What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

Mo Willems, writer and illustrator extraordinaire, has won my 3 year old's heart for life.  We have read and reread, and read some more Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!  This children's book tells the story of a very determined Pigeon who only wants to help your child by driving a city bus.  The Pigeon's simple dreams are crushed by the driver of the bus who asks your child to watch the bus until he returns.  The driver emphatically tells your child "don't let the pigeon drive the bus".  Laughter ensues as the Pigeon asks your child in every possible way to let him drive the bus before the Pigeon breaks down and throws a horrible tantrum.  But then a huge dump truck appears! The Pigeon's dream of driving the city bus quickly turns into an even grander idea of driving a monster sized dump truck.  The Pigeon's happiness is restored!

The book's genius is in relating the Pigeon's behavior to a toddler's.  My daughter would laugh and laugh as she told the Pigeon "NO!" over and over, much like her parents have said to her.  As the Pigeon has a meltdown, my daughter would sadly shake her head and say "Poor Pigeon!"  My daughter's giggles would return when she and the Pigeon saw the huge dump truck make an appearance.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!  is the start of a nine book series featuring the crazy antics of the Pigeon and what he should or should not do.  If interested in this book or any of Mo Willems other books, please visit us at the Lewis J. Ort library on the Frostburg State University campus.  We have a wonderful Juvenile collection and would be more than happy to show it off! You can also request this volume from the Ort Library catalog here: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!.  Click on "Availability", then click on the yellow "Request" button, and login using your last name and 14-digit Library barcode number on your ID. If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395. We hope to see you soon!

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Journey to Pennsylvania by Gottlieb Mittelberger.

I was alerted to this book by a local historian who had researched his German ancestry. Mittelberger poignantly details the real story of immigrants from Germany and conveys their merciless exploitation by men involved with recruiting and transporting  refugees in the 18th century.

Mittelberger's travel log describes his own emigration to Pennsylvania in 1750 and was written after his return to his German homeland four years later to forewarn his countrymen about the problems they would encounter. Originally written in German, this edition was edited and translated by Oscar Handlin and John Clive and published by Belknap Press of Harvard University in 1960.

Like many immigrants to the United States, Mittelberger left Germany to escape oppressive religious and economic conditions and to begin a new life in the New World. "Newlanders" were the unscrupulous scouts who marketed the colonies by making false promises and who  profited from the refugees. Mittelberger describes the deplorable conditions aboard ships during the passage to America and the plight of many immigrants who were forced to work as indentured servants for many years in order to pay for their passage.

Mittelberger enjoyed more prosperous circumstances when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1750. During the next four years he tried to make a new start and keenly observed daily life in the colonies, but the author finally abandoned his efforts in 1754 and journeyed back to his homeland. Journey to Pennsylvania includes descriptions of both the bounty and the hardships in colonial Philadelphia.

 This volume is available from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=000094525 Click on “Availability,” then click on the yellow “Request” button.  Log in using your first name and 14 digit library barcode from your ID.  If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301 687-4395.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Red Rain by Timothy L. Wendel

Tim Wendel, Writer in Residence at Johns Hopkins, http://www.timwendel.com/ gives the reader Red Rain.   Wendel writes about a little known military tactic used by the Japanese late in World War II.  The Japanese designed a balloon with an incendiary device capable of flying across the Pacific Ocean to wreak havoc on the West Coast of the U.S.  It is estimated that nearly 10,000 devices were released, landing in 16 states in the west and Midwest.  The concept was the brainchild of the Imperial Japanese Army's Ninth Army's Number Nine Research Laboratory, under Major General  Kusaba, with work performed by Technical Major Takada and his colleagues. 

With advice from MacArthur the President made the decision to keep the balloon landings from the population surrounding the landing areas.  When the Japanese realized that no word was coming from the U.S. about the effects of the balloon flights, Japan made the incorrect assumption that their plan was not working and stopped the project.  As more information was learned after the war ended, it was discovered that the Japanese were making plans to use the balloons for biological warfare.

