Friday Fiction Update: New Title from Jodi Picoult: House Rules

--by Hanje Richards

.

As so many of Jodi Picoult’s books do, House Rules deals with the medical and the legal and the ethics involved when the two collide. The Copper Queen Library now has this book both in Hardcover New Fiction and in New Audio on CD. As always, if the edition you are looking for is not currently available, you can put it on hold or have someone at the circulation desk put it on hold for you.

.

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject -- in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do...and he's usually right.

.

But then, his town is rocked by a terrible murder and, for a change, the police come to Jacob with questions. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's -- not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, flat affect -- can look a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel.

.

Suddenly, Jacob and his family, who only want to fit in, feel the spotlight shining directly on them. For his mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication of why nothing is normal because of Jacob. And over this small family the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder?

..
House Rules looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way -- and fails those who don't.

Spotlight On – The Unitarian Universalist Church Social Action Committee Donation (Part 2)

--by Peg White

.

Recently, members of The Unitarian Universalist Church Of Southeastern Arizona's Social Action Committee visited the Copper Queen Library to inquire about donating materials to several of our collections. After much hard work on the parts of the SAC and the CQL, the following books became permanent parts of the Adult Non-Fiction Collection:

..

At Century's End: Great Minds Reflect on Our Times (Images Publishing) Essays and interviews by thirty noted leaders and thinkers as varied as V.S. Naipaul and Nelson Mandela examine the condition of the world at millennium's end and offer a variety of cautions and prescriptions for the world to come… Pierre Trudeau and Isaiah Berlin on nationalism, Akbar H. Ahmedon on Islam and the West, and Lee Kuan Yew on East Asia are among the distinguished contributors to the New Perspectives Quarterly, from which this work is drawn.

..

.

Biomimicry (Janine Benyus)
Forget the notion that technology improves upon nature. Benyus introduces us to pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs by uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels. These engineers are devising solar fuel cells as efficient as plants, fibers as tough as abalone shell, and computers as sophisticated as the brain.
.
..

.

.

The Carbon Buster's Home Energy Handbook (Godo Stoyke)
The first book in North America to provide a detailed carbon accounting of a family’s carbon emissions and how to reduce them systematically analyzes energy costs and evaluates which measures yield the highest returns for the environment and the pocketbook. The book allows individuals to quickly and accurately assess which products are a good deal and which aren’t, enabling readers to dramatically reduce their carbon emissions — far below the levels targeted under the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, readers implementing the recommendations will save an average of $15,000 in energy costs over the next five years.
.
.

Ecological Medicine: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves (Kenny Ausubel)
Drawn largely from luminous presentations given at the annual Bioneers Conference, this pathfinding book — the first in a new Bioneers Series published by Sierra Club Books — focuses on pragmatic solutions emerging at the fertile edges between the overlapping worlds of environmental restoration and holistic healing. In this kaleidoscopic collection, many of the world’s leading health visionaries show us how human health is inescapably dependent on the health of our environment.
.
The rich array of voices in this book reflects the collective intelligence of the emerging movement known as Ecological Medicine. Its advocates look to the strategic public health measures that first do no harm to the environment and, in turn, successfully improve human health.

.
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (Paul Hawken)
Hawken thoughtfully reviews ecological theories and disasters and insists that "ecology offers a way to examine all present economic and resource activities from a biological rather than a monetary point of view." Calling for a restorative economy, he proposes rational, achievable goals: stop "accelerating the rate that we draw down capacity"; refrain from "buying or degrading other people's environment"; and avoid displacing "other species by taking over their habitats."
.

.
.

.

Evening Thoughts (Thomas Berry, Mary Evelyn Tucker)
Among the contemporary voices for the Earth, none resonates like that of noted cultural historian Thomas Berry. His teaching and writings have inspired a generation’s thinking about humankind’s place in the Earth Community and the universe, engendering widespread critical acclaim and a documentary film on his life and work.

.
This new collection of essays, from various years and occasions, expands and deepens ideas articulated in his earlier writings and also breaks new ground. Berry opens our eyes to the full dimensions of the ecological crisis, framing it as a crisis of spiritual vision. Applying his vast knowledge in cultural history, science, and comparative religions, he forges a compelling narrative of creation and communion that reconciles modern evolutionary thinking and traditional religious insights concerning our integral role in Earth’s society.

