Up-and-Coming... Recommended Reads

New books that caught our eye! You may not have heard about them yet -- but you will enjoy reading them.

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Shadows Bright as Glass: The Remarkable Story of One Man's Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph, by Amy Ellis Nutt.

After a brain hemorrhage nearly killed him, Jon Sarkin awoke with an overwhelming desire to create art. Before the stroke, he was a calm chiropractor, a happily married family man. Now he devotes all his waking hours to furiously drawing and painting.

Journalist Amy Ellis Nutt interweaves Sarkin’s remarkable story with a fascinating look at how our "personality" arises from the brain's neurons and electrical pulses. Nutt brings to life the extraordinary stories of people whose personalities and abilities were dramatically altered by brain trauma, often in shocking ways.

Place a hold now on Shadows Bright as Glass-- we'll call you when it's ready for you.

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The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adria's El Bulli, by Lisa Abend

Did you know there is a restaurant in Spain that gets more than two million requests for reservations each year.... the average cost of a meal is $500 and yet it operates at a loss.... and apprentices will work there for free to learn from the "mad genius" master chef, Ferran Adria.This is El Bulli, the most avant-garde and the most sought-after restaurant in the world.

In her lively new book, The Sorcerer's Apprentices Lisa Abend immerses herself in the heat, the anxiety, and the ingenuity of this pressurized little world.

Place a hold now on The Sorcerer's Apprentices--we'll call you when it's ready for you.

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Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything by Stephen Baker.

The recent competition between all-time Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against a new IBM supercomputer was a bit of a let-down, since the computer easily trounced the two men. But the story of how IBM developed this computer to "answer questions like a human" is anything but predictable.

At its heart, Final Jeopardy is about the future of knowledge. What will Watson’s heirs be capable of in ten or twenty years? And where does that leave humans? As fast and fun as the game itself, Final Jeopardy shows how smart machines will fit into our world — and how they’ll disrupt it.

Place a hold now on Final Jeopardy-- we'll call you when it's ready for you.