I was relaxing at the well-known coffee shop in Adam’s Morgan on a day off when I began to reflect upon how useful and how American the institution of the coffee shop can be. The coffee shop is a very open type of establishment where anyone can come in without a reservation and enjoy a cup of coffee, sit anywhere they want and enjoy reading, people-watching or conversation with others. There are no strict rules, and one stays as long as one wishes.
Sorry if I dropped off the face of the earth the last few weeks. I've been reading up a storm. Here's what's been in my bookbag. If they sound interesting to you, please do check them out.
The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
On Thursday I finally finished my month-long reading of the new George R.R. Martin book, A Dance with Dragons. And while I could sit down right now and reveal a ton of spoilers, I will instead take a different road and talk about the overarching story themes across all five novels that I’ve only just realized. Sometimes I’m a slow reader, not just in terms of pace, but also in terms of picking up on the broader details in a work until I’ve sat with it for a some time.
We here at Shaw Library hope you are having a super summer, and that you took the time to enjoy books with your little one during the break. Children who read over the summer not only maintain their reading levels, but learn to read for enjoyment. Now is the time to bring your child in to pick a out a book of their choosing, before homework starts to encroach on precious free time. The freedom to follow their own interests and tastes on books is such a powerful motivator, leading to a lifetime of reading.
We love our babies. We see hundreds of parents, caregivers and children a week at Watha T. Daniel, and we see a lot of people bringing children to every program we offer. While that seems like a great way to spend the day, it may not be the right thing for your child.
Each of our programs is carefully constructed to provide the right experience for children who are at specific different stages of development verbally, educationally and socially. Children who are too young or too old for a program will not be getting the right social experience for their age group. So to help you choose the right programs for your child, here are the recommendations about which programs are geared to which age groups and why.
Ages Birth to 2 Years Old
Novel Destinations is the theme of the Adult Summer Reading Program for 2011. It runs from May 21 to August 6. The Watha T. Daniel / Shaw Library will explore exciting literary landscapes from the world’s best writers – the Nobel Laureates of Literature.
Who doesn't like a good apocalypse? The world, tightly wound and ignorant of its imminent demise, is brought to a screeching halt by forces that cannot be contained; humanity is confronted with its own mortality on a global scale. A reckoning has come, and all of us must come to grips with the consequences of ... whichever thing it is the story is about. Nuclear fallout, pandemic disease, global warming, or the wrath of God, we eat it up -- the proof can be found in the box office results for movies like 2012, Godzilla, Planet of the Apes and even Wall-E.
Loners are a breed explored again and again in literature and cinema. If such an archetype exists in order to provoke self-reflection in the viewer or reader, then it would be fair to say that loners are the vessels with which you are forced to acknowledge your own mortality. Without the company of others as a distraction, there is nothing obviating the fact that one day, as we all came from the womb, we are, of course, bound for the tomb.
