Scary!

October in the Library is the scariest month of the year!

Whether it's witches, ghosts, zombies, and monsters... Stop by our our Halloween display to find some creepy books to read this Halloween.

One of those scary books on display is:

The Walking Dead. Volume 26, Call to Arms 

Authors: Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Stefano Gaudiano, Cliff Rathburn 

Publisher: Image Comics, 2016 

Call Number: Leisure Reading 3785 

The Walking Dead. Volume 26,  Call to Arms presents a dystopian future in which the dead rise as zombies that feast on the living. Survivors in this zombie apocalypse band together in groups to fight to see another day.

 This graphic novel focuses on one survivor, Rick Grimes, who helped build a community of survivors to later be betrayed by them and forced to leave to create another one.

To check out this book, or any of the scary books on display, simply bring your SWC photo ID card because it serves as your Library card too.

Come to the Library to see more spooky graveyard-related titles on display.

Review by Arnold Josafat, SWC Librarian

Reference Book of the Week

Geo-Data : The World Geographical Encyclopedia 
John F. McCoy, project editor
Detroit : Thomson-Gale, 2003
Reference Section: call number G103.5 .G36 2003

Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia provides entries on the physical geography of every country (as of 2003) in the world. Each entry includes maps of the country's geography as well as detailed text describing its features, climate and vegetation.

The entries for each country are standardized in format for ease of comparison, and include such fun facts for each country as largest city, tallest mountain, longest river, highest and lowest elevation, and types of natural hazards.

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian

Battleground: Government and Politics

Battleground: Government and Politics

by Kathleen Uradnik, Lori A. Johnson, and Sara Hower, editors

Greenwood Press, 2011

Reference Section, Call Number: JK275 .B37 2011 (2 vols)

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"Government and politics is an area in which there are no "right" answers, but much room for debate. Battleground: Government and Politics allows students and general readers alike to consider key political debates from all sides and to arrive at their own considered convictions, based on a firm understanding of the issues and points of view involved.

"This two-volume work explores dozens of the most contentious issues in contemporary life, issues that impact how our government is run today and how it will be run in the future. Each topic is examined in a balanced way, providing not only an overview of the issues involved, but an objective assessment of the stance of all sides. Readers can use these entries as thorough and solid summaries of the most contentious controversies in contemporary society, or as starting points for more in-depth research into the debates." (from Publisher website)

Selected by April Ibarra Siqueiros, SWC Librarian

A Guide to the Good Life

A Guide to the Good Life : the Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
by William B. Irvine
Oxford University Press, 2009
electronic resource (ebook)
Accessible to currently-enrolled SWC students, faculty, and staff

Everybody wants to live “the good life.” However, it often has different meanings to all of us. William B. Irvine explains his understandings of a good life by the help of stoic philosophy.

By the Merriam-Webster dictionary, stoic means, “one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain.”

Now, how does it lead to a good life? In an interview on the Daily Stoic website Irvine said: “…Ideally, a Stoic won’t have many negative emotions to deal with, inasmuch as he will routinely take steps to prevent them from arising in the first place. … On the other hand, a Stoic will embrace positive emotions. Because he engages in negative visualization, he will likely experience many little moments of delight in the course of an ordinary day. He will also likely have an unusual capacity for the experience of joy.”

Irvine gives us background information on the origin and history of stoicism in Greece and Rome, then list some of the psychological tools to practice this way of thinking, for example negative visualizations that is mentioned above.

In the following excerpt from the interview on the Daily stoic website, he talks about his favorite stoic philosophers, and why he reads them when his tranquil life, that is no doubt the result of his stoic living, is in turmoil:

 “I like all the Roman Stoics, but for different reasons. When I am dealing on an ongoing basis with annoying people, I turn to Marcus Aurelius. As Roman emperor, he had lots of experience dealing with annoying people. When I have an important decision to make, I turn to Epictetus and remind myself that there are things I can control and things I can’t. When I find myself lusting for consumer goods, I turn to Musonius Rufus, who managed quite well on being banished to the desolate island of Gyaros. And when I am feeling sorry for myself, I turn to Seneca. He reminds us that no matter how bad things are, they could be much worse."

As far as favorite quotes are concerned, I have a hundred of them. The Roman Stoics are wonderfully quotable. This one comes from Marcus Aurelius: “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”

I hope that after reading this ebook, or books from any of the stoic philosophers, there will be more dancing than wrestling in your future.

Review by Erika Prange, SWC Librarian

Check It Out

July is Culinary Arts Month! The Library has many books and e-books on this topic.

Here is one title that is available in both in print and electronically.

Encarnacion’s kitchen: Mexican recipes from nineteenth-century California: selections from Encarnacion Pinedo’s cocinero espanol 

Author: Encarnacion Pinedo
Publisher: University of California Press, 2003
Call Number (Print Version): Stacks TX716.M4 P553213 2003
Link (E-book Version): https://bit.ly/2NK1cWc 

Encarnacion’s kitchen documents for the first time Californio food, which is Mexican cuisine made by Spanish-speaking people born in California.

Not only are there hundreds of recipes reflecting Spanish, Basque, and Mexican influences, but there is culinary history that interweaves Latino culture and the author’s personal background.

The print book is available for check out for four weeks with a Southwestern College photo ID card. Or -- access the e-book from off-campus.

Come to the Library to see more National Culinary Arts month-related titles on display.

Cheers!
Review by Arnold Josafat, SWC Librarian 
 

Check It Out

June is Pride Month!

Did you know in the library’s e-book collection there is a great title honoring this theme?

Out and Running: Gay and Lesbian Candidates, Elections, and Policy Representation
 Author: Donald P. Haider-Markel
 Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 2010

Out and Running presents an analysis of gay and lesbian candidates, elected officials, and policies in government institutions, especially at the state level. The author highlights a number of findings that focus on the strategies LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) candidates use when running for elected positions and also the government policies they help create favorable to their communities.

It is a timely resource for preparing for upcoming local, state, and national elections. This e-book is accessible remotely from off-campus with any device with internet access. Remember to log in with your mySWC username and Date of Birth for your password.

Come to the library to see more Pride Month-related titles on display.

Cheers!

Review by Arnold Josafat, SWC Librarian

Check It Out

Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
by Iddo Landau
Oxford University Press, 2017

New Books Area
Call Number:
BD431 .L257 2017
Available for four-week check out with your SWC photo ID card

Is it possible for life to be meaningful when the world is filled with suffering, and when so much depends merely upon chance? Landau argues our lives often are, or could be made, meaningful-- we've just been setting the bar too high for evaluating what meaning there is. He offers new theories and practical advice that awaken us to the meaning already present in our lives and demonstrates how we can enhance it.

-- from Publisher

Check It Out

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

 Did you know in the Library’s book collection there is a great title honoring this theme?

The Decolonized Eye: Filipino American Art and Performance 
Author: Sarita Echavez See
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 2009
Print version Call Number: NX512.3.F55 S44 2009

The Decolonized Eye presents Filipino American art and performance from artists working in New York and California since the 1980s. The author highlights how these artists map and contest America’s amnesia about its colonization of the Philippines.

This perspective is grounded in specific examples of these artists’ visual and performance art, comedy, and film-making, and it helps define being an Asian Pacific American.

Come to the Library to see more Asian Pacific American Heritage Month-related titles on display.

Cheers!

Review by Arnold Josafat, SWC Librarian 

 

Check It Out

Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes who Played to Win

by Rachel Ignotofsky

Ten Speed Press, 2017

New Books: Call Number -- Leisure Reading 3950

"Illustrated profiles of fifty pioneering female athletes, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Women in Science. A charmingly illustrated and inspiring book, Women in Sports highlights the achievements and stories of fifty notable women athletes--from well-known figures like tennis player Billie Jean King and gymnast Simone Biles, to lesser-known athletes like skateboarding pioneer Patti McGee and Toni Stone, the first woman to play baseball in a men's professional league. Covering more than forty sports, this fascinating collection also contains infographics about notable women's teams throughout history, pay and media statistics for female athletes, and muscle anatomy. Women in Sports celebrates the success of the tough, bold, and fearless women who paved the way for the next generation of athletes"

-- from publisher

Check out any New Book for four weeks with your SWC photo ID card.

Check it Out

Earth Day is April 22

Beyond Earth Day
Author: Gaylord Nelson
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002
Call Number: GE195 .N45 2002

Beyond Earth Day is a classic book on what can be done to care for and save the environment. The author highlights the earth’s most dire issues, like species and habitat losses, global climate change, and the impact of human population growth. He also created a successful public awareness campaign, known as Earth Day, to provide the knowledge and strategies to inspire action to protect the environment’s remaining natural resources.

Come to the library to see more Earth Day and Climate Change Awareness Month-related titles on display.

Cheers!

Review by Arnold Josafat, SWC Librarian 

 

Check It Out

Title: Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 : A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism 
Author: Naoki Higashida
Publisher: Random House, 2017

Available for four week check out with your SWC photo ID card.
New Book Area Call Number: RC553.A88 H52 2017


Have you ever been curious about how other people see the world? What is their experience of everyday and unusual things? What does it feel to see color with music, or taste flavors when seeing colors?

Or living with autism?

The first movie that gave me an idea about the inner life of an autistic person was Temple Grandin. There are more movies and documentaries on this page https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/resource-library/films-and-documentaries, that shed lights on this developmental disability. The majority of these films were created by people who were filmmakers, and people who had friends or relatives affected by this disorder.

