Big Books On Display at UCBA Library

by Christian Boyles

Big Books displayAs the great Western philosopher Sir Mix-A-Lot might say when he goes to his library, “I like big books and I cannot lie.”  OK, maybe he never said that, but you can when you have a look at a selection of your UCBA Library’s oversized books in-person or onlineContinue reading

Hispanic Heritage Month Book Display at UCBA Library

by Christian Boyles

Hispanic Heritage Month Display

Hispanic Heritage Month is observed September 15 to October 15 by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. To learn more, visit: https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.org/.

The UC Blue Ash Library, in collaboration the Office of Hispanic/Latino Affairs, is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a library display highlighting Hispanic/Latino books and culture. The books will be on display in the library from September 17, 2018 to October 12, 2018. The items are available for checkout with a valid UC ID. Browse the online guide of suggested reads or stop by!

September Book of the Month

by Christian Boyles

Illustrated Dust Jacket book cover

The Illustrated Book Jacket 1920-1970

by Martin Salisbury | NC973 .S25 2017

About the book: A deep dive into the history of the illustrated book jacket, tracing its development across the twentieth century, reflecting some of the most iconic designs of the era.

In the modern era, the “beautiful book,” an art object in its own right, has become the key to the ongoing attraction of print publishing as physical books continue to distinguish themselves from the screen.

Author Martin Salisbury traces the evolution of the book jacket from its functional origins as a plain dust protector for expensively bound books to its elaboration as an artistic device to catch the eye of browsing book buyers. The increasing awareness of the jacket’s potential to serve as a marketing tool across various areas of the publishing world―from literary fiction to academic titles, and children’s books―meant a proliferation of illustrative treatments. The book jackets reproduced here reflect the changing visual styles and motifs of the passing century, beginning with the Art Deco period and continuing through Modernism, the playful Thirties, the pre- and postwar Neo-Romantics, the new consumerism and realist subject matter of the Fifties, and the Pop Art of the Sixties.

Featuring talent from the US and UK, Cover Up: The Illustrated Book Jacket explores the pictorial dust jacket through a selection of more than 300 key works and artists that influenced the course of book jacket design.

Is it checked out? Don’t worry about it. Here are some other titles on the subject.

Illusive : contemporary illustration and its context | NC845 .I45 2005 (in the oversized section)

Today, illustration appears in design-related projects in a wide range of styles. One can find drawings done fleetingly by hand just as often as polished vector graphics created on computers. Motifs are not only being produced in pencil, chalk, airbrush and marker but also by mixing media, for example by combining illustration, photography and wallpaper. But when so many alluring possibilities currently exist in illustration, how can one stay up to date and how should one evaluate new developments?

Illusive is a collection of contemporary illustration from around the world that addresses the variety of existing techniques and puts them into context with explanatory text. It features personal designs alongside fashion illustration and commercial work produced for books or magazines – a diversity that reveals how the medium of illustration functions independently from trends. At the same time the book is also a survey of current tendencies and design approaches. Features introducing leading protagonists supplement the examples shown.

The fact that it presents manifold methods by such a broad spectrum of international designers side by side makes Illusive stimulating and educational reading for the professional illustrator.

1000 ideas by 100 manga artists (ebook)

How much would a course on drawing cost given by the top 100 international manga artists? How much would they charge to share their most highly valued techniques? This book brings together 100 manga artists and asks each one to offer 10 practical tips for the manga enthusiast on techniques, sources of inspiration, and the best way to build their portfolios. Detailed photographs, 1,000 in total, taken by the artists themselves serve to illustrate each of these 1,000 tips.

Storymakers (streaming film)

Colin Thiele explores the world of one of our best loved and most prolific writers. Author of 70 books, Colin Thiele has a lifelong devotion to education and writing. In this program, Jonathon Appleton, a school student and head of a Thiele fan club, visits Colin and discusses the writing craft. Colin’s natural affinity with his audience is evident.  Colin Thiele’s books are rich in scenes that elicit vision and mood; the filmic quality of his material can be seen in the success of Storm Boy. This program features some scenes from his novels including the classic The Sun on the Stubble and Jodie’s Journey. These beautiful sequences are intercut with Colin’s reflections on his work as he answers letters and talks with Jonathon.  Colin Thiele’s lifetime achievements inspire a love for writing and a desire for reading in children and adults alike.

