For the past several weeks I have listened to the CD format of the book The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson during my commute.  The narrator was excellent--I completely forgot about him, although I can't speak to his ability with the Swedish language.  The story kept me fascinated from beginning to end.  One caveat--this is a gritty read. It has all the factors which usually drive me away from an author--extreme violence, language, sex, and more.  

     If you want to be entertained by the changing cleanliness customs through the ages and across the world, read The dirt on clean: an unsanitized history by Katherine Ashenburg. Dwelling in depth upon European and American customs, Ashenburg finds fun and amazing trivialities while laying out a case for American over-cleanliness. "'Clean'keeps receding into the distance," she says.

One of the best books I have read in a long time is the Man Booker Prize winner for 2009, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

     Whatever one may think about global warming and man's role in the earth's complicated ecosystems, recent events prove to everyone beyond doubt that climate change is here, and catastrophic climate change is an ever-present threat to us all. Here are some current materials that inform and present further evidence that may have been missed.

Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik This book is not new, it was published in 1995, and I read it because I had read a more current Landvik book and wand to see what her earlier wor