Flying Sparks

Flying Sparks: Growing up on the Edge of Las Vegas by Odette Larson
Verso, 2001
Hardcover, 280 pages
ISBN-13: 9781859846063
autobiography
highly recommended

Synopsis from Publishers Weekly:

After suffering years of abuse, Larson finally realizes that she'd only "wanted to be wanted." Her memoir opens when she's nine [sic; 8], with the school psychiatrist bullying her into finding images in his Rorschach cards. School troubles are fast overshadowed when a family "friend" rapes her. Soon, her life falls into a nightmarish pattern of running away and being abused, each betrayal further confirming her sense of unworthiness. Eventually, she's sent to a mental hospital called Sparks [sic], from which she escapes and ends up alone at age 12 on the streets of Oakland.... Only in the end does she suspect it's her mother's approval she's been craving, the mother who has beaten her for every little slip.... Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

My thoughts:

First a note: The mental hospital was not called Sparks, the hospital was IN Sparks... Sparks, NV, which is right by (and essentially part of) Reno today. The book made that clear but both the synopsis on the cover and the Publisher's Weekly review didn't seem to comprehend that Sparks is the name of a city. Maps are our friends, people.

This is a graphic account of the abuse Larson suffered as a young girl, beginning at age 8 until she was 12, not only at the hands of her mother but by predatory men in the late 50's early 60's. It's disturbing and graphic in its brutal honesty. As a young girl, Larson seemingly jumps from one awful experience to another, all while fearing the beatings her mother will give her, a vicious whipping with a belt. While Larson does write about the desert landscape with a real passion, most of her story will incite in readers a real rage against the way she was repeatedly mistreated and abused. The books ends quite abruptly and really without a satisfactory conclusion or a complete resolution. We know Larson is a successful teacher and author today. I'd like to know more about how she overcame her tragic childhood experiences and faced the challenges of adolescence.
Highly Recommended - but not for the tender hearted

Quotes:

"What is it?" he asked, holding the card out.

"I dunno." His bulging eyes jerked behind thick lenses. He was probing for something. I wasn't sure what. opening

She'll see the other times they talked to me, will see that I don't fit anywhere. She'll know it's my fault, children are supposed to be seen and not heard. She'll hear me, hear me trying to make the words come out, easy words that stick in my mind and my throat, but won't come out of my mouth. She'll know I'm stupid, and my momma said she didn't raise any idiots. She'll be disgusted because I made problems. pg. 4

I go back to school because Momma means business. She'll spank me 'til my bottom's blue and little droplets of blood trickle down the edge of the belt marks if I cross her. But, when I go back, the school people will send me home again. They did the last time, when they found me sitting on the steps. If that happens again, Momma will be really mad. So I find a quiet place at school, beneath the bushes, a waiting place where Momma won't see me if she drives by and the school people won't see me if they come out. I sit with my back against the wall, my knees pulled up close to my chest. While the normal children learn about letters, numbers, and which colors match, I learn to wait. pg. 5-6

For the disillusioned, Las Vegas was a trap, but for me, it was home. pg. 11

"It's your turn, Jack wants to talk to you now, baby. Is that okay? You wanna talk to Jack?" His voice was so low and close it vibrated in my ear. pg. 28

Jack chuckled and sat up. "That's my ex-wife," he explained. "she's just jealous. She thinks I shouldn't be able to have kids around me, not even my own. There's nothing she can do about it though. She would hurt me if she could." pg. 32

Momma says girls ratting their hair are just building nests for black widows. One girl got bit and went to the hospital because she didn't comb the rats out for a whole week. pg. 38

Ron Howard

Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon... and Beyond by Beverly Gray
Thomas Nelson, 2003
Hardcover, 336 pages
ISBN-13: 9781558539709
http://www.beverlygray.com/

biography

highly recommended

Synopsis

Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon... and Beyond, the first full-length biography of Ron Howard, takes an in-depth look at the Oklahoma boy who gained national fame as a child star, then grew up to be one of Hollywood's most admired directors. Although many show biz kids founder as they approach adulthood, Ron Howard had the advantage of brains, common sense, and two down-to-earth parents who kept him from having an inflated view of his own accomplishments. He also had a longstanding goal: to trade the glare of the spotlight for a quieter but equally creative life behind the camera. This biography tracks his career from 1960, when he debuted as six-year-old Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show through 2002, when he accepted his Academy Award® as Best Director for A Beautiful Mind.

