Christmas Break Hours

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash.com

LIBRARY HOURS - Christmas Break, 11/30/2020 - 1/1/2021

Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 4:50 p.m.

Saturday & Sunday CLOSED

December 24 -- January 1 CLOSED

Thanksgiving Break Hours

THANKSGIVING BREAK LIBRARY HOURS:

Wednesday, 11/25: 8:00 a.m. - 4:50 p.m. Thursday, 11/26 - Sunday, 11/29: CLOSED We'll be back at 8:00 a.m. on Monday the 30th!

November DVD Spotlight: German Cinema

All through the month of November, we're spotlighting the work of German filmmakers from our DVD collection.  The expressionistic work of German directors like Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau represented the artistic peak of the silent film era, and after decades of relative stagnancy brought on by the Third Reich and the aftermath of World War II, German filmmaking saw a major resurgence with the New German Cinema movement beginning in the late 1960s, when influential directors like Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder began to leave their mark on world cinema.  We've got numerous films from both eras of German filmmaking, as well as more contemporary films from the younger generation of German directors.

Featured titles include:

Das Boot (1981)

This tense, claustrophobic epic follows the crew of a German submarine during World War II.

Downfall (2004)

Bruno Ganz gives a magnetic performance as an increasingly unhinged Adolf Hitler in this chronicle of his last days in the bunker, told from the point of view of his secretary Gertraud Junge.  This film is the source of the clip used to make all those hilarious parody videos of Hitler ranting about everything from falling for an email scam to learning that President Obama has been re-elected.

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Werner Herzog's masterful portrait of obsession follows a wealthy European who will stop at nothing to build his own personal opera house in the remote Peruvian jungle.

The Lives of Others (2006)

An Oscar-winning historical thriller about an East German police surveillance expert who is tasked with spying on a playwright and his girlfriend, only to find himself drawn into their lives and sympathetic to their plight.

Metropolis (1927)

Fritz Lang's visionary dystopian masterpiece depicts a future in which the rich live a utopian life of luxury, while the poor working class toils underground to keep the city's machinery running.

Nosferatu (1922)

This silent, expressionistic adaptation of the Dracula story features some of the most haunting imagery in all of cinema.

Pandora's Box (1929)

Jazz Age icon Louise Brooks stars in this silent classic, about an amoral young woman who inspires lust and violence in those around her.

Phoenix (2014)

In this engrossing, noir-tinged drama, a disfigured Auschwitz survivor undergoes facial reconstruction surgery, then returns to Berlin to find her gentile husband, who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis.

Stop by the library and check one out today!

Friday Reads: Psi Another Day

 We made it to another Friday! High five! This week, Kelly Clever is telling us about an urban fantasy YA novel by a local author who sets his stories in our very own Greensburg -- Psi Another Day by D.R. Rosensteel.

D.R. Rosensteel's books were recommended by the ladies in my self-defense class, since the author goes to the same karate school I do! I'm not typically a big YA person, but when my classmates and instructor told me that the Psi Academy novels are set in a lightly-fictionalized Greensburg, I was intrigued. 

The book's narrator is a 16-year-old girl named Rinnie, who is a normal high-schooler by day but trains in both martial and "mental arts" in a secret underground academy at night. The martial arts are pretty self-explanatory, but the "mental arts" and the cool tech that the Psi Fighters have developed to amplify their abilities are what set them apart. Thoughts become physical and mental weapons and tools when employed by these secretive fighters. 

Naturally, the Psi Fighters have sworn enemies who employ the same combination of fighting styles, and the leader of the evil Walpurgis Knights is obsessed with finding and eliminating Rinnie, in particular. Rinnie needs to figure out the secret identities of the bad guys, save the younger kids in town from evil kidnappers, figure out whom she can and can't trust, clean up the bullying problem at her school, and occasionally fight for her life. While also dealing with boy problems, naturally. 

This book is the first in the series. I actually enjoyed its sequel, Live and Let Psi, a bit more. It has even more local "Easter eggs" that made me go "I know that spot!" and the characters have had a chance to develop more fully. The Psi Who Loved Me, the third title in the series, is forthcoming. 

