Drake Public Library

Seeking Excellence

JeNel Barth

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A Book Review of “Fireman”, by Joe Hill

My friend and patron, Deb Egeland, loves to read and enjoys writing a few words about the books that she is reading. I always appreciate her perspective on books and love that she’s willing to “check out” something new and different from her usual genres. She sent me this review on “The Fireman” this summer. If you are interested in reviewing a book, let me know. Patrons of all ages are welcome to submit a one page book review on any book in our collection. Just email it to us at library@centerville-ia.org or turn it into the librarian on duty.

“This morning I finished the first book I’ve read by author Joe Hill. The book was “The Fireman”. It was a very strange book.

An odd virus is sweeping across the globe. Soon after being infected, the victim develops tattoo-like markings on their body. Various parts of their body may also start smoking and/or burning. Inevitably, the victim ignites completely and burns to death. Gruesome!

The primary characters in the book are infected and have managed to gather into a well-hidden commune. The plot goes back and forth between the internal workings and politics of the commune, and rest of the world with it’s increasing battle to deal with the infected and to keep the uninfected ‘clean’.

I wavered between disgust and intrigue, frustration and excitement, disbelief and page turning. There were a few times I considered putting the book down for good and calling it quits. I persevered and finished it. I can’t say it was the best use of my time; but it was different than my usual reads. It is always good to get out of the rut once in awhile.

If you are looking for something different, give it a shot. I may look at another of Joe Hill’s at some point…”

Submitted By: Deb Egeland

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“The Whip” by Karen Kondazian

the-whip

Inspired by the true story of a woman, Charlotte “Charley” Parkhurst (1812-1879), this blend of fact and fiction tells the tale of a courageous nineteenth-century heroine. “The Whip” explores the tragic, and for much of her life, unorthodox life of a woman who chose to live as a man.  “Charley” even voted in the 1868 American election before women were allowed at the polls!

Charlotte suffered a series of devastating losses in her younger years.  Her African American lover, who was a runaway slave, was murdered and she lost a daughter.  But, she went on to succeed in a profession that those of her own gender were not allowed to pursue.  “Charley” became a renowned stage coach driver and shows us a fascinating portrayal of this admirable historical figure and delves into  the complex character of a tough woman combating old-school tradition and unhealthy stereotypes.  She identified with male-dominated activities and interests, so she dressed like a man and learned to project a male image so convincing, her colleagues never questioned it.

“After much cogitating on the subject, she decided that it seemed that one could reinvent oneself in this new mysterious, musky world she was invading – and who that new self was, people did not question.  Perhaps it was the men’s clothes, the short hair, the pungent smell of sweat she allowed.  Or perhaps it was just that people were too involved in their own person to really look, observe and give a damn.”

“The Whip” is action propelled and a riveting story.  It showcases the best and the worst of America as our country began to transition into a progressive society. This book was highly recommended by a friend and its been difficult to keep it on the shelf!  You can find a copy now on our new book table…Enjoy!

 

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Vinegar Girl “An irresistible, contemporary take one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies”

Dysfunctional family relationships are Anne Tyler’s forte and her retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” gives her plenty to work with!

In Tyler’s revamping, the shrew is Kate Battista, an abrasive preschool teacher with a bad hairdo and an unapologetic way with “honest” truths. (“I hate small children… They’re not very bright, if you’ve noticed.”) Once a “thorny child” and a “sullen teenager”, Kate is now housekeeper to her scientist father, the controlling and selfish Dr. Battista and her attractive, popular teenage sister, Bunny.  When a prestigious research project of Dr. Battista’s is threatened by the imminent deportation of his brilliant Russian lab assistant, Pyotr Cherbakov, he decides to marry Kate off to get the young man a green card. You can imagine how well this goes over with Kate. She is furious, but you find yourself wondering if she will give in to these two characters’ charm.

Tyler gives a simple pre-feminist tale a number of clever tweaks.  Shakespeare’s blunt shrew-tamer, Petruchio, is one of his more problematic male characters.  In a neat twist, Tyler rewrites his boorishness as foreignness and a lack of finesse with the English langage..  Pyotr seems as much an outsider in polite society as Kate: “In my country we have proverb,” Pyotr was saying. Don’t they always, Kate thought. “We say, ‘Work when it is divided into segments is shorter total period of time than work when it is all together in one unit.” “Catchy,” Kate said.

I have really enjoyed this story.  I read “Shrew” so many years ago and this new, sharp interpretation did not disappoint.  This novel was written and published through the support of The Hogarth Press and the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, both of which support Shakespeare’s works retold by acclaimed and bestselling novelists of today. You can find “Vinegar Girl” in the fiction section.

