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New This Week

May 31, 2010

Column: At the Library
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby



When the Potato Famine swept through Ireland in 1840, thousands of families left everything they had and immigrated to Canada. While many people did not survive the trip, those who did began a small settlement known as Griffintown, which evolved the southern part of Montreal. In AN IRISH HEART, Sharon Doyle Driedger brings this story to life; a colorful and detailed look at one the more important episodes in our Canadian heritage.

Younger readers should enjoy HOW TO CLEAN A HIPPOPOTUMUS by Steve Jenkins. This brightly illustrated book explorers the highly unusual relationships that exist in the animal kingdom.

Up for Adoption! 100\'s of magazine subscriptions. Help the Friends of the Library maintain the magazine selection. Purchase a magazine subscription from our list and receive an income tax deductible receipt. Please phone Loopy Pratt at 250-426-4771 for more information.

Preschool Story Time will be in hiatus until the fall. The summer reading club will be shortly in full swing for the summer. Please contact Kristen at 250-426-4063 for more details.



ADULT NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:

The Nine Rooms of Happiness �" Lucy Danziger (158.1)
How to Never Look Fat Again �" Charla Krupp (746.92)
An Irish Heart �" Sharon Doyle Driedger (971.428)
We’ve Got Issues �" Judith Warnter (618.9289)
Vampire Forensics �" Mark Collins Jenkins (398.45)
The Whale �" Philip Hoare (599.5)
Bite: A Vampire Handbook �" Kevin Jackson (398.45)
A Good Talk �" Daniel Menaker (302.346)
Red Carpet Ready �" Melissa Rivers (158)
East Sleep Poop �" Scott W. Cohen (618.9202)
Wittgenstein & the Practice of Philosophy �" Michael Hymers (192)
How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, & MySpace �" Brad Shepp (650.14)
The Tudors �" G. J. Meyer (942.05)
The Decision Tree �" Thomas Goetz (613)
This Book is Overdue �" Marilyn Johnson (020)
Tough Conversations with Your Boss �" Lynn Eisaguirre (650.13)
Tough Conversations with Your Employee �" Lynn Eisaguirre (658.3)
The Teen Owner’s Manual �" Sarah Jordan (649.125)
A Beaver is Eating My Canoe �" Matt Jackson (796.50971)
Vogue Beauty �" Juliet Cohen (646.7042)
Guilt about the Past �" Bernhard Schlink (170)
Dinner on a Dime: 403 Budget-Friendly Family Recipes (641.552)
PhotoLife Buyer’s Guide 2010 (771.3)
A Path of Northern Lights: The Story of the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay (796.980971)
A Man Named Dave �" Dave Pelzer (bio)
The Language of Secrets �" Dianne Dixon (fic)
Dog Boy �" Eva Hornung (fic)
Feathered Serpent 2012 �" Junius Podrog (fic)
Fragile Beasts �" Tawni O’Dell (fic)
The Promise of Rain �" Donna Milner (fic)
The Walk �" Richard Paul Evans (fic)
Without Mercy �" Lisa Jackson (mys)
Down to the Wire �" David Rosenfelt (mys)
Blackout �" Connie Willis (sci fic)
Mirror Mirror �" Gregory Maguire (sci fic)
Sun Tzu’s Art of War (DVD)
Waking the Baby Mammoth (DVD)
Sputnik Mania (DVD)
Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster (DVD)
Welcome to Macintosh (DVD)
The Bronte Sisters (DVD)
George Eliot (DVD)
Jane Austen’s Life (DVD)
An Inside Look at Family Mediation (DVD)
Power Walk & Weight Loss (DVD)


YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S NEWLY ACQUIRED ITEMS:


101 Things Everyone Should Know About Math (ya 510)
I Am Not A Serial Killer �" Dan Wells (ya fic)
Girl on the Other Side �" Deborah Kerbel (ya fic)
Comeback �" Vicki Grant (ya fic)
Poster Boy �" Dede Crane (ya fic)
Just Ask �" Melody Carlson (ya fic)
The Secrets of Peaches �" Jodi Lynn Anderson (ya fic)
Virginia �" Susan Hughes (ya fic)
Dawn of the Dreadfuls �" Steve Hockensmith (ya fic)
Gone �" Lisa McMann (ya fic)
Watch for Me by Moonlight �" Jacquelyn Mitchard (ya fic)
Earth �" Seymour Simon (j 525)
Magic Up Your Sleeve �" Helaine Becker (j 793.8)
The Magic School Bus & the Climate Challenge �" Joanna Cole (j 551.6)
How to Clean A Hippopotamus �" Steve Jenkins (j 591.785)
Tentacles �" Roland Smith (j fic)
Crown of Wizards �" Tony Abbot (j pb)
Goosebumps Horrorland: Little Shop of Hamsters �" R. L. Stine (j pb)
Bear Market �" Michele Martin Boxxley (j pb)
Chester’s Masterpiece �" Melanie Watt (j pic)
Hot Rod Hamster �" Cynthia Lord (j pic)
Brand-New Baby Blues �" Kathi Appelt (j pic)
Elliot’s Fire Truck �" Andrea Beck ( j pic)
Best of All �" Max Lucado (j pic)
Your Special Gift �" Max Lucado (j pic)



MIKE’S BOOKNOTES:


If Dorothy Parker was seen as the most vicious of the Algonquin Round Table�"a group of biting and gin-soaked writers and critics from the 1920s�"then Robert Benchley was easily the most affable of the group. One of the best humorists of the age, Benchley’s frequently appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Life magazine. He wrote over 600 “consistently delightful” articles, published 12 books, and wrote 48 short films. He was the star of most of his work, the harassed everyman who tried but was unable to navigate his way around the dangers posed by dogs, mirrors, and Girl-Scouts. “Behind every argument is someone\'s ignorance,” Benchley would lament to his New Yorker readership. “There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don\'t.”

After being 11 minutes late for work one day, the publisher at Vanity Fair demanded an explanation. Benchley turned in a written account of how�"on the way to work�"he saw a large crowd outside the Hippodrome theatre. Apparently a group of elephants had escaped, and so Benchley led a posse after them. The chase wound through Manhattan’s Fifth Ave, Central Park, 72nd Street, and finally to the West Side docks, where Benchley finally corralled them, triumphantly riding the largest elephant back to the Hippodrome. And that is why he was 11 minutes late.

Born in 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Robert Benchley was the descendant of Underground Railroad workers. He was educated at Harvard, served in WWI, and wrote for various newspapers until he hit is stride with humor in 1919. When a publisher asked for a brief biographical sketch, Benchley quickly sent one off, stating he had written A TALE OF TWO CITIES, was married to Princess Anastasia of Portugal, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It was easy to see why Benchley was the beloved one of the Round Table, and why Dorothy Parker had a lifelong crush on him.

For all his natural cheerfulness, something dark brewed inside Benchley. At age 31, he took his first alcoholic drink. The previously easygoing, sober and faithful family man transformed into a hopeless alcoholic and serial adulterer. He began to abuse sleeping pills and Benzedrine, but the booze finally claimed him�"as it would all the members of the Round Table�"in 1945.

Besides an enormous amount of literate and ingeniously written body of work, Benchley also left behind his wife Gertrude, (who was his high-school sweetheart) and his son Nathaniel. Nathaniel Benchley went on to write dozens of novels, plays, short stories, reviews, and a series of award-winning children’s books. While not as famous or well known as his father, both men would be eclipsed by Nathaniel’s son, Peter. In 1974, Peter Benchley wrote JAWS, one of the best selling books of all time.