Non-Fiction for African American History Month

The following titles are new non-fiction that record and continue the African-American Experience. All three of these books seek to tell the story of the contributions of African-Americans in the fields of education and publishing; they also seek to inspire future generations--no matter their race--to raise themselves up out of poverty and ignorance.

First, we have Progressive Education in Black High Schools: the Secondary School Study, 1940-1946 by Craig Kridel. This is a catalog of sixteen black high schools that existed in the American Southeast. Between 1940 and 1946, the Rockefeller Foundation's General Education Board funded a study that looked at the instruction and outcomes of these schools. The project was based upon cooperation and experimentation and helped to develop a generation of African American educators who recognized the hypocrisy society showed blacks and, at the same time, display a willingness to engage in the various forms of struggle to educate the black population. Included in this book is Magnolia Avenue High School here in Vicksburg.

The second book is called The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America written by Ethan Michaeli. Founded by Robert S. Abbott in 1905, The Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, sparked the Great Migration, and helped to focus the electoral power of black Americans. Hundreds of thousands of copies were smuggled into some of the most isolated and segregated communities in the American South. Abbott himself became known as a "Modern Moses" and was one of the first black millionaires in America. The newspaper's clout helped to elect mayors and presidents, including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. Reporters braved lynch mobs and policemen's clubs to report on the state of race relations in the country. Many famous African Americans wrote columns for the paper as well, including Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King. A moving look at the power of the press to force a change in the status quo.

The third and final book is The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community is Inspiring the World written by Nadia Lopez with Rebecca Paley. In 2010, Nadia Lopez started her middle-grade public school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy, in one of America s poorest communities, in a record heat wave and crime wave. Everything was an uphill battle getting the school approved as well as recruiting teaches and students; not to mention, having to solve a million new problems every day. From violent crime to vanishing supplies, Lopez was determined to break the downward spiral that had trapped too many inner-city children. The lessons came fast: disengaged teachers, wayward students, and the educational system itself, rarely in tune with the already disadvantaged and ill-prepared. Things were at a low ebb for everyone when one of her students told a photographer that his principal, Ms. Lopez, was the person who most influenced his life. The posting on Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York site was the pebble that started a lucky landslide for Lopez and her team. Lopez found herself in the national spotlight and headed for a meeting with President Obama all the while inspiring and guiding those entrusted to her tutelage.

Gale Virtual Reference Library - Need ideas or information for Black History Month?

Available online through the Gale Virtual Reference Library,
the Contemporary Black Biography series provides informative biographical profiles of the important and influential person of African American and/or black heritage.

There are currently 134 volumes to this set and the articles cover persons of various nationalities in a wide variety of fields, including architecture, art, business, dance, educcation, fashion, film, industry, journalism, law, literature, medicine, music, politics/government, publishing, religion, science/technology, social issues, sports television, theater and others.

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is now integrated with Google apps and Microsoft Office 365. Emailing, organizing and saving documents and citations has never been easier! Additionally, you can bookmark, highlight sections and take notes.

To access the Gale Virtual Reference Library, come to our Reference Desk and ask for the password. Then simply go to http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mag_p_magn1263 on your personal device, choose the volume you want to reference and read away!

Presto!

     Penn Jillette is nothing if not unconventional. As a magician, comedian, entertainer, and keen observer of the human condition, he is the first to cry, “Bulls#*t,” when it comes to fads and trends that have little to no basis in fact. That may be why this latest memoir is so surprising. Topping 330 pounds and diagnosed with high blood pressure, Jillette knew that he wanted to make it past his 60th birthday and watch his two children grow-up. Presto! tells the story of how Jillette lost 100 pounds by following a diet designed by Ray “Crazy Ray” Cronise—a former NASA scientist and an unconventional personality in his own right.
     Jillette describes how he used this “potato diet” developed by Cronise to change his body and mind. He tells how he survived performing his shows in Las Vegas, taking meetings with Hollywood executives, and hanging out with his friends and family all the while following this restrictive diet. He also intersperses his views on sex, religion, and pop culture using his quick wit and more than a few expletives throughout the book. Presto! is informative, frank, and funny as hell!

Gale Virtual Reference Library - College/Military Entry Preparation

Getting ready to start college or looking to join the Armed Forces?  You can
prepare for the tests with one of these guides available to use for free from the Gale Virtual Reference Library!

