CheckItOut@WrightLibrary from Wright Memorial Public Library http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143 <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small">Welcome to the Reference Department Blog. Visit often for information on programs and events, featured research tools, book lists, and Web resources. We encourage you, our patrons, to <a href="http://engagedpatrons.org/ContactUs.cfm?SiteID=4725">give feedback and share</a> your own favorite resources and books. Join us in creating a unique resource for the Wright Library Community. Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT Copyright 2013 Wright Memorial Public Library en-us Sat, 18 May 2013 06:23:54 CDT Mountains beyond Mountains http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=13016 Get ready to climb some pretty high hills when the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club visits Haiti with author Tracy Kidder.  Join us Tuesday, June 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Kidder’s Mountains beyond Mountains.
 
A chance encounter on a plane leads the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kidder to follow Paul Farmer to Haiti.  Farmer is a doctor, famed infectious disease specialist, Harvard professor and anthropologist.   He is on a relentless quest to bring modern medicine and hope to the abject poor, who live, as Abraham Verghese writes “in the kinds of places we do not like to think about.”  As characterized in the Haitian proverb, “Beyond mountains there are mountains,” Farmer never falters as he turns to the next problem after solving the last.
 
To learn more about this book, check out the following web sites:
  
To learn about Paul Farmer’s work, please visit the Partners in Health web site and see his Biography at the Academy of Achievement web site.
 
Learn about the author, Tracy Kidder,  at the following web sites:
 Tracy Kidder’s books available at the Library:

]]> Wright Reference Staff Fri, 10 May 2013 07:17:13 GMT The Accidental Tourist http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=12923 Some journeys are not easy.  This month the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club will discuss Anne Tyler’s novel, The Accidental Tourist, a story about a man recovering after a great personal tragedy.  Join us Tuesday, May 7th at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbuck’s in Oakwood to discuss this moving work, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1985.
 
Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary.  When his son is killed in a sudden shooting, neither he nor his wife can deal with their grief.  Hence, their marriage crumbles and Macon’s wife moves out.  In a short time, Macon, while working around his house, breaks both legs and is forced to move in with his extremely eccentric siblings.  One cockeyed thing leads to another and Macon finds he needs a dog trainer.  He hires Muriel Pritchett to train his unruly dog.  Muriel’s own delightful peculiarities compel Macon to reengage with life.  When his wife notices Macon changing for the better, she wants to reconcile.  Nothing is ordinary about the decision Macon has to make.
 
To find out more about the novel, visit the LitLovers.com Reader’s Guide.  You might also like to read the following book reviews:

To learn about author Anne Tyler, please try the following web sites:  The Accidental Tourist was made into an award-winning movie in 1988, starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and Geena Davis.  Davis won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Muriel Pritchett.
 Unfortunately, the library doesn’t own a copy of the movie.  We do offer the following movies based on Anne Tyler books:
 
Breathing Lessons
Back When We Were Grownups
 
For a list of library holdings of books by Anne Tyler, please click the following link:
 
Anne Tyler 

]]> Wright Reference Staff Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:19:08 GMT My Stroke of Insight http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=12718  Take a journey to the center of the mind this month when the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club discusses Jill Bolte Taylor’s story of surviving a stroke.  Join us on Tuesday, April 9th at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss My Stroke of Insight.
 
In 1996, Taylor, a Harvard-educated brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke.  In four hours, her mind deteriorated so that she could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of her life.  Alternating between right brain euphoria and left brain awareness, she was able to seek help.  Recovery took eight years, but Taylor considers the stroke lucky.  She learned to help others with brain injury, and found peace of mind.

To find out what the reviewers thought of the book, please check out the following web sites:

Discover more about Jill Bolte Taylor at her author’s web site, her book web site mystrokeofinsight.com and in her TED Talk.  Taylor is National Spokesperson for the Mentally Ill for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center and is an active member of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  She also participated in the PBS series, The Amazing Brain, has been cited in WebMD, and was listed as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2008.
 
For more information about stroke, please see the following sources:

]]> Wright Ref Staff Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:11:33 GMT Kabul Beauty School http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=12560 Afghanistan is the destination when the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club travels with Deborah Rodriguez to the Kabul Beauty School.  Join us for the discussion at the Starbucks in Oakwood on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

After the fall of the Taliban, Deborah Rodriguez, a Michigan woman, signs on to be a nurse’s aide in Afghanistan.  She soon realizes her skills as a hairdresser are in higher demand since Afghan women are once again free to gather at the beauty shop.  Deborah persuades companies to donate and ship beauty products to Kabul and sets up to train Afghan women her craft.  In a friendly, chatty style she reveals life behind the veil and shows how change can begin with something as simple as a shampoo.
 
