Everett (languages, literatures, & cultures, Illinois State Univ.) has crafted a fascinating account of his 30 years of linguistics work among the Pirahã (pronounced pee-da-HAN) Indians, a tribal group living along the Maici and Marmelos Rivers in a remote area of western Brazil. Everett and his family first lived among the Pirahã in 1977 as Christian missionaries. Although he had prepared for language learning through missionary field training, Everett's real interest in linguistic theories blossomed during his graduate study at Brazil's State University of Campinas. During his years among the Pirahã, Everett has undertaken serious linguistic study and has discovered many interesting and unique aspects of the Pirahã language, which is unrelated to any other. The language has a paucity of vowels (three) and consonants (eight), but it has a complex system of varying tones and stresses. It lacks numbers or any type of counting system and also lacks specific terms for colors. Everett's findings about the language have led him to challenge some of the most widely accepted theories put forth by renowned linguists Noam Chomsky and Stephen Pinker. With a clear, detail-rich writing style, Everett provides evocative ethnographic descriptions of Pirahã life and culture as well as perceptive linguistic analysis. Throughout, he emphasizes the interconnectedness of language and culture and the importance of studying both together if one wants to understand either. This excellent study is highly recommended for linguistics and anthropology collections in academic and large public libraries [See Prepub Alert, LJ 8/08.]—Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, OH

Grann, a staff writer at The New Yorker, gives a gripping, detailed account of the fate of English explorer Percy Fawcett. Fawcett disappeared into the jungles of Brazil in 1925 with his son and his son's best friend. It was not the first time that Fawcett had plunged into Amazonia or confronted pestilence and natives not keen on receiving trespassers. Colonel Fawcett was a soldier, sometime spy, and expert surveyor and explorer who helped define the border between Bolivia and Brazil. But he was primarily obsessed with finding a rumored great city in the jungles of South America, which he simply called Z partly because it did not have a name and partly to throw off others who were looking for it. Grann's experience following this mystery to England and Brazil was an adventure in its own right. He alternates chapters on Fawcett's adventures, based on his diaries and contemporary accounts, with his own and others' efforts to find Fawcett or at least the truth about his demise. Like the books of Simon Winchester (e.g., The Man Who Loved China), this is a compelling and entertaining read. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.