Poem in Your Pocket Day

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Thursday, April 26 is Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Join us by selecting a poem you love and carrying it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends. You can also share your poem selection on Twitter using #pocketpoem or post to our Facebook & G+ pages.

If you need help finding that perfect poem, Poets.org has a great selection that you can browse by subject or author, or choose from their print-ready PDFs. Or stop the library and pick one up from our display! You can also sign up to receive a poem a day by email, download the mobile poetry reader app Poem Flow and explore poetry events in your state.

While I can't advocate eating poetry, here's one of my favorite poems from former Poet Laureate of the U.S. and University of Iowa  graduate Mark Strand:

Eating Poetry

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark. 

A Review of By the Iowa Sea by Joe Blair

I was sort of excited when I first heard about Joe Blair's By the Iowa Sea, a memoir written by a middle-aged, working-class Iowa transplant who feels trapped by his wife, kids, house, and job. It almost seemed as if Joe had written this book for me. I am approaching middle age. I've been married to Maggie May for close to twenty years. Our two kids are rambunctious and demanding. Our house is so small I tell people we live in a shoebox. I'm a librarian, not a pipefitter, though I'm sure some analogy could be made between the two. I often wonder, "What in the hell am I doing in Iowa?" And like Joe, I think, "I want to be in love again. I want to be brave, to give everything away, to be iconoclastic, idiosyncratic, and artistic."

Besides identifying with Joe's Midwestern midlife crisis, I was also interested in reading about the 2008 Iowa floods, though I was skeptical about the premise that the floods "revived in Joe the hope and passion that once seemed so easy to come by." In October 2008 I volunteered to help gut a house in Cedar Rapids which had been destroyed by the floods. The water had reached the middle of the second floor, and we were ripping out carpeting, linoleum, drywall, and fixtures, everything down to the wooden frame, so building inspectors could later decide if the structure should be saved or razed. The wood itself was permeated with muck and mold and stench three months after the floods, so our stumbling around the wreckage seemed pretty pointless. And this was just one house among five thousand. When I heard about By the Iowa Sea, I was worried that it would trivialize loss and suffering by using the floods as a syrupy metaphor for marital rejuvenation.

But as it turns out, By the Iowa Sea is not exactly sweet. Joe Blair reminds me more of Michael Perry (Truck: A Love Story) than Raymond Carver (What We Talk About When We Talk About Love), but he's probably nothing like Vicki Myron (Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World), as the readers' advisory database NoveList would have us believe. "If you enjoy 'By the Iowa Sea,' you may also enjoy 'Dewey,'" NoveList suggests, "because both are moving Family and Relationships [sic] about Iowa." I doubt it, considering Joe Blair writes about such things as learning how to masturbate, fishing feces out of his child's bath, shopping for a vibrating dildo, getting drunk at the Wig and Pen, having sex in an alley after smoking marijuana, his wife's forgetting to remove a tampon, and so on. I have not read Dewey the Library Cat, but I certainly would reconsider doing so if it included witticisms like this: "The thought of a venereal disease put a major kink in our romantic, postflood love vacation."

While not trite, By the Iowa Sea seems constrained, like Joe doesn't quite believe his own story. Passages swing from the strange ...

Elton John sings about butterflies being free. "Butterflies are free to fly." This is what he sings. And then he wonders why the butterflies fly away. It's a touching sentiment I suppose. Bugs being free. But a bug being free doesn't mean very much to me. What do bugs do with all that freedom anyway?

... to the moving, especially when Joe describes his relationship with his autistic son, Michael:

Our faces are very close in the dark. Mike likes it this way. Close. He is a beautiful boy. His eyes are large and liquid. His facial features are clean."Mike," I say in the darkness, "you're a good kid." I say it, and then I listen, for once. I don't stop listening after a few seconds but let the seconds run on. Mike has ceased his laughter now. After some time, I don't know how long, Mike whispers very quietly, "You're" and "a good kid." And then, "A good." And then,"Kid." And then "Mike, you're a good kid."

Joe's range is interesting, but his effort to ascribe some sort of sense or meaning to it doesn't quite ring true. I wonder if this uncertainty is a result of how Joe wrote By the Iowa Sea. In recent interviews, Joe says he writes for about one hour each day, and for every one or two writing sessions he produces an enclosed one-thousand-word essay. You can read some of these on Joe's blog. For By the Iowa Sea, he took hundreds of these enclosed essays, opened them up by "chopping their heads and feet off," and rearranged them into one book-length story connected by a simple narrative arc, personal redemption through natural disaster. Joe did this, he explains, because "life is a goat path." In other words, without the narrative arc, a book of his disparate essays wouldn't make sense.