My Thoughts:

Gray did extensive research to write this unauthorized biography of Ron Howard. Much of her information was gleaned from previous interviews, as well as other sources. The biography includes 16 pages of photos and over 65 pages at the end consisting of a timeline, filmography as an actor, filmography as a director and producer, awards and honors, extensive source notes, and an index. What we learn, ultimately is what we already instinctively know: Ron Howard really is a nice man, although a more guarded, private man than many people might realize, but he really is a nice guy. Don't bother reading this biography if you're looking for scandal and dirt. Credit is deservedly given to his parents, Rance and Jean Howard, who played a tremendous role in shaping his life - and their pivotal role in his life needs to be acknowledged. I think Ron's nature, combined with their good, common sense, helped keep Ron Howard grounded. The one drawback to this biography is that it really seems to have been written too early in his career. Rather than being interviewed for this biography, Howard "felt himself to be in midcareer and not ready to participate in a long range assessment of his accomplishments."(pg x) Since this biography ends with Howard's Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, most people would have to agree that this biography is a little precipitous, and Howard (hopefully) has many years of work ahead of him.

Highly Recommended

Quotes:

Sizing up Ron Howard should be easy as pie. After all, everybody knows him. At least we think we do. He has been coming into our living rooms for the past forty years, first as lovable Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show and then as perennial teenager Richie Cunningham of Happy Days. pg. ix

No one else in Hollywood has so emphatically made the jump from child star to director. And his iconic status from his days as Opie and Richie continues to resonate, even while he directs award-winning motion pictures. Part of his appeal for me was that, in his journey from Opie to Oscar, there has never been the slightest whiff of scandal. As one veteran observer of the Hollywood scene told me, "I have never heard a bad thing about Ron Howard. Never." pg. x

Little Ronny Howard was America's kid brother. Bright-eyed and gap-toothed, with a shock of red hair that seemed made for Technicolor, he quickly came to exemplify the American virtues of innocence, optimism, common sense, and good humor. pg. 3

Ron has taken to heart what Rance told him then, that no matter who was watching, "I have only one job and that's to be your father and that's to teach you right from wrong. And nothing about that job embarrasses me." Those who wrote and produced The Andy Griffith show were quick to apply this dynamic between Rance and Ronny to the scripted relationship between Andy and Opie Taylor. pg. 18-19

Another one of the Howard's contract stipulations was that Ronny never be required to make personal appearances for the show. This proviso shielded him from overwhelming fan adulation and allowed him more time to focus on baseball cards, dinosaurs, monster models, and a host of other boyish interests. For a while, he even had a paper route, just like the other youngsters on the block. All these activities helped him remain matter-of-fact about fame and fortune: "When I was little, kids would come up to me at school and ask what it was like being on TV. And I always remember my dad saying that it was just like having a paper route - you still have to get up early and learn your way around." pg. 23

Douglas asked the obvious question: why would a successful actor want to direct? Howard's answer was a variation on something he has often said: "It's the idea of the control, and the fact that you're really carrying the responsibility. You're not in someone else's hands quite so much." In other contexts, Howard has emphasized that the actor's life is not one that suits his nature: "I didn't choose to become an actor. It fulfills no need I have, and the attention and adulation that go along with acting have always made me feel a little bit uncomfortable..." pg. 74

Halting State

Halting State by Charles Stross
Penguin Group, 2007
Hardcover, 351 pages
ISBN-13: 9780441016075
Science Fiction
highly recommended

Synopsis

In the year 2018, a daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates. The suspects are a band of marauding orcs, with a dragon in tow for fire support, and the bank is located within the virtual reality land of Avalon Four. But Sergeant Sue Smith discovers that this virtual world robbery may be linked to some real world devastation.

