Nonfiction: Forensics, Val McDermid

Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and more tell us about crime.
Val McDermid
ISBN: 9780802123916
Nonfiction: lots of case histories, each detailing the use (or development) of a forensic technique.
Read June 2015

This was an EXCELLENT book.  I read it on vacation, and freaked out my co-vacationers, but it was a lovely read all about murders and killings and decapitations and mouldering bodies and bones and blood and decomposition and maggots and it was delightful all the way through.

Juvenile Nonfiction: The Many Faces of George Washington, Carla Killough McClafferty

(Talk about an awesome name for our author!)

The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon
Carla Killough McClafferty
ISBN: 9780761356080
Re-Read November 7, 2014

This one came back through the library system, and I actually took the time to read through it properly this time around, instead of simply admiring the artistry of the three mannequins that were created.

I suppose I ought to start from the beginning.  So everyone's seen dollar bills, and we all know what George Washington looks like - old, grouchy, and sort of fat-faced.  Except, that's only what he looked like after he WAS old, grouchy, and sort of fat-faced (most likely caused by inflammation due to those awful dentures).  So - what did the people who VOTED for our very first President see in him?  Sadly, we really haven't had any pictorial evidence - all of his portraits are from after he was old and tired, and the one life-cast taken of him was never really used for references, outside of the one specific statue that had commissioned it.

So a mixed group of awesome people got a truly stupendous grant to research this famous man, to use all the artistic and forensic and re-creative tools at our disposal to figure out what he most likely looked like at three different important points in his life: as a nineteen-year-old "nobleman" surveyor, as a forty-five-year-old General at Valley Forge, and finally at fifty-seven years old, taking the very first American Presidential Oath of Office.  Pretty cool, right?

The absolute stand-out here is the care and dedication and EFFORT put into making these representations as perfect and accurate as possible for each age.  It's a truly multi-disciplinary approach, and it is amazing how lifelike and much more interesting the results are than the boring old portraits on our currency.

Fair warning, if mannequins or uncanny-valley representations of faces and hands creep you out - steer clear!