Newsletter, Nov 4th 2022
This was the newsletter I was writing last week, before I got side-swiped by Covid! All is well now and we are back in business. And the first order of business is to announce our First Anniversary/Birthday Party for Friday 11/25 - ALL Day!
Can you believe it's almost a year since we first opened doors? We weren't quite ready to open but the books had arrived, even though the book cases hadn't. We decided to do an open house to showcase the selection just for the Thanksgiving weekend. It was mostly a friends and family affair, but there was enough interest that we decided to stay open since and never got around to the Grand Opening. And here we are a year later. Thanks to the hundreds of you that have joined us since then, this venture seems less crazy every day.
Now's the time to take a moment - or day - to step back and look at everything we've accomplished and all that we have to celebrate! Come join us! Details will be added to the event site as we go.
Upcoming events
Friday Nov 11th 4p - Robotics workshop with STEM Builders. Need minimum 4 registrations to run the session. I've heard several area schools have the day off. If you're looking for something fun for them to do, this is your chance.
Saturday Nov 26th 7p - Matt Kessen's comedy show, which had to be canceled due to my Covid infection, has been rescheduled to be part of our Anniversary weekend festivities. Show theme will be slightly different than originally planned.
Sunday Dec 4th 2p - Conversation with Jessica Nordell - Award-winning Author of “End of Bias”. Thanks to all who answered the survey on this topic. The event is setup and ready for you to register. Looking forward to a great conversation!
Book Clubs
Middle Grades (Ages 7-12) - Sunday 11/13 4p - Discussing “Flush” by Carl Hiaasen.
Science Nonfiction - 18+ - Sunday 11/20 2p - This will be the first session on Joy of x.
Science News of the Week
This one's a couple months old, but I'd picked it out to be the perfect complement to Halloween. Little late but no less creepy - Scientists at Yale were able to bring back pig cells that had been “dead" for an hour …"team was especially surprised to observe involuntary and spontaneous muscular movements in the head and neck areas…". Yikes!
Keeping with the medical theme, researchers in Canada have made nano-bots from DNA that can deliver medicine directly to tumors in the body! This initial success bodes well for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, they say.
New Book Recommendations
I'm sharing more than my usual 5 this week and will probably continue with a larger list for the next few weeks. I'm also adding the genre and age recommendation for each. Hopefully, that'll help you as you start tackling your holiday gift list.
A quick shout-out and thank you to our friend and mentor Gary Berosik for presenting us with this hand calligraphy version of Carl Sagan's quote. That quote inspired today's subject line. Look for it next time you're in-store.
Keep finding the magic and see you at The Spot soon,
Rima.
New Releases this week
The Song of the Cell
By Siddhartha Mukherjee
Released: Oct 25th 2022 / Medical History
From the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and The Gene, a #1 New York Times bestseller, comes his most spectacular book yet, an exploration of medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. Rich with Mukherjee’s revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors, and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, The Song of the Cell is the third book in this extraordinary writer’s exploration of what it means to be human. Mukherjee begins this magnificent story in the late 1600s, when a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked down their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences, and altering both forever. It was the fact that complex living organisms are assemblages of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Our organs, our physiology, our selves—hearts, blood, brains—are built from these compartments. Hooke christened them “cells”. The discovery of cells—and the reframing of the human body as a cellular ecosystem—announced the birth of a new kind of medicine based on the therapeutic manipulations of cells. A hip fracture, a cardiac arrest, Alzheimer’s dementia, AIDS, pneumonia, lung cancer, kidney failure, arthritis, COVID pneumonia—all could be reconceived as the results of cells, or systems of cells, functioning abnormally. And all could be perceived as loci of cellular therapies. In The Song of the Cell, Mukherjee tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. He seduces you with writing so vivid, lucid, and suspenseful that complex science becomes thrilling. Told in six parts, laced with Mukherjee’s own experience as a researcher, a doctor, and a prolific reader, The Song of the Cell is both panoramic and intimate—a masterpiece.Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Gene: An Intimate History, a #1 New York Times bestseller; The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction; and The Laws of Medicine. He is the editor of Best Science Writing 2013. Mukherjee is an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in many journals, including Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters. Visit his website at: SiddharthaMukherjee.com.
