Heartbreaking photo essay of an abandoned school in Detroit

The interior of the former Detroit Public Schools’ book depository is the first of many heart-breaking photos in James Griffioen’s Vice Magazine photo essay.   It’s not only sad to see a place of learning abandoned, but that so many resources that could have been used by other school districts and charities were left to rot is just criminal.

Via The Daily Dish

QOD: Oh, the Places You’ll Go

photo by badjonni

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

from Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss

Free Advanced Reader Copies of HarperCollins Titles

HarperCollins provides voracious readers with an opportunity to preview upcoming titles, provided they are willing to write an honest review.

Once signed up for the First Look Program, you’re allowed to enter the raffle for any upcoming titles that are of interest to you.  New titles are posted at the beginning of each month, and the raffle readers selected by the end of the month.

From self-help to business tomes to cookbooks to chick lit to poetry, you can be one of the first reading the next best seller.  What’s better than free books? Really!

Look for the Program Sign-Up link halfway down the link list in the right hand column.

Clearing off your book shelves? Ensure they find a good home

photo by photocapy

I’m doing some tidying up of my unread book piles, pulling out titles that peaked my interest a few years ago, but that I’m no longer inclined to need.   Given the rise of the used book market, it isn’t worth posting to half.com, when I’m likely to bring in $1 or less for most of the tomes I want to send on to their next home.

The next best thing to money is another book, which is why I list books in need of a good home at BookMooch.  At BookMooch I earn points for each book I send to a fellow member.  In turn, I get to use those points to mooch books from other users.

But like any retailer experiences, some books just aren’t flying off the shelves in your chosen location or demographic.  Thus, I’ve been looking for alternative places to distribute books in need of new homes.

Your local library

The most obvious choice for donation is your local library, most of which will give you a receipt that you can probably use to write off the donation come tax time. Older books aren’t likely to go into circulation, but they may wind up being sold as part of the regular used book sale fundraising.

For those of you looking for more creative places to donate your used books, there are plenty of options.

Prisons

Looking to get rid of old college textbooks?  Already solved that quarterlife crisis and don’t need those self-help books any more?  Look no further than your local prison.  While the rules vary from prison to prison, many accept a variety of educational and recreational reading materials, since their library budgets are limited.

We all know the resale value of college text books is limited since new editions with different pagination are constantly being issued.  Here’s an opportunity to really pay it forward.

• Books Behind Bars provides information about what types of reading materials are accepted by prisons all around the country and to whom you should ship your donation

Prisons also gladly accept used fiction, particularly paperback since it’s easier to ship.

• Books to Prisoners is a volunteer organization that ships requested titles to individual prisoners nationwide.  They send out close to 10,000 books a year are are always looking  to replenish their stockpile.

Troops

People are still looking for ways to support the troops abroad.  Shipping your collection of Stephen King paperbacks to deployed soldiers is one way to go.

• Books for Soldiers
• Operation Paperback

Low-income kids

Basic literacy will forever be a key component of early childhood education.  Unfortunately not all school libraries are well-stocked and not all families can afford to buy books for home.  These groups try to put books in the hands of young learners throughout the country.  So if you have gently used children’s titles to get out of the house, consider these two groups.

• Books First distributed more than 15,000 books to teachers and their classes in 2007, benefiting more than 2000 pupils.
• Project Nightlight reaches out to homeless children, providing “individual tote bags each filled with a security blanket, an age-appropriate book, and a stuffed animal to children (ages 0-10) in homeless shelters.”  They are always looking for like new books to be included in their care packages; if you’re as obsessive about your books as I am about mine, most of them are like new.

When all else fails, Got Books?  The group ensures no books winds up in a landfill.   Some books they sell, donating half the proceeds to a variety of charities, and others they donate to schools.

Double Coconut Pancakes

photo by araswami

I am a notoriously bad pancake maker and have long resigned myself to restaurant pancakes.  Not any more.

These are the best pancakes ever, and I wanted to share the recipe (from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007).  I used unsweetened coconut flakes in mine.

Overall, Cooking Light puts together an amazing cookbook of their previous year’s magazine recipes.  Some of my favorite recipes hail from their publications.

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flaked sweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (13.5 oz can) light coconut milk
1 tbsp butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with  a  knife.  Combine flour, sugar, and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl.  Combine coconut milk, butter, and egg, stir well.  Add coconut milk mix to flour mix, stirring until smooth.

2. Pour about 1/4 c batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet.  Cook 3 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked.  Carefully turn pancakes over, cook 2 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.

Yield 4 svgs, 3 pancakes each

300 calories/29% from fat; 9.7g fat, 7.6g protein, 46.6 g carb, 1.4g fiber, 60mg chol, 521 mg sodium, 14mg calcium

QOD: B.F. Skinner on learning

photo by extranoise

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”

“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”

B. F. Skinner, 1904-1990, psychologist

Friday Fun: What Book Are You?

I’d be embarassed, except that people buy me books like I Always Look Up the Word Egregious and The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate.  While I’ll never be a party animal, I’ll always be the first person you’ll call when you’re stumped.

Your turn.  What book are you?

