Thursday, March 11th at 7 pm
THOMAS BOHAN
author of
Crashes and Collapses

In his new book, Crashes and Collapses, physicist and forensic scientist Thomas Bohan explores the science behind crime scene and accident investigations. How can you recreate a car crash based on the tire marks? Who's to blame for a construction crane collapsing, or a New York subway accident? Bohan shows how scientists analyze these precarious situations, and how much they can determine from the limited data available. Along with Bohan's clear and systematic explanations, he also provides a history of forensic science and numerous sidebars and diagrams to help explain important terms and ideas. For the mathematically inclined, he even walks you through the calculations used to reach his conclusions. Whether you're a CSI fan, an amateur physicist, or simply a curious bystander, Crashes and Collapses provides insight and understanding into the everyday world.

"...[an] interesting book...an ideal primer for teachers, aspiring forensic scientists and engineers, as well as members of the general public..."
- Journal of Forensic Sciences

"Bohan uses real-life and fictionalized cases to explain how the country's super sleuths use principles of science – some going back to Archimedes and Kepler – to get to the core of seemingly impossible problems."
- Portland Press Herald

Thomas L. Bohan, Ph.D., received his degree in physics from the University of Illinois-Urbana. He is currently the director of MTC Forensics in Portland, Maine. He has published articles in refereed physics and forensic science journals and is on the editorial board for the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Bohan is also president-elect of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and a board member of Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board. He lives in Peaks Island, Maine.

Thursday, March 25th at 7 pm
Michael Mewshaw
author of
Between Terror and Tourism

For his sixty-fifth birthday, acclaimed novelist Michael Mewshaw took a 4,000 mile trip across North Africa. Along the journey he encounters food riots in Egypt, corruption in Libya, and an abandoned Star Wars set in Tunis. He braves sectarian violence in Algeria, narrowly misses a beheading (not his own), and encounters conspiracies in Morocco. Through it all both author and reader are immersed in a fascinating adventure that's sometimes tragic, often funny, occasionally terrifying, and always a revelation of a strange place and its people.

"Mewshaw wonderfully engages the travel reader’s vicarious demand for history, cultural insight, and unexpected incident."
- Booklist

"Perhaps the best American writer you never heard of."
- The San Francisco Chronicle