A Poison Like No Other
By Matt Simon
Released: Oct 25th 2022 / Science / Environmental Science
“Informed, utterly blindsiding account.” - Booklist, starred review It’s falling from the sky and in the air we breathe. It’s in our food, our clothes, and our homes. It’s microplastic and it’s everywhere—including our own bodies. Scientists are just beginning to discover how these tiny particles threaten health, but the studies are alarming. In A Poison Like No Other, Matt Simon reveals a whole new dimension to the plastic crisis, one even more disturbing than plastic bottles washing up on shores and grocery bags dumped in landfills. Dealing with discarded plastic is bad enough, but when it starts to break down, the real trouble begins. The very thing that makes plastic so useful and ubiquitous – its toughness – means it never really goes away. It just gets smaller and smaller: eventually small enough to enter your lungs or be absorbed by crops or penetrate a fish’s muscle tissue before it becomes dinner. Unlike other pollutants that are single elements or simple chemical compounds, microplastics represent a cocktail of toxicity: plastics contain at least 10,000 different chemicals. Those chemicals are linked to diseases from diabetes to hormone disruption to cancers. A Poison Like No Other is the first book to fully explore this public health threat, following the intrepid scientists who travel to the ends of the earth and the bottom of the ocean to understand the consequences of our dependence on plastic. As Simon learns from these researchers, there is no easy fix. But we will never curb our plastic addiction until we begin to recognize the invisible particles all around us.
Matt Simon is a science journalist at Wired magazine, where he covers the environment, biology, and robotics. He’s the author of two previous books, Plight of the Living Dead: What Real-Life Zombies Reveal About Our World—and Ourselves and The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar: Evolution's Most Unbelievable Solutions to Life's Biggest Problems. He enjoys long walks on the beach and trying not to think about all the microplastics there.
Slow Birding
By Joan E. Strassmann
Released: Oct 25th 2022 / Nature / Animals / Birds
A one-of-a-kind guide to birding locally that encourages readers to slow down and notice the spectacular birds all around them. Many birders travel far and wide to popular birding destinations to catch sight of rare or “exotic” birds. In Slow Birding, evolutionary biologist Joan E. Strassmann introduces readers to the joys of birding right where they are. In this inspiring guide to the art of slow birding, Strassmann tells colorful stories of the most common birds to be found in the United States—birds we often see but might not have considered deeply before. For example, northern cardinals thrive in the city, where they are free from predators. White brows on a male white-throated sparrow indicate that he is likely to be a philanderer. This essential guide to the fascinating world of common, everyday birds features:
detailed portraits of individual bird species and the scientists who have discovered and observed them
advice and guidance on what to look for when slow birding, so that you can uncover clues to the reasons behind specific bird behaviors
bird-focused activities that will open your eyes more to the fascinating world of birds
Slow Birding is the perfect guide for the birder looking to appreciate the beauty of the birds right in their own backyard, observing keenly how their behaviors change from day to day and season to season.
Joan Strassmann has been a slow birder all her life. She is an award-winning teacher of animal behavior, first at Rice University in Houston and then at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is Charles Rebstock professor of biology. She has written more than two hundred scientific articles on behavior, ecology, and evolution of social organisms. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has held a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives with her husband in St. Louis, Missouri.
Awkward Intelligence
By Katharina A. Zweig
Released: Oct 25th 2022 / Computers / Artificial Intelligence
An expert offers a guide to where we should use artificial intelligence—and where we should not. Before we know it, artificial intelligence (AI) will work its way into every corner of our lives, making decisions about, with, and for us. Is this a good thing? There’s a tendency to think that machines can be more “objective” than humans—can make better decisions about job applicants, for example, or risk assessments. In Awkward Intelligence, AI expert Katharina Zweig offers readers the inside story, explaining how many levers computer and data scientists must pull for AI’s supposedly objective decision making. She presents the good and the bad: AI is good at processing vast quantities of data that humans cannot—but it’s bad at making judgments about people. AI is accurate at sifting through billions of websites to offer up the best results for our search queries and it has beaten reigning champions in games of chess and Go. But, drawing on her own research, Zweig shows how inaccurate AI is, for example, at predicting whether someone with a previous conviction will become a repeat offender. It’s no better than simple guesswork, and yet it’s used to determine people’s futures. Zweig introduces readers to the basics of AI and presents a toolkit for designing AI systems. She explains algorithms, big data, and computer intelligence, and how they relate to one another. Finally, she explores the ethics of AI and how we can shape the process. With Awkward Intelligence. Zweig equips us to confront the biggest question concerning AI: where we should use it—and where we should not.
