Today’s show on books having to do with transportation was pre-recorded, but feel free to send us an email with your favorite books about planes, trains, and automobiles at info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org, and we’ll add them to our list! And if you happen to have a copy of Eighty-Nine Good Novels of the Sea, the Ship and the Sailor compiled by J.K. Lilly, let me know!

MELANIE’S PICKS

Auto Biography: a classic car, an outlaw motorhead, and 57 years of the American dream by Earl Swift

The Hemi in the Barn by Tom Cotter

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum

Around India in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh

The Ice Pilots by Michael Vlessides

Birdmen: the Wright brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the battle to control the skies by Lawrence Goldstone

Boston Below by Joseph R. Votano and Karen E. Hosking

Life is a Wheel: love, death, etc., and a bike ride across America by Bruce Weber

Kids:

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney

National Geographic Kids Ultimate Globetrotting World Atlas by National Geographic Kids

The Transcontinental Railroad by John Perritano

Henry Ford: Father of the Auto Industry by Josh Gregory

JILL’s PICKS

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Falling Upwards: how we took to the air by Richard Holmes

Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery, translated from the French by Lewis Galantiere

Pan American Clippers: the golden age of flying boats by James Trautman

Grand Central: how a train station transformed America by Sam Roberts

The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the incredible rivalry that built America’s first subway by Doug Most

Art of the Classic Car by Peter Bodensteiner, Photography by Peter Harholdt

Wheels of Change: how women rode the bicycle to freedom (with a few flat tires along the way) by Sue Macy

Sail Away: stories of escaping to sea edited by Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker

Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die: sailing experts share the world’s greatest destinations by Chris Santella

Wanderlust: a history of walking by Rebecca Solnit

Agatha Christie novels:

Murder on the Orient Express, 4:50 From Paddington, The Mystery of the Blue Train

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith which was made into a terrific film by Alfred Hitchcock.

Picture Books

Go, Dog. Go! By P.D. Eastman

Night Light by Nicholas Blechman

Everything Goes in the Air by Brian Biggs

Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld

This morning Melanie Lauwers (book editor of The Cape Cod Times), Jill Erickson (Head of Reference & Adult Services), and Heather Goldstone of Living Lab discussed lablit, novels that feature scientists. We ended up with far more titles than we had time to discuss, so you’ll find a list of titles below that we mentioned, and another list of titles for which we had no time! As always, we also include listener picks. If we didn’t mention your favorite novel that features a scientist, let us know! You can tweet us your suggestions at @falpublib, @WCAI_NPR, @hgoldstone, and @melaniebookscct or send us an e-mail at info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org, and we’ll add your suggestions to our list.

Melanie’s Picks

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman

The Wives of Los Alamos by Tarashea Nesbit

Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen

The Best of Connie Willis by Connie Willis

Not mentioned but worthy:

Lucy by Laurence Gonzales

Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett

Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson

Intuition by Allegra Goodman

Jill’s Picks

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

Orfeo by Richard Powers

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

No Time For:

Archangel by Andrea Barrett

Passage by Connie Willis

Intuition by Allegra Goodman

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Listener Picks

Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

The Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle This actually became a quintet of novels which also includes A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time.

Links to more about LabLit:

The webzine Lablit list of novels with scientists, run by Jennifer Rohn.

“The Day After Today: interview with novelist Kim Stanley Robinson”

“Art That Transfigures Science” by Alan Lightman

This morning on The Point with Mindy Todd we discussed books having to do with women’s history. Here is the list of books that Melanie & Jill brought along, as well as a couple of listener picks.

Melanie’s Picks

Children’s:

Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt

Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies by Cokie Roberts

U.S.:

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins

Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrell

International:

Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Other:

Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History – without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Six Women of Salem: the untold story of the accused and their accusers in the Salem witch trials by Marilynne K. Roach

Ethnic:

I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, The Staple Singers, and the March Up Freedom’s Highway by Greg Kot

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog

Jill’s Picks

Children’s Books

Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman

Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: how Anne Carroll Moore created libraries for children by Jan Pinborough and illustrated by Debby Atwell

In the Bag!: Margaret Knight Wraps It Up by Monica Kulling, illustrated by David Parkins

Young Adult Title (but adults might enjoy as well!)

