"Pride and Prejudice" Forever. And Ever.

Will the world ever get tired of rewriting Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? Probably not; this is unfortunate, because it’s already been done about a million times. For those of you who don’t know, Pride and Prejudice is a classic novel about the proud Mr. Darcy who is destined to fall in love with the lively (and prejudiced) Elizabeth Bennet.

Because most of the rewrites of Pride and Prejudice are modern, they are also quite a bit racier. Some stories put Elizabeth and Darcy in modern settings while others are sequels that speculate about the subsequent lives of the characters. All offer dramatically different portrayals of the lives of two of the best known literary figures.

Luckily, Southwestern College’s Library has a variety of different versions to choose from:
The classic: Pride and Prejudice
Sequels: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and Darcy & Elizabeth
A Modernization: The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy

Check with your Librarian if you’re interested in a book from a different location.

New Books - October 15-25

Here are just a few of the new books you'll find in the Dayton Library this week. Enjoy!

Medical
3-2-1 Code It!
Deep Tissue Massage (RM721 .F47 2006)
Kinesiology Foundations for OTAs & PTAs (QP303 .S655 2005)
Review Questions and Answers for Dental Assisting (RK60.5 .F57 2009)
Clinical Evidence Pediatrics (RA440 .A1 2005)
The Secret Language of Eating Disorders (RC552 .E18 C53 1997)

Criminal Justice
Live from Death Row, Mumia Abu-Jamal (HV8699 .U5 A65 1996)
Preparing for Terrorism: an Emergency Services Guide (HV6432 .B82 1998)
A Man Named Dave: a Story of Triumph and Forgiveness (HV883 .C2 P47 1999)

Fiction and Literature
Sounder, William H Armstrong (PZ7 .A73394 So 1969)
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison (PS3563 .O8749 S6 1987)
Beloved, Toni Morrison (PS3563 .O8749 B4 2004)
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison (PS3563 .O8749 1970)
White Teeth, Zadie Smith (PR6069 .M59 W47 2001)
Naked, David Sedaris (PS3569 .E3248 Z569 1998)
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (PS3511 .I9 G7 1995)

Other
Ship of Gold: in the Deep Blue Sea (G530 .K56 1999)
Women of the Forest (F2520.1 .M8 M83 1985)
Home Town, Tracy Kidder (F74 .N86 K53 2000)
10 Things You Gotta Know about Your First Year of College (LB2343.3 .M68 2005)
Points of View: Readings in American Government and Politics (JK21 .P59 2004)
Winning at Work Without Losing at Life (HF5386 .A75 1994)
Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem (HQ756 .B57 1995)

Fear of Flying?

The Black Box: All-New Cockpit Voice Recorder Accounts of Inflight Accidents, edited by Malcom MacPherson (TL553.5 .B23 1998). is a collection of transcript excerpts from twenty-eight cockpit voice recorder tapes from the 1980s and '90s. At first the premise of the book seemed unbearably ghoulish. But as a reviewer for The New York Times says, “Once the book has caught your attention, it is hard to throw off its spell."

The editor, a novelist and journalist, began collecting the flight records in a not surprisingly unsuccessful attempt to alleviate his fear of flying. Each chapter contains a description of the situation within and outside the airplane before the accident, excerpts from the actual transcript, and finally an explanation describing what caused the accident and how many people died.

Metal fatigue is the most common cause of the disasters. There are also mid-air collisions, birds, being shot down by the Russians, flying into a mountain, pilot inattention, fires in the cargo hold, and undetermined. One pilot, although aware he was low on fuel, for some reason didn’t want to let the air traffic controllers know this.

The pilots, co-pilots, flight engineers, and flight attendants are reassuringly serious about their work even before the planes get into trouble. In most cases, there’s little banter and a lot of pre-flight checklisting, which would be boring except that we know what the flight crew does not: that really bad trouble is just a few seconds away.

