A Perfect Opportunity For A Bookl

November has finally come and gone.  We are now in the depths of autumn. As the temperatures begin to drop and the rain clouds invade the skies, going outside is a lot less fun than it used to be. However, it is also the perfect opportunity to snuggle under a warm blanket and read a book. The library has plenty of books to choose from, but here are just a few of them.

By The Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz (813.54 KOONTZ K)


Dylan O'Connor, on his way to an arts festival in Santa Fe, is attacked by a mysterious "doctor" who injects him with an unknown substance and tells him that he is now a carrier of something that will either kill him or transform his life. Then he is told that he must flee--before the doctor's enemies hunt him down for the secret circulating through his body. No one can help him, the doctor says, not even the police. The next 24 hours turn into an odyssey of terror, mystery--and wondrous discovery. 

Camille by Alexander Dumas (843.7 Dumas D)

The book begins with a sale of a courtesan's things after her death. The narrator happens to go there by chance, and intrigued by what he saw, decides to write about her life. Margaret Gautier was the most popular and sought-after courtesan in Paris. Her symbol was the white camellia, which she wore whenever she was . . . available for business. However, she casts off her upper-class lifestyle for the commoner Armand Duval. But try as they might, society constantly challenges their love.

Ordeal by Nevil Shute (823.912 SHUTE S)

Written in 1938, just before the Second World War broke out, Ordeal is what Nevil Shute, and possibly the rest of Europe, feared would happen.The story follows the Corbett family as they try to survive multiple bombings, cholera, food shortages, and life aboard their small little yacht in the south of England.The Corbetts are good people, but sometimes they have to resort to more monstrous means in order to take care of their family and survive.

The Brief and Frightening Rein of Phil by George Saunders (813.54 SAUNDERS S)

Phil used to be a perfectly ordinary guy, with a perfectly ordinary hate for the people of Inner Horner until one day the country of Inner Horner shrinks and its few residents find themselves standing inn the country of Outer Horner. Never one to waste a chance, Phil claims that they are invading the country and must be punished. It begins innocently enough with a tax, but before long, Phil becomes so power-hungry that he feels the need to rule everything and get rid of the Inner Hornerites. In short, it is probably the strangest story about war that you will ever find, but it's wonderfully entertaining.

The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of The Worlds by H.G. Wells (823.912 WELLS W)
H.G. Wells has a reputation for being one of the fathers of science fiction, and that rests mainly on these three novels. The Time Machine follows its scientist narrator to the year 802701 A.D. where two social classes have evolved into two separate races. The Invisible Man is about a scientist who discovers a way to make himself invisible and then becomes disconnected from society and from his own mind. The War of the Worlds features an alien invasion by martians who devastate the earth and feed on human victims while the red weed spreads over the planet.

Is School Not Keeping You Busy Enough?

Did Halloween come and go too fast this year? Do you wish Thanksgiving would turn into Halloween II? Well now it can! Stay in the scary spirit with watching these movies and reading these books to help the time pass by until the warm weather comes back! Lucky for you, all of these can be found in the UCC library!

Just After Sunset
By: Stephen King

Scare your socks off with these short stories!

"Starred Review. Culled almost entirely from leading mainstream periodicals, these stories are a testament to the literary merits of the well-told macabre tale." - Publishers Weekly

"An uneven collection, but King has plainly had a ball writing these stories." - Kirkus Reviews

Shaun Of The Dead - DVD 791.43 S

Shaun doesn't have a very good day, so he decides to turn his life around by getting his ex to take him back, but he times it for right in the middle of what may be a zombie apocalypse... But for him, it's an opportunity to show everyone he knows how useful he is by saving them all. All he has to do is survive... And get his ex back.

Scanners - DVD 791.43 1980 S

Scanners have great psychic power, strong enough to control minds; they can inflict enormous pain and damage on their victims. Doctor Paul Ruth finds a scanner that Darryl Revok (the leader of the underground scanner movement for world domination) hasn't, and converts him to the good side so they can destroy the underground movement together.

Alien - DVD 791.43 A

The crew of the deep space mining ship Nostromo are awaken from hypersleep to investigate a strange signal from a nearby planet. While investigating the signal, they discover it was intended as a warning, and not an SOS.

Kitty's House Of Horrors
By: Carrie Vaughn - PB V

Talk radio host and werewolf Kitty Norville has agreed to appear on TV's first all-supernatural reality show. She's expecting cheesy competitions and manufactured drama starring shapeshifters, vampires, and psychics. But what begins as a publicity stunt will turn into a fight for her life.

An American Werewolf In London - 

DVD 791.43 A

Two American students are on a tour of Britain and are attacked by a Werewolf, leaving one dead and the other badly injured. The Werewolf is killed but reverts to its human form, and the local townspeople are unwilling to acknowledge its existence. The surviving student begins to have nightmares of hunting on four feet, but then his friend and other recent victims start appearing to him and demand the he find a way to die to release them from their curse of being trapped between worlds.

