Oxford U. Press

Casino women; courage in unexpected places.

Chandler and Jones (social work, U. of Nevada, Reno) interview different female casino employees in Las Vegas and Reno, asking them about their lives and work experiences and ways that they have dealt with changes, challenges, and adversity in their work situations. The women whose stories are featured include dealers, pit bosses, stage crew members, housekeepers, cocktail waitresses, and women in management. Some are immigrants, some native born, some near retirement age, some just starting out. Issues explored include racism, sexism, finances, workplace health issues, corporatization, and unionization. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Oxford handbook of health psychology.

It is evidence of the importance of the new field of health psychology that it warrants this volume in the prestigious series of Oxford Handbooks. Presenting the state of research, the 35 chapters are divided into five sections; foundations, core concepts, core issues, health behaviors and change, and population and sociocultural issues. The focus on methodology and practice of the initial two sections will be particularly useful to beginning practitioners and graduate students. Editor Howard S. Friedman (psychology, U. of California, Riverside) has contributed a chapter on personality, disease, and self-healing and the concluding chapter describing future trends in addition to co-authoring the chapter on the field's intellectual roots with Nancy E. Adler (U. of California, San Francisco). As is typical for the series, the material is clearly and thoughtfully presented, with an abstract, list of keywords, and bibliography in each chapter, with the text presented in outline form, clearly dividing a substantial body of information into accessible parts. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Rethinking Canada; the promise of women's history, 6th ed.

This superb textbook, now in its sixth ed., draws its strength and continued relevance from the quality of its selections and the diverse academic specialities of its authors. Rather than a chronological history, 24 chapters offer previously published articles on a specific case or topic; for example, the construction of gender in Native women's lodges on the Pacific Northwest Plateau, women and the vote in the Montreal by-election of 1832, and depictions of women and family in church periodicals. Each essay is preceded by an introduction by the editors and a related primary document and concludes with a list of discussion questions. New to this edition are all the chapter introductions, 18 of the 24 articles, the primary documents, a stronger emphasis on women before 1920, and two companion websites. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)