Tulsa
event guide
INSIDE!
Book Review VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3
F R E E
January 2013
NEW AND OF INTEREST
2
The Second Empress
A ring to rule them all. Page 4
Ember’s Kiss: A Dragonfire Novel
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Firestorm Page 8
Big Nate: In A Class All By Himself A Class Act Page 10
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Craft-a-day: 365 Simple Handmade Projects
Sweet Tooth: A Novel By Ian McEwan Nan A. Talese, $26.95, 320 pages
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Serena Frome is the daughter of an Anglican bishop, but having grown up in the 1960s she goes on to have a number of affairs with remarkably few hang-ups. The novel charts the coming of age of an innocent young woman with a gift for mathematics and a desire to stand out. Despite her beauty, however, or perhaps because of it, she is unfortunate in love. Due to the sexist sociological climate of the period, her professional life is also slow to pick up, but thanks to the wonders of serendipity (chance is a frequent narrative booster in McEwan’s novels) she goes
from vocational rags to riches, becoming a key player in the culture war fought by MI5 against the supposed spread of communist indoctrination. This is another of McEwan’s attempts to place fiction at the heart of the matter. In his novel Saturday, a whole family is literally saved by the reading of a poem; in Sweet Tooth, literature is presented as a force that can modify the world. Serena Frome thus becomes a semi-willing Cold Warrior who learns to trust no one See Sweet Tooth, cont’d on page 7
We’re going old school with scissors and glue. Page 13
Measurement
Mathematics really are beautiful! Page 15
57 Reviews INSIDE!
Book Reviews set in Belfast during the 1980s, a time of troubles for all. Reviewed by David Marshall
Category
Mystery SNAP IT for additional book summaries. Phantom (Harry Hole) By Jo Nesbo Knopf, $25.95, 378 pages Check this out! Harry Hole had disappeared to Hong Kong to run from his past as a cop. He never expects to return Oslo, but Jo Nesbo decides there is too much at stake and returns Harry to Oslo in a complex crime thrillerPhantom. Harry’s still a recovering alcoholic and no longer an official policeman, but Oleg, the son of his ex-girlfriend (and woman he still loves, Rakel from The Snowman), is in trouble. The boy Harry helped raise has been arrested for killing one of his friends. Unfortunately, since Harry left Oslo, Oleg has become involved with selling and using drugs. Violin, a new heroin-like drug, is spreading through Norway and murdered bodies are turning up everywhere Harry appears. To find out who the killers are, Harry needs to investigate. The tangled web involves a mysterious man known as “Dubai” and Russian killers who are closing in on Harry. Nesbo has constructed a complex thriller that involves a protagonist who is tough to like. But Harry knows that, even if he tends to bend the rules, that laws are necessary and he is, after all, still a policeman. Nesbo doesn’t disappoint with Phantom. Reviewed by Elizabeth Humphrey The Blackhouse: A Novel By Peter May SilverOak, $24.95, 357 pages Check this out! Fin Macleod must return to the Isle of Lewis, his childhood home in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, because a horrible murder there bears a striking resemblance to another murder which occurred on the mainland. Although Fin just separated from his wife after the death of their child, this is no happy homecoming. The murder investigation almost disappears into the background
as Fin relives his history with the island’s inhabitants, a history as cold and forbidding as the island itself. Peter May masterfully moves from past to present and back, exploring each character’s stories and histories with Fin. May slowly and cleverly resolves all the questions he puts in the reader’s mind at the beginning of the book. In the final moments, however, the murder investigation roars back into focus like one great, frigid ocean wave, leaving everything clear in its aftermath. This book is immensely satisfying, both as a mystery and as a well-crafted novel. I cannot recommend The Blackhouse highly enough. If you are looking for a delicious read to settle with by the fire this winter, you have most definitely found it. Reviewed by Annie Peters The Cold Cold Ground: A Detective Sean Duffy Novel By Adrian McKinty Seventh Street Books, $15.95, 340 pages Check this out! The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty, the first in The Troubles Trilogy and A Detective Sean Duffy Novel, is a wonderful semi-autobiographical book in which the author recreates his youthful experiences in conflict-torn Northern Ireland. It has an immediacy of atmosphere, a palpable sense of the pervasive unease running through all the communities. Now add in a savage murder which at first sight looks like a hate crime aimed at homosexuals. This is something of a novelty for the local police who are more used to picking up the pieces after sectarian violence. It, therefore, falls to DS Sean Duffy to try his hand at what may be a highly sensitive case — in a religiously intolerant Northern Ireland, homosexuality is considered an abomination by all sides. Except our hero is not convinced this is a hate crime. His instincts tell him the first victim is not an “ordinary” citizen. That he’s involved with the paramilitaries. For Duffy this is a major headache since he’s a Catholic in a largely Protestant police force. No-one likes him. The result is an unbeatable murder mystery
Vengeance: A Novel By Benjamin Black Henry Holt, $26, 320 pages Check this out! With Vengeance, Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) offers an elegant fifth companion to the now renowned Quirke mysteries. The novel opens with a gripping recounted and original situation: a tycoon named Victor Delahaye takes his business partner’s son out to sea and shoots himself in the chest for no apparent reason. Set in 1950s Ireland, the novel possesses all the ingredients of a classic American retronoir: Banville lends postwar Dublin an air of sexual license, dispensing for the most part with the encumbrance of mid-century Catholicism. It’s hard to imagine a nun or a priest finding their way into the streets of this novel. The reason for this conspicuous absence is clearly not due to unwitting anachronism, or only a desire to make 1950s Ireland sound as hip and hard boiled as America in the heyday of detective fiction. Although the novel is a stand-alone installment, it needs to be read alongside earlier novels in the series, such as the first Quirke mystery, Christine Falls, which places the pervasive influence of the Church right in the center of the plot. As in all his previous works in the genre, Banville brings a prose poet’s eye for detail to bear on the plot-driven demands of detective fiction. Subtle touches of symbolism guarantee the artistic merit of the novel. Instead of the usual rumbling of a gathering storm to set the scene for a crisis, for instance, the eye-quickening opening sequence of Vengeance discreetly registers the passage of a seabird flitting low over the waves. Likewise, a bullet that just misses the heart of the Pyrrhic mogul Victor Delahaye not only provides the fulcrum of mystery around which the novel turns, it also serves as an image for the successful businessman’s inability to command love. Banville also makes expert use of humdrum domestic furnishings to suggest the pathological frigidity of his morally dubious characters. The glacial presence of the deceased businessman’s offspring is foreshadowed by Quirke’s attempt to fetch ice cubes to douse the local flamme fatale: “The squat refrigerator stood in a corner murmuring to itself, like a white-clad figure kneeling in rapt prayer. He extracted the crackling ice tray from its compartment and took it to the sink and struggled with it, the pads of his fingers sticking to the plump cubes sunk in their metal chambers.” The Irish author’s ability to limit the stylistic and generic reach of his detective nov-
Tulsa Book Review • January 2013 • 2
els to the strict boundaries of crime fiction elicits a degree of admiration. It’s difficult to imagine Vladimir Nabokov (one of Banville’s forebears) being able to purge himself of his love of verbal euphony for little more than a sentence. Banville lets just enough of his complexity trickle into Black to make him an accomplished and stylish conceiver of funerary fiction. Some readers may feel that therein lies the rub. One sometimes gets the impression that Banville is so caught up with playing the role of the crime writer that he fails to take enough writerly risks. The very title of the novel, not to mention his choice of pseudonym, is indicative of Banville’s willingness to bind himself within the strictly defined parameters of a single unmixed genre as if his main aim were to work within a limited set of conventions, rather like a contemporary poet deciding that sonnets should always rhyme and only deal with love. Although his characters are strikingly delineated, they seem to be chosen from a somewhat conventional generic stockpile: the Hollywood avatar of the girlish femme fatale only pretending to be dumb, the lovelorn tycoon, the morally suspect tricksy twins, the hard-drinking defective detective, the nutty maiden aunt. Of course, at least to some extent, genres need to rely on a few staple features, but Banville has it in him to provide characters with more heft and quirkiness. The fact that his detectives are given such Beckettian names as Quirke and Hackett indicates that Banville’s wish to put a foot outside a narrow definition of the genre is there, but it remains somewhat nominal in the series so far. This being said, the novel is still an exciting read and its leisurely pace allows the reader to savor the unctuousness of Banville’s gift for language and the dramatic scene. Reviewed by Erik Martiny Wicked Autumn By G.M. Malliet Minotaur Books, $14.99, 297 pages Check this out! Max Tudor, a former MI5 agent who is now an Anglican priest, peacefully resides in Nether Monkslip, a small village in Southern England, far removed from his dangerous past. That is, he was residing peacefully until the rather obnoxious president of the Women’s Institute is found dead. Although she appears to have died from an allergic reaction, Max suspects murder. Wicked Autumn is described as a cozy mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie. This is a very apt description, except that I would argue that Malliet give Christie a welcome See Wicked, cont’d on page 7
Tulsa
Book Review
IN THIS ISSUE
FROM THE PUBLISHER Happy 2013!
Tulsa City-County Library 400 Civic Center Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103 Ph. (918) 549-7323 EDITOR IN CHIEF Ross Rojek ross@1776productions.com
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Mystery..........................................................2 Historical Fiction...........................................4 History & Current Events...............................5 Mind & Body Fitness.......................................5 Fiction......................................................6 & 7 Romance.........................................................8 Fantasy...........................................................8 Picture Books.................................................9 Kids’ Books...................................................10 Teen Scene....................................................11 Popular Culture....................................12 & 13 Home, Garden & DIY....................................13 Biography & Memoir.................................... 14 Business & Personal Finance........................ 14 Nature & Science..........................................15 Science Fiction..............................................15
It’s a new year at the Tulsa Book Review and Tulsa City-County Library, and we have lots of great stuff in store for you. First, featured on our cover is the newest book from 2010 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award Winner Ian McEwan. This Cold War tale involving British Intelligence is sure to be a hit. For all of those who received their first e-reader over the holidays, rest assured the Tulsa City-County Library has almost 13,000 e-books and e-bestsellers from which you are sure to find several to request and enjoy. The best part is that e-books check themselves back in, thus no late fees! Better still, seven Tulsa City-County Library locations are offering drop-in e-reader clinics this month. Be sure to check the enclosed event guide for dates, times and libraries where the clinics will be held. Also, the library is busy planning our move to our temporary (two-year) downtown quarters, to be located at 11th and Denver. This move is currently slated for mid-June to early July; but, as with all things construction related, it is subject to change. Watch TulsaLibrary.org for the latest information on the Central Library move and renovation. In the meantime, we hope to see you at the library soon. Best regards,
Gary Shaffer Tulsa City-County Library CEO
Coming Up! Next month, Tulsa City-County Library will celebrate Black History Month. Programs kick off Jan. 31 with “Black History Storytelling With Art Johnson” from 4 to 5 p.m. at Hardesty Regional Library and the “African-American High School History Bowl” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Rudisill Regional Library. Check the February Event Guide for more events.
Book Reviews
Category
Historical Fiction SNAP IT for additional book summaries. The Absolutist By John Boyne Other Press, $16.95, 320 pages Check this out! Tristian Sandler left to fight in World War I with nothing and came back with a package of letters from a fallen comrade, Will Bancroft. When he delivers the letters, he isn’t just delivering the words of a loved one; he also proceeds to unburden the entire story of Will’s death and his secret part in it. No soldier that was lucky enough to survive World War I did so unscathed. Tristan’s wounds aren’t visible though they have pierced his very soul. He tells Will’s sister how he ending up enlisting, how he met her brother on the training grounds of Aldershot, what made them friends, and, finally, just how and why her brother died. His story is beautiful, moving, heart wrenching, and angering all at the same time. As the tension builds, you find yourself feeling guilty for reading what you think will end up as a train wreck, only this isn’t just a train wreck; it’s a train wreck wrapped up in a million other deadly disasters. John Boyne has proven that he is a master at mixing powerful human events into the tales of individual people that live through them in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but The Absolutist will leave you breathless. Reviewed by Gwen Stackler
der to convert the country into a free Jewish state, using whatever means are necessary. Both stories play out in this page-turning novel. It is unique in that the focus isn’t on on the horrors of the concentration camps, but on the fate of survivors and the independence of Palestine after the war. Readers will be especially captivated by the survivors in London: outspoken Edith, who supports her husband Georg and her unborn child by mending socks; emotionally fragile Anna who is too terrified to speak of the horrors she endured in the camps; and Anna’s blossoming relationship with the mysterious Ismael, an Egyptian who seems to be sympathetic towards the plight of the Jews. Reviewed by Leslie Wolfson
The Second Empress By Michelle Moran Crown Publisher, $25, 314 pages Check this out! The cries of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité!” were mere echoes of the past when Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself the new ruler of France. After that, Napoleon searched for a way to cement his legacy in Europe. This book follows the life the young Austrian Princess Marie-Louise. In order to avoid war between France and Austria, her father offers her hand in marriage to Napoleon. It is hard to readjust to the new life in which Marie-LouThe List: A Novel ise finds herself. Napoleon is desperate for By Martin Fletcher a male heir to his throne. Napoleon’s sister, Thomas Dunne Books, $14.99, 339 pages Pauline, is fi lled with jealously and wants to Check this out! rule the Empire by her brother’s side. The World War ll has Bonapartes’ greed knows no bounds as both ended, and the British her new husband and sister drive Marieare celebrating in the Louise to uncertainty. streets. But for JewThis book is a well-crafted story about ish refugees Edith and this young woman’s life and the difficult Georg, there is more to choices she had to make. Michelle Moran find out. Have all their based much of this on primary sources. relatives who were These notes were not used to create a thesent to concentration sis, but to help craft three-dimensional camps perished, or is characters. It reads like a personal diary, there hope that some are still alive? and all the characters seem human. This is Meanwhile, in Palestine, under British a great book that showcases some wonderrule, England is not allowing concentration ful historical drama, though not historical camp survivors to immigrate. A group of accuracy. Anyone willing to peek inside this terrorists are having secret meetings in orbizarre family is in for a treat. Reviewed by Kevin Brown Tulsa Book Review • January 2013 • 4
MYSTERIES/THRILLERS
COMING SOON
TO TULSA CITY-COUNTY LIBRARY Search the library’s catalog at http://tulsalibrary.org to reserve your copies now.
The Child’s Child
By Barbara Vine Inheriting their late grandmother’s sprawling, bookfilled home in London, siblings Grace and Andrew Easton move in together and initially enjoy a shared life that is complicated by Andrew’s gay relationship with a strident novelist, the shattering murder of a friend and Grace’s discovery of a long-lost manuscript.
To Love and to Perish
By Lisa Bork Pulses are racing at the Vintage Grand Prix Festival, a veritable Mecca for car fans. But excitement turns to horror when a man is crushed by a speeding sports car. A witness swears the victim was shoved by Brennan Rowe, boyfriend of Jolene’s friend Cory. When Jolene Parker learns that Brennan caused the victim’s sister’s death years ago, she pieces together a twisted tale of family tragedy, blackmail and retribution.