It’s hard for me to imagine how the crew members maintained their composure moments before disaster, but even most of the pilots who are clearly to blame seem relatively unflappable, with only one crew reacting as I would have done:

CAPTAIN: Four twenty-seven, emergency!
COPILOT: [Screams]
CAPTAIN: Pull …
COPILOT: Oh …
CAPTAIN: Pull … Pull …
COPILOT: God …
CAPTAIN: [Screams]
COPILOT: No …

The last chapter is the longest: MacPherson explains that he has ended with the 1989 Sioux City, Iowa, disaster because “of what it says about the professionalism and sometimes heroism or airlines’ crews.” Of the pilot, he says,

He knew the predicament, yet he rose above it, especially when a representative of United Airlines’ System Aircraft Maintenance in San Francisco refused to believe what the crew of Flight 232 was telling him; his insistence that all three hydraulic systems could not have been destroyed became a running joke for the flight crew in the ongoing emergency.

MacPherson points out what we all know—that flying is far safer than driving. There are some years when no one at all dies in a commercial airplane in the United States.The book also confirms something else I’ve long suspected: that flying is much more difficult than driving, and it’s a good thing that the people who do it have a lot of training and experience.

‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Manga Edition): An Illustrated Leadership Fable’ by Patrick Lencioni

It is safe to say that I wouldn’t have read this book if it weren’t in graphic novel form. Furthermore, I wouldn’t have read this graphic novel if it weren’t something curriculum-related that I purchased for our library. Lencioni’s story is about a business with disorganized unsuccessful leadership that hires a new CEO to turn the company around. Several meetings take place in which she confronts the tension of the existing management and attempts to teach them to work together effectively.

The end of this book gives specific advice for carrying out the team reformation that the author recommends. It’s difficult to say whether this book would be helpful to me if I were actually in a team leadership position. Most of the advice makes sense and is clearly explained. But is the advice too simple? It seems like some of the things discussed may be obvious, but maybe this is the problem – management techniques that work are so deceptively simple that they get overlooked.

As I’m sure some are aware, Lencioni has written The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (non-Manga edition), on which this edition is based. I can’t comment on how similar the content is, not having read the original. However, as a person who reads very little in the way of business management books, I can say that this is a tolerably entertaining, quick and painless read.

'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel

It feels that many people will have already read the novel Life of Pi, so this review may not be terribly helpful to those people. But I have read this book recently and enjoyed it thoroughly, so there will be a review anyway. Life of Pi is the story of a teenage boy, Pi Patel, who is travelling with his family from Asia to North America when the ship sinks. The ship had also been transporting many of the family’s zoo animals, and four of these animals, a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger, end up on a lifeboat with Pi. After a short time, Pi and the tiger are the only two remaining. Life of Pi is a survival story combined with the unusual element of fear, admiration and love of the Bengal tiger, Robert Parker.

Pi is a very religious boy and though the book is not heavy-handed in this respect, there is frequent evidence of his faith throughout. When looked at in these terms, Pi’s love and fear of Richard Parker elevates the tiger to a deity-like status. By staying by his side during his darkest time, the tiger saves Pi from desperation and certain death. If Martel had written a novel about a shipwreck survivor that saved himself through his own faith in god, this wouldn’t have been an unusual book at all; it is the transfer of religious love to a living being that makes the book uncommonly endearing.

All in all, a wonderful book with a bittersweet ending – C.S. Lewis would have been proud.

‘Dance of Death’ by Francine Pascal

It should be painfully obvious by now that I really enjoy reading old Sweet Valley High books. Unfortunately, the local public library doesn’t both keeping these dated teen books on the shelves anymore as updated books for teen girls have become popular lately. Though Dance of Death was enjoyable, it isn’t a stand alone book and ends in a cliffhanger. If the library had the next book in the series this wouldn’t be a problem. Jessica and Enid are competing for the love of the mysterious Jonathan who recently moved to Sweet Valley and lives by himself in a crumbling mansion. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has problems of her own as her summer fling comes to California and attempts to win her from longtime boyfriend Todd Wilkins.

