Books Blog : nonfiction

You Gotta Do When the Spirit Says Do

kiya@evpl — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:04:00 GMT

Whether you need to make a gift for someone, or just keep your hands busy so you don't eat all the Christmas cookies at one time, the library has plenty of books and videos that tell you how to stay busy making things. My particular fascination at the moment is knitting, so here is a smattering of the kinds of things the library has about knitting.

For a quick knitting project, take a look at these books:

Big Needle Knitting, edited by Bobbie Matela

Speed Knitting: 24 quick and easy projects, by Kris Percival

7-day afghan book by Jean Leinhauser

The Knitter's Year: 52 make-in-a-week projects, by Debbie Bliss

One Skein Wonders, edited by Judith Durant

If you are a beginning knitter, there are many books and DVDs to teach you how to knit. Here are a couple:

The Easy Learn to Knit in Just One Day

The Absolute Best Way to Learn How to Knit, with Leslye Solomon

For the experienced knitter, there are books about knitting with different

materials, or all kinds of projects beyond the traditional scarves and sweaters:

Knitting with Beads, by Jane Davis

Knit 2 Together, by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark

Fast Fun and Easy Fabric Knitting, by Cyndy Lyle Rymer

Easy Accessories: 50 chic projects to knit and crochet, from Family Circle

100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet, by Lesley Stanfield

Cowlgirls: the neck's big thing to knit, by Cathy Carron

Home Knits: luxurious handknits for every room of the house, by Suss Cousins

Easy Toys: 25 delightful creations to knit and crochet, from Family Circle

The only real risk to checking out what the library has on your hobby is that you will end up like me, with too many projects and too little time!

Christmas is Coming

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:48:00 GMT

I don't want to alarm anyone, but Christmas is coming; in fact it's less than two months away. Now, it's still entirely too early to be putting up tinsel and whatnot, but it is absolutely time to get on the waiting lists for these new Christmas cookbooks!

I'm personally very much looking forward to trying out the recipe for toffee thins on page 86 of Sweet Christmas: Homemade Peppermints, Sugar Cake, Chocolate-Almond Toffee, Eggnog Fudge, and Other Sweet Treats and Decorations by Sharon Bowers, with photographs by David Bowers.

Other new Christmas cookbooks to be excited about:

Christmas Baking: Fun & Delicious Holiday Treats by Mia Ohrn

A Home-Baked Christmas: 56 Delicious Cookies, Cakes, & Gifts from Your Kitchen

American Christmas

If you really can't wait for these titles, I recommend checking out a copy of an older title, A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies by Dede Wilson, which has a nice variety of cookies to try.

Thanksgiving

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:50:00 GMT

Thanksgiving is maybe one of our simpler holidays. We give thanks for what we have and we eat good food. The giving thanks part usually doesn't require a lot of preparation; maybe just a few minutes quiet consideration. The good food, on the other hand, can sometimes be a challenge. Last November, it seemed like a lot of people came to the library looking for Thanksgiving cookbooks, so I thought I'd highlight a few here this year.

Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well by Sam Sifton

Thanksgiving by Lou Seibert Pappas, with photographs by Lara Hata

How to Cook a Turkey and All the Other Trimmings by the editors of Fine Cooking

Betty Crocker Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook

Thanksgiving 101 by Rick Rodgers

Vegetarian Times Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook by the editors of Vegetarian Times

If you're looking for something beyond the food, try these titles:

The Thanksgiving Book: A Companion to the Holiday Covering Its History, Lore, Traditions, Foods and Symbols, Including Primary Sources, Poems, Prayers, Songs, Hymns, and Recipes, Supplemented by Chronology, Bibliography with Web Sites and Index by Laurie C. Hillstrom

Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday by James W. Baker

Read By the Author

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:30:00 GMT

I love to listen to memoirs read by the authors that wrote them. Not so long ago, I was quite skeptical of all audiobooks. I viewed listening to a book as cheating, unless it was a matter of poor eyesight. I have, however, warmed somewhat to audiobooks, and memoirs read by their authors have become a favorite of mine. When it comes to memoirs, what could possibly be better than someone's story in his or her own voice?