A favorite passage of mine is when Joe reads one of his essays to his writing partner:

Pamela frowns."I don't get it," she says.
"Don't get what?" I say.
"The whole thing," she says. "I mean, here's a guy working on a piece of equipment, and then he drives to Wal-Mart."
"Yeah?"
"I don't get it."
"Maybe there's nothing to get," I say."I mean . . . I just wrote the thing five minutes ago. I can’t really explain it to you."
She nods professionally.

That passage makes me think of Raymond Carver, how Carver's characters never quite seem to know what's going on. My midlife crisis, my life, feels more like that.

And Carver struggled with the editing process, too:

 "I know there are going to be stories… that aren't going to fit anyone's notion of what a Carver short story ought to be… But Gordon, God's truth… I can't undergo the kind of surgical amputation and transplant that might make them someway fit into the carton so the lid will close. There may have to be limbs and heads of hair sticking out" (Raymond Carver: the kindest cut). 

I don't want Joe Blair to chop the heads and feet off of his stories in order to try to make sense out of them. I want "irredeemable characters who circle the drain," as Joe has described his unpublished fiction in recent interviews. I want the goat path. Let the goat path be the narrative arc, Joe.

Michael May


Joe Blair's Blog
http://blog.joeblairwriter.com/


Joe Blair Interviews

Other People with Brad Listi

Talk of Iowa with Charity Nebbe

Book Nook with Vick Mickunas

Talking With...Yale Cohn


By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir by Joe Blair was published on March 6, 2012 by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. This review was based on the digital galley obtained from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley.com.

Bestseller Read-Alikes for the Week of April 23rd

Can’t wait to get your hands on the latest best-seller, but the hold list is too long? To tide you over, every week we’ll offer similar titles and authors to the week’s fiction and nonfiction best sellers.

Fiction

This week's #1 book on the fiction bestsellers list is Calico Joe by John Grisham. Once again, Grisham leaves his usual legal thriller genre and ventures into the lives of athletes, as he did in his earlier novel, Playing for Pizza (2007). Calico Joe tells the story of two major-league baseball players, rookie phenom Joe Castle and and journeyman pitcher Warren Tracey. In 1973, Castle hit a home run off of Warren and at his next at-bat, Warren drilled a fastball at Castle's head. The damage was severe, and leaves Castle brain-damaged and disabled. Warren's son, Paul, narrates the story as he attempts to find closure for his dying father decades later.

Other books with similar writing themes to Grisham's Calico Joe include:

Battle Creek by Scott Lasser - Gil Davison, coach of an amateur baseball team that has always made it to the championship finals but never won, is resolved that this season they will win it all. A man who has always loved the purity of baseball, he finds that the thirst for winning leads him to compromises that are hard to live with. The book also explores the other key members of his team--the aging pitcher who cannot admit to the pain his arm is giving him, the assistant coach who is dying of emphysema, the young phenom who would long since have been tearing up the major leagues if he hadn't been in prison for beating the brains out of his girl's other guy. The baseball is lovingly, truthfully described, with poignant and disturbing insights into father-son relationships.

Blockade Billy by Stephen King - Another author who occasionally steps outside his usual genre, Stephen King tries his hand at sports fiction writing. This short novella tells the story of Blockade Billy whose brief career in the big leagues was banished from the record books. Naive country boy William Blakeley quickly establishes himself as the real deal—hitting a ton and blocking home plate with a ferocity that earns him the nickname Blockade Billy. But what is that curious Band-Aid he sometimes wears on his finger, and why do players seem to get hurt whenever he wears it? A suspenseful read for sports and King fans alike.

Click here for more fiction bestsellers...

Nonfiction

This week's #1 nonfiction book is again Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power and you can find read-alikes for that title here. At #2 is Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir by Clint Hill. Hill, a former Secret Service agent, served on former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's protection detail for four years - from the beginning of her husband's presidency and after his assassination. Through his recollection of the everyday routines of the First Lady and her public appearances, Hill creates a deeply personal portrait that offers an intimate glimpse into Jacqueline Kennedy's life.

Other books similar to Mrs. Kennedy and Me include:

Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy - A collection of original audio recordings and annotated transcripts taken from interviews Jacqueline Kennedy gave with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in 1964, after her husband's assassination. Annotated by historian Michael Beschloss, this collection offers a detailed account of life in the White House with JFK.