Keep reading!

 

JeNel

 

 

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Be Awesome!

I was asked to speak on behalf of the library for the first day of school teacher assembly for the Centerville Community School District this morning.  I wasn’t nervous at all! (Ha!) It went pretty well so I thought I would share my speech to the teachers and staff with you.

“Good morning everyone!  I’m JeNel Allen Barth and I am now the Director at Drake Public Library after being Children’s Librarian for the past 7 years.

I don’t want to keep you long because I know that you have many things to do in preparation for the upcoming school year.  But I do want to be sure to share a few things with you.

First of all, I hope that you had a relaxing, restful summer because you deserve it!  The more time I spend working with teachers, the more I realize how hard this job is and I don’t need to remind you how important your job is….but I will, time and time again.

Over the summer vacations, evenings and weekends, the Drake Public Library is the library available to school children; and for babies through preschoolers, it is the only library available.  Our library is a unique and valuable resource and we strive to be a lifeline to our community.

Our staff has worked very hard to update and mark the books that fall under the Accelerated Reading Program.  If you’re struggling to find titles that will inspire success in this area, send your students our way!

Our new Children’s Librarian, Kristin Craver, is planning for our after school programming.  Mondays at 4pm the “Rising Readers” will meet for story time, round robin reading, book chats, intros to new books and homework help.  Thursdays from 4-5pm, “After School Adventures” in puzzles, games and special crafts will provide students with social time and an opportunity to get to know the library and other kids better.  And, of course we will continue with our story time for Babies through Preschoolers with “Little Listeners” on Wednesdays at 10:30am.

Kristin is available for hosting classroom field trips and would love to visit classrooms for special guest story times and chats with your students.  And, by the way, I am still available for visits too.  You know I love spending time with students and visiting classrooms.

Junior High and High School teachers, don’t forget that Drake Public Library offers computers and free wifi access for students working on homework and research projects.  We host a free, online research data base, EBSCO Host, that offers a broad range of full text and bibliographic databases designed specifically for academic research.  The sign in is simple and our staff is happy to show anyone around the site.  Oh, and printing for school work is free for students.

So, go help kids learn, smile and belong.  Ask hard and interesting questions.  Try new things!  We’ll continue to work at providing services to help you and to inspire a love of reading in your students.  It’s time for a great year of learning…so go be awesome!”

 

JeNel Allen Barth

Library Director

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Why Should You Listen to Audio Books?

I’ve been getting to know our “audio patrons” lately. I’ve never been an audio book listener so I decided to look at some of the reasons why someone might start listening to audio books.

Readers can access a lot more books when they check out audio books.  You can take them in your car, while you’re exercising or walking.  You can even listen to them while doing household chores and when you’re just lounging.  Think about all of that time!

Audio books are great for auditory learners.  You are hearing how to pronounce words before seeing them in print.  The reader’s voices help you comprehend the story more when the narrator changes his or her inflections for the characters and doesn’t just read, but acts!  Its really fun to compare the American readers/books to British readers.  (Think about the word harassment…)

Audio books are wonderful for readers with visual impairments.  Its  not easy for an avid reader to give it up due to eye strain or poor eyesight.  They are also quite accessible.  Bridges has a large collection of audio books available for download. Check with the staff here for directions on how to utilize Bridges for audio books. Drake Public Library also has a relatively large audio book collection that we are working on to keep current and interesting for our audio patrons. We have a shelf on the main floor and we also have several audio versions of children’s books in the children’s department.

Like a good print book, audio books can be comforts reads and favorites that you listen to over and over again.  So, what are  you waiting for?

By JeNel Allen Barth

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RAGBRAI 2016

We are gearing up for the RAGBRAI riders to visit Centerville and stop by the Drake Public Library! From sprucing up the building to displaying books about Centerville’s history and bicycle riding. We will be offering access to our computer labs and WIFI as well as welcoming visitors to cool off inside. We want Drake Public Library to be a welcoming place for our RAGBRAI guests.

As we were pulling out books for display, I came across “RAGBRAI: Everyone Pronounces it Wrong” by John Karras (Co-Founder of RAGBRAI) and Ann Karras (long time documentarian of RAGBRAI).  What a fun title!  This book, published in 1999, is pure entertainment.  It deals with the first 25 years of the famous ride, describes its creation, and tries to explain the ride’s continuing charm and appeal.  RAGBRAI has grown by leaps and bounds since this book was released but it really does give you a feel for how very special this event is to now, generations of people.  “It is, in short, a love affair between bicycle riders and the people of Iowa.”  This book captures the essence of all that.

