We have heard that the weather will be especially nice for the last week of August 2017, with pleasant temperatures, sunshine, and low humidity. Alas, fresh air and sunlight is not in the cards for your humble correspondent down in the depths of the library, but he has discovered for you a number of clever titles that have arrived in the latest shipment of books. These five books are kind of a hodge-podge as they don’t really have much in common other than the titles struck me as fairly amusing, but they seem like they might make good reads for the closing days of summer.

First up is Can It & Ferment It: more than 75 satisfying small-batch canning and fermentation recipes for the whole year. Both experienced canners and rank beginners will find good advice in this book, with over 75 all-season recipes for among other things, chutneys, kimchi, and even pickles. From reading the description of this book, I have learned that canners and fermenters are sometimes at  odds with each other. Author Stephanie Thurow attempts to bring them together with advice and recipes that will work for both parties. I must confess that the only canner I really know is Chef Boyardee, but he doesn’t seem to make an appearance in this book.

What would you do if you were a former British Royal Marine who found himself adrift in life feeling bored and disillusioned? If that were me I would probably just try to watch a funny movie on TV or get an ice cream cone. However, if you were Mick Dawson you might try to get together with one of your best mates and attempt to row across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to San Francisco. Lest you think that this was a spur of the moment decision, you should know that Dawson had already twice(!) rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and had also twice made gallant, but unsuccessful, efforts to row solo across the Pacific. Dawson’s new memoir Battling the Oceans in a Rowboat tells the dramatic story of the effort Mick Dawson and his friend Chris Martin made. Did they make it? We’ll let you read the book in order to find out, but suffice to say it’s one exciting story.

I’ll have to admit that I am a fan of cats. So, when I spot a book cover that has a picture with no less than three cats on the cover, I know that I am in the presence of some great literature. Thus I bring to your attention Cat Shining Bright by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. This is the 20th book in the Joe Grey mystery series. Joe Grey, if you have not met him before, is a cat living in the small California coastal town of Molena Point. While Joe may seem like an average, everyday cat, he does have a special talent. He’s great at helping to solve mysteries. Many times he’s better at it than the local Molena Point police. Since Joe does not speak English, he has to make his sleuthing skills visible in other clever ways. In this book, Joe has just become a father to three rambunctious kittens. When Joe stumbles upon a murder in a local hair salon he doesn’t realize his kids are following him inside, and this puts them in great danger. Can Joe, along with his lady cat friend, Dulcie, solve the mystery while protecting his kittens from grave danger? The book will tell you! I’ll add that I generally believe that all cats shine bright. The only exception would have to be the cat my best friend in elementary school had. The only person that cat liked was my friend’s mother. Everyone else, he would hiss at and try to scratch. What he was angry at all the time I’ll never know. He would always hang out in my friend’s basement where we would all want to go to play and he made playtime miserable for everyone. I’ll have to admit that cat was one nasty critter.

I also noticed All Signs Point to Murder by Connie di Marco. This book only has one cat on the cover, but it still seems like  a fun read. The second title in the Zodiac Mystery series,  the first being The Madness of Mercury. San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti sees ominous signs in the stars for her friend Geneva Leary’s upcoming wedding day. But Julia is a bridesmaid and she doesn’t want to ruin her friend’s special day. Julia never expected murder though. Can Julia’s astrological skills help her uncover some dark Leary family secrets and perhaps catch a killer?

To end my report I do want to say that I hope that the last title on my recommendations list does not portend the future. It’s an event that would really ruin Labor Day weekend. But I must mention the Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter. This is an officially authorized sequel to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The action in Baxter’s book takes place 14 years after the events in Wells’ book. Everyone thinks that the Martians have been beaten and the world has moved on. But what if the first Martian invasion was only a practice run? What if the Martians have learned from their mistakes and this time they are coming back to get the job done right? People who recognize the true Martian danger are few and far between, and mostly ignored or laughed at. But, Walter Jenkins, the original narrator of Well’s book, is one of those few. He knows how much trouble Earth and mankind is in, and he is racing to make sure everyone else learns the truth fast.

I’ve explained in a previous post that I really enjoy reading as a hobby. I do read a lot of books, many of which I enjoy and many of which I believe often do not get the notice they deserve. So, in these posts I plan to tell you about a book I have read that I think some of you might also like. I read mostly fiction, but I do read a wide variety of books that strike my fancy. And also, if we’re being honest, I should admit that I think highly of my own opinion and always want to share it far and wide.

