thursday october 15
The 2009 National Book Award finalists were announced yesterday. Winners will be awarded at the National Book Foundation's 60th anniversary celebration on November 18th. And don't forget to vote for the Best of The National Book Awards Fiction winner! See my previous blog for details.
FICTION
American Salvage--Bonnie Jo Campbell
Let The Great World Spin--Colum McCann
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders--Daniyal Mueenuddin
Lark and Termite--Jayne Anne Phillips
Far North--Marcel Theroux
NONFICTION
Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook—David M. Carroll
Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species—Sean B. Carroll
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City-Greg Grandin
The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy--Adrienne Meyer
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt—T.J. Stiles
Continue Reading…
saturday october 03
Kudos to our good friends at the Mercantile Library over on Walnut St. Their recent blog posting points out some very interesting facts regarding the use of libraries in the US, including the claim that "Americans spend more than three times as much on salty snacks as they do on public libraries."
That is what I call food for thought.
friday october 02
Grey’s Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo recently gave birth to a daughter on September 15th, naming her Stella Luna Pompeo Ivery. Stellaluna just so happens to be an adorable children’s book by Jannell Cannon, about a fruit bat separated from her mother and adopted by a family of birds.
If the name Stella Luna doesn’t inspire the expectant parents, then the library has plenty of baby name books to consider, such as:
A is for Atticus: Baby Names from Great Books by Lorilee Craker
Baby Names Made Easy: The Complete Reverse Dictionary of Baby Names by Amanda Elizabeth Barden
Beyond Ava & Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby by Linda Rosenkrantz
Cool Names for Babies by Pamela Redmond Satran
The Name Book: Over 10,000 Names--Their Meanings, Origins, and Spiritual Significance by Dorothy Astoria
60,001+ Best Baby Names by Dianne Stafford
friday may 29
I can trace my adult interest in spelling bees to my less-than-stellar performance at my sixth grade spelling bee circa 1983. I can’t remember how many rounds I lasted (probably 1) or what word I misspelled (probably something not too difficult), but the perfectionist in me remembers I should have studied harder. For 13-year-old Kavya Shivashanker, however, the word “Laodicean” earned her the title of 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
For the rest of us, there’s always next year, so let the library give you a head start with these great books, recordings, and DVDs!
Continue Reading…
thursday april 23
Today is “Talk Like Shakespeare Day” in Chicago, in honor of William Shakespeare’s 445th birthday. Methinks there’s no reason why we, too, can’t talk like the Bard! After all, Shakespeare used 25,000 words in his writing, coining more than 1,700 of the words and phrases we use today.
To help us out, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater offers 10 quick pointers on their new website, talklikeshakespeare.org. Here is a sampling:
- Instead of you, say thou. Instead of y’all, say thee.
- Don’t waste time saying "it," just use the letter "t" (’tis, 'twill, I’ll do’t).
- When in doubt, add the letters "eth" to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).
- To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore.
- Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads.
Continue Reading…
tuesday february 10
One of my earliest memories is of an alphabet train poster that spanned two walls of the bedroom I shared with my little brother. My mom or dad would name a letter, and I would point to it. Or they would point to a letter, and I would name it or give its sound. I don't remember the moment I learned to read -- most don't, I suspect. But being read to each night and, yes, pointing to those letters on my bedroom wall certainly sped up that process.
Children today have endless opportunities to engage in literacy activities. Besides stimulation from the home environment, like the kinds my parents provided, everything from television shows, such as Reading Rainbow, to computer software programs, such as Reader Rabbit, can support children's emergent reading skills. Here are some of my favorite books to read with young, emerging readers:
The Internet gives us even more ways for children to have fun with words and stories. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has updated its Kidspace, a site complete with homework help, reading recommendations, games, and even a place for children to write book reviews. The site should be attractive to children, parents, and teachers alike.
Continue Reading…
wednesday january 14
What should I read next? That’s often the dilemma we face after we finish a book. Well, fear no more, because on January 1st, the library kicked off our new year-long Featured Book of the Month program, designed to introduce readers to books they might otherwise have overlooked.
Our January selection is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, humorist and travel writer Bill Bryson’s hilarious and delightful memoir about growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s.
The Thunderbolt Kid was born when six-year-old Bryson found a scratchy green jersey with a golden thunderbolt across the chest in the basement of his parents’ house. The sweater bestowed extraordinary super powers: the ability to zap teachers and babysitters and deflect unwanted kisses from old people.
Bryson fondly recalls his boyhood, his zany family, and his beloved hometown, while at the same time shedding light on all aspects of life in America during the 1950s. And, whether you grew up in that decade or not, we think you’ll be happy with our choice.
Continue Reading…
tuesday october 21
In an ideal world, I would have a stack of Booker prize winners on one side of me, a stack of Pulitzer prize winners on the other side of me, and an infinite amount of time to read these wonderful books. (The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has a page with links to award-winning books in a variety of categories).
But like most people, my reading habits are shaped by the various pushes and pulls of the real world. Instead of reaching for long, engrossing epic novels (such as previous favorites Middlesex and The Poisonwood Bible), I find myself doing more and more of my reading online in shorter segments, whether it's an article from The New York Times or a book review on one of the many literary websites across the internet.
In addition to Turning the Page, there are many other book-themed sites worth visiting. The Elegant Variation is a site dedicated to providing book reviews and information about author visits around the country, as well as connecting writers with one another. The book blog of the New York Times, Paper Cuts, has frequent author interviews and discussions about the world of books and publishing. In a fascinating entry from October 17, 2008, a writer discusses the dangers of writing truthfully in some regions of the world.
Continue Reading…
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.
thursday july 17
What does it take to get into the Tour de France? Blood, sweat, tears, and a ton of determination. Lance Armstrong won an unpredecented seven consecutive events. Johan Bruyneel, a Belgian cyclist and trainer, told Lance in 1998, "if we're going to ride the Tour, we might as well win". Bruyneel's new book, We Might As Well Win: The Road to Success With the Mastermind Behind Eight Tour de France Victories, describes his well-proven training regime.
To understand the level of hysteria that rises throughout France for this event, think March Madness here in the U.S. While the finish line is always on the Champs Elysee in Paris, the route of the course changes every year, causing much competition and speculation amongst people in the Provinces. The Tour's official website is loaded with information and videos providing every detail about the 2,000+ mile race, which was first run in 1903. There are also some very cool ways in which you can watch live coverage: via Google Maps or through the tips on this Silicon Valley site.
Continue Reading…
wednesday june 18
Amanda Ripley, a writer for Time magazine has written a fascinating exploration of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—And Why.
This isn’t a Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook, although Ripley certainly advocates planning ahead to meet the disasters you’re most likely to face in your life, since in a catastrophic situation you may not be able to rely on emergency response teams.
It’s more about the reaction process people go through as they face sudden disaster and how each individual’s combination of instinct and experience and training can be lifesaving or fatal in the circumstances.
Through interviews with experts and with survivors of well-known disasters—9/11, the 2006 tsunami, Katrina, the Columbine shootings, and even the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire—Ripley tries to trace the common factors in people’s reactions to catastrophe.
Continue Reading…
tuesday april 22
Last month, the science fiction community lost one of its great icons when Arthur C. Clarke died at age 90. His passing caused pause for me because of the role Clarke’s work played in my life as an introduction to the world of science fiction, a role Clarke has filled for readers of many generations.
I still have the tattered copy of Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey I bought in the sixth grade at a flea market stall selling used 50-cent paperbacks. I couldn’t say for sure now what compelled me to buy the book, and I probably couldn’t have told you at the time I bought the book why I was making the purchase. More than likely, I had heard of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s eponymous film and figured this was the best way to see what all the fuss was about.
Continue Reading…
friday april 04
April is National Poetry Month; Earth Day 2008 is April 22. There are lots of poetry books that celebrate Spring and the Earth on the library bookshelves.
The 2006 Caldecott Honor book Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems (2005) by Joyce Sidman makes a lovely connection between Earth Day and Poetry Month. Beckie Prange's gorgeous hand colored woodcuts pull together the poetry and scientific information on pond life.
Pat Mora and Steve Jenkins' This Big Sky (1998) brings us to the desert Southwest in words and pictures. Katharine Boling's New Year Be Coming!: A Gullah Year (2002) is illustrated with Daniel Minter's fascinating linoleum block prints illustrating the Gullah life of the Southeast coast, so closely tied to the earth and seasons.
Marilyn Singer's Turtle in July (1989) is a collection of poems about animals, stunningly illustrated by the great Jerry Pinkney. Fireflies at Midnight (2003) by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Ken Robbins, also celebrates animals and insects.
Pause and enjoy these charming tributes to our Earth. The simplicity and uncomplicated joy will refresh you, and make you realize how universally appealing "Children's" poetry can be.
Continue Reading…
tuesday february 26
As I write this in late February, there are four candidates in the running for the office of President of the United States. By now, we are all way too familiar with the sound bytes and the TV ads. For a look into their heads before they got to this point, check out the memoirs that have been published in recent years by Barack, Hillary, John, and Mike.
Barack Obama - Dreams from My Father, 2nd ed., 2004, and The Audacity of Hope, 2006
Hillary Rodham Clinton - Living History, 2003
John McCain - Faith of My Fathers, 1999, and Worth the Fighting For, 2002
Mike Huckabee - Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork, 2005, and From Hope to Higher Ground, 2007
Life is hard for when your dad is running for President. You have to leave your overseas boarding school to go on the campaign trail with your parents and on top of that your father’s PR guru renames you with what she deems an Americanized nickname and then has a thirty-something year old man ghostwrite a vacuous blog for you. What is an adopted South Asian teen to do?
Continue Reading…
friday february 22
Turning the Page had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Robert Olmstead, author of Coal Black Horse, Cincinnati’s 2008 On the Same Page novel for adults. We asked Mr. Olmstead some general questions, because we wouldn’t want to include spoilers for those of you who haven’t yet read this gripping tale of a young boy seeking his father across the landscape of the Civil War.
But once you have read Coal Black Horse, be sure to bring your own questions to the book-signing with Mr. Olmstead at the Main Library on Sunday, February 24, or to one of the other events at which he’ll appear. Meanwhile, check out the official Web site for the book.
TTP: Where did you get the inspiration for Coal Black Horse?
RO: In the 1980’s I was living in Pennsylvania not far from Gettysburg. Visiting the battlefield for the first time was a powerful experience. I didn’t know that much about the Civil War, just the usual stuff. So living there, walking that ground, it is my way that I wanted to know as much as I could. And of course everything I learned simply made me all the more curious to learn even more.
Continue Reading…
friday february 15
The writers' strike is finally over, so the 80th Annual Academy Awards are still set to air on Sunday, February 24th at 8:00 p.m. on ABC. In honor of all things Hollywood, I decided to write about Toby Young’s gossipy memoir, How To Lose Friends and Alienate People.
Young is a British journalist obsessed with American celebrity. He leaves London to accept a job as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, but after years of inappropriate office pranks, drinking too much, desperately trying to crash Oscar parties, and offending celebrities like Nathan Lane and Mel Gibson, he is fired. As the New York Times wrote, “Young has an instinct for annoying the rich and famous that crosses over into the self-destructive.”
Continue Reading…
saturday january 19
Plum Island is usually described as "porkchop shaped," which is ironic, because Plum Island porkchops could be even more unhealthy than salmon from China. Indeed, the main thing Plum Island has in common with a sanitary modern slaughterhouse is that the animals that go in don't come out alive.
Except that sometimes they do--or might--and the consequences could be bad, since, as everyone who has watched The Silence of the Lambs knows, Plum Island is home to the United States's Animal Disease Control Center. Michael Christopher Carroll's Lab 257 tells the story of the Island, focusing on decades of inept management, which led to serious maintenance and safety problems on the island, which is just a few miles from Connecticut and Long Island.
Continue Reading…
monday january 14
The American Library Association (ALA) today announced the top books, video and audiobooks for children and young adults - including the Caldecott, King, Newbery, and Printz awards - at its Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.
The following is a list of all ALA Youth Media Awards for 2008:
Continue Reading…
tuesday january 08
Bestselling author Sara Paretsky will be in town next week, speaking at a program and book signing sponsored by the library on Thursday, January 17.
She’s most famous of course as one of the “founding mothers” of crime fiction. Her mystery series featuring Chicago private detective V. I. Warshawski was one of the first to feature a female p.i., showing that a woman detective could be as at home on the mean streets as at the tea table.
In her latest novel, Bleeding Kansas, she returns to her roots for an eerie story of neighbor turned against neighbor. Like her other non-series novel, the 1998 Ghost Country, the story is a showcase for her passionate social convictions.
Paretsky draws on the legacy of violence in her home state—both the bloody battle over slavery in Kansas in the 1850s and the Civil Rights struggle and generational divide of the 1960s and 1970s.
The novel’s contemporary story parallels those historic conflicts. Paretsky sees another generation bitterly divided, this time over religious convictions, sexual practices, and the war in Iraq.
Continue Reading…
wednesday december 26
I recently noticed on the library's book discussion group calendar that the Miami Township Branch Library book club will be discussing Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer on Tuesday, January 8th at 10:00 a.m.
I read the book this past summer and was blown away. I found myself wanting to talk about it with anyone who would listen--much to the annoyance of my husband and coworkers, I’m sure. But Krakauer’s book is that good. He grabs your attention and doesn’t let go.
Under the Banner of Heaven tells the true story of Mormon fundamentalists Dan and Ron Lafferty, who murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother Allen in 1984 but claimed they were acting on direct orders from God.
Continue Reading…
Steve Martin, noted actor and comedian, will be among the honorees at the 30th Annual Kennedy Center Awards this evening.
He has written a book about his own life, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (2007), which I enjoyed as an audio book. Martin tells affectionately about his life so far and his road to fame. He originally wanted to be a magician, and for years he had magic (and poetry reading!) as part of his act.
Martin has a fascinating and very smart mind, but really I don't know why this should be a surprise. His comedy and acting are clever and easily accessed by almost everyone but especially people around my age, baby boomers who weirdly have things like flower power and air raid drills in our common history. He seems to sum us up, somehow.
It's not a long book. It is succinct. I loved it. And if I have gotten to know Steve Martin at all, I think he is probably a bit bemused by his prestigious honor this evening.
tuesday november 27
Alan Weisman's provocative and deeply depressing book The World Without Us does offer a few optimistic scenarios. The good news (1) Look at the New England forests. Early settlers chopped them down but later abandoned their farms, and now the trees are all grown up again. In a few more generations the forests will look pretty much like they did before the European settlers came. Already, three coyotes have made their way across bridges from New Jersey and into Manhattan.
The other good news (2) In the long run, global warming isn't that big of a deal, because in 5 billion years the sun is going to expand and suck in all the planets, anyway. Also, given the wobble of the earth and its slightly erratic orbit, unless we've really screwed things up, another ice age is inevitable no matter what we do, and it certainly would be more convenient to have one in 14,000 years rather than in 1,000 years. Think of New York City and England as tundra, for example.
Continue Reading…
wednesday october 17
The finalists for the 2007 National Book Awards in Young People’s Literature have been announced. What a great slate of candidates, including some of my absolute favorites for the year so far!
In his first book written for teens,
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Soon after the start of his freshman year, Junior leaves the troubled school on the reservation, boldly transferring to a school in a tiny town 22 miles away, where the only other Indian is the school mascot. It is a funny and poignant look at one adolescent’s attempt to break away and make his own future.
Continue Reading…
tuesday october 16
New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey surprised many, including his wife, by his 2004 announcement that he was a "gay American." He left office three months later. It wasn't just that he'd had an affair with Golan Cipel, but that he had hired him to be New Jersey's homeland security advisor--not a tiny job in 2002--although Cipel had no particular credentials. After outcry forced McGreevey to fire Cipel, the governor found him four other jobs, which he didn't keep for long.
Eventually Cipel threatened to sue McGreevey for $50 million on sexual-harassment charges. Dina Matos McGreevey published her memoir of the experience, Silent Partner, a few months after Jim McGreevey published his, The Confession.
Continue Reading…
friday september 28
September 29-October 6 libraries and booksellers across the country will celebrate Banned Books Week (BBW.) Now in it’s 27th year, BBW celebrates “the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.”
In 2006, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received 546 challenges (formal, written complaints), a 30% increase over the previous year. They estimate the number of unreported challenges to be four or five times this amount.
How many banned books have you read? It’s probably more than you think! The most frequently challenged books of the past ten years include those titles we hear a lot about- The Color Purple and The Catcher in the Rye, but also some that might surprise you such as Martin Hansford’s Where’s Waldo, appearing at no. 88 on the list. Apparently quite a few people have spotted a topless sunbather on one of the spreads.
Continue Reading…
monday september 17
Just when I'd become okay with the idea, gathered from my college history text, The Middle Ages, 395-1500, that the western part of the Roman Empire fell because the upper-class Romans who ruled it all moved out to the country and lost interest in even having an empire, let alone paying taxes to support it, a new book, The Fall of the Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians comes out and says no, it really was the barbarians after all. My own ancestors were among the worst barbarians, but you can't blame them because at the time they were too barbaric even to think about attacking anyone. Later, when they did, The Middle Ages, 395-1500 scornfully says they mistook some small Italian hamlet for Rome. The Middle Ages, 395-1500 authors hated my ancestors.
Still, I'm sorry about the Dark Ages, what with being the beneficiary of many centuries of Western culture, as well as other cultures.
Continue Reading…
tuesday september 11
I was one of those kids who left the library each week with a new stack of books, getting carsick on the way home because I couldn't wait to start reading. From Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden to C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, my childhood books usually involved misfits and hidden worlds of one kind or another.
Madeleine L'Engle passed away last week at the age of 88. She wrote more than two-dozen works of fiction as well as volumes of poetry and non-fiction.
After I read about L'Engle's death, I immediately retrieved our copy of her most celebrated book, A Wrinkle in Time. This book has some of my favorite misfits and hidden worlds. Meg is a high school student (or junior high? We're never given an exact age) who never seems to work to her potential. She wears glasses and braces and is belligerent toward adults and other students alike. Charles Wallace, Megs brother, didn't start talking until he was four; he now speaks, at age five, in complete sentences with perfect diction. Calvin is one of the popular kids in high school, but only because he pretends. The three of them--with help from Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which--embark on a journey through time and space to find Meg and Charles Wallace's father.
Continue Reading…
wednesday september 05
It’s hurricane season once again, with the recent anniversary of Hurricane Katrina serving as a grim reminder. On September 8, 1900, an even deadlier hurricane swept the coast of Galveston, Texas, killing as many as 10,000 people and changing the city forever.
Erik Larson, bestselling author of The Devil in the White City, tells the story of this hurricane and its impact on Isaac Cline, the meteorologist who believed no storm could ever seriously damage Galveston.
Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History combines the science of weather with personal accounts of survivors to track the hurricane from beginning to devastating end. At the eye of the storm are Isaac Cline, the rivalry with his fellow weatherman (and younger brother) Joseph, and the overconfidence of the age, when turn-of-the-century meteorology (and the newly formed United States Weather Bureau) could not prepare the residents of Galveston for a hurricane of this magnitude. By the time they realized evacuation was necessary, it was too late.
Continue Reading…
thursday august 23
Last year I went to see the exhibit Diana: A Celebration at the Dayton Art Institute. I got a rare look at Princess Diana’s childhood photographs, mementos, and home movies, as well as a collection of her dresses worn at both royal and charity functions.
The highlight of the exhibit was the dress worn at her wedding to Prince Charles at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981. Featuring a 25-foot train trimmed with lace and an 11-foot veil hand embroidered with 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequins, the dress was stunning to behold.
If you weren’t able to see the dress in person, then reading the book A Dress for Diana by David and Elizabeth Emanuel is the next best thing. The Emanuels became instantly famous when they were hand picked by Diana to design the most famous dress in the world.
Continue Reading…
tuesday august 07
Several years ago, my friend and I went on a weekend bus trip to Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis, Tennessee. On the way, I listened to Elvis: 30 #1 Hits and watched his movies Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. By the time we arrived on the front porch of Graceland, I was ready to meet the King.
Ever since that trip, I’ve enjoyed reading about his fascinating life. As the 30th anniversary of his death approaches on August 16th, I decided to read Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. Considered the definitive biography of Elvis, Peter Guralnick recounts Presley’s early life and music before the rhinestone jumpsuits and peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
Continue Reading…
The winners of the career-making Eisner Awards were announced the last weekend in July at Comic-Con 2007 in San Diego. These awards, named for legendary innovator Will Eisner, are determined by a panel of five judges; this year, they included librarian Robin Brenner, creator of the excellent reader’s advisory site No Flying No Tights.
In addition to the winners listed below, check out the nominee list for more great graphic reading.
Best Graphic Album – New: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. See my post about this first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award.
Best Graphic Album – Reprint: Absolute DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke. The Library has the original edition.
Best Reality-Based Work: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. See Jennifer’s post.
