Reference@TBML

Mad as Hell: Prostate Cancer

Yes, I am; I’m mad as hell and getting more so by the minute! A week ago I found out I have prostate cancer, and anger doesn’t even begin to express my reaction! I mean, it’s as if part of my body has pulled a Bret Favre on me and “gone over to the enemy!” Just great! Now there’s a treasonous assassin lurking inside of me! Oh, yes, we can and will excise it, but that means massive schedule disruption, financial ramifications, job-related paperwork, possible pain, or worse, not to mention the potential destruction of my sex life and if all that isn’t bad enough, I think about it all the time! 

But, I find reasons for optimism.

I have received words of encouragement and support from people that I both know quite well and almost not at all. One such sent me the name, meeting location, dates and time for a Las Cruces prostate cancer support group. It’s the UsToo! Southern New Mexico Chapter and they meet at 6:30 pm on the 4th Tuesday of each month in Memorial Medical Center Conference Room B. Ed Fernandez is the contact person and he can be reached at 575.621.1262 or efernan1@aol.com. This saved me the time and effort of looking up the information for myself. Thanks, Richard!

Another reason for optimism is the advances in surgery techniques and recovery procedures over the past and one half decades or so. When my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer longer ago than that, whether the cure was preferable to the disease was a matter for open and heated debate. Now prostatectomy does not inherently mean continuous bleeding and/or incontinence, pain and the abrupt end of a sex life.

How do I know that? Because of another source of optimism—information! My physician and my urologist told me of two websites with a superabundance of helpful, timely and accurate information. My physician told me that Medline plus is a great source of information about prostate cancer.  My urologist told me that Johns Hopkins is the center of the universe when it comes to research plus all the latest and best on prostate cancer treatment, prevention and cure. To tap into this wealth of information, go to the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Between these two web sites, there is more information than one person can assimilate in quite a while. Thanks amazing doctor guys!

Another source of information is books at Branigan Library.  Do a subject or keyword search for prostate cancer and find all manner of books from ones with a Q&A about prostate cancer format to ones about the latest (2006) research trends, to those about a post-prostatectomy love life to much, much more. In fact, I am going down right now to check some out.
MAP

   

Wild Saturday @ Branigan Library

Come and celebrate the opening of Where the Wild Things Are with us!  Maurice Sendak's classic book, Where the Wild Things Are is now a major motion picture and we want to have some fun.  Join us for wild stories, activities, and we'll even make our own wild things! 

This event is open to children of all ages.

So come and join us on Saturday, October 17th at 10:30 AM.

Please contact the Children's Department ( 528-4225) for more information.

October Book Displays @ Branigan Library

 
  New Mexico has long been a place featured in the imaginative writing of authors.  The state is also honored to have many great writers in the Land of Enchantment. That is why one of this month’s display is featuring finalists in the New Mexico Book Awards which honors great books that were written or published in New Mexico and those about New Mexico that were written elsewhere.  Eligible books are entered into categories ranging from children’s picture books to political books to New Mexico literary treasures. The 3rd Annual New Mexico Book Awards for 2009 will be announced November 20 in Albuquerque.  The New Mexico Book Awards display may be found along the wall at the end of the fiction section.  Some books featured in this display include:

Hombrecito's War by: W. Michael Farmer.

Turquoise Girl : An Ella Clah Novel by: Aimée & David Thurlo.

Villages & Villagers : Stories from New Mexico Villages by: Abe M. Peña ; foreword by Marc Simmons.

Other displays this month feature a Halloween theme. Find books on Halloween crafts along with ghost stories and other ghoulish tales like:

Adobe angels : Arizona ghost stories by: Antonio R. Garcez.

Ghosts among us : uncovering the truth about the other side by: James Van Praagh.

The pagan mysteries of halloween : celebrating the dark half of the year by: Jean Markale.

If you are interested in Horror books, check out the display between the fiction and non-fiction sections for some favorite horror stories. 

