Browsing the shelves in the library can be like eye candy
because one never knows what might catch your eye. Someone has actually written
a book about butter!
Butter: A Rich History by Elaine Khosrova 641.3 Kh. Khosrova is a former pastry chef at the
Culinary Institute of America and founding editor of Cultural Magazine is now
an independent journalist specializing in writing stories about food history
and gastronomic culture. If you enjoy reading about food and
trying new recipes this book provides a pleasant journey across three
continents deep cultural history of butter.
No one knows exactly when society started to eat butter Khosrova
provides a poetic theory about the nomads stored milk in animal skins and as
they traveled by horseback the skins jostled enough to churn the milk into
butter. The book is filled with interesting
anecdotes, facts and recipes.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca, 363.289 Ri. This
title is a true crime tale of an early 20th century lawyer who
fought for women and immigrants. Grace
Humiston was a pioneering attorney in the early 20th century who
became known as “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” by the press for her investigative
prowess. Ricca describes her motto as “Justice for those of limited means”
which led her to strange cases all across the globe. The story twists and turns between clues and
missing girls, the media, and white slavery.
The author contents the greatest mystery of her life is how one woman
could become so famous only to disappear from history completely.
The Word Detective: Searching
for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary by John Simpson, 423.092 Si. Simpson, former chief editor of the Oxford
English Dictionary, makes a literary debut with a delightful chronicle of a
40-year career among fellow lexicographers as the dictionary went through the
long, painstaking process of updating, revising, and digitizing its gargantuan
number of entries. This Captivating
celebration of life among words explore personal experiences and cultural
traditions given by the author. Simpson
states, “Each history reflects a
patterning in the language over the centuries that mirrors and comments on the
emergence of peoples and nations in different areas”. The author weaves excavations and
investigations of individual words and reminding readers mundane words are
often the most interesting ones.
The Card
Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures walks the reader through the
long history of the catalog, stretching back to the cradle of civilization
in Mesopotamia. One tablet found near the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur dates
back to around 2,000 B.C. and was clearly identifiable as a card catalog. It
lists the titles of 62 literary works, including The Epic of Gilgamesh. The first
use of paper cards happened in 1789, when French librarian Barthélemy Mercier
de Saint-Léger and a handful of assistants began to catalog the library on
the back of playing cards, which were blank on the opposite site.
--Diana Menhennick, Reference Department
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