Library Happenings

Some Great Young Adult Books

2012-01-20T15:06:00.001-05:00

This is not a "Top 10" or anything of the sort, just a few books that I read, and enjoyed in the past few months, all of which can be found here at the library.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

"Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?" ~ From the author's website.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a well imagined, well executed story that is not only beautifully written, but captures the reader making it nearly impossible to put down. The ending will have you wishing desperately for the next book in what is slated to be a trilogy.

The Name of the Star, by Maureen Johnson

While we are on 'first books of a series', let me introduce you to the Shades of London, new series from acclaimed author (and Twitter phenomenon) Maureen Johnson.

"The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it’s the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.
Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn’t notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities." ~From the author's website.

The Name of the Star was full of surprises and believable characters. Emotions run the gamut from laughter to tears and nail-biting tension. Johnson has a knack for making you feel what each character is feeling.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

"Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn't believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit - more sparkly, more fun, more wild - the better. But even though Lola's style is outrageous, she's a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket - a gifted inventor - steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door."

Lola and the Boy Next Door is at times fun, and heartbreaking at others. It is a good old-fashioned love story with many modern twists. It is so easy to picture Lola and Cricket helping Lola's Dad baking pies for a big order, and traveling about San Francisco that I almost feel like I've been there.

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Last one, for today, is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes. Also known widely as The Twelve Dancing Princesses, it is the story of twelve royal sisters who are compelled to dance their shoes to tatters each night, though they are locked in their room, and the young soldier who eventually unlocks their secret.

The author has built on the original story and given it a history, folklore, and depth all its own. The mysterious underground kingdom where the princesses dance the night away with their pale other-worldly princes is given realism, as is the cause and cruelty of their curse.

In the main character Galen, George has given us one of my favorite heroes. He is a soldier with tragedy in his past, yet he is not only handsome and brave, but also witty, clever, and handy with a set of knitting needles. Historically, apparently, it was common for men, especially soldiers to knit. Often knitting his own socks and scarves and things was the only way a soldier kept warm and dry. The author even includes knitting patterns in the back of the book, as well as on her website.

Spencer and the Rose Parade

2012-01-03T13:40:00.002-05:00

Few people watching the fantastic pageantry of the annual Rose Parade yesterday would connect the event to Spencer, Indiana but without one particular Spencerian, Calvin Fletcher Jr., there would be no Orange Grove Avenue to parade down.

Calvin Fletcher Jr. was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 30, 1826. He was of eleven children; nine sons and two daughters, born to Calvin Fletcher Sr. and his wife, Sarah Hill. Calvin Jr. graduated from the County Seminary in Indianapolis and then spent three years at Brown University in Rhode Island before returning to Indiana and taking up the life of a farmer.

Fletcher Jr. married in Emily Beeler in 1849 and for the next twenty years the couple resided in Marion County where Fletcher Jr. worked as a farmer, stock-trader and nurseryman and busied himself establishing statewide agricultural and horticultural societies.

During the Civil War, Emily worked as a nurse while Calvin worked building badly needed turnpikes in Indiana. After the war he became involved with the syndicate that Indianapolis & Vincennes Railroad. It was while acting as contractor and agent for General Ambrose Burnside on this project when he first became acquainted with Owen County and in June, 1869 he moved here permanently, building a beautiful white stucco mansion for his family in the town of Spencer.

In 1873 the Fletchers were attending a dinner party at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Elliot in Indianapolis when Mrs. Elliot began complaining that the unusually harsh winter had killed all her prize caladium. Others at the party joined in with complaints about the cold weather exacerbating various aches and pains when Mrs. Thomas suggested that they should all up and move to California. In fact, Mrs. Thomas proclaimed, if no one wanted to go with her she would go on her own.

The others at the party decided Mrs. Thomas was onto something and in the Spring of 1873 the group drafted an agreement to purchase a thousand acres in Southern California where they planned to grow wheat, plant vineyards, hedges and build nurseries in anticipation of the group emigrating there.

The financial panic of 1873 delayed the implementation of these plans but in November, 1873 the group formed the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association and purchased 4,000 acres of prime valley land. Calvin Fletcher Jr., was named Chief Surveyor and on January 27, 1874 divided lots were sold in parcels of 15, 30 and 60 acres with the smallest investors being allowed first choice of lots. It was Calvin Fletcher Jr. who gave Orange Grove Avenue its name. It was Dr. Thomas Elliot who found Pasadena's permanent name, asking a friend for an appropriate Chippewa phrase with the friend coming up with Pasadena, a loose translation that stands for “Crown of the Valley.” Calvin Fletcher Jr. also planned the water works in Pasadena, standing in the rain for an entire day plotting flow charts to make sure that water would “flow toward the mountains.” In 1889 community leaders decided to stage a small village fete which has become a massive American tradition. Owners of local resorts teamed with members of the elite Valley Hunt Club to decorate their buggies with flowers and parade down Orange Grove Avenue to a town wide picnic and then send photos of the event to friends and family back East in order to show those shivering souls that even in the dead of winter Pasadena could cover the town, and everything in it, in roses.

Calvin Fletcher Jr. and his family never moved to Pasadena. In September of 1874 the Fletcher Family sailed for Europe where they stayed for the next three years while Calvin Fletcher worked on problems of aquaculture in small ponds. In 1877 he returned with his family to his mansion in Spencer which boasted 40 rooms and 18-inch thick walls and gorgeous grounds planted with Tamarack trees and a formal maze hedge to the south of the home.

Calvin Fletcher Sr. had once recorded in his diary that his namesake son had been acting “rash as usual” and even called in a phrenologist who felt the bumps on the boy's head and declared him “calculated to be a businessman.” By the late 1880s the younger Fletcher had run into financial difficulties and talked about turning his impressive Spencer home into a Sanitarium to capitalize on the natural mineral springs that ran through the property but nothing ever came of the plan.

When Calvin Fletcher Jr, died in 1903 the Fletcher Mansion was sold to E. Chubb Fuller, publisher of The Agricultural Epitomist who ran it as an experimental farm with, “a well selected orchard, a vineyard, several gardens and extensive greenhouses.” The farm became renowned for its herd of thoroughbred Portland China pigs, their Shropshire and Highland Blackface sheep, various poultry and waterfowl, Angora goats and 100 of the “finest Scotch collies in America.”

The Fletcher Mansion served as the administrative offices and printing press for the Epitomist untill the venture failed after the death of Mr. Fuller and the property was sold to Gordon B. Tanner who, in turn, sold it to Ephraim T. Barnes. Ironically, Mr. Barnes used the property to establish the largest Dahlia farm in the world, originating over 1,000 new hybrids of the flower whose rhizomes must, in central Indiana, be dug up and stored every winter, becoming known as “The Dahlia King” and “The Luther Burbank of Dahlias.” People came from all over the world to see Mr. Barnes' Dahlia Farm which he named the National Cooperative Show Gardens.

Ephraim T. Barnes died in 1933 after several years of ill health and the Fletcher Mansion went into steep decline. In 1981 it was purchased by Jim and Sally Vance who had originally stated their intentions of restoring the house and using it as a family home but, finding the structure too far gone to salvage, tore it down in October of 1990 in order to build a bigger home for their business. Today the Mansion's footprint is the parking lot for that business, Boston Scientific, a concern that manufactures medical devices.

Back in 1874 an acre in Pasadena would have set you back $100.00, or about $19,000 in inflation adjusted dollars. Maybe the phrenologist and Calvin Fletcher Sr. was right, Calvin Jr. was “calculated to be a businessman,” as even a quarter acre vacant lot in Pasadena would sell for well over $200,000 today but “rash as usual” for not seeing the deal through to its profitable conclusion.

Calvin Fletcher Jr. once stated in response to a direct query that, “the ambition of his life had been to become a fair representative of the average American citizen, which he considers the best standard of manhood in every sense of on earth, as far as his observation extends. He believes firmly that ultimately American ideas will prevail throughout the earth.” So perhaps today while we enjoy the phantasmagorical floats and marching bands as they make their way down Orange Grove Avenue we pause to spare a moment to think of the man responsible for laying out the town and naming the street, Mr. Calvin Fletcher Jr., of Spencer, Indiana and perhaps raise a glass of water in his honor.

Owen County History Book Sale

2011-11-25T13:16:00.000-05:00

Just in time for the Holidays the Owen County Historical and Genealogical Society has placed the 1884 and 1994 History of Owen County books on sale now through the end of December. The 1884 History of Owen County, regularly $35.00 is now on sale for $30.00. The 1994 History of Owen County, regularly $45.00, is currently on sale for $40.00. Buy both volumes for $65.00 and save $15.00 off of the regular price. Books are available for purchase in the Genealogy Department of the Owen County Public Library. Cash, checks and money orders accepted. Checks and money orders should be made payable to OCHGS.

November is National Diabetes Month

2011-11-10T12:55:00.000-05:00

By Amy Morgan

As someone who has had Type 1 Diabetes for over 21 years, I thought I should mention that November is National Diabetes Month. This is a campaign sponsored by the American Diabetes Association, The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and several other groups to raise awareness about the condition.

Though some people may not know it, there are actually multiple types of Diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association’s website, “every 17 seconds, someone is diagnosed with Diabetes,” and there are approximately “26 million children and adults living around the world with Diabetes.”

While many people have Diabetes, there are different types of the condition, each of which is very different and require their own treatments. If you would like to learn more, you can stop by the library to check out our collection of Diabetes books, or go on the web. Three of my favorite websites include www.diabetes.org, which is the official website of the American Diabetes Association; www.jdrf.org, the official page for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; and www.sixuntilme.com, which is a blog by Kerri Morrone Sparling, who not only grew up with Type 1 Diabetes, but is also a freelance writer and Diabetes Advocate.

If you would like to know more, feel free to ask. I am by no means a professional, but I can share my experiences.

Local Players on the House of David Basketball Team

2011-10-19T09:22:00.002-04:00

Last week we learned what happened to the religious organization, House of David. Today we will find out what happened to the three young men from Spencer, Ollie troth, Red Johnson and Wayne Payton, who played on the House of David barnstorming basketball team.

We first find mention of Red Johnson, whose given name was Floyd, in a 1932 newspaper article headlined Shot By Father. The story reads:

Floyd (Red) Johnson was accidentally shot Monday by his father, Otis Johnson, while hunting southwest of Spencer. The two were about 75 feet apart and two of the shot penetrated the body, one entering just above the heart and the other in one hip. The doctor probed for the shot in the breast but failed to locate it. Young Johnson was up town Monday night, still very nervous from the shock.

The next and last mention we find of Red Johnson is in his father’s 1948 obituary where he is listed as living in Clinton, Illinois.

Oliver “Ollie” Jerome Troth died in Jasper, Indiana on December 12, 2009. He was born November 7, 1921 and graduated from Spencer High School where he was a member of the Indiana All-Star basketball team which beat Kentucky in 1940. He must have joined the House of David basketball team shortly thereafter because he served as a Marine during World War II.

In 1945 Ollie Troth married Mary Jane Corson and went to work at the Joy Manufacturing Company in Michigan City, Indiana which manufactured various types of mining equipment. Ollie retired from Joy Manufacturing, which has since closed its Michigan City plant. In 1994, private developers took over the 600,000 square foot property, located in a residential neighborhood. The developers invested over $5 million in the facility and recruited six companies that employed 600 people before it was sold. Today the largest employer in Michigan City is the Blue Chip Hotel and Casino.

After retirement, Ollie and Mary Troth became Florida snowbirds before moving to Jasper in 2008 to be near his daughter, Jayne, and her family.

Wayne Payton’s story is the one we know the most about.

Wayne Payton had been a standout player for the Spencer High School “Cops.” He was a member of the 1939 Indiana All-Stars team that beat Kentucky that year; Kentucky being the arch-nemesis to Hoosiers everywhere.

After graduation Wayne worked at the Collier Brothers Creamery and the Bell Telephone Company before hooking up with the House of David basketball team.

He couldn’t have played with them long. On December 7, 1941, Wayne was in Spencer with another local boy, Robert “LeRoy” Long who played semi-pro basketball with the Delco Brake Company of Dayton, Ohio, when they heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. They decided to enlist.

Wayne Payton was twenty-one years old when he traveled to Indianapolis and enlisted at Fort Benjamin Harrison on January 28, 1942. After basic training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, Fort Benning, Georgia and Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, Wayne Payton was assigned to the 1^st Infantry Division as part of the anti-tank regiment. He landed in England in August, 1942 as part of the first large convoy of American soldiers to land overseas. From there he was ordered to North Africa to fight in the Battle of Tunisia.

On August 27, 1943, Wayne Payton’s parents received a telegram from the “Commanding General of the North African area” that Wayne had been missing in action since July 11^th. The Payton’s worry was alleviated somewhat when they received a telegram August 31^st from a Miss Mary Jane Royer who reported that she had heard word from LeRoy Johnson that Wayne was alright and for her to “keep her chin up.” Unfortunately LeRoy Johnson was mistaken.

On Tuesday, September 14, 1943, Mr. and Mrs. Payton received another telegram. This one informed them that their son had been killed in action on July 11, 1943 while serving in North Africa.

Robert “LeRoy” Long also ended up being reported as missing in action but was found gravely injured with gunshot wounds, “from one side of his body to the other.”

“They had big, long wooden prongs that ran right through where that shrapnel went through,” Long recalled, “They made a tunnel. The only way to clean it out was to put some sulphur on it and jam it through.”