Wendel draws his characters from those who were involved with the fire balloon project, the Japanese internment camps in the U.S., and the fire fighters of Arizona who fought the fires.  Yoshi Minagi, a victim of the Civilian Exclusion Order, was sent to the internment camp at Manzanar, California.  While there, she and her family learn to adjust to imprisonment.   The military soon discover that Yoshi can speak English and Japanese.  Lt. Starling gives her the training and briefs her on what she needs to learn.  She leaves her family at Manzanar goes to Japan to get the intelligence needed about the fire balloons. 

Yoshi makes the trip to Japan in a submarine and meets her contact on shore.  From the beginning, Yoshi finds it difficult to separate herself from the Japanese.  Her job in a factory enables her to meet Takata, the genius behind the balloons.  As she spends time in the factory and talks with Takata, she realizes she is making the material for the balloons.  Yoshi and Takata begin to become attracted to each other which makes Yoshi’s decision even more difficult.  Does she provide the information needed to the U.S. or does she protect Takata?

While Yoshi is in Japan gathering what she needs on the balloons, Lt. Starling is in Arizona fighting the fires with the local firemen.  He knows that he cannot divulge the cause of the fire even when a damaged balloon is found.  The tension among the firefighters battling the blazes and their differences adds to the reality of the story.

For an exciting read on the Japanese in the U.S., the incendiary balloons launched by the Japanese, and firefighting scenes, turn to Red Rain.  Wendel keeps your interest and add to the history of Japan and the U.S.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Talk Like TED; the 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds by Carmine Gallo

       In 1984 a conference was held that would launch a movement; TED.  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.  TED is a nonprofit foundation that sparked TED talks. These downloadable free speeches (www.ted.com) are given by the top leaders, scientists and artists covering a large and interesting range of topics.  The speeches are required to be under 18 minutes and to easily convey an understanding of complex topics.  The talks can range from the  status of the world's food supply to how to teach kids to love science.
       Carmine Gallo has studied the techniques of the most popular TED speakers to find out what makes a speech great.  He has compiled these learned skills into 9 rules that all public speakers can use to make their speeches successful, dynamic and fun.  This easily read and quick paced book (much like a TED talk) teaches people, who may have struggled with public speaking, easy techniques to rapidly improve their skills.
       Gallo's book, Talk Like TED, is also full of personal stories and humorous anecdotes from the TED speakers. The reader will learn that James Cameron, a diver since age 15, wanted to film the movie Titanic because it was a way to fund a deep sea dive to see the actual wreckage of the ship.  The reader will learn from artists like photographer Chris Jordan who used art at his TED talk to convey the increasing rates for cosmetic surgery on girls under age 18.  The book, while teaching the public speaking skills, also inspires the reader to be curious and invested in our world, from the global level to the small families we create.      
        If you are interested in checking out this great book for yourself, you can request this volume from the Ort Library catalog here: Talk Like TED  Click on "Availability", then click on the yellow "Request" button, and login using your last name and 14-digit Library barcode number on your ID. If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395. We hope to see you soon!

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Haints: A Novel by Clint McCown

The Halloween season is a perfect time to read Clint McCown's novel, Haints. The story begins and ends with a sailor returning to his grandfather's property in the Tennessee Valley on February 29, 1952. Signalman 3rd Class Ronald Dawson briefly relives the events preceding the sinking of his ship, the USS Partridge. He feels responsible for the eight dead and six wounded. As he stands haunted by the memory of the disaster, he sees the dark spiral that will sweep through the small town below. The reader takes the fatal leap with him. 

Just moments before the tornado hits, we are introduced to the novel's first character, Herb Gatlin. He and his neighbors are all haunted by some secret from the past. They are entwined because they share the same small town space where evil spirits or "haints" linger. Hidden connections between characters are revealed throughout the novel.  The tornado that sweeps through the town cuts through  many facades including the invisible barrier that had divided the white and black sections of the town.

The term "haint" is Southern slang for ghost. Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang edited by Clarence Major defines it as "ghost, spirit, specter, phantom, apparition, a disembodied spirit; probably a corruption of haunt and dates the noun from the 1690's to 1940's." (p. 219)

The word "haints" echoes throughout the novel that also has a biographical connection. McCown shared that information during an interview in 2013.


