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‘Horn’ devilishly saxy
The cool, sexy and impressively complex sound of the saxophone can sound so much like a human voice that the instrument bedevils not just listeners, but sax players who obsessively seek a once-in-a-lifetime note they may never recapture again. In Michael Segell’s impressive “The Devil’s Horn: The Story of the Saxophone from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25), the instrument created by crazed genius Adolphe Sax has pushed music and society's boundaries continuously since 1841.

Segell, a journalist and amateur sax player, takes the reader far beyond a history lesson with remarkable interviews about the far-reaching influence of the instrument, from Europe’s military bands to big bands, the Jazz era, rock, R&B, America’s school music programs and the contentious world of classical music. “It cries, it sighs and dreams,” says one early music critic of the sax while another calls its sound an “instinctively animal-like” one that “preys upon the passions and emotions.”

Segell makes the case that the saxophone’s bewitching sound had more than a little to do with society’s changing views on sex in the last century. Just as effective as the meticulously researched musical histories are Segell’s charming interstitial chapters detailing his love affair with the sax and its powerful hold on anyone who dares tame the horn.    —Omar L. Gallaga

Left of center
Left-handed people are smarter than righties and more creative; they're more prone to mental illness and clumsiness. We've all heard these stereotypes about "southpaws," but do they have any basis in fact? David Wolman aims to find out in "A Left-Hand Turn Around the World: Chasing the Mystery and Meaning of All Things Southpaw" (Da Capo Press, $24).

DaCapo

Wolman doesn't get many conclusive answers; while lefties differ from "northpaws" in certain aspects of their brain chemistry, many of our cultural assumptions about their relative success in the arts (or refusal to use righty desks) just aren't true. The book delves into every facet of handedness, including its relationship to language, manual dexterity, and sports; lefty graphology; and whether lefties "had a survival advantage" in violent societies.

Wolman's at his accessible and witty best discussing the science of handedness and left-brain vs. right-brain tendencies. Parts of the book, like his visit to a palmistry clinic in Quebec, seem like filler, but the chapter on Japan's national association of left-handed golfers is a nifty slice of anecdotal reporting. "Left-Hand Turn" is an enjoyable look at the social and scientific spectrum of handedness, no matter which hand you use to open jars.    —Sarah D. Bunting

One of the wonderful things about journalists is that they can go places and see things others cannot. John Feinstein spent a year following the Baltimore Ravens football team and recorded the results in the engrossing, if a little football-wonky, "Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL" (Little, Brown, $26).

Little Brown

The Ravens have high hopes for the season Feinstein observes, but end up disappointingly mediocre. The games and the win-loss column, however, are less fascinating than the minutiae of daily life in the NFL. Draft day is especially engrossing — the Ravens' young owner has to hang up on a supposed draft pick mid-congratulations when his team trades for someone else at the last minute. It's also intriguing to learn that even the pros get cut, and the agony is as raw as it was back in high school. And who knew that the NFL pays former players (called "clothes Nazis" by the teams) to enforce their strict uniform rules before each game?

Feinstein obviously likes the Ravens' coaches and players, but presents them fairly neutrally. (The one person he saves his vitriol for is Redskins' owner Daniel Snyder, who comes off as a bit of a buffoon.) Readers don't have to be Ravens' fans to appreciate "Next Man Up," but they had better be football fans. The book doesn't get terribly jargony, but the pages of football strategy will be hard to follow for non-sports buffs — but then, why would they be reading this book?    —G.F.C.

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