Bibliophiles Unite!

Social networking sites are rampant these days, not only for meeting people but for finding and discussing books as well. The following sites allow you to create online catalogs of books you own, have read, or want to read. Then you can view your books in a list or on a virtual shelf, share them with friends, or add them to blogs. There are also book ratings, recommendations, discussions, and online book clubs. Each site has its pros and cons, so check them all out to see which features appeal to you:

• LibraryThing – user-friendly cataloging and sharing; free up to 200 books, then small fee



• Shelfari – a bit slicker than LibraryThing, but no option to edit cataloging details



• GoodReads – more social networking features, less cataloging



• Revish – focuses on quality reviews of books rather than cataloging



• Listal – share lists of favorite books, movies, music, and games

Once you've found books you want to read, save some money and check them out from the library. If the titles you want are checked out, place a hold and you'll be notified when a book is ready to pick up. Start here by adding the following titles about reading to your list!

• The Reading Group Book: The Complete Guide to Starting and Sustaining a Reading Group, With Annotated Lists of 250 Titles for Provocative Discussion by David Laskin



• Why We Read What We Read: A Delightfully Opinionated Journey through Contemporary Bestsellers by Lisa Adams



• Reading with Oprah: The Book Club That Changed America by Kathleen Rooney



• Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl



• More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl



• Read It and Eat: A Month-By-Month Guide to Scintillating Book Club Selections and Mouthwatering Menus by Sarah Gardner

Gardening Time!

When driving or walking around town you can see some of the early blooms of spring; Bearded Irises, Daffodils, Bluebonnets, and Mountain Laurel bushes are perfuming the air. Welcome Spring!

You might think that having a lawn is just easier and low maintenance, but if you change your mind or want to try something new, these are some plants you can sow now to get results for this Summer and Fall:

For a flower garden some perennials you can plant now are: Black-Eyed Susans, Asters, Daylilies, Hardy Hibiscus, Lantanas and Purple Coneflowers among others.

If you would like to add some color to your garden, nothing is better than annuals like: Geraniums, Zinnias, Verbenas, Marigolds, and Impatiens.

In case you are more inclined to start a vegetable garden here are some veggies you should plant this Spring: lettuce, radish, spinach and carrots. It might not be too late to start some tomatoes or you can buy the small tomato plants in nurseries.

Will this be your first year trying to start a garden? You might be feeling a little overwhelmed trying to learn gardening techniques, landscaping, and the best plants to choose for your type of soil. Do not get discouraged! Faulk Central Library has a vast collection of books on gardening you can check out! Some recommendations are:

Month-by-Month Gardening in Texas

Herb Gardening in Texas

Texas Home Landscaping

Landscaping with Native Plants of Texas

Texas gardening the natural way : the complete handbook

Garden guide for Austin & vicinity

Metal as Functional Sculpture

For many years a motorcycle was my primary source of transportation. Whenever I see a particularly attractive bike zip past I think about owning one again. Recently, a patron emailed inquiring about a particular motorcycle repair manual. His request sent me rooting through the library’s collection of motorcycle related material. What I found was quite pleasing. Perhaps you too will feel the same way and decide to take a ride of a different sort.


Books:

Fast company : a memoir of life, love, and motorcycles in Italy
The complete idiot's guide to choppers
Advanced custom motorcycle assembly & fabrication
Motorcycle : evolution, design, passion
American Chopper : at full throttle
Early motorcycles : construction, operation, and repair
The complete handbook of motorcycles and motorcycling
Born to be wild : a history of the American biker and bikes 1947-2002
She's a bad motorcycle : writers on riding
The spirit of the motorcycle : the legends, the riders, and the beauty of the beast
Motocicletas
Motorcycle touring & travel : a handbook of travel by motorcycle
The art of the motorcycle

DVDs:

Monster garage. Season three
American chopper. Season 1
American chopper, the series. Season 2
American chopper, the series. Season 3

An Appeal to Customers to Drop by the Library

The branches have been receiving lots of new books recently, and Central just got hundreds of new fiction titles this week. On your way home today, stop by a Library location to see all the new books – we look like Barnes & Noble! If you don’t find the new book that had a great review in the catalog, be aware that there seems to be small glitch with the catalog today. Some of the 2008 titles with holds on them are not showing up in the catalog, but the problem should be resolved soon, perhaps even by the time you read this.

