Blog Post
Make a Mini-Book at Traverwood on November 6
by Caser
Tuesday, November 6 | 4 - 5pm | Traverwood | Grades K - 5
Create your very own mini-book(s) and illustrate with markers, stickers, stamps, and more! Learn some helpful tips for writing fiction and non-fiction mini-books and share story ideas with others.
Can't make the event? Want to brush up your writing skills before the event? Check out these books from the AADL with tips for writers!
Blog Post
Parent's Corner: Get Outside!
by manz
The Downtown library has a shelf in the Youth Department known as the Parent Shelf. On this shelf you’ll find a variety of parent-child related books on a multitude of topics- including everything from phonics to tantrums to potty training to diet. These books are available for checkout, and can be found in the catalog when searching “parent shelf,” if you’d like to have one sent to a branch of your choice.
This also includes some books on nature and the great outdoors, geared towards parents and children. Be sure to check out Sharing Nature With Children, Get Out! 150 Ways For Kids & Grown-Ups to Get Into Nature and Build a Greener Future, Nature’s Playground: Activities, Crafts, and Games to Encourage Children to Get Outdoors, or perhaps I love Dirt!: 52 Activities To Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature. Any time of year is perfect for a nature walk, a chance to stop and smell the fresh air and see what wondrous things are around us.
Blog Post
Hoopla : The Art of Unexpected Embroidery
by manz
What’s all the hoopla about?! Hoopla: The Unexpected Art of Embroidery is a new favorite craft book. Leanne Prain, one of the authors of Yarn Bombing, has a new book filled more with more subversive stitchery to suit your fancy. We’re talking about modern embroidery designs that are quirky and delightfully over the top. The book features wonderful project ideas and illustrations with so much inspiration! It also talks about the evolution of embroidery and interviews some top stitchers. Really interesting crafty reading.
See here for more books on modern embroidery.
Blog Post
Illustrator Derek Anderson at Malletts Creek Branch
by kidlit
Illustrator Derek Anderson will be at the Malletts Creek Branch on Monday, October 29, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.
He's touring to publicize the October 23rd release of his newest work, the illustrations for Jane Yolen's book Waking Dragons.
The prolific Mr. Anderson is best known for his illustrations of author Lauren Thompson's wonderful
Little Quack books and Cynthia Lord's rollicking Happy Birthday, Hamster and Hot Rod Hamster.
Come and enjoy this rare opportunity to meet an accomplished picture book illustrator. Books will be on sale at the event.
Blog Post
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads 2013 Book Selection
by hillary dorwart
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads 2013 has selected its next book: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness. This award-winning book is authored by civil rights lawyer, advocate and legal scholar Michelle Alexander.
An eleven-member selection team composed of community members, educators, students and librarians from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area chose the book last Monday night from a group of three titles, all of which centered on the subject of Understanding Race.
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads 2013 is scheduled to occur January through February 2013. There will be multiple opportunities for the community to become involved. More information will be continually added before and during the AA/Ypsi Reads 2013 season. follow the Reads site for details and updates. Participate in next year's discussions, and place a hold on your copy!
Blog Post
James Bond: Pushing 60 and Still Looking Good
by patrickpdunn
Everyone's favorite suave secret agent, James Bond, is headed back to the big screen with the upcoming release of Skyfall. The new flick stars Daniel Craig in his third outing as Bond, alongside a killer cast including Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem as the newest Bond villain, and Ben Whishaw in his debut as the gadget-master Q. The flick, which continues to dig into Bond's origins as seen previously in 2006's Casino Royale, has been receiving early critical acclaim as one of Agent 007's best. Opening in theaters everywhere November 9, Skyfall happens to come out exactly 50 years after the original Bond movie, Dr. No, which starred Sean Connery in 1962.
But before Skyfall arrives in theaters, AADL's collection offers plenty of ways to celebrate Mr. Bond's big birthday--and another even bigger 007 milestone. While Bond may be 50 in movie years, he's existed on the printed page for almost 60. Casino Royale, the original Bond story by Ian Fleming, was published in 1953 and is available via the AADL catalog. Fleming went on to write 14 James Bond books. His final one, Octopussy and The Living Daylights, was published in 1966, two years after his death. Fleming's series has been followed by numerous additional Bond books by authors including Jeffery Deaver, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, and Charlie Higson (who wrote the Young Bond series for teens).
And for those looking to get caught up on the movies, AADL has Bond flicks from the original Dr. No to 2008's Quantum of Solace. For true devotees, try the original 1967 film adaptation of Casino Royale, a wacky spoof of spy films with an all-star cast including David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, George Raft, and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Blog Post
Russell Means, activist/advocate for Indian rights, has died
by sernabad
Russell Means, the Oglala Lakota Indian (Means said the designation "Sioux" was derogatory) whose controversial political activism on behalf of America's Indian tribes first became headlines in the 1973 siege of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, died today on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Born on Pine Ridge in 1939, Means' transfer to a nearly all-white California high school resulted in daily relentless bullying. First Means fought back, then he fell into alcohol and substance abuse for several years before getting his footing in 1969 at the American Indian Center in Cleveland, OH. It was in Ohio that Means met Dennis Banks, co-founder of the new American Indian Movement.
