New This Week
June 8, 2009
Column: At the Library
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby
Column: At the Library for June 08/09
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby
Why did the political ideals of late-Victorian England create such a surge of children’s literature? A.S. Byattâ€"the grand dame of English Literature and hater of Harry Potterâ€"examines this theme in her new novel THE CHILDREN’S BOOK. This is a brilliant yet dark tale of adults who love children’s stories, but not children. It is an era rife with examples of infants being abandoned and left to die so their parents can watch Peter Pan.
Younger readers should enjoy PEACHES, the beginning of a new series by Jodi Lynn Anderson. PEACHES follows the experiences of three girls working in a peach orchard, and how they become close friends despite their obvious differences.
The library has a new collection of audiobooks called PLAYAWAYS. These new devices are each loaded with a single popular title. They are about the size of a credit card; small enough to fit in a pocket or purse. You listen to them with headphones and control them with a few simple buttons. This means you don\'t need a computer, a CD player, an MP3 player or any other extra hardware to listen to an audiobook. We have a range of new titles available, including new fiction, old classics, and memoirs. PLAYAWAYS are a wonderful complement to our already extensive audiobook collection.
Interested in joining a book club? A brand new reading group is starting up at the Library. The group will be having an organizational meeting on Tuesday, June 16th, 7 pm at the Library. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. Please contact us at 426-4063 for more information.
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.
For the month of June we will be displaying beautiful watercolor paintings by Teresa Knight.
The summer reading club is just around the corner! FOLLOW THE READER is this year’s theme. Registration begins on June 27. This summer should be our best yet, with coloring contests, movie nights, story-writing contests, cybercamps, games, prizes, and of course books! There will also be a toddler storytime this summer. Please keep checking this column for further details, or phone Kristen at 426-4063.
ADULT NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:
Style Evolution â€" Kendall Farr (646.404)
Practicing Catholic â€" James Carroll (282.092)
The G.I. Diet Menopause Clinic â€" Rick Gallop (618.17506)
Chilton European Service Manual 2008 (629.2872)
Chilton Asian Service Manual 2008 : volumes 1 to 4 (629.2872)
Unbelievable â€" Stacy Horn (133.0109)
Slow Death by Rubber Duck â€" Rick Smith (615.902)
The End of Overeating â€" David A. Kessler (613.2)
Ten Degrees of Reckoning â€" Hester Rumberg (910.916)
Get Ready to Get Pregnant â€" Michael C. Lu (618.24)
Keys to Parenting an Adopted Child â€" Kathy Lancaster (362.734)
The Children’s Book â€" A.S. Byatt (fic)
The Secret Works of T.S. Spivet â€" Reif Larsen (fic)
Prayers for Sale â€" Sandra Dallas (fic)
The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund â€" Jill Kargman (fic)
Tyrant â€" Christian Cameron (fic)
Plea of Insanity â€" Jilliane Hoffman (mys)
My Soul to Take â€" Yrsa Sigurdardottir (mys)
Living Witness â€" Jane Haddam (mys)
Dragon Mage â€" Andrew Norton & Jean Rabe (pb)
Prophets â€" S. Andrew Swann (pb)
Deadly Gift â€" Heather Graham (pb)
Lord of Lies â€" David Zindell (pb)
Rome : seasons 1 and 2 (DVD)
Animal House (DVD)
The Breakfast Club (DVD)
The Color of Freedom (DVD)
Pretty Woman (DVD)
Thelma & Louise (DVD)
YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S NEWLY ACQUIRED ITEMS:
Sam Stern’s Get Cooking (ya 641.5)
Peaches â€" Jodi Lynn Anderson (ya fic)
Wolverine Prodigal Son â€" Anthony Johnston (ya fic)
Tiger Threat â€" Sigmund Brouwer (ya fic)
Pendragon volumes 5 to 8 â€" D.J. MacHale (ya fic)
The New Jumbo Book of Easy Crafts â€" Judy Ann Sadler (j 745.5)
Start to Embroider â€" Claire Buckley (j 746.44)
Are you Afraid Yet : The Science Behind Scary Stuff â€" Stepehn James O’Meara (j 001.944)
Horrible Handbook of Knights â€" Terry Deary (j 940.1)
Why Do Horses Have Manes? â€" Elizabeth Macleod (j 636.1)
Crocodile Safari â€" Jim Arnosky (j 597.982)
Where Did Pluto Go? â€" Paul Sutherland (j 523.2)
MIKE’S BOOKNOTES:
While its real title is Cotton Vitellius A.XV, it is more commonly known as BEOWULF. An old English heroic poem, it is one of the best known works in the history of literature, and is the oldest known work recorded in the English language. It currently exists in millions of copies, translated in dozens of languages, and has inspired many works of art, including films and operas. Nothing is known of its author, but internal evidence suggests a literate and Christian Englishman. Written sometime between the 4th and 9th century, BEOWULF is a masterpiece of poetic expression.
Yet it wasn’t always this way.
For over eight hundred years, BEOWULF survived only as a single manuscript. During that time, it was only ever known by four people, three of whom ignored it. Copies began to circulate in the early 1700s, with scholars not quite sure what to make of it. It was felt to either be a history of pagan Scandinavian history, or simply a jumble of Icelandic literary traditions. What ever it was, it wasn’t very important.
All this changed in 1936.
A young and unknown Oxford professor named J.R.R. Tolkien, told the British Academy what he felt BEOWULF really was: a poem. An English poem written by an English poet. Tolkien then demonstrated its rhyme scheme (it followed the Anglo-Saxon rhyming rules exactly), and its Christian references (although the poem omits mention of any religion, the word ‘heathen’ is used throughout the poem). And even though BEOWULF never once mentions England, or Britain, or anyone English, Tolkien convinced his audience that this was a classic case of English understatement.
21st century linguistic and archaeological studies have confirmed Tolkien’s assertion. One can only wonder at what BEOWULF’S author would have made of his poem’s success.