While on vacation last week, I saw lots of people reading The Appeal by John Grisham. Unfortunately, all our copies are checked out today, but to find other new books, go to FindIt’s Advanced Search and enter 2008 for publication year and select Recent Books – Adult under location.

For more reading ideas, please see the Library's Good Reads best fiction lists and nonfiction lists by year which have been updated for 2008.

March Madness is here!

March Madness has begun. The play-in game was last night and the opening round starts tomorrow. Schools like Austin Peay and Mount St. Mary’s hope to slip on Cinderella’s slipper and make a run deep into the tournament, while perennial big dogs like Kansas, UCLA, and North Carolina look to add championship rings to their heavily jeweled fingers. Over the next two and a half weeks, sixty-four teams will be whittled to one. Many get to play, but only one team gets to cut down the net. Basketball games will dominate many American TV screens for awhile and while we definitely recommend watching the games, take a gander at some of the excellent college basketball histories available at the Austin Public Library.

John Feinstein
Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four

A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers

Eddie Einhorn
How March Became Madness: How the NCAA Tournament Became the Greatest Sporting Event in America

Billy Packer
Fifty Years of the Final Four: Golden Moments of the NCAA Basketball Tournament

Pamela Grundy
Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball

The following two titles are not histories per se, rather they are biographies from two of the game’s coaching pillars. Wooden and Smith recall their basketball lives and pepper their narratives with life lessons that seemingly only come from seasoned coaches.

John Wooden
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Dean Smith
The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

Posters

I’m kind of into posters. For the last few years I have been heavily involved with music posters. I don’t make them, but I like to think I know a bit about them. Rock posters have come back into vogue, they’re not just collectibles anymore. They’re actual art pieces. Last weekend Flatstock was in town again for the 6^th time. This is where poster artists and printers can get together and sell their wares. There were over 100 artists and so much eye candy your head would spin!

A little history…of course, we know that San Francisco is queen mother when it comes to rock art, but Austin has a rich poster tradition as well. The sixties spawned a plethora of poster art and artists and today the tradition is just as rich, if not more so. Clubs such as the Armadillo World Headquarters, Vulcan Gas Company, Austin Opera House, Liberty Lunch, the Ritz, Emo’s, Club 710, and Stubb’s all have benefited from fabulous poster art all due to poster artists such as Jim Franklin, Gilbert Shelton, Micael Priest, Guy Juke, Kerry Awn, Frank Kozik, Mike Nott, Ric Cruz, Control Rat X, the Art Maggots, Jason Austin, Lyman Hardy, Billy Perkins, Decoder Ring, Mexican Chocolate, and MANY others.

Posters are not only pieces of art, but have replaced the waning LP. (Although there’s been a huge resurgence of LPs in the last few years!) If you’re old enough, you can remember buying an LP and staring at the cover for hours upon hours…the double fold out ones were the best. Today, CDs and downloadable songs have taken over and music posters have taken the place of LP covers. Each artist renders their take on the band or a particular song in their poster. Although it may seem messy to some, I LOVE seeing flyers and posters plastered around town. I immediately look to see who did it and soak in the art.

Next SXSW, check out Flatstock, you will not be disappointed. In the mean time, check out some art on Gigposters or Expresso Beans or check out some books from the Library.

Art of Modern Rock: the Poster Explosion by Paul Grushkin and Dennis King

Swag 2: rock posters of the ‘90s and beyond by Spencer Drate

Swag: rock posters of the ‘90s by Spencer Drate

The Art of the Fillmore, 1966-1971 by Gayle Lemke

Electric Frankenstein: high-energy punk rock & roll poster art by Sal Canzonieri

[thanks to the great poster artist, Nels Jacobson, for poster history details]

Novel Artists

The lives of artists inspire not only fascinating biographies, but novels as well. Women artists in particular are intriguing because of their many obstacles to success, including exclusion from formal training and a lack of financial support and recognition for their work. The following novels blend a bit of historical fact with creativity to bring these artists to the forefront. Nonfiction books about the artists are also listed (if available) should you choose to explore further.

The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland
It was Emily Carr (1871-1945) - not Georgia O'Keeffe or Frida Kahlo - who first blazed a path for modern women artists. From illegal potlatches in tribal communities to prewar Paris, where her art was exhibited in the famed Salon d'Automne, Carr's story is as arresting as it is vibrant. The result is a glorious novel that will appeal to lovers of art, native cultures, and lush historical fiction.

