New and Featured Books for 04/17/2013:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Did You Miss Me? by Karen Rose

Lake People by Abi Maxwell

Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson

Heart Of Ice by P. J. Parrish

The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman

The Office Of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian

Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister

The Gray Ghost  Murders by Keith McCafferty

The Dark Legacy Of Shannara: Bloodfire Quest by Terry Brooks

Gods And Beasts by Denise Mina

Frances And Bernard by Carlene Bauer

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Batman: Arkham Unhinged

Gotcha! by Fern Michaels

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder: A Hannah  Swensen Mystery With Recipes by Joanne Fluke

NON-FICTION:

Shouting Won’t Help: Why I – And 50 Million Other Americans – Can’t Hear You by Katherine Bouton

Sticks And Stones: Defeating The Culture Of Bullying And Rediscovering The Power Of Character And Empathy by Emily Bazelon

With Charity For All: Why Charities Are Failing And A Better Way To Give by Ken Stern

The Stranger Beside Me – Ted Bundy: The Classic Case of Serial Murder by Ann Rule

Law & Disorder: The Legendary FBI Profiler’s Relentless Pursuit Of Justice by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

The Age Of Edison: Electric Light And The Invention Of Modern America by Ernest Freeberg

The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Power, Personalities And Politics At The Heart Of The Catholic Church by John Thavis

The Last Best Cure: My Quest To Awaken The Healing Parts Of My Brain And Get Back My Body, My Joy, And My Life by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Keynes/Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics by Nicholas Wapshott

The Pope’s Last Crusade: How An American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI’s Campaign To Stop Hitler by Peter Eisner

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly ANd Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around The World by Matthew Goodman

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Please note that books mentioned here could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk, OR call us, OR send us an email at robinsbaselibrary@gmail.com and  we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

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Previous New/Featured books for Adults:

02/28/13.

02/07/13.

01/31/13.

01/02/13.

Homework Help: Language & Writing.

Need a little help finding what you’re looking for? The Robins AFB Library would like to provide you with a few resources suitable for students of all ages to help you get started.

Here are some links, resources, and interesting sites pertaining to the Language and Writing…

Language:

Google Translate – Translate any text by copying and pasting or any webpage to and from a wide variety of languages including Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Catalan, Welsh, Greek, German, Tamil, French, Hebrew, Italian, Thai, and many more.

U.S.A. Learns – A great site from the U.S. Dept. of Education to help American’s learn some basic skills, but geared towards those acquiring English as a second language.

WordChamp – The Language Learning Network, which features an open database with user-generated content to help learn over 100 languages.

Free Language – Links to language lessons and courses, podcasts, study guides, and other learning
materials.

Free Translation – A nice, quick resource for translating shorter text bursts to and from a variety of languages.

Mashable – A nice article with links about how to use social media to learn and practice languages.

And…

Don’t forget that in addition to several audio materials, DVDs, books, and other printed materials on foreign languages and different cultures, we also offer Transparent Languages as an online resource to our patrons, which is available for all USAF Active Duty, Air National Guard, AF Reservists, AF retirees and the family members of anyone in any of these categories as well as AF civilian employees and contractors who are eligible to use the USAF libraries.

Transparent Languages can be accessed online from anywhere but initial registration must be done in the RAFB Library.

Culture:

The CIA World Factbook – Providing info on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.

Library PressDisplay – Access to over 1700 newspaper and magazine titles from more than 92 countries in 48 different languages.

eDiplomat – Learn about cultural etiquette from around the globe.

The Air Force Culture & Language Center – A nice collection of resources to help accumulate the required combination of language skills, regional expertise and cultural capabilities to meet current and projected needs.

International Newspapers – A directory of thousands of newspapers from around the world, listed by country and region.

Words & Literature:

Dictionary.com  – One of the best references out there.

Grammar 101 – A nice series from Daily Writing Tips.

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations – Over 11,000 famous and popular quotations, indexed by author, subject, and keyword.

The Ryming Dictionary – Includes thesaurus and dictionary.

And don’t forget to check out our Homework Help page on Art, Music, and Literature.

Writing:

A step by step approach to writing a research paper – As provided by the Internet Public Library, this is a nice and simple guide to picking a topic/subject, accessing relevant and necessary information, analyzing issues, organizing thoughts/arguments, and executing your research paper.

How to write a research paper – a nice layout and guide from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

How to write a five paragraph essay – from About.com

Common proofreading symbols – Based on the MLA Handbook.

And if you’re interested in writing for fun or as a profession…

How To Become A Writer – Simple, easy steps from WikiHow.

How To Become A Writer – A nice little pep talk from Daily Writing Tips.

How to break into the comics industry as a writer – A segment in a regular video series called “Between The Pages” featuring host Grace Randolph, herself a freelance comic book writer, talking with former DC/Vertigo editor turned freelance writer, Brandon Montclare, and sharing tips and suggestions for how to break into the comic book industry as a writer.

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Are we missing something? Please let us know!

