UWSP Library

Book of the Week (June 22, 2009)

2009-06-25T09:17:00.002-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library
Call Number: TX 754.O98 W35 2009

Sex, Death and Oysters: A Half-Shell Lover's World Tour
By Robb Walsh

Publisher's Description: When award-winning Texas food writer Robb Walsh discovers that the local Galveston Bay oysters are being passed off as Blue Points and Chincoteagues in other parts of the country, he decides to look into the matter. Thus begins a five-year journey into the culture of one of the world’s oldest delicacies.

Walsh’s through-the-looking-glass adventure takes him from oyster reefs to oyster bars and from corporate boardrooms to hotel bedrooms in a quest for the truth about the world’s most profitable aphrodisiac. On the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Gulf coasts of the U.S., as well as the Canadian Maritimes, Ireland, England, and France, the author ingests thousands of oysters—raw, roasted, barbecued, and baked—all for the sake of making a fair comparison. He also considers the merits of a wide variety of accompanying libations, including tart white wines in Paris, Guinness in Galway, martinis in London, microbrews in the Pacific Northwest, and tequila in Texas.

Sex, Death and Oysters is a record of a gastronomic adventure with illustrations and recipes—a fascinating collection of the most exciting, instructive, poignant, and just plain weird experiences on a trip into the world of the most beloved and feared of all seafoods.

Book of the Week (June 8, 2009)

2009-06-10T10:56:00.005-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library

Call number: BF 431 .N57 2009

Intelligence and How to Get It

by Richard Nisbett

Who are smarter, Asians or Westerners? Are there genetic explanations for racial differences in test scores? What makes some nationalities excel in engineering and others in music? Will math and science remain a largely male preserve. From the damning research of The Bell Curve to the more recent controversy surrounding geneticist James Watson's statements, one factor has been consistently left out of the equation: culture.

In the tradition of The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, world-class social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett takes on the idea of intelligence as something that is biologically determined and impervious to culture--with vast implications for the role of education as it relates to social and economic development. Intelligence and How to Get It asserts that intellect is not primarily genetic but is principally determined by societal influences. Nisbett's commanding argument, superb marshaling of evidence, and fearless discussions of the controversial carve out new and exciting terrain in this hotly debated field.

Library Thing Entry

Book of the Week (May 25, 2009)

2009-05-27T10:33:00.004-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library

Call Number: HV 6432.44 .N7 G34 2009

The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror

By Beverly Gage

Publisher's Description: Just after noon on September 16, 1920, as hundreds of workers poured onto Wall Street for their lunchtime break, a horse-drawn cart packed with dynamite exploded in a spray of metal and fire, turning the busiest corner of the financial center into a war zone. Thirty-nine people died and hundreds more lay wounded, making the Wall Street explosion the worst terrorist attack to that point in U.S. history.

In The Day Wall Street Exploded, Beverly Gage tells the story of that once infamous but now largely forgotten event. Based on thousands of pages of Bureau of Investigation reports, this historical detective saga traces the four-year hunt for the perpetrators, a worldwide effort that spread as far as Italy and the new Soviet nation. It also takes readers back into the decades-long but little-known history of homegrown terrorism that shaped American society a century ago. The book delves into the lives of victims, suspects, and investigators: world banking power J.P. Morgan, Jr.; labor radical "Big Bill" Haywood; anarchist firebrands Emma Goldman and Luigi Galleani; "America's Sherlock Holmes," William J. Burns; even a young J. Edgar Hoover.

It grapples as well with some of the most controversial events of its day, including the rise of the Bureau of Investigation, the federal campaign against immigrant "terrorists," the grassroots effort to define and protect civil liberties, and the establishment of anti-communism as the sine qua non of American politics. Many Americans saw the destruction of the World Trade Center as the first major terrorist attack on American soil, an act of evil without precedent. The Day Wall Street Exploded reminds us that terror, too, has a history.

About the Author: Beverly Gage teaches U.S. history at Yale University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Slate.com, The Nation, and The Washington Post. She has been featured as a guest commentator on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and in Time magazine.

