Summer Readers/' Picks
The Newsletter for Employees of the University of Louisvil e Libraries
Vol. 23, No. 5 P Summer, 2007
The Owl
“The Owl of Minerva takes flight only as the dusk begin to fall.” — Hegel
SUMMER READERS’ PICKS
By Anna Marie Johnson, Information Literacy
Reading an ACRL blog post by Marc Meola (*sigh* yes, I finally joined the 21st century and am using Google’s
Reader to access some RSS feeds from a few library-related blogs) that talked about why and what students read
and calling for more study of reading habits. (http://acrlblog.org/2007/05/31/why-do-students-read/). This post was
in response to another post by Barbara Fister mulling how conflicted some academic librarians feel about promoting
reading (http://acrlblog.org/2007/05/19/reading-in-the-vulgate/). Both of these posts stem from an article that appeared
in RUSQ (Reference & User Services Quarterly — http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusapubs/rusq/referenceuser.htm)
called “Academic Libraries and Extracurricular Reading Promotion” which surveyed academic libraries and found
that the lack of time and staff and the focus on new technologies have resulted in a decline in reading promotion but
highlighted some creative and inexpensive efforts by some libraries (http://www.rusq.org/index.php/2007/05/07/
academic-libraries-and-extracurricular-reading-promotion/). I think of our Readers’ Picks Owl editions as part of
our efforts at reading promotion.
I’m pleased to see a renewed interest on reading in the professional literature
because I think librarianship tends to focus on computers and electronic access.
This is of course understandable, but I still think reading (along with thinking
and quietly reflecting) has an important role to play in education (and life!). This
is one of the reasons I was so thrilled that we were a part of LFPL’s Big Read of
Their Eyes Were Watching God (what a wonderful book—one of my picks for
sure!) which was a response to a National Endowment for the Arts survey that
reading was on the decline in the U.S. It is also the reason I’ve been delighted
to learn that UofL has a pilot book in common project this fall with entering
first-year students using Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen: An American
Odessey from the Inner City to the Ivy League (Ekstrom LC2803.W3 S87 2005).
The subject of the book, Cedric Jennings, survived an inner-city Washington
D.C. high school and then attended and graduated from Brown University and
will be on campus this fall.
After I re-read Their Eyes for the Big Read, I wanted to know more about Zora
Neale Hurston, so I picked up Dust Tracks on the Road (Ekstrom PS 3515 .U789
Z5 1971). I found it to be lively and interesting as Hurston is the consummate
storyteller. She seems an artist at self-promotion before the era of Oprah, but clearly she was smart and driven and
very talented. Chapters include “Love,” “Religion,” “Research,” “Books and Things,” “Wandering,” and “My People,
My People.”
I’m working on reading more Kentucky authors so two of my picks are by Chris Offutt. The first is Out of the Woods
(Ekstrom Browsing PS 3565 .F387 O98 1999) which tells beautiful stories about Kentucky natives. My favorite
musing of one of the characters is how rather than time marching on, people move through time. Time is the constant.
The characters in Offutt’s stories are marked by Kentucky—whether they live there still or in Idaho or some other
far-off place. His characters know how to shoot, skin an owl despite a hangover, and most importantly, always find
their way back home.
My second Offutt pick is Kentucky Straight (Ekstrom PS 3565 .F387 K4 1992), his first short story collection. The
stories in this book were more troublesome for me than Out of the Woods. These all take place in Kentucky and the
people are heroic and dignified despite their less than desirable living circumstances. My favorite was “The Leaving
One” about a boy who forms a relationship with his grandfather shortly before his grandfather’s death, but the story
that sticks with me is “Old of the Moon,” a story within a story where the inner story involves three men hunting
the bear who killed the daughter of one of the three. Only two of them survive the adventure, but not for the reasons
that immediately come to mind.
Although memoirs are a tricky genre, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Ekstrom Browsing HV5132 .W35 2005)
is a stunning one about resilience. Walls is the product of two very eccentric (or neglectfully abusive, depending on
your point of view) parents, an artistic mother and a brilliant but alcoholic father who can’t keep a job. The family
is essentially homeless and moves constantly during the first years of Walls life and has almost nothing. Still, Walls
adores her father, Rex, and in his more lucid moments, he does seem to manage to rise to the occasion. When the
family moves to West Virginia though, things take a turn for the worse (although to say “worse” doesn’t really do the
whole story justice) and Walls and her sisters and brother all realize that they need to get away from their parents in
order to have the kind of life they want. Two moments symbolize for me the complexity of the relationship between
Walls and her father: at one point during her teen years, he takes her to a bar with him and essentially uses her to
distract the pool players so he can hustle them. When she confronts him and says that she could have been hurt, he
says basically that he knew she could take care of herself. Alternately, years later as she about to drop out of college
because she can’t make the $2000 tuition payment, her father shows up at her door with $1500 in crumpled small
bills and a fur coat and says, “there are some really bad poker players in New York.”
Three much less serious books that are well suited to summer reading. Nature Girl by Carl Hiassen (Ekstrom Brows-
ing PS 3558 .I217 N39 2006). Fun, fun, fun, sweet, and sentimental. The good
guys are slightly wacky but really good-hearted and the bad guys are, well, really
disagreeable. Here’s the lineup: Boyd Shreave, telemarketer; Honey Santana, kind-
hearted, concerned mom; Lilly, rich and creepy wife of telemarketer; Dealey, the PI;
Perry Skinner, Honey’s ex; Fry, her son; Eugenie, Boyd’s mistress; a half-Seminole
named Tigertail; his volunteer, sorority-girl hostage Gillian; Louis Piejack, the
creepy and perverted fishmonger; and the spirit of a drunken, dead tourist Wilson.
My husband and I both suspect that Hiassen actually makes up very few of these
stories up and that he culls them from local newspapers in Florida.
Slightly less wacky but with good plot twists is The Interruption of Everything
by Terry McMillan (Ekstrom Browsing PS 3563 .C3868 I58 2005). Marilyn, the
44-year-old wife and mother is suffering a bit from empty nest (except that her
nest is still occupied by her loveable but slightly busy-body mother-in-law Arthu-
rine and her little dog Snuffy) and is going through perimenopause, according to
her two friends Bunny and Paulette. She heads to the doctor to find relief for her
The Owl is published nine times a year as an online PDF publication by the University of Louisville Libraries, Louisville, KY 40292.
There is no January issue and there is a combined June-August “summer” issue published in July.
Co-Editors: Robin Harris (robin.harris@louisville.edu, 852-6083) and Amy Purcell (amy.purcell@louisville.edu, 852-1861).
Editorial Board: Bill Carner, John Chenault, Mark Paul, Jessie Roth.
Book Editor: Anna Marie Johnson. Layout: Bob Roehm.
© 2007, University of Louisville Libraries. The Owl on the Web: http://owl.library.louisville.edu
C
The Owl’s purpose is to promote communication among the various libraries in the UofL system.
Deadline for publication is the 21st of each month preceeding publication.
Opinions expressed in The Owl are not necessarily those of the University Libraries or the University of Louisville.
Summer, 2007 P Page 2
symptoms and has a little surprise; meanwhile, her engineer husband Leon decides
he is bored with their life, and maybe with her, and takes off to Costa Rica for a
month. All the while Marilyn is dealing with her increasingly forgetful mother
and her adopted and sometimes drug-addicted sister Joy and her two children.
The dialogue is typically snappy Terry McMillan—except for a few places when
I lost for a bit the flow of who was talking. The ending wasn’t what I expected,
given the way the story seemed to be headed, but I was pleasantly surprised. Fi-
nally, The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith (Ekstrom Browsing
PR 6063 .C326 R54 2006) is the third installment in the Isabel Dalhousie series
set in Scotland. This one doesn’t really have a mystery per se, although it does
have an American couple who intrigues Isabel because the man, Tom, has Bell’s
palsy and the woman, Angie, is quite a bit younger and doesn’t seem really in
love with him despite their engagement. Isabel, though, is soon busy pondering
the affairs of her own heart as her relationship with Jamie, her niece’s rejected
suitor, turns into something more. This one has a surprising and fun plot twist
at the end which I won’t give away. I like this series as much as I like McCall
Smith’s Botswana series.
James Adler, Kornhauser Library
Like countless others, I’m eagerly awaiting the final installment of J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter series — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, to be released
July 21 — in which many mysteries will hopefully be solved. (My two predic-
tions: Neville Longbottom plays an absolutely crucial role, and Sirrius returns).
In the meantime, I’ll be re-reading the previous volumes and watching the
upcoming movie. I’m by no means a Potter fanatic, but this is really a stellar
series of books, and I’ll be sorry to see it come to an end.
In case you haven’t read ‘em, what’re ya waitin’ for? My fifty-eight-year-old
aunt thought she wouldn’t like them, but ended up reading them last winter,
one after another as fast as she could finish them; they’re not just fer kids! In
order: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Ekstrom Browsing PZ7.R79835
Har 1998), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets(Ekstrom Browsing PZ
7 .R79835 Har 1999), Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkhaban (Ekstrom
Browsing PZ7.R79835 Ham 1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire(Ekstrom
Browsing PZ7.R79835 Har 2000), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
(Ekstrom Browsing PZ7.R79835 Har 2003), Harry Potter and the Half-blood
Prince (Ekstrom Browsing PZ7.R79835 Halh 2005).
On a totally different level of escapism comes Sam Keith and Richard Proenneke’s One Man’s Wilderness: An
Alaskan Odyssey (Ekstrom F912.T85 P76 1999). Proenneke, at 50, decides he wants to move to the Alaskan back-
country and build his own cabin, and so he does. He fells his own timber, cuts logs, rips boards from the logs, and
basically constructs whatever he needs using the simplest hand-tools, and takes advantage of whatever the Alaskan
environment provides him. His supplies are augmented by intermittent plane deliveries of groceries/hardware, but
basically he spends an entire year by himself. Based on Pronneke’s journals, the book is quiet in tone, yet quite
engrossing. It’s a quick read, and embellished with photographs of the author at work and the intensely beautiful
Alaskan landscape. Ekstrom also has a second, companion volume, More Readings from One Man’s Wilderness
(Ekstrom F912.T85 P75 2005).
Shlomo ben-Avraham, Law Library
I am reading a two-volume history of the Hawaiian Kingdom by Samuel M. Kamakau (1815-1876) [not owned by
UofL]. This history covers the period from birth of Kamehameha I through the death of Kamehameha III. Kamakau
wrote this history as a series of columns in the Hawaiian language newspaper, Ku’oko’a (Independent) from October
Summer, 2007 P Page 3
1866 - February 1868. I have just started reading volume I, Ke Kumu Aupuni (The Foundation of the Nationhood).
This volume offers the reader a unique contemporary’s point of view of the reign of the first two kings of Hawaii. It
will also give this reader extensive practice reading a classic treatise in the Hawaiian language.
