Additions to the Librarian's Book Revoogle

I have just added seven librarian-generated book review websites to the Librarian's Book Revoogle. If you have not heard, the revoogle lets you search for book reviews written by librarians or posted on library websites.

A Fuse #8 Production - children's book reviews and news

Biblio File - many children and YA reviews, some adult reviews

Bluestalking Reader - book reviews, news, and author interviews from a library program coordinator

It's All About the Book - lots of YA fiction, some adult reviews

Mostly NF Blog - from Pierce County Library System, Washington

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - children's books, poetry, interviews with authors

Tillabooks - emphasis on science fiction and fantasy

As I have said before, please send me any new library book review suggestions. I try to add as many as I can. I have added all but one so far. The one library website I left out assigned URLs for its webpages by numbers with no hierarchy, not allowing me to limit to just book reviews. Because that library had a lot of other content, its inclusion would have lessen the reliability of the searches.

The Division Street Princess: A Memoir by Elaine Soloway

In The Division Street Princess by Elaine Soloway, there is a strong sense of time and place. The time is 1942 to 1951, when the United States is at war, wins, and starts changing in many ways. The place is 2505 W. Division Street in Chicago, just west of the intersection with Western Avenue, four blocks east of Humboldt Park, where Soloway's parents (with help from other family members) buy the downstairs grocery and name it Irv's Finer Foods. The Jewish immigrant couple is pursuing the "American Dream."

Irv's Finer Foods becomes the center of the universe for Soloway, who at age four is a helper in the store. From her own child-sized counter, she witnesses wartime scarcity, customer credit problems, extended family interactions, her father's candy bar addiction, and her mother's struggle to balance the books. During the time, the ethnic and racial make-up of the community begins to change, as friends and family move to the suburbs. Eventually, an A & P Supermarket opens across the street, challenging the family to find a way to continue.

The world that Soloway describes is charming but it is also dangerous. Bookies work out of back rooms. Strange men tempt little girls outside community centers. The newspapers are filled with kidnapping stories. The Division Street Princess can be used as evidence that life was not so much better "way back when."

More Chicago region public libraries should add this wonderful book. Libraries outside the area should also consider it. It should be added to World War II home front booklists.

Soloway, Elaine. The Division Street Princess: A Memoir. Minneapolis: Syren Book Company, 2006. ISBN 0929636635

Caramel Enjoys the Flowers

When I got another delivery of flowers this afternoon, I decided it was time to take some photos. I cleared the dining room table and began trying to take artful shots. Our curious cat Caramel came immediately to see if she could help. She did. She saved you from seeing totally boring flower pictures!

There are more photos at my Flickr site. Thanks, Thomas Ford staff, they are beautiful!

Johnny Cash: The Biography by Michael Streissguth

Johnny Cash was complicated and unruly. His drug abuse and pursuit of fame tore his first marriage apart, and he essentially abandoned his girls. He fought television producers and the music establishment. He fought with June Carter before and after their marriage. He sometimes went on stage unable to remember lines or play his guitar. Sometime he could not make it onto the stage, forcing many cancellations. Yet, he is forgiven and beloved by country music fans worldwide. In Johnny Cash: The Biography, Michael Streissguth tells an unvarnished story of a man who was considered a champion of working people and spiritual leader for the unfortunate.

In nearly 300 pages, Streissguth tells a detailed, mostly chronological story, which includes many comments from Cash's friends and family. Readers learn much about Cash's parents and siblings and the poverty of Depression era Arkansas. Included is the story of his brother Jack's death, which is very different from the story told in the movie Walk the Line. Readers follow Cash through the early stages of his career to stardom, through his lean years and then to the resurgence prior to his death. All along they learn much about the singer and his constant struggle with himself.

According to Streissguth, Cash kept his distance from the Nashville establishment for years, insisting that he was a folk singer, not a country musician. Of course, Cash was at the same time performing mostly country venues and his records were played on country radio. When CBS signed him for a television show around 1970, he embraced a country identity and endorsed conservative patriotism. Later in life, when his recordings were no longer selling well, he again became a rebel, recording some songs from alternative rock performers. At the very end, he seemed without direction.

Cash will remain a discussed figure for years, and most public libraries should have books about him. This book is a good choice.

Streissguth, Michael. Johnny Cash: The Biography. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2006. ISBN 0306813688

Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio

What does your family eat in a week? Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio asked that question around the world and with the answers created Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, a worthy sequel to their books Material World and Women in the Material World.

For Hungry Planet, Menzel and D'Aluisio visited thirty families in twenty-four countries. Each family profile starts with a photograph of the family with all the food that they would eat in a week spread across the dining room table, in a common room, or in front of whatever dwelling they inhabit. The displays vary greatly. In Guatemala the Mendoza family stands outside behind a couple of tables loaded with colorful vegetables, a basket of berries, and big sacks of corn, potatoes, and onions. The Ukitas in Japan are in their living room with a table covered with fish and vegetables and packaged foods spread across the floor. In front of the Aboubakars family in a Darfur refugee camp in Chad are two medium bags of grain, a small bag of legumes, and about a dozen little bags of fruits and nuts. The three U.S. families profiled have large but ethnically differing displays.

Following the family photos are grocery lists, essays about the families, statistics about their countries, family recipes, and more colorful photos. The photos often show members of the family shopping, cooking, or harvesting crops, but Menzel also includes them at local celebrations, engagement parties, and restaurants. In the profile of the Aymes family of Equador there are photos of them hiking in the mountains with their mule, fruit sellers in the market of Zumbagua, and sheep awaiting their turn for slaughter.

Hungry Planet also includes essays on economic, health, environmental, and moral issues. "McSlow" is about the slow food movement. "Launching a Sea Ethic" discusses the depletion of fish populations and implications for food supplies. "Diabesity" reveals increasing health problems associated with increasing use of sweet processed foods. My favorite essay is "Cart a la Carte" which points out that street food is a result of industrialization; there must be people working away from home for a street food movement to begin; with prosperity, street food moves indoors.

Hungry Planet was named the James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year. It would be a great discussion book. Every library should have a copy or two.

Menzel, Peter and Faith DAluisio. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. Napa, California: Material World Books, 2005. ISBN 1580086810

Hinsdale Hospital Same Day Surgery: A Review of My Day

I arrived at Hinsdale Hospital a few minutes before 7:00 a.m. on Friday for my hernia surgery. First thing that I learned was that the doctor had an emergency and my 9:00 a.m. surgery was push back an hour. That gave me plenty of time to figure out how to tie the gown behind my back.

As I waited in the receiving room, I was struck by how happy the staff sounded. From behind my pale colors curtain, I could hear talk about diets and dancing and lots of laughing. Everyone seemed at ease.

I dreaded getting the IV, but it was not bad at all. My arm did get a little cold and my temperature stayed low the entire time I was in the hospital.

By the time Bonnie found me, I was ready for surgery and had read about fifteen pages of biography of Johnny Cash.

The doctor then was reported to be on time after all. I gave my book to Bonnie and I was taken to the surgery ward early, where I was told I might be ready in ten to fifteen minutes. Everything there was blue, including scrubs, gowns, caps, curtains, and chairs. I wished that I had my camera, thinking I could have gotten some great shots for my Flickr site. I have drawn a picture instead. The view is from my bed.

After waiting about an hour and forty minutes, hearing my doctor's name three times over the paging system, I was taken into the operating room. There were lots of ceiling lights. I did not notice much more before I was asleep.

When I woke up an hour and a half later, everyone was still in blue.

I tried to remember all the names of the nurses, who were all very friendly and helpful, but I forgot.

I got a wheelchair ride to the south exit. The attendant wore a scarlet jacket. I left about 2:30 p.m. Bonnie drove me home.

Thanks to everyone who sent me good wishes!

How Do You Learn Best? Material Types in Libraries

On Tuesday I went to the hospital for pre-surgery testing. Upon arrival, I was asked to complete a four-page medical history. Among the lines about previous surgeries (appendix and tonsils when I was a kid) and about medications I regularly take (none), I found the following question.

Do you learn best by: 1) reading, 2) video, 3) listening, 4) demonstration?

I was uncertain how to answer, as I learn by all of those methods frequently. I have never had my abilities to learn ranked. Instead of totally skipping the question, I wrote to the side, "It depends on the subject." I thought the topic might then come up in the interview that followed, but it did not.

I assume that the question was asked so I can get effective self-care information. I think that I would like to get a combination of the four instruction methods. Before or after the surgery, I will have time to watch a video about my surgery and caring for my incision. I will listen to anything the doctors and nurses say. (I doubt they have recorded audio instruction.) I hope they demonstrate exactly how to do whatever it is I have to do. I will gladly take home reference material to remind me what it is I have to do.

