Black History Month 2021

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Black History Month, books

February is Black History Month. It dates back to 1926 when it was known as Negro History Week. In 1976, it was called African American History Month and was expanded to a month when President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” Since then, every American president has issued African American History Month proclamations.

These two links offer more information on the history and some current online events related to Black History Month.

Black History Month from History.com

African American History Month from African American History Month.gov                

I will post a couple times this month highlighting books in the library collection.  This first post is fiction by black authors, including newer titles (from the past 5-6 years) and then some classic titles. In a later post, I will highlight nonfiction titles relevant to black history and current racial and social justice issues.

Click the title for a catalog link for more information and to see if the book is currently available for checkout.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, Call Number: Popular Books BEN. Also by Brit Bennet – The Mothers Call Number: Popular Books BEN

Queenie by Candace Carty-Williams, Call Number: Popular Books CAR

The Water Dancer: A Novel by Ta-Nahisi Coates, Call Number: Popular Books COA

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, Call Number: Popular Books GYA.  Also by Yaa Gyasi – Homegoing Call Number: 813.6 G996h

Deacon King Kong by James McBride, Call Number: Popular Books MCB

Such a Fun Age: A Novel by Kiley Reid, Call Number: Iowa City Campus Popular Books REI

The Hate you Give by Angie Thomas, Call Number: Popular Books THO. Also by Angie Thomas – On the Come Up Call Number: Popular Books THO

The Nickel Boys: A Novel by Colson Whitehead, Call Number: Popular Books WHI. Also by Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad: A Novel, Call Number: Popular Books WHI

American Spy: A Novel by Lauren Wilkinson, Call Number: Popular Books WIL

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson, Call Number: Popular Books WOO

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper, Call Number Children’s Literature 813.6 D766s

An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones, Call Number 813.6 J793a

Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel by Jesmyn Ward, Call Number 813.6 W259si

Classic Fiction

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, Call Number: 813.54 B181i

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Call Number: 813.54 E47i

Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Call Number: 813.52 H966t

The Bluest Eye: A Novel by Toni Morrison, Call Number: 813.54 M882b 2007

The Color Purple: A Novel by Alice Walker, Call Number: 813.54 W177c

Spooky Season Reading

Tags

books, seasonal reading, spooky

It’s that time of year. If you like creepy… spooky… horror… we’ve got something for you. I’ve included a few short story collections, some true crime, and other non-fiction titles.

I’ve scoured our collection and created a list of Creepy, Scary, Horror Books you can scan through to see if anything jumps out at you (Boo!). Click on any title to get more information about the book.

Here’s just a sampling of titles from that list.

The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

The Cabin at the End of the World – Paul Tremblay

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

The Turn of the Key – Ruth Ware

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

The Turn of the Screw – Henry James

A very young woman’s first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate…An estate haunted by a beckoning evil. Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls…

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders – Vincent Bugliosi

Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider’s position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime. 50 pages of b/w photographs.

The Phantom Coach : A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories – Michael Sims

Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity’s oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising, often legendary cast, from Charles Dickens and Margaret Oliphant to Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W.F. Harvey. Amelia Edwards’ chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce (“The Moonlit Road”), Elizabeth Gaskell, (“The Old Nurse’s Story”) and W. W. Jacobs (“The Monkey’s Paw”) will turn you white as a sheet.

Pet Sematary – Stephen King

When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son-and now an idyllic home. As a family, they’ve got it all…right down to the friendly cat. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth-more terrifying than death itself-and hideously more powerful. The Creeds are going to learn that sometimes dead is better.

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley’s seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster. This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley’s original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice.

Anti-Racism: Learning to Confront Bigotry

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books, Kirkwood Community College Library, Kirkwood Library Services, reference, research

In the days since May 25, when a white police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests and passionate conversations have focused our attention on racial prejudice. As the following books help us to see, this bigotry has been a disease in American society since its origins. Perhaps with continued study we can understand more fully why racial injustice has remained so intractable, and our conversations could, we hope, carry us closer to a time when we might finally begin to grow past it.

The books listed below are available through the Kirkwood Library in eBook format, so our Kirkwood community of students, faculty, and staff can read these even while the campus library locations are closed due to the pandemic. This is just a small sample of the materials in our collection to aid in the study of anti-racism; we encourage you to seek out additional book titles and articles using our catalog search at www.kirkwood.edu/library. When the campus reopens, our print books will be available as well (a few important print titles in our collection are listed at the end of this post).

Because our current crisis has as its focus the oppression of African Americans, the books listed here tend to focus on the black experience in America; of course oppression takes on many forms, and additional materials are available that address discrimination against other groups and in global contexts.

We are also offering an Anti-Racism libguide (research study guide) with further recommendations for study of racial injustice from our library databases and internet sources, plus a few notes on developing news, that can be viewed at guides.kirkwood.edu/ under “Anti-Racism.”