.

..
The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (Thomas Berry)
The future can exist only if humans understand how to commune with the natural world rather than exploit it, explains author and renowned ecologist Thomas Berry (The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story). Because Berry has a science background as well as a spiritual orientation (he is the founder of the History of Religions Program at Fordham University), he brings a balanced and fresh voice to social ecology.
.
.

.

Green from the Ground Up: Sustainable, Healthy, and Energy-Efficient Home Construction (David Johnston, Scott Gibson)

Eco-friendly housing used to be thought of as expensive, ugly or just plain weird. Now it's becoming common. David Johnston and Scott Gibson offer guidance on environmentally sensitive home building, helping builders and homeowners create houses that conserve natural resources and are energy-efficient and healthful. It's packed with information, tips, illustrations, and case studies that offer wisdom earned from experience.
.
.

.

.

Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity (Sandra Postel)
Imagine America going to war over water. Don't think it will ever happen? Think again. Water scarcity is a real problem, one which is growing exponentially. The fact that water seems so readily available and inexpensive (the "illusion of plenty" as the author states it), and people's overuse and lack of respect towards this life-sustaining resource are only some of the causes for the water crisis. Sandra Postel has written a stunning account which discloses the atrocious amount of neglect and mismanagement of water. Fortunately, there are solutions that offer hope for restoring and sustaining our essential lifeline, all of which are economically and environmentally friendly.
.
Making Room: Finding Space in Unexpected Places (Wendy Adler Jordan)
Most homeowners long for more space as well as space that better fits their needs. But building an addition is expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to the household. What homeowners don't realize is that just about every house has room to spare, much of it unrecognized. Making Room showcases creative ideas for areas that are underused or taken for granted — a broom closet, an empty wall, window bays, and corner nooks — focuses entirely on creating new spaces within the existing footprint of the home, and explores commonly overlooked spaces and scores of clever ideas for putting those spaces to use. More than 100 creative ideas highlight transformations that are small in scale but big in impact.
.
Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster (Peter A. Victor)
Overcoming our addiction to economic growth is one of the most important challenges for the 21st century. Peter Victor's masterful summary of the history and fallacies of this particularly pervasive and increasingly dangerous addiction will be a great help in getting over it. A sustainable and desirable future requires clearly differentiating between "bigger" and "better" and recognition that in the overdeveloped West these two have parted ways. Peter Victor's book will help us slow down by design, not disaster, and understand how that slowing down will in fact increase our quality of life.
.
The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention (David W. Orr)
Ecological design is an emerging field that aims to recalibrate what humans do in the world according to how the world works as a biophysical system. Design in this sense is a large concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with buildings and technology. The book begins by describing the scope of design, comparing it to the Enlightenment of the 18th century.
.
Subsequent chapters describe barriers to a design revolution inherent in our misuse of language; the clockspeed of technological society; shortsighted politics; and the critical role educational institutions might play in fostering design intelligence and what he calls "a higher order of heroism."

..

No Rich, No Poor (Charles Andrews)
The economic crash of 2008 has deep roots. Since 1973, the rewards of work have been shrinking for most of us. The US is well on the way to losing its entire middle class, becoming a country of rich and very rich in one camp and common people struggling with distress in the other. Yet, as the saying goes, things change. No Rich, No Poor explains how we got to this condition and why a program of common prosperity is the historical task of our time.
.
.

.

Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (Sandra Postel)
The overriding lesson from history is that most irrigation-based civilizations fail. As we enter the third millennium the question arises: Will ours be any different? For 6,000 years, irrigation has ranked among the most powerful tools of human advancement. The story of settled agriculture, the growth of cities, and the rise of early empires is, to no small degree, a story of controlling water to make the land more prosperous and habitable. Pillar of Sand examines the history, challenges, and pitfalls of irrigated agriculture — from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to twentieth-century India and the US. By unmasking the risks faced by irrigation-based societies — including water scarcity, soil salinization, and conflicts over rivers — water specialist Sandra Postel connects the lessons of the past with the challenge of making irrigation thrive into the 21st century and beyond.