America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford - biographer Sarah Bradford explores the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in a definitive portrait that is both sympathetic and frank. With an extraordinary range of candid interviews, Bradford offers new insights into the woman behind the public persona. She creates a coherent picture out of Jackie's tumultuous and cosmopolitan life-from the aristocratic milieu of Newport and East Hampton to the Greek isles, from political Washington to New York's publishing community. She probes Jackie's privileged upbringing, her highly public marriages, and her roles as mother and respected editor, and includes rare photos from private collections to create the most complete account yet written of this legendary life.

Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 by Michael Beschloss -Historian Bescholss documents crucial historical moments in each of the first forty presidencies during which the future of the United States has been dramatically affected by a bold executive decision, and offers insight into the factors that influenced the choices made by each president. Included are Washington, John Adams, Jackson, Lincoln, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, JFK, and Reagan.

Click here for more nonfiction bestselllers ...

If you'd like more recommendations, 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!

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 Rook" by Daniel O'Malley

"Dear You,
"The body you are wearing used to be mine...
"You are probably aware of this next part already, since if you are reading this then you have survived several immediate threats, but you are in danger. Just because you are not me does not make you safe. Along with this body, you have inherited certain problems and responsibilities. Go find a safe place, and then open the second letter.
Sincerely,
Me"

Myfanwy Thomas (rhymes with Tiffany) awakes in a field, in the rain, surrounded by dead people, with two letters, and no idea who she is or how she got there. Thus starts The Rook, Daniel O'Malley's offbeat, fast-paced, highly entertaining first novel, and while there are hints that it could someday be developed as a series, it happily stands alone.

One of the most popular ways to tell a story with a fantastic setting is through the eyes of an outsider. From Harry Potter to The Matrix, the reader learns that the world is not as ordinary as they thought along with the hero. My belief that the characters are as clueless as I, helps me to accept all the background information as necessary (and even interesting!) exposition rather than a pointless infodump. Perhaps my love of epistolary novels made the difference here, as I found myself wanting more bits of background from Myffanwy's former self.

Don't misread! There's plenty of action, with creepy supernatural baddies, and a wicked sense of humor. The secretive government agency that Myffanwy is a part, the Checquy, of is a bit of a cross between Torchwood and the X-Men, but ridiculously powerful and well funded. It's a fun read that's receiving positive reviews from both professional critics and average readers (Goodreads is averaging 4.18/5 for 818 ratings). I recommend it to anyone looking for an escape from the everyday world.

You can read more on Mr. O'Malley's website (there's even a book trailer) here, and join me in looking for hints of a book two: www.rookfiles.com

~Sarah, Adult Services

Read Alike: Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler, whose career spans decades, is known for her character-driven stories and quirky characters. Her books are often set in the Baltimore area. The focus of her insightful novels on the trials of family and domestic life, with a touch of the unexpected, has proven popular with readers and critics. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for Breathing Lessons, and her Digging to America was selected as the 2008 All Iowa Reads title.

Ms. Tyler is also well known for rarely making author appearances or in person interviews, but with the publication of her latest novel, The Beginner's Goodbye, she did participate in a rare interview with NPR. The Beginner's Goodbye is the story of a middle-aged man haunted by the unexpected death of his wife, and how he learns to go on.

If you enjoy Ms. Tyler's writing, you may also enjoy these authors:

The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards
Ms. Edwards writes character-driven novels that focus on family relationships. She is best known for her debut novel (and the topic of an earlier read alike post) The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Ms. Edwards' writing tends to have a more melancholy tone than Ms. Tyler's, but readers find it easy to relate to her strong female characters and typically hopeful endings. Her most recent novel, The Lake of Dreams, tells the story of Lucy Jarrett who has returned to her family home after a long absence and faces the unresolved emotions from her father's death.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Ms. Simonson’s first novel of love and family in a small English community tackles the issues of globalization and the legacies of colonialism with warmth and humor. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a quiet, character-driven romance told from the perspective of Major Pettigrew, a widower and entirely conventional community member who finds he shares an unexpected bond with the widowed Mrs. Jasmina Ali.

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg
Ms. Berg tackles difficult yet universal challenges such as death and unrequited love in her character-driven novels, leavening the tragic with a touch of humor. Her moving stories follow average women as they are faced with the unexpected. Try Home Safe, the recently widowed Helen Ames discovers that her husband secretly withdrew $850,000 from their retirement savings. Helen and her daughter Tessa embark on a heartwarming journey to discover where the money went.

An Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer
Ms. Wolitzer, the mother of author Meg Wolitzer, has been publishing novels for decades (with one twelve year gap) that explore the changing mental and emotional realities of family life. Her characters are colorful, and the tone of her novels range from funny to bittersweet. In her most recent novel, An Available Man, Edward Schuyler discovers that a widower in good health of a certain age is a hot commodity on the senior's dating market. Mr. Schuyler, however, is not ready to move on from the unexpected death of his much younger wife.

