Ages 18+.
Blog Post
Zaha Hadid at the Guggenheim
by muffy
Zaha Hadid is the first woman to be awarded the distinguished Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2004. The Iraqi-born, London-based architect is internationally known for projects that have literally "shifted the geometry of buildings."
The current exhibition at the Guggenheim is a 30-year retrospective of her work in a wide range of mediums: paintings, sketches, architectural drawings, urban plans, models, relief models, animations, furniture, and design object. It opens today and runs through October 25th, 2006.
The exhibition catalog will be available soon but you can read up on Zaha Hadid in Zaha Hadid : Testing the Boundaries.
Blog Post
Summer's Most Magical Form of Transport: Books
by muffy
Looking for some great summer reading recommendations? You cannot go wrong with NPR’s Alan Cheuse. Here are the excerpts of some of the titles on his 2006 Summer Reading list.
Swell Books for Summer Loafing by Susan Stamberg is another source not to be missed. This morning I heard wonderful suggestions from three independent booksellers. My list is growing and I need to get a bigger beach bag!
And then there is the Talk of the Nation Summer Reading List.
Just to make sure you won’t run out of good reads this summer, we will soon be making some summer reading suggestions too in our Books Blog. Watch for them.
Blog Post
New Fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers List (6/4/06)
by Mazie
After last weekend's sunshine it appears we are back to gloomy weather this week. The two new entries are "hard-boiled" American mysteries that also walk on the dark side of human nature.
At #2 is Dead Watch by John Sandford: in this new series Jacob Winter is a political operative instead of a newspaperman but he also ends up pursuing a murderer.
At #3 is The Hard Way by Lee Child: Jack Reacher is back, helping a dealer in mercenaries find his kidnapped wife.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #24 - Geography as Character
by muffy
Two exemplary recent Australian releases treat geography as character - the highly original and witty debut Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany, and The Secret River by the 2001 Orange Prize winner, Kate Grenville.
Set in 1930s Victoria, Everyman is narrated by Jean Cunningham, the young, curious and courageous sewing teacher on the “Better-Farming Train” which travels throughout the country, bringing advice to agricultural communities. Love comes in the form of Robert, an idealistic soil scientist with the rare ability to identify the origin of soil by taste, and who adheres unyieldingly to his Rules for Scientific Living.
The Secret River on the other hand, is inspired by Grenville’s own family history and the early settlement of New South Wales. William Thornhill and his family must struggle for a delicate coexistence with the native population along the savage Hawkesbury River.
Landscape is far more than mere setting. Whether harsh or lush, beneficent or punishing, it drives the plots and leaves indelible marks in the lives of these characters.
Blog Post
The Truth About Bodyfat Loss
by kcrj49
Wednesday June 7, 7:00 - 8:30 pm Downtown Multi-Purpose Room
Are you into fitness and personal training? Interested in losing a few inches for the summer season? Then come hear Fitness and Nutrition Counselor Andrew Phelka discuss the myths and facts about losing bodyfat. Mr. Phelka will talk about how nutrition, exercise and metabolism can all affect body fat loss.
Blog Post
Barry Harris: The Spirit of Bebop
by kcrj49
Monday, June 5, 7:00-8:30 pm Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room
Come see this fascinating documentary of jazz innovator Barry Harris. This film, by Edgar Howard, also pays homage to jazz luminaries like Parker, Monk, Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie. Jazz scholar Lars Bjorn will introduce this 55 minute film and lead a discussion afterwards.
Blog Post
An extraordinary story
by Maxine
Death becomes a pivotal character in the mezmerizing novel, The Book Thief by Australian author, Marcus Zusak. Death, often hard hearted, is drawn to Liesel Meminger, a nine year old girl growing up near Munich during World War II. Abandoned by her mother and still suffering nightmares about the death of her younger brother, Liesel is taken in by foster parents in the rough working class neighborhood of Molching where she steals her first book. Over the ensuing years, Liesel steals more books which become for her an escape and a silent protest to the totalitarian regime in which she lives. She befriends Max, a Jew, whom her parents hide in their basement and who whitewashes the pages of Mein Kampf to make his own book as a gift to Liesel. To hear an interview done by NPR's John Ydstie with Zusak, log on to the NPR site.
Liesel's recognition of the power of words echoes Death's who, according to reviewer Elizabeth Chang, "..recognizes them not only for the good they can do, but for the evil as well. What would Hitler have been, after all, without words?"
Blog Post
Paul Auster wins major literary award in Spain
by sernabad
Paul Auster, 59, was awarded Spain's The Prince of Asturias Award for Letters yesterday.
Auster, whose latest novel, Brooklyn Follies (2006), was released earlier this year was praised by prize committee president, Victor Garcia de la Concha, as "...one of the U.S. greatest living writers."
Auster, married to author Siri Hustvedt, will receive the 50,000 Euro ($70,760) purse in an October 2006 ceremony.
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Curiouser and curiouser ...
by carbonear
Ever feel as though it's all been done before? As though you may as well give up trying to create anything new, because your efforts will never equal those of the masters?
The Alexandrians, named "for the fire, not the library," feel the same way.
To help pave the way for new art, they have orchestrated the planned removal from society of works of art, literature, music, film ...
A talking dog, a nine-year pregnancy, Hank Williams ... with this strange brew, Terry Bisson, author of the short story "Bears Discover Fire," delivers the increasingly odd story of one of those charged with doing the removing: The Pickup Artist.
Blog Post
In the Wake of Memorial Day
by Eartoground
Memorial Day was a good chance to finish reading Flights of Passage: Recollections of a World War II Aviator by Samuel Hynes, a fabulously personal account of one man's experience learning to fly and fighting in the Pacific at the tail end of World War II. Many veterans of Hynes' generation are participating in the Veterans History Project organized by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.