Fall Newsletter

As we prepare to kick off the Fall 2025 semester, here is the latest edition of the Library Newsletter. Have a great weekend, and see you on Monday!

 

Friday Reads: The Baseball 100

Happy Friday! My husband tells me (Kelly) that the Pirates have probably been "mathematically eliminated from the playoffs until 2029," but Library Director Adam Pellman has happier baseball topics to discuss today as he tells us about The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski. 

 

I used to read a lot of sports history books as a kid, especially books about baseball. I had a massive baseball encyclopedia that I pored over endlessly, and I even used it to teach myself how to keep score (although I've forgotten after so many years). This book has rekindled my interest in baseball's long and storied history. Posnanski selected those players he feels are the 100 greatest ever, and has devoted a chapter to each of them. This is no easy task, for sure, but Posnanski has managed it in dazzling fashion.

He is a tremendous writer. I appreciate the attention he gives to players from the Negro Leagues, and even to international players like the famous Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh. What makes this book truly great, though, is the way he goes beyond the statistics and standard biography to delve into the personalities, anecdotes, legends, and sometimes intangible qualities that have made these players such enduring figures in the sport's history. For example, there's the legend about famously swift-footed Negro Leagues player Cool Papa Bell, about whom it was said that he was "so fast that he could hit a line drive up the middle and beat the ball to second base." Or the way Posnanski frames his chapter on Ty Cobb by writing that Cobb "works best as an extreme. That is to say, he seems of little use to us if he wasn't the BIGGEST RACIST IN BASEBALL HISTORY or THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD MAN EVER TO WEAR BASEBALL SPIKES." Or the way he celebrates Stan Musial as not just one of the greatest hitters of all time, but also as a profoundly good man who was devoted to making people happy. I also love that Posnanski included childhood favorites of mine like Larry Walker and Mike Mussina. It's a long book (well over 800 pages), and I've enjoyed reading it so much that I've paced myself in order to make it last as long as possible. I'll be genuinely sad when I've finished it.

Friday Reads: Back to Blood

Back to Friday Reads and Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe! Library Director Adam Pellman tells us about his current summer read. 

 

 

Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities is considered by many to be the quintessential American novel of the 1980s, a big, sprawling NYC-set satire that sets its sights on the decade's materialism and excess, not to mention that city's racial and ethnic tensions. He tried to write another decade-defining novel in the 1990s with A Man in Full, another big, sprawling story about the foibles of a wealthy man. I thought both of those books were great, so I've decided belatedly to tackle Wolfe's novel of the 2010s, Back to Blood. It has many of the same hallmarks from his earlier novels (the satirical tone, the big cast of broadly-written characters, the thematic preoccupations with class, power, money, race, politics, and the press), but in this case, he's swapped Bonfire's NYC melting pot for the sun-baked, multicultural metropolis of Miami, Florida.

While the main character of Back to Blood is Cuban American Miami police officer Nestor Camacho, who ends up in hot water with both the Cuban and African American communities after two high-profile incidents on the job, Wolfe devotes plenty of attention to the many other characters who populate his story: WASP journalists; Cuban politicians; cops; Russian oligarchs; a Haitian college professor and his two children; and a fame-hungry psychiatrist and his Latina nurse, who also happens to be Nestor's ex-girlfriend. So far, it's highly entertaining, even if it doesn't quite reach the same heights as Bonfire.

"Work With Me" Pomodoro Sessions

 

New this summer, the library will be hosting several "Work With Me" Pomodoro-style Zoom sessions to help us all get things done! All SHU faculty, staff, and students are welcome. 

Block off the time on your calendar and bring a to-do list or a project that needs some focused work. We'll combine the proven Pomodoro technique with positive peer pressure to help us all reach our summer goals. Full details and the scheduled dates (subject to change) are available here.

Summer 2025 Newsletter

 The Library newsletter for Summer 2025 is live now!

 

Summer Hours

 

We made it to summer!

Regular summer hours for 2025:

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

Saturday & Sunday: CLOSED 

Exception dates (subject to change; please see the library's homepage for the most current list):

May 20                                       8:00am - 1:00pm

May 23                                       CLOSED

May 26                                       CLOSED

June 19                                      CLOSED

July 4                                         CLOSED

August 18                                  CLOSED

August 19                                  CLOSED

Finals Week Hours

 

It's finals week!

We're open:

8:00-9:50 Monday
8:00-7:50 Tuesday-Thursday as our student aides wrap up their semesters and head home
8:00-4:50 Friday
CLOSED Sat & Sun for Commencement

NOTE: This is the Library rooms, NOT the Learning Commons.

Good luck to all! We're cheering for you!

It's National Library Week!

 

April 6th - 12th, 2025, is National Library Week! We're going to be busy and celebrating all week long. Here's a partial schedule of what to expect (you won't want to miss our zine-making workshop on Wednesday evening!). And make sure to participate on social media by following us on Instagram, BlueSky, and Facebook.

