Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death

Bonnie and I have been Wallace and Gromit fans for fourteen years. If I remember correctly, A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave were all available when we discovered the comic clay animation man-and-dog duo. We quickly found that we could hardly look at cheese without laughing about Wallace and Gromit's trip to the moon. The only trouble with Wallace and Gromit is that there are not enough films.

I was understandably thrilled when Bonnie brought home A Matter of Loaf and Death. As in all the short films, the inventor Wallace has concocted some wild devices to make his life efficient and profitable. His dog Gromit is, however, the brains of the operation, making the assembly lines work and saving Wallace from his own foolishness. He is particularly challenged in A Matter of Loaf and Death because a serial killer is loose in the village.

In this new film, Wallace has a new baking business that requires his being woken at 5 a.m. every morning. Of course, Gromit is already up, packing loaves of bread into the van and preparing Wallace's coffee and breakfast. As they leave their home/bakery, we see that Wallace has attached a Dutch windmill to power the factory. As they speed along the streets, Wallace sees the girl of his dreams. Romance, suspense, science fiction, and slapstick comedy are all packed into A Matter of Loaf and Death.

The DVD also features How They Donut, a short documentary on the making of the film and an episode of the BBC's animated series Shaun the Sheep. We want to find more episodes with Shaun.

A Matter of Loaf and Death. Hit Entertainment, 2009. ISBN 0884487104211

AL Direct Includes Review of Real Lives Revealed

I found that yesterday's AL Direct had several very interesting links. One is a link to a positive Booklist review of my book Real Lives Revealed. I also enjoyed reading the article "The Top Ten Books of 1709" by Jill Lepore from The New Yorker; not a lot of books were actually published that year in the American colonies, but you will still recognize the names of some of the bestselling authors. I also liked the links to a Mental Floss lineup of photos from Presidential Libraries, which includes Gerald Ford meeting with George Harrison and Billy Preston (a contrast in hair).

If you do not already receive AL Direct in your weekly email, here is the link to subscribe.

Carl's Snowy Afternoon by Alexandra Day

Our family loves Carl, the rottweiler in a series of children's picture books by Alexandra Day. We began reading them when Laura was a baby, starting with Carl Goes Shopping. The plot usually revolves around Carl's owners leaving him in charge of their toddler Madeleine while they go off for a few hours. Instead of staying put, Carl and the toddler take off to have little adventures, meeting friendly people who give them tasty things to eat and getting home just before the parents return. My favorite may be Carl's Christmas in which the parents go to a late night church service while Carl and the toddler wander the town's snowy streets meeting late night shoppers and carolers. The dog and child get home just in time for Santa's arrival. Santa gives Carl a nice holiday collar for being such a good dog.

Just in time for this Christmas is a new Carl book, Carl's Snowy Afternoon. Twenty years later, Madeleine is now about four years old, and the parents have actually hired a sitter to watch their child while they go to an ice skating party around a frozen pond. Of course, the sitter just watches television and does not notice Carl and the curly-headed child slip out the dog door. Adventures include attending the same ice skating party, staying just out of the parents sight. I particularly like all the snowmen and snowwomen that children make that afternoon. Carl helps Madeleine remove a carrot from one snowwoman to feed a hungry bunny.

Pictures tell the stories in these artfully illustrated books. With few words, young children, who enjoy seeing the independence that Carl and Madeleine exhibit, can read these books to their adults. There are now eleven books in the series. I recommend them all.

Day, Alexandra. Carl's Snowy Afternoon. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009. ISBN 9780374310868

A Visit to the Brookfield Zoo Library

Hidden behind one of the gift shops at the Brookfield Zoo, in what was once exhibit space, is a library devoted to zoology. As in many older institutions, the zoo library was never formally founded but evolved from small scattered collections in staff offices around the park. The collection has been centralized for about thirty years, though there is still a satellite site for the veterinarians and another containing the zoo's archives of maps, brochures, and other documents. The main collection was only recently cataloged by the current librarian Carla Owens.

Last Friday the staff of the Thomas Ford Memorial Library toured the Brookfield Zoo Library as a part of our in-service training day. Each year during the month of December, we visit another library either to get new ideas to help us run our own library or to learn about the work of different types of libraries. In the past we have visited the Morton Arboretum Library, the conservation lab at the Newberry Library, the John Crerar Library at the University of Chicago, and the Marion E. Wade Center, which is devoted to studies of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their contemporaries, as well as visiting other public libraries.

The Brookfield Zoo is a special library run to support animal keepers, researchers, and volunteers at the zoo. On any given day, zookeepers and researchers enter the out-of-the-way library to find information about their species, often asking the librarian for help. These clients have numerous grant-funded conservation projects that require finding detailed studies from serials and monographs. Many also work from their offices using a collection of electronic resources acquired and maintained by the Library. This is what you'd expect in a zoo library. What surprised me was service to volunteers. The zoo has hundreds of docents and other volunteers, many of whom get rigorous training and have continuing education requirements. Because the docents have to write papers, they too need library services, which Owens and her half time assistant provide. To facilitate the volunteer training, Owens has created a wiki from which the volunteers can obtain and contribute information.

Being a special library, service to the public is limited. People wanting to use the collection have to make appointments. Owens and her assistant also answer telephone questions from the public, some of which ask how to donate exotic animals to zoos. Because Zoo policy does not allow for the accepting of unregistered animals, the librarians have information on contacts with animal sanctuaries that can accept or place the animals.

When asked questions about the library, Owens often broadened the query and gave an answer about the zoo. Library policies and operations are integrated into daily zoo work, and she seems to identify closely with the zoo mission. Based on what I heard her say, she is a zoo employee first, running the library for the good of the zoo and international wildlife conservation. She is also co-author of the new zoo history.

Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests by Jessica Zellers

I am not sure that women's nonfiction really is a genre, but I do not think it matters. Genre is a concept that may interest librarians more than writers and readers. What matters is that there are books of particular interest to women and a large community of women who read. Jessica Zellers serves both well with her new book Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests.

Women's Nonfiction is the third volume in the new readers' advisory series Real Stories which suggests nonfiction books to librarians and readers. It follows volumes on investigative reporting and biography. The second volume, of course, is my book, so I am particularly interested in Jessica's book. On examination, I find our books complementary. Early in her book Jessica explains that "it is a rare Women's Nonfiction narrative that does not refer, at least in part, to people's life experiences." Appropriately her first chapter is "Chapter 1 - Life Stories: Biography, Autobiography, and Memoirs." I notice that we have even identified a few of the same titles, including Jackie Cochran: Pilot in the Fast Lane by Doris L. Rich and Boudica: The Life of Britain's Legendary Warrior Queen by Vanessa Collingridge, but our "Now try" recommendations are all quite different, as you might expect.

So, as a guy, what do I like about this book? The chapter that most interests me is "Chapter 5 - Adventure and Travel." Jessica's descriptive reviews suggest a number of books that I'd like to read, including Across the Savage Sea: The First Woman to Row Across the North Atlantic by Maud Fontenoy, The Girl from Botany Bay by Carolly Erickson, and Travels with a Medieval Queen by Mary Taylor Simeti. I also see promising titles in "Chapter 4 - Women's History," including Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser and Uppity Women of Ancient Times by Vicki Leon.

I would not want you to think all of Jessica's books are biography, adventure, or history. In her introduction, she states that she includes nonfiction books that women read for pleasure. Most are narrative nonfiction but not all. Many of the titles included deal with personal growth, women's health, beauty, feminism, activism, women at work, and women in society.

When I was visiting the Elmhurst Public Library a few weeks ago, I noticed a "help yourself" readers' advisory display, including fiction and nonfiction readers' advisory guides. Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests would serve well on such displays everywhere, especially as a circulating book that readers could take home.

