Blog – Page 41

The Best American Short Stories

July 12, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

The Best American Short Stories series perfectly highlights the amazing diversity and skill of today’s writers. The book is set up in a way that each short story is like a chapter – maybe ten pages – but each story is so completely different that within an hour you can feel elated, terrified, uncomfortable and content. Topics range from road trips to Jewish women to love lost to the trouble of children. Within one book – and there are at least seven within the SMCM library, each denoting a year – you are bound to find at least one story that will appeal to you. This is the perfect thing to read when you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to a whole novel, but you want a thought-provoking way to get lost for a few hours. Even as a person new to short stories, I consider these books a must-read for anyone who needs a little pick-me-up.

Availability: SMCM Library
Review Submitted by: Jennifer Walker
Rating: Highly Recommended

A librarian walked into a bar…

July 9, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Do you remember Paula Cole? She is a singer songwriter known by some for her first big hit, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” and by others for the Dawson’s Creek theme, “I Don’t Want to Wait.” You are most likely not in the rarefied group, those of us who will remember her as the singer who shushed librarians in the House of Blues. Yes, it was a very special occasion for us all when she politely but firmly asked us to shut up and listen to her sing. Since becoming a librarian I have been shushed many times in the library, but never before have I been shushed in a bar. This was without a doubt one of the most memorable moments of this year’s American Library Association’s Annual Conference (ALA.)

There were few celebrity sightings at ALA this year, but there was a panel with Baltimore native Laura Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan mystery series and winner of almost every crime award possible; the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Agatha Award, Nero Wolfe Award, Shamus Award, and the Quill Award.

I did get a sneak peak at Grumpy Cat’s new book, A Grumpy Book. Unfortunately he wasn’t available to sign his book so the question remains, will he sign autographs with his left or right paw?

–Pamela

June’s Prize Winner is …

July 3, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Melanie Gilkerson has won the monthly prize drawing for June.

Submit a review in July to be eligible for the our next drawing. Don’t forget prizes are available for all participants who submit a review between June 3 and August 16.

Reading this Summer?

June 25, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Reading on the Beach by Courtney McGough on Flickr

Last weekend I broke down. I bought a Kindle (a Kindle Paperwhite to be exact). Despite my ambivalence towards e-reading, it’s getting harder for me to deny the conveniences of an e-reader. I’m a reader. Although chasing a toddler around the house has but a kink in my reading style, I still try to get in as much eyeball-to-text time as I possibly can. When I go on a trip, I take as much care and effort packing my reading materials as I do packing my clothes. This little 5 x 7 inch device is making upcoming travel so much more convenient and amazingly less stressful. Instead of trying to squeeze in 3-4 different volumes I can just pop that Kindle in my purse and call it a day. It’s fantastic.

Will I stop buying and checking out print books from the library? No way. In fact, as I type, I have two books on my nightstand from the St. Mary’s County Library. The Kindle is just a new addition to my reading lifestyle and a great way to kick off the summer reading season. If you’re interested in getting your summer reading off right, the SMCM Library can help.

Kindles

We have 6 different Kindles for SMCM students, faculty, and staff to borrow loaded with all kinds of fantastic fiction. Want to find out what all the Game of Thrones fuss is about? Read it on our Kindle Fire. Curious about Gone Girl or Kate Atkinson’s latest, Life after Life? Read one on a Kindle Touch. For more about our Kindles and the books on them, check out our online Kindle Guide.

Popular Reading Collection

If you’re more of a print-on-paper kind of reader. We have you covered. Our popular reading collection has a great selection of fiction and non-fiction bestsellers to help you take a break from heavy academic reading. Take a walk up to the 2nd floor and hang a left. In the reading area you’ll find a beautiful water-front view and our awesome Popular Reading Collection.

