of Local Interest

Book Review by Lisa

The Latehomecomer; A Hmong Family Memoir

By Kao Kalia Yang

The emigration of the Hmong people from their native land to America is a history all Americans should know, regardless of their ancestry. This is the story of the harrowing experience of one Hmong family; leaving the country of their ancestors, their family, and their friends; then entering a new country to start a new life.

New Book Reviews

New Book Blog by Lisa:

The High Price of Materialism

By Tim Kasser

What happens when we organize our lives around material pursuits? Most of us feel that money can free us from worry and stress. According to Mr. Kasser, materialism actually enslaves us. Materialistic values undermine our well being, weaken interpersonal ties, and maintain feelings of insecurity. What can we do to make our families and society less materialistic?

Art work is back in town

The art our students produced for Spring 2010 Student Art Show is back in town. Come to the library to claim yours.

Two DVDs

John Adams, the movie based on the biography by David McCullough, is here in the library on DVD and can be checked out for a week at a time.

We also have "Rules of the Road" an interactive Driver's Ed course. This DVD can be checked out for a week and has english and spanish subtitles.

Papers to handback

If you took a class from Freneau, Horel, Hunter, Mize or Letko, they are now in the library so we can hand them back to you.

New book

Post by Dale Patton:
So you Want to Start a Business?

This book, as the title implies, is a how to guide for how to create a new business, even if you aren’t business savvy, it also explains: the secrets of successful entrepreneurs, eight common mistakes that rookie business owners make, what good business opportunities are. This book also tells us how to choose the right customers. If I was looking to be a new business owner I would definitely check this book out, it covers many more topics, all of which will be useful for the beginning entrepreneur.

Local nature: Food and Politics

We received two new books recently: Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider and Water War in the Klamath Basin.

The first book, Seaweed, Salmon and Manzanita Cider, by Margaret Dubin et al. attempts to answer the age-old question: What did they eat before there were grocery stores. For the Native People of California the answer is more complex and complicated than you might imagine. California's proximity to the ocean ensured that a lot of people had fresh fish and seaweed. But they also ate turtles, wood rats, deer and shellfish. Acrons could be beaten and eaten and mushrooms abound especially in northern California. Elderberries, strawberries and grapes grow wild in California as do a number of other nuts. Although this book could have done a better job identifying the plants in their natural state, I suppose that is what field books are for. But for edibility and a few recipes, plus lots of memories, this is the book for you.

With the recent news of the Klamath Dam agreements in the works, this next book should help us all understand this issue a little better. Water War in the Klamath Basin by Holy Doremus and A. Dan Tarlock. This account of the drama leading us up to this point is invaluable to understanding why removing the dams from the Klamath River is such a priority to so many people.

Renewable and Hybrids

Your home and your car are two of the biggest energy consumers you own. Unless you own a large factory.

Anyway, if you are interested in building an energy efficient home or retrofitting your current home to utilize renewable energy sources, the library has a book for you. Dan Chiras's The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy gives you real life examples, suggestions and information you need to help your home green.

And while you are at it, check-out Sherry Boschert's Plug-in Hybrids: the Cars that will recharge America. This book details the history and outlines some possible futures for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Eating and Preserving for yourself

We have two new books that are sure to help you gain independence over your food choices. They are Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket and The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving.

Eat Here is a book about the problems of our global food processors and soem creative and workable solutions. Reasons to change and paths to use.

Small-batch Preserving brings canning and bottling into the modern age, complete with recipes for many kinds of salsa, dressings, and jams.

New Audiobooks

Our library has received three new audiobooks you can check out for three weeks at a time. A great way to readh while relaxing or driving.

They are:

Shakespeare the world as Stage written and read by Bill Bryson. In his witty and funny way, Bryson delves into the mysteries and turns of phrase that epiltomize the Bard. 6 hours of thought provoking British fun.

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian is a new fiction audiobook purchased for your enjoyment.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is used by our English 350 class. Now for those students who would prefer to hear someone else read the book to this, thei story about heartache and survival is ready to check out.

Come find your perfect book

New Book Reviews by Lisa Saatzer

Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves; Women in Classical Antiquity

By: Sarah B Pomeroy

This book has long been a favorite ‘extra credit’ book for the History class. It contains a thorough overview of the condition of women in classical times. Women were fear and revered; subjugated and elevated; repressed, possessed, used and abused. As women today struggle with issues of sexism, feminism, and subtle discrimination, a good look back helps us to see the progress of the feminine sex; and to appreciate with greater depth, our own lives.


Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue; The Untold History of English

By: John Mc Whorter

Why in the world would someone want to write a book about English? Haven’t we had enough of all the rules of English in our English classes? Who made all these rules anyway? Discover the origins and events that shaped the English language. If we plan to follow the rules of English, it’s a good idea to find out where they came from. Surprisingly, the source isn’t as dignified as we think it is. Follow the epic of evolution of the code with which we communicate.


Relapse Prevention; Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors.

Edited by: G. Alan Marlatt and Dennis M. Donovan

If you are working toward a career in law enforcement, rehabilitation, corrections, nursing, or education; just to name a few, this book contains information that will be both practical and effective. All of us have been touched by addiction in some way, and we all ask the same questions of, ‘Why won’t they stop?’, and, ‘What can I do?’. This book contains not only information about drug addiction, but also other addictive behaviors such as eating disorders, gambling, and sexual behavior.


Violent Partners; A Breakthrough Plan For Ending The Cycle Of Abuse

By: Linda Mills, J.D., Ph. D

What if violent behavior between partners isn’t man against woman? What about battered husbands? What about same sex partners? Linda Mills addresses issues of domestic violence that won’t fit neatly into a system designed to help; in some of these unconventional cases, the system actually makes thing worse. The author proposes ideas to help victims and perpetrators of domestic violence with healing and empowerment rather than punishment.

Graphic Novels for things hard to understand

We got in 9 Graphic Books (using a comic book style) which will help college students to make better sense of some subjects that are often hard to grasp: Shakespeare and Politics.

We have a collection of eight illustrated Shakespeare books: with text from the plays. Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Hamlet and The Tempest.

Also the Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail, 2008.

New Art Books

We are adding the books we ordered last year to our shelves. Today we have two books about art:
Making a Living in Crafts : Everything you need to know to Build your Business by Donald Clark is a beautiful full color book with chapters detailing every aspect of making a living while making your art.

Handbuilding by Michael Hardy is full of photographs showing the steps to creating beautiful ceramics with the handbuilding method. A great book for the potter ready to go to the next level.

Selfishness is ruining politics

Newsweek had several interesting ideas that could help pull our economy out of this recession we are having. The first article is some suggestions by Fareed Zakaria who suggested three simple ways we could eliminate our national debt. Read the article, Defusing the debt bomb. Then Evan Thomas Jumped in and pointed out that our political system is at a standstill because of our selfishness. The article is called We the Problem. I especially liked this paragraph:


"The problem is not the system. It's us—our "got mine" culture of entitlement. Politicians, never known for their bravery, precisely represent the people. Our leaders are paralyzed by the very thought of asking their constituents to make short-term sacrifices for long-term rewards. They cannot bring themselves to raise taxes on the middle class or cut Social Security and medical benefits for the elderly. They'd get clobbered at the polls. So any day of reckoning gets put off, and put off again, and the debts pile up."

History is always changing

History is always changing. Whether is it because we find new documents, lose old ones or bury a remembering storyteller, the way we tell the story of our past changes every decade and sometimes more often.

My brother pointed me to some information about the constitution and its fragility. However, I wonder: surely the founding fathers who wrote it and included the framework for its change understood that it was not a stagnant document, that it would change and grow over the years.

Change is not intrinsically bad or good, it is merely change. What do you think? In what ways has change been bad for the constitution and for our country? In what ways has it been good and allowed us to grow into the nation we are now?

New Mentoring Book

Some of you ECE students wanted a book about mentoring, a concept which did not appear in our books. But now we have one. "Creating a Mentoring Culture" by Lois J. Zachary will hopefully provide you with the information you need to implement an develop teacher mentoring of future teachers. Come check it out.

News from Eureka

Good news for all of the College of the Redwoods: We have officially been removed form accreditation warning. This means that the people who decide if a college is planning well for the future were impressed with out planning and confident that we are heading in the right directions. For more on this story, you can read the article featured in the Times Standard.

Welcome to Spring Semester

If you can read this, then the electricity has not gone out yet. Fingers crossed!

Now that spring semester has started, by the calendar if not by the weather, our hours will be extended. Please note that the library will be open from 8 am to 8 pm Monday through Thursday and from 8 am to 5 pm on Friday. Still closed weekends and holidays.

While you are waiting for your class to start, come on down to the library and find a new book or check your email. Always lots to do at the library.