Haints is available with New Books displayed on Floor 3 of the Ort Library. Other works by McCown available at the  library include:

• Dead Languages: Poems
• The Weatherman: A Novel
• War Memorials
• The Member-Guest

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

In Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, Jon Krakauer tackles the disturbing and difficult subject of acquaintance rape, focusing on the experiences of five women in Missoula, Montana at the University of Montana during 2010-2012. The women had all filed reports of either rape or attempted rape with university officials and/or local police. The Justice Department began an investigation into reports of over 80 reports of sexual assault and revealed a culture of victim-blaming, discrimination, and disrespect, which Krakauer further reveals throughout his own investigative reporting.

Several of those accused of assault were key players on the University of Montana football team, which resulted in an angry division between those calling for serious investigation and police action, and those standing behind the football players, particularly star quarterback Jordan Johnson. Investigations into the sexual assault reports were severely mishandled and there was an air of disinterest in the alleged victims' stories. Many attempted to discredit the women, and though the athletic director and football coach were removed from their positions, and Johnson temporarily expelled, the football team made semi-threatening statements which resulted in a secret review leading to Johnson's reinstatement into the university and to the football team.

The accounts of sexual violence on college campuses are deeply disturbing and sadly all-too-common. Krakauer peels back the layers on one particular campus, and attempts to make sense of how a cultural shift has arisen in the way sexual violence is understood by both students and administrators at campuses across the country. As with Krakauer's other works, Missoula is well-written and researched, and a difficult but timely and worthwhile read.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town is currently on display on the New Arrivals Shelf on the main floor of the Library. You can also request Missoula through the catalog. Click on the "Availability" link on the catalog record, then click on the yellow "Request" button. Log in using your 14-digit Library barcode number (located on your University ID), and your last name. You will then be able to select your pick-up location. The Library will notify you via email when your book has arrived for pick-up. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne is a wonderfully robust social history of the life of one of England's most treasured writers. Byrne explores how Jane Austen became Jane Austen, and the complexities of becoming a published female author during the early nineteenth century using eighteen objects connected with Austen, rather than following a typical biographical style. She challenges the common notion that Austen was a spinster, a homebody, and lacked the life experiences of some of her well-traveled and typically male contemporaries.

Many of the objects chosen to tell the Jane Austen story seem at first strange choices, some as pedestrian as seat cushions and a hat. Others are far more intimate items from the Austen family like portraits, a letter game, a lace card, and a fictitious marriage certificate penned by Austen herself. Austen is brought to vibrant life through the history and analysis of these special items and heirlooms. Byrne presents Austen as witty, smart, worldly, and a shrewd businesswoman, traits not often used to describe her.

Though not a narrative, and certainly very different from typical hagiographical biographies, this fun, interesting social history by Byrne is a must-read for any Austen fan. The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things is currently on display on the New Arrivals Shelf on the main floor of the Library. You can also request The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things through the catalog. Click on the "Availability" link on the catalog record, then click on the yellow "Request" button. Log in using your 14-digit Library barcode number (located on your University ID), and your last name. You will then be able to select your pick-up location. The Library will notify you via email when your book has arrived for pick-up. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

What-I’m-Reading-Wednesday: Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

When you hear the name Area 51 – what do you think of first? Do you think about aliens and alien spaceships at the secret base or do you think about how the base was used to develop the U-2 spy plane in the 1950s? Annie Jacobsen takes the reader on a discovery of what Area 51 is and isn’t in the book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base. In the first chapter Jacobsen discusses how Area 51 first came to the attention of the public, with the interview of Bob Lazar on a local television station where he talked about aliens and alien spaceships being backwards engineered for use by the US military. Up until that time, Area 51 was not known by most people outside of a few within the military.

Area 51 falls just outside the area in Nevada where the US detonated some of the first atomic bombs that were developed and adjacent to the Nellis Air Force Range. Area 51 was utilized for the U-2 spy plane development because of Groom Lake, which is in the center of the area. Groom Lake is a dry lake bed which makes it ideal for a landing strip. At the time, the U-2 spy plane was under the direction of the CIA because the US government could deny all knowledge of U-2 spy plane operations since the pilots would be wearing civilian and not military clothing.