My Thoughts:

Halting State is a cyberpunk techno-crime thriller. The chapters alternate between the point of view of three people: Edinburgh's Sgt. Sue Smith, insurance accountant Elaine Barnaby, and programmer Jack Reed. Basically, a virtual reality game has had its bank robbed. The police were mistakenly called, and, subsequently, while they are investigating an insurance company also becomes involved. The crime, however, is not what it appears to be.

This near future where everyone and everything is wired 24/7 seems plausible, especially based on the overwhelming amount of current technology and the way we use it to always keep ourselves plugged-in now (email, IM, twitter, facebook, cell phones, texting, GPS, bluetooth technology, earbuds, i-phones, blackberries, etc.) We have phones that aren't just phones, they are cameras, computers, GPS devices... and more. Picturing a future world where our technology opens us to a new kind of crime or sabotage is conceivable.

I'm not a gamer, however, and I'll admit to feeling a little lost and bewildered while reading Halting State. The book is written in the second person, which, apparently according to Publisher's Weekly, is "the authoritative second-person style of video game instructions." Stross uses some techno-jargon and Scottish dialect that could throw some readers off. I found the dialect easy but much of the techno-jargon baffling. While the basic plot was well conceived and the twist surprised me, I'm just not the virtual gamer coding monkey that will truly understand everything Stross has written in Halting State. I know one, though, so I'm passing the book on to him. I have no idea how to rate this one, but since I thought the end was surprising I'm going with highly recommended, unless my cyberpunk expert tells me differently.

Quotes:

Sue:

It’s a grade four, dammit. Maybe it should have been a three, but the dispatcher bumped it way down the greasy pole because it was phoned in as a one and the MOP who’d reported the offence had sounded either demented, or on drugs, or something – but definitely not one hundred per cent in touch with reality. So they’d dropped it from a three ("officers will be on scene of crime as soon as possible") to a four ("someone will drop by to take a statement within four hours if we’ve got nothing better to do"), with a cryptic annotation ("MOP raving about Orcs and dragons. Off his meds? But MOP 2 agreed. Both off their meds?"). pg. 4

You shake your head and climb out of the car, tapping your ear-piece to tell your phone to listen up: "Arriving on SOC, time-stamp now. Start evidence log." It’s logging anyway – everything you see on duty goes into the black box – but the voice marker is searchable. It saves the event from getting lost in your lifelog. pg. 7

This is getting out of hand. "What was stolen?" you ask, pitching your voice a bit louder.
"Everything in the central bank!" It’s Webster. At last, you think, someone who gives simple answers to simple questions.
"Central bank where, on the high street?" You can’t be sure while you’re offline, but you don’t think there are any banks at this end of Drum Brae—
"Show her the video," Hackman says wearily. "It’s the only way to explain." pg. 12

"This is the central bank. Our task is to keep speculation down, and effectively to drain quest items and magic artefacts from the realm to prevent inflation. One way we do this is by offering safe deposit services to players: Avalon Four runs a non-persistent ownership mode so you can lose stuff if you’re killed on a quest and respawn, and the encumbrance rules are tight." pg. 14

"So why did you call us?" you ask. "It seems to me this is all internal to your games, aye? And you're supposed to be the folks who stop players from" - you shrug, searching for words - "arsing about with virtual reality. Right?" Wasting Polis time is an offence, but somehow you don't think the skipper would thank you for charging this shower. pg. 17

"This isn't just a hacking incident, it's insider trading." pg. 18

Elaine:

Mike asking you to help with Sally's fraudulent car claim is a bit like calling in an air strike to deal with a primary-school bully; but he's your friend, and besides, if anyone in the office notices and makes a fuss, you can point out that it's good public relations. pg. 25