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass
National Book Award winner Julia Glass is another author known for writing character-driven novels that explore the dysfunctional aspects of family life. She makes great use of descriptive language, and often has multiple narrators. The Widower's Tale, her most recent novel, also tackles the challenges of life after the death of a spouse. Funny and thought-provoking, the plot follows septuagenarian Percy Darling as he opens his home to a preschool, his family, and the people brought into his life by the preschool.

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!

National Library Week

Join Carnegie-Stout as we celebrate National Library Week from April 9th to the 14th! This year's theme is You Belong @ Your Library, and we'd love to hear what Carnegie-Stout has meant to you. Share your thoughts in our comments here, on our Facebook page, or come into the library and add to our poster near the Recommendations Desk! And pick up one of our library meme bookmarks while you're in.

You can also change your Facebook cover image to support libraries with one of the banners created by the ALA.

Or check out one of the PSA's by National Library Week's Honorary Chair, Brad Meltzer:

Bestseller Read-Alikes for the Week of April 9th

Can’t wait to get your hands on the latest best-seller, but the hold list is too long? To tide you over, every week we’ll offer similar titles and authors to the week’s fiction and nonfiction best sellers.

Fiction

This week's #1 book on the fiction bestsellers list is Lover Reborn: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. Book ten in the paranormal romance series The Black Dagger Brotherhood follows fallen vampire leader Tohrment who has been brought back to the Brotherhood by a fallen angel. Haunted by memories of his former mate, he asks the angel to set her free - but the price he must pay to do so is high. As war rages between the Brotherhood and the lessers, Tohrment is caught between a past he can't forget and an uncertain future.

Other authors with similar writing styles to Ward include:

Sherrilyn Kenyon -One of the leading writers in the paranormal romance genre, Kenyon is the author of the on-going Dark-Hunter series. The series blends the worlds of vampires, mythology and magic into her steamy, fast-paced, character-driven novels. Kenyon also pays great attention to detail when describing her characters' surroundings and many of her novels are set in New Orleans. Try Fantasy Lover.

Christine Feehan - Feehan is another well-known author in the paranormal romance genre. Her Carpathians series feature detailed world building, complex characters and interconnected stories. The Carpathians are a race gifted with heightened physical and physic abilities, with attributes similar to vampires. All male Carpathians must find their lifemates, or else they begin to lose all emotions. Once that happens, the only way to feel again is to kill. Try Dark Prince.

Click here for more fiction bestsellers...

Nonfiction 

This week's #1 nonfiction book is Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow. MSNBC talk-show host Maddow explains how the focus on national security is actually compromising national stability, tracing the historical events and contributing factors that have promoted a deeply militarized American culture.

Other books similar to Drift include:

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism by Ron Suskind - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind investigates  how America lost its way and the nation's daily struggle to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. Tracking down historic revelations and improbable hope from the Beltway to the farthest corners of the globe, Suskind delivers a stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world.

Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War by Andrew J. Bacevich - U.S. Army colonel turned academic, Bacevich offers an unsparing, cogent, and important critique of assumptions guiding American military policy. These central tenets, the "Washington rules"--such as the belief that the world order depends on America maintaining a massive military capable of rapid and forceful interventions anywhere in the world--have dominated national security policy since the start of the cold war and have condemned the U.S. to "insolvency and perpetual war." 

Click here for more nonfiction bestselllers ...

If you'd like more recommendations, 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!

Eden by Keary Taylor

I picked up Eden by Keary Taylor because of the excellent cover art, and, of course, because it's young adult dystopia, a genre I am unapologetically addicted to. The plot is intriguing, though probably familiar to fans of the genre. Set in the near future, a young woman named Eve with no memory of her past defends a small band of survivors from hoards of cybernetic zombies. The Fall, as it is called in the novel, began as a well-intended (aren't they always?) experiment in nanotechnology that soon went terribly wrong. The "infection" is spread by a mere touch, and the Fallen hunt what few remnants of human civilization remain. Thrown into the mix is a love triangle, a mysterious newcomer, Eve's slow but inevitable discovery of where she came from and the omnipresent threat of the Fallen.

The action begins quickly and is told in the first person, from Eve's point of view. As such, the chapters are interspersed with sections of Eve's own thoughts and feelings, which, after a while, begin to wear thin. Too much time is spent listening to Eve repeat again and again how conflicted her feelings are for her two love interests. These sections are a bit too overwrought - although, considering that Eve is a teenager, perhaps it is appropriate. 

