Book of the Day

After a sick day (yesterday), I come back to the blog to find my stat tracker telling me that traffic is up about 1299%. That’s a lot of percent. So I figured I should pick a book that highlights a few things about the library.

First, this book is from the McNaughton Collection. This collection is part of a rotating, leased collection of books which are intended to provide current leisure reading to campuses around the nation. Since we participate, we have a selection always available. So, while I’m featuring a book from the collection now, there is no guarantee it will be here forever. The collection is housed together on the second floor of the library.

Second, the book is the 25th novel by American author Philip Roth. Now, between librarians, Mr. Roth has mixed emotions for us. There might be a librarian who thinks he is absolutely brilliant, and there might be librarians who think that he has added to negative stereotypes of Jewish culture, as well as negative stereotypes about New Jersey: sort of like a sophisticated Kevin Smith but without an obvious underlying love of the state. Or the funny. One thing most of us have agreed on is that his best work might be a recent title called The Plot Against America, an alternative history story, somewhere between science fiction and a “what if?” tale involving Charles Lindberg (of flying planes fame) winning the presidency, being a Nazi sympathizer, and trying to ruin America on our way into World War II. That’s not what he normally writes like, and for some reason it was brilliant.

No, what he normally writes like is captured in the Book of the Day, Indignation. The story is about a 1950s boy from Newark, New Jersey (which could be the beginning description for any Philip Roth book) named Marcus Messner who decides to transfer to a college in Ohio after his father starts becomes overbearing with safety concerns. Culture shock hits Marcus immediately, and his experience shapes the rest of the novel. Who knew the Midwest could shock anyone?

El Libro del Día

Primera Página: Poetry from the Latino Heartland
Latino Writers Collective
Scapegoat Press, 2008

Members of the Latino Writers Collective, a local writers group, will read selections from their book, Primera Página, at Johnson County Community College in the Nerman Museum’s Hudson Auditorium, Thursday, Sept. 24.

Along with the group’s veteran members, the reading and discussion will feature the collective’s JCCC student members.

Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy and Men without Bliss, examined Primera Página in a posting on Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors.

“Fourteen distinct voices contribute to this anthology, showcasing an impressive range of subject matter and poetic traditions that make it difficult to pin down ‘poetry from the Midwest.’ If anything, it’s interesting to see how a number of the poets bring to the work other landscapes, like Mexico, the Southwest, the East Coast and even Europe, although it’s clear that the Midwest is home, or the home away from home.”

The Latino Writers Collective appears as part of the college’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and is sponsored by newly formed Hispanic student group, LUNA (Latinos United Now and Always), and the college’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The Latino Writers Collective: readings and discussion
Welcoming reception begins at 6 pm.
Readings start at 7 pm.

Hudson Auditorium in the Nerman Museum,
Johnson County Community College
Overland Park, Kan.

Book of the Day

I’m not old enough to know first-hand how the Bay of Pigs incident was handled in the United States. I guess that shows something dangerous about history: we depend on the historians to get it as accurate as possible. This is why I have to look at a work like Howard Shore’s Bay of Pigs as a book of research conducted to best explain facts. What was found, though, is pretty disturbing. JFK authorizing assassination of Fidel Castro? Sending back Cuban exiles to attack while the US Military withholds support in order to mask their involvement? That’s some heavy cloak-and-dagger business, and the more I find out, the more scared I am. You may recall earlier reports reflecting my fear of nuclear apocalypse. I’m kinda glad I missed the Cold War, but I’d feel like I was committing quite the disservice by not finding out as much about American history as possible.

Book of the Day

There seems to be a big push to understand the Millennial generation on this campus. Millennials, formerly called Generation Y, are also the first generation of Digital Natives. Approaching the generation from that point of view, as having always been exposed to advanced computer technology since birth, may help “Digital Immigrants” (anyone born before) understand what its like. Me, I’m a Digital Native as well, and I’m currently reading our new book, Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. For professors, its good to understand something you may not be familiar with (because as stated before, I’m a faculty member who falls into this category, and more of us are coming). Students on either side of the age category might want to read this to either gain some insight into the younger generation or to understand perceptions of your own generation. I’m curious to see what others have to say.

(Comic) Book of the Day

in The Left Bank Gang by Jason, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald are cartoonists instead of writers, talking animals instead of humans, and they decide to rob a bank together. This may sound odd, but this is comic-book creater Jason at work: a guy who goes by one name and wrote a comic book called I Killed Hitler. This comic book (or graphic novel if you have to justify it to yourself) is entertaining, insightful, and fun for the duration of its brief length. Billington Library actually has a pretty big graphic novel collection, so don’t hesitate to pick up a few more quick reads on your visit.

Book of the Day

Who watches the Watchmen? Probably the store owners, unless they are the store owners. Those clocksmiths are crafty folks. But beyond the comic book joke, I’ll confess to thinking the folks at Swiss were up to no good when I last bought a watch and discovered it was rocking not one, but three faces. I don’t even know what to do with them. At all.

