The Online Librarian

2011 on YouTube and Flickr

2011-12-28T12:48:00.000-05:00

From the Official Google Blog, check out What Were We Watching This Year? Let's Rewind 2011. Here you'll see a YouTube video of what was the most popular. Scroll down to see a list of music videos, particular channels and categories, and topics such as fashion, how-to, and sports. Google reports that there were over 1 trillion playbacks on YouTube. That's an incredibly high number, more than twice as many stars in the Milky Way, says Google.

If you're more into still images, check out Mashable's article on Flickr 2011: The Year in Photos. Political unrest was a popular subject as was weather-related events. Occupy Wall Street makes an appearance as does Harry Potter. The collection is also available directly on Flickr with brief commentary by Yahoo editors.

Search Trends in 2011

2011-12-16T15:37:00.000-05:00

It's always interesting to go back and see what caught people's attention over the course of a year. I have search engine results, but I thought I'd also post a few popular search lists from other sources. Take a look:

Bieber Beats Kim Kardashian as Most Searched Person of 2011 -- Guess having a paternity suit dropped on you, even if it turned out to be bogus, does wonders for your popularity. Casey Anthony got a lot of interest (or perhaps morbid curiosity) as did Hurricane Irene. In sports, tennis ruled, while music chart mainstays also were popular, beating out up and coming singers. Consumers were looking for gaming systems and speculating about the iPhone 5. American Idol was the most popular TV show while the Kardashians hold some kind of fascination for searchers. Actresses and female reality show stars were more popular than their male counterparts. The Smurfs actually made it at #7 for movies searched while the next Mission Impossible installment took #1, even thought it's not in theatres yet. The wedding of Prince William and Kate was popular, as was Kate herself and her sister Pippa. See the rest of Bing's top searches.

Google's Zeitgeist 2011 -- Google charted how the entire world searched, not just the US. Rebecca Black and her "Friday" video were popular, and Google's own Google+ got the #2 spot. Casey Anthony appears on this list also as does the iPhone 5. Check out the zeitgeist website and see what people in other countries were interested in.

Top 10 Twitter Trends of 2011 -- According to hashtags used, Justin Bieber also reigned supreme on Twitter. For some reason Finding Nemo was a popular movie, and cricket beat out the NHL in sports. Events in the Middle East and North Africa captured the world's attention as did the earthquake in Japan. The article I've linked to has a neat infographic.

Facebook Reveals 2011's Most-Popular Status Trends -- The death of Osama bin Laden sparked the most status updates, but the news story that got the most shares was about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Check out the list to see the top songs, movies, and TV shows (old favorite House ranks high with Facebook users). Soccer was popular in sports. There's even a category for fictional characters. (I've never heard of most of them, but I'm guessing Facebook users aren't big readers. The ones I do know are from TV shows.) Note that the categories weren't based on status updates but rather page popularity.

AOL Names Top 11 News Stories that Shaped 2011 -- Basing the results on shares and comments across all its news sites, AOL names stories such as the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as top of the year. They list their results chronologically, and it's fascinating to relive 2011 month by month. Charlie Sheen gets mentioned as does the unrest in the Middle East and Africa along with the debt ceiling crisis. It's quite an eclectic list.

What were you searching for and reading about in 2011? Feel free to leave comments.

UnlistMy.Info

2011-12-05T14:28:00.000-05:00

It's possible to list your phone numbers on a do not call list and you can stop unwanted catalogs and mailings from coming to your house, but what do you do about those people finder directories online? Chances are, you never signed up to be listed in any of them--they get their information from publicly available sources--so how do you get unlisted?

Try UnlistMy.Info. Some of the sites require you to mail a form and possibly a copy of your driver's license (black out the number first), and some of the sites have a simple online form. It'll take quite a bit of work to get unlisted from all the sites, but if you're very concerned with privacy it might be worth it. There is a contact email to report bad instructions, which I'm tempted to use because I found at least two errors. Still, it could be an eye-opening exercise to search for yourself at some of these sites and see how much information is readily found on you.

CanIStream.it

2011-11-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

A recent TechCrunch article mentioned a new search engine called CanIStream.it, which lets you search for movies to see whether they are available on the web. It searches the usual suspects (Hulu, Netflix, Amazone, iTunes, etc.) and even gives links to the iMDB and Rotten Tomatoes pages where applicable. Even if your movie isn't streamable, you can still find links to rent or purchase copies, and if you're interested in the Blu-Ray version, there might be an Amazon link to purchase a disc.

Sign up to receive a notification if/when your movie becomes streamable. And there's a free app in the Apple store.

CanIStream.it doesn't do TV shows, so you might still need Clicker.com for those.

Book Review - "The Litigators" by John Grisham

2011-11-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

John Grisham returns to form with The Litigators. I liked The Associate, which I thought was more like his early books, but I wasn't impressed with The Confession after it. However, this latest is more like the Grisham I remember.

David Zinc has a panic attack on the way to his high-powered, specialized job as an attorney with a huge law firm in Chicago, and ends up spending the day getting drunk. He stumbles across the tiny firm of Finley & Figg and manages to get himself a new job there. Partner Wally Figg smells money when he hears of a drug that might be connected to several deaths, and he ends up dragging Oscar Finley and David into the mess. They have no case, but Wally refuses to back down. David ends up having to face the pharmaceutical company in court, though he has no experience.

Meanwhile, David and his wife have befriended a Burmese family whose son has ingested poisonous levels of lead from a toy. David takes it upon himself to track down the manufacturer and distributor and discovers in the process that he actually enjoys litigation.

Grisham brings his experience as a lawyer to this new novel, explaining the workings of the federal court system and how a tiny law firm could get in over its head. David is young and hard-working, and he's easy to root for. Besides the main story of the bad drug is the sideline of David working on behalf of the Burmese family. It feels like Grisham took his time to plot out this book, and the read is enjoyable. If you've stopped reading Grisham for a while, give The Litigators a try as Grisham seems to back to his old, legal-thrilling self.

The Real Daisy Buchanan

2011-10-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

I just finished Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston, and it made me want to pick up The Great Gatsby again. This time, though, instead of focusing on Jay Gatsby and his obsession with former flame Daisy, I would want to re-evaluate Daisy herself. What kind of woman was she? What quality did she have that made Gatsby idealize her and be unable to let her go after all those years?

To get an insight into Daisy and Gatsby as teenagers and into what kind of woman Daisy became, check out Gatsby's Girl. There's a note in the back explaining what was true and what was fictionalized, but save that for last. Read this book with the idea that this girl, Ginevra Perry, was the inspiration for Daisy and indeed for several women in F. Scott Fitzgerald's books.

Ginevra is a self-centered, spoiled socialite in Chicago, the boarding school roommate of a friend of Scott's. The two meet at a party, hit it off, and write thick, romantic letters to each other over a course of several months. They only see each other a few times, and eventually Ginevra loses interest. She gets married, has babies, and moves on with her life, while Scott becomes a famous author and a drunkard with a mentally unstable wife and a child he doesn't quite know what to do with.

Mostly this book for me was a question of what if? What would Ginevra's life have been like if she hadn't settled for her mediocre husband? What would Scott's life have been like if he'd married the love of his life, Ginevra? What might the real Fitzgerald's life have been like if he'd married the love of his life, Ginevra?

Gatsby's Girl isn't the most stimulating read; at just over 300 pages it goes quickly and doesn't have much of a lasting impact, but while you're into it it should make you think. What kind of life does Ginevra want? Why does she cut out articles about Scott and scissor scenes from his books and save them for years? Why does Scott continue to use episodes from their time together in his stories and novels? Where they really each other's first loves? Should they have stayed together?

It's also fascinating, knowing what kind of life F. Scott Fitzgerald led, to speculate what might have happened if the real Scott and Ginevra had stayed together. Might he have stayed sober and lived longer, able to write dozens of Great American Novels?

It would be interesting to read The Great Gatsby in light of Gatsby's Girl, but Gatsby's Girl is an intriguing read on its own. Check it out if you're in the mood for something fast and light with a dose of literary merit.

thanks to sterling cut glass for the photo

Blekko

2011-09-19T15:07:00.001-04:00

Tired of irrelevant results on Google? Not excited about Bing? Try Blekko, a search engine that claims it's "slashing out spam, content farms, malware."

Blekko crawls 3 million "quality" websites, so in theory the results you get are relevant and authoritative. It's different from the other major search engines in that it allows you to use slashtags to specify kinds of searches and filter out unwanted websites. (The slashtag is the forward slash on your keyboard.) There is a directory of preset slashtag searches so you can get an idea of the kinds of specific searches Blekko has come up with, or try your own. For example, a search on jennifer aniston /movie will return movie-related sites only, no gossip sites or sites about other ladies named Jennifer Aniston who are not the Hollywood actress. You can create your own slashtags or edit current ones if you create an account.

To get an idea of how Blekko works, try the same searches I suggested in my posts about Bing and Yahoo. First, type in your hometown. How do the results differ and how are they the same? with Blekko you can sort by relevance or date, and you can also have it show only images or videos.

For the second test, play 3 Engine Monte. This is kind of a game where you do a search and add the slashtag /monte in order to get results from three search engines (Google, Bing, and Blekko but in random order). You choose which set of results you like best, and Blekko will show you which search engine returned it. This way, you can compare search engines and decide which one might be more consistent with the kinds of searches you do and the results you prefer. Again, to use the example from my previous post, try travel itinerary for new zealand /monte. Which search engine did you choose?

If you want to read more about Blekko, there are Help screens by clicking the link in the upper right. You can also see their Web Search Bill of Rights by clicking "About" from the list at the bottom of their search page.

Even if you have no desire to leave your favored search engine, give Blekko a try and see what you might be missing.

The Lost Art of Browsing

2011-09-09T15:49:00.001-04:00

I saw an article on Mashable this week, called Why Browsing is So Important to Content Discovery. It's about how browsing online is nearly impossible, with so much emphasis on searching. Probably because I work in a library, I know how crucial browsing can be for some people, so this article made a lot of sense.

Sometimes you know what you need to find out, and so you head to your favorite search engine and type in some keywords. You sort through the results list and hopefully eventually end up with an answer. Transaction ended, customer happy. But what if you're not sure what you're looking for? What if you don't even know what you need until you see it? How many times have you been in a store and had a display of items caught your eye? You suddenly decide you must pick up one of those items, even though it's not on your list of things to get.

This happens in the library all the time, and I'm sure bookstores see it too. A person comes in and may or may not have a specific book in mind, but they spend some time at a shelf, glancing at covers and titles, maybe reading the jacket flap. Maybe they didn't realize their favorite author has just published a new book or maybe a topic has grabbed their attention, and they head to the check-out line with something to read that they didn't know they wanted until they saw it.

Can this experience be translated to the web? Certainly websites like Amazon can offer "similar items" ("other people who purchased this item also purchased these other items") or offer a click-through list of subjects. Clothing sites usually sort their wares according to gender, style, season, etc. Wikipedia offers links to other entries and outside sources, so readers can follow their interests like breadcrumbs. Yahoo started out by trying to categorize the web until it exploded, and it got to be too much work to sort through every website. Spiders can automatically crawl the web and pick up on keywords in an effort to itemize sites, but is it really possible to browse online?

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by search engines? Do you sometimes need those clickable subject lists to lead you to something interesting? Do you wish you could browse the web instead of searching? Leave your comments below.

TIME Magazine's 50 Best Websites of 2011

2011-08-28T15:24:00.000-04:00

I saw this list on Stephen's Lighthouse this week. It's interesting because I've never heard of most of these websites. Google+ is there, which is a recent site but already has taken the world by storm. Google the search engine is not. Hmmm...

To see the list by category, check Time's website. They also list the Best iPhone Apps of 2011 and the Best Blogs of 2011, and you can see past lists to compare and track changes. There's something for everyone, and I definitely have to look at it more closely and try out some of those websites.

Book Review: "When We Were Friends" by Elizabeth Joy Arnold

2011-08-24T21:19:00.000-04:00

Sydney and Lainey are former high school friends. The two have lost touch over the last twenty years, so it's quite a surprise when Sydney leaves her one-year-old daughter with Lainey, claiming abuse by her husband and saying she needs to keep her girl safe. Lainey agrees but is shocked to see Sydney on the news that night, saying her daughter was kidnapped. Lainey must leave town and take the little girl, but where will she go? Who will take care of her mother, trapped inside her house because she suffers agoraphobia?

The premise sounded intriguing, but as it turned out, I didn't like the book very much. Maybe I was expecting more of a suspense story, although I do like books about relationships and people trying to figure themselves out. However, this one has a lot of tears and some rather flat characters. Lainey depends on Sydney to tell her her next move, but Sydney is a manipulator and doesn't really know what she wants. Because the characters seem at such losses, it felt like the author didn't have a plan either and was writing whatever came into her head, whether it made sense or not. The plot turned out to be unplausable, I thought, and little things, like Lainey worrying over not having money but spending wildly on baby stuff, and the punctuation errors bothered me. There are secrets all around, which do come out in the end, but for some reason there was very little suspense for me. I found myself not really caring about any of the characters, though I did finish the book. (It reads quickly, so I didn't feel bogged down.)

When We Were Friends is actually more about motherhood and the mother/daughter relationship than the story of a former bullied girl coming into her own. The title suggests that the focus would be on Lainey and Sydney, and while they do interact, the stronger ties are between Lainey and her mom and Lainey and Jacqueline. We do see quite a bit of backstory, but ultimately Sydney remains the same person she always was, and I didn't have any emotional connection as Lainey overcame her feelings towards her former friend.

I was reminded of another book I read last year called Mothers and Other Liars. That one takes place in the Southwest and is of a similar story, where a teenager takes a baby from a car that's been hijacked, intending to keep her safe but ending up raising her as her own. Then one day, the baby's family steps forward, wanting their daughter back.

When We Were Friends is told in the first person, whereas Mothers and Other Liars is third person from the viewpoint of Ruby, the teenager. The difference did contribute to my enjoyment of Mothers as I found myself seeing events through Ruby's eyes. Friends narrator Lainey seemed to get a little too familiar with me as the reader, interjecting little asides that probably were supposed to make it feel like she was actually telling me her story.

All the characters in Mothers seemed real, but in Friends there wasn't much depth. Sydney is a narcissist, Alex is the perfect man, his sister Posy can't decide whether she is a bitch or a chum, Lainey's mom is strong enough to overcome her phobia and provide inspiration for her daughter, Lainey should grow from insecure teen to confident woman but somehow comes off mostly as a whiner who manages to fall in love with Sydney's daughter. The most real character is the toddler herself.

The book is billed as a great book club choice, a "what would you have done" type, but I would recommend Mothers and Other Liars over this one. The plot is more believable and the ethical issues are dealt with better. I would suggest When We Were Friends for the less literary crowd, someone who simply wants to turn pages while lying on the beach without getting too involved in the story.

Book Review: "Sister" by Rosamund Lupton

2011-07-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

If you like murder mysteries, get a copy of Sister by Rosamund Lupton. If you like character-driven stories, get a copy of Sister by Rosamund Lupton. If you like well-plotted novels, get a copy of Sister by Rosamund Lupton. If you like books that explore the relationship between siblings, get a copy of Sister by Rosamund Lupton. Yes, the book is really that good and yes, it really will appeal to all kinds of readers.

Beatrice is living in New York with her fiance when she gets word that her sister Tess has gone missing. She rushes to her native England to find out what happened and moves into Tess's flat to begin investigating her last moves. Soon her body is found, and it looks like suicide. However, Beatrice is certain that Tess never would have killed herself, even though a psychiatrist says she was suffering from postpartum psychosis after the death of her newborn son. So was Tess murdered, and if so, by whom?

This is one of those novels that is so intricate that I would love to see the author's notes. How did Lupton keep all the details straight and tease the reader with information at just the right time? Not only is there the murder mystery, which is structured as a letter Beatrice is writing to Tess to explain why she did what she did, but there is also Beatrice's witness statement to a prosecuting attorney, so the reader knows pretty quickly that there was a killer. These two elements come together at the end in a great twist I definitely did not see coming.

In Beatrice's letter, which is the murder mystery part, she also talks about missing her sister terribly and explains the nature of their relationship and their family dynamic. There is a ton of character depth, making this book so much more than just a mystery or suspense novel. We are inside Beatrice's head as she investigates Tess's death and also deals with the emotional side of losing her best friend.

So whether you like a good mystery or whether you prefer less action and more heart, definitely pick up Sister. You will not be disappointed. I can't wait to see what Rosamund Lupton will do next.

Civil War Websites

2011-07-09T15:43:00.001-04:00

The June 1, 2011, issue of Booklist has an article with several recommended websites about the Civil War. This year is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of that bloody period in American history, so if you're interested in any aspect of it you'll probably find sources of information listed below.

COMMEMORATIVE SITES
Civil War Trust's Civil War 150th Anniversary -- Here you will find links to individual states' 150th anniversary websites. There are also links to the Civil War blogs of the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The Civil War -- has a complete run of Harper's Weekly, 1861-1865.

Lincoln at 200 -- includes an online exhibit about his role in the Civil War.

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln

The Civil War: 150 Years -- the National Park Service's website

CivilWar@Smithsonian

MAPS AND IMAGES
Civil War Maps -- Library of Congress American Memory collection

Gilmer Civil War Maps Collection -- from UNC

The Becker Collection: Drawings of the American Civil War Era -- Boston College collection

Selected Civil War Photographs -- this is just one collection from the Library of Congress; if you poke around their website you'll find several more

THOSE WHO SERVED
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System

History of African Americans in the Civil War -- from the National Park Service

Civil War Women: Primary Sources on the Internet -- from Duke University

Women Soldiers of the Civil War -- National Archives

MUSIC AND POETRY
Band Music from the Civil War Era -- Library of Congress American Memory

Poetry and Music of the War Between the States

PERSONAL HISTORIES
American Civil War Collections at the Electronic Text Center -- from the University of Virginia

United States Civil War Collection: Civil War Diaries -- Western Michigan University Libraries

Hospital Sketches, by Louisa May Alcott

A Diary from Dixie, by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut

"My Precious Lulie ...": Love Letters of the Civil War

There are other sites listed in the article along with some brief commentary. To read the whole thing, check with your local library to see if they can get you a copy. Also, many of these sites are pieces of a whole. If you look around within a site, you'll often find more information.

