The Salt House

May 18, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Carole at Haggard Library:

The Salt House: A Summer on the Dunes of Cape Cod  by Cynthia Huntington

Cynthia Huntington has written a delicate and deeply-felt memoir of a summer she and her artist husband Bert spent in small shack on Cape Cod.  Short on amenities, the tiny house was just one room with a single bunk bed, a small table, chairs, and a shelf to hold canned goods.  With no electricity or plumbing, and only an outdoor pump for water, the two lived a life entwined with nature.  Birds, sand, waves, stars, plants, and insects kept them company, and inspired Cynthia with endless thoughts and questions. They found balance and harmony as Cynthia wrote and Bert sketched and sculpted. This calming and magical narrative is among the best books I’ve ever read.

 

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The Romanov Prophecy

May 16, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Douglas at Haggard Library:

The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry

This is a fictional account of what could have happened in Russia between 1991 and 2008.  In 1991, the remains of nine members of the Romanov family were located and identified (using DNA identification). Two of the family members were unaccounted for – Alexei, the tsarevich, and one of his sisters.  Subsequently, in 2008, these last two bodies were located and identified.

This is an adventure in the genre of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, and Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity.  The premise is that Russia, tired of communist rule (Lenin thru Gorbachev) and the post-USSR (Gorbachev – Putin), has formed a committee to locate the nearest blood relative to Nicholas II (Romanov) and his family, who were executed on July 17, 1918.  Miles Lord is an American lawyer hired to research the validity of one of the claimants.

During his research, he finds a prophecy made by (Gregory) Rasputin to the Tsarina Alexandra about the fall and return of the Romanov family.  Lord files this away and walks out of the library, where his lunch companion is assassinated standing right next to him.  Lord is then chased across Moscow and part of Russia and then followed to the United States.  Mr. Berry has seamlessly intertwined well known Romanov family and Russian Revolution historical facts throughout the story.

The story is a very enjoyable read for high school, college or adult readers.  The reader is cautioned on a few instances of graphic violence.

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Thunderstruck

May 14, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Carole at Haggard Library:

Thunderstruck  by Erik Larson

In this fascinating book Larson follows the career of Guglielmo Marconi and his laborous development of communication via radio waves.  At the same time he tells the story of Hawley Crippen, a mild-mannered man who uncharacteristically commits a heinous crime.  As he tells his story, the author evokes life in early 20th century Europe, Britain, and the U.S., highlighting little-known trends and events to form a panorama that should not be missed. It is only at the end of the book that we realize how the lives of Marconi and Crippen intersect.

Larson used a similar contrasting technique in his earlier book The Devil in the White City about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  In both books, his skillful prose builds interest and excitement.

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Steve Jobs

May 11, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Cynthia at Harrington Library:

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs is the anti-Martha Stewart. Martha loves to create themes featuring quantities of beautiful stuff. Steve Jobs believed simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Jobs took his minimalist aesthetic at the nexus of technology and design and helped create incredible products. In his twenties, with an iron willed, rebellious temperament, Jobs teamed up with Steve Wozniak, a mellow teddy bear of an engineer to create Apple Computer. Jobs was ousted from Apple Computer, created two new companies, NeXT and Pixar Animation, and continued to refine his aesthetic sense. In 1996 Apple Computer bought NeXT bringing Jobs back to Apple. Jobs then began the Apple transformation, vaulting Apple from a computer company to a digital entertainment company. Always a perfectionist, Jobs strength was in forcing technology to fit his aesthetic sense not the other way around. Jobs aesthetic was about simplicity always seeking the simplest form or function.

Steve Jobs is a fascinating figure from a distance. There are biographies where I felt I would like to share a meal with the person. Steve Jobs is not one of those people. Jobs was charismatic, often charming, and indisputably talented. Jobs was also cruel, arrogant, boorish, and famous for his technique of altering reality known as the Reality Distortion Field. Isaacson does a masterful job of illuminating Jobs as a pivotal figure in the digital revolution and as a complex and contradictory human being.

