Frank McCourt Touched Our Lives with his Stories

Yesterday's and today's NY Times have wonderful remembrance pieces for Frank McCourt who died on Sunday. His memoirs were tough and humorous at the same time. I loved Angela's Ashes, 'Tis and Teacher Man. Probably enjoyed the trials and tribulations of 'Tis the most.

Listen to the NPR tribute and several related interviews with Frank McCourt who speaks about his works: Angela's Ashes and 'Tis.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

Just listened to a National Public Radio interview with Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine. It sounds fascinating.

Description from Publisher's Weekly:

"Starred Review. In the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all, argues Anderson (The Long Tail). He illustrates how savvy businesses are raking it in with indirect routes from product to revenue with such models as cross-subsidies (giving away a DVR to sell cable service) and freemiums (offering Flickr for free while selling the superior FlickrPro to serious users). New media models have allowed successes like Obama's campaign billboards on Xbox Live, Webkinz dolls and Radiohead's name-your-own-price experiment with its latest album. A generational and global shift is at play—those below 30 won't pay for information, knowing it will be available somewhere for free, and in China, piracy accounts for about 95% of music consumption—to the delight of artists and labels, who profit off free publicity through concerts and merchandising. Anderson provides a thorough overview of the history of pricing and commerce, the mental transaction costs that differentiate zero and any other price into two entirely different markets, the psychology of digital piracy and the open-source war between Microsoft and Linux. As in Anderson's previous book, the thought-provoking material is matched by a delivery that is nothing short of scintillating."

However, after looking for other reviews, I ran across a blog post from the Virginia Quarterly Review: "Chris Anderson’s Free Contains Apparent Plagiarism" by Waldo Jaquith on June 23rd, 2009. Jaquith gives many examples of material that is lifted straight from Wikipedia with no citations. He plans to source this material prior to publication; his excuses seem quite lame considering he is a professional journalist.
Could be a teachable moment for students.

2008 Most-Challenged Books Named

The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) recently revised the list of the 10 most challenged books for 2008.

Four books are added to the list:

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya ; Uncle Bobby's Wedding by Sarah S Brannen; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; Flashcards of My Life by Charise Mericle Harper.



Read the full list with a synopsis of each book.

As librarians we must continue to be vigilant in protecting our readers' First Amendment rights.

John Berendt's City of Falling Angels

Just finished reading City of Falling Angels. It was a compelling read and felt like a 400 page Vanity Fair article with all the gossip and tales of the rich and famous. I was introduced to the Fenice Opera house which burned in 1996 just days before Berendt arrived in Venice. He stayed on for about 9 years to investigate the fire while getting to know the Venetians and ex-pats on an intimate basis. I was particularly intrigued about the life and works of Ezra Pound who lived in Rapallo and Venice. I even borrowed the PBS video of Pound's biography to enhance my understanding of his poetry.

Like Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, Falling Angels is a window into Venice, a city steeped in art, history, tradition, and customs unknown to most outsiders. I learned that Venetians always tell you the opposite of what they mean. Hmmm....should be interesting as I am leaving for Italy tomorrow and will stay at both Rapallo and Venice.

While I already have tickets to see the Doges Palace, I doubt that it will be the most interesting place in Venice. I am much more interested in the Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and other places richly described by Berendt as one of the "Save Venice" restoration projects. It's quite a page turner and fitting as a summer read.

Ready Set Read. . .

Have you started a summer reading list? Here are a few titles, recommended by New Trier's Librarians and Northfield's Staff Book Club, to start with or add to your list. No doubt all of our lists will be longer than we have days of summer!

If you want more ideas be sure to browse/click on the links to the left of this post.

Happy Reading and Relaxing!
New Trier Library Staff

Abraham Lincoln High School Book Awards 2010
The Baron in the Trees
The Book Thief
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WAO
The Floor of the Sky
Gang Leader for a Day
The Girls From Ames
The Help
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
The Madonnas of Leningrad
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Mudbound
People of the Book
Olive Kitteridge
Summer World: A Season of Bounty

Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners

Use LibraryThing to explore the 125+ titles recently designated as Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners, 2009 by the American Library Association.

Use this link to explore those titles and the 2009 Alex Award Winners (given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults) and the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award winners (given to 5 books this year that exemplify literary excellence in young adult literature).

If you click on the Tags column, the award winners will be listed first, followed by the Outstanding Books which will be grouped into one of 5 broad categories: Arts and Humanities; History and Cultures; Literature and Language Arts; Science and Technology; and Social Sciences. The entire list can also be sorted by Title or by Author (again, simply click on the relevant column). A user can also display covers or tags and clicking on a cover will link to another page with more information about an individual book and pricing and reviews from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Enjoy!