All you need to do is to come to our Reference Desk and ask for the password.  Then simply go to http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mag_p_magn1263 on your personal device, choose the guide you want and study away!

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is now integrated with Google apps and Microsoft Office 365.  Emailing, organizing and saving documents and citations has never been easier! Additionally, you can bookmark, highlight 
sections and take notes.  

The electronic version still includes practice exams.  Print it off and test yourself at your convenience.  Study guides like these usually cost around $30 to purchase, so take advantage of this free resource!

More Large Type Non-Fiction

 

  "Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself" is by Julie Barton. Julie Barton was twenty-two when she collapsed on her Manhattan kitchen floor. She was only one year out of college, but she was severely depressed. After her mother received an incoherent phone call from her daughter, she raced from Ohio to New York to bring her daughter home. Psychiatrists, therapists, and family all tried to intervene, but nothing seemed to be able to bring Julie out of her darkness. Then, one day, Julie decided to do one hopeful thing: adopt a Golden Retriever puppy that she named Bunker. She tells the story of how depression overwhelmed her, the slow path to recovery that she had to walk, and the astonishing way that animals can heal both broken hearts and minds.

     "Go Big or Go Home: the Journey Toward the Dream" is by Scotty McCreery with Travis Thrasher. When the sixteen-year-old from Garner, North Carolina entered the singing competition, he had no ideas what doors it might open for him. Scotty McCreery was a kid with country songs in his soul and a voice to sing them like they should be sung. He dared to compete on "American Idol" at a young age and he won fans in the U.S. and overseas. This book tells his story from his roots in North Carolina to his victory on America's most popular singing competition and the launch of the music career he had always dreamed about.

     "What I Told My Daughter: Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women" is edited by Nina Tassler with Cynthia Littleton. This series of essays from a powerful and diverse group of women explores the best advice they have given their daughters either by examples, through their own lives, or in character-building, teachable moments between parent and child. A popular entertainer and former child star urges her daughter to walk in her own truth, to not break glass ceilings if she desires to nurture a family as a stay-at-home mom, and not to abandon a career if that is her calling. One of the country's few female police chiefs teaches her daughter what it means to be courageous, how to respond to danger, and most importantly, how not to let fear stop her from experiencing all that life has to offer. An Emmy and Tony award winning actress who teaches her daughter the importance of getting back on the horse even after he has thrown you face-first into the mud. From Madeleine Albright and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Dr. Susan Love and Whoopi Goldberg, these essays are sure to inspire mothers and daughters alike.

Gale Virtual Reference Library - Career Exam Aids

 Studying for a new career?  The Gale Virtual Reference Library can help!

All of the books shown are available online through the GVRL and patrons with a Google account can take advantage of making use of their Google account to save articles and citations to Drive, print and email (with any email account), highlight, take notes and listen to audio.

To use the GVRL items, simply come to our Reference Desk and ask for the password, then go to http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mag_p_magn1263 and use the password to sign in.  It's that easy!

The career exam aids are all found under the Education section.

Large Print Memoirs For Your Enjoyment

      "This Cider Still Tastes Funny!: Further Adventures of a Game Warden in Maine" is a memoir by John Ford. The author spent twenty years as a game warden in Waldo County in central Maine after completing a four year stint in the Air Force. Upon his retirement in 1990, he was elected county sheriff and re-elected in 1994. He carved out a reputation as a man of the law, but he wasn't a by-the-book enforcer. His quick wit and gift as a storyteller afforded a good quip as he slipped the cuffs on a criminal, but he wasn't above accepting a lesson learned as sufficient penalty for breaking the law. The fact that he is also able to laugh at himself endears him to the readers of his newspaper column and the Northwoods Sporting Journal to which he regularly contributes material.  

   

     "We Were Brothers" is a memoir by Barry Moser. Barry and Tommy Moser were born of the same parents, raised in the same small Tennessee town, and were both indoctrinated by their family's deep racism and anti-semitism. As the two grew older, however, their perspectives and paths diverged further and further apart. Their attitudes about race, politics, money, and even food became so different that they could no longer find any common ground. They could not talk to each other as they once had and, for many years, there was more strife than affection between the two. When Barry reached his late fifties and Tommy his early sixties, their simmering tensions reached a boiling point and their relationship shattered. From then on, the two would not speak to one another. Barry, recalls the raw, emotional reasons for their final reconciliation.  

