House Finches are year round residents in the Chicago area. In the winter they are often seen in groups in urban areas, parks and backyards.
I saw this pair at my favorite bird watching site, Cantigny Gardens. The male is on the right and the female on the left. They don’t seem to mind the snow or the cold. Their layer of down feathers provide good insulation.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
MWF Seeking BFF:
My Yearlong Search For A New Best Friend
by Rachel Bertsche
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publish Date: December 20, 2011
Format: Paperbackback | 336 pages
Rating: 4 of 5
When Rachel Bertsche first moved to Chicago with her boyfriend, now husband, she left her good friends behind in New York. She made a few new friends but no one that she felt comfortable calling at the last minute for girl talk over brunch or a reality-TV marathon over a bottle of wine. So she decided to set out on a mission to go on fifty-two friend-dates over the next year. What began as a blog to track her year-long progress resulted in this entertaining memoir.
Rachel writes in a witty, engaging style. In addition to her humorous accounts of 52 friend dates she sprinkles in her findings on research she did on adult friendship and friendlessness. She employed every option she coud think of to meet new people and, literally, ask for their friendship. When you’re young and a high school or college student, friends come easy and naturally. But something happens when we get older and it’s not so easy anymore. Won’t people think you are weird if you ask strangers to go to lunch or shopping with you? No, it turns out they won’t.
What did I learn from her friend-date project?
• By actively seeking friends you dramatically speed up the process
• People are friendlier than we think, most are flattered to be approached
• Most people won’t follow up on a ‘let’s get together’ unless you contact them
• Most people prefer email, txt or IM to set up a friend date
• Be a better listener than a talker
• As an adult you won’t find the same kind of friend you had when you were 15.
In addition to being a captivating story, I found the book to be thought provoking and, in a way, inspiring. I don’t have as many friends as I used to have. Some moved away, some drifted away as we aged and our interests changed, some didn’t have time as their priorities changed. Things happen. And with a busy schedule, I didn’t actively try to replace them with new ones.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have more friends? I can say with certainty that I couldn’t do a lot of the things Rachel did, such as renting a friend, or putting an ad in the paper. But joining some new groups and meetups in my community is a possibility I might explore. Studies show that people are happier and healthier when they have a strong social network and varied circle of friends.
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More information about Rachel on her blog.
Follow Rachel on twitter or Facebook.
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Source: Copy provided by the publisher for review.
Almost Wordless: This little American Goldfinch was eating the thistle from the dead yellow coneflower in my garden.
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More Wordless Wednesday.
One of my favorite genres is science fiction. So I was pleased to see that Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting The Scifi Experience which runs from January 1st through February 29th. There are no rules, this isn’t a challenge, only an invitation to experience how exhilarating science fiction can be.
Neuromancer
by William Gibson
Read by: Robertson Dean
While looking through the new arrivals on the audiobook display at my library I noticed a copy of Neuromancer, a 20th anniversary edition. Wow, I thought, has it been that long? It had been years since I first tried to read it, details were fuzzy and now I had the opportunity to listen to it in audiobook just in time for The Scifi Experience. Perfect. Well, almost.
Neuromancer is set in a dystopian future. We meet Henry Case in Chiba City, Japan, which has a gritty, dark, underworld feel to it. Case was once a brilliant “Computer Cowboy” (ie hacker) who can no longer access the global computer network. Case made the mistake of stealing from his employers. They hunted him down and damaged his central nervous system with a toxic poison, leaving him unable to jack-in to the matrix. Case now lives in constant pain, is addicted to drugs and would do anything to reverse the damage. His wish comes true when he is offered a cure in exchange for a hacking assignment. But his mission is far more complex than he imagined.
This is definitely a book that was ahead of its time. In the early 1980s we were introduced to “cyberspace” before the existence of the internet. In a new introduction Gibson discusses the fact that he didn’t envision small communication devices and that he was guilty of having an ignorance of cell phone technology; but had the characters used cell phones instead of pay phones, it would have changed the way they interacted. Other times characters speak of “hot megabytes of ram” having street value (which would be worthless today) and Case asks for a “modem” to get onto the net. Although Gibson did not foresee those future changes, it doesn’t take away anything from novel. The opening line:
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
still has meaning to me. But how will the next generation, raised on LCD display, tubes interpret it? I’m sure they will do just fine.
The audio production itself was excellent. Robertson Dean is a skillful narrator with nicely performed accents and characters that were easily distinguished from one another. However, this is one of the few books that I feel would be better in print than audio for most people. There were a lot of times I wasn’t sure what was going on and had to back up and listen again.
