Finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards

The National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2009 awards. I especially like these awards. While some of the finalists come from major publishers, the NBCC scours regional and university presses to highlight the truly great books of each year. Beyond discovering great new books, I like to use the finalists list as a barometer for how well the Austin Public Library is doing in providing a robust collection. We’re doing well this year. All but one nominee is already in the collection or on order. Me, on the other hand? I have only read one of the finalists: Eula Biss’ Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays. It is incredible. Bess examines the world in a manner that I admire and writes with a deftness that leaves me jealous.


Autobiography
Diana Athill’s Somewhere Towards the End
Debra Gwartney’s Live Through This: A Mother’s Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love
Mary Karr’s Lit
Kati Marton’s Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America (on order)
Edmund White’s City Boy

Biography
Blake Bailey’s Cheever: a Life
Brad Gooch’s Flannery: a Life of Flannery O’Connor
Benjamin Moser’s Why This World: a Biography of Clarice Lispector
Stanislao G. Pugliese’s Bitter Spring: a Life of Ignazio Silone
Martha A. Sandweiss’ Passing Strange: a Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line

Criticism
Eula Biss’ Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays
Stephen Burt’s Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry
Morris Dickstein’s Dancing in the Dark: a Cultural History of the Great Depression (on order)
David Hajdu’s Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture (on order)
Greg Milner’s Perfecting Sound Forever: an Aural History of Recorded Music

Fiction
Bonnie Jo Campbell’s American Salvage
Marlon James’s The Book of Night Women
Michelle Huneven’s Blame
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall
Jayne Anne Phillips’ Lark and Termite

Nonfiction
Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: an Alternative History
Greg Grandin’s Fordlandia: the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City
Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
Tracy Kidder’s Strength in What Remains
William T. Vollman’s Imperial


Poetry
Rae Armantrout’s Versed
Louise Gluck’s A Village Life (on order)
D.A. Powell’s Chronic
Eleanor Ross Taylor’s Captive Voices: New and Selected Poems, 1960-2008
Rachel Zucker’s Museum of Accidents

Evil Unadorned

I read an article recently that I wished I hadn't. I happened upon it by chance at a local pharmacy while waiting for a prescription to be filled. The article is ultimately an interview with a man convicted of a crime who's horror and senselessness are beyond measure. In the aftermath, I find myself searching for ways to cope with the knowledge that these things happen with chilling frequency. Below I've listed some resources that attempt to explain this darkest side of humanity.

Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

Evil: Inside Human Cruelty and Violence

Speaking with the Devil: A Dialogue with Evil

New Romance in Every Style

Romance, in every flavor and style, is the hottest trend in books. Some argue that the sales of romance novels are up due to the recession - the numbers are up, but there's no real proof. Romance writers write of obstacles to love and love’s triumph in tales of the paranormal, the West, Victorian England, and today’s cutthroat corporate world in the following 2009 list.

Always Look Twice.
Geralyn Dawson
Mark and Annabelle are on the verge of divorce until someone goes after their former military unit.

Angels' Blood
Nalini Singh
Nalini Singh introduces readers to a world of beauty and bloodlust, where angels hold sway over vampires.

Basketball Jones
E Lynn Harris
Blackmail, intrigue and double-crosses heat up a love triangle involving an NBA player.

Bending the Rules
Susan Andersen
Sexy, feel-good contemporary romance starring down-to-earth Seattle artist Poppy Calloway and handsome but rigid police detective Jason de Sanges.

The Bridegroom

Linda Lael Miller
Lydia will do anything for her great-aunts, but does she really have to marry the town’s gross, greedy banker?

A Duke of Her Own (Avon Historical Romance)
Eloisa James
Leopold Dautry, the notorious Duke of Villiers, must wed quickly and nobly.

Hot Flash

Kathy Carmichael
Delightful romantic comedy, sous-chef Jill is beset with troubles, from her husband’s desire to be a woman to family chaos, but her loyal friends help her navigate the twisting, turning road to love.

Immortal Outlaw (Immortal Brotherhood Novels)
Lisa Hendrix
Only her kiss can save this cursed Viking warrior.

Kiss Of A Demon King (Immortals After Dark, Book 7)
Kresley Cole
Spellbinding story of a demon king trapped by an enchantress.

Laced with Magic

Barbara Bretton
Chloe, owner of a popular knitting shop and mayor of the supernatural village of Sugar Maple, Vermont, continues to battle evil forces in Bretton’s poignant and magical story of love and sacrifice.

Practice Makes Perfect

Julie James
Two rivalrous attorneys at a prestigious Chicago law firm find romance in James’ sophisticated legal romance, rich in suspense and charmingly arrogant and ambitious characters.

So Enchanting

Connie Brockway
Victorian-era tale of a scandal-plagued widow, a young woman with strange powers, and a suspect lord in this sexy and bewitching battle of wits and wiles.

Straight from the Hip

Susan Mallery
Blinded in an explosion, Izzy is taken to Nick’s ranch to recuperate.

What Happens in London
Julia Quinn
When Olivia Bevelstoke is told that her new neighbor may have killed his fiancee, she doesn't believe it for a second, but, still, how can she help spying on him, just to be sure?

Computer Viruses for all Tastes

If you have a computer, you probably have already experienced what it is like to have a computer virus make your life miserable or to lose valuable information because of an electronic bug. Sorry for bringing back those bad memories you wanted to forget! But as long as we use computers, we are at risk of getting a virus anytime, which is something we need to always be aware of and be vigilant about.

