Women Writers & Publishers Weekly

A good deal of heat has been generated among book aficianados by the Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2009 list.   This list is the editors’ choice of the major publishing trade magazine which has significant influence over what books get stocked in book stores, reviewed,  purchased and read.  Not one of the top 10 books in their list was written by a woman, not this year’s contributions by such literary luminaries as A.S. Byatt, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro or Rita Dove.  None of those from popular writers Diana Gabaldon, Barbara Kingsolver,  Sara Paretsky or Kathyrn Stockett.  None of the important nonfiction of Gail Collins,  Sheryl WuDunn, Rebecca Solnit or Sara Maitland.

The 2009 Man Booker International Prize, the Booker Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction all went to women writers (Munro, Hilary Mantel and Elizabeth Strout), so it’s not like women aren’t writing great books.

Publisher’s Weekly acknowledged that their (subjective) choices didn’t produce “the most politically correct” list (Huffington Post, 10.29.09).   Does politically incorrect mean male bias?

Fortunately, Women in Literature and Literary Arts (WILLA) is taking up the gauntlet.  They’ve created The WILLA List Wiki (sort of like a small version of Wikipedia, the public can contribute directly to it) to list books written by women authors in 2009.  There are some great books listed though the list is quite long, and I certainly don’t recognize all of the authors or titles.  I have found a good source of reading ideas for 2010.

What are your favorite authors, female or male, of 2009?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Back to School: Bibliographies

When I was in school, the part about writing papers I hated the most was writing the bibliography.  Just getting the page formatted correctly was always a burden.  Finally dumping my typewriter for the word processing program on a computer made that easier.  But there was still the problem of being sure I had all the right information for each citation and got everything in the right order with the right abbreviations and punctuation.

Well, the internet is making that easier too.  There are several citation “machines” online that make building a bibliography a snap.  One of the best is WorksCited4U.com.

The page is a bit busy, mostly with the ads that are ubiquitous on free sites like this one.  Look for the Bib Builder headline on the left side of the page and choose your format from the drop down box below it.  On the next page, choose your source type from the next drop down box.  In most cases, you will need to use the Manual Entry tab.  It will tell you exactly what information you need to type in. When you click the Add This Source button, the website will correctly format your source.  If you register for a free account (with a minimum of personal information), it will actually prepare your bibliography for you as a Word document!  The “machine” will also show you exactly how to cite a source within your paper and create footnotes or endnotes if you need those.

This makes one of the most dreaded parts of paper writing a breeze.  With a tool like this, I’m almost (sort of, not really) ready to go back to school myself!

Next entry in the Back to School series: Test Preparation Online.

Dan Brown Readalikes

Dan Brown’s newest book,  The Lost Symbol, was released on September 15, 2009.  If you are looking for a good book to read while you wait for his new book, or you are just looking for other books similar to Dan Brown’s, try some of these readlikes.

The Last Cato  Matilde Asensi

The Templar Legacy  Steve Berry

The Rule of Four  Ian Caldwell

The Genesis Code  John Case

A Finer End  Deborah Crombie

Foucault’s Pendulum  Umberto Eco

Codex  Lev Grossman

The Historian  Elizabeth Kostova

The Last Templar  Raymond Khoury

Labyrinth  Kate Mosse

The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud  Julia Navarro

Daughter of God  Lewis Perdue

Seven Deadly Wonders  Matthew Reilly

Map of Bones  James Rollins

The Secret Supper  Javier Sierra

The Confessor  Daniel Silva

These are just a few of the books that are similar to those of Dan Brown.  Feel free to add a comment with your own suggestions!

Back to School: Help With Writing Papers

In my last Back to School post,  I described some electronic databases useful for research.  After the research comes the writing.  Need some help with the writing process?  Can’t remember what is supposed to be part of the outline? Trying to create a good thesis statement or do you not remember whether it should be to, too or two in that sentence?

Purdue University has a top-notch online website called the Online Writing Lab (OWL) with writing resources and instruction available to everyone.  There’s a significant, and really useful, section devoted to grades 7 through 12 and another substantial section on professional writing (job-related) as well as the college-level materials one would expect.  It’s almost like having a writing tutor on your desktop!

Next in the series: Writing the Bibliography.

Back to School: Help with Research

Earlier this week, I wrote about an online tool for student assignment management.  Today, I’m continuing the theme of online back to school resources with a description of the electronic databases available to library patrons throughout state.   These databases are incredibly useful for research.

They hold a mother lode of magazine and newspaper articles, online encyclopedia and other reference articles, photographs, primary sources and lots more.  Almost every kind of source your teacher demands, all available to you from your home, school or  library internet connection.  Start at OhioWebLibrary.org. Unless you’re using a library computer, you’ll need to use your library card (from any public library in Ohio) to make use of these databases.

While the first page looks a lot like Google, I’d suggest skipping that search box and picking out one or more specific databases to search in order to get more accurate and useful results.  Just click on the word “Resources” next to the search box.

For junior high students doing general research,  I’d suggest Kids Search or Student Research Center.  Searchasaurus looks a bit juvenile but returns very useful results for this age group.

For high school students, Student Research Center and Masterfile Premier are useful.  College students will find Academic Search Premier useful though their college or university library website will offer them a lot more options.

In addition, Ohio Web Library includes online encyclopedias and other reference works.  World Book Online and Oxford Reference Online are rich resources.  Check out the list for subject- specific databases too.

Most of the databases give you an option of searching Full-text articles only.  In most cases, you’ll want to check that box which you’ll find under “Limit your results”.  (You probably don’t want just a citation, you want the article itself).  Then just click “Search” and you’ll find a list of articles from lots of sources on your topic.  You may need to refine your search to locate exactly what you need.

