Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/08/2017
12:10 pm
Location
Southeast Steuben County Library
Categories
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach will be reviewed by Elizabeth Whitehouse.
Whether he is dodging cow attacks in Torcross, getting lost in the H&M on Kensington High Street, or—more seriously—contemplating the future of the nation’s natural wonders in the face of aggressive development, Bryson guides us through the old and the new with vivid detail and laugh-out-loud humor. Irreverent, endearing, and always hilarious, The Road to Little Dribbling is filled with Bill Bryson’s deep knowledge and love of his chosen home.
Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier’s most challenging adversaries―panic, exhaustion, heat, noise―and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.
Elizabeth White has lived in Corning, NY for 33 years. She has a Bachelors and a Masters. White is a docent at the Corning Museum of Glass and The Rockwell. White is passionate about language and languages, travel and compost. She has a lifelong interest in books as a reader, binder, seller and author. Currently, she is kept busy keeping up on environmental and political issues. White became a US citizen in January 2015, is currently running for Mayor and appreciates a good sense of humor.
Each year in January and February, the Friends of the Southeast Steuben County Library present a lunchtime series of book talks featuring local speakers reviewing notable new works of fiction and nonfiction. Book talks are held on Wednesdays at the Southeast Steuben County Library’s Laura Beer Community Room from 12:10 -1 p.m. The talks are open to the general public and free of charge. Beverages are provided and attendees are invited to bring a bagged lunch.