Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tyson Recommends: Napoleonic Wars


"History as a laboratory rich in a hundred thousand experiments in economics, religion, literature, science, and government – history as our roots and our illumination, as the road by which we came and the only light that can clarify the present and guide us into the future." "It is, as Napoleon said on St. Helena, “the only true philosophy and the only true psychology.”

 - Will Durant

by Roy Adkins

Nelson's Trafalgar  is a brutally vivid, gunport level account of the 1805 clash between Britain’s Royal Navy under the command of Horatio Nelson and Napoleon’s forces off the coast of Spain.

by Allesandro Barbero, Translated by John Cullen

This account by the Italian historian stands apart from previous histories by giving voice to all the nationalities that took part in the titanic and bloody struggle, invoking the memories of British, French, and Prussian soldiers.

by David A. Bell

Bell exposes the surprising parallels between Napoleon's day and our own -- including the way that ambition "wars of liberation," such as the one in Iraq, can degenerate into a gruesome guerrilla conflict.

 by Charles Esdaile

Historian Charles Esdaile argues that the chief motivating factor for Napoleon was his insatiable desire for fame and portrays Europe’s infighting as the consequence of rulers who were willing to take the immense risks of either fighting or supporting Napoleon.

by Michel Franceschi, Ben Weider, Translated by Jonathan M. House

The authors argue that the caricature of the megalomaniac conqueror who bled Europe white to satisfy his delirious ambitions and insatiable love for war is groundless.

 by Gerard Gengembre, Pierre-Jean Chalencon, and David Chanteranne

Lavishly illustrated, this volume includes rare and previously unpublished material, not only on Napoleon's military victories but also on his innovations in government, banking, universal education, a well organized code of law, public museums, and an efficient civil service.

 by Alastair Horne

The Battle of Austerlitz was Napoleon's crowing victory. It was also the beginning of his downfall. Historian Alistair Horne chronicles the rise and fall of Napoleon, drawing parallels with other great leaders of the modern era.

 by Dominic Lieven

A fresh examination of Russian military archives only open to Western researchers since 1991, Lieven provides the first-ever history of the longest military campaign in European history told from the Russian perspective.
 by Noel  Mostert

 This narrative ranges from the Mediterranean to the West Indies, Egypt to Scandinavia, showing how land versus sea was the key to the outcome of the Napoleonic Wars.

by Jonathon Riley
A major general in the British army uses three campaigns - Napoleon's first campaign in Italy, the conquest of Prussia in 1806, and the Battle of the Nations in 1813 - to analyze Napoleon’s generalship.


Tyson

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Books into Movies for September

The Eye of the Storm is based on the 1973 novel by Nobel Prize-winning Australian novelist Patrick White. Directed by Fred Schepisi, the drama stars Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis, Colin Friels, and Dustin Clare.

Killing Them Softly is based on George V. Higgin's 1974 crime novel Cogan's Trade. Directed by Andrew Dominik, the film stars Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini and Ben Mendelsohn.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an adaptation of Stephen Chbosky's 1999 coming-of-age YA novel. Directed by Chbosky, the film stars Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd, and Nina Dobrev.






-DB












Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Who Speaks for the Negro?



 In 1965 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren published Who Speaks for the Negro? Warren, a white southerner, interviewed a few dozen people influential in the struggle for civil rights and published the interviews in the book. His tapes of the interviews, recorded on his reel-to-reel tape recorder, are now available digitally from Vanderbilt University. They are no less than fascinating. Here are Martin Luther King, Robert Moses and Adam Clayton Powell speaking  in offices or living rooms--not from the pulpit or stage. Here are James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison speaking in conversation rather than from the pages of their books. And Warren is no slouch himself. Listen to him spar with Malcolm X on the culpability of individual White people (however well-meaning) for the oppression of Blacks. (And listen too, to James Farmer's put down of Malcolm as a talker, not a doer.) The interviewees include-- in addition to the who's who of top leaders--rank and file activists, women, and white sympathizers.If you have any interest at all in the Civil Rights Movement in the US, you will surely appreciate these recordings.(Thanks to the ResearchBuzz blog for the recommendation.)
--RL

Monday, August 6, 2012

Sue Recommends Bloodline: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins


Are getting bored with the lazy days of summer?  Try an action packed suspense novel by James Rollins titled Bloodline: ASigma Force novel.  

