This Week in Reading June 8 -14

On a week that sees the birthday of arguably the inspiration for the Nobel prize, this week gives us two earlier Nobel prize winners, Irish poet and playwright Williiam Butler Yeats and Japanese novelist Yasunari Kawabata, as well as a recent one from America, Saul Bellow. For strict literary tastes we get Willam Stryon, Athol Fugard, and Jerzy Kosinski also in the week along with a few popular genre and children's writers.

Fitting specialized levels of honor among fans and followers in two of those categories are Maurice Sendak, illustrator extraordinaire of children's books, and Dorothy L. Sayers, whose Peter Whimsey mysteries have always transcended the genre label and have never been matched as a series that satirizes general society as well as fulfilling cracking mystery expectations.

This Week's Question: Which author born this week wrote a famous dedication sentence that might well hold true for readers of, and the authors symbolized in, This Week in Reading? "Reader, look / Not at his picture, but his book."

Answer to Last Week's Question: In the week that ex-presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book came out, there was also the birthday of Bill Moyers, who served as a speech writer in the Kennedy administration and was President Lyndon Baines Johnson's Press Secretary from 1965-1967. His predecessor in both administrations, by the way, was born this week. He is Pierre Salinger. Public issues brought up weekly on PBS's Bill Moyers Journal are discussed monthly (except this month) at an open meeting of Moyers Talkers in our computer lab at the Central Library. The next one is Thursday, July 17 at 7PM. All points of view are welcome and will be challenged politely.

Want to join in on civic discussions in the library?

Every month a group of civic minded individuals meet here in the library to discuss civic issues and personalities that appear on Bill Moyers Journal shown each Friday evening on PBS. The gathering is facilitated by one of our librarians, Bill.

On his web site Bill Moyers created a national blog for people to share comments and he encouraged groups to meet in public libraries and other venues around the country. Glendale's own group of Moyers Talkers has even created its own local blog.

During the monthly session the group determines which of the last month's program segments they would like to see again and a few minutes of it are shown in the Learning Center computer classroom. The group then engages in an open discussion about the topic and in the last half hour they send individual and group comments to the national blog and to the local one. Using library online resources and other links provided by the editors of the Bill Moyers Journal web site, discussion can be aided by facts, figures and more opinion. Talk is always lively and varied. All opinions are welcome and discussion is respectful.

The following is from the latest post on the local blog:

[Last Friday's show was] a repeat of the one about impeachment and we'll likely continue to discuss it at our next gathering of Moyers Talkers, Thursday, August 16, at 7:00 PM in the Learning Center of the Glendale Public Library Central Library.

Also up for consideration are topics from [previous] week's guests, Barbara Ehrenreich on the gap between rich and poor, and cultural critic, Clive James on politics and the arts, as well as two earlier programs which featured earmark reform, who's the enemy in Iraq, the Yes Men political theater events, and poet Martin Espada.You can visit the Moyers archive to review any of the last shows to decide what you want to talk about this Thursday.

Are you civic minded? Do have something to add to the discussions? If the mainstream media is not listening to you, check out the blogs and the programs and come on out to the library to find someone who is.

This Week in Reading June 24 - 30

There are three more Nobel prizewinners born this week, a poet, Czeslaw Milosz, a playwright, Luigi Pirandello, and a novelist, Pearl S. Buck, each leaning toward the serious but beloved by millions. George Orwell's coinage of "doublespeak" also reached millions both in its definition and in its use upon them. Yet besides Ambrose Bierce's biting cynicism, no humorists this week reached more Americans than George Abbott and Mel Brooks. George Abbott was the defining producer who play doctored many so-so funny Broadway scripts into laugh riot extravanganzas and made them successes. After Broadway saw years of dwindling and bored audiences Mel Brooks brought the concept of a big, solidly entertaining Broadway show back with his brilliant Producers by using the simple idea Abbott had believed in, "make 'em laugh."

This Week's Question: Who, among this week's author, created the phrase "social contract" and what does it mean to public libraries and the people who utilize them? (Essays accepted.)

Answer to Last Week's Question: On the first program of his new weekly series Bill Moyers Journal on April 27, 2007 Moyers interviewed Jon Stewart of Daily Show fame. You can still see the video or read the transcript at the archive. A group of Glendale area persons meets monthly at the Learning Center of the Glendale Central Library to choose a video from the previous month's programs to watch, discuss, and blog about locally and nationally. The last meeting of the Moyers Talkers was last Thursday and the next is Thursday, July 19. Everyone's view is welcome.