I definitely loved Heads You Lose, the wonderfully fun and zany novel that Lisa Lutz wrote with her ex-boyfriend. (Read my review here.) And I have to say that Trail of the Spellmans is pretty entertaining, for the most part. It’s a continuation of The Spellman Files, a series of novels about a rather dysfunctional family detective agency. Isabel Spellman, a 30-something year old detective, working for the family agency, is in the middle of several cases. Her father has a secret. Her mother is behaving bizarrely and no one seems to comment on it. Her brother and sister are feuding and neither will tell Isabel what the problem is. Her boyfriend’s mother is coming to visit and her tiny niece, Sydney, calls everything a banana. It’s enough to push anyone to a breakdown.

In this book, the cases they’re working seem chosen to play up the family drama. Her mother is taking classes — suddenly, indiscriminately studying everything from pottery to Russian literature, every day of the week, and no seems to find that remarkable except Isabel. She and her sister, Rae, are shadowing clients who may or may not be involved in illegal dealings — possibly with each other — and her parents seem very reluctant to talk seriously about the conflicts of interest they are facing. And perhaps most importantly, Isabel and her boyfriend, Henry, are facing serious problems. (I would think that the biggest problem is that she refers to him as Ex-Boyfriend #13, even though they’re still together, but that seems par for the course.) Everything seems gearing up for a giant collision.

Some of this book is laugh-out-loud funny. There is some very clever writing and I would probably try another Lutz novel, perhaps an earlier Spellman “document” (this book is Document #5). Some of it plods along, particularly in the middle. I found the family a little too precious, a little too forcibly funny, and that, of course, takes all the fun out of it. When Isabel is hiding from her boyfriend, she goes to her brother, David. But she doesn’t ring the doorbell and ask for asylum; she sneaks in a window. It just seems forced. There is quite a big deal about the secret that has caused a falling-out between David and Rae, and while the secret is definitely sufficient to cause a family feud, it just seemed so totally implausible that it sort of spoiled the fun.

All in all, it wasn’t a total loss, but I’m not convinced this was the best of the Spellman books. I am still open to trying an earlier book, but not as eager as I was right after Heads You Lose.

My copy of Trail of the Spellmans was an Advanced Reader Copy, provided free of charge.

This week, my teaser is from Hollywood Boulevard by Janyce Stefan-Cole. Just getting started on it, so this really is a bit random. Even though I am not really interested in snow right now, I thought this quote was perfect. I know this feeling exactly, when the snow makes you feel distant and disconnected:

 ”We bundled scarves over our coats and went out into a hushed city, an inch already sticking, the sky sprinkling powdery flakes. We were inside a bistro after walking for fifteen minutes; everyone in the bar in good spirits for no better reason than the falling snow, as if we were all stranded in a fort far from the real world.”

Isn’t that a good description of the feeling?

Olive Kitteridge

Monday: I wish I could tell you about the books that have come in, but I’m not at home! That will have to wait for next week. But I have been thinking about how I choose books for trips — maybe I’ll have a chance to write a little about that.

Tuesday: No matter what, I will have a Teaser for you.

Wednesday: I hope to have some new words for you and I might even have a bonus book review!

Thursday: Be sure to check for my review of Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz.

Friday: Friday I have a special guest post from Joanne DeMaio, author of Whole Latte Life. (Right now, it’s 99 cents at the Kindle store! You can have it read before her guest post!)

Saturday: I will be spending Saturday with a dear friend of mine, in town on business of his own from Canada, and you know there will be Snapshots!

Sunday: Even a blogger has to rest some day.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Today, I’ve got some more photos from my trip to Sheffield and my side trip to London. Once again, you’re not likely to see a lot of typical photos, but I found so many interesting things to see! These are a few of my favorites…

This Will Make You Smarter

The founder and publisher of the online science salon, Edge.org, John Brockman, does  a great job editing this collection, turning more than 100 essays on a wide range of topics into a coherent manuscript that works its way across the spectrum. You start out talking about one concept and smoothly work your way into another — it definitely kept me interested in topics that could potentially be pretty dry.

There are too many important concepts to cover them all, but there were a few that I found really interesting.  First, there was an interesting article by Douglas Rushkoff* called “Technologies Have Biases.” This passage was thought-provoking:

“We are free to use any car we like to get to work — gasoline, diesel, electric or hydrogen-powered — and this sense of choice blinds us to the fundamental bias of the automobile toward distance, commuting, suburbs and energy consumption.”

And that’s true — we buy a hybrid because it’s “greener” and we are pro-environment, but the very fact of buying a car shows a preference that we don’t even think about.

I also found “The Focusing Illusion” by Daniel Kahneman** a fascinating idea:

“Marketers exploit the focusing illusion. When people are induced to believe that they ‘must have’ a good, they greatly exaggerate the difference that good will make to the quality of their life.”

Think about that and apply it to our current political climate. When politicians convince us that a particular issue is important, no matter what the issue, we attach an unreasonable importance to specific laws or measures related to that issue, and the difference they will make in the government. It has given me a different slant on the political commercials I have seen.

