Grilling! Thrilling!

When I look at a calendar, the Midwesterner in me knows that we’re still months away from summer. But then I think about the temperature and the over-sized sunglasses I just bought and I realize that I’m, ahem, “not in Kansas anymore.” Happily, we’re still in that sweet spot before the brutality of summer’s heat and mosquitoes becomes too much to handle. This can mean many things. But one thing's for certain: It’s time to grill.

Here are a few promising cookbooks from our collection to help you on your grilling adventures!

Grillin’ with Gas: 150 Mouthwatering Recipes for Great Grilled Food

The Cook’s Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue

The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook

If you’re trying to enjoy grilling weather while simultaneously preparing for swimsuit season, you might be interested in

The 300 Calorie Cookbook: 300 Tasty Meals for Eating Healthy Every Day

And if you’re more interested in road trips than grilling you might consider checking out

Follow the smoke : 14,783 miles of great Texas barbecue

There are many, many grilling cookbooks in our collection which you can find my searching the subject field for “barbecuing”. You’ll be well on your way to an enjoyable activity followed by a delicious outcome.

For other summertime suggestions you can revisit liblairian’s post Summer is Here.

Getting Connected with the Small Business Development Program

As the business reference librarian I try to do my best to make people who are interested in starting their own small business aware that they have places and people to turn to for advice and guidance. I buy resources, put together information guides, and partner with area organizations in an attempt at nuturing locally owned and operated businesses. One such organization is Austin's own Small Business Development Program. On staff are counselors armed with resources and expertise who are eager to personally help newly minted entrepreneurs achieve success. They are having their big annual networking event, Getting Connected, this coming Thursday at the Palmer Events Center. It's set to start at 3 p.m. and is completely free and open to the public.

Text the Austin Public Library

The Austin Public Library can now assist you via text. Our number is 522-8208. We do not charge a fee and will be happy to assist you with just about anything. Text number : (512) 337-4893 Hours: Monday-Thursday 11:00-8:00, Friday-Saturday 10:00-6:00 and Sunday Noon-6:00

Year of the Tiger?

It's not the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese Zodiac, but evidence shows otherwise. India's latest tiger census shows an increase in the numbers of the endangered big cat. The census counted at least 1,706 tigers in forests across the country, about 300 more than four years ago. And so far in 2011, five books have been published with tiger in the title, and they are not about the big cat.

FICTION

The Tiger's Wife: a Novel by Téa Obreht

Drawing on the former Yugoslavia’s bloody history, Belgrade-born Obreht portrays two besieged doctors in a story where realism collides with myth, superstition with empirical fact, and allegory with history.

Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna Set in Southern India at the end of the nineteenth century, magnificent debut follows the fortunes of two childhood friends throughout their lives.

Montecore: the Silence of the Tiger by Jonas Khemiri Inventive, tricky tale that follows a Tunisian immigrant's rise from poor orphan to world-famous photographer is also an indictment of Swedish racism and nationalism.

NONFICTION

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua Memoir about parenting two girls to be over-achievers.

Tiger, Tiger: a Memoir by Margaux Fragaso Disturbing memoir of sexual abuse explores with unflinching honesty the ways in which pedophiles can manipulate their ways into the lives of children.

If you want to read about the real thing, check out The Tiger: a True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant, published in 2010.

Microhistories

On my coffee table sits the book Potato, by John Reader. In the disc player in my car is At Home, by Bill Bryson. I'm embarrassed to admit that the similarities of the two books escaped me until I was a third of the way into them. That's when I realized they are both microhistories (I didn't make up that word). They both start small by describing an overlooked, seemingly insignificant object, and then link that small thing to big events, so that the development of a pencil or of a house becomes a broad far-ranging cultural history.

I like that, and I must not be alone because quite a few books have been written on that pattern recently. (Mark Kurlansky has been particularly prolific.) The Library's APL Recommends has a Microhistories book list under Nonfiction and below are some of the titles (nothing cryptic here):

• The Pencil
• At Home
• Aspirin
• Potato
• Salt
• Spice
• Nathaniel's Nutmeg
• Zipper

Quick & Easy

Most people in America are short on time. Everyone loves a home cooked meal, but how do you find time and/or motivation to get one on the table at the end of a crazy day at work? The only thing I want to do at the end of a long work day is sit on the couch, read or watch TV, and tune out the world for a bit. I actually love to cook, but when cooking becomes an obligation, I despise it. I also hate having to clean the kitchen every time I cook, which is all the more reason to pick up take out and toss it out with the garbage when finished.

I'm certain I'm not the only one who feels like this. Enjoying cooking prompts me to check out more than my fair share of cookbooks from the library and I often find myself flipping through them on the couch at the end of the day, pausing at a delicious sounding recipe, and thinking, "Who has this kind of time??" Spending over an hour on cooking and clean up combined is far too much for me and a number of cookbooks seem to be written from the vantage point that I have nothing better to do than slave my evening away. I finally found a (perhaps obvious) solution: quick and easy cookbooks. As many cookbooks as I've perused in my life, it's funny to me that it took me so long to pick one up. I'm sort of a foodie wannabe, so I guess I've stuck to the critically acclaimed and famous chef cookbooks, which don't a care a lick about my schedule.

