Mary Weber shares her gardening expertise and stories of the grandmother who sparked her love of making beautiful things grow. Mary recommends The Gardener's Color Palette by Thomas Fischer as an excellent resource for planning the overall look of your space.
Ultra Violet is an artist, but not the one who hung out with Warhol at the Factory. She is also the only library staff member who was a Shakespearean research scholar and a member of the Meat Cutters' Union in the same year.
2 CommentsOne Week Job
07/21/12
Summer Kosuge and Tom Spicer discuss One Week Job in this podcast about documentaries. It's a funny, inspiring and fascinating film for teens and adults. Take a listen, then check it out or put it on hold.
Tags: Documentaries, movies, teens
Sacre Bleu
07/06/12
For about three years people I respect have been telling me that I have got to read Christopher Moore, yet whenever I would read the synopsis of one of his books, I was left uninspired. The other day as I walked past the New Fiction display, I was caught by a dazzling blue cover with Christopher Moore's name on it and an image of Toulouse-Lautrec and and a mysterious woman. I snatched it up and read what it was about and I was hooked. I have barely put it down since.
It is a love story and a thriller that mixes a supernatural element with the story of the impressionist painters, Whistler, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and others. I was particulary taken with the way that Moore can write rather irreverent, even bawdy humor and balance it with tender, honest emotion. The characters are intense and very real. If Moore isn't a painter himself, he must have done a lot of research to gain such insight into the relationship a painter has with paint and color.
Although they couldn't be more different in tone, I think this book would be a great companion to Susan Vreeland's Luncheon of the Boating Party about Renoir, and Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay.
Christopher Moore has won yet another new fan. I will certainly be reading more of him in the future. Leave me a comment if you have a favorite book by him to recommend to me.
Tags: Art, humor, Supernatural
Mercury Meltdown: Revolution
05/25/12
This game is totally addictive!
Great for all ages, Mercury Meltdown: Revolution lets you control a shiny blob of mercury that moves along mazes and platforms by you tilting the Wii controller. It's fun and easy to learn, but it can get really challenging as well. It's an older game, so it is often available for checkout unlike some of the hotter new games that you have to be on hold for for a month or more. I originally checked it out for my ten-year-old, who loved it, but I ended up playing it for hours on end myself.
There is also a version of this game called, Mercury Meltdown: Remix for the PS2 that we have for checkout in Kids' World.
Give it a try and post a comment if you liked it too.
Tags: Nintendo, Video Game, Wii
The Pope's Maestro
03/16/12
On the radio yesterday I heard an interesting story. Sir Gilbert Levine, Music Director of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, spoke about his seventeen year friendship with Pope John Paul II. Sir Gilbert related how his relationship to the Pontiff deepened his own Jewish faith and gave him a greater understanding of the Polish people. It was an emotional interview and Levine's eloquence did much to intrigue me. Regardless of one's faith, it is undeniable that Pope John Paul II was an iconic figure of tremendous influence in the 20th century. Levine also spoke about the book he had written which came out in 2010 called The Pope's Maestro. It is a beautiful story of the interaction of two men of faith who came together through the common bond of music. Make sure to watch the enclosed DVD that comes with the book. It contains a broadcast recording of a concert at Saint Mary's Basilica in Krakow called, "A Thousand Years of Music and Spirit".
To commemorate the first anniversary of the Pope's beatification, Sir Gilbert Levine organized a special concert in Orchestra Hall scheduled for April 23. Levine said that Chicago was the obvious choice for this concert's location, because the Pope had always loved this city so much. This Chicago Sun-Times article tells more about the concert. For tickets, call Symphony Center Box Office at 312-294-3000 or log onto www.cso.org.
Great By Choice
03/11/12
If you got something valuable from Jim Collins' Good to Great, you should pick up Great By Choice. In these uncertain economic times, Collins and Hansen challenge some pre-conceived notions about how companies and business leaders can succeed and excel in a negative market. In the classic form of Collins' earlier books, Great By Choice is clear, cogent, and concise. It is easy to understand and is a pleasurable read.
Collins and Hansen and their team of researchers studied the results of companies that performed at more than ten times their industry indexes over a period of fifteen years during times of economic instability. Their findings were a bit surprising. The leaders who guided these 10X companies (their term for the top performers), were not fast-moving gamblers that pushed their organizations to the limit to innovate and change with changing times. Most often the opposite was true. The leaders of the 10X companies were cautious, prudent and (as Collins and Hansen put it) paranoid planners. They support their empirical findings with anecdotes such as comparing the two men who made a run for the South Pole in the late 1800s. They showed clearly the different approaches the two men had and compared that to business leaders of today. They also showed why one man succeeded with supplies to spare while the other died in the frozen wasteland with his entire crew.
A recommended read for business leaders, but also for anyone who is troubled by our current global economic circumstance. This book delineates some vital attitudes and approaches for anyone who needs to weather a difficult time. It is as inspirational as it is instructive.
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Bel Canto
03/01/12
A beautiful operatic soprano is set to be the star attraction at a gala event, when terrorists attack the home of a Japanese ambassador and hold the array of wealthy, priveledged guests as hostages. Patchett writes complex characters and creates interesting relationships between the captives and their captors. Lyric Opera of Chicago just recieived a commision as part of the Renee Flemming Initiative for creating an Opera of Bel Canto. Instead of a well-established composer, Lyric has chosen young, Peruvian-born composer, Jimmy Lopez, to create the score and Sir Andrew Davis will be conducting. WFMT has the story. December 2015 will be the premier. Certainly looking forward to this one!
Tags: literary fiction, Opera, Terrorism
Encyclopedia Of The Exquisite
02/24/12
If you love fun, bizarre historical facts, this is the book for you. It has brief entries about things throughout history that were created for beauty's sake. Some are small things like origami, some are entire buildings or magical gardens. Particularly interesting are the stories about chopines and the art of hot air ballooning. This is a great bedside reader since you can pick it up and read a single entry without a big investment in time. A most enjoyable read!
Tags: Factoids, history, Non-Fiction
My 5 Favorite Books of 2011
12/21/11
#5 The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin is an historical fiction novel about the famous miniature woman, Livinia Bump. Ms. Bump was a Victorian sensation and along with her diminuative husband, Tom Thumb they toured with P.T. Barnum.
#4 Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante is a literary thriller that lets us get into the mind of a brilliant surgeon who is gradually sinking into the oblivion of Alzheimer's Disease.
#3 Map of Time by Felix J. Palma is a fun, crazy adventure through time, with H.G Wells and Jack the Ripper as characters.
#2 The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson is a poignant, honest family saga covering the years of the Viet Nam War through the early 90's. Thompson evokes Midwestern America in the latter half of the 20th Century in a very genuine way.
#1 The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds is historical fiction telling the story of poet, John Clare, and his time in a mental hospital. Alfred Lord Tennyson plays a key role in this touching account of mental illness and early mental hospitals.
Tags: Favorites 2011
The Ladies of Grace Adieu
12/06/11
A delicate collection of short stories with a slight tinge of the sinister. Great wintertime reading with a pot of tea. Clarke creates a sensuous world of mystical beings and rich settings.
Tags: alternate history, England, fantasy