The Martial Arts Book by Laura Scandiffio

I was recently asked to recommend some good books on martial arts for kids. In the past, I was rather disappointed with most offerings. They were boring, commercial, talked down to kids and said nothing about ninjas. Clearly, not what the kids were looking for.

The Martial Arts Book, however, is just as comprehensive as its title suggests. It surveys the major styles of martial arts and their history, covering a lot of ground in a short, wonderful volume. Frequently martial arts books (especially those for children) have little information, are too sugar-coated, are too commercial, or are clearly biased towards one art over another. This book, however, presents all the different styles of martial arts in a fair and equal manner. The maps, pictures, and asides do an excellent job of untangling the often confusing history of martial arts. The authors do not make light of martial arts myths, either - they realize that martial arts history is as much legend as fact and that to ignore the legends is to ignore a rich history. The legends told in the book are some of the classic tales of martial arts.

Kids interested in martial arts will eat this book up. They will love seeing how how ninjas, monks, samurai, pirates and farmers gave rise to the martial arts of today. They will also love the colorful pictures and engaging layout. Parents will appreciate the emphasis on peace, compassion, and on growing internally as well as externally. Teachers will appreciate the accuracy of the information, the historical context it will give to their students, and the frank treatment of the "westernization" of martial arts.

I, personally, am impressed with how much information was packed into such a short volume in such an engaging manner.

Conquering the Impossible: my 12,000-mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle, by Mike Horn

This guy is pretty crazy! The book starts out shortly after Mike is done with his last crazy journey, which was to circumnavigate the globe around the equator. He did this on foot and in a sailboat. He decides to do this same thing around the Arctic Circle, but has no prior arctic experience whatsoever, so he hooks up with 2 people who are planning to cross Greenland by foot and after a few days they are stuck in their tents for 2 weeks because of horrendous weather and they give up on the project. Mike Horn decides he's now got enough experience to do a warm-up journey before the big one around the circle. How about a solo journey from the northernmost tip of Europe to the North Pole? With his (very little) experience he does go off on his next adventure towards the North Pole and on it he manages to get frostbite on the ends of all his fingers which ultimately makes him cancel the rest of the trip and get rescued. Back in civilization the doctors cut off the last joint of most of his fingers and thumbs and tell him he needs 2 full years of healing before he should expose his damaged fingers to extreme cold so what does he do? He plans and takes off on his trip around the Arctic Circle 4 months later. It's actually a well written and amusingly entertaining book about a guy with an amazing amount of drive.

The Divine Matrix by Gregg Braden

This review was written by Colville Library patron Ron Warsher, who specially requested this book from the library.

This is definitely a leading-edge book, almost fantasy, and hard to believe all of what it claims. Still, I'm really glad that the library chose to go ahead and purchase it.

The author looks at issues that most people (serious researchers included) ignore, due to the difficulty of integrating these insights into our normal models of how the universe works. Braden has been an explorer in the area of free energy for a number of years (which is what drew my interest initially), but this book is a bit afield from that. He stretches the mind, re-defining what may be possible.

The chapters begin with relevant quotes to get the mind THINKING. Two examples:

"Time is not at all what it seems. It does not flow only in one direction, and the future exists simultaneously with the past." - Albert Einstein [and Braden repeats this idea later in the chapter with another Einstein quote: "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."]

"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true." - Soren Kierkegaard

It is easy to think of such ideas as "oh, clever" and then rush on with normal life. It is more difficult to ask "What is the import of these thoughts? What might the world really be like if we give these insights full standing in our thoughts?"

I cannot describe here the full extent of what Braden calls the divine matrix that connects the whole world instantaneously; but it deserves a place in our thoughts. Mind-stretching books are certainly appropriate for libraries to carry. Braden's interpretation of modern physics may or may not stand the test of time, but the journey itself is worthwhile. Thank you for making that journey possible.