In recalling hearing that fateful announcement with his friend Wayne Payton back in Spencer on December 7, 1941 Long reminisces in an interview given to the Spencer Evening World, “Little did we realize what this tragic news would mean to our lives.”

~ Laura Wilkerson
Genealogy Department; OCPL

Revisiting the House of David

2011-10-10T16:59:00.000-04:00

In organizing the School Folders in the Information Files recently I came across an intriguing photograph of a House of David barnstorming basketball team. The photo dates from approximately 1940 and shows five muscular young men in tank tops and short shorts. Three are bearded and three are from Spencer. All of them are originally from Indiana. The five men were a Mr. Jefferies of Lyons, Indiana, first name unrecorded; Dutch Leonard of Bloomington and the three men from Spencer; Ollie Troth, Red Johnson and Wayne Payton.

The House of David Commune was famous in its day. It was founded by Benjamin Franklin Purnell and his wife Mary in Benton Harbor, Michigan in March, 1903. Benjamin Purnell had been born in March 27, 1861 in Esculapia, Kentucky. He was the seventh of nine children born to farmers Madison and Sarah Purnell. Benjamin learned to read from the New Testament and when a tent preacher passed through town Madison invited him home so little Benjamin could preach for him.

Benjamin Purnell loved to preach and became a child evangelist, travelling across the country delivering sermons. At the age of sixteen Benjamin married Angeline Brown in Virginia. The couple settled in Richmond, Indiana where Benjamin found work as a broom maker. The marriage did not last and by the time Benjamin was nineteen he was back in the road and unattached.

It was in Aberdeen, Ohio where he met and married Mary Stallard on August 29, 1880. They had two children together. In 1888 they learned from a group of preachers about a man said to be the Sixth Messenger, James Jershom Jezreel. Jezreel had written a trilogy known as the Extracts of the Flying Roll which prophesized that Eden would be restored and the 144,000 children of Israel would gather in a new Eden in America. Michigan to be exact. Jezreel wrote, “O blessed Michigan, for out of thee shall come a star.”

Jezreel was following in the footsteps of the First Messenger, Joanna Southcott of Devonshire, England. Born in 1750, Southcott had received “communications of the spirit” in 1792 and pronounced herself the woman spoken of in Revelations, “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”

Over the next twelve years Joanne Southcott received revelations that foretold Christ’s return to Earth, the restoration of the Garden of Eden and eternal life for God’s 144,000 elect. At the height of her popularity Southcott attracted over 150,000 follows but in 1814 the 64-year-old virgin announced she was pregnant with the prophesied child, the new Messiah, Shiloh of Genesis, who would rule with the iron scepter. Her due date of October 14, 1814 came and went with no child and it was announced Southcott had fallen into a “trance.” On December 26^th or 27^th, 1814, Joanna Southcott died though her believers lived on.

In the mid-1880s the Fifth Messenger, John Wroe, instituted Mosaic law and also a custom known as the “Cleansing of the Blood” where the Messenger had the responsibility of de-flowering every female member of the religion before their marriages. When word of this ritual leaked out in Britain they were chased off that island and disbursed to Australia, Canada and the United States.

By 1890 the largest group of Southcottians was based at the Flying Rolls colony Detroit Michigan led by Michael Mills who proclaimed he was the Seventh Messenger, the Sixth being recognized as James Zerell who had collected all the prophecies of the previous five Messengers into one volume known as the Flying Roll. It was here that Benjamin and Mary Parnell travelled in 1895. The Southcottians of Detroit gave all of their worldly goods to Michael Mills and lived communally in “God’s House” on the grounds of the Colony. In 1894 Michael Mills had a vision that from that point forward that all the wives were to be shared communally with all of the men of the Colony. This was too much for Benjamin Parnell who encouraged Mills’ outraged wife to file for divorce. The resulting scandal ended with Michael Mills barely escaping a lynch mob and in Michigan filing morals charges against him leading to a five year prison term for the former prophet.

During this period of turmoil Benjamin Purnell announced that he had received a Revelation that Michael Mills was a fraud and, in fact, he, Benjamin Purnell, was the true Seventh Messenger. He and Mary were run out of Detroit by Southcottians still loyal to Michael Mills and spent the next several years as itinerant preachers.

In 1902, while the Purnell’s were in Fostoria, Ohio, their daughter Hettie was killed in an explosion of a fireworks factory during her first day at work there. She had just turned sixteen. The explosion leveled the factory and killed everyone inside. Hettie was so badly burned that she was only able to be identified by the ring given to her by a friend for her birthday less than two weeks before. The actions of Benjamin and Mary Purnell caused outrage in some segments of the Fostoria population because they did not believe in death and so refused to bury their daughter but upon leaving the place three weeks later they published a notice in the local newspaper thanking everyone for, “the kindness, gifts and support,” shown to them by the Citizens of Fostoria.

Benjamin and Mary then moved along with five followers to Benton Harbor, Michigan which reported came to Mary in a dream. Once in Benton Harbor they incorporated the Israelite House of David. A wealthy supporter donated land to the group and they soon hooked up with about 200 members of the ‘Flying Rollers’ who had become disenchanted with Michael Mills and the Detroit group. Most of the Purnell’s original followers were from Indiana and Ohio but their ranks expanded dramatically after Benjamin Purnell made a recruiting trip to Australia in 1904-05 among the followers of Messenger James Jezreel.

From here the House of David prospered. It was a communal society and all of its members assigned all their worldly possessions to Benjamin Purnell who added vegetarianism and celibacy to the list of religious requirements. The House of David built three impressive buildings, one of which, Shiloh, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They generated their own electricity and ran their own printing press. They purchased Michigan’s 3,400 acre High Island where they grew fruits and vegetables they later sold at their fruit and vegetable market which was said to be the largest in the world; as was their state-of-the-art cold storage facility. They opened their own amusement park complete with a miniature railroad along with hotels and vegetarian restaurants. In 1912 they published a vegetarian cookbook. They had a zoo, mineral springs and botanical gardens on their 1,000 acre property. They built an auditorium where Biblical plays were performed. They ran a shipping line and cruise ships, patenting the first cross propeller technology making it harder for waves to tip over cruise ships. They invested in logging. They invented a synthetic stone known as Hydro-stone and the Waffle cone. The invented the automatic pinsetter for use in bowling alleys. At the behest of Welch’s Grape Juice Company they invented a way that grape juice could be stored in cans and in the 1970s their cold storage facility was instrumental in inventing dehydrated Space Meals for use by astronauts. They invented a portable lighting system that allowed sports teams to play outside at night. They sponsored two orchestras and three brass bands that traveled the country playing instruments manufactured at the Colony and they were famous for their semi-pro baseball that barnstormed the country and, to a lesser extent, their basketball teams. Players on these teams were not required to be members of the religion.

Prospering, the House of David was estimated to be worth over $10 million dollars by the 1920s. Despite the vows of celibacy, the House of David was scrutinized by the police on the look-out for immoral practices. Benjamin Purnell was arrested on morals charges in 1910, 1914, 1920 and 1922. In 1923, the Detroit Free Press published a sensational expose of the sect prompting the State’s Attorney General to Act. The Colony was raided but Benjamin wasn’t found. It was assumed he had fled to Canada but in 1926 a disaffected member, Bessie Daniels, went to the police and reported Benjamin Purnell had been hiding in plain sight. He was arrested in his bedroom at the Colony and 13 women swore under oath that they had sexual relations with the Messenger when they were still minors. Benjamin Purnell was placed on trial and convicted of fraud but died on November 16, 1927 before the charges of sexual impropriety could be heard in Court.

After Benjamin’s death the House of David split into two factions with about 200 members supporting Judge Harry Thomas Dewhirst, a one-time jurist from California, and Benjamin’s widow, Mary, who soon proclaimed herself “Co-Seventh Messenger.” They managed to reach a settlement with Mary receiving $60,000 and Dewhirst’s faction retaining Shiloh and the rest of the House of David’s assets. Mary bought land directly across the street, naming it the Israelite House of David, or, more simply, Mary’s City of David. Both Houses maintained baseball teams but the Dewhirst team disbanded in the 1930s while the Israelite House of David’s teams played well into the 1950s.

Mary Purnell died August 19, 1953 at the age of 90. After her death her grandson, Samuel Coy Purnell, sued, claiming Mary owned all the assets of the City of David. A judge ruled that the assets were held communally but still awarded Samuel $700,000 as Mary’s share.

For a while things still prospered. The House of David added a cannery and a couple of Olds dealerships to its holdings and Mary Purnell built a vacation complex called Paradise Park that attracted so many Jewish visitors that a Synagogue was built on-site. However, celibacy took its toll. Numbers dwindled and the House of David stopped actively recruiting new members after Benjamin’s death. The zoo disbanded in the 1940s with the animals sent to Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. The industries and amusement park closed by the 1970s and by 2010 only three members remained living, supported in nursing homes by the profits from the House of David’s real estate holdings and the money raised from selling blueberries. Traveling down East Briton Road in Benton Harbor today there is barely a trace of the thriving commune. The tourist courts, the vegetarian restaurant, the athletic fields, the beer garden, the Synagogue, all gone though a museum dedicated to the House of David was opened in Benton Harbor in 1997.

All may not be lost, however. Mary Purnell prophesized that the gathering of 144,000 elect, 12,000 from each of the Tribes of Israel, would happen when people drive by and say, “Look, there’s where the House of David used to be,” and when the number of members remaining could fit into her closet. It looks like that time might be at hand.

~ Laura Wilkerson
Genealogy Department

Shared Reads: True Crime: An American Anthology

2011-09-09T13:53:00.009-04:00

True Crime: An American Anthology (Library of America, 2008) is a magnificent achievement and a revelatory read. Editor Harold Schechter, noted for his own contributions to the literature of true crime, displays a deft hand and remarkable depth of knowledge in assembling a panorama of American crime writing dating back to the 1630 hanging of pilgrim John Billington as reported by William Bradford through the trials of the Menendez brothers and the impact on real estate as interpreted by Dominick Dunne.

Throughout, Schechter presents us with amazing writing from authors famous, forgotten and anonymous. We have a remarkable, rare, account of true crime reporting by Benjamin Franklin in a case as fresh and relevant today as it was in 1734. We accompany Nathaniel Hawthorne as he visits a wax museum, “consisting almost wholly of murderers and their victims,” that will stay with the Reader long after the book is finished. We find Abraham Lincoln relating the case of Archibald Fisher's alleged murder and the man Lincoln defended up until the trial's improbable denouement.

We encounter Cotton Mather's deliciously plummy account of infanticide in early New England and Ambrose Bierce's survey of Crime in post-Civil War California. The Table of Contents read like a Who's Who of Master Wordsmiths: Mark Twain relating the state of lawlessness in the Old West, Frank Norris observes the capture of a fugitive on the docks of New York City, Edmund Pearson on the 'Bloody Benders' of Kansas, Damon Runyan's sparkling, cynical take of the Snyder-Gray murder trial, Alexander Woollcott considers Nan Patterson, H. L. Mencken's dyspeptic views on forensic psychology, Theodore Dreiser's reflections on the Robert Allen Edwards case, a case that strongly resembled the one that inspired An American Tragedy, while the incomparable Dorothy Killgallen covers the same case with a completely different aesthetic. We have Edna Ferber covering the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., Jim Thompson weighing in with Oklahoma noir and James Thurber attending the Hall-Mills trials. A.J. Liebling reports on the frenetic, cut-throat newspaper wars raging in New York at the turn of the 20^th Century through the lens of the torso murder of Turkish Bath Attendant, William Gildensupper while Zora Neale Hurston absorbs the atmosphere of racial tension in Live Oak, Florida surrounding the 1952 killing of Dr. Clifford Leroy by Ruby McCollum. Jack Webb writes about the Black Dahlia in a piece that inspires a young James Ellroy whose own contribution appears later in the volume. Robert Bloch adds a touch of American Gothic with his reporting on the crimes of Wisconsin's Ed Gein and Calvin Trillin brilliantly intertwines two separate worlds when writing about a murder in Harlan County, Kentucky. Gay Talese has a look around the the former Manson Family homestead and Truman Capote refracts another angle on the Manson case with his fascinating interview with convicted killer, Bobby Beausoleil and Jimmy Breslin relates his personal involvement in the Son of Sam. Jay Robert Nash takes a look at the Lana Turner – Johnny Sompanato affair while Ann Rule represents what's current and popular in the true crime field.

We also have authors whose name may not be as well known as those presented above but, judging from the selections presented here should be. Celia Thaxter arrives first at Smutty Nose to get first-hand accounts for Atlantic Monthly. José Martí reports on the trial of assassin Charles Giteau. Elizabeth Hardwick considers the ordeal of Caryl Chessman. Miriam Allen deFord delivers a penetrating dissection of the murder of Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb that would surely have risen the eminently risible hackles of H. L. Mencken, while W. T. Brannon's account of Richard Speck's murders of eight nurses in the city of Chicago remains a masterpiece of the genre.

The fifty selections chosen by Mr. Schechter each capture the unique feel of the individual eras in which the crimes occurred and together they form a fascinating overview of the progression of crime in America and, by extension, the progress of America ourselves. The quality of the work itself is represented beautifully in this perfectly proportioned book. The cover graphics are elegant and effective. The paper, including endpapers, is of high quality and pleasing to the touch. The construction of this book is impeccable and it should be noted that it was printed in The United States of America in contrast to the many shoddily bound books currently produced and imported from Communist China.

True Crime: An American Anthology is certainly the best book of its type in well over a decade. It is one of the best books I have read of any genre, period. I would highly recommend this work without any hesitation to anyone who enjoys reading about true crime, human behavior, the history of the United States or who just enjoys reading excellent selections of exceptional writing. Exceedingly well done.

