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CHARLES CHESNUTTThursday, January 31, 2008
Harriett
Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) has landed himself on a 41-cent stamp. It's about time he had some regonition: he is credited with being the first mainstream-published African-American writer, and a popular one, at that.
After earning the top score on the Ohio Bar Exam, Chesnutt worked as a court reporter. Later, he founded a legal stenography company and dedicated himself to his writing, mostly fiction with a moral mission of race-relation peace. Some of his books include The Conjure Woman, The Wife of His Youth, The House Behind the Cedars, The Marrow of Tradition and The Colonel's Dream. Oh, and did I mention he was from Cleveland? There was a big celebration downtown to commemorate the release of this new stamp.
Our third Thursday NOBS Forums this month features a talk on Chesnutt. Ann Olszewski is the preservation manager at the Cleveland Public Library, which holds quite a bit of biographical and documentary material on Chesnutt, as well as some of his books (first editions of which are now rare). (Berea College, KY, also holds some great materials, and hosts the Charles Chesnutt Digital Archive.) Come hear Olszewski talk on Chesnutt and his legacy in the book world. The talk will be on Thursday, February 21, 7pm, here at Loganberry. Also tune in to WCPN's "Around Noon" on Monday, February 18 to hear Dee Perry interview Ann Olszewski about Chesnutt.
BOOK
REC: YELLOW-LIGHTED BOOKSHOPTuesday, January 29, 2008
Title: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History
Author: Lewis Buzbee
Reviewer: Aunt Susan
If you love books and bookstores, do try The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History by Lewis Buzbee. It was published in 2006, and it’s a small book, but small only in size. It’s too full of good information to be in the precious category, and it’s so “right-on” it made me laugh. Highly recommended.
IN MEMORIAM: SCHRECKENGOST Monday, January 28, 2008
Harriett
A Cleveland icon has recently died: Viktor Schreckengost. He lived to see his centennial celebrated in just about every state, as his ceramics, paintings, crafts, toys, and numerous industrial designs have infiltrated American society. He was proud of the centennial celebration, and I saw him around town at several of the openings in his honor. His famous Jazz Bowl (first commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt) lives prominently in the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as other museums and numerous private collections, and has been brought back to life in a modern collector's edition. Cleveland Heights will miss this hometown legend, as will the students and teachers at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Farewell, American da Vinci.
QUOTE OF THE DAY Monday, January 28, 2008
Harriett
As reported by the ABA from their Winter Institute, Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, says:
"The big box store is just a machine for global warming."
A perfect distillation of the big picture in a small sentence.
BOOKS MAKE THE OSCARSWednesday, January 23, 2008
Movies based on books were among the major Oscar nominations, which were announced yesterday. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, February 24, but may be slimmed down because of the writers' strike.
No Country for Old Men, based on the Cormac McCarthy book, was nominated for best picture, best director (Ethan and Joel Coen), best supporting actor (Javier Bardem) and best adapted screenplay. Altogether the film garnered eight nominations.
There Will Be Blood, based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, won nominations for best picture, best actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), best director (Paul Thomas Anderson) and best adapted screenplay. There Will Be Blood also had eight nominations.
Atonement, based on Ian McEwan's novel, won nominations for best picture, best supporting actress (Saoirse Ronan) and best adapted screenplay and garnered seven nominations overall.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, was nominated for best director (Julian Schnabel) and best adapted screenplay.
Other movies based on books that had major nominations included Charlie Wilson's War (Philip Seymour Hoffman, best supporting actor); Into the Wild (Hal Holbrook for best supporting actor) and Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud for best animated feature film).
ALABAMA SNOWMonday, January 21, 2008
Harriett
My cousins get all excited when they see snow. I think it's great that their little kids finally have opportunity to dance in the snow and build a snowperson. Better than Disney World itself, perhaps. Well, okay, at least cheaper and involving fewer headaches. Especially if they don't have to shovel the sidewalks. Happy New Year!