I don’t normally have trouble with science fiction and world building, but this is a dark, depressing world, with frustrating dialog and a lot of words whose meaning were often unclear. The complex nature of the book and the style of Gibson’s writing contributed to my difficulty at times in grasping the plot. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the book. On the contrary, I liked it a lot, but this is a book you may have to read multiple times to finally “get it”. Usually I don’t like to put this much work into understanding a novel, but with this one I feel it’s worth it. The book’s greatness lies in what it ushered in. It served as inspiration for the next generation of techies to invent the things that Gibson only imagined.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The January host is Alyce of
At Home With Books.
Another eclectic week, even more than usual. I will occasionally read YA, and Born Wicked looks irresistible… alternate reality, historical setting, witches, a romance and a gorgeous cover. Other Waters sounds like it will be a strong debut novel, and has an equally beautiful cover. I know, don’t judge by the cover but I can’t resist when they are so pretty. I also received an audio book of Jacqueline Kennedy’s Interviews, one I’ve had my eye on for a while and, for anyone in the job search market, (which I have now been thrown into as the company I worked for was sold) I will be hosting a giveaway of Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google?
From the publisher for review::
Born Wicked
by Jessica Spotswood
Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word . . . especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.
From the publisher for review::
Other Waters
by Eleni N. Gage
When her grandmother dies in India, a family squabble over property results in a curse that drifts across continents and threatens Maya’s life. Or so her father says– Maya (being a modern woman, an American, and a doctor, for goodness’ sake) doesn’t believe in curses, Brahman, or otherwise. But when her father suffers a heart attack, her sister miscarries, and her career and relationship both start to falter, Maya starts to worry. A trip back to India with her best friend Heidi, Maya reasons, will be just what’s needed to remove the curse, save her family, and to put her own life back in order.
From the Harper Audio for review::
Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy by Caroline Kennedy
In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy recorded seven historic interviews about her life with John F. Kennedy. Now, decades later, these conversations can be heard in this digitally re-mastered eight and a half hour audio program. This audiobook includes the foreword written and read by Caroline Kennedy; introduction written and read by historian Michael Beschloss; and the photos from the hardcover book, as well as complete annotations from Michael Beschloss, both in downloadable PDF format.
From the publisher for review and a giveaway::
Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google?
by William Poundstone
Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google guides readers through the surprising solutions to dozens of the most challenging interview questions. The book covers the importance of creative thinking, ways to get a leg up on the competition, what your Facebook page says about you, and much more. Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed in today’s job market.
How was your week?
The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds
by Richard Crossley
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publish Date: February 20, 2011
Format: Hardback | 544 pages
Rating: 5 of 5
The Crossley ID Guide is a revolutionary concept in bird identification guides. The book uses composite photographs to show birds as they would actually be seen in the field. The Eastern Guide contains 640 scenes created from more than 10,000 of the authors own photographs showing birds in a wide range of views.
The book begins with a short introduction by the author where he explains how use the guide and a little information on birding and bird terminology. The remainder of the book, over 500 pages, are photographs combined into scenes. Instead of the usual drawings found in typical field guides, these are scenes created from thousands of different photos placed into a collage. Birds are show in various poses, in flight, in trees, on land or water, in the birds natural habitat.
This is a book for both beginning and experienced birders, and I would recommend it for new birders. Traditional guides often show a drawing or photo of a bird close up and in detail, but this isn’t how you see most birds. They are hopping around and flying away at many different angles. The composite photo gives you several different views of the bird, plus differences in plumage by age, sex and season. It also show the typical behavior of the birds by putting them in the proper context.
Showing the birds in context is invaluable. For example, the Dark-eyed Junco is a bird seen in the Eastern US in the winter, therefore the photos show the birds in snowy scenes perched on shrubs, trees or at bird feeders, where they are most likely to be found. There is also a photo of a Junco in flight showing its white underparts; when a Junco takes flight you almost always see a white flash. Another example, Cedar Waxwings are shown both perching and hanging upside down grabbing berries from tree, which is often where they can be found. In addition, species are identified as male, female, juvenile and immature. A young bird will sometimes look nothing like it’s parents for the first year.
Black-capped Chickadee, The Crossley ID Guide - page 372 (Click for larger view)
Below each photo is the common name, scientific name, a short description of the bird and a listing of the important field marks: size, shape, plumage. And lastly, there is a range map indicating year-round, breeding (summer) and winter ranges for each species.
For anyone accustomed to a standard field guide this will feel a little different at first. It didn’t take me long to be won over, this is the first book I reach for now when I need to ID a bird. This doesn’t take the place of a field guide which is smaller and something you would take with you on a birding trip. This is a fairly heavy, full size 7½ x 10 inch book.
I’ve been using this guide for a few months now and my conclusion is… I love it! I pair this with a small field guide like National Geographic and I’m good to identify most birds in the Eastern USA. New birders looking for a guide to get started should take a look at this book.
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Additional samples of the photographs in the book can be found on the author’s website.
Under My Apple Tree 