This story seems to be fairly typical of Sweet Valley because it includes Todd/Elizabeth relationship drama and Jessica falling for a somewhat dodgy character. Of course, the best Sweet Valley books also include supernatural elements and Dance of Death won’t disappoint readers in this respect either (spoiler alert: A Vampire, spooky!). On a side note, it amazes me that just about every Sweet Valley book includes Elizabeth cheating on Todd Wilkins, and Todd seems to be thickheaded enough to keep returning to her. But that seems to be just one of the many things that make Sweet Valley so good, no matter how many murders and betrayals take place, it will be mostly back to normal within a couple hundred pages.

'Dead Until Dark' by Charlaine Harris

I am probably one of the last people on Earth to partake in the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse phenomenon. It seems like everyone I know has either watched the show or read the books; until a couple weeks ago, I had done neither. In this situation the summary of the book seems a little unnecessary, but I’ll include a brief explanation anyway. Sookie Stackhouse is a mind-reading cocktail waitress in Louisiana. Vampires have come out of hiding and are somewhat commonplace; they are able to drink synthetic rather than human blood to survive. Sookie is very excited when a vampire shows up in her hometown. I’ve only seen one episode of the True Blood television program, but I understand that the first book corresponds pretty accurately to the first season of the show.

I sort of knew that I should be expecting the book to be completely ridiculous, but I didn’t really realize the extent of it. The writing and narration are just cheesy enough for me to really latch onto it, and Sookie is unbelievable enough to be a fun main character.

Should we be creeped out that Bill keeps referring to Sookie as being “his” human? Probably, but Sookie seems a little irritated by it too, which is nice. Their whole relationship is pretty spontaneous, but maybe that’s the point. I think that if you’re looking for depth in character relationships when you read then Sookie Stackhouse probably isn’t for you. But if you’re looking for an outrageous, sex-filled vampire drama, then Dead Until Dark is perfect.

'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy

Around the same time my sister was reading The Road I saw the book listed as on of the top 10 most depressing books ever written. So I expected that it would be good based on what my sister said and I knew it was going to make me really, really sad. The story is set in what appears to be a nuclear winter or some similarly bleak setting (we don’t know much about the history); clouds have completely blocked out the sun, ash covers everything and plants and animals seem to be extinct. In this gray, cold landscape, a man and his child travel together, trying to survive and care for one another. It is heartbreaking, but I also think that it is probably important to read and think about.

Despite the fact that the book is depressing and the world has become something alien to us, it isn’t really so difficult to relate to the things that happen in the story. Shouldn’t we all live to do what’s best for the people we love? The way I see it, the questions in the book are things that we should all be thinking about everyday:

• What are we going to do?



• Is that safe to eat?



• Are you one of the good guys?



• Are you carrying the fire?

Anna’s teen lit weekend of shame

This post should either count as two books or zero books. Two books because I physically read two separate bound volumes of fiction. Zero books because I’m not sure that Sweet Valley High and Gossip Girls actually constitute real reading. At least I can admit to reading them and getting no small amount of pleasure from doing so.

Let’s start with the classic: Secrets by Francine Pascal. I’ll have to start by saying that this isn’t really a classic. When I was checking this book out at the library, I checked the publication date and found that it was originally published in 1983, which is exactly the kind of thing I wanted; if I had looked closer I would have noticed that it was “recreated” by Kate William in 2006. This means that this Sweet Valley High book contains lots of things that never would have been included in 1983: snooping in other peoples’ email accounts, ecstasy, martini tasting parties, photoshopping and writing blogs to name just a few discrepancies. Also, William modernized the story by having characters make references to shows like 24 and Heroes. Needless to say, I’m a little bitter about all this and I really missed my “vintage” Sweet Valley High. Luckily, the story was still pretty good, Jessica was scheming to win the homecoming crown and hopefully win the heart of the dreamy Bruce Patman (at least they didn’t modernize the characters’ names).

Now for Nothing can keep us together by Cecily Von Ziegesar. Before this weekend, I had never before read any Gossip Girl books. I probably should have started with a book from the beginning of the series, but I figured that since characters are just reintroduced at the beginning of every book anyway, it wouldn’t make such a big deal. And it didn’t. I was perfectly capable of following the story and I knew enough about past events for the plot to be easily understood. Most of the story involved preparations for the upcoming high school graduation and Serena and Blair fighting about boys. From what I had heard in the past about Gossip Girl, I was prepared for scheming, unsupervised minors who all have unbelievable amounts of sex and moderate substance abuse problems; I was not disappointed. If this were a real representation of teen life in America, we would be in serious trouble. Since this is fortunately not the case, people like me are able to enjoy knowing that it’s actually not that bad.

'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' by Stieg Larsson

I’m sure that anyone who has heard anything about the final installment in Stieg Larsson’s trilogy has heard nothing but good. And rightly so. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a satisfying conclusion that resolves many of the complex issues that Larsson created.

When the Girl Who Played with Fire concluded, Lisbeth Salander was in a dangerous situation, physically and legally. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the story of Lisbeth’s recovery and the investigation of her supposed crimes/offenses. Of course, Mikael Blomkvist is still Salander’s greatest advocate; he helps to track down and unravel the conspiracy that caused her to be abused and declared legally incompetent.

Stieg Larsson has posthumously proven himself to be one of the most talented suspense writers of our time. Even though Larsson died before the publication of his books, they are certainly not unfinished. All three books were delivered for publication prior to Larsson’s death, and I can’t think of anything that is missing. The trilogy is great for suspense readers, but also for those who simply enjoy a good book.

'Violation: The Life of Luisa Cannoli' by Luisa Cannoli

There are many, many quotes in existence that talk about the power of books and their ability to transport readers to unknown lands and foreign situations. This is certainly the case when it comes to Violation: The Life of Luisa Cannoli. As I read this book, I felt that I was being transported to a dark, scary place inside the mind of a crazy person with no access to a dictionary or spell check. Unfortunately, Luisa Cannoli’s intent probably wasn’t to terrify people with typos; she seems to be genuinely convinced of her soundness of mind and self-importance.

The book tells the long, drawn-out story of Luisa Cannoli’s lawsuit with an insurance company after she receives what sound like minor injuries in a car accident. After the accident, Cannoli is stalked by seemingly normal people who are actually spies from the despicable Freedom Insurance Company. Aside from these unusual, yet on-topic accusations, Cannoli also feels the need to tell the reader endless stories about childhood vacations, family investments and housing choices. She is careful to include all (and I mean ALL) information that is of even marginal importance. For example, (spoiler alert) Luisa wears brown shoes on the day of the automobile accident. Gasp!

It seems to me that the entire book is part personal memoir, part insurance lawsuit documentation. The language sounds like it was meant to be used to illustrate her personal suffering specifically for the purpose of furthering her personal injury lawsuit. Luckily, you don’t have to rely solely on my opinion of this book – it is available in the Dayton branch of library. You have to see it to believe it!

We Were the Mulvaneys (or were we?)

You might wonder why the Dayton library with its limited space owns two copies of Joyce Carol Oates's 1996 Oprah's Book Club selection We Were the Mulvaneys. I don't have an answer to that one, but it's certainly worth being checked out by two people at the same time. Like so much of Oates's best work, We Were the Mulvaneys combines dirty realism (we learn exactly when Burger King and Wendy's move into the tiny town of Mt. Ephraim, New York) with a gothic sensibility (a pivotal scene involves near death by quicksand). It's 454 pages, but I read it in one night.

The plot begins in 1976 with the Mulvaneys--eccentric but responsible parents and four promising children. A few chapters in (and I'm not really giving away everything here--the back cover provides plenty of hints), Marianne, a high school junior, is violently date-raped, and everything goes wrong from there for the whole family. While reading, I often asked myself whose fault it was that the family deteriorated so quickly. The rape is the rapist's fault, of course, and there's evidence in the novel that Marianne is not his only victim. The people of the town are all pretty bad, inexplicably--or maybe not so inexplicably--taking the side of the rapist's well-heeled family over the Mulvaneys. Marianne joins a cult. Revenge is plotted and taken. There were times when I thought, Will this family never get on with its life?