For other subjects and resources please see our main Homework Help page.

Reading material for 02/20/12:

Some reading material from around the internet:

NASA unveils stunning models of future aircraft designs.

Take a ride in this absolutely terrifying elevator.

Tim Tebow asked to Military Ball by Louisiana airwoman.

The FBI might cut off the internet for millions of people on March 8th.

The image above is by celebrated illustrator Charles Santore.

Brand new Angry Birds game, Angry Birds: Space, to debut in March!

Target is not only extremely good at data mining, but they’re keeping an eye on you.

Man suffers heart attack at Heart Attack Grill!

Supreme Court Justice robbed by machete-wielding intruder.

Catch a glimpse of Google’s luxurious California HQ.

Apple considering a smaller tablet.

Also, Apple’s new operating system aims to knit its products together more closely.

The insidious evils of “Like” culture.

7 horrifying historical origins of famous corporate logos.

The future of high tech healthcare, and its challenges.

Reviewing Pinterest, the newest social media site.

The “Undue Weight” of Truth on Wikipedia.

Does anyone really care about online privacy?

How companies learn your secrets.

On this day in history:

In 1872 the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York city.

In 1933 the 21st Amendment, which will end Prohibition in the United States, is proposed by Congress.

In 1935 Caroline Mikkelson becomes the first woman to set foot on Antarctica.

In 1962, while aboard the Mercury spacecraft entitled Friendship 7, astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.

In 1998 figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest individual gold medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

In 2003 there’s an accident with the pyrotechnics display at a White Snake concert in a small club in West Warwick, Rhode Island and 100 people are killed and 200 more are seriously injured.

In 2009 the World Day of Social Justice is officially established and recognized each year. The goal of the World Day of Social Justice is to recognize the need to promote efforts to tackle issues such as poverty, exclusion, and unemployment all over the world.

Famous births: Rihanna in 1988, T. J. Slaughter in 1977, Brent Gretzky (Wayne’s little brother) in 1972, Kurt Cobain in 1967, Cindy Crawford in 1966, Anthony Stewart Head in 1954, Patty Hearst in 1954, Gordon Brown in 1951, Ivana Trump in 1949, Sandy Duncan in 1946, Mike Leigh in 1943, Sidney Poitier in 1927, Richard Matheson in 1926, Robert Altman in 1925, Gloria Vanderbilt in 1924, Ansel Adams in 1902.

Famous deaths: William Wallace Lincoln in 1862, Frederick Douglass in 1895, Max Schreck in 1936, Chester Nimitz in 1966, Dick York (the first Darrin Stephens on Bewitched) in 1992, Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1993, Gene Siskel in 1999, Sandra Dee in 2005, Hunter S. Thompson in 2005.

via Awesome People Reading.

The 20 most beautiful bookstores in the world.

Alan Moore sums up everything that is wrong with the entertainment industry.

A crossover between Doctor Who and Star Trek.

William Gibson and the way we understand cities.

Composite sketches of literary characters.

10 tips on writing from David Ogilvy.

Every Bart Simpson chalkboard quote ever.

Zora Neale Hurston’s love spells and rituals to get a man.

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby adapted as an opera.

An essential postmodern reading list.

from here.

The cast of Game Of Thrones in normal clothes.

A supercut of television shows referencing other television shows.

Michael Bay will return to direct Transformers 4, which will be a reboot. Seriously.

Get ready for the Hannibal Lecter TV show.

Jon Hamm drops more hints about the new season of Mad Men.

10 things from the Hunger Games books that the movie(s) probably can’t pull off.

Billy Bob Thornton is making a road trip movie about his marriage to Angelina Jolie.

Gael Garcia Bernal is the Zorro of the post-apocalyptic future.

Author Kevin J. Anderson will novelize Rush’s new album.

Crystals may be possible in time as well as space.

Butterflies light the way to better thermal imaging.

The stupid things you do online (and how to fix them).

They know now at what time of day that you’re most likely to get an infection.

The inside story of climate scientists under siege.

Phonemes probably can’t reveal the ancient origins of language after all.

Do you think you could have passed Thomas Edison’s job interview test?

Cats as fonts.

Second graders take a field trip to a parking garage.

How to tie your shoes (Hint: you’ve been doing it wrong for a while now).

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Previous online reading material:

02/13/12.

02/06/12.

01/30/12.

12/27/11.

12/19/11.

February is Black History Month.

In February of 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves and the founder of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History established Negro History Week to honor and recognize African American achievements to American history.  In 1976 the week was expanded into a month by the United States, thereby designating February to be Black History Month.  The month of February was chosen because it is the birth month of both the abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) and President Abraham Lincoln. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

It’s important to remember that African American history isn’t about just one month, nor is it about dates and a few facts and figures. It’s a celebration, and it’s about acknowledgment and understanding of the contributions made, and about respecting that people matter. And it’s about remembering that Black History is American History, and that this is a nation of many stories, many angles and beliefs, and many colors.

Resources from the internet:

Black History Month at History.com.