Night Of The Living Dead -
DVD 791.43 N

A group of people are trapped inside a farmhouse as legions of the walking dead try to get inside and eat their brains...Yum.. Can they get out of a zombie attack alive?

Printemps à Paris

We've recently added some new books to the collection about one of the world's most fascinating cities. If you don't see them on the "New Books" shelf and want to track any of them down, ask one of the library staff for help.

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb reveals the city through portraits of some of its most amazing denizens.






And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alan Riding shines the light on Parisian life under the Nazis.









No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf by Carolyn Burke provides a definitive biography of one of the world's finest vocalists and the subject of the academy award winning "La Vie En Rose". She played a role in the French Resistance during WWII, and when she died in 1963, tens of thousands of mourners emptied into the streets and brought Parisian traffic to a halt.









Women of the Left Bank, Paris, 1900 - 1940 by Shari Benstock provides a literary history of a special place and time through the lives of the creative women, many expatriate Americans, living in Paris in the early twentieth century.








The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War by Graham Robb takes you into the rural landscape of a developing country, where there was little in common with the City of Light.

The Southern Half of the Hemisphere

How much do you know about our neighbors to the south? We've recently added a variety of new books about Latin American countries.

A team of writers contribute to the Moon guide to Peru to provide you with a lot more than travel information. Informative articles and pictures are interspersed throughout the guides to cities and sites to see.






Obviously, there is more to Venezuela than Hugo Chavez! This concise survey of the nation covers its history as a Spanish colony, its years under a variety of dictatorships, and its status as a modern nation.








Brazil on the Rise was written by a New York Times bureau chief, who lived in Brazil for 14 years. He weaves many personal stories into this overview of colonial history and contemporary events. Learn about Brazil's economy, governance, and its people.



Published in 2010, this is the 5th edition of Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise. It is an up-to-date guide to environmental issues in Costa Rica and Brazil, political movements across the region, the US relationship with Ecuador, Colombia, and other countries, and analysis of developing and deteriorating economies. Although it covers a lot of territory, it provides a solid foundation to understand the challenges of the region.



Fernando Lugo, a liberation priest, is now the president of Paraguay. He brings new hope to a country plagued by tyranny, repression, and poverty.












Words, maps, and pictures combine to provide insight into Argentina. More than just a guide to the best restaurants, tourist sites, and places to stay, this Eyewitness Travel guide informs about the history and culture of the country.









This is just a sample of the many books on the library shelves that can help you learn about the amazing histories and cultures of Latin America. Most of our books on Latin America are shelved in the 972 and 980's sections of the library collection.

The Musicians Behind the Music

Check out some of the recently added titles to the music section (781. . . .) of the library. Ask the staff to point you in the right direction. Over the last few months we've added biographies about Etta James, the Carter Family, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Lester Young, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Jelly Roll Morton, Neil Young, Robert Johnson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Johnny Cash.

Nooks and crannies of the library collection #2

It's hard NOT to judge a book by its cover, when the cover of the book includes a title that's hard to forget. These four books about unusual ways of thinking about history, specifically European history, may tickle your fancy as you stroll through some of the more remote parts of the library collection.

No matter what you think of your own neighbors and neighborhood, you surely would be grateful to avoid what the folks of pre-industrial England (1600-1770) endured: small pox, rotting refuse in the streets, roaming pigs and dogs, carcasses in ditches, moldy food, poor air quality. . .not to mention the noise. With chapters about "Ugly", "Itchy", "Grotty", and "Gloomy" and accompanying illustrations Hubbub is an enlightening survey of English city life that will surely leave you feeling better about the 21st century.


This next item may not be safe for work, it is filled with so much filth. The filth of Shakespeare's London. But this is filth of a different sort. . .One glance at the chapter titles and you'll know whether or not this is something you want to explore and whether or not you want to know just how incredibly naughty Shakespeare plays really are. If you dare to know what sexual escapades Desdemona and Iago--or all sorts of other Shakespeare characters--are really discussing, take a peek at the pages of
Filthy Shakespeare. The author, Pauline Kiernan, holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she taught for many years. She's sure to make you blush.


And you'll just keep on blushing right on into the next century in City of Laughter : Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London. From the very first pages you'll be reading about "Lady Worsley's Bottom", a divorce trial, salacious color prints sold for a shilling, and a romp through a colorful history of "sex, bodies, and scandal". The author explains, "this is a book about the stories, jokes, and satirical exposures that later Georgian English people found funny. . .It focuses, not on the polished wit upon which the politer people prided themselves, but on their malicious, sardonic, and satirical humour: a peculiarly English humour if you like. . ." Perhaps this could lead to the historcial underpinnings of Monty Python's Flying Circus?


And now for something completely different. Or maybe not. Amy Butler Greenfield's A Perfect Red : Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire begins with the discovery by Spanish conquistadores of an extraordinary RED in the great marketplaces of Mexico in 1519. Butler, whose own grandfather and great-grandfather were dyers, then traces the history, influence, meaning, politics, and pirates of cochineal, "the legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities."