Te invitamos a leer!

La Suma de los Días
por Isabel Allende
Rayo, una rama de HarperCollinsPublishers, 2007

El más reciente libro de Isabel Allende te atrapará desde la primera página hasta la última. Es una serie de anéctodas, personales y familiares, honestas y mágicas, escritas como relatos de su vida, dirigidas a Paula, su hija que muy joven murió de porfiria años atrás. En este libro Isabel cuenta a Paula historias de su tribu, como ella llama a su peculiar familia, de lo que ha sucedido desde su muerte. Isabel, según relata, tiene la tradición de inventarles cuentos a sus nietos, con los personajes que ellos escogan. En una de esas ocasiones, una de sus nietas quiere saber que tanto del cuento es real y que tanto es inventado, con es imaginación que tiene su abuela. Asimismo, este libro contiene historias, sean reales o inventadas, escritas de una manera que te atrapa al leerlas y te hace disfrutar de la lectura.
Reseña por Laura Galván-Estrada, Bibliotecaria, SWC

Main Leisure Reading, call number 3087
Otay Leisure Reading, call number PQ8098.1.L54.S85 2007

Isabel Allende’s most recent work will trap you from the first to the last page. This book contains a series of anecdotes, personal and from her family, honest and magical, written as tales of her life, to Paula, her daughter who at the young age of 28 died of porphyria. In this book, Isabel relates stories of her tribe, as she likes to call her peculiar family, to update Paula of what’s been happening since her death. Isabel, as she writes in her book, has the tradition of making up stories for her grandchildren, with charactars that the children provide. During one of those times, one of her granddaughters asks her how much of the story is real and how much is fiction. You might be wondering the same with this book but, likewise, it contains stories, real or fiction, written in an enchanting way that will make you savour this reading.
This book is not available in English yet (publication expected April 2008, as The Sum of All Days).
Book review by Laura Galván-Estrada, SWC Librarian

This Week in CQ Researcher

Student Aid, by Marcia Clemmitt, January 25, 2008

Will many low-income students be left out?

With a record number of students hoping to attend college next year – and fees higher than ever – finding a way to pay the bills will be tough for many. Congress and the Bush administration made common cause in 2007 to increase federal Pell Grants for students and reduce some student-loan interest rates. Nevertheless, critics say the increases won’t go far enough.

• Has the right balance been struck between merit-based and need-based aid?
• Has the right balance been struck between grants and loans?
• Do private lenders deliver good value for taxpayers and students?

To read this article and others visit our Articles and Databases webpage http://www.swccd.edu/~library/articles.htm and click on CQ Researcher. Select the Access Off-Campus link for information on how to access this resource from off campus locations.

Check it Out

Stealing Your Life : the Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan
by Frank W. Abagnale
Broadway Books, 2007
Leisure reading collection, call #3096

Stealing Your Life is both scary and hopeful. Scary because of statistics like these:
-- “An estimated 80 per cent of birth certificate requests are fulfilled through the mail using only a name and address.” This means that anyone can have your birth certificate sent to his address.
-- “Americans write 39 billion checks a year, and half of these folks never reconcile their bank statements.”
-- “A Social Security number costs $49 on the black market, a driver’s license $90, a birth certificate $79.”

Nearly half the book is devoted to true stories of how identities can be and have been stolen.

The rest of the book is filled with practical advice for avoiding identity theft. Some are no-brainers, such as getting and using a shredder, not giving out your Social Security number, and having your mail held by the Post Office while you are on vacation. But there are some other suggestions that aren’t as obvious, such as avoiding passwords that are your Social Security number (statistically the most common passwords used by banking customers), your mother’s maiden name, your pet’s name, or the word password. You should contact credit bureaus when a relative dies and file a “deceased alert” because, as Abagnale says, “when someone dies, they often move to the top of the list of identities sought after by thieves.” Be aware of billing cycles because a missed bill could mean that a thief has submitted a change of address for you.

Stealing Your Life, at 240 pages, is a relatively quick read and could be one of the most important books you read this year.

Book Review by Diane Gustafson, SWC Librarian

New Electronic Books - Finding E-Books and Taking Them Home

Over the winter break we've added over 2,800 new electronic book titles to our Library Catalog. Find the help you need, the information you seek, or fun reading to enjoy while online at your computer. Take advantage of our electronic book collection. No library card is required!



Use the Library Catalog to search over 19,000 electronic books in our library collection.

For off campus use you must first create a netLibrary e-book account from any on-campus computer. Visit netlibrary.com while on campus to create your account.


For additional information, questions or help visit the library's reference desk or call 619-421-6700 x5381 and speak with a reference librarian

College Book Essay Contest - Win $250

Essay Contest

The Friends of the Library are sponsoring an essay contest for currently enrolled SWC students. There will be two prizes of $250 each. To find out all the details, including the deadline to submit your essay, read this Essay Contest blog post.

Check it out

Gentlemen of the Road
by Michael Chabon

New York : Del Rey/Ballantine Books, c2007

Leisure Reading Collection, call # 3076

This is yet another delightful book by Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Summerland, and other novels. Chabon wrote this in the style of a vintage adventure/romance (in the old sense, not as in Romance Novel), and even had vintage style illustrations done for it. The adventure is placed in medieval Khazaria, a Central Asian kingdom. The Khazars were a Turkic people, but had adopted Judaism as their state religion. The book is a lot of fun, and a particular treat for lovers of the English language, as Chabon revels in the enormous vocabulary that English offers to the writer. Have your dictionary beside you, so you too can know why Chabon described a bird as “contumelious”!

Book review by Mark Hammond, SWC Librarian

Friends of the Library essay contest

Once again the Friends of the Library are sponsoring an essay contest for currently enrolled SWC students. There will be two prizes of $250 each. The essay prompt is based on this year's College Book, Blink: the power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell.

In Chapter 4 of Blink, Gladwell says that spontaneity isn't random. He adds, "How good people's decisions are under the fast-moving, high-stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training and rules and rehearsal." Choose a situation in which you or someone else would have to make a spontaneous decision (do not choose any of the situations described in the book). In an essay of at least one page but no more than three pages, describe how you could practice to prepare for that spontaneous decision.

The essay must be the student's original work, submitted electronically to essaycontest@swccd.edu before 12 noon on Monday, March 24, 2008. Late entries will not be accepted! A separate page must give the student's name, SWC ID#, address, telephone number, and email address. This page will be separated from the essay and an code assigned to the essay so the judges will not know the identity of the student. No identifiers (name, ID #, etc.) are to appear in the essay itself.

Prizes will be awarded at the Student Awards Ceremony in May.

Questions? Contact Diane Gustafson 482-6433 or dgustafson@swccd.edu

Welcome to spring semester

The Library is here to help you!

• 24/7 live research assistance from librarians
• from books, to computers, to online databases... we have it all
• our online library lets you work from home

The Library is Open

The Library is open for limited hours this week.

Wednesday, Jan. 9: 1-4 pm
Thursday, Jan. 10: 1-4 pm
Friday, Jan. 11: 1-4 pm

The Library will resume regular open hours for Spring Semester beginning on Monday, January 14, 2008.