home Engineering Library, Resources and Services Reading Revelry: Judy Blume July

Reading Revelry: Judy Blume July

The Engineering Library is turning our attention to Judy Blume for our Reading Revelry picks for the month of July.

Since her first published work in 1969, Judy Blume gained renown as a prolific author to have published works for child, young adult, and adult audiences. However, she is also considered a trailblazer of child and young adult literature[1]. Blume wrote books that discussed topics of bullying, love, sex, and body image during a time where these things were rarely ever discussed in spaces children and teens had access to. While she was met with opposition, many of her readers still hold true that her books were spaces for them to finally get answers about themselves and the world around them that they couldn’t have asked anywhere else[1].

We hope you will enjoy reading (or re-reading) the selections we’ve picked for this month. Happy Reading!

Blubber by Judy Blume

ISBN: 9781481414401

Publication Date: 1974/2014

Jill and the rest of her fifth-grade class follow Wendy and Caroline’s example after they begin bullying a classmate for her appearance. However, it doesn’t take long for Jill and her best friend Tracy to realize that they are not exempt from becoming bullied themselves. The girls soon find themselves being tormented in a similar fashion by Wendy, Caroline, and the classmate they chose to bully simply because it was what everyone else was doing. 

 

Here’s to you, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume

ISBN: 9780440409465

Publication Date: 1994

Rachel Robinson is thirteen years old, and she is the youngest of three siblings. While she is proud of her academic accomplishments, Rachel feels like her insecurities and perceived insignificance may get the better of her. Throughout the novel, she feels like she fades into the background of her family’s hectic life, that her best friends, Alison and Stephanie, secretly dislike her, that she might not be able to handle the pressure of joining high-achieving school societies, and worried over her crush on her brother’s older tutor, Paul Medeiros. In this novel, Blume captures the worries and insecurities that follow children into young adulthood[2].

 

Wifey by Judy Blume

ISBN: 9780425206546

Publication Date: 1978/2005

Wifey follows the life of Sandy Pressman, a New Jersey housewife in the 1970s. Bored with her life and marriage, Sandy decides to have an extramarital affair with an old boyfriend. However, her world seems to shift suddenly when she discovers evidence that her husband might also be having an affair. This novel expands on many questions surrounding the pressures of what building a “perfect” life looks like for women. While the book was written in the 70s, the discussions within the novel can still apply to today’s ideas of gender roles, heteronormative lifestyles, and the parts of a marriage no one else sees[2]

 

Sources

  1. Phillis, Leah (2018). Judy Blume (2938-) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327423779_Judy_Blume_1938-
  2. The New York Times. (n.d.). The New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/maynard-blume.html
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Gabe Harman

Gabe Harman is a Senior Info Specialist at MU's Engineering library. He focuses on out-reach, instruction, and circulation

home Resources and Services Books to Celebrate Pride

Books to Celebrate Pride

It’s officially Pride Month and to help celebrate this month of love and acceptance, we asked our Mizzou Librarians what stories they’d like to celebrate.

Below are just a few of the recommendations that tell stories of triumphs and struggles of the LGBTQ community, all of which are available to request. You can view the whole list of recommended reads here.

Be sure to search the library catalog to see what else we have.

Have book recommendation? Let us know here.

BirthdayBirthday by Meredith Russo

Eric and Morgan decided they were best friends for life. They’ve stuck by each other’s side as Morgan’s mom died, as he moved across town, as Eric joined the football team, as his parents started fighting. But Morgan feels trapped in a mixed-up body, in a wrong life, in Nowheresville, Tennessee, on repeat. With a dad who cares about his football team more than his son, and a best friend who can never know his biggest secret. Six years of birthdays reveal Eric and Morgan’s destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they’re meant to be– and if they’re meant to be together.

 

Golden Boy Golden boy a novel Abigail Tartellin.

The Walker family is good at keeping secrets from the world. They are even better at keeping them from each other. Max Walker is a golden boy, with a secret that the world may not be ready for. This novel is a riveting tale of a family in crisis, a fascinating exploration of identity, and a coming-of-age story like no other.

 

 

I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre LordeI am your sister collected and unpublished writings of Audre Lorde

I Am Your Sister is a collection of Lorde’s non-fiction prose, written between 1976 and 1990, and it introduces new perspectives on the depth and range of Lorde’s intellectual interests and her commitments to progressive social change. Presented here, for the first time in print, is a major body of Lorde’s speeches and essays, along with the complete text of A Burst of Light and Lorde’s landmark prose works Sister Outsider and The Cancer Journals. Together, these writings reveal Lorde’s commitment to a radical course of thought and action, situating her works within the women’s, gay and lesbian, and African American Civil Rights movements.