Here are some of my favorite memoirs read by their authors that I've had the pleasure to listen to so far:

Haven Kimmel's memoirs about growing up in Mooreland, Indiana, A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch. These two are good enough I recommend listening to them, even if you've already read them.
Kate Braestrup's Here if You Need Me, about being chaplain for the Maine Warden Service and her part in their search-and-rescue missions, plus her second memoir, Marriage and Other Acts of Charity.
Advice columnist Amy Dickinson's The Mighty Queens of Freeville, about the strong women in her family, including her mother, sisters and daughter.
Tina Fey's wildly popular Bossypants.
Anna Quindlen's recent memoir, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake. I don't think I'm the target audience for this one, but I enjoyed it very much anyway.
Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose, the story of how he became a musician, then a comedian, the drugs he did and the hearts he broke along the way, and his decision to become an American citizen (he was born & raised in Scotland), might be a bit heavy on foul language for some people, but it charmed me.
Bill Bryson's memoir of growing up in Iowa in the 1950's, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is most amusing read in his slight British accent-- he lives in England now.
A. J. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically details the year he attempted to follow the Bible really, truly literally. Unfortunately, this is an abridged audiobook, meaning some parts of the original text are not included.

Do you have a memoir read by the author to recommend to me?

April showers bring.. ...rain delays - this season's baseball books

kiya@evpl — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:53:00 GMT

Baseball season is here, and with it, a whole new lineup of baseball books.

I just finished reading Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball's Greatest Gift by Harvey Araton, and it is a thoroughly enjoyable visit to Yankees' spring training. For years, former pitching ace Ron Guidry has been the designated chauffeur and companion to baseball legend Yogi Berra at this spring ritual. Araton examines their relationship, and the love, tenderness, and loyalty that has long been a tradition that baseball hides behind the more visible traditions of trash talking and chewing tobacco.

Spending time with Yogi Berra means learning about all the others whose lives he has touched. The reader meets the other players who have played with or for Yogi. Did you know that Don Mattingly wears number 8 on his Dodgers uniform in honor of Yogi Berra? There is more than one glimpse of George Steinbrenner, and the 14 year estrangement which ended when Steinbrenner flew to New Jersey to apologize to Yogi. I recommend this book about the magical relationship between men, and between men and baseball.

Other baseball books from the 2012 season include:

Trading Manny : how a father and son learned to love baseball again / Jim Gullo
Before the curse : the Chicago Cubs' glory years, 1870-1945 / edited by Randy Roberts & Carson Cunningham
Imperfect : an improbable life / Jim Abbott and Tim Brown
Out of my league : a rookie's survival in the bigs / Dirk Hayhurst
Damn Yankees : twenty-four major league writers on the world's most loved (and hated) team / edited by Rob Fleder
Wherever I wind up : my quest for truth, authenticity and the perfect knuckleball / R.A. Dickey, Wayne Coffey

Geeking Out with Ken Jennings and All Kinds of Maps

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:09:00 GMT

Have you ever found a book you didn't even know you were looking for? That's how Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings felt to me. I didn't know I was looking for this book, but I am so glad I found it.

I love, or geek, if you prefer, maps and globes. I can remember spending indoor recesses with a couple of classmates and the pull-down maps in the classroom just looking and talking about what we were looking at. When I was nine years old and in the third grade, I had one of the best Christmases I can remember. Santa Claus brought me my very own globe and a puzzle that was also a map of the United States of America. It was wonderful. When I was 13 and in 8th grade, I got a stuffed globe that I named Globie. In high school, I had an enormous map of North America on my wall. Currently, I have a about a half-dozen globes around my house, including the one I got when I was nine and Globie, of course.

Enough about me, though, let's get on to this awesome book. Ken Jennings takes readers along for a tour of the Library of Congress' Geography & Map Division, to the National Geography Bee in Washington D.C. with Alex Trebek, to a map sale in London, to meet world travelers, on his own adventures in geocaching, and more. I enjoyed every chapter, as they were all packed with geographical goodness, but I especially enjoyed the Geography & Map Division chapter and the Geography Bee chapter. The Library of Congress' map collection sounds like a dream. I hope to maybe visit it the next time I'm in Washington D.C. The Geography Bee chapter was vaguely personal, since one upon a time, I was a school geography bee winner and could have (but did not) advance to the National Bee. It was interesting to get such a close look at what that would have been like. Of course, having read about the kids who make it that far, I also now have a pretty good understanding of why I did not make it that far, or even close, really. Another great chapter discussed the fun and importance of fantasy maps to go along with games and literature that take place in imagined worlds.

If you love maps, or if even if you used to love maps, or if you wonder how modern mapping technologies like GPS and Google Earth are likely to affect paper maps and us, the people who use maps, well, these are good reasons to pick up this book. I found Ken Jennings to be a fun writer and I now plan to read his first book, Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs.

Ken Jennings is also the author of Ken Jennings' Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days. Maphead is available as an unabridged audiobook on CD, read by Kirby Heyborne.

