Energy for future presidents : the science behind the headlines

 by Richard Muller.    (Get the Book)
 UC-Berkeley physicist Muller (Physics for Future Presidents), who made headlines for first criticizing and then vindicating global warming research, explores the contentious issues that will increasingly preoccupy politicians and citizens, in this no-nonsense scientific primer on energy policy. Muller brings fresh, often contrarian perspectives to topics that have been saturated in misinformation and hype, arguing, for example, that new techniques to extract the stupendous reserves of petroleum in shale and tar sands will eliminate all talk of peak oil; that wind power and photovoltaics will boom while corn ethanol, geothermal, and tidal power will fizzle; that household energy conservation is a great investment, while public transit is usually a bad one; and that China's soaring carbon dioxide emissions will render America's almost irrelevant-and that the best way to abate China's emissions is by switching from coal to natural gas. Especially revealing is his positive assessment of nuclear energy, which effectively debunks the alarmism surrounding the March 2011 Fukushima accident. The author's explanations of the science underlying energy production are lucid but never simplistic-and often fascinating in their own right. Policy makers and casual readers alike can benefit from Muller's eye-opening briefing, which sheds lots of light with little wasted heat. --Publishers Weekly

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry : a novel

by Rachel Joyce     (Get the Book)
Spontaneity has never been Harold Fry's strong suit, especially once he retired. Just ask his long-suffering wife, Maureen. So imagine her surprise when Harold abruptly decides to walk 500 miles to the north of England in a naive attempt to save a dying woman, a colleague he once knew briefly but to whom he hadn't spoken in 20 years. It's the proverbial case of a man going out to mail a letter and never coming home. Clad only in his everyday garb, lacking a cell phone, backpack, or reliable sense of direction, Fry puts one poorly shod foot in front of the other and trudges through villages and hamlets, often relying on the kindness of strangers to keep his momentum going. To the object of his inspiration, the fading Queenie Hennessy, he writes pithy postcards, bravely exhorting her not to die. Solitary walks are perfect for imagining how one might set the world to rights, and Harold does just that, although not always with uplifting results, as he ruminates on missed opportunities and failed relationships. Accomplished BBC playwright Joyce's debut novel is a gentle and genteel charmer, brimming with British quirkiness yet quietly haunting in its poignant and wise examination of love and devotion. Sure to become a book-club favorite. --Booklist

What the best college students do

by Ken Bain    (Get the Book)
Bain (What the Best College Teachers Do), the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of the District of Columbia, weaves a narrative from a series of interviews with a group that includes physicians, lawyers, politicians, Nobel laureates, and MacArthur "Genius Grant" winners to create a qualitative study of the habits of people who distinguish themselves in their postcollege careers. These interviews are supplemented with sociological and psychological research on the characteristics of a "good" student. Common threads include passion, creativity, and flexibility. Indeed, the diversity of Bain's subjects, including comedian Stephen Colbert and engineer (and Palm Pilot inventor) Jeff Hawkins, adds veracity to Bain's arguments about embracing curiosity and failure on the path to making an impact. In the last chapter, Bain offers more concrete advice to college students, but again, the author challenges these future leaders by framing his collected wisdom in the form of questions and considerations. Rejecting the notion that a liberal arts education leads to becoming "jack of all trades and master of none," Bain finds that broad brushstrokes allowed the most successful among us to draw connections between the world at large and a chosen specialty. This straightforward book about learning habits should appeal to the teenager heading off to college and mindfully planning his/her approach to education. --Publishers Weekly

You don't want to know

by Lisa Jackson   (Get the Book)
Just because you're paranoid, as the saying goes, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you. In Ava Church Garrison's case, they could be everyone she's related to and just about everyone she's ever met, most of whom seem to live with her in the sprawling, Addams Family-style mansion she inherited. In the two years since Ava's son, Noah, disappeared, she's been plagued with hallucinations, seeing him outside and hearing his cries coming from his shuttered nursery. Recently released from a mental hospital and fed a daily dose of psychotropic drugs, Ava still manages to cling to the belief that Noah is alive, but quickly comes to realize that what she sees and hears ain't necessarily so. With a philandering husband eager to send her back to the psych ward and a vindictive, wheelchair-bound cousin who blames her for her injuries, Ava doesn't lack for enemies. Best-selling and prolific Jackson deftly throws in an escaped serial killer and the recent murders of Ava's psychiatrist and hypnotist to ensure that her creepily gothic thriller teems with sinister possibilities. --Booklist

The twilight war : the secret history of America's thirty-year conflict with Iran

