I’ve always been drawn to stories that have some sort of historical basis, whether fiction or non-fiction. The Big Burn by Timothy Egan, author of the National Book Award-winning The Worst Hard Time, offers up a riveting account of the 1910 forest fire that ravaged the Bitterroot Mountains in northern Idaho, western Washington, and Montana. …
My family and I do a lot of hiking in Maine, and this summer we finally made our way up to Baxter State Park and Mount Katahdin. In honor of that, I’ve read quite a few books lately about the Appalachian Trail, and Bryson’s account is one of my favorites. This book manages to combine …
In fifth grade, I was that kid who read 52 books for summer reading. I thought it was cool to try to read a book every day. Of course, most of them were short and part of a children’s series, but even so, reading was a big part of my life. And it still is. …
I am reading Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis by Sandra Steingraber. I heard about it by chance, and by now I’ve ordered all her other books. The author is a biologist and mother of two who writes about raising children in the age of chemical contamination. Our children face …
This is a biology book written like an advice column. Animals or insects write in about about a relationship problem they are having and “Dr. Tatiana” writes back explaining why that certain species has developed a specific trait of sexual evolution over the generations. Even though the book is scientific it is written in a …
My life is filled with writing, cooking, and writing about cooking. So it’s no surprise that on a recent snowy weekend I found myself curled up by the fire with a cup of tea, a plate of buttered toast, and Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking:A Writer in the Kitchen. In this comforting collection of essays, Ms. …
Continue reading “Karen Schneider, Assistant to the Director, Childrens Center”
What would have happened if there had been a competition with anonymous design submissions for a September 11 memorial in New York City in 2002 –and the winner was revealed to be an American architect who happened to be Muslim? The Submission imagines this circumstance and develops an intriguing and all-too-plausible plot about the aftermath. …
Though very thankful to have a home in Maine, this year I have an hour commute to Bowdoin. Audio books have been great for me, as I feel that I am accomplishing something worthwhile in the car. I just finished Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America and I’m about halfway …
Continue reading “Shana Stewart Deeds, Laboratory Instructor, Biology”
During winter break I chose to read something that spoke loudly about my gender. In Is There Anything Good About Men?, Roy Baumeister takes a courageous stance that few would, ultimately answering the question of how cultures flourish by exploiting men. He does not argue that one gender is superior to another but takes the …
This biography offers an eye-opening look into the life of an innovator that changed the face of American technology. Starting with an account of Jobs’s childhood, and continuing up until the last years of his life, Isaacson captures the multifaceted complexity of Jobs. His struggles as a child, feeling neglected and somewhat unloved because he …