New Movies – 2011 update

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Your requests for movies have been heard — here’s what’s been added in the past year.  (Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom — this list is 33 titles long!)

  • AV 331.12 LAS            Last train home           

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year’s holiday. This mass exodus is the world’s largest human migration.

  • AV 363.34 TRO            Trouble the water           

A firsthand account of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina that documents aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers’ experiences and discusses the issues that remain years after the storm. Originally produced in 2008.

  • AV 363.73874 GOR            An inconvenient truth: the crisis of global warming           

           A look at the future of our planet with the threat of global warming and what to do with this climate crisis.

  • AV 500 MOD         Modern marvels : science 

The History Channel explores the wonders of modern science in 14 discs; each disc focuses on a particular topic in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and environmental science.

  • AV 502.3 REA            Real: Math. Science. Careers           

A supplement to the Futures Channel Real: Math.Science series. Includes a teacher’s reference guide with curriculum connections and suggested activities.

  • AV 512 ALE                        Algebra in the real world           

Algebra in the Real World will enable you to show your students the excitement, the power, the range and the results of the applications of algebra in fascinating career fields. From astronomy to forestry, sports equipment design to saving endangered species, alternative energy to farming, algebra is shown in its vital role as the tool that allows us to create, to understand, and to improve our world.

  • AV 616.1 HEA            Heartsaver first aid CPR AED   

Instructional video on emergency first aid, CPR, and the use of the AED.

  • AV 616.85 AUT            Autism, the musical           

Profiles five children with autism, their parents, and acting coach Elaine Hill as they take on the enterprise of a full-length stage production.

  • AV 631.5233 DIS            The eyes of Nye: genetically modified foods           

Is genetic engineering safe? It may be too soon to tell, but that doesn’t stop Bill Nye from exploring the benefits and risks. Students will hear from traditional wheat breeders, from researchers who analyze organic and pesticide-free crops, and from corporations engaged in genetic engineering.

  • AV 730.92 AND            Andy Goldsworthy : Rivers and tides : working with time           

Follows Andy Goldsworthy’s bohemian free spirit all over the world as he demonstrates and talks about his creative process. From his long winding rock walls and icicle sculptures to his interlocking leaf chains and multi-colored pools of flowers. Goldsworthy’s painstakingly intricate masterpieces are made entirely of materials found in nature – which threatens and often succeeds in destroying his art, sometime before it is even finished.

  • AV 738.092 CLA            Classic Maria Martinez : Native American pottery maker of San Ildelfonso  

Martinez demonstrates the traditional Native American ways of making pottery, beginning with the spreading of sacred corn before clay is gathered.

107014

Photographers who have worked for National Geographic reflect on their art.

  • AV 822.33 HAM            Hamlet   (2009)        

The Royal Shakespeare Company production, with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.

  • AV 822.33 MAC            Macbeth (2010)           

 A modern adaptation that relocates the bloody action to a nameless underground netherworld, based on the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Macbeth. With Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood.

  • AV 822.33 MUC            Much ado about nothing (1993)           

 A comedy about two couples who, after a few complications and misunderstandings, are happily united with the help of bumbling Constable Dogberry. Based on the play by William Shakespeare.

  • AV 843 CAC            Caché : Hidden (2005)           

 A talk show host and his wife and son seem to be living an ideal life until secretly-filmed videotapes of their private lives start to show up on their front porch. As the tapes reveal more secrets, the resulting stress and fear leads to conflict, obsession, and deceit for the couple and brings back episodes from the husband’s childhood when he wronged a young Algerian boy

  •  AV 843 CLA            The class           

 François and his fellow teachers prepare for a new year at a high school in a tough neighborhood. Armed with the best intentions, they brace themselves to not let discouragement stop them from trying to give the best education to their students. Cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom, a microcosm of contemporary France. As amusing and inspiring as the teenaged students can be, their difficult behavior can still jeopardize any teacher’s enthusiasm for the low-paying job. François insists on an atmosphere of respect and diligence. Neither stuffy nor severe, his extravagant frankness often takes the students by surprise. But his classroom ethics are put to the test when his students begin to challenge his methods. In French with English subtitles.

  •  AV 843 IND            Indochine           

Set in French Indochina in the 1930s as the Vietnamese begin to rebel against French colonialism. Dramatizes the last years of French rule through the relationship between plantation owner Éliane, French by birth but born and raised in Indochina, and her adopted daughter Camille, an orphaned Annamese princess who becomes a Vietnamese revolutionary and representative at the Geneva Conference after having a child by French officer Jean-Baptiste, Éliane’s past lover. In French with English subtitles.

  • AV 843 RIV            Va savoir : (Who knows?)           

 While in Paris in a tour of the Italian play “Como Tu Mi Vuoi”, the lead actress Camille, who is living with the director Ugo Bassani, recalls and misses her former love Pierre. She visits his apartment and meets his partner Sonia. Meanwhile Ugo is searching for a lost play by Goldoni, and meets the charming French Dominique that helps him to find in her mother’s private library. Meanwhile, Do’s smalltime crook stepbrother Arthur seduces Sonia to steal her expensive ring. In French with English subtitles.

  •  AV 843 VAL            The valet           

Pierre Levasseur is an important CEO who is photographed with his lover, Elena, a world-famous model. In an attempt to salvage his marriage, he tries to convince his wife that Elena is not his lover, but that of François Pignon, the porter who was passing by and ended up on the photograph. To make his story believable, Levasseur convinces Pignon and Elena to move in together and to pretend to be a couple. Things get more complicated when this creates tensions between Pignon and his former flatmate Richard and his love interest Émilie. Ultimately, Levasseur’s wife discovers the truth and decides to play games with her husband.

  •  AV 863 NOR            El norte           

Beginning in the mountains of Guatemama, El Norte is the story of two brothers who leave their homeland in search of the “promised land” after their father is assassinated by the government. It is a journey filled with never-to-be forgotten dangers and hardships. A dangerous journey that makes for a better life. In Spanish with English subtitles

  • AV 938 LAS            Last stand of the 300 : the legendary battle of Thermopylae           

 Provides a detailed account of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., a clash in which a small Greek army, led by three hundred Spartan soldiers, held off the vast Persian military for seven full days–fighting down to the last man.

  • AV 940.53 WWI            A new world order : Total war           

Presents recently re-discovered color archival materials that provide a unique new perspective on World War II and those who fought it. Includes footage of the war’s most critical battles and key personalities.

  • AV 940.53 WWI            Triumph and despair           

Presents recently re-discovered color archival materials that provide a unique new perspective on World War II and those who fought it. Includes footage of the war’s most critical battles and key personalities.

  • AV 940.531835 DAN            The Danish solution : the rescue of the Jews in Denmark           

When the Final Solution was attempted in Denmark the plan was averted and over 95 percent of the country’s Jewish population survived the war. Examines how and why the Jews, helped by a massive citizen-driven action, escaped the Nazi’s blueprint for their extermination.

  • AV 958.1 SEA            Search for the Afghan girl           

Photographer, Steve McCurry captured a picture of an Afghan refugee girl with haunting green eyes that would become a global symbol of wartime dignity, resilience, and survival. Since 1985 McCurry and National Geographic has been inudated with queries concerning the identity of anonymous girl. Follow the amazing story of how the National Geographic Explorer team searched for the mysterious girl with cutting-edge eye-scanning and face recognition technology to crack the ultimate “missing person” case.

  • AV 972.94 EGA            Égalité for all : Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian revolution           

Explores the history of the Haitian Revolution through music, voodoo ritual, recreations, and the works of writers and historians.

  • AV 973.91 HAT            The cats of Mirikitani : make art not war           

Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy’s painful past.

  • AV B EIN            Einstein revealed

Examines the life of Albert Einstein, following the path he took to become the world’s most renowned physicist, discusses the effects of his work on his personal life, and provides explanations and animations of his ideas and theories. Originally produced as an episode of the television program Nova in 1996.

  • AV B PER            Evita : the woman behind the myth   

A History Channel production.

  • AV F IRO            Iron jawed angels           

Dramatizes the story of activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns who played pivotal roles in the fight to win voting rights for women.

  • AV F O            “O”           

O is Odin James, a star high school basketball player and NBA hopeful. Although the only black student at the elite Palmetto Grove Academy, he is adored by all, including the team’s coach and the Dean’s beautiful daughter, Desi. Odin’s troubled friend Hugo, the coach’s son, is deeply resentful of his father’s preference for Odin on and off the court. When Hugo plots a diobolical scheme to sow the seed of mistrust between O and Desi, it sets in motion a disturbing chain of events which erupts into a firestorm of breathtaking intensity.

  • AV F OCC            An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge           

 As a man accused of Civil War sabotage stands on the gallows in the moments before his death, his final thoughts and memories are revealed. From a story by Ambrose Bierce.

New Movies

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About 30 new movies have been added to the collection so far this year. Be sure to browse all the way to the bottom!

  • AV 294.3 BUD            The Buddha : the story of Siddhartha

Tells the story of the Indian sage who attained enlightenment as he sat beneath a fig tree 2500 years ago. The Buddha never claimed to be God or God’s emissary on earth. He was a human being who, in a world of unavoidable pain and suffering, found a serenity that he taught others to find also. The film draws upon paintings and sculptures as well as scenes in India today that echo the Buddha’s world of long ago. The testimony of contemporary Buddhist, including poet W.S. Merwin and his Holiness the Dalai Lama, provide insight into the ancient narrative.

  • AV 302.23 DIG            Digital nation

Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is tur 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we’ve gained? This program presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st century digital world.

  • AV 333.822 BUR            Burning the future : coal in America

Coal provides half of America’s electricy, but at what cost? Though rhetoric about ‘clean coal’ abounds, 36% of US global warming emissions comes from our coal-burning plants. This film examines the forces that have set in motion a groundswell of conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. Faced with toxic ground water, the obliteration of acres of mountains, and a government that appeases industry, ordinary citizens launch a valiant fight to arouse the nation’s help in protecting their mountains, saving their families and preserving their way of life.

  • AV 338.19 FOO            Food, inc. : a Robert Kenner film

Lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing how our food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profits ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

  • AV 522 TEL            Telescope : hunting the edge of space

Provides an overview of the history of the telescope and discusses how the technology has been used to learn about the universe.

  • AV 523.1 JOU            Journey to the edge of the universe

This film presents a non-stop voyage from Earth to the edge of the universe using a single, unbroken shot through the use of CGI technology. Building on images taken from the Hubble Telescope, the film explores the science and history behind the distant celestial bodies in the solar system.

  • AV 536 ABS            Absolute zero

Brings the history of human understanding of the concept of cold to life, with dramatic recreations of high moments in low-temperature research and the quest for ever-lower notches on the thermometer.

  • AV 551.3 EXT            Extreme ice

Follows the progress of photojournalist James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey, the largest photographic story ever attempted of the cryosphere, the large mantle of ice that covers large portions of the Earth and that plays a critical role in weather.

  • AV 551.46 DRA            Drain the ocean : see what lies beneath our seas

Three-quarters of Earth is an alien world, lying beneath the surface of the oceans. And although it encompasses over half of the world’s species, we know more about the surface of Mars than the bottom of the ocean. If we could remove the water, what would we see? This film explores one of Earth’s last great frontiers as never before — revealing unimaginable landscapes more dramatic than anything on dry land.

  • AV 575            Life

From the makers of Planet Earth, this series explores the more colorful strategies the world’s creatures employ to procreate, evade predators, and obtain nourishment.

  • AV 576.8 WHA            What Darwin never knew

On the 150th anniversary of the publication of “The Origin of Species”, NOVA reveals answers to the riddles that Darwin couldn’t explain. Stunning breakthroughs in a brand new science — nicknamed “evo devo” — are linking the enigma of origins to another of nature’s great mysteries, the development of an embryo.

  • AV 709.2 CLO            The mystery of Picasso (In French with English subtitles)

An historical document explores the mind and motivations of Picasso as he creates over 15 works before the camera.

  • AV 770.92 PHO            The photographers

Photographers who have worked for National Geographic reflect on their art.

  • AV 775 DIG            Digital Digest photography : Video segments on digital photography

Covers the basics of digital photography including the camera, f-stops, and shutter speeds, ISO selection, exposure, the rule of thirds and odds, saving, storing, and printing files, memory, batteries, flash, and more.

  • AV 786.2 NOT            Note by note : the making of Steinway L1037

Follows the creation of a Steinway concert grand piano from forest floor to concert hall. Each piano’s journey is complex, spanning 12 months, 12,000 parts, 450 craftsmen, and countless hours of fine-tuned labor.

  • AV 811 POE            Poetry Lounge : spoken word and the art of self-expression

Learn the fundamentals of writing and performing “spoken word” poetry by watching slam champions as they perform their work, share their inspiration, and describe writing techniques for this format.

  • AV 844 ETR            Etre et avoir (In French with English subtitles)

At the center of this intimate and touching story is Georges Lopez – a remarkably devoted teacher responsible for nurturing a dozen children ages 3-11 in all their school subjects and life’s lessons. Demonstrates how a teacher, if well trained, dedicated and sensitive to a child’s educational and emotional needs, can hugely influence a generation of children at their most critical time of development.

  • AV 863 LIK            Like water for chocolate  (In Spanish with English subtitles)

Romantic fantasy set in the early 20th century about a young couple blocked from marrying by the demands of her cold and selfish mother. To be near his love, the young man marries her sister, and she expresses her passion for him through her cooking.

Based on the novel by Laura Esquivel

  • AV 863 PAN            Pan’s Labyrinth  (In Spanish with English subtitles)

Set in 1944 Spain, against the backdrop of anti-Franco guerilla warfare, young Ofelia and her mother go to live with her new stepfather on a rural military outpost. Ofelia finds herself in a world of unimaginable cruelty. Soon she finds the creatures of her imagination in which she used to escape have become a reality and she must battle them to save both her mother and herself. In the terrifying fight that ensues, Ofelia soon learns that innocence has a power that evil cannot understand.

  • AV 909.83 APR            April 14, 2009

Correspondent Sharmeen Obaid investigates the increasing power and influence of a new branch of the Taliban in Pakistan that is helping make the country one of the Obama administration’s top foreign policy concerns. Also, a look at South Korea, a country that’s embraced the wired world more thoroughly than any other and is now potentially facing a new public health crisis: internet addiction.

  • AV 937 ANC            Ancient Rome : The mobile society

Featuring interviews with expert scholars and practical demonstrations of ancient tools, this video examines the marvel of Roman roads.

  • AV 937 ANC            Ancient Rome : the rise of apartments

Explores how the ancient Romans inhabited multistory apartments more than 2,000 years ago. These apartments provided more than just places to live — offering baths, cleaners, and restaurants, all housed in complexes that were several stories high. Visits the Roman baths still in use today in England.

  • AV 951.04 NAN            Nanking

In 1937 the Japanese army invaded China’s capital city, unleashing a horrific onslaught of murder and rape. Incredibly, a small group of Westerners who stayed behind saved thousands. Using interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage and readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries, this tragic chapter in history is brought to life.

  • AV 974.71044 SAC            Sacred ground

This documentary examines the controversy surrounding the plans to rebuild on the site of the World Trade Center after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.

  • AV F ANN            Annabel Lee & other tales of mystery and imagination

Short film renditions of some of Poe’s classic horror stories.

  • AV F DAN            Dances with wolves

A former Union soldier is assigned to an abandoned fort within Sioux Indian territory, where he learns to love and respect his Native American neighbors and chooses to share in their hardships.

Based on the novel by Michael Blake.

  • AV F GLO            Glory

Two idealistic young Bostonians lead the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, America’s first Black regiment in the Civil War.

  • AV F I                        I, Claudius

In this BBC miniseries Derek Jacobi plays Roman Emperor Claudius, who reflects in old age on his life and his remarkable family, giving us a history lesson that’s unlike anything you learned in school.

  • AV F MAS            Masada

The story of the siege of 980 when zealot Jews who escaped the Roman sacking of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. took refuge in a palace on the mountain of Masada.

Based on the novel: The antagonists / by Ernest J. Gaines.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1981.

  • AV F TRO            Troy

In 1193 BC, Prince Paris, the son of the King of Troy, falls in love with Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, and convinces her to follow him away from her husband Menelaus. This results in an epic war. The Greeks sail to Troy and lay siege. Achilles, the greatest warrior in all the world, is called in to fight against Troy and give Greece the upper hand. Hector, the eldest son of Priam, King of Troy, and the greatest Trojan warrior, embodies the hopes of the people of his city.

More fodder for the Wikipedia debate!

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Whenever our students mention Wikipedia, they assume that there is a ‘school rule’ forbidding its use. Is there such a thing? I’m sure we all use Wikipedia for our own information needs, and I know students use it all the time! Do we discuss Wikipedia at all with our students? Do we set guidelines for its use?

A recent study conducted by Project Information Literacy at the University of Washington examines college students’ use of Wikipedia for course-related research. Their findings are enlightening. They report that most students use Wikipedia in the way that we would like them to use any general encyclopedia: as a presearch tool, to get an overview on a topic in language they can understand, to help them get started on research. I was relieved to read that college students also use a wide variety of other resources, including online databases.

I feed validated in my belief that we must teach students to use multiple resources when they do research, and I’m gratified to know that all Yarmouth High School students have at least some experience with online databases before they graduate. How about you? Have you ever asked your students about their use of Wikipedia? Do you think that they should sometime explore further in doing work for your classes?

When I talk with kids about Wikipedia I tell them I’d like them to become such experts in a topic that they can contribute to Wikipedia, not just use it; that my goal is for them to be creators of good information, not just consumers. Although Wikipedia and Google are important tools, there’s more required to attain deep understanding.

New Movies in 2010!

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Here’s a summary of the films that have been added to our collection this year. Enjoy!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

AV 200.92 THR    Through the Eastern gate (DVD)
Documents the aspirations, practices, and beliefs of three young Westerners who follow three different Eastern spiritual traditions. An intimate, compelling look at the people who turn their backs on materialism to find new meaning in their lives.

AV 305.892 JEW    The Jewish people : a story of survival (DVD)
Recounts the survival of the Jewish people throughout time, covering slavery, the loss of their homeland, exile, anti-Semitism, pogroms, the Holocaust, and other obstacles.

AV 336.3 IOU    I. O. U. S. A. : one nation, under stress, in debt (DVD)
I.O.U.S.A. tells the story of America in debt. Faced with key deficits in budget, savings, trade, and leadership, increased foreign competition and ballooning financial obligations, the federal government is critically overextended. With the economy already in shambles, 78 million baby boomers are now expecting retirement benefits from their indebted federal government.

AV 364.16 RAP    The rape of Europa (DVD)
A documentary film that explores the efforts of Europeans, Russians, and Americans to save the historic artwork of Europe during World War II, which was being looted, hidden, stolen, and destroyed by Adolph Hitler and the Nazi forces; and features interviews with eyewitnesses and historians, and newsreel footage.

AV 915.1 CHI    China from the inside (DVD)
China is rapidly becoming a world power, but much of the country and its people remain hidden to those outside its borders. This video includes visits to temples in Tibet, border areas of Muslim Xinjiang, Communist Party meetings, a village election, court rooms, newspaper offices, a women’s labor camp, and a country wedding.

AV 915.1 WIL    Wild China : a land of history, mystery and extraordinary diversity (DVD)
Location footage and commentary examine the landscape, wildlife, and people of China.

AV 951 CHI    China revealed (DVD)
Get a fresh perspective on China, one of the world’s richest cultures, as you hear individual life stories told through the eyes of the locals.

AV 951 LOS    The lost world of Tibet : a different view (DVD)
Features archival communist propaganda films to examine what Tibet was like from the 1930s to 1950.

AV 954 IND    India rising : NOW June 20, 2008 (DVD)
The global middle class is expected to swell by more than one billion people over the next decade, with the biggest increases in China and India. NOW reports from Pune, India to see if America’s middle class — and the rest of the world — can afford this unprecedented shift in the global economy.

AV 954 STO    The story of India (DVD)
This ‘ten thousand year epic’ uncovers the fabulous sights, sounds and dazzling achievements of the world’s oldest and most influential civilization. From the deserts of Turkmenistan to the Khyber Pass and the plains of Pakistan, from the Himalayas to the palm-fringed shores of Kerala, we discover a land whose past is almost unimaginably rich and which includes some of the most momentous and moving events in world history.

AV 956.94 JER    Jerusalem : center of the world (DVD)
Traces the history of Jerusalem and the city’s Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities, covering over 4,000 years including the city’s founding and major events described in the Hebrew and Christian Bible the Talmud, the Hagaddah, the Koran, and the Hadith.

AV 958.1 DAU    Daughters of Afghanistan (DVD)
Journalist Sally Armstrong exposes the ongoing struggles of women in modern Afghanistan by following the lives of five courageous women from diverse backgrounds.

AV 958.1 FIX    The fixer : Afghanistan behind the scenes (DVD)
When foreign journalists are working in hostile environments, they often rely on a local to set up interviews, interpret conversations, and provide links and leads to people and stories. In this documentary, Aaron Rockett follows a BBC journalist and his fixer, and travels through Afghanistan and Pakistan.

AV 958.1 OLD    The fixer : the taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (DVD)
In 2007, 24-year-old Ajmal Naqshbandi, a journalist and ‘fixer’, was captured alongside an Italian reporter by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Italian journalist was released; Naqshbandi was not. This film follows Ajmal in the months before his capture as he travels with an American journalist, translating, securing meetings with warlords, and sharing his views on his country. The film also explores the convoluted aftermath of the kidnapping, revealing the shady details of a botched hostage negotiation and offers insight into the complicated relationship between western journalists and their local guides.

AV 958.104 AFG    Afghanistan : 12 years of violence (DVD)
Examines Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, discussing the Soviet invasion, the country’s descent into tribal war, and the rise of the Taliban.

AV 962.7 SAN    Sand and sorrow : a new documentary about Darfur (DVD)
Details the historical events that have given rise to the Arab-dominated Darfur government’s willingness to kill and displace its own indigenous African people, and examines the international community’s ‘legacy of failure’ to respond to such profound crimes against humanity in the past.

AV 92 MIC    Michelangelo revealed (DVD)
A stunning new picture of cautious religious expression, personal vendettas, careful coverups, and a most gifted artist desperately trying to reconcile his loyalty to the Church with his own personal belief about the road to salvation.

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY:

AV 531 PHY    Physics demonstrations in mechanics (8 DVDs) Fun viewing for some!

Building Big series (DVD) David Macauley’s excellent series about engineering marvels

  • AV 624 BUI    Building big bridges (DVD)
  • AV 624.1 BUI    Building big tunnels (DVD)
  • AV 690 BUI    Building big skyscrapers (DVD)
  • AV 690.146 BUI    Building big domes  (DVD)
  • AV 726 BUI    Building big dams

AV 92 NEW    Newton’s dark secrets : the first modern scientist and the last of the ancient magicians (DVD)
Newton was a 17th century Einstein, who reduced nature’s chaos to a single set of laws and revolutionized the thinking and outlook of his age. But in the midst of his astonishing breakthroughs in physics, optics, and calculus, Isaac Newton was also searching out hidden meanings in the Bible and pursuing the covert art of alchemy, the changing of base metals into gold.

ART/ART HISTORY:

AV 704.9 EAS    Easter in art (DVD)
In this three part program, Tim Marlow explores the Easter story as depicted in art, from the time of the early Christians to the present day.

AV 726.5 FIV    500 years of Saint Peter’s (DVD)
Discusses the construction of the new St. Peter’s Cathedral, starting on April 18th, 1506, when chief architect Donato Bramante supervised the laying of the foundation stone, symbolizing a shift for the Roman Catholic church and establishing a course for the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.

AV 759 EVE    Every picture tells a story (DVD)
Art critic Waldemar Januszczak analyzes eight European paintings to examine the stories behind them. Includes a viewer’s guide, artist biographies, and other special features.

MUSIC:

AV 780.79 BRU    Beyond the practice room (DVD)
Probes the complicated issue of who is or isn’t a child prodigy. Filmed backstage during the prestigious New York Piano Competition in June 2004, teens, 14 – 18, vie for money, medals and priceless performance opportunities. The contestants, from 13 states, six countries, started at the piano as early as two, as late as seven. But they share a single-mindedness about music; they also share various forms of stage- or performance-fright, overlaying the natural state of teen-age angst. Nothing deters them from the competition, especially if there is a prodding parent nearby.

ENGLISH:

AV F GRE    The great Gatsby (DVD)

Starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, this is “an opulent evocation of an era of hot jazz and cold champagne, of women as exotic and demanding as hothouse flowers, and of lives made soft by too much, too soon.”

AV F IMP    The importance of being earnest (DVD)
The hilarious adventure of two dashing young bachelors and the outrageous deceptions they find themselves in over love.

AV F INT    Into the wild (DVD)
Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, Christopher McCandless walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people – a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature. Based on a true story.

AV F LOR    Lord of the flies (DVD)
A group of English schoolboys is stranded on an uncharted island at the start of the “next war.” Their efforts at survival spiral out of control in this chilling modern fable.

AV F NOR    North by northwest (DVD)
A Manhattan advertising executive is plunged into a realm of spy and counterspy and variously abducted, framed for murder, chased and crop-dusted.

AV F OF    Of mice and men (DVD)
Best friends Lennie and George find themselves unemployed in Depression-era California, unble to keep jobs because of Lennie’s childlike mentality. But once they get hired at the Tyler Ranch, they enjoy a brief period of stability — until their supervisor’s wife becomes the victim of Lennie’s compassion, forcing George to make a compassionate decision of his own. (from the DVD case)

AV 822.33 OTH    Othello (DVD)

Three versions of the play: the 2004 edition directed by Trevor Nunn, the 1995 production, and the Laurence Olivier version.

AV 822.33 ROM    Romeo & Juliet   (DVD)
Presents the Franco Zefferelli production of Shakespeare’s tragedy about two teenagers who fall in love, encounter opposition from their families, and take their own lives.

AV 822.33 ROM    William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet  (DVD)
This unconventional adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragic story of youthful star-crossed lovers is set in a futuristic Verona Beach. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

AV 822.33 ROM    William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet : with John Barrymore  (DVD)

FRENCH:

AV 843 HIR    Une hirondelle a fait le printemps (DVD) (One Sparrow Brought Spring)

HOLOCAUST STUDIES:

AV 92 WIE    I have never forgotten you : the life and legacy of Simon Wiesenthal (DVD)
Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor who lost 89 family members, helped track down over 1,100 Nazi war criminals and spent six decades fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people.

AV 940.53 GEN    Genocide (DVD)
Graphically depicts the events of the Holocaust through the use of contemporary newsfilm and still photos and the reminiscences of survivors.

AV 940.53 IMA    Imaginary witness : Hollywood and the Holocaust (DVD)
Explores Hollywood’s involvement with and attitude towards one of the most horrific events in world history, exploring Nazism, post-war years and the end of the 20th century.

AV 940.53 INT    Into the arms of strangers : stories of the Kindertransport (DVD)
Recounts the rescue operation, known as Kindertransport, that saved more than 10,000 Jewish and other children from the Nazi regime.

AV 940.53 UNL    Unlikely heroes (DVD)
Highlights previously unknown stories of the Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

AV 940.5318 LIB    Liberation (DVD)
Begins in 1942, when the struggling Allies began envisioning an invasion of Europe. The film reveals the strategies and deceptions on the battlefield, exploring those fateful years in panoramic detail. The film also documents the compelling stories of the Jews of Europe – their tragedy, courage, resistance and survival.

AV 940.55 EVE    Ever again (DVD)
Examines the resurgence of violent anti-Semitism in Europe and its connection to international terrorism currently threatening the entire world. Exposes the dangerous Islamic extremism and culture of death being preached from mosques of Europe’s major cities and the new neo-Nazism spreading from Germany. Documents the anti-Semitic roots of terrorist attacks in Madrid and London which left hundreds dead and thousands wounded. Examines the shift from the traditional anti-Semitism of the right to the new anti-Semitism of the extreme left.

AV 940.55 LON    The long way home (DVD)
Examines the critical post-World War II period from 1945-1948 and the plight of tens of thousands of refugees who survived the Nazi Holocaust but whom most of the world left to fend for themselves. Their clandestine attempts to get to the Jewish homeland led to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

AV 947.52 ECH    Echoes that remain (DVD)
A study of Jewish shtetl life before the Holocaust. Combines hundreds of rare archival photos and previously unseen film footage, with live action sequences shot on location at the sites of former Jewish communities in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania

AV 956.94 BEA    Beautiful music / In search of peace (DVD)
Beautiful Music is an intimate and poignant look at the 18-year relationship between a music teacher and her student – an Orthodox Jewish woman and a blind, autistic Palestinian girl with an incredible gift for classical piano.

In Search of Peace Part One: 1948-1967 chronicles the first two decades of Israel’s existence, offering new insights into the origins of the Middle East conflict.

FEATURE FILMS FOR LATIN:

AV F CLA    Clash of the Titans (DVD)

Olympian gods, mythological monsters and heroic mortals populate this imaginative spectacle.

AV F FUN    A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum (DVD)
When a wily, witty, lying, lazy, cheating slave discovers that his master’s son is in love with the girl-next-door – a virgin courtesan – he promises to help win her heart in exchange for his freedom. But the road to romance is blocked with stunning surprises, cunning disguises – and the wildest chariot race ever!

AV F SPA    Spartacus (DVD)
The story of Spartacus, the bold gladiator slave and Varinia, the woman who believed in him. When challenged by the power-hungry General Crassus, Spartacus is forced to face his convictions and the power of the Roman Empire at its glorious height.

New Books! (mostly non-fiction)

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001.9 GLA    Glad you asked : intriguing names, facts, and ideas for the curious-minded.

  • By Michael Feldman, the host of the weekly public radio program, “Whad’ya Know?” and Encyclopedia Britannica; this little book is just the thing for trivia contests and random conversation-starters.

070.4 LEF    Buried by the Times : the Holocaust and America’s most important newspaper.

  • Examines how the New York Times failed in its coverage of the Holocaust from 1939 to 1945, exploring how the decisions of the people in charge of the newspaper resulted in the minimizing and misunderstanding of the Holocaust and its impact on European Jews.

133.10222 WIL    Ghosts caught on film : photographs of the paranormal.

  • “Photographic” evidence of ghosts!

153 HAL    Why we make mistakes : how we look without seeing, forget things in seconds, and are all pretty sure we are way above average.

  • A lively exploration of human error — how we think, see, remember, and forget, and how this sets us up for wholly irresistible mistakes.

153.44 GLA    Blink : the power of thinking without thinking.

  • Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading, translating research into splendid storytelling. He builds his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers and persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of “thin slices” of behavior.

155.5 SAV    The secret lives of boys : inside the raw emotional world of male teen.

  • Author Malina Saval introduces us to ten very different teenage boys and makes a compelling case for the so-called problem with adolescent males being not the boys, but an overreliance on statistics and norms to tell their stories.

170 WEI    Is it still cheating if I don’t get caught?

  • A guide to help you make good decisions in many situations both in school and in the ‘real world’.

302 GLA    Outliers: the story of success.

  • Why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” Malcolm Gladwell here makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.”

320.6096 MAA    The challenge for Africa.

  • Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, offers a refreshingly unique perspective on the challenges facing Africa, even as she calls for a moral revolution among Africans themselves, who, she argues, are culturally deracinated, adrift between worlds.

320.973 HEN    The United States Constitution : a graphic adaptation.

  • An entertaining and memorable introduction to America’s founding document that brings its important elements to life in a comic book format.

324.973 THO    A long time coming : the inspiring, combative 2008 campaign and the historic election of Barack Obama.

  • Chronicles the long siege between Obama and Hillary Clinton, the wild ride of John McCain, and the explosive arrival of Sarah Palin. Finally, it shows how Obama overcame times of vexation and self-doubt to transform himself from the consummate outsider to the confident leader of an unstoppable political movement—one that brought hope and the possibility of redemption to the United States.

325.73 BAU    Denied, detained, deported : stories from the dark side of American immigration.

  • Discusses the part that immigrants took in the history of the United States including racism, prejudice, political concerns, and fear which shows that they were not always welcomed.

330.9 EPP    The 21st century economy : a beginner’s guide : with 101 easy-to-learn tools for surviving and thriving in the new global market place.

  • Uses compelling narratives and insightful analogies to clearly and concisely explain the rapidly changing way business is don in the 21st century, all without a single chart or graph.

338.951 STR    China in the 21st century : a new world power.

  • A brief study of the history, economic, and technological growth of China in the twenty-first century and its status as a new world power.

347.732634 SCH    Secret lives of the Supreme Court : what your teachers never told you about America’s legendary Justices.

  • An irreverent look at the lives, personalities, and history of this exclusive club, with profiles of everyone from John Jay and William Howard Taft to Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and John Roberts.

394.1209 STA    An edible history of humanity.

  • Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes — caused, enabled, or influenced by food — has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.

510 BAR    100 essential things you didn’t know you didn’t know : math explains your world.

  • Author John Barrow comprehensively explodes the myths that mathematics is limited to what we learn at school and that none of it is useful in the real world. This dip-in-anywhere book shows you the hidden mathematics behind diamond cutting, high finance, even standing in line. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know why we need mathematics.

510 TAT    Geekspeak : how life + mathematics = happiness.

  • In this friendly primer, UK “freelance engineer” Graham Tattersall guides readers through 26 “problems” meant to demonstrate how anyone can benefit from some armchair arithmetic.

519.2 BRU    Conned again, Watson! : cautionary tales of logic, math, and probability

  • Presents twelve Sherlock Holmes stories that use mathematics to show the fallibility of common sense.

539.764 SEI    Sun in a bottle : the strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking.

  • The quest for fusion energy has been a failure ever since the discovery of its power. This book explores the history of this futile effort, introducing the reader to an amazing cast of heroes and villains along the way.

551.6 SCH    Climate change : picturing the science.

  • Seeks to advance public education about human-induced climate change in a combination of arresting images and lucid explanations of the science of global warming and the pursuit of global cooperation in adopting new, sustainable ways of living.

551.63 DIC    Man vs. weather : how to be your own weatherman.

  • A humorous and practical romp through the history and science of understanding weather, offering up the tricks that will beat weather at its own game.

576.8 EVO    Evolution : the first four billion years.

  • A collection of essays that deal with the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, the major theoretical and empirical questions in the science, and the social and political significance of evolutionary biology today.

576.839 SHO    Confessions of an alien hunter : a scientist’s search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

  • Written by an astronomer with the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project, this book reveals the true story of our search for life beyond our planet and discloses what we may soon discover.

577.22 BAR    Heatstroke : nature in an age of global warming.

  • Author Anthony Barnosky claims that we’re not just heating up the planet; we are changing its basic character.

590 CON    Swimming with piranhas at feeding time : my life doing dumb stuff with animals.

  • Field journalist Richard Conniff examines the lives of two-, four-, six-, and eight-legged creatures from around the globe, providing adventure-packed accounts of his many ill advised forays into the animal kingdom. He pulls a 90-pound snapping turtle out of a Louisiana bayou, tracks leopards with !Kung San hunters in the Namibian desert, and travels through the Himalayas in pursuit of tigers and the mythical migur, and more!

597.8097 ELL    The frogs and toads of North America : a comprehensive guide to their identification, behavior, and calls.

  • Includes a CD with frog calls!

599.7764 HAM    Arctic fox : life at the top of the world.

  • Beautiful photographs accompany this fascinating story of the life and natural history of the Arctic fox, a true survivor of the north.

612 MAC    The way we work : getting to know the amazing human body.

  • David Macauley uses his wonderfully precise and lively drawing techniques to explain the human body and how it works.

612 WAL    Dr. Frankenstein’s human body book : the monstrous truth about how your body works.

  • Dr. Frankenstein presents an anatomical look at the human body, its parts and functions.

623.441 BOO    Swords : an artist’s devotion.

  • A comprehensive history and appreciation of this most basic and effective weapon.

629.45 NEL    Rocket men : the epic story of the first men on the moon.

  • Using interviews, NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA material, Craig Nelson has produced a magnificent, very readable account of the steps that led to the success of Apollo 11.

636.8 MYR    Dewey : the small-town library cat who touched the world.

  • One frigid Midwestern winter night in 1988, a ginger kitten was shoved into the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. And in this tender story, Myron, the library director, tells of the impact the cat, named DeweyReadmore Books, had on the library and its patrons, including Myron herself.

641.3 MEN    What the world eats.

  • A photographic collection exploring what the world eats featuring portraits of twenty-five families from twenty-one countries surrounded by a week’s worth of food.

741.51 BAR    What it is.

  • In this indescribable book Lynda Barry, the writer and graphic novelist, explores the creative process and her own development as an artist.

796.323 DAV    When March went mad : the game that transformed basketball.

  • Recounts the dramatic story of the season leading up to the final game of the 1979 NCAA tournament, as “Magic” Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans and Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores overcame long odds and great doubts that their unheralded teams could compete at the highest level. Though they played each other only once, that meeting launched an epic rivalry, transformed the NCAA tournament into the multibillion-dollar event it is today, and laid the groundwork for the resurgence of the NBA.

796.34 WER    Strokes of genius : Federer, Nadal, and the greatest match ever played.

  • “Like the singular match that inspired it, this account of the 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is compelling from the get-go.” (Booklist) A must-read for any tennis fan or player.

796.3573 WEB    As they see ’em : a fan’s travels in the land of umpires.

  • An entertaining account of the author’s experience as he enrolls in umpire training school and researches in baseball parks across the country as well as a lively exploration of what amounts to an eccentric secret society, with its own customs, its own rituals,  and its own colorful vocabulary.

808.81 ESS    Essential pleasures : a new anthology of poems to read aloud.

  • Compiled by Robert Pinsky, America’s Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2000; this anthology includes a CD of the editor reading many of his selections.

818.34 THO    The Thoreau you don’t know : what the prophet of environmentalism really meant.

  • In this slyly philosophical inquiry, author Robert Sullivan aims to free Henry David Thoreau from his calcified reputation as a cantankerous hermit and nature worshipper. Sounding like your favorite teacher who manages to make history fun and relevant, Sullivan vibrantly portrays the sage of Walden as a geeky, curious, compassionate fellow of high intelligence and deep feelings who loved company, music, and long walks.

822.33 SHA    Julius Caesar.

  • The original language of Shakespeare brought to life in a comic-book format.

909.81 EVE    Events that changed the world in the nineteenth century.

  • Describes and evaluates the global impact of ten of the nineteenth century’s most important events.

909.826 KAU    1968.

  • Explores the events of 1968, a seminal year around the world; from the protests in New York and Paris to the war in Vietnam, from the heights of the Civil Rights movement to the first flights of the Apollo moon mission.

910.45 SEK    Terror on the seas : true tales of modern-day pirates.

  • Recent headlines attest that piracy hasn’t gone the way of the great sailing ships of past centuries. Here, Daniel Sekulich takes readers on an eye-opening voyage into today’s world of high seas piracy, a multinational, multibillion-dollar enterprise controlled by organized crime syndicates and local warlords.