Zellers, Jessica. Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests. Libraries Unlimited, 2009. 442p. ISBN 9781591586586

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil Degrasse Tyson

Remember how you felt when you heard that Pluto is no longer considered a planet? Shocked? Dismayed? I felt a little of that initially, for Pluto had been viewed as a planet for as long as I had been alive. Once I read a couple of articles about the reclassification by the International Astronomical Union, however, it made sense to me. Astrophysicists had learned much about Pluto since it had been identified in 1930. It is far smaller than originally thought, is not a gas giant as once believed, and does not even dominate its orbital field. I am okay with recognizing that it is not the same as the eight remaining planets. Many people have not been so understanding. Neil Degrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, explains the situation in his lighthearted but still serious book The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet.

The Pluto Files is partly a memoir, as Tyson recounts his own involvement in the reclassification, and partly a microhistory of Pluto, which is now called a "dwarf planet," a term that many (even those who agree with the concept) think is an unsatisfactory label. The author includes some of his own photos, lots of cartoons, and copies of emails and letters that he received from people objecting to Pluto's "demotion." It is through these communications that Tyson shows how resistant people are to change. Some people claim that it is unfair to make them learn something new. They seem to be more concerned about how expensive it will be to correct textbooks than concerned for getting the science right. Aren't textbooks always being replaced anyway? Isn't science about finding truth and not about maintaining old beliefs?

Just looking at that last paragraph, I see I am getting worked up. Tyson makes readers care about his subject. Moreover, he still seems to care for the little rock at the edge of the solar system. The Pluto Files is a clever celebration of astrophysics written for non-scientists.

Tyson, Neil Degrasse. The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. W.W. Norton, 2009. ISBN 9780393065206

Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd

"... it is evident that we are hurrying onward to some exciting knowledge - some never to be imparted secret, whose attainment is destruction." Edgar Allan Poe

2009 was the year that I became reacquainted with Edgar Allan Poe, an author that I enjoyed as a teen. It has been fun staying up late reading all the dark and gloomy tales, such "The Pit and Pendulum" and "Fall of the House of Usher." In April I read The Poe Shadow, a novel about Poe's mysterious death by Matthew Pearl, and in May I listened to a collection of Poe short stories called Tales of Terror. Now I have read Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd as a part of his Ackroyd's Brief Lives biography series. I think I may have learned every strange detail about Poe's life and death at this point, yet I am not done. I'd like to learn more.

As a starter biography, Ackroyd's account is excellent. He introduces all the main characters in the forty year story of Poe's life. There were the Allans who adopted him after his impoverished actor parents died, the drunken older brother, Aunt Maria Clemm who took him in after the Allans reject him, Virginia Poe who was both cousin and wife, and half a dozen women that he courted before, during, and after Virginia's life. There were also many publishers and investors who at some point supported and then withdrew from the mercurial author. Ackroyd masterfully recounts how Poe dealt with all these figures as he constantly circulated around Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York as a literary nomad.

Ackroyd introduces many ideas about what was really wrong with Poe beyond just the alcoholism and the drugs. Deep insecurity, basic maternal love deprivation, and multiple personalities pop up in the account. Wisely Ackroyd does not weigh in very far on any of these as all is speculation at this point. Poe will always be a mystery, which means we can return to reading about him almost forever without ever losing interest. Maybe I should read the poems next.

Ackroyd, Peter. Poe: A Life Cut Short. Doubleday, 2008. ISBN 980385508001

Chaplin: A Life by Stephen M. Weissman

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) entered the Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute Children in London at age seven, when his mother could no longer support her children with singing in music halls or with sweatshop piecework. His alcoholic father, also a music hall singer, had already abandoned them. Chaplin's life quickly fell from being a child dressed in velvet to being a ward of the state. In Chaplin: A Life, psychiatrist Stephen M. Weissman weaves an account of Chaplin's Dickensesque early years with an examination of his surprisingly autobiographical films.

Two periods of Chaplin's long life get detailed examination in ths psychological biography. Readers learn much about Chaplin's poverty stricken childhood, some of which was actually spent on the street, and his two years making films with Mack Sennett for the Keystone Film Studio, the period that he quickly became famous for his Little Tramp character. By focusing on these times, Weissman shows how Chaplin matured but never totally overcame his childhood needs for recognition and security. Readers also learn what a great debt he owed to his older brother Sydney, who kept Charlie from starving and later arranged most of his early auditions.

I am left wanting to see all the early short films. Weissman warns that surviving footage is often incomplete, somewhat faded, and difficult for a modern filmviewers to understand. Still, I want to see them. After being totally absorbed by this short book, I want to know more about Chaplin.

Weissman, Stephen M. Chaplin: A Life. Arcade, 2008. 315p. ISBN: 9781559708920

BBC Report: Saving Africa's Precious Written Heritage

The idea that Africa was totally uncivilized before Europeans arrived for trade and taking slaves around 1500 is a racist fabrication. This BBC report tells about the wealth of written documents in Timbuktu that pre-date European influence being collected in a new library/archive:

BBC Report: Saving Africa's Precious Written Heritage

With the gathering and preservation of these important manuscripts, let us hope there is a flowering of scholarship and reporting to correct history, which will support a rebirth of Africa. If new books and documentaries are produced about the civilizations of Africa, let's also hope that Americans and Europeans bother to notice.

Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell claims that she is a boring person who would rather be alone with a book than be anywhere else, except maybe visiting a historical site where something that is still being discussed occurred, such as the room in which Abraham Lincoln polished up the Gettysburg Address. Though a self-proclaimed bookworm, she is very connected to popular culture through broadcast media and the Internet, as well as through her beloved books. She seems to notice and remember everything. She also seems to have plenty of friends who accompany her to witness inaugurations and other historical events. I can imagine that talking with her being would be frenetic and at times awkward, as she would probably take the conversation in an unexpected direction, but "boring person" is not a label that I can imagine being applied.

I have just enjoyed listening to Partly Cloudy Patriot, written and read by Vowell, with the assistance of a number of actors reading quotations from a variety of American characters. These men (I do not remember there being any women) all play straight men to Vowell's comic genius, even Stephen Colbert as Al Gore. The audiobook is also enhanced with quirky made-to-order music from They Might Be Giants. Topics range from history, current events, and pop culture. Readers learn about Vowell's growing up in Oklahoma and Montana and discover that she is a Dallas Cowboys fan, as well as a "Big D" Democrat who worked for the Michael Dukakis campaign. One of her chief complaints is the tendency of the public to label any politician who is academically gifted as a nerd who should be laughed out of public service. She is a nerd and wants nerds to rule.

All of this was written before Barack Obama became a nationally well-known figure. Vowell never mentions him in this older collection of her essays. I enjoyed traveling back in time with Vowell on my iPod. She made cooking and commuting more fun.

Vowell, Sarah. The Partly Cloudy Patriot. Simon & Schuster, 2003. 5 CDs. ISBN 0743533488

The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

Bonnie knows my reading tastes well. I do not read much fiction, but I enjoy a good story in a historical or foreign setting from which I can learn about another time or place. She suggested The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville, a recent novel written by an award-winning Australian author, a book that succeeded in getting me away from the here and now.

In a note at the back of The Lieutenant, Grenville explains that the book really is fiction, though most of its events did occur. The British Royal Navy transported convicts from England to Australia in 1788, establishing a settlement at Botany Bay south of the current city of Sydney. Among the force sent to watch the prisoners was William Dawes, a marine charged with astronomical observations who attempted to learn to speak to the local Aborigines. Grenville renames her character Daniel Rooke, gives him a childhood story set in Portsmouth, England, and has him re-enact the role that Dawes played in the colony. I do not want to give away the ending, so I will only say that the issues examined include 1) the ethics of colonizing the lands of indigenous people and 2) the expectation that soldiers will follow abhorrent commands.