Over the next 15 years, the father behaves very badly, and his life spirals downward more dramatically than anyone else's. At one point one of the sons, a Marine, seems to be on the verge of pouring his heart out to his father about his difficulties adjusting to civilian life. The father is so drunk that he can barely remember the son's name, and the moment passes. I kept asking, Would the father have reached this point anyway if the rape hadn't happened? Or would he have continued with his happy and prosperous life? And later, Is the family heartless or merely practical in moving on with their lives without him?

I'm glad that at the end of the novel, as the back-cover copy suggests, a "miracle" has happened that will "allow the family to bridge the chasms" and "reunite in the spirit of love and healing." I still get the feeling that all of the family members have been stunted in a way that wouldn't have happened had the rape never occurred. But certainly in the case of this family, the bond they've finally rebuilt with each other is a whole lot better than the alternative.

‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville

Obviously, Moby Dick is a great American novel. The obsessed captain Ahab has sworn vengeance on the infamous whale Moby Dick. As many already known from the first line of the book, Ishmael tells the story of the best known whaling voyage of all time (albeit a fictional voyage) from the viewpoint of a member of the ship’s crew.

So many people, including many English majors that I have known, haven’t been able to push themselves through Moby Dick, and understandably so. It is a dense and complex book that few feel compelled to read if they aren’t assigned to do so by a professor. I won’t deny that the book is difficult, or imply that I fully comprehend every obscure reference that Melville has made, but on the whole, I’m glad to be familiar with the book. In truth, I may have benefitted from the graphic descriptions of the processes of whaling more than the narrative, and my final opinion of the novel may be that the work is of greater importance as a historical reference than entertainment fiction. Of course, I grew up playing the ‘Save the Whales’ board game, so it’s hard to imagine how Melville would feel about my perspective.

Even though the reader grows attached to some of the characters on the ship, I think my final sympathy lies with Moby Dick. The sailors think of him as a ruthless beast, but he is really just famous for preventing people from murdering him. I don’t think I’d mind having a reputation for not letting people kill me either.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Though Neil Gaiman is an undeniably successful author with a very loyal readership, I have read very little of his work. A person who has read several of his novels could most likely offer some insight as to whether American Gods is fairly representative of his style, but I cannot. What I can say is that American Gods is that it is an enjoyable book with a well-balanced mix of fantasy and reality.

The book follows Shadow, a recently released felon who finds himself working for Wednesday, an unpredictable con-man. The two are involved in preparations for a coming conflict; the old, traditional gods are facing new gods of Internet, media, industry, etc. Both sides are trying to rally their troops and gain advantage before the conflict that everyone agrees is imminent.

With this book, I often got the feeling that I was missing some of Gaiman’s symbolism; coins are very important but I don’t know that I am clever enough to always get the meaning behind the object. Unfortunately, this is probably my own lack of knowledge of world religions working against me in this case; obviously Gaiman knows a lot more about this than I do. That being said, I’m sure I could quite easily find an excellent article on the inter-web in which someone will gladly explain this to me (maybe a project for tomorrow?). Nevertheless, the story is fun and well paced – surely enjoyable to those who know a lot about this, and those who do not.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

It is really difficult to criticize a great book like Speak (PZ7 .A54385 2009). The layout, plot and characters are all wonderful and just as they should be. If I were in a position to require such things, I would say that every girl from 12-18 should be required to read it, and most other people would benefit from it as well. All in all, this is a really good book about the horrifying yet realistic life of a teenager.

The book begins with Melinda Sordino’s first day of high school. Melinda called the police at an end of summer party, getting several kids into trouble. Before high school even begins, she is ridiculed and ostracized. Melinda starts school lonely and misunderstood and things just keep getting worse.

I’ve read this book multiple times, and I was especially struck by how little identity people seem to have; I think this is intentional. There is a running joke throughout the book about the school being unable to select a mascot. Girls seem to change themselves to fit into the clique of their choosing. Melinda sits in an outdated bedroom that no longer reflects who she really is. I feel as though Anderson is telling us that the trauma and depression that Melinda is suffering is all-consuming. But then again, does anyone really know who they are in high school?