Note: Because Kirkwood buildings, including the library locations in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, are currently closed due to the pandemic, the following are eBooks that can be read online by the Kirkwood community. The links will take you directly to those. Below it are print books in our library collection that will be available as the campus begins to open.

eBooks:

Antiracism, Inc.: Why the Way We Talk About Racial Justice Matters by Felice Blake. Punctum Books, 2019.

Art for Equality: The NAACP’s Cultural Campaign for Civil Rights by Jenny Woodley. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. Ballantine Books, 2015. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library Popular Books HAL; Main Library 320.5 L778a 2015

Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and Anti-Racist Reading by Kimberly Chabot Davis. University of Illinois Press, 2014.

Black Marxism by Cedric J. Robinson. University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. 1970; Vintage International, 2007. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library OR Main Library 813.54 M882b 2007

Crisis Music: The Cultural Politics of Rock Against Racism by Ian Goodyear. Manchester University Press, 2009.

The End of American Lynching by Ashraf H.A. Rushdy. Rutgers University Press, 2012.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. 1963; Vintage International, 1993. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library 305.896 B181f

Long Past Slavery by Catherine A. Stewart. University of North Carolina Press, 2016. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library 305.896 S849L

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. New Press, 2011. Also in print format, Call Number: Main Library 364.973 A377n

Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe by Alana Lentin. Pluto Press, 2004.

Rethinking Racism: Emotion, Persuasion, and Literacy Education in an All-American White High School by Jennifer Seibel Trainor. Southern Illinois University Press, 2008.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Crossing Press, 2007. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library 814.54 L867s

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. 1937; Perennial Classics, 1998. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library OR Main Library 813.52 H966t 1998

 

Print Books

links are to the Kirkwood Library catalog. We are also acquiring eBook versions of some of these titles:

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble. New York University Press, 2018. Call Number: Main Library 025.042 N752a

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Spiegel and Grau, 2015. Call Number: Iowa City Library OR Main Library 305.896 S982b

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. Graywolf Press, 2014. Call Number: Main Library 811.6 R211c

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. One World, 2019. Call number: Main Library 305.8 K335h

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, Jr. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. Call Number: Main Library 364.973 F724L

Racism Without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. 4^th edition. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2014. Call Number: Main Library 305.8 B715r

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Seal Press, 2018. Call Number: Main Library 305.8 O529s

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. Beacon Press, 2018. Call Number: Main Library 305.8 D538w

What To Read Over Break 2018

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books, New Books, Recommendations

In what has become an annual holiday tradition, we offer once again a list of suggestions of what to read over break this year from Kirkwood Library Services. Find lists from previous years, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Some books have a copy at both Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, others are only at one or the other. A few we don’t own copies of, but you should be able to find them at a local public library. Check with a librarian if you have questions and remember you can get most Kirkwood library books delivered to you at any of the centers.

Between semesters is a golden time to do what you don’t have time for during the regular semester, read something that YOU pick! Stumped over what that should be? Check out our selections below.

This year I want to recommend a classic. I read my first novel by Rex Stout because I was reading a P.G. Wodehouse story that had a character rave about him. I thought, “If Wodehouse thinks he’s good, he must be” and I was right. Stout’s books focus on the character of Nero Wolfe the world’s largest, most eccentric, and greatest detective. His version of John Watson is Archie Goodwin as quick with his brain as with his fists. Wolfe seldom likes to leave the house so he often sends out Archie to act in accordance of “his intelligence guided by his experience.” Wonderful puzzles and plots and magnificent dialogue make all the Nero Wolfe books a pleasure. I limit myself to not reading them often because I hope when I meet that awful day when I reach the end of all he’s written I’ll have let enough time pass so that I will have forgotten enough detail that I can start all over. Most recently I read Might as Well Be Dead, but really you can’t go wrong with any title and I don’t read them in order. The first in the series is Fer-de-Lance.
– Sarah Uthoff, Reference Librarian

My recommendation this year is the cookbook BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts by Stella Parks (Call Number: 641.86 P252b). For starters, the recipes are delicious. The super fudgy brownies were my favorite, but the red (wine) velvet cake was also a winner for its deep chocolate flavor. Furthermore, Stella highlights the history of iconic treats both store bought and homemade. Did you know that a group of bakers rioted at a speech given by the creator of the graham cracker? I didn’t – until I read this book.
– Sarah Young, Office Manager

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (Call Number: PB HAN) is historical fiction about two sisters living in France during World War II. This is the story of the two very different sisters and what they each did to survive and to make it through the war. Vianne is raising a child on her own and is forced to take a German soldier into her home, and her younger sister Isabelle joins the Resistance. If you’re like me, you’ll want to have a box of tissues handy.
– Julie Petersen, Reference Librarian

