Masterpieces of medieval literature

Masterpieces of medieval literature / Timothy B. Shutt.— Prince Frederick: Recorded Books, 2005.
7 sound discs (7 hr., 54 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 course guide (72 p. : col. ill. ; 22 cm.)
(Modern scholar)
ISBN: 1419377892; 1419377906 (course guide)
14 lectures delivered by Timothy B. Shutt, Professor, Kenyon College.
Contents: Historical background – The Germanic north – The Icelandic family sagas – Njal’s Saga – Anglo-Saxon attitudes – Beowulf – Anglo-Saxon poetry – The Celtic west: The lais of Marie de France – To the sunny southlands: troubadour poetry, chivalry, knighthood, and the Chanson de Geste – The matter of Arthur – Chrétien de Troyes – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – Religious literature – The later middle ages.
Compact disc

1. Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism.

809.02

Fourteen lectures and a study guide comprise this lively survey of the outstanding examples of European literature from the sack of Rome to the first stirrings of the Renaissance in Italy. Shutt starts with the new influences coming from the North: the poems and sagas of the Germans and the Celts and then moves counter-clockwise geographically as he moves forward in time. He examines Icelandic sagas, Beowulf, and then the merging of the Northern and Mediterranean traditions in troubadour poetry and in the stories of Arthur: The lais of Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, before surveying religious literature and the impact of the calamities of the 1300s: global (or at least European) cooling and the black death.

What Professor Shutt may lack in rhetorical delivery—he often pauses mid-sentence as if lost in contemplation of his subject—he more than compensates for with his enthusiasm for, as well as his knowledge of, the literature. The accompanying text, the study guide edited by James Gallagher, not only reinforces the lessons of the lectures, but provides a marvelous bibliography of the works discussed in modern English translations.

Personally, it left me with the reader’s lament, “So many books. So little time.”

The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian

The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian / by Sherman Alexie ; art by Ellen Forney.— New York : Little, Brown, c2007.
229 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9780316013680

1. Basketball – Fiction. 2. Children of alcoholics – Fiction. 3. Indian reservations -- Fiction. 4. Indians of North America -- Washington (State) -- Fiction. 5. Race relations – Fiction. 6. Spokane Indians -- Fiction.

813.54










The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian / written and narrated by Sherman Alexie.— Prince Frederick : Recorded Books, 2008.
5 sound discs (5 hrs.)
Compact discs
ISBN: 9781428182974 (Library edition)

1. Basketball – Fiction. 2. Children of alcoholics – Fiction. 3. Indian reservations -- Fiction. 4. Indians of North America -- Washington (State) -- Fiction. 5. Race relations – Fiction. 6. Spokane Indians -- Fiction.

813.54


Arnold Spirit, Junior is a hydrocephalic Spokane Indian attending an otherwise all-white high school off the reservation. He tells his story in the first person and in cartoons; it’s by turns tragic and comic, but even when Arnold (his name at school) or Junior (his name back on the reservation) boils over with frustration at his Indian friends who reject him for attending the town high school or at his white classmates can’t accept him for being an Indian, he never abandons his sharp wit and irony. This makes a story, peppered with the pain of racism, death, poverty, and alcoholism, one of triumph and good humor, and not one of maudlin sorrow.

Forney’s illustrations in the print edition reinforce the humor in the text, but the author’s narration on the audio edition turn a superior piece of fiction into an unqualified masterpiece.

Messenger

Messenger / Lois Lowry. – Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
169 p. ; 22 cm.
Sequel to: The Giver and Gathering Blue

ISBN: 0618404414

1. Community life -- Fiction. 2. Emigration and immigration -- Fiction. 3. Fantasy fiction. 4. Good and evil – Fiction. 5. Healers -- Fiction.

813.54


Matty was a wild and untamed boy when he came to Village, but now that he’s grown some he’s become a useful member of his community. He is the messenger sent through the often dangerous Forest to other communities by Leader. But things have changed in Village recently, the people fear that they may not have enough to share with new arrivals, and they decide to build a wall around it to keep strangers out.

Lowry presents a simple and powerful fable of how greed and fear can warp and poison a community, to make it forget what it once knew, and how self-sacrifice can redeem it.

Angels Fall

Angels fall / by Nora Roberts; read by Joyce Bean.— Grand Haven: Brilliance Audio, 2006.
13 sound discs (ca. 15 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
Unabridged
Directed by Laura Grafton.
ISBN: 1596001917 (library ed.)

1. Romantic suspense fiction. 2. Victims of crimes -- Fiction. 3. Wyoming --Fiction.

813.54

Escaping from lingering obsessive memories of a brutal and senseless mass murder in Boston, chef Reece Gilmore finds herself applying for the job of cook at a local diner in Angel’s Fist Wyoming. The menu and the kitchen are not quite what she’s trained for, but the calm scenery of the Grand Tetons make up for what the diner may be lacking. But as soon as she plans to settle in and take a relaxing hike to enjoy the scenery she witnesses a woman strangled to death on a lonely trail. But when she reports this to the local police they find no trace of the crime. Then strange and threatening things start happening in her apartment

A master of her craft, Roberts delivers both sensuality and suspense in this tale. The sensuality is not limited to the romantic encounters of Reece and her new lover, but also in the details of the food and the beauty of the land, and the thrills come from threats both psychological and physical.

The midnight ride of Paul Revere

The midnight ride of Paul Revere / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ; graved and painted by Christopher Bing.— Brooklyn, N.Y. : Handprint Books, c2001.
[34] p. + 2 sheets folded and tipped in front and back of book : col. ill., maps ; 24 x 30 cm.
Bibliography: p. [29]
ISBN: 1929766130

1. American poetry. 2. Lexington, Battle of, Lexington, Mass., 1775 --Poetry. 3. Narrative poetry. 4. Revere, Paul, 1735-1818 --Poetry.

811.3

“A Note on the Preparation of This Book” explicates the meaning of “graved and painted.” It’s an impressive mixture of drawing, painting, computer photography, and image manipulation. Paired with the use of a typeface that’s contemporary with the events, it gives the book a feeling of historical verisimilitude. In addition to beautifully illustrating Longfellow’s famous poem, Bing includes a brief historically accurate account of Revere’s well organized network of riders and what really happened on the night of April 18-19, 1775. A copy of Revere’s own deposition to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress is also included. This is an excellent presentation of the poem.