Programs To Beat The Winter Blahs

It's not quite spring, and you're tired of winter. Don't want to read another word, can't sit still for another DVD! What to do? Look no farther than your grand Central Library!

February programs for adults at Central Library offer something for everyone, from young parents to seniors. Learn to baby-proof your home or improve your child's writing skills; take advantage of the "Book a Genealogist" sessions if you would like help with your family history. Take the plunge - register for a computer class!

Central staff has been busy planning more programs for adults than ever before - click the "Programs and Events" image on the library's web page to see other programs coming up in the next few months.

RINCON LATINO: 320 SUPERCLASICOS!

Trescientos veinte partidos son muchos. Y si los protagonistas de esos enfrentamientos son nada menos que Boca Juniors y River Plate, el recorrido se vuelve más apasionante. En este libro se detallan todos los clásicos disputados entre los dos máximos exponentes del fútbol argentino, quienes convirtieron a este choque en uno de los más importantes del mundo. Desde 1908, en aquel primer match amistoso en la Dársena Sur, hasta nuestros días, se muestran todos los eslabones de una cadena emotiva que hace vibrar a la Argentina y el mundo entero.

La tapa de este libro también causó una polémica gigantesca a causa de los jugadores mostrados. El autor reveló su verdarera intención en un sitio de web muy popular:

Mi nombre es Diego Ariel Estévez y soy el autor del libro que han estado comentando (por lo menos, la tapa): 320 superclásicos.Quiero aclararles un poco el tema para que comprendan el motivo por el cual se eligió esa imagen.La editorial se reserva el derecho de elegir la tapa, por lo que es el único ítem sobre el que no tengo total control. Continente quería que figuraran dos jugadores emblemáticos, en lo posible disputando la pelota, que fueran de la década del '80 o más recientes y que no hubiese que pagar por la foto. Complicado, ¿no? Descartando a Maradona (todas las imágenes que lo incluyan son muy onerosas) y viendo que es difícil que dos jugadores emblemáticos estén peleando por un balón (y que la foto, además, sea atractiva), se decidió incluir la de Cascini y Gallardo, que es del año 2004. Gallardo es un jugador muy reconocido por todos los hinchas de River y Cascini, pese a no haber nacido en Boca, ganó todo con ese club y se dio el lujo de convertir el penal definitorio ante el Milan, en Yokohama.Eso es todo. Sepan que no hubo ningún favoritismo ni intención de ensalzar o degradar a nadie. Simplemente que hay entretelones que la gente común, como ustedes, no conoce por no estar en la "cocina" del libro, pero que a veces es oportuno aclarar.

Ten Things You Need To Know About The Late Heath Ledger

The life of burgeoning acting talent, Heath Ledger came to an abrupt end this week after he was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment. The Australian-born actor accomplished much in his short life. He was also versatile, from having played a musket-toting colonial in "The Patriot" to taking on the romantic angst of Ennis Del Mar in the groundbreaking "Brokeback Mountain." Drawn from print and electronic sources at the Sacramento Public Library, here are some things that you may have not known about Ledger.

1) Ledger’s full name is Heathcliff Andrew Ledger. He was named after the main character in his mother's favorite book, Wuthering Heights.

2) Ledger’s first acting role was as Peter Pan.

3) Ledger became a state junior chess champion at the age of ten.

4) Ledger dropped out of school after the tenth grade.

5) Ledger claimed that he had “an addiction to moving.” In the words of Ledger, perhaps on account of having had to shuttle back and forth after his parents' divorce, when he was 11.

6) Ledger was offered the role of "Spiderman," but turned it down, feeling that Columbia Pictures was too interested in turning him into a “product.” The role eventually went to Tobey Maguire.

7) Throughout his career, Ledger turned down several roles, feeling that "…Australians have this independent streak," Ledger told Biography magazine's Sheryl Berk. "I want to always have the control to say no when I don't think something is right for me. I want to be able to walk away."

8) Ledger took on the 2002 role “Four Feathers,” because he felt the script was “deep, deep, deep.” It’s the story of a British officer who abdicates his command before a battle and is considered a coward for doing so.

9) Entertainment Weekly called one of Ledger’s last films “I’m Not There,” the best film of the year: “a biopic, an essay, a folk-rock opera, and a dream, all rolled into the headiest musical ever made. It's also the year's most daring vision, though the obsessive head-tickling sprawl of Todd Haynes' sublime meditation on the music and mystery of Bob Dylan wouldn't amount to a hill of guitar picks if the film weren't also so intimate and reverent and moving.”

10) Ledger was a father. His daughter, Matilda, is two-years-old.

For more information on Ledger, we recommend looking at the Biography Resource Center and EBSCOHost, both of which require your library card number and PIN for access. For a list of movies by Ledger, do an author search, including last name first, first name last: Ledger, Heath.

Stars of Children's Literature

"It's so beautiful," said Isabelle. "It looks like the whole city is made out of stars."

The best children’s books of 2007 were announced last week. The John Newbery and Randolph Caldecott Medals always provoke a flurry of excitement in the library world; the former given for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature and the latter awarded to the most distinguished picture book. This year The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, being a heavy competitor for both medals, took home the 2008 Caldecott. Read it and you’ll see why as a glimpse of 1930s Paris unfolds through detailed and fantastic drawings inside a charming plot.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz won the 2008 Newbery Medal. This is the second consecutive year that the Newbery was bestowed upon a librarian. Last year Susan Patron earned it with The Higher Power of Lucky.

In addition, three Newbery Honor Books and four Caldecott Honor Books were named. The Newbery Honors are Elijah of Buxton, The Wednesday Wars, and Feathers. The Caldecott Honors are Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, First the Egg, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity.

The awards are sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), and all books are judged by librarians and other children’s literature experts. For a list of all ALA Youth Media Awards for 2008 (and some great catch-up reading) click here.

Review: "The Devil in the White City"

"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson. Crown Publishers, 2003.

Sick fascination - this meticulously documented narrative of the creation of the "White City" for Chicago's Columbian expo in the early 1890s is told in tandem with the gruesome story of H. Holmes, a serial killer that managed to dispatch as many as 20 women and children in the span of a couple of years within a few blocks of the fair without detection! He cremated them, then hired someone to clean the bones and reassemble the skeletons, which he sold to medical schools. Not until years later, when a distraught mom hired the Pinkerton detective agency (now operating as Securitas) to find her missing children, did the full story emerge and become sensationalized in the press.

The story of the fair and the depraved sociopath is so compellingly told that I couldn't put the book down until I reached the very last words. The parallel stories progress relentlessly and with graphic description. We come to know the major players, both good and evil, perpetrators and victims, as if they were alive today. No forensic TV series could have told it any better!

An unexpected side entertainment was discovering the luminaries associated with the fair: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Frank Lloyd Wright, Pullman and others; as well as the number of products still available today that debuted then: shredded wheat, the Ferris wheel, neoclassical public buildings, alternating current.

Try This @ Home: Morningstar Library Edition

The real estate market has tanked, American Express is concerned about defaults, the state budget is facing deficits, banks are hustling to mitigate risky loans.

An aphorism that was making the rounds a few years ago states, "Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries." If the wise placement of your money is something you want to control better, you may be interested in learning about our newest database: Morningstar Library Edition. If you have an IRA, 401-k, or even just a savings account, you are an investor, and Morningstar has something for you.

Covering both stocks and mutual funds, Morningstar provides analysis, company reports, interactive stock charts, valuation ratios, and 10-year financial statements. It also includes an extensive help and education section for beginning and experienced investors. You can find it on the library's Database Page in the business section.

Online subscriptions, or "databases," provided by Sacramento Public Library make a wide range of information available free to anyone who walks into our branches and to patrons with computers at home. These subscriptions range from full-text magazine and newspaper articles to biographies, from auto repair to census records. Here's the full list of our current subscriptions. All but a couple are available to our cardholders from their home computers - all that is required is a current library card and a PIN.

The Man in Black and Folsom: The 40th Anniversary

On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash visited the California State Prison at Folsom. The engagement was true art - a moment in time where a performer reached out to society's outcasts and what he received in return was adulation and confirmation of that title we know so well, the 'man in black.' Forty years later, his legend is solid, truly due in no small part to his time at the Folsom Pen.

The Central Library holds several items on Cash and the Folsom concert. The standard text for the event is Michael Streissgruth's Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison : the making of a masterpiece. For items - books, videos - about Johnny Cash, use the Subject Heading, "Cash, Johnny." For items - cds, books - by Johnny Cash, do an Author search, entering last name first, first name last: "Cash, Johnny."

You might also check out the Sacramento Bee and Sacramento Union on microfilm. The Central Library has both issues. Look at the rolls from January 1968 for stories on the event. Oh, time to go -- I hear that train a comin'....

Thanks, flickr!