Ages 18+.
Blog Post
Educating Community Members About Health Insurance Options-2017
by Beth Manuel
Join us for this session on Wednesday, January 18th from 7:00-8:30 PM. Our presenters will provide information about health insurance options and refer community members to services that can directly enroll people into the coverage they’re eligible for.
Some community members are enrolled in coverage that requires re-enrollment each year, and the speaker will have information and assistance for attendees to learn about re-enrollment.
This event is cosponsored by the Washtenaw Health Initiative (WHI) and the U-M Health Policy Student Association.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #625, Part 3
by muffy
A Word for Love * is inspired by the author Emily Robbins' year spent as a Fulbright Fellow in Syria, where she studied religion and language with a women’s mosque movement, and lived with the family of a leading intellectual.
Bea, an American student of Arabic is spending an exchange year in an unnamed Middle Eastern Country under dictatorship. Rather than enrolling in an established university program, she studies with a private tutor and immerses herself in the daily life of her host family. Her ultimate goal is to locate “The Astonishing Text,” an ancient manuscript of a famous Arabic love poem that is said to move its readers to tears.
As Bea becomes entwined in her host family’s complicated lives during a time of civil unrest and violence, she is also increasingly being drawn into a contemporary Romeo and Juliet-like romance between their Indonesian housemaid and the handsome policeman guarding their apartment block. Bea’s own story begins to mirror that of “The Astonishing Text” that drew her there in the first place—not in the role of one of the lovers, but as the character who lives to tell the story.
“Robbins’ melodic novel is story of war, family, language, but above all, a paean to unabashed, unbridled love. Told in quiet but elegant prose, each thump of this melodic novel’s heart (and what an enormous, rousing heart it is) attests to the timeless and life-giving power of love." ~ Khaled Hosseini
For readers who enjoyed The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway; The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu; and The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht.
* = starred review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #625, Part 2
by muffy
First, you need to know that as one trusted Library Journal reviewer puts it in no uncertain terms: "(t)his bleak, potent picture will scare the pants off readers".
According to debut novelist Lindsey Lee Johnson (herself a former tutor/teen mentor), The Most Dangerous Place on Earth * * is your local high school - where we send our precious ones as a matter of course.
Alternately narrating is a group of privileged Mill Valley juniors, linked by the parts they played in the suicide of a middle school classmate. Among them are the classic high school archetypes: the jock, the A-student, the bully, the stoner, the outcast - all in the throes of a time of tumult and confusion, amplified by the seduction and tyranny of social media.
Caught up in the daily drama of these teens is Molly Nicoll, a mid-year replacement teacher from scrubbier Fresno. First time away from home, and barely out of her teens, she too, is navigating faculty-lounge cliques; the vigor of teaching; demands of entitled and indulgent parents; and trying to connect with her students. Lonely and naive, she strikes up a relationship with a fellow teacher who turns out to be a predator.
"(Johnson) keeps the action brisk and deepens readers’ investment, culminating in a high school party that goes wrong. Readers may find themselves so swept up in this enthralling novel that they finish it in a single sitting." (Publishers Weekly)
Suggested for fans of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You and The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer.
* * = 2 starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #625, Part 1
by muffy
I don't know any significance to January 17, but three of the most buzzed spring debut novels will be officially released on that date.
The Bear and the Nightingale * * * * by Katherine Arden is set in medieval Russia, steeped in history and myth.
At the edge of the wilderness where winters last forever, Princess Marina risked it all to bring Vasilisa “Vasya” Petrovna into the world, certain that she would inherit her royal grandmother’s gift of magic and knowledge of the spirit world. A stranger with piercing blue eyes presented the grieving father with a precious jewel meant for the child. Growing up wild and fearless, Vasya roamed the woods befriending sprites and household spirits until Konstantin, an exiled priest with golden hair, and Anna, her pious, and troubled stepmother became obsessed with Vasya’s salvation.
As two supernatural beings, Morozko and Medved, sought to harness Vasya’s powerful gifts by threatening the survival of their village, Vasya discovered that, armed only with the necklace and embracing the magic within, she might be the only one who could save them all.
"In a lush narrative with the cadence of a fairy tale, Arden weaves an immersive, earthy story of folk magic, faith, and hubris, peopled with vivid, dynamic characters, particularly clever, brave Vasya, who outsmarts men and demons alike to save her family. This beautifully written, auspicious first novel is utterly bewitching." (Booklist)
"Fleet and gorgeous as the firebird, a highly recommended exemplar of literary fantasy." (Library Journal)
Will appeal to fans of Naomi Novik; Neil Gaiman; and Eowyn Ivey.
* * * * = 4 starred reviews
Blog Post
2017 Michigan Notable Books
by Sara W
The Library of Michigan has announced with 2017 winners of the Michigan Notable Book Award - an honor highlighting books celebrating Michigan people, places, and events.
This year's 20 award winners include Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss by Frances Stroh, a recollection of a city, an industry and a dynasty in decline, and finding a way out, Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back by Nathan Bomey, which tells the story of Detroit's financial ruin, backroom intrigue and political rebirth, and Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit by Tom Stanton, a thrilling true crime story.
The list features fiction too, such as The Charm Bracelet, Viola Shipman's story of love, family and the importance of connectivity, it covers generations of Michigan history and will resonate with anyone who has enjoyed the beauty of summers in northern Michigan, Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser, about a fearless teen facing the wasteland of addiction amid the isolation of the Upper Peninsula, and The Last Good Girl by Allison Leotta, the thrilling latest entry in her legal suspense series.
