The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 24

4C The Jackson Sun, Jackson, Sunday, May 13, 1990 I BEST SELLERS Mothers' arms cradle U.S. success Publishers Weekly Lawyer captivates readers Reasonable Doubt. By Philip Friedman. Donald I. Fine: $19.95.

Mothers, and Success By Frank Stilley Associated Press However, he offers ways to change historical drift to decay with his education theories. If successful child-rearing isn't going to be accomplished at home, then the only answer to saving the U.S. is establishing child-rearing schools, such as the Jewish kibbutz schools, or the Jesuits. Parents will be interested in his historical studies of these famous child-rearing schools, which had these common denominators: All are or were run by a large proportion of teachers demanding excellence. They begin at an early age.

They produce results regardless of ancestry or social background. Such models offer a vision of a remarkably different future for many of this country's children. Numerous book reviewers in scientific and historical fields have lauded Odpm for his hardline view at what's really happening behind steadily declining academic achievement in the U.S. Make no bones about it, Odom stirs a hornet's nest with ideas that run against prevailing thought, and many specialists will resent invasion of their jealously guarded field by a nonspe-cialist, particularly in the academic community. As we begin complete overhaul of the educational system in Tennessee, I would recommend this book to all people interested in having a system that would prepare our children for the 21st century.

Bill Emerson is superintendent of Crockett CountyBells City Schools. Mothers, Leadership, and Success. By Guy Ft. Odom. Po-lybius Press: $22.50.

By Bill Emerson The author of Mothers, Leadership, and Success leaves no doubt of his belief in "the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." Guy Odom also confesses his book's controversy: "This book is for laymen, the doers, the achievers, the people who can make things happen. This book is for the innovators." It is a wide-angle lens view of history, science and the arts, concluding that each world empire passes through six stages. The United States is passing from the Age of Intellect (stage 5) into the Age of Decadence. The success or failure of American democracy to pull out of its Age of Decadence depends on young people being reared by successful mothers to be successful, high-achieving adult leaders. Odom believes the key factor in success is a personality trait involving an adult need to control surroundings.

He calls the trait dominance and says it results directly from a childhood fear of being controlled, almost always by the mother. Debunking traditional theories of biological inheritance and racial superiority, Odom states that dominance and intelligence are produced by mothers who teach "anything worth doing is worth doing well." The only differences in the human race are cultural differences. Confronting sexual discrimination, Odom asserts, "With rare exceptions, the transmittal of the It is always a great pleasure when a lawyer who has a gift for writing mystery fiction sets his hand to a story told mostly through court proceedings with high legal drama. In "Reasonable Doubt," author Philip Friedman measures up on all counts. He knows how to keep a reader captivated.

And while the plot basically seems to be a simple one at the outset, it grows tricky indeed. Michael Ryan, a former federal prosecutor who has been out of action for some years because of a major case he botched, also is estranged from his son and only child. Then the son is murdered. The son's wife is charged, but she swears she is innocent and begs Ryan to defend her. Ryan is persuaded to help and teams with a spirited woman lawyer.

But they lose the case because they can't turn up a single thing indicating the innocence of the daughter-in-law. It is then that unexpected and surprising things begin to multiply. Foreword by former United States Secretary of Education FICTION ,1. September. Rosamunde Pilcher.

2. The Bourne Ultimatum. Robert ludlum. 3. Oh, the Places You'll Go! Dr.

Seuss. 4. Masquerade. Janet Dailey. 5.

The Evening News. Arthur Hailey. 6. Clear and Present Danger. Tom Clancy.

7. Skinny Legs and All. Tom Robbins 8. Bright Star. Harold Coyle.

9. The Gold Coast. Nelson De-Mille. 10. The Scions of Shannara: Book One of the Heritage of Shannara.

Terry Brooks. NONACTION 1. Men at Work. George F. Will.

2. Means of Ascent. Robert A. Caro. 3.

Wealth Without Risk. Charles Givens. 4. Megatrends 2000. John Nais-bitt and Patricia Aburdene.

5. Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. Bryan Bur-rough and John Helyar. 6. Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know.

Barbara DeAngelis, Ph.D. 7. Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt. Harvey MacKay. 8.

Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street. Michael M. Lewis. 9. Kareem.

Kareem Abdul-Jab-bar with Mignon McCarthy. 10. In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat and Renewal. Richard M. Nixon.

PAPERBACKS Regular size 1. The Negotiator. Frederick Forsyth. 2. The Hunt for Red October.

Tom Clancy. 3. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Robert Fulghum. A.

Almost Heaven. Judith McNaught. 5. The Servants of Twilight. Dean R.

Koontz 6. Rainbow in the Mist. Phyllis A. Whitney. 7.

Rivals. Janet Dailey. 8. Star. Danielle Steel.

9. Rules of Prey. John Sand-ford. 10. Stranger in Savannah.

Eugenia Price. Trade 1. 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. Earth Works Group. 2.

Weirdos from Another Planet! A Calvin and Hobbes Collection. Bill Watterson. 3. 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save the Earth. Earth-Works Group.

4 Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself. Melody Beattie. 5. Happy Trails! Berke Breathed. 6.

The T-Factor Fat Gram "Counter. Compiled by Jamie Pope-Cordle and Martin Katahn. 7. Save Our Planet: 750 Ever-day Ways You Can Help Clean Up the Earth. Diane MacEachern.

8. Dianetics, Revised Edition. L. Ron Hubbard. 9.

Lord of the Flies. William Golding. 10. Walt Disney World 1990: Official Guide. Steve Birnbaum.

dominance trait goes through the maternal line, mother to child. The highly dominant daughter is usually the carrier of dominance but, because of the country's socio-political climate, the highly dominant son is more often the one to achieve success." The ratio of dominant to nondo- minant people in the population provides the initial energy of a new culture, according to Odom, and determines an empire's decay in only 10 generations. Odom's conclusion that the changes brought by affluence and intellectual growth begin societal decay is disturbing. Travel tales capture significance of both beautiful, ordinary troops. The ritual slowly returned Beasley kept his head and stayed dry through that battle on the San Juan River.

He was drenched by the blood of the Og-lala Sioux on another trip. "Blood for the Sun" tells of the Indians who run skewers through their chests and hang by rawhide thongs tied to the skewers and the branches of cottonwood trees. The object of the Sun Dance is to rip out the skewers. (It's what Richard Harris went through in "A Man Called The U.S. government outlawed the Sun Dance in 1884.

The folks in Washington figured Indians who could deal with such torture would enjoy battling U.S. Cavalry happened, too. "River of Thunder, River of Gold," the centerpiece of this collection, is a splash in the face for anyone who has ever felt the fear and anxiety of approaching a rapid alone in a canoe: "The river was eager to devour me. Down the convulsive trough between the walls I rocketed, punching the water with the paddle, trying to keep the bow pointed straight. In the frantic intensity of the moment it seemed as if I could hear the river calling to me: Aren't I beautiful? Aren't I magnificent? Isn't this the most exciting thing you've ever done in your life?" Sundancers and River Demons.

By Conger Beasley Jr. The University of Arkansas Press: $24.95. By Jeff Williams Gannett News Service Reading about the travels of Conger Beasley Jr. is the next best thing to being there. He's been to South Dakota's bizarre Badlands.

He's felt the beast of the Missouri River under his canoe. He's seen how man can turn a Caribbean island into a wasteland. Those stories and 11 more are in this collection of essays. Like others John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Colin Fletcher Beasley tells of his travels. But his gift is the ability to give places their significance.

He writes about beautiful places, like the San Juan River, but he's no snob. Beasley, a Mis-sourian who has written half a dozen other books, even turns listless Cairo, 111., into a stage for misplaced humans. Maybe that's what makes these essays so invigorating. Beasley gives us all the history we need, tells us what he expects to find and tells us what he actually sees. He makes us wish we were there so we could wonder what in various watered-down torms and, in the 1960s with support from the Red Power movement, the skewers came back in full force.

