Hutchins Library News Blog

Happy January! Celebrate the beginning of a new semester with this month's spotlight, Mr. Silas House! His book, The Coal Tattoo, is a wonderful fictional story about two sisters. 

"Life isn’t easy for twenty-two year old Easter and her teenage sister Anneth, who were left parentless as young children. While Easter, a devout Pentecostal, finds solace in the powerful music of her church, Anneth seeks comfort in the rougher edges of life found in dancing, drinking, and fast living. Easter believes in tradition and is intent on rearing her wild young sister properly, but it’s only a matter of time before a wedge is driven between them–and threatens to undo their bond forever. . . ."

-www.goodreads.com.

"Silas House's most brilliant novel to date.... He plays the language of The Coal Tattoo like a master fiddler--- I gladly stayed up late nights listening to his music."

-Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Four Spirits and Ahab's Wife. 

Photo by www.goodreads.com.

Find it here:
 

The Coal Tattoo by Silas House

Call Number: H8417ct 2004 - BC Scholarship Collection (3rd floor)

Publication Date: 2004

Two sisters can't stand to live together, but can't bear to be apart. One worships the flashy world of Nashville, the other is a devout Pentecostal. One falls into the lap of any man, the other is afraid to even date. One gets pregnant in a flash, the other desperately wants to have child. This is what's at the heart of Silas House's third, masterful novel, which tells the story of Easter and Anneth, tragically left parentless as children, who must raise themselves and each other in their small coal-mining town. Easter is deeply religious, keeps a good home, believes in tradition, and is intent on rearing her wild younger sister properly. Anneth is untamable, full of passion, determined to live hard and fast. It's only a matter of time before their predilections split their paths and nearly undo their bond. How these two women learn to overcome their past, sacrifice deeply for each other, and live together again in the only place that matters is the story of The Coal Tattoo. Silas House's work has been described as compelling, seamless, breathtaking, heartbreaking, eloquent, stunningly beautiful, and exquisite. In The Coal Tattoo, he raises the bar once again.

Attend In this Place, at this Time: The Mission of Education in 21st Century America

February 1, 2018, 3:00 p.m.
Phelps Stokes Auditorium
 

In his presentation, Dr. Ricky L. Jones, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville, explores how education can be used to reinforce social and political marginalization in post-modern America and how it can be used to resist it. Carter G. Woodson Memorial Convocation

Want to know more?

Here are links to Ricky's books, in eBook format:

What's Wrong with Obamamania? by Ricky L. Jones

Call Number: eBook

Publication Date: 2008

Juxtaposes the meteoric rise of Barack Obama with far-reaching--and disturbing--shifts in black leadership in post-Civil Rights America.

 

 

 

Black Haze by Ricky L. Jones

Call Number: eBook

Publication Date: 2004

The first book solely devoted to the subject of black fraternity hazing.

Happy January everyone! Celebrate the beginning of the semester with this month's CD, Louis Armstrong: The Definitive Collection!  Louis Armstrong is a well-known figure of classic jazz and famous trumpet player. 

Some tracks include: 

"What A Wonderful World"

"Georgia On My Mind" 

and "Our Love Is Here to Stay!" 

Give this month's CD a listen and fall in love with classic jazz. 

Photo from allmusic.com. 

Attend Pearls, Prodigals, and Samaritans: Hearing Jesus' Parables Historically and Ethically on

January 25th, 2018, 3:00pm

Phelps-Stokes Auditorium

Dr Levine, Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, discusses how understanding Jesus' parables requires understanding Jesus' own Jewish context. How would the parables have been heard by Jesus' original Jewish listeners, how and why do anti-Jewish interpretations of these parables surface, and how might those original messages still speak to Jews and Christians today? Abramson Lecture. 

If you enjoyed her presentation and want to know more, find her books on display near the cafe!

Attend Fannie Lou Hamer Story on

January 15th, 2018, 3:00pm

Phelps-Stokes Auditorium

The performance features riveting storytelling, emotionally stirring songs of the Civil Rights era and a graphic video montage celebrating an unsung sheroe of the Civil Rights and Social Justice Movements, whose story became a catalyst for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This entertaining production will take the audience on a journey back in time, focusing on the struggle for human dignity and freedom in the U.S. and beyond. Co-sponsored with the Black Cultural Center, Carter G. Woodson Center, African and African-American Studies, CCC, and the Office of the President. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Concert. 

If you enjoyed her performance, check out some books about Fannie Lou Hamer's life we have on display near the cafe!

This Little Light of Mine by Kay Mills

Call Number: Call Number 973.049 H214zm 1993 (3rd Floor

Publication Date: 1993

Profiles the 1960s endeavors of dedicated civil rights activist Hamer. 

 

 

 

For Freedom's Sake by Chana Kai Lee

Call Number: Call Number 973.049 H214zL (3rd Floor)

Publication Date: 1999

The youngest of twenty children of sharecroppers in rural Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer witnessed throughout her childhood the white cruelty, political exclusion, and relentless economic exploitation that defined black existence in the Delta. In this intimate biography, Chana Kai Lee documents Hamer's lifelong crusade to empower the poor through collective action, her rise to national prominence as a civil rights activist, and the personal costs of her ongoing struggle to win a political voice and economic self-sufficiency for blacks in the segregated South. Lee traces Hamer's early work as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in rural Mississippi, documenting the partial blindness she suffered after being arrested and beaten by local officials for leading a group of blacks to register for the vote.  Despite her national visibility, Hamer remained a militant grassroots leader who never stopped working for the betterment of her own community in Sunflower County, Mississippi.  

This month's showcase is a Manga named The Ancient Magus' Bride by Kore Yamazaki.

"The Ancient Magus' Bride is an all-new Manga series that features a fascinating relationship between a troubled teenage girl and an inhuman wizard. Enter the Magician's Apprentice. Her name is Chise Hatori, a penniless orphan troubled by visions. Sold as a slave to an inhuman mage, she is about to begin a strange new life, filled with magic, fairies, and other beings of a fantastical nature." -from the publisher

Check it out today!

The Ancient Magus' Bride by Kore Yamazaki; Jason DeAngelis (Editor)

Call Number: 741.5 Y199a - Graphic Novels (Main Floor Circulation Area)

Publication Date: 2015

January's reference book of the month is Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. The following description is from amazon.com: 

Defining the Enlightenment as the "long eighteenth century," the Encyclopedia focuses on the entire range of philosophic and social changes engendered by the Enlightenment. It extends the conventional geographical boundaries of the Enlightenment, covering not only France, England, Scotland, the Low Countries, Italy, English-speaking North America, the German states, and Hapsburg Austria but also Iberian, Ibero-American, Jewish, Russian, and Eastern European cultures. Nor does the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment limit itself to major centers like Paris in France and Edinburgh in Scotland, but shares the rich lode of recent scholarship on "secondary" and "provincial" centers such as Berlin and Geneva; Philadelphia and Milan.
The Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment brings a similar spirit of inclusion to the new theoretical and methodological approaches that have flowered in the humanities during the past two decades. Including feminist and various post-modernist reassessments alongside more traditional perspectives, the four volumes offer the broadest possible range of current knowledge.
Accessibility combined with scholarly rigor make the Encyclopedia the first choice for researching any aspect of the Enlightenment.

Recommended for history majors.

Interesting tidbit: This book includes various images representing the Enlightenment era.

Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment by Alan Charles Kors (Editor)

Call Number: 940.2503 E56 2003

Publication Date: 2002

 

This month's display is dedicated to raising awareness on human trafficking:

“As we work to dismantle trafficking networks and help survivors rebuild their lives, we must also address the underlying forces that push so many into bondage. We must develop economies that create legitimate jobs, build a global sense of justice that says no child should ever be exploited, and empower our daughters and sons with the same chances to pursue their dreams. This month, I call on every nation, every community, and every individual to fight human trafficking wherever it exists. Let us declare as one that slavery has no place in our world, and let us finally restore to all people the most basic rights of freedom, dignity, and justice.” - Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America

Check out some materials we have available on this topic:

Sex Trafficking by Siddharth Kara

Call Number: 364.15 K181s 2009

Publication Date: 2008

Every year, hundreds of thousands of women and children are abducted, deceived, seduced, or sold into forced prostitution, coerced to service hundreds if not thousands of men before being discarded. These trafficked sex slaves form the backbone of one of the world's most profitable illicit enterprises and generate huge profits for their exploiters, for unlike narcotics, which must be grown, harvested, refined, and packaged, sex slaves require no such "processing," and can be repeatedly "consumed." Kara first encountered the horrors of slavery in a Bosnian refugee camp in 1995. Subsequently, in the first journey of its kind, he traveled across four continents to investigate these crimes and take stock of their devastating human toll.  He witnessed firsthand the sale of human beings into slavery, interviewed over four hundred slaves, and confronted some of those who trafficked and exploited them. In this book, Kara provides a riveting account of his journey into this unconscionable industry, sharing the moving stories of its victims and revealing the shocking conditions of their exploitation. Kara describes the local factors and global economic forces that gave rise to this and other forms of modern slavery over the past two decades and quantifies, for the first time, the size, growth, and profitability of each industry. Further, he identifies the sectors of the sex trafficking industry that would be hardest hit by specifically designed interventions and recommends the specific legal, tactical, and policy measures that would target these vulnerable sectors and help to abolish this form of slavery, once and for all. 

