On March 17, when rivers run green and everybody’s Irish, CLP will sprinkle a bit of new magic on customer accounts in the form of Wish Lists and Reading History.
A few weeks ago, an option for using Personal Identification Numbers (PINS) was added to individual library accounts. PINS will provide access to Wish List and Reading History, a convenient way for you to keep a record of books and other materials you want to check out in the future and have checked out in the past.
My wish list is also my “reading” history, that is, books I have checked out right now and wish I had time to read:
Poetry
- Break the Mirror: The Poems of Nanao Sakaki, foreword by Gary Snyder Mr. Sakaki (1923 – 2008), known as Japan’s wandering poet, spent ten years in the U.S. His often playful poems combine Western and ancient Japanese influences.
- The Little Space: Poems Selected and New, 1968-1998, Alicia Suskin Ostriker. Ms. Ostriker will be in Pittsburgh to read her poetry Wednesday, March 18, 7:30 PM, Carlow University, Kresge Auditorium.
- Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems, Miller Williams. Last month I read an article about the singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams. She said, “My dad is Miller Williams, the poet who read a poem at Bill Clinton’s second inauguration.” CLP’s poetry collection comes through again.
Nonfiction
- The Art of Conversation: A Guided Tour of a Neglected Pleasure, Catherine Blyth. The introduction explores “Why Modern Life is Bad for Conversation.” That’s as far as I’ve read, and I plan to read further.
- Like a Good Idea at the Time: My Adventures in Life and Food, Moira Hodgson. It’s due today. Before I return it, I’ll read the 24 page section that begins when Ms. Hodgson meets poet W.S. Merwin and chronicles the seven years they live together.
- A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, Elaine Showalter. Ms. Magazine wrote that Showalter “participates in the tradition of recovering and reclaiming women writers omitted from histories, studies and anthologies of American literature.” At 500+ pages, this is a book I would enjoy reading over many months. Perhaps I’ll buy a copy.
- The New Self-Sufficient Gardener, John Seymour. Seymour, who died in 2004 at age 90, was an ecological pioneer who championed the cause of living simply. A revised edition of the 1978 favorite details how to grow and preserve fruits, herbs, and vegetables, keep bees, and raise chickens.
Short stories
- Shakespeare’s Kitchen: Stories, Lore Segal. A novel in the form of short stories, told in various voices sharing conversation around a kitchen dining table.
-Julie
Eleventh Stack 