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Books

Margo's picks

By MARGO HAMMOND
Published May 7, 2006

BRUTAL JOURNEY: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America by Paul Schneider (Henry Holt, $26, 366 pp)

This journey, led by Panfilo de Narvaez, a middle-aged Spanish conquistador with an army of nearly 400 Spaniards, Africans and Caribbean natives, begins in Tampa Bay and continues eight years and some 5,000 miles across the American continent. Only four survive the grueling trip - three Spaniards and a black Moroccan who on the way become "killers and cannibals, torturers and torture victims, slavers and enslaved ... faith healers, arms dealers, canoe thieves, spider eaters, and ... itinerant messiahs," writes Schneider. The author drew on first-hand accounts as well as more recent archaeological finds to compile his gripping tale. He also literally walked the walk, retracing the grueling trek across the grass shallows of Florida and the baked lands of Texas and through the Sierra Madre.

100 BULL---- JOBS ... And How to Get Them by Stanley Bing (Collins, $19.95, 297 pp)

This book may or may not make you feel better about your own job, but it's guaranteed to make you laugh. Bing offers a satirical look at the many positions - from advertising executive to "writer of this book" - for which people are "paid well ... work very little, and ... are highly respected because nobody really knows what they do." My favorite: life coach. "Famous Example: Dr. Phil. The Upside: It feels good when people pay you to yell at them. The Downside: Some days you may not be positive enough to get out there and make people bark that happy song." Yes, book editor is one of the jobs Bing includes, but judging from the high-end salary he cites ($450,000), he's obviously not talking about my job but about the Maxwell Perkins-type positions in New York publishing houses. "Duties: Ability to 'read' a 300-page book before lunch, while answering e-mails on his Blackberry. Skills Required: The great book editor is at once a gifted salesperson, an arbiter of taste, a babysitter of lost souls, and a closet boulevardier. God bless them, both of them."

GLAMOROUS DISASTERS: A Novel by Eliot Schrefer (Simon & Schuster, $23.95, 328 pp)

Who says you can't go home again? This week, Eliot Schrefer returns in triumph (see Book Talk) to the town where he grew up - Clearwater - to present his first novel, a glimpse into life of New York's superrich. Based on the time Schrefer, a Harvard graduate, spent tutoring the college-bound sons and daughters of wealthy clients (no wonder they call it the male version of The Nanny Diaries), the story proves once and for all that the rich really are different from you and me: They can afford a $395-an-hour SAT tutor for their kids, not to mention the cab fare to get him to their Fifth Avenue digs.

FLORIDA FAVORITE By Times staff writer JEFF KLINKENBERG

THE TONIC OF WILDNESS by Ken Morrison (Gainesville Association for Creative Arts, $12.95, 173 pp)

This perfectly charming collection of essays by a Florida naturalist feels like sitting on the back porch with the author, a former editor of Audubon magazine and curator of Historic Bok Sanctuary. He tells us how to chat with birds ("pish pish"), the joys of going barefoot and how to cope with noise pollution. Most of these essays are Florida-related, though a few describe nature in North Carolina, where Morrison and his wife, Helen, have a cabin in the mountains. "Some people will watch almost anything,'' he writes. "My wife and I are in that unselect group, because we have taken up mouse watching.'' A word of warning: Not all bookstores carry The Tonic of Wildness. But you can order by calling (352) 472-6740.

[Last modified May 7, 2006, 09:36:04]