A recent article in U.S. News & World Report by Vicky Hallett and Marc Silver reports that several book publishers have noticed the popularity of DVDs with special features, such as documentaries about the making of the movie, profiles of the actors, and trailers for the directors other films. Using the DVD model, Harlequin is adding extras to its Signature Select series of romances. Looking in the SWAN catalog, I see this is reflected in the cataloguing records of several of the books. The Future Widow’s Club by Rhonda Nelson has 32 pages of bonus features, including an author interview, “Top 10 List: Reason Widowhood is Preferable to Divorce,” “Tips & Tricks: a Page Torn from the FWC's Secret Handbook,” and a preview of the romance Making Waves by Julie Elizabeth Leto. The Secret Admirer by Ann Major and others has an extra “Getting to Know the Characters.” The Real McCoy by Tori Carrington has 48 pages of extras, including “Top Ten Signs He's Going to Propose” by Andrea Kerr.
The article also points to Harper Perennial, which has started publishing books with author interviews, bonus short stories, and even “archival documents.” Aiming at the book discussion group market, the publisher will have about 100 titles out by the end of this year.
The idea of adding material to help the reader is not really new. There have always been prefaces and appendices to help readers put texts in context. Dune by Frank Herbert has a glossary to help the reader with all special vocabulary. Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry has a map to show where the characters live. Norton Critical Editions often have hundreds of pages of author profiles and critical essays of classic works, such as Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Hard Times by Charles Dickens, and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.
What is new is the splashy marketing. Bold labels on the covers point out to the perspective readers that the books have the extras. As consumers they expected by the publishers to see the special value of these editions and buy.
As a reader and librarian, I hope this idea spreads. I enjoyed looking at maps, timelines, and historical notes when I was reading American Girl series books to my daughter when she was younger. I often turn to reference books or the Internet to check historical references that I find in novels. I am disappointed how brief author profiles are in books. I would like some extras. I will be watching to see if this is a trend.
Vicky Hallett and Marc Silver. “Books: the New DVDs.” U.S. News & World Report. April 4, 2005. Page 55.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Friday, April 29, 2005
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
With Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith coming out in May, there are suddenly tons of new books about the movie appearing at the bookstores and in libraries. I am trying to avoid them. I want to have no knowledge of what they reveal about the plot. I like my movie surprises.
If you are like-minded but still want read a Star Wars book, let me recommend to you Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, a collection of short stories inspired by the cantina scene in the very first Star Wars movie, now known as A New Hope. This scene with its bouncy music and its intergalactic cast of ruffians is one of my favorite parts of the movie, which I have seen many times. I always watch closely to see each scaly and furry character, many of whom get only seconds of screen time. If you are like me and have wondered who these characters are, you should read this book. Each story, written by a different author, tells how a character or couple of characters comes to be in the cantina that day and what each sees. Stories of the band member Doikk, the Tonnika sisters, the Hammerhead, a Jawa, a storm trooper, the moisture farmer Ariq Joanson, and the bartender are included. The longest story is “A Hunter’s Fate: Greedo’s Tale,” which every fan should read to learn why the bounty hunter confronts Han Solo in his booth. As soon as Greedo says “Oona goota , Solo?” you know his fate.
If you need more books before the movie debut, also read Tales of the Bounty Hunters and Tales from Jabba’s Palace. They are all entertaining.
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. New York: Bantam Books, 1995. ISBN 0553564684
If you are like-minded but still want read a Star Wars book, let me recommend to you Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, a collection of short stories inspired by the cantina scene in the very first Star Wars movie, now known as A New Hope. This scene with its bouncy music and its intergalactic cast of ruffians is one of my favorite parts of the movie, which I have seen many times. I always watch closely to see each scaly and furry character, many of whom get only seconds of screen time. If you are like me and have wondered who these characters are, you should read this book. Each story, written by a different author, tells how a character or couple of characters comes to be in the cantina that day and what each sees. Stories of the band member Doikk, the Tonnika sisters, the Hammerhead, a Jawa, a storm trooper, the moisture farmer Ariq Joanson, and the bartender are included. The longest story is “A Hunter’s Fate: Greedo’s Tale,” which every fan should read to learn why the bounty hunter confronts Han Solo in his booth. As soon as Greedo says “Oona goota , Solo?” you know his fate.
If you need more books before the movie debut, also read Tales of the Bounty Hunters and Tales from Jabba’s Palace. They are all entertaining.
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. New York: Bantam Books, 1995. ISBN 0553564684
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Fair America: World's Fairs in the United States
For the past two months, readers in the west suburbs of Chicago have been reading Devil in the White City by Erik Larson as part of the Big Read program. Larson will speak next week in Willowbrook, capping a very successful effort by eight libraries. As the program winds down, I am reminded of another speech and another book about worlds fairs.
Robert Rydell, a history professor from Montana State University – Bozeman spoke to the LITA Forum last fall about the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. After showing a short video on the fair with interviews of people who had attended, Rydell explained how bankers, industrialists, and other civic leaders organized world fairs to market their cities and their goods to the international community. As early as 1876 when the first international exposition was held in London, promoters were building crystal palaces and white cities to dazzle fair goers from around the world, their potential customers. In this context, electric lights, appliances, telephones, automobiles, industrial equipment, farm implements, and other new technologies were introduced to the public.
While wealthy business people from around the world attended the fairs, the majority of attendees were middle class people from the host country, many taking their first vacations. Also at the fairs were the indigenous peoples from non-industrial countries who were brought by the promoters to populate global villages set up at the fairs. In the villages, these people built their traditional houses, practiced their crafts, sang their national songs, danced their dances, and wore their costumes. Many of these people were on constant display and restricted to the villages, night and day. Like zoo animals, they were sometimes taunted and even poked by badly behaved fairgoers. The promoters did not faithfully provide for these people either. Some world village people died during the fairs from injuries, diseases to which they had no immunities, and malnutrition. Others who survived to return to their homes embittered toward the industrial world.
1904 was really much like 2004, according to Rydell. Western industrial nations saw the technically undeveloped world as a market and assumed that the indigenous people would want the new technologies and the societal and cultural change that followed. Many third world people fought foreign influences, rejecting technologies that threatened their cultures and societies. There were always side effects to the exchanges of goods and ideas that displeased both the developed and undeveloped countries. The undeveloped countries often lost as much or more than they gained.
When I returned to my library, I added his book Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States, which surveys all the American fairs. There have not been any in the United States in twenty years. The New Orleans fair of 1984 was a financial disaster and was followed by several criminal indictments. Chicago cancelled its 1993 fair in the wake of the controversy. The authors of this book tell the stories of all the fairs in the U.S., starting with a fair in New York in 1853. Business people and civic leaders organized fairs regularly in the later part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Most people remember these fairs for their entertainments, dazzling architecture, and technical innovations. Less remembered is the discrimination against women and minorities, the abuse of foreigners brought to America to populate primitive villages on the fairgrounds, and the use of fairs for propaganda that would now be shocking to most people.
Robert Rydell, John E. Findling, and Kimberly D. Pelle. Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States. Washington [D.C.] : Smithsonian Institution Press, c2000. ISBN 1560989688
Robert Rydell, a history professor from Montana State University – Bozeman spoke to the LITA Forum last fall about the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. After showing a short video on the fair with interviews of people who had attended, Rydell explained how bankers, industrialists, and other civic leaders organized world fairs to market their cities and their goods to the international community. As early as 1876 when the first international exposition was held in London, promoters were building crystal palaces and white cities to dazzle fair goers from around the world, their potential customers. In this context, electric lights, appliances, telephones, automobiles, industrial equipment, farm implements, and other new technologies were introduced to the public.
While wealthy business people from around the world attended the fairs, the majority of attendees were middle class people from the host country, many taking their first vacations. Also at the fairs were the indigenous peoples from non-industrial countries who were brought by the promoters to populate global villages set up at the fairs. In the villages, these people built their traditional houses, practiced their crafts, sang their national songs, danced their dances, and wore their costumes. Many of these people were on constant display and restricted to the villages, night and day. Like zoo animals, they were sometimes taunted and even poked by badly behaved fairgoers. The promoters did not faithfully provide for these people either. Some world village people died during the fairs from injuries, diseases to which they had no immunities, and malnutrition. Others who survived to return to their homes embittered toward the industrial world.
1904 was really much like 2004, according to Rydell. Western industrial nations saw the technically undeveloped world as a market and assumed that the indigenous people would want the new technologies and the societal and cultural change that followed. Many third world people fought foreign influences, rejecting technologies that threatened their cultures and societies. There were always side effects to the exchanges of goods and ideas that displeased both the developed and undeveloped countries. The undeveloped countries often lost as much or more than they gained.