Better Biographies

Do you need to write a biography for class? Infotrac is a great place to start. You can access Infotrac from the desktop icons on school computers, or from home. To access Infotrac from any computer with Internet access, visit url:
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/
Our username is lesday and the password is dayton.
Enter the name of the person whose biography you are looking for, and hit “search”. You should return a results list with several tabs across the top. Click the tab that says “books” for encyclopedia length articles about the individual that you searched. Ask the Librarian if you have questions!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

I recently decided to re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (PZ7.R79835 Har 1998).. This is as much due to my lack of self restraint as it is to the quality of the books themselves. The public library’s well stocked rows of several Harry Potter volumes call to me. I just can’t resist putting away the adult fiction for the wonderful wizardry that is Harry Potter.

I don’t know how important it is for me to provide a summary in this case, since I think most people are at least loosely familiar with the storyline, but I’ll do my best. In this first book of the seven-volume Harry Potter series, an orphaned, eleven-year-old Harry Potter discovers he is a wizard and begins his schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There, he befriends fellow students Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and encounters the dark wizard Voldemort.

There isn’t much that I can say about the merits of the series that hasn’t been said before, so I’ll stick to a couple general observations. First, I never fail to be impressed by J.K. Rowling’s foresight. It as if she had every detail of all seven books planned out in advance. She has said before that she always knew how she would end the series, but I’ve never heard her quoted as saying that she had every detail planned before she starts. It really seems like she did.

The Harry-Dumbledore relationship progresses wonderfully through the series, similar to that of a real life relationship with a mentor. After the final six books of the series, it is easy to forget how little the two knew of each other at the beginning. This isn’t news to anyone who has read the series, but it is nice to back up and remember the beginning. If nothing else, I hope that by praising the books, I can convince other fans to re-read them, and possibly persuade some new readers to pick them up.

36 Arguments for the Existence of God By Rebecca Goldstein

The title of this book is misleading for a couple reasons. First, it is not a list of 36 arguments for the existence of god (although this information is in the appendix). Second, the title makes it sound like the author is making a case for god’s existence. Even if you take the novel format into account, this is not the case (The appendix that includes arguments for god’s existence only includes the arguments so they can be refuted). When I initially discussed this with a friend, I was chastised for not calling the book 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction (I kind of think it is a pain to include this subtitle in conversation), but it does help one know what to expect.

The book takes place during a couple weeks of Cass Seltzer’s career; he is a university professor of the psychology of religion and an author who has recently written a book about atheism. The book is not a list of 36 arguments for the existence of god, but he did include an appendix in his book (I believe that Goldstein’s appendix is meant to be Seltzer’s appendix). Even though the book spans a short amount of time, approximately half of the chapters are flashbacks, so the reader really gets to know Cass from the time he was in his 20’s. Several periods of Cass’s life are explained, his relationship with his eccentric mentor, his background as an Orthodox Jew, a failed marriage and a happy new relationship.

Although this is a book about one man’s explorations in religion and life, we can easily put Cass Seltzer’s atheism in perspective. Can’t we be good without the expectation of an eternal reward? Can’t we love our fellow humans without feeling that we are obligated by our religion? In my opinion, the book is less about the faiths that people embrace and more about the ways that they share their faiths and lives with others.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog By Muriel Barbery

This is a beautiful book written from the perspective of two intelligent yet introverted females; Renee, the concierge of an upscale Parisian apartment building, and Paloma, a young girl who lives with her family in the building. Each chapter takes the form of a themed journal entry. Renee hides her intelligence from the wealthy tenants of the building that she serves. Paloma tells us at the beginning of the book that she plans to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday.

The arrival of a wealthy Japanese gentleman in the building disrupts the lives of both Renee and Paloma. Monsieur Ozu befriends each and helps them to begin to reevaluate the way that they see the world. The author’s recurring topics include philosophy, art, culture and class.