.
.
Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Lester R. Brown)
As fossil fuel prices rise, oil insecurity deepens, and concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are replacing oil, coal, and natural gas, at a pace and on a scale we could not have imagined even a year ago. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, we have begun investing in energy sources that can last forever. Brown explores both the nature of this transition to a new energy economy and how it will affect our daily lives..

..

Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil & Climate Change (Pat Murphy)
"Plan C" explores the risks inherent in trying to continue our energy-intensive lifestyle. Using dirtier fossil fuels ("Plan A") or switching to renewable energy sources ("Plan B") allows people to remain complacent in the face of potential global catastrophe. Dramatic lifestyle change is the only way to begin to create a sustainable, equitable world. The converging crises of Peak Oil, climate change, and increasing inequity are presented in a clear, concise manner, as are the twin solutions of community (where cooperation replaces competition) and curtailment (deliberately reducing consumption of consumer goods). Plan C shows how each person’s individual choices can dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, offering specific strategies in the areas of food, transportation, and housing.
.
The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide & Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times (Albert Bates)
Over the coming years, we will need to move from a global culture addicted to cheap, abundant petroleum to a culture of compelled conservation, whether through government directive or market forces. Bates provides useful practical advice for preparing your family and community to make the transition. Also including lighthearted, playful recipes — some using basic, wholesome foods, some illustrating food growing or preservation, and all emphasizing organic, flavorful, and locally grown produce that can readily substitute one for another — this book is about having your catastrophe and eating it, too.
.
.

Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America's Founding Fathers (Gary Kowalski) What did the Founding Fathers believe about God and the Bible? Unitarian Universalist minister Kowalski (The Souls of Animals) joins the chorus of answers with this elegantly written book, which clearly situates the Founders in an Enlightenment tradition that privileged reason. Charting a middle ground between those who claim the Founders either as orthodox Christians or total skeptics, Kowalski argues that they were religious liberals who believed in a Creator and in moral law.
.
Rivers for Life: Managing Water For People And Nature (Sandra Postel, Brian Richter)
The conventional approach to river protection has focused on water quality and maintaining some "minimum" flow that was thought necessary to ensure the viability of a river. In recent years, however, scientific research has underscored the idea that the ecological health of a river system depends not on a minimum amount of water at any one time but on the naturally variable quantity and timing of flows throughout the year.
.
In Rivers for Life, leading water experts Sandra Postel and Brian Richter explain why restoring and preserving more natural river flows are key to sustaining freshwater biodiversity and healthy river systems, and describe innovative policies, scientific approaches, and management reforms for achieving those goals.
.
Slow is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie de Vivre (Cecile Andrews)
Through research and witty descriptions of her own experiences, Andrews reveals how an obsession with professional status and commercial/material success can be antithetical to joyful living. She peels back the shallow surface of these cherished "values" and exposes them as surface intoxications, spurred by corporate culture — and ultimately unsustainable. This builds her compelling case for the often repeated (but hitherto unheeded) message: personal happiness is more likely to emerge via simplicity than via complexity... more likely to emerge via community than via self-promotion.
.
.

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health - and a Vision for Change (Annie Leonard)
Why is there so much garbage, and where does it go? A Time magazine "Hero of the Environment," Leonard has traveled the world tracking trash and its wake of destruction. Her investigations convinced her that the impossible dream of perpetual economic growth and the rampant consumer culture it engenders are the root causes of today’s environmental crises. A rigorous thinker in command of a phenomenal amount of information, Leonard believes that we must calculate the full ecological and social cost of our “stuff.” So she takes us through the extraction of natural resources and the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of various products, documenting eco-hazards and the exploitation of workers along the way.
.
Universal Design for the Home: Great Looking, Great Living Design for All Ages, Abilities, and Circumstances (Wendy A. Jordan)
Jordan mixes a blend of beautiful projects, creative ideas, and substantive planning information. Highly visual, the book features projects showing room contexts, as well as detail shots. The mix of projects encompasses small and large houses; one-story and multi-story houses; and ideas for general accessibility and comfort as well as some targeted more directly at handicap accessibility. There is an emphasis on remodeled projects, but new homes designed with an eye toward accessibility — present and future — are included as well. Chapters cover the spectrum of accessible home planning, from room arrangements to kitchens, baths, entries, and exterior areas. Basic specifications, how-to tips, and other technical content are featured throughout the book in easy-to-find boxes and sidebars.