Who Are We?

 The library staff is working with the archivist to attempt to identify all of these women from the past. We recognize Sr. Mildred Corvi (first, l to r), Sr. Mary Janet Ryan (second), Sr. Lois Sculco (fourth), and Dr. JoAnne Boyle (fifth). We could use help identifying the remaining people and the approximate date of the photograph. Any ideas??

Adam is finally getting to cross off a book that has been on his to-read list for a long time. Today, he tells us a bit about Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. 

Adam Pellman is reading Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

I've only just started reading this novel, so it's too early for me to give my impressions on it. It's a book that I've been meaning to read for many years, so I'm pleased that I'm finally able to get to it. This novel was author Ken Kesey's follow-up to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a novel that I really enjoyed, and that is the basis for one of my all-time favorite films.

Sometimes a Great Notion tells the story of the Stampers, a family of loggers who live near a small lumber town along the Oregon coast, and who have become involved in a local strike. It's one of those big, sprawling novels that has earned a reputation as one of the important works of late-20th century American fiction. I hope it's worth the wait.

Friday Reads: The Divine Milieu

Today's Friday Reads feature may interest those who enjoy pondering the big questions of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Dr. Stanley tells us about The Divine Milieu by Teilhard de Chardin. 

David Stanley with The Divine Milieu by Teilhard de Chardin

I had a brief idea of what this book would be about because it was recommended to me by a friend who held the author in high esteem. I wish I would have begun reading it sooner because my friend died before we could discuss it. This makes the work more interesting to me because the copy he gave me is full of his notes and I am left to wonder what they meant to him. The Divine Milieu gives us a different lens through which to understand not only Christianity but also Catholicism. If we are to accept de Chardin’s views of the world, humanity, spirituality, and God there is an intertwining of all of them. Basically, all of creation and all that we do here is part of a trial. What we accomplish in the end does not matter, what does matter is why we do what we do. We are here to prove to God our worthiness, not what we can accomplish. It’s not a quick read but it does give you much to ponder in those late nights when you can’t fall asleep!

September-October DVD Spotlight: Horror Movies

It's only September, and while it may still feel like summer outside, it's already Halloween in the heart of every scary movie fan.  So we're taking two full months to spotlight some of the many horror films in our DVD collection.  If you're in the mood for chills and thrills, Reeves Memorial Library has got you covered.  We've got horror movies about all manner of things that go bump in the night, from vampires and zombies to mutant animals and murderous aliens.  And let's not forget the scariest monster of all, humankind.

Featured titles include:

Audition (1999)

This cringe-inducing Japanese film, surely one of the most disturbing movies ever made, is both an extremely unsettling piece of revenge horror and a surprisingly affecting examination of loneliness.

The Exorcist (1973)

This horror classic, about a possessed teenage girl, is considered by many to be the scariest movie ever made.

Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele's acclaimed hit, about a young African-American man's nightmarish weekend visit to his white girlfriend's parents' house, is the perfect combination of slowly-escalating unease, disturbing horror, and brilliant social commentary.

Nosferatu (1922)

This silent, expressionistic adaptation of the Dracula story features some of the most haunting imagery in all of cinema.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

With equal parts horror and humor, this wildly entertaining film tells the story of a slacker who tries to win back his ex-girlfriend amid the chaos of a zombie apocalypse.

The Thing (1982)
Tension and paranoia abound in John Carpenter's gory horror classic, about an Antarctic research station that comes under attack by a shapeshifting alien.

Stop by the library and check one out today ... if you dare.

Friday Reads: The Giver of Stars

 Librarianship hasn't always meant sitting in front of a screen and navigating databases. Today, Public Services Librarian Kelly Clever tells us about The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes, in which librarians deliver reading materials on horseback.

Kelly Clever with The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

This book was recommended to me by a friend who knows that I grew up in the mountains and had horses. For some reason she said that the based-on-real-history novel about the "pack horse librarians" of Appalachia made her think of me...

Alice, a bored and frustrated young Englishwoman, falls fast and hard for a hunky traveling American from Kentucky. The two young people quickly marry and head back to the States for what Alice expects will be a glamorous socialite life in Lexington. 

