A colorful collage of books for fall—October 1, 2010
Fall may be my absolute favorite time of year. It is a time of crisp mornings and warm sunny afternoons, of trees turning to gold and red and of pulling the covers up at night. So what I offer you today is a potpourri of new titles that have fall colors on their covers.
“The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States” by Chris Helzer sports a cover resplendent with sunflowers and soft puffy clouds and the inside is as colorful as the cover. It is also a primer on prairie conservation that will make you look at a field of grass in a completely different way.
Two titles that blaze with red and gold but whose subjects are very serious, are “Forgetting the Memories: A Caregiver’s Journey through Alzheimer’s Disease” by Roy Steinberg and “Surviving Health Care: A Manual for Patients and Their Families” edited by Thomasine Kushner. Alzheimer’s is one of the scariest diseases, leaving otherwise healthy individuals with little vestige of their former mental capacity or personality. This title is written for the caregiver of the Alzheimer’s patient, from the viewpoint of a psychologist whose own mother battles the disease. It is full of insights and tips for self-care for those who find themselves in this role.
Likewise, the whole point of the Kushner title is to make navigating the medical system easier for patients and their families. With separate chapters on topics such as “Becoming an Active Member of your Health Care Team”, “Transplantation 101” and “A Patient’s Guide to Pain Management” each written by an expert in that field, “Surviving Health Care” presents strategies that can make fighting a serious illness just a little easier.
The last two titles in our fall color collage are more fun, one a cookbook and the other a quilting book. “Farmers’ Market Favorites” from the Gooseberry Patch will fill your fall with the delicious scent of cinnamon with “Breakfast Apple Pie” or help you use up the last of the garden bounty in “Green Tomato Casserole”. Keeping with the food motif, but this time in a completely calorie free application, is “A Baker’s Dozen: 13 Quilts from Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and More”. The terms refer to various cuts and packaging of pre-cut fabric for quilting projects that are all used in differing combinations in these designs.
Embrace the colors of fall at the Hastings Public Library.