National Library Week Events:

Monday-Friday, all day: Daily themed displays, bookmark giveaways, and a new collaborative sticker mosaic poster project (by the Library desk on the main level of the Learning Commons)

Monday (Right to Read Day): ALA releases the State of America's Libraries report and the Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books of 2024, which we’ll share by our main desk and on our social media

Tuesday (National Library Workers Day): Library Aide appreciation day - thank a student Library worker

Wednesday (National Library Outreach Day): Zine-making workshop from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. in Reeves 112. This is a drop-in event, so don't worry if you'll be a little late! RSVPs on SHINE are available, but are not required to attend: https://setonhill.campuslabs.com/engage/event/11216378

Thursday (Take Action for Libraries Day): We'll be sharing how you can help your libraries (Reeves, and also our public library partners) with actions as easy as checking out a book on a topic that interests you

Friday: We'll officially announce the two winners of the annual Reeves Library Research Award

Friday Reads: Bring Up the Bodies

Can one ever have too many retellings of Tudor drama? Of course not. This week Library Director Adam Pellman tells us about Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel's take on how Thomas Cromwell worked to seal the fate of Anne Boleyn.

This is the second book in a trilogy of historical novels about the reign and successive marriages of King Henry VIII, centered on Henry's brilliant, ambitious, and savvy advisor, Master Secretary Thomas Cromwell. These characters, and this period in English history, have been the subject of countless novels, films, and plays, but it's hard to imagine they've ever been so richly imagined as in Hilary Mantel's books. The characterization, descriptive prose, and dialogue are all so beautifully executed (if you'll pardon my use of that term given the unfortunate fate of King Henry's wife in this novel, Anne Boleyn), that Tudor history and the inner life of Cromwell come to gripping, vivid life. The first novel in the trilogy, the prize-winning Wolf Hall, charted Cromwell's rise against the backdrop of King Henry's ongoing battle to end his marriage to his first wife, Katherine, and marry the young Anne Boleyn. In this sequel, Henry has become disillusioned with Anne after her failure to bear him a son, and growing gossip about her possible adultery and treason. Cromwell must navigate the complexities of power, politics, religion, family, morality, and his own precarious position as he works to bring about Anne's downfall.

Friday Reads: The Last Dragon

Just in time for Valentine’s day, a romance for the ages…with dragons. Our Metadata and E-Resources Librarian, Kathy Tobolewski, tells us about her recent read, The Last Dragon of the East by Katrina Kwan.

I’ve been long fascinated by tales of dragons. Especially dragons that are not as they
seem. From the Jay William’s picture book “Everyone knows what a dragon looks like”
that surely my mother must have been sick to death of reading to me, to more current
books such as One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey and dragons in the Napoleonic
wars with Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, I’ve always been drawn to books where the
dragons serve as main characters. Most recently I found a review of The Last Dragon of
the East by Katrina Kwan and decided to give it a try.

Sai can see the magic red thread of soul mates for everyone but himself. The threads
of fate to his mate are gray and frayed in a way he has not seen with anyone else. He
makes matches and lives a quiet life with his mother while running their failing tea
house as endless war ravages the land. His search for a cure to heal his ailing mother
lands him in trouble with the emperor when dragon scales as medicine are found in his
possession. From there he is sent on a quest to hunt and kill the last dragon.

Along the way, he encounters Jyn and discovers that she is his soul mate. But Jyn is
not what she seems and is wary of him and his desire to know her and be with her.
What do you do when your soul mate may be a dragon? Why is she so unwilling to give
him a chance? Why is the emperor so determined to kill the last dragon in a relentless
and vicious hunt? How can two lovers really rebuild trust when thousands of years of
sorrow and dark forces have taken a toll on Jyn and her longing for her soul mate? Will
Jyn and Sai be able to overcome the past and find true love again?

Kwan combines love magic with the Asian dragon lore to create a sweeping romance.
Her lyrical prose and dialogue add to the feel of the tale as it kept me up long past my
bedtime. If you are looking for a dragon romance that is different from the standard
romantasy epic give this one a try.

Available in print from the Westmoreland County Libraries.

Spring semester hours

 

Back to semester hours!

Monday - Thursday: 8:00 a.m. - 9:50 p.m. 

Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 4:50 p.m. 

Saturday: 9:00 a.m. - 4:50 p.m. 

Sunday: 1:00 p.m. - 9:50 p.m. 

NOTE: These hours apply only to Reeves Memorial Library -- i.e., our office & the rooms with the books! Other departments in Reeves Hall set their own hours.

"Spring" Library Newsletter!

 

Brrrr! Happy Friday! Make a cup of something warm to drink and read the latest Library newsletter. 

In This Issue:

• Welcome Our New Librarian!
• Sage Premier Database
• Kelly Clever Presents at Celebration of Scholarship
• Library Research Award
• Reframing the Institutional Saga

J-Term Hours

 

Happy New Year! The library's hours of operation for the remainder of J-Term (through January 20th) are 8:00 a.m. - 4:50 p.m., Monday through Friday. We will be closed on January 15th for the Winter Workshop and on January 20th for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.