However, the book Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 was written by a person who is autistic. Naoki Higashida’s autism was labeled severe and nonverbal. Because of this, he uses an alphabet grid to spell out words and sentences, which often can take a long time. Despite these difficulties, he won story-telling contests and published more than 20 books.

David Mitchell, who has a son with autism with similar severity, wrote this in the introduction of this book: “The title Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 is borrowed from a Japanese proverb about the merits of persistence, and the book offers experience, advice and hope. It pages map the limits placed by nonverbal autism upon its author’s life, but also describe how Naoki has been able to transcend, renegotiate or just learn to live with those same limits. The book shows how a disability can be turned into a field of endeavor and the pursuit of a purposeful life. If this is possible for Naoki, it may be possible for others, too.”

Review by Erika Prange, SWC Librarian 

Check It Out

Title: The Psychology of Peace, An Introduction (2nd edition)
Author: Rachel MacNair
Publisher: Praeger, 2012
Format: eBook

"Despite our advances in technology and education, we still live in a world permeated by violence. This introductory textbook in the field of peace psychology addresses the psychological causes of violence and nonviolence, conflict resolution, nonviolent struggle, and the confluence of public policy and private lifestyles." -- provided by the publisher

The Psychology of Peace addresses the question "what causes violence, and what can be done to counter it?" In addition to providing an overview of psychological causes and effects of violence and non-violence, the text cites examples from history including wars and human rights movements.

The chapter entitled "Gentle Lives and Culture" offers several practical steps that we, as individuals, can take in our own lives in order to reduce the amount of violence in the world:

• improve listening skills
• parent with positive discipline
• reduce consumption of violence as entertainment
• eat a vegetarian diet
• perform positive social and environmental work 

Find this eBook in the library catalog or in the EBSCOhost eBook collection. eBooks are available remotely to all currently-enrolled SWC students, staff and faculty!

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian

Check It Out - The Valentine Edition

Happy Valentine's Day!

The SWC Library has many books about romance, love, and the history of Valentine's Day. Ask a librarian for assistance if you are looking for something in particular to read.

What Love Is: and What it Could Be is a book written by Carrie Jenkins about the emotional, the sociological and the biological aspects of love, and how love continues to evolve.

To check it out this book for four weeks with your SWC photo ID card, first go to the third floor and find it under this call number: BD436 .J46 2017. Then bring it to the Circulation Desk to check out.

Check It Out

February is Chocolate Lover’s Month!

Did you know in the library’s print collection there's a great title honoring this theme to check out? 

Luscious Chocolate Desserts 

Author: Lori Longbotham 

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2004 

Call Number:  Stacks TX767.C5 L65 2004
Available for four-week check out with SWC photo ID.

Lucious chocolate desserts is a great cookbook for the chocolate lover. The author provides at least 70 recipes using chocolate in pies, tarts, cakes, puddings, and more. She also shares how they can be made at home easily or be found in a restaurant. Anyone who loves chocolate will learn to distinguish between cocoa and cacao, store it properly, and most important taste its range from bitter to sweet. 

Come to the library to see more Chocolate Lover’s Month-related titles on display.

Cheers!

Review by Arnold Josafat, SWC Librarian

Check It Out

In celebration of Black History Month, check out:"Celebrating Black History" from Leland Melvin's NASA Blog.

Want to know more? We have an autobiography about Melvin in our New Book Area. You may check it out for four weeks with your SWC photo ID card.

Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances

Author: Leland Melvin

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2017

New Book Area

Call Number: TL789.85 .M46 A3 2017

Leland Melvin is the only person in history to catch a pass in the National Football League and in space. Though his path from the gridiron to the heavens was riddled with setbacks and injury, Leland persevered to reach the stars. While training with NASA, Leland suffered a severe injury that left him deaf. He was relegated to earthbound assignments but chose to remain and support his astronaut family. His loyalty paid off: after he recovered partial hearing, he earned his eligibility for space travel. He served as a mission specialist for two flights aboard the shuttle Atlantis, working on the International Space Station. In this memoir, the former NASA astronaut and professional athlete offers an examination of the intersecting roles of community, perseverance, and grace that align to shape our opportunities and outcomes. Chasing Space is not the story of one man but the story of many men and women, scientists and mentors, who helped him defy the odds and live out an uncommon destiny. The life story of Leland -- chemist, athlete, engineer, and space traveler -- is a study in the science of achievement.

--from publisher

Ready for the Super Bowl?

Find out more! Why is football the quintessential American spectator sport? How has the Super Bowl evolved over the years? How about the game itself -- the players, the coaches, the strategy?

Check out our books, articles, and films. Books may be checked out for four weeks with your SWC photo ID card.

We also have full-text articles from Sports Illustrated and other sports periodicals -- available from off campus in our electronic databases.

Here is just one book from our collection -- check it out!