The mess defederalization has left the country in has really come home to roost this decade: What the cooked books give, the cooked books taketh away. pg. 42

Jack:

[B]etween you and Mitch and Budgie, you're three of the four corners of the former Social Networking Architecture Team, and you've flown out here on a budget shuttle from Turnhouse to get falling-down legless.... because god help you, it's better than remembering how badly you've been shafted. pg. 27

You're still busy trying to get your flight home, and your glasses can't keep up with the flashy graphical interface the airline uses: Cookies keep timing out and your session resets itself. The bandwidth is crap here, and the whole scene has turned out to be one gigantic bummer. You want home, and you're dying for that train back to Schiphol: You'd hoped to get away from the whole STEAMING mess once and for all, but the dying snake of a crashed and burning game plan has trapped you in its coils, and it feels like it's choking the life out of you. You really need to go home and get a job interview nailed down.

You wonder who your next corporate master is going to be. pg. 53

Edith's War

Edith's War by Andrew Smith
Trade paperback, 380 pages
Axiom Publishing, March 26, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0986496202
http://edithswar.com/

highly recommended

Synopsis from the cover:

Edith's War, is a fictional narrative based on historical fact that tells one woman's heart-wrenching, yet ultimately heart-warming, story of hardship, love, passion, and motherhood during World War II. When Edith Maguire is caught up in the trials and tribulations of her Italian neighbours following Britain's internment policy of 1940, her life appears to be transformed.

Edith's story is interwoven with observations and recollections by her two adult sons, which slowly but surely release hidden memories and reveal long-held secrets. The intricacies of familial relations and the omnipresence of war are brilliantly illuminated by two generations - mother and sons - in this ground-breaking work of fiction.

My Thoughts:

Typically I have had some issues with most historical fiction, mainly because many novels tend to take some facts and then proceed to play loose with the details. I like the facts, the setting, and the mood to all be as historically accurate as possible and reflect the period without putting a modern spin on it based on our current sensibilities. Edith's War manages to fulfill my requirements beautifully. Andrew Smith did his research (which I researched before I accepted a review copy) and, much to my delight, kept a real sense of time and place throughout Edith's War. This was even more apparent because the chapters flip back and forth through time.

The novel opens in 2002 with Edith's two adult sons, Will and Shamus (61 and 56), in Venice, spending a day together before the arrival of their 83 year old mother, Edith. Alternate chapter are set during WWII, starting in 1940, when Edith Maguire was a young war bride, pregnant and living with her mother-in-law by Liverpool. The chapters with Will and Shamus stand in sharp contrast to the chapters with Edith during the war. Will and Shamus relate to each other like real adult siblings do - they disagree, react to each other in a well defined way, and have long-held roles and resentments, while at the same time they are comfortable with each other and begin dredging up memories of the past. Between the brothers, we are privy to Shamus' inner thoughts and know his inner turmoil, especially coming to terms with the recent death of his long time life partner, Luke, while we have to wait to gain a greater understanding of Will.

Edith's story is more straightforward. We immediately see her developing relationships with her mother-in-law, teenage brother-in-law, Liam, and members of the Baccanello family during WWII. We know about her immediate attraction to Carlos. It is from her friendship and love of the Baccanello family that we view the tragedy of the internment of British Italians and the devastating effect it has on the family and Edith. As we slowly learn about Edith's experiences during the war, we follow the brother's interaction and slowly learn the details of their memories. Although I think most readers are going to guess right away where the story is heading, it is a very satisfying book. Lately I've been trying to not compare books from two different authors, but two books read back to back and basically set during the same time period beg for some comparison. If you want a very quick, light treatment of the internment of the Jews, the biggest trial to be restricted membership to golf courses, don't care about historical accuracy (as much as I do), and need some whimsy, Read Mr. Rosenblum. If you like a more serious, realistic look at internment during WWII, and appreciate an exploration of family dynamics, read Edith's War. Highly Recommended

Many thanks to Andrew Smith (and Ruth Seely) for providing me with a review copy of Edith's War.