Good Junk
By Ed Kovacs While wrestling with guilt over having accidentally killed a martial-arts opponent in a sparring session, private detective Cliff St. James returns to post-Katrina New Orleans and finds himself assisting the police in an investigation of the murder of a U.S. government “black projects” engineer. St. James quickly uncovers The Buyers Club, a murky network of seedy arms dealers and foreign intelligence agents purchasing state-of-the-art weaponry and high technology, perhaps abetted by elements of the U.S. government. As members of the Buyers Club start turning up dead, St. James fights for his life and sanity as he struggles to solve the murders and undermine a treacherous espionage conspiracy.
The One I Left Behind
By Jennifer McMahon Tormented by the murder of her mother at the hands of a serial killer called Neptune, Reggie, now a successful architect, must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again after she gets a call from a homeless shelter saying that her mother has been found alive.
A Deadly Row to Hoe
By Cricket McRae As a member of a communitysupported agriculture farm, Sophie Mae wrangles weeds in exchange for tasty, organic treats. But she almost loses her appetite when a dead body is found in the compost heap. The murder victim is Darla Klick, an ornithologist. Sophie Mae decides to really get her hands dirty and discover who killed the young, sweetnatured “bird lady.”
Ghostman
By Roger Hobbs When a casino robbery in Atlantic City goes horribly awry the man who orchestrated it is obliged to call in a favor from “Jack.” Only 30 or so people are sure this man exists, some believe he’s dead, and none know anything at all about his true identity. Those are closely guarded trade secrets, to say the least, for an exceptionally trained, experienced and talented criminal. But as he struggles to clean up the mess left in the wake of the bungled Atlantic City heist, he finds himself increasingly more visible as he’s pursued simultaneously by the FBI and other interested, if mysteriously elusive, parties – a situation that requires every gram of his skill, ingenuity and self-protective instincts, especially when offense and defense become meaningless terms.
Book Reviews
Category
History & Current Events SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat By Bee Wilson Basic Books, $26.99, 327 pages Check this out! If you are a dedicated cook, consider purchasing not one but several copies of Consider the Fork— some for gifts. As we would expect from the noted food writer/historian, Bee Wilson, the writing is superb even though this book is a scholarly tome. Her style is light, enjoyable and easy to read, flows almost like a good novel and written at kitchen level. Most readers would likely read this little by little instead of going through from cover to cover. The book is solid text with occasional cute culinary sketches to break the monotony. Each chapter ends with a short but interesting essay on a subject related that chapter, such as on mezzaluna on the Knife chapter. Wilson explores each subject in fine details without boring the reader, going back thousands of years in history and developing it into modern times. E.g. on Pots and Pans we learn about the earliest form of containers, the stomach cooking (animal’s whole stomach and its content cooked on fire) and hot-stone cookery in pit ovens (still in use today). The book ends with chapter by chapter notes referring to an extensive bibliography and a very good index. This book is a must for serious cooks. Reviewed by George Erdosh Foundation: The History of England From Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors By Peter Ackroyd St. Martin’s Press, $29.99, 496 pages Check this out! The scope of this book is grand. The style in which England’s history is narrated is unconventional. Imagining that there are still five forthcoming volumes is simply impressive. Covering England’s earliest prehistory to the Tudor dynasty, Peter Ackroyd presents a vivid and extensive account of English beginnings. He is a natural storyteller and a passionate historian, but his true skill lies in his acute eye for revealing interesting
details. Discussing the histories of prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, Ackroyd explains how in 1209, “it was crime, rather than scholarship, that effectively formed the university.” After a student killed a woman and fled, the Oxford authorities collected the student’s companions and hanged them. Disgusted, the teachers and students left for Cambridge and established a new university. This is just one of many salient historical details Ackroyd intersperses throughout this course of human history. While some readers may feel disheartened by the length and scope of the first volume, Ackroyd provides endless variations of chief themes, the delicate and often brutal balance between the sovereign, the nobles, the Church, political and social life, and makes this volume engrossing and accessible to all readers. Reviewed by Wendy Iraheta The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675 By Bernard Bailyn Knopf, $35.00, 640 pages Check this out! Bailyn is a longtime expert on early American history and the American Revolution. In his newest book, he tells the history of the years 1600-1675 on the North American continent. This is not a demographic history per se; the population statistics for this time period simply don’t exist. It is, however, centered on the movement of ethnic and national groups and how they came to what became British North America, and the response of the native peoples to their influx. Bailyn tells the story of a clash of cultures, one that was violent, chaotic, fearsome, and constantly shifting. This was a place, and a people, in transition, from outlanders to settlers and colonists, from servants and religious outlaws to traders and town-build-
ers. Death - whether from warfare, illness, or starvation - was ever-present in the early colonies, and each group fought for its survival and despaired of the future. Many are familiar with the history of the years leading up to the American Revolution. The Barbarous Years illuminates the lesser-known world of early British North America: the complex and often terror-filled world that was its progenitor. This well-researched book is worth reading if you are interested in the time period. Reviewed by Laura Tarwater Scharp The Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the Artistic Duel That Defined the Renaissance By Jonathan Jones Knopf, $35.00, 354 pages Check this out! This is a rich and thorough book. Although the book weighs in at 354 pages and appears daunting, seventy-one pages of it are author notes, list of art, and bibliography. The text is interspersed with photographs of the masters’ artwork and includes 12 pages of color photos of DaVinci’s illustrations as well as Michelangelo’s sculptures and paintings.
Jones, the art critic for The Guardian, is following duel passions of his in The Lost Battles. Jones brings the reader directly into the era in which these great art masters lived, illustrating that even the mundane clothing inventory of Leonardo da Vinci gives a peek into his life, particularly that Leonardo dressed in pinks and purples. Jones’ language is accessible and explains Renaissance sensibilities to a modern audience, for example, writing about Michelangelo, that In 1504 he was risking a new explicitness about the sexuality of his art even though there was need to. Jones weaves an intriguing portrait of the two men and their times. Even for those who may have no interest art, this book is a look at a fascinating time in history and captivating characters. Reviewed by Elizabeth Humphrey
Category
Mind & Body Fitness SNAP IT for additional book summaries. Dealing With People You Can’t Stand, Revised and Expanded Third Edition: How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst By Dr. Rick Brinkman, Dr. Rick Kirschner McGraw-Hill, $18, 288 pages Check this out! We all know people who rub others the wrong way; get on our nerves; and make us angry, frustrated or just plain crazy. How do we re-direct the negative emotions evoked by these “people we can’t stand?” Brinkman and Kirschner help us to look at forces that compel people to be difficult, hone skills to be utilized to mutual benefit, and develop strategies for success in negative interactions. They show us how to use the phone and email to avoid conflict and build cooperation and even determine what
Tulsa Book Review • January 2013 • 5
to do when “...you can’t stand yourself.” Providing ten detailed examples of specific difficult behavior patterns and three bad behaviors more likely to occur within families, the reader is skillfully led on a path of discovery. Tired of being rolled over by the “Tank” or set up by the “Think they know-itall?” Are you sickened by the “Yes Person” or unnerved by the nauseating “Nothing” person? Figure out the person’s primary intent, consider his or her communication style, assess how his or her behavior interacts with your behavior, and develop effective strategies to positively control your interactional outcomes. Sounds simple, right? Well, with brilliant insight and practice, Brinkman and Kirschner guide us over the rocky path to better relationships with difficult people... like ourselves. Reviewed by Alicia Latimer
Book Reviews Category
Fiction SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
A Wanted Man By Lee Child Delacorte, $28, 416 pages Check this out! By page page fifty-two, it’s terrifying! Jack Reacher, all 6’ 5” of him and with a broken nose, is intimidating, though eventually almost comforting in roughly equal proportion. Hitching a ride from a desolate freeway underpass, he senses when the car takes off across the emptiness of rural Iowa that the apparent set-up is menacing, even hostile. His mind ticks as fast as the eighty mph on the speedometer and follows more twists than the highway in the grotesque aftermath of an assassination. Child’s knowledge of munitions, the workings of federal agencies, and military practice blend seamlessly into the pages. In keeping with his winning pattern, women here share a leading role in solving an improbable, barely feasible sequence of daring and escape. The bad guys don’t stand a chance, but invariably give Reacher and the reader a good run for their money. Anyone familiar with the series will find A Wanted Man among the best. And newbies will be hooked right away by the homeless, unemployed, carefree ex-army adventurer, a compelling hero destined to find action wherever he happens to find himself. Reviewed by Jane Manaster Ashes of Honor: An October Daye Novel By Seanan McGuire DAW, $7.99, 358 pages Check this out! October “Toby” Daye is a reluctant hero. She finds herself searching for missing people, battling monsters from different lands, and facing her worse nightmares, all to save those she loves. Author Seanan McGuire has done it again. Ashes of Honor is the sixth installment in her October Daye series. This time around Toby is busy training her squire Quentin, exploring her feelings towards Tybalt, the King of Cats, trying to pay the bills,
and upholding her role as Sylvester’s knight. Now Toby is asked to find a missing changeling daughter of a fellow knight. Her erratic teleporting is literally ripping apart the fabric of Faerie. If Toby doesn’t find her quickly, everything could be destroyed. This story will keep fans of the series up all night. McGuire doesn’t spend too much time recapping information from previous books, but there is just enough to remind readers of key points. People new to the series will definitely want to go back and enjoy the whole series. If you like urban fantasy authors like Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs and Jim Butcher, you’ll jump right into McGuire’s unique and entertaining series. Reviewed by Kathryn Franklin Dance with the Devil By Sherrilyn Kenyon St. Martin’s Press, $26.99, 384 pages Check this out! Born 2000 years ago to a Greek Slave and a Roman Senator, Zarek was slated for death as an infant. His own mother handed him to servants with orders to kill him, but instead, Zarek became the noble Roman whipping boy, taking brutal punishments on behalf of his half brothers, a role that left him scarred for life. Labeled the psychotic one by all the Dark-Hunters, Zarek has spent 900 years exiled in the frigid Alaskan Tundra, out of harm’s way as he lives by no one’s rules but his own. His only friend is Acheron, and that would be stretching it. With Zarek’s time running out, Acheron asks the Goddess Astrid to give Zarek his final and honest sentencing. Coming to Zarek as a blind woman, she plans to spend time holed up in a shack in a blizzard enduring his unstable mind, but will she find the man still locked up within or will she hand him his sentence – to walk as a Shade for the rest of eternity?
This book is powerful and heart wrenching. Unlike the other Dark-Hunters we have met thus far, Zarek is deeply tormented by the torture he encountered from the very people who should love him. But will the visit from Astrid be enough to save his soul from the brink of no return? You will just have to read this book yourself to find out how Kenyon has once again masterfully woven several characters from several books all together to build a beautiful mini-series. Reviewed by Kim Heimbuch Necropolis By Santiago Gamboa, Howard Curtis (translator) Europa Editions, $16, 466 pages Check this out! Necropolis is a strange and wonderful novel. Colombian author Santiago Gamboa sets the stage as he has an author, who is not named, invited to the International Congress of Biography and Memory. Gamboa puts into motion the cast of charac-
ters in a hotel in Jerusalem, just past the military checkpoints, the author describes. Just for starters, Gamboa introduces his readers to the author/ narrator, whose life has “slowed down,” an evangelical preacher, a couple of chess players, and a porn star. The depth of Gamboa’s descriptions border on the lyrical and are packed with a punch, such as the exchange the author reports between himself and the famous bibliophile Supervielle: “...because marriage, as I’m sure you know, has the same decaying effect on love that heat and the passing of the days has on meat….” Gamboa does a masterful job of keeping the voices of his characters distinct. This is no small feat, when Gamboa’s Jose Maturana, the evangelical pastor, is found dead and the investigation seems to favor an explanation of suicide. Well, except for a few things that just don’t add up. With Necropolis, Gamboa has definitely earned the critical praise as an inventive writer. Reviewed by Elizabeth Humphrey
Read or listen to eight books and receive a prize. Sign up at any library or online at TulsaLibrary.org, beginning Jan. 29. A variety of complementary events are planned. Check the monthly event guide for details.
Tulsa Book Review • January 2013 • 6
Sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust.
Book Reviews Skarlet: Part One of the Vampire Trinity By Thomas Emson Thomas Dunne Book, $14.99, 373 pages Check this out! Jake Lawton, former soldier, now a bouncer at the nightclub Religion, knows trouble when he sees it. And he knows something is up when the club’s owners let in a known drug dealer who was once banned for life. People die that night after taking mysterious pills called Skarlet... and then a few days later, they come back to life, hungry for blood. It’s not long before the streets of London are unsafe after dark, and Lawton finds himself allied with the dealer who distributed Skarlet in the first place – ignorant of exactly what it was – and the journalist who got Lawton kicked out of the army years earlier. And there are much scarier things than vampires waiting to be resurrected. Thomas Emson’s new novel Skarlet, first in a series, is a surprisingly good contribution to the trendy paranormal fiction genre. The story is very dark, and the angle of vampirism being caused by a pill is interesting. What really hooks the reader, however, is the deeper conspiracy-theory-type story wherein a number of prominent people are involved in a plot to resurrect a demon god, along with an army of vampires to serve them. Dunne’s writing style is engaging, and his tendency to end chapters with cliffhangers is annoyingly effective. The book starts slow, but before long, it’s hard to put it down. Reviewed by Holly Scudero The Exceptions By David Cristofano Grand Central Publishing, $24.99, 469 pages Check this out! The Exceptions is a clever blend of a love story and The Godfather. The protagonist, Jonathan Bovaro, was born into a New York mob family. He loves his family and is capable of doing their unsavory bidding, though Jonathan is often a conflicted and reluctant participant in the world of crime. When Jonathan was a child, an innocent family witnessed some of the grisly handiwork of Jonathan’s father. This sets off a tragic chain of events that consumes Jona-
Fiction than throughout his early adult life. Racked with guilt over his childhood role in screwing up the lives of an innocent family, Jonathan attempts to right a terrible wrong. He also tries to hide from his shame by becoming a successful restaurateur. But his family even finds ways of corrupting his business. Jonathan loves his family but detests what they stand for. He especially loathes a gambling addict who feeds his family information about the activities of the feds. This is a story of a struggling soul seeking redemption. Cristofano fills the pages with beautiful scenes that peer into the inner soul. The only negative is that, at times, there is an excess of scene building and introspection. It’s worth it. Reviewed by Grady Jones Three Strong Women By Marie Ndiaye Knopf, $25.95, 293 pages Check this out!
