Read, Listen, Watch

Staff Picks and Suggestions

Miss Representation, film airing tonight (10/20/11)

A powerful film about women will be televised on the OWN network at 9pm tonight. The film Miss Representation “explores women’s under-representation in positions of power by challenging their limited and often disparaging portrayals in the media,” according to the description from the OWN Documentary Club web site. Appearing in the film are such notables as Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson, and Gloria Steinem. See a preview: Miss Representation trailer If you miss the broadcast, Miss Representation is also available at Snell Library (currently checked out, but you can “place a hold” and be notified when it becomes available).

Fall author lineup has something for everyone

I’ve just received the lineup of authors coming to Snell Library this fall to speak about their books.  It arrived in my email and my snail mail on the same day, which seemed fortuitous somehow.  Of course the first thing I did was scan to see if I had read any of the books (nope, not yet) or even heard of any of the authors (yes!). What struck me as I examined the list was the terrific variety we have to offer.  Whether you’re interested in history, women’s studies, sports, journalism, marketing, politics, law, or just a few good fiction reads, there’s an author coming to speak at Snell that you’ll be interested in hearing from! Independence book cover The season opens with John Ferling’s Independence: The Stuggle to Set America Free on 9/14 (you can never read enough about the Declaration of Independence, right?) followed by Peter F. Stevens on 9/21, reading from The Twilight Riders: The Last Charge of the 26th Cavalry, another history book, this one about World War II. Lou Imbriano, former Chief Marketing Officer for the New England Patriots, talks about his new book Winning the Customer, which covers revenue-building marketing strategies from a top NFL CMO on 9/22.  And Martin Henn will present Under the Color of Law about counterterrorism law and policy on 10/19, a timely topic in this 10th anniversary year of the Al-Qa’ida attacks. Braver headshotInterested in fiction? If so, meet Gary Braver, who reads from his new suspense novel, Tunnel Vision, on 10/26. This novel has won advance praise from none other than Ray Bradbury! Braver may be better known to you as Gary Goshgarian, longtime professor of English at Northeastern. Read more about why he writes under a pen name here.   Cohn book cover There’s a trifecta of authors coming to discuss the role and status of women this fall: Joumana Haddad, author of I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman comes to Snell on 10/20, sports journalist Linda Cohn, author of Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking into the Boys Club on 10/22, and Dr. Emily Fox Kales, author of Body Shots: Hollywood and the Culture of Eating Disorders on 11/16. Vega Capping off the season is a very special event: An Evening with Al Vega (11/17), hosted by acclaimed WGBH music announcer Ron Della Chiesa and Leonard Brown of Northeastern’s Department of African American Studies and Music. Jazz pianist Al Vega, who attended Northeastern in the 1940s, will perform with his trio, and Prof. Brown will present his book about Vega, Boston’s Jazz Legend: the Al Vega Story.  This event is open to Northeastern University faculty, staff and students. Join your friends and colleagues in meeting Snell’s visiting authors this fall!

New Summer Reading Suggestion!

Here is an additional summer reading suggestion to add to your lists. The Help written by Kathryn Stockett currently holds the number one spot on The New York Times Best Sellers List for combined print & e-book fiction. Publisher’s Weekly provides the following description: “What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn’s new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club set relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who’s raised 17 children, and Aibileen’s best friend Minny, who’s found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it.” This title may sound familiar, as it has just been made into a movie which stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard and Octavia L. Spencer and opens on August 10th.

Find out what all the fuss is about by reserving Snell Library’s copy today or get more information on Amazon.com.

Snell Library’s Suggested Summer Reading

Staff members of Snell Library have some great suggestions of titles for you to add to your Summer Reading List. For more information on these titles, stop by the display case on the first floor in Snell Library’s main stairwell. Enjoy! Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures At The Table, by Ruth Reichl – Suggested by Anita Bennett, Research & Instruction Staff Supervisor The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak – Suggested by Rebecca Bailey, Librarian, Research & Instruction The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins – Suggested by Ernesto Valencia, Systems Librarian Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand – Suggested by Nina Shah, Advancement/Marketing/Events Assistant Bicycle Diaries, by David Byrne – Suggested by Jessie Contour, Graphic Design Co-op, Spring/Summer 1 2011

Marginalia as Scholarly Communication

Although we may think of scholarly communication as the process of disseminating research through formal publication or online distribution, scholars have been communicating with and responding to each other since well before the advent of the Internet or even print journals. One way in which modern scholars can understand earlier processes of communication is through the study of marginalia, or the notes to themselves or others that previous scholars have left in the margins of the texts they read. Works have been published on the marginalia of single writers, such as Voltaire’s Marginalia on the Pages of Rousseau (Havens, 1971), or on marginalia as a topic unto itself. H.J. Jackson has published two books on marginalia: (Note: Both titles are available as e-books to members of the NU community.) Recently, the personal library of Charles Darwin was digitized and made available freely online through the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Darwin himself frequently made notes in the margins of his books, and one special feature of this online collection is the full transcription of all his marginalia. Being able to read the notes that Darwin made to himself as he read gives scholars today insight into how his ideas, well, evolved over time. Marginalia were also a way for Darwin and others to share their ideas informally with their contemporaries through exchanging personal copies of their books. Of course, marginalia aren’t only created by the greatest scientific minds – one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins, wrote a poem on the margin notes left by everyday readers:
Sometimes the notes are ferocious, skirmishes against the author raging along the borders of every page in tiny black script. If I could just get my hands on you, Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O’Brien, they seem to say, I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head. Other comments are more offhand, dismissive – “Nonsense.” “Please!” “HA!!” – that kind of thing. I remember once looking up from my reading, my thumb as a bookmark, trying to imagine what the person must look like who wrote “Don’t be a ninny” alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson. — From “Marginalia” (Billy Collins) (Read the full poem here.)