I would also add the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, which you can find at the Internet Archive. Various formats for viewing are listed on the left. You can also find it at Civil War Home organized by battle. Cornell University's Making of America has the Official Records plus the naval records.

photo courtesy of Flickr

New Tool to Compare Schools

2011-07-06T20:58:00.000-04:00

I saw a recent Mashable article on ProPublica's new tool to compare public schools across the US, so parents now have another source to turn to when evaluating school systems. If you're moving to a new area or if you're debating public schools versus private schools, give this resource a try. The information comes from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and gathers together statistics such as the percentage of students getting free or reduced lunches and how many students are taking AP classes. The initial search is as quick as entering a ZIP code, address, or school. You can also browse by state on the left to get a brief overview. You can compare individual schools and share your findings on Facebook if you wish.

There is also a website called GreatSchools, which includes both public and private institutions. It focuses on test scores but also has demographics, funding, and other information, so between the two resources parents can get a good idea of their locale's educational system.

Books Related to "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

2011-07-01T15:07:00.001-04:00

Rebecca is one of my favorite books. Rebecca herself has died before the book begins, but she is still a great presence throughout. More than the current events with the second Mrs. de Winter and her new husband Maxim, it's Rebecca's story that keeps me interested: What was she doing in London the day she died? Did she really commit suicide or was she murdered? And above all, who was she really?

Several years ago I came across Mrs. de Winter by Susan Hill. I don't remember anything about the plot, but I do recall being less than impressed. Indeed, when I was searching recently for reviews I found that it got rather lukewarm mentions in various places, mostly English newspapers. However, a couple of weeks ago I found Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman. Now here was a story that addressed the very questions I always had, and finding out who Rebecca really was is at the heart. Beauman's book was approved by the du Maurier estate and even manages to keep to the basics of Susan Hill's book. It's quite a feat for an author to take a well-loved classic and a not-so-well-received sequel and construct a plausible third narrative around them.

Hill's book begins right as Rebecca ends and follows Maxim and his second wife as they deal with the aftermath of finding Rebecca's body and end up leaving England for a while, then returning for various reasons. Beauman sets her book twenty years after Rebecca's death, using a minor character from the last few chapters of the original and introducing another character who is interested in Rebecca for personal reasons. There's intrigue, mysterious notebooks, a touch of romance, and the evil Mrs. Danvers. This book might even stand on its own if you like a good suspense novel. Definitely pick it up if you want to find out what really happened to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

If you like satire, you might also like The Other Rebecca by Maureen Freely. It's an updated retelling of the original, but it's supposed to also be humorous. I don't think I want to try this one, but if you don't mind your classics getting a little twisted treatment, you might go for it.

Need Something to Read?

2011-06-22T19:33:00.000-04:00

Check out these two lists from Reference & User Services Quarterly: Notable Books: The 2011 Selection of Titles and The Reading List 2011. Both lists are geared towards adults, but mature teens can probably find something of interest. Notable Books is just a list of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, while the Reading List is organized by fiction genre. Both lists are annotated, and the Reading List also includes other suggestions for reading.

I can say, as a librarian, that Emma Donoghue's Room and Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks are still in demand even though they've been out for months. They must be very good books, so if you need something to read on vacation see if your library has copies available.

Missing Children: Two Different Takes

2011-05-29T17:16:00.001-04:00

John Hart's The Last Child and Lee Martin's The Bright Forever both have at the center of their stories a girl gone missing after returning books to the local library. They both resonate with the reader but in different ways. Both are compelling books, but the authors take very divergent paths with their narratives.

The Last Child is mainly a suspense story. Alyssa Merrimon went missing when she was twelve, and a year later her twin brother Johnny is still looking for her. He refuses to believe she's dead even after all these months, and he often skips school to canvas neighborhoods and keep tabs on known sexual predators. He's meticulous in his search, even more so than the local police. His father took off under the strain of having a missing child, and his mother has fallen apart. The only person Johnny feels he can trust is his best friend Jack. Detective Clyde Hunt keeps his eye on Johnny as he feels responsible for being unable to keep his promise to Mrs. Merrimon and bring Alyssa home.

The Last Child, while mostly a suspenseful mystery, is also full of heart. Detective Hunt has developed feelings for Mrs. Merrimon, Johnny's mom realizes she has to gather her strength in order to support her son, friend Jack has his own demons chasing him, and then there's Levi Freemantle, the giant man Johnny literally runs into. Emotions are raw, life is violent. The bad guys tend to be two-dimensional and Johnny isn't totally likable, but if you root for any character, make it Mrs. Merrimon. No person, real or fictional, should have to deal with all the trouble she has. I had a feeling I knew who the ultimate bad guy was, but even still I was surprised at the twist the ending took.

For a completely different look at a missing child case, check out The Bright Forever. Katie's older brother tattles at dinner one night that she hadn't returned her library books yet, and they were due that day. So her father makes her take them back before closing time. Katie rides off on her bicycle, barefoot, and never returns. Yes, there is suspense here because author Lee Martin takes his time spinning out the tale of what happened to Katie, but he also gets in the head of several major players. This is more a tale of what happens to the family that is left to wonder what befell their child and to deal with the not knowing. This is also a tale of how a person, a man in this case, might be driven to abscond with a little girl and kill her. Themes of guilt and loneliness resonate in almost every character's viewpoint. Actions are not excused but rather are explained. In the end, the person who feels most guilty does accept responsibility for not stopping events when he had the chance, but he still realizes his life and the lives of Katie's family members were forever altered.

The Bright Forever is an idyllic, almost sweet story. It is set in the sweltering summer of Indiana in the early 1970s. Life seems innocent and perfect, at least on the outside. Even with the undercurrent of Katie's disappearance, there is no violence, no bad language. Only towards the end when Katie's dad finds himself making a choice he he never thought he'd have to face does any blood flow. Then, too, when we find out what happened to Katie is there more blood.

The narrative is told in the first person by several characters, which is nice because the reader feels a part of the story. We get to find out what each person is thinking and feeling and why they do what they do. However, there are also sections told in third person, and I found that jarring. It's hard enough keeping track of each voice, remembering who "I" is. Then you get a more objective view of the action, and for me at least, I was pulled out of the story a few times because I had to adjust my mindset. One character talks directly to the reader as if he is writing the book, and I also tend not to like that device much, but it does give the story a sense of conversation and of truthfulness, as if the character is confessing a deep, painful secret.

If you like your books to be gritty, pick up The Last Child. If you want more of a character study, try The Bright Forever. In either case, you won't easily forget them.

Book Review - "Wingshooters" by Nina Revoyr

2011-05-15T16:37:00.000-04:00

Nina Revoyr's book Wingshooters covers a lot of topics: child abandonment, small town communities, race relations, not quite fitting in, trying to find one's place in the world, doing the right thing, refusing to change even in the face of absolute necessity. It's short at about 250 pages and it reads quick, but it'll leave you with a lot to think about.

It's 1974 in Deerhorn, Wisconsin. Young Michelle, half American and half Japanese, has been left with her white grandparents after spending her first few years in Japan. She knows more Japanese than English and has to contend with being an obvious outsider in this small town that still seems to be fighting World War II. Soon an African-American couple moves in, and their race makes life in Deerhorn even more difficult. Suddenly prejudice becomes absolutely real, though very few people will admit it. Even Michelle's grandfather, who seemed to despise her Asian mother but who loves his granddaughter fiercely, is confronted with choices that he isn't prepared for.

This powerful book does not end with things neatly tied up, because life is not neat. Sometimes there are no happy resolutions, only lessons learned and ongoing survival. The story is straightforward enough, but the aftermath is shattering. Though the bulk of the action takes place over thirty years ago, it's still relevant to today as America continues to figure out how to step out of the ugly shadow of its history of poor race relations. Read this book if you like to be challenged in your thinking.

Where to Find Videos Online

2011-05-15T16:08:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned video sites before, but I wanted to share this list from Mashable: 7 YouTube Alternatives & Why They Make Sense. Some you've probably heard of, like Blip.tv, but others may be new. The list focuses on the uploading side, which is great if you're looking for a place to store and show videos, but you might also get some ideas for viewing videos.

7 YouTube Alternatives:

Blip.tv
Vimeo
Flickr (did you know Flickr hosts videos, not just pictures?)
Veoh
Viddler
DailyMotion
yfrog

The Cautionary Tale of Kiki Kannibal

2011-04-22T13:43:00.002-04:00

Attention, parents. Right now, go to Rolling Stone and read this article: Kiki Kannibal: The Girl Who Played with Fire. I'll wait for you to finish. At the very least, Google her name and check out some of the links that you get. The Urban Dictionary entry gives you the controversy in a nutshell. Some of her older videos may not be on YouTube anymore, but there are still enough available that you can get an idea of who she is.

All done? Are you horrified, outraged, angry? Does it make you want to Google your child's name and see what might be out there that shouldn't be? Or are you thinking, "She's just a kid. Kids do stupid things. She's just expressing herself." If you didn't read or Google, basically Kiki Kannibal is the online persona of a teenage girl who suffered loneliness and was bullied and who took to the Internet in an effort to find some friends. She has toned down her image in recent years, but her provocative dress and tendency to spout intimate details about her life got her some very unwelcome attention.

I don't want to bash Kiki's family or Kiki herself. They know they've made mistakes and are still dealing with the consequences of some terrible situations. What I do want to do is use this as an opportunity to explain why it's extremely important for anyone, regardless of age or circumstance, to closely guard their online profiles. Parents, you absolutely have to know what your kids are doing online, from the time they first see a computer and are fascinated by the mouse until they become of age and move out on their own. At that point, hopefully they've internalized the importance of privacy and will continue to safeguard their personal information.

Here are some things to take away from Kiki's story:

Keep your social networking profiles private. Especially if you have a tendency to be outgoing and like to share your entire life with people, you want to keep yourself protected from the open Internet where any weirdo can find you and use your information against you. Just because address and phone number are fields to fill out on a profile form doesn't mean you have to type anything in. And keep in mind that no matter how locked down or secure you think you are, anyone can still copy your status reports or photos or whatever and post them elsewhere without your knowledge.
Only friend people you have actually met and have a decent relationship with. Yeah, okay, you might want to friend people you'll be going to college with so you can start conversations over the summer, or there might be relatives you don't especially like but not friending them would hurt their feelings. But you can still take advantage of lists or groups and allow them to see only certain bits of your information. Kiki friended anyone and everyone, realizing these weren't really people in her life but only numbers on her MySpace page, and she ended up with an abusive boyfriend and tons of Internet enemies. Yes, her story is extreme, but her life became a living hell because she didn't protect her privacy. Weed your friends lists once in a while, and don't feel bad about refusing requests from people you don't know.
Never engage a troll. The Rolling Stone cover called Kiki "the most hated girl on the Internet." I'm not sure that can be quantified, and I'm not sure "hated" is really the right word. Internet trolls are really just bullies who are hiding behind the anonymity of cyberspace, but unfortunately, there isn't much anyone can do about them except delete their comments and block them from websites. From some comments I saw online, Kiki would engage these trolls and ended up sounding like a bully herself. So don't respond. That's what they want, and they'll keep making you mad until you do or say something stupid. Take the high road and refuse to let things escalate.
Know how to report cyberbullying or Internet crime. Contact your local police before things get out of hand. Unfortunately, they were less than helpful for Kiki's family, but persistence pays off. Find out what the police can do for you. Be in contact with your kids' schools to raise awareness about bullying and have some no-tolerance policies and procedures put into place. Stay involved in your kids' lives, know who their friends are, both online and in person. Preventive measures could have saved Kiki from years of heartache.
Absolutely never meet anyone in person who you've met online but don't know for real. No matter how nice a person seems online, keep in mind that they may be totally different in real life. If you must set up a meeting, select a public place and maybe bring a friend. Tell people where you're going, what time, and when you'll be back. Call someone to check in so they know you're safe. Be aware that people can lie online about their age and about any other fact. Someone who seems young online can turn out to be an adult. Male predators are savvy about finding lonely teen girls online by pretending to be teens themselves. They seem so caring and attentive online but are actually abusive and selfish.

There's one last thing that I keep coming back to from Kiki's story. She acknowledges that she was lonely and didn't fit in at school. She realizes that online friends cannot take the place of real ones. Her parents say they made mistakes and would have done things differently. What could they have done? What can parents do now to hopefully prevent their children from suffering as much as Kiki?

First, don't let your daughters dress like sluts. I'm sorry to be so blunt, and in a perfect world it shouldn't matter what a girl wears. However, our world is not perfect, and girls need to know that dress can be a powerful tool for good or bad. I'm not saying dressing like a slut guarantees she'll be raped or that not dressing like one means she won't. I am saying men can get the wrong idea if a girl presents herself in a certain way. Predators don't need much encouragement to act. Kiki's mother says she didn't want to stifle Kiki's creativity concerning fashion. Um, dressing provocatively is not creative or fashionable. It's a cry for help. Kiki needed acceptance and wanted to be noticed. She ended up being noticed for her body and not for herself as a person. To broaden this to include boys and to make a general statement: Parents need to be parents, not their children's best friends.
Second, get your kids involved in activities. I have nothing against homeschooling, or public school or private school. Every child and every family is different and requires different responses to situations. However, even though Kiki was bullied at her public school, was homeschooling really the answer? I'm not advocating staying in a dangerous situation, but pulling her out only isolated her further. Was there no other public school she could attend? How much did her parents push the administration to address the bullying issue? Were there any private schools around that might take her on scholarship if her parents couldn't afford tuition? Even if homeschooling was the best option, were there no community groups she could join to meet people? What about church or some place of worship? Community theatre? She might be introverted at heart, but she has a dramatic personality. She wouldn't have to be on stage in front of an audience, but could join the crew. She got her GED so she wouldn't have to worry about education, so could she take classes at a community college? This is another way that might make her feel isolated as she'd be younger than many of her classmates, but still, she'd be meeting people. How about volunteering somewhere, getting a job? Kiki did start her own jewelry-making business, so maybe she could have attended crafting workshops (or perhaps led one)? Maybe she could have approached local businesses about selling her products in their stores? The Internet seems like a cure for loneliness and does make it easy to find people, but sometimes it also makes it hard to find real, personal connections that translate into deep friendship. Kiki needed encouragement to step out of her comfort zone and into some interests or hobbies that would put her in contact with flesh and blood humans and not rely on conversations strictly over ethernet.

Again, I don't want to badmouth Kiki or her family. I don't want to pillory her. I simply want to use her story as an example of what not to do. Parents need to know what's going on with their kids, and everyone needs to protect themselves online. Learn from Kiki's mistakes so you don't repeat them.

A Web of Books, Beginning with "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield

2011-04-15T23:14:00.000-04:00

This post is less a book review and more an explanation of the other books The Thirteenth Tale brought to my mind as I was reading. I thought of some books immediately, and others occurred to me as I was looking up pertinent information, such as authors of books I knew titles of. Hence a web of books, books that got caught in the net of my imagination loosed by ideas presented in The Thirteenth Tale.

First, I do want to talk about Diane Setterfield's excellent story. It could be classified as a suspense novel, but there's so much more to it than just that. The central idea is truth. (Is there a universal truth? Is truth only in the eye of the knower?) There is also the idea of story, that is, how events surrounding one's birth shape that person and make them unique. As Setterfield unfolds the narrative, the reader is drawn into the mystery of who Vida Winter is, who she really is as opposed to the fictional tales she has told about herself over the years. We also are privy to Margaret's story. Margaret has been selected by Miss Winter to be her official biographer now that she's coming to the end of her life. As the two women work together, we see the present story of them and how their birth stories have led them to where they are now. We also meet Hester Barrow, a former governess from Miss Winter's childhood, and learn her story. Margaret meets Aurelius while visiting Miss Winter's childhood home, and she eventually gets to reveal his story to him because he was a foundling and therefore doesn't know anything about his birth. All these characters and more from past and present are entwined in a marvelously plotted book.

Setterfield's characters also have an affinity for language, words, and literature, which is not surprising since Vida Winter and Margaret Lea are both authors. Romantic classics, especially Jane Eyre, are almost like characters themselves. Margaret especially is prone to losing herself in a story, whether she stays up late reading or is transcribing her notes from Miss Winter's oral tale. The setting in the moors of England is straight out of a Bronte novel, and the antics of twin sisters and their families makes for a Gothic-Romantic meld.

The Thirteenth Tale is not a fast read as details emerge slowly and the truth of the entire story comes mostly at the end, but it is a page-turner.

Now, onto the web part.

The first connection I made was to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It was mentioned several times, enough so I was reminded of other books that took inspriration from that classic. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys was written in 1966 as a prequel to Bronte's story. For those who always wondered how Mr. Rochester's first wife ended up in his attic as a madwoman, Rhys's book will explain. More recently, Jasper Fforde chose Jane Eyre as a work in danger of revision in The Eyre Affair. Literary detective Thursday Next, living in an alternate version of England, has to actually enter Bronte's story in order to save the characters.

Madness, manic depression, or simply "bad blood" also figures in Setterfield's novel. I was reminded first of a book I recently read called Prayers and Lies by Sherri Wood Emmons. In both of these books, the authors pursue the idea that insanity or some kind of personality disorder could run in families. Also, Sylvia Plath's classic The Bell Jar popped into my head. In it, she describes an episode of depression as told by the girl living through it.

For anyone interested in the use of language or in letters as a viable form of communication, take a look at Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. His story unfolds through letters that become increasingly difficult to read because certain town fathers have outlawed the use of particular letters of the alphabet. This book does go quickly as I read it in one sitting.

The twins in The Thirteen Tale have their own secret language, and I was reminded of the true story of Jennifer and June Gibbons, twin sisters from Britain who communicated mostly with each other and who felt so out of tune with their world that they turned to crime in order to get some notice. They were sent to a mental institution instead of prison. One twin is still living. Read their story in Marjorie Wallace's The Silent Twins. Identical Strangers is another true story about twins, but this time it's about sisters who were separated at birth and found each other later in life. Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein take turns sharing their perspectives of that meeting. Crying Wolf by Peter Abrahams is a suspense novel in which college student Nat falls for twins Izzy and Grace and is drawn into their high society world of secrets.

So that is my web of stories connecting to The Thirteenth Tale. If you've had a similar experience, please share in the comments.

thanks to tim phillips for the photo

Resources for Knitters

2011-04-06T20:39:00.001-04:00

I saw an article from Reference & User Services Quarterly, New-Wave Knitting: Thirty-Eight Resources for a Core Collection. Don't let the library jargon throw you, it actually has some good suggestions for websites and books for new and experienced knitters. Most look like standards, such as Nicky Epstein, Sally Melville, and Vogue, but you might find some new websites or magazines.