 

Legends & LattesLegends lattes a novel of high fantasy and low stakes Travis Baldree.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is. If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone. But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

 

Out at the Movies: A history of Gay CinemaOut at the Movies A history of Gay Cinema

Over the decades, gay cinema has reflected the community’s journey from persecution to emancipation to acceptance. Politicised dramas like Victim in the 60s, The Naked Civil Servant in the 70s, and the AIDS cinema of the 80s have given way in recent years to films which celebrate a vast array of gay life-styles. Gay films have undergone a major shift, from the fringe to the mainstream and 2005s Academy Awards were dubbed the Gay Oscars with gongs going to Brokeback Mountain, Capote and Transamerica. Producers began clamouring to back gay-themed movies and the most high profile of these is Gus Van Sant’s MILK, starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first prominent American political figure to be elected to office on an openly gay ticket back in the 70s. The book also includes information on gay filmmakers and actors and their influence within the industry. Interspersed throughout the book are some of the most iconic scenes from gay cinema and the most memorable dialogue from key films.

 

Stella Brings the FamilyStella Brings the Family

Stella’s class is having a Mother’s Day celebration, but what’s a girl with two daddies to do? It’s not that she doesn’t have someone who helps her with her homework, or tucks her in at night. Stella has her Papa and Daddy who take care of her, and a whole gaggle of other loved ones who make her feel special and supported every day. She just doesn’t have a mom to invite to the party. Fortunately, Stella finds a unique solution to her party problem in this sweet story about love, acceptance, and the true meaning of family.

home Engineering Library, Resources and Services MU Engineering Library’s Reading Revelry

MU Engineering Library’s Reading Revelry

The staff at MU’s Engineering library is ecstatic to present our monthly book recommendation program: Reading Revelry!

Each month, our library staff will pick one or more books as recommendations for students to curl up and unwind from their studies with a good book or two (or more).

Please visit our Reading Revelry library guide to keep up with each month’s selections. Happy reading!

Our Selections for the month of June:

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

ISBN: 9781635570304
Publication Date: 2020-02-18
Dive into a fantasy world rich with adventure, political game, magic, and dragons in Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree. This book follows a Queen pressured with producing an heir to her throne, a lady-in-waiting tied to a secret society, a Lord banished from his kingdom by those looking to destroy it from the inside, and a young soon-to-be dragon rider willing to put her future on the line for an outsider.

 All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

ISBN: 9780374312718
Publication Date: 2020-04-28
George Johnson’s “Memoir Manifesto” is an honest, poignant recounting of their life experience as a black, queer person growing up in New Jersey and Virginia. The book follows Johnson from childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Beautifully told, the story navigates finding one’s own intersectional identity out of trials, triumphs, pain, and joy.
Content Warnings: Sexual Assault, Racial Slurs and Violence, Homophobic Slurs and Violence, and Familial Violence
ISBN: 9780983875550
Publication Date: 2015-04-14
Medical student Amal creates a rift with his conservative parents by coming out to them. After a night of trying to handle his emotional distress with alcohol, he wakes up to man by the name of TJ frying eggs and singing Paul Simon in his kitchen. TJ reveals that the two had made a drunken pact to drive from Berkeley to Providence. Amal needs to get there to fulfill a promise to his younger sister that he will attend her graduation. TJ has his own reasons for making the trip. Thus ensues a road trip between the two that is sweet, sometimes serious, and almost always heartening.
home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Books to Celebrate Pride at Mizzou

Books to Celebrate Pride at Mizzou

April is Pride Month at Mizzou and to help celebrate this month of love and acceptance, we asked our Mizzou Librarians what stories they’d like to celebrate.

Below are just a few of the recommendations hat tell stories of triumphs and struggles of the LGBTQ community, all of which are available to request. You can view the whole list of recommended reads here.

Be sure to search the library catalog to see what else we have.

Have book recommendation? Let us know here.

BirthdayBirthday by Meredith Russo

Eric and Morgan decided they were best friends for life. They’ve stuck by each other’s side as Morgan’s mom died, as he moved across town, as Eric joined the football team, as his parents started fighting. But Morgan feels trapped in a mixed-up body, in a wrong life, in Nowheresville, Tennessee, on repeat. With a dad who cares about his football team more than his son, and a best friend who can never know his biggest secret. Six years of birthdays reveal Eric and Morgan’s destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they’re meant to be– and if they’re meant to be together.