To learn more about the book, check out the Reading Group Guide, as well as the following review from the New York Times Book Review.
 
To find out more about Deborah Rodriguez and the controversy involving the book, please refer to the following sources:

Learn more about what happened to the Kabul Beauty School and the plight of women in Afghanistan from the following web sites:

]]> Wright Reference Staff Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:51:06 GMT Home by Marilynne Robinson http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=12359 On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club.  Join us on Tuesday, February 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Robinson’s third novel, Home.
 
The novel retells events from Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning second book, Gilead, but frames them through the eyes of the daughter, Glory Boughton.  Her father, Reverend John Ames, a Congregationalist minister, is dying.  When the prodigal son, her brother Jack, returns home, his difficult past shadows and affects the human interactions, as the family considers whether a man can change, and if it will allow him to.   Home was the winner of the 2009 Orange Prize and a 2008 National Book Award finalist.
 
To learn more about Home, try the Reader’s Guide and check out the following reviews:

Find out more about Marilynne Robinson; consult the following biographies and interviews:
Don't miss Marilynne Robinson's other works:

]]> Wright Reference Staff Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:39:15 GMT Remains of the Day http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=12030 Take a look upstairs and downstairs with author Kazuo Ishiguro at the next On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club.  Join us on Tuesday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss Remains of the Day, 1989 winner of the Mann Booker Prize for literature.
Looking back on his 30 years of service to Lord Darlington, Stevens the butler realizes what the zealous practice of his profession has cost him.  He has spurned romantic love, remained impassive at his father’s death, and subordinated his own humanity to serve an employer who is revealed to be a Nazi sympathizer.  The film adaptation of The Remains of the Daystarring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, was nominated for eight Academy Awards.
For more information about the book, please consult the following resources:

 
To learn more about the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, you can read the author’s biography supplied by the British Council, a UK international cultural organization.   You might also like to read or listen to the following interviews with Mr. Ishiguro:  
The following books by Kazuo Ishiguro are available at the library:  
As concerns the Appeasement Talks, which are mentioned in the novel, please see the following short history from Wikipedia.
 
Those who are charmed by all things “butler” may enjoy visiting the following web sites:

]]> Wright Reference Staff Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:08:54 GMT Born on a Blue Day http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=11751 Experience an alternate reality with the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club when we explore the writing of Daniel Tammet.  Join us on Tuesday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood when we discuss Born on a Blue Day, chosen as one of the ALA Best Books For Young Adults.
 
Imagine learning Icelandic, from scratch, in one short week.  Daniel Tammet takes an autobiographical journey to introduce readers to the fascinating world of an autistic savant.  Able to calculate like the Rain Man and as compulsive as TV’s Monk, Tammet also experiences synthesia, a neurological syndrome that allows him to experience words and numbers as shapes, colors, textures and motion.  An uplifting story, Born on a Blue Day follows Tammet from a youth prone to tantrums and unsociability to his emergence as a fully independent young man.

To find out more about the book, check out the Simon & Schuster Reading Group Guide.  The following book reviews might also be of interest:

Learn more about the author, Daniel Tammet at the following web sites:
 More information on autism, synthesia and autistic savantism, see the following:

]]> Wright Reference Staff Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:26:17 GMT One Thousand White Women http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=143&BlogPostID=11617 It’s “Westward Ho, the Women!” at this month’s On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club.  We’ll discuss One Hundred White Women by Jim Fergus at our meeting on October 2, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood.
 
During treaty negotiations in 1854, a Cheyenne chief asked to trade 1,000 horses for 1,000 white women as brides for his warriors.   President Ulysses S. Grant never approved the trade.   Jim Fergus rewrites the history to imagine what would have happened had the trade gone through.  Written in the form of a diary, One Thousand White Women tells the story of Chicago’s May Dodd, who, in order to escape the grasp of her wealthy father, journeys west to the Northern Cheyenne to marry their tribal head, Chief Little Wolf.
 
To learn more of the story, check out the following book reviews and reader’s guides:

 
Find out more about the author Jim Fergus at the following web sites:  
To learn more about the Northern Cheyenne, as depicted in the novel, we suggest the following web sites: *Unfortunately this is an unstable web site, which means it may flip to another page when you try to look at it.  If you go out and then try again, you may be able to see this informative page on Cheyenne language.

]]> Wright Reference Staff Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:30:40 GMT