Hashish!

Need an exotic hors d'oeuvre for the next Friends of the Library reception--Nepalese temple balls, perhaps, or a delicate majoon (a "general term applied to cannabis confections," Clarke reveals)? Just consult this lavishly illustrated compendium of all things hashish. Appealing to illicit substance consumers and history buffs alike, Clarke traces the hashish story from earliest times to the present and describes traditional methods of collecting cannabis resin and processing the gooey stuff into hashish. He also debunks persistent tidbits of cannabis lore: for instance, somewhere, it is said, in some culture, naked maidens scamper through hemp fields, and the resin they gather thereby is scraped from their bodies; enticing as that notion may be, no hard data verify it. Nor is there any efficacy in reaming a hash pipe and smoking the dross; the psychoactive THC in the hash burned the first time, and the only effects of toking the scrapings are those of hyperventilation. Nowhere does Clarke advocate breaking the law in pursuit of his subject, so for most libraries this is ostensibly history. Mike Tribby