Here's what's happening at the Seattle Public Library's Capitol Hill branch in November.
The leaves are changing, which is as good a reason as any to stop by the Capitol Hill branch Library.
For preschoolers, we will offer special story times filled with stories, songs and fun at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 9, 16 and 30. There will be no story time the week of Thanksgiving.
Also, back by popular demand, the Wednesday Night Film series! The theme for November is "RX for Survival - A Global Health Challenge." Given the ongoing battle with AIDS, and the appearance of other diseases such as the avian flu, this should be an interesting and timely program. Films start at 6:30 p.m. each Wednesday evening.
For more information on these and other programs, visit the library's Web site, www.spl.org, or call us at 684-4715.
Below are a few titles to get us through until winter.
"The Lincoln Lawyer" by Michael Connelly
Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller's usual clients tend to run toward the lower end of the legal spectrum - bikers, drug dealers, other petty criminals - so when he's hired by a rich Beverly Hills realtor, he figures he's hit the jackpot. Louis Roulet faces assault charges for allegedly beating up a hooker, and his doting (and wealthy) mother will pay anything to clear his name. Mickey jumps at this golden opportunity to charge a lot of money over an extended time period, which is no small consideration for a man who works out of his Lincoln Town Car.
As a lawyer, Mickey has tried to be a pragmatist. To him, it doesn't matter if the client is guilty or innocent, only what the evidence is against them, and whether or not it can be neutralized. Unfortunately, he is haunted by a past case where his client, who was probably innocent, was found guilty and sent to prison. At first, Mickey thinks this new client may be innocent as well, but when his private investigator Raul Levin is murdered while digging into the case, he is forced to question that position. Plus, there are a lot of inexplicable holes in Roulet's story, which is making the job of defending him much more difficult.
This is Connelly's first legal thriller after many successful mysteries, and it doesn't disappoint. The compelling plot is fast and full of twists and turns, with great dialog and an excellent cast of bad guys.
"Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife" by Mary Roach
In her first book, "Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers," Mary Roach wrote about what happens to the body after death. From being menaced by grave robbers in the past, to donating vital organs and saving lives today, the dead have had an eventful history. Now, she turns her attention to what might happen after death to the consciousness, or soul. Is there any scientific, quantifiable way to really know what, if anything, occurs?
Roach begins her search for answers in India, where she looks into the phenomena of reincarnation by following along as a case is investigated. Next, is the question of where the soul (if it exists as such) originates. The egg? The sperm? And where might it reside in the body? There have been many studies that have tried to measure the exact weight of the soul (it was most famously thought to be 21 grams).
Can we communicate with the dead? She observes the testing of mediums at a lab at the University of Arizona, and then takes a weekend seminar on "The Fundamentals of Mediumship" in England to see if she has any talent for communing with the spirit world (probably not). She joins a group in the forests of California who are trying to record the voices of the spirits of the Donner Party (as if somehow their desperation-driven cannibalism made them less likely to be resting in peace?).
Recording the dead is nothing new - people have been attempting to get a clear message from beyond for decades, using a dizzying array of equipment. In all the years of trying, however, no one has ever gotten an indisputable communiqué from any of the deceased.
It may be possible that ghosts are just electromagnetic impulses (think humming power lines), or something called infrasound, or low frequency sound waves. Roach goes to Canada, where an academic researcher has built a machine that will bombard your brain with infrasound. People who have undergone the process have had a variety of sensory hallucinations. She gives the device a try, with some interesting results.
Finally, she takes a look at the phenomenon of NDE, or near death experience. Incredibly, this is being studied at several hospitals, using people who need to have their defibrillators (devices that prevent heart arrhythmia) tested. The test involves disrupting the normal beating of the heart to see if the defibrillator will do its job and get the normal rhythm going again. However, while the heart is in the interrupted mode, the patient can be considered to be dead.
"Spook" takes a fascinating look at a topic that is of interest to almost everyone, being that the existence of life after death is one of the few major mysteries left today. Roach makes it clear that she is skeptical of most of what she is investigating, but has an open mind and boundless curiosity. She includes intriguing little footnotes and has a great sense of humor (the part about ectoplasm is laugh-out-loud funny).
This is a witty, intelligent and highly recommended read.
Katie Hilles is a librarian at the Capitol Hill branch library.
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