When I returned to my library, I added his book Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States, which surveys all the American fairs. There have not been any in the United States in twenty years. The New Orleans fair of 1984 was a financial disaster and was followed by several criminal indictments. Chicago cancelled its 1993 fair in the wake of the controversy. The authors of this book tell the stories of all the fairs in the U.S., starting with a fair in New York in 1853. Business people and civic leaders organized fairs regularly in the later part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Most people remember these fairs for their entertainments, dazzling architecture, and technical innovations. Less remembered is the discrimination against women and minorities, the abuse of foreigners brought to America to populate primitive villages on the fairgrounds, and the use of fairs for propaganda that would now be shocking to most people.
Robert Rydell, John E. Findling, and Kimberly D. Pelle. Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States. Washington [D.C.] : Smithsonian Institution Press, c2000. ISBN 1560989688
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Lion Boy by Zizou Corder
Caramel is a puzzle. Sometimes she is friendly and at other times she hisses at our guests. She often follows me around and will watch me cook, clean house, and exercise. She loves to sit right in the middle of the newspaper that I am reading. She sometimes looks like she wants to say sometime. If only I spoke cat.
Charlie Ashanti speaks cat. Only his parents, famous scientists in the suburbs of London, know of his rare ability. When they are kidnapped, leaving Charlie with several clues to their top secret medical research, an international network of cats helps him track and follow his parents across Europe. Being rather young and inexperienced, Charlie often acts unwisely, getting himself into difficult situations, but he learns quickly from his mistakes and uses whatever resources he finds to escape and continue his pursuit of his parents. He gets lots of help from a cast of interesting characters, including circus lions.
Lion Boy is an entertaining adventure, especially on compact disc. I enjoyed the reading of the actor Simon Jones, who creates distinctive voices for all of characters, and the use of background music in the circus scenes. I was rather surprised that the story has no conclusion; the case did not say that this is the first book of a trilogy; perhaps it does say this beneath the pocket or the barcode that the library attached. I have placed a hold on book two. Book three has not been published. I am eager to continue the story.
Corder, Zizou. Lion Boy. New York: Dial Books, 2004. ISBN 0803729820, paper 0142402265
Audio. HighBridge Audio, p2003. ISBN 1565118316
Charlie Ashanti speaks cat. Only his parents, famous scientists in the suburbs of London, know of his rare ability. When they are kidnapped, leaving Charlie with several clues to their top secret medical research, an international network of cats helps him track and follow his parents across Europe. Being rather young and inexperienced, Charlie often acts unwisely, getting himself into difficult situations, but he learns quickly from his mistakes and uses whatever resources he finds to escape and continue his pursuit of his parents. He gets lots of help from a cast of interesting characters, including circus lions.
Lion Boy is an entertaining adventure, especially on compact disc. I enjoyed the reading of the actor Simon Jones, who creates distinctive voices for all of characters, and the use of background music in the circus scenes. I was rather surprised that the story has no conclusion; the case did not say that this is the first book of a trilogy; perhaps it does say this beneath the pocket or the barcode that the library attached. I have placed a hold on book two. Book three has not been published. I am eager to continue the story.
Corder, Zizou. Lion Boy. New York: Dial Books, 2004. ISBN 0803729820, paper 0142402265
Audio. HighBridge Audio, p2003. ISBN 1565118316
Monday, April 25, 2005
Another African Safari from Flickr
Next time people come in the library wanting travel literature, I should let them know about Flickr. Some of the Flickr members have posted their travel photos from around the world, and a simple search can find a wealth of images. For example, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/74684319@N00/sets/233674/show/ to see 88 really great photos from Tanzania. Book me a flight!
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Litblog Co-op
I saw this news in two sources in one day. Laura Johnson posted it on the Metropolitan Library System’s reference blog Metro Desk. I later saw it on page 6 of the Tempo section of the April 19 issue of the Chicago Tribune.
A group of about 20 literary bloggers have started the Litblog Co-op, a joint blog to promote literary fiction. As part of their effort to promote books that are overlooked by mainstream media, they are starting Read This! Five of the members will soon nominate a book each for all of the members to read and discuss on the blog. All of the members will vote to choose one book from the five and it will be announced May 15. Then the members will begin posting reviews of the book and readers can comment. They will repeat this effort four times per year.
In the meantime, members who are not on the nominating committee are reviewing the books that they would have nominated. I have read the postings and checked the titles reviewed against the SWAN catalog. While SWAN libraries have some of the titles, there are several that no library owns. I ordered two of these that interested me for the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. I hope other librarians will do likewise.
Our duties as librarians do not stop with buying books. Like the members of the Litblog Co-op, we need to market many of our titles to bring them to the attention of readers. Set up displays. Send out new book lists. Write reviews. Also, do as Joyce Saricks says – talk to your readers.
A group of about 20 literary bloggers have started the Litblog Co-op, a joint blog to promote literary fiction. As part of their effort to promote books that are overlooked by mainstream media, they are starting Read This! Five of the members will soon nominate a book each for all of the members to read and discuss on the blog. All of the members will vote to choose one book from the five and it will be announced May 15. Then the members will begin posting reviews of the book and readers can comment. They will repeat this effort four times per year.
In the meantime, members who are not on the nominating committee are reviewing the books that they would have nominated. I have read the postings and checked the titles reviewed against the SWAN catalog. While SWAN libraries have some of the titles, there are several that no library owns. I ordered two of these that interested me for the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. I hope other librarians will do likewise.
Our duties as librarians do not stop with buying books. Like the members of the Litblog Co-op, we need to market many of our titles to bring them to the attention of readers. Set up displays. Send out new book lists. Write reviews. Also, do as Joyce Saricks says – talk to your readers.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Divinities: Twelve Dances with God by Ian Anderson; The Secret Language of Birds by Ian Anderson; Rupi’s Dance by Ian Anderson
I have been listening to Ian Anderson, the lead singer and flutist for the British rock group Jethro Tull, for a long time. The first song that I remember is “Aqualung,” which was unlike anything else on the radio at the time. Other than Canned Heat, who else featured rock flute? The lyrics of "Aqualung" were as bizarre as anything I had heard on later Beatles albums or the rock opera Tommy by the Who. I was hooked.
I was especially impressed when one of the instructors at the band camp that I attended at West Texas State University showed a music appreciation film featuring Anderson. The flutist stood alone in a studio, with his wild hair and intense eyes, like a stork with one leg up, playing bits of Bach and Beethoven. I was impressed.
More than thirty years later, Anderson is still performing and recording, which I discovered when browsing in the music department at Borders. Luckily for me, it was one of the stores with the music stations, where I was able to put on headphones, scan the label, and listen to songs from the CD. I was pleasantly surprised that Anderson’s music was as fresh and energetic as ever. I had heard some later Jethro Tull work that seemed a bit stale.
Anderson did depart from rock on his 1995 CD Divinities: Twelve Dances with God, which library cataloguing classifies as New Age. I think of New Age as having lots of atmospheric, electronic effects, but this CD is filled with dynamic flute supported by a small orchestra, playing melodies inspired by various world religions, evoking many moods. It is somewhat classical, often joyful, sometimes soothing.
Anderson returned to rock with his 2000 release The Secret Language of Birds and in 2003 with Rupi’s Dance. His voice is still clear and his flute still soars. His persona is a modern world traveler sensing different cultures and witnessing political changes, yet still a sort of medieval minstrel. His images are imaginative and his lyrics are full of alliteration. “Monserrat” and “Calliandra Shade” and “Lost in Crowds” are as good as anything Jethro Tull did in the distant past. Old boomers still listening to their old music should rediscover Ian Anderson.
I was especially impressed when one of the instructors at the band camp that I attended at West Texas State University showed a music appreciation film featuring Anderson. The flutist stood alone in a studio, with his wild hair and intense eyes, like a stork with one leg up, playing bits of Bach and Beethoven. I was impressed.
More than thirty years later, Anderson is still performing and recording, which I discovered when browsing in the music department at Borders. Luckily for me, it was one of the stores with the music stations, where I was able to put on headphones, scan the label, and listen to songs from the CD. I was pleasantly surprised that Anderson’s music was as fresh and energetic as ever. I had heard some later Jethro Tull work that seemed a bit stale.
Anderson did depart from rock on his 1995 CD Divinities: Twelve Dances with God, which library cataloguing classifies as New Age. I think of New Age as having lots of atmospheric, electronic effects, but this CD is filled with dynamic flute supported by a small orchestra, playing melodies inspired by various world religions, evoking many moods. It is somewhat classical, often joyful, sometimes soothing.