The Lieutenant is a fast reading novel with only a handful of characters that are fleshed out. Every one seems to have good intentions, but serving the British Crown overrides the welfare of all the inhabitants of Botany Bay. This calm and thoughtful novel might make better choice to start a discussion about the impact of the British colonization on indiginous people than more polarized literature.

Grenville, Kate. The Lieutenant. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008. ISBN 9780802119162

Read On ... Life Stories

I'd like to write a companion to this book for biography.

Thomas Ford just received its copy of Read On ... Life Stories by Rosalind Reisner, the sixth title in the Read On... readers' advisory series, the second title this year. This book which focuses on autobiography and memoir has the same look and feel as the other books in the series. It has five reading appeal sections: character, story, setting, language, and mood. In each of these sections there are between seven and sixteen lists of book titles arranged around a theme, such as food-related memoirs and personal accounts from authors tracking down their ancestors. I like the headings, such as "A Hard Day's Night: Life in the Music Business" and "Crooked Lives: People Behaving Badly." It should be easy to use these lists to make readers' advisory displays.

I am pleased because Read On ... Life Stories is the first nonfiction title in the expanding series. Reisner chose well in writing about life stories, which are currently very popular with readers. Scanning through her lists, I see that she has chosen to include both classic and recent titles, spanning the late 1980s to 2008. I recognized many of the titles, many of which should be in many library collections. (That's too many manys in one sentence.)

There is a single index to Read On ... Life Stories which includes authors, titles, and subjects. Find a book that you like and then turn to its list for new reading suggestions. It is so easy that it should not be locked in a reference collection. Put your copy in circulation.

Reisner, Rosalind. Read On ... Life Stories. Libraries Unlimited, 2009. ISBN 9781591587668

The Outermost House by Henry Beston

I have a new dream - to spend a year in the wild doing nothing but watching birds as the seasons turn. It's been done before, of course, but it appeals to me greatly, especially as described by Henry Beston in The Outermost House.

Henry Beston did not really intent to spend fall 1926 to fall 1927 in a two room house looking down on a Cape Cod beach facing the Atlantic Ocean. He had gone with the plan of staying two weeks, during which he would relax and write. He was so comfortable that he extended his stay several times before latching onto the idea of staying a year, observing tides, marshes, clouds, and birds, and writing about them all. It sounds like a dream job to me.

The book that resulted is a classic of nature writing. Readers may find Beston much more pleasant to read than Thoreau, as Beston has no grand statements to make against the modernization of society. He's mostly just having fun, even when he stands in the freezing rain or swats at sand fleas. He does, however, report on disturbing trends, like disappearing bird species and the oil spills that were fouling beaches even in 1927. He also is more social, going to town for groceries once a week and frequently meeting with the local coast guards.

Not many public libraries have The Outermost House any more. It is a good time to rediscover this classic and make it better known.

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House. Holt, 1992. ISBN 0805019669

Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, illustrated by David Diaz

A few weeks ago I saw I and I: Bob Marley, a biography for young readers written in verse by and thought that it was a novel idea to write a biography as a collection of first person poems. Now, looking at the new books shelf in the children's section of my library, I find Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, illustrated by David Diaz. Again, a biographer has used poetry written as though it was written by the subject himself. I wonder how many other books like this there are?

That Mexican mural artist Diego Rivera can be the subject of a children's book is a curious thing to me. When I was a kid, all of the biographies were innocent, admiring, and sanitized. In the stories, the subjects were all well-behaved men and women whose lives were good examples for youth. Times and books have changed. While Bernier-Grand generally seems to admire Rivera's work and intentions, she profiles him as somewhat obsessive, self-centered, neglectful of family, and unfaithful to his lovers. He starts art projects knowing that his sponsors will later reject them. Obviously, young readers are not intended to follow Rivera's lead. So, what's up? Why tell children about Diego Rivera?

At this point it would be helpful to be a trained educator with a well-practiced answer. I'm not. I am a librarian and a parent (with a daughter who is 21 but who once was little), and I like the book for several reasons. 1) It is honest. No child who reads this book can grow up thinking that Rivera was a wonderful person, only to have the truth revealed later. I think my era has a lot of distrust of our parents' generation because they read us books that proved not to be true. 2) It shows that someone with many faults can rise above them to accomplish much good along with the bad. 3) A book like Diego gives parents and educators a lot to discuss with children. There is lots of bad behavior in our society, which children see on television, in the movies, and in the neighborhoods around them. You can not shield children from what is going on all around them. This book can be a starting point for conversation. 4) The story is well told, and Diego is an interesting character. Read a good book and you want to find another.

Bernier-Grand, Carmen T. Diego: Bigger Than Life. Marshall Cavendish, 2009. ISBN 9780761453833

Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl has written several food-related memoirs that include "Mim tales," humorous stories about her mother Miriam Reichl. Writing these after her mother's death, she has regretted that they presented only one side of Mim's character - one that her mother would not have liked. In rediscovering a box of her mother's papers, Ruth found a woman she did not really know - someone who understood well the troubles that she appeared not to see - a woman who needed something meaningful to do. Ruth writes about her relationship to this new woman in Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way.

Ruth assumed that deep down her mother wanted her daughter to follow her example. There had been direct statements to the contrary - warnings about marriage and careers - but Ruth did not take them seriously. In the unsent letters and scraps of paper that served as her mother's haphazard journal, she found her mother had been serious. Miriam had tasted the world of work briefly on several occasions only to have husbands (supported by the prevailing mood of the time) insist that the woman's place was in the home, where all the new time-saving appliances left little to do. She was clinically depressed. Miriam did not want her daughter to be an intelligent woman with nothing to do. Her gift to Ruth was presenting herself as someone not to become.

Not Becoming My Mother is a small and fascinating book about a woman who represents women of her age, women denied careers after World War II. Book groups should pounce on it.

Reighl, Ruth. Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. Penguin Press, 2009. ISBN 9781594202162

As We Forgive, a Film by Laura Walters Hinson

Various experts estimate that at least 800,000 and maybe over a million people lost their lives in the chaotic weeks of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. No one in the country was untouched by tragedy, and the longing for justice is high. At one point the prison population of the small country grew to greater than 100,000, many suspected of genocide crimes. Keeping so many prisoners was a burden for Rwanda, which needed workers to rebuild the country. With the help of evangelical ministers and local village officials, the Rwandan government began releasing confessed murderers back into their villages and neighborhoods, where they are taking part in reconciliation councils. Some websites say 22,000 were released in 2003, 36,000 in 2005, and 68,000 in early 2008. No matter what the numbers, many survivors are unhappy and afraid to have the guilty among them.

As We Forgive focuses on two women who lost their families in the genocide and the two men who admitted committing the murders. One of the women embraces the process of reconciliation, saying that it is the only hope that her community and nation has. The other women is reticent, though she does agree to meet the former neighbor in a group conversation with a pastoral minister and community leaders.

In the process of discussions, the needs of both survivors and the guilty men are revealed. Mostly, the survivors need help harvesting crops, winnowing grains, and rebuilding houses, while the confessed need tasks to help them regain respect and self-respect. Agreements are reached to the pleasure of the local leaders who hope to eliminate longstanding prejudice between Tutsi and Hutu.

As We Forgive is an optimistic documentary that admits that it is rather daring to be so hopeful. Some brief scenes of the genocide are included, but the bulk of the film is set in the present. At 53 minutes, this thoughtful film is a convenient length for discussion groups who should find plenty of topics.

