Review Thursday: Fiction Staff Picks

Looking for some great new fiction to recommend? Check out the Fiction Department's latest picks for great fiction!

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (2009)

Ren and Toby, two women who have survived the plague known as the “waterless flood”, look back on the choices they’ve made and attend to their future survival.



Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin (2009)

By reviving an old play at their Catholic school in the 1950s, two girls raise questions about the past and dramatically change their own futures.

Family Album by Penelope Lively (2009)

Serious problems lurk under the picturesque surface of a big family in an old house outside London.

The City & The City by China Miéville (2009)

Inspector Tyador Borlu of the city of Beszel must solve a difficult murder – one that seems linked to Ul Qoma, another city which exists in the same physical location as Beszel but is forbidden to interact with it.

The Humbling by Philip Roth

A 65-year-old failing actor hopes a romance with a 40-year-old woman will revitalize him.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009)

On his visits to the residents of a crumbling mansion named Hundreds Hall, Dr. Faraday witnesses phenomena that shake his belief that hauntings cannot exist.

Text or IM Us!

Need an answer quickly? Now you can text or IM the Enoch Pratt Free Library! Four departments are currently doing IMing -- Business, Science & Technology, Maryland, Sights & Sounds, and Social Science and History. Just ask us a question and we'll get back to you quickly during library hours.

Who are the People in Your State Library Resource Center

Meet Jeff Korman!
Maryland Department Manager
Enoch Pratt Free Library/Maryland's State Library Resource Center




What do you do?
I am one of three SLRC Managers who serve under the Chief of SLRC and work with other SLRC subject departments. I am also the coordinator of the SLRC committee responsible for marketing services. In addition I am the everyday manager of the Maryland Department.

How did you get here?
In 1980 I came to Pratt out of library school to become the Government Reference Librarian- a special SLRC service that handles reference inquiries from Maryland state agencies. That job gave me a lot of experience with Maryland material. In 1985 I became the assistant manager of the Maryland Department; in 1997 manager of the Maryland Department and in 2002 was promoted to SLRC manager.

What’s your favorite thing about your job?
There are so many things I like to do but clearly interacting with the public and other librarians at SLRC and around the state is the most rewarding. At heart I am a reference librarian and it is an honor to be part of the wonderful staff and work with the great collections we have here. I get to do lots of public programs and Maryland related training in just about every Maryland countly library system and that allows me to meet and work with so many front line librarians. And, it benefits SLRC too! I have a lot of library contacts across the state. It is great to keep those relationships going and continue to make new friends.

What’s a book that you didn’t expect to like – but did?
A few years ago I was doing some reference work on local politics in the 1850's. Politics is not my favorite topic, but I used a new book (at that time) entitled Hanging Henry Gambrill: the violent career of Baltimore's Plug Uglies, 1854-1860 by Tracy Melton. It fascinated me and turned that mundane reference question into a real interest in life in the Civil War era. That led to interest in all kinds of related history and theories about what really went on at the time.

What is your favorite SLRC program, service, or training?
No question- public programming. I love to pull together material on an historic topic, but to come at that topic from a different or strange angle. For example, not Edgar Allan Poe's gifted writing but his mysterious death. Not John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Lincoln but the conspiracy theory that has him living until 1903. Not Maryland history, but the history of Maryland as seen by Native Americans. Not famous Marylanders, but infamous Marylanders, etc. Booth is my favorite, and one gets to meet and talk to many people with like interests when presenting these programs.

What do you do when you’re not reading?
A lot of cooking and baking, spending time with my wife and sons and talking to my dog.

Review Thursday: Pratt Picks

Did you know that the staff of the Enoch Pratt Free Library create booklists for fiction, nonfiction, and children's books? And that the lists go beyond books to cover music, movies, and magazines? Check out Pratt Picks for the latest selections.

Some of the popular lists include:

• Classics: A Selection of Lasting Favorites
  
  
• African American Biographies for Teens
  
  
• Children's Picture Books
  
  
• Bollywood Videos & DVDs
  
  
• Economics for Non-Economists

It's a great resource for reader's advisory! Whether you are looking for suggestions for teens, adults, or children, you're bound to find something different from Pratt Picks.

Free Credit Reports in Maryland

Did you know that Maryland residents are entitled to two free credit reports each year? Under separate federal and state laws, customers are entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three Credit Reporting Agencies. Since there are two laws, this means that you can contact each Agency twice per year and request your personal credit report free of charge!

Contacting the credit reporting agencies can be done online or by phone. Want to find all the contact information? Check out the Business, Science & Technology Department's guide online -- How to Get a Free Credit Report -- for all of the details.

A customer has asked for my advice with finding good places to donate. Help!