Katharina A. Zweig is Professor of Computer Science at the TU Kaiserslautern in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Wild New World
By Dan Flores
Released: Oct 25th 2022 / Science / Natural History
A deep-time history of animals and humans in North America, by the best-selling and award-winning author of Coyote America.
In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the remains of a herd of extinct giant bison. By examining flint points embedded in the bones, archeologists later determined that a band of humans had killed and butchered the animals 12,450 years ago. This discovery vastly expanded America’s known human history but also revealed the long-standing danger Homo sapiens presented to the continent’s evolutionary richness.
Distinguished author Dan Flores’s ambitious history chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in the “wild new world” of North America—a place shaped both by its own grand evolutionary forces and by momentous arrivals from Asia, Africa, and Europe. With portraits of iconic creatures such as mammoths, horses, wolves, and bison, Flores describes the evolution and historical ecology of North America like never before.
The arrival of humans precipitated an extraordinary disruption of this teeming environment. Flores treats humans not as a species apart but as a new animal entering two continents that had never seen our likes before. He shows how our long past as carnivorous hunters helped us settle America, initially establishing a coast-to-coast culture that lasted longer than the present United States. But humanity’s success had devastating consequences for other creatures. In telling this epic story, Flores traces the origins of today’s “Sixth Extinction” to the spread of humans around the world; tracks the story of a hundred centuries of Native America; explains how Old World ideologies precipitated 400 years of market-driven slaughter that devastated so many ancient American species; and explores the decline and miraculous recovery of species in recent decades.
In thrilling narrative style, informed by genomic science, evolutionary biology, and environmental history, Flores celebrates the astonishing bestiary that arose on our continent and introduces the complex human cultures and individuals who hastened its eradication, studied America’s animals, and moved heaven and earth to rescue them. Eons in scope and continental in scale, Wild New World is a sweeping yet intimate Big History of the animal-human story in America.
Dan Flores is A. B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of Western History at the University of Montana. A distinguished historian of the American West, he is the author of the best-selling books Coyote America and American Serengeti. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Engineering in Plain Sight
By Grady Hillhouse
Released: Nov 1st 2022 / Technology & Engineering / Civil
Engineering in Plain Sight is a beautifully illustrated field guide with accessible explanations to nearly every part of the constructed world around us. Author Grady Hillhouse is the creator behind the popular YouTube channel Practical Engineering (over 2 million subscribers!) and this book is essentially 50 new episodes crammed between two covers. Engineering in Plain Sight extends the field guide genre from natural phenomena to human-made structures, making them approachable and understandable to non-engineers. It transforms readers' perspectives of the built environment, converting the act of looking at infrastructure from a mundane inevitability into an everyday diversion and joy. Each section of this accessible, informative book features colorful illustrations revealing the fascinating details of how the human-made world works. An ideal road trip companion, this book offers a fresh perspective on the parts of the environment that often blend into the background. Readers will learn to identify characteristics of the electrical grid, roadways, railways, bridges, tunnels, waterways, and more. Engineering in Plain Sight inspires curiosity, interest, and engagement in how the infrastructure around us is designed and constructed.
Grady Hillhouse is a civil engineer and science communicator widely known for his educational video series Practical Engineering, currently one of the largest engineering channels on YouTube with over 2 million subscribers and millions of views each month. His videos, which focus on infrastructure and the human-made environment, have garnered media attention from around the world and been featured on both the Science Channel and Discovery Channel in addition to many other publications. Before producing videos full time, Hillhouse spent nearly ten years as an engineering consultant, working on a wide variety of infrastructure projects with a focus on dams and hydraulic structures. He holds degrees from Texas State University and Texas A&M University.