Despite the headaches computer viruses can cause, there are some recent bugs that will make you chuckle and forget for a little while the problems they are creating in your system; here are some examples:

• “Harry Potter” virus or Samal A: even though this virus doesn’t have any relation with Harry Potter in any way, once your computer is infected there is a pop up window that says “You haven’t said the magic word” after multiple attempts typing different words, another window will open saying something like “Samael has come, this is the end”
  
  
• Ramsom K: who created this virus was a novice in the area of computer viruses but his idea was pretty interesting. This virus will block important files on your computer and it will ask you to pay $100 to unblock them. The problem for its creator is that this virus is very easy to clean. So it doesn’t represent a real threat.
  
  
• Whizz.A: this virus pretty much transforms your computer into a discotheque. It decorates the background of your desktop with different colors while windows with advertising start popping up and some music from different radio stations plays in the background. Call that an entertainment center!
  
  
• OSX.Loosemaque: this virus appears to be a simple computer game. Your goal is to kill some aliens in space. The problem: every alien is linked to a random folder on your computer, every time you kill an alien, that folder will be deleted. What is scary is that people play this “game” even when they know their risk of damaging their computer system. Yikes!!!
  
  
• Newton virus for Macs: the company Troyka released a while ago a virus for Macs that will break the menu bar in half and all the icons in the desktop fall to the bottom of the screen as if they are affected by gravity. If you move your infected laptop and put it upside down, the pieces of menu bar and all the icons will fall to the bottom of the screen depending how are you holding your computer. It actually looks pretty neat! Some people on electronic forums wondered how to get the virus to see it in action.

If you want to stay up to date not only about viruses but computers in general, remember that the Faulk Central Library subscribes to the following magazines: Computerworld, Eweek, Geek Monthly, Government Technology, Macworld, PC World Mexico, and Wired.

Some titles about this topic that might interest you are:

Bug-free computing : stop viruses, squash worms, and smash Trojan horses

The art of computer virus research and defense

PC magazine fighting spyware, viruses, and malware

Buffer overflow attacks [electronic resource]: detect, exploit, prevent (To access it remotely, please have your library card number handy)

Finally, just a word of advice: keep your antivirus software up to date and go to your antivirus provider’s website to look for more information about virus threats periodically.

I Love the Library

And you should too. If you read our blog, you're probably already a fan of libraries. But, do you know what the Austin Public Library can offer you? There is a long list of things the library provides other than just books, and here are just a few.

1. Well, obviously, other than books, we have magazines and journals too. Sometimes, you just want to sit down and look at a People magazine and zone out. Or, you're looking for that recipe your mother told you to find in Southern Living. There are also lots of crafty magazines, I, personally, love looking at them all. Maybe, to save some money, you canceled your subscriptions but still want to read your favorites, come to the Library. You can do a search for your favorite magazine or journal here. You'd be surprised at the selection of titles we have.

2. One of my go-to links on the Library's homepage is the "Research Tools", especially the "Research Guides". The reference librarians at Austin Public Library have worked tirelessly to put together some very special tools to help you in your research. There are guides for those who are trying to open up their own business, discover copyright issues, to guides on how to find reliable health information and literary criticism.

3. If you have a library card with us and know that UT or the San Antonio Public Library has a book you want to check out, you can get a Texshare card and go to those libraries, among many other hundreds of Texas libraries, and check it out! The Texshare program is a fabulous way to take advantage of the availability of materials that other libraries in Texas have. It's free and all you need is a library card with us.

4. Interlibrary loan. This program is older than I am and is still a great way to get very special items, or those not so special items. If you're looking for a small-town newspaper that isn't published anymore, but the library in Kalamazoo has it on microfilm, you can request that film through interlibrary loan (ILL). You can get anything you want through the ILL department, just ask.

5. Music. You won't believe what we've got at the library music department. We've got CDs and LPs you haven't seen or heard in years right along with all that new stuff. From Animal Collective and Lady Gaga to the Beatles and Frank Sinatra. If you know what you're looking for search our catalog and select "music on CD" or "vinyl record" in the material format drop down box. If you just want to browse, head to any Austin Public Library and check out the music section. CDs are everywhere, but the collection of LPs are the largest at Central.

6. My favorite part of the library: the databases. Our databases make the library a billion times bigger than what's in the brick-and-mortar buildings (maybe a slight exaggeration, but pretty close). Along with the typical newspaper and journal articles, you can find anything from your great aunt's phone number in Philly (ReferenceUSA) to a biography on the father of baseball, James Naismith (Biography Resource Center). You can get the repair diagrams for almost all makes and models of cars in the Chilton Library; look up family history from our list of genealogy databases; and get that final primary resource for your paper that's due tomorrow from our list of primary sources databases! And an always popular request for those who are needing a little help with tests, our test preparation databases. There are so many databases, it could make your head spin. So, browse through the subject guide and see what you can discover. You can look at almost all of these databases from home with your library card!

7. Finally, just ask. The reference librarians are just sitting and waiting for you to ask a question. Well, not really, we're doing lots of other things too, but our favorite is to help you find the answers. We can talk to you in person, over the phone, via email, we even chat! Don't be afraid, we're here to help you. If we don't know the answer, you can bet we can find out who does.

