Barn Swallows and Aphorisms

Victor Phillips, author of the new book Basic Rules: Short Words to Live By will be signing his book at the Walla Walla Hastings on October 10th. Don’t miss this event.

(Thanks for the info Jackson)

National Information Literacy Month

October 2009 is National Information Literacy Month

I’m impressed that the presidential team is so eloquent about this issue. It’s one that I am passionate about.

I hesitate to throw that term “information literacy” around because people tend to skip over the significance of putting those two words together and hear either “information” or “literacy.” Half of the people in my life think that I spend my days helping people become more comfortable with IT, troubleshooting computers, and exploiting the web for my students’ personal gain. The other half really think that I spend my days teaching students to enjoy reading and exploring great books. The truth is, I do those things- but certainly not all day every day. Information literacy, and the teaching of it, is about building a core set of skills that will improve the lives of our community members. When I talk about building, flexing, growing these skills I’m talking about seven basic things:

1. Using technology to find and use information.
2. Identifying the best places to go to find answers.
3. Building strategies for finding the best information for the need.
4. Storing information so that we can find it when we need it.
5. Building new information and knowledge out of information found.
6. Extending our personal knowledge using information.
7. Using information wisely for the benefit of the community.

These seven ideas seem big, but we can break it down simply to: a person should be able to find, evaluate, and use information effectively. We want that for all of our patrons- for our whole community. That is why I spend my days advocating for student education and pushing for growth in these areas.

Back in Session: Don’t Stop Reading

Classes are back in session and we’re having a really busy term around here! We’re so excited about having our students back, and we just love the buzz of people in the halls around here. I’ve noticed that since school started my passion for reading has waned just a tad. Not that I still don’t love a great story- because I do- it’s just that I’m a little tired when my quiet reading time comes along and so I don’t really want to invest too heavily in long stories that need a lot of brain power. Instead, I want something light with a great narrative and larger than life heroes. I was bemoaning my lack of great reading material today when Chris, our new evening staff person, reminded me of our really great graphic novel collection.

I’m glad Chris is here, for lots of reasons, but tonight I was especially glad because he shook me out of the “too busy to read” doldrums. Now, I’m taking home a graphic novel called Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters by Mike Grell. I haven’t ever read Green Arrow before, so I’m looking forward to the story. I’ll definitely post a review for you but the moral of my little post is:

Feeling too busy to read? Try visiting Chris, or any of the rest of the library staff, we’ll find something that will interest you just enough to make your reading time the best for you!

New Library Hours

Hopefully this doesn’t come as a dangerous shock to everyone out there- The Library Hours Have Changed.

In Walla Walla we are open

Monday-Thursday 7:30a-7:30p

Friday: 7:30-4:30

Saturday: Closed

Sunday 1-5

In Clarkston the library hours are:

Monday-Thursday: 8:00a-6:30p

Friday: 8:00a-4:00p

Saturday-Sunday: Closed

Welcome Back!

Welcome to the first day of classes. We’re excited that you are back.

Welcome Back

School starts again in a little over a week. We, at the library, are excited about the new year. We did a lot of reading this summer and can’t wait to share some of it with you. Since there isn’t a lot of time to review everything- I want to take a quick snapshot of the readings in my life right now:

The Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson- I can’t wait to share more on this series- it was probably one of the best kick-back adventures that I read all year.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov- I’m still slogging through this very Russian novel. It’s interesting in a change your mind about the world kind of way.

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen – This is the book that Whitman College selected as a community read. It is awe inspiringly great and very thought provoking.

Crusader by Edward Bloor- The byline on this book hints at having to make your own heroes in the world. It’s slow going because none of the characters are very admirable, but then that’s probably closer to the truth than some of my favorite adventure stories.

Does this Book Make Me Look Fat edited by Marissa Walsh- A series of short stories and essays about body image and how it effects the authors. This is a killer book for quick reads, although some of the stories seem a little after-school special. Most of them are much more true to life, and unfortunately they don’t all come with pretty bows and happy endings.

That’s a quick dose of what I’m reading as of right now. I’ll post more in-depth reviews of the other books that moved me this summer. We’ll see you in ten days!

~Quill

From Vamps to Zombies

In the summer months getting a little chill from your reading helps smooth the worst of the heat. Even better is staying up too late with a book that makes your stomach all quivery. Last summer I faced my most irrational fear and read World War Z by Max Brooks. It was actually one of the better books I read this year. 

World War Z

By Max Brooks

What if  zombies were created by a virus that is highly contagious and raging unchecked across the world? How would you survive? World War Z is told by the survivors of the zombie plague- the men, women, children, diplomats, generals, scientists, and Zen monks who helped to overcome the horrifying reality of dead loved ones and strangers alike coming back to life and trying to eat any living thing that walks the earth. How would your neighborhood react the first time a raging band of zombies came searching for live flesh to eat? 

This book was great fun to read, as much as it was a dose of reality about how our societies might react to a world wide illness and war. It’s fascinating, scary, and it kept me up nights for months on end.

~Quill

Vampire Novels

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival on the shelves of a new vampire novel co-authored by the incomperable Guillermo Del Toro, director of Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth.

The Strain mimics many of the tried and true vampirisms; sunlight cooks them, their hunger is insatiable although the requisite fangs have been replaced by a sucking appendage (yuck!), and they sleep in a coffin full of dirt. What changed is that these vampires are like the plague and the hero of the story is a scientist with the CDC.

I think of these books as candy – like Fairy Tales for adults, but with an edge. 

Some of my favorites:

♦

Salem’s Lot

by Stephen King

Seriously scary. Probably the best ever.

♦

The Vampire Lestat

by Ann Rice

Great historical detail.

♦

Any of the Dresden Files

by Jim Butcher

Beautiful, deadly, clannish and yes… even likeable.