Some other essays are about studying seals in Alaska, spending time on Santa Cruz island, scaling Bear Butte, oozing down the Suwanee River and traveling across the plains as a teen-ager. Beasley is simple but insightful. He looks into the shadows but also sees the bright spots of the places he visits. He doesn't let his expectations get in the way of reality. Mississippi memories attract all May issues focus on health, children By Michael Roberts Gannett News Service May magazine topics range from the light-hearted Madonna of the 1,001 looks to the serious saving black children from poverty and drugs.

Fasting and eating alone emerge as health and dieting issues, while for hunters and animals lovers, the article in stirs controversy. COSMOPOLITAN: Celebrating its 25th anniver Author's view surprises book's many readers LIBRARY ARRIVALS By Mike Suchcicki Gamiett News Service ft 4 sary with a thick May issue, the MAGAZINE magazine that launched a thou- sand faces features Madonna on RACK the cover, the woman witn tmm Author Clifton Taulbert says that the South's style of inviting people up on the front porch is gone, but openness can be couldn't have been like but life was like that," Taulbert says. "I was interviewed by a disc jockey in Minnesota who said, 'I did not realize that black people enjoyed He had pictured us as being psychological and emotional victims. Yes, segregation created victims, no question about it. What I'm saying is that behind that wall of segregation, there existed a people who were strong enough to live beyond the throes of victimization." Indeed, he says, reaction from black readers has been entirely positive.

"Someone said to me, 'I'm glad somebody has written a book that does not cut me up into 15 different pieces as if I did not live or love or The cover of the book treasured photos upon a bed of raw cotton has been transformed into a poster on literacy by the American Library Association. To Taulbert's pleasure if not surprise Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored has attracted many white readers. "In Tulsa, at a black-tie party for the Chamber of Commerce, a white man came up to me, without a smile on his face. He said, 'I just read vour I thought, 'Uh, He said, 'This book is not about black people in Mississippi, it's about white people who grew up in southern Oklahoma who went to the Baptist church and carried funeral home fans. You wrote about my life and I enjoyed every page of Taulbert has made the shared experience of agrarian Americans his message in his lectures and book readings.

Unfortunately, he says, it would be difficult to return to the sense of community that he depicts in his book. "In the agrarian South," he says, "people invited people into their world more frequently than they do now. When I was growing up, most people lived on the front porch and they invited you into their world. Most of us (now) live on the back porch and we have high fences around us so nobody can see us. There's no way you can go back and capture things physically, but psychologically we can position ourselves to make our lives a little bit more open." 'We have so much in common as Americans, that if we just take the time to realize it, it would make life better for all of Clifton Taulbert, author Clifton Taulbert doesn't seem too affected by the fact that he may soon become a household name.

He is the author of Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, a book that has been strongly embraced by readers; it's now in its fifth printing. A series of literary tintypes about life as a black youth in the Mississippi of the '40s and '50s, it has attracted devoted readers of all races. "It's the type of book," he says with pride, "that once you read it, you want somebody else to read it." Laughing, he adds, "It's not a book that you buy and lend. You say, 'I've got my copy, now you get In only a few months, Taulbert has witnessed a snowball effect from his work. His publisher, Council Oak Books of Tulsa, has been deluged with calls and requests since a recent New York Times book review.

Taulbert was asked to open Black History Month in early February at the U.S. Capitol. He has been selected as one of three keynote speakers for the American Booksellers Association convention in Las Vegas in July. But the Tulsa author and businessman isn't letting the sudden popularity cloud the joy he feels over the reception of the book's message. "It's exciting, but in a good sense," Taulbert says.