In 1972, Means and other prominent Indian activists organized a mass demonstration on Washington, D.C. to coincide with the election. The housing they were promised by the Department of Interior was rat-iinfested and overcrowded so the demonstrators took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs and renamed it the Native American Embassy.They were evicted four days later when they were promised that investigations of programs that were supposed to help Indians would take place.
Three months later, Means and 200 armed supporters began a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee where, in 1890, the U.S. military massacred more than 300 men, women, and children of the Sioux/Lakota tribe.Several weeks later, Means went to Washington, D.C. to try to broker an end to the siege. He was arrested and jailed when he rejected the unconditional surrender offer. The remaining protesters surrendered on May 8th, 1973. Means and other principles talked about this action in the 2005 documentary Wounded Heart: Pine Ridge and the Sioux.
His 1974 trial for his role in Wounded Knee ended after seven months when the Judge dismissed all charges after it was revealed that a member of Means' own defense team was an FBI informant who supplied information to the prosecution.
In 1994, Means sought the limelight on the silver screen. He played Chingachgook in the 1992 move, The Last of the Mohicans. Means' autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means, was published in 1995. He used this venue to rail against the term 'Native Americans' and the whole notion of Native American Heritage Month.
Means was just a few weeks shy of his 73rd when he died of esophageal cancer.
Blog Post
Senator George McGovern has died
by sernabad
Sen.George McGovern, decorated WW II pilot in the Army, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, of the U.S. Senate, and a two-time Democratic candidate for President of the United States, and a United Nations ambassador, died October 21st in Sioux Falls, SD.
McGovern, born in S. Dakota in 1922, had an illustrious political career marked by his unwavering commitment to progressive principles. He was an early and unwavering voice opposing the Vietnam war, an advocate for the eradication of hunger in the U.S. and worldwide , and always a champion for civil rights.
He joined the Army when Pearl Harbor was attacked and became a fighter pilot of great courage. When his plane was severely crippled by flak in December of 1944, McGovern managed to land the plane safely, saving the lives of his crew. A grateful nation awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1957 to 1961 and in the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1981.
He ran for President twice; once, briefly in 1968. Four years later, he won the nomination of his party, but suffered an insurmountable blow with his choice of Thomas Eagleton as his Vice Presidential pick and with his unpopular opposition to the war in Vietnam. He lost to Richard Nixon in an epic landslide. He won just 17 electoral votes (Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.) to Nixon’s 520.
Sen. McGovern remained an active citizen of the world and a tireless force to push the Democratic party to strongly embrace principles of idealism and concern for the common citizen. He wrote several books; the last one, What It Means to Be a Democrat, was released last year.
Earlier this month, his family released a statement that Sen. McGovern had been admitted to a Sioux Falls, South Dakota hospice. He was 90 years old.
Blog Post
The Labyrinth of Osiris
by pkooger
Paul Sussman's fantastic new thriller, The Labyrinth of Osiris, combines the grit and action of a good police thriller with the adventure of a historical fiction piece. The story is divided between two detectives, Ben-Roi, an Israeli working on a murder investigation in Jerusalem, and Khalifa, an Egyptian coming to terms with a recent family tragedy. The murder investigation soon leads both detectives on a chase throughout the Middle East as they try to piece together the connection between a string of well poisonings, the disappearance of a British archaeologist in 1931, a murdered reporter, a rogue group of anti-capitalist terrorists, and a shady international corporation.
Sussman passed away in May, 2012, before he could see his final novel come to print, but he deserves to be recognized for a novel that some early reviews are calling a thinking man's DaVinci Code. Sussman worked for years as an archaeologist in Egypt before becoming an author. His novels include The Lost Army of Cambyses, The Last Secret of the Temple, and The Hidden Oasis.
Blog Post
Hilary Mantel wins her SECOND Man Booker Prize
by sernabad
Last night in England, British author Hilary Mantel broke several literary records when she captured the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her novel, Bring Up the Bodies, the second entry in her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell.
She was the first woman to win the Booker twice. In 2009, she got the nod for the trilogy's first book, Wolf Hall; no other Booker author has won for a sequel. And neither of the other two double-Booker winner -- Peter Carey and J.M. Coetzee -- took home the top honors in such a short amount of time.
In Wolf Hall, Cromwell counsels King Henry VIII on the latter's seven year quest to marry Anne Boleyn. In Bring Up the Bodies, Henry now has buyer's remorse and again, Cromwell steps in to give the Kiing what he wants.
Sir Peter Stothard, chair of the judging panel had this to say about Ms. Mantel's historic accomplishment: "This is a unique accolade. This is something that no other woman has done before. This is an extraordinary book in its own right.It’s about novels, not novelists. It’s about texts, not reputations.This prize was set up for books that will be around for decades to come. They are texts that will live on because each time you read them it’s a different text".
Ms. Mantel's accomplishments are all the more remarkable for the personal struggles she has fought all her life. Plagued by health ailments from a young age which were misdiagnosed and which frequently drained her energy. She wrote of these challenges in her 2003 memoir, Giving Up the Ghost.
The Man Book Prize is given to an author from the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, or Ireland. The winner goes home with a purse of £50,000, instant international recognition and skyrocketing sales.
Ms. Mantel, who is 60, is already hard at work on the conclusion of her massive, compulsively readable trilogy.