Here are some of my favorite quick and easy cookbooks that you can find at the library. Just because it's quick and easy does not mean I want to skimp on flavor or freshness, so these are all cookbooks that keep taste in mind and minimize the not-so-healthy shortcuts that can be typical of these types of books:

(Hint: To find a complete list of quick and easy cookbooks in FindIt, the library catalog, type in "quick and easy cookery" and select Subject from the dropdown menu to the right of the search box.)

The 30-minute Vegan: Over 175 Quick, Delicious, and Healthy Recipes For Everyday Cooking
I'm not vegan, but there are some major health benefits to eating like one and I love, love, love this cookbook! This cookbook helped me figure out how to make cooking vegan a little simpler and a little quicker. They even have recipes for easy, green juices that I love to start my day off with. I'm excited about The 30-minute Vegan's Taste of the East, which came out last year and is currently on order for the library.

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes From a Delicious Revolution
Alice Waters, the author of this title, is the co-founder of Chez Panisse, but that's no reason to be intimidated. These recipes are healthy, utilize fresh ingredients, and are super simple. Waters also includes lots of helpful hints useful to any cook.

Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast: 250 Easy, Delicious Recipes For Any Time of Day
Martha Stewart and Co. are responsible for "Everyday Food". The recipes are delicious and simple and great for families. If you subscribe to the magazine, there isn't much here that will be new to you, but, if not, this is one of those books that you'll use time and again.

Mariel's Kitchen: Simple Ingredients For a Delicious and Satisfying Life
I've always had a little crush on Mariel Hemingway, but I promise that's not why I included her book here. Mariel lives a very healthy lifestyle and, after reading and enjoying Mariel Hemingway's Healthy Living From the Inside Out, I was thrilled she was putting out a cookbook so I could take a look at some of the food she enjoys eating. These recipes are healthy, flavorful, and, most importantly, easy!

Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 404 Inspired Seasonal Dishes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less
I have two of Bittman's other cookbooks, How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which I refer to constantly. Although I've stumbled across a few recipes that just haven't turned out at all like he said they would, most of the time this book does not disappoint and the prep and cook time estimates are almost always accurate.

Vegan On the Cheap: Great Recipes and Simple Strategies That Save You Time and Money
The recipes I've tried in this book are easy and delicious and it has helped me enjoy some dishes and vegetables I never had before. The emphasis in this one is on cost, so all of the food costs are broken out for you, but it also works as a quick recipe book. So far, I haven't spent more than an hour on any one recipe.

Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy: Great Foods You Can Make in Minutes
This is another one where if you receive "Vegetarian Times" at home or browse them at the library, you may not find much new here. But, for those of us that don't subscribe, this is a great little collection of their easier recipes.

Connect to Joni Mitchell with the Library

There are weeks when I have to rack my brain to think of a blog topic. And then there are weeks, like this one, where I have just been hit over the head with a topic I can’t avoid. But no, this isn’t about Charlie Sheen. In the last two weeks I have been suddenly and inexplicably been reminded of my love for Joni Mitchell. These reminders also serve as great tips on some of the library’s services available to you!

1) While watching The Kids are All Right, Annette Benning breaks into a haunting (in the context of the scene) rendition of Mitchell’s quintessential song "All I Want".

Library Connection: The soundtrack and DVD to The Kids are All Right can both be found in APL’s catalog, as well as Joni Mitchell’s album Blue, the original publication of "All I Want".

2) The trivia-of-the month in my monthly planner (published by Texas Amateur Athletic Federation) is as follows: “Remember Woodstock? The March 25, 1995 issue of Billboard magazine announced that Joni Mitchell, Canadian-born singer/songwriter, was to be the recipient of its Billboard Century Award for 1995.”

Library Connection: You can read the full text of this article through several of APL’s databases, including Academic Search Complete. You can also read a quick biography of her life in our database Biography in Context.

3) A friend of mine, who usually sings the praises of Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead, suddenly recommended Mitchell’s album Hejira and talked about a documentary he’d seen on her life.

Library Connection: Both the album Hejira and the documentary Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind can be found in our collection.

4) While listening to Seattle-based podcast Air-Raid.net, I learned about

Continuum Publishing's series 33 1/3 which tackles important albums one book at a time. Air-Raid's guest happened to be Sean Nelson, author of the book covering Mitchell's album Court and Spark.

Library Connection: Although APL doesn’t carry the item, I was able to easily obtain a copy through APL’s Interlibrary Loan program.

Thanks to the library’s resources and several happy accidents, I’ve learned all kinds of interesting facts about my favorite folk singer. If only I could unlearn that she named her cat Nietzsche.

Libya - Fiction

Libya-Fiction is the catalog subject heading for novels set in Libya. You would enter libya and fiction in the FindIt search box and then select subject in the drop down menu. And then you would find the 2007 award-winning title - In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar, a semi-autobiographical piece about growing up in Libya. It's a powerful, poignant tale that conveys the horrors that happen to anyone living under an oppressive regime. In this case, a young boy with a revolutionary father and an alcoholic mother is living in Libya under the dictatorship of Col. Qaddafi. The book is a condemnation of the evils that men do in the name of patriarchy and despotic revolutions.