Sweet Tooth, cont’d from cover
and ends up betraying those she is closest to despite herself. Her first mission is to encourage a budding writer to espouse anti-communist views and expound them, but everything goes wrong and the author takes an unforeseeable experimental swerve, writing a dystopia that is a savage indictment of capitalism. Little does he know that Serena is in fact paid to manipulate him. The novel is well-paced and difficult to put down for more than an hour. As always, McEwan’s style makes the description of uneventful details highly enjoyable. We are made very willing witnesses to Serena’s amorous relationships and there’s never a dull moment despite the relatively unexceptional nature of these. As a spy story involving a writer, Sweet Tooth stands as a fair rival to Graham Greene’s The Third Man and has more narrative twists and turns. If the suspense is not quite as intense as in McEwan’s greatest novel Enduring Love, this is because he attempts to grip the reader’s attention without ever endangering his protagonist’s life. We know that Serena can get into very difficult professional straits and that she stands to lose her hard-gained one-true love, but there is never any real
This novel could as easily be titled Three Desperate Women. NDiaye’s characters are so brutalized by life or fate that their mere survival is miraculous. The novel consists of three stories, tenuously connected by Senegal. Norah is a lawyer in Paris. Fanta drags herself from poverty to respectability, teaching French literature in her native Senegal. Khady, married and widowed early and unable to conceive, is cast out by her late husband’s relatives and instructed to make her way to France and send back money. Norah’s father, who shamed, belittled, and abandoned her at an early age, suddenly commands her presence and assistance in Senegal. She complies. Fanta’s husband marries her in Senegal and drags her to France, where she withers, unemployable and friendless. Khady, who lives an internal life in a fantasy of a rosy, indistinct future, barely noticing anything going on around her, stays alive, however minimally. This is a relentless novel, illuminated by flashes of grim humor. No one behaves well. Expect poetically lyrical prose and bleak, inexorable resolution. Reviewed by Elizabeth Benford
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sense that her life is in danger. So it is perhaps unfair to suggest that the novel has a generic weakness as Adam Mars-Jones has in his otherwise richly searching review for the London Review of Books. In a sense, you might say that McEwan’s triumph lies in the fact that he refuses to use the spy genre’s facile recourse to trigger-happy climaxes and imminent near-death experiences for the protagonist. Sweet Tooth is a highly convincing exercise in what feminist critics have called gynesis: a male author’s first-person exploration of female psychology. The novel is also fine addition to the genre of the feminist novel of detection. Reviewed by Erik Martiny Wicked, cont’d from page 2
and a woman who names her knitted goods after the specific sheep from whom she spun the yarn. Wicked Autumn starts out a bit slowly. The murder is not discovered until the seventyfifth page. However, Malliet fills those pages with often funny descriptions that set the scene and are worth of the delay in the action. This is the first book in a new series by Malliet, and I will definitely be looking for the next one. Reviewed by Annie Peters
eBooks Now Available! Tulsa City-County Library has thousands of eBooks, audiobooks and more that are available for free download and checkout to your Kindle®, iPad®, iPod®, NOOK™ and other mobile devices. Visit http://tulsalibrary.org/downloads to access the library’s digital catalog.
TulsaLibrary.org
JANUARY 2013
918.549.READ
A FREE MONTHLY GUIDE TO YOUR COMMUNITY LIBRARY, ITS PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
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Saturday, March 2
2013 American Indian Festival of Words Writers Award Honoring
Sterlin Harjo CENTRAL LIBRARY BUILDING PLANS UNVEILED PAGE 2
adult/teen events BIXBY LIBRARY A-Book-A-Month Discussion Group Wednesday, Jan. 23 • 2-3 p.m. Read a Western novel of your choice and then join us for a lively discussion. For adults.
BROKEN ARROW LIBRARY Educator Open House Tuesday, Jan. 15 • 4-5 p.m. Curious about the library resources that can enhance your teaching? At this open house, you may apply for an institution card (42day checkout period) and learn more about Homework Help Now, Mango Languages, Verbalearn, Learning Express, in addition to a vast array of primary sources and databases that are available to you and your students with a Tulsa CityCounty Library card. For adults. Read or Die Manga/Anime Club Saturday, Jan. 19 • 12:30-2 p.m. For teens.
L I B R A R Y CLOSINGS
10:30 a.m. E-READER CLINICS PAGEFestival 4 2013 American Indian of Words (immediately following the award presentation)
Library Sherlock HolmesCentral Returns TulsaLibrary.org/AIRC Tuesday, Jan. 29 • 6:30-7:45 p.m. Sherlock Holmes is back and in a big way, from movies to TV to novels. Join Sherlockian Dean Clark as he gives reasons for Holmes' eternal popularity. For adults and teens.
FESTIVAL OF WORDS WRITERS AWARD PAGE 8
CENTRAL LIBRARY
BROKEN ARROW LIBRARY/SOUTH
E-books and Audiobooks: Drop In, Check Out Tuesday, Jan. 8 • 5:30-7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19 • 10 a.m.-noon Location: Research Center, fourth floor Drop by with your Kindle, Nook, iPad, MP3 player or other overdrive compatible electronic device (and your laptop, if appropriate), and we'll help you learn how to search for, check out and download e-books and audiobooks. If you don't have an e-reader yet but are curious about the process, we will have Nooks and Kindles on hand for you to try.
Drop in and Decode Downloading: E-books at the Library Wednesday, Jan. 9 • 1:30-3 p.m. Have a new e-reader and can't wait to use it? Come in and learn about the library's free e-books. Bring your e-reader to get answers to your questions, along with tips and tricks about downloading from the library. For adults.
Travels With Tulsans Wednesday, Jan. 9 • 12:10-12:50 p.m. Location: Aaronson Auditorium Explore Greece with Harry Potter, a part-time Grecian resident, and gain an understanding of the issues confronting this country. For adults and teens. Sponsored by the Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries.
Drop in and Decode Downloading: Part 2 Thursday, Jan. 24 • 6:30-7:30 p.m. If you missed our first class or just have questions about your e-reader, drop in for help. Learn tips and tricks for downloading e-books from the library. For adults.
Job Lab Thursdays, Jan. 10, 31 • 2-3:30 p.m. Location: Computer Training Room Update your résumé, search for jobs online or explore a new career in this special computer lab just for job seekers. You will have access to Microsoft Office software and the Internet. USB flash drives are available for purchasing, or you can bring your own to save your work.
Fractured Fairy Tales Thursday, Jan. 31 • 6-7 p.m. Join us for games, crafts, snacks and fun as we explore fairy tales and their popular altered counterparts. For ages 12-18.
All Tulsa City-County Library locations will be closed on Tuesday, Jan. 1 for New Year’s Day and on Monday, Jan. 21 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Standard printing charges apply. Library staff and resources will be in the lab to provide assistance. For adults. Class size is limited. Travels With Tulsans Wednesday, Jan. 16 • 12:10-12:50 p.m. Location: Aaronson Auditorium Join the Global Table Adventure with Sasha Martin. Each week her family dives into a meal from another country, learning about the food and trying recipes, all shared on her website. Hers is the ultimate stovetop travel experience from A-Z. For adults and teens. Sponsored by the Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries. Travels With Tulsans Wednesday, Jan. 23 • 12:10-12:50 p.m. Location: Aaronson Auditorium The mystic country and culture of Turkey will be explored with the Rev. Dr. Bill Crowell of Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. For adults and teens. Sponsored by the Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries. Travels With Tulsans Wednesday, Jan. 30 • 12:10-12:50 p.m. Location: Aaronson Auditorium Ashli Simms, director of development for the Janada L. Batchelor Foundation for Children, will share her excitement about the mission of this Tanzanianbased organization involving orphaned girls. For adults and teens. Sponsored by the Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries.
Hearing loop available. Switch hearing aid to T-coil.
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COLLINSVILLE LIBRARY SUKIKYO! Anime/Manga Club Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 30 • 4-5:30 p.m. Meet with other fans of Japanese art and animation. For teens. Refreshments provided by the Friends of the Collinsville Library. utime@yourlibrary Thursday, Jan. 17 • 2:30-4:30 p.m. This month's activity focuses on "Get Fit!" For teens. Refreshments provided by the Friends of the Collinsville Library.
GENEALOGY CENTER Publishing Your Family History Saturday, Jan. 12 • 1-2:30 p.m. Cynthia Barnes, author of "An Ear to the Past," will share methods to take family history from the research stage into the publishing process. For adults.
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HARDESTY REGIONAL LIBRARY Share Your Book Picks Jan. 2-31 • Write a review of your favorite book and we'll post it for all to see and enter you in a drawing for a prize pack. Look for the review kiosk on the first floor and the display in the Teen Space. For ages 12-18. E-Books for iPad and iPhone Drop-in Clinic Saturday, Jan. 5 • 9:30-11 a.m. Load up your iDevice with free e-books to read from the library. Visit our Wi-Fi bar between 9:30 and 11 a.m. with your iPad or iPhone for one-to-one assistance. For adults. Duck Into 2013 Tuesday, Jan. 8 • 4-6 p.m. Location: Maple Room What do you need for the new
Central Library Building Plans Unveiled
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year? A journal to keep track of your resolutions? A wallet to hold your holiday cash? A pouch for your new cell phone? Make any of these and more from duct tape at the library! For ages 12-18. Register by leaving a message at 918-5497556 or online at https://www. surveymonkey.com/s/Duck2013. Black History Storytelling With Art Johnson Thursday, Jan. 31 • 4-5 p.m. Location: Connor's Cove Celebrate Black History Month and kick of the Adult Winter Reading Program with Art Johnson, a wellknown veteran interpreter for Colonial Williamsburg, as he presents stories dramatizing freedom, slavery and historical construction of heroes. For ages 12 and older. Sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust.
HELMERICH LIBRARY E-Book Lab Thursday, Jan. 10 • 5:30-7 p.m. Have questions about navigating our catalog to download e-books to your Kindle, Nook, iPad or other device? A librarian will be on hand to help, so drop in. For adults and teens. Sponsored by the Friends of the Helmerich Library and Tulsa Library Trust. Books People Are Talking About Wednesday, Jan. 16 • 12:15-1:15 p.m. We will revisit the classic novel "True Grit" by Charles Portis and other novels of the West. For adults. Light refreshments are provided by the Friends of the Helmerich Library.
Tuesday, Feb. 19 6-7 p.m. Central Library, Aaronson Auditorium Join us as we unveil the concepts for reimagining our Central Library. The renovation of this midcentury modern architecture building seeks to renew the library’s identity and role in the community as well as remedy the building’s outdated and worn infrastructure. A garden, new fixed-seating auditorium and group study rooms are just some of the highlights. Project leads Jeffrey Scherer, founding principal, and Traci Lesneski, principal of interiors, for Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle Ltd. (MS&R), will share building plans that will provide leading-edge library service now and into the future!
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a d u l t / t e e n Bleached T-shirts Thursday, Jan. 17 • 5:30-6:30 p.m. Celebrate the new year by designing and creating a new look using bleach. Bring a cotton T-shirt to join in the fun. For ages 12 and older. Sponsored by the Friends of the Helmerich Library.
HERMAN AND KATE KAISER LIBRARY E-Book Café @ Your Library Friday, Jan. 18 • 11 a.m.-noon Do you have questions about navigating the library's online catalog to download e-books to your Kindle, Nook, iPad, laptop or other device? Drop in for a cup of coffee and get some help from your friendly neighborhood librarians. We will have several e-reader devices on hand for you to try out as well. For adults.
JENKS LIBRARY Jenks Library Book Discussion Group Thursday, Jan. 17 • 1:30-2:30 p.m. Participants should read the selected book prior to the program. Call 918549-7570 for book title. For adults.
JUDY Z. KISHNER LIBRARY Cozy Cocoa Game Day Tuesday, Jan. 22 • 3-3:45 p.m. Join us for hot chocolate and some fun games. For ages 10-18.
MARTIN REGIONAL LIBRARY Teen Time Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 4-5 p.m. • Join us for Wii and board games, work on your homework or enjoy other fun activities with your friends. For teens and tweens. Job Lab Mondays, Jan. 7, 14, 28 • 9-11 a.m. Update your résumé, search for jobs online or explore a new career in this special computer lab just for job seekers. You will have access to Microsoft Office software and the Internet. USB flash drives are available for purchasing, or you can bring your own to save your work. Standard printing charges apply. Library staff and resources will be in the lab to provide assistance. For adults.
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Greek Myth Tracker Monday, Jan. 7 • 4-4:45 p.m. Study the gods and goddesses of ancient Greek culture. Choose your favorite and add your discoveries to your field guide. For ages 10-14. Thursday Afternoon Book Club Thursday, Jan. 17 • 1:30-3 p.m. Join us for a discussion of Nora Ephron's "I Feel Bad About My Neck." For adults. Participants should read the book prior to the program. Manga Ai! Saturday, Jan. 19 • 2-3 p.m. Munch on Pocky and meet up with other manga fans to discuss your favorite books and movies, characters and plot twists from this popular Japanese publishing trend. For sixth-graders and up. Teen Advisory Board Meeting Saturday, Jan. 19 • 3:15-4:15 p.m. Help provide a teen perspective on the services and materials that the Martin Regional Library offers. For ages 12-18. Greek Myth Tracker (The Next Level) Monday, Jan. 28 • 4-4:45 p.m. Join fellow explorers and recreate ancient Greek coins to add to your field guide. For ages 10-14. E-Books 101 Tuesday, Jan. 29 • 1:30-3:30 p.m. Did you get a new e-reader for the holidays? Now what? Drop by with your Nook, Kindle or other compatible device to learn the basics of downloading library material. For adults.
NATHAN HALE LIBRARY Get Your Game on @ the Library Mondays, Jan. 7, 28 • 3:30-5 p.m. Join us for Wii games. For ages 10-18. Neuropathy and Diabetes Thursday, Jan. 24 • 3-4 p.m. Neuropathy is often a side effect of diabetes. Join Susan Nole from Couch Pharmacy to learn more. For all ages.
PRATT LIBRARY Is Beekeeping for You? Saturday, Jan. 26 • 2-4 p.m. Come and find out if beekeeping is for you! Join Alan Larson, a member of the North East Oklahoma Beekeepers Association and president of the Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association, as he shares his passion about beekeeping. For all ages.
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RUDISILL REGIONAL LIBRARY 1/25th-Scale Model Car Show and Contest Monday, Jan. 21 • 1-4 p.m. The competition is open to ages 5 and older. Age categories are 5-11, 12-16 and 17 to adult. There are also professional and hydraulics categories. Winners will receive trophies for first, second and third place in each category. Sponsored by the Friends of the Rudisill Regional Library, Woodrow Street Hobbies, Liberty Baptist Church and Top Shelf Models. For all ages. Job Lab Tuesday, Jan. 22 • 1-3 p.m. Update your résumé, search for jobs online or explore a new career in this special computer lab just for job seekers. You will have access to Microsoft Office software and the Internet. USB flash drives are available for purchasing, or you can bring your own to save your work. Standard printing charges apply. Library staff and resources will be in the lab to provide assistance. For adults. Preregistration is required. Class size is limited. Call 918-549-7645 to register. Keeping Ties That Bind Friday, Jan. 25 • 10 a.m.-noon Are you a grandparent caring for your grandchildren or a relative caring for relative children in your home? If so, join us for the monthly meeting of our interest group for relative/kinship caregivers. For adults. 2013 African-American High School History Bowl Thursday, Jan. 31 • 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The bowl challenges high school teams over topics relating to AfricanAmerican history. First-, second- and third-place winners will receive a trophy. All student team members will receive a certificate for participation. For all ages. Sponsored by the Friends of Rudisill Regional Library, Tulsa Library Trust and AfricanAmerican Resource Center.