BIRDFEEDER Sunday, January 20, 2008
Harriett
A cold and very active day at the birdfeeders. I counted as many as 15 finches on one birdfeeder at once, and the queue was lined up in the forsythia near-by. We also had our usual juncos, black-capped chickadees, cardinals, blue jays (squawk!), house finches and other assorted finches. (No nuthatches or tufted titmice today.) We also saw a hawk and a downy woodpecker, as well as the magnificient (and large) red-breasted sapsucker.
The award of the day goes to a tiny fellow who has been visiting the suet feeder lately, and which we have finally decided must be a ruby-crowned kinglet. Our visitor must be female, as we've never seen the ruby crown, but nothing else in the bird book comes close, including its petite size (this baby can't be more than 3"), soft color (in winter hue she's almost all grey-brown, but you can see olive tones to her belly up close), and black and white bars just above the wing. Cute little thing.
NEW COMPUTERSaturday, January 19, 2008
Harriett
We're a little behind schedule on blog and other web updates due to computer musical chairs here. Yup, we got a new computer! And the old one isn't dead yet! What that means is we'll have a third computer station for an employee to use, instead of our current sharing routine. And the new one, being the fancy and most up-to-date machine here, becomes the main branch at the checkout counter. That means every computer moved, like a trickle-down theory of musical chairs. So far, we seem to be working, and the new programs haven't confused us too terribly. But I'm sure there will be some growing pains to work out. Many thanks to brother Bobby for masterminding the purchase, programming, networking, and installation of all the machines. Brothers are very good to have.
NOBS FORUMS: SHOW AND
TELLThursday, January 17, 2008
Harriett
Usually for NOBS Show and Tell sessions, people bring old books, vintage tomes, and collectible curiosities and treasures. I decided to bring something brand new, something most of us hadn't seen before, and something that redefines the concepts of genre.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick just won this year's Caldecott Award, and it's a wonderful and curious thing. This 500+ page book won the highest accolades "to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." Usually this is interpreted to mean picture books: slim volumes with pictures on every page and some text interspersed, perfect for reading aloud to a 4-year-old. This book does not fit this model. However, if was awarded the Newbery, generally speaking for young adult literature, it would be the writer who was awarded, not the illustrator, even if that is one and the same person, as it is with Hugo Cabret.
Brian Selznick has reinterpreted the relationship of words and pictures in this book. The pictures, pencil skteches with heavy black page borders, are not used to illustrate the words, but are part of the story itself. Like Lynd Ward's God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts (1929), the pictures tell the story with no words at all. Except that Selznick trades off points of telling the story solely with pictures, and then giving us a couple pages of prose. The reading level might be appropriate for a 10-year-old, but I can't see a 4-year-old sitting through a story this long. I loved it, though, and I marvelled at the balance between words and pictures. The pictures read very quickly: they are sketches full of movement that beg you turn the page and follow the action, not to linger looking for details. The prose slows you down to figure out the finer plot points and plot twists, of which there are many. That doesn't mean all the action is put into pictures however: at one point in Part Two, a chase scene ensues told entirely in pictures, and a little while later, another chase scene is told entirely in words.
It's a wonderful read. It's already been named a finalist for the National Book Award (usually given to adult literature). What's most amazing is that the Caldecott Committee felt strongly enough to warp the boundaries of their award to include it in its prestigious circle. Congratulations to Selznick. Now, forget that someone calls this a children's book, and go read it.
STUMPER MAGICIANS
AWARDS Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Harriett
And, for our own awards, I am pleased to announce that this year we have TWO honorees for the Stumper Magician of the Year! These glorious souls have solved over 3 dozen stumpers in the past year, and continue to frequent the site to try to solve more. In recognition and thanks for their hard work, we are pleased to present them with Loganberry fleece sweatshirts, in purple, of course. Stay tuned for words from the winners themselves, as I've also asked them to write a blog entry...
