Mr. House began by addressing the large crowd about his past and current writing projects.  He discussed how he became interested in writing the book, and how he came up with the ideas for subsequent books.  After discussing each of his books (including his most recent project: editing an unfinished manuscript by late author James Still into the newly released Chinaberry), House took questions from the audience.  Although the large classroom was entirely full, I was afraid that the students might be too shy or nervous to question the author.  I was pleased to see that this was not the case at all!  The students asked about everything from “were the characters real or made up” to asking for writing tips.  The students were also eager to mention people and events in the books which rang true for them in their own lives.  It seems that House succeeded in his attempt to write a book set in Eastern Kentucky which accurately showcased the people, including their strengths and weaknesses.

Silas House had another engagement, and so had to cut the questioning period short.  He did, however, stay longer to sign books and chat with anyone who wished to talk to him.

If you would like to read some works by this well-regarded Kentucky author, come to the library!!  We have the following books by Silas House:

Clay’s Quilt PS 3558 .O8659 C58 2001

Parchment of Leaves PS 3558 .O8659 P37 2003

Coal Tattoo PS 3558 .O8659 C63 2005

Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal TD 195 .C58 H68 2009

Eli the Good PS 3558 .O8659 E45 2009

Stop by the library today to read these or other Appalachian classics!

Cats Up Close GV 885.43 .U53 V38 1992

This is the first collection of interviews and stories that Professor Vaught published.  There are 18 different chapters, each covering a particular player, coach or individual who had an influence or “inside view” of UK basketball. Some of the people covered include former coaches Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton and Rick Pitino.  There are also interviews with many former players, including Kyle Macy, Sam Bowie and Rex Chapman.  The book begins with an interview with Herky Rupp, former UK player and son of legendary coach Adoph Rupp.  There are also several pages of photos, most taken by Professor Vaught.

Still Crazy About the Cats GV 885.54 .U53 V384

In Still Crazy About the Cats, we are treated to more interviews with individuals with a connection to Kentucky basketball.  This collection includes 14 chapters, including a section on Bernadette Locke-Mattox, who became “one of the first women to coach on a men’s team in NCAA Division I.”  There’s also an interview with former athletic director C.M. Newton.

Many more engaging stories about some of the historical figures who helped shape the Wildcat program!

Some other titles we have related to UK basketball include:

Cats Up Close GV 995.54 .C38 V38

Crazy About Kentucky GV 885.54 .U53 V37 2003

A Legacy of Champions : The Story of the Men who Built University of Kentucky Basketball
GV 885.43 .U53 B69 1997

Full-Court Pressure : A Year in Kentucky Basketball GV 885.43 .U53  P58 1992

The History of University of Kentucky Basketball (DVD) GV 885.43 .U53 H570 2007

Adolph Rupp: Myth, Legend and Fact (DVD) GV 884 .R84  A36 2006

Hello Everybody, This is Cawood Ledford: The Story of a Kentucky Legend (audiobook)
GV 719 .L43 A3 1992

The Cats’ Pause Current Newspapers & Periodical Shelves

As you can see, the library has plenty of resources to help you maintain your “Wildcat Fever!”  Stop by and check something out today!

Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, Oxford University Press, 4th edition (February, 2010). This highly regarded survey, revised and updated for 2010, examines Cuba’s political and economic development relative to its international relations and struggles for self-determination. Included are the latest research findings on Cuba’s internal situation as well as a fully revised and updated political chronology.
 

 
Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration, Wiley (April, 2010). The author argues that immigration is not just an American issue. It is a global issue, too complex to be fully understood in solely legal terms.  The corporate imperative for cheap labor and the human  imperative to seek better economic opportunities are the rightful starting points for understanding this complex issue.

African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, (September, 2007). This title is an in-depth examination of the economic and social history of African slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. The focus of the book is on the Portuguese, Spanish, and French-speaking regions of continental America and the Caribbean.

Illegal: Life and Death in Arizona’s Immigration War Zone, Lyons Press (2010). 

From the book jacket: “Arizona’s violent border is the busiest gateway for illegal immigration in America….No state is as hostile to the undocumented, and no city as unwelcoming as Phoenix. By profiling these undocumented people…the author exposes the dangerously tattered fabric of a divisive national crisis.”

A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America,  Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press (2006). This book  offers a history of American immigration policies and the political and social factors that produced them. With rich detail and scholarship, the authors shows how America has struggled to shape the immigration process to construct the kind of population it desires.

Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields, Nation Books, 2010. From the book jacket:

“Bowden (the author) uses his tremendous talents to tell a haunting, darkly poetic story of a city’s horrifying descent into madness and anarchy.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Crawling with ghosts and demons, dripping blood, howling with rage and terror….Forget Baghdad, forget Kandahar: Hell is only 50 yards from your back porch.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil’s Highway

Recent acquisitions not featured here include:

Latin American Art of the 20th Century
Latin American Art: Ancient to Modern
Handbook to Life in the Aztec World
Gods, Gachupines and Gringos: A People’s History of Mexico
The History of Mexico: From Pre-Conquest to Present
The Oxford History of Mexico
Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juarez
Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants
The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History
Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America’s Failure to Control Its Borders

Read some frequently challenged or banned books!

