A sample text widget
Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis
euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.
Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan.
Morbi orci magna, tincidunt vitae molestie nec, molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,
suscipit in posuere in, interdum non magna.
|
This post written by Clint Icarus at the Edge of Time
by Brian Greene
[cover name=icarusattheedgeoftime]
This is an unusual book. It’s a retelling of the Greek Icarus myth, about a young man who uses wings made of wax to fly. Unfortunately, he flies too high, his wings melt, and he falls to his death. Fortunately, this version isn’t so depressing. Icarus at the Edge of Time is set on a spaceship in the future, and this Icarus is a teenage genius who flies too close to a black hole. He survives, but things don’t work out quite the way he expected.
Icarus at the Edge of Time looks like a book for kids – it’s a board book with only 44 pages, and there are only a few sentences per page. Mostly, it’s illustrated with photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. The story isn’t particularly complex, either. However, it’s a neat little story, and it does involve actual physics. It might be a good book to read with your children, if you want to get them talking about science, but I think it’s neat enough that you can enjoy it as an adult, too. I did.
The author, Brian Greene, has written a couple of big books about physics. If you are expecting more of the same, except for kids, you’ll be disappointed. If you are looking for a serious sci-fi version of the Icarus story, you’ll be disappointed. It’s somewhere in between the two. It uses the Icarus story to introduce a little science and have some fun along the way.
I linked to Brian Greene’s official college website at the top of this review, but the book itself has another site at icarusattheedgeoftime.com.
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
Where to Find It
[librarylist]
[librarydate]
This post written by Clint Peppers: A Story of Hot Pursuits
by Amal Naj
[cover name=peppers]
Amal Naj grew up in India, so you’d think he’d be okay with hot peppers. However, he really didn’t like spicy food until he was in college in Ireland and started to miss food from home. From there, he went on to be a hot pepper junkie. If you really love hot food, this is probably a book for you. Peppers: A Story of Hot Pursuits is a collection of pepper facts and stories.
This book covers a lot of pepper-related topics. It includes some of the history of peppers around the world and how they have been used as medicine. It also includes some science – Naj hangs out with a number of biologists who study peppers. Two chapters cover the rather bizarre story of McIlhenny Company, the people who make Tabasco sauce. Naj also describes some of his pepper-related travels, such as his visit to Hatch, New Mexico, which is probably the hot pepper capital of the United States, or the Andes mountains in Bolivia, where he joins in the search for the the original wild pepper.
This book came out in 1993, so some of the facts, especially where people talk about the science of peppers and how they are used in medicine, are probably outdated. There is no mention of the Naga Jolokia (the ghost pepper), either. Habaneros are as hot as this book gets. I also noticed that this is not the easiest book to read, although it’s not that bad. The author sometimes uses larger words when shorter ones would work just fine, and sometimes the science sections get bogged down by long lists of names. As long as you know to expect it, you should be fine.
Also, if you want to read more about Tabasco sauce, you might want to check out this series of articles from 2004.
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
Where to Find It
[linkplus name=”Peppers” url=”http://csul.iii.com/record=b12113516~S0″]
[librarydate]
This post written by Clint Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm
by David Mas Masumoto
[cover name=epitaphforapeach]
David Masumoto’s family farm, near Fresno in the Central Valley of Northern California, is in trouble. His peaches taste really good, but he can’t sell them to big business because his peaches can’t be kept in refrigerators at major supermarkets for weeks and weeks. New kinds of peaches don’t taste as good, but they do last a lot longer, and that’s what corporations want. However, David decides to give his old-fashioned peaches one more year, and if he can’t sell them, he’ll tear them down and put in new, less-tasty peaches.
Running a family farm isn’t easy, even if people are interested in buying your products. The Masumoto farm grows peaches and raises grapes. Insects, drought, or disease can kill his trees and vines or destroy the fruit before the harvest. Even worse, sine the family dries the grapes in the sun to make raisins, any rain after the grapes are harvested will cause the grapes to mold. That’s right, rain at the wrong time will actually hurt the farm. How fair is that?
The Masumoto farm is an organic farm – they don’t use chemical fertilizer or insecticides. They try to work with nature rather than against it. Unfortunately, David is kind of new to this. His father farmed in the 50s and 60s, when people thought that chemicals were the ultimate answer to everything. Like some farmers, David has noticed that this isn’t true, but since he didn’t grow up doing things the organic way, he has to learn for himself.
Epitaph for a Peach is made up of a bunch of short pieces that represent his thoughts and experiences for that year. In some of these pieces, he tells us about his struggle to run a family farm and find a market for delicious peaches that nobody wants to buy. In others, we learn about the story of his parents and grandparents, what it was like to grow up on a farm, what living on a farm is like now, or glimpses of what it’s like to be Japanese-American. He is often very serious or philosophical, but other times he is funny.
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
Where to Find It
[librarylist]
[librarydate]
This post written by Clint The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Survival and Obsession Among America’s Great White Sharks
by Susan Casey
[cover name=thedevilsteeth]
If you sail about 27 miles west of San Francisco, you’ll reach the Farallon Islands. They are home to hundreds of thousands of birds and quite a few sea lions, and every year around September, the great white sharks show up. Nobody knows why great white sharks – the same ones every year – spend a few months in the Farallones. Of course, there’s a lot we don’t know about great white sharks. However, Peter Pyle and Scot Anderson are working to change that. They have been working in the Farallon Islands for the last ten years. They know all the sharks by name.