Bad Girls: sirens, jezebels, murderesses, thieves & other female villains by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple, illustrated by Rebecca Guay

Everything Else

Below Stairs: the classic kitchen maid’s memoir that inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey by Margaret Powell

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: the lost legacy of Highclere Castle by The Countess of Carnarvon

Women From the Ankle Down: the story of shoes and how they define us by Rachelle Bergstein

Shoes by Judith Miller

The Complete Book of Shoes by Marta Morales

Women Sailors & Sailors’ Women: an untold maritime history by David Cordingly

Women of Martha’s Vineyard by Thomas Dresser

Women in King Philip’s War compiled and edited by Edward Lodi

Female Adventurers: the women who helped colonize Massachusetts and Connecticut by Alice Plouchard Stelzer

Rebecca Dickinson: independence for a New England Woman by Marla R. Miller

Listener Picks

Juliette Gordon Low: the remarkable found of the Girl Scouts by Stacy A. Cordery

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

The Whip: a novel by Karen Kondazian

Sail Away Ladies: stories of Cape Cod women in the age of sail by Jim Coogan.

Young Oxford History of Women in the United States

Today’s The Point with Mindy Todd was pre-recorded so no calls from listeners this morning, but if you did have a favorite read in 2013, feel free to post your favorite in the comments, or send us an e-mail at info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org, and we’ll compile all your favorites and share them. Mindy, Melanie, and I all found some great books to read this year, and hope you had a great year of reading, and wishing you many more great reads in 2014.

Mindy’s Picks

Bunker Hill: a city, a siege, a revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Defiant Brides: the untold story of two revolutionary-era women and the radical men they married by Nancy Rubin Stuart

Superman: the high-flying history of America’s most enduring hero by Larry Tye

E. B. White on Dogs edited by Martha White

Letters of E. B. White Revised Edition, edited by Martha White

Jill’s Picks

Non-Fiction

Art as Therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong

Glorious Good Times: the first hundred years of the Quissett Yacht Club edited by Prosser Gifford, Nina Hocker, and Stephen Chalmers

Fiction

An Impenetrable Screen of Purest Sky by Dan Beachy-Quick

S. conceived by J. J. Abrams and written by Doug Dorst

Collected Early Stories by John Updike, edited by Christopher Carduff

Collected Later Stores by John Updike, edited by Christopher Carduff

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

Reference

A Reader’s Book of Days by Tom Nissley

The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin

No Time for Children’s Favorites of the Year

Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by John O’Brien

Mr. Wuffles by David Wiesner

Melanie’s Picks

Nonfiction/History

Year Zero: 1945 and the aftermath of war by Ian Buruma

Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon

Fiction

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh

The Last Policeman and Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

Also Recommended (but no time on show):

Light of the World by James Lee Burke

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Returned by Jason Mott

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth

Reading Now:

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer

Just a heads up that while our usual slot for discussing books on The Point with Mindy Todd is the last Wednesday of every month at 9:00 AM (repeated at 7:00 PM) on WCAI, 90.1 FM, next week we will be broadcast on THURSDAY, December 26th at 9:00 AM. We actually recorded the show this morning, so there will be no phone calls next week, but feel free to let us know in the comments what your favorite book of 2013 was, or send an e-mail to info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org, and we’ll share all the titles we receive.

Next weeks show will be about the books Mndy, Melanie, and I most enjoyed reading in 2013, fiction, non-fiction, and even a couple of reference books!

Mindy, Melanie, and I discussed Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas books this morning on The Point. If you missed it, you can listen at 7:00 PM tonight (WCAI, 90.1 FM) or online anytime! If you want to see what my sixth grade mouse looks like, which is now a Christmas ornament, WCAI has posted a photo on their Facebook page!  A Katharine Lee Bates Christmas poems update … her book Fairy Gold includes five Christmas poems. We have a copy of the book in our Katharine Lee Bates collection, or you can read it online here.

Melanie’s Picks

The Dogs of Christmas: A Novel by W. Bruce Cameron

A Nantucket Christmas by Nancy Thayer

A Yuletide Treasury of Poems, Carols and Songs edited by Sarah Anne Stuart

The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas by Ann Voskamp

The Eighth Menorah by Lauren L. Wohl

Santa is Coming to Cape Cod by Steve Smallman

Christmas from Heaven: The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber by Tom Brokaw

Scandinavian Christmas Stockings by Mette Handberg

The Night Before Christmas in Crochet by Mitsuki Hoshi

The Good Housekeeping Christmas Cookbook

The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book by Carolyn Wyman

Jill’s Picks

More Home Cooking: a writer returns to the kitchen by Laurie Colwin. Particularly chapters: “Turkey Angst” and “All the Trimmings.”

