Seal Team 666

If you like a good military action novel and don’t mind the addition of the supernatural then you will definitely want to read Seal Team 666 by Weston Ochse.  In this book we meet the eponymous Seal Team 666, a seal team whose mission is to deal with creatures of supernatural origin.  We follow along on a number of their missions meeting a variety of demons, & humans who are just as bad, in the process.  Note: you’ll need to be (bit of a spoiler) willing to overlook a high principal character death rate.  The book is being turned into a movie which might give you a bit more of an idea what it is generally like.

In the final analysis this is a violent, action packed book that makes the bad guys literally demons.  All in all enjoyable for those who like that sort of thing.

Trivia of the Week....

This week’s question comes to us from mythology -- what can you tell us about Erichthonius?

Arroyo Book Club Pick for May….

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.  The book club decided to celebrate that fact by selecting a book relevant to the Asian American experience, picking The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston.  The book description says:

A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity.

The Amazon.com Review says:

The Woman Warrior is a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American in Stockton, California. Maxine Hong Kingston distills the dire lessons of her mother's mesmerizing "talk-story" tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward. The author's America is a landscape of confounding white "ghosts"--the policeman ghost, the social worker ghost--with equally rigid, but very different rules. Like the woman warrior of the title, Kingston carries the crimes against her family carved into her back by her parents in testimony to and defiance of the pain.

It certainly sounds interesting.  Pick up your copy at the library and join us for discussion on May 23 at 3:00.

Events for the Week of April 27…

Events going on at the library during the week include…

• Voter Registration & Information table on Monday (4/27). Starts at 2:00
• Make It Monday: Cardboard Castles on Monday (of course) at 4:00
• Computer Basics Class on Tuesday (4/28) at 12:00
• Little Ones’ Storytime on Wednesday (4/29) --- sessions at 10:30 & 11:30
• USC Gluck Global Guitar Duo on Wednesday at 3:00
• STAR Reader on Wednesday at 3:00
• STAR Reader on Thursday (4/30) at 3:00
• Fun with Tablets program also on Thursday at 4:00
• Drop in Computer Lab on Friday (5/1) at 3:30
• STAR Reader on Saturday (5/2) at 2:00

You can always check the Branch Page (http://www.lapl.org/branches/arroyo-seco) on the LAPL website for upcoming events or check out the Master Calendar (http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/calendar) where you can search for something specific across multiple branches.

TOW (& Answer)...

This week’s question was what is the maieutic method?  To quote directly from the source: 

(Greek, maieutikos, one who acts as a midwife) The maieutic method is that of eliciting ideas by questioning; the image is that the ideas are already there in the pregnant subject’s mind, but require midwifery to be made manifest.

The question (& answer) were taken from p. 220 of the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy by Simon Blackburn.  This edition of the book was published by Oxford University Press in 2005. 

Daring

Daring continues the story Elliott James started in Charming (see 2/12/14 post), but you don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy this one.  This book is hard to describe without giving away too much plot.  Basically the world does have magic and with it magic creatures.  An organization of knights exists to keep this knowledge from ordinary humans.  Our hero John Charming used to be a member of this organization but they don’t trust him because he is a werewolf.  Circumstances arise that embed him into a werewolf clan that is forming in the midwest.  The story then continues with adventure and betrayal in a very exciting fashion.  I actually liked this book better than the first one, the author seems a bit more polished.  

Recommended for those who like fantasy set in the contemporary world. 

USC Gluck Global Guitar Duo

We have an unexpected, late-awarded music program to look forward to.  Next Wednesday (4/29) at 3:00 the USC Gluck Global Guitar Duo will be performing.  Stephen and Christopher will present an engaging program titled, “Around the World in Twelve Strings.”  The Global Guitar Duo explores literature written for the guitar from around the world with a map backdrop to chart their voyages.  Their repertoire ranges from Dave Brubeck to works based on African music and spans time from the ancient to the present.

The Gluck performers have never failed to give us an enjoyable, excellent music performance. Join us and judge for yourself.

The Just City

Readers of Plato will be familiar with his Just City from his work The Republic.  In her own The Just City, Jo Walton imagines Athena and Apollo joining together to create an experimental version of that city on a volcanic island in prehistory Earth.  They people it with masters drawn from people across all time who prayed to Athena for the existence of just such a city and with 10 year old children who were sold as slaves.  The goal is to see if Plato’s just city is achievable.    The book switches viewpoints between a number of different characters, both children & masters as it traces the progress of this experiment and details what happened.