Gil's All Fright Diner by: A. Lee Martinez

Thirteen Speciments: A Collection of the Bizarre by: Jeffrey Thomas

Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween by: David J. Skal

If you find something you are interested in, please feel free to take the item to circulation to check out.  We hope you have a ghoulishly wonderful time in the Land of Enchantment this month!

--VM

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Join us this all this week for a celebration of banned books.  The American Libraries Association defines intellectual freedom as "the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular."  The entire text of the quote can be found on the American Libraries Association Banned Books page.  

Books that are featured in the Thomas Branigan Library displays have been targets of attempted bannings.  Come in and view our displays and pick up a few books to expand your horizons!

Teen Book Discussion @ Branigan Library

The Young Adult Department is hosting a Teen Book Discussion on Tuesday, October 20 from 7-8 PM in the Terrace Gallery at Thomas Branigan Memorial Library.

 

We will be reading The Comet’s Curse by Dom Testa so stop by and pick up your FREE copy!  All of those interested in joining us must register at the YA desk by Friday, October 16 (Deadline has been extended).  When you register, you will receive your free copy of the book to read and then join us for an informal discussion on Tuesday, October 20.

 

The Comet’s Curse has received high praise.  Kirkus Reviews says, “Grabs readers’ attention with the very first page and never lets go. Both a mystery and an adventure, combining a solid cast of characters with humor, pathos, growing pains and just a hint of romance, this opener bodes well for the remainder of the series.”

 

Please call Tina Huyge in the Young Adult Department (529-4011) for more information.

Anyone who will require accommodation for a disability to attend this event, please notify the library 48 hours in advance at 528-4000 or 528-4008 TTY.

Download the flyer here:  Download Young Adult Book Discussion

Michael McGarrity at the Rio Grande Theatre!!!

The Doña Ana Arts Council (DAAC) and Thomas Branigan Memorial Library (TBML) are proud to announce that on Wednesday, September 23rd at 7:00 pm, award-winning New Mexican novelist Michael McGarrity will be at the historic Rio Grande Theatre 211 N. Main St. in Las Cruces for a reading and book signing. This event kicks off the first annual DAAC/TBML Literary Series. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at http://www.riograndetheatre.com/calendar/ or at the door.

Mr. McGarrity is the author of the best selling Kevin Kerney crime novels set in New Mexico. He is also a clinical psychotherapist, and in addition, had a long and distinguished career in law enforcement before starting to write full time in 1996. Since then, he has written twelve novels featuring Kevin Kerney and his love interest, now wife, (Major when we first meet her, now Lt. Colonel) Sara Brannon. McGarrity is currently at work on a history of Kerney’s family. The latest word (good news for McGarrity/Kerney fans) is that it looks like becoming a trilogy!

Looking to the future, the next event in the Doña Ana Arts Council/Thomas Bra-nigan Memorial Library Literary Series will be on Friday, October 30th when Anto-nio Garcez, author of the Adobe Angels series of collected ghost stories from around the southwest will get us in the mood for Halloween with an evening of ghost stories! This event will also be at 7:00 pm in the Rio Grande Theatre. Keep watching this space and http://www.riograndetheatre.com/calendar/ for more news on this and other events in the DAAC/TBML Literary Series.
--MAP

New York Times Best Sellers in September

Are you interested in reading the latest New York Times Best Seller only to find out there is a long waiting list for it? After you have added your name to the list, why not read other New York Times Best Sellers that you may have missed while you wait. Well now is your chance!

This month, Branigan Public Library is featuring New York Times Best Sellers from the early 1990’s in its What Do I Read Next book display located on the wall between the fiction and non-fiction selves.  Each month, the What Do I Read Next book display features library material with a different theme.  Just ask one of our librarians to direct you to this display or to help you with any other reading suggestions.

