As a juggler the author likes to finish his performances with a stunt that combines props and techniques from a variety of juggling disciplines. Imagine him idling on a giraffe unicycle, while balancing a spinning basketball on a mouth stick, and toss-juggling a sword, a toilet plunger, and a rubber chicken. As a mathematician he is also interested in the treasure trove of beautiful mathematics used to model the different activities in a juggler's repertoire. In this book he provides an intellectually stimulating collection of mostly self-contained mathematical essays that introduce the reader to many elegant results and techniques from a wide range of mathematical disciplines such as combinatorics, graph theory, knot theory, mechanics, differential equations, control theory, and robotics. "The Mathematics of Juggling" is the first comprehensive account summarizing and expanding the results in the literature on juggling tricks and skills, as well as the mathematics behind these tricks and skills. Anybody who is not put off by the word "mathematics" in the title of this book should have a good time reading it.

BOOKLIST--4/1/87: "Juggling, says Dave Finnigan, is a 'physically & mentally relaxing form of recreation which can help you to discover & nurture your innate coordination.' Finnigan offers this engaging guide for anyone who is interested in improving manual dexterity, who longs to be the life of every party, or who has simply always wanted to ape the feats of nimble-fingered circus perfomers. With reassuring enthusiasm, the author takes readers through a passel of juggling routines in step-by-step fashion, from advanced three ball juggling, to feats involving balls, clubs & rings, & on to the ever-popular plate-spinning. Appended material proffers advice on teaching juggling, making money at the art, juggling & health, & more. A SUREFIRE ITEM FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES EVERYWHERE." To order call Jugglebug 1-800-523-1776.

Why were so many religious images and objects broken and damaged in the course of the Reformation? Margaret Aston's magisterial new book charts the conflicting imperatives of destruction and rebuilding throughout the English Reformation from the desecration of images, rails and screens to bells, organs and stained glass windows. She explores the motivations of those who smashed images of the crucifixion in stained glass windows and who pulled down crosses and defaced symbols of the Trinity. She shows that destruction was part of a methodology of religious revolution designed to change people as well as places and to forge in the long term new generations of new believers. Beyond blanked walls and whited windows were beliefs and minds impregnated by new modes of religious learning. Idol-breaking with its emphasis on the treacheries of images fundamentally transformed not only Anglican ways of worship but also of seeing, hearing and remembering.

Leading circus skills author Charlie Dancey has spent over 20 years compiling this book of the world's coolest tricks, from unicycles to levitation, and vanishing coins to lion-taming.