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Continue Reading →Monthly Archives: February 2020
In Memoriam: Katherine Johnson, 1918-2020
Dr. Katherine Johnson, part of the human computer team at NASA and responsible for hand calculating NASA’s path to space, has died at 101. She graduated from West Virginia State College with degrees in math and French and briefly worked as a teacher before working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which would later become NASA) at Langley Research Center. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
To read about her influence at NASA and the team of black female mathematicians that helped the United States launch successfully into space, we’ve got Hidden Figures in three formats: book, DVD, and children’s book.
Available at the Main Campus (QA 27.5 .L44) 
Available at the Main Campus (QA 28 .S538 2018, Children’s Resources) 
Available at the Main and Orange County Campuses (PN 1997.2 .H53 2017 DVD)
Related reading also featuring Katherine Johnson:
Available at the Main Campus (Q 141 .I33 2016) 
Available at the Main Campus (QA 27.5 .E39 2017)
Spring Library News (You Can Use)
The spring Durham Tech Library newsletter is now available. Features include new staff, OER, Summon tips and tricks, current reading challenges, upcoming Crafternoons, TLC news, and more!
Durham Tech Reads: What’s Your Favorite Book?
Are you participating in the Durham Tech Library’s Read Great Things 2020 Challenge? Desperately want to complete your “Someone else’s favorite book” category but don’t know where to start? Good news! We can help.
Continue Reading →Read-alike: Where the Crawdads Sing
Did you enjoy Delia Owens’s novel Where the Crawdads Sing about a young woman growing up isolated in the marshes of coastal North Carolina in the 1960’s? If you’re interested in reading similar books, consider some of these available in the library or through interlibrary loan (ILL). These would all count for the Read Great Things Challenge 2020 in the coming-of-age novel category.
Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Fifteen-year-old June must come to terms with the death of her beloved Uncle Finn, an artist, who dies from AIDS in 1980s New York. This is a strong character-driven and sentimental coming-of-age story.
Call number location: Main Campus, PS 3602 .R867 T45 2013
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
This book feature a strong sense of place, wilderness survival, and a young woman moving to and growing up in Alaska.
Call number location: Main Campus, PS 3558 .A4763 G74 2018
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
After two local drowning tragedies, fifteen-year-old Lena is parentless and friendless. This British psychological thriller is mysterious and atmospheric.
Call number location: Main Campus,
PR 6108 .A963 I58 2017
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Both novels offer a historical Southern setting and a trial that illuminates the closed-minded nature of the town’s residents. Both novels feature young female characters who come of age in challenging circumstances.
Call number location: Main and Orange County Campus, PS 3562 .E353 T6 [various years of publication]
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
This brutal and violent novel is a coming-of- age story about a teenage girl living in isolation off-grid with her survivalist, paranoid father in the Pacific Northwest. Be warned though– this is much darker and more intense.
This book can be requested through ILL.
What We’re Reading-Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
This book was read by Courtney Bippley, Reference Librarian at the Main Campus Library.
Title: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Author: Lori Gottlieb
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Why did you choose to read this book?
The book got a bunch of buzz when it came out and I knew a couple other people who had read it and said it was good. Then, I read a few of Lori Gottlieb’s advice columns in The Atlantic to see if I liked her writing style. I did, so I brought the book home with me. The idea of reading about therapy from a therapist perspective was very intriguing. Don’t we all want a deeper understanding of how people work?
What did you like about it?
I really liked how honest the author is in this book. She is honest about her own struggles with behavior that is self-sabotaging and how she came to understand her own role in the break up that led to her going to therapy herself.
The other characters in the book, her patients and her therapist, are all really interesting. They’ve been anonymized and various real patients were combined into the supporting characters. They feel very fleshed out with real issues and I fell in love with all of them. Even the ones I didn’t like in the beginning.
And, I’m not gonna lie. I cried reading this book. Multiple times. But, I would not call this a sad book at all. If anything, I think it is a book about hope, recognizing that we all struggle with similar things, and that it’s never too late to work toward becoming a better person.
Who would you recommend this book to?
Anyone who likes a good memoir. Anyone who has been in or is thinking about going to therapy. Anyone thinking about becoming a therapist of any kind. Anyone who likes to read about real people’s lives written and explained in what is both a contextually accurate and compassionate way.
What would you pair this book with?
A box of tissues! Preferably the extra soft kind that moisturize your nose while you wipe away snot. Bonus points for having a novelty tissue box or one with punny sayings on it.
Black History Month-Celebrating Dance
Dance is wonderful. It is one of my favorite things in the world despite the fact that I’m only okay at it on a good day. Who cares? If I’m dancing I’m having a good time.
Many of the dances known in the United States were created by the Black community. Blues dancing, Swing, the Twist, Disco, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Jitterbug, Moonwalk, Cakewalk, and so many more. These are dances that have shaped the look and feel of decades.
See below for a video of Lindy Hop dancers back in the day and books that explore the history of Black social dancing.
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