SpottyDogBooks and Ale

The Spirit of the Place tells the story of an expatriate doctor called home to Columbia (a thinly disguised Hudson) in the early eighties to face his personal history along with that of the place. A novelist and playwright, Shem is also a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. Other novels include The House of God, Fine, and Mount Misery. The House of God was recently named by the British medical journal The Lancet as one of the most important American medical novels of the 20th century. The Spirit of the Place has recently been named the 2008 Best Book by USA Book News.  See the author page >

This little board book works, as Billy Dee Williams used to say, Every Time.  Our reading this little book to our 8-week-old daughter (inset)  consistently calms her down to a much happier place. Filled with vibrant and simple acrylic-on-canvas illustrations, and a concise, smartly-metered narrative, our kid enjoys this particular book over all of the others.  Yes, you can read to your kids this early–watch their eyes dart around the page to different elements, and the edges where contrasting colors meet.    See the author page >

Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see. Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. A fast-paced read, where anything that is not “story” is cheerfully thrown out in favor of quick movement and plot twists. Some material might be a too dark and violent for pre-teens.See the author page >

On September 12, 1609, almost 400 years ago, Henry Hudson first set eyes on the land that would become Manhattan. It’s difficult for us to imagine what he saw, but for more than a decade, landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson has been working to do just that. Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City is the astounding result of those efforts, reconstructing, in words and images, the wild island that millions of New Yorkers now call home. Read an extended review >