 

Golden Boy Golden boy a novel Abigail Tartellin.

The Walker family is good at keeping secrets from the world. They are even better at keeping them from each other. Max Walker is a golden boy, with a secret that the world may not be ready for. This novel is a riveting tale of a family in crisis, a fascinating exploration of identity, and a coming-of-age story like no other.

 

 

I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre LordeI am your sister collected and unpublished writings of Audre Lorde

I Am Your Sister is a collection of Lorde’s non-fiction prose, written between 1976 and 1990, and it introduces new perspectives on the depth and range of Lorde’s intellectual interests and her commitments to progressive social change. Presented here, for the first time in print, is a major body of Lorde’s speeches and essays, along with the complete text of A Burst of Light and Lorde’s landmark prose works Sister Outsider and The Cancer Journals. Together, these writings reveal Lorde’s commitment to a radical course of thought and action, situating her works within the women’s, gay and lesbian, and African American Civil Rights movements.

 

Legends & LattesLegends lattes a novel of high fantasy and low stakes Travis Baldree.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is. If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone. But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

 

Out at the Movies: A history of Gay CinemaOut at the Movies A history of Gay Cinema

Over the decades, gay cinema has reflected the community’s journey from persecution to emancipation to acceptance. Politicised dramas like Victim in the 60s, The Naked Civil Servant in the 70s, and the AIDS cinema of the 80s have given way in recent years to films which celebrate a vast array of gay life-styles. Gay films have undergone a major shift, from the fringe to the mainstream and 2005s Academy Awards were dubbed the Gay Oscars with gongs going to Brokeback Mountain, Capote and Transamerica. Producers began clamouring to back gay-themed movies and the most high profile of these is Gus Van Sant’s MILK, starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first prominent American political figure to be elected to office on an openly gay ticket back in the 70s. The book also includes information on gay filmmakers and actors and their influence within the industry. Interspersed throughout the book are some of the most iconic scenes from gay cinema and the most memorable dialogue from key films.

 

Stella Brings the FamilyStella Brings the Family

Stella’s class is having a Mother’s Day celebration, but what’s a girl with two daddies to do? It’s not that she doesn’t have someone who helps her with her homework, or tucks her in at night. Stella has her Papa and Daddy who take care of her, and a whole gaggle of other loved ones who make her feel special and supported every day. She just doesn’t have a mom to invite to the party. Fortunately, Stella finds a unique solution to her party problem in this sweet story about love, acceptance, and the true meaning of family.

home Resources and Services Celebrating Women’s History Month at Mizzou Libraries

Celebrating Women’s History Month at Mizzou Libraries

This month we are appreciating all the wonderful works by women. This month’s theme is Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories. 

We asked our Mizzou Librarians what stories they’d like to celebrate. Below are just a few of the recommendations, all of which are available to request.

You can view the full list here.

 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect? Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing.

 

The Gilda Stories : A Novel by Jewelle Gomez

This remarkable novel begins in 1850s Louisiana, where Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. After being initiated into eternal life as one who “shares the blood” by two women there, Gilda spends the next two hundred years searching for a place to call home. An instant lesbian classic when it was first published in 1991, The Gilda Stories has endured as an auspiciously prescient book in its explorations of blackness, radical ecology, re-definitions of family, and yes, the erotic potential of the vampire story.

 

Matrix by Lauren Groffmatrix by lauren groff

Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions. Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough? Equally alive to the sacred and the profane, Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman that history moves both through and around

 

The Power by Naomi Aldermanthe power by naomi alderman

A rich Nigerian boy; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. When a vital new force takes root and flourishes, their lives converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls and women now have immense physical power– they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And everything changes.