My Cooking Class Book Series

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:47:00 GMT

A new series of cookbooks has recently caught my attention. The My Cooking Class series includes Vegetable Basics, Sauce Basics, Chocolate Basics, Steaming Basics and Middle Eastern Basics. All the books have large color photographs to illustrate every recipe. I'm looking forward to spending some time with Vegetable Basics and Chocolate Basics, then maybe I'll try some more titles from the series.

Geeking Out in the Kitchen

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:05:00 GMT

I've always thought if you can read a recipe, you can cook, more or less. However, I've been told this simply isn't true and that there are actually very smart people who fail miserably in the kitchen. This past summer O'Reilly, a publisher I usually associate with software manuals, published Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks and Good Food by Jeff Potter. It is not just a cookbook. Yes, there are recipes aplenty but the book is more about cooking as a science, which might just be perfect for challenged cooks with scientific minds.

The book also features brief interviews with people like Adam Savage, from the television show Myth Busters.

Previously on the Books Blog: The Hungry Scientest Handbook

Hoosier Ghosts

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:42:00 GMT

Perhaps you'd like to read about reported hauntings right here in Indiana as Halloween approaches. Even if you don't believe in ghosts, these books can be entertaining and spooky reads perfect for the season.

Haunted Travels of Indiana by Mark Marimen

Encyclopedia of Haunted Indiana by Nicole R. Kobrowski

Haunted Indiana and Haunted Indiana 2, 3 and 4 by Mark Mariman

Haunted Hoosier Trails and More Haunted Hoosier Trails by Wanda Lou Willis

Haunted Backroads: Central Indiana: and Other Stories by Nicole R. Kobrowski

Ghost Hunter's Guide to Indianapolis by Lorri Sankowsky

Haunted Indianapolis: And Other Indiana Ghost Stories by Tom Baker & Jonathan Titchenal

Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French

lit.fic.reader@evpl — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:23:00 GMT

"Eleven elephants. One plane. Hurtling together across the sky." From these opening sentences, I was captivated by this account of the inner workings of zoos, in particular Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. The author is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and currently a professor of journalism at Indiana University.

There are many elements that combine to make this such an absorbing narrative. Woven throughout the book is discussion of the issues surrounding the pros and cons of holding animals in captivity and the attendant political implications, local and international. The daily challenge of providing for the well-being of the zoo's residents as well as the safety of its human visitors falls on the shoulders of a largely young, poorly paid, and overworked, if dedicated staff. The author intersperses these considerations with the histories of two of the zoo's most celebrated residents: a chimp who has never fully recovered from his separation from the human family that raised him until adolesence, and a stunningly beautiful but ferocious Sumatran tiger. The ultimate fates of these two animals, the "king" and "queen" of the Lowry Park Zoo, are sadly reflective of the shortcomings of institutions housing animals. Finally, a lighter tone is introduced with an amusing comparison of the behavior of the two-legged power brokers of the Tampa area and the zoo's overreaching director with that of the four-legged denizens of the zoo.

This is as enjoyable a nonfiction title as I've read in a long time and I highly recommend it for its thoughtful examination of the complexities of human-animal interactions.

In discussing the dangers of working with animals, the author makes brief reference to the Christmas Day 2007 attack by an escaped tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, resulting in one human death and another serious mauling; and to the horrific killing, in view of a shocked audience, of a trainer by an orca at Orlando's SeaWorld in February, 2010. An excellent article on the SeaWorld tragedy, "The Killer in the Pool" is in the July 2010 issue of Outside magazine, available at Central and North Park libraries, and is also highly recommended.

An Almost Overwhelming Selection of Yummy Cupcake Books

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:46:00 GMT

Cupcakes are for everyone! Who doesn't love cupcakes? They're fun, they're delicious and they can be easy to make. There are more than a dozen books devoted to cupcakes here at EVPL! Hello, Cupcake! and What's New Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson are good choices if you want to get fancy with the icing on top. Do you know someone who eats a vegan diet? Surprise them with cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. If you prefer to work with boxed cake mixes, Cupcakes From the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn and Betty Crocker Just Cupcakes are for you. Personally, I think Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella is one of the most promising of the batch, but you'll have to come to the library, check some out and see what you like best.

Go Outside!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:23:00 GMT

It's springtime! Time to leave the house and enjoy the outdoors! Two recent books you should know about if you're planning on going further than the park down the street are Botanic Gems: Indiana Public Gardens, Including Greater Chicago, Dayton, Cincinnati & Louisville by Alan McPherson and The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks by Susan Reigler.

