The Book Cove

I Once Was Lost, But Now I’m Found , is a narrative of the rescue of 124 dogs from the Olympic Animal Sanctuary, a hoarding situation in Forks, Washington. The rescue took several years and included small town political corruption, intimidation, protests, assault, lawsuits, and an attempt by the owner to run away with the dogs jammed into a semi truck. It was the largest dog rescue in the US to be carried out without support of local government. The book is written for people who are not aware of the OAS rescue and who have an interest in rescue issues. The biography of one dog, Daisy, is used as vehicle for informing readers about hoarders, failed rescues, law enforcement issues, trainers and behaviorists, and actions people can take when they become aware of abuse or neglect. The book is heavily illustrated with photos from the police file and other sources. Purchase here I am an artist, and I live with my husband and my dogs on a island in Puget Sound. I work as a...

Everything is Normal offers a lighthearted worm’s-eye-view of the USSR through the middle-class Soviet childhood of a nerdy boy in the 1970s and ’80s. A relatable journey into the world of the late-days Soviet Union, Everything is Normal is both a memoir and a social history—a reflection on the mundane deprivations and existential terrors of day-to-day life in Leningrad in the decades preceding the collapse of the USSR. Sergey Grechishkin’s world is strikingly different, largely unknown, and fascinatingly unusual, and yet a world that readers who grew up in the United States or Europe during the same period will partly recognize. This is a tale of friendship, school, and growing up—to read Everything is Normal is to discover the very foreign way of life behind the Iron Curtain, but also to journey back into a shared past. Purchase here Life's journey took Sergey Grechishkin from a communal flat in Leningrad, through studies in China and France, and on to top banking...

From an award-winning syndicated columnist comes a collection of essays-sometimes nourishing, sometimes passionate, sometimes humorous, and always relatable. Read this book if you are feeling sad. Read this book if you need a good chuckle. Read this book so that you never ever feel like you’re alone. In one of the essays the author summarizes her embarrassment for not being supportive of her husband. She writes “When you’re sad, you get the kind [of tears] that roll down your cheek flowing freely. They drip down your collar and snot up your nose. No. These were different. These were tears of shame and embarrassment…These were tears that didn’t want to puddle or roll. These were tears that didn’t want to come out at all but couldn’t help themselves as they reluctantly dripped sideways into the hairline instead of following gravity down the face. These were my tears.” These essays shine light into the soul and leave it wide open for all to see.  This gifted storyteller is a...

“Will appeal to Francophiles as well as those wanting to learn more about France in a fun, informal manner.” Library Journal “A delightful summer read… the colourful and offbeat facts and figures will delight anyone with an interest in French culture.” eat.live.travel.write In this follow-up to her award-winning and critically acclaimed myth-buster They Eat Horses, Don't They? Piu Eatwell presents a delightful exploration of France's quirky, literary, and culinary heritage. From absinthe and catacombs to former French soccer player Zinedine Zidane, Eatwell leaves no stone unturned, taking readers off the beaten path to explore the kind of information that gets missed in the guidebooks. Who could imagine, for example, that there is a village in France where UFOs are banned from landing? Or that there is a verifiable population of wild kangaroos in the forests surrounding Paris? These, and many other offbeat delights, are just some of the curiosities awaiting readers in this jo...

A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller! "the glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still."―NPR Books The incredible true story of the women who fought America's Undark danger The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive ― until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corr...

Sometimes the nicest things come in little packages. In honor of Olivia de Havilland’s 100th birthday, the publisher re-released a book she wrote in the 1960’s called  Every Frenchman Has One.  In the early fifties, after a failed marriage and a child, de Havilland visited France where she met a man, fell in love and married, and subsequently moved to Paris. The book is a collection of short sweet articles about adjusting to life in a new country and culture. Not an easy thing to do, even if you’re a famous movie star. The pages are filled with de Havilland’s delightfully self-deprecating wit. She navigates the choppy waters of learning a new language by throwing herself headfirst into lessons often with less than stellar results. “Then there was the day I shook my professor. I’d been on a household shopping excursion and had been rather dismayed by the high cost of things. Well I don’t know if you see much difference between  matelot  and  matelas , and ...

Just in time for summer travel season comes a book to tell how the other half lives. Not the rich and famous, but the nondescript concierge who only lives to serve. Or maybe not. The authors are two ex-actors who entered hospitality management to make ends meet between gigs. Needless to say by the title of the book, neither one found their true calling at the front desk.   How May We Hate You purports to give the dirt on what really goes on in the world of hospitality management, but doesn’t quite hit the mark.    Quibbles and bits The book is a short, quick read filled with vignettes and little drawings. The major fault is that it doesn’t go far enough and often reads as half done. It’s not gossipy enough to be a tell-all. The authors hint they’ve witnessed famous people acting in unprofessional or embarrassing manners, but don’t give names. Then why mention it at all? If you’re going to write a book like this and expect me to believe you, sorry, I need the dir...

