Category: Reference

Celebrate Notable African-American Women!

- Katie Leave a comment

As African-American History Month draws to a close and Women’s History Month begins, celebrate both by discovering these turn-of-the-twentieth-century African-American women activists on your library’s shelves:

 

IdaBWellsJournalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) first spoke out against the lynching of blacks in the South from the pages of her own Memphis, Tennessee newspaper. This act began her fierce campaign to end the injustice through her lectures and writings. On Lynchings collects three of her influential publications on the subject.

 

 

 

TerrellIn her 1940 autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) describes her career as a speaker dedicated to advancing the causes of civil rights and women’s suffrage.

 

 

 

 

 

Callie houseHistorian Mary Frances Berry rescues Callie House (1861–1928) from obscurity in My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations. Founder of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association, House began a grass-roots movement calling for Congress to compensate former slaves for the labor they performed during centuries of captivity.

 

 

 

 

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Explore the lives of other remarkable African-American women with Biography in Context. This online database conveniently gathers information from reference works, academic publications, newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts, websites, and other sources to create”media-rich” profiles of historical figures, writers, artists, celebrities, and other prominent individuals.

And the Oscar Goes To….

- Bianca Leave a comment

The 85th Academy Awards® will air live on Oscar® Sunday, February 24, 2013.

 

The 87th Academy Award Ceremony was held on Sunday, February 22 in Hollywood California. Many of 2014’s best shows were given honors, and most of the winners will be making their way to the shelves during the next few months. Several have already arrived!

For a complete list of nominees and winners visit http://oscar.go.com/nominees

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Tells the tale of two friends working at a famous hotel between WWI and WWII. Winner for Best Costume Design, Makeup and Hair Style, Original Score, and Production Design.

Ida – A young woman in 1960’s Poland is about to take her holy vows to become a nun when she discovers a family secret. Winner Best Foreign Language Film.

Boyhood – The story of a boy growing up from ages six to eighteen. It was filmed over the course of twelve years. Winner Patricia Arquette for Best Supporting Actress.

Birdman – A dark comedy starring Michael Keaton as a washed up actor getting ready for opening night of the Broadway play he is in. Winner for Best Directing, Cinematography, Original Screenplay, and Motion Picture of the  Year.

Big Hero Six – A group of friends form a band of high tech super heroes. Winner Best Animated Feature Film.

Whiplash – A young drummer is pushed to the limits when he enrolls at a music conservatory. Winner for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Male Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons.

The Theory of Everything – The story of Stephen Hawking and his wife. Winner Eddie Redmayne for Best Actor. Coming in March.

 Imitation Game – Mathematicians try to crack the enigma code during WWII. Winner Best Adapted Screenplay. Coming in April.

Interstellar – With the world soon coming to an end, a group of explorers travel through a wormhole across the galaxy to find a new place for mankind. Winner for Best Visual Effects. Coming in April.

Crisis Hotline – A documentary about Veterans that have turned to the Veteran Crisis Hotline to help with trauma at home. Winner Best Documentary. Coming Soon. 

Still Alice – A woman struggling with Early Onset Alzheimer’s. Winner Julianne Moore for Best Actress. Coming Soon.

American Sniper – A Navy Seal Sniper returns home after four tours of duty in a war he can’t leave behind. Winner Best Sound Editing. Coming Soon.

Selma – Martin Luther King Jr.’s march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama for equal voting rights. Coming Soon

 

 

 

 

 

Wipeout: The Game

- Stephanie Leave a comment

wipeoutHave you ever watched a television show and wished you could be on it? I have many times! Whether it’s a game show or talent competition or agility race, I have always wanted to at least try. But alas, I know I’m not coordinated enough and that I do not have a dancing bone anywhere in my body. Lucky for me, videogames let me try my hand at reality television without the possibility of failure on a national public level. It’s a win!

Wipeout: The Game is one such game that I recently discovered. Wipeout is a game show on ABC that features contestants competing against each other in what the show calls “the world’s biggest obstacle course”. I believe it. Contestants flip through the air, flop into puddles of mud and water, and generally get beat-up as they compete to win the game. Wipeout: The Game lets you experience all the elements of the television show with no danger of injuring yourself. Don’t worry, the competition is still there as you try to hit the button at the end of the course as quick as you can. Play with up to four of your friends as you battle over 50 crazy obstacles, including the most famous and recognizable ones from the television show: The Sweeper, Sucker Punch, Big Balls, and even more. As you’re racing, listen to the commentators give you advice and generally cringe for your well-being as you bounce from obstacle to obstacle. This game has slow motion replays just like the television show that highlight all the bone-jarring wipeouts that happen. If you still manage to be losing to your friends, don’t worry! You can throw objects at the other competitors when it’s not your turn.

Pick up this game and live out your dream to compete in a game show with no worries of actually injuring yourself!

