Readers' Nook

Readers Nook

New eAudiobooks for July 2023

Heather Miles

E-AUDIOBOOKS

Paul Bowles Their heads are green and their hands are blue
Lis Smith Any Given Tuesday : a political love story
Pete Hegseth Battle for the American mind : uprooting a century of miseducation
Jenna Kutcher How are you, really? : living your truth one answer at a time
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez Lead successful projects
Stephen E Ambrose The supreme commander : the war years of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Robert Seethaler The tobacconist
M Nolan Gray Arbitrary lines : how zoning broke the American city and how to fix it
Emily Weinstein Behind their screens : what teens are facing (and adults are missing)
Ronald H Spector A continent erupts : decolonization, civil war, and massacre in postwar Asia, 1945-1955
Angus Robertson The crossroads of civilization : A history of Vienna
Ed Mylett The power of one more : The ultimate guide to happiness and success
Noah Boyd Agent X : a novel
Don A Farrell Atomic bomb island : Tinian, the last stage of the manhattan project, and the dropping of the atomic bombs on japan in world war ii
Joshua Frank Atomic days : the untold story of the most toxic place in America
Carter W Lewis Golf with Alan Shepard
Patrick Link Headstrong
John Lawton Moscow exile
James Hadley Chase No orchids for Miss Blandish
Christina Calvit Pride and Prejudice
Walter M Miller The best of Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Scott Ritter Disarmament in the time of perestroika : Arms control and the end of the soviet union; a personal journal
Fay Weldon The hole in the top of the world
Alistair Moffat The reivers : The story of the border reivers
Alistair Moffat Scotland's forgotten past : a history of the mislaid, misplaced and misunderstood
David Ives Time flies
Trevor Barnes Dead doubles : the extraordinary worldwide hunt for one of the Cold War's most notorious spy rings
John McPhee Assembling California
William Trevor Death in summer
William Trevor Felicia's journey

E-AUDIOBOOKS

New eBooks for July 2023

Heather Miles

EBOOKS
M Ravenel The blackmail
M Dean Wright Welcome, caller
Pete Hegseth Battle for the American mind : uprooting a century of miseducation
Lis Smith Any given Tuesday : a political love story
Stefan Fatsis Word freak : heartbreak, triumph, genius, and obsession in the world of competitive scrabble players
Julio Cortar All fires the fire
Damon Galgut Arctic summer
Damon Galgut The Good Doctor
Damon Galgut In a strange room : three journeys
Damon Galgut The quarry
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : a new verse translation
Jenna Kutcher How Are You, Really? : Living Your Truth One Answer at a Time.
W S Merwin Summer Doorways : a Memoir
Louise Mey The second woman
Michael A Singer Living untethered beyond the human predicament
David Grohl The storyteller : tales of life and music
Doris Lessing Martha Quest
Evelyn Waugh A handful of dust
Alverne Ball Across the tracks : remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre
James Edward Mills The adventure gap : changing the face of the outdoors
Toni Morrison Beloved : a novel
Henry Threadgill Easily slip into another world : a life in music
Jancee Dunn Hot and bothered : what no one tells you about menopause and how to feel like yourself again
Edward C Baig iPhone for dummies.
David Lindsay-Abaire Kimberly Akimbo : a new musical based on the play David Lindsay-Abaire
Steve Sheinkin Rabbi Harvey rides again : A graphic novel of jewish folktales let loose in the wild west
Ben Judah Fragile empire : how Russia fell in and out of love with Vladimir Putin
E Jean Carroll The cheerleaders
Immanuel Kant The collected works of Immanuel Kant
Linda Joy Myers The forger of Marseille
Randy Schmidt Little girl blue : the life of Karen Carpenter
Immanuel Kant Logic
Yossi Klein Halevi Memoirs of a Jewish extremist : the story of a transformation
Gottlob Frege On sense and reference
Amy Butler Greenfield A perfect red : empire, espionage, and the quest for the color of desire
William Faulkner The Reivers : a reminiscence

Staff Pick - Through the Looking Glass

Paul Whitehead

Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

I was quite a voracious reader at a young age, and on my eighth birthday my parents bought me a very nice hard-backed edition of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. Published in 1871, this sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) was another hallucinogenic romp through the mathematical game-mind of its creator, but, rather than playing-cards, the template this time was chess.