Keeping the World Away: A Novel by Margaret Forster
A classic Margaret Forster novel with the same satisfying appeal as her bestselling Diary of an Ordinary Woman - the story of an actual early 20th century painting [by Gwen John] and its fictional adventures through the century and of the women whose lives it touches.

Zoia's Gold: A Novel by Philip Sington
Madam Zoia [Korvin-Krukovsky], the enigmatic "painter on gold," is dead. The last surviving member of the Romanov court, she leaves behind a house full of paintings, a collection of private papers, and a mystery.

Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke
In 1917 no one had ever seen a woman like the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Before today's outsized celebrities, there was the Baroness—poet and artist, proto-punk rocker, sexual libertine, fashion avatar, and troublemaker. In a beautifully written novel, René Steinke paints an exquisite portrait of this woman and her time.

Nonfiction:

The Emily Carr Omnibus by Emily Carr

Gwen John: A Painter's Life by Sue Roe

Gwen John: An Interior Life by Cecily Langdale

Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity: A Cultural Biography by Irene Gammel

Jim Shepard wins the Story Prize

The Oscars and the Grammy’s don’t excite me. My cup of tea? The National Book Award, the Pulitzer, and the Story Prize. Jim Shepard won this year’s Story Prize for Like You’d Understand, Anyway. Shepard is often considered a writer’s writer due to his unique descriptions and interesting sentence structure. That’s fine and dandy, but what makes him truly great is his grace and humor. His stories vacillate between humor and depravation, sounding the extreme depths of his characters. Who else could have you empathizing with a Nazi anthropologist tracking yeti in Tibet?

Shepard’s protagonists run the gamut from Chernobyl nuclear engineers to Roman foot soldiers. These stories are weird—not weird in a “huh…that’s kind of cute” way, but weird in a “how in the world does he do that” way. He is a master of the short story. His sentences are incredible, playfully flowing into each other with unpredictable results. Yes he is a writer’s writer, but don’t let that scare you away. Shepard is creative and hilarious and fun to read.

Like You’d Understand, Anyway

Love and Hydrogen

Batting Against Castro

Past winners of the Story Prize

Terraplane Housing Blues

The real estate market is a real challenge for would be home buyers in Austin these days. According to a recent article in the Austin American Statesman the median price for a home is up 8 percent as compared to a year ago to $185,500. The purchase of a home is no minor expense. Why not educate yourself as to what pitfalls to avoid when buying a home and the current environment of the housing market in Austin via resources readily at your disposal through the Austin Public Library.

Books:
Buying a home

Home buying for dummies

Buyers are liars & sellers are too! : the truth about buying or selling your home

Tips and traps when buying a home


Electronic:
http://www.austinlibrary.com/databases/index.cfm?action=subject&id=007

http://www.austinlibrary.com/databases/index.cfm?action=subject&id=020

All the Money in the World

This week the 2008 Forbes list of the world's billionaires was published. The Forbes article congratulates the billionaires for their gifts and donations that are in the billions, but Peter Bernstein, in the book about the world's billionaires mentioned below, states that that 98% of their money remains in their own pockets.

All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make and Spend Their Fortunes
Peter Bernstein
The author describes the Forbes 400 whose combined net worth is $3.5 trillion, and 40% belongs to Americans, although that percentage is shrinking. An example is Steven Cohen, a hedge fund CEO, who has a 14 acre estate with a 7000 sq foot ice skating rink.

The Spare Wife
Alex Witchel (2007)
If you would like to read a new, sophisticated novel to see how the other 1% live, place a hold on this "coming soon" title that exposes the world of New York's super rich and media elite.

The Reserve
Russell Banks (2007)
For a new book about the upper class in earlier days, please place a hold on Russell Bank's newest novel. Part love story, part murder mystery, set on the cusp of the Second World War, this deeply engaging new novel about an upper class family that has a huge family compound in the Adirondacks raises dangerous questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness—and explores what happens when two powerful personalities, trapped at opposite ends of a social divide, begin to break the rules.

To find similar fiction titles, please search the Fiction Connection.

The love and demons of Gabo’s world

Gabriel García Márquez, also known as Gabo, published his first work in 1955. Since then, he has been inviting us to join his literary world where reality gets mixed with magical events, places, and characters in every one of his books. Love, hatred, deception, happiness, loneliness, hope, and sadness: they all coexist in Gabo’s work. Anytime you hold one of his books in your hands, you know something magical, something unexpected or supernatural is going to pop up at any moment.