-Ron Warsher

Beowulf

I went and saw the movie version of Beowulf, expecting it to be dreadful. I was quite surprised to find that I actually liked it, but more than that, I liked it AND the movie was a faithful retelling of the original epic poem.

Sure, they added a bit of plot that wasn't there (a good addition in my opinion), but I was pleasantly surprised to see how interesting a story Beowulf could be. I had liked Beowulf, but in a sort of "I have to read this for English class and what do you know? it isn't half bad" sort of way.

Anyhow, the movie made me want to re-read the poem, so I pulled out the nice, new Seamus Heany (read, Irish poet laureate) translation. The book is full of men drinking, men boasting, men getting attacked by a giant man/monster-thing, hero-man promising to kill said monster, hero-man fighting monster, hero man being brought low by his own pride. It's not a happy poem or movie by any stretch of the imagination, but its quite good.

Neither the movie nor the book will appeal to everyone, but if you liked the movie Beowulf, try the poem on for size. It's a relatively short read and you'll be astonished and how faithfully the movie follows the book. And if you remember the poem from English class and don't cringe at the thought of it, you may find the movie oddly compelling.

(Movie rated PG-13, by the way, for violence (the "bone breaking" part is straight out of the poem) and nudity/sexuality. The book is generally categorized as high-school/college reading.)

The Dangerous Book for Boys by Gonn and Hall Iggulden

You may have heard about the controversy surrounding this book's title or the controversy about the fact that it lists a pocket knife and matches among the supplies a boy should never be without. If the idea of pocket knives and matches and secret ink made from urine sound cool to you and not disturbing, then you need to check out this book.

The Dangerous Book is a book full of all those sorts of boy-scout, Saturday afternoon in the backyard kind of things that people blame video games for destroying. Such as...

* Backyard ballistics
* Guide to pirate flags
* A grammar guide
* A list of famous battles (so you can use those backyard ballistics properly)
* How to make a bow and arrow
* Secret codes and cyphers
* Guide to bugs
* A list of good Shakespearian insults and 10 poems you ought to know
* How to make traps
* How to skin and cook a rabbit
* First Aid
* Useful Latin phrases
and, of course:
* Girls

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

Always looking for new authors and books, a friend from B.C. recommended trying this author and when I looked in our Public Access Catalog I found several offerings including one I had already read! Spin was written in 2005 and is a science fiction novel about 3 friends. In their teens, a planet-spanning shield that blocks out the rest of the universe appears. The book basically tells the story of the next 30 years of their lives, during which around 300 billion years pass outside the shield because of an engineered time discontinuity. Many things happen and much speculative science is thrown around. Spin is a psychological narrative and a cosmological meditation and several other things in between. Wilson's characterization is rich and believable, and the ideas keep coming at a ripping pace. I'm busy looking in the catalog for another book by Robert Charles Wilson as soon as I post this.

The Little Black Book of Style by Nina Garcia

Tell me you didn’t love Project Runway. When I saw the pilot show, I was totally hooked. My mom Tivo-ed it so we could watch together as the designers on the show battled it out to see who could come up with the best styles.

From the Project Runway’s most terrifying judge, Nina Garcia (the one who is always right but is totally harsh), comes The Little Black Book of Style. Garcia reveals the secrets of real style: style which never changes, despite the ups and downs of fashion.

Garcia’s biggest style secret is so obvious, it may surprise you (especially coming from a woman whose whole life is built around telling people how to dress). The Little Black Book is a frivolous, lightweight, 1-afternoon read, and it’s totally perfect for getting inspired if you tend to look in your closet and go, “bleah.”

Why Good Things Happen to Good People

When I saw the title of this book, I first thought I’d misread it. Isn’t it that BAD things happen to good people? Surely being a good person doesn’t make your life good, right? Well, while bad things do sometimes happen to go people, the crazy thing is that scientific research is finding that being good actually improves your life.

