All Books Content
Upcoming library events March 17, 2013
Each week, The News-Gazette offers a selection of events provided by area libraries:
Champaign Public Library
Main library, 200 W. Green St.
Douglass Branch, 504 E. Grove St.
Margo Dill: Author examines the language of U.S. leaders
With our 24/7 media world, as soon as the president of the United States utters a new word, phrase or saying, it's broadcast over TV news stations, posted on Internet sites and tweeted to the Twitterverse. George W. Bush and Barack Obama have both been scrutinized for their use of slang or odd word choice ("Jedi Mind Meld," anyone?) in recent years.
Writer gives readers a new, likable sleuth
"Show Me the Murder" by Carolyn Mulford is appropriately named: It's a murder mystery that takes place in the Show Me State, Missouri.
Mulford is a native Missourian who has traveled the world as a member of the Peace Corps before settling back in her home state and writing fiction.
C-U Haiku
Jeans, fresh from dryer,
speak truth, time to hit the gym.
Good bye chocolate.
— Kathryn Fair, Champaign
Learn more about the papal election process
With the recent events in Vatican history, I was curious about the process for the selection of the pope. Fortunately, the Champaign Public Library came through with several titles addressing the papacy and the system of election of the pontiff. As you've heard on the news, this is the first time that a pope has retired from duties since Celestine V in 1294.
Ted Kooser: American life in poetry March 10, 2013
I've recently published a children's book about a man who is so fussy about his yard that he loses his home, so I was immediately taken by this fine poem by Lynne Sharon Schwartz about a similar man. We all enjoy writing that confirms what we've privately observed about the world. Schwartz lives in New York City.
Cement Backyard
My father had our yard cemented over.
Veteran author making local stop
CHAMPAIGN — Bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby, creator of the popular Reverend Curtis Black series, will visit Champaign to talk about her life as a writer and introduce her newest book, "The Perfect Marriage."
The free event is at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Douglass Branch of the Champaign Public Library, 504 E. Grove St.
Two stories that made a strong impression last year
This week, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, a worldwide organization for children's book creators, announced the winners of its annual Golden Kite awards. Two picture books were selected as the best of 2012.
Flashback to China in the '70s
"Little White Duck: A Childhood in China" (Graphic Universe 2012) is the fascinating autobiography of Na Liu, illustrated as a graphic novel by her husband, award-winning artist Andrs Vera Martinez.
We are treated to a vision of the disappearing China of Liu's childhood, which began in the city of Wuhan in 1973.
Ted Kooser: American life in poetry March 3, 2013
When spring finally arrives, it can be fun to see what winter left behind, and Jeffrey Harrison of Massachusetts is doing just that in this amusing poem.
Mailboxes in Late Winter
It's a motley lot. A few still stand
at attention like sentries at the ends
of their driveways, but more lean
askance as if they'd just received a blow
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