The Great American Read at UCBA Library

by Christian Boyles and Michelle McKinney

Great American Read logo

Your UCBA Library’s current display features a selection of books and DVDs that are featured on PBS’s The Great American Read program. The Great American Read is an eight-part series Continue reading

August Book of the Month

by Christian Boyles

Book cover of How To Choose Your Major

How to Choose Your Major
by Mary E. Ghilani
LB2361.5 .G55 2017

About the book

Entering the workforce after college can be scary to say the least, especially if a graduate is unprepared or ill-equipped to seek out an appropriate career path or job opportunity. This practical manual Continue reading

July Book of the Month

by Christian Boyles

Leper Spy Book Cover

The Leper Spy by Ben Montgomery
D802.P5 M66 2017

About the book

The GIs called her Joey. Hundreds owed their lives to the tiny Filipina woman who was one of the top spies for the Allies during World War II, stashing explosives, tracking Japanese troop movements, and smuggling maps of fortifications across enemy lines for Gen. Douglas MacArthur. As the Battle of Manila raged, young Josefina Guerrero walked through gunfire to bandage wounds and close the eyes of the dead. Her valor earned her the Medal of Freedom, but the thing that made her an effective spy was a disease that was destroying her.

Guerrero suffered from leprosy, which so horrified the Japanese they refused to search her. After the war, army chaplains found her in a nightmarish leper colony and campaigned for the US government to do something it had never done: welcome a foreigner with leprosy. The fight brought her celebrity, which she used on radio and television to speak for other sufferers. However, the notoriety haunted her after the disease was arrested, and she had to find a way to disappear.

Is it checked out? Don’t worry about it. Here are some other titles on the subject.

And if I Perish : Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II | D807.U6 M66 2003

In World War II, 59,000 women voluntarily risked their lives for their country as U.S. Army nurses. When the war began, some of them had so little idea of what to expect that they packed party dresses; but the reality of service quickly caught up with them, whether they waded through the water in the historic landings on North African and Normandy beaches, or worked around the clock in hospital tents on the Italian front as bombs fell all around them. For more than half a century these women’s experiences remained untold, almost without reference in books, historical societies, or military archives. After years of research and hundreds of hours of interviews, Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee have created a dramatic narrative that at last brings to light the critical role that women played throughout the war. From the North African and Italian Campaigns to the Liberation of France and the Conquest of Germany, U.S. Army nurses rose to the demands of war on the frontlines with grit, humor, and great heroism. A long overdue work of history, And If I Perish is also a powerful tribute to these women and their inspiring legacy.

Women at War : the Women of World War II | D810.W7 L47 2002 

When the men went off to the front in World War II, a huge vacuum was left behind in the family, in the workplace, and in society at large. Women soon stepped into the breach in the factories, on the farms, in transport and public services, as well as in auxiliary military services, intelligence and espionage. Women endured the hardships of separation and rationing, as well as aerial bombardment, arrest, interrogation and perhaps imprisonment in a labour camp. Socially, women gained new skills and acquired a new sense of freedom, independence and equality, which they would take with them into the post-war world. From a German pin-up to American photographers, from Japanese women’s police to all women British orchestras, from Soviet women typists in the field to German pilots, from prisoners of war to secret agents, Women at War in World War II is a testament to these courageous and capable women and their experience, in both Allied and Axis countries. Included are first-person accounts, from the London air-raid warden to nurses caught in the raids on Pearl Harbor to flight technicians in Toronto.

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter DVD | D810.W7 L53 2007

Among the many sweeping social changes engendered by World War II was the influx of women into previously male-dominated workplaces. Documentary filmmaker Connie Field interviews five of these women. Black and white, urban and rural, poor and middle-class, the former defense employees relate their treatment during and then after the war, when they often faced discrimination from their male co-workers and employers, even as they were publicly praised for leading the war effort at home..

The reminiscences are intercut with the realities of the period – old news, films, recruiting trailers, March of Time clips, and pop songs such as “Rosie the Riveter.” These often serve to highlight the disparities between how women were portrayed in wartime media and the actual experiences of these five women.

