Browsing Area Book of the Week, May 13, 2013.



The First Clash: the miraculous Greek victory at Marathon—and its impact on Western civilization by Jim Lacey.  Library Call Number: DF225.4.L332011.

          Author Lacey, a veteran and military historian, takes a fresh look at the battle of Marathon, when a small army of about 9,000 Athenians, aided by 1,000 Plateans, took on the vanguard of the Persian army of Darius I.  Outnumbered about 2 to 1, the battle developed in such an unexpected way that it left possibly half the Persians dead at the loss of less than 200 Greeks.      

         The book jacket states:

…Lacey shows how the heavily armed Persian army was shocked, demoralized, and ultimately defeated by the relentless assault of the Athenian phalanx, which battered the Persian line in a series of brutal attacks. He reveals the fascinating aftermath of Marathon, how its fighters became the equivalent of our “Greatest Generation,” and challenges the view of many historians that Marathon ultimately proved the Greek “Western way of war” to be the superior strategy for fighting—and winning—battles to the present day.

          Immediate, visceral, and full of new analyses that defy decades of conventional wisdom, The First Clash is a superb interpretation of a conflict that indeed made the world safe for Aristotle, Plato, and our own modern democracy. But it was also a battle whose legacy and lessons have often been misunderstood—perhaps, now more than ever, at our own peril.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, April 29, 2013.



 

War by Sebastian Junger.  Library Call Number: DS371.4123K67J86 2010.

     Throughout the long war in Afghanistan, the Korengal Valley has been one of the most dangerous places on earth.  Fighting between American forces and the Taliban flare up at any time and without warning.
     Into this environment went Sebastian Junger, author of the Perfect Storm.  Junger embedded himself with the Second Platoon of Battle Company and spent a tour with them, sharing their dangers and their missions in a spot he defines as, “sort of the Afghanistan of Afghanistan: too remote to conquer, too poor to intimidate, too autonomous to buy off.”
     In a world of sudden death and destruction, what Junger finds is that the abstract notions of what soldiers fight for—“good” or “right”—all give way to the simple truth that when they are put in harm’s way, they fight for each other.



Browsing Area Book of the Week, March 18, 2013.

The Girls of Murder City: Fame, lust and the beautiful killers who inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry. HV6517.P475 2010.

In 1924, with Prohibition the law of the land, booze in Chicago was more prevalent than ever.  Speakeasies, illegal gin joints and jazz clubs were everywhere, well supplied by Dion O’Banion, Johnny Torrio and Johnny’s lieutenant, Al Capone.  It was also a time when women journalists were hired for the Sunday articles—home and fashion—and the men did the hard news. 

But Maurine Watkins, a preacher’s daughter from Indiana was determined to make it as a newswoman; she started at the Tribune covering homicides.  Chicago, after all, was rich with murder, even before the gang wars, and nothing was more peculiar than the tendency of women in the Second City to get drunk and shoot their boyfriends; nothing, that is, except the other peculiar fact that all-male jurors seemed to find an attractive young woman accused of murder “Not guilty.”

          For Maurine, with her religious morals, this was unconscionable.  Two beauties, Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner were both coming to trial, both of them guilty as hell.  Maurine tried to become the voice of justice and morals for the city, all the while swimming against the tides of sexism and sensationalism. 

But eventually, she would get a hit Broadway play out of it.

 

Browsing Area Book of the Week, March 4, 2013.

God is Not One: the eight rival religions that run the world—and why their differences matter by Stephen Prothero.  Library Call Number: BL80.3.P76 2010.

 

          Prothero sets out with the interesting premise that religions are not all pointed in the same direction—at the same omniscient, omnipotent Being—but are, on the contrary, beginning at different philosophical points and experiences of faith and order, and expanding from there.  By contrasting their differences, he hopes to paint a fuller picture of different cultures and what they seek in their faith.  The book is controversial, especially in the inclusion of Confucianism—which can be argued is a philosophy and not a faith—and atheism, which is shown only at its furthest extreme.  Still, the author has written an illuminating book with plenty to ponder.  Readers may come away from the book with a feeling that, like the blind men with the elephant, they have not yet reached a full comprehension of what God means.  They may, however, find a larger appreciation of the beliefs of others.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, February 18, 2013.

