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Monday, July 30, 2007

What were we thinking??? *L*

Just got back from the library - went in earlier than we needed to take advantage of a cooler day, since it's supposed to get hotter again. Came back with way more than we took out - especially in videos. How we're going to watch all these, I've no idea! *L*

So this is today's library list.

Youngest took out only one book this week, though from the size of it, that's no surprise. She brought home the book Uglies. "In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly." Interesting concept. It's set in a world where, at age 16, people turn "pretty." It seems that everyone is expected to undergo surgery to become beautiful, which then leads to success in all other areas. The main character is soon to celebrate her 16th birthday and is looking forward to becoming "pretty," but her friend is afraid and runs away to avoid it. I think I'll be reading this one myself. It's book 1 of a trilogy.

Eldest went all out. She chose:

From the Time-Life Enchanted World series of books, Magical Beasts, Night Creatures and Fairies and Elves, as well as Transformations, which is from Time-Life's Mysteries of the Unknown series. She also found Vampires, Zombies and Monster Men, and Dragons, Unicorns and Sea Serpents; A Classic Study of the Evidence for their Existence. As you can see, she has an interest in folklore.

A Woman Scorned; Acquaintance Rape on Trial: This is an interesting exploration of how rape trials tend to put the woman on trial, rather than her attacker.

Dictionary of Proverbs and their Origins: Tracing where old sayings like "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater," "cold hands, warm heart," and many other sayings come from, and how they came to be.

On the video front, she chose:

Is Wal-Mart Good for America: This is the third dvd about Wal-mart we've found so far. The first two were strongly on each side of the spectrum. This one, from PBS, seems to be looking at it from both sides.

Secrets of the Occult; Illusion, Magic, Science: Divided into two parts, The Magicians and The Scientists, this dvd runs from ancient magicians to today's cutting edge scientists.

Ghost; Stories 1 & 2. These are two of a series of vhs videos examining ghost stories in history and around the world.

As for myself, I chose:

The War of 1812 Against the States; Heroes of a Great Canadian Victory: This is from the Amazing Stories section. Something tells me this is going to be very different from the Pierre Burton version. ;-)

How We Eat; Appetites, Culture and the Psychology of Food: "Tracing our culinary customs from the Stone Age to the stove-top range..." this book examines the myths, cultures and rituals surrounding the foods we eat.

Clearing the Air; The Real Story of the War on Air Pollution: This is refreshing - a book that points out that we've actually made great strides in fighting air pollution, and that things continue to improve. Not a lot dare to strike at the clay feet of many environmental myths.

Artistry in Paper; Creating beautiful things with Origami, Papier Mache, Pop-ups and Other Papercrafts, Paper in Three Dimensions; Origami,Pop-ups, Sculpture, Baskets, Boxes and More, and Making Memory Boxes; Box Projects to make, Give and Keep: It's been a long time since I've worked in paper art - I still haven't replaced my equipment for it. I'm itching to get back to it.

And in the audio/visual section:

Beige from Arrogant Worms. I had this one on hold, to go with the other 3 cd's from the Worms that I'd picked up. :-D

From the Nature series of dvd's, Antarctica. A double programme: Antarctica: The End of the Earth and Under Antarctic Ice. It's the second one that really interests me.

From the Miracle Planet series, Episode 4, Extinction & Rebirth and Episode 5, Survival of the Fittest. Eldest tells me we've already seen these, but I don't remember. We've borrowed so many on the subject, I get them mixed up!

I think we'll be watching a lot of movies with breakfast and lunch for the next week or so. LOL

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