Zoo Story

Zoo Story / Thomas French

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist French goes behind the scenes at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo in this absorbing and balanced account that reveals extinction, conservation, and captivity issues in all their moral complexities and featuring a very memorable cast. The author introduces readers to Herman, the lovable species-confused chimpanzee who has reigned at Lowry Park for three decades; Enshalla, whose "family history was like a Greek tragedy," and her mate Eric, Sumatran tigers whose attempts at mating captivate the zoo staff; Ladybug, the black bear who likes oranges and peanut butter; Lex Salisbury, the ambitious CEO who holds the fate of the zoo animals and humans in his hands; and the trainers who witness the circle of life and death among their charges. We are forced to reconsider our notions of freedom and captivity when presented with such scenarios as 11 partially sedated wild South African elephants being moved to U.S. zoos to escape slaughter at home. A thoughtful and moving but unsentimental portrait of life in captivity and a broad introduction to some of its most salient-and intractable-dilemmas. (July) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
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Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

With album sales of over 40 million, Rush can be counted alongside the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as one of the most successful bands on the planet. Yet the Canadian trio remains essentially a cult band. Directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn vow to find out why in this standard issue rockumentary, but they quickly get distracted by the engaging personalities of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, whose friendship fascinates much more than their ever-changing brand of progressive rock. The survey of their 40-year career, from high-school strummers to stadium superstars, is dotted with testimonies from fans like Gene Simmons (of Kiss) and Jack Black. But it's the insider insights that explain why Rush's fans have remained loyal through the concept albums, synthesizer obsessions, personal tragedies and back-to-basics reunions. Aficionados will be gripped, while those not attracted to the sounds will be charmed by the characters.
- RadioTimes.com

~ Recommended by Ty

I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here On Earth

I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here On Earth /
Brenda Peterson



*Starred Review* Peterson has been sharpening her ethos on the flinty tenets of the Southern Baptist Church ever since she was an inquisitive child enthralled by the living world. Following her fourth novel, Animal Heart (2004), she continues the inquiry into her complex heritage and ecological calling that she began in Build Me an Ark (2001). In this unusually affecting and radiant spiritual memoir, Peterson recounts her resistance to End Times teachings. Surely, life on earth is sacred, thought this increasingly mutinous mystic alert to the contradictions between her parents' heaven-focused religion and her CIA-employed mother's earthiness and her gifted father's devotion to nature as chief of the U.S. Forest Service. With stirring immediacy, Peterson describes the traumatic awakenings during the 1960s and 1970s that inspired her to reject the concept of the Rapture and embrace the effort to preserve earthly creation. Guided by exceptional mentors, Peterson endured experiences painful, ludicrous, and profound in small towns, a boot camp for Southern Baptists, and the offices of the New Yorker before finding her true home on the Pacific coast. Frankly and knowledgeably critiquing evangelicalism and holier-than-thou environmentalism, Peterson seeks a meeting of church and earth in this witty, enrapturing account of a spiritual journey of great relevance to us all.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2009 Booklist
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Simple Remedy for a Cold

ACHOO!
This column from the New York Times advocates gargling with salt water to ease a common cold. Read the article.

The Mysterious Coyote

The Coyote is a mystery. The elusive and intriguing animal who has played an iconic role in lore and myth is becoming a point of interest for researchers. Science is slowly coming to understand more about this creature. There is a current article on the Coyote in today's New York Times. Come visit our periodical room and catch up on current events, interesting articles, and today's news.
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The Tiger

The Tiger / John Valiant



Set in Russia's Maritime Territory, Vaillant's story concerns a tiger of the endangered Amur subspecies that killed three hunters in 1997. Expanding from the incidents' central facts, Vaillant's narrative explores humans' relationship with predatory animals in general, with the Amur tiger as the specific example. Literary, folkloric, and scientific sources combine into a deeply sensitive depiction of the tiger's adaptation to its forested, mountainous, and wintry environment. As he recounts how Russians such as the hunters in question also attempt to extract a living from the taiga, possibly including illegal poaching of the tiger, Vaillant posits the tiger's thoughts about the competition, inferring its intelligence from a conservation warden's investigation into the cases of the unfortunate hunters, who were felled in ambush-style attacks. Interest in Vaillant's work, which climaxes in the warden's pursuit of the deadly tiger, will partake of humans' instinctual fear of large carnivores, the modern imperative to preserve them from extinction, and readers of Vaillant's The Golden Spruce (2005), a positively reviewed, deep-drilling work, also about the nexus between humans and the natural world.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review
In the winter of 1997, a huge tiger is stalking-and devouring-hunters on the edge of an isolated Siberian village. Yuri Trush and his team of tiger inspectors are called to the scene to investigate one incident, and ultimately, to determine the tiger's fate. Nature writer Vaillant (The Golden Spruce) follows Trush's team as they track the tiger on foot through dense forest in the bitter cold while documenting the effects of the tiger crisis on the desperately troubled village. What spirits this adventure narrative from compelling to brilliant is Vaillant's use of the tiger hunt as an allegorical lens through which to understand the cultural, economic, and environmental devastation of post-Communist Russia. Vaillant suggests that the lone tiger's desperate acts are merely symptomatic of the larger crisis facing wild tiger populations-and their human counterparts-in contemporary Russia. VERDICT This energetic hybrid of classic adventure and impassioned sociocultural critique will appeal to Jon Krakauer fans, tiger lovers, and readers interested in contemporary Russian history. It might also attract fans of the film The Ghost and the Darkness, based on J.H. Patterson's The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.
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My Hollywood

