Asylum : inside the closed world of state mental hospitals / photographs by Christopher Payne ; with an essay by Oliver Sacks.

From Booklist, September 01, 2009

From the 1870s to the 1930s, huge, flattened V’s of interconnected buildings following a plan developed by mental-hospital superintendant Thomas Story Kirkbride rose across the U.S. Called asylums, they were intended to extend to all classes of mental patients the so-called moral treatment of the insane pioneered by Quaker reformers (see Robert Whitaker’s Mad in America, 2002). Individually designed by major architects, they were built with the finest materials and craftsmanship to be monuments of American optimism. But too many became the overcrowded, understaffed, eventually neglectful human warehouses exposed by angry 1950s crusaders. Nearly all are now boarded up, awaiting razing. Payne’s careful 2002-08 photos catch them at the last minute; indeed, a sequence late in the book traces the demolition of one of the largest. Their exteriors remain grand, their corridors imposing, while images of sneakers and bowling shoes, of practical rooms and outbuildings (barns, shops, lounges, gyms, theaters, a TV studio) poignantly recall the dream that these places would be self-sustaining, working communities as well as safe havens for their endangered, sometimes endangering inhabitants. – Olson, Ray

Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation

by Gregory Maguire
Booklist (September 15, 2009)
Maguire begins his affectionate appreciation of America’s (the world’s?) greatest picture-book artist by recalling the ferrous tang of terror he tasted on first talking to the man he calls the original wild thing. The experience seems to have concentrated his mind wonderfully, for his insights into Sendak’s work are erudite and imaginative. Maguire’s appreciation is rooted in his subject’s own appreciation of such artists as Randolph Caldecott, William Blake, Phillip Otto Runge, Winsor McCay, and a host of others. Happily, Maguire, in the best picture-book tradition, doesn’t only tell, he shows, offering a generous selection of Sendak’s own work and often coupling it with the work of those others who have been his inspiration. But there is more: Maguire also offers sober and well-informed thoughts on theme and technique, a quirky list of his personal top-10 images from the oeuvre, and a tour de force retrospective of Sendakian leit motifs set to the music of the text from his masterpiece Where the Wild Things Are. Early on, Maguire acknowledges that he regards his subject as a genius. Surely he will get no argument from readers of this beautifully conceived, gracefully written, and lovingly considered tribute.  –  Cart, Michael

New titles come into the Schauffler Library all the time! (Well, maybe not in the middle of the night…) How to keep track of them all?  (Uh….we catalog them….that’s how.)

Here’s an easy way to browse new books virtually.  Just click here to connect with the online catalog’s featured list.  Enjoy!

Intersted in new reference books?  Click here!

For your browsing pleasure:

Free Inquiry – bi-monthly journal of secular humanist opinion commentary

GamePro – video game monthly

G.Q. – monthly men’s magazine focusing on fashion, style, and culture

I.D. – magazine covering art, business and the culture of design

Lenswork – a photography magazine focusing on ideas and images rather than technique

Macworld – computer magazine dedicated to Apple Macintosh products

Nylon – monthly magazine covering pop culture and fashion

PC World – computer monthly for pc users

Slam – a basketball magazine that combines sport with hip hop culture

Vanity Fair – monthly covering pop culture, fashion, and politics

The Week – current affairs magazine

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

From Booklist
Growing up in a progressive family in Bombay during World War II, 15-year-old Vidya hopes that college is in her future, though her classmates are preparing for arranged marriages. After her father is severely injured in a riot, her life suddenly, irrevocably changes. Vidya, her older brother, and their parents move to Madras to join her grandfather’s traditional household, where men and women live separately and Vidya’s powerful aunt disdains the newcomers. When Vidya finds time after chores and schoolwork, she escapes upstairs to her grandfather’s library, where she meets a young man who seems to understand her. In her first novel, Venkatraman paints an intricate and convincing backdrop of a conservative Brahmin home in a time of change. Vidya’s first-person narrative conveys her pain, guilt, and hopes, as well as the strong sense of self that enables her to act with courage and occasionally with nobility in difficult circumstances. In an author’s note, Venkatraman comments on several elements of the novel, including Gandhi’s nonviolent revolution, Indian volunteers in the British army during World War II, and her family history. The striking cover art, which suggests Vidya’s isolation, as well as the unusual setting, will draw readers to this vividly told story.  –Carolyn Phelan

New titles in the library! Bring us your ipod or borrow one of ours.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Prince of Fools

A Thousand Never Evers

The 39 Clues

Story of a Girl

The Declaration

Skybreaker

Lock and Key

Curse of the Blue Tattoo

How to Build a House

My new favorites (at least for this week, until I read more) are:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Think Survivor (as in the TV show), but to the death, and the fortunes of your community riding on your performance.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Another post-apocalyptic dystopian novel.  I’m on  roll with them lately.  Who would think the future on another planet could be so rural and folksey?

The Graveyard Book by  Neil Gaiman ; with illustrations by Dave McKean

Toddler escapes murderer, wanders into a graveyard, and is raised by ghosts.  Nuff said.

Come and get ‘em @ your library.           – Alison Ernst, Librarian

Picturing the Promise (check title for availability)