The Hub

Hub Display Celebrates Arab American Heritage Month

Ramadan Mubarak, and happy Arab American Heritage Month! This month, stop by the Hub on the first floor of Snell Library to explore a curated collection of books focused on Arab and Arab American history, culture, food, and stories. From classical works of poetry and literature to rich fantasy worlds to cookbooks full of mouth-watering recipes, there are plenty of incredible books waiting to be checked out. Here are a few recommendations:

This is How You Lose the Time War
Written jointly by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, this Hugo Award-winning novella is written in letters between two enemies as they battle through space and time. Part romance, part spy novel, part sci-fi mini-epic, This is How You Lose the Time War is unlike anything you’ve read before.

The Other Americans
Laila Lalami’s newest novel tells the story of the accidental death—or possible murder—of a Moroccan immigrant. “At once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story.” —Goodreads

19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East
This collection of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poetry offers an intimate glimpse into life in the West Bank.

Ms. Marvel, Volume 1: No Normal
Kamala Khan is just living her life in Jersey City when she’s suddenly granted amazing powers. Can Kamala embrace her new identity and live up to the name of Ms. Marvel? Meet the first Muslim American superhero before she makes her screen debut!

Soframiz: Vibrant Middle Eastern Recipes from Sofra Bakery and Café
If you haven’t been to Sofra Bakery and Café in Cambridge, you’re missing out. Soframiz, the owners’ cookbook, lets you in on some of the secrets behind their incredible food—but you might decide to save some time and take a trip to Cambridge instead!

The Thirty Names of Night
A closeted trans Syrian immigrant stumbles across the journal of a Syrian American artist and discovers mysterious connections to his own past.

You can check out all of these books, and many more, from the Hub on the first floor of Snell Library. And if you’re not on the Boston campus, you can still explore our collections! Check out our extensive list of Arab American Heritage Month e-books and audiobooks. Happy reading!

Religion, Sex, and Politics: Taboo Subjects at the Hub

After displays about spaceships and dragons, Club Snell is tackling more serious and intriguing topics. “Religion, Sex, and Politics” takes on the difficult and often taboo subjects. We have material types ranging from books, graphic novels, memoirs, movies, to ebooks. So whether you’re looking for a light read or material for a paper, we have you covered!

Subjects range from anything like LBGTQ+ rights to Native American Memoirs. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone. In particular, we are highlighting our e-book Too Hot to Handle: A global history of sex education by Jonathan Zimmerman, the movie Loving, and the book The African Union: Autocracy, Diplomacy, and Peacebuilding in Africa.

We even have the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Did you know that Jedism is considered a legitimate religion by the United States? Watch the movie and look for parallels with current world religions like you can find in the e-book Exploring Spiritualties in World Religions. If there’s tough questions or topics you’ve been wanting to read about, feel free to explore them at the Hub’s new display, “Religion, Sex, and Politics”



Read the Rainbow at Snell!

  Summer arrives with a celebration as June is the national LBGTQ (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, and Queer) Pride month. Snell Library is honoring LGBTQ month with our curated Hub display of movies and books by or about an LGBTQ person. Pride month was started in 1995 to honor the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Manhattan, NYC While it originally began as a 1 day “Pride day” on the last Sunday of June, it has now evolved into a month-long celebration. Across the United States, cities and towns will host parades, bands, workshops, and speaker events focusing on creating a safe space for the LGBTQ community to connect Snell Library is taking part of that celebration by highlighting select works in our Hub collection that touch upon sexuality and gender. We have the newly released movie Carol, which focuses on two women’s affair in the background of the 1950’s where homosexuality was forbidden. Sonnets of a Dark Love by Federico García Lorca is a collection of poems and essays which centers heavily on the poet’s Spanish heritage and internal struggle with homosexuality during the early 20th century. These poems were written in the later part of his life before his untimely execution by Nationalists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.                   We also have Moonlight, which is the first film with an all-black cast and the first LGBT film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Lastly, the author of Young Adult novel Little & Lion discusses topics such as mental illness, bisexuality, and intersectional identity This pictures follows the main character through three main stages of his life as he comes to terms with his identity and past relationships. These are but a few of the great movies and books that we’ve put on display at the Hub, come check it out!     

New DVDs for Cold Winter Nights

I’ve just updated this week’s New Titles in Snell Library, and I noticed we’ve got a nice crop of new DVDs. If you like biopics, there’s Temple Grandin, about an autistic woman who becomes a pioneer in animal psychology. Hipsters? Catch Julie Christie in Darling (1965), about an English model and her descent into corruption. Or for those who like the classics, watch Ninotchka (1939), a lighthearted comedy about visitors to Paris who ascend into corruption (Garbo laughs!). For date night, borrow Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, based on a graphic novel about what it takes to win the girl of your dreams. A more serious take on love would be Vincere (“Win”, 2009) about the love between Benito Mussolini and Ida Dalser (in Italian), or Un Coeur en Hiver (“A Heart in Winter”, 2006), centering on the love triangle between a concert violinist, her lover, and his best friend (in, you guessed it, French). Working your way through this year’s Oscar nominees? Our newest arrival is the comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right (2010), with great acting from Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as lesbian parents of two teenage kids. Another family drama, Please Give (2010), explores the dynamics of a Manhattan family waiting for their neighbor to die so they can take over and renovate her apartment. Every week we update our lists of New Titles. You can browse the lists, or subscribe to the RSS feed, depending on your interests. Choose a subject like mathematics, or you can view new videos or new titles from our high-interest award-winning titles in the first floor Hub reading area.

Cinephilia of The Hub

Being a film fanatic, I want to express my appreciation of  The Hub’s numerous books on cinema. Each time I wander back there, I see a new book on film. A few weeks ago I sat down and read Akira Kurosawa: master of cinema, compiled by the film historian Peter Cowie, and today I skimmed through a scholarly book on portrayals of  immigration in World Cinema. I also was glad to see that David Thomson’s The Moment of Psycho is available, which allowed me to include it in the summer reading exhibit I recently put together with Krissy. There is a large book on Fellini’s films called Fellini: The Films, which is similar to the Kurosawa book in size, reliance on pictures and biographical structure. There are certainly more. I found these books mainly because I was looking for them. (The Kurosawa and Fellini books noticeably tower above the dinky paperbacks, though.) But at the same time, they are so well-organized they are unmissable. Most of the film books seem to be placed in the middle row of the Hub’s shelves. This makes them much easier to find than the section on the third floor for books on films, because in that section they are mixed in with VHS’s and DVD’s. Whenever I look at a book on movies, with only a few exceptions, I feel as if I am one of the last people to be doing such a thing. I feel as though nobody takes criticism seriously anymore, and even movies are not taken seriously in the traditional sense. These sentiments can be backed up with other data and observation, but that’s for a different piece. This motivates me to find out more about them. But I don’t feel this way in the Hub; I figure, if this is a newly created space, popular with students, then perhaps students wanted more film books? Or maybe just the professors? Whatever the case, it is a pleasant surprise. But I might still be the only one who actually reads them for pleasure.