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The Bookwatch

Volume 19, Number 9 September 2024 Home | BW Index

Table of Contents

Reviewer's Choice Cookbook Shelf Health/Medicine Shelf
Parenting Shelf Genealogy Shelf Fantasy/SciFi Shelf


Reviewer's Choice

Terrible Humans
Patrick Alley
Monoray
c/o Octopus Books
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781800961982, $19.99 PB, $12.99 Kindle, 352pp

https://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Humans-Worlds-corrupt-super-villains/dp/1800961987

Terrible Humans: The World's Most Corrupt Super-Villains - and the Fight to Bring Them Down is a study in psychopaths, justice, and power plays that profiles selected super-villains of corruption, war, and greed. Some of the world's worst are presented here; but to mitigate the impact of their power, there are also surveys of those who track the money, expose behind-the-scenes deal-making, and work hard to keep the super-powerful and wealthy in check. The biographical sketches and insights are absolutely fascinating (and frightening) - perfect for book club discussion groups, classrooms looking for biographical sketches of wealthy megalomaniacs, or history courses considering the regulation of wealth and activities stemming from it.


The Cookbook Shelf

The Slimming Foodie: Easy Meals Every Day
Pip Payne
Hamlyn
c/o Octopus Books
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781783255658, $26.99 HC, $1.99 Kindle, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Slimming-Foodie-Easy-Meals-Every/dp/178325565X

The Slimming Foodie: Easy Meals Every Day, Healthy Dinners for the Whole Family provides some 100 recipes that use familiar ingredients and streamline processes to make meal planning and preparation a snap. Chapters cover each day of the week, provide weekly meal plans and shopping lists, and include color photos to reinforce the family-friendly appeal of each dish. International influences are present, but are based on ingredients easily available in modern American markets. Cooks will be attracted to such fare as a Simple Red Lentil Dal, an easy version of Sweet & Sour Pork, or a hearty yet basic Black Bean, Kale & Sweet Potato Curry. Readers interested in slimming, attractive, easily-produced-at-home fare will find plenty to choose from in The Slimming Foodie: Easy Meals Every Day.


The Health/Medicine Shelf

Stronger
David Vaux
Short Books
c/o Octopus Books
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781780726090, $19.99 PB, $1.99 Kindle, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-strength-secret-longer-healthier/dp/1780726090

Stronger: How to Build Strength: The Secret to a Longer Healthier Life comes from an osteopath who has advised patients on healthy aging and building strength to encourage better outcomes long-term. More than an idealistic survey, David Vaux reviews the latest scientific research on strength training in midlife to point out tested and confirmed ways readers can employ such training to transform, reinforce, and enhance their muscles and bones. Steps for success are presented in a 10-step strength program that is easy to do, translates the basics of strength training into digestible programs, and offers solutions that lend to creating lifetime habits rather than short-term exercise programs. The result is clearer, more inviting, and easier to translate to daily effort than most exercise and health guides, making Stronger: How to Build Strength: The Secret to a Longer Healthier Life a top pick for discriminating libraries and readers looking for tried-and-tested routines that are easy to understand and incorporate into any kind of lifestyle.


The Parenting Shelf

Jessica Kingsley
www.jkp.com

https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Capable-Kids-Regardless-Challenge/dp/180501109X

Deborah Winking, PhD's Raising Capable Kids: The 12 Habits Every Parent Needs Regardless of their Child's Label or Challenge (9781805011095, $19.95) lives up to its heady promise of relevance by providing an assessment of how "different" kids can move beyond limiting definitions by parents, educators, and all types of professionals to achieve their maximum abilities. This doesn't happen automatically, as Deborah Winking points out. Adjustments in attitudes, habits, and definitions of capability need to come into play to reset expectations and methods of challenging a special child to help them grow their strengths and abilities. Stories that illustrate such new habits provide strong foundations for new approaches to encouraging every child to be all that they can be, making Raising Capable Kids: The 12 Habits Every Parent Needs Regardless of their Child's Label or Challenge a 'must' acquisition for any library appealing to parents who would adjust their childrearing concepts to make the most of their child's gifts.

https://www.amazon.com/Navigating-PDA-America-Framework-Demand-Avoidant/dp/1839972742