Quotes:

Italy: 27-09-2002 08:56
“Ma fai attenzione! Madonna!”
Will Maguire had run slap bang into a burly young man who was letting it be known he considered the collision to be entirely Will’s fault. opening

Shamus wouldn’t have been surprised by an angry explosion from Will. The slightness of his brother’s frame — almost half the size of the Italian’s — had never held him back from confrontation in the past. And the whole brouhaha had been the young man’s fault in the first place. But instead, while clearly unhurt by his fall, Will appeared more confused than angry. He was staring at the man and frowning, as though trying to work out how, and from where, the young Italian had materialized.
“British!” exclaimed the Italian. “From London perhaps? I lived there for two years when I was a student. Very nice.”
To Shamus’s astonishment, Will merely nodded his head and continued to stare at the man. Shamus wondered if perhaps his brother was in shock; normally quite vocal, it wasn’t Will’s style to be so tight-lipped. pg. 10-11

“You’d better sit, if you aren’t already,” Will continued in a bossy, older-brother tone of voice that immediately irritated Shamus. “Edith has decided it’s time she did a little travelling, namely a sojourn in Venice with her darling sons.” pg. 15

“Well let’s face it, since Luke died, you have no reason to go home, do you?” asked Will. “Don’t you get lonely in that empty pile of bricks, curled up in the fetal position with your thumb in your mouth?”
Shamus said nothing.
“Look,” said Will. The change in the timbre of his voice was a signal of a halt in his harangue. A huskiness that, despite the imperfect phone connection, Shamus recognized — remembered — as the white flag of a temporary ceasefire. “For some reason unknown to man or beast, this trip seems to matter to Edith. I’d like you and me to do this together, that’s all,” concluded Will. pg. 17

England: 1940
It wasn’t the bloodshed that sickened Edith; she’d seen worse brawls. What repulsed her was the expression of sheer hatred that had transformed Liam’s normally placid, boyish features into a grotesque agglomeration of convulsive muscle and quivering flesh.
“You’re a bunch of Nazi wops,” he’d screamed. “Why don’t you clear off back to Italy before we lock you all up.”
Liam was standing nose to nose with Domenico Baccanello, the youngest son of the Italian family who lived in the bungalow next door. He gripped the front of Domenico’s shirt so tightly his knuckles were white with tension. pg. 21

“Let me see the paper,” said Edith. Instead of handing it to her, Liam held up the newspaper with his free hand and peered at it with his good eye. He quoted line by line in an exaggeratedly dramatic voice:
There is a stinking wind from the Mediterranean which bodes no good,
Yet we still tolerate Mussolini’s henchmen in this country!
The government of Italy has thousands of loyal followers here,
Italians by birth, Fascists by breeding. pg. 25

“Well I think we all deserve a cup of tea,” declared Mrs. Maguire two hours later. She took a final admiring glance at the transformed shed with its hen run securely enclosed in gleaming chicken wire. Carlo had carved out a couple of openings at the base of the shed wall, inside the run, for the hens to go in and out. Edith had planted sprouting potatoes and vegetable seedlings — Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and lettuce — in the bed that Mrs. Maguire had prepared to one side of the front lawn. Liam had disappeared into the house the minute the last section of chicken wire had been secured. Carlo retrieved his jacket from the window ledge and swung it over one shoulder. pg. 28-29

Italy: 27-09-2002 09:53

"I thought it was a bloody gunshot. It's weird how you never think you're particularly affected by news reports, but then they're the first thing you think of when something like that happens. Terrorist attacks. Al-Qaeda. They explode into your consciousness from some hidden recess of your brain you didn't know you had." pg. 41-42

England: 1940

...Anna clearly thought it more effective to shout loudly in Italian. But then she switched to an anguished English as she called desperately to Mrs. Maguire, "My friend, come quickly. They're taking Gianni and the boys. Come help us, please." pg. 46

"Our only crime is our Italian roots," Anna eventually said, dropping her hands to her sides. pg. 49