True Crime: An American Anthology is available at the Owen County Public Library. Check it out!

~ Laura M. Wilkerson

Genealogy Department, OCPL

Children's and Teens' Summer Reading Program 2011 Review

2011-08-26T14:54:00.000-04:00

Well, Summer Reading has come and gone for another year. Our themes, "One World, Many Stories" and "You Are Here" took us around the world and back again. We looked at a variety of countries, cultures past and present, and had a wide variety of programs. We had 268 participants this year. Average attendance at our Fantastic Friday programs was 95. [Not too shabby.] Hopefully everyone had as much fun as we did!

There are lots of photos on the library's website. (Scroll down to see the Photo Gallery button.)

For those of you that are interested, we are planning to have the steel drum guys come back and do an outdoor concert for us.

We did a few things different this year. Most notably, we did not ask participants to count pages. We only asked that they read at least one book/comic/magazine/cereal box/etc. per week and write down the title in their reading "passport". At the end of the program participants were given a special sticker in place of a certificate. Feedback so far has been pretty positive. If you have feedback about SRP, or anything else at the library, we hope you'll share with us.

This is YOUR Owen County Public Library, and letting us know things like requests for materials, feedback on programs, etc. that we already offer, or suggestions and ideas for any aspect of the library is always helpful.

Shared Reads: Wanton West: by Lael Morgan

2011-08-12T15:15:00.001-04:00

Wanton West: Madams, Money, Murder, and the Wild Women of Montana’s Frontier by Lael Morgan (Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2011) is a book whose parts are greater than the whole.

Morgan introduces the reader to the pioneers of the Montana frontier both famous and infamous. She focuses largely on prostitutes in early Montana, drawing largely on real estate and census records to chart their declare and fall, or success and upward mobility as the case may be, and shows how many of Montana’s most respectable citizens financially backed various red-light districts in Montana. The book starts off reading like fiction which is a bit disconcerting to the Reader until we find that these passages are taken from a book, Madeleine: An Autobiography whose author is to this day Anonymous but who scholars believe was an experienced prostitute working in that era and who some believe went on to marry into a prominent Canadian family.

It is somewhat surprising how many frontier prostitutes eventually went on to marry, some very well, and lead respectable lives, but choices were fewer on the frontier and the profession did not engender the stigma it later acquired. Many of the prostitutes mentioned in this book slip completely from the record at a time when it was easier to lose oneself than it is now and there are harrowing tales of suicide among the soiled doves of Montana.

A particularly interesting section deals with the situation of Chinese prostitutes. At a time when authorities were concerned with both an alleged “yellow peril” and a presumed epidemic of “white slavery” the appalling abuse of Chinese women trafficked to the United States for purposes of prostitution were studiously ignored. Like the United States perception of the plight of women in fundamentalist groups or cultures is a matter of “culture” rather than of human rights, officials took a hands-off approach to the issue of the sexual slavery of Chinese women. The author admits because this was considered a matter for the Chinese to deal with official records are scanty but the author unearths some records that demonstrate the horror to which these women were subjected.

Ms. Morgan also recounts early movers-and-shakers of the era, men who made their fortunes in mining and ranching and the women associated with them. Readers may be familiar with the factoid that Montana had the only Congressperson to vote against the United States’ entry into both World War I and World War II. What isn’t as well known is that this woman, Jeanette Rankin, only held two terms, widely separated, that resulted in her being in a position to cast those two career-ending votes. It is also surprising, and instructional for those following current political arguments concerning Original Intent, that the New York Times published an article arguing that Ms. Rankin’s election was clearly illegal as the U.S. Constitution clearly uses the pronoun “he” when putting forth the qualifications needed in order to hold elected office.

This controversy echoes the controversy over the book, Madeline: An Autobiography, which resulted in the 1919 arrest of the then President of Harper & Brothers publishers, Clinton Tyler Brainard, upon a complaint from The Society for the Prevention of Vice. The complaint wasn’t based on any salacious details contained in the book, rather, The Society for the Prevention of Vice, objected to the fact that our anonymous Madeline showed no remorse over her former life of sin. Brainard, who rejected a plea deal that would have required him to divulge the author’s true identity, was initially convicted and fined $1,000, though that conviction was later reversed.

Another interesting story concerns Tom Cruse who made his fortune from gold mines and the tragic story of his daughter, Mary, a subject that fully warrants a full-length treatment. Also making an appearance is Huguette Clark, daughter of “Copper King,” William Clark. Hugette was still alive when this book went to press but she died two weeks shy of her 105 birthday in New York City on May 24, 2011. Huguette, who had been a something of a recluse since the 1930s and hospital bound since 1988, left a $30 million dollar bequest to her longtime nurse and caregiver while leaving the bulk of her estate, $300 million, to charity. She left a Water Lily painting by Charles Monet that she had purchased in 1930 to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. Indeed, it is curious to read how many of the people who made their money in Montana left it to institutions in Washington, D.C., New York, California, anywhere, it seems, but Montana.

There are also famous people who pop up along the narrative thread, most notably the artist Charles Russell. The boxer Stanley Ketchel takes up quite a bit of space and Calamity Jane spent some time on the Montana frontier. There is a charming, and tantalizing, appearance by Charlie Chaplin.

The author helpfully provides a list of “major players” as well as a timeline of events in the back of the book. The author gives us well sourced footnotes but inexplicably omits a separate bibliography. The book does contain an index and some quite interesting photographs.

Although the subject matter is interesting the book suffers from a lack of depth and writing that falls somewhat flat. Still, it is a diverting read and not unworthy of attention. Wanton West: Madams, Money, Murder, and the Wild Women of Montana’s Frontier is available at the Owen County Public Library. Check it out!

~ Laura Wilkerson, Genealogy Department, OCPL

Good advice for everyone to remember.

2011-07-26T11:03:00.000-04:00

What are your thoughts on this?

June Is Adopt a Cat Month!

2011-06-10T19:19:00.002-04:00

This is Buttons T.Cat Wilkerson

He is a Beautiful Boy

He is the Tab Hunter of Kitties

Unless He Wants Out.

Then He's the Steve McQueen of Kitties

Buttons Was Adopted From

The Owen County Humane Society

When He Was Found

He Was Close to Death

But They Nursed Him Back to Health

He Then Spent 8 1/2 Months in a Cage

With a Sign That Read

Vicious! Do Not Pet!

Until My Son Brought Him Home to Us.

Buttons Is a Wonderful Cat

And a Loving Companion

He Just Doesn't Like Cages

Here is One of the Cats Currently at

The Owen County Humane Society,

A No-Kill Shelter

Although I am Sure None of Them

Are Quite So Wonderful as Buttons

I am Sure Many of Them

Are About 99.857% as Good

So If You Want to Throw a Little Love Their Way

For the Kittens, and the Cats

And Yes, Even the Dogs

Their Website Is

http://www.owenhumanesociety.com/

Marley Mouseater

Who Will Be 21 Years Old

This Summer

OCPL On the Move

2011-06-01T11:48:00.000-04:00

Our "On the Move" program is a community outreach program that visits four areas around Owen County. We bring library materials for all ages, storytimes and activities for kids.

Today, I am writitng this from Cunot's Community Center. We also visit the communities of Coal City, Gosport, and Patricksburg. We visit each location twice each month, and are timing our Summer visits to coincide with the Summer Food Service Program, which provides free lunches to kids.

For dates, times and locations you can check our website. Come by and see us this Summer!

New James Patterson Coming!

2011-05-17T15:13:00.000-04:00

The perfect life

A successful lawyer and loving mother, Nina Bloom would do anything to protect the life she's built in New York—including lying to everyone, even her daughter, about her past. But when an innocent man is framed for murder, she knows that she can't let him pay for the real killer's crimes.

The perfect lie

Nina's secret life began 18 years ago. She had looks to die for, a handsome police-officer husband, and a carefree life in Key West. When she learned she was pregnant with their first child, her happiness was almost overwhelming. But Nina's world is shattered when she unearths a terrible secret that causes her to run for her life and change her identity.

The perfect way to die

Now, years later, Nina risks everything she's earned to return to Florida and confront the murderous evil she fled. In a story of wrenching suspense, James Patterson gives us his most head-spinning, action-filled story yet—a Hitchcock-like blend of unquenchable drama and pleasure.

Available June 28th

Local History: Nellie MacMillan Writes Home, 1914

2011-05-05T14:59:00.002-04:00

On December 18, 1914, Nellie MacMillan wrote home.

Mrs. McMillan had been born Helen Artie Tarleton Belles in the year 1856 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Dr. Joshua Tarleton Belles and his wife, Julia Reid Belles. Her mother died when Nellie was almost five after delivering four more children, all stillborn. Dr. Belles and his daughter then moved to Spencer, Indiana where Nellie lived until she was sent to the Henrietta Colgan School in Indianapolis to learn fine manners and social graces.

While there, she met John Bayless “Jack” Hill, the son of a prominent Indianapolis family. They bonded over a shared love of music and artistic sensibilities and on June 30, 1874 the pair married in Spencer. Jack died five months later.

At loose ends, the young widow persuaded her father to send her to Europe to study voice. He agreed and Nellie, who is said to have had a beautiful contralto voice, went to Europe where she studied and performed in France, Italy, and England. It was in Paris where she met Maurice Crawford MacMillian; whose father Daniel had co-founded MacMillan Publishing in 1843. The couple married in 1884. Although Maurice MacMillan has been described as “retiring” and “distant,” he was an amateur musician and he sang a duet with his bride at their wedding reception. Nellie and Maurice MacMillan went on to produce three sons; Daniel, Arthur, and Harold. Her son Harold would later remark that it was one of the great regrets of his life that he never heard his mother sing, as she had curiously “lost her voice” after the birth of her first child.

Nellie MacMillan would sometimes return home to visit Spencer, once bringing her husband Maurice, but just before Christmas, 1914, she down in her home at Birch Grove House in West Sussex, England and wrote a letter to Mrs. Ella Belles of Indianapolis who forwarded it to the Owen Leader for publication. England had declared war on Germany in August of that year and the United States for more than two year away from entering the fray when Mrs. MacMillan wrote:

“I hope you are all well and will have a pleasant Christmas together. This will be a sad time for everyone here for there is not a family that has not lost relations or friends in this war. Dan and Harold are in the New Army but will not go out until spring. Arthur has always had a weak heart and they will not take him. He is very unhappy not to be in training with his brothers. Never has anything been finer than the ardour of all the young men, of all classes. If only England had listened to Lord Robert’s warnings, she would not be in such an unprecedented state. However the nation is rising splendidly to meet the demands of it and complete harmony and unity exists. All classes are brought together in a wonderful way. There are no such things now as party politics and differences in religion, of class: all are Britons; even the poorest is willing to give the best he has and the whole Empire has given its best and much of it. This is no ordinary war but a war to crush out forever the idea that “Might is Right” and the idea that all nations great and small, would do better under the Iron Rule of Prussia with her “Kultur” rammed down the throats of all of us, and every man and every boy, every penny in the Empire will be given before this is allowed. I only wish I had 20 sons to give to such a cause.

“We have had a very wet winter. In France it is very wet too, and life in the trenches is very hard but there are no complaints and never were soldiers more cheerful and unselfish.”

The Lord Roberts Nellie MacMillan was referencing in her letter was Lord Frederick Roberts, born in India in 1832, the son of a British General. After being educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and the Addiscombe Military Academy, he first saw combat as a mercenary for the East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or, as it is known in India, The First War of Independence. He then transferred to the British Army where he took part in the Abyssinian Campaigns against the Emperor of Ethiopia, Tewadros II. He then served in the Afghan War of 1878, and was appointed commander of Kabul and Kandahar after the prior commander, Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari, was killed by mutinous Afghan soldiers. After his rousing success in Afghanistan, Roberts was sent to South Africa to take part in the Second Anglo-Boer War. This living tattoo of Empire returned to England in 1902 where he founded the “Pilgrim’s Society” made up of influential politicians, businessmen, diplomats and writers with a goal to “promote good-will, good-fellowship, and everlasting peace between the United States and Great Britain,” and; to this day, under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II, hosts dinners to welcome each new U.S. Ambassador to Britain to their ranks. He also became, in 1905, the head of National Service League which lobbied for compulsory military training for every British male between the ages of 18 and 30 and which called for universal conscription in preparation for a “Great European War.”

Nellie’s son Harold was wounded at the Battle of Loos in September, 1915, and then “lightly wounded” at Ypres salient on July 19, 1916. Then in September, 1916, at the Battle of the Somme, he was seriously wounded when he was shot through the left thigh and pelvis. Crawling into a trench, McMillan lay there for three days, intermittently reading from a pocket edition of the Greek tragedian Aeschylus’s play, Prometheus Bound, a work McMillan found to be, “not inappropriate to my position.” He was rescued by a Company Sergeant but his wounds became badly infected and he believed that it was only the actions of his mother, who did an end-run around military protocol to get him additional medical treatment, that his life was saved.

“I owe everything to my mother,” Harold MacMillan stated.

His wife, the Lady Dorothy Evelyn Cavendish, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, seemed to have a differing opinion. Dorothy and Harold were married in 1920 and went to live at Birch House with Maurice and Nellie. It was there Dorothy’s children saw her sticking pins into a wax Voodoo doll of Nellie.

