Book of the Week #48

Still to Mow: Poems by Maxine Kumin. (W. W. Norton, 2007)

The latest volume of poetry by former NH Poet Laureate (and Pulitzer Prize winner, and Robert Frost Medal recipient, and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and ...) Maxine Kumin begins with "Mulching" which sets the tone perfectly for the combination of poetry included in the book. Poems expressing powerful outrage at the outrages of today's world are balanced with meditations on life, friendship, and life on a New England farm.

"When you look back there's lots of bales in the field, but ahead it's all still to mow." -- John Gardner

A good use for catalog cards

As a fairly "techie" librarian, I am not a big fan of catalog cards, but here is a cool use of them, or representations of them anyway. Thanks to Jessamyn West for pointing it out.

Book of the Week #47

Run, Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr, illustrations by Laura Rader (Walker & Co. 2007)


Can turkey outwit the farmer or will he end up as Thanksgiving dinner? New Hampshire author and librarian Diane Mayr takes us along for the chase in this charming picture book.

This Blog is a Year Old Today

The first posting to this blog was made exactly one year ago today. Since then there have been 4917 pageloads of the blog (mine don't count) and an average of 265 unique visitors per month. These statistics come from a program called StatCounter that I installed on the blog.

The one-year point seems like a good time to consider how this particular project is going. To that end I am seeking some feedback from the readers of this blog:

• What do you like about this blog?
• What don't you like?
• Is there a particular type of posting you would like to see more (or less) of?

If you want to add a comment to this posting with your feedback, that would be fine.

If you would rather send me an email with your thoughts that would be fine too.

Book of the Week #46

A Century of November by W. D. Wetherell (Ann Arbor, Michigan: 2004)

This novel by Lyme, NH resident W. D. Wetherell was the winner of the 2004 Michigan Literary Fiction Award:

"A Century of November is an elegant, moving, and utterly convincing account of a father's attempt to understand the death of his only son in the trenches of Belgium during the very last days of World War I. In a strangely timeless and
hypnotic narrative reminiscent of the best poetry of Wilfred Owen or Rupert Brooke or Timothy Findley's haunting novel The Wars, the author evokes the unvoiced grief and rage of a man who has recently lost his wife to the Spanish
Influenza and his son to a battle in a town whose name he can't pronounce. Impulsively boarding a ferry, then a train, then a steamship, Charles Marden travels from his farm in Vancouver to the killing fields of Europe. Following the shadow of the first and only woman his son ever loved, Marden stumbles across a chaotic landscape so recently drenched by blood and poison gas that the truth seems not only difficult to ascertain, but ultimately unknowable and irrelevant."
-- Eileen Pollack, a MLFA judge.

Big Read Now Accepting Grant Applications

The National Endowment for the Arts has just announced the timeline for their next round of Big Read grants. If you would like to do a Big Read program in your communite between September 2008 and June 2009 the deadline for grant applications is January 11, 2008. (They have switched to an annual grant cycle instead of twice per year.)

It was a Big Read grant that supported The Big Read: New Hampshire Reads Fahrenheit 451. I would encourage New Hampshire communities to consider applying for a Big Read grant for their community. If you are considering this and have questions about our experiences please email me. The Center for the Book at the NH State Library will not be submitting a Big Read application in this grant cycle.

Here is the official announcement:

The Big Read, a national program to encourage literary reading and revitalize the role of literature in American culture, is accepting applications from non-profit organizations to conduct month-long, community-wide reads between September 2008 and June 2009. Organizations selected to participate in The Big Read will receive a grant ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, financial support to attend the national orientation meeting, educational and promotional materials for broad distribution, Organizer’s Guide for developing and managing Big Read activities, inclusion of your organization and activities on The Big Read Web site, and the prestige of participating in a highly visible national initiative. Approximately 300 organizations of varying sizes across the country will be selected for this cycle. To download the Guidelines & Applications go to http://www.neabigread.org/ Questions? Call Arts Midwest at 612.341.0755 or email BigRead@artsmidwest.org

It's Time to Vote!

It's November, that means that it is time to vote for the Ladybug Picture Book Award winner.

A few reminders for those of you who are voting sites:

If you want stickers for this year you will need to get your order form (& your payment) to the Center for the Book ON or BEFORE Thursday, November 15. Orders received after that cannot be filled in time for you to get your stickers before the deadline for votes.

The deadline for sending your vote tally sheet is 5pm on Friday November 30, 2007. Votes received after that will NOT be counted. Sending a paper tally sheet is the preferred method of receiving your vote counts (they are much faster to count than email messages). If you must email your vote counts be sure to use my new email address as messages sent to the old address may not get through.

Have fun, and may the best picture book win!

Book of the Week #45

Running on the Record: Civil War-Era Politics in New Hampshire by Lex Renda. (University Press of Virginia, 1997.)

In honor of Election Day I chose this volume which looks at the connections between voters' judgements and public policy in New Hampshire during a time when elections were entertainment and party loyalties were young and vigorous.

"In an age when organized forms of entertainment were scarce, politics was an exhilarating experience, marked by parades, gambling, shouting, and bravado. People flocked to the polls on election day. Observers could easily distinguish
the ballots of each party, and voters cast them in a manner which exclaimed their loyalties. People eagerly awaited election results, even for days on end. The nineteenth century often seems a golden age of politics when elections were exciting, voters participated in droves, party loyalties were entrenched, and 'independent' voters were scorned. "