Gifts of the Crow

The Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
     by John Marzluff, Tony Angell (Illustrator)

 

 Suddenly a crow turns his head, caws softly, and glides away, landing on a lamppost directly above a blonde woman. The woman, Lijana Holmes, smiles and calls him "Bela" as she offers him a breakfast of eggs and meat, which she prepares daily. Five-and-a-half years ago we captured Bela and affixed light plastic rings to his legs for identification. So whenever he sees us, the old crow cocks his head, stares, takes flight and swoops low--right at us--screaming a harsh call that we immediately recognize as a bird scold. His family and neighbors hear the cry and join in, flying toward Bela to support his attack, and soon they, too, share his rage. The mobbing crows circle and scream above our heads just as they would do to a predator. Bela's discriminating actions give us remarkable and invaluable information, proving that crows can recognize and remember human faces. We wonder when, or if, he will ever forget (or forgive) us. The gifts of the crow are physical, metaphorical, and far-reaching.

 Although packed with the latest research this is far from a dry academic tome.  Instead the authors use plenty of anecdotes which will keep you fascinated.  You will be amazed at just how smart these social birds are. 

Tyson

 

Are We Alone?

The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet

     by Dimitar Sasselov 

Intended for general readers, this volume on the history and possibilities of astronomical and biochemical research examines the study of super-earths, distant planets similar to earth that allow scientists to study how earth may have been millennia ago. Sasselov (astronomy, Harvard U.) explores the implications of these discoveries for biological research in chapters which discuss both the study of extraterrestrial bodies and the search for the origins of life on earth.

Life of any kind has yet to be found anyplace except on the Earth.  However, within the last few years astronomers have found over 3000 exoplanet candidates.  In December the Kelper satalite teleoscope found two earth sized planets orbiting sun like stars.  The planets were not in the sun's habitable zone.  This book has the cutting edge information on the search for alien worlds.

Tyson

City of Fortune

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas
     by Roger Crowley

The rise and fall of the Venetian empire stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. City of Fortune is framed around two of the great collisions of world history: the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which culminated in the sacking of Constantinople and the carve-up of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, and the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503.   Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that came under their dominion.

Crowley's narrative is a quick page turner for history lovers. He does a great job explaining the how Venice controlled the spice trade between Europe and Asia.  A trade which put them at odds with the Mongols, Genoans, and Turks.

Tyson

This Mighty Scourge

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War
     by James M. McPherson

 The Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson is America's preeminent Civil War historian. Now, in this collection of provocative and illuminating essays, McPherson offers fresh insight into many of the most enduring questions about the Civil War. Topics include the Lost Cause Mystique, Peace Negotiations, Myths of the confederacy and Jesse James.

McPherson's essays ask; Why did the war come?, What were each sides objectives? How did each side try to obtain those objectives? How good was the leadership of both sides? What was the impact of the war on those who lived through it? A very interesting and thought provoking read.

Tyson

First Great Triumph

First Great Triumph : How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power
by Warren Zimmermann


"We were sure that we would win, that we should score the first great triumph in a mighty world-movement."--Theodore Roosevelt, 1904






Americans like to think they have no imperial past. In fact, the United States became an imperial nation within five short years a century ago (1898-1903), exploding onto the international scene with the conquest of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, and (indirectly) Panama. How did the nation become a player in world politics so suddenly? What inspired the move toward imperialism in the first place? Read and find out.

The authors center the story on five men Theodore Roosevelt, Alfred T. Mahan, Henry Cabot Lodge, John Hay, and Elihu Root. These five friends pushed for the U.S. to be involved in international affairs at a time when their elders remembered or fought in the Civil War and knew how awful war could be.

TB

To Win a Nuclear War

To Win a Nuclear War: The Pentagon's Secret War Plans
by Michio Kaku and Daniel Axelrod, Introduction by Ramsey Clark

The authors show that the U.S. nuclear policy of nuclear deterrence has been nothing but political spin. The real policy has been one of threatening the use of nuclear weapons. The book uses unclassified documents to show the evolution of the pentagons nuclear strategy and efforts to integrate nuclear weapons into war fighting doctrine.

What this book shows is how President Eisenhower and the military chiefs debated the possibility of a first strike against the U.S.S.R. in 1952. Amazing that the decision was made all behind closed walls and that Eisenhower kept us out of a nuclear war.