.
.
You Can't Eat GNP: Economics As If Ecology Mattered (Eric Davidson)
Ecology and economics are not doomed to be adversaries. This lively and concise book presents the exciting new insights of environmental economics as well as the three fallacies of conventional economic analysis. You Can't Eat GNP offers a blueprint for a truly sustainable economy that recognizes the natural resources (like water, air, and soil) on which we ultimately depend.

Spotlight On – The Unitarian Universalist Church Social Action Committee Donation

--by Peg White
.
Recently, members of The Unitarian Universalist Church Of Southeastern Arizona's Social Action Committee visited the Copper Queen Library to inquire about donating materials to several of our collections. After much hard work on the parts of the SAC and the CQL, the following books became permanent parts of the Children's Collections:
.
Conserving Energy (Donna Bailey) (J 333.79 BAILEY)
Ages 9-12-- Part of a series which encourages readers to look carefully at their environment and to see how they can help to take care of it, this book focuses on conserving energy, identifying the problems of this environmental issue, and its possible solutions in the readers' everyday experience.

Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean (Arthur Dorros) (J 551.48 DORROS)
Kindergarten-Grade 4-- An excellent presentation of introductory material about water. Addressing readers in the second-person "you," it clearly explains such terms as "brook," "stream," "river," and "delta," and illustrates such basic concepts as where water comes from, how it travels, and where it goes… from brooks, to streams, to rivers, over waterfalls, through canyons and dams, to eventually reach the ocean.

How Green Are You? (David Bellamy) (J 363.7 BELLAMY)
Ages 6-9-- An entertaining and informative introduction to environmental protection. A character known as the Friendly Whale defines basic terms; the letters of WHALE are used as an acronym for water, habitat, air, life, and energy. Pollutants affecting each of these elements are described. Most importantly, Bellamy suggests ways for readers to help save the planet and their friends, the whales. Projects suggested range from the simple (decorating boxes to hold recyclables, making a compost heap, growing bean sprouts) to the more ambitious (creating a backyard pond).

Pollution (Janine Amos, Brian McIntyre)
Ages 4-8-- Part of a series, this book looks at different types of pollution, their causes and their effects, and the preventative measures that can be taken. It shows the far-reaching effects of air, water and soil pollution, such as the greenhouse effect and acid rain, and how the demands of an ever-increasing world population perpetuate these problems. Alternative forms of energy and the design of environmentally-friendly products provide a positive look to the future.

Saving the Planet & Stuff (Gail Gauthier) (YA FIC GAUTHIER SAVING)
Grades 8-10--When 16-year-old Michael's summer job plans fizzle, he leaps at the next offer that comes along: helping in the office of a well-established environmental magazine while living with its founders, Walt and Nora, who are friends of his grandparents. Michael begins to think he's made a big mistake even before spending his first night in a spare bedroom packed with not-yet-recycled styrofoam, paper and plastic bags, boxes, and the like. During the next few weeks, though, he gets to know Walt and Nora and is drawn into the office politics that threaten the magazine's mission.

Why Should I Protect Nature? (Jen Green, Mike Gordon) (E GREEN)
Ages 4-8-- When children take a trip to the countryside, some of them are rowdy and careless, breaking tree branches and scattering trash. But if everyone acted that way, there would soon be no trees, no birds, and the fields would be ugly and unsafe for both animals and people. With amusing pictures and simple text, this book shows the importance of protecting nature.
.
Why Should I Recycle? (Jen Green, Mike Gordon) (E GREEN)
Ages 4-8-- What if everybody threw away old bottles and newspapers, littering the world with glass and plastic and tin cans that should be recycled and made into new products? Mr. Jones is a teacher who sets a good example for kids by separating his trash for recycling. When he takes them on a class trip to a recycling plant they learn the value of recycling.
.
.
Why Should I Save Energy? (Jen Green, Mike Gordon) (E GREEN)
Ages 4-8-- Children take electricity and other energy sources for granted, until one day their community has a power blackout. They come to realize that in lighting homes and keeping houses warm, we are using up natural resources that can’t be easily replaced. If we fail to save energy, a time may come when our homes will always be cold and dark. With amusing pictures and simple text, this book shows the importance of saving energy.