SCHUSTERMANBENSON LIBRARY Mystery Readers Roundtable Thursday, Jan. 3 • 2-3 p.m. Join us for coffee and share what you've been reading. For adults. Teen Time Tuesday, Jan. 15 • 4-5 p.m. Kick back and have fun with
c l a s s e s your fellow teens. Snacks will be provided. For ages 12-18.
SKIATOOK LIBRARY Teen Time Tuesday, Jan. 22 • 3:30-5 p.m. Enjoy Wii and board games, plus crafts. For sixth-graders and up.
ZARROW REGIONAL LIBRARY Teen Thursday Thursdays, Jan. 10, 17, 24, 31 6-7 p.m. • Join us for Wii, X-Box 360 and other fun activities! For ages 10-18.
computer classes HARDESTY REGIONAL LIBRARY
CLASSES ARE LIMITED TO 18 ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED BASIS. MS Word 1 Tuesday, Jan. 8 • 6-8 p.m. Learn how to create various kinds of documents; use the toolbar; set margins; apply spell check; and preview, save and print documents. Internet Basics Thursday, Jan. 10 • 10-11 a.m. This class is designed for PC users with little or no experience in using the Internet. You will navigate the World Wide Web, plus learn to preview, print and save information. Prerequisite: Some experience using a computer keyboard and mouse prior to taking this class. MS Word 2 Tuesday, Jan. 15 • 6-8 p.m. Learn how to create and format tables, use bulleted and numbered lists, and apply and format columns in a document. Internet @ the Library Thursday, Jan. 17 • 10-11 a.m. Explore our new website and learn to use the library's catalog and its free premium content, which is not available on the open Web. Prerequisite: Some experience using a computer keyboard and mouse prior to taking this class.
TULSA CITY-COUNTY LIBRARY EVENT GUIDE
JANUARY 2013
E-Reader Clinic: Drop In, Check Out c o m p u t e r (Hardesty Regional Library continued)
MS Word 3 Tuesday, Jan. 22 • 6-8 p.m. Learn how to create and use borders and shading, headers and footers, page numbering and drawing tools. Introduction to Facebook Saturday, Jan. 26 • 9:30-11 a.m. Want to keep in touch with friends and family? Interested in knowing about Facebook but don't know how it works? Join us for an introduction to this widely used social networking service where you'll learn how to set up an account and edit your Facebook profile, select privacy settings, and find and add friends. If you will want to create a new Facebook account, please have a working email address before class. MS Word 4 Tuesday, Jan. 29 • 6-8 p.m. Explore mail merge, use tables to perform calculations and create on-screen forms.
MARTIN REGIONAL LIBRARY
CLASSES ARE LIMITED TO 12 ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED BASIS.
D ro p b y th e lib ra ry w it h a ss is ta n c e w y o u r e -r e a d it h c h e c k in g er and get o u t a n d d o w n lo a n d a u d io b a d in g e -b o o o o k s fr o m th ks e lib ra ry . C lin sc h e d u le d in ic s a re Ja n u a ry a t th e fo llo w in g lib ra ri e s: C EN TR A L LI BR A RY Research Cent HERMAN AND er, fourth floor KATE KAISER LI Tuesday, Jan. BRARY Fr iday, Jan. 18 • 8 • 5:30-7 p.m 11 a.m.-noon . Saturday, Jan. 19 • 10 a.m.-n oon M A RT IN RE G IO N A L LI BR A RY H A RD ES TY RE Tu e sd a y, Jan. 29 • 1:30 G IO N A L LI BR -3:30 p.m. A RY Saturday, Jan. 5 • 9:30-11 a.m . This clinic will c SO U TH BR O K over EN A RR O W LI BR A RY iPad and iPho W ednesday, Ja ne only. n. 9 • 1:30-3 p .m. Thursday, Jan. 24 • 6:30-7:30 H EL M ER IC H LI p.m. BR A RY Thursday, Jan. ZA RR O W RE G 10 • 5:30-7 p.m IO N A L LI BR A . RY Monday, Jan. 7 • 5:30-7:30 p .m.
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use automatic fill and change basic formatting. Really Basic Computer Class Tuesday, Jan. 8 • 1:30-3:30 p.m. This class is designed for new computer users who have little or no previous experience using computers, Windows, a mouse or the Internet, and little or no knowledge of basic computer terms. MS Excel 2 Saturday, Jan. 12 • 10 a.m.-noon Learn how to create and edit formulas, and apply functions and advanced formatting to your spreadsheets and workbooks.
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Email 101 Tuesday, Jan. 22 • 1:30-3:30 p.m. Learn how to set up a free account and how to use it to send and receive email.
Internet @ the Library Friday, Jan. 18 • 9:30-11 a.m. Learn how to navigate the World Wide Web and use the library’s online catalog and resources.
Introduction to MS PowerPoint Saturday, Jan. 26 • 10 a.m.-noon Learn how to create group presentations and slide shows.
Email 101 Friday, Jan. 25 • 9:30-11 a.m. Learn how to set up a free account and how to use it to send and receive email.
RUDISILL REGIONAL LIBRARY
FOR ALL AGES. PREREGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. CLASS SIZES ARE LIMITED. CALL 918-549-7645 TO REGISTER.
MS Word 1 Tuesday, Jan. 15 • 1:30-3:30 p.m. Learn how to create various kinds of documents; use the toolbar; set margins; apply spell check; and preview, save and print documents.
Really Basic Computer Class Friday, Jan. 4 • 9:30-11 a.m. This class is designed for new computer users who have little or no previous experience using computers, Windows, a mouse or the Internet, and little or no knowledge of basic computer terms.
MS Excel 3 Saturday, Jan. 19 • 10 a.m.-noon Learn how to create visual representations of spreadsheet and workbook data. Learn how to create charts, apply conditional formatting and control the appearance of printed spreadsheets.
Introduction to MS Word 2007 Friday, Jan. 11 • 9:30-11 a.m. Learn how to create various kinds of documents; use the toolbar; set margins; apply spell check; and preview, save and print documents.
MS Excel 1 Saturday, Jan. 5 • 10 a.m.-noon Learn how to create formulas,
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ZARROW REGIONAL LIBRARY
FOR ADULTS. CLASS SIZES ARE LIMITED. E-book and E-reader 101 Monday, Jan. 7 • 5:30-7:30 p.m. Bring your e-reader and get assistance with checking out and downloading e-books from the library. Computers for Seniors Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 1:30-3:30 p.m. • Have you always wanted to learn to use a computer but were afraid to try? This series is designed especially for older folks who need a slower-paced, encouraging atmosphere in which to learn new skills. Jan. 9, "Hardware Boot Camp"; Jan.16, "Beginning Internet"; Jan. 23, "Fun With Files"; and Jan.30, "Email 101." For ages 55+. Preregistration is required. Class size is limited. Call 918-549-7683 to register.
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children’s events BROKEN ARROW LIBRARY My First Storytime Mondays, Jan. 7, 14, 28 Thursdays, Jan. 10, 17, 24, 31 10:30-10:50 a.m. • For newborns to 2-year-olds and their caregivers. Preschool Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 10:30-10:50 a.m. • For ages 3-5. Stay and Play Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 11 a.m. • For babies and toddlers, playing is learning! After our regularly scheduled storytime, join us for games, toys and activities that foster critical early literacy skills. For ages 2-5. Bounce'n Beethovens Thursday, Jan. 17 • 10:30 a.m. The Midtown School of Performing Arts will join us for singing, instruments and interactive music fun! For ages 1-5 and their caregivers. Polar Party Wednesday, Jan. 23 • 4-4:45 p.m. Chill out with fun activities, including crafts, snacks and science experiments that highlight the polar regions of the Earth. For ages 5-12.
BROKEN ARROW LIBRARY/SOUTH Toddler Time Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 10:30-10:50 a.m. • Share-a-story, sing-a-song. We hope you will come along. For 1-year-olds to 36-month-olds and their caregivers. My First Storytime Mondays, Jan. 7, 14, 28 10:30-10:50 a.m. • For newborns to 18-month-olds and their caregivers. Family Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10:30-10:50 a.m. • Enjoy stories, action rhymes, fun flannel, music and bubbles. For ages 3-5. Stay and Play Tuesday, Jan. 8 • 11-11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16 • 11-11:30 a.m. After our regularly scheduled
storytime, join us for games, toys and activities that foster critical early literacy skills. For ages 1-5 and their caregivers. Sponsored by the Cox Connects Foundation. Bilingual Storytime With Fidelia Thursdays, Jan. 17, 24, 31 10:30-10:50 a.m. • Enjoy stories and songs in English and Spanish. For ages 5 and younger. PAWS for Reading Thursday, Jan. 17 • 6:30-7:30 p.m. Registered therapy dogs are excellent listeners. Kids ages 7-12 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry, four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust. Preregistration is required. Call 918-549-7662 to register.
BROOKSIDE LIBRARY Preschool Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 10:15-10:45 a.m. • For ages 2-5. An adult must accompany 2-year-olds. My First Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 11-11:20 a.m. • For newborns to 24-month-olds and their caregivers. It's a Stretch! Friday, Jan. 11 • 3:30-4:15 p.m. Join Miss Dana for gentle yet effective stretching exercises. Wear comfortable clothing. For ages 7-14. Kids Craft Thursday, Jan. 24 • 3:30-4:15 p.m. Join Miss Dana for a fun winter craft. For ages 5-12.
CENTRAL LIBRARY Stories All Day: Pop In for Pop-up Books! Wednesday, Jan. 2 • 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Drop by anytime and we will have a short storytime just for you. Enjoy special pop-up books and make a pop-up card. For ages 10 and younger. Sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust. Paper Airplane Challenge Thursday, Jan. 3 • 1-2 p.m. Learn new designs, such as the Arrow, Dart, Hoop Glider and Whirlybird, or create your own! We will provide directions, paper and lots of space for flying. At 1:45 p.m. we will have a "Paper Airplane Air Show" inside from the third-floor balcony. Compete for distance and accuracy. We'll have a special category for grown-ups! For all ages. Sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust.
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Drop-in Chess Workshop Saturdays, Jan. 5, 12, 19, 26 • 1-3 p.m. Learn to play chess or hone your skills with 20-year veteran chess teacher Michael Sullivan. He will give short lessons at whatever level is needed and then you will have an opportunity to play. This workshop will be offered weekly through Feb. 9. For ages 8 and older. Call 918-549-7438 to sign up. Walkins welcome if space is available. Sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust.
My First Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 10-10:20 a.m. • For newborns to 2-year-olds and their caregivers.
My First Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10:30-10:50 a.m. • For newborns to 2-year-olds and their caregivers.
Preschool Storytime With Ms. Kristie Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 11-11:30 a.m. • Join us for stories, music and activities. For ages 3-5.
Preschool Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 11-11:30 a.m. • For ages 3-5.
HELMERICH LIBRARY
PAWS for Reading Saturday, Jan. 19 • 11 a.m.-noon Registered therapy dogs are excellent listeners. Kids ages 5-12 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry, four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust. Call 918-549-7438 to sign up. Walkins welcome if space is available.
CHARLES PAGES LIBRARY My First Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10:30-11:15 a.m. • For newborns to 5-year-olds and their caregivers.
COLLINSVILLE LIBRARY Stories From the Rocking Chair Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10:30-11 a.m. • Join us for stories, songs, crafts and more. For newborns to 4-year-olds and their caregivers.
GLENPOOL LIBRARY Ms. Tatiana's Family Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 16, 23, 30 10:30-10:55 a.m. • Enjoy stories, rhymes and finger plays. For newborns to 5-year-olds and their caregivers.
HARDESTY REGIONAL LIBRARY Mr. Paul's Preschool Storytime Mondays, Jan. 7, 14, 28 11-11:30 a.m. • For ages 3-5. Marvelous Monday Stories Mondays, Jan. 7, 14, 28 6:30-7 p.m. • Join Ms. Karen for stories and other fun activities. For all ages.
Toddler Time Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 11-11:20 a.m. Mondays, Jan. 14, 28 • 10-10:20 a.m. Join Ms. Josie for stories, songs and finger plays. For ages 2-3 and their caregivers.
Family Storytime Thursdays, Jan. 24, 31 10:15-10:35 a.m. • Join us for winter books, fun music and flannelboard math. For all ages.
HERMAN AND KATE KAISER LIBRARY Preschool Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 10:30-10:55 a.m. • For ages 3-5. Stay and Play Storytime Thursdays, Jan. 10, 17, 24, 31 10:30-11:30 a.m. • For babies and toddlers, playing is learning! Enjoy storytime and then stay after for games, toys and activities that foster critical early literacy skills. For newborns to 2-yearolds and their caregivers. PAWS for Reading Tuesday, Jan. 22 • 3:30-5:30 p.m. Registered therapy dogs are excellent listeners. Kids ages 5-10 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry, four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust. Class size is limited.
JENKS LIBRARY My First Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 10-10:20 a.m. • For newborns to 2-year-olds and their caregivers. Preschool Storytime Wednesdays • 10:30-11 a.m. For ages 3-5. Jan. 2 • On the Farm Jan. 9 • Ducks Jan. 16 • Chickens Jan. 23 • Pigs Jan. 30 • Cows
TULSA CITY-COUNTY LIBRARY EVENT GUIDE
JANUARY 2013
c h i l d r e n ’ s (Jenks Library continued)
PAWS for Reading Tuesday, Jan. 15 • 4-5 p.m. Registered therapy dogs are excellent listeners. Kids ages 5-12 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry, four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust. Preregistration is required. Call 918-549-7570 to register.
JUDY Z. KISHNER LIBRARY Saturday Stories Saturdays, Jan. 5, 12, 19, 26 10:30-11 a.m. • For ages 5 and younger.
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Totally Terrific Thursdays Thursday, Jan. 17 • 3-4 p.m. Join us for an entertaining afternoon exploring a range of different topics and activities such as science experiments, cooking lessons, arts and crafts, or book talks. For ages 5-12.
KENDALL-WHITTIER LIBRARY Bilingual Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10-10:45 a.m. • Enjoy favorite stories in English and Spanish. For ages 3-5. PAWS for Reading Saturday, Jan. 21 • 11 a.m.-noon Registered therapy dogs are
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excellent listeners. Kids ages 5-12 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry, four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust.
