398: The Rotinonshonni by Brian Rice

398.20899755: Rice, Brian. The Rotinonshonni: A Traditional Iroquoian History Through the Eyes of Teharonhia:wako and Sawiskera. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013. 310 pp. ISBN 978-0-8156-1021-2.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 300: Social Sciences
• 390: Customs, etiquette, and folklore
• 398: Folklore
• 398.2: Folk literature
• 398.208: Groups of people
• 398.2089: Ethnic and national groups
• 398.208997: Indians of North America
• 398.20899755: Iroquois Indians

The Iroquois, or “the People of the Longhouse” and comprise the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora nations. In Canada, they live near Brantford, Ontario and are known as the Rotinonshonni. Brian Rice’s The Rotinonshonni  is a vast undertaking—to collect, understand, and translate the complete folklore of a people and preserve it for the ages. As a member of Mohawk nation, he has spent the last fifteen years traveling to their historic sites, listening to elders tell the Creation Story and the Kayeneren:howa (“The Great Way of Peace”), the days-long recitation of the history of the Rotinonshonni.

623: Airship by John Swinfield

623.74309041: Swinfield, John. Airship: Design, Development, and Disaster. London: Conway Maritime, 2012. 352 pp. ISBN 978-1-8448-6138-5.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 600: Technology
• 620: Engineering
• 623: Military and nautical engineering
• 623.7: Communications, vehicles, sanitations and related topics
• 623.74: Vehicles
• 623.743: Airships (dirigibles)
• +09041: Early 20^th Century

John Swinfield’s Airship is a wonderful exploration of the history of airships, dirigibles, and zeppelins as they were beginning to become a fixture in history. While there is a large gray area between when a flying vessel goes from a hot-air balloon to an airship, the qualifying characteristic seems to be the inclusion of an engine to power propellers and guide the vehicle properly. William Bland’s 1851 flight with a steam engine and twin propellers fits the bill. And from there, things only got bigger and more dangerous.

388: London Underground’s Strangest Tales by Iain Spragg

388.4209421: Spragg, Iain. London Underground’s Strangest Tales: Extraordinary But True Stories. London: Portico Books, 2013. 176 pp. ISBN 978-1-9075-5497-1.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 300: Social Sciences
• 380: Commerce, communications, and transport
• 388: Transportation and ground transportation
• 388.4: Local transportation
• 388.42: Local rail transit systems
• +09421: Greater London

Ever since it opened in 1863, the London Underground has helped to transport billions of travelers all over Greater London. Iain Spagg’s London Underground’s Strangest Tales provides a chronological collection of tidbits, asides, and goofball stories to help tell a different story of the train line’s history. While many of the chapters are interesting, coincidental, or historical, they aren’t really strange. Don’t get me wrong, the information presented here is fun and useful for a lot of trivia contests (like, for instance, only two people has ever been transported on the Tube on their way to be buried: Prime Minister William Gladstone and philanthropist Thomas Barnado). The writing is jovial and breezy and you can whiz through this book in a few hours, but don’t expect to be regaled with tales of intrigue and sensationalism. A quick and fun book.

322: On Dissent by Ronald Collins and David Skover

322.40973: Collins, Ronald K.L. and David M. Skover. On Dissent: Its Meaning in America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 134 pp. ISBN 978-0-521-76719-4.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 300: Social Sciences
• 320: Political science
• 322: Relation of state to organized groups and their members
• 322.4: Political action groups
• +0973: United States

Ronald Collins and David Skover want to get to the bottom of this thing we call dissent. Every day, thousands of people across the United States are actively showing their displeasure with some act of local or federal government or with a business they think is running counter to their beliefs. They dissent because they need to. On Dissent is a in-depth look at the fundamental basics of dissent, how it’s effective, and how exactly it fits into the social and legal landscape.

101: Wittgenstein’s Beetle by Martin Cohen

101: Cohen, Martin. Wittgenstein’s Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 116 pp. ISBN 1-4051-2191-2.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 100: Philosophy and Psychology
• 101: Theory of philosophy

One of the classic items in the philosopher’s toolbox is the thought experiment. The person conceives of a scenario or a universe, proposes a problem, and engages another person with its implications or meaning. While they may seem simple, thought experiments have rules (or at least guidelines). They should be simple, internally consistent, complete, and conceivable. Martin Cohen, in Wittgenstein’s Beetle, takes the reader through 26 such experiments to help us get a handle on the nature of the universe, the laws of physics, and even the meaning of language.

450: La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales

450: Hales, Dianne. La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language. New York: Broadway Books, 2010. 336 pp. ISBN 978-0-7679-2770-3.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 400: Language
• 450: Italian, Sardinian, Dalmatian, Romanian, and Rhaeto-Romanic languages

Italian really is one of the world’s most enchanting languages. Dianne Hales’s La Bella Lingua takes the reader on a sumptuous journey through the words of Michelangelo, Dante, and Verdi. Although Italian only has about a third of the words that English has, their meanings are more precise and more elegant. Each word becomes a story. Take “furbo” for example. It means a small deception, but a furbetto is a small child who gains through deception, a furbastro makes money through trickery, and a furbizia is a clever use of deception in language. Only Italian could pull off these hidden layers.

418: After Babel by George Steiner

418: Steiner, George. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. N.p.: Open Road, 2013. Approx. 520 pp. E-Book.

Dewey Breakdown:

• 400: Language
• 410: Linguistics
• 418: Standard usage and applied linguistics

All speech is an act of translation. We need to transmit the ideas in our head to another person, and so must translate the thought into words. This act of translation forms the fundamental basis for how people interrelate. But what if the two people do not speak the same language? The translation has to be translated again in order to get the recipient to understand. It is these two translations that interest George Steiner in After Babel.