Obviously, the book does not say that ONLY good things happen to good people. But what studies have found is that good people live overall good lives. Loving, giving people bounce back from tragedies more quickly. They live longer, are healthier, and rate themselves as content and happy. Teens who give are less likely to get into trouble, less likely to suffer depression, and more likely to continue to give as they grow older.

With all the books out there on criminals and psychopaths, I found it so refreshing to read a book on the study of unconditional love. Not only is the research well done, but the writing is interesting and engaging. If you are intrigued by the concept that good giving leads to good living, then I highly recommend that you check out this book.

A practical handbook for the boyfriend : for every guy who wants to be one, for every girl who wants to build one / Felicity Huffman & Patricia Wolff.

A patron told me he had read this book at night to his wife and that they got a lot of entertainment out of it. He recommended it highly, so I checked it out and took it home. I laughed my face off several times! I really enjoyed the vintage pictures at the start of each chapter, also. Among the many things a guy can learn from this book are: How to apologize without really apologizing, How to survive her driving, How to avoid talking about your "feelings", How to pretend you have "feelings", How to charm the pants off of her (literally), and How to convince her farting in bed is a sign of your commitment...as you can tell this book takes a humorous approach, yet I actually learned many things for real, and also confirmed many things that I had only had a gut feeling about. For men and women alike, I definately recommend this book for some fun and educational reading!

The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries - Whitney's summer reading list

Dorothy Sayers, the author of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, is worth a novel in her own right. An unconventional woman of the 1920’s, she got an Oxford degree when few women did so and went on to support her family by working as a writer. In her lifetime, she was best known for her works on theology and her popular “Guiness is Good for You” beer ad campaign. Posthumously, she’s best known for her mystey novels, the Lord Peter Wimsey series.

The fictional Lord Peter is the second son of a duke, and as such, has little to do all day long except be very rich. To stave off boredom, he turns to sleuthing. Though to all outward appearances, Lord Peter appears a rich nitwit, he never misses a clue and always catches the crook. Think of him as a well-dressed Columbo with an Eton-bred British accent.

Every one of these novels is a delight. While the reader may guess the culprit early in the game, Sayers writes such interesting characters and twisting plots that it’s fun to follow the story all the way to the end. I once heard someone say that her books are not so much whodunits and whydunnits. The real question is not who is guilty, but how they were motivated and, more importantly, how their guilt can be proved in a court of law.

Later in the series, Lord Peter meets the mystery writer Harriet Vane, who becomes his love interest and partner in (solving) crime. While the Lord Peter novels can be read out of order, I would recommend reading at least the Harriet Vane/Lord Peter novels in order.

Novels:
1. Whose Body? (1923) – Dead nude in a tub.
2. Clouds of Witness (1926) – Lord Peter’s whole family is suspect of murder
3. Unnatural Death (1927)
4. Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928) – No one noticed when the old general died
5. Strong Poison (1931) – Introducing the accused – and love interest – Harriet Vane #1
6. Five Red Herrings (1931) – Murder while on holiday in Scotland
7. Have His Carcase (1932) – Harriet Vane returns - Harriet Vane #2
8. Murder Must Advertise (1933) – well, it must
9. The Nine Tailors (1934) – The bells toll for the dead
10. Gaudy Night (1935) – Harriet Vane visits her Oxford Alma Mater – and encounters a vicious prankster - Harriet Vane #3
11. Busman’s Honeymoon (1937) – Lord Peter and Miss Vane tie the knot – and solve a murder - Harriet Vane #4
12. Thrones, Dominations (1998) - not finished by Sayers -- completed by Jill Paton Walsh
13. A Presumption of Death (2002) - written by Jill Paton Walsh, based loosely on The Wimsey Papers

And if you still can’t get enough, try one of the short story collections:
Lord Peter Views the Body (1928)
Hangman’s Holiday (1928) also contains non-Wimsey stories
In the Teeth of the Evidence (1939) also contains non-Wimsey stories

60's! A Catalog of Memories and Artifacts, by John and Gordon Javna

If you are a Baby Boomer and grew up in the '60's, you will really enjoy this book! It is chock full of memorabilia and photos. Cars, TV, Fashion, Politics, Food, Toys, Music. It's all there to peruse. I got a lot of laughs and great feelings while reading this book. 237 pages of flashbacks!

One Man's Wilderness, by Sam Keith from the journals and photographs of Richard Proenneke

I watched the DVD we have here in the Library called Alone in the Wilderness, and had recommended it to several patrons when one day a patron returned this book and explained that it was the book that went with the movie. I was quite elated to be able to go further in depth into Dick's experience in the Alaskan wilderness.
At age 51 Dick dropped out of "real life" and went to Kodiak Island and built a small log cabin. This book is mainly about his first year there; building the cabin, the constant chain of nature's events that kept him company, and his first winter. The writing in the book is like a diary, some days entries are short and some long. His writing is at times quite prosiac and certainly had the effect of bringing me there to almost experience what he did. Many have dreamed his dream, but Dick followed through with it and he stayed to become a part of the country. Check out the DVD too!

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, by P.D. James

I haven't read a murder mystery in a while, and P.D. James was a good choice. Her novels are chock full of detail: she manages to capture characters in just a few vivid sentences and drives the action along so smoothly that you will find yourself hooked before you know it.

In London in the late 60's, Cordelia Gray suddenly finds herself the sole proprietor of Pryde’s Detective Agency. Desperate for money, she takes the first case offered to her, even though (as everyone seems compelled to remind her) detective work is an unsuitable job for a woman.

Cordelia is employed by a wealthy Cambridge scientist to find out why his son committed suicide. But as simple as the investigation seems, she quickly unearths a number of ugly secrets. Soon, it becomes clear that Cordelia is not dealing with a suicide, but a murder.

And Cordelia may be the killer’s next target.

The deserter's tale : the story of an ordinary soldier who walked away from the war in Iraq / Joshua Key ; as told to Lawrence Hill.

I have a good friend who is now stationed in Bagdad and he recently came home for a couple of well deserved weeks away from there, and while he was home we talked about what is going on over there. After he went back I read this book and it corroborated many of the things that he told me. This book is written by a young man who was a patriot and believed in his president, but after a couple months of taking part in house raids where they blew the doors off houses and went in and took all males over 5' tall out and sent them away to who knows where, searched for terrorists, weapons of mass destruction and other weapons while basically trashing the whole house and never finding anything except the usual automatic weapon for self defense, he started to ask himself questions and eventually came to the belief that the only terrorists he saw were himself and the other troops there. He vividly describes many horrifying experiences that he either took part in, or witnessed on a daily basis. After 7 months he was given 2 weeks leave to visit his wife and kids back home and he found that he just could not go back. The second half of the book is about going AWOL and finally getting safely into Canada. After reading this book I was a bit reluctant to believe it all, but remembering the things my friend had described and shortly thereafter watching a DVD in the library system called The Ground Truth, I believe. The book itself is an easy read, not extremely well written, however I highly recommend reading it as it may change your perspective on the realities of this "war". Check out the DVD too while you are at it!

Immersed in Verse by Allan Wolf

National Poetry Month is almost over, BUT BEFORE WE GO, I wanted to share this AWESOME book.

Immersed in Verse was recommended by the School Library Journal as one of the Best Books of 2006. I can see why. The book's full title is "An Informative, Slightly Irreversent, & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet's Life."

And it truly is. Immersed in Verse gives great advice to poets (and writers of all kinds), on how to get ideas for writing, how to revise, the importance of always carrying a notebook with you, and is chock full of great example poems, written by everyone from Langston Hughes to Byron to Sylvia Plath to Shakespeare.

