DEWEY: THE SMALL-TOWN LIBRARY CAT WHO TOUCHED THE WORLD, by Vicki Myron

636.8

MYR

Dewey arrived at the Spencer Public Library in Iowa via the book drop on a freezing winter night. He was adopted by the library staff and soon took to greeting patrons at the door and keeping them company while he napped in their laps.

Dewey was such a success as a library cat that eleven people attempted to claim credit for abandoning him in the book drop. He lived at the Spencer Public Library to the ripe age of 17.

THE RED LEATHER DIARY by Lily Koppel

974.71092

KOP

When Lily Koppel, a 20-something writer in New York, hurried to work one fall morning, she noticed a dumpster filled with antique trunks in front of her building. Finding them irresistible she climbed in to pull out the locked trunks from their landfill destination. One item changed her life - a diary written by a teenager over an unbroken 5-year span from 1929-1934. Manhattanite Florence Wolfson received the diary on her 14th birthday. From that day until she turned 19 she recorded her life from her first kiss to her crushes on women as well as men, to her interest in writing and art.

In a chance phone call, Koppel discovers Wolfson is still alive and living in Florida. They meet and develop a relationship that neither one could have anticipated.

DOWN THE NILE: ALONE IN A FISHERMAN'S SKIFF by Rosemary Mahoney

962.0455

MAH

Mahoney fulfills her ambition to row herself down the Nile, but not without some difficulty. Mahoney is an experienced and enthusiastic rower so the difficulty is not physical but cultural. In the Islamic country of Egypt, women do not row and Mahoney must pretend to be buying a boat for her nonexistent husband in order to be taken seriously. And then there is the matter of the police.

This is a well-written picture of contemporary Egyptian society and of those who came down the Nile before Mahoney, including Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale.

LOOK ME IN THE EYE by John Elder Robison

362.196858

ROB

This is a fascinating and funny memoir of a man who grew up a misfit only to figure out late in life that he was afflicted with Asperger's syndrome. Older brother of Augusten Burroughs, John knew he was different. He dropped out of high school and discovered a genius for electronics. When he was in his forties, the discovery that his eccentricities had a name gave him the confidence to work on his social interactions. This is a compelling story that helps the reader understand someone struggling with a disability.

MIM CHIMPSKY: THE CHIMP WHO WOULD BE HUMAN by Elizabeth Hess

636.9885
HES
Part of an experiment to determine whether non-humans could acquire language, the chimpanzee named Mim was raised as a human child in a family, wore clothers and was taught American sign language. Nim became a celebrity in t he early 1970's, appearing on talk shows and as the subject of magazine articles. When the funding ran out, however, he was shipped back to the chimp breeders facility in Oklahoma where he was born. He was then shunted from place to place, (including a facility which used animals for medical experimentation) before ending his days at Cleveland Armory's Black Beauty Ranch in Texas.

THE WORST HARD TIME by Timothy Egan

978.032

EAG

A counterpart to John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, Egan's nonfiction work tells the lesser-known story of those who stayed behind and survived t he dustbowl of the 1030's. Filled with incredible details, like boiling tumbleweeed to eat. This book will fill you with admiration for the toughness and resourcefulness of the farmers and others who stayed because they had no choice.

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A YEAR OF FOOD LIFE, by Barbara Kingsolver

641.0973

KIN

Kingsolver moved family and flock from arid Arizona to a family farm in southern Appalachia. This book chronicles a year of their lives dedicated to eating only foods grown locally and in season. They have a large garden which provides their own meat. They even learn how to make cheese.

Her story is entertaining, educational and admirable. Kingsolver explores such topics as use of fossil fuel in transporting "exotic" foods, the losing battle in the use of pesticides, and fair trade. Interspersed with editorials from 19-year-old daughter Camille are recipes, weekly family menus, and humorous family stories. This year-long diary tackles important issues that make you think about what you eat and where it comes from.

PARADOX OF CHOICE: WHY MORE IS LESS by Barry Schwartz

153.83
SCH
Barry Schwartz discusses how an abundance of choice can become detrimental to our psychological and emotional well being. He explains the irony that having more choices, which would seem to encourage autonomy, actually causes us more stress and unhappiness than when choices are fewer. He spends some time suggesting that our expectations influence our attitude toward things and that the more choices we have, the higher the expectations, resulting in a greater chance that we will be dissatisfied. This is a fascinating look at a subject that effects us all.

ALMOST FRENCH by Sarah Turnbull

944.361

TUR

When Sarah Turnbull, a young Australian journalist on sabbatical in Europe, meets Frederic, a Frenchman (complete with ascot), little does she realize that she is about to embark on a lifelong love affair with him and his native city of Paris. Full of amusing anecdotes about her skirmishes with prickly Parisians, Turnbull sheds light on the French love of aesthetics and the countryside as well as their perplexing behavior at cocktail parties. By the time she and Frederic decide to marry, Turnbull has developed a real understanding of his country, so much so that she feels "almost French."

I'M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF by Bill Bryson

973.92

BRY

These brief chapters are a compilation of newspaper columns written by Bryson for a British audience during his first three years in the United States after a twenty-year absence. As always, Bryson is entertaining and funny. He also helps the reader see the United States through the eyes of someone to whom some of its ways are unfamiliar. The things we do and have that are wonderful, but that we take for granted, and those that are silly, but that we are so accustomed to that we no longer notice, stand out large and clear.

Bryson's work is enjoyable at any time, but these little snippets are especially nice for those odd minutes waiting in line or for a quick break from work.

A YEAR IN THE WORLD by Frances Mayes

910.4

May

Frances Mayes leaves her Tuscan home to travel.. Her journeys are primarily in the Mediterranean area and are as beautifully described as her home in Cortona has been in her previous bestselling books. She and her husband Ed like Portugal, Naples, Sicily, Capri, and the coast of Turkey. They are less enthusiastic about Fex, Morocco, where Ed succumbs to food poisoning. But even when adversity strikes, the journeys are fascinating.

THE SEX LIVES OF CANNIBALS: ADRIFT IN THE EQUATORIAL PACIFIC, by J. Maarten Troost

996.81

TRO

Troost debunks the myth of the South Sea island paradise in this hilarious account of the two years he and his wife spent on the Pacific atoll of Kiribati. Just as funny as Bill Bryson, Troost has found lots of material to work with on this Third World island ignored by the rest of the world. He and his wife survive years of eating only fish, no coffee, and music which is a constant replay of "La Macarena" to become truly fond of the Kiribati people by the time they leave to return to the United States.