When tragedy strikes Americans are known for their generosity. Here are some sites that may help you and your customers in making your decision about where to give.

Charity Navigator – Hot Topics
This site features charities that are given a high rating by Charity Navigator and are working with societal concerns and natural disasters.

Crisis Commons - CrisisCamp
Brings together domain experts, developers, and first responders to help improve technology and practice for humanitarian crisis management and disaster relief.

CNN Impact Your World
Read current new stories and what organizations are doing to help.

Network For Good
Learn about charities and the work that they are doing and then make an online donation through Network For Good's secure online donation system.

Maryland Volunteer Centers
Find organizations in Maryland to volunteer with.

Volunteer Match
Find organizations around the country to volunteer with.

Chile:
Embassy of Chile - Relief Efforts
Research information about Chilean relief efforts

Haiti:
Embassy of Haiti – Relief Assistance
Research information about how to help Haitian agencies directly.

Review Thursday: Children's Nonfiction

Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator by Sarah C. Campbell (2008)

Nature’s Most Extreme[ly Slow] Predators! If there really was a tabloid TV show about wolfsnails, the low speed chases portrayed therein might not make for the most exciting viewing. This book, however, is a fascinating read. Detailed photographs and vivid prose introduce young naturalists to the wolfsnail, a predatory creature that earns its name by tracking and devouring other snails. This informative volume demonstrates that the drama of the life cycle doesn’t just happen in the jungle or on the savannah – it’s happening in your own back yard on a miniscule scale and at an almost agonizingly leisurely pace. For readers 6-8.


Whaam! The Art and Life of Roy Lichtenstein by Susan Goldman Rubin (2008)

How Roy Lichtenstein put Donald Duck and Popeye on the walls of the world’s greatest art museums. In the sixties, painter Roy Lichtenstein, one of the founders of what came to be known as “Pop Art,” challenged the conventions of fine art by incorporating graphical techniques and imagery from comic books into his paintings. He asked viewers to consider, and this book asks YOU to consider, why pictures on a wall in a museum are “better” than pictures in a comic book? What is it that makes art “art”? Whaam! is a fun and informative portrait of one of the most influential American painters of the 20th century. For readers 9-12.


On the Scale: A Weighty Tale by Brian P. Cleary (2008)

An exploration in verse of comparative weight measures. Units of mass are illustrated with real-world examples (an ounce is the weight of a slice of bread; a quart of milk weighs two pounds). English and metric systems are included. “A gram,” we learn, “is not a cracker or your parent’s mother/ It’s a weight – so get this straight – smaller than most others.” Simultaneously vivid and whimsical, this book is a way to learn about gravity with levity. For readers 6-8.

What kinds of resources are available for someone trying to become more environmentally responsible?

This is a topic that has been gaining in popularity over the years, and there are a lot of sources out there. A good place to start is the State Library Resource Center’s Green Living How-to Guide. This guide provides links to sites dealing with saving energy at home or in your car, where to find locally grown food or the closest e-cycling location, or how to be a responsible shopper.

For example, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fuel Economy site allows you to look up specific car models to see what their carbon footprint is, and you can also compare and contrast several models at once. Energy Savers offers links to energy efficiency tips, ENERGY STAR rated appliances, and energy use calculators.

Recycling Maryland is a nonprofit site that lists recyclers and organizations that take donations of items for reuse, including computers, computer parts, copy machines, electronics, and many others.

For print materials, you can look at several Pratt Recommends booklists, including Green Homes, Renewable Energy, or Selected Current Green Living Magazines.

Review Thursday: Nonfiction

The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert that Awakened America by Raymond Arsenault (2009)

In The Sound of Freedom, Raymond Arsenault connects the singer Marian Anderson and her famous Lincoln Memorial concert on April 9, 1939, with the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Anderson rose to stellar heights of fame and fortune as an artist, overcoming the hurdles discrimination put in her path. By 1939, she had performed in cities across the United States and toured Europe, but her fame did not alter the American segregation laws that restricted where she could perform to places like high school auditoriums.

For a performance in Washington, D.C., originally the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall was requested. The D.A.R. denied Anderson use of the building because of a discriminatory policy. This provoked First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a friend of Anderson’s, to resign from the D.A.R. and to announce her resignation in her national newspaper column. The resulting civil rights controversy reached a solution with the historic concert outdoors at the Lincoln Memorial, where Anderson performed for a racially integrated crowd of 75,000. This began fifty years of life in the national spotlight, where Anderson became a symbol of integration.

In telling this remarkable story, Arsenault’s detailed exploration and analysis of original sources includes newspaper accounts, collections from both the NAACP and the Roosevelts, and Anderson’s personal papers. This is an in-depth account of a pivotal moment in history, for patrons interested in musicians, American history, and the Civil Rights movement.