Wanda Gág

Wanda Gág : the girl who lived to draw / Deborah Kogan Ray.—New York : Viking, 2008.

[40] p. : col. ill. ; 24 x 27 cm.

At head of title: “The Creator of Millions of Cats”

Audience: Ages 5 up.

Bibliography: p. 40

ISBN: 9780670062928

1. Artists – United States – Biography. 2. Gág, Wanda, 1893-1946. 3. Illustrators -- United States -- Biography.

741.642092

Born to Bohemian parents in Minnesota all the Gag (rhymes with jog, not bag) children were encouraged to actively pursue both the fine and performing arts. Their father, a house painter by trade, was also a painter of pictures and on his deathbed he gave his oldest daughter this commission, “What Papa couldn’t do, Wanda will have to finish.” Starting at age fifteen Wanda began to support the family through the sale of her art. On scholarships she went on to study art in St. Paul and at the Art Students League in New York. At a one-woman show in New York in 1928, she was approached by a children’s book editor, who asked if she had ever considered writing a story. In fact, she had one already written, inspired by the German folktales that she loved as a child. It was called Millions of Cats.

Ray’s gentle and vividly colorful illustrations enliven her picture book biography of her fellow artist.

Doctor Who: The Forever Trap

Doctor Who: the forever trap / Dan Abnett ; read by Catherine Tate.-- [Bath] : BBC Audiobooks, 2008.
2 sound discs (2 hr., 23 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
Unabridged
Compact discs
Produced by Kate Thomas ; series theme music by Murray Gold ; music and sound effects performed by Simon Hunt.
ISBN: 9781408406786

1. Apartment houses – Fiction. 2. Doctor Who (Fictitious character) – Fiction. 3. Dwellings – Fiction. 4. Human-alien encounters – Fiction. 5. Outer space – Fiction. 6. Science fiction.

823.914

A smooth talking and not entirely honest sales-hologram invades the TARDIS and tricks Donna Noble into a sales contract for a luxury apartment complex. If location is all three of the most important things in real estate, then the Edifice doesn’t have any of them. It’s somewhere in the midst of Outer Space, without any means of transportation out. Not only that, new tenants keep arriving without any provision for what they need to survive. Aquatic life forms are dumped on the carpet with nothing for their gills to breathe. Some of the more aggressive tenants are fighting for control of the Edifice, and no one seems to be in charge. Fortunately, there is a Doctor in the house.

Catherine Tate is such a gifted actress and mimic that her single voice presentation sounds like the highest quality full-cast radio drama. As the actress who plays Donna in the television series, it is little wonder that she does a good job voicing Donna’s part. The wonderful part of her performance is how closely she has captured fellow actor David Tennant's speech patterns when she reads the Doctor’s part. The sound effects are also excellent, and Dan Abnett’s original story even has a cliffhanger between discs one and two. Everyone involved with this project is to be commended.

The metamorphosis

The metamorphosis / Franz Kafka; adapted by Peter Kuper.—New York : Three Rivers Press, c2003.
77 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Translation by Kerstin Hasenpusch
ISBN: 1400052998

1. Family -- Fiction. 2. Graphic novels. 3. Insects -- Fiction. 4. Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924 -- Adaptations. 5. Metamorphosis—Fiction. 6. Short stories, Austrian -- 20th century.

I. Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924. Verwandlung. English. 2003.

741.5973

Traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a giant bug. This makes it very difficult to get out of bed and impossible to get to work. It also makes for very awkward family dynamics. Kuper’s adaptation of one of the most famous literary works of the twentieth century scrupulously follows Kafka’s original story. What Kuper adds with his dark shadings and heavy lines is a feeling of dark and claustrophobic gloom. It gives his cartoons the feeling of the work of some of Kafka’s contemporaries in the visual arts, the Expressionists. Gregor’s father looks like he could have stepped out of a drawing by George Grosz and the atmosphere of crushing suffering is reminiscent of the works of Otto Dix or Käthe Kollwitz. And while this is not the only interpretation of the story, it is certainly a valid one that Kuper illustrates very successfully.

iHCPL Pot Luck #57 TXT U L8R - Texting

During the recovery from Hurricane Ike I sent a number of text messages. I watched the embedded video anyway, and it was a good quick introduction. I’ve used text messages only during the emergency because it’s not included in my cell phone plan, so they are an added expense over and above voice messages. When I’ve sent them I have not used text lingo, but knowing about the Lingo 2 Word site could be very useful in deciphering any text message I might receive in the future and in reading Lauren Myracle books. The New York Times article reminded me of a press release which I sent out about three decades ago to promote the Ohio County Public Library’s new (at that time) collection of books on tape. It was in the form of a safety message to drivers warning them Don’t Read While Driving, instead use the new audiobooks from the library as a safe alternative.