By the way, The Ku’oko’a was one of many daily newspapers in Hawaii at this time. By the mid nineteenth century,
only a single generation after adopting a written form for its language, the Hawaiian kingdom had more daily news-
papers than the entire territory of the United States west of the Mississippi River.
Gwendline Chenault, Ekstrom Library
I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Ekstrom Browsing
S521.5.A67 K56 2007) and enjoying it thoroughly. It’s a flashback on all the books
I read years ago about food production and distribution. Kingsolver has abandoned
the Arizona desert and relocated along with her family to a Virginia farming com-
munity. The book champions locally grown food, family, community, environment
and co-existence. It’s quite revealing, informative and funny.
Mark Dickson, Music Library
I am happy to report that I did indeed finish both of my Fagles translations of Homer’s
Illiad and Odyssey (Ekstrom PA4025 .A2 F33 1990 and PA 4025 .A5 F34 1996,
respectively). Now, The Aeneid by Virgil, Bernard Knox (Introduction), and Robert
Fagles (Translator) [Ekstrom PA6807.A5 F25 2006] loom on my nightstand. Fagles
just recently won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of the Academy of
American Poets for his translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (Viking), so the three make
an inspiring set.
I also have José Saramago’s Blindness (not owned by UofL) setting next to Virgil and Harry Potter 7 pre-ordered,
so the candle will be stout before the summer is out.
Leslie Farison, Ekstrom Library
A librarian’s worst nightmare is finishing a book without another waiting to be read, and a limited availability of
reading material in English. The first book is one I took on a trip, the second one was given to me by a kindred soul
and the third is another by the same author that I was lucky enough to find in a café bookstore.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (Ekstrom Browsing PS3555.D942 M46 2005b). Human motiva-
tion, the simple question of why we do what we do, is often very complex. So
many times in our lives we make a decision or choice that will alter our lives
forever without really understanding why. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is
a story about how a split second decision affected the lives of two families for
over a quarter of a century. A doctor is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own
twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he
sees immediately that she has Down’s Syndrome. He tells his wife the baby died
and asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the
secret, but she disappears into another city to raise the child herself.
This deeply moving novel explores the way life takes unexpected turns and how
secrets at the center of the family can affect the one who keeps the secrets as well
as those from whom secrets have been kept. The author, Kim Edwards, currently
teaches writing at the University of Kentucky.
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier (not owned by UofL). Set in France and Swit-
zerland during the 16th-century Reformation in France, The Virgin Blue explores
the persecution of French Huguenots through the lens of a contemporary American
Summer, 2007 P Page 4
woman. Two women, Ella and Isabelle, born 400 years apart, are bound by a fateful family legacy. In split-narrative
fashion, this story follows a transplanted American woman in southwestern France as she connects through dreams
with her distant Huguenot ancestors and unravels their puzzling secrets with the help of a local librarian. Religion is a
major theme as a vehemently anti-Catholic Calvinist sect overthrows the village’s cult of the Virgin, who is depicted
in paintings as red-haired and wearing a blue dress. Because of her own red hair and midwifery practice, Isabelle
is suspected by her husband of witchcraft and punished accordingly. Ironically, it is he and his family that secretly
adhere to heinous, superstitious practices believed to guard their home against the intrusion of enemies.
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Ekstrom PS3553.H4367 G57 2003).
History and fiction merge in this tale of how the Dutch artist Vermeer painted his
masterpiece in seventeenth-century Delft, the Netherlands. During this period of
religious and social change throughout Europe, there was a strict social order — rich
and poor, Catholic and Protestant, master and servant — and all knew their place.
After her father loses his sight and his trade in 1664, 16-year-old Griet becomes
a maid in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Her role is housework,
laundry, and the care of the children. But her quick perceptions, sense of color,
composition, and orderliness lead Vermeer to entrust much of the labor of creating
the colored paints to Griet. This work, inappropriate for a maid’s station, was done
in secret, raising the suspicions of the household. When eventually he asks her to
sit for a portrait wearing his wife’s pearl earrings, her life is nearly destroyed. The
rigidly defined and inflexible class system, the grinding poverty of the working
people, and the prejudice against Catholics among the Protestant majority make
it clear that to members of the wealthy elite, every member of the servant class is
expendable.
Sarah Frankel, Ekstrom Library
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (Ekstrom Browsing PZ7.R79835 Har 2003). Even though
I own all the Harry Potter books, I’ve only recently begun reading them and I have finally caught up to the point
where I am reading a book before the movie comes out! OotP chronicles Harry’s fifth year at Hogwart’s school, the
aftermath of Harry’s traumatizing confrontation with Lord Voldemort in Goblet of Fire, and the opposition he faces
from those who do not want to believe this encounter really took place. After finishing this book, I will read Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Ekstrom Browsing PZ7.R79835 Halh 2005) and then the seventh and final book,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, to be released July 21, 2007.
The Paths We Choose by Sully Erna (Ekstrom Browsing ML420.E74 A3 2007).
I have had an autographed copy of this book on my shelf since its February,
2007 release, but have yet to read it. Hopefully, after finishing up the Harry
Potter series, I will have more time for books such as this. Sully Erna is the lead
singer of the Boston-based hard rock band Godsmack (of which I am a huge
fan), but this isn’t your average rock star tell-all book. The Paths We Choose
is a memoir that follows Erna through the trials of his childhood and adult life
pre-Godsmack, growing up on the mean streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts
in the 1970s and ‘80s. From what I’ve heard, it’s a great example of how suc-
cess in the music business, for some, does not come overnight and how our
choices in life can determine our destiny. This book is available for purchase at
Borders stores or online at www.amazon.com or the publisher’s website www.
thepathswechoose.com.