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons
Little, Brown & Company, June 21, 2010
Advanced Reading Copy, 357 pages
Hardcover ISBN-13: 9780316077583
http://natashasolomons.com/mr-rosenblums-list/

Recommended

Publisher Comments:

At the outset of World War II, Jack Rosenblum, his wife Sadie, and their baby daughter escape Berlin, bound for London. They are greeted with a pamphlet instructing immigrants how to act like the English. Jack acquires Saville Row suits and a Jaguar. He buys his marmalade from Fortnum & Mason and learns to list the entire British monarchy back to 913 A.D. He never speaks German, apart from the occasional curse. But the one key item that would make him feel fully British -membership in a golf club-remains elusive. In post-war England, no golf club will admit a Rosenblum. Jack hatches a wild idea: he'll build his own.
It's an obsession Sadie does not share, particularly when Jack relocates them to a thatched roof cottage in Dorset to embark on his project. She doesn't want to forget who they are or where they come from.

My Thoughts:

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons was originally released by Sceptre on April 2010 in the UK as Mr Rosenblum’s List or Friendly Guidance for the Aspiring Englishman. Just released today in the USA, personally, I have to tell you that I like the UK title much better. It suits the story because Jack's list is an important element to the story. (I also must say that the UK got a better cover too.) The novel was apparently inspired by the experiences of Solomon's grandparents.

The novel starts slow and if I didn't feel a compulsion to fulfill my duties and read the ARC, I might have set this one aside based on the beginning. While I ended up enjoying the story, Jack's sheer determination to build a golf course (after starting a successful carpet manufacturing business) no matter what, was getting on my nerves a wee bit. I really wasn't feeling any great connection with him and, quite frankly, he annoyed me at times. The character I really wanted to get to know better was Sadie. Solomons would share some interesting tidbit that gave us insight into Sadie's character and then we'd be back to the golf course. The story seemed to stall in places, so the pace was uneven. I also felt while reading this that I've read it before - it's basically a re-adaptation of a well-traveled story. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because in the end, I did. It has a winsome, charming sort of familiarity, but there is something that kept me from totally loving it. There's a lightness, a lack of depth, and some inconsistencies that held me back.

Solomons is a screenwriter and I can't help but wonder if her experience in that area had too great an influence on the way she wrote the story. Writing for a movie is very different from writing a novel. In the end, Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English might make a better movie than novel. If I was still giving stars, I'd probably go three and a half, but not four. I'm planning to pass my ARC along to someone who might enjoy it more than I did. Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English is a light read, and could be a good summer vacation book.

Recommended

Thanks to Hatchette for providing me with this Advanced Reading Copy.

No quotes

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007
by Tim Folger (Editor), Richard Preston (Editor)

Trade paperback, 300 pages

Houghton Mifflin, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-0618722310

nonfiction

highly recommended

From cover:

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the very best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected - and most popular - of its kind.

My Thoughts:

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 features 28 essays from 20 different periodicals. The essays chosen reflect a wide range of topics, from the sewers of Rome to video games to DNA. You can tell that all of the articles were chosen with care to represent the best essays from that year. I enjoyed most of the essays very much - a few less than the majority. All in all this was a good anthology and I'm going to check out others in the series.

Highly Recommended

Contents:
Foreword, Tim Folger

Introduction, Richard Preston

In Rome's Basement: from National Geographic, Paul Bennett
Plastic Ocean: from Best Life, Susan Casey
For the Love of Lemurs: from Smithsonian, Richard Conniff
The Rabbit on Mars: from Isotope, Alison Hawthorne Deming
Fishering: from Ecotone, Brian Doyle

