Lis Carey's Library

Halflings (Halflings #1), by Heather Burch

2012-01-31T00:30:00.000-05:00

Zonderkidz, ISBN 9780210728185, January 2012

The Halflings in this tale are not the little guys with furry feet familiar from, but rather half angel, half human. Half fallen angel. They don't belong in Heaven, or on Earth, and they don't want to be consigned to Hell. They're stuck betwixt and between, enlisted in the struggle for Good because if they don't, they'll be conscripted into the forces of Evil.

And they're just boys, teenagers--The Lost Boys.

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, by Susan Orlean

2012-01-30T00:30:00.000-05:00

Simon & Schuster, ISBN 9781439190135, September 2011

In the beginning, there was an orphaned German Shepherd puppy in the war-torn fields of World War One France, and a young American soldier who had spent a lot of his life lonely and isolated, and part of it in an orphanage. The young soldier was Lee Duncan; the orphan puppy became Rin Tin Tin, a leading canine actor of the silent movie period.

It's easy to misunderstand that last bit, today, when animals in movies almost always play a comic role and are foils for the human actors. During the silent era, animal actors were on a much more equal footing with human actors, because neither had the advantage of speech. Rin Tin Tin, along with other dog actors, played a range of dramatic roles comparable to a human actor, and Rinty, as Duncan called him, was a major movie star. He was smart, highly trainable, and learned to express a wide range of emotions. Duncan took him home from France (an adventure in itself), trained him, and eventually started making the rounds of the movie studios, campaigning for a "break" for his beloved dog.

Chosen Forever: A Memoir, by Susan Richards (author), Lorna Raver (reader)

2012-01-29T00:30:00.000-05:00

Blackstone Audio, ISBN 9781433243738, June 2008

Susan Richards rescued a horse named Lay Me Down, and changed her own life. Then, after Lay Me Down's death, she wrote a book about her, and did a book tour, and changed her life again. This is the story of that book tour, and if you think that's an unpromising topic, you're in for a delightful surprise.

Caring for Lay Me Down helped Susan Richards take the first real steps towards recovery from her emotionally isolated childhood, abusive marriage, and severe anxiety disorder. Writing about the experience took her further on her recovery, acknowledging her anger and beginning to forgive both herself and others.

Assassin's Apprentice:The Farseer Trilogy, Book One, by Robin Hobb (author), Paul Boehmer (narrator)

2012-01-25T00:17:00.002-05:00

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781400164349, March 2010

Fitz is the illegitimate son of the late Prince Chivalry, raised on the fringes of the court, and apprentice to the royal assassin by the secret arrangement of King Shrewd. Royal bastards are always in a difficult position, and Fitz has a dangerous secret: in addition to the royal magic of the mind-bending Skill, he also possesses another magic, the despised and banned Wit, which honestly appears to be the same as the Skill, except it works on animals rather than people. Growing to manhood around the Court, he has to find for himself a safe path through the conflicts between the royal heir Prince Verity, his unSkilled younger half-brother Regal, and the Skill Master Galen, not to mention the attacks of the Red Ship barbarians and the dangers of the Forged ones, robbed of their human qualities by the barbarians and turned loose again to prey on their own countrymen.

Thunder Dog:The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero, by Michael Hingson (author), Susy Flory (author), Christopher Prince (narrator)

2012-01-24T00:30:00.000-05:00

Oasis Audio, ISBN 9781598599893, July 2011

When the first plane hit the North Tower on the morning of 9/11, Michael Hingson was at work on the 78th floor, preparing to start a presentation to visiting clients of his employer, Quantum. The building shook, and tilted, and his sighted colleagues, who could see the burning papers and other debris falling, started to panic. It was Hingson, believing what he was told but not able to see it, and influenced by the calmness of his guide dog, Roselle, clearly indicating that they weren't in immediate danger, who took control and led an orderly evacuation of the office.

Ready, Scrap,Shoot:A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap -n-Craft Mystery, by Joanna Campbell Slan

2012-01-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

Midnight Ink, ISBN 9780738727474, April 2012

Kiki Lowenstein has enough problems without an open-ended visit from her hypercritical mother. Her late husband's former partner--and killer--is determined to get her, too. Dodie, the principal owner of the scrapbooking shop where she is a minority owner, is not only acting distant and cool, but has taken on another partner without so much as telling her beforehand, much less consulting her.

And her new boyfriend's ex-wife, who through him out before Kiki and Det started dating, now blames Kiki as the "home-wrecker" who destroyed her happy life.

You Had Me At Woof:How Dogs Taught Me the Secret of Happiness, by Julie Klam (author), Karen White (narrator)

2012-01-22T00:28:00.002-05:00

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781400166916, October 2010

Julie Klam was in her twenties, living alone, and convinced she'd never find True Love. She decided she needed a dog in her life, did careful breed research, and decided on a Boston terrier. Then she made an hours-long drive to Pennsylvania to adopt Otto, in part because his picture matched a dog's face she'd seen in a dream.

She thought she was just adopting a pet, to meet her own needs and have the company of a dog again. In fact, she had just taken the first step on the road to a life of dog rescue.

Death By Petticoat:American History Myths Debunked, by Mary M. Theobald

2012-01-16T00:30:00.000-05:00

Andrews McMeel Publishing, ISBN 9781449418538, June 2012

This little book covers a collection of popular, oft-repeated myths of American history, both the completely fabricated and those with a grain of truth vastly over-inflated to make a better story.

The title refers to the claim that long skirts and petticoats were so likely to catch fire that "death by petticoat fire" was the second leading cause of death for colonial American women, with only childbirth beating it out. In fact the leading cause of death for colonial American women was disease--and the cottons, wools, and linens that made up colonial era clothing were a lot less flammable than the polyesters, rayons, and nylons commonly found in modern clothing.

Ever By My Side: A Memoir in Eight A/c/t/s/ Pets, by Nick Trout

2012-01-15T00:23:00.001-05:00

Broadway Books, ISBN 9780767932004, February 2011

Dr. Nick Trout is a veterinary surgeon practicing at Boston's MSPCA Angell Animal Medical Center. He's written some charming books about his experiences with patients; this is an equally charming book about his experiences with his own pets, from the first much-loved but inadequately socialized German shepherd growing up in England, to current pets shared with wife and daughters here in New England.

Murder is Binding (Booktown Series #1), by Lorna Barrett (author), Cassandra Campbell (narrator)

2012-01-10T00:30:00.000-05:00

Penguin, ISBN 9780425219585, April 2008

I listened to the audiobook, but I've linked to and provided the information for the mass market paperback, because Amazon won't allow me to create a direct product link to the Audible audiobook. Amazon owns Audible and presumably makes money selling Audible audiobooks, so go figure.

Tricia Miles, recently divorced, has moved from New York to the small town of Stoneham, NH, and opened a bookstore, Haven't Got a Clue, specializing in old and classic mysteries. This wasn't a random or haphazard choice; local real estate broker and Chamber of Commerce president Bob Kelly recruited lots of antiquarian booksellers to turn Stoneham into a tourist destination and revitalize its struggling economy. Tricia is the most recent addition, and her store has been open just five months. When she and her visiting sister, Angelica, respond to the smell of smoke coming from the neighboring shop, The Cookery, and find her argumentative neighbor, Doris Gleason, lying on the floor with one of her own knives in her back, it's a terrible shock--and just the beginning of Tricia's troubles.

The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, by Marc Levinson (author), William Hughes (reader)

2012-01-06T00:30:00.000-05:00

Blackstone Audio, ISBN 9781455114658, August 2011

When I was a child growing up in Everett, MA, there was, on Broadway, a little supermarket called A&P. It was bigger and had more selection than the convenience stores in the neighborhood, but smaller than McKinnon's, which has since gone on to bigger and better things, but not, as it turns out, anything like the size and reach that A&P had even in its decay, in that decade of the sixties when its glory days were past. McKinnon's is a quintessential local chain in the best sense, with high quality, excellent service, and unique offerings not found in the national or big regional chains. A&P in its heyday was something different, something I could not have imagined from that dingy little store inferior in every way to McKinnon's, except that my mom liked their 8 O'Clock Coffee.

A&P was, for over forty years, the largest retailer in the world, the retail behemoth that made its competition tremble, Wal-Mart before Wal-Mart. And they reached those heights from a start as a tiny little tea retailer in New York City in the 1860s.

Having Fun While Saving Money, by Janiera Eldridge

2012-01-05T00:30:00.000-05:00

Smashwords, November 2011

This is a great little ebook, filled with practical advice on how to save money without signing on to a program of Virtuous Self-Deprivation. We all want to have fun and enjoy ourselves, even, or perhaps especially, in these tough economic times when just paying for necessities is tougher than ever.

Having Fun While Saving Money is mainly aimed at young people, still in college or raising young families. There are lots of tips for inexpensively throwing parties, organizing outings with your kids or with your friends without blowing the budget. She covers everything from clever, fun craft projects to making good use of resources like Groupon or LivingSocial. Just when I (librarian that I am) was starting to say, "What about that wonderful resource, your public library?" she starts talking about all the great things available at the public library--books of course, but also museum tickets, computer access, music, and DVDs.

