What I’ve read lately…

by Gina, Head Reference Librarian
Dead end gene pool: a memoir This week I breezed quickly through a new biography which was shocking, blatantly descriptive, and offered a glimpse into a lifestyle which only few have access. Dead end gene pool is the reminisces of Wendy Burden, a Vanderbilt heir. Burden relates incidents occurring within her ultra-rich, blueblood family such as her brother and her as children “robbing” the family’s “cottage” of all kitchen edibles and placing them on the roof, her mother’s sunbathing techniques, and laughable tales of weird and woeful relations. Told in a factual manner, Burden sometimes has to educate the reader as to why she (as a child) believed the described events were normal. As Burden approaches adolescence and her teenage years, she develops her own way of coping with the pressures and expectations of the family name. I found this humorous, sad, and enlightening and appreciate the candid snapshot of an American aristocratic family. The author's speaks about her work in this short video clip: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1B2A107GE556T

An older title I recently enjoyed was Kenneth Davis’ Don’t know much about anything. Examined in one page entries were facts about a person, location, event, along with a few trivia questions. This is great reading for crossword aficionados (I’ve already used some tidbits learned to fill in squares) or Jeopardy! contestants in training. The only complaint I have with the format is having to turn the page for the answers to post-entry quizzes multiple times while self-testing myself. I would definitely peruse other titles in this series. Visit Kenneth Davis' webpage http://www.dontknowmuch.com/

PCL owns the following in adult non-fiction:
*Don't know much about anything / Kenneth C. Davis.

*Don't know much about geography: everything you need to know about the world but never learned / Kenneth C. Davis.

*Don't know much about mythology: everything you need to know about the greatest stories in human history but never learned / Kenneth C. Davis.

*Don't know much about the Bible: everything you need to know about the "Good Book" but never learned / by Kenneth C. Davis.

*Don't know much about the Civil War: everything you need to know about America's greatest conflict but never learned / Kenneth C. Davis.

*History: everything you need to know about American history but never learned / by Kenneth C. Davis.

Davis has also authored juvenile titles in the same style.