Congratulations to:
Mary Lou of Dunning, Nebraska
Kelly of Weston, Massachuetts
ALA AWARDS! Monday, January 14, 2008
Harriett
The American Library Association (ALA) has announced the winners of its Caldecott, Newbery and Coretta Scott King awards today! Congratulations to the winners:
JOHN NEWBERY MEDAL
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village
by Laura Amy Schlitz
(Candlewick)
NEWBERY HONOR BOOKS
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion)
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)
RANDOLPH CALDECOTT MEDAL
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)
CALDECOTT HONOR BOOKS
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story From the Underground Railroad,
illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine (Scholastic)
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook)
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter
Sís
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo
Willems
(Hyperion)
CORETTA SCOTT KING AWARDS
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
CORETTA SCOTT KING HONOR BOOKS
November Blues by Sharon M. Draper (Atheneum)
Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali by
Charles
R. Smith Jr. (Candlewick)
NEW
PREZ!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Harriett
Larchmere Merchants Association has a new president! And
the good
news is, it's not me!! Congratulations to Harold Forquer of Wool
& Willow Needlepoint, and welcome to the fold. Harold has
been
active on the board in the past year, but now he gets to run the
meetings
and be the official point person. And I can focus my time on the
Flea Market and other pet projects without having to worry about every
last detail. And I'll still make the pretty newsletter-styled
Minutes,
since I'm now officially Secretary. Good, that's where the word
person
should be.
PAPER
GAMES
Friday, January 11, 2008
Harriett
A friend sent me this link, and even though this appears to be old news, it's still cool. I couldn't figure out when the contest actually happened, and found no mention of it on the official website, but here's a link to some pretty cool pictures.
The scoop: The Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC held a
contest
with the single rule that the artist could use only one sheet of
paper.
The entries are fabulous.
RAINY
DAYS
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Harriett
We've declared this week a rainy day. It doesn't have much to do with the weather, but with the notion that you'll do those pesky jobs, clean that corner, or fix those books on some proverbial rainy day. The rainy day has come! Feels great to clean house!
Brenda, meanwhile, is off to Disney World. Bon voyage
and have
fun! We've got our Mickey Mouse hats on here, and we're bouncing
along to Laura Love (Brenda can't stand any music involving a heavy
tempo
or drum, but it helps when you're dusting). Hope the weather is
good
down there, or at least the right kind of weather for those January
jobs....
BAGHDAD
BOOKSELLERS
Monday, January 7, 2008
Harriett
Resilient booksellers. Less than a year after the
Mutanabi Street
Book Market in Baghdad was decimated by a car bomb, the booksellers are
back to work, selling from make-do shelves and cloths on the
ground.
And customers are coming, slowly. After all, you can't forever
suppress
the need for information, intellectual pursuit, and an occasional good
read. Just ask the Mutanabi vendors.
ALEX
GANNERY
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Harriett
You know you're still sick when you start spouting off spoonerisms.
I was talking about the nice photography show we have in the Annex
Gallery,
and the synapses missed. Yup... I actually said Alex
Gannery
in real conversation. Give the poor girl some tea.
THE
UNCOMMON READER
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Harriett
The good thing about taking a day off to sit at home being
sick, is
you might have enough energy to read, and nothing stopping you from
reading
(gasp) in the middle of the day. I wasn't too ambitious or
anything
(after all, I was sick), but Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader hit
the spot just right. It's a fun, well-written and entertaining
novella,
and wonderfully short enough to finish in an afternoon. I take
unusual
pleasure in finishing a book in one sitting since I do that so
rarely.
Despite the title, not much reference to Virginia Woolf, but Queenie
discovers
the classics, and annoys her staff with her new pasttime. The
consequences
of reading are both minute and profound in Bennett's hand, and his
portrait
of Queen Elizabeth wonderfully droll and human.
Recommended.
HAPPY
NEW YEAR
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Harriett
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