Jacobsen has extensive notes and interviews with those that worked at Area 51 in the early days. One interesting fact that she includes in the book is that the crash at Roswell, NM in 1947 was not actually an alien spacecraft but a Soviet aircraft that crashed and was able to evade US radar systems.

This volume is available to request from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004064390 Click on “Availability,” the click on the yellow “Request” button.  Log in using your first name and 14 digit library barcode from your ID.  If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301 687-4395.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

What really caused the sinking of the Lusitania?  Were the British to blame or the German U-boot commander?  Dead Wake is an excellent read about the last days of the beautiful ocean liner, her passengers from all walks of life, and the part both the British and Germans played in her demise.

As the passengers embarked, there seemed to be little if any worry about the success of the voyage.  The Lusitania was one of the fastest of the Atlantic ships, she would have a British escort when she arrived in British waters near Ireland, and the Germans were too humane to ever think of sinking a passenger ship with Americans on board.

Ten months into World War I, one of the “greyhounds” of the Atlantic left New York for her return voyage to Liverpool.   She left New York with the Imperial German Embassy posting a “Notice!” to travelers on the Atlantic voyage that Germany and Great Britain were at war.  This meant that the waters around Great Britain were a war zone and that any of Great Britain’s allies would be accorded enemy status.

To reduce cost, Cunard ordered the Lusitania to use only ¾ of their power. This decreased speed, and therefore distance covered, thus changing the arrival time to Liverpool. Due to the fluctuation of the tide at Liverpool harbor there were specific times to enter the harbor. 

Rumors abounded that the Lusitania carried weapons and ammunition for the British cause.  What more could come together for a disaster?  As always, the weather played an integral part in the voyage and timing as it also slowed the ship.  The fog was an ally as well since it made it next to impossible for the U-boat (submarine, U-20) to see the ship. 

The reader will learn about the rich and famous on board as well as the other classes and the crew.  The day to day activity on the ship makes for interesting reading.  Larson imparts vital information about the safety drills, demonstration of the life jackets, and the pervading attitude that the ship would reach harbor simply because of its speed and the ‘rules of war” concerning nonmilitary ships.

Larson researched the Lusitania’s sinking well.  He includes information about the British and the best kept secret which left Captain Turner of the Lusitania without vital information to protect his ship and passengers.  Dead Wake gives us an adventure story and a story of war from those in a submarine, in command in Great Britain, and the unsuspecting passengers on a voyage of a lifetime.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania is available for check-out in the Ort Library catalog, as are Larson's other works like The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, and Thunderstruck.Click on the "Availability" link on the catalog record, then click on the yellow "Request" button. Log in using your 14-digit Library barcode number (located on your University ID), and your last name. You will then be able to select your pick-up location. The Library will notify you via email when your book has arrived for pick-up. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

Blog post written by MaryJo Price

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power by Jimmy Carter

After hearing Doris Kearns Goodwin describe Jimmy Carter as a "good and decent man" on the evening news of August 20^th when he announced his cancer diagnosis, I wanted to learn more about his life and The Carter Center he founded in 1982. I chose his 2014 book A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, but there were 20 other monograph titles written by Carter available at the Ort Library for later reading.

Carter explains, “Waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope are the major themes of The Carter Center, and one of our basic principles is not to duplicate what others are doing or to compete with them.”  (72) Elephantiasis, river blindness and guinea worm are common names for some of the neglected tropical diseases that the Center has fought, and Carter consistently acknowledges that third world women, often the victims of these diseases, are also the necessary agents for their eradication. Throughout his book, Carter demonstrates how his experience as a Georgia peanut farmer helped him to understand and foster projects in Africa to improve public health and agricultural production through the Carter Center.

Carter also deals with international issues of women’s rights and begins by exploring the foundations of most world religions that deny women a status equal to their male counterparts. He highlights those religions that have increased leadership opportunities for women. In its final chapters, Carter uses specific examples and statistics to demonstrate the impact of global violence on women. He includes the genocide of girls in China and India and the violence against women in third world countries in the form of rape, spousal abuse, genital cutting, child brides and honor killings. 