Our clients would also like instruction from all four categories in our libraries. We do well having print material to read, but we sometimes fall short on the audio and video material. I try to keep (I sometimes slip) a list of requested items that my library did not have. Many of the items on the list are video related: a DVD on pioneer women of Kansas, a video on Anthony of Egypt, a video on the Tower of London, a DVD on Irish soccer stars, a DVD for mandolin instruction, and so forth. The expectation that we will have these materials is growing, sometimes fueled by class assignments that require a bit of video in the final presentation.

We use interlibrary loan more now than ever before, and getting video material is part of the trend. Unfortunately for us, there are still some libraries that will not loan video material. In some schools and colleges, the videos are on reserve for class assignments, which is understandable. In other cases, libraries want to keep their small number of videos and DVDs local. Whatever, we have some difficulties getting what is requested.

The other problem is that our clients request materials that do not exist. There is no profit to be made by making videos of some of the specific topics for which we are asked.

We are slowing shifting our budgets to buy more audio and video material. Whether we ever have a building as full of DVDs as books may depend on what happens on the Internet. Will higher transmission speeds foster more content that will be readily available for public use at a reasonable cost? Will libraries be left out of the loop? It is hard to say. I suspect our collections will never fully meet our users expectations, but we can try.

Back to my body. It may never meet my expectations either. On Friday, I have outpatient surgery for an inguinal hernia. I may not be posting for a few days. Wish me well.

The City of Nashville

I'm back. I spent the last four days as a chaperon for the Downers Grove North High School choirs trip to Nashville, Tennessee. The choirs sang in the acoustically rich Belmont Baptist Church, a facility of Belmont University, a very music oriented school at one end of Music Row. Two professors from the college worked with the four choirs on Saturday morning.

Another objective of the trip was introducing the students to the musical heritage of the city. We visited historic RCA Studio B, the Ryman Auditorium (that's a Minnie Pearl hat and dress to the left), and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and attended the late Saturday program at the Grand Ole Orpy. Alison Krauss, John Waite, Ricky Skaggs, Little Jimmie Dickens, the Virginia Boys, Porter Wagoner, the Whites, and Bill Anderson were among the performers during the live radio broadcast.

The presentation in RCA Studio B reminded me of the opera lectures that we have at our library. Our guide, who knew much and loved her subject, spoke about the history of the facility and played excerpts from famous songs recorded there. With good stories and a little technical wizardry, she taught and entertained the students, faculty, and chaperons. I particularly enjoyed learning about acoustics (baffles were placed around the room) and seeing the piano that was used in many sessions between 1957 ans 1977. Of course Elvis was featured in the stories, but hundreds of other country and rock stars used the studio. It is interesting to think about how music that just seems to come from the radio or the Internet really comes from some special space.

Downtown Nashville has a handy convention center, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment. I see why LITA had its forum there last fall. We had a wonderful eating barbecue (vegetarian plates were available), shot pool, and line danced at the Wildhorse Saloon. We also had a time to wander along Broadway, where I found both the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and Lawrence Records (which has lots of old vinyl recordings).

I found the advice from Frommer's Nashville & Memphis by Linda Romine was useful for preparing for the trip. I wish I had actually taken it with me, too.

I would gladly attend a library conference in Nashville.

You can see more of my photos at Flickr.

The Beatles "Love"

When I first heard about The Beatles "Love", I was not paying attention. I thought that the music was just being repackaged. I had no idea that Giles Martin, son of George Martin, had so brilliantly remixed and combined songs until I heard the December 21, 2006 podcast from National Public Radio All Songs Considered. I listened to it twice just to hear the incredible music.

Giles Martin took all the Beatles 4-track and 8-track studio tapes, digitized them, and remixed pieces of them in amazing ways. The CD starts with "Because" stripped of instrumentals, leaving just the haunting voices. "Drive My Car" flows into "The Word" and then into "What You're Doing" naturally. The cello in "Eleanor Rigby" is lifted up. In some songs, any acoustic nook is filled with bits from other songs. Sometimes voices are put over different instrumental. You have to listen carefully. Nothing foreign is introduced. Every note and sound is from Beatles recordings.

It is mad and crazy and delightful. Paul McCartney said it is "insane." I am listening in the car on the way to work today. I'd better go.

A Pizza the Size of the Sun: Poems by Jack Prelutsky, Drawings by James Stevenson

National Poetry Month is still a month away, but it not too soon to indulge in a little poetry reading, especially if it is as much fun as A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky. While the poems are aimed at children, anyone can enjoy them. Here is a sample:

The Manatee

I'm partial to the manatee,
which emanates no vanity.
It swims amidst anemones
and hasn't any enemies.

