Denio's blog

Oliver Sacks’ newest book, Hallucinations, examines the historical and cultural role of the hallucination in a very approachable, yet thoroughly scientific manner. Instead of hallucinations belonging only in the sphere of the insane, Dr. Sacks examines how many people experience visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations and even hallucinatory smells in their daily life and often fear the stigma associated with such behavior.

Love New Orleans? Visit the Nonfiction Department to read these love letters to New Orleans and Louisiana from noted Southern authors:

• Feet on the Street by Roy Blount, Jr.
• Poor Man’s Provence by Rheta Grimsley Johnson
• The House on First Street by Julia Reed

Did you know the Circus is coming to town in January? Read Ringlingville USA: The Stupendous Story of Seven Siblings and Their Stunning Circus Success, an engaging chronicle woven together from newspaper accounts, oral histories, and never before published records of the Ringling family. Find out how the seven brothers Ringling journeyed from immigrant poverty to become kings of the circus world, one fifty-cent ticket at a time.

Have you wanted to broaden your horizons with a good book lately? Or perhaps you’ve felt like reading something that will take you back to your roots? In either case, Promised Land: Thirteen Books that Changed America by Jay Parini is sure to inspire you with ideas for your reading list. This collection of essays focuses on the core thirteen books that entered American life and explains how they altered how we think and act. The author also offers a list of 100 other influential books in our history. Find this book, and others like it, in the Literature Room in the Nonfiction Department.

Or perhaps you want to plan the Great American Road Trip? Here are some great stories about traveling around our wonderful nation:

The Nonfiction Department has recently added some great new books on Chinese history. Check out these titles on China’s long history:

• Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War by Stephen R. Platt
• The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in Chinaby David J. Sibley
• China’s Wings: War, Intrigue, Romance, and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom During the Golden Age of Flight by Gregory Crouch
• Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel
• Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750 by Odd Arne Westad

Hidden Treasures? What kind of treasures? Books!

You may have been in the library and saw a book that caught your attention. Perhaps someone was checking it out, checking it in, asking about it, or maybe you saw it on one of the many carts that our library pages use to get materials back where they belong. Believe it or not, there are things that we may not have seen before either. Today, while in the Adult Biographies, several titles jumped out asking to be picked up and considered:

Dog Days : A Year in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile by Dave Ihlenfeld
B Ihlenfeld

A new acquisition to our adult nonfiction collection, Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton with photography by Jane Ussher and essays by Nigel Watson of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, is a beautiful and haunting memorial to those first doomed explorers of the South Pole. Bound in rough canvas with coloring reminiscent of the century old material still slowly decaying in situ in Antarctica from the original expeditions, the detailed photographs within are intimate investigations of what life was like for these adventurous, and often heroic, men. The climate and isolation of these modest huts in Antarctica has left intact and untouched many artifacts of this time period. Jars and tins of food stores sit unopened. Hams still hang in muslin bags.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a picture of their pet in our Pets of the Library Photo Contest. Winners will be featured on our website and Facebook page and will receive a $25 VISA gift card.

One month of summer is already over. But you still have plenty of time to clean your grill and try out some new recipes. New grilling cookbooks to check out include: Charred & scruffed : bold new techniques for explosive flavor on and off the grill by Adam Perry Lang and Rao's on the grill : perfectly simple Italian recipes from my family to yours by Frank Pellegrino.

David Zinczenko, author of the very popular Eat This Not That series has written Grill this, not that! : backyard survival guide.

Other healthy grilling cookbooks include Cooking Light's Way to Cook Grilling and Grilling Vegan Style by John Schlimm.