NetLibrary e-Book of the Month

Tree of Souls
The Mythology of Judaism
by Howard Schwartz
Oxford University Press, 2007

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Reference

Only one of the world's mythologies has remained essentially unrecognized—the mythology of Judaism. As Howard Schwartz reveals in Tree of Souls, the first anthology of Jewish mythology in English, this mythical tradition is as rich and as fascinating as any in the world.

Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. Equally important, Schwartz provides a wealth of additional information, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature.

Designed to increase awareness of online resources and highlight the value of your eBook collection, the November eBook of the Month is provided through the generous support of Oxford University Press. Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your NetLibrary collection by sharing this pioneering anthology of Jewish mythology.

Read What GTCC Students Have To Say About the All-Campus Read

Here is what Golda Fried's students say about Don't Make Me Stop Now in their review at Amazon.com

Golda says,

I'm teaching this collection of short stories at my community college and we're having a lot of fun. A lot of my students can't stand when the stories are open-ended because they really want to know what happens to these characters. But that means they care about the characters, right?

One student says, "The whole music thing did it for me"--Jonathan White. "Many of the stories have cool 70s point-of-reference songs. I like how the main character is composed in his thoughts but then he'll lash out at his father and stuff. But then there are many surprises for the reader and diabolical twists."

In "Couple Strikes it Rich," Jeff Kinzie says,"The main couple is not the one who gets rich; the older couple is the one who does which makes the story ironic. His girlfriend was real indecisive."

In "Hidden Meanings," Ian Griffith says, "I really like how he filled the whole thing with comedy and sarcasm. The whole time this student is writing the story she is complaining about the other students and that the teacher is probably not going to listen to her opinions anyway."

About the story 'The Right to Remain'," says Amanda Slaughter, "I appreciate the cold and tense internal battle Sanderson has with his wishful love life in an alcoholic haze."

Rebecca Turner says about "Muddy Water, Turned to Wine": "It was a very well-written story but a little morbid. The main character is this guy who's obviously getting over a relationship which ended very badly for him and he has a one night stand and the girl gets a call that her father has died and he offers to drive her to the funeral. He finds out that he's being used...."

Natalia Alston states about "The Golden Era of Heartbreak": "I liked the descriptions. I felt like I was there in the background watching. I like how he had heartbreak. The story was suspenseful because it had a Sopranos feeling."

Kim Woods states about "Everything Was Paid For": "I like how the main character tried to make everything right for his girlfriend. I did like the ending because there is poetic justice to the two guys. I also like how the main character was upset and trying to take care of his girlfriend and so was in touch with some of his emotions."

Shelly Shealy states about "Results for Novice Males": "I like the competitive nature of the main characters. These guys are out of control trying to do a triathalon in the middle of the night."

Overall, we as a class give it eighteen thumbs up.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

from the book cover of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

NetLibrary eBook of the Month

Check out NetLibrary's eBook of the month, "Capitalism: As if the World Matters" by Jonathon Porritt.

From the publisher:
"As our great economic machine grinds relentlessly forward into a future of declining fossil fuel supplies, climate change and ecosystem failure, humanity, by necessity, is beginning to question the very structure of the economy that has provided so much wealth, and inequity, across the world. In this fresh, politically charged analysis, Jonathon Porritt wades in on the most pressing question of the 21st century – can capitalism, as the only real economic game in town, be retooled to deliver a sustainable future? Porritt argues that indeed it can and it must as he lays out the framework for a new ‘sustainable capitalism’ that cuts across the political divide and promises a prosperous future of wealth, equity and ecosystem integrity."

Garden Spells

I just finished this wonderful book by North Carolina author Sarah Addison Allen, who lives in Asheville. It's a quick, light read about a magical garden and the reconciliation of two sisters.

From the author's website:
"Welcome to Bascom, North Carolina, where everyone has a story to tell about the Waverley women. The old house that’s been in the family for generations, the walled garden that mysteriously blooms year round, the rumors and innuendoes of dangerous loves and tragic passions. Eccentric, reclusive, or renegade, there’s not one that wasn’t somehow touched by magic.