African American History Month at the Library Of Congress, National Endowment For The Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institute, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a nice collection of resources and lesson plans for Black History Month.

Historic places in the Civil Rights movement.

The origin of Black History Month.

The history of Jim Crow.

Black History Month internet resources for kids.

Articles on Black History and Heritage Month from the Smithsonian.

Black History Month resource center from BlackState.com

A Harlem Renaiisance timeline from the Schomburg Center.

100 Famous African American men and women from the 20th century, a database of African American inventors, a timeline of black political history, and puzzles for all ages from About.com.

from here.

We would like to take this month to highlight, suggest, and remind you of the many print and electronic resources here at the library that may be of interest to anyone researching, learning, or just reacquainting themselves with African-American culture and history.

New and Featured Books for 12/27/11:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

I don’t know too much about this book other than what the cover tells me, that it’s the new book by the author whose debut novel was The Last Samurai, which eventually went on to be adapted into a film starring Tom Cruise. That, and the book’s gotten quite a bit of buzz this year. Is the buzz warranted? You’ll have to let us know. You can find the new novel reviewed at The New York Observer and at The Millions. You can also check out Helen DeWitt’s blog, as well as read an interview with her here, and purchase her second novel, Your Name Here, as a .pdf file on her website.

Before I Got To Sleep by S. J. Watson

American Sea Writing: A Literary Anthology, edited by Peter Neill

Wonderstruck: A Novel In Words And Pictures by Brian Selznick

The new novel by Selznick, author of The Invention Of Hugo Cabret, which is currently in theaters in a film adaptation directed by Martin Scorsese. This new book, an illustrated novel, is apparently a possible contender for both the Newbery and Caldecott awards, and has been highly requested by a few of our patrons of late. We’re glad to finally have it available, as you can clearly see in the look of excitement of my co-worker Judy’s face up above.

Novels And Stories, 1920 – 1922 by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Best American Comics 2011, edited by Alison Bechdel

Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

NON-FICTION:

Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction To Its Own Past by Simon Reynolds

Worst Cases: Terror And Catastrophe In The Popular Imagination by Lee Clarke

Revolution: The Year I Fell In Love And Went To Join The War by Deb Olin Unferth

The first memoir by one of literature’s rising stars. The book is described as “brave and soulful” and well worth a look.

The Engines Of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University In The Twenty-First Century by Holden Thorp & Buck Goldstein.

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen

Warren Buffett Invests Like A Girl – And Why You Should, Too by Louann Lofton

Shock Of Gray: The Aging Of The World’s Population And How It Pits Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival, And Nation Against Nation by Ted C. Fishman

The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into In College by Harlan Cohen

Love And Capital: Karl And Jenny Marx And The Birth Of A Revolution by Mary Gabriel

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

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Previous New/Featured books:

12/23/11.

12/19/11.

12/17/11.

12/16/11.

12/15/11.

New and Featured Books for 12/23/11:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

Black Hills by Dan Simmons

Pym by Mat Johnson

I don’t know much about this novel other than it’s a satirical fantasy inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s sole novel, The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket, but I’m still excited to read it. Not just because of the critical raves it’s been collecting (though that does help), but because I’m a huge fan of a graphic novel we have by author Mat Johnson entitled Incognegro, a thriller set in the 1930s about a fair skinned African American reporter who would go undercover to investigate lynchings. It was an incredible story, so I’m definitely interested in anything else by the same writer.

Brasyl by Ian McDonald

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

Listed as one of Time‘s top fiction books of the year, and highly recommended just about everywhere else you look, it would appear that this was released just in time to cash in on our obsession with Swedish crime stories like Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, or the American version of The Killing on AMC, or even the Wallander stories, which were done as a series of TV movies starring Kenneth Branagh in the UK. One patron who returned this the other day said that it was pretty good, but incredibly dark, but I’m curious what you’ll think.

Nouvelle Soul by Barbara Summers

Monument To Murder: A Capital Crimes Novel by Margaret Truman

NON-FICTION:

Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages Between The Two World Wars by Anastasia C. Curwood

How To Build A Business And Sell It For Millions by Jack Garson

Holy Ignorance: When Religion And Culture Part Ways by Olivier Roy

Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War With China by David Wise

Black Pioneers: Images Of The Black Experience On The North American Frontier by John W. Ravage

Quantum Physics For Dummies by Steve Holzner

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

A fascinating read and one of the most highly anticipated books of the year even before Jobs’ unfortunate demise a few months ago.

Unhitched: Love, Marriage, And Family Values From West Hollywood To Western China by Judith Stacey

Poison Widows: A True Story Of Witchcraft, Arsenic, And Murder by George Cooper

Search And Destroy: Why You Can’t Trust Google, Inc. by Scott Cleland

An interesting book and one that might work as a nice companion read to the Jobs biography? Also, it has a dinosaur on the cover so that’s worth the check out alone. Obviously.

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

* * *

Previous New/Featured books:

12/19/11.

12/17/11.

12/16/11.

12/15/11.