Beautifully illustrated by John Tenniel, the setting Alice finds herself in is contrary and curious: drowsily she follows her kitten through a mirror, and into a mirror-world. All is topsy-turvy, and Alice must run with the Red Queen to simply stay in one place, while the White Queen tells Alice that “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day.”

As Alice proceeds in her adventures to the eighth square (to become a Queen), we are introduced to some of the classic characters from English literature: Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, the Walrus and the Carpenter. Jabberwocky, that masterpiece of so-called ‘nonsense-verse,’ lies in the pages of this fabulously rich book. The author has also given all the chess pieces an alias in the Dramatis Personae that precedes the action.

Perhaps most interesting of all, Carroll includes a chess problem, along with the key to the action, for White Pawn (Alice) to play, and to win in eleven moves.

There is much written about this problem elsewhere; suffice to say, in a later edition, Carroll advises:

“As the chess-problem, given on the previous page, has puzzled some of my readers, it may be well to explain that it is correctly worked out, so far as the moves are concerned. The alternation of Red and White is perhaps not so strictly observed as it might be, and the ‘castling’ of the three Queens is merely a way of saying that they entered the palace; but the ‘check’ of the White King at move 6, the capture of the Red Knight at move 7, and the final ‘check-mate’ of the Red King, will be found, by anyone who will take the trouble to set up the pieces and play the moves as directed, to be strictly in accordance with the laws of the game.”

Playing a not insignificant part in my childhood development, opening up the ‘doors of perception’ with its mind-bending use of language and ‘illogical’ thought, Through the Looking Glass is the very finest fiction using chess as a theme, surpassing any book (or film) I have read or seen since.

When Alice says “One can’t believe impossible things” and the White Queen replies “Why, sometimes I’ve believed six impossible things before breakfast,” we are at the very heart of the matter: Carroll is daring us to use our imagination.

Sound advice for us all, but an absolutely essential attribute for a chess player.

- Paul Whitehead

Mechanics’ Institute has this story in several books, in eBook format, and DVDs in our collection.

Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

As Alice...

Noteworthy new book - The Bones of Birka

Steven Dunlap

The Mechanics Institute Library acquires new books each week. Some you will see on the new books tables, but members often check out some of the most popular books right away. If you do not know how to place a hold on a book, please call us at 415-393-0102 (or send a message to [email protected]).

Quite a lot of what we think of when we think of "Vikings" comes to us more from popular culture than science or scholarship. Vikings never wore "horned helmets," for example, though we get the image from Richard Wagner who dressed his opera singers in truly mad costumes. Assumptions about Norse society implicit in movies and television shows mostly come to us from 20th and 21st century adaptations of the medieval sagas and not from the sagas themselves. In short, most of the ideas we have about Vikings are either demonstrably false or unverifiable modern perceptions without evidence to support them. A wonderful antidote for those who have an interest in learning what we can know to be true has recently arrived in the library: The Bones of Birka : unraveling the mystery of a female Viking warrior, by C. M. Surrisi.

A "Trans" Viking?

I found this a surprisingly quick read. Many may not think of archaeology as a dynamic field of study, but every time an archeologist digs up something new, that find can change or overturn previous ideas and explanations about how people in the past lived and what kind of people they were. Even technological advances, such as DNA testing of minute amounts of organic material still existent on bones, can lead to breakthroughs and brand new insights. This actually happened when scientists subjected the bones of a Viking (Norse) person discovered over a hundred years ago to DNA testing. A body considered since its discovery to be male and, judging from the grave goods, a high status warrior, tested as XX -- no Y chromosome to be found.