Rollins brings together a team of elite operatives, a holy treasure (the staff of Jesus Christ) that was uncovered by a Templar knight, Somali pirates, a kidnapping of a mother and her unborn child, and a centuries-old conspiracy to manipulate our genetic code to weave a story that leaves you anxious to see what happens next.
  
I listened to the book on cd and the reader is excellent.  Believe me, this book is anything but boring!  SH

Mars With Life

The Curiosity Rover has successfully landed on Mars.  It's mission is to find sings of ancient prehistoric life on the planet.  Here are a few books in which Mars has life.

      by Stirling, S. M.
In the parallel world aliens terraformed Mars (and Venus) two hundred million years ago, seeding them with life-forms from Earth. By the year 2000, America, Russia, and the other great powers of Earth are all contending for influence and power amid the newly-discovered inhabitants of our sister planets. On Mars, early hominids evolved civilization earlier than their earthly cousins, driven by the needs of a harsh world growing still harsher as the initial terraforming runs down.  Now, in a new stand-alone adventure set in this world's 2000 AD, Jeremy Wainman is an archaeologist who has achieved a lifelong dream; to travel to Mars and explore the dead cities of the Deep Beyond, searching for the secrets of the Kings Beneath the Mountain and the fallen empire they ruled.


Mars Trilogy: A Princess of Mars - The Gods of Mars - The Warlord of Mars
     by Burroughs, Edgar Rice; Fischer, Scott M. (Illustrator); Gustafson, Scott (Illustrator); Zug, Mark (Illustrator)

The first three John Carter of Mars books in a 100th anniversary edition. Ever since A Princess of Mars was published in 1912, readers of all ages have read and loved Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series. Still fun even after 100 years.

War of the Worlds: New Millenium
     by Niles, Douglas
First the Mars probe picked up an anomaly. Then NASA saw some strange activity, and many stargazers noticed meteorites rocketing towards earth. A cylinder surreptitiously landed in Wisconsin, then another, and another. The War of the Worlds had begun. Niles follows in the great tradition of Wells' original masterpiece. As tripods leave a swath of destruction across the Americas, Washington groups some of its great minds to solve the problem as the Pentagon throws at the invaders the latest hardware the military has to offer. At stake is the survival of the human race and the dominion of planet earth.  A Clancy like techno-thriller.


What if Wells witnessed something that spurred him to write The War of the Worlds not as entertainment but as a warning to the complacent people of Earth? International bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson, writing here as Gabriel Mesta, explores that tantalizing theory in this unique, thrilling novel that expertly evokes the Victorian era. From drafty London flats to the steamy Sahara, to the surface of the moon and beyond, The Martian War takes the reader on an exhilarating journey with Wells and his companions -- and is pure delight from start to finish.

The Day the Martians Came
     by Pohl, Frederik
Henry Steegman is hardly "Mr. Personality" aboard the Mars-bound Algonquin 9. Yet it is he who bungles upon the spectacular Macy's-like city beneath the Red Planet's crust. For better or worse, the name Steegman will be immortalized by a discovery that will transform millions of lives. A collection of connected stories which investigate the impact the discovery of life on Mars has on the everyday life of humans.

Tyson

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Release date set for Spielberg's Lincoln


Steven Spielberg's Lincoln has been scheduled for a November 9 limited release, expanding to more theaters on November 16.  The film, which focuses on the last four months of Lincoln's life, is based on portions of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals : the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Goodwin's book experienced renewed popularity after the 2008 presidential election when Obama referred to it as a blueprint for selecting his cabinet.

The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens. 

-DB



Free (Free) Music



I don’t really think of the Internet Archive as a source for music. But a post on their blog is a great reminder that the Archive is more than just the Wayback Machine; there’s a  whole bunch of music there too! The collection that interested me the most was the Live Music Archive. This  audio collection consists of over 100,000 live concerts. A quick glance showed that most are bands that I at least, have never heard of.  But the core of the collection is the 8000 concerts of the Grateful Dead. And I took note also of Smashing Pumpkins (919 shows), Justin Townes Earle(68), Warren Zevon (100), OAR (623), and Little Feat (463), plus 5000 other bands. No doubt you will find some great live music to fit your tastes.  But there’s more at the Archive:  the InternetUnderground Music Archive, Netlabels, Jamendo Albums Collection, recordings from the DNA Lounge in San Francisco  and a collection of 78rpm and cylinder recordings. One note of caution though: The search interfaces are limited and the cataloging shows need of a librarian or two. (Thanks to ResearchBuzz for pointing out the Archives blog post.)
--RL

Monday, July 23, 2012

Neglected Books

http://neglectedbooks.com/

Wondering where that well-reviewed book of yesteryear ended up?  Check out: neglectedbooks.com.  On the Neglected Books page, you'll find many, many lists of  books that have been neglected, overlooked, forgotten, or stranded by changing tides in critical or popular taste.