But it doesn’t stop with watches. Think about your oversized, 1990 cell phone. It answered calls. If you were really fancy, you could see the number that was calling you. Today, I use my cell phone to update this blog, navigate while I drive, watch the NFL Network, and listen to music.

What happened?

More importantly, why does it happen?

Behold! Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and how complex things can be simple), a great book by Jeffrey Kluger. Inisght into human nature, technology, and this fast-paced, utterly frustrating world we live in where we get what we want, how we want it, and then don’t want anything to do with it. If dealing with your complex, 3-faced watch has left you wondering where the time went, stop by the Academic Achievement Center and fill out the time management form. Maybe it will help you make that complex life a little more simple.

Book of the Day

When I was about 6, and my sister was 3, she woke me up from my afternoon nap to inform me that she was going to go to beauty school. I looked at her to discover that her first subject was herself. I kinda figured right then that she’d fail if she ever attempted cosmetology. I was wrong. In high school she started cutting other people’s hair for prom, and then out of high school went on to get her Illinois state certificate.

Today’s book, How to Cut Your Own Hair (or Anyone Else’s!) should be given to all little sisters before they attempt something foolish. It has picture guides for 15 haircuts covering men, women, and multiple hair types. I’m no hair cuttery expert, but any sort of guidance is better than some butchered self-attempts I’ve seen over time.. After all, I have 3 sisters.

Book of the Day

Well, football fans may have noticed that the Chiefs may have lost a game, but they somehow boosted everyone else’s chances of winning games this year. Me, I’m a Bears fan (stop booing), so I had a good night. One thing that could have made the night better for me? A Project Runway marathon.

I’m not kidding, I love that show. The one thing that always amazes me, though, is when they start nagging about each other, because inevitably, someone will try “draping”, and someone else will say, “Sally has no idea how to drape properly”. This will leave me staring at the TV thinking “Dude! You just drape it! How can that be hard?” Thousands of college kids adorn themselves in homemade togas for parties every year, and I guarantee you that few and far between have fashion design experience.

Hopefully this book will help me understand the world of draping. Well, more specifically, The Art of Draping. This is the 3rd. edition: That immediately tells me there’s more to this than I realize. Any need to revise an art like draping makes it immediately complex. And then, I open up to see a type of draping called a “hip yoke”. I’m guessing that isn’t slang for a really cool egg.

Okay, draping, you win. If you’re a fashion student, you may want to thumb through this. Because if you don’t keep up, one day you’ll be in. And the next… you’re out. (I love project runway!!)

Books of the Multiple Days

Things are certainly busy at the library, and I feel bad about missing a post or two. To make up for it, I’ll throw a few books up here. The first new book is God Save the Fan by Will Leitch. Sports fans may be familiar with him as the former editor of the Web site, Deadspin, but for those who aren’t: Deadspin became famous after challenging certain personalities within ESPN, and calling shannanigans on certain practices they have in sportscasting and athlete-coddling. The result? ESPN became banned from even mentioning Deadspin on air. Will Leitch takes on sports, media, and the big-business of team owners and administration. I’ve mentioned this book before, but Leitch and I went to the University of Illinois, and both lived in the same town (Mattoon, IL) as children, so I am a little biased. Great book either way.

missing piece cover

The next book is The Missing Piece Meets the Big O by Shel Silverstein. Simple illustrations and compassionate stories make up the bulk of Silverstein’s non-poetry work, but most are only familiar with The Giving Tree. This one, however, is a sequel. In the first book, The Missing Piece, a larger missing piece is searching for something to complete him. In this sequel, a Missing Piece looks for the momentum to carry itself on a similar journey, but equally as engaging.

And finally, to continue my nuclear paranoia highlighted previously: Broken Arrow: America’s First Lost Nuclear Weapon. Can you imagine the United States losing a nuclear weapon at the beginning of the Cold War, somewhere in the ocean between North America and the Soviet Union? Well it happened. A few pilots, realizing their Alaskan plane was going down, parachuted out, and set the autopilot to (hopefully!) fall into the middle of the ocean. It was found years later, miles from its predicted final destination, bomb in tact. It get’s weirder: there’s a crew member who was never accounted for. What happened? Does anyone know How scary is that?!

Anyway, there’s a few things you can look into for your weekend reading.

Book of the Day

What to wear, what to wear… I spent about 20 minutes a day asking this, and then 20 seconds once I got to college. Answer: Hoodie. Most recently washed pants. Now that I have a job, I’m about somewhere in the middle of that.

However! Mayhaps I should start consulting this book: Encyclopedia of Body Adornment. Not actually that much about clothing, the glossary has catchy terms like “flesh coil”, “orchiectomy”, and “tightlacing”. Sounds… Well, you can decide for yourself how it sounds. Pictures (including a color section of tattoos), definitions, histories. Educational, informative, and just enough ideas to make your mom flip.