E-Books, readers, and publishers--some thoughts on a Raging Controversy

2012-01-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

Some rights reserved by STML

I've blogged before about libraries and the problem of e-books and publishers' attitudes; this is about Us, the Readers. There is a Heated Discussion taking place, at Dear Author and at Whatever. Robin L thinks it's reasonable and not mean to bitch at authors about the prices of their e-books; John Scalzi thinks only a massive sense of entitlement would cause people to bitch about the prices of e-books, and that it's somehow especially ignorant of readers to think that they're not really the customers publishers think about.

Untraceable (The Nature of Grace, #1), by S.R. Johannes

2012-01-03T00:30:00.000-05:00

Coleman & Stott, ISBN 9780984799121, November 2011

Grace's father has been missing for months, and everyone tells her she needs to accept the fact that he's dead. She can't; she spends all her free time searching the woods for traces of what happened to her forest ranger father. Her mother is making her see a psychologist to help her accept what's happened and deal with her grief, but her mother isn't dealing well with her grief either--working extra shifts, never being home for dinner, forgetting such basics about her daughter as the fact that Grace is lactose-intolerant.

Meanwhile, Grace is messing up most of her relationships with her determination, or obsession, to find her father.

Caught in Crystal, by Patricia C. Wrede

2012-01-02T00:30:00.000-05:00

Open Road, December 2011

This is a reissue of one of Wrede's older books, one of the five Lyra novels from the 1980s.

It's centuries after the Wars of Binding, and some institutions and customs are starting to break down. The Estarren alliance is beginning to come apart, with new polities and alliances encroaching around its edges. The Magic Seekers, ruthlessly determined to force the non-human races and human magic users to give their magic to them, are becoming a serious threat.

Kayl Larrinar, innkeeper in the small town of Copeham, lives quietly with her two children, mourning her late husband but living a happy and orderly life with her children, her friends, and her business.

Persona Non Grata: A Novel of the Roman Empire, by Ruth Downie (author), Simon Vance (narrator)

2012-01-01T00:30:00.000-05:00

Blackstone Audio, ISBN 9781400164189, November 2009

Ruso has just injured his foot attempting to rescue a boy from the river (the boy manages to save himself) when an uncharacteristically brief and urgent letter arrives from his brother Lucius: Come home immediately. In a panic about what new disaster is so awful Lucius won't even hint at it, he wangles extended medical leave, and he and Tilla pack up and head for southern Gaul.

Their arrival is a complete surprise, and not a welcome one. One of their major creditors is threatening a bankruptcy action against them, and the absence of the real property owner--Ruso--on public service had been legal protection against a seizure order. Lucius vehemently denies having sent the letter; if he'd thought his elder brother might be contemplating a return home, he'd have sent word not to come. Ruso's return makes them vulnerable to real financial disaster and disgrace.

Things only get worse when that same creditor drops dead during a private conversation with Ruso, poisoned.

A Christmas Feral, by Mary Matthews

2011-12-31T13:36:00.001-05:00

Kindle Editions

This is a charming retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, set in the Roaring Twenties, with Judge Scrooge about to issue a disastrously wrong ruling in a case involving feral cats, just in time for Christmas. Tatania, the beautiful, and deaf, white cat who readers may remember from Splendid Summer, takes a firm pawgrip on the matter, along with her companion, Zeus. The humans Tatania consents to hang out with, Jack and Grace, also make an appearance.

This Scrooge is so tight-fisted he won't even heat house; "when you pay the bill, you don't feel the cold." Tatania and her friends have an attention-getting lesson for him!

This is a warm and charming little story, a novella rather than a novel, but well worth your time in this Christmas season.

Recommended.

Crossing the Bridge, by Michael Baron

2011-12-19T00:30:00.000-05:00

The Story Plant, ISBN 9780981956817, January 2010

Hugh Penders is back in Amber, CT for his first extended visit since his brother Chase's death because his father has had a heart attack. It isn't just that his parents need his moral support; his father Richard needs him to take over running the store--and hopes he will take it over permanently. Both parents are offended when he flatly refuses, and agrees only to run it until it can be sold.

Since he's been drifting for the ten years since Chase died, and has recently quit his latest job, there's no obstacle to his doing so except that he finds working in the card and gift shop incredibly dull. Eventually, though, he gets bored enough that he starts making changes in the store, changes he feels his father should have made years ago. He's also distracted by running into Iris, his brother's last and most serious girlfriend, a woman to whom Hugh was also attracted. As he and Iris renew their friendship, they both have a lot of emotional baggage to work through with regard to Chase, and it soon looms as an obstacle to any future they might have together.

Terra Incognita:A Novel of the Roman Empire, by Ruth Downie (author), Simon Vance (narrator)

2011-12-18T14:00:00.002-05:00

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781400156672, April 2008

This second entry in Downie's Roman mystery series brings a change of scene. Worn out and mentally exhausted from his unwilling investigation of the deaths of several local prostitutes, Gaius Petreius Ruso fondly imagines that accepting a short mission to the north of Britain with the 20th Legion will be a nice rest for him and an opportunity for Tilla to visit what remains of her family. They'll be just south of what will soon be Hadrian's Wall, with tribes not yet fully reconciled to Roman rule on both sides of the border. What could possibly go wrong?

The accident on the road, when they are nearly there, the oxen pulling a wagon bolting and the brakes failing, resulting in deaths and major injuries, is just the beginning. And it is not, of course, an accident. The brakes were cut.

Hugo -- Martin Scorcese (director), John Logan (screenplay), Brian Selznick (book)

2011-12-11T15:27:00.001-05:00

Cast
George Melies Ben Kingsley
Hugo Cabret Asa Butterfield
Isabelle Chloe Grace Moretz
Mama Jeanne Helen McRory
Station Inspector Sacha Baron Cohen

Hugo Cabret is a twelve-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of the train station in Paris in the 1930s. His father was a watchmaker; his uncle maintained the clocks in the train station. They both taught Hugo their craft; his uncle has now disappeared. Hugo keeps his uncle's disappearance unnoticed by maintaining the clocks himself, and steals food from various vendors in the station to eat. He also has a few treasures rescued from his father's shop after his death, most importantly a life-sized clockwork man, and the notebook the elder Cabret kept of his efforts to repair the clockwork figure.

A Personal Devil, by Roberta Gellis (author), Nadia May (reader)

2011-12-10T00:30:00.000-05:00

Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 9780786181889, January 2005

This is the second Magdalene la Batarde mystery, Gellis's 12th-century London whoremistress who protects her women and caters to a clientele who can pay enough to keep them in comfort. With her clientele, and with the Bishop of Winchester as her landlord (she rents the Old Priory Guesthouse as her whorehouse), she has a much wider range of contacts and potential allies than the average whoremistress.

She also has more education and culture than the average whoremistress, but we only gradually learn bits and pieces of her background to help explain this. In this second entry in the series, one of Magdalene's former whores, the blind Sabina, is now established as the mistress of the saddle maker, Maynard. Maynard's face is disfigured by an ugly birthmark, but Sabina, being blind, sees only his kind and gentle nature and his strong and graceful body.

All is well until Maynard's appallingly nasty, vicious wife, Berthild, is found dead, murdered, in the yard of Maynard's shop.

Get Back to Work Faster: The Ultimate Job Seeker's Guide, by Jill Konrath

2011-12-08T00:30:00.000-05:00

Sales Gravy Press, ISBN 9780981800486, October 2009

Jill Konrath wants to share the secret of finding well-paid work as quickly as possible even in a terrible economy. She's happy to share that secret for free; you can buy a paperback copy of her book on Amazon, or you can download a pdf copy for free from her website, at http://www.jillkonrath.com/sales-books/get-back-to-work-faster/

The core of her secret is quite simple: Be a hard-driven, brilliant salesperson.

Really, there are a lot of specific and useful recommendations here. There is also information about valuable resources, most free, some not, that can be valuable additions to your job-hunting strategy.

The Mystery of Grace, by Charles de Lint (author), Paul Michael Garcia (reader), Tai Sammons (reader)

2011-12-05T00:30:00.000-05:00

Blackstone Audio, ISBN 9781433294679, September 2009

Altagracia Quintero, Grace to her friends, is a lover of classic cars--specifically, classic Ford cars. She works at Sanchez Motors customizing hot rods. She's a fan of rockabilly music, and has enough tattoos to make those unacquainted with her believe at first glance that she's a tough, scary, gang member.

John's an artist, doing commission work for his friends' company while pursuing his serious art independently. He's a melancholy and somewhat solitary young man, still coping with his grief and guilt over the death of his younger brother, when they were still children. When he and Grace meet at the local music hall on Halloween, he's immediately attracted to her, and she to him. Before the night is over, John and Grace are well on the way to being in love.

Unfortunately, Grace has been dead for two weeks.

Thousands of Broadways: Dreams and Nightmares of the American Small Town (The Rice University Campbell Lectures) by Robert Pinsky

2011-12-04T19:56:00.001-05:00

University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226669441, May 2009

This is a collection of lectures Robert Pinsky delivered at Rice University in 2009, discussing the ways in which American small towns, symbolized by their main streets named Main Street or Broadway, have been represented in literature and the movies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Mark Twain, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, and movie directors Preston Sturges and Alfred Hitchcock are discussed.