smART
By Amy E. Herman
Released: Oct 25th 2022 / Juvenile Nonfiction / Art - Ages 9 - 13
I Spy and Where’s Waldo? get a revolutionary twist in this self-directed, interactive book that teaches young readers how to fully engage their brains to think critically and creatively. What would you say if I told you that looking at art could give you the confidence you need to speak up in class? Or that learning the history of donuts could help you think like a super spy and train like the CIA? smART teaches readers how to process information using paintings, sculptures, and photographs that instantly translates to real world situations and is also fun! With three simple steps (1) How to SEE, (2) How to THINK about what you see, and (3) How to TALK about what you see, readers learn how to think critically and creatively, a skill that only requires you to open your eyes and actively engage your brain.Amy E. Herman is the New York Times bestselling author of Visual Intelligence, the written companion of the program Herman has used for eighteen years to provide leadership training to the FBI, Navy SEALs, NATO, the Peace Corps, Georgetown University Hospital, and executives at Microsoft and Google. The method has helped companies save millions of dollars, solve crimes, and even save lives, and the book has been translated into nine different languages, teaching readers how to sharpen their observation, perception, and communication skills using art. Herman, a self-proclaimed “recovering lawyer,” was also the Director of Educational Development at Thirteen/WNET and the Head of Education at The Frick Collection for over ten years. To learn more about Amy Herman, you can visit her website ArtfulPerception.com. Heather Maclean is a Princeton graduate and the New York Times bestselling author and editor of fifteen books. Named one of the “16 Best Entrepreneurs in America” by Sir Richard Branson, she accompanied the adventurous business legend on a 50,000-mile trip around the world, alternately helping improve the lives of others (designing sustainable development initiatives in South Africa) and fearing for her own life (rappelling out of a Black Hawk helicopter in a Moroccan sandstorm). Heather began her career at Disney, where she had the distinction of being the first person ever to answer Mickey Mouse’s email. When not castle hunting in her husband’s native Scotland, she and her clan of three kids happily reside in Michigan.
The LEGO® Engineer
By Jeff Friesen
Released: Nov 1st 2022 / Technology & Engineering / Civil
LEGO® bricks meet The Way Things Work in this fun, informative tour of the world of engineering, from the creative mind of expert LEGO® builder Jeff Friesen. In The LEGO® Engineer, you’ll explore how some of humanity’s greatest feats of engineering work, from towering skyscrapers to powerful rockets to speeding bullet trains. Then follow step-by-step instructions to build these marvels with LEGO® bricks as you experience the world of engineering in a fun new way. How do diesel and electric engines work together to drive massive freight trains? How does a container ship’s bow shape contribute to its fuel efficiency? How do cable-stayed bridges distribute weight differently than suspension bridges? You’ll learn the answers to these engineering questions and more as you build your way through over 30 models, all designed by LEGO® expert Jeff Friesen. Understanding the engineering principles behind these structures will not only help you better appreciate the world around you, but will also help you make your own LEGO® builds more realistic.
Jeff Friesen is an award-winning LEGO® expert and photographer whose work has been featured on LEGO®’s official social media channels, the Brothers Brick website, and in Brick Journal, Briques, and Blocks magazines. He is the author of LEGO® Space Projects, LEGO® Micro Cities, and The LEGO® Castle Book (all No Starch Press). Jeff’s stunning LEGO® photography can be found on his popular Instagram account, @jeff_works.
Counting in Dog Years and Other Sassy Math Poems
By Betsy Franco
Released: Oct 11th 2022 / Juvenile Nonfiction / Mathematics / Ages 8 - 12
Twenty-nine playful poems from the maven of math poetry + ingenious high-concept art = countless hours of mind-blowing, mathematical fun. Award-winning author Betsy Franco is back with another pitch-perfect performance that explores a range of math topics—from fractions and time measurements to geometry and graphs—in a way that relates math to the daily lives of children. Even the most mathematically disinclined will warm to these innovative poems, illustrated with game-changing wit and whimsy by Priscilla Tey, whose clever mechanical “Numbots” guide readers through a surreal playground of calculated delights. From multiplying mice to missing socks, from stinky scales to bug races, this collection of imaginative verse subtracts the mystery, fear, and loathing from mathematics, making it engrossing and fun for all.
Betsy Franco is the award-winning author of more than eighty books for children, including Messing Around on the Monkey Bars and Other School Poems for Two Voices, Mathematickles!, Zero Is the Leaves on the Trees, Pond Circle, and other titles that explore math and science through poetry. She lives in California. Priscilla Tey is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and the author-illustrator of In-Between Things and Twitchy Witchy Itch. She lives in Singapore.
