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Read This Book! episodes
- ‘The Revolutionary Samuel Adams’
“The Revolutionary Samuel Adams” by Stacy Schiff was reviewed on this installment of Read This Book, from the University of Minnesota Libraries.
Bill Pederson from the UMN Music Library shared his thoughts with Read This Book host, Lisa Von Drasek, who is also curator of the UMN Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature.
Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Stacy Schiff returns Samuel Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd, eloquent, and intensely disciplined man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution.
About Lisa Von Drasek and Bill PedersonLisa Von Drasek is the Curator of the Children’s Literature Research Collections, home of the Kerlan Collection, at the University of Minnesota Libraries. Bill Pederson works at the Music Library at the University of Minnesota.
About Read This Book!Read This Book! is a video podcast produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries. It is available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.
[powerpress_playlist type=”audio” channel=”read-audio” height=”200″]The post ‘The Revolutionary Samuel Adams’ appeared first on UMN Libraries News & Events.
6 min - Pankake Poetry with Sun Yung Shin“Thank you to Marcia Pankake. This is incredible, to dedicate space and time and resources to poetry in our culture.” —Sun Yung ShinThe 14th Annual Pankake Poetry reading, named for librarian Marcia Pankake, took place on April 4, 2023. Poet and cultural worker Sun Yung Shin read from her latest book of poetry, “The Wet Hex,” a finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Award for poetry. She described it as a book “about what our ancestors are asking of us.” Our audience, both in person and online, listened with rapt attention as she read.“How did God make his hands small enough to form the faces of so many soldiers? / How did he concoct my family—from rope or broth? / A child can be renamed a thousand times, or denied the dignity altogether. / Die without one, live without one.”—Excerpt from An Orphan Considers the Hand of God, by Sun Yung ShinTo hear more of her work, please enjoy the event video. Learn more about Sun Yung Shin from her website.Additional photos of the event are available to view and share. Photos by Luke Logan.Support the Friends ForumThank you to the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries for sponsoring events in the Friends Forum: A Series for Curious Minds. These thought-provoking and intellectually engaging programs enrich both the campus and community. Not a member? Please consider supporting the Friends of the Libraries!1 hr
- A conversation with collectorsGlen Miranker talks about his collection of Sherlock Holmes materials with fellow Sherlockian collector, Dr. Richard Sveum, on March 16, 2023.1 hr
- ‘The Searcher’ reviewed on Read This Book!
‘The Searcher’ — A New York Times bestselling thriller — is reviewed on Read This Book by University of Minnesota Dean of Libraries Lisa German and host Lisa Von Drasek.
About Lisa Von Drasek and Lisa GermanLisa Von Drasek is the Curator of the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries and host of Read This Book! Lisa German is University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Minnesota.
About Read This Book!Read This Book! is a video podcast produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries. It is available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.
[powerpress_playlist type=”audio” channel=”read-audio” height=”200″]The post ‘The Searcher’ reviewed on Read This Book! appeared first on UMN Libraries News & Events.
5 min - Don’t miss ‘Holmes in 221 Objects’By Allison Campbell-JensenWhile he was earning his bachelor’s degree from Yale in Physics and the relatively new field of Computer Science, Glen S. Miranker was re-introduced to a friend from childhood: Sherlock Holmes. The tightly written adventures of the iconic detective offered respite of a sort from his studies.Then, while pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT, his wife of six months, Cathy, bought him a surprise at an antiquarian book sale: an American first edition of “The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.”How a collector got started“Until that moment,” Miranker told Fine Books & Collections magazine, “it hadn’t dawned on me that regular people could have a relationship with books other than reading.”Miranker progressed in his career, becoming an executive at Apple, and in his “gentle madness,” as he terms it, of becoming an outstanding collector of works about Sherlock Holmes and handwritten pieces by his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle.A small slice — 221 objects — of the Glen S. Miranker collection of some 6,000 items now is on view in Elmer L. Andersen Library, on the University of Minnesota’s west bank.This traveling exhibition was first seen by Timothy Johnson at the Grolier Club in New York City. Johnson is the E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University Libraries and a fellow member with Miranker of the Baker Street Irregulars. (At the exhibit, visitors may pick up an excerpt from the Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections newsletter, February 2022, for details from Johnson.)Social and historical context of the Sherlockian canon“Bright, passionate, and engaging” — those were Miranker’s first impressions of a group he was stepping into: Sherlockians. “I basically fell in with a bad lot,” he jokes with Johnson in their videotaped interview.With the help of an exhibition booklet that introduces the 221 objects in nine thematic groups, visitors will be able to navigate the exhibition with ease — and increasing excitement as they learn more about the times in which Sherlock was active.Indeed, for any dedicated reader, budding writer, or fan of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock, there is a rare treat: an eight-page holograph* speech delivered June 29, 1896 to the Author’s Club: “The Work of Storytelling.” The speech was known but had disappeared, until it showed up at auction in 2004; Miranker was able to acquire it.Early on in the speech, Conan Doyle said of his beginnings as a writer: “I only know that when I was little I wrote little stories and when bigger, bigger ones.” Beyond the self-deprecating jokes, he offered serious advice to his listeners in London. And, now, you can read it, too, in his precise, yet rounded handwriting.Don’t miss this exhibit and two special events, March 16 and April 20. As we must say: “The game’s afoot!”*Holograph, in this context, means “written by hand.”16 min
