FEBRUARY 18, 2011
A Year of Presidential Reading
We celebrate Presidents' Day on February 21st. In honor of that day, we'd like to present you with a list of the many wonderful presidential biographies available at the library. The books are listed chronologically, starting with George Washington and ending with Barack Obama. In some cases, we've offered you an alternative title. So, it is up to you -- read just one or spend your year reading through the list. Happy Presidents' Day!
1. Chernow, Ron.
Washington: a Life
2. McCullough, David G.
John Adams
3. Hayes, Kevin J.
The Road to Monticello: the Life & Mind of Thomas Jefferson
Alt. Burstein, Andrew.
Madison & Jefferson 4. Wills, Garry.
James Madison
Alt. Labunski, Richard E.
James Madison & the Struggle for the Bill of Rights 5. Unger, Harlow G.
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe & a Nation's Call to Greatness
6. Remini, Robert Vincent.
John Quincy Adams 7. Meacham, Jon.
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
8. Lazo, Caroline Evensen.
Martin Van Buren (Children's bio)
9 & 10. Peterson, Norma Lois.
The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison & John Tyler
11. Borneman, Walter R.
Polk: the Man Who Transformed the Presidency & America
12. Eisenhower, John S. D.
Zachary Taylor
13. Pendle, George.
The Remarkable Millard Fillmore: the Unbelievable Life of a Forgotten President
14 & 15. Miller, Nathan.
Star-Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents (includes #14 Franklin Pierce & #15 James Buchanan)
16. McPherson, James M.
Abraham Lincoln Te
Alt. Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln 17. Means, Howard B.
The Avenger Takes His Place: Andrew Johnson & the 45 Days That Changed the Nation
18. Waugh, Joan.
U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth
19. Morris, Roy.
Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, & the Stolen Election of 1876.
Alt. Trefousse, Hans Louis.
Rutherford B. Hayes 20. Ackerman, Kenneth D.
Dark Horse: the Surprise Election & Political Murder of President James A. Garfield
21. Doenecke, Justus D.
The Presidencies of James A. Garfield & Chester A. Arthur. 22. Graff, Henry F.
Grover Cleveland 23. Dalton, Curt.
The Terrible Resurrection (Benjamin Harrison)
24. Grover Cleveland re-elected - free space
25. Phillips, Kevin.
William McKinley 26. Morris, Edmund.
Theodore Rex alt. Morris, Edmund.
Colonel Roosevelt 27. Anderson, Judith Icke.
William Howard Taft, an Intimate History 28. Cooper, John Milton.
Woodrow Wilson: a Biography 29. Dean, John W.
Warren G. Harding alt. McCartney, Laton.
The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country 30. Ferrell, Robert H.
The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge alt.
Why Coolidge Matters: How Civility in Politics Can Bring a Nation Together, compiled by the National Notary Association
31. Leuchtenburg, William Edward.
Herbert Hoover 32. Brinkley, Alan.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt alt. Feldman, Noah.
Scorpions: the Battles & Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices 33. Dallek, Robert.
Harry S. Truman alt. Algeo, Matthew.
Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: the True Story of a Great American Road Trip. 34. Eisenhower, David.
Going Home to Glory: a Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower alt. Korda, Michael.
Ike: an American Hero 35. Leaming, Barbara.
Jack Kennedy: the Education of a Statesman alt. Bzdek, Vincent.
The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted & a Family Dream Fulfilled 36. Dallek, Robert.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President alt. Kaiser, David E.
American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, & the Origins of the Vietnam War 37. Drew, Elizabeth.
Richard M. Nixon alt. MacMillan, Margaret.
Nixon & Mao: the Week That Changed the World 38. DeFrank, Thomas M.
Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford 39. Zelizer, Julian E.
Jimmy Carter alt. Carter, Jimmy.
White House Diary 40. Diggins, John P.
Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, & the Making of History alt. Buckley, William F.
The Reagan I Knew 41. Naftali, Timothy J.
George H.W. Bush 42. Takiff, Michael.
A Complicated Man: the Life of Bill Clinton as Told By Those Who Know Him alt. Gillon, Steven M.
The Pact: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the Rivalry That Defined a Generation 43. Bush, George W.
Decision Points alt. Woodward, Bob.
State of Denial 44. Remnick, David.
The Bridge: the Life and Rise of Barack Obama alt. Woodward, Bob.