Anderson returned to rock with his 2000 release The Secret Language of Birds and in 2003 with Rupi’s Dance. His voice is still clear and his flute still soars. His persona is a modern world traveler sensing different cultures and witnessing political changes, yet still a sort of medieval minstrel. His images are imaginative and his lyrics are full of alliteration. “Monserrat” and “Calliandra Shade” and “Lost in Crowds” are as good as anything Jethro Tull did in the distant past. Old boomers still listening to their old music should rediscover Ian Anderson.
Friday, April 22, 2005
Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins
This is a hard book to read. It is not that the words are too big or the sentences too long. Caroline Elkins writes well, and her message is very clear. The trouble is that many readers are going to find the subject too gruesome to make it to the end. It is a fairly big book, 475 pages of which 375 need to be read, another 100 of which are notes, a bibliography, and an index. Being very interested in East Africa and its history, I finished Imperial Reckoning by reading 30 or 40 pages a day. A sense of duty kept me going.
Caroline Elkins meant to write a dissertation on the savagery of the Mau Mau insurrection in 1950s Kenya, but as she researched her topic she found the British colonial reaction to the murders the more compelling story. Most of the administrative records were destroyed by the British authorities as they left Kenya, but the cover-up was incomplete. Some dissenting participants kept records, and some reports that had been sent to Parliament were kept by opposition Labour Party members, who had tried unsuccessfully to establish independent investigating commissions. In addition to reading these documents, diaries, and newspapers, Elkins interviewed many Kenyans, both white and black.
In reaction to the Mau Mau uprising, the colonial authorities deputized many of the white male settlers and black loyalists and began incarcerating much of the Kikuyu population. According to the British Governor and several Colonial Secretaries of the time, there were never more than 30,000 prisoners and all the arrests and confinements, with a few unfortunate exceptions, were orderly and necessary. Because the authorities had such tight control, journalists never saw many of the detention camps. Elkins refutes the official story. Her evidence shows that up to 300,000 Kikuyu were held in the many camps and 1.5 million men, women, and children were forced from their homes to live in reserves in the far corners of the colony, mostly on infertile land, where many died. Most were captured by military action and lost all of their possessions. Entire villages were burned. Most suspects were never tried in a court of law, and many were held for seven or eight years and finally released without any restoration of their property. According to colonial records, fewer than 100 Europeans and about 1800 black loyalists and 11,000 Kikuyu insurgents died during the Mau Mau rebellion. Elkins believes that between 130,000 and 300,000 Kikuyu men, women, and children died.
Much of the book is about the brutality of the colonial police, British military, vigilante colonists, and loyalist guard. Terrorist suspects were often beaten until they confessed to taking Mau Mau oaths. Many forms of torture were used, and many of those who did not relent died. Prisoners were also forced to dig canals and build more concentration camps in violation of international forced labor laws. While many of the actions of the Colonial wardens resembled those of the Nazi guards in the Jewish Holocaust, the conditions in camps more resembled the tropical compounds created by the Imperial Japanese forces in Asia. In the wake of the public outcry of World War II atrocities, the colonial authorities in Kenya and the Colonial Secretary in London knew they had to suppress the story.
Elkins book ends with only brief accounts of the aftermath. Kenya was granted independence, but most of the Kikuyu never recovered their land, which remains today in the hands of the loyalists and their descendants. Few whites or loyalist were ever held accountable for their brutal actions. While some are now contrite, others view their actions with pride.
I did not order Imperial Reckoning for our library initially, but after reading a copy from another library I have. I do not expect that many will read it, but even if a few do, it will have been a good purchase. I think it is important to have on our new books shelf for reader to see.
Elkins, Caroline. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. New York: Henry Holt, 2005. ISBN 0805076530
Caroline Elkins meant to write a dissertation on the savagery of the Mau Mau insurrection in 1950s Kenya, but as she researched her topic she found the British colonial reaction to the murders the more compelling story. Most of the administrative records were destroyed by the British authorities as they left Kenya, but the cover-up was incomplete. Some dissenting participants kept records, and some reports that had been sent to Parliament were kept by opposition Labour Party members, who had tried unsuccessfully to establish independent investigating commissions. In addition to reading these documents, diaries, and newspapers, Elkins interviewed many Kenyans, both white and black.
In reaction to the Mau Mau uprising, the colonial authorities deputized many of the white male settlers and black loyalists and began incarcerating much of the Kikuyu population. According to the British Governor and several Colonial Secretaries of the time, there were never more than 30,000 prisoners and all the arrests and confinements, with a few unfortunate exceptions, were orderly and necessary. Because the authorities had such tight control, journalists never saw many of the detention camps. Elkins refutes the official story. Her evidence shows that up to 300,000 Kikuyu were held in the many camps and 1.5 million men, women, and children were forced from their homes to live in reserves in the far corners of the colony, mostly on infertile land, where many died. Most were captured by military action and lost all of their possessions. Entire villages were burned. Most suspects were never tried in a court of law, and many were held for seven or eight years and finally released without any restoration of their property. According to colonial records, fewer than 100 Europeans and about 1800 black loyalists and 11,000 Kikuyu insurgents died during the Mau Mau rebellion. Elkins believes that between 130,000 and 300,000 Kikuyu men, women, and children died.
Much of the book is about the brutality of the colonial police, British military, vigilante colonists, and loyalist guard. Terrorist suspects were often beaten until they confessed to taking Mau Mau oaths. Many forms of torture were used, and many of those who did not relent died. Prisoners were also forced to dig canals and build more concentration camps in violation of international forced labor laws. While many of the actions of the Colonial wardens resembled those of the Nazi guards in the Jewish Holocaust, the conditions in camps more resembled the tropical compounds created by the Imperial Japanese forces in Asia. In the wake of the public outcry of World War II atrocities, the colonial authorities in Kenya and the Colonial Secretary in London knew they had to suppress the story.
Elkins book ends with only brief accounts of the aftermath. Kenya was granted independence, but most of the Kikuyu never recovered their land, which remains today in the hands of the loyalists and their descendants. Few whites or loyalist were ever held accountable for their brutal actions. While some are now contrite, others view their actions with pride.
I did not order Imperial Reckoning for our library initially, but after reading a copy from another library I have. I do not expect that many will read it, but even if a few do, it will have been a good purchase. I think it is important to have on our new books shelf for reader to see.
Elkins, Caroline. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. New York: Henry Holt, 2005. ISBN 0805076530
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
A Step from Heaven by An Na
I have started gardening seriously, which means that I need sunscreen, a floppy hat, garden tools, and audiobooks. For the last bit of cleaning up last year’s stalks and stems, I chose to listen to A Step from Heaven by An Na, a title that I found on CD in our young adult collection.
The first two or three chapters in A Step from Heaven puzzled me. A little girl in a foreign country described the everyday events of her life and introduced me to her family, but the only reference points that I could find to anchor the story in my mind were the Oriental accent of the reader Jina Oh and the illustrations on the audiobook case. In a later chapter I discovered that Young Ju was a Korean girl and her family had moved to America. In each subsequent chapter the narrator matured and told more about herself and her mother, father, and brother. Learning English, going to school, making friends, and dealing with parents who did not fit into the dominant society were Young Ju’s challenges. As she became a teen, her problems escalated, as her father did not adjust to American culture and became abusive. Just when I thought I knew the resolution of the story, it surprised me.
The book ends with an epilogue called “Hands” that is an essential piece for understanding the story. Do not be fooled into thinking it can be skipped because it is an epilogue. It is so well written that I listened to it twice.
I found an interesting interview with An Na, who admits that the beginning chapters (not the latter part of the book) are from her own memory of a childhood in Korea. Look for this author interview at http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/auth-illAnNa.htm.
Na, An. A Step from Heaven. Asheville, NC : Front Street, c2001. 1886910588
Unabridged CD edition. New York : Random House Audio Publishing Group ; Listening Library, p2002, c2001. 0807216127
The first two or three chapters in A Step from Heaven puzzled me. A little girl in a foreign country described the everyday events of her life and introduced me to her family, but the only reference points that I could find to anchor the story in my mind were the Oriental accent of the reader Jina Oh and the illustrations on the audiobook case. In a later chapter I discovered that Young Ju was a Korean girl and her family had moved to America. In each subsequent chapter the narrator matured and told more about herself and her mother, father, and brother. Learning English, going to school, making friends, and dealing with parents who did not fit into the dominant society were Young Ju’s challenges. As she became a teen, her problems escalated, as her father did not adjust to American culture and became abusive. Just when I thought I knew the resolution of the story, it surprised me.