Dinosaur Shocker!: from Smithsonian, Helen Fields
Cooking for Eggheads: from Discover, Patricia Gadsby
Cyber-Neologoliferation: from The New York Times Magazine, James Gleick
The Final Frontier: from Discover, John Horgan
How to Get a Nuclear Bomb: from The Atlantic Monthly, William Langewiesche
The Effeminate Sheep: from Seed, Jonah Lehrer
Let There Be Light: from Time, Michael Lemonick
The Nature of Violence: from Orion, Jeffrey Lockwood
The Germs of Life: from Orion, Lynn Margulis & Emily Case
Neanderthal Man: from Smithsonian, Steve Olson
Health Secrets from the Morgue: from Men's Health, Michael Perry
Hitler's Willing Archaeologists: from Archaeology, Heather Pringle
Sex, Lies, and Video Games: from The Atlantic Monthly, Jonathan Rauch
The Flu Hunter: from Smithsonian , Michael Rosenwald
Notes on the Space We Take: from Ninth Letter, Bonnie Rough
The Olfactory Lives of Primates: from The Virginia Quarterly Review, Robert Sapolsky
Ruffled Feathers: from The New Yorker, John Seabrook
In the Company of Bears: from Anchorage Press, Bill Sherwonit
The Rape of Appalachia: from Vanity Fair, Michael Shnayerson
First Soldier of the Gene Wars: from Archaeology, Meredith Small
A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check: from Scientific American, Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala
Delusions of Space Enthusiasts: from Natural History, Neil DeGrasse Tyson
DNA Is Not Destiny: from Discover, Ethan Watters
Contributors' Notes
Other Notable Science and Nature Writing of 2006

Quotes:

One of the joys of reading a collection like this is the opportunity to share the perspective of writers who take little for granted, who remind us that there is nothing ordinary about our world and that there is perhaps no better means for uncovering the unexpected than science. Tim Folger, foreword, pg. xi

I confess, I've been attracted to pieces in which the author displays a hint of obsession, especially if it involves a topic that's fresh, little known, or offbeat. Richard Preston, introduction, pg. xiii

Science is about not knowing and wanting badly to know. Science is about flawed and complicated human beings trying to use whatever tools they've got, along with their minds, to see something strange and new. In that sense, writing about science is just another way of writing about the human condition. Richard Preston, introduction, pg. xxii

Luca pushes his head into the sewer, inhales, and grins. "It doesn't smell so bad in the cloaca today," he says, dropping himself feet first into a dark hole in the middle of the Forum of Nerva. Paul Bennett, pg.1

Moore could not believe his eyes, Out here in this desolate place, the water was a stew of plastic crap. It was as though someone had taken the pristine seascape of his youth and swapped it for a landfill. Susan Casey, pg. 10

This is the head of the molecular gastronomy group in the College de France's Laboratory for the Chemistry of Molecular Interactions. That's a mouthful to describe a lab that studies something simple: how the process of cooking changes the structure and taste of food. Patricia Gadsby, pg. 43

But I was unprepared for the unmitigated ferocity of the Gryllacrididae - insects that look like a cross between a cricket and a grasshopper. Jeffrey Lockwood, pg. 115

Fear of bacteria has reached a feverish pitch recently, thanks in large part to the work of ever-industrious advertisers. In our efforts to eliminate there "germs" we have had devastating effects - not on the bacteria, but on ourselves. Lynn Margulis & Emily Case, pg.123

I've been invited to watch someone pull the guts from a dead man. The man has died, as they say, before his time. He was in his forties. Michael Perry, pg. 135

In Cold Blood, movie

In Cold Blood (1967)

Director: Richard Brooks

Actors: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Gerald S. O'Loughlin

TCM was showing the movie In Cold Blood yesterday and I decided to watch it because: 1. I had never watched it before and 2. I recently reread the book.

On TCM Robert Osborne commented that Brooks purposefully chose to not cast big stars in the roles of Perry and Dick. Filmed in black and white, Brooks took an approach that was almost like a documentary. He did almost all of the filming on location in the places where the events depicted occurred, including the same Kansas house in which the Cutter family was murdered. I think this gave the movie authenticity and a real sense of place. Naturally, Truman Capote's brilliant book is the better of the two, but the movie certainly did a fine job covering this horrific true crime.