In this series, we are going to share a fun variety of books about music! Even if you don’t play an instrument you can still absolutely be a music lover. So check back each month for a different collection of books all relating in some way to music! We’ll share fiction and nonfiction titles and try to cover many different genres and time frames. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! Happy reading (and listening, and playing!)
Since April is National Poetry Month, we’ll share some poetry books written by musicians (and all these titles did have positive ratings on Goodreads)
Useless Magic by Florence Welch “The Florence + The Machine frontwoman’s first-ever book will consist of lyrics and poetry, as well as art derived from Florence’s own sketchbooks. Useless Magic will also give fans an insight into Florence’s creative process by featuring some of the subjects and areas which have inspired her writing.”
Now and Then…by Gil Scott-Heron “One glance at Now and Then and it becomes evident that this is not merely a collection of a songwriter’s lyrics. The song-poems of this undisputed “bluesologist” triumphantly stand on their own, evoking the rhythm and urgency which have distinguished Gil Scott-Heron’s career. This collection carries the reader from the global topics of political hypocrisy and the dangers posed by capitalist culture to painfully personal themes and the realities of modern day life. His message is black, political, historically accurate, urgent, uncompromising, and mature, and as relevant now as it was in the early 1970s.”
The Flame by Leonard Cohen “The Flame is the final work from Leonard Cohen, the revered poet and musician whose fans span generations and whose work is celebrated throughout the world. Featuring poems, excerpts from his private notebooks, lyrics, and hand-drawn self-portraits, The Flame offers an unprecedentedly intimate look inside the life and mind of a singular artist.”
I love to look at maps! Yes, I was that kid who spent road trips buried in the atlas in the backseat while my parents (fruitlessly) exhorted me to look up and look around at the things we were passing. To be fair to me: I grew up in the cornfields of Central Illinois, and while it’s lovely and all – once you’ve seen a few hundred cornfields, you’ve pretty much seen them all. There are no further mysteries to uncover.
Maps, on the other hand, are an endless exposition of information on all sorts of places. Once you start exploring down the road of maps, and map literacy, you will never return to the dull life of merely idly wondering what’s going on outside your car window – or around the globe.
So this week, we are looking at a few books you can explore for yourself, spend a happy weekend reading, or recommend to others. Use these as the start of a cool display in your library! (Look around: have those displays changed this month? Keep those books churning to up your circ numbers!)
As always, clicking thru these links will take you to Amazon. If you buy a nice book, or anything else, at that time, then Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your sale. Thank you in advance for supporting us!
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World, by Tim Marshall
” All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas, and concrete. To understand world events, news organizations and other authorities often focus on people, ideas, and political movements, but without geography, we never have the full picture. Now, in the relevant and timely Prisoners of Geography, seasoned journalist Tim Marshall examines Russia, China, the USA, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Japan and Korea, and Greenland and the Arctic—their weather, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, and borders—to provide a context often missing from our political reportage: how the physical characteristics of these countries affect their strengths and vulnerabilities and the decisions made by their leaders.
In ten, up-to-date maps of each region, Marshall explains in clear and engaging prose the complex geo-political strategies of these key parts of the globe. What does it mean that Russia must have a navy, but also has frozen ports six months a year? How does this affect Putin’s treatment of the Ukraine? How is China’s future constrained by its geography? Why will Europe never be united? Why will America never be invaded? Shining a light on the unavoidable physical realities that shape all of our aspirations and endeavors, Prisoners of Geography is the critical guide to one of the major (and most often overlooked) determining factors in world history. “
The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate, by Robert D.Kaplan
“Bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan builds on the insights, discoveries, and theories of great geographers and geopolitical thinkers of the recent and distant past to look back at critical pivots in history and then to look forward at the evolving global scene. Kaplan traces the history of the world’s hot spots by examining their climates, topographies, and proximities to other embattled lands. He then applies the lessons learned to the present crises in Europe, Russia, China, the Indian Subcontinent, Turkey, Iran, and the Arab Middle East. The result is a holistic interpretation of the next cycle of conflict throughout Eurasia, a visionary glimpse into a future that can be understood only in the context of temperature, land allotment, and other physical certainties. A brilliant rebuttal to thinkers who suggest that globalism will trump geography, this indispensable work shows how timeless truths and natural facts can help prevent this century’s looming cataclysms. “
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, by Ken Jennings
It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts
his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have
always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.
Jennings
takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to
the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at
the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google
Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture:
highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the “unreal estate”
charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways
in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse
to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been.
From the “Here be dragons” parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to
the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of
digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing
details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you’re an
inveterate map lover yourself—or even if you’re among the
cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket—let Ken
Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.
Fantasy Map Making: A step-by-step guide for worldbuilders, by Jesper Schmidt
Have you ever struggled with map making? Spent countless hours trying to make it comply with the laws of nature?
