“Why Do Bats Hang Upside Down?: Still More … Fantastical Questions”

Chicoan Jennifer Kuhns (facebook.com/jenniferkuhnsauthorspage) specializes in writing children’s books featuring disabled characters, helping kids “understand that being different isn’t a bad thing.” Though cerebral palsy is her physical disability, it doesn’t define her and she continues to explore the world from her wheelchair.

Taken with quirky science questions children (and adults) might ask, Kuhns wrote “Do Birds Sneeze?” which focuses on the natural world and encourages kids to ask their own investigative questions. Questions abound and that has led to a second science book, “Why Do Bats Hang Upside Down?: Still More … Fantastical Questions” ($13.95 in paperback, independently published).

Full color, full-page illustrations by Steven Kistler add whimsy to the questions, like “What makes your nose itch?”, “How high does a thermometer go?”, “Do chickens faint?”, and “What makes people stink?” (hint: bacteria mixing with sweat).

There are also more down-to-earth queries, like “Why do cats and dogs lose their hair?” “Shedding,” Kuhns writes, “is a normal part of life for animals. Shedding helps to remove dead hair and release natural oils in the skin to keep them healthy. If dead hair does not get removed, the skin can become irritated.”

“Do birds sleep?” “Yes. But have you ever heard of sleeping with one eye open? Usually that is how birds sleep, with one eye open and with half of their brain awake…. This adaptation or way of sleeping is called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep and keeps birds safe.” When it’s dark and quiet birds “can sleep deeper with both eyes closed and both halves of their brains resting.”

On to bats. “The problem with flying for bats is that they are too heavy to take off from a standing or motionless position. This is called ‘the ratio of weight to lift capacity of the wing.’ Phew … that’s a mouthful. To make up for the bat’s inability to jump up and fly like a bird, Mother Nature (evolution) decided to hang them upside-down so they could drop from a branch and just start flapping.”

A page at the end invites readers to write their own fantastical questions—and then to research and find the answers.

“Phaedra”

Can love blossom in a French cemetery? Well, perhaps, if it’s the Père-Lachaise, “the first garden cemetery in the world,” established in 1804 and the resting place of Jim Morrison, lead singer for the classic rock group The Doors.

In the sequel to “Ember,” Chico novelist-photographer and cemetery symbolism expert Doug Keister brings cemetery symbolism expert Jerry Jensen to the Père-Lachaise. He’s there with Ember Owens and Ember’s daughter (on the cusp of turning 21). Her name? “Phaedra” ($12.99 in paperback, independently published; also for Amazon Kindle).

Phaedra is there with her new sculptor friend Pierre, who in a short time is becoming more significant in her life. The trip is intended to be a healing time for Jerry, Ember and Phaedra after their trauma in the States, when a psychopath named Jason Lewis kidnaps both Phaedra and Ember. (Jason murdered his ex-wife Amber after she married Jerry. Complicated? Yes.)

Ember and Phaedra both escape, but there’s a fire and Jason is horribly burned. He’s still alive and in the new novel bent on recapturing his prey.

Yet, especially in the first half, sinister doings give way to Jerry’s guided tour of some of the key monuments in the cemetery (complete with dozens of Keister photographs). An extensive appendix after the novel ends expands on many of the monuments, including those of actress Sarah Bernhardt, composer Frédéric Chopin, writer Gertrude Stein and partner Alice B. Toklas, and mime Marcel Marceau. Keister also explores catacombs, a repository of skulls and bones, which play an important part in the novel’s action.

It's really inner action that is the focus, though, as Phaedra comes to terms with having been given up for adoption by Ember (who was raped as a teenager) and needing not only to understand why, but to find herself. Responding to Jerry’s stories, she keeps asking herself “What were the dead trying to tell her?”

Keister’s novel is a monument to monuments but also raises the question, as Phaedra’s life unfolds, “What are the living trying to tell us”? 

Doug Keister is Nancy Wiegman’s guest on Nancy’s Bookshelf on Northstate Public Radio, mynspr.org, Wednesday, January 22 at 10:00 a.m., repeated Sunday, January 26 at 8:00 p.m.