Continue Reading…
monday august 06
Every day at the library, customers check out the newest titles by authors such as Janet Evanovich and James Patterson. But they aren't just checking out the books. Many seek out these titles in audio book form. I was surprised last week by an article in the New York Times that debated whether listening to a book on cd was equal to reading that same book:
"Dain Frisby-Dart, 40, an avid audio book listener from Trempealeau, Wis., told her book group a few years ago that she was listening to the current selections. One of the members, a man in his 70s, reacted as if she had been reading CliffsNotes."
The article describes how many of the people who listen to audio books do so in private: in the car, at home, or while wearing headphones. But with book clubs growing in popularity, people's reading - and listening - habits are being made public.
Continue Reading…
monday july 23
A few days ago I heard a NPR story about a woman who decided to forego buying things from China for a year. It reminded me of the book I'm currently reading by an author who decided to opt out of the consumer market by not buying anything for one year. As I listened to the news piece and connected the books I thought how nice it must be to make the decision to not buy anything as opposed to not having the money to purchase, which is the way it is for some Americans.
As John Edwards continues his poverty tour during his bid for the '08 democratic nomination, we are again reminded of the lines drawn between the haves and the have-nots in this country. The poor's approach to consumerism is completely different than those of financial means because they don't have the wherewithal to spend. There's no statement they can make on mass consumption by withholding their dollars because more than likely they don’t spend frivolously enough to be missed
Continue Reading…
tuesday june 12
Mildred Loving doesn’t give a lot of interviews anymore. She doesn’t see herself as that spectacular. She sees herself as just a girl who fell in love with boy and they got married. But at the time their marriage was against the law in many states, especially her home state of Virginia.
On June 12, 1967 the Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws and made it legal for interracial couples to marry. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Loving case a few cities across the country are having Loving Day parties.
Randall Kennedy’s book Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption examines the long history of race relations in the United States. The book’s introduction opens with the story of Jacqueline Henley, a young New Orleans orphan whose aunt relinquishes custody because neighbors suspected Jacqueline was black.
Continue Reading…
friday may 25
Cincinnati has a wonderful tradition of welcoming spring and summer with magnificent singing – first the May Festival, held during two May weekends, then the opera season with four productions in June and July.
This tradition has a very long history! The May Festival, established in 1873, is the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western hemisphere. Music Hall was built to house it. Cincinnati Opera, founded in 1920, is the second-oldest opera company in the United States.
The Library will join the celebration this year by unveiling treasures from the Cincinnati Opera Archives, which were entrusted to the Art & Music Department last year. The exhibit Highlights from the Cincinnati Opera Archives, on view in the department from June 13 through September 2, will showcase photographs of the many legendary stars who performed with the company, along with historic programs, posters, scrapbooks, and other documents.
Continue Reading…
thursday may 17
The plight of young black male America has been discussed ad nauseam for the last year. Are we to believe the recent report that aired on
Marketplace about young black men dropping out of the job culture?
Then there is the article from the New York Times that warned about the litany of problems facing black men?
And what about the stories presented in last year’s series from The Washington Post that gave an overview of black men? The series Being a Black Man reported on the varied lives of African American males.
In their latest book, Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip Hop Generation, writers Natalie Hopkins and Natalie Y. Moore sift through varying images of the black male in current media and social thought. Divided into eleven chapters, each portion is a different view of black men and their walk in life.
Continue Reading…
wednesday may 02
If you haven’t yet seen the Andrew Wyeth exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum, make time for a visit during this last week! The collection, loaned by the Marunuma Art Park, consists of 114 watercolors and drawings that lovingly capture the life and seaside Maine home of Christina and Alvaro Olson.
The independent Christina, who had an undiagnosed degenerative disease, refused all help but that of Alvaro, her brother. She preferred to crawl and drag her body through her increasingly dilapidated home and grounds rather than use a wheelchair.
Hence the posture and power of her reaching figure in Christina’s World (1948), Wyeth’s most famous work and one of the best-known works of American art. Christina’s World belongs to the Museum of Modern Art and does not travel because of the fragility of the tempera paint Wyeth used. But this exhibit features 10 studies, such as early compositional notations, detail studies, and the final watercolor sketch.
Continue Reading…
thursday april 26
You're not imagining things if you've been seeing Imperial Stormtroopers at the library.
In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, we're launching GalaxyCon, an out-of-this-world celebration of all things science fiction.
It hasn't even started yet, and already it's a blast. I've had some great conversations with fans of all ages and families who plan to join us for the stellar events we have planned.
Science fiction is such a part of our culture, in fiction, film, and TV. Were you one of the wide-eyed kids who watched Flash Gordon serials on Saturday mornings, or did you stand in line for Spiderman and its sequels? Did you get your kicks from superhero comics or have your consciousness raised by the sociological sf of Sheri S. Tepper or Margaret Atwood? Are you hooked on Heroes or daffy for Dr. Who?
Even if you're not a techie, a Trekker, or a towel-carrying hitchhiker through the galaxy, how can you resist? (Resistance is futile, you know!)
Continue Reading…
saturday april 14
April 15th marks the 95th anniversary of the sinking of the steamship RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean on a calm, starry night in 1912. What better way to commemorate the event and honor the 1,523 lives lost than by attending Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, closing May 6th at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
If you’re looking for a good read on the subject, why not try a book published in 1955 that still makes the disaster come alive today: A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. I decided to pick up my copy (after many sad years of gathering dust on my bookshelf) and was surprised by its immediacy.
Lord interviewed Titanic survivors before writing his classic tale and the result is a minute-by-minute account of the ship’s sinking and its aftermath. His narrative “you are there” style is considered groundbreaking and influential, and when combined with a viewing of the Titanic artifacts, you can’t help but be moved.
friday april 13
The whole world is a little dimmer now. Kurt Vonnegut passed away at the age of 84.
Indianapolis, his birth city, is celebrating 2007 as The Year of Vonnegut. The Indianapolis Marion County Public Library has lots of events planned, too, and the One Book One City selection, announced just day before yesterday, is Slaughterhouse Five. Now this will all sadly be In Memoriam.
Slaughterhouse Five was written a long time after his experiences in WWII as a prisoner of war in Germany. He was actually there in the bombing of Dresden, and he survived it with other POWs in an old slaughterhouse cellar, which is why I feel this event is so poignant in the book.
I miss him already. Chances are, he doesn't miss us much, being up there talking to Newton and Shakespeare and all those folks he was looking forward to meeting.
Continue Reading…
tuesday april 10
I'm trying to find a connection between two books I've read lately, Running Away With Frannie, by Renée Manfredi, and Un seul crime, l'amour, by Mary Fualaau (formerly Mary Kay LeTourneau) and Vili Fualaau, with a couple guest chapters by Vili's mother, Soona Fualaau.
I can't talk too much about Manfredi's strange and memorable novel without giving away the plot, which takes an unexpected turn about halfway through, and then another one at the end. The protagonist is Sam, a 25 year old from a household without a lot of money, one of ten siblings with an alcoholic father and a mother who works in an Elvis-Presley commemorative-plate-making factory. The mother expresses her opinion of dinner guests through her table settings. If the visitor gets a young-and-healthy Elvis plate, the mother likes the guest. Old washed-up Elvis means Sam's mother is not amused.
Continue Reading…
monday april 09
Debra Dickerson is ubiquitous.
For the last two months she has been everywhere. I have never really thought of her before although I have read a few of her articles on Salon and Slate. Maybe I have heard her on NPR. But after her article positing the question is Barack Obama black enough and then her article about raising her biracial children "aracial" I decided to pick up the book The End of Blackness. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it at first or even if I wanted anyone --especially African Americans-- to see me reading it, fearing that my black card would be immediately revoked on the spot.
Continue Reading…
On March 27 it was announced that
Haruki Murakami won the
Kiriyama Prize for his latest book,
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. "
Blind Willow" is a collection of short stories that have appeared in various magazines over the last 20 years.
The Kiriyama Award was established in 1996 as a way to recognize books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia with the purpose of creating an understanding of the peoples and cultures of that region. The award honors both Fiction and Non Fiction books. Greg Mortenson won for his autobiographical book Three Cups of Tea, which tells about his building a school in a small Pakistani town.
Other Finalists include:
saturday april 07
Years ago, while my daughter was still in diapers, we were having a picnic at the lake with some of my friends. One male friend was taken by the sun shining on the water and sand (what little there was) and picked up my daughter, cradling her in his two hands. He held her aloft, offering her to her to the sky he said, “Behold, the only thing greater than yourself!”
We all laughed, recognizing the opening scene from Roots.
This Easter Sunday TV One will rebroadcast the show to mark the 30th Anniversary of its first airing. When it originally aired, Roots made history by becoming the most watched miniseries of all time. It had an all-star cast and gave actor Levar Burton his start.
After viewing Roots, the show prompted a lot of African Americans to research their family histories. PLCH has excellent resources for those who are looking to discover their own past or just want to brush up on African American history.
Continue Reading…
thursday march 15
I’ll be after the wearin’ o’ the green in this space during March, which makes a fine Irish History Month. It’s not just the St. Patrick’s Day that’s in it; rain and spring air recall the Emerald Isle, so fertile that the Sassenach (English, or “Saxons”) kept it “the most distressful country that ever yet was seen.” Bad as it could be to have a thriving neighbor, it was even worse for Protestant England to have Catholic harbors next door from which other Papist countries could (and did) try to launch invasions.
“They are going, going, going, and we cannot bid them stay.” My ancestors came to America over the past 300 years of increasing crisis in the homeland. The most fortunate ones were 18th-century refugees from the anti-Catholic penal laws. The Meade family and Stephen Moylan (first president of The Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick) fought alongside George Washington. Thomas Riley, one of the “wild geese” who found work as mercenaries, arrived in Lafayette’s Irish regiment to whack the Sassenach over here.
At the other extreme were my Toohey great-great-grandparents, who disembarked dead in New Orleans from a "coffin ship" during the Famine of the mid-19th century. In True History of the Kelly Gang, a Man Booker Prize-winning novel about the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, Peter Carey makes a beautiful immigrant song out of the lives of the luckless exiles, especially in a passage that intones the names of convict ships like Homer’s catalogue of ships in the Iliad.
Continue Reading…
Break out that ugly green turtleneck you've been dying to wear and get ready to celebrate--St. Patrick's Day is almost here! Cincinnati's Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is this Saturday. Corned beef, cabbage, and Guinness can be had at Newport's or Mason's Claddagh Irish Pub. If you're looking for a quieter way to commemorate the holiday, check out some of these novels set in Ireland.
