'Just How Stupid Are We?'

Rick Shenkman's "Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter" starts out in promising fashion. A multitude of political polls and academic studies suggest that the "wisdom of The People" runs aground on our widespread ignorance.

Last year 14,000 randomly selected college students averaged less than 55 percent on a basic American civics test; evening news programs are frequently interrupted with "news" of the latest starlet to enter rehab (or jail); serious policy debates are a thing of the past, replaced by middle-school-style exchanges about who said what last.

Those of us who complain about our representation in Washington may want to acknowledge that as voters, we're not exactly at the top of the class either. (How often have you stepped up to a voting booth in recent memory, to choose between two total unknowns, or with no more information than party affiliation?) But Shenkman's arguments are often not nuanced enough to be truly helpful: Those among the electorate who opposed invading Iraq, for example, may now see a need to do all we can to fix what we broke before we leave, rather than opting for immediate withdrawal.

Shenkman also discounts those who vote one way or another for moral and/or religious reasons, often in spite of their own economic interests. No one can argue against Shenkman's call for an end to "ignorance and indifference" among the electorate.

Many of our current problems as a nation can be chalked up to a willful and foolish unwillingness to do the work necessary to really know what's going on. By the end of the volume, however, it seems that the thrust of his message is that if people did truly study the issues and the candidates, they would vote as he would. Maybe, and maybe not.

So although his call to wise up is well taken, his subject is worthy of a more thorough analysis.

'The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes'

The veterinary stories in "The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes," compiled by doctors Lucy H. Spelman and Ted Y. Mashima, are perfect for teenage and adult animal lovers. The doctors who tell their tales in these pages are zoo (including aquaria) vets, so exotic difficulties pertain (and fascinate).

The title creature, Mo the Rhino, has a recurring foot infection because he has to pound around on the pavement of his enclosure instead of the soft swampiness of his natural environment. So what could be more natural than gluing on a shoe?

I liked the more mysterious cases better -- the tiger suddenly stricken with internal bleeding; the eel who wouldn't eat; the lemur with (maybe) an autoimmune disease. The love of the veterinarians for the animals they treat is palpable. Their need to heal even in the face of danger to themselves is exemplary.

Young people who love animals and hope for a future in veterinary work would find much encouragement in this book.

• Laura Wadley is a librarian with the Provo City Library. E-mail her at lauraw@provo.lib.ut.us.