Susan Casey, the author, spent eight weeks with Peter and Scot. The Devil’s Teeth is about her experience there. We get to know Peter and Scott, as well as Cal Ripfin, T-Nose, Spotty, Mama, Betty, or the Cadilac (a few of the local sharks). We also get to see what life is like on these desolate islands just off the coast of San Francisco.
You can read some of it online at Google Books.
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
Where to Find It
[librarylist]
[librarydate]
This post written by Clint A Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solve Crimes
by M. Lee Goff
[cover name=aflyfortheprosecution]
Forensic entomology is the study of insects and how they can be used to solve crimes and settle lawsuits. When did this person die? Were they poisoned? Was the body moved? Can we prove the suspect was at the scene of the crime? If you are a skilled forensic entomologist, you might be able to answer any of these questions and more.
This book combines some personal stories of the author, such as how he stays sane while examining partially decomposed bodies, as well as the history of forensic entomology, a bunch of interesting examples of cases involving insects, and a some explanation of how it all works. He has one chapter that explains how he does his research, which involves lots and lots of pigs, and sometimes illegal drugs. Apparently, one conversation with a Drug Enforcement Agency officer started with, “Oh, you again.” Another chapter describes the different insects that show up as a body decomposes. If you know the cycle, you can often tell how long ago someone died.
If you aren’t easily bothered by maggots and decaying bodies, and if you really like CSI-stuff, you will probably like this book. It’s not a textbook, but you will learn a lot of neat stuff. It includes a lot of details and science, but it’s still very interesting.
You can read some of it online at Google Books.
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
Where to Find It
[librarylist]
[linkplus name=”A Fly for the Prosecution” url=”http://csul.iii.com/record=b14998179~S0″ cchasone=true]
[librarydate]
This post written by Clint Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist
by William R. Maples and Michael Browning
[cover name=deadmendotelltales]
If you like CSI or other shows like that, you might want to check out Dead Men Do Tell Tales. William Maples was a forensic anthropologist (someone who studies human remains to try to find out the cause of death and other things like that) and he talks about many different cases he has worked on. Some of the more famous ones include examining the remains of the Elephant Man, seeing if the 12th President of the United States, Zachary Taylor, was poisoned, and flying to Ekaterinburg, Russia, to tell whether nine skeletons there are those of the last members of the Russian royal family.
If you are uncomfortable reading about suicide, murder, or decomposing bodies, you should skip this book. I don’t think Maples goes out of his way to gross anyone out, but he is talking about dead bodies. On the other hand, if you’ve ever wondered how you can identify someone after they have been cremated, how you tell if someone was murdered or committed suicide, how you tell if a skeleton is from a man or a woman, or how you tell which particular brand of saw was used to dismember a body, this might be the book for you.
This is not a textbook. It is more like a biography that focuses on interesting cases Maples has had. He talks about his early life, how he got into forensic anthropology, as well as stories about his work and some general information about forensic anthropology. You get enough of the details to understand the big idea, but Maples mostly focuses on the story. You won’t learn how to do any of the stuff they talk about on CSI, but you should get a better idea of what they are talking about.
If you want to read some of the book online, you can do that thanks to Google Books.
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
Where to Find It
[librarylist]
[librarydate]
This post written by Clint Master and Commander
by Patrick O’Brian
[cover name=masterandcommander]
Jack Aubrey, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, makes friends with Stephen Maturin, a doctor, naturalist, and geek. When Jack is given command of HMS Speedy, he invites Stephen to come along and be the ship’s surgeon. Jack is an absolutely fantastic commander, but he’s completely lost away from the sea. Stephen is an absolutely fantastic surgeon and scientist, but he’s completely lost on a ship. This “Odd Couple” relationship is really the main focus of the story.
There is plenty of action, too. Jack Aubrey is based on Thomas Cochrane, one of the most awesome naval officers ever, and many of the battles described in the book and the rest of the series actually happened.
There is a fair amount of naval slang in the book. If you don’t know what a “fo’c’sle” is, neither does Stephen. You can count on him to ask about some of the words, but if he doesn’t, or if your eyes glaze over when Jack explains what a mizzenmast is, don’t worry. You don’t need to know. If you do really want to know all the details and definitions, though, you might want to check out the book A Sea of Words.
You can look it up on Wikipedia. You can also read some of it online at Google Books.
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
Other books you might want to check out
- A Sea of Words, 3rd Edition, by Dean King, John B. Hattendorf, and J. Worth Estes
Defines all of the terms used in the series, and gives a whole lot of other information that you might find interesting if you are really into the series.
- Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain, by Robert Harvey
This is a good biography of Thomas Cochrane, the person Jack Aubrey (and Horatio Hornblower and pretty much every other fictional sea captain) is based on. This is one of those times when truth is stranger than fiction: I’m amazed by a lot of the crazy stunts Cochrane was able to get away with.
Where to Find It
[librarylist]
[librarydate]
|
More Recommendations
Reading About Comics
Science & Math Reading
|
Tags: 
Category: 
Write a comment