February 2017 US Library Newsletter

February 2017 Issue

US Sawiris Library

Click here to view the full newsletter in your browser.

"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that

of an ignorant nation - Walter Cronkite

It is with great emotion that we said farewell to our dear Building 5 during the December break. In its wake, a beautiful new Arts Link will see the day in the coming months. (View from the new library.)

Below are some candid pictures taken in the library... More to come.

Let us know your comments and suggestions about the the library, its services and programming.

Until next month!

Mario Chioini

US Librarian

NEW ADDITIONS

The small e icon preceeding a call number indicates the item is an electronic book (e-book).

FICTION

F BAR

Bardugo, Leigh. Shadow and bone. New York : Square Fish, c2013.

Orphaned by the Border Wars, Alina Starkov is taken from obscurity and her only friend, Mal, to become the protegé of the mysterious Darkling, who trains her to join the magical elite in the belief that she is the Sun Summoner, who can destroy the monsters of the Fold.
I'm a new Text block ready for your content.

F FER

Ferrante, Elena. My brilliant friend. New York : Europa Editions, 2012, c2011.

In nineteen fifties Italy, Elena and Lila learn to rely on each other as they are growing up in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, but their beautiful friendship is not always a shelter from hardship.

F FER

Ferrante, Elena. Story of a new name. New York, N.Y. : Europa Editions, 2013, c2012.

Lila and Elena are now in their twenties. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila. Meanwhile, Elena continues her journey of self-discovery. The two young women share a complex and evolving bond that brings them close at times, and drives them apart at others.

F FER

Ferrante, Elena. Those who leave and those who stay. New York, NY : Europa Editions, 2014, c2013.

Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her husband and the comforts of her marriage brought and now works as a common laborer. Elena has left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons. Both women are pushing against the walls of a prison that would have seen them living a life of mystery, ignorance and submission.

F FER

Ferrante, Elena. The story of the lost child. New York, N.Y. : Europa Editions, 2015, c2014.

Bookish Elena and fiery Lila, now adults with husbands, lovers, children, and aging parents, find new facets in their friendship revealed as they drift apart, reconcile, disagree, and try to figure out life in Naples, Italy.

e E F LAW

Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930. Sons and lovers. New York : Bantam, 1985, 1913.

The story of the emotional crises of Paul Morel, a painter growing to manhood in the Nottingham coalfields. He is caught in a conflict between his possessive mother of middle class aspirations and the love of two young, beautiful women.

F RUB

Ruby, Laura. Bone Gap. 1st ed. New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, c2015.

Eighteen-year-old Finn, an outsider in his quiet Midwestern town, is the only witness to the abduction of town favorite Roza, but his inability to distinguish between faces makes it difficult for him to help with the investigation, and subjects him to even more ridicule and bullying.

FR GRE (sf)

Grevet, Yves. U4. Koridwen.

FR HIN (sf)

Hinckel, Florence. U4. Yannis.

FR TRE (sf)

Trébor, Carole. U4. Jules.

FR VIL (sf)

Villemot, Vincent. U4. Stéphane.

Paris, France : Syros Nathan, c2015.

A series of four books telling a story from four different points of view by four different authors. The plot takes place in France, right after a virus (U4) killed everybody except 10% of the population, the only survivors being teenagers between the age of 15 to 18 years old and a few adults.

NON FICTION

303.48 FRI

Friedman, Thomas L. Thank you for being late : an optimist's guide to thriving in the age of accelerations. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c2016.

A work of contemporary history that serves as a field manual for how to write and think about this era of accelerations. It's also an argument for 'being late' for pausing to appreciate this amazing historical epoch we're passing through and to reflect on its possibilities and dangers.

741.5 MAR (Fr)

Alix Senator : Les aigles de sang & Le dernier pharaon. Text by Valérie Mangin ; illustrated by Thierry Demarez based upon the series created by Jacques Martin. Paris, France : Casterman, c2012.

