C-SPL Reader of the Month: Kate and Sarah Faford-Johnson

About Kate & Sarah 

 

Kate and Sarah Faford-Johnson love spending time outdoors and enjoy kayaking, hiking, and biking. They usually have their two dogs, Bing Bong and River, along for the adventure. They are both beginning a new adventure in the fall as they relocate to New Mexico. 

Kate loves a good dystopian novel and balances that out with readings on Buddhism, meditation, and healthy living. Sarah has a true nerd-love of graphic novels and well written science fiction. She also has a deep love of anything written by the great early conservationists, like John Muir and Aldo Leopold.

(See the past Reader of the Month posts here) 

Q&A with Kate and Sarah

 

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?

Kate: The past year would probably be Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and best ever would be The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood.

Sarah: That’s a toss up between Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions and Tal M. Klein’s The Punch Escrow.

What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

Kate: I like reading outdoors in a cozy environment. A hammock in the backyard, a nice chair on the beach, anything that gets me outside is ideal. But if that's not possible, I will gladly take a chai latte and a quiet corner at Charlotte’s.

Sarah: I prefer a comfy chair and a quiet environment. As long as I have those two I am happy.

What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

Kate: I’m excited to read (or listen to) The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. We’re planning on listening to the audiobooks through the Overdrive app on our road trip to New Mexico this fall.

Sarah: I agree with Kate. We love The Expanse television series and I am excited to check out the books to see how they compare.

What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

Sarah: I think Cormac McCarthey’s The Road has been the most challenging book I have read recently. It was just such an emotionally challenging book to read and without giving too much away, it just felt so real. It was an excellent book and I applaud him for making me feel so uncomfortable.

When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)

Sarah: Kate will give up on a book when she is not interested or it just is not the right time. I have a horrible habit of believing every book is worthy of my time. I cannot give up on a book, no matter how terrible, until the final page.

Do you remember when your love for reading began?

Kate: My love of reading began in elementary school. We had a reading challenge that I was really into. It started with Goosebumps and Harry Potter books, and in high school, I got more into non-fiction books about Buddhism and books about multicultural issues, other social issues, and environmental issues.

Sarah: I was fortunate to grow up in a household where my parents really encouraged my innate curiosity about everything. They took me to get a library card as soon as I was old enough and even set up a dedicated corner in my bedroom to serve as my personal library, complete with a reading square carpet just like the one we had in my kindergarten class. I loved reading about everything I encountered and that passion has continued throughout my life.

Check out Kate & Sarah's Favorites book list! 

Apply to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!

Celebrate Earth Day 2020

Earth Dec. 7, 1972, by the crew of Apollo 17 (NASA)

Wednesday, April 22 is the 50th annual celebration of Earth Day! Earth Day is a global day to recognize and support the importance of environmental protection proposed by UNESCO and popularized in the United States by Wisconsin's Gaylord Nelson.

One great way to celebrate, while maintaining appropriate social distancing, is to go for a hike on one of the excellent trails throughout the Dubuque area. Be sure to take the time to check the weather before you hike so you don't get caught in a spring shower! It's also a good idea to check with the appropriate parks agency to see if they have any guidance or restrictions at this time.

• City of Dubuque trails and maps
• City of Dubuque parks
• Dubuque County parks and maps
• State of Iowa parks

If the weather isn't cooperating, or you'd rather celebrate from the comfort of your own couch, you might enjoy using your Dubuque resident Carnegie-Stout Public Library card to watch an Earth Day related documentary on Kanopy. We've gathered together a short list of suggested titles below.

The Island President: Politics in the Maldives

(2011, 102 minutes) Nasheed, who brought democracy to the Maldives after decades of despotic rule, now faces an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives and make them uninhabitable.

Trashed with Jeremy Irons

(2012, 94 minutes) Jeremy Irons sets out to discover the extent and effects of the global waste problem, as he travels around the world to beautiful destinations tainted by pollution.

Plastic China - The Lives of Recycling Plant Workers in China

(2016, 83 minutes) This film documents a plastic recycling facility in a small town dedicated to the business of processing plastic waste and examines global consumption and culture through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse.

