Matched by Ally Condie In the Society all your life choices are made for you: what job you do, the place you live, what belongings you may have and who you marry. If the authorities can control these aspects of your life then the rest of the country can be controlled as well. The story [...]
Divergent by Veronica Roth Here’s the setting: Chicago sometime in the future. As in The Hunger Games, society has evolved into a new arrangement of the population. At 16 years old you choose the faction of society you feel best suits your character—the brave, the peaceful, the honest, etc. Each part has a different role [...]
With finals starting this week you may feel like you are living in your own personal dystopia. Keeping that in mind, this week and throughout exam week I will be posting a book blurb on some of the dystopian fiction owned by the John Tyler libraries. I like the definition the Purdue English department gives [...]
“April is the cruelest month” begins T. S. Eliot’s famous poem The Waste Land. But April is actually pretty kind, at least to poetry, because in 1996 the American Academy of Poets established April as National Poetry Month making it a great time to find great new poetry or remember your old favorites. The library [...]
Or should I ask does your garden grow? Here in central Virginia we have had colder than normal temperatures this spring. Despite that the longer hours of daylight have many people thinking of planting, tilling and eventually reaping a bountiful harvest. Gardening tips abound both on the web and in print. The Virginia Cooperative Extension, [...]
During spring break, the John Tyler libraries will operate with reduced hours. The following hours will apply to both campus libraries: Monday-Friday, 3/11-3/15: 7:30am-5:00pm Saturday, 3/16: CLOSED The JTCC libraries will resume normal operating hours on Monday, March 18, 2013. Online databases and Ask-A-Librarian will, as usual, be available 24/7.
Or a teacher or an artist or a nurse or maybe you don’t even know what you want to be when you “grow up.” Because that is one of the toughest decisions you will ever make and there are so many paths to choose this is a good time for you to examine your options [...]
This Sunday is the 85th Academy Awards. Who are you hoping to see win? The nominees run the gamut from foreign language (Amour) to history (Lincoln, Argo) to musical (Les Miserables) and everything in between. And don’t forget the Virginia connections. Lincoln was filmed right here in central Virginia and Richmond native Michael Gottwald is [...]
If thoughts of love are roaming around in your head this week maybe that’s a sign you should be coming into the library. Here are some new library items with love in the title. You just might find one of them irresistible. Dirty minds : how our brains influence love, sex, and relationships / Kayt [...]
Remember your elementary school librarian telling you to use your “soft voices”? In this Oreo commercial aired during last night’s Super Bowl the library patrons are doing just that—despite having a major argument over which part of the Oreo cookie is best. Remember to use your “soft voice” when you visit us at the John [...]