24 - North Shore News - Friday. Decamber 24, 1999

From naked pi

Terry Pe'
Contributis

B Neked Pictures of Famous
People, by Jon Stewart (Rob
ieee Books) 163 pages,
What do Gerald Ford,
Hitler and Martha Stewart all
have in common? They are ali
’ sitting ducks for the barrage of
jokes and jabs that comedian

Jon Stewart fires in the 17
essay¢ that make up this book.
With his crazed imagination he
conjures up a Larry Ki .
interview with Hitler, a lonely
~_.. Vincente Van Gogh looking for
artistic discussions in an
Intemmet. chat room, a Bill
. Gates deal with the devil, and
. much more, -
._.. Stewart is always ready to
take it ene step further. In -
- “Five Under Five” he spoofs
‘the media’s relentless creation ;
_of news where none exists and
_ gives us future wendsetters, in
*, the guise of five children -
under five who we should all
watching. Fis version of an
-exchange of fetters in “Pen
ais;” beaween Princess Diana
and Mother Theresa is hilari-
Ouse

If you've enjoyed his late-

night talk show, this book will
carry vou through when there
is only static feft on the screen.

@ Your Action World:
Winners are Losers with a New
Attitude, by David Byrne
(Chronicle Books), 128
pages, $35.95

We are surrounded by cor-
porate culture. It’s forced on
us in every form of advertising,
in the self-help movement, in
the entertainment we watch.
We learn to associate colours
with companies: blue for IBM,
red for Coke, blue and gold
for Visa. In Your.Action
World, David Byrne parodies
these invasive messages and
fights back against the endless
assault of unwanted informa-
tion. He makes up his own
image-laden messages for the
new age.

“You are your Superself
and nothing can stop you
now.” His text stips its mes-
sage smoerhly into your brain,
like the lyrics to a song that
you sing along to then one
day realize that the words real-
ly mean something.

Musician, songutiter, pho-
tographer, writer, David Byrne
brings something special to
each art form.

Fo

i Hotel LaChapelle, by David
LaChapelle (Bulfinch Press),
168 pages, $81

Every room in Hotel
LaChapelle is filled with a wild
combination of surrealism and
personal statements. Incredible
colour images illustrate scenes
from the strange interiors of
David LaChapelle’s imagina-
tion.

The images that make up
this collection are drewn from
LaChapeile’s work from 1996
to 1998. In the fisting at the
book’s end, each photo is
identified with the names of

- the subjects, the date and pub-

lication it originaliy appeared

in.
“A lot of the pictures in

this book exist because there

+ was. no interference,” writes

TO.PZRFEOR

r

~' are called
_ Murders. As his investigation
presses harder, the killer makes” .,

the author. His work with
celebrities like Madonna and
Uma Thurman is represented
here. The spirit of co-opera-
tion is obvious in the work
created.

AIng,
LaChapelle’s pictures will
make you stop and stare. A
highly original book by one of
today’s brightest photographic
stars.

Pos Goes The Weasel, by
Janes Patterson (Little
Brown and Company), 423
pages, $36

Alex Cross is back in this
latest book by James
Patterson, and the
Washington, D.C. detective is
facing a killer whose murders
are as random as the tolls of a
dice. He is one of the Four’

- Horsemen and their game js
death. Their fantasy game has

left the computer screen and is -

__ creeping around the ghettos of
‘southeast Washington.

Alex Cross feeis a’connec-
tion exists between the appar- .

.. ent random killings of women

whose bedies ure discovered
vithout any idencification and
e Jane Doe

ELLA ENR IE LEE S

it personal berween himself
and Cross.

Patterson keeps the pres-
sure Git throughout and cre-
ates an irresisubie tale that will
keep you up late inte the
night. His fans will recognize
the line repeated in their heads
over and over again: “Just one
more chapter, then Fil go to
bed.”

Patterson inas created
another outstanding Alex
Cross novel.

W Wolf, by Maureen Greeley
{Metro Books), 143 pa
$19.98US_ a
The howl of the wolf is the
sound of the wild, untamed

lands. That those lands get
smaller every year and the
sotamed spirits in the world
are regularly diminished make
the wolf's stary even more
important. : Ot
Author Maurcen Greeley -

. knows her subject well. She is

executive director of Wolf .

* Haven International, a nen-:

profit organization working for.

wolf conservation. Her passion :

for these predators comes:
through in her writing with its
emphasis on understanding
anid respect. :

' Greeley provides an histor

_cal overview from their ancient |,

beginnings through to the.

; Many varieties of wolves for

somicone whe lived it.

around the world today. She
explains the differences and
the similarities of the various
ores shown in individual pho-
tographs.

The history of walves in
this century has been a bare
to the brink of extinction.
Long hunted as 3 dangerous
predator, the wolf population

as disappeared in many parts
of the world. And today as
they remain an endangered
species, thev are still the centre
of controversy.

Greeley writes te inform
and by doing so, improves our
understanding of this niajestic
animal. Her text combined
with the beautiful photographs
produces a stimulating study
of the modern-day wolf,

& Daughter of tse River, by
Hong Ying (Grove Press),
278 pages, $24

tn the °80s, western culture
was gripped by the Me
Generation and its sea of self-
interest. At the same time, a
young girl in China turned 18
and embarked on a jouraey of
discovery.

Hong Ying reached a turn-
ing point at 18 chat pushed
her to Bind out the rruth abou
her own origins. :

The history she wished to
understand was steeped in
poverty and tragedy.

Tarough her exploration of
her own past, we are given ©
glimpses of China’s history as
seen through the eyes of

The incredible rty of
the lower class and cheir strisg- ©
gle to survive is a shocking
enough tale, but when inter-
twined with the coming-of-age |
story of Hong Ying it becomes
a heartbicaking saga.

», Alternately graphic and.
sensitive, Daughter of the River ©
will let you examine a period

of China’s history normally

‘shat cff from ew.