The Lacuna and Frida Kahlo

I just finished The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver and, despite some fairly minor issues, I really enjoyed it. It's a work of historical fiction whose main character, Harrison Shepherd, is a sort of observer among some extremely well-known people including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Lev "Leon" Trotsky. Like the meaning of the word lacuna, the book of Shepherd's journal entries, newspaper clippings, and letters has a few gaps, leaving the reader to his/her imagination to fill them.

The book has been a top seller since its release and, other than Kingsolver's reputation and the success of The Poisonwood Bible, I think part of the reason for that might be the inclusion of Frida Kahlo. In fact, Kahlo's appearances were my favorite parts of The Lacuna; Kingsolver characterizes and writes dialogue for Kahlo very closely to how I've imagined her. In the novel, Kahlo is strong-willed, defiant, and intelligent, but Kingsolver also manages to write in those more elusive Frida qualities that I've never been able to define or pinpoint. Perhaps it is these qualities that contribute to her being such a huge celebrity today. Her artwork is obviously revered, but, for me, it is her personality, so central to her paintings, that have kept me enamored with her.

Some of the best biographical sources on Frida can be found in books at the library or via our online databases accessible to anyone with a library card. Of course, there are a few good resources courtesy of Google too, vetted by this librarian and recommended for your reading and viewing pleasure.

BOOKS AND DVDs
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Portrait

Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo: Song of Herself

The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo (DVD)

DATABASE ARTICLES
*Require an Austin Public Library card, if accessing from home

JSTOR
(With an internet connection and a library card, you can access JSTOR from the comfort of your own home. Use the titles to do a search for the two excellent articles below. Need assistance? Ask a Librarian!)

• "Fashioning National Identity: Frida Kahlo in 'Gringolandia'" - Very interesting article on Frida's indigenous style of dress and national identity
  

• "What Frida Kahlo Thought of the Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1939" - Frida's thoughts on Dorothy Hale's suicide and her painting of it

"I Made a Picture of My Life - A Life From the Picture: The Life of the Body in the Pictures and Writings of Frida Kahlo"

WEBSITES
Frida Kahlo Bibliography
"The most complete Frida Kahlo bibliography on the web"

Frida Kahlo Corporation

Frida Kahlo: The Complete Works
All of her paintings on one website

Kahlo Fakes Flood Into Mexico
Over the past few months a number of articles have been written about a rise in Frida forgeries. This article addresses that as well as the new book, Finding Frida Kahlo by Barbara Levine, in which a newly discovered Kahlo archive is on display; however, a number of Frida experts question the authenticity of the archive. Check FindIt in a few weeks for Finding Frida Kahlo - it's on order for the library.

The Real Frida Kahlo
Excellent article from smithsonian.com

Miep Gies, R.I.P.

If we were to write a remembrance to every notable person who has passed on, this blog would quickly become a memorial section. We do not want that. However, for each one of us there are some folks’ passing that hit extra hard. For me, one of those folks passed away Monday. Her name was Miep Gies. She worked tirelessly to hide and provide for Anne Frank and the others sheltered in an Amsterdam canal warehouse. I wrote about Ms. Gies last August. That post can be found here.

Ms. Gies refused to be considered a hero. In recent years she told school children "I don't want to be considered a hero. Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary." Her humility coupled with her bravery truly mark her a hero, even if that made her uncomfortable.

Miep Gies’ Anne Frank Remembered is a great companion to Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl.

I would also like to highlight a World War II memoir I read over the weekend: Hans Erich Nossack’s The End: Hamburg 1943. Mr. Nossack fortuitously was in the countryside surrounding Hamburg during the nights it was destroyed by aerial bombings. The End is the incredible account of his emotions, fears, and thoughts upon entering his devastated city.

The Mathematician's Lament

The Mathematician's Lament started out in 2002 as a 25-page document that circulated somewhat erratically within the mathematics education community. The author, Paul Lockhart , who teaches high school math in Brooklyn, challenged everyone with its subtitle: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art.

The document has now been published as a book: The Mathematician's Lament, 510.71 Lo. He opens the book with a musician waking from a nightmare, where students are taught music beginning with music notation, moving to fixed rules, harmony, scales , then competency tests. Not until college do the students actually hear or play music. Lockhart says this is exactly the way math is taught to students, and the only people who know something is wrong are the students, who are right when they complain that math class is stupid and boring.
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New Year's Resolution - Read the New Yorker

The January 4 New Yorker had three articles that directly related to me as an Austinite, and another one that was about the world's most popular artist, Van Gogh. You can read articles in the New Yorker online using the Library's databases, or read selected articles at the New Yorker website. You can also read the magazine at Faulk Central, which has a print subscription. You might have read about these topics elsewhere, but the New Yorker is known for its exacting standards for journalism, and the articles are a delight to read.

Articles I read in the January 4 issue:

Protest Studies - Students and faculty at the University of Caliornia at Berkely are angry at Mark Yudof, the school's president, who once was UT's president.

School of Rock - Vampire Weekend, which played at ACL in 2008, is a group of upper-middle-class boys channelling Third World musical traditions.

Food Fighter - Story of Whole foods and its founder John Mackey, who does not eat a lot of what Whole Foods sells.

Van Gogh's Ear - Maybe he really didn't cut it off.

To read New Yorker articles using the Library's databases:

-Go to the Austin Public Library homepage.
-Select Research Tools from the menu on the left hand side.
-Select ejournal finder; you will need to enter your Library card number.
-Enter new yorker in the search box, click search
-Select Literary Resources from Gale.
-You will see the articles in chronological order.
-Or search Factiva, which has the full-text of all the articles.

