As you probably know, the Dewey Decimal System is the classification scheme for nonfiction materials at Nashua Public Library. (For more detailed information, see Dewey Decimal Classification at OCLC.) The 600's is the area where you can find.recipes, automobile repair manuals, home electrical wiring, industrial tools, building plans for decks and bathrooms, and all about health care for the mind and body. This blog will let you know of our new special 600 books on a variety of topics:
The Elephant in the Playroom: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately And Honestly About the Extraordinary Highs by Denise Brodey.
A magazine editor, Ms. Brodey uses her experiences as the mother of a four-year-old boy diagnosed with sensory integration dysfunction and childhood depression as a springboard to assemble a series of essays from parents of special-needs children. The children profiled have a wide range of diagnoses such as autism,selective mutism, cerebral palsy and schizophrenia. Their parents describe the roller-coaster ride of daily living, discuss whether or not to medicate and the issue of public embarrassment, and share both wonderful and horrific school experiences. Their stories are both sad and unexpectedly funny. In this collection, parents of special-needs kids will find a wise and understanding community.
American Chestnut : The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel.
This is a beautifully-written book about the demise of the American chestnut tree, which was nearly exterminated by a plague that entered the ecosystem. Susan Freinkel has done impeccable research and topnotch reporting of the impassioned work of scientists over the past century and up to today as they have attempted to bring the American chestnut back from the brink of extinction. You will read about botanists' struggles with politicians, the science of crossbreeding, "hypovirulence" (fighting disease by "infecting the infection"), and genetic engineering. As quoted from Publishers Weekly, "... this impassioned book strikes resonant emotional chords that transform dry facts into dynamic prose".
Nim Chimpsky : the Chimp who would be Human by Elizabeth Hess.
In the 1970s Nim Chimpsky was the subject of a University of Oklahoma experiment to determine if a chimp could learn American Sign Language and thus refute Noam Chomsky's influential thesis that language is inherent only in humans. The chimp Nim was sent to live with a family in New York City and was taught human language like any other child. Ms. Hess is both compassionate and accurate as she details the experiment's successes and failures, and its heroes and villains. She describes Nim's odyssey from a town house in Manhattan to a mansion in the Bronx and then back to Oklahoma, where he was bounced among various facilities as financial, personal and scientific troubles beset the study. The book shows why the Nim experiment was a crucial event in animal studies, but in addition, Hess captures Nim's "legendary charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen understanding of human beings". This is probably the only book on linguistics and primatology that will leave readers in tears.
Secret ingredients : the New Yorker Book of Food and Drink edited by David Remnick.
If you enjoy good food, good writing and New Yorker cartoons, this book is for you. It is actually a compilation of essays, fiction, and cartoons on the world of food and drink from the pages of The New Yorker, featuring contributions by such luminaries as Susan Orlean, Calvin Trillin, Joan Didion, Anthony Bourdain, John Cheever, and Roald Dahl. You can read memoirs, short stories, tell-alls, and poems.
How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better by Charla Krupp.
According to the publisher, this book is a "boot camp for a younger, hipper makeover, packed with no-holds-barred advice on little beauty and fashion changes that pay off big time". Whether you are high or low maintenance about your beauty routine, if you are "of a certain age" and want to participate in our youth-obsessed culture, you should enjoy and learn from this book. Ms. Krupp, style expert for the Today Show and former beauty director for Glamour, offers easy-to-follow fashion advice in attractive, highly skimmable, fashion-magazine style, on how to avoid the things that scream old lady (simply "OL" in the book) and adapt to a style that is younger and hipper ("Y&H").
The Alzheimer's Answer : Reduce Your Risk and Keep Your Brain Healthy
by Marwan Noel Sabbagh; foreword by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Sabbagh strongly suggests identifying and combating risk factors decades before symptoms appear. Similar to such other conditions affected by obesity as high blood pressure and diabetes, Alzheimer's is growing at an alarming rate. Although treatment goals and expectations for those with Alzheimer's are modest, Sabbagh believes most risk factors can be offset well before retirement age through diet, physical and mental exercise, brain-specific supplements and, in some cases, medications that lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, manage blood sugar and decrease inflammation. He suggests such potent weapons to counteract development of brain plaque as omega-3 fatty acids, quercetin, folic acid, huperzine A, green tea and curcumin. A guide to symptoms, diagnosis and treatment will prove helpful to patients and their families, and an overview of new drugs that could halt progression and possibly heal damaged brain cells offers hope for the future.