My Life as a Turkey

(2011, 53 minutes) PBS Nature tells one man's remarkable experience of raising a group of wild turkey hatchlings to adulthood. After a local farmer left a bowl of eggs on Joe Hutto's front porch, his life was forever changed. Hutto, possessing a broad background in the natural sciences and an interest in imprinting young animals, incubated the eggs and waited for them to hatch. 

Ken Burns: The National Parks - America’s Best Idea

(2009, 697 minutes) This 12-hour, six-part documentary series by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan tells the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone.

Staff Review: The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams stands a very good chance of being my 2017 best book of the year. I loved it so much I'm about to read it all over again. The book combines all my favorite genres: history, nature writing, memoir, travel. Published in 2016 to coincide with the National Park Service's centennial celebrations, The Hour of Land is a very personal tour, conducted by Williams herself, through a dozen of the nation's 58 national parks.

And what a tour guide she is. A naturalist, writer, and native of Utah, Williams is probably best known for her 1992 memoir Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place about losing her mother to cancer just as the Great Salt Lake floods, threatening the migratory birds Williams treasures. She's extremely knowledgeable, she loves wild places with a passion, and she possesses what I can only call a beautiful spirit: generous, gentle, peace-loving, compassionate. Plus, she's a terrific and highly poetic writer.

It's a pleasure to tour the country in her company, even when she's surveying wrenching scenes like the damage inflicted on Gulf Islands National Seashore by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 or the encroachments of the Bakken oil fields on Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. More often what she surveys is sublime, from Alaska's Gates of the Arctic and Wyoming's Grand Teton to Acadia National Park in Maine. She even makes a stop at Effigy Mounds National Monument here in Iowa.

Particularly pleasurable is the variety of approaches Williams takes to her park descriptions, focusing closely at times on ecology or American history, then shifting her lens to her own life and family. She includes letters, emails, and journal entries to fine effect and provides a wonderful personal anecdote about Lady Bird Johnson. Modern readers, who may be unaware of how our great park system got started, learn about the unflagging philanthropic and environmental efforts of such National Park greats as Laurence Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, Stewart Udall, and many others. This book's a lavish banquet of luscious park detail and I, for one, could not get enough of it. How I wish Williams had visited all 58.

~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Barkskins, the new, multi-generational epic by Annie Proulx, won't be for everyone. For one thing, it's over 700 pages long and covers over 300 years of history, specifically the history of the de-nuding of the American landscape by woodchoppers (or barkskins) large and small, individual and corporate. Yes, it's a lengthy tale of the destruction of the great North American forests -- not exactly the feel-good read of the year. At the same time, it's brimming with vitality: lovely, lively writing; gorgeous descriptions of nature; wild and colorful characters. I loved it.

Barkskins opens with the 1697 arrival in New France (now Canada) of indentured servants Charles Duquet and René Sel, both indebted to the same boorish master. The two men quickly part, one dutifully working off his indenture and the other escaping into the woods before losing any more teeth to his master's crude dentistry pliers.

The novel proceeds to tell Duquet's and Sel's stories, following each man's line of descent through multiple generations. Start to finish, they all make their livings from the trees of the vast northern woods, widely considered to be inexhaustible.

René Sel marries into the Mi'kmaq tribe of Nova Scotia and through his line we see the fate of America's indigeneous people as white immigrant families flood into the new country, extirpating the wildlife and appropriating all the land, relentlessly chopping, burning, and laying waste to the woods exactly as they had done in the countries they fled. Think The Lorax writ large. Charles Duquet, he of the bad teeth, founds a timber dynasty, amassing enormous wealth and passing on his rapacious greed to his offspring.

Proulx's characters are rarely two-dimensional, never all good or all bad. A number are even quite sympathetic, and plenty of the rascals come to highly undesirable ends.

