The Omnivore's Dilemma

"What shall we have for dinner?" is often called the omnivore's dilemma as we choose among the countless offerings of nature and try to assess our foods' safety, nutritive value,
health benefits and potential implications for the health of our environment. Best selling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and often shocking examination of eating in America is an eye opener. As we begin to recognize the profound implications of our everyday food choices, we realize that we really are what we eat and what we eat can remake the world. -DB

Banned Books Week

A good book can be challenging to the reader and, when it's a library book, challenged by the reader--that is, a reader can request that the book be censored (banned) from the library's collection. Chances are you've read about these challenges in the news; in the past eight years there have been over 3,700 challenges brought to American libraries by their patrons. Banned Books Week celebrates the effort by libraries to uphold standards of intellectual freedom and resist efforts to ban books. If it weren't for such efforts, books like Harry Potter or The Catcher in the Rye wouldn't have a spot on library bookshelves.

To celebrate Banned Books Week, why not check out a "banned" book from the library? Here's a list of the Top 100 Classics that have been banned or challenged, and if it's something more recent you're looking for then check out these lists of the Top 10 Banned Books by year. Another interesting website is this map showing locations of book bans and challenges between 2007-2009.

MW

Oprah, again

Oprah has picked a new book -- for the 63d(!) time -- for her book club. The new selection is Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan. The book is a collection of five short stories about children in Africa; one of the stories originally appeared in 2005 debut fiction issue of The New Yorker. The author is a Nigerian Jesuit priest who has an MFA from the University of Michigan.

maf

Best of the Natonal Book Awards Fiction Campaign

Want to have a say in the selection of the Best of the National Book Awards? For the first time, the National Book Foundation is allowing the public to assist in selecting the winner. If you would like to vote, go to the National Book Foundation's website today through October 21 to cast your vote for one of the following six finalists, four of which are short story collections.

Short Stories:
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever.


Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner.



The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor.


The collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty.



Novels
Invisible Man by Ralph Waldo Ellison
Nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
A postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyces "Ulysses" was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.

Don't miss out! Check them out and vote before October 21. SH

Calling All Readers!

Looking for something new to do this Saturday?
Here's your invitation to join a fun, informal book chat. This isn't a book group; we won't be discussing a specific title. Instead, share your reading list, get great suggestions for new books to read, and hear about the great titles that others are reading. You'll hear descriptions of everything from Cheever's short stories to the latest Robert B. Parker. No sign-up necessary, just drop by the Hills Branch for a fun and lively hour of talk about books.
Saturday September 26th, from 11:00 am to 12:00 noon
Hills Branch Library 210 Washington St.

History is not Inevitable

Many people think history is boring. Perhaps it is because history is taught as Social Studies. This approach views history in large broad trends and gives every race, nationality and sex equal time and importance. Gone is the study of great people and pivotal events which make history exciting. Another drawback to the Social Studies method is that it makes historical events seem like they could not have happened any other way.

Narrative history, history written as an unfolding story, is not just interesting but very entertaining. Nothing makes history more interesting and thought provoking than to contemplate what might have happened. Alternate history stories make history come alive by focusing on a significant turning point, accident or decision and their consequences.

The books I recommend below are collections of alternate histories written by renound Historians such as Stephen Ambrose,David McCullough, John Keegan and James McPherson. They provide a short summery on what really happened and how events could have unfolded differently. See how our history was not inevitable and could have been very different.

Cold War Hot : Alternative Decisions of the Third World War
by Tsouras, Peter (Editor)

Dixie Victorious : An Alternate History of the Civil War
by Tsouras, Peter G(Editor)

The Hitler Options : Alternate Decisions of World War II
by Macksey, Kenneth (Editor)

Napoleon Options : Alternative Decisions of the Napoleonic Wars
by North, John (Editor)

Rising Sun Victorious : The Alternate History of How the Japanese Won the Pacific War
by Tsouras, Peter G. (Editor)

Third Reich Victorious : The Alternate History of How the Germans Won the War
by Tsouras, Peter (Editor)

What if? : explorations in social-science fiction
by Polsby, Nelson W. (Editor)

What If? : The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been
by Cowley, Robert (Editor)

What If? 2 : Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been
by Cowley, Robert (Editor)