Some of the material featured this month includes:

The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum

Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy

Four Past Midnight by Stephen King

The Civil War by Geoffrey Ward with Ric and Den Burns

Chutzpahby Alan Dershowitz

Den of Thieves by James Stewart

VM

Keeping the Dream Alive

Forty-six years ago today, the morning dawned as a cloudy Wednesday in Washington D.C.  And forty-six years ago today, in front of a quarter of a million people gathered between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial,  a man from Alabama delivered a thunderbolt of a speech that largely defined the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

In late 1962, various civil rights leaders began planning for what would become the largest civil rights march in the history of the United States. Their goal was to call atten-tion to the poverty, and degradation to which African Americans were subjected and to mobilize support for, as the name they gave their event said, jobs and freedom.

By June 1963, the organizers’ plans for a massive march on the nation’s capital were in place. They had successfully recruited a wide range of civil rights, religious and labor leader and activists, Martin Luther King, Jr., among them, to lead and speak at the rally.

In the days leading up to August 28th, people poured into Washington. On the day itself, more than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered airliners and a vast multitude of automobiles converged on the city. In addition, all of the regularly scheduled airline flights, trains, and buses going into the nation’s capital were filled to capacity. 

Nevertheless, at 8:00 am, only fifty people had showed up at the Washington Monument where the march was to start. Two hours late, there was a much larger crowd, but the leaders were still not present, as they were meeting with a congressional delegation. Those assembled started marching to the Lincoln Memorial without them. By the time King wrapped up the activities for the day (his speech was the last on the program,) though, more than 250,000 people had gathered, making this the largest civil rights event in the nation’s history.

King started giving another speech, but in mid stride, changed his mind and delivered, with minor variations, a speech he had given before. It galvanized the nation. ABC and NBC interrupted their regular programming to deliver it live to the nation.

You can listen to this masterpiece of rhetoric and experience the thrill and gooseflesh of that day almost a half a century ago by clicking here.

This speech always moves me. As we look back on that Wednesday more than four and a half decades ago, I hope it moves us again. We’ve come a long ways since then, but there is still a long ways to go before we can, to paraphrase Dr. King:

       “…see the day when all of God’s children, black people and white people,
       Gays and lesbians and transgendered people, Jews and Gentiles, Muslims
       and Hindus, Catholics and Protestants, People of all religious beliefs and
       unbeliefs will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro
       Spiritual:
      
       Free at Last! Free at last!
      
       Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
      
Visit the Stanford University King Institute's King Resources site for a plethora of resources.

Two excellent books on the topic in the library are:

The Dream by Drew D. Hansen  and The Preacher King by Richard Lischer

Additionally, consider this list of materials on the "I Have a Dream" Speech.

MAP
      

New Science Fiction on Audio Book

Science Fiction has never really aimed to tell us when we might reach other planets, or develop new technologies, or meet aliens. Science Fiction speculates about why we might want to do these things, and how their consequences might affect our lives and our planets.
 -John Clute, SF: The Illustrated Encyclopedia (1995)

Science Fiction is a friend to some and a mystery to others.  Audio Book is the perfect way to experience the genre.  Below are listed some of the new Science Fiction Audio Books recently added to the TBML collection.  The titles listed are just a few that can be found on audio in the Media Section.  Others titles in the Science Fiction genre can be located by doing a keyword search in the library’s catalog, for Science fiction then limiting you search to the format you want.  Here is a list of Science Fiction books on CD.

Bellwether by Connie Willis
Fiction BEL
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek Corporation.  Bennett O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions.

Other titles on Audio by Connie Willis are:
Doomsday Book
To Say Nothing of the Dog

Homecoming Saga by Orson Scott Card is made up 5 separate books:
Fiction CARD
Book 1 The Memory of Earth
Book 2 The Call of Earth
Book 3 The Ships of Earth
Book 4 Earthfall
Book 5 Earthborn
The saga begins on the planet Harmony where the last remaining earth inhabitants have designed an artificial intelligence “the Oversoul” which monitors the planet inhabits and inhibits thoughts that could led to long distance travel or the design of weapons of mass destruction.  The Oversoul is beginning to break down and the only being that can repair it the Keeper of Earth.  An Expedition is mounted and humans are sent to earth.  Homecoming saga is the story of their expedition.

