New on NOBLE – Ironclads and Columbiads

Ironclads and Columbiads: The Civil War in North Carolina, The Coast – DBC06107 is the library’s latest locally produced book for BARD and also available on NOBLE for faster access to local recordings.

The book recounts the exciting battles and events that shook the coast of North Carolina during America’s bloodiest war. Throughout the Civil War, North Carolina’s coast was of great strategic importance to the Confederacy. The story of the coastal war is one of frustrations, missed opportunities for both sides, lopsided victories, and heartbreaking defeats, illuminated at every turn by flashes of extraordinary bravery and tactical brilliance.

Download it today from the NOBLE Books page – http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/download/noble/books

While you’re there, check out some of the other locally recorded hidden gems not even offered on BARD, like the Bryson City series and more.

Check out NOBLE – http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/download/noble for more local downloadable favorites in both audio and braille.

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Book Blurbs #4

“Radio Free Vermont: a Fable of Resistance” by Bill McKibben

Talking Book: DB089888

A motley crew, led by a 72 year-old radio announcer; advocate for Vermont to secede from the Union. Read it and see if they succeed in seceding.

“America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve” by Roger Lowenstein

Talking Book: DB082896

Financial journalist Roger Lowenstein tells the history of the creation of The Federal Reserve System. A fascinating story of competing economic and political philosophies, as well as competing personalities; which led to its formation in 1913.

Kids Summer Reading Suggestions: Libraries Rock Vol. 3

If you are participating in the 2018 Kids Summer Reading Program and you don’t know what to read next, here are some reading suggestions.

Kids Summer Reading Suggestions

1. Row, Row, Row Your Boat DBC01452
   • In this expansion of a familiar song, the occupants of a rowboat enjoy seeing and making the sounds of different jungle animals. For preschool-grade 2.
2. Dog Songs: Thirty-Five Dog Songs and One Essay DB077665
   • Pulitzer Prize-winning poet illustrates her love of all dogs while focusing on the numerous dogs that have enriched her own life. Many poems use the pets’ voices, others include conversations between Oliver and a canine friend.
3. Earth Songs DB025352
   • The Earth speaks for itself as it takes readers on a poetic journey in exploration of its various dimensions. For grades 3-6.
4. Sea Songs DB025483
   • Fifteen dramatic poems depict dark shores, crimson tides, sea life, fishermen, ghost-raised ships, and other images of the sea. For grades 5-8.
5. Prairie Songs DB024488
   • The prairie was a barren place offering not only beauty and peace, but also loneliness and madness. Life in a loving pioneer prairie family changes when a new doctor arrives with his beautiful but tragically frail wife. For grades 5-8.
6. Shakespeare: Songs from the Plays DB021494
   • Songs and lyrics from seventeen of Shakespeare’s plays and from “King Henry VIII” and “The Two Noble Kinsmen.”
7. Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs DB055122
   • Celebratory survey of popular American music from 1927 to the 1960s–Broadway songs, Hollywood songs, individual hits by famous composers, and great one-shots from out of nowhere. Organized in loose chronological order around the lives of the songwriters, the book is filled with anecdotes, morsels of social history, and personal commentary.
8. Showstoppers! The Surprising Backstage stories of Broadway’s Most Remarkable Songs DB087898
   • In a Broadway musical, there are usually a couple of songs that define the show and leave the audience humming afterwards. A journalist interviews various musical creators and performers to learn about the stories behind those famous songs from shows such as Chicago, Hello Dolly!, Evita, Annie, South Pacific, and more.
9. This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie DB055433
   • Biography of Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), the Oklahoma singer, writer, and musician, who composed more than three thousand songs and ballads as he traveled around the United States, including “This Land Is Your Land” and “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh.” For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2002. For grades 6-9 and older readers.
10. The Story of Our National Ballads DB017898
    • The stories of many popular national ballads that have stirred the American public from the days of the Revolution through World War II. Includes sketches of the people who wrote these songs and the times in which the songs became famous. For junior and senior high and adult readers.

To download this list of see other reading suggestions click the link below!

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading/suggestions

Reading Takes You Everywhere!