For my first post in this series, I want to report on a very timely book that I just finished reading called American Eclipse : a Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World by David Baron. Baron’s book is the story of the great 1878 total solar eclipse that was visible across a great swath of the United States, and the quest to show that America was worthy of a place among the great nations of the world for its growing scientific and industrial prowess.

As you may have heard there will be another total solar eclipse that will take place this year on Monday, August 21. Unfortunately, just like in 1878, Long Island is not in the path of totality, which means that we will only see a partial eclipse of the sun. Still it should be a fun show. And of course the Patchogue-Medford Library is planning an Eclipse Extravaganza to celebrate. Our own Martha and Jessica are throwing a big party with arts and crafts, refreshments, and a live video feed from NASA of the total eclipse. It will be held at the Carnegie Library from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on August 21. Trust me when I say that I have been to library parties that Martha and Jessica have thrown in the past and believe it when I tell you that they know how to throw a party.

David Baron’s book is popular history at its best. I always used to be a person who thought that when it came to American history, that lots of important events happened from colonial days to the Civil War and then again from World War I to the present. In between from say 1865 to 1914, I once believed that not much of historical importance really happened and that the United States was run by a string of forgettable presidents, albeit presidents with great facial hair.

A president with great facial hair.

Over the years I have learned just how false that opinion was, and David Baron’s book is just the latest work to put the nail into that coffin for me. Baron uses the example of the Great Eclipse of 1878 to show just how active the intellectual ferment was in the country at that time. Many European scientist and engineers in their various royal societies looked down on American technological prowess of that era. The Eclipse of 1878 was the chance for America to prove that it could pull its own scientific weight in the world and should belong with the big boys.

Along the way Baron tells stories and anecdotes that illustrate the industrial, scientific, and technical ferment that was consuming the United States and its effort to be taken seriously in the front ranks of the nations of the world. Among other stories, this book tells of the true origin of the gypsy moth plague in the United States, the development of the telegraph and telephone, and of course the cutting edge scientific theory of the time regarding the deleterious effects of railroad travel on women’s reproductive parts. Watch out next time you are on the Long Island Rail Road ladies, because I don’t know if that theory has been officially disproved!

One story I particularly enjoyed was the fight over the telephone greeting. The story is that when Alexander Graham Bell first invented the telephone, he wanted everyone to use “ahoy” as the greeting whenever you picked up the phone. It was Thomas Edison who championed the now familiar “hello.” I think that’s too bad, as it seems like it would be great fun to shout, “ahoy” every time we answer the phone. Therefore, I propose that the library Board of Trustees take up a motion at their next meeting to adopt “Ahoy! Patchogue-Medford Library here mateys,” as our official phone greeting.

Many colorful characters fill the pages of the book, but Baron focuses on three major ones. The first was James Watson, a somewhat pompous University of Michigan professor and the man considered the leading American astronomer of the time. His quest was to prove that there was an undiscovered planet orbiting between the Sun and Mercury. The elusive planet Vulcan. Then there was Maria Mitchell, a professor of astronomy at Vassar College, which was then a women’s only school. Even though her scientific training and research was first rate, Mitchell and her female students had to struggle to get the respect and recognition their work deserved. They viewed the eclipse of 1878 as their big chance to attain equality, at least for their science. And finally, there is Thomas Edison, the great American inventor. His part in studying the 1878 eclipse was a trip out west to work on the tasimeter, a device used to measure small changes in temperature. Like a good thriller writer, Baron builds his oftentimes suspensful and exciting story by bringing all these major, and quite a few minor characters, together for the big 1878 eclipse viewing in Wyoming, where it could best be viewed.

I guarantee that you don’t have to be an umbraphile to enjoy this book. Anyone who enjoys popular history, the history of science, or wants to learn more about a lesser known period of American history would find American Eclipse well worth reading.

What would happen if you lost all of your family’s photos, tomorrow? Millions of Americans trust the cloud to save all of their family moments. But, what if one day, they vanished? In 2006, Pew reported that 57% of teens create their content. Like a lot of people my age, I was in a band. We played and recorded music which we then uploaded to Myspace. At the time, it was the most popular social networking website around. It had overtaken Friendster, which had previously caught up to makeoutclub.com, a site for “…for indierockers, hardcore kids, record collectors, artists, bloggers, and hopeless romantics.”*.  It was inconceivable that there could be another social-networking site that would overtake it. While there must be a CD of that music somewhere in my parent’s house, it has completely disappeared from the internet. That’s basically what link rot is.

A 2014 Harvard Law School study looks at the legal implications of Internet link decay, and finds reasons for alarm. The authors, Jonathan Zittrain, Kendra Albert and Lawrence Lessig, determined that approximately 50% of the URLs in U.S. Supreme Court opinions no longer link to the original information.