Library Thing Link

Book of the Week (April 27, 2009)

2009-04-30T13:12:00.005-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library lobby

Call Number: D 756.5 .B7 K67 2009

With Wings Like Eagles

By Michael Korda

Publisher's Description: Michael Korda's brilliant work of history takes the reader back to the summer of 1940, when fewer than three thousand young fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force—often no more than nine hundred on any given day—stood between Hitler and the victory that seemed almost within his grasp. Korda re-creates the intensity of combat in "the long, delirious, burning blue" of the sky above southern England, and at the same time—perhaps for the first time—traces the entire complex web of political, diplomatic, scientific, industrial, and human decisions during the 1930s that led inexorably to the world's first, greatest, and most decisive air battle. Korda deftly interweaves the critical strands of the story—the invention of radar (the most important of Britain's military secrets); the developments by such visionary aircraft designers as R. J. Mitchell, Sidney Camm, and Willy Messerschmitt of the revolutionary, all-metal, high-speed monoplane fighters the British Spitfire and Hurricane and the German Bf 109; the rise of the theory of air bombing as the decisive weapon of modern warfare and the prevailing belief that "the bomber will always get through" (in the words of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin).

As Nazi Germany rearmed swiftly after 1933, building up its bomber force, only one man, the central figure of Korda's book, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, the eccentric, infuriating, obstinate, difficult, and astonishingly foresighted creator and leader of RAF Fighter Command, did not believe that the bomber would always get through and was determined to provide Britain with a weapon few people wanted to believe was needed or even possible. Dowding persevered—despite opposition, shortage of funding, and bureaucratic infighting—to perfect the British fighter force just in time to meet and defeat the German onslaught.

Korda brings to life the extraordinary men and women on both sides of the conflict, from such major historical figures as Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, and Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (and his disputatious and bitterly feuding generals) to the British and German pilots, the American airmen who joined the RAF just in time for the Battle of Britain, the young airwomen of the RAF, the ground crews who refueled and rearmed the fighters in the middle of heavy German raids, and such heroic figures as Douglas Bader, Josef František, and the Luftwaffe aces Adolf Galland and his archrival Werner Mölders.

Winston Churchill memorably said about the Battle of Britain, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Here is the story of "the few," and how they prevailed against the odds, deprived Hitler of victory, and saved the world during three epic months in 1940.

Book of the Week (April 20, 2009)

2009-04-24T14:01:00.002-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library
Call Number: HD 30.2 J375 2009

What Would Google Do?
By Jeff Jarvis

Publisher's Description: A bold and vital book that asks and answers the most urgent question of today: What Would Google Do?

In a book that's one part prophecy, one part thought experiment, one part manifesto, and one part survival manual, internet impresario and blogging pioneer Jeff Jarvis reverse-engineers Google—the fastest-growing company in history—to discover forty clear and straightforward rules to manage and live by.

At the same time, he illuminates the new worldview of the internet generation: how it challenges and destroys, but also opens up vast new opportunities. His findings are counterintuitive, imaginative, practical, and above all visionary, giving readers a glimpse of how everyone and everything—from corporations to governments, nations to individuals—must evolve in the Google era.

Along the way, he looks under the hood of a car designed by its drivers, ponders a worldwide university where the students design their curriculum, envisions an airline fueled by a social network, imagines the open-source restaurant, and examines a series of industries and institutions that will soon benefit from this book's central question.

The result is an astonishing, mind-opening book that, in the end, is not about Google. It's about you.

Library Thing entry

Book of the Week (April 15, 2009)

2009-04-15T11:52:00.003-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library

Call Number: SB 455.3 E25 2009

Our Life in Gardens

By Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd

In honor of Spring - which seems to have finally arrived in Wisconsin!

From the Publisher: Renowned garden designers Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd begin their entertaining, fascinating, and unexpectedly moving book about the life and garden they share. The book contains much sound information about the cultivation of plants and their value in the landscape, and invaluable advice about Eck and Winterrowd’s area of expertise: garden design.

There are chapters about the various parts of their garden, and sections about particular plants—roses and lilacs, snowdrops and cyclamen—and vegetables. The authors also discuss the development of their garden over time, and the dark issue that weighs more and more on their minds: its eventual decline and demise. Our Life in Gardens is a deeply satisfying perspective on gardening, and on life.

