Annual Book Buying Trip

The Library Advisory Board, all current students at Midland, are going to Chaucer's with lists in hand to buy new books for the library. Last week we spent Tuesday half holiday looking through Booklist and VOYA magazines, reading book reveiws, checking Midland's online catalog to make sure we don't buy duplicates, and compiling a list of things to bring home. This is an annual trip that LAB members really look forward to. We'll post a list and reviews as we get the books processed and onto the shelves.

100 Best Beach Books Ever

By now you may have noticed a certain fascination with lists. The latest list is from nearly 16,000 NPR listeners who cast their votes for their favorite beach reads. Click on the title of this blog entry to get yourself to the full list of 100.

I was surprised to see that I've actually read several of the books on this list despite growing up in land-locked Nebraska and spending no time on the beach. And I was also surprised (and pleased) to see that there are many books on this list that I don't typically think of as "beach" reading, which, I admit, I've always understood to be a bit on the trashier side. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. And not that I haven't read my share of what one might consider "trashy.")

Actually, several titles like East of Eden and Middlesex have been on my mental list of What to Read Next for a long time, but I always seem to get distracted by something else. Mind you, I've been ridiculed many times for not having read East of Eden...'How can you, an English teacher who teaches American Literature, respectably hold up your head when you haven't read Steinbeck's greatest work?' (Because I've been teaching The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men over and over and over, that's why!)

OK, I've read 38 1/2 of the 100 books on this list. (Sorry, I just couldn't finish Stephen King's The Stand, even if the crazy old lady was sitting in a cornfield in Nebraska.) My favorites have to be The Great Gatsby, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Like Water for Chocolate, Ender's Game, A Confederacy of Dunces, Interview with the Vampire, Animal Dreams, Pillars of the Earth, and Eye of the Needle. Loved them all.

I'd like to say that I'm going straight to the library to check out East of Eden and finally get the thing read. I do want to read it; I really do. But, just now, I'm reading Frank McCourt's book Angela's Ashes, which I had in mind to read ages ago. Shortly after McCourt's death, I was rambling around the New York Times blog about books, also called Paper Cuts, and read so many comments about what an inspiring teacher he was that I finally checked it out and have begun reading.

What did I tell you about getting distracted?

Happy reading. Hope you're getting a few hours on the beach as we head quickly to the beginning of another school year.

~Midland Librarian

The White Tiger

One of my goals is to try to read all of the Man Booker Prize winners. Some years I do better than others. I'm happy to say that the 2008 winner, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga was worth every second I spent reading instead of weeding in my garden. It is a real page turner. The story is told by the protagonist, Balram, through a series of letters that he writes to the Premier of China, who is about to visit India on an official visit. Balram intends to counter what will be the Indian government's official stance on the state of poverty and progress in the country, which he does as he relates the story of his rise from the servant class to wealthy entreprenuer. The story of Balram's family and his life of servitude is at once tragic and laugh-out-loud funny. Highly recommended.

And while I'm at it, I also recommend these stories also set in India:
Sold by Patrcia McCormick,
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, and
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

All of these books are available in the library. My favorite book set in India, A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry is not, but it soon will be.

Check them out, and happy reading!

~The Bloggers.

Summer Reading

Just finished Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Loved it. We, of course, have a copy available in the library, so you can check it out, but if you can't wait until September, and you'd like to have Mr. Gaiman read the book to you, then you can go to Neil Gaiman's Official Website for Young Readers to watch and listen.

The main character in The Graveyard Book is Bod, short for Nobody Owens. Bod lives in a graveyard. He is taken in by its residents when it is clear that he is in grave danger after all of the members of his family are murdered. He is granted the freedom of the graveyard and is protected by his new parents, the deceased Mr. and Mrs. Owens, and the mostly dead Silas. Bod is a typical boy: sensitive, curious, and sometimes impetuous. As he grows older, he longs for a normal life outside the graveyard, which is not possible until the mystery of his family's murder is solved.

Last year I was pleasantly surprised by Gaiman's novel Neverwhere, which I also thoroughly enjoyed, perhaps even more than The Graveyard Book. Neverwhere has a similar darkness, but also has an important underlying message about class and the "invisibility" of the those less fortunate in society.