Life upon these Shores: Looking at African American History 1513-2008 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Library Call Number: E185.G27 2011.

          A bold, beautifully illustrated book by the eminent historian uses countless portraits, drawings, pictures and documents to illustrate the long history of African American involvement in the American story, from the first group of “twenty and odd” Angolans captured in African Civil wars and sold into slavery, ending up in 1600’s Jamestown, Virginia; Jean Baptiste Point  DuSable’s founding of an early farm and trading post that would come to be known as Chicago; the paroxysm of violent struggle that wrenched America apart in the Civil War; W.E.B. DuBois’ magnificent photographic essay of blacks in America shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900; Jack Johnson’s extraordinary fights in and out of the ring; the Civil Rights era of the 60’s and 70’s to the recent first  inauguration of President Obama.  Most importantly, Gates notes the hundreds of black Americans who made significant contributions to all aspects of American life and culture.  This is a book of constant struggle, heartbreaking setbacks and triumphant victories. Most importantly, it is an integral part of American history.

Browsing Area book of the Week, January 21, 2013.

How We do Harm by Dr. Otis Brawley, MD, with Paul Greenberg.

Library Call Number:RA395.A3B72 2012.

 

             (Excerpt from the Atlantic’s review of the book): “In 2002, Dr. Brawley became chief of oncology and hematology at Grady Hospital [in Atlanta]. Though no longer in a leadership role at Grady, Brawley still practices there. His experiences at Grady partly inspired his new book…In what he calls a ‘guided tour through the back rooms of American medicine,’ Brawley not only takes on the unfolding catastrophe of U.S. healthcare, but also hits closer to home with chilling stories about irresponsible doctors here in Atlanta, such as some who dispense inappropriate, even life-threatening chemo.” 

             Dr. Brawley’s book draws on his experiences to illustrate how economics—even a doctor’s personal gain—might be influencing the overtreatment of the rich, while the poor find themselves shut off from care that might lengthen or even save their lives.  His book has unleashed a firestorm in his direction and for good reason, because it challenges the public’s assumption that all doctors are concerned with their patients’ welfare, that they are fulfilling their oath to “First, do no harm.”

             A vital read for all Americans who, at one point or another, will find themselves seeking a doctor’s care.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, December 17, 2012.

 

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie.  Library Call Number: PR6068.U757Z46  2012.

 

From the Publisher’s Description: On February 14, 1989, Valentine’s Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been “sentenced to death” by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being “against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran.”

So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of an armed police protection team. He was asked to choose an alias that the police could call him by. He thought of writers he loved and combinations of their names; then it came to him: Conrad and Chekhov—Joseph Anton.

It is a book of exceptional frankness and honesty, compelling, provocative, moving, and of vital importance. Because what happened to Salman Rushdie was the first act of a drama that is still unfolding somewhere in the world every day.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, December 3, 2102.

City of the Big Shoulders: an anthology of Chicago Poetry, edited by Ryan G. Van Cleave.  Library Call Number: PS572.C5C58 2012.

           Rather than a compilation of poets from Chicago (though most hail from there), Van Cleave has collected poems from 100 writers with the same thematic impulse: to pull a piece of Chicago out for poetic examination.  Notable poets such as Joy Harjo, Barry Silesky and Bob Hicock and Nina Corwin all represent the past, present and future of the Windy City in their work.

           As in any collection, some of the poems are more successful than others, but the best evoke the spirits of Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks and the hundreds of other past artistic voices of America’s Second City, while capturing the unique and vibrant neighborhoods, lakefront views, open spaces, hidden corners and individual characters of some of Chicago’s citizens.  One of the more encompassing descriptions of the town, by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz:

I want to eat

in a city smart enough to know that if you

are going to have that heart attack, you might

as well have the pleasure of knowing

  you’ve really earned it.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, November 12, 2012.

Kivalina: A Climate Change Story by Christine Shearer.
Library Call Number: E99.E7S463 2011.

