biBLiOGraphy

SGA Reads!

Here are the favorite books of your 2012-2013 SGA Cabinet:

Madeline Dressner, President: The Last Lecture

Samantha Garguilo, V.P. Administration: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Nicole Wong, V.P. Internal Affairs: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Michael Manzo, Executive Treasurer: The Great Gatsby

Bradley Fliller, Parliamentarian: They Cage the Animals at Night

Kieran Persaud, Executive Secretary: The Old Man and the Sea

AU Reads The Omnivore's Dilemma

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan addresses what we should have for dinner and follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the contemporary American way of eating. The surprising answers Pollan offers to the simple question posed by this book have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us.

Your Library has copies of the book on reserve for a 7 day borrowing period, and there is a related book exhibit in Swirbul Library in the Hay Periodical Lounge.

What's Adelphi READing?

You may have noticed a link on the Library web page for "What's Adelphi READing?"  We at the Adelphi University Libraries believe that recreational reading is not just a key component of lifelong literacy and learning—it's fun and one of life's great pleasures! Over the past few years Adelphi students, clubs, teams, administrators and faculty have posed with their favorite books, and we have created posters that we hang up in the Library and post on our web page. President Scott chose Airlift to America by Tom Shachtman, saying, "I love history—of the world, of the U.S., of our institution—so this book, inspired by Adelphi Presidential Medal of Merit winner Cora Weiss, was a project I had to support. In it, all three of those loves come together in exciting ways. Join me in reading a book that shows Adelphi's interactions with world leaders in support of dreams for a better world.."

You have access to a wonderful collection of literature in your library along with graphic novels and books in history, art, sciences, humanities and social sciences.  We also subscribe to a book service that showcases more popular fiction and non-fiction, including bestsellers, mysteries, more graphic novels, green living, cook books, personal fitness and self help books.

Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Señoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority, Inc. READs

The Student Activity Board READs!

The Volleyball Team READs!

Click here to see the favorite books of the Volleyball Team:

The S.G.A. READs!

Click here to see the favorite books of your Student Government Association

Adelphi University Bowling Team 2010-11 READs!

Adelphi University Swim Team 2010-11 READs

Prof. Lahney Preston-Matto READs

Prof. Lahney Preston-Matto is the recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award for Untenured Faculty, 2009-2010.  She is also a well versed and published scholar whose research interests cover 12th-century Ireland, medieval law, 20th-century medievalism, translation theory, and gender studies.  The book she has chosen to pose with, Gerald of Wales: The History and Topography of Ireland, has been pivotal in her own research.  As Prof Preston-Matto says of the book: "Gerald of Wales' 'The History and Topography of Ireland' is an incredibly important source for what is known about Ireland in the middle ages. It's also an amazing piece of proto-colonialist propaganda, depicting the Irish as savage, lacking a centralized political authority, and ignorant of their own religion (Christianity). As such, it's a justification for the takeover of Ireland in the twelfth century by the "civilized" Cambro-Normans in England, a political dominance that did not end until the early twentieth century."

In other areas of Prof. Preston-Matto's interests, my favorite scholarly publication of hers is “Staking in Tongues: Speech-Act as Weapon in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'” co-written with Karen Eileen Overbey and found in 'Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' . You can check it out from the Adelphi Libraries as well as the complete Buffy the Vampire series on DVD .

Kudos to Prof. Preston-Matto for her all around achievements in teaching and scholarship!

Read any good banned books lately?

Perhaps when you hear the phrase "banned books" you might think about books that in their day were considered too risque or sexually provocative for their time and were unduly censored:  Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, or Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller might come to mind.  But these books are still being banned and challenged in libraries as well as books that you probably have on your book shelf at home.

The American Library Association notes that books usually are challenged with the best intentions—to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information - but they are still an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.  Banned Books Week is an annual event held during the last week in September that celebrates the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  What do you think about the attempts to ban the following books?

-The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, was removed by a Dorchester District 2 school board member in Summerville, SC (2001) because it "is a filthy, filthy book, " was challenged by a Glynn County, GA (2001) school board member because of profanity, and was challenged in the Big Sky High School in Missoula, MT (2009).

 -The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, was burned in Alamagordo, NM (2001) outside Christ Community Church along with other Tolkien novels as satanic.

- To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was removed (2009) from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton Ontario, Canada because a parent objected to language used in the novel, including the word “nigger."

Other books on the American Library Association's list of banned books include such classics as The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald,  Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Sophie's Choice by William Styron, and A Separate Peace by John Knowles.  Most of these books were challenged for their language, sexual content, or depiction of alternate life style and religious choices.

What would you do if your local library told you that you couldn't find Harry Potter on its shelves because of its depiction of witchcraft? Do you think others with differing perceptions than you have the right to restrict your access to books they find offensive?

Search ALICAT, the Adelphi Libraries online catalog, to find these books and judge their content for yourself.  Find out more about banned books and Banned Book Week by clicking on this link to the American Library Association website: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

What The Panther is READing This Summer

Can you judge a book by its cover?

When I selected a book to pose with for a READ poster  I chose  Possession by A.S. Byatt.  It is indeed a well written novel with story lines that intertwine and circle around each other:  Two 19th century poets whose love is thwarted by the Victorian strictures they live under; 20th century academics who when interpreting the work of each poet see it through the prism of their own academic agendas; how finding out the truth about long ago events can liberate yourself in the present.

But the truth is I chose to pose with this book because the cover shows my favorite painting, The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne Jones.  If you are familiar with both the painting and the novel you can see why this choice for the book jacket makes perfect sense. 

So while I bought the novel because of the cover when I did read it I enjoyed it immensely.  Here, perhaps I could judge a book by its cover.  But how many amazing books have I passed by because the packaging didn't jump out to command my attention?  In thinking more about this I also wonder if I have stumbled upon yet another  literary metaphor for life...

What about you - how do you choose what books to read?

READing picks of the Writing Center staff

Men's Basketball Team READs!

The Adelphi Men's Basketball team are not only superb athletes, they are also avid readers.  The books each member chose to pose with for their READ poster reflect the uniqueness and individuality they bring to the team as a whole. Check out the range of books they selected: It's Not About the Bike; A Child Called It; The Kite Runner; The Giving Tree; Mind Gym; Animal Farm; Fallen Angels; The Outsiders; Beowulf; Holes; The Andrew Gaze Story; Never Eat Alone.

Have you read any of these books and, if so, what did you think of them?