MARTIN REGIONAL LIBRARY Bilingual Family Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 6:30-7 p.m. Thursdays, Jan. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 10-10:30 a.m. Enjoy stories, songs, and activities in English and Spanish. For ages 5 and younger.
tulsa city-county library locations 1 Bixby Library 20 E. Breckenridge, 74008 • 918-549-7514 M-Th, 12-8; Fri., 12-6; Sat., 10-5 2 Broken Arrow Library 300 W. Broadway, 74012 • 918-549-7500 M-Th, 10-8; Fri., 10-6; Sat., 10-5 3 Broken Arrow Library/South 3600 S. Chestnut, 74011 • 918-549-7662 M-Th, 10-8; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 4 Brookside Library 1207 E. 45th Place, 74105 • 918-549-7507 M-Th, 10-8; Fri., 10-6; Sat., 10-5 5 Central Library and American Indian Resource Center 400 Civic Center, 74103 • 918-549-7323 M-Th, 9-9; Fri.-Sat., 9-5; Sun., 1-5, Sept.-May 6 Charles Page Library 551 E. Fourth St., Sand Springs, 74063 918-549-7521 • M-Th, 10-8; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 7 Collinsville Library 1223 Main, 74021 • 918-549-7528 M-Th, 12-8; Fri., 12-5; Sat., 10-5 8 Genealogy Center 2901 S. Harvard, 74114 • 918-549-7691 M-W, 10-5; Th, 1-8; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 9 Glenpool Library 730 E. 141st St., 74033 • 918-549-7535 M-Th, 12-8; Fri., 12-5; Sat., 10-5 10 Hardesty Regional Library and Connor’s Cove 8316 E. 93rd St., 74133 • 918-549-7550 M-Th, 9-9; Fri., 9-6; Sat., 9-5; Sun., 1-5 11 Helmerich Library 5131 E. 91st St., 74137 • 918-549-7631 M-Th, 10-8; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 12 Herman and Kate Kaiser Library 5202 S. Hudson Ave., Suite B, 74135 918-549-7542 • M-Th, 10-8; Fri., 10-6; Sat., 10-5 13 Jenks Library 523 W. B St., 74037 • 918-549-7570 M-T, 12-8; W-Th, 10-6; Fri., 12-5; Sat., 10-5
14 Judy Z. Kishner Library 10150 N. Cincinnati Ave. E., Sperry 74073 • 918-549-7577 M-T, 12-7; W, 10-5; Th, 12-7; Fri., 12-5; Sat., 10-5 15 Kendall-Whittier Library 21 S. Lewis, 74104 • 918-549-7584 M-Th, 10-8; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 16 Martin Regional Library and Hispanic Resource Center 2601 S. Garnett Road, 74129 • 918-549-7590 M-Th, 9-9; Fri., 9-6; Sat., 9-5; Sun., 1-5 17 Maxwell Park Library 1313 N. Canton, 74115 • 918-549-7610 M-F, 10-6; Sat., 10-5 18 Nathan Hale Library 6038 E. 23rd St., 74114 • 918-549-7617 M, 12-8; T-Th, 10-6; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 19 Owasso Library 103 W. Broadway, 74055 • 918-549-7624 M-Th, 10-8; Fri., 10-6; Sat., 10-5 20 Pratt Library 3219 S. 113th W. Ave., Sand Springs, 74063 • 918-549-7638 M-Th, 10-8; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 21 Rudisill Regional Library and African-American Resource Center 1520 N. Hartford, 74106 • 918-549-7645 M-Th, 9-9; Fri.-Sat., 9-5; Sun., 1-5 22 Schusterman-Benson Library 3333 E. 32nd Place, 74135 • 918-549-7670 M-Th, 10-8; Fri.-Sat., 10-5 23 Skiatook Library 316 E. Rogers, 74070 • 918-549-7676 M, 12-8; T-Th, 10-6; Fri.-Sat., 11-5 24 Suburban Acres Library 4606 N. Garrison, 74126 • 918-549-7655 M-Th, 10-6; Fri.-Sat., 11-5 25 Zarrow Regional Library 2224 W. 51st St., 74107 918-549-7683 M-Th, 9-9; Fri.-Sat., 9-5; Sun., 1-5
T u l s a L i b r a r y . o r g
Book Buddies Thursdays, Jan. 3, 10, 17, 24 4-4:45 p.m. • When is a book more than a book? Find out the answer when you join Miss Marie for games, activities and more. For first- through third-graders. Class size is limited. Superhero Costume Contest! Friday, Jan. 4 • 2-3 p.m. Create a book about your favorite superhero, earn your Superhero ID Card, and enter yourself and your costume in our costume contest to win a prize! For ages 5-12. Sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust.
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Bilingual Storytime: Travel With Irina Saturdays, Jan. 5, 12 • 10:30-11 a.m. Come and discover Russian language and culture through stories, rhymes, music and more! For ages 5 and younger. Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds Through Yoga Saturday, Jan. 5 • 1-1:45 p.m. Let's start the new year with yoga. Come dressed in comfy clothes as we move, dance and learn how to take care of ourselves. Yoga will help you feel great inside and out. For ages 6-10. Preregistration is required. Class size is limited. Call 918-549-7590 to register. Greek Myth Tracker Monday, Jan. 7 • 4-4:45 p.m. Study the gods and goddesses of ancient Greek culture. Choose your favorite and add your discoveries to your field guide. For ages 10-14. Preschool Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10-10:30 a.m. • For ages 3-5. Stay and Play Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10:30-11 a.m. • After our regularly scheduled storytime, join us for games, toys and activities that foster critical early literacy skills. For ages 1-5 and their caregivers. Fun Fun Music! Monday, Jan. 14 • 10-10:45 a.m. Let's hop, jump and sing Japanese/English songs together! Come and join the fun as the Konnichiwa group leads us in music, movement and more. For ages 1-5 and their caregivers. Bilingual Storytime: Travel With Irina Saturdays, Jan. 19, 26 • 10:30-11 a.m. Enjoy stories, songs, and activities in English and Spanish. For ages 5 and younger. Microsoft Paint Contest Saturday, Jan. 19 • 1-2 p.m. Create a work of art using Microsoft Paint. Enter it in the Paint Competition and win a prize. For ages 8-12. Class size is limited. Greek Myth Tracker (The Next Level) Monday, Jan. 28 • 4-4:45 p.m. Join fellow explorers and recreate ancient Greek coins to add to your field guide. For ages 10-14.
NATHAN HALE LIBRARY Storytime With Miss Nha Thursdays, Jan. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 10:30-11 a.m. • Join us for stories,
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finger plays, music and dancing. For ages 5 and younger. PAWS for Reading Saturday, Jan. 26 • 2-3 p.m. Registered therapy dogs are excellent listeners. Kids ages 5-12 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust.
OWASSO LIBRARY My First Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 9:30-9:45 a.m. • For newborns to 2-year-olds and their caregivers. Preschool Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10-10:30 a.m. • For ages 3-5.
Stay and Play Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10:30-11 a.m. • For babies and toddlers, playing is learning! After our regularly scheduled storytime, join us for games, toys and activities that foster critical early literacy skills. For ages 1-5 and their caregivers.
en español
Patrocinado por el Centro Hispano y el Fideicomiso de las Bibliotecas de Tulsa. Informes al 918-549-7597.
clases de informática
Aula de Práctica Miércoles, 16 de enero • 6:30-8:30 p.m. Abrimos el salón de cómputo para los que quieran aprovechar el tiempo para practicar con el teclado, el ratón, navegar el Internet, llenar formularios o aplicaciones. Te ayudaremos a crear una cuenta de correo electrónico, cómo usarla para enviar y recibir correo. Aprende además cómo usar el internet para aprender y/o mejorar tu inglés. Para todas las edades.
BIBLIOTECA REGIONAL MARTIN Usos del Internet para Principiantes con Práctica Miércoles, 2 de enero • 6:30-8:30 p.m. Esta clase te familiarizará con los usos "gratis" del internet para encontrar recursos para hacer tareas, buscar trabajo. Habrá tiempo para practicar con el teclado y con el ratón o para navegar el Internet, llenar formularios o aplicaciones. Para todas las edades. Correo Electrónico I Viernes, 4 de enero 10:15 a.m.-12 p.m. • Les enseñaremos cómo crear una cuenta de correo electrónico y como usarla para enviar y recibir correo. Para todas las edades. Aula de Práctica Miércoles, 9 de enero • 6:30-8:30 p.m. Abrimos el salón de cómputo para los que quieran aprovechar el tiempo para practicar con el teclado, el ratón, navegar el Internet, llenar formularios o aplicaciones. Aprenderás como navegar la página oficial de la Biblioteca y del Centro Hispano; encontrar libros y música; estudiar para el GED, para el examen de ciudadanía, para mejorar tu inglés y mucho más. Para todas las edades. Correo Electrónico II Viernes, 11 de enero 10:15 a.m.-12 p.m. • Les enseñaremos cómo usar el correo electrónico más eficientemente, creando carpetas, abriendo archivos, guardando fotos. Para todas las edades.
TulsaLibrary.org/hrc
Aula de Práctica Viernes, 18 de enero 10:15 a.m.-12 p.m. • Abrimos el salón de cómputo para los que quieran aprovechar el tiempo para practicar con el teclado y con el ratón o para practicar navegar el Internet, llenar formularios o aplicaciones. La maestra estará presente como personal de apoyo. Para todas las edades. Aula de Práctica Miércoles, 23 de enero • 6:30-8:30 p.m. Abrimos el salón de cómputo para los que quieran aprovechar el tiempo para practicar con el teclado, el ratón, navegar el Internet, llenar formularios o aplicaciones. Aprende a usar Microsoft Word para formatear texto, escribir cartas, documentos y tu currículum. Para todas las edades.
Aula de Práctica Miércoles, 30 de enero • 6:30-8:30 p.m. Esta clase es para personas con poca o ninguna experiencia usando computadoras y/o internet. Los familiarizará con el uso y la terminología de la computación. Habrá tiempo para practicar con el teclado, el ratón, navegar el Internet, llenar formularios o aplicaciones. Para todas las edades.
programas infantiles BIBLIOTECA BROKEN ARROW SUR Cuentos Bilingües con Fidelia Jueves, 17, 24, 31 de enero 10:30-10:50 a.m. • Fidelia los invita a escuchar cuentos en inglés y español. Para niños de 0 a 5 años. BIBLIOTECA REGIONAL MARTIN Cuentitos Bilingües Jueves, 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 de enero 10-10:30 a.m. Miércoles, 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 de enero 6:30-7 p.m. Sábado, 19, 26 de enero 10:30-11 a.m. Disfruta cuentos, canciones, y actividades en inglés y español. Para niños de 0 a 5 años.
Microsoft Word I Viernes, 25 de enero 10:15 a.m.-12 p.m. • En esta clase te enseñaremos a usar el programa de Microsoft Word para formatear texto, escribir cartas y documentos. Para todas las edades.
TULSA CITY-COUNTY LIBRARY EVENT GUIDE
JANUARY 2013
S A V E
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Saturday, March 2
2013 American Indian Festival of Words Writers Award Honoring
Sterlin Harjo
10:30 a.m. 2013 American Indian Festival of Words (immediately following the award presentation)
Central Library TulsaLibrary.org/AIRC
c h i l d r e n ’ s (Owasso Library continued)
Homeschool Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 1:30-2:30 p.m. • Homeschooled children are invited to join us for stories and a craft. For ages 5-12. Owasso Mother-Daughter Book Club Thursday, Jan. 17 • 6-7 p.m. Read a book together and then join us for a fun discussion. Preregistration is required. Call 918-549-7624 to register and for book title. For girls ages 9-12 and their moms.
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First Saturday @ the Library: Happy New Year, American Girls! Saturday, Jan. 5 • 2-3 p.m. Calling all American Girls! Bring your favorite AG doll and let's ring in the new year. We'll step back in time and enjoy crafts, music and games celebrating bygone eras from the "American Girl" historical dolls and books series. Refreshments will be served. For ages 5-11.
RUDISILL REGIONAL LIBRARY
Sensory Storytime Friday, Jan. 25 • 4-5 p.m. Does your child have difficulty sitting through storytime? If so, this inclusive, interactive program of stories, songs and activities may be just what you are looking for! Sensory Storytime focuses on learning with all five senses and is especially designed for children with a variety of learning styles or sensory integration challenges. Preregistration is required. Register online at http://kids.tulsalibrary. org/sensorystorytime or by calling 918-549-7624. For ages 2-7.
Preschool Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10-10:30 a.m. • For ages 2-5. An adult must accompany 2-year-olds.
PRATT LIBRARY
PAWS for Reading Monday, Jan. 7 • 3:30-4:30 p.m. Registered therapy dogs are excellent listeners. Kids ages 5-12 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry, four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust.
Preschool Storytime Thursdays • 10:30-11:30 a.m. For ages 5 and younger with their caregivers. Jan. 3 • Happy New Year Jan. 10 • Happy New Books Jan. 17 • Dreams Jan. 24 • Bees-a-Buzzing Jan. 31 • Five
SCHUSTERMANBENSON LIBRARY My First Storytime Wednesdays, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 10-10:20 a.m. • 10:30-10:50 a.m. For newborns to 2-year-olds and their caregivers.
Preschool Storytime Tuesdays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 10:30-11 a.m. • For ages 3-5.
T u l s a L i b r a r y . o r g
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Music and Me Monday, Jan. 14 10:15-10:45 a.m. • 11-11:30 a.m. This fun high-energy program features instruments, scarves, movement and more. For newborns to 5-year-olds and their caregivers. Books and More Monday, Jan. 14 • 3:30-4:15 p.m. Have fun with books, ideas and activities. For ages 5-12.
SKIATOOK LIBRARY Preschool Storytime Thursdays • 11 a.m.-noon Join us for stories, songs, rhymes and a craft. For ages 6 and younger. Jan. 3 • Winter Wonderland Jan. 10 • Penguins and Polar Bears Jan. 17 • Snowman, Snowman! Jan. 24 • Icicles and Igloos Jan. 31 • Laura Numeroff Day! Have You Heard? Tuesday, Jan. 8 • 3:30-4:30 p.m. Join us as we explore a new book through activities, a craft and discussion. For firstthrough fifth-graders.
PAWS for Reading Saturday, Jan. 12 • 2-3 p.m. Registered therapy dogs are excellent listeners. Kids ages 5-12 are invited to read their favorite books to a furry, four-pawed friend. Each reader will receive a free book provided by the Tulsa Library Trust. Library Lego League Saturday, Jan. 19 • 2-3 p.m. Join us for Lego-building fun! Legos will be provided, but you may bring your own. For ages 5-12. Family Fun Night Tuesday, Jan. 29 • 6:30-7:30 p.m. Enjoy fun animals-in-winter stories and then stay after to make a pinecone bird feeder to hang in your own yard. For ages 10 and younger.