A Call to Action is a book that shares the author’s global view of justice with the reader. He incorporates examples from the lives of his wife and mother to illustrate how to wage peace. He includes quotes from peers who support his defense of the rights of women globally. The prime voice of the book is one of a “good and decent man” issuing a call to the United Nations, the World Bank and other international organizations to address international issues of women’s rights.

What I’m Reading Wednesday: Outliers: the Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

In the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, the traits and circumstances that contribute to extreme success in life are defined and explored.  Is it luck of the draw or are there hidden factors that help to create successful people?  Can we apply those factors to our own lives?  And what is the legacy of our success?  Outliers explores what it means to be extremely successful and what hidden circumstances make it likely for you to succeed. 

Gladwell translates scientific data and research into easy to understand examples in everyday life.  In the first example of the book, Gladwell questions why most Canadian superstar hockey players are born in January, February and March? The answer - the age cutoff for hockey teams is January 1.  This means a child born in January will have almost a full year of maturity, physical growth in size and brain power over a child born in December.  Yet both children will be eligible to play on the same team or in the same league.  The older child will likely succeed because he plays against a less experienced and less physically mature child.  The older child is then rewarded by praise and advancement because of that success. The child is likely to be moved to better and better teams or leagues.  A cycle that reinforces itself to produce the "best" players.  Gladwell calls this the "phenomenon of relative age".  This is just one of the many fascinating examples researched and explained in Outliers.

If you found the above example tweaking your interest, we suggest you check out Outliers and also Gladwell's other works.  He has written 4 other New York Times bestsellers; The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009), and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (2013).  We hope you will check out all his exciting, informative books.

If you are interested in checking out this great book for yourself, you can request this volume from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=003682217.  Click on "Availability", then click on the yellow "Request" button, and log in using your last name and 14-digit Library barcode number on your ID. If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.  We hope to see you soon!

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Jean Rhys, The Complete Novels

Twentieth century Caribbean novelist Jean Rhys is perhaps best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, but her work spanned her entire lifetime and included many other novels, short stories, essays, and autobiographical works. This collection of Rhys' novels includes Wide Sargasso Sea, as well as Voyage in the Dark, Quartet, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie, and Good Morning, Midnight. The collection also includes photographs by Brassaï to accompany the novels.

Rhys often drew on her own experiences for the foundations of her novels, writing frequently of her childhood on the island of Dominica in the British West Indies, and her subsequent young adult years at a boarding school in England. Voyage in the Dark is thought to be mostly autobiographical, detailing a young woman's experience of migrating from the West Indies and being lured into a life of "modeling" which led to prostitution. Her depictions of Caribbean life are equally as vivid as the portrait she paints of life on the London streets.

Violence toward and the exploitation of women were common themes in Rhys' work. She was acutely aware of the fragile balancing act involved in emotional and sexual relationships between men and women, particularly in early twentieth century Britain. Her writing often featured domestic abuse, the dominance of men over women, and the dependence of women upon men. In Wide Sargasso Sea, an award-winning work of speculative fiction, she brings to light the first Mrs. Rochester, the mad woman in the attic from Jane Eyre, giving a voice to a character critical to the classic work but mostly unheard.

Request Jean Rhys, The Complete Novels from the Library catalog. Click on the "Availability" link on the catalog record, then click on the yellow "Request" button. Log in using your 14-digit Library barcode number (located on your University ID), and your last name. You will then be able to select your pick-up location. The Library will notify you via email when your book has arrived for pick-up. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

What-I’m-Reading-Wednesday: Cheated: the UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports by Jay M. Smith and Mary Willingham

Jay M. Smith and Mary Willingham provide an analysis of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) academics-athletics scandal that began in 2010 from their perspectives as UNC employees.  Willingham was a tutor in the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes who went public with claims of academic fraud at UNC.  Smith was a professor of history who researched these academic irregularities and pressed the UNC administration and faculty to formally investigate the issue and implement reform.

