I spotted the book Truck: a love story by Michael Perry several months ago in the section with the other books about pickup trucks. I eyed it with trepidation. It seemed too good to be true, a book about trucks and romance. It was bound to be disappointing. I finally couldn’t resist any longer and I am ever so glad. I flew through the book and enjoyed it so much that I have since recommended it to everyone I know. This is just a great story.

Michael Perry covers a year of his life in a small town in Wisconsin. During this year he volunteers at the fire department, does some gardening, fixes up his truck, goes on some book tours, and meets a woman. He discusses the basic day-to-day events with poignancy and humor, sprinkling the stories of his struggles, joys, and insecurities with laugh-out-loud tidbits like, “Seed catalogs are responsible for more unfilfilled fantasies than Enron and Playboy combined.” I enjoyed getting to know Perry and am looking forward to reading Coop: a year of poultry, pigs, and parenting to find out what happens next.

Sandbeck addresses a topic many have addressed before in Green Barbarians. She brings an emminently readable style, wit and humor to living green, as well as clearly having researched the lifestyle and the arguments for it in depth. Such topics as how to safely and effectively clean your kitchen and bathroom without using environmentally damaging chemicals and where to find out whether or not the makep-up you use contains lead are discussed. Some of her suggestions are less practical than others (using bread as a napkin and then eating the bread), but the stories of her experiments of both new and old ways to live sustainably are entertaining. Sandbeck definitely focuses on how people should change their habits but doesn’t always provide information about alternatives. This book is for people who want to make a few changes in their lifestyle or for those who want to make a more complete transformation into green barbarians.

In April 2009, the attention of the world turned to the coast off of Africa, where an American Merchant Marine Captain was being held for ransom by Somali pirates. Telling his story in “A Captain’s Duty”, Richard Phillips details his life in the Merchant Marine and the events that led up to the pirates boarding of his ship and holding him hostage. Phillips was able to protect his crew, allowing them to escape to safety and to control the situation so that he was the only hostage taken. His gripping account of the harrowing details of his confinement and subsequent rescue by Navy Seals is difficult to put down. Phillips also gives an account of the stress and uncertainty that his family at home had to endure. Phillips exemplifies the best characteristics of a leader–concern for and trust in his crew, excellent training, selflessness, a willingness to accept differences in people, a calm demeanor and confidence in his abilities. His crew was lucky to be serving under Phillips during this incident, as his decisions allowed them all to return home safely. As Captain Phillips said of his rescue by the Navy, “It never ends like this”.