TB

Mike Suggests Guy Delisle

Being a librarian means that I'm in danger of contracting a type of book malaise, because I'm constantly inundated with pre-publication information and I never can seem to get a handle on the torrent of books that I come across daily. That malaise was overcome today when I realized that one of my favorite graphic novelists, and a fantastic travel writer to boot, is going to be releasing his newest on April 24th. Guy Delisle has written and illustrated insightful travelogues that focus on societies traditionally closed to Westerners, largely because he worked in these countries as an animation supervisor or traveled with his wife (who works at an NGO). Delving into societies and the cultures of Burma, China, and North Korea, Delisle's graphic novels provide us with a perspective of an everyman struggling to understand and make himself understood in these societies while displaying the humanity, inherent in the cultures, that's being perverted by totalitarian cultures. This makes it all the more interesting that this round he's focusing on Jerusalem, which is rife with topics for him to explore. To top it all off he'll be at the Harvard Book Store on the 25th, and I'm sure it'll be a treat for all who go.

Physics of the Future

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

By Michio Kaku




Check Our Catalog

Imagine, if you can, the world in the year 2100.

In "Physics of the Future," Michio Kaku--the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Physics of the Impossible"--gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over three hundred of the world's top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs.

Cars will drive themselves using GPS, and if room-temperature superconductors are discovered, vehicles will effortlessly fly on a cushion of air, coasting on powerful magnetic fields and ushering in the age of magnetism.

Using molecular medicine, scientists will be able to grow almost every organ of the body and cure genetic diseases.

In space, radically new ships--needle-sized vessels using laser propulsion--could replace the expensive chemical rockets of today and perhaps visit nearby stars.

But these astonishing revelations are only the tip of the iceberg. Kaku also discusses emotional robots, antimatter rockets, X-ray vision, and the ability to create new life-forms, and he considers the development of the world economy.

TB

Megan recommends: Pulphead

Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan

I really liked this collection of essays from someone I think is a soon-to-be-famous writer. I used to read the New Yorker, and while I've been neglectful recently, I still enjoy non-fiction essay writing. John Jeremiah Sullivan's essays made me realize how much I enjoy that style. His topics range from his brother accidentally electrocuting himself to his house in Wilmington, NC being used for the set of the TV show One Tree Hill. Funny and also insightful stuff.

Fingerprints of the Gods

Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilizaton By Hancock, Graham Check our Catalog Could the story of mankind be older than we have previously believed? Hancock takes readers along on a quest for the proof of the existence of an as yet unidentified civilizarion of remote antiquity. Evidence has been misidentified or misinterpreted, and a picture of this great Ice Age civilization has eluded archaeologists according to Hancock. Authors like Erich Von Daniken and Zechara Sitchin try to use their interpretation of the ancient stone ruins of Egypt, Mexico, the Andes and Sumeria to suggest that earth was visited by extraterrestrials. Hancock uses the same type of methodology to suggest that an advanced civilization existed in the Antarctic. He argues that a shift in the earth's crust caused the continents to move resulting in the destruction of his hypothesized civilization. A fun read for those interested in archeology and lost civilizations. TB

Great Captains of Antiquity

Gabriel expands upon the groundbreaking work of B. H. Lidell-Hart's Great Captains by offering detailed portraits of six great captains of the ancient world who met the challenges of their age and shaped the future of their societies, and civilization itself, through their actions. While all were great military men, with the exception of Caesar Augustus, they were also great political leaders who, in this capacity more often than through their feats of arms, shaped their societies. All were educated men, and all possessed the quality of imaginative reasoning.

Gabriel analyzes the lives of Thutmose III of Egypt, Sargon II of Assyria, Philip II of Macedon, Hannibal of Carthage, Scipio Africanus of Republican Rome, and Caesar Augustus of Imperial Rome for the lessons contemporary leaders, particularly military leaders, can learn.

This is a short and interesting survey of the careers of some of the great captains of the ancient world. B. H. Lidell-Hart’s Great Captains Unveiled is an expansion of an earlier work Great Captains by Theodore A. Dodge. Dodge’s book examines the military leadership of Alexander, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, and Frederick. Lidell-Hart’s book adds Genghis Khan, Sabutai, Saxe, Wallenstein and James Wolfe. Gabriel’s is the more modern analysis in the form of short biographical sketches.