Other series by Orson Scott Card on Audio:
The Tales of Alvin Maker
 Book 1 Seventh Son
 Book 2 Red prophet
 Book 3  Prentice Alvin
 Book 4 Alvin Journeyman
 Book 5 Heartfire
 Book 6 The Crystal City

The Mars series by Ben Bova is a three book series which in turn, is part of Bova’s larger treatment of fictional human colonization in the late 21st century called the Grand Tour.
Fiction BOV
 Book 1 Mars
 Book 2 Return to Mars
 Book 3 Mars Life

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein
Fiction Heinlein
Join forces with a swashbuckling duo of inter-galactic space rogues struggling to save both the future and the history of civilization.

Other Audio titles by Heinlein:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Rolling Stones

Selected Stories of Philip K Dick Volumes 1 and 2.
Fiction DIC
Dick is considered by some as a visionary whose writing broke through the boundaries of the science fiction genre and is regarded as a major figure of twentieth century fiction. Here are two collections of Dick's shorter works.

Other Audios by Philip K. Dick;
Flow of My Tears, The Policeman Said
The Galactic Pot-Healer
The Man in the High Castle
A Scanner Darkly
The Minority Report

EV

The Hollywood Blacklist

With the death of Bud Schulberg earlier this month and his illuminating obituary in the New York Times, we've been revisiting the darker years in Hollywood and the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). 

The Hollywood Blacklist had its roots in the perceived threat of real and imagined links between the U.S. entertainment industry and Communism.  In 1938, HUAC chairman Martin Dies released a report on the pervasiveness of Communism in Hollywood.  The panic gradually began to escalate until 1947 when the first group of identified Hollywood Communist sympathizers were called to give testimony in front of HUAC.  Of the 43 called, 19 refused to give testimony as they felt it a violation of their First Amendment rights.  Ten of the nineteen, now known as the Hollywood 10, were found in contempt of Congress and given citations by the House of Representatives.  Immediately following, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) voted to make all members swear to a non-communist pledge and the MPAA chairman declared that theten would be suspended without pay until cleared of all charges.  More actors were called before congress; some named names (like Bud Schulberg and Elia Kazan) and others refused to testify and were blacklisted.  The Hollywood reached its height from 1952-1956 and finally began to break around 1960.

Those interested in reading more online might consider visiting the PBS page on Elia Kazan (in conjunction with their "Miller, Kazan, and the Blacklist: None Without Sin") which features: essays, timelines, and video commentary.  The Mesa County Library District (in Grand Junction, CO) has a very nice website dedicated to blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and the Hollywood Blacklist.  The Media Resource Library at UC-Berkley has a comprehensive website dedicated to the Hollywood Ten and provides mini-biographies of the ten members.  And of course, Wikipedia provides a good background (but by no means 100% authoritative) on the topic as well as a comprehensive list of all blacklisted industry members.

Here at our own library, we have a few memoirs regarding the Hollywood blacklisting.  Consider checking out:

The Red and the Blacklistby Norma Barzman

Hollywood Exile, or, How I Learned to Love The Blacklist by Bernard Gordon

Touch and Go by Studs Terkel

Anything Your LIttle Heart Desires by Patricia Bosworth

Also, Stuart Woods gives the Hollywood Blacklist the fiction treatment in Beverly Hills Dead.

And, since this is Hollywood we are talking about, there are bound to be films made on the subject:

Sydney Pollack's The Way We Were uses the HUAC hunt for communists as a backdrop for this love story.

Blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein wrote the Woody Allen vehicle The Front which explores the atmosphere during the blacklist.

Scandalize My Name, a documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman takes a unique perspective on the blacklist and how it affected African American members of the entertainment industry as well as the Civil Rights Movement.

And of course, George Clooney's more recent Good Night, and Good Luck chronicles newsman Edward R. Murrow's conflicts with HUAC. 

BES