A long list today!

Today, we returned one back full of items, but came back with two! LOL We did keep two from our previous list - An Inconvenient Truth, which I'm having to read in small spurts to avoid unnecessarily increasing my blood pressure, and The Satanic Gases, which has parts I have had to read over a couple of times to make sure I'm understanding it properly.

For the new stuff, Youngest chose:

Calvin & Hobbes, Revenge of the Baby-sat: An oldie but goodie. I think we actually own that one (which would be sitting in a box with the rest of our library, back in Manitoba).

The Werewolf of Fever Swamp: a Goosebumps book.

Runestone and Wolfspell, books 1 & 2 from the Viking Magic series of books. This is completely new for all of us, but they look pretty good.

Eldest chose:

The Book of Faeries; A Guide to the World of Elves, Pixies, Goblins and other Magic Spirits: It includes a history of faeries, descriptions, and even rituals and recipes. Some very interesting artwork, too.

Dictionary of Symbolic & Mythological Animals: An historical and cross-cultural look at the meanings people have associated with real and mythical creatures.

Making Comics; Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels: A very practical illustrated guide for anyone interested in making their own comics.

Understanding Comic; The Invisible Art: A precursor of the above book, by the same author.

Alien Empire; An Exploration of the Lives of Insects: This book is a companion to a mini-series by the same name. It's gorgeously photographed, with all sorts of interesting info.

Enjoying Moths: Another beautifully photographed and informative choice.

And from my selections:

Gemstones; Symbols of Beauty and Power: I have to admit, I got this one for the pictures. Anything else I get out of it (and there's plenty there) is just bonus!

Lost Discoveries; The Forgotten Science of the Ancient World: I've always been fascinated at the hints of ancient technologies, from the astonishing accuracy of the Mayan calendar, to batteries and light bulbs and ancient Egypt and computers in ancient Greece, there's no shortage of mysteries about our ancestors.

Krakatau 1883; The Volcanic Eruption and its Effects: not only was the explosive force of Krakatoa's (there are several variations of the name) greater than anything ever verifiably experienced in human history, but it happened at a time when communications allowed the entire world to know about it almost write away, and when technologies existed to gather records of the volcanoes effects around the world. The immensity of this volcano is mind boggling.

Henna's Secret History; The History, Mystery & Folklore of Henna: More than just temporary tattoos and hair dye!

The Cooling; Has the next ice age already begun? Can we survive it?: Published in 1976, this book is a look back for me to the time when the scientific consensus was global cooling, not warming. It should be interesting to read this from a current perspective.

Dancing in the Streets; A History of Collective Joy: Tracing dance and celebration from prehistoric cave art to modern times.

Food, Fellowship and Folklore; Canadians at Table; A Culinary History of Canada: I got this one... just because. LOL

And finally, the audio/visual choices.

The Greenpeace Years: Eldest chose this one, it's an older VHS documentary tracing the history of the Greenpeace organization.

The Amazing Athabasca Oil Sands: Another choice by Eldest, this dvd (dated 2004) talks about the oil sands of Northern Alberta, from writings 200 years ago to modern technical challenges to access this resource.

The Future of Food: A two disc set (2004), it "offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade." This documentary received 5 awards for it's work. Hopefully, it won't be the hysterical paranoia I typically hear on the subject.

Miracle Planet; Snowball Earth: Episode two of the Miracle Planet series. It seeks to go back to the earth's first ice age, when apparently the entire earth was covered in ice and snow.

Wal*mart; The high cost of low price: We've seen Why Walmart Works. Now to see the opposing view. Sadly, from the looks of it, it seems to be a collection of sour grapes. Hopefully, there will be more to it than that.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Youngest chose this one - it's a favorite of hers. :-)

Dances of Ecstasy; A sensory journey through rhythm, dance and music. A workout for the soul: I've actually taken this 2 disc set out before and have really enjoyed it. The first disc discusses how various cultures use dancing to a trance-like state in there personal and religious journeys. The second disc features "urban shaman," Gabrielle Roth, and a group of dancers that guide the viewer through a "do it yourself" dance journey.

Finally, on the musical front:

Music from the Zydeco Kingdom: We recently watched the movie Hard Target again, which really is a good movie. I really like the soundtrack. I didn't find the sound track at the library, so I started looking for Cajun music in general, and this is the first of several cd's I've put on hold.

Halo 2, Original Soundtrack, Vol. 2: 'cause, like, Halo 2 has really cool music. ;-)


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