Matar was 20 when two men arrived at the family home in Cairo. His father answered the door, and was never seen again. The men were probably from Egypt's secret police who then handed him over to Libya. Matar's father was a member of Libya's intellectual middle class, a successful businessman who, as a pro-democracy activist, had been forced to live in semi-permanent exile in Egypt. Matar's most recent book, Anatomy of a Disappearance, which the Library does not yet have, is about a father whose disappearance haunts his son.

Matar said recently in The Guardian that the " UN security council resolution is an extraordinary achievement. It is unrelenting in its commitment to saving lives, yet nuanced enough to take into account Libya's sensitivity to foreign intrusion - a result of its exceptionally brutal colonial experience under the Italians - and seems committed to Libyan sovereignty and political independence." (You can read The Guardian through the Library's subscription to Factiva.)

Immigration Prisons

We know a lot more about the rest of the world, including human rights abuses, with the intense and increasing globalization of media coverage. But we should also be aware of what is going on here that may need to be changed. Books at APL look at what can happen when for profit detentions centers are created for undocumented immigrants - in places such as Hutto and Port Isabel in Texas and throughout the country.


A Death in Texas: Profits, Poverty, and Immigration Converge (written by Tom Barry)

NPR's Fresh Air - Interview with Tom Barry

Books:
Between the Fences: Before Guantanamo, There was the Port Isabel Service Processing Center
American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons
Detained: Immigrations Laws and the Expanding I.N.S. Jail Complex

Baseball Writing: Fiction not Boxscores

Spring training is underway, with half of the league in Arizona and the other half in Florida. March 31st serves as the season's opening day. Baseball journalism has provided some of the best sportswriting over the past century. Memorable moments on the diamond found their way into print and in newspapers across the country. Longform baseball journalism held lofty places in exalted national magazines. Over the past few years I have caught up on my baseball writing in preparation for the season. This year I have taken a different approach. Rather than peruse the limitless tomes of America's baseball writers, I have turned to fiction. Countless novelists have included America's pasttime in their work.

Some great fiction that features baseball (admittedly, some more prominently than others):

Don Delillo's Underworld

Philip Roth's The Great American Novel

W.P. Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy

Michael Chabon's Summerland

Bernard Malamud's The Natural

Ring Lardner's Ring Around the Bases

Tsunami

By now everyone has to know that the English translation for tsunami is "harbor wave", but a tsunami isn't just one wave. The most dramatic video we're seeing out of Japan this week is of the crest of the first wave roaring over land, but a tsunami is a series of waves; it's a series of pulses of water. A dripping faucet creates the same conditions in your bathtub: the drop displaces the water it falls into, and the energy of that displacement lifts water in concentric circles moving out from where the drop falls. You see it when you toss a rock into a pond: a single rock triggers multiple ripples.

And the water coming ashore is not the water that was displaced at the site of the earthquake. 2-D depictions of how the mechanism works make it look like the sudden uplift of the ocean floor raised a bolus of water at that spot which then raced to shore. But what happens is that the shift transfers energy into the water above it, then the energy travels through the water; the water itself stays where it is. If you've ever swum out past the breakers and floated on the ocean swells behind them, you understand how the energy of the waves lifts and flows through you, but you and the water stay, pretty much, in the same place.

Austin Public Library's collection of books about tsunamis has swelled, as you can imagine, since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in Sumatra.

• Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka
• The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
• The Power of the Sea
• Wave of Destruction

And give this blog post about earthquakes another read.

Natural Beauty

While it can be difficult to find unbiased information on the topic, the safety of cosmetics and personal care products has been called into question by many groups and researchers. The cosmetics industry is largely unregulated by the FDA, leaving it to regulate itself (see this webpage from the Federal Government's Office on Women's Health). Cosmetic companies do not need approval from any government agency to sell their products, meaning that none of the ingredients in these products are subject to review or testing by anyone other than the company that sells them. There is evidence out there that many of the fragrances and preservatives found in these products can cause cancer, hormonal disruptions, and other health issues (see this statement made to Congress by Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group). The statement made by Mrs. Houlihan is followed by a very extensive bibliography and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics also has a "Science" section on its website with links to reports and research such as the President's Cancer Panel's 2008-2009 Annual Report suggesting that the number of chemicals we are exposed to in everday household items, such as cosmetics, are contributing to Americans' increased incidence of cancer. In an effort to help people purchase non-toxic, unharmful products, the Environmental Working Group has produced a Shopper's Guide to Safe Cosmetics that is easy to print out and take with you the next time you shop to help you make better informed decisions about your purchases. Also, try their Cosmetics Database where you can search for products you own at home and find out more about any known harmful substances in them.

Many beauty products can be made pretty simply and safely from your own home using all-natural ingredients. The library has a great selection of books filled with info on the hazards of cosmetics and recipes to make your own:

The Good Earth Bath, Beauty & Health Book

The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances

The Herbal Home Spa: Naturally Refreshing Wraps, Rubs, Lotions, Masks, Oils, and Scrubs

Mary Lee's Natural Health & Beauty: Healthy Living With Essential Oils

Natural Beauty From the Garden: More Than 200 Do-It-Yourself Beauty Recipes and Garden Ideas

Natural Beauty: Pamper Yourself With Salon Secrets at Home

Organic Body Care Recipes: 175 Homemade Herbal Formulas for Glowing Skin & a Vibrant Self

Brackets of Books!