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ZARROW REGIONAL LIBRARY Stay and Play Storytime Wednesday, Jan. 9, 16, 23, 30 10:30-11:30 a.m. • Enjoy fun and imaginative stories and then stay after for games and activities that foster important early literacy skills. For ages 5 and younger.
Free and Open to the Public If you are hearing-impaired and need a qualified interpreter, please call the library 48 hours in advance of the program. The Tulsa Book Review and Tulsa City-County Library Event Guide are printed on partially recycled paper.
The Tulsa City-County Library Event Guide is produced by the Public Relations Office of the Tulsa City-County Library. For questions or concerns, call 918-549-7389.
Book Reviews Category
Muriel is the crux of this story. She’s never learned anything about business, and when Waldo, her second husband, dies suddenly, there’s an enormous lack of money. No one knows where it went, exactly, but it’s gone. Not only is Muriel underwater with her big, new, McMansion, but the chocolate business is in almost as precarious a position. The townsfolk come together to help the Sterling women find themselves and their purpose in life, not to mention the funds to keep it all going. You’ll feel better after you read this book, whether or not you’re a chocoholic! Reviewed by Kelly Ferjutz
Romance SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
The Bride Wore Pearls By Liz Carlyle Avon, $7.99, 422 pages Check this out! Widowed halfIndian, half-British Lady Anisha Stafford has made a huge decision, and her life will never be the same again. She’s left behind everything she’s always known and moved from India to London with her two sons to start a new life. Her brother’s allegiance with the secretive St. James Society promises to keep her and the boys safe, but life in London doesn’t prove to be as easy as she’d hoped. Not only is it hard to fit in when you’re the product of two vastly different cultures, but an unnerving attraction to an emotionally guarded killer really make things interesting. The Bride Wore Pearls really stands out in the historical romance genre because Lady Anisha is so different from the average heroine. She’s not young; she’s a mother and a widow. She was born and raised in an entirely different culture and has a rather hard time with this, which makes her real and instantly lovable. I loved the electric connection between Anisha and Rance, the drama and intrigue as they try to discover who framed Rance for murder, and the slowgrowing romance that blooms between the hero and heroine. This novel was absolutely enjoyable from beginning to end. I’ve yet to read the other novels in this series, but this book has made me want to check them out. Absolutely phenomenal, Carlyle! Reviewed by Jennifer Melville Rogue Rider (Lords of Deliverance) By Larissa Ione Grand Central Publishing, $7.99, 391 pages Check this out! At the end of Lethal Rider, the threat of the demonic apocalypse is over when Thanathos stabs Pestilence with Deliverance, sending him to Sheol. The only problem is that Reseph is stuck in hell, not Pestilence. Unfortunately for Reseph, he remembers everything he did as Pestilence. Reaver res-
cues Reseph from Sheol, wipes his memory, and drops him back in the human realm. Jillian stumbles across him in the mountains and takes him in to care for him. Their efforts to figure out who he his brings trouble to their doorstep. Pestilence is still lurking under the surface waiting for any sign of weakness from Reseph that he can exploit to take over again. In spite their having reservations, their relationship helps both of them recover from the trauma of Pestilence’s reign and gives Reseph the strength to keep Pestilence at bay. It was great to finally get to meet Reseph after enduring Pestilence for three books. Reseph definitely lives up to the image the other horseman painted of him. We get to know him as he is getting to relearn himself. We also finally find out who the horsemen’s father is. Be prepared to be surprised about that kernel of information… Reviewed by Jennifer Moss Better Than Chocolate (Life in Icicle Falls) By Sheila Roberts Harlequin MIRA, $7.99, 400 pages Check this out! This is the third small-town story I’ve read in the last three months. It must be a new sub-genre of romance, and I think it’s a winner! The common denominator in all three stories is the caring that is exhibited between the inhabitants of these small towns: one in the south, one in California and this one in Washington State. Icicle Creek is the home of the Sterling family, founders and operators of Sweet Dreams Chocolates, a top-ranked manufacturer of chocolate sweets. (The word ‘candy’ doesn’t begin to get it here.) Samantha, oldest of the three daughters, is the current manager. Her mom, Muriel, was never involved with the family business, having embarked on her own career as a writer, but
A Lady by Midnight By Tessa Dare Avon, $7.99, 374 pages Check this out! Kate Taylor knows how to take care of herself. While love would be nice, she’s happy in Spindle Cove and isn’t looking for a big change. Then, one day, things change forever. The mysterious Grammercys show up in Spindle Cove and claim to be Kate’s long-lost family. Their intentions are unclear, but they sure do shake things up! Kate’s long-time
admirer, Corporal Samuel Thorne, steps up and claims to be her fiancé to protect her. This only makes things more complicated because their fiery attraction threatens to burn through their well-laid plans. This book is HOT! Kate and Thorne’s steamy encounters practically burn up the pages, so be prepared if you don’t like your romance vivid. It’s pretty intense. Kate and Thorne are incredibly deep characters and their complicated pasts really add to the plot. Thorne is a heart-melting hunk of a hero, and I think I liked him even more than Kate. He’s so honorable and caring while also deeply scarred by his past. I also liked how his relationship with Kate didn’t miraculously cure him of all of his hurts and flaws. Overall: dreamy, utterly dreamy. A Lady by Midnight was an absolutely enjoyable read. This is one story I won’t soon forget! Reviewed by Jennifer Melville
Category
Fantasy SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
Ember’s Kiss: A Dragonfire Novel By Deborah Cooke Signet Eclipse, $7.99, 393 pages Check this out! Let Deborah Cooke take you on a journey of shape shifting dragons and the magical women with whom they fall in love. This story is about a man named Brandon who has shunned his magical ability due to the conflict it caused in his parent’s life. He grew up to believe it was something to hate, that he himself was a monster not worthy of love. On the coast of Hawaii, all of this changes forever. He’s grown now, and he’s a surfer boy who, of course, all the girls love. What’s not to love with a surfer’s body,
Tulsa Book Review • January 2013 • 8
right? Well, he meets a girl who sparks his attention, and they are immediately drawn to each other. Little do they know that they have so much in common. She, too, is denying her magical background. Together they will discover family roots and ties, overcome impossible feats, and determine that, through their love, they will conquer all things. So if you love romance, mystical things, and plots that keep you riveted and wanting more, then you should read this book. It will definitely give you all of that and more! Reviewed by Penny Via
Book Reviews Category
Picture Books SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
Find a Cow Now! By Susan Stevens Crummel, Janet Stevens Holiday House, $11.78, 32 pages Check this out! Dog is tired of napping. He needs to move and chase - and he does! Tackling rugs, chairs, and chasing his own tail, he makes so much noise the parakeet sternly tells him to stop. Dog isn’t bad or mean - Bird recognizes that Dog just needs to do what he’s made for. Adult readers will recognize Dog as a cowdog, and Bird reveals this truth when he tells Dog he needs to herd cows. Not that either of them knows what a cow is - they just know that’s what Dog needs to herd! So begins Dog’s adventure to seek out a cow for herding. Children will be amused when he mistakes first a chicken, then other animals in succession as a cow - and that when he finally comes across a cow, he is so tired he doesn’t even know what she is! With bright illustrations and friendly, cheerful banter between the animals, the story reveals that every creature does best when allowed to fulfill their deepest calling. Dog sets out with a determined purpose in mind, but in the ensuing excitement and hustle he forgets what he came to do and instead does what Dog does best - follows his instinct! Reviewed by Andrea Huehnerhoff Olivia and the Fairy Princesses By Ian Falconer Atheneum, $17.99, 40 pages Check this out! Poor Olivia is sad. She realizes that if everyone dresses like a princess and dances like a princess and wears pink like a princess and has sparkly tiaras like a princess then maybe there is nothing very special about being a princess. Olivia tries to be a princess in her own way, but it doesn’t seem to work out. She
dresses elegantly for a party, but everyone else is dressed as fairy princess; not even an African or Chinese or any other kind of princess. There are other kinds of princesses, after all, than fairy princesses. Olivia is very aware that she doesn’t quite fit in. She tries to develop her own style. She dresses as a warthog on Halloween while everyone else dresses as a princess. That doesn’t work out too well either. Olivia’s wonderful need for individuality really comes to the fore in this book, and it is a delight for all readers to witness. Olivia is always enchanting and engaging and, well, a little obstreperous; But maybe that’s what makes her enchanting and engaging. Ian Falconer’s wonderful franchise has never been better than this particular laugh-out-loud funny book. Reviewed by Rosi Hollinbeck
starts the engine. Then Zephyr really flies. She does her triple loop-de-loop spectacular, which is much better in the sky. She finds herself in a wondrous place. Steve Light has written a very cute story filled to the brim with imagination. His enchanting main character and charming illustrations will keep youngsters asking for the pages to turn. The story is not terribly strong, but the illustrations make up for that. Reviewed by Rosi Hollinbeck Cold Snap By Eileen Spinelli, Marjorie Priceman (illustrator) Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 40 pages Check this out! It is a cold, cold day in the town of Toby Mills. It is so cold that the statue of the town’s founder, General Toby, has an icicle hanging from its nose. The children skate, ski, toboggan, and sled outside in the snow all day until they are wet, tired, shivering, and ready for warm pajamas and hot chocolate. The next day, Saturday, it is icy again. The newspaper reports that they are having a real cold snap, and the townspeople gargle, dress extra warm, and knit mittens. On Sunday, the icicle on the general’s statue is past his chin. In church, teeth chatter while
the pastor, wearing a coat and earmuffs, gives his sermon. Monday is even colder. Tuesday is colder than that. Wednesday, the temperature drops, and a cold wind blows. Thursday and Friday continue the trend until the general’s icicle reaches the ground, but then the mayor’s wife has a great idea. Eileen Spinelli’s silly winter tale is fun for little ones. They will giggle at all the funny things going on around town, but the icing on this cake is the super illustrations by Marjorie Priceman. Reviewed by Rosi Hollinbeck
, CHILDREN S NONFICTION
COMING SOON
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A Strange Place to Call Home
Zephyr Takes Flight By Steve Light Candlewick, $16.99, 40 pages Check this out! Zephyr loves airplanes. She loves to look at them, play with them, fly them, and even do triple loop-de-loop spectaculars with them. Unfortunately, sometimes when she does the triple loop-de-loop spectacular, not everything goes exactly right – especially when Zephyr does the triple loop-de-loop spectacular off the couch near the sideboard filled with beautiful pottery. Zephyr is sent to her room. She makes and flies a paper airplane, and when it lands behind her dresser Zephyr finds a little door that leads to a very special place filled with drawings, maps, books about flying, and even flying machines of many kinds. There is only one thing to do, she climbs into a machine and
By Marilyn Singer In this fascinating look at 14 animals who defy the odds by thriving in Earth’s most dangerous places, renowned poet Marilyn Singer and celebrated artist Ed Young show that of all the miracles of life, it is life’s persistence that astounds the most.
How to Be a Math Genius
By Dr. Mike Goldsmith In this clever guide, young readers previously daunted by algebra, logic, algorithms and all things math will discover they are better at it than they thought. Packed with math
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activities and puzzles, compelling stories of math geniuses, math facts and stats, and more, this book makes the dreaded subject of math both engaging and relevant.
The World’s Greatest Lion: A True Story of Survival
By Ralph Helfer Perhaps the most recognizable Hollywood animal, outside of Lassie, is “Leo the Lion,” MGM Studios’ famous mascot. For decades his image introduced hundreds of motion pictures, and Zamba the lion acted in dozens more. But he wasn’t always a Hollywood star, and he certainly proved to be much more. This real-life story of Zamba follows the famous lion from an orphaned cub in Africa to iconic Hollywood actor.
Book Reviews Category
Kids’ Books SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
A Birthday for Frances (I Can Read Book 2) By Russell Hoban, Lillian Hoban (illustrator) HarperCollins, $16.99, 45 pages Check this out! In this I Can Read Level 2 book, Frances is upset about her younger sister Gloria’s birthday the next day. Every part of the preparation makes Frances complain to Alice, her friend that no one can see. Even though it happened last year, Frances still brings up the time Gloria hid her pail and shovel. Asking her mother what present they are giving to Gloria, Frances declares she will not be giving Gloria a present. Wisely, her mother does not take Frances’ baiting, telling the girl it is all right not to give her sister a present. The realization she will be the only one not giving Gloria a birthday present causes Frances to cry and rethink her angry feelings. She then asks for her next two allowances to be able to buy a gift for her younger sister. Once she buys the gift of a Chompo bar for Gloria, however, she debates whether to give it to her sister for her birthday, or to eat it herself. Children will identify and sympathize with Frances in this story from the very beginning to its satisfying conclusion. Reviewed by Angie Mangino Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird: A True Story By Stephanie Spinner Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 48 pages Check this out! In 1977, graduate student Irene Pepperberg bought a grey parrot. Pepperberg had long owned birds, and she felt they had true intelligence. She intended to prove it. She named her parrot Alex, an acronym for Avian Learning EXperiment. She took Alex to the biology lab at Perdue University and proceeded to teach him words, colors, shapes, and other concepts. Alex became very demanding and a bit bossy, but he was
smart and could identify shapes and colors by name and do things like tell if a group of things was the same as or different from each other. These kinds of distinctions are learned by human children by age four or five. The scientific community took a long time to recognize the intelligence of Alex, but Pepperberg kept working toward that recognition. Although Alex only lived to the age of thirty-one (grey parrots often live to sixty), he made quite an impression on the scientific community and especially his trainers. Good non-fiction picture books that have engaging stories are rare. This one deserves to be in every elementary school library and in third- through fifth-grade classrooms everywhere. Elementary school children will be fascinated and not even notice they are learning. Reviewed by Rosi Hollinbeck
Clarke says students can write any kind of poem they want, and Nate decides to write a love poem to Jenny. Gina embarrasses Nate, Nate makes a stink, and Ms. Clark assigns (what else) detention. Gina NEVER gets in trouble. Art class goes just as well, and another detention slip winds up in Nate’s pocket. Even lunch period goes awry, and Nate is assigned detention by the principal! Nate continues in his quest for greatness, but the afternoon is not any better than the morning, yet Nate does surpass all others and makes readers laugh all the way. Lincoln Peirce and his good friend Nate the Great just get better and better with every book. Middle-grade readers, especially boys, will love this and all Nate the Great books. Reviewed by Rosi Hollinbeck Dixie Wins the Race (I Can Read Book 1) By Grace Gilman, Jacqueline Rogers (illustrator) HarperCollins, $16.99, 32 pages Check this out! Emma is on the track team and she loves to run. Her dog Dixie loves to run, too. Dixie goes to Emma’s track meet, but Emma tells Dixie she must sit, stay, and cheer during the race. There is a relay race going on
and Emma’s team is in it. During the relay race, the runners must pass a stick from one team member to the next at the end of each lap. It is very, very hard for Dixie to sit still while runners are running and there is a stick being passed. Dixie would like to run. Dixie would like to have that nice red stick. But Dixie sits and Dixie stays. When it is time for Emma to run her lap, Dixie starts to cheer. Everyone is startled by Dixie’s cheering (also known as howling), even Emma, who trips, falls, and drops the stick. This is a fine little book for emerging readers. The story is as suitable for boys as for girls, and both will enjoy reading it on their own. The vocabulary is just right and the story by Grace Gilman is fun. Jacqueline Rogers’s illustrations are cute and help the story along. Reviewed by Rosi Hollinbeck
Hey kids and parents! Big Nate: In a Class by Himself Special Edition By Lincoln Peirce Harper, $12.99, 224 pages Check this out! Big Nate is back. When Nate discovers he forgot to bring his lunch, he cadges a fortune cookie from his friend Teddy. It says, “Today you will surpass all others.” Nate decides he will achieve greatness this day. His day begins with Mrs. Godfrey finding a list, albeit a very creative list, of nicknames for Mrs. Godfrey. She is not pleased and assigns detention. During second period, Ms.