The Moon
By Sanlyn Buxner
Released: Nov 1st 2022 / Juvenile Nonfiction / Technology / Aeronautics, Astronautics & Space Science- Ages 7 - 9
This incredible guide to the moon takes 7 to 9 year olds through its past, present, and future through amazing photographs, illustrations, and fascinating information. The perfect introduction for young readers who want to learn about Earth’s closest neighbor, The Book of the Moon covers the entire subject in thrilling detail. Featuring breakdowns of the moon’s formation and geography, the lunar phases, a history of NASA’s Apollo missions, the moon’s effect on Earth’s tides and nocturnal animals, its place in our mythology, recent scientific discoveries, and so much more. Packed with eye-popping facts and photography, this is the perfect book for space lovers everywhere. Boasting up-to-date images from space agencies such as NASA and ESA, combined with bold illustrations, information panels, timelines, and diagrams that help demystify and explain the wonder of the moon, this is the perfect book for young readers.
Dr Sanlyn Buxner is a member of the Planetary Science Institute, and has worked in space science education and public outreach since 1996. In her positions, she conducted classroom outreach, curriculum development, teacher workshops, public tours, summer camps, and public and research presentations in the US and abroad. In addition to her work at the Planetary Science Institute, she teaches science and research methodology courses at the University of Arizona.
Galapagos
By DK
Released: Oct 25th 2022 / Juvenile Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Earth Sciences / Geography - Ages 7 - 9
The Galapagos islands is one of the most amazing, biologically diverse, nature-rich places on Earth. This beautifully illustrated and photographic tour of the flora, fauna, and geology of the Galapagos islands will cover everything that makes them one of the most unique places on the planet. An illustrated and photographic tour of the flora, fauna and geology of the Galapagos islands (13 major islands, 6 smaller islands, 40 islets), this is the ultimate book on these incredible islands. Featuring spreads on the formation of the islands, the animals, the plants, the unique evolutionary traits, amazing habitats, conservation, and more.
Tom Jackson is a leading natural history writer based in the United Kingdom. As an author and contributor he has worked on more than 60 books. A zoology graduate from the University of Bristol, he has also worked as a zookeeper and in safari parks in Zimbabwe. [foreword writer] Steve Backshall MBE is a BAFTA-winning British explorer, naturalist, TV host, and writer. Chervelle Fryer is an illustrator hailing from the Welsh capital of Cardiff. Chervelle's style is unique and she loves the use of texture. She finds inspiration in flora, fauna, and traditional brush styles.
An Anthology of Aquatic Life
By Sam Hume
Released: Nov 1st 2022 / Juvenile Nonfiction / Animals / Marine Life - Ages 7 and up
Dive into the wondrous world of water and discover the stories of more than 100 incredible aquatic lifeforms. From the deepest, widest ocean to the tiniest puddle, this beautiful compendium takes young readers on an enthralling journey through the aquatic world, meeting amazing animals, ingenious plants, and much more along the way. Stunning photography and gorgeous illustrations complement storybook descriptions about each lifeform, and children can uncover hundreds of fascinating facts as they read. Did you know that elephant seals that can hold their breath underwater for more than an hour, or that the Victoria Amazonica water lily can support the weight of an adult, or that the brown basilisk reptile can run across water? Discover the science of how plants have learned to live, feed, and breathe in water, and take a look at the unique challenges of distinct ecosystems on feature spreads about rivers, lakes, wetlands, and more. There’s also a visual index, packed with reference information including the size and location of each species. With foil on the cover, gilded edges, and a ribbon for keeping your place, An Anthology of Aquatic Life makes an attractive gift for any child who can’t get enough of the natural world – and it’s perfect for young readers to explore by themselves or for bedtime stories. From sharks and sailfish, to bulrushes and beetles, there’s something for everyone in this celebration of all things aquatic.
Sam Hume is a wildlife filmmaker, whose work has featured on the BBC (Springwatch, Big Blue Live), Apple TV+ (Tiny World) and ITV (A Year On Planet Earth (in production). He studied Zoology at St. Andrews University, where he was the senior aquarist of the local aquarium—training harbor seals and managing captive breeding of thornback rays. Today, Sam lives in Somerset with his wife and a large menagerie of strange animals (including two daughters). This is his first book for children.