As it turns out, however, Alice is headed for a small mining town and marriage proves to be anything but what she expected. Desperate to get out of the house, she volunteers to ride for the new pack horse library and help provide the isolated cabins in the mountains with reading material. It's hard and sometimes dangerous work, but Alice soon finds that the elements and the distrustful mountain folk are the least of her problems.

I like to think that I would have made a good pack horse librarian if I had lived in eastern Kentucky back in the 1930s. My dear departed pony, Buddy, would have been deeply annoyed by the mileage and the weight of the saddlebags, but I expect we would have done okay. 

Buddy and me, circa 2007

Friday Reads: The City of Mirrors

How are you enjoying your apocalypse? Cataloging & Acquisitions Librarian Adam Pellman found this particular Friday Reads, The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin, a little too on the nose for our current situation. 

The City of Mirrors is the final book in a trilogy about a vampire plague that has overrun North America (and probably the rest of the world, too). In the first book of the trilogy, an American scientist on an expedition in the jungles of Central America was bitten by a particularly nasty species of bat, leading to an infection that transformed him into a bloodthirsty vampire with superhuman strength. Government scientists then decided to use the vampire to start an experiment with human subjects that, unsurprisingly, went awry, resulting in the death or infection of almost everyone on the continent. This third book is set about a century later, as the descendants of those first survivors have gathered in isolated colonies in a fight against any remaining infected humans, which they call "virals."

I like the trilogy, but this turned out to be an unwise choice of novels to read during a pandemic. It's an inadvertently timely read. In one passage, an old newspaper article from the time of the initial outbreak sounds like it could be from 2020: "The Easter Virus ... can travel great distances attached to dust motes or respiratory droplets, causing many health officials to liken it to the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918, which killed as many as 50 million people worldwide. Travel bans have done little to slow its spread, as have attempts by officials in many cities to prevent people from congregating in public places." So much for escapism!

End of an Era

It's official: Reeves Memorial Library has deaccessed the remaining microfilm holdings from the collection. Whereas we at one time had many journals available on microfilm or fiche the last to disappear is our collection of The New York Times. Luckily a portion of the collection was sent to another academic library to complete their holdings. Godspeed to another remnant of libraries as we once knew them.

                   

Friday Reads: Jedi Apprentice: The Hidden Past

And now, for something different, a 20-year-old pop-culture children's book, shared by Public Services Librarian Kelly Clever.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who needs a light, fun distraction these days. I've been a big Star Wars fan since I first saw the original trilogy and The Phantom Menace on borrowed VHS tapes back in 2000. Back then, my knowledge of the "Expanded Universe" (Star Wars lore beyond the movies) came from fanfiction.net rather than from the books and comics that were churned out to cash in on the cultural craze. I was five or six years too old to be the intended audience for the Jedi Apprentice series, but now that the world is on fire around our ears, who couldn't use a little Jedi zen? Since my public library has reopened, I'm able to get my hands on these out-of-print gems. 

At the beginning of the series, Obi-Wan Kenobi is about to turn 13. Since no one has chosen him to be their apprentice, he'll be kicked out of the Jedi Order and sent to work in the Agricultural Corps instead of fulfilling his dream of becoming a Jedi Knight. His last hopes are pinned on impressing Qui-Gon Jinn... who unfortunately had a very bad experience with his last apprentice and has sworn he's not going to take on another one. Spoiler alert: he eventually does, but it takes a lot of convincing. This series follows the adventures of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as master and apprentice. 

These are middle-grade readers, and I was a little hesitant because I am not a big fan of YA, but I am finding that it's the content matter in YA that I don't enjoy rather than the reading level or the age of the protagonist. The Hidden Past is the third book in the series (there are 20 total). All but the first book are written by Jude Watson. They're fast, fun reads with plenty of adventure and the assurance that the good guys will always win, but they also go deeper into themes of courage, compassion, perseverance, loyalty, patience, sacrifice, and hope. There are also Yoda wisdom-nuggets sprinkled liberally throughout. I consider easy-to-digest wisdom a big plus in 2020. 