I worry that I have lost more than I should have in reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog in English rather than French (not that I could have read it in its original French). Near the end of the novel, one of the heroine’s makes a comment about having called someone vous (you, formal) rather than tu (you, informal) for many years. Until this moment in the novel, I hadn’t realized that she was calling her friend vous. I used to speak some French in High School – this may be the motivation that I need to learn again.

It amazes me that even though there are so many books that keep telling us that our lives are only as good as the people that we share them with, there are still many people who haven’t gotten the message. I’m not familiar with all of the philosophers and artists that are mentioned in the book, but I think that Barbery is trying to show us that understanding these scholars can only take you so far. Knowing and loving fellow humans is really the only way to appreciate all that art and nature have to offer.

Push, Pushing, Pushed

The heroine of Push by Sapphire (PS3569.A63 P87 1997), Precious Jones, is perhaps one of the most tragic characters in contemporary literature (at least, I can think of very few characters that rival her misfortunes). Often times, when I am reading a book, I think back to earlier portions of the story to find the protagonist’s mistake – the thing that they could have changed that would have prevented later misfortunes. In the case of Precious, I don’t think that this mistake exists; she was just a normal, good child who was overlooked and mistreated.

I assume that many folks already know the subject of the novel, due to its popularity and the movie based on the book that was recently released. For those of you who are not in the know, Precious Jones is an overweight, illiterate teen girl who at the beginning of the book is pregnant with her second child. She is abused by her mother and has been raped by her father repeatedly for several years. The story is about her attempts to receive a quality education and the dedicated instructor who encourages her. The determination and endurance that Precious exhibits is inspiring and a little bit heartbreaking.

Though this topic may seem grave and terrifying, the reader also sees the side of Precious’s life that is typical of any teen girl. She is cautious and concerned with her hair and clothes. She feels self-conscious about her body. Despite the years of rape, she still wants to meet a boy who loves her and finds her attractive. Even though my life and circumstances are very different from those of Precious, it is easy to relate to her.

In a fairly short novel, Sapphire manages to create a vivid picture of her heroine’s life, personality and aspirations. Perhaps one of the more impressive feats that Sapphire has accomplished is that her dialog and narration sound authentic, but are still easy to read. In this way, Sapphire brings us not only into Precious’s Harlem community, but her life.

On Beauty (& many other things)

Without knowing much about the setting of On Beauty (PR6069.M59 O5 2005) by Zadie Smith, I began reading it around the same time that I read Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies. The settings are very similar - both take place in small town liberal arts colleges; much of the main action of both books has to do with the infidelity of the husband/father. Beyond this, the books are not especially similar, but I may be doomed to think of the two as a pair based on the coincidence that I just described. The main difference between the two books was that I thought On Beauty was interesting, clever and enjoyable.

Even though Smith does talk a great deal about beauty in this novel, it could just as easily be called, On Race, On Class or On Marriage. Or any number of other titles. The Belsey family is made up of the parents and three children. Howard is the father, a professor of art history who originally comes from England. The mother, Kiki is a black woman from Atlanta who works at a local hospital. Jerome is the oldest son - the only Christian in a family of atheists. The daughter Zora is determined to be successful intellectually, but ends up being overbearing and commandeering more often than not. The youngest son, Levi, spends most of the novel trying to figure out what it means to be black in a small town with a very small black community.

I spend so much time explaining the unique positions of each of the family members, because I think the fact that their situations are so dramatically different is what makes the novel interesting. As mentioned before, the father's infidelity is crucial to the plot, as is the arrival of one of his professional rivals on the college campus, but, in my opinion, these events really just serve to illustrate the way that honesty, love and loyalty work in this culturally, emotionally, spiritually diverse family.

I'm very interested in novelists who don't seem to be concerned with whether or not their main characters are likable. Even though I haven't heard or read anything that describes Smith's own feelings on this subject, if I had to guess, I would say that she is more interested in making her characters realistic and believable. This doesn't necessarily mean that the characters aren't likable, just that they frequently do things that make the reader cringe. I consider it a mark of success on the part of the storyteller when I feel genuinely embarrassed for her characters.