Because of his unique style of writing he was awarded with the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1982. Gabo has not only written fiction works, during his prolific life he has also published several non fiction books and articles in newspapers and magazines around the world. So, if you want to celebrate Gabo’s birthday tomorrow, come to the library, grab one of his books and start dreaming.

Hundred Years of Solitude

Of love and other demons

Love in the time of cholera

The evil hour

Chronicle of a death foretold

If you want to read his works in Spanish, here are some titles:

General en su laberinto

El coronel no tiene quien le escriba

Los funerales de la Mama Grande

Todos los cuentos de Gabriel García Márquez

And, finally works about Gabo:

Critical essays on Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel García Márquez

Marquez: tales beyond solitude VHS


Picture taken from El País

Babies

So, I recently had a baby and I’ve been thinking about the last year of my life. I have read a LOT of books over the last year. They all range in topic but all have something to do with babies, of course. I’ll run down the list for you.

In the beginning, I started out with a book called Taking Charge of your Fertility by Toni Weschler. GREAT BOOK. I’m convinced it got me pregnant. Ladies, if you’re looking for something that helps you tune into your body, this is the book for you. Give it a try.

After getting pregnant, I read a lot of pregnancy books. From the hips : a comprehensive, open-minded, uncensored, totally honest guide to pregnancy, birth, and becoming a parent by Rebecca Odes, You & your baby pregnancy : the ultimate week-by-week pregnancy guide by Laura Riley and Pregnancy dos and don'ts : the smart woman's pocket companion for a safe and sound pregnancy by Elisabeth Aron are ones I looked at more than others. From the Hips is a bohemian kind of book written with the new mother of any age in mind, kind of hippie, kind of natural, very open and green. You & Your Baby Pregnancy answered a LOT of questions I had over the nine months. I carried it around with me and read it over and over. Pregnancy dos and don’ts is a nice list of things, foods, medicines one should and shouldn’t do or take while pregnant. A good reference source.

Another type of book that I really enjoyed reading was Baby Bargains by the Fields’. This book gives you the straight dope on whether or not you NEED those silly frivolities that come with having a baby. It tells you where to go and what things you need and things you don’t. I took it with me when I opened my baby registry. It reviews all types of baby products. If you’re pregnant and don’t have this book, what are you doing? Go get it! I bought my own copy as I have written all over it and dog-eared many pages. It will get you from diapers and formula through daycare and high chairs.

Once our little one arrived I found great help from Baby 411 by Denise Fields and Dr. Ari Brown (a local pediatrician). I refer to this resource time and time again. A few weeks ago baby vomited ala exorcist style and the book really helped us out! (However, when in doubt about ANYTHING regarding baby, call your pediatrician!)

And of course, I read to baby every night. We have a wide repertoire of books at home. Dr. Seuss, Berenstain Bears, anything by Sandra Boynton, and Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes are our favorites right now. Reading to your baby is the best thing you can do to prepare him or her for school and life beyond.

Come into the Library or check the catalog; we’ll be glad to help you find everything above and more!

Oscar-winning novels

No doubt you've heard by now that No Country for Old Men won the Oscar for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards. The movie is based on Cormac McCarthy's novel by the same name, which is a hot item at APL right now. Over the years, quite a few novels have inspired Best Pictures. Check out the books or movies at your local library!

1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front
1931 - Cimarron
1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty
1939 - Gone with the Wind
1940 - Rebecca
1941 - How Green Was My Valley
1945 - The Lost Weekend
1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 - Gentleman's Agreement
1949 - All the King's Men
1953 - From Here to Eternity
1956 - Around the World in 80 Days
1957 - The Bridge over the River Kwai
1958 - Gigi
1959 - Ben-Hur
1963 - Tom Jones
1967 - In the Heat of the Night
1968 - Oliver!
1969 - Midnight Cowboy
1972 - The Godfather I
1974 - The Godfather II
1975 - One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 - Ordinary People
1983 - Terms of Endearment
1990 - Dances With Wolves
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs
1994 - Forrest Gump
1996 - The English Patient
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2007 - No Country for Old Men

Mayor's Book Club Announcement

The Austin Public Library invites you to join us for the 2008 Mayor’s Book Club. Mayor Wynn’s 2008 selection is A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. A Long Way Gone is the harrowing account of Beah’s days as a child soldier during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. While Beah masterfully captures his unimaginable plight and that of his fellow child soldiers, not all is despair. There is hope. There is survival. Beah lived and has used this tragedy to advocate for peaceful conflict resolution and the cessation of child exploitation and soldiering throughout the world.