 

June Book of the Month

by Christian Boyles

Fast Food Genocide book cover

Fast Food Genocide: How Processed Food is Killing Us and What We Can Do About it
TX357 .F84 2017

About the book

Fast food is far more than just the burgers, fries, and burritos served at chain restaurants; it is also the toxic, human-engineered products found in every grocery store across America. These include: cold breakfast cereals; commercial and preserved (deli) meats and cheeses; sandwich breads Continue reading

UCBA Library’s Book of the Month for May

by Christian Boyles

Book Cover

How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story                           HD9696.8.U64 S6343 2018

About the book

The improbable and exhilarating story of the rise of Snapchat from a frat boy fantasy to a multi-billion dollar internet unicorn that has dramatically changed the way we communicate.   In 2013 Evan Spiegel, the brash CEO of the social network Snapchat, and his co-founder Bobby Murphy stunned the press when they walked away from a three-billion-dollar offer from Facebook: how could an app teenagers use to text dirty photos dream of a higher valuation? Was this hubris, or genius?  In How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars, tech journalist Billy Gallagher takes us inside the rise of one of Silicon Valley’s hottest start-ups. Snapchat developed from a simple wish for disappearing pictures as Stanford junior Reggie Brown nursed regrets about photos he had sent. After an epic feud between best friends, Brown lost his stake in the company, while Spiegel has gone on to make a name for himself as a visionary–if ruthless–CEO worth billions, linked to celebrities like Taylor Swift and his wife, Miranda Kerr.  A fellow Stanford undergrad and fraternity brother of the company’s founding trio, Gallagher has covered Snapchat from the start. He brings unique access to a company Bloomberg Business called “a cipher in the Silicon Valley technology community.” Gallagher offers insight into challenges Snapchat faces as it transitions from a playful app to one of the tech industry’s preeminent public companies. In the tradition of great business narratives, How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars offers the definitive account of a company whose goal is no less than to remake the future of entertainment.

Is it checked out? Don’t worry about it. Here are some other titles on the subject.

Brotopia : Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley | HD6060.5.U5 C52 2018

For women in tech, Silicon Valley is not a fantasyland of unicorns, virtual reality rainbows, and 3D-printed lollipops, where millions of dollars grow on trees. It’s a “Brotopia,” where men hold all the cards and make all the rules. Vastly outnumbered, women face toxic workplaces rife with discrimination and sexual harassment, where investors take meetings in hot tubs and network at sex parties.    In this powerful exposé, Bloomberg TV journalist Emily Chang reveals how Silicon Valley got so sexist despite its utopian ideals, why bro culture endures despite decades of companies claiming the moral high ground (Don’t Be Evil! Connect the World!)–and how women are finally starting to speak out and fight back.    Drawing on her deep network of Silicon Valley insiders, Chang opens the boardroom doors of male-dominated venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins, the subject of Ellen Pao’s high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit, and Sequoia, where a partner once famously said they “won’t lower their standards” just to hire women. Silicon Valley’s aggressive, misogynistic, work-at-all costs culture has shut women out of the greatest wealth creation in the history of the world. It’s time to break up the boys’ club. Emily Chang shows us how to fix this toxic culture–to bring down Brotopia, once and for all.

Wild Ride: Inside Uber’s Quest for Global Domination | HE5620.R53 L37 2017

In your pocket is something amazing: a quick and easy way to summon a total stranger who will take you anywhere you’d like. In your hands is something equally amazing: the untold story of Uber’s meteoric rise, and the massive ambitions of its larger-than-life founder and CEO. Before Travis Kalanick became famous as the public face of Uber, he was a scrappy, rough-edged, loose-lipped entrepreneur. And even after taking Uber from the germ of an idea to a $69 billion global transportation behemoth, he still describes his company as a start-up. Like other Silicon Valley icons such as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, he’s always focused on the next disruptive innovation and the next world to conquer.  Both Uber and Kalanick have acquired a reputation for being combative, relentless, and iron-fisted against competitors. They’ve inspired both admiration and loathing as they’ve flouted government regulators, thrown the taxi industry into a tailspin, and stirred controversy over possible exploitation of drivers. They’ve even reshaped the deeply ingrained consumer behavior of not accepting a ride from a stranger—against the childhood warnings from everyone’s parents. Uber has made headlines thanks to its eye-popping valuations and swift expansion around the world. But this book is the first account of how Uber really became the giant it is today, and how it plans to conquer the future.

Silicon Valley | Streaming Film

American Experience, TV’s most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today. The collection includes a number of great episodes from the series, including American Experience SiliconValley. In 1957, decades before Steve Jobs dreamed up Apple or Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, a group of eight brilliant young men defected from the Shockley Semiconductor Company in order to start their own transistor business. Their leader was 29-year-old Robert Noyce, a physicist with a brilliant mind and the affability of a born salesman who would co-invent the microchip — an essential component of nearly all modern electronics today, including computers, motor vehicles, cell phones and household appliances.