Books for Grownups Reviews August 2011 – Fiction, Nonfiction, Self Help/How-to Guides

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Books for Grownups — August 2011

AARP The Magazine and the editors of Publishers Weekly have teamed up to let you know about the latest fiction, nonfiction and how-to books of interest to you. Once you've checked out the selections below, visit Publishers Weekly for reviews, author Q-and-A's and more.

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Book List

Screams & Whispers: A Cape Islands Novel

By Randall Peffer (Tyrus, $24.95)
Michael Decastro, a former public defender, reunites with Tuki Aparecio, the half-Vietnamese, half-African-American diva who has already broken his heart — twice — in previous installments of this operatic and sexy crime series. In this, the sixth novel in the series, powerfully ambivalent images of the Vietnam War conjure an effective backdrop — and may well send you back to read book one.

Crime Fraîche

By Alexander Campion (Kensington, $24)
Food and France are constantly allied — and constantly alluring. Campion’s second mystery takes Paris cop Capucine Le Tellier and her food-critic husband to Normandy, where they look into two fatal shooting “accidents” that occurred at the height of pheasant-hunting season. In the course of their murder investigation, bien sûr, Mme Le Tellier et son mari manage to polish off a few memorable meals.

The Storm at the Door

By Stefan Merrill Block (Random House, $25)
Inspired by the real-life story of his grandparents, Block has crafted a powerful and disturbing tale of a couple who descend into crisis during the 1960s: An exasperated wife commits her eccentric, alcoholic husband to a mental institution (a fictional facility, but based closely on McLean Hospital outside Boston). What goes on inside is a version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — with the funny bits removed.

Millennium People

By J. G. Ballard (Norton, $29.95)
Best known for his novels Crash and Empire of the Sun (both made into films), Ballard was fond of placing his protagonist in a moral crucible. He is as dark and comic and wildly entertaining as ever in this novel, his first to be published in the U.S. in a decade (Ballard died in 2009). In it psychologist David Markham infiltrates a group of middle-class Brits conspiring to overthrow the government and finds himself alternately amused by the nut bunch and mesmerized by its charismatic leader.

Conquistadora

By Esmeralda Santiago (Knopf, $26.95)
Gone With the Wind, gone to Puerto Rico: passion, drama, slave revolts, cholera and sugar cane. This sweeping saga features aristocratic Ana, a beautiful, steel-cored heroine who cares more about her plantation than the men falling at her feet. After marrying the twin brother of her best friend’s fiancé (got all that?), Ana heads off to the Caribbean — minus the “best friend.” The twins are intent on making a fortune in sugar, but Ana — surprise! — turns out to be the one with the head for business. She also steals the heart of a powerful man set on making her his wife.

The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers

By Scott Carney (William Morrow, $25.99)
Carney probes not the black market but the red market — the worldwide underground economy in human organs. He chillingly chronicles how bones, kidneys, ligaments, wombs and human hair are being harvested from the world’s poorest people and shipped to the West. Carney’s cures for shutting down this global “body bazaar” must be heeded.

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit

By Barry Estabrook (Andrews McMeel, $19.99)
This eye-opening exposé may send you running straight for the nearest farmers market. Vermont journalist Estabrook traces the sad, tasteless life of the mass-produced tomato, from its chemical-saturated origins in south Florida to its current perch in far-flung supermarkets. Getting hit with a tomato these days might be more mortal than mortifying.

Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America

By Christopher Turner (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35)
Remember the “orgasmatron” that nearly fried Woody Allen’s… brain in Sleeper? It was based in fact: A machine for “sexual enhancement” had been devised by Austrian-American psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich in 1940 (the good doctor also coined the phrase “sexual revolution” in the 1930s). Turner relates the drama and tragedy that entwined Reich, who believed that sexual and political revolution go hand in hand.

Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues

By Bill Moyers (New Press, $29.95)
There’s no small talk in these interviews with 47 “independent thinkers,” which were culled from Moyers’s third PBS series (2007-2010). The topics are all over the map — faith, populism, aging, lynching in America, health care, capitalism, capital punishment — and the guest list ranges just as wide, from John Lithgow to Jane Goodall. These challenging, engaged conversations will reward the reader’s serious attention.

Teach Us to Sit Still: A Skeptic’s Search for Health and Healing

By Tim Parks (Rodale, $25.99)
An unenviable affliction prompts a profound journey of self-discovery in this astringent medical memoir. When novelist Parks came down with chronic pelvic cramps and urinary difficulties, he was forced to relieve himself six times a night. His prose is mordantly funny — self-conscious, but never self-pitying — and it makes for an absorbing and inspiring narrative of spiritual growth.

Protecting Your Parents’ Money: The Essential Guide to Helping Mom and Dad Navigate the Finances of Retirement

Jeff D. Opdyke (HarperBusiness, $15.99)
Veteran Wall Street Journal scribe Opdyke assembles a sympathetic guide to handling your parents’ finances when they can no longer do so. He explains how to navigate wills and powers of attorney, pensions and annuities, insurance policies, bills and Social Security. Opdyke also suggests scripts for those difficult conversations — can your parents age in place, for example, or must they move to a facility? — and charts a course for navigating the vagaries of Medicare and Medicaid.

Slow Gardening: A No-Stress Philosophy for All Senses and Seasons

By Felder Rushing (Chelsea Green, $29.95)
Forget the title: Rushing’s new book is in fact an invitation to make enjoyment and creative expression central to the gardening experience. Whether you favor strict formality or careless chaos — and even if digging in the dirt never made it onto your bucket list — Rushing’s enthusiasm and good humor are infectious.

Purple Citrus & Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean

By Silvena Rowe (Ecco, $34.99)
Visit the “kitchens of Turkey, Syria, Jordan, [and] Lebanon, the cuisines of the Europeans and Arabs, of Muslims, Christians, and Jews” with London-based chef, writer, and TV star Rowe. She offers her Turkish grandmother’s baba ghanoush (a staple of the Eastern Mediterranean) and easy recipes for the modern cook that celebrate the region’s classic ingredients, such as spiced pilaf with duck confit, raisins and pine nuts. Desserts are built around honey, figs, cinnamon and pistachio.

Overcoming Health Anxiety: Letting Go of Your Fear of Illness

Katherine M. B. Owens and Martin M. Antony. (New Harbinger, $16.95)
Even the healthy among us fear illness. Many more experience nagging or difficult-to-diagnose symptoms. For both groups, health anxiety can be debilitating. In this comprehensive guide, two therapists draw on the technique of cognitive behavioral therapy to help us modify the sort of thoughts and behavior that can unwittingly undermine our health.

Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet

Jack Norris and Virginia Messina (Da Capo Lifelong, $17)
Two longtime vegan dietitians explain how to evaluate medical studies, figure out nutritional needs and stock a vegan pantry. Add one or many of the available vegan cookbooks, and the transition will be easy. To say nothing of how cool you’ll become in your teenagers’ eyes….