Information, Answers & Reviews

Over New Year's I found a few interesting new poetry collections. What better way to start the new year then by sampling and diving deep into new poems? I'll introduce two of these now and more later as I slowly read through them.

Things to Say to a Dead Man: Poems at the End of a Marriage and After

I had no idea that Jane Yolen, who is primarily a juvenile fiction and young adult author, wrote poetry. And what a wonderful collection this is. Because of the topic, it's a sad collection; in it she records her experiences taking care of her sick husband and then the months of her new widowhood. To round out the book, she added several memorial poems about her husband who was an expert on avian song. Birds also figure in some of these poems.

Despite the main topic the poems are uplifting. All are good; some are absolutely stellar. Here's a few lines from "Sorry for Your Loss." Read more »

Mango is an online language learning system teaching practical conversation skills for a variety of popular languages and ESL courses. It’s fast, easy and available anywhere you get online. Best of all, it’s FREE through your local library!

Lessons include strategically  placed memory-building exercises to help users remember what they are learning  in addition to critical thinking exercises, which help them to intuitively  understand the language and adapt it to similar conversations.

You will have the option to start learning right away as an anonymous user or to create a profile, which will allow you to track your progress and time spent learning each language. If you create a profile, you will receive an activation e-mail with an activation link. This link is to be used only once to activate your account. Every subsequent log in should be through the link on the library's website. After you complete these simple steps, you should be all set to start language learning with Mango!

We’ve all seen them- stumbling zombies with their arms and limbs falling off causing mayhem and destruction and death as they come. We watch as they come close to the heroes who wait ready to take off their heads or smash their brains in thus ending their horrible half-life. Zombies are ugly things too. It’s not much wonder we hate them along with their diet of brains and flesh. But have you ever thought about the zombies? Read more »

Although I've spent some time in Asia, I never visited China, so when I came across this personal narrative that combines essays on life in modern China with growing up during the Cultural Revolution, I couldn't resist. Through the focus of ten simple words, contemporary novelist Yu Hua presents a vivid picture of how Chinese life has changed in many ways, yet in others remained the same for over fifty years. With humor and an incisive take on his own culture, Hua shows how conformity vies with individuality in his country and how conformity often wins.

The chapter titled "Leader" focuses on the era of Mao Zedong. Although Yu was only a boy when Mao was Chairman, Yu entered the spirit of things by writing big-character posters. These were signs that were put up in all public place: movie theaters, schools, stores, and outside people's houses. In these anonymous signs, people criticized their neighbors for being landlords or for not following the precepts of the little red book. Yu Hua himself wrote many about his teachers and parents. In fact, he traces his love of writing from this childhood activity. Read more »