TB

Mike's going to let Lev do the talking

If you've stopped by the reference desk and asked me for a good fantasy book to read, or told me that you've enjoyed Harry Potter but were looking for something more adult, or even said that you don't like fantasy for one reason or another, then chances are I sent you home with Lev Grossman's The Magicians. And if you haven't yet read it yet, then you have to do so--especially since it's one of the rare series where the sequel is even better than the first title.

Well, this post isn't about the book so much as the author, who just happens to also be the book critic at Time Magazine. Taking advantage of the lack of books published before Christmas he looks forward to books to be published in the new year, naming seven that he's looking forward to in 2012; and I have to admit I'm a very bad librarian because I only recognized one name on the list (the National Book Award finalist and difficult-to-pronounce Paolo Bacigalupi). Regardless of my ignorance, I've made an early New Year's resolution and am planning to pick up two or three on this list and, for those of you who will be looking to relax after the hectic times and overbearing family encountered during the holiday season, I'd suggest you put a couple of these titles on hold . . .

Sue Recommends Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic by Linda Carroll

Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic is an important book for parents who have student athletes. Traumatic Head Injuries are becoming more commonplace in high school and college athletics and not just for football or basketball players.

I personally have seen the consequences of young athletes being victims of head injuries playing volleyball and lacrosse. The effects are not always apparent and the athlete finishes the game only to have symptoms appear later, the next day, or never. Symptoms may last weeks, months or longer preventing students from completing their coursework and graduating on time. In the meantime, students and parents hold their breath that there will be no permanent brain damage.

Concussion Crisis presents high school, college and pro athletes' stories. Linda Carroll, a health journalist, also provides the critical information regarding the anatomy and physiology of concussions and concerns of doctors and researchers.

The brain fascinates us all and the health of the brain should never be taken for granted.

SH

What If Science

What If the Earth Had Two Moons?: And Nine Other Thought-Provoking Speculations on the Solar System

by Neil F.Comins

In What If the Earth Had Two Moons, Neil Comins leads us on a fascinating ten-world journey as we explore what our planet would be like under different astronomical conditions. In each case, the Earth would be different, often in surprising ways. The title chapter, for example, gives us a second moon orbiting closer to Earth than the one we have now. The night sky is a lot brighter, but that won't last forever. Eventually the moons collide, with one extra-massive moon emerging after a period during which Earth sports a Saturn-like ring. This and nine and other speculative essays provide us with insights into the Earth as it exists today, while shedding new light on the burgeoning search for life on planets orbiting other stars.

Alternate history looks at "what if" scenarios focusing on important historical turning points and presents a different version based on science, fact and conjecture. Neil F. Comins has used this formula for Earth's astronomical conditions. Follows on the author's previous, "What If the Moon Didn't Exist?"

TB

Project Orion

Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship

by George B. Dyson

It was the late 1950s. The Cold War was raging. Sputnik had made its voyage and the space race was on. In America, it was the age of tail fins and "duck and cover," but it was also a time of big ideas and dreams. On his way to school one day, George Dyson learned of a truly fantastical idea: massive space vehicles that would be powered by explosions of multiple hydrogen bombs. Among the brilliant minds behind this project was George's father, the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson.

Project Orion brought together a cadre of brilliant physicists, the first such assemblage since the Manhattan Project of fifteen years earlier. In an idyllic seaside community in southern California-the very picture of 1950s suburban prosperity-a handful of scientists, tackled a massive project that required the ingenuity of an engineer and the vision of a great theoretician.

Their ambitious work, although ultimately futile, took place against the political and cultural backdrop of the Cold War, when nuclear technology spelled both promise and terror. Dyson's prodigious historical and scientific research, combined with his personal reminiscences and connections, make for a lively, richly detailed narrative.

The story of the first attempt to use nuclear power for manned star flight.

NASA has just released a new video of its next deep space rocket, to see it click Here.

TB

Mike's Hoping the Creeks Don't Rise . . . .

I wouldn't call it delicious irony, but it's pretty ironic that we're bracing for a hurricane to hit the East Coast and I've just finished Douglas Brinkley's The Great Deluge, a recounting of the horrors following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (today being just a few days shy of the six year anniversary of the event). Visiting New Orleans just this past month prompted my interest in the subject, where swaths of still-unoccupied or still-damaged row houses dominate the landscape in sections of the Treme, Marigny, and other neighborhoods.