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Book Reviews
Category
Teen Scene SNAP IT for additional book summaries. One Shot Away: A Wrestling Story By T. Glen Coughlin Harper Teen, $17.99, 336 pages Check this out! Rotating between three high school wrestlers, One Shot Away tackles the not often discussed sport of wrestling, and does a good job at that. Diggy, Trevor, and Jimmy each have very different lives that are intertwined by the wrestling team they are all on. Their chapters give us insights to their family lives, so rather than just focus on the team and those dynamics, we begin to learn why the boys make the decisions they do and how their family has affected their actions. Diggy and his brother call their dad “Coach Randy,” a father who has created a wrestling space in the basement and who pushes his sons in extreme ways to make weight and win matches. Trevor has just lost his father, and is struggling to lose the image of a bad wrestler, as he was on JV last year and is now moving to varsity. This threatens Diggy’s spot on the team, so the dynamic there is quite volatile. Through alternating chapters, Coughlin is able to capture the true emotion in each of the boy’s lives, and forces the reader to flip between sympathy and anger as the boys make poor decisions and learn from them. A great addition to the sports sub-genre of YA, One Shot Away combines characters, emotion, and sport in a solid way. Reviewed by Shanyn Day The FitzOsbornes at War (The Montmaray Journals) By Michelle Cooper Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 545 pages Check this out! The FitzOsbornes have fled to England, where they hatch new plans to reclaim their beloved island of Montmaray from the Nazis. However, the royal family is still acutely aware that they are only at the cusp of Hitler’s attack on Europe. As the FitzOsbornes muster themselves for what is to come, they find the only way to defend each other is to cut at already dwindling
numbers. They all dive headlong into war efforts, experiencing a strange sense of patriotism for the place they have escaped to while Montmaray awaits their rescue. Each puts his and her best talents forth, and are therefore allotted positions. Sophie is, as always, a dutiful narrator, who exhibits Cooper’s versatile talents when she allows herself, as any girl would, to still care about trivialities, yet be simultaneously aware of the gravity of the dire situation. Veronica, with her sharp intellect and pragmatism works at the Foreign Office while Henry, spunky and stout hearted, is sent to boarding school where she makes the most of unique friendships. Yet danger strikes close to home, for a communal fear is felt as their brother, Toby, is sent into the skies. Into the awaiting hands of many eager readers comes the final FitzOsborne installment, which will be greeted with as much excitement as dread, for they will be loath to see such a lush, vivid portrait leave. Reviewed by Alex Masri The Katerina Trilogy, Vol. II: The Unfailing Light By Robin Bridges Delacorte Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 308 pages Check this out! The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges was the perfect follow up to her first book, The Gathering Storm! I loved reading more about Katerina and her growing powers as a necromancer, and also her growing romance with the hand- some half-fae Grand Duke George, son of the Tsar, while also trying to fight her bond to the Crown Prince Danillo of Montenegro. Robin Bridges has taken the world of paranormal with faeries, vampires, werewolves, necromancers, and ghosts and thrown it into Imperial Russia with such beautiful writing that it makes the book hard to put down! I will admit I did miss the Balls in this story, since it was set mostly in the Smolny School, and I also would have loved to see more scenes between Katerina and George, but I’m hoping there will be plenty of those in book three! If you’re a fan of historical fiction with a paranormal twist or even just a huge fan of paranormal books, I highly suggest adding this series to your book shelves; you will not be disappointed! Reviewed by Jaime Arnold
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YOUTH FICTION COMING SOON Search the library’s catalog at http://tulsalibrary.org to reserve your copies now.
Little Bo in London: The Ultimate Adventure of Bonnie Boadicea
By Julie Edwards For Little Bo, the tiny cat with an extraordinary spirit, and her friend Billy, life just keeps getting better and better. They have traveled from England to France, sailed with the crew of the motor yacht Legend to Italy, and now are enjoying a leisurely cruise through the Mediterranean. But a scuffle with pirates cuts their journey short and calls for the heroic efforts of Bo and Billy. Then a change of course means a triumphant return to England — and Little Bo’s most amazing adventure yet!
Fourmile
By Watt Key Twelve-year-old Foster knows in his gut that Dax Ganey, the man who is dating his widowed mother, is a bad seed. Then a mysterious stranger arrives at their Alabama farm, a former Army Ranger in Iraq rambling across the country, and Foster believes he has found an ally against Dax. The stranger proves a fascinating mentor, full of wisdom and secrets. And Dax soon has reason to resent not just him and Foster but also Foster’s mother. A spurned Dax will be a dangerous enemy, but Foster is increasingly aware that the stranger is just as dangerous, if not more so.
Who What Wear
By Olivia Bennett So how did she score inside information on the most talked about party of the year? Because Emma is secretly the hottest new fashion designer — Allegra Biscotti — and was hired to whip up a Sweet Sixteen dress for the guest of honor. Wait ... fashion emergency! How can she create a fiercely fashionable dress and keep her secret? There’s only one solution: Emma must go undercover — as her own intern!
Chasers
By James Phelan Jesse is on a UN Youth Ambassadors camp in New York when his subway is rocked by an explosion. Jesse and his three friends, Dave, Anna and Mini, crawl out from the wreckage to discover a city in chaos. Streets are deserted. Buildings are in ruins. Worse, the only other survivors seem to be infected with a virus that turns them into horrifying predators. As the four teenagers navigate their way through a destroyed city, they’ll discover the lengths one will go to survive.
The Man in the Clouds
By Koos Meinderts When the Man in the Clouds creates a beautiful painting, people begin to make a pilgrimage up his mountain to see it. The misfits find it especially comforting. An art expert tells the artist that it is very valuable, and he begins to think about it differently, determined to protect it rather than share it. Finally, he sees that his greed and possessiveness has changed the way he sees the picture so he tosses it into the fire and looks out the window with fresh eyes, seeing again the beauty that enthralled him in the first place.
Prettiest Doll
By Gina WillnerPardo “It’s good to be pretty. I’m really lucky.” So begins the story of 13-year-old Olivia, or Liv, who started winning beauty pageants at age 3. Lately she’s been wondering, however, if that’s all she is. She gets a chance to find out when she meets a runaway named Dan and they embark on a trip to Chicago, each determined to uncover family secrets. This story of two teens from very different backgrounds making their way in a world preoccupied with physical appearance sparkles with wry humor, romance and a revealing behind-the-scenes glimpse at the world of beauty pageants.
Book Reviews Category
Popular Culture SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
Hello Goodbye Hello: A Circle of 101 Remarkable Meetings By Craig Brown Simon & Schuster, $26.95, 356 pages Check this out! I have a hard time believing in the prophecies of Nostradamus or anyone else, because history is so full of weird coincidences, lucky breaks, and opportune bumpingintos that it’s virtually impossible for anyone to have foreseen anything that was coming. Did you know Tsar Nicholas II and Harry Houdini met, or that H.G. Wells thought highly of Josef Stalin? How about Salvador Dali and Sigmund Freud in a meeting of the minds? Hello Goodbye Hello feels like a vindication of my apprehensions, as it collects a chain of meetings between luminaries of all sorts, from historic summits to casual chats (and even a nearly world-altering car accident involving Adolf Hitler). From Mark Twain and Helen Keller to James Dean and Alec Guinness, from Marilyn Monroe and Nikita Khrushchev to Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney, the names within Hello Goodbye Hello are a cross-section of history and celebrity. The concept behind the book -- a complete chain of celebrity meet-ups that loops back on itself -- necessitates some duh-obvious encounters (like the Duchess of Windsor and the Queen, which despite scandal seems like a no-brainer), but it still manages to feel like the best game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” ever played. Reviewed by Glenn Dallas Meat Eater: Adventures From the Life of an American Hunter By Steven Rinella Spiegel & Grau, $16.25, 236 pages Check this out! Poetry, philosophy, and imagery; not only musings on the author’s own life experiences, but a well-researched anthropological study of hunting’s place in our souls… and stomachs. Hunting and storytelling are linked in the mythos and mind furnishings of our species, and Steven Rinella has rein-
forced that linkage with stories of a lifetime of hunting and eating our fellow animals. An exploration of life through hunting, a connection with the actual world and with our inner realities, our evolved place in the storied world of the hunt, Meat Eater is a treasure. Rinella has several titles to his credit, and having read this one in total awe, I must seek out and read all the others. Holding personal encounters from Michigan’s upper peninsula to the Missouri Breaks of Montana, from the tundra country of Alaska to the bonefish flats of Baja, this is a mouthwatering adventure. It is also an exploration of ethical relations with our planet. Everything from humane killing to the rare trophy hunt, never disrespecting prey to preserving environments, to cooking tips and nurturing game stocks are covered and assessed with a long range gaze. Often exulting in both natural beauty and the immediacy of contact with prey, Rinnel has made an ethical and considered case for the essentiality of hunting to our underlying humanness. Reviewed by David Sutton One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season By Chris Ballard Hyperion, $24.99, 254 pages Check this out! One Shot at Forever proves that Bad News Bears stories do happen in real life. This is the tale of the 1971 high school baseball team from the rust belt town of Macon, Illinois. The Macon team represented the smallest high school to ever qualify for the Illinois state championship playoff, and they did it not once, but two years in a row. The talented team with the mismatched uniforms and an un-
conventional coach (he was said to look like a hung-over version of Frank Zappa) was headed to Peoria in 1970, before being disqualified on a strange technicality. It looked like the underdog’s day was done, until the slight, long-haired players very improbably made another championship run in ‘71. The boys from Macon adopted Jesus Christ Superstar as their theme song, and they made it all the way to the state championship final game. Did they win or lose the big game? You’ll need to read One Shot to find out. Chris Ballard has produced a great small but big book about life’s lessons and the value of competition. This one’s especially recommended for younger readers whose wins, losses, and draws are still ahead of them. Reviewed by Joseph Arellano Rabid: Are You Crazy About Your Dog or Just Crazy? By Pamela Redmond Satran Bloomsbury USA, $18.00, 164 pages Check this out! Chihuahuas dressed in geisha costumes. Schnauzers drinking out of wine goblets. Whippets wearing couture ball gowns. The pictures alone are worth the cost of Pamela Redmond Satran’s Rabid: Are You Crazy About Your Dog or Just Crazy? This book definitely caters to a certain group of readers, which happen to be the same people who refer to their dog as their “fur baby” and attend annual events called Woofstock and WAG! Fest. Satran does a superb job of sniffing out the most outrageous facts and photos. Though the book is rarely laugh-outloud funny, it does provide endless smiles and chuckles. It offers some unusual historical tidbits, such as the role of dogs in various religions and the “Royal Dogs Timeline.” Furthermore, there is a very insightful chart entitled “Dogs vs. Kids.” This is a must-read for anyone debating whether to head to the bedroom and procreate or head to the local animal shelter and adopt. Some might call this a coffee table book. But, personally, I plan to carry this book around at all times as evidence that my dog is not nearly as spoiled as everyone says he is. After all, he does not have his own sixteenth-century Matsumoto Castle… yet. Reviewed by Samantha Herman This Will End In Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music By Adam Brent Houghtaling Itbooks, $16.99, 268 pages Check this out! Sir Elton John once wrote “sad songs say so much.” Author Adam Brent Houghtaling shows us in a uniquely original casual cataloging of those “sad songs” in This Will End in Tears. With entries about musical artists from every genre and era, if it’s misery you
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seek, Houghtaling will aid your search to build the perfect playlist with his list of the “50 Saddest Songs of All Time.” He even breaks it down into chapters for the appropriate musical selection/artist to accompany every event from suicide, depression, seasonal affective disorder, death, murder, heartbreak, cheating, and divorce. Yeah, it’s supposed to be comical and funny in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, but he’s done his homework. This book would appeal to any music lover, even if someone isn’t a “miserabilist.” Artists covered range anywhere from Johnny Cash to Leonard Cohen; Nina Simone to Radiohead; the Smiths, the Cure, and so on. Even if it’s a maudlin sort of collection, there is plenty of in-depth information and knowledge to be gained, and it may even open one’s musical tastes and interests to artists they’ve never heard of or listened to before. Sad songs, sad as they may be, have the odd way of making us feel better. Reviewed by Laura Friedkin Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing By Constance Hale W.W. Norton, $26.95 Check this out! When I think of a book about grammar, I expect a collection of rules: “Always form complete sentences.” “Don’t put prepositions at the end of a sentence.” I expect to be bored. I don’t expect a sense of humor, a wry awareness of just how bizarre the English language is. When a guide to grammar possesses that humor, when it will ridicule linguistic flops and praise examples of sheer linguistic beauty, it catches my attention. Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch focuses on one of the most neglected and misunderstood portions of the English language, verbs, in an age of search engine optimization and newspaper headlines, where nouns dominate language. Think about that statement for a minute. Can a noun be a verb, and can nouns dominate language, or even interact with each other in any meaningful way, without verbs like “dominate” or “interact”? This book is a guide for anyone who appreciates language. If you understand that knowing the rules means knowing when to ignore them, then this book is for you. If you want to write beautifully, or simply appreciate beautiful writing, or if you just want to enjoy ridiculing ugly writing, then this book is for you. Reviewed by James Rasmussen Pop Cullture cont’d on page 13
Book Reviews
Popular Culture
Would You Eat Your Cat? By Jeremy Stangroom Norton, $15.95, 144 pages Check this out! Morality and choices. What do your choices say about you? This book allows you to look at yourself honestly with a selection of hypothetical questions. Should we punish the innocent? Should we sacrifice one to save five? What do the answers reveal about your persona? Jeremy Stangroom is the maestro of morality, giving detailed reasoning behind your choices. Not only does he explain what you are, but where these ideas originate. The book is almost an induc-
tion to ethics, with names like Immanuel Kant and John Locke making appearances. This is a fun book. Not only is it informative, but also allows the reader to become personally involved. I loved thinking about my answer to the questions and thumbing my way to the back to see what it said about my answer. It reminded me of a detective novel with the solutions in the back. Never once did I feel stupid or bad for choosing my answers. Stangroom was able to craft this book to be supportive of whatever answers are chosen. If you are asking yourself if you should pick up this book and try it for yourself, the most ethical answer is “yes”. Reviewed by Kevin Brown
Category
Home, Garden & DIY SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
Craft-a-Day: 365 Simple Handmade Projects By Sarah Goldschadt Quirk Books, $24.95, 432 pages Check this out! There is something quite satisfying about creating hand-made items. This book has a simple craft for every day of the year, organized by weekly themes, appropriate to the season. You will find snowflake items in January, rainbows in May, ghosts and witch hats in October, and gingerbread men and stockings in December. These are crafts that can be made from common, inexpensive materials, and each page has a complete supply list, patterns, and directions for com-
pletion as well as a photograph of the completed project. If you think there are 365 different projects in this book, that is really not the case. Many projects are repeated with a different decoration on each. For instance, there are cards and mini-cards and gift tags and mini-tags counted as four different projects, but all have the same decoration and only the size is different. In the first pages, there is a snowflake card followed by a snowflake garland card. The shape of the cards is slightly different, and one has a single snowflake while the second has three small snowflakes. The nice thing is there are over fifty themes. Overall, this is a good book with projects simple enough for very young children. Reviewed by Rosi Hollinbeck
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BESTSELLERS COMING SOON
TO TULSA CITY-COUNTY LIBRARY Search the library’s catalog at http://tulsalibrary.org to reserve your copies now.