First two volumes of the sequel to the original French-Belgian comic series created by Jacques Martin in 1948. The title character is a young Gaul from the 1st century BCE who, after being captured and enslaved, is adopted by a rich Roman and becomes a Roman citizen himself. This new adventure takes place several years later after the end of the first series, with Julius Caesar long dead and Alix now a Roman Senator.

791.43 JEW

Jewell, Richard B. The golden age of cinema : Hollywood, 1929-1945. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., c2007.

Examines American film between 1929 and 1945, offering insight into the economics, technology, censorship, style, genres, actors and actresses, and history of Hollywood.

940.53 MAR

Marrus, Michael Robert. Lessons of the Holocaust. Toronto, Canada : University of Toronto Press, c2016.

Lessons of the Holocaust is the perfect guide for the general reader to the historical and moral controversies which infuse the interpretation of the Holocaust and its significance.

DVDs

DVD F DAL

Dallas Buyers Club. French ed. Boulogne-Billancourt : TF1 Video, 2014, c2013. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée.

Story of Ron Woodroof, a Texas electrician who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, and who subsequently devoted his life to providing fellow HIV patients with non-FDA-approved drugs and supplements during an era when doctors were still struggling to understand the devastating disease.

DVD F GLA

Gladiator. French ed. Paris, France : Universal Pictures Video, 2010, c2000. Directed by Ridley Scott.

When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.

DVD F LE

The great dictator = Le dictateur. French ed. Paris, France : MK2, 2010, c1940. Directed by Charlie Chaplin.

A kind Jewish barber who looks exactly like Adenoid Hynkel, the Hitler-like dictator of Tomania, recovers from amnesia to discover that Hynkel is persecuting the Jews.

DVD F NO

No country for old men. French ed. Paramount Vantage :, c2007. Directed by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen.

When Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon a group of murdered men, a stash of heroin, and more than two million in cash, he makes a rash decision and takes the money, which soon puts himself and his young wife in danger as they are hunted by an assassin hired by the drug lord to retrieve the money.

DVD F SHU

Shutter island. Paramount Pictures, c2010. Directed by Martin Scorsese.

When U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels arrives at the asylum for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, what starts as a routine investigation quickly takes a sinister turn. As the investigation unfolds and Daniels uncovers more shocking and terrifying truths about the island, he learns there are some places that never let you go.

BOOK HIGHLIGHT

Title: Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America 

Author: Bradford W. Wright 

Pages: 344 

Call number: 741.5 WRI

"Mine is not an aesthetic history of comic books. Because I am concerned primarily with comic books as a cultural representation, not as an art form." (from the Introduction)

Spanning from the 30s up to the 9-11 events Comic Book Nation not only explains the exciting birth and evolution of the comic book industry but also provides an unusual historical lens to revisit American history.

Chapters like Reds, Romance, and Renegades, 1947-1954, and Questioning Authority, 1968-1979 show great examples of how comic books were often challenged for their violent, sexy and political content when they were not used themselves as a vehicle for propaganda by the those in power. The B&W illustrations are a wonderful addition to the text to help support Wright's arguments. And we are talking about graphic art, after all.

For Wright the future of the comic book industry continues to show promises. Consider the popularity of the numerous comic books conventions held in the US, blockbuster movies like Batman, Spiderman, The X-Men and a revival of interest in the print comic book-graphic novel industry.

Comic Book Nation is a serious, informative and fun book to read. Wright shows a deep understanding of his subject, backed by extensive endnotes, has a clear writing style and an obvious love for the 9th art.

There is a short article in the November issue of Psychology Review entitled "Are superheroes saving the world, or ruining it?" While the author's conclusions are not alarming, the article provides food for thought and is a nice addendum to Comic Book Nation.

In times like ours, superheroes may not be superfluous.

Comic Book Nation published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

A Family Connection:

Bradford Thomas Wright, the author's father, taught Social Studies for several years at ASP. Nowadays, his brother and ASP alumnus Dylan Wright works as a substitute teacher at the school.

Mario Chioini

US Librarian