In the News: Michael Jackson and Celebrity Culture

Week of July 13, 2009

News Item: The recent death of music entertainer and humanitarian Michael Jackson has received extensive media coverage these past few weeks. Tabloid magazines and cable news channels are speculating how he died while also searching for new ways to profit from his passing. Nielsen ratings revealed that over 31 million viewers tuned in to Jackson’s $1.4 million memorial service last week. Why is so much attention being paid to his passing, and why are celebrities, in general, considered major news stories?

Afterlife as Afterimage: Understanding Posthumous Fame
Edited by Steve Jones and Joli Jensen. Peter Lang, 2005
Call Number: ML3470 .A36 2005

Celebrity
By Chris Rojek. Reaktion Books, 2001
Call Number: BJ1470.5 .R65 2001 (At Jupiter)

Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture
By P. David Marshall. University of Minnesota Press, 1997
Call Number: E169.04 .M366 1997

In the News – Coup d’etat in Honduras

Week of July 6, 2009

News Item: Honduran president Manual Zelaya was forcibly removed from office on June 28 in what is seen as the first Central American coup d’etat in a quarter of a century. Armed soldiers entered Zelaya’s home in the early morning hours and flew him to Costa Rica. There have been reports that Zelaya’s removal was a result of his attempt to carry out a non-binding referendum and extend his term as president. At a press conference, Zelaya described his ordeal as a kidnapping and vowed to return to Honduras, but Roberto Micheletti, a former Parliamentary speaker who was sworn in as his replacement, insists that the entire process was legal. On Sunday, July 5, riot police and soldiers blocked the airport runway in Tegucigalpa, Honduras as Zelaya’s plane circled above in search for a place to land. The plane turned away and eventually headed to El Salvador.

Afro Central Americans in New York City: Garifuna Tales of Transnational Movements in Racialized Space
By Sarah England. University Press of Florida, 2006
Call Number: F1505.2 .C3 E54 2006

Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States
By John Soluri. University of Texas Press, 2005
Call Number: HD9259 .B3 H678 2005 (At Jupiter)

Changing Forests: Collective Action, Common Property, and Coffee in Honduras
By Catherine M. Tucker. Springer, 2008
Call Number: HD9199. H6 T93 2008

Freshmen: Jump Start Your Library Experience with a LibGuide

FAU Libraries is excited to announce our first LibGuide to coincide with Blink, the

Freshman Reading Experience.

A LibGuide is like having a librarian in your back pocket with superabundant tips and suggestions to improve your research! On these pages you will find interesting tidbits about author, Malcolm Gladwell, an informative bibliography, videos, and MOST importantly a place to share your observations, ideas and revelations about Blink with your fellow freshmen classmates.

To access your Blink LibGuide, click here!

In the News – Post-Election Protests in Iran

Week of June 29, 2009

News Item: Mass protests have taken place in Iran since the June 12th presidential election in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quickly determined the winner of over 62 percent of the vote by the Interior Ministry. This came as a shock to many who believed that one of the opposition candidates, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, would become the new president given his strong lead in the polls running up to election day. Supporters of Mousavi have since questioned the results and voiced concern over the possibility of vote-tampering.

10 (DVD)
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Zeitgeist Video, 2004
Call Number: PN1997.2 .A122 2004 (Boca Raton Media Center)

Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran’s Radical Leader
By Kasra Naji. University of California Press, 2008
Call Number: DS318.84 .A36 N35 2008

The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran
By Hooman Majd. Doubleday, 2008
Call Number: DS318.9 .M35 2008

In the News – Stonewall Riots of 1969

Week of June 22, 2009

News Item: Forty years ago on June 28, 1969, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement was born after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York. A riot ensued and, according to the New York Times, thirteen people were arrested among the crowd of almost 400 people that had formed near the area to protest the harassment. The following evening, more rioting took place as hundreds of people continued to revolt against the Stonewall raid. Stonewall is commemorated each year in June during Gay Pride celebrations throughout the world. This year, a U.S. Presidential Proclamation was issued declaring June as LGBT Month.

American Gay
By Stephen O. Murray. University of Chicago Press, 1996
Call Number: HQ76.3 .N67 M87 1996

AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities
Edited by Fran Martin et al. University of Illinois Press, 2008
Call Number: HQ76.3 .A78 A86 2008

Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (VHS)
Produced by Robert Rosenberg et al. OutSpoken Productions, 1994
Call Number: VH 330 (At Boca Raton Media Center)

Bonus In the News – The Periodic Table

Week of June 15, 2009

News Item: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has officially recognized element 112. This super-heavy element, which was first produced in 1996, is 277 times heaver than hydrogen and has been temporarily named, “ununbium.” It sits to the right of Roentgenium (Rg) and below Mercury (Hg) in the periodic table.

