Category Archives: News

Readers anxiously await the debut of Harper Lee’s second novel

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Harper Lee’s highly anticipated second novel, Go Set a Watchman, will be released Tues. July 14.   It has been suggested that Go Set a Watchman was written before Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.  Details have emerged that Lee’s publisher, asked her to rewrite “Watchman” to focus on the perspective of Scout as a child.  “Watchman” focuses on Scout as an adult and her relationship with her father, Atticus Finch.  Much attention and controversy surrounding the new novel, stems from the portrayal of the beloved character, Atticus Finch.

Go Set A Watchman Book Cover

Book Cover image from Harper Collins

Natasha Trethewey’s recent article in the Washington Post eloquently explores issues that emerge in the new novel.

The library has ordered copies of Go Set A Watchman and will have these available for checkout very soon.

In the meantime, The Guardian has released the first chapter of the novel which you can read online.

 

 

 

 

Juan Felipe Herrera: First Latino US Poet Laureate

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On June 10, 2015, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced the appointment of Juan Felipe Herrera as the 21st US Poet Laureate.  Dr. Billington said, “His poems engage in a serious sense of play—in language and in image–that I feel gives them enduring power. I see how they champion voices and traditions and histories, as well as a cultural perspective, which is a vital part of our larger American identity.”

Juan Felipe Herrera

Juan Felipe Herrara, Photo by Tomas Ovalle / Los Angeles Times

Juan Felipe Herrera has published more than a dozen collections of poetry, as well as award-winning fiction, and nonfiction for children and young adults.  Herrera’s poetry is featured in the collection Camino del sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing
(PS 508 .H57 C36 2010) which is currently available in the library.  The library has some of Mr. Herrera’s poetry collections on order.

The new poet laureate has degrees from UCLA, Stanford and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is currently teaching at the University of Washington.

In a recent Washington Post article, Herrera says, “I’m here to encourage others to speak, to speak out and speak up and write with their voices and their family stories and their sense of humor and their deep concerns and their way of speaking their own languages. I want to encourage people to do that with this amazing medium called poetry.”

Herrera will begin his appointment as the 21st US Poet Laureate at the National Book Festival in September in Washington, DC.

To learn more about Juan Felipe Herrera and to read some of his poetry, visit: https://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/06/23/juan-felipe-herrera-poet-laureate

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen Up! : Free Audiobooks for your enjoyment

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Like YA and/or classic literature? Like audiobooks?  Like free things?

sync logo

Every summer, AudioFile’s Sync summer “reading” program provides free weekly downloads of two audiobooks: one contemporary YA book and one work of classic literature that relates to the same theme.

The new season of free downloads starts on Thursday, May 7 with  Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca.  Check out the entire list of offerings (14 weeks worth!) on their website!

http://www.audiobooksync.com/

2014 Nobel Peace Prize Winners

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The Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 was awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for their advocacy for children’s rights.

Photographs of Kailash Satyarthi on the left and of Malala Yousafzai on the right.

Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai were picked as winners for their struggle against the oppression of children and their right to education. Photograph: Reuters (Source Guardian.com)

Here is background information about Mr. Satyarthi and Miss Yousafzai from the New York Times, “In India, Mr. Satyarthi, a former engineer, has long been associated with the struggle to free bonded laborers, some born into their condition and others lured into servitude. For decades, he has sought to rid India of child slavery and has liberated more than 75,000 bonded and child laborers in the country.  Mr. Satyarthi began working for children’s rights in 1980 as the general secretary of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front, an organization dedicated to freeing bonded laborers forced to work to pay off debts, real or imagined. He also founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Children Mission, an organization dedicated to ending bonded labor and saving children from trafficking. ” (http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-to-defenders-of-childrens-rights/)

“Ms. Yousafzai began campaigning for girls’ education at the age of 11, three years before she was shot by the Taliban. She was so young that some observers questioned how well equipped a child of that age could be to put her own safety on the line and commit to a life of activism. The prize she received on Friday validates what she has taken on, but also underscores the disproportionate expectations that trail her: Can she truly influence the culture of her home country of Pakistan, which she cannot even visit because of threats to her safety, and where many revile her as a tool of the West? Ms. Yousafzai may be an Anne Frank-like figure who defied terror, showed extraordinary courage and inspires hope, but how much can one teenager accomplish?” (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/world/asia/malala-yousafzai-youngest-nobel-peace-prize-winner-adds-to-her-achievements-and-expectations.html)

 The library has a copy of Malala Yousafzai’s inspiring memoir available for checkout:  LC 2330 .Y69 2013

Photograph of Malala Yousafzai

Book Cover photo: www.hachettebookgroup.com

For further reading, photos, and videos:

Nobel Announcement
Washington Post
The Guardian

How do recent college graduates’ research skills measure up in the workplace?

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College graduates might be quite digital savvy, but many employers are finding that recent graduates lack “old-school” research skills.  Here is an article about Project Information Literacy’s (PIL’s) latest study, “Learning Curve: How College Students Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace” that was recently published in The Seattle Times.

Op-ed: Old-school job skills you won’t find on Google by Alison J. Head

Project Information Literacy (PIL) is a public benefit nonprofit dedicated to conducting ongoing, large-scale research about early adults and their research habits. They are currently collecting data from early adults enrolled in community colleges and public and private colleges and universities in the U.S.