To the surprise of the archaeologists, this discovery exploded through the popular media. They have had to field often contentious questions ever since. A trans Viking?! Really? But what does this DNA test result tell us, beyond the XX chromosome?

From p. 120:
“A common observation made about the XX result was that the person might have been transgender.” The team didn't outright reject the idea but questioned it. “While we understand this line of thinking in the context of contemporary social debates, it should be remembered that this is a modern politicized, intellectual and Western term, and as such, is problematic (some would say impossible) to apply to people of the remote past. There are many possibilities across a wide gender spectrum, some perhaps unknown to us, but familiar to the people of the time. We do not discount any of them.” [emphasis added]

I cannot think of a better explanation for how we often make the mistake of applying the values, ideologies, customs, social norms and other contemporary frameworks for understanding human behavior to past societies and civilizations we know very little about.

But this does not stop people from jumping to their own conclusions. In a tour de force of confirmation bias and motivated reasoning, many of those questioning the researchers demonstrate an almost desperate need to dismiss or dispute the fact that a 9th or 10th century society buried a biologically female person with grave goods typical of a warrior (and without any grave goods indicating she was the wife of a warrior).

from p.118-119

“People… do not want to believe that the Vikings buried a female body with all the objects and honors they would a male warrior,” according to Neill Price, leader of the research team. “I still sometimes get questions like, "But can you prove that there wasn't originally a second male body also in the chamber, which has since somehow disappeared?”” I tell them, "No, we can't, but only in the same way that we can't prove there was never a second female body there either. Or three of them in a pile, or an ostrich, and anything else for which there is no evidence whatsoever."

We make progress one discovery at a time. Although this one does not tell us how Vikings constructed gender nor does it give us the full story of all the ways that someone with two X chromosomes made their way through life in Viking society, we do know that earlier depictions of Norse society no longer hold true.

New Print Fiction for June 2023

Heather Miles

PRINT BOOKS

FICTION

Bill Pronzini The paradise affair Fic Pronzini
Kelly McWilliams Your plantation prom is not okay Fic McWilliams,
Annie Ernaux A man's place Fic Ernaux
Steven Rowley The celebrants : a novel Fic Rowley
Elin Hilderbrand The five-star weekend Fic Hilderbrand
Mark Ernest Pothier Outer sunset : a novel Fic Pothier
Brontez Purnell Since I laid my burden down Fic Purnell
Deborah Levy August blue Fic Levy
Henry Hoke Open throat Fic Hoke
Christina Lauren The true love experiment Fic Lauren
Emily Henry Happy place Fic Henry
Ann Napolitano Hello beautiful : a novel Fic Napolitano

Historical Fiction

Abraham Verghese The covenant of water : a novel Fic Verghese
Luis Alberto Urrea Good night, Irene Fic Urrea
Jeannette Walls Hang the moon : a novel Fic Walls
Tom Hanks The making of another major motion picture masterpiece Fic Hanks

Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers, Espionage & Intrigue

Linwood Barclay The lie maker : a novel Fic Barclay
Donna Leon So shall you reap Fic Leon
Mary Higgins Clark Where are the children now? Fic Clark
Joe Hart Or else : a thriller Fic Hart
Katie Williams My murder Fic Williams
James Patterson The 23rd midnight Fic Patterson
T J Newman Drowning : the rescue of Flight 1421 : a novel Fic Newman
Nora Roberts Identity Fic Roberts
Jo Nesbø Killing moon Fic Nesbo
Jack Carr Only the dead : a thriller Fic Carr

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror

Octavia E. Butler Adulthood rites Fic Butler
Ann Leckie Translation state Fic Leckie
Kim Stanley Robinson The ministry for the future Fic Robinson

Short Stories

Tananarive Due The wishing pool and other stories Fic Due

Comic Books, Graphic Novels & Comic Strips

Tove Jansson Moomin : the complete Tove Jansson comic strip. 741.5 J353 Comics
Hubert A man's skin 741.5 H863m Comics
Kate Evans Red Rosa : a graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg 741.5943 L977 Comics
Hidenori Kusaka Pokémon adventures. 01 741.5 K971 Comics

