Xpress Reviews: Nonfiction | First Look at New Books, February 24, 2012

Week ending February 24, 2012

Eck, Diana L. India: A Sacred Geography. Harmony: Crown. Mar. 2012. c.560p. photogs. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780385531900. $27. REL
India is a country built from the ground up on the activity of its gods and heroes. The stories of the Purānas, the Rig Veda, the Mahābhārata, and the Upanishads can be followed by devotees traveling ancient pilgrimage routes in the hills, rivers, mountains, and forests. The temples throughout India stand where the gods stepped down onto the earth and where Avatars departed again for heaven. Rocks, streams, and soil are all holy in Indian thinking. Eck (comparative religion & Indian studies, Harvard; A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation) here systematizes the complex relationships between geography and Hindu piety in very great detail, making the book valuable for its thoroughness. This also means that it is dense and not an easy read. The terminology is frequently technical and will be unfamiliar except to specialists in Hindu observance.
Verdict This will be very useful mainly as a source on the geography, history, and culture of India. Because of its depth and complexity of discussion, it will best serve specialists and scholars.—James F. DeRoche, Alexandria, VA

Porter, Lucinda K. Free from Hepatitis C: Your Complete Guide to Healing Hepatitis C. Square One. 2011. 192p. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780757003394. pap. $16.95. HEALTH
When Porter contracted hepatitis C in 1988 from a blood transfusion, not much was known about the disease. It didn’t even have an official name! In the years since, Porter, now a registered nurse and columnist, has become an expert in the field of hepatitis C, eventually working at Stanford University Medical Center’s hepatology division. She presents the wealth of her knowledge in this book, as she discusses treatment options, self-care methods, managing side effects, and maintaining overall health while undergoing treatment. She also includes basic information about what hepatitis C is and how it is contracted. The book contains a glossary and a brief bibliography as well as an extensive list of resources, including many websites, on various aspects of the disease.
Verdict Porter’s experience of being a hepatitis C patient and nurse is reflected throughout. This title should be quite useful for people facing hepatitis C and for readers who wish to learn more to help family members and friends. Highly recommended as a resource.—Karen Sutherland, White Oak Lib. Dist., Romeoville, IL

Preston, Paul. The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain. Norton. Mar. 2012. c.464p. illus. index. ISBN 9780393064766. $29.95. HIST
Some may question use of the term holocaust in reference to the Spanish Civil War, but Preston makes the case for its applicability by detailing horrors that have been largely ignored and repressed until quite recently. Preston (international history, London Sch. of Economcs; We Saw Spain Die) successfully shows the parallels between Nazi Germany’s mantra of Jewish duplicity and methods of torture and General Franco’s actions. Seeing the repressed workers as subhuman and with support from the clergy and landowners, Franco launched a sickening campaign of annihilation regardless of guilt or innocence, waging war against the existing Democratic and reformist government. Preston does not ignore the Republic’s own deadly reactions, but he does show that the Republic largely tried to maintain a level of democracy and not wage a “total war.”
Verdict Delineating the atrocities in both words and with maps and meticulously detailing the various forms of torture and slaughter, this work is for a scholarly audience. Academic collections should purchase this definitive and exhaustive study as it offers, in one volume, a needed perspective on the era.—Maria Bagshaw, Elgin Community Coll. Lib., IL

Tripp, Elise Forbes. American Veterans on War: Personal Stories from WWII to Afghanistan. Olive Branch: Interlink. 2011. 475p. photogs. ISBN 9781566568678. pap. $20. HIST
Tripp’s latest book is an oral history of war as told by the men and women who fought in the major global conflicts of the last 70 years. Tripp (Surviving Iraq: Soldiers’ Stories) interviewed veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their narratives, edited but told strictly in each narrator’s words, tell the stories of young men and women who experienced war firsthand. Because Tripp decided to focus mainly on enlisted soldiers rather than officers, the stories that the reader encounters are unvarnished and thus all the more gripping. While the tales of battle are interesting, the most compelling narratives are those that delve into veterans’ opinions of war—both when they fought and regarding subsequent conflicts. Some of the chapters are deeply reflective and moving; while many of the pieces are variations on a theme, there is certainly a diversity of opinion and perspective from chapter to chapter.
Verdict Sure to be of interest to military history buffs, veterans, and students interested in first-person nonfiction.—Julie Edwards, Univ. of Montana Lib., Missoula