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Recently in Featured Books Category
If new knowledge doesn't
change the way you act, have you really learned anything?
I enjoy a lot of books.
My favorites, though, tend to make my life different. Make me live different. They aren't just fun and interesting; their
ideas and information illuminate more of the world for me and compel me to act
in new ways to match this new understanding.
A few such titles, for your consideration:
Let My People Go
Surfing: The Education Of A Reluctant
Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard
In this chronicle of the development of the outdoor sports
equipment company Patagonia (and to a lesser extent, the climbing-gear company
Black Diamond), founder Yvon Chouinard lays out the incredible, beautiful and
encouraging results of a group of climbers, surfers, skiers, and other people
passionate about the outside who more or less accidentally created a company
that is at once financially successful and has legitimate moral fiber.
Patagonia's primary reason for existence is not to turn a
profit, but to make the world a better place.
Profit is secondary. Chouinard
has seriously contemplated liquidating the whole business and using the money
to protect the environment, but has decided against that because of his belief
that more good can be done if the company continues to exist. This idea should be basic--nothing
should exist if it's not making the world better--but in a book about a
for-profit corporation, it's pretty rare.
Also key in Patagonia's operating values are excellent worker treatment
(they were one of the first companies to offer childcare for employees, and
their flexible policy on when people get their shifted hours done lets workers
maintain their often weather-dependent outdoor pursuits), minimizing
environmental impact of their products (many of their clothes are made of
recycled materials, and you can send some of them back once they wear out to be
recycled again), and making gear that's built to last through massive abuse
(Chouinard tells the story of a conversation where he said to another Patagonia
high-up that he wanted their company to make the best shirt in the world, and
he was rebuffed: she said it was
impossible, that the best shirts in the world are hand-stitched in Italy and
cost hundreds of dollars apiece. He
asked whether you could get those shirts dirty and toss them in the heavy cycle
of a washer, and she said of course not, the shirt would be ruined. Chouinard concludes that these are not in
fact the best shirts in the world.).
These values--doing good to the world; doing good to other people; living
freely; and making and using efficient, effective products--are presented as a
unified ethic. Seeing them all laid out
so plainly--and moreover, seeing them put into action with integrity,
consistency and success--touched me and shifted how I approach many parts of my
life and what new things I seek to bring into it.
Let My People Go Surfing is in our Biography
section--enjoy!
Bomb The Suburbs and No More Prisons by William Upski Wimsatt
These two books are hard to characterize. Wimsatt, a college dropout (from my college!)
turned hip hop journalist (yeah, hip hop is big enough to include journalism,
too) turned philanthropist, has considered many, many topics and written on
them here: the causes and effects of the
abandonment of urban centers by middle-class white people, self-education where
formal education leaves students cold, responsible use of inherited money,
cross-country hitch hiking, popular misconceptions about the safety of poor
neighborhoods, abuse of racial privileges within hip hop culture, and many
others. In a style that is at once
abrasively blunt and engagingly conversational, Wimsatt keeps you reading,
thinking, and re-thinking throughout.
The two books, read in order (Bomb The Suburbs came out
first), chart marked changes in Wimsatt's views on the topics he
discusses--ideas that were only partway formed in the first book are fleshed out
or critiqued and reconsidered in the second.
I first encountered the idea that this whole post is based on--that
really learning something will change the way you act--in Wimsatt's
writing. I learned later that it's also
found in educational theory; professional educators call it "deep
learning." This approach, focused on
big-picture results, permeates these books, and helps make what might seem like
scattershot collections of unrelated essays feel instead like strong, extremely
cohesive meditations on the state of contemporary society and what each
individual--any individual--can do to improve things.
Wimsatt has a newer book out--Please Don't Bomb The Suburbs. I haven't read it yet, but it's in the
Politics section here at Indigo Bridge.
If you're interested, be quick, or I'll pick it up first.
No Impact Man, by Colin Beavan
This fine specimen recounts the author's yearlong attempt to reduce
his family's negative environmental impact to zero. Not to "be green," not to drive a hybrid, not
to buy the plastic box of food from another continent with a "certified
organic" sticker on it instead of the one without, but to do nothing at all that
hurts our earth. Public transportation
is not good enough--the subway still runs on fossil-fuel power. Recycling is not good enough--the project
demands that no waste be produced whatsoever.
Forget CFLs--Beavan, his wife and their toddler daughter turn off the
electricity.
The book's power is multifold:
for one, it presents and strives to answer some very important
questions, questions that humankind has stopped being able to run away
from. If all our technological progress,
at the expense of the planet's livability and the lives, health and happiness
of billions of our poorest people, is legitimately making our lives better,
then perhaps it's worth the cost, Beavan suggests. But, he continues, are our lives better with
our Styrofoam and takeout boxes? With
our disposable tissues? With twenty-four
hour television, with plastic diapers, with so many material conveniences and
labor-savers that we are now expected to live at a pace so fast we can't enjoy
the life the conveniences are here to free us up to enjoy in the first
place? And if not--if we spend so much of
our time toiling to pay for another box of dross, and we're shooting the earth
in the face in the process, and it's not even making us happier--what do we do
about it?
