What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Spice: A History of a Temptation by Jack Turner

Spice

The History of a Temptation

by: Jack Turner

Blog Posting Written by: MaryJo Price

Many of us take the spices in our cupboard for granted.  It seems unlikely that we think of the history of the expensive spices that ruled the world.   The five spices of fame are: cinnamon, nutmeg/mace, ginger, cloves, and pepper.  The search around the world for these spices led Vasco da Gama, Columbus, and Magellan to sail to the Americas, India, and around the world. 

Jack Turner’s book gives us a unique way to explore history and human culture.  Turner uses seven chapters to show the reader how spices changed the world.  Turner writes about The Spice Race, Ancient Appetites, Medieval Europe, The Spice of Life, The Spice of Love, Foods for the Gods, Some like it Bland, and The End of the Spice Age.

Before the cultivation of spices began, cloves grew on five tiny volcanic islands in what is today the Indonesian archipelago; nutmeg/mace grew on the archipelago of Bandas or South Moluccas; pepper came mostly from Malabar on the southwest coast of India, ginger from Southeast Asia, and cinnamon from Ceylon (Sri Lanka).  The fact that spices were so difficult to find contributed to their expense and their mystical attraction.  

Nations rose and fell as their hold on the spice trade was taken over by another.  Turner covers the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English empires.  He writes about the Age of Discovery, the impact the spice trade had on the relationship between the West and the East, the part religion played in the history of spices, and how the allure disappeared as spices became more affordable and commonplace.  

Turner inserts anecdotal information throughout the book.  One interesting tidbit is that Ramses II (1224 BC) had a peppercorn inserted into each nostril.   This lends validity to the fact that spices were used for preserving the dead.   The book teems with Interesting facts and information about the explorers, medical uses, culinary information, about spices to make ale and wines more palatable, cloves financed Magellan’s voyage, and so much more.

Turner’s books provides fascinating reading through the ages of exploration, wars, love, religion, cooking, finances, and everyday life, giving the reader an insight into human culture, and history.  After reading Spice: The History of a Temptation we will look at the spices in the cupboard with a different viewpoint.

 

This volume is available to request from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=003155872   Click on “Availability,” the click on the yellow “Request” button.  Log in using your first name and 14 digit library number from your ID.  If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301 687-4395.

Photos by: MaryJo Price

Ort Library Presents New Displays for April 2015

The first display, located on the 3^rd floor near the entrance, celebrates the 90^th Anniversary of the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is considered an American classic. The display also highlights some of the items we have in the library on the author and the book.

The second display, located on the 3^rd floor near the entrance, celebrates National Poetry Month. The display highlights examples of poetry that is available in the library.

The third display, located on the 4^th floor, celebrates Jazz History Month. The display provides background information on the history of Jazz and also showcases Jazz books, videos, and CDs available in the library.

The fourth display, located on the 5^th floor, honors the anniversary of Apollo 13 on April 13, 2015 when its main space module had a catastrophic explosion. The display highlights the history of Apollo 13 and some resources the library has on the Apollo program as a whole.

Featured Online Resource - TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

This week’s Featured Online Resource is TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing (http://ed.ted.com/). TED-Ed Lessons are video lessons that have been created in collaboration with educators, screenwriters, and animators. They cover a range of topics and usually are less than 5 minutes long. Additionally, anyone can create their own lesson using TED Talks or YouTube videos. The site walks users through creating their own lessons.

 

Each lesson contains:

• Video
• Multiple choice and open answer questions
• Option to learn more about the concept 
• Discussion Questions

 An example is the Law of Conservation of Mass: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-law-of-conservation-of-mass-todd-ramsey

Every week, the Ort Library brings you a new and outstanding resource from the Web or from one of the library's databases. To get an archive of all FOR entries, click here. Also, you can suggest a website that provides well-organized access to useful info.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: The Brothers Grimm translated by Jack Zipes

This gorgeous new translation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales is a brand new addition to the Ort Library's collections. The Complete First Edition: The Original Folk & Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm published by Princeton University Press is translated and edited by Jack Zipes and contains breathtaking silhouette illustrations throughout by Andrea Dezsö. There are 156 stories in all, including all of the original Grimms' tales from both the 1812 and 1815 publications.

But Reader beware, these are not the fairy stories of your childhood. In Zipes' translations, he attempts to maintain the original integrity of the language and events, which results in more terse and often more horrifyingly gruesome tales than the recent modern, Disneyfied adaptations with which we are familiar. For example, in the original version of "Cinderella", the stepsisters are encouraged to cut off parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper. The Prince only discovers their deceit by the trail of blood that follows each sister as she walks to join him. The savagery and brusqueness contained within the stories are reflected in Dezsö's dark, haunting silhouette illustrations. This volume also includes a wonderful introduction by Zipes that details his research and presents the historical context of the stories. Zipes has even translated the original Grimms' prefaces and notes referencing the storytellers themselves.

This volume is available to request from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=00446063
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. 

#whatimreadingwednesday

Ort Library's March Book Madness Champion

Congratulations to Ort Library's 

March Book Madness Champion 2015

The voting for the Champion has ended.

In the end it came down to a contest between: 

Charlotte’s Web and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

 
This year we had almost 2900 individual votes during the tournament.

In the end only one book can be crowned Ort Library's March Book Madness Champion for 2015.

The winner of this year's Championship is:  

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by

Mark Twain

Thanks to all those who voted in the Tournament.

You can view the results for the Championship "Game" on the guide created for the March Book Madness: http://libguides.frostburg.edu/march-madness-2015

If you have any questions/comments, please contact Theresa Mastrodonato (tmmastrodonato@frostburg.edu) or 301-687-4425 

March Book Madness - Championship Match - Voting Extended until 10 am - April 6th

Congratulations to the TWO books that have made it to the Championship “Game”!!

After starting with 64 Books, we are now down to our final two. The books moving onto the Championship “Game” are Charlotte's Web and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Voting for the Championship “Game” runs from April 3 through April 6 at 10:00 AM.

Again there are three ways to vote:

• Paper ballots will be available in the library by the March Book Madness display case.
• A Library Guide has been created so that you can see the brackets and vote online. The guide can be accessed via the following link: http://libguides.frostburg.edu/march-madness-2015
• On the Library Guide, there is a PDF bracket that you can fill in and e-mail to tmmastrodonato@frostburg.edu

Join the Ort Library on Monday April 6 at 11:00 am for the Presentation of Trophy to the March Book Madness Champion.

Good luck to the two final books as voting for the Championship begins!

If you have any questions, please contact Theresa Mastrodonato at tmmastrodonato@frostburg.edu or 301-687-4425.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Faithful and Virtuous Night: Poems by Louise Glück

For this week's What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday, we are celebrating National Poetry Month with a selection of new poetry by award-winning poet Louise Glück. Faithful and Virtuous Night: Poems is her seventeenth collection of poetry and explores the themes of life and death following the recent death of her mother at the age of 101. Some of her poems toy also with the split between reality and a dream world, darting back and forth between things that are and things that could never be. Her poems take several forms throughout, with short, fiction-like paragraphs interspersed between the longer, more traditional pieces. "Utopia" and "A Summer Garden" are two of my favorites from this collection. Glück's language, reflective of the transition between dreams and reality, is elegant, almost delicate at times, then quickly morphs into something more grounded and structured.

This lovely collection is available to request from the Ort Library catalog here:  http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004510601 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.

#whatimreadingwednesday