Joelg's blog

The twelth annual Free Comic Book Day is coming up on Saturday, May 4th. Every year, participating comic book stores across North America give out free comic books to encourage new readership for comics and graphic novels. Putting free reading material in the hands of the people is something that we obviously encourage and support as a library. Did you know that we have comics as well as fiction and nonfiction graphic novels for kids, teens and adults in the various departments around the library?

The Fiction Department is now offering our popular "Book My Favorites" program in large print and audio book (CD) formats in addition to the regular print format. Please note that your choice of format applies to all selected authors. Should your title not be available in your requested format, you will be placed on hold for the regular print copy.

In addition to offering new formats, we've also added the following authors as options for automatic reserves:

Mary Kay Andrews
Dorothea Benton Frank
Scott Turow

To add any of these authors to your Book My Favorites enrollment or to change your format, please click on the link below to sign up online or call the Fiction Desk at 205-444-7820.

Our Local Record Labels Showcase is Thursday night and we're featuring some of Birmingham's finest songwriters. All four performers have performed in a variety of local bands over the years and are staples of Birmingham's club scene. This will be a unique opportunity to see them perform stripped down solo & duet versions of their songs. The show starts at 6:30 p.m. It is FREE and open to the public.

HENRY DUNKLE

PAUL JANEWAY & JESSE PHILLIPS

Panda Bear is the stage name of Noah Lennox, one of the founding members of Animal Collective. Lennox is an incredibly prolific musician, releasing material with other bands in addition to his work with Animal Collective and Tomboy is his fourth solo album to date. Tomboy is yet another showcase for Lennox’s ability to make complex and peculiar compositions full of drones and swirling melodies almost sound radio-friendly.

Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American comic artist and journalist that forged a name for himself by combining his love of drawing comics with his journalism education. While traveling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he eventually wound up in the Middle East and did a series of comics called Palestine. After his travels in the Middle East, he visited Eastern Europe (specifically Sarajevo and Goražde in Bosnia) and chronicled his experiences there during the Bosnian War in books such as Safe Area Goražde.

Sacco’s works combine his journalism training with cartooning and his razor sharp wit. His works have earned him widespread recognition and accolades including the American Book Award, the Eisner Award and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

In 2007, English soccer star David Beckham announced he was signing a five year contract with Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. This move shocked the soccer world in that MLS is generally considered a "B-League" on the world stage and Beckham was then plying his trade with Real Madrid, one of the elite super clubs of the world in one of the world's elite soccer leagues. Part of Beckham's reasoning was that he wanted to help soccer grow in the United States and eventually become on par with football, basketball and baseball in terms of popularity.

"Most people don’t think about singing when they think about revolutions. But in Estonia, song was the weapon of choice ..." - Filmmakers James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty

About a year ago, anonymous English street artist Banksy painted a piece on an abandoned gas station in Ensley (see Birmingham Weekly story about it here.) The controversial piece lasted only about a day and a half before it was stolen. Banksy did the piece during a tour across the US that was centered around doing a lot of Hurricane Katrina themed pieces in New Orleans around the third anniversary of the storm.

The nonfiction department recently added two Banksy books to the collection so you can read more about the underground art icon that graced our fair city with his art: