Book Talk

July Update

We love to think that we are spontaneous free spirits but it turns out that we are anything but. Our connected lifestyle has made sociological research a lot easier. Almost everything we do is recorded, date and time stamped, and saved. The findings? Patterns of behavior are predictable and reveal a deep order. Daily activity, instead of a random pattern, is “bursty”.  Activity is followed by nothing.  Albert-Laszlo Barabasi has written Bursts: the Hidden Pattern behind Everything We Do.

Samantha Bee describes the long, strange trip that has been her life in I Know I am but What Are You? A regular on The Daily Show, she readily admits to her checkered Canadian past. She was half of a Bonnie and Clyde style teenage car stealing team, worked as an Japanese anime character in a touring company, has a deep hatred of hot ham and is constantly found wanting by judgmental sales associates.

Merchants of Doubt: how a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, tells the story of a group of high level scientist with ties to industry and politics who actively led campaigns to mislead the public and cast doubt on well-established scientific knowledge, often as paid expert witnesses.  Here’s a phrase to consider - “constructing a counter-narrative…”

When Organizing isn’t Enough SHED your Stuff, Change your Life, by Julie Morgenstern explains that we are often immobilized by outmoded objects and obligations. SHED stands for Separate treasures, Heave the Trash, Embrace your identity and Drive yourself forward. Important! Trash and Treasures can be things, people, attitudes and activities.

Frugal can be fun! Marjorie Harris has written Thrifty: Living the Frugal Life with Style. She gives techniques for clothing shopping at second hand outlets (having a glass of wine first is NOT recommended).  Simple tip- reorganized your refrigerator frequently makes for better food usage. Harris also predicts a huge comeback for the clothesline!

Fiction

A late night phone call sends lawyer Jack Slidell to a sleazy hotel to help his partner. He finds him dead, a battered prostitute, and lots of cocaine. The police think Jack is involved and he must prove his innocence, avoiding hit men and government agents in The Extinction Event, by David Black.

In The Rebellion of Jane Clarke, by Sally Gunning, Jane flees her beloved Cape Cod, and an unwanted marriage, for Boston. There the streets are full of Redcoats, and a mood of increasing violence fills the air. She is torn between sides, until she witnesses the Boston Massacre, and is able to make a difficult choice.

Take an elite New England college, a brilliant professor, a rising young student, add a macabre secret older than the university, an ancient ritual, and a race against time, and you have The Faculty Club by Danny Tobey.

Receiving rave reviews is the new novel by Lauren Belfer. It will be much in demand by those who have read City of Light. If you missed that one, check it out. It is set in Buffalo and Niagara Falls at the beginning of the commercial development of electricity. The second novel, A Fierce Radiance, is set just after Pearl Harbor. As photographer for Life magazine, Claire Shipley is uniquely placed to report on a very important story, the development of a vaccine for polio. The financial possibilities of such a vaccine have not been lost on the opportunists, and soon a researcher is found dead.

If you want to spend the summer taking a crash course in suspense, check out Thrillers: 100 Must Reads.  100 well know thriller writers have contributed a favorite title. Baldacci, Gerritsen, Wilbur Smith, Dan Brown, Patterson and others, tell you what THEY like to read.

Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian