Grammy Winners

Whether you caught the Grammys last night, or missed them to catch the last episode of Downton Abbey, Carnegie-Stout has you covered.

If you're in it for the pagentry, Grammy.com has red carpet photos, videos of acceptance speeches, and more. They've even created an internet radio station where you can stream music by the nominees and winners.


Or if you'd prefer, Carnegie-Stout's collection includes many of the winning albums! Here are a few, but be sure to browse through the nominees in all 81 categories. We also have several Grammy nominee compilation albums available.
 

• Record of the Year: Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye
• Album of the Year: Babel by Mumford & Sons
• Song of the Year: We Are Young by Fun (who also happen to be Best New Artist)
• Best Pop Vocal Album: Stronger by Kelly Clarkson
• Best Dance/Electronica Album: Bangarang by Skrillex
• Best Rock Album: El Camino by Black Keys
• Best Rap Album: Take Care by Drake
• Best Country Album: Uncaged by Zac Brown Band
• Best Jazz Vocal Album: Radio Music Society by Esperanza Spalding
• Best Pop Solo Performance: Set Fire to the Rain from Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall

And don't forget to check out our list of musical reading suggestions or our magazine of the month, Billboard.

All animated gifs were found using giphy.com, a new animated gif search engine. We promise not to abuse this tool in future.

Read Alike: The Painted Girls

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan has received praise from critics and was selected as an Indie Next title for January by the American Booksellers Association.

This is Ms. Buchanan's second work of historical fiction, and both of her novels have been carefully researched regarding the real people and events she describes. She was born and raised in Niagara, Ontario, which helped to inspire her first novel, The Day the Falls Stood Still which tells the story of the arrival of hydroelectric power at Niagara Falls.

Photo by Frank Kovalchek

Before becoming a novelist, she received an MBA and worked for IBM. You can read more about Ms. Buchanan, arrange for her to talk with your book club over Skype, or see what book she's currently reading on her website: www.cathymariebuchanan.com

The Painted Girls tells the story behind Degas' sculptures and paintings of ballerinas, and draws special inspiration from the sculpture at left, La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans (The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years). The story of three sisters of low birth, who seek to survive in the world of ballet, is told from the perspective of Marie van Goethem, who posed for Degas' statue. The novel is compelling and romantic, and Buchanan paints an atmospheric picture of life in 19th century Paris. As Susan Vreeland says in her review for the Washington Post, this "is a captivating story of fate, tarnished ambition and the ultimate triumph of sister-love."

If you're interested in reading more novels about the reality behind famous works of art, the work of Susan Vreeland would be an excellent place to start after you've finished The Painted  Girls. Ms. Vreeland is the author of several lyrical novels that illustrate the worlds and minds of artists and their art. Her titles are well-researched, leisurely paced, and character-driven.

• In Clara and Mr. Tiffany, she tells the story of Clara Driscoll, an employee of Louis Comfort Tiffany, and the creative mind behind the iconic Tiffany lamp. This lushly visual novel explores the life of the little known artist and the dynamic period at the turn of the century.
• Her Luncheon of the Boating Party tells the story behind Renoir’s famous painting, and the real people depicted upon his canvas.

Tracy Chevalier's first novel, Girl With a Pearl Earring, is a character-driven and lyrical imagining of the story behind Vermeer's famous painting. Sixteen-year-old Griet is a maid for the Vermeer family, with an eye for beauty and order, which attracts the attention of the artist. The novel was also adapted as a film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore is a more irreverently whimsical examination of an artist's inspiration. Though his offbeat novels aren't for everyone, readers familiar with the art world of 19th century France are sure to find a few laughs in Moore's dark humor. Sacre Bleu is the story of Lucien Lessard and his friend Henri Toulouse-Lautrec's quest to find the truth behind the death of Vincent Van Gogh.

Other novels of artistic inspiration worth checking out:
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
The story of the woman who inspired Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell.


Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
The Women by T.C. Boyle
Two books about the life and loves of Frank Lloyd Wright, and topic of a staff review by Betty.

Girl Reading by Katie Ward
Ms. Ward takes inspiration from seven paintings of women reading from different periods throughout history in this collection of short stories.

Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto
Ms. Otto's novel takes its inspiration from the lives of 19th century female photographers, though the characters in this collection are fictional.

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!

Buddha by Osamu Tezuka

I read a lot of comic books. There’s an endless stream of them going across my desk and it’s all too tempting to take one or two home to read. But I’m still pretty new to manga. I've read a fair number of them -- I feel like I have to if I’m going to have any sense of what to buy for the library -- but, generally speaking, manga are really different from American comics in a lot of subtle ways that can leave me a little lost and bewildered. In Chel’s review of A Bride’s Story she mentioned that some manga read right to left, and that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Manga developed separately from American comics and have their own aesthetics of pacing, characterization, and art. Several years ago, when I was trying to give myself a crash course manga introduction, I plowed through several series by manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka. Of these, Buddha was by far my favorite. As such, I was thrilled when two group members suggested the series for this month’s Graphic Content reading group.

Buddha, as you might have guessed from the title, tells the story of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, the man whose teachings form the basis for Buddhism (I’m hesitant to call it a biography due to all the story elements Tezuka introduces). To sum up eight volumes in a single sentence: a long time ago, all across the Indian subcontinent, lots of people are really unhappy due to famine and a tyrannical caste system until the prince Siddhartha is born and grows up to attain enlightenment and help others do the same. Put that way, it sounds pretty straightforward, but the first volume of the series Kapilavastu, the one we’re reading for the discussion group, is full of killer tigers, backflipping horses, extras cracking jokes about the book’s cheap printing, and a character who gets so mad he tears the panels apart and smashes them to bits. All this silliness and crazy action does a great job of creating balance with weighty (and sometimes wordy) explanations of ancient Indian society and spirituality. The mix will seem pretty familiar if you were a fan of the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Both works move readily between action, comedy, drama, and philosophy in a way that sounds implausible but is actually quite effective. 

Buddha came late in Tezuka’s career and shows the confidence of a mature artist, not afraid to dive into a weighty subject (or to let that subject take the backseat to cheap gag or author’s cameo now and then). It’s a series I’m always happy to recommend to someone knew to manga and one I look forward to discussing at our graphic novel reading group. If you’d like to join us, there’s still plenty of time time to grab a copy of the book at the Circulation Desk and meet us on the Mezzanine at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 12.

~ Andrew, Adult Services