Want to try out a book before buying so you know whether it'll be useful or not? Ask at your local library if it's available. Even if they don't have it on their shelves, they can probably request it from another library. (Sorry, couldn't resist the plug.)

Any other crafters out there, what are your favorite websites? Leave your recommendations in the comments.

thanks to the George Eastman House for the photo

Reading About the Salem Witch Trials

2011-03-23T21:13:00.001-04:00

The year 1692 was not a pleasant one for residents of the colony of Massachusetts, especially the area around Salem. That was the year a band of girls leveled serious accusations against several fellow townspeople, calling them witches and ultimately sending them to the gallows. Here are two books that portray that era and ask the question, How could this tragedy have happened?

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
This story is told from the perspective of a child whose mother is accused of witchcraft. Young Sarah is only ten years old at the time of the witch trials. She and her family are living in Andover, Massachusetts, the town next to Salem where all the horrors are taking place. Sarah's mother is Martha Carrier, who makes the ultimate sacrifice so her children will not face the same fate she does.

Martha Carrier was a real person, and Kathleen Kent brings her alive through the eyes of her daughter. You will feel like you are living in their household, with all the blood, sweat, and tears that marked life in Colonial America. The only quibbles I have with this book are that there are no maps and no notation as to what is based in fact. Luckily information on Martha Carrier, and indeed on the entire witch hunt and trials, are readily available online. I also found a map of Salem and a map of Andover in 1692.

Deliverance from Evil by Frances Hill
Hill sets her book in Salem and takes you right into the heart of the witch hunt, trials, and executions. She focuses on one character, another historical figure named George Burroughs. He was a minister, which makes the accusations against him quite puzzling. The first part of the book introduces you to Burroughs and his young wife Mary, who are living in Maine at the time, as well as to the girls in Salem and how they got involved in the witch hunt. Hill makes it clear that she thinks Thomas Putnam, the father of ringleader Ann Putnam, actually put the youngsters up to their antics in a diabolical plot to get rid of political and economic rivals.

The second and third parts of the book focus on Burroughs and Mary, and his ordeal in prison and her attempts to convince the magistrates of his innocence. Whether Putnam and others were really part of the conspiracy is not an agreed-upon matter among historians, but it makes the atrocities that much worse.

Perhaps because I read The Heretic's Daughter first I ended up liking it more, but somehow it seemed more real to me. I sympathized with the characters more, and I thought it was better written. The towns and the living conditions were drawn with fine details, and the characters were full of personality. It's a difficult read because of the subject matter but worth the effort. Deliverance from Evil is not a bad book, it just presents the story a little more simply. You instantly know who the good guys and bad guys are, and life isn't quite as blood-and-guts graphic. Author Hill has written several nonfiction books on the Salem witch trials so she definitely knows her history, but she seems less skilled than Kent at weaving a tale of fiction. Still, either book is a good choice for anyone interested in this particular event in American history.

thanks to Svenstorm for the use of the photo

Book Review - "Mermaid" by Carolyn Turgeon

2011-03-13T15:22:00.001-04:00

Even if you've never read "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen or seen the Disney cartoon, you might still enjoy Carolyn Turgeon's reworking of the fairy tale. It's a short book at fewer than 300 pages, and it's not dense or filled with symbolism, though you could read into it what you want about beauty, sacrifice, and true love. It's a simple story of two women in love with the same man who make huge personal sacrifices to be with him. This man, a prince, thinks he is in love with a certain woman who he doesn't think he'll ever see again, who rescued him from the sea and nursed him back to health. He meets another woman, a silent, elegant, gentle woman who sacrificed her life as a mermaid to be with him (though he doesn't know that), and would marry her if his father allowed it. Alas, the king has accepted an arrangement on his son's behalf with the princess of the North because such an alliance will united their kingdoms and bring them desperately needed peace. What will the two women do to ensure themselves true love, peace, and everlasting life? What will the prince decide?

I like to think my reading tastes appeal in some fashion to both men and women, though I do include some literary chick lit in my reviews. Most of the fantasy, mystery, and suspense books I review are suitable for either gender. However, Mermaid is probably for women only. It's a sweet romance, written from the perspectives of both the princess of the North and the mermaid. You will find yourself wishing both of them can have their prince, but not until the last section will you find out which one--or maybe both?--gets her happy ending.

ALA 2011 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

2011-02-27T19:38:00.000-05:00

Do you know a teenager who absolutely hates to read? Are you that teenager? It's understandable that you might not like what your teacher assigns (who does?), but if you never, ever pick up a book or magazine on your own, check out this list: 2011 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. I dare you to choose just one book and read it all the way through, then decide whether you still hate reading. You might surprise yourself by choosing a second, maybe even a third book from the list.

You have my permission to scroll through the boring first few paragraphs and get straight to the list, fiction first, then nonfiction. The descriptions are extremely short, but hey, you hate reading so these should be perfect. There are definitely no wasted words here.

Healthcare Blue Book

2011-02-19T12:28:00.000-05:00

Did you know that medical procedures can vary widely in cost depending on where in the US you live? To compare those costs, check out Healthcare Blue Book.

To use the site, you put in whatever procedure you need and click "Search Prices." You can be as general or specific as you want, but you may be asked to fine-tune the results. Also on the results page you can enter your ZIP code--or any ZIP code really, for comparison purposes.

You can also browse topics by using the tabs across the top of the screen. There are separate tabs for Dental and Hearing Aids, although dental procedures may show up in your results if you search on a general topic, like X-rays.

The Resources for Patients tab is useful. There's a section on using the website, plus there are tips on finding insurance, understanding treatment options, negotiating your bills, getting a pharmacy discount card from Healthcare Blue Book, and more.

The next time you feel overwhelmed by something medical or insurance-related, try Healthcare Blue Book.

Book Review - "The Ascent" by Ronald Malfi

2011-02-11T13:29:00.001-05:00

Whoa. That was my initial reaction after staying up late one night to finish The Ascent. It might sound cliche, but it really is a roller coaster ride of a book.

Whatever review I read must have made this book sound just fabulous, because when I got it and was reading the inside flap, I almost put it back. It's about extreme mountain climbing, specifically a place in the Himalayas called the Canyon of Souls that no one has ever seen. Or rather, no one has seen it and returned to tell about it. I have no interest in mountain climbing, but since something in the review made it sound interesting in some fashion, I decided to give it a try. And, wow, am I glad I did.

The Ascent isn't just about mountain climbing. It's also about art and inspiration, marriage, friendship, and really wacko minds. It's very much a suspense thriller but an intelligent one. The characters are three-dimensional, the scenery unfolds like a video as you trek through the mountains with these guys, and the plot is well-paced and intricate.

Tim's past has bearing on his present and is the reason why he goes on this crazy trip, and the reader finds out what happened at the same time as Tim processes the events. It's a wonderful blend of how we can never escape our choices because they are always in our minds influencing every other choice. We meet his wife Hannah and eventually find out why she left him and how she ended up going over a cliff in a car with another guy. We see how Tim and Andrew meet and wonder why Andrew would invite Tim on a wild journey in the Himalayas. We meet the other members of the climbing team and root for them as their strength and will are tested beyond what they ever imagined.

There is a touch of the supernatural in this book, but the region the guys are walking through is a sacred place, so it's not unexpected to have some contact with souls that have gone before. Don't let that aspect of the story stop you from picking up this book. It's much more than just a suspense novel or a story about mountain climbing. It will haunt you after you read the last page, giving you that delicious chill as you wonder whether what seems to have happened really did.

How to Stop Getting the Yellow Pages Phonebook

2011-02-11T13:22:00.000-05:00

I saw a Wired blog post recently that explains how you can opt out from receiving the yellow pages. (Be warned that the author really doesn't like getting that brick of bound pages on his door step.) If you too would like to discontinue delivery, simply go to the Yellow Pages Opt Out website and put in your ZIP code. You do have to register, but it's free and then you can select which products you want or don't want to receive anymore.

Also on the site you can find out how to recycle your yellow pages and learn about how the book gets made. (For anyone who is curious, Yellow Pages does its best to be environmentally friendly before and after printing the books.)

Resources to Try in 2011

2011-02-02T12:56:00.000-05:00

I saw a blog post at Stephen's Lighthouse recently that looked interesting. He linked to 11 web resources in 7 subject areas as originally posted at the Free Technology for Teachers blog. I've seen some of these and they are very good, not just for teachers but for anyone exploring the topics. Check them out!

1. 11 Mathematics Resources to Try in 2011
2. 11 Language Arts Resources to Try in 2011
3. 11 Science Resources to Try in 2011
4. 11 Social Studies Resources to Try in 2011
5. 11 Art & Music Resources to Try in 2011
6. 11 Health & Phys Ed Resources to Try in 2011
7. 11 Foreign Language Resources to Try in 2011

Credit Score

2011-01-30T15:20:00.002-05:00

I came across an article recently from Yahoo Finance, Free Credit Scores Become More Available to Borrowers. Not everyone is entitled to see their credit score for free, like you are your credit report, but as of January 1, 2011, if you are offered a higher interest rate than other borrowers, you can ask for your credit score from the lender in order to see why you didn't get the lower rate. That way, you'll know what you might be able to do to raise your score for future loans or credit applications.

If you are just curious about your credit score or if you are thinking about applying for a loan or new credit card and want to see where you stand, you'll still have to pay to see your score. But with this new law, if you get turned down or don't get the best interest rate, now you can find out why.

Best Books of 2010

2011-01-24T10:08:00.001-05:00

The Reference and User Services Association, part of the American Library Association, has listed their top genre fiction titles and the best general fiction, nonfiction, and poetry titles from 2010. The genre fiction list also gives suggestions for read-alikes and shows other candidates for the award. The general fiction, nonfiction, and poetry lists have several titles apiece. That way, you have many books to choose from if you're looking for something to read.

Have you read any of the titles on these lists? Leave your reviews in the comments.

Thanks to soundfromwayout for the photo.

Book Review - "Friday Mornings at Nine" by Marilyn Brant

2011-01-23T17:24:00.000-05:00

Marilyn Brant attempts to address the age-old yet still difficult question of "how do you know you've married the right person?" in her new book Friday Mornings at Nine. Her three main characters--Jennifer, Bridget, and Tamara--each respond to the proposal that they try to figure out what their lives should have been like and then do what they have to in order to make their "correct" lives happen.

Jennifer has gotten an email from her college boyfriend David, which spurs her to wonder why he left her right before graduation. She's been married to another man for many years now, but she feels like only David really gets her. She determines to meet him and find out whether they really were meant to be together. Jennifer's "what if" question gets her two friends reflecting on their own marriages and on the possibilities that arise from their also meeting men who seem to "get" them more than their husbands do.

The ladies meet at a coffee shop every Friday morning to compare notes, though there are plenty of details they leave out. Their secrets and deceptions begin to come to a head at a neighborhood Halloween party, and they then must face not only their husbands and children, but themselves as well. What do they truly want from marriage and from life?

Jennifer, Bridget, and Tamara are three very different women. They have three different marriages, meet men under different circumstances and engage in different kinds of activities, and ultimately come to three different conclusions. None of the women is a caricature, yet I never quite totally identified with any of them. The events surrounding them, their choices, and the outcomes are not cookie-cutter, yet there is a certain lack of character development. It's almost, but not quite, like the author planned out the various ways in which affairs happen and in which marriages break up and then constructed a tale around those instead of first getting into her characters' heads and figuring out why they do what they do.

We do see each woman separately and then as a group. We do see what they choose to reveal to each other and some rationale for why they hide details or fudge the truth. But in the end I wasn't sure if Marilyn Brant meant to write chick lit or something more serious. I also wasn't crazy about some of the pop culture references because those quickly date a book, and the final fairy-tale chapters could have been written in the same style as the rest of the book. (Although fairy tales and fantasy do play a large part in the story, writing those chapters in that format made the book end up more cutesy and less weighty than it might have been.) Friday Mornings at Nine has its own identity issues.

That said, this book does still tackle the question of why women stray. These three characters may not be completely fleshed-out, but they are still compelling. Aspects of their stories will still resonate with readers. I'd recommend this book for clubs who want to talk about such personal questions without getting too literary or philosophical.

Teach Parents Tech

2011-01-17T20:00:00.000-05:00

How many of you are the de facto tech support for your family members? Did you ever wish you could record yourself explaining the steps for whatever process your parents are struggling with...again? That way they could just watch the video over and over again until they got it? Well, rejoice, for help is here.

In December Google set up the TeachParentsTech.org website. See their blog post for a quick overview. A number of videos have been uploaded, and you just choose which one you want to send and fill out the form. The recipient--it doesn't have to be a parent--will get an email with a link to the video. Then voila, you've done your tech support, and from long distance even.

The videos range from changing text size to setting up auto-respond on your email to doing searches online. They do focus on Google, so you might want to preview the videos before sending in case you'd rather give instructions that are less product-specific.

Religion Websites

2011-01-10T11:33:00.001-05:00

I recently came across an article in Booklist that had several recommendations for useful websites dealing with religion. Most of these are related to the Western hemisphere with a Christian or Judeo focus, although a few do have information on other world religions.

Adherents.com
This is a good website for answering common questions and providing basic religion statistics. One can ask such questions as, "How many Lutherans live in Wisconsin?" or "What are the major religions of India?" This site is not affiliated with any particular religion. Instead, it summarizes religious data compiled from books, journals, or other websites. Entries include citations to the sources from which the data was compiled.

Biblical Art on the WWW
Did you ever need to find an illustration of Moses, but Google's image search or Flickr let you down? Biblical Art on the WWW indexes more than 37,000 biblical images. Browse by biblical subject, text, or artist, or do a keyword search. Entries include artist's name, year of artwork, and location of the physical illustration.

Encyclopedia of Religion and Society
The content of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, published by AltaMira in 1998, is posted on the website of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Entries are browsable by table of contents.

Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO)
GAMEO provides reliable information on Anabaptist religions (Amish, Mennonite, Hutterite, Brethren in Christ). Entries are indexed alphabetically and include history, theology, biographies, and more. Entries also include formatted citations for MLA and APA styles.

Jewish Encyclopedia
Based on the printed 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, which was published between 1901 and 1906. This online source includes more than 15,000 articles and illustrations.

New Advent
Content is derived from the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia. The site also includes the Bible, writings of the church fathers, and church documents.

Patheos
This site's unique tool allows the user to select different religions and conduct a comparison on backgrounds and beliefs. Each religion entry provides current news and information and links to further reading. Another great tool is the multi-religion holiday calendar, which shows various religious holidays all in one click.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
This site provides an extensive report on American religious beliefs, statistics, and mapping information. Public survey information is drawn from more than 35,000 American adults. Statistics are provided in a very user-friendly environment with various charts. The report and statistics detail the religious makeup, beliefs, and practices of the American public.

Saints
Finding that patron saint is no longer a problem with this site. More than 4,000 saints are profiled. Keyword searching allows the user to find specific saints or saints that are related to a specific event or subject. Biographies with links to additional sources are included. The site also provides MLA citation for each page visited.

Source: Escobar, Hector. "Finding Religion. " Booklist. 107.6 (Nov 15, 2010): 56(1).

To read the entire article, check with your library and see if they have access to online databases from Gale. I used General Reference Center Gold, but any number of similar Gale products should have it.

Tax Changes for 2011

2011-01-03T10:16:00.001-05:00

You may have heard by now that the IRS is not sending out paper booklets this year. The number of people filing online increases every year, so the IRS is saving money and paper by not automatically mailing out forms and instructions.

If you want paper IRS forms, how can you get them?

Print them from www.irs.gov. Click "Forms and Publications" on the left side of the screen, then choose either "Form and Instruction Number" or "Publication Number." If you do not know which form or publication you need, you can use the search box in the upper right of the screen.
Call 1-800-829-3676. The IRS may be willing to mail you copies if you ask. Availability may be limited.
Try your local library or post office. Many of them will have forms and instructions, and the library staff should be willing to help you make printouts from the IRS website.

For some basics on using the IRS website, check out this previous blog post.

Many states are also changing their mailing procedures, so check with your state's revenue department to see whether or not you'll be getting paper copies.

For assistance with your taxes, check at your local senior center or public library. The AARP has a resource locator; just be aware that it may not be active until February. Most places that give free assistance do so starting in February and going through April 15.

College Information

2010-12-27T15:53:00.000-05:00

Recently I got two emails from webmasters telling me about their sites. I've looked them over, and they do seem useful. Check them out for yourself.

The first one is Zen College Life. Right on the front page you can search for programs, see a list of top-ranked schools by subject, and browse colleges by state. They have basic career guides for a wide range of jobs, reviews of a select list of schools, and some grant information. The focus seems to be online programs.

The second website is Masters in Education. It's a comprehensive list of colleges and universities that have M.Ed. programs, either online or at physical locations. Use the links provided to request information directly from each school. The bottom of the front page has a list by state.

Book Review - "The Last Page" by Anthony Huso

2010-12-22T20:14:00.000-05:00

The Last Page is a unique blend of fantasy and science fiction. You have magic and a secret book on one hand, and zeppelins and something approaching electricity on the other. Author Anthony Huso is also a video game designer, and his vivid imagination translates well from computer screen to printed page.

Caliph Howl is in college when he meets Sena, a beguiling woman who seduces him...or is it something more? She graduates before him, and they lose touch for a while. Then he graduates and becomes High King. Immediately Isca plunges into civil war with Caliph doing everything he can to keep his country intact.

Sena reappears, having found the Cisrym Ta, the book she's been hunting for all during her college years. Its lock is held with a powerful spell, and she must decide how desperately she wants to open it. Once she does, who knows what horrible, wonderful things will be released?

There is some court intrigue in The Last Page and several horrid, filthy beasts, which make for a few suspenseful scenes, but I was not necessarily on the edge of my seat the whole time. Rather, it was the overwhelming odds against Caliph and Sena that kept me turning the pages. Life in this book is dirty, messy, and very bloody. Huso writes of war, betrayal, murder, and sex. He has created a lavishly detailed history in the style of high fantasy, but there is plenty to satisfy sci fi fans as well with his chemiostatic swords and a system of magic that involves numbers and equations. The magic is not explained well, but the results of equations cast are fascinating.

