I don't really want to wade into the fray here, but another possibility to consider is that the author of a book is often NOT the one who writes the stuff which appears on the cover.... some (hapless) production editor /copy writer / college intern (or the senior editor's nephew) may be responsible for the captions about what the book contains... and such folks may not nuance their words carefully. I'm not implying that they intend to deceive-- but I am suggesting that they (unlike the author) are not experts on the particular topic, and may overgeneralize a bit... The author may or may not have complete control over what gets put on the book jacket-- or the author may decide that it's a fair enough generalization, even though the definition of a term like "complete" may not be, well, complete... or the author may not see it until it is too late, or the author may have lost the argument with the publisher, or....

I don't have any experience with any of the big name publishing houses, so this is a *guess* on my part-- but an educated one, based on my experiences with the publishing arm of my religious denomination (where I've had editors hack my stuff and write inaccurate "teasers" and captions.)

Any way -- it gives a whole new meaning to the stock phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover!"

But in fairness to editors (given that I may end up being one eventually)-- they're working with time constraints and with short word counts-- both of which work against carefully nuancing the little blurbs on a book cover.

(The Rev.) Julie Kanarr