What Ifs? Of American History : Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been
by Cowley, Robert; Beevor, Anthony (Editors)


TB

Why pay?

for faxes, calls to other countries, conference calls, voice transciption, videoconferencing, 411

PC World has sifted through all the free and "free" services available on the Web and has published a list of 19 free web services that will save you money. So it's not just cool widgets that you've lived your whole life without (and could continue to live without). No, these are services that you might well be paying for this very minute. There's fax service, long-distance calling (worldwide!), conference calls, text-messaging, videoconferencing and a few others. I wish I could say I've tried them out, but I just haven't had the time and what with the press deadline approaching...You know how it is.
If you try one or more of these free services, how about leaving a comment for other readers?
(Thanks to ResourceShelf for this one.)
--RL

Are you finding the movies you want?

Our browsing collection of current feature films is located in the atrium along with other new materials including books and audiobooks. These films are not requestable but we own multiple copies of each title so you may find the most recent love story, thriller or science fiction available for circulation for one week. If, however, your taste is more toward foreign film, documentary, educational, biography, old classics, etc., we have a few thousand titles to fit the bill. Here is a sampling of recent acquisitions which are requestable, circulate for three weeks and are located in the Media Room on the first floor.

5 Day Fit Yoga (2009)

Verdi's Aida (1966)

Alice's House (Portuguese) (2009)

James Dean - the Fast Lane (2009)

Ballerina (Russian) (2009)

Gmail for the Computer Shy (2009)

Coco Chanel (2009)

Zorba the Greek (1964)

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

-DB

Remembering 9/11

We all remember what we were doing 8 years ago when terrorists changed our lives. Many of us have personal stories and a knot clinches in our stomachs when this day arrives.

My link to New York on this day was through my 22 year old son who we had just delivered to his first professional job at Lehman Brothers. When the attacks began that fateful morning, I knew his office was across the street. But was he there or had he been in the towers that morning? At 2:30 that afternoon I finally heard from the mother of a friend of his that he was okay, and he was able to get through on the phone lines himself that evening. He had been in the towers twice that morning, and he had been scheduled for a breakfast at the top of the towers. The company had cancelled it due to the economy but he was indeed across the street from the attack. The aftermath certainly took its toll on him but like a soldier returning from the war, he has spoken about it very little. My story has a jubilant ending unlike some of the rest of you. Let's all remember not only the victims of the attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, but all of the emergency personnel and volunteers who were there during and after.

Some books and films you might request:

9-11 : a tribute. 2002.

United 93 [videorecording] / Universal Pictures. 2006.

September 11, 2001 : a collection of newspaper front pages / selected by the Poynter Institute. 2001.

Let's roll! : ordinary people, extraordinary courage / Lisa Beamer with Ken Abraham. 2002.

102 minutes : the untold story of the fight to survive inside the Twin Towers / Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. 2005.

Last man down : a firefighter's story of survival and escape from the World Trade Center / by Richard Picciotto with Daniel Paisner. 2002.

World Trade Center (DVD)/ Paramount Pictures. 2006.

Saint of 9/11 : the true story of Father Mychal Judge (DVD) . 2006.

SH

Job Searching 2.0

There's a ton of online tools to help you with your job search, but one of the newest and more interesting job databases mines Twitter--which increasingly more business are using to post open positions--and allows you to search for jobs. TwitterJobSearch.com has a variety of ways to find jobs, through keyword searching, browsing by position, or through their really cool mashup with Google Maps--and they even have an RSS feed you can create. The tool isn't limited to jobs, though--some companies advertise intern positions as well. For example, recently Addidas was advertising intern positions for their Rockport creative design team, based in Canton. Of course, you'll still want to go with the traditional job search methods--like networking, want ads, monster.com, etc.--but if it's cutting-edge or internet-advanced employers you're looking for then you might add this to your list to search.

MW

Man Booker Prize

What is the Man Booker Prize?  Well, it's a pretty famous prize for fiction awarded each year. To qualify for the prize, an author must be a citizen of a Commonwealth country.  (The Commonwealth of Nations is comprised of 53 nations formerly part of the British empire.)  

The Man Booker Prize shortlist is going to be announced Tuesday, September 8.  The longlist was announced at the end of July and consists of 13 titles.  Two favorites  are A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn.  