Over 700,000 British soldiers sacrificed their lives in World War I. Out of the 26 freshmen in MacMillan’s class at Balliol College, Oxford, only two of them survived the war. Harold MacMillan was awarded the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal and the aftermath of his wounds would plague him for the rest of his life. After the War, McMillan went into politics and publishing, becoming an outspoken critic of appeasement and joining Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet. In 1957 he was appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain after the resignation of Anthony Eden. He served in this capacity until 1963, a year which saw both the Vassall and Profumo scandals. When asked what his biggest challenge as a states man had been, MacMillan replied, “Events, my dear boy. Events.”

Harold MacMillan made a “sentimental journey” to Spencer in 1956. He attended services at the Methodist Church where his mother once sang and laid a wreath on the grave of his maternal grandfather, Joshua Belles, at Riverside Cemetery. After a barbeque feast at McCormick’s Creek State Park, local residents presented the future Prime Minister with a jar of Paw-Paws, the “Indiana Banana.” Harold MacMillan would make three more trips to Spencer, twice accompanied by his grandson, Alexander, who came back on his own as the Earl of Stockton in 1994 but that’s the last we’ve seen of the MacMillans since.

Nelly MacMillan died in 1937 at the age of 84 and is buried in Sussex. Four years before her death she became instrumental in the publication of Margaret Mitchell’s only book, Gone With the Wind. Nellie had plucked the novel from a slush pile in her husband’s home office and, after reading it, insisted that MacMillan Publishers buy all the international rights to it.

On Thursday, May 5, 2011, Claude Stanley Choules, the last living combat veteran of World War I, died at the age of 110 in a nursing home in Western Australia. Mr. Choules was born in Great Britain in 1901. At the age of 14 he joined the Royal Navy and in 1918 he witnessed the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet from the deck of the HMS Revenge. Mr. Choules later settled in Australia, transferring to the Royal Australian Navy, where he served during World War II. Later in life he became an outspoken pacifist, refusing to participate in annual commemoration parades and boycotting Australia’s Anzac Day.

The last American Doughboy, Frank Buckles, died earlier in 2011 on February 27^th in West Virginia. He was also 110 years old. He had lied about his age so he could join the fight at 16. He was sent to Europe where he drove an ambulance on the Western Front. After the War, in 1941, while working as a steamship company as a purser in the Philippines, he was captured by Japanese troops and held prisoner for more than three years.

The only person in the world left who served in WWII is Florence Beatrice Patterson Green of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England. Miss Patterson joined the Women’s Royal Air Force in September, 1918 when she was 17. Her service is usually described as that of “waitress” though her official title was Officer’s Mess Steward. Ms. Patterson-Green turned 110 on February 19^th, 2011. We wish her Godspeed.

~ Laura Wilkerson
Genealogy Department, OCPL

National Library Week

2011-04-13T14:37:00.001-04:00

April 10-16th is National Library Week. Yesterday (Tuesday, April 12th) was actually Library Worker Appreciation Day, however we here at OCPL are celebrating today, Wednesday. Each year at this time we enjoy lunch/dinner. This year, we added the fun of the library's new Nintendo Wii. So far I've seen great fun had by employees playing such games as Family Feud, and various events in the Wii Sports and Sports Resort including boxing, archery, bowling, table tennis, canoeing, and now they are cycling. Action photos are difficult to capture with my phone, so please forgive the blur. (just the fastest way to get them posted)

The Wii system is our newest addition to the library and will be used for a variety of programming. We are planning teen and family events in the near future. Should be really fun!

We also picked up a few more games that will be available for check out soon for all three systems. Checking out games has proven very popular, and as we are just getting started, there are usually not very many in. Games tend to get checked out as soon as they come in, which is great! Please keep checking back to see if your favorite title is in. Requests welcome.

~Jennifer

A Short Tip About Spam Email

2011-04-04T13:52:00.000-04:00

Last week the world's largest "permissions-based" email marketing company, Epsilon, was hacked into and names and email addresses were stolen.

What does this mean to you?
First of all you should understand what "permissions-based" means. Epsilon is a company that collects names and email addresses that you the customer have given certain companies permission to use. Some of these companies include: US Bank, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Best Buy, Kroger, TiVo, and Walgreen’s. Epsilon represents as many as 2,500 different businesses. If you are a customer of any of these companies and you provided them with your email, then you you might be affected.

Now what harm can this do to you?
Hackers will not be able to directly harm you with this information that they have stolen. What they can do is get to you cleverly with your email address. They can send you a carefully crafted email targeted just for you to try to get more personal information from you. This is called "phishing". You could receive several emails that appear to come from the company where they stole your email address to begin with. For instance; lets say that I am a customer of Best Buy and I have willingly given them my email for a warranty on something I bought from them. A hacker then sends me an email that might not be marked as spam and looks like it really is from Best Buy. In this email they inform me that my account needs updating. They might ask me to log in and provide my Social Security number or even my debit/credit card information. Once I do this, they have me. I have given them information that they can use to charge things to my account or to steal my identity.
"Phishing" emails can also get you to unknowingly install a harmful virus onto your computer that can send out any personal information on your computer. They can also install what is called a "key logger" which can record everything you type on your computer, including credit card numbers, etc.

What you need to know.
A legitimate company will never ask you to provide personal information through an email. Chances are the company already has any information they need from you. If they need to know something they will contact you in a safer way. Never open an email that looks suspicious. Be cautious and skeptical. Do not reply to the email. Never send any personal information through an email to someone you are not one hundred percent sure about.

Be sure to stop by the library for more information about spam email and how to recognize and avoid it. One of the best ways to stop this is to educate everyone about it. Even if that is one person at a time.

Brad - OCPL

Standard Hero Behavior

2011-03-29T11:56:00.000-04:00

When I picked up this book, the front flap made me laugh out loud. A good sign. The first paragraph: "SHB. Standard Hero Behavior. According to Quayle's Guide to Adventures for the Unadventurous, SHB involves things like sucking man-eating-spider venom from your own butt and fighting a horde of marauders with your own severed arm after said marauders have cut it off."

Mason Quayle is a bard living in a town whose heroes have long since fled. No heroes = no adventurous tales and nothing for a bard to write about. So when the opportunity arises for Mason to go on a real-life quest--a chance to be a hero himself--he takes it. Following in the footsteps of his long-vanished hero father, Mason and his best friend, Cowel, set out on a journey full of misadventure and run-ins with an unusual cast of characters, among them, a retired hero-cum-shoe-salesman, a somnambulist sword fighter, a swarm of unfriendly (and deadly) pixies, a wholesome young witch, and a werewolf hit man. They also stumble upon the answers to the questions that have haunted Mason for the past 10 years: Where is his father? Why didn't he return to his family? Was he really a hero? (From the publisher's website.)

While this book has humor, and adventure, it also has heart. It was nominated for the 2010-2011 Young Hoosier Book Award in the Middle Grade category. The author, John David Anderson, lives in Indiana, which is a fun fact that has nothing to do with anything really. Sometimes we think of authors as all living in New York or somewhere, which is just not the case, but I digress.

My son (11) and I read this one together, and we both really enjoyed it. Our would-be-heroes, Mason and Cowel are great characters, both with their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, Cowel has an entertaining habit of sneezing fits when the threat of danger is even suspected. Mason is slightly braver, and committed to helping his village, while looking for clues as to what happened to his father. Their borrowed horse, Steed, is the least spirited horse an adventurer ever had, until they discover the secret of really making him move. I will add that some of the language may not agree with younger children and their parents.

One of my favorite things about this book is that the story opens with a description of a bird sitting on a signpost, and comparison between the bird and the nearby bard, and ends with an altered look at the same bird and bard. This simple device allows the reader to see the changes Mason's adventures have brought about.

Over all, I would recommend this book for mainly boys in the 5-8th grade range, although I think it would be enjoyable to anyone who enjoys a good story. My favorite chapter title: The Queen Bee, the Rusty Nail, and the Narcoleptic Somnantilist.

~Jennifer

Shared Reads: The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago

2011-03-24T16:29:00.001-04:00

The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry (Viking, 2010) is a book that is really more than the sum of its parts. Ostensibly about accused murderesses Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, the raw material that would later be transformed into the characters Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, and the reporter who was inspired by them, Maurine Watkins. In actuality the book captures a glittering moment in 1924 when six women’s life hung in the balance as they awaited trail in the Cook County Jail and a dozen Chicago newspapers, staffed for the first time with ambitious, modern, female reporters, competed fiercely for stories, doing whatever it took to secure a scoop and a coveted byline on the front page.

Beulah Annan, 24, was the star, considered the “prettiest woman ever charged with murder in Chicago,” garnered loads of ink after killing her paramour in her family apartment. After she shot her man she put the jazz age record, Hula Lou, on the phonograph and then telephoned her husband at work. Belva Gaertner, 40, the “most stylish” woman in the Cook County Jail, was a former vaudeville performer who had already made headlines during a scandalous divorce from her wealthy industrialist husband, William Gaertner. She was accused of shooting and killing her married paramour after a drunken evening out and about.

Illinois had been fairly notorious for its reluctance to convict women, no matter how weighted in favor of conviction the evidence might seem, but there were ominous signs on the horizon. While Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan waited in jail. Two of their comrades, Katherine Malm, a gangster girl who acted as lookout in a fatal robbery, was convicted and sentenced to life, and Sabella Nitti, an immigrant woman who was convicted of conspiring with her illicit lover to murder her husband and sentenced to hang. Rounding out this cast of characters was Elizabeth Unkafer, held for the shooting death of her boyfriend, Lela Foster, who had shot and killed her husband. We also find the gorgeous, unstable, twenty-three year old Wanda Stopa, daughter of a respectable, Polish working-class family, the first “girl lawyer” to work in the State’s attorney’s office, shooting through the story like a comet. Wanda, who fancied herself a Bohemian, shot and killed an elderly workman who interfered with her attempt to kill the wife of her older, married, advertising executive boyfriend. Wanda then led police on a manhunt accompanied by screaming headlines before she took her own life at a Detroit hotel.

Covering these trials was Maurine Watkins, beautiful in her own right, who came to Chicago by way of Radcliffe, Butler, Transylvania U and Crawfordsville, Indiana and walked right into the office of the city editor of the Chicago Tribune and talked herself into a job. Maurine joined a sisterhood of sorts with Genevieve Forbes of the Daily Tribune, Ione Quinby of the Evening Post and Sonia Lee of the American, all of whom specialized, for a time, in writing about female criminality.

For a while it was the Roaring Twenties personified with booze and flappers and a new freedom that women were determined to experience and Perry does a fine job in capturing that staccato tenor of the times.

In sensational trials, both Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan were found not guilty by their respective all-male juries but contrary to popular perception they did not go on to star in vaudeville either separately or as a team. Belva Gaertner remarried her wealthy ex-husband, who had remained smitten by his ex-wife and who bankrolled her defense, and then divorced him again. Beulah divorced her faithful husband after the baby she claimed to be carrying during her trial never materialized and married and divorced a boxer, her third husband, who beat her. She divorced the boxer and shortly thereafter she died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-seven. She is buried in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Utica, Daviess County, Kentucky.

Maurine Watkins did not stay long in Chicago, or work long as a reporter. The fad for glamorizing female murderers came to a screeching halt with a crime that both fascinated and repulsed Chicago and gripped the imagination of the entire Nation – the murder of little Bobby Franks, son of retired millionaire industrialist Jacob Franks, by two individuals, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Leopold and Loeb were the teenage sons of equally wealthy Chicago families. Intellectually precocious, they fancied themselves Nietzschen Supermen determined to prove themselves beyond the pale of mere mortals by committing what they presumed would be the perfect crime. They were caught after Leopold’s distinctive eyeglasses were found at the scene of the murder and other evidence quickly fell into place. Richard Loeb’s father, a lawyer and Vice President at Sears & Roebuck, hired famed attorney Clarence Darrow to defend the pair. Against all odds Darrow saved the two from hanging and secured sentences of life in prison instead. Dickie Loeb met the letter of that punishment in 1936 after he was slashed 50 times in the shower with a straight razor by fellow prisoner James E. Day and died. Day claimed self-defense and was never charged with the killing of Loeb while Nathan Leopold was paroled to Puerto Rico where he died in 1971.

With Leopold and Loeb stepping into the spotlight murder in Chicago didn’t seem nearly as lighthearted as before and the female reporters who specialized in crimes committed by women were reassigned or walked away. It didn’t help that with Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner acquitted, Sabella Nitta and Kitty Malm in State Prison, and Wanda Stopa dead at her own hand, the only women left at the Cook County Jail were old and ethnic which didn’t hold the same allure as Jazz Babies on a Bender. After covering the Leopold and Loeb trial, Maurine Watkins was reassigned to write movie reviews.

During her time at Radcliffe she had taken a playwriting course from George Pierce Baker at Harvard. By the end of 1924 Professor Baker had moved on to the newly established Department of Drama at Yale and Watkins was percolating an idea for a play based on her experiences as a reporter. That play was Chicago and it became a smash hit.

Maurine Watkins was never able to replicate the stage success of Chicago. Soon she was off to Hollywood where she dabbled in screenplays and short stories before moving to Jacksonville, Florida and committing herself to Christian endeavors and raising scholarships for students wishing to pursue studies in the Greek language or the Bible. She died of lung cancer in 1969 at the age of seventy-three. Deeply disappointed in both the 1927 silent version of Chicago starring Phyllis Haver, and the 1942 Ginger Rogers vehicle, Roxie Hart, Watkins refused to license her play as a musical in her lifetime but in 1975 her estate sold the rights to Bob Fosse who turned it into a smash hit on Broadway starring Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart and Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly. It ran for 936 performances plus a tour. Twenty years later it was revived to equally great acclaim and in 2002 a movie version of Chicago starring Catherine Zeta Jones as Velma and Renee Zellweger as Roxie won six of its twelve Oscar nominations.