Boris Vian: a French Renaissance Man

Boris Vian was one of those interesting people that had the wonderful capacity to be brilliant in more than one field. He was an engineer, musician, poet, journalist, writer, translator, actor, singer and critic. As a musician, he was a trumpet jazz player and he put together his first jazz band when he was 14 years old. He also played a harp guitar for his compositions (click here for a short video). He is the author of the song “The Déserteur ” or “The Deserter” that has been translated in more than 40 languages and was interpreted by Joan Baez during the Vietnam War. But his musical work wasn’t limited only to jazz, he also wrote and interpreted rock and roll, opera and was the author of many music scores for films.

As a writer, Boris Vian signed his works using Vernon Sullivan as a pen name. His works have been also translated into many languages and made into movies and graphic novels. In the engineering field, he designed wonderful bridges that minimized the use of gas.

Sadly, Boris Vian’s life was very short. He died when he was only 39 years old but his work is considered by many as some of the most influential in French arts and culture.

Austin Public Library has some of his works for your enjoyment:

Books

Heartsnatcher

I spit on your graves

La hierba roja (in Spanish)

Music
Jazz: a Saint-Germain

Defining moment

If you look back over the last decade, what one thing stands out among everything else to you? Many people have died, many people were born, natural disasters, historical political moments, technological advances, but those are insignificant when compared to the one defining moment of the history of the United States in the 2000-2009 decade. Of course, I'm talking about 9/11. Everyone who is old enough to remember, knows exactly what they were doing when they heard the horrific news. I, myself, was going to the dentist.

Eight years have passed since that fateful day and many words have been written, in books, magazines, newspapers and digitally. The event still strikes a chord in each and every one of us. We remember it vividly, as if it happened yesterday.

The library has many books on 9/11, from children's fiction to adult graphic novels. There are also many websites archiving the digital world of what happened on that day. Take the time to remember this historic moment.

Thoughtful websites:
The September 11 Digital Archive

National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Library of Congress September 11, 2001 Documentary Project

Books available at the library:
Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger

The Test of our Times: America Under Siege - and How we can be Safe Again by Thomas Ridge

Ground Zero: a Repairman Jack Novel by Paul Wilson

14 Cows for America by Carmen Deedy

The Commission: the Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon

Touching History: the Untold Story of the Drama that Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11 by Lynn Spencer

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer

The 9/11 Report: a Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson

Magazines and newspapers:
A variety of articles on September 11, 2001 are available at MasterFile Premier (you'll need your library card number handy)

Albums of 2009

Like Liblairian said in his previous post, this is the time of year to be bombarded with "best of" lists and I've got another one for you on this New Year's Day. Raised in this great music city, I love music and listen to it constantly. If the library didn't exist, I really don't know what I would do - I rely heavily on APL to buy the music by the bands I'm interested in, so I can give it a listen before committing to a purchase. True, I can just go to Waterloo and listen away anytime I want, but not for 3 weeks at a time like when I check out a CD from the library.

The below list is of albums the library owns that were released in 2009 that I really enjoyed (and am still enjoying). I'm going to go ahead and temper this list by mentioning that I have been accused of only listening to indie rock and having a feminine taste in music. In response to the first accusation, I'd say, yes, but that does not mean it is lacking in variety. In response to the second, if really enjoying a number of female artists makes one's taste "feminine", then so be it. Either way, I think there may be something in the list for everyone.

On a side note, feel free to Suggest a Title via FindIt, the library catalog, if we do not own the music you're looking for. And, if you don't know how to place a hold already, Ask a Librarian how you can get something sent to the branch of your choice and notified by email when it is available.

Around the Well - Iron & Wine
Samuel Beam, the man behind Iron & Wine, resides just outside of Austin, TX and only gets better each album he releases with his folky, lovely tunes. Read reviews and take a listen.

Blood Bank - Bon Iver
This is just a 4-song EP, not a full album, but the song "Woods" made it hard for me not to put on the list. Read reviews and take a listen.

Dark was the Night: A Red Hot Compilation - David Byrne
David Byrne is the man: lead singer of the Talking Heads, author of a new book, and the creator of this excellent compilation including music by artists such as Spoon, Arcade Fire, Blonde Readhead, Stuart Murdoch, and Conor Oberst. Read reviews and take a listen.

Hazards of Love - The Decemberists

Decemberists songs are like novellas set to music, and, considering Colin Meloy's (the lead singer) creative writing background, I guess this isn't surprising. This album is one long story complete with ghosts, a beast, a fair maiden, and an evil queen. Read reviews and take a listen.

Kingdom of Rust - Doves

I haven't dug a Doves album since The Last Broadcast released in 2002, but this new effort reminds me of why I like them so much and makes me wonder why more people aren't familiar with them. Read reviews and take a listen.

March of the Zapotec/Holland - Beirut

Zach Condon's previous work reflects a European influence, but this double EP is a bit different as it includes influences from Oaxaca, Mexico where Condon recently visited. It's still heavy with his Serge-Gainsbourg-like vocals and European riffs, but it all comes together into another great effort. Read reviews and take a listen.

Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective

I love this band and I'm not sure I would have really gotten into them if the library didn't have their albums. This one is their most accessible, but it is actually my least favorite; however, don't let that get in your way because it's still freakin' awesome. Read reviews and take a listen.

Middle Cyclone - Neko Case

Neko Case has the clearest, most lovely voice and, for me, is singer-songwriting at its best. Read reviews and take a listen.

