Read, Listen, Watch

Staff Picks and Suggestions

Barbara Neely’s Blanche series

I recently read an article on The Root about the popularity of Kathleen Stockett’s The Help. While I haven’t read The Help yet, I found Hopkinson’s  article interesting in that she talks about how, while she enjoyed the book tremendously, she felt frustrated: “In the world of publishing and Hollywood, it helps to be talented, as Stockett clearly is. But it also helps to be white.” Hopkinson later writes
Let’s look at the criminally underrated and uncelebrated work of Barbara Neely. Her Blanche White series is absolutely brilliant, pitch-perfect and probes at the issues of race and class from the perspective of a murder-solving black maid with a biting wit. I remember discovering them years ago, and thinking Neely’s Blanche is like a feminist response to Walter Mosley’s hard-boiled detective character Easy Rawlins. They are the same, delicious, pulpy read, sly commentaries about class and society. There is not a false note in any of her books. This is a writer who knows the correct Ebonics syntax of the verb “to be.” I can’t recommend her series enough. Buy every single one. Each takes about a day to read. And each gives you the same made-for-book-club pleasure that The Help gives you.
I took her recommendation and have finished Blanche on the Lam and Blanche Among the Talented Tenth. The Library has all four of Barbara Neely’s books in our collection. They’re nice, slim volumes…short, but also rather dark–not cozy mysteries, but engaging and well-written ones. Reading it to me, it seemed like an older time–more like the 1950’s or 60’s–but Blanche mentions a Run-DMC tape at the beginning, and at the end an African American Miss America, and Joints Chief of Staff, which seem to place it in the 1980’s, though the first book was published in 1993. Blanche is a domestic worker, and I found her narrative an interesting exploration of class issues as well. Blanche on the Lam finds Blanche on the run after being jailed for a bad check in her hometown of Fairleigh, North Carolina. She starts working for a wealthy family and once the bodies start turning up, Blanche investigates to avoid becoming the prime suspect. In Blanche and the Talented Tenth, Blanche has moved and is living nearby in Roxbury. She heads to Amber Cove, Maine, to a posh black resort, where she still encounters prejudice, secrets, and crime. Visiting her website, it also looks like Barbara is a fellow Bostonian as well, and I highly recommend her series!

Jazz Music Library is a Hot Sensation

The Library has just added Alexander Street Press’ Jazz Music Library collection of 4,974 albums and 60,553 tracks to our media streaming repertoire. Sample its many artists and genres and set up your own play list. Listen to Deval Patrick’s father Pat play sax on “Come Rain or Shine” or hear Ella Fitzgerald sing “720 in the Books.” Enjoy!

New Faculty Author Works

Like many universities, Northeastern has the benefit of having among its faculty a number of published professors. Northeastern University Libraries is celebrating this year’s group of published works with a book cover display on the first floor of Snell. On the reverse of the sign are pamphlets with more information about the authors and books, which we encourage you to pick up and pass on. The hard work that went into these pieces truly deserves our recognition.

What Kind of Work is in IRis?

IRis is a digital archive that collects, manages, preserves, and shares the intellectual output and historical record of Northeastern University. It is a service of the University Libraries. To answer the question posed in my post title–one type of work that is in IRis are academic dissertations.  I studied English in college, and it’s still one of my big interests, so I took a look at the English Language and Literature materials that are listed in IRis. Today, I’d like to highlight the dissertation of Nichole DeWall of Northeastern’s English Department. Her 2008 dissertation is entitled ‘A Plague ‘O Both Your Houses’: Shakespeare and Early Modern Plague Writing, and as the title suggests, it concerns itself with the intersection of Shakespeare’s drama with the plague experience in the early modern era, and it particularly focuses on Romeo and Juliet and Coriolanus. Nichole’s dissertation is 205 pages, and as it’s in IRis, it’s indexed by Google, and easily shared with the world.  I really liked her initial list of questions, and I want to quote them here:
Moreover, my inquiry seeks to understand what kind of cultural and psychical work Shakespeare’s plays performed, both for himself and for his audience members. What was it about the plague experience that compelled Shakespeare to return to it in his works, despite how devastating it was to his creative and financial prospects to remind people of the disease? And what compelled his audience members to venture into the playhouses, despite the fact that these sites were thought to be uniquely capable of spreading the plague? How did the plays provide for Shakespeare and his audiences a language to know the unknowable, or communicate the unspeakable? How do we begin to think about literature in a way that recognizes the demands of trauma, yet still preserves, to some extent, the artist’s ability to make actively make aesthetic choices? These questions emerged as the ones most at stake as I moved within this project. In an attempt to understand the scope and nature of this particular traumatic event—the early modern bubonic plague—I worked with a sample of over 300 archival plague texts.”
You can read all of Nichole DeWall’s dissertation here.  After reading, I was a bit curious, and it looks like Nichole, after successfully earning her doctorate, is now an assistant professor of English at McKendree University in Illinois.

Baseball Prospectus Back at Northeastern!

Tuesday at noon, we welcome authors Steve Goldman, Kevin Goldstein and Marc Normandin as they “talk baseball” for the upcoming year. In their honor, we encourage you to wear your favorite baseball hat/shirt jersey. See you there! Event Information: Baseball Prospectus – Tuesday, 3/16 @ 12 PM in 90 Snell Library Author and columnist Steven Goldman is a member of the legendary baseball think tank Baseball Prospectus, which runs a website and releases an annual publication, a smorgasbord of statistics, analysis, predictions and insight perfect for any true-blooded baseball fan. Known for his witty writing style, he writes the popular “You Could Look It Up” column during baseball season. His other books include 2004’s Mind Game, about the Red Sox and their journey to the World Series, and 2007’s It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over. He will be joined by his Baseball Prospectus colleagues, Kevin Goldstein and Marc Normandin. “Baseball Prospectus has become the standard by which all scouting guides should be measured.”-– Billy Beane, General Manager, Oakland A’s Sponsored by Northeastern University Libraries and the Northeastern Bookstore.