March has arrived! For many Americans this means basketball, brackets, Madness and, according to Newsweek, roughly $1.7 million in lost worker productivity. But March is also the time for a lesser-known tournament. The online magazine, The Morning News, uses tournament fever to host their annual Tournament of Books.

The first round was yesterday and pitted Jonathan Franzen’s novel Freedom against Teddy Wayne’s Kapitoil. You may have noticed Jonathan Franzen’s presence on APL’s Hottest Authors list so it’s not too terribly surprising that he won the first round of competition. In today’s judging, Emma Donoghue’s Room eked out a victory over Marcy Dermansky’s Bad Marie.

What I like about this tournament, aside from giving me a warm-up for filling out my basketball bracket, is that it serves as a great introduction to some of last year’s best fiction. Each round the judges go over some of the highs and lows of each title, resulting in pretty excellent reviews. They’re offering discounts on the titles in the tournament but I’m happy to report that the library currently owns fifteen of the sixteen books in the tournament!

Yes, the first two rounds are already finished but not to worry! The tournament goes on all through the month of March with the championship round on April 1st! And your bosses would probably prefer you follow a tournament that doesn’t involve hours of streaming video. So happy reading! And don't forget, if none of this year's titles appeal to you, you can always use the library's awesome databases to find your next great read!

p.s. If I were to pick a bracket based solely on titles, I think we’d see The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake versus Super Sad True Love Story in the finals.

Graffiti in Argentina

Some grafitti is so uninspiring and unimaginative. It's not surprising it is considered a blemish on the urban landscape and is promptly painted over. However, some grafitti is as visually impressive and inventive as anything you will find in a gallery or museum. Such is also the case in as far away a place as Buenos Aires, Argentina. As with any vibrant big city, there exists a rich and pulsating graffiti scene. See for yourself in Graffiti Argentina. While you're there, look a little to the left to find Graffiti Brasil. Both titles will astonish you with colorful, inventive, and clever imagery.

Street art in the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires

Istanbul - the Old and the New

Istanbul is one of the most cosmoplitian and complex cities – the center of a country that is 98% Islamic yet increasingly famous for its watermelon martinis. Turkey's most cosmopolitan metropolis has more billionaires than any city other than New York, Moscow and London, and has streets lined with "Armani", "Gucci", "Vuitton" and "Dior". Istanbul is where the Islamic world meets the global order, serving as a bridge between Europe and Asia. I just finished reading my first book with its setting in Istanbul, The Museum of Innocence by Orahn Pamuk, and it's currently my "favorite" book. The ending, which you can only appreciate if you read the whole story, is so poignantt and beautiful, it takes your breath away. According to Pamuk, Istanbul's two identities grew from the division between the old (which is usually the local and the Islamic) and the new (generally the western and the secular). The old Istanbul, with its relics of the Ottoman Empire, can be a source of shame. In the Museum of Innocence, the obsessed lover of the beautiful but unattainable Fuson builds a museum to honor her and Istanbul. “While the West takes pride in itself, most of the rest of the world lives in shame,” the narrator explains. “But if the objects that bring us shame are displayed in a museum, they are immediately transformed into possessions in which to take pride.”

Other new books at APL set in Istanbul; most are set in the old Istanbul.

Oracle of Stamboul by Michael Lukas

Dervish House by Ian McDonald

The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry

The High City by Celilia Holland

The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin

For a modern look at Istanbul, read about the internationally acclaimed visual Turkish artist Kurlug Ataman, who is having a temporary exhibit of 11 of his major works at Istanbul Modern, but it ends soon - March 6.

Texas Independence Day

Today marks the 175th anniversary of the Texas Declaration of Independence. In observance of the anniversary, the original Declaration of Independence is on display through April 21st at the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library.

My favorite book related to Texas Independence does not sing praises of Bowie, Crockett, and Travis. Nope. My preferred tome is Santa Anna's memoir. Yup. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna wrote a memoir titled The Eagle. It is a fascinating read, providing an alternative perspective of the assorted battles and politics of Texas' fight for indepedence. What makes it truly exceptional are Santa Anna's peripatetic adventures after his battles with Texas. Being somewhat myopic, my knowledge of Santa Anna's life ceased after surrendering to Sam Houston. I knew he survived, but never considered what he might have done with the rest of his life.

Turns out, he was everywhere. After a brief exile in the United States, Santa Anna led the Mexican Army against the French in Veracruz. He lost a leg courtesy of cannon fire and used a cork prosthesis for awhile, which was later captured by American troops when he led the Mexican Army in the Mexican-American War. After that humbling, he bounced between Cuba, Colombia, Jamaica, and Staten Island--where he struggled as a chewing gum importer--before returning to Mexico City some thirty years later.

I have never read a more boastful memoir and can't imagine an ego larger than Santa Anna's. His hubris makes The Eagle a hilarious and interesting read. You will be shocked by his explanation for surrendering to Sam Houston.

The Traveling Librarian Goes Home

I'm just back from two weeks in sunny Southern California, where, as you can see from the photos above, it was raining, but that's all right. Fresh snow on the San Bernardino mountains and lush green in the desert--gorgeous!