Pinsky gives us a clear and thoughtful exposition of the ways in which the authors' perspectives on and attitude to the small towns where most of them grew up differs, as well as the perhaps surprising complexities of those small towns and life within them. It's often a surprisingly dark view that's found in their stories, showcasing the ability of American small towns to be stiflingly repressive of anything even mildly outside the mainstream, insular, conformist, banal, upholding the status quo simply because it is the status quo. Yet alongside those tendencies resides a sense of fair play, and protectiveness towards "their own." Willa Cather's Thea Kronberg can't fulfill her musical ambitions in her hometown of Moonstone, but it's in Moonstone that, child and young woman, she gets the education and training that enables her to take her first steps along that path.

It's an interesting and multi-layered look at the American small town in American literature, both the good and the bad.

Recommended.

I received this book free as part of the University of Chicago's "one free ebook a month" program.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Katherine Howe (author), Katherine Kellgren (reader)

2011-12-04T13:04:00.001-05:00

Voice, ISBN 9781401395155, April 2010

In the early summer of 1991, Connie Goodwin has just moved into a critical phase of her Ph.D studies at Harvard, approved for candidacy and needing to choose her dissertation topic, when her mother asks her to move into her grandmother's old house in Salem, and get it fixed up and ready for sale. This is even more challenging than might be anticipated, because the house has been empty and neglected since her grandmother Sophie died in the 1970s, and it hadn't been fully modernized even then. Connie's feeling a bit used, especially when she finds the house almost completely hidden behind its overgrown garden--but unexpectedly, she finds herself surprisingly comfortable in the old house.

And among the old books and papers her grandmother left behind, she finds a lead for a possible topic for her dissertation: a previously unrecorded Salem witch, Deliverance Dane, and a hint that she owned a Physick Book, a book of spells and potions.

Splendid Summer, by Mary Matthews

2011-11-28T00:30:00.000-05:00

Amazon Digital Editions, May 2011

Splendid Summer is a great romp, funny and fast-moving. Grace Wentworth is on her way home to Coronado, California after completing Finishing School in Europe in the 1920s. "Home" is with her Uncle Charles and Aunt Alice, because her parents died when she was a young child. On the way, she meets Jack Brewster, Pinkerton detective in charge of security for much of Coronado, and his cat, a deaf white Persian named Tatania.

She's also getting a series of rather strange and disturbing telegrams from Uncle Charles. When she goes to the train telegraph office to send a return telegram, she and Jack find the telegraph operator has been murdered.

Patriote Peril, by Thomas Thorpe

2011-11-25T12:34:00.001-05:00

Black Rose Writing, ISBN 9781612960661, November 2011

This is a mystery/political thriller set in 1830s Canada. It's also part of Thorpe's Darmon Mystery series.

Elizabeth Darmon, her husband William, and sister and brother-in-law Emily and Charles Bagwell, have traveled to Canada to visit Elizabeth and Emily's other sister, Victoria, and her husband Richard Hudson, at the hunting lodge Richard built two years ago. During their visit, Richard takes his wife and guests off on a carriage ride to see some of the local sites, but Elizabeth has a headache and remains at the Lodge. The carriage comes back empty.

Elizabeth gets a horse from the stable and goes off to look for her relatives, while telling a stable hand to go to the nearest town and alert the authorities. When she cannot find them, she returns to the Lodge, only to find that it has burned down in the few hours she's been gone, and if any servants survived, they are not in evidence. Elizabeth is off on a wild and harrowing hunt to find her apparently kidnapped family.

Holiday Greetings From the Star-Tribune: Shut Up and Be Grateful You Have a Low-Paid, Crummy Job With No Benefits

2011-11-24T17:21:00.000-05:00

Editorial: Take this job and ... be glad you have it | StarTribune.com:

'via Blog this'

From the Star-Tribune editorial:

When times were better, retail giants forcing employees to work on treasured family holidays could easily be painted as corporate greed run amok. But today it’s hardly fair to paint merchants as retail Scrooges.

What a cheery, humane holiday sentiment. Times are hard, so as long as you have a paycheck at all, you shouldn't complain about being used and abused.

The Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene, A Report by the Working Group Commissioned by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

2011-11-24T00:30:00.000-05:00

Photo credit: Flickr, Iban , Receding Hellstugu glacier

Pontifical Academy of Sciences, April 2011

This is a short report, just seventeen pages, from a body whose existence many did not suspect: the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Working Group reviewed the scientific evidence on one particular piece of the global warming problem, the effect on mountain glaciers. Mountain glaciers are important because seasonal melt-off is an important source of water for communities downslope from those glaciers. The short-term effect of increased melting and the retreat of the glaciers from their former extent is more water downstream. The longer-term effect, unfortunately, is the loss of the water sources these communities rely on. The potential for suffering and disruption is high.

The Jinx, by D. F. Lamont

2011-11-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

Jetpack Media, August 2011

This is an entertaining novelette about a young teenager who discovers he has very uncomfortable "powers" that make him a jinx to be around. It's bad enough when he wrecks his brother's bike, worse when a car accident endangers his family. The absolute last straw for Stephen is when he accidentally causes a fire that burns down the garage, and his parents aren't absolutely certain it was an accident.

Stephen runs away.

Misshapen stone monsters pursue the bus he's running away in.

The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman (author), Suzanne Toren (narrator)

2011-11-22T00:30:00.000-05:00

BBC Audiobooks America, ISBN 9781602834774, June 2008

This is the story of Antonina Zabinski and her husband Jan, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and their courageous sheltering and rescue of more than three hundred Jews as well as members of the Polish resistance during the World War II German resistance. Antonina's diaries are the main source, supplemented by other contemporary sources and Diane Ackerman's own research in Poland.

The Zabinskis were zookeepers by choice and vocation, caring deeply for the animals that were their responsibility as well as the healthy survival of at-risk species. Their pre-war home was alive with animals, both domestic and "wild," as Antonina nurtured orphans and nursed ailing or injured animals, as well as relatives, friends, and their own young son. The outbreak of war sees the slow destruction of everything they have loved, as the zoo is bombed, animals killed, and many of the dangerous animals shot by the Polish military to prevent their escaping and becoming a threat. Then the Germans move in, and things get even worse. The zoo is closed, and the animals of value taken for the Berlin Zoo. Antonina spends weeks not knowing where Jan, a reserve officer who naturally rejoined his army unit with the start of the war, is, or whether he is even alive. When he successfully makes his way back to her, they are not out of the woods. The occupation has barely begun.

Jan is a member of the resistance, and Antonina actively assists him in hiding Jews, and smuggling them out, as well as providing cover and assistance to other members of the resistance. They have the zoo land, and start a pig farm to cover the growing of food to be distributed in the Warsaw ghetto, where Jews are forced to try to survive on little more than a hundred calories a day. They hide people within their home and withing the remaining zoo buildings, and maintain an active social life with lots of visitors and guests, to ensure that they don't have a predictable pattern of activity and to make the presence of "extra" people less obvious. Conditions continue to get harsher and harsher, and the possibility of discovery ever more terrifying, while Jan and Antonina work to keep life, laughter, decency, and humanity alive in the midst of horror.

Highly recommended.

I borrowed this book from a friend.

The book trailer:

When You Went Away, by Michael Baron

2011-11-21T00:30:00.000-05:00

The Story Plant, ISBN 9780181956800, October 2009

Gerry Rubato is struggling with the sudden, wholly unexpected death of his wife, raising their now four-month-old son by himself, and the aching absence of his much-loved daughter Tanya, seventeen years old, who ran away just a month before her baby brother Reese was born, and three months before her mother's death.

We meet Gerry and Reese as Gerry is returning to work, leaving his son for the entire work day for the first time since his wife Maureen's death. It's tough for him to do, but he knows it's necessary, and he hires the best baby-sitter available, and goes to work. Real life resumes for him.

The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent (author), Mare Winningham (reader)

2011-11-19T14:42:00.001-05:00

Hachette Audio, ISBN 9781609410084, February 2011

Sarah Carrier is the daughter of Thomas and Martha Carrier, hardworking, morally upright residents of Andover in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Unfortunately, it's the early 1690s, and the Salem witch hysteria is beginning.

One of five children, and at ten the older of the two girls, Sarah has to work hard to help maintain the family home, and life gets both harder and scarier when her mother is one of the first women accused of witchcraft. The accusations come first from a jealous relative who wants part of the Carrier property, and then are supported by some local young women, including the Carriers' former indentured servant. Over the next year, Sarah gets a painful education in human nature, the courage and devotion of her parents, and the values she herself will make the core of her life.

For the Birds, by Aaron Paul Lazar

2011-11-17T00:30:00.000-05:00

Paladin Timeless Books, ISBN 9781606191668, November 2011

This is a delightful, quirky mystery that moves quickly and keeps you guessing. Marcella Hollister is an antiques dealer whose husband, Quinn, enjoys breeding and showing birds. They're taking a few days off from the antiques business to attend a bird show, where Quinn hopes his parrot, Ruby, will win Best New Color. Marcella's mother Thelma, living with them since the death of Marcella's stepfather Raoul, is along for the trip, and in fact is paying for it from the money she's inherited from Raoul's carefully tended 401(k) plan. Thelma seems unusually jumpy, and is convinced that a certain white van is following them. Once they're at the hotel for the event, things don't calm down. Thelma and Quinn have a silly tug-of-war over Ruby's cage that ends in Ruby and Thelma falling into the pool along with a live electrical wire. They're quickly rescued, and Thelma is rushed to the hospital.