St. Mary’s County Public Libraries

I wouldn’t be doing my due-diligence as a librarian if I didn’t do a little cross-promotion. We are fortunate to have an amazing public library system in our county. If you haven’t visited one of the branches in Lexington Park, Leonardtown, or Charlotte Hall, please do it. Their book, movie, and music selection is amazing! A few weekends ago I picked up Tom Perotta’s The Leftovers, a copy of the Alabama Shakes album, and Dinosaur vs. The Potty, a board book for my son. They have fun summer programming for kids too!

Summer Book Club

Since you’re doing all this reading anyway, you might as well win a prize or two for your efforts. The SMCM Library’s Summer Reading Program continues this year and gives all SMCM students, faculty, staff, and alumni a chance to contribute book reviews to the Summer Reading Blog and win prizes.

Happy Reading,

Ronnie

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

June 25, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Let me start by saying that this is the first book I’ve read of Hosseini’s. This perhaps is an advantage for me as I don’t have anything to compare it to — unbiased, if you will. That being said, I absolutely loved it. I fell in love with its many characters but found myself angered by them as well: their decisions, their lives, how things didn’t go the way they were supposed to. I found myself getting upset with Hosseini for robbing me of my picturesque image of how their lives should have played out.

Though, now that I have just finished it, I understand that life doesn’t always work out the way its supposed to. Rarely does it play out the way you had imagined. At times, the characters will placidly accept their fates or their lives for what they were or have become. I think there is a strong sense of realism seen in his portrayal of this — albeit frustrating at times.

I’ve read in other reviews that some were frustrated that Hosseini bounced so much between characters and POV, but I thought that he did it very effectively. The characters decisions and their lives do seem to echo in each others lives — I think this ties back into the title. He even at times commenting on it throughout the narrative as if he anticipates his readers questions or restlessness.

Overall, I loved reading the book. It has been a while since I couldn’t put a book down and this definitely held my attention. I think I will read his other two novels next!

Availability: COSMOS
Review Submitted by: Melanie Gilkerson
Rating: Highly recommended

List of known pre-1941 St. Mary’s alumni now available on the SMCM Archives website!

June 20, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Did you ever wonder if an ancestor attended St. Mary’s College of Maryland when it was a female seminary? Or wanted to know who was voted “cutest girl” by her classmates in 1925? And did you know that seminary alumna Emily Louise Clayton Bishop (1900) was a prize-winning artist who studied under Rodin in Paris?

The St. Mary’s College of Maryland Archive is actively compiling a list of all known St. Mary’s Female Seminary and Junior College alumni up to the year 1940. Due to a fire in Calvert Hall in 1924, many records are lost to history. In an effort to recreate a list of alumni, extant commencement programs were transcribed and information was gathered from the alumni office. Other sources used include the 1925 Pepper Pot yearbook (another yearbook would not appear until 1948), and J. Rederick Fausz’ 1990 book Monument School of The People.

Students of the female seminary having fun in 1904. The seminary initially had students of all grades before becoming a high school, later a junior college, and finally a public honors college (P1905-004)

Commencement programs sometimes listed salutatorian or valedictorians, which are also noted in the alumni list. Occasionally, lists of prize-winners were also available, sometimes from the notes of M. Adele France herself (principal/president from 1923-1948), and these are also noted. For example, Dorothy Hope Hodgkinson of Piney Point won the 1929 Goerge Narbury Mackenzie Prize Essay award. Known photographs, surnames of husbands, and other informational tidbits are also included in this new online resource.

St. Mary’s Seminary students in costume sitting on the steps of Calvert Hall, photo taken about 1930. Three are holding musical instruments (P1930-015 © St. Mary’s College of Maryland)

Future additions to the list will include: information gleaned from searching the St. Mary’s Beacon newspaper for evidence of 19th Century alumnae, names from the historic photos database, and further investigation of the scant student records.

List of Known Alumni from St. Mary’s Seminary and Junior College to 1940

If you have any additions or corrections to this resource, please email ask@smcm.libanswers.com or leave a comment below. You can visit the archives main website at https://library.smcm.edu/archives/.

