That Takes Ovaries! is kind of a stupid title, but the idea is a good one: stories of courage, daring, and balls--in this case, ovaries, because the subjects are all women. The book is subtitled "bold females and their brazen acts." Again, hokey. But cracking it open and reading one or two of the short stories inside made me tuck the book under my arm. I need something like this occasionally to restore my sanity.

There's nothing like reading about a woman with breast cancer who chooses radical mastectomy (get rid of 'em while you can!) instead of some save-'em-for-the-boys "reconstruction" to really light up your day! And if that doesn't make you happy, there's always Sabrina's story of organizing young women dancers to go on strike against an MTV sexploitation video. Stories include: talking back to catcalls, shaming a would-be robber with a lecture on Martin Luther King, Jr., even surviving the horrors of traveling across the US/Mexico border alone (from south to north, that is)--it's all in here. That Takes Ovaries! is published by Three Rivers Press in New York, edited by Rivka Solomon, and written by 63 courageous women.--Maria Tomchick

"War is a strange scale for measuring men," a Confederate soldier writes in a letter to a relative. So often war is framed by the words of generals, politicians, and news reporters. We seldom read or hear the words of the soldiers themselves; often we don't want to, afraid of the violence they might describe. But the US Civil War produced millions of pages of letters, journals, diaries, and memoirs. Historians have made careers out of sifting through this material for key pieces of information missing from the official records or by re-fighting the war all over again by attempting to humanize one side over the other. But Reid Mitchell's classic Civil War Soldiers: their Expectations and Their Experiences bridges the gap, revealing what the letters and diaries of both Confederate and Union soldiers say about a whole list of topics from the abstract to the mundane: army food, the countryside, the weather, disease, officers, the enemy, pillaging, slavery, secession, freedom, states' rights, politicians, and, most important of all, death and killing. With the US military busy intervening right now in a civil war halfway across the world, it can't hurt to remind ourselves of what a quagmire civil wars can be--and of what the human cost usually is. Mitchell's book is a good beginning place.--MT

We Will Not Cease, a masterpiece of the highest magnitude, has recently been given a North American release by The Eddie Tern Press. Archibald Baxter's memoir of his time as a World War I Conscientious Objector, first published in 1939, details the unimaginable suffering (what he calls "experiences") visited upon himself and 13 others deported from New Zealand to the Front Lines in France for refusing to serve.

Baxter was forced to state his case before any number of officers, doctors, boardmembers, adjutants, clergymen, and so on. So that, the book is not only a powerful testament to the courage of his principled stand, but also to the injustice and barbarity of all wars. Moreover, his central thesis -- that the overwhelming majority of all people, including especially the soldiers, are opposed to war but afraid to speak out against it in fear of the consequences -- is as relevant today as perhaps at any time in world history.

The eloquence of Baxter's writing and the enormity of his struggle are best shortly stated in the following letter to his family, reprinted in the book:

I have just time to send you this brief note. As far as military service goes, I am of the same mind as ever. It is impossible for me to serve in the army. I would a thousand times rather be put to death and I am sure you all believe that the stand I take is right. I have never told you since I left New Zealand of the things I have passed through, for I knew how it would hurt you. I only tell you now, so that if anything happens to me you will know. I have suffered to the limit of my endurance, but I will never in my sane senses surrender to the evil power that has fixed its roots like a cancer on the world. I have been treated like a soldier who disobeys (No. 1 Field Punishment). That is hard enough at this time of the year, but what made it worse for me was that I was bound to refuse military work, even as a prisoner. It is not possible for me to tell you in words what I have suffered. But you will be glad to know that I have met with a great many men who have shown me the greatest kindness. If you ever hear that I have served in the army or that I have taken my own life, do not believe that I did it in my sound mind. I never will...

We Will Not Cease can be ordered directly from The Eddie Tern Press for $11.95 (Book Rate shipping) or $14.95 (Priority mail), 46325 East Eagle Creek Rd., Baker, OR 97814. One could scarcely imagine a more appropriate Father's Day present!