The Wordy Shipmates

By Sarah Vowell

The Wordy Shipmates is New York Times-bestselling author Sarah Vowell’s exploration of the Puritans and their journey to America to become the people of John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill”-a shining example, a “city that cannot be hid.”

To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Vowell investigates what that means- and what it should mean. What was this great political enterprise all about? Who were these people who are considered the philosophical, spiritual, and moral ancestors of our nation? What Vowell discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoe-buckles-and-corn reputation might suggest. The people she finds are highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty. Their story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance. Along the way she asks:

• Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, a Christlike Christian, or conformity’s tyrannical enforcer? Answer: Yes!
• Was Rhode Island’s architect, Roger Williams, America’s founding freak or the father of the First Amendment? Same difference.
• What does it take to get that jezebel Anne Hutchinson to shut up? A hatchet.
• What was the Puritans’ pet name for the Pope? The Great Whore of Babylon.

Sarah Vowell’s special brand of armchair history makes the bizarre and esoteric fascinatingly relevant and fun. She takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, where “righteousness” is rhymed with “wilderness,” to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, The WordyShipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America’s most celebrated voices. Thou shalt enjoy it. (Description from barnesandnoble.com) Call number: F7 .V69 2008

Concrete Countertops Made Simple: a step- by- step guide

By Fu- Tung Cheng

With his first bestselling book, Concrete Countertops, designer Fu-Tung Cheng brought homeowners and contractors an affordable, attractive alternative to expensive granite, marble, and man-made countertops. Now, he takes his concrete revolution one step further with this remarkable DVD/Book set. In seven simple steps, Cheng takes the reader through the process of designing, forming, pouring, finishing, and installing a concrete countertop that will look great and survive the test of time. Explaining the process like a chef guiding you through a recipe, Cheng shows that even an amateur with the simplest tools can produce fantastic results the very first time. (Description from barensandnoble.com) Call number: TT197.5 .C68 C4925 2008

The Way We Never Were: American families and the nostalgia gap

By Stephanie Coontz

From “a man’s home was his castle” to “traditional families never asked for a handout, ” this provocative book explodes cherished illusions about the last two centuries of American family life to expose the falseness, sentimentality, and self-righteousness of our accepted familial morays. (Description from barnesandnoble.com) Call number: HQ535 .C643 2000

The Way We Really Are: coming to terms with America’s changing families

By Stephanie Coontz

Stephanie Coontz, the author of The Way We Never Were, now turns her attention to the mythology that surrounds today’s family—the demonizing of “untraditional” family forms and marriage and parenting issues. She argues that while it’s not crazy to miss the more hopeful economic trends of the 1950s and 1960s, few would want to go back to the gender roles and race relations of those years. Mothers are going to remain in the workforce, family diversity is here to stay, and the nuclear family can no longer handle all the responsibilities of elder care and childrearing.Coontz gives a balanced account of how these changes affect families, both positively and negatively, but she rejects the notion that the new diversity is a sentence of doom. Every family has distinctive resources and special vulnerabilities, and there are ways to help each one build on its strengths and minimize its weaknesses.The book provides a meticulously researched, balanced account showing why a historically informed perspective on family life can be as much help to people in sorting through family issues as going into therapy—and much more help than listening to today’s political debates. (Description from barnesandnoble.com) Call number: HQ535 .C644 1998

30 Days: The Complete Second Season

By  Morgan Spurlock

30 Days features a diverse group of participants, each given the opportunity to experience first-hand a world antithetical to their own, comfortable existence. Each episode examines a very different subject and is hosted by Morgan Spurlock, creator of Super Size Me. In the final episode, Spurlock is also a participant as he turns the camera on himself. Episodes include: “Immigration”, “Outsourcing,” “New Age”, “Pro-Choice/Pro-Life”, “Atheist/Christian” and “Jail”. Call number: HN59.2 .A13 2007

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The Learning Paradigm College

By John Tagg, Peter T. Ewell

In The Learning Paradigm College, John Tagg builds on the ground-breaking Change magazine article he coauthored with Robert Barr in 1995, “From Teaching to Learning; A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education.” That piece defined a paradigm shift happening in American higher education, placing more importance on learning outcomes and less on the quantity of instruction. As Tagg defines it, “Where the Instruction Paradigm highlights formal processes, the Learning Paradigm emphasizes results or outcomes. Where the Instruction Paradigm attends to classes, the Learning Paradigm attends to students.”

The Learning Paradigm College presents a new lens through which faculty and administrators can see their own institutions and their own work. The book examines existing functional frameworks and offers a way to reenvision and recast many familiar aspects of college work and college life, so that readers may better understand their learners and move toward a framework that focuses on learning outcomes.

Divided into five parts, the book introduces the Learning Paradigm, concentrates on understanding our learners, provides a framework for producing learning, discusses the six essential features of the Learning Paradigm college, and focuses on how to become a Learning Paradigm college.

Eminently clear and accessible descriptions of the features of the Learning Paradigm are paired with examples of how institutions of higher education around the country are transforming themselves into Learning Paradigm colleges. The Learning Paradigm College is both hopeful and realistic about what all those involved in highereducation can achieve. Call number: LB2331 .T24 2003

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Dying to Be Thin

Director: Larkin McPhee

Nova explores the serious consequences of eating disorders in Nova: Dying to Be Thin. Anorexia and bulimia have become mainstream maladies, with open discussion of the millions of cases throughout the U.S. Anorexia alone accounts for the highest death rate of any psychological illness. If patients survive, the effects of self-imposed starvation can be extreme, from bone loss to heart damage. Nova goes behind closed doors to explore experimental treatments for these eating disorders. Call number: RC552 .E18 D95 2004

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Teaching Online: A Practical Guide

By Susan Ko, Steve Rossen, Steve Rossen

Suitable for courses in online teaching, web-based instruction, teaching with the Internet, or the online classroom, this book answers the most common questions and concerns of instructors who want create electronic educational environments.

Topics covered include choosing software and technology tools, building an online classroom, creating an online syllabus, course conversion, online classroom management, integrating online and face-to-face activities, and student support issues. The text is supported by a web site that provides new strategies, tips, and information on emergent technologies.

Pedagogy includes “Important” points that highlight key topics; “Definition” boxes that feature key terms with brief definitions; and “Sidebars,” which focus student attention on important points. Call number LB2395.7 .K67 2001

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ttyl

By Lauren Myracle

An epistolary novel for the 21st century, this sharp, funny, and true-to-life breakout hit about friendship is told entirely in instant messages. And Internet-savvy teens have fallen in love with flirty Angela (SnowAngel), moody Maddie (mad maddie), and good girl Zoe (zoegirl) and their frank perceptions about a tumultuous tenth-grade semester. Call number: Browsing Myracle

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The Torah: A Modern Commentary

By W. Gunther Plaut

Nearly twentyfive years after the groundbreaking publication of the firstever English language liberal Torah commentary, we present The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised Edition. This volume features updated commentary and translations, including a gendersensitive version of the JPS translation, with largely genderneutral God language and a completely fresh translation of Genesis and of the haftarot by the late Rabbi Chaim Stern. In addition, the volume is reorganized by parashah and includes a helpful index and aliyot markers, improving upon the 1981 original. Call Number: BS1225.53 .T67 2005

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