The growing problem of Internet “link rot” and best practices for media and online publishers – Journalist’s Resource

[Read more…]

I was able to escape the depths of the library last week to attend BookExpo in New York City. Now however, I am back in the basement, so I thought it time for another installment of Reading Recommendations from the Depths. If you missed the first post and the rationale behind these postings you can read about it here.

This week another tasty cart of books wound up in front of my desk. I mean that literally, because one of the books is new from the Food52 recipe exchange. They have published Mighty Salads: 60 New Ways to Turn Salad into Dinner. I have been thinking that I should eat more salad, and my doctor told me a few weeks ago, “Bruce, you should eat more salad [and vegetables].” So, it looks like the stars are aligned for me and this book. And lest you think that these salads are all for vegetarians and rabbit food eaters, rest assured that many of the recipes involve creative uses of various meats, seafood, beans, grains, pasta, and even bread to add some oomph to your salad creation. Try the Grilled Bread, Broccoli Rabe & Summer Squash Salad or the Grilled Steak and Tossed Salsa Verde Salad. Looking through the book, it looks like almost all the ingredients should be pretty easy to find at the neighborhood supermarket or local farmer’s market. And if you like to grow your own veggies, don’t forget that you can now even borrow seeds right from the Patchogue-Medford Library.

If you do wind up puttering around your own backyard garden, the only wildlife you are likely to see on Long Island is the occasional squirrel, bunny rabbit, or stray kitty. However, if one day you do happen to see a very large Godzilla-like creature shambling across your backyard or perhaps want to identify the one destroying Tokyo, then the library has the book for you. The second edition of The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs has arrived. This is an exhaustive guidebook for all you dino-hunters out there, whether armchair or in the field, that has extensive drawings and diagrams, facts and figures on over 750 dinosaur species. For example, on page 224 you can read about Euhelopus zdanskyi, who was over 35 feet tall and weighed more than 3 1/2 tons. He would definitely not be helpful in the tomato patch. I am amazed at just how many dinosaur species there are. The book lists over 100 species discovered in just the past few years since the first edition was published. When I was young I was a dinosaur fan, but back then we only seemed to have brontosaurus, tyranosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops, and the coolest one for me, the pterodactyl. I don’t know where all the new ones came from!

If your tastes run more toward fun and games why not read It’s All a Game: The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan. This is a worldwide history of tabletop gaming, and includes everything from checkers, chess, and go to Monopoly, Life, Twister, and Clue. It was always better when Colonel Mustard was the guilty party. The book tells you the behind the scenes stories of the development of your favorite games, some of which were came about in really surprising ways. I’m always up for a good game of Monopoly, and board games seem to be growing in popularity every day. We do have board game nights here at the library and did you also know that we have a growing collection of outdoor games that Patchogue-Medford residents can borrow to use during the summer.

Denis Johnson 1949 – 2017

“All these weirdos, and me getting a little better every day right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.”

Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son

Denis Johnson writes about lost souls, who have faint hopes of finding, if not God, at least some meaning in their lives. His themes and violent descriptions echo the works of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Stone, two of his major influences. Johnson portrays the marginal in American society: the addicts, alcoholics, homeless, beggars, and crooks, as well as those who simply cannot or will not adapt to mainstream culture, a culture that itself is crumbling and has helped create the characters it rejects. Johnson’s characters seem able to survive on hope and human resilience, no matter how outcast or alienated they may be. Ultimately, Johnson’s themes are metaphysical. The alienation of his characters implies a someone or a something from which to be alienated. -Literary Reference Center

Selected Works:

Novels
Angels
Fiskadoro
The Stars at Noon
Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
Already Dead: A California Gothic
The Name of the World
Tree of Smoke
Nobody Move
Train Dreams
The Laughing Monsters
Short story collections
Jesus’ Son
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
Poetry
The Man Among the Seals: Poems (Stone Wall Press, 1969)
Inner Weather (Graywolf Press, 1976)
The Incognito Lounge (Random House, 1982)
The Veil (Knopf, 1985)
The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly: Poems Collected and New

Plays
Hellhound on My Trail: A Drama in Three Parts (2000)
Shoppers: Two Plays (Harper, 2002) ISBN 9780060934408- includes Hellhound on My Trail
Soul of a Whore and Purvis: Two Plays in Verse (FSG, 2012) ISBN 9780374277963

Screenplays
The Prom (1990) (directed by Steven Shainberg)
Hit Me (1996)

Nonfiction
(contributor) One Man By Himself: Portraits of John Serl (Hard Press, 1995) ISBN 9789110224940
Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond (Essays)