In recent years, mystery writers have found Ireland a fertile ground for murder and mayhem. Lake of Sorrows, Erin Hart's sequel to Haunted Ground, is a prime example. In it, pathologist Nora Gavin is sent to the bogs of Central Ireland to investigate two recently discovered corpses, one ancient, the other recent. Other good mysteries set in Ireland include Ken Bruen's Priest, Carol Anne O'Marie's Murder at the Monk's Table, and Dicey Deere's The Irish Village Murder (all three are the latest titles in series).
Continue Reading…
tuesday march 13
A friend of mine confessed--it seemed like a confession--that he was relieved when Theodore Kaczynski turned out to be the Unabomber, because a friend of his pretty much fit the profile.
I understood perfectly, having spent some time in high school trying to track down Patricia Hearst (really impossible from rural South Carolina before the Internet). I just finished reading Robert Graysmith's 2003 Amerithrax: the Hunt for the Anthrax Killer, and the most interesting part isn't about anthrax at all: it's the report of an interview between Mohammad Atta and Johnelle Bryant, manager of the Homestead, Florida, office of the U.S. Departure of Agriculture.
Continue Reading…
saturday march 10
“One hundred nations descend upon us. The armies of all Asia. Funneled into this narrow corridor, their numbers count for nothing. They shatter with each advance.”
300, the film based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae (“hot gates”), opened this week here and across the country. Typically for Miller, whose talents and concepts are equally extreme, the movie has drawn praise for its power, but also diatribes against its historical and (perceived) political content, as well as Miller’s trademark violence.
The book is certainly a fine example of Miller’s potent, “artful” storytelling, and the story itself can’t be told often enough. Stationing themselves in a narrow mountain pass, 300 Spartans faced certain death to hold the gigantic army of the Persian Empire at bay, enabling the Greek city-states to marshal their forces and eventually rebuff the invaders.
Continue Reading…
friday march 09
Trenton Lee Stewart will discuss The Mysterious Benedict Society and sign copies at 7 p.m. on Monday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers and at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the Blue Manatee Children’s Bookstore.
That’s big news for two reasons. The Mysterious Benedict Society has earned rave reviews as a new ‘tween adventure series. The book’s success is no surprise, since Trent is an excellent writer – an Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate and instructor who has published many short stories and a fine adult novel, Flood Summer.
He’s also a former Library employee, now living in his native Arkansas, and we’re thrilled to welcome him back in triumph. If you have to lose a great colleague, the best way is to a book advance.
Continue Reading…
It is, alas, time to set the clocks forward an hour to ostensibly "save" an hour of daylight every day. This coming Saturday night/Sunday morning at 2 AM it will suddenly become 3 AM.
According to Michael Downing in his 2005 book, Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, normal everyday people do not really understand why we change our clocks. As he says, however, quoting a friend, "Time is quantifiable, but that doesn't mean time is a quantity." Um, I still don't understand.
In Seize the Daylight by David Prerau, we learn that the idea of Daylight Saving Time goes back to Benjamin Franklin, but it was put into practice in Europe and the US during World War I. Don't blame the farmers, it wasn't their fault. It was war, manufacturing, and the government that did it.
The time change is a hot topic of conversation. Everyone has an opinion, probably because it affects everyone. David Prerau says, "It seems like such a simple gesture. Spring forward, fall back. Does anyone know what we're doing?"
Continue Reading…
wednesday march 07
When you wonder how in the world Peter O’Toole missed winning an Academy Award for Lawrence of Arabia and then discover he lost to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, the famous gaps in Oscar honors seem less shocking. But – Rocky beating Taxi Driver? Best Picture and Best Director? Actually, Martin Scorsese wasn’t even nominated for directing Taxi Driver.
Oscar history is so full of surprises that it was painful to watch the aged O’Toole sitting among mere mortals at this year’s ceremony, hoping to end a record series of losses: seven fruitless nominations at the start of the evening, eight by the end. Fortunately, he had received an honorary award in 2002.
I saw the nearly four-hour Lawrence of Arabia four times during its initial run in 1963, when I was 13. Before I try to explain myself, some cover from Roger Ebert: “I've noticed that when people remember Lawrence of Arabia, they don't talk about the details of the plot. They get a certain look in their eye, as if they are remembering the whole experience, and have never quite been able to put it into words.”
Continue Reading…
monday march 05
Michael Palmer will promote his new medical thriller, The Fifth Vial, at the Oakley Branch this coming Thursday, March 8 at 7:00 p.m. Turning the Page asked the author a few questions that he graciously found time to answer.
T.T.P.: Tell us a little bit about how you came to be a novelist.
M.P.: Robin Cook and I were classmates at Wesleyan in Connecticut, and trained together at Mass General Hospital. After I read Coma, I asked myself: If he can do this, why can't I? So I started writing an adventure story a page a night.
T.T.P.: Did it come from your experience with books and reading?
M.P.: When I started writing, I began to draw from everything I knew--books I had read and enjoyed; courses at Wesleyan; experiences in the ER and the office. Pulling those things together was, and is, one of the aspects of writing fiction that I enjoy the most.
T.T.P.: Or did your career in medicine serve as inspiration?
No doctor could write and not have his patents and life in medicine become woven into the fabric of his work.
Continue Reading…
tuesday february 27
Cincinnati's citywide reading program, On the Same Page, is in full swing. Family and friends, neighbors, and co-workers are reading The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. For teens, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is this year's action-packed selection.
You can participate any number of ways. Pick up a copy of the book at any Library location or contact a branch to get multiple copies for a book club or class. Host your own discussion or attend a Library book discussion group. Post your comments about the book on the On the Same Page web site.
Continue Reading…
friday february 23
The Horror Writers Association has announced that Thomas Harris will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet at the end of March during the annual HWA Conference that will be held in conjunction with the 2007 World Horror Convention in Toronto.
Harris hasn't written a lot of books, but his fiction is very finely crafted and creepy. He is, of course, recognized for his perfectly written saga of Hannibal Lecter, the compelling psychopath from Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal.
The latest and final installment, Hannibal Rising, is actually the first installment, starting with Hannibal as a young boy in Eastern Europe during World War II. It offers the reasons for Hannibal becoming the way he is.
Harris wrote the screenplay for the movie at the same time as the novel. Hannibal Rising is available in audio as well as print, and as a digital audio book for download from the Ohio eBook Project.
Continue Reading…
wednesday february 21
Who can forget Jack Palance doing push-ups on stage after winning Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers? Or Adrien Brody enthusiastically kissing Halle Berry after his Best Actor win for The Pianist? If you don't want to miss all the excitement (plus an opportunity to make fun of the bizarre outfits some of the stars wear), tune into ABC this Sunday at 8 p.m. to see Ellen DeGeneres host the 79th Annual Oscar Awards. In past years, many of the Best Picture winners were adapted from popular works of fiction or non-fiction. Here's a small sampling (the date in parenthesis is the year the movie won the award for Best Picture):
Continue Reading…
tuesday february 20
Few stories of African American triumphs in the arts are as moving as that of Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson, considered by many the greatest contralto of her time, was barred from using Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who owned the facility. In the widespread protest that followed, Eleanor Roosevelt and other prominent members resigned from the DAR, and Anderson performed instead at the memorial on Easter Sunday. A crowd of 75,000 attended the historic event.
Anderson, who died in 1993, went on to other trailblazing achievements, notably her 1955 debut as the first African American member of the Metropolitan Opera. Her successor in breaking barriers was the magnificent soprano Leontyne Price, the first African American to achieve an international reputation in opera and one of the finest of divas by any measure.
This Little Light of Mine: The Stories of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price celebrates these two artists through the talents of soprano
Adrienne Danrich. The Cincinnati Opera will present performances tonight at
Memorial Hall and tomorrow night in the Harriet Tubman Theater of the
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, both at 7 p.m. Touring programs are also available through February 23.
Continue Reading…
saturday february 17
I've yet to find the perfect home-decor book (good-looking house without money or time investment) in the budget-decor department, so I decided to go the other way. In Dictator Style, English writer Peter York has compiled photographs of the interiors and exteriors of homes owned by notorious dictators, including Hitler, Tito, Ceaucescu, Idi Amin, and Saddam Hussein.
While admitting that some (though not all) of Slobodan Milosevic's rooms have that certain je ne sais quoi, York condemns most of the despots on grounds of bad taste--everything is too big, and they tend to put up photos and paintings of themselves all over the place. Idi Amin had tacky shag carpeting, and no one knows what the scary devices in the Ceaucescus' bathroom (p. 57) are.
Continue Reading…
monday february 12
Shahtani Tropical Breeze. Thistleglen Margot. Freestyle Ocean Breeze. Sound like nice places to visit, right? If you were in New York City last year at this time, you would have been able to visit all of them at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. The 2007 show starts today and concludes tomorrow (live coverage both days from 8-11 pm on the USA Network). In all, 165 breeds in seven groups (working, terrier, toy, non-sporting, sporting, hound, and herding) compete against each other to be crowned Best in Show. Last year's winner was Rufus, the colored bull terrier (otherwise known as Rocky Top's Sundance Kid--I swear I'm not making these names up). Tune in to see the popular (beagles) compete against the unknown (Spinone Italianos) and the just plain weird-looking (pulis). While you're in the mood, you might want to peruse these dog-themed mysteries as well:
- A Deeper Sleep by Dana Stabenow--Alaskan PI Kate Shugak and her faithful half-wolf, half-Siberian husky, Mutt, try to gather evidence against a man who has killed three of his wives.
Continue Reading…
thursday february 08
The next lecture in the Library’s weekly Black History Month series will be “Cincinnati’s Black Community in the Pre-Civil War Era,” presented by Nikki Marie Taylor (Saturday, February 10, 2:00 in the Huenefeld Tower Room). Professor Taylor, who recently joined the University of Cincinnati Department of History, is the author of Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati's Black Community, 1802-1868.
Frontiers of Freedom is a study of the determination, resourcefulness, and resilience of African American settlers in this Mason-Dixon border town, as notorious for racism – often violent – as it was distinguished by the work of abolitionists and Underground Railroad conductors, including Harriet Beecher Stowe and Levi Coffin.
Continue Reading…
tuesday february 06
The Sundance Film Festival closed in Park City, Utah, on January 28, releasing onto the market a great many fine independent movies, to judge by the number that won at least one award. The festival, produced by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, screens 125 dramatic and documentary feature films and more than 70 short films each year.
The Grand Jury Prize winners were the documentary Manda Balla (“Send a Bullet”), the first feature film directed by Jason Kohn, and the drama Padre Nuestro (“Our Father”), a Spanish-language film by first-time writer/director – and Fort Wright, Ky. native – Christopher Zalla.
