NYTimes Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Evanston Public Library

Alain Resnais, Acclaimed French Filmmaker, Dead at 91.

March 4, 2014

French filmmaker Alain Resnais died on Saturday in Paris at the age of 91. Most well-known for his films Last Year at Marienbad and Hiroshima Mon Amour, Mr. Resnais was often associated with French New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francoise Truffaut. “Fascinated by the ability of film editing to take apart and reassemble fragments of time, Mr Resnais incorporated the effects of scrambled memories, deja vu and fantasy into his work.” Born in 1922 in Brittany, he began making short films at the age of 14. Although most of his films were serious in nature, he loved cartoons, comedy and Broadway musicals, and was inspired by the television show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Recently honored at the Berlin Film Festival for his last film “The Life of Riley”, Mr. Resnais was editing drafts for his next project from his hospital bed. Read more about this influential director in this NYT article. And check the EPL catalog for his works.

Laura

A Prince(ly) Exhibit

January 24, 2014

New York’s Morgan Library & Museum has a new exhibit sure to interest both children and adults.”The Little Prince: A New York Story” which opened today focuses not only on the 1943 classic but also on its New York connections when Saint-Exupery was in exile there during World War II. On display are 25 of his handwritten manuscript pages (which show coffee stains and cigarette burns), along with 43 drawings and watercolors, and a screenplay that Orson Welles wanted to use to film the book. Also included in the exhibit is “a reference to a rave 1943 review of Le Petit Prince by P.L.Travers (author of the Mary Poppins books), who says the book “will shine upon children with a sideways gleam,” adding: “why mourn for the Brothers Grimm when it is still possible for such a tale to be heard from the lips of airmen and all who steer by the stars?” Read the entire fascinating New York Times review here – and check the EPL catalog for The Little Prince and other works by the author.

Laura

Multipurpose rooms in Brooklyn library

November 14, 2013

08cityroom-library-blog480 I would disagree with the title of this NYTimes blog post. Books are never secondary at Evanston, but we do have other reasons for using the library. Anyone who visits EPL on a regular basis knows the conference rooms are in big demand. Unlike this post, I doubt we’ve had couples exchange vows in our meeting spaces, but on the other hand, we don’t listen in either!

Shira S.

Bits and Bytes of Storytelling

November 4, 2013

Interesting article in Sunday’s NYTimes Book Review section asked more than a dozen authors to talk about how new and changing technologies affect their storytelling. The writers commenting include Lee Child, Marisha Pessl, Frederick Forsyth, Douglas Coupland, Emily Giffin, and Ander Monson, among others. I love Margaret Atwood‘s response: “Do new technologies change what plot devices are available for writers of fiction? Do chickens have beaks? The answer is, of course. So it has always been. Your practice test: Rewrite Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Purloined Letter,” using present-day communications technology. Go to it. I’m sure there are a hundred brilliant solutions to the puzzle of “The Purloined E-Mail.”

Read what the other authors have to say and then check the EPL catalog for their works.

Laura

Jane Austen with your Cheerios?

October 29, 2013

This is another example of people who are anxiously trying to give their children an extra advantage in life. Is it necessary for toddlers, people who are too young to handle the pages of a regular book, to be introduced to Romeo and Juliet and Anna Karenina? Even if the book is transformed into a number counting primer, does the child benefit from hearing the names or titles of these classics? I seriously doubt it. How about the pleasure of discovery when the child or (teen or adult) is old enough to truly understand the book and make his/her own judgment about it’s meaning and value? Will they be inspired to delve into these works later in life if they’ve been hearing about them forever? If anyone wants to weigh in on this NYTimes article about BabyLit, feel free.

Shira S.

The librarian who couldn't read

October 23, 2013

Unlike many librarians, Patricia Ann Kettles did not have an easy time learning how to read. Held back in school and labeled “emotionally disabled,” she can readily relate to kids who may be having a hard time. The Staten Island librarian read her first book at the age of 10. She credits one special teacher with helping to build her confidence and that, in turn, led to breaking the pattern of failure. Read her inspiring account here in this NYTimes article.

Shira S.

Should libraries be designed as storm shelters?

October 10, 2013

Sociologist Eric Klinenberg, who wrote a book about the summer of 1995 in Chicago where nearly 700 people died from heat, is suggesting that library branches be outfitted to cope with extreme weather. More than that, he’s saying we should actually build more branches for this purpose. He argues that in emergencies people gravitate to places they like and libraries already offer some community resources. See this NYTimes article for a thought-provoking discussion.

Shira S.

Irish Poet Seamus Heaney Dies at 74

August 30, 2013

Celebrated and prolific poet Seamus Heaney died in Dublin today after a brief illness. Winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, he was described by Robert Lowell as the “most important Irish poet since Yeats.” In 2008, on NPR’s program All Things Considered Mr. Heaney said: “I have always thought of poems as stepping stones in one’s own sense of oneself. Every now and again, you write a poem that gives you self-respect and steadies your going a little bit farther out in the stream. At the same time, you have to conjure the next stepping stone because the stream, we hope, keeps flowing.” In addition to his poetry, he was praised for his translations, including his version of Beowulf. Read both the NYT article and the NPR article here. And check the EPL catalog for his works. Here is his poem The Railway Children (from Station Island) that he read on NPR:

When we climbed the slopes of the cutting

We were eye-level with the white cups

Of the telegraph poles and the sizzling wires.

Like lovely freehand they curved for miles

East and miles west beyond us, sagging

Under their burden of swallows.

We were small and thought we knew nothing

Worth knowing. We thought words traveled the wires

In the shiny pouches of raindrops,

Each one seeded full with the light

Of the sky, the gleam of the lines, and ourselves

So infinitesimally scaled

We could stream through the eye of a needle.

Laura

Gallery Shopping for Art – So 20th Century

August 7, 2013

Looking for that special painting for your living room wall? – try Amazon’s new fine art site Amazon Art. Including more than 150 galleries and dealers from New York, Miami, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Canada, the site allows customers to purchase original art ranging from a “$10 screen print by the up-and-comer Ryan Humphrey to a $4.85 million painting by Norman Rockwell.” The current listings also include a $1.4 million painting by French impressionist Claude Monet called: “L’Enfant a la tasse, portrait de Jean Monet.” According to vice president for the Amazon Marketplace “Amazon Art gives galleries a way to bring their passion and expertise about the artists they represent to our millions of customers”, But not all gallery owners are flocking to sign up. Patricia Bransten, director of one of San Francisco’s most respected galleries said that “unlike books or wine, people like to look at art in person before they buy it.” Check out these articles from the NYT and NPR, as well as customer comments on the Monet painting: “Is there a Kindle edition available,” asked one reviewer; Pros include “Looks good above my toilet” and “Fast shipping,”

Laura