The book ends with an epilogue called “Hands” that is an essential piece for understanding the story. Do not be fooled into thinking it can be skipped because it is an epilogue. It is so well written that I listened to it twice.
I found an interesting interview with An Na, who admits that the beginning chapters (not the latter part of the book) are from her own memory of a childhood in Korea. Look for this author interview at http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/auth-illAnNa.htm.
Na, An. A Step from Heaven. Asheville, NC : Front Street, c2001. 1886910588
Unabridged CD edition. New York : Random House Audio Publishing Group ; Listening Library, p2002, c2001. 0807216127
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library by Joyce Saricks
The American Library Association published the third edition of Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library by Joyce Saricks last week. Our copy at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library is in processing. Knowing Joyce, I asked if she would grant me an interview about her new edition, and being the nice person that she is, she agreed. Here is what she had to say.
Rick: Joyce, how did you become a readers’ advisory librarian? Was there anyone who inspired you to pursue readers’ advisory service?
Joyce: I became a readers' advisory librarian because Kathy Balcom (then Mehaffey) did not want to leave the fiction collection unattended, when reference moved upstairs. I had never heard of readers' advisory before, but she planted the seed. I was lucky to hire Nancy Brown, who, among other wonderful strengths, could organize ANYTHING, and we were off.
Rick: Where you already big on fiction? What did you read as a youth and in college? Did you always have book to read with you?
Joyce: I was always a voracious reader. My town was so small that we didn't have a library, but both my parents were readers, and my mother belonged to the Book of the Month Club, so we had books. I read all the Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, Sue Barton books--and about everything in my classroom libraries through grade school. I didn't read as much in high school because I was in debate and forensics, and I read 3 news magazines every week. I do remember reading Gone with the Wind--and rereading it. Twice. In college I discovered the classics--and given world enough and time I still love to read 19th century English novels, as well as Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Thomas Mann.
Yes, I think I was always reading something. But I read more magazines when I was young--now I want novels!
Rick: Do you have a favorite book or author? Are there just too many choices for you to decide?
Joyce: Yes, too many to choose from. I love to reread Jane Austen, and I always read the new Daniel Silva, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jeffery Deaver, Gail Bowen.....the list goes on and on. I am also addicted to audio books, so I listen to a wider variety of books than if I were just reading--fiction and nonfiction.
Rick: How did you decide to write Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library?
Joyce: Nancy and I did a workshop on Readers' Advisory for RASSL (the south suburban Chicago reference group). One of the librarians there worked as a copy editor, or something, for ALA, and she talked to an editor who contacted us.
Rick: What’s new in the 2005 edition?
Joyce: Lots, I think. A new definition of readers' advisory to include nonfiction (and audio and video). I've expanded it to providing materials for adult leisure readers (and listeners and viewers). There's more about nonfiction readers' advisory throughout the book. More about appeal and readalikes. A totally revised chapter on reference resources, with more emphasis on web resources. New popular fiction list and a popular nonfiction list. More about Sure Bets and an annotated list of sure bets. Expanded readers' advisory interview, including nonfiction. More about promotional/marketing activities and measuring the service. Are you sorry you asked?
Rick: How did you come up with the readalikes concept?
Joyce: It's Mary Goulding's term. Do you remember her at Elmhurst and then, perhaps,head of system reference? She's the first person I ever heard use it, so I always credit her.
Rick: How do you think readers’ advisory services will change in the next two or three years?
Joyce: I think there will be more online. More places like Ohio with 24/7 reference and 24/7 readers' advisory, and we'll find a better way to market our service and our knowledge. We'll also rely more and more on online tools.
Rick: What would you like to see librarians doing?
Joyce: Talking with readers, talking among themselves, sharing books--fiction and nonfiction. Using the patron service orientation we learn with readers' advisory to make us better public service librarians.
Rick: Thank you, Joyce. I hope every library buys your book.
Saricks, Joyce G. Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library. 3rd ed. Chicago : American Library Association, 2005. ISBN 0838908977
Rick: Joyce, how did you become a readers’ advisory librarian? Was there anyone who inspired you to pursue readers’ advisory service?
Joyce: I became a readers' advisory librarian because Kathy Balcom (then Mehaffey) did not want to leave the fiction collection unattended, when reference moved upstairs. I had never heard of readers' advisory before, but she planted the seed. I was lucky to hire Nancy Brown, who, among other wonderful strengths, could organize ANYTHING, and we were off.
Rick: Where you already big on fiction? What did you read as a youth and in college? Did you always have book to read with you?
Joyce: I was always a voracious reader. My town was so small that we didn't have a library, but both my parents were readers, and my mother belonged to the Book of the Month Club, so we had books. I read all the Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, Sue Barton books--and about everything in my classroom libraries through grade school. I didn't read as much in high school because I was in debate and forensics, and I read 3 news magazines every week. I do remember reading Gone with the Wind--and rereading it. Twice. In college I discovered the classics--and given world enough and time I still love to read 19th century English novels, as well as Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Thomas Mann.
Yes, I think I was always reading something. But I read more magazines when I was young--now I want novels!
Rick: Do you have a favorite book or author? Are there just too many choices for you to decide?
Joyce: Yes, too many to choose from. I love to reread Jane Austen, and I always read the new Daniel Silva, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jeffery Deaver, Gail Bowen.....the list goes on and on. I am also addicted to audio books, so I listen to a wider variety of books than if I were just reading--fiction and nonfiction.
Rick: How did you decide to write Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library?
Joyce: Nancy and I did a workshop on Readers' Advisory for RASSL (the south suburban Chicago reference group). One of the librarians there worked as a copy editor, or something, for ALA, and she talked to an editor who contacted us.
Rick: What’s new in the 2005 edition?
Joyce: Lots, I think. A new definition of readers' advisory to include nonfiction (and audio and video). I've expanded it to providing materials for adult leisure readers (and listeners and viewers). There's more about nonfiction readers' advisory throughout the book. More about appeal and readalikes. A totally revised chapter on reference resources, with more emphasis on web resources. New popular fiction list and a popular nonfiction list. More about Sure Bets and an annotated list of sure bets. Expanded readers' advisory interview, including nonfiction. More about promotional/marketing activities and measuring the service. Are you sorry you asked?
Rick: How did you come up with the readalikes concept?
Joyce: It's Mary Goulding's term. Do you remember her at Elmhurst and then, perhaps,head of system reference? She's the first person I ever heard use it, so I always credit her.
Rick: How do you think readers’ advisory services will change in the next two or three years?
Joyce: I think there will be more online. More places like Ohio with 24/7 reference and 24/7 readers' advisory, and we'll find a better way to market our service and our knowledge. We'll also rely more and more on online tools.
Rick: What would you like to see librarians doing?
Joyce: Talking with readers, talking among themselves, sharing books--fiction and nonfiction. Using the patron service orientation we learn with readers' advisory to make us better public service librarians.
Rick: Thank you, Joyce. I hope every library buys your book.
Saricks, Joyce G. Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library. 3rd ed. Chicago : American Library Association, 2005. ISBN 0838908977
Monday, April 18, 2005
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Saturday night we had second row seats for a performance by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park in Chicago. It was the second year that we have been able to get seats that close, actually the exact same seats, which some people might think is too close, but which I enjoyed because we could really see the dancers motions and expressions well.
The first of three dances we saw was Gnawa, a world premiere choreographed for Hubbard Street by Nacho Duato of Spain. The dance was set to music of Spain and Northern Africa and involved sixteen dancers, half of which were men. Hubbard Street fields many more strong male dancers than any other dance company that I have ever seen and features them as much as the women. Gnawa is an athletic modern dance that involved much synchronization and seems to tell a story about relationships and community. The dance, like many dances, is somewhat abstract, but it is very pleasant to watch, for it is playful and imaginative.
During the first intermission, I said that the intermissions gave the dancers a chance to change costumes and rest, and I went on to say that there were never props and scenery to be set up at modern dance events. I also thought to myself about how each person in the audience was seeing the performance differently because of distance and angle to the stage. Ironically, when the curtain was raised, a wooden wall curved across the middle of the stage, blocking one area of the stage from my view, and one of the dancers was pushing a boxy spotlight into one corner of the mostly darkened stage. As the dance Enemy in the Figure progressed, set to pulsing electronic sounds, I realized there were dancers that I could not see because of the wall, but I could see a dancer in the wings that people in the back of the theater could not. Perhaps the intent of the dance with its strange staging and shadows was to challenge viewer expectations.
