March ~ 2011

31. High Voltage Tattoo...Kat Von D
32. Frostbitten...Kelley Armstrong
33. Waking the Witch...Kelley Armstrong
34. The Body Art Book...Jean-Chris Miller


35. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon...David Grann
Really interesting book! It actually read more like fiction, which was cool because it is all true!

Quote:
In 1925, renowned British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett embarked on a much publicized search to find the city of Z, site of an ancient Amazonian civilization that may or may not have existed. Fawcett, along with his grown son Jack, never returned, but that didn't stop countless others, including actors, college professors and well-funded explorers from venturing into the jungle to find Fawcett or the city. Among the wannabe explorers is Grann, a staff writer for the New Yorker, who has bad eyes and a worse sense of direction. He became interested in Fawcett while researching another story, eventually venturing into the Amazon to satisfy his all-consuming curiosity about the explorer and his fatal mission. Largely about Fawcett, the book examines the stranglehold of passion as Grann's vigorous research mirrors Fawcett's obsession with uncovering the mysteries of the jungle. By interweaving the great story of Fawcett with his own investigative escapades in South America and Britain, Grann provides an in-depth, captivating character study that has the relentless energy of a classic adventure tale.



36. Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian...Avi Steinberg

Quote:
In this captivating memoir, Steinberg, a Harvard grad and struggling obituary writer, spends two years as a librarian and writing instructor at a Boston prison that's an irrepressibly literary place. True, his patrons turn books into weapons (and one robs him while out on parole), but he's beguiled by the rough poetry of inmate essays and "kites"--contraband notes secreted in library books--and entranced by the "skywriting" with which they semaphore messages letter-by-letter across the courtyard. And there's always an informal colloquium of prostitutes, thieves, and drug dealers convened at the checkout desk, discussing everything from Steinberg's love life to the "gangsta" subculture of Hasidic Jews. Gradually, the prison pulls him in and undermines his bemused neutrality. He helps a forlorn female prisoner communicate with her inmate son, develops a dangerous beef with a guard, and finds himself collaborating on the memoir of a charismatic pimp whose seductive rap disguises a nasty rap sheet; he has to choose sides, make queasy compromises, and decide between rules and loyalty. Steinberg writes a stylish prose that blends deadpan wit with an acute moral seriousness. The result is a fine portrait of prison life and the thwarted humanity that courses through it.



37. Not Quite Burnt Out, But Crispy Around the Edges...Sharon M. Draper

Quote:
This book of inspirational stories and essays is designed for any teacher who has survived the first week of the first year of teaching. It offers memories of the joy of teaching, tells compelling tales of tragedy as well as survival, and provides opportunities for laughter; which is sometimes the only remedy for difficult situations.



38. Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets...Peter Laufer

Quote:
On the heels of his acclaimed The Dangerous World of Butterflies, investigative journalist Peter Laufer is back to chronicle his worldwide quest to penetrate the underworld of international animal smuggling. In Forbidden Creatures, Laufer exposes the network of hunters, traders, breeders, and customers who constitute this nefarious business—which, estimated at $10 to $20 billion annually, competes with illegal drug and weapons trafficking in the money it earns criminals.
Laufer asks: What is being smuggled, from where and why? What is being done to stop the illegal trading and irresponsible breeding? Taking readers to exotic and often lawless locales, Laufer introduces brazen and dangerous traders and wealthy customers whose greed and mindless self-interest perpetuate what is now a crisis of survival for a growing number of wild species.
Woven throughout with riveting stories from law enforcement officials and federal prosecutors, Forbidden Creaturesis a compelling, first-person narrative written in Laufer’s hallmark conversational, entertaining style.

I'm trying to up my amount of non-fiction reads. These three were all great, but I really enjoyed the Forbidden Creatures.



39. The Last Speakers: The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages...K. David Harrison
Fascinating! Maybe some linguistic anthropology is in my future; I'd love to learn more!

Quote:
Parallel to the extinction of biological species in our world, human languages are disappearing one by one. These tongues originated over millennia inside geographically isolated communities for whom modern methods of transportation and communication have proven mixed blessings. Harrison details the work of linguists who are speeding to preserve these tongues for posterity. He travels to Siberia to meet Aunt Marta, one of the last speakers of Tofa, a Turkic tongue. Although a scientist and a rigorous analyst of language grammars and structures, Harrison is particularly intrigued by the personalities of these mostly elderly yet fully engaged people who bravely face the end of what has been a nurturing society. Harrison compellingly details reasons why the rest of the world ought to care about these vanishing languages and what can be done to ensure that they live on despite the irresistible ascendancy of today’s rapidly evolving world culture.




40. Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry!)...Lenore Skenazy
I've been meaning to read this one for a while. It was definitely validating! I was surprised at some of the statistics; I thought it was more dangerous today than it was when I was a kid, but it's really not.

Quote:
Skenazy flies the black flag of America’s Worst Mom, a title this syndicated columnist and NPR commentator earned by allowing her nine-year-old son to ride the New York City public transit alone in 2008. Here, she puts parents' fears to bed by examining the statistical likelihood of the dangers we most fear (murder, baby-snatching, etc.). Drawing on facts, statistics, and humor, she convincingly argues that this is one of the safest periods for children in the history of the world, reiterating that mostly, the world is safe and mostly, people are good. Even the lowest-flying helicopter parents would have trouble disagreeing that we have entered an era that says you cannot trust yourself. Trust a product instead. Skenazy argues that it’s time to retire the national pastime of worrying and that childhood is supposed to be about discovering the world, not being held captive. The obvious has never been so hilarious.



41. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World...Vicki Myron
Great, great book! It had me laughing and crying!

Quote:
One frigid Midwestern winter night in 1988, a ginger kitten was shoved into the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. And in this tender story, Myron, the library director, tells of the impact the cat, named DeweyReadmore Books, had on the library and its patrons, and on Myron herself. Through her developing relationship with the feline, Myron recounts the economic and social history of Spencer as well as her own success story—despite an alcoholic husband, living on welfare, and health problems ranging from the difficult birth of her daughter, Jodi, to breast cancer. After her divorce, Myron graduated college (the first in her family) and stumbled into a library job. She quickly rose to become director, realizing early on that this was a job" I could love for the rest of my life." Dewey, meanwhile, brings disabled children out of their shells, invites businessmen to pet him with one hand while holding the Wall Street Journal with the other, eats rubber bands and becomes a media darling. The book is not only a tribute to a cat—anthropomorphized to a degree that can strain credulity (Dewey plays hide and seek with Myron, can read her thoughts, is mortified by his hair balls)—it's a love letter to libraries.



42. Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Story of an Owl and His Girl...Stacey O'Brien
Another one that made me cry!

Quote:
Owls permeate literature and mythology, an ancient animal ("some 97 million years" old) that has fascinated for centuries; still, few people have had as intimate an encounter with the mysterious night birds as biologist O'Brien. As a student researcher at Caltech, she fell in love with an injured four-day-old barn owl and seized the opportunity to adopt him permanently. She named him Wesley, and for 19 years kept, cared for and studied him, forging a tremendous relationship with the still-wild animal, as well as a vast understanding of his abilities, instincts and habits: "He was my teacher, my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God." Her heartwarming story is buttressed by lessons on owl folklore, temperament ("playful and inquisitive"), skills, and the brain structure that gives them some amazing abilities, like spotting a mouse "under three feet of snow by homing in on just the heartbeat." It also details her working life among fellow scientists, a serious personal health crisis, and the general ins and outs of working with animals. This memoir will captivate animal lovers and, though not necessarily for kids, should hold special appeal for Harry Potter fans who've always envied the boy wizard his Hedwig.



43. What Schools Ban and Why...R. Murray Thomas

Quote:
While some may argue that cell phones are necessary in today's school setting, others would suggest they are disruptive. While some may argue The Catcher in the Rye should be banned, others may say it is essential reading for American students. More recently, some schools have banned all of the Harry Potter books from their library shelves. Few would argue that a ban on weapons is a bad thing, but who determines what should be considered a weapon? In some schools, restrictions are placed on Web access, but who decides what to allow and what not to allow? Where do the lines get drawn? Here, Thomas reviews the many areas of censorship in our schools and helps readers draw their own conclusions.



44. The Teacher Chronicles: Confronting the Demands of Students, Parents, Administrators, and Society...Natalie Schwartz
It is sad and scary the things teachers have to put up with these days! Especially how little they are appreciated and paid!

Quote:
Based on revealing interviews with more than 50 teachers, The Teacher Chronicles dismantles the misconception that teachers have low-pressure jobs, work until 3 p.m., enjoy summers off, and accept mediocre salaries to pursue fulfilling careers. Teachers deal with an array of behavioral issues in their classrooms that undermine their ability to teach effectively. Well-intentioned efforts among parents to advocate for their children can create intense pressure on teachers and convey distrust, endangering the vital parent-teacher relationship. High expectations for student performance from a broad group of interested parties, including parents, administrators, school boards, superintendents and government entities, trigger stress and anxiety. Teachers confront the painful issues affecting children in our society, such as poverty, abuse, neglect, emotional distress and mental illness.