    "Tough As They Come" is an autobiography by SSG Travis Mills with Marcus Brotherton. United States Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills was sure he would become another statistic when he was caught in an IED blast four days before his twenty-fifth birthday. Against all odds, however, Travis lived, but at a severe cost—he became one of only five soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to survive a quadruple amputation. He was suddenly forced to face the fact that he had no arms or legs and that his future would be drastically different than what he had always envisioned. He would never again be able to lead his squad, stroke his fingers against his wife's cheek, or pick up his baby girl. It took tremendous willpower and endurance, not to mention the unconditional love of his family and a huge helping of faith to get through the painful and anxious days of his rehabilitation. Travis made a remarkable recovery, however, and even without limbs, he still swims, dances with his wife, rides mountain bikes, and drives his daughter to school.

Graphic Novels are Now Available

Thanks to a grant from LSTA, we are adding a number of graphic novels to our library collection.  The first have already arrived with more due to arrive in the coming weeks.

The graphic novels cover a wide variety of topics from non-fiction to iconic comic book heroes.  Please note that several of these titles were intended for an adult audience, so parents, please be aware of what materials your children are checking out and read them yourselves if you are concerned about the content.

Here are three of the graphic novels currently available.  They can be found on the wooden shelving to the side of the Reference Desk.

How to Fake a Moon Landing by Darryl Cunningham

Is hydro-fracking safe? Is climate change real? Did the moon landing actually happen? How about evolution: fact or fiction? Award-winning author-illustrator Darryl Cunningham looks at these and other hot-button science topics and presents a fact-based, visual assessment of current thinking and research on eight different issues everybody’s arguing about. His lively storytelling approach incorporates comics, photographs, and diagrams to create substantive but easily accessible reportage. Cunningham’s distinctive illustrative style shows how information is manipulated by all sides; his easy-to-follow narratives allow readers to draw their own fact-based conclusions. A graphic milestone of investigative journalism!










A Game of Thrones, Volume 1 by George R. R. Martin

Acclaimed novelist Daniel Abraham and illustrator Tommy Patterson bring George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy masterwork A Game of Thrones to majestic new life in the pages of this full-color graphic novel. Comprised of the initial six issues of the graphic series, this is the first volume in what is sure to be one of the most coveted collaborations of the year.















War of the Green Lanterns : Aftermath by Tony Bedard

In the aftermath to "War of the Green Lanterns," The Green Lantern Corps must pull themselves together in order to resume policing the universe. But the Green Lanterns find that doing so is more difficult than they ever imagined.

A New York Times bestseller.

Holiday Hours for the Library

With the Christmas Holiday fast approaching, we would like our patrons to be aware of our holiday hours and which days we will be closed.

Monday, December 19th through Thursday, December 22nd

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Friday, December 23rd through Monday, December 26th

CLOSED

Tuesday, December 27th through Friday, December 30th

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Saturday, December 31st through Monday, January 2nd, 2017

CLOSED

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017 will resume normal hours:

9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Mon. - Thurs.

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Fri. & Sat.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our patrons for a wonderful year! We are excited to go into 2017 with fresh ideas and new opportunities for our patrons.

Carol Burnett Looks Back

A recent addition to our New Adult Nonfiction, In Such Good Company, is a memoir by legendary comedienne, Carol Burnett.

To research for her book, she rewatched all 276 episodes of 'The Carol Burnett Show'.  The book covers the show from first concepts (the network was initial opposed to a female led variety show, considering that to be a male-only field and wanted her to star in a situation comedy instead) to pulling together her supporting cast, writers, stage crew and other behind-the-scenes people, such as costume designer Bob Mackie, whose curtain-gown that he created for Carol to wear as Starlett O'Hara is now part of the Smithsonian collection.

Other sections cover recurring characters/sketches such as 'As the Stomach Turns', 'Mrs. Wiggins', the Charwoman, and 'The Old Folks'.  She also covers the many movie parodies, her favorite guest stars and also pays tribute to the unscripted, embarrassing moments that happen when working in front of a live audience.

For anyone that remembers watching the show, this book is a wonderful look back at some of the best comedy moments made for television.