My Maudlin Career - Camera Obscura

I love the style of pop Camera Obscura is so great at delivering. Their new album is no exception, though, my favorite is still their previous effort, Let's Get Out of this Country (watch a video of one of those tracks here). Read reviews and take a listen.

Noble Beast - Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird writes and sings, plays violin, and whistles like it's nobody's business. Read reviews and take a listen.

Tight Knit - Vetiver

Often referred to as part of the "freak folk" movement (and, indeed, they have done a lot of collaborating with Devendra Banhart), if you like Iron & Wine, you'll probably love Vetiver. Read reviews and take a listen.

Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

More psychedellic folk-pop, this album is my favorite from the band so far. Read reviews and take a listen.

AUSTIN BANDS

How could I leave you without some Austin bands? Here are 3 of my favorites from 2009 that you can find at the library:

The Century of Self - ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
If you haven't heard of Trail of Dead by now and you've been living in Austin for 5 years or longer, I'd say you've been living under a rock. Get with the times and check out their new album. Read reviews and take a listen.

Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away - Slaid Cleaves
I initially stumbled upon Slaid Cleaves via the jukebox at the Horeshoe Lounge (the album Broke Down). His 2009 album does not disappoint and Cleaves still proves to be an amazing songwriter. Read reviews and take a listen.

Tell 'em What Your Name Is - Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

Have you seen Black Joe Lewis live yet? Well, what are you waiting for? Read a review and take a listen.

Best Last Lines from Novels

There is something about the end of the year that renders us suckers for “best of” lists. Whether it is the best albums or the worst movies, the last week of December bombards us with these lists. It is compounded this year with the closure of the decade as well. Any “best of” list is wrought with subjectivity. (Un)fortunately, that won’t keep me from providing a “best of” of sorts. I like novels. So, I present my own highly subjective list of the best last lines in novels. I mined my memory and was greatly assisted with reminders from the American Book Review’s 100 Best Last Lines from Novels to come up with the following favorite last lines. What is your favorite last line?

(all novels mentioned are available at the Austin Public Library)

“So [said the doctor]. Now vee may perhaps to begin. Yes?”
-Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint

“I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.”
-Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

“And however superciliously the highbrows carp, we the public in our heart of hearts all like a success story; so perhaps my ending is not so unsatisfactory after all.”
-W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge

“He wrote: So this is what everybody’s always talking about! Diablo! If only I’d known. The beauty! The beauty!”
-Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“’Like a dog!’ he said, it was as if the shame of it must outlive him.”
-Franz Kafka, The Trial

“Columbus too thought he was a flop, probably, when they sent him back in chains. Which didn’t prove there was no America.
-Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March

“Everything we need that is not food or love is here in the tabloid racks. The tales of the supernatural and extraterrestrial. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. The cults of the famous and the dead.”
-Don DeLillo, White Noise

“It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”
-Toni Morrison, Sula

“’Meet Mrs. Bundren,” he says.”
-William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

“I was grateful to him for calling me back and reminding me where I belonged, in the clamorous, radiant, painfully beautiful kingdom of the living.”
-Francince Prose, Goldengrove

Going a bit further, the last page of The Great Gatsby is my favorite last page of all time. I won’t say it is my favorite novel, but that last page is incredible.

Non-Human Life Forms as Metaphors

Artists are a crafty lot. They tend to use symbols and metaphors to publicize their messages. Three works that have been swimming around in my mind that elucidate this idea are District 9, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and King Kong. A common thread running through each of these is an irrational, primal fear and how humanity predictably reacts when confronted by it. I invite you to watch or read each of these three works and think about what was going on in the United States or the world at the time of their release and see if you can guess which issue or issues may have inspired their creation. If you're stumped, I might suggest using one of our databases such as JSTOR or Academic Search Complete to help lead you in the right direction.

Read it and Weep with Laughter

The casually brilliant and funny Jonathan Tropper returns with the often side-splitting, mostly heartbreaking, This Is Where I Leave You , which is about a man’s inability to recover from heartbreak.

When asked how he could write such sad but funny books, Tropper replied, “It wouldn't occur to me to write it any other way. I don't do it with great consciousness. No matter what you're writing about--death, divorce--in every situation that involves more than one human being, there's going to be an element of comedy. Irony is everywhere.” (Publisher's Weekly interview June 1, 2009) Warner Brothers has acquired the rights to the book and Tropper will write the first draft.

Family Man by Elinor Lipman is another book that will make you smile over and over, but without the tears. In this sparkling comedy, gay Manhattan attorney Henry Archer gets the shock of his life when he realizes the receptionist he's just tipped is none other than his stepdaughter, whom he hasn't seen in 25 years. Before long, his stepdaughter is back in his life and Henry's got his hands full with her, his endlessly chatty ex-wife Denise, a new lover, and the countless others who wander in and out of his elegant Upper West Side brownstone. As always, the pleasure of a Lipman book is not so much the wispy plot, but the characters. But it's the first book I have read in a long time that has a happy ending.

For more book suggestions, see our Good Reads Humorous Books.

The Nutcracker

Oh, yes, this is the time of the year when everybody talks about The Nutcracker, the wonderful ballet with music by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky that fascinates children and adults.

In 1816 E. T. A Hoffman wrote the book Nussknacker und Mausekönig or Nutcracker and the Mouse King. He was a prolific artist: writer, composer, caricaturist, and music critic. Hoffman was one of the most influential artists during Romanticism in Germany. His work not only inspired authors, but composers as well, as in the case of Jack Offebach, who wrote his composition Tales of Hoffman.