This book really has it all. I looked through this book and thought "If only I'd had this books YEARS ago!" This book has in it everything I learned (often on my own) over the past 20 years on writing. (And I majored in Creative Writing!) Technically, this book is a teen book, but I would recommend it for anyone (but especially teens), who are interested in writing. It has all the best lessons and advice all in one place.

If you are a writer (and remember: anyone who writes is a writer) or you are someone who encourages young writers, you MUST take a look at this book.

Alpha, by Catherine Asaro

I stumbled across Asaro while looking for something new in the SciFi realm of our library system. My first book was this one, Alpha, where I thoroughly enjoyed her captivationg style of writing which is very rich in characterization and liberal use of high tech SciFi ideas. She also integrates all of this with romance. Alpha is an AI (artificial intellingence) android with evolving intellince who is six feet tall and beautiful, undistinguishable from a human female, who flies jets and wields a machine gun, among other things. I went back and read the prequel to this called Sunrise Alley. Both of these books delve heavily into Asaro's extrapolation of current artificial intelligence theories and the ethics thereof. Can artificial intelligence or evolving intelligences become human?
An easy reading thriller that makes the reader ask themselves many questions, in a writing style as attractive and persuasive as Elizabeth Moon.

Spychips : how major corporations and government plan to track your every move with RFID / Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre.

This is a pretty disturbing book to me as it basically documents (with a huge amount of footnotes) the history and future of master planners' strategies to spy on Americans without their knowledge or consent using radio frequecy identification chips, which can be made so small as to not even be detected by the human eye. There are different types of chips, in all sizes, that can perform different functions, including broadcasting your location and all types of information that can be stored on them. Examples of RFID chips now currently being used are like the ones some pet owners have had embedded under their pet's skin that contain information about the pet, including it's owner's name and contact information that can readily read with a special scanner similar to ones used at the grocery store and libraries, and most new cars that have GPS in them also have a RFID chip. The book goes into the possible ramifications of the unrestricted use of RFID chips. The two women who wrote the book are just concerned suburban housewives, who have so far managed to foil some of the master planners' strategies. If you are concerned about "Big Brother" and keeping your personal freedoms this is a must read.

April is National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's that poetry is often associated with flowers and there are a lot of flowers in April. Then again, many poets are decidedly un-flowery.

At any rate, today I saw a book by one of my favorite poets and just thought I'd blog, in no particular order, some of my favorite books of poetry that I'll be re-reading in April.

1. Collected Poems, by Wendell Berry: If you've never read Wendell Berry, you're missing out. A farmer from Kentucky, Berry does all his farming by hand. This is reflected in all of his poems, which have deceptively earthy and simple quality to them. They sound just like an old friend talking, but if you read more closely, there's amazing music in the words.

2. The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, ed. by Jack Prelutsky: This book says it's "for children," but don't let that fool you. This is one of the finest collections of poetry around. From nursery rhymes to poets by the masters, this volume is so wonderful, you won't want to let it go.

3. 5 Poets of the Pacific Northwest: As the title says, this book contains the work of 5 contemporary northwest poets, whose writing often reflects the landscape they

4. Selected Poetry, Gerard Manley Hopkins: You'd thinkVictorian Jesuit priest would be kind of stuffy, but Hopkin's poetry is full of passion and sincerity, especially in an age of formalism and tradition.

That's a few of them anyhow. Take a look through the poetry section - it's in the 811s and following in the Dewey system. It's HUGE! We have TONS of poetry - have fun with it this April, and all year 'round.

Graffiti world : Street Art from 5 Continents by Nicholas Ganz

Graffiti world is not a book to read: it's a book to look at carefully.

With amazing pictures of graffiti, murals, and public art from all around the world, this book takes spray-paint to a whole new level. Anyone who appreciates art, especially funky graphic art, should take the time to look through this book.