As the town’s successful caterer, Claire has always clung closely to the Waverleys’ roots in their enchanted soil, tending the family garden from which she makes her much sought-after delicacies. She has everything she thinks she needs – until one day she finds a vine of ivy creeping into her garden and knows that everything is about to change.

Then her prodigal sister Sydney arrives with her five-year-old daughter and a dark secret she hopes to keep well hidden. And suddenly Claire’s carefully tended life is about to run gloriously out of control …"

PC Magazine's Top 100 Sites

Need something new to look at while mindlessly browsing the net? Check out PC Magazine's Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites! It's full of fun and useful websites that you might otherwise never come across in your attempts to navigate the ridiculously vast web of knowledge that is the Internet. I especially like footnote, which is ideal for the history lover and has a partnership with The National Archives to digitize historic documents; and Uncyclopedia, a site that is essentially Wikipedia's evil twin (not quite academic but fun to browse nevertheless!).

New Books List

Now, an easy way to see new books and other resources available through the Library. Just go to our new title list on the Library website to see new nonfiction, fiction and audiobooks recently added to the Library's collections.

If you have an account with an RSS reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines, you can also subscribe to our RSS feeds of new title lists.

In the GTCC Library Collection-William Gibson's Spook Country

The World We Live In-William Gibson's Spook Country

The godfather of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction continues his transition into telling tales about the here and now in Spook Country, which both is and is not a spy novel, as the title might lead you to think. There is plenty of cloak-and-dagger in Spook Country, but as in Pattern Recognition, Gibson's other novel set in the early 21st century, the cloak-and-dagger bits are really just the frame of a plot Gibson needs to spin out his observations about society, politics, homeland security, the war in Iraq, humans and technology, and even what I took to be a crack about Scientology. For those more familiar with Gibson's earlier novels such as Neuromancer or Mona Lisa Overdrive, do not despair-the sharp understanding of where we are going with our technology is here as well. Among other things, Gibson envisions a use of the Ipod that I'm fairly certain Steve Jobs never intends to happen. The usual cast of those living in the shadows of society and used by the powers-that-be is here as well. Gibson writes with empathy for those living in the cracks of the walls of the larger society around them.

Effortlessly written and dryly hilarious, Spook Country is also a dispassionate dissection of the policies of the Bush administration in matters of foreign policy and domestic security. I will leave it up to the reader to decide where Gibson comes down on these issues, but I will say it made me wince to think this might be how our neighbors to the north (Gibson is a Canadian national) really see us.

William Gibson-he has envisioned our future, and now he looks at our present. I'm not sure he approves of where we are, but no novelist is doing a better job right now of helping us understand where we are and just maybe, where we are going.

Jeff Kinard's New Book!

GTCC's very own Jeff Kinard has just published a new book! As a part of ABC-CLIO's "Weapons of Warfare" series, this book focuses on the history of artillery "from ancient dart firers and catapults...to the latest rapid-fire, rocket-propelled, laser-guided models." It can be found at the Jamestown Library on the new book display!

From ABC-CLIO's website:

Title Features

• Includes case studies of the wars of Louis XIV, the Napoleonic wars, the American Civil War, and the Franco-Prussian War illustrating the impact of specific technical and strategic innovations in artillery
  
• Dozens of photographs and illustrations show various types of artillery, artillery mechanisms, and projectiles

Highlights

• The only volume to offer an accessible, concise history of artillery weapons combining descriptions of all major technical and strategic innovations with coverage of their impact on and off the battlefield
• Highlights the contributions of artillery innovators throughout history, including Jean Baptiste de Gribeauval, William Congreve, the Krupp family, and John Dahlgren
• Illustrates the impact of artillery on the battlefield from the ancient world to the present and covers the latest trends in artillery including laser guidance systems and rocket-propelled weapons
  

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Review from Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA):

ARTILLERY: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ITS IMPACT provides a wide-ranging survey of artillery's development and powers over the centuries, covering both its technical development and its use by leaders and nations over time. Military collections, especially those strong in overviews of military encounters with focus on equipment and its evolution, will find ARTILLERY a fine survey that blends historical background with a narrowed focus on battle equipment development.

Astronomy Books!