Out of a rare American tradition, sweet as hay, grounded in the gentle austerities of the Book of Shaker, and in the Universal countryman's acceptance of birth, death, and the hard work of wresting a life from the land comes this haunting novel of a Vermont farm boyhood.

In the daily round of his thirteenth year, as the seasons turn and the farm is tended, the boy — whose time is the only-yesterday of Calvin Coolidge, whose people are the Plain People living without "frills" in the Shaker Way — becomes a man.

That is all, and it is everything. The boy is mauled by Apron, the neighbor's ailing cow whom he helps, alone, to give birth. The grateful farmer brings him a gift — a newborn pig. His father at first demurs ("We thank you, Brother Tanner," said Papa, "but it's not the Shaker Way to take frills for being neighborly. All that Robert done was what any farmer would do for another") but is persuaded. Rob keeps the pig, names her, and gives her his devotion ... He wrestles with grammar in the schoolhouse. He hears rumors of sin. He is taken — at last — to the Rutland Fair. He broadens his heart to make room even for Baptists. And when his father, who can neither read nor cipher, whose hands are bloodied by his trade, whose wisdom and mastery of country things are bred in the bone, entrusts Rob with his final secret, the boy makes the sacrifice that completes his passage into manhood.

All is told with quiet humor and simplicity. Here are lives lived by earthy reason — in a novel that, like a hoedown country fiddler's tune, rings at the same time with both poignancy and cheer.

It's Sunday after dark. Your baby is sick, hurt, or acting strangely, and the doctor won't be in until tomorrow. How can you find out what to do when your healthcare professionals are unreachable? You may only need to go as far as your bookshelf. The revised edition of Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 (the American Academy of Pediatrics' reference book for infancy through preschool), provides a wealth of authoritative child-care information in an easy-to-use format.

The first half of this hefty text serves as a comprehensive parenting manual, and includes a month-by-month guide to the first year, nutritional information, basic care instructions, and physical, emotional, and social developmental milestones for children up to 5 years old. While the American Academy of Pediatrics represents the mainstream child-rearing philosophies embraced by thousands of baby doctors, it does not reflect the entire gamut of child-rearing theory. (There's no discussion, for instance, of breast-feeding past the first year or co-sleeping.) The second half of the book includes a thorough, easy-to-navigate emergency first-aid section, plus detailed information about childhood illnesses, immunization schedules and side effects, and family structures, as well as a discussion of behavioral issues. Caring for Your Baby and Young Child is useful, sensible, and carefully researched, and makes a trustworthy addition to any parent's bookshelf. —Ericka Lutz

The popularity of the graphic genre continues to rage, and The Best American
Comics is a diverse, exciting annual selection for fans and newcomers
alike. The inaugural volume includes stories culled from graphic novels,
pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web.

Contributors include Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, Kim Deitch, Jaime Hernandez, Alison Bechdel, Joe Sacco, and Lynda Barry—and unique discoveries such as Justin Hall, Esther Pearl Watson, and Lilli Carré.

Knit Knack Kit offers everything you need to get the knack for knitting. Based on the book Knitting Pretty, this handy kit includes a book illustrating knitting stiches and techniques, circular needles, stitch holders, a yarn needle, and 25 simple yet chic patterns (including nine new patterns!). From quick and easy projects (Plain Old Scarf) to grander endeavors (Hipster Kerchief) the Knit Knack Kit makes it fun to curl up and purl up!

Deluged by persuasive advertisements and meticulous (though often misguided) advice experts, women from the 1940s to the 1970s were coaxed to "think pink" when they thought of what it meant to be a woman. Attaining feminine perfection meant conforming to a mythical standard, one that would come wrapped in an adorable pink package, if those counning marketers were to be believed. With wise humor and a savvy eye for curious, absurd, and at times wildly funny period artifacts, Lynn Peril gathers here the memorabilia of the era—from kitschy board games and lunch boxes to outdated advice books and health pamphlets—and reminds us how media messages have long endeavored to shape women's behavior and self-image, with varying degrees of success. Vividly illustrated with photographs of vintage paraphernalia, this entertaining social history revisits the nostalgic past, but only to offer a refreshing message to women who lived through those years as well as those who are coming of age now.

The moral of this book is that behind every great engineering success is a trail of often ignored (but frequently spectacular) engineering failures. Petroski covers many of the best known examples of well-intentioned but ultimately failed design in action — the galloping Tacoma Narrows Bridge (which you've probably seen tossing cars willy-nilly in the famous black-and-white footage), the collapse of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel walkways — and many lesser known but equally informative examples. The line of reasoning Petroski develops in this book were later formalized into his quasi-Darwinian model of technological evolution in The Evolution of Useful Things, but this book is arguably the more illuminating — and defintely the more enjoyable — of these two titles. Highly recommended.

Drawing largely from the cuisines of France and Italy, Pickford has created meatless alternatives to some of the classic dishes from these regions, such as red onion soup with goat cheese toasts and vegetarian cassoulet. The author's childhood on an English farm, where her parents grew acres of fresh vegetables, has inspired such recipes as Greenhill pea and leek soup, celeriac and stilton mousse and elderflower and strawberry syllabub. Recipes for such dishes as spiced vegetable pakoras with mango relish, grilled eggplants with pistachio and mint salsa and stir-fired sesame cabbage with ginger bring the more exotic flavours of the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the FarEast into play. The 80 recipes in this book are divided into courses (appetizers, desserts) so that complete vegetarian menus can be created. Headnotes offer helpful preparation tips, combination suggestions and serving ideas.

Her seventh and most wide ranging collection. In the 1st of 2 sections, the poems move from the amusingly elegiac to the erotic, the classical to the funny. The 2nd section is a series of 15 poems for a calendar based on lunar rather than solar divisions

Shari Cooper was a typical teen with boyfriend trouble and cravings for chocolate cake. Now she's a ghost trying to solve her own murder.

THEY CALLED HER A WANDERER.

Shari Cooper is dead, the victim of a murderous attack. She is on the other side, in a place of spirits, an eternal realm of light and love. But she is given a rare offer. To return to Earth without having to be reborn. Into the body of a depressed teenage girl. A transfer of souls, they call it. Shari is given a chance to be a Wanderer, and to do a great service for humanity. It is an offer she gladly accepts.

Then she is back, in a human body. Yet she does not remember being Shari Cooper. At first she recalls nothing of the afterlife. Perhaps it is just as well. Not everybody on Earth welcomes Wanderers. Of the few who know of their existence, some want them dead. And others, the truly evil ones, wish them much worse than that.

The popular Remember Me trilogy comes to a spellbinding and unforgettable conclusion as Shari Cooper, a Wanderer-turned-writer, discovers that her latest work is really a mystical blueprint that warns of evil creatures that despise all humankind.