15 issue, I feel compelled to flesh out the nascent opinion I put forth in Honoring Hope and Grief. In short, I closed the book feeling, dare I say, safer, though that’s not quite the right word. Knowledge can be a burden, especially when it involves the horrific intelligence failings of your government. In theory, I shouldn’t sleep more soundly at night knowing that President Bush and Congress have a precious long way to go before we’re in synch with the innovative terrorists (see the Postscript, a downer if there ever was one). Yet something in me refuses to be shaken up, and I think Eve Ensler hits on it in her forthcoming book, Insecure at Long Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World (Random, review forthcoming). In short, if the most powerful democracy in the world can ignore several warning signs pointing to a massive terrorist attack on home soil—indeed, Jacobson and Colón’s renderings of these signs can be compared to literary crack; you can’t ingest them fast enough; you want more, more, more—then why should I worry? Clearly, no one runs this fractured, crazy world, a strong theme of the book. Another theme: even in the direst circumstances, we can wrest control. See the superhuman efforts of the passengers and crew of United 93, honored in the early pages in simple, almost pastel-toned sketches with smatterings of red for blood. Never, I repeat, never, at any point is this cutting-edge book sensational. If anything, it downplays the horror and beauty of human nature.

In “In the bookroom,” it should be mentioned that our bookroom has recently had a bit of a face-lift (in actuality, a paper-lift, pulled off by myself and a few other diligent workers here at LJ that got to stretch their legs and rest their computer-glazed eyes for some good ol’ manual labor). In reorganizing, I was struck by the number and variety of interdisciplinary titles. Sorting books by category is getting harder than ever. On one hand, it gives me a good excuse to spend a few extra seconds flipping through each book we get and scanning the press materials. On the other, things can almost get sent to two different reviewers in different subject areas, and reviews get moved from one section to another and back again. Some other things have added to this idea in my head as it rolls along, picking up another layer of thought from another medium. Clayton A. Couch, our magazines reviewer, praises the Journal of Consciousness Studies in the Sept. 1 issue: “As knowledge of the universe is increasingly plagued by isolated, subject-specific academic discussion, there is a need for more publications that encourage interdisciplinary exchange, like the JCS…. [in which] the editors emphasize clarity of thought over jargon-laden language.” I also recently got an amusing Onion article, “Dewey Decimal System Helpless To Categorize New Jim Belushi Book,” delivered to my inbox by a coworker. (We categorized Real Men Don’t Apologize! as humor/lit in the May 15 issue.) Talk here about whether 9/11 books could be considered for the history category and a recent galley I opened that called a book “current events/history” are other things to think about. An intern said, “Well, it will be history one day.” Ain’t that the truth? I move to categorize everything as history from now on, and we’ll never have to change a thing.

It’s official. The ninth planet in our solar system is no more. Today in Prague the International Astronomers Union stripped Pluto of its planetary status, noting that the tiny celestial object did not meet new guidelines required to join the now exclusive club of eight ”classical” planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Already second-graders and other Plutonian fans are mourning Pluto’s fate. “I just can’t stand by and watch as the solar system’s Fat Girl gets pushed down into ever-more ignominious substrata of social ostracism”, writes NYTimes op-ed contributer Tim Kreiger. The reclassification also raises the interesting question of whether libraries will toss out their astronomy books, or at least tear out the Pluto chapter.

But, as they say, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings. Coming in January from Princeton University Press is Vanderbilt University astronomy professor David W. Weintraub’s Is Pluto a Planet? A Historical Journey through the Solar System, which traces the history of how ”planet” has been defined over the centuries. ”Our author would actually beg to differ with the IAU’s decision, ” writes Weintraub’s editor in an email to LJ. “Weintraub says that Pluto IS a planet—and not just a minor planet either. He argues that Ceres, Vesta, Pluto, and Sedna should all be called planets, and that in fact, the solar system has more than 20 planets!  But these objects are all more than just planets.  Pluto is a planet and a Plutino and a Kuiper Belt Object.  According to Weintraub, it’s unsatisfactory to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution, since there is a veritable zoo of different kinds of planets actually out there. Acknowledging this will give us a better sense for the reality of a complex and nuanced universe.” —Wilda Willams

I’m not going to pretend that this blog is anything but a blatant and tacky attempt to get that coveted commodity, reader feedback. Any librarian who posts at least a sentence-long comment on how we can improve the blog and/or LJ’s online Book Review content gets a free book of her/his choice. Hankering for some Elvis? I’ve got your medicine. Craving a first novel? I can set you up with the best. Just give me some love, people, and you’ll get some back. P.S. God bless Karl Helicher.

The man who gave the world one of the iconic images of World War II, of six marines raising an American flag on Iwo Jima’s volcanic Mount Suribachi near the start of the American assault to capture the Japanese-held island and its airfields, has died at age 94. Joe Rosenthal’s name never became as famous as that image. A fine book was published in May, Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph That Captured America, by longtime AP photo editor Hal Buell, telling the full story of the photograph (and including a short DVD). It is well worth making available to library patrons, along with other recent books about World War II. 

 The publication of books about various aspects of that war continues seemingly unabated. Three November titles, to be reviewed in LJ soon, are Lloyd Clark’s Anzio: Italy and the Battle for Rome, 1944 (Atlantic Monthly), James F. Hornfischer’s Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR’s Legendary Lost Cruiser… (Bantam), and Evan Thomas’s Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign: the War in the Pacific, 1941-1945 (S&S). 