Ruth Ridler and Diane Gould's Navigating PDA in America: A Framework to Support Anxious, Demand-Avoidant Autistic Children, Teens, and Young Adults (9781839972744, $19.95) considers an autistic profile which has been long accepted in the UK, but is still relatively new to Americans. Its concept, applications, and foundations can help parents incorporate PDA's insights into parenting techniques to promote autistic kids' well-being, fostering better adult interventions and interactions via a neurodiversity-affirming framework. Teachers and other adults who interact with autistic kids will also benefit from the tips and insights covered in Navigating PDA in America, which offers different and better approaches to understanding and interacting with autistic children.


The Genealogy Shelf

The Complete Guide to Family Tree DNA
Roberta Estes
Genealogical Publishing Company
www.genealogical.com
9780806321288, $37.50, PB, 264pp

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-FamilyTreeDNA-Mitochondrial-Autosomal/dp/0806321288

The Complete Guide to Family Tree DNA comes from the first company to offer three kinds of DNA testing for genealogy. This book explores each test and how to use its results in a genealogical study, reviewing the science behind DNA testing, what matches and markers mean, and how to use FamilyTreeDNA to create a DNA Pedigree Chart, among other efforts. Serious genealogical researchers will find The Complete Guide to Family Tree DNA essential to not just understanding, but employing the basics of genetic genealogy to their research efforts.


The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf

Baen Books
www.baen.com

https://www.amazon.com/Rhymer-Hoode-2-Gregory-Frost/dp/1982193492

Gregory Frost's Rhymer: Hoode (9781982193492, $28.00) adds to the Rhymer trilogy with a tale that takes place a century after Thomas Rimor battled Yvag knights. During that time his family has aged and died... without him, as he seems to be immortal. And so he becomes a hermit in a forest, mired in grief and the past, until a dying outlaw on his doorstep forces him back into the world. As he vies against two sheriffs and a team of raiders, he sides with fellow rebels and outlaws, all of whom offer unexpected connection and friendship that provokes him to assume the alias of Robyn Hoode. This fantasy extrapolation of a legend is satisfyingly different and will attract new audiences to Frost's trilogy, adding a dimension of action and inspection that are standouts.

https://www.amazon.com/Icarus-Changeling-Saga/dp/1982193484

Timothy Zahn's The Icarus Changeling (9781982193485, $28.00) adds to the Icarus Saga with a new assignment for former bounty hunter and agent Gregory Roarke: locate a teleportation portal on a remote colony world. Others are searching for the rumored device, and so Gregory faces obstacles that rise to include murder in the course of his quest. His discoveries will change the nature of his search and its possible impact on more than his future alone as a strange teen boy emerges to provide frightening possibilities and connections between his opponents, the murders, and the future.

Both of these new titles from Baen Books are outstanding recommendations for sci-fi libraries seeking series additions.

Baen Books
www.baen.com

https://www.amazon.com/Thermopylae-Protocol-Gordian-Division/dp/1982193433

David Weber and Jacob Holo's The Thermopylae Protocol (9781982193430, $28.00) adds to the Gordian Division series with a high-tech story of a space ship's explosion en route to Mercury, which involves Gordian Division top agent Raibert in an impossible journey through accelerated time possibilities. Raibert is certain that a hitherto-undiscovered weapon threatens the multiverse, but murder throws his support systems into chaos and leads him into the center of transdimensional crime-solving as the threats grow. A fine hard sci-fi story emerges which proves hard to put down, well steeped in technological, military, and crime-busting flavors which create a multifaceted, thoroughly unpredictable read.

https://www.amazon.com/Tales-United-States-Space-Force/dp/198219345X

C. Stuart Hardwick edits Tales of the United States Space Force (9781982193454, $18.00), a collection of over twenty stories by Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, Harry Turtledove, and other seasoned sci-fi pro writers. Wars of the future are fought and considered in a series of high-contrast, vividly disparate scenarios, characters, and considerations, with essays adding to the mix to provide military sci-fi readers with intriguing theories and action-packed encounters.

Fun reads from start to finish, "The Thermopylae Protocol" and "Tales of the United States Space Force" are unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community/public library Science Fiction collections.


James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
Midwest Book Review
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