 

 

Disability Visibility: first-person stories from the Twenty-first century by Alice Wongdisability visibility

According to the last census, one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, some are hidden–but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers. There is Harriet McBryde Johnson’s “Unspeakable Conversations,” which describes her famous debate with Princeton philosopher Peter Singer over her own personhood. There is columnist s. e. smith’s celebratory review of a work of theater by disabled performers. There are original pieces by up-and-coming authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma. There are blog posts, manifestos, eulogies, and testimonies to Congress. Taken together, this anthology gives a glimpse of the vast richness and complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and past with hope and love

 

Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakattasting the sky

In this groundbreaking memoir set in Ramallah during the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, Ibtisam Barakat captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage, she stitches together memories of her childhood: fear and confusion as bombs explode near her home and she is separated from her family; the harshness of life as a Palestinian refugee; her unexpected joy when she discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. This is the beginning of her passionate connection to words, and as language becomes her refuge, allowing her to piece together the fragments of her world, it becomes her true home. Transcending the particulars of politics, this illuminating and timely book provides a telling glimpse into a little-known culture that has become an increasingly important part of the puzzle of world peace.

home Resources and Services Celebrating Black Stories at Mizzou Libraries

Celebrating Black Stories at Mizzou Libraries

This month we are appreciating all the wonderful works by Black creators showcasing Black stories.

We asked our Mizzou Librarians what stories they’d recommend and we got a lot. Below are a few of what was recommended and available at Mizzou Libraries.

You can view the full list here.

The Broken Earth Triology by N.K. Jemisinfifth season by N.K. Jeminison

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

 

Kindred by Octavia Butlerkindred by Octavia Butler

The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

“I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.”

Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present.

 

Hidden Colors Series directed by Tariq NasheedHidden colors

This is a series of 5 documentaries that discusses some of the reasons the contributions of African and aboriginal people have been left out of the pages of history. Traveling around the country, the film features scholars, historians, and social commentators who uncovered such amazing facts about things such as: The original image of Christ; The true story about the Moors; The original people of Asia; The great west African empires; The presence of Africans in America before Columbus; The real reason slavery was ended and much more.

 

Illustrated Black History : Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen by George McCalman with April Reynolds.

A gorgeous collection of 145 original portraits that celebrates Black pioneers–famous and little-known–in politics, science, literature, music, and more–with biographical reflections, all created and curated by an award-winning graphic designer. Illustrated Black History is a breathtaking collection of original portraits depicting black heroes–both famous and unsung–who made their mark on activism, science, politics, business, medicine, technology, food, arts, entertainment, and more. Each entry includes a lush drawing or painting by artist George McCalman, along with an insightful essay summarizing the person’s life story.

 

Black Men in White Coats : 100 Rules for Success! by Dale Okorodudu, MDblack men in white coats

What does it take to overcome adversity and achieve success against the odds? Best-selling author and award-winning physician, Dale Okorodudu MD, answers this question in his book, Black Men In White Coats: 100 Rules for Success. Dr. Dale shares experiences and lessons learned from the first 20 guests on his podcast, Black Men In White Coats. From battling depression to surviving gang infested neighborhoods, these doctors have seen it all. In this book, Dr. Dale outlines 100 concrete rules for success based on stories from these doctor’s lives. Fun fact: Dr. Dale Okorodudu is a MU Medical School alum. 

 

Hunger: A Memoir of (my) Body by Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay addresses the experience of living in a body that she calls ‘wildly undisciplined.’ She casts an insightful and critical eye over her childhood, teens, and twenties — including the devastating act of violence that was a turning point at age 12 — and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life. With candor, vulnerability, and authority, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen.

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private. A deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations.

home Resources and Services Native American Heritage Month Book Recommendations

Native American Heritage Month Book Recommendations

November is National Native American Heritage Month. To celebrate at Mizzou Libraries, we’ve curated a list of books with the help of Mizzou’s Four Directions. Thank you to Four Directions for taking the time to share your expertise and recommendations.

Below are a few we have available for check out. You can view the whole list of book recommendations here.

Interested in more than books? Four Directions has compiled a list of resources including podcasts, articles, blogs, etc.

Have a purchase recommendation? Use our book recommendation form.

Rez Metal : Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scenerez metal

Rez Metal captures the creative energy of Indigenous youth culture in the twenty-first century. Bridging communities from disparate corners of Indian Country and across generations, heavy metal has touched a collective nerve on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona in particular. Many cultural leaders—including former Navajo president Russell Begaye—have begun to recognize heavy metal’s ability to inspire Navajo communities facing chronic challenges such as poverty, depression, and addiction. Heavy metal music speaks to the frustrations, fears, trials, and hopes of living in Indian Country.

 

 

My grandfather’s knocking sticks : Ojibwe family life and labor on the reservationgrandfathers knocking sticks

Child uses her grandparents’ story as a gateway into discussion of various kinds of labor and survival in Great Lakes Ojibwe communities, from traditional ricing to opportunistic bootlegging, from healing dances to sustainable fishing. The result is a portrait of daily work and family life on reservations in the first half of the twentieth century.

