UWW & surrounding communities are taking part in “The Big Read” featuring the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Events are scheduled throughout April at sites such as local libraries and museums, and in the UWW’s Young Auditorium. See the blog http://youngauditorium.wordpress.com/
Andersen Library has the Oscar and Golden Globe-winning movie (2nd-floor Browsing DVD, Feature Film Collection) and will show it on the 2nd floor on April 1st. The novel is available in Andersen Library’s 3rd-floor Main Collection (PS3562 .E353 T6).
Free copies of a reader’s guide, bookmarks, and an audio guide CD will be distributed starting April 1st. Andersen Library also is raffling off 5 free t-shirts — drop off your name and contact info at the Circulation Desk for the drawing.
More information about author Harper Lee, along with an analysis of her novel, is available via the MagillOnLiterature database, and there are many other relevant resources in the Library, such as an early review in the New York Times (July 13, 1960, p.33) available from the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database. Please ask a librarian for assistance in finding additional information.
John Updike died last Tuesday of lung cancer. He was the author of more than 50 books and twice the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for titles in the tetralogy about the life and death of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom (Rabbit, Run, 1960; Rabbit Redux, 1971; Rabbit Is Rich, 1981; and Rabbit At Rest, 1991). You can read a plot summary in the MagillOnLiterature Plus database, which says “The Rabbit Angstrom books provide an accurate, absorbing, and aesthetically satisfying social history of middle-class North America from the 1950’s into the 1980’s; taken together, the novels may well constitute Updike’s finest achievement.”
Some of you may be more familiar with The Witches of Eastwick, which was made into a 2000 stage musical and a 1987 movie (starring Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer as the witches and Jack Nicholson as the devil). Updike published a sequel in fall 2008 called The Widows of Eastwick.
Many Updike titles are available in the University’s Library, including both Eastwick titles. Search the Library Catalog for locations and call numbers.
More information about John Updike is available from the Library database Contemporary Authors, the NPR web site article “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author John Updike Dies At 76.”, or “John Updike’s Mighty Pen” (Charles McGrath’s “Week in Review” published January 31st) on the New York Times web site.
New for Spring semester: The Library’s “Browsing” collections on the 2nd (main) floor. When you enter the Library, walk straight ahead into the Browsing collections, which include:
Browsing DVDs: Popular feature films have been separated and are arranged by their titles for easy browsing (some of these are still in process, getting their labels). The rest are still arranged by call numbers.
Browsing VHS tapes: These are arranged by call numbers. We are still in the process of moving them from the 1st-floor Media Center to the 2nd floor, so bear with us. Everything is listed in the library catalog, of course.
Browsing Books: This set includes recent print fiction and non-fiction, audio books, and graphic novels, as well as the New Book Island, which contains books received in the last 2 months.
In the future the Browsing are will include the CDs (also in order by call numbers). Right now they are still in the 1st-floor Media Center.
There is also comfortable seating, and the newest issues of newspapers and several magazines are at hand too. The Food for Thought cafe is available nearby for a snack and beverage.
Coming soon: a large-screen TV that can play DVDs or cable channels like CNN.
You are invited to join us…relax, get the latest news, find something enjoyable to read, listen to, or watch. Let us know how you like it! And if you have any questions about finding anything, please Ask a Librarian for help.
I saw the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” over the holidays. I enjoyed it, but it was long, and the premise required significant suspension of disbelief (I mean, how would it be physically possible to grow younger?!). But I enjoyed it enough that I hope to read the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story upon which it is based, which is available in a book called The short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: a new collection (3rd-floor Main Collection, PS3511 .I9 A6 1989).
When I first saw this movie advertized I thought it was based on a 2004 novel by Andrew Sean Greer called The confessions of Max Tivoli. I was very impressed with this book because I thought it had a fresh, unique idea about someone born aged and growing younger… and how often do you read something with a storyline that isn’t just a variation on a theme? Well, of course I was much less impressed when I learned the Button movie was based on an older story with the same idea! But the novel was a very good read anyway, and while we don’t have it at UW-Whitewater, UWW students and staff can borrow it from another UW library by using the free Universal Borrowing service.
Cristina Garcia will be at Young Auditorium on Mon. Dec. 1st, 7 pm, for the Community Reading Initiative co-sponsored by the Auditorium and the College of Letters and Sciences. Her 2007 novel A Handbook to Luck tells the story of three teenagers from around the globe making their way in the world through the years, surviving war, disillusionment, and love, as their lives and paths intersect.
Born in Havana, Cuba and raised in New York City, Garcia is an important contemporary Latin American writer. Her first novel, Dreaming in Cuban, was nominated for a 1992 National Book Award. She also served as Time magazine’s bureau chief for Florida and the Caribbean and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton, and the Whiting Writers Award.
Your University Library has both of the novels mentioned above. Search the Library Catalog for the author for locations & call numbers. If the titles are checked out here, UWW students and staff may request them from other UW campus libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service.
The University Library also has resources about Latin American writers and literature, such as The Cambridge companion to the Latin American novel (3rd-floor Main Collection, PQ7081 .L37 2005–searching the text using Google Book Search will show where Cristina Garcia is mentioned in this book) and Encyclopedia of Latin American literature (2nd-floor Reference Collection, PQ7081.A1 E56 1997). You can search the Reference Universe database to find mentions of Ms. Garcia in other reference works in the University Library. Searching article databases such as Project MUSE or MLA International Bibliography will find articles such as “An interview with Cristina Garcia” (Contemporary Literature, 2007, v.48 no.2). Biographical information about Ms. Garcia is available from WilsonWeb’s Biography Reference Bank Select Edition database as well as free sources such as Wikipedia.