Advancing the Ball : Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL

by N. Jeremi Duru

Oxford University Press, 2011

Call Number: Main Stacks GV706.32 D87 2011

"Professional football is, without question, the most popular sport in America, and by a substantial margin. Yet few scholars who look at the role of race and sports in America focus on the NFL. Historically, racial relations in other sports--particularly baseball, boxing, and basketball--have attracted more attention from writers and scholars, who have tended to regard football as déclassé. Ironically, however, professional football has been a trendsetter in racial relations despite its brutalism and its associations with political conservatism and militarism. The first African Americans to play in the NFL joined the league in 1946, one year before Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers. It had the first black union president (Gene Upshaw). And as Jeremi Duru argues in Advancing the Ball, it was the first league to systematically challenge America's most durable racial prejudice - the notion that African Americans are intellectually inferior to whites. By the mid-1990s, there had been only a couple of black coaches in the NFL, despite the fact that two thirds of the league's players were black. Taking on a hidebound and conservative group of owners, a network of aspiring black coaches eventually joined forces with the Steelers' owner, Dan Rooney, and their efforts produced 'the Rooney Rule.' The rule required every team to interview at least one black candidate when hiring a new head coach. Technically, football is the most complicated of all sports, and prejudice regarding aptitude did not wash away immediately. Indeed, many of the septuagenarian plutocrats who owned teams resisted the rule. A sea change did eventually occur, though, and the last few years have seen an influx of black coaches. The fact that two of the last Super Bowl-winning coaches (and three of the last six Super Bowl participants) have been African-American has proven the correctness of the rule"--Provided by publisher.

Want to know more? Ask a librarian! 

Check It Out

Check out a few books before you leave for winter intersessions! There are over 100 great titles to choose from in the New Books Area.

The Making of Black Lives Matter : a Brief History of an Idea
by Christopher Lebron
Oxford University Press, 2017
Call Number: New Book Shelf E185.615 .L393 2017

Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful and uncompromising campaign demanding redress for the brutal and unjustified treatment of black bodies by law enforcement in the United States. The movement is only a few years old, but as Christopher J. Lebron argues in this book, the sentiment behind it is not; the plea and demand that "Black Lives Matter" comes out of a much older and richer tradition arguing for the equal dignity - and not just equal rights - of black people.

The Making of Black Lives Matter presents a condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Drawing on the work of revolutionary black public intellectuals, including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King Jr., Lebron clarifies what it means to assert that "Black Lives Matter" when faced with contemporary instances of anti-black law enforcement. He also illuminates the crucial difference between the problem signaled by the social media hashtag and how we think that we ought to address the problem. As Lebron states, police body cameras, or even the exhortation for civil rights mean nothing in the absence of equality and dignity. To upset dominant practices of abuse, oppression and disregard, we must reach instead for radical sensibility. Radical sensibility requires that we become cognizant of the history of black thought and activism in order to make sense of the emotions, demands, and argument of present-day activists and public thinkers. Only in this way can we truly embrace and pursue the idea of racial progress in America.

-- review provided by publisher 

BOO! Check It Out

Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween

by Lisa Morton

Reaktion Books, 2012.

Call Number: GT4965.M67 2012

Every wonder where the Halloween tradition originated? This book contains historical information about Halloween, along with an overview of present-day celebrations in popular culture.

Check this book our for 4 weeks with your SWC photo ID card! 

And have a safe and happy Halloween!

Check It Out

Financial Planning for Your First Job 
by Matthew Brandeberg Brandeberg
Call Number: HG179 .B734 2009  
Available for four week check out with your SWC photo ID card.

Financial Planning for Your First Job lays a solid foundation for twenty somethings to learn the essential steps in creating a manageable financial plan. Readers are introduced to straightforward financial strategies such as: savings, investing, insurance, managing debt, and surviving a recession.

Brandeberg breaks down the planning process with helpful worksheets and a list of financial terminology. Although written with the college student in mind, this short and concise book can be relevant to anyone who is interested in taking charge of their financial independence.

Review by Margaret Drehobl, SWC Librarian

Check It Out

Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings
by Louis Klarevas
Prometheus Books, 2016.
New Books Area, Call Number: HV7436 .K53 2016

In the past decade, no individual act of violence has killed more people in the United States than the mass shooting. This well-researched, forcefully argued book answers some of the most pressing questions facing our society: Why do people go on killing sprees? Are gun-free zones magnets for deadly rampages? What can we do to curb the carnage of this disturbing form of firearm violence? ... To stem gun massacres, the author proposes several original policy prescriptions, ranging from the enactment of sensible firearm safety reforms to an overhaul of how the justice system investigates potential active-shooter threats and prosecutes violent crimes. Calling attention to the growing problem of mass shootings, Rampage Nation demonstrates that this unique form of gun violence is more than just a criminal justice offense or public health scourge.

--Amazon.com.