Book Review: Hollywood Rides a Bike

Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling with the Stars, by Steven Rea, Angel City Press, 160 pp., $20.

Take a ride back in time and pay homage to classic wheels. Steven Rea, film critic for the Philadelphia INquirer and professor at Drexel University, initially took his love for cinema and cycling to the internet in NOvember 2010 with the Tumblr "Rides a Bike." After developing cult-like following, Rea has brought this fascinating collection to print, providing a great glimpse into the bike culture of Hollywood's finest. Boasting high quality, mostly black and white photos, as well as a bikes and stars index, Hollywood Rides a Bike is a timeless treasure to add to your collection. -- Liz Pacheco

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Wine to Water: A Bartender’s Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World

Wine to Water A Bartender’s Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World by Doc Hendley (Avery, 288 pp., $26, January 2012)In 2004, Doc Hendley was a bartender and a bit of a partier in Raleigh, N.C. But an encounter with a family friend whose husband worked for an international aid organization set his life on a different course. Using his experience in the bartending industry, Hendley launched a series of wine tasting events to fund clean water projects. However, instead of donating the funds, Hendley traveled to Africa and witnessed the water crisis firsthand.

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Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves From the Automobile

Straphanger Saving Our Cities and Ourselves From the Automobile by Taras Grescoe (Times, 336 pp., $25, April 2012)Across the globe, car-centric urban planning has wreaked havoc on many a city. In Straphanger, Taras Grescoe explores this problem by traveling on public transportation in cities like Tokyo, Copenhagen, Los Angeles and even Philadelphia. He interviews people involved in the movement to create affordable, sustainable urban transportation. Part urban history and part travel narrative, Grescoe shows how transit defines cities—from the endless highways of Phoenix, the city with no downtown, to the rapid transit of Bogota, Columbia, which has expressway lanes and large, clean bus stops.

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Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America

Fool Me Twice Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Lawrence Otto (Rodale, 380 pp., $24.99, October 2011)In Fool Me Twice, Shawn Lawrence Otto narrates the evolution of science in America. His story begins with the beliefs of the founding Puritans and leads all the way to the climate-change and evolution deniers who influence policy today. Otto explains how the government, our politics and the media have prevented the public from understanding the science critical to solving our greatest challenges. The book is both heart-wrenching and empowering because the nation’s future depends on science—its observation, facts, innovation and creativity—and not the rhetoric with which it’s now so closely associated.

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The Atlas of Climate Change: Mapping the World’s Greatest Challenge (Third Edition)

University of California Press, 128 pp., $21.95 written by Kirstin Dow and Thomas E. Downing reviewed by Katherine SilkaitiThe Atlas of Climate Change is a deftly illustrated and informative reference book about the state of the global climate today.

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