Riverside is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Its library serves over 300,000 people in the city, but like Austin, the surrounding area (called the Inland Empire) is densely packed, and also like Austin, you only have to live in the state to qualify for a card. RPL has an area history collection in its basement, and is planning a new, bigger library building (sound familiar?) to accommodate new technology. (I hope they don't trash the decorative cement grids on the front.)

The pagoda in the center photo was a gift from Riverside's sister city, Sendai, Japan. Behind the trees to the right of the pagoda is the Mission Inn, the most fabulous thing in town, a 1920s luxury hotel with world-class service where movie stars and Presidents have stopped. Most of the time I was growing up it was a ruin. A series of investors bought it, poured money into it, and bailed out, but the latest owners have brought it back from the brink. (Sorry to sound like a commercial. The Mission Inn and I are old friends.)

This has been a quick, disjointed post written by somebody returning from vacation with a lot of e-mail to wade through, but I do have a puzzle!

Chicken Time

According to Mother Earth News, February - June (early - late Spring) is the time to start chicks! If you've been considering starting your own chicken coop, now is the optimal time to choose from the variety of breeds out there, buy your baby chicks and keep them super warm, and get to work building (or buying) your coop so it will be ready by the time the chicks are all set to inhabit it. There are many great reasons to raise chickens in your own backyard including: a source of excellent fertilizer; the addition of some friendly, low maintenance pets to your backyard; pest control; fresh eggs; and even meat. There are a number of studies out there indicating that eggs from chickens that are provided appropriate conditions, such as ample outdoor time and space, are far more beneficial to your health than many brands of even organic eggs from your local supermarket.

Here are some links and how-to guides to help you get started. Austin is the perfect place to raise chickens considering the large number of Austinites with backyard coops - there are plenty of people in town to talk to on the subject and you might be surprised how many people in your own neighborhood have chickens and dine on supberb, local eggs fresh from their own backyard.

Austin Backyard Poultry Meetup Group

Austin's Egg Rolls Jump As More Chickens Take Up Roost in Backyard
Good article from Austin 360 about the growing number of Austinites raising chickens.

Buck Moore Feed & Supply
There are many places you can get your baby chickens in Austin. Usually, most feed and supply stores are the places to look. Here's a link to one of the places you should be able to find baby chicks, among other supplies, this year.

Callahan's General Store
Another place you should be able to find baby chicks and other supplies.

Eggstravaganza: A Four Part Series on Raising Chickens for Eggs
An article from Mother Earth News

Funky Chicken Coop Tour
For the past few years, a chicken coop tour has been taking place in Austin where you can print out a map of residences around town where people are raising chickens and tour them. Get design ideas, talk to the people actually raising chickens, and just enjoy meeting neighbors and fellow community members on April 23, 2011.

H & H Poultry
Yet another Austin area business that can help you with your chicken (and other poultry) needs.

Organic Egg Scorecard
This scorecard ranks organic egg companies. Notably, the closest producer to us with the best rating is World's Best Eggs from Coyote Creek Farm near Elgin, Texas with a 5 egg (the best possible) rating. You can purchase World's Best Eggs at Whole Foods. See this page for more info.

Meet Real Free Range Eggs
Another Mother Earth News article - this is the one where they've run some tests on eggs and discovered a health difference in (truly) free range eggs vs. your standard supermarket egg

BOOKS

Barnyard in Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cattle

Chicken Breeds & Care: A Color Directory of the Most Popular Breeds and Their Care

Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock

Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens

Rethinking Architecture and Libraries

I am not a student of architecture but I sometimes find myself under the spell of beautiful buildings. Some of my favorites include: The Sculptured House (pictured) is also known as The Star Trek House, Clamshell House, The Jetson House or The Flying Saucer House and is known best as the house in Woody Allen’s The Sleeper; London’s “Gherkin” which houses offices in the financial district and also had a cameo in Allen’s Match Point; and the home of Charles and Ray Eames in California. These aren’t really surprising choices on my part but I appreciate each of them because they each ignored the convention of their eras and made something fundamentally different in some way.

I like all of these buildings because they each take a step back from convention and ask “why?” Why do buildings need to be rectangular? Why would we build a building for the now instead of trying to picture an appropriate building for the future? I think the architect for The Sculptured House, Charles Deaton said it well: “People aren’t angular. So why should they live in rectangles?”

After spending a long weekend in Seattle, I have to add Seattle’s Central Library to this list. According to Library Journal’s Brian Kenney, “What Seattle’s team of architects and librarians did was no less than to deconstruct the public library – laying out its various services and collections – the put it back together, seemingly unburdened by history.” It is projects like these that keep me excited about Austin’s own Central Library Project. You can, by the way, read the latest update on our website which includes some tidbits about how the Art in Public Places Program might play a role in the design of the new building. The update also provides the timeline for the project and information about other Capital Improvement Projects.

So if you’re interested, join me in daydreaming about the future of APL! Here are some titles to get you started.

On Building Libraries:
The New Downtown Library: Designing with Communities
by Mattern, Shannon Christine

Planning for a New Generation of Public Library Buildings
by McCabe, Gerard B.