If you have any questions about using any of these databases, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 440.933.7710.  We’ll be glad to help you find what you need.

Back to School: Assignment Management

As students and teachers head back to school, I’ll be posting a few handy online tools.

For keeping track of assignments, Soshiku is a great little tool useful to high school and college students.  It’s a calendar, a homework alarm clock and electronic three-ring binder all in one!  And it’s free.  Keep track of assignments, get email or text message alerts when assignments are due, save notes and files, manage tasks and work collaboratively with partners, all from this website.

I wish this had been available when I was in school.  It would have kept me much more organized and, maybe, prevented some all-nighters when I finally remembered what was due the next day.  Or maybe not.  There’s no changing (lazy) human nature.  But I hope it helps you.

New Anisfield-Wolf Award Winner: Louise Erdrich

Congratulations to one of my favorite writers, Louise Erdrich, who won the Anisfield-Wolf Award this evening at the Cleveland Play House.  This award recognizes excellence in writing that contribute to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of cultural diversity.  Erdrich won this award in recognition of her outstanding novel, The Plague of Doves, along with Nam Le for his collection of short stories, The Boat, Annette Gordon-Reed for The Hemingses of Monticello and Paule Marshall for Outstanding Life Time Achievement.

Henry Louis Gates, one of the judges for the award, describes these works as “collectively they share an unyielding faith in the essential humanity of their subjects”.  This is very much what I appreciate about all of Erdrich’s many novels and other books, along with her humor, her complex and nuanced characters and her wild story lines.

I invite you to check out and enjoy The Plague of Doves and the rest of Erdrich’s many rich novels (may I particularly recommend The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse?).

2008/05 Harper 0060515120 Check Our Catalog

The Plague of Doves By Erdrich, Louise BookPage Notable Title In this multi generational tour-de-force of sin, redemption, murder, and vengeance (Publishers Weekly), a senseless and horrific crime in 1911 forever changes the lives of several families living in and around Pluto, North Dakota, a white town on the far western edge of an Ojibwe reservation. Louise Erdrich’s mesmerizing new novel, her first in almost three years, centers on a compelling mystery. The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation. The descendants of Ojibwe and white intermarry, their lives intertwine; only the youngest generation, of mixed blood, remains unaware of the role the past continues to play in their lives. Evelina Harp is a witty, ambitious young girl, part Ojibwe, part white, who is prone to falling hopelessly in love. Mooshum, Evelina’s grandfather, is a seductive storyteller, a repository of family and tribal history with an all-too-intimate knowledge of the violent past. Nobody understands the weight of historical injustice better than Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, a thoughtful mixed blood who witnesses the lives of those who appear before him, and whose own love life reflects the entire history of the territory. In distinct and winning voices, Erdrich’s narrators unravel the stories of different generations and families in this corner of North Dakota. Bound by love, torn by history, the two communities’ collective stories finally come together in a wrenching truth revealed in the novel’s final pages. “The Plague of Doves” is one of the major achievements of Louise Erdrich’s considerable oeuvre, a quintessentially American story and the most complex and original of her books.

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First Week in September

September starts our new fall schedule of programs at Avon Lake Public Library.  We’ve got a very full schedule this fall, something for everyone.  The entire schedule can be found online.  Here’s the schedule for the first week:

Monday, September 7 we’ll be closed for Labor Day.

Wednesday, September 9 at 7 p.m. we’ll kick off our newest edition of our popular Environmental Issues Series with Avon Lake’s own Holly Moore Kowalski presenting a program on Green Consuming – making choices about our purchases and the things we bring into our home to reduce our carbon footprint.  This series is co-sponsored by the Avon Lake City Council Environment Committee and the Lorain County Metroparks.

Thursday, September 10 at 7:30 p.m. Certified Hypnotherapist Mary Ellen Ott will be back to us find ways of dealing with ever-present stress by learning to deeply relax.  Learn more about hypnosis for stress management – what it is, what it isn’t, how it works.  Begin to tap into the power of your imagination in a way that will leave you feeling relaxed and refreshed.

We’ve got lots of exciting programming for children and teens coming up as well as much more programming for adults.  Be sure to check out the full schedule.

Library Ranked 8th in Nation!

The Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings (HAPLR)  is a widely recognized annual report, that ranks and assesses public libraries across the nation.  Basically, it is a “report card” for libraries in the United States.  For over the past ten years, one quarter of ALL top ten libraries were in Ohio. 

The HAPLR Index rates public libraries in 15 different categories, focusing on circulation, staffing, materials, reference services, etc.  The report then divides the libraries into population categories and the top ten libraries are ranked in each category.   AVON LAKE PUBLIC LIBRARY IS RANKED 8TH IN ITS CATEGORY NATIONALLY!! 

We thank you, our patrons, for your great support of the Library.  In turn, the staff will continue to honor their “commitment to excellence” in serving the community.

Books about Books

The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control

By Striphas, Theodore G.

Columbia University Press
0231148143
Check Our Catalog

Summer reading for me is mostly — about reading!  There has been a lot of ink spilled and pixels pummeled about the death of print as a medium for decades, this book is a thoughtful entry into the debate.  The more some things change, such as technology and society, the more obvious that people and their brains don’t change that much.

Visit the author’s website here.

From publisher’s comments:  “Striphas’s provocative analysis offers a counternarrative to those who either triumphantly declare the end of printed books or deeply mourn their passing. With wit and brilliant insight, he isolates the invisible processes through which books have come to mediate our social interactions and influence our habits of consumption, integrating themselves into our routines and intellects like never before.”