CD Review: Bob Dylan "Together Through Life"

At this late date in the troubadour's career (this marks his 33rd studio album in almost 50 years of recording) Bob Dylan seems content to enjoy himself a little bit with this collection of new tracks.

Written in conjunction with a lyricist (a rare event for Dylan) the song's lyrics aren't engulfed in the fire and brimstone or the legendary wordplay of Dylan's best work. Instead, the songs fill a lusty void in Dylan's canon - both sensual and savage, romantic and enraged, the album crackles with the vintage warmth of a tube-fired guitar amp set to 11.

Dylan is backed by his top-notch touring band on the album, plus guitarist Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos on accordion. Hidalgo's accordion moves fluidly in and out of the melody on most of the album's 10 tracks, much the way Scarlet Rivera's violin enhanced the songs on Dylan's mid-70's masterpiece Desire.

Perhaps not a masterpiece, but a fun and slightly funky entry into Dylan's canon, Together Through Life probably won't win any new converts to the Dylan camp (although the album did debut at Number One on the Billboard charts - officially making Dylan the oldest artist to ever achieve such a feat) but for those who have been there with him during the long, strange trip of his epic career, the new album's rewards are plenty.

(Together Through Life is available in the library's audio CD collection)

Library upgrades NoveList access

The reader’s advisory database NoveList is a database Joplin Public Library has subscribed to for many years and one that was reviewed in this column last November.

The subscription was recently upgraded to include nonfiction titles and a separate database just for children, tweens, and teens called NoveList K-8 Plus.

NoveList is now NoveList Plus and includes more than 220,000 fiction titles and 60,000 titles of readable or narrative nonfiction books (nonfiction books that read like a story). All the great features it had before for fiction readers, it now has for nonfiction readers.

The opening screen has the same look and you can still do basic searches, limit to age, browse award winners, look at author read-alikes and recommended reads, or view discussion guides and feature articles. Now, however, the award winners include categories such as Biography and Memoir, Current Events and Politics, Literary Nonfiction, and Spirituality and Religion.

Author Read-alikes include some nonfiction authors, and they are easily found as you scroll through the list. At the bottom of the entry, NoveList marks each entry and/or title with designations for Fiction or Nonfiction and age level (adult, teen, etc.). Each Read-alike entry has several paragraphs about the author and some of their works along with a recommendation on what to read first if the author is new to you. Following this information are the Read-alike authors. For instance, if you like Bill Bryson and “A Sunburned Country,” NoveList Plus says to try Tim Cahill, Charles Kuralt or Calvin Trillin.

Recommended Reads has many nonfiction lists, and perhaps if you’ve read all the Historical Fiction recommendations, you might try the History list or for a change of pace you might scroll down and sample some Nature Writing, Sports and Competition or True Crime. You can also see what is recommended for Teens (13-18), the Older Kids (9-12), or the Younger Kids (0-8). I know I could read Dr. Seuss every day!

Now Featuring on the home page highlights titles and authors with a Kid’s Corner for children’s authors and titles. Help is available on every screen and a click on the “Tour NoveList” link takes you to a support site where you can view a video, sign up for a training session or access online help sheets.

You can still create your own account. It is a very simple process and allows you to save lists, save preferences for your use of NoveList Plus, save your search history, share your folder with other people, and create alerts and RSS feeds. With the alerts and RSS feeds, you can be notified when something new is added to the database that meets the criteria you set for a search.

NoveList K-8 Plus is designed for a reader’s advisory for age 18 and below. It has many of the same features and information as NoveList Plus without the adult titles. If you work with children or have children of your own, this is a great place to find new titles and authors. You can still access Recommended Reads and Award Winners. Also check out the Book Talks and Book Discussion Guides. If you teach, these are great resources to use. The Working With Kids section also has a lot of helpful resources.

The Curricular Connections link gives you a great way to tie fiction titles into the different subject areas. Books from the 50 States lets you look by state and get titles and descriptions of books that you can use in conjunction with study of that state. Picture Book Extenders is a great tool for you to use to make picture books a learning experience. If you want a quick list of books by subject, try the Grab and Go Lists.

There is so much information in NoveList Plus and NoveList K-8 Plus that you need to get online and explore for yourself. Also remember that any title you find that Joplin Public Library does not have in its collection, we can try to borrow for you from another library through interlibrary loan. Just check with the staff at the Reference Desk.

