Blog Post
How I Learned to Cook
by Van
In How I Learned to Cook: Culinary Educations from the World’s Greatest Chefs, forty chefs share short sketches of their lives as chefs: what brought them to cooking, working as prep cooks, family backgrounds, kitchen mishaps, influences. And these are big names: Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, Marcella Hazan.
I read the entries by chefs whose restaurants I have eaten in: Sara Moulton making beer steamed Det Burgers at the Del Rio, Gary Danko writing about his difficulties getting accepted as a student by Madeleine Kamman, Rick Bayless taping a show with Julia Child for In Julia’s Kitchen with the Master Chefs.
Then I read the rest. I especially liked the ones about getting a start in the kitchen and having to quickly figure things out, with the occasional mess up such as poaching the fish that was to be fried and frying the fish that was to be poached.
Blog Post
Arabic books at Malletts Creek
by Tara LS
Several Arabic books were recently transferred to the Malletts Creek branch. Check them out. Some of the books include:
"al-Abnusa al-baida'" by Hanna Mina
"Ana hiya inti riwaayah" by Ilham Mansoor
"ar-Ra'ad" by Zakaria Tamer
Blog Post
Conquering Clutter and Staying Organized
by annevm
Recently I stumbled upon an appearance by Joyce Anderson, author of Help, I’m knee-deep in clutter! Conquer the chaos and get organized once and for all, as this author was speaking at Nicola’s Books. Although Anderson said that such appearances, along with radio interviews, are definitely not her thing, her talk was nonetheless engaging, and her book sounded intriguing. Anderson told the audience that after writing a book, she finally understood why J.K. Rowling became less than perfectly organized while writing the Harry Potter books: Lots to do, no time, and suddenly, clutter is king.
Blog Post
Searching for foreign language books
by Tara LS
The best way to see what is available in our foreign language collection is by call number. Searching by call number allows you to differentiate between adult and youth books. When at the Catalog page, select "More search options", then select "call number". If you enter the general call number, a list of the holdings for that language will be displayed. Of course, you can also search by title, author and subject ("name of language" language materials).
The call numbers for the adult foreign language books are FLC + the first three letters of the name of the language. The only exception is Japanese which is "FLC JPN".
For example: Chinese = FLC CHI, Arabic = FLC ARA, Spanish = FLC SPA
The call numbers for children's foreign language books are Youth FLC + the first three letters of the name of the language. Again, the only exception is "Youth FLC JPN".
For example: Telugu = Youth FLC TEL, Hebrew = Youth FLC HEB, Urdu = Youth FLC URD
Blog Post
Going to the Birds!
by Robb
Wednesday in the afternoon on my way to work I was held up for about 5 minutes in a small traffic jam created by two lovely swans that were taking a stroll along Scio Church road. Eventually someone from one of the cars gently herded the swans into the adjacent roadside ponds. It was a nice experience that from the expressions of the other drivers was universally enjoyed.
That particular corner is a great place to view birds and attracts a lot of photographers and bird watchers. It’s just east of Parker road at Scio Church road about 8 miles west of Ann Arbor.
In case you need some help identifying the birds you see there please check out the Ann Arbor District Library’s great collection of bird books.
Blog Post
2nd Tuesday – Meet Julie Orringer @ Mallets Creek Wed., March 21, 7 pm
by K.C.
Hear Julie Orringer read from her short story collection, How to Breathe Underwater, a New York Times Notable Book and the winner of the Northern California Book Award. Julie is the Helen Herzog Zell Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan.
Blog Post
The Scarlet Letter
by Robb
Today is the anniversary of America's first best seller - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. A total of 2,500 copies were published and sold out in 10 days. It was the first American novel to reach a large audience. See today's entry in the Writers Almanac with Garrison Keilor for more information about the printing process back in 1850 in the United States.
Blog Post
Hooked by the end of the first paragraph...
by StoryLaura
It is amazing how the honest language and direct approach of certain authors grabs you immediately. Alabama Moon by Watt Key is a first novel and a great ride. Ten year old Moon has lived in the forest with his government-hating father his whole life. When he is forced into civilization and encounters jail, bullies and other troubling experiences, he survives by using the instinct and intelligence that helped him in his former life. Moon is a spitfire and this is a fun and moving adventure read for teenagers.
Blog Post
And the winner is...
by anned
Today NASA announced Harmony as the name of the new module of the International Space Station. The name was chosen from an academic competition involving thousands of students in kindergarten through high school which required students to learn about the International Space Station, build a scale model of the module, and write an essay explaining their proposed name.
Harmony is a pressurized module that will act as a connecting port and passageway to additional international science labs and supply spacecraft. It also will be a work platform for the station's robotic arm. Find out more at NASA's website.
Blog Post
Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss wins its second monster award
by sernabad
Kiran Desai is having a fantastic year with her 2006 novel, The Inheritance of Loss, a brilliant novel of a retired reclusive judge living in northeast India in the 1980s with his orphaned, granddaughter, as the Nepalese revolution gathers on the horizon. First it won the 2006 Man Booker Prize. And now she has scooped up the 2006 National Book Critics Circle fiction prize.
For a full list of the the NBCC winners, go to their website.