Nonfiction offers something for everyone

If there were ever a literary term that needed an image makeover, "nonfiction" is it. The word brings to mind dusty library stacks and doorstop-sized books about topics you didn't choose to read, but you were assigned to read.

Wipe those ancient images out of your mind. Our roundup of new nonfiction focuses on everything from rockers to retro gaming. There's also an inspiring and educational look at a little-known group of Americans who fought in the Battle of Britain, a marvelous menagerie of animals, and Bill Bryson's gentle and sweet memoir of life in 1950s and 1960s America.

Stones getting stoned
“Swinging London 67,” by pop artist Richard Hamilton, is a collage of newspaper clippings about early Rolling Stones gossip and drug arrests. It’s a riot of overlapping type and images that when examined closely, are too numerous to read. Still, this pop culture statement is more informative and interesting than Robert Greenfield’s “Exile on Main St.: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones” (Da Capo Press, $24).

Allegedly recounting the 1971 maelstrom surrounding the making of what is arguably the Stones’ greatest LP, “Exile on Main St.,” the book is more about celebrity gossip than music. Original Stones guitarist Brian Jones was dead and the band was at the peak of both fame and drug use. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger came into their own as a songwriting team, just as they grew apart personally. Jagger, with ritzy new wife Bianca, was starting to experiment with high society. Richards, shacked up with Jones’ ex-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, was into heroin. With the nonstop parade of celebrities and drug dealers through the French villa where the Stones recorded, it’s a wonder “Exile” was completed.

It’s also a wonder that those Stones lived long enough to become the respectable business moguls/stadium rockers they are today. But that’s an old story everyone knows. Career rock biographer Greenfield tells his version in sad clichés like a hanger-on trying to convince friends he was actually there. Fans of dirt may enjoy this quick read. Fans of music should buy the “Exile on Main St.” LP instead.       —Helen A.S. Popkin

History taxing in 'Monopoly'
The enduring popularity of the rich uncle of board games, Monopoly (250 million copies sold worldwide), would seem to make it a natural for a non-fiction history. Unfortunately game exec and Monopoly historian Phil Orbanes' book, "Monopoly — The World's Most Famous Game & How it Got That Way" ($26, Da Capo Press), is a little long on history and short on capturing the fun of the game.

Orbanes writes in detail about the evolution of Monopoly, which began life as a politically charged educational title called "The Landlord's Game," and the way it became popular. When the book isn't wading through trademark battles of little interest to anyone besides game historians, the book tries to put to scale how the game achieved worldwide popularity. Key to its success, even in dark economic times: ".. its breadth of appeal, its analysis, its historical study, its role in shaping our economy's leaders, and its rise along with capitalism during the 20th century." Plus, Orbanes adds, "All that Monopoly money!"

The book becomes much more interesting when it goes beyond the game's chronology and brings the familiar board to life through the enthusiasm of its players. Obanes, a former Parker Bros. executive who once promoted the game through global tournaments, writes breathlessly about tourney tactics. Tip: forego Boardwalk and Park Place to buy the properties after "Go to jail," where players land more often. An appendix featuring the many versions of Monopoly, including photos, plus information about foreign editions will be invaluable to enthusiasts, but the rest of us would have more fun getting the game board out, passing Go and collecting $200.    —Omar L. Gallaga

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