In 1891 Marious Petipa hired Tchaikovsky to write the music for the ballet inspired by Hoffman’s book. A year later, the first Nutcracker show was performed at the Russian Mariinsky Theatre. This ballet was performed in different cities around the world, and finally in the 1930s the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo performed it in New York. Little by little, this ballet started gaining popularity and could be now considered a Christmas tradition.
Austin Public Library has copies of the children's book by Hoffman, the music by Tchaikovsky, and videos with different performances of this ballet. Feel free to check those out and have a happy holiday!

Books

• Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A.Hoffmann
  
  
• The Harlem Nutcracker: Based on the Ballet
  

Ballet

• The Nutcracker (DVD) Baryshnikov, Mikhail
  
  
• The Nutcracker (DVD) Tomasson, Helgi
  
  
• Maurice Béjart's The Nutcracker (a different take on Tchaikovsky’s ballet)
  
  
• The Nutcracker Ekaterina Maksimova
  

CD

• Nutcracker by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky
  
  
• The Nutcracker: Complete Ballet, Op. 71 sound recording
  

*Picture taken from Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, University of Northern Iowa

Holiday Shopping

So, you have four days until the big day, and you haven't done any shopping. You're off work, but don't really want to hit the big box stores, who does? Well, luckily you live in Austin. A wonderful town full of libraries with great books, museums, and crafters. Personally, I like a gift that isn't all plastic and cheap. I love something handcrafted or something made by someone who lives in the same town I do! Below are some handy links to folks who make things, some wonderful shops, and fabulous books and magazines on how to make that one of a kind, beautiful gift, available right here in the library. Hurry!

Books:
Denyse Schmidt Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects

Last-Minute Christmas Gifts: Crafting Quick and Crafty Presents for Everyone on Your List by Carol Taylor

Last-Minute Fabric Gifts: 30 Hand sew, Machine Sew & No Sew Projects by Cynthia Treen

Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson

Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson

Weekend Sewing: More Than 40 Projects and Ideas for Inspired Stitching by Heather Ross

Magazines:
American Craft

Beadwork

Cloth Paper Scissors

Creative Knitting

Fiber Arts

Make

Memory Makers

Quilter's Newsletter

Readymade

Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot

Threads

Web:
Austin Craft Mafia

Austin Handmade

Austin Independent Business Alliance

Events and calendars:
Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, an Austin favorite

Art of Texas events

Austin Convention and Visitor's Bureau

Blue Genie Art Bazaar

Museum gift shops:
Austin Children's Museum

Austin Museum of Art

Texas State History Museum


Organizations:
Austin Convention and Visitor's Bureau

Austin Independent Business Alliance

Hans Fallada

If you enjoy the anguished work of tormented authors, you might like German writer Hans Fallada (1893-1947). Perhaps no artist was more troubled. Before he was 20 he’d been run over by a cart, fought typhoid, become addicted to his medicine, killed his best friend in a duel, and, in the moments afterward, tried to kill himself. And he still had the Kaiser, the Depression, and the Nazis to look forward to.

Fallada’s novels are about average people grappling with being unexceptional. Some succumb, some accommodate, some triumph in small ways. Fallada loathed accommodating his Nazi censors, but triumphed after the war with Every Man Dies Alone, a work Primo Levi calls “The greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis.” In it, a bland husband and wife who have lost their soldier son risk everything to oppose the regime. Central to the story is the futility of the couple’s effort and the smallness of their deed compared to the monster they’re up against.

The English publication earlier this year of Every Man Dies Alone was a literary event, and two other of Fallada’s novels were republished to make a set. The library has all three. (A fourth, Wolf Among Wolves, will be published in January, 2010.)

If you’re into bleak, Fallada is your man.

At APL:
Little Man, What Now?
Every Man Dies Alone
The Drinker

Every Man Dies Alone is a staff pick for 2009.

Chinua Achebe's first book since 1990

An oft overlooked titan of letters recently released his first book since 1990. Nigerian novelist and scholar, Chinua Achebe, rose to prominence with the 1958 publication of Things Fall Apart. Prior to this book, the western literary world’s engagement with Africa was that of a latent –and sometimes blatant—racist bent. Things Fall Apart changed that. Achebe’s characters struggled with the myriad scars left by colonialism’s rampant exploitation and watched traditional Nigerian society crumble. He did not shy from faults within traditional culture, but advocated strongly that Africans were not, nor ever were, savages. He rose to further prominence with his 1975 criticism of Joseph Conrad’s previously sacrosanct Heart of Darkness.

The New York Times profiled Mr. Achebe today and discussed his new book, The Education of a British-Protected Child. The Austin Public Library has ordered it and it should be arriving shortly.

In the meantime, the Austin Public Library owns numerous works by Chinua Achebe as well as books about Nigerian literature.

Things Fall Apart

Anthills of the Savannah

Girls at War

A Man of the People

Home and Exile

Bernth Lindfors’ Early Nigerian Literature

Wole Soyinka's The Open Sore of a Continent

Careers for the Cool Kid

I have been trying to get my teenage daughter to think about possible future careers. The parent in me is always trying to steer her toward practical choices that will ensure her a comfortable life. The careers I come up with for her typically involve education and training. She always comes up with things that are not sure bets. Her choices often involve a great deal of luck and risk in order to attain success in the form of a steady income. Suffice it to say, everything I suggest to her sounds boring because fame, glamor, and wild amounts of money aren't readily involved. Another thing I've noticed that is absent from my career suggestions for her versus her career choices for herself is the coolness factor. At my wits end, I decided to run a search in our catalog in order to see what I might be able to dig up that would make us both happy. Fortunately for me, and for Austin in general, my colleagues at the Austin Public Library have anticipated my need. Below are listed a few titles to help point promising young minds overly concerned with coolness to a bright and stable future.

