Call number: BF515 B56 2011

Bloom (Descartes’ Baby), a psychology professor at Yale, explores pleasure from evolutionary and social perspectives, distancing himself from the subject’s common association with the senses. By examining studies and anecdotes of pleasure-inducing activities like eating, art, sex, and shopping, Bloom posits that pleasure takes us closer to the essence of a thing, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral. He argues that humans seem to be hard-wired to give, as well as receive, pleasure. A study using mislabeled, cheap bottles of wine, wherein “Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only twelve said this of the cheap label,” demonstrates the complicated sociological components behind what we find pleasurable. Bloom even briefly examines positive reactions to very hot food and other “controlled doses of pain.” And a study where rhesus monkeys chose pictures of female hindquarters and high-status monkeys over fruit juice allows the author to surmise that “Two major vices–pornography and celebrity worship–are not exclusively human.” (From Google Books)

Call number: B PAL

Based on more than two-hundred interviews–many of them with Republican colleagues and one-time political allies of Palin’s–and more than forty-thousand pages of uncovered documents, Dunn chronicles Palin’s troubling penchant for duplicity in grim detail, from her dysfunctional childhood in Wasilla through her contentious run for mayor and her failed governorship of Alaska. He also provides the shocking inside story of her betrayal of running mate John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign and her self-serving resignation as governor in July of the following year. Dunn deftly places Palin in the American tradition of right-wing demagogues–from Huey Long to Joe McCarthy–and details her troubling obsession with Barack Obama as it fuels her own political ambitions and a potential run for the presidency in 2012. (From B&N)

Call Number: B DUG

In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen.
For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse.
For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.
On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim. I survived. A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it. — by Jaycee Dugard

Amaze your friends with a new twist on old summer party favorites. For example, get Martha Stewart’s Dinner at Home (TX 737 .S8565 2009) and learn how to cook these delicious pancetta burgers. Slices of crisped pancetta and melted fontina cheese take the place of bacon and cheddar at this weeknight barbecue. Summery white-bean salad with tomatoes and basil stands in for more predictable side dishes. We have several other Martha Stewart cookbooks available, too.