Thanksgiving: how to cook it well by Sam Sifton

The New Jewish Table by Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray

Heart-Felt Holidays: 40 festive felt projects to celebrate the seasons by Kathy Sheldon & Amanda Carestio

Cake Pops: Holidays by Bakerella

100 Best Decorated Cookies by Julie Anne Hession

75 Seashells, Fish, Coral & Colorful Marine Life to Knit & Crochet by Jessica Polka

If It’s Snowy and You Know It, Clap Your Paws! By Kim Norman, Illustrated by Liza Woodruff

Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

Christmas with the First Ladies: the White House decorating tradition from Jacqueline Kennedy to Michelle Obama by Coleen Christian Burke

Country Living Deck the Halls: Christmas note-cards, labels, ornaments, and other festive & fun projects edited by Katy McColl

The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler

This morning on The Point with Mindy Todd we were discussing books on war. Thanks to so many of you who called or e-mailed us with your listener suggestions!

Mindy’s Picks

Bunker Hill: a city a siege, a revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Mayflower: a story of courage, community, and war by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

War by Sebastian Junger

Listener Picks

Six Frigates: the epic history of the founding of the U. S. Navy by Ian W. Toll

The Last of the Doughboys: the forgotten generation and their forgotten World War by Richard Rubin

The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Back to the Front: an accidental historian walks the trenches of World War I by Stephen O’Shea

Laurie Lee Triology:

Cider With Rosie

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

A Moment of War: a memoir of the Spanish Civil War

Jill’s Picks

The Invasion From Mars: a study in the psychology of panic by Hadley Cantril

Moment of Battle: the twenty clashes that changed the world by James Lacey and Williamson Murray

Agent Garbo: the brilliant, eccentric secret agent who tricked Hitler and saved D-Day by Stephan Talty

Nostalgia by Dennis McFarland

Johnny Tremain: a novel for old & young by Esther Forbes

Cry Out: poets protest the war

Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf

Children’s Books

Aliens Are Coming!: the true account of the 1938 war of the worlds radio broadcast By Meghan Mccarthy

Henry and the Cannons: and extraordinary true story of the American Revolution by Don Brown

Dogs on Duty: soldiers’ best friends on the battlefield and beyond by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

Why War is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker, illustrated by Stefano Vitale

Melanie’s Picks

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings

What If? The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been edited by Robert Cowley

July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin

Straight and True: A Select History of the Arrow by Hugh D.H. Soar

The Amazing Weapons That Never Were by Gregory Benford

The Civil War for Kids: A History with 21 Activities by Janis Herbert

Concrete Hell: Urban Warfare from Stalingrad to Iraq by Louis A. DiMarco

Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield by Jeremy Scahill

Masters of the Battlefield: Great Commanders from the Classical Age to the Napoleonic Era by Paul K. Davis

Profiles One Event, Six Bios: The Vietnam War (Scholastic)

Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and Caught the Kommandant of Auschwitz by Thomas Harding

Today’s topic for The Point with Mindy Todd (only today we were delighted to have guest host Amy Vince) was books written by celebrities. Melanie and I dug into the big ocean of celebrity books, and tried to find a few that were actually readable! And I didn’t have time to mention this, but actor Viggo Mortenson is a published poet! I first heard about his poems thanks to a high school girl who was completely infatuated with Viggo in his role of warrior-king Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. There were no such books in the library, but I discovered he in fact opened up his own press called Perceval Press, and publishes not only his own books, but other poets and photographers as well. Downside of being an actor and a poet, your publishing house has to put a note on their website which says: “Please remember that we will not accept any letters, gifts, or scripts for Mr. Mortensen. All correspondence that pertains to Perceval Press business will be considered, all unrelated letters or packages will be either donated directly to charity or disposed of immediately.” You see there is a downside to being a celebrity author/publisher! Here’s today’s list of books mentioned.

Melanie’s Picks

Kentucky Traveler: My Life in Music by Ricky Skaggs

Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story by Carol Burnett

The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure by Jack Handey

The Truth by Michael Palin

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

The Honest Life: Living Naturally and True to You by Jessica Alba

The Imperfect Environmentalist: A Practical Guide to Clearing Your Body, Detoxing Your Home, and Saving the Earth (Without Losing Your Mind) by Sara Gilbert

Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trisha Yearwood

It’s All Good : delicious, easy recipes that will make you look good and feel great by Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Turshen

Not Enough Time For:

My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman with Alan Light

Keep It Pithy: useful observations in a tough world by Bill O’Reilly

Jill’s Picks

“Something Urgent I Have to Say to You” the Life and Works of William Carlos Williams by Herbert Leiobowitz

The Longest Way Home: one man’s quest for the courage to settle down by Andrew McCarthy

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Drama an Actor’s Education by John Lithgow (no index, College Light Opera Company is mentioned on page 128.)

