book_of_the_day – Page 2 – JCCC Billington Library

Book of the Day: Tri-State Tornado

I’m told (by my little sister when I moved here) that Overland Park is in the heart of Tornado Alley. Aside from the fact that she is 12, it is worth noting that the Tri-State Tornado, the nation’s worst tornado disaster, occurred in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. In your face, 12 year-old!

In all seriousness, Tri-State Tornado: The Story of America’s Greatest Tornado Disaster recaps and examines the night in 1925 that claimed nearly 700 Midwestern lives in just 3 hours. That is absolutely crazy. The author, Peter Felknor, was able to secure interviews with 14 survivors. As a native Missourian, Felknor had heard stories of the tornado and went on to get college degrees in the field of atmospheric sciences. The book is available today at the library, as indicated by our New Books RSS feed (to your right in the blog, folks: subscribe!)

Welcome Back

So, hey, what’s up?

Welcome to the first day of Fall Semester ’09! The library has a lot of new resources like Mango (learn languages… lots of them!), new LibGuides to help you research, and plenty of new books to help you cheat… at video games.

Okay, you have to do your own coursework… but we’re certainly here to help you along the way.

And we’re able to be reached multiple ways:

Leave a Facebook note
Reply or Direct Message @jccclib on Twitter
Use our chat client (to your right!)
Shoot us an e-mail
We also still answer the phone
And we exist in person

Despite the weather today, it’s going to be a good year.

This is the New Scam; This is the New Book (of the Day)

If the title of Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s book, I Do Not Come to You by Chance, sounds familiar, you’ve probably opened some spam in your day. Perhaps a Nigerian Prince needs your bank account to secure his fortune, but will soon pay you back, or perhaps a sure fire business deal overseas needs a modest investment to get going.

Hopefully, we now all realize that this is BS.

But here’s a fictitious story about the people behind sending those e-mails. A recent Engineering graduate, Kingsley, can’t find work in his home country of Nigeria. His lady leaves him, he’s stuck with his family that he’s expected to assist in supporting, and his fancy degree isn’t amounting to squat.

Enter Kingsley’s uncle, Cash Daddy. I think the name should be the first deterrent, but it turns out that, if he works with Cash Daddy, he can make a modest living running e-mail scams. What follows is fairly predictable hi jinx, but hilarious nonetheless. As funny as the book is, it reminds us that, even if you find it despicable, people usually do what they do for a reason, be it family, necessity, or the occasional greed.

Homosexuality in Cinema

It isn’t as new as some may think. I remember reading a book called Queering the Color Line by Siobhan Somerville, which looked as far back as silent film to show the overlap in race, gender, and sexual identity in its representation/misrepresentation throughout film. It is not as strange as it may seem to think about the overlaps: to see what was allowed, who was allowed to portray a person of color/a woman/a character with homosexual traits, and what was considered more taboo or more accepted than the next.

We just got a book in that isn’t quite as heavy, and a bit more focused in content. Out at the Movies: A History of Gay Cinema by Simon Callow. This book covers not only the history of homosexuality and attitudes towards it as portrayed through time, but also discusses the roles of closeted and openly gay actors, actresses, filmmakers, writers, producers, and directors. The focus of this book focuses more on modern cinema than Queering the Color Line, but that’s certainly not a bad thing. Recommended for those with a Queer Studies interest and film buffs.

Do the Pandemic

SWINE FLU!

Just kidding. But not by much: Today’s book is called Resurgent Diseases, a collection of articles arguing both sides of issues surrounding fears, realities, proper responses, mass hysteria, and other fun things that come when diseases poke their heads out from hiding. It is part of the Opposing Viewpoints series. If you’re not familiar with them, let’s do some talking.

You need to know about this series if you will ever be in the market for a persuasive paper. The whole goal of the series is to take a topic (like, say, I don’t know… resurgent diseases..), dissect the different arguments within the broad topic, and provide a collection of articles debating different points of view. The end of each chapter also contains a bibliography of additional resources that argue both sides of the topic. Basically, if you ever needed a topic for a paper or sources for it, just one book will load. you. up.

Here’s a quick step by step for finding them.

