CGHS Library

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is more than a character from a book. He is a Cult Figure, complete with action figure. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the books and something about them caught the imagination of, well, almost everybody. Though he wrote lots, including plays, poetry, and pamphlets, he only wrote four Sherlock Holmes novels and a number of short stories featuring the detective.

Since then, Sherlock Holmes has been immortalized in movies, television, comic books, and books by other authors featuring the man as a character. My favorite of these is The Beekeeper's Apprentice. 

io9 features an entertaining article about instances where SH turns up in science fiction, complete with video clips.  

Advice for the Lovelorn

Fairest

Nicole P. says Fairest is a very good book.

"Mother said fairy godmothers only watch from afar and sympathize. I didn't see the good of a hand-wringing fairy godmother. I needed one who'd fly in and help." (from page 4 of FAIREST by Gail Carson Levine)

Bleeding Kansas

The creeks and hills of Kansas earned their names the hard way. When driving past Bloody Creek, you may rest assured that the name is not there because the settlers thought it was poetic. People died along that stream, and they most likely died because "men fought and died on the prairies of Kansas over the incendiary issue of slavery. 'War to the knife and knife to the hilt,' cried the Atchison Squatter Sovereign."

War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas 1854-1861 tells that story by gathering the accounts of the people who fought for control over the territory, the proslavery men from Missouri and the free-staters from Kansas. 

They didn't think much of each other. According to "one Kansas correspondent to the New York Tribune, Missourians were little better than disgusting, degraded animals.

They are a queer looking set, slightly resembling human beings, but more closely allied, in general appearance, to wild beasts. An old rickety straw hat, ragged shirt, buttonless corduroys with a leather belt and a coarse pair of mud-covered boots constitute a 'full dress.' They never shave or comb their hair, and their chief occupation is loafing around whisky shops, squirting tobacco juice and whittling with a dull jack knife. They drink whisky for a living, and sleep on dry goods boxes . . . . They generally carry a huge bowie knife and a greasy pack of cards . . . . They are generally about six feet high, spindle-shanked and slab sided. It would be an insult to the brute creation to call them brutes . . . . They are 'down on' schools, churches, and printing offices, and revel in ignorance and filth.

In their turn, Missourians viewed "the Yankee as the embodiment of all that is stiff and cold, calculating and selfish." (from pages 71 and 72 of War to the Knife by Thomas Goodrich)

WAR TO THE KNIFE is a taste of what they believed, what they did, and who they were, and it is fascinating from beginning to end.

Magic Pencil

Vote for your favorite magazines!

The Vote link at the upper left under Steven's eyes will take you to a survey where you can vote on your favorite magazines that you would like to see in the library next year. I have to request what we need in a week or two, so speak up now. I am interested in what you want.  -mh

Nation

  "Of course, Cox was not like a shark. He was worse. Sharks are just eating machines. They don't have a choice. First Mate Cox had a choice, every day, and had chosen to be First Mate Cox. And that was a strange choice, because if evil was a disease, then First Mate Cox would have been in an isolation ward on a bleak island somewhere. And even then, bunnies nibbling at the seaweed would start to fight one another. Cox was, in fact, contagious. Where his shadow fell, old friendship snapped and little wars broke out, milk soured, weevils fled from every stale ship's biscuit and rats queued up to jump into the sea." (from page 267 of Nation, by Terry Pratchett, 2009 Printz Honor Book)

I loved this book: witty, brilliantly written, refreshing, and compelling. I was slightly provoked by the obvious and repeated implication that if religious people would only ask the right questions, well then, they would clearly see what idiots they had been and fall into the arms of the obviously superior philosophy of science, naturalism, as their new religion. Pratchett is such a good writer that I am willing to forgive him, though. If faith is such a weak, mewling thing that it cannot grapple with questions, then it isn't worth much, and if you haven't asked the questions, then maybe it's time to start. Rest assured, your questions will not be original. 

I do have two quibbles with this book. One is that it has the second worst cover art of the year. Nobody is going to be sucked into this book because of the cover. The second is based on the statement my mother expresses (with exasperation) that authors do not know when to stop writing. In my view, Pratchett would have been much better off deleting that last chapter. It felt tacked on and ridiculous to me, much like this last sentence. -mh

Graceling

Commonly, fantasy is all about the quest: the journey from point A to point B and what happens along the way, all with some grand result in mind. Normally sword play is involved, or an encounter with three trolls, or man-eating trees, or SOMEthing. In Graceling, the Big Event on the journey is when the main characters discuss their relationship around the campfire at night; every night, for days. Yawn-a-rama.

I did finish the book, and I really enjoyed the first third and the final third of the book, but the relationship stuff in the middle? 

'Fraid not.

Questing

I can't speak for Joe G., but this is the way I felt last week when our network switches were giving us fits.  Let us hope they hang together today, because my "lesson plan" depends upon a working internet, and there is no Plan B.

Take a look at the following web site to begin. 

Social Networks for Readers

iLibrarian Ellyssa Kroski has identified ten of the best websites for book lovers!