More than Anatomy

At this month's Monona Public Library meeting Board member Dr. Mary Landry talked about some of her favorite books. She related that her children have successfully pushed her to move beyond Clinically Oriented Anatomy (5th Edition).....

Mary offered some teen-oriented reads that she has shared with her teen reader (or maybe that was vice versa).

Petey by Ben Mikaelsen

From School Library Journal Grade 7 Up-This ambitious book succeeds on a number of levels. It is based on a true, tragic situation in which Petey, born with cerebral palsy in 1920, is misdiagnosed as mentally retarded. Unable to care for him at home, his parents relinquish him to the care of the state, where he languishes in a mental institution for the next five decades. Step by institutional step, readers see how this tragedy could happen. More importantly, readers feel Petey's pain, boredom, hope, fear, and occasional joy....In 1977....a new, correct diagnosis result in Petey being moved to a local nursing home. There, the final, triumphant chapters of his life are entwined with an eighth-grade student named Trevor, who finds his own life transformed by love and caring in ways he never could have imagined....Yet, this book is much more than a tearjerker. Its messages-that all people deserve respect; that one person can make a difference; that changing times require new attitudes-transcend simplistic labels. Give this book to anyone who has ever shouted "retard" at another. Give it to any student who "has" to do community service. Give it to anyone who needs a good book to read.


Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer. Here's a description from Amazon: As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship. (And yes, by all accounts this book is OK for age 12 and up.)


Mary also evinced a strong interest in Aldo Leopold and his legacy.

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Amazon: First published in 1949 and praised in The New York Times Book Review as "a trenchant book, full of vigor and bite," A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.

For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays And Other Writings by Aldo Leopold, Scott Russell Sanders, J. Baird Callicott, and Eric T. Freyfogle From Scientific American
As professor of game management (now called wildlife ecology) at the University of Wisconsin, he produced many essays on the management of land--particularly farmland--in such a way as to achieve a "harmony between men and land." The 53 essays that the editors present in this book amount to a manual on conservation. They also trace the development of modern ideas on ecology.


Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire by Marybeth Lorbiecki. From Library Journal: This biography "is definitely a worthwhile addition to the literature. Sufficient facts and context are provided to leave the reader informed yet not overburdened with detail.....We see his emergence as a leader in wilderness preservation, and game and then wildlife management. We also see his development as a husband, father, and mentor. The presentation of Leopold's public and private lives is well balanced. He is portrayed here not as a saint but as a thinking man, willing to learn and change. Those unfamiliar with Leopold will relish this book; those who already know him will enjoy the retelling. This highly readable, lavishly illustrated biography is recommended for all environmental collections, public and academic


She also enjoys the occasional biography and suggested Me : Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn. Amazon: Hepburn is "the positive, feisty, upper-class lady she portrayed in The Philadelphia Story . Her autobiography, clearly not ghostwritten, tells some stories of her life but not all--she comes from a class that didn't let it all hang out."