Water for Elephants: A Novel FROM THE DUST JACKET: Ninety-three year old Jacob Jankowski remembers himself tossed by fate onto a rickety train that is the home to the Benzini Brothers circus in the early …

Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California FROM THE PUBLISHER: As urban growth outstrips water supplies, how can the global challenge of providing water be met? Mixing history and …

Wizard 6: A Combat Psychiatrist in Vietnam (Texas A & M University Military History Series, 104) FROM THE JACKET: In 1969, six psychiatrists were assigned to combat divisions in Vietnam. Captain Douglas Bey, "Wizard 6," …

Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America by David Serlin. University of Chicago Press, 2004, $25, 244 pages FROM THE DUST JACKET: After World War II, the U.S. underwent a massive cultural transformation that …

Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg by Alice Goldfarb Marquis. MFA Publications, 2006, $35, 321 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Clement Greenberg dominated the American art scene and is still considered the …

Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them by Michael Abrams. Harmony Books, 2006, $23.95, 304 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Theirs is the world's …

Standing Eight: The Inspiring Story of Jesus "El Matador" Chavez, Who Became Lightweight Champion of the World by Adam Pitluk. Da Capo, 2006, $24.95, 248 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Standing Eight is a riveting …

The Few and the Proud: Marine Corps Drill Instructors in Their Own Words by Larry Smith. W.W. Norton, 2006, $26.95, 325 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: The Few and the Proud examines how Marines are …

The Hard Way (Jack Reacher Novels) by Lee Child. Delacorte, 2006, $25, 371 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Former MP Jack Reacher was alone, the way he liked it, soaking up the hot, electric New …

No Good Deed by Tom Basinski. Berkley True Crime, 2006, $7.99, 293 pages. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Two days before Christmas in 1998, David Stevens's Chrysler LeBaron exploded into flames in the upscale California neighborhood …

Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi. Shaye Areheart Books, 2006, $23, 246 pages. Yuri Balodis, the hero of Red Weather is an exile from a country he's never seen. He's never been there, yet it dominates …

Horse: How the Horse Has Shaped Civilizations by J. Edward Chamberlain. BlueBridge, 2006; $24.95; 288 pages, including 25 black and white illustrations. FROM THE DUST JACKET: Ever since the dawn of human history, horses have …

San Diegan Mike Davis, author of eight nonfiction books and Planet of Slums, the ninth, comes on the line, voice weak from recent pneumonia. We launch in. "You were educated...?" "I went to UCLA. I …

For many years New York led the nation in crime. We boasted the highest rates of serious felonies. Toronto would record 30 homicides a year; New York, 2000. Public buildings looked like something creepy out …