If you're into American history -- natural history, Native American history, the history of the timber industry, the settling of North America, the French and Indian Wars --  just to name a few areas, this may well be the book for you. Characters roam the globe as well, travelling to China, New Zealand, Europe, and other vividly-wrought locales. The novel is extremely well-researched and very well- written. It's a lively and rollicking tale, and, in parts, very funny. A live-wire herself, Proulx peppers the book with forceful, intelligent women. And as a added bonus, just by reading it, you'll compile an extensive list of the many graphic and gruesome ways people met untimely ends in the good old days.

~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper

For the Great Reading Challenge, I’ve chosen to read a book over 100 years old. I read James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers in part because I’ve had a worn dusty edition sitting on my coffee table for the past year, but also (and the reason it’s been taking up table space) because it is set during a time in American history I’ve wanted to better understand. Particularly I’ve been curious about who these settlers were, some of the events that happened in the country before they came, their aspirations, and their continuing effect on the modern world. Basically, I wanted a deeper understanding than the bits I remember from grade school.

The Pioneers is the first book in Cooper’s five stories about his character Leatherstocking. It has a common narrative style of the 19^th century: richly detailed with descriptions of the setting and characters, and it strolls along at a leisurely pace. With the book being over 400 pages, it takes some time to get into the rhythm of plot and language. That being said, this style isn’t for everyone. I was a little skeptical when Cooper warned in the introduction that the book is a “descriptive tale” and that he wrote it solely for personal satisfaction. I figured it could go one of two ways: a directionless rambling with explanations of every type of tree he encountered and a long geological survey of the area; or, since it was inspired by personal passion, it might be a unique glimpse into that time period. I was happy to discover that my second speculation was closer. Although the descriptions at the beginnings of chapters (mostly in the first half of the book) can be quite long before any action happens, I feel they add depth to the story and help place the reader into that world.

The Pioneers is loosely based on Cooper’s own life: his father founded Cooperstown, New York, with the parallel in the story being the fictional town of Templeton, founded by Judge Marmaduke Temple (possibly bearing some resemblance to Cooper’s actual father). This character is treated with fairness – he believes in the justness and fairness of the law, but also believes the land is his because of the document given to him from his country. We find a constant conflict with Temple's beliefs in the character of Nathaniel (Natty) Bumppo, also known as Leatherstocking (the Davy Crockett-like hero of Cooper’s novels).

Even though much of the book is descriptive, Cooper introduces an engaging storyline and scenes of suspense.  The reader is introduced to threatening wild animals, hunting mishaps, wild fires, and blossoming romance. The descriptions and narrative serve the bigger part of pushing forward Cooper’s beliefs. The book is written with much reverence toward the Native Americans' lifestyle, but also pathos toward the settlers (well, some of the settlers). He’s highly critical of the settlers, but makes his characters very human and relatable. The character of Leatherstocking, who fought in the French and Indian War and adapted a loner lifestyle with a Native American friend, represents the wisdom that comes from knowing how to live off the land.  Judge Templeton is an intelligent person and understands the need to be conservative with the environment, but coming from a different background also believes in the fairness of the law invented by civilized men. Although presenting opposing philosophies, Cooper is fair with both these characters and paints them as some of the most reasonable in the book, although Leatherstocking is more clearly the hero. 

Some of the settlers represent what we might recognize as our least admirable qualities. Richard, Templeton’s cousin, amplifies this position in his boastfulness and lavish attitude toward the land and animals. His extravagance is displayed when he wheels in a cannon to shoot at pigeons. Not content with the settlers shooting down as many as they can get, he wants to prove that he can get it done in one “fell swoop of destruction.” Cooper’s environmentalist philosophy is displayed in many of the character interactions in the novel.  These early reflections of our impact on the environment remain especially powerful today.

For those ready to invest themselves in this book, The Pioneers acts as a meditation on our American way of life. Although history already took the course the settlers set in motion, these early insights into the minds of the pioneers help us to connect with a larger picture of what it means to be an American, forcing the reader to think critically about our relationship with the natural world. Besides the strong message, the action and drama set up with Cooper’s characters keep the story fun. All five stories starring Natty Bumppo can be checked out from the library under the title The Leatherstocking Tales, containing perhaps the most famous story The Last of the Mohicans.