It takes a few days before they figure out that there is now psychic connection between Ruby's mind and Thelma's, and they are likely to unexpectedly spout each other's favorite words and phrases.

Unto These Hills, by Emily Sue Harvey

2011-11-16T00:30:00.000-05:00

The Story Plant, ISBN 9781611880250, November 2011

This is a Southern family saga, not ordinarily my preferred reading, but Emily Sue Harvey weaves a compelling story with a central character who grabs you and won't let go.

Sunny Acklin is a teenager growing up in the "mill hill" village of Tucapau, South Carolina in the late forties as the book opens. Despite the stresses and embarrassments of her parents', to say the least, imperfect marriage, she grows up feeling safe and cherished in extended family of the tight-knit village. Then everything gradually starts to unravel, and Sunny is struggling to hold things together.

Say You'll Be Mine, by Julia Amante

2011-11-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

Grand Central Publishing, ISBN 9780446581639, October 2011

Isabel Gallegos is tired -- tired of being the responsible one, tired of running the winery that was her parents' dream, tired of being the one who puts her dreams aside to take care of other people. She's ready to sell the winery that her parents left to her and her ex-husband, Nick, and buy a house by the sea. It's too late to pursue her old dream of being a marine scientist, but she's going to at least enjoy the ocean recreationally. A larger wine company has expressed serious interest, and she's in the midst of negotiations with them, looking forward to being free of responsibility to anyone but herself. Nick will also be free of the winery, they won't have to work together, and he'll be able to move away and marry his new girlfriend.

And then her lawyer tells her that he's received notice that her cousin Brenda, in her native Argentina, has been killed in a skiing accident, along with her husband, and her will names Isabel as the guardian of her three children. She has to travel to Argentina immediately to make arrangements to take custody and bring them home to California.

Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: An Historical Introduction, by John Fea

2011-11-11T19:11:00.001-05:00

Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 9780664235048, February 2011

Whether or not America was founded as a "Christian nation" is a touchy political topic right now, and figures in other touchy political topics as well. John Fea gives us a very thorough and thoughtful discussion of the matter, and arrives at the conclusion most historians not involved in the political world would give: It's Complicated.

In the first part of the book, Fea looks at the substantial body of evidence, going back to the early 19th century, that the idea of America as a Christian nation is not a new idea of the political far right. It didn't start in the 80s with Ronald Reagan any more than it started in the Noughties with George W. Bush. It is an idea that has been prominently presented by politicians of the right and, maybe surprising to many not old enough to remember the 60s, of the left, as well, persistently throughout our history. Fea presents examples from politicians, ministers, and activists of all stripes in demonstrating this.

1493: Uncovering the World Columbus Created, by Charles C. Mann (author), Roberson Dean (reader)

2011-11-06T00:30:00.000-04:00

Random House Audio, ISBN 9780307913760, August 2011

This is the follow-up to Mann's excellent 1491, and it's every bit as excellent. In this book, Mann creates a rich and detailed picture of the world after Columbus, form the first few years of Spanish-Indian interaction through the complex effects of globalization in the contemporary world.

He starts, for reasons that soon become clear, with his own garden, and his introduction to heritage tomatoes. Tomato varieties, differing widely in size, appearance, and color, now come from all over the world--but they began as barely edible fruits of the nightshade family in Meso-America. Why are there now wonderful tomatoes from Bulgaria? That's what this book is about in a microcosm: how Columbus's discovery of the Americas led to the dispersal of people, plants, and animals from both hemispheres all over the world.

Cracking the New Job Market: The 7 Rules for Getting Hired in Any Economy, by R. William Holland

2011-11-03T23:12:00.001-04:00

AMACOM, ISBN 9780814417348, August 2011

This is a very hands-on approach to writing a better resume, making the right kind of networking connections, tapping into the splintered job market, acing the interview, and generally conducting an effective job search that will get you hired in any economy. It's based on Holland's workshops and his background in providing career and job search guidance.

This is a very practical guide, and repeatedly makes the point that it's not about you; it's about the value you can create for your potential employer. Every resume that goes out to an employer needs to be crafted to make clear to the hiring manager how you bring added value and can create the value the employer is looking for.

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, by Stephen Pinker

2011-11-02T00:30:00.000-04:00

Penguin/Viking, ISBN 9780670022953, October 2011

This is a fascinating book, and many people will be surprised by what Pinker has to say. We routinely tell ourselves that we live in a violent world, that for all the comforts of civilization wars are more common, more terrible, and more fatal to non-combatants. Anyone who follows the news can cite examples of terrible atrocities that are the basis of our certainty that the human race is demonstrating a destructiveness and depravity towards other human beings unknown in the simpler, gentler past when knights and armsmen fought other knights and armsmen, leaving the civilians largely undisturbed.

Stephen Pinker explains, with examples, details, and cites to original sources and current research, that we have it all wrong, and the past was a far more violent place than we typically imagine, or than we experience day to day in all but the most violent places on Earth now. And those "most violent places" aren't our modern cities in developed countries.

Puss in Boots

2011-11-01T13:42:00.002-04:00

Director: Chris Miller
Writing Credits:
Charles Perrault (character)
Brian Lynch, David H. Steinberg, Tom Wheeler, Jon Zack (screenplay)

Voice actors:
Puss in Boots -- Antonio Banderas
Kitty Softpaws -- Selma Hayek
Humpty Dumpty -- Zach Galifianakis
Jack -- Billy Bob Thornton
Jill -- Amy Sedaris
Imelda -- Constance Marie

Halloween at SARL-NH

2011-10-30T22:35:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, I took Addy to the Salem Animal Rescue League Halloween party. Snow had not been part of the original plan, but with a major nor'easter forecast for Saturday, SARL thoughtfully provided a tent. There were treats for the puppers and for the humans, too. We were all greeted by SARL's mascot, Rocky. Many of the dogs and some of the people came in costume, and of course, there was a costume contest for the dogs.

Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey, by Allison Weir (author), Stina Nielsen (narrator)

2011-10-28T16:42:00.001-04:00

Recorded Books, ISBN 9781428120303, February 2007

Spoilers ahead, because this is an historical novel about a major figure, and I assume most people know how it ends already.

This is the story of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, and cousin to King Edward VI, and his sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Raised a devout Protestant when England and Europe as a whole were caught up in the religious and political struggle of the Reformation, she became a pawn for those, including her own parents, who wanted to advance both their own power and England's commitment to Protestantism. Years of scheming to marry her to her cousin Edward come to nothing, and when Edward, at fifteen, is dying, he is induced to sign a new will, making Lady Jane his heir in place of his sister, the Catholic Mary.

To My Faithful Readers

2011-10-27T16:13:00.000-04:00

I have not forgotten you or abandoned you. I'm just reading the long, but excellent, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, by Stephen Pinker. This is an absolute must-read, but it's not a quick read. It requires serious attention and thought, and I want to do it justice. My review will come--but in the meantime, you could pick up a copy and start reading. Get ahead of the curve!

Kamali is Accepting Applications to be His Forever Family

2011-10-22T18:19:00.002-04:00

Kamali and I attended an adoption event together this afternoon, and I took the opportunity to discuss his interests and career plans with him. He told me that his greatest ambition is to be a lapdog for someone in need of lots of cuddling and love. He's willing to watch tv with you, or provide extra warmth and comfort while you read. As any good, responsible dog should, he says he would be happy to walk his person several times a day.

Kamali also expressed an interest in learning tricks, believing it would be good mental and physical exercise for him and his person.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann (author), Peter Johnson (reader)

2011-10-21T00:30:00.000-04:00

Highbridge Company, Abridged Edition, ISBN 9781565119789, August 2005

This is an abridged edition, which I normally avoid, but it's still a substantial and fascinating history of the pre-Columbus cultures of the Americas. The story is not told in a strict chronological manner, but Mann's writing and Johnson's reading make it easy to follow and understand.

One of the biggest surprises is the population and lifestyle of the Americas when Columbus arrived. Columbus, Pizarro, other Spanish explorers, the French and English explorers that first reached the northern east coast of North America, all reported, on the first explorations, large populations living in settled communities, practicing agriculture, with highly developed arts. It wasn't just the Aztecs and the Incas; it was most of the population of Central and South America, and much of the population of North America. The impression many of us grew with, that aside from the Aztecs and Incas most Indians were relatively primitive hunter-gatherers when Europeans arrived, is simply false.

Thoughts on the Tufts Canine & Feline Breeding & Genetics Conference

2011-10-20T00:30:00.000-04:00

Photo by Rachel Doyle

I attended this year's Tufts cat & dog genetics conference at the Omni Parker House in Boston. It was a last-minute opportunity, when my friend Gina Spadafori had to cancel and transferred her registration to me.

It was two solid days, 8am to 5pm, with a lunch break and two short breaks, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. We sat in a room set up classroom style and listened to researchers and veterinarians talk about genetics research on cats and dogs, and the implications for breeding purebred and pedigreed dogs and cats, as well as behavior and health care for pet dogs and cats. Does that sound dull? It was fascinating!

