Reviewed in The Oregonian: January 13
<a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2500.html?p_bkslv">January 16, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2507.html?p_bkslv">January 23, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2516.html?p_bkslv">January 30, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2532.html?p_bkslv">February 6, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2544.html?p_bkslv">February 13, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2551.html?p_bkslv">February 20, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2559.html?p_bkslv">February 27, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2569.html?p_bkslv">March 6, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2583.html?p_bkslv">March 13, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2589.html?p_bkslv">March 20, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2598.html?p_bkslv">March 27, 2011 reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2615.html?p_bkslv">April 3, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2654.html?p_bkslv">April 10, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2655.html?p_bkslv">April 17, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2656.html?p_bkslv">April 24, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2672.html?p_bkslv">May 1, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2673.html?p_bkslv">May 8, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2677.html?p_bkslv">May 15, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2688.html?p_bkslv">May 22, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2690.html?p_bkslv">May 29, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2707.html?p_bkslv">June 5, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2726.html?p_bkslv">June 12, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2731.html?p_bkslv">June 19, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2743.html?p_bkslv">June 26, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2773.html?p_bkslv">July 3, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2799.html?p_bkslv">July 10, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2810.html?p_bkslv">July 17, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2821.html?p_bkslv">July 24, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2834.html?p_bkslv">July 31, 2011, reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/partner?partner_id=33887&html=ppbs/33887_2836.html?p_bkslv">August 7, 2011, reviews</a> |
World Until Yesterday What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies by Jared Diamond
Publisher Comments Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday in evolutionary time when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions. The World Until Yesterday provides a mesmerizing firsthand picture of the human past as it had been for millions of years a past that has mostly vanished and considers what the differences between that past and our present mean for our lives today. This is Jared Diamond's most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn't romanticize traditional societies after all, we are shocked by some of their practices but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. A characteristically provocative, enlightening, and entertaining book, The World Until Yesterday will be essential and delightful reading. Your price $12.95 Used Hardcover
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On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz
Publisher Comments From the author of the giant andlt;Bandgt;#1 andlt;/Bandgt;andlt;Iandgt;New York Times andlt;/Iandgt;bestseller andlt;Iandgt;Inside of a Dog andlt;/Iandgt;comes an equally smart, delightful, and startling exploration of how we perceive and discover our world. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Alexandra Horowitzand#8217;s brilliant andlt;Iandgt;On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes andlt;/Iandgt;shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinaryand#8212;to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, and#8220;the observation of trifles.and#8221; andlt;Iandgt;On Looking andlt;/Iandgt;is structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, with experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. She also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. andlt;Iandgt;What andlt;/Iandgt;they see, andlt;Iandgt;how andlt;/Iandgt;they see it, and why most of us do andlt;Iandgt;not andlt;/Iandgt;see the same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;As the million-plus readers of andlt;Iandgt;Inside of a Dog andlt;/Iandgt;have discovered, Alexandra Horowitz is charmingly adept at explaining the mysteries of human perception. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her generous humor and self-deprecating tone. andlt;Iandgt;On Looking andlt;/Iandgt;presents the same engaging combination, this time in service to understanding how human beings encounter their daily worlds and each other. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to seeand#8212;if only we would really look. andlt;Iandgt;On Looking andlt;/Iandgt;is nutrition for the considered life, serving as a provocative response to our relentlessly virtual andnbsp;consciousness. So turn off the phone and other electronic devices and andlt;Iandgt;be andlt;/Iandgt;in the real worldand#8212;where strangers communicate by geometry as they walk toward one another, where sounds reveal shadows, where posture can display humility, and the underside of a leaf unveils a Lilliputian universeand#8212;where, indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Alexandra Horowitzand#8217;s andlt;Iandgt;On Looking andlt;/Iandgt;confirms her place as one of todayand#8217;s most illuminating observers of our infinitely complex world. Hardcover
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Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt
Publisher Comments Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own — until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high — the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know. Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose — and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical, Uses for Boys is a story of breaking down and growing up. Your price $18.99 New Trade Paperback
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Falling for You by Schroeder, Lisa
Publisher Comments Affection turns to obsession — and love means both devastation and redemption — in this gripping novel from the author of I Heart You, You Haunt Me. Rae’s always dreamed of dating a guy like Nathan. He’s nothing like her abusive stepfather — in other words, he’s sweet. But the closer they get, the more Nathan wants of her time, of her love, of her... and the less she wants to give. As Rae’s affection for Nathan turns to fear, she leans on her friend Leo for support. With Leo, she feels lighter, happier. And possessive Nathan becomes jealous. He’s not about to let her go. And with danger following her every move, Rae must fight for the life and love she deserves if she’s going to survive. Your price $10.95 Used Hardcover
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