Forcibly moved by the U.S Government in the early 20th century to a narrow island near the Arctic Circle called Kivalina, the Inupiat people endured the harsh conditions because of their traditional “understanding of and close connection to the cycles and rhythms of the land." As early as the 1950’s however, they noticed ocean storms were eroding the island at an alarming rate.  Now the permafrost is melting and the entire village is at risk, yet Government agencies “who contradicted their knowledge of the area,” are blocking their attempts to relocate.  With an estimated relocation cost of $400 million, the residents finally filed a climate change lawsuit, charging Big Oil with contributing to the loss of their homes. Shearer’s story shines a light on another David and Goliath story: the oil corporations who continue to dissemble and blur the real costs of climate change, their undue influence on American government  “and the cultural disconnect between Native Alaskans and American agencies whose clumsy, often patronizing management of Kivalina's dire situation has only exacerbated the community's problem.”

Browsing Area Book of the Week, October 1, 2012

And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life by Charles J. Shields.  Library Call Number PS3752.O5Z855 2011.

Review from Publisher’s Weekly: Vonnegut initially refused to grant an interview to Shields…but then relented, enabling Shields to meet him during the last months of his life. This first authorized biography probes both Vonnegut's creative struggles and family life, detailing his transition from "the bowery of the book world" to counterculture icon. Shields delivers a vivid recreation of Vonnegut's ghastly WWII experiences as a POW during the Dresden firebombing that became the basis for Slaughterhouse-Five; the novel brought him overnight fame when it was serialized in Ramparts magazine and then published in a month when 453 Americans were killed in Vietnam. Tragedies and triumphs are contrasted throughout, along with an adroit literary analysis that highlights obscure or overlooked influences on Vonnegut:: Ambrose Bierce, Céline, Robert Coover's metafiction and Paul Rhymer, who scripted radio's Vic and Sade. With access to more than 1,500 letters, Shields conducted hundreds of interviews to produce this engrossing, definitive biography [which] arrives during a year of renewed interest in Vonnegut.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, September 17, 2012.

Dog: the definitive guide for dog owners by Bruce Fogle.
Library Call Number: SF427.F615 2010.

          Adapted from the publisher’s description: This handsome book celebrates the close and complex relationship between humans and dogs, examining the animal’s behavior, anthropology, history, literature and genetics. Dog reveals the essential nature of the human-dog relationship, both its past and possible future. Fogle’s book examines the ancestry of the modern dog, their breed classifications, development, feeding care and training, health and welfare, as well a living weith them and coping with their loss.

Dr. Bruce Fogle provides expert advice and thoughtful essays based on his years of experience as a veterinarian, highlighted with personal anecdotes and more than 600 beautiful color photographs. Illustrated how-to spreads focus on practical topics related to dog care and training.

Beautifully presented, compassionate and full of useful information, Dog can be the book that dog owners will turn to throughout their pets' lives.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, September 4, 2012..

The Battle over Health Care: What Obama’s reform means for America’s future by Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh.  Library Call Number: RA395.A3G45 2012.
          From Publisher’s Weekly:  “Health care expert Gibson and World Bank economist Singh (coauthors of Wall of Silence) present a well-argued view that the heralded Obama health care reforms may be adverse to the public interest, since by ‘plowing even more funding into health care, the reform law cements inefficiency in the system.’ The reforms increase insurers’ market share, giving them access to 16 million new customers beginning in 2014, but proposed subsidies for individual insurance policies simply foster greater demand, enabling continuing cost increases.
          By 2030, the authors estimate that health care will consume 25 percent of the country’s income, and comprehensive insurance will be unaffordable, even with subsidies. In passionate language, they prescribe possible remedies, but many are the usual suspects, for example, tackling fraud in health care spending. Meanwhile, the prognosis that the baby boomers will overwhelm Medicare might induce the despairing reader to take two aspirins. But don’t call the doctor in the morning; a conservative estimate is that 225,000 people die every year from preventable harm in the health care system. As one observer says: ‘They harm you and they bill you for it.’”

Browsing Books for August--Modern Science Books of Note

How the Hippies Saved Physics by David Kaiser. Library Call Number: QC15.K26 2011.

     The story of the Fundamental Fysiks Group, a band of 1970's UC-Berkeley physics teachers and students who began looking into quantum theory and Bell's Therorem and approached quantum entanglement by way of Zen, hot tubs, drugs and psychic studies to spin physics into new directions.    

