Archive for May 2008
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The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
By Richard Dawkins
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With unparalleled wit, clarity, and intelligence, Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s most renowned evolutionary biologists, has introduced countless readers to the wonders of science in works such as The Selfish Gene. Now, in The Ancestor’s Tale, Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor’s Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and a riveting read.
Just as we trace our personal family trees from parents to grandparents and so on back in time, so in The Ancestor’s Tale Richard Dawkins traces the ancestry of life. As he is at pains to point out, this is very much our human tale, our ancestry. Surprisingly, it is one that many otherwise literate people are largely unaware of. Hopefully Dawkins’s name and well deserved reputation as a best selling writer will introduce them to this wonderful saga.
Night Light (Restoration Series #2)
Night Light (Restoration Series #2)
By Terri Blackstock
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As the power outage continues, the Brannings struggle to bring their neighborhood together into a functioning community where everyone helps each other make their homes ready for winter, and fight the crime that is running rampant among them. Book Two in the Restoration series.
Editorial Reviews
From AudioFile
Susie Breck contributes significantly to the emotional tone of the second installment in Blackstocks Restoration series. After a catastrophic event, the Banning family, along with the rest of the world, must learn to live without electricity. Crime abounds, danger is ever present, and no one knows or understands what is happening. Doug Banning seeks to organize a neighborhood group to learn to help each other. His daughter, Deni, fears for her fianc, who lives hundreds of miles away and, under the circumstances, has no means of communication. Suspense abounds in this dramatic thriller, and so does love. Breck adds to the intensity and drama with her superb presentation. N.L. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine…
God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer
God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer (Hardcover)
By Bart D. Ehrman
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In times of questioning and despair, people often quote the Bible to provide answers. Surprisingly, though, the Bible does not have one answer but many “answers” that often contradict one another. Consider these competing explanations for suffering put forth by various biblical writers:
- The prophets: suffering is a punishment for sin
- The book of Job, which offers two different answers: suffering is a test, and you will be rewarded later for passing it; and suffering is beyond comprehension, since we are just human beings and God, after all, is God
- Ecclesiastes: suffering is the nature of things, so just accept it
- All apocalyptic texts in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament: God will eventually make right all that is wrong with the world
For renowned Bible scholar Bart Ehrman, the question of why there is so much suffering in the world is more than a haunting thought. Ehrman’s inability to reconcile the claims of faith with the facts of real life led the former pastor of the Princeton Baptist Church to reject Christianity.
In God’s Problem, Ehrman discusses his personal anguish upon discovering the Bible’s contradictory explanations for suffering and invites all people of faith—or no faith—to confront their deepest questions about how God engages the world and each of us.
Climbing Mount Improbable
Climbing Mount Improbable (Paperback)
By Richard Dawkins
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Amazon.com
How do species evolve? Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s most eminent zoologists, likens the process to scaling a huge, Himalaya-size peak, the Mount Improbable of his title. An alpinist does not leap from sea level to the summit; neither does a species utterly change forms overnight, but instead follows a course of “slow, cumulative, one-step-at-a-time, non-random survival of random variants”–a course that Charles Darwin, Dawkins’s great hero, called natural selection. Illustrating his arguments with case studies from the natural world, such as the evolution of the eye and the lung, and the coevolution of certain kinds of figs and wasps, Dawkins provides a vigorous, entertaining defense of key Darwinian ideas.
A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love (Hardcover)
By Richard Dawkins
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Editorial Reviews
Richard Dawkins has an opinion on everything biological, it seems, and in A Devil’s Chaplain, everything is biological. Dawkins weighs in on topics as diverse as ape rights, jury trials, religion, and education, all examined through the lens of natural selection and evolution. Although many of these essays have been published elsewhere, this book is something of a greatest-hits compilation, reprinting many of Dawkins’ most famous recent compositions. They are well worth re-reading. His 1998 review of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont’s Fashionable Nonsense is as bracing an indictment of academic obscurantism as the book it covered, although the review reveals some of Dawkins’ personal biases as well. Several essays are devoted to skillfully debunking religion and mysticism, and these are likely to raise the hackles of even casual believers. Science, and more specifically evolutionary science, underlies each essay, giving readers a glimpse into the last several years’ debates about the minutiae of natural selection. In one moving piece, Dawkins reflects on his late rival Stephen Jay Gould’s magnum opus, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, and clarifies what it was the two Darwinist heavyweights actually disagreed about. While the collection showcases Dawkins’ brilliance and intellectual sparkle, it brings up as many questions as it answers. As an ever-ardent champion of science, honest discourse, and rational debate, Dawkins will obviously relish the challenge of answering them. –Therese Littleton
The Post-American World
The Post-American World
By Fareed Zakaria
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One of our most distinguished thinkers argues that the “rise of the rest” is the great story of our time.
“This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.” So begins Fareed Zakaria’s important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the “rise of the rest”—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.
The Boxer and the Spy
The Boxer and the Spy
By Robert B. Parker
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Another teen thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser mysteries.
When a shy high school student’s body is found washed up on the shore of a quiet New England beach town—an apparent suicide—fifteen-year-old Terry Novak doesn’t know what to think. Something just doesn’t add up, so he decides to do some investigating of his own with the help of his best friend, Abby. It doesn’t take long before they learn that asking questions puts them in grave danger, and surviving is going to be a fight. Fortunately, Terry has been learning a thing or two about fighting, thanks to a retired boxer named George, who teaches the boy to use his head and always keep his feet set beneath him—lessons Terry takes to heart in more ways than one. He will need to.
Robert B. Parker, New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser novels, delivers a taut, empowering mystery for young readers.
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (Mysterious Benedict Society)
By Trenton Lee Stewart
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The fabulous foursome readers embraced as The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search–a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids’ adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain.
With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all–a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and will require them to fight for the very namesake that united them…
Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)
Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)
By Don Felder
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The inside story can finally be revealed
The Eagles are the bestselling, and arguably the tightest-lipped, American group ever, and Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 is the bestselling album of all time in the United States. Through breakup and comeback, arguments and lawsuits, their popularity has continued to soar for more than three decades. Now band member and guitarist DonFelder finally breaks the Eagles’ years of public silence to take fans behind the scenes— -where drugs, greed, and endless acrimony threatened to break up the band almost daily…
Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words: From Accessories to Zany (Fancy Nancy)
Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words: From Accessories to Zany (Fancy Nancy)
By Jane O’connor
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Fancy Words Are Simply Fascinating!
From everyone’s favorite fancy girl comes an alphabetical guide to enhancing vocabulary. Why say beautiful when there are fancy words like gorgeous and glamorous? Instead of hello, try bonjour, which is French and so much fancier. An umbrella will keep you dry, but a parasol will make you feel like a Hollywood movie star!
With this helpful A-to-Z guide, Fancy Nancy shows that making plain words into fancy ones is not only educational, it’s fun!