It’s that time of year again. If you are a patron of NCLBPH and you haven’t registered for the 2018 Summer Reading Program, you may register in the link provided below. Be sure to register before the closing date! Reading Takes You Everywhere!!!

http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading

Adult Summer Reading Suggestions: Journey Across Asia Again

If you are participating in the 2018 Adults Summer Reading Program and you don’t know what to read next, here are some reading suggestions.

Adults Summer Reading Suggestions

1. 1. At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman’s Journey of Discovery DB072780
      • California-born author recounts her emigration to Australia at age twelve and decision to pursue graduate study in Japan in 1978. Describes meeting and marrying a Japanese man, moving to his home village, and striving to adapt to its traditional lifestyle.
   2. The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey DB084803
      • The granddaughter of an Armenian citizen recounts her grandfather’s experiences during World War I as described in his journals. Stepan was separated from his family during deportations to internment camps. He discovered the genocide facing them all and escaped just before his own impending slaughter, only to face a perilous journey.
   3. Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind DB060577
      • Genocide survivor follows up her memoir First They Killed My Father (RC 51298) with a dual account of her life in America and her older sister Chou’s life in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge. Describes their disparate experiences and their 1995 reunion fifteen years after her departure.
   4. A Little More About Me DB051281
      • Autobiographical essays explore the author’s experiences, and observations of art and nature during her travels. She describes whitewater rafting in the Rockies in “Powerhouse by the Book” and envisions trekking on the Himalayas in “In Bhutan There Is No Way to Be Famous.”
   5. Saddam Hussein: Absolute Ruler of Iraq DB040910
      • Begins with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, then recounts Hussein’s early life of abandonment, poverty, and abuse. Continues by interweaving Hussein’s life story with the history of Iraq and concludes with an account of Desert Storm.
   6. Holidays in Heck DB073988
      • Satirist describes somewhat-less-risky trips he took, often with his wife and children, between 2003 and 2011. Includes his adventures–and sometimes misadventures–sailing up China’s Yangtze River, skiing in Ohio, and crossing Kyrgyzstan on horseback.
   7. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir DBC02893
      • In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America, but lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together.
   8. The Burma Spring: Aung San Suu Kyi and the New Struggle for the Soul of a Nation DB081275
      • Pederson focuses on Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the inspiration for Myanmar’s (formerly Burma) first steps towards democracy. Includes exclusive interviews with Suu Kyi after fifteen years of house arrest and presents formerly undisclosed diplomatic cables. Pederson examines the hardships Burma faced during its struggle for liberty
   9. Rice without Rain DB034084
      • In the revolutionary turmoil of Thailand in the 1970s, seventeen-year-old Jinda finds her life beset by politics and terror. After a two-year drought, the harvest is bitter. Jinda’s sister has no milk, and her baby starves to death. Then a group of radical students comes from Bangkok to work for the summer in Jinda’s valley, and she and the student leader, Ned, fall in love.
   10. The Japan That Can Say No DB032739
       • Authorized translation of the book originally published in Japan, and also circulated on Capitol Hill in an unauthorized version. Fearing reprisal, Morita, Sony Chairman and co-author of the Japanese version, removed his name and material from this edition. Ishihara claims that as Japan moves forward technologically and economically, there must be more cooperation between Japan and the U.S.

To download this list of see other reading suggestions click the link below!

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading/suggestions

Reading Takes You Everywhere!

It’s that time of year again. If you are a patron of NCLBPH and you haven’t registered for the 2018 Summer Reading Program, you may register in the link provided below. Be sure to register before the closing date! Reading Takes You Everywhere!!!

http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading

Book Blurbs #3

“The Republic of Conscience” by Gary Hart

Talking Book: DBC03262

An examination by a former U.S. Senator on how we as a nation have sacrificed our principles for the sake of expediency. Well-grounded in a knowledge of history and political philosophy.

“Conclave” by Robert Harris

Talking Book: DB086642

A page turner by one of England’s finest novelist. The selection of a new pope reveals behind the scenes maneuvering as well as the weaknesses and strengths of those involved. I could not put it down!

State Library of North Carolina User Survey

The State Library of North Carolina has a survey for all of its users. Whether you use services from NCLBPH, Government Heritage Library, library support services, or all three services, we want to hear your voice!

This survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete. The results of this survey will help us identify opportunities to support exceptional library services in North Carolina.

The survey is currently active and will remain active until August 17th. You may take the survey by clicking either link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SLNCUserSurvey

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph

Kids Summer Reading Suggestions: Libraries Rock Vol. 2

If you are participating in the 2018 Kids Summer Reading Program and you don’t know what to read next, here are some reading suggestions.

Kids Summer Reading Suggestions

1. Hit Me with Music: How to Start, Manage, Record, and Perform with Your Own Rock Band DB043650
   • Handbook on organizing and managing one’s own rock music group. Powell offers both creative and technical tips on all phases of the music business: using public address systems; mixing live music; utilizing recording studios; promoting a band; negotiating contracts; and avoiding the perils of the business.
2. The Long Gone Lonesome History of Country Music DB065126
   • Presents, in a folksy style, an overview of country music’s development in the United States. Discusses the role of radio, gospel music, honky-tonk, rock-a-billy, bluegrass, Jimmie Rodgers’s yodeling, cowboys, Grand Ole Opry, dances, and other contributors to the popularity of country music.
3. The Blues: A Very Short Introduction DB085838
   • Musician traces a tradition permeating many forms of music. Blues reflects deep emotion but is not limited to heartache. Examines the broad variety of blues music and performers, the close relationship with jazz and country music, and the influence on rock, pop, and rap.
4. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours n’ Fax DB014704
   • A history of the rock group Fleetwood Mac, tracing its complex personal and musical development from the embryonic stages in 1967 to its continuing success in the late 1970s.
5. Austin Mahone; Jennifer Lawrence; Pharrell Williams; Taylor Swift DB081707
   • Four biographies of music and movie stars. Highlights Austin Mahone, Jennifer Lawrence, Pharrell Williams, and Taylor Swift’s rises to fame and speculates about their futures. Includes fun facts and quirky things they like.
6. The Music of Silence DB076011
   • Using a third-person narrative, opera singer Bocelli, who as a young boy lost his vision to congenital bilateral glaucoma, describes his childhood in Italy and his interest, education, and career in music. Relates challenges he faced and overcame.
7. Classical Music in America: A History of its Rise and Fall DB060428
   • American music historian and artistic adviser to several orchestras presents a social history of classical music in the United States. Chronicles the rise of the Boston, New York, and Philadelphia orchestras. Horowitz contends that the post-WWI performance-centered approach of American conductors and performers has been disadvantageous to native-born composers.
8. Hip Hop America DB048179
   • Survey of African American rap music. Chronicles the twenty-year rise of hip-hop from the streets of New York City and describes its importance in the multinational industry of the 1990s. Highlights the major players and some of the effects of rap on society.
9. Blues People: Negro Music in White America DB021323
   • A reinterpretation of jazz and blues in light of black American social and economic history. Many anecdotes add to the liveliness of Jones’ account, which is flavored by his personal brand of warmth and wit.
10. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenese from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991 DB074773
    • Author reconstructs the 1981-1991 punk-influenced underground music scene, which advocated a do-it-yourself aesthetic that revolutionized American music. Profiles thirteen bands, including Black Flag, the Minutemen, HuÌsker DuÌ, the Replacements, Fugazi, and Beat Happening. Discusses the role of independent record labels SST, Dischord, Sub Pop, K, and others.

To download this list of see other reading suggestions click the link below!

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading/suggestions

Reading Takes You Everywhere!

It’s that time of year again. If you are a patron of NCLBPH and you haven’t registered for the 2018 Summer Reading Program, you may register in the link provided below. Be sure to register before the closing date! Reading Takes You Everywhere!!!

http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading

Adult Summer Reading Suggestions: Journey Across Asia

If you are participating in the 2018 Adults Summer Reading Program and you don’t know what to read next, here are some reading suggestions.