Countdown to a New Library: Managing the Building Project
by Woodward, Jeannette A.

Amazing Architecture and Design:
20th Century Design: The Definitive Illustrated Sourcebook
by Miller, Judith

Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture
by Goldberger, Paul

Modern Architecture: Representation and Reality
by Levine, Neil

The Films of Charles and Ray Eames
by Charles and Ray Eames

Presidential Biographies

Presidents' lives have always been favorite subjects for biographers. David McCullough and Edmund Morris have written some of the best presidential biographies. MCullough won two Pulitizer Prizes for his biographies, Truman and John Adams. McCullough's next book will be about Americans living in Paris between the 1830s and the 1930s, and is due out this May. Edmund Morris, who won the Pulitzer for The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, writes about Roosevelt's last decade in Colonel Roosevelt, which is on the list of recent biographies at APL.

Madison and Jefferson
Andrew Burstein, 2010

Washington: A Life
Ron Chernow, 2010

Colonel Roosevelt
Edmund Morris, 2010

Lyndon B. Johnson
Charles Peters, 2010

A Complicated Man: the Life of Bill Clinton as Told by those Who Know Him
Michael Takiff, 2010

Young Mr. Obama, Chicago and the Making of a Black President
Ted Mcclellan, 2010

Recommended Cookbooks

The best thing about the APL list of best cookbooks is that we have them all to
check out. The list was compiled from a delicious assortment of Best Cookbooks of 2010 lists. If you are not into spending time in the kitchen, then check out Eat Tweet which has 1,020 recipes boiled down to 140 characters.





Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours

Baked Explorations: Classic American Dessert Reinvented

Chewy gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies

The Essential New York Times Cook Book: Classic Recipes for a New Century

Falling off the Bone: There's a Heap of Good Eating in the Budget Cuts of Meat

Frankie’s Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual

Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours from Amaranth to Teff

Harvest to Heat: Cooking with Amerca’s Best Chefs, Farmers and Artisans

Heart of the Artichoke: and Other Kitchen Journeys

In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories about the Food You Love

One Big Table: a Portrait of American Cooking 600 Recipes from the Nation's Best Home Cooks, Farmers, Fishermen, Pit-masters, and Chefs

The Perfect Finish: Special Desserts for Every Occasion

Perfect One Dish Dinners

Sarabeth’s Bakery

Thai Street Food: Authentic Recipes, Vibrant Traditions

What to Cook and How to Cook It

Andy Goldsworthy

I have mentioned a time or two that my favorite artists do not use paint or canvas. They use stone, steel, and wood. Whether a building's facade or an outdoor scultpure, I prefer my art outside. I feel more integrated with the art if I can admire it while strolling around outdoors. It seems more playful.

One such artist who continually surprises me is Andy Goldsworthy. The simplicity of his work always wows me.

He plucks natural elements from their places and reconfigures them into something beautifully odd. Whether we like it or not, his installations are intended to fall down, break apart, or be washed away, the constituent parts bucking his arrangement and returning to a natural order. Due to each work’s impermanence, photography plays a vital role—capturing the art before it returns to its natural form. His works' impermanence lends it a special aura.

Since his work is meant to disappear I have never seen a work in the wild. Thankfully, The Austin Public Library owns several photography books conveying the works of Andy Goldsworthy. Each one of these books has spent at least one tour of duty on my coffee table.

Enclosure

Passage

Hand to Earth

Wall

Time

Wood

Stone

I had never heard of Andy Goldsworthy until I watched Rivers and Tides with a friend. I remember being floored, then scampering to the library for all the books mentioned above.

Cupid behind the scene

You know the story: two movie stars meet on a movie set and fall in love with each other. Then everyone talks about them and their infatuation is the best thing that can happen to the tabloids and paparazzi. Their romance might last as long as the shooting period of the movie, or they might end up marrying and staying together for a long time (usually, against all odds.) \

Here is a list of some of the movies where Cupid was a little mischievous, lighting the flame of love between co-stars:

Days of Thunder (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman)

Daredevil (Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck)

Sahara (Penelope Cruz and Matthew McConaughey)

Time to Kill (Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt)

Gattaca (Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke)

Scream (Courtney Cox and David Arquette)

The Long, Hot Summer (Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman)

Woman of the year (Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy)

Bugsy (Annette Bening and Warren Beatty)

Twilight saga (Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson )

Can you see that special sparkle in their eyes? :)

Happy Valentine's Day all!!

Robots

The first science fiction televsion program aired on the BBC on this day, 1938. I happened to stumble upon this little piece of trivia while browsing Wikipedia and it stood out to me for two reasons: robots and Karel Capek. A coworker's daughter actually just drew me (and everyone in our department) a picture of a robot - she's only 3 and, when asked why she chose to draw everyone robots, APL blog contributor Evelyn Carnahan replied that for some mysterious reason this is her new favorite thing to draw. Apart from finding that truly adorable, I have also been listening to a lot of Daft Punk lately, particularly Alive 2007, for no other reason than a recurring mood to dance around my apartment while getting dressed in the morning ("Robot Rock" at 7AM? Yes, please!). So, I've had robots on the brain this week...

