Archive for July, 2010
Weekly Book Special: True Blueberry: Recipes for Soups, Salads, Desserts, and More (ISBN: 9781584794172)
Weekly Book Special: July 20th-July 26th
July is National Blueberry Month, a celebration of blueberries — the delicious native American fruit that’s low in calories and sodium, but rich in fiber. This week’s book special is a blueberry cookbook:
True Blueberry:
Recipes for Soups, Salads, Desserts and More
Written by Linda Dannenberg, Photography by Zeva Oelbaum
Hardcover, 128 pages, List Price: $22.00, OUR PRICE: $5.95
Blueberries have become a favorite ingredient not just for breakfast and dessert but for dishes at every meal. Blueberries are known to help fight cancer and diabetes, aid in lowering cholesterol, and combat aging.
This book is a celebration of the fruit prized for its distinctive color and delicate, sweet flavor. It highlights the health benefits of blueberries, and presents 80 fresh, innovative and appealing recipes, illustrated with more than a dozen beautiful full-color photographs.
Featured are creations such as Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry-Peach Compote; Fennel, Arugula, Orange, and Blueberry Salad; and Blueberry Martinis.
The recipes are gathered from home cooks and renowned chefs, including Debra Ponzek and Alain Ducasse, as well as restaurants such as Moody’s Diner in Maine.
Our favorite recipe is for the delicious summer treat of blueberry ice cream (click to enlarge):
“Dannenberg provides plenty of variety in her cookbook,” writes Publisher’s Weekly in a review. “Offerings in the soup and salad section include Lobster Salad with Blueberry-Beet Sauce and Blueberry–Sour Cream Dressing with Trio of Bitter Greens Salad. Appetizers and main courses include unexpected fare such as King Salmon Tartare with Blueberries and Roast Stuffed Turkey Breast with Red Wine–Blueberry Sauce. Desserts range from traditional pies to Blueberry Potato Cake with Glazed Blueberry Sauce.”
Victoria Wesseler, a food writer and master gardener, writes on the Going Local blog about local food: “In a handy place on my kitchen counter is [this] wonderful cookbook. Recipes include blueberry-beet borscht, blueberry steak sauce, and, my favorite of the moment, blueberry vodka.”
This book is discounted only through August 2nd. Purchase it for $5.95 (list price $22.00):
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New Government Report: Repairing a Broken System: Protecting Consumers in Debt Collection Litigation and Arbitration (ISBN: 9781437936350)
Repairing a Broken System: Protecting Consumers in Debt Collection Litigation and Arbitration (ISBN: 9781437936350)
By Jon Leibowitz
(Paperback, 106 pages, 2010, $30.00)
Creditors and collectors seek to recover consumer debts through the use of litigation and arbitration. But, neither litigation nor arbitration currently provides adequate protection for consumers. The system for resolving disputes about consumer debts is broken.
To fix the system, federal and state governments, the debt collection industry, and other stakeholders should make a variety of significant reforms in litigation and arbitration so that the system is both efficient and fair.
Contents of this report: Introduction; Litigation and Arbitration Proceedings; Conclusion. Appendices: Debt Collection Roundtable (DCR) Panelists; Contributors to DCR; Agendas for DCR; DCR Public Comments; Sample State Debt Collection Checklists. Illustrations.
New Government Report: Pharmaceutical R&D and the Evolving Market for Prescription Drugs (ISBN: 1437925057)
Pharmaceutical R&D and the Evolving Market for Prescription Drugs (ISBN: 1437925057)
By David Austen and Colia Baker
(Paperback, 8 pages, 2009, $10.00)
Investment in Research and Development (R&D) over the past several decades has produced a wealth of valuable new drug therapies that have made it possible to treat major illnesses that were not treated previously or were not treated as effectively.
As the scope of available drug therapies expanded, spending on prescription drugs became the fastest-growing category of total spending on health care in the U.S. Between 1994 and 2004, real (inflation-adjusted) spending on prescription drugs rose at an average annual rate of 11.1%, compared with 3.5% for hospital care and 4.3% for physicians’ services.
More recently, however, that growth has slowed: From 2004 to 2007, drug expenditures grew by an average of just 3.2% per year, slightly less than the rate of growth in overall health care spending. As a fraction of total spending on health care, spending on prescription drugs rose from 6% in 1994 to around 11% in 2004, where it has remained.
That slowdown in the rate of growth in spending reflects changes in both the supply of and the demand for prescription drugs. The greater the expected revenue from a prospective new drug, the more willing a drugmaker will be to invest to develop it. Those decisions will help determine which drug therapies become available in the future and thus will affect future growth in health care costs.
This report describes the current state of investment in drug R&D and the factors that influence it. It also examines how various policy options to control the growth in health care costs or to expand insurance coverage could affect R&D spending. Figures.
The Hook and The Book: The Emergence of Crochet and Knitting in American Popular Culture, 1840-1876 (Library Company of Philadelphia)
The Hook and The Book: The Emergence of Crochet and Knitting in American Popular Culture, 1840-1876
by Nicole Scalessa (Library Company of Philadelphia)
(Paperback, 46 pages, 2001, ISBN: 0914076981, $15.00)
Nicole’s casual interest in old crochet and knitting patterns grew into a mission to search The Library Company’s collections and make available to patrons a comprehensive database of holdings focused on needle crafts and their relationship to the economy of the family, leisure, philanthropy, and manufacturing.
Read the 
of this book before you purchase it.
Nicole’s research has allowed her to cross-reference a large number of materials on the history of knitting and crochet throughout the 19th century and translate patterns of the period for modern use while uncovering a social history of knitting and crochet in early American culture.