I highly recommend all of Gaiman's work. If you'd like to learn more about him, check out his excellent web site. And stop by the library to check out more of his books.

Hope you are enjoying a summer of good reading.

Outstanding Books for the College Bound

Every five years the American Library Association comes out with an updated list of "Outstanding Books for the College Bound." The 2009 list is available here. Now, I confess that I am still working on a few titles from the 2004 lists, but that hasn't stopped me from picking up a couple books on the 2009 list. My first pick, from the Science and Technology list, was Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. It's fascinating, but disgusting.

To give myself a break from the decomposition discussions, I flew through Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, by Mark Dunn. This is an entertaining work of fiction about the love of language. Some folks on the small island of Nollop idolize their island's namesake, who just happens to be the creator of the saying "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." When the letters of this pangram, posted over a statue of Mr. Nollop, begin to fall down, the island's high council take this as a divine sign from Nollop that those letters are no longer to be used. Thus begins the increasingly difficult task of communicating as more and more letters become illegal with each passing week. It is a tale of oppression, much in the vein of Animal Farm. A fun read, and a great vocabulary builder.

The library already had about half of the books on the 2009 list when it came out. I am happy to report that we now have nearly all of them. The few that I could not find at Chaucer's are on our amazon wish list.

Now, back to the cadavers...

Best Books of 2008

The end of the year is approaching and that means that lots of folks are thinking about the best books published in 2008. I thought I'd share the links to a couple of those. The first one is from School Library Journal. If you see something on the list that sounds appealing and is targeted for young adults, but you can't find it in the library, slip your title request in the suggestion box; we'll try to get it for you.



The second link is from The New York Times. This list of "100 Notable Books" includes works in three categories: fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. These books are for adult readers, but, of course, many of them will appeal to Midland students. In fact, we already have several of them.



These two lists should keep you busy until the Best Books of 2009 lists come out. Happy reading!

Welcome Back!

Due to my malfunctioning camera, I haven't been able to post photographs of the fine work Jim Quick and his crew have been doing in the library this summer. I'm still having trouble, but I hope to get photos up for you in the next few days. In the meantime, here's what's been happening...

The Willrich side...

The Willrich side is complete, and, if I do say so myself, looks pretty darned spiffy. (This is where fiction and biography live.) My new favorite thing is the beautiful Midland walnut mantle that Tom Rogowski made so that we could put the busts of Paul Squibb and Carl Munger above the fireplace. They look cozy up there, and will soon have a backdrop of Midland art. The Squibb map of the property is moving to Main House where folks will be able to see it better.

My second favorite thing is the new magazine shelving also built by Tom. Last year a survey of the students led to the purchase of several more subscriptions, and we needed more space to show them off.

My third favorite thing is the wooden letters spelling out "fiction" and "biography." Last year's students expressed a very clear desire for better signs in the library so that it would be easier to find things. We're making that a priority this year. Look for more of these signs as we continue to work on the Webb side.

Speaking of the Webb side...

This is the side where all of the nonfiction lives. Unfortunately, we aren't going to be done on this side until the end of September. We tried so hard to get good used library shelving from the Santa Maria Public Library, but it just didn't work out the way we hoped. So, we will not have shelves until September 29. This is not the end of the world. This afternoon, Cymbre, 2007-2008 library intern extraordinaire, put the reference books back on the metal shelves that we kept on that side. We'll also pull out nonfiction topics that folks will be teaching in September. And we're looking forward to firing up the new, efficient wood stove that is located on the windows side of the room.

The Computer Lab...

We still have a few things to finish, but the room is ready. We knocked out a wall and expanded into Jose Juan's old classroom. (Jose Juan's classroom now occupies half of his old classroom and all of what was the old computer lab. It's a beautiful space!) Phil began setting up our 25 new computers today. We have a new printer that also functions as a scanner and photocopier. You'll find all of the prefect, council, and captains boards hanging in this room.

We're looking forward to seeing you all in the library.

~The Bloggers