Prelutsky loves to play with words, some of which I am sure are a challenge to youth. I can imagine that some slower readers will just say "huh?" when reading terms like "dromedary," "cranium," "fastidious," and "unmitigated rancor." Others will catch on and expand their vocabularies. How are they going to learn unless someone interesting uses good vocabulary?

Here is another short poem:

Chuck

I'm Chuck, the chore evader
and adept procrastinator.
I've got a lot of strategies-
I'll demonstrate them later.

Paretsky must have grown up reading Ogden Nash and Dr. Seuss. He uses quick rhyming, alliteration, and nonsense. He writes backwards, makes readers turn the pages in circles, and fills some poems with puns. The poems are best read aloud, if you can keep your tongue from twisting.

There is much to love and remember.

I think I have met Miss Misinformation on page 30.

Swami Gourami's ability to predict the past, described on pages 102-3, might be useful.

I wonder about cream of camel camembert soup, page 49.

We all know a teenage hippopotamus, page 99.

So put down your T.S. Eliot and John Milton for awhile and try one of Jack Prelutsky's books. You can't help but smile.

Prelutsky, Jack. A Pizza the Size of the Sun. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1996. ISBN 0688132359

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy began in 1978 as a radio comedy. Upon request, Douglas Adams turned it into a book that begot other books, and the BBC made a five episode television series. It was all tremendously successful and has been very lovingly remembered. In 2005 a new recording by Stephen Fry was probably not needed, but some one said "Hey, let's do it!" I am glad they did. Fry's reading is uproariously, laugh-out-loud funny. (Maybe that's how I got the hernia.)

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. New York: Pocket Books, 1981. ISBN 0671746065

5 Compact discs. Santa Ana, CA : Books on Tape, p2005. ISBN 1415922551

The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them

There are two kinds of people: those who know exactly which books changed their lives and those who do not know so they change the question. In The Book That Changed My Life, both groups are represented, and writers from both say remarkable things about books, reading, writing, and themselves.

Who would every guess that the Chinese author Da Chen would offer The Count of Monte Cristo as the book that led to his being a writer. The writer's village was very poor and the local communist council controlled reading very closely. When a ex-convict set up a rental library with stolen books, the title by Dumas was the first that Da Chen could rent with the penny he got for selling an empty toothpaste tube. I have put his memoirs Colors of the Mountain and Sounds of the River on my reading list.

Jack Prelutsky's story is similar to Da Chen's in that he chose the first book that he read, A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. Prelutsky grew up to write many books of poems for children, including A Pizza the Size of the Sun. That sounds like a book for me.

Anne Perry makes The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton sound like essential reading.

Richard Rhodes' case for reading Albert Schweitzer's Out of My Life and Thought and Hugh Lofting's Doctor Doolittle books interests me in his own A Hole in the World.

As I look over these statements and my other notes, I see a trend. I am mostly choosing the works by the contemporary writers over the books they themselves recommend.

The Book That Changed My Life was compiled and edited by Roxanne J Coady and Joy Johannessen of R. J. Julia Booksellers of Madison, Connecticut, who both add their own reading suggestions to the back of the book. Profits from the book go to Read to Grow, a nonprofit organization that gives books to babies and children in Connecticut. Buying and reading are in this case very positive acts.

The Book That Changed My Life. New York: Gotham Books, 2006. ISBN 1592402100

I'm in the Change the Question Group

I find the question "What book changed your life?" hard to answer.

1. I want to say Readers' Digest Condensed Books. I say this not because I read them, but I witnessed my mother and her friends in rural west Texas reading them. In the 1960s subscribers to RDCBs got four volumes per year, each holding three to five titles by contemporary authors. Mom read them, criticized them if they did not meet her standards, and loaned them to nonsubscribers. From RDCBs I got the notion that there was a book world somewhere far away.

2. I also want to say John Audubon, Boy Naturalist by Miriam Evangiline Mason. In fourth grade I read the entire book the day I checked it out from the library. I do not remember ever being so taken with a book before that day.

3. Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry is a book that I admire highly. I read it just three years ago. Knowing that such good stories are available, I never have to read anything inferior again.

4. I am still seeking the book that changes my life. It is still out there.

5. As several of the writers in The Book That Changed My Life say, every book changes me.

Directory of Health and Human Services in Metropolitan Chicago, 2007-2008

The Thomas Ford Memorial Library just received its 2007-2008 edition of Directory of Health and Human Services in Metropolitan Chicago. The reason I mention this is that the publication of this useful source has been somewhat erratic and not well-publicized in recent years, due to funding. We did not get one of the editions because we ordered too late and copies were all gone.