Douglas Perry has written an engaging romp of a book with serious undertones touching on criminals and the culture of celebrity. Mr. Perry does include some photographs in his book but he has a mildly annoying habit of describing particular photos in great details and then not including those photos in the book. I also would have liked for him to have shown more thorough follow-through on all the women mentioned in the book but overall I found The Girls of Murder City to be a fast and enjoyable read that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to anyone interested in the era.
- Laura Wilkerson

Not-So-Random Picture Books I Love

2011-02-11T15:19:00.000-05:00

First, in honor of the birthday of one of our favorite authors, Mo Willems I will share a couple of my favorites that he has written. I should say, written and illustrated. Mo's simple illustrations are amazing at showing emotion, yet give kids hope that they too could draw them. Especially in the Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie books.

Speaking of the Pigeon, we'll start with him. There are several books featuring this character. My favorite happens to be The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. In this book we get a further glimpse into the Pigeon's character with his discovery of a hot dog, and the introduction of his nemesis the Ducky. Though he is irritated, to say the least, by the Ducky, he does end up sharing the hot dog. (I hope that doesn't ruin the book for anyone.) The pigeon is so much like many kids I've met, at once adorable and a bit annoying. Very amusing and highly enjoyable, like the rest of Mr. Willems' books.

Elephant (or Gerald) and Piggie are the main characters in a series of early readers written and illustrated by Mo Willems as mentioned above. They are laugh out loud funny, and kids of all ages love them. Great for reading aloud, as long as your audience can see the illustrations, as they are as integral to the story as the words. My favorite (so far) is Can I Play Too? which introduces us to another friend for Elephant and Piggie. A snake. Basically, the two friends are playing catch with a ball, and Snake wants to play too, but how can he, snakes have no arms? Hilarity ensues as they try to include their new friend. So. Funny. Really. If you are unfamiliar with these books, you really must experience to appreciate them. What are you waiting for? Get to the library and check out some of these books!

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed and Leonardo the Terrible Monster are another two of my favorite books by Mr. Willems, but there are more (I didn't even mention the Knuffle Bunnies or Edwina). His books have heart, humor, great characters and great stories. Not to mention dealing with day to day dilemmas that we all face.

On to other books.

Today is also the birthday of author Jane Yolen. Jane is the author of many, many (over 300) books. These are but a few of her picture books. Many people are familiar with the "How Do Dinosaurs ____?" series, and award winners such as Owl Moon, however these are not the ones I want to share today.

Yolen's writing is always poetic and wonderful. Some rhyme, some do not.

Come to the Fairies' Ball is a beautiful, beautiful book, wonderfully illustrated by Gary Lippincott. An enchanting, rhyming tale of the invitation, preparations and fun of a ball held by the King and Queen of the Fairies, with a Cinderella story in the midst. The lyrical words and amazing illustrations make this one of my favorite picture books. It is whimsical and magical. I cannot put into the proper words how beautiful this book is.

Jane's love of poetry is beautifully shown in My Uncle Emily, a story based on true events in the life of Emily Dickinson told through the eyes of her young nephew Gilbert (Gib) who was six at the time. This touching story so captures this young boy's love of his Aunt, and provides a window into the family of one of America's most famous poets. Wonderful story. I wanted more, so I read the "What is true about this story" on the last page in which she includes the full poem used in the story entitled "Tell all the Truth" and tells more about the family. This book was charmingly illustrated by Nancy Carpenter.

One of the most moving picture books I have read is also written by Jane Yolen. All Those Secrets of the World is an account of Jane's father going off (and coming home again) to war which took place when she was four years old. (she was six when he returned) I almost can't talk about this one, it moved me so. The story begins with Jane's detailed recollections of the her father's leaving, the big ship, the ice cream Grandma bought her and her cousin Michael, "chocolate with jimmies", the hugs, and butterfly kisses. The next day the children play in the water of the bay (which they were not supposed to do), and it is there that Michael shares one of the secrets of the world that help little Janie to understand better her father's absence, which she then shares with him upon his return. Again, beautifully written by a master storyteller, and beautifully illustrated by Leslie Baker.

Whew! I think that's enough for one day. : )

~Jennifer

Literary History

2011-02-09T13:47:00.001-05:00

Identify this famous place?

This would be the home of Frances Keeling Valentine Allan, the foster mother of Edgar Allan Poe, in Richmond, Virginia, taken in 1930.

Edgar Allan Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business. By the age of thirteen, Poe had compiled enough poetry to publish a book, but his headmaster advised Allan against allowing this.

In 1826 Poe left Richmond to attend the University of Virginia, where he excelled in his classes while accumulating considerable debt. The miserly Allan had sent Poe to college with less than a third of the money he needed, and Poe soon took up gambling to raise money to pay his expenses. By the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm.

Humiliated by his poverty and furious with Allan for not providing enough funds in the first place, Poe returned to Richmond and visited the home of his fiancée Elmira Royster, only to discover that she had become engaged to another man in Poe’s absence. The heartbroken Poe’s last few months in the Allan mansion were punctuated with increasing hostility towards Allan until Poe finally stormed out of the home in a quixotic quest to become a great poet and to find adventure. He accomplished the first objective by publishing his first book Tamerlane when he was only eighteen, and to achieve the second goal he enlisted in the United States Army. Two years later he heard that Frances Allan, the only mother he had ever known, was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to see him before she died. By the time Poe returned to Richmond she had already been buried. Poe and Allan briefly reconciled, and Allan helped Poe gain an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

To find out more stop by the library. The library has several books and even audio of Poe's work. Come in or get onto our online catalog today to see whats available or to put an item on hold.

Who's ready for Spring?

2011-02-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

So. What a week last week!

Snow, Ice, you name it we got it. I don't know about you but I'm over it and ready for Spring. I'm ready for the smell of rain, green growth and being able to be outside in the warm sun.

It's got me thinking about Summer reading program coming up when school is out. "One World, Many Stories" is the theme this year.

We are also going to be having Video Game tournaments this year for all ages. Including some family nights using the Wii game system. Thats going to be a lot of fun. We are hoping to have a lot of family participation for that. We will be playing on the big screen projected on the wall.

Speaking of projected on the wall. I have thought for the last few summers about the idea of having an after hours movie night, outside on the lawn, projected on the side of the Life Long Learning Center next to the library or possibly on one of those 12 ft inflatable screens. Everyone could bring a blanket and sit right on the grass. We could have some popcorn and drinks and not have to worry about spilling them on the carpet. We could show older movies or newer ones. We could do themes like old monster movies or classics. I'm up for suggestions. Let me know what you think about that. Would you come? What would you like to see? Email me at webmaster@owenlib.org or just leave a comment here.

New and Wonderful

2011-01-26T13:49:00.000-05:00

Recently, we shook up the old OCPL by adding a new feature. The Digital Library. With this digital library, library patrons can now download audio and e-books. We are trying to be diverse in format and subject matter, however those of you who use this feature are not only welcome to make requests, but it is actually preferred. As with all aspects of the library, we are only as good as our collection. Having said that, not all titles are available, and some may not be available in the format requested. We'll do our best, but you've got to let us know or it is just guessing. Educated guesses, maybe, but still guesses. So please, tell us what you'd like.

Audio books are available in two formats. (Mp3, and WMA) E-books also come in two different formats. (PDF and ePub) Many devices can support either format, however some are more specific. To find out more, OverDrive has created a great resource page.

We do have staff members who can assist you if you are experiencing problems, or just have questions. Again, you just have to contact us or we can't help you. A few weeks ago, we held a training/demonstration for patrons. We will try to do this again soon, but you don't have to wait for one of these to get help.

Another thing I'd like to share about the digital library is the selection that we do currently have. We offer a variety of titles to interest the youngest readers through adults. We have both e-books and audio books from authors such as Dr. Seuss, Judy Blume, and C.S. Lewis, as well as Nora Roberts, Stephanie Myers, and John Grisham. Easy reading, cooking, suspense, romance, fiction, non-fiction....even some graphic novels and manga. Even Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys have made a crossover into the digital format.

On a personal note, I never thought I could personally get into reading an e-book. Audio books, I love. Being able to download one onto my mp3 player (mine supports both formats) is great! But read an e-book? Nope, probably not. Then I tried it. I read an entire e-book, not just a few pages. You know? It isn't so bad. I will always prefer the feel and smell of a 'real' book, don't get me wrong, but reading on an e-reader? Not so bad at all. So I thought I'd share with you my first ever e-book review.

The book was Billy Hooten: Owlboy, by Tom Sniegoski.

"Billy Hooten is a weird kid. He gets beat up a lot, and spends the rest of his time doggedly trying to build a robot. One day, Billy Hooten hears a cry for help coming from the cemetery that borders his backyard. Against his better judgment, he runs toward it. And after that, everything changes for Billy Hooten. Because Billy Hooten, you see, is Owlboy. A quickthinking, goggle-and-feather-wearing superhero who protects the bizarre and monstrous citizens of Monstros City, a city that exists under Billy's hometown of Bradbury, Massachusetts. But is Billy truly worthy of the moniker Owlboy?"

Billy is a bright kid who loves comic books and yeah, he's kind of wimpy. When he answers the cry for help in the cemetery and consequently learns about Owlboy he is in no way prepared to become the next hero of Monstros City. After reading all of the Owlboy comics borrowed from the personal collection of the mysterious comic book shop owner, Billy is completely in awe, but less completely sure that he is the wrong guy for the job. He decides there is only one way to be sure, and that is to give it a try. With the help of his trusty new friend, the descendant of the previous Owlboys' assistants (think Batman's Alfred....but shorter), he just might make a great Owlboy. The book is fun, and well written. I was left with a couple of questions, however maybe there will someday be a sequel. I'll just have to use my imagination until then. There are lots of illustrations throughout the story, though this is a 'chapter book', something that is ever more popular. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes adventure and superheroes. It would make a great bedtime read-aloud as well.

One more thing I want to share today. Coming very soon our website will have a new feature. Dear Reader, the host of our Online Book Club, now offers "New Book Alerts". With this service you can click to see all newly cataloged items; books, dvds, magazines, you name it. Library patrons will even be able to sign up to receive notices sent directly to their e-mails or RSS feeds. I think this is going to be a great service to offer you, our patrons. It will make finding out what is new at Owen County Public Library, and placing holds on those new items much, much easier.

~Jennifer

Some Random Picture Books I Love

2011-01-21T14:52:00.001-05:00

If you don't know, I work in the Youth Services Department, which explains why I mostly read "children's" or "young adult" books. Plus, I love them, which may explain why I work where I do. It is circular, but makes me happy. Here are just a few Picture Books (or "Illustrated for Everyone") that I love. I hope to share more with you each week. ~ Jennifer

Up first today is Ling & Ting: Not Exactly The Same by Grace Lin. This early reader is set into six small chapters and tells of two girls who, though identical twins, are (as the title says) not exactly the same. The appeal here is on many levels. The text is simple to read for beginning readers, the illustrations are charming, the stories entertaining and it may help to not judge 'a book by its cover'. Anyone with a sibling (identical twin or not), knows that many people assume things about you based on their knowledge of your brother or sister. "Are you _____ like your sister?" Let's just say, it gets old. I can only imagine the problem would be compounded by having an identical twin.

Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude is probably one of the most fun picture books I have come across. In this one, a boy and girl are paired to write a fairy tale as a school project. The result is a funny mash up of girly and manly. There are two distinct voices, three illustrators, and plenty of brilliant fun with storytelling. The story is written by Kevin O'Malley, who also illustrated the "Boy" and "Girl". The Girl's story is illustrated by Carol Heyer. The third illustrator, Scott Goto illustrated the Boy's story additions. I have read this to classes ranging from 1st to 5th, and all love this story. Instead of working together on this project, it is clear that the two have completely different ideas of what makes a great fairy tale. From a pony-loving Princess and an ogre-ish pony eating giant, to the Cool Motorcycle Dude, this story has so much to offer. Epic Battles (even the Princess gets to eventually kick some Giant backside) ensue, our hero and heroine eventually work together and are ultimately victorious, and the ending is even a bit romantic.....sort of. Boys and Girls both love this story's humor. It is 'aimed at' ages 6 to 10, however I think more people should read picture books, so whatever your age, consider picking up this delightful book.

The next book has no words. A true picture book by David Wiesner entitled Flotsam. In this story, which is one of the most visually delightful books I've ever 'read', a boy on a beach finds an old camera washed up on the beach. He takes the film from this apparently waterproof camera to be developed and is astonished at the images. Deep sea creatures in surprising and fanciful situations, the last photo being an image of a person holding a photo of a person, holding a photo, etc. Upon magnification, it looks as though this camera has been around for a very long time, and has traveled the world. It is easy to see why this book won the Caldecott Medal for 2007, one of three won by Mr. Wiesner. This beautiful book is definitely worth exploring.

Video Games!

2011-01-19T14:31:00.000-05:00

This year the library is going to start offering something we have never offered before. Starting this year we will be providing video games for checkout. The plan is to have games for the three big systems. Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox.

We will have games from all different ratings. The rating system is shown below. They will range from Early Childhood to Mature (language and violence - war games)

*They are going to checkout just like DVD's do now.
*You have to be 14 to check one out.
*You will need to be 17 to check out anything with a mature rating.
*At first we will let you check out one at a time until we get more, then we will raise it to 2.

