Tuesday, March 16, 2010
ADVENTURE most unto itself
The Soul condemned to be;
Attended by a Single Hound—
Its own Identity.
It is with this epigraph that I chose to begin my American Literature blog. Both seem to on a very liminal plain establish my plans and goals for both the blog and the quarter: an adventure in itself during the course of studying a defiant, persistent people and their words and stories, a “Single Hound” of the American pulse, searching for and trying to create its own “Identity,” it’s own oral tradition of story telling and writing, it’s own literature.
I find myself struggling in an attempt to tie all loose ends up; I’ve seen first hand the collective of an entire people struggling adjacent themselves, their gods, their demons and devils, and opposing forces and identities. They marched against indigenous beings, did genocide, almost fell to religious fanaticism, bore great guilt for their fathers, were held captive, conquered gender identity, became introspective and philosophical, survived slavery and redefined freedom, became lost at sea and survivors, wrote of fear and love. This is the essence of adventure for a quarter’s wroth of text. I begin to trace a thematic between the numerous works and find a single resolve: each of our readings is trying to retell a chapter of the American origin story, the “Single Hound” of an entire nation.
I can still remember our first reading, and how striking it was after discussion. Cotton Mather’s “On Witchcraft,” a devious dictionary of how to’s and what if’s should the God-Fearing Puritan find or encounter a witch. Of course, on first read, the document to me at least read as a religious nut’s propaganda away from the altar sermon, that kept those God fearing Puritans fearing God; after all the warning signs of witches were similar characteristics to that of a free thinker, and the open wilderness. Let’s think for a second, what are the inhabitants of the new world surrounded with? Wilderness and free thought! It was all starting to seem like a scam…from the prospective of a modern thinker. Luckily, discussion brought us back to the times of Cotton Mather, and we were able to embrace the terror, the real and genuine fear that the Puritan mind was faced with: true evil, Lucifer himself could come out of the untamed wild of the American continent. Thus begins an epic battle of good versus evil, and the people of New England are God’s frontline soldiers. This adds to a rich tradition of literary history: the beginnings of a motif of survival and self defense against insurmountable odds and evil. With “On Witchcraft,” which sets the standard for colonial thought, we are invited to take a glimpse at the original American survival story.
To follow, we read “Young Goodman Brown,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This text adds a new sensitivity to the feelings of American Literature: guilt. Hawthorne’s parable is deep with meaning and satire as he says my Puritan heritage is great within. However, he does not celebrate; he damns. He locates the distrust and fanaticism that comes out of the Witch trials he witnessed. Hawthorne is unique in having the opportunity to write about a generation of Americans as a newer breed; he is closer to a definite evolution of this new “America,” and its brand of writing. “Goodman Brown” is a cleverly written piece that begins a new chapter in the American story, a sort of build on the survival story comes an element of manliness and its struggle against evil. The pieces come together even further.
The next bit of American glory comes at an awful cost. We read a little further into our past from the eyes of the first Colonists to see an American war. It is not, however, the Revolution; but the genocidal betrayal of the Natives. In the context of both a moving documentary and “Woman’s Indian Captivity Narratives,” we witness the harm done to our land. Where the Natives are fighting to preserve their own oral tradition, we pave over it, forcing our culture in while desecrating theirs. Ultimately, the American Indian is irradiated, as is their culture. This conquest begins its own theme in the American origin story: a conquest, a power, an ultimate strength motif that never seems to disappear.
This is where I stop and consider: does this mean that in order to be “American,” I must bear the guilt of such atrocities done by the European settlers? I look at what is left of the Native culture: small reservations which are for the most part regarded as lawless and dangerous, dirty places. I have no real solution for what this means for us, just something I’ve been considering as the class ties together. Are these circumstances too grave to excuse with, ‘we learn from our mistakes?’
We move on throughout the year, and encounter a new kind of text: “The Conquest of New Spain.” Paired with an interesting and deep view of (a whole other brand of pure American entertainment) Wresting, the Conquest motif in the American story becomes all too prevalent, as does the importance of gender roles. Not only do we see this literature beginning to trace what an American is (powerful, conquistador, strong) but we begin to see what an American MAN is. Where the man is ignored, enter Eliza Wharton’s “Coquette,” which although does a poor job moving me as a reader, does an excellent job establishing the freethinking woman in both American literature and history. This important distinction will shape the rest of the class, as we no longer neglect gender roles in literature and culture.
Another interesting factor in “New Spain,” is the horrific gore and violence that we will later return too with “In The Heart of the Sea.” Our attraction to this is bizarre. On one side, you’ve got the butch American man and his need to do violence to assert his dominance, and on the other you’ve got a peevish sense of curiosity to try and understand the violence; particularly where it is embellished, exaggerated and loaded with hyperbolic symbolism. One must ask himself, how necessary is this gore? Hugely, if you want a piece of the American pie, apparently. Our story is soaked with blood and gore, and if you’ve seen the Patriot, you’d know that its heroic blood and gore. We celebrate a history of independence that was made of betrayal, genocide and a revolution. We nurture a history of violence, so it is natural to see the gore stories resurfacing and being retold in Americana.