"It gives me an opportunity to reinforce things that people already know, to inform people about things that they don't know and to share with people how life was lived by people in the '50s." Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored is the 43-year-old author's recollection of life in the small Mississippi town of Glen Allan. It's hardly a cliche to say that his reminiscences are glowing, for the warmth of his memories about his relatives, his neighbors, his schooling, the various forms of entertainment and recreation are the hallmark of the book. The New York Times reviewer Among new arrivals at Jackson-' Madison County Library: ADULT FICTION The Bad Place. Dean R. Koontz.

Counterattack. W.E.B. Griffin. The Disinformer. Peter Ustinov.

The Queen of October. Shelley Fraser Mickle. Harbinger Effect. Sarah Wolf. Hartman's Game.

Richard Cox. Long Distance Life. Marita Golden. Woodrow's Trumpet. Tim McLaurin.

Dirty Work. Larry Brown. Hollywood. Gore Vidal. ADULT NON-FICTION Hamp: An Autobiography, Lionel Hampton.

Do I Have to Say Delia Ephron. Growing Up Firstborn, Kevin Leman. Prevent Silent Heart Disease, Harold Karpman. Miss Manners' Guide to the Turn-of-the-Millennium, Judith Martin. Head First, the Biology of Hope, Norman Cousins.

The Dragon's Triangle, Charles Berlitz. SCIENCE FICTION Chanur's Homecoming. C.J. Cherryh. Chung Kuo.

David Wingrove. Brain Rose. Nancy Kress. Dare to Go A-Huntlng. Andre Norton.

The Fifth Book of Lost Swords: Coinspinner's Story. Fred Saberhagen. The Stress of Her Regard. Tim Powors Henry Martyn. L.

Neil Smith. Ash Ock: the Paratwa Saga, Book Two. Christopher Hinz. TO CALL THE EDITOR Book editor Jacgue Hillman can be reached by calling 427-3333, extension 132. In West Tennessee outside Madison County, readers can call toll-free looks, as a brunette.

In the accompanying feature Madonna explains why she constantly reinvents her persona and spends so much money on her videos. And in the tradition of Burt Reynolds, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Davidson and Jim Brown, there is a new centerfold, thisone of David Has-selhold in the buff with two Shar-pei puppies. Woof, woof. EMERGE: The May issue offers strong pieces on topics close to the heart of the nation's black community Saving black children from the ravages of poverty and drugs, and the role of the black church in addressing pressing social problems. On children, Jacqueline Trescott calls for a new grassroots activism in fighting for health and education improvements, and profiles Children's Defense Fund head Marian Wright Edelman.

On churches, Hollie West describes the delicate balancing act between serving spiritual and earthly needs in poor urban neighborhoods. AMERICAN HEALTH: Will a three-day fast or an ancient ceremony to purge spirits from your body help rid toxins in the food, air, and environment? Two writers in the May issue went in search of toxic-ridding remedies. A three-day fast, says one, was no different than a fad diet. A three-hour sweat-lodge ceremony in a 180-degree tent, says the other, was mentally uplifting. "But it felt so good when we stopped," she confesses.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL MAGAZINE Is hunting a "very basic, deep dark human instinct," or it is an ecological tragedy for humans and animals alike? The May-June issue examines the federal government's role in wildlife management programs. Just what is the long-term impact of hunting and killing 16 million animals every year? SELF: Had the late Greta Garbo written the cover story, it would have been titled, "I Vant To Eat Alone." As it is, some researchers say eating by yourself at least four times a week may help you lose weight. Dining in the company of others, they theorize, makes you eat more and restrain less. PEOPLE: Reaching for new depths of celebrity fluff, the "Photo Spectacular Extra" out for the summer offers 50 photographs of the "most beautiful people in the world." P. wrote, "For better or for worse, Clifton Taulbert did not write a book about how awful life was for black people in the South or how evil white people could be.

He has told a bittersweet story about love, community and family and the difference they made in the life of one young man." "I didn't want the book to be an autobiography as much as a cultural biography," he says. "That's why the photos in the book have no identification. They're people and places that many readers have known in their lives." He makes no apologies about the positive tone of the book. "People have said, 'Truly life ft.