49 years ago today the earth stood still when this alien command was spoken in theaters across the country on the opening day of the Cold War, sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by recently deceased director Robert Wise. But America was also mesmerized by the new sound of the theremin, which earned its place in the pantheon of good (and bad, see: Ed Wood) movie soundtracks, reaching its quivering peak in 1966 with the Beach Boys' unrivaled "Good Vibrations". For more on this unusual instrument, the Library owns the compelling documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey.

M. Scott Peck, author of the bestselling The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth (1978), died September 25, 2005.

A Harvard graduate with a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Dr. Peck launched his literary career after ten years as a practicing psychiatrist. His very first sentence in The Road Less Traveled, “Life is difficult,” is at the heart of his belief that once people accept that fact, they can experience a life of deep rewards and valuable lessons.

Dr. Peck, who was 69, was the author of more than 15 books, including A Bed by the Window: A Novel of Mystery and Redemption (1990), Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey toward Spiritual Growth (1993), and The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety (1997)

Gregory Maguire, whose Wicked (1995), is enjoying a second life as a big-budget Broadway Musical will release its much-anticipated sequel Son of a Witch on Sept. 29th.
The story picks up where Dorothy did in Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West and brought about spectacular changes in the Land of Oz – not all of them pleasant. A caravan leader stumbled upon a badly hurt young man, Liir, who might be the dead witch’s rumored secreted son. The ensuing tale is one of great drama, eccentric characters and object lessons.

Leap back 100 years with Brown Angels:an Album of Pictures and Verse. The book displays sepia-tone photos of African-American children from the turn-of-the-century, in companion with poetry by Walter Dean Myers. Bring the timeline forward to today and read So Much about an exciting birthday within an extended family and Yo! Yes?, the first conversation of a budding new friendship.

Mississippi is an Ojibwe word meaning “Great River.” Monday on the Mississippi makes you feel you're in a boat flowing down the river through the states from the Minnesota source to the Louisiana mouth. Steamboat! the Story of Captain Blanche Leathers is a biography of the first female steamboat captain. Blanche married Bowling Leathers, captain of the Natchez, the fastest and grandest steamboat on the Mississippi. Blanche joined her husband in the pilot house and was taught everything he knew. In 1894 she passed the difficult exam and became a “Steamboatman”.

Put mystery and science together and you get a cool thing called forensic science. If you are a big fan of the television show CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), then you know what I'm talking about. Check out our graphic novel collection based on the series, CSI and CSI Miami.

If you are in to hands on science, check out our CSI program on October 1st. There are still spots open for the 1pm program. Just call the Youth Department desk at 327-8301.

The value of a library is the ideas it holds and shares. It is Banned Books Week season, and The Librarian Of Basra is the true story, told in a picture book, of a brave Librarian in Iraq, Alia Muhammad Baker, who saved the contents of her library during war.

Biographer Ron Powers was featured on the Diane Rehm show Thursday September 22, 2005, and presented what he calls an "interpretive portraiture" of American humorist, essayist and novelist Mark Twain. Powers makes the case that Twain became the representative figure of his times. Twain's work and life continues to fascinate us even in these modern times.

The Play Ground can barely catch its breath because of the exciting news that “America’s Beautiful Voice,” premier soprano Renee Fleming is coming to Hill Auditorium on October 13. Renée Fleming will be performing in Richard Strauss’s Daphne with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and Men of the WDR Radio Chorus Cologne. This will be a concert opera — operas performed in a concert setting with limited theatrical stage effects. In addition, Music Specialist Richard LeSueur will discuss the plot and the background of the Strauss' late masterpiece Daphne on Sunday, October 9 at 3pm Downtown at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Fantasy and romance enter the list this week.

At #5 is High Druid of Shannara: Straken by Terry Brooks. In the final volume of this trilogy the hero Pen Ohmsford is on a quest for save his aunt from exile.

At #6 is Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell. For fans wishing there were new episodes of "Sex and the City", the show's creator treats us to this story of three women trying to juggle their personal and professional lives.