Alkek Library News

Author and Illustrator Maurice Sendak 1928-2012

Our link to Maurice Sendak books.

Best known for the children's classic Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak was also an illustrator and designed sets for the ballet and opera.

From Gale Biography In Context Biography of Sendak (follow link to full article):

With the publication of Where the Wild Things Are in 1963, Sendak felt that he had ended his apprenticeship. His childhood experiences, years of illustrations for other authors' books, and psychoanalysis came together in the fantasies of Max, the boy in the story who is sent to bed without his supper, and the monsters he encounters in the world of the wild things. The story is rooted in the very real fears that children have of being left alone or not cared for by their parents. Many critics and child psychologists, such as Bruno Bettelheim, felt that the book was too scary for sensitive children. Sendak was vindicated when the book won the Caldecott Medal in 1964. In his acceptance speech, he said, "from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things."

Featured Author: Satirical Journalist Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson writes books best described as satirical journalism. Best known for his piece on a proposed New Age Army later made into the all-star film The Men Who Stare at Goats. I won't link to the film (we have it), because the book from which it is taken, Them: Adventures with Extremists, is much better.

Ronson is also well-known for interviewing the paranoid and the conspiracy theorists. In the process, he subtly deconstructs the subjects' own psychological problems without ever overtly saying anything (he's British after all). 

His journalistic style is low-key and British. Ronson generally asks his odd subjects dead-pan questions and gets them to reveal much about their worldview. 

Recommended for fans of non-fiction writing, journalism, and studying the art of interviewing.

Books on Reality Television

Here are some of our books on reality television. Let's concede that reality television is inherently unreal. It's edited, and the shows have an artificial hook - i.e. you must betray others to win, lose weight in a certain kind of environment, etc...

What's going on here? Some great critics in these books take on hidden meanings and assumptions of these shows. 

Featured Author: Novelist and Short Story Writer Julio Cortazar

Julio Cortazar (1914-1984) was an Argentinean writer of novels and short stories. Notable works include Hopscotch and End of the Game and Other Stories.

His work could be described as introspective and surreal, focusing on the ambiguity of life. Characters are confronted by a series of mysterious circumstances, and attempts to sort things out usually lead to deepening mystery.The famous film Blow-Up is adapted from one of his stories.

We have his works in English and Spanish.

 

 

Study Skills Books and Online Videos

Here's a list of our books and online videos about study skills.

Covers how to listen, take notes, complete assignments, time management and advice from students and professors.

Featured Author: Sociologist Eric Hoffer on Mass Movements

Must read for political science, sociology, history and international studies students.

Self-taught sociologist Eric Hoffer is best known for his seminal work The True Believer - Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. Written in the aftermath of the rise of fascism and World War II, the book attempts to explain how failed and frustrated people find reason and redemption in irrational mass movements.

Hoffer analyzes mass movements with fascinating lucidity. He uncovers some of their salient characteristics: hatred of the present, an articulated goal for the future, a useful despised enemy, imitation of their enemies in dress and tactics, and blissful surrender of the individual to a collective whole. Also examines the lifespan of a mass movement.

By attempting to explain how destructive mass movements operate, Hoffer's work has contributed to humanity's self-awareness.

Hoffer actually lived as a stevedore, welder and manual laborer for most of his adult life.

Hoffer's other books expand on the paradox that modern individualism - rootless and alienating - makes modern mass movements (a wish for community purpose) possible.

Featured Author: Journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski

Interested in writing nonfiction, international journalism, or some of the best reportage ever put on paper?

Check out our Rsyzard Kapusckinki books (yes, we have them in English).

Kapusckinki wrote about colonialism in Africa, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Soccer War in Central America (my personal favorite and you'll have to get the book to get the whole story).

Often travelling outside the major cities, Kapusckinki regales us with stories of lemonade stands in Central Asia, the circular logic of policeman at an African road checkpoint, mountains of frozen ice from perpetually broken pipes in Siberia, and his comical attempts to navigate a city during a wartime blackout. 

Check Out Our Books on Study Skills

Here's a link to our books on study skills.

Books for active reading strategies, time management and information retention. Hint: get rid of your Xbox and Guitar Hero!

Featured Author: Oliver Sacks

Featured author: Oliver Sacks.

Oliver Sacks is a neurologist and psychologist who writes both popular and technical nonfiction. Sacks is ferociously interested in life and disregards conventional wisdom in his pursuit of breakthroughs to problems deemed unsolvable. Whether ferns in Oaxaca, amnesia,the mysteries of memory or mathematical savants, Sacks brings his intellect and passion for life to his books.

Best known for his books Awakenings and The Man who Mistook His Wife for A Hat.

Awakenings is the true story of survivors of the sleeping sickness epidemic of the 1920s, which put victims into a multidecade long catatonic state. While many people wrote off the comatose patients, Sacks did not and used a controversial drug to bring them into full consciousness. Sadly however, many of the patients eventually slipped back into comas. (Yes, it was made into a movie with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams).

 

Books to Help with Your New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions are coming up. Are you ready?

Here are our books on personal change. Get some help on making those resolutions stick!

Learn how to change an attitude, behavior, or belief. Set goals and achieve them.

It's time!