Book of the Week (April 8, 2009)

2009-04-07T10:45:00.004-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library's Lobby
Call Number: LD 3071 .L33 R66 2009

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University

By Kevin Roose

Publisher's Description: No drinking.No smoking.No cursing.No dancing.No R-rated movies. Kevin Roose wasn't used to rules like these. As a sophomore at Brown University, he spent his days drinking fair-trade coffee, singing in an a cappella group, and fitting right in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student body. But when Roose leaves his Ivy League confines to spend a semester at Liberty University, a conservative Baptist school in Lynchburg, Virginia, obedience is no longer optional.

Liberty is the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals, his training ground for the next generation of America's Religious Right. Liberty's ten thousand undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101, hear from guest speakers like Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, and follow a forty-six-page code of conduct that regulates every aspect of their social lives. Hoping to connect with his evangelical peers, Roose decides to enroll at Liberty as a new transfer student, leaping across the God Divide and chronicling his adventures in this daring report from the front lines of America's culture war.

His journey takes him from an evangelical hip-hop concert to choir practice at Falwell's legendary Thomas Road Baptist Church. He experiments with prayer, participates in a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach (where he learns to preach the gospel to partying coeds), and pays a visit to Every Man's Battle, an on-campus support group for chronic masturbators. He meets pastors' kids, closet doubters, Christian rebels, and conducts what would be the last print interview of Rev. Falwell's life. Hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking, The Unlikely Disciple will inspire and entertain believers and nonbelievers alike.

About the Author: Kevin Roose is a senior at BrownUniversity, where he studies English literature and writes regular columns for the Brown Daily Herald. His work has been featured in Esquire, SPIN, mental_floss, and other publications. You can visit his Web site at www.kevinroose.com.

Book of the Week (March 23, 2009)

2009-03-26T12:42:00.004-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library's lobby

Call Number: PS 3612 .E34295 P56 2009

The Piano Teacher: a novel

By Janice Y. K. Lee

Publisher's Description: In the sweeping tradition of The English Patient, a gripping tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong.

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Will is sent to an internment camp, where he and other foreigners struggle daily for survival. Meanwhile, Trudy remains outside, forced to form dangerous alliances with the Japanese—in particular, the malevolent head of the gendarmerie, whose desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art lead to a chain of terrible betrayals.

Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the heady social life of the expatriate community. At one of its elegant cocktail parties, she meets Will, to whom she is instantly attracted—but as their affair intensifies, Claire discovers that Will’s enigmatic persona hides a devastating past. As she begins to understand the true nature of the world she has entered, and long-buried secrets start to emerge, Claire learns that sometimes the price of survival is love.

About the Author: Janice Y. K. Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong and went to boarding school in the United States before attending Harvard College. She is a former features editor at Elle and Mirabella magazines in New York. The Piano Teacher is her first book.

Read the New York Times Book Review by Lisa Fugard

New Book of the Week (March 9, 2009)

2009-03-09T12:13:00.004-05:00

The library has multiple copies of this new book by UWSP's own Professor Charles Long. You can find a copy to check out in the 5th floor stacks, or browse the title in the Reference Room on the 1st floor.

Call Number: QL 719 .W5 L66 2008

The Wild Mammals of Wisconsin
By Charles A. Long

Publisher's Description: The latest book by Professor Charles A. Long "The Wild Mammals of Wisconsin" is a comprehensive treatise on mammals found in Wisconsin, updating information on classification, identification, geography and other concepts of their biology. These include ecology (and status), habitats (including dens and nests), reproduction (both development and aging), and estimates of home range, movements, and density (with seasonality whenever possible). Geographic and micro-geographic variation of races and species are described, based on thousands of preserved specimens, many listed as essential specimens examined. The analysis also includes Upper Michigan, northern Illinois, and occasionally even eastern Minnesota.

The problem of appropriate names is discussed, with fair attention to diverse opinions. Taxonomic synonymies include original names, invalid homonyms and synonyms that have been used, and the names deemed acceptable. The phylogeny of higher taxonomic groups, such as families and orders, provide curious histories and adaptations. Pre-historic and exterminated mammals are described, including the discovery of an elk-moose. Modern concepts, such as evolution and speciation and the biome concept are introduced. Genetics, physiology, animal diseases, relation of hosts to humanity, ecological succession, and zoogeography are discussed.

An especially appealing section on former naturalists who studied Wisconsin mammals includes some surprises: John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Hartley H. T. Jackson, and the first woman mammalogist - Martha Maxwell of Portage. Detailed accounts are given for 69 species (not counting the few now exterminated), in 17 families and seven orders. A glossary, four appendices, and a magnificent bibliography are at the end. Countless illustrations include grand wildlife artists of past and present. To quote Long: "All together we hope to express tribute to nature, and wildlife poetry and art."

