Read, Listen, Watch

Staff Picks and Suggestions

Vital Records, Pt. 1

Vital Records include Birth, Marriage, and Death records. These records as well as others can aid in your research. The information contained in the record depends on the state and how old the record is and you may find that another state has records for the year you are researching, even if your state does not.  The person who gave the information may have not known everything about the person for instance a death record may have a place on it for birth information . This may be left blank if the person giving the information did not know the answer. If you can, double-check the information, as it could be incorrect.  If you are looking for vital records in the United States, a helpful website is one maintained by the CDC.    Divorce records may be of some help and can usually be found at the courthouse near where the couple were living. If you’re interested in geneology, you may be interested in the following resources and government documents: Where to Write for Vital Records Public Records Online

Meet the Authors Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

 Tomorrow at 10:30 am in 90 Snell Library, authors Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein return by popular demand. Their new book, Heidegger and a Hippo walk through those Pearly Gates, is another in their line of philosopical treatises presented through jokes, in the same vein as their previous books, Plato and a Platypus walk in to a bar… and Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington. The NU Bookstore will be selling copies that the authors will be signing. The book is also available at Snell Libraries. You can also watch their previous talk at Snell Library: Cathcart and Klein

Boston Book Festival – Saturday, 10/24 in Copley Square

I’ll be volunteering at the first annual Boston Book Festival being held this Saturday (10/24) in Copley Square.  The festival features 90 authors reading from their works and signing books, and 40 exhibitors. Events will be taking place at the Boston Public Library, Trinity Church, and the Old South Church. And, it’s free! The keynote speaker will be Pulitzer Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk. However, I admit I’m most intrigued by the session called “Writer Idol,” in which an actor will read the first pages of unpublished manuscripts submitted by audience members, and a panel of judges (editors and literary agents) will offer their opinions on what works and what doesn’t. Get more info at http://www.bostonbookfest.org/.

Books as Films at Snell: The Trial

Last week sometime I watched Orson Welles’ The Trial, partly because if I only watch The Goofy Movie all the time, I start feeling bad about myself, and partly because I really like Orson Welles.  The Trial is based on the story of the same name by Franz Kafka about a man who is being prosecuted for a crime. The crime is never revealed to the baffled, helpless main character, or to the readers, and a variety of strange events occur. It’s pretty surreal (a la Kafka) and has that eerie Orson-black-and-white look to it that’s so perfect for this story. I also really love Anthony Perkins and his lovely little old-fashioned American accent. He was the perfect K., switching back and forth between assumed indignation, unexplainable guilt, and desperate frustration in the face of the looming, untouchable, unseen, abstract, omniscient authority figure and justice system of which K is an apparent victim. The scenes of K’s office – basically a warehouse with rows and rows and rows of identical desks containing typists, with his office on this large concrete raised platform at the head of the room – were my favorite. They were so surreal and mechanized-looking. I loved the scene when his uncle comes to visit and they chat in his ‘office’ with all the drones in the back typing away outside of his wall-less room. Suddenly all of the typists get up at once and start putting on their jackets all at once, all leaving immediately in perfect synchronization. To work, back home, to bed, awaken. To work, back home, to bed awaken. It was a great little illustration. The Trial can be borrowed at the library in book and film form.

Broadcast Journalist Lynne Joiner at Snell on Friday, October 23

Join us on Friday, October 23 at 12 pm, as Emmy-award winning journalist Lynne Joiner discusess her book, Honorable Survivor: Mao’s China, McCarthy’s America and the Persecution of John S. Service.  John Service was an American foreign service officer, who was often blamed for “losing” China, and who came to be a target for US officials like Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover.  In addition to recently unsealed government documents, Joiner had access to personal papers and photographs of Service and his associates that she weaves into her historical account and presentation. (90 Snell Library).