Botanic Gems includes more than 40 gardens in or near Indiana. Before this book, I had no idea that there are so many public gardens in Indiana! There are color photographs and maps for each location. The book includes Evansville's own Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden.

The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks is truly complete. The parks are covered in regional sections: north central, south central, eastern and western. The parks closest to the Evansville area are in the western section, which includes Henderson's John James Audubon State Park, a favorite of my family. Kentucky State Parks fall into three categories: resort, recreation & historic sites. Each regional section in the book begins with a great chart that breaks down the parks vertically by those three categories, and the going across, by features like park acres, lake acres, lodge & dining room, cottages, campgrounds, golf, marina, swimming, trails, tennis courts, museums, etc. Following the chart, each park in the section gets its own write-up with photographs.

These books are great resources if you're looking for some outdoor fun!

Is Gardening Too Tame For You?

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:51:00 GMT

Do you find pansies and impatiens a little dull? Would you rather grow something that eats, than grow something to eat? If so, check out these books on carnivorous plants. Even if you're not interested in planting venus fly traps, pitcher plants or other insect-eaters in your yard, the pictures in these books are fun to look at!

The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants by Wilhelm Barthlott, Stefan Porembski, Rudiger Seine & Inge Theisen

Carnivorous Plants: Care and Cultivation by Marcel Lecoufle

Insect-Eating Plants & How to Grow Them by Adrian Slack

The Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato

Gardening With Carnivores: Sarracenia Pitcher Plants in Cultivation & in the Wild by Nick Romanowski

Double Take worth a look

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:13:00 GMT

You're walking down the street and a legless man on a skateboard zooms by. Your first reaction--shock? disgust? pity?

Welcome to Kevin Michael Connolly's world.

Author of the recent memoir Double Take, Connolly was born without legs. Instead of being institutionalized or coddled, Connolly's parents allowed him the freedom to experience life and grow into a remarkable young man. He attended public school, made friends and got into the usual high school escapades (such as dousing a parade crowd with permanent red dye), became a professional skier, and graduated from Montana State University with degrees in film and photography.

On a trip abroad, Connolly began paying attention to the reactions he received from the people he passed on the streets. As a kind of catharsis, he began to photograph passersby. These photographs became the basis for an exhibit, The Rolling Exhibition, as well as this book, Double Take.

Connolly brings his own unique voice to this work, and it is wonderful to read. The prose is clear & direct, without being maudlin. There are moments of disappointment and sadness, but they are never dwelt on for long. As he finally reaches the limit of his frustration with people staring at him and starts firing back (with his camera), Connolly realizes through his photos the impact his appearance has on others. This awareness, along with a visit to Sarajevo where his leglessness is not out of the ordinary among Bosnian war survivors, suggests a burgeoning maturity and selflessness.

Be sure to check out the author's promotional trailer for Double Take, as well as a feature ABC's 20/20 did on Connolly in 2007.

It will be interesting to see where Kevin Connolly's skateboard takes him next, and what he will show us on the way.

A smattering of new nonfiction selections

googler@evpl — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:03:00 GMT

Looking for something entertaining and informative to read? These nonfiction titles might be just the thing.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope tells how an enterprising teenager in Malawi builds a windmill from scraps he finds around his village and brings electricity, and a future, to his family. It was called "an autobiography so moving that it is almost impossible to read without tears" by Kate Vander Wiede in the Christian Science Monitor.

In Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day, Diane Ackerman "chose dawn as the subject of her new book because it's the beginning of each new day, a fresh start. Her book abounds in sensuous observations. A glimpse of starlings flocking at dawn segues into a visit with a friend’s hilarious talking bird; the morning light catches a sycamore tree shedding its parchment-like bark. She wants to help us capture the drama of seeing something for the first time. Her gift to us is the sheer pleasure teaching us to see the world through keen, sensitive eyes." (From Goerings Book Store reviews)

The Bedside Book of Beasts: A Wildlife Miscellany, which includes art, poetry, essays, stories, and science writing, is "a delightful mix of art and literature, of geographical range and of attitudes toward wild animals" (The Globe and Mail). It's a companion piece to the author's previous Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany.

In Steal This Style: Moms and Daughters Swap Wardrobe Secrets, Sherrie Mathieson shows moms how to update their wardrobe by stealing a few key pieces from their daughters, and shows daughers how to look a little more classic with a few things from mom's closet. "Sherrie does not get bogged down with designer names and details but shows us how to go for a look that's affordable and attainable for most women. The accompanying copy is loaded with well-written, solid advice," says this blogger.

Keep up with new books at the library by looking at our new titles list and reading the enewsletters!