Gail Gilbert, Art Library
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Ekstrom PR 6069 .M59 W47 2000). From Amazon:
“The scrambled, heterogeneous sprawl of mixed-race and immigrant family
life in gritty London nearly overflows the bounds of this stunning, polymathic
Summer, 2007 P Page 5
debut novel by 23-year-old British writer Smith. Traversing a broad swath of cultural territory with a perfect ear
for the nuances of identity and social class, Smith harnesses provocative themes of science, technology, history and
religion to her narrative. Hapless Archibald Jones fights alongside Bengali Muslim Samad Iqbal in the English army
during WWII, and the two develop an unlikely bond that intensifies when Samad relocates to Archie’s native London.
Smith traces the trajectory of their friendship through marriage, parenthood and the shared disappointments of pov-
erty and deflated dreams, widening the scope of her novel to include a cast of vibrant characters: Archie’s beautiful
Jamaican bride, Clara; Archie and Clara’s introspective daughter, Irie; Samad’s embittered wife, Alsana; and Alsana
and Samad’s twin sons, Millat and Magid. .. Smith contrasts Samad’s faith in providence with Magid’s desire to
seize control of the future, involving all of her characters in a debate concerning past and present, determinism and
accident. A remarkable examination of the immigrant’s experience in a postcolonial world....”
Robin Harris, Law Library
Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (not
owned by UofL) by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey (Gotham Books, 2006).
If you want an in-depth peek at what really went on when the Beatles were at
their peak, look no further than this 400-page account by recording engineer
Geoff Emerick. Now I know this probably strikes some of you as “just another
book about the Beatles” (and there are hundreds), but many among us remain
fascinated by the details of how the Beatles produced their incredible music.
If you fall into that category, this book is the perfect summer read for you.
Emerick became the group’s head sound engineer at the age of 19 and was a
major player in the making of some of the Beatles’ most revered albums. He
reveals details about the innovative (and often bizarre) techniques that pro-
duced masterpieces Revolver, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
and Abbey Road. (He quit during the recording of The White Album, but his
recollections of those recording sessions alone are worth the price of the
book. Ultimately, he returned to engineer the stunning Abbey Road). Much
of the information in this account has never appeared in print before. Best of
all, Emerick sticks to what he knows and avoids the “tell-all” tactics of many
other Beatles’ chroniclers.
After reading Emerick’s book (or maybe while reading it), you’ll want to listen again to your favorite Beatles’ albums.
And you may just hear them in a whole new way.
Sarah Jent, Ekstrom Library
Merrick by Anne Rice (both UofL copies are lost): Intriguing but not quite as enjoyable as others in this series.
Mumbo Gumbo by Jerrilyn Farmer (not owned by UofL): A fun, light culinary mystery, but sadly, did not include
any recipes.
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (Ekstrom Browsing PS3565 .A8 W4 1996): An emotionally engross-
ing novel.
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (Ekstrom E184 .I6 M117 1999): Not to be missed; very memorable.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneggar (Ekstrom PS3564 .I362 T56 2003): The most captivating book I
have read in a long time.
Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl (Ekstrom TX649 .R45 A3 2001): A memoir written by former New York
Times restaurant critic.
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (Ekstrom TX649 .B58 A32 2000): A behind-the-scenes look at the res-
taurant industry written by an outspoken chef.
Vicki Niehaus, Ekstrom Library
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (Ekstrom Browsing S 521.5 .A67 K56 2007)
is a true story of novelist Barbara Kingsolver’s family exodus from Arizona to a Virginia farm to attempt one year
Summer, 2007 P Page 6
of eating only locally produced food. The story is presented in diary form with contributions from her husband the
biology professor and essays and recipes from her 19-year-old daughter. Short essays addressing such issues as cor-
porate agribusiness and its impact, nutrition, seasonality and why it is important, sustainable agriculture, feedlot food
production, finding local resources, etc. are interspersed. My favorite chapter concerned Barbara’s earnest attempts
at turkey sex ed. This is a compelling read that made me aware of the environmental impact and fuel costs associated
with the way I eat. The book contains practical advice and realistic small steps for those of us who cannot relocate
to Virginia to grow most of our own food.More information is at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com.
Chad Owen, University Archives & Records Center
I first picked up Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Ekstrom CT 275 .P648 A33 2000) ten
years ago while working at the Library of Virginia. I’d heard the title years before and it seemed like something
I’d be interested in because, well, I’ve studied Zen and love motorcycles, so it seemed natural. The book starts off
very much like you’d expect it...with the story of a father-son motorcycle trip from Minneapolis to San Francisco.
However, it then takes a turn, and eventually comes around to using the motorcycle trip, and the topic of motorcycle
maintenance, as a framework around which Pirsig explains his “Metaphysics of Quality.” I’ve read ZAMM probably
once a year every year since then, and gave it to my groomsmen at my wedding, because I believe it has something
important to say about caring about what you’re doing, whether you’re building a wall, running a country, or just
tuning up an old motorcycle. It’s the attitude that counts. And while there’s a lot more to the book that I couldn’t go
into in a paragraph, that’s the part that’s important to me. Okay, I admit, I eat up the motorcycle-trip narrative too.
Amy Purcell, Ekstrom Library
I’ve recently read books by two authors whose new books I always look forward to: Elizabeth Berg and Anita
Shreve.