Hubbard Street finished the night by dancing to the music of the Rolling Stones. Rooster is a much acclaimed dance set to eight early recordings by the Stones, including their rendition of “Little Red Rooster” by blues artist Willie Dixon, to which the men in the company strut while stretching their neckties. I enjoyed how the dancers portrayed children on a playground in “As Tears Go By.” My companions voiced kudos for “Paint It Black” and “Play with Fire,” which were flirtatious, humorous, and sensual.
A look at the historical repertoire at Hubbard Street’s web site reveals that the company has performed many memorable dances since 1978. I wish there were a way to revisit them, such as Hubbard Street DVDs. The dances would never be as exciting on DVD as live, but they would still be enjoyed by dance fans.
The first of three dances we saw was Gnawa, a world premiere choreographed for Hubbard Street by Nacho Duato of Spain. The dance was set to music of Spain and Northern Africa and involved sixteen dancers, half of which were men. Hubbard Street fields many more strong male dancers than any other dance company that I have ever seen and features them as much as the women. Gnawa is an athletic modern dance that involved much synchronization and seems to tell a story about relationships and community. The dance, like many dances, is somewhat abstract, but it is very pleasant to watch, for it is playful and imaginative.
During the first intermission, I said that the intermissions gave the dancers a chance to change costumes and rest, and I went on to say that there were never props and scenery to be set up at modern dance events. I also thought to myself about how each person in the audience was seeing the performance differently because of distance and angle to the stage. Ironically, when the curtain was raised, a wooden wall curved across the middle of the stage, blocking one area of the stage from my view, and one of the dancers was pushing a boxy spotlight into one corner of the mostly darkened stage. As the dance Enemy in the Figure progressed, set to pulsing electronic sounds, I realized there were dancers that I could not see because of the wall, but I could see a dancer in the wings that people in the back of the theater could not. Perhaps the intent of the dance with its strange staging and shadows was to challenge viewer expectations.
Hubbard Street finished the night by dancing to the music of the Rolling Stones. Rooster is a much acclaimed dance set to eight early recordings by the Stones, including their rendition of “Little Red Rooster” by blues artist Willie Dixon, to which the men in the company strut while stretching their neckties. I enjoyed how the dancers portrayed children on a playground in “As Tears Go By.” My companions voiced kudos for “Paint It Black” and “Play with Fire,” which were flirtatious, humorous, and sensual.
A look at the historical repertoire at Hubbard Street’s web site reveals that the company has performed many memorable dances since 1978. I wish there were a way to revisit them, such as Hubbard Street DVDs. The dances would never be as exciting on DVD as live, but they would still be enjoyed by dance fans.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Bride and Prejudice
I rely on Bonnie to take me to good movies. I often am behind in reading reviews, which means I can sometimes get into the theater without even knowing whether the film will be comic, dramatic, or tragic or a combination of all of these. I enjoy being able to watch a film without any expectations other than it will be good because Bonnie chose it. Last night I did have a sense of what I would see, as the title Bride and Prejudice is a reference too clear for me to miss. I had also seen the ads saying “Hollywood meets Bollywood,” so I guessed there would be song and dance. What I did not know is how very much I would enjoy the film.
Bride and Prejudice is not a realistic depiction of life in India, just as the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s stood far apart from the life of Depression Era America. It is a well-crafted entertainment with no apologies to current conditions. Everyone sings and dances. I most enjoyed the colorful dance scenes in the streets of Amritsar, some including elephants and marching bands. Bonnie picked as her favorite “No Wife, No Life,” a song the four Bakshi sisters sing in their white pajamas at bedtime. In funny ways I was reminded of the Blues Brothers and Grease as much as the Bollywood films that I have seen on Turner Classic Movies.
International film fans should see this movie just to see Aishwarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi, for Rai is said by some reviewers to be the most popular actress in India. I thought she had much more presence than Martin Henderson as William Darcy; he is a soft Darcy who gives in a little too easily. My favorite character is Mr. Kholi, played by Nitin Chandra Ganatra, who returns from Los Angeles to Amitsar to find a traditional Indian wife; his table manners are atrocious.
If there is a serious thought to be nursed after seeing Bride and Prejudice, it is that there are large, affluent Indian communities around the world, who work at preserving their traditions, but at the same time value much from American and European culture. The cast itself represents the American, British, and Asian communities. Both the director Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) and Ganatra were born in Kenya.
Bride and Prejudice should join A Passage to India, The Jewel in the Crown, Gandhi, Monsoon Wedding, and Shakespeare Wallah in public library collections.
Bride and Prejudice is not a realistic depiction of life in India, just as the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s stood far apart from the life of Depression Era America. It is a well-crafted entertainment with no apologies to current conditions. Everyone sings and dances. I most enjoyed the colorful dance scenes in the streets of Amritsar, some including elephants and marching bands. Bonnie picked as her favorite “No Wife, No Life,” a song the four Bakshi sisters sing in their white pajamas at bedtime. In funny ways I was reminded of the Blues Brothers and Grease as much as the Bollywood films that I have seen on Turner Classic Movies.
International film fans should see this movie just to see Aishwarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi, for Rai is said by some reviewers to be the most popular actress in India. I thought she had much more presence than Martin Henderson as William Darcy; he is a soft Darcy who gives in a little too easily. My favorite character is Mr. Kholi, played by Nitin Chandra Ganatra, who returns from Los Angeles to Amitsar to find a traditional Indian wife; his table manners are atrocious.
If there is a serious thought to be nursed after seeing Bride and Prejudice, it is that there are large, affluent Indian communities around the world, who work at preserving their traditions, but at the same time value much from American and European culture. The cast itself represents the American, British, and Asian communities. Both the director Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) and Ganatra were born in Kenya.
Bride and Prejudice should join A Passage to India, The Jewel in the Crown, Gandhi, Monsoon Wedding, and Shakespeare Wallah in public library collections.
Friday, April 15, 2005
A Joy of Gardening by V. Sackville-West
I was straightening the shelves last week, getting the gardening books back in order, when I found A Joy of Gardening by V. Sackville-West. Our copy is a bit worn, the pages are slightly yellowed, the binding is starting to crack, and it seems almost out of place among all the bright, colorful gardening books. It looks rather plain, but it has obviously been borrowed countless times. Because the Library bought the books more than twenty years before it computerized its circulating system, we have no total count of users, but I can sense just by looking at its edges that the book has been a valuable part of our collection.
A Joy of Gardening was published in 1958 by Harper & Brothers Publishers. The editor Hermine I. Popper took essays from two of the author’s British publications to make a book of gardening advice for American readers. Nearly fifty years later, it is still an interesting and useful book. The author recommends plants for specific garden needs, such as brightening a dark corner or edging along a walkway. She includes interesting details. I learned about the protection rocks offer to roots of some plants and how vermiculite is made. Her well-written essays include historical notes, telling when plants were first brought to England from foreign lands; in some essays, the author expresses why she enjoys certain varieties of plants. Her advice is always practical. Readers who enjoy going to flower shows or attending gardening lectures or talking with the staff at commercial nurseries may enjoy this book.
Vita Sackville-West’s book ends with an essay “A Wint-Pring Corner.” She asks whether an in-between season called “wint-pring” could be accepted “like marriage, for better or worse?” This is an interesting end to the question for anyone who has read about the life of Sackville-West and her husband Sir Harold Nicholson. Though they both had many complicated extra-marital affairs, they somehow seemed to remain quite close to each other. Portrait of a Marriage, written by her son Nigel Nicolson, was dramatized by the BBC and shown on Masterpiece Theater in the 1991.
Sackville-West and Nicholson bought Sissinghurst Castle in 1930 and began laying out gardens, which opened to the public in 1938. They are still maintained by the National Trust. Photos of the gardens can be found at the website http://homepages.pavilion.net/nmarchant/sissinghurst.htm.
Sackville-West, V. A Joy of Gardening. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1958. There was no ISBN in 1958.
A Joy of Gardening was published in 1958 by Harper & Brothers Publishers. The editor Hermine I. Popper took essays from two of the author’s British publications to make a book of gardening advice for American readers. Nearly fifty years later, it is still an interesting and useful book. The author recommends plants for specific garden needs, such as brightening a dark corner or edging along a walkway. She includes interesting details. I learned about the protection rocks offer to roots of some plants and how vermiculite is made. Her well-written essays include historical notes, telling when plants were first brought to England from foreign lands; in some essays, the author expresses why she enjoys certain varieties of plants. Her advice is always practical. Readers who enjoy going to flower shows or attending gardening lectures or talking with the staff at commercial nurseries may enjoy this book.