No matter where you fall on the fantasy/sci fi spectrum, give this one a chance. Even if you don't necessarily like either of those genres, if you like clever wordplay, you might enjoy The Last Page. Huso likes to turn nouns into verbs and use them in unexpected ways. He also has an unfortunate tendency to write in sentence fragments, which makes for a disrupting reading experience, but hopefully you can soon adjust to his cadence and not get jolted out of the story. Also, don't be afraid of the huge words. I couldn't tell if Huso has a really big vocabulary or if he just likes being a wordsmith, but in either case a high level of intelligence is quite evident.

Overall, The Last Page is an interesting read.

2010 Census

2010-12-21T21:17:00.001-05:00

The first part of the 2010 census was released today. Check out the website: 2010 Census. Data for individual locations is not yet available, but state populations are. The Census Bureau has to publish this information by December 31 so Congress knows how to apportion its seats in the House of Representatives. Click the Data tab and check out the map to see whether your state has gained or lost any seats.

For what it's worth the US has officially reached 300,000,000 residents.

Opt Out from Prescreened Credit Offers

2010-12-19T14:47:00.000-05:00

The other day I came across another website where you can enter your name and address and get off mailing lists for prescreened credit offers. It's another way to protect your credit and lessen your paper trail and junk mail.

The website is OptOutPrescreen.com. It's a secure site run by the credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion) and gives consumers the choice of whether they want their information made available to credit card and insurance companies. You can opt in, opt out for five years, or opt out permanently. No matter what you decide, you can later go back to the site and change your mind.

Check out their About Us page for more information and their list of Frequently Asked Questions.

Don't forget that you should also check your credit report annually from the only official website approved by the major credit reporting companies, AnnualCreditReport.com.

Twitter's Year in Review

2010-12-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

Twitter's lists of popular topics is being released in installments. So far they have Who's New and Top Trends.

Who's New includes famous people who joined Twitter in the last year. Check out the feeds for Conan O'Brien, the Dalai Lama, Bill Gates, Tinkerbell, and Victoria Beckham.

Top Trends is broken into categories, with hashtags having a category of their own. Perhaps the average age of Twitter users accounts for the fact that Prince William's engagement and Kate Middleton have risen so quickly onto the top ten lists, since that news just broke a couple of weeks ago.

Twitter is planning three more lists, so check back to find out what they are.

Google's Search Zeitgeist 2010

2010-12-13T10:46:00.001-05:00

Google has released its Zeitgeist 2010. It's not exactly a list of the most popular searches, but rather it's the fastest rising topics. Things that captured people's interest during this past year include Chatroulette, Justin Bieber, the World Cup, Nicki Minaj (who?), the ash cloud over Iceland, and the iPad. Yes, Kim Kardashian is on the list of fastest rising people.

The health concerns are interesting: McDonald's nutrition, Asperger's, vitamin D deficiency, whooping cough. People must be paying attention to the news and their own health. Maybe finding out the nutrition value--or lack thereof--in McDonald's food will help with the obesity epidemic in the Unites States. Okay, maybe not.

Compare this zeitgeist with Yahoo's searches and with Bing's.

Book Review - "The Confession" by John Grisham

2010-12-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

John Grisham's newest book, The Confession, is good but not as good as his earliest ones. It feels more like an extended outline than a fleshed-out narrative. However, if you like page-turners this might work.

There are a couple of confessions in play. Nine years ago, Donte Drumm was coerced into a confession by a cop just doing his job. By answering leading questions, he confessed that he kidnapped, raped, and murdered a high school classmate named Nicole. Oh yeah, Donte is black and the victim was white.

The book opens with another confession. Travis Boyette walks into Reverend Keith Schroeder's office and after some beating around the bush, admits that he actually killed Nicole. He's feeling guilty because Donte's execution is days away and because he himself is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor that could kill him in a matter of weeks. Therefore, he has little to lose by going public since he probably won't be alive by the time the wheels of justice turn in his direction. In light of this startling information, what can Keith do to make sure Texas doesn't execute the wrong man?

On the face, this is a compelling story. There's the race against time: Keith and Boyette are in Kansas, about a twelve-hour drive from the town in Texas where Donte is from. Can the two of them get there in time, and can they then convince anyone that Boyette is really Nicole's murderer? Can Donte's lawyer Robbie Flak file his petitions in time to stop the execution? There's the decisions that Keith must constantly make in determining just how far he will go to help Boyette, a convicted sex offender in four states. There's the possibility of race riots in Donte's town if the execution goes through. Grisham knows how to build suspense and keep the reader engaged. However, his storytelling ability seems to have gotten lost.

Grisham has concocted a dilemma for his characters which will keep the reader interested, but he relies on telling the story and not showing it. We get a lot of up-front descriptions of characters instead of dropping details as the story unfolds. He puts in some details that bring his locations to life but not as many as in his first books. Reading The Confession feels a bit like he made things up as he went and didn't spend much time planning how to craft his tale. He's also heavy-handed on the anti-death penalty idea. Authors writing out of their own beliefs is nothing new, but this time the author beats his readers over the head.

About halfway through I was moved to get out my paperback copy of A Time to Kill, Grisham's first novel and one of my all-time favorites. I've felt for a while now that he's lost his touch in his quest to churn out as many books as possible, and I wanted to know if his early ones were as good as I remembered. I'm only chapters in, but already the quality of writing is different. Sure, A Time to Kill is a bit rough (even now Grisham has a rather jarring tendency to abruptly shift viewpoints, something a good editor should be able to point out), but the time he spent in shaping his story is evident. We get background information when necessary, details are doled out through the action and narrative, and it feels like he planned his story in advance. By contrast, The Confession seems slapped together like maybe Grisham was hoping the high suspense would keep the reader from noticing the lack of a good yarn.

Grisham fans wanting to read a story akin to the early ones that made them fall in love with the author will be disappointed. His previous book, The Associate, had been heading in the right direction, but with this latest one he has gone off track again. Let's hope he finds his way before writing whatever comes next.

Santa's Coming!

2010-12-06T10:26:00.000-05:00

Christmas is less than three weeks away, and Santa is preparing for his journey around the world, delivering gifts to the good girls and boys on the night of December 24. You can track his sleigh and reindeer online at www.noradsanta.org.

Right now there is just a countdown, but on December 24 you can track his path online or on your mobile phone. Here's what NORAD partner Google says:

Starting at 2 a.m. EST on December 24, you’ll be able to track him in real-time on Google Maps from your computer or phone as well as on Google Earth with the plug-in by searching for [santa].

In the meantime, you can play games and watch videos.

Have fun!

Yahoo's Top Searches of 2010

2010-12-01T20:16:00.000-05:00

Yahoo has released its list of top searches for 2010. It has a separate list for mobile searches. (There's a neat graphic at that link.)

Yahoo searchers were more interested in news stories than Bing's searchers, who pretty much just looked up celebrities, though it does have its share--Kim Kardashian made both lists. Yahoo also has specialized lists, such as song lyrics, gadgets, coupons, and includes the top misspellings. Justin Bieber was definitely on many people's minds in 2010.

Bing's Most Popular Searches of 2010

2010-11-30T20:49:00.000-05:00

Bing has released their list of the top ten searches of this year. Nearly every one is a celebrity. Here's the list:

Kim Kardashian
Sandra Bullock
Tiger Woods
Lady Gaga
Barack Obama
Hairstyles
Kate Gosselin
Walmart
Justin Bieber
free

Perhaps certain ladies on the list inspired the "hairstyles" searches, and with the economy still not fully recovered it's no surprise Walmart and "free" are also top in people's minds.

Kim Kardashian didn't make Bing's list last year, but she was on Yahoo's. Yahoo, Google, and Twitter haven't released their 2010 lists yet. Anyone want to guess how similar or different they will be from Bing?

Book Review - "This Must Be the Place" by Kate Racculia

2010-10-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

Arthur Rook's wife Amy is killed while at work because of a freak, horrible accident, and he sprirals into debilitating grief. He ransacks their apartment, looking for anything he can of hers to hold onto, something that is purely Amy. What he finds--an unsent postcard dated sixteen years ago in a pink shoebox filled with trinkets and memorabilia--leads him to the tiny town of Ruby Falls in upstate New York. There he meets Mona, Amy's childhood friend, and Mona's daughter, Oneida.

Arthur and Mona knew Amy at different stages of her life: Mona up until age sixteen, when the two girls ran off to Ocean City one summer (and only one of them returned to Ruby Falls), and Arthur in Los Angeles, where Amy had established herself as a creator of monsters on movie sets. Mona did not know the adult Amy and Arthur did not know the child Amy, and so when Arthur takes rooms in Mona's boardinghouse, the two have several weeks to reconcile their versions of the same person. Mostly that means Mona has to share the secret she's kept since that life-changing summer in Ocean City, one that involves Oneida.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about this book. It's a debut novel with an intriguing premise and well-written scenes, but I found myself not caring about the characters all that much. Author Kate Racculia tells the story from Mona and Arthur's perspectives and throws in Oneida for good measure. Actually, Oneida's part in the tale makes sense, as Mona and Amy's big secret concerns her too. But then why does Racculia spend so much time on Eugene "Wendy" Wendell, the class screw-up and Oneida's first boyfriend? There's a whole side story surrounding Oneida and her crush, Andrew Lu, and Andrew and Wendy fighting over Oneida. Perhaps it's the result that matters: bringing Arthur and Mona together because of Oneida. In any case, I found myself not terribly interested in Wendy's wacko family or in his feelings about Oneida.

I figured out Mona's secret pretty early on and spent the rest of the book looking for clues that I was right. Losing the suspense didn't detract from the story, however, as I still wanted to find out how Mona would tell Arthur and how Arthur would react.

I was less happy about the epilogue, "Eight Years Later." Things get wrapped up in a way that seems to actually weaken the story. Stopping one chapter earlier leaves things a little unsettled but heading in a good direction. The reader gets to decide whether the ending is bittersweet or happy, and it makes the characters more real. Life is full of people who come and go, who change you in some way, and then vanish. Racculia spells out what happens to Mona and Arthur, Oneida and Wendy, and I found it rather unnecessary.

So I don't give this book a blanket thumbs-up, but if you like your chick lit to be on the serious side, give this book a try. If you go in knowing its flaws, perhaps you can enjoy the story even if the characters don't grab you.

College and Career Information

2010-10-18T12:23:00.001-04:00

I got the following links in an email. education-portal.com is a collection of original content aimed at teens and adults looking for colleges, scholarships, or job advice.

For Teens and College Age Users

10 Education-Portal.com scholarships for high school seniors and university students
Scholarships range from $500-$1,000 in ten different subject matters. Eligibility requirements, applications, and previous winners can be found on each individual scholarship page.
http://education-portal.com/pages/Academic_Awards_Home.html

‘Best of’ Free OpenCourseWare from America’s Top Universities
Education Portal has meticulously reviewed and compiled the best free OpenCourseWare from America’s top universities including Yale, MIT, and Cal Berkeley on a variety of topics from best free math courses to best free literature courses. Our complete ‘Best of’ selection can be seen here to help students learn what subject matters are really like before enrolling.
http://education-portal.com/article_directory/Free_Online_Courses_and_Education.html

University Admissions Reviews by State:
Admission reviews for several of the top colleges in every state
http://education-portal.com/article_directory/College_and_University_Overviews_(by_State).html

For Adults and Job Seekers

Career Counseling and Job Search - Video Center
Free videos from a 20+ year career counseling veteran on important topics such as researching the job market, conducting informational interviews, and how to get your resume noticed.
http://education-portal.com/pages/Career_Field_and_Degree_Program_Videos.html

There isn't anything wrong with the above sites. In fact, they may give you a place to start as web searching for scholarships, etc. can be overwhelming. However, there are also some other sites that may give you more options.

Fastweb.com - Join for free and get matched up with scholarships. They'll send new ones to your email. You can also search for jobs and/or internships, and see if they military might be right for you. The site is geared toward students, but there's a section for parents as well.
US News & World Report Rankings - Everything they rank is here, including hospitals and vacations, so head for the college and grad school sections. The lists can be controversial, but if you're looking to specialize, say in engineering or medicine, you'll get some useful information.
Peterson's - From the publishers of the college guides comes this comprehensive site. Sort lists of schools by location or major, get test prep help, find scholarships, get advice on admissions, and more. Includes trade schools plus undergraduate and graduate programs.
CareerOneStop.org - This site is from the federal government, but it's much more than just searching for federal jobs (look for those at USAJOBS). Find your state job bank here, figure out what kind of training you might need in order to change jobs, get help writing resumes, brush up on your interviewing skills, take a self-assessment to see what jobs might be right for you. It's really a one-stop website for everything career-related.

Book Review - "The Tale of Halcyon Crane" by Wendy Webb

2010-10-11T16:54:00.000-04:00

Hallie James gets an envelope in the mail from a lawyer representing her mother. Inside is a letter from her mother plus a notice that she has died recently. The only thing is, Hallie thought her mother died thirty years ago. Hallie's world and everything she has known are about to be turned upside down.

The Tale of Halcyon Crane is Wendy Webb's first novel, and it's a pretty good one. I'm not a big fan of ghost stories, mostly because the images stay in my head and keep me awake at night, but this book isn't heavy on the supernatural. It's definitely there, with Hallie seeing ghostly girls and having the ability to see into photographs and become part of the event being recorded, but it's not overwhelmingly mind-blowing. This is more a story of suspense: What happened to cause Hallie's dad to take her away from her home when she was five? What really childhood friend Julie to fall from the third-story window to her death? Why does Hallie keep seeing a girl in a white dress with a ribbon in her hair?

This is also a family saga. A visit to a healer--or witch, as the townspeople call her--opens Hannah's womb a century earlier, and certain abilities or "gifts" are then passed to her children and to their children, including Hallie. Each generation has tragedy visited upon it because of these gifts, and the shadows of those terrible events still echo in the house left to Hallie by her mother. The strange housekeeper Iris, as creepy as Mrs. Danvers from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, is also the storyteller of this family, and it is her duty to explain to Hallie her own gift and how to use it. Naturally Iris isn't quite what she seems, but then Hallie comes to realize that several people on this Michigan island have secrets.

Halloween isn't too far off, and this is a good book to get you in that spooky mood, should you want to. It's rather tame as ghost stories go, so you don't have to worry about lots of blood or violence. The supernatural element is stronger than in Carol Goodman's books, but her fans will find something to like here as well. Make yourself a cup of something hot, curl up under a blanket, and enjoy the journey into another place.

Best Free Reference Websites

2010-10-07T17:47:00.000-04:00

The Reference and User Service Association puts out an annual list of best websites, and they just released the 2010 list. Most I have not heard of, but they do sound useful. There's fun stuff, like the Baby Name Wizard, and serious stuff, like FedSpending.org. The LIFE Photo Archive is one I want to look at. There are several government sites on the list as well as some that would be good for school reports. Take a look. You might find a new favorite.

Brush Up On Your Typing Skills

2010-10-07T17:38:00.001-04:00

I wanted to pass on this article from Mashable: 5 Free Ways to Improve Your Typing Skills Online. I've seen TypeRacer before, but these other ones look good too. Beginners as well as advanced typists should find something useful, from learning the keyboard to increasing speed to using the number pad. Check them out!

Internet Safety

2010-09-18T12:07:00.002-04:00

A post on Google's blog announcing their new Family Safety Center got me thinking about other places to go to learn how to stay safe on the Internet. Google's Center focuses on their own products, which is fine, but how can you stay safe when using other websites?

WiredSafety has gotten some awards and touts from other websites. It's hard to tell if it's still being updated as some of the posts are from 2009, but as far as I can tell the information is relevant. If you're looking for a community to join where you can chat with other people who share your concerns, WiredSafety is a good place to go.

NetSmartz.org has sections for parents, kids, and teens, with games and information that reach users on their level. It's full of fun graphics, activities, and videos.

A couple of other websites have games and quizzes that kids might enjoy. Welcome to the Web starts off with how the Internet works and moves into navigating websites, using email, watching videos, and more. The Girls Scouts have a bunch of Online Safety Topics, from recognizing cyberbullying to using social networking sites and mobile devices. The Girl Scout logo doesn't encroach on the site (although girls are featured throughout), so boys may not find the site odious. The information certainly is pertinent to all kids.

What should you do if you or your child has been contacted by an online predator? First, notify your local police. Second, if you wish, you can fill out a form on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website. Include as much information as you can.

Do you know how to recognize phishing and spam emails? Take this quiz from SonicWALL and see how you do. Basically, even companies that you do online business with will not contact you and ask for account information, so be extremely cautious about emails you get asking for personal details. (Thanks to the Swiss Army Librarian for the link.)

Some other privacy tips:

Periodically check social network settings, like Facebook. Realize that even if you have your settings set to the highest level, anyone with permission to read text or view pictures can repost your information elsewhere. Teachers, prospective employers, college admissions staff, and friends and foes alike can all potentially see anything you post anywhere on the Internet. If you wouldn't share something with the entire world, think twice before posting it.
A corollary to that first tip is to read privacy policies to find out how sites use your info. Sometimes companies you purchase merchandise from will share your email with other websites. You can usually opt out of these emails, either at the time of purchase or when you get an email. Some websites, like Facebook, may not share your information with the outside world but they do use keywords in your profile and postings to serve up related ads.
Be careful about which sites you give your credit card or bank account info to. Ones that have a physical store presence should be safe as well as large online retailers. Reputable companies use encryption to encode sensitive information, which often shows up as "https" at some point in the URL box on your browser. (The "s" stands for "secure.") These companies also might have privacy or safety statements or an anti-hacking logo. For example, look for sites with the VeriSign Identity Protection logo.

So now you know how to keep your identity safe online, but what about your computer? Read this article from the Librarian in Black about free software you should have: Security Recommendations for Computers, Wifi, and Smart Phones. Even if you want to purchase software, make sure you have three types: an anti-virus system, a firewall, and anti-spyware. If they don't update and/or run automatically, make it a point to do so manually at least once a week. And even if you have one running in the background, it's not a bad idea to do manual updates and scans if possible.

While some freeware is safe, such as the ones mentioned above, much of it may not be. Check out this TechCrunch post: Want to Stay Safe on the Web? Stop Looking for Free Stuff. Using a browser to search for freeware can lead you to unsafe sites so stick to ones that are reputable, like C-NET or Tucows. But even sites like YouTube may have unsafe ads, or people may post malicious links in the comments. If you suspect your computer has an infection, run your anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

After all this, don't be scared of using the Internet. Just as you should be aware of your surroundings when walking alone or shred sensitive mail, use common sense to safeguard your identity on the web and keep your protective software up to date on your computer. If you know how to recognize and get out of questionable situations, the Internet can be a fun, informative place.