What began as an investigation of football players receiving improper benefits, including gifts and contact with sports agents, quickly spread to uncovering examples of academic misconduct, with tutors from the Academic Support Program providing improper assistance to student-athletes.  Further investigation uncovered widespread academic fraud especially within the African and Afro-American Studies (AFRI/AFAM) program where “paper classes” were being offered with large student-athlete enrollments.  These classes, which usually did not meet, only required that students submit a research paper in order receive a passing grade, typically an A or B.  In 2003-2004, AFRI/AFAM was offering almost 300 independent study sections, largely consisting of paper classes; enrollment in one independent study course in 2001 topped out at 80 students.  Further, creation and/or enrollment of these sections was often supervised by the department’s administrative assistant with little or no faculty oversight. 

Although athletes were not the only students enrolled in these courses, they were well-represented.  Academic Support Program tutors took full advantage by not only steering student-athletes to enroll in them, but also pressuring faculty and the departmental administrative assistant to create additional courses and sections.  The authors describe how student-athletes who were not prepared academically to enroll at UNC received special exceptions for admission to the institution and were assigned a tutor who not only assisted them with coursework, but assigned both their majors and schedules, leaving the students powerless to choose their own courses of study.  Smith and Willingham argue that the university should provide adequate and meaningful remedial support to students it has chosen to admit as well as empower them to choose and follow their own academic destinies in order to prepare them for life after their athletic careers end (and as they are promised when recruited).

Another troubling aspect of the UNC academics-athletics scandal as described by the authors was the complicity not only of the university’s administration, but also of faculty governance in protecting the status quo.  Smith and Willingham provide extensive details regarding faculty and administrative discussions, investigations, reports and decisions, all of which served to protect the Athletics Department from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which was conducting its own review, and further resulted in separating the UNC athletic enterprise from the academic mission of the institution.  In fact, a report commissioned by former North Carolina Governor Jim Martin in 2012 supported previous internal UNC investigations that defined the fraud as primarily an academic problem, largely absolving the Athletic Department and its Academic Support Program of wrongdoing.

Willingham left UNC 2014 and settled a lawsuit with the university in March 2015.  She founded Paper Class Inc. (http://paperclassinc.com) along with Smith as a means to continue to advocate for college sports reform.  Since the writing of this book, UNC hired former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein to conduct an independent investigation.  The report, released in October 2014, detailed over 18 years of academic fraud and irregularities at UNC.  In June 2015, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission (SACS) placed UNC on probation due to the exposure of academic fraud at the institution.  UNC has begun to implement initiatives intended to correct academic irregularities.  According the UNC Athletics website, the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes now reports directly to the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.

Willingham and Smith provide a thorough, if disturbing, view of big-time college athletics from an academic affairs perspective within a prominent research institution.

This volume is available to request from the Ort Library catalog here:  http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004560116.  Click on “Availability,” then click on the yellow “Request” button.  Log in using your first name and 14 digit library barcode from your ID.  If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301 687-4395.

What-I’m-Reading-Wednesday: The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend edited by Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan

What-I’m-Reading-Wednesday: The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend edited by Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan

Vampires have been all the rage for a while now. The blockbuster Twilight series was just the latest trend in vampires in the modern consciousness. Everyone knows the story Dracula by Bram Stoker and many more know the vampires from Anne Rice. Even now there are several shows on television with vampires as the main characters, The Originals and The Vampire Diaries.

In this book, the editors take a scholarly look at the historical view of the vampire. The book contains 16 scholarly chapters on the history of vampires.  The book is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the vampires through the lens of Western European culture.  One chapter provides evidence for vampires in Norse-Icelandic Saga literature. The chapter provides the original Norse/Icelandic saga and then translates this into English for the reader. The vampire-like creature was called the Draugr.

The second part of the book looks at possible medical explanations for vampires including lack of medical understanding for some common diseases that we know existed at the time prompted people to believe in vampires. The third part of the book looks at female vampires in literature and how they have been portrayed. Finally, the last section of the book looks at how vampires have been viewed in countries outside of Europe including Mexico, Japan, and Russia.

Each chapter has a bibliography and some have information for further reading if one is interested in learning more about vampires in literature. If you want a scholarly look at the vampire myth then The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend is for you.

This volume is available to request from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004455910. Click on “Availability,” the click on the yellow “Request” button.  Log in using your first name and 14 digit library barcode from your ID.  If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301 687-4395.