Vita Sackville-West’s book ends with an essay “A Wint-Pring Corner.” She asks whether an in-between season called “wint-pring” could be accepted “like marriage, for better or worse?” This is an interesting end to the question for anyone who has read about the life of Sackville-West and her husband Sir Harold Nicholson. Though they both had many complicated extra-marital affairs, they somehow seemed to remain quite close to each other. Portrait of a Marriage, written by her son Nigel Nicolson, was dramatized by the BBC and shown on Masterpiece Theater in the 1991.
Sackville-West and Nicholson bought Sissinghurst Castle in 1930 and began laying out gardens, which opened to the public in 1938. They are still maintained by the National Trust. Photos of the gardens can be found at the website http://homepages.pavilion.net/nmarchant/sissinghurst.htm.
Sackville-West, V. A Joy of Gardening. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1958. There was no ISBN in 1958.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Lion Reflected in Pool in Serengeti
Tonight is my African Safari slide show at the Indian Prairie Library.
Click this photo to see a sampling of the photos from that show.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Reading for Baseball Fans
Now that the major league baseball season has begun, it is time to recommend some good baseball books. I want to focus on older titles that curious fans should borrow from their public libraries.
Three of the books I want to highlight deal with lowering the color barrier in baseball. The most entertaining and least resentful of the books is I Was Right on Time by Buck O’Neil. O’Neil was a star for the Kansas City Monarchs of the old Negro Leagues, and he was past his prime and already a manager when agents for the white teams began signing black stars. He was able to make a good career of coaching and scouting for the major leagues and became quite well known as a featured figure in Ken Burns’ Baseball, a documentary broadcast on PBS. When he reflects, he reveals what was bad about the color line, but his emphasis is on the high quality of play in the Negro Leagues. His book covers over sixty years of baseball history.
If I Had a Hammer by Hank Aaron and Joe Morgan: A Life in Baseball by Joe Morgan are more sober books than O’Neil’s memoir. Both discuss the segregation of the players that survived well into the 1960s. Aaron was especially threatened by racists as he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. Morgan describes how he was treated as a young player by an especially racist manager. Both tell inspiring stories of how they withstood the pressures of the game to become stars. I remember both books very well years after reading them.
NBC’s Bob Costas wrote Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball to discuss the major problems of major league baseball in the year 2000. It is still a very relevant book, as most of the problems – small market/large market financial imbalances, steroids, alcohol abuse, brawls, inconsistent rules – still exist. He cares enough to offer suggestions for the owners and the players’ union to consider.
I really enjoyed Glove Affair: the Romance, History, and Tradition of the Baseball Glove by Noah Liberman. This is a wonderful book full of history and great photos of old baseball gloves.
Not every fan in the stands or in front of the TV sits passively, according to Paul Dickson in his book The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball. Good score keeping helps fans understand the game and preserve their memories.
Baseball is not only about players. Baseball Lives: Men and Women of the Game Talk About Their Jobs, Their Lives, and the National Pasttime by Mike Bryan celebrates the grounds keepers, vendors, ticket takers, ushers, agents, scouts, trainers, secretaries, public announcers, and everyone else who make a living around major league baseball. After reading this book, you notice these people when you visit the old ballpark. You do not have to enjoy baseball to enjoy this book.
Three of the books I want to highlight deal with lowering the color barrier in baseball. The most entertaining and least resentful of the books is I Was Right on Time by Buck O’Neil. O’Neil was a star for the Kansas City Monarchs of the old Negro Leagues, and he was past his prime and already a manager when agents for the white teams began signing black stars. He was able to make a good career of coaching and scouting for the major leagues and became quite well known as a featured figure in Ken Burns’ Baseball, a documentary broadcast on PBS. When he reflects, he reveals what was bad about the color line, but his emphasis is on the high quality of play in the Negro Leagues. His book covers over sixty years of baseball history.
If I Had a Hammer by Hank Aaron and Joe Morgan: A Life in Baseball by Joe Morgan are more sober books than O’Neil’s memoir. Both discuss the segregation of the players that survived well into the 1960s. Aaron was especially threatened by racists as he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. Morgan describes how he was treated as a young player by an especially racist manager. Both tell inspiring stories of how they withstood the pressures of the game to become stars. I remember both books very well years after reading them.
NBC’s Bob Costas wrote Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball to discuss the major problems of major league baseball in the year 2000. It is still a very relevant book, as most of the problems – small market/large market financial imbalances, steroids, alcohol abuse, brawls, inconsistent rules – still exist. He cares enough to offer suggestions for the owners and the players’ union to consider.
I really enjoyed Glove Affair: the Romance, History, and Tradition of the Baseball Glove by Noah Liberman. This is a wonderful book full of history and great photos of old baseball gloves.
Not every fan in the stands or in front of the TV sits passively, according to Paul Dickson in his book The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball. Good score keeping helps fans understand the game and preserve their memories.
Baseball is not only about players. Baseball Lives: Men and Women of the Game Talk About Their Jobs, Their Lives, and the National Pasttime by Mike Bryan celebrates the grounds keepers, vendors, ticket takers, ushers, agents, scouts, trainers, secretaries, public announcers, and everyone else who make a living around major league baseball. After reading this book, you notice these people when you visit the old ballpark. You do not have to enjoy baseball to enjoy this book.
Monday, April 11, 2005
NYPL Digital
The Thomas Ford Memorial Library (at which I work) and the Western Springs Historical Society are beginning a digitization project to make local historical photos and documents available through the Internet. Soon we will have between 100 and 200 items on a new website that we are creating. Understandably, it is with awe that I look at NYPL Digital. The New York Public Library, a huge library system, has over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources in its collections. All disciplines seem to be included – history, literature, art, architecture, urban studies, the sciences, and industry. Viewers can search for images by keyword or browse lists of subjects or names of photographers. Most of the images are in collections, such as “Civil War Medical Care: Photographs from the United States Sanitary Commission Collection, 1861-1872” or “Empire and Regency: Decoration in the Age of Napoleon.” Collections vary in size from a few images to thousands of images. The collections may be further organized into albums. Maps, posters, engravings, postcards, magazine covers, and prints are just a few of the types of sources included. Students, historians, and casual browsers will find many interesting images at http://www.nypl.org/digital/.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Multitude of Daffodils
Having a day away from the library, I went to the Morton Arboretum, where the daffodils were in bloom. There is a glade full of them. It was also a good birding day, as I saw a bluebird, a green-winged teal, a great blue heron, and a red-tailed hawk. I also saw a downy woodpecker drive at a robin who called out for help, and three robins chased the woodpecker away.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
East Africa: Recommended Reading and Viewing
I am showing photos from my family’s safari in Tanzania and Kenya at the Indian Prairie Library District next Thursday, April 14. I am recommending these items from the library’s collection to the viewers. I have included that library’s call numbers.
The Africa Diaries : an illustrated memoir of life in the bush by Dereck and Beverly
Jourbet (591.96 Jourbet) – This couple takes amazing wildlife photographs. They also take risks that you should not take. They include many interesting animal stories.
The Circle of Life : wildlife on the African savannah by Anup and Manoj Shah (591.96 Shah) - More really high quality photographs of the Serengeti with ecological discussion.
The Ghosts of Tsavo: tracking the mystery lions of East Africa by Philip Caputo (599. 757 Caputo) – The author tries to find the truth behind the legendary man-eating lions who halted construction of the railway in Kenya.
Into Africa by Craig Packer (599.051 Packer) – The author tells about his career observing the lions and other species of East Africa.
The Safari Companion: guide to watching African mammals by Richard Estes (on order) – A great reference book that explains African mammal behavior species by species.
Wonders of the African World by Henry Louis Gates (960 Gates) – The history of African civilizations is also fascinating.
Birds of Kenya and Tanzania by Dale A. Zimmerman - Indian Praire does not have this book yet, but every family going to East Africa needs to have a copy of this book.
Fiction
Indian Prairie has three novels by one of Africa’s best novelists. You learn a lot about the region while enjoying good stories.
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
On DVD
Africa by National Geographic Television (DVD 960 Africa) – This series ran on PBS a couple of years ago. It focuses more on the people who shape the environment than the wildlife. Individuals from many ethnic groups are profiled.
The Africa Diaries : an illustrated memoir of life in the bush by Dereck and Beverly
Jourbet (591.96 Jourbet) – This couple takes amazing wildlife photographs. They also take risks that you should not take. They include many interesting animal stories.
