Poets on Trees

 

Still on our Earth Day theme:

Poet Joyce Kilmer famously wrote, “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”  Odgen Nash rejoines here.

Please keep in mind our program on Farms and Foods of Ohio tonight at 7:30, here at the Library.  Learn how to find the freshest foods close to home and get tips for cooking it in the most delicious way from author and cook Marilou Suszko.

Pied Beauty

I think of this as an Earth Day poem:

Pied Beauty

GLORY be to God for dappled things—

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Be sure to check out our Earth Day display of books on the Avenue in the Library and tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 23) at 7:30, come hear local author and culinary instructor Marilou Suszko tell us about her new book, Farms and Foods of Ohio, and the wonderful fresh food to be found right here in our bountiful state. Marilou shares her many marvelous stories of farms, farmers and good, wholesome food. She’ll tell us where and how to find the best local food, and give us great ideas about preparing it. Eat local, read local! Of course, we’ve got this book in our collection for you to check out.

Great New Reads

 

Just about every week, a few shelf-fulls of new books come into the Library.  Here are several titles that caught my eye:

Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days by Judith Viorst.  Do you remember someone reading to you, or maybe you reading to your child, the classic children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?.  Well, the real Alexander has grown up but has returned home with his wife and children and Mom’s still writing about him with that bemused air.  A funny and lovely read.

Freedom For the Thought That We Hate: a Biography of the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis. Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and First Amendment expert Anthony Lewis writes a nuanced exploration of the First Amendment, the struggle for its fulfillment and the threats it faces today.

The World’s Best Memoir Writing: the Literature of Life From St. Augustine to Gandhi, and From Pablo Picasso to Nelson Mandela, edited by Eve Claxton, is arranged by age from birth (Confessions by St. Augustine) to one hundred (My First Hundred Years by Margaret Murray). Each age consists of one or more short excerpts from a wide range of memoirs, each with a brief introduction to place the excerpt in context. Billie Holiday’s entry for age 40 is heart-breaking. Nelson Mandela writing of freedom at age 71 is awe-inspiring.  This is a great source for finding memoirs you’d like to read in full.  If we don’t have that book in our collection, we’ll be glad to look for a copy in another library we can “InterLibrary Loan” in for you.

Pushcart Prize XXXII Best of the Small Presses 2008, edited by Bill Henderson, is an anthology of American fiction, essays, memoirs and poetry published by small presses.  If you are skeptical of the domination of American literature by the Big Seven Publishers, this book will give you a taste of the very best of the rest. Again, we’ll do everything we can to locate any text you’d like to read in full.

Return of the Theremin — Saturday, April 12th 2008

 

Last fall, Robert Wheeler of Pere Ubu showed us how he makes unique sounds without touching the antennae of his Theremin.

He’s coming back this weekend with some new surprises.

Be in our Gallery at 2 pm to see this special event!

Original Blog post from October 2007:

http://avonlake.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/the-re-min

Update on Rachael’s Mugs

Library staff and patrons raised $1300 for the new library in Guinagourou, Benin in West Africa, and we’re thrilled with the beautiful mugs we bought.

 The News-Herald has a great article about the library, the mugs and the amazing Miller family making it all possible.

Here at the Avon Lake Public Library, we’re feeling really jazzed about our opportunities to promote literacy at home and throughout the world.

Social Media and Web 2.0 Program

This Wednesday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m., we’ll be welcoming local blogger and all-around techie Gregg Eldred for a program on social media and web 2.0.

 Want to know what the buzz is all about? Blogs, wikis, Facebook, MySpace? Want to join in the conversation or just know what your kids are up to online? Are you concerned about your company’s presence on the web or looking for ways to promote your business?

Gregg will lead us into the thicket and onto the World Wide Web.

Mugs for Rachael’s Library

Rachael is a Peace Corp volunteer in Benin, Africa. Sandy Miller is a potter from Painesville. Avon Lake Public Library is helping to build a library across the ocean. What do all three of these things have in common? The Library has monthly art exhibits, and during the month of March, Sandy Miller’s work is on exhibit. Her pottery is stunning, but there is also a very special exhibit of Sandy’s work on display. “Mugs for Rachael’s Library” are hand made mugs and each one is unique. Rachael is Sandy’s daughter, a Kent State University graduate who has spent the last two years in Benin. All proceeds (mugs are $20 each) go towards building and furnishing a library in a small village in Benin, Africa. The village has dreamed of one day having a library. They know that knowledge is empowering, and being empowered can bring great improvements to their lives. Rachael, Sandy and Avon Lake Public Library thank you, the community, for embracing this project with such generous support. If you haven’t purchased a mug yet, stop by, there a still a handful left!

Teen Tech Week 2008

Tune In @ Your Library® during Teen Tech Week 2008

Local teens will be tuning in as Avon Lake Public Library celebrates the second annual Teen Tech Week March 2-8, 2008. They join thousands of other libraries and schools across the country who are celebrating this year’s theme, “Tune In @ Your Library®.” Teen Tech Week is a national initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults. The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ non-print resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology.

Teens between the ages of 11 and 18 are encouraged to stop by the YA Stop and fill out a Teen Tech Quiz for a chance to win a prize.  The contest runs through March 8, 2008.

March is Women’s History Month

Each year, March is designated as National Women’s History Month to ensure that the history of American women will be recognized and celebrated in schools, workplaces, and communities throughout the country.  The stories of women’s historic achievements present an expanded view of the complexity and contradiction of living a full and purposeful life.

The knowledge of women’s history provides a more expansive vision of what a woman can do. This perspective can encourage girls and women to think larger and bolder and can give boys and men a fuller understanding of the female experience.

To honor the originality, beauty, imagination, and multiple dimensions of women’s lives, Women’s Art: Women’s Vision has been chosen as the 2008 theme for National Women’s History Month.

The history of women and art is quintessential women’s history.  It is the story of amazing women’s accomplishments acclaimed at the time but written out of history. Join us in ensuring that their accomplishments are never forgotten.

This year’s theme provides a special opportunity to discover and celebrate women’s visual arts in a variety of forms and mediums that help expand our perceptions of ourselves and each other.

Be sure to check out our Women’s History Month display at the library, featuring books both by and about women artists.

Pride and Prejudice

Our Jane Austen Book and Movie Group will be discussing “the Austen book,” Pride and Prejudice, at their February 13 meeting.  The group is led by Avon Lake resident and serious Austen-phile Jen Snyder, and they’d love to have you join them.  It’s a Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.

March 12, also a Wednesday but at 6:30 p.m., the group will screen the 2006 movie with Keira Knightly, Matthew Macfadyen, Donald Sunderland and Judi Dench.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s an eye feast.  The movie will be shown in our MacMahan Room with state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment.

Beyond the wonders of Jane Austen’s writing and her sharp social observations, some of the fun of Austen is in the numerous adaptations of the story in modern novels and movies.  One of my favorites is Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood version of the novel.  We have a copy here at the library and I heartily recommend checking it out for a cold winter night’s entertainment.  Along with the romance and humor, those scenes in tropical India are a delightful contrast to windy grey Cleveland in February.

 And then there’s this youtube version, with its literal take on Pride.