~Ben, Adult Services

Staff Review: A Trio of Recent(ish) Novels

I am woefully behind in my fiction reading, an unfortunate situation caused, in part, by a long detour into Nonfictionland. In an attempt to catch up, I just blew through a trio of novels I missed over the past two or three years.

My favorite was The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (of Olive Kitteridge fame), which tells the story of three adult siblings from a Maine family racked by a tragic childhood event (one of the three accidentally killed their father in an incident relayed in the novel's first pages). Oldest son Jim Burgess is a hot-shot corporate lawyer heading for a fall, Bob Burgess works for Legal Aid and seems rather spineless, and Susan Burgess is a frumpy, jilted wife whose only son is in a world of legal trouble.

The author seeds a rich plot woven of dramatic family interactions with real-life, local-to-Maine hot topics, like the unlikely presence of a large Somali community within economically-depressed and homogeneous Lewiston, Maine (the old mill town upon which the novel’s fictional setting is based). The story moves at a fast clip and resolves so satisfactorily (a real accomplishment in a time of often-disappointing conclusions), with a big truth revealed, certain characters getting their comeuppance, and others finding redemption or peace.  

My second favorite was Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, a novel that tackles climate change in a compelling but not story-clobbering way. Set in present-day Appalachia, Kingsolver’s novel serves up a strong female lead in the person of Dellarobia Turnbow, who finds herself trapped in a way-too-small life with a sweet but slow hulk of a husband. 

Monarch butterflies by the millions suddenly appear in her small mountain town, a cohort of scientists moves in, and over the course of events Dellarobbia blossoms into the sort of capable and confident woman who’s bound to land a bigger life.

The third novel on my catch-up fast-track was the fine debut novel The Wild Child by Eowyn Ivey, a book that has garnered glowing reviews and that I figured would pull me into different territory with its quasi-fantastical elements. Set in the homesteaders’ Alaska of the early twentieth century, the novel’s main characters are an older couple, left bereft by the stillbirth of their only child, who leave Pennsylvania to set up in the rugged outback of Alaska, where they encounter (or do they conjure?) a young child named Faina who seems to live, and even thrlve, all alone in the frigid, wolf-haunted wilderness. 

The author’s depiction of Alaska’s pristine landscape bowled me over (wolves, wolverines, bears, moose, icy waters, looming peaks, killing cold), but I was less compelled by the elusive Faina (I admit I am fantasy-resistant), whose pale presence nevertheless constitutes the novel's central question: is she real flesh-and-blood or the fairy-tale snow child of the book's title?     

~Ann, Adult Services

Science Friday: Underwater Greenhouses

Off the coast of Italy, a company has created underwater greenhouses, using the sea to grow plants like basil and strawberries. Read more about it here, see the livestream of the garden here, and check out some books that can help you think of creative ways to live in an environmentally-friendly way.

Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together by Sylvia Bernstein

The Conscious Kitchen: The New Way to Buy and Cook Food-- to Protect the Earth, Improve Your Health, and Eat Deliciously by Alexandra Zissu

The Locavore's Handbook: The Busy Person's Guide to Eating Local on a Budget by Leda Meredith

Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World by Mark Frauenfelder

Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich

The Plundered Planet: Why We Must, and How We Can, Manage Nature for Global Prosperity by Paul Collier

Shift Your Habit: Easy Ways to Save Your Money, Simplify Your Life, and Save the Planet by Elizabeth Rogers and Colleen Howell

Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living by Rachel Kaplan and Ruby K. Blume

Garden Gate and Organic Gardening: March Magazines of the Month

Spring is finally on its way, and with the official change of season on March 20th, it's time to start planning your garden. Whether you're looking at grand landscaping or just trying to grow some potted flowers, Carnegie-Stout has the materials to help you get started.