 

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains, by Nicholas Carr. Call Number: QP360.C667 2010.

     Human thought has been shaped through the centuries by "tools of the mind"…The printed book focused our attention. The Internet encourages rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information. Carr asks, as we become more adept at scanning and skimming, are we losing our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection?

Epigenetics by Richard C. Francis.                                   Call Number QH450.F73 2011.

     Francis' book is the first book for general readers to explore epigenetics--a term that means "on the gene." New discoveries in the field of genetics, indicate that a link exists between between the stress of the environment on an individual and the seemingly inherited traits of his or her subsequent generations. Trauma, smoking, addiction could all lead to increased chances of significant problems like obesity, cancer, even Alzheimer's

 Hot X: Algebra Exposed by Danica McKellar. Call Number: QA159.M34 2010.

     Author McKellar, a former television star of The Wonder Years, also happens to be a math whiz who is trying very hard to get young women to overcome their math phobia. Here, she continues her string of best-selling books, enticing young women into the wonderful world of mathematics using testimonials, real-life examples and a pop-mag style, while illuminating the mysteries of algebra.

Library Video of the Week, May 7, 2012.

Marwencol: when his world was stolen Mark Hogancamp made a world of his own. A documentary directed and produced by Jeff Malmberg. Library Call Number: RC387.5 .M37 2010.

            The story of a man who literally had to rebuild his mind, and did it on his own,, this film won best documentary from the Independent Spirit Awards, The Boston Film society and numerous other festivals.

From the caption: After being brutally attacked outside a bar and recovering from a coma and extensive physical injuries, Mark Hogancamp suffered brain damage and nearly total memory loss. Unable to afford therapy he spent the next few years building a scale model, World War II-era town, Marwencol, populated with dolls, where he lived out his fantasy life, and which he documented in photographs. When his photographs were discovered by an art magazine, a New York gallery invited him to show his work, forcing him to choose between his self-contained world and the larger world from which he had retreated.

Browsing Area Books of the Week, April 30, 2012.

Women Lead the Way: your guide for stepping up to leadership and Changing the World by Linda Tarr-Whelan. Library Call Number: HD6054.3.T372009.
     From the Barnes & Noble website:   “Evidence from around the world validates the findings of the United Nations General Assembly in 1995, which set a baseline of at least 30% women at the table as a prerequisite for genuine partnership and lasting, positive change in the international arena.

We see the same phenomena in the business world. More women as corporate officers and members of boards of directors results in stronger financial performance. At 30% representation, we see concrete, positive outcomes for everyone – not just women -- including increased shareholder value, more flexible management approaches, a broader definition of success, and better bottom lines. More women at the table means more progress for all of us.”

The Next Generation of Women Leaders: what you need to lead but won’t learn in business school by Selena Rezvani. Library Call Number: HD6054.3.R49 2010.

          Over the course of a year and 30 interviews, Rezvani spoke to successful businesswomen, from the president of Saks to the owner of the LA Dodgers, collecting their experiential wisdom. Each interviewee provides tools and mentoring for the young woman eager to enter the world of leadership. The book “…encourages young women to be their own advocates when it comes to professional growth and advancement and provides tangible how-tos on negotiating the workplace as a woman.”

Library Video of the Week, April 16, 2012.

The Bro Code: How contemporary culture creates sexist men, a presentation of the Media Education Foundation; written and produced by Thomas Keith.      Library Call Number: BF692.5.B76 2011.

          From the Publisher’s website: "Filmmaker Thomas Keith takes aim at the forces in male culture that condition boys and men to dehumanize and disrespect women. Keith breaks down a range of contemporary media forms, zeroing in on movies and music videos that glamorize womanizing, pornography that trades in the brutalization of women, comedians who make fun of sexual assault, and a groundswell of men's magazines and cable TV shows that revel in old-school myths of American manhood. Even as epidemic levels of men's violence against women persist in the real world, the message Keith uncovers in virtually every corner of our entertainment culture is clear: It's not only normal -- but cool -- for boys and men to control and humiliate women. Arguing that there's nothing normal, natural, or inevitable about this mentality, The Bro Code challenges young people, young men and women alike, to step up and fight back against the idea that being a real man means being sexist.”

