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Natural Born Killer : Chapter & Verse : Open Book : Off the Shelf

Kate Furbish and the Flora of Maine, by Ada Graham and Frank Graham Jr. (Tilbury House; $55, hard cover; $30, soft cover). A biography of a gritty and indomitable woman (1834-1931), who spent her life collecting, classifying, recording, and painting the plants of Maine and gave her herbarium specimens, 4,000 sheets, to Harvard. In the 1970s her name entered the public's consciousness when a plan to build a huge hydroelectric power plant on the Saint John River in Maine failed partly because of the presence on the riverbank of a plant that grows nowhere else. It was first collected in 1880 by Furbish and named in her honor Furbish's lousewort.

The Future of the Race, by Henry Louis Gates Jr., Du Bois professor of the humanities, and Cornel West '74, Gp '76, professor of Afro-American studies and of the philosophy of religion (Knopf, $21). In 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois, A.B. 1890, Ph.D. 1895, published an essay entitled "The Talented Tenth," which described the commitment to service that the black college graduate owes to the rest of the black community. That essay is reprinted here. Gates and West, brought up on Du Bois's ideas on leadership, reexamine them and address the dreams, fears, aspirations, and responsibilities of the black community-especially the black elite- today.

The Good Society: The Humane Agenda, by John Kenneth Galbraith, Warburg professor of economics emeritus (Houghton Mifflin, $21.95). The author outlines his blueprint for a society both economically viable and socially responsible. His remedy for the U.S. economy includes taming the independent power of the military economy, investing in the citizenry through education, immigration policy that takes advantage of the energy and ambition of newcomers, and a more cooperative role for American industry and trade in the world economy.

Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie: A True Tale of Love and the Vig, by Peter Alson '77 (Crown, $22). From Harvard Yard to a Brooklyn holding cell in just 10 years.

Common Values, by Sissela Bok, Ph.D. '70, distinguished fellow, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (University of Missouri Press, $27.50). Societies face challenges and threats- environmental, military, public health- that cross every boundary. Responses must be collective as well, yet they cannot begin to be effective without greater stress on common values and goals.

The Same and Not the Same, by Roald Hoffmann, Ph.D. '62, JF '65 (Columbia University Press, $34.95). A humanistic account of the science of molecules, by a Nobel Prize-winning chemist. Maxine Kumin '46, A.M. '48, BI '63, says of the book: "Who but Roald Hoffmann can bend Goya, Rube Goldberg, Joyce Carol Oates, and Raphael's Sistine Madonna to his uses in so witty and informative a fashion? Even this know-nothing poet was enchanted and enlightened by The Same and Not the Same."

In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest, by David Roberts '65 (Simon & Schuster, $24). A popular account of an intriguing mystery. The cliff-dwelling Anasazi built a sophisticated civilization in the high desert of the Southwest, then abandoned it about seven centuries ago for reasons that remain a puzzlement. They left behind, for the archaeologists, rooms in many cases so intact they looked as if the inhabitants had departed just hours before.

How to Get Into Harvard Law School: Invaluable Advice on Applying and a Look at Successful Application Essays from Current Students and Former Grads, by Willie J. Epps Jr., J.D. '95 (Contemporary Books, $16.95, soft cover). A 372-page book. The author was student-body president at St. Louis Country Day School and Amherst and president of the Law School student government organization. He is now a judge advocate in the Air Force.

Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, by Edward Tenner, JF '72 (Knopf, $26). The author wryly examines technological advances in health and medicine, sports, the environment, and the office, and discovers a resolute pattern of paradoxical "revenge effects." The "benign" wood-burning stove pollutes and depletes; the "protective" football helmet encourages body-ramming mayhem. Tenner is a contributing editor of this magazine; his "Revenge Theory" appeared in the March-April 1991 issue.

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