The Neglected Books Page:  Where Forgotten Books are Remembered! 

maf

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Traveling? Let us help

The Wellesley Free Library travel guides to places throughout the world are well used but did you know we offer other resources that may assist you in choosing and reaching your destination of choice? 


Try out featured online resources for July--AtoZ World Travel, AtoZ The USA, and AtoZ Maps Online.  (You will need your library card number to use these from home.) These resources are prepared by World Trade Press to make it easier to locate information regarding countries and cities that travelers such as you may like to know.


Try them out today and stop by the library to ask about these wonderful resources and pick up bookmarks and brochures to remind you that we are here to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!


SH

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

3D printing


3D Printers?
"Printing" seems like the wrong word. Feed it a digital schematic and poof! out comes your object in its 3D splendor. The "printers" do exist and with them a growing community of makers and hackers on the cutting edge of technology: big thinkers imagining home "factories" made possible with 3D printers and specs downloaded via the internet, and maker activists envisioning  low-budget high-tech fab labs or hacker spaces in every community. Right now your basic makerbot starts at around $500. It won't be long before public libraries have some room set aside for personal manufacturing. Wait a second! This just in...the Fayetteville (NY) Library began its fab lab several months ago!
--RL

Monday, July 9, 2012

New Bird Books July 2012

  Bill saved the male bluebird from a sharpie who barreled between the forsythia and garage, picked the male bluebird off the clothesline pole, and carried him, shrilling, for a distance before Bill's yelling scared the hawk into dropping him! People speak of the "butterfly effect," describing the unknown consequences of a seemingly irrelevant action. Taken to its extreme, one flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil might alter the atmosphere sufficiently to cause a tornado in Texas. Though I couldn't know it, this moment, for me, would herald eight years of the bluebird effect. -From the first chapter. Zickefoose's writing has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. 

Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird
    
by Tim Birkhead, Bill Swainson
Most people would love to be able to fly like a bird, but few of us are aware of the other sensations that make being a bird a gloriously unique experience. What is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise? How do desert birds detect rain hundreds of kilometers away? How do birds navigate by using an innate magnetic compass? No one who reads Bird Sense can fail to be dazzled by it.

Jon Young is guided in his work and teaching by three basic premises: the robin, junco, and other songbirds know everything important about their environment, be it backyard or forest; by tuning in to their vocalizations and behavior, we can acquire much of this wisdom for our own pleasure and benefit; and the birds' companion calls and warning alarms are just as important as their songs. Birds are the sentries--and our key to understanding the world beyond our front door.
Suddenly the crow turns his head, caws softly, and glides away, landing on a lamppost directly above a blonde woman. The woman, Lijana Holmes, smiles and calls him "Bela" as she offers him a breakfast of eggs and meat, which she prepares daily. Five-and-a-half years ago we captured Bela and affixed light plastic rings to his legs for identification. So whenever he sees us, the old crow cocks his head, stares, takes flight and swoops low--right at us--screaming a harsh call that we immediately recognize as a bird scold. His family and neighbors hear the cry and join in, flying toward Bela to support his attack, and soon they, too, share his rage. The mobbing crows circle and scream above our heads just as they would do to a predator. Bela's discriminating actions give us remarkable and invaluable information, proving that crows can recognize and remember human faces. We wonder when, or if, he will ever forget (or forgive) us. The gifts of the crow are physical, metaphorical, and far-reaching. - From the Preface

Tyson

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Two web sites: an A and a B-