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Things Your Dog Doesn’t Want You to Know: 11 Courageous Canines Tell All

May 8, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Suman at Davis Library:

Things Your Dog Doesn’t Want You to Know: 11 Courageous Canines Tell All by Hy Conrad and Jeff Johnson

If you are an owner of a dog or a dog lover you will thoroughly enjoy this book by Hy Conrad and Jeff Johnson. Dogs, Hy and Jeff explain, have kept many secrets from humans and the reasons are that dogs are shy, humans don’t ask the right questions and of course, dogs don’t talk. However, they have persuaded 11 dogs from “all walkies of life” to reveal what they think about their dreams, pleasures and what they really think about their humans.

“I laughed, my dog howled”, comments Steve Martin on the cover and so will you. This cute, entertaining book will introduce you to Gabby, a long haired dachshund, who loves looking pretty; Charlie, a miniature schnauzer, lives in a shelter and considers it foster care; Orson, a bulldog, doesn’t think much of dieting and exercise although he really needs both; Moonbeam, a mixed breed, who hates her name; Dimples, a boxer, has two little pups and “disagrees with humans about parenting”; opinionated Bandana, a border collie, who thinks he runs the household and many others who don’t hesitate to speak their mind.

A quick, hilarious read that will make a wonderful gift for dog lovers.

Some other books written from a dog’s point of view owned by Plano libraries are, Timbuktu by Paul Aster; The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein; A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron; Rose in a Storm by Jon Katz; the Chet and Bernie mysteries by Spencer Quinn; White House Pet Detectives, an anthology edited by Carole Nelson Douglas.

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The Logic of Life

May 5, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Rich, who attends meetings of the What Are You Reading Now? Book Club:

The Logic of Life by Tim Harford

This book is subtitled: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World.  The author’s first book, The Undercover Economist, was an excellent discussion of the way free markets work and sometimes don’t seem to work, and why. The basis for people’s decisions in those areas was almost invariably cost or gain in monetary units.  This newer book has a different slant in that the rationale for various decisions is often something other than just money.  Many of the topics are on the seamy side of life, such as prostitution, crime, addictions, gambling, race discrimination, politics, etc.  There are also interesting viewpoints on working in an office, strategy of the cold war, and aspects of city life vs. rural environments.

The author’s basic premise is that when some activity has a high cost people tend to do it less and do it more when the cost is low.  One example was a study done about juvenile crime.  Each state has laws that govern whether a person is tried as a juvenile and subject to lesser penalties as a result.  Some states have greater differences between the penalties as a juvenile versus an adult.  The study compared the crime rates as youths were juveniles versus crossing the line into adulthood.  The states with harsher juvenile penalties, more like the adult penalties, had lower crime rates as juveniles.  Where the juvenile penalties were less, the crime rates as juveniles were higher implying conscious decisions to commit crime based on the expectation of a lesser penalty.

The author tells a story about gambling and game theory.  In 1944, John von Neumann published Theory of Games.  It was a mathematical work which drew little attention among gamblers, although it did address poker and other gambling games.  One exception was Chris Ferguson, whose father was a math professor who taught game theory.  Ferguson was a computer science graduate who began writing programs to play various games.  He began to see strategies that were different from what the poker experts said.  He finally began to play with his own money.  He discovered there are elements outside the probabilities, including bluffing with bad hands and the size of bets with good hands.  He lost about $20,000 learning to play, but eventually he learned to win.  In the 2000 World Series of Poker, he won with over $2 million in the take.  It took almost 60 years for the theory of games to produce a winner.

In the final chapter of the book, an economic history of the world is compressed into a single year with an interesting discussion about the causes of economic expansions.

 

 

 

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Sherlock: Season One

May 2, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Joanna at Schimelpfenig Library:

Sherlock: Season One

BBC and Masterpiece Theater have seen a resurgence in popularity the past few years with the release of hit shows such as Downton Abbey and Sherlock. Sherlock resumes this Sunday with Season Two, so take the opportunity to check out Season One and  discover this entertaining update of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective stories.