We're highlighting two of our many gardening magazines this month:

Garden Gate began publication in 1995, and has remained a popular source for gardening advice, tips, and information. The magazine's publisher, August Home, is based in Des Moines, Iowa, and the magazine is notable for the lack of advertisements. You can check out an issue from the library, or take a look at the extra features available on their website: www.gardengatemagazine.com 

 Organic Gardening began publication in 1942, and is today part of the Rodale, which publishes several health and wellness magazines. The magazine's decades of focus on the environment provide a wealth of expertise for today's interest in sustainability and the green movement. Organic Gardening is available in both print and digital collections. To check out a digital issue of this or many other magazines through your computer or tablet, check out Zinio. Additional features and content are available through their website: www.organicgardening.com

Previous magazines of the month with a gardening theme have included: Urban Farm and Fine Gardening. Or if you find that you much prefer reading about gardening to actually getting your hands dirty, check out this list of gardening themed mysteries.

Earth Day Reads

Earth Day is this Sunday, April 22nd. To celebrate the City of Dubuque and the Petal Project will host a free Sustainable Dubuque Trolley Tour sponsored by Dubuque Bank &Trust on Monday, April 23. You can read more about this event on the city's website here. Be sure to check out Dubuque 365 Ink's list of area Earth Day Events too!

Carnegie-Stout has a great collection of materials on environmentalism, the green movement, and sustainability. Check them out to learn more, or to get some ideas on changes you can make in your life. Though we don't recommend you go to quite the extremes as some of the authors below!

No Impact Man by Colin Beaven
(333.72 BEA) Colin Beaven, author of historical biography, turns his attention to his impact on the environment. Mr. Beaven, his wife and child spent a year trying to leave no carbon footprint. From cloth diapers to replacing toothpaste with baking soda, his book is a personal examination of what the individual can do.

Confessions of an Eco-Sinner by Fred Pearce
(333.72 PEA) Mr. Pearce, a science writer who focuses on the environment, became curious about the origins of those things we use in everyday life, from coffee to clothing. Confessions of an Eco-Sinner documents his quest to find the source and impact (environmental, social, and economic) our consumerism has on the larger world.

Tree Spiker by Mike Roselle
"Non-violent extremist" and environmental activist Mike Roselle's biography covers his involvement in activism from the founding of Earth First! to the current fight against global warming. Controversial, outspoken, and colorful, his memoirs provide a unique look at the environmental movement.

The Next Eco-Warriors
Emily Hunter, daughter of Robert and Bobbie Hunter, Greenpeace co-founders, profiles 22 young people involved making a positive impact on the environmental movement today.

Shift Your Habit by Elizabeth Rogers
(640 ROG) Going green doesn't mean spending big bucks on organic food, solar panels, and hybrid cars. At its core, green living is simply about moderation, efficiency, and living less expensively. Included are hundreds of habit-shifting suggestions to leave you with thousands of dollars you would otherwise never see again. These are tiny modifications that any family can make.

Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

I have a confession to make: I love the apocalypse. Not so much the event itself, or the events leading up to it, but what happens afterward. Any book that takes place after the end of the world - be it the immediate aftermath of the event, as in Cormac McCarthy's The Road, or years afterwards, as in the world of The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen - always captures my attention.

Before you start thinking that I must be some sort of literary masochist, not all apocalyptic fiction (or nonfiction) is dark and hopeless. Most often, the appeal lies in the struggle that comes after; the pulling together (or apart) of individuals and groups, finding strength and hope in the face of utter catastrophe, and the odd comfort in seeing that even without society as we know it, the world does go on.

So what would happen if, suddenly and for no reason, all of humanity simply disappeared? What happens to our homes, our shopping malls, or our pets that would be left behind? That is the question that journalist Alan Weisman takes up in The World Without Us. As Weisman states in the first chapter, this is not a book about how we disappear, but what happens after we're gone.

In exploring what might happen without humanity, we also discover the long-lasting impact we have already had on our planet. Some impacts are as short-term as the buildings we live and work in, which in Weisman’s estimation would be consumed by the landscape in 200 or so years, whereas the plastic we created will remain in our environment for hundreds of thousands of years after we are gone. And what would happen to the nuclear power plants, the dams and reservoirs and the oil pipelines - all the things that require meticulous human attention - if those attentions suddenly ceased?

