Somerville Public Library Blog

Are you a native French speaker who misses books from home? Are you an American who studied French in college or high school and would like to take a refreshing dip in la langue? The Somerville Public Library has a growing collection of books in French, ranging from the latest Prix Goncourt winners and American fiction in translation to cookbooks and biographies.

Sample titles:

Alabama song de Gilles LeRoy.

This heart-wrenching novel of Zelda FitzGerald’s turbulent marriage and battles with mental illness won the 2007 Prix Goncourt.

Les caves du Vatican de André Gide.

Believing a rumor that the Pope’s been kidnapped, a group of unlikely wannabe-heroes gets together to attempt a rescue.

Le couer découvert de Michel Tremblay.

This novel about a Quebecois gay couple raising a child together was made into a movie by Radio Canada.

Corpus Christine de Max Monnehay.

What do you do if you’re unhappily married and overweight? Starve your husband to death, of course.

L’espace d’un cillement de Jacques Stephen Alexis.

Holy Week of 1948 in Port-au-Prince is the backdrop to the relationship between a prostitute and a Cuban union organizer.

Mortelles decisiones de Kathy Reichs.

The grisly forensics thriller (one of the Temperance Brennan novels that inspired the TV series “Bones”) in translation.

Les trois mousquetaires de Alexandre Dumas

I really don’t have to tell you what this is about, do I?

Calvin et Hobbes: Debout, tas de nouilles! de Bill Watterson

Yes—the best comic strip of all time is available in French!

La naissance de la Gréce de Pierre Lévéque

A brief, lavishly illustrated introduction to the people who founded Western civilization.

Restavec: enfant esclave en Haïti: une autobiographie.

The memoir of a young man who endured both Haitian slavery and American racism, ultimately becoming a college professor and establishing a foundation to end child slavery in Haiti.

Toussaint Louverture de Pierre Pluchon.

The story of the man born a slave who liberated Haiti from the French, wrote the first Haitian constitution, and died a prisoner of Napoleon.

Here at the Central Library’s reference desk we have a companion – a statue of a Greek boxer who, in accordance with long-standing Library tradition, we call Clarence.  Clarence is actually Damoxenus, and he has an interesting history.

“Damoxenus.  A boxer of Syracuse, excluded from the Nemean Games for killing his opponent in a pugilistic encounter.  The name of the latter was Creugas; and the two competitors, after having consumed the entire day in boxing, agreed each to receive from the other a blow without flinching.  Creugas first struck Damoxenus on the head, and then Damoxenus, with his fingers unfairly stretched out, struck Creugas on the side; and such, observes Pausanias, was the hardness of his nails and the violence of the blow that his hand pierced the side, seized on the bowels, and, drawing them outward, caused instant death to Creugas.” (Hellenica)

Then, “His pitying countrymen placed the olive crown upon the head of the dying Creugas; and, struck with horror at the deed, condemned the ferocious conqueror to perpetual exile.” (Albrizzi, Isabella Teotochi. The Works of Antonio Canova, in Sculpture and Modelling. London: Septimus Prowett, Strand, 1824.)

Our statue is a copy, donated to the Library in 1907 by Mr. E. M. Jordan.  The original, by Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822), stands in the Vatican Museum.  Looking at photos of the two statues side by side, I see a number of differences, and not just because ours has had his nose broken and repaired into a shape different from the original (not unusual - he is a boxer after all.)  Our statue is an altogether softer version of the ancient boxer, less like a ruthless Damoxenus and more like a…Clarence.

If you would like to research your family tree but don’t know how to begin, this workshop is just for you. I’ll cover basic rules to follow no matter who you are or where your family is from, and resources (both in the Library and beyond)  helpful for different locales and nationalities.  I’ll also walk participants through a search for documents on family members using HeritageQuest and Ancestry.com, both available through the library.

To celebrate the return of the farmers’ markets to Somerville (massfarmersmarkets.org) and give a shout out to the great services offered by the Somerville Garden Club (www.somervillegardenclub.org) and the Somerville Community Growing Center (www.thegrowingcenter.org), and to cheer on every seedling growing in the backyards, community gardens, and window boxes throughout the city, a list of books to share with children about the trials, tribulations and sheer joys of gardening.

