Spirit Day!

Bishop McNamara is celebrating a spirit day in honor the Bear-Packers game this weekend. The Bears practice on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University where my husband teachers. More power to 'em. I hope they win.

But honestly,my loyalties run lie in a different direction. A Southern direction. Hats off to the Greatest Team ever -- the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Undefeated in season play and Super Bowl VII champions!

The Old New-Book Blues

Melancholy. That’s the word I would use to describe yesterday’s mood. No, it was not the weather, the dense clouds, the snow. Well, maybe that explains part of the story, but not all of it. It’s the books.

Every library has a “new books” section, a special, prominent shelf where the new books spend their first weeks at the library. Books arrive shiny and new, with spotless covers and pristine spines. They are cataloged and processed, covered and stamped. They are displayed on the “New Books” case in an attractive manner. And then they wait.

If only they could talk, they might yell or plead or whisper,
“Pick me. Pick me!”
“I have just the information you need for your paper.”
“I have a great story to tell.”
“I know a secret.”

But “New Book” status only lasts so long. As books are purchased, others must give up their coveted spot and join the ranks of circulating books in the stacks. Hence, the melancholy. Emptying the shelves is rather sad. So many books have gone untouched. Some great stories have been overlooked. Great laughs and memorable characters have been missed. Will these books be discovered among the rank-and-file, or will they land in the discard pile five years from now having never been checked out even once?

The new semester begins in a few days. Thirty new books have arrived, dressed for the big dance and determined not to be wallflowers. Like their predecessors, they are cataloged and processed and artfully arranged. Blank date-due slips wait to be filled like old-fashioned dance cards. Words sparked to life in their author’s imagination silently wait to be born again in their readers.

Databases for English, Spanish, French, and much more!

Resources for looking up vocabulary words, learning Spanish and French, and much more! Login through the Database link on the library homepage or just type in the URL.

Oxford Reference Online : http://oxfordreference.com
A collection of dictionaries and other resources covering:
•Accounting, Math, Economics, Statistics
•Art, Artists, Music
•Language: English, English Grammar, American usage and style, Spanish
•Literature from around the world, including Shakespeare and Chaucer
•Politics, History, Supreme Court
•Religion: Bible, Christian Church, Hindu, Buddha, Islam, Judaism
•Science: Medicine, Nursing, Biology, Earth Science, Physics

Visit this link for a complete list of the titles included.


Oxford Language Dictionaries : http://oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com
Covers Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian, and Russian.
•Translations of words and phrases.
•Audio of pronunciation by native speakers.
•Click-through explanations of phonetic symbols and mouse-over explanations of parts of speech.

Tidbits

"If memory is a palace, let me live there, forever with her, somewhere in that place between sleep and morning. . . Let me dream a palace in the clear night sky, . . . a place lit by stars and a winter moon."
The Memory Palace / Mira Bartok, 2011 (quoted from the review in The New York Times)


"To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry."
Gaston Bachelard


Christopher Buckley was preparing to sell his parents' home. Instructed by the real estate agent to "lighten and brighten," he painted shades of white over his mother's palette of reds and browns. A friend told him that his mother would be proud.

He replied, "It's possible. It's also possible that any night now, she's going to appear at the top of the staircase in a nightgown, holding a candelabrum and pointing a finger, and saying, 'Ec-ru, Brute?'"
(The Atlantic, Jan-Feb, 2011)

New books - for the Mark Twain enthusiasts

Or for those students writing a paper about Huck Finn.

Mark Twain : Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : an authoritative text, contexts and sources, criticism (REF 813.4 TWA)

Bloom's guides : Mark Twain's The adventures of Huckleberry Finn (813.4 ADV)

New Books - 1/10/11

Hinduism / ed. By Jeff Hay
Accurate and well-researched information about the Hindu religion.

Heroes
Zero regrets : be greater than yesterday / Apolo Ohno
“It’s a philosophy not just about sport but about life. . . . You have to figure out who it is you want to be. Not what you want to be – WHO.” Straight talk about life and sports from the most decorated Winter Olympic athlete.

Unbroken : a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption / Laura Hillenbrand
The most unlikely of heroes, Louie Zamperini was a juvenile delinquent. As a teenager, he became a track superstar who ran in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he stole a German flag from the Reich Chancellory. Louis served in the Army Air Corp during WWII. In 1943, his bomber crashed during a search mission for a lost plane. He and two men survived 47 days at sea on a small raft, only to be captured and interred in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp known for torture. Liberated in 1945, Zamperini struggled to forget, to rebuild his life, determined to be “unbroken.”

Read more in Newsweek.

A secret gift : how one man’s kindness – and a trove of letters – revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression / Ted Gup
On Dec. 17, 1933, an ad appeared in The Canton Repository newspaper offering $10 to 75 families in distress. A benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot invited readers to submit a letter describing their struggles. He promised to keep the letter writers’ identities secret “until the very end.” In 2008, Ted Gup discovered the letters in a trunk and learned that Mr. Virdot was his grandfather, Sam Stone. He had kept the letters and the secret until the end.
To learn more, check out this article in The Smithsonian.

History
Diamonds, gold, and war : the British, the Boers, and the making of South Africa / Martin Meredith
The discovery of diamonds and gold in South Africa sparked a struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land.” The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer republics.” (from Amazon.com; 1/7/11)

Thrills, Chills, and Romance
Hold tight / Harlan Coben (thriller)
Sixteen-year-old Adam has lost a friend to suicide. His parents are dealing with his grief and withdrawal on top of their everyday struggles. Meanwhile, a sadistic killer is at play in their suburban town.

Bright young things / Anna Godbersen
New York, 1929. Letty is searching for fame on the stage. Cordelia is searching for the father she has never known, a man famous for wild parties and shadowy schemes. They enter a glamorous and dangerous world, a life anyone would kill for . . . and someone will. From the writer of the Luxe series. (from Amazon.com ; 1/7/11)

Rucker Park setup / Paul Volponi
“Rucker Park—a place where basketball’s greatest pro players go up against street legends. Best friends Mackey and J.R. have waited their whole lives to win the basketball tournament here. But when the day of an important game arrives, J.R. is fatally stabbed. While Mackey didn’t wield the knife, he feels responsible. Now he has a score to settle, but the killer is watching his every move. Mackey is determined to finish the final game of the Rucker Park Tournament on his own terms. The question is, can he do it?” (from the back cover)

Three black swans / Caroline B. Cooney
Sixteen-year-old Missy’s science teacher challenges her class to research and design a scientific hoax. Missy decides to present Claire, her cousin and best friend, as her twin. People fall for the hoax; Missy and Claire’s pictures are posted on the Internet. Then a third girl sees their pictures on FaceBook and feels as if she’s looking in the mirror. Suddenly, the hoax is no laughing matter.

Annexed / Sharon Dogar
Careful to distinguish fact from fiction, Dogar presents a novel about Anne Franks’ secret annex narrated by Peter van Pels. He is nearly 16 in 1942 when he and his parents join the Franks in hiding in their Amsterdam attic. When Anne accuses him of deserting his people, Peter laments, "I want so many things, but what I need is to know who I am. Because if I don't know that, I can only ever be what they say I am. A Jew." (from Amazon.com ; 1/7/11)

The sweetness of salt / Cecilia Galante
“Julia just graduated as her high school valedictorian, has a full ride to college in the fall and a coveted summer internship. But when her older sister, Sophie, shows up at the graduation determined to reveal some long buried secrets, Julia's plans change. She follows Sophie back to Vermont, where Sophie is opening a bakery—and struggling with some secrets of her own. What follows is a summer of revelations—some heartwarming, some heartbreaking, and all slowly pointing Julia toward a new understanding of both herself and of the sister she never really knew. “(from Amazon.com ; 1/7/11)

Wake / Lisa McMann
Seventeen-year-old Janie has the ability to see other people’s dreams. When she sees a classmate’s nightmare, Janie must address her “gift” and how it might affect her future. (from Amazon.com ; 1/7/11)

Trouble / Gary D. Schmidt
Henry’s older brother is killed in a car accident; the other driver is a Cambodian refugee named Chay. After the accident, Henry, his family, and the community wrestle with grief, anger, and racial tensions. Finally, Henry, his best friend, Chay, decide to climb Mt. Katahdin, in Maine, a trip Henry and his brother had planned. Prejudice takes on a different face entirely as Chay's personal story develops, entwined with all three boys' growing understanding of their families, their town, and what really happened the night of the wreck. (from Amazon.com ; 1/7/11)

Safe haven / Nicholas Sparks
Katie Feldman is new in town. She’s quiet, private, and careful to avoid personal ties. She came to Southport seeking safety from the dark past that terrifies and stalks her.

Linger / Maggie Stiefvater
In this sequel to Shiver, the romance between Sam and Grace continues and old characters mingle with new recruits to the Minnesota werewolf pack. A cliff-hanger ending points to a third book.

Boot camp / Todd Strasser
In this realistic novel, fifteen-year-old Garrett is sent to a disciplinary boot camp for teens. “Behavior modification” includes mental and physical abuse. Garrett and two other teens finally become desperate enough to attempt an escape.

The mockingbirds / Daisy Whitney
Alex, a junior at a New England boarding school, indulges in a crazy night of drinking. She is date raped. She submits her case to the Mockingbirds, her school’s underground justice system in which students investigate and try crimes committed by other students. A story of confusion, shame, empowerment, and healing.

Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin
Fifteen-year-old Liz was killed in a hit-and-run accident. She now lives in “Elsewhere,” an afterlife in which the residents get younger until they become babies and are reborn on Earth.

New Books - 1/5/2011

Fiction
Artichoke’s heart / Suzanne Supplee
Rosemary Goode faces some challenges: her mother’s cancer; her binge eating and resulting weight problem; her “un-cool” social status and awful nickname, “Artichoke.” Her mother’s frank, positive outlook, a new girlfriend who enjoys exercise, and a new boyfriend give Rosemary a new perspective.

Jerk, California / Jonathan Friesen
“In rural Wisconsin, Sam, a high-school student with Tourette’s Syndrome, is alienated from his peers and rejected by his stepfather, and he has trouble getting close to lovely, kind Naomi. After graduation, his stepfather kicks him out of the house, and he accepts a job and lodging from [George], who knew Sam’s late father and dispels some of Sam’s misconceptions about his dad. . . . Sam embarks on a road trip with Naomi to California, [searching for] answers left by Sam’s dad along the way.” (from Amazon.com; 1/4/10]

The sky is everywhere / Jandy Nelson
Seventeen-year-old Lennie’s older sister died suddenly from an arrhythmia. Now Lennie must deal with conflicted feelings about grief, joy, and moving on with her own life.

The ugly tree / Tamara Lyon
When a tornado destroys Cane Kallevik’s home and leaves her Grandma Betty in a coma, Cane goes to live with her employer’s family. She spends her summer keeping vigil at her grandmother’s bedside, fighting with her boss, falling in love with her boss’s nephew, and continuing her love/hate relationship with her former best friend, Mikayla. When Cane’s world “literally goes up in flames, instead of losing everything, she finds exactly what she’s looking for in the most unexpected way.” Set in a rural farm town in Illinois by an author who lives in Wisconsin. (from the back cover)

Biography
Autobiography of Mark Twain, vol. 1
Presenting Mark Twain as himself. He insisted that his autobiographical writings and dictations not be published until 100 years after his death. Time’s up!

House rules : a memoir / Rachel Sontag
Rachel Sontag was a smart, accomplished teenager from a nice family; her father was a doctor, her mother, a social worker. Behind the pretty picture was the grim truth of her father’s psychological abuse, control, and manipulation. Sontag tells the story of the courage to endure and finally, to break away.

History
The Boer Wars (1) 1836-98 / Ian Knight
European settlers of South Africa – Dutch, French, and German – came to consider themselves white Africans; they were also known as “Boers”, meaning famers. This book tells of their many conflicts with native African peoples. (Think Conrad, people!)

The Boer War 1899-1902 / Gregory Fremont-Barnes
While the British had easily defeated the native Africans, they had a much more difficult task in fighting the white Africans. Book covers 19th century history of South Africa, including the discovery of diamonds and gold; background on the British Empire and the Boers; and a narrative of the conflicts which includes maps. (Again, think Heart of Darkness!)

Ratification : the people debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 / Pauline Maier
Across the country, the work of the Constitutional Convention was carefully read and widely debated in pubs, in private homes, and in the press. Ratifying conventions debated the document clause by clause. Maier, a professor of American History at MIT, presents the first history of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.