Published on Monroe County Public Library, Indiana - mcpl.info (http://mcpl.info)

Nonfiction

Fighting Words

Fighting Words Not only do I spent a lot of time reading books, but I spend a lot of time reading about books. I recently ran across Flavorwire's article 'The 30 Harshest Author-on-Author Insults In History' and I have to admit that I laughed out loud. Collected here are real quotes from authors about authors - disparaging in a cruel but also often funny way.
My favorite? Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac - “That’s not writing, that’s typing.” Ha!
Read more »

Posted by Sarah B. on Jul 1, 2011

Into the Storm

Tuscaloosa, St. Louis, Joplin, Missouri? Do these names ring a bell? Unfortunately, they've been ground zero for a few of this season's most serious tornadoes. While checking the new shelf, I came across Reed Timmer's new book about his odyssey from a geeky 19 year-old college student to the most famous "storm chaser" around.
Read more »

Posted by Dory L. on May 24, 2011

How Bad Are Bananas?

It seems common knowledge that riding your bike to work is a low carbon activity. What you might not know if that if you fuel your bike ride with air-freighted off season asparagus, then your carbon footprint increases dramatically and you'd be better off commuting buy Hummer. The art and science of taking into account many aspects of what constitutes a carbon footprint has often been ignored.
Read more »

Posted by Sarah B. on May 18, 2011

We Live in Public (2009)

"Everything is free except the video we take of you. That we own...and we're gong to sell it back to you."

So says Josh Harris, the subject of We Live in Public, the latest documentary from Dig! director, Ondi Timoner, as he describes his latest experiment with the effects of being constantly recorded. For anyone who loves the Internet or reality television, this will be a very interesting documentary. Read more »

Posted by Library Intern on May 8, 2011

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

OK, who can resist a title like How I Killed Pluto...? It promises and then delivers a light, interesting take on the Pluto demotion from one of the nine big ones to a dwarf planet at the edge of our solar system. "My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas." Do you remember that line from science class in grade school? The words helped us remember the planets and their order in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Alas, now mother is just serving us nine___?
Read more »

Posted by Dory L. on May 5, 2011

No More Dirty Looks

Have you ever read the back of your shampoo bottle and wondered what all those ingredients actually are? Then No More Dirty Looks by Siobhan O'Connor and Alexandra Spunt is for you. The beauty product industry is both huge and powerful and generally don't want consumers to know that most of their products contain thousands of chemicals that can readily be absorbed through our skin. Many of these chemicals are known irritants, and some are possible carcinogens. Read more »

Posted by Sarah B. on Apr 5, 2011

Frogs - Where are You??

There is nothing that heralds the arrival of Spring like the sound of the spring peepers. I enjoyed listening to their chorus when it was warm enough a couple weeks ago to open the windows and hear them singing in the evening from the creek in the backyard. But frogs are often hard to see - especially now that the weather has turned cold again!

To get a wonderful close up peek at spring peepers and other frogs, take a look at Nic Bishop's book Frogs. It's filled with beautiful color photographs of a variety of frogs and fascinating facts about them, too. Read more »

Posted by Lisa C. on Apr 1, 2011

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

Age of Wonder If you only read one book about science this year, let this be the one. Richard Holmes has somehow managed to meld a compendium of 18th and 19th century scientific biographies into a compelling narrative that is part travelogue, part scientific exploration, and all magical. He begins with the story of Joseph Banks who travelled the South Seas with Captain Cook as the expedition's botanist, a position he paid for and equipped with many new instruments and two great mastiffs. Banks was one of the earliest westerners to visit Tahiti. He soon learned the language and basically abandoned his botanical studies to become an anthropologist in Paradise.
Read more »

Posted by Dory L. on Mar 30, 2011

Just Kids

Just Kids One of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs begins with the lines,"I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel/You were talking so brave and so free." Patti Smith's memoir of her coming-of-age with artist/photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is partially set in this hotel with its unique history and cast of characters.
Read more »

Posted by Dory L. on Feb 24, 2011

Ready for Action!

Want to know how to fend off a shark, cross piranha-infested waters, or escape from quicksand? Do you know how to find water in the desert, escape from a crocodile, or survive when you're stranded on an iceberg? The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook [Extreme] Junior Edition tells you how to survive these and many other dangers.

With helpful diagrams and simple instructions, this book makes it easy for you to get ready for your next adventure. Recommended for grades 4 and up.

Posted by Josh W. on Jan 28, 2011