The book is interesting even if you are completely unfamiliar with Plato.  I would recommend it to reader’s who like utopian (but not really) stories, people of a philosophical bent looking to explore a concept fictionally, and anyone who likes a different story.

Events for the Week of April 20…

Events going on at the library during the week include…

• Make It Monday: Meet a Construction Challenge on Monday (of course) at 4:00
• Little Ones’ Storytime on Wednesday (4/22) --- sessions at 10:30 & 11:30
• STAR Reader on Wednesday at 3:00
• STAR Reader on Thursday (4/23) at 3:00
• Fun with Tablets program also on Thursday at 4:00
• Drop in Computer Lab on Friday (4/24) at 3:30
• STAR Reader on Saturday (4/25) at 2:00
• Arroyo Book Club meets on Saturday at 3:00

You can always check the Branch Page (http://www.lapl.org/branches/arroyo-seco) on the LAPL website for upcoming events or check out the Master Calendar (http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/calendar) where you can search for something specific across multiple branches.

History of Highland Park….

Here (http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/10/520344.pdf) we have a 1/14/1976 article on Chuck Williams, the “horse king” of the Arroyo by Nelda Thompson.  Chuck Williams owned the Arroyo Stables for more than 50 years and this article details his life and experiences.  Pictures included.

The Invisible History of the Human Race

In The Invisible History of the Human Race Christine Kenneally explores things that can be passed down.  The book is an exploration of concepts related to genealogy both in the refined about me way and in the larger history of the whole human race way.  She starts the book by exploring what people think gets passed down, moves on to discuss the passing of ideas and culture down generations, and then branches into the biological side of things by discussing the passage of DNA between generations.  The book is interesting and aimed at the non-scientist (& non-geneticist).  While some of her conclusions did not convince me the background she provided was fascinating and her book did cause me to think.

All in all a book I would recommend to someone interested in biology, genealogy or non-fiction writing. 

Trivia of the Week...

This week’s question is what is the maieutic method?

TOW (& Answer)...

The week’s question was how do you calculate your destiny number?  A destiny number is something that arises out of a belief in numerology.  It is calculated from your date of birth.  Find it by adding up all the numbers in your birthdate until you reach any number between 1 and 9, or 11 or 22.  Example…. Say you were born on 5 October 1945.  Write down the date in numerical form --> 5+1+0+1+9+4+5 = 25.  25 is not between 1 and 9 or 11 or 22 so we recursively repeat the process.  2+5 = 7.  So the example’s destiny number is 7.

The question (& answer) were taken from p. 162 of Predicting Your Future by Jane Struthers.  The book was published by Collins & Brown in 1997.

Events for the Week of April 13…

Events going on at the library during the week include…

• Make It Monday: Something to do with Poetry on Monday (of course) at 4:00
• Teen Council Meeting on Tuesday (4/14) at 4:00
• Little Ones’ Storytime on Wednesday (4/15) --- sessions at 10:30 & 11:30
• STAR Reader on Wednesday at 3:00
• STAR Reader on Thursday (4/16) at 3:00
• Fun with Tablets program also on Thursday at 4:00
• Drop in Computer Lab on Friday (4/17) at 3:30
• Friends’ of the Library Used Book Sale on Saturday (4/18) from 9:30-2:00
• STAR Reader on Saturday at 2:00
• HTML Basics Class also on Saturday at 2:00

You can always check the Branch Page (http://www.lapl.org/branches/arroyo-seco) on the LAPL website for upcoming events or check out the Master Calendar (http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/calendar) where you can search for something specific across multiple branches.

Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole

In Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole a neurologist (Allan H. Ropper) teams up with a writer (Brian David Burrell) to explain the “mystery and drama of brain disease.”  The book uses anecdotal encounters with patients to explore particular brain issues and explain how the process of diagnosis works.  The book is very readable for even the most medically illiterate and is quite fascinating in its look at that organ that makes us us.

Recommended for those who enjoy non-fiction and are interested in learning more about the brain and disease.

