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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

- Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life

By Scott D. Sampson, adjunct associate professor of geology and geophysics, University of Utah. University of California Press, £20.95. ISBN 9780520241633

Samson gives an up-to-date overview of dinosaurs and their world and situates these fascinating animals in a broad ecological and evolutionary context, while detailing the major discoveries of the past 25 years, the most active period in the history of dinosaur palaeontology.

HISTORY

- A Cultural History of Climate

By Wolfgang Behringer, professor of history, Saarland University. Polity, £55.00 and £17.99. ISBN 9780745645285 and 5292

Behringer focuses on the cultural reactions to climate change through the ages, showing how even minor changes in the climate sometimes resulted in major social, political and religious upheavals.

- Madness in the Family: Insanity and Institutions in the Australasian Colonial World, 1860-1914

By Catharine Coleborne, associate professor of history, University of Waikato. Palgrave Macmillan, £80.00. ISBN 9780230578074

Madness in the Family explores how colonial families coped with insanity through a transcolonial study of the relationships between families and public colonial hospitals for the insane in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand between 1860 and 1914.

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

- Phonological Weakness in English: From Old to Present-Day English

Edited by Donka Minkova, professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles. Palgrave Macmillan, £55.00. ISBN 9780230524750

This collection addresses the identi-fication, functional properties and broader consequences of phonological weakness over a broad chronological range from Old to present-day English and its varieties.

LITERATURE

- Critical Theory in Russia and the West

Edited by Alastair Renfrew, reader in Russian, Durham University, and Galin Tihanov, professor of comparative literature and intellectual history, University of Manchester. Taylor and Francis, £85.00. ISBN 9780415374750

The contributors to this book re-examine the significant transfers, cross-fertilisations and synergies of cultural and literary theory between Russia and the West, from the 1920s to the present day.

- Food and Femininity in Twentieth-Century British Women's Fiction

By Andrea Adolph, assistant professor of English literature, Kent State University, Ohio. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754667346

Examining female characters in novels by Barbara Pym, Angela Carter, Helen Dunmore and Helen Fielding, the author focuses on how women's relationships to food are used to locate women's embodiment within the everyday.

POLITICS

- The Rise of Japanese NGOs

By Kim D. Reimann, assistant professor of political science, Georgia State University. Taylor and Francis, £75.00. ISBN 9780415498029

Looking at domestic politics, transnational diffusion, the state's relationship with civil society and societal actors, Reimann discusses how and why NGOs active in global issues have become more visible in Japan and are now established players in the policymaking process.

- African American Politics

By Kendra A. King, associate professor of politics, Oglethorpe University. Polity, £55.00 and £17.99. ISBN 9780745632803 and 2810

King introduces the political successes, failures and persistent challenges of African-American political participation in the United States. Topics covered include: the rise of black conservatism; black mega-churches; the emergence of hip hop; and the future of African-American politics.