LARGE PRINT
Fiction

Elin Hilderbrand The five-star weekend Large Print Hilderbrand

LARGE PRINT
Non-fiction

Norman G. Finkelstein I'll burn that bridge when I get to it! : heretical thoughts on identity politics, cancel culture, and academic freedom Large Print 320.973 F499

Universal (Children's)

Monica Edinger Nearer my freedom : the interesting life of Olaudah Equiano by himself U 306.362 E648

PRINT BOOKS

FICTION

New Print Non-Fiction for June 2023

Heather Miles

PRINT BOOKS

NON-FICTION

Arts, Architecture & Crafts
John Rohrbach Speaking with light : contemporary Indigenous photography 779 R739

Biography & Genealogy
Jeremy Denk Every good boy does fine : a love story, in music lessons 780.92 D396
Hannah Pick-Goslar My friend Anne Frank : the inspiring and heartbreaking true story of best friends torn apart and reunited against all odds 940.5318 P594
Gayle Wald Shout, sister, shout! : the untold story of rock-and-roll trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe 780.92 T367
Robert Greenfield True west : Sam Shepard's life, work, and times 812 S547tr

Books, Reading, Publishing, Journalism
James Campbell NB by J. C. : a walk through the Times Literary Supplement 072 C18

Business & Economics
Paul Millerd The pathless path : imagining a new story for work and life 650.1 M652
Marcus Collins For the culture : the power behind what we buy, what we do, and who we want to be 658.8 C712
George F. Gilder Life after capitalism :the meaning of wealth, the future of the economy, and the time theory of money 330.12 G46i
Michael Lind Hell to pay : how the suppression of wages Is destroying America 331.2 L742

Chess
Vinay Bhaṭ How I became a chess grandmaster 794.1092 B575
Experts on the Anti-Sicilian 794.1225 B20 E966
Valeri. Beim The enigma of chess intuition : can you mobilize hidden forces in your chess? 794.1 B422e
Vladimir Tukmakov Risk & bluff in chess : the art of taking calculated risk 794.1 T916r

Food & Drink
Claire Ptak Love is a pink cake 641.8653 P975
Stacey Mei Yan Fong 50 pies, 50 states : an immigrant's love letter to the United States through pie 641.865 F674
Martin Yan Martin Yan's China 641.5951 Y21m
Camper English The ice book : cool cubes, clear spheres, and other chill cocktail crafts 641.874 E361

History
Lesley Ann Richardson Creating beauty from the abyss : the amazing story of Sam Herciger, Auschwitz survivor and artist 940.5318 R521
Carroll Quigley The evolution of civilizations : an introduction to historical analysis 909 Q6
Panama-Pacific International Exposition Company The blue book : a comprehensive official souvenir view book of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco, 1915 ... Official publication. 606.1915 B65b
David Grann The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder 910.9164 G759
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad A stranger in your own city : travels in the Middle East's long war 956.7 A136
Alexander Larman The Windsors at war : the King, his brother, and a family divided 940.5341 L326
Mark. Wyman DPs : Europe's displaced persons, 1945-1951 940.53 W984
Christopher Ehret Ancient Africa : a global history, to 300 CE 960 E335

Home & Family Management
Emily Kenway Who cares : the hidden crisis of caregiving, and how we solve it 649.8 K377

Literature & Writing
Agota Kristof The illiterate 848 K929
Shirley Hazzard We need silence to find out what we think : selected essays 824.914 H431

Performing Arts & Music
Sean DeLear I could not believe it : the 1979 teenage diaries of Sean DeLear 780.92 D346
Tina Turner Tina ... : that's my life 780.92 T851

Philosophy, Psychology & Religion
Kate Cooper Queens of a fallen world : the lost women of Augustine's Confessions 242 C776

