Science Friday: Shark Week

After more than 25 years of Shark Week, you might think America would be losing interest in all things shark. Sharknado alone just screams that things have "jumped the shark," so to speak. Instead Sharknado has spawned its own franchise of campy films.

Despite what Hollywood might tell us, your average shark faces more danger from humans than we do of being attacked by a shark. Still, Jaws and Sharknado have their own appeal. With that in mind, we've put together a short list of books and DVDs mixing the educational and the entertaining.

If you're looking to swim with the sharks, we recommend checking out:

Soul Surfer: a true story of faith, family, and fighting to get back on the board by Bethany Hamilton, Sheryl Berk, & Rick Bundschuh

Surviving the Shark: how a brutal great white attack turned a surfer into a dedicated defender of sharks by Jonathan Kathrein, Margaret Kathrein, David McGuire, & Wallace Nichols

Sharks of the World by Leonard Compagno, Marc Dando, & Sarah Fowler

Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham

Tech Thursday: Michael Fassbender Transforms into Steve Jobs

If you haven't seen the trailer for Steve Jobs (based on the book by Walter Isaacson), here's a link to it. Starring Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs, Seth Rogan as Steve Wozniak, Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffmann, and Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, the movie opens on October 9.

What do you think? While Fassbender was probably not a lot of people's first thought for the role, after watching the trailer, it looks like he embodies Jobs very well.




If you're interested in this, here are some other books you might want to check out.

Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli

Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs by Joshua Wolf Shenk

Smarttribes: How Teams Become Brilliant Together by Christine Comaford-Lynch

#WCW Woman Crush Wednesday: Ursula K. Le Guin

Photo Copyright © by Marian Wood Kolisch

When Rachel wrote her review of The Dispossessed this weekend, I was reminded of how much I love Ursula K Le Guin's writing, which made her an obvious pick for this week's #WCW

I'm not a native Dubuquer, and I attended high school in a small Wisconsin town where the public library was small enough that the entire building would've fit in Carnegie-Stout's children's department. As a teenager who loved fantasy novels, I would check out any book with a unicorn sticker on the spine, so it wasn't long before I stumbled across A Wizard of Earthsea. I liked Earthsea okay, but it was her stories of the Hainish Ekumen that I returned to again and again.

The attention and detail she put into the people and societies in her stories captured my imagination. Her writing was a significant influence in my decision to major in anthropology as an undergrad, and I was only a little surprised that the "K" in her name stands for Kroeber. Her parents, Alfred and Theodora Kroeber, were early anthropologists of some note. Alfred Kroeber was, fittingly enough, one of the topics for my senior research paper on the history of anthropological theories.

Le Guin remains the standard by which I judge science fiction to this day, even as my tastes have changed and grown over time. I suspect that I wouldn't have quite the same reaction to reading her books for the first time today as I did when I was a teen, but it's equally true that if I hadn't read her books as a teen, I would not have become the person that I am today.

~Sarah, Adult Services