Mothers of Invention, by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek (Quill, $8.95). Once again we are presented with compelling evidence that women have been denied their rightful place in history. Their discoveries, their inventions, even the patents they obtained have been ignored in much of the literature of invention. The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Washington, D. C., for example, inducted a total of 52 inventors in 1984. None was a woman. William Coolidge, the inventor of the vacuum tube, is mentioned but not Marie Curie, who invented what we now call the ”Geiger” counter and discovered radium. Enrico Fermi was named for building the first atomic reactor, but not Lise Meitner, who first created, and named, nuclear fission. On and on the litany goes, and that`s only the introduction. The rest of the book gives women inventors their due, even as it entertains the reader with fascinating stories of how inventions were done: Liquid Paper was the invention of a secretary who typed poorly. Melitta Bentz invented the familiar drip-coffee maker, one brand of which bears her name.
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Double Exposure: Fiction into Film, by Jay Gould Boyum (NAL/Mentor, $4.95). Boyum who came first to the study of literature, second to writing movie reviews, departs from the conventional wisdom of the literati, who tend to disdain films adapted from great, or just good, books. Boyum argues that film is eminently well-suited to translating novels. That`s not to suggest all adaptations succeed, but the good ones often do, and Boyum writes entertainingly about how and why they do it. He takes up some classics as well as many contemporary and popular films, from ”The Great Gatsby” to
”Slaughterhouse Five,” ”Under the Volcano” and ”Sophie`s Choice.” I was disappointed only by his omission of ”Shane,” a good book that became a great movie.
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The Faith Healers, by James Randi (Prometheus, $14.95). James Randi, a professional magician who has devoted his life to investigating and exposing false claims of the paranormal, here presents his angriest book, a polemic that grew out of his dealings with faith healers, with their disillusioned former brethren and with their hapless victims. All claims of faith healings have common characteristics, he shows, among them the extraction of money from the faithful in exchange for an injection of false hope. Randi`s anger is directed not at the faith healers alone but also at law enforcement agencies that fail to prosecute them and at journalists who fail to expose them.
