Review

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Before there were many great universities, art schools, med schools, and other places to study in the United States there was France.  Some Americans went to Rome or London or somewhere in Germany, but many went to France where they could take their native talent to be taught by top teachers.  They came in waves after the Revolution up to the turn of the 20th century.  John Singer Sargent, James Fenimore Cooper, Mary Cassatt, and August Saint-Gaudens, among many others came to France, and especially Paris to study, to work, and sometimes to stay.  David McCullough's The Greater Journey:  Americans in Paris tells their stories as what started out as a one-way traffic becomes a complex and remarkable m

Wonderstruck is Brian Sleznick’s new novel in words and pictures as it follows the journeys of two young children trying to find their place and reason in the world. One story, told through beautiful black and white images, takes place in 1927 and is about a young deaf girl, Rose. Isolated in her home with an uncaring father and a stage screen mother who has no thought or feeling for her, Rose runs away in search of her brother in New York City.

'The circus arrives without warning.'  Its tents and costumes are black and white.  It illusions may not be illusions at all or maybe they are.  It is part of a complex game of maneuver between two consummate wizards who are supremely indifferent to the damage they do and the hearts they break as long as the game goes forward.  And yet the pieces on the board are men and women who have their own agendas and their own wills.  Their docility is not to be relied upon, and their skills are growing.  A street urchin, a wizard's taughter, twin circus children, and a Massachusetts lad who wants more than a farm resist the wizards in shifting alliances with performers, craftsmen, impresarios, and the broken-hearted in the game.  Love and magic, fear and nerve,

The University of Florida, as you probably expect from a flagship state university, hosts a tremendous amount of lectures every year. Speakers across the humanities come to Gainesville for our potential edification and lifelong learning.

Rrralph by Lois Ehlert

 “I bet you won’t believe me, but our dog can talk.  I found out when we first brought him home and I asked: ‘What’s your name?’

 RRRALPH RALPH

 “We built a house for him and a really high fence all around our backyard.  ‘Hey Ralph! Where are you?’

 Roof Roof

 “Ralph likes to chase the backyard birds.  I always tell him no, but he never listens. ‘Ralph, what’s on that tree?’

What do Independence, Missouri, the Tarim River Basin, and Qurna, Iraq, have in common with a Chinese nationalist, the founder of a religion, and a British civil engineer?  The places are among the many places somebody selected as the site of the Garden of Eden.  The people are three of the many who have gone on the quest in books, in person, and in their imaginations.  In Paradise Lust:  Searching for the Garden of Eden Brook Wilensky-Lanford briefly explores the quests of a number of different people and what Eden meant to them in their time.  For some it was a return to innocence, for others a hope of salvation.  No two quests are exactly alike, but what they say about people and their need to reach for

Who? What? Where? When? is a new way to visually search for new books. This feature, in the Books and Authors database, allows you to search for 1-3 elements in a book. You can select a Character, Subject, Location, or Time Period and view a visualization of your search. I'd recommend starting with one element first. Combining more than one or two elements limits the search pool significantly. Also note that you can limit to fiction or non-fiction, and by audience age as well at the top of the page.

Have fun scanning the drop-down list of people, subjects, places, or eras to create your own book selection! Beware - you may get lost for hours playing with the many different customizations you can make.

Summer is in full swing, and its a great time to get outside and take some photgraphs.  Whether it's recording those memories of weekends at the beach, or just preserving the view of a leaf at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, digital photography is a medium that allows for a wide range of creativity. 

Are you listless, fretful, and depressed?

Bored of the summer already, needing something new?  Never fear, the bibliotherapists at the Alachua County Library District may have a solution.  Tell us the last three books you have read (and enjoyed) and we will suggest a fourth for you from our collection.

Books are a great way to cure the summertime blues.  Let our savvy bunch of reader advisers help.  "Like"  the library on Facebook, and post your three books.  Within 48 hours we will get back to you with another book selection.

Postcards From Camp : a postal story by Simms Taback   

What’s it like to go to sleep-away camp for the first time?

What if you thought your counselor was an alien?

What if your bunkmates played tricks on you?  Were they really mean or just trying to be friends with you?

What if it rained almost every day?

What if you were sure there were scary creatures in the lake while you took the swim test?

What if you were miserable enough to quit camp and come home? … Or so you thought?

Urban fiction is a popular new genre that combines the elements of street culture with fast-paced plots, engrossing characters, non-stop action and hot romance. Below are just a sample of the authors available from the Alachua County Library District.

Axe Cop is a webcomic written by a five-year-old, Malachai Nicolle, and drawn by his twenty-nine-year old brother, Ethan Nicolle.

She spoke nine languages including Egyptian.  She was the daughter of a Macedonian Greek dynasty that got its start as part of Alexander the Great's entourage.  She presided over a country that had been a going concern for almost 4 millennia.  She controlled the largest supply of gold in the ancient world and Rome's wheat supply.  She could raise an army or engage in a philosopical discussion without turning a perfectly groomed hair.  She was Cleopatra VII Philopator, and she made Rome very, very nervous.  Most of what we know about her was written after her death by Romans who wrote nasty things about her, but even many of them had to admit that she was something special.  Cleopatra: