Inside Scoop: Wax on… Wax off…

Last night I was watching the newer Karate Kid for the zillionth time (it’s a guaranteed favorite for foster kids). The training that Dre Parker goes through using the jacket and “hang it up, put it on, drop it, pick it up…” reminded me of several books I’ve cataloged recently about forming new habits and willpower, and the brain activities involved in doing this.

The field of brain science has exploded in recent years moving beyond biology to include chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics, medicine and allied disciplines, philosophy, physics, and psychology and the social sciences. This is due in large part to advances in genetics, electrophysiology, computational neuroscience, and molecular biology. The implications for continued discoveries using a multi-disciplinary approach is, well… mind blowing.

We don’t break habits, we replace them with something else, and we can’t fix problems, but we can discover what’s missing that, if it were to exist, would shift us into no problem. These books might lead you to something that works for you:

The power of habit: why we do what we do in life and business by Charles Duhigg and Breaking the habit of being yourself: How to lose your mind and create a new one, by Dr. Joe Dispenza both deal with the topic of habits but from very different angles. Duhigg became fascinated with how we create habits while working as a newspaper reporter in Iraq. He learned that the military are experts on habit-formation, and that much of their methodology is used by corporations to market products to the public. Applying their techniques he has been able to lose weight, train for a marathon and produce more. 

Dr. Dispenza, a practicing chiropractor, who was also featured in the movie  What the BLEEP Do We Know!? combines research from a mix of disciplines including quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics to develop a program that bridges science and spirituality.

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, is strongly recommended by Nancy here in Tech Services. This book looks at self-control through psychology, and discovers that willpower actually operates like a muscle, and can be strengthened with practice and fatigued by overuse. They also found that willpower – essentially a mental activity, is fueled by glucose, and it can be bolstered simply by replenishing the brain’s store of fuel. That’s why eating and sleeping or failing to do so can have dramatic effects on self-control. This book supports the idea that improving willpower is the surest way to a better life and conversely, most major personal and social problems center on failure of self-control. Stories are included about Eric Clapton and his love of alcohol and drugs; Stanley who discovered Dr. Livingstone, and Oprah Winfrey and Drew Carey.  — Erin

Kid’s Corner: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

Steven Spielberg’s film “War Horse” opens in movie theaters on Christmas Day.  The film is based on the children’s book by Michael Morpurgo, published in 1982. 
The book has also been made into a very successful stage play, using large puppets to play the parts of the horses.  The story is told by Joey, a horse who grows up on a farm in England.  Joey forms a deep attachment to Albert, the young boy who cares for him on the farm.   The two are forcibly separated when World War I breaks out.  Joey is sold to the British Army and he becomes a cavalry horse.  As a “war horse”, Joey begins an extraordinary journey of survival through the war and touches many lives on both sides of the conflict.   All the while, his young master, Albert, never gives up his search to find his beloved friend and to bring him back home. 

This is a very powerful, magical story about the bond between humans and animals and about the tragic waste of war.    The book would be best for grades four and up and adults will appreciate the story as well as children. 

Ginny W., Youth Services

Off the Shelf: Big Top Books

Did reading Sarah Gruen’s Water for Elephants make you want to run away to join the circus? You’re not alone! The book has been so popular, especially with book groups, that we put together a Book Club Kit. When the movie starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson came out, it brought the Depression-era traveling circus story to an even wider audience. While you wait for the DVD or Blu-ray to arrive November 1st (place your hold now), check out these other stories of circuses and the fascinating folks who inhabit them:

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin (2011)
Based on the true story of a 2-foot 8-inch woman whose world changes immensely when she joins B. T. Barnum’s circus in the 1800s.

The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson (2009)
When a ship docks at the Bristol harbor with two ailing elephants inside, a young stable boy is charged with their care.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (2011)
The plans of two competing magicians go awry when the young wards they’ve raised to prepetuate their rivalry fall in love instead.

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine (2011)
A magical mechanical circus gives its audience respite from a wartorn landscape. But strife comes to the circus as well when the performers’ desires clash.

Blurbs from the Branch – The Scarlet Pimpernel

Are you planning your family vacations yet? How about your family vacation reading list?

The first time I read The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, it was a family vacation read.  I was in high school and my family was taking turns reading it aloud on a camping trip.  Maybe it’s partly because of the good memories from that trip, but that book has been one of my favorite books of all time ever since (but also because it’s a really great read!). 

What I remember most from that trip is that we didn’t want to stop reading The Scarlet Pimpernel, and when we weren’t reading it, we were often talking about it.  It’s a fast-paced book with plenty of action and is part adventure novel, part mystery, and part love story, with plenty of humor thrown in.  It’s definitely a book that would appeal to almost anyone the same way it appealed to my four different family members (my mom reads nonfiction, my dad reads action adventure if anything at all, my sister reads mystery, and I prefer classics with at least a little bit of a love story!). 

Set in England during the French Revolution, the novel follows the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, a mysterious man who uses disguises to rescue French aristocrats from execution at the hands of the French revolutionaries.  The other main character is Marguerite St. Just back in England.  She is an aristocrat who is a bit bored with her life but fascinated by the Scarlet Pimpernel and curious to discover his real identity.

There have also been many excellent movie versions made, so that you have something to watch together when you get home from your vacation.  None of them are quite as great as the book (or course!), but I especially recommend the 1934 version with Leslie Howard and the 1998 BBC version with Richard Grant.

Have you ever shared a book with family or friends when you were on vacation (or at home)? What have been your favorite communal reads? What should everyone have on their family vacation reading list this summer?

- Jeannine

Books to Film – November/December

Check out these books that inspired feature films!

In theaters now:

Fair Game by Valerie Plame Wilson – The woman at the center of the Bush administration’s CIA leak scandal breaks her silence as she describes her role as an undercover CIA operative, her training and experiences, her efforts to protect her children, and her battle with the CIA to reveal the truth.

Tangled based on Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm – The classic fairy tale about a  young woman with extremely long hair who is kept captive in a tower…

Love & Other Drugs based on Hard Sell: the Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy – This nonfiction book serves as an expose about the American pharmaceutical industry.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling – Burdened with the dark, dangerous, and seemingly impossible task of locating and destroying Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes, Harry, feeling alone and uncertain about his future, struggles to find the inner strength he needs to follow the path set out before him.  The film is only part 1.  Part 2 will be released next year.

I Love You Phillip Morris by Steve McVicker – The film is limited release, but you can still check out the original book.  Learn the true story of how Steven Russell went from cop to criminal (including many successful prison breaks).

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia) by C. S. Lewis – Lucy and Edmund, accompanied by their peevish cousin Eustace, sail to the land of Narnia where Eustace is temporarily transformed into a green dragon because of his selfish behavior and skepticism.

Hemingway’s Garden of Eden by, you guessed it, Ernest Hemingway – This posthumously published novel chronicles the extended honeymoon of David and Catherine and their shared love of a woman named Marita.  The film is limited release.

Coming to theaters soon:

True Grit by Charles Portis – U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn is hired by a 14-year-old girl to kill the man who murdered her father and stole the family nest egg. She accepts the help of the Texas Ranger, who is intent on the reward, and accompanies them on the quest.

Gulliver’s Travels  by Jonathan Swift – The voyages of an eighteenth-century Englishman carry him to such strange places as Lilliput, where people are six inches tall, and Brobdingnag, a land peopled by giants.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare – The film is based on this Shakespearean play about Prospero, his daughter, Miranda, and a storm…