Do note that this series is no longer "canon" and is instead considered part of the "Legends" universe.

Friday Reads: The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945

Happy Friday! Today, Adam Pellman tells us about his new read, Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945.

Adam Pellman is reading The Guns at Last Light: 

The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson

This book is the third volume in journalist and historian Rick Atkinson's "Liberation Trilogy," a sweeping account of the Allied effort to liberate Europe during World War II. The first book in the trilogy chronicled the war in North Africa, and the second detailed the invasions of Sicily and Italy. This third volume begins with the Normandy invasion in June of 1944, and I timed my reading so that I would start the book around the anniversary of the invasion.

Atkinson does an incredible job of bringing the events and personalities of the war to life, drawing heavily from firsthand accounts, diaries, and personal correspondence, along with a wealth of other primary source materials. The amount of research that went into this trilogy is staggering (this volume alone includes 200 pages of bibliographical references), and the details Atkinson includes make for a very engaging and eye-opening read. For example, by the time of the invasion, there were over 1.5 million American GIs in Britain, a figure that was higher than the population of many U.S. states at the time. So many GIs impregnated British women that road signs cautioned, "To all GIs: please drive carefully, that child may be yours." It's colorful details like these that really make history come alive.

Friday Reads: The Winds of Khalakovo

Some people are getting a lot of reading done in quarantine; others, not so much. Public Services Librarian Kelly Clever is slowly chipping away at The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley Beaulieu.

Kelly Clever is reading The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley Beaulieu

Years ago, when I got my first Nook e-reader, I snatched up free ebooks every time I saw one that sounded sort of interesting. The Winds of Khalakovo was one of the first ones that I gleefully added to my virtual library. About ten years later, I'm finally getting around to reading it.

I remember being intrigued by the vague description of the book as the beginning of an epic-scale fantasy. That's about all I knew about it until a few weeks ago. Now I know that the names are sort-of Russian; that the protagonist seems to be a prince named Nikandr who has some mysterious "wasting disease," which he is keeping a secret from the woman he is about to marry for political reasons; and travel and commerce seems to take place via some sort of "windships," which I'm still struggling to visualize. All is not well in the land of Khalakovo-- there are racial, socio-economic, and political tensions, and an ongoing famine is threatening to get even worse. Nikandr seems to have his work cut out for him if he wants to fix this mess. In the tradition of most of the Russian literature I've read, however, so far he seems resigned to dying a grim death and hopes only to accomplish something not-totally-futile between now and then. We'll see.

Getting oriented to a new fantasy world always takes some time, and I am enjoying the overall tone and atmosphere of the book, so I intend to keep at it.

Friday Reads: A Mind Unraveled

Dr. Stanley is pretty essential to the operation of the library, wouldn't you agree? This week he's telling us about his recent read, an autobiography by someone who fought to get a correct diagnosis for a chronic condition. 

David Stanley is reading A Mind Unraveled by Kurt Eichenwald

A very intriguing memoir looking at the obstacles Kurt Eichenwald faced growing up with an undiagnosed case of epilepsy. Not only did he have to deal with the fact that he knew there was something wrong with him, he also had the almost insurmountable task of convincing others of what was wrong. After finally being able to count on his family for assistance he had to work with medical professionals who would rather misdiagnose than admit to not being able to help. He explores the importance of friends as allies while also realizing the tolls taken on friendships when undiagnosed epilepsy is thrown into the mix. The perseverance that is required for Eichenwald to obtain a correct diagnosis and treatment goes on for much longer than would be necessary if he had better support systems in not only the medical system about also from the academic administrators at the school which he attended. This is a fascinating autobiography of Eichenwald’s determination to live a normal life with epilepsy combined with the interactions of various people whom he sought out, not always successfully, for help.

Friday Reads: The Right Stuff

Happy Friday! We hope you're safe and well, wherever you are riding out the coronapocalypse. It takes more than a pandemic to keep us from reading, so today Adam is going to tell us about The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.