An online version is also available for $175. The print version is $100 plus $5 shipping. All the information is available at the Community Resource Network website. Use the drop-down menu to specifiy the edition you want.

New York Botanical Garden

I want to go!

The New York Botanical Garden is a big, beautiful book full of dazzling photographs of colorful plants and gardens that contrast sharply with the bare trees, dead grass, and remains of snow outside my windows. As I look through its pages, I want to go to New York, a place I've never been, and wander though the 250 acres of gardens and woods along the Bronx River. It also makes me think of the great gardens and arboretums that I have seen. Some are near me in the Chicago area. Is it still February? I should bundle up and go out any way.

The text of The New York Botanical Gardens tells of the park's history, describes the many special gardens, advises visitors where to find spectacular plants, describes the library and herbarium collections, and tells of international research supported by the organization. The photos, however, are the real emphasis of the book. On page 48 is a photo of late-flowering Korean chrysanthemums that is dazzling. Pages 72 through 81 show the world famous Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Page 144 shows the double row of huge autumn gold tulip trees approaching the brick, limestone, and terra-cotta library. Pages 171 and 172 show pink magnolias in bloom. Nearly every page of the book impresses.

The New York Botanical Garden is a large book that is a little heavy to hold. Settle onto a comfortable couch or sit at a table. Take your time. Pretend you are there.

The New York Botanical Garden. New York: Abrams, 2006. ISBN 0810957442

Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination by Barbara Hurd

Sometimes I find great books by accident. I was helping a client gather books on global warming, kneeling to the right of some real estate books in the Dewey 333 area, when I spotted Stirring in the Mud by Barbara Hurd. The cover photo of a swamp with a dragonfly drawn on to it, the intriguing title, and the compact size of the book caught my eye. Jane Brox wrote one of the blurbs on the back. It just looked like a book I would want to read.

Barbara Hurd is an English teacher and poet who has loved swamps since her childhood. She has traipsed them on her own and with naturalists all her life, getting wet and muddy in an effort to see what is under surface and behind the bush. In Stirring the Mud, she visits wetlands in her native Maryland, Louisiana, and Alaska. She also tells about a trip to Tibet.

Hurd is a keen observer and thinker, and her book is full of passages that should be read and reread and sent to friends.

"There is no escaping the universal drama here: Isis lies down in the swamp with the dead, becomes mystery herself, and gives birth to silence. Haven't we all done the same? Slept with the past, courted dead ideas, been born into muck, found ourselves draped in a fine sheen of the worn and silky sediment of surrounding mountains, our hands slicked with the debris of the world? We raise our fingers to our eyes, wipe away mud, lift our heads and look around. For miles, for continents, for eons, the world seems to battle and blaze. We hunger for its glory. Then, singing and swinging my arms one day, I learned that what I approach in the swamp deflates its throat, withdraws its song. The question is how we can keep crashing about, proclamatory and crass, once we know that so much of the world grows silent in the face of our loutishness? Why don't we spend our whole lives, like Isis and her son, veiled and silent?"

I found the book with this passage next to the real estate books. The Library of Congress recommended the Dewey number 333.91'8'01. This is so wrong. The book is about nature, philosophy, the human spirit, and poetry. It should be with Walden and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

Stirring the Mud should be in libraries everywhere.

Hurd, Barbara. Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001. ISBN 0807085448

Libraries, the Retail Customer Service Model, and Feel Good Marketing: Updated

Sometimes a pattern only appears when it is broken.

When I shop at retail stores, clerks usually smile and sometimes comment about the weather, but they do not say very much. Until recently they have rarely said anything about what I buy. Occasionally a clerk at a clothing store might say "I like that color" or a grocery clerk might say "That's on sale. I should get a couple." These comments seemed mostly undirected.

I had not realized until this weekend that there is a new pattern. At both the big supermarket and the friendly speciality grocery, I have heard many comments recently about what I brought up to the register.

"I really like these apples. They are so crisp."

"Ghirardelli brownies! I bet they're good."

"You'll like those enchiladas."

"That's my favorite nut mix. That little bit of coconut makes it so good!"

"You found the Thai mixes. My favorite is the satay. Have you tried it?"

I have not heard so much from clerks since I had a toddler in the shopping cart. Could it be the few gray hairs at my temples that makes me more approachable?

