WE ARE BIOGRAPHY-HUNGRY

    We are in a wonderful phase at our library...a phase of interest in biographies.  They are flying off the shelves.
     It was first brought to my attention last week by our fast-moving shelver, Tiffany.  The day she told me about the biographies, she was shelving 15 of them.
     I looked through them to see what the public's interest was and found:

• The Hitler I Knew by Otto Dietrich
• Movie Stars, Real People, and Me by Joshua Logan
• Maugham by Ted Morgan
• Dutch by Edmund Morris
• My Father at 100 by Ron Reagan
• Hitler by Joachim C. Fest
• Audition by Barbara Walters
• Still Me by Christopher Reeve
• Debbie by Debbie Reynolds
• The Life of Rudyard Kipling by C. E. Carrington
• Natalie, A Memoir by Her Sister by Lana Wood
• Home by Suppertime by Martha Cash Bennett, and
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

     Well, I thought, that was interesting!  Maybe it's just a coincidence that people are reading all these biographies.
     Then this morning when I came to work and unlocked the office, there sticking in the edge of the door jam was a little note...Tiffany's handwriting.
     When I check with her about it, she said all those books were biographies.  Fourteen more of them!  And this time they were:

• Life Lines by Jill Ireland
• Myself Among Others by Ruth Gordon
• What Falls Away by Mia Farrow
• Don't Tell Dad by Peter Fonda
• Elizabeth Taylor, the Last Star by Kitty Kelley
• Natalie Wood by Gavin Lambert
• the biography of Lawrence Oliver
• Nothing Impossible by Christopher Reeve
• Balancing Act by Angela Lansbury
• Robert Mitchum by George Eells
• I Promised My Dad by Cheryl Landon Wilson
• Bkack Sheep One by Bruce Gamble, and
• Skinny People Are Evil by Monique.

     So, there you are.  A whole list of biographies being read by some of the best people we have here in Moultrie, some of our best library patrons.
     In talking with Johnnie, she suggested that school children, as well as our large group of  homeschooled children, that might be the reason for so many biographies being checked out.  That could be the answer.
     No matter what the reason.  It gave me a very good opportunity to let you know that we have a great selection of biographies at our library for your reading indulgence.  Not only movie stars, political figures, and inventors, but athletes, writers, and television personalities.  Take your pick.  They are all here for your enjoyment. 
     Visit us today for the best in "Love Your Library Month" reading.

What is it we look for in novels?

     A few days ago I read an interesting quote.  But I can't remember where I read it.   Granted I'm taking it out of context, because it caught my attention in just that way.  In fact, I  read it to myself three times as I thought about some of our current events.
     Dick Wald is a professor of Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a former ABC News president.  And I quote: "...We are a society of people who look for novels in our general appreciation of life."   I guess it was the "general appreciation of life" that really caught my attention.
     Lately, we have been in awe of a recently published novel and a television interview.  Jaycee Dugard's novel "A Stolen Life" was part of the recent Diane Sawyer interview.  You can bet a lot of people will rush out to buy Dugard's book, simply because they are curious to know more about her 18 years of captivity.  But do you think they're that interested, as well, about her life now?
     We've also been caught up big time with the Caycee Anthony trial.  Then the verdict came out!  Wow! Doesn't that just make you want to know who is going to write the book about that event?  Will anyone be more interested in what Caycee will be doing from now on, as compared to what happened to her two-year-old daughter?
     There's another ongoing event...the one of Dr. Conrad Murray and the death of Michael Jackson.  How many books do you think will be written about that astounding event?  I can imagine you'll have at least six books to chose from.
     How many novels were written about Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife, Laci,  and their unborn son, Connor?  How many novels have been written about O.J. Simpson and the death of his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman?
     Goodness!  Is this our "general appreciation of life"?
     I don't know about you, but when I read such novels, the scenes stay in my mind for what seems hundreds of years.  Movies are the same way.  So, I try to pick novels that don't make me wonder who might be "out there" waiting to kidnap me or break into my house and kill me.  I just scare easily!  I know that!  But I am aware of my surroundings and circumstances, and do take precautions like our crime watch organizations suggest.
     Are these novels about Dugard and Murray and Peterson and Simpson considered biographies?  Mysteries?  Crime novels?  Memoirs?  Non-fiction?  Are do they fall into each one of those genres?
     I thought again about my "general appreciation of life."  And I checked our PINES system to see what we have in our library that might be more uplifting and give me a better appreciation of life.
     How about these people?
     Martin Luther King, Jr.
     Margaret Mead
     Grandma Moses
     Harry S. Truman
     Annie Oakley
     Juliette Gordan Low
     Mary Cassatt
     Leonard Bernstein
     Edith Wharton
     Henry Aaron
     Neil Armstrong
     James Herriot
     Amelia Earhart.
Do  you know who all these people are?  Can you go down the line and pick out which person was the baseball player, the writer, the astronaut, the artist, the president...?  Do you know what these people, and people like them, have contributed to our appreciation of life?  So...what do you consider your "general appreciation of life" to be?
     Well, I'd like to encourage you to visit our library and check out the Biography Section.  You'll find novels about these people, as well as many more interesting people.  And yes, you'll find the novels about sinister people, also.  I mean, we can't have the good unless we have the bad, right?
     Check out the Biography Section for a good read and look for ways to encourage your "general appreciation of life."  You might be surprised what a good read you'll find.

What Is A Life? Genealogy Tells!

We've been working on next month's displays and events, because next month is Family History Month. All this made me think how much it ties in with genealogy and digging up the past.
Lots of folks don't like to do that. However, there are many of us who do and because of that, October will be an interesting month here at the library.
But more about that later.
There is also a group of writers who meet here once a month. This month author Keith Taylor will talk to them about memoirs and how to write them. That's getting your past down in writing, even if you don't leave it for the whole wide world. But I bet your family will be interested in what you have to say. They'll be interested to see if it's the same as they remembered it.
If you need help in writing those memoirs, check out Writing Your Life Story by Bernard Selling (808.066S). We have a few other books along that line also.
I've always been interested in other people's lives, which make me a lover of biographies. If you check around in our bookshelves, you'll find a great many, such as these:
The Woman Said Yes: Encounters with Life and Death Memoirs by Jessamyn West (B West),
The Story of My Life by Clarence Darrow (B Darrow), and
Rebel Prince Memoirs by Louis Ferdinand (B Ferdinand).
Be sure you look in the Odom Genealogical Library also. There you'll find:
Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honorable Sir James MacKintosh (G16.4 MI, II) and
Memories by Robert Barr (G16.3B). And a great many more.
We have biographies of many famous people...Tennessee Williams, Gloria Vanderbilt, Liz Taylor, Norman Vincent Peale, Willie Mays, the Kennedys, Robert Frost, General Eisenhower, Martin Luther King, Jr., Princess Di, the Bush Family, and Alan Alda, to name a few.
We even have biographies of people just as interesting, but whose names you might not have heard of until you see them on our shelves. Interesting reading, all of them.
Maybe reading biographies will make you wonder if you should write your memoirs.
What is a life? Why not tell your loved ones about yours? Leave something for the genealogy buffs to enjoy.