Dream When You’re Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg (Ekstrom Browsing PS3552.E6996
D74 2007). This story is set in Chicago during World War II and centers around three
Irish Catholic sisters who are doing their part at home for the war effort. Two of the sisters
have boyfriends who have gone to war. They write letters to several soldiers (sometimes
consulting the pamphlets put out with suggestions of what to write about), they go to
dances and one sister ends up working in a factory. It’s an intimate look at how the war
affected those left behind.
Body Surfing by Anita Shreve (Ekstrom Browsing PS3569.H7385 B63 2007). Once again,
the reader learns about a new family to inhabit the cottage on the New Hampshire shore.
Her novels are generally dark and this is no exception. It’s a story of love and betrayal
that starts in a family cottage at the beach with Sydney, a widowed and still grieving tutor,
her pupil Julie, a young woman who is intellectually slow, Julie’s two brothers, her kind
father and bitter mother.
I will be going on vacation soon and, as usual, I look for a small stack of books to bring with me. There’s lots of
reading on the dock time. I plan to check out the latest Alexander McCall Smith book. I like his series of stories
about the Number One Ladies Detective Agency run by Botswana detective Precious Ramotswe. Mme. Ramotswe
loves Africa and the old ways and very patiently solves cases with understanding. I also want to check out Water for
Elephants by Sara Guen (Ekstrom Browsing PS3607.R696 W38 2006). This is a story of Jacob and his life with the
circus, told by Jacob when he is around 90 years old. And the last book on my list is The Glass Castle: A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls (Ekstrom Browsing HV5132 .W35 2005). It was recommended to me because if I liked Running
With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Ekstrom Browsing PS3552.U745 Z477 2003), then I’d like this one. Actually
I enjoyed Dry by Burroughs more (Ekstrom Browsing PS3552.U745 Z465 2003). It was a lot funnier and not quite
so tragic. The Glass Castle got some great reviews.
Aaron Rosenblum, Ekstrom Library
Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem (Ekstrom Browsing PS3562.E8544 F67 2003) Jonathan Lethem began
Summer, 2007 P Page 7
his career writing science fiction, but broke into mainstream fiction with his 1999
novel Motherless Brooklyn (also highly recommended, though not in our stacks, and
more of a Fall read...), which he followed in 2003 with Fortress of Solitude. Fortress
follows its narrator, Dylan Ebdus, from childhood to adulthood while simultaneously
chronicling the growth and gentrification of Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood
between the 1970s and today. The story is told through rich reminiscences of the best
and worst moments of childhood, while also questioning how and why we remember
what we remember. A great summer read.
Raymond Slaughter, Ekstrom Library
For those of you who like mystery, suspense, and horror in both poetry and short stories,
then check out The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Ekstrom Stacks PS2600.F08).
You will not be disappointed.
Elizabeth Smiegelski, Kornhauser Library
Body Brokers: Inside American’s Underground Trade in Human Remains by Annie Cheney (available at LFPL).
This is an expose on the largely unregulated, for-profit world of the cadaver and tissue industry, wherein massive
profits frequently lead to corruption and abuse. Considering that animal researchers must account assiduously for
every bit of tissue used, yet one can ship arms and torsos via Fed Ex, this can be excused. Note: this may difficult
reading for those who have recently lost someone.
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy (available at LFPL) Levy analyzes
the current culture wherein women are turning themselves and other women into sex objects, thus causing the re-
emergence of the sexy bimbo, the sexualization of young girls, and the commercially-driven prevalence of porn/raunch
throughout our culture. This book hits the nail on the head of a trend I’ve become increasingly dismayed to see, and
I’m neither an ardent feminist nor a prude.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann (Ekstrom Browsing E61 .M266 2005).
This coherent, easily readable book completely alters the assumption of pre-Columbian culture in the America’s
and debunks just about everything believed, and taught, previously. Instead of an ecologically balanced world, Na-
tive Americans radically altered their environment to meet their needs. Most surprising, is that the evidence was
completely overlooked by archeologists until the last decade.
Virginia Smith, Law Library
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India And Indonesia
by Elizabeth Gilbert (Ekstrom Browsing G154.5.G55 A3 2006). Following a devastat-
ing divorce, Ms. Gilbert sets out on a path of pleasure-seeking and personal exploration
that takes her and her readers to three exotic locales. A year later she returns home with a
lasting souvenir — peace of mind.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
(Ekstrom F 106 .B92 1998). The characteristically humorous Bryson, outdoes himself
again by describing his adventures hiking the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. I
encourage everyone to read this book and then go see this natural wonder for yourself,
while it lasts.
Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto (Ekstrom PL 865 .O7138 A4813 1997). Ms. Yoshimoto is one of my favorite authors
and a unique voice of my generation. I have adored her work since I picked up her first novel, Kitchen, from the
sale table at Hawley-Cooke shortly after having returned from a semester abroad in Japan. Amrita tells the tale of
Sakumi’s summer sojourn in Saipan, where she discovers an island rich in history and paranormal activity.
Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle (Ekstrom PR 6063 .A8875 C48 1997). Peter Mayle has been delighting readers
Summer, 2007 P Page 8
for years with his tales of Provence. In Cezanne, he creates a nice little adventure caper involving shady art dealers
and an inquisitive photographer, set in the South of France.
Democracy by Joan Didion (Ekstrom PS3554.I33 D4 1984). I was first introduced to Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards
Bethlehem in my high school English class and have since read practically everything she’s published. Her journalistic
writing style does more to transport me to another place and time than most authors I’ve read. Set in Hawaii in the
early 1970s, Democracy is a provocative story about a woman burdened by a life of power and politics.
Barbara Whitener, Ekstrom Library
A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl with Sarah Crichton (Ekstrom PN4874.P37 P43 2003). The tragic story of Wall
Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl written by his wife. Pearl was kidnapped and murdered
in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002. A very compelling book that has been made into a film.