Weisman bases his book on scientific studies and observations from a variety of settings and locations. Some areas, such as the Korean DMZ, Chernobyl, or the small sliver of primeval forest on the border of Poland and Belarus called Białowieża Puszcza, show us how quickly and remarkably nature recovers and continues in the absence of immediate human intervention. Weisman also looks at what remains of the civilizations that have come before us, such as the underground cities beneath Cappadocia, Turkey, thought to be 8,000 to 9,000 years old.

While such a subject could easily become dry and uninteresting, taking the tone of yet another ecological doomsday lecture, Weisman artfully weaves the factual and hypothetical into an engaging and ultimately hopeful tale. Some passages, such as Weisman's description of the effect our lights, power lines and buildings have on the navigation of birds, border on the poetic. Other chapters take a sadder tone, particularly the sections that describe the possible fates of our pets. The World Without Us is a great read for anyone interested in the environment, history, or biology, or who are simply curious about the world be live in and the effect we humans have on it.

DVD 576.84 LIF

The History Channel produced a television series that also took up the question of what might happen if humanity disappeared. Life After People uses CGI animation, along with interviews with biologists, engineers and other experts, to speed up time, allowing us to watch the gradual (and occasionally dramatic) destruction of the most iconic buildings and monuments humanity has created, such as the White House and the Sears Tower, as well as the future of our more mundane creations. The library caries the first season of the program, and you can watch video clips on the History Channel's website here: http://www.history.com/shows/life-after-people.

779.99774 MOO

Finally, for a vivid look at what happens when people abandon a city, Andrew Moore's Detroit Dissembled documents the slow disintegration of once-bustling areas of Detroit. Moore's photographs look inside abandoned factories, offices, schools and libraries. While humans do still occupy some of the abandoned areas (as evidenced by the proliferation of graffiti) the abject neglect of these structures is striking, especially as nature moves to consume them. The photos are part of a traveling exhibit, currently showing at the Akron (Ohio) Art Museum.

Happy (and hopeful) reading!

~Allison, Adult Services

Earth Day!

Today is the 41st Earth Day, which was founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, and is today celebrated in 175 countries around the world. You can read more about Earth Day's beginnings at Gaylord Nelson and Earth Day, a website created by the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Roshek Building is hosting a local Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 23rd. You can read more about the events and activities at Dubuque 2.o's Events Calander. Dubuque 2.0 was organized to help promote and further the city of Dubuque's Sustainability goals.

Carnegie-Stout Public Library is currently hosting the 4th Annual Recycle Art Show. Stop by to see this year's creative entries!

We have a number of books and movies to check out as well. Check out the lists below, and stop by the Recommendations Desk to pick up a bookmark with more reading suggestions!

Books on Sustainability, Recycling, and the Green Movement.

Movies for Earth Day:
Sacred Planet: discover the magic of the planet that everyone calls home (DVD 508)
Six Degrees Could Change the World (DVD 551.64)
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (DVD 333.72)
Earth Report. State of the Planet 2009 (DVD 363.7)
An Inconvenient Truth (DVD 363.738)
Car of the Future: engineering for the environment (DVD 629.222)
Saved by the Sun (DVD 333.792)
Planet Earth: the complete series (DVD 508)
Save the Endangered Species (DVD 578.68)
The National Parks: America's best idea (DVD 917.3)
Camp Forgotten: the Civilian Conservation Corps in Michigan (DVD 977.4)

Frank D. Stout: Dubuque to California

The name Stout in Carnegie-Stout Public Library commemorates Frank D. Stout who donated the land for our Library. Encyclopedia Dubuque lists his Romanesque mansion at 1105 Locust Street as another of Stout's legacies.

The people of California are also the beneficiaries of a legacy honoring Frank Stout's memory. The Frank D. Stout Memorial Park consists of 44 acres of giant redwoods located on the Smith River about ten miles north of Crescent City. "The Stout Grove is the most scenic redwood grove in existence," states Park Ranger Pete Peterson.

He has sent us a virtual tour to enjoy.

