Science & Technology

When Carpenter and her boyfriend rented a duplex apartment in an inner-city Oakland neighborhood, the main attraction for them was the overgrown vacant lot next door. Carpenter started "squat gardening" and progressed from growing vegetables and keeping bees to raising poultry, rabbits, and pigs. In this memoir, she writes about how she managed to feed all this livestock, how she turned her animals into meals, and how her neighbors reacted to her unorthodox activities. Carpenter describes beheading a duck in her bathtub and breaking a rabbit's neck with the back of a rake. When an opossum wanted a meal and killed two of her birds, she beat it to death with a shovel. Relating a neighbor's complaint about the awful smells, Carpenter writes, "The ammonia smell from the rabbit pee festered in the sun and blended with six months' worth of pig shit to cause a reeking smell." VERDICT Urban gardens can be an asset to communities, but this picture of urban farming, apparently meant to be offbeat and amusing, has little humor, charm, or food for thought. Readers would do better with Michael Abelman's On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm.—Ilse Heidmann, Washington State Lib., Olympia

A garden will never look quite the same after you've read this book on the 18th-century British botanists who exploited the colonial system to acquire thousands of previously unknown plant species. Wulf argues that their imports vastly increased the blooming season and variety of English gardens, enabling gardeners to create the naturalistic "English" gardens coming into fashion after the geometry of the previous century. The London merchant (and backyard gardener) Peter Collinson persuaded Philadelphia's John Bartram to make plant-collecting treks through the wilderness, and this results in the introduction to British gardens of such mainstays of the modern border as azalea, mountain laurel, paper birch, and wisteria. Bartram supplied seeds to propagate North American varieties of oak, pine, hemlock, and cedar across the ocean. New species also appeared from Australia and Asia. Ships circumnavigated the globe to collect and classify new plants (including an ill-fated voyage captained by William Bligh). The brother gardeners resisted (but eventually gave way to) the novel system invented by obstreperous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus to classify the confusing array of new discoveries. Verdict Wulf's book will be of interest to anyone with a garden, even if it's on a windowsill.—Stewart Desmond, New York

Infertility gets two very different treatments here. Ford, the mother of twins conceived through intrauterine insemination, is behind the blog Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters. Drawing on her own experiences and those of visitors to her blog, she aims in this conversationally written guide to give readers the confidence and tools to be their own advocates and to make decisions that work for them. After introducing the various types of infertility, she offers advice on seeking treatment, navigating the emotional and physical effects, deciding when to seek or end treatment, choosing whom to tell and when, and undergoing diagnostic tests and treatment. Lastly, she explores alternatives such as adoption, surrogacy, or living child-free. Sidebars that reinforce specific points, worksheets, and a list of resources and references complete this volume.

Clark, Jill Hayes, and Katherine Pucheu—all professors at Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center—combine their medical and psychiatry backgrounds with lawyer Michelle Murphy's expertise to take a much more serious approach leavened with personal stories. Part 1 covers fertility workups and treatments, including hormone stimulation, intrauterine insemination, various assisted-reproduction technologies, donor sperm, eggs and embryos, surrogacy, and domestic and international adoption. Part 2 deals with the risks and benefits of these options. As in Navigating, the authors explore in detail physical, psychological, legal, and financial implications of each option. VERDICT Navigating is a solid match for people seeking an up-close and personal view of the complicated emotional journey of infertility. Packing serious depth, breadth, and authoritativeness, Planning Parenthood will appeal to information hounds seeking anything and everything on the subject.—Jodith Janes, Cleveland Clinic Fdn. Lib.

From conception to death, we are all awash in chemicals. McCormick (health & society, Univ. of Pennsylvania) sees that fact and its consequences as having been ignored or dismissed too often. Here, she offers a combination of personal narrative, tracking one patient on her breast cancer journey, and the history of groups advocating for increased studies of environmental links. She details the struggles and achievements of survivors who have forced their way into the scientific discussion and helped bring some accountability to manufacturers of a wide variety of products. Groups such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, she says, along with corporate sponsors, government, industry, and our market-based economic system, with their focus on detection and treatment, comprise a "political economy of disease." The result is scant attention being paid to prevention. VERDICT While the sheer number of individuals and groups briefly introduced feels a bit overwhelming, the book is unique in its look at the activists and their demands for a refocus in breast cancer research. Researchers, activists, and politicians, take note. See also McCormick's documentary of the same name at www.nofamilyhistory.org.—Dick Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver

In this guide to sound skin care, New York City-based dermatologist Marmur (Mount Sinai Medical Ctr.) explains the skin's physiology and why the more products you use, the worse your skin may become, as modern cosmeceuticals often have ingredients that interact negatively with those in other products. Featuring simple, easy-too-absorb explanations, her program boils down to gentle cleansing in moderation, moisturizing, and sun block every day. No one has one particular type of skin that responds only to select (brand name) products, she explains; drug-store brands are just as good and often better than the expensive exotic ones. Her discussion of modern procedures, like Botox and microdermabrasion, explains exactly what they can and cannot do. VERDICT Women of all ages are always on the lookout for ways to improve their skin, and while Marmur lacks the name recognition of celebrity "derms" Nicolas Perricone and Howard Murad, she dispels harmful myths and distills a feasible regimen.—Susan B. Hagloch, formerly with the Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, OH

Few people realize that the thyroid gland plays a major role in the metabolic process. As women age, the thyroid slows down, causing symptoms often associated with menopause: mood swings, weight gain, exhaustion, and temperature changes. Most physicians assume that menopause is the culprit and do not test for thyroid deficiency. Shomon, a thyroid patient who has written several books (The Thyroid Diet; Living Well with Hypothyroidism), tells readers about the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of thyroid disease. She includes information about choosing a physician, considering alternative therapies, and incorporating nutrition and exercise for good health. Although the long list of symptoms will make every reader think she has thyroid disease, more than 50 percent of women over the age of 60 are hypothyroid; many have no symptoms, so this should encourage them to think about discussing the possibility with their physicians. The information about foods that affect thyroid function and the proper way to take thyroid medication is very useful. VERDICT Patients looking for a good injection of self-empowerment will embrace Shomon's tone and approach, though this book appears to be somewhat of a repackaging of the author's previous works.—Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L.

This book is based on an extensive public opinion survey exploring attitudes toward electronic health communications initiated by West (vice president & director of Governance Studies, Brookings Inst.) and Miller (public policy, Brown Univ.) in 2005. The authors closely examined various web sites providing medical information for readability, authority, and objectivity, and they here provide useful appendixes listing medical web sites and pertinent standards for evaluating their content. Although they briefly outline some of the problems of implementing a national health-care provider network for medical records—one of President Obama's highly publicized new initiatives—West and Miller deal primarily with the consumer side of digital medicine. Four years from now, it will be apparent to librarians that while the general public avidly seeks medical information on the web, "digital divides" of poverty, language, literacy, and generational differences still remain significant barriers to widespread implementation of digital medical consumer services. Verdict West and Miller's exploration of the costs, concerns, and possible benefits of digital medicine is both thoughtful and timely. Librarians, health advocates, and policymakers on both sides of the issue will chew on this food for thought.—Kathy Arsenault, St. Petersburg, FL

This small primer by restaurateur and chef Costello and coauthor Reich (Notes on Directing) delivers both practical and philosophical advice beyond what one will find in a cookbook. Its goal is to pass on knowledge that will help readers think like a chef, not merely follow a recipe. Some 217 "notes," or entries, are organized into 19 topical chapters that can be read in any order and include cross references among the notes. The notes offer simple advice like remembering to date and label perishables to lesser-known tips like how to pick the healthiest chicken in the grocer's case and testing eggs for freshness. The authors also include appendixes on flavor lexicon, classic combinations, and cooking essentials as well as 11 annotated recommended readings. VERDICT Both novice and more experienced cooks will appreciate the plethora of useful and valuable advice here. Overall, a delightful culinary resource.—Lisa A. Ennis, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib.