The Circle of Life : wildlife on the African savannah by Anup and Manoj Shah (591.96 Shah) - More really high quality photographs of the Serengeti with ecological discussion.
The Ghosts of Tsavo: tracking the mystery lions of East Africa by Philip Caputo (599. 757 Caputo) – The author tries to find the truth behind the legendary man-eating lions who halted construction of the railway in Kenya.
Into Africa by Craig Packer (599.051 Packer) – The author tells about his career observing the lions and other species of East Africa.
The Safari Companion: guide to watching African mammals by Richard Estes (on order) – A great reference book that explains African mammal behavior species by species.
Wonders of the African World by Henry Louis Gates (960 Gates) – The history of African civilizations is also fascinating.
Birds of Kenya and Tanzania by Dale A. Zimmerman - Indian Praire does not have this book yet, but every family going to East Africa needs to have a copy of this book.
Fiction
Indian Prairie has three novels by one of Africa’s best novelists. You learn a lot about the region while enjoying good stories.
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
On DVD
Africa by National Geographic Television (DVD 960 Africa) – This series ran on PBS a couple of years ago. It focuses more on the people who shape the environment than the wildlife. Individuals from many ethnic groups are profiled.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
African Wildlife Photography on the Web
For the people who are attending the slide show of photos my family took on its African safari, I have created another smaller version of the show that they can revisit at www.flickr.com/photos/ricklibrarian. Readers of this blog are also welcome to look at these photos. Scroll down and look to the left side of the screen for our “African Safari.” Click on the elephants to get to the slide show.
While making the Flickr slide show, I discovered some other sites of African wildlife photography to recommend.
For 28 great safari photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackal1/. There is an incredible photo of a hippo with two lions. In another shot lions are preventing anyone from getting to their single engine airplane. Jackal1 includes several nice photos of the Masai people.
For 42 photos from a South African safari, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbarefoot/tags/southafrica/. DBarefoot includes lions, elephants, impala, cape buffalo, and a few really nice bird photos. The landscapes and sunsets make me want to go.
For some nice portrait photos of African mammals, look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pettijohn/sets/117094/. This set also includes a really nice baobab shot and a nighttime reading-by-oil-lamp photo.
For some recent photos from the Masai Mara, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/flametree/. Mara1 includes lots of cheetahs and lions. I thought cheetahs were too shy to get on top of a Land Rover.
To see five close photos of cheetahs at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra, Australia, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/62phatcat/. 62Phatcat also posted several nice photos of his cats Tiger and Joey.
Thanks to fstorm who has a collection of cheetah photos in his favorites slide show. It was from this collection I found the other photographers.
Flickr seems to be very popular. Many people like to share their photos. Maybe we should start a photo club at our library.
While making the Flickr slide show, I discovered some other sites of African wildlife photography to recommend.
For 28 great safari photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackal1/. There is an incredible photo of a hippo with two lions. In another shot lions are preventing anyone from getting to their single engine airplane. Jackal1 includes several nice photos of the Masai people.
For 42 photos from a South African safari, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbarefoot/tags/southafrica/. DBarefoot includes lions, elephants, impala, cape buffalo, and a few really nice bird photos. The landscapes and sunsets make me want to go.
For some nice portrait photos of African mammals, look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pettijohn/sets/117094/. This set also includes a really nice baobab shot and a nighttime reading-by-oil-lamp photo.
For some recent photos from the Masai Mara, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/flametree/. Mara1 includes lots of cheetahs and lions. I thought cheetahs were too shy to get on top of a Land Rover.
To see five close photos of cheetahs at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra, Australia, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/62phatcat/. 62Phatcat also posted several nice photos of his cats Tiger and Joey.
Thanks to fstorm who has a collection of cheetah photos in his favorites slide show. It was from this collection I found the other photographers.
Flickr seems to be very popular. Many people like to share their photos. Maybe we should start a photo club at our library.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs by Christopher de Bellaigue
Christopher de Bellaigue is an English journalist who fell in love with an Iranian woman, married her, and chose to live in her home country. Trying to understand his adopted land, he began interviewing participants of the Iranian Revolution and the war with Iraq. After more than ten years, he now knows why Iranians do not smile.
Readers of In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs learn that the past and the present are both very close to Iranians, who morn the death of the 7th century Shiite martyr Iman Hossein and recent war hero Hossein Kharrazi with equal tears and wailing. The garden itself is a cemetery for victims of the deadly war with Iraq. The author interviews their families who all express their satisfaction with their sons’ deaths in service to Allah and the Revolution. They long for such honorable deaths themselves they say. Still they do not smile.
Throughout the book de Bellaigue returns to his frequent conversations with a war veteran he calls Mr. Zarif. Mr. Zarif formed a youth gang during the Revolution to oust the Shah and cheered the holding of hostages from the American Embassy. When the war with Iraq began he joined the Revolutionary Guard, which took its orders from the Ayatollah Khomeini and not from the government. After the war he joined an Islamic seminary. From Mr. Zarif readers learn how disappointed he and many revolutionaries are in the country Iran has become.
The author is best when he profiles the Iranian people and their experiences. He reveals them as individuals with many viewpoints, longing for a good society and worthy lives. His explanations of Iranian politics and international diplomacy, however, can sometimes be confusing to the reader; the alliances including the Ayatollah Khomeini, Bani-Sadr, Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Montazeri, and many others were constantly changing and many heroes became enemies of the imams and were executed or assassinated. Historians will be sorting out the story for generations.
As a reference librarian I wish the book had an index. It is billed as a memoir, but it is as much a history of Iran and could be used by students. Even without the indexing it is a book worth reading and I recommend it to most public libraries.
De Bellaigue, Christopher. In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran. New York: HarperCollins, 2005, c2004. ISBN 0066209803
Readers of In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs learn that the past and the present are both very close to Iranians, who morn the death of the 7th century Shiite martyr Iman Hossein and recent war hero Hossein Kharrazi with equal tears and wailing. The garden itself is a cemetery for victims of the deadly war with Iraq. The author interviews their families who all express their satisfaction with their sons’ deaths in service to Allah and the Revolution. They long for such honorable deaths themselves they say. Still they do not smile.
Throughout the book de Bellaigue returns to his frequent conversations with a war veteran he calls Mr. Zarif. Mr. Zarif formed a youth gang during the Revolution to oust the Shah and cheered the holding of hostages from the American Embassy. When the war with Iraq began he joined the Revolutionary Guard, which took its orders from the Ayatollah Khomeini and not from the government. After the war he joined an Islamic seminary. From Mr. Zarif readers learn how disappointed he and many revolutionaries are in the country Iran has become.
The author is best when he profiles the Iranian people and their experiences. He reveals them as individuals with many viewpoints, longing for a good society and worthy lives. His explanations of Iranian politics and international diplomacy, however, can sometimes be confusing to the reader; the alliances including the Ayatollah Khomeini, Bani-Sadr, Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Montazeri, and many others were constantly changing and many heroes became enemies of the imams and were executed or assassinated. Historians will be sorting out the story for generations.
As a reference librarian I wish the book had an index. It is billed as a memoir, but it is as much a history of Iran and could be used by students. Even without the indexing it is a book worth reading and I recommend it to most public libraries.
De Bellaigue, Christopher. In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran. New York: HarperCollins, 2005, c2004. ISBN 0066209803
Monday, April 04, 2005
Vera Drake
When we first see the title character in Vera Drake, she is in her good cloth coat hurrying through the streets of 1950 London. She enters an old apartment building, climbs the stairs, and serves a cup of tea to an invalid. Then she hurries off to help someone else. She meets Reg, a lonely war veteran on the street, and invites him to join her family for tea. Helping people is what Vera does. She does whatever she can for anyone she meets. No act of Parliament passed in 1861 will stop her.
Two days after seeing Vera Drake, I see it in my memory as a black and white film. The stills on the Internet Movie Database prove to me that it was in color, but the director Mike Leigh kept the colors very muted to depict post-war London as a bleak and almost ancient place. We know at first glance that the scene is not contemporary. Great effort went into the film to make the movie historically accurate. The lead researcher is credited at the beginning with the actors and the director.
Vera is the center of her family. When she is withdrawn from her home, her husband, son, and daughter are nearly paralyzed. With her arrest, her ladies lose the best maid they could ever hope to employ. Countless invalids go without tea. Someone else must help the young girls.
Vera Drake is an excellent movie. It is very anti-Hollywood in its story telling. Mike Leigh uses silence and lets the actors have time to express their emotions. He also extends the film past the point at which Vera’s fate is determined to let us see what the impact is on her family. Few directors seem to really care enough to complete their stories. Leigh is a master of his art.