~Betty, Adult Services

Celebrate Mother Earth

From BookLetters:

"On April 22, we celebrate Earth Day, an American tradition since 1969. Earth Day has evolved to include celebrations big and small, with participants ranging from college campuses to multi-million dollar corporations to the middle school down the street. To get in the spirit of Earth Day, check out Easy Green Living to find new ways to green up your home and your life."

Recycle Your Compact Fluorescent Lights

The Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency (DMASWA) has a new free program to recycle compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).

For more information about this recycling program, including a complete list of drop-off locations, please visit the DMASWA website.

Note: At this time, Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque is not a drop-off location. Please do not bring your CFLs to Carnegie-Stout Public Library.

Grow Your Mind Wrap Up

Now that fall is in the air I am reminded to wrap up the Adult Summer Reading Program (SRP).   Looking back it was a great success.  The theme was Grow Your Mind: Read Green, Think Green, Live Green, which lent itself to some interesting programs.

A lecture by bestselling author Tess Gerritsen launched the SRP.  Throughout the summer we sponsored a series of noon brown- bag lectures with featured speaker Bev Wagner, Education and Communication Director for the Dubuque Metropolitan Solid Waste Agency, who gave advice on living green.  Evening programs featured a celebration of the Civilian Conservation Corps on its 75th anniversary; an excellent view of Antarctica by Troy Henkels; a program on ways to reduce energy use by Tom Snyder; and a hands-on workshop by the Herb Society of Dubuque.  Over 325 people participated in these adult programs.

This was the second year for our Adult Summer Reading Program.  Registration was required, and reading or listening to 5 books was all that was necessary to complete the Program.  In the first year, 158 persons registered and 59 completed the Program for a 37% completion rate.   In 2008, 111 registered and 50 completed the Program for a 45% completion rate.  (Don’t you just love math?)

The Program wrapped up with a garden party at the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Center.  Cinda and Tom Welu, two of our SRP participants, were on hand and took some wonderful photos of the festivities:

Garden Party Slide Show (Note: This large 4.28 MB file may load slowly over some Internet connections.)

~ Betty, Adult Services

Beetlemania

The great picture by Mike Day on the front page of today’s TH and Erik Hogstrom’s article “Beetlemania” got me thinking about what resources the Library might have available on beetles. Hmmmmm. Searching by subject, there’s an entry for Japanese-Canadians, but not Japanese beetles. Let’s see . . . Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver: the Best and Latest Advice for Beating Pests, Diseases and Weeds and Staying a Step Ahead of Trouble in the Garden (try saying that real fast) has something about Japanese beetles. But along the way I have to pause to check out, the Beatles, Beetle Bailey, Beetlejuice . . . Beetle Juice?!? . . . What other Tim Burton DVDs do we have? . . . Sweeney Todd? No, there’s still a waiting list. Wait! The Dung Beetle Bandits is in. It’s a children’s graphic novel. Darn! Poop Eaters: Dung Beetles in the Food Chain is checked out. How about Disgusting Bugs? No, it’s checked out, too. Oh, yeah. The Youth Services Summer Reading Program is about bugs. “Catch the Reading Bug”. Now what was I looking for?

~ Chel, Adult Services

Iowa Floods: Information and News

2008 Flood Resource Center New 6/16/08
State of Iowa

Iowa Road Closures, Travel Advisories and Maps
Iowa 511 Traveler Information


Flood Safety
Iowa Department of Transportation


Flood-Related Disease Precautions and Information
Iowa Department of Health


Iowa State Agencies Assisting in Disaster Recovery
Iowa Governor's Office

Individual Disaster Assistance
Iowa Department of Human Services

June Severe Weather
Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management

National Weather Service
NOAA

Flood Clean Up
Iowa State University Extension


Iowa Flood News
Des Moines Register

Iowa Natural Disasters 2008
Iowa Public Television

Iowa Flood News, Pictures, and Stories
48Web Consulting

Grow Your Mind: Adult Summer Reading Program

Registration has started for Carnegie-Stout Public Library's 2008 Adult Summer Reading Program, Grow Your Mind: Read Green, Think Green, Live Green.

