A miscellaneous selection of the books that I've read so far this year. The local library is great for me -- I have neither the money nor the room for all the books I like to read.
Why Do We Say It? The stories behind the words, expressions and cliches we use.
I would like to see more words and phrases explained than this book provides, but it's a good start. Why do I get the feeling that some of the explanations are questionable? Guess I'm just too much of a skeptic :-) These two samples are believable:
Salad days Why do we call a man's youth his "salad days"?
It's because when a man is young, he is "green" and greens go into making a salad.
Proletariat Word comes from the Latin proletarius -- the name given by ancient Romans to the lowest class in the community.
Twitter by Paul McFedries is a helpful introduction to using Twitter and associated websites. Terri_pal on Twitter
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
The famous TV series Dexter started as a book series by Jeff Lindsay. The character's alliterative self-deprecating sense of humor springs from the pages to give a delightful diversion from the dark deeds of destruction. (Dexter is Delicious, Dexter in the Dark, Dexter by Design, Dearly Devoted Dexter)
Mindscan by Robert Sawyer.
Due to a threatening health condition, Jake decides to take a chance on uploading/copying his mind into a durable, android-like body. What happens after that is the result of quantum entanglement, legal disputes, unexpected friendships, and one discovery leading to another. The underlying theme is the brain and consciousness; coincidentally, Nova Science Now last week was also about the human brain.
See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/how-does-the-brain-work.html
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