Thanks to rob macneice for the photo.

Book Review - "Juliet" by Anne Fortier

2010-09-12T13:56:00.000-04:00

Julie's Aunt Rose dies and leaves the house to Julie's twin sister, Janice. Julie gets a note and a key and is sent off to Siena, Italy, to find a treasure left by her mother. She thinks Janice got the better end of the deal, but she is curious to find out about her family's past and so she follows her aunt's instructions.

Julie, born Giulietta, has always been fascinated by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and she wonders if this trip means she will meet her Romeo. She feels connected to events that happened six hundred years earlier; will history repeat itself?

Author Anne Fortier has re-imagined the story of Romeo and Juliet, which actually has basis in fact. They lived a couple hundred years before Shakespeare wrote his play and resided in Siena. Fortier allows their tale to unfold along with Julie's, making for spell-binding reading. There is a sense of events coming full circle. A curse uttered in the fourteenth century has to be undone in the twenty-first. It's hard to explain much of the plot without giving anything away, but suffice it to say that things--and people--aren't always what they seem.

I posted a while ago on a trio of books set in Italy in convents. Juliet would appeal to readers who liked those ones, even though the setting and circumstances are different. Juliet also has the element of the present day for those who like some suspense and some romance. Fortier has written a well-plotted, well-researched, well-written story. It's action-packed yet full of details that make you think you really are in Siena in 1340, participating in the annual horse race. Julie has clues to follow, knowing she is looking for a grave and a statue but not sure where to find them. Once you pick up this book, you won't want to put it down.

Another author that readers might like is Carol Goodman, specifically her book The Sonnet Lover. Shakespeare and Italy also figure in that story, but her books in general have classical references along with suspense. Also check out Luanne Rice's The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners, which is set on Capri and features a young girl trying to reconnect with her past.

Clicker.com

2010-08-31T20:07:00.001-04:00

Many people are now bypassing their television and the TV schedule in favor of watching their favorite shows online. But with every channel having its own website plus Hulu and Netflix, how do you know where to go? Enter Clicker.com. Search or browse, and Clicker will tell you where you can see your show as well as noting whether the website is free or not. Here's how Clicker describes themselves:

To make it fast and easy to find a show you want to watch right now, Clicker is one part directory, one part search engine, one part wiki, one part entertainment guide, and one part DVR. At the heart of it all is a massive database that looks like this:

Clicker contains more than 750,000 episodes, from over 12,000 shows, from over 2,500 networks, 30,000 movies, and 90,000 music videos from 20,000 artists.

Staying on top of what programs are available online and offline, organizing them for you, and recommending gems for you to discover is what Clicker is all about.

You can create an account and make playlists, but it's not necessary for searching and browsing. Clicker also offers similar information for movies and music.

It looks like a handy tool. Give it a try!

Free e-Books

2010-08-25T19:57:00.000-04:00

Check out these lists of websites from Hongkiat.com that let you download e-books for free:

Part I
Part II

I'm not sure any of them will have the latest best-sellers, but with all those choices you can probably find something you like just as well. You might even find some new favorites.

Thanks to Stephen's Lighthouse for the links.

Book Review - "Still Missing" by Chevy Stevens

2010-08-24T19:24:00.001-04:00

Still Missing is a disturbing book. First-time author Chevy Stevens must have had to dig deep into dark places of her psyche to create such a creepy character as the kidnapper is. Victim Annie dubs him The Freak, and he certainly puts her though a wide range of abuse: psychological, physical, sexual. It's no wonder she sleeps in the closet when she returns home. Everything he does to her is manipulative, and fighting him only makes it worse. Annie becomes so tortured she doesn't know how she'll hang on.

Annie is a thirty-something Realtor, packing up her signs at the end of a hot summer day after an open house. She's almost finished when a charming man comes by and asks her if she'd mind showing him around. As she's taking him through the house, he pulls a gun and forces her into his van. He takes her to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, where Annie is forced to rely on her wits to survive through a horrific year. She quickly finds out the abduction wasn't random. He knows too many things about her and has prepared the cabin just for her. In order to zone out and keep some sanity, Annie becomes an obsessive counter: tiles, ceiling holes, bricks, water drops, anything to take her focus off her situation.

Annie tells her story in sessions with her psychiatrist, so the reader knows she gets away. Exactly how that comes about is part of the suspense. Annie also relates what life has been like for her since her return. She deals with reporters, Hollywood agents, her former boyfriend, her narcissistic mother, and the demons in her own mind. Her story is riveting. It's like watching a car crash--you are helpless to do anything about it, but you can't bring yourself to leave the scene.

In a sense Annie's troubles only begin once she returns home. Her story of getting her life back is profoundly shattered when events take a turn into a place she never imagined they would go. Her nightmare may be over, but what brought it about is just as terrible.

So Still Missing is disturbing. Annie's year in the cabin is so well-written you won't be able to stop thinking about it even after you close the book. Her struggle to fit in after her return, her dealings with her family and friends is also realistic. What weakens the story a little for me is the part about what precipitated her kidnapping. I was enthralled and sickened by the actions of Annie's abuser--Stevens really gets into his head--and I was anxious to see how she'd deal with life back home, all of which were suspenseful enough. But then the investigation into who The Freak really was and how he got involved is settled in a slightly predictable yet convoluted way. The story was captivating before becoming something of a whodunit, and I wasn't entirely excited to follow that path.

However, I still highly recommend the book. For lovers of psychological thrillers, suspense novels, character studies, or mysteries, this will consume your days and nights. You won't be able to put it down, and once you do manage to let the cover close, you'll still be turning it over in your mind. You'll find yourself looking over your shoulder, wondering if what happened to Annie could happen to you.

What the Internet Has Done to My Brain

2010-08-22T15:09:00.001-04:00

I just finished The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. I also read his Atlantic article when it came out a couple of years ago, entitled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Both pieces resonated with me, and it's nice to know I'm not alone.

I've long noticed my inability to read an article online word for word. I find much too easy to scroll or mouse down the page and have to physically take my hand off the keyboard or mouse in order to force myself to read and not skim. I am apt to scroll all the way to the bottom if I'm searching for information for a patron because I want to make sure I haven't missed anything that will help them, but often that patron will have noticed something and is anxious for me to click on a link immediately. However, if I've found something of interest for myself, I'd rather print out a few pages than read the whole thing online. I check a national newspaper everyday, but if an article goes to a second, or heaven forbid a third, page, I probably won't click to continue reading. My attention span isn't that long, and my physical ability to absorb information online is small.

I used to think it was because I came of age before the Internet became commonplace, that I hadn't grown up doing research online and was used to books and print material, that maybe it was a matter of preference for me. But after reading Carr's article I decided it wasn't just me. It was that I had fallen prey to the ephemeral nature of the Web and had embraced its seductive ease of navigation. Now that I'm aware of this, I've found myself trying to read more deeply online and have made more of an effort to concentrate better when reading books.

I've always been a big reader. I have to have at least one book going at any given time, and I switch between fiction and nonfiction, although I'm more drawn to fiction. My tastes have changed over the years, but I still gravitate towards mysteries and suspense, though lately I find myself reading character studies or stories with true-to-life situations. I want a world where I can get lost, where I can put myself into someone else's shoes and wonder what I would do in the same place. I read for escape, though I also read to learn. If I don't get enough fiction, if I don't let my mind wander along with the characters, I get restless. I have to have that outlet to unwind.

It saddens me to hear about kids and teens who don't know how to entertain themselves. What happened to playing outside, making up games and pretending? Where are these youngsters' imaginations? As a librarian, I struggle to help students who don't know how to research. They are unwilling--and probably unable--to take notes, to use multiple sources and synthesize an answer to a complex question. They want something quick, easy, and short. Is that the fault of them, a product of their own natural laziness (which is really the laziness of most humans)? Is it the teachers' fault for not explaining the research process and demanding well-written, well-documented papers? It seems to easy to blame the Internet for these shortcomings, but maybe Nicholas Carr is onto something. Kids are used to instant gratification. Need song lyrics? Google the song title. Why memorize dates when you can look up events in Wikipedia (or even the Britannica and other online reference sources)? They can post their intimate or mundane thoughts on Facebook or Twitter and get immediate feedback from friends who are also logged on. No one has to wait for any bit of information anymore.

The Shallows doesn't offer solutions, but reading it made me re-evaluate my approach to in-depth reference questions. It's challenged me to find alternative ways of helping students with their research. I need to learn patience, I need to learn how to train them to use the sources available, whether in print or online (because the Internet as well as propriety sources are valuable tools), and I need to learn how to explain the research process.

I think every educator in all areas should read Carr's book, or at least his article, and decide how best to combat this loss of the ability to read deeply and to absorb and internalize information. We should be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet and be conscious of its effects. We need to learn how to use the Internet and our computers without sacrificing what makes us human and therefore different from the machines we've become addicted to: our ability to think.

How has the Internet changed your brain? Leave your experiences in the comments.

Book Review - "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr

2010-08-22T14:25:00.003-04:00

Nicholas Carr has written an incredible book. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains actually started out as an article in Atlantic. Indeed, most if not all of the article is in the book (so definitely read the article if you don't have the attention span to read the book), but then Carr expands on the process of how our thinking has already changed due to technological advances throughout history. He explains his own struggle with deep reading, realizing after years of heavy Internet use that he no longer was able to spend much time with a book or detailed article before being distracted. Often he was following links in an attempt for learn more, but sometimes he lost concentration. The article and then the book try to figure out why he found it so hard to read and could only skim.

Carr asserts, with citations to studies and experiments as proof, that the nature of the Web demands quick reading with the ease of scrolling instead of turning pages and the abundance of links that give us easy access to more related information. It's so easy to be connected--and as social creatures humans have a need to feel connected--with email alerts and RSS feeds and Twitter notifications that we don't want to unplug and unwind. We stimulate our brains to oversaturation in the quest for "more" and don't take the time to read deeply and study fully ideas, arguments, or even fictional stories.

Written alphabets, the printing press, and typewriters have all changed the way humans think. The Internet is no different. It's just another communication tool, and like its predecessors, it has affected how we think and how we get our ideas across. The difference this time is that we seem to have regressed in our ability to synthesize information. We don't seem to have the same ability to internalize knowledge. The medium of the Web makes it too easy to breeze through paragraphs and pick up on keywords without understanding the connection of those keywords. We're good at getting the gist of something, but we might not be able to expound on a writer's thesis and determine whether that thesis is right or wrong.

Then there are the images and sounds that intrude on our reading. Our brains use different sections to process different kinds of information, and when a person forces theirs to multitask by feeding it images, videos, text, and more all at once, its ability to digest any of it well diminishes.

Carr discusses his need to unplug from the Internet in order to write the book (because his powers of concentration had shrunk so small that he couldn't write coherently for long stretches of time), but he confesses that he has since rewired himself. He doesn't say we should chuck the Internet and computers because they are detrimental to society, but he hasn't completely embraced them as he once did either. He takes a middle ground, showing how the Internet has changed our thinking processes and warning us that we should evaluate our own usage and how our personal patterns may have changed. He leaves it up to the individual to determine whether those changes are good or bad and what each person might do about it.

Anyone who spends time online should read this book. Anyone who has children or who works with students should read this book. Anyone who finds himself unable to read deeply, whether online or in print, should read this book. Even if it takes months to finish it, the time will be well spent. It will make you think and consider your own habits. You might end up disagreeing with Nicholas Carr, but he won't mind. It'll mean you found the time and ability to read deeply and to evaluate his thesis and his evidence and to determine for yourself if he's right. It'll mean you had to think, and that's all he wants.

What has the Internet done to my brain?

E-book News

2010-07-28T19:24:00.001-04:00

Recently Amazon.com has been in the news because of its e-books. First comes the announcement that the rate at which its e-books outsells hardcovers is increasing. Of course, print in general is still king, both in numbers of sales and dollar amounts, but the Amazon Kindle is definitely helping the e-book market grow exponentially.

Second is the news that Swedish author Steig Larsson has become the first to have a million downloads on the Kindle. His Millennium Trilogy (the final installment being The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) has grabbed the imaginations of readers world-wide, though sadly he passed away before having any idea his books would become an international phenomenon.

So with Amazon doing such great sales of Kindles and e-books, you'd think electronic texts would be all the rage. That isn't necessarily the case, however. According to a Mashable poll, their readers prefer print. The results are actually pretty close:

With 41.9% of the tallies (898 votes), the printed book was the clear favorite over the e-book’s 23.24% of the ballot (498 votes). Interesting enough, a lot of you voted that you like both formats for reading your favorite novel; 34.86% of you (747 votes) said that it was a tie between the e-book and the print book.

(They have a nice little graph if you click the link above, for you visual learners.)

How would you answer Mashable's poll? What is your preferred format for reading? Does it matter if you're reading for pleasure or not (say, textbooks for class versus the latest thriller)? How about books versus magazines or newspapers? If you do read e-books, what device do you prefer (something similar to a book like a Kindle or iPad even, or your smartphone)? Please leave your answers--with reasons--in the comments.

Personally, I prefer print. I have a hard time digesting information from a screen, although I do read the news and sometimes magazine articles online. But for pleasure reading and for in-depth absorption of information, I need a paper-and-ink book. It's portable and doesn't strain my eyes; I can leave a bookmark in it, take notes in the margins, and flip ahead or back as needed; it's free at the library and I can return it when I'm finished; and if I forget it somewhere, it's only one book to replace instead of many plus the device.

Updated 7/30/10: In an interview with USA Today, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted that e-books will surpass paperbacks within a year and the combined total of paperbacks and hardbacks shortly thereafter. Read the rest of the interview.

Book Review - "The Birth of Love" by Joanna Kavenna

2010-07-26T10:44:00.000-04:00

Joanna Kavenna juggles three storylines across three periods of time, and somehow manages to make them intersect. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis is in a mental institution in nineteenth-century Vienna because he proposed the idea that doctors should wash their hands after performing autopsies and before assisting in childbirth. Brigid Hayes, in present-day London, tries to go about her normal routine of caring for her young son even as labor pains begin. Over a century in the future, on an Earth that regulates birth and has reduced familial terms to scientific ones, two people have been taken prisoner for assisting a pregnant woman and witnessing the birth.

Each story is written in a different style, and some read more easily than others. Even without the connecting threads, they would be compelling. One almost wished Kavenna had written three separate novels in order to flesh out the worlds more, although she probably would have had to use a different style in order to keep the reader's attention through a book-length story.

Childbirth is the most elemental fact of life, well, along with death. Everyone is born and everyone dies, and everyone is touched by birth, including infertile couples, who struggle with the knowledge that they can't participate in that elemental fact of life. In Kavenna's book, some of the characters are not mothers, yet they are impacted by childbirth all the same. Kavenna also explores the relationship between mothers and children, more specifically sons. Pick up this book if you like literary novels or books that take risks stylistically. Feel free to skim--or even skip altogether--the sections that don't pique your interest, but realize you may be missing a fresh take on the subject of birth and motherhood.

Finding Electronics Reviews

2010-07-21T20:35:00.001-04:00

You're in the market for a new piece of equipment of some kind. You probably have a budget, you may know some brands you're interested in and possibly even some specs, but how do you know you're getting the best deal? Try some of these websites for up-to-date reviews.

Consumer Reports is the standard when it comes to testing, reporting, and evaluating. You can see articles on what to look for when buying and some suggestions of good brands, but if you want the famous CR ratings and in-depth reviews, you'll have to become a subscriber.

So where else can you go for free?

Wired magazine is known for picking out cutting-edge gadgets and quirky tools, but their website also has reviews of everyday electronics. Click "Reviews" (kind of in the center of the page), then browse for what you want. You can narrow by price or manufacturer or possibly by other features depending on the product. Reviews are basic, but pros and cons are spelled out at the end.

PCMag brings its print information to the web. Click the "Reviews" tab and browse for your electronic item. You can narrow or sort by price, or sort by rating or date. Compare products to see which one suits your needs the best. You can also keep up with technology news and read shopping guides. Reviews here are more in-depth than at Wired, and the pros and cons are listed first. You might even be able to buy your product from sellers listed in the review.

CNET is probably the biggest and best known review website. Click the "Reviews" tab, then browse by category. You can also catch up with tech news and find all sorts of useful software downloads. The neat thing about CNET is its compare feature. Instead of checking off items, as you click to view products, that list you end up generating is saved for you--look for the "Recently Viewed Items" button at the bottom of the screen.

Each website is similar in its bottom line of offering tech reviews, buying guides, and news, but the presentation differs. Check out a couple the next time you're in the market for a gadget and see which site you like best.

Book Review - "The Rebellion of Jane Clarke" by Sally Gunning

2010-07-17T12:28:00.001-04:00

It's 1769, and twenty-two-year-old Jane Clarke isn't sure what she wants. She knows she's not interested in Joseph Woollen. Her father wants her to marry Phinnie Paine, who will also take over her father's mill, but when attempting to engage Phinnie in a discussion over events in Boston and getting only noncommittal replies, Jane isn't sure she wants Phinnie either. She does enjoy nursing, so when her father gets angry because she's spurned his chosen one and sends her to tend to Aunt Gill in Boston, Jane decides to make the most of the opportunity.

She journeys by boat from her home in Cape Cod to the town of Boston, which is fast becoming the center of tension between the King's soldiers and many of the colonists who are starting to think of themselves as Americans and not as Englishmen. Aunt Gill's household includes Martha and Prince, who seem like they have something to hide, but Jane does her best to protect her aunt from whatever schemes they're concocting. She also meets Henry Knox at the bookshop where Aunt Gill gets her writing paper. A deep friendship blossoms, and Jane begins observing relationships and marriages and tries to figure out what she would like for herself.

Jane is thrust into the swirl of public opinion when she unwittingly becomes an observer of the set-to soon known as the Boston Massacre. What she witnessed is not exactly like the rumors going around town, and she is pressed to give testimony. She does so in court, and in the process she comes into herself as an adult with a mind of her own and not as a child still under her father's thumb.

