Sedaris, David. When you Are Engulfed in Flames. NY; Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 2008
O'Hara, John. Appointment in Samarra. NY: Random House, 1938.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
What do these two books have in common? Not too much--except that I am in the middle of reading them both. If you are familiar with Sedaris, you will recognize the tone of his latest book--focussing more on Hugh though than the rest of his family. I think Sedaris is at his best when when you are listening to him read, but this is enjoyable reading nonetheless. Painful as his childhood might have been for him, he now lives in Paris and can charge a significant chunk of money for his readings ... so he is doing all right.
Not so much can be said for the characters in O'Hara's brief novel, Appointment in Samarra. It is set in the midst of the depression, social, ethnic, and racial bigotry, unhappy marriages, drinking problems ... but this is a taste of Americana--Pennsylvania Americana. Just as you are starting to get into the story O'Hara introduces a new character and gives you that characters complete background. You get a good feel for the town of Gibbsville and the members of the Lantenengo Country Club. Although this is a tragic novel, it has its humorous moments and I love it when Al Grecco says that Ed, the local mobster and king pin, is the only thing happening from Reading to Wilkes-Barre.
O'Hara Burling 3rd Floor PS3529.H29 A6x
Sedaris Burling, Smith Memorial PS3569.E314 W48 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920
Van Slyk, Abigail A. Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Van Slyk, an architectural historian, focuses on the design decisions to look at the history of public libraries in the United States, specifically the building of Carnegie libraries. Her history is a social history in which the wealthy classes struggle with their desire to build and maintain an institution that served as a place for the elite to engage with and satisfy their cultural tastes. Central libraries were built in center cities as palaces to learning and the arts. Van Slyk notes that spaces that were more attractive to the working classes, newspaper and magazine rooms as well as rooms serving children, were often regulated to basements or ground floors accessible through altnerative entrances. The genteel reader could then use the more elegant spaces without crossing paths with the lower or noisy ranks of society.
Van Slyk looks at floor plans, building designs and furniture to demonstrate the 19th and early 20th century library planners' desire to regulate the behavior of library users. The branch library system developed out of the need to better serve communities and those in the middle and lower classes. In fact, Carnegie's foundation stopped funding central libraries and concentrated on branch buildings.
In her conclusion, Van Slyk writes that the Carnegie building program “helped perpetuate and reinforce a relatively narrow definition of the public library’s function in American society” doing away with an earlier model of the library as a multipurpose cultural institution (art gallery, museum, and book collection) to define library services as the quick delivery of books into the hands of individual readers and “supported larger cultural trends that encouraged libraries to ignore the issue of how readers used the materials that they did borrow" (p. 219).
She looks back on the 19th century social libraries that predated the free library movement, and which were “established specifically to facilitate an active sharing of idea. . . . The efficiency driven public library of the twentieth century defined reading as a solitary activity. In the process, the library lost its potential to serve as a site—literally and figuratively—for public discussion and debate.”
Something we are still living with, but perhaps gradually moving away from.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Van Slyk, an architectural historian, focuses on the design decisions to look at the history of public libraries in the United States, specifically the building of Carnegie libraries. Her history is a social history in which the wealthy classes struggle with their desire to build and maintain an institution that served as a place for the elite to engage with and satisfy their cultural tastes. Central libraries were built in center cities as palaces to learning and the arts. Van Slyk notes that spaces that were more attractive to the working classes, newspaper and magazine rooms as well as rooms serving children, were often regulated to basements or ground floors accessible through altnerative entrances. The genteel reader could then use the more elegant spaces without crossing paths with the lower or noisy ranks of society.
Van Slyk looks at floor plans, building designs and furniture to demonstrate the 19th and early 20th century library planners' desire to regulate the behavior of library users. The branch library system developed out of the need to better serve communities and those in the middle and lower classes. In fact, Carnegie's foundation stopped funding central libraries and concentrated on branch buildings.
In her conclusion, Van Slyk writes that the Carnegie building program “helped perpetuate and reinforce a relatively narrow definition of the public library’s function in American society” doing away with an earlier model of the library as a multipurpose cultural institution (art gallery, museum, and book collection) to define library services as the quick delivery of books into the hands of individual readers and “supported larger cultural trends that encouraged libraries to ignore the issue of how readers used the materials that they did borrow" (p. 219).
She looks back on the 19th century social libraries that predated the free library movement, and which were “established specifically to facilitate an active sharing of idea. . . . The efficiency driven public library of the twentieth century defined reading as a solitary activity. In the process, the library lost its potential to serve as a site—literally and figuratively—for public discussion and debate.”
Something we are still living with, but perhaps gradually moving away from.
The Size of the World
Silber, Joan. The Size of the World. NY: W.W. Norton, 2008.
submitted by R. Stuhr
Silber has written a handful of chapters that can stand on their own as short stories or novellas, but they are linked across time, place, and generations through American characters who have lived in and been changed by their experiences in Thailand and Mexico. This is a beautifully written book with interesting and complex characters.
On order for Burling Library.
submitted by R. Stuhr
Silber has written a handful of chapters that can stand on their own as short stories or novellas, but they are linked across time, place, and generations through American characters who have lived in and been changed by their experiences in Thailand and Mexico. This is a beautifully written book with interesting and complex characters.
On order for Burling Library.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