Welcome to Drake Public Library, RAGBRAI 2016

JeNel Allen Barth

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Arcadia, by Iain Pears

I stepped way out of my comfort zone last time I checked books out.  I picked up “Arcadia” by Iain Pears.  It was innocently lying on the table near the front doors.  It beckoned to me.

This books took some diligence and perseverance, on my part, to get into.  I admit that I was confused and I did some paging back and forth the first couple of sittings.  I seriously thought of putting it aside permanently.  Then, I was in!

Interestingly, that is essentially what the story is about…  There are three unique worlds, realities, times, that a very few characters overlap.  Actions in one, don’t seem to directly affect another.  It’s a hard book to explain.

There is an elderly professor/storyteller and a young, somewhat bored girl who visits the professor and takes care of his cat.  There is a group of scientists who are working on a machine to explore alternate universes.  There is also a group of people living simply off the land.  These three groups are in different “realities”, or are they even real?

This is definitely not a book for everyone.  It took intentional reading and there are times that I appreciate this.  If you are in a rut, tired of fluffy romance, cringing at the gory murder mystery or find yourself zipping through books and getting little satisfaction, check this one out!

 

Deb Egeland

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DVD’s at the Library?

Did you know that you can borrow movies and tv shows on DVD from the library?  We have a wide variety of choices that are rated PG and up on the main floor and G rated in the children’s department.  This month, I was able to add a couple of new titles for each collection.

For the kids, we have a Mo Willems favorite, “The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?”.  In this adorable story, based on Mo’s popular book, duckling does get a cookie but Pigeon isn’t very happy about it.  The beloved Pigeon returns for this hilarious adventure that will keep kids giggling…and minding their manners!

Something new that has come to our collection is “Sofia the First, The Secret Library”.  When Sofia discovers a wondrous hidden library of unfinished books, she learns it is her destiny as “Story Keeper” to make the tales come out right.  This sweet story proves that when you believe in yourself, you can create your own happy ending!

For the adults, we have a mesmerizing and funny performance from Sally Field.  “Hello, My Name is Doris” is the story of a woman who is just not ready to act her age.  This is a witty and compassionate late-life coming of age story that will make you cheer and want to say, “I’m possible!”

And finally, who doesn’t love the Coen Brothers?!  “Hail, Caesar!”  is an all-star comedy set during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age.  (Including George Clooney, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand and many more famous faces!)  It follows a single day in the life of a studio “fixer” who is presented with plenty of problems to fix.

If you are looking for something fun to watch while you beat the heat, take a look at our DVD collection and see if there is something there for you.  These DVD’s can be borrowed for up to 2 weeks and are another wonderful, free service that we offer here at your Drake Public Library.

Enjoy!

JeNel

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Volunteer at Drake Public Library

If you are looking for an opportunity to volunteer at the library, there are a few options available.  Did you know that we have a very dear patron who delivers materials to and from the nursing homes?  She will be retiring this month but we will make sure that our beloved patrons get their reading materials and dvd’s.  If you would like to help us, I promise that it is very rewarding.

Perhaps you would like to help out during our summer reading program or storytimes.  Kristin is always grateful for helpers who are willing to cut out shapes, pass out materials or help with clean up.  Maybe you’d like to volunteer as a special guest at one of our storytimes.  Let us know!

We also have a group of patrons who come in periodically to wipe down the books and dvd cases in the children’s area.  As you can imagine, our littlest patrons can sometimes leave things a little sticky, even under their parents’ watchful eye.  This is a wonderful service to us as we sometimes don’t have a chance to work on such a large project.  This can be done at any time that we are open and we provide the materials needed to keep our books and dvd cases in tip top condition.

We appreciate our volunteers so much!  They help us be the best library possible for our community.  As our friend, Aesop says, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is never wasted.”

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Patron Book Review

The last time I was in the library, I discovered that one of my favorite authors had written a new book that I had not yet read! What a wonderful discovery!! The author is Adriana Trigiani and the book is “All the Stars in the Heavens.”

Trigiani’s books all center around families with Italian roots.  One series has a woman pharmacist as the main character.  She discovers she is Italian and begins a search into her family history. Another series is about an Italian family in New York City who makes custom, handcrafted shoes.  The latest book is about a young Italian girl who comes to the United States to join a monastery, but she is not allowed to take her final vows.  Instead, she is sent to Los Angeles to become secretary to the actress, Loretta Young, during the golden years of cinema.  (1930’s – 1940’s) and on into the beginning of radio dramas and television.

Trigiani tells a good story!  The last book was a bit slower at the beginning.  But, I kept at it and by the end, had found it delightful!

Check out Trigiani in the “T” section of fiction.  You won’t regret it.

Thanks for reading….Deb Egeland