*You can have them for two weeks

There is NO CHARGE for this but remember just like everything else if you lose it or damage it you will have to pay the replacement cost. This can be up to $50 for some of the newer games. Please take care of them.

We like to provide the kinds of things that you guys want. So help us out by taking care of the games so that we can build up a good collection.

Here is where I need your help. I need you to tell me what kind of games you would like to see, even specific titles. We are going to try to get this started soon and be in full swing by Spring.

So....please let me know! You can comment here or if you would rather email me at webmaster@owenlib.org

	EARLY CHILDHOOD Titles rated EC (Early Childhood) have content that may be suitable for ages 3 and older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate.

	EVERYONE Titles rated E (Everyone) have content that may be suitable for ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.

	EVERYONE 10+ Titles rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.

	TEEN Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.

	MATURE Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

Something Fun

2011-01-10T13:26:00.001-05:00

I sincerely hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and is now the better for it. Holidays and family are great! I will admit to being a little ok with the season being over though. I got pretty exhausted between all the fun, excitement, and good times.

I wanted to talk a little about picture books. It is believed by many that picture books are for little kids, and have no further use. While this may be true with some, it is most certainly not the case with all. There are many, many picture books that have complex ideas and subject matter that the little ones simply will not get. Not to mention words that are downright hard for even second or third grade readers. This is why we have decided to call our picture book section “Illustrated for Everyone”. Please, never discourage your child (or yourself) from reading picture books. Your imagination and inner self will thank you.

I wanted to post on Neil Gaiman's picture books, well, some of them at least. LOVE them. If you saw the episode of Arthur that he did, you heard a snippet of Instructions, which he did with Charles Vess. Wow. This is SUCH a "Me" book. This is a beautiful and poetic look at how to get through life, or any fairy tale. I have learned that there are those who believe in magic, and those who don't. To each their own, I am definitely a believer in magic. Therefore this book is amazing to me. So beautifully written and illustrated, it is the kind of book that I want to own and read often. I want everyone I know to read it, even though I know many of them won't. *Sigh* Sad but true reality.

The first picture book of Mr. Gaiman's that I "discovered" was The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. It was the first Neil Gaiman book I had ever read. Needless to say, I was hooked. This is a delightfully fun story of a boy who....well, read the title. All his Dad does is sit and read his newspaper anyway, so why not? His mother is not amused, however and makes him take his little sister with him to swap back. The problem is the boy with whom he has swapped has already swapped Dad for something else. The result is a swapping extravaganza until finally everyone has what they started out with and the boy and his sister have their father back.

Another favorite that I want to post here about is The Wolves in the Walls. Oh goodness do I love this book! Partly because it has a definite Neil Gaiman feel about it, which means humour and British-ness and things strange and wonderful presented in a matter-of-fact way, and partly because I think I may have wolves living in the ceiling of my bathroom.

Lucy knows that the sounds and creepy watched feeling she experiences in her "big old house" is due to the fact that wolves are living in the walls, but her Mom says it is mice. Dad says it is rats, and her brother hopes it is bats. Couldn't be wolves, because you know what they say: "if the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." I have read this book recently to kids ranging in age from 4 to 11. They all enjoyed it. That is one of the great things about a well done "children's book"; they can entertain everyone. Just another reason why one should never stop reading picture books.

I often wish that books didn't have to be labeled and classified. A good story is a good story, who cares what age group it is aimed at? Exceptions do apply, I suppose. Still, if anyone sees you with a great picture book, never be ashamed!

I know everyone has heard of, if not seen Coraline, but not as many know that it was written by Neil Gaiman. Also, Stardust, which is aimed a bit older, is very good. Other great Neil Gaiman books for all ages are the Award winning The Graveyard Book and Odd and the Frost Giants. Great storytelling.

I just today ordered several more titles for our library's digital collection. I'm looking forward to more stories from this amazingly talented author. The above titles should by no means be considered a complete summation of his work, only a part of his books for children (with the exception of Stardust). He writes for all ages, and I'll get around to some of the others as well.....sometime. (This could be considered a tribute in honor of his recent wedding, if not for the fact that I had been planning it for a while......)

~Jennifer

Shared Reads

2010-12-07T15:10:00.001-05:00

I was interested on who was the only other woman besides Leslie Van Houton on Death Row anywhere in the United States when the Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty as it existed in 1972 and with one stroke of the pen reduced the sentences of hundreds of men and two women to something less than the ultimate penalty. Leslie Van Houton, former member of the Manson Family who took part in the murders of Rosemary and Leon LaBianca, remains in prison almost 40 years after she was convicted. The other woman went free many years ago.

I first came across this factoid when reading an interview with John Waters who was promoting his recent book Role Models in which he recounts his relationship with Van Houton and I was reminded of it again when I ordered Mr. Waters book for the Library collection. The other woman was not named and I could not uncover her in a Google search and I wondered who this other woman was, what had brought her to death’s door, under what circumstances was she released, how did she live the rest of her life?

So I was thrilled when I came across Back From The Dead: One woman’s search for the men who walked off America’s death row by Joan M. Cheever. Unfortunately that thrill soon turned to disappointment. Sure I was warned by the title that it was about the men on death row but I thought certainly with only two women on death row in 1972 they would be mentioned by name. They were mentioned, but not by name and the book, rather unforgivably, does not include an appendix of those who were on death row in 1972 so my desire to know more about the elusive other woman remains unfulfilled.

Still, it should have been the sort of book I typically enjoy but as I was reading I came to believe that this book isn’t really the book Ms. Cheever wanted to write. I think she wanted to write about her childhood and growing up in Texas and about her parents, especially her mother, and we see glimpses of that book in this one.

Before authoring this book Ms. Cheever spent nine years defending Walter Williams on appeal from his sentence of death. Mr. Williams had murdered convenience store clerk Daniel Liepold in 1985. Mr. Liepold was uncomfortable working nights in one of the most dangerous professions in America. He had given notice to the store and was working one of his last three shifts until Mr. Williams, who had previously worked with Mr. Liepold, came in and made it his last shift. Both were nineteen years old at the time. Mr. Liepold had considered Mr. Williams his friend.

Ms. Cheever wasn’t looking to take on a death penalty case. She didn’t even intend to practice law anymore after a short stint on the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas. She had gone back to school and earned a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University and was looking for a job as a reporter when she, a self-described “death penalty junkie” was sucked into the case.

I think this is what Ms. Cheever wanted to write about – her nine years defending Walter Williams, the fear that she would lose, the fear that she would be responsible somehow for her client’s death, and when the inevitable came, how she watched a man die, but that but isn’t here and I can imagine an editor shooting down the subject, Williams was some punk who a crime that is mundane to anyone not personally involved. It’s too boring. It has no hook. So instead Ms. Cheever’s hook is to trace the men released from death row in 1972 to see how their lives turned out but Ms. Cheever fails to deliver on this promise as well. What we are left with is Ms. Cheever’s Fear and that Fear permeates this book. Fear of meeting Walter, fear of failing Walter, Fear of contacting ex-convicts, fear of shady neighborhoods, fear of hotel rooms,

The first convict Cheever contacts is man named Robert Hayes who was convicted in 1971 at age 19 for participating in a botched robbery attempt that ended with his accomplice murdering a police officer during a botched robbery in 1971. Mr. Hayes had been released from prison in 1990 and was working as a crisis counselor for low-income women in New York City. Ms. Cheever does not question him on his description of the attempted robbery of Joes Confectionary in Queens as “Robin Hood-esque” which is an off-putting way to start. She meets Chuck Culhane who took part in an escape attempt in 1968 which a deputy was murdered and who was paroled in 1992. Mr. Culhane teaches criminal justice at a college in Upstate New York for $100.00 a week. She meets with Calvin Sellars who was on Death Row in Texas for armed robbery, one of only four men in the Country on Death Row at that time, the other two being fellow Texans and one Georgian, all dead by 2005. She meets with William “Rusty” Holland who was sent to Death Row in South Carolina for the 1970 murders of two members of a rival motorcycle gang and the attempted murder of two women associated with the victims. He spent 11 years in prison before being paroled. He started a ministry, married twice, managed to obtain three Subway sandwich franchises and manage a Bingo parlor after his release. He wouldn’t meet with Ms. Cheever until she promised her book would “Focus on Jesus Christ.”

She meets with two men, Freddie Pitts and Wilbur Lee, who were found to be factually innocent by the state of Florida. She interviews an 88-year-ols man, Moreese “Pops” Bickham, who spent 38 years in Angola Prison, often digging graves for fellow prisoners who died behind bars, before being paroled in 1996. Mr. Bickham murdered two deputies, in self-defense, he says. He was 41-years-old and out on the town with his girlfriend, Florence, in 1958 when deputies were called to a bar where a scuffle had broken out. Bickham claims one of the deputies had threatened to kill him and returned later with reinforcements to make good on that threat although Bickham’s brother-in-law testified at trial that Bickham had threatened to kill one of the deputies, Gus Gill, for messing with him in the past but Bickham maintains his brother-in-law was intimidated into testifying by the local KKK. What seems most amazing is that Mr. Bickham was married at the time he was gallivanting around with Florence and that his wife, Ernestine, waited for him the entire time he was in Prison. It would have been interesting to hear Ernestine’s perspective but Ms. Cheever doesn’t bother to ask. She is threatened by an ex-inmate and is so fearful she hides his identity in her book.

She finds Elmer Branch in Connecticut whose case, alongside that of Henry Furman, went before the Supreme Court back in 1972. He was on death row for the crime of rape and when Cheever finds him he’s back in jail awaiting trial for allegedly exposing himself to a 14-year-old girl, one of seven children belonging to his live-in girlfriend, a woman who is herself on parole for murdering her husband. Cheever even locates her Holy Grail, Henry Furman, the man whose name is attached to the Supreme Court ruling Furman v. Georgia that found the death penalty as it then stood to be unconstitutional. Furman had murdered a homeowner as Furman burgled the victim’s home in the middle of the night.

Along the way Ms. Cheever misses out on an invitation to witness the execution of serial killer Kenneth McDuff, a man who was suspected of killing 14 people after he was released from prison in 1986 after being convicted of the triple homicides of an 18-year-old and two 16-year-olds in 1966. Within three days of his release he killed again. Cheever does devote a chapter to men who have killed again after escaping Death Row in 1972 but she doesn’t actually contact any of them. She misses McDuff’s 1998 execution because she wakes up with a fever of 102.

Perhaps the saddest, and most interesting, part of Ms. Cheever’s book was when she tried to research Lester Eubanks who had been convicted of murdering a 14-year-old girl in 1965. After spared death in 1972 he went AWOL in 1973 after prison officials in Ohio gave him a pass to go Christmas shopping. When Ms. Cheever contacted officials in Ohio she was lectured and told Eubanks was in prison where he had been for a very long time. It turns out that the prison officials were wrong. Eubanks had never been captured. In fact, Eubank’s mother had recently died and Lester Eubanks was listed as a survivor, living in Columbus. Ohio.

So Ms. Cheever ended up speaking with seven men from the “Class of ’72” - hardly a representative sample and just a snapshot at best. Some of the men, like Robert Hayes, sent back to prison for a parole violation, experienced significant setbacks by the time the book was completed.

A lot has changed since 1972. After the Supreme Court’s decision States worked to correct the flaws noted by the Court. No longer could a person be sentenced to death for rape or robbery, a distinction recently reaffirmed when the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the death penalty for the rape of a child is unconstitutional, and a jury had to consider possible extenuating circumstances. The Supreme Court re-affirmed the basic constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976 with the ruling in Gregg V. Georgia and the first execution carried out after Gregg was Gary Gilmore who was electrocuted in January, 1977 after waiving all appeals. In 1972 some 589 people sat on Death Row in the 50 United States, Currently 37 states have adopted a penalty of death and there are 3,261 people awaiting judicial execution. Since 1976, and As of December, 2010, 1,233 people have been executed for murder since 1976, twelve of them female. As of January 1, 2010, there were 3,261 people on death rows across the nation but more have been added and 44 subtracted so far this year. Currently 60 women are under sentence of death in the USA.

In all this book reads like an act of atonement by Ms. Cheever to Walter Williams. It reads like a plea to consider redemption and rehabilitation and all the reasons the death penalty is as unfair and arbitrary today as it was back in 1972. I wish I could recommend it without reservation but it just never rises to its potential.

~ Laura Wilkerson

Shared Reads

2010-11-15T15:01:00.000-05:00

First off, I’d like to state that The Lampshade by Mark Jacobson is a beautifully designed book. The cover, before it was laminated, was thin and translucent, like parchment, and slightly greasy to the touch, very disconcerting, given the subject of the book. Visible through the cover is the titular Lampshade. Suspended as if floating against a black background the Lampshade looks like many others that might be found on a wooden floor lamp from the 1930s, a common shape, somewhat worse for wear, with a ragged band of tatty rick-rack running along the bottom edge. It is the very illustration of the phrase “banality of evil” so kudos to Jackie Seow for outstanding work in graphic design.

The Lampshade lays before the Reader the implicit question, “What would you do if you came into possession of a lampshade made of human flesh?’ The Lampshade washed up in detritus of Hurricane Katrina and landed in the hands of a notorious New Orleans grave robber who sells it at a yard sale for $35.00. The new owner, haunted by nightmares that left him unable to sleep, within a few days contacts the author, a journalist whose own Jewish grandparents had left Europe before the Holocaust, and he pays $17.00 for a half-interest in the item and shortly thereafter finds himself in possession of the Lampshade.