There's something for everyone on this list - whether you're interested in travel, classic cars, biology, poetry, or architecture.
Blog Post
Participate in this year's Washtenaw Reads!
by eapearce
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America is this year’s Washtenaw Reads book selection. Researched and written by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, the book details the lives of six different families who barely survive on less than $2.00 a day in various parts of the country. Eye-opening and alarming, the book also explains the laws behind the reasons that some people are forced to live on so little. The authors will speak at Rackham Auditorium on Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00p.m. The event includes time for questions and book signing.
The AADL is also hosting several more intimate discussions of the book. The first of these takes place on Wednesday, January 25 at 7:00 p.m. in the Downtown Library multipurpose room. The second will occur on Sunday, February 12 at 3:00 p.m. at Westgate Branch in the Westside Room. All are welcome to attend these guided discussions, with no registration required. Participants may want to bring a copy of the book—available at all AADL locations—to reference during the discussion.
For more events surrounding this year’s Washtenaw Reads selection, follow the link here.
Looking for resources about $2.00 a Day, including interviews with the authors and related reading? Visit the link here.
Blog Post
ESL Personal Tutoring Available!
by Beth Manuel
Washtenaw Literacy has announced that they are offering an ESL Personal Tutoring option. With this service, an ESL tutor will meet with 3-4 learners every week to work on reading, writing, speaking and listening. Learners will decide together when & where to meet and will do so as a cluster for 6 months to work on the groups' goals.Tutoring is free and confidential.
If you are interested in Personal Tutoring, please email Alison (austin@washtenawliteracy.org) or call 734-879-1320 to register for a Learner Orientation.
Learner Orientation is the first step in Personal Tutoring. The learner will meet with a staff member to learn about Personal Tutoring. They will talk about the learner's goals and interests. Participants will need to provide contact information. Washtenaw Literacy will assess the learner's English level. The Learner Orientation lasts approximately 90 minutes. This is a great opportunity for English language learners from age 16-adult to get more consistent help to learn and better understand English.
Blog Post
Safe and Effective Management of Pain & Addiction
by Beth Manuel
The Institute of Medicine estimates that around a 100 million Americans suffer with chronic pain, & it’s estimated that about 10% of our population has or has had a substance use disorder. People with pain deserve relief and there are many strategies for both acute and chronic pain management that are safe and effective for people at risk of or in recovery from substance use disorders.
You’re invited to learn about Safe and Effective Management of Pain and Addiction on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm at the SJMH Education Center. Learn from local addictionologists and pain management specialists Dr. Carl Christensen, MD, Ph.D., FACOG, FASAM, ABAM; and Dr. Mark A. Weiner, MD, about various methods of both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic pain management; their relative risks and benefits, and describe creative approaches to effective pain relief for people in recovery from substance use disorders. To learn more about the Dawn Farm Education Series, click here.
Blog Post
"Who Builds Anything in this Country"
by endless
When the heroine of Colson Whitehead's National Book Award winning novel, The Underground Railroad, asks who built the system of passages and caves that burrow throughout the southern states, a conductor answers "Who builds anything in this country?" It's a rhetorical question in the novel, but Whitehead's novel itself challenges our mythology of the underground railroad. From middle school history lessons through to the Underground Railroad museum in Cincinnati, white Americans have used the underground railroad as a way to imagine ourselves on the right side of history. And yes, there were white underground railroad conductors, many of them Quakers. But more often escaped slaves were smuggled by free blacks, branches of the African Methodist Episcopal church, or gained freedom by purchasing it from their masters. Whitehead includes these characters in The Underground Railroad: Ceasar, who was promised freedom when his master's wife died, only to be sold off to settle his debts, the elderly free black "proctors" at Cora's state run community in North Carolina with their pressed dresses and their equally pressed respectability politics, and Cora's mother who ran off when Cora was a small girl, choosing freedom and abandoning her daughter to slavery.
The Underground Railroad owes "our" ability to engage with it as a literary topic to a wave of stories about Harriet Tubman, the engaging Underground Railroad Museum that opened in Cincinnati in 2012, and the popular Jim McBride novel Song Yet Sung Tracy Chevalier's The Last Runaway, andSue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings. White Allies with a penchant for magical realism will appreciate this last book, as well as "Song Yet Sung." If you liked Whitehead's second most popular novel The Intuitionist, Paul Beatty's White Boy Shuffle and Baratunde Thurston's How to be Black deal with similar themes with more of Whitehead's usual sardonic tone.
This book is perfectly pitched to be an Oprah’s choice, to form part of high school curriculums, or to be a freshman reading experience novel at the U of M. The violence is off stage or muted, the history is traceable, and it answers a question we grapple with today – what are the benefits and violence on all sides of interracial solidarity?
Blog Post
Know what I mean, Vern?
by manz
If you’re looking for ridiculous 80s movies, look no further. An added bonus is a fun Christmas movie to watch, and they are kid-friendly.
Meet Ernest P. Worrell, portrayed by the late Jim Varney. With his kind heart, good cheer, and naiveté, Ernest is always getting himself into pretty big pickles while trying to save the day. There are several films that highlight his slap-stick shenanigans, including Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), Ernest Goes to Jail (1990), and Ernest Scared Stupid (1991). "Camp" and "Christmas" are the two winners that sure need to spend some time in your VCR… I mean DVD player.