Lovers of historical fiction will find much here to enjoy. The reader is immersed in life in Colonial America, with all the mud and slop and hard kitchen work, but also with the ideas of freedom and self-rule taking hold. Marriage is a running theme, from Jane's father and stepmother to patriot James Otis and his loyal wife to Jane's grandparents, Lyddie and Eben Freeman. The definition of home also pops up, with the patriots turning their backs on a land they have never seen and with Jane needing to find her place in the world.

Jane herself comes across as something of an indecisive wimp, but then she is also a woman a little ahead of her time. She is definitely of marrying age, but she wants more than just a marriage of convenience. She wants a man who loves her and who will engage her as a person with a mind of her own. She wants independence and a useful occupation, so at least she does have her nursing. She feels pulled in different directions by the men in her life, such as her patriot brother, but in the end she does what is right for her.

Pick up this book if you like historical fiction or if you like your female characters empowered but not overpowering.

MapQuest

2010-07-07T20:09:00.001-04:00

Mashable recently blogged about the new and improved MapQuest. They include screenshots if you want to take a quick look. If you want to try it out for yourself, head over to the new MapQuest Maps.

I used to use MapQuest all the time, but at some point it became easier to use Google Maps, probably because I was using Google for searching anyway. The new MapQuest looks a lot like Google Maps with a few tweaks. You type your address into the box on the left, then the map on the right shows you where you're going. You can see a satellite view or a 360-degree view (if it's available for that area). You can email the map or post it to Facebook or Twitter.

One neat thing is the menu of options at the top of the map. Choose from icons such as hotels, parking garages, dry cleaners, ATMs, shopping centers, and lots more. Each one you select then becomes a tab above the searching area for easy management.

Give it a try!

Reading on a Screen versus in Print

2010-07-05T16:45:00.000-04:00

I saw this Mashable post recently: Kindle and iPad Books Take Longer to Read than Print [STUDY]. Jakob Nielson conducted a study that found reading speed decreases for electronic devices when compared to print. That is, it takes longer to read something on a device - in this case, either a Kindle or and iPad - than it does a book, anywhere from 6 to 10 percent longer. However, user satisfaction with those devices when compared to a book is about the same.

Personally, I have a harder time reading on a screen, which is one reason why I'm not anxious to get an e-reader. But maybe that's just my age and the time I grew up in, or maybe it's my fondness for physical pages. What about you? Do you have a preference of one format over another? Please feel free to explain in the comments.

Mobile Websites

2010-06-29T19:09:00.000-04:00

From Mashable: 6 Brilliantly Designed Mobile Sites.

Some of the best websites also put a lot of effort into their mobile sites. Which ones do you like on your mobile device? Leave a comment and share.

Book Review - "The Language of Secrets" by Dianne Dixon

2010-06-28T11:15:00.000-04:00

Dianne Dixon has written an admirable first novel about love and how it sustains us even through the worst times in life. Love takes many forms: between husband and wife, between college friends and lasting a lifetime, from mother to son, from father to daughter. Love can also be destructive, especially when secrets are necessary, either shared or unshared.

Justin has arrived back in the United States after some years away, and his wife wants their baby son to know his grandparents. Justin has always been evasive when talking about his family, but at the urging of Amy he takes them to the house where he was born. A stranger answers the door and ends up sending him on a journey to find not only his parents but his sisters too...and ultimately himself.

The Language of Secrets is told in sections, many from Justin's point of view but also from that of his parents, especially his other Caroline. We jump back in time and see Caroline as a young mother devoted to her husband but also still carrying torches for her two college friends, Mitch and Barton. Caroline's husband Robert is deeply in love with her, but one mistake leads to crime, and the secrets between Caroline and Robert fester and nearly explode the longer they stay silent.

Meanwhile, Justin struggles with holes in his memory while Amy struggles to please her overbearing father. She is caught between wanting to be the wife Justin needs her to be and wanting her dad to be the protector he always was. The two men do not get along, and Amy must choose one over the other in order to keep her sanity.

Justin's story starts and ends in California with stops in New England and London along the way. No life is unaffected through the thirty-plus years during which this novel unfolds, although all the characters may not realize just how much they have changed. There is a game-changing twist right at the end, shedding new light on all that came before.

This isn't exactly a suspense story, but it's also deeper than just a family saga. It's a page-turner with insights into relationships that make it a satisfying read.

Five Historical Fiction Books About Nineteenth-Century Authors

2010-06-24T22:10:00.002-04:00

Novelists Louisa May Alcott, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, and Charles Dickens all created vivid, beloved worlds. Their stories have lasted up until today, the twenty-first century, and will probably continue for another hundred years. Poets Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning let us into their deepest thoughts with their timeless art. What might their lives have been like? Where did their talent come from? The following books speculate about these famous authors.

Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold

This book isn't completely about Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine, though they were the inspiration. Author Arnold changed their names but kept many of the circumstances the same. Charles married above himself and fathered lots of children with his wife, but what do we know about Catherine's side of the story? Why was their marriage troubled and unhappy? To get a feel for what might have gone on between Charles and Catherine, peer inside the similar relationship between Alfred and Dorothea as imagined by Gaynor Arnold.

The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn

Charyn is a prolific author, well-versed in the few facts and poetry of one of America's first female poets. He writes from Emily's point of view, mimicking her voice and sometimes her odd spelling. His narrative doesn't flow continuously; rather, he creates vignettes highlighting certain events in Emily's life. None of her poetry appears in the book, which is a shame, but it is mentioned several times. The reader can still see how Emily's upbringing and experiences shaped her poetry, and for a hermit-like spinster, she sure does fall in love a lot. It might be handy to have a book of her poetry at hand to dip into while reading Charyn's book.

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees

Louisa May Alcott was quite the woman. A spinster doted on by her father, she wrote many novels and stories, some under assumed names (and some which have only recently been attributed to her). She also traveled and worked as a nurse during the Civil War. McNees imagines a period in Alcott's life that isn't well-documented, when Louisa, as a young woman, moves with her family from Boston to a small town in New Hampshire. Louisa falls in love but refuses to admit it because she can't reconcile marriage with the independent life she wishes to lead. This book may be a beach read and not for serious study, especially since it's speculative, but it does capture the spirit of life in pre-war America.

Charlotte and Emily: A Novel of the Brontes by Jude Morgan

Two sisters in a family of six are the focus of this book. Their brother Branwell also shares the spotlight, with Anne and two older sisters making appearances. None of the siblings lived past 40, but they did write a handful of novels among them. They all lived secluded lives under the influence of their minister father in Victorian England. Why did they choose to remain separated from the world, and how could they have such fertile imaginations for people with such limited experiences? Morgan addresses these questions while deftly portraying the culture in which her subjects lived.

How Do I Love Thee? by Nancy Moser

Moser recreates the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from her invalid days to her marriage to and subsequent life with Robert Browning. Though she is often too sickly to venture outside her father's house, Elizabeth reaches out with letters to learned men of her day in Victorian England. She corresponds with a number of intellectuals and publishes some poems. Robert Browning was a fan of her work and wrote a letter telling her so. A mutual acquaintance arranged for them to meet and thereby set in motion one of the great love stories, a true love story that also makes for a good novel.

As a bonus, if you Bronte fans just can't get enough of Emily and Charlotte, pick up these two titles for even more speculation on your favorite authors:

Romancing Miss Bronte by Juliet Gael

Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne published novels under assumed names, pretending to be the brothers Bell. Charlotte's Jane Eyre becomes popular, and when she faces a marriage proposal, she must decide whether to embrace the kind of love she wrote about in her novel or to continue living in isolation, taking care of her family. Some of Charlotte's letters are included in this book, which sticks to facts and is almost biographical.

Emily's Ghost by Denise Giardina

Emily was the youngest of the Bronte sisters and the author of Wuthering Heights. In this novel, Giardina imagines a scenario in which Emily, Charlotte, and Anne fall in love with the same man. Which one, if any, will prevail? Though the set-up is fiction, the feel of Victorian England and other details of the girls' lives are historical.

photo from Flickr

US Politics on Facebook

2010-06-08T20:14:00.001-04:00

Facebook users can now keep abreast of what US politicians are doing. The page is open to the public, but in order to leave questions and comments on the wall, you have to sign in. It's a neat way to engage with fellow citizens and to see what the politicians are up to. Click the Info tab for more government-related Facebook pages.

Handmade Goods Online

2010-05-31T12:08:00.001-04:00

You might have heard of Etsy, the website that connects buyers and sellers of handmade items. Mashable recently had a post on 10 Great Sites to Buy Handmade Goods. They do include Etsy, but I thought I'd share a sample of the others.

Some of the websites mentioned on Mashable are outside the US, so take a look at shipping policies before buying. There are some really neat items available, so happy browsing!

Book Review - "The Solitude of Prime Numbers" by Paolo Giordano

2010-05-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

Tragedy early in life scars Alice and Mattia forever. Their families never address the issues, preferring to sidestep and ignore, and eventually it seems as if everyone has forgotten the reasons behind those tragedies and simply plays the roles they have created for themselves. Alice, crippled in a skiing accident, becomes anorexic, and Mattia, who may or may not be slightly autistic to start with, loses his twin sister and becomes a cutter. In high school these two social outcasts are literally thrust together by the lead mean girl. Both are loners, prime numbers in Mattia's mathematically inclined mind, and they recognize that quality in each other. However close their friendship might or might not be, they can never quite seem to tear down the walls they have built around themselves--or can they?

The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a debut effort by Paolo Giordano, a young Italian physicist, and has been translated into several languages. Even though the reader can assume a lot of the vocabulary and style are the work of the translator, one must also imagine the high quality of the original text. The story may be set in another country and the characters wear slightly unfamiliar names, but the truths of teen angst, loneliness, and disfunctional families are universal. This slim book is quick and easy to read, yet in order to fully appreciate the talent of its author, the reader should instead proceed slowly, digesting each section, maybe even putting the book down for a while in order to let the story percolate in the brain.

This novel not exactly a beach read, although one could certainly finish it during a week's vacation. It requires more engagement by the reader. It's a little depressing and may hit very close to home for a lot of people, but the end does have a glimmer of hope. Alice takes up photography, and Mattia moves away to teach at a university and to work on his math research. They lose contact for a few years, but one unexpected meeting shows them how far they have come in life and how far they can still go. Prime numbers may be unique and alone, but as Mattia discovers, they also often occur in near pairs, and the two primes of Alice and Mattia learn how to, if not embrace their uniqueness, then to accept it. We all can learn from their painful experiences. Pick up this book and prepare to be challenged.

More Online Education Sites

2010-05-26T19:40:00.000-04:00

I've been compiling a few more websites to check out that offer online classes or lectures. Some of them require registration, but as far as I can tell they are all free, or at least have free components.

Open Culture
iTunes U (scroll down to see the list of subjects)
Udemy - Academy of You (in beta, but it looks like they offer quite a bit)
Grockit - Test Prep (for students studying for SATs, ACTs, etc.)

Ten Civil War Books: Fiction and Nonfiction

2010-05-24T21:03:00.000-04:00

Whether you're a huge Civil War buff or you just like a well-written book to sink your teeth into, give these ten books a try.

FICTION

Look Away and Until the End by Harold Coyle

These two books are about brothers, James and Kevin Bannon from New Jersey. They end up fighting on opposite sides of the war and cross paths at the Battle of Gettysburg. These two books illustrate the life of a soldier and the various reasons why individuals might enter into bloody conflict.

CSA--Confederate States of America by Howard Means

What if the South had won the Civil War? What would the mid-twentieth century look like? In this alternate history, there isn't really a "North" left, the nation's capital is Richmond, Virginia, and the two houses of Congress are completely segregated with one being all white and one being all black. How can the white president and his black vice president keep the country intact yet racially divided, and prevent it from exploding into violence again? There are some interesting things to think about here.

Manassas by James Reasoner

Reasoner has written a ten-book series, of which this is the first. The five Brannon brothers and their sister Cordelia find themselves in the midst of a war they may or may not believe in. They are from Virginia, but they don't necessarily all want to defend the institution of slavery, they simply want to protect their home. From the beginning in Manassas to the end at Appomattox, this series spans the entire war.

Freedom by William Safire

He doesn't cover the entire Civil War, only the first two years or so, stopping at what he sees as a turning point. The neat thing about this book is Safire's ability to write from so many different viewpoints. From Ulysses S. Grant and George McClellan to Edwin Stanton and Salmon P. Chase, from John Breckenridge to an unnamed Negro, all angles are covered here. Interspersed among the chapters are entries from the diary of John Hay, one of Lincoln's secretaries. This book is dense but worth the effort.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The bulk of the action takes place over only three days, but more detail is packed into these pages than in most books covering longer time periods. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3, 1863, and Shaara takes his reader right into the planning and the fighting. The major players are all here, but the central figure may be Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, whose Maine regiment helped hold the line and turn the tide toward a Union victory.

NONFICTION

The Coming Fury, Terrible Swift Sword, and Never Call Retreat by Bruce Catton

Catton wrote this trilogy for the centennial anniversary of the start of the Civil War. It's a classic work, written in readable narrative form.

Brady's Civil War by Webb Garrison

Mathew Brady was a photographer who captured thousands of images of the war. This book includes many iconic pictures, accompanied by short explanatory entries.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lincoln appointed several men to his Cabinet who had been rivals in his race for the presidency. Goodwin explains how he managed to convince these men to join him--and each other--in leading the country through its most troubling time.

The Approaching Fury and The Whirlwind of War by Stephen B. Oates

The first book explains the national climate in the decades before the Civil War, and the second book concentrates on the war itself. Both are subtitled Voices of the Storm, and Oates certainly lets his characters speak. He uses the first-person viewpoint, taking actual words from speeches and letters to allow each person to explain events. It is a unique device but one that works. The reader really gets a feel for the personalities behind the actions.

With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen B. Oates

Oates is a prolific historian, and with this book he turns his attention to Lincoln. There is a little bit here on Lincoln's early life, but quickly it turns to his political life. His election to the presidency occurs almost halfway through the book, when his four-plus years in office and his actions during the Civil War become the focus. This is a detailed account of Lincoln's life in Washington, but it's fairly easy to read.

photo courtesy of Flickr

US Congressional Proceedings

2010-05-19T20:32:00.002-04:00

To find out what Congress is up to or had been up to in the past, you'll want to look at the Congressional Record. Since 1873, the US has kept a daily transcript of Congressional sessions, and you can access recent records from two places: the Government Printing Office (GPO) and THOMAS from the Library of Congress.

THOMAS goes back a little farther than the GPO (1989 versus 1994), but every report may not be accessible within those timeframes. The GPO is a bit easier to browse, but both allow searching. Both sites also advocate finding a federal depository library, which you will need if you want an older Congressional Record issue. Once you find a depository library near you, you'll have to contact it to see what records they have.

Neither website is particular difficult to use, but spend some time reading the "About" sections and any "Help" sections. It may take some hunting to find what you are looking for, but a little persistence should pay off.

Another website useful for keeping tabs on the current session of Congress is OpenCongress. You can create an account, but you can also gets lots of information without doing so. Keep track of bills and issues on the floors of the House and the Senate, find out who your representatives are and what the committees are doing, and see who gets money from where. OpenCongress makes wide use of social networking services, so do sign up for those if you want to stay up to the minute on your government in action.

Book Review - "Deliver Us From Evil" by David Baldacci

2010-05-12T19:17:00.000-04:00

Mysterious Shaw is back. Is he a hitman? a covert operator? Does he work for the government, either officially or unofficially? Who knows, but David Baldacci spins a second tale around this guy and adds a female counterpart, a young Brit named Reggie. Both are after the same man but for different reasons. Shaw knows him as Evan Waller, a ruthless businessman who traffics young women and who recently has gotten into the nuclear arms game. Reggie knows him as Fedir Kuchin, a former KGB member who carried out thousands of horrible deaths. Reggie's mission is to kill him; Shaw only wants to capture him and make him spill the beans on the terrorists who want the weapons he can supply. Waller/Kuchin is planning a vacation to Provence, where Shaw and Reggie intend to pounce. Who will get to him first?

None of Baldacci's books can be described as deep, but they usually involve a plot-heavy, twisty tale, good for a wild adventure. This one is no exception, although the ride screeches to a near-halt about halfway through. There's a lot of buildup to Reggie's planned execution of her quarry and Baldacci spells out details of Shaw's orders, but things go terribly wrong. The rest of the book is about Shaw and Reggie sizing each other up and deciding whether they can trust one another in order to hunt down Waller/Kuchin together. Shaw also agonizes over his feelings for his dead lover Anna and for Katie James, who was in the previous book and who makes an appearance here, and he doesn't seem like his usual kick-ass self. Reggie goes from being a confident Nazi hunter to an insecure hitman (hitwoman?), and the result of all this angst leads to a weak second half of the book.

This isn't a bad book by any means. It's still good for a plane ride or a week at the beach. It reads like Baldacci was trying to stretch himself, to add a twist that no one would ever expect. The problem is, suspense fiction generally has a huge climax right near the end of the book, which keeps the reader turning pages like mad to find out what happens and how the good guys take down the bad guys. The climax of this book is in the middle, leaving a lot of pages left without the same level of buildup. Reggie has an interesting back story and Shaw has unresolved feelings for a former flame, so those side details will keep you going if you're into them. There's also a graphic torture scene, which may or may not turn you off depending on your comfort level with violence (but don't let that stop you from picking up the book; just skip those pages and get back to the story). If you're a big Baldacci fan and read all of his books, then you'll probably like this one. However, don't feel bad if you decide to forgo it.

Science Websites

2010-05-11T19:33:00.000-04:00

Mashable had a recent post on 6 Free Websites for Learning and Teaching Science that was interesting. I thought I'd pass on their suggestions.

I might have to remember these for myself.

Finding Doctors Online

2010-05-09T14:58:00.001-04:00

Recently Wired.com published an article on a new service that lets you check out your doctor online. That new service is Doctor Finder from Insider Pages. Nearly 1 million doctors and dentists are included. The information comes from HealthGrades, which itself can be a good source for finding a doctor. Indeed, if you want more information on any doctor or dentist, Doctor Finder takes you to HealthGrades, where you can purchase a report. Doctor Finder also allows for comments, which can be helpful in deciding on a new doctor.

You can specify as much or as little information as you like in your search, including specialty or insurance accepted. Results seem to be sorted by number of stars (out of five) and number of reviews. There doesn't seem to be a way to input a name, so if you're looking for someone in particular, you'll have to do the basic search and scroll through the results.

