Archive for October, 2008
Reading Richard Wright – Professor’s Corner
Professor’s Corner: A Discussion Group Devoted to Literary Texts
Wednesday, November 12th at 7:00PM
South Branch Library
Reading Richard Wright
Presented by:
Dr. Darryl Dickson-Carr,
Southern Methodist University
On September 4, 1908, a little more than one hundred years ago, novelist Richard Wright was born just outside of Natchez, Mississippi. Wright would eventually transform himself into one of the most important writers of fiction in the twentieth century through his landmark works, the collection of novellas Uncle Tom’s Children (1938), the novel Native Son (1940), and his autobiography, Black Boy (1945). Wright brought hard-hitting naturalism to African American fiction and, in the process, created popular literature transformed American literature forever.
This presentation will provide an overview of Wright’s life and early work, with special attention paid to Native Son and Wright’s own thoughts on the role of fiction in depicting African Americans’ struggles.
Readings for this presentation can be found at any of the Denton Public Library Branches.
For more information please contact Kimberly Wells at 940-349-8796.
The Hunger Games
This book is by Suzanne Collins, author of the Gregor the Overlander series. It is a dark tale of a possible future world in which the people are gamepieces of a sadistic government whose methods of control have created The Hunger Games. A lottery is held in which young people between the ages of 12 and 16 are picked, two from each of the 12 districts, and forced to fight to the death. The games take place in a controlled environment, one that the government can change in order to influence the outcome. The entire event is televised before, during, and after, so if you are good at playing their game, someone might just send you some help. If you aren’t, well, you are on your own.
People from the wealthier districts train their children from birth to be proficient in some art of killing, so besides having had food all their lives, they also have a bit of a killer instinct.
If you are from a poorer district, however, like Katniss, you have had to scrounge for every meal you’ve ever had, which means you are scrawnier and haven’t had the time to think about training skills. At the age of twelve, Katniss lost her father and instead of dying the slow death of starvation, Katniss learned to hunt and gather in the woods (something that was illegal). She developed stealth and ingenuity in order to provide for her mother and younger sister. And when her sister, Prim, is picked for the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to fight in her place.
She may not have been born wealthy, but she can hunt and is a survivor. She just has to play their very horrible game.
Spooky StoryTime
Bring your children ages 1-5 to the library and show off their costumes while enjoying Halloween-themed stories, songs and crafts!
Emily Fowler 10/28 7pm
South Branch 10/31 10am
North Branch 10/31 2:30pm
Jellaby
Kean Soo’s Jellaby is geared towards elementary-aged children, and its soothing, purple-toned artwork set it apart from other graphic novels for this age group. Children will be drawn to the graphics and to the simple storyline about the friendship between Portia, who has no friends in her new town, and Jellaby, a shy purple monster.
I recommend Jellaby to fans of Jeff Smith’s Bone and Sarah Varon’s Robot Dreams. Jellaby the monster is as sweet and cute as Jellaby the book. Keep an eye out for volume 2!
-Dana Zakrzewski
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
A European sensation finally arrives in America!
Judge for yourself whether it lives up to the hype.
Swedish writer and activist Steig Larrson wrote mysteries at night for the fun of it. He told nobody about them until he brought three completed books to his publisher. Sadly, shortly after he turned them in he died of a massive heart attack at only fifty years old. Published after his death, his books became runaway bestsellers in Europe.
In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the first book in the series, disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist agrees to industrialist Henrik Vanger’s request to investigate the 40-year-old disappearance of Vanger’s 16-year-old niece, Harriet. In return, Vanger will help Blomkvist dig up dirt on the corrupt businessman that was responsible for Mikael’s downfall. The novel combines the elements of a locked door murder mystery and a financial thriller. It has a deep and complex plot with characters that you can’t wait to hear more about when your finished. The country of Sweden is almost a character in the novel revealing a fascinating past that many Americans know little about.
The translations of the next two titles in the series, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “Castles in the Sky” will be released over the next couple of years.
Kimberly
The Bella Cullen Project//Live at North Branch!!!
The Bella Cullen Project is a band from Arlington, Texas, inspired by the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. The members of the band – Chandler, Ally, and Tori – were not yet freshmen in high school when they came up with the idea to form a Twilight fan-band, and have been playing Twilight-based music ever since!!!
Be sure to check out The Bella Cullen Project live at the North Branch Library
October 25
3:00 PM
Also be sure to enter the drawing for a very cool Twilight blanket!!!
What do “Project Blue Book” and the U.S. Constitution have in common?
They are both available on-line!
Interested in reading the reports from the Project Blue Book, the support papers in the assignation of Abraham Lincoln, or FBI case files? Would you like to see if your family participated in the Revolutionary or the Civil War? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could read the papers from the Constitutional Convention, or see Mathew Brady’s photograph collection? Would you like to visit the Vietnam War Memorial.
You can! The library has subscribed to footnote.com, an online database that has partnered with the National Archives to make thousands of original documents available over the internet.
From their website: “Footnote.com is a place where original historical documents are combined with social networking in order to create a truly unique experience involving the stories of our past. The collections feature documents, most never before available before on the Internet, relating to the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, US Presidents, historical newspapers, naturalization documents, and many more”
Please take a moment to get acquainted with this collection of fascinating documents. You can take a tour: http://www.footnote.com/tour.php or see a full list of the original documents: http://www.footnote.com/institution-index.php.
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