The Namesake (Ekstrom Browsing PS3562.A316 N36 2003) and Interpreter of Mala-
dies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Ekstrom PS 3562 .A316 I58 1999). Interpreter of Maladies is a
collection of short stories that won the Pulitzer Prize. Both the Interpreter of Maladies
and The Namesake are wonderful books that deal with the first and second generation
immigrants and cultural identity.
A Thousand Splendid Suns (Ekstrom Browsing PS3608.O832 K58 2007) is an extraordi-
nary book by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner, Ekstrom Browsing PS3608.
O832 K58 2003). The novel follows the lives of two women through forty years in a
turbulent Afghanistan. It’s difficult to read at times because of the subject matter but
impossible to put down. This is not a book that will be forgotten when finished.
Picnic in Mercer County, Kentucky ca. 1900,
from the Arthur Y. Ford Albums
The Arthur Y. Ford Albums were assembled in 1904 for display in the Kentucky Building at the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition in St. Louis. After the Exposition, also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair, the albums remained in the
hands of Arthur Y. Ford who had been the chair of the Kentucky Committee for the fair. Two of the Ford albums
contain 313 photographs of Kentucky scenes from the Appalachian, Bluegrass and Western portions of the state. The
third album contained photographs of the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, including views of the Kentucky Building
and exhibits. Arthur Younger Ford, a graduate of Brown University, was the seventh president of the University of
Louisville. He was the University’s first full-time president from 1914 until his death in 1926.
Summer, 2007 P Page 9
From the Dean of Libraries . . .
By Hannelore Rader, Dean, University Libraries
On May 9 the Administrative Coordination Council (ACC) discussed residency programs
in other ARL libraries, Deyta Employee Survey results and PORTICO. During the June
6 meeting ACC shared information on LOCKSS, CLOCKS and PORTICO in terms of
preserving e-journals. ACC is inclined toward utilizing LOCKSS/CLOCKSS pending
further investigation. ACC approved a policy on “research in libraries.” This policy deals
with conducting surveys, experiments or other research project on library premises.
May 9 was Suzy Palmer’s last day at the University Libraries as Associate Dean for Col-
lections. On the same day the Library Associates Board held a reception with Cardinal
Footbal Coach Steve Kragthorpe, hosted by Dick Wilson, chair of the Board.
On May 22 the Associate Deans discussed the current faculty vacancies and the future
searches for them.
From May 23-25, I at ended the ARL (Association of Research Libraries) meeting in
St. Louis along with 175 col eagues. As usual, this was an information-rich meeting and
featured much new information in the area of digital information, preservation, global resources, quality assessment
in research institutions, research infrastructure, accreditation and accountability. Other programs featured related
information from the United Kingdom academic libraries and updates related to SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and
Academic Resources Coalition). A major part of the meeting was dedicated to the new Research, Teaching and Learn-
ing Commit ee, of which I am a member. Crit Stuart from Georgia Tech was just appointed program director for this
new initiative. The group is focusing on the fact that research libraries are increasingly seen as essential to the teach-
ing and learning agenda of their institutions. As part of the meeting the participants toured Washington University’s
Olin Library and the Film and Media Archive which houses rare col ecigton of film, videotape, audiotape, and other
materials related to civil rights and African American life. The Henry Hampton Col ection is a major feature of the
archives and includes al the Blackside Films.
On May 29 the libraries were visited by Roger Schonfeld, who spoke to us about the research project with Ithaka
(ht p:/ www.ithaka.org/about-ithaka) to study the impact of digitization on print acquisition and space management.
Roger is working with 15 research libraries on that project including the University of Arizona, the University of
Michigan, Vanderbilt, the University of Chicago and several col eges such as Berea Col ege.
On May 30 we had visitors from the Tennessee State Department of Libraries and Archives and from June 4-8 we
hosted five visitors from the Perm State University Library in Russia. These librarians were here to study our library
management, services and space use.
From May 31 to June 2 the NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group, Inc.) Conference was held in Louisvil e at
the Galt House. More than 570 persons at ended from North America and several of our librarians helped to organize
this major event. I gave the welcome to the group on May 31.
The Library Associates Board met on June 7 and addressed new opportunities related to fundraising issues. During
this day we also met with representatives from SOLINET to discuss our future needs related to SOLINET.
On June 18 Andy Clark, started his chal enging job in the libraries as facilities coordinator.
On June 21 I at ended an Advancement workshop on Shelby campus, held for U of L’s administrators, to provide us
with insight into philanthropy and new ideas for fundraising.
Be sure to explore our online gift shop (http://library.louisville.edu/giftshop/) to help support the purchase of
books for the U of L Libraries’ collections.
Summer, 2007 P Page 10
Cool Things About Cool Books
By William F. Meehan III, Senior Fellow for Rare Books
with Katelyn Widener and Caitlin M. Williams, Special Collections interns
The dime novel was the leading form of popular fiction in 1860-1915. Inexpensive for the consumer and cost-effec-
tive for the publisher, dime novels were amazingly well-received by
avid American and adults young at heart who turned to the sensational
yarns for entertainment and escape. The cheap but thrilling paperbacks,
priced initially at a dime and later a nickel, featured numerous heroes.
But Street & Smith’s Tip Top Weekly and leading man Frank Merriwell
remain icons of the dime novel genre.
After Francis Scott Street and Francis Shubael Smith bought a fiction
magazine and started a publishing company in 1855, they developed
so particular a specialty that the firm was called “the fiction factory.”
