Arthur C. Clarke, the prolific science fiction author who co-wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, passed away today (March 19, 2008) in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.  The son of an English farmer, Clarke received a degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London giving him a strong scientific base for his imagination.  He imagined such things as communication satellites as early as 1945.  Actually the orbit which keeps a satellite in a fixed position above the earth is named after Clarke.  Although all the imagined details may not happen exactly as he scripted them in his books, his take on the future was always thoughtful.  Want to read a sampling?  Try The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (Science Fiction) and imagine the possibilities.  

So You Think You're Irish by Margaret Kelleher (941.5 K29) includes a test of your "Celtic Qualifications".  Try some of these:

1. Where did the potato blight of the 1840's, which led to famine in Ireland, originate?     a) Ireland   b) England   c) Turkey   d) United States

2. When should nettles be picked?   a) Never   b) May   c) December 25   d) In darkness

3. What are Smiling Murphies?   a) Pints of stout, brewed in Cork   b) Creamed potatoes   c) Pancakes   d) Potatoes that are floury when boiled

4. What is a true Dubliner's Saturday supper?   a) Lobster   b) Potatoes   c) Coddle   d) Fish and chips

5. How many men of Irish ancestry signed the Declaration of Independence?  a) None   b) Twelve  c) Nine  d) Two

6. What is a pooka?  a) A mischieveous, impish fairy who often takes the form of a horse   b) An Irish dance   c) A type of clothing   d) An Irish ballad

While you are pondering, enjoy some good Irish cooking.

The Best of Irish Breads and Baking by Georgina Campbell (641.59415 C1878)
The Irish Pub Cookbook by Margaret M. Johnson (641.59415 J681)
Irish Traditional Cooking by Darina Allen (641.59415 A425)
The New Irish Table by Margaret M. Johnson (641.59415 J681N)

Think Wisconsin history is boring?  You won't after you have read Odd Wisconsin; Amusing, Perplexing, and Unlikely Stories from Wisconsin's Past by Erika Janik (977.5 J33 NEW).  This book is packed full of quirky little stories from Wisconsin's past.  Just a few of the stories included are as follows:

     *  Arthur McArthur, a governor for a mere five days in 1856 ( Vote fraud even back then?)
     *  The "cure" for long-winded politicians at the State Capitol Building (Look out below!)
     *  Chicago, Wisconsin?  (It could have been!)
     *  John Muir's inventive alarm clock that tipped him onto the floor at the appointed time (College student special?)
     *  Alexis St. Martin, the man with a hole in his stomach (Thanks to him we know all about those digestive juices.)
     *  The Kaukauna Gold Rush of 1900 (or just a bunch of fool's gold?)

Some will surprise you.  Some will make you laugh.  This little book is just a lot of fun.

Recently I have heard several accolades for a book called American Born Chinese (YA Graphic Novel) by Gene Luen Yang.  I learned it had won the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature and was the first graphic novel to be recognized by the National Book Foundation.  A graphic novel?  Yes - that up-dated version of the comic book.  But graphic novels have come a long way from Archie and Veronica!

At the beginning, I was not sure about it.  There were three seemingly separate stories - the story of the legendary Monkey King, the story of the young son of Chinese immigrants and the story of a popular high-school boy whose Chinese cousin (an exaggerated negative stereotype) comes to visit.  But I stuck with it and am glad I did.  The stories all eventually weave together in a fascinating conclusion reaffirming the importance of accepting ourselves as we are.  Yang at times seems to want to provoke us, wake us up and make us think.  Meanwhile, the style of the illustrations makes us pause our reading to fully take in the details of each frame.  And together - it all works!

Oscar season is upon us and with the end of the writer’s strike imminent, it appears as if the show will go on.  Most of us would enjoy seeing the nominated films, but with movie prices what they are and the DVDs always being out, this can prove difficult.  So why not head to your local library and check out the books instead.   A large number of this year’s nominated films have been adapted from books.  And isn’t the book usually better than the movie anyways…

            There Will Be Blood based on Oil! by Upton Sinclair

            Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (920 M122K)

            No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (Fiction)

            Atonement by Ian McEwan (Fiction)

            Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (YA Graphic)

            Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Fiction)

            3:10 to Yuma: and other stories by Elmore Leonard

            Away From Her (“The Bear Came Over the Mountain”) by Alice Munro

            The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (YA Pullman)

            Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile (958.1045 G858)

            The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron
            Hansen

            The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (920 B337)

 
In addition to these books, there are countless other books and nominated DVDs from Oscar’s past that are available for check-out.  If there are any books that are not available at the North Shore Library, they can always be requested.   

OK - we are all getting weary of winter!  But here we are in Wisconsin, so we might as well learn to appreciate it.  Need some help in that regard?  Here's a book for you:  Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich (591.54 H469).

The author, a biologist, takes you along as he explores his local woods in Maine and Vermont and shares his enthusiasm for all the wonders he finds there.  From tiny little kinglets and winter caterpillars to torpid turtles and frozen frogs and even to the remarkable black bears, the animal kigdom has developed systems to adapt to winter that we can only dream of.  

Heinrich feels we can learn from these special adaptations.  Take that bear for example:  "Hibernating bears accomplish metabolic feats that, if we knew their secrets, would likely lead to cures for many human ills.  They have the secrets of how to survive lack of exercise, and then after five months of resting, of how to get up and walk up a mountain.  In all of those months of what amounts to bed rest, they suffer no bed sores.  They have marginal loss of muscle mass and no change in muscle fiber type.  Despite their non-weigth-bearing position for months at a time, they do not suffer from bone loss or osteoporosis.  After burning fat for fuel for months during which their cholesterol levels become double those of humans and those they have in summer, yet they still don't suffer from hardening of the arteries or gallstones..."

Yes - maybe we could appreciate winter more if we were bears...

 You may have noticed that the North Shore Library website lists two new databases.  Click on them and explore what information you can find!  They are as follows:

Reference USA - a database of 14 million U.S. businesses, 3 million global companies and  220 million U.S. residents perfect for the following kinds of information gathering:
      *   conducting job searches
      *   searching for business opportunities and suppliers
      *   finding names and positions of key executives
      *   tracking down addresses and phone numbers
      *   locating out-of-town companies
      *   conducting market research
      *   locating hotels, attractions and restaurants for travel locations

Magill's Medical Guide (Salem Health) - provides up-to-date medical information on such topics as:
      *   anatomy and physiology
      *   diagnosis and testing
      *   diseases, disorders and symptoms
      *   mental health
      *   prevention and lifestype
      *   social issues
      *   specialties and health care providers
      *   treatment and therapy

The Midwinter Library Conference is always a special time for those who love children's books.  It is when the winners of the Caldecott and Newbery Awards are announced.  And the winners for 2008 are...  (drum roll)

The CALDECOTT MEDAL is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
2008 Winner:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (J Selznick)  Usually Caldecott winners are not books of over 500 pages, but this one is different in many ways.  There is text AND illustrations both telling the tale of an orphan boy in Paris in 1931 who is trying to complete an invention started by his father.
2008 Honor Winners:
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson (PIC Levine)
First the Egg written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger ( PIC Seeger)
The Wall; Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain written and illustrated by Peter Sis (J920 S622 New)
Knuffle Bunny Too;  A Case of Mistaken Identity written and illustrated by Mo Willems (PIC Willems)

The NEWBERY MEDAL is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
2008 Winner:
Good Master! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz  (J812.6 S344 New)  Through monologues and dialogues, this book introduces different characters from 13th century England. 
2008 Honor Winners:
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (J Curtis)
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (YA Schmidt New)
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (J Woodson)

It is always fun to go through the New York Times Notable Books and see how many one has read.  The list of the 10 most notable just came out.  It includes the following:

FICTION
Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas  "This first novel explores the fragmented personal histories behind four desperate days in a black writer's life."
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson  "In this short yet spacious Norwegian novel, an Oslo professional hopes to cure his loneliness with a plunge into solitude."
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano  "A craftily autobiographical novel about a band of literary guerrillas."
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris  "Layoff notices fly in Ferris's acidly funny first novel, set in a white-collar office in the wake of the dot-com debacle."
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson  "The author of Jesus' Son  offers a soulful novel about the travails of a large cast of characters during the Vietnam War."

NON-FICTION
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran  "The author, a Washington Post journalist, catalogs the arrogance and ineptitude that marked America's governance of Iraq."
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression (920 K14) by Mildred Armstrong Kalish  "Kalish's soaring love for her childhood memories saturates this memoir, which coaxes the reader into joy, wonder and even envy."
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court  by Jeffrey Toobin  "An erudite outsider's account fo the cloistered court's inner workings."
The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History by Linds Colley  "Colley tracks the 'compulsively itinerant' Marsh across the 18th century and several continents."
The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross  "In his own feat of orchestration, The New Yorker's music critic presents a history of the last century as refracted through its classical music."

(Annotations are from the New York Times.)