Politics & Government
Richard Haass The bill of obligations : the ten habits of good citizens 323.6 H1129
Timothy Egan A fever in the heartland : the Ku Klux Klan's plot to take over America, and the woman who stopped them 322.42 E28

Social Sciences & Current Events
Scott J. Shapiro Fancy Bear goes phishing : the dark history of the information age, in five extraordinary hacks 364.16 S529
Judith Lewis Herman Truth and repair : how trauma survivors envision justice 362.88 H551
Jeremiah Moss Feral city : on finding liberation in lockdown New York 307.76 M913
Joëlle Gergis Humanity's moment : a climate scientist's case for hope 363.738 G367
John Perlin A forest journey : the role of trees in the fate of civilization 333.75 P451
Jeff Madrick Invisible Americans : the tragic cost of child poverty 362.5 M183

Travel & Geography
Raymond Hosler Bay Area Bike Rides Deck, Revised Edition : 50 rides for mountain, road, and casual cyclists 917.946 H826
Portugal 914.69 L847
111 places in New York that you must not miss 917.47 O584
Dordogne, Bordeaux & the southwest coast. 914.47 E975

PRINT BOOKS

NON-FICTION

Arts, Architecture & Crafts
John Rohrbach Speaking with light : contemporary Indigenous photography 779 R739

Books, Reading, Publishing, Journalism
James Campbell NB by J. C. : a walk through the Times Literary...

Hidden Gems - The Lives of Harry Lime (Radio show as eAudiobook)

Steven Dunlap

Although many consider the role of Harry Lime to be Orson Welles’ most memorable performance, he only spent about 10 minutes onscreen in the movie The Third Man. Despite Lime's obviously sociopathic nature, Welles made him an irresistibly likable anti-hero. The film won an academy award and along with this recognition its title character enjoyed enormous popularity with audiences.

In the early 1950’s, a young radio show producer named Harry Alan Towers had the same agent as Graham Greene, the author of the book that provided the basis for the movie. Through that connection Greene was able to obtain the rights to the Harry Lime character. Earlier, for Towers' radio show production of Sherlock Holmes stories, Welles played (you guessed it) Moriarity. Having already worked together once before, Towers managed to convince Welles to join his production of radio shows based on the infamous Harry Lime. Obtaining the rights to the character and then persuading Welles to portray him again led to the creation of one of the most entertaining radio shows in Mechanics Institute Library's collection.

Since Lime meets his end in the sewers of Vienna in the movie, Towers, with Welles' involvement, decided to make the radio show a prequel. Produced in England and recorded in London's IBC Studios, The Lives of Harry Lime, it has an authentic continental flavor, with adventures taking place in such exotic locales as Paris, Rome, Venice, Tangiers, and the French Riviera.

Thanks to brilliant scripts, expertly performed by Welles and a stock company of talented actors, we follow the underworld activities of Harry Lime and his always-questionable associates by way of sharp repartee and by listening to Lime deliver one delightfully sardonic narration after another. We all already know he's going to outsmart and double-cross everybody: The fun comes from finding out how.

The eAudiobook The Lives of Harry Lime, available on the web or the Libby app, contains 10 episodes. Each one runs about 24-25 minutes -- the perfect length for me to listen to a complete episode during one of my morning walks (although passers by likely think me a bit strange for laughing and giggling as I go).

Note: some of the above description has been adapted from the publisher's promotional summary.