Patty Crane - Reference Librarian

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus

In 1875, Little Wolf, chief of the Cheyenne nation, traveled to Washington to suggest to President Ulysses S. Grant that peace between the Whites and Cheyenne could be established if the President were to give the Cheyenne 1,000 white women as wives in exchange for 1,000 horses. The Cheyenne believed that by marrying these white women and raising children from these unions that their children would assimilate into the White culture. The President, completely horrified by the suggestion, turns Little Wolf away as his wife faints to the floor. That, my friends, is where this story stops being based on fact and begins being fiction. Yes, Little Wolf did indeed propose this deal to President Grant and was turned away. But author Jim Fergus takes the story one step further, speculating on what would have happened if President Grant had secretly agreed to this proposal.

Ads begin to be posted in papers looking for woman to voluntarily agree to travel across the country to marry “men from the West.” The government names the program “Brides for Indians” and when enough women cannot be found, the government begins recruiting women from jails, penitentiaries, or even mental institutions, offering full pardons for participation. We meet May Dodd, the author of the journals we will follow at a mental institution, where she has been kidnapped and imprisoned by her family for engaging in an affair with a man out of wedlock from which she mothered two children. May joins the program and finds herself traveling west with the other brides, some white and some black. All have agreed to stay with their soon-to-be Cheyenne husbands for two years and upon completion have the option of leaving.

The women arrive to meet their to-be-husbands and the tribe to which they now belong. May marries Little Wolf and finds herself sharing a tipi with his two other wives who don’t seem to appreciate her company. As these women acclimate to the lives of the Cheyenne, they find themselves more displaced then ever, not knowing to which society they truly belong.

This book was truly riveting. The Cheyenne culture is so rich and interesting, as are the lives of the indentured brides. They experience prejudice from their original culture and in turn learn more about themselves through their own prejudices and stereotypes. Though I finished this book days ago, I find myself continuing to think about the characters, the plot and the twists on which Fergus led me. It was wonderfully written, thoroughly researched and a joy to read.

~Breana- Children's Assistant

Get Ready!!!

Joplin Public Library is getting ready to kick off our Summer Reading Programs on Tuesday, May 26th!

JPL's Summer Reading Club for Kids is urging you to "Be Creative @ Your Library" with a variety of fun activities for kids! This summer, we'll have crafts, speakers, Dog Day Afternoons, Storytime and many more! Be sure to come by the Children's Desk and pick up a gameboard, which gives your child the chance to win TWO free books! Plus, any child who does not live in Joplin is entitled to a *FREE* library card for the duration of the Summer Reading program. With all this creativity, how can you resist?

Teens are spending their summer Expressing themselves at the library with great programs such as a scavenger hunt, tie-dye, a pizza taste test, super-sized Monopoly and other fun programs. Come by the Children's Desk, Reference Desk OR Teen Desk to pick up your reading log for summer reading to be eligible to win AWESOME prizes. No library card? No problem. With a parent or guardian, you can get one FREE for the whole summer!


Finally, the adults can Master the Art of Reading with our Adult Summer Reading Program. Adults can pick up program guides at booklogs at all public desks, read three books and write a short review, then turn it in for the chance to win prizes from great local places such as Crabby's, Hackett Hot Wings, Books-a-Million, Red Onion, Olive Garden, Hardee's, McAlister's and MANY more! Plus, every adult who turns in a booklog gets a Literary Latte courtesty of Columbia Traders. Each week, all adults who turn in a booklog are eligible to win a "Booklover's Bag" which contains lots of prizes! With all of these prizes and freebies, why not participate??

For more information, check out our library website: www.joplinpubliclibrary.org or call us at 623-7953.

Nuclear fears prompt retreat into ‘Compound’

“The Compound”

By S. A. Bodeen

(Teen fiction)

Eli’s father is a ruthless billionaire who is obsessed with all things nuclear. He has taught Eli and his twin brother, Eddy, about nuclear warfare and nuclear testing since they were little.

Eli’s father is so obsessed, in fact, that he built an elaborate underground compound to protect his family should the United States ever face a nuclear attack. Once the door locks in the compound, they are shut in with enough supplies to last for 15 years. Eli’s father has planned every detail and has spared no expense in building the compound.

While on a camping trip, Eli’s father gets word of an incoming attack and the family runs through the dark and the woods towards the compound. They make it though the compound door with not a minute to spare. After the door is shut and locked into place, Eli realizes that his grandmother isn’t with them. Then, he realizes that Eddy didn’t make it either.

Six years pass and Eli is still coping with losing his brother. Despite his misery, he and his sisters have kept up with their school studies and life inside the compound has become routine. Then Eli begins to realize that their food stores will not last the full 15 years and that things on the outside may not be as bad as they thought.

It’s time to open the compound door and find out, but Eli’s father won’t let that happen.