- Let indigenous people leadBy Allison Campbell-JensenWhile working for the U.S. Forest Service, Michael Dockry taught colleagues, one at a time, about the benefits of building relationships with indigenous people — that it makes sense to take advantage of the wisdom of those who have lived on these lands for generations.At the annual "A Feast of Words" event, held Jan. 26 at the Campus Club, Dockry — wearing a traditional ribbon shirt — said that he came to the University of Minnesota in 2019 so that he could share his experiences and his research more broadly, with hundreds of young people who will work in forestry.With a stronger foundation of building partnerships that last, these foresters and those in the natural resources departments of native nations with whom they work can benefit the generations to come.“A lot of my profession is planning — getting people together to talk about our issues,” said Dockry, an assistant professor of tribal resource management in the University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences. If we can better plan for the future, “we can walk forward in unison.”He added: “We can all admit we are in an unsustainable situation now.”A Feast of Words is an annual event sponsored by the Friends of the University Libraries and the Campus Club.Building connectionsMike Dockry at "A Feast of Words."Along with teaching and research, Dockry is working with the Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin (Manoomin is an Ojibwe word for wild rice) — a joint Tribal-University Research Collaboration examining the decline in wild rice. The partnership involves tribal nations, intertribal treaty organizations, and the University of Minnesota.Indigenous people are leading the way. For the different agencies of federal, state, county, and indigenous nations’ governments to work well together, however, he says they need to pay attention to principles for strategic partnerships.* Acknowledge past and present harms;* Collaborate as equals;* Create formal agreements that outlast individuals; and,* Foster personal relationships.Among the past and present harms to be acknowledged is the U of M’s focus on cultivating wild rice. Public historian Chris Rico, who trained at the University of Minnesota and was in the audience, spent years in the University Archives tracing the evidence of this seemingly well-intentioned research by U of M scientists.Presenting the scientists’ point of view, Dockry said: “It could be more efficient.”But to the nations who came to the Upper Midwest because of wild rice, the Anishinabe (Ojibwe) peoples, wild rice is not only food; wild rice is a spiritual relative, a sovereign being. Some tribes with this family relationship say to scientists: “You have no right to do that,” to breed a type of wild rice that provides larger harvests.That sort of research, Dockry added, is not being done to support wild rice. As a parallel, Dockry said: “Nobody would change Grandma so that she would cook soup for 15 hours a day.” The tribes are showing us how to lead: “If Grandma’s sick, let’s have a family discussion.”And one of the ways to build trust for that family discussion is to build connections.“We have to canoe the waters together; we have to walk the lands together,” Dockry said.Indigenous wisdom“[A]ll lands in the United States were tribal lands. For generations after generations, we’ve been managing them.”— Michael Dockry1 hr 16 min
- Conan Doyle’s Wide World discussed on Read This Book!
Sherlock Holmes curator Tim Johnson’s discusses Andrew Lycett’s book, “Conan Doyle’s Wide World,” on this installment of Read This Book from the University of Minnesota Libraries.
About Lisa Von Drasek and Tim JohnsonLisa Von Drasek is the Curator of the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries and host of Read This Book! Tim Johnson is Curator of Special Collections and Rare Books and the E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries.
About Read This Book!Read This Book! is a video podcast produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries. It is available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.
[powerpress_playlist type=”audio” channel=”read-audio” height=”200″]The post Conan Doyle’s Wide World discussed on Read This Book! appeared first on UMN Libraries News & Events.
5 min - ‘What’s for Dessert’ and ‘Baking School’ featured on Read This Book!
Science Librarian Megan Kocher, Curator of the University of Minnesota's Kirschner Cookbook Collection, recommends “What's for Dessert” and “Baking School” for those wanting to whip up some holiday baked goods. Kocher is joined on this installment of Read This Book by host Lisa Von Drasek.
The post ‘What’s for Dessert’ and ‘Baking School’ featured on Read This Book! appeared first on UMN Libraries News & Events.
7 min - Keeping the PastGiving speech to the spirit of formerly enslaved person Eliza Winston, poet and dancer Mary Moore Easter offered a captivating presentation on Dec. 6. With her co-presenters — Joan Hepburn, a retired Professor of English, with a concentration of West African theater, from St. Olaf College, and Siddeeqah Shabazz, actor at Pillsbury House Theater and the Guthrie Theater, as well as Executive Director of Kulture Klub Collaborative — Easter quoted from Winston’s brief court testimony, along with her own poems, to recreate the life of a woman who escaped to freedom in Minnesota.Watch the eventThe book of poems by Easter, “Free Papers: Poems inspired by the testimony of Eliza Winston, a Mississippi slave freed in Minnesota in 1860,” were partly explained by Easter and partly enacted with Hepburn and Shabazz. The powerful poems jolted the attendees in the Andersen Library audience and those who joined online with a collective electricity.Mary Moore Easter is an award-winning poet and author, whose books and poetry and articles can be accessed at the U of M Libraries, online or in-person. She also is the founder and Director of Carleton College’s dance program.Become a Friend of the U of M Libraries, and don’t miss another memorable gathering.1 hr 3 min
- ‘Leave the World Behind’ reviewed on Read This Book!
Alee Schmeirer and Lisa Von Drasek discuss “Leave the World Behind,” a novel by Rumaan Alam, about two families — strangers to each other — who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.
The post ‘Leave the World Behind’ reviewed on Read This Book! appeared first on UMN Libraries News & Events.
5 min
About Read This Book!
From the publisher's feed
Host Lisa Von Drasek and guests review books from various genres: including children’s literature, cookbooks, science, mysteries, and popular literature. This audio podcast also includes episodes from…
the video podcast, Read This Book!, also hosted by Lisa Von Drasek.