“The GLP-1 Lifestyle: Transform Your Metabolism & Achieve Lasting Weight Loss With Or Without Semaglutide”

Anesthesiologist Joshua Hackett grew up in Chico, attended Chico State, and now practices in Humboldt County. He has a “passion project: increasing metabolic health for the general population.”

Hackett’s project is carefully presented in “The GLP-1 Lifestyle: Transform Your Metabolism & Achieve Lasting Weight Loss With Or Without Semaglutide” ($14.99 in paperback, independently published, see facebook.com/groups/glp1lifestyle; also for Amazon Kindle). His book is for educational purposes and is “not a substitute for professional medical advice.” 

“Semaglutide,” he writes, “is a medication initially designed to treat type 2 diabetes”; it’s also proving effective in “harnessing the power of our own biology, targeting the hormonal imbalances and physiological mechanisms that contribute to weight gain. At least that’s what the commercials want you to believe. Of course, part is true, part is false, and part is unknown.” (A lengthy bibliography points to medical journal articles as well as non-academic sources.)

Semaglutides are GLP-1 “receptor agonists” (binding to a cell receptor producing a similar effect as the body’s natural function) which are in such medications as Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus. “GLP-1 influences digestion by slowing down the rate at which food leaves the stomach,” stimulates “insulin release from the pancreas,” and sends “a message to the brain that we’ve had enough to eat.”

There’s great detail about how GLP-1 works but Hackett alerts readers to side effects (some severe)--and the rebound, when weight comes right back. Instead, “the goal is to utilize semaglutide as a catalyst for change, a springboard to a healthier lifestyle that can be sustained even after the medication is discontinued.”

The second half of the book details a holistic approach to weight control, focusing on exercise and meal plans that aid one’s gut health; the gut “produces GLP-1” and “is the epicenter of the entire immune system.” Hackett also encourages sunlight exposure (for vitamin D production) and “grounding,” putting bare feet on the earth, which aids in stress reduction. And, if needed, supplements.

Hackett refrains from exaggerated claims, even for measures he advocates. His focus at the end is on healthy habits and not wonder drugs, however wonderful they may be. 

“When The Cows Lie Down: The Reason People Quit You—Their ‘Leader’”

Retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Dave Nordel grew up in Orland. While the Air Force “made me a medic” the cows in Orland made him wise. 

“As I grew older,” he writes in his winsome guide to leading, “and became a contributor to the daily activities it takes to run a farm or an orchard … this required a few roles to ensure I did it right. One role is a trainer and leader, one is a cheerleader, and one is a mentor.”

“Back then,” he adds, “the coffee was a must before you started the milking. … The best of all was you got your cup, went to the first cow to be milked, and squirted your cream right from the cow into the cup. It was heaven….”

Years later, on a fishing boat with friends, he noticed cows near the dock all hunkered down. That meant bad weather was on the way. So now he asks those in charge: “What are the cows doing, do you still check, do you notice the changes, or have you quit paying attention to the subtle (or not-so-subtle) signs of a pending storm, illness, or problem with our followers or processes?”

“When The Cows Lie Down: The Reason People Quit You—Their ‘Leader’” ($19.99 in paperback from Max Fab Consulting; also for Amazon Kindle) illustrates leadership principles from farm experiences; Nordel’s time as a medic in Iraq (where “we had some terrible incidents of suicide and near-death, self-inflicted injuries … And what did we quit noticing or doing?”); and as a consultant (maxfabconsulting.com) showing leaders how to maintain “Maximum Fabulous” attitudes—bringing one’s best to a war zone or an office team in danger of “lying down” or quiet quitting.

Along the way readers meet those who have been transformative in Nordel’s life, like Paul, his First Sergeant (“Shirt” for short), who later developed “severe cancer. He was scared—not scared of dying but scared of quitting. He didn’t want to quit his people, quit his family, and not answer the call.” Attitude, he told Nordel, “is everything.”

The book exemplifies vulnerable, compassionate, and effective leadership.