As We Believe. MPower Pictures, 2009.

Advice for the Reluctant Weeder

I have always enjoyed weeding library collections because they always look so much better after the work is done. Tattered volumes disappear and there is room to shelve more books. Even more important, out of date materials are gone. Some librarians (I have known some) really hate to part with books. "Just think how the author would feel to know they were being weeded!" Now that I am an author that sort of resonates, but I still realize that the work has to be done.

Diane J. Young now has an article in Library Journal to help the reluctant weeder. Click here.

Bone Sharps, Cowboys, And Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology

Today we think of paleontology as one of the fun sciences. Nearly everyone seems to like a good dinosaur discovery with its lively debate about what the bones reveal. We enjoy stories about the travels and work of modern dino-hounds, such as Paul Sereno, Sue Hendrickson, and Xu Xing. Paleontologists were not always held in such high regard. In fact, in the late nineteenth century, they were ridiculed for their crazy theories and their bitter rivalries. Jim Ottaviani and the artists of Big Time Attic tell about early paleontologists, who perhaps deserved some of their bad press, in the graphic novel Bone Sharps, Cowboys, And Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology.

The publisher of Bone Sharps, Cowboys, And Thunder Lizards labels it as "science/history," but Ottaviani says clearly in his afterward that it is historical fiction. Most of the characters are or were based on real people, but the author took artistic license with the story in the way movie producers do when they present true stories. Time lines are rearranged, quotes are given to other speakers, and people who never actually met meet. Ottaviani adds eleven pages of notes to let readers know what was fact and what was fiction in his story. It is a pretty clever way to teach history.

Being a graphic novel, you might think it could be read very quickly, but there is so much content in the pictures themselves. A reader must take some time looking at facial expressions and what is going on in the background. Not all of it made sense to me. I was grateful for the notes at the end.

The publisher G. T. Labs has a series of science history graphic novels. I am placing some more reserves to see what else I might learn.

Ottaviani, Jim and Big Time Attic. Bone Sharps, Cowboys, And Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology. G. T. Labs, 2005. ISBN 0966010663

Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago

Last Friday I was lucky enough to join other reference librarians from Zone 1 of the Metropolitan Library System for a tour of the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. Susan Augustine, head of user services at the Ryerson Art Library was our guide, taking us behind the scenes to see the conservation lab, the pamphlet files, technical services, the stacks, and the archives.

I was impressed by the wealth of the collection. The Ryerson is the second largest art library in the country after the library at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Augustine said the collection of periodicals is outstanding, noting that nearly every title in The Avery Index to Architecture Periodicals is held by the Art Institute's library. About 1000 books are added per month, mostly on art or architecture. Most titles come automatically through approval plans, of which two plans are U.S. and ten others are foreign. Most of the library collection is not in English. While most of the acquisitions are current materials, there is also some retrospective purchasing, especially in photography and Southeast Asian art. Another distinction is that the library is a research institution, not a rare books library; the library does not acquire rare and historical items just to have them.

The primary mission of the Ryerson is to serve the curators, who have many privileges that other users do not. Curators influence the acquisitions, get extensive reference help, and can visit most of the restricted areas of the library. They even get to check books out for a year and renew them annually. Augustine said that the curators do have to account for the books during the annual inventory, when library staff visit each department office to "see the books."

In recent years, service to other users has expanded from researchers and museum members to the general public. Unfortunately, the economic downturn has struck the library, which has reduced its public service staff greatly. The library is now open to the public during museum hours on Thursday and by appointment for limited hours on Wednesday and Friday.

As a librarian, it was fun to see the library's pamphlet file still exists. The Ryerson collection pamphlet file has everything from clippings and articles to letters from artists and promotional publications for gallery shows. Augustine said that for obscure artists, the pamphlet file sometimes has the only information that can be found. This valuable resource is in a locked room, protected for the ages.

Upstairs from the library reading room, accessible only by private elevators, we saw workrooms for the Art Institute's archives. The museum is accepting a limited number of collections from artists and architects with Chicago connections. Also, the museum has a second archives dealing with its own history. Both of these archives departments are up to their necks in documents and unusual items, including woodcut blocks, wine bottles, and posters. Only a patient person not troubled by piles of papers could work for such a service!

Our hour and a half passed quickly. My concern is that the library somehow ride out its funding shortfall and then restore more public services. It would be a shame to have such a great collection closed to the many people who would enjoy using it.

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith

I've read and reviewed many McCall Smith books, most of which have been mysteries. I am always charmed by them. How can he produced three or four books per year? I sometimes get behind in my reading. Spurred by seeing Botswana: In The Footsteps of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective with Alexander McCall Smith, I've finally gotten to Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, the tenth book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Series.

First, a few words about Botswana: In The Footsteps of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective with Alexander McCall Smith, a 54-minute documentary that looks at the setting for the author's most successful mystery series. Botswana is a place of beautiful light, both literally and figuratively. There is sunshine most of the year, making it a great place to travel to see striking landscapes and great wildlife. McCall Smith, however, focuses on the people, who are struggling to join the modern world and mostly succeeding. The author shows us children, teachers, waitresses, bankers, diamond mine workers, conservationists, and other people, black and white, who live in the cities and villages of Botswana - just the people who populate his books. He hopes that they can be guides for the development of all of Africa.

In Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Mma Ramotswe has a new kind of mystery to solve: why does the local football team keep losing games? The owner suspects a traitor on the team. Here is how the owner presents the situation:

"This problem," he went on, "hurts me here. Right here - in my heart."

Mma Ramotswe inclined her head gravely. Everybody who consulted her was, in their way, hurting - even this rich man with his big Mercedes-Benz and his expensive cuff-links. Human hurt was like lightning; it did not choose its targets, but struck, with rough equality and little regard to position, achievement, or moral desert.

Mma knows very little about football and has to turn to her stepson for help. To complicate matters, her beloved white van fails her, and Mma Makutsi worries that her fiancee is about to be stolen by her arch enemy Violet Sephotho. With grace and patience, she resolves all the problems.

Libraries have to have McCall Smith books, and I have to read them all.

McCall Smith, Alexander. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. Pantheon Books, 2009. ISBN 9780375424496

Biographies for Younger Readers

Uma and Dana in the Youth Services Department have been buying lots of interesting books lately. Here are three biographies that I enjoyed.

You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax? by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Andre Carrilho. Random House, 2009. ISBN 9780375837388

Sandy Koufax has never really been forgotten by any baseball fan over 50 years of age, old enough to remember actually seeing the Dodger play. Jonah Winter aims to tell the latest generation about the player with the blazing fastball, who stunned the sports world by retiring early to keep from further hurting his arm. The quickly-told story with cartoonish characters serves as a cautionary tale as well as a tribute. The tilt-it-and-he-pitches book cover works best if you look at it with only one eye.


I and I: Bob Marley by Tony Medina, illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson. Lee & Low Books, 2009. ISBN 9781600602573

Biographies are not often written in verse. Tony Medina recounts the short life of the Jamaican singer Bob Marley in sixteen poems, accompanied by what look to me like tempera paintings (but with great ability to mix the colors). The poems give the reader a sense of the life without detailed narrative, and the illustrations establish a mood. Medina follows the poems with detailed explanatory notes from which the curious reader can learn the specifics of Marley's life. Medina's emphasis is that Marley's life was not tragic - that the singer's music still lives.


Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator by Shelley Tanaka, illustrated by David Craig. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2008. ISBN 9780810970953

Recognizing courage and furthering the belief that women can do anything are author Shelley Tanaka's aims in telling the story of Amelia Earhart, who disappeared in the Pacific Ocean in 1937, just a few days short of finishing her around-the-world-at-the-equator quest. Tanaka tells how Earhart had succeeded against great odds before; her failure was difficult for her fans to accept. In addition to getting an engaging biography, readers young and old learn how dangerous aviation was before modern communication and navigation systems.

Audiobook on My iPod: Quick Reviews

During our vacation in Australia and New Zealand and since we got home, I listened to several audiobooks on my iPod. Here are some quick reviews, five stars being the best.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - five stars

Gaiman is a great reader and the story is very inventive. I loved all the ghosts and enjoyed the dramatic tension. It made me wish I could walk around unseen. This book, which deserves all its awards, is great in audio, too.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - three stars

Perhaps I expected too much after all the praise that I've heard. I had to listen to the first couple of chapters a second time to understand what was happening. Once I got into it, I listened faithfully, but when it was over, I started seeing problems with the story and its characters. I feel that despite her humanizing faults, the Lisbeth Salander character is just a superhero, the ultimate hacker who can get any bit of data from any computer without fail. All the women fall for Mikail Blomkvist too easily. In the end, the all powerful bad guy seems pretty clueless. I don't buy it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - four stars, maybe four and a half

I can see why there is still a long list of reserves at our library. This is a charming story. I liked the many characters and enjoyed learning all the history about the Channel Isles during World War II. It ended just like I wanted. Perhaps I am starting to want gentle reads. If they are as good as this, that's fine with me. Having five readers for the various characters was a nice touch.

This Book Is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson

Having been one of the librarians interviewed for this book, I was eager to read it. I was hoping to like it and was not disappointed.

In a time of economic stress, when librarians are needed more than ever, yet library budgets are being cut, Marilyn Johnson speaks out in our behalf in her forthcoming book This Book Is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. Her message to anyone who will listen is that librarians are the "authors of opportunity." She sums up her assessment of librarians near the end of the book thus:

It didn't matter who I was, or what I did, or where I paid taxes, or how long I stayed. I'm sure it didn't matter if the book had RFID tags or a checkout card with a ladder of scrawled names, though tags were neat. I knew the librarians would help me figure out anything I need to know ...

I was under the librarians' protection. Civil Servants and servants of civility, they had my back. They would be whatever they needed to be that day: information professionals, teachers, police, community organizers, computer technicians, historians, confidantes, clerks, social workers, storytellers, or, in this case, guardians of my peace.

While Johnson extols the virtues of the profession, she points out that it has some members that resist change, usually trying to preserve services and procedures that served well in the past. She also repeats the often heard cry that librarians fail to promote themselves well in our highly contentious world. Her praises, however, greatly overshadow her criticisms. She believes that most librarians knock themselves out serving their clients regardless of pay, institutional support, or appreciation from society at large.

In Johnson's previous book Dead Beat, she attended professional conferences and interviewed leading obituary writers. She immersed herself in the obit world, visiting newspapers and archives in many places. In This Book Is Overdue, she takes a similar approach. She attended the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington in 2007 and select regional conferences, and she visited libraries across the country to learn how they were changing. She even went to Italy to attend the graduation of St. John's University library program for students from developing nations. A look at the Acknowledgments in the back of the book verifies that she met a great variety of librarians during her research.

My favorite chapters tell about the Connecticut Four filing a legal challenge to the national security letter that was issued to their library under the U.S. Patriot Act and about the St. John's University program for international students mentioned above. I also enjoyed the stories about the relationships between librarians and IT staff, about blogging librarians, about Radical Reference providing information to protesters in Minneapolis/St. Paul, about librarians in Second Life, about services to authors at New York Public Library, and about the opening of the new Darien (Connecticut) Library.

Having been one of the librarians interviewed for this book, I was eager to read it. I was hoping to like it and was not disappointed. I enjoyed reading about people I know and subjects about which I have firm opinions, even when I do not totally agree with Johnson. An outside opinion is good to have. She is always fair and reports multiple sides of issues. Many librarians will want to read this long anticipated book which publishes in February 2010.

Johnson, Marilyn. This Book Is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. HarperCollins, February 2010. ISBN 9780061431609

Munyurangabo, film by Lee Isaac Chung

At this point, much has been written about the genocide in Rwanda, yet it is hard for outsiders to imagine and understand. With the bloodbath past, we hope that progress toward peace and reconciliation is being made, and we turn our attention elsewhere. Perhaps there is progress. How else could a film like Munyurangabo be made.?

The story of the film is almost as good as the story in the film. Lee Isaac Chung, a Korean American filmmaker, taught cinema and photography in Rwanda to street kids with the result that they became cast and crew of his film, the first ever in the Kinyarwanda language, a language the director does not speak. The principle actors were boys from the ghetto who worked as porters in the Kigali market. One was a genocide orphan; the other thought he was until after the film was made and his father was located in Uganda. Just think, over ten years after the genocide people are still finding each other. The film was shown in festivals around the world.

Munyurangabo itself is pretty stark. Though it shows Rwanda to be a beautiful country with rolling hills and bright green banana plants, it reveals how impoverish the people are. They are also still leery of strangers and question whether they are Hutus or Tutsis. Many still feel bound to seek revenge in the name of their slain relatives. Others long for peace, even if for "just one more night at home." The dramatic tension lasts to the very end.

Chung artfully brought Rwandan dance, music, and poetry into his beautifully composed film. It is hard to believe Munyurangabo was his first feature length film. I hope for more to come.

Munyurangabo. The Film Movement, 2009. 97 minutes. ISBN 9781440746451

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

You do not survive genocide without a little help at critical moments from people who are supposed to be your enemies. Likewise, you do not build a better world without in turn serving people who are supposed to be your enemies. Thus you might sum up the life of Deogratias, a medical student and Tutsi from Burundi who fled his country in 1994. Tracy Kidder tells Deo's story in Strength in What Remains.

Kidder divides his book into two parts. The first describes Deo's childhood, flight from Burundi, and time of homelessness in New York City. In each of these periods in his life, Deo could easily have died without the help of strangers. The most dangerous time, of course, was the half a year that he spent hiding in the jungle and refugee camps of Rwanda and Burundi, but living in abandoned buildings of New York with the gangs in open warfare in the streets below may have distressed him more. America was supposed to be paradise. He found living in Central Park more to his liking.

The second part is about Kidder getting to know Deo, who is by this time a graduate of Columbia University and a medical student at Dartmouth University. Deo has gone through stages in which he wants to tell his story to all the world but then he wants to block any painful memoirs. Despite many warnings, he begins to take trips back to his homeland with the goal of building a free medical clinic. Kidder later accompanies Deo to places that are still quite dangerous.

Strength in What Remains continues Kidder's efforts to write about remarkable people addressing the world's seemingly insurmountable problems. His picture of Deo is admiring without canonizing the young immigrant, who at times seems reckless and vacillates between optimism and depression. For readers who may not even remember Burundi's long war, the book is a reminder that American media has a very short attention span outside our borders unless American military forces are involved. Strength in What Remains is compelling reading.

Kidder, Tracy. Strength in What Remains. Random House, 2009. ISBN 9781400066216

Extra thoughts:

This passage on page 144 about the city of Bujumbura jumped out at me:

... "I don't know anything about coffee," said Deo. The little library he liked was still open. Deo spent the better part of a week there, reading about coffee beans.

Through months of violence and disorder, someone kept a public library together and open. Deo later spends much time in the New York Public Library and the libraries at Columbia and Dartmouth universities.

