Week ending May 13, 2016 Country Living Pies & Tarts. Hearst: Sterling. May 2016. 128p. photos. index. ISBN 9781618372192. pap. $16.95. COOKING Country Living has reorganized and reissued an earlier spiral-bound cookbook The Little Book of Pies & Tarts (2011). With additional entries, 62 in all, this larger, newly arranged collection of pie and tart recipes is more appealing and has more photos than the original, while also being more practical and durable. Perfect for the beginning baker, this work features baking tips, tools, and essential techniques for quality, along with a metric conversion chart. A whole chapter goes into making the perfect dough, pastries, and crumb crusts. Next are the stars of the book: pies, tarts, turnovers, galettes, and more. Arranged by ingredient type—fruit, custards and creams, nuts, and savories—there is something here for everyone. Recipes range from the traditional banana pudding pie to the unique mixed-berry crostata, salted caramel peanut butter fudge pie, mocha cream pie, pumpkin pie with oat-pecan crust, chicken potpie turnovers, and quiche Lorraine empanadas. There is plenty for beginning bakers to try, as well as for the experienced pastry chef. Verdict A good choice for novices owing to the added extras, appealing choices, and full-page photos. Appropriate for all collections.—Jane Hebert, Glenside P.L. Dist., Glendale Heights, IL Cuban, Larry. Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools. Harvard Education. Mar. 2016. 264p. photos. notes. index. ISBN 9781612508870. $64; pap. ISBN 9781612508863. $32. ED Cuban (emeritus education, Stanford Univ.; Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice) offers an autobiographical history of secondary education. Taking a critical look at his experiences teaching history in urban high schools in the 1950s and 1960s, Cuban then contrasts this with his experiences as a researcher with current educators. His approach to analyzing instructors’ classroom practice at a very personal level and then framing this reflection within the external and internal contexts that impact teaching offers a unique take on the challenges teachers face. Cuban is open about the limitations of his methodology for getting at the real truth when memory and experience can be faulty, but even with those challenges, this firsthand view of how teachers grapple with the forces that shape their organizations is refreshing. This critical examination of how policy, interpersonal relations, pedagogical shifts, and socioeconomic forces shape teaching and learning in one content area is compelling and expresses classroom realities that are often overlooked by those who are only looking at education from the outside. Verdict For readers who want an illuminating look at how teachers address the complex forces that have impacted their work.—Rachel Wadham, Brigham Young Univ. Libs., Provo, UT Engel, Richard. And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East. S. & S. Feb. 2016. 256p. maps. index. ISBN 9781451635119. $27; ebk. ISBN 9781451635133. POL SCI Engel (chief foreign correspondent, NBC News) knew from a young age that he wanted to be a foreign correspondent, and he moved to Cairo, Egypt, as a 22-year-old Stanford University graduate to live out that dream. He met members of the 1990s Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which was operating as a parallel government to that of Hosni Mubarak. Engel covered the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the Iraq War, the Israeli war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Arab Spring. Most important, here he tackles the origins of ISIS, which he saw forming during his career, and its origins that are hundreds of years old. He stays nonpartisan by criticizing mistakes made by both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations that led to further Middle East destabilization in the 2000s. Chapters begin with maps of the area Engel is writing about and the major cities. A further reading section would have enhanced the work. Verdict An excellent resource for those who want to understand Middle East unrest and the ISIS terrorism threat without being Middle East scholars—there is no baseline knowledge required to learn from and appreciate Engel’s work. [See Prepub Alert, 8/24/15.]—Jennifer M. Schlau, Elgin Community Coll., IL Kelly, Kevin. Both Sides of the Line: My Coach, the Boston Mob Enforcer; My Mentor, the Murderer; The True Story of Clyde Dempsey and the 1974 Don Bosco Bears. Bancroft. Jul. 2016. 342p. photos. ISBN 9781610881692. $27.50. SPORTS Similar to John Feinstein’s A Season on the Brink and Pat Conroy’s My Losing Season, school administrator Kelly’s memoir of his senior season at Don Bosco Technical High School in Boston’s powerful Catholic Conference is a fascinating story of the rise of a perennial bottom-feeder to a league championship. Kelly’s rags-to-riches account is interspersed with adversity and triumph and centers on Clyde Dempsey, an inspirational but controversial coach whose life and tragic end dominates the book. Dempsey spent time as a mob leg breaker and likewise nine years on the run in Canada after killing a man in a bar fight in 1981. After extradition back to Massachusetts, Dempsey was convicted and sent to prison, where he died in 2001. In 2014, Kelly and his teammates held a reunion, reflecting on their championship season, their current lives, and Dempsey. Throughout the narrative, Dempsey’s mantra of coaching shines through: quickness, technique, and desire. Verdict Although Kelly tends toward repetition, this book provides a straightforward and overall great read, proving that fact is stranger than fiction.—Boyd Childress, formerly with Auburn Univ. Libs., AL King, Mervyn. The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy. Norton. Mar. 2016. 448p. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780393247022. $28.95; ebk. ISBN 9780393247039. ECON King (former governor, Bank of England; Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics, New York Univ.) provides a terrific analysis of what went wrong in the global financial system and with economics in general. Readers are shown why almost every industrialized country found it difficult to overcome stagnation following the financial crisis of 2007–08. The central idea here is that money and banking are historical institutions developed before modern capitalism and owe a great deal to the technology of earlier times. The author accepts blame for the poor policy during his tenure at the Bank of England and proposes changes to the banking system. The basic notion is that all banks should have sufficient access to cash to meet the demands of depositors and others supplying short-term unsecured debt and examine the liabilities side of a bank’s balance sheet—its total demand deposits and short-term unsecured debt (up to one year), which could run out at short notice. Patrons desiring further readings might consult Alan S. Blinder’s After the Music Stopped. Verdict One of finest titles published on the 2007–08 financial crisis, this book deserves wide dissemination among all collections in business and economic history. It should be of interest to general readers and scholars. [See Prepub Alert, 9/28/15.]—Claude Ury, San Francisco Russo, Charles. Striking Distance: Bruce Lee & the Dawn of Martial Arts in America. Univ. of Nebraska. Jul. 2016. 264p. photos. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780803269606. $24.95. SPORTS San Francisco–based journalist Russo’s first book is a brief history of martial arts in America, specifically in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The late Bruce Lee is the focus, and his famous fight at his Oakland academy with Wong Jack Man in 1964 is the climax to the book. However, readers will be disappointed at the few details provided regarding that fight. Russo’s writing has a tendency to adhere to a template, causing the book to become tedious. He will introduce a martial artist and relate his or her backstory in a page or two. This formula is followed until all of the characters are presented; the narrative then wanders between how a particular martial art was created and the social turmoil of the Chinese living in San Francisco. The book addresses the way that Chinese and Japanese immigrants brought their martial arts to the United States and how these styles merged into a style Lee and his contemporaries developed using a simple “does it work” attitude, later called Jeet Kune Do. Verdict A disconnected and often-rambling book; not recommended.—Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI