Have Memorial Day plans? Mark your calendar to spend time with us as some old faces of Columbia come to life at the Columbia Cemetery. On Monday, May 28, the Friends of the Historic Columbia Cemetery will be hosting their second annual History Comes Alive tour of notable people buried in the cemetery. This free event will have local actors portraying the lives of seven of the citizens who helped make Columbia the community it is.
Last year’s event was very successful — many enjoyed the sunshine while re-enactors explained their lives and what they did to become a “notable” in their lifetimes. This year should be just as great! Below are highlights of just a couple of the citizens being featured. Continue reading “History Comes Alive: Victor Barth & John Lange, Sr.”
Why I Checked It Out: I won’t lie — that beautiful cover with its gold inlay-enhanced imagery was the first thing that made me consider picking up this book. The eye staring out of the keyhole is just super creepy. I, of course, immediately had to open the cover and see who it was that was staring back at me. And then I figured out it was a Gothic-style horror, complete with haunted manor house, secretive servants and a protagonist with a secret from her past that has come back to haunt her. So, yeah, it had me hooked pretty quickly.Continue reading “Staff Book Review: The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell”
Posted on Monday, April 30, 2018 by The Biblio-Buckaroo
Did you have a disappointing spring break? Did you miss it altogether? Was the weather dreary? Or did you have so much fun that you want more? I say, do it again! Logistically, you may not be able to luxuriate for a week at a beach, especially if you live in Missouri, but you might be able to squeeze a little extra fun into a weekend. So set the bar a little lower than snorkeling in Cancun, and head somewhere closer to home.
Do you enjoy spelunking? You’re in luck! Missouri has over 6,300 caves, second only to Tennessee. Approximately two hours southeast of Columbia, you will find Onondaga Cave State Park. It is one of the most beautiful caves in the state due to its variety of cave formations and its well-placed lighting. Plus, if you are in the area, you are very near plenty of floating and camping sites. Spend a day relaxing on the Meramec River. Continue reading “Spring Break Do-Over”
There are a lot of wonderful debuts coming to DBRL in April, especially if you are a fan of historical fiction! Please visit our catalog for a longer list of authors making their debuts this month.
After the Indian Wars, the “savage-taming” Stover School was created to assimilate the children of nearby reservations by robbing them of their language, customs, and even their names. Asku — renamed Harry Muskrat — was once the most promising student at the boarding school, but is now accused of murdering a federal agent.
Alma Mitchell, a childhood friend of Asku’s, convinces her lawyer husband to defend him, believing that he could never commit murder, no matter how cold and bitter he has become as an outsider in two worlds — the white world and his own. But to help Asku, Alma must revisit the painful secrets of her childhood.
Posted on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 by Decimal Diver
People create fake identities for various reasons. In the case of the documentary films below, these fakers wish to expose something to the audience through their trickery. Check out this list of docs that feature various kinds of fakers.
This is a darkly comic, genre-bending piece of gonzo journalism from international provocateur Mads Brügger. He disguises himself as a European ambassador to expose the business of selling diplomatic titles that allows wealthy businessmen to exploit the resources of Third World nations.
Follows American filmmaker Vikram Gandhi as he transforms himself into a wise Indian guru, hoping to prove the absurdity of blind faith. Instead, he finds himself forging profound connections with people from all walks of life — and wondering if and when to reveal his true self.
Documents the largest consumer hoax the Czech Republic has ever seen. Two of Eastern Europe’s most promising young documentary filmmakers set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an ad campaign for a super store that didn’t exist.
Societal upheaval caused by environmental changes is not a new subject for speculative fiction, but as concerns over climate change increase there is a parallel increase in dystopian novels about it. The label “Cli-Fi” has been adopted for these explorations of the consequences of climate change. This subgenre imagines how the predicted and unpredictable effects of climate change will alter our maps, our systems of governance, social customs and methods of survival. These stories are dystopian in a literal sense — they are the flip side of utopian dreams. It turns out that the industrial revolution and the subsequent technological advances that have made amazing improvements in our lives come at a cost — oops! What follows is a sampling of some of the best writing in this fast-growing genre.
In “The History of Bees” Maja Lunde approaches the pace and scale of climatic changes by taking the reader through the past, present and future of three generations of beekeepers. In the future people must hand-paint pollen onto fruit trees because there are no more bees to pollinate them. Sadly, that detail isn’t science fiction. It is already starting to happen, and Walmart just filed a patent for robotic bees. Continue reading “Know Your Dystopias: Cli-Fi”
Several years ago the New York Times published the article “Plan your Digital Legacy, and Update Often” about a little-emphasized pitfall of our digital age: without ongoing curation of digital videos, photos, passwords and other items on computer hard-drives and devices, those items may be lost forever when the owner passes away. Indeed, without a digital legacy plan most personal archives will be in shambles. Several organizations have come together to help people with their personal archives, which is among a myriad of issues surrounding preservation in general. The culmination of this effort is National Preservation Week every year in late April.
Occurring between April 21-28, Preservation Week is sponsored by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association. It was established to assist non-specialists and laypeople with preservation, and offers many free webinars, online tutorials and tip-sheets for best practices in preservation and conservation techniques. In celebration, the library is offering seminars at both its Callaway and Columbia branches. These seminars, Preserving Your Memorabilia,offer the opportunity to come learn about the proper care and storage of old family books, photographs and documents for future generations to enjoy. Continue reading “National Preservation Week”
Practicing meditation probably won’t make you have superpowers, but it can help with anxiety, depression or just feeling constantly rushed. If you’ve considered meditating but need to be convinced about the benefits, pick up Richard Wright’s recent book “Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment.” Wright writes with the depth and clarity one would expect from a Princeton professor and Pulitzer finalist, but also is a practitioner of meditation and brings levity to this examination.
As a gentleman more concerned with sufficiently starched top hats, photographs of cats, and the total dearth of responsibility for young humans and the constant bowel movements that accompany them than I am with propagating my lineage, one might presume the full impact of Samanta Schweblin’s “Fever Dream” (translated from Spanish to English by Megan McDowell) would be lost on me. This would be an erroneous presumption, as I, like all true gentlefolk, am not only capable of empathy, but indeed often overwhelmed by it. So, when the ceaseless dread generated by Schweblin’s powerful and brief jolt of a novel occasionally crescendos and a child is in peril (or a mother imagines her child to be in peril), my heart pounds and my worry kerchief is vigorously applied to my creased and dread-sweat blighted brow. I paused in the consumption of this terrifying story only to swap one sopping worry kerchief for the next temporarily dry portion of silk.
Hey, everyone! We’re back once again for another installment of Quintessential Comics. In honor of the overwhelming success of Marvel’s Black Panther film, we are going to take a look at five of T’Challa’s best appearances in his own graphic novel. Let’s get right into it, as we don’t want to keep the King of Wakanda waiting.
Starting us off is a story by Ta-Nehisi Coates in which T’Challa must deal with a terrorist organization called “The People.” As Wakanda finds itself under attack, Black Panther must discover who is truly behind the suicide bombings that are throwing his home into chaos. Struggling to maintain order and unity, T’Challa’s mettle is truly tested in this installment. How can a King be respected if he can’t protect his people? Be sure to check this one out for your fill of familiar foes, difficult choices, and epic altercations. Continue reading “Quintessential Comics: Top Five Black Panther Graphic Novels”
Have Memorial Day plans? Mark your calendar to spend time with us as some old faces of Columbia come to life at the Columbia Cemetery. On Monday, May 28, the Friends of the Historic Columbia Cemetery will be hosting their second annual History Comes Alive tour of notable people buried in the cemetery. This free event will have local actors portraying the lives of seven of the citizens who helped make Columbia the community it is.
