The Sweren Student Book Collecting Contest recognizes the love of books and the delight in shaping a thoughtful and focused book collection. Established by longtime friends of the libraries Betty […]
Happy St. Crispin’s Day!
Anyone who has watched a stage or film version of Henry V (such as the 1944 Olivier version, infused with echoes of World War II, or the critically acclaimed 1990 […]
Walk Like a Librarian
Walking is not generally considered a sport. I beg to differ; walking has been part of my fitness routine for years. Last year I decided to challenge myself and signed […]
Stars of Science Fiction and Fantasy
It’s always the right season to read science fiction or fantasy. Here are two important writers whose work you might want to explore. Kurt Vonnegut Vonnegut was an American author […]
The Arc of a Curious Career: Wallace Stevens in Print
For most readers of classroom anthologies, Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) equals a jar on a hill, a 13-point blackbird or a snow-man. And those are all delicious poems in the signature Stevens […]
Have an Epic Summer!
Guest Blogger: Rebecca Fang, Class of 2019 A little bored this summer? Maybe you should read some epics to liven things up! Homer’s Odyssey shows that epic heroes can have epic flaws that […]
The Dog Days of Summer
Is this Baltimore summer hot enough for you? You might say we have hit the heart of the “dog days” of summer. You might also wonder where the heck that […]
To Read, or What to Read
What is it about summer and reading? The 2 words seem to go together everywhere you look. I guess the assumption is that people have scads of free time in […]
Transforming Summer Reading: Graphic Novel Adaptations of Literary Classics
It’s summer, and you’re thinking to yourself how you’d really like to catch up on reading some classic works of fiction, but, hey, maybe you’re also thinking how you’d also […]
Dragons!
Fire. Teeth. Scales. Wings. But also: intelligence, age, wisdom, greed, strategy. Who are some noteworthy dragons? Everyone knows Smaug, the clever, deadly creature who slept on top of a cavernful […]