Luckily, the book is fiction, so no matter what happens on the page, I can remind myself that these people didn't actually have to suffer these humiliations & heartbreaks. And if they survive, then us real folk probably can too.

Wordle

Wordle http://www.wordle.net/ is a Java program that will automatically transform any words of your choice into an artistic design called a Word Cloud. You can type in your own words or paste in a favorite quote from another document. The more often the word appears in your original text, the larger it will appear in the final Word Cloud. In this example, TEACHING and LEARNING were the most frequently used words.

Once you've created a Word Cloud you like, you can share it in the Wordle Gallery with other Wordle users. Perhaps more excitingly, you can also make a screen shot of your creation, edit it with Microsoft Paint or a similar program, and print it out. The possibilities--especially if you have a color printer--are pretty endless: invitations, t-shirt designs, PowerPoints, or simply a really memorable cover page for your next research paper. LH

Review: Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies

I was really excited to read the book Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies. And not just because of an attractive cover or prominent display. I saw a recommendation on NPR - other NPR recommendations have been very enjoyable. I have lived in Ohio my entire life and this memoir is set in Oberlin, Ohio; I try to seek out literature from or about Ohio. It is also a non-fiction book by a female author. I sort of knew what the book was about, and was expecting an uplifting story about a strong woman.

Here’s the gist of the book: Isabel Gillies and her husband have a very dramatic relationship. They have two kids. Gillies moves from New England to Ohio with her husband who is a poetry professor. After a while, he meets and falls in love with one of the other professors at Oberlin. They separate. Don’t worry, I haven’t just given away the entire book, this is all mentioned at the beginning.

It sounds like I’m leaving out a lot, but I’m really not. When I got to page 17 of this 250+ page book, I set the book down and said to myself “How on earth will she manage to stretch this into a book length memoir?” The author must have also been wondering how she could fill up the remainder of her book. She seems to have settled on descriptions of designer apparel and home décor items, but she also includes repetitive memories of her privileged upbringing and expressions of amazement at the fact that Ohio is actually a nice place to live.

I don’t know whether I could briefly sum up the aspects of this book that bothered me. The voice of the novel just really began to irritate me. She struck me as being a frantic, needy, hypersensitive woman who defined herself solely based on appearances and her husband’s status. But it may just be that I don’t relate well to woman and I’m not really the right audience for the book. Maybe a different kind of person would find this more to their liking.

For a more enjoyable book about a philandering professor at a small Liberal Arts college, try Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. It isn’t non-fiction, but I found it much more interesting than Happens Every Day.

Perfect Pictures with Fotoflexor.com

I used to bemoan the fact that I do not have fancy image editing software on my personal computer, even though I could never justify such a thing. I’ve always made do with the basic image software on my computer when an editing need arose. Until I actually started using Fotoflexor.com (for free!), I didn’t realize how much I was missing.

To give you an idea of some of the things that Fotoflexor can be used for, I’m including a few pictures, an original and two that have been altered. As you can see, drastic changes have been made without sacrificing image quality. Usually, inexpesive image editors leave pictures looking grainy (in my opinion), but this is not the case here.

An example of something more practical that was achieved using Fotoflexor – the map featured on our Library Catalog page. I cut out and outlined the circle shape on an Ohio map, added star stickers to the map to identify Southwestern locations and converted the map to .png so the white areas would be transparent.

Some of the tasks that I frequently use Fotoflexor to accomplish:
Resizing images
Converting images from .jpg to .png (opaque to transparent)
Creating nice looking collages (this is easy to do in Paint as well, but the results are better with Fotoflexor)
Cutting out shapes and backgrounds

Although I use these features less frequently, Fotoflexor also allows you to:
Change shading/coloring of pictures
Add stickers, drawing and shapes
Retouch and Distort
And do many other useful things.

I’m sure I’ve really only begun to discover the possible uses for this free online system; there are so many potential uses that I’ve never had reason to investigate. But I imagine that there are many neat ways that altered images could be used in presentations and projects – rather than just copying an image directly from a search engine.