 

 

 

 

Hollywood’s Indian : the portrayal of the Native American in filmhollywoods indian

The bloodthirsty savage, whooping and screaming and eager to scalp any white man who dared travel west, has been a staple of film since the earliest days of the medium. More recently, Native Americans have frequently been portrayed as environmentally aware, unburdened by the trappings of modern life, with much to teach whites. In this collection of essays, seventeen scholars explore the changing depictions of Hollywood’s Indian and how those representations have reflected larger changes in American society Offering both in-depth analyses of specific films and overviews of the industry’s output, from The Vanishing American (1926) to The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), Hollywood’s Indian provides insightful characterizations of the depiction of Native Americans in film. Taken as a whole the volume explores the many ways in which these portrayals have made an impact on our collective cultural life.

 

Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s, Tiffany Midge 

Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s is a powerful and compelling collection of Tiffany Midge’s musings on life, politics, and identity as a Native woman in America. Artfully blending sly humor, social commentary, and meditations on love and loss, Midge weaves short, standalone musings into a memoir that stares down colonialism while chastising hipsters for abusing pumpkin spice. She explains why she doesn’t like pussy hats, mercilessly dismantles pretendians, and confesses her own struggles with white-bread privilege.

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Books to Celebrate Disability Culture Month at Mizzou

Books to Celebrate Disability Culture Month at Mizzou

Mizzou began a tradition of celebrating Disability Culture Month, formerly Celebrate Ability Week, every September! Learn about how Mizzou is growing its understanding of disability with our Future is Accessible website, and learn about our rich history of inclusion with our Disability History at Mizzou timeline!

Below are a few we have available for check out. You can view the whole list of recommendations here.

Have a purchase recommendation? Use our book recommendation form

Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people.

 

 

 

 

Blackness and disability : critical examinations and cultural interventions by Christopher Bell

“Disability Studies diverge from the medical model of disability (which argues that disabled subjects can and should be “fixed”) to view disability as socially constructed, much in the same way other identities are. The work of reading black and disabled bodies is not only recovery work, but work that requires a willingness to deconstruct the systems that would keep those bodies in separate spheres. This pivotal volume uncovers the misrepresentations of black disabled bodies and demonstrates how those bodies transform systems and culture. Drawing on key themes in Disability Studies and African American Studies, these collected essays complement one another in interesting and dynamic ways, to forge connections across genres and chronotopes, an invitation to keep blackness and disability in conversation.

 

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

In this collection of essays, Lambda Literary Award–winning writer and longtime activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha explores the politics and realities of disability justice, a movement that centers the lives and leadership of sick and disabled queer, trans, Black, and brown people, with knowledge and gifts for all. Care Work is a mapping of access as radical love, a celebration of the work that sick and disabled queer/people of color are doing to find each other and to build power and community, and a tool kit for everyone who wants to build radically resilient, sustainable communities of liberation where no one is left behind. Powerful and passionate, Care Work is a crucial and necessary call to arms.

 

Defying Disability : The Lives and Legacies of Nine Disabled Leaders by Mary Wilkinson

This book tells the stories of nine disabled leaders who, by force of personality and concrete achievement, have made us think differently about disability. Whatever direction they have come from, they share a common will to change society so that disabled people get a fair deal.

 

 

 

 

 

Demystifying Disability : What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Landau

People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority, an estimated 15 percent of the global population. But many of us—disabled and nondisabled alike—don’t know how to act, what to say, or how to be an ally to the disability community. Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on the important disability issues you need to know about

 

 

 

 

Disfigured : on fairy tales, disability, and making space by Amanda Leduc

Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? If every disabled character is mocked and mistreated, how does the Beast ever imagine a happily-ever-after? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour and linking the quest for disability rights to new kinds of stories that celebrate difference.