Covering a week-long period that involves days before and after the Hurricane's landfall, Brinkley documents the ineptitude of government officials and inability of government institutions to take charge that led to the "federally-induced disaster" as locals have taken to describing it. The void of responsibility was filled by the man-on-the-street who took it upon themselves to help out those in need, with a myriad of examples provided by Brinkley. Told in a style that deftly balances finger-pointing with a recounting of compassionate deeds, Brinkley has written an immensely important contribution to the literature of natural and government-induced disasters.


image courtesy Flickr user News Muse

Rob recommends Woody Guthrie: American Radical

To the extent that Woody Guthrie is remembered today, we think of This Land Is Your Land, Oklahoma Hills, Roll On Columbia or any number of children’s songs. We may recall that Bob Dylan was strongly influenced by Guthrie (or that Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg and Steve Earle acknowledge Woody Guthrie’s influence). Will Kaufman in Woody Guthrie: American Radical makes the case that the soft, fuzzy, naïve Okie version of Guthrie, balladeer of Americana, is largely a myth, created partly by publicists and part by the musician himself. In reality Woody was a true radical who never stopped thinking about or writing about the downtrodden—the migrants, the unemployed, the dispossessed, small farmers, the industrial workers, the poor. As much he sympathized with the lower classes, he despised the rich—the bosses, the owners, the elite, the power brokers and politicians. He wanted his songs to serve as weapons in all the causes he fervently believed in, perhaps most importantly the union struggle.

The author has obviously done his homework. He traces Guthrie’s activism from his early years scratching out a living to his final years hospitalized with Huntington’s Chorea. Song lyrics (and other writings) are quoted prolifically. That Kaufman’s Guthrie is a little more committed, more sophisticated and maybe more strident than his popular image, doesn’t imply any lack of enthusiasm for the subject by his author. He’s clearly a fan. He’s a fan of the radical Woody Guthrie, warts and all. As Phil Ochs sang in his song about Woody: “Oh why sing the songs and forget about the aim? He wrote them for a reason, why not sing them for the same?”

The Price of Peace

Yalta: The Price of Peace
by Serhii Plokhy

A major new history of the eight days in February 1945 when FDR, Churchill, and Stalin decided the fate of the world. Imagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the most fascinating historical figures of all time. Much has been made of FDR's handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Both Left and Right would blame Yalta for beginning the Cold War. Plokhy's conclusions, based on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against conventional wisdom-cemented during the Cold War- and argues that an ailing Roosevelt did better than we think.

TB

Mike wonders why you don't like Dylan

Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz

I picked this one up because I'm a rabid Dylan fan, have appreciated Sean Wilentz's writings in the Bootleg Series books & on bobdylan.com, and had run out of audiobooks to listen to on my daily 2 1/2 hour commute to and from work. For casual listeners of Dylan, or of music in general, the book will probably frustrate you if it doesn't bore you. For those of us who would rather take five essential albums rather than books to a deserted island, this work will thrill you. Not only does the author make masterly demonstrations of how Dylan weaves an intricate tapestry with and within American music, but only Sean Wilentz has the ability to make you believe "Masked & Anonymous" wasn't only a decent movie, but one that demonstrates a key point in Dylan's canon. Most highly suggested as an audiobook, with its inclusion of snippets of tunes that demonstrates Wilentz's points.

Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann

A sports coach can be the most revered or vilified person in the room; a Red Auerbach-like personality who can inspire a team of individuals to come together to form a dynastic team, or someone who pitches a fit and sends a chair skidding across the floor a la Bobby Knight. George Dohrmann presents to the reader a very different type of coach, who has the skills to find the most dynamic players and then milk them for the most base of ends: his financial well-being.

But in the end the story isn't solely about Joe Keller as a coach, it's about him as a pioneer of the efforts made by the shoe companies to extend their commercial empire by ensnaring the next LeBron James before the kid graduates middle school. The author does an exquisite job as chronicler of the years spent by Joe Keller building up his AAU team to become one of the greatest in the U-13 leagues; of the hard-knock maturation process the children went through; and of the backroom machinations that made Joe Keller a very rich man.

I'm far from interested in basketball, but I would come home from work every night looking forward to reading more of this book--it had all of the personalities of a great page-turner, with easily recognizable villains and victims, but, appropriately enough, the hero never made an appearance.