♦

Twilight 

by Stephanie Meyers

Teen vampires! What a concept- after the 1st though it’s a slow downhill slide.

Enjoy the chill!

~Becky

Up All Night

Summer always reminds me of the year I really got into reading. I was probably ten or eleven and was reading chapter books on my own. I remember feeling really lucky that our bathroom was down the hall, because after my Dad would come in and make me turn off my light I could wait fifteen minutes and then sneak down the hall and sit in the bathtub and read all night long. 

I think I finished all of CS Lewis’ Chronicles Of Narnia in the wee hours of the morning one July after a week straight of doing little else but reading. My parents must have known why I was tired, but I never got in trouble for it. Of course, that was also the summer when they started to encourage us to sleep outside. It’s harder to stay up too late reading when your only light is cast by the stars. To make up for the lack of reading material my sisters and I would stay up late making up legends to match the star formations that floated above our rural home.

Now that summer is upon us, that desire to stay up all night reading has come back. Something about hot hot days and only slightly cooler nights makes me want to get lost in a great story. This weekend I found a story like that, and found myself reading until 4:30 in the morning because I couldn’t take myself out of the narrative. Here is my review of the book:

Sorceress

by Celia Rees

This book is the sequel to Rees’ award winning book Witch Child. Although, I have never read Witch Child and didn’t realize it was a sequel until I was well into the story.

Witch Child is about a young immigrant to the American Colonies. Mary, whose grandmother was a healer who was persecuted for witchcraft, left England to find a better life among the Puritains. Upon getting to the new world, life is not easy and Mary finds herself accused of witchcraft. 

Sorceress follows Mary’s life after leaving the Puritain town where she was accused and almost killed for witchcraft. She is adopted into the local Native tribes and becomes a Medicine Woman. Her life is beset by war, disease, loss, and continual struggle to avoid the white man who wants to alternately save and punish her. 

This is a remarkable story told over two centuries as Mary’s decendant Agnes seeks to understand what happened to her several times great grandmother. I couldn’t have hoped for a better opening to my summer reading and I hope that you find it as enjoyable as I did.

Find Sorceress by searching for it in the WALNET Catalog.

We Love Strong Characters- and Star Trek

We love the new Star Trek movie. We love the action, the story, the special effects and most of all we love the characters. I’ve been thinking about it, and decided that the reason that the Star Trek franchise has done so well has less to do with the fancy models and effects and much more to do with developing characters that speak to us. How many of you wish you could be like Spock sometimes, or Bones, or my own personal favorite Ohura? So, in honor of the best movie so far this season, we are introducing some great reads that also develop great characters.

 ♦

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Review by Quill

Josephine March is one of my all time heroes. She’s outrageous, a bookworm, fascinated with drama, and kind. She befriends boys, cuts her hair off, and fights fiercely for her sisters’ well being. While “Jo” was my favorite character of this book, I identified with every one of the sisters. Meg with her manners and desire to protect her family, Amy with her childish need to fit in, her beauty and need to be rich, and finally Beth with her serenity and overall goodness- they all had qualities that I longed for. This foursome is just the beginning of a group of characters that I’m glad I have the opportunity to know personally.

  ♦

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Review by Becky

Archetype is define in the Random House Dictionary of the English Language as “(in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, patter of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.” The particular archetype that speaks to me in life as well as literature is the archetype of the “strong female.” I think this stemmed from my relationship with my mother who is the epitome of this kind of woman. Barbara Kingsolver writes about this archetype in many of her books, and one that I’m particularly fond of is Prodigal Summer.

There are three very strong female characters in this book.

Deanna Wolfe is a wildlife biologist who lives alone in a remote cabin in the southern Appalachian Mountains. She is content to be the person she is and live the solitary life she loves. She is self-reliant and unapologetic for the choices she has made. However her lifestyle is challenged when a younger man hikes onto her mountain! How will an independent woman cope with the vagaries of love?

Lusa Landowski is a city girl turned farmer’s wife who is trying to hold onto her sense of identity and intellect in spite of a lack of understanding from her husband and his family. When tragedy strikes what will she do? Will she stay and become fully immersed in a life she never thought she would have or go back to the life she might have had?

Nannie Rawley is an elderly spinster who refused to compromise her freedom by being somebody’s wife, even after she became pregnant and had a child out of wedlock! She lives in peaceful harmony on her little farm and has a long-standing feud with her neighbor who feels threatened by Nannie’s live and let live philosophy. When a chance for companionship comes her way will she be woman enough to embrace it?

For more books about strong female characters read other books by Barbara Kingsolver, or Amy Tan and Alice Hoffman. All are available at your WWCC Library.

  ♦

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Review by Quill

Tayo is the ultimate anti-hero become hero. There is a piece in everyone that doubts our motives to the very core of us. Tayo was captured by the Japanese during WWII; he has returned home to the Laguna Pueblo reservation guilty and damaged by the loss of his cousin and his experiences of war. He wants to be well, but doesn’t even begin to know how to heal. Ceremony is his journey toward wellness. Tayo and the collection of wounded souls surrounding him represent our deepest hurts and how our cultural ceremonies can save us from the darkness that lives inside all of us.

  ♦

My Ántonia by Willa Cather

Review by Quill

On my very best day I can only hope to have the grace of Ántonia Shimerda. Her strength and beauty escaped me in the beginning. But, by the end of this song-story about pioneering in Nebraska I learned to adore Ántonia for the earthiness that makes her feel joy in the hard life she chooses as a pioneer woman. The spirit of Ántonia lives in the plains, the plants, the trees, the rocks, the animals and the insects of her Nebraska farmland. While this is the story of one person and the people who helped her become, it is also the story of the west and the spirit that helped to make the American West what it is.