I give Taylor credit for not taking the easy way out when the time comes for Eve to finally decide which boy to choose. I had feared that the story was about to go that way at one point, but thankfully, Eve actually makes a choice, unlike in some other YA dystopias in which one love interest conveniently dies, disappears, leaves or is made otherwise unavailable (such as in the final installment of The Hunger Games series, Mockingjay.)

The world-building in this novel is very good, with some room to kvetch. Without revealing any spoilers, one of the major conflicts is resolved a bit too simply for my taste, almost as an afterthought. Perhaps that's because my personal preference is for action, and not romance, but I would have liked to see the action fleshed out a bit more and the relational drama tightened up.

Eden would have been even better if Taylor had hired a good proofreader and editor (Eden and her other novels are self-published). The text has about 15-20 typos - mostly misspellings and missing punctuation - which took me out of the narrative momentarily. Annoying, but not a deal breaker. That said, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. If you're a forgiving sort of reader and can overlook some errors, give this book a try. I think the author has a great deal of promise and I'll be watching out for her next novels.

~ Allison, Adult Services

Choose your Favorite Haiku!

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is having a Library Haiku Contest! We've received a number of wonderful haikus over the past week. Our winners will be displayed on the announcement monitors in the library, as part of our Poetry Month display, and posted to our Blog and Facebook pages.

Help us select our winners by voting for your favorite entries in the comments section of this post. No sign up or log in required! And yes! We're still accepting last minute entries.

Entry One
Library heaven
on any day of the week
perusing the aisles

Entry Two
Adventure, surprise,
mystery, romance, sci-fi
at your library

Entry Three
Eight plus points to staff*,
such care makes the Telegraph.
Deep joy, that's no laugh.
*Library

Entry Four
Discover yourself,
at your local library
live the adventure

Entry Five
under the fan
crickets chirp
unsettled weather

Entry Six
Books, books everywhere
as far as the eye can see
could life "be" more fair?

Entry Seven
Bluff blooming
spring winds
aha! gifts

Entry Eight
Lazy summer days
spent reading under a tree
near the library

Entry Nine
When I first met you
When I first hugged you,
I thought being by your side
Is where I should be

Entry TenOppressive silence,
Then anguished cries, crazed murmurs,
@ your library (tm)

Entry ElevenCollected wisdom,
Painstakingly curated.
Also, DVDs.

Entry TwelveWhere darkness once reigned,
A spark catches in the mind,
Kindled by reading.

Entry ThirteenWhere once we knew shame,
Our lustful clinch is now veiled.
Reading on Kindle.

Entry Fourteen
Wonderment is found,
Instilled in our minds by books.
I travel so far.

Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is sponsoring Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions on April 11, 2012, at 7:00 PM in Aigler Auditorium. Three talented and published poets with Dubuque connections will read from their work and talk about poetry: Lauren Alleyne, Francine Banwarth, and James Pollock. Come enjoy hearing poetry read aloud and learn about less familiar poetic forms, such as haiku and senryu.

Lauren K. Alleyne is Poet-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque. Alleyne is a native of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has been published in numerous journals: Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Black Arts Quarterly, Kennesaw Review, and The Caribbean Writer. She won the International Publication Prize from The Atlanta Review and the Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Dawn in the Kaatskills, was published in 2008, and she is co-editor of the anthology From the Heart of Brooklyn. Alleyne earned a B.A. from St. Francis College, an M.A. from Iowa State University, and an M.F.A. from Cornell University.

Francine Banwarth lives in Dubuque and began studying haiku in 1988. She is a cofounder of Haiku Dubuque, which recently published The River Knows the Way. She has received numerous awards for her haiku and senryu; and her haiku, senryu, rengay, and haibun have been published in numerous journals, anthologies, and chapbooks. She currently serves as editor of Frogpond, the major publication since 1978 of the Haiku Society of America. Banwarth earned a B.A. from Clarke University.

James Pollock is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Loras College in Dubuque. He is the author of two books to be published in 2012: Sailing to Babylon, a collection of poetry, and You Are Here: Essays on Criticism and the Art of Poetry in Canada. His poetry has been published in numerous journals: The Paris Review, Poetry Daily, The Fiddlehead, AGNI, Geist, Southern Poetry Review, and Canadian Literature. He earned an Honors B.A. in English literature and creative writing from York University (Toronto), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Houston. He was a John Woods Scholar in poetry at the Prague Summer Program at Charles University, and a work-study scholar in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Mr. Pollock lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin.

The public is invited to attend this free event. For more information, please call the Carnegie-Stout Public Library at 563-589-4225.