Obama's Wars
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posted by Reference Staff |
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FEBRUARY 16, 2011
iPad App for eBooks
OverDrive, the vendor that supports the Wright Library Digital Collection through the Ohio Ebook Project, has just released an update for its mobile OverDrive Media Console that makes it compatible with the iPad. Previously the app had just been for the iPhone or iPod Touch and did not display ebooks properly. Now, after downloading the OverDrive Media Console from the AppStore, you can download ebooks directly to your iPad from the Ohio Ebook Project and enjoy. (Unfortunately, you will still be limited to the EPUB ebook format and the MP3 format for audiobooks using this app.) The details of the new version of the app are available on the Digital Library Blog.
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posted by Audiovisual Librarian |
Category: Digital Collection
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FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Best of the Best Business Guides
The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, has compiled Best of the Best Business Guides. Many of these guides come in the form of LibGuides, which are research assistance, subject guides, and lists of useful resources all compiled by librarians. They cover everything from Accounting to Financial Markets and Investments to Small Business and much more. These guides are great places to get started when beginning business research of all kinds.
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posted by Reference Staff |
Category: Business
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FEBRUARY 3, 2011
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Fanny Flagg's delightful Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe will be the focus of the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club this month. Join us on Tuesday, March 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss this book which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The novel is a fresh and folksy tale about two women whose chance meeting at a nursing home leads to a wonderful renewal for the reader, as well as the characters.
Dispirited Evelyn Couch is lucky to find ancient Cleo "Ninny" Threadgoode to talk to. Ninny remembers so many stories from Whistle Stop, Alabama, back in the 1930s. She tells about Idgie the tomboy, her pal Ruth, and the cafe they ran during the Depression. Her stories are full of good coffee, tasty barbecue, love, laughter and even an occasional murder. As Florence King, author of Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady wrote, "Watch out for Fannie Flagg. When I walked into the Whistle Stop Cafe she fractured my funny bone, drained my tear ducts, and stole my heart."
Explore the Random House Reading Guide for Fried Green Tomatoes. Short biographies of Fannie Flagg are available at the Southern Literary Review, the
Encyclopedia of Alabama, and the Project to Document the Birmingham District of Alabama's Bhamawiki. To read more about Ms. Flagg's life as a writer, we recommend two interviews in the BookReporter.com and the SpiritedWoman.com. You might also enjoy listening to an interview with the author at Wired for Books. In another online article, Rebecca Skloot, author of this year's Big Read book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, discusses how she used Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe to structure her nonfiction book. Finally, Southern Living shows you how to rustle up a batch of fried green tomatoes.
The Library has the following books written by Fannie Flagg:
Daisy Fay & the Miracle Man
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl
Standing in the Rainbow
A Redbird Christmas
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
I Still Dream about You
The Library also has the movie of Fried Green Tomatoes on VHS or DVD.
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posted by Reference Staff |
Category: Book Club
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FEBRUARY 3, 2011
Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck's last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, will be February's choice for the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us Tuesday, February 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss this Long Island morality tale that won the author the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
Steinbeck writes of Ethan Allen Hawley, who, as the story opens, works as a clerk in the grocery store his family once owned. His wife is restless and upset with the decline in the family's status. His teenage children want more than he can afford. Then, one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards. On discovering that the current store owner, Italian immigrant Alfio Marullo, might be in the country illegally, he places a tip with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Marullo, forced to leave the country, gives the store to Ethan, because he has always seemed so honest and deserving. As Ethan continues to gain status and material wealth, he also continues to tweak his moral code, until he sees that his corrupt behavior is transferring to his family and he must confront the person he has become.
Explore the Winter of Our Discontent with a Reading Guide, courtesy of the Beaufort County Library. Find our more about John Steinbeck and the Nobel Prize for Literature. You might also enjoy the Oprah Interview with Thom Steinbeck, son of the Nobel Prize winner, who describes life with his illustrious father. A searchable bibiliography of John Steinbeck's writing is available at The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies and a concise bibliography of his popular works is available at Fantastic Fiction.