The Elements
By John Emsley. Oxford University Press (3rd ed.), 1998
Call Number: QD466 .E48 1998

The Elements: A Very Short Introduction
By Phillip Ball. Oxford University Press, 2004
Call Number: Available online via NetLibrary

Elements and the Periodic Table: What Things Are Made Of
By Theodore S. Abbgy. Mark Twain Media, 2001
Call Number: QD467 .A23 2001x (At Treasure Coast)

In the News: Anne Frank’s 80th Birthday

Week of June 15, 2009

News Item: Annelies Marie Frank was born eighty years ago on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. At the age of 13, she was given a diary which she used to detail her life in the Netherlands where the Frank family had fled shortly after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came into power. The Franks lived in hiding for two years but were eventually transported to Auschwitz in 1944. Anne’s diary remained in Holland, but she would never write another entry again. Shortly after being sent to a concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen, Germany, Anne died of typhus in March 1945. Her diary, which consisted of short stories and fables along with descriptions of her thoughts and surroundings, was originally titled Het Achterhuis and published posthumously in 1947. Since then millions of copies have been sold throughout the world and translated into more than 30 languages.

Anne Frank: Reflections on her Life and Legacy
Edited by Hyman Aaron Enzer and Sandra Solotaroff-Enzer. University of Illinois Press, 2000
Call Number: DS135 .N6 F73 2000

Anne Frank and After
By Dick Van Galen Last. Amsterdam University Park, 1996
Call Number: DS135 .N6 G36 1996

Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum: Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality
By Denise de Costa. Rutgers University Press, 1998
Call Number: DS135 .N6 F732613 1998

In the News: Tiananmen Square – 1989

Week of June 8, 2009

News Item: June 4th marked the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre of students and other pro-democracy demonstrators who had sought political, social, and economic reforms against the Chinese government. Although similar events had taken place throughout China, media coverage was spotlighted in Beijing with over a million people participating. During the evening and early morning hours of June 3 and 4, 1989, armed military troops and tanks attacked protestors in the Square killing and injuring thousands. The Chinese government has since banned public memorials of the protests with some news outlets recently reporting that social networking and email outlets, such as Twitter, Flickr, and Hotmail, have been blocked as a way of censoring access to information about the Tiananmen incidents.

Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court
By Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price. Basic Books, 2001
Call Number: HQ76.8 .U5 M97 2001

Almost a Revolution
By Tong Shen. Houghton Mifflin, 1990
Call Number: DS779.32 .S47 1990

Behind the Tiananmen Massacre: Social, Political, and Economic Ferment in China
By Chu-Yuan Cheng. Westview Press, 1990
Call Number: DS779.32 .C46 1990

In the News: SCOTUS: The Supreme Court of the United States

Week of June 1, 2009

News Item: President Barack Obama recently nominated Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David H. Souter who is retiring in June from the Supreme Court. If approved by the Senate, Sotomayor will become the third woman and only the first Latina to serve on the nation’s highest court. Sotomayor, a self-described Nuyorican, is a 1979 graduate of Yale Law School and currently serves as a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge.

Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court
By Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price. Basic Books, 2001
Call Number: HQ76.8 .U5 M97 2001

Developments in the National Security Policy of the United States Since 9/11: The Separate Roles of the President, the Congress, and the Supreme Court
By Leonard Cutler. Edwin Mellen Press, 2008
Call Number: KF4850 .C88 2008

The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom
By Robert A. Levy and William H. Mellor. Sentinel, 2008
Call Number: KF8742 .L485 2008 (At Jupiter)

In the News: Asian Pacific Americans

Week of May 18, 2009

News Item: Since 1992, May has been designated as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Initially, President Jimmy Carter had signed a Joint-Resolution in 1978 proclaiming the first ten days of May as Asian Pacific Heritage Week. It eventually became a month-long celebration under George H. W. Bush. This year’s theme is” Lighting the Past, Present and Future,” and honors the “contributions and accomplishments of our nation’s Asian and Pacific Islander citizens, past, present and future.” Visit http://asianpacificheritage.gov for online audio, video, and image collections, and other resources from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the National Gallery of Art.

Florida Atlantic University celebrates Asian Pacific American Culture Day on Wednesday, May 20, 2009.

American Karma: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Indian Diaspora
By Sunil Bhatia. New York University Press, 2007
Call Number: E184. E2 B497 2007 (At Jupiter) – Also available online via NetLibrary

American Tropics: Articulating Filipino America
By Allan Punzalan Isaac. University of Minnesota Press, 2006
Call Number: E184 .F4 I73 2006

Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970
Edited by Gordon H. Chang. Stanford University Press, 2008
Call Number: N6538 .A83 A835 2008

On & Off the Shelf

Books in the Library