Stutter

Stutter

By Marc Shell

RC 424 .S564 2005

Marc Shell, someone who has struggled with stuttering all his life along with fifty million people worldwide including some famous stutterers such as Porky Pig, Marilyn Monroe and Moses, has written this book about stuttering. Shell discusses the important role stuttering plays in literature and comments on why stuttering disappears when the speaker chants and what can a stutterer do to cope with the unspeakable.

Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind

Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind

By David Berreby

HM 753 .B47 2005

It is easy to group humans into specific categories by using qualifiers such as male / female, professor / student, SUV owner / minivan owner. David Berreby explains in his book why we do this and why these groups matter so much to us. According to Berreby these tribal senses alter our thoughts, affect our health and even affect our society. We are “capable of both tribal good and tribal evil” (4). What makes the difference between our choice of good and evil? Why did an experiment in the early 1970s change male college students’ behavior into guards and prisoners? (Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Study Video HV 6089 .Q54 2003) Berreby comes to the conclusion, “the Us-Them code does not own you; you own it” (331). If you want to better understand your tribal mind check out Us and Them.

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

By Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio
TX353 .M43 2005

Have you ever wondered what people around the world eat? Where do they shop or dine out? What tasty delicacies are common staples in Asia, Africa, and other international locales that Americans find a rare and exotic treat? How have globalization, mass tourism, and giant agribusiness impacted the global diet? Menzel and D’Aluisio answer these questions and more in this detailed and captivating photographic study of the eating habits of thirty families in twenty-four countries. Follow each family as they go to market and enjoy meals in their homes and on the town (or in some cases country or seaside). Compare costs for one weeks’ food and eating habits from Bosnia to Turkey. You may also enjoy collecting the recipes shared by each family and trying out some new fare.

This survey of food around the world also includes some edifying statistics from the number of McDonald’s restaurants to health-related data on life expectancy, obesity, and daily caloric intake per day. You can also learn which county consumes the most meat, alcohol or cigarettes per person per year. If you find this topic especially interesting and want to learn more the book closes with a list of further reading. To start your tour of world cuisine come pick up Hungry Planet at the TSU library today! First come, first served.

Generation Debt

Generation Debt: Why Now Is A Terrible Time To Be Young
By Anya Kamenetz
HQ 799.7 .K36 2006

Kamenetz, a twenty-four-year-old free lance journalist confronts and rejects the negative economic stigma she believes the 18-34 generation has been branded with. Through her interviews with young people across the country she finds the same economic problems being faced- the rising cost of higher education, narrowing job opportunities, and growing material debt. She believes that "our debt precludes us from taking the kinds of entrepreneurial risks on which American success depends" (p.xv), and that the problem is the gulf which has "grown between ideal and reality" (p.xiv).

Each chapter of Kamenetz's book addresses important issues such as: credit cards, college debt, low wage jobs, government policies and social security, and impact on family and independence. In the last chapter of the book, she suggests some solutions for young people who are dealing with the stress and frustration from these problems. Although the book at times has a pretty ominous tone, anyone who is college age, has children who are 18-34, or who knows someone this age would benefit from reading it. While her book at times requires a very open minded perspective, it rings a wake up call for the next generation.