University of California Press Blog

Journal Subscriptions as a Gift for the Holidays? Yes!

Now through December 31, 2006 new individual and gift subscriptions to Contexts, Film Quarterly, or Gastronomica are available at a 25% discount off the regular rate. These are three of our journals that appeal to a wide audience of readers.

Contexts: Understanding People in their Social Worlds
Sample Article: Marriage: the Good, the Bad, and the Greedy

Film Quarterly
Sample Article: Sex, lies and marketing: Miramax and the Development of the Quality Indie Blockbuster

Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture
Sample Article: Wedding Cake: A Slice of History

Click here for details and conditions.

Holiday Shopping with UC Press

It’s that time of year again: chestnuts are roasting, sleigh bells are ringing, and yes, UC Press books are selling. Have you ever thought of giving a UC Press book as a gift? Well, in case you haven’t purchased your presents yet, then let us suggest a few.

For the history buff in us all, why not give our highly regarded book, Historical Atlas of the United States? This fascinating and beautiful book showcases more than five hundred historical maps, uniquely telling America’s story from a geographical perspective.

Like wine? No amateur vintner can resist
The Way to Make Wine: How to Craft Superb Table Wines at Home. This easy-to-read manual was written by Sheridan Warrick, a vintner and science editor with over twenty-five years’ experience. Another popular wine book is the Wine Atlas of Australia, a comprehensive guide to the increasingly popular wine-grape-growing regions of Australia.

Finally, are you feeling contemplative this holiday season? Then perhaps you need to pick up Arthur J. Magida’s
Opening the Doors of Wonder. This superb book explores religious rites of passage.

For more holiday gift ideas from UC Press click here.

The United States and The New Vietnam

President Bush’s trip to Asia has pushed Vietnam-U.S. relations back into the headlines for reasons more closely related to the past rather than the present. As the second president to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War, inevitably media coverage focus has been on the War itself and comparisons between the conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq. However there is another perhaps more important story going on with the emergence of Vietnam as a serious economic power in South East Asia and the drive to get Vietnam accepted into the World Trade Organization. With surging economic growth and increasing foreign investment in Vietnam, US-Vietnam relations have taken on a greater urgency than in past years. Recently, Peter Zinoman, co-editor in chief of Journal of Vietnamese Studies, was interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation on this topic as well as how Vietnam has changed culturally and socially as a result of its prosperity. Peter’s interview can be heard in its entirety here.

Journal of Vietnamese Studies is the only English-language, peer reviewed journal focused solely on the history, politics, and culture of Vietnam. The debut issue of JVS is a 500+ page double issue containing many feature-length articles and interviews, plus several book reviews that covers a broad range of contemporary scholarship on Vietnam. You can download the following article for free from UC Press online journals hosting platform Caliber: Liên-Hang T. Nguyen’s The War Politburo: North Vietnam's Diplomatic and Political Road to the Têt Offensive.

Kyoto Protocol Meeting Highlights The Atlas of Climate Change

While attending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Nairobi last week, author Tom Downing spoke about The Atlas of Climate Change, which he coauthored with Kirstin Dow. This meeting, being held through November 17, is the second of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Downing discussed threats to coastal areas and archaeological and historical sites, among other impacts, to help people see that climate change goes beyond weather patterns and increasing temperatures.

This conference, which has received international attention, pushed climate change back into the headlines here in the US, as well. An Associated Press article discusses Downing’s presentation in depth and the "Talk of the Town" section of the current New Yorker focuses on the economic impact of global warming.

The Atlas of Climate Change examines the serious implications of climate change for food and water supplies, human health, sensitive ecologies, vulnerable cities, and cultural treasures— especially in those countries lacking the resources to adapt. The book also provides insights into contentious climate-change politics as it reviews current response efforts: the progress being made in meeting Kyoto commitments, the development of emissions trading, patterns of funding, and the contributions being made by local action. With more than fifty full-color maps and graphics, this is an essential resource for everyone concerned with this pressing subject.

Photo by Gary Braasch

Omega-3s and Your Health

If you're like many Americans, you're paying more and more attention to trans fats and omega-3s. You may also feel overwhelmed by the glut of information available on how diet affects health.

The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them, by Susan Allport, is a much-needed guide to what these essential fatty acids are and how to ensure we're eating enough of them. An award-winning science writer for publications such as the New York Times, Allport has spent the past decade exploring how food shapes behavior and health.

In a recent interview with Associate Director and Publisher Sheila Levine, Allport revealed that she first became fascinated with omega-3s when she learned that they are a critical component of cell membranes in both animals and plants, particularly in the tissues that perform the fastest cellular activities.

Her investigation into biochemistry, diets around the world, food production and processing, and health trends provides a compelling case for the importance of omega-3s. The book includes plenty of practical dietary and health tips; as the author told Levine, "Readers can see where we went wrong with the previous advice and how they can make the necessary changes in their diets to improve their health."

Read the complete interview, or visit the book's website.

Susan Allport recently appeared on NPR's Science Friday to discuss good fats, bad fats, and how to sort them out. Download a podcast of the show.

The Rise of the Women of Wine

Ann B. Matasar and her book Women of Wine: The Rise of Women in the Global Wine Industry are getting attention from a variety of sources these days. Women of Wine, which explores women's increasingly influential role in this traditionally male-dominated niche, was featured in the November 5 issue of the New York Times Style Magazine. The illustrated article, written by Christine Muhlke, highlights a handful of female winemakers at the top of their game.

Several weeks ago, Matasar appeared at a tasting and book-signing event at the swanky San Francisco wine bar VinoVenue. Owned by two women, Mary Lynn Slattery and Nancy Rowland, the venue is famous for its innovative tasting card, which acts like a debit card, and which you insert into wine tasting stations for "tastes."

Women of Wine was also recently reviewed in The World of Fine Wine, Sante: The Magazine for Restaurant Professionals, and Library Journal.

Magida Expounds on Rites of Passage

As part of our ongoing effort to help readers get to know our authors a little better, we asked Arthur J. Magida to discuss some of the ideas presented in his book, Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage.

Magida: Rites of passage may contain some of the most pivotal moments in our lives, even if they seem to have little effect on us at the moment. They provide a psychic charge, a spiritual direction, a communal identification, which is, ultimately, hard to shake and hard to deny. Without bar and bat mitzvahs, baptisms, and confirmations, Zen Buddhist jukais, Hindu sacred thread ceremonies, and Muslim shahadas, life might be a blur—a shapeless, endless stream of time and energy. These ceremonies provide the lulls—the time out, if you will—to consider where we're going, and why; and where we've come from, and why; and what the rhythm of life is, and why. As the hurdy-gurdy of life speeds up in our ever more "modern" age, it's a relief to be thrown back—at least momentarily—on a steadier rock where time slows down to a crawl, and we are almost palpably certain that we are not alone. The brilliance of these ceremonies is how well they connect us to an almost infinite DNA of time and space. They are our antennae outward, inward, and God-ward. These rituals are an atlas of our soul. They can introduce us to what Martin Buber called a “Presence,” and they can introduce us to our self, although there are no certainties that either of these introductions will occur. Rather, they are a testimony to our possibilities, to seeking William Blake's most shining, most rudimentary of proclamations: "Everything that lives is holy."

Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage is a collection of interviews with celebrities, journalists, and artists on the importance of religious rites of passage ceremonies in their lives. Included are interviews with Deepak Chopra, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Julia Sweeny, Huston Smith, among others.

Magida is a columnist/contributing editor for the online religion magazine Beliefnet.com, a contributing correspondent for PBS's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, senior editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, and a speechwriter for Ralph Nader.