Looking for your next summer read? University Libraries are here for you.

David Sedaris is a well-known writer (well, well-known to most people: https://goo.gl/hcFmQY) whose humorous essays tend to focus on his own crazy life in addition to the crazy lives of his family and friends. However, his new work changes things up a bit.

While Sedaris has never been one to hide anything, his honesty reaches new heights in his latest book, “Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002).” The first of two volumes, this diary contains Sedaris’s observations on the world, which is different from most diaries, which contain the introspective thoughts and experiences of the writer. This creates a new kind of reading experience for fans of his previous works, offering a peephole into other people’s lives, and who doesn’t love that? Have you ever had a strange experience with a stranger, overheard a crazy conversation, or come across some hot gossip? While many of us might tell our friends and family, Sedaris told his journal, and now the world. Like many authors, he draws from life for his writing, and records the things around him. But unlike other writers, Sedaris records the little minutiae that some wouldn’t give a second thought. It’s an interesting look into the mind of a writer, and will inspire you to take an extra look/listen to things around you, and, possibly, start a journal of your own.

Check out this book at Ellis Library  or through MOBIUS.

Welcome to a new series where the library helps you find new hobbies and adventures you might not have considered before!

Paper quilling:

“Quilling or paper filigree is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. The paper is rolled, looped, curled, twisted and otherwise manipulated to create shapes which make up designs to decorate greetings cards, pictures, boxes, eggs, and to make models, jewelry, mobiles etc. Quilling starts with rolling a strip of paper into a coil and then pinching the coil into shapes that can be glued together. There are advanced techniques and different sized paper that are used to create 3D miniatures, abstract art, and quilled flowers among many things.” – Wikipedia

Paper quilling is a great craft to take up when you’re on a budget.  The paper is inexpensive and available just about anywhere. You can create all kinds of projects, such as cards, jewelry, wall hangings, and more.  There are a lot of great books available through MOBIUS to get you started!

Wood Carving:

“Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure.” – Wikipedia

Wood carving can be a great hobby for someone who is more detail-oriented.  Start-up costs are low, typically under $20, and the supplies take up very little room.

Wood carving basics / David Sabol with Kam Ghaffari

Wood carving : projects and techniques / Chris Pye

Wood-Carving Design and Workmanship / George Jackps://goo.gl/zW6Mdj

Sketching:

“A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually intended as a finished work.  A sketch may serve a number of purposes: it might record something that the artist sees, it might record or develop an idea for later use or it might be used as a quick way of graphically demonstrating an image, idea or principle.  Sketches can be made in any drawing medium.” – Wikipedia

Sketching can be an extremely low-cost creative outlet, with help from books from the library!  All you need are some instructions, a pencil, and some paper!  You may think you aren’t able to draw, but with practice, you can really develop your skills, and it’s a good stress reliever.

Sketch Your Stuff : 200 things to draw and how to draw them / Jon Stich

Start Sketching and Drawing Now Simple techniques for drawing landscapes, people and Objects

Though many magazines have gone completely digital, Ellis Library is still home to a large variety of print editions – several of them are probably so obscure you haven’t heard of them, but they’re full of information you wouldn’t normally come across anywhere else.

Take, for example, December/January 2018 edition of American Craft.  Erin Powell of our Serials Department couldn’t resist flipping through it when she saw this headline on the cover: “Tiny Scenes of the Apocalypse.”

Who remembers making a diorama in grade school?  It’s a common enough project, but Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber have taken it to new heights (or lows, considering the size of their art) by expanding on the diorama with increasingly complex themes and textures.  While Nix and Gerber didn’t study miniature design in college, their combined skills in photography, ceramics, and glass made them perfect partners for creating realistic scenes of disaster and dystopian realism.  They’ve gradually moved from store-bought props and empty backgrounds to making nearly every element by hand.  Every diorama is extremely detailed and filled with various textures and designs because, as Nix explains, “I don’t know what the camera is going to catch.”  Seeing this kind of in-depth art can make you feel a little out of sorts when viewing the photos, as you can’t easily tell which photos portray real life, and which have been created in a studio.  Nix actually ran into this problem last summer, when she photographed a grasshopper while visiting her mother here in Missouri.  After posting the photo to Instagram, her followers immediately thought it was a model.

Most of their dioramas portray a “post-apocalyptic background,” as part of their ongoing series, The City, which debuted in 2005.  Nix and Gerber both have a morbid streak, and their next exhibit, premiering at the end of November, takes the dystopian scenes from indoors to outdoors – from an overgrown library to a vast view of a city skyline.  The dioramas are so detailed, the artists are only able to exhibit once every three years or so, but have been able to create their own commercial business, producing dioramas for companies like BBC America and Wired.

While people find a “dark humor” in the works, Nix worries that they “should be doing Utopian scenes” but admits, “it’s not in me.”  She asks Gerber, “Do you think we should be making ‘pretty’?  Could we even make ‘pretty’?”  But neither of them know – they just know this is the art they need to make now.

http://www.nixgerberstudio.com/

http://americancraftmag.org

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Roxane Gay’s memoir Hunger is available for checkout through the University Libraries.

Is there anything Roxane Gay can’t do??  Let’s just list some of the highlights of this amazing woman:

• New York Times best-selling author (Bad Feminist)
• One of the first black women to be a lead writer for Marvel (Black Panther: World of Wakanda)
• Writes both fiction An Untamed State, Difficult Women) AND nonfiction Bad Feminist, Hunger) AND poetry (Ayiti).
• Founder of Tiny Hardcore Press
• Essays editor for The Rumpus
• Professor at Purdue University
• Co-editor of PANK, a nonprofit literary arts collective
• Writer of the long-running tumblr blog, Roxane Gay is spelled with one “N”

You wonder how a woman like that has time to do all of this and still travel around the country, promoting her new book, Hunger: A memoir of (my) body.  Gay has been open about her life and experiences, and in her new book, she tackles a subject she has often written about intimately on her tumblr blog.  Her horrific sexual assault at age 12 has been a big influence on her work over the years, and this part of her past is discussed in this book, with regards to self-image and self-care: “I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.”  People make assumptions and are often cruel towards people of a certain weight, but more than that, Gay confronts the reality of being a fat person in today’s society, for example: unsolicited advice from strangers (many listed on her blog with a link below), people taking food out of her grocery cart, and the heartbreaking realization that “the bigger you become, the smaller your world gets” with regards to movie theaters and airplane seats, and being excluded in so many ways. Gay’s honesty and vulnerability make this a memoir worth checking out.

Interesting Links:

• Watch Roxane Gay’s interview on The Daily Show
• “Weight Loss Advice I Have Received Since Hunger’s Release”

Here are recommendations for books that you may also enjoy – available through University Libraries!  Click the covers for more information!

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