Cool careers without college for people who love sports

Cool careers without college for people who love everything digital

Cool careers without college for people who love manga, comics, and cartoons

Cool careers for girls in cybersecurity and national safety

Cool careers for girls in law

Cool careers for girls in the performing arts

Cool careers without college for Web surfers

Snowmen

Who made the first snowman? Who first came up with the idea of placing snowballs on top of each other, and who decided they would use a carrot for a nose?

Humorist Bob Eckstein successfully argues for the cultural importance of the snowman in The History of the Snowman. Journeying backwards through time, Eckstein searches for the first snowman, moving from the present all the way back to the 14th century. Again and again, the snowman pops up in rare prints, paintings, early movies, advertising and, over the past century, in every art form imaginable. The book includes more than two hundred surprising pictures of snowfolk, both contemporary and historical, from Old Dutch to Charles Addams.

Some facts in the book:

• There are no snowmen in the dry, cold Arctic where humidity is below 20% and the temperature below 10° F--both must be higher in order to pack snow.
• The Association of Education Publishers has banned the use of the word "snowman" in textbooks because it is gender biased.
• The Taliban banned snowman-making when it came to power in 1996.
• Snowmen go way back. Even cavemen are thought to have made snowmen.
• The Middle Ages were the snowman’s heyday.
• Bottle-postcards from the 1920s show all the snowmen drunk. Later they were big in liquor ads.

And of course, the book has its own website.

Recent fiction featuring snowmen:

The Chocolate Snowman Murders
Lee Woodyard, who runs a chocolate store in a Michigan tourist town, is coordinating the local holiday art festival when the guest juror ends up dead.

The Night of the Wolf
Stories in this collection center on an impossible crime, especially in The Abominable Snowman, in which witnesses see a snowman come to life and stab a man to death.

Snow Blind
The snowman building contest turns into a double murder investigation after the frozen bodies of two policemen turn up inside two of the snowmen.

The Snowman’s Children
Moving, psychologically intense novel tells the story of an incident from one man's childhood in the 1970s, when a serial killer called The Snowman stalked the streets of suburban Detroit.

The Year of the Flood
Retelling of the 2003 novel Oryx and Crake shows how Glenn and Jimmy became Crake and the Snowman.

For more books that explore one, sometimes obscure, topic, see Good Read's One Word Wonders list.

*Postcard from the Smithsonian magazine.

Galileo’s telescope: the beginning of a new era

Four hundred years ago, Galileo designed his most wonderful creation: a telescope. At that time, there were already other telescopes invented by other scientists in Europe. The problem with those was that they could only magnify objects 4 times. Galileo’s telescope, on the other hand, was able to magnify things 20 times. This tool allowed Galileo to prove, to his misfortune and to our fortune, that the Copernican Theory that says that the planets rotate around the sun was correct.

If we think about it, it is amazing to see how such a small tool was used for these enormous discoveries. This telescope had only two lenses inside of a stick of wood; if compared to the elaborate ones scientists use nowadays, this is a minuscule instrument. It is with this telescope that Galileo could see Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, a supernova, and the moon. Less light pollution and perhaps better vision back then could have helped Galileo to see more with a rudimentary tool like this.

NASA is planning to launch the James Webb space telescope in 2013. This telescope will use wavelengths and infrared light to be able to see hidden objects in space. With its great mirror, Webb will be able to see 200 million years after the Big Bang. Compared to what happened 400 years ago, it is amazing to see how far science has gone, how many things we know and how many we will learn. I wish Galileo could be here.


Some websites for your enjoyment are:

• More information about Galileo Galilei, his life and findings can be found at the Galileo Project
  
  
• Harry Ransom Center has an exhibit called: "Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works" from September 8th 2009 to January 3rd, 2010. This is a collection of some of the most important astronomical discoveries over the last 500 years
  
  
• Telescopes From the Ground Up
  
  
• Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens
  
  

If you feel like checking something out from the library, here are some suggestions:

• 400 Years of the Telescope [DVD]: A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought
  
  
• Galileo's Glassworks: The Telescope and the Mirror
  
  
• Galileo's Battle for the Heavens [DVD]
  
  
• The Church and Galileo
  
  
• Galileo's Mistake: A New Look at the Epic Confrontation Between Galileo and the Church
  
  
• The Telescope: Its History, Technology, and Future
  
  
• Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope

** Picture taken from Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Media Sensationalism

If you keep track of what's going on in the media, you know that Washington's Amanda Knox was convicted of murder in Italy just a couple of days ago. She will serve twenty-six years for the slaying death of her roommate. It was a hugely sensational news story that wrapped around the world for the last two years. Amanda Knox was judged in the court of public opinion on the way she behaved, the pictures of her found on the Internet and her strange mix of stories immediately after the murder. We may never know why or what happened, only the people who were there know, but media has created a story of great sensation.

In America, we are very familiar with the media and the people whose lives get thrust upon the television screens, newspapers and magazines. In turn, we, the average citizen, form our own opinions of those people. Chris Brown, Tiger Woods, Courtney Love, President Clinton, and Michael Jackson are just a few people who have been judged in the court of public opinion in recent time. Their stories have been splashed and vamped up with minutia of information.

