Ages 18+.
Blog Post
95th Anniversary of Triange Shirtwaist Company Fire
by Maxine
On March 25, 1911, 146 women, mostly immigrants, died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Many of the women were trapped on the ninth floor because the doors were locked. Some fell to their deaths from open windows. The event, though tragic, was a turning point in labor history. New laws were passed requiring reforms in health and safety.
The book, Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch, is written for teens but has universal appeal for lovers of historical fiction. Auch conveys the horror of the fire and all that leads up to it from the perspective of Rose Nolan, a 16 year old Irish immigrant, who lands a job at the factory and is one of the survivors. Auch is good at evoking early twentieth century New York in all its color and squalor.
The immigrant experience in America is told in the four part PBS documentary, Destination America. Originally broadcast in 2005 as a four part PBS mini-series, the film examines the reasons people, especially women, came to America.
Blog Post
Remembering the Tuskegee Airmen
by ulrich
This week, in 1941, one of the most renowned and decorated African-American military units of the Second World War came into being as the 99th Pursuit Squadron [later the 332nd Fighter Group]. Better known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the group had 992 black airmen who flew P-39, P-40, P-47 and P-51 fighters in more than 15,000 sorties in North Africa, Sicily and Europe during World War II. A number of books highlight the contributions of these flyers, including Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen by Lynn M. Homan; A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman by Charles W. Dryden; Red Tails, Black Wings by John Holway; Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free by Alexander Jefferson and Flight: The Story of Virgil Richardson. There's also a fascinating documentary, Nightfighters which depicts the exploits of the group. For more information on the group see The Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. web site and the tribute on the National Park Service web site.
Blog Post
Has Title IX been good for sports?
by K.C.
Would Tennessee’s Candace Parker, whose two dunks last weekend were the first ever in NCAA tournament play, and Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris, whose powerful play has coaches comparing her to Shaq, be pushing the basketball envelope if Title IX had never become law?
A new book, A Place on the Team: The Triumph and Tragedy of Title IX explores the controversial law. While some say the law has provided girls and women more opportunity to grow and excel in athletics, others would say Title IX’s mandate that women and men athletes be treated equally has come at too great a cost. To comply with Title IX some colleges and universities have shifted money to women’s sports while reducing funds for or even cutting “lesser” men’s sports like wrestling and crew. Is that fair or is it a case of two wrongs don’t make a right?
Blog Post
Children of Paradise
by sstonez
The University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities has a free public screening of the 1945 film (Children of Paradise) on Tuesday, April 4 at 4 pm in Rackham room 0520. Filmed in Vichy-era France with writing by Jacques Prévert, the film follows a group of nineteenth-century pantomime actors centered around the alluring, philosophically light-hearted Garance. Roger Ebert wrote that “few achievements in the world of cinema can rival it." If you can’t make it to the screening, try the beautifully restored DVD of director Marcel Carné’s masterpiece.
Blog Post
Everything bad for you is not so bad
by called worse
It's okay. Despite everything you've heard, pop culture is not completely rotting your brain.
In Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson lays out a theory about how popular media are helping us develop better creative problem solving, social networking, and analysis skills. (That isn't to say that this book is against good old intellectual development through, well, books.) Johnson provides a smart take on neurological development, Dragnet, and The Sims that will just probably convince you that you're smarter than you thought.
So, whether you've been up for twelve hours trying to get the power up and win the game, or you've been blogging about how guilty you feel when you watch Desperate Housewives, read this book and feel a little better.
Blog Post
Upcoming AADL-GT Events: Retro Octathalon & State of Gaming Panel
by eli
OK, so the new branch is open and running well, it's time to get back to AADL-GT! We've got some very cool and very different events coming up in April. First, on Friday, April 14th, the first day of Spring Break, we've got the first ever AADL-GT Retro Octathalon, an olympic-style event featuring 8 vintage (pre-1990) games, and some great prizes for the best overall players. Then, on April 23rd, we'll be having a panel discussion on the State of Gaming, where we will engage in a definitely spirited and possibly civil conversation about where games are now, and where they are going, especially as we teeter on the precipice of the next generation. However, we need to flesh out some details for both of these events, so read on and add your comments.
Blog Post
3 Years after the Launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom
by Rich
March 19, 2006 marks the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the debates surrounding the U.S presence in Iraq are becoming more intense as each day passes. The library has a number of DVDs on this subject.
Gunner Palace provides an intimate look at what life is like for the U.S. soliders in Iraq, while The Soldier's Heart examines problems faced by U.S. soldiers when they return from Iraq.
WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception and Uncovered: the War on Iraq explore questions concerning the case made by the Bush Administration to lead the U.S. into Iraq.
21 Days to Baghdad offers an insightful look at the first three weeks of military action during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Torture Question investigates the topic of prisoner abuse in recent years, focusing on the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The Dreams of Sparrows "follows first-time Iraqi director Hayder Mousa Daffar and his team of contributing directors as they share their vision of life in Baghdad, post-war and pre-reconstruction."
Blog Post
John Reynolds Gardiner, author of Stone Fox, dies at 61
by sernabad
As a child, he hated to read, pretending to sleep when his mother tried to read to him at night. As a college student, he was surpassed in his English class by non-native speakers of English. As an adult, he was an engineer specializing in thermodynamics for aerospace corporations.
And as an author, he only wrote three books, the first of which, Stone Fox, sold more than 3 million copies and rightfully earned him the designation of one of the touchstones of children's publishing, according to HarperCollins Children's book editor, Kate Jackson.
John Reynolds Gardiner originally wrote Stone Fox as a screenplay. It eventually was produced as a TV movie, starring Buddy Ebsen.
Gardiner, who was 61, died March 4th of complications from pancreatis.
Blog Post
Did he or didn't he? Dan Brown's copyright infringement trial in London winds down
by sernabad
The judge in the trial charging Dan Brown with copyright infringement, has a mountain of reading to do this weekend. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs (Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, two of the three authors of the 1982 nonfiction book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail) and Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, turned over their final submissions, which included a 69-page personal statement from Brown, outlining his transformation from failed musician to blockbuster author.
Baigent and Leigh charge that Brown's Da Vinci Code stole generously from their work. Brown contends he took theories that had 'been out there' for decades and put them together in his novel.
Brown, who chose his current agent, Heide Lange, in part because her last name is an anagram for 'angel', atributes Sidney Sheldon's The Doomsday Conspiracy, with inspiring him to puruse his writing career.
A verdict is expected next week.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #10
by muffy
“The Grail legends are usually about men with swords and women getting rescued…. I want the women to have the swords…they get lots of sex, and they fall in love, but that’s not the point of the story… They are the heroes.” ~Kate Mosse.
From the cofounder of the prestigious Orange Prize, comes this heart-pounding literary thriller of two courageous and resourceful women, separated by 8 centuries, yet linked by 3 missing books, family history, deadly secrets, and the Labyrinth.
Set in the Carcassonne region of southeast France and the result of 15 years of painstaking research, this debut novel will not disappoint – inevitably to be compared to The You-Know-What. (100,000 first run).