Thank you to everyone who participated in Our Community Reads! We will wrap up the blog with another interesting way to explore The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier: a reading map. Created by Laura Foutch (a newly minted librarian and addition to our Library staff) it pulls together related books, movies and websites, tracing the themes that make the book such a fascinating read. Click below and take your exploration of the book even further!
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Last night, for the final Our Community Reads program, Gary Christenson gave an entertaining presentation on the portrayal of the afterlife in film. Highlighting themes such as the desire for eternal life, justice and redemption, Gary referenced many different movies, and they are listed in alphabetical order below. Please note that if the movie is available in our library system I’ve added a link to the catalog. For other titles, please contact the Reference Desk for help obtaining them from other libraries.
Always
Defending Your Life
Dragonfly
Field of Dreams
Ghost
Goodbye Charlie (1964 with Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau and Debbie Reynolds)
Hereafter
Heaven Can Wait
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Lovely Bones
Made in Heaven (1987 with Timothy Hutton)
Meet Joe Black
Michael
Rapture
The Sixth Sense
The Tree of Life
What Dreams May Come
Also mentioned:
After Life
Patch Adams
Nasso Lar (also titled Astral City)
The Natural
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
Posted in Our Community Reads
Tagged After Life, Always, Astral City, Defending Your Life, Dragonfly, Field of Dreams, Ghost, Goodbye Charlie, Heaven Can Wait, Hereafter, It's a Wonderful Life, Made in Heaven, Meet Joe Black, Michael, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Patch Adams, Rapture, The Lovely Bones, The Natural, The Sixth Sense, The Tree of Live, What Dreams May Come
On Tuesday evening we had a terrific time listening to author Kevin Brockmeier talk about his book The Brief History of the Dead, as well as writing, music, movies, art and much more!
One thing we learned is that Kevin keeps extensive lists of his favorite items and, as requested by the audience, we now have copies of them available. Please stop by the Reader Services Desk or you can view/print below.
KB’s 50 Favorite Children’s Books
Thank you to everyone who attended the Our Community Reads author event! There wasn’t nearly enough time for all the topics we could have discussed, so feel free to keep going using our Online Book Discussion page.
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Tonight at 7:00pm please join us for an evening with Kevin Brockmeier.
The author will read from The Brief History of the Dead and answer questions about his book. Brockmeier is an award-winning novelist and short story writer who has been called one of “America’s best practitioners of fabulist fiction.” He has received Arkansas’ top literary prizes (the Porter Fund Award for Literary Excellence and the Worthen Prize), and has been recognized nationally with numerous awards, including three O. Henry prizes, for his masterful use of figurative language in stories that combine reality and fantasy.
The author visit is sponsored by the St. Charles Public Library Foundation.
Posted in Book Discussion, Our Community Reads
During the next few weeks we are offering the opportunity to discuss The Brief History of the Dead online. Questions will be posted every few days (Question 1 is up now). In addition, feel free to ask questions as comments on this post. They can be about the book, or specific questions for author Kevin Brockmeier that we’ll try to ask when he’s here next week.
4/4 – Question 2 is now up and ready for comments!
4/7 – Question 3 has been posted
4/11 – Question 4
Posted in Book Discussion, Our Community Reads
One of the fun outcomes of the Our Community Reads selection (The Brief History of the Dead) is the varied way people have responded to it – particularly in a visual medium. We noticed this off the bat with the striking cover designed for the book. This in turn led us to offer a “Book Cover Re-Design Contest” and the entries were all notably different.
The full-size images can be seen in the lobby of the Library during April; the winner will be announced on April 9th at the evening event with author Kevin Brockmeier.
I also had an interesting conversation with a patron after she finished reading the book. She commented that she kept thinking of an infinity loop being drawn tighter and tighter as the story progressed.
And then last week a coworker handed me a small doodle of footsteps going towards an ice-filled landscape that the book inspired her to create (full disclosure: she had to explain to me that the loop is not the St. Louis arch but a Mobius strip that is partly underground).
I also felt like the descriptions in the book created a lot of visual images that lingered in my imagination, including birds trapped helplessly against an invisible shrinking enclosure and somewhat (to my mind) psychedelic rolling snowballs.
Did you feel the book provoked any strong imagery? Feel free to share in the comments! You should also plan to join us on April 4 as David Stark from the the Art Institute of Chicago presents an exploration of how artists have interpreted death and the afterlife in diverse and stunning ways.
Posted in Our Community Reads
So imagine you’re looking for a job in your chosen field and instead of finding something local you see an opening for a job at the South Pole. What would you do? If you’re 29-year-old Sarah Meyer you say, “I figured if life gives you an opportunity to apply for a job in Antarctica, you take it!”
Sarah grew up in Arlington, Texas, and has her doctorate in physical therapy from University of Texas Medical Branch. For the past four years she worked as a physical therapist at an inpatient rehabilitation facility with specialization in brain injury and strokes. But after a whirlwind process of applying, she recently found herself on a flight to Antarctica, arriving “on the ice” February 13 where she is part of a three-person team at the McMurdo Medical Clinic at McMurdo Station.
