| Volume 1 |
August 2005 |
Issue 1 |
Book 'em looks at selected books that are on, or have
recently been, on the New Book display, as well as other news in the
world of books. A complete list of books (and other materials)
cataloged in the past month may be found at http://hiraml.hiram.edu/ftlist.
Book 'em is published monthly from August through May. Please
direct any comments to the editor, David Everett.
New Books
A surprising number of new books this month are in the Science
area. The Bottlenose Dolphin: Biology and Conservation by
John E. Reynolds III, et.al., (Gainesville: University Press of Florida,
2000 - call number 599.533 Rey) provides an overview of this species
complete with color illustrations. J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson's The
Diversity of Amphibians and Reptiles: An Introduction (NY: Springer,
1999 - 597.7 Clo) is an introduction to the evolution and adaptation of
amphibians and reptiles.
Plants are covered in three new titles. Gardeners will appreciate
Rosemary Barrett's Hostas (Toronto: Firefly, 2004 - 635.93432
Bar), which provides an introduction to this hardy (as evidenced by its
success in my yard!) perennial and provides more than 200 photographs. Lilies
by Pamela McGeorge (Toronto: Firefly, 2004 - 635.9343 Mcg) takes the
same approach in looking at more than 40 species of lilies.
Of more scholarly interest is Christian Korner's Alpine Plant Life:
Functional Plant Ecology of High Mountain Ecosystems (2nd. ed., NY:
Springer, 2003 - 581.7538 Kor). The subtitle pretty much says it
all.
The History of Science is also well represented. Mary
Terrall's The Man Who Flattened the Earth: Maupertuis and the
Sciences in the Enlightenment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2002 - 509.2 Mau-T) looks at the life of the man best known for The
Principle of Least Action and for popularizing Newtonian mechanics,
including leading an expedition that confirmed Newton's calculation that
the earth was flattened at the poles (and, thus, the title of the
book). Terrall uses Maupertuis' life to look at broader issues
within science and culture of the 18th-century.
The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the
Twentieth Century by David Salsburg (NY: Freeman, 2001 - 001.4220904
Sal) takes its title from a lady's statement that tea poured into milk
tastes differently than milk poured into tea and the efforts of Ronald
Aylmer Fisher's proposal to test scientifically the
hypothesis.
James Essinger's Jacquard's Web (NY: Oxford, 2004 - 004.09 Ess)
looks at Joseph-Marie Jacquard's 1804 invention of a loom run by punch
cards in order to ensure it consistently turned out the same
design. Essinger traces the evolution of this idea from the loom
through the Industrial Revolution and, ultimately, to the PC on your
desktop.
As usual, Biographies abound. Included this month is a
collection of essays on Amy Lowell, American Modern, edited
by Adrienne Munich and Melissa Bradshaw (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 2004 - 811.52 Low-A) and Anne Hutchinson in Eve
LaPlante's American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson,
the Woman Who Defied the Puritans (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,
2004 - 973.22 Hut-L).
Jason Gary Horn's Mark Twain and William James: Crafting a Free Self
(Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1996 - 817.44 Hor) and Mark
Perry's Grant and Twain: The Story of a Friendship that Changed
America (NY: Random, 2004 - 817.44 Per) look at the life and work of
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.
Music is represented with two books about genres of American
popular music. John Einarson's Desperados: The Roots of Country
Rock (NY: Cooper Square Press, 2000 - 781.542 Ein) looks at the
early history of the country rock movement with artists such as the
Byrds, Poco, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and even ex-Monkee Mike
Nesmith.
The link between left-wing politics, especially the Communist movement,
and folk music is explored in Richard A. Ruess' American Folk Music
and Left-Wing Politics, 1927-1957 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2000 -
781.6213 Reu)
The above titles are just a small selection of the new books on display
in the library. Come check out the New Book Display on a regular
basis!
Coming Soon
Keep an eye out for the following titles that are on order or in
process:
1776 - the latest from award-winning historian David McCullough
looks at the first year of the American Revolution.
Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to
Contemporary Bioterrorism by Jeanne Guillemin. The subtitle
says it all.
Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified
Foods by Nina Fedoroff, Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics
Threaten the Biotech Revolution by Henry I. Miller, and Food in
the Ancient World by John Wilkins all go well with the Friends of
the Library fall program featuring Dr. Alan Rocke on the history of food
and set for Sunday, October 9 at 2 p.m. in the Prichard Room.
You might also want to "check out" the Food Culture Around the
World Series from Greenwood Press. The library has nine books in
the series with four more (Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, South
American, and Russian and Central Asia) on order.
Obituaries
Evan Hunter (1926 - 2005) Author of The
Blackboard Jungle (F H916b) and writer of the screenplay for
Hitchcock's The Birds. Best known, however, for the series
of books on the 87th Precinct, which were written under the name of Ed
McBain.
Judith Rossner (1935 - 2005) Author of best-selling novels including Looking
for Mr. Goodbar (F Ros) and August (F Ros-Ja).
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