 The week of Sept. 25 to Oct. 2 is Banned Books Week.  This is the 28th year of the celebration, which champions the freedom to read.  It was started in 1982 to draw attention to the fact that hundreds of books are challenged each year.  Some books are challenged for being too sexually explicit or for containing too much offensive language.  Some books are deemed unworthy because of positive or negative portrayals of different groups.  Modern books have been challenged for seeming to condone or promote a particular viewpoint.  The American Library Association reported nearly 500 books challenged in schools and libraries in the U.S. in 2009, but it also estimates that as many as 90% of the challenges are never reported.   Some of the titles that have recently been challenged include:    

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee   This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and has been hailed as a classic for its portrayal of racial relations in the southern U.S.   Challenges to the book have included objections to “profanity,” “adult themes,” and “racial slurs.”

The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer   The Twilight series of books, about a love affair between a human high school girl and her vampire boyfriend have been hugely popular books and films.  Challenges to the novels include objections that the content is too sexually explicit for teenagers and that the subject of the novel conflicts with some religious beliefs.

Of Mice and Men by John SteinbeckThe story of farm workers George and Lennie was written by Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck.  It is frequently challenged on the basis of objections to profanity.  It has also been accused of being derogatory towards women, minorities, and the disabled.

We currently have a display of some of the frequently challenged titles on display in the library.  Come in and read the books for yourself!  Celebrate your ability to choose what to read for yourself!  We also have a list posted of the top 100 books that were challenged in 2009, as well as  a listing of which of those books we own in our library.  

Come and help us celebrate Banned Books week by reading a “naughty” book!

Display of books highlighting unusual Kentucky people, places and events

  
Recently, the library has gotten some new books which highlight some weird events, places and people in Kentucky.  The one which best illustrates this topic is:    

More Kentucky Ghost Stories by Michael Paul Henson
GR 110 .K4 H440 1996
         

This book takes a look at some stories of hauntings and ghostly activity in Kentucky which were passed down from generation to generation.  There are no sources listed for the various tales included in the book, but the author does add some notes at the end of some stories to further clarify information or locations of the events.         

Forgotten Tales of Kentucky by Keven McQueen
GR 110 .K4 M37 2008        

McQueen, an English professor at Eastern Kentucky University, has collected some of the strangest Kentucky tales into this book.  Included are accounts of strange objects raining from the sky (including the infamous “Bath County Meat Shower”) and a host of odd happenings in graveyards.      

Murder in Old Kentucky by Keven McQueen
HV 6533 .K4 M38 2005 
 
 Another book by Keven McQueen that the library has recently received is “Murder in Old Kentucky,” which takes a look at famous murder cases in the state which occurred between the years of 1826 and 1937.   Some of the more gruesome murders that are recounted include the Ashland Tragedy and the Knox County Atrocity.  A fascinating look back at a time when violence in Kentucky was a national scandal.    

It Happened in Kentucky by Mimi O’Malley
F 451.6 .O45 2006      

On a more cheerful note, the author of this book highlights 21 major events from Kentucky’s history, including the captivity of Jenny Wiley, the creation of the Louisville Slugger and the establishment of the Pleasant Hill Shaker Colony.

The library is open every weekday until 4:30 pm this summer.  Why not stop by and check out some books about the weird and sometimes scary events that take place right here in our own state?



Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North, 344 pgs., Princeton University Press, by C.S. Manegold (December, 2009). The author centers her study of slavery in the North on Ten Hills Farm, an estate north of Boston, passed down through five generations of powerful slave-owning dynasties.  The author conveys a lively depiction of New England social, cultural and political history, and his thoughtfully researched and eminently readable book will allow no one to remain unaware of the North’s extensive links to slavery and the slave trade.

The Making of African America, by Ira Berlin, 320 pages, Viking Adult (January 2010). Berlin offers a fresh reading of American history  through the prism of the great migrations that made and remade African-American life. The first was the forcible deportation of Africans to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, followed by their forced transfer into the American interior during the 19th century. Then came the migration of the mid-20th century as African-Americans fled the South for the urban North, and the arrival of continental Africans and people of African descent from the Caribbean during the latter part of the 20th century.

How Free is Free? The Long Death of Jim Crow, by Leon F. Litwack, 208 pgs., Harvard University Press (February, 2009). In this examination of African-American life after slavery, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Litwack recounts the physical brutality and crushing legal oppression of Jim Crow America. Drawing on African-American literature, poetry and blues music, as well as archival and media records, the author details lynchings, segregation, denial of education and housing—and the dedication among African-Americans determined not to be treated as second-class citizens.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, 384 pgs, Crown Publishers (February 2010). From a single, short life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive–even thrive–in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs. Meanwhile, Henrietta’s family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution–and her cells’ strange survival–left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion.

Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African-American Women and Religion by Bettye Collier-Thomas, 736 pgs, Knopf Publishers (February, 2010). Collier-Thomas allows the strong voices of women as diverse as Ida B. Wells Barnett, Sarah Jane Woodson Early (the first black woman to serve on a faculty of an American university), and Mary McLeod Bethune to articulate the causes of liberation and justice.  Collier-Thomas demonstrates the ways black women have woven their faith into their daily experience and played central roles in developing African-American religion, politics, and public culture.