University of California Press Blog

New Year's Resolutions

New Years Eve and the requisite resolutions are just around the corner. These informative, practical, and witty books are ideal for jump-starting your plans for better living in 2007. From the newest research to time-honored wisdom this selection of well-received titles from UC Press will get you on your way.

The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them by Susan Allport
Allport explains how Western eating habits have caused this nutrient deficiency and through diet recommendations shows how we can bring omega-3s back in order to improve our health. To read an in-depth interview with Allport, click here.

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health by Marion Nestle
Recommended by such cooking masters as Alice Waters and Julia Child, and reviewed extensively in the media, this award-winning book describes how the food industry has thoroughly confused the public on the fundamental principles for basic health. As Newsday said in their coverage of the book "[A]nyone who cares about what they put in their body ought to read it carefully and think long and hard about the choices. Your life just might depend on it."

The New American Plate Cookbook: Recipes for a Healthy Weight and a Healthy Life by American Institute for Cancer Research
An important and timely cookbook that incorporates the most up-to-date scientific consensus on healthy eating. The recipes reflect contemporary standards of food preparation and presentation resulting in meals that are both healthy and delicious to eat. The goal is to focus on proportion and portion size. When Life Magazine reviewed it, they declared: " With beautiful pictures and helpful cooking tips, these recipes will keep your palate satisfied through the year."

Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human Race by Mark Twain
Full of witticisms that only Twain can provide, this is an anthology of aphorisms, short pieces on etiquette, food, fashion, travel, devilishly funny essays, short stories, and unfinished gems-by the best-known and best-loved American writer. As reviewed by O: The Oprah Magazine, ""Few collections could be wiser, funnier, or more, well, sane."

The Missing Feminist Revolution in Sociology

Twenty years ago a landmark sociology paper was published in Social Problems, the official journal of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Judith Stacey and Barrie Thorne's The Missing Feminist Revolution in Sociology quickly became a touchstone for debate about the lack of representation of feminists and the feminist point of view in the discipline. To celebrate the publication anniversary, Social Problems Volume 53, Issue 4 features a symposium examining the challenges presented by the original paper. The symposium includes essays by leading feminist scholars and individual essays by Stacey and Thorne. "Who would have thought that Social Problems would be staging a 20th anniversary celebration to commemorate its original bold publication of our collective musings on feminism's impact on the disciplines? Who could have imagined that so many fine feminist minds would still want to bring such surprising, creative gifts to the gathering? We feel honored and awed by the symposium." -Judith Stacey & Barrie Thorne.

For a limited time you can read Christine Williams article "Still Missing? Comments on the Twentieth Anniversary of The Missing Feminist Revolution in Sociology for free here. For more information about Social Problems, please visit the UC Press Journals and Digital Publishing Website. For more information about the Society for the Study of Social Problems, please visit their website.

The Abundance of Vernal Pools

by David Lukas, co-author of Sierra Nevada Natural History

Unless you are a soil scientist how often do you think about soil? Not often I’d guess, and you’d probably never imagine that California has an official “state soil”!

In fact, soil is the basis for all life on land. Deriving from local geology and weather conditions, soils are a complex and biologically rich mix of minerals and microorganisms that uniquely reflect each particular region in the state.

Of all the soil types in California, the oldest may be the San Joaquin soils of the Central Valley – California’s official and most famous soil type. Formed on alluvial plains left as Pleistocene seas retreated from the Central Valley, San Joaquin soils have a distinctive hummocky topography and an impervious hardpan just under the surface that limits root growth and restricts the percolation of water.

The result is a perfect example of how life adapts to soil. The hummocky surface collects water in small shallow pools during winter storms and the hardpan prevents the water from dissipating until it evaporates in the summer sun, creating what are called vernal pools.

While much of the Central Valley has been overwhelmed by invasive species, the unique vernal pool environment remains not only remarkably pristine but is also home for many rare and endemic species.

With the arrival of hard rains in December, vernal pools begin to fill and come to life. Threatened California tiger salamanders (Ambystoma californense) lumber out of rodent burrows and head for the nearest pools to breed. The delta green ground beetle, first described in 1878 then rediscovered in 1974, appears during the winter around the Jepson Praire Preserve and nowhere else in the world.

And most curious of all may be the highly adapted fairy shrimp that emerge from cysts buried in the mud. Looking like the 220 million year old crabs they are related to, these seemingly prehistoric creatures are restricted to specific vernal pools. The endangered conservancy fairy shrimp (Branchinecta conservatio), for instance, is found at only eight sites in the Central Valley.

Like all fairy shrimp, the giant fairy shrimp (B. gigas) which grows up to six inches long, is able to complete its entire life cycle in the short window of time before the shallow pools dry up – a necessary trait in this distinctive habitat.

Vernal pools, however, are best know for their flamboyant wildflower displays, especially for the way in which colorful flowers form concentric rings around each pool as it dries up. Wildflower enthusiasts come from far and wide to see species like white meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba), dwarf dowingia (Dowingia pusilla), and goldfields (Lasthenia californica), whose lives like the shrimp are fleeting and ephemeral.

Even if you seldom think about soils, it is not hard to imagine the impact that plows and agriculture have on these fragile ecosystems. California’s vernal pools have nearly all been plowed under or developed, and what is left is disappearing at a rapid clip.

Read more natural history features by David Lukas.

A Picture Book Is Worth a Thousand Gifts

"This is the one Rowell volume to have and to treasure."
—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Galen Rowell: A Retrospective is the first and only retrospective of the late world-renowned nature and adventure photographer. It highlights 175 of Rowell's most extraordinary, most recognized, and most inspiring images in an elegantly produced, large-scale pictorial format. We think it would make an excellent holiday gift, and some of the top newspapers in the country agree:

The book has recently been reviewed in the Washington Post Book World, San Diego Union-Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Houston Chronicle. It has also recently been featured on Bay Area Today (NBC), and in Time Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, San Francisco Magazine, Sunset, and Audubon Magazine.

The critics love it, and the folks on your gift list are bound to, too.