The Changeling by Victor LaValle begins as the story of a young couple having their first baby and all the usual struggles that ensue, which would be quite enough for anyone. So when an evil element enters into the story we see just how deeply the characters have to dig to survive. Great character development and a non-stop story line make this book an outstanding read. And I’m not alone in my excitement! Winner of (so far) three awards: The American Book Award, The World Fantasy Award, The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel.
– Kate Hess, Iowa City Library Coordinator

I recommend Survivor’s Club by Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. It tells the story of what happened to one Polish village in the wake of the German invasion in 1939. The author earned a Ph.D.  from U of I.
– Barbara Oldenburg, Circulation

Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland by Dan Barry (Call Number: 362.3 B279b) is the heartbreaking, outrage-producing, yet somewhat hopeful true story that took place right here in Iowa, in the small town of Atalissa.  A group of developmentally disabled men were brought to Iowa from Texas in 1974 to work the worst possible jobs in a turkey processing plant. They earned $65 a month (they never got a raise), and worked and lived in increasing deplorable and increasingly abusive conditions until 2009.  Finally, their plight was brought to the attention of the right people and a massive effort was made to remove the men and get them the medical attention and living conditions they needed and deserved.  This was the All Iowa Reads selection for 2018.
– Julie Petersen, Reference Librarian

The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein (Call Number: 741.5 S587r) -From the Publisher: “Growing up in suburban Detroit, David Hahn was fascinated by science, and his basement experiments were far more ambitious than those of other boys. While working on his Atomic Energy merit badge for the Boy Scouts, David’s obsessive attention turned to nuclear energy. Throwing caution to the wind, he plunged into a new project: building a model nuclear breeder reactor in his backyard garden shed. Ken Silverstein re-creates in brilliant detail the months of David’s improbable nuclear quest. His unsanctioned and wholly unsupervised project finally sparked an environmental catastrophe that put his town’s forty thousand residents at risk and caused the EPA to shut down his lab and bury it at a radioactive dumpsite in Utah​.”
-Andres Mauricio Calvopina, Circulation

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The Road Back to You:  An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile. I like it because it helped me understand my own personality type and why I work well or not with others.
– Shelley Schultz, Technical Services

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Ice by Anna Kavan – From WorldCat: “In this haunting and surreal novel, the narrator and a man known as the warden search for an elusive girl in a frozen, seemingly post-nuclear, apocalyptic landscape. The country has been invaded and is being governed by a secret organisation [sic]. There is destruction everywhere; great walls of ice overrun the world. Together with the narrator, the reader is swept into a hallucinatory quest for this strange and fragile creature with albino hair. She is, we know, Anna Kavan herself. Acclaimed by Brian Aldiss on its publication in 1967 as the best science fiction book of the year, this extraordinary and innovative novel has subsequently been recognised [sic] as a major work of literature in its own right.”
– Ryan Strempke-Durgin,  Digital Services Librarian

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Small Great Things is another Jodi Picoult (Call Number: PB PIC) contemporary novel inspired by real events. In the book, Ruth Jefferson, an African American labor and delivery nurse is barred from tending to a newborn baby by the baby’s white supremacist parents. The baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is on duty and briefly alone with him in the nursery. What should she do? What will happen to her as a result of what she does or does not do?  As with most of this author’s books, this will give you a lot to think about.
– Julie Petersen, Reference Librarian

I would like to recommend the memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi (Call Number: 616.99 K141w). This inspirational book was not only on the New York Times bestseller list, but also was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2016. Paul, who died at the age of 36 from lung cancer, had just become a neurosurgeon at Stanford University, as well as a young father, when diagnosed. This book describes his journey towards death. Is it sad? Yes, of course. In many ways, it is heartbreaking, but it will also touch you with its beauty and strength. As the author faces his own mortality, he ultimately comes to grips with the question of what makes a life worth living.​
– Sue Miller, Reference Librarian

I recommend The Diary by Eileen Goudge. This is a romance journey discovered by two grown daughters from their mother’s diary.
– Barbara Oldenburg, Circulation

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Study Says Millennials Like Books

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books, Libraries Obsolete, Millennials, NPR, Pew Research Center, Reading

This article is from a few years back, but I think this summer is an excellent time to catch up on it.

Libraries Are Always Being Told We’re Obsolete

Usually librarians are constantly being asked to comment or being told that libraries are worthless now that there is the internet. However, as the recent push back against Forbes and their opinion piece that Amazon would do it better than libraries has shown, libraries actually are very busy places offering all kinds of services and they are being appreciated.

But We’re NOT

From the interview linked to below:

“According to a new Pew Research Center report, those under 30 were more likely to have read a book in the last year than those over the age of 30. And they’re more likely to use the library as well.”