Book of the Week (February 16, 2009)

2009-02-19T09:33:00.003-06:00

In the IMC collection on the 3rd floor of the Library
Call number :PZ7 G1273 GR 2008

The Graveyard Book

By Neil Gaiman

Winner of the Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature in 2008 and currently #1 on the NY Times best selling books for young adults.

Publisher's Description: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .

About the Author: Neil Gaiman is the author of the New York Times bestselling children's book Coraline and of the picture books The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, illustrated by Dave McKean. He wrote the script for the film MirrorMask and is also the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning novels and short stories for adults, as well as the Sandman series of graphic novels. Among his many awards are the Newbery Award, World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award.

New York Times Book Review of The Graveyard Book

Book of the Week (February 9, 2009)

2009-02-09T09:28:00.005-06:00

Hot Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How it can Renew America

By Thomas L. Friedman

Call Number: GE 197 .F76 2008

Publisher's Description: Thomas L. Friedman's No. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world, and globalization, in a new way. With his latest book, Friedman brings a fresh and provocative outlook to another pressing issue: the interlinked crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy--both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively.

"Green is the new red, white, and blue," Friedman declares, and proposes that an ambitious national strategy--which he calls geo-greenism--is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating, it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure in the coming E.C.E.--the Energy-Climate Era. Green-oriented practices and technologies, established at scale everywhere from Washington to Wal-Mart, are both the only way to mitigate climate change and the best way for America to "get its groove back"--to "reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad, retool America for the new century, and restore America to its natural place in the global order."

As in The World Is Flat and his previous bestseller The Lexus and the Olive Tree, he explains the future we are facing through an illuminating account of recent events. He explains how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet, which has brought three billion new consumers onto the world stage, have combined to bring the climate and energy issues to main street. But they have not really gone down main street yet. Indeed, it is Friedman's view that we are not really having the green revolution that the press keeps touting, or, if we are, "it is the only revolution in history," he says, "where no one got hurt." No, to the contrary, argues Friedman, we're actually having a "green party." We have not even begun to be serious yet about the speed and scale of change that is required.

With all that in mind, Friedman lays out his argument that if we are going to avoid the worst disruptions looming before us as we enter the Energy-Climate Era, we are going to need several disruptive breakthroughs in the clean-technology sphere--disruptive in the transformational sense. He explores what enabled the disruptive breakthroughs that created the IT (Information Technology) revolution that flattened the world in information terms and then shows how a similar set of disruptive breakthroughs could spark the ET--Energy Technology--revolution. Time and again, though, Friedman shows why it is both necessary and desirous for America to lead this revolution--with the first green president, a green New Deal, and spurred by the Greenest Generation--and why meeting the green challenge of the twenty-first century could transform America every bit as meeting the Red challenge, that of Communism, did in the twentieth century.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman--fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.

Book of the Week (January 26, 2009)

2009-01-27T10:58:00.003-06:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library lobby
Call Number: HD 9940.A2 T56 2009

Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes

By Kelsey Timmerman

Product Description: Ninety-seven percent of our clothes are made overseas. Yet globalization makes it difficult to know much about the origin of the products we buy—beyond the standard "Made in" label. So journalist and blogger Kelsey Timmerman decided to visit each of the countries and factories where his five favorite items of clothing were made and meet the workers. He knew the basics of globalized labor—the forces, processes, economics, and politics at work. But what was lost among all those facts and numbers was an understanding of the lives, personalities, hopes, and dreams of the people who made his clothes.

In Bangladesh, he went undercover as an under-wear buyer, witnessed the child labor industry in action, and spent the day with a single mother who was forced to send her eldest son to Saudi Arabia to help support her family. In Cambodia, he learned the difference between those who wear Levi's and those who make them. In China, he saw the costs of globalization and the dark side of the Chinese economic miracle.

Bouncing between two very different worlds—that of impoverished garment workers and his own Western lifestyle—Timmerman puts a personal face on the controversial issues of globalization and outsourcing. Whether bowling with workers in Cambodia or riding a roller coaster with laborers in Bangladesh, he bridges the gap between impersonal economic forces and the people most directly affected by them. For anyone who wants to truly understand the real issues and the human costs of globalization, Where Am I Wearing? is an indispensable and unforgettable journey.