Hunter, by Wil Wheaton

2011-10-19T00:30:00.000-04:00

Monolith Press/Amazon Digital Editions, February 2011

Pyke is living in a grim, desperate world, a colony world that has been invaded by a conquering alien force. There's an active, determined resistance--and Pyke used to be part of it. Six months ago, though, he decided it was hopeless, and decided to join the winning side. He's working for the Gan, now, hunting down resistance fighters. And today, he's after one more rebel, a teenage girl who'll be an easy target. Won't she?

This is a short story, so there's not a lot of room for development, but Wheaton makes good use of it. We care about Pyke, his target, and their world. I hope we'll be seeing more of it.

Recommended.

Coyote, by Allen Steele

2011-10-18T00:30:00.000-04:00

Ace, ISBN 9780441011162, November 2003

It's 2070, the political situation in the US is appalling and the economy is no prize either, but we're finally about to launch our first interstellar mission, to colonize an Earth-like world, Coyote, a moon orbiting a superjovian planet of 47 Ursae Majoris B, 46 lightyears from Earth. The governance of the colony is carefully planned to keep it under the repressive political thumb of the current right-wing powers that be.

Captain R. E. Lee, commander of the USS Alabama, and some of the other crew and colonists, have even more carefully planned a hijacking of Alabama, to leave most of the armed enforces of the political status quo at home.

A Winter Discovery, by Michael Baron

2011-10-17T00:30:00.000-04:00

The Story Plant, ISBN 9781611880274, November 2011

This is an absolute little gem of a story, and perfect for Christmas. It's a novelette, and would make a lovely read for a snowy evening with some hot chocolate to sip on while you read.

Reese Rubato is just shy of his sixth birthday, and looking forward to that happy day almost as much as Christmas itself. His mother died not long after his birth, and while his father has remarried and he loves his stepmom, Millie, he's starting to think more and more about his mother. What would it be like to celebrate Christmas with his real mom? Wouldn't it be even more special?

Birds of a Feather, by Jacqueline Winspear (author); Kim Hicks (narrator)

2011-10-16T00:30:00.000-04:00

Sound Library, ISBN 9780792736653, June 2005

Maisie Dobbs' business is now thriving, with a better office, a reliable flow of clients, and Billy Beale now employed as her assistant. A new case has just come in. Three of Charlotte Waite's friends have died violent deaths recently, two of them murdered and one an apparent suicide. Charlotte has fled her father's house after a quarrel over these deaths, and he wants her found and returned home. Mr. Waite is a controlling, domineering man, but he's genuinely concerned about her safety.

Cinder and Ella, by Melissa Lemon--A Review

2011-10-15T00:30:00.000-04:00

Cinder and Ella, by Melissa Lemon, Cedar Fort/Bonneville Books, ISBN 9781599559063, November 2011

This isn't the story of Cinderella, not even twist on the story. It is its own very neat little story, about the two sensible sisters in a very messed-up family, in a kingdom that has a very serious problem--its prince and heir to the throne.

Anything, by Michael Baron

2011-10-14T00:30:00.000-04:00

The Story Plant, ISBN 9781611880212, October 2011

Would you do anything for the person you love? Truly anything?

Ken Timian gets a chance to find out.

He's living with, and engaged to, Melissa Argent, daughter of a Marine Colonel, environmental activist, and the love of his life. They've been together two years, and in that time, she's made him not only happier than he's ever been, but a better person. She's brought him both a greater moral awareness, and a greater ability to relax, have fun, and be spontaneous. Melissa herself, though, doesn't have the same ability to be light and spontaneous, and is oddly sensitive about pictures from her high school years. It's a surprise to Ken when Melissa's mother mentions that she was a very talented and dedicated pianist--until high school.

Then their very peculiar favorite jeweler, Stephon, asks Ken what his dearest fantasy about Melissa is, and Ken, after some thought, that he'd love to know what Melissa was like during the thirty years of her life before they met. Stephon, it turns out, has a way to make this possible--to let Ken be a spectator at key moments in Melissa's earlier life.

Angel of Europa, by Allen Steele

2011-10-13T00:13:00.001-04:00

Subterranean, Signed Limited Edition, ISBN 9781596064126, August 2011

Allen Steele is a fantastic storyteller.

I suppose I shouldn't really stop right there. This novelette is a very neatly plotted mystery that takes place in orbit around, and on the surface of, Europa. The International Jupiter Expedition has arrived at Jupiter already having suffered one casualty: their arbitrator, Otto Danzig, was nearly killed in an unexplained airlock accident, and has been in medical hibernation since they crossed Mars orbit. Now, though, the expedition has a worse problem: The bathyscaphe lowered into the Europan ocean has suffered an accident, the two scientists aboard have both been killed. Only the pilot, Evangeline Chatelain, survived and returned to the ship. She reports that a huge undersea creature rammed the bathyscaphe and breached the hull of the observation cabin, forcing her to jettison it in order to escape alive herself.

The problem is that no one believes her.

Competition for OverDrive? 3M Cloud Library in Beta with Kansas Libraries

2011-10-12T14:55:00.003-04:00

Kansas State Librarian Can Transfer Thousands of Titles from OverDrive to 3M at No Charge:

'via Blog this'

This is a fascinating story from Library Journal. The Kansas State Librarian, Jo Budler, is attempting to move the state's e-books platform from OverDrive to 3M's Cloud Library, which is currently in beta. This isn't a random or capricious choice; staying with OverDrive would mean a 700% increase in the platform licensing fee by 2013. (Any content licensed is in addition to the platform licensing fee.)

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors, by Nicholas Wade (author), Alan Sklar (narrator)

2011-10-11T12:29:00.000-04:00

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781400152322, May 2006

Nicholas Wade discusses how the growing science of genetics expands and deepens our understanding of human evolution, our relationship to our closest relatives, and how we became the species we are--and what we might become in the future.

There's a lot of ground to cover, and this is a survey, not a textbook. It's very well-referenced, but in some cases he's relying on cutting edge research that, inevitably, will not all hold up. He also ventures into some touchy areas that not all readers will be comfortable or happy with. Nevertheless, it's an excellent, informative, and thought-provoking book that is well worth reading.

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, by Harry Markopolos (author), Scott Brick (reader)

2011-10-10T00:30:00.000-04:00

Brilliance Audio, 9781455819119, February 2011

In December 2008, Bernie Madoff, one of the most respected figures on Wall Street, co-founder and former president of NASDAQ, confessed to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. On the heels of that revelation, we learned that this fraud had been going on for decades, and then that it was international in reach.

We also learned that there had been a whistleblower, who had warned the SEC a decade earlier, and when he was ignored had continued to investigate, and made additional filings, with additional and more complete information, including the growing size of the fraud.

That whistleblower was Harry Markopolos, and this is his story.

The Iron Knight: Book 4 in the Iron Fey Series, by Julie Kagawa

2011-10-09T13:45:00.000-04:00

HarlequinTEEN, ISBN 9780373210367, October 2011

Ash, prince of the UnSeelie Court, has a major problem on his hands. He has sworn an oath to find a way to return to Meghan Chase and stand by her side as her knight and protector. But Meghan is now Queen of the Iron Fey, and Ash, one of the older, more familiar fey, cannot touch or even bear the near presence of iron.

So he's off on a quest, in defiance of his mother Queen Mab, and all common sense and good judgment, to find the Testing Grounds and earn a soul. He'll be giving up his fey powers and his immortality, but he'll be able to return to Meghan. Since violating his vow will cause his very being to unravel and dissolve, he figures it's worth the risk.

The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution, by Sean B. Carroll (author), Patrick Lawlor (narrator)

2011-10-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781400153152, January 2007

Carroll starts out by talking about forensic use of DNA evidence in criminal cases, where we rely on DNA evidence to determine guilt or innocence, often in cases where the death penalty or long imprisonment is at stake. He explains, in simple terms, how this works and why it matters.

And then he explains the contradiction between the wide popular acceptance of DNA evidence by the general public, and the widespread resistance to or rejection of evolution.

What's the Bigger Threat, Piracy, Distribution Monopolies--or Refusal to Give Customers What They Want?

2011-10-05T18:57:00.003-04:00

Miramax CEO: our biggest threat is online distribution monopolies, not piracy – Boing Boing:

'via Blog this'

Mike Lang, the Miramax CEO, says piracy isn't really any big deal, but distribution monopolies are, because they create chokepoints that limit the consumer's ability to get the product, thus limiting potential sales. He's got a valid point, but where it breaks down a bit is that he cites Apple's iTunes as an example. iTunes has too much control of the music market, so music companies can't influence pricing, packaging, merchandising.

But the reason iTunes has such control is because the music companies clung to their image of themselves as "record companies," drastically overpriced CDs, and bitterly resisted digital distribution of music in forms consumers wanted and found useful and worth paying for. Had they been able to do so, they would have permanently blocked any digital distribution of music, allowing fear of piracy to override the far more central consideration of how to make money by selling their customers what they wanted to buy. They decided what they wanted to sell us, and tried to make us like it--and it didn't work. Apple controls the distribution of music because Apple created a way to give customers what they wanted and make a profit at it, while the music companies were still fighting digital distribution.

Between the Thames and the Tiber: The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Ted Riccardi

2011-10-05T07:55:00.000-04:00

Open Road Media/Pegasus Books, ISBN 9781453217856, April 2011

Holmes and Watson are back, in a new set of adventures that take the reader back and forth between London and Italy, where the two friends are now spending much of their time, with occasional excursions elsewhere. The stories vary in time from the 1890s to World War One, and they aren't presented in chronological order.