Adam Pellman is reading The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

The Right Stuff relates the story of the United States' first man-in-space program, Project Mercury, focusing on the professional and personal lives of the seven former test pilots who became our nation's first astronauts. Spanning the early years of pre-Mercury flight tests and the initial training of the astronauts, all the way up through the orbital space flights and end of the program in 1963, Wolfe's book manages to capture the inner life of these men as well as the technical details of spaceflight, all with Wolfe's characteristic humor and a surprisingly informal tone. Wolfe's writing style takes some getting used to (so many exclamation points!), but it lends itself to nonfiction just as well as it does the grand satire of his decade-defining novels The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full.

Coronavirus-- We're Going Online!

As outlined in Dr. Finger's March 16 announcement, Reeves Learning Commons will be closing for the remainder of the semester. 

What does this mean for the library?

• The library's physical spaces will be closed beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. 
• Any regular library materials that have been borrowed by students have been renewed through May 1, 2020. 
• We will no longer be providing books via interlibrary loan for the rest of the semester. We will continue to fulfill article requests, as these are done electronically. Please be aware that many other libraries around the country have also closed, so it may be more difficult for us to find a lender. We will do our best!
• Any interlibrary loan materials, reserve items, or regular library items that you have out that you need to return should be either dropped off at the Campus Police office (Admin Annex 115, across from the Greensburg Room) or returned to the library via mail (Reeves Library, 1 Seton Hill Dr., Greensburg, PA  15601). 

What IS still open?

• All of our electronic resources! Our databases, Ebook Central, our LibGuides, open access materials, our YouTube channel-- all of those resources are still at your fingertips. 
• The library staff will continue to be available via email throughout the closure-- if you have a question or need support, email one of us. Most of us will not have access to our work phones, but we may be able to call you back if you need real-time support. 

March Reading Theme: Infectious Diseases

Our Reading Theme for March is fiction featuring infectious diseases, epidemics, and pandemics. Wash your hands.

Image by Leo2014 on Pixabay

Saving the World: A Novel by Julia Alvarez

“Latina novelist Alma Huebner is suffering from writer's block and is years past the completion date for yet another of her bestselling family saga. Her husband, Richard, works for a humanitarian organization dedicated to the health and prosperity of developing countries and wants her help on an extended AIDS assignment in the Dominican Republic… Alma is seriously sidetracked by a story she has stumbled across. It's the story of a much earlier medical do-gooder, Spaniard Francisco Xavier Balmis, who in 1803 undertook to vaccinate the populations of Spain's American colonies against smallpox. To do this, he required live ‘carriers’ of the vaccine. Of greater interest to Alma is Isabel Sendales y Gómez, director of La Casa de Expósitos, who was asked to select twenty-two orphan boys to be the vaccine carriers. She agreed-- with the stipulation that she would accompany the boys on the proposed two-year voyage… This resplendent novel-within-a-novel spins the disparate tales of two remarkable women, both of whom are swept along by machismo.” -Publisher’s summary



The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

A “brilliant return to the nightmarish future first envisioned in Oryx and Crake... Contrary to expectations, the waterless flood, a biological disaster predicted by a fringe religious group, actually arrives. In its wake, the survivors must rely on their wits to get by, all the while reflecting on what went wrong.” -Library Journal review



The Ballad of Typhoid Mary by Jurg Federspiel

“For forty years she roamed New York like an angel of death.

A typhoid carrier - herself immune but lethal to her unsuspecting victims - Mary Mallon bore her disease over the thresholds and into the kitchens of the elite homes, hotels and hospitals of nineteenth century New York. Always moving on before the authorities could catch up with her, she bought death to untold thousands. Yet her only crime was her refusal to give up her sole - and deadly- source of pleasure: cooking. From the [true story of] Typhoid Mary, JF Federspiel has created this bizarre and haunting novel.” -Publisher’s summary



Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

“The overnight ER rotation at Springer Hospital suits Dr. Toby Harper just fine -- until its calm is shattered by a man Toby admits one quiet night. Delirious and in critical condition from a possible viral infection of the brain, he barely responds to treatment...and then he disappears without a trace. But before Toby can find her missing patient, a second case occurs, revealing a chilling twist: evidence of an infection that can only be spread through direct tissue exchange. Soon Toby's on a trail that winds from a pregnant sixteen-year-old prostitute to an unexpected tragedy in her own home. Only then does she discover the unthinkable: an evil, deadly design to the frightening epidemic.” -Publisher’s summary

The Horseman on the Roof by Jean Giono

“This is a novel of adventure, a ‘roman courtois,’ that tells the story of Angelo, a nobleman who has been forced to leave Italy because of a duel, and is returning to his homeland by way of Provence. But that region is in the grip of a cholera epidemic, travelers are being imprisoned behind barricades, and exposure to the disease is almost certain. Angelo's escapades, adventures, and heroic self-sacrifice in this hot, hallucinatory landscape, among corpses, criminals and rioting townspeople, share this epic tale.” -Publisher’s summary



Son of the Circus by John Irving

“An Indian-Canadian doctor returns to Bombay to seek a cure for a disease which afflicts circus dwarfs and is caught up in a serial killing of prostitutes. The action is interspersed with commentary on the lot of social misfits: prostitutes, dwarfs, himself--the doctor regarding himself a foreigner in both India and Canada.” -Publisher’s summary



The Stand by Stephen King

“A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, in a desert world, experience dreams of good and evil in confrontation and, through their choices, move toward an actual confrontation.” -Publisher’s summary



As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner

This novel “follows the story of the Bright family as they move to Philadelphia in 1918 to assume their inherited place within the family funeral business. The relocation is meant to ease the loss of Henry, their youngest member, but just as they start to navigate their grief, the Spanish flu hits the city, devastating them anew… Meissner's prose maintains a balanced tone of sorrow throughout this novel. Fans of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible and the television show Six Feet Under will enjoy.” -Library Journal review



Natural Causes by Michael Palmer

“Dr. Sarah Baldwin, an intern in a hospital in Boston, likes to treat her patients with vitamin supplements. When one patient dies and others fall sick, the question arises: Is it the vitamins or is someone trying to frame her?” -Publisher’s summary



Blindness by José Saramago

“Reminiscent of Albert Camus's The Plague, this provocative allegorical novel by noted Portuguese writer Saramago deals with a contagious ‘white’ blindness that spreads very quickly in a large city. Among a small group of people grappling with the horror and chaos, one woman has been spared; she is the reader's eyewitness. In an environment ripe with philosophical implications, only the most fundamental of human needs endures.” -Library Journal review

March DVD Spotlight: Page to Screen

For this month's new DVD display, we're taking our inspiration from Seton Hill professor Dr. Michael Arnzen, who's currently teaching a course called "Adaptation: From Print to Screen."  Through the end of March, we'll be highlighting some of the numerous literary adaptations from our DVD collection.  We've got classic and contemporary gems based on novels (There Will Be Blood, A Clockwork Orange), plays (Hamlet, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), and even comic books (American Splendor).

Featured titles include:

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

This gorgeous and inventive French telling of the classic romantic fable is pure cinematic magic, featuring incredible make-up, set design, and special effects that bring the Beast's castle to vivid life.

Jackie Brown (1997)

Quentin Tarantino's adaptation of the great Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch, about a middle-aged flight attendant caught between a gun runner and two federal agents, is at once a taut, funny crime thriller, a nuanced, character-driven romance, and an homage to the 70s-era blaxploitation films that launched the career of the film's star, Pam Grier.  It's a perfect pairing of filmmaker and source material, and makes you wish Tarantino would try his hand at adaptations more often.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

In this Oscar-winning classic, Jack Nicholson gives a towering central performance as R.P. McMurphy, a psychiatric ward patient whose rebellious nature pits him against the oppressive head nurse, Miss Ratched.

The Princess Bride (1987)
Rob Reiner's beloved adaptation of the William Goldman novel has everything: humor, pirates, sword fighting, kidnapping, torture, true love, a giant, and a killer MLT sandwich recipe.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This adaptation of a Stephen King novella, about the friendship that develops between two inmates in a Maine prison, is one of the best and most popular films of the past few decades.