Spotlight: 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic

On April 15th, 1912 the RMS Titanic collided with an ice berg, and went to her watery grave with 1,514 passengers and crew. This terrible tragedy has captured our imaginations for generations, and the 100th anniversary has renewed interest. We've gathered together some interesting links from around the web, as well as books and DVDs available here at Carnegie-Stout.

Of course we do have James Cameron's Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio on both DVD and blu-ray.

We also have the 1953 film Titanic starring Barbara Stanwyck in addition to three documentaries on the topic:
Secrets of the Titanic (DVD 910.45 SEC)
Titanic : how it really sank (DVD 910.91634 TIT)
Titanic : the complete story (DVD 910.91634 TIT)

There are a number of new documentaries and dramas airing on TV this month. Including a two part mini-series on ABC produced by Julian Fellowes (the man behind Downton Abbey), and a number of programs on PBS.

For those looking for a more immersive experience, a trip to Branson, Missouri might be in order. If a road trip to see Titanic Branson is not in your schedule, you still might want to check out their website, which includes video profiles of passengers and more. You may also enjoy the website of RMS Titanic, Inc, a company which has been behind seven research expeditions to the undersea wreckage and worldwide exhibitions of Titanic artifacts recovered from the wreckage. Their website includes information and photographs.

Still not enough? Mills Morgan Travel is offering a Titanic Memorial Cruise from Southampton to (hopefully) New York. Or maybe you'd prefer to stay on dry land and peruse the Library of Congress' Titanic Pathfinder, the BBC's Titanic archive, or the official Titanic Facebook page.

A selection of books on the Titanic available at Carnegie-Stout:
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
(910.91634 LOR) Mr. Lord brought an immersive, human-centered touch to his histories. His dramatic, richly detailed, and painstakingly researched examination of the sinking of the Titanic remains a classic of narrative nonfiction more than fifty years after its original publication.

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
Seamstress Tess Collins, maid to fashion designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, finds herself sailing on the Titanic towards her dreams of a better life. Ms. Alcott's first novel focuses on the aftermath of the disaster, and includes a bit of romance for Tess.

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
Grace Winter survived the sinking of an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic in 1914 and three weeks in an overcrowded lifeboat with minimal supplies. Ms. Rogan's first novel is a compelling look at human nature, self-sacrifice, and the will to survive.

Voyagers of the Titanic by R. P. T. Davenport-Hines
(910.91634) A history of the Titanic and its ill-fated voyage focuses on the passengers, crew, and builders and illuminates the heroism, sacrifice, hope and love that emerged from the tragedy.

The Band that Played On by Steve Turner
(910.91634) The story of the musicians who went down with the ship, a story that has fascinated readers since the first news reports. Who were these brave men? What was the last song they played?

Lost Voices from the Titanic by Nick Barratt
(910.91634) Mr. Barratt provides the definitive narrative of the disaster in the words of those who were involved--including the designers and naval architects at the White Star Line; first-class aristocratic passengers and the families in third class and steerage, many of whom were simply seeking a better life in America; and the boards ofinquiry, whose task it was to help change maritime law to ensure that such an event never took place again.

Building the Titanic by Rod Green
(623.82 GRE) Features a detailed account of the creation of the Titanic, telling the story of how the ship was designed and constructed and why its legend continues to fascinate.

Titanic's Last Secrets by Bradford Matsen
(910.91634) John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, of Shadow Divers fame, look into the sinking of the Titanic. Mr. Matsen tells of their investigation of the wreck of both the Titanic and her sister ship, the Britannic.

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!

Bestseller Read-Alikes for the week of April 2nd

Can’t wait to get your hands on the latest best-seller, but the hold list is too long? To tide you over, every week we’ll offer similar titles and authors to the week’s fiction and nonfiction best sellers.

Fiction
This week's #1 book on the fiction bestsellers list is Stay Close by Harlan Coben. In Coben's latest stand-alone thriller, three people are living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, and will find that the past doesn't always fade away. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realization that they may not want to forget the past after all.

Other authors with similar writing styles to Coben include:

Stuart Woods -One of the mystery/thriller genre's best writers, Woods writes engrossing page-turners that are often cinematic in scope. Plots center around criminal or political investigations and feature twists, turns, betrayals and non-stop action. Usually set in the South, his novels are rich in dialogue. Try Under the Lake (1999).

Robert Crais - Another best-selling mystery author, Crais writes both series and stand-alone novels. His stand-alone novels are often filled with high-stakes tension, cinematic action sequences,unexpected plot-twists and memorable lead characters. Try Hostage (2001).

Click here for more fiction bestsellers...