The Austin Public Library has dozens of copies available. Please join us for a variety of exciting programs throughout April and be sure to be at City Hall Friday, April 25^th to hear Ishmael Beah discuss his life and work.

Event Schedule:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/mbc08_events.htm

El Viaje Eterno

Acclaimed Chicano poet and activist Raul Salinas recently passed away at age 73. Despite, or because of, turbulent beginnings, Raul was able to focus and channel the anger and frustration he felt as a Mexican American youth growing up in a segregated United States into a distinctive and influential poetic voice. The Austin Public Library has several readily available resources to aid in the discovery, enjoyment, and appreciation of one of this country’s important literary artists.

Literary Works:

Raúlrsalinas and the jail machine : my weapon is my pen : selected writings

Beyond the beaten path [sound recording]

Los many mundos of Raúlrsalinas [sound recording] : un poetic jazz viaje con friends

Un trip through the mind jail y otras excursions : poems

Seeds of struggle, songs of hope : poetry of emerging youth y sus maestros del movimiento

East of the freeway : reflections de mi pueblo : poems


Biographical Information:

http://www.austinlibrary.com/databases/index.cfm?action=subject&id=020

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/14/0214salinas.html

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A594647

Dexter - Mystery and TV Series Hit

There is a new hit TV program called “Dexter” on Showtime that is based on a popular mystery series. Jeffrey Lindsay has written three dark and devious novels about Dexter Morgan, a blood-spatter expert in Miami, who is also happens to be serial killer. He slices and dices the bad guys during his time off. Dexter is really a unique protagonist. As a first-person narrator, Dexter constantly describes his own darkness and inhumanity... yet somehow, he manages to charm the people around him, most of whom are utterly oblivious that there's something different about him. The Library has all three books, including two audio versions, and season 1 of the TV series.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter - book

Darkly Dreaming Dexter – cd

Dearly Devoted Dexter – book

Dearly Devoted Dexter – cd

Dexter in the Dark - book

Dexter: the first season

To search for other television series in the catalog, try these search strategies. Sometimes you have to be very creative when looking for a title.

Quick Search
dvd 791.45 and dexter
season and dexter
television program and dexter
Enter dexter, select title, and then select Videorecording on DVD under material format.

Advanced Search
Search by subject for television, enter series under search everything, then enter the program's title.

Two hundred years and counting...

This year, librarians from all over the world celebrate 200 years of the publication of “Versuch eines vollständigen lerbuchs der bibliotheswissenschaft oder Anleitung vollkomenen Geschäftfurung eines Bibliothekars in wissenschaftlicher Form abgesfaast” (Complete works on Library Science or a management guide for librarians written scientifically,) by Martin. W. Schrettinger (1772-1851). This is one of the most important books in the library world and it revolutionized the field.

Scherettinger states here that the purpose of libraries should be to provide the easiest and fastest way to access information and said that librarians should focus on three principles: technique, usefulness and system implementation. This approach has been used in libraries ever since. Before this book, libraries were not accessible to the public and were not designed for serving as a tool to easily access information. Each librarian organized the books the way he wanted to and only he knew where to find them.

Thanks to Scherettinger’s innovative ideas, libraries still have an important role in modern societies. They evolve and improve over time in order to best meet communities’ needs.

Rumble in the ATX: Obama v. Clinton

Ali v. Frazier

Tyson v. Holyfield.

Mayweather v. de la Hoya.

Obama v. Clinton.

With only 100 available public tickets and over 43,000 applications for them, Obama v. Clinton has to be one of the toughest tickets to score in a long time. The Super Bowl? The World Series? Sure, they're tough tickets, but at least the majority are available to the public. Obama v. Clinton? Not so. Unless you’re a financial or political titan, you’ll most likely be watching on the couch. That’s not a bad thing though. I’ll be perched on the couch with my dog, a pizza, a critical ear, and the freedom to yell or cheer as I see fit.

Whether the debate is electrifying, unbearable or you’re inspired to learn more, the Austin Public Library has you covered:

Hillary Clinton’s Living History

Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope

Presidents' Day and Their EI

The Library is closed for President's Day. As the presidential election draws closer, you may want to start reading about past presidents and current candidates to help you decide which candidate to vote for. You can search the catalog or the online databases for information.