Vera Drake is now available in DVD and should be in most library collections.
Two days after seeing Vera Drake, I see it in my memory as a black and white film. The stills on the Internet Movie Database prove to me that it was in color, but the director Mike Leigh kept the colors very muted to depict post-war London as a bleak and almost ancient place. We know at first glance that the scene is not contemporary. Great effort went into the film to make the movie historically accurate. The lead researcher is credited at the beginning with the actors and the director.
Vera is the center of her family. When she is withdrawn from her home, her husband, son, and daughter are nearly paralyzed. With her arrest, her ladies lose the best maid they could ever hope to employ. Countless invalids go without tea. Someone else must help the young girls.
Vera Drake is an excellent movie. It is very anti-Hollywood in its story telling. Mike Leigh uses silence and lets the actors have time to express their emotions. He also extends the film past the point at which Vera’s fate is determined to let us see what the impact is on her family. Few directors seem to really care enough to complete their stories. Leigh is a master of his art.
Vera Drake is now available in DVD and should be in most library collections.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
How I Find Books to Read, Part 5: A Place Between the Tides by Harry Thurston
When friends or relatives die, some people like to honor them with gifts to their libraries. When this happens in Western Springs, they often come to me. They tell me the types of books the deceased enjoyed and how much they would like to spend. I listen, take notes, and tell them that I will do a little research to find suitable books. When I have made some choices, I call the benefactors and they accept or ask me to look again. When we have agreed, I order the books. When the gifts are processed, we put memorial plates in the books and the nearest relatives are contacted. We have added some very nice books that we would not have had through memorial gifts.
When I was walking through the Morton Arboretum yesterday, noticing the signs of the changing seasons, I remembered A Place Between the Tides by Harry Thurston, a recent memorial gift to our library. Thurston lives on the edge of a salt marsh in Nova Scotia. As a naturalist, he spends many hours watching the marsh from his window and wandering along its shores when weather allows, noting the activity of its animal life. Using his journals, he has been able to identify very local seasonal patterns. He knows when the ice will break, when the alewives will run, and when to look for the resident foxes to leave their dens. Still, he is surprised when storms bring in rare birds from Europe or when a dam breaks and floods the marsh. Through stories about birds, fish, and mammals, Thurston encourages nature observation. Readers can enjoy this book any time of the year.
Thurston, Harry. A Place Between the Tides: A Naturalist's Reflections on the Salt Marsh. Vancouver ; Berkeley : Greystone Books ; [Berkeley, Calif.] : Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West, c2004. ISBN 1553650352
When I was walking through the Morton Arboretum yesterday, noticing the signs of the changing seasons, I remembered A Place Between the Tides by Harry Thurston, a recent memorial gift to our library. Thurston lives on the edge of a salt marsh in Nova Scotia. As a naturalist, he spends many hours watching the marsh from his window and wandering along its shores when weather allows, noting the activity of its animal life. Using his journals, he has been able to identify very local seasonal patterns. He knows when the ice will break, when the alewives will run, and when to look for the resident foxes to leave their dens. Still, he is surprised when storms bring in rare birds from Europe or when a dam breaks and floods the marsh. Through stories about birds, fish, and mammals, Thurston encourages nature observation. Readers can enjoy this book any time of the year.
Thurston, Harry. A Place Between the Tides: A Naturalist's Reflections on the Salt Marsh. Vancouver ; Berkeley : Greystone Books ; [Berkeley, Calif.] : Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West, c2004. ISBN 1553650352
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
I read Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi last fall after I had seen an article about the author in the October 20 issue of the Chicago Tribune. I have come across numerous reverences to the book in the following months. Currently reading another book about Iran, I keep remembering scenes from Persepolis. The book has staying power.
Satrapi was born during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, more commomly known in the United States as simply the Shah of Iran. Her parents were educated,westernized elites, just the kind of people hurt by the Islamic uprising. The Shah fled the country and the author’s happy childhood turned quite terrible, as she and her family were in constant danger of being arrested for noncompliance with Islamic strictures. Extremist students took hostages at the American Embassy and Iraq invaded Iran. Many people she knew disappeared, died, or fled the country.
The most remarkable quality of Persepolis is its presentation as a graphic novel, a sort of black-and-white comic book. There is little that is funny, however. Satrapi uses her simple drawings to illustrate her story very effectively. Readers will not forget this book. Those who dare can also read Persepolis 2.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon Books, c2003. ISBN 0375422307, paper 037571457x
Satrapi was born during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, more commomly known in the United States as simply the Shah of Iran. Her parents were educated,westernized elites, just the kind of people hurt by the Islamic uprising. The Shah fled the country and the author’s happy childhood turned quite terrible, as she and her family were in constant danger of being arrested for noncompliance with Islamic strictures. Extremist students took hostages at the American Embassy and Iraq invaded Iran. Many people she knew disappeared, died, or fled the country.
The most remarkable quality of Persepolis is its presentation as a graphic novel, a sort of black-and-white comic book. There is little that is funny, however. Satrapi uses her simple drawings to illustrate her story very effectively. Readers will not forget this book. Those who dare can also read Persepolis 2.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon Books, c2003. ISBN 0375422307, paper 037571457x
Friday, April 01, 2005
Gardening and Audiobooks: The Big Year by Mark Obmascik
What do gardening and audiobooks have in common? I enjoy them both and sometimes enjoy them together. I do a lot of gardening at home and at our church, which really cut into my summer reading time until I discovered audiobooks on compact discs. Not all gardening activity is conducive to listening to books. When I am measuring spaces and contemplating where to place plants, I can not concentrate on a book and listen to familiar music instead. Most of my gardening time is spent in maintenance activities that do not require much mentally of me. I can listen to many books over a spring, summer, and fall while digging beds, spreading mulch, pruning shrubs, pulling weeds, watering, deadheading, thinning perennials, and picking ripe raspberries.
It is April and soon I will be outside with the plants. I listened to about 40 audiobooks last year, more than half while gardening, and foresee nearly as many this year. I was looking over my library’s collection yesterday and saw that I have listened to most of the nonfiction and classic fiction already. I will be watching for new titles and drawing from other libraries this year. I am pretty picky about contemporary fiction, but I may try a few more titles.
Remembering last year and gardening and audiobooks, I instantly think of The Big Year by Mark Obmascik. It is 8 discs full of great story telling about three men who obsessively chased all over the country to spot birds, trying to break the national record for most birds in a year. Each planned birding expeditions to catch all the migrations, starting in south Texas in January, and went to the farthest ends of the country to increase their counts, including Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to see stray Asian birds. Learning of rare sightings through bird hotlines by telephone or on the Internet, they quickly booked flights, rented cars, and raced to see the uncounted species before they disappeared. Tensions rose whenever there was a question of following birding etiquette to help fellow birders who might be their competition. Personal relationships and bank accounts were strained. It was a fascinating book. I watered many flowers and pulled many weeds listening to The Big Year.
Obmascik. Mark. The big year: a tale of man, nature, and fowl obsession. Santa Ana, CA : Books on Tape, p2004. 8 sound discs. ISBN 0736699384 and New York : Free Press, c2004. ISBN 0743245458
It is April and soon I will be outside with the plants. I listened to about 40 audiobooks last year, more than half while gardening, and foresee nearly as many this year. I was looking over my library’s collection yesterday and saw that I have listened to most of the nonfiction and classic fiction already. I will be watching for new titles and drawing from other libraries this year. I am pretty picky about contemporary fiction, but I may try a few more titles.
Remembering last year and gardening and audiobooks, I instantly think of The Big Year by Mark Obmascik. It is 8 discs full of great story telling about three men who obsessively chased all over the country to spot birds, trying to break the national record for most birds in a year. Each planned birding expeditions to catch all the migrations, starting in south Texas in January, and went to the farthest ends of the country to increase their counts, including Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to see stray Asian birds. Learning of rare sightings through bird hotlines by telephone or on the Internet, they quickly booked flights, rented cars, and raced to see the uncounted species before they disappeared. Tensions rose whenever there was a question of following birding etiquette to help fellow birders who might be their competition. Personal relationships and bank accounts were strained. It was a fascinating book. I watered many flowers and pulled many weeds listening to The Big Year.
Obmascik. Mark. The big year: a tale of man, nature, and fowl obsession. Santa Ana, CA : Books on Tape, p2004. 8 sound discs. ISBN 0736699384 and New York : Free Press, c2004. ISBN 0743245458
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