Books and Stuff

Non Fiction

Organic Lawn Care Manual: a natural, low-maintenance system for a beautiful, safe lawn by Paul Tukey. "Just say no to lawns on drugs." Wipe out weeds, beat the pests, start a new lawn or improve the existing one, pick and maintain grass varieties.

Colon Cancer: What you need to know - NOW by the American Cancer Society.

Nurturing the Shy Child by Barbara G. Markway and Gregory P. Markway. "Latest information and practical tools to help shy and socially anxious kids."

Twinkie Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger. "From phosphate mines in Idaho to cornfields in Iowa...to demystify some of America's most common processed food ingredients - where they come from, how they are made, how they are used - and why."

Lost Life of Eva Braun by Angela Lambert. Eva Braun died at 33 with little known about her. The former convent girl was Hitler's mistress for over 13 years. A formerly middle-class Catholic girl who was despised by other high-ranking wives and publicly humilitated by Hitler. Her ordinariness brings to mind the "banality of evil" that other Germans were guilty of.

Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, secession, and the President's war powers by James F. Simon. President Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney were at ends ever since Taney's 1957 Dred Scott decision that revoked the rights of black people. Their odds over slavery, the legality of Southern secession, and the legal authority of the president during war still resonate.

Fiction

Fifth Vial by Michael Palmer. A scientist, a medical student and a private eye are connected by a blood vial. A thriller.

Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander. Novel set during Argenitna's Dirty War against it's citizens. A father tries to find his missing son.

Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith. New novel in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

Large Print

Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. Knitting club members in a Manhattan yarn shop start to share their lives with one another.

Queen of Broken Hearts by Cassandra King. Lady divorce therapist Clare is newly divorced and does not want a new guy around. When "a burly sea captain" [I'm not kidding, that's a quote from the cover] moves to town to run the marina Clare finds herself competing for his attention.

Dead Room by Heather Graham. Archeologist Leslie survives an explosion and has a new ability to see ghosts. With information from her dead fiance's ghost, Leslie tries to solve a conspiracy and has conflicted feelings for her ghost and the ghost's very live cousin.

DVD

Last King of Scotland starring Forest Whitaker, James McAvor and Gillian Anderson. Fictional telling of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and his Scottish doctor. My parents have a family friend who met Idi Amin; he got the hell out of there as soon as possible. The same guy also knew Dr. Marcus Foster, the Superintendent of Schools in Oakland who was murdered by the Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist group.