The other big strength of the book is that it explains in
concrete terms just how Beavan and his family sought the "No Impact"
ideal. Their approach is specific to
their circumstances--a fairly well-off family of three living in an apartment in
New York City--but many of the things they do are applicable to other people
too, either in concept or step-for-step.
Perhaps grocery shopping on a custom-built cargo trike won't work for
someone living in the country, but washing clothes by stomping them clean in
the bathtub can work just fine.
In addition to telling his family's personal story, Beavan
returns time and again to the project's national and global context, which
helps keep the book's relevance constantly in focus. No Impact Man gave me a new framework
with which to conceptualize my commitment to environmental (and societal)
sustainability, specific tools and processes to make my life more sustainable
and potentially satisfying, and an image of what one part of our planet's
future may look like. Green consumerists
beware: his answer does not include
living as you always have buying everything you're used to, except made out of
recycled plastic and organic palm oil.
It does, however, include some possible directions to a future where the
planet supports us, we support each other, and we have a better time as we do
it.
We shelve it in Environment.
Books that don't go a step
beyond pure entertainment are wonderful and important. But books that give you new understanding of
your world and make you approach and engage that world differently can be
perhaps more wonderful still.
Read on,
~Grey
The hustle and bustle of the December-through-January major holiday
season is finally over! Congratulations on the accomplishment of
dodging fruitcakes, hasty re-gifting, mad-dash traveling, trying to
remember which champagne glass is yours, and your intense contemplation
of how one might spell "Hannukah", amongst other possible trials and
tribulations. (Chanukah? Not to be confused with the Hanukiah
itself.) We here at Indigo Bridge Books are still in a grateful tangle
of scotch tape and raffia ribbon after the influx of savvy shoppers who
have taken advantage of our free gift-wrapping services in the past
weeks, and we invite you to join us in our attempts to give ourselves a
little peace of mind to recuperate with. In this age of dogged
technological communication that often ties us down as much as connects
us together, we suggest one of the most relaxed, satisfying, completely
unplugged, self-paced, free-wheeling methods of de-stressing we've ever
met: treating yourself to a good book.
Ranging from in-depth nonfiction to gripping flights of fancy to
giggle-inducing humor and all points in between, here's a handful of the
latest and greatest that we have to offer you on your chilly
staycation:
 1) Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative
Edition, Volume 1 - $34.95 The sensation sweeping the headlines,
finally released a century after the death of the great American legend
as per his wishes - discover the man in his own words with this first
volume of his much anticipated memoirs. Despite the sell-out success of this title in media outlets across the nation, we're proud to have
copies of this instant classic on hand in our store.
<  2) Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff - $29.99 Peer through the
veil of mystery surrounding Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen that has
mystified and enchanted mankind for thousands of years - as never
before. Pulitzer-Prize winning author and renowned biographer Stacy
Schiff delves into the facts behind this historic figure to reveal her
as so much more than a famous pretty face, but as a woman who shrewdly
negotiated her empire. The truth is even more extraordinary than the
myth.
<  3) A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - $7.99 "Winter is
coming," as the nobles of the Stark family say - and with it, we meet
then follow a changing cast of magnificent characters. Each voice is
woven into the same epic tale of battle, intrigue, honor, betrayal,
corrupt power and the lives of nations. A Game of Thrones is the first
of four books in a truly moving realistic fantasy saga, and this ongoing
series stirs every emotion. We have the whole set in stock. Read it
now; HBO is scheduled to begin the first season of their show based on
these books in the spring!
 4) An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin - $26.99 The latest and
perhaps greatest accomplishment by the bestselling actor-become-writer
(yes, that Steve Martin), he draws on his own experiences as an
art collector to reveal the NYC fine art scene in all its awe and
shame. Lacey Yeager is a young up and coming art dealer, engaging in a
whole host of unsavory activities to claw her way up the ladder of her
high society business, and the reader learns much about the inner
workings of art dealing as well as modern human nature along the way.
Though often witty as it mirrors the emotional trauma which such savage
avant garde hunting and gathering wrecks, Object of Beauty is foremost a
compelling lesson on art and aesthetics complete with pictures that
will make the reader re-evaluate their own appraisals of the world
around them in things large and small.
 5) The Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon - $25.00 The surprise
winner against long odds to collect the National Book Award for fiction
in 2010, this story begins with a small-time racetrack in go-nowhere
Virginia during in the 1970s and a get rich quick scheme that becomes so
much more. The reader meets, feels, lives and breathes with the track
occupants both two and four legged, the small world of these intriguing,
colorful misfits shared in the sense of their lost soul wanderings come
together. Painted in dark watercolor shades of language, this tale of
the track and tragedy cashes in a winning ticket with critics and casual
readers alike. Similar to Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, one of
our top sellers in fiction here at the store.