Watson inherited a sizable estate from an uncle his family had little contact with, and, in the guise of an anonymous benefactor wishing to support Holmes' work, has given half of his inheritance to Holmes. This gives them a freedom from any concern about whether a particular client can pay, as well as allowing them to spend a good part of the year living in Italy, and travel in Europe as freely as they like.

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop--We have a winner!

2011-10-03T11:11:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Mammabunny13, winner of the Banned Books giveaway! I'll have Adventures of Huckleberry Finn out to you in the mail sometime this week.

Thank you to everyone who participated. I hope you all enjoyed my post and the other blogs participating in the Banned Books Giveaway Hop, and that you all learned more about banned books and the freedom to read.

Keep reading books, Banned or not!

Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire, by Ruth Downie, (author), Simon Vance (narrator)

2011-10-02T00:30:00.000-04:00

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781400153633, March 2007

Gaius Petrius Ruso is doctor serving with a Roman legion in Britain. Not very long ago, he was married, a hero (he had saved the Emperor Trajan's life), and the elder son of a prosperous family in southern Gaul. Now he's divorced, his father has died leaving behind a mountain of debt, his brief notoriety is forgotten, and Trajan is dead. He's struggling to pay off his father's debts, with his brother at home in Gaul working to keep the real state of their finances quiet so that their efforts have time to work.

In the meantime, he's sharing a mouse-infested with another army doctor and the previous owner's former dog, who has produced a litter of puppies. They have no servant to clean and cook for them, and their lodgings show it. Ruso has spent an unpleasant night examining the body of a dead woman fished out of the harbor, and then a long day on medical rounds. He doesn't need to buy an injured slave girl to rescue her from her sadistic owner, especially when she's too injured to work, won't talk, and will cost more to feed than she's worth.

So of course he does.

The Big Handout: How Government Subsidies and Corporate Welfare Corrupt the World We Live In and Wreak Havoc on Our Food Bills, by Thomas Kostigen

2011-10-01T02:30:00.000-04:00

Rodale Books, ISBN 9781609611132, October 2011

This book makes an interesting counterpoint to Clean Energy Nation, by Congressman Jerry McNerney, which I reviewed in August. McNerney is a Democrat, has a high regard for the sustainable energy policies pursued by President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s while regretting the micromanagement and lack of higher-level political skills that helped to doom those policies, thinks well of Clinton and Obama, and is not so fond of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Kostigen is libertarian-leaning, considers the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Heritage Foundation good and respectable sources, and admires Ronald Reagan as one of our great presidents. These two men are not coming from the same place, in their political worldviews.

Yet the underlying central message of the two books is the same: Our economic, energy, and agricultural policies are unsustainable, doing damage to our planet, endangering our national security, and making us poorer. McNerney attacked the problem from the perspective of energy policy; Kostigen comes at it primarily through agricultural and other corporate subsidies.

Promissory Payback: A Jane Perry Novelette, by Laurel Dewey

2011-09-30T08:37:00.000-04:00

The Story Plant, ISBN 9781611880076, August 2011

Jane Perry is a Denver homicide detective, a recovering alcoholic with a painful marriage in her past. When she's called to the scene of a murder early on a Monday morning, it's just part of the job, and in keeping with her low expectations of the human race.

The victim is an attractive woman in her sixties. She was drugged and hogtied, and "Karma is a bitch" is written on her naked back in lipstick. The lipstick tube has been left near the body, and a chair is pulled up by the bed, as if the killer sat there and watched her die in pain and terror. The victim was found by her friend, a woman her own age who looks a decade older who is, she says, responding a little late to an urgent call from her friend the night before.

Iwishacana/Acanawishi, by Larissa Hinton

2011-09-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

Amazon Digital Services, August 2011

I really wanted to like this book.

There's a city which is not quite of this world, called Iwishacana. In this city, wishes come true--if you want something you wish for it, and it appears. There are apparently some rules and restrictions, but it's not at all clear what they are. Eventually we learn that babies born in Iwishacana have a chip implanted in their brains, and this is key to how the wish system works. Anissa was not born in Iwishacana, but her mother was, and she has the ability to visit the city, to make wishes, etc.

Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Act, and Think Like a Leader, by Dianna Booher

2011-09-27T16:57:00.001-04:00

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN 9781609940119, October 2011

Creating Personal Presence covers much the same territory as Michelle Lederman's The 11 Laws of Likability, but not, I fear, in as engaging a manner, or with the same thoughtfulness and attention to detail. There's still very good advice and excellent pointers here, and a different emphasis and viewpoint that may be helpful for some readers.

Divided into four categories, Look, Act, Talk, and Think, Booher offers practical advice and illustrative anecdotes from her experience both personally and with clients, on how to present yourself more effectively, communicate more clearly, and be more successful. Dress, gestures, vocal mannerisms, courtesy, and integrity are all covered, with specifics and examples. Booher begins by saying, and emphasizes throughout, that no matter where you are in terms of personal presence right now, you can take steps to make improvements and become more effective. A link to Booher's self-assessment test is provided, to help readers get started.

Banned Books Week Hop

2011-09-23T21:01:00.000-04:00

During the last week of September every year, libraries, bookstores, and blogs around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of banned books and hosting a variety of events. This blog is participating by taking part in the Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop, Sept. 24-Oct. 1.

Kindle Library Lending Goes Live

2011-09-23T17:24:00.001-04:00

Kindle Library Lending Goes Live:

Some rights reserved by jimmiehomeschoolmom

In April, Amazon announced that they would change their long-standing policy and e-nable library borrowing on the Kindle. This feature has now gone live. Using your Kindle to borrow library ebooks will apparently be even easier than with other e-book readers. Your checked-out book will be downloaded to your Kindle via Whispernet, just as with the books you buy from Amazon.

This will enable many more people to borrow library e-books, and should greatly increase the demand for e-books in libraries. This is all good news.

In Seconds, by Brenda Novak: A Review

2011-09-19T22:20:00.000-04:00

Harlequin/Mira Books, ISBN 9780778312444, August 2011

Vivian Stewart is living a quiet life in small-town Montana, raising her two children and running her purse design business. But Vivian Stewart has a past, under her real name of Laurel Hodges, her friends and acquaintances don't suspect. Her uncle murdered her stepfather, at her mother's instigation, her brother Virgil spent fourteen years in prison for the crime before being cleared, and joined a prison gang, The Crew, in order to survive. When he quit the gang after getting out, the gang decided to punish him and those he cared about. He has to die, but his sister and her kids, as well as his wife and son, have to die first, so that he'll know about it and suffer.

They've been in hiding under false names ever since. But now one of the craziest, most dangerous members of The Crew, who goes by the nickname Ink, has tracked Vivian/Laurel to Montana.

Goodbye Milky Way, by Dan Makaon--Review

2011-09-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

eFfusion Publishing Group LLC, ISBN 9780983378594, October 2011

I wanted so much to like this book.

Unfortunately, we are asked to accept the following inanities: There are multiple secret organizations capable of carrying out government-level projects. Humans, and all life, are the product of Intelligent Design by a space-faring species called the Guardians, who were created by the Elders, who were created by God. And just as intelligent design claims, evolution happens only within phyla; new phyla cannot arise by evolution. For the last sixty or so years, the President has been in regular communication with Earth's own Guardian, via holographic projection chamber at Roswell. Faced with a threat to the existence of the planet, the sensible thing to do is to hand the project off to a consortium of those aforementioned private groups, and not even inquire exactly what it is they're going to do. When a new president is elected, it's evidence that he's power-hungry and untrustworthy, when he wants to know exactly what all these black ops taxpayer billions are being spent on.

My Troubles With Time, by Benson Grayson--A Review

2011-09-14T15:09:00.001-04:00

Kindle Edition, Amazon Digital Services, 2011

When Maynard Snodgrass's mother drops him off, at age seven, at an orphanage, the other kids quickly nickname him "Nerdly." It's not kind, but it is true. With looks plain enough to be boring and not ugly enough to be interesting, an excellent brain, and a self-effacing personality, Maynard evokes either complete disinterest, or a certain amount of resentment because it's just human nature to resent those you take advantage of. And Maynard gets taken advantage of a lot, because he doesn't have the confidence to say no. It's still happening when he's an assistant professor of physics at Miles Standish University, writing the department chair's papers and getting no publication credit, and not even getting tenure. So he pursues a dream, and invents a time machine.

Chaos: Making a New Science, by James Gleick--A Review

2011-09-13T23:37:00.001-04:00

Open Road, ISBN 9781453210475, March 2011 (Original publication, Viking Penguin, 1987)

This book, over two decades old now, is one of the great classics of science popularization. It was a blockbuster bestseller at the time, and it's still well worth reading, a fascinating, enjoyable introduction to one of the most important scientific developments of our time--the birth of chaos theory.

One of the compelling features of the chaos story is that this scientific breakthrough wasn't a physics, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, or biology breakthrough; it was all of them. A mathematician turned meteorologist, Edward Lorenz, builds a "toy weather" on what's still a fairly early computer in the early 1960s, and in working with the parameters, concludes that long-term weather forecasting is doomed--a simple deterministic system is producing unpredictable results. Mitchell Feigenbaum, a theoretical physicist at Los Alamos in the early seventies, and two other scientists working together independently of him, are working on the problem of turbulence and.discover that it doesn't, as anticipated, build up gradually in an orderly manner. Reach the tipping point, and there it is.