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in possession of such an item? What the author does is spend five thousand dollars of his own money to have DNA testing done to the Lampshade. This confirms that the Lampshade is made from human flesh and sets the author on a quest to mine a deeper meaning from this object, a quest that takes him from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he is told that the Nazi lampshades made from human skin are a “myth” and that even though DNA proved it was human they couldn’t prove it to be from the Holocaust, it may well be one of Ed Gein’s, to Holocaust deniers, to skinhead youth in Germany, to people who had participated in the Nuremburg Trials, where a lampshade made of human skin was displayed on the “Buchenwald Table,” to an unsuccessful attempt to locate the son of Ilsa Koch to a successful attempt to meet with David Duke who has relocated from Louisiana to Austria.

The author travels from Louisiana, New York and Washington D.C. before traveling through Germany and on to Israel, Palestine, and Jerusalem, meeting with scholars, Rabbis and Mediums before deciding that maybe instead of Myth, the Lampshade, like the similarly contested rendered soap, is Mythic.

This is an excellent book that packs a lot of philosophical punch into a quick, engaging read. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is not squeamish about the subject matter. In addition to the wonderful design and deeply engaging text, this volume boasts detailed footnotes and an excellent index, something sorely lacking from many books making this book an uncommon pleasure from start to finish.

~ Laura Wilkerson

Our Heroes' Tree: Honoring and Supporting Veterans

2010-11-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

Today marks the beginning of a month-long tribute to veterans. The Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University partners with libraries around the globe to present the "Our Heroes' tree initiative. This program enables libraries to honor past and present members of our U.S. military, all branches and all wars.

Everyone who wishes to is invited to place an ornament (or ornaments) on the tree to honor their loved ones. Please make as many as you'd like. You can use the templates supplied by us here at the library, or create your own. These can include photos, or not.

We are pleased to offer two separate Heroes' Trees here at OCPL this year. One is located on the main floor, and one on the second floor, in Youth Services. If you have any questions, please call the library, or contact us via e-mail, a comment here, or facebook. We are happy to answer your questions if we can.

Our Heroes' Trees will remain up through out November, and into December. If you would like your ornament back at the end of our display, please come in and feel free to pick them up beginning December 5th. Thank you in advance, and we hope to see many ornaments in support of our men and women who have served, or are currently serving our country. Now, I'm off to make mine.....

Thanks again,

~Jennifer

Shared Reads

2010-10-15T11:34:00.000-04:00

After reading the excellent Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum I was left wondering how the United States of America got involved with anything so boneheaded as Prohibition. Luckily, Daniel Okrent, former public editor of the New York Times, has written a book, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition that asks, and answers this very question.

Prohibition was a project 50 years in the making and at one time the prohibition of alcoholic beverages must have seemed a mind-boggling proposition. The United States was a Nation founded on rivers of alcohol. The armed services were issued rations of alcohol and it was a common sight to see farmers in the field with a jug of alcohol strapped to their mule. Early on in the Republic there was a call for Temperance, meaning moderation. By 1840 Evangelical Christians took up the call for voluntary abolition achieved through education and persuasion and successfully lobbied for Scientific Temperance Instruction, the D.A.R.E. of its day, to be made compulsory in public schools across the nation, creating, in the words of activist Mary Hunt, “Trained haters of alcohol.”

Victorian sensibilities were worked into high dudgeon over the perceived ills that alcohol caused society and anti-alcohol propaganda exploded. In one of the most popular plays of the 19^th century, Ten Nights in a Bar Room, alcohol was portrayed as causing suicides, murders and early childhood death and popular songs carried such titles as Don’t Sell My Daddy No More Wine and Total Abstinence Round.

An explosion of Progressive fervor carried over from Abolition and the Civil War was also in play. Universal suffrage, granting women the constitutional right to vote which they had in some states but not in others, mobilized thousands of women, many of whom were drawn to other progressive causes such as ending child labor and prohibiting alcohol. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) became a powerful mobilizing force, so much so that the Beer Barons paid rural newspapers to run editorials against universal suffrage, but it was really the Ohio born Anti-Saloon League (ASL), under the leadership of the brilliant political strategist, Wayne Wheeler, where Prohibition gained traction.

By voting as a solid 10% block on a single issue the ASL could deliver a political race on the margins. Beyond uniting Progressives such as Jane Addams along with Industrialists like Henry Ford and the likes of Henry Ford with labor unionist Wobblies; it allied religious groups, primarily Baptist and Methodist, with the stridently Nativist and newly reconstituted Ku Klux Klan whose target in the early 20^th Century were largely Catholic and Jewish immigrants who were believed by many to be taking over the country and diluting the lifeblood of “pure” America. WWI rendered the Germans a much maligned group in America and defanged any effectiveness that the Beer Barons, who had rejected an allegiance with the hard liquor distillers on the grounds that beer was healthful and good while hard alcohol was bad and un-healthful, had at that point. They say politics makes for strange bedfellows but I have always personally believed that when you start waking up with strange bedfellows it’s time to start re-evaluating your life choices.

Timing played a huge success in the passage of Prohibition as well. The Constitutionally mandated Census would be coming up soon and population shifts from rural areas to urban areas and an immigrant birthrate that was much higher than that of the pre-existing population did not favor the Dry cause. As it played out, ASL backed Legislators managed to fend off the new Census until 1928 and it was only at the point where the delay endangered the very Constitutionality of the elected Federal Government and all its works and issue was the Census finally conducted and congressional seats reapportioned to correct some of the inequity created when one Legislator might represent 19,640 citizens while another might represent 652,089.

It also took the 16^th Amendment to make the 18^th Amendment possible. There had been income taxes imposed in the past to fund wars but these had been temporary and in 1895 the Supreme Court struck down an income tax imposed on profits from stocks, bonds and real estate investments by Congress as unconstitutional. It took Congress until 1909 to craft the language of the 16^th Amendment allowing for the collection of income taxes by the Federal government and submit it to the States with ratification complete in 1913. One of the most compelling arguments in favor of the Amendment was that revenue raised through income taxes could replace income generated through alcohol taxes. Before the income tax the Federal government raised revenue primarily through two sources, taxing alcohol and tariffs imposed on foreign goods imported into the United States. In 1910 taxes on alcohol produced $200 million in federal revenue, fully 71% of all internal revenue of 30% of all total Federal revenue.

In 1910 a Constitutional Amendment failed to get out of Congress on a 197-190 vote with 2/3rds of the affirmative votes cast by representatives who came from towns with less than 10,000 people. This vote energized the Prohibition base who made the elections of 1916 of paramount importance. Their success in this endeavor led to the House of Representatives submitting the 16^th Amendment to the States on December 18, 1917 and it was ratified by the needed 36 States in just 394 days, half as long as it took 11 States to ratify the Bill of Rights. Okrent points out that Mississippi ratified in just 16 minute2 on January 8, 1918 while it didn’t get around to ratifying the 13^th Amendment, the one abolishing slavery, until 1995. Ratified in 1919, Prohibition became the Law of the Land on January 17, 1920.

Prohibition of alcohol then turns into the story of the dog who chases the car and then catches it. What to do next? Prohibition didn’t outlaw the manufacture of alcoholic beverages for personal use and exceptions were made for sacramental wine used in religious services for those of Roman Catholic or Jewish faiths. Medicinal alcohol was allowed by prescription and some saloons converted themselves into pharmacies.

The Volstead Act provided enforcement be shared between the Federal government and the States but the money allocated for Federal enforcement was miniscule compared to what the need would turn out to be and many States had no interest at all in enforcement and it was enforcement, ironically, that helped bring Prohibition to an end. People rebelled against the expansion of government police powers. They were horrified by Supreme Court decisions that allowed the government to wiretap private telephone conversations, a ruling that stood until 1967, and to stop and search private automobiles without warrants or probable cause. Draconian laws were passed at the Federal level whereby low level sellers of alcohol could be jailed for life while the wealthy drank openly without much consequence at all. Soon juries began practicing nullification by refusing to convict those whose punishments seemed more outsized that the crime. Deaths, along with blindness and other disabilities, soared with the production of poisoned alcohol and the official response was to make ingredients more deadly and to blame drinkers who refused to follow the law for their own predicaments, a position that alienated many.

Another death blow to Prohibition was the literal death of Wayne Wheeler of the Anti-Saloon League in 1927. Two weeks before his death at age 57 his wife, Dorothy, caught on fire. She ran clothes aflame, into the living room where her father was recuperating from a heart attack. The old man, seeing his daughter on fire, pitched forward and died on the spot. Mrs. Wheeler died from her injuries the next day.

Wayne Wheeler devoted 34 years of his life to the ALS and after he died a schism occurred between forces who wanted to enforce Prohibition through laws and punishment and another faction who wanted to advance a voluntary acceptance of abstinence from alcohol through education and encouragement. The forces of law and punishment won that battle but were already losing the war as evidenced by the firing of Prohibition’s staunchest Federal enforcer, Assistant Attorney General Mabel Willebrant in 1929.

Into the vacuum created by the death of Wayne Wheeler and the resulting infighting among varying ALS factions, stepped the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, previously a powerless and little known entity revitalized in 1929 by Pierre DuPont and 69 other concerned Captains of Industry. What these Captains were specifically concerned about was taxes. Since the passage of the Revenue Act of 1916 the tax rates among the highest brackets had doubled, the first peacetime inheritance tax had been implemented, and a 12.5% tax on profits from munitions manufacturing had been instituted.

Then came The Great Depression, triggered by the stock market implosion of 1929 and extended through a series of disastrous economic decisions. Tax revenue plunged 60% in three years and the capital gains tax dropped into negative territory. Unemployment soared above 25%. Al Capone opened a soup kitchen. The demand for stimulus spending by the Federal Government rose and in 1932 the American people voted out President Herbert Hoover, the Republican President who had promised “a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage” when he had ran in 1928, and replaced him with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

FDR had been a supporter of Prohibition in his earlier career but in the election of 1932 he ran on the Democratic Plank of Prohibition Repeal and in February of 1933 the 21^st Amendment to the United States Constitution was submitted for Congressional debate. FDR was sworn in as President on March 4^th and on March 14^th a bureaucratic change in the definition of “intoxicating” allowed liquor containing up to 3.3% alcohol by weight to be sold.

The economy responded incredibly well to this sort of stimulus and a variety of businesses from trucking firms to ice houses to coopers hired thousands of new employees. Budweiser purchased its first pair of Clydesdales.

Congress voted to submit the 21^st Amendment to the States for ratification and on April 10, 1933 Michigan became the first state to ratify and on December 5^,1933 Utah, somewhat ironically, became the 37^th needed state to ratify and suddenly The Noble Experiment was over.

In 1934 the Federal government collected $258,911,332 in alcohol taxes, 9% of the total overall budget. This boon did not, however, signify a tax cut for the DuPonts of the world. FDR used the windfall to subsidize tax cuts for workers earning between $2,000 and $3,000 dollars a year, or about $31,700 - $47,500 in today’s dollars, and toward the implementation of new government programs, including Social Security, in the second half of his 1^st or 4 terms.

Last Call is probably best when recounting the maneuvers that led to Prohibition becoming law in the first place and the author packs a lot of perspective in a not-too-weighty tome. One perspective I do miss, however, is the perspective of the average American. I got more of a feel for the real suffering Prohibition caused among average working Americans from The Poisoner’s Handbook even though the issue of Prohibition is not the main focus of that work. Occasionally Okrent will provide a quote from a newspaper editorial but the book doesn’t have the depth needed for such an analysis.

It’s still hard to believe that anybody ever thought prohibition would be a good idea or didn’t see what ended up happening as inevitable. Here’s a story that didn’t make it into Last Call: Before Prohibition became the Law of the Land with the passage of the 18^th Amendment, twenty-seven of the forty-eight States had already voted themselves Dry and even in Wet States there could be Dry Counties and even Dry Towns. In 1908 Licking County Ohio voted to go Dry much to the disgust of the County Seat of Newark, which had voted to stay Wet. Newark defied the law and saloons stayed open with the help of graft and corruption. Prohibitionists were appalled by this and asked Wayne Wheeler’s Anti Saloon League for help and the League responded by hiring twenty private detectives, among them 17-year-old Carl Etherington of Kentucky who, despite his tender years, had previously been employed as a strikebreaker for the Baltimore & Ohio Railway. The detectives spent a few days gathering evidence at the local saloons which by law were only permitted to sell near-beer and soft drinks, and then with evidence in hand were deputized by the mayor of nearby Granville, Ohio and his Marshall, Edward Evans.

They newly minted deputies then returned to Newark with warrants to close down five illegal saloons. The Deputy Detectives first raided a saloon owned by Louis Bolton and beat with brass knuckles a bartender they found working there. The group of then proceeded to the Last Chance Saloon whose proprietor, William Howard, just happened to be Newark’s former, and very popular, Chief of Police. Howard and Etherington scuffled before Etherington drew his revolver and shot Howard dead. Etherington was arrested and taken to jail but that evening the crowd, which had grown to over 5,000 men, women and children, stormed the jail.

Realizing what was happening, Etherington tried to commit suicide. He first tried banging his head against the wall and when that failed he wrapped his jacked around his head and set it on fire. He was rescued by the mob before he suffocated and was taken from the jail and beaten brutally and shot at before a rope was procured and Carl Etherington was strung up from a telephone pole on the corner of South Park Place and 2^nd Avenue in downtown Newark. His final words were, “I want to tell all young fellows not to make a living the way I have done – by strikebreaking and taking jobs like this. I had better not have worked or I would not be here now.”