 6) All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen - $9.95 This book made
several of our employees literally laugh out loud while we read it the
first time, and still never fails to put a smile on my face. Whenever
someone asks for a birthday gift idea with a sense of humor, this is
always my pick - and often, theirs too! The simple, wide-eyed, vaguely
disconcerted look of the charmingly squiggly drawings and the spartan
text pack a delightfully wry, cynical punch at the funny bone with
perfect page-turn pacing.
These are just a few of the many winter-warmers to be found at
family-owned Indigo Bridge Books, and we pride ourselves on our eclectic
collection as well as our attention to helping you find the perfect
book. If we don't have that magic title you're searching for in stock
already, we can order you nearly anything being published (and may used
or rare books besides) to arrive at our shop for you for no extra
charge. Pull off your party-hat hangovers, bring in your gift
certificates, have
a cup of locally roasted coffee excellence from Cultiva at our cafe,
and settle in with one of these cures for
the post-holiday blues today. After all, it's nearly Valentine's Day already.
Boys
can be reluctant readers. Having three brothers, I was often witness to
debates upon the merit of running around outside versus spending an
afternoon enjoying a book. They were for athleticism and I was sneaking a
book outside to read during recess. Generally, though, I think most
people would be glad for a happy median. If you have a male in your life
that loves books - great! Nurture that. For others, we have some new
book recommendations for you.
There
are a few famous series of which you might be aware of already. Holly
Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's Spiderwick Chronicles or Rick Riordan's
Percy Jackson books are very popular. Both are great books to introduce
long-term reading habits. Once they are read, though, what comes next?
Riordan has a new series starting - this time about Egyptian mythology!
(R.L. LaFevers has an Egyptian series with a female protagonist if you
have multiple children and would like to introduce a family reading
topic). The only drawback to Riordan's new series is that you'll have to
wait for each new book to come out. If you would like to avoid the
wait, we have some author recommendations based on their own favorite
books.
At
Tony DiTerlizzi's speech for the MBA Children's Author Breakfast he
spoke of three books good for guys. He warned that sometimes guys are
put off by female leads but these classics continue to resonate with all
readers because at their heart they all speak about a yearning for
home. Alice of Wonderland fame, Wendy with her younger brothers and
Dorothy in the tornado all have grand adventures to capture the
imagination. Then, once the drama is over, the kids get to return to
their homes. Not the wood, pipes and wire but the people who love them.
DiTerlizzi's
newest series, which begins with The Search for Wondla, draws from
those classics and centers around the desire for home. Eva Nine, raised
by a robot in an underground pod, has a small scrap of paper showing a
little girl, a man and a robot walking hand in hand. This gives her the
belief that there must be other humans like her outside. Leaving her
childhood home in the search for a place to belong in the greater world,
Eva Nine finds that life is not quite as simple as the image suggests.
While
some boys hesitate over books with female protagonists, there are a few
reasons to encourage your guys to read this anyway. Personally, I've
read the book and it is awesome. There are aliens, robots and space
adventures! Moreover, the book has a website designed to interact with
the physical book you own. <a
href="http://wondla.com/wondla-vision.html">Here, the author explains
how it all works.</a> The interactive map allows readers to
explore the spaces they've just read about. In this way, even readers
who struggle over interpreting what they are reading can see a visual
representation of what they have read to help with understanding. Boys
should appreciate the technological aspect of this and have fun with the
site.
Contemporary
and classic authors, more than anything, want your kids to love books.
They have different tactics to draw readers in but regardless, authors
want their stories read. Reading improves kids' vocabulary, ability to
perceive and use deductive reasoning and will boost their overall
ability to learn new material. Any of these books will be great to start
someone on the road to loving reading. They are all filled with
adventure, drama and end with family and home. Children will love the
action and recognize the love. They can connect to those messages.
Hopefully, with books as great as these, they'll give themselves the
opportunity to do so.
I was shocked and delighted to find that The Tortilla Curtain had been selected as one of this year's 5 finalists for the One Book - One Lincoln read. I remember also being shocked 3 years ago, when I read the book for the first time, to note that it in fact had been published in 1995. I found in 2007 that it seemed surprisingly topical, and think it may be even more so now in 2010. And though the political and social issues that drive the narrative of Boyle's novel are relevant and well thought-out, the characters take on a giddy realism that springs almost painfully from the page. I found myself positively aching with Cándido's absolute and oh-so-familiar obsession with the care of his family. Woven together with Dickensian coincidence, T.C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain is a brave and brilliantly crafted choice for this year's top 5.
Rock the vote and go to the One Book - One Lincoln official site to choose Lincoln's 2010 One Book!

Tracy Chevalier's newest novel is delightfully evocative of John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman: the brimming limestone cliffs of Lyme Regis, the stuffy countryside & countrymen about & within it, & - perhaps best of all - women behaving badly. As in, behaving in a manner in which a lady is not to behave; namely engaging in such activities know not to behoove the fairer sex. Dear me, how could they? In the same vein as Chevalier's previous novels, Remarkable Creatures weaves fiction & reality in an engaging & feministic narrative that carries through to a nice, tidy end.
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