Want to learn more? Visit the Where Am I Wearing blog

Book of the Week (January 5, 2009)

2009-01-08T12:26:00.003-06:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library

Call Number: NA 7117.5 .R66 2008

Green Homes: Case Studies for the 21st Century

by E. Ashley Rooney

Publisher's Description: Building a green home or redesigning an existing home to be green is more than energy efficiency and preservation of natural resources. It is about integrating cost-effective design and materials to better the well being of inhabitants.

Explore the many ways architects have achieved sustainability, incorporating commonsense strategies of solar orientation, natural ventilation, recycling of household water, and making use of cutting-edge materials and building technologies such as earth sheltering, thermal mass, super insulation, geothermal heating and cooling, and photovoltaic electrical generation - all without compromising their aesthetic goals.

Here are more than 50 green homes in North America, shown in 400 color photographs. Many have won major awards; others have been the subject of media attention and tours. This book will help the homeowner, builder, and architect design homes that are more energy efficient, reduce consumption and emissions, and incorporate sustainable materials. The residences presented here demonstrate the range of potential solutions and ideas for building a sustainable house.

Book of the Week (December 15, 2008)

2008-12-17T10:33:00.003-06:00

New Reference work (on the first floor in the Reference Collection)
Call number: REF GR 74 .G73 2008

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales & Fairy Tales (3 volumes)

Edited by Donald Haase

Publisher's description: Folk and fairy tales exist in all cultures and are at the heart of civilization. This Encyclopedia gives students and general readers a broad, multicultural survey of folk and fairy tales from around the world. Included are hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries written by numerous expert contributors.

Entries cover themes and motifs, individuals, characters and character types, national traditions, genres, and a range of other topics. Each entry cites works for further reading, and the Encyclopedia closes with a bibliography of print and electronic resources. Literature students will welcome this book as an aid to understanding and analyzing folk and fairy tales as literary forms, while social studies students will appreciate it as an exploration of the essence of world cultures.

Book of the Week (November 24, 2008)

2008-11-26T11:23:00.004-06:00

In Government Documents on the 6th Floor of the Library

Superintendent of Documents Number: LC 1.2 W15

On These Walls: Inscriptions and Quotations in the Buildings of the Library of Congress

By John Y. Cole

About this Book: The Library of Congress may hold the nation's collection of books, but those aren't the only words in the building worth a visit.

The white marble building is a cathedral to the written word. Lofty inscriptions peer out from among the stone columns, murals of classical figures and twining vines that decorate the Great Hall. All the inscriptions go together, says historian John Cole, author of "On These Walls: Inscriptions and Quotations in the Library of Congress." Cole has spent more than four decades in the building, and says it took him years to realize the message behind the quotations.

According to Cole, "There are very few buildings that really aspire in such a way to the noble side of life. Collectively, the inscriptions tell us that if this country can be an educated country, through books and the accumulation of other knowledge, then it will be a better country. It's a very optimistic message."

Take your own personal tour of the Library of Congress, courtesy of National Public Radio

Book of the Week (November 17, 2008)

2008-11-18T12:41:00.003-06:00

On the New Book Shelf
Call Number: HD 9349 .M542 R69 2008

Bottlemania: How water went on sale and why we bought it

By Elizabeth Royte

Publisher's Description: In the follow-up to Garbage Land (@ UWSP library: HD 4484.N7 R68 2005), her influential investigation into our modern trash crisis, Elizabeth Royte ventures to Fryeburg, Maine, to look deep into the source—of Poland Spring water. In this tiny town, and in others like it across the country, she finds the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that have made bottled water a $60-billion-a-year phenomenon even as it threatens local control of a natural resource and litters the landscape with plastic waste.

Moving beyond the environmental consequences of making, filling, transporting and landfilling those billions of bottles, Royte examines the state of tap water today (you may be surprised), and the social impact of water-hungry multinationals sinking ever more pumps into tiny rural towns. Ultimately, Bottlemania makes a case for protecting public water supplies, for improving our water infrastructure and—in a world of increasing drought and pollution—better allocating the precious drinkable water that remains. For more information visit the Bottlemania website.

