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

 

Megan recommends: The Kissing List

The Kissing List by Stephanie Reents

Don't let the title of the book or its cover fool you.  This book doesn't qualify as chick-lit.  Rather, you're getting linked short stories by an author who is a former Rhodes Scholar.  Yes, there's a single girl in the city theme, but it's more along the lines of HBO's Girls than Sex and the City.  Reents is a talented writer.

maf

Megan recommends: Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

This is a great novel about four women from an Boston Irish Catholic family and their relation to the family's summer home in Maine.  Alice, the matriarch, Kathleen, the daughter, Ann Marie, the daughter-in-law, and Maggie, the granddaughter are the four protagonists.  Each has a story to tell in alternating chapters and ethnicity, tribalism and religious identity have strong influences on all of their lives.  This book has lots of local color and reminded me of the novels of Alice McDermott. 

maf

Rob Recommends The Columnist

A novel in the form of a memoir of an extremely obnoxious a##h##e. I’m guessing it’s harder than we think:  to have the narrator prove his arrogance in almost every paragraph yet be oblivious to how his audience is judging him. And this is what makes The Columnist a fun read—catching every self-serving rationalization, every twist of a knife told as stroke of fortune and every conceited deceit disguised as innocent miscommunication. And the story itself? We follow the career of Brandon Sladder from novice (but self-inflated, nevertheless) reporter to influential (yes, and still self-inflated) columnist and opinion-maker. Along the way Sladder uses all who would befriend him—girlfriends, editors, secretaries, prostitutes and sources—dumping them when they were no longer needed. The author works real people into the plot, but never makes it explicit just which (if any) big shot columnist Sladder is modeled on. (The play based on the book does name Joseph Alsop as the satirical target.)  Those old enough to remember the heyday of the Lippmans, Alsops, Restons, Pearsons of the last century will especially enjoy this book.

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

Sue Recommends The Innocent by David Baldacci

David Baldacci is best known for his Camel Club Series featuring Oliver Stone, but fans should try out his newest book, The Innocent. This standalone thriller

highlights an unnamed government agency that employs snipers, such as Will Robie, to perform sanctioned assassinations usually overseas but occasionally in the U.S.

The problem with Will Robie is that he has a moral center, a conscience, and has the ability to think for himself.  Is his job assignment to kill a suspected terrorist (who turns out to be a mother with 2 small children AND an FBI agent) a political ploy that is connected with the murder of the parents of a 14 year old gifted student who has been in and out of foster homes? Can Will remain objective or will his sympathy for this new orphan threaten his and her lives and draw him further into a side of Washington that you and I do not even want to think exists?

 If this is your introduction to David Baldacci, you will enjoy a fully thought out plot with lots of twists and turns and then be looking up his other books to continue your enjoyment.  I, for one, hope that Will Robie will become the main character in more of the author's stories.  SH

Rob Recommends Listening to Richistan

My family listened to Richistan, by Robert Frank, on a recent car trip to New Jersey. Frank is a Wall Street Journal reporter who got himself assigned to cover the super-wealthy beat in America. He spent a year traveling the country, observing, studying and interviewing the very wealthiest Americans. The author came to believe that the best way to understand this group of millionaires is to see them as inhabiting a separate country. To help the rest of us understand this nation’s culture and people, Frank wrote this book, Richistan: a Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich. Richistan is a fascinating and funny glimpse into a world most of us could never imagine. It’s a world of $700,000 watches, 300 foot yachts, millionaire support groups, $25,000 a plate charity dinners and residents who don’t know how many cars they own. In one particularly interesting chapter, Frank takes us through butler training at Butler Boot Camp. The rigors of the training course say more about those doing the employing (“principals”) than about the trainees themselves. (FYI, the top graduates of elite butler schools earn $75-120,000 per year.) Throughout, Frank accomplishes the nearly impossible feat of neither fawning over nor disparaging the citizens of Richistan. See what you think…

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

Sue Recommends The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

Give TheTechnologists, an historical suspense novel written by Matthew Pearl, a try!  