The series is set in contemporary London, so a few changes are to be expected. Instead of Holmes and Watson, we get Sherlock and John, played by known British actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  The main details remain the same: the iconic address, Sherlock as a misanthropic detective, John as a doctor and war veteran, and Moriarty as Sherlock’s nemesis. Just substitute nicotine patches for a pipe and the Iraq war for India, and add blogs and cell phones.  The mysteries are quick-paced and clever, with snappy dialogue and enough twists to keep you on your toes.  Both actors do a great job of embodying their characters, bringing a fresh chemistry to the relationship between Holmes and Watson.

As a somewhat related aside, did you know that the character of Dr. Gregory House from the television show House was inspired by Sherlock Holmes?  Watch a few episodes and the similarities can’t be missed.

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Coming in May at our Book Club Meetings

May 1, 2012 by

What Are You Reading Now? meets Monday, May 7, at 1 PM at Haggard Library. Consider joining a discussion of recent reading group members have enjoyed.

Second Tuesday Book Club will discuss Isabel Wolff’s A Vintage Affair  on Tuesday, May 8, at 7:15 PM at Schimelpfenig Library. A child’s blue coat connects two very different women: Phoebe, the owner of a vintage-clothing shop in London, and elegant Therese, who can’t bear to part with it.

Jane Haddam’s And One to Die On is the book choice for Third Thursday Mystery Book Club, which will meet on Thursday, May 17, at Davis Library. This novel in Haddam’s Gregor Demarkian series will remind readers of Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None

Brown Bag Book Club will meet at Parr Library at 12 noon on Thursday, May 24, to talk about David McCullough’s nonfiction title, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, a history of American artists, writers and doctors who lived and worked in nineteenth-century Paris, and how their experiences transformed the America they left behind.

 

 

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PlanoReads is now accepting your reviews!

April 29, 2012 by

PlanoReads is now accepting reviews from you, our readers.

If you’ve read a book, watched a film, or listened to music that you’d like to share with others, let us know, and we’ll post your comments on this blog. There is also an option to rate that 5-star item you’ve enjoyed so much!

There is a box at the top right side of our PlanoReads front page which you can click on to submit your post. It’s also here. It’s very easy to do!

We also appreciate your comments on any of our posts–just click on Leave a Comment at the end of any post to let us know your opinions.

We’re always interested in what our readers are thinking about–let us hear from you!

 

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No Mark Upon Her

April 27, 2012 by

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie

No Mark upon Her is the 14th installment of the very popular Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series.  Duncan is a Scotland Yard Superintendent and his wife Gemma is a Detective Inspector with the Metropolitian Police.  Each book in the series has a domestic backstory about it, describing the home situation of Duncan and Gemma and their blended family of children, alongside the murder and mayhem of their jobs.  I don’t know how they do it, indeed!

This story involves Rebecca Meredith, a high-ranking detective with the Met and Olympic-level rower.  Rebecca is found drowned after going out for a rowing session on the Thames.   It is soon determined to be murder.  As Duncan investigates, he discovers Rebecca’s life was complicated by a failed marriage, her rowing ambitions, and past troubles with a high ranking judge.  It’s an authentically suspenseful police procedural.

This is my first exposure to Deborah Crombie, and even though it’s obvious that there are previous books in the series, the book can be read as a stand-alone.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and might add it to my Mysteries with Meat list (mysteries that have additional interesting and discussible elements).  In this case, it’s the competitive rowing world.  Who knew it could be so cutthroat?  Who knew that rowers in training get to eat 6,000 calories a day?  I will never feel the same about those seemingly peaceful rowing scenes that are interspersed in the PBS Inspector Lewis episodes.

An interesting aside—Deborah Crombie is not British.  In fact, she’s a native Texan and lives in McKinney.  She was born in Dallas, grew up in Richardson, graduated from Austin College.  She lived for a time in England and Scotland, with her first husband, Peter Crombie, long enough to become an Anglophile.  She makes several trips each year to England, and her books are proof that this is enough to keep her current on her Britishisms.

 

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