By Brooke Newman
Harmony | 320pgs
Release Date: March 30, 2010

Brooke Newman recounts the true story of the unusual, yet enduring friendship between her father, James and his African-American housekeeper Jenniemae, in Jenniemae & James: A Memoir in Black and White. James Newman was a brilliant and distinguished mathematician, well known for defining the “googol” (google) concept in math and authoring the important work The World of Mathematics. In contrast, Jenniemae Harrington was a poor, uneducated, heavy-set woman, who though deeply religious, loved to play the lottery with numbers that came to her in dreams. During the ’40′s and ’50′s, the unlikely pair bonded through their sharp minds and shared love of numbers. As racial tensions rose throughout the country, planting the seeds for the Civil Rights Movement, household tensions grew due to James’ infidelities and his wife’s emotional problems. Through it all, Jenniemae became a steady, loving force in the home. This bi-racial friendship may have been outside the cultural norm of the time, yet it blossomed into a wellspring of calm, caring and loyalty for Jenniemae, James, and his family.
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Yesterday, AppAdvice.com reported that the iBooks App for Apple’s new iPad will feature the entire Gutenberg Project catalog free of charge. An incredible digital resource, the Gutenberg Project is maintained with the help of thousands of volunteers, and offers more than 30,000 digitized books for free. The books are available in a variety of digital formats (ePub, HTML, etc.) and can be viewed on PCs, smart phones, eReaders, and soon the iPad. All of their titles are in the public domain, and AppleInsider.com speculates that Apple pursued this partnership in order to head off the propagation of inferior apps created to make a profit on books already free to the public. We’re big supporters of reading for free at In the Stax, and applaud Apple for providing these valuable resources to their consumers at no charge.
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By Lynn Cullen
Putnam Adult | 400pgs
Release Date: March 23, 2010

Lynn Cullen depicts the lavish and politically charged court of Spain’s Golden Age, in her new historical novel The Creation of Eve. Based on the obscure true-life story of Sofonisba Anguissola, one of the few distinguished female painters of the Renaissance, the book opens in 1559 as she leaves her Italian homeland amid rumors of a scandal involving a fellow art student. At the invitation of King Felipe II of Spain, Sofi becomes a lady-in-waiting at his court, and begins giving painting lessons to his new bride. The young Queen Elisabeth finds an ally in Sofi, as the artist helps the Queen maneuver through the gossipy trenches of the Spanish court and win the affections of the King. The painter yearns only to focus on her art, but is soon entangled in a dangerous love triangle between King Felipe, Queen Elisabeth and Don Juan, the King’s half brother. Drawing on historical fact, Cullen spins an engrossing tale of art, love and Renaissance culture.
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Portrait of René Descartes by Frans Hals

When Erik-Jan Bos, a scholar at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, conducted a recent Google search for documents referencing philosopher René Descartes, he made an extraordinary discovery. A letter written by Descartes in 1641, and later stolen from the Institut de France, had been buried in the archives of Haverford College for over a century. Its theft was documented in the 1880′s, when Count Guglielmo Libri, a mathematics professor and administrator for France’s public libraries, pilfered thousands of valuable letters and documents. He then fled to England to avoid prosecution and sold the pieces off to various buyers. The letter came into the possession of the Pennsylvania college as part of a large collection of correspondence and ephemera, signed by notable political and literary figures, donated by the widow of Haverford alumni Charles Roberts, class of 1864. It is likely that Roberts purchased the letter from a dealer, and did not know it was stolen. Read more…

By Annie Leonard
Free Press | 352pgs
Release Date: March 9, 2010

Environmentalist Annie Leonard continues the conversation on over-consumption started in her internet documentary The Story of Stuff in her new book The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change. Expanding on the material in the film, Leonard discusses the five stages of consumer goods: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal, and how these stages are damaging the environment and lowering the quality of life. Through in-depth research and first hand experience visiting landfills and factories throughout the world, the author illustrates how natural resources are being depleted and how the toxic by-products of manufacturing material goods are ruining people’s health. The never-ending quest for more “stuff” forces many people to work more, enjoy life less, and fill garbage pits with discarded junk. In the face of this consumption crisis, Leonard suggests a shift in societal values towards emotional well-being, rather than material gain, re-adjusting the work-life balance, and introducing strict legislation world-wide to stop the environmental erosion.
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The terms toxicology, trace evidence and DNA have become part of the vernacular thanks to television shows like CSI, Law & Order and the Court TV network. Yet, less than a century ago, forensics was a nascent discipline. Science writer, Deborah Blum, profiles two of the early pioneers in forensic science in her new book The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (Penguin Press, 336). In 1918, Charles Norris was appointed as the first chief medical examiner in New York City. Norris, along with his lead toxicologist Alexander Gettler, made great strides in the study of toxicology, developing new tests to detect different poisons, even in small amounts. The chief’s efforts helped reform a previously corrupt coroner’s office and emphasize the importance of toxicological evidence, which had largely been ignored.
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By Seth Grahame-Smith
Grand Central Publishing | 336pgs
Release Date: March 02, 2010

Seth Grahame-Smith’s fantastical foray into the horror/history genre Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, opens in a small cabin in Indiana, during the year 1818. Lincoln, a boy of just nine years, watches his mother’s life slip away as she suffers from a mysterious illness called “Milk Sickness.” Later as a young man, he learns that his mother’s death was caused by a vampire, and embarks on a life-long crusade to fight against the undead masses. Though Lincoln’s great accomplishments of ending slavery and fighting to keep America united have been well documented, his vendetta against vampires remained secret. Author Seth Grahame-Smith is finally able to bring these secrets to light with the discovery of The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln. Drawing on events recorded in the diary, Grahame-Smith stages an epic “biography” of the 16th President, revealing the shrouded history of the Civil War, and the role the undead evil-doers played in the upheaval.
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In February, concerns were raised about the veracity of one of Charles Pellegrino’s sources in his new book The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, which documents the experiences of Japanese blast survivors as well as the American flight crews that dropped the atomic bomb. Joseph Fuoco (now-deceased) claimed to be a last-minute substitution on the flight crew of one of two escort planes accompanying the Enola Gay during its fateful mission on Aug. 6, 1945. But, Fuoco’s account of the bombing and his claim that an accident while readying the weapon killed an American scientist and weakened the bomb’s power, have been vehemently denied by historians and the surviving flight crew members. The Seattle Times reports that evidence has come to light that proves flight engineer, James Corliss, actually flew in the escort plane, not Fuoco. Though, it is possible that he did participate in reconnaissance flights over Hiroshima before and after the blast.
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By Kelly Corrigan
Hyperion | 96pgs
Release Date: March 2, 2010

Addressing her children, Kelly Corrigan writes a tender, richly intimate missive on the challenges and joys of parenthood in her new book Lift. With humor and thoughtfulness, the author intertwines the real-life stories of three adults’ experiences with the peaks and pitfalls of raising children. The book title, taken from a hang gliding term, describes the technique in which a glider must fly deliberately into turbulent air, in order to avoid losing altitude. Corrigan chose this term to symbolize the challenging, sometimes rough and chaotic, ride of parenting. She highlights the complexity of this role with honesty and tenderness. Though parents may fall short in their duties at times, Lift serves as a reminder of the importance and rewards of child rearing.
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