Speakeasies and Keystone Cops come to mind when we think of the Prohibition Era (1919–33). Few of us imagine what the 18th Amendment meant to families and individuals whose livelihood depended on growing grapes and making wine. Sosnowski, editorial director of the San Francisco Examiner and two other newspapers, collected meticulous research to chronicle how the banning of alcoholic beverages affected the grape growers and vintners of California's Napa and Sonoma region. Though she describes many brutal and abusive raids on farms and wineries by goverment agents, business as usual was surprisingly common. The task of preventing people from enjoying the pleasure of wine was daunting. Few agents were above corruption, and the Napa and Sonoma winemakers, compelled by economics, became very clever in disguising their product and its storage. From shipping grapes across country for "legal" home wine making to running wine to San Francisco in the middle of the night, most did whatever they could to keep from going bankrupt. VERDICT Sosnowski's reconstruction of actual events reads like a novel. This tale of a little-known aspect of American history will be enjoyed by Californians, as well as oenophiles and history buffs.—Ann Weber, Bellarmine Coll. Prep., San José, CA

The field of comparative animal cognition has quietly been challenging our cherished beliefs about what separates humanity from other animals with evidence that a variety of animals use tools, are self-aware, and can learn the rudiments of a representational language. Chimpanzee researcher Boysen (psychology, Ohio State) has organized the newest laboratory and field research in animal intelligence into seven broad categories of cognition. It is not surprising that the highly social and intelligent chimpanzee excels in every category, yet some unlikely animals also have smarts: marine sea otters crack open shellfish with rocks, Sahara Desert ants "count" steps to get back to their nests, and red-backed salamanders "respond to quantity." A list of suggestions for further reading would have been beneficial since many of the scientists whose work is cited (e.g., Jane Goodall, Roger Fouts, Irene Pepperberg, Frans de Waal) have written excellent books for lay readers. VERDICT Succinctly written and sumptuously illustrated with photographs and diagrams, this appealing book is sure to fascinate the general reader and inspire the science student considering a career in animal behavior or cognition.—Cynthia Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Lib., Flemington, NJ

As an experimental psychologist at the University of Waterloo and director of its Research Laboratory for Immersive Virtual Environments (RELIVE), Ellard draws on a vast knowledge base of how humans perceive space, use space, and move through space versus all that is done by animals such as bees, rats, and birds. In the first two-thirds of this book, he displays this expertise with clarity and a sure hand, providing lay readers with a thorough understanding of space syntax, visibility graphs, spatial cognition, etc., as they relate to humans and other creatures and their impact on our lives, our architecture, our homes, and our cities. But the author becomes less sure and convincing in the book's last third when he attempts to tie the preceding pages to cyberspace environments such as Second Life, to greenspace in our urban design, and lastly to our failure to be outdoors in nature. Ellard believes that we may "neglect our stewardship of our planetary home to the extent that we risk losing it." VERDICT Ellard's message is not new, but his reasoning is novel. Despite its flaws, this title will intrigue readers interested in psychology, the environment, and architecture.—Michael D. Cramer, Schwarz BioSciences, RTP, NC

Thorson (geology, Univ. of Connecticut; Stone by Stone) provides a complete natural and cultural history of kettle lakes, which are remnants of the Ice Age scattered along the path of retreating glaciers from Maine to Montana. Creating a loose narrative, Thorson follows kettles from their icy birth to the present where many are succumbing to myriad forms of degradation. He also discusses the significant role kettles have played in the lives of pre-Columbian Indians, Native Americans, early explorers and entrepreneurs, and present-day middle-class families who build lakeside dream cottages. A connection is even made between Walden Pond, America's most famous kettle lake, and the appreciation of nature that influenced the Transcendental movement of the 19th century. VERDICT Though detailed explanations of lake ecology and geological processes, which leave no stone unturned, read like an undergraduate textbook at times, fans of natural history will still find much of interest, including fun tidbits such as why Walden is called a pond and what Ice Age meat tastes like.—Maureen J. Delaney-Lehman, Lake Superior State Univ., Sault Ste. Marie, MI

Yoon, a New York Times science journalist, writes about the human need to name and classify living things in our perceived world—she uses the term umwelt (from the German Umwelt, enivronment) to describe our environment. Anthropologists have found that similar taxonomies are created no matter what culture, language, or age group is studied. This suggests that there is a part of the brain devoted to naming things, and Yoon describes studies showing that the part of the brain that names living things is different from the part of the brain that names inanimate or human-made objects. Yoon argues that as we move away from traditional taxonomies toward more scientific evolution or gene-based taxonomies, we begin to lose part of who we are. VERDICT Rob R. Dunn's Every Living Thing also covers taxonomy, but as well as addressing Carl Linnaeus, it discusses new species and the people who classify and name them, rather than the human instinct to name species. Given the specialty of the topic, Yoon's work may attract educated lay readers interested in cognitive science, the origin of words, and natural history.—Margaret Henderson, Tompkins-McCaw Lib., Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond