ASMSA Lib

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Library Blog. See Library Home Page for more...

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First female to win a nobel prize in mathematics describes her brainstorming techniques to Science magazine.

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The ASMSA library will be open for normal hours beginning Sunday, August 17th at 3:00 p.m. Stop by and browse our new books and DVDs!

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Dear Senior Class,

In your new ventures... display your excellence distinguish yourselves continue to wonder ask good questions. Wishing you much happiness ...in your new ventures.

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Last week. Good luck on exams. Stop by for a chocolate nibble while they last.

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And if you are still looking for something to read, the library website has all kinds of recommendations:

Summer Reading recommendations

Advisor Tools

Lists with Recommendations

Social Book Sites

Online Reading

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As for LOVE A TREE day, you can find a variety of books with trees as the theme in our collection. A few days ago we had mentioned The Man Who Planted Trees.

Another book not to be missed is Richard Preston's The Wild Trees: a Story of Passion and Daring.

“Neither science nor moralizing drives this story… What Preston offers is a glimpse into the lives of these angel-headed hipsters, who took root, found meaning and flourished in a digitized, cataloged and oversubscribed world. Turn the pages and you’ll find your obsession growing with theirs, until finally their zonked-out wonder becomes your own. So rest easy, drop your ropes and climbing gear and wrap your arms about this book. It’s easier than hugging a redwood.”—Los Angeles Times  Read the LA Times review

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Here's a sampling of titles you can find in our collection that are recommended for the College Bound.

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 Sylvia Plath. 1932-1963

 “I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I  want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the  skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades,  tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in  life. And I am horribly limited.” 

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The Maid and the Queen: the Secret History of Joan of Arc by Nancy Goldstone.

You can follow Regina Beard on GoodReads as she continues to read Goldstone's fascinating narrative of the politics and intrigue that launches the Maid of Lorraine into one of France's most turbulent episodes, the Hundred Years War. 

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More Summer READS

Find these Horn Book recommendations for summer reading in our collection:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Change-resistant college freshman Cath holes up in her dorm room writing fantasy fanfiction. As the year progresses, she is pushed outside her comfort zone by her snarky roommate, her love interest, and her loving but dysfunctional family. 438 pages.

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner; illus. by Julian Crouch (Candlewick) Printz Honor Book In an alternate dystopian United Kingdom, the Motherland regime consigns undesirables to the derelict housing of Zone Seven. When his friend Hector disappears, Standish sets out to rescue him and uncovers a shocking government hoax. 281 pages.

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick (Roaring Brook) Printz Medal Winner Seven interconnected short stories progress backwards through the history of a remote Scandinavian island, from 2073 to a “Time Unknown.” Together the tales gradually reveal the ritual that brings bloody death and forbidden love to “Blessed Island.” 263 pages.

Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang; illus. by the author; color by Lark Pien (First Second/Roaring Brook) This “diptych” of graphic novels (with touches of magical realism and humor) is set during China’s Boxer Rebellion. In Boxers, Little Bao learns to harness the power of ancient gods to fight the spread of Christianity, while in Saints, Four-Girl sits squarely on the other side of the rebellion. 328 and 172 pages.

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Happy Children’s Book Week! What children’s book changed your life?

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Or had a big impact?  How about—Heckedy Peg by the Woods

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Audio Books is once again offering free downloads over the summer beginning 15 May.

Here is the SUMMER 2014 SYNC TITLE LINEUP:

May 15 – May 21

WARP: THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN by Eoin Colfer, Narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library)

THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells, Narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library)

May 22 – May 28

CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio)

OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles, Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks)

May 29 – June 4

CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Narrated by Emma Galvin (Hachette Audio)

THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, Narrated by Richard E. Grant (Harper Audio)

June 5 – June 11

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill, Narrated by Meredith Mitchell (Tantor Audio)

JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare, Performed by Richard Dreyfuss, JoBeth Williams, Stacy Keach, Kelsey Grammer, and a full cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

June 12 – June 18

CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell (Bolinda Audio)

THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne (christianaudio)

June 19 – June 25

I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter, Narrated by Renée Raudman (Brilliance Audio)

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery, Narrated by Colleen Winton (Post Hypnotic Press)

June 26 – July 2

FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin (Hachette Audio)

OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister (Brilliance Audio)

July 3 – July 9

TORN FROM TROY by Patrick Bowman, Narrated by Gerard Doyle (Post Hypnotic Press)

PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Narrated by Jim Dale (Brilliance Audio)

July 10 – July 16

CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose, Narrated by Channie Waites (Brilliance Audio)

WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED by Carolyn Maull McKinstry with Denise George, Narrated by Felicia Bullock (Oasis Audio)

July 17 – July 23

THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Recorded Books)

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES II by Arthur Conan Doyle, Narrated by David Timson (Naxos AudioBooks)

July 24 – July 30

HEADSTRONG by Patrick Link, Performed by Deidrie Henry, Ernie Hudson, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Scott Wolf (L.A. Theatre Works)

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson, Narrated by Scott Brick (Tantor Audio)

July 31 – August 6

DIVIDED WE FALL by Trent Reedy, Narrated by Andrew Eiden (Scholastic Audio)

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane, Narrated by Frank Muller (Recorded Books)

August 7 – August 13

LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS by Ben Lesser, Narrated by Jonathan Silverman and Ben Lesser (Remembrance Publishing)

THE SHAWL by Cynthia Ozick, Narrated by Yelena Shmulenson (HighBridge Audio)

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Short Stories

May is read a short story month. 

The nice feature of short stories is that you can pick and choose. You can sit down and complete a story in one sitting.

Here is a listing from our catalog.

You might want to try some of these:

Call Numbers: FIC SAU 2013

Tenth of December : stories

by Saunders, George, - 2013. - Copies: 1 of 1 available

A collection of ten short stories in which  MacArthur winner, George Saunders explores morality, class, sex, love, and other themes. His stories live up to all the hype that has been garnered. A collection not to miss.

Call Numbers: PS 509.G5 G56 2011

Ghosts by gaslight : stories of steampunk and supernatural suspense

2011. - Copies: 1 of 1 available

A collection of steampunk and supernatural tales set and written in the vernacular of the Victorian and Edwardian time period.

Call Numbers: PR6019 .O9 P8 1993

Dubliners

by Joyce, James, - 1993. - Copies: 1 of 1 available

Originally published 100 years ago, this collection of 15 short stories offers glimpses into the lives of ordinary Dubliners and collectively paint a portrait of a nation.

Call Numbers: FIC GAI 2007

M is for magic

by Gaiman, Neil. - c2007. - Copies: 1 of 1 available

Eleven stories that involve strange and fantastical events from favorite author Neil Gaiman.

Call Numbers: HD8736.5 .L56 2009

The corpse walker : real-life stories, China from the bottom up

by Liao, Yiwu, - 2009, c2008. - Copies: 1 of 1 available

Contains interviews conducted by Liao Yiwu between 1993 and 2006 in which men and women at the bottom of Chinese society discuss the grim realities of their lives in the age of reported economic growth and globalization.

Call Numbers: FIC EIS 2010

The collected stories of Deborah Eisenberg.

by Eisenberg, Deborah. - 2010. - Copies: 1 of 1 available

A collection of twenty-seven stories. "Her characters aren't particularly nice, or accomplished, or smart, but they are breathtakingly real, down to their exquisite inability to express themselves." (via)

Call Numbers: FIC DIA 2013

This is how you lose her

by Díaz, Junot, - 2013. - Copies: 1 of 1 available

A collection of nine short stories. "The relationships in Lose Her far transcend sexual bravado, encompassing the fraught and angry bond of brotherhood, the legacies of lost fathers on sons, and the steel and suffering of women left to serve as familial glue by default—women who love fiercely without any comforting notions of being understood or saved by the men around them." (via)

For an online experience, you might want to consider “The Paper Menagerie” which was the first story to win all three major science fiction/fantasy awards: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award. You can find it here as a free download.

For more suggestions, Books on the Nightstand  proclaimed 2013, the year of the short story and there are plenty of suggestions from their Project Short Story. A more up-to-date list can be found here.

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Here are 10 titles you can find in the library that mention something about mothers... “I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.” ― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe “A mother is always the beginning. She is how things begin.” ― Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter “Billy covered his head with his blanket. He always covered his head when his mother came to see him in the mental ward - always got much sicker until she went away. It wasn’t that she was ugly, or had bad breath or a bad personality. She was a perfectly nice, standard-issue, brown-haired, white woman with a high school education. She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone through so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn’t really like life at all.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five “No mother is ever, completely, a child’s idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well. But despite everything, we didn’t do too badly by one another, we did as well as most." ― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale “How do I know you'll keep your word?" asked Coraline. "I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave." "Does she have a grave?" asked Coraline. "Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline “Think for a minute, darling: in fairy tales it's always the children who have the fine adventures. The mothers have to stay at home and wait for the children to fly in the window.” ― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife “Right, except I'm not going to lie to my mom, because what kind of bastard lies to his own mother?” ― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines “And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.” ― Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club “And I can't die easy thinking maybe the menfolks white or black is making a spit cup out of you. Have some sympathy for me. Put me down easy, Janie, I'm a cracked plate.” ― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God “My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three, and, save for a pocket of warmth in the darkest past, nothing of her subsists within the hollows and dells of memory, over which, if you can still stand my style (I am writing under observation), the sun of my infancy had set: surely, you all know those redolent remnants of day suspended, with the midges, about some hedge in bloom or suddenly entered and traversed by the rambler, at the bottom of a hill, in the summer dusk; a furry warmth, golden midges.” ― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita “I'll tend to her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else--and the one time I did it was took from me--they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby.... I know what it is to be without the milk that belongs to you; to have to fight and holler for it, and to have so little left.” ― Toni Morrison, Beloved Hope you are all enjoying some time with your mothers.

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Hope you are connecting with a good book.

"Connected"  Luke Dick  9/16/12  While I turn the pages of my book  Across the world the author cooks  She pours the wine, while I break the bread,  Because we're connected  Roots beneath my family tree,  Deeper than the eyes can see,  All tangled up like spiderwebs,  Connected  Drums in the darkness  You can feel the pulse  First there was star dust  And now there's us  All I ever was,  All I'll ever be,  Connected  Can you still hear that cosmic spark,  Cannons blasting in the dark,  When we blew out like grains of sand,  Connected  Drums in the darkness  You can feel the pulse  First there was star dust  And now there's us  All I ever was,  All I'll ever be,  Connected  So, pour the wine, I'll break the bread,  We're all tangled up like spiderwebs,  And here we are, still grains of sand,  Connected.

credits

from ABRAÇO, released 26 February 2013

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May is Jewish American History Month You will find several books in the library collection on the Jewish culture.

We have selected 6 fiction books, that may be of interest. Call Numbers: FIC AND 2012 Me and Earl and the dying girl : a novel by Andrews, Jesse. - 2012. - Copies: 1 of 1 available Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia. Call Numbers: PG 3476 .B2 A26 1994 Collected stories by Babel, Isaac - 1994 - Copies: 1 of 1 available The author's works reflect the conflicting forces in his life--his Russian heritage coupled with his desire to be faithful to his Jewish roots and his desire to be free of them. Call Numbers: FIC HOF 2006 Incantation by Hoffman, Alice. - 2006. - Copies: 1 of 1 available During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend, the consequences are tragic. Call Numbers: FIC POT 1967 The chosen by Potok, Chaim - 1967 - Copies: 1 of 1 available A story about two fathers and their sons, the book offers deep, sympathetic insight into the variety and profundity of Jewish tradition and heritage. Call Numbers: FIC ROT 2008 Indignation by Roth, Philip. - 2008. - Copies: 1 of 1 available What impact can American history have on the life of the vulnerable individual? It is 1951 in America, the second year of the Korean War. A studious, law-abiding, intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner, is beginning his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at the local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Call Numbers: FIC ZUS 2006 The book thief by Zusak, Markus. - c2006. - Copies: 1 of 1 available Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.