Throne of Blood (1957)

The great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa adapted a number of works from western literature for his films, and Throne of Blood, a retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, may be the best of the bunch.  Set in feudal Japan, the film tells the story of a samurai lord who murders his master and usurps his power in fulfillment of a witch's prophecy.

Check one out today!

Friday Reads: Caffeine

Happy Friday! Today's Friday Reads is a Friday Listens, and this one isn't even technically a book; Kelly tells us about her recent listen, Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan.

Kelly Clever is listening to Caffeine by Michael Pollan

One of the perks of an Audible membership is that every month, they offer a few original, exclusive-to-Audible productions and you can choose two of them for free. One that caught my eye this month was the 2-hour Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan. Pollan narrates, as well, and he does a great job.

Pollan considers the physical, mental, cognitive, and emotional effects of caffeine, and he even experiments on himself by going off of it cold-turkey and reporting his experience. But in addition, he takes his listeners on a tour of how caffeine "has changed the course of human history—won and lost wars, changed politics, [and] dominated economies." It's no coincidence, he argues, that coffee and tea arrived in Western Europe at the same time that the Enlightenment and Rationalism started to take off, and he gives the molecule credit for making the Industrial Revolution and the night shift possible, as well. It's an entertaining and informative listen that gives one food for thought.

I personally just finished a cup of decaf coffee, which is what I typically drink. My husband and I both "mostly quit" caffeine year and a half ago for various health reasons, though I'll still have a cup of half-caf a few times a week. The first four days were, shall we say, ROUGH, but since then I've enjoyed not needing a hit of a drug to get to baseline functioning. Your mileage may vary!

Happy Friday! Today, Adam shares his recent read, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson.

Adam Pellman is reading The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson

This book is the second in what is called the "Liberation Trilogy," Rick Atkinson's sprawling history of the Allied effort to liberate Europe during World War II. The first book in the trilogy chronicled the war in North Africa, and this second volume details the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and the costly Allied campaign to drive the Germans north through Italy and to liberate Rome. Atkinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian, and he writes eloquently and in great detail about his subject, drawing from a wealth of primary source material that really brings the personalities and events of these military campaigns to life. This book also serves as a bracing reminder about the horrible costs of war, not just in terms of the loss of life among military personnel, but also in terms of casualties in civilian populations, and in terms of widespread destruction of property.

February DVD Spotlight: Films for Black History Month

In honor of Black History Month, Reeves Memorial Library is highlighting films about the African-American experience all through the month of February.  We've got historical films like the slave revolt legal drama Amistad (1997), and masterful documentaries on the civil rights era such as Eyes on the Prize (1987) and A Time for Justice (1994).  In addition, we're featuring notable films about African-American figures from the fields of music, education, business, and sports, as well as films directed by African-American filmmakers such as Spike Lee and Byron Hurt.

Featured titles include:

Ali (2001)
With a towering, Oscar-nominated lead performance from Will Smith, this biopic captures the intelligence, ferocity, charisma, and larger-than-life persona that made boxer Muhammad Ali "The Greatest."

Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele's acclaimed hit, about a young African-American man's nightmarish weekend visit to his white girlfriend's parents' house, is the perfect combination of slowly-escalating unease, disturbing horror, and brilliant social commentary.

Hoop Dreams (1994)
This sprawling, documentary look at the lives of two African-American boys from inner city Chicago, as they pursue their shared dream of playing professional basketball, reveals much about the American dream and the lives of America's underprivileged communities.

Malcolm X (1992)
From writer-director Spike Lee comes this dynamic and monumental telling of the life of civil rights leader Malcolm X, featuring a powerful central performance by Denzel Washington.

Satchmo (1989)
A reverent and endearing non-fiction look at the life of legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong, featuring never-before-seen home movies and nightclub footage from the 1930s.

Slavery and the Making of America (2005)
This four-part PBS program, narrated by Morgan Freeman, examines the history of slavery in the United States and the role it played in shaping the new country's development.

Check one out today!

The Research Award is Open!