New eAudiobooks for June 2023

Heather Miles

E-AUDIOBOOKS

Annie Ernaux Exteriors
Annie Ernaux A frozen woman
Annie Ernaux Getting lost
Annie Ernaux A girl's story
Annie Ernaux Happening
Annie Ernaux I remain in darkness
Annie Ernaux A man's place
Annie Ernaux The possession
Shelby Van Pelt Remarkably bright creatures : A novel
Annie Ernaux Shame
Annie Ernaux Simple passion
James H Lebovic The false promise of superiority : The united states and nuclear deterrence after the cold war
Walter Benjamin Illuminations : Essays and reflections
Thomas H Goodfellow The insurmountable edge : Book one
Robert P Crease The leak : Politics, activists, and loss of trust at brookhaven national laboratory
Henry Hoke Open throat : a novel
M P Shiel The purple cloud
Walter Benjamin Reflections : Essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings
Gwynne Dyer The shortest history of war : From hunter-gatherers to nuclear superpowers-a retelling for our times
George Orwell Such, such were the joys and other essays
Serhii Plokhy Nuclear folly : a history of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Deborah Levy August blue
Samuel Beckett Malone dies
Jonathan A Edlow The deadly dinner party : and other medical detective stories
Russell Baker Growing up
Caroline Fredrickson The democracy fix : how to win the fight for fair rules, fair courts, and fair elections
Ernest Hemingway Men without women
Keith McCafferty The bangtail ghost
Keith McCafferty Buffalo Jump Blues
Keith McCafferty Cold hearted river
Sayaka Murata Convenience store woman
Keith McCafferty Crazy mountain kiss
Keith McCafferty Dead man's fancy
Keith McCafferty A death in Eden
S J Rozan Family business
S J Rozan Ghost hero
Keith McCafferty The gray ghost murders
Cornelius Lehane Murder at the 42nd street library
S J Rozan Paper son
Primo Levi The periodic table
Keith McCafferty The royal Wulff murders
Dennis Smith San Francisco is burning : The untold story of the 1906 earthquake and fires
Primo Levi A tranquil star : unpublished stories of
Larry McMurtry The wandering hill
Jeremiah Moss Feral city : on finding liberation in lockdown New York
Mark Lamster The man in the Glass House : Philip Johnson, architect of the modern century
Tove Jansson The summer book
Kenneth Lin Intelligence-slave
David Ives New Jerusalem : the interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation, Amsterdam, July 27, 1656
David Haig Pressure
Neil LaBute Reasons to be happy
Neil LaBute Reasons to be pretty
Sherry Coman Say zebra
Norman Corwin The undecided molecule
Herbert Siguenza A weekend with Pablo Picasso
John Lahr Arthur Miller : American witness
Brian P Klaas The despot's apprentice : Donald Trump's attack on democracy
Mason Cross Don't look for me
Janet Farrell Brodie The first atomic bomb : The trinity site in new mexico
Jane Delury Hedge : a novel
Barrett J Rollins In sickness : a memoir
Gloria Anzaldúa Light in the dark = Luz en lo oscuro : rewriting identity, spirituality, reality
Karin Slaughter Like a charm : A novel in voices
Mahatma Gandhi An autobiography : the story of my experiments with truth
Charles Busch The divine sister
Diane Samuels Kindertransport
Malcolm Gladwell Miracle and wonder : conversations with Paul Simon
Charlayne Woodard The night watcher
J Samuel Walker Prompt and utter destruction : Truman and the use of atomic bombs against Japan, third edition
Rex Pickett Sideways.
Paul Bowles The stories of Paul Bowles