Pirate Alley
By Stephen Coonts Grafton and Carmellini are back and joined by the Navy SEALs to battle terrorists on the high seas in this action-packed tale. A luxurious vacation cruise to the exotic locales of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden turns into a nightmare for passengers and crew when their ship is suddenly attacked and captured by a band of bloodthirsty Somali pirates. An initial rescue mission ends in failure; the decks are covered in blood. Unless they are paid a ransom of $200 million within seven days, the pirates threaten to execute all their hostages. But information gleaned from a captured Al Qaeda operative indicates that there is a far more dangerous conspiracy afoot.
Decadence
By Eric Jerome Dickey In this sequel to Pleasure, four years later Nia Simone Bijou has achieved success as a writer but is still striving to master the turmoil within before she moves on to marriage and motherhood. But at the pleasure palace where patrons shed their identities to try on new ones, she’s losing perspective.
Portal
By Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor Madeline Fathom had miraculously landed the crippled Nebula Storm on Europa. She joined on that frozen moon of Jupiter the stranded crewmembers of the ill-fated EU vessel Odin. The Nebula Storm’s reactor was ruined in the landing, the Odin’s shuttle can’t make the trip back home, and the only vessel that could have made the journey to save them has just been destroyed by a renegade crewman, bad luck and the remorseless forces of nature. But Madeline, Helen Sutter, A.J. Baker and the team have one card left to
play. All they have to do is survive lethal radiation, vacuum and ice as hard as steel while they figure out how to make Nebula Storm fly again. But even as they prepare to make the journey home, Europa has one more discovery waiting for them – a discovery that might be the deadliest trap in the Solar System!
Fly Away
By Kristin Hannah Kristin Hannah returns to the world of these unforgettable characters and asks the question: How do you hold yourself together when your world has fallen apart? Fly Away is the story of three women who have lost their way and need each other – plus a miracle – to transform their lives. An emotionally complex, heartwrenching novel about love, family, motherhood, loss and redemption, Fly Away reminds us that where there is life, there is hope and where there is love, there is forgiveness.
A House Divided
By Kimberla Lawson Roby Life is close to perfect for Charlotte and Curtis Black – except that their son Matthew’s girlfriend, Racquel, is eight months pregnant and Racquel’s mother, Mona, and Charlotte can’t stand each other. On the day of Racquel’s baby shower, Charlotte and Mona have a major blow up and the stress sends Racquel into early labor. Curtis is displeased with Charlotte’s behavior, something that slowly but surely drives a new wedge between them. At the same time, Curtis is consumed with church business and trying to uncover who is behind a series of mysterious letters that threaten to expose Curtis’ biggest secret. Increasingly furious with his mother, Matthew gives Charlotte an ultimatum – treat Racquel and her mom with respect or she’ll be cut off from seeing the baby altogether. This sends Charlotte down a road of revenge. Once again, the Black household is torn apart, and it will take a miracle for anyone to recover.
Category
Biography & Memoir SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
Mike Wallace: A Life By Peter Rader Thomas Dunne Books, $25.99, 309 pages Check this out! Like the news anchor in Don Henley’s song “Dirty Laundry,” Mike Wallace could have been an actor but instead he wound up as the attack dog on CBS-TV’s vaunted and often over-praised show “60 Minutes.” As clarified by biographer Peter Rader, Wallace was in fact an actor, a performer, and not an actual investigative reporter. That’s because he did not do his own research, his own homework - he relied on others to to the dirty work and write his material for him... And yet Wallace was very good at what he did. To this reader and TV watcher, Wallace always seemed one-dimensional - the type of character so easily satirized on Saturday Night Live. To Rader’s credit, this is a bio that presents Wallace as an actual three-dimensional man: a gifted and seemingly fearless performer who was actually very fearful of a lot in life. He was seemingly most afraid of the notion of retirement and the prospect of trying to survive out of the public’s eye. Rather managed to stay on past CBS’s mandatory retirement age and continued doing interviews for “60 Minutes” until he turned ninety! This meant that he outlived his coworkers and friends, and led Wallace to admit: “I think I’ve lived too long. But I don’t feel sorry for myself.”
As detailed in this frank account, Wallace may not have felt sorry for himself but he constantly dealt with depression. (Eve Berliner was to say of Wallace, “Beneath the brash, unnerving persona, the master of the jugular... lies a more hidden man, a man of scars and storms and deep black melancholies.”) Wallace was to make multiple suicide attempts, he divorced three wives before marrying a fourth, and he was generally - even close to the very end of his life - estranged from his children. On the small screen, Mike Wallace was a tiger - but in his own life, in his own skin, he was often afraid of the shadows of the night. This is one of those biographies which does not ask you to change or revise your opinion on the subject. If you were not a fan of Wallace (and this reader/viewer was not), this book will not make you an admirer. If you were a fan of Wallce, this book will not require you to dislike the man that he was. Like a great political compromise, it provides enough for those on both sides of the argument to feel both vindicated and not quite pleased. In Mike Wallace: A Life, Rader has developed a serious biography, one which may lead some readers to examine how they manage events in their own lives. Rader’s certainly met his self-stated goal of producing a comprehensive bio of a public figure which “sheds light on our understanding of both the world in which we live and also on what it means to be human.” It seems that for the legendary, on-stage performer Mike Wallace, living the day-to-day existence of a normal human being - away form the stage lights, without makeup - was the toughest of all his assignments. Reviewed by Joseph Arellano
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Business & Personal Finance
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World By Michael Lewis W. W. Norton & Company, $16.95, 240 pages Check this out! Financial writer Michael Lewis wrote about inflated trades that bankrupt ball clubs and provide no benefit to winning in his previous book Moneyball. In his latest book, he returns to the subject of his earlier work, The Big Short, to look at the in-
Perhaps as is hypothesized, people will have what they want even though they can’t afford it. “All over the world people borrowed vast sums of money they could never repay.” There is no way to add it all up and determine how much is owed; it remains a shell game with the big banks having their losses shored up by government. Where is Billy Beane when we need him? Talk about “winning in an unfair game” as described in Moneyball. Reviewed by Julia McMichael It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques From the Best Damn Ship in the Navy (revised) By D. Michael Abrashoff Business Plus, $26.99, 228 pages Check this out! With all of the management books in print, it’s interesting to see a military perspective weighing in. It’s Your Ship looks at how Captain Abrashoff turned around the USS Benhold from one of the worst ships in the Navy to one of its best. By unlearning what he had learned and letting his crew and officers make suggestions, he was able to
outshine those in his fleet and make a positive impact in how things were done. This book is about how to apply to your business. This an incredible management book. He shows how learning to ignore the command and control style that most of us are taught does not work and that we need to learn to listen to those under us we can establish ourselves as better lead. Although it would be interesting to see more bumps in the road, and there does seem to be a little too much positivism, this is otherwise a book you will want within reach. This is a great book, especially if you are trying to turn around your company. Reviewed by Jamais Jochim
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flated trades that sunk governments from Iceland to California. What makes fishermen become investors? What makes entire countries mortgage their future on unsustainable gambles? What prompts German investors to underwrite shaky governments only to pull the plug when reality hits? This is a fascinating story that circles the globe and comes to rest in Vallejo where city services have shut down and foreclosed properties are auctioned on the steps of city hall. Tulsa Book Review • January 2013 • 14
Book Reviews
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Science Fiction SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
2312 By Kim Stanley Robinson Orbit, $25.99, 576 pages Check this out!
our own world. A delight to read, 2312 will be keeping you up late, turning pages. Reviewed by Alex Telander
From the author of the Mars trilogy, as well as many other bestsellers, comes a science fiction novel that pushes the boundaries of the genre through story, character, and writing to keep the reader hooked from start until finish. 2312 is a lengthy book that will stay with you long after you have turned and read the final page. It is the future of the twenty-fourth century where humanity has come a long way and colonized a number of planets in our solar system, as well as their moons. Technology is impressive, and inter-planetary travel is a common event. In fact, one of the new aesthetic ways to travel is on a moving asteroid that has been colonized and terra-formed, with each of these traveling planetoids representing a unique architectural style. Swan Er Hong is one of these talented designers, but, having lost a close person in her life, she is now adrift, uncertain what to do. But after a series of attacks and catastrophic events, beginning with the great, protected city of Terminator on Mercury, she realizes there is something going on here much greater than she can conceive. Robinson has outdone himself with 2312, blending a story of gripping science fiction, a captivating plot, and unique characters that exist in a future world of acceptance and normalcy (to them) but that seems advanced and developed when compared to
Earth Unaware: The First Formic War By Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston Tor Books, $24.99, 368 pages Check this out! The wait is over. A new story about the Ender’s Game world is here. Orson Scott Card has teamed up with novelist Aaron Johnston to write Earth Unaware: The First Formic War. The duo takes us back years before Ender Wiggin’s birth. Victor Delgado, another young boy, lives on an asteroid mining ship. He and his family roam the empty solar system in their spaceship, the El Cavado. When Victor’s cousin detects a huge vessel traveling at tremendous speed towards the ship, and more importantly Earth, everyone is deeply concerned. The Delgado family will soon be part of the first contact with the buggers. What are the intentions of this alien race? This book is the first in a planned trilogy that will explore the Formic War. Since the action takes place before Ender’s story, fans will enjoy this as a prequel and new readers will be inspired to read the rest of the series. Mazer Rackham makes a small appearance. Expect to learn more about him in books two and three. Don’t miss Ender’s Game on the big screen. It is scheduled for release on March fifteenth, two thousand thirteen. Until then, enjoy this pre-Ender trilogy. Reviewed by Kathryn Franklin
Category
Nature & Science SNAP IT for additional book summaries.
Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color By Nina G. Jablonski University of California Press, $29.95, 178 pages Check this out! Noted anthropologist Nina Jablonski has taken on the sensitive topic of skin color, the
first visual identifying trait gleaned by the beholder of others. With an engaging writing style, the reader is exposed to the biological significance of skin color due to the amount of and kinds of melanin activated by ultraviolet radiation. Thus pigments and color resulted from geographic location and solar exposure. With migration from the Af-
rican plains, and adaptation to different pressures, mutations enabled the skin color of populations to more fittingly evolve to suit the environment. The second part of the book deals with society’s view of color, with dark being dirty and immoral and light associated with purity and goodness. About the 1500s, the categorization of color into racial stereotypes commenced with biblical referrals upholding the differences. Esteemed philosophers such as Kant and Voltaire were notable adherents to the ideas of color affecting intellect, morality, and championed the practice of slavery as justifiable. The fascinating topic of how minds were culturally corrupted by racial categorization of skin color over the course of time makes mesmerizing reading. One has to remember that skin pigment is the individual’s armor against ultraviolet radiation, and is our guardian in providing vitamin D for healthy bones. The color of our skin just defines the regions occupied by our ancestors prior to modern travel conveniences. Reviewed by Aron Row Measurement By Paul Lockhart Belknap Press, $29.95, 407 pages Check this out! This book forced me to use mental muscles I haven’t exercised in a long time, but it felt fantastic! Paul Lockhart is a mathematics evangelist; his passion for his subject is evident on every page, in every line. Looking at the subject of Measurement, he takes the reader on a journey that covers geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and on through differential calculus. He has a conversational tone and self-deprecating humor that sets the reader at ease. He understands that many people have been turned off of mathematics. His attitude is playful and joyous -- look at a triangle, play with it, ask questions. What happens when you do this? How about this? Well, after looking at triangles, what questions do you have about circles? How about other shapes and figures? I was amazed by how he integrated (pun intended) so many disciplines into his necessarily brief (for the subject) treatment. Math is usually taught in such a compartmentalized way that it loses any meaning or coherence, and certainly any sense of wonder or beauty, but Measurement restores the connection. Paul Lockhart feels that math is the most beautiful, abstract and pure art form, and that it is actually fun! By the end of the book, you come to agree with him. Reviewed by Gretchen Wagner
Tulsa Book Review • January 2013 • 15
The Spine of the Continent: The Most Ambitious Wildlife Conservation Project Ever Undertaken By Mary Ellen Hannibal Lyons Press, $24.95, 272 pages Check this out! With a superb purpose and excellent pictorial aids, Mary Ellen Hannibal depicts The Spine of the Continent, the title of which also describes this legendary region. The wildlife sanctuary, which the author outlines in the book, straddles the Continental Divide in some of the most remote and rugged landscape faces of the continent. Her book explains how and why certain regions were looked at and mapped out to show how wildlife migrate and isolate themselves from area to area to maintain the delicate balance of natural events. Consequently, we can see the emergence of paths and other wildlife signals that direct species to propagate, migrate, and adapt to climate change. While a map of the Interstate System shows how humans have managed to interfere with migrating wild habitat and migration, wildlife have developed a “highway” system of their own. Hannibal writes on, discovering all the animal niches that change the wildlife landscape. She brings many friends, colleagues, and experts to bear witness to the decimation of the landscape and the wildlife that inhabit it. The expedition that Hannibal led was chronicled as a major undertaking, reaching far into the Western part of the North American wilderness to link many of these protected regions along the 5000 miles of Rocky Mountain terrain. With inviting catch phrases such as “Leave It to Beaver,” a pun from the 1950s sitcom, Hannibal rouses interest in one of the region’s main characteristics, as she puts it, once adorned with beaver dams all over. She pulls all the viewpoints together to make a single point and embroiders them into a mosaic landscape. This is a wonderful read that reaches deep into your understanding of nature in the North American Continent—a must read. Reviewed by D. Wayne Dworsky
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