Adults Summer Reading Suggestions

1. After the Holidays DB027297
   • A deceptively simple and ironic tale of the Weiss family, who emigrate from Europe to Jewish Palestine before World War I. Although they take up residence in a rural settlement and buy orange groves, the family’s life is far from pastoral: murder, rape, insanity, sensuality, and somnambulism abound.
2. Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya DB065382
   • Caribbean-born novelist recounts her journey to eastern Nepal to gather seeds for use in her personal garden in Vermont. Chronicles her month-long trek through remote, mountainous terrain where, while searching for specimens, she and three botanist friends endured daily deprivations, altitude sickness, leeches, and encounters with violent Maoist guerillas.
3. The Discovery of India DB064641
   • History of Indian culture from its ancient beginnings through the British colonial period. Discusses philosophy, science, art, and personalities including the Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. Analyses religious texts. Written by Nehru (1889-1964), India’s first prime minister, while he was imprisoned at Ahmadnagar Fort for six months in 1944.
4. Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs DB044068
   • A paleontologist’s account of a grueling 1993 field expedition to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, which resulted in one of the most extensive dinosaur fossil discoveries in history. Describes the specimens that were found and discusses their meaning and scientific importance.
5. Consequence: A Memoir DB084618
   • Memoir of a man who served in the Army, contemplated becoming a minister, and then worked for a defense contractor as an interrogator in Iraq, principally in Baghdad, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib. Discusses the psychological and physiological impact of his work as well as what influenced him.
6. The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower DB081375
   • Using interviews with Chinese defectors and declassified national security documents, Pillsbury postulates a strategy on China’s part to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant power by 2049. The author also discusses how the American government has helped to further this cause, both purposefully and unwittingly.
7. An Unnecessary Woman DB078325
   • Seventy-two-year-old Aaliya spends her days translating books from English and French into Arabic for her private amusement. Divorced, childless, and godless in the eyes of society, she is shunned. She reflects on the literature that has touched her life and helped her survive the Lebanese Civil War.
8. The Day Nothing Happened DB028655
   • Stories based on the author’s own experiences in Sarawak, Malaysia. The central character is Dan Collins, an American engineer working amid a chaotic collection of Muslim Malays, Chinese villagers, British soldiers and colonialists, and American volunteers. His interacting with the local culture is both poignant and comic. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex.
9. Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles DB028417
   • The English author, a resident of Hong Kong, traveled through the Republic of Korea (South Korea) on foot to write this informal portrait. Along the way he befriended a variety of people who helped shape his impressions: honeymooners, abalone divers, corporate executives, Buddhist nuns, and American servicemen. Humorous observations on the culture, people, language, politics.
10. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom DB082685
    • An autobiographical recounting of life in the repressive North Korean society in which the author was raised, and her subsequent escape. She describes her family, the culture of leader worship, her father’s imprisonment and torture, and how, even after her escape, she was sold into sexual slavery in China.

To download this list of see other reading suggestions click the link below!

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading/suggestions

Reading Takes You Everywhere!

It’s that time of year again. If you are a patron of NCLBPH and you haven’t registered for the 2018 Summer Reading Program, you may register in the link provided below. Be sure to register before the closing date! Reading Takes You Everywhere!!!

http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading

Deadline for Summer Reading Registration is approach!

There’s still time to sign up for our Summer Reading program. Patrons may register until July 31st.

Summer Reading runs through June 1 to August 31.

Patrons who read at least 5 books win a prize and the top 3 readers  in each division win gift cards.

Sign up today by clicking here or the link below, or by giving us a call at  919-733-4376 Monday through Friday between 8 AM and 5 PM.

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/read/summer-reading

Libraries Rock!

Reading Takes You Everywhere!

Sign up for free Tactile Art Tour at the North Carolina Museum of Art August 15th

Join the North Carolina Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped for a free tactile art tour at the North Carolina Museum of Art!

When:    Wednesday, August, 15th 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Where:   North Carolina Museum of Art

                 2110 Blue Ridge Road

                 Raleigh, North Carolina 27607-6494

 Directions to Museum/Parking: http://www.ncartmuseum.org/visit/plan_your_visit/

REGISTRATION REQUIRED—NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS IS LIMITED. PLEASE REGISTER BY Tuesday, July 31st. TO REGISTER please call 1-888-388-2460, email nclbph@ncdcr.gov, or complete our online registration form at:

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/lbph/eventsprograms/registration

 Please provide: library patron name, address, phone number, number of people attending.

If you require any special needs please contact the library at 919-733-4376 by Tuesday, July 31st.