“Shift”

By Jennifer Bradbury

(Teen fiction)

Chris and Win (short for Winston) have been friends since elementary school. They have been best friends for almost that long. Win is considered a member of the family at Chris’ house, but Win’s house is not that welcoming of either boy.

Unlike Chris’s very involved parents, Win’s parents are rich and distracted. His mother is more interested in her social calendar than her son’s life and his father wants Win to carry on the family legacy of ruthless manipulation and unchallenged power regardless of what Win wants.

The boys decide that the day after their high-school graduation they will head out on a cross country bike ride, traveling from their homes in West Virginia all the way to Win’s uncle’s house in Seattle. Their parents reluctantly agree to let them go, but Chris’ parents make them promise to call twice a week to check in and assure them (mostly Chris’ mom) that they’re not lying in a ditch somewhere.

At first, the trip is everything the boys hoped it would be. They challenge themselves physically, their friendship strengthens and they are having one adventure after another. Things turn sour towards then end of the trip even though neither Win nor Chris will admit it. Finally, one morning, Win leaves Chris behind. Chris tries to find Win for days, but he ends up catching a bus and going home without Win by his side. Now, Chris is in his first semester of college and Win still hasn’t come home. He hasn’t called. He hasn’t written. Nothing. Win’s father believes that Chris knows more than he’s telling and uses all of his power to send an FBI agent to hound Chris at school and makes moves to get Chris’ dad fired from his job.

Is Win hiding somewhere in the middle of the country from his less than loving family? Is he dead? Has he been kidnapped? Chris has to find out before his life and the lives of his parents are ruined.

Cari- Teen Librarian

Children's Musician Dino O'Dell Coming Soon

As part of May’s Discover Downtown event on Thursday, May 21^st, the Joplin Public Library will host children's musical educator and entertainer, Dino O’Dell. Dino, also known as Kevin Dolan, has worked professionally in rap, polka, ska, and disco and has been entertaining audiences of all ages for years with his fun, creative lyrics. His music groups have opened for the legendary Alvin and the Chipmunks and he just released a children's CD entitled "Itty Bitty Monsters." Bring the whole family and come prepared for a rockin’ good time!

Weather permitting; Dino will perform on the front lawn of the Library at 6:00 p.m., otherwise the performance will be held in the Large Meeting Room of the Library. Attendees are welcome to bring a picnic style dinner or snacks, and are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or a blanket.

For more information, call (417) 623-2184 or visit the Library website at www.joplinpubliclibrary.org

Have we been missed?

Getting ready for Summer Reading has taken SO MUCH of our attention that we've fallen behind on updating the blog. Please, forgive us, and once again enjoy the book reviews provided by the JPL Staff!

“Three Weeks to Say Goodbye”

By C. J. Box

(Compact-disc audiobook)

After several years spent trying to conceive a child, Melissa and Jack McGuane adopt a baby girl and name her Angelina. Life with their baby daughter is nearly perfect for the McGuanes. Angelina is a beautiful, precocious 9-month-old when Jack and Melissa receive the devastating news from the adoption agency that Angelina’s teenage birth father never signed away his parental rights.

Money is tight for the McGuanes. Jack works for the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau, and when they adopted Angelina, Melissa quit her job to be a full-time mother. Jack and Melissa are stunned when the baby’s father, Garrett Moreland, and Garrett’s father, Federal Judge John Moreland, pay them a visit. Judge Moreland tells Melissa and Jack that they must give Angelina back in three weeks and even offer to help them find another child! Melissa and Jack realize they do not have the funds to fight the powerful judge, but they intend to do everything in their power to keep their little girl.

Two of their best friends, Cody, a cop, and Brian, a prominent real-estate developer, use their resources to help Jack and Melissa discover why Garrett, a thug and member of the Mexican mafia gang, and his father want the child. The judge’s wife doesn’t even know about Angelina until Melissa runs into her at a fund-raiser, and she seems less than thrilled to learn she is going to have a baby granddaughter in her house. During Jack, Cody and Brian’s investigation it becomes evident that the judge and his son have some rather dark motives for wanting Angelina and also uncover a shocking secret and a plot that will endanger the child.

Some of Jack’s and Cody’s escapades are a little over the top but C.J. Box’s novel is a spellbinding and suspenseful thriller that you won’t want to put down. John Bedford Lloyd’s narration is superb. Lloyd also narrated “Blue Heaven,” another of C.J. Box’s thrillers that I highly recommend.

“The Lost Witness”

By Robert Ellis

(Compact-disc audiobook)

LAPD Det. Lena Gamble’s first appearance was in “City of Fire” and she returns in this gripping thriller by Robert Ellis. Lena hasn’t been allowed to handle a murder investigation for months. Instead she has been relegated to doing investigative paperwork on officer-related killings.

The LAPD brass was not happy with some of her revelations about the LA police department when she solved the Romeo case in “City of Fire,” so Lena is surprised when she is given a high-profile case to work, but suspects that she is being set up to take a fall by the LAPD chief and his assistant.

Lena’s assignment is the particularly brutal death of prostitute Jennifer McBride. Jennifer is found in a dumpster, her body cut in pieces with surgical precision and placed in a garbage bag. Lena teams up with her colleague Stan Rhodes to investigate this gruesome murder. Lena realizes there was a witness when she receives a hazy video of the crime and the victim’s driver’s license. As Lena follows the few leads in the investigation, she becomes aware she is under constant surveillance by someone in the police department when she uncovers evidence of high-tech video and eavesdropping equipment in her house.

Lena’s investigation leads her to the office of a famous pediatrician and the son of a pharmaceutical company giant. She is in a race with the murderer to locate the missing witness in this bizarre case as the body count continues to rise.

Robert Ellis does a terrific job with the characters, especially the deep, complex Lena Gamble character. Be prepared for a wild ride in this latest thriller with its many twists and surprises. Deanna Hurst’s excellent narration adds to the suspense.

Both novels are available in print editions at the Joplin Public Library.

~Phyllis- Technical Services Librarian

ARCs offer advanced look at upcoming titles

At library conferences, many publishers bring along and give away advance reader’s copies (ARCs) of books that are soon to be published. Every librarian I know loves ARCs as we get an advance look at what is coming out and what we may want to purchase for our libraries.

Below are reviews of some titles I picked up at the American Library Association conference in January. These will be available for checkout at the library upon publication.

‘While I’m Falling: A Novel’

By Laura Moriarty

Veronica, a junior at the University of Kansas, is taken aback when she learns her parents are divorcing. This unexpected event, in what she thought was her reasonably normal family, turns her world upside down. She falls behind in her coursework; wrecks the car of another student for whom she is to house sit for one weekend; and recklessly throws a party at said student’s townhouse where she almost sleeps with super-sexy Third Floor Clyde. This causes a breakup with her boyfriend, who had wanted her to move out of the dorms (Veronica hates her RA job and is about to lose it) and in with him.

When she thinks things cannot get any worse, her mother shows up at her dorm room with the family dog in tow needing a place to stay.

Veronica must figure out what to do about her upcoming final exams and the breakup with her boyfriend, whom she really does want to be with, and sort out her feelings about her parents’ divorce and her family in general.

Kansas author Laura Moriarty has written an excellent, insightful book on family relationships. The characters are realistically portrayed and the family dynamics and campus life believable and on the mark. Highly recommended. (Publication date: August 2009.)

‘Who is Mark Twain?’

By Mark Twain

Here are 24 short pieces by Missouri author Mark Twain that have never before been published.

Upon his death, Twain left letters, ramblings, false starts, opinion pieces and more. Some items he believed would offend and therefore did not want published during his lifetime; others he wrote just to write. He made it clear that these writings should not be published during his lifetime, but long after his death, thinking they would be of little interest to anyone by that time.

The stories, fables and opinions in this collection touch upon religion (“Conversations with Satan”), a review of Jane Austen’s work (“Jane Austen”) in which he finds fault with many of her characters, dentistry (“Happy Memories of a Dental Chair”) and much more.

Twain writes with insight, satire and humor that only Mark Twain can. (Publication date: April 2009.)

‘Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute

By Jarrett J. Krosoczka

In this graphic novel written for younger readers, Hector, Dee and Terrance wonder what kind of life their school lunch ladies have outside of the cafeteria. Do they have families to care for? Do they have cats?

When the lunch ladies meet the new substitute teacher who is filling in for a teacher who has not missed a day of school in 20 years, they set out to find out the truth. These ladies are not your ordinary lunch ladies. Lunch Lady (no actual name is given) is really a secret agent and Betty loves to make gadgets — a spatula becomes a “spatu-copter” and the lunch tray is not regular tray, but a secret laptop.

As the lunch ladies work on discovering who this substitute teacher really is and his mission, the kids decide to follow the ladies after work to find out if they have a life outside of school. Little do they know what they will find upon entering the warehouse.

This is a very quick read perfect for beginning readers, especially those who like comic books or graphic novels. The black, white and yellow drawings enhance the minimal dialog. Highly recommended with hopes of more Lunch Lady adventures to come. (Publication date: July 2009.)

~Susan Wray- Library Director