How to Be a Heroine, or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much

- Stephanie Leave a comment

how to be a heroineHow to Be a Heroine, or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much is a mix between memoir and literary criticism as author Samantha Ellis realizes that maybe the heroines she modeled herself after when she was younger were not the best choices.

As a young child raised in an Iraqi-Jewish family in London, Ellis describes herself as someone who devoured books as a way to judge the characters in them for characteristics and actions she wanted to emulate. Reading this book, I found myself identifying with Ellis as I, too, looked to books as a way to test out new identities without having to fully behave the same way. Ellis realized that she had perhaps chosen the wrong heroine to try to become, so she decided to look at the female characters and writers that she had loved since childhood. What followed became this book.

As she examines these characters, who range from books such as The Little Mermaid, Anne of Green Gables, The Valley of the Dolls, as well as characters Franny Glass, Scarlett O’Hara, Lizzie Bennett, and the authors Austen, Woolf, Forster, Plath, and the Bronte sisters, Ellis realizes just how they all influenced her life and how some still do. Many other characters, authors, and books are also examined. Throughout this journey, Ellis dissects each heroine in an intriguing format that that pulls readers into both her life as a child and her life now. As she reevaluates these heroines, Ellis interjects stories from her childhood and eventually figures out just who she feels she should have looked up to back then and who she looks up to know.

Heroines, Ellis realizes, have shaped all of our lives, whether positively or negatively, and it is important to remember that growing and finding new heroines to model ourselves after is perfectly okay.

Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

grace's guideGrace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up is a guide for anyone and everyone who needs help in any situation (broad description, but hang on, I promise it will make sense). The author of this book is Grace Helbig, the host of it’sGrace, a YouTube vlog(video+blog) where Grace enthralls viewers with everything from quirky food recipes, teaching people how to fall down in public, to even taking a good hard look at how the President chooses to dress himself. She might also be familiar to you as a guest star on Hannah Hart’s vlog, My Drunk Kitchen (check out Hannah’s book, My Drunk Kitchen).

In Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up, Grace talks her readers through the little tips that she wished someone would have told her when she was in college, dealing with anxiety, trying to be a good party guest, making adult friends, and dealing with all the aspects of friend and significant-other relationships. Some of her advice ranges from the quirky (don’t get stuck with the pet at the party), the painful (make peace with the idea of failing when asking someone out – realize it might happen, then get over it!), and the helpful (get out of the house and be around other humans after a break-up). This book is broken up into multiple sections about a variety of different scenarios that people who are trying to be grown-ups will face on a daily basis. In addition to her advice, Grace imparts “Mom’s Words of Wisdom,” handy acronyms for you to remember the advice she just gave you, and even little worksheets for you to fill out.

Grace tackles difficult topics that need to be talked about in such a fun and entertaining manner that readers don’t even realize that she’s actually helping.

Gran Turismo 5

- Stephanie Leave a comment

gran turismo 5Are you looking to play a new game, but one that doesn’t center around violence or involve dancing/losing weight? Try looking towards car racing games. If you’re like me and want to play videogames, but don’t necessarily like first person shooter games or getting sweaty and working out, then car racing games are the way to go. These games still allow you to get competitive and sometimes even team up with others to win.

A new car racing game that hit my radar recently is Gran Turismo 5. Gran Turismo 5 is a real driving simulator game for PlayStation 3 that allows players a large variety of personalization options. This game is initially 1-2 players, but gives the option to join the PlayStation Network and play against up to 16 people. New visual effects have been introduced ranging from skid marks, under braking, overturning, ability to flash headlights, and a damage model. The damage model lets players see the realistic damage that happen to their cars when they are in accidents. GT5 lets you pick from a total of 1,083 cars, both “standard” and “premium”. Drivers can pick from up to 31 different scenery locations and 81 different track layouts. If none of those courses work for you, there is also an option to design your own course with the Course Maker. You can also challenge yourself by changing the weather options.

Swerve outside the normal war/first person shooter games and pick up a racing game that you can play with the whole family: Gran Turismo 5.

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan

- Stephanie Leave a comment

food a love storyI, for one, love to eat and my friends know it. Our discussions usually go: “What are you eating?” “Where did you get that? I want one…” “You went WHERE to eat without me?!” The typical food-fest. Imagine my joy when I stumbled upon Food: A Love Story by comedian Jim Gaffigan. I had listened to Gaffigan’s standup before and discovered that he LOVES to eat, comes from a very large family, and was raised in the Midwest. I knew I must read it and was not disappointed.

In this book, Gaffigan draws upon his family history, his deep love of ALMOST anything food, and how sometimes you just have to hide your food from others to completely enjoy it and that there is nothing wrong with doing so. Pictures of Gaffigan, his family, and HIS food break up discussions about vegetarians, how he mistakenly overanalyzed and did not realize the worthiness of steak growing up, “adult” junk food, how he decided to eat healthy, and his description of the perceived differences between hot dogs and sausages(and how you must know the correct way to order them in different cities). Make sure to have food nearby as you devour this book and discover the importance difference between many cheeses and it’s okay not to like seafood or fruit.

If you are looking for more Gaffigan, you’re in luck! Food: A Love Story is a follow-up to Gaffigan’s other book, Dad is Fat, which is also available through the Davenport Public Library.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 on DVD

- Bianca Leave a comment

 

Mockingjay part 1The third motion picture in the Hunger Games franchise will hit the library in March, but you can reserve your copy today. Watch Katniss as she takes on the Capital in this action packed dystopia phenom.

Mockingjay Part 1 was  released into theaters November of last year and has 333 million dollars in sales in the United States! Due to the high demand of this title, the Davenport library has ordered 30 copies on DVD and will order 3 additional copies on Blu Ray when they become available. The quickest way to get a copy of this title in your hands is to place a hold in the online catalog as soon as possible. Once you make a hold, your name will be added to the list of holds. A copy of this title will be sent to the Rivershare library location of your choice when it is your turn.

Don’t want to wait your turn? Well you are in luck! When the library can anticipate a high demand for a title, we set aside what are called BROWSE copies. These are copies of a title that live only on the New shelves. They cannot be reserved. Every time you visit the library check out the New Books and New Movies shelving to see what BROWSE items are on the shelf. They will have a green tag that says BROWSE. You might just get lucky and find that Mockingjay Part 1 is sitting on the shelf.

Also available at all three Davenport libraries are the The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, the first and second movies in the franchise.

The Verdict: Mockingjay will not disappoint! Three yeas ago I was one of the many Katniss crazed readers that devoured all three Hunger Games books in the weeks leading up to the first movie release, and I have patiently waited year after year as each new movie slowly hits the big screen. Mockingjay was great! The movie follows the book well but includes insight to things happening in other districts that aren’t as clear to visualize while reading the first person perspective of Katniss in the books.

Award Watch: Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) is nominated for best actress in an action movie by Broadcast Film Critics Association. For a list of other awards and nominations visit IMDb Mockingjay.

Fun Fact: Jennifer Lawrence also plays the mutant Mystique in X-Men First Class and X-Men Days of Futures Past and won an Oscar for Best Performance by a Female Actress for Silver Linings Playbook in 2013.

Crazy Salad & Scribble Scribble: Some Things about Women & Notes on the Media

- Stephanie Leave a comment

crazy salad and scribble scribbleCrazy Salad & Scribble Scribble: Some Things about Women & Notes on the Media is a combination of two essay collections by Nora Ephron: Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble.

Throughout her career, Ephron was known by many different titles: producer, director, and writer. She worked on such iconic movies as “Julie & Julia”, “Silkwood,” “Heartburn” (both movie and book), “You’ve Got Mail”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, and “When Harry Met Sally”. Before she shot to fame, Ephron began writing a column about women for Esquire magazine in 1972. Crazy Salad & Scribble Scribble is a selected compilation of her essays all about women and the media that she wrote throughout her tenure at the magazine.

Ephron delights readers with her musings on how she got her first bra and her mom’s rather brash opinion on what she felt her daughter needed. Add in other opinionated, yet funny and witty, descriptions of issues that all women have faced, but not blatantly talked about, from what’s happening with our bodies, dealing with other people’s opinions about how women should live, and of course, the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Ephron ends this essay collection with Scribble Scribble, her various thoughts on multiple different people in the media and the platforms that they choose to show themselves.

Read these essays to gain better insight into just what made Nora Ephron, Nora Ephron.

Zumba Fitness: Core

- Stephanie Leave a comment

zumba fitness coreLet’s talk about the ugly winter truth. Sometimes we’re just too lazy to work out. Putting on workout clothes, bundling up to trudge through the blowing snow and the frigid air, going to the gym to get sweaty with a bunch of people who already have fabulous bodies is just a reminder that I should not have eaten that last plate of holiday cookies.

What if there was a way to avoid having to work out in front of people? Let me introduce you to the wonder of videogames. You can workout in the privacy of your own home without having to worry if you look uncoordinated or comparing your body to anyone else’s. Zumba Fitness: Core is a perfect way to get a workout without actually knowing you are working out. Zumba is an aerobic fitness program that has exploded in popularity recently with dancers doing moves inspired by Latin America to rich Latin American music . This videogame lets you master different classes, dance in different locations within the game, create your own Core class, and set different intensity routines for a wide range of skill levels(and even follow a tutorial if you’re just not sure what’s going on). While dancing around to more than forty different upbeat songs and over thirty different dance styles, you will be sure to get a full and total body workout that, as the tagline says, will “party your abs off”.

Have a different videogame system or platform? No worries. Just search the library catalog with the word you are looking for and follow it with the platform, ie. “workout xbox360” or “workout wii”. Still can’t find the right one? Give us a call at the library and we’ll help you find the one you want.