Reviews:
Atlantic Monthly
Life Magazine
The Wright Memorial Public Library carries the following Steinbeck works:
Fiction:
Of Mice and Men
The Red Pony
The Grapes of Wrath
The Moon is Down
Cannery Row
The Pearl
East of Eden
Sweet Thursday
The Short Reign of Pippin IV
Novels and Stories, 1932 to 1937
(includes The Pastures of Heaven, To a God Unknown, Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men)
Nonfiction:
America and Americans, and Selected Nonfiction
Working Days: the Journals of the Grapes of Wrath, 1938 to 1941
Travels with Charley
The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath
Journal of a Novel: the East of Eden Letters
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
Zapata
Biography:
Conversations with Steinbeck
John Steinbeck: a Biography
John Steinbeck: an American Writer (VHS; an A&E Production)
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posted by Reference Staff |
Category: Book Club
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FEBRUARY 3, 2011
Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the remarkable French memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby is the choice this month for the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss the story of this incredible man, who, despite suffering an overwhelming physical calamity which he compared to being stuck in a diving bell, used intellect and joie de vivre to rise like a butterfly.
In 1995, the 44-year-old editor of the world's foremost fashion magazine, Elle, suffered a massive stroke. He emerged from coma more than a month later to discover he was paralyzed by "locked-in syndrome." He could think clearly, but the only part of his body he could move was his left eyelid. He faced a storm of indignities -- he drooled uncontrollably and had to rely on others to wipe his face; he was catheterized; and, a dedicated gourmand, he now was being fed brownish fluid through a gastric tube. Such a calamity would have made most people descend into depression. Not so Bauby!
Working with an assistant , who devised a special alphabet, Bauby was able to communicate by blinking his eyelid. His book, which he dictated letter by letter, is a marvelous, compelling account of Bauby's life as a "vegetable," full of humor and devoid of self-pity. He celebrates against all odds with a tone dry and ironic, very much the droll Frenchman. In rich detail he imagines himself preparing and tasting flavorful dishes, relying on his "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations." He ranges through memories, dreams and reflections, keeping his wits sharp. He imagines travels and adventures. In other words, he embraces life and inspires the reader as he fights brilliantly against the darkness.
Bauby died only two days after the publication of the book in France. An immediate success in France, the book has been embraced worldwide and remains a testament to an incredible man.
Visit the Reading Group Guide provided by Whatcom County (Bellingham, WA) Library System. For more information about the book and the controversial movie of the book, please try one of the following links:
New York Times (book review)
New York University School of Medicine (book review)
Salon.com (movie review)
The Observer (movie review)
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posted by Reference Staff |
Category: Book Club
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FEBRUARY 3, 2011
Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
The On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club will delve into the mystery of alchemy this month as we read Rebecca Stott's spellbinding thriller, Ghostwalk. Join us on Tuesday, December 7 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss this tale of present-day deceit entangled with seventeenth-century murder and madness, which may have paved the way for Isaac Newton's extraordinary scientific discoveries.
After her friend, a Cambridge historian, is found murdered, Lydia Brooke is persuaded to take over her controversial work on Isaac Newton. Lydia soon finds herself embroiled in the investigation of two separate sets of murder. The first set took place in the 17th Century and claimed the lives of several Cambridge students who stood between Newton and the fellowship he needed to continue his studies. The second set of murders, set in modern Cambridge, involves a radical animal rights group, as well as her former lover, the son of the murdered scholar. The deeper she searches into the past, the more Lydia senses she is being watched by some dark entity from the past. Turning to her former boyfriend to renew their relationship, she discovers that, perhaps, there is something in him to distrust.
Rebecca Stott was raised in Brighton in a large Plymouth Brethren community. She is the author of several academic books on Victorian literature and culture. She currently holds the position of Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Ghostwalk, her fiction debut, delivers a compelling story against a haunting historical backdrop. For more information about the author and her academic books see Fantastic Fiction. Explore Ghostwalk with this Reading Group Guide, and the following reviews:
Also by Rebecca Stott:
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posted by Starbucks December |
Category: Book Club
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FEBRUARY 3, 2011
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Another Pulitzer Prize winner, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, is on tap this month for the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club. Join us Tuesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss this intimate tale of three generations of "fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart." -from the publisher.
The novel is a letter written by Reverend John Ames at the end of his ilfe to his young son. It is an account of himself and his forebears, his father, an Iowan preacher, and his grandfather, a minister who was a violent abolitionist. He tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.
Explore Gilead with this Reading Group Guide and the reviews below. Also, check out the interview with Marilynne Robinson in The Paris Review given shortly after the publication of Home, which is the story of characters which appear in Gilead.
Reviews
Also by Marilynne Robinson:
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posted by Reference Staff |
Category: Book Club
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