The Children's Book is scheduled to be published in the United States on October 6.  

Brooklyn came out back in May.  

maf

The Dork in All of Us – Dork Tower

Dork Covenant comically introduces us to the world of the maligned and misunderstood gamer as exemplified by resident dorks Matt, Igor, Carson, and Ken.

Kovalic's simplified black and white artwork places the emphasis where it belongs, on the characters and the plot. Some graphic novels draw the reader with great inking or smooth layering. Dork Tower offers something much more substantial.

The star of this volume is a gem for Lord of the Rings fans and can be found on pages 67-73. That strip captures the essence of this web-comic turned graphic novel.

Every volume sees growth in the plot and the characters. Kovalic touches on relevant issues from the time whether the invasion of collectible minis, the latest video game system, or being a Mac or PC person.

Not everything is an inside joke that only uber geeks can understand, which is a trap other comics fall for. Kovalic broadens the scope for a general audience while maintaining multiple levels of comprehension.

At the heart of Dork Tower are the characters. We feel their pain and their joy as they suffer unemployment, enter relationships, and support one another as friends should. Dork Tower has a little of everything and it starts with Volume 1: Dork Covenant. Grab it today from the Graphic Novel kiosk on the 2^nd floor behind the stairwell. You won't regret it.

JR

Rachel Simmons is Back!

Rachel Simmons made the rounds in Metro Boston around 2004 speaking to middle school students and their parents about girls, bullying, and cliques in schools. Odd Girl Out was the result of 300 interviews with girls and 50 adults regarding these acts of aggression and the toll that it takes on a girl's self-esteem.

I guess it was comforting as a parent to know that your child was not the only one who was the target of these groups of girls, but I was disappointed that there was nothing offered to help parents and girls combat what was happening. Curse of the Good Girl does what Odd Girl Out did not--offer strategies and exercises to assist parents in teaching girls to be individuals, for it is more important to stay true to what they believe than to be liked and follow the crowd. Perhaps Metrowest Boston will be seeing Rachel again! SH

Planet Quest

The search for extraterrestrial life doesn’t happen only in science fiction. Startling discoveries are being made and new missions are being planned. Scientists are discussing questions like: Are there earth like extrasolar planets in our galaxy and if so how do we find them? What makes a planet or moon habitable? What is life and how does it begin? How can life be recognized on distant worlds? Is live likely to be microbial or more complex or even intelligent? Find the answers in the following books.

Amir D. Acsel Probability 1

Jeffrey Bennett Beyond UFOS

Alan Boss The crowded universe

Peter Ward and David Brownlee Rare Earth

P.C.W. Davies Cosmic jackpot

David Grinspoon Lonely Planets

David Koerner and Simon Levay Here Be Dragons

Seth Shostak Confessions of an alien hunter

Seth Shostak Sharing the Universe

Peter Ward Life As We Do Not Know It

Stephen Webb If the Universe is Teeming With Aliens Where Is Everybody


First direct image of a planet around a star like sun

Exoplanet Exploration NASA


TB

Looking for a gig?

Here's a great web site for free-lancers (and really anyone looking for temporary work). Blended Technologies has combined all the appropriate Craigslist postings from ALL Craigslists and the ads from a few other sites into one list. What distinguishes this from ordinary meta-search engines is the ability to "train" the search. Based on the posts you click on, the site learns what you're interested in and begins to give the more appropriate jobs higher priority. The more stars you click on, the better trained it becomes. There is a geographic limiter, but no keyword search. I tried searching the Boston area and discovered that there are numerous gigs for web designers and programmers and not so many for carpenters or machinists. If you're looking for gigs--from moving furniture to modeling to programming--give Gigbayes a try. (Thanks to Research Buzz for the tip.)
--RL

Food Blogs

In 2005, Julie Powell published her cooking blog which became a popular book. That book was recently made into a feature film titled Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

Four years later there are countless food blogs and publishers are buying the rights to many of these. Here are some scheduled to come out in the fall.

