ricklibrarian

As We Forgive, a Film by Laura Walters Hinson

2009-11-20T05:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

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 Even more important, out of date materials are gone.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

2009-11-18T05:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-16T03:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-13T06:58:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-03T07:22:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-11-03T05:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-29T06:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-24T20:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-19T04:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T04:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

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.