Another source for looking up doctors is the DoctorFinder from the American Medical Association. (Type the two words offered, click the graphic for patients, then click the DoctorFinder link. You can begin your search after accepting the Terms and Conditions.)

The AMA's DoctorFinder lets you put in a name or search by specialty (dentists are not included). Even if your doctor isn't an AMA member, you can still see their information. There is no additional information offered aside from the basics, so if you need something more comprehensive, either choose Insider Pages' Doctor Finder and follow the links to HealthGrades, or just go to HealthGrades in the first place and purchase a report.

Another source for finding doctors and dentists is your insurance company's website, where at least you know those physicians listed will accept your insurance. But for patient reviews or to check on AMA membership, choose one of the doctor finder resources.

Changes to Google Search

2010-05-09T14:29:00.002-04:00

You may have seen some changes to the results screen when you do a Google search. See this blog post from Google explaining why they made those changes. You probably have seen the links on the top of the screen for things like images, maps, news, and more. Now, when you do a search, those same options appear but on the left side of the screen. It's similar to a Bing search with related searches and more information appearing on the left. Try out those left-side links. What do you think?

Book Review - "This Body of Death" by Elizabeth George

2010-05-04T16:02:00.000-04:00

Inspector Lynley is back in this latest installment by Elizabeth George. The question is, is he back for good? The department is still without a superintendent, so Isabelle Ardery has been brought in as a possible candidate. Immediately she has to deal with a murder case. Recognizing that she could use someone to show her the ropes and help her establish trust among her subordinates, she pays a visit to DI Lynley, who agrees to come back to work.

A woman has been stabbed to death in a London cemetery. Who is she, and why would someone want to kill her? What's the connection to the New Forest in Hampshire, where Gordon Jossie is a thatcher and where ponies roam free on the common land? And how does the other story fit in, the one interspersed with the present-day action and typed up as if from a psychologist's report?

DS Barbara Havers and DS Winston Nkata are on the case in Hampshire while Lynley works with Isabelle in London. Barbara comes across potentially valuable information but can't follow up because Ardery has called them back. It's only one mistake Ardery makes. In fact, she mishandles the investigation in myriad ways, putting her career in jeopardy. She desperately wants the job and Lynley recognizes that she was thrown into it feet first with this huge case, but she may have gone too far. Tensions run high in the incident room, and the wrong man gets accused of murder.

Fan favorites Simon St. James and his wife Deborah make appearances in this book, as do Barbara's neighbors Taymullah Azhar and his daughter Hadiyyah. It's these characters and their history with the principal players who really make Elizabeth George's mysteries come alive. Havers and Lynley seem like real people, with lives outside of work and friendships and histories that span decades. This Body of Death is one of George's best as she shows Lynley still dealing with wife Helen's death, and as she introduces Isabelle Ardery and her story, and as she lets the mystery and investigation unfold. New readers may be a little lost and might want to go back and read at least a couple of the first books in the series to get somewhat caught up with the background story, but readers who have followed Lynley and Havers from the beginning will not be disappointed. Definitely get your hands on this book if you like Elizabeth George.

Citation Generators

2010-05-02T16:45:00.002-04:00

For creating citations in various formats (MLA, APA, and Turabian/Chicago being the big ones), try these online generators:

Son of Citation Machine - On the left click the format you'll need, then the type of source. Online sources are included. You can also type in the ISBN and choose either MLA or APA, and the website will find the pertinent information and generate a citation you can copy and paste.

EasyBib - This site has an option for subscribing, but you can get basic citations for free. You have more source options than Son of Citation, and it tells you right on the bottom of the screen which editions of each format it supports.

BibMe - Says it's faster than EasyBib. That may or not be the case, but it does say it's free. You can either have the site search for your pertinent information or you can input it yourself. If you sign up, it will generate and save your bibliography for you.

EasyBib seems to have the most types of sources included. Son of Citation Machine is the least pretty, but it's still functional. It's really a matter of choice. You can also Google citation generator to find more websites. You might also Google your particular format to double-check that your bibliography and foot-/endnotes look correct.

Book Review - "Spellwright" by Blake Charlton

2010-04-26T15:59:00.000-04:00

Spellwright is a new entry in the fantasy genre. In this world, spells are literally written and cast. There are a number of languages, and each has letters (or runes), grammar, and syntax. The main character, Nicodemus Weal, is a cacographer, meaning he has a tendency toward misspelling. He also has an unusual scar on the back of his neck, which may or may not mean he's the Halcyon of prophecy. But if he can't spell, how can he be this chosen one?

Nicodemus has friends with him, and he discovers some enemies who want to kill him. His teacher is an elderly wizard named Agwu Shannon, and his roommates are Simple John and Devin, also cacographers. He also meets a druid named Deirdre, who has a dark secret, and Amadi Okeke, a former student of Shannon's. Right from the beginning of the story is a strange creature clothed in white, who seems to be hunting Nicodemus. And what's going on with the terrifying nightmares he suddenly has? Soon, he finds out about an emerald that may be able to heal him of his disability, and he determines to find it. But will the creature in white stop him first?

At first I had a hard time envisioning physical strings of text being written and thrown into the air, but soon I was engaged in the world Blake Charlton has created, and his descriptions made it easier for me to visualize this phenomenon. It's an ingenious twist on magic, stemming from the author's own childhood struggle with dyslexia. Literally spelling magic spells also has a broader meaning, that words and language are powerful, and just because Nicodemus has a disability that will prevent him from becoming a strong wizard doesn't mean he is broken or incomplete. He spends the book coming to terms with the way he views himself, and what he finds along the way means he may have to change his outlook.

Charlton doles out history and other information through conversations, not blocks of explication. Some mythological events seem familiar, like the Apocalypse or Crusades, but only as much as one cultural myth resembles another. He definitely has created a world with its own rules, geography, and creatures and people-groups. Teen readers, especially those with some kind of learning disability, should enjoy this story. Adults too will find much to like. Anyone who feels inadequate in some way or who struggles with their limitations--and who among us hasn't?--will identify with Nicodemus. This book has an ending, but it is a rather bleak one. However, there are still plenty of loose ends to be tied, so take heart that there is another delightful tale on the way.

Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation

2010-04-25T20:12:00.000-04:00

Mashable had a useful article on How To Prevent and Report Online Stalking. In a nutshell, know that anything you post online could possibly be made public; use security and privacy settings where possible; and know how to report stalking. Don't try to fight back directly, but use proper, authoritative channels.

Also check out the link at the bottom, 3 Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation. Basically, be smart about what you post online but realize that not everyone in your social circle may have the same level of privacy settings on their own profiles. If anything embarrassing does become public, you probably won't be able to get it deleted, but you can continue to practice secure posting so that eventually the good aspects of your reputation will outrank the bad. Finally, be careful about companies that claim to monitor your online reputation.

Library of Congress to Archive Twitter Posts

2010-04-21T21:35:00.001-04:00

The Library of Congress announced this week that they are planning to archive all public tweets posted to Twitter. I can understand the desire to capture a slice of life during the early twenty-first century - future researchers will love the chance to see how we all communicated with each other and what we talked about. However, the sheer scope of the project blows my mind. If there aren't billions of tweets yet, there will be soon. I don't know how exactly the tweets will be archived - Twitter is donating their collection, but what happens if Twitter ever disappears? What happens to deleted tweets? Will they be preserved, or will they end up deleted from the archive? What will the archives look like? How will you search it? The Internet is such an ephemeral phenomenon; any blog, tweet, social networking post, website, photo, news article, etc. can be deleted at any time. Future researchers looking into common life and communication methods might find a big hole from the year 2000 on. Still, it's fascinating to think that some part of the Internet will be preserved.

If you want to read more about the Library of Congress project, check out these websites:

Twitter Donates Entire Tweet Archive to Library of Congress - the Library of Congress announcement
Library of Congress Plan for Twitter: A Big, Permanent Retweet - an overview of the project from the Washington Post
Tweets: What We Might Learn From Mundane Details - the National Archivist explains why this project is a good idea and why the Library of Congress is the right place for preserving tweets

The Library of Congress is at twitter.com/librarycongress if you want to follow them.

Cool Use of Foursquare

2010-04-14T21:09:00.001-04:00

From the Mashable blog:

When users check in [to Foursquare] around various U.S. cities, they can find historical tidbits about their location and unlock the limited edition History Channel badge. “For example,” reads a release from the History Channel, “users in New York who check in to St. Paul’s Chapel will discover George Washington worshipped there on his Inauguration in 1789, and users in Los Angeles who check in at the Cinerama Dome will find out it opened in 1963 with the premiere of ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ and that it’s the world’s only concrete geodesic dome.”

I'm not sure I quite see the point of Foursquare, the smartphone app that lets you "check in" when you arrive at a location; however, this History Channel offering sounds neat. It's educational, so it appeals to the librarian and the history buff in me.

Star Charts

2010-04-12T11:06:00.002-04:00

A blog post from TechCrunch about the Worldwide Telescope got me thinking of other websites where you can find star charts.

Weather Underground is one place: Put in your location (or the location where you'll be when you want to use the chart), then scroll down to the Astronomy section. Click to view the star chart. On the next screen you can select items to view and also change the date to the night you'll need the chart.

Sky and Telescope has an interactive chart. You have to register (it's free). They also have a chart for your mobile phone.

Astronomy.com has an interactive StarDome (the link is at the top right of the homepage). It's Java-based and took a few minutes to load on Firefox, but it does seem to work in Firefox and Internet Explorer. Use the options to the right to specify location, time, etc. I don't see a way to print the map, however.

It is possible to Google "star chart" and get more websites. These are the ones that look easy to use and that are authoritative. Other favorites? Leave them in the comments.

Feature in Google Search

2010-04-10T14:37:00.004-04:00

From the Google Blog (scroll down for this part):

Help for those who need it

A few months ago, we introduced a search feature that displays the toll-free U.S. poison control number when you search for related information. This got us thinking about other ways we can help people get clear information from Google search in times of crisis or distress. So we recently launched a feature that displays the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at the top of the results page for certain search queries in the U.S. We hope this quick access to information helps people in emotional distress who may benefit from calling a suicide prevention hotline.

Anyone seen this? It sounds like a good idea if it works well.

Book Review - "The Yellow House" by Patricia Falvey

2010-04-05T16:20:00.001-04:00

The Yellow House is Patricia Falvey's first novel, and it's a keeper. It relates a period of time that may not be familiar to American audiences, but the events from that time still have repercussions today. The Yellow House is a love story, but it goes much deeper than a romance novel. Besides passionate love, Falvey also writes of patriotic love and familial love.

Eileen O'Neill is headstrong and independent. She grows up in the early decades of the twentieth century when Ireland is struggling for independence from England, and she is living in the worst of it, in the province of Ulster, which is soon to become Northern Ireland. She is Catholic in an area dominated by Protestants, and she experiences the discrimination against her religion by those in the majority. Horrific events cause her to lose a good part of her family as well as her beloved Yellow House, and she vows to one day return and live in her childhood home with her family restored to her. Anger and rage fuel her actions and keep her dream alive, even when it seems like she should give up that fantasy.

Eileen falls in love with two men: James, who becomes a freedom fighter, blinded to everything except an independent Ireland; and Owen, a Quaker whose family owns the mill where Eileen works. She marries one and has a child by both, but only one of those men really and truly understands her better than she understands herself. She joins the struggle for Home Rule out of revenge, but she eventually learns that that way may not lead to personal healing.

The historical events are not just the backdrop against which the story is set. They are the story. There is a note at the back of the book, which perhaps you should turn to first if you're not familiar with Irish history. There may be some minor spoilers, however. It's not necessary to have the background information, as Falvey does a good job of interweaving those details of real life with her characters' lives. I admit I had a hard time keeping the sides straight at first, but I decided not to worry about it. Soon enough the story hold and I was able to remember who was on which side. I did wish that she had provided a map. Even though I knew a bit about Ireland and that Ulster is in the north, I still would have liked to know where cities and towns are in relation to each other.

If you're interested in the Easter Uprising and the War of Independence, here are a few other books you might enjoy:

1916 and 1921 by Morgan Llywelyn

A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry

A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle

Trinity by Leon Uris

Travel

2010-04-01T17:54:00.000-04:00

I was going to do a post on online travel sites, mostly aggregators like Expedia or farewatchers like Kayak. Then I saw an article on washingtonpost.com, listing over 50 websites. It was written in 2008 so it's not brand new, but as far as I can tell the sites are still active. Besides the usual booking and guidebook sites, the article also covers tools such as currency conversion and wifi hotspots. Of course there are other websites out there, but these ones will get you started.

Any travel tips to add? Feel free to leave them in the comments. I'll put my own out there:

Even if you use Expedia or something similar, I like to double-check with the airline itself to make sure the flights listed are really at the price given. I prefer to book with each airline/hotel/car rental company instead of through an aggregator for peace of mind in case anything goes wrong (it can be difficult to get a refund if you've used a second party), but perhaps things have improved over the years.
HomeAway is another place to look for vacation rentals.
To track flights online, you can try the individual airport's website, or you can search Google for "flight tracker." There are several out there, including FlightStats and FlightView.

Demographic Information

2010-03-17T21:17:00.003-04:00

This year is a census year in the US. The census happens every ten years and is a massive undertaking by the federal government to count all its residents. The information is used in a number of ways, including determining how funds are distributed and whether the number of representatives in the House needs to be adjusted because of population losses or gains. Names and personal information are not released until something like 70 years have passed (for example, the 1940 census raw data won't be made public until 2012), but how can you get to the aggregate data? Check out census.gov.

There are tons of pages of information available. You can find statistics on all kinds of topics all the way down to the local town level. It's almost overwhelming, but scan the links in the center of the screen first. If you're looking for basic information, it might be listed there. If that doesn't work, you may want to try a search (the box is in the upper right). Also, take a look at the "Subjects A to Z" link in the upper right. That might help if you're not quite sure what to search for.

If you want data for the years since the last census, check out American FactFinder in the menu on the left. Not every year is represented, but at least the information is more recent than the previous census.

To get local statistics, use the Population Finder on the right side of the homepage. Also check the QuickFacts, also on the right. Area profiles include states, counties, and towns of at least 25,000 people. To find a smaller town, select the state the look in the "city" menu. The last option is "Other places not listed," and you might be able to find your town by searching that way.

What if you need data from other years? Take a look at the Statistical Abstract of the United States. The information is housed on the Census website, but the information is gathered through means other than the census questionnaire and is released yearly. Generally you can't get down to town level, just counties or cities. Click the "Earlier Editions" tab to get the Stats Abstract back to 1878. Other historical data is available back 1789. Also check the links on the left to get to specific sections of the current edition. Other similar resources, such as the "County and City Data Book," are listed on the right of the main Stats Abstract page. Your local library may have some of these books in its reference collection, but the information is also all on the Internet. Feel free to ask your local librarian if you need assistance with the books or the website.

There's another place to find some basic demographic information: ePodunk. Type your town into the search box on the right. You should get a long page with a list of sections on the left. Under each section are links specific to your location. You can find everything from population to cemeteries to real estate to local events. This might be a great starting place if you're moving and are curious about your new town, or if you need genealogical resources.

Book Review - "Not My Daughter" by Barbara Delinsky

2010-03-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

At first glance this book is about mothers and daughters and what happens when a daughter does something the mother might not like. How do those unpopular decisions reflect on the mom, and is it fair to hold the mother responsible? But this book also goes deeper than that to address issues such as friendship, motherhood, pact behavior, teen pregnancy, mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, marriage, standing up for yourself, and loyalty.

Three high school seniors, Lily, Mary Kate, and Jessica, decide to get pregnant after working one summer as mothers' helpers. They have different reasons for wanting babies--such as to create family or to have something that's entirely her own--but mostly they dream that their children (daughters hopefully) will have the same life-long bond that their mothers have and that they themselves have. They never plan on what happens when they announce their pregnancies and their intentions to carry to term.

The girls' decision is the central focus of the book, but this is really Susan's story. She is Lily's mother and the high school principal. She had also been an unwed teen mom so she understands some of what Lily is going through, but she has a hard time comprehending why Lily would want a baby so much that she would plan to get pregnant...and why her friends would also make that same plan. Susan questions her mothering skills, knowing she did the best she could yet at the same time wondering whether it was enough. Her relationship with her own mother is distant and strained so she doesn't have that tie to rely on, but she does have her three best friends: Kate, Sunny, and Pam. Two of them are also dealing with pregnant daughters, so they become Susan's support system. As if dealing with an expectant teen isn't enough, Susan constantly has to defend her job and the decisions she makes as principal, and her battle against the school board and against certain town citizens is uphill.

We also get some glimpses into the lives of the other girls and their families. There is denial, threats to send the girls away, worry over the health of their babies, and the need to deal with classmates and family members, not to mention the fathers of their babies. Lily begins to realize that her decision to become a mom affects not only her but also her mother, the boy involved, and so many other people that she never considered. As she watches her mom face the superintendent and the school board and respond to parent concerns, she says things like "I never imagined." She is an incredibly knowledgeable girl in the facts of pregnancy, knowing how long her fetus is at each week, but she is naive about the permanent changes a baby will bring. Bad news forces Lily and Susan, and by extension the other girls and their moms, to really decide how they will approach the impending births.

This is a powerful book. We watch as Susan faces one challenge after another, questioning and doubting herself at times but also needing to be strong for her daughter. She knows she is a good principal, but she isn't quite as confident in her parenting skills. Echoes of other authors struck me as I read this book. Names like Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve popped into my mind. Delinsky doesn't lay out the same ethical dilemmas as Picoult or have the same unique writing style as Shreve, but her family dynamics and her characters' relationships are drawn in similar ways. Readers of authors such as Patricia Gaffney, Luanne Rice, and Kristin Hannah will enjoy this one.

Valebrity

2010-03-07T20:28:00.001-05:00

Do you follow famous people on Twitter or Facebook or another social network? How do you know that famous person is really behind that account? Put the user name into Valebrity and see whether the account is real or not.

Accounts are verified by Valebrity users, and links to the famous person's account(s) are included in case you want to follow them on other social sites. You can also sign up and leave comments and meet other celebrity watchers.

How Do You Get Your News?

