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The Karl Jonske '99 Collection in the US Library
In honor of this year's Karl Jonske '99 Lecture Series, the US Library is featuring a display of selected recent additions to the Karl Jonske Collection. Stop by to see several of the 808 books that comprise this marvelous and growing collection of books selected specifically to promote reading for pleasure among Catlin Gabel's students. It is a great legacy for generations of readers, and honors Karl, who was a smart, delightful, athletic bibliophile.
In celebration of the pleasures of good books,
--Sue Phillips, US Librarian
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Summer Borrowing is Underway in the Upper School Library!
Think outside the classroom this summer! Take home an armload of good books to read. Whether you’ll be lounging in a hammock, working as a camp counselor and reading after lights out, or flying on a plane to distant parts of the world, reading for pleasure would surely enhance your summer.
Summer Borrowing is Underway!
Now through June 10th @ 4pm
All returning Upper School students, and all returning faculty and staff may participate!
Here are some titles to tempt you. If you prefer, just browse the catalog at http://catalog.catlin.edu
Southern Fiction
Mama Day, by G. Naylor
Kate Vaiden, by R. Price
The Help, by K. Stockett
Delta Wedding, by E. Welty
Sound and the Fury, by W. Faulkner
Thirteen Moons, by C. Frazier
Glorious Geekdom
Foundations of Python Network Programming, by J. Goerzen
Beginning game development with Python and Pygame, by W. McGugan
Letters to a Young Mathematician, by I. Stewart
Feynman’s Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets around the Sun, by D. Goodstein
Beyond Measure: Modern physics, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Quantum Theory, by JE Baggott
Tasty Fiction
Clear Light of Day, by A. Desai
Notes from Underground, by F. Dostoevsky
Moscow Sting, by A. Dryden
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by M. Haddon
Maltese Falcon, by D. Hammett
A Most Wanted Man, by J. Le Carré
Small Island, by A. Levy
Kalahari Typing School for Men, by RA McCall Smith
Blood Meridian, by C. McCarthy
Master and Commander, by P. O’Brian
Graphic Novels
Saga of the Swamp Thing, by A. Moore
A Drifting Life, by Y. Tatsumi
Complete Persepolis, by M. Satrapi
Black Hole, by C. Burns
Palestine, by J. Sacco
Fantasy Fiction
Brisingr, by C. Paolini
The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien
Powers, by U. LeGuin
The Wood Wife, by T. Windling
Memory & Dream, by C. DeLint
Far From Here
Iberian Worlds, by G. McDonogh
Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris, by S. Turnbull
Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present, by P. Hessler
Under the Tuscan Sun, by F. Mayes
Artsy Stuff
The Art and Craft of Handmade Books, by S. LaPlantz
Letters to a Young Artist, by A. Deavere Smith
Conversations with Frank Gehry, by B. Isenberg
Chuck Close: A Life, by C. Finch
Origami Paper Animals, by D. Boursin
Bite-Sized Fiction
In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, by T. Wolff
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, by A. Bender
The Runner’s Literary Companion, Ed. G. Battista
Nine Stories, by JD Salinger
Nick Adams Stories, by E. Hemingway
Stop by soon.
With good wishes,
Sue, Upper School Librarian
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Summer Borrowing in the US Library Begins on May 31st
Every summer, the US Library likes to send its books on interesting vacations with students, faculty and staff. Everyone from the bus drivers to students to teachers and administrators likes to stop by to carry off something interesting to read.
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Over the course of the coming weeks, I'll be adding all sorts of recommendations to this list. After Memorial Day weekend, Summer Borrowing begins! Returning students, staff and faculty may check out an armload of good books that won't be due until mid-September.
So, let's begin...
A Taste of the Arts
We've added some new titles on filmmaking, animé, origami, modern architecture, and music. Here's a sampling.
Didier Boursin: Origami Paper Animals
Barbara Isenberg: Conversations with Frank Gehry
Maria Lafont: Soviet Posters
Shereen LaPlantz: The Art & Craft of Handmade Books
Steven Mithen: The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body
Chris Patmore: Movie Making Course
Simon Richmond: The Rough Guide to Animé
Bee Shay: Collage Lab
Stuart Shea and Robert Rodriguez: Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to Know about the Beatles...and More!
Anna Deavere Smith: Letters to a Young Artist: Straight0up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts
Graphic Novels
Some are political, some are futuristic, and many of them are becoming classics of the genre.
Charles Burns: Black Hole
Alan Moore: Saga of the Swamp Thing; Watchmen
Joe Sacco: Palestine
Marjane Satrapi: The Complete Persepolis
Southern Fiction
Hot, still afternoons, complex prose, solitude, thunderstorms, lemonade on the porch, and smoldering post-Civil War tensions are just a few of the characteristics of some of these books by southern authors.
William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury; Light in August
Charles Frazier: Cold Mountain; Thirteen Moons
Sue Monk Kidd: The Mermaid Chair
Carson McCullers: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Toni Morrison: A Mercy
Gloria Naylor: Mama Day
Reynolds Price: Kate Vaiden
Kathryn Stockett: The Help
Eudora Welty: Delta Wedding; Selected Stories
Fantasy Fiction
These books are filled with other worlds, elves, teenagers with magical powers, hobbits, daemons, and fine storytelling.
Charles de Lint: Memory & Dream
Ursula LeGuin: Powers
Christopher Paolini: Brisingr (part of a series)
Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass (part of a series)
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit (the prelude to a great series)
Keep checking back for more recommendations!
--Sue
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Great Reads for Winterim & Spring Break!
Looking for a little diversion for that long flight to Florida? Ready to choose your own stories rather than sticking to your course syllabus? Help is on the way!
We added over 150 new titles in January and February alone. Here are several recommendations for all kinds of readers with all sorts of interests:
Palestine, by Joe Sacco
Do you enjoy political themes and graphic novels? Check out this classic about an American journalist who travels to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to learn the Palestinian side of the Intifada. Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, writes that Sacco "obviously got the calling. His stuff is obviously well wrought, with dizzying pages and good rhythm" (from Amazon editorial reviews).
Winter of our Disconnect: How Three Totally Wired Teenagers (and a Mother Who Slept with Her iPhone) Pulled the Plug on Their Technology and Lived to Tell the Tale, by Susan Maushart
The Booklist reviewer writes that the teenagers "quickly learn how to do homework without access to Wikipedia and discover such joys as playing the saxophone and having sing-alongs. Interspersed with the family’s experience is a great deal of timely information about the impact of electronic technology on Generation M (8- to 18-year-olds), and not all of it is pretty." (Amazon.com reviews)
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Travel to St. Petersburg, Russia with a heart-rending, beefy classic about the decisions of a young society woman who chooses to defy the social norms of her time. If you never have time to immerse yourself in another world, Spring Break and Winterim are great times to do so.
Hardcourt Confidential: Tales from Twenty Years in the Pro Tennis Trenches, by Patrick McEnroe
ESPN commentator and tennis champion Patrick McEnroe reveals detailed stories of players, coaches, and other personalities associated with the sport. If you have visions of going pro, this will be an eye-opener.
The Invisible Gorilla: and Other Ways our Intuitions Deceive Us, by Christopher Chabris
The author of the book says it best: "Reading this book will make you less sure of yourself-and that's a good thing. In The Invisible Gorilla, we use a wide assortment of stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to reveal an important truth: Our minds don't work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we're actually missing a whole lot." (Invisible Gorilla website). Be sure to click the link above to see some short video clips of the actual attention tests administered to observers. You won't believe your eyes!
Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, by David Abram
"As Abram identifies underappreciated aspects of our minds and bodies that evolved to enable us to respond with exquisite sensitivity to our surroundings, he tells extraordinary tales of his encounters with wildlife from whales to ravens, illuminates the planet’s myriad forms of sentient life" (from Booklist review).
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Jimmy Santiago Baca: Some Resources
"I don't know if I would have lived had I not found poetry."--Jimmy Santiago Baca
The writer Jimmy Santiago Baca will visit Catlin Gabel this Thursday. If you would like to learn a little bit more about him, here are a few options:
Visit the Poets.org website for a brief biography of Santiago Baca's life. Three of his poems are listed on the Poets.org website in the upper right hand corner. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about the writer, his personal struggles, and his approach to language and poetry, there is a good interview with Gabriel Meléndez on the Univ. of Illinois site.
When you visit the Upper School Library, you can browse our display of books by Jimmy Santiago Baca just inside the door.
--Sue, US Librarian
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Books about Child Soldiers in Sudan
As you may have heard, we'll be hosting Gabriel Bol Deng, one of the "lost boys" from the war in Sudan. He will come to Catlin as a speaker on Wednesday, February 9th. In support of his visit, I've assembled a group of books on the subect of child soldiers, and the war in this region of the world.
Be sure to also check out Gabriel Bol Deng's website, Hope for Ariang, to learn more about his nonprofit organization to provide primary education to children in Sudan.
Here's a list of titles that you may want to browse before his visit:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah
Out of Exile: Narratives from the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan, by Craig Walzer
The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur, by Brian Steidle & Gretchen Steidle Wallace
Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection, by Michael Wessells
What is the What, by Dave Eggers (a powerful fictionalized memoir of a lost boy)
The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur, by Daoud Hari
Please ask us if you need any assistance in locating the books. Thanks. --Sue
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Winter Break with Good Books to Read!
Hi, everybody!
It’s just a few days before Winter Break, and I’d like to offer you some reading recommendations. If novels and biographies aren’t your thing, we have books on programming in Python, codecracking, politics or history. There are thousands of options, so stop by to find your perfect match. We’re open until 4pm on Friday, December 17th so you can find something good to read in your free time.
Happy countdown to the break!
--Sue
In a Strange Room, by Damon Galgut
In this newest novel from South African writer Damon Galgut, a young loner travels across eastern Africa, Europe, and India. Unsure what he's after, and reluctant to return home, he follows the paths of travelers he meets along the way. Treated as a lover, a follower, a guardian, each new encounter-with an enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers, a woman on the verge-leads him closer to confronting his own identity. Traversing the quiet of wilderness and the frenzy of border crossings, every new direction is tinged with surmounting mourning, as he is propelled toward a tragic conclusion. (from the book jacket). This novel has received fine reviews, and was a finalist for the Man Booker prize, 2010.
Alan’s War, by Emmanuel Guibert
If you like graphic novels, check out this gritty account of a Second World War soldier’s experiences during and after the war, both in the US and Europe. Nik Hall recommended this book to us, so if you read it, be sure to talk to him about it!
The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert
“A graphic novel and photo journal that follows reporter Didier Lefevre on a dangerous journey through Afghanistan with the Doctors Without Borders mission” (US library catalog). If you’re interested in the range of the graphic novel across genres including history, politics, and biography, here’s a good read. Notice that it’s also by the author of Alan’s War.
Linus Pauling in His Own Words, by Linus Pauling
“Pauling's scientific career spanned nearly the entire 20th century, from his revolutionary Nobel Prize-winning theories on the chemical bond to his controversial work on orthomolecular medicine and vitamin therapy, which continued up to his death in 1994. To many, however, he is best remembered as an ardent peace activist and a crusader for human rights, which brought him his second Nobel. Throughout his career, he was called a genius, a visionary, a Communist, and even a crank. Nothing about Pauling was simple or obvious.” (from a review in Library Journal)
Small Island, by Andrea Levy
This is the story of a young woman who “arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, [and] her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilber Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class” (from the book jacket). This novel won the Orange Prize and the Whitbread book of the year prize.
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Thanksgiving Break is Better with a Good Book!
The leaves are falling, and in a matter of days, all of the Upper School students will be enjoying Thanksgiving Break.
Here's what we're featuring in the Upper School Library just now:
• The Karl Jonske '99 Collection: Come browse your way through delicious works of fiction or a good biography. The US Library honors the memory of 1999 graduate and voracious reader, Karl Jonske, whose family created the book fund as a memorial to Karl after his untimely death in a car accident. Honor the memory of one of Catlin's brightest and kindest by enjoying the books that bear his nameplate inside their front cover. There are hundreds of titles to browse.
• The Poetry of Billy Collins: Collins is this year's Jonske speaker. We've got copies of several of his books of poems on hand, and have a Billy Collins poetry window just inside the front door. Want a fun, visual approach to his poems? Check out Billy Collins Action Poetry website.
We have new subscriptions to Outside and Seventeen magazine. Come by for a browse, or to check out an issue.
See you soon,
--Sue Phillips, US Librarian
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Reflections on Reading: How to Create an Inviting Library--and Eager Readers
By Lynn Silbernagel
From the Fall 2010 Caller
conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.” —René DescartesLynn Silbernagel has been Catlin Gabel’s Middle School librarian for 16 years. As a fused glass artisan, she has also taught several Catlin Gabel summer programs and Breakaway experiences.
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Has Technology Changed How We Read?
By Paul Andrichuk
From the Fall 2010 Caller
worse if you are a parent, watching your child avoid eye contact or other social cues as they “study, read, or research” (even as the music plays). We react as the cranky adults we swore we would never be.Paul Andrichuk is the head of Catlin Gabel’s middle school.
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"Somewhere on this list is a book that will change your life."
From the Fall 2010 Caller
History teacher Pat Walsh recently sent a list to incoming Upper Schoolers of books that had inspired faculty and staff members when they were teenagers. This is just a part of that glorious list, in which J.D. Salinger reigned supreme, with Kurt Vonnegut a close runner-up. Maybe your inspirations will be found here, too.
Deirdre Atkinson, drama teacher
Chris Bagg, English teacher
“If I were a rapper, I’d freestyle an ode to Crime and Punishment: I like big books. Dostoyevsky’s character arcs and setting transported me in a manner far more profound that any cinematic experience I’d ever had. I went from a child who wore a white bathrobe and braided her hair into Leia’s signature cinnamon rolls, to a young woman who spent an inordinate amount of time at the kitchen sink trying to wash the stain of Raskolnikov’s guilt from her own hands.” —Nance Leonhardt, media arts teacher
Nancy Donehower, college counselor
Enrique Escalona, Spanish teacher
“In Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly, I was attracted to a uniquely American character who embraced the challenge of living a pure life in adherence to a simple set of altruistic principles. Mr. Blue is a radical idealist, a mystic, a poet, and his example has prompted me to think more deeply about the values implicit in many of the decisions I have made in my life.” —Art Leo, English teacher
Peter Green, outdoor education director & dean of students
“I read Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find with a teacher who was passionate about her work. He introduced me to her writing as a comment on the human condition, and I was both shocked and completely captivated. It was a powerful and formative experience.” —Michael Heath, Upper School head
Andrew Merrill, computer science teacher
Lark Palma, head of school
Sue Phillips, librarian
Peter Shulman, history teacher
Nichole Tassoni, English teacher
Becky Wynne, science teacher
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