The best historical fiction transports a reader to a different time and place, so much so that pages come alive. The story is real. The same can be said for the best historical nonfiction. All senses are engaged; taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight. The reader not only comes away with a better understanding of historical events, but a complete picture of the world in a far-removed time. It’s the mark of a great book when you root for people to survive and forget they are long dead. New York Times Bestseller,  Dead Wake, is a vibrant telling of the last crossing of the steamship Lusitania. No stuffy compilation of facts, no dull recitation of times and dates. As Larson relates the story of the doomed ship and the passengers, readers are drawn along. It doesn’t take long to become vested in their survival. Will the young man headed to England for his engagement live? What about the little boy with measles confined to bed? His pregnant mother? The spiritualist? The book dealer...

Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body  by Jo Marchant The connection between mind and body during illness has long been at the center of a hot debate between the scientific and lay community, especially in Western medicine. Opinions tend to the extremes. Medical convention usually downplays the effect of the mind on healing. On the other end, New-Age nature babies babble about auras and essences. (Commune with the Earth Mother, and while you’re at it traipse through the woods and hug a squirrel.) In a balanced scientific approach, Marchant, a geneticist and medical writer, offers a thoughtful examination of the evidence in an attempt to answer the question: can aspects of the mind be harnessed to cure the body? Placebos and Stress Marchant investigates medical conditions with mental components. Placebos, for example, are a staple of medical testing, purposely concocted to have no effect on patients, yet they can. Placebos don’t change anything a person i...

Let’s ring in the New Year with a little nonsense, more precisely confusion and ambiguity. Modern life is full of conflicting advice and unanswered questions which leave people with vaguely unsettled feelings. What happens when we’re uncertain? How do we make the best decision when faced with a problem with multiple solutions? Jamie Holmes has written an insightful book that tries to answer the question do you embrace ambiguity or be like me—hunch in a corner and sob quietly? People fear uncertainty. The need to resolve anxious feelings is deeply rooted and multifaceted. It can also be dangerous, especially during periods of social, political or economic confusion. The desire for fixed solutions is so great voices in the margins are shunted aside. “Fear and uncertainty...intensify people’s appetites for absolutes.” Donald Trump gleefully mouthing a platform of wide-eyed hysteria that all Muslims are bad gels nicely with a study Holmes cites on prejudice. Prejudiced people cling ...

Books in graphic form are not just filled with superheroes, Japanese manga, or women in push-up spandex bustiers. Occasionally, you can actually learn something.  Writer/Cartoonist Jessica Abel’s new book describes the ins and outs of producing radio shows at NPR. The oral medium of storytelling is well suited to graphics, especially in Abel’s creative hands. Although the book focuses on NPR, the information applies to writing in general. Whether producing a podcast or novel, the creative processes overlap in several ways. Oral and written storytelling requires solid ideas and finding the right voice. Each needs a logical structure and a way to make an audience care. As with fiction, the best stories come from “following some itch.” Catherine Burns, artistic director of the program, The Moth, makes a comment any writer can relate to. “The simplest way to say it is...who are you at the beginning and who are you at the end.” That’s Storytelling 101 for any writer. In both ...

I generally think of my brain as a blobby organ that causes me to spout random nonsense on a regular basis, and chugs steadily along on doses of caffeine, but according to the authors of  Your Daily Brain , there’s more to it than that.  During the course of twenty-four hours, your brain will be called upon to prioritize, decide, categorize, and evaluate—sometimes all at once. That’s a lot of stress for a couple of pounds of gray cells.  Your Daily Brain  attempts to explain the why and where of the decision making process and how best to maximize your brain’s potential.   The book is organized into sections according to ten or fifteen minute periods throughout the typical day. Each time period has snippets on what a brain may be doing, and advice on how to help it function better. It starts with waking up at 6:00 am (don’t use the snooze alarm) and ends at 9:00 pm (forgive yourself for a good night’s sleep). Want to jump-start your brain power at 7:15 in...