There are also a number of essays on risk and uncertainty, and just how bad humans are at understanding risk and dealing with it. The chance that we might be killed in a terrorist attack is almost infinitesimal, but we have spent a huge amount of money, time and effort protecting ourselves against the threat. On the other hand, we are far more likely to die in our car on the way to the grocery store, and yet many people don’t even bother with seat belts or regular brake checks.

All in all, this was a terrific, thought-provoking read that can be applied to so many aspects of modern life. I think that anyone who picks this up is going to find topics that interest them and cause them to rethink their usual assumptions. I would love to buy a copy for all of the teachers I know and challenge them to use some of these concepts in their classrooms! (There is a great essay on the importance of understanding which concepts are easy to teach and which ones are harder to grasp — they could start with that.) I will definitely be passing this on to some thoughtful friends.

My copy of This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking was an Advanced Reader copy, provided free of charge.

* Douglas Rushkoff, Media theorist, documentary writer and author, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commandments for the Digital Age

**Daniel Kahneman, Professor Emeritus of psychology and public affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University; recipient, 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

This week, my words are from This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking. It’s a terrific book of short essays about scientific ideas that we should all understand to improve our thinking and understanding of the world around us. It’s also got some tough words!

1. Conspecifics - a member of the same species

“…in which the reproduction of the technique wasn’t passed on to offspring through the genes but transmitted among non-kin conspecifics who picked up the trick of imitation.”

Wow! That’s a very roundabout way of saying they didn’t inherit it from Mom and Dad, but learned it from the neighbors.

2. Eukaryotic - having cells with `good’ or membrane-bound nuclei
3. Prokaryotic – having cells that lack membrane-bound nuclei 

“The complex eukaryotic cells of which we are made are themselves the product of much simpler prokaryotic cells that merged together from the bottom up…”

4. Orthonasal - arising from odor compounds traveling through the “external nares,” or nostrils
5. Retronasal – arising from odor compounds traveling through the “internal nares,” located inside the mouth

“There is good reason to think that we have two senses of smell: (1) an external sense of smell – orthonasal olfaction, produced by inhaling — that enables us to detect such things in the environment as food, predators, and smoke; and an internal sense — retronasal olfaction, produced by exhaling…”

6. Veridical – truthful; coinciding with reality

“First, the notion of applying good (“veridical“) sensory contact with the world becomes a  matter of applying the right expectations to the incoming signal.”

7. Doppio - in espresso, a double shot, extracted using a double filter basket

“If you learn a stranger’s name after drinking a doppio espresso with her at the local java house, it will be easier to remember that name if you meet again at Starbucks.”

There are more, but that’s enough to show you that this is a challenging read! But take my word for it — it’s worth the effort. Check back tomorrow for my review!

I am going to be traveling all day Saturday, so I don’t know if I will get a chance to add this to the Linky, but at least I’ll have the post scheduled. I am in Sheffield, England this week, training at our laboratory here. One of the trainees was born here and has been kind enough to show me around the city. The city tour seems to include a large number of pubs. Hmmm. Last night, he invited me out to hear one of his mates at a local venue called The Hop. Great pub and some really amazing artwork:

And I wouldn’t want to happen upon this after one pint too many:

And more street art! This is right across from our hotel and I love the way they have turned an ordinary brick wall into a bit of charming public art. We passed another, similar piece featuring a bunch of buzzards (!) but sadly, I didn’t have the camera with me.

I wasn’t sure I was going to have time to post, as the trip to Sheffield has been keeping me pretty busy. (Also, my colleague seems determined to show me all of his favorite haunts. ) But I do have a few words this week from This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking:

1. Teleologically -  Belief in or the perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in nature or history

“In ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle saw the world teleologically - rain falls because water wants to be lower than air; animals (and slaves) are naturally subservient to human citizens.”

2. Comity – An atmosphere of social harmony

“Squabbling colleagues or relatives agree to swallow their pride, take their losses, or lump it and enjoy the resulting comity rather than absorbing the costs of continual bickering…”

3. Proxemics - The study of the cultural, behavioral, and sociological aspects of spatial distances between individuals.

“To understand how our cosmopolitan and multigendered cities work, we need a proxemics of urban sexuality.”

There are probably going to be a few more words from this work, but this gives you a flavor. Some of the subject matter is dense, but the essays are short — some are less than a page — and flow well, one to the other, making for really fascinating reading.

What new words did YOU learn this week?

This week, my Teaser is from This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking by edited by John Brockman. It’s a collection of essays answering the question, “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit?”

This teaser comes from an essay called “The Snuggle for Existence” by Roger Highfield, Editor of New Scientist magazine. It’s about the importance of cooperation as a strategy for success:

“Many problems that challenge us today can be traced back to a profound tension between what is good an desirable for society as a whole and what is good and desirable for an individual. That conflict can be found in global problems such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, poverty, hunger, and overpopulation.”