2010-03-01T19:57:00.000-05:00

Saw an interesting blog post from The Librarian in Black. She wrote about the recent report from Pew Internet. Here are some stats:

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new report this morning about the consumption of news in a digital setting. The report can be found on the Pew website. Some of the interesting findings:
92% of Americans surveyed use multiple places & platforms to get their daily news
local & national television stations still come out ahead of the internet as news sources
59% of Americans surveyed use both online & offline news sources
33% of cell phone owners access news on their phones
28% of internet users have customized homepages with news sources (e.g. iGoogle)
37% of internet users have actually participated in news dissemination, creation, or commenting
75% of those who get news online find news through email forwards or through friends’ posts on social networking sites
52% of those who get news online also share links to news with others through email or social networking
55% report that it is now easier to keep up with news and information than it was five years ago, and yet…
70% feel overwhelmed by the amount of news and information available

How do you get your news? Do you prefer print, television, Internet, or a combination?

Weather

2010-02-28T16:40:00.001-05:00

Checking weather online is mostly a matter of preference. You can usually get it from your local TV station's website, or you can use one of these sites. All but one provides national (US) and international weather, and all but one are supported by ads.

Who is AccuWeather.com? This is from their "About" page:

AccuWeather, established in 1962, is the World's Weather Authority. We provide local forecasts for everywhere in the United States and over two million locations worldwide. We also provide our products and services to more than 175,000 paying customers in media, business, government and institutions. Our headquarters in State College, PA, is home to the greatest number of forecast meteorologists in one location anywhere in the world.

AccuWeather.com recently changed their website, so if you haven't seen it in a while, you might want to stop by and see if you like it. Searching is easy: just type in your location and click "Go." If you need a location outside the US, use the "World," "Canada," or "UK/Ireland" links at the top left.

The homepage has maps and articles - scroll down to see them. You can also mouse over the menus for more options under "Forecast," "Radar & Maps," "News & Video," and more.

Click the "Downloads" link at the bottom of the screen for widgets and phone apps. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration runs the National Weather Service (also www.weather.gov). This website is the only one of the four mentioned here that does not have ads and that only has US weather. The graphics are not as slick, but they have the familiar look of many TV stations. See the links on the left for warnings and forecasts. To keep you informed on the go, they offer RSS feeds for warnings and forecasts, and you can sign up for text messages.

The Weather Channel has a website, simply weather.com (not to be confused with the NWS site, weather.gov). It looks slightly redesigned since the last time I used it, so give it a try if you haven't seen it recently. (It used to be video-intensive, which slowed loading time.) Although this cable TV station is shown in the US, the website offers world locations. The menu across the top offers "News," "Travel," "Driving Conditions," and more. There are some news items and articles on the homepage.

Forecasts are given in various spans of time, from hour-by-hour to 10-day. You can also see yesterday's weather information plus averages and historical information.

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen for widgets and browser extensions. You can also get text alerts and RSS feeds.

Weather Underground says it was "the first Internet weather service" (see their About Us page for a history). There is no separate link for international weather - just type your location into the search box. This one tends to be my default because the 5-day forecast in the form of graphics and a short blurb is right on the results page. You can click for more information, but I like the quick show of information. I also like having the ability to see the moon phases and a star chart if I want. They also provide historical weather info and averages.

There are not as many articles here as on AccuWeather, but there are a few. You can upload your own photos and videos to share, and you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter. They also have RSS feeds as well as widgets and phone apps (click "Download" in the upper right).

I've mentioned Twitter in a couple of write-ups, but there's one more site I want to mention: Severe Weather Alert System (SWAS). (Thanks to TechCrunch for the blog post.) Follow the steps outlined on the homepage to sign up for local weather alerts, delivered to your Twitter account.

Book Review - "Lullaby" by Claire Seeber

2010-02-26T19:30:00.003-05:00

Jessica Finnegan is sitting in the coffee shop of London's Tate Museum with her infant son, waiting for her husband. A vaguely familiar woman approaches and gets a little too close to baby Louis, setting Jessica on edge. Her husband Mickey finally returns to his family, and the three begin wandering through the exhibits. Mickey and Louis get ahead of Jessica and eventually she realizes she can't find them. Thus begins a harrowing two weeks for her--Mickey turns up in the hospital, beaten and suffering amnesia, but Louis is nowhere to be found.

Jessica and Mickey met through work, and the sparks flew immediately. She got pregnant quickly, and they married a couple of months before her due date. Jessica feels as though she doesn't know her husband very well, but she thinks they have plenty of time to get used to each other. She also didn't take to mothering instinctively, but she has come to learn how to love her son fiercely and will do anything to get him back. Mickey has an ex-wife and Jessica has a younger brother, both of whom show up in the story and become tangled in the search for Louis.

Lullaby doesn't read like a crime novel, nor is it a character study of a mother with a missing child. Events unfold slowly, and in between clues there is a lot of crying, puffing on asthma inhalers, and drinking booze. The narrative is first-person, so we do see into Jessica's mind and can feel her emotions, but somehow she isn't an entirely sympathetic character. She does have a backstory that gets told in fragments as the plot continues and that colors her wariness towards the police, but there isn't much suspense. It's like author Seeber couldn't decide whether she was writing a thriller, a mystery, or something else. The police are involved; in fact, one female officer is dispatched to essentially babysit Jessica throughout her ordeal. Jessica has daddy issues, but the DI in charge of her case proves himself trustworthy, which helps her overcome her suspicion of the police in particular and men in general. However, that aspect of the story is somehow secondary to Jessica's own inner turmoil and her need to be active in the hunt for her baby. She goes off on her own a lot, trying to guess where he might be and sometimes following her brother Robbie in an attempt to find out what he might know.

Since the setting is London and the author is from there, the vocabulary is very English. It's not a major hindrance for American readers, but those unfamiliar with certain slang terms may find them a little distracting. Just be prepared to do a lot of contextual reading if you're not used to British-isms.

It's not that I don't recommend this book, but I do review it with caution. The description I initially read about it made me think it was a suspense novel or perhaps a mystery. If you don't go in with that attitude, maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did. If you're looking for more of a character study, try The Weight of Silence. (The link is for my review.)

Advanced Medical Directives

2010-02-22T11:15:00.002-05:00

What's the difference between an advanced medical directive, health care proxy, and a living will? Check out Nolo, a publisher of layman's guides on a variety of legal topics. They have a nice article explaining each term, but also look at other articles on similar subjects, particularly the one called Create a Living Will and Health Care Power of Attorney in Your State. Each state handles these issues differently, and Nolo provides an easy way to find out what your state requires.

Beware the link pointing you to buy software. Choosing to buy or download is certainly an option, but before you shell out some cash, check with your local library and see if they have the Nolo books with forms inside. You can make photocopies and fill in the information yourself. Also try a Google search for your state's law library and see if someone there can point you to free forms. The law librarian should also be able to direct you to more information specific to your state.

Estate Planning - Where to Start?

2010-02-22T11:01:00.002-05:00

Setting up a will is something everyone should do, but how do you get started? What's the difference between a will and a living will?

Nolo is a publisher of all kinds of layman's legal guides, and they have a helpful page on getting started. There's a FAQ plus a list of articles explaining various aspects of wills, living wills, and power of attorney. If you need more information, check with your local library. Chances are they have Nolo books on these and related topics. Not only is the information written in terms most people can understand, the books also have forms inside that you can photocopy and fill out yourself. It's possible you might want to purchase something to have at hand whenever you need it, but you can use the library books as test drives, so to speak, reading through several to determine which one(s) will be best for your situation.

Book Review - "The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake

2010-02-19T15:40:00.000-05:00

It's 1940. The United States is doing its best to ignore events in Europe, though there are a few men who can't wait to join up and go fight. Iris James is the postmistress in Franklin, Massachusetts, a tiny town on the far tip of Cape Cod. Emma Fitch is the new wife of town doctor. Both women tune their radios to hear news from "over there," and one of those voices belongs to Frankie Bard, a young American woman working in London for Edward R. Murrow. Frankie does her best to tell stories of what life is like during the Blitz, and she finds herself frustrated that she doesn't seem to be making a difference. The US is determined to stay out of war, no matter what atrocities are occurring.

Emma's husband Will has a horrific experience delivering a baby, and he decides he can be of better use helping the wounded in London. Emma waits for word from him, trusting Iris to deliver any news both good and bad. Meanwhile, Frankie goes to Berlin to try to follow the Jews as they leave Germany and attempt to get to Lisbon, where the Germans are not yet in control and where they might have a chance to get to America and other places promising freedom. She takes along a portable recorder and captures the voices and stories of her fellow travelers. She is deeply moved by the idea that those people could be alive one minute and dead the next. She enjoys broadcasting the news from Europe, but she is at a loss as to what else she can do to bring the truth of the coming Holocaust to her listeners and to make them see that they need to get involved.

The women's stories entwine in a powerful way about halfway through the book. Frankie ends up with news of Will, and though she does not know Emma she resolves to deliver that news. Will had left a letter with Iris to give to Emma in the event of his death, but Iris isn't sure she'll be able to follow through. Emma just wants to know what's going on.

The book explores the question, What if? What if a radio journalist can't stay objective? What if a postmistress can't do her job? What if people sit on the sidelines or turn a blind eye when confronted with evil? The questions don't only address how the lives of Emma, Iris, and Frankie might have been different or whether the outcome of World War II might have been different had the US gotten involved sooner, but the questions are also relevant today. What can we as individuals do in the face of poverty, war, disease, injustice, not only around the world but also in our own neighborhoods? Is simply doing our jobs enough or is there more we can and should be doing?

This book is beautifully written, interweaving the lives of the three women while also giving them their own space to develop as characters. Author Blake never uses the word "holocaust," but anyone familiar with history knows exactly what is happening and what else will happen. Emotions, reactions, small towns, and the 1940s are all drawn in such a way that you feel like you're there. If you like characters who seem real, if you like stories that are not afraid to explore big issues, or if you like history brought to life, pick up this book. But be prepared to be challenged.

Online Tools

2010-02-17T21:17:00.002-05:00

Here's a list of over 100 online tools. There are old standards such as Google and TinyURL, but new ones also make an appearance. From searching to chatting to dictionaries to collaborating, you'll find all kinds of sites to try. I don't see an index to all the categories so you might want to use the pull-down at the bottom to see 100 items on one page,then just scroll and browse.

Topographic Maps

2010-02-15T14:44:00.002-05:00

Finding topographic maps online is not hard, but it can be difficult to print readable ones. Here are three sites to try:

Digital-Topo-Maps.com - This website uses Google Maps to pinpoint your US or Canadian location. Zoom in as much as you like, then click "MyTopo" to see the topographic view. Scroll down for the printing option (landscape or portrait). You can also purchase topo maps by using the links on the right. Scale may vary, or you may have to print several sheets in order to get the detail you want.

MSRMaps - This site is called Microsoft Research Maps and seems to be powered by Microsoft's search engine, Bing. Finding a US location is easy - just type in the address (as much or as little as you want) or latitude and longitude. You can also click the tiny map on the left to zoom in. Adjust the map size with the little boxes on the top left of the viewing area. You can see an aerial view or a topo view (or in some cases other options such as Urban Areas). You're allowed to download, email, or print maps. If you choose to print, it'll open a new window and give you options for resizing and changing paper size.

You can also click "Famous Places" at the top right of the screen and get a list of all kinds of places from sports stadiums to airports to landmarks such as Alcatraz or the Pentagon. Even if you're not looking for anything in particular, it's a neat site to browse.

USGS Store - On the right side of the screen is a link to "Download" Topo Maps Free. (If you click the link for "Topo Maps" you'll get an explanation of the different kinds of maps available.) Follow the instructions for finding a US location and for downloading. (I'm not finding this site easy to use. I don't know if it's because I'm using Firefox or because I'm just not patient enough to play with it, but I suggest trying one of the other sites mentioned here first. However, if you want to place an order to purchase a map, this is a good site.)

The US Geological Survey also has maps for sale and you might be able to see some really cool maps on their website, but printing may not be available.

If you're outside the US or you need a map for another country, do a Google search on your location of interest and add "topographic map." Most countries should have some kind of geographical department with maps available. You might not be able to print one for free, but you can probably purchase what you need.

Olympics Online

2010-02-13T11:32:00.000-05:00

TechCrunch has organized a list of links to follow Olympic action as it unfolds from Vancouver, so I'm going to let their post speak for itself: A Guide to Following the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Take Classes Online - For Free

2010-02-11T14:58:00.001-05:00

Ever wanted to sit in on a lecture but didn't want to formally enroll in a college course or couldn't afford tuition? You won't get college credit, but here are some ideas for furthering your education (or just learning for the heck of it).

You might first try searching YouTube, but quickly you'll probably find that it's not easy to get right to the lectures. How about using a site that searches YouTube for you? Apparently Bill Gates Hearts Academic Earth. Academic Earth is a fairly new site that gathers videos from across the Web - including YouTube - and organizes them by subject, by university, and by instructor. You don't have register in order to watch, but if you do create an account you can keep lists of favorites and participate in the site's community, like assigning a grade to each video.

You can also search Google for "free online classes" or something similar. If you're interested in a particular topic, add that to your search words. You might try searching by college or university to see if a certain school offers classes. Look for results that include .edu as part of the domain name. Colleges and universities have their names or initials in their URLs so it's usually pretty easy to identify the right websites. If you're not necessarily interested in college classes, just make sure the websites you do look at are authoritative so you know the information offered is trustworthy.

Book Review - "The Hidden" by Tobias Hill

2010-02-09T19:20:00.000-05:00

This book is not a thriller, despite what the back cover says. It goes much deeper than that. Traditional suspense or thriller novels move at a fast pace and have clearly identified bad guys and good guys. The characters may be rather flat, although there is enough detail about the good guys to keep you interested in their fates. This book moves slowly, and the main character is a three-dimensional, well-formed person. He's probably someone you've come in contact with, although you might not call him a friend exactly. You probably feel like you don't know him all that well, though you like him. He's not really the kind of person you'd hang out with, but he seems nice enough.

Ben Mercer is that guy in the book. He's young--only twenty-five--but he already has an ex-wife and a little daughter. His ex has basically moved in with one of his professors, so he can't even find respite in his academic life. In fact, the reason he is in Greece is because he wanted to get away from England for a while and process the divorce and other changes. For a few weeks Ben works in the kitchen at a bar, but a colleague from Oxford happens to stop in one night and in the course of conversation, Ben finds himself discussing a job with an archaeological dig in the region once known as Sparta.

Upon arriving at the dig--soaked to the skin after an extremely long walk in the rain because his promised ride never came--Ben quickly realizes that there is something going on with some members of the dig, including his colleague. He feels like he's been dropped into a game already in progress with no idea of the teams or of the rules. In the end, Ben must decide how far he will go to be a full member of the group. He must decide if he truly even wants membership in the first place.

The dig itself is only a shallow layer of what is really going on with Ben's new coworkers. It's kind of a cover for their true activities. Ben wants them to trust him enough to tell him what they're up to, but at the same time, he never feels quite part of their group. The book itself is full of layers, with characters hiding things from each other and possibly from themselves. There are levels of guilt, greed, acceptance, friendship, loneliness, courage, belief, and love.

Interspersed among the chapters detailing Ben's activities are what the author calls "Notes Towards a Thesis." The thesis is Ben's, and he works at it with varying degrees of interest. By the end of the book, his notes are more like diary entries concerning the dig; his focus has shifted away from the past towards his present. You'll get a lot of Spartan history in these notes, which help explain some of the finds at the dig. You'll also get some Greek history, which color the extracurricular events Ben stumbles upon during the group's nights off. It's all interesting, and it presents another layer in life: how much does the past inform the present and how do present decisions affect the future?

Read this book if you have several days to digest it. Even when you have to close the covers for a while, you'll be thinking about it and about Ben until you have a chance to open it again. You'll get inside Ben's head though maybe not his heart. You'll feel his loneliness and his longing to be accepted, but there is still a layer of him that you won't quite see even at the end, because he only begins to see it himself.

Used Car Prices

2010-02-06T22:16:00.002-05:00

Whether you're looking to buy or sell a used car, you probably want to check its value to make sure you're getting a good deal. You could go to your local library and ask about the Kelley Blue Book or the NADA Guide or possibly even the Edmund's book, but you can also check all three online. I'm going to focus on used cars, though you can look up new cars on all three as well.

The Kelley Blue Book is well-known. The book itself is small and comes out monthly. The website is updated weekly, although not every make and model will see changes that often. Prices depend on the market.

The site is easy to use. You can search in a variety of ways, but the most direct when looking for a particular car is probably by year, make, and model. KBB will show you trade-in value, private party value, suggested retail value, and certified pre-owned value. It offers explanations of each so you know which one to choose, then depending on which option you clicked, you might be asked for mileage, equipment, and condition. KBB has prices for cars about twenty years old or newer. If you need a price for an older car or if you need to know what a car was worth on a particular date, check their FAQ for the information.

The NADA Guide is also well-known. The book is also small and comes out monthly (though older car values are published three times a year), and the website is updated at least that often.

Click "Pricing & Information" to get started. You'll be asked to select make, model, and year, then mileage and equipment. You'll then get rough trade-in, average trade-in, clean trade-in, and clean retail prices. For explanations, click each one and a small window will pop up.

You can find cars around twenty years old and newer. There's a tab on the top of the screen for classic cars, plus tabs for motorcycles, boats, and RVs. For historical prices, click "Help/FAQ" at the bottom of the screen. There's a link with instructions on how to obtain such information.

Edmunds may be unfamiliar, but the website is similar to the other two. They concentrate only on autos and have various tools for figuring out financing or listing a car for sale.

To start, click "Used Cars" at the top of the screen, then click "Appraise a Car," also at the top. (There is a link on this page for getting historical prices.) Choose your make, model, and year, then click "Appraise Your Car." Scroll down to input the options, then click "Get Pricing Report." The condition choices range from outstanding to damaged, so read the descriptions to figure out which one fits your car. For prices, you'll see trade-in, private party, and dealer retail values. Click each one to see an explanation.

You can also click the "True Market Value" link on the homepage and select your year, make, and model. Then click "Appraise Your Car" and enter your equipment options to get the price.

Edmunds doesn't have information on older cars (at this point, older than 1990), so it suggests looking at local ads to get an idea on price. It also does not have historical information for cars older than 2000, but if you need such information, you are directed to the Contact Us form.

So which site is the best? NADA says it has access to the most information. Edmunds focuses only on automobiles. Dealers probably will use Kelley's or NADA. All three offer Carfax reports, but read the screens carefully in case there is a fee. It really comes down to which one you feel comfortable with.