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett I thought I knew rain. I’m not too proud to admit I cower in a corner during hurricanes. You try keeping your cool when screeching winds blow raindrops sideways from the sky. Seriously, sideways rain. I swear during Hurricane Ivan there were whitecaps in my toilet. Now, that’s rain. However, storms are only a small part of rain’s mystique. Cynthia Barnett, an award winning environmental journalist, gives a fascinating account of rain’s cultural, historic, scientific, religious, and, yes, even musical effect on humankind. There’s a surprise on every page, beginning with the shape of a shower. Rain is not a conglomeration of droplets. Instead it falls like “tiny parachutes, their tops rounded because of air pressure from below.” Since there is no standard global measurement for rain, its description is often personal. That’s why it rains cats and dogs here, but “shoemakers’ apprentices in Denmark, chair legs in Greece, r...

Recent articles on gender inequity in Silicon Valley serve to remind that women still have a long way to go to achieve employment parity. The distance, however is nothing compared to what all the female scientists experienced in the new book by Rachel Swaby. Today’s women in STEM fields may have a difficult time climbing the corporate ladder, but it wasn’t that long ago when the corporate ladder was clearly marked, Women Not Allowed. Swaby’s book is divided into short chapters each highlighting an individual’s life and career. Don’t be surprise if you haven’t heard the names of most of the honorees. The author specifically selected women who, although produced significant contributions, are relatively unknown. No current women are included as Swaby also chose to concentrate on scientists whose professional life’s work is completed. The struggles to gain an education were impressive, doubly so when you realize they all lived in times when feminine worth was judged by looks and ma...

A Nice Little Place on the North Side "What does a female bear taking birth control have in common with the World Series? No cubs." (p. 29) Spring is in the air. With it comes the sound of a crack of a baseball bat to be closely followed by the gnashing teeth of Chicago Cubs fans as the team tanks another season. George Will, better known for his political commentary (and ubiquitous bowtie), has written an enjoyable history of the team and begs to ask the question, why can’t they win another Series? “...there is a lot of losing in baseball, even for the best teams. If you can’t bear losing, find another sport. And if you do not much mind losing, or if you actually rather enjoy it, you should feel right at home in Wrigley Field.” (p. 136) A Nice Little Place on the North Side  goes beyond a simple litany of famous and infamous fans, games, and players. Although, I have to admit I was fascinated to find out Jack Ruby once worked at Wrigley Field as a vendor kno...

Amazon Link “Don’t stick that in your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been.” - Mom   Di Justo and my mother would have gotten along just fine. In This is What you Put in your Mouth he details the surprises inside everyday things either stuffed in our pie holes or slathered on our person. The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with items eaten, drunk, or inhaled. From the book’s title one might get the idea the author wags a literary finger advising us to cast suspicious eyes at everything on the dinner plate. Not so. Di Justo’s background is a reporter for Wired magazine. He is simply driven by curiosity and tries to answer the question. What the heck is in this thing? Each item selected has a clear explanation of the ingredients easily understandable by the layman. Most also include an interesting backstory on how or why the item was chosen. Di Justo is no snob. He admits to a love of A-1 Sauce and then includes an explanation of the ingredients wi...

Video Game Storytelling Video gaming has come a long way. Once upon a time Pac-Man raced around an uncomplicated maze. The gamers great quest was to get the little guy to swallow all the beads before being eaten by a ghost. It was mindless fun, but hardly epic storytelling. Times have changed. Video games now can contain large casts of characters complete with complicated backstories. With avatars, the players enter through a fictional portal to become actual participants in a digital realm. Evan Skolnick has produced a very readable guide to the storytelling involved in the creation of these worlds. The book is divided into two parts. Part I is called Basic Training and includes a solid wrap-up of writing techniques. He makes the case that conflict is at the heart of every story and includes very clear explanations about such things as transitions, plot points, and exposition. Each description is punctuated with examples from video games. I found the chapter on believability ...

Provence, 1970 Evolution is a funny thing. Most times it creeps along at a snail’s pace, but every once in a while you can jab a finger at the calendar and say, “Aha! It started there.” Such it is with the evolution of American cuisine. It’s hard to believe, but it wasn’t that long ago when food was bound by strict regional borders. People in Los Angeles wouldn’t recognize jambalaya if it stood up and shouted “True dat!”   Bagels outside of New York City were represented by Lenders. They make a very fine doorstop, but cardboard has more flavor. Ahi? Burritos? Jalapeño? Quinoa? Masala? Funny kind of words…They’re food, you say? And where exactly would I get the ingredients? Certainly, not nearby. Taste and refinement in food preparation were represented by French cuisine. Quel domage, but the American palate was certainly not up to par. Even the most celebrated food writers had an unabashed love affair with France. M. K. F. Fisher, Julia Child, and James Beard sung its praises...