Book Rec of the Day 1/26-1/28

MONEY TALKS
Showing that capitalism comes in different shapes and sizes, the authors skillfully document four varieties and describe how America can sustain prosperity and growth in the years to come and what developing countries can do to stay in the game. “A daring book with big, bold, important ideas,” says George Akerlof, 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

GOOD CAPITALISM, BAD CAPITALISM, AND THE ECONOMICS OF GROWTH AND PROSPERITY, by William Baumol, Robert Litan, and Carl Schramm (Yale University Press, 2007)

BOOK LOVER’S PICK
British author Ian Sansom (The Impartial Recorder) gives us a hilarious mystery series set in northern Ireland and starring Israel Armstrong, a bumbling, lovable, vegetarian nebbish of a librarian who takes a new job with a mobile library. Even while you’re laughing out loud, you get a real sense of Ireland’s present realities. Marvelous characters and situations. Booklist starred review.

	THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS: A MOBILE LIBRARY MYSTERY
	MR. DIXON DISAPPEARS: A MOBILE LIBRARY MYSTERY, by Ian Sanson (Harper Paperbacks, both 2007)

PUNKADELIC

If you lived in New York in the 1970s and 1980s, or even just passed through, you probably heard of CBGB’s, a hole-in-the-wall in a seedy section of the Bowery. Just hearing about it, though, would not have illuminated the real story that emerges here. It is a rich tale of the vitality, talent, and anger that fueled the punk movement, featuring mavericks such as CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, Lou Reed, the Ramones, Blondie, and the Beastie Boys.

THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES AT CBGB’S: A SECRET HISTORY OF JEWISH PUNK, by Steven Lee Beeber (Chicago Review Press, 2006)

On you know, we always say that too!:

Simon game me advice and said on [UK show] The X Factor he always refers to a fortune cookie and says the moth who finds the melon finds the cornflake always finds the melon and one of you didn't pick the right fortune.

singer Paula Abdul, during an American Idol show

On cliches, mangled:

The role of the lead goose is to break wind on the other geese.

He was running around like a chicken with his legs cut off.

It's all water under a camel's back.

Missouri-based advertising executive (thanks to Buzz Baker)

On job applicants, a little too literal:

Length of Residence:

40 feet x 60 feet

actual response on a job application (thanks to Bradley Brisard)

UNCLE JOHN’S SPACE PATROL

The sun is 400 times larger than the moon; it’s also 400 times farther away. So even though these two celestial bodies are vastly different in size, they appear to be almost exactly the same size from Earth. The chances of that happening are astronomical. None of the other planets in our solar system—or their hundreds of moons—share this one-to-one ratio. It’s also amazing that something so tiny can completely block out something so big (in the event of an eclipse), proving that even the smallest of things can live large.

A TURTLE’S SHELL IS SENSITIVE ENOUGH TO FEEL A TWIG BRUSH ACROSS IT.

THE READING ROOM

In the 1920s England’s two biggest chocolate makers, Cadbury and Rowntree, tried to steal trade secrets by sending spies posing as employees into each others’ factories. Result: Both companies became highly protective of their chocolate-making process. When Roald Dahl was 13, he worked as a taste tester at Cadbury. The secretive policies and the giant, elaborate machines inspired the future author to write his book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all about eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka.

THERE IS A G.I. JOE ACTION FIGURE MODELED AFTER COLIN POWELL.

WHEN YOU GOTTA GO . . .

It turns out too much caffeine can kill you. How much is too much? According to www.energyfiend.com, it would take 435 cans of A&W Creme Soda to kill a 185-pound man. Brewed coffee: 117 cups. Red Bull energy drink: 157 cans. Snapple Decaffeinated Lemon Tea: 2,805 bottles.

THE EARLIEST KNOWN WILL WAS WRITTEN IN 2550 B.C.

CAPE NEDDICK LIGHT, MAINE, USA

“We shall walk in velvet shoes . . . we shall walk in the snow.”—ELINOR WYLIE

CHOBE NATIONAL PARK

BOTSWANA

Although it is home to some of Botswana’s most varied wildlife, Chobe National Park is best known for its huge resident elephant population--in the dry season it boasts Africa’s highest concentration.

TRAVELER IN THE KNOW

Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, is an easy day trip from the country’s biggest tourist center, Orlando. Enjoy the playful universe of Disney World and then drive about an hour east to the jumping-off point for a true human adventure that seems almost equally fantastic: America’s journeys to the moon and beyond.