Why Should I Save Water? (Jen Green, Mike Gordon) (E GREEN)
Ages 4-8-- Children learn that clean water is one of our most precious natural resources. With amusing pictures and simple text, this book shows dozens of ways in which they and their families can avoid wasting water.

Author/Illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky

--by Hanje Richards

Paul O. Zelinsky (born 1953) is an American author and illustrator of children's books. He was born in Wilmette, Illinois, the son of a mathematics professor father and a medical illustrator mother. He drew compulsively from an early age but did not know until college that this would be his career. As a sophomore in Yale College, he enrolled in a course on the history and practice of the picture book, co-taught by an English professor and Maurice Sendak. This experience inspired Paul to point himself in the direction of children's books.

His first book appeared in 1978, since which time he has become recognized as one of the most inventive and critically successful artists in the field. He was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1998 for his Rapunzel. Zelinsky does not have a recognizable style, suiting his artwork and techniques to the particular nature of the book to be illustrated. Linnea Lannon noted in a Detroit Free Press profile of the artist that "what has raised Zelinsky into the first rank of children's book illustrators is not just the pictures but the way they integrate with text."

Zelinsky says, "I want the pictures to speak in the same voice as the words. This desire has led me to try various kinds of drawings in different books. I have used quite a wide stretch of styles, and I'm fortunate to have been asked to illustrate such a range of stories.”
For more on author/illustrator Paul Zelensky, go to his web site at http://www.paulozelinsky.com/

Hansel and Gretel (by Rika Lesser; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky) - The first Grimm tale illustrated by 1998 Caldecott medalist Paul O. Zelinsky. Originally published in 1984, Zelinsky's paintings for Hansel and Gretel are as compelling as his later work and will captivate readers with their mysterious beauty, emotional power, and brilliant originality. Each spread brings to life a world as rich and real as our own –detailed, colorful, sensual – yet filled with the unearthly shadowed magic of the Hansel and Gretel folktale. Whether portraying the fear and anguish of children abandoned by their parents, the delicious sumptuousness of a candy house, or the joy of being reunited with one's family, the artist captures the subtle nuances of emotion and the tactile quality of the physical world with exquisite accuracy and elegance.

Rapunzel (by Paul O. Zelinsky) - Trapped in a tower with no door, Rapunzel is allowed to see no one but the sorceress who has imprisoned her – until the day a young prince hears her singing to the forest birds.. The timeless tale of Rapunzel is vividly and magnificently brought to life through Zelinsky's powerful sense of narrative and his stunning oil paintings.

.
.

Rumpelstiltskin (by Paul O. Zelinsky) - Zelinsky's oil paintings are perfectly suited to the saga of the little man with the secret name who knows how to spin straw into gold. The golden light infusing the late medieval setting subtly reinforces the theme. The visual characterization of Rumpelstiltskin is a triumph: an odd elfin man with bulbous eyes, a gigantic, flat black hat, impossibly skinny arms and legs, and long, pointed black shoes. This Rumpelstiltskin is not scary or horrid, but rather mischievous and weird. When the young queen finally guesses his name, and thus is able to keep her baby, he flies off on his huge cooking spoon (with a pout), true to the Grimms's 1819 version of the story.

Story of Mrs. Lovewright and Purrless Her Cat (by Lore Segal; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky) - Mrs. Lovewright is a chilly person, and she knows exactly what she needs to warm up. "There's no being cozy without a cat," she says. So she adopts an adorable kitten she names Purrly. But she soon finds herself in a battle of wills with a cat who has no intention of being cozy. Anyone who has ever lived with a cat can guess who will emerge victorious.
.

Swamp Angel (by Anne Isaacs; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky) - Swamp Angel, a prodigious heroine who can disarm taunting men and marauding bear alike, is the original creation of Anne Isaacs, whose tall-tale text unfolds in a crackling combination of irony, exaggeration, and sheer good humor. Zelinsky, working in an American primitive style on cherry and maple veneers, brings his matchless wit and whimsy to these characters of extraordinary dimension. From the Great Smoky Mountains to the starry heavens above, Swamp Angel and Thundering Tarnation leave their indelible impressions on land and sky. So too will this book hold readers with its bold, expansive image-making – grandly demonstrating the flamboyant vigor and winking humor by which the tall-tale tradition endures.

Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo and Someone Called Plastic (by Emily Jenkins; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky) - Lumphy is a stuffed buffalo. StingRay is a stuffed stingray. And Plastic... well, Plastic isn't quite sure what she is. They all belong to the Little Girl who lives on the high bed with the fluffy pillows.
Together is best for these three best friends. Together they look things up in the dictionary, explore the basement, and argue about the meaning of life. And together they face dogs, school, television commercials, the vastness of the sea, and the terrifying bigness of the washing machine.

Friday Fiction: Anna Quindlen

--by Hanje Richards

Anna Marie Quindlen (born July 8, 1952) is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist whose New York Times column, "Public and Private," won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. She began her journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for the New York Post. Between 1977 and 1994, she held several posts at The New York Times.

Quindlen left journalism in 1995 to become a full-time novelist. In 1999, she joined Newsweek, writing a bi-weekly column until announcing her semi-retirement in the May 18, 2009 issue of the magazine. Quindlen is known as a critic of what she perceives to be the fast-paced and increasingly materialistic nature of modern American life. Much of her personal writing centers on her mother, who died at the age of 40 from ovarian cancer when Quindlen was 19 years old.

Black And Blue: A Novel - For eighteen years, Fran Benedetto kept her secret, hid her bruises. She stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father, and because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she saw the look on her ten-year-old son’s face, Fran finally made a choice — and ran for both their lives.

Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. In this place she uses a name that isn’t hers, watches over her son, and tries to forget. For the woman who now calls herself Beth, every day is a chance to heal, to put together the pieces of her shattered self. And every day she waits for Bobby to catch up to her. Bobby always said he would never let her go, and despite the ingenuity of her escape, Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing: It is only a matter of time.

Blessings: A Novel - Late one night, a teenage couple drives up to the big white clapboard home on the Blessing estate and leaves a box. In that instant, the lives of those who live and work there are changed forever. Skip Cuddy, the caretaker, finds a baby girl asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep the child... while Lydia Blessing, the matriarch of the estate, for her own reasons, agrees to help him. Blessings explores how the secrets of the past affect decisions and lives in the present; what makes a person or a life legitimate or illegitimate and who decides; and the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community.

Good Dog. Stay (Non-fiction) - “The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed,” writes Anna Quindlen about her beloved black Labrador retriever, Beau. Quindlen reflects on how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau’s, and on the lessons she’s learned by watching him: to roll with the punches, to take things as they come, to measure herself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present, to raise her nose in the air from time to time and, at least metaphorically, holler, “I smell bacon!”

Quindlen reminisces, “There came a time when a scrap thrown in his direction usually bounced unseen off his head. Yet put a pork roast in the oven, and the guy still breathed as audibly as an obscene caller. The eyes and ears may have gone, but the nose was eternal. And the tail. The tail still wagged, albeit at half-staff. When it stops, I thought more than once, then we’ll know.”

How Reading Changed My Life (Non-fiction) - In this pithy celebration of the power and joys of reading, Quindlen emphasizes that books are not simply a means of imparting knowledge, but also a way to strengthen emotional connectedness, to lessen isolation, to explore alternate realities, and to challenge the established order. To these ends, much of the book forms a plea for intellectual freedom as well as a personal paean to reading.

Never stodgy or academic, Quindlen ties her own experience to reading habits in general and the ways they have changed over the last 100 years, including the recent influence of Oprah. She concludes with a series of arbitrary and capricious reading lists that could give librarians ideas: "10 Books That Will Help a Teenager Feel More Human," "10 Mystery Novels I'd Most Like To Find in a Summer Rental," "10 Modern Novels That Made Me Proud To Be a Writer," etc.

Living Out Loud (Non-fiction) - In this collection of syndicated columns, based in the New York Times and called "Life in the 30's," Quindlen gives ample evidence of why her reflections about herself, the progress of her life and feelings, resonate in a large readership. First, there is relevancy for the "targeted audience who are in their 30s and share Quindlen's chronology of adulthood, career, marriage and children." We share her humor and frustration as she raises two sons, as she longs for a daughter, as she talks about her lawyer-husband. Quindlen's columns on baby-boomers who negotiate traditional values, such as a piece in which she defines "cultural Catholic," invite controversy; but there is universal appeal in her experiences of the contemporary world.

