GAME WARS: The Undercover Pursuit of Wildlife...

GAME WARS: The Undercover Pursuit of Wildlife Poachers by Marc Reisner (Penguin: $11). Reisner presents a riveting account of the unscrupulous hunters and black-marketeers who traffic in products made from endangered animal species, and the government agents who combat them. He focuses on the remarkable career of David Hall, a Louisiana-based undercover agent who cracked poaching rings responsible for the slaughter of thousands of animals protected--in theory--by state, federal and international laws. Hall’s elaborate sting operations required him to win the confidence of a veritable rogue’s gallery: an urbane New York merchant who sold illegal alligator hides to Japanese businesses; a group of thuggish bikers who smuggled walrus ivory (and kept human skulls as trophies); corrupt good ol’ boy politicians who dealt under the table in sacalait, an endangered freshwater fish. Reisner also offers unsparing condemnation of the consumers who pay fortunes for rhinoceros horns, ivory, bear gall bladders, etc. without considering their ultimate cost. Citing the appalling statistic that almost 95% of the ivory now in commerce has been poached, Reisner sums up the lugubrious situation: “It is a textbook example of apparently limitless money chasing a finite and increasingly scarce good; people are now buying elephant ivory on the assumption that elephants will eventually go extinct.” This fascinating book will alarm anyone concerned about environmental issues.

THE KITCHEN GOD’S WIFE by Amy Tan (Ivy: $5.99). Tan’s best-selling novel uses the misunderstandings between a Chinese mother and her American-born daughter to introduce a series of revelations about the abuse women suffered in China. In “The Joy Luck Club,” the daughter learned about her mother’s unhappy past through other women’s stories; in “The Kitchen God’s Wife,” Pearl’s mother, Winnie, recounts her sorrowful tale herself, which gives the narrative a heightened urgency. Married to a brutal coward, Winnie endured decades of mistreatment, as did the title character, the long-suffering wife of a wastrel whose repentance transformed him into a minor household deity. Tan’s moving story demonstrates that shared afflictions can create ties between people closer than blood relationships, and that the most mundane visage may conceal a lifetime of unsuspected passion.

THE OUTWARD BOUND CANOEING HANDBOOK by Paul Landry and Matty McNair (Lyons & Burford: $12.95, illustrated). Two former instructors in the well-known wilderness-education program offer basic information for anyone curious about the increasingly popular sport of canoeing. Landry and McNair explain which canoe is best suited to which activities, how to read a topographical map of a river, etc. Obviously such esoteric skills as lining a canoe down white water rapids can’t be taught in a book, but this manual will prepare the novice for hands-on instruction. Special safety tips about boating with children are provided for parents who decide to put their beliefs about family togetherness to the test in the great outdoors.

SUDDEN STRANGERS: The Story of a Gay Son and His Father by Aaron Fricke and Walter Fricke (Saint Martin’s Press: $8.95, illustrated). Aaron Fricke received nationwide attention when he sued his high school to be allowed to bring a male date to the senior prom. “Sudden Strangers” describes how he and his father came to recognize that their mutual love transcended their disagreements. Walter Fricke had to learn to accept his son’s sexuality without ascribing responsibility or blame: What seemed alien to him was natural for his son, and vice versa. Aaron realized his father wanted him to become a responsible adult rather than a self-indulgent symbol of gay liberation. Walter challenges the dichotomy the Religious Right has attempted to draw between homosexuals and “traditional family values,” noting that all gay men and women have parents. The Frickes argue that real family values place love over forced compliance to a standard of correctness.

WALK LOS ANGELES: Adventures on the Urban Edge by John McKinney (Olympus Press: $12.95, illustrated). John McKinney presents an informal guide to the little-known hiking trails and green zones that exist within the Greater Los Angeles area. The Arroyo Seco Trail offers a three miles of unexpected greenery in the heart of Pasadena; even a novice hiker can manage the six-mile loop through Los Liones Canyon that offers a spectacular view of Santa Monica Bay--and begins just a mile from Sunset Boulevard. McKinney carefully notes the length and difficulty of each hike, stressing the need for prior conditioning and preparedness, even in a familiar urban environment. These hidden parks and trails can supply a welcome respite from the daily insanity of freeway traffic.

THE STARCHED BLUE SKY OF SPAIN by Josephine Herbst (HarperPerennial: $10). Josephine Herbst grew up in the Midwest with a keen sense of deprivation: “It seemed we were stranded in the middle of a country that offered its most tempting gifts to the people who lived on the eastern seaboard, ‘back East,’ where my parents had been born and raised, or ‘out West’ on the Pacific, where more fortunate relatives had been safely transported beyond our own barren middle ground.” These memoirs recount her efforts to overcome this inauspicious beginning, visiting Europe as a “dollar princess” during the ‘20s, living in New York and New England. Although she knew Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and William Carlos Williams, Herbst remained a good writer amid greater talents. Her account of visiting Madrid during the Spanish Civil War provides some interesting details on life in the expatriate community, but it also reveals her inability to see beyond her own limited experience to the more substantive issues at stake in that historic conflict.

REMEMBER NATIVE AMERICA!: The Earthworks of Ancient America by Richard Balthazar (Five Flowers Press: $14.95). When the author salvaged the contents of an abandoned library in Washington, D.C., he discovered a rare 19th-Century text on Native American earthworks: “Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley” by E. G. Squier and E. H. Davis. The reproductions of the antique engravings taken from that volume lend visual interest to Balthazar’s otherwise unsatisfying book. Eastern North America is dotted with ancient monuments that range from the 1,400-foot serpent effigy mound in Adams County, Ohio, to anonymous-looking hillocks that could easily be mistaken for natural bumps in the terrain. The text is liberally sprinkled with exclamation points and dramatic pronouncements about the need to appreciate the remaining sites, but Balthazar doesn’t really tell the reader very much about who built these structures or why.

THE INNOCENT ANTHROPOLOGIST: Notes From a Mud Hut by Nigel Barley (Henry Holt: $10.95). Although he was skeptical about undertaking on-site research in Africa, Barley accepted the opportunity, noting that field anthropologists “are saints of the English church of eccentricity for its own sake. The chance of joining them was not to be lightly rejected.” His revealing and often very funny memoir recounts the curious events that took him from the comfortable confines of Oxford and Cambridge to a remote village in the interior of Cameroon. His study of the Dowayo, a little-known and rather primitive tribe, was hindered by a recalcitrant government bureaucracy, malaria, the difficult tonal language of the Dowayo and the shortages that plague any work in the African bush. Barley never patronizes the Dowayos, but marvels at his own ignorance and the inaccuracy of conventional depictions of native peoples. The engaging, self-deprecating tone of this ironic chronicle quickly wins the reader’s sympathy.