One short book that is recommended for studying the modern presidency is the The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to George W. Bush. Princeton professor Greenstein seeks to explain why presidents succeed or fail in this account of the 12 most recent presidents. He measures the presidents on six scales: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, vision, cognitive style and emotional intelligence. What is necessary, Greenstein says, is a proper mix of these skills. George H. W. Bush did not have "the vision thing." Political skills could not save Lyndon Johnson. Organizational skills did not do much for Jimmy Carter. Nixon's cognitive skills could not save him either. The author contends that the highest ranked skill for what the successful president needs is emotional intelligence or what could also be called "psychological wellness". Greenstein describes emotional intelligence as "the president's ability to manage his emotions and turn them to constructive purposes, rather than being dominated by them, and allowing them to diminish his leadership.”

"It's the beat to keep."

The Harry Ransom Center at UT recently opened its exhibition of "On the Road with the Beats," which celebrates the influential work of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. The varied meanings of the term beat are evident in Kerouac's "San Francisco Scene," which appears on the spoken word CD The Beat Generation and in Kerouac: A Biography (pg. 272):

He's wailing beer caps of bottles and jamming at the cash register, and everything is going to the beat. It's the beat generation. It's beat. It's the beat to keep. It's the beat of the heart. It's being beat and down in the world, and like old time lowdown, and like in ancient civilizations, the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to the beat.

So, are you a Beatnik? Check out a few of our many books about the Beat Generation and then take the Beatnik Questionnaire! Here are just a few to get you started:

The Beats: From Kerouac to Kesey: An Illustrated Journey through the Beat Generation

Encyclopedia of Beat Literature

Naked Angels: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs

Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation

Beat Down to Your Soul: What Was the Beat Generation?

Paradise Outlaws: Remembering the Beats

A Real Love Story for Valentine's Day

Perhaps the best love stories are the true ones, such as the story of the Danish author Isak Denison and the English game pilot Denys Fich-Hatton. Isak Denisen, who had moved to Kenya with her husband to run a coffee plantation, met and fell madly in love with the dashing Fich-Hatton. They were soul mates, and their love affair became a legend in Africa. However, the free-spirited Denys was an elusive lover, incapable of making any kind of commitment for fear of being tied down.

Isak Dinesen's last decade in Africa alternated between moments of great happiness with Denys, and long weeks, even months, of illness and despair. Finally, in 1931, after the financial collapse of her farm, she was making plans to return to Denmark when she received the worst news of her difficult life--Denys Finch Hatton had crashed his plane and was dead.

Denisen’s book Out of Africa is a memoir of her life in Africa, but in the book Denys is only a friend. The movie of the same title brings out the more intimate details of their relationship.

In the movie, Out of Africa, Dinesen (played by Meryl Streep) says:

‘Now take back the soul of Denys George Finch Hatton, whom You have shared with us. He brought us joy...we loved him well.
He was not ours.
He was not mine."

Out of Africa – the book

Out of Africa – the movie

Out of Africa – the soundtrack

Too Close to the Sun: the Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton

Grit, Glamour, and Greatness

February is Black History Month. To show my appreciation for all the magnificent contributions black Americans have made in adding to the richness and uniqueness of our popular culture, I’ve listed a few of my favorite individuals along with items that the Austin Public Library owns so that you may also discover their grit, glamour, and greatness.

Paul Robeson
The undiscovered Paul Robeson : an artist's journey, 1898-1939
The great Paul Robeson [sound recording]
The Emperor Jones [videorecording] ; Paul Robeson, tribute to an artist

Josephine Baker
Jazz Cleopatra : Josephine Baker in her time
Siren of the tropics [videorecording]
Zou Zou [videorecording]

Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Dandridge : an intimate biography
Dorothy Dandridge [videorecording] : little girl lost
Carmen Jones [videorecording]

Sydney Poitier
Guess who's coming to dinner [videorecording]
To Sir, with love [videorecording]
They call me Mister Tibbs! [videorecording]

Mos Def
Something the Lord made [videorecording]
The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy [videorecording]
The new danger [sound recording]

Don Cheadle
Not on our watch : the mission to end genocide in Darfur and beyond
Hotel Rwanda [videorecording]
Traffic [videorecording]
Boogie nights [videorecording]

Ludacris
Hustle & flow [videorecording]

Terrence Howard
Crash [videorecording]

Halle Berry
Monster's ball [videorecording]

Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington : his films and career
Malcolm X [videorecording]
Mississippi masala [videorecording]

Coming Soon to a Library Near You!