Padre Nuestro follows the struggles of a Mexican boy to reach New York City and find the father he has never met, bearing as sole proof of his identity a locket and letter from his deceased mother. Manda Balla is a portrait of contemporary Brazil, focusing on its diversity, socioeconomic extremes, and a growing culture of violence and corruption.
Continue Reading…
thursday february 01
For the past year or so, millions of children, teens, and adults around the world have been breathlessly waiting for an announcement about the publication date for the seventh (and final) entry in the Harry Potter series. Finally…the moment has arrived! Today, J.K. Rowling posted an announcement on her website that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is going to be published at midnight on Saturday, July 21. Typically, she’s being very tight-lipped about the plot—although there’s been of frenzy of speculation amongst the Harry Potter faithful since Rowling hinted that a couple of characters might die.
Anxious to reserve your copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Take advantage of the Library's Hot Authors service and a copy of the new book will be automatically held for you!
Continue Reading…
monday january 29
Olympus Fashion Week in New York City is looming, when all the designers showcase their new looks for Fall 2007. Couture Week is in full swing, and the collections vary all the way from Jean Paul Gaultier's beautiful sleek monochromatic lines to Elie Saab's diaphanous fanciful frills.
Not everyone owns a couture gown, but everyone owns a pair of jeans. In Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon (2006) by James Sullivan you can find out why.
Designer and fashion expert Randolph Duke helps us all dress well in his book, The Look: A Guide to Dressing from the Inside Out. In a very comfortable way, he helps us look at our figures and work toward expressing our own personal style.
Truth is, high fashion really does trickle down to our department store sales racks and into our closets. Fashion Week shows set trends, highlight colors, and establish the general mood for the clothing we will be wearing. My question is, Will there be any blue jeans on the runway?
Continue Reading…
thursday january 25
Oscar-nominated films now in theaters began as books. The satirical tone of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children gets a bit lost in the film, but the disturbing performance by Jackie Earle Haley has caught everyone’s attention. A desperate Judi Dench knows Cate Blanchett’s secrets in Zoe Heller’s What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal. Will Smith and son bring Chris Gardner’s astounding and inspiring memoir The Pursuit of Happyness to a wider audience.
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, the Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder tells the story of Farmer’s quest to fight infectious disease in the poorest communities of the world. This critically acclaimed biography follows Farmer from childhood to his extraordinary career at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Farmer visits Xavier University on April 23 for an evening lecture open to the public.
saturday january 06
This weekend is your last chance to see the Cincinnati Art Museum’s exhibition Waking Dreams – Experience the Enchantment, a gorgeous collection of major works by Pre-Raphaelite artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais, and many others.
The drawings and numerous lush paintings abundantly demonstrate the mission of these 19th-century artists: to bring candid emotion and vitality back into English art, which they believed had become rigid and derivative. They wished to return to what they saw as the aesthetic values of the late Middle Ages and 14th century – before Raphael. The show also includes fine objects, from furniture to jewelry, as examples of the movement’s emphasis on creative craftsmanship of the highest quality.
Continue Reading…
friday december 29
After the April 2003 fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces, the world was horrified to learn that the Iraq Museum had been looted. The museum housed an enormous collection of Mesopotamian artifacts, and therefore the most ancient creations of human civilization. I remember a friend crying over the presumed loss of the wide-eyed worshipper (votive) figures , the Golden Lyre of Ur, and the pair of exquisite Ram in the Thicket statues, fabricated of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, copper, shell, and red limestone.
These are among the oldest Mesopotamian treasures, the 5,000-year-old legacy of the Sumerians, who gave us writing. Among the writings feared missing were the Code of Hammurabi, the best preserved among early bodies of law, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the first surviving works of literature and still a great read.
A News Hour interview in July with reserves Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, who had been charged with recovering the treasures, seemed to offer some hope, simply because Bogdanos made such a powerful impression. An assistant district attorney with a master’s degree in Classics, he himself seemed to exemplify civilization through a remarkable combination of idealism and resolution. Toward the end of the interview, Bogdanos was asked about his prospects for success. He replied with an almost laconic serenity:
“I'm a Marine. I expect to recover these items, no matter how long it takes…. To those who have taken the items, I urge them to listen to their conscience and their sense of duty in returning those items. And to those who need to be guided by emotions other than those, my message is simple: We will find you, no matter how long it takes and no matter where you are, we will find you, and we will recover this property.”
Continue Reading…
tuesday december 26
James Brown's passing on December 25 begs lovers of all things funky to Get up Offa That Thing and celebrate the career of a true original. Brown's ties to Cincinnati via King Records and Bootsy Collins are local interest items in a large, thrilling, tumultuous life.
His 1963 recording James Brown Live at the Apollo is considered one of the best albums of all time. His music has been feautured in over 100 films. If the only James Brown songs you know are I Got You (I Feel Good) and Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, then you better get listening!
And if listening to him isn't enough, check out his most recent autobiography I Feel Good: a memoir of a life of soul.
tuesday december 12
Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese has made history as the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award. Although it didn’t win, the book joins Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus as a graphic novel honored by a major awards organization outside the comics industry.
Yang’s art is charming and beautifully full-colored by Lark Pien. The book’s multi-thread narrative relates three clever, absorbing tales: the adventures of the legendary Monkey King, the struggles of a Chinese-American boy to fit in at school, and the trials of a European-American boy shamed by his visiting Chinese cousin, who is a study in racist clichés.
Continue Reading…
thursday november 16
Robert Sabuda, the premier paper engineer pop-up artist around, is coming to Cincinnati!
We have exciting plans for this Saturday, Nov. 18: A Pop-Up Party with Robert Sabuda from 1-3 in the Main Library Atrium. It will be fabulous fun: a talk with slides from Mr. Sabuda, pop-up crafts for everyone, exhibits of his work throughout the library, and opportunities to get Robert Sabuda's real live signature in your copies of his books (available at the Friends Shop)!
Every book by Robert Sabuda is a glorious work of art. My favorite, Winter's Tale, is a gorgeous white and sparkly depiction of winter, from the first pop-up of a soaring pure white owl to the last twinkly forest clearing.
I have written before about the appeal of pop-up books. Remember: definitely NOT just for kids!
Continue Reading…
wednesday november 15
Seven paintings, including a Cézanne masterwork, were stolen from art collector Michael Bakwin’s home in 1978. Bakwin recovered the Cézanne, Bouilloire et Fruits, more than 20 years later, when a corporation offered it for sale and a suspicious Lloyd’s of London underwriter called the Art Loss Register. But soon after, Bakwin was forced to sell Bouilloire et Fruits – for more than $30 million – simply because he could never maintain enough security to prevent another theft. He eventually regained four more of his paintings, but two remain missing.
This story from Museum of the Missing: A History of Art Theft illustrates both the good and the bad news about the current situation. The good news is the Art Loss Register, a London-based organization that maintains a database of stolen works. Since its creation in 1991, the Art Loss Register has done much to compensate for light trade regulation, inadequate governmental resources, and low motivation to identify or report suspect provenance.
Continue Reading…
friday november 03
October 29th-November 4th is National Infertility Awareness Week. This Saturday, the Ohio chapter of Resolve: The National Infertility Association will hold their annual conference in Loveland. Today's front page of the Enquirer features an article entitled "Fertility Programs Lessen Financial Risk", discussing the steps local programs (the Institute for Reproductive Health, the Center for Reproductive Health, and the Bethesda Center for Reproductive Health and Fertility) are taking to reduce the financial burden on couples seeking IVF or other high-cost fertility treatments.
The library has many books dealing with infertility. Here are some of the more recent titles:
wednesday november 01
The Ohioana Library's Hamilton County Writers Celebration will be in the Tower Room on the third floor of the main library on Sunday, November 12, at 1:30. The event is open to the public, and you might want to arrive early to get a good seat. We've invited more than 130 writers who were either born in Hamilton County, or who have lived here for many years, or who write about Cincinnati--either real Cincinnati or a fictionalized version (with vampires, and excuse me if I'm wrong about vampires being fictional)--and who published books, music compositions, or new magazines or newspapers within the last year.
Not all 130 writers will come, of course, but already a selection of around 40 interesting and diverse writers have agreed to come. Mercantile Library Board Member Buck Niehoff will give a keynote talk; the writers will receive certificates, and we have created a slide show honoring their books and describing their work and lives. And yes--refreshments at the end and plenty of time to meet the writers and look at their books.
Continue Reading…
wednesday october 25
The winners of the Ignatz Awards – named for Krazy Kat’s nemesis mouse in the George Herriman strip – were announced on October 14 at the 2006 Small Press Expo in Baltimore. The mission of the annual event is “the exhibition of independent comic books and the discovery of new creative talent.” A panel of five cartoonists sets the ballot, and the attendees at SPX decide the winners.
Some of the Ignatz honorees will be familiar as winners or nominees from the Eisner and Harvey Awards given earlier this year (see my post about the Harvey Awards). It’s been a very good year for Alex Robinson, Andy Runton, and especially Charles Burns, whose legendary Black Hole collected all three prizes for best collection/graphic album.
Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Black Hole by Charles Burns
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Drawn and Quarterly Showcase #3
The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Squirrel Mother by Megan Kelso
Continue Reading…
thursday october 05
The Bluegrass music tradition is well represented with masters of the genre at Tall Stacks this year: my favorite Del McCoury Band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Cherryholmes family, Ralph Stanley, and so many more fantastic musicians. This is heaven on earth!
Many of these groups are award winners, and all of them have played on the stage of The Grand Ole Opry!
We have music here at the Library by these extraordinary musicians, as well as books to read about the Bluegrass heritage.
The Bluegrass Reader (2004), edited by Thomas Goldsmith, is an entertaining collection of articles about the Bluegrass music scene.
From Every Stage: Images of America's Roots Music (2005) by Stephanie P. Ledgin is a fascinating look at the development of bluegrass among other types of music that originated in the Americas.
Bluegrass might be something that is unfamiliar to you. Give it a chance; get to know it. It is original American Music that expresses the heart of all of us.
tuesday october 03
This quote probably brings back not-so-fond memories of high school English class for many of us. Edgar Allan Poe, the author of the poem "The Raven", died 157 years ago this week. Poe, who also wrote such famous short stories as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher", was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston and died on October 7, 1849 in Baltimore. The circumstances surrounding his death are murky. Although it was believed for years that Poe's death was due to extreme alcohol abuse, the doctor who attended him found no evidence to support this claim. Cholera, rabies, and syphilis have all been put forth as possible causes of death, but it is likely that the cause will never be known.
Every year on Poe's birthday, a man dressed in a cape appears at his gravesite and leaves three roses and a partially empty bottle of cognac. Inspired by this real-life event, mystery novelist Laura Lippman wrote In a Strange City, in which PI Tess Monaghan investigates a shooting death that occurs at Poe's tomb.