But really, what got me going about finding out about the first sci-fi television program was the fact that it was based on Karel Capek's play, R.U.R., Rossum's Universal Robots. Capek is credited with coining the term robot, which was first introduced in R.U.R. Capek wrote novels, plays, and short stories and was considered to be Czechoslovakia's most prominent literary figure in the 1920s and 1930s; indeed, he is one of Czechoslovakia's most renowned literary figures of all time. I actually knew his name from the one novel I've read by him, War With the Newts. I absolutely loved that book - it's a science fiction story about a race of creatures, the Newts, that live below the sea and are discovered and exploited by humans. I've actually never met anyone, other than the person that introduced me to Capek, who has even heard of him. But, if you're a lover of sci-fi, I'd say he's an author you shouldn't miss (I mean, come on, he invented the term and concept of robots!) and we have tons of his work at the library:

The Absolute at Large

Apocryphal Tales: With a Selection of Fables and Would-be Tales

Cross Roads

The Gardener's Year
This is actually a nonfiction book about gardening - it's beautifully written and can be enjoyed by anyone no matter their level of affection (or lack thereof) for the subject.

Krakatit

Nine Fairy Tales: And One More Thrown in For Good Measure

The Ups and Downs of Basketball (in Books!)

I’ve been thinking a lot about college basketball lately. There's nothing too surprising about that at this time of year of course. Conference play is in full swing, the conference tournament is just around the corner, and then the NCAA tournament begins! But what I’ve been interested lately, aside from the records of my favorite Big XII teams, is the way basketball can impact the lives of young people. Sometimes in really positive ways and sometimes in pretty frustrating ways.

Here are some titles that go beyond the basics of how the game is played and who the stars are. Instead, these titles look into how the off-court lives of players affect the on-court lives of players and vice versa.

• Award-winning director Dee Mosbacher’s 2010 documentary Training Rules: No Drinking, No Drugs, No Lesbians, explores sexual discrimination in women’s basketball by following Penn State’s former basketball champ Jennifer Harris as she takes on the institutionalized homophobia of coach Rene Portland.
• Doug Merlino’s brand new book The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White tells the story of a Seattle AAU team comprised half of privileged white kids and half relatively poor African-American students. But unlike the inspirational and uplifting tales we’ve seen in the past (think Hoop Dreams or Remember the Titans), this real-life tale ends with some tragic realities as Merlino follows the lives of those original team members.
• Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America’s Youth by Dan Wetzel and Don Yaeger: Discusses the shadier side of recruiting players from AAU and youth basketball leagues and how the big shoe companies of the sport play a part.
• Wheelchair Warrior: Gangs, Disability, and Basketball by Melvin Juette and Ronald J. Berger: “A former gang member who is now wheelchair-bound after being shot and paralyzed in a gang dispute, offers an informative ethnography on both gang life and wheelchair basketball.” From School Library Journal

On the lighter side of basketball:

• James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball by Rob Rains: A one-of-a-kind book written with the cooperation of Naismith’s family and the use of his private letters and documents. One of the most complete biographies of this
• FreeDarko Presents the Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History (worth it for the mustache index if nothing else)
• The First Tip-Off: The Incredible story of the birth of the NBA by Charley Rosen

Hopefully these can keep you busy on those quiet, gameless Friday nights.

Black History Month - APL Recommends

This year's Black History Month theme is African Americans and the Civil War. Below is a list of recommended 2010 books about African Americans, which includes two books on this year's Black History theme.

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick

Confederate Reckoning:Power and Politics in the Civil War South by Sepahnie McCurry

The Grace of Silence by Michele Norris

Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides

The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant

My Times in Black and White: Race and Power at the New York Times by Gerald Boyd

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore

Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone by Nadine Cohodas

Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America by Daniel Biddle

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet: Race and the Mythology, Politics, and Business of Jazz by Randy Sandke

Nordic Mysteries

Today in Austin we have a touch of the Nordic weather that makes Nordic mysteries such compelling reading. Crime stories from Sewden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland have become the mass-market vehicle that now carries the Nordic countries to the world.

Readers relish Nordic crime in part because of its densely realized local backdrops. In compact, often lonely communities, grim deeds suddenly erupt. The masters of this game often take pains to trace hidden links that bind cosy corners of the wealthy North with a bigger, and poorer, world. In contrast to American mysteries, often the law officers and detectives do not know what they are doing.

You can find a list of Nordic Mysteries listed under Fiction on APL Recommends. You will find authors beyond the well-known Norwegian author Jo Nesbø and Sweden's Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson.

2/2/22

February 2, 1922 was the day Sylvia Beach published James Joyce's Ulysses. Long considered a masterpiece of the twentieth century and the subject of a landmark obscenity trial, Ulysses is a complex novel of several hundred pages set in Dublin on June 16, 1904. Joyce spent eight years writing the novel, completing it in the fall of 1921. He spent the next few months editing and saw it published on his fortieth birthday, his self-imposed deadline.

I have not read Ulysses. I have begun it several times, never reaching beyond the first few pages. I am not afraid of the book. I simply am hesitant to commit to several hundred pages of the same story. I know the book's plot. I understand its place in the literary canon, but I have yet to fully experience its lyrical writing and beautifully disjointed storytelling. Marilyn read it. Countless others have read it.

