Reviews

When I picked up Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift’s book The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper, I didn’t realize that it was a cookbook based on a Public Radio show. All I cared about was the gorgeous spoonful of a bright golden yellow potato, onion and almond concoction (“Almond-Turmeric Potatoes” p. 289) pictured on the cover. I am a huge fan of Public Radio, though, so when I finally settled into a comfy chair at home and made this discovery, I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve never heard a food show on the radio before (WBHM doesn’t carry it) but it makes me happy to know one is out there.

A new acquisition to our adult nonfiction collection, Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton with photography by Jane Ussher and essays by Nigel Watson of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, is a beautiful and haunting memorial to those first doomed explorers of the South Pole. Bound in rough canvas with coloring reminiscent of the century old material still slowly decaying in situ in Antarctica from the original expeditions, the detailed photographs within are intimate investigations of what life was like for these adventurous, and often heroic, men. The climate and isolation of these modest huts in Antarctica has left intact and untouched many artifacts of this time period. Jars and tins of food stores sit unopened. Hams still hang in muslin bags.

Once you have died and gone to the Underworld, nothing will ever be the same. Seventeen year old Pierce is trying to put her life back together after she escaped from Death, but he just won’t let her go. And she isn’t sure if she wants him to.

The first book in bestselling author Meg Cabot’s new series creates a modern day retelling of Persephone. Riding high on the mythology trend, Abandon follows reckless and headstrong Pierce as she deals with the aftermath of her death. Though she was given a second chance at life, she cannot forget him. Abandon artfully sets up the trilogy and leaves you begging for more!

I just finished reading Rawhide Down by Del Quentin Weber, a reporter for the Washington Post. The book is about the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan March 30, 1981 outside the Washington D.C. Hilton hotel. It reads like a thriller even though we all know the outcome.

Weber has a unique way of following those involved: the E.R. trauma team at George Washington Hospital, surgeons, nurses, Mrs. Reagan, White House staff, Vice President Bush, the President's cabinet, Secret Service agents, FBI agents, D.C. police and, the shooter, John Hinckley, Jr. He weaves a tapestry of 24 hours in the people whose lives intersected that day.

Shawna's great article about blogs was too extensive to feature in its entirety in our Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Connections, our elementary education newsletter. So here is the unabridged version.

Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American comic artist and journalist that forged a name for himself by combining his love of drawing comics with his journalism education. While traveling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he eventually wound up in the Middle East and did a series of comics called Palestine. After his travels in the Middle East, he visited Eastern Europe (specifically Sarajevo and Goražde in Bosnia) and chronicled his experiences there during the Bosnian War in books such as Safe Area Goražde.

Sacco’s works combine his journalism training with cartooning and his razor sharp wit. His works have earned him widespread recognition and accolades including the American Book Award, the Eisner Award and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.