A More Peaceful World?

Last week The Bismarck Tribune ran an article that caught my eye — “Bombings, beheadings? Stats Show a Peaceful World.”

The article referenced a book that we have in the Library collection: The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

And another one that is currently on order in an ebook format: Winning the War on War by Joshua S. Goldstein

The article also referenced an interesting website, which we’ve added to the Library’s Delicious.com bookmark collection: The Human Security Report Project

Check them out! [Note: Photo from BSC Library’s Britannica Image Quest database, a great source of images for educational use.]

Read These Before You Die

Looking for something to read before you leave this mortal coil?

Nancy Pearl, a Seattle librarian, author of Book Lust, More Book Lust, Book Crush, and Book Lust to Go, as well as the model for the Librarian Action Figure (with amazing push-button shushing action!), recommends:    

Fiction for Adults to Read Before They Die

• Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
• Mr. Bridge; Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
• Libra by Don De Lillo
• The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
• The World According to Garp by John Irving
• The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
• Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
• The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
• Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler

Check them out!

2011 National Book Award Finalists

Finalists for the 2011 National Book Award in four categories include:     

Young People’s Literature

• Chime by Franny Billingsley
• Flesh and Blood So Cheap: the Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin
• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
• My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson
• Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
• Shine by Lauren Myracle

Fiction Category

• Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman
• The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka – On order (ebook)
• Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
• The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
• The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht – On order (ebook)

Nonfiction

• The Convert: a Tale of Exile and Extremism  by Deborah Baker
• Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel – On order
• Malcolm X: a Life of Reinvention by Marable Manning (ebook)
• Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
• The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt – On order

Poetry

• The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa
• Devotions by Bruce Smith
• Double Shadow by Carl Phillips
• Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010 by Adrienne Rich

On the evening of November 15, all 20 finalists will read from their nominated works at the National Book Award Finalists Reading at The New School in New York City.  The National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner will be held the following evening, November 16, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

High Plains Book Awards – Two North Dakotans Honored

I’ve been watching for the results of the 2011 High Plains Book Awards ever since reading Dakota or What’s a Heaven For by Brenda K. Marshall, a native North Dakotan who grew up in the Red River Valley near Fargo.  Marshall was nominated in the Best Woman Writer category.  The awards were presented on Saturday, October 15, in Billings, Montana.  Although I am sorry to say that Brenda Marshall did not win in her category, I know that being nominated is a terrific honor.   

I highly recommend Marshall’s book!  It is a historical novel set in Dakota Territory beginning in 1874.  I read it this summer after it was selected as the 2011 North Dakota Library Association Conference Book Club book.  I’m so glad I did.  It is beautifully written and I learned much about frontier politics, the Northern Pacific Railroad, bonanza farming, homesteading, and the lives of women who have dreams and desires of their own.  At the NDLA conference, Marshall was also on hand to lead the book club discussion and was a luncheon speaker. 

We have copies of Dakota at the BSC Library in both print and ebook versions.  You can find the ebook in our Beyond Library Walls Digital Collection. 

The other North Dakotan honored at the awards was Larry Woiwode, who received the 2011 Emeritus Award.  He is a farmer, professor, North Dakota’s Poet Laureate, and an award-winning writer whose many books have received critical acclaim.  You can find several of them at the BSC Library. 

To find books by Woiwode as well as several other High Plains Book Award winners and nominees, use the ODIN library catalog.

Good reading!

Get Fit! Reading Is a Workout for Your Brain

Why read?  Check out this video from the Library’s “Films on Demand” collection:

Why Reading Matters: a Holistic Study for the Digital Age

“… this program studies the brain’s role in the process of reading and what we gain from reading, especially of fiction … Tracing the brain’s adaptation to reading historically and through modern medical imaging technology, the film shows us how the brain reacts to words … fiction may provide the brain’s most cerebral workout; more significant, fiction provides us with the ability to develop empathy.” — from a review by Ernest Jaeger in Library Journal (September 15, 2011, p. 45)

October Is National Book Month

The National Book Foundation invites you to …

Embark on the journey of a lifetime, travel to exotic places, mythical lands and experience adventure beyond imagination. Or escape to another era altogether. All without luggage, tickets, a passport or leaving home.

All you need is an open mind. And an open book.

Bring the power of reading into your life.

OCTOBER IS NATIONAL BOOK MONTH

We’ve Got Art!

BSC Alumni Art Exhibition

September 26 – October 28, 2011

Gannon Gallery, BSC Library

Reception:  Wednesday, October 12, 4 – 6 p.m.

This show features paintings, drawings, literature, sculpture, photography, and other artwork created by BSC (and BJC) alumni.

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