It will come up!

Picture Books

Ayres, Katherine. Up, Down, and Around. Candlewick Press, 2007.

Bunting, Eve. Flower Garden. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1994.

Cherry, Lynne. How Groundhog’s Garden Grew. Blue Sky Press, 2003.

Ehlert, Lois. Growing Vegetable Soup. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987.

Ehlert, Lois. Planting a Rainbow. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.

Fleming, Candace. Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002.

Holub, Joan. The Garden That We Grew. Viking, 2001.

Krauss, Ruth. The Carrot Seed. HarperFestival, 1973.

Pak, Soyung. A Place to Grow. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2002.

Segal, John. Carrot Soup. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006.

Stewart, Sarah. The Gardener. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.

Books in Spanish or Spanish/English

Argueta, Jorge. Xochitl and the Flowers = Xochitl, la Nina de las Flores. Children’s Book Press, 2003.

Emberley, Rebecca. My Garden – Mi Jardin. Little, Brown, and Company, 2005.

Royston, Angela. Tierra: Miremos un Jardin. Heinemann Library, 2006.

Nonfiction

Azarian, Mary. A Gardener’s Alphabet. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Bull, Jane. The Gardening Book. DK Pub., 2003.

Cole, Henry. Jack’s Garden. Greenwillow Books, 1995.

Eclare, Melanie. A Harvest of Color: Growing a Vegetable Garden. Ragged Bears, 2002.

Ehlert, Lois. Waiting for Wings. Harcourt, 2001.

Huff, Barbara A. Greening the City Streets: The Story of Community Gardens. Clarion Books, 1990.

Krezel, Cindy. Kids’ Container Gardening: Year-Round Projects for Inside and Out. Ball Pub., 2005.

Lerner, Carol. Butterflies in the Garden. HarperCollins, 2002.

Lerner, Carol. My Backyard Garden. Morrow Junior Books, 1998.

Otten, Jack. Watch Me Plant a Garden. Children’s Press, 2002.

Shannon, George. Busy in the Garden. Greenwillow Books, 2006.

Talmage, Ellen. Container Gardening for Kids. Sterling Pub. Co., 1996.

…because it’s extremely hot and our air conditioning isn’t working.

Both of the branches are open from 10-6 today:

West Branch is located at 40 College Ave. in Davis Square.

East Branch is located at 115 Broadway near Sullivan Square.

Look here for information on the City of Somerville’s heat advisory and where you can go to cool off.

The Main Library will be back in business tomorrow and our air conditioning should be fixed within a week. Stay cool!

One of the most creative and dynamic film industries in the world right now is in Argentina. In recent years, the work of Argentine directors and script writers has been garnering rave reviews, film festival awards, and (most importantly) an ever-growing audience. Somerville Public Library has a rich collection of Spanish-language films that includes these Argentine gems:

Common Ground (2002). When budget cuts force a university professor to take early retirement, he and his wife find they have to change their entire lives, leaving Buenos Aires and relocating to the country. This is a beautiful, meditative film about loving the life you have instead of the life you want.

Felicidades (2000). Mishaps and missed connections are the keynote of this move about a Christmas Eve night in Buenos Aires. This tragicomic movie follows various characters through a night of presents that can’t be found, broken-down cars, dead pets and a love that never quite comes together.

Red Bear (2002). Bear is the nickname of a man who’s just finished a seven-year prison sentence for armed robbery–a crime he committed on his daughter’s first birthday. Now he’s out, his ex-wife and daughter are living with a man named Sergio. Sergio’s down on his luck financially, and Argentina’s depressed economy doesn’t offer a lot of great jobs. Bear decides it’s up to him to provide for his daughter. And the only way he can get the money is to go back to a life of crime. You’ll be on the edge of your seat watching this–I promise.

La cienaga (The Swamp) (2001). A couple of dysfunctional families decamp to the countryside for a summer getaway. Roger Ebert’s description of the movie is spot-on: “It’s like attending a family reunion when it’s not your family and your hosts are too drunk to introduce you around.” As you can imagine, you have to be in the right mood to watch this movie–but when you are in that mood, it’s perfect.

It’s been nearly a year since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in J. K. Rowling’s 7-volume saga of “the boy who lived,” and while Rowling has assured fans that there’s no use expecting any more about Harry from her word processor, it doesn’t look as though she’s going to have the last word. I’m not talking about Potter fan fiction, crazy amounts of which can be found on the Internet. I mean books - books that don’t continue the Potter story, but that instead attempt to explain, catalog, analyze, interpret, and otherwise build upon the Potter books in ways that are sometimes straightforward and sometimes…well, strange. Below are a few of the titles on offer, all of which are available through the Minuteman Library Network.

Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter by Alison Hansel

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the World of Harry Potter by Tere Stouffer

God, the Devil, and Harry Potter: a Christian Minister’s Defense of the Beloved Novels by John Killinger

Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts edited by David Baggett and Shawn E. Klein

Harry Potter’s World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives edited by Elizabeth H. Heilman

If Harry Potter Ran General Electric: Leadership Wisdom from the World of the Wizards by Thomas V. Morris

The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: a Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts by David Colbert

The Making of the Potterverse: a Month-by-Month Look at Harry’s First 10 Years by Scott Thomas

Muggles and Magic: J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Phenomenon by George W. Beahm

The Plot Thickens: Harry Potter Investigated by Fans for Fans edited by Galadriel Waters

The Psychology of Harry Potter: an Unauthorized Examination of the Boy Who Lived by Neil Mullholland

The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works by Roger Highfield

If you haven’t read any of Jared Diamond’s books, you absolutely must. His Guns, Germs and Steel (1998) was one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in my life. Have you ever wondered why man domesticated horses and not zebras? Have you ever been curious as to why Spain conquered the Incas and not the other way around? Do you want to know where almonds come from? Guns is a tour de force of scientific and social history. In Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005), Diamond examines past moments of environmental catastrophe (the deforestation of Easter Island, the demise of the Norse settlements in Greenland, and fall of the ancient Maya, to name a few) exploring the consequences of the short-sightedness of past societies with lessons for our own day.

I just bought a copy of The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (1992), a survey of the characteristics that led humans beyond being another ape swinging from trees. I can’t wait to start.

Walk Boston: Walking Tours of Boston’s Unique Neighborhoods [917.446 SL] provides information about 30 different walks that guide you through a variety of Boston Neighborhoods from the South End to Brookline to Chelsea and Charlestown to name a few. In the book you will find directions, maps, descriptions of each walk as well as historic and cultural highlights. In Daytrips From Boston by Public Transportation [917.44 SC] discover places that you can get to by a combination of public transportation and walking. Explore the Freedom Trail, visit museums, go to the theater or take a trip to Cape Ann, Plymouth or Salem. In Exploring in and around Boston on Bike and Foot [917.44 SI] read about scenic tours of the Boston Region. Take a historical trip by bike or foot in Minute Man National Historical Park on the Battle Road Trail or immerse yourself in the woods of the Middlesex Fells Reservation. Short Bike Rides In Greater Boston and Central Massachusetts [917.44 ST] lists 108 rides throughout Boston, its Western suburbs, Cape Ann and the South Shore as well as Amherst, Plymouth and old Sturbridge Village.  The descriptions of each ride include food stops, points of interest and maps. You can find these and other books about Boston and its surrounding areas at the Library. Check some out and have fun!

When I got my first job in a library I was surprised to discover how much nonfiction people read. At that time I read fiction almost exclusively and didn’t see the attraction of nonfiction. Sure, one might occasionally need resume writing tips, baseball stats, or advice on where to stay in Vancouver, but surely these types of books couldn’t account for the huge amount of nonfiction that crossed the circulation desk every day. So what on earth were these people reading? And why?

I soon found out that the answers to these questions were “everything” and “for all sorts of reasons.” Cookbooks were flying off the shelves, as were art books, armchair travel, and biographies. People checked out books on yoga, cartooning, politics, gardening, and the Titanic - in fact, books on every subject under the sun.

Over time I’ve found my own favorite nonfiction sections: the 398s (folk and fairy tales including the Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang’s colored fairy books, and numerous less familiar tales, many of them gorgeously illustrated); the 822.33s (all things Shakespeare); the 560s (all creatures prehistoric and fossilized.)

Have you found your own favorites yet?