Book of the Week (November 3, 2008)

2008-11-03T09:14:00.002-06:00

On the New Book Shelf

Call Number: DS 555.34 .M5 V38 2008

A History of the Hmong: from Ancient Times to the Modern Diaspora

By Thomas Vang

Publisher's Description: This is the first completely up-to-date Hmong history book ever written by a member of the Hmong people. It describes the earliest civilizations of the Hmong and Miao in China, and why some of the Hmong migrated into Southeast Asia in the early 19th century, particularly to Vietnam, Laos and Thailand; and how the Hmong of Laos were involved with the Lao civil war, especially the secret war from 1962 to 1975 that caused almost a hundred thousand Hmong to flee to Thailand and Western countries as political refugees after the Communists takeover. This book also includes backgrounds on the current Hmong refugee crisis at Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand and the arrest of former General Vang Pao by the U.S. authorities.

New Book of the Week (October 20, 2008)

2008-10-20T09:19:00.002-05:00

To enjoy as a companion to the World Series:

On the New Book Shelf in the Library
Call Number: GV 863 .A1 M644 2008

But Didn't We Have Fun? The Pioneer Age of Baseball
By Peter Morris

Author's Description: I’m very excited about my new book, But Didn’t We Have Fun?. It tells the story of the first generation of ballplayers -- the men who saw baseball transformed from a boy’s game into a professional sport -- in an entirely new way. In fact, what I’ve tried to do as much as possible is to give these pioneers the opportunity to tell their own story for the first time. I’ve collected dozens of the previously unpublished or unavailable reminiscences of these earliest ballplayers and woven them together to bring those extraordinary years back to life.

Standing alone, these men’s recollections can be difficult to follow -- after all, they were addressing their contemporaries and did not have twenty-first-century readers in mind. And even if they had, they could not possibly have anticipated how much the game they loved has changed and grown. So while compiling But Didn’t We Have Fun? I had to be careful to put everything in context and to explain or leave out obscure references. I also had to leave out a lot of names and dates and places that would simply have made the essential parts of their stories more difficult to follow.

What is left is, I think, an extraordinary story -- about how much work these men put in to make the baseballs and the playing fields that made the game possible, about how much belonging to a baseball club meant to them, about what they thought of the changing rules and the coming of professionalism, about the special moments on the diamond that stuck with them for the rest of their lives, and most of all of how they came to love baseball. Best of all, it’s all true, or at least true in the way any person’s honest recollections are -- the details may get confused over time, but their essence becomes clearer. It was a privilege for me to be able to help these men tell their tales.

Book of the Week (October 13, 2008)

2008-10-13T10:22:00.002-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library Lobby.
Call Number: PS 3563.O8749 A6 2008

What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction
By Toni Morrison
Edited by Carolyn C. Denard

Publisher's Description: What Moves at the Margin collects three decades of Toni Morrison's writings about her work, her life, literature, and American society. The works included in this volume range from 1971, when Morrison (b. 1931) was a new editor at Random House and a beginning novelist, to 2002 when she was a professor at Princeton University and Nobel Laureate.

Even in the early days of her career, in between editing other writers, writing her own novels, and raising two children, she found time to speak out on subjects that mattered to her. From the reviews and essays written for major publications to her moving tributes to other writers to the commanding acceptance speeches for major literary awards, Morrison has consistently engaged as a writer outside the margins of her fiction. These works provide a unique glimpse into Morrison's viewpoint as an observer of the world, the arts, and the changing landscape of American culture.

The first section of the book, "Family and History," includes Morrison's writings about her family, Black women, Black history, and her own works. The second section, "Writers and Writing," offers her assessments of writers she admires and books she reviewed, edited at Random House, or gave a special affirmation to with a foreword or an introduction. The final section, "Politics and Society," includes essays and speeches where Morrison addresses issues in American society and the role of language and literature in the national culture.

Among other pieces, this collection includes a reflection on 9/11, reviews of such seminal books by Black writers as Albert Murray's South to a Very Old Place and Gayl Jones's Corregidora, an essay on teaching moral values in the university, a eulogy for James Baldwin, and Morrison's Nobel lecture. Taken together, What Moves at the Margin documents the response to our time by one of American literature's most thoughtful and eloquent writers.

