On PT's Bookshelf

GIRL WARS: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying emphasis>By Cheryl Dellasega and Charisse Nixon (Simon & Schuster)emphasis>The true stories of bullying are heart-wrenching and call for intervention. Dellasega and Nixon provide a comprehensive approach to dealing with the behavior, arming women and girls with the confidence they need to prevent themselves from becoming victims.

THE MOURNER'S DANCE: What We Do When People Die emphasis>By Katherine Ashenburg (North Point)emphasis>Ashenburg does such an admirable job of compiling variations on mourning that readers will be struck by both the exotic and the mundane in this very human activity. The most compelling passages, however, detail the author's own grief as she, her family and her friends dealt with the death of her daughter's fiancé.

HIDDEN DEPTHS: The Story of Hypnosisemphasis>By Robin Waterfield (Routledge)emphasis>Comprehensive cultural history of this dark art begins with Genesis (no kidding), careens through the French fad for magnetism, detours into 19th-century American spiritism, and winds up with Hitler, Castro and the evidence for multiple personality disorder and recovered memory. A joyful, witty exploration of the unexplored powers of the human mind.

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MENTAL HEALTH FOR WOMEN emphasis>Edited by Lauren Slater, Jessica Henderson Daniel and Amy Banks (Beacon)emphasis>An Our Bodies, Ourselves for the mind: intelligent yet personable, friendly and informative. Chapters range from heavy biology to essayistic prose. Some veer toward corny; others are a downright hoot, like the chapter on sex that tells the tale of a dying grandmother proudly proclaiming she'd never had an orgasm.

WHITE MEN ON RACE: Power, Privilege and the Shaping of Cultural Consciousnessemphasis>By Joe Feagin and Eileen O'Brien (Beacon)emphasis>Books on racism in America do not often focus on men in positions of power. That's lamentable, note the authors, as they have the resources to make real social change. This sociology of "the white bubble," including anonymous interviews with powerful white men, offers a sobering perspective on racial bias.

THE SUBSTANCE OF STYLE: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness emphasis>By Virginia Postrel (HarperCollins)emphasis>From iMacs to designer toilet brushes, style has trumped function in our new "age of look and feel." In this wonderfully sharp mix of expert analysis and everyday observation, Postrel takes a close look at our growing preoccupation with aesthetics, concluding that it's finally OK to care about looks.

URBAN TRIBES: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family and Commitment emphasis>By Ethan Watters (Bloomsbury)emphasis>Urban tribes are laid-back bands of twenty- and thirty-somethings who meet serving latte at Starbucks or while subletting apartments. Soon enough, they discover that their raison d'être is chilling out with one another, not building a career, landing a life partner or buying a starter home. Romance leads slowly, if ever, to marriage, sending Watters into a tizzy of anxiety about himself and his slacker crew. Are they just refusing to grow up? Why do they postpone the inevitable?

Urban tribes is a great buzz-phrase, and Watters's idea is interesting-that tight-knit bands of friends loom large in the urban hipster psyche. But lackadaisical prose and lazy reportage leave us feeling that instead of capturing the zeitgeist, Watters has merely hit upon a marketable sobriquet-and a way to justify his own inertia.