Cargo cults have long exerted a remarkable attraction on Westerners, and the last decade has seen the publication of much new work on the subject. This collection of original essays is based on fieldwork in Melanesia, Fiji, Australia, and Indonesia by scholars who are influential in the contemporary debate on cargo. Conceived as a reader for undergraduate and graduate courses, the volume offers an up-to-date view of the subject and the debates it arouses among contemporary anthropologists. Some contributors plead for the abolition of "cargo" because of its troublesome implications, but also because, in the authors' view, cargo cults do not exist as identifiable objects of study. Others argue that it is precisely this troublesome nature that makes the term a useful analytical tool that should be welcomed rather than rejected. By delineating and substantiating key issues and positions in this lively and ongoing debate, this volume underscores and refines the contemporary reevaluation of cargo cults.

Scholars of the Pacific region and others interested in new religious movements should find this volume both enlightening and compelling.

From the first page, Nancy Harmon Jenkins draws you deep into the soul of Tuscany, where she lives part of the year and where tradition heavily shades daily life. Jenkins calls Tuscans "the Yankees of Italy" because they are as frugal and plainspoken as the New Englanders with whom she grew up. Their food is elementally simple, relying heavily on the region's unique, salt-free bread, pane scicco, the intense olive oil that has become famous around the world, and beans slowly cooked in a tall clay pot, or fiasco.

Jenkins enthralls the reader as she discusses Tuscan food and how her friends and neighbors gather, raise, and prepare it. Flavors of Tuscanyis dense with good food. There are roasts, the bread-based soup ribollita, crostini, and less-known pleasures such as tomato-studded High Summer Risotto and Braised Sweet Pepper Stew. Jenkins's observations about a fast-changing way of living resonate with anyone who cares about quality of life. Her culinary descriptions may inspire you to build an outdoor brick oven or plan a trip to taste the wines, olive oil, and other special flavors of Tuscany. —Dana Jacobi

If you want a fascinating food book, say Cheese Primer. For 20 years, Steve Jenkins has lead the way in upgrading the quality of cheese sold at fine food stores in the U.S. Finally, in this volume, he shares his encyclopedic knowledge. Jenkins tells all about cheesemaking at the commercial as well as the artistic level. Generously punctuated with maps and photos, the book includes all kinds of historical and other relevant information. Jenkins seems to describe every kind of cheese made in the U.S. and Europe, including when to eat them, how and with what. His passion and blunt opinions make it easy to travel the 548 pages of this book if you have even the smallest interest in cheese. The guide to pronunciation is particularly helpful.

At the end of the day, Web services aren't hard to conceptualize. They're just a bunch of software modules with specific rules about how they go about discovering one another and sending messages back and forth. Implementation is another story, however. In the Java language, writing Web services requires an understanding of half a dozen specialized APIs at minimum, and more than that if you want to do fancier stuff. Java Web Servicesdoes a very good job of dispersing the confusing terminology (and obfuscating hype) and of showing you exactly how to doWeb services work in Java. This doesn't sound like a revolutionary concept, but unfortunately it is. David Chappell and Tyler Jewell have comfortably fit into less than 250 pages what others have not done as well in twice as much space.

Take Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) work as an example. UDDI exists to help software locate other software that does what it wants. How do you do that? Chappell and Jewell present two concise program listings—a client and a server—that show how to do a UDDI lookup. They then refine their code by using a third-party API that makes the work easier. Similarly pragmatic attention goes to Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), in which they show how to create a message, populate it with XML, make an attachment if necessary, and send it on its way. You won't find a lot of frills or conceptual explanations (though there are enough "why" sections to ensure that you're not just typing recipes blindly); the emphasis is on writing Java code that interacts with Web services protocols and standards. —David Wall

Topics covered:How to write Web services software in Java, with respect to Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). There's also coverage of interprocess communication under JAX-RPC and ways to implement security. All of the low-level stuff is here. Look elsewhere for architecture and design information.

This lavishly illustrated sketching and watercolor primer reveals how creating art can enhance any wilderness experience. With a skillful blend of inspiration and instruction, artist and naturalist Cathy Johnson offers personal anecdotes, exercises, and helpful tips to guide even first-time artists in using sketching and painting to deepen their understanding of the natural world.
Featuring simple, step-by-step instructions and 280 examples of the author's own work—in color and black-and-white—The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature covers a broad range of subjects, including tools and equipment; mixing paints and washes; understanding color and using a color wheel; capturing the illusion of light; sketching clouds, flowers, trees, plants, and animals; and using field sketches as studies for future paintings. The book also includes source lists for art supplies (including mail order), lists of national workshops for sketching and painting, and a bibliography.

"Wake up, sir. We're here." It's a simple enough opening line—although not many would have guessed back in 1991 that this would lead to one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comics of the second half of the century.

In Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman weaves the story of a man interested in capturing the physical manifestation of Death but who instead captures the King of Dreams. By Gaiman's own admission there's a lot in this first collection that is awkward and ungainly—which is not to say there are not frequent moments of greatness here. The chapter "24 Hours" is worth the price of the book alone; it stands as one of the most chilling examples of horror in comics. And let's not underestimate Gaiman's achievement of personifying Death as a perky, overly cheery, cute goth girl! All in all, I greatly prefer the roguish breaking of new ground in this book to the often dull precision of the concluding volumes of the Sandman series. —Jim Pascoe

By the author of The Comic Book Heroes, Killing Monsters, and scores of successful comic books and screenplays, Men of Tomorrow is the first book to tell the surprising story of the young Jewish misfits, hustlers and nerds who invented the superhero and the comic book industry. Among the characters in this vibrant panorama:

á Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster, the goofy myopic creators of Superman, who sold the rights to the Man of Tomorrow for $130 to...

á Harry Donenfield, former pornographer and con-man, and his partner, Jack Liebowitz, founder of DC Comics, who went on to help build Steve Ross's legendary Warner Communications

á Batman's Bob Kane, who rose to fame and fortune in a career based entirely on lies and self-promotion

á Mort Weisinger, the ruthless editor of Superman, who suffered a nervous breakdown when he tried to be a superhero himself

á Plus Stan Lee, founder of a new kind of hero, including Spiderman, at Marvel Comics; Will Eisner, whose creation "The Spirit" has become a cult classic, and many, many more.

Springing unheralded out of working-class Jewish immigrant neighborhoods in the depths of the Depression, these young men transformed an odd mix of geekdom, science fiction, and outsider yearnings into blue-eyed chisel-nosed crime-fighters and adventurers who quickly captured the mainstream imagination. Within a few years their inventions were being read by 90% of American children and had spawned a new genre in movies, radio and TV that still dominates youth entertainment seventy years later.

Drawing on exhaustive research, including interviews with friends and relatives of the creators, Jones reveals how the immigrant experience and the collision of Yiddish and American culture-forged in the crucible of two world wars-shaped the vision of the make-believe hero. He chronicles how the comics sparked a frightened counterattack that nearly destroyed the industry in the 1950's and how later they surged back at an underground level, to inspire a new generation to transmute those long-ago fantasies into art, literature, blockbuster movies and graphic novels.

Animated by the stories of some of the last century's most charismatic and conniving artists, writers and businessmen, Men of Tomorrow brilliantly demonstrates how the creators of the superheroes gained their cultural power and established a crucial place in the modern imagination.