Flower from the Botanic Garden in Christchurch: New Zealand Photos Loaded on Flickr

Botanic Garden in Christchurch
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

It has taken almost a month, but I now have all of our New Zealand photos worth seeing posted on Flickr. The set includes our visits to Christchurch and Queenstown, a walk on a glacier, visits to Lord of the Rings sites, a visit to a farm, and lots of mountains. Some of the prettiest are from the Botanic Garden in Christchurch, where it was early spring. I'd enjoy spending a year in Christchurch just to watch the gardens. I recommend viewing the set as a slideshow.

There are more New Zealand pictures in two other sets. Milford Sound shows our boat trip through the fjord to the Tasman Sea. This includes lots of waterfalls, snowpeaked mountains, and seal pups. The other set shows our trip across the island and over the Southern Alps on the TranzAlpine Railroad.

Free Medical Journals and Free Books 4 Doctors!

In the summer, I saw a note about Free Medical Journals. This website provides readers access to the text of articles in 1392 medical journals (as of October 28, 2009). In many cases, the latest issues are not free. Both JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine offer their articles after six months, while BMJ (British Medical Journal) holds the texts for three years. The Canadian Medical Association Journal is free immediately. Readers may be somewhat frustrated by not being to get many of the articles as they are reported in the news, but at least, libraries who have had to drop medical periodicals for balancing budgets do have some recourse if fulltext is not in their subscription databases.

Organization and searching seems to be just by topic of journal as a whole. Users need to know medical terms to get good results, though searching "blood" does get "hematology."

What I did not know before is that there is also Free Books 4 Doctors! Despite the page title, it appears that anyone (not just doctors) can read from 365 medical texts. 38 of the titles are in Spanish. Other languages are also included, even Mongolian. Strangely, one of the books is a novel, Murder in Casteddu by Mary Miller.

The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie

Readers who see shelves filled with Agatha Christie mystery novels may not realize that she also wrote 157 short stories. Most were published first in newspapers or magazines and then republished in story collections. In the appendix of The Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie, biographer Richard Hack includes a complete list of these stories and identifies the collections in which readers may find them.

I just finished the light and entertaining collection The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie, which features the astute and impeccably dressed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. In this collection first published in 1948, Poirot is thinking of retiring and has decided to take only twelve more cases. To make things more interesting, he has decided the cases must somehow reflect the twelve labors of the Greek hero Hercules. He applies his little gray cells to solve unusual mysteries, most of which do not involve murder. Once he sees the truth of each matter, he moves quickly to broker settlements, often without calling in the police.

Though the stories take the reader around the globe, they mostly address the English way of life. Take the following paragraph as an example:

For John Hammett was particularly dear to the people and Press of England. He represented every quality which was dear to Englishmen. People said of him: "One does feel that Hammett's honest." Anecdotes were told of his simple home life, of his fondness for gardening. Corresponding to Baldwin's pipe and Chamberlain's umbrella, there was Hammett's raincoat. He always carried it - a weather-worn garment. It stood as a symbol - of the English climate, of the prudent forethought of the English race, of their attachment to old possessions. Moreover, in his bluff British way, John Hammett was an orator. His speeches, quietly and earnestly delivered, contained those simple sentimental cliches which are so deeply rooted in the English heart. Foreigners sometimes criticize them as being both hypocritical and unbearably noble. John Hammett did not mind in the least being noble - in a sporting, public school, deprecating fashion.

Of course, the former prime minister thus described proves to be a crook. Nothing is really simple in Agatha Christie mysteries.

Many of the British television adaptations of Christie mysteries are drawn from the short stories. Readers shouldn't forget them.

Christie, Agatha. The Labours of Hercules. Dodd, Mead & Company, 1967. No ISBN.

J.R.R.Tolkien and Agatha Christie

J.R.R. Tolkien and Agatha Christie were authors who kept to very different parts of England geographically, occupationally, and socially. I have seen no evidence that they ever met or even spoke about each other. Their books are separated by more than the letters D through S in the alphabet. Yet, having just read Tolkien: The Authorized Biography by Humphrey Carpenter and Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie by Richard Hack, I am struck by similarities.

Both Tolkien and Christie were born in the 1890s: Christie in 1890 and Tolkien in 1892.

Both lost parents in childhood: Christie's father died when she was eleven, and Tolkien lost his father at four and his mother at twelve.

Christie's once well-to-do family was always in debt and lived beyond their means during her childhood, while Tolkien's family was truly poor; he and his brother were taken in my priests who paid for their schools.

Both attended many schools, never really settling long in any.

Both saw the horror of World War I firsthand: Tolkien as a soldier and Christie as a nurse's helper.

Neither really intended to write novels for profit: Christie wrote her first mystery on a dare, while bedtime stories that Tolkien told his sons led to a few short stories and The Hobbit.

Both authors were very private and hated the idea that people would want to know about their lives. They avoided most interviews and said that they wanted no biographies. Of course, that only made readers more intent on learning about them. Tolkien tired of having fans just showing up at his house in Oxford, so he kept his new address private when he and his wife moved to a retirement apartment near Bournemouth. Christie had large estates to which to escape.

Both most enjoyed quiet work on ancient studies: Christie helping her second husband with his archeological digs in Iraq and Tolkien with his studies of myths and ancient languages.

Tolkien died in 1973, while Christie died in 1976.

Despite the subtitles, "authorized" and "unauthorized," the biographies are similar. Both accounts are sympathetic without excusing some of the subjects' faults. Christie neglected her daughter at times, while Tolkien spent much time with his children but neglected his wife, who never was comfortable in Oxford. In both books I most enjoyed reading about childhoods, early careers, and first books. Carpenter's account of Tolkien's drawn out period of writing The Lord of the Rings effectively conveys how frustrating it must have been to be his editor; readers may want to skim over this part. Hack's brief telling about the publication of every Christie mystery gets a bit repetitive. Both books become compelling in describing their subjects' final years, when writing and daily living become more difficult.

Books by both Tolkien and Christie are readily found in abundance in homes, bookstores, and libraries today. There are about 100 Christie titles in print. Tolkien wrote much less, but his major books are widely held, and since his death his son Christopher has released over a dozen titles from his father's unpublished manuscripts. With interest in these authors still high, their biographies belong in most public libraries.

Carpenter, Humphrey. Tolkien: The Authorized Biography. Houghton Mifflin, 1977. ISBN 0395253608

Hack, Richard. Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie. Phoenix Books, 2009. ISBN 9781597776202

Digital Books Service from Library of Congress in Illinois

The Autumn 2009 issue of the Talking Book News from the Voices of Vision Talking Book Center announces that visually or physically impaired readers may now qualify to receive free digital book players and downloads from the Library of Congress. The newsletter tells how and provides a form that may be mailed to the Illinois State Library. It also explains who gets priority in receiving the limited number of players, starting with veterans of the US Armed Forces, centenarians, and clients who cannot handle a standard cassette player.

The letter notes that all current talking book users will be automatically be issued digital readers once supplies are adequate.

For more information on this service in Illinois, call one of the following, depending on your region:

• Chicago Public Library Talking Book Center, 800-757-4654
• Voices of Vision Talking Book Center, Geneva, 800-227-0625
• Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, East Peoria, 800-426=0709
• Southern Illinois Talking Book Center, Carterville, 800-455-2665
• Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service,Springfield, 800-665-5576

The World of Saki

No, this is not about a Japanese rice-based alcoholic beverage. That's "sake." This is Saki, the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), a journalist, historian, and writer of short stories. It's the short stories for which he is famous. I remember that we studied him when I was in high school. I had not read any of his works since until I needed an audiobook for weekend gardening. The World of Saki gave me nearly three hours of pleasure.