My Hollywood / Mona Simpson
Novel by novel, Simpson takes fresh and disquieting approaches to fractured families. Her fifth book is a duet between Claire, a high-strung composer who has left New York for Hollywood to support her husband's television ambitions, and Lola, a Filipina in her fifties who becomes their nanny, caring with sensitivity and love for their precocious, moody son. Claire is ambivalent about motherhood. Lola is putting her children through college while continuing to support their household in the Philippines, where she is of the same class as the Hollywood women who hire her to care for their children. Claire's deepening loneliness as her workaholic husband becomes a stranger and her artistic struggle in a place she finds arid and alien are compelling, but compassionate, wise, and self-sacrificing Lola, with her mellifluous voice and wonderfully inventive English, rules. In her arresting portrayals of Lola and her nanny and housekeeper friends, Simpson explores a facet of American society rarely depicted with such insight and appreciation. As Lola and Claire tell their intertwined stories, Simpson subtly but powerfully traces the persistence of sexism and prejudice, the fear and injustice inherent in the predicaments of immigrants, and the complexity and essentiality of all domestic relationships.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

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Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress/ Rhoda Janzen



Janzen was raised in a strict Mennonite society, and while she upheld the values as a child and maintained her faith even as an adult, she couldn't help but rebel. However, after marrying an emotionally abusive atheist who leaves her for a man he met on Gay.com, and then barely surviving a terrible car accident, Janzen finds herself back home reliving her Mennonite childhood as an adult. In her compelling memoir, Janzen explores her past and her present with honesty and self-deprecation, and the result is both hilarious and touching. She delves into her relationships with her mother, sister, and ex-husband without holding back, and she explores some of the Mennonite traditions that helped shape her life. No prior knowledge of Mennonite culture is necessary for enjoying and learning from this lively chronicle of the patience and strong sense of humor one needs to go home again.--Orphan, Claire Copyright 2009 Booklist

At first, the worst week of Janzen's life-she gets into a debilitating car wreck right after her husband leaves her for a guy he met on the Internet and saddles her with a mortgage she can't afford-seems to come out of nowhere, but the disaster's long buildup becomes clearer as she opens herself up. Her 15-year relationship with Nick had always been punctuated by manic outbursts and verbally abusive behavior, so recognizing her co-dependent role in their marriage becomes an important part of Janzen's recovery (even as she tweaks the 12 steps just a bit). The healing is further assisted by her decision to move back in with her Mennonite parents, prompting her to look at her childhood religion with fresh, twinkling eyes. (She provides an appendix for those unfamiliar with Mennonite culture, as well as a list of "shame-based foods" from hot potato salad to borscht.) Janzen is always ready to gently turn the humor back on herself, though, and women will immediately warm to the self-deprecating honesty with which she describes the efforts of friends and family to help her re-establish her emotional well-being. (Oct.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Pregnancy Discrimination

Did you know that it was legal to fire women for being pregnant up until 1978 when the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was enacted?

Learn more about equal rights at your Wilkinson Public Library.

~ Faith

Election 2010 - Get Informed

Read the Blue Book for the 2010 elections!

Uranium and Uravan

There's a fascinating article in this week's New Yorker about Uravan and uranium mining. Check out this video interview with the author. To read the full article, grab a copy of the September 13 New Yorker or click here for an abstract.

Tequila Oil

Tequila Oil
Thomson (The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland) returns to Latin America and revisits a trek from Texas he made some 30 years earlier. He writes of his 18-year-old self's madcap adventures (including not knowing how to drive a car and bribing a civil servant for a license in Mexico City) and alcohol consumption in Mexico and Belize. Recounting his more recent trip back, he remembers what was there for him then and considers what is there for him now. Although Thomson's travelog narrates a journey the average person would not (and should not) repeat-driving in Mexico without insurance, legal registration, or a driver's license, often after drinking beer and liquor-readers warm up to the author, hoping he and the car make it to Belize in one piece. Verdict Thomson is a succinct writer, and these pages really give one the flavor and history of Mexico and Belize (as The White Rock did for the Inca lands). Recommended for readeres with an interest in Mexican history and culture.-Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
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Hot X: Algebra Exposed

Hot X:Algebra Exposed
As far as math goes, McKellar knows her stuff. With two girlcentric, best-selling titles under her belt (Math Doesn't Suck, 2008, and Kiss My Math, 2009) and a degree in mathematics from UCLA, it is almost easy to forget that she was Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years. Facing down a 432-page book devoted to algebra could give even math whizzes pause, but McKellar makes it work, taking the textbook-meets-Seventeen approach by mixing the explanations and equations with boy talk, quizzes, and testimonials from successful women. While a tutor might use this title as a teaching aid, teen girls will want to explore it on their own. Navigation is easy; students are encouraged to hop from chapter to chapter as their homework demands. The breakdown of equations is effective and certainly unconventional explaining functions in terms of sausage factories, for example, or exponents in terms of whip-bearing female executives (makes sense in the book, promise) and while McKellar keeps her focus on how to solve math problems, her approach is both readable and even entertaining.--Jones, Courtney Copyright 2010 Booklist

