No Place to Hide
by Robert O'Harrow
Published 2005 by Free Press

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0743254805

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Jacket Notes:

An award-winning "Washington Post" journalist takes readers on an unsettling ride behind the scenes of the emerging surveillance society where private companies and the government watch every move.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/29/2004

The amount of personal data collected on ordinary citizens has grown steadily over the decades, and after 9/11, corporations that had been amassing this information largely for marketing purposes saw an opportunity to strengthen their ties with the government. But what do we really know about these data collectors, and are they trustworthy? O'Harrow, a Pulitzer finalist who covers privacy and technology issues for the Washington Post, tracks the explosive growth of this surveillance industry, with keen attention to the problems that "inevitable mistakes" along the way have created in mainstream society, from victims of identity theft who have been placed in financial jeopardy to travelers detained at the airport because of the similarity of their names to those of criminal suspects. O'Harrow gives the government's push for increased surveillance heavy play, but he effectively presents the story's many sides, as when he juxtaposes the perspectives of a Justice Department attorney, a civil liberties activist and Senator Patrick Leahy in the first chapter. His evenhanded account underscores the caveats of surveillance, as well-intentioned people can deploy technologies for all the right reasons only to see their apparatuses misused later on. This is a thought-provoking, comprehensive account that strikes the right balance between dismissive and alarmist. Agent, Amy Rennert. (Jan. 12)

Everything Bad Is Good for You
by Steven Johnson
Published 2005 by Riverhead Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 1573223077

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From the bestselling author of "Mind Wide Open" comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/04/2005

Worried about how much time your children spend playing video games? Don't be, advises Johnson--not only are they learning valuable problem-solving skills, they'd probably do better on an IQ test than you or your parents could at their age. Go ahead and let them watch more television, too, since even reality shows can function as "elaborately staged group psychology experiments" to stimulate rather than pacify the brain. With the same winning combination of personal revelation and friendly scientific explanation he displayed in last year's Mind Wide Open, Johnson shatters the conventional wisdom about pop culture as pabulum, showing how video games, television shows and movies have become increasingly complex. Furthermore, he says, consumers are drawn specifically to those products that require the most mental engagement, from small children who can't get enough of their favorite Disney DVDs to adults who find new layers of meaning with each repeated viewing of Seinfeld. Johnson lays out a strong case that what we do for fun is just as educational in its way as what we study in the classroom (although it's still worthwhile to encourage good reading habits, too). There's an important message here for every parent--one they should hear from the source before savvy kids (especially teens) try to take advantage of it. Agent, Lydia Wills at Paradigm. (May)

10/01/2005 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Adult/High School -Johnson puts the much-maligned pastime of playing video games under the microscope and comes up with some startling conclusions concerning the intellectual value and cognitive demands of this pop-culture activity. He argues that it isn't the content of today's games that engages the mind and makes one smarter; rather, it is their ever-increasing level of complexity and sophistication that challenges the mind to grow neurologically. One only comes to understand how to play a game by probing the complex interfaces within its levels to see what works as one goes along. Johnson observes that this is much like real life. He urges parents to sit down with their children and play in order to understand just how mentally challenging the games can be. He extends his argument to TV series such as The Sopranos , 24 , Six Feet Under , and Law and Order , all of which, he argues, are "multi-threaded" and require viewers to think in order to follow the increasingly complex character and plot developments. While the book and its arguments endorsing the cognitive challenges of video games and other mass media are thought-provoking and somewhat convincing, Johnson is less successful in convincing readers that video games-especially the more violent ones-are good for a player's mental health. While the book should be of value for reports, don't be surprised if many students can't resist citing it the next time their parents ask why they haven't finished their homework.-Catherine Gilbride, Farifax County Public Library, VA

The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks
by Susan Casey
Published 2005 by Henry Holt & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 080507581X

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A journalist's obsession with the great white shark brings her to a remote island off the California coast, home to the world's most mysterious and fearsome predators--and the strange band of surfer-scientists who follow them.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 05/23/2005

From its startling opening description of scientists racing to the bloody scene where a shark has decapitated a seal, this memoir-cum-natural and cultural history of the Farallon Islands--"the spookiest, wildest place on Earth"--plunges readers into the thrills of shark watching. Casey, a sportswriter with recurring dreams about deep-sea creatures, "became haunted" by the 211-acre archipelago 27 miles west of San Francisco when she saw a BBC documentary about Peter Pyle and Scot Anderson, biologists who study the great white sharks there. The islands are the only place on Earth where scientists can study the animals in their natural habitat. These evolutionary ancients (sharks lived 200 million years before dinosaurs) can be as large as Mack trucks, eat suits of armor, are both fierce and friendly, and, according to Casey, are an addictive fascination for those lucky enough to encounter them. Casey's three-week solo stay on a yacht anchored in shark waters is itself an adventure, with the author evacuating just hours before the yacht disappeared in a storm. Her suspenseful narrative perfectly matches the drama and mystery of these islands, their resident sharks and the scientists who love them. Photos. Agent, Sloan Harris. (June)

Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters
by Dick Winters
Published 2006 by Berkley Publishing Group

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0425208133

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Winters' memoir, based on his wartime diary, includes the untold stories of his comrades--the Band of Brothers who suffered 150 percent casualties while liberating Europe.