I only thought about this about after shopping at an office supply store. A young clerk was being trained by a manager. As she checked me out, she said cautiously, "That's a really nice binder."

I walked back to my car wondering why she said that. It was just a plain blue plastic binder. Then it struck me. She is being taught to compliment the customer's selections. The idea is to make the customer feel good about buying something from her store. She hadn't gotten the hang of it yet.

Of course, this made me think about the library.

The idea of marketing a good feeling is not a bad idea. We may want to do it in libraries, too, but our comments have to be honest and natural. Any falsehood is quickly spotted.

Also, complimenting someone every time you see will rouse suspicions. People will wonder if we are trying to manipulate them or secretly make fun of them.

There has been much emulation of retail models of customer service in libraries in recent years. It does not always work. I hope I never see a library consultant pressing "feel good comments about what people borrow" onto our public service staff. We should stay honest and friendly and only say "I liked that book" if it is true.

As long as we stay friendly and helpful and real, we will cultivate good feeling.

Update: This is getting more comments than most of my blog posts, and a variety of viewpoints are being expressed. The discussion has brought up several ideas that I was not connecting.

For clarification about my viewpoint, let me say I see nothing wrong with honest, unforced comments by service staff at retail or in the library. I like talking with people and enjoy some of these little convesations, so long as they are tactful. Having clerks forced to comment or being kept from commenting both seem wrong to me. Also, I do not like the idea of being subliminally marketed.

Elephant by Steve Bloom

When I first saw the cover on Elephant by Steve Bloom, with all the birds flying around the lead elephant in a group (look around the back), I knew I would dive in. Having twice gone on camera safari in Tanzania and Kenya, where we had close encounters with elephants, I am always ready to relive our experiences. Bloom's great photographs deliver what I need to go back. I am awash in memories.

Bloom either has big zoom lenses or gets very close to the elephants. You can see the bristles on the elephants' hides. He captures motion, too. Dust flies, mud splatters, and water splashes. There seems to be a shock wave coming from the elephant on page 116. He also captures the spiritual mystique of elephants. On pages 176-177 an elephant stands in a shaft of sunlight in a dense woods.

Bloom spent much of his time at Chobe in Botswana, but he also visited other African countries. The latter part of the book focuses on Asian elephants. He includes a series of cool underwater photographs of a Thai elephany named Rajan and another series of elephants brightly painted for the Jaipur Elephant Festival.

You can see some of Bloom's elephant photos at his website.

There is no animal more impressive than the elephant. Seeing herds of elephants is awesome, as they move with agility and grace, young and old, with purpose and resolve. The next best thing to being in Africa or on the Indian subcontinent to see the elephants is looking through a book like Elephant. Libraries should get this book.

Bloom, Steve. Elephant. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0811857271

Elephants in the Serengeti

Elephants in the Serengeti
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I can not resist posting one of our own elephant photos to go along with the review of the book by Steve Bloom. There are lots of elephants in Tanzania and they are photogenic. You should go see for yourself.

Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker

I reviewed four books about New Orleans last year preparing for the ALA annual conference in the city. The Garrett County Press noticed and asked if I would accept a free copy of the second edition of Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker. There were no strings attached, though the publisher hoped that I would like and review the book. I said yes and received it in the mail a couple of weeks ago.

Walker and his girlfriend E moved to the Crescent City late in 1999 and were surprised by the local tradition of firing of guns in the air on New Years Eve. He wrote a letter about the random injuries that resulted and government efforts to curb the gun play. In the letter he also wrote about unpacking, buying paint, listening to New Orleans music, and the theft of the rental car. He sent the letter to friends by email, who shared it with strangers.

In the next three years he wrote thirteen more letters and sent them to an increasing number of people. They also found their way to Slate.com, the New Republic, and other websites and magazines. In 2005, just before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the book was published.

Walker wrote lovingly about what he saw everyday riding his bike around the city. He told about street life, housing projects, musicians, and the annual Carnival, which is capped off by Mardi Gras. He spoke to lots of people and described intersections, vacant lots, pillars under the Interstate, and old buildings.

The second edition is little changed from the first. An introduction and two postscripts have been added and one chapter has been updated. Walker admits that the stories now reflect a life that is past. He also mentions the great interest in the tragedy from outside the city. He suggests that many of those criticizing New Orleans refuse to see that their lives are in as much danger from forces beyond their control as the citizens living below sea level.
Letters from New Orleans is an interesting book that should find more readers.

Walker, Rob. Letters from New Orleans. Garrett County Press, 2006. ISBN 1891053019