Book of the Week (October 6, 2008)

2008-10-06T12:56:00.006-05:00

On the New Book Shelf

Call Number: JK 1764 .W635 2008

Millennial Makeover: My Space, YouTube and the Future of American Politics

By Morley Winograd

Publisher's Description: It happens in America every four decades and it is about to happen again. America's demand for change in the 2008 election will cause another of our country's periodic political makeovers. This realignment, like all others before it, will result from the coming of age of a new generation of young Americans-the Millennial Generation-and the full emergence of the Internet-based communications technology that this generation uses so well. Beginning in 2008, almost everything about American politics and government will transform-voting patterns, the fortunes of the two political parties, the issues that engage the nation, and our government and its public policy.

Building on the seminal work of previous generational theorists, Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais demonstrate and describe, for the first time, the two types of realignments-"idealist" and "civic"-that have alternated with one another throughout the nation's history. Based on these patterns, Winograd and Hais predict that the next realignment will be very different from the last one that occurred in 1968. "Idealist" realignments, like the one put into motion forty years ago by the Baby Boomer Generation, produce, among other things, a political emphasis on divisive social issues and governmental gridlock. "Civic" realignments, like the one that is coming, and the one produced by the famous GI or "Greatest" Generation in the 1930s, by contrast, tend to produce societal unity, increased attention to and successful resolution of basic economic and foreign policy issues, and institution-building.

The authors detail the contours and causes of the country's five previous political makeovers, before delving deeply into the generational and technological trends that will shape the next. The book's final section forecasts the impact of the Millennial Makeover on the elections, issues, and public policies that will characterize America's politics in the decades ahead.

Book of the Week (September 29, 2008)

2008-09-30T09:36:00.004-05:00

This book is available online and in Government Documents department on the 6th floor of the library.

SuDocs Number: D110.2 OP 2/2

On Point II: the United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-January, 2005.

By Donald P. Wright and Timothy R. Reese

Description from the Combat Studies Institute:

On Point II is the US Army's first historical study of its campaign in Iraq in the decisive eighteen months following the overthrow of the Baathist regime in April 2003. The book examines both the high-level decisions that shaped military operations after May 2003 as well as the effects of those decisions on units and Soldiers who became responsible for conducting those operations.

The authors, historians at the US Army's Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, based this account on hundreds of interviews with key participants and thousands of primary documents. Critical chapters in this book address the decision to disband the Iraqi Army, detainee operations (including the incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison), reconstruction efforts, and the Army's response to the growing insurgency.

At the core of On Point II is the dramatic story of how after May 2003, the US Army reinvented itself by transforming into an organization capable of conducting a broad array of diverse and complex "Full Spectrum" operations. This was the new campaign that confronted American Soldiers beginning in May 2003 as they strived to create stability in Iraq.

Washington Post Review

Book of the Week (September 22, 2008)

2008-09-25T10:44:00.007-05:00

On the Library's New Book Shelf
Call Number: JK 1726 H39 2008

Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power
By John Harwood & Gerald F. Seib

Publisher's Description: Prizewinning journalists John Harwood and Gerald F. Seib show how today’s Washington power game really works, through stories of people who are making a difference on Pennsylvania Avenue, America’s power street. These new power brokers, some of whom are rarely seen and are largley unknown, have figured out how to make their voices heard, and how to get things done, amid the complexities of today’s gridlocked Washington.

With unprecedented access to Washington insiders, and with deep insight into the unspoken rules of the road in the capital, Harwood and Seib explain why progress is so difficult and illuminate what it takes to succeed in the high stakes game of politics.Pennsylvania Avenue, the 1.2-mile stretch between the White House and the Capitol, is where the influential and ambitious congregate. Through stories of party strategists, money men, policy-makers, fixers, socialites, lobbyists, spinners, deal-makers, and more, Harwood and Seib explore the great political transformations that have altered in a fundamental way the relationship between Americans and their government.

A new class of politician and radically different ways of conducting business now exist in Washington. Harwood and Seib showcase such master players as Ken Duberstein (the Fixer), a onetime aide to President Ronald Reagan turned superlobbyist, whose contacts and insider knowledge help clients sidestep Avenue jam-ups; Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein (the Businessman), a new breed of power broker who pioneered the age of “big money” in Washington; Rahm Emanuel(the Democratic Strategist), whose aggressive fundraising and crisis-room campaign enabled the Democrats to retake Congress in 2006; Debbie Wasserman Schultz (the Rising Star), a first-term Democratic representative from Florida whose meteoric ascent in the House has earned her influential allies as well as critics; Hilary Rosen (the Advocate), a former entertainment industry lobbyist who skillfully reframed the debate about same-sex marriage; and more.