 

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Call Number: M12953s 2008

Publication Date: 2008

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt-then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words-Simply to endure is to triumph-and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision-will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life? 

 

Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings by Sheldon X. Zhang

Call Number: 364.13 Z63s 2007

Publication Date: 2007

Coming to America to make a better life has long been a dream of many from around the world, even if it means being smuggled into the country to gain entry. This book examines how human smuggling and trafficking activities to the United States are carried out and explores the legal and policy challenges of dealing with these problems. Zhang covers the scope and patterns of global human trafficking and smuggling activities; the strategies and methods employed by various groups to bring individuals into the United States; major smuggling routes and venues; the involvement of organized criminal organizations in transnational human smuggling activities; and the challenges confronting the U.S. government in combating these activities.

 

The Queen's Slave Trader by Nick Hazlewood

Call Number: 382.4409 H431q 2004

Publication Date: 2004

Throughout history, blame for the introduction of slavery to America has been squarely placed upon the male slave traders who ravaged African villages, the merchants who auctioned off humans as if they were cattle, and the male slave owners who ruthlessly beat both the spirits and the bodies of their helpless victims. There is, however, above all these men, another person who has seemingly been able to avoid the blame that is due her. The origins of the English slave trade -- the result of which is often described as America's shame -- can actually be traced back to a woman, England's Queen Elizabeth I. In The Queen's Slave Trader, historian Nick Hazlewood examines one of the roots of slavery that until now has been overlooked. It was not just the money-hungry Dutch businessmen who traded lives for gold, forever changing the course of American and world history, but the Virgin Queen, praised for her love of music, art, and literature, who put hundreds of African men, women, and children onto American soil. During the 1560s, on direct orders from Her Majesty, John Hawkyns set sail from England. His destination: West Africa. His mission: to capture humans. At the time, Elizabeth was encouraging a Renaissance in her kingdom. Yet, being the intelligent monarch that she was, the queen knew her country's economy could not finance the dreams she had for it. An early entrepreneur, she saw an open market before her and sent one of her most trusted naval commanders, Hawkyns, to ensure a steady stream of wealth to sustain all the beauty that was her passion.  After landing on the African coast, he used a series of brutal raids, violent beatings, and sheer terror to load his ships. John Hawkyns was the first English slave trader, and his actions and attitudes toward his cargo set the precedent for how those following him, over the next two hundred years, would act. 

 

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson; Reg Keeland (Translator)

Call Number: L33425gwhp 2009

Publication Date: 2009

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire. As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

 

To Plead Our Own Cause by Kevin Bales; Zoe Trodd

Call Number: 306.362 T627 2008

Publication Date: 2008

Boys strapped to carpet looms in India, women trafficked into sex slavery across Europe, children born into bondage in Mauritania, and migrants imprisoned at gunpoint in the United States are just a few of the many forms slavery takes in the twenty-first century. There are twenty-seven million slaves alive today, more than at any point in history, and they are found on every continent in the world except Antarctica. To Plead Our Own Cause contains ninety-five narratives by slaves and former slaves from around the globe. Told in the words of slaves themselves, the narratives movingly and eloquently chronicle the horrors of contemporary slavery, the process of becoming free, and the challenges faced by former slaves as they build a life in freedom.

 

Other Dreams of Freedom by Yvonne C. Zimmerman

Call Number: 261.833 Z729o 2013

Publication Date: 2012

Widely recognized as one of the most pressing human rights issues, human trafficking has captured worldwide attention as a crucial moral and political issue, perhaps nowhere more than in the United States. Since they were signed into law in 2000, U.S. federal laws and policies on human trafficking have been understood as concrete expressions of the civic values of personal and political freedom. Yet these policies have also been characterized by a marked preoccupation with regulation, especially sexual regulation. Yvonne C. Zimmerman offers a groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between freedom and sexual regulation in American approaches to human trafficking. She argues that the religious values of American Protestantism have indelibly shaped the federal government's approach to engaging human trafficking, and that the trajectory of the U.S.'s anti-trafficking efforts cannot be fully grasped without an understanding of the unique ways in which sex, morality and freedom are connected in Protestant Christian configurations of the moral world.