The culmination of her research is presented in both the exhibition and her book “Historic Reflections in Crochet.”
Chosen: Philadelphia’s Great Hebraica (Rosenbach Museum and Library Company of Philadelphia)
Chosen: Philadelphia’s Great Hebraica
Written by David Stern, Edited by Judith M. Guston
(Rosenbach Museum and Library, Library Company of Philadelphia)
(Paperback, 149 pages, 2005, ISBN: 0939084368, $25.00)
This catalog, which accompanies the exhibition of the same name at The Rosenbach Museum and Library Company in Philadelphia, features 75 full-color illustrations of all the objects in the exhibition.
Read the of this book before you purchase it.
This catalog provides information of lasting value and interest about each of the objects and explains their place in the broader history of books and manuscripts in Hebraic language over the past millennium. Additional contributions by Evelyn Cohen and Emile Schrijver.
Objects for the exhibition have been loaned by Bryn Mawr College Library; Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library, and Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania; Congregation Mikveh Israel; Congregation Rodeph Shalom; Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department and Education, Philosophy, and Religion Dept.; Haverford College Library; Temple Judea Museum, and Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel.
Birding for Beginners: A Comprehensive Introduction to Bird Watching
Birding for Beginners:
A Comprehensive Introduction to Bird Watching
by Sheila Buff
(Paperback, 190 pages, 1993, ISBN: 0517161893)
List Price: $25.00, OUR PRICE: $17.00
An informative and accessible introduction to the fascinating world of birdwatching.
With black and white illustrations and exquisite four-color photography, this book is the ideal guide to the birding experience. All the essentials for the beginner to enjoy birdwatching are covered: equipment, identification techniques, field guides, optics for birders, birding by ‘ear,’ and much more.
Also valuable are chapters on viewing bird behaviors such as feeding, flight, feather care, nesting and migration so the birder understands not just what kind of bird it is, but what the bird is doing. In addition, a selection of appendices cover everything from birding organizations to birding publications.
John Neagle: Philadelphia Portrait Painter (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
John Neagle:
Philadelphia Portrait Painter
by Robert W. Torchia, foreword by Peter J. Parker (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
(Paperback, 195 pages, 1989, ISBN: 1422358283, $25.00)
This catalog records an exhibition held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP).
In 1861, John Neagle himself recorded on canvas his earliest-known association with the HSP. When he captured the appearance of three Plains Indians visiting Philadelphia in 1821, he was an artist functioning as a historian.
The Society has collected 15 of Neagle’s paintings, and its manuscript holdings on the artist were most impressively augmented in 1985 through the generosity of the Barra Foundation.
Torchia has done much to restore a long-underrated painter to his proper place in American art history. In planning the exhibition upon which this catalogue is based, Torchia selected paintings and related material from 14 private and public collections in the Delaware Valley. Illustrations.
Acta Germanopolis: Records of the Corporation of Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1691-1707 (Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania)
Acta Germanopolis:
Records of the Corporation of
Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1691-1707
by J. M. Duffin (Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania)
(Hardcover, 700 pages, 2008, ISBN: 9780615217659, $75.00)
This 700-page volume contains the full text of Germantown’s 17th and 18th century town records in both their original languages and in English translation.
It also includes extensive appendices on the naturalization records of the first residents of Germantown and their landholdings through the year 1714.
This book is the product of 15 years of labor by J. M. Duffin, a distinguished Fellow of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (GSP). Mr. Duffin has edited the book and also contributed a comprehensive Introduction, while Professor Don Yoder of the University of Pennsylvania (and another Fellow of the GSP) has written an informative Foreword on Germantown’s role in the history of Pennsylvania and German immigration to America.
Dear Doctor Franklin: E-mails to a Founding Father about Science, Medicine and Technology
Dear Doctor Franklin:
E-mails to a Founding Father about
Science, Medicine and Technology
by Stuart A. Green (Friends of Franklin)
(Paperback, 320 pages, 2008, ISBN: 1422394700, $24.95)
In this unique book on the history of science, Green writes emails to Benjamin Franklin, who died in 1790 but whom Green imagines coming back to life, about developments over the past two centuries.
Author Stuart A. Green writes: “I have written these emails assuming that you carried out the wish you described in 1773: ‘I should prefer to any ordinary death, being immersed in a cask of Madeira wine . . . to be later recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country.’”
These emails inform Franklin of progress in science, medicine and technology from his time until now. Includes more than 70 portraits of Franklin’s friends and relatives, and of those researchers who have led medical and scientific advances during the past two centuries. Illustrations.
A Guide to Christ Church, Philadelphia by Julia Leisenring and Patricia Forbes
A Guide to Christ Church, Philadelphia
by Julia B. Leisenring and Patricia A.S. Forbes
Old Christ Church Preservation Trust
(Paperback, 16 pages, 1984, ISBN: 1422365344, $10.00)
This booklet provides an introduction to Christ Church in Philadelphia, a majestic building that gives testimony to vision, faith and courage.
Read the of this book before you purchase it.
In 1695, these qualities led 39 pilgrims to start an Anglican parish in a Quaker city. In 1727, the small congregation transformed their small building into the most beautiful, majestic and grand sanctuary in the colonies, and that vision, courage and faith assures that the church still stands.
In 1754, master builder Robert Smith constructed the highest structure in the colonies in the church’s majestic steeple. Contents: The Building of Christ Church; The Steeple and The Tower Room; Historic and Symbolic Objects Belonging to the Church; Christ Church in the 18th Century; Christ Church in the 20th Century; Bishop White; Rectors of Christ Church; The Church Library; Early Church Archives; Graveyard and Signers of the Declaration of Independence; Christ Church Preservation Trust; and Dates in the History of Christ Church. Illustrations.
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