However, this trend will take a moment to relax itself as we move into transcendental philosophy; the first time in our literature and history we find importance in embracing both our surrounding nature (instead of damning it, Cotton Mather…) and our own human nature as well. Emerson and HDT work leaps and bounds for the American mind; they alter our story from one of violence, conquest and rebellion to one of intellectual rebellion, mental conquest, verbal violence (in HDT’s case). They attempt to rewrite the myth of American man and woman, and although they fail to alter this tradition, they do create their own school of thought which warrants forever future students to read and study. They give academics a reason to examine the American Dream, and ask perhaps the most important question in the course:
What part of the American Dream is mine for the taking?
As we begin to watch everything fall into its right place, I sort of step back from pigeon holing my course work and ponder. How does it all relate? The struggles of a young American define what it is to be an American today. That is why we must study “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” because we have to be held accountable for our disastrous decisions, and we must make our own of what freedom is for us. We must invent our own form of hero story, one where oppression (be it sexual or political) is conquered and heroic blood is spilt on a virgin canvas. All of these stories and texts wrap together a ‘here’s what happened and here’s what’s next’ for America. And then we get Emily Dickinson.
She is the perfect way to conclude the class. She is in all ways an American woman. She, like Eliza has her own liaisons. She, like the conquistadors takes complete control over her life and is able to vanquish such things as being slave to the social conventions. She is wary of social convention. She is liberated. Perhaps she is engaged in a homo-erotic relationship with her best friend and sister in law. She is a poet, she is an American poet.
I look at ‘The Single Hound” again. How isn’t she talking about our nation? I can so easily see this stalking dog as a symbol for our nation. At birth, we are weak and feeble, afraid of oppressive forces, unknown cultures or demonic terrors. Then as we grow, we begin to scrap with other dogs, bearing our teeth and showing our dominance. Then we begin to age and lead a rich life, developing our own culture.
The nature of America is adventure, and this soul is forever ‘condemned’ to the wanderings of a “Single Hound,” an independent beast who at any time can survive, can bark at the moon and run and chase from adventure to adventure.
But above all, this creature has its own identity.
From this self aware, identity, the soul can flood with a self reliant pride: for it is aware of the culture it represents. American Literature is pure art; a collective of minds and thinkers that are all grasping at sweet repose, soothed by sleep and entertained by the idea of an American dream. She is a brave, curious mind to have such radical, revolutionary thoughts at time, yet timid to be so fair and just.
They say to let sleeping dogs lie, but I assure you, it is impossible to cripple her sense of adventure, most unto itself.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
What a sad, awful, depressing time to be a member of the Fox News dubbed: "White America." I feel a lot of what our good old buddy Nate Hawthorne must of felt after seeing what a few generations earlier had done to innocent, free people. A lot of present day folks are willing to ignore, forget and even overlook the events of the late 1700s and 1800s in America, you know, when slavery was legal. Unbelievable. So there's the guilt in that, but then we pick up Harriet Jacob's book and boom. Look at what an American, who is TOLD SHE IS LESS THAN A NORMAL AMERICAN, does with and to get her hands on a piece of American freedom.
This book is a survival story and a tale of epic scale American freedom. I can see pretty easily how it fits in with the rest of the course: Harriet is a woman, put down by men and bigots, and must emancipate herself from detestable conditions and try to scrape together some sense of self in a big bad world.
Sounds like the original colonists escaping from England. It's too bad we didn't figure out we would do the same thing again (and no, I haven't forgotten the Indians.)
What I find fascinating, is that today "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," along with other texts of the era (Like Fredrick Douglass' "Narrative") have sense innovated their own genre and place in literary history. Unbeknownst to her, Harriet Jacob's created a subtheme in the greater scale of American Literature: African American Lit.
The most important collection of this text is without a doubt the Norton academic anthology. Said of this collection: "Andrews added that English and literature departments where faculty have not taught African American literature can no longer make the claim that no adequate anthologies exist." The question I pose is, why has there for so long been an excuse to teach this literature?
As if to answer my question, Roach's article continues: ""It took twice as long as we thought it would," McKay said. "It was exhilarating at times. But, on the other hand, it could be depressing."" And it is, we should be examining authors like Jacobs, not hiding them.
SO this thought prompted more research into African American lit, and I found a whole new version of the American story in an interesting text pitting a Haitian refuge intellectual and a Harlem working class man and war deserter. Together, their dialague creates a sort of independt study on what it means to be a man in Jacobs' version of America, more then the diluted and upper class White America we are most often faced with.
"Nonetheless, the friendship that evolves between Ray and Jake transforms both of them, as they each must confront the mutual prejudice--based on national and class differences--that makes their comradeship so unlikely."
This unlikely friendship is something more like what an honest, loving country (like America) would have meet Harriet in New York, instead of what she did...
"Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own."
She is independent, cannot stress enough how American this is....
"Reader, my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage. I and my children are now free! We are as free from the power of slave holders as are the white people of the north; and though that, according to my ideas, is not saying a great deal, it is a vast improvement in my condition."