So this is very good news that Millennials and the up and coming generations appreciate libraries more than their direct elders. Take the tip and stop by our libraries here at Kirkwood or your local public library today!

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/14/348412114/millennial-generation-likes-old-fashioned-technology-books

Follow Ups

On-going surveys have continued to support these findings.

From 2017:
Millennials are the most likely generation of Americans to use public libraries

From 2018:
People Prefer Print Books

Who doesn’t read books?

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Books & Authors – New Database

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authors, books, New Books

Earlier this year, the State Library of Iowa put out a call for bids on behalf of all public and academic libraries in Iowa for a package of databases to get us the best value for good, usable products, and to enhance vendor competition in our State. As of July 1, 2017, libraries in Iowa started offering the winning package of databases to our users and citizens of the state.

One of the many new products offered is called Books & Authors.

Books & Authors offers new ways to explore the endless possibilities and combinations of books, authors, genres and topics. Combining over 140,000 titles, 50,000 authors, and thousands of read-alike, award winner and librarian’s favorites lists, Books & Authors helps bring readers and literature together.

Through the use of expertly written and arranged content and a dynamic, cutting edge user interface, Books & Authors makes exploration of genre fiction and essential non-fiction fun! By leveraging their entire award-winning What Do I Read Next? collection, patrons and students alike can be sure that their next big read comes with a BIG recommendation.

If you’re a Kirkwood student or employee, you can get to this great new product by clicking on this Books & Authors link and if you use another Iowa library, check out their website to find the link.

A quick guide to eBooks at Kirkwood

Tags

books, Ebooks

An extraordinary thing happened here at Kirkwood last year, and with little fanfare. Very quietly, practically overnight, the number of books available to Kirkwood students, staff and faculty very nearly TRIPLED! How could this be? Through the Library’s subscription to a collection of ebooks numbering over 100,000 titles. Have you made use of this ebook collection yet? If not, here’s what you need to know about EBSCOhost eBooks:

• Ebooks are available any time, on almost any computer or other device with an internet connection and some kind of browser
• Although whole books may not be saved or printed, sections of books can be saved and printed as PDF documents
• Ebooks may be downloaded for offline reading to computers, mobile devices and ebook readers. This often requires the download of Adobe Digital Editions, so is easier done through your personal computer
• Ebooks may be searched through WorldCat, or directly through EBSCOhost eBooks

When it comes to downloading, there are lots of “if’s” and “but’s”! Rest assured your librarians have created a site to guide you through the most common considerations. And when in doubt, just ask a librarian!

World Read Aloud Day comes to Kirkwood

Tags

books, world read aoud day

World Read Aloud Day takes place on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Kirkwood is participating by holding a read-aloud-athon from 11 am – 1 pm in the area outside The Cafe in Iowa Hall. Get the flyer here.

Why read aloud to college students, you might ask? Isn’t reading out loud just for kids?

1. There are “hidden benefits” to reading aloud regardless of age – including exposure to new ideas, discovery of new ways of thinking, an appreciation for language, cultural awareness, and an opportunity to just immerse yourself in the joy of one of the oldest means of human knowledge transmission – stories spoken out loud.
2. Many Kirkwood students are parents themselves – or may be some day. We all benefit from reminders of the importance of reading children, our own or those of others.
3. Why not celebrate the gift of literacy? After all, reading out loud is fun. Living in a first world country, we forget that literacy is, for many, not a right but a privilege.  litworld.org, who attribute this fact to UNESCO,  say that  “According to the latest data (2009), 793 million adults – two thirds of them women – lack basic reading and writing skills. Included in this statistic are 127 million youth aged 15 – 24. (UNESCO)”

We hope you’ll join us for this event. Questions? Contact your librarians.

Happy reading!

Welcome Back!

Tags

Ask a Librarian!, books, del.icio.us, hours, research, website

The staff at the Kirkwood Libraries hope you had a fun and relaxing Spring Break. Library hours are now back to normal. Now it’s time to get back into the swing of things and start those final papers and projects you may have been putting off until later. The library Web site: www.kirkwood.edu/library has many resources available to help you research your topic. You can search our catalog to find a book, search our databases for magazine and journal articles, or check our list of “librarian approved” Web sites. If you hit a roadblock in your research, Ask a Librarian! for help. As always, the library is a great place to study for finals or just curl up with a good book. Come visit us!

Linn Area Reads

Tags

books

The Main Campus Library is participating in the county-wide Linn Area Reads program. Each year they select a book for the entire county to read. A display is now up in the library featuring this year’s title, Population: 485. It’s the story of one man’s return to small town life as a volunteer firefighter. Multiple copies of the book are available for checkout. Please join the community in this on-going program. It runs through May and events will be held at different locations around the county. Check the website or the display for an event listing. For more information, check http://metrolibrarynetwork.org/linnareareads.