The phrase Coming Soon in a Findit record indicates an upcoming title that Library selectors anticipate will be a bestseller. Coming Soon titles are visible in Findit as soon as they are cataloged, so you can see what popular titles are, well, coming soon. You may also see locations with added copies on order. But the best part? You can place holds on these titles before copies are in the system! Most Coming Soon books are ordered pre-publication and arrive 7-10 days after Ingram, our book vendor, has them in stock.

Two Coming Soon titles that you may place a hold on from today’s catalog:

His Illegal Self by Peter Carey
His Illegal Self is the story of Che—raised in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother, he is the precocious son of radical student activists at Harvard in the late sixties. Che begins a journey that leads him to a hippie commune in the jungle of tropical Queensland. Here he slowly, bravely confronts his life, learning that nothing is what it seems. Who is his real mother? Was that his real father? If all he suspects is true, what should he do?

L.A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker
Los Angeles is gripped by the exploding celebrity of Allison Murietta, her real identity unknown, a modern-day Jesse James with the compulsion to steal beautiful things, the vanity to invite the media along, and the conscience to donate much of her bounty to charity. Nobody ever gets hurt—until a job ends with ten gangsters lying dead and a half- million dollars worth of glittering diamonds missing.

The traveling librarian in New York

I’ve lived in Texas all my life. I own a couple of suits and a canvas jacket. That’s it. No wool coat or parka to keep me warm in Gotham. Fortunately, the traveling librarian has a friend from Ohio who graciously loaned a wool coat. Armed with said coat, a camera, and a discreet map I headed to New York. Some highlights: soul food at Sylvia’s (Bill O’Reilly and Al Sharpton enjoyed a dinner there in September), a stroll around the new Yankee Stadium, a wonderful rainy walk through Central Park, and sneaker shopping in Manhattan and Brooklyn with a good friend.

Despite being outfitted in my average librarian get-up, I was “accepted” into the eponymous sneaker boutique Alife Rivington Club. The store has no sign and the door is locked. To enter, you ring a buzzer and wait, hoping that a sneakerhead working inside deems you worthy of entry into this well-cultivated world of sneaker exclusivity. I got in, but $200 for some purple shoes is too rich for my blood. Brooklyn and its $40 sneakers is more to my liking.

All this meandering served as an appetizer for the meat of the trip. Publishers, writers, and editors abounded at the AWP Conference. Stumbling like some giddy literary fanboy from panel to panel, I heard a veritable feast of contemporary American writers: Lydia Davis, Francine Prose, Jennifer Egan, Alice McDermott, Karen Russell, Charles Baxter, and Percival Everett to name a few. Pick up a novel or story collection by one of these incredible writers. There is no buzzer to ring. Just grab a book and you’re in the club.

Lydia Davis
Varieties of Disturbances
Samuel Johnson is Indignant

Francine Prose
Blue Angel
A Changed Man

Jennifer Egan
The Keep
Look at Me

Alice McDermott
After This
Charming Billy

Karen Russell
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Charles Baxter
Saul and Patsy
The Feast of Love

Percival Everett
The Water Cure
Damned If I Do

Speculative Fiction by Black Writers

February is Black History Month, and most of us don’t think of science fiction when we commemorate all the great African American literature that we have to enjoy. Last year's release of Acacia , the first of a planned fantasy trilogy by black historical-fiction writer David Anthony Durham, brought attention to the small number of black writers writing speculative fiction.

In a July 2007 Boston Globe interview, Durham said that Acacia had been in the back of his mind since the late 1990s. What spurred him to write the trilogy was "The Lord of the Rings" films. Durham watched the three movies many times, and was frustrated by the almost mono-racial cast of characters, where "the only people of color who didn't have speaking lines were the minions imported for the dark lords."

To find out more about speculative fiction by black authors, visit the Carl Brandon Society and Afrofuturism.

And listen to an NPR piece at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12742905

Recommended titles at the Austin Public Library

The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora
Dark Matter: Reading the Bones edited by Sheree Thomas
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
Futureland by Walter Mosley
Iron Shadows by Steven Barnes
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy
edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan

Are you registered?