Nonfiction 

This week's #1 nonfiction book is Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer. In his latest book, journalist Lehrer examines the science of creativity and explains how it involves distinct thought processes that can be tapped by anyone, revealing the practices of successful companies and creative individuals while considering how to use scientific principles to increase creativity. Lehrer's other books Proust was a Neuroscientist (2007) and How We Decide (2009) are similar explorations into the workings of the human mind.

Other books similar to Imagine include:

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnman - Psychologist Kahnman draws on years of research to introduce his "machinery of the mind" model on human decision making to reveal the faults and capabilities of intuitive versus logical thinking.

Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson - TED lecturer Robinson offers his views on understanding creative thinking in education and business. He argues that people and organizations everywhere are dealing with problems that originate in schools and universities and that many people leave education with no idea at all of their real creative abilities. Robinson then calls for radically different approaches to leadership and teaching.

Click here for more nonfiction bestsellers ...

If you'd like more recommendations, 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!

Haiku, brief phrases / and descriptive words turning / snow into blossoms

Cherry Blossoms By John-Morgan

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is having a Library Haiku Contest!

To enter your library haiku, come in to the library and pick up an entry form at the Recommendations Desk on the first floor or the Reference Desk on the second floor. You may also submit your entry as a comment here, or you may use our Contact Us form found by clicking here.

Entries must be submitted by Friday April 6th to be considered for the contest.

Not sure how to write a haiku? We're using the simple rules.
A first line of 5 syllables
A second line of 7 syllables
A third line of 5 syllables

Our winners will be displayed on the announcement monitors in the library, as part of our Poetry Month display, and posted to our Blog and Facebook pages.

Need inspiration? Check out some of the haiku collections available at Carnegie-Stout:
Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball edited by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura (811 BAS)

Cherry-Blossoms: Japanese Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, and others (895.61 CHE)

Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa edited by Robert Hass (895.613208 ESS)

The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share and Teach Haiku by William J. Higginson with Penny Harter (808.1 HIG)

Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright (811.52 WRI)

Listen to Light: Haiku by Raymond Roseliep ( 811 ROS (Ia Bks)

Rabbit in the Moon: Haiku by Raymond Roseliep (811 ROS, IA Bks)

The River Knows the Way: Haiku and Senryu by Francine Banwarth, Cynthia Cechota, David McKee, Jayne Miller, and Bill Pauly (811 RIV, IA Bks)

Silent Flowers; a Collection of Japanese Haiku edited by R. H. Blyth (895.613 SIL)

Twenty Days on Route 20 by Michael Czarnecki (811.54 CZA)

Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum (818.602 MEC)

"The Family Fang" by Kevin Wilson

I did not have great expectations the first time I checked out The Family Fang. I'd seen a good review somewhere and added it to my list without paying much attention. Mr. Wilson's first novel then spent three weeks getting bumped lower and lower on the To Read pile until, finally, it was due the next day.

I freely admit that the title had me thinking it was yet another vampire book (specifically, The Radleys by Matt Haig). You can imagine my surprise when I finally opened to the first chapter and found, not a family drama about blood sucking, but a family drama about performance art.

I loved the forty or so pages I was able to read before reluctantly having to return the book for the next person on the holds list. When the end of year Best of 2011 lists started to come out, and "The Family Fang" showed up, I really kicked myself. And then I placed another hold.

There are many parts to this novel that I loved. Every other chapter is an account of an Event; one of the insane art pieces created by the Fangs and their children. The opposite chapters tell of the Fang children's, Buster and Annie's, lives as adults, and how profoundly their childhoods have screwed them up.

I adored the dark humor of this book, and the chapter about the chicken coupons was one of the funniest things I've ever read. I found myself entirely invested in Annie and Buster's quest to understand their parents final artistic event, but I was somewhat disappointed by how things wrapped up (vague, I know, but I don't want to spoil anyone).

I'll definitely be adding Kevin Wilson's first work, a short story collection called Tunneling to the Center of the Earth that was awarded a Shirley Jackson Award in 2009, to my To Be Read list.

~Sarah, Adult Services

"Poetry" & "Poets and Writers," Magazines of the Month

April is National Poetry Month, and so we've selected two poetry magazines as this month's feature.

Poetry has been published monthly since 1912 by the Poetry Foundation, located in Chicago, IL. That makes this year their 100th year of publication! You can browse the contents of past issues at their website, as well as enjoy poetry podcasts.

Poets and Writers was founded in 1970, and is the nation's largest nonprofit literary organization serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. They sponsor writing contests, discussion forums for writers and more at their website.

Be sure to stop in to Carnegie-Stout this month to check out our celebration of National Poetry Month! We're sponsoring a Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions on April 11, 2012, at 7:00 PM in Aigler Auditorium. Three talented and published poets with Dubuque connections will read from their work and talk about poetry: Lauren Alleyne, Francine Banwarth, and James Pollock.