Open the catalog
Click “Advanced Search”
Type opposing viewpoints into the first text field
select as a phrase in the drop-down to the right
Where it says “Search In”, select keyword.
Click Search

When the page loads, you’ll see 350+ results. There’s a drop-down that says Sort by: Choose “Publish Date Descending”. You’ll now have the most recent first.

The End of an Era?

It is hard to imagine the era of the modified muscle car being dead. Perhaps it is easier for some, but I have friends that built Camaros piece by piece. The fascination with big, powerful cars is, today, almost an insult to the environmental concerns of many. We’re even watching the American auto industry capsize due to its seeming inability to keep up with foreign hybrids and fuel-efficient alternatives. Now, we’re within a year of the promised date for the Chevrolet Bolt, and we’re wondering if Chevrolet will make it that long as a company.

Regardless of the long-term effects, it is still easy for some to look at the era of the muscle car and marvel at the creation. Today’s book, Business of Speed : The Hot Rod Industry in America, 1915-1990, recollects this period of time when power was achieved by any means necessary. But it does go beyond that: Hot-rodding, or modifying cars for enhanced performance, isn’t just about being wasteful, and author David Lucsko addresses this. It will be interesting to see where emphasis takes this in the future: for fuel efficiency, for alternative means of achieving power… Nonetheless, this historical perspective of what once was is unique peak into a culture that will have to change with the times.

The Face of Family

The governing qualities of the law – and concepts like ‘best interest of the child’ – become jumbled from traditional viewpoints when there are non-traditional families involved. If it is best for the kids to go with Mom in a divorce, what happens when there are two? Or none? And in some cases, that means that the court approved an adoption into that family, meaning that nontraditional legal standpoints had been challenged.

There have been quite a few cases used to define and redefine family law as families continue evolving in appearance, and while those countless court cases are spread across a number of databases, Courting Change: Queer Parents, Judges, and the Transformation of American Family Law by Kimberly D. Richman collects interviews with families, lawyers, judges, and other legal minds and non-traditional family experts to assemble a collected view of the issues in equality from household to household. An excellent source for students pursuing careers in law, people with an interest in LGBT issues and studies, or anyone interested in the changing face of the American family.

Hope in Unlikely Places

The perception of the Middle East does not always include a hopeful outlook towards peace. Even less likely, one could assume, is the widow of an assassinated leader in the Middle East to believe that peace is near and attainable. Yet, My Hope for Peace, written by Jehan Sadat, widow of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, does just that. In it, she discusses what she believes is necessary to reach that goal, tries to diminish stereotypes about the roles women can play, and comes out of a terrible tragedy incredibly optimistic. Whether or not lofty, nor whether or not her plans are ever carried out, this memoir contains several points of inspiration, if not for just simply existing.

Let’s Talk Health

If you talk to a number of librarians, they’ll tell you some of the most dreaded questions for many of us involve things such as “Does this look infected?”, “I have a cold/flu/Strep/stomach virus/black lung, is it contagious?”, or similar medical-themed inquiries. I beg of you: ask a doctor, not a librarian. Or at least ask it over the phone.

But! for when need be, a handy-dandy reference guide such as Answering Consumer Health Questions : The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians is a relief. But you know, it isn’t just a librarian’s perusal tool. Much like questions related to law, librarians aren’t always in the proper position to dish out medical advice, so library users may benefit from a flip-through or two of a guide like this. Michele Spatz guides her audience through resources, procedures, and limitations of what can be done by librarians. Remember: just because librarian’s have all the answers doesn’t mean they won’t use common sense in dolling out the wisdom.

When Financial News is Confusing, Our Library Responds

So, with all of the talk about Bernie Madoff, financial bailouts, and other scary things that got our economy into a nasty mess, a lot of people have been left saying “…wait, now what?” For example, you probably know that something that led us to this point was the use of hedge funds. Or the creation of hedge funds. You may not know what they did, but you know they exist.

Well, we’ve finally had a lot of books roll in recently to help straighten this business out. 150 Best Recession Proof Jobs helps examine options and careers worth pursuing during this time of layoffs, and books like Hedgefunds: an Analytic Perspective, Hedge Hunters, and Demon of our Own Design : Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation take a look at the ins and outs associated with this risky business and our failing market.