Continue Reading…
thursday september 21
This week, instead of writing about a particular author or title, I thought I’d share some bits and pieces of news from the book world with you. In no particular order…
Hannibal Rising, a novel about the early days of psychopathic killer Hannibal Lecter, will be published on December 5. According to the president of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group,
Hannibal Rising will give readers the chance to “learn of Lecter's beginnings and will see the evolution of his evil.”
Thomas Harris is also working on a screenplay for a movie by the same name. It has an estimated release date of early 2007. Unfortunately Anthony Hopkins (who won an Academy Award in 1991 for his performance in
Silence of the Lambs) will not reprise his role of Dr. Lecter in the new movie.
Continue Reading…
wednesday september 20
With killer spinach dominating headlines, reconsidering your food sources may not be such a bad idea.
Nina Planck was a toddler when her parents abandoned the city for rural Virginia and the arduous life of farming. Growing up eating abundant fresh vegetables, eggs from the farm's free ranging chickens and cream and milk from their own cow, she was not introduced to processed food in any great amount until she was in college.
In Real Food: What to Eat and Why, Planck explores how processed foods have come to dominate the American food industry and how we can eat more healthfully and with greater satisfaction by rejecting modern food.
Continue Reading…
Fashion Week in New York just concluded this past weekend. All the designers were there, showing gorgeous runway fashions that will be the prototypes for our Spring 2007 clothes.
"The Independent Woman" is apparently about whom the designers were thinking this year, as it is a common theme among the collections.
Visionaries: Interviews with Fashion Designers (2001) by Susannah Frankel gives us a look into the lives and creative processes of fashion designers through interviews with them.
Stylemakers: Inside Fashion by Marcia Sherrill (2002) outlines influential behind-the-scenes people in the fashion world: trend spotters, stylists, photographers, and business people who choreograph what we will eventually see in stores.
An interesting behind-the-scenes book about the Men's fashion industry is Joseph Abboud's autobiography, Threads: My Life Behind the Seams of the High-Stakes World of Fashion (2004).
Fashion Designers by Pamela Golbin (2001) is a beautifully illustrated chronicle of trends by some of the most influential designers.
Continue Reading…
tuesday september 12
The 2006 winners of the Harvey Awards were announced Saturday during the Baltimore Comic-Con. Named for Harvey Kurtzman, who is best known for founding, writing, and illustrating MAD magazine, the Harveys have great prestige as the only awards voted exclusively by comic book professionals.
Here’s a list of the nominees, with winners in boldface. Congratulations to Carol Tyler, Cincinnati resident and Library program participant, whose Late Bloomer was nominated in the category Best Graphic Album – Previously Published Material.
Best Graphic Album - Original
Combat Zone by Karl Zinsmeister (Marvel Comics)
The Lone and Level Sands by A. David Lewis (Caption Box) – on order
Night Fisher by R. Kikuo Johnson (Fantagraphics Books) – on order
Tricked by Alex Robinson (Top Shelf)
Wimbledon Green by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Continue Reading…
Most of the leading comics professionals created moving tributes to the events of September 11, 2001. Their work is collected in three anthologies – 9-11: The World’s Finest Comic Book Artists and Writers Tell Stories to Remember, 9-11: Artists Respond, and 9-11 Emergency Relief. In addition, The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón will be at the Library very soon.
But the most cogent and intimate graphic treatment, In the Shadow of No Towers, comes from Art Spiegelman -- appropriately, since Spiegelman is the author of another powerful study of the human spirit grappling with ultimate darkness. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale uses the cat-and-mouse cartoon tradition to tell the story of his parents’ sufferings and heroism during the Holocaust.
An equally significant credential is the fact that In the Shadow of No Towers is also a survivor’s tale: Spiegelman and his family witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center from their Lower Manhattan neighborhood, and were among the crowds fleeing its collapse.
Continue Reading…
friday september 08
If you're reading this, you may have already missed him. Chuck Klosterman, acclaimed music / pop culture critic, is speaking at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati at 7 pm TONIGHT. Mr. Klosterman will be promoting his newest book Chuck Klosterman IV: a decade of curious people and dangerous ideas.
Klosterman writes for such notable publications as SPIN, Esquire, GQ, The New York Times, and the The Washington Post. I discovered him through his book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: a low culture manifesto where he won me over with chapters like "What Happens When People Stop Being Polite", a sort-of deconstruction / character analysis of MTV's The Real World. And I don't even watch The Real World, anymore. At least not after the London cast. Anyway...
Continue Reading…
saturday september 02
Much of the discussion focused on Monday’s celebration is likely to address the decline of “the folks who brought you the weekend” – the labor movement. Two 2001 books called Three Strikes make appropriate Labor Day reading, since one recalls the heyday of the movement and the other its current crisis in the face of globalization, deregulation, and corporate consolidation. But both books “look backward to look forward.”
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century is a “critical tribute to labor’s past,” recounting three struggles from the first half of the twentieth century, in part “to see if there are any lessons” for today’s workers. The diversity of the movement is emphasized: Howard Zinn relates the Colorado coal strike of 1913-1914; Dana Frank details the Woolworth’s salesgirls’1937 sit-down at Detroit’s largest store; and Robin Kelley explores the American Federation of Musicians’ response to technological replacement in the 1930s.
Continue Reading…
thursday august 24
Rarely have I been so moved by a novel as I was by Ayelet Waldman's Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. Waldman, the author of the Mommy-Track mystery series (the latest of which, Bye-Bye, Black Sheep, was released earlier this month), created a firestorm last year with her essay "Truly, Madly, Guiltily" which appeared in the New York Times. The essay was a frank discussion of marriage and parenting, in which Waldman wrote that, while she loved her children desperately, she loved her husband even more.
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, in which a first-time mother mourns the death of her infant daughter, shines with Waldman's insights on marriage and motherhood.
Continue Reading…
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is the U.K.'s top literary prize, and according to a recent article in the London Times, "arguably the world’s top premier literary prize." The longlist for this year's prize was recently announced, and consists of 19 novels. It will be whittled down to a shortlist in mid-September, and the winner will be revealed on October 10th. Past winners of the Booker which have become favorites on this side of the Atlantic include Life of Pi, The God of Small Things, and The Remains of the Day.
I have discovered many gems on previous longlists for the Booker- authors and novels I would have otherwise never known of or been inspired to read. Since the Booker is not an American prize, the novels are not always immediately available in the States. The library owns a number of the books on this year's longlist, and others are probably not far behind. Those in the library's collection include:
Continue Reading…
saturday august 19
The circus is coming to town for a three-week-plus run from August 24 to September 17. Cirque du Soleil (“Circus of the Sun”) will premiere here with 33 performances of Quidam, its flagship touring show, inside a 78-foot-tall blue and yellow Grand Chapiteau (Big Top) on the riverfront.
The Montreal-based company’s sophisticated transformation of the circus even delights the post-Dumbo generations. (Seinfeld’s Kramer isn’t the only baby boomer afraid of clowns.) Cirque du Soleil combines the best traditions – acrobatics and, uh, clowns, but no animals or freaks! – with acting, singing, and dancing. The hallmarks of their spectacles are edgy creativity and impeccable professionalism.
If (if?!) you like what you see under the Chapiteau, or prefer watching death-defying feats from the couch, the Library has many Cirque du Soleil videorecordings, as well as books and CDs (list below), with more on the way. Traditionalists should also explore our collection of Strobridge & Co. circus posters and two-volume set of photographs of the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Strobridge collection. The Cincinnati-based company, an international leader in lithography, created these posters from around 1890 to 1920 for many troupes, including Barnum & Bailey, Ringling Brothers, and W.W. Cole.
Continue Reading…
wednesday august 16
I noticed in the newspaper the other day, the Gee's Bend quilts are going to be on display in Indianapolis starting in October of this year. The Gee's Bend exhibition has brought a spotlight onto African American quilting in the United States like never before. These beautiful abstract quilts have been traveling the country for almost four years now, garnering critical acclaim and generating amazing public discussion. The book, The Quilts of Gee's Bend, is a gorgeous view of the quilts and their makers.
I have a particular respect for African American quilting because it was an African American quilter's work that really got me interested in quilts as art. Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold was a major inspiration to me. It's a children's book, but I was already halfway grown when it came out. Still, the idea of telling a story through a quilt snagged me. Ringgold's work is so visually rich, it's hard not to be captivated. For a more adult take on her, as well as a lot more examples of her work, try Dancing at the Louvre.
Continue Reading…
saturday august 12
Avian Flu or as it is commonly called, Bird Flu, is the newest terror to come to our notice in the last few years. Along with SARS and Mad Cow Disease, the Bird Flu has us all wondering if mother nature is turning against us. While the CDC and WHO are monitoring the situation and developing procedures to combat the spread of Avian Flu, the average person, like you and me, just want to know what is happening in our world and how we can protect ourselves and our loved ones.
If you are interested in checking out some books on this topic try
If you want to know about the Flu Pandemic of 1918, which is considered to be the most devastating breakout in modern times, try these books
friday august 04
The ballet season in Cincinnati is about to kick off, beginning on August 12 with the annual Gala of International Ballet Stars, produced by ballet tech ohio performing arts association. Then Cincinnati Ballet launches its series of six performances with the New Works Festival on September 28.
The keynote is dazzling variety! Ballet lovers in the tri-state will be able to discover the work of many brilliant choreographers through programs of short pieces, and we'll see a mix of classics and newer compositions, including modern dance.
The Fifth Annual Gala of International Ballet Stars will showcase 18 dancers from 10 major companies representing 11 nations. These companies include Russia’s legendary Kirov Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, The National Ballet of Canada, and the Royal Swedish Ballet.
Continue Reading…
friday july 28
It is hard enough in today's world to find someone to love, but when you cross racial lines, there are additional issues and problems. Will your family reject you and your mate, will friends disappear, will strangers stare and judge you? How will this affect your children together? Just what is it that attracts you to the mate that you choose? Kalina M. Craig-Henderson's book, Black Men in Interracial Relationships: What's Love Got to do with It , addresses these issues and more from the viewpoint of black men. She interviewed 25 black men in depth to find out why they entered into interracial relationships. What she found is that love comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Sometimes you just love someone in spite of all the issues.
If you would like to read other opinions on the subject, check out these titles
The conflict between Israel, the Palestinians, and now Lebanon has accelerated with terrible speed since June 10, when Hamas ended the current truce after blasts allegedly from Israeli artillery killed and injured Palestinian families on a Gaza beach. Hamas retaliated with the June 25 killing of two Israeli soldiers and the capture of a third. In a surprise move of solidarity, Hezbollah followed suit on July 12, crossing the border from Lebanon to kill three Israeli soldiers and capture two others.
