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CultureWatch: An Asperger's Puzzle, A Fine New Short Story Author and a Lady Spy Thrills
Nilla Childs has framed Puzzled: 100 pieces of Autism in what she terms the 8 steps to completing a jigsaw puzzle; and learning how to give up "what does not work." Megan Bergman’s fine, fine collection of short stories, Birds of a Lesser Paradise, have both moral profundity and light-hearted humor. If you're looking for the next big page-turner, you've found it in The Expats. Chris Pavone is a dab hand at both mayhem and domesticity, something unusual in the business of flash-and-dash spy novels. more »
Culture Watch Reviews
Daniel Handler specializes in a light-semi-irreverent tone that manages also to be perceptive and truthful, even as it entertains, in Why We Broke Up, a story of teenage love gone awry. Richard Morgan has crafted a story of the life of Daniel Boone in Boone, A Biography, to rival the best fiction, while demonstrating the most diligent scholarship and devotion to primary sources any reader could ask for. more »
The Look of Love: Eye Miniatures Jewelry in Birmingham
Clandestine lovers exchanged these customized tokens depicting one another's eyes, as such a feature might only be recognized by persons of the most intimate familiarity. Behind the skilled artistry with which each of these tiny portraits was painted, lie the enchanting stories of secret romance and love lost more »
Canine Connections, Atop a Yosemite waterfall or Peering From a Wicker Carriage
A new book from the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library gives fresh meaning to the term 'dog days' by celebrating the powerful connections between people and their canine companions. A cat version of "Everyday Dogs" already is in the works more »