This
book is a step-by-step guidebook that will teach you how to create an
authentic fantasy map. You will gain all the knowledge necessary to
complete a map which your audience will believe, no matter if they are
readers, viewing a movie, video game players, or role-playing gamers. It
contains the exact process I use when creating maps for my fantasy
fiction. I have spent countless hours researching and learning about the
topography of Earth and how to apply it to a fantasy map so that you do
not have to.
Geography is more than just trivia, it can help you understand why we
import or export certain products, predict climate change, and even show
you where to place fire and police stations when planning a city.
If you’re curious about the world and want to know more about this fascinating place, Geography For Dummies
is a great place to start. Whether you’re sixteen or sixty, this fun
and easy guide will help you make more sense of the world you live in.
Geography For Dummies
gives you the tools to interpret the Earth’s grid, read and interpret
maps, and to appreciate the importance and implications of geographical
features such as volcanoes and fault lines. Plus, you’ll see how erosion
and weathering have and will change the earth’s surface and how it
impacts people. You’ll get a firm hold of everything from the physical
features of the world to political divisions, population, culture, and
economics. You’ll also discover:
How you can have a rainforest on one side of a mountain range and a desert on the other
How ocean currents help to determine the geography of climates
How to choose a good location for a shopping mall
How you can properly put the plant to good use in everything you do
How climate affects humans and how humans have affected the climate
How human population has spread and the impact it has had on our world
If you’re mixed up by map symbols or mystified by Mercator projections Geography For Dummies
can help you find your bearings. Filled with key insights, easy-to-read
maps, and cool facts, this book will expand your understanding of
geography and today’s world.
We hope you’ve been enjoying our mini podcast series Book Bites! We invite guests to chat with us about a book they’ve enjoyed, and they tell us about it in 5 minutes or less. We’ve gotten such a fantastic variety of book suggestions through this series, so we want to make it easy for you to tune in as well!
We’ll be collecting our Book Bites from each month into one blog post to have them all in one place for you. Of course, the best way to make sure you don’t miss an episode is to subscribe to both of our podcasts: Linking Our Libraries and Reading With Libraries!
Do you have a book that you absolutely MUST share with us? We’d love to record you! Email us at admin@cmle.org.
Each week we look at a collection of a few books on a topic. You can explore the books on your own, or use them as a foundation for building a display in your library!
Sorry in advance for making you hungry, because this week our article is all about sandwiches, real and fictional! Get some recipe ideas or just read about stories that include sandwiches.
Banh Mi: 75 Banh Mi Recipes for Authentic & Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches by Jacqueline Pham ” The quintessential Vietnamese street food–in your own home! Indulge in the intoxicating aroma and exotic taste of a freshly baked baguette topped with savory pork, bright cilantro, and thin strips of pickled carrots and daikon.”
The Sandwich Swap by Rania Al-Abdullah, Kelly DiPucchio, Tricia Tusa (Illustrator) “Lily and Salma are best friends. They like doing all the same things, and they always eat lunch together. Lily eats peanut butter and Salma eats hummus–but what’s that between friends? It turns out, a lot. Before they know it, a food fight breaks out. Can Lily and Salma put aside their differences? Or will a sandwich come between them?”
Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen “Kitchen Confidential meets Three Junes in this mouthwatering novel about three brothers who run competing restaurants, and the culinary snobbery, staff stealing, and secret affairs that unfold in the back of the house.”
Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches by Lisa Broadie Cook, Jack E. Davis “Martin MacGregor is having one rotten week! First, his substitute teacher, Mrs. Payne, gives out mountains of homework. And when Martin’s dog literally eats his homework, little does he know it’s only the beginning of his troubles.”
Sandwiches Without Bread: 100 Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Options! by Daria Polukarova “Whether you follow a Paleo, non-gluten, low-carbohydrate, or just an all-around healthy lifestyle, Sandwiches Without Bread is for you. Featuring one hundred creative recipes along with mouthwatering photographs, this book will appeal to both your appetite and your waistline.”
Welcome back! Thanks for joining us for our podcast book group: Reading with Libraries!
Check out our full shownotes page here, with links to all the books we discussed, to many other resources you can explore, and of course to the beverages we are enjoying.
In our book group we have fun talking about books, and provide useful information for library people doing Reader’s Advisory work. There are so many books out there that it’s tough to be an expert on all of them. So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!
Who is joining us this week? We are very pleased to welcome Guest Host Kitt Godfrey.
Today we are talking about books that look at different groups of people, and books that will help us to learn about the ways people live. It’s going to be all over the place, but all the books have one thing in common: people are endlessly fascinating, and you can never know enough about all the different ways people are.
As always, the images and links on our shownotes page are from Amazon.com. If you click on any, and happen to buy a lovely book (or anything else!), Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits. Yay!! Thanks in advance for doing this!!
