The Best in Books: Tinkers

At the time Paul Harding’s Tinkers won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 it had only sold about 1,120 copies, according to Publisher's Weekly

. Since then, more than 360,000 trade paperback copies have been purchased.

"The weekly spike is also astounding: in the week before the announcement, Tinkers sold only 40 copies. The next week, immediately following its Pulitzer victory, it sold 1,042 copies, doubling its total sales in a seven-day span. The following week, sales continued to climb, reaching 6,131 copies, and weekly sales remained steady around 5,000 until January 2011, 10 months after it won the Pulitzer," the trade magazine reports.

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Now Reading: The Nature Principle

Now reading with the Outrider Reading Group ~
The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age by Richard Louv

In this new book, Richard Louv presents a compelling case that the time has come to re-envision a future that taps into the restorative powers of the natural world.

Dubbed "The New Nature Movement," this future-oriented emphasis on environmentalism and sustainability challenges all of us to make changes to the way we live.

Louv presents evidence that exposure to and cooperation with nature can boost mental acuity and creativity, promote health and wellness, build smarter and more sustainable businesses, and strengthen human bonds.

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Review: Neurogastronomy

Why do we like or even crave certain foods and avoid others?

Named and defined by the author, a Yale neurobiologist studying how the brain creates images of smells, "neurogastronomy" is a new science of eating that focuses on food favors.

Drawing on brain studies and food studies, this book explains the new field of investigation and how it holds "the promise of putting healthy eating on a new scientific basis."

A key premise of this book is that "humans have a much more highly developed sense of flavor because of the complex processing that occurs in the large human brain." Gordon Shepherd dismisses the idea that foods hold flavor as a common misconception and asserts that while foods contain molecules, the flavor of those molecules is actually created in our brains.

Neurogastronomy 

How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters

by Gordon M. Shepherd

Columbia University Press, 2011

Continued in The Book Stall

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Science Writing

Why Another Social Network?

That's a very good question, and I'm sure that many smart people at Google asked the same question before they launched Google+.  

Google+ offers a bevy of features that allow you to share different things with different people. 

Google+ makes it downright simple to share particular things with only certain people. 

Facebook is invested in your sharing things with the widest audience possible, as the default privacy settings reflect. Lately, Facebook has gotten better about allowing you to choose who can see what, but Google+ was designed with choice in mind.

The Google+ Guide

Circles, Photos, and Hangouts

by Scott McNulty

Peachpit Press, 201

Book Stall Review: The Google+ Guide
Artwork: Réseaux Sociaux

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Review: The Google+ Guide

Launched on June 28, 2011, Google+ is a social network that recognizes that people interact with multiple circles of friends and acquaintances who may or may not overlap. It allows users to set up or join any number Circles of users linked by common interests, locations, ideologies or tastes.

Actively competing with Facebook and Twitter, Google+ had attracted more than 40 million users in its first six months.

Social networking products unique to Google+ include Stream (a newsfeed), Sparks (a recommendation engine), Hangouts (a video chat service), Circles (a friend management service) along with games and photo collections.

Continued in ... The Book Stall

The Google+ Guide

Circles, Photos, and Hangouts

by Scott McNulty

Peachpit Press, 2011

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Review: The Kitchen As Laboratory

Let's call it "quantum cooking" - the application of physics and molecular bioscience and industrial technologies to the preparation of common meals and and familiar dishes with greater control and awareness of the processes involved.

This is a culinary anthology of 33 essays by more than 50 contributing scientists engaged in the study of food presenting their findings with practical
applications for the kitchen.

Continued in ... The Book Stall

The Kitchen As Laboratory 

by Cesar Vega, Job Ubbink and Erik van van der Linden

Columbia University Press, 2012

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Good Old Books: Home Power!

When you figure out your personal wealth, you usually start by adding the value of your bank accounts, stocks, bonds, insurance policies, equity in your home and other real estate, and end up by counting the change in your pocket or purse.

Then you deduct your debts, The mortgage on your home is usually the big one, plus other loans. What's left after you subtract the total of your liabilities from your assets indicates very well how much strength and security you have, in a financial sense.

Or does it?

Things and services created in the home have an enormous impact on the quality of our lives.

Much of the basic productive work of our society is carried out in the home. Yet current economic thinking overlooks most home production. The food you grow in your garden and the bread you bake in your kitchen are not counted as part of the Gross National Product.

Home Power!

by the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming

Rodale Press, 1976

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