45. Murder at the Library of Congress...Margaret Truman
I had to sneak a little fiction in!

Quote:
The theft from a private museum in Miami of a painting by 19th-century artist Fernando Reyes of Columbus offering his book of privileges to Ferdinand and Isabella sets off the action in this latest Washington, D.C.-insider tale from Truman (Murder at the Watergate, 1998, etc.). The bulk of the novel, however, unfolds at the nation's venerated reference institution. Gallery owner and former attorney Annabel Reed-Smith was looking forward to two months of research for her lead article of a special issue of the Library of Congress publication Civilization to be devoted to Columbus. Rumors have persisted for centuries about a possible second diary of the voyage to the New World written by Bartolom? de Las Casas, the explorer's confidant and friend. Annabel's work takes on greater urgency when she comes upon the dead body of pompous Las Casas expert and LC employee Michele Paul in the cubicle next to hers. Back in Miami, journalist Lucianne Huston is assigned to cover the art theft, during which a guard was killed. When she learns of Paul's murder, the reporter suspects a connection between the two crimes, as does Annabel, who discovers that another Las Casas expert disappeared about eight years ago. Meanwhile, the day-to-day operation of the Library proceeds full-tilt as Cale Broadhurst, the current Librarian, has his hands full dealing with Huston and the rest of the press, not to mention members of Congress. Truman shows readers the art theft at the start of the book, so the mystery centers around who killed Paul and how his demise is connected to the art heist. A clue to the murderer is tipped clumsily; the discovery of the killer's identity comes as something of an anticlimax, but the fun of the book is getting to it. The Library is the real star, and D.C., as always in Truman's mysteries, proves fertile ground for intrigue.



46. Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That's Leaving Them Behind...Richard Whitmire

Quote:
Boys are falling behind in school. The world has become more verbal; boys haven't. Even in their traditionally strong subjects of science and math, boys are hit at a young age with new educational approaches, stressing high-level reading and writing goals that they are developmentally unable to achieve. The gap between male and female achievement has reached the college level, where only 40 per cent of graduates next year will be male. This doesn't just mean fewer male doctors and lawyers, it also means fewer men in the careers that previously did not require post-high school degrees but do now. "Why Boys Fail" examines the roots and repercussions of this problem and spells out the educational, political, social and economic challenges we face as we work to end it.



47. The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do...Peg Tyre

Quote:
Tyre delivers a cogent, reasoned overview of the current national debate about why boys are falling behind girls' achievement in school and not attending college in the same numbers. While the education emphasis in the 1990s was on helping girls succeed, especially in areas of math and science, boys are lagging behind, particularly in reading and writing; parents and educators, meanwhile, are scrambling to address the problems, from questioning teaching methods in preschool to rethinking single-sex schools. Tyre neatly sums up the information for palatable parental consumption: although boys tend to be active and noisy, and come to verbal skills later than girls, early-education teachers, mostly female, have little tolerance for the way boys express themselves. The accelerated curriculum and de-emphasis on recess do not render the classroom boy friendly, and already set boys up for failure that grows more entrenched with each grade. Tyre touches on important concerns about the lack of male role models in many boys' lives, the perils of video-game obsession and the slippery dialogue over boys' brains versus girls' brains.



48. Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do...Lawrence Kutner & Cheryl Olson
At least I know I wasn't crazy! This book certainly made me feel better about things I have been saying for years.

Quote:
Listening to pundits and politicians, you'd think that the relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior in children is clear. Children who play violent video games are more likely to be socially isolated and have poor interpersonal skills. Violent games can trigger real-world violence. The best way to protect our kids is to keep them away from games such as Grand Theft Auto that are rated M for Mature. Right?
Wrong. In fact, many parents are worried about the wrong things!
In 2004, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, cofounders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million federally funded study on the effects of video games. In contrast to previous research, their study focused on real children and families in real situations. What they found surprised, encouraged and sometimes disturbed them: their findings conform to the views of neither the alarmists nor the video game industry boosters. In Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, Kutner and Olson untangle the web of politics, marketing, advocacy and flawed or misconstrued studies that until now have shaped parents' concerns.
Grand Theft Childhood takes video games out of the political and media arenas, and puts parents back in control. It should be required reading for all families who use game consoles or computers.