E-AUDIOBOOKS

New eBooks for June 2023

Heather Miles

EBOOKS

Harper Lee To kill a mockingbird
Emiko Jean Mika in Real Life : a novel
John Davies The red atlas : how the Soviet Union secretly mapped the world
Christine Barker Third girl from the left : a memoir
Alison Bechdel Fun home : A family tragicomic
Alison Bechdel Are you my mother? : a comic drama
Hubert A man's skin
Paul Auster The red notebook : true stories
Umberto Eco The name of the rose
Bertrand Russell Understanding History : and Other Essays.
Russell Baker Growing up
Ernest Hemingway Men without women
Richard Marsten Big man
Ed McBain Criminal conversation
Evan Hunter Don't crowd me
Ed McBain Doors
Richard Marsten Even the wicked
Ed McBain Every Little Crook and Nanny.
Ed McBain Fiddlers : a novel of the 87th Precinct
Ed McBain Fuzz
Evan Hunter Horse's head
Chris Waring How Pi Can Save Your Life Using Math to Survive Plane Crashes, Zombie Attacks, Alien Encounters, and Other Improbable Real-World Situations.
Curt Cannon I like 'em tough
Bryan Cogman Inside HBO's Game of thrones
Evan Hunter Jungle kids
Ed McBain Learning to kill : stories
Ed McBain A matter of conviction
Ed McBain The Mcbain brief
Richard Marsten Murder in the Navy
Ed McBain Nobody knew they were there
Ed McBain Privileged Conversation.
Ed McBain Runaway
John Abbot Scimitar
Richard Marsten Spiked heel
Ed McBain Vanishing Ladies.
Brontez Purnell Since I laid my burden down
Priya Sharma All the fabulous beasts
Elizabeth Hand Available dark
George Fong A blind eye
Eva Montealegre Body on the backlot
Anthony Boucher The case of the seven sneezes : a Fergus O'Breen mystery
Brian P Klaas The despot's accomplice : how the West is aiding and abetting the decline of democracy
Jonathan Stagge The dogs do bark
Lynda La Plante Backlash : an Anna Travis novel
Lynda La Plante Blood line
Jim Nally Dance with the dead : A pc donal lynch thriller
David S Butler Explain pain
Lynda La Plante Prime suspect 2 : a face in the crowd
Lynda La Plante Prime suspect 3 : silent victims
Lynda La Plante Prime suspect
Lynda La Plante Wrongful death
Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma gandhi autobiography: the story of my experiments with truth
John Lahr Notes on a cowardly lion : the biography of Bert Lahr
G Lorimer Moseley Painful yarns : metaphors & stories to help understand the biology of pain
Paul Bowles The sheltering sky : with a preface by the author
Paul Bowles The stories of Paul Bowles
Damien Lewis Churchill's great escapes : Seven incredible escapes made by wwii heroes
S Joshi Civil War Memories : Nineteen Stories Of Battle, Bravery, Love, And Tragedy
Stephen E Ambrose Crazy Horse and Custer : the parallel lives of two American warriors

EBOOKS

Hidden Gems - Working Stiff (in print and eAudiobook)

Steven Dunlap

Want to get away with murder? Kill someone that New York City police and DAs do not consider important. This was only one of the more disconcerting "take-aways" I found in Judy Melinek's Working Stiff : two years, 262 bodies, and the making of a medical examiner. During a time when T.V. shows and movies have so glamorized forensic science to the point that real-life juries now have completely unrealistic demands and expectations, I urge us all to make an effort to educate ourselves to understand what medical examiners actually do and what forensic science can (and more importantly) cannot tell us about a crime. This book will make a good start.

I remember listening to this as an eAudiobook while commuting to my previous job as a medical librarian at Stanford. Melinek shows a gift for story-telling, as this book presents a series of stories about her experience in New York City's office of the Medical Examiner at the turn of the century. In pretty much the same manner as medical doctors who go on from Medical School to treat live patients, medical doctors who go into forensics also serve as interns and "residents." Starting out under close supervision but later doing more and more on her own, in case after case that Melinek describes, we see the good and the bad, and everything in between. Not every case is a gripping story of crime and clever murderers worthy of an episode of "C.S.I." In one shockingly prosaic case she discovers that a patient died because the surgeon never learned how to tie a proper knot. (Not kidding: because of having read this I seriously considered asking the surgeon who performed my heart surgery to show me how he ties a knot during our pre-op zoom meeting. But I decided that since he did this procedure over a hundred times a year and had a 1% mortality rate that he or his surgical team probably knew how to sew me back together properly).

Writing this last paragraph I really do not want to include any spoilers. Let me just say that Melinek fully understands the need for structure in narrative and has a keen grasp on what to tell the reader and most importantly when to tell the reader. The end of the book contains some of the most compelling writing of events by an active participant as I have ever read. I will leave it to you to find out for yourself, because any attempt to summarize here will ruin the experience for you.

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Readers' Nook

Readers Nook