I have listed below some items that are quite interesting to read. Read as much as you can, listen to as many people and opinions as you can, then form your own.

Private Death of Public Discourse

Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media is not the Answer

Peaches & Daddy: A Story of the Roaring Twenties, the Birth of Tabloid Media, and the Courtship that Captured the Heart and Imagination of the American Public

Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, 1958-2009

Media Message: What Film, Television, and Popular Music Teach us about Race, Class, Gender and Sexual Orientation

Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex

Read as many newspapers and magazines as you can here.

Fred Hampton

On this day, at around 4:45 in the morning, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) raided a building at 2337 W. Monroe St. where they shot and killed Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Mark Clark, a Black Panther Party (BPP) member. The initial report of the raid claimed that as soon as the police started knocking they were attacked by a barrage of gunfire through the front door by the members of the BPP that were inside; however, further investigation into the deaths of Hampton and Clark revealed that the occupants of the building may have managed to shoot, if any, just one bullet. In fact, most sources on the subject definitively state that Hampton and Clark were murdered by the Chicago Police Department for their involvement in the BPP, although the FBI still refers to their murders as "alleged." Hampton never even left his bed that morning - he died in it - and there is strong evidence he was drugged the evening prior, allegedly by a William O'Neal, a Panther that had been arrested previously and released in return for informant services to the FBI and CPD. The officials who enacted the raid, killed the two men, and left six others injured, were acquitted of all crimes by an all white grand jury.

It has actually become somewhat common knowledge by now that the FBI deliberately set out to destroy the BPP in the 1960s and early 1970s. J. Edgar Hoover and other officials classified the group as nothing more than another criminal gang to contend with. Ultimately, though, it was state and local officials that lent a big hand in destroying the leadership of the BPP. Members and leaders that officials did not kill have been accused of crimes, often serious crimes, they insist they have not committed, such as former Party member Assata Shakur. Even today, the FBI is still offering a $1 million dollar reward for information leading to Shakur's arrest and capture for crimes she is adamant she did not and could not have committed.

One of the consequences of this targeting of the BPP and other members of the Civil Rights Movement, is that African-Americans have been repeatedly robbed of some of their best and brightest leaders. Fred Hampton was a well-known activist who started up food programs for low income kids and health care clinics in areas that desperately needed them, negotiated truces among Chicago inner city gangs, and brought together different minority groups coining the phrase "rainbow coalition." He was charismatic, intelligent, well-respected and well-liked. It was leaders like this that were deliberately targeted, and, as Dr. Quentin Young, put it, "the people who made it their business to kill the leaders of the black movement picked the right ones."

Many people have very strong opinions on this matter and I'll leave it up to you to form and/or strengthen your own. The library is the best place out there to do just that:

*Anything quoted in this article comes from the "Fred Hampton" entry in Contemporary Black Biography, volume 18, and was found using Biography Resource Center - an excellent source for comprehensive biographies and links to resources on a large number of well-known people.

ARTICLES
Breaking the Cycle
*Requires an APL library card
Article from 1992 expressing outrage at Fred Hampton, Jr.'s (Fred Hampton's son) arrest during the riots that took place after the Rodney King verdict. Hampton, Jr. spent 9 years in prison for the arson conviction that came after this arrest. He maintains his innocence and details his other run-ins with law enforcement (including being wrongfully accused of murder) here.

Fed by Fear: The FBI's Crusade Against Fred Hampton and the Black Panters

Was Fred Hampton Executed?
*Requires an APL library card
Article from 1976 providing details of the raid and evidence that contradicts the police report.


BOOKS, CDs, MOVIES
Assata: An Autobiography

The Black Panthers: Photographs

Eyes on the Prize (documentary)

The Huey P. Newton Reader

The Murder of Fred Hampton (documentary)

Two Nations of Black America (documentary)

Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party

You Can't Kill Revolution: Black Panther Party, 1969 (CD - a recording of a speech made by Fred Hampton)


WEBSITES
Black Panther Coloring Book
Very interesting; distributed by the FBI in the late 60s

FBI's files on Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton sound clip from UC Berkely

From COINTELPRO to the Shadow Government: As Fred Hampton, Jr. is Released from 9 Years of Prison, a Look Back at the Assassination of Fred Hampton (audio)

Power Anywhere Where There's People
Text of a Fred Hampton speech

Shoot it Out: The Death of Fred Hampton
Very thoroughly researched and detailed account of the December 4, 1969 raid

If you don't like the weather...wait a minute. It will change.

Our weather confounds me. I’ve lived in Texas my entire life, yet I remain baffled by how weather patterns fluctuate so rapidly. Sure, we have some constants, like triple digit summer days, but the rest of the year we’re faced with consistent inconsistencies. November can bring a freeze or a pair of shorts. So too can most non-summer months. Perhaps attempting to understand our weather is an exercise in futility. Must we simply grin and bear it?

Nope. Fortunately the library isn’t the place for giving up. The following books are great introductions to weather forecasting. They might not enable you to predict the weather, but they will provide a foundation and just maybe prompt a little slack for the local news meteorologist.

Authors of the Storm: Meteorologists and the Culture of Prediction

Man vs. Weather: How to be Your Own Weatherman

Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment

The Rough Guide to Weather

Storm Warning: The Origins of the Weather Forecast