By David Crist     (Get the Book)
In this well-researched book, historian and former marine Crist makes the case that the United States is already enmeshed in a hidden war with Iran that has raged unacknowledged for decades. This shadow war is characterized by espionage, assassination plots, and frequent eruptions of open hostilities, and exacerbated by egregious missteps and blunders by both sides. (Crist loses no time in labeling the American invasion of Iraq, for instance, as one of the "worst planned campaigns ever executed by the U.S. military.") Enriched by hundreds of interviews with key players as well as the author's own experiences in the Persian Gulf, this is a comprehensive and readable account of American-Iranian hostilities since the 1979 revolution. Crist reveals many previously unreported details of recent maneuverings, such as the provenance of the Stuxnet virus and the backstory of the bizarre case of Shahram Amiri (the nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. and then posted videos on YouTube claiming that he was being held captive by the CIA), but the broad outlines of the narrative are not nearly as "secret" as the subtitle implies. If there is a moral to this story, it may be that despite the furious machinations of the world's intelligence agencies, critical change points more often than not hinge on blind luck and happenstance. --Booklist

Red ink : inside the high-stakes politics of the federal budget

by David Wessel          (Get Book)
Anyone who's curious to know how the U.S. government managed to spend $3.6 trillion dollars in 2011 may be interested to learn about the inner workings of the federal budget and where the money goes. Economics expert Wessel breaks it down in layperson's terms. With the budget deficit being higher in 2011 than it has ever been, he explains the ever-widening gaps between government revenue and spending from the Great Depression until now, highlighting major historical milestones in budgetary strategy and the current situation. Despite four years in which the government actually had budget surpluses enough to pay off the federal debt, economic woes, costly wars, and other problems drove the budget back into the red, where it remains up to the present. The book explains the factors causing health-care spending to rise faster than the other areas of the federal budget, which forecasts an alarming trend for the future. Controversy over whether tax increases or spending cuts should be made to defense, Medicare, or Social Security spending provides fuel for great debate. --Booklist

The fear artist

by Timothy Hallinan.    (Get the Book)
All I wanted to do was paint my apartment, thinks Poke Rafferty after more than a week of evading capture by Bangkok's secret police. He has become a suspect in the War on Terror, hunted by police, who are concerned that Muslims have killed thousands of Buddhists in southern Thailand, and by an aging American whose appetite for torture and murder wasn't sated by the Vietnam War's Phoenix Program. Set against actual strife in the south and the epochal 2011 monsoon that nearly drowned all of Bangkok, Hallinan's latest surpasses his last Rafferty thriller, the Edgar-nominated The Queen of Patpong (2010). The plot is straightforward until Poke learns that Murphy, the American, is a monster who killed women and children as easily as Vietcong agents. But it becomes more complex when he hires two former Russian spies to help him and reluctantly accepts assistance from his 17-year-old half-sister, Ming Li. The Russians' first loyalty may be to money, and Poke wishes that Ming Li were safely home in Virginia. All of Hallinan's characters are multifaceted and compelling, but his villains are exceptional; and the volcanic American sadist is the author's best yet. Poke's ongoing melancholy over his daughter's adolescent angst remains knowing, and here it serves as a reader's respite from the book's myriad tensions. The Fear Artist is simply the best of a fine series of thrillers set in one of the world's most exotic locales. --Booklist

Mapping Census 2010 : the Geography of American diversity

    Get the Book

Mapping Census 2010: The Geography of American Change is an atlas of the American people: who we are, and where we are. Using the latest census data and geographic information system (GIS) technology, this atlas examines how our unique population is moving and changing. These large, full-color maps illustrate population density, age, and racial and ethnic composition with clarity. Mapping Census 2010 is an invaluable resource for government officials, policy makers, and citizens interested in social change.

The after wife : a novel

by Gigi Lewangie Grazier   (Get the Book)
Grazier, A-list writer for the TV series The Starter Wife, which is based on her best-selling 2005 novel of the same name, delivers another strong story set in upscale Los Angeles with The After Wife. Hannah Bernal is bereft when she learns that her beloved husband has been killed in a hit-and-run accident while on his way to the market. She struggles with overwhelming grief and the impossible task of comforting her three-year-old daughter, Ellie, who was inseparable from her stay-at-home dad. Three colorful friends keep Hannah going during a series of crises involving an arrest, a job termination, and day-care difficulties, but they balk at Hannah's weird and troubling new ability to see and hear the dead. Hannah begins to advise people according to the wishes of their deceased relatives and even talks to her dead husband. Grazer evokes powerful emotions and situations that remain realistic even with the complication of Hannah's paranormal gift, and she ends this affecting tale on a hopeful note. Fans of Lolly Winston, Mary Kay Andrews, and Jennifer Weiner will especially enjoy Grazer's newest. --Booklist