What could have possibly gone wrong?

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in political process, American history or prohibition policy. It may be of particular interest to the fans and followers of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire which is itself is based on the book of the same name by Nelson Johnson, also available for checkout at the Owen County Public Library. It is not a deeply engaging book so it is not a particularly quick read but it is a worthwhile effort so check it out!

~ Laura Wilkerson
October 15, 2010

Fall Has Fallen

2010-10-01T14:31:00.000-04:00

October already. Time sure flies. This promises to be a busy month with festivals across the state, Halloween activities, harvesting and such. It is that busy, readying for winter time of year. The library is no exception to this.

Start off the season with an afternoon of Celtic fiddle music. Friday, October 8th OCPL has the privilege of hosting musician Emily Ann Thompson. "Emily Ann Thompson’s Celtic fiddling is lively, passionate, and homegrown with an American flare. She plays traditional Irish, Scottish, and Cape Breton tunes in highly energetic and original arrangements." (from her website) She will be accompanied by guitar as well. This will be a musical treat for all ages, and will take place on the main floor of the library from 3:30 until closing at 5. We hope you can join us for this fun, energetic performance.

Other fun things happening at the library this month include a Halloween Party (Thurs. Oct. 28th 6-7:30) and our Family Movie Night (Tues. Oct. 26th at 6 pm). This month's selection will be How to Train Your Dragon.

For more information on these and other library happenings call or come in to the library, check out our website, or find us on facebook. Happy Fall everyone!

~Jennifer

Banned Books Week

2010-09-24T15:30:00.000-04:00

Saturday, September 25th marks the beginning of Banned Books Week 2010. For lots and lots of information about Banned Books Week, click here, or come in to the library. Or just Google the thing. It may interest you to see some of the books that have been challenged and/or banned, and the reasoning. Some are obvious....some are, well, less so.

This is my opinion about censorship. As a parent, it is my responsibility to decide what my child is allowed to be exposed to. Books. TV. Movies. Food. Whatever. I can tell others my opinion, but usually only do so if asked. It is not my place to tell anyone else what they, or their child should not read, nor would I welcome anyone to tell me what I, or my child should not read. In fact my first reaction when told not to read or watch something is to find out more about it, and probably read/watch it. That is just me.

As for our public library I can say this. The library is set up in sections. JE is for our youngest patrons, J is for middle grades, YA for older kids, teens, and Young Adults, and the adult section is pretty general. Your 5th grader may find some interesting books in any of these sections. Mine does. Children old enough to have a library card (Kindergarten or 6 yrs. old) may check out any book in the library. (They may not check out DVDs.) Should they check out any book in the library? I personally don't think so. However, it is not up to the library staff to decide, it is up to the parent. This something parents might want to talk to their children about. We also have a policy here at OCPL that a child under the age of 10 must be accompanied by someone 14 or older, therefore we should never have a case of "my 7 year old checked out this offensive book". Hopefully.

If you have any questions about censorship, or Banned Books Week, please feel free to ask here in the comments, contact me here at the library, via the library's Facebook page or send an e-mail to booksrusowenco@live.com. Thanks for reading. I would love to hear from you!

~Jennifer

Bead Making

2010-09-24T13:04:00.000-04:00

So we got in some new books at the library today and I had one stand out to me. Now I'm not a bead maker or anything like that, but this book really made we want to try. It has instructions for making dozens of different styles.
It shows you all the materials you would need as well as tools. I could see this being a really creative hobby that could even turn into a money maker. I am sure someone would be able to sell beads or jewelry here locally.

PlayDough for adults.

- Brad

Zombies!

2010-09-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite graphic novel series here at the library is being made into a TV series on AMC. We have here at the library the whole four part series, if you want to get a look at it before the show airs on October 31st on American Movie Classics.
For more info you can visit: HERE

AMC Upcoming Original Series: The Walking Dead
AMC has greenlit The Walking Dead as a six-episode series based on the comic book written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics. The Walking Dead tells the story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, traveling in search of a safe and secure home. Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Teachers, Strike Back) will portray the lead role of Rick Grimes while actor Jon Bernthal (The Pacific, The Ghost Writer) will portray the character Shane, who worked with Rick in the police department before the zombie disaster. Other cast includes Laurie Holden (The Shield), who plays Andrea, one of two sisters who join the survivors of the zombie plague, Steven Yeun as Glenn, an expert scavenger and Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), who plays Rick's wife Lori.
The Walking Dead begins production in June in Atlanta with six, one-hour episodes for season one. The series is set to premiere in October 2010 during AMC Fearfest, the network's annual blockbuster marathon of thriller and horror films. AMC announced development of The Walking Dead in August 2009 and announced the pilot in January of this year.

Brad - OCPL

OverDrive Open House?

2010-08-23T15:00:00.002-04:00

So I have a question for everyone today. Would you be interested in having a time where library staff would be available to help you with our new OverDrive website. You would be able to bring in you own equipment (mp3 players, eReader, etc....) and learn how to set it up and use it. What's OverDrive you ask? Only a very easy way for you to browse our online collection of eBooks and Audio Books, to download them at home or here at the library and enjoy them wherever you go.

We will show you "hands on" how to set it up and use it and you will be all set up to download audiobooks onto your mp3 player or how to read eBooks on you laptop or eReader. You will walk away knowing all you need to know to use this great service.

- Brad Leave me a comment here

Such Databases! Who Knew?

2010-08-18T14:57:00.001-04:00

In exploring about on the library's website, as I have not had the chance to do with the busyness of Summer, I decided to check out the "Databases" link. I knew that we had some really cool databases, but WOW! I was not aware of some of them! I am very excited, can you tell?

I regularly "push" the ones I am most familiar with: World Book (awesome!), Tumblebooks (so fun!), and of course our online card catalog iBistro. I was also aware of several of the others. Byke language learning (yes you CAN learn a new language FREE!), Inspire, Reference USA......what's this? Global Road Warrior?!?! Cool! Oh yeah, it is a very "Me" thing! Want to know more about Chechnya or Djibouti? Global Road Warrior can help. There are even printable maps. Got a school project, or just curious about the world in which you live? Yeah, go there.

How did I not know we had this? I don't know. Next up for exploring is A to Z Maps Online, also on our database list. What can I say, I like maps. These are not the only available databases, obviously, a full listing can be found on the Database list.

One more thing I like: our Digital Library. Download e-books and audio books. So 21st Century, don't you think? I will always love a "real" book, but also appreciate options. Thanks OCPL!

-Jennifer Frye

Youth Services

Shared Reads

2010-08-18T14:14:00.001-04:00

Despite its provocative title, The Poisoner’s Handbook, by Deborah Blum, will not help one dispose of moles, voles or any other pesky, unwanted creatures. Instead, what it does is provide a lively account of the professionalization of New York City’s coroner’s office in the first part of the 20th Century with a particular emphasis on toxicology.

Dr. Charles Norris was the man charged with bringing modernity to the office which, before that, was a haven of patronage with no particular medical knowledge required. Dr. Norris was a graduate of Yale University and Columbia University’s School of Medicine. He had studied pathology and bacteriology in Germany and Vienna and upon his return to New York he worked first as a lecturer in Pathology at Columbia and then as a lab director at Bellevue and Allied Hospitals. His love of research served him well as he both invented and improved upon methods for detecting any number of toxic substances.

Dr. Norris, a former athlete, was born to a wealthy family who instilled in him a strict sense of civic duty. Each of these qualities served him well as he not only furnished and equipped a professional medical examiner’s office at his own expense he at different times had to cope with austerity measures that caused the city to eliminate clocks and transportation for the coroner’s office.

Dr. Norris, along with the majority of medical examiners in the US, opposed Prohibition which was inexorable ossifying its way into the Constitution at the same time Dr. Norris was struggling to bring the coroner’s office into the 20th Century. Dr. Norris and his colleagues warned that the prohibition of alcohol sales would lead people to concoct their own home brews which would invariable lead to a rise in poisoning deaths through consumption of ethyl and methyl alcohol. When this prediction came true, Dr. Norris and his colleagues petitioned the federal government to take steps to render denatured alcohol less toxic. The government responded by making denatured alcohol more toxic, reasoning that the person who knowingly consumes illegal alcohol was, in the words of Wayne Wheeler of the politically powerful Anti-Saloon League of America, “in the same category as the man who walks into a drug store, buys a bottle of carbolic acid with a label on it marked ‘poisonous’ and drinks the contents.” The fact the Federal government would knowingly poison its own citizens, who they first rendered as a new criminal class, was eye-opening to me.

Another interesting case discussed was the “Radium Girls.” Radium had been discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie and it was immediately perceived as a miracle cure for any number of diseases and conditions as well as having many industrial and cosmetic uses. One of these industrial uses was making the dials of clocks and watches glow in the dark. I had read something about the Radium Girls in the past, in a book of Ripley Believe It Or Nots, I believe, and knew the girls had been poisoned from licking the brushes they used to apply the radium paint to the dials. The Poisoner’s Handbook adds so much to this tale. Not only did the women lick their paintbrushes to a fine point, something they were taught to do by management, but they also decorated themselves, painting their nails, hair and clothes, so they would glow in the dark as well. The Radium Girls began to drop dead but first their jawbones splintered, their teeth fell out and they began to suffer with debilitating anemia. The company behind the glow in the dark dials, U.S. Radium Corporation, hired a team of Harvard scientists to investigate and the Harvard scientists concluded that the death of the Radium Girls were connected but not caused by their employment and so was launched a was launched a lawsuit that was eventually settled when the body of a Radium Girl who had been dead five years still showed high levels of radioactivity in all her bones and tissue.

Another fascinating case that sort of bookends the book involves a brilliant young chemist hired by Charles Norris, Alexander Gettler, who testified in the 1923 murder trials of a 24-year-old woman named Mary Frances Avery Creighton who stood accused alongside her husband John of murdering her own younger brother for insurance money. When Raymond Avery died a doctor listed “gastroenteritis” as the cause of death and there it might have lain except for an anonymous letter that piqued the interest of the local police. The body of Raymond Avery was autopsied and a large amount of arsenic was found. The couple was tried and found not guilty of this charge but as soon as they were released Mary Frances was arrested again and charged with poisoning her mother-in-law, Anna Creighton, whose death had also been listed as “gastroenteritis”. Alexander Gettler testified in that trial that what appeared to be arsenic crystals was actually the by-product of bismuth and within the space of three weeks Mary Francis Avery Creighton would once again be found not guilty of murder. Flash forward 13 years and Mary Frances Creighton was once again on trial for her life in a sensational murder case where she was accused of poisoning Ada Appelgate, wife of their housemate, Everett Appelgate, so that Everett could marry the Creighton’s 15-year-old daughter, Ruth. This time Mary Frances Creighton, along with co-defendant Everett Appelgate, was found guilty and executed in New York State’s electric chair at Sing Sing prison on July 13, 1936. Before she died Mary Frances would confess that she had indeed poisoned her brother for his insurance payout.

The Poisoner’s Handbook is filled with such stories and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates coroners, science, toxicology, medicine, history or who just enjoys a ripping good yarn. The author is a Pulitzer Prize winning science writer who teaches journalism at the University of Wisconsin Madison and wisely uses a device where she will name a chapter for a particular substance and then back it up with real life examples. In doing so Ms. Blum both educates and entertains. This book is available at the Owen County Public Library. Check it out!

~ Laura Wilkerson

August 18, 2010

Last minute Friday addition

2010-08-13T16:31:00.000-04:00

Hey just a quick note before I bounce out of here on this beautiful Friday afternoon. I'm working on adding a collection of RSS feeds to the owenlib.org website. For those of you that have no clue what this is, maybe this will help. If you click on the top menu where it says "News", this will take you to a list of categories. From here you can select from lists of soon to be lots and lots of websites. After choosing one from the list it will show you the top ten current postings from that site and you didn't even have to go there to find it. How cool is that? Im hoping to make the library site a "One Stop Shop" for all your website needs.

Just remember that there is lots more work to be done on this next week. More websites to add. Feel free to test it out. If you would like me to add a website, maybe your favorite. Let me know I will see what I can do for you.

Everyone have a great weekend and check back next week for more additions.

- Brad

Went to a Library Conference yesterday

2010-08-13T09:23:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Indianapolis to discuss the future of libraries. We all know that OCPL has changed over the years, even more then the move we made from the old Carnegie building on the corner to the remodeled former bank building that we are in now. We've seen so many changes in just the last five years. Look at the way we think about computers and cell phones for instance. Who knew that so many of us would have laptops with wireless internet? Who knew that most of us would be carrying some kind of cell phone, from the simple flip phones to the Iphone. We can now check our email, surf the web, things like that on the move. First did you all know that the library offers wireless internet? Anywhere in the building you can use your laptop to get onto the internet and as some of you have disvovered you can get on outside the building as well. That's ok too. No one is going to say anything if you use our internet connection from your car, the sidewalk, your bike, camel whatever. You don't need to sign in, you don't need a password. Don't have a laptop? We now even have some available to "checkout" for use here in the building. We've added areas around the building where you can sit and use your computer for as long as you like. Some of these spots even include electrical outlets for you to plug into. Space is a hard thing to come by here at the library sometimes, but know that we are doing our best to carve out spaces where you can sit comfortably and hopefully quietly, to do what you need to do.
- Brad

First post

2010-08-11T14:27:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone.

This is the first post. We will see how this goes. Im hoping this will be where staff can contribute things. Share thoughts on things involving the library. Library users can leave comments.

- Brad