Weeding: It’s Not Just for Gardens

June 18, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

All of you gardeners out there know that keeping your garden healthy means regular weeding. Weeding takes time and care. It can mean pulling out and discarding flowers that look pretty but which still crowd out the plants you really want to grow. Weeding gardens is a lot of work but novice gardeners can use guides to help them distinguish between the weeds and the plants you want to keep.

Dandelion Field by Petr Kratochvil

All of us also occasionally “weed” our belongings. Haven’t worn that shirt in how many years? Donate it. Bought that DVD and decided you didn’t want to watch it more than once? Give it to a friend. Remember when you thought it would be fun to try fishing as a hobby? Know anyone who might take a slightly used fishing rod?

Library collections need weeding, too. Why would we need, or want, to discard any of our books? Isn’t everything important and useful? How would we decide what to keep and what to withdraw? Well, turns out there are lots of articles and guidelines that help librarians decide what criteria to use when weeding. BUT . . . “throwing out” books is still a risky business. Just last week a public library director in Illinois got into trouble for deciding to withdraw a lot (!) of books just because they were published before 2003.

At the SMCM library we do a lot of weeding in the summer. That’s not because we don’t want anyone to see what we are doing. There are two main reasons. First, most of the books are here in the library so we can see how crowded the shelves are. Second, the librarians have fewer meetings and classes so we have more time to spend because weeding is time-consuming.

Why do we weed? Yes, we actually do want to get rid of books that may be getting in the way. In some areas we can’t fit any new books on the shelves. Since we’d like you to be able to see those nice, shiny new books we need to decide which are no longer useful. Sometimes books are outdated. Sometimes they are perfectly good books, but not ones which fit our curriculum anymore.

Here are some of the factors that go into our decision-making:

How long has it been since the book was last checked out? We can get reports of books that have not been borrowed in at least 10 years. BUT – we probably wouldn’t discard a version of the Bible or a Shakespeare play just because no one has borrowed them.

How many other libraries own the book? If we own a book along with only 10 other libraries in the US, we will probably keep it.

Is it outdated? A book on using MS Excel 2007 might not be that old, but it might not be very useful either.

Is it still important to our curriculum? Is it in poor condition (and if so, should we replace it)? Do we need the 1^st and 2^nd editions of that book?

See – there are lots of questions and making decisions is not always as easy as when you weed your garden. Some decisions are really judgment calls and some can be based on data.

But all libraries need to be weeded regularly in order to keep them health. And that’s especially true for small college libraries. We want you to see the brand new books we are getting. And we want you to be able to pull a book off the shelf without breaking the spine or because the books are so packed together.

So if you see the librarians up in the book stacks this summer with carts, you will know it’s just us weeding, except without the gloves or the bug spray. And if you want to know why and how we are making our weeding decisions, please ask!

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

June 17, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Picoult will have you on the edge of your seat guessing what will come next as what appears to be an open and shut case takes many unexpected twists and turns. This book explores to what lengths someone is willing to go for their loved ones. It will also have you questioning how well you know yourself and others. ..

Availability: COSMOS
Review Submitted by: Lisa Williams
Rating: Recommended with reservations because it contains triggering topics.

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild

June 15, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

This book chronicles the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hochschild reveals the atrocities that took place during this period including a forced labor system. Hochschild also details the efforts of men like E.D. Morel who revealed to the world all that was going on in the Congo. Finally, the book ends by drawing parallels of Leopold’s rule to the rule Joseph Mobutu who ruled the Congo for over three decades after the end of Belgian rule in the 1960s. Both regimes ruthlessly exploited the Congolese people for monetary gain. Overall, the book is very well written and offer an eye-opening account into one man’s rule during the scramble for Africa.

Availability: USMAI Catalog
Review Submitted by: Carson Fehner
Rating: Highly Recommended.