The Poets’ Corner: the one-an-only poetry book for the whole family compiled by John Lithgow

Lithgow Party Paloozas! by John Lithgow

Mahalia Mouse Goes to College by John Lithgow, illustrated by Igro Oleynikov

My Father’s Daughter by Gwyneth Paltrow

Montaro Caine by Sidney Poitier

Oceana our endangered oceans and what we can do to save them by Ted Danson with Michael D’Orso

Listener Pick

Open: an autobiography by Andre Agassi

This morning on The Point with Mindy Todd, Mindy, Melanie, and I were joined by author Roland Merullo, as we talked about all things Buddhist. As always we had more books than we could mention, but we’ll add those to this list. We also had some great listener suggestions this morning! Thanks to all of you that called in. Roland Merullo will be at the library tonight at 7:00 PM talking about his newest book Lunch with Buddha, a sequel to his novel Breakfast with Buddha, and also the author of the soon to be published Supper with Buddha. We hope you can join us!

Mindy’s Picks

Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness, and the Man Who Found Them All by Perry Garfinkel

The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama but Thomas Laird

Melanie’s Picks

A Profound Mind: Cultivating Wisdom in Everyday Life by The Dalai Lama

How to be Compassionate: A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Buddhist Boot Camp by Timber Hawkeye

Tell Me Something About Buddhism: Questions and Answers for the Curious Beginner by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron

Buddha & Love: Timeless Wisdom for Modern Relationships by Lama Ole Nydahl

Buddha by Karen Armstrong

Worthwhile, but didn’t fit into show:

Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chodron

True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart by Tara Brach, Ph.D.

Jill’s Picks

Journeys on the Silk Road: a desert explorer, Buddha’s secret library, and the unearthing of the world’s oldest printed book by Joyce Morgan & Conrad Walters

Saltwater Buddha: a surfer’s quest to find zen on the sea by Jaimal Yogis

How to Be Sick: a Buddhist-inspired guide for the chronically ill and their caregivers by Toni Bernhard

Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn (which is excerpts from his book Coming to Our Senses: healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness.)

How to Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness by Jan Chozen Bays

No Time For:

Making Space: creating a home meditation practice by Thich Nhat Hanh

The Buddha Walks Into a Bar: a guide to life for a new generation by Lodro Rinzler

Running with the Mind of Meditation: lessons for training body and mind by Sakyong Mipham

Everyday Blessings: the inner work of mindful parenting by Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn

Listener Picks

Without Buddha I Could Not Be Christian by Paul F. Knitter

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: how the heart grows wise on the spiritual path by Jack Kornfield (or any book by Jack Kornfield)

Bring Me the Rhinocerous: and other zen koans that will save your life by John Tarrant

The Chicken Chronicles : Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories – Glorious, Rufus, Gertrude Stein, Splendor, Hortensia, Agnes of God, the Gladyses, and Babe – A Memoir by Alice Walker

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Today on The Point with Mindy Todd we discussed good books for Summer Reading. This is always one of my favorite shows, just because I love the idea of Summer Reading so much, although working on Cape Cod in a public library, our busiest season is the summer, so I don’t actually get that much summer reading accomplished. What do you hope to read this summer? Let us know! And if you want to take a look at our Summer Reading List called The Bulger Backstory you can do so here. (By next summer it will probably be twice as long!)

Jill’s Picks

My Ideal Bookshelf. Art by Jane Mount and edited by Thessaly La Force

Children’s Book-A –Day Almanac by Anita Silvey

The Caretaker by A. X. Ahmad

The Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee

Killer Librarian by Mary Lou Kirwin

The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published by Library of America. And if you’d like to read Katherine A. Powers article about the LOA books it’s called ”Darkness on the Prairie.”

New England Notebook: one reporter, six states, uncommon stories by Ted Reinstein (who will be talking about his new book at Falmouth Public Library on Tuesday, July 16th at 7:00 PM.)

The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart

The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

Bats at the Beach written and illustrated by Brian Lies

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

Melanie’s Picks

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

Little Green by Walter Mosley

The Engagements: A Novel by J. Courtney Sullivan

The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything … Fast by Josh Kaufman

The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher

Tape It & Make It: 101 Duct Tape Activities by Richela Fabian Morgan

The Flower Recipe Book by Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo

No time for:

Green Smoothie Joy: Recipes for Living, Loving, and Juicing Green by Cressida Elias

The Tinkerers: The Amateurs, DIYers, and Inventors Who Make America Great by Alec Foege

Listener Pick

The Emerald Scepter by Paul Kemprecos