The Foodie Handbook http://www.chezpim.com/ by Pim Techamuanvivit

The Vegan Lunch Box Around the World http://www.veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ by Jennifer McCann

Vegan Yum Yum http://www.veganyumyum.com/ by Lauren Ulm


Make it Fast, Cook it Slow (all glutenfree recipes) http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/ by Stephanie O'Dea

Pioneer Woman Cooks http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ by Ree Drummond

(Drummond's transition from city life to ranch wife).

The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook (Asian recipes) http://www.steamykitchen.com/ by Jaden Hair


On a Dollar a Day http://www.onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/ by Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard (A monthlong experiment to eat for $1.00 a day)

Browse the websites and look for these and other cookbooks at the Wellesley Free Library in the coming months.

-DB

PC Magazine's Top 100 Websites for 2009

There's more "best of" or top-whatever list on the Internet than you can shake a stick at, but I promise I'm not wasting your time by directing you to PC Magazine's Top 100 Websites for 2009. The list has two major divisions, between classic websites such as Twitter, and undiscovered websites. You might be surprised by some of the classic websites you haven't yet discovered, such as the online image editor Picnik, but for my money the undiscovered websites are the most fun. Looking for public domain sheet music? Check out the IMSLP website. Trying to figure out if the halibut that's been sitting in your freezer is still edible? Look no further than StillTasty.com. The list has already turned me on to a few websites I'll be sure to use frequently--such as the Pandora-killer Grooveshark (which lets you create playlists of songs you want to listen to) and the real-estate finder HotPads--so this is a list I'll be coming back to for some time.

MW

Need Computer Tutoring--Word, Excel, Outlook, Windows?

Have you been struggling with how to use some of the software programs you have or even a Windows Operating System?
LearningExpressLibrary.com, an online resource offered by the Wellesley Free Library, has expanded their unique test and resume offerings to include interactive tutorials (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced) for:

• Microsoft Word

• Powerpoint

• Access

• Outlook

• WordPerfect

• Windows

Sign in quickly to LearningExpressLibrary.com from our list of databases to explore these new courses. You only need your library card number to try it out from home. Once you have connected to the site, look for the Computer Skills Section.

While you are there, check out the courses and tests on job skills (resume writing and interviewing) as well as tests for college prep (ACT, PSAT, SAT, AP), Graduate School (MCAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT), jobs (Nursing, Civil Service, Law Enforcement, teaching), and even U.S. Citizenship. SH

William Tapply

William Tapply, a well-known and popular mystery writer, died two weeks ago.  Tapply was prolific and wrote about 40 books over a period of 25 years.  His more recent titles centered around the character of Brady Coyne, a Boston lawyer.  His last novel - published in 2008 - was Hell Bent.  Tapply was a professor at Clark University in Worcester.  

maf

Sounds a lot like Beetle Juice

Betelgeuse photo NASA, Orion photo The Hundred Greatest Stars, by James B. Kaler

This is the star Betelgeuse it’s about 640 light years away. That is, the light we see from this star takes 640 years to reach the earth. Betelgeuse started life as hot, blue, class O star only around 10 million years ago, which makes it much younger then our Sun. Betelgeuse is the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion and is the eleventh brightest star in the sky.

This star is an ancient massive red giant and is so large that if placed in our solar system in would engulf Earth, Mars and the inner planets half way out to Jupiter. Betelgeuse is surrounded by a huge complex pattern of nested dust and gas shells, the result of eons of mass loss. Clearly a highly evolved star, Betelgeuse has burned all of its hydrogen fuel supply. Betelgeuse will fuse together its remaining elements collapsing the core and causing the star to blow up as a supernova sometime in the next 10 to 1000 years. If it were to explode today, Betelgeuse would shine as bright as the Moon, would be seen in daytime sky, and would cast shadows on the ground. What other effects would the earth experience from such an explosion?

Find out with these books.

The Hundred Greatest Stars, by James B. Kaler

The Stars of Heaven, by Clifford A. Pickover

Death from the skies! : these are the ways the world will end, by Philip Plait

Cosmic Catastrophes: Supernovae, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and Adventures in Hyperspace, by J. Craig Wheeler

What If the Moon Didn't Exist? : Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been, by Neil F. Comins

The Origins of the Future: Ten Questions for the Next Ten Years, by John Gribbin

See also

STARS a comprehensive suite of pages that tell the stories of stars and their constellations.


TB