Browsing Area Book of the Week, April 16, 2012

Vampires Today: The truth about modern vampirism by Joseph Laycock.  Library Call Number: BF1556.L39 2009.

         Whether it’s an Anne Rice book or the novels and movies in the Twilight series, vampires are enjoying a surge of interest. Despite the sensational cover, Laycock takes an academic approach to studying the idea of living on blood.  It turns out there are communities of people around the globe who self-identify as vampires.

          From 1733, when the first scholarly research on human vampires was done in Germany, the author moves through history identifying the many places their presence has popped up.  Are they crazy?  Do they actually believe they are a differently evolved species?  As one description of the book puts it, “Is it a religion? A fantasy?  A medical condition?  Or a little bit of each?”

          Laycock attempts to put the phenomenon into an historical and sociological perspective, uncovering a host of people and communities that give a glimpse into a world outside normal experiences and int the process writing a very readable book.  Perhaps the most intriguing sentence of the book’s preface comes when the author says he has driven around Cleveland with members of the Atlanta Vampire Alliance “looking for a good Irish pub.”

         

Browsing Area Book of the Week, April 9, 2012.

Shoes a-z by Jonathan Walford.  Library Call Number: GT1130.W35 2010.      

     For the designer, appreciator and shoe junkie, Thames & Hudson Publishers have put out page upon page of designer female footwear for the fashion conscious.  From the silly (Grey Mer patent pump with faceted heel, page 104) to the stylish (Grey Mer patent pump with faceted heel—it’s all in the eye of the beholder), from tennies to formal, this book’s got them covered.  All the major designers are represented and there’s a nice glossary of footwear terms at the end.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, April 2, 2012.

The Wolf in the Parlor by Jon Franklin. Library Call Number: SF433.S73 2009.

          Author Franklin watches his puppy grow into a family member and theorizes that humanity and canines have somehow grown together.  According to a Publisher’s Weekly review, Franklin theorizes that, …”beginning about 12,000 years ago, as wild wolves evolved into “follower wolves” and were subsequently domesticated by early man, a kind of mind meld occurred. As this neurological attachment took shape, the dog shed 20% of its brain mass because, biologically, humans had “agreed to do its thinking” for it, while mankind lost 10% of its brain mass because dogs became ‘our beast of emotional burden.’

“Franklin buttresses his inventive assertion with a combination of absorbingly loquacious ruminations on the behavior of his own dog, Charlie, and a rigorous compilation of scientific facts rooted in a decade of study about the nature of wolves and dogs. As concepts of the canine go, Franklin's is notably audacious. And among a plethora of books on breeding, disciplining, loving and lamenting the loss of man's best friend, this thoughtful discourse is a best of breed.”

Browsing Area book of the Week., March 5, 2012



That is All by John Hodgman. Library Call Number: PN6165.H656 2011.

     It’s not often the author writes his own synopsis, but: “The author, The Daily Show's "Resident Expert", minor television celebrity, and deranged millionaire, brings us the third and final installment in his trilogy of Complete World Knowledge. In 2005, The Areas of My Expertise, a handy little book of Complete World Knowledge was published, marked by the distinction that all of the fascinating trivia and amazing true facts were completely made up by its author. At the time, he was merely a former literary agent and occasional scribbler of fake trivia. In short: a nobody. But during an interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, an incredible transformation occurred. He became a famous minor television personality. You may ask: During his whirlwind tornado ride through the high ether of minor fame and outrageous fortune, did John Hodgman forget how to write books of fake trivia? The answer is: Yes. Briefly. But soon, he remembered! And so he returned, crashing his Kansas farmhouse down upon the wicked witch of ignorance with More Information Than You Require, a New York Times bestseller containing even more mesmerizing and essential fake trivia, including seven hundred mole-man names (and their occupations). And now he completes his vision with this new work, the last book in a trilogy of Complete World Knowledge. Like its predecessors, it compiles incredibly handy made-up facts into brief articles, overlong lists, and beguiling narratives on new and familiar themes. It picks up exactly where More Information left off,specifically, at page 596, and finally completes Complete World Knowledge, just in time for the return of Quetzalcoatl and the end of human history in 2012.