 

 

 

 

Disability aesthetics by Tobin Siebers

Disability Aesthetics is the first attempt to theorize the representation of disability in modern art and visual culture. It claims that the modern in art is perceived as disability, and that disability is evolving into an aesthetic value in itself. It argues that the essential arguments at the heart of the American culture wars in the late twentieth century involved the rejection of disability both by targeting certain artworks as “sick” and by characterizing these artworks as representative of a sick culture

 

 

 

 

Women, Disability, and Culture by Anna Siri

Women and girls with disabilities find themselves constantly having to deal with multiple, intersectional discrimination due to both their gender and their disability, as well as social conditioning. Indeed, the intersection made up of factors such as race, ethnic origin, social background, cultural substrate, age, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, gender, disability, status as refugee or migrant and others besides, has a multiplying effect that increases discrimination yet further. The book seeks to pay the right attention to the condition of women with disabilities, offering points for reflection, also on the different, often invisible, cultural and social undertones that continue today to feed into prejudicial stereotypes.

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services National Hispanic Heritage Month Book Recommendations

National Hispanic Heritage Month Book Recommendations

September 15th – October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage Month. To celebrate at Mizzou Libraries, we’ve curated a list of books with the help of Mizzou’s Association of Latin@ American Students,  the Cambio Center, and some faculty from the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Thank you to these groups for taking the time to share their expertise and recommendations.

Below are a few we have available for check out. You can view the whole list of book recommendations here.

Have a purchase recommendation? Use our book recommendation form.

 

Bless me, Ultima, Rudolfo A. Anaya.

The winner of the Pen Center West Award for Fiction for his unforgettable novel Alburquerque, Anaya is perhaps best loved for his classic bestseller, Bless Me, Ultima… Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past-a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world…and will nurture the birth of his soul.

 

Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez 

A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister. Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, and as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion, an entire society–not just a pair of murderers—is put on trial.

 

Borderlands = La frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa 

Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in this volume challenge how we think about identity. Borderlands/La Frontera remaps our understanding of what a “border” is, presenting it not as a simple divide between here and there, us and them, but as a psychic, social, and cultural terrain that we inhabit, and that inhabits all of us. This 20th anniversary edition features a new introduction comprised of commentaries from writers, teachers, and activists on the legacy of Gloria Anzaldúa’s visionary work.

 

 

Farmworker’s daughter : growing up Mexican in America, Rose Castillo Guilbault

Guilbault was born in Sonora, Mexico in 1952, and in 1957 moved with her recently divorced mother to the U.S., where they settled in California’s Salinas Valley. In this flowing autobiography, she describes her experiences growing up as a Mexican immigrant in a farming community during the 1960s, and the challenges of maintaining a place in her immigrant family homelife while also acculturating to the public/American world around her

 

 

 

Open veins of Latin America ; five centuries of the pillage of a continent, Eduardo Galeano

Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe.

Before a mirror : the city / Nancy Morejón ; edited and with an introduction by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook ; translated by David Frye

The African Cuban poet Nancy Morejón set out at a young age to explore the beauty and complexities of the life around and within her. Themes of social and political concern, loyalty, friendship and family, African identity, women’s experiences, and hope for Cuba’s future all found their way into her poems through bold metaphor and tender lyricism. Although Morejón does not sympathize as much with intellectualized feminism as with “street” feminism (the kind that erupts with force as it confronts daily life), her poems illuminate issues in women’s existence. Without intending to, she has revitalized contemporary Caribbean feminist literary discourse. One can find in her work the tensions between colonizer and colonized, dominator and dominated, and at the same time enjoy the sheer beauty of images depicting suffering, strength, and hope.

TAGS:

Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Resources and Services Books to Celebrate Pride Month

Books to Celebrate Pride Month

June is Pride Month and to help celebrate this month of love and acceptance, here are some books available at Mizzou Libraries that tell stories of triumphs and struggles of the LGBTQ community.

These are just a few recommendations, so be sure to search the library catalog to see what else we have.

Have book recommendation? Let us know here.

 

For the Fiction Fans:

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan 

This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance. When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right. This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.

https://encore.searchmobius.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb29393525

 

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong 

 

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father. Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the “Fun Home.” It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail. More recently, this memoir was turned into a Tony award winning musical and you can check out the book and lyrics as well.

http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu/record=b7753395~S1

 

Marriage of a thousand lies

marriage-of-a-thousand-liesLucky is an unemployed millennial programmer. Her husband, Krishna, is an editor for a greeting card company. Both are secretly gay, presenting their conservative Sri Lankan-American families with a heterosexual front while dating on the side. When Lucky’s grandmother falls, Lucky returns to her mother’s home and unexpectedly reconnects with her childhood friend and first lover, Nisha. When the two rekindle old romantic feelings, Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie and finds herself pushed to breaking point. A moving exploration of love and queerness.

https://encore.searchmobius.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb32604082