In updating their war photography books so that they include today’s conflicts, librarians are faced with the decision of whether to acquire the books that present not simply sentimental, heroic or uplifting images from Iraq, but graphic shots of carnage and suffering. I assigned one of these books for review, Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq, published by Chelsea Green in January, a wrenching and disturbing look at the war’s impact upon Iraqi’s people. Later this year, Interlink Publishing will bring out Iraq: A War, a collection of Associated Press photographs from the conflict, described as showing “the true face of the US occupation of Iraq.” It is even more disturbing to view than the Chelsea Green title. Are librarians finding a place for these on their shelves, along with all the other Iraq books they must consider? 

Librarians, do you find that your readers are more interested in studying past military ventures, where there is the benefit of knowing “how it turned out” and without the anxiety caused by images of a war still underway? Military history seems as popular as ever and there have been attendant graphic images before. Numerous books on the Civil War are illustrated with Brady or Gardner’s unvarnished battlefield photos: the bloated dead in the sunken road at Antietam, for example. Those images  disturb less, perhaps, because, in any practical way, they are past reckoning with, and the black and white photography obscures the savagery of those battles.

Librarians, are you adding a full sampling of books assessing and reporting on the Iraq conflict? Or is there little demand for these books among either readers of military history or those wishing to keep a handle on current events? 

Thank you for posting your thoughts.

A year or so ago, I blogged about a legendary music club’s tooth-and-nail fight for its lease. Unfortunately, CBGBs has lost, and owner Hilly Kristal plans to relocate to, of all places, Las Vegas. This sad news arrived the same time as an upcoming book by the writers and editors of England’s MOJO magazine, Punk: The Whole Story (DK, review forthcoming). The idea: a celebration of punk’s 30th birthday by the people who were there and managed not to overdose. I didn’t have my nose an inch thick in its color-smeared pages when two reference, yes, reference books on the movement showed up: Al Spicer’s The Rough Guide to Punk (Rough Guides, review forthcoming) and Brian Cogan’s The Encyclopedia of Punk Music and Culture (Greenwood, review forthcoming). What’s it all mean? Now that the punk generation is graying, is another book boom coming? Beginning in the mid-1990s, punk literature revved up (see John Lydon’s autobiography). In the last three years, however, it’s slowed to a thin drool. This hardly makes sense in light of the recent inductions of the Ramones, Blondie, and the Sex Pistols into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Where, I wonder, are the definitive histories of those bands? Although it makes me feel a tad old at 30, I like the idea of somone documenting the soundtrack of my coming of age. Bring on The Oxford Companion to Sid Vicious’s Underpants; I’m ready.

Five years after 9/11, I’m experiencing a sea change. Books and movies on the topic became a no-no when, in 2003, I stupidly took home a photography book chronicling Twin Tower carnage. For a few nights, I had trouble sleeping—the image of a severed human leg had been burned into my brain. Then along came Oliver Stone’s movie, World Trade Center. A co-worker and I who were in New York on 9/11 confessed we both were eager to see it. Soon after, that same colleague remembered a passing comment I’d made at BEA about Sid Jacobsen and Ernie Colon’s The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation (Hill & Wang; review forthcoming) and left a spare copy on my desk. I let it sit and stare at me for a day, daring the book to scare me off. It didn’t. Although I’m only 20 pages in, I must say I’m riveted to the marrow, completely and utterly astounded by America’s innocence and naivite. The comic-book treatment does not, in my opinion, demean or sensationalize. Much like it did in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, it seems to cut through the cloud of confusion surrounding historical events, and I’m grateful more than anything.

On a related note, readers this time of year may be experiencing heightened anxiety and/or depression and looking to psychology books for help. Here are some relevant titles: Richard F. Mollica’s Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World (Harcourt; review forthcoming), Boris Cyrulnik’s The Whispering of Ghosts: Trauma and Resilience (Other Press), On the Ground After September 11: Mental Health Responses and Practical Knowledge Gained (Haworth), Patricia Carrington and others’ Love You, Mean It (Hyperion, review forthcoming), and John S. Dacey and Lisa B. Fiore’s The Safe Child Handbook (Wiley, review forthcoming).

Since I’m on the topic of money, I might as well spew about something that hits very close to home for me—Gen X and Y debt. It’s the subject of two somewhat “older” books that were well reviewed in LJ: Tamara Draut’s Strapped: Why America’s 20-and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead (Doubleday) and Anya Kamenetz’s Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time To Be Young (Riverhead). On one hand, these titles come as a relief because they identify a larger problem (read: I’m not alone, and that’s good to know). On the other, though they do an excellent job of identifying the root causes of my broke-as-a-jokeness (student loans, credit cards, the sky-rocketing cost of living), they were ignored by the media that sends messages to Washington. Back in the spring, I waited in vain for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert to invite one of the aforementioned authors on their show. The war in Iraq and Dick Cheney’s poor gun etiquette understandably hogged the headlines, but with the unending rise in oil prices, people are increasingly looking at their crap-ass domestic situations. Draut’s and Kamenetz’s books will hit nerves so hard, they’ll bruise readers. Put them out front in your stacks, and watch the circ stats peak higher than regular unleaded.

Good old Scrooge McDuck’s words ring true in the face of a recent survery of 950 employers by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. What it revealed is that most employers plan to keep raises at 3.7 percent in 2007, a depressing and demoralizing figure given the 4.7 percent projected Consumer Price Index for this year. What to do? Cunning corporate stiffs are looking to make themselves more valuable by acquiring “in-demand skills” and then putting them to good use. This strategy seems a sound one to the Mercer survey—IT employers in particular offer cash awards in place of raises for high performance. Librarians shouldn’t be surprised, then, if they notice an uptick in circulation among career and computer books. Check out the beta version of our Collection Development tool for help in building a quick-and-dirty display. And don’t forget Rachel Singer Gordon’s always-to-the-point computer book reviews, which will migrate online in October.