915.104 CHI    China.
A region-by-region travel guide to China that covers the country’s history, culture, and landscapes and provides color photos, cutaway illustrations of architecture, maps, practical information, and details on sights to see, things to do, lodgings, and restaurants.

940.53 WIE    After the darkness : reflections on the Holocaust

  • Elie Wiesel chronicles the events of the Holocaust from the rise of Hitler to the liberation, presenting photos from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and including commentary by a child of a survivor on the importance of bearing witness into the twenty-first century.

940.5317 SAI    The Jewish women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp

  • Draws on more than sixty narratives and interviews to chronicle the experiences of Jewish women held at Ravensbruck, the only major Nazi concentration camp for women, during World War II.

940.5318 GOL    Hitler’s willing executioners : ordinary Germans and the Holocaust

  • A study of how and why the Holocaust occurred, presenting the author’s conclusions about the perpetrators of the Holocaust, German antisemitism, and the nature of German society during the Nazi period, arguing that the German people were willing participants in the brutalization and murder of Jews.

940.5318 HOS    Death dealer : The memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschitz.

  • This first complete English translation of a senior Nazi officer’s account of the Final Solution describes in cold, stomach-churning detail the program of genocide as an administrative procedure.

940.5318 NEU    The society of terror : inside the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps

  • Paul Neurath chronicles the experiences he had as a Jewish political prisoner in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps from April 1, 1938 to May 27, 1939.

940.531821 ABZ    America views the Holocaust, 1933-1945 : a brief documentary history

  • Sixty primary sources, including news clippings, speeches, letters, and magazine articles, trace the resurgence of anti-Semitic practices in the United States from 1933 to 1945.

943.086 NEL    Red Orchestra : the story of the Berlin underground and the circle of friends who resisted Hitler.

  • A story of domestic resistance to the Nazi regime; the Red Orchestra was a group of German artists, intellectuals, and bureaucrats, who risked their lives to subvert and uncover the brutal secrets of their fascist employers and oppressors.

943.086 RAM    Reinhard Heydrich : hangman of the Third Reich.

  • Chronicles the life of Reinhard Heydrich, who led the Nazi police organization, the Gestapo, and commanded the death camps, describing his activities in the Third Reich and his assassination in 1942 and providing historical context on Germany, a time line, a glossary, and lists of related resources.

943.0864 EVA    The Third Reich at war.

  • The final book of Richard J. Evans’s 3-volume history of the Third Reich, tracing the rise and demise of its military machine and the mobilization of the entire nation in the service of a war of conquest, racial subjugation and genocide.

943.84 BEY    Emmanuel Ringelblum : historian of the Warsaw ghetto.

  • Chronicles the life of Emmanuel Ringelblum, a Jewish historian who kept a documented history of life in the Warsaw Ghetto; covers his life from his childhood to his execution in 1944.

943.84 CAL    Mordechai Anielewicz : hero of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

  • Examines the life of Mordechai Anielewicz, an activist in Poland’s Jewish community who organized and led the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis during World War II as commander of the Jewish Combat Organization.

944.813 DRA    Pastor André Trocmé : spiritual leader of the French village Le Chambon

  • Provides a brief introduction to the life and work of French spiritual leader Pastor André Trocmé.

950 DIL    A brief political and geographic history of Asia : where are — Saigon, Kampuchea, and Burma.

  • Explores the cities of Saigon, Kampuchea, and Burma; discusses how they changed into Ho Chi Minh City, Cambodia, and Myanmar; and looks at the political and geographic histories of the Qin and Mughal Empires, the empires of the Great Kahn and Japan, and Tibet.

951.505 TIB    Tibet : Opposing viewpoints

  • A collection of essays that provide varying perspectives on issues facing Tibet, debating who should rule the country, if its cultural and ethnic diversity will survive Chinese rule, the benefits of Chinese central government, and major threats to the natural environment.

951.505 ROB    Freeing Tibet : 50 years of struggle, resilience, and hope

  • Recounts the first fifty years of Tibet’s struggle against occupation by China, covering secret CIA propaganda campaigns and the abandonment of freedom fighters in the Himalayas that resulted in the adoption of the cause by the counterculture of the 1960s, including many musicians, artists, celebrities, students, and world leaders.

951.506 SMI    China’s Tibet? : autonomy or assimilation.

  • Examines the efforts and methods used by China to assimilate Tibet in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and discusses Tibetan ethnic origins and national identity, Tibetan Buddhist culture, the Sino-Tibetan dialogue, and other related topics.

954.02 MAN    Taj Mahal.

  • In picture book format, this beautiful book recounts the history of the Mughal Empire and its peak creation: the Taj Mahal.

956.70443 ELL    Children of war : voices of Iraqi refugees

  • Discusses the children of Iraq and how they have survived in a war in which they played no part.

956.94 ARO    Unsettled : the problem of loving Israel.

  • Explores the history of Israel from its beginnings.

958.1045 GUI    The photographer: into war-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders.

  • Employs a comic-book format and hundreds of photos taken in the field to reveal the heroic, important work done in the midst of war by the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders.

973 PAN    Keys to American history : understanding our most important historic documents

  • Lucid discussions of the nation’s most important documents.

New Fiction

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We’ve just gotten a pile of new fiction  . . . .  keep reading!

  • The Alexander Cipher            by Will Adams

A debut, rip-roaring archeological thriller about the search for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great.

  • Wintergirls            by Laurie Halse Anderson

Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend’s death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.

  • City of Thieves : a novel     by David Benioff

During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

  • Zenith              by Julie Bertagna

After finding that New Mungo is not the refuge they sought, Mara, leaving Fox behind, again sets out to sea with a ship full of refugees and, with the help of the “Gipsea” boy Tuck, tries to find land at the top of the world that will be safe from storms and rising water. A sequel to Exodus.

  • What I Saw and How I Lied            by Judy Blundell

In 1947, with her jovial stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, teenage Evie, smitten by the handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe, finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome change her life and that of her family forever.

  • 3 Willows : the Sisterhood Grows            by Anne Brashares

Ama, Jo, and Polly, three close friends from Bethesda, Maryland, spend the summer before ninth grade learning about themselves, their families, and the changing nature of their friendship.

  • The Lost Symbol            by Dan Brown

Another page-turner from the author of The DaVinci Code.

  • Graceling            by Kristin Cashore

In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

  • Vengeance Child            by Simon Clark
Orphan Jay doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and nurse Laura Parris is determined to protect him. When she meets Victor Brodman, a widower, she wonders if she can finally reveal Jay’s disturbing past.
  • Crossing to Paradise               by Kevin Crossley-Holland

When fifteen-year-old Gatty, an illiterate field-girl who sings beautifully, is selected for a pilgrimage, she travels from her home on an English estate to London, Venice, and eventually Jerusalem, and experiences great changes in her circumstances and in herself.

  • Along For the Ride : a novel            by Sarah Dessen

When Auden impulsively goes to stay with her father, stepmother, and new baby sister the summer before she starts college, all the trauma of her parents’ divorce is revived, even as she is making new friends and having new experiences such as learning to ride a bike and dating.

  • Little Brother            by Cory Doctorow

After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

  • The Red Convertible : selected and new stories 1978-2008            by Louise Erdrich

Masculine women, gorgeous sports cars rich with family history, rugged plains, river currents, stubbornness and entropy wend through this spellbinding collection of ten new and 26 previously published stories.

  • Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side            by Beth Fantaskey

Seventeen-year-old Jessica, adopted and raised in Pennsylvania, learns that she is descended from a royal line of Romanian vampires and that she is betrothed to a vampire prince, who poses as a foreign exchange student while courting her.

  • If I Stay : a novel            by Gayle Forman

While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

  • The Graveyard Book            by Neil Gaiman

Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.

  • The Ingenious Edgar Jones : a novel               by Elizabeth Garner

The skies of Oxford are aflame with meteors the night Edgar Jones is born–clearly this impoverished porter’s son is no ordinary boy. While his mother is apprehensive about her restless, inquisitive child, Edgar’s father believes without a doubt that his son is destined for greatness. As the years pass, it becomes apparent that Edgar has a unique talent: He is a born inventor, and his gift for making is matched by a fierce will.

  • Eon : Dragoneye Reborn            by Alison Goodman

Sixteen-year-old Eon hopes to become an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune and learn to be its main interpreter, but to do so will require much, including keeping secret that she is a girl.

  • The Last Child              by John Hart

Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is—confident in a way that he can never fully explain.

  • The Great Wide Sea            by M.H. Herlong

Still mourning the death of their mother, three brothers go with their father on an extended sailing trip off the Florida Keys and have a harrowing adventure at sea.

  • Dark Dude            by Oscar Hijuelos

In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found even in the wholesome Midwest.

  • Sister Wife            by  Shelley Hrdlitschka

In this novel snatched from the headlines, Celeste becomes the wife of an older man, who has other wives; she wants more for herself, but rebelling would bring shame on her family.

  • The Juvie Three            by Gordon Korman

Gecko, Arjay, and Terence, all in trouble with the law, must find a way to keep their halfway house open in order to stay out of juvenile detention.

  • Unaccustomed Earth            by Jhumpa Lahiri

These eight stories by the author of The Namesake take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.

  • The Carbon Diaries 2015            by Saci Lloyd

In 2015, when England becomes the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing in a drastic bid to combat climate change, sixteen-year-old Laura documents the first year of rationing as her family spirals out of control.

  • A Lion Among Men            by Gregory Maguire

A third visit to the Land of Oz (after Wicked and Son of a Witch), this time in the company of the Cowardly Lion.

  • Cybele’s Secret                        by Juliet Marillier

Scholarly eighteen-year-old Paula and her merchant father journey from Transylvania to Istanbul to buy an ancient pagan artifact rumored to be charmed, but others, including a handsome Portuguese pirate and an envoy from the magical Wildwood, want to acquire the item, as well.

  • Hater                by David Moody

Vast numbers of the human population suddenly become irrationally violent, killing all who cross their path.  As the carnage mounts, one thing soon becomes clear: Everyone, irrespective of race, gender, age or class–has the potential to become either a Hater, or a victim. In the face of this mindless terror, all that Danny McCoyne can do is secure his family, seek shelter, and watch as the world falls apart.  But when he bolts the front door, the question remains: Is he shutting the danger out, or locking it in?

  • Dope Sick            by Walter Dean Myers

Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy “Lil J” Dance flees into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a weird man who shows different turning points in Lil J’s life when he could have made better choices.

  • The Smile            by Donna Jo Napoli

In Renaissance Italy, Elisabetta longs for romance, and when Leonardo da Vinci introduces her to Guiliano de Medici, whose family rules Florence but is about to be deposed, she has no inkling of the romance–and sorrow–that will ensue.

  • The Ask and the Answer : a novel             by Patrick Ness

Alternate chapters follow teenagers Todd and Viola, who become separated as the Mayor’s oppressive new regime takes power in New Prentisstown, a space colony where residents can hear each other’s thoughts. This is the sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go.

  • Gentlemen            by Michael Northrop

When three teenaged boys suspect that their English teacher is responsible for their friend’s disappearance, they must navigate a maze of assorted clues, fraying friendships, violence, and Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” before learning the truth.

  • Why I Fight : a novel       by J. Abrams Oaks

After his house burns down, twelve-year-old Wyatt Reaves takes off with his uncle, and the two of them drive from town to town for six years, earning money mostly by fighting, until Wyatt finally confronts his parents one last time.

  • The Adoration of Jenna Fox            by Mary E. Pearson

In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.

  • Handle With Care : a novel            by Jodi Picoult

Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe are the parents of Willow, six, who has brittle-bone disease, suffering 68 broken bones in her short lifetime, including 7 before she was born. Charlotte gave up her job to care for Willow full time, doing whatever she can to prevent the inevitable breaks and trying to lessen Willow’s discomfort when they occur. After a lawyer broaches the possibility of a wrongful-birth lawsuit, which would find Charlotte’s ob-gyn (also her best friend) guilty of failing to diagnose Willow’s illness early enough for a possible abortion, the family unravels.

  • What World is Left            by Monique Polak

Anneke, a Jewish teenager, learns about a concentration camp where evil takes place and she learns to survive when sent there.

  • Nation                        by Terry Pratchett

After a devastating tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and all the things that are important in their lives.

  • Touch                        by Francine Prose

Ninth-grader Maisie’s concepts of friendship, loyalty, self-acceptance, and truth are tested to their limit after a schoolbus incident with the three boys who have been her best friends since early childhood.

  • Alis            by Naomi Rich

Raised within the strict religious confines of the Community of the Book, Alis flees from an arranged marriage to the much older Minister of her town and her life takes a series of unexpected twists before she returns to accept her fate.

  • Rooftops of Tehran            by Mahbod Seraji

Seventeen-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari’s stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah’s secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice…

  • Lament : the Faerie Queen’s Deception                        by Maggie Stiefvater

On the day of an important music competition, talented but painfully introverted and nervous Deirdre Monaghan is helped to perform by the compelling and enigmatic Luke Dillon and finds herself inexorably drawn into the mysteries and dangers of the faerie world.

  • Marcelo in the Real World            by Francisco Stork

Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

  • Heroes of the Valley            by Jonathan Stroud

Halli Sveinsson leaves home and goes on a hero’s quest where he will discover the truth about the legends, his family, and himself.

  • Give Me Back My Legions!            by Harry Turtledove

Caesar appoints Publius Quinctilius Varus to become the new governor of Germany, and Varus sets off bolstered by three legions from the overextended Roman army. Sure that he is headed for further glory, Varus is unaware that crafty Prince Armenius, who serves in the Roman army but secretly seethes in indignation at Rome’s plans to make Germany another conquered territory, is planning a massive revolt.

  • Impossible : a novel            by Nancy Werlin

When seventeen-year-old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both.

  • The Other Half of Life : a novel based on the true story of the MS St. Louis      by Kim Albon Whitney

In 1939, fifteen-year-old Thomas sails on a German ship bound for Cuba with more than nine hundred German Jews expecting to be granted safe haven in Cuba.

  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle            by David Wroblewski

A tale reminiscent of “Hamlet” that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father’s death.

  • Threshold            by Roger Zelazny

Collected short stories from the well-loved science fiction writer.

New movies!

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This year we’ve added lots of good movies to our collection. Here’s a summary of what’s new since September:

AV 179 ENV    Environmental ethics : examining your connection to the environment and your community

  • Profiles a diverse group of Goldman Environmental Prize winners who have made it their duty to protect their local environments. Examines both the facts and the ethical arguments surrounding resource management practices.

AV 290 REL    Religions of the world

  • Explore issues that probe the very core of our existence and gain new understanding about humanity. Travel to exotic locations and observe how religions have shaped cultures, changed history, brought us closer together and thrust us into war.

AV 294.3923 TEN    10 questions for the Dalai Lama : one man’s journey through the northern Himalayas

  • Ten questions are posed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray. Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader.

AV 341.41 NUR    The Nuremberg trials

  • Watch as the greatest gathering of killers, Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Streicher and other Nazi criminals are brought to justice in a peoples court in this important film of terrible significance.

AV 341.41 NUR    Nuremberg : tyranny on trial

  • Follows the hearings from accusation to sentencing, offering insight into the cases of such defendants as Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goering. Reveals how the trials galvanized modern principles regarding the laws of nations and established a new standard for atrocity: “Crimes Against Humanity.” Introduces some of the men who witnessed the hearings and those who presented the cases, including the chief counsel for the prosecution.