Choosing to work as part of the “winter-over” staff in Antarctica is a serious commitment. Sarah and I started trading emails recently and as she put it, “The station was closed (last plane in and out) on March 9 and will open again (next plane to arrive) in either August or October. It’s undecided at this point secondary to government funding.”
Sarah is part of a winter population of 142 people at the station. In addition to her work duties, she is volunteering at the the station library. And, she has graciously accepted our offer to read The Brief History of the Dead along with us and give us her perspective on the book–particularly from her vantage point of living and working in Antarctica!
Sarah is also willing to answer questions, so if you have questions about life at the South Pole, especially as portrayed in the book, put them in the comments below and I will pass them along to Sarah. As she has time between her responsibilities, she will send back answers that I will post on the blog!
In the meantime, if you want to see where Sarah is writing from, check out this link she sent to a live webcam of McMurdo Station. “The red and white building on the Arrival Heights Camera is the Medical Hospital. The sun is getting lower and lower, so the camera will be less helpful once the sun sets and does not return to our horizon for several months.” You can also read another person’s account of arriving at McMurdo Station.
Posted in Antarctica, Our Community Reads
For decades, various filmmakers have produced movies tackling the big questions about death, dying and the afterlife. Film is a particularly good medium to explore what the afterlife might look like. Below are some of the movies we’ve come up with that make for interesting watching, as well as links to some thought-provoking lists.
Please also join us on Tuesday, April 16, as Gary Christenson presents “How the Afterlife Has Been Depicted in Cinema,” at 7:00 p.m. in Huntley Meeting Room.
And chime in with your film suggestions in the comments!
Death Takes a Holiday In this 1934 film, Death takes the form of a prince who visits a family of wealthy socialites in order to experience all of the pleasures and pains that go with a flesh-and-blood existence. Perhaps a bit slow by today’s standards, but still enjoyable.
After Life This Japanese film has a documentary style and an unusual premise: After you die you go to a sort of way station where you must select the one memory from life you want to keep forever and relinquish everything else.
Matter of Life and Death (also sometimes titled “Stairway to Heaven”) David Niven stars as Peter Carter, the fighter pilot who should have died, but his “conductor” failed to escort him to the afterlife in a timely manner. As a result, Carter has time to fall in love and with that change in destiny decides he should get a second chance at life. A long, sometimes surreal film–try the opening sequence and you’ll know whether it’s for you.
(Note: the entire film is available online)
Defending Your Life A comic look at the afterlife, starting with a visit to Judgment City where, if you can’t make your case for moving on, you are sent back to earth to try again.
The Daily Grail–Top 10 Afterlife Movies
A.V. Club–Between Heaven & Hell: 12 Films Featuring Unusual Afterlives
As we lead up to our discussion of The Brief History of the Dead in April, we’re sharing articles and news of related interest.
In my last post I alluded to the many important scientific and research programs that are continually happening in Antarctica–but quite a few sporting events take place there, too.
Runners who have tried everything else might want to tackle the Antarctic Ice Marathon in November. Set on Union Glacier, it is located a mere 650 miles from the South Pole and boasts “breathtaking views” (perhaps literally?) as well as “breezy” conditions known as katabatic winds. Katabatic winds can rush down elevated slopes at hurricane speeds! Brrrrr.
Katabatic winds
Sound too easy? You could participate in the “Four Deserts” race, recognized as the world’s leading endurance footrace series. The Four Deserts races take place in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Gobi Desert in China, the Sahara in Africa, and in Antarctica. Antarctica is considered to be a desert because the extreme cold freezes water vapor out of the air, and annual snowfall on the polar plateau is equivalent to less than 5 cm of rain. There are no liquid lakes or rivers: it is the driest continent on earth.
Participants in the Four Deserts race in Antarctica.
Sports are a big part of life for the people living and working in Antarctica as well, with residents participating in everything from dodgeball to rugby to “local inventions such as human-sled-tractor-pulls,” according to an ESPN article.
And although the “sports” connection is tenuous, Antarctica was also just showcased as the backdrop for the 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
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In April, the St. Charles Public Library and Elgin Community College are cosponsoring a variety of events for “Our Community Reads.” Members of the community are encouraged to read the book, The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier and join in the conversation.
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Posted in Antarctica
Tagged Antarctic sports, Antarctica as desert, Antarctice Ice Marathon, Four Deserts races, katabatic winds
As we lead up to our discussion of The Brief History of the Dead in April, we’re sharing articles and news of related interest.
USA Today recently ran an article pointing out an increase in popularity of books written by those who have had a near-death experience. At the Library we certainly saw a long “holds” list on Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo for several months and have had requests for similar books. In The Brief History of the Dead, author Kevin Brockmeier presents an interesting scenario of what happens immediately after dying that may or may not ring true to readers. But the fact remains that many of us are fascinated by the “what if” questions of life after death and so, of course, we will be intrigued by those who claim to have first-hand knowledge.
I also wonder if, in these times of so much uncertainty, we are more prone to take a look at “big picture” questions? As it is often said, one thing we can be certain of is death. Considering the possibilities of what happens afterwards is an investigative journey many people undertake. Have you found any certain book to be enlightening? Feel free to share now in the comments and later as part of Our Community Reads!
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An evocative tale of adventure, apocalypse and the afterlife.