Please ask a Reference librarian if you would like assistance in finding materials.
Michael Crichton died on Nov. 4th in Los Angeles after a bout with cancer. For those of you who don’t know, he’s the author you can thank for classics such as Jurassic park and The Andromeda strain. His novels often use technological or medical twists, and some were turned into movies as well. One of my favorite lines in the movie of Jurassic Park was delivered by Jeff Goldblum and was about scientists getting so caught up in whether they could do something (in this case recreate dinosaurs) that they neglected to consider whether they should. There’s a gem for all of you budding scientists out there to take with you.
Well, if you’d like to acquaint yourself with his works, many are available from your University Library, including the two titles mentioned above. Just search the Library Catalog for him as an author.
Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award-winning novelist Jane Hamilton will receive the fourth annual UWW Chancellor’s Regional Literary Award on Monday, Oct. 20th. There will be a reading at 7 p.m. in the University Center’s Summers Auditorium.
Ms. Hamilton has authored several novels, some of which are available from the University Library. Search the Library Catalog for her as an author and find titles such as The book of Ruth (3rd-Floor Main Collection, PS3558.A4428 B66 1990), Disobedience: a novel (3rd-Floor Main Collection, PS3558.A4428 D57 2000) and A map of the world (3rd-Floor Main Collection, PS3558.A4427 M36 1994).
If UWW’s copies are checked out, it may be possible for UWW students and staff to request them from other UW libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service. Requested items arrive in 2-4 weekdays. Ms. Hamilton’s novels also are available at public libraries in the area.
Learn more about the author from the Jane Hamilton web site.
Bad Blood
by Linda Fairstein
MCN Fai
McNaughton Collection, 2nd floor
Last time I introduced you to Eve Dallas, a feisty police lieutenant from New York City, circa 2058. Now meet Alexandra (aka Alex) Cooper, Assistant District Attorney in charge of the Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. She works closely with New York City detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace to solve any murders that come their way. In Bad Blood, Alex is prosecuting Brendan Quillian for the strangulation death of his wife, Amanda. Unfortunately, Alex’s case is not very strong, but an explosion in an underground water tunnel leads to an old unsolved crime of which Quillian was also accused, which might bolster her case. Family skeletons and a courtroom shocker are thrown in for good measure. And of course, a possible new love interest for Alex.
Linda Fairstein, former chief prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Sex Crimes Unit, has interesting characters in Alex, Mike, and Mercer, and a neverending source of plotlines in their respective jobs. But, her dialogue is often a bit stilted, and the faint “will they or won’t they” romantic undertone between Alex and Mike doesn’t add much to the series, now nine books long. You might ask why I’ve read all nine, and honestly, I don’t know. Maybe because most of the action where I live shuts down by 6 p.m. and I need something to do.
Come by the University Library and check out Bad Blood. Let me know what you think. In my opinion? A pleasant way to spend an evening, but you won’t have trouble putting it down when it’s time to go to bed.
Strangers in Death
by J.D. Robb
MCN Rob
McNaughton Collection, 2nd floor
For some fun, “light,” non-mind-expanding summer reading, try a book from what I call the “death series” by J.D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts. The series starts with Naked in Death, and many, many books later, the latest is Strangers in Death. (Mind you, I got this information from Nora’s website, as I long ago gave up trying to remember which book follows which.) The plot line seldom varies: set in the late 2050’s, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her trusty sidekick, Peabody, solve horrible murders with the help of Eve’s fabulously rich and unbelievably handsome hubby, Roarke. A cast of other regulars, such as the eccentric e-detective McNab, and the wild and colorful singer, Mavis, appear in each book. The plots are similar enough that I can’t keep the books straight, but little thought is required to digest the titles, and Eve is a feisty, take-no-prisoners (pardon the pun) dame. And for the romance-minded among you, there are at least two or three steamy love scenes in each book—this is Nora Roberts, after all.
So stop by the University Library and pick up Born in Death, Innocent in Death, Creation in Death, and/or Strangers in Death, all in the McNaughton Leisure Collection under the call number Rob. You’re guaranteed a good murder mystery, a relaxing time, and you probably won’t learn a blessed thing. Perfect for summer reading.
When I went to Denver for a conference last month, a person that I met there recommended that I read The Time Traveler’s Wife. It just so happened that we were at the Tattered Cover, one of the largest independent bookstores in the country, so I decided to pick up a copy to read.
The title of this book does give a bit away, as it tells the story of Henry, the time traveler, and his wife, Claire. He could disappear at any time for any amount of time and be transported into the past or on rare occasions, the future. At one point, his travels take him to the year 1977, in which he meets a six year-old girl named Claire. The novel develops through time as the lives of Henry and Claire progress at different rates until they crossed paths in 1991. Although Claire knows all about Henry, he has no idea about her, as these events hadn’t yet occurred.
I know it sounds kind of bizarre and borderline science fiction, but it’s actually a great well-written love story between a ‘normal’ woman and a ‘chronologically-impaired’ man. If you’ve read this, share your thoughts. If you’d like to read it, the UW system has several copies available to check out.