AV 510 DON    Donald in Mathmagic Land

  • When Donald Duck finds himself in a mysterious land, he learns to appreciate the relevance of math in everyday life. The world’s most skeptical duck is whisked back in time to ancient Greece to meet Pythagoras, the father of math and science. After eavesdropping on a secret meeting of Pythagoreans Donald’s journey continues. Through his adventures in Mathmagic Land, Donald comes to appreciate how measurements, calculations, shapes, and ratios contribute to music, architecture, art, nature, games, and inventions of all kinds.

AV 514 FRA    Fractals : hunting the hidden dimension

  • NOVA takes viewers on a fascinating quest with a group of pioneering mathematicians determined to decipher the rules that govern fractal geometry. Their remarkable findings are deepening our understanding of nature and stimulating a new wave of scientific, medical, and artistic innovation.

AV 514.742 DEV    The fractal geometry of the Mandelbrot set

  • In two segments this film first introduces the Mandelbrot Set and how it is generated, then covers how to identify and describe various parts of the Mandelbrot set.

AV 551.21 SUP    Supervolcano : it’s under Yellowstone. And it’s overdue.

  • In this Discovery Channel program we explore, through a highly realistic extended simulation, what could happen if a volcano were to erupt in Yellowstone National Park.

AV 616 MOY    Healing and the mind

  • Bill Moyers talks with physicians, scientists, therapists, and patients to explore the connections between mental and physical health in this 5-part series.

AV 629.2293 WHO    Who killed the electric car : a lack of consumer confidence . . . or conspiracy?

  • Investigates the development and demise of the fuel-efficient, environment-friendly electric car. Examines the Bush administration’s role in the car’s being peremptory pulled from production, the influence of the automobile industry and oil interests, and implications for the future of sustainable energy in the United States.

AV 634.92 FIR    Fire wars

  • Join the front lines of America’s war on wildfire in this up-close look at the science, history, and politics of firefighting in the West.

AV 810.92 KAZ    Great American authors since 1650

  • From the written words of the 17th century colonists, to the voices of the end of the 20th century, this 8-program series provides a sweeping overview of American literature and its impact on our nation and the world.

AV 913.42 STO    Stonehenge decoded : a lost city revealed

  • Journey back 4,500 years to unlock the secrets of the world’s most enduring archaeological mystery . . . Stonehenge. Archaeologists reveal a revolutionary new theory about who built Stonehenge and why. Thanks to a recent discovery of a lost city just two miles from the famous stone circle, our understanding of this era is now transformed.

AV 92 LEN    Vladimir Lenin voice of revolution

  • Biography profiles the fanatical philosopher who was catapulted to power by an incredible combination of passion, luck and unlikely alliances.

AV 940.53 NAZ    Nazi concentration camps / The Nuremberg trials

  • Films taken by American soldiers as they liberated the notorious concentration gave the horrified world its first glimpse into the dark heart of the Third Reich. A second segment includes the official documentary of the Nuremburg trials produced by the Soviet Union to educate its citizens.

AV 940.54 HIT    Hitler’s war

  • This is the tale of the men of the Kriegsmarine, the Luftwaffe and the Wermacht. These are the men who fought in vain at Stalingrad, El Alamein, Monte Cassino, Moscow and Berlin. These are the U-boat men, the Panzer crews. This is military history at its best from primary sources, drawing extensively from footage of the German news crews on all fronts.

AV 950 PEO    People’s century. Asia rising : Japan and Korea rebuild

  • Tokyo, 1951. General Douglas MacArthur bid farewell to Japan — and the Japanese to six years of American occupation. But the future was uncertain: Much of rural Japan still relied on centuries-old farming methods; sanitation and public health were poor; and industry was practically nonexistent. But with massive drives to promote education and technology, Japan and her immediate neighbors proved they could run advanced industrial economies as well as — or better than — Western nations.In Asia Rising, the people remember: US military occupation of Japan, effects of the Korean War, shipbuilding, imports/exports, automobile as export, improved education, steel production, 1964 Tokyo and 1988 Seoul Olympics.

AV 951.058 TAN    The tank man

  • On June 5, 1989, one day after Chinese troops expelled thousands of demonstrators from Tiananmen Square in Beijing, a solitary, unarmed protester stood his ground before a column of tanks advancing down the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured by Western photographers watching nearby, this extraordinary confrontation became an icon of the fight for freedom around the world. Veteran filmmaker Antony Thomas investigates the mystery of the tank man — his identity, his fate, and his significance for the Chinese leadership.

AV 951.06 KOP    The People’s Republic of capitalism

  • Ted Koppel examines China’s new status as an economic superpower and its complex relationship with the United States. He focuses on Chongqing–a city in Sichuan Province with a burgeoning population and big plans for the future. While peasants in outlying areas eke out a meager living, the rising middle class revels in new riches, challenging traditional ideas about religion, sexuality, and consumerism. All this reverberates here in America, where companies scramble for cheap labor, workers find jobs shipped overseas, and shoppers snap up Chinese-made goods at big box retailers.

AV 951.93 INS    Inside North Korea

  • Posing as part of an international medical team, National Geographic correspondent Lisa Ling and her camera crew reveal the extraordinary, hidden face of this insular, little-known place, from the powerful control Kim Jong Il exerts over his people to the military powder keg of life along the heavily armed demilitarized zone.

AV 956.70443 OPE    Operation homecoming : writing the wartime experience

  • Operation Homecoming is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American troops through their written words, and offers a profound window into the human side of the war being fought in Iraq. The film evolved out of a National Endowment for the Arts project that gathered the writing of soldiers and their families who have participated in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

AV 962.7043 DOC    On our watch

  • “The world invoked its vow ‘Never Again!’ after the genocide in Rwanda and atrocities in Srebrenica. Then came Darfur. Over the past four years at least 200,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million driven from their homes, and mass rapes have once more bee used as a weapon of war in a brutal campaign by Janjaweed militias and the Sudanese government against civilians in Darfur. FRONTLINE asks why the international community and the United Nations have once again failed to stop the slaughter”

AV 972.81053 REC    Recycled life

  • “From the toxic depths of the largest landfill in Central America comes an inspiring story of the human spirit.” Filmed in and around the dump in Guatemala City, this documentary reveals the lives of those who are served by Hanley Denning and Safe Passage’s work.

AV 973.4 BUR    Lewis & Clark : the journey of the Corps of Discovery

  • Ken Burns tells the remarkable story of the entire Corps of Discovery — not just the two famous Captains, but the young army men, French-Canadian boatmen, Clark’s African-American slave, and the Shoshone woman named Sacagawea, who brought along her infant son.

AV F INT    Into the wild

  • The feature film adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s troubling book about Jeff McCandless, a seeker of a nobler life who died in the wilds of Alaska.

AV F JOA    Joan of Arc

  • Born to a peasant French family, young Joan hears the voices of saints calling out to her to unite her besieged nation. Gaining an audience with the young king, Joan convinces him to allow her to command an army into battle – an adventure that leads to thrilling victories and heartbreaking betrayals – as Joan of Arc defies all odds and marches into history.

AV F POL    Chinatown

  • Private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky climate of sunbaked southern California of the 1930s, is hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband’s extra-marital affair. He is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one, unforgettable night in Chinatown.

AV F ZHA    To live

  • Set against four decades of Chinese political turmoil, this award-winning film vollows the lives of one couple as they struggle to survive their own changing status within the upheaval. As the years go by, bringing bizarre twists, tragic losses, and profound hope, they persevere, striving to reach a calm within the storm so they can realize their personal dreams.

Art is central to all our lives . . .

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Jeanette Winterson writes (in NY Times Book Review, 21 Dec 2008):

Art is central to all our lives, not just the better-off and educated. I know that from my own story, and from the evidence of every child ever born — they all want to hear and to tell stories, to sing, to make music, to act out little dramas, to paint pictures, to make sculptures. This is born in and we breed it out. And then, when we have bred it out, we say that art is elitist, and at the same time we either fetishize art — the high prices, the jargon, the inaccessibility — or we ignore it. The truth is, artist or not, we are all born on the creative continuum, and that is a heritage and a birthright of all of our lives.