Exhibits
African American Cultural & Historical Museum of Washtenaw County Living Oral History
Tuesday March 21, 2017: 9:00am to
Thursday April 27, 2017
Malletts Creek Branch: Exhibits
Exhibits
Rotary Club of Ann Arbor: Celebrating 100 Years
Tuesday January 17, 2017: 3:00pm to
Monday February 27, 2017
Downtown Library: Lower Level Display Cases
Blog Post
2017 Michigan Notable Books
by Sara W
The Library of Michigan has announced with 2017 winners of the Michigan Notable Book Award - an honor highlighting books celebrating Michigan people, places, and events.
This year's 20 award winners include Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss by Frances Stroh, a recollection of a city, an industry and a dynasty in decline, and finding a way out, Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back by Nathan Bomey, which tells the story of Detroit's financial ruin, backroom intrigue and political rebirth, and Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit by Tom Stanton, a thrilling true crime story.
The list features fiction too, such as The Charm Bracelet, Viola Shipman's story of love, family and the importance of connectivity, it covers generations of Michigan history and will resonate with anyone who has enjoyed the beauty of summers in northern Michigan, Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser, about a fearless teen facing the wasteland of addiction amid the isolation of the Upper Peninsula, and The Last Good Girl by Allison Leotta, the thrilling latest entry in her legal suspense series.
There's something for everyone on this list - whether you're interested in travel, classic cars, biology, poetry, or architecture.
Blog Post
Lois Lowry's Photographed Life
by mansii
Youth author Lois Lowry has been a long-standing beloved household name for a number of her Newberry winning books, not the least of which are The Giver and Number the Stars. The Giver many might know from its 2014 movie rendition including star actors such as Meryl Streep. Lowry has always been one to write stories that not only capture the imagination but challenge her readers to question, and to hang tight to all the goodness they can find. They are insightful and provocative for both the young and old.
Her newly updated and expanded autobiographical work retains this legacy. Looking Back: A Book of Memories reads like an album. The reader flips through glossy page after glossy page of photographs paired with a short, page-long reminiscence. Each glimpse of Lowrian history is also joined with a quote from one of her books, so we can trace her inspiration for characters and passages. Lowry traces the lines where her personhood is inextricably linked to the stories she has crafted.
In a simple style aimed towards the middle grade audience her novels have been written for, Lowry uses these pages to welcome us into her own family. She points out details and gives backstory, shares personal responses and humorous anecdotes, much like one might pass down stories to a grandchild. She conveys not only her own life, but includes photographs of her parents, children, grandchildren, and even some friends, showing the web through which we form our identity.
Looking Back is not entitled a “Book of Memories” for nothing; Lowry gently asks many questions about the nature of memory throughout these pages, a theme readily seen in The Giver as well. When we see a face but cannot remember a name, what does that do to a person’s identity? Does time’s inevitable morphing of names and details mean that our memories become false? How is our memory influenced by the fleeting moments captured by the camera, even when these moments would be seen differently in light of a bigger picture? One thing becomes clear: memory is a gift, and the small moments of our lives make history.
Lectures & Panel Discussions
Author Tom Stanton Discusses His New York Times Bestseller: “Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit”
Tuesday October 11, 2016: 7:00pm to
8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Blog Post
TV Spotlight: 11.22.63
by manz
11.22.63 is a sci fi thriller based on the best-selling Stephen King novel of the same name. The 8 part television series is another interesting look into the assassination of John F. Kennedy and I thoroughly enjoyed the series. It makes me want to watch Oliver Stone’s JFK again!
James Franco stars as Jake Epping, a recently divorced English teacher who is offered a chance to go back in time after finding out that a friend of his discovered a portal that takes you back to 1960. He is then tasked with travelling back in time to prevent JFK’s assassination on November 22, 1963, focusing on Lee Harvey Oswald, in order to alter the course of history. With the past always trying to “push back” this is not an easy task for Jake and he finds many hurdles along the way that leave room for plenty of suspense. He also meets sweet and stunning librarian Sadie Dunhill who throws a wrench in keeping on track with his big plans.
If you like history or suspense, give the show a try!
Blog Post
On your mark, get set, RACE.
by manz
The film Race tells the story of 4 time gold medal Olympic track star Jesse Owens. It chronicles his time at Ohio State and leading up to his appearance at the 1936 Olympics, where he became a legend.
Owens (1913-1980) remains one of the greatest athletes of all time, shattering records as though he were just batting an eyelash. He wowed the world at the Big Ten Track and Field Championships right here in Ann Arbor, Michigan by tying the world record in the 100-yard dash and then setting the world record in the long jump, the 220-yard dash and the 220 low hurdles. Some call it the greatest 45 minutes in sports.
In 1936, at the nearly boycotted Olympics in Nazi Germany, he went on to win gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters, the long jump and the 4x100 relay.
The film does a great job of focusing on his big races and captures the spirit of Owens’ greatness and the challenges he faced dealing with racism and segregation in 1930s America.
Blog Post
The Hamiltome is Here!
by valerieclaires
Hamilton, the smash-hit Broadway hip-hop musical about Founding Father and America’s first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton (yes, you read that right), has taken the world by storm. Performances are sold out through the end of this year, and celebrities from Busta Rhymes to Madonna all the way up to Dick Cheney and the Obama family have raved about the show.
If you’ve been listening to the Broadway cast soundtrack non-stop since it came out, you probably already know all about Hamiltome, the nickname for the newest book about the musical. Many Broadway shows publish libretti with music, lyrics, and notes about the show, but Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and collaborator Jeremy McCarter have put together something more like a scrapbook. In addition to the traditional libretto, Hamilton: The Revolution features large color photos of the cast, set, and show; plus historical background information, interviews, and footnotes from Miranda and the cast. It was published this week, and you can place a hold on it from AADL!
If you just can’t wait for it, and need to dive deeper into Hamilton and his contemporaries, try one of these:
Ron Chernow’s biography, Alexander Hamilton tops the list of further Hamilton reading, and is in fact the inspiration for the musical. Lin-Manuel Miranda took this 800-page tome on vacation as some nice beach reading, connected with the plight and struggle of a man writing himself out of hard times, and started composing the musical when he got back from vacation. This is the definitive Hamilton biography, a vivid and detailed portrait of a multi-dimensional man who came to a new country and made himself a new man.
Hamilton wrote prolifically, and there’s no better way to understand that than by picking up the 1108-page collection of his writings, which includes letters, speeches, the infamous Reynolds Pamphlet, and all 51 of the Federalist Papers he authored. Flip through, and you might even notice some lines from his actual writing that became lyrics in the show. Be certain to read some of the affectionate letters he wrote to his wife Eliza and the series of letters with Aaron Burr that led to their fateful duel.
After the duel, Aaron Burr would often casually refer to Alexander Hamilton as “my friend Alexander Hamilton, whom I shot.” They were, at the very least, colleagues, and even worked together as attorneys for the defense in America’s first sensational and fully transcribed murder trial. Duel with the Devil, by Paul Collins, shares the scandal of the Manhattan Well Mystery and the trial of suspect Levi Weeks, plus some of the political backstory of the two legendary rivals.
Don’t throw away your shot to learn more about this Founding Father’s fascinating life and career. Placing a hold on one of these books is easy, waiting for it is harder.
Blog Post
PEN/ESPN SPORTS AWARD
by iralax
Scott Ellsworth has just won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing 2016 for his book, The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball’s Lost Triumph. It is the story of a 1944 illegal basketball game between the North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham and the Duke University Medical School team. Congratulations to Ellsworth, who is a lecturer in the UM Department of Afroamerican and African Studies.
Blog Post
Interested in Chinese Mythology?
by hanxanth
If you answered yes to the above question, I recommend you check out Hoshin Engi! This manga series is based on an ancient Chinese epic called Investiture of the Gods, a romanticized story of the fall of King Zhou during the Shang Dynasty and all of the mythological figures that were supposedly involved in the event.
Hoshin Engi is a little different. Set in ancient China, the story follows Taikobo, an immortal-in-training who is asked to participate in the Hoshin Project. His task: trap the beautiful fox spirit Dakki who is controlling emperor and spreading evil throughout China. But it's not so easy. In order to accomplish this task, he has to search out and defeat 365 specific people whose names are written in the Hoshin Scroll. I know I wouldn't want that job! And neither does Taikobo. Rather than follow through on the mission, he attempts to infiltrate Dakki's stronghold. When that doesn't work, he flees the kingdom and helps establish another kingdom to rival Dakki's control. Fighting ensues.
This series is full of combat, magic, political intrigue, Chinese mythological and historical figures, and is all around a nicely presented story. So if any or all of that sounds interesting, check out volume 1 here!