Which one would you be, “man” or “non-man”? First-hand reports and essays on a hidden aspect of Moslem culture. “Portrays very clearly the relationship between same-sex eroticism and the ideal of the man as penetrator… .” Illuminates “not only male homosexuality but the whole sexual culture and the role of gender in the Moslem world, including such countries as Morocco, Syria, Iran, Turkey and Israel,“ where the Western concept of a “gay person,” one who both gives and receives male affection, is still relatively unknown. GR

Publisher: Haworth
Paperback: 201 pages

Romance! Danger! Animals! Picture Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a Tarzan picture. “Martin and Osa Johnson thrilled American audiences of the ‘20s and ‘30s with their remarkable movies of faraway places, exotic peoples and the dramatic spectacle of wildlife… [they] seemed to embody glamour, daring and the all-American ideal of self-reliance.” Their travelogs—such as Simba, Congorilla and Borneo—humanized the wonders of the world. The “handsome pair from Kansas” even sparked a dance craze, the Congorilla. They were a special pair of footloose pioneers, except for that little imperialist/racist baggage thing they carried with them: “The high point of laughs was when the pygmies ate soap, blew up a balloon that burst, and tried to light cigars. And how those brown midgets go into their dance…” GR

Publisher: Rutgers University
Hardback: 313 pages
Illustrated

“The following women are not to be enjoyed:
A leper
A lunatic
A woman turned out of caste
A woman who reveals secrets
A woman who publicly expresses desire for sexual intercourse
A woman who is extremely white
A woman who is extremely black
A bad-smelling woman
A woman who is a near relation
A woman who is a female friend
A woman who leads the life of an ascetic
And lastly, the wife of a relation, of a friend, of a learned
Brahman, and of the king”
First printed in 1883, this is an ancient Indian men’s guide to sex. How to bite, how to kiss, who needs a good slapping, how to seduce, and how to match the depth of her “yoni” to the size of your “lingam” for the “highest union” of sexual satisfaction. GR

Publisher: Berkley
Paperback: 308 pages

Ninety-nine percent of what we know of the Maya civilization comes from this one source—because its author burned everything else! “These people also used certain characters or letters, with which they wrote in their books about the antiquities and their sciences… We found a great number of books in these letters, and since they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods of the devil, we burned them all, which they took most grievously and which gave them great pain.” Friar Landa did all he could to wipe out the Maya culture in the name of God. One night in 1592, he records, he destroyed 5,000 “idols” and burned 27 hieroglyphic rolls. Accused of “despotic mismanagement” by Spain, he wrote this book to defend his dubious honor. GR

Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 162 pages
Illustrated

Your D(eoxyribo) N(ucleic) A(cid) could hang you. It’s in your hair, you saliva, your sperm, your skin, your sweat, your blood. “Combination of thrilling true crime stories and fascinating, fully understandable science,” as the author, a former homicide prosecutor and “DNA expert,” “describes the evolution of DNA and places in context the controversy surrounding its acceptance through dramatic re-creations of 14 of the decade’s most suspenseful criminal cases.” Details the forensic results of the Simpson DNA evidence, explaining what it really showed. Shows how the World Trade Center bomber’s saliva (on a stamp) nailed him. And how even modern DNA tests on old evidence can set an innocent jailbird free. GR

Publisher: Basic
Hardback: 223 pages

Explores the causes in the wake of notorious screw-ups: the Boston molasses spill (a five-story tank rupture killed 21 people), Tacoma’s “Galloping Gertie” bridge collapse, the Challenger, Bhopal, Three Mile Island, the Ford Pinto, the MGM Grand fire, etc. “Reveals the reasons behind 35 astounding technical failures that made headlines and history. Each event is recalled in riveting detail, with full discussion of the causes, casualties, legal ramifications and corrective actions taken. Relive the horror and the lessons learned.” GR

Publisher: Visible Ink
Paperback: 275 pages
Illustrated

Eating people—is it wrong? “Dismemberment, dissolution, cannibalism… acid baths, flesh and bone fed to pigs… “ These are some of the whacked-out wonders of the most gruesome crimes committed in the past 200 years. Details 35 cases of murderous mayhem from around the world (Petoit! Nilson! Kiss! Grossmann! Fish!) and the forensic pathology that helped capture these non-vegan killers. Ever wonder how they get those bodies into those trunks? GR

Publisher: W. H. Allen/Virgin
Paperback: 256 pages
Illustrated

Year-by-year reference covers every major murder case from 1900 to 1992. “The world has lost count of its psychopaths and psychotics, those madmen throughout history who have slaughtered with no discernible reason—no gain, no lust; cold, calculating killers. Killers like the fanatical Nazi sympathizer Joseph Franklin, who shot dead mixed-race couples; like Harvey Carnigan, who was acting as an ‘instrument of God,’ killing to rid the world of sin and Herbert Mullin, whose ‘voices’ told him that only through bloodshed could he avert a cataclysmic earthquake which would destroy California.” GR

Publisher: Berkley
Paperback: 265 pages

Year-by-year reference covers every major murder case from 1900 to 1992. “The world has lost count of its psychopaths and psychotics, those madmen throughout history who have slaughtered with no discernible reason—no gain, no lust; cold, calculating killers. Killers like the fanatical Nazi sympathizer Joseph Franklin, who shot dead mixed-race couples; like Harvey Carnigan, who was acting as an ‘instrument of God,’ killing to rid the world of sin and Herbert Mullin, whose ‘voices’ told him that only through bloodshed could he avert a cataclysmic earthquake which would destroy California.” GR

Publisher: Berkley
Paperback: 262 pages

“Gates, Daryl: (1926- ) chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1978 to 1991.” Praised by the president as “an American hero and the nation’s ‘top cop,’ but condemned by others as a neo-fascist and racist… He was field commander during the Watts riots of 1965 and was appalled by the department’s failure to quell the mass violence… By late 1967, Gates had developed D Platoon, ostensibly an anti-sniper group consisting of an elite corps of highly disciplined officers using specialized weapons and tactics and ranked in the top 25 percent of the department for physical skills. Consisting of 220 men, including 60 crack marksmen formed into five-man teams, D Platoon, as Gates later observed, would ‘revolutionize law enforcement agencies all over the world.’ To [Gates’ predecessor Chief William] Parker, Gates proposed calling D Platoon a SWAT team- ‘Special Weapons Attack Team.’ When Parker objected to the word ‘attack,’ Gates, having developed an affection for the acronym he had invented, proposed ‘Special Weapons And Tactics’ instead. Parker agreed.”
Twenty-four years later, Gates resigned as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Ironically, he had failed to quell the Rodney King riots, a direct result of his “racism and violent-reaction” policies. GR

Publisher: Facts on File
Hardback: 304 pages
Illustrated