Loud And Clear (Non-fiction) - With her trademark insight and her special ability to convey the impact public events have on ordinary lives, Quindlen here combines commentary on American society and the world at large with reflections on being a woman, a writer, and a mother. In these pieces, first written for Newsweek and The New York Times, Loud and Clear takes on topics ranging from social change to raising children, from the political and emotional aftermath of September 11 to personal values, from the impact on individuals of global events to the growth that can be gained by spending summer days staring into the middle distance. Grounding the public in the private, connecting people to each other and to the greater world, Quindlen encourages us to develop authentic lives, even as she serves as a catalyst for political and social change.

Object Lessons - Maggie Scanlan begins to sense that, beneath the calm everyday surface of her peaceful life, everything is going strangely wrong. Her all-powerful grandfather is reduced to a shadow by a stroke, and this causes her usually unemotional father to burst into tears. Connie, her lushly beautiful mother, whom Maggie could always be sure of finding at home, is now rarely there. And her cousin and her best friend start doing things that leave her confused and frightened about sex and sin. In the sprawling Scanlan family in New York's Westchester Country in the '60s, accommodations are made within a culturally mixed marriage and the mundanity of married life is validated by the occasional flare of passion. Maggie observes the powerplay and shifting allegiances operating behind the scenes with the sharp and dispassionate view of a child on the verge of adulthood. A troubling, frightening time, it ultimately becomes one of liberation, an object lesson Maggie will remember for the rest of her life.

One True Thing - After a short prologue about the time she spent in jail, accused of having killed her mother, Katherine, Ellen Gulden quickly skips back to her story's beginning, when the 24-year-old's father guilts her into putting her high-powered New York writing career on hold and moving back to Langhorne, the small college town where she grew up, to care for her mother, who has cancer. Cerebral, high-achieving Ellen has always been more her father's daughter; he is the English department chairman, while Mom is a Martha Stewart-perfect homemaker, the type of woman who canes her own chairs. But she and Ellen begin to influence each other, and it becomes clear that Katherine is attempting to take care of unfinished business in her characteristically graceful way, even as her body rapidly deteriorates. By the time Katherine's autopsy reveals that she died of a morphine overdose, the jailhouse prologue has almost been forgotten, so the clever mystery ending (complete with satisfying twist) is an added bonus.

Rise And Shine: A Novel - It’s an otherwise ordinary Monday when Meghan Fitzmaurice’s perfect life hits a wall. A household name as the host of "Rise and Shine," the country’s highest-rated morning talk show, Meghan cuts to a commercial break – but not before she mutters two forbidden words into her open mike.

In an instant, it’s the end of an era, not only for Meghan, who is unaccustomed to dealing with adversity, but also for her younger sister, Bridget, a social worker in the Bronx who has always lived in Meghan’s long shadow. The effect of Meghan’s on-air truth-telling reverberates through both their lives, affecting Meghan’s son, husband, friends, and fans, as well as Bridget’s perception of her sister, their complex childhood, and herself. What follows is a story about how, in very different ways, the Fitzmaurice women adapt, survive, and manage to bring the whole teeming world of New York to heel by dint of their smart mouths, quick wits, and the powerful connection between them that even the worst tragedy cannot shatter.

A Short Guide To A Happy Life (Non-fiction) - Anna Quindlen, reflects on what it takes to "get a life" — to live deeply every day and from your own unique self, rather than merely to exist through your days. Her mother died when Quindlen was nineteen: "It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black and white, and in Technicolor. The lights came on for the darkest possible reason... I learned something enduring, in a very short period of time, about life. And that was that it was glorious, and that you had no business taking it for granted." Quindlen guides us with an understanding that comes from knowing how to see the view, the richness in living.

Thinking Out Loud: On The Personal, The Political, The Public, And The Private (Non-fiction) - Thinking out loud is what Anna Quindlen does best. A syndicated columnist with her finger on the pulse of women's lives, and her heart in a place we all share, she writes about the passions, politics, and peculiarities of Americans everywhere. From gays in the military, to the race for First Lady, to the trials of modern motherhood and the right to choose, Quindlen's views always fascinate.