Rival publisher Irwin Beadle & Co. introduced the dime novel but
Street & Smith broke new ground producing and marketing the ten-
cent paperbacks.
Printed on cut-rate paper, but prior to the advent of pulp fiction, the
8.5 x 11, 32-page dime novels at first were issued in black and white
covers, but Street & Smith saw covers as an outlet for artistic innova-
tion that could help boost sales. Full-page color images, accompanied
by captions or succinct plot teasers, became standard after Street &
Smith initiated the successful marketing strategy.
Street & Smith viewed fic-
tion as a commodity, and the firm stipulated formulaic story lines in series
featuring a recurring hero. Frontiersman Buffalo Bill and detective Nick
Carter were hits, but the company’s star was Frank Merriwell. Introduced
April 18, 1896, in the new dime novel Tip Top Weekly, Merriwell was the
creation of writer Burt L. Standish, a pseudonym for William G. Patten.
Standish thought the name Frank Merriwell represented the qualities he
wanted in a hero: “Frank for frankness, merry for a happy disposition,
well for health and abounding vitality.”
Merriwell--famous in football, baseball, track, and rowing--was “Yale’s
greatest hero” who always performed a spectacular feat known in lit-
erary sports lore as “the Merriwell finish.” He also made good in the
classroom and in life, solving whodunits and making the dishonest
honest. The Merriwell stories, in short, encouraged exemplary morals
and ideal sportsmanship.
Promoted as “An Ideal Publication for the American Youth,” Tip Top
Weekly sold 200,000 copies every Saturday for sixteen years. The Mer-
riwell series, which also stared Frank’s younger brother Dick, made
Tip Top Weekly the most successful dime novel in the genre’s fifty-
Top left: Tip Top Weekly, No. 678, April 10, 1909
five year span.
Above: Tip Top Weekly, No. 625, April 4, 1908
Summer, 2007 P Page 11
Library and Department
News
Ekstrom Library
Office of Libraries Technology
ILLiad Upgrade
The server has been upgraded with new hardware and a new version of database management software.
Media Server
A new server has been purchased to support streaming audio. The first project is with oral histories to be included
in the libraries’ Digital Collections – http://digital.library.louisville.edu.
MetaLib (Search Express) Upgrade
MetaLib (Search Express) will be upgraded to version four this summer. New features of this version include faceted
searching and better integration with SFX.
New SFX A-Z List
A new A-Z list was released with May’s monthly update. The SFX/MetaLib Implementation Team is working on
the customization. A new A-Z list and Journal Finder interface will be available for review soon. Stay tuned for the
deployment timeline and other details.
PCs
PCs on the East side of the first floor have been re-imaged and rearranged in Ekstrom Library with access limited
to UofL users. Eighty-eight PCs and laptops were purchased to replace the public PCs in Art and Music Libraries,
laptops in Ekstrom Library and some staff PCs.
Office of the Dean
Ramble for the Roses 2007
Walking enthusiasts Karen Nalley (Adminis-
trative Office) and Sarah Frankel (Technical
Services) participated in the Ramble for the
Roses this year. They walked five miles and
for that day and had a total of 26,000+ steps.
It was a good walking day for them. They did
their normal three to four miles at lunch and
then the five miles in the evening. (Karen and
Sarah are members of Two Dozen Feet, one
of the libraries’ Trek the Appalachian Trail
teams.) They were tired! Pictured are Sarah,
Karen, and Karen’s sister Kellye Petty.
New Hire
Andrew Clark accepted the position of Facilities Coordinator Senior effective June 18, 2007. He will report to
Diane Nichols.
Summer, 2007 P Page 12
Special Collections
Bill Carner went on wagon rides in Perry and Spencer
counties in Indiana with the Southern Indiana Draft
Horse & Mule Association on Memorial Day
weekend and again in June. He doesn’t have a team
these days but he’s thinking about mules. He did ride
old Jack for part of each wagon ride which gave Bert
of Jim Stevens’ team Bert and Ernie a good laugh.
When Bill wasn’t horsing or muling around, he’s
been working on photo exhibits and events. He
curated two large format photography exhibits,
A Large Format Photography Primer at the
Speed Art Museum and Film, Plates and Camera
Movements...in the Photo Archives gallery. These
exhibits coincide with the View Camera Magazine
Large Format Photography Conference at the Brown
Photo by Mary Ceridan
Hotel June 28 -July 1 and the Fifth Louisville Photography Biennial in Louisville art galleries this summer. He also
coordinated scanning, alternative photo processes and wet plate photography workshops to be held on the UofL
campus during the conference. Bill served as “curator in charge” of The Best of Photography and Film from the
George Eastman House Collection at the Speed Art Museum. A “curator in charge” works with the local museum
staff on the installation of the exhibit and has to get up at 4 a.m. to be on morning TV. All the really hard work and
actual curating was done at the Eastman House. The Best of Photography and Film… continues through Sunday,
September 16. UofL students and employees can enter the exhibit at no charge by presenting their ID at the museum
entrance desk to receive an admission ticket. Admission for non-members is $10.
Dum-Dum at UofL
The 46th Dum-Dum (the annual Edgar Rice Burroughs convention), the fourth to
be held in Louisville, will take place on the first weekend in August, 2007. UofL is
sponsoring the dedication ceremony of the Bob Hyde collection which he donated
to us just before his death in April, 2006. A major exhibition of his collection will
be mounted in the Richard Kain Gallery, Rare Books, and the ceremony will take
place on Friday afternoon, 3 p.m., at the Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium. This
and other activities in Ekstrom Library (beginning at 10 a.m.) are free and open
to the public. Guest speakers will include Hannelore Rader, Delinda Buie, and
the three children of the donor, Bob Hyde. For more information, contact George
McWhorter, Curator Burroughs Memorial Collection (852-8729) or visit the web
Art by Richard Hescox
page http://erb.louisville.edu/ and click on Activities (under Dum-Dum 2007).
UARC
Kathie Johnson had a fun girlfriend weekend in Newport, Rhode Island, May 31-June 3. Newport is a well-known
New England tourist spot on the Atlantic Ocean and Newport Harbor, but most people up there were surprised that
we had traveled from Kentucky to visit. Newport was the summer home of many of the country’s richest families in
the late 19th and early 20th century, where they build summer “cottages” such as the Vanderbilt’s 70-room Breakers,
now open to the public. We toured two of the mansions, took a harbor tour by boat, visited Fort Adams, shopped,
and ate wonderful seafood.
In more good news, Kathie (and her entire family) are thrilled to announce that on June 28 in Jefferson County Fam-
ily Court, grandson Cole (born December 26, 2006) was legally adopted by daughter Kira and son-in-law Todd, and
ruled to be their child. The judge stated that this is a “final decision with no appeal.” A four-year-old cousin stated
that this meant that “no one could ever take Cole away from us,” for which we are very happy.
Summer, 2007 P Page 13
DARE TO SAY THANK YOU!
“Thanks to Ann Collins, Amy Purcell, Courtney Hughes and all my comrades in Special Collections for all
their help getting the Film, Plates and Camera Movements...exhibit installed.” — Bill Carner
J J J J J
“I would like to thank Samantha Sand for her diligent and excellent work in RRS audits. Please come back
in the fall (wink, wink). And to Margo Smith and Ben King for letting me borrow her away from Technical
Services for the month.
Thanks to all the auditors: Colleen Eubank, Angela Ren, Martha Parry, Rachael Elrod, Katie Meyer, and
Gideon Scott. You folks are a big reason our catalog is slowly improving for our patrons. And to Pat Waters,
a former auditor, who now helps me with the clean-up. You are a true gem.
Thank you to Martha Parry and students in Stacks Maintenance for collaborating with the ILL folks to get our
lending books pulled from the stacks. We would be hopelessly behind without your helping hands.
Thanks to Lisa Ortega for never complaining and working consistently to get those pesky circulation backlog
lists that I keep pushing her way to slowly disappear. Awesomeness in action!
Thanks to Mark Paul for providing the RRS room with four of our preferred scanners--ones that actually work,
and work well! Bravo!
A huge thanks, with hugs and kisses, to Diane Nichols for being so supportive and responsive to the never-
ending needs of the circulation department!
And last, but certainly not least, thank you Tyler Goldberg for your patience with me while you teach me some
cataloging skills. I think I might be developing a crush!” — Melissa Horrar
J J J J J
“A big thank you to Adam Lawrence (OLT) and Justy Engle (Media) who saved the day by getting the
EndNote trainer and her laptop up and running with a connection to our projector in room 103 AND UofL
wireless access on May 31 in about 10 minutes time. You guys were really professional and made us all look
like we had our act together. I’m really grateful!”
and...
“Thank you to Calvin Miracle and Eric Lair who helped me get my computer connected back to the server. I
appreciated your quick and dogged response to my problem!” — Anna Marie Johnson
J J J J J
“A huge thank you to Angel Clemons for helping me organize the recent series of faculty development workshops
on research productivity, Carrie Daniels for agreeing to facilitate an ongoing research topics discussion group
and Suzy Palmer, Michel Atlas and Anna Marie Johnson for their presentations.” — Melissa Laning
J J J J J
“I would like to thank Melissa Horrar for being a department head who GETS THINGS DONE! Thanks,
Melissa, for having the strength and perseverance to change our department for the better.” — Lisa Ortega
Summer, 2007 P Page 14
Thank You
Alice Abbott-Moore Bil Carner
Gwendline Chenault Anna Marie Johnson
Kathie Johnson Weiling Liu
George T. McWhorter Wil iam F. Meehan III
Karen Nal ey Hannelore Rader
and al the Readers’ Picks contributors!
Library Exhibits
Ekstrom Library
East Lobby – Media Resources
Tarzan Around the World
Seven posters from various Tarzan movies from 1936-
1957
Courtesy of the Burroughs Memorial Collection
Photo Archives Gallery
Film, Plates and Camera Movements: Large Format Pho-
tography from the 19th through the 21st Century
The Walker Evans photo at right is featured in the exhibit.
June 4 – September 14, 2007
West Wing First Floor Display Cases
Evolution of the University Libraries
Roadside Sandwich Shop, Panchatoula, Louisiana. Photograph by Walker
and
Evans for the Farm Security Administration, 1936.
19th Century Caricatures from Vanity Fair, a Weekly Show of Political, Social and
Literary Wares
(left: Sir John Everett Millais, June 8, 1829 – August 13, 1896)
Richard Kain Gallery, Rare Books
Bob Hyde Memorial Collection
Bob Hyde (1925-2006) was president of the Burroughs Bibliophiles and life-long col-
lector of Edgar Rice Burroughs material.
July 9 – October 1, 2007
Music Library
First Floor
Celebrate With Us — 75th Anniversary of the School of Music & the Grawemeyer
Awards in Music
Includes memorabilia of the school and works of the 2007 Grawemeyer award recipi-
ent, Sebastian Currier.
Through August 2007
Summer, 2007 P Page 15