Monday, February 4th is the last day to register to vote for the Texas Primary Election (March 4th). If you aren't sure if you are registered, visit the Voter Information Search page. Request a registration card online or pick one up at the Voter Registrar's office, the Secretary of State's Office, libraries, post offices, or high schools. Postage has already been paid so just drop it in the mail. An informal application is also available for download, but you will need to affix a stamp before mailing.

The Texas Secretary of State Voter Information page provides information about the voting process and the ballot. Visit the presidential candidates' campaign sites to see how they stand on the issues (listed alphabetically):

Hillary Clinton for President (D)
Hugh Cort for President (R)
Mike Huckabee for President (R)
Alan Keyes for President (R)
John McCain 2008 (R)
Barack Obama for America (D)
Ron Paul 2008 (R)
Mitt Romney for President (R)

Also, check the library catalog for books by or about the candidates.

Better Workouts

While you wait for the FindIt catalog to come back up (Thursday or Friday, we hope) you can download some recommended music to improve your workouts. The first list of recommended workout music is from LL Cool J, Grammy-winning rapper, television and movie actor (Wall Street Journal Aug, 2007). He has also written a popular workout book that the Library owns - LL Cool J's Platinum Workout: Sculpt Your Best Body Ever with Hollywood's Fittest Star.

LL Cool J's Favorites

Puff Daddy
It's All About the Benjamins
James Brown
Think
Boogie down Productions
The Bridge is Over
50 cent
In Da Club
LLoyd
You

I have come across articles and websites which list other workout favorites that may help you keep the treadmill moving or the weights lifting. Good workout music needs a high B.P.M count and a rhythm to coordinate your moves with, or at least a catchy melody and a rhythmic force. It's best if you make a playlist that will last as long as your workout.

Slow Pace
Le Freak - Chic
Don't Phunk with my Heart - Black Eyed Peas
Moderate Pace
Umbrealla - Rihanna
SOS - Rihanna
Push it - Saltnpepa
Fast Pace
American Idiot - Green Day
Mr. Brightside - The Killers
Do it Well - Jennifer Lopez
Freestarter - Prodigy
Dancing Queen - Abba
Heat is On - Glenn Frey
Gold Digger - Kanye West
Tell Me - P. Daddy
All Around Workout Music
Deja Vu - Beyonce
Closer - Nine Inch Nails
Down with Sickness - Disturbed
Give It Away - Red Hot Chile Peppers
Shake That - Eminem
Until It Sleeps - Metallica
Walk This Way - Aerosmith

The Howard Hughes of Chess

Bobby Fischer recently died at age 64. Perhaps no other individual had done more to capture the world’s imagination and focus on the game of chess than he. Bobby Fischer was a child prodigy winning the U.S. national junior chess championship at the age of thirteen in 1956. Two years later, he shocked the American chess world by winning the U.S. championship. At the age of fifteen Bobby Fisher became the youngest international grandmaster in the history of the game. In 1972, he went on to electrify the world by soundly defeating the Soviet world champion Boris Spassky at a time when the Cold War between the United States and the U.S.S.R. was raging.

By many accounts, Bobby Fischer was a controversial and temperamental eccentric. He withdrew from international competition in 1962 after placing fourth behind three Soviet competitors in an international event held on the island of Curacao. He accused the Soviet players of conspiring against him thereby ensuring his poor showing. He spent the 1970s and ‘80s living in seclusion and isolation in Pasadena and Los Angeles. He donated $61,000 to the Worldwide Church of God of which he was a member but subsequently left after Jesus Christ failed to return as promised by church founder Herbert W. Armstrong.

Despite these shortcomings, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the World Chess Federation, described Bobby Fischer as “a phenomenon and an epoch in chess history, and an intellectual giant I would rank next to Newton and Einstein.”

The Austin Public Library has many resources as they pertain to Bobby Fischer. For biographical information, interested individuals may want to consult the following items:

Books:

Bobby Fischer goes to war : how the Soviets lost the most extraordinary chess match of all time

The unknown Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer : complete games of the American world chess champion

Bobby Fischer : profile of a prodigy

Searching for Bobby Fischer : the father of a prodigy observes the world of chess

Bobby Fischer's outrageous chess moves

The chess of Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer vs. the rest of the world

Fischer v. Spassky

Electronic:

http://www.austinlibrary.com/databases/index.cfm?action=subject&id=005

http://www.austinlibrary.com/databases/index.cfm?action=subject&id=020