Spinning buildings! I can’t read a blueprint, but I love looking at building schematics. Combine that with an interesting history, full color pictures, and sketches from hundreds of years ago to today, and you’ve got quite the book. Revolving Architecture: a history of buildings that rotate, swivel, and pivot is a great book for reading, admiring, and holds an interest for anyone professional or amateur. I wish I could share some of these photos, but that’d be illegal. It is on the new book shelf for now, so thumb through it!
It is pretty much self-promotion that gets libraries posting on blogs, and our “Book of the Day” can be seen as self-promotion for our collection. This week’s book goes beyond that to an overall Library Mission promotion. Banned Books: 2007 resource book, put together by Robert P. Doyle, highlights battles libraries have had to defend over time. The pattern is often this:
User finds a book offensive.
User rallies community members.
Librarian defends the book.
User remains outraged.
Book gets taken off shelf.
User celebrates, and immediately forgets the problem.
2 months later, the book is back on the shelf.
No one cares.
But what is interesting about this is the reason a lot of these books have been put away, and the make-up of the communities that ban them. The information for each known ban is listed.
If you’d like to see it, come down to the Reference Desk, where it is on special display for the time being!
So you’re bored, sitting at home, nothing to do. You start sizing up that back yard and surplus of lumber that’s been sitting around, noticing the flannel your closet has been taunting you with since 1995. You know what you gotta do: It is time to get all Abe Lincoln on this and build yourself a log cabin!
Lucky for you, Log Homes Made Easy : contracting and building your own home is one of the newest editions to Billington Library. Loaded full of pictures, checklists, and step-by-step instructions, Jim Cooper’s third edition is great for that rainy afternoon when your inner Paul Bunyan calls.
In addition to the weekend, other library projects kept me too busy to update the blog. For now though, I am able to present to you a heavy one: The Holocaust by Bullets. Not pleasant, but interesting: the author assembled a team of history and ballistic experts to locate and examine mass graves of Holocaust victims in order to better get an understanding of how these people died, and the horrific truth of their conditions. For resources on Holocaust fiction, visit this LibGuides bibliography. For resources on international Jewish Fiction, consult the Jewish Fiction page.
When going through the books to be added to the catalog, one caught my attention immediately. Unfortunately it was not this book. I can just promise that the next few days will feature some excellent selections.
That being said, Wait Till Next Year fell into my field of vision, and the title combined with a stadium in the background made me assume it was about the Chicago Cubs. Regardless of the current standings, even the Royals have won a World Series in recent history, whereas the Cubs have fallen apart consistently in June (until this year) for the last 100 years.
Upon closer inspection, not only is it a memoir by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, but it is about her following of the (formerly) Brooklyn Dodgers since she was six years old. Weaving her narrative through time and historical events in America’s past, she connects baseball’s impact on her life to the ever-changing face of the United States.
I’ve recently discovered that baseball novels are not as dry as I thought they would be, particularly non-fiction such as this. If sports literature does interest you, or sports humor, check out God Save the Fan, written by former Deadspin.com editor Will Leitch, coming to our library soon!
War Horse: a history of the military horse and rider is by Louis A. DiMarco, and while I do not have a cover image as-per normal, this book is too interesting to not post (credit to flickr user sharper3d for that image). I can tell you that the real cover features a United States Civil War soldier next to his mount, and I can also warn/promise you that this is a well-researched book on the history of equestrian combat. Or, human combat using horses (I don’t think there’s a pony Fight Club out there). It may be easy to view modern combat, an often in-personable use of technology from far distances, and forget about not only the safety concerns of these unarmored vehicles, but also of the tactical advantages of having a faster, stronger transport than the marching battalions. Very cool book.
America’s Nuclear Wastelands! I have nuclear paranoia to the point where you would think I remembered most of the Cold War. Given that, this book title scare the ever-livin’ out of me. The book actually does talk about Cold-War era weapons production and how we have to get rid of them. Here’s a quote from the back of the book:
In 2000, it was estimated that $212 billion and 70 years would be required to clean up the nuclear contamination and waste at 113 complexes while closing 4,000 unneeded facilities.
Does that not scare you?! I suppose different generations have their different fears, but this is certainly an interesting book about environmental issues in the United States. Here’s a picture to relax you after all of that.
When I graduated college, I had an English degree. I had limited interest in teaching, and realizing that gave me quite a bit of panic. This series of books actually made my final days as an undergraduate less painful, and While I’m featuring Great Jobs for History Majors, though please, peruse the series.
Muhajababes: Meet the New Middle East – Young, Sexy, and Devout may tell you something you already know. It may also change your mind about things you thought you knew. One thing is certain: Allegra Stratton, who went into her project admittedly ignorant, found out that youth culture in many Middle Eastern nations has found an interesting balance between secular and religious that the West doesn’t always get to see. For whatever reason this book is picked up, or however you may feel about Stratton’s findings, it is certainly an avenue to open discussions. JCCC has other books like Heavy Metal Islam, as well as this fiction bibliography, both of which contain interesting perspectives on the Middle East and beyond. Check it out.
I’m a huge fan of graphic novels, but despite this fact, I’ve never been able to get into Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. If you’re big on comic books, you are aware how grievous this sin is to most.
That being said, I can say I’ve enjoyed his novels, and the film Stardust is amazing, and today’s book of the day is Dangerous Alphabet, a collaboration with artist Gris Grimly. The premise? Two kids and their gazelle sneak out of the house to fight pirates while the narrative’s pacing is controlled by the alphabet. I don’t know a better way to sell a book to you than giving that description. If you find the clever campiness of Gaiman to be just camp (and you find that a bad thing), the book is still worth a flip-through for the art alone. But hey, while you’re looking, check out some of our other great graphic novels!
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