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.

U. S. Constitution Made Simple - 3 Events

The Glendale Public Library is pleased to present Dave Kluge, author of The People’s Guide to the United States Constitution in a three-part series of events at the Central Library in late January and early February.
On Monday, January 28, 2008 at 7:00 P.M. Mr. Kluge will speak in the library auditorium as part of the Friends of the Glendale Public Library “Authors, Artists, and Friends” series. His talk, “The Constitution Made Simple” will address the purpose of government as written in the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Afterwards he will entertain questions for a lively discussion of topics about the Constitution.
Copies of The People's Guide will be available for sale through the Friends of the Glendale Public Library and the author will sign copies.

On the following two Monday evenings, February 4 and 11, at 7:00 P.M. in the Glendale Central Library's media interactive Learning Center, Mr. Kluge will bring the Constitution into sharper focus for up to thirty people. Using projected Internet sites, with sixteen computers, and a dozen other seats for onlookers, the author will show how the Constitution came to be, how it has endured, and how you can find more information and resources to become civically engaged with constitutional issues in your life. Sign up for this event at the end of the January 28 auditorium speech.

These events are free and open to all, depending on space. (For another computer interactive program that happens in in the library see Moyers Talkers which meets monthly.)

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.