The Library Research Award is accepting entries! Undergraduate work from the Spring 2019, Fall 2019, and Spring 2020 semesters are eligible for entry. Once again, we'll be awarding one $250 prize to the winning first-year or sophomore student and another $250 prize to the winning junior or senior entrant.

Check out the full instructions and requirements at https://setonhill.libguides.com/award, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Reading Theme: Mountain Getaway

In January/February, we’re heading off on a mountain getaway with our Reading Theme.

Image by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto from Pixabay

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story. (Publisher’s summary)



Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

At the end of the Civil War, a wounded soldier walks home to his prewar sweetheart, and finds her struggling to rebuild her father's farm with the help of a young woman determined to teach the former Charleston belle the practicalities and harsh realities of surviving in the mountains of western North Carolina. (Publisher’s summary)



Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden

High in the Himalayas near Darjeeling, the old mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. When it was the General's 'harem' palace, richly dressed ladies wandered the windswept terraces; at night, music floated out over the villages and gorges. Now, the General's son has bestowed it on an order of nuns, the Sisters of Mary.

Well-intentioned yet misguided, the nuns set about taming the gardens and opening a school and dispensary for the villagers. They are dependent on the local English agent of Empire, Mr Dean; but his charm and insolent candour are disconcerting. And the implacable emptiness of the mountain, the ceaseless winds, exact a toll on the Sisters.When Mr Dean says bluntly, 'This is no place for a nunnery,' it is as if he foresees their destiny... (Publisher’s summary)



The White Rocks: or, The Robbers’ Den: A Tragedy of the Mountains by A.F. Hill

A fictionalized account of an actual murder case in Fayette County in the 1850's.



Lost Horizon by James Hilton

A planeload of foreigners fleeing war-worn China find themselves in an idyllic valley in the Himalayas where time has virtually stopped. (Publisher’s summary)




A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

A twenty-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend, and casually appropriates the image for an insurance company's advertisement. What he doesn't realize is that included in the pastoral scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man in black who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences. Thus begins a surreal and elaborate quest that takes our hero from the urban haunts of Tokyo to the remote and snowy mountains of northern Japan, where he confronts not only the mythological sheep, but the confines of tradition and the demons deep within himself. (Publisher’s summary)




The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision by James Redfield

In this exciting sequel [to The Celestine Prophecy], Charlene, the friend who first brought word that an ancient manuscript had been found in Peru, has suddenly disappeared while exploring an old-growth forest deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Here, in this rich setting of cathedral forests, wooded streams, and majestic waterfalls, your adventure in search of the Tenth Insight begins. (Publisher’s summary)




Obstruction of Justice by Perri O’Shaughnessy

Two people have died in Lake Tahoe in shocking accidents. In a nearly empty parking lot, a hit-and-run driver kills probation officer Anna Meade Hallowell. High up on a jagged mountain, wife abuser Ray de Beers gets what he deserves: he's struck by lightning. Attorney Nina Reilly, hiking on a rare day off from her one-woman law practice, sees him die. So does her date, Tahoe deputy DA Collier Hallowell. Still shaken from his wife's violent death, Hallowell is hit hard by the accident. It's a bad end to a first date... and the start of a case that will test Nina's ethics and her heart. (Publisher’s summary)




The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley, the Pultizer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres, gives us a magnificent novel of fourteenth-century Greenland. Rich with fascinating detail about the day-to-day joys and innumerable hardships of remarkable people, The Greenlanders is also the compelling story of one family--proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Echoing the simple power of the old Norse sagas, here is a novel that brings a remote civilization to life and shows how it was very like our own. (Newsday review)




The City and the Mountains by Eça de Queriós

Born in Paris, Jacinto is the heir to a vast estate in Portugal which he has never visited. He mixes with the creme de la creme of Paris society, but is monumentally bored. And then he receives a letter from his estate manager saying that they plan to move the bones of his ancestors to the newly renovated chapel—would he like to be there? With great trepidation, Jacinto sets off with his best friend, the narrator, on the mammoth train journey through France and Spain to Portugal. What they discover in the simple country life will upend their own lives deliciously… (Publisher’s summary)