If you are 18 or older, you can enter a drawing to win prizes each time you complete a Reading Log. To complete a Reading Log, simply read or listen to 5 books before August 5th. You can also increase your chances of winning prizes by attending special library events during the summer.

For complete details and a schedule of events, see these library web pages:

• Adult Summer Reading Program Registration


• Adult Summer Reading Program Schedule of Events
  

~ Mike, Adult Services

Renewable Books and Dystopian Visions

In anticipation of tomorrow's visit by Dubuque Mayor Roy Buol, we compiled a list of some recently published nonfiction books on environmental issues. This list also includes a summary of Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Research Databases which feature in-depth articles about the environment, global warming, and climate change.

In case you can't make it tomorrow, here's our list:

Renewable Books: Examples of Recent Nonfiction on Environmental Issues (PDF 334 KB)

We also made a list of novels and movies similar to Soylent Green:

Dystopian Visions: If You Enjoyed the 1973 Sci-Fi Thriller Soylent Green, You Might Like These . . . (PDF 313 KB)

Enjoy!

~ Mike, Adult Services

Fitzcarraldo’s Dream

I checked out a remarkable movie from Carnegie-Stout Public Library this week, Fitzcarraldo, written and directed by German filmmaker Werner Herzog. Fitzcarraldo (1982) is about a turn-of-the-century Irish rubber baron, played by a crazed Klaus Kinski, whose dream is to build a world-class opera house in the heart of the Amazon rain forest. To finance his improbable fantasy, Fitzcarraldo attempts to reach an inaccessible stand of rubber trees by hauling his 320-ton steamship over a steep hill.

One reason Fitzcarraldo is so remarkable is its lack of special or digital effects. Rather than working with miniature models or fabricated sets, Werner Herzog actually filmed a huge ship being hauled over a hill in the remote Peruvian jungle. It took Herzog took nearly four years to finish Fitzcarraldo, partly because half of the scenes had to be re-shot after the original stars Jason Robards and Mick Jagger dropped out, but also because production was plagued by two plane crashes, a border war, drownings, and other mayhem.

Fitzcarraldo's symbolism is even more remarkable than its lack of special effects, especially within today's context of climate change. Just this week the United Nations published its most comprehensive survey of the environment to date, Global Environment Outlook 4. According to press coverage, the conclusions of Geo-4, written by 390 experts using twenty-years worth of scientific data and studies, are nightmarish: climate change is a daily worsening crisis; it's happening faster than at anytime in the past 500,000 years; damage to the environment may already be irreversible; the amount of resources needed to sustain the current human population exceeds what is available; and mass extinction of animals and plants is currently under way.

Within this context, the destruction of the rain forest and the violent impact this has on the indigenous Peruvian Indians are the most striking aspects of Fitzcarraldo. In one scene, a couple of Indians, jokingly referred to as "bare asses" by the Europeans, are crushed to death when cables holding the steamship break. In another disturbing scene, several Indians use hand axes to chop down a mammoth, sequoia-like tree. The tree is a virile phallic symbol, a magnificent column holding up the roof of the world.

In the audio commentary on the DVD released in 1999, Herzog minimizes these themes of environmental degradation and exploitation, maybe because critics have accused Herzog himself of exploiting the Peruvian Indians during the making of the film. Instead, Herzog insists Fitzcarraldo is about how anyone can achieve their dreams so long as they are persistent. It's not clear if he is referring to the character Fitzcarraldo's dream of building an opera house in the jungle, or to his own dream of making a such an improbable movie. Also not addressed by Herzog's audio commentary: dreams are often folly, sometimes resulting in unintended, unseen, or nightmarish consequences.

Note: Les Blank's Burden of Dreams (1982), a documentary about the making of the movie Fitzcarraldo, will soon be available for check out at Carnegie-Stout Public Library. To put a reserve on Fitzcarraldo or Burden of Dreams, please call the Library Recommendations Desk at 563-589-4225 extension 2225.

~ Mike, Adult Services Librarian