September Book Links: Correspondents' Choice

It's time for another post about other people's book selections that I don't physically own. Alphabetically by authors...Once again, images of books recommended by fellow Amazon Associates link to their Amazon referral links so that I'm not directly sabotaging their work. The Blogspot system moves those images to the middle of the screen while keeping my Amazon link images on the left, so if you click on a left-aligned picture you're supporting this web site...but of course you should click on the books you want!



(This one is being sold as a fundraiser for #HoustonFlood recovery efforts. Janice Dean had already written a first book about flash floods for beginning readers; according to her, it just happened to reach bookstores just as a flash flood reached a city full of book buyers...and are children's fiction publishers still sending authors the tip that the biggest regional market for children's books is Texas? She knew there was likely to be a flash flood somewhere, right around the time this book became available. She didn't know where, though, and cheers to her for donating the profits.)

Recommended by Mudpie's Human here. (If the link doesn't go directly to that picture, search mochasmysteriesmeows.blogspot.com .) 

Amazon shows Felicity Ford's Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook as "currently unavailable." FF says a new edition will be available soon. In the U.K., at least, it can be purchased as a new book at http://knitsonik.bigcartel.com/ . Fairisle stitch, but anything but another book of traditional Fair Isle patterns.



Jerry Jenkins, co-creator of the Left Behind blockbuster series, wants everyone to know he's written a series of short, realistic mystery stories about a young woman who bonds with a young man as they solve mysteries together. These "books" were released as thirteen short novels and have been collected into two "volumes" of Kindle e-books.






Science Friday recommends a book that sounds like the data to support something GBP's been saying for years: When animals are raised on big factory farms, they're kept in crowded conditions favorable to plagues of diseases, some of which also harm humans. So the big farmers routinely feed antibiotics to the animals they're raising for meat. So...antibiotic-resistant disease germs, like MRSA, become the dominant strains in the local population. Most healthy people are immune carriers of Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria most likely to turn an ordinary blackhead into a nasty-looking sore; most people first realize they're immune-compromised when Staphylococcus aureus gives them pneumonia; most pneumonia has been successfully treated with methicillin, a fungus derivative--and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has actually killed humans, not all of them even seventy years old. Eating factory-farmed meat can become hazardous to our health.



(If you eat at Olive Garden, you might want to sign:

https://www.change.org/p/olive-garden-demand-better-from-your-chicken-suppliers .)

Anne Peterson recommends:

The author dedicated this one to her sister who became a Missing Person: http://www.annepeterson.com/no-more-talking/

This one's so old I actually remember reading it when it was a new book, and I was in the age group for which it was recommended. (Hah. All books by Dr. Seuss appealed to adults at least as much as they did to kids.) It probably deserves a book review, except that I don't currently have a copy available for physical resale. Why? The rhymed story tends to stick in people's heads. I don't have to have opened a copy of this book in the past five years to recite lines of it. And apparently it's been forgotten by the young, because a recent news item was about a young idjit claiming that T. Seuss Geisel was racist (most of the creatures in his cartoons aren't human, but most of the human ones are little White boys). I think he was in fact sexist, and biographers report that he bought into the anti-Japanese hate campaigns of his youth, but I remember recognizing this as a story about the stupidity that is racism when I was seven years old. Anyone who does not remember it from primary school should read it now.



Cats have a much more intelligent view of "race." They probably don't enjoy colors as fully as (most) humans do, but they do notice different coat colors and textures. I've even seen, when social cats have integrated litters of weaned kittens, that young social kittens gravitate toward their color matches (I would not have made this up). Social cats are fascinated by their look-alikes. And they may choose color-matched mates, given a choice; Graybelle was certainly partial to a long-haired blue-gray mate, who later came to the Cat Sanctuary after losing his human and was officially named Graybeau. But, beyond that, cats don't seem to take color seriously. The fluffy white cat shown below would probably be just as desirable to a sleek black cat as a slinky Siamese would be.

Also recommended by Mudpie's Human.

You can't buy this one yet; you can pre-order it. You read this web site, therefore you're interested in real life in the modern Appalachian Mountains, therefore you should read Wendy Welch's book. This web site recommends that you pre-order it, new, from its publisher, to show respect. Nonfiction books don't get their fair share of respect these days.

Buy it from the University of Ohio at http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Fall+or+Fly