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Volume 3 |
September 2007 |
Issue 2 |
New Books | Coming Soon | Obituaries | Awards | Other News
Book 'em
looks at selected books that are on, or have recently been on, the
New Book display, as well as other news in the world of books.
A complete list of books (and other materials) cataloged in the past
month may be found at
http://hiraml.hiram.edu/ftlist. Book 'em is
published monthly from August through May and is distributed to
"subscribers" by email notification. If you would like to
become a subscriber or just make a comment, email the editor, David
Everett at everettdd@hiram.edu.
It's been a bit of a slow month.
Books ordered during the past fiscal year are now all available.
Books ordered in this new year are just staring to come in, so there
isn't a lot new this month. Still, there are some interesting
titles, so let's get started.
Fiction
No new fiction this month, but keep an eye out for next month.
Non-Fiction
As always, memoirs and biographies are well-represented.
Anyone who has seen
The Sound of Music knows that Baron von Trapp was an
Austrian naval hero, but details are lacking. Now you can
learn the story in the Baron's own words in Georg von Trapp's
To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian
U-Boat Commander (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska
Press, 2007 -
call
number 940.4512092 Trap), edited and translated by Elizabeth M.
Campbell, one of the Baron's granddaughters.
Few people today remember Frank Lausche, a five-term governor
of Ohio and a two-term U.S. Senator. James Odenkirk provides a
biography of the Democrat who began his political career with a
1930s appointment to the Cleveland Municipal Court in
Frank J. Lausche: Ohio's Great Political
Maverick (Wilmington, OH: Orange Frazer Press, 2005 -
call
number 977.1843 Lau-O).
Two new books deal with U.S. history, with one continuing the
memoir theme. We tend to think of immigrants crossing the Rio
Grande as a contemporary problem, but, as this Luis G. Gomez's
memoir, Crossing the Rio Grande: An
Immigrant's Life in the 1880s (College Station, TX: Texas
A&M University Press, 2006 -
call
number 976.4061 Gom) - privately published in Spanish in
1935 and now translated by a grandson - points out, this has been
happening for more than a century. In
A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the
First Thanksgiving (New York: PublicAffairs, 2006 -
call number 974.402 Hod), British journalist and historian
Godfrey Hodgson strips the Thanksgiving story of its myth (such as a
menu of turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes, etc.) with the reality
(probably venison, raccoon, and beaver, along with beans and
squash).
In Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing
Wilderness: Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation of Appalachia
(New York: Riverhead Books, 2006 -
call number
622.2920874 Ree), Eric Reece looks at current strip mining
tactics, especially "mountaintop removal," in Appalachia by
chronicling the year-long strip mining of Kentucky's Lost Mountain
with the end result of a desolate wasteland, but lots of coal to
feed our energy neds.
Writing is the subject in The Way We
Write: Interviews with Award-Winning Writers (New York:
Continuum, 2006 -
call number 808.02 Way), edited by Barbara Baker, which brings
together interviews with 18 writers, including Joyce Carol Oates and
Tracy Chevalier, on how they go about their craft.
The work of one writer is brought together in
The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane, Literary
Journalist (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press,
2007 -
call number 813.52 Lan), edited by Amy Lauters, which collects
rare non-fiction writings from Lane's days as a journalist.
Overshadowed by her mother, whose Little House books she edited,
Lane was a well-known author (short stories, novels, and political
writings) in her own right.
A second collection, The Essential Pope
Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches (New
York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2007 -
call
number 230.2 Ben), edited by John F. Thornton and Susan B.
Varenne, brings together selected homilies, essays, interviews, and
speeches by Joseph Ratzinger, who on April 24, 2005 became Pope
Benedict XVI.
The subtitle pretty much says it all in
Innovation in Medical Technology: Ethical Issues and Challenges
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007 -
call number 174.2 Eat 2007) as Margaret L. Eaton and Donald
Kennedy look at four new and mostly unregulated technologies:
off-label use of drugs, innovative surgery, assisted reproduction,
and neuroimaging in the context of the challenges of advancing
medicine in a safe and responsible manner.
Ela R. Bhatt's We are Poor but So Many: The
Story of Self-Employed Women in India (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2006 -
call number 338.72082 Bha) is a first-hand account of the found
(in 1972) of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a women's
trade union for the poor and self-employed women of India whose work
supports their families.
Finally, Edward Mendelson (English and Comparative Literature at
Columbia University) brings literature and life together in
The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic
Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life (New York:
Pantheon, 2006 -
call number 823.809354 Men). Here's a clue - the novels
are
Jane Eyre,
Middlemarch,
Between the Acts,
To the Lighthouse,
Frankenstein,
Mrs. Dalloway, and
Wuthering Heights. You'll have to look at the book to
see the stages and which book goes with which stage of life.
