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Written on: March 22nd, 2010 in Blog Posts
Backing into Forward by the cartoonist and illustrator Jules Feiffer, is the cover story on this week’s New York Times Book Review. It’s a “resonant, self-lacerating, and frequently hilarious” memoir that offers a unique history of New York’s postwar literary world and is populated by the most colorful legends of contemporary American culture- a companion in some ways to the recent Patti Smith biography, Just Kids.
In other reviews:
Written on: March 19th, 2010 in Blog Posts
Recently while reading the Cool Tools website, I stumbled on this book review for a newish business book bibliography, 100 Best Business Books of All Time. The publishers of the book have culled through the vast number of business books available in print to select the must-reads and related titles, provided summaries, categorized the selections, and added related resources. When it was released, the book garnered some pretty good reviews- Booklist, for instance noted:
10,000 business books are published each year, creating a dizzying array of choices for the budding entrepreneur or executive manager seeking solutions. In some circles, the genre may have a reputation for being dull, but the best written have much to offer to a wider audience. A great business book can encompass inspirational writing, biography, engaging narratives, even mystery and suspense.
Written on: March 18th, 2010 in Blog Posts, Informal learning, Learning, Learning Journeys
The Learning Journeys presentation at the ReadAloud Delaware Conference last weekend proved inspiring for us, as well as, the attendees. Happily, this is not an unusual occurrence. But, my talk about my reading journal felt a little false. Why? Because I use the online reading community, Goodreads, to track my reading and learning; and, well, my last entry had been quite a while ago. I didn’t realize that “a while ago” was actually June 2009. What?
So, as I flesh out the last 8 months of my reading/learning life, I wanted to tell you about a sampling of these book reading universes. These sites boast “one million members” or “82 million book titles entered.” And, each offers extensive collections of reviews. While all offer you basic documenting features, they add a twist or two of their own.
My default site is Goodreads. I’m just totally comfortable there. I love that I can create my own categories, such as ha-ha-ha. And, the Never Ending Book Quiz feeds my love of random bits of information. Shelfari is so visually appealing. Your books are actually on a bookshelf. And, they have recently added a widget that allows your bookshelf to appear on your blog. Last, LibraryThing is the place if you are a bit of a statistic freak. They have stats on everything from the 50 largest libraries to the top taggers to authors who LibraryThing. Just plain fun.
Why don’t you drop into one of these book spots? See if this type of tracking appeals to you. Remember, you can start…or re-start…anytime.
Written on: March 17th, 2010 in Blog Posts
This viral video was originally created for a sales conference by the publisher Dorling Kindersley. There have been a number of these palindromic videos going the rounds recently. Just make sure to watch it past the half-way mark so you aren’t depressed!
Written on: March 16th, 2010 in Blog Posts
Click on the links to see lists of new additions to the Delaware Library Catalog:
Written on: March 15th, 2010 in Blog Posts
I apologize for being so remiss about recognizing Women’s History Month so far into March. I was waiting for a personal library/learning moment and it took a little while to arrive! Finally over the past week or so a couple of things made me think about the importance of recognizing the unique accomplishments and struggles of women in the United States- and of recognizing complacency even though the United States only ranks 31st in the world for gender equity (Iceland is number 1!)
Written on: March 14th, 2010 in Blog Posts, Reviews
Black Hearts, Jim Frederick’s account of a horrific crime carried out by a U.S. rifle company in Iraq, is an “extra ordinary book… a testament to a misconceived war, and to the ease with which ordinary men, under certain conditions, can transform into monsters.”
Lionel Shriver’s So Much for That is a semi-comic novel about the corroding effects of money on character- although the critic found that the overly detailed plot, revolving around health care, reads at times more like a position paper than a novel.
The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee has been getting a lot of media attention over the past couple of weeks for his powerful novel “about the horrors of war and the horrors of survival” set in and around the Korean War.
The history of the doomed Franklin Expedition’s search for the Northwest Passage is told once more in The Man Who Ate His Boots. This is a well-done history by a respected polar historian- but to me the last literary word on this topic will always to to Dan Simmon’s chilling (literally) horror/history The Terror
Holy Warrors: a Modern History of the Crusades presents the paradox of the crusades- where warriors committed acts of almost unparalleled savagery as well as self-sacrifice and piety, often in the space of a single campaign- Jonathan Phillips’s book is the “best recent history of the Crusades; it is also an astute depiction of a frightening cast of mind.”
Finally, while we still can’t bring you any copies of The Man from Beijing (later on this week, hopefully) if you turn your eyes 2,000 miles to the South, Marti Leimbach’s Vietnam War thriller Man From Saigon is “fast paced and vividly descriptive.”
Written on: March 12th, 2010 in Blog Posts
This week, the National Book Critics’ Circle awarded its top prize for fiction to Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, a richly detailed and dramatic tale of the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, as seen through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, a “new man” who must navigate the treacherous and potentially deadly struggle for supremacy between church, state and the aristocracy.
You can read the full results at this link
Written on: March 11th, 2010 in Blog Posts
It was wonderful to read about the incredible service that Hope Tyler has provided Lewes Public Library over the past 18 years. Ms Tyler has served the library in a number of capacities since 1992, and the library honored her service at a recent event:
On hand to honor Hope and the approximately 100 other library volunteers were library board and staff members; community leaders; Sen. Gary Simpson, R-Milford; and Rep. Ruth Briggs King, R-Georgetown. Hope was honored with legislative proclamations from the Delaware State Senate, sponsored by Simpson and Sen. Joe Booth, R-Georgetown; and from the Delaware State House of Representatives, sponsored by Briggs King.
Click here for the whole story from the Lewes Cape Gazette.
Written on: March 11th, 2010 in Blog Posts, Learning, Learning Journeys, Reading
Yesterday, I walked into a meeting at the Greenwood Public Library with a Post-it-flag-filled non-fiction book. Not all that unusual for research. But, I also carried a much-flagged fiction book. Just as our State Librarian, Annie Norman transcribes her non-fiction finds to share with her staff, I transcribe my own. Now, I am starting to transcribe my fiction reading. Let me open the pages of Homeland for you to a few passages that speak to novels, books and those who read them. Remember that these two women write to one another from the wilds of Deer Island, Maine to the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi throughout the Civil War.
Cora ~ “I have realized this about novels: they are like conversations or acquaintanceships, that change us deeply by widening our experience. They are like friends.” Susannah ~ “Mrs. Elliott would say, like your Father, that we should read only what improves the mind, but I don’t think that’s so. Sometimes we just need to rest our minds, to let our hearts sit quietly next to a warming fire while the chill abates.” Cora ~ ” I re-read the novels I read last winter, encountering new things…it is as if new chapters grew in them when I wasn’t looking.” And, lastly, Susannah ~ “This is what they do for us, both books and friends: they remind us what it is to be human. As you wrote to me, they are the window into sunlight, even if we ourselves are shut in the dark.” Enough said there, I think.
How does this effect that meandering learning path of mine? First, these written conversations between Cora and Susannah sparked an interest in the lives of women during the Civil War. Before the book’s end, I reserved Mary Chestnut’s Letters and started a search for a similar author with a Northern viewpoint. Second, imagine my joy when I found Hambly’s sources list at the back of the book! I am on the hunt for A Maine Town in the Civil War by Vernal Hutchinson and My Cave Life in Vicksburg by A Lady (Mary Webster Loughborough).
And why is A Christmas Carol pictured here? To remind us of our good fortune. We can borrow this from any of our local libraries. As the war progressed and the books disappeared, Cora and Susannah “read” the classic each Christmas by recalling it from memory.
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