friday september 26
You may remember the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995, which resulted from high-level meetings in Dayton, Ohio and which led to the end of war in the Balkans? Since that time, the Dayton Peace Prize has been created, and in 2006, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize was inaugurated, "the first and only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace." Awards are granted for both fiction and non-fiction books that were published in English during the previous year. This year's list of nominated titles includes Robert Olmstead's Coal Black Horse, which was one of the titles for our On The Same Page Cincinnati community reading program during March 2008. The Library holds copies of all of the titles on the list; the honors will be awarded at a banquet in Dayton on September 28.
thursday september 25
Unless you’re living under a rock, you’re probably aware that we elect a new President in forty days. Jordan M. Wright is probably well aware of this too, as he owns a fascinating collection of approximately 1,250,000 pieces of campaign memorabilia—many of which can be see in his new book called Campaigning for President: Memorabilia from the Nation’s Finest Private Collection.
His collection begins with five brass clothing buttons designed to commemorate the inauguration of George Washington and ends with 4,000 items from the 2004 election. In between, there are 291 pages of political buttons, pins, and posters, as well as the very unusual items (puppets, paper dresses, and piñatas!) used in every national political campaign in United States history. Jordan has not limited himself to the major party nominees—he also has Presidential hopefuls, third-party candidates, and also-rans.
So do your civic duty and check out a copy of Campaigning for President before November 4th! As the book states, you'll have a wonderful insight into America's most important achievement--our democratic system.
wednesday september 24
Okay, have you eaten your Wheaties this morning? This novel based on a real-life survival story will make you want to start bulking up.
Michael Punke's 2002 novel The Revenant tells the story of frontiersman Hugh Glass. Hired as a hunter for a trapping expedition into the northern Rocky Mountain reaches of the Louisiana Territory in 1823, he is attacked by a grizzly and horribly mauled.
With winter coming on, hostile tribes nearby, and the expedition suffering from bad luck all around, the expedition leader makes the decision to move on, leaving two men to bury Glass after he dies of his wounds.
The two don't wait. They strip Glass of his weapons and hurry to catch up with their comrades.
But Glass doesn't die.
Continue Reading…
saturday september 20
Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is the story of a young man who makes a bad decision that has a snowball affect on the rest of his life.
As a fan of Anderson's more well-known work Speak, I picked up Twisted with high expectations and I was not let down. The story opens with Tyler, who is completing his community service, under direction of a probation officer. He was painting grafiti on the side of the school to be noticed - and noticed he was.
Continue Reading…
friday september 19
A friend and I went to the Playhouse in the Park’s production of Jane Austen's Emma the other night, and something curious happened during the curtain call. The actor playing Mr. Knightley, Emma’s leading man, winked at us! “Did you see that?” asked my friend.
Now, seeing as we were sitting about ten rows up, there is the possibility that he was winking at somebody else, perhaps someone in the first nine rows. As this is my blog entry, though, I say we go with my version of events. Anyways, the wink was just the nice, final note of what is the start of a wonderful re-introduction to Jane Austen’s work.
Continue Reading…
wednesday september 17
I don't know which I like best of Silas House's books set in his native mountains of eastern Kentucky. They're loosely linked by characters, but you don't have to read them in order. The strong sense of connection between the people and the landscape they live in is vivid and deeply appealing in all three of the books.
The first book was Clay's Quilt, a surprisingly assured and graceful first novel, filled with deep affection for the mountain way of life. Clay is a young man who was raised by relatives in tiny Free Creek after his mother's violent death at the hands of a jealous lover. He finds what he has always felt was missing from life when he meets Alma, a fiddler who comes to the local honkytonk from another part of the county. Their romance is complicated by her pending divorce and the jealousy of her ex. Violence enters Clay's life a second time.
Continue Reading…
tuesday september 16
Thanks to a visit from Hurricane Ike, many of us have been doing some serious "damage control" outside in the garden. After the debris is hauled away, you might find that some re-designing and re-planting is in order. The Library's extensive collection of gardening books includes several titles that are specific to autumn gardens. Fallscaping by Nancy Ondra is a beautifully illustrated volume that will inspire any gardener to look beyond the bounty of summer into the subtle textures and colors of the fall.
Other autumn gardening titles that can be found at The Library:
