January 26, 2011
Who knew that Vladimir Nabokov was a self-taught butterfly expert? While a curator of lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1945, he “came up with a sweeping hypothesis for the evolution” of Polyommatus blues. While his scientific ideas were not taken seriously at the time, just this past Tuesday in the […]
January 26, 2011
The Queens Public Library CEO Tom Galante decided that after 104 years, rather than continuing to cut hours and staff, it will “do something that goes against the very idea of a lending library and stop buying books.Galante said the mission of the library has shifted subtly, from lending books to providing English lessons, aiding job […]
January 23, 2011
If you are a sucker for the happy ending, if you crave the comfort of a well-told tale of love, if you seek out authors who can satisfy your love of star-crossed couplings, paranormal trysts, romantic suspense, or urban young adult and inspirational romance, then romantic fiction is for you, and you won’t want to miss this February 12 romance […]
January 20, 2011
Thanks to Watermelon Express, an innovative technology design company, people studying for the SAT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and the GMAT will now be able to stop carrying those expensive, humongous test prep books around. The Chicago-based company, founded by Ujjwal Gupta and Ashish Rangnekar, has developed test prep applications for the iPhone, the iPad and the […]
January 19, 2011
A lecture highlighting the history of Africans and African Americans in Paris, France will be held on February 1 at the Alliance Francaise de Chicago, 810 N. Dearborn. The travel guide discovery of historical African-American Paris will be lead by Kiratiana Freelon, a Harvard graduate who has traveled and lived in over 25 countries, and […]
January 18, 2011
There has been a lot of discussion about using My Media Mall (Overdrive) on the ipad. We can use Bluefire Reader but books must be first downloaded to the computer then transferred to the ipad. Bluefire does a great job of explaining this process, but it’s really not ideal. So, we heard some rumors about […]
January 18, 2011
The Conan Doyle estate has asked author Anthony Horowitz to write a new Sherlock Holmes book for adult readers to be set in traditional Victorian London. Read more in today’s NYT article. (Laura H.)
January 17, 2011
An unpublished short story by famed mystery writer Dashiell Hammett has been discovered in a library archive. “So I Shot Him,” a 19-page story, will appear in Strand Magazine February 28. Several others were found and I hope they will also see the light of day. (Hammett’s known for The Maltese Falcon.) Shira S.
January 11, 2011
“Fresh Air” regular Maureen Corrigan reviews a fascinating book which is sure to stir up parents, psychologists, and culture experts for the foreseeable future. She notes the vast differences between Chinese values and current American attitudes toward child-rearing in “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.” Education pros generally us warn not to insult or restrict […]
January 11, 2011
David McCullough, a two-time Pulitzer winning author of historical subjects, is coming out with a work about American artists and intellectuals in Paris in May. “The Greater Journey” is his first full-length work since “1776.” Shira S. Ben Franklin in Paris