Inspiring and wonderfully written, Pennsylvania Avenue takes us inside America’s center of influence to show how our government really functions, and the insiders who make things happen.

New York Times Book Review on Pennsylvania Avenue

Book of the Week (September 15, 2008)

2008-09-15T14:46:00.003-05:00

On the New Book Shelf - in the future the book will be shelved in the Leisure Reading Collection in the Library's main lobby

Apple Betty & Sloppy Joe: Stirring up the Past with Family Recipes and Stories

By Susan Sanvidge, Diane Sanvidge Seckar, Jean Sanvidge Wouters and Julie Sanvidge Florence

Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. WHS description: Compiled by four sisters and based on their recollections of their childhood in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Apple Betty & Sloppy Joe captures the glow of memories formed while growing up in a midwestern kitchen. From Lemon Meringue Pie to Tomato Soup Cake, from Mom's Chicken Pie to Grandma Noffke's Sliced Cucumber Pickles, this charming book features hundreds of recipes (some classic, some quirky), plus dozens of food—and cooking-related anecdotes, memories, humorous asides, and period photos that transport readers back to Mom's or Grandma's kitchen, circa 1950.

The Sanvidges share a legacy of beloved dishes and food memories that resonate not just for their family, but for readers everywhere who grew up in a small midwestern town—or wish they had. Nostalgic, funny, and warmhearted, Apple Betty & Sloppy Joe celebrates the ways food and food memories link us to our past, and to each other.

For more information visit the Wisconsin Historical Society's website. They've included an interview and biographies of the authors and a video clip from the Wisconsin Eye.

Book of the Week (September 8, 2008)

2008-09-08T08:35:00.004-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library Lobby.
Call Number: QC 981.8 .G56 W35 2008

The Hot Topic: What We can do about Global Warming
By Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King

Publisher's Description: Last year, awareness about global warming reached a tipping point. Now one of the most dynamic writers and one of the most respected scientists in the field of climate change offer the first concise guide to both the problems and the solutions. Guiding us past a blizzard of information and misinformation, Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King explain the science of warming, the most cutting-edge technological solutions from small to large, and the national and international politics that will affect our efforts.

While there have been many other books about the problem of global warming, none has addressed what we can and should do about it so clearly and persuasively, with no spin, no agenda, and no exaggeration. Neither Walker nor King is an activist or politician, and theirs is not a generic green call to arms. Instead they propose specific ideas to fix a very specific problem. Most important, they offer hope: This is a serious issue, perhaps the most serious that humanity has ever faced. But we can still do something about it. And they’ll show us how.

About the Authors: GABRIELLE WALKER is a contributing editor for New Scientist; she was previously climate change editor at Nature. She is the author of An Ocean of Air and Snowball Earth. She lives in London. SIR DAVID KING is the United Kingdom’s chief science adviser and a professor and director of research at the University of Cambridge. He lives in London and Cambridge.

LibraryThing entry

Book of the Week (August 25, 2008)

2008-08-27T10:48:00.003-05:00

On the New Book Shelf in the Library Lobby

Call Number: ZA 4482 .B78 2008

Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage

By Alex Bruns

Publisher's Description: We—the users turned creators and distributors of content—are TIME’s Person of theYear 2006, and AdAge’s Advertising Agency of the Year 2007. We form a new Generation C. We have MySpace, YouTube, and OurMedia; we run social software, and drive the development of Web 2.0.

But beyond the hype, what’s really going on? In this groundbreaking exploration of our developing participatory online culture, Axel Bruns establishes the core principles which drive the rise of collaborative content creation in environments, from open source through blogs and Wikipedia to Second Life. This book shows that what’s emerging here is no longer just a new form of content production, but a new process for the continuous creation and extension of knowledge and art by collaborative communities: produsage. The implications of the gradual shift from production to produsage are profound, and will affect the very core of our culture, economy, society, and democracy.

Building on an analysis of key sites including Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and Second Life, it explores the intellectual, technological, and social implications of produsage, as well as the legal and economic models employed by produsage projects. In doing so, the book highlights the implications of produsage for our culture, democracy, and society.

LibraryThing entry