Final Book Reviews – August 25, 2018
Today we wrap up the 2018 Summer Reading program “Libraries Rock.” We had 23 readers submit reviews for 157 books! We had 39 individuals participate in the Adult
Summer Reading program, many contributing to all three aspects of the program: reading books and submitting reviews; attending
a program or workshop; and participating in the creation of the mural. This year’s mural, an interpretation of Roy Lichtenstein’s
“Preparedness” which is in the collection at the Guggenheim, will be revealed today
and will be hung in the Food For Thought
Café sometime in the next two weeks. This
painting was chosen, not for the “Libraries Rock” theme, but rather in celebration
of the Library’s Golden 50th Anniversary. The painting was created in 1968, when the South
Brunswick Public Library was formed. It was
while the country was in the throes of the Vietnam War, a few months after the Tet
Offensive in January 1968. This quote by
Jennifer Blessing, from the Guggenheim website (https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/2496) may provide insight into
the artist’s view at the time:
“Lichtenstein cultivated
imagery from the history of art while continuing to use the conventions of comics
and advertisements. In Preparedness (1968) he used the Benday-dot technique
to make a wall-size painting (10 feet high by 18 feet wide) that suggests the work
of Fernand Léger and the WPA artists of the 1930s, who painted monumental murals,
readable at a distance, on themes of workers and everyday life. Lichtenstein followed
this practice to an ironic and somewhat subversive end. Painted during a year when
public opinion on the Vietnam War shifted dramatically, Lichtenstein’s massive depiction
of machinery and soldiers probes the conventions of selling the promises of the
military-industrial complex, while quietly alluding to the naive optimism underlying
a call to arms.”
The residents of South Brunswick must have been happy to focus
on something besides what was happening on the other side of the world for a change
when they created this home for lifetime leaning.
These are the reviews submitted this week:
Dear Martin by Nic
Stone (3¯) “Easy
to empathize with the characters.”
Channel of Peace by
Kevin Tuerff (5¯) “Amazing
and absorbing.”
The Great Hunt by Robert
Jordan (3¯) “A
noble quest, an ancient prophecy and a reluctant hero make for an adventure pitting
good against evil where no one is as he/she seems. In these lands of magic and mythical beings, sometimes
friends are enemies and enemies are friends.”
Wizard’s First Rule
by Terry Goodkind (4¯)
“When centuries-old barriers between lands begin to fail, evil forces manipulate
the peoples to turn against each other. Wizards,
dragons and magic abound as a small band of friends set out to save the world.”
Undercover by Danielle
Steel (4¯) “Not
a typical Danielle Steel book in that this one had a bit of a mystery to it. Easy summer read.”
Where We Belong by
Emily Giffin (5¯) “A
really good book about an adopted daughter looking for her place in her adopted
and biological families. I like how it gave
everyone’s perspective.”
These books were read but no review was submitted:
Bone Box by Faye Kellerman
(NR)
The Freedom Broker
by K. J. Howe (3¯)
The Dark Lake by Sarah
Bailey (NR)
We hope you have enjoyed participating
in the Summer Reading and found these reviews helpful in finding good reads and
in discovering new authors and genres. Next
year’s theme will be “A Universe of Stories,” about space, to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing.
The themes used by SBPL are created by the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP
www.cslpreads.org/) used by
participating libraries all around the country.
They create program manuals and hire the artist who will create the
posters and other material used for the program. The artist for the 2018 Libraries Rock artwork
was Brian Pinkney and the 2019 artwork will be Leeza Hernandez. This is some information
about these illustrators:
From https://www.brianpinkney.net/main.html: “Acclaimed artist Brian Pinkney is the illustrator
of several highly-praised picture books including The Faithful Friend, In the Time of the Drums, and Duke Ellington. He is a graduate of the University of the Arts
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and holds a master's degree in illustration from
the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with
his wife Andrea, with whom he often collaborates, and his two children.”
“Brian has won numerous awards including two Caldecott Honors,
four Coretta Scott King Honors and a Coretta Scott King Award, and the Boston Globe/Horn
Book Award. He has been exhibited at The Art Institute of Chicago, Cedar Rapids
Museum of Art, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The School
of Visual Arts, and The Society of Illustrators. “
From http://www.leezaworks.com/about.html: “Leeza Hernandez, an award-winning illustrator
and now children's book author, hails from the south of England, but has been living
in New Jersey since 1999. She works as an art director at a local magazine and in
her spare time, creatively noodles with new ideas for books in her art studio. She
loves to experiment with printmaking, pen and ink, digital collage and painting.”
“Leeza's books include the latest in the “Homework” series: Eat Your U.S Hstory Homework (Charlesbridge),
due out in the Fall, plus Dog Gone! and
Cat Napped! (G.P. Putnam's Sons) and New
York Times Betseller John Lithgow's Never
Play Music Right Next To The Zoo (Simon&Schuster).”
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