First the B-: MyHeritage.com is a genealogy web site that's been around for a while, but just recently enhanced their "supersearch." The database is large, multilingual, diverse, speedy, easy-- and free. Past complaints about having to download lots of software seem to have been heeded with the new release. On the down side, though, is the number of hits which are not free or not public.
The A goes to Cheapflightfinder.com. Finding the best airfare for a particular flight is, shall we say, an inexact science. The apples differ from the oranges, the costs are different for every flight and change by the minute, blah, blah, blah. We've all had the same frustrations. The meta search engines (Kayak, Trip Adviser, Mobissimo, Expedia, etc) each seem to bring order to the chaos. The problem is that each of these order-bringers comes up with very different results. Enter Cheapflightfinder.com--a meta meta search engine--which compares the best fares of 16 flight comparison sites. It's not perfect: Unless I'm missing something, you still have to navigate through multiple windows to actually compare the various sites. It's definitely one to try, though.
--RL

Friday, June 29, 2012

New Fiction for July












Here are a few upcoming titles:


Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner
What's life like as a show runner in Hollywood?  Ruth Saunders is about to find out.

Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
The author explores his Armenian heritage in this sweeping historial love story.

Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand
Graduation day at Nantucket high school ends with a tragic car accident.


maf

Thursday, June 21, 2012

That thing called the Internet


Did you know…?
***As of April 2012, 53% of American adults age 65 and older use the internet or email. This is the first time seniors have broken the 50% mark.
***Google users (and just who isn’t) visit the top-ranked search result  36% of the time.  And the first 3 results?  A whopping  58% of searches move on to the first three web sites in Google’s results.
***And in case you are still in the “that was then” mode, you may be surprised to hear that 45% of internet users reside in Asia.
***Big news in browserland:  Google’s Chrome has overtaken Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the world (though not yet in the United States).
--RL

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Books into Movies - July

Savages is based on mystery author Don winslow's 2010 novel. Oliver stone directs the thriller starring Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, John Travolta and Salma Hayek.

Trishna is adapted from Thomas Hardy's 1891 classic Tess of the d'Urbervilles by director Michael Winterbottom. The movie stars Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed.

Easy Money is a Swedish crime thriller based on the 2006  novel by Jens Lapidus. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, the film stars Joel Kinnaman and Lisa Henni.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Ray Bradbury 1920-2012


“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”


“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future”

-Ray Bradbury

SF author Ray Bradbury has died at the age of 91.  He was known for such works as Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles as well as many short stories. Bradbury was a great supporter of libraries telling the New York Times in 2009 that "Libraries raised me. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years."

Fahrenheit 451: thetemperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns
   Ray Bradbury's classic novel of censorship and defiance, as resonant today as it was when it was first published over 50 years ago.



  The Illustrated Man
     The Illustrated Man presents 18 startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin.





 The Martian Chronicles
     The tranquility of Mars is disrupted by the Earthmen who have come to conquer space, colonize the planet, and escape a doomed Earth.
 





 Something Wicked This Way Comes
     The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early.  And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. 

 
 
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
     Spanning six decades of his astonishing career, here is a retrospective collection of 100 magnificent stories that confirms this literary genius's status as a master of short fiction.






Tyson












Monday, June 4, 2012

Doc Watson



Doc Watson died last week. The blind bluegrass/folk/country guitarist probably deserves every word of the numerous accolades in the media following his death. New York Times: “profoundly influenced generations of folk and rock guitarists.”  LA Times:  “He never misses a stroke or a strike, singing melodic runs with his voice that move in glorious counterpoint to the notes springing from his guitar. “ Rolling Stone: “Watson continued to record and perform well into this century, leaving an imprint, legacy and discography that will never stop reverberating in American music and the stories we tell with it.” Miami Herald: “Watson's influence was vast, on audiences and other musicians.”  Doc Watson recorded over 50 albums and won 8 Grammy’s . The world of acoustic music will miss him.

Check out any of these great CDs and (DVD) at the Library.:
Doc's Guitar (instructional DVD)

--RL

Sunday, June 3, 2012

What's New in Fiction and Mystery for July?

Here are a few titles that are coming out in July:




True Believers by Kurt Anderson 


Broken Harbor by Tana French


The After Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer

maf

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Summer's Here and the Reading is Easy


Want to start working on your summer reading requirements?  OR perhaps you are just looking for a good read!
Take a look at the Wellesley High School summer reading requirements and selections found on our website as a list of titles trifold, and if you would like to have a short summary of the title, take a look at the list with annotations that has been prepared by the Reference Department. 


You will find the required book for all students listed--The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks --as well as 200+ other titles that are recommended.  Find all of the titles at the Wellesley Free Library.  SH