Stranger

Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown & Sherwood Smith is yet another dystopian YA novel but somehow this one managed to combine dystopia with a sense of optimism, people being people, and community in a way that was refreshing and helped make the book interesting.  The book is set in the future after what must have been a sun storm of some kind that destroyed electromagnetic things and did a number on DNA as well.  Because of this we have a variant on the civilization returned to barbary that is a fairly common trope but we also have people fighting plants and animals that have mutated as well as people dealing with their own mutations.  Into this setting we throw Ross, a prospector who is chased by a bounty hunter to the town of Las Anclas.  Here the story switches viewpoint among a number of characters as the town goes through a crisis with a neighboring war lord.  The viewpoint switching was interesting because you could see one character find trouble with another and then, when switched to that character, find that what was creating the friction was understandable from that second one’s point of view.

All in all an interesting book.  Definitely recommended for those who enjoy a good future set YA novel.

Websites I Like…

An interesting site to explore is the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp).  You can search by name, state, position, party, and year or term in Congress.  The result is a brief bio that focuses on their political life.  Look up your liked (or hated) politicians.  Find out who was representing you when you were born.

Trivia of the Week...

This week’s question is how do you calculate your destiny number?

Events for the Week of April 5…

Events going on at the library during the week include…

• Make It Monday: with a building block challenge on Monday (of course) at 4:00
• Little Ones’ Storytime on Wednesday (4/8) --- sessions at 10:30 & 11:30
• STAR Reader on Wednesday at 3:00
• Covered CA Information Table on Thursday (4/9) from 1:00-3:00
• STAR Reader also on Thursday at 3:00
• Fun with Tablets program on Thursday at 4:00
• Introduction to Spreadsheets class on Thursday at 6:00
• Drop in Computer Lab on Friday (4/10) at 3:30
• STAR Reader on Saturday (4/11) at 2:00

You can always check the Branch Page (http://www.lapl.org/branches/arroyo-seco) on the LAPL website for upcoming events or check out the Master Calendar (http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/calendar) where you can search for something specific across multiple branches.

TOW (& Answer)...

The week’s question was what was Kush?  Kush was the Egyptian name for ancient Nubia, the site of an advanced, ancient black African civilization that rivaled ancient Egypt in wealth, power, and cultural development.

The question (and answer) were taken from p. 1109 of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.  The book was published by Basic Civitas Books in 1999.

The Circus of the Damned

The Circus of the Damned by Cornelia Grey tells the tale of a magician (actual magic) who in the midst of fleeing for his life from a mob of angry fleeced citizens is picked up by a circus that save him in return for his presence for life and his soul on death (clearly the circus of the book’s title). Beggar’s can’t be choosers so Gilbert Blake takes the deal.  He then learns that the deal was real, meets his fellow performers, falls for the ringmaster (who is a man too by the way), and, with the circus, fights against a nobleman who is trying to use magic users to gain power of his own.

All in all an adventure filled story.  Recommended for those with a taste for the absurd.

April’s Electronic Resource of the Month….

If you’re interested in learning a new language or in brushing up your skills in a second language you already have then the Electronic Resource of the Month for April is just what you’ve been looking for.  The resource in question is Mango Languages.  Mango Languages provides over 60 online language learning courses and more than 15 English as a Second Language courses for your learning enjoyment.  As you begin using Mango Languages you’ll want to create a profile so that you can track your progress as you move through a course and pick up where you left off when you return to a course.  

Mango Languages is available on any computer (and many devices) though you will need your library card if you’re not on a library computer.  Access Mango Languages from the Library’s website (www.lapl.org) via the Research & Homework page (http://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/research-and-homework#M).     

Soulminder

I seem to be reading books that take medical looks at avoiding death lately.  The latest such tome is Soulminder by Timothy Zahn.  In this book Dr. Adrian Sommers is haunted by the accidental death of his young son & so begins a quest to find a way to prevent such accidental deaths.  He devises a machine that traps the “soul” upon death.  The body, absent its owner, can be repaired at the leisure of the doctors and the “soul” can be reintroduced, effectively thwarting death.  All this happens at the beginning.  The book then goes on to explore the consequences of new technology, intended and unintended, as we follow the growth of the soulminder technology and the use & misuse to which it is put.  This exploration is what makes this book interesting.

Recommended for those who like SF and those who enjoy a good exploration of morality in the face of new technology.