In the introduction to the short story collection, the announcer states that Saki was "witty." "Witty" is an understatement. I was laughing hard at times at the wicked humor pointed at shallow, vain Edwardian aristocrats. Lady Bastable, Clovis, Mrs. Packletide, and the boy Conradin are all characters with no conscience, ready to lie, cheat, and steal to satisfy their whims. I am not so sure if I find them so funny because they are impossibly absurd or whether they are almost real. Clovis shows up in many stories. His ability to rattle on and slyly insult anyone foolish enough to engage him in conversation is highly entertaining.

Strange things happen in Saki stories, most of which last ten minutes or less. Hyenas escape from menageries, cats learn to speak, and pigs trap unwanted guests in paddocks. In almost all of the stories, people act badly. Readers may decide that Saki had a very poor opinion of humanity. Then there is the story "Easter Egg," in which a cowardly man does something immensely brave. Perhaps even Saki had a glimmer of hope for a better world. He died on a battlefield in France in 1916 at age 45.

Listening to Alexander Spencer read these stories is a pleasure that I recommend.

Saki. World of Saki. Recorded Books ; Made available electronically by NetLibrary, 2005.

My Father's Bonus March by Adam Langer

Recently I was asked to review for The Internet Review of Books. After I sent a profile of the types of books that I would prefer reviewing, the editor sent me My Father's Bonus March, a new memoir by the novelist Adam Langer. I enjoyed it immensely. You can now find my review of the book here.

The Internet Book Review is a monthly posting of reviews and interviews, covering fiction and nonfiction. A few bestsellers get reviewed, but most of the reviews seem to be written about books that are getting less publicity.

I read the galleys and did not see this cover, which I do not like. It seems vague and unappealing, which is not at all true to the book. Langer's quick reading story about his father is very entertaining. My Father's Bonus March should do well in the Chicago area where most of its scenes are set.

Langer, Adam. My Father's Bonus March. Spiegel & Grau, 2009. ISBN 9780385523721

The Intellectual Devotional: Health: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Digest a Daily Dose of Wellness Wisdom

An effective way of strengthening a belief system is providing daily reminders. Religious groups have known this since some time long before recorded history. Believers pray, meditate, join together for ceremonies, and carry symbols of their belief to broaden and strengthen their mindset. The book of daily devotional readings has been a part of this regimen for devout Christians for centuries.

Today "living healthy" has gone beyond being just being smart about eating, exercising, and avoiding vices. It has become an almost spiritual lifestyle that counts millions of people as adherents. To support the cause, to broaden the understanding of the science behind health and medicine, there is now a daily book, The Intellectual Devotional: Health: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Digest a Daily Dose of Wellness Wisdom by David S. Kidder, Noah D. Oppenheim, and Bruce K. Young, MD. It is no surprise that the publisher is Rodale, Inc., which is a long time supporter of organic gardening, alternative energy, alternative medicine, and like causes. What might surprise some readers is how mainstream its daily essays about health and wellness are. I see little for conventional medical practitioners to challenge.

Everything about The Intellectual Devotional: Health is smart and practical. Each of the 365 essays drawn from seven broad topical area takes a single page, and a ribbon is sewn into the binding to serve as a bookmark. The seven areas of concern are:

• Children and Adolescents
• Diseases and Ailments
• Drugs and Alternative Treatments
• The Mind
• Sexuality and Reproduction
• Lifestyle and Preventive Medicine
• Medical Milestones

Week by week, these themes are repeated in rotation. In the process of reading, the devoted reader is introduced to (or reminded of) many medical topics, such as amino acids, white blood cells, Apgar scores, Valium, memory, natural childbirth, and Alzheimer's disease. My favorite essays are those with historical information, including "Edinburgh Medical School and Grave Robbers," "Trepanation: Ancient Incan Brain Surgery, " and "Influenza Epidemic of 1918."

While it makes more sense for individuals to have their own copies of The Intellectual Devotional: Health (libraries will not check it for a year), it has ready reference value and could still be used in public libraries. An index makes the concise essays easy to find. Still, its better place is on nightstands or desks. With the new year coming, it is a good gift for a wellness-minded friend.

Kidder, David S., et. al. The Intellectual Devotional: Health: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Digest a Daily Dose of Wellness Wisdom. Rodale, 2009. ISBN 9781605299495

Rick and Bonnie in an Ice Cave

Rick and Bonnie in an ice cave
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Our daughter Laura sent us this photo that she took of us going into an ice cave formed by melt water on Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. This cave had only opened a couple of days before and would not last many more. The ice had a frosty blue color. A trickle was running below our feet, shod in boots with crampons. The hike across and rocky river bed to get to the glacier was harder in a way than the hike across the ice itself on this day. Paths had already been forged and stairs cut into the ice. We were quite hungry when we got back to the village. I think I ate an extra dessert.

God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights by Charles Marsh

Over forty years after the events of the Civil Rights Movement, it is difficult to imagine Mississippi of the 1960s. We still have extremists in our country who would use violence to impose their social order if they could, but we believe that we have them cornered and that our fair-minded majority would never allow them to dominate a town, much less a region of our country. God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights by Charles Marsh is a reminder that the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups terrorized a part of our country in the recent past. It is also an examination of the religious beliefs of five prominent figures from both sides of the battle for Mississippi.

Marsh shocks the reader with the brutality of local Mississippi police in the first chapter, which focuses the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, an elder black woman who was beaten for trying to register to vote. The severity of the case and the acquital by an all-white jury of the four police officers that beat Hamer were eventually splashed across national news. Hamer was irrepressible, believing that she was chosen by God to be a witness to the gospel and a champion of civil rights. She even became a noteworthy challenger to the seating of delegates at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hers is the one inspiring story in the book.

The most troubling story is that of Sam Bowen, Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. About thirty years after the events, Marsh interviewed Bowen, the man that many believed to be behind many church burnings and who was convicted of conspiring in the death of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. Bowen was unapologetic, believing that God commanded him to eliminate anyone who threatened the supremacy of white power. Marsh examines Bowen's life, looking for the sources of his prejudice and anger and explaining KKK theology.

Other chapters profile prominent Baptist minister Douglas Hudgins, who seemed appathetic when blacks were jailed for trying to attend his church; Methodist minister Ed King, whose enthusiasm for civil rights protest seemed to annoy both his allies and his enemies; and Cleveland Sellers, a well-intentioned religious black who helped found but lost control of the Black Power Movement. In each profile, Marsh recounts the subject's faith journey and role religion played in the civil rights struggle.

Mixing history and religious studies, God's Long Summer has been used as a college textbook since its first publication in 1997. It was reissued with a new preface in 2008. It will interest serious history readers.

Marsh, Charles. God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights. Princeton University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780691130675

Bookshares Making Books Accessible

After the furor over the Kindle 2 having text-to-voice conversion built in, you might have thought that the visually-impaired had no other access to print books and newspapers. The Kindle 2 did simplify the access and widen the offering for people unable to read traditional books, but there are other sources of reading materials. One is Bookshare, a project supported by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Program. Bookshare provides assistive technology and texts to physically, visually, and learning disabled people. Clients get devices that turn text files into either voice or braille.

A good explanation of how Bookshares works is found at http://www.bookshare.org/about/howBookshareWorks.

The cooperation of publishers makes some titles readily available for the project, while an exception to copyright law makes all titles legal for inclusion. Volunteers buy books, scan them, proof them, and assist distribution. There are many opportunities to help explained on the Bookshares website.

Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious by Alix Strauss

Do people watch celebrity news to gain insight into personal relationships and learn from others mistakes? No, they often watch to marvel at how people with great beauty, talent, and wealth can misbehave extravagantly. So, would a book about celebrity suicides be helpful to people wanting to seriously understand the psychology of suicide? Maybe yes. These are the suicides that get the most public exposure. Most suicides of not-famous people without some lurid aspect are treated gingerly by the press, respecting the feelings of relatives and friends. Only celebrity suicides get splashed across newspapers and television with all their details revealed. Whether celebrities represent the public at large is a debatable question, but in the open forum celebrity suicides are the specimens most available for examination.

In Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious, Alix Strauss tries to elevate the subject of celebrity suicide above yellow journalism. She tells the death stories of actors, artists, writers, rock stars, and other famous people sympathetically (even Adolf Hitler is discussed as a person with insecurities) and looks for the trends that foster understanding. She tries to differentiate the use of a rope from the use of poison, guns from knives, and drownings from jumping off buildings. She discusses the privacy of the act and the leaving of suicide notes. She also points out the prevalence of alcohol and addictive drugs in suicide. Every eight to twelve page profile includes statistics, putting the case into a general context. Near the end of the book, Strauss speculates on whether some seemingly accidental deaths may have been suicides, bringing Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, and John Beluschi into the discussion.

Whether the reader gains any insight from Death Becomes Them depends on the reader. The subjects are famous cases that have been repeated and often sensationalized, such as the suicides of Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Kurt Cobain, Vincent Van Gogh, and Abbie Hoffman; readers may just treat the book as more celebrity literature. The book holds some reference value as a collection of suicide stories with statistics and can be used as an starting point for term papers. It might also interest mystery readers who enjoy the study of dysfunctional psychology.

Strauss, Alix. Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious. HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 9780061728563

Sequels: An Annotated Guide to Novels in Series by Janet G. Husband and Jonathan F. Husband

Since 1982, librarians Janet G. Husband and Jonathan F. Husband have been helping librarians and readers everywhere identify fiction books in series with their reference books. Now in 2009, the couple have finished the 4th edition of their Sequels: An Annotated Guide to Novels in Series, published by the American Library Association. Of course, the guide has grown much in the ensuing years. The first edition was 361 pages; the latest is 782 bigger pages.

Contemporary readers might think that mystery fiction would dominate the guide, as crime solving series are exceedingly popular now, and the authors have included many mystery series, from Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers to Nevada Barr, Janet Evanovich, and Alexander McCall Smith (alphabetized as Smith). There is, however, much more than mystery series. William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County stories, Doris Lessing's Children of Violence quintet, Anne McCaffrey's many dragon tales, Paul Scott's novels of India, Janette Oke's Christian fiction series, and Mary Stewart's Arthurian novels are just a few of the literary, science fiction, fantasy, romance, and historical fiction series included.

The book is especially helpful for sorting out the confusing mix of comic novels by P. G. Wodehouse. Many readers know his famous characters Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves, but finding a good list of the books in the series is not easy. The Husbands identify fifteen titles. They also identify many of the recurring characters, including Stiffy Byng, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Bingo Little, Madeleine Bassett, and the always feared Aunt Agatha. Wodehouse wrote four other comic series that fans might also want to read. Sequels, of course, provides the titles and brief plot statements.

The entry for J. R. R. Tolkien will interest newcomers to The Lord of the Rings literature. The authors not only describe the trilogy and explain that it follows The Hobbit, but they identify books edited by Tolkien's son Christopher Tolkien subsequent to the author's death. It falls a little short by not identifying Narn i Chin Hurin: The Tale of the Children of Hurin, which was published in 2007. Perhaps content collecting ended sometime in late 2007 or early 2008, for I see only a few 2008 and no 2009 titles in this edition. I suppose with a print work as huge as Sequels, some lag time has to be expected.*

I used Sequels once while I was examining it at the reference desk. A reader asked me about the Discworld books by English author Terry Pratchett. Sequels explains the series and identifies thirty-two titles - just what the reader needed. We're going to keep the book with our other most used readers' advisory titles. I imagine it will be helping us for a long time.

Husband, Janet G. and Husband, Jonathan F. Sequels: An Annotated Guide to Novels in Series, 4th ed. American Library Association, 2009. ISBN 9780838909676


*For up-to-date series information, also try the Kent District Library's What's Next Books in Series website.

A Short History of New Zealand by Gordon McLaughlan

How much did I know about the history of New Zealand when I landed there a few weeks ago? Not much. I knew that when James Cook "discovered" the island, there were already Maori people living on the two big and several smaller islands of New Zealand, that British settlers brought lots of sheep and European farming methods, that Kiwi soldiers died with Australian soldiers at Gallipoli in World War I, and that many Antarctic explorations departed from Christchurch. I also knew a little about species extinction in New Zealand from watching years of natural history programs on PBS. Other than that, I had much to learn, so when seeing the attractively illustrated A Short History of New Zealand by Gordon McLaughlan in a Queensland bookstore, Bonnie bought it for me. *

McLauchlan is a well-known Kiwi newspaper columnist and historian, who has also written The Farming of New Zealand and The Life and Times of Auckland. In his history of the country, he takes a somewhat casual tone, including a few autobiographical and ancestral notes, keeping the account light and entertaining. This is not to say that he avoids serious controversies in the country's history. He clearly states when he thinks New Zealanders were unjust to indigenous people, farmers, laborers, or immigrants, and he tells several good stories about greed and political corruption. Because New Zealand history is comparatively tame and sensible, it is mostly a positive story which McLauchlan is proud to tell.

As most readers might expect, the short history has a mostly chronological arrangement, starting with some natural history and the origins of the Maori, who seem to have come from Polynesia long after the settling of Hawaii and other distant islands. Some archeologists reckon the arrival of Pacific islanders to be only 800 years ago, making New Zealand the last large islands in the world to be settled, even after Greenland. McLauchlan describes the theories of how and why Polynesians set out on dangerous and desperate voyages. Being colder and richer in resources than most Polynesian islands, New Zealand required the new settlers to evolve a new culture, which thrived in isolation. According to the author, the Maori also withstood the arrival of Europeans better than many other Pacific peoples.

New Zealand was also late being colonized by the British and benefited greatly by the timing. Britain had already forsworn slavery when the first large wave of settlers arrived, and the government tried to shield the Maori with treaties which protected titles to their land. These treaties, however, had loop-holes and the Maori had no concept of private property. Ambitious settlers took many opportunities to take land and natural resources. Wholesale slaughter and enslavement of the Maori was avoided, but they still became an impoverished people with no political power. In the late twentieth century, they finally made political and economic progress.

McLauchlan advances the history up to 2008, pointing out many highs and lows. New Zealand was the first nation to extend the vote to women, doing so in 1893. In 1917, the sale of liquor was forbidden after 6 p.m., with the result that many men became drunk in the late afternoon but made it home to be with their families. The law lasted until 1967 with pubs reluctant for reform of the law that had allowed them to reap large profits without having to maintain evening hours. In 1905, New Zealanders cheered the All Blacks, the national rugby team, which visited Great Britain and beat all challengers except Wales. Kiwi rugby became more controversial on several occasions when South Africa demanded Maoris be removed from the team before the All Blacks played in tournaments; in each case the New Zealand prime minister made a different decision, bring either pride or shame to the country.

MacLauchlan's history of New Zealand was an eye-opener for me. It would be a good addition to any public library history collection.

McLauchlan, Gordon. A Short History of New Zealand. Auckland: Penguin, revised 2009. ISBN 9780143011231

*We used Bonnie's credit card with its lower foreign exchange fee. Her card from a credit union charges one percent, while mine from a major credit card company charges three percent. Check your fees before you go overseas.

Thingology Post about Ebook Economics and Libraries

Tim Spalding at Library Thing has been thinking about how ebooks are going to be bad for libraries. He spells out what they think in Ebook Economics: Are Libraries Screwed? He'd love to hear that he is wrong.