Ulysses sits near the top of my 2011-to-read list. Some other long classics I have yet to read: Moby Dick, War and Peace, and the second half of The Brothers Karamozov. I do not know if I will read them all this year, but I'll try.

What are classics you have avoided, but might tackle this year?

Photography

Four years ago I bought a 5.1 megapixel camera. It was expensive, but all those megapixels! Wow! These days it sells for less than a third of what I paid for it (even with a lot of well-cared-for accessories), and now 14 megapixels sell for less than I paid for 5.1! But I'm told I shouldn't dwell on megapixels. It turns out they aren't the thing to look for. The thing to look for is the size of the image sensor (analagous to the size of the film) because the image sensor works the same way film does: the larger the image sensor (or film), the more detail in the photo, the bigger you can blow it up in your darkroom (now Photoshop), and the more you have to work with. So photography has changed completely... and not so much.

The mechanism for fixing light has changed but the rules for illuminating a subject haven't, and neither have the rules of composition. Old photography books can still teach you a lot about those things. It's easy to set a digital camera for the ambient light (How cool is it that now you can push a button to change the film speed instead of changing out the film?), and Photoshop can find a few good pixels in almost any shot you take, but the fundamentals: where the sun should be, how the subject should be situated, those haven't changed.

Obviously, I'm no expert. I just skim the surface of the camera's and the software's features, and so can anybody and make some very good pictures. But I warn you: once you have 5.1 megapixels, you'll want more.

Photography books at APL:

Digital Photo Madness
Real World Image Sharpening
Color, Light & Composition; a Photographer's Guide
Digital Photography: Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks
Digital Photography for the Over 50s

A couple of rebuses (names of authors):

Budget Woes

I'm sure you've heard about the massive state budget cuts that have recently been proposed and will begin to be considered by Texas legislators. They're certainly alarming - the Washington Post reported that the draft would cut almost $14 billion in spending. The cuts would be made in libraries, public schools, universities, criminal justice, and health care (including mental health care). There's no doubt that cuts must be made, but when it comes to what we end up cutting, there's plenty of debate. I'm sure we're in for some, uh, "spirited" discussion in the coming weeks and months, but let's take a look at what could happen should libraries get cut.

Texas public libraries stand to be cut quite dramatically this year - in fact, it puts some significant library funds at nearly $0. Rural libraries, in particular, will be hit hard; many rely on the state funds to function and without the libraries entire rural communities could lose their only source of free computer and internet access among many other services. Public libraries provide classes on job searching and resume writing, provide books and many other types of materials for the educational pursuits of their communities, provide a source of free, life-enriching programming such as children's storytime, help acclimate new immigrants and get them on the path to citizenship, and offer assistance to people needing help locating information, just to name a few of the services they offer.

Since the economic recession hit, libraries are being used now more than ever. This is not a justification for library funding unto itself, but I think this fact raises the question of how Americans that were effected by the recession are to get back on their feet in these difficult times without their public libraries being funded appropriately. I think it's easy in a big city like Austin that hasn't been effected by the recession quite as much as other cities around the country to write it off as unimportant or irrelevant. But, as an employee of the downtown library, I can tell you that I'm at a loss as to where people would go for much needed assistance if not for us. I'm aware of the nonprofit resources out there and they're nowhere near as extensive as all of the resources we offer.

What about the guy I helped the other day that got laid off in 2008 and slowly lost his car and house and is now living at ARCH desperately seeking employment? He uses our books on cover letter and resume writing, uses our computers to search and apply for jobs, and comes to our Job Searching Computer Lab to get assistance from a librarian filling out job applications. What about the lady with two jobs and two kids I helped find some test prep materials so she can finally get her GED and, hopefully, a better job? She uses the test prep books, accesses our Learning Express Library database for practice tests, and takes her kids to children's storytime. What about the recently immigrated woman that needed help learning English so she could get established in this country? She uses our New Immigrants Center to listen to language learning CDs and attends Talk Time, a program for people to come together and practice speaking in English with one another. These are only three small examples of people in THIS city (I could list so many more!) that need the services the public library offers - can you imagine the assistance needed by residents of the harder hit rural towns in this state?

Bottom line, to invest in Texas public libraries is to invest in the future of Texas' citizens and residents. If we are to improve the unemployment rate and make our state and country more economically viable, we need public libraries to be funded well enough so people can take up educational pursuits that will help them in such endeavors. If we are to strip rural communities of library services, it will only serve to further devastate these areas.

Let your voice be heard! The Texas Library Association (TLA) has plenty of talking points and scripts you can use to contact your legislators, friends, acquaintances, family, whoever and let them know how important it is that we fund Texas libraries. Check out the links below for more info.

LINKS

Library Issues & Taking Action

Legislative Day
Join the Texas Library Association on Legislative Day February 16 and help get the word out about the importance of libraries. You can participate virtually too.

Save Our Texas Libraries
"We cannot say we believe in a strong Texas – in promoting education, economic development, and a competitive workforce – if we decrease investment in the very institutions, resources, and staff who equalize learning opportunities for everyone in Texas."

BOOKS

Dismantling the Public Sphere: Situating and Sustaining Librarianship in the Age of the New Public Philosophy

Library: An Unquiet History

This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All