You’re The Dictionary!

by Merriam-Webster

You’re one of those know-it-all types, with an amazing amount of
knowledge at your command. People really enjoy spending time with you in very short
spurts, but hanging out with you for a long time tends to bore them. When folks
really need an authority to refer to, however, you’re the one they seek. You’re an
exceptional speller and very well organized.

Take the Book Quiz

at the Blue Pyramid.

Favorite Reads in 2008

photo by moriza

I try to read about 50 books a year.  Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.  In all likelihood, I’ll get to another 4-8 books before New Year’s Day (since holidays are great days to curl up with a good book), so I may need come back and another title or two to the the list below.

But for now, the books below make my list of best reads this year.

Rather than give away the ending of a novel or write a precis of each non-fiction tome (which could each be a post until themselves), I’ve provided a brief paragraph summing up what you’ll find cover to cover.

Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray by Helen Fisher (NF) (added 1/2/09)

Though this book is about 15 years old, there’s still plenty of relevant study and anecdotal data to supporter Fisher’s hypotheses about love and reproduction.  It’s fascinating to read about certain behavioral patterns that appear across a variety of cultures and what common biochemical threads unite romantic relations regardless of what part of the world you are from.

The Scandal Plan: Or: How to Win the Presidency by Cheating on Your Wife by Bill Folman (F)

It’s an election year; I needed to be entertained.  A Presidential candidate is just too vanilla and uninteresting to the American people, so his campaign fabricates an affair and its exposure to drum up support from the American people.   A wag-the-dog scenario.

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg (NF)

Journalist Goldberg takes a look at Christian extremists and their efforts to infiltrate (quietly or openly) the infrastructure of our society, in order to slowly dissolve the separation of church and state.  Revisionist history would have you believe the found fathers sought theocracy, not the clear split between the government and religion which they actually saw as necessary after watching the divisive relations of the two in Europe.  Christian Nationalists continue the fight to bring intelligent design/creationism into schools whenever they can muster the community support.

The faith-based initiatives launched by Bush ( which Obama supports) funnels government money to religious groups for community work. Despite government funding, they are allowed to discriminate in hiring policies, with many groups choosing to only hire candidates who can embrace the Bible. . . Christian groups receive the bulk of this funding. In return, some leaders of this movement are working to systematically get supporters in places of power in government and education, so as to expand the reach of their theocratic goals.  A disturbing and enlightening read after seeing the power of the Christian Right in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

Intuition by Allegra Goodman (F)

Call it a continued passion for medical ethics stemming from my undergraduate years. . . but this book captivated me from beginning to end.  Researchers spend years toiling away in labs hoping to make a breakthrough that will yield a cure or a vaccine for cancer.   Can the pressure get to be too great?  Do scientists sometimes cut corners or hide discouraging data to move research forward?  What does that mean to the integrity of the research and the funding of the research itself?

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein (NF)

I’ve already blogged about Klein’s book. The $800 billion Wall Street bail out provides a great example of disaster capitalism at work in America.  After insisting that the world will come to a screeching halt without the bailout, legislators forked over the billions after negligible negotiating.  Shock and awe at work.  (PS. Here’s Klein’s defense against criticism from the libertarians/supporters of Friedman economics.)

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us by Robin Meredith (NF)

We live in a globalized economy.  With so many of our service jobs being outsourced to India and manufacturing jobs outsourced to China, you should be sure to understand the growth of the two economic behemoths over the last decade.  Meredith also gives you pause when considering the trajectory these countries are on and what it means for our future (globally and as Americans) and our access to the limited resources we need to keep our economies active.

How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America by Cristina Page (NF)

Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade changed America.  Access to birth control and the ability to plan a family meant a better quality of life for the next generation and a greater involvement of fathers in the parenting process.  Allowing women to get in and stay in the work force on their own terms shook up American culture for the better.   Legal access to birth control and abortion have greater significance than the sexual revolution, though pro-life leadership is typically rooted in controlling women’s sexuality.  (Page regularly blogs about reproductive issues for the Huffington Post)

When the Rivers Run Dry: Water — The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century by Fred Pearce (NF)

Pearce reviews the state of the water supply around the world.  He looks at the dessication of once water-rich areas and the excess flooding in other regions that leave hundreds of thousands homeless.  In his travels he examines the technology (dams, aquifers, qanats, water seeding, drip irrigation, etc) and politics (pacts between states and countries that split water resources). Instead of forcing water to bend to the will of settlements, we should instead “go with the flow” and look to simpler technology used for thousands of years, as well as modify our infrastructure for more efficient use of water.

Good Grief by Lolly Winston (F)

An unexpected widow climbs out of a personal breakdown to relight her life passions and put her own needs on the front burner.  In focusing on her interest in baking, she launches a successful business and provides support to a troubled teen, helping them both get their lives back together.

Disclaimer: These books were not necessarily published in 2008. They do not necessarily belong on a list of best books ever, books to read before you die, or best kept secrets.    It’s just a list of the books I enjoyed most in this calendar year.

What books are on your own list of notable reads of 2008?

VOD: The Vet who Did Not Vet

Here’s a Seuss-cautionary tale about McCain’s Palin pick.

QOD: Nabokov on writing

photo by coyotejack

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there,

written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.

~Vladimir Nabakov