The South Beach Heart Program, by Arthur Agatston

Written by the well known and reknowned author of the South Beach Diet books this book is a 4 step plan that can help save your life. Part 1 of the book is about our health care system that relies way too much on procedures to fix things that happen such as a heart attack or stroke, and why doctors are paid more to treat disease than to prevent it. Angioplasty and Bypass surgery are a multi billion dollar industry in the USA. In part 2 he presents his Heart Program which is designed to identify and prevent problems before they become life threatening. There is much about the newest and latest research about the how and why of heart attacks. If you have a family history of heart disease, or have high cholesterol/high blood pressure, you need to read this book!

No Shortcuts To The Top, by Ed Viesturs with David Roberts

I LOVE to read books about high mountain climbing, especially in the Himalayas, so this book was a natural for me to jump into. I've read about Ed Viesturs many times in other books and magazines, however Ed started out with a pretty low profile. I knew that he had relocated to the Seattle area, and I knew that he was going for climbing all the world's 8,000 meter mts. (there are 14 of them), and I knew that he climbed without the use of supplemental oxygen, but until the last few years there just wasn't much written about Ed because of his low profile.
The book is mainly an autobiography with a little about growing up and the bulk of the writing is about his climbing career with the emphasis on the climbing experiences on the 14 8,000'ers, as he calls them throughout the book. Ed was genetically gifted for climbing in the "Death Zone" as his body utilizes the sparse amount of available oxygen better than most people and he works hard to train and get to the mountains he loves to climb. I rather enjoyed getting to know more about Ed and his accomplishments. It was a very easy read, with plenty of exciting moments! If you like to read mountain climbing books you are sure to enjoy this one, too.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

I confess: I saw the movie before I read the book. Howl’s Moving Castle was made into a beautiful, fascinating film by Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki. After seeing the movie, I went to track down the book it is based on. The book (of course!) is even better than the movie.

Both the book and the movie follow the story of Sophie Hatter, who accidentally offends the evil Witch of the Waste. The witch turns Sophie into a 90-year-old woman and Sophie wanders off into the wilds to break the spell. She soon stumbles upon a magical moving castle that belongs to the mysterious Wizard Howl.

Sophie soon finds herself in an adventure involving a missing prince, a turnip-headed scarecrow, finding husbands for her younger sisters, two fire demons, a lost sorcerer, an enchanted dog, a king’s command, falling stars, mermaids, a very messy house, finding true love, and missing poetry homework.

Howl’s Moving Castle was one of the most enchanting books I’ve read in some time, and I highly recommend it to any fan of fairytales, stories about wizards, magic, or any fan of quirky British storytelling.

Tempting Faith by David Kuo

I usually read children’s fiction and avoid political non-fiction like the plague. But this book caught my eye and I’m glad I read it. It is different than the other exposes out there. It appeals to (as in, it makes an appeal to) all Americans, regardless of religion or political affiliation.

Tempting Faith is by turns a political expose and a very moving memoir of one man’s life. David Kuo worked in Bush’s office of Faith-Based Initiatives, campaigning for aid to small charities. Kuo began by believing he could use politics to bring money to under-funded charities across America. In the end, however, his department accomplished little and he left the White House disillusioned by politics.

The power of Kuo’s book comes not from his insider views on corrupt politics (though there is plenty of that), but rather from the lack of bitterness or anger in his writing. Though full of irony, his story has none of the barbs that so many political books do. Kuo writes as a man completely free from all concern for his reputation or career because, well, he is. He gave up on politics when he discovered he has a brain tumor and could die at any time. As Kuo himself writes, his health showed him what was important in life. Instead of trying to use politics to support charitable causes, he got involved with charities himself.

I think the most powerful part of the book is when Kuo writes about how, post 9/11, all the White House staffers got together, discussing how to get prayer meetings and candlelight vigils organized. Then they looked up and discovered the obvious: Americans had done all those things on their own. They hadn’t needed an initiative or an executive order to care about their fellow countrymen – they just did.