City of the mind

City of the mind : a novel / Penelope Lively.-- New York : HarperCollinsPublishers, c1991.
231 p. ; 22 cm.
1st U.S. ed. "First published in Great Britain in 1991 by André Deutsch Ltd."--T.p. verso.
ISBN: 9780060166663

1. Architects – Fiction. 2. London (England) – Fiction. 3. Psychological fiction.

823.914

Architect Matthew Hallard is distracted. He’s engaged in a large building project, but as he gazes about the site he sees not only the London of his own time in 1990, but buildings that take him back to the 1820s or to the Renaissance. As his mind wanders from his present cares: the break-up of his marriage, his eight-year-old daughter Jane, encounters with an unscrupulous developer, and the good-looking young woman he chanced to encounter in a sandwich shop, his story is interleaved with the stories of other Londoners from other times: an air-raid warden during the blitz, a Victorian natural scientist, Elizabethan explorer Martin Frobisher, and several unnamed children from the past.

Lively ponders the fragile bonds of human affection, estrangement, loss, hope and industry as it swirls through the city and through time. Ultimately it’s a reassuring meditation.

Earthsearch

Earthsearch : Series I & II: The Complete Radio Series / James Follett.— [Bath] : BBC Audiobooks, 2006.
Downloadable audio file (9 hr., 39 min.) (138873 KB)
Unabridged
Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1981 and 1982.
Contents: Series I: Planetfall -- First Footprint City -- Sands of Kyros -- The Solaric Empire -- The Pools of Time -- Across the Abyss -- New Blood – Marooned -- Star Cluster: Tersus Nine – Earthfall – Series II: Return – Flood – Surrender – Solaria – Sundeath – Supermass – Deathship – Megalomania – Earth – Earthvoice.
Cast: Commander Telson, Sean Arnold; Sharna, Amanda Murray; Darv, Haydn Wood; Astra, Kathryn Hurlbutt; Angel One, Sonia Fraser; Angel Two, Gordon Reid; Elka, Jill Lidstone; Bran, Michael Maloney; Tidy, David Gooderson; George, Stephen Garlick.
ISBN: 9781405698740

1. Interplanetary voyages– Drama. 2. Interstellar travel – Drama. 3. Interstellar travel – Humor. 4. Science fiction radio programs.

791.4472

One-hundred-fifteen years after it left earth, the ten-mile long starship Challenger and its crew of four returns to its home world to find that it’s gone. The moon remains alone orbiting Sol. The Sentinel on the moon tells the crew that it was dragged away by its inhabitants half-a-million years ago. In their search for the missing planet the grandchildren of the original crew encounter the mishaps of many interstellar travelers: manic robots bent on destruction, grumpy androids, galactic emperors who rule a few small asteroids, another massive starship the mirror image of their own, shortage of oxygen, hostile humans who take them for aliens, worshipful humans that take them for gods, black hole gravity wells, time dilation, the temptation to eat forbidden fruit, starship computers who want to rule the world, androids that want to rule the universe, and ten-mile high pyramids filled with mysterious secrets, planet engulfing floods, in short, just about every science fiction cliché imaginable, and played absolutely straight faced with tongue firmly in cheek. This is a marvelously fun space opera.

The daughter of time

The daughter of time / by Josephine Tey; narrated by Derek Jacobi.— North Kingstown : Sound Library/BBC Audiobooks America, [2002], p1987.
6 sound discs (5 hrs., 19 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
Republication of the 1987 recording by Chivers Audio Books, Bath
Compact discs.
ISBN: 9781572702448

1. Grant, Alan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction. 2. Mystery fiction. 3. Police -- Great Britain -- Fiction. 4. Richard III, King of England, 1452-1485 -- Fiction.

Was the last Plantagenet king of England the complete villain that was portrayed on stage by William Shakespeare a century later? Scottish playwright and novelist Elizabeth Mackintosh presents the case for the defense in this mystery novel published in 1951 under her pen name Josephine Tey. Scholarly historians had made the case before this, but Daughter of Time turned historical debate into a work of popular entertainment that has gathered critical praise as a work of literature long after it first appeared. In this, it is not unlike Shakespeare’s success at turning history into popular entertainment in his series of plays on the War of the Roses that culminated with “Richard III.” The works share more than an intriguing central character.

But what of the character of this English king who, although he ruled for only a little over two years, is still the source of vigorous debate between his detractors and supporters? Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard takes on the case out of boredom caused by forced confinement. While waiting for a broken leg to heal, he becomes fascinated by a portrait of Richard. To Grant, with the eye of a detective, he looks like a man who should be on the bench deciding the case, not someone on the stand accused of the cold-blooded murder of his two young nephews for political gain. But, as a policeman, Grant knows that cases aren’t solved by hunches or clues they’re solved by taking statements. Fortunately, a friend steers someone his way who’s eager to do the legwork of research and round up the statements, American amateur historian Brent Carradine. As Carradine digs up the documentation, Grant ponders the evidence and how it all fits together and who would stand to gain by the princes’ death.

Actor Derek Jacobi gives a superb reading. His American accent for Carradine is good, if not perfect, but Grant and all the other British characters are flawless. It’s little wonder that Booklist selected it as one of the “Top 10 Mystery Audiobooks” in 2001.

___________
Narkiewicz, Beverly S. “Honk If You Love Richard III.” New York Times (May 21, 2000); page TR10

Harris, Karen. “Top 10 Mystery Audiobooks.” Booklist (May 1, 2001) page 1616

“Second Reading: Josephine Tey: Sleuthing Into The Mystery of History.” The Washington Post (March 12, 2003) page C01