Recent Books

PARADISE -- Esther Forbes -- Harcourt, Brace ($2.50). Historical romance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; a good rousing yarn of pioneers, Puritans, lycanthropy, platonic love, King Philip's War.

THE BOYS IN THE BACK ROOM--Jules Romains--McBrlde ($2). Long-winded Novelist Romains takes time off from his big work-in-progress (Men of Good Will, TIME, July 13 et ante) to write this rather painfully jolly interlude about some bright young Parisian pals who loved to drink and play intricate practical jokes.

FORTY CENTURIES LOOK DOWN -- F. Britten Austin--Stokes ($2.50). Historically accurate, interesting but awkward novel of Napoleon's military and marital strategies in the Egyptian Campaign of 1798; the second installment of bold Romancer Austin's super-serial covering Napoleon's major campaigns.

Non-Fiction

MEXICO AROUND ME -- Max Miller -- Reynal & Hitchcock ($2.50). Max Miller covers Mexico "from end to end twice and crosswise," finds it badly shopworn until he meets a peasant colonel who fought for ten years with Zapata.

AARON BURR: THE PROUD PRETENDER-- Holmes Alexander--Harper ($3.50). Brilliantly written life of the onetime (1800-04) U. S. Vice President who sought to be Aaron I in a kingdom carved by knavery.

TRAVELS IN ARABIA DESERTA, 2 vols.-- Charles M. Doughty--Random House ($15). Beautifully produced, unabridged edition of the travel classic, with the 5,000-word introduction by T. E. Lawrence.

ZERO HOUR--Richard Freund--Oxford ($2.50). Still another book about Europe today, by a journalist Austrian-born, German-bred. English-ripened.

THE DANGEROUS SEA -- George Slocombe -- Macmillan ($2.50). Readable, thoroughgoing history of the Mediterranean Sea and shores, which able Foreign Correspondent Slocombe calls "the cradle of civilizations--and their tomb."

SHOWMAN--William A. Brady--Button ($3). An old war horse of the theatre, father of Alice Brady, husband of Grace George, who rose from the Bowery by promoting everything from prize rights (Jim Corbett) to plays, tells in his own or somebody else's racy lingo how he reached the top of the Main Stem.

JUAN BELMONTE: KILLER OF BULLS-- As told to Manuel Chaves Nogales--Doubleday, Doran ($3.50). Interesting autobiography, with good photographs of Spain's No. 1 modern bullfighter; engaging documentation on the thesis that bullfighting is nearer symphonies than prize fights.

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