9/11 Memories

2011-09-11T15:54:00.000-04:00

Ten years ago on this day,* I was sitting in my office at work in Concord, NH when my phone rang. It was my sister, who was working from home that day, and had the tv on for background. Background, until the news came on that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. She called and told me about it, and I almost voiced the question in my mind--a small plane or an airliner. But that was too crazy an idea, and I didn't ask. We hung up, and I thought briefly about the tragedy, and got back to work.

Then Lynda called back, with the news about the second plane.

It was a beautiful, sunny, pleasantly warm September day, and we were at war. We just didn't know with who, yet.

Back to the Books--We Have a Winner!

2011-09-08T16:24:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Back to the Books Giveaway Hop, and to I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & Buried in Books for hosting it.

And now for the exciting news--time to announce the winner! Lisa M., of A Casual Reader's Blog, is the lucky winner, and will be sharing it with her son, to help him understand where his daddy is when he travels on business. Congratulations, Lisa!

UPDATED! Found dog in Weare, NH--do you know her?

2011-09-08T14:50:00.001-04:00

UPDATE 9/14/11 Missy is back with her family! Missy's family had called 411 when she went missing, and were given the number for Weare Animal Guardians, a non-profit rescue group that, like most such groups, does not have a full-time staff. It took a couple of days to make contact; when they did, WAG directed them to Weare Animal Control, where Missy was safe and well. Missy is seventeen years old! Isn't that amazing?

Do you know this cocker spaniel girl? She's older, and a bit thin. Her only ID is a Derry, NH license tag from 2008, #1782. This tag unfortunately is from her previous owners, who gave her away, and we have no information about her subsequent owners. Her name at that time was Missy, and that's what we're calling her. She's friendly, calm, well-behaved, and house-broken.

Missy was found in Weare, NH, on Barnard Hill Road at the Rte. 114 end, this morning. She was very wet, due to the rain, of course. She's rather matted, which can happen very quickly. She is also quite thin.

Right now, Missy is with my friend who found her. At the end of the work day, she will be meeting up with the Weare Animal Control Officer and turning Missy over to her. Weare ACO is already involved, and if this is your dog or you have any information, please call Jess Nelson at 603-493-7834.

Tennessee Mom Threatened With Arrest For Letting Daughter Bike to School

2011-09-07T16:00:00.000-04:00

This photo taken by Flickr user buzzbo, and used under Creative Commons license. Thisi is not the child mentioned in the story. Click photo to view original & buzzbo's photostream.

Streetsblog Capitol Hill » Tennessee Mom Threatened With Arrest For Letting Daughter Bike to School:

A ten-year-old girl in Tennessee had some bad experiences on the bus to school, and as an alternative, her mother let her ride her bike to school. The school, by the way, has bike racks, indicating they do expect at least some of their students to arrive that way. A cop brought the daughter back, and told the mom she would be charged with child neglect and reported to Child Protective Services if she did this again.

The police say their street is the busiest street in town; the mother says it's a quiet, residential street, and she passed a total of eight cars the four times she was drove that street that day. After a conversation with the chief of police, the mother has been informed that she will be arrested if she allows her daughter to walk or bike to school before they hear back from CPS.

Escape from the Ivory Tower: A Guide to Making Your Science Matter, by Nancy Baron--A Review

2011-09-06T00:58:00.002-04:00

Island Press, ISBN 9781597266635, August 2010

The research scientists do often needs to be communicated to policy makers, the media, and the general public in order to be useful. Unfortunately, the way that scientists learn to communicate with their peers is generally diametrically opposed to how they need to communicate with those outside the scientific world. This book is aimed at helping them speak more effectively to the non-scientists among us.

Along Wooded Paths:A Big Sky Novel, by Tricia Goyer

2011-09-04T21:30:00.000-04:00

B&H Publishing Group, ISBN 9781433668692, October 2011

Marianna Sommer has moved with her Amish family from Indiana to Montana, where they have found a much closer cooperation between their fellow Amish and the Englisch whom, in Indiana, they would have mostly avoided. The man Marianna has long planned to marry, Aaron Zook, has stayed in Indiana, building a house for the two of them and waiting for her return when her family can spare her. But in Montana, Marianna has met the Englisch man Ben Stone. Ben has led her to find a deeper relationship with Christ than ever before--and has stolen a piece of her heart, as well.

Back to the Books Giveaway Hop & Review

2011-08-31T21:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Back to the Books Giveaway Hop! This Hop will run from 12:01 AM September 1 to 11:59 PM September 7, and the winner will be chosen via Random.org. Don't forget to visit the other participating blogs, leave comments, and enter their giveaways, too! It's been a long summer, the promise of fall is ahead, and we all need great fall reading. And swag. And gift cards so we can buy more books! And more great blogs to read! So participate as widely as possible!

I'll be giving away the first of the Adventure Bear Cubs books, a neat new series of travel books for children. The book comes with a very cute stuffed bear, and a drawstring backpack.

Adventure Bear Cubs: Exploring Boston, by Pat Krippendorf, ISBN 9780983049005, 2011
Recommended for children age 3 and up.

This is a very neat little package, aimed at making a visit to Boston fun and educational for young children. The book itself is a slim, colorful volume loaded with Krippendorf's own excellent photographs of Boston's historic sites and tourist attractions, including Castle Island, Old Ironsides, the Old and New State Houses, the Duck Boats, and the biggest milk bottle in the world! (At Boston's Children's Museum.) Each photograph--with the bear featured prominently, exploring Boston--is accompanied by information, questions, and activity suggestions geared to a child's understanding and aimed at keeping the child engaged and entertained.

The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen, artist Rebecca Guay--A Review

2011-08-31T21:00:00.000-04:00

The Last Dragon, Dark Horse Comics/Dark Horse Books, ISBN 9781595827982, September 2011

Ebook isn't the best format for reading a graphic novel, so right up front let's be clear that I didn't get the best of this book. Despite that, the artwork is intricate and lovely, and well worth taking some extra time to enjoy. In print and in color, I'm sure it's immensely better.

The story itself is simple and engaging, with moments of humor. Tansy, one of the three daughters of the local Healer, is clearly the one who got her father's interest and talent--and annoys her sisters and mother by having little interest in chores beyond herbalism. It's not that she won't work, and willingly, if asked; it just doesn't occur to her. When Tansy finds some dragon's bane, she and her father are puzzled as to what it means--and the Healer goes off to investigate.

Jar Jar Binks Must Die . . . and Other Observations About Science Fiction Movies, by Daniel Kimmel--A Review

2011-08-31T10:25:00.001-04:00

Fantastic Books, ISBN 9781617200618, March 2011

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to tell you that Dan and I have been friends for years, and I received a free copy of this book from him. There's no pretending I'm completely objective, here. On the other hand, Dan and I have been arguing vigorously about science fiction, fantasy, and movies for all those years, too.

This is a collection of criticism and commentary about science fiction movies that Dan has written over his years as a movie critic. He's added some updating, new critiques, and some additional material, tying it together into a knowledgeable, educational, and entertaining discussion of science fiction movies, their value, and their significance.

Why the Church Needs Bioethics, ed. by John F. Kilner--Review

2011-08-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

Zondervan, ISBN 9780310328520, June 2011

This is a collection of essays built around three case studies, illustrating why the Church needs to study and explore bioethics. Each of the case studies presents a moral and ethical dilemma which the affected parties are not handling well. Each situation is then examined in several essays from a variety of perspectives, by experts from different fields: legal, medical, business, multicultural, bioethics, psychology, pastoral care.

The three case studies are a couple trying to have a baby via egg donation from the wife's sister; four graduate students who have been told by their very distinguished

Greetings, Technorati

2011-08-27T21:16:00.002-04:00

Okay, this isn't the most fascinating post. In fact, it exists solely for the purpose of claiming my blog on Technorati. Let's just hope I'd doing this right.
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Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956

2011-08-25T02:00:00.000-04:00

University of Iowa Press, ISBN 9781609380670, October 2011

This is a study of four small-town midwestern libraries during what were, outside the northeast, the formative years for public library service. The four libraries are Bryant Library, Sauk Centre, Minnesota; Sage Library, Osage, Iowa; Charles H. Moore Library, Lexington, Michigan; and Rhinelander Public Library, Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Wiegand studies the formation, growth, and development of these libraries, and how they interacted with the communities they served, the wider culture, and the culture of professional librarianship. He notes in his introduction that the USA has more public libraries than it does McDonald's restaurants--a statistic that will surprise some readers. Libraries are a basic, vital service for Americans, strongly cherished and supported. The question is, what exactly are the services valued by library users and the community in small-town America?

Write a Post, Help a Dog

2011-08-24T18:18:00.001-04:00

Once again, for the 2011 BlogPaws conference, Pedigree is running its "Write a Post, Help a Dog" campaign. Last year, 391 bloggers participated, and Pedigree donated 20 pounds of its Healthy Longevity dog food to shelters for each post. Let's make it an even bigger success this year!