Dear Carnegie-Stout, What Should I Read?

Carnegie-Stout is here to help you find the information you need, including fun reading suggestions! Have you tried our Personal Recommendations program yet?

By filling out a short survey of your reading tastes, we'll be able to come up with a list of books and authors we think you'll enjoy!

Stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor to talk with a staff member and pick up a paper form, print a pdf version and bring it in, or submit your request online.

We also offer quick reading suggestions once a month on our Facebook page. Our next session will be on Wednesday, April 18th.

To give you an idea of our skills, we're posting our responses to some recent patron questions. Feel free to leave your own questions in the comments section!









Dear Cat Lover,
This is a problem familiar to every librarian. What to do with all that extra cat hair? Might we suggest Crafting with Cat Hair (745.5 TSU), so much more creative than shaving your furry friend.
-Carnegie-Stout









Dear Help!
If it's been a few years since you've picked up a novel, you might want to check out How to Read a Book by Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles van Doren (028 ADL). If your new clubs simply selected a deadly dull tome try How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard (809 BAY).
-Carnegie-Stout










Dear Anxious,
Try It Sucked and then I Cried: how I had a baby, a breakdown, and a much needed margarita (306.8743 ARM) by popular blogger Heather Armstrong.
-Carnegie-Stout









Dear Globe Trotter,
We recommend Miracle in the Andes (982.6 PAR), a true story of a terrible plane crash and subsequent cannibalism.
-Carnegie-Stout











Dear April,
A road trip may be just what the doctor ordered! Might we suggest You Can Get Arrested For That: 2 guys, 25 dumb laws, 1 absurd American crime spree (349.73 SMI) for inspiration?
-Carnegie-Stout

Spotlight on Gardening

Our unseasonably warm spring has brought out the blooms and the plans for this year's garden. Whether you've a green thumb or black (or aren't sure what color your thumb may be!), Carnegie-Stout has a gardening book for you!

Be sure to check out last year's gardening post, found here:
carnegiestout.blogspot.com/2011/05/gardening-season.html

Iowa State University's Iowa Extension also has some great information for gardening in Iowa.

And don't forget our post on gardening themed cozy mysteries: carnegiestout.blogspot.com/2011/11/cozy-mysteries-gardening.html

The Hobby Farmer
Farm City by Novella Carpenter
(630.9173 CAR) Ms. Carpenter moved to downtown Oakland with her boyfriend and started a squatter garden in a neighboring vacant lot. Her garden quickly expands to include bees, chickens, turkeys, and pigs. A colorful and personal story about the modern relationship to the food we eat and its production.


Growing at the Speed of Life by Graham Kerr
(635 KER) Mr. Kerr, cookbook author and host of a cooking program, writes about his experience with his own garden, inspired by the sustainability and local food movements. In addition, his book includes tips and recipes.

The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball
(630.92 KIM) Ms. Kimball, a Manhattan journalist, meets and falls for Mark, a farmer. They move to upstate New York to start their own farm, and experiment in community agriculture. One part hands on exploration of the sustainable movement, one part fish out of water, and one part romances makes for an entertaining read.

If you want to try your own adventure in urban or hobby farming, check out these books:

• Urban Homesteading by Rachel Kaplan (640 KAP)
• Your Farm in the City by Lisa Taylor (630.9173 TAY)
• The Joy of Hobby Farming by Michael Levatino (630.68 LEV)

How to Grow a Garden

• The Edible Front Yard: creating curb appeal with fruits, flowers, vegetables, and herbs by Ivette Soler (635 SOL)

• High-Impact, Low-Carbon Gardening: 1001 ways to garden sustainably by Alice Bowe (635.048 BOW)

• The Midwestern Native Garden: native alternatives to nonnative flowers and plants by Charlotte Adelman (635.951 ADE)

• Perennial Vegetables: from artichoke to zuiki taro, a gardener’s guide to over 100 delicious, easy-to-grow edibles by Eric Toensmeier (635 TOE)

• Slow Gardening: a no-stress philosophy for all senses and seasons by Felder Rushing (635.9 RUS)

• The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Own Food: save money, live better, and enjoy life with food from your garden or orchard by Monte Burch (635 BUR)

• The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible: how to grow a bounty of food in pots, tubs, and other containers by Edward C. Smith (635 SMI)

Gardening Magazines
Horticulture
Better Homes and Gardens
Birds & Blooms
Hobby Farms
Organic Gardening
This Old House
Fine Gardening



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!