Juvenile
Best-selling author Terry Pratchett is back with the continuing
fantasy adventures of Tiffany Aching, who is now 13 in
Wintersmith (New York:
HarperTempest, 2006 -
call number
JF P8872w).
The setting for the familiar story of Little Red Riding Hood is
moved to West Africa in Pretty Salma: A
Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa (New York:
Clarion Books, 2006 -
call number
J 398.209667 Dal) by Niki Daly.
When last seen, Might Casey had struck out. But, it's a new
season and a new chance for Cased and the Mudville nine. Will
he succeed this time? Find out in Dan Gutman's
Casey Back at Bat (New York:
HarperCollins, 2007 -
call number J
811.54 Gut), a poem that is a sequel to the original Casey at
the Bat.
Rosemary Well's Red Moon at Sharpsburg
(New York: Viking, 2007 -
call number JF W4628r) is the story of one young girl, India
Moody, and her family in the Shenandoah Valley caught up in the
Civil War, particularly the Battle of Sharpsburg.
The following titles are about to be published,
on-order, or are in process. Keep an eye out for them on the
New Book Shelf in the library.
And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man
by Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz, who is also the wife of
Senator Sherrod Brown.
Carl Bernstein (All the President's Men) has written a
biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton titled A Woman in Charge: The
Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Reagan Diaries, edited by Douglas Brinkley, is the
publication of the daily diary Ronald Reagan kept while President.
Plus, in juvenile literature, come new works from two veteran
authors. Chris Crutcher's Deadline is aimed at teens,
while Judy Blume's Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great
One is for younger elementary schoolers. Blume, who hasn't
been heard from as much lately, has long been a groundbreaking
author as evidenced by the coming publication Everything I Needed
to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume.
John
Gardner on August 3 at age 80. Gardner, who wrote
mysteries and thrillers like
Icebreaker,
is best know for being selected to continue the James Bond franchise
upon the death of Ian Fleming. Gardner ended up writing more
Bond novels than Fleming.
June Bingham Birge on August 21 at age 88. Birge, who
mostly wrote under the name June Bingham, published a number of
non-fiction works (Courage to Change: An Introduction to the Life
and Thought of Reinhold Niebuhr), as well as dramatic works that
were produced Off Broadway, such as Asylum: The Strange Case of
Mary Lincoln and Triangles.
Grace Paley on August 22 at age 84. Paley wrote mostly
short stories and poetry that reflected the struggles of everyday
women. The short stories have been collected in several
anthologies, including
Enormous
Changes at the Last Minute and
Later
the Same Day. Collected Stories was nominated for both
a Pulitzer and a National Book Award.
Madeleine L'Engle on September 6 at age 88.
L'Engle, who won the Newbery Medal for
A Wrinkle
in Time, is best known for her fantasy books for young
readers.
On August 24, Kate DiCamillo won the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young
Readers' Literature sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust.
Among DiCamillo's books are
Because of Winn-Dixie (a Newbery Honor
book that was made into a
movie),
The Tiger Rising,
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a
Spool of Thread (the 2003 Newbery Medal winner), and, most recently,
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Among the previous
winners of the Zarrow Award is Hiram graduate Sharon Creech.
Cormac McCarthy's
The Road has earned the
James Tait Black memorial
prize, one of Britain's oldest book awards, having been established
in 1919. The novel
previously had earned McCarthy a Pulitzer.
The Chicago Tribune has announced the winners of its annual
Chicago Tribune Literary Awards. The award for lifetime
achievement went to
E. L. Doctorow.
Gary Paulsen earned the Young Adult Literary Prize.
The Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction went to Orville Vernon
Burton for The Age of Lincoln. Finally, the
Heartland Prize for Fiction went to Ohio Wesleyan University
professor Robert Olmstead for Coal Black Horse.
In the
Coming Soon section above, new books from Judy Blume and Chris
Crutcher were noted. Did you know that both authors were among
the ten most challenged authors in 2005 as reported by the
American Library Association? You can learn more about
challenged books and the freedom to read when the Friends of the
Library present Dr. Jennifer Miller speaking on
"How Books End Up Walking the Plank: Supporting
Intellectual Freedom During Banned Books Week." Dr. Miller will
speak on Thursday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. in the Pritchard
Room of the Library. Her presentation will examine Banned
Books Week (September 29 through October 6 this year) by looking at
questions such as "What is it? Why do we celebrate it? What does
it mean for a book to be banned? What can a community do to support
a book or an author?"
Dr. Miller recently completed her dissertation study of eighth grade
reading curriculum in Northeast Ohio. Her Research interests are
adolescent literacy and literature for adolescents.
Refreshments will be served after the program. Please join us!