Hezbollah’s entry into the conflict prompted Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz to threaten that the Israeli military would “turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years” if the soldiers were not returned. In addition to the daily news reports, a vision of what that would mean can be gained through Robert Fisk’s 1990 bestseller, Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon.
Continue Reading…
State Fair by Arthur Grace (2006) captures in black-and-white photos an amazingly accurate feeling of The Fair. Look deep: next to the slightly strange is the touchingly wholesome; these are lovely images of innocence and accomplishment that I recognize and lived through with my own family.
Fairs have always been big, important parts of our summers. We are regulars at the Hamilton County Fair. In years past we have been exhibitors, showing 4-H cattle, dogs, chickens, and rabbits. One of my daughters was even the Hamilton County Fair Queen! My other daughter was, however, Grand Champion Poultry Showman, an accomplishment that should not be underestimated.
Our Hamilton County Fair is not the biggest or grandest, but it is a 151-year tradition that will hopefully survive its current monetary hard times. It definitely has its share of faithful fans.
Continue Reading…
saturday july 22
Having taught English comp for 18 years, I've seen plenty of plagiarism, and more so since the Internet. In the old days, you'd have to go to the library and find the journal or book the student used--often tedious work (see The Mark Twain Murders, by Edith Skom). Catching plagiarists is pretty easy now.
It's easy to see why comp students steal their papers (although it's still not considered best practice). Other cases are less understandable, and the library has two good books that discuss plagiarism's mysteries. In Words for the Taking: the Hunt for a Plagiarist, Neal Bowers, Iowa State poet and English professor, discovered during the '90s that someone was stealing his poems, changing the titles and first few lines, and then submitting them to literary journals. Bowers hired a not-terribly-useful lawyer and very good private investigator to track down the perpetrator. Eventually Bowers discovered that plagiarism was the least of David Jones's crimes.
Continue Reading…
thursday july 20
The June sale of Gustav Klimt's ravishing 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a Viennese society lady, brought a record-breaking price of (reportedly) $135 million, primarily from Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics magnate, philanthropist, and art collector. Lauder acquired Adele Bloch-Bauer I for the Neue Galerie New York, a small museum he co-founded in 2001 to exhibit early 20th century German and Austrian art. The Neue Galerie unveiled the painting on July 13 along with four other Klimt works on loan from the Bloch-Bauer heirs, including the second portrait of Adele from 1912.
The sale also brought long-delayed justice for the Bloch-Bauer family. Led by Adele’s 90-year-old niece, Maria Altmann, they won back the paintings just this year from the Austrian government. Austria had refused to return the property that the Nazi regime confiscated after Adele’s widower, Ferdinand, fled in 1938 to escape the fate of six million other European Jews.
Continue Reading…
tuesday july 18
Maureen Millea Smith comes to Cincinnati Sunday, July 30, to read and sign her first novel, When Charlotte Comes Home. Maureen was a Cincinnatian for many years, a colleague of ours in the Fiction & Young Adults Department and at the Deer Park Branch, so her visit feels like a homecoming, too.
Her novel is a coming of age story set in Omaha during the 1960s—an era of station wagons, Saturday cocktail parties, Jello salads, girdles and linen dresses, and the gentlemanly obligation to have a clean handkerchief.
It’s narrated by Fred Holly, the oldest child of loving but undemonstrative parents. From an early age, Fred wants something beyond the quiet, steady life of his hometown—a beauty and grace that he glimpses at the art museum and in his friendship with a new neighbor, James. But raised in a time when sex education means discreet “pamphlets left on bed pillows,” Fred hardly recognizes that this friendship means more to him than his distant crushes on lovely girls. And art can’t offer him sufficient solace when tragedy strikes his family.
Continue Reading…
monday july 17
What follows is excerpted from an online conversation between two friends about
Syd Barrett, founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd, following the news of his death.
Friend 1 wrote: I went through some Syd Barrett lyrics online today after getting the news and was struck by how many of them were -- to the degree one can filter through the strangeness -- about lost love. Maybe it wasn't the LSD that drove him over the edge after all.
The poppy birds way
Swing twigs coffee brands around,
Brandish her wand with a feathery tongue
My head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
Please, please, please lift the hand
I'm only a person with Eskimo chain
I tattooed my brain all the way...
Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all? (from "Dark Globe")
Continue Reading…
The recent death of Jane Jacobs finally prompted my reading of her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Originally published in 1961, it has become a classic account of what makes a city work. Local planning (or the lack there of) in our community makes this required reading for anyone passionate about urban life and how to successfully sustain it.
Continue Reading…
wednesday july 12
Wordplay is playing right now in the local art houses and is a great look at the obsession of puzzlers, a kind term for crossword puzzle addicts. Many of us can't start the day without a cup of coffee and a puzzle and yet inexplicably can't find the words to explain why we do them.
Wordplay focuses on the intense competion of the national crossword championship and the top competitors are interviewed about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat (sorry, couldn't resist that one). Famous puzzlers such as Bill Clinton offer insights into the puzzler psyche and comic Jon Stewart has a good time ranting over his favorite pastime.
Everyone interviewed carries on about the difficulties posed by The New York Times crosswords but those are for rank amateurs compared to the challenges of The London Times puzzles. Some consider our local daily paper's offerings beneath contempt and others quite happily fill in the grids. Whatever the skill level of the puzzler, there exists a common fascination with the process of matching clues and words and making it all come out right.
The library catalog offers both fiction and nonfiction books about crosswords. Websites abound with downloads and you can hear New York Times editor and puzzle guru Will Shortz on NPR but nothing quite beats that moment when you fold back the newspaper with pen (yes, pen) in hand and attack that first empty square. Let's see, a nine letter word for obsession....
monday july 03
Most people remember Al Gore only as a politician, but he has always had a great interest in environmental issues. His new book, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, was published to coincide with the release of the companion documentary and deals with the current and future environmental crisis of global warming. The book and film were inspired by multimedia presentations that Mr. Gore developed and presents worldwide. He uses charts, pictures and anecdotes to eloquently argue that we have little time to come up with solutions to the issue of global warming or the consequences could be disastrous. The book is an excellant introduction to the issue of global warming for those of us who are unsure of the problems involved. Read the book, see the film, visit the website.
Check these titles out if you are interested in the issue of global warming
For another title on the environment by Al Gore read Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit
saturday june 24
You don't have to care about Agatha Christie to love The 8:55 to Baghdad: from London to Iraq on the Trail of Agatha Christie, which I read about three times in three days before returning to the shelves. Andrew Eames's goal is to follow the path of Agatha Christie as she traveled from an upscale suburb of London to Iraq, following a depressing divorce. She had been planning a Caribbean cruise but changed her mind after hearing recent returnees enthuse about the country. She took the Orient Express (later of course celebrated in Murder on the Orient Express), which now ends in Venice.
Vacationing in Iraq in 1928 wasn't as weird an idea for Agatha Christie as it is for Andrew Eames. After leaving Venice, his path continues--on increasingly neglected rolling stock--through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, and finally into Iraq. He meets a lot of people (the drunken British beach bums in Bulgaria are particularly amusing) and reports some fascinating dialogue.
Continue Reading…
friday june 23
For the first time ever, Cincinnati is having a three-day outdoor indie music festival, the Shakespearian-monikered
Desdemona Festival, June 23-25 at Sawyer Point. This event has attracted the interest of the local media for its size and for the geographic and musical scope of artists featured.
I am happy to see that the library owns releases by some of the performers:
Continue Reading…
wednesday june 21
A while back I was facing a dilemma: should I go and see the new Superman movie or should I go see the film adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada? Yeah...my life is so full of hard choices, and I never said it was a huge dilemma. Thankfully The X-Men had a big opening weekend and DC hates Marvel and wants to get the better of them, so Superman Returns got moved up to a June 28th opening so they could get a shot at a four day weekend box-office. Now I can see both in the same week...score!
I know, what does this have to do with books? Well...I was reading the online edition of USA TODAY and stumbled across an article about chick lit that mentioned the best and the worst of the genre. Some of my favorites, besides Lauren Weisberger, that are being converted to film or have been converted to film are:
- Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Disney is currently working on bringing Becky Bloomwood and her wacky adventures to the big screen.
- Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella. Kate Hudson is attached to this adaptation.
- In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine starred in the 2005 movie.
Tonight at nine p.m. the first part of the documentary film A Lion in the House will air on CET. It follows five families from cancer diagnosis though treatment, with footage covering six years. The film was shot at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center with many local families. This is a great project, and I am so happy that we at the library are one of CET's outreach partners in presenting this valuable and thought-provoking work to our community.
The film is part of the PBS series Independent Lens and was created by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar. The companion book, also called A Lion in the House, includes thoughts from the parents, siblings, medical team and filmmakers in their own words. These moving stories touch on the choices and realities of cancer in each family. The book is also interesting for getting a perspective on how the film was made. Filmmakers' notes on each family, and a longer section at the back of the book emphasize the struggle not to be intrusive while filming and to portray the families with honesty and sensitivity.
Continue Reading…
In Newark, NJ, at their annual conference this past weekend the Horror Writers Association announced the best in Horror Writing for 2005. The members voted on a long ballot of worthy award recipients competing for the Bram Stoker Award in such categories as Novel, Short Story, Anthology, and Poetry. Yes, Horror Poetry.
There was a tie for Best Novel this year. Creepers by David Morrell and Dread in the Beast by Charlee Jacob. Creepers follows a group of urban explorers into a huge abandoned hotel built in 1901 where OF COURSE they find more than old furniture and bats. Creepy.
I am sorely disappointed that I did not get to be there this year to see one of my favorite authors, Peter Straub, receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Peter Straub has been writing exceptional horror fiction since 1976's Julia. His latest books, In The Night Room and Lost Boy Lost Girl, are exemplary novels, fascinating in their twisted representation of reality and unbelievable word craftsmanship. You might recognize his name from his partnerships with Steven King (Black House, etc).
Congratulations to all of the award winners!
Continue Reading…
friday june 16
Seventy-seven-year-old Donald Hall has been named the U.S.'s fourteenth poet laureate, succeeding Ted Kooser, who held the position since 2004. While the position holds no specific duties or requirements, most poets have used the job, which pays $35,000 a year, to advance the cause of poetry among a population that sometimes seems to find contemporary poetry increasingly irrelevant to their lives.