 If you have any interest in Boston in the 1860s and the beginning rivalry between MIT and Harvard, this book is for you.  Pearl does an incredible job of bringing the first graduating class from MIT to life.  

He researched the MIT's first class's student journals and other histories of Boston and MIT to paint a picture of life in Boston in the 1860s.  The suspicion that Professor Rogers and his students provoked because they chose to take science past the theory and apply it to make a better world may seemed to be where Harvard and MIT differed and the friction began between the two schools.  

Add to this a mystery that of fictional unexplainable events that the students investigate through science and you have a novel with appeal to history, science, and suspense fans alike.

I listened to the Book on CD and found that it was difficult to shut it off and I kept reaching for the next disc to keep the story going.  All I can say is try it, you will certainly like it!

Also try Pearl's Dante Club that is set in the same time period in Boston.

SH

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.

Megan recommends: Other People We Married: Stories

Other People We Married by Emma Straub

Not everybody likes short stories, and their circulation statistics here at the library seem to confirm that. When a writer is first published, it's often a collection of stories, so I say give newly published writer Emma Straub a try. She's the daughter of horror novelist (and Stephen King collaborator) Peter Straub and writing is in her blood. The stories do often revolve around marriage but the characters also include widows and singles. "A Map of Modern Palm Springs" concerns the unequal relationship between two sisters and was the story I liked best.

maf

His Majesty's Dragon

His Majesty's Dragon
by Novik, Naomi

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Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain's defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future-and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France's own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte's boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

As outlandish as the premise seems, Novik pulls it off by capturing the spirit of society during the Napoleonic age. This is a fun read for teens and adults with some romance and some violence. Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame has purchased the movie rights to the first 3 books.

TB

Rob Recommends Faceless Killers

Ingredients: Flawed main character. Palpable and exotic setting. Emotional social issue. Brutal crime. Crackerjack detective work. Mix the ingredients together and you've got a modern Swedish crime novel. There's a reason why they've gained recent popularity in the U.S. and other parts of the globe. They're good. And the ingredients are variable enough that the novels (even the series) don't present as formulaic. So it's in this context that we're given Kurt Wallander, homicide inspector from Ysad, faced with a cruel double murder of an elderly rural couple. The story takes place in a Sweden that seems cold and barren, both physically and culturally. And the murders are set inside a cauldron of simmering anti-immigrant emotion. Faceless Killers is the first Kurt Wallander book translated into English. The detective has also been the hero of Swedish movies and TV shows and a British TV films.

Mike Suggests (Surprise!) A Comic

Comic mega-events (also known as crossovers) can be the bane of a comic collector's life--in order to get the gist of the story, you have to "collect them all" and buy comics you'd never consider just to fill the narrative gaps. Thankfully Marvel & DC have begun to move away from that method and have run an individual series to give you the core of the story, replete with major character deaths, the impending doom of world destruction and a landscape that is forever changed in light of said events.

Case in point: this past year Marvel featured Fear Itself and DC destroyed (and recreated) its universe through Flashpoint. If you're like me, you've dropped out of paying attention to these crossovers a long time ago but you may still have your interest piqued and want to know what zaniness the editors and "world architects" come up with. To feed that fix, you need to look no further than your local library because we're looking out for you!

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




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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.

Sue Recommends Taken by Robert Crais

Did you enjoy the tv series Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, and Cagney & Lacey? Robert Crais was the writer behind some of the episodes of these shoes, winning an Emmy nomination for Hill Street Blues.

His characters and stories continue to delight readers today although he has focused on creating characters who have extraordinary talent and training in special operation forces. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike have made their appearances in his earlier books. Taken introduces a third Delta Force alum and government mercenary named Jon Stone as Pike solicits his aid in saving Elvis Cole from the hands of Human Traffickers who steal illegals entering the country through Mexico from the various international cartels--Mexican, Asian, Russian, etc.

The suspense is high and the story is fast. Pay attention because thoughts and events are told through alternating scenarios expressed by the characters.

I loved the audio because the reader, Luke Daniels, portrays the characters' personalities so well. Enjoy!

SH