The National Parks

The National Parks: America's Best Idea
A Film by Ken Burns
Traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years. Using archival photographs, first-person accounts of historical characters, personal memories and analysis from more than 40 interviews, and what Burns believes is the most stunning cinematography in Florentine Films' history, the series chronicles the steady addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them and save them from destruction. Read a review and check it out at your library

RAW FOOD

Ani's Raw Food
"A cookbook dedicated to raw food appears oxymoronic to the uninitiated, but people who aim to pursue a raw vegan diet soon realize that eating uncooked foods involves more than simply chomping into whatever sits on grocers' produce shelves. Phyo shows how to create more complex flavor harmonies. Nutmeats of all sorts serve as a basis of many recipes, offering a spectrum of uses from cheese substitutions to pie crusts. Dates stand in for the sweetness less healthfully derived from refined sugar. Raw zucchini strips mimic fettuccini. A close reading of the nutritional analysis for each recipe reveals the high levels of dietary fiber this diet introduces. Although most of Phyo's ingredients are readily available, she does occasionally call for unfamiliar items such as liquid aminos, a replacement for soy sauce. Phyo also provides recipes for raw vegan dog food. Illustrations consist mainly of photographs of the author."--"Knoblauch, Mark" Copyright 2007 Booklist

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Aaaaaargh!

Ahoy, me hearties!

On September 19, don't be a landlubber--celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day! Brush up on your pirate vocabulary by reading How I Became A Pirate, by Melinda Long and celebrated illustrator David Shannon, to your lad or lassie. This children's book tells the story of Jeremy Jacob and his adventures with a pirate crew as they search for buried treasure. Get ready to batten down the hatches and do some swashbuckling. And for those of you that be stickin' to English . . . aye, dead men tell no tales.

Nancy Kington, a wealthy merchant’s daughter living in Bristol, England in the early 1700’s, is sometimes lonely but enjoys the privileges her father’s business brings. Minerva Sharpe is a penniless slave’s daughter living and working on the Kington’s Jamaican plantation. These two young women, united through a set of extraordinary circumstances including a brutal murder, an arranged marriage, and set of ruby earrings, find themselves sailing the high seas in search of love, adventure and freedom—as pirates!
Celebrated British author Celia Rees (Witch Child, Sorceress) has penned a treasure chest of a tale that will keep teens glued to the pages until the last villain sinks to a deserved watery grave and the last beautiful heroine is reunited with her lost love. Frustrated land-lubbers will want to follow up this four-star read with L.A. Meyer’s Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship’s Boy or Sara Lorimer‘s Booty, a collection of all-true tales of swashbuckling women.--Jennifer Hubert
Review Supplied by Amazon

*Starred Review* Crichton, who died in 2008, was known primarily for such high-tech thrillers as Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain. This new novel, found in manuscript form among his papers, will come as a bit of a surprise to many of his fans. It is, of all things, a pirate novel. Set in 1665, it tells the story of Captain Charles Hunter, a privateer who's hired by the governor of Jamaica's Port Royal to steal a Spanish galleon and its cargo of gold treasure. Don't expect to see Jack Sparrow in this story of pirates of the Caribbean, though: Crichton doesn't play his pirates for laughs. And this is no typical pirate adventure, either: it's actually a caper novel posing as a high-seas adventure. All the key caper-novel elements are here: the target, the mastermind, the plan, the motley crew, the ruthless villain, the gadgets, the twist, and the turncoat. Crichton keeps us in a constant state of suspense, never revealing quite what his hero, Captain Hunter, has up his sleeve, and the novel ends most unexpectedly. Pirate fans will love the book for its flashy characters and historical authenticity. Crime fans will enjoy the caper-novel structure and the way the author keeps them on their toes. If this really is Crichton's final book, it's a splendid send-off: something new, different, and daring.

--Pitt, David Copyright 2009 Booklist

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Another oil rig explosion in the Gulf!

Get the most current information on the latest oil rig explosion.

~ Faith

The Condition

The Condition

When prepubescent Gwen McKotch is discovered to have a rare genetic disorder, the rest of the family begins to unravel. The novel starts with what will be the last family gathering on Cape Cod and jumps back and forth, tracing 20 years in the life of each character. Oldest son and golden boy Billy struggles with his sexuality. Youngest son Scott gets lost in the shuffle of his sister's illness and his parent's divorce and, as a result, drifts unhappily through life. Gwen herself struggles to grow up, even though her body cannot physically mature. Their parents remain maddeningly blind to the real natures of not only their children but also themselves. The reader comes to care deeply about this family, all of whom are presented in a sympathetic and compassionate manner.

Block, Marta Segal Copyright 2008 Booklist

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