New This Week
May 11, 2009
Column: At the Library
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby
Elizabeth Berg’s HOMESAFE, is the heart-warming story of Helen Ames; a novelist who loses her husband, her life-savings, and her ability write. Clinging to her only daughter as a lifeline, Helen begins to lose her as well. Long-time readers of Berg will enjoy her exploration of creativity, grief, and surprising insights into mother / daughter relationships.
Younger Readers should enjoy Laurie Halse Anderson’s CHAINS, which just won the ALA Best Book for Young Adults award. It is the story of Isabel"a thirteen-year-old slave"and her incredible determination for freedom.
Preschool Story Time this Wednesday at 11:00 am, 1:15 pm, & 6:30 pm, and Toddler Story this Friday at 10:30 am will be all about kings and queens!
Jim Ellemers will be giving basic computer and internet training sessions every Wednesday between 2 and 5 pm. Anyone interested can register at the circulation desk.
Now is the time to spring clean and donate those unneeded books, videos, CDs and DVDs to the Friends of the Library for their book sales. Items in good condition are appreciated. Any encyclopedia sets, Readers Digest Condensed Books and textbooks must be published within the last ten years. Please bring items to the circulation desk of the library. For further info please call Marilyn at 250-489-6254.
Don’t forget to come and see Darlene Chatten’s beautiful and award-winning artwork.
ADULT NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:
6 Weeks to a New Body " Maureen Hagan (613.7)
Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things (640)
Oriental Carpet Design " P.R.J. Ford (746.75)
Power From Wind " Dan Chiras (621.312)
Thorburn’s Birds " Archibald Thorburn (598.022)
Decoupage the Easy Way (745.546)
Fat : An Appreciate of a Misunderstood Ingredient with Recipes " Jennifer McLagan (641.6)
Men Are Stupid and They Like Big Boobs " Joan Rivers (617.95)
Welcome to the Departure Lounge " Meg Federico (649.8)
Bottomfeeder " Taras Grescoe (641.692)
The Complete Long Distance Runner’s Manual " Sean Fishpool (796.424)
Disconnected Kids " Robert Melillo (618.928)
Celebrate With Chocolate " Marcel Desaulniers (641.637)
Home Safe " Elizabeth Berg (fic)
Miss Julia Delivers the Goods " Ann B. Ross (fic)
The Confession " James Patterson (mys)
The Perfect Poison " Amanda Quick (mys)
First Family " David Baldacci (mys)
Lords of Corruption " Kyle Mills (mys)
The Kill Call " Stephen Booth (mys)
Deadlock " Iris Johansen (mys)
Viewpoints Critical " L.E. Modesitt Jr. (sci fi)
Wake " Robert J. Sawyer (sci fi)
Flexibility for the Inflexible (DVD)
Superman Doomsday (DVD)
Pilates for Life (DVD)
Pearl Diver (DVD)
YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:
Painless Study Techniques " Michael Greenberg (ya 371)
Home of the Brave " Katherine Applegate (ya fic)
Chains " Laurie Halse Anderson (ya fic)
Diamonds in the Shadow " Caroline B. Cooney (ya fic)
Peeps " Scott Westerfield (ya fic)
Big Book of Papercraft " Fiona Watt (j 745.54)
A Year on a Pirate Ship (j 910.45)
A Year in a Castle (j 940.1)
A Day at an Airport (j 387.736)
A Walk Through A Window " Ke Dyer (j fic)
Tough Boris " Mem Fox (j pic)
Little Polar Bear and the Brave Little Hare " Hans de Beer (j pic)
The House in the Night " Susan Marie Swanson (j pic)
Boo Hoo Bird " Jeremy Tankard (j pic)
This is the Firefighter " Laura Godwin (j pic)
How Do I Love You " Marion Dane Bauer (baby)
Snow Bear " Piers Harper (baby)
I Love You As Much " Laura Kraus Melmed (baby)
MIKE’S BOOKNOTES:
The editors at Sports Illustrated were furious. Planning to publish a feature story on the Mint 400 (the 1971 Las Vegas motorcycle race), they advanced a large sum of money to Hunter Stockton Thompson, a freelance sports writer. While Thompson did go to Las Vegas, he spent the entire advance on a variety of street drugs; wrecked various hotel rooms; crashed a police convention; and began to hallucinate about talking desert animals. Never leaving the hotel to even see the race, Thompson delivered to Sports Illustrated 20 pages of what appeared to be incoherent ramblings about the decline of American culture (which may or may not be blamed on talking desert animals). History records they “aggressively rejected” the piece.
Thompson had also taken an advance from Rolling Stone magazine, promising to write about a television journalist who had been murdered by a policeman. Confusing his notes, he sent Rolling Stone the pages Sports Illustrated rejected. Rolling Stone loved it, and scheduled it for immediate publication. FEAR & LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS : A SAVAGE JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE AMERICAN DREAM appeared in the November 1971 issue of the magazine.
What should have been nothing more than a humorous tale of Thompson’s drug-addled weekend, FEAR & LOATHING was instantly seen as an important work in American journalism. Thompson was seen to have giving a voice to a nation mourning the end of the lofty idealism of the 1960s. By inserting himself into his own story (a technique he called “Gonzo”), Thompson changed what was thought possible in reporting. FEAR & LOATHING is now required reading for students of American literature.
Before his suicide in 2005, Thompson became part of the culture he criticized. The drug-using crazy writer in his trademark Hawaiian shirt, cigarette holder, and mirrored sunglasses was the topic of numerous books, films, and even a Doonesbury character. While he felt the world never got weird enough for him, his fateful trip to Las Vegas continues to be a benchmark in American literature.
