New at the Library
by Chris Sokol, Co-op newsletter volunteer

“…when I told [my friend Gilbert] my idea of building a windmill that would produce power—and then showed him what I’d built so far—he saw things differently.
‘Cool! Where did you get such an idea?’
‘The library.’”
--William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of
Electricity & Hope  (2009)

Fiction
The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern.  When a 19th-century rabbi is transported from his town in Poland to a basement freezer in modern Memphis, then thawed and revitalized, the boy who discovers him ends up on an unexpected odyssey to understand his heritage.
Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland.  Emily Tempest, an aboriginal community police officer, investigates the suspected murder of a geologist in the harsh land of northern Australia.
In the Shadow of the Cypress by Thomas Steinbeck.  The son of novelist John Steinbeck blends history and suspense in this tale of Chinese immigrants in early 20th-century California.

Nonfiction
Be Thrifty: How to Live Better With Less  ed. by Pia Catton and Califia Suntree.  Being thrifty means more than just saving money.
Birdology by Sy Montgomery.  Adventures with seven kinds of birds—hens, pigeons, crows, falcons, parrots, hummingbirds, and a cassowary—reveal scientific insights about the wonders of this species.
Christianity: the First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch.  From the origins of the Hebrew Bible to the present, a detailed history of this complex faith.
Girls on the Edge: the Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls by Leonard Sax.  Helping girls thrive amid today’s problems.
Death on the Barrensby George James Grinnell.  In 1955 six young men and an experienced wilderness canoeist, Art Moffatt, set off for an expedition in the Arctic region of Canada, but when they are swept over a waterfall and Moffatt is killed, the rest must struggle to survive.
Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics by Amir Alexander. How 18th- and 19th-century mathematicians were romanticized and the effect this had on the development of mathematics.
Halfway to Heaven by Mark Obmascik.  A forty-four year-old father’s quest to scale all fifty-four of Colorado’s Fourteeners.
Hand Dyeing: Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan.  A variety of creative techniques to create beautiful fibers.
How the Economy Works: Confidence, Crashes and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies by Roger E.A. Farmer.  A jargon-free exploration of the current economic crisis by a leading economist.
How to Cheat at Gardening and Yard Work: Shameless Tricks for Growing Radically
Simple Flowers, Veggies, Lawns, Landscaping, and More by Jeff Bredenberg.  The subtitle says it all in this Rodale Press book.
In the Empire of Ice: Encounters in a Changing Landscape by Gretel Ehrlich.  A journey by dogsled, air, and reindeer sled to document the lives of indigenous Arctic peoples in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and northern Russia.
Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-conscious Life by Louisa Shafia.  Advice and recipes for using ethically sourced animal products, locally-grown food, and low-carbon-footprint practices.
The Nez Perces in the Indian Territory: Nimiipuu Survival by J. Diane Pearson.  The story of the captivity and deportation from the Northwest of the Nez Perce tribe.
Play Ukulele Today by Barrett Tagliarino.  Teach yourself the basics of this unfairly maligned instrument with this book and CD.
Rockhounding Idaho: a Guide to 99 of the State’s Best Rockhounding Sites by Garret Romaine.  Complete with GPS coordinates, this guide digs the entire Gem State, from agates to fossils to zeolites.
War by Sebastian Junger. For fifteen months Junger stayed with a single platoon based at a remote outpost in Afghanistan and illuminates here the lives of those who fight for us.

DVD
Beeswax (U.S., 2009)  The personal and professional entanglements of twin sisters Jeannie, co-owner of a vintage clothing store, and Lauren, who leads a less tethered life.
Gigante (Uruguay, 2009)  A shy, lonely security guard at a supermarket in Montevideo works the night shift and becomes obsessed with a cleaning woman he sees every night while monitoring the surveillance cameras.
I Sell the Dead (U.S., 2008)  A horror-comedy in which a 19th-century grave robber confesses a gruesome tale of zombies, vampires, and grave-robbing.
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus  (U.K., 2009)  Dr. Parnassus made a bet with the Devil to achieve immortality, and when the bet comes due his beloved daughter, assistant in his traveling side-show, is in danger of losing her own soul.

As the Adult Services Librarian for the Latah County Library District, Chris Sokol coordinates the Moscow Library Third Tuesday Book Club, which last month discussed the nonfiction book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.  www.latahlibrary.org