How you can help:

Cherry Cheesecake Murder, by Joanne Fluke

2011-08-22T03:29:00.000-04:00

Kensington, ISBN 9780758273284, May 2011

This is a new paperback edition of Fluke's 2006 eighth entry in her Hannah Swensen mystery series. In the last book, both Mike and Norman proposed to Hannah, and she's still (and will for at least several more books) engaging in her irritating dithering and inability to choose between the two men. As annoying as this is, she is 100% justified in her outraged reaction to receiving a half dozen calls before 6am demanding that she make an immediate decision so that the two men will stop acting like the lovestruck idiots that they are. This nonsense aside, though, this is another solid entry in the series.

Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change, by Timothy D. Wilson

2011-08-20T13:06:00.000-04:00

Little, Brown, and Company, ISBN 9780316051880, September 2011

Wilson gives us a highly readable account of what we do and don't know about psychological and social psychological interventions--what works, what doesn't, why, and how we tell the difference.

A major concern of Wilson's is many popular, widely accepted approaches to solving, reducing, or preventing problems, such as Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) counseling for police and firefighters after a traumatic on-the-job incident, or popular and widely-respected anti-drug programs for the schools, have been implemented on a large scale without being scientifically tested first. In some cases, once broadly accepted, these approaches remain unchanged even after scientific testing demonstrates that they are ineffective or even counter-productive.

The Truth About Girls and Boys: Challenging Toxic Stereotypes About Our Children, by Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett

2011-08-19T00:01:00.119-04:00

Columbia University Press, ISBN 9780231151627, September 2011

Are girls and boys really that different? Are their brains wired differently in important ways, leading to very different abilities and needs? Rivers & Barnett take a hard look at claims that the brains, and therefore the abilities, of boys and girls differ in major ways, making it necessary to teach them in very different ways. First they look at the claims, the proposals based on them, and the studies claimed to support them.

The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking. . . Because People Do Business With People They Like, by Michelle Tillis Lederman--A Review

2011-08-13T00:14:00.000-04:00

AMACOM, ISBN 9780814416372, September 2011

How can you network more effectively? Be more likable.

And while that may seem a bit flip, it really is the key. As Lederman says, "People do business with people they like." If you are not likable and reliable, people will find someone else to do business with.

The good news: you can learn how to be more likable, how to make your likability more visible and apparent to others, and Lederman provides a nifty little primer for getting started. And she starts with a personal revelation: Some years back, when she was giving a presentation to students on, amongst other things, making sure every professional interaction has a clear purpose or goal, she asked them what they thought her purpose in that presentation was--and one student said, "You want us to like you." In the moment, she thought to was a ridiculous answer; of course she wasn't concerned about being liked! The comment stuck with her, though, and over time she realized that, in fact, not only do we all want to be liked, but being liked is essential to networking effectively, both personally and professionally. In the years that followed, a growing understanding of what makes us likable and how it works for us led to the need to articulate these lessons for others.
Read more »

Called Home--Two Hearts Answer, by Gloria Schumann--A Review

2011-08-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

Savant Books & Publications, ISBN 9780984117571, May 2010

Emma Benson is back in her small Wisconsin home town, intent on saving the farm she grew up on for her mother and herself. There are painful memories here: Her brother's death when she was five, her father's subsequent retreat into alcoholism and then desertion, in his own inability to cope with the loss, but it's also the center of her happy memories, as she and her mother worked the farm together while she grew up. Emma has moved on to pursue a career as a teacher, but with her mother struggling and in danger of losing the farm to foreclosure, she needs to do more than send checks to help save her childhood home.

When a tornado threatens the farm, another recent returnee turns up on her doorstep, seeking shelter from the storm. David Schlosser has been living in New York and writing best-selling mystery novels; he's now ready to settle down permanently in the town he grew up in, and where his parents still live.

Summer Giveaway Hop--We Have a Winner!

2011-08-08T16:50:00.000-04:00

Andrea is the winner of the giveaway, and will receive the book, A Dog's Purpose, and the beach towel with the book's cover image.

Congratulations, Andrea! I'll have it in the mail to you by the end of the week.

Summer Giveaway Hop--Thank you all!

2011-08-08T11:43:00.000-04:00

I am waiting to hear back from the winner before I announce results. Please check your email! I couldn't reasonably eliminate the words "win" or "winner", so if you participated, it's possible my email is sitting in your spam filter. Please check!

Clean Energy Nation: Freeing America from the Tyranny of Fossil Fuels, by Congressman Jerry McNerney, Ph.D., Martin Cheek

2011-08-04T20:18:00.000-04:00

AMACOM, ISBN 9780814413722, August 2011

Dr. Gerald "Jerry" McNerney is an engineer, energy specialist, and US Congressman from California's 11th district. Clean Energy Nation reflects his professional education and experience as well as his experiences in Congress, working to advance realistic, rational energy and environmental policies.

McNerney's message is that global climate change is real and a major threat, oil and other fossil fuels really are starting to run out--and that the two problems compound each other. Global climate change increases our use of energy to maintain livably cool temperatures, grow food in increasingly dry regions by use of irrigation, rebuild after increasingly frequent and violent storms, and eventually relocate people, their homes, and their businesses inland from the places that will be underwater as the icecaps melt. Also, somewhat counter-intuitively, quite possibly to heat an increasingly frigid Europe, if the melting of the icecaps has the effect of turning off the North Atlantic conveyor that keeps northern Europe much warmer than equivalent latitudes in North America.

Summer Giveaway Hop & Book Review: A Dog's Purpose, by W. Bruce Cameron

2011-08-01T01:01:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Summer Giveaway Hop! This Hop will run from 12:01 AM August 1 to 11:59 PM August 7, and the winner will be chosen via Random.org. Don't forget to visit the other participating blogs, leave comments, and enter their giveaways, too! We're having a hot, hot summer and we all need great beach reading. And swag. And gift cards so we can buy more books! And more great blogs to read! So participate as widely as possible!

These are a few of my favorite books--books I love and that had a real impact on my life

2011-07-30T21:10:00.001-04:00

I picked up this "not intended to be a meme" from Bobbi Newman at Librarian by Day. These are all books that made a difference for me, that changed how I looked at the world, and have added to my appreciation of it. I hope you'll find something new and enjoyable to read here, and leave comments about your own favorites.

Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell. This wonderful book about the life of a horse in 19th century England was my first introduction to the idea of truly getting inside the animal's viewpoint. I must have read other books earlier that had "talking animals," but they didn't have the same impact.

Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit. Five children find a Sand Fairy, and get one wish granted every day. They have incredible, delightful adventures, but also learn that getting exactly what you asked for can be more trouble than it's worth! When I was a shy child whose family moved frequently, this book was an enormous comfort to me. I can't imagine that there could be a child in the world whose life wouldn't be enriched by it.

The Cost of Medical Paperwork

2011-07-26T22:56:00.000-04:00

Guy Kawasaki linked to this sadly educational infographic on the cost of medical paperwork, on his Alltop website.

Created by: Medical Transcription

We don't need to be this inefficient. We are the greatest nation on Earth; we can do better for our people. Also for our businesses, for whom these costs are a huge drain that their competitors in other countries don't have to bear.

The Amish Nanny: The Women of Lancaster County, by Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould--A Review

2011-07-25T15:22:00.000-04:00

Harvest House Publishers, ISBN 9780736938617, July 2011

Ada Rupp is a young Amish woman who has learned, in the past year, that she is adopted--the mother who raised her is the sister of the mother who gave birth to her, her "aunt" who left Lancaster County, PA for Switzerland shortly after she was born. Ada also has a sister, Alexandra, two years older, who was adopted by another, English (that's those of us who are not Plain Folk) family in Oregon. That's a lot of upheaval for anyone, but in addition, Ada also learned during the visit of her sister Lexie, that the illness that has limited her all her life can be managed quite effectively. She now has the prospect of fulfilling her dreams, of becoming a teacher and in time marrying and being a wife and mother. Ada has interviewed for the post of teacher in one of the community's one-room schools, and has been told she can count on getting the position. With all this happiness, her always-protective mother gives her permission to travel to Oregon to attend her newly-discovered sister Lexie's wedding.

The Sun's Heartbeat: And Other Stories from the Life of the Star that Powers Our Planet, by Bob Berman--A Review

2011-07-22T21:17:00.000-04:00

Little, Brown, and Company, ISBN 9780316091015, July 2011

This is a highly readable account of the science of our nearest and most important star, and the stories behind how we have learned all that we know about it. Berman starts with such basics as how we tracked the Sun's movement through our sky and how it governs our agricultural year, to figuring out that it was Earth, not the Sun, that moved, to the latest very startling and disquieting observations of changes in the Sun and how those changes affect us.

Get Thee to a Cooling Center!--But We Won't Let Your Equally Vulnerable Pets In

2011-07-20T20:43:00.000-04:00

Or even understand the question when you call to ask, until you have explained it five or six times.

The cooling centers have been open for a few days. The warnings are getting stronger and stronger--and on Thursday and Friday, the temperature will be hovering around 100, and the dewpoint around 80%. These are severely unhealthy conditions for humans, and not really any better for pets.

But if there's a municipal cooling center that thinks that's any concern of theirs, I haven't found it yet. Definitely not in either Boston or Lawrence, though. Mass211 doesn't know of any, and doesn't think it's their job to have that information, either. I called the MSPCA--they're concerned with animal welfare, right?--and they thought it was "a great question," but had nothing to suggest except that I call around. Gee, thanks.