Hall is known for being very outspoken about politics and the arts, and as a very prolific poet, having published 19 collections of poetry and 22 collections of prose over the course of the last 60 years, as well as plays and books for children. His most recent collection is White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006. In part because he has lived in rural New Hampshire for most of his life, he is often compared to Robert Frost, and his poetry certainly reflects a sense of place. "Ox-Cart Man," for example, begins" In October of the year / he counts potatoes dug from the brown field / counting the seed, counting / the cellar's portion out / and bags the rest on the cart's floor.
Continue Reading…
thursday june 15
If you're not a fan of reruns or reality shows, watching television in the summer can be a real drag. Which is why I always eagerly look forward to the American Film Institute's annual movie list. This year's theme, 100 Years...100 Cheers, counted down the top 100 most inspiring films of all time, as selected by a jury of 1,500 film critics and historians. Commentary by such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, James Earl Jones, Sally Field and Ben Kingsley livened the three-hour CBS broadcast last night. If you didn't see it, you might want to check out the Institute's website for the complete list.
As the list was revealed, I realized how many of the films were based on classic works of fiction and non-fiction, some more contemporary, some long-forgotten. Here are a few you might want to check out: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace, A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, 2001 by Arthur Clarke, All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, and Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella (the movie's title was changed to Field of Dreams).
wednesday june 14
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 2006 U.S. Open Golf Championship, held this year from June 15th-18th at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. Many people will be watching Tiger Woods's return to the tour after his father's death from cancer on May 3rd. His nine-week layoff is the longest of his career. Phil Mickelson won the last major, the Masters, in April, and many expect the two to duel it out on Father's Day.
Fans of both Tiger and Phil will probably enjoy John Daly's recent autobiography--My Life In and Out of the Rough: The Truth Behind All That Bull**** You Think You Know About Me. If you like reading about the game as much as playing it, you might want to try Peter Jacobsen's Embedded Balls: Adventures On and Off the Tour with Golf's Premier Storyteller, or Howard Sounes's The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and the Story of Modern Golf. The game of golf is also well-represented by Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly's two hilarious novels about Ponky, a semi-fictional golf course in Massachusetts-- Missing Links and its sequel Shanks for Nothing.
Interesting footnote: The first U.S. Open was played in October 1895 and the winner took home $150. Last year's winner, New Zealand's Michael Campbell, won a paltry $1,170,000.
tuesday june 13
The winner of the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is The Master, by Colm Toibin.
And we nominated it!
Libraries around the world are invited to submit up to three titles to be considered for this award, which is the biggest-money literary prize (100,000 euro) given to honor a single work of fiction. And out of the 132 nominees sent in from 43 countries, the book that our library nominated (well, our library and 16 others worldwide) was the winner.
Toibin's superb character study of the classic novelist Henry James got this comment from the judges:
"In The Master, Colm Tóibín captures the exquisite anguish of a man who circulated in the grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, who was astonishingly alive and vibrant in his art, and yet whose attempts at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried to love. It is a powerful account of the hazards of putting the life of the mind before affairs of the heart."
Continue Reading…
monday june 12
Robert Altman’s new movie, A Prairie Home Companion, which opened this weekend, is a warm-hearted, entertaining tribute to the radio show that inspired it. The Lake Wobegon faithful won’t be disappointed!
Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home Companion cast and crew are coming to Music Hall on November 25 for a live two-hour broadcast. Details about what’s sure to be a hot ticket are coming soon from WVXU.
Although Garrison Keillor is best known for his work as the genial host of the PHC, he’s also written a number of irresistibly amusing novels. Unsurprisingly, a few of these books (Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Wobegon Boy, Lake Wobegon Days) revolve around residents from the town “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average,” but others venture further afield.
Continue Reading…
thursday june 08
The Cincinnati Opera's 2006 Summer Festival begins June 15, and aficionados are checking out books, librettos, and scores to enhance their enjoyment of this year's performances. If you haven't explored the Library's extensive collection, here's a list of titles for the 2006 season.
Tosca by Giacomo Puccini
Puccini: A Biography by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz
Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer by William Berger
Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective by Susan Vandiver Nicassio
Giacomo Puccini, Tosca by Mosco Carner
Tosca: Opera in Three Acts (libretto)
Tosca: Melodramma in Tre Atti (full score)
Tosca: Opera in Three Acts (after the Play by Victorien Sardou) (vocal score)
Tosca: Melodramma in 3 Atti (miniature score)
Continue Reading…
wednesday june 07
For four weeks—beginning June 9—football (that’s soccer to Americans) fans around the world will be glued to their television sets watching the
World Cup unfold. You’ve probably heard the World Cup described as the most popular event on the planet, but what exactly does that mean? According to
an analyst for a London firm that buys media space for advertisers, the tournament is expected to attract a television audience of more than five billion. The final match is expected to attract 300 million viewers. (By contrast, 95 million people tuned in to Super Bowl XL.) Now that’s big! Ready to get involved in the hoopla?
Continue Reading…
tuesday june 06
Carol Tyler has been a successful cartoonist since the 1980s, when the underground comix creators and their heirs were launching the alternative comics movement. However, for better and for worse, Tyler’s career was slowed to a crawl by family life and day jobs.
The positive side of Tyler’s detour -- apart from bringing her to live in Cincinnati -- is apparent in the rich story material from those domestic years, some of it released to the world just last year in Late Bloomer. This collection has earned Tyler the kind of acclaim she’s seen lavished for decades on her husband, Justin Green, one of the pioneers of the underground comix era. (More about Green in an upcoming post.) The latest rave comes from the pages of the most recent New York Times Sunday Book Review.
Fans of Late Bloomer include the very best comics creators, such as R. Crumb, Jim Woodring, Chris Ware, and Craig Thompson. According to Thompson: “Carol Tyler is a crucial voice for the medium. She’s lived so many roles – bohemian, artist, mother, teacher, Midwestern housewife, family historian – and imbues her work with all the wisdom of her experience. Poetic, her work is ornamented with detail, yet not flowery.”
Continue Reading…
friday june 02
What can withstand the X-Men? Not even The Da Vinci Code, to judge by opening weekend stats for X-Men: The Last Stand. The third film based on the Marvel Comics series had the highest-grossing debut of the year so far, and the fourth-highest opening weekend ever (the top weekend spot belonging to another Marvel enterprise, Spider-Man).
Moviegoers and critics alike are raving about the film’s great blend of action, drama, and, well, a pretty darn weighty treatment of intolerance, and whether to combat it through violence or peaceful dialogue.
Fans of the comics will expect all this from an X-Men tale. The battling mutants have thrilled and moved readers since 1963, when superwriter Stan “The Man” Lee and superartist Jack “The King” Kirby created the highly diverse charter characters.
If X-Men: The Last Stand leaves you wanting more, the Library has the first two films, X-Men and X2: X-Men United, plus many bound editions of the comics. You can even start with the very first issues, collected in Marvel Masterworks Presents The X-Men: Reprinting the X-Men, Nos. 1-10.
Continue Reading…
Over the last several months, 124 prominent authors, critics, and editors participated in an informal survey hosted by the New York Times Book Review. Each participant was asked to select “the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.” As NYT columnist A.O. Scott notes in his essay, "In Search of the Best," the selection process raises all sorts of interesting issues. What exactly does “best” mean? Would a different panel of judges come up with the same list of titles? And is it possible to select a single work that best represents the tremendous variety of styles and genres in contemporary American literature?
So which novels came out on top? The winner is Beloved by Toni Morrison and the runners-up are: Underworld (Don DeLillo), Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy), Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels (John Updike), and American Pastoral (Philip Roth). Other novels that received multiple votes include Housekeeping (Marilyn Robinson), The Things They Carried (Tim O’Brien), and, a personal favorite of mine, The Known World (Edward P. Jones).
Continue Reading…
With Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling on the front page of every newspaper in America, Enron is once again on everyone's mind. If you haven't seen the documentary Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room, check it out. I know, it sounds like a real snooze, but is actually a hair-raising analysis of personalities and corporate culture. And if you're really feeling motivated, read the book by Bethany McLean, the twenty-something Fortune writer who broke the story in 2001.
Family and Other Accidents is the critically acclaimed debut novel by Blue Ash native Shari Goldhagen. Her story about the changing relationship of two brothers over thirty years has won her praise from The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and Entertainment Weekly. If you didn't catch her appearance at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in April, check out her interviews with The Cincinnati Enquirer and CityBeat.
Interesting tidbit - Goldhagen got her start covering the celebrity beat for The National Enquirer. She now lives in New York City and is engaged to be married to fellow writer and sports blogger Will Leitch.
According to USA Today, former President Clinton has inked a new deal to write another book. The untitled tome is expected to focus on public service and individual citizen activism. President Clinton hopes his new book will "lift spirits" and "touch hearts."
His last book, the 2004 autobiography My Life, sold over two million copies, despite mixed reviews.
One hundred years ago, one of the strongest earthquakes on record swept through the San Francisco area and left the west coast’s most vibrant city in ruins.To mark the centennial, NPR produced a series of terrific stories about the aftermath of the earthquake and how the Bay Area is preparing for future seismic events. Take a few minutes to listen to them--I thought they were absolutely fascinating. On the companion website, you’ll find photographs, eyewitness account, oral histories, even a silent film from the Library of Congress archives that was shot on April 18, 1906! And don’t miss these recent additions to our collection:
Who can resist a juicy tidbit of celebrity gossip? Especially when one of the key players in the New York Post's infamous Page Six is in the hot seat for allegedly trying to extort thousands of dollars from a California billionaire.
In honor of the fine art of dish, why not dig in to one of these "juicy" titles from our collection!
Dishing: Great Dish--and Dishes--from America's Most Beloved Gossip Columnist by Liz Smith. The title says it all!
The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons by Samantha Barbas. A fascinating biography of the gossip columnist who reigned over Hollywood for 30 years.
Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip by Jeannette Walls. A former gossip correspondent for "E" channel offers a fascinating insider's look at five decades of dish.
Fame, Ain't It a Bitch: Confessions of a Reformed Gossip Columnist by A.J. Benza. The "ultimate inside story" from the host of E Television's Mysteries and Scandals.
thursday may 18
Saddam Hussein. Osama bin Laden. Neither inspires the personal interest that Kim Jong Il, North Korea's evil "Dear Leader" does.
Some think he's crazy, but this may be an act. It could just be his haircut. It makes sense to appear crazy if you have nuclear weapons, because no sane world leader would actually detonate one.
Here are some books in the library that discuss Kim Jong Il, and what may happen after the 65-year-old leader meets his maker:
Rogue Regime : Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea, by Jasper Becker. Jay Freeman of Booklist describes this as a "frightening and depressing account of both the domestic and foreign policies of a society and government." Other books in the library's collection include:
Continue Reading…