Without touching on the gender freedom lodged in this quotation, I just pity the world that would force a woman to define freedom with the bigoted world Jacob's lived in.
Lowney, J. "Haiti and Black Transnationalism: Remapping the Migrant Geography of Home to Harlem" African American Review, Fall, 2000.
Roach, R. "Powerful pages: Unprecedented Public Impact of W.W. Norton and Co's Norton Anthology of African American Literature". Black Issues in Higher Education, September 18, 1997.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
American Woman – Lenny Kravitz Music Code
Okay, I'll say it, the Coquette wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I mean, I get it; epistolary format aside, the language created a serious barrier for me, the subject matter wasn't exactly interesting (which is bizarre, apparently this story was like, tabloid scandal in its time) so I usually don't make this conclusion, but I did not like the Coquette. However, I love a revolution story, and the Coquette was just that.


Back to Preachers Index
George Campbell Morgan
"A gifted Preacher and Teacher"
During the early years of this century Westminster Chapel became known as the white elephant of Congregationalism. Many gifted men were approached about the pulpit vacancy but none appeared interested. Serious consideration was given to selling the site and using the proceeds to build smaller churches away from the centre of London.
Under God's providence, with the situation at its most critical, Dr. George Campbell Morgan accepted the challenge and the call to Westminster Chapel. He began his ministry on the last Sunday of October 1904. Dr. Morgan was a gifted preacher and teacher; he was a schoolmaster before ordination, with a tall imposing presence and perfect speaking voice. He was a Congregationalist by persuasion and was well-known in England. In the United States where he had worked closely with D.L. Moody and his son William in their evangelistic work. His life-long friend, the Rev'd Albert Swift, came with him as co-pastor.
Dr. Morgan was in charge of the preaching and teaching while Swift supervised the Sunday School and youth work. A sisterhood visited the poor and sick. Among those who remained faithful to the Chapel during the wilderness year before Dr. Morgan's arrival was Mr. Alfred Hewitt and in September 1878 he was appointed full time evangelist. In March 1881 the Westminster Chapel Mission opened with Hewitt in charge. Miss Mildred Cable, a distinguished member of the China Inland Mission, joined the church early in Dr Campbell Morgan's ministry.
A Friday night Bible school was instituted (Friday was chosen because few other churches had Friday evening meetings) and it became the forerunner of the present-day Westminster Chapel School of Theology. The first edition of the Westminster Record appeared in January 1905, founded by Dr Morgan and edited by him and Swift. Tithing for missionary work began then and has continued ever since.
Albert Swift left the Chapel in 1907. Dr. Morgan continued bravely without his beloved friend. The First World War (1914-18) increased Dr Morgan's considerable workload and after a debilitating illness at the beginning of 1917. To the dismay of the membership, Morgan announced his resignation from the Chapel. When his health revived, he moved to America - but he was destined to return.
In 1928 Dr. Hubert Simpson assumed the pastorate but he was a sick man, still suffering from the effects of the First World War. Dr. Simpson's writings reveal a sensitive man who had been under great stress as a chaplain to a Guards Brigade in France and later as chaplain to a war hospital.
Finding the Westminster Chapel so difficult, he approached Dr. Campbell Morgan who happened to be attending a conference in England, with a view to his sharing the Westminster pastorate. In 1933 the new partnership began but Dr Simpson was soon forced to retire completely. With the retirement of the pastor so ended Dr Morgan's formal association with the Chapel but he continued to minister and a few years later was formally inducted as the minister once again.
Dr. Morgan was well aware of the hazards of a second pastorate with the same fellowship and acknowledged this at the church meeting. The character of his second term differed from his first. There was less emphasis on social activities. This reflected, in part, the improving conditions in the area but undoubtedly the main influence was the changing attitudes within Evangelical circles.
Howard H. Rowden of the London Bible College opens his essay on Dr. Morgan's old friend, Albert Swift, with this telling observation: 'It is one of the minor curiosities of recent church history that evangelical Protestants, who provided some of the leading activists of the 19th Century, had, by the middle of the 20th Century, gained the reputation of being socially aloof and even opposed to Christian involvement in almost any kind of social or political action'.
The church buildings were renovated and enlarging congregations returned. The wonderful voice, the logical exposition, sustained the large congregation, but the physical strain became more noticeable as the years went by. It was spiritual inspiration when he asked Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a young minister from South Wales, to come to help him and eventualy take over.


Code snippets now available on the Visual Studio marketplace
A few weeks back, we’ve updated the project and item templates and re-published them on the Visual Studio marketplace. This time it was time to update the code snippets and publish them via the marketplace instead of manual downloads as well.
Today we are happy to announce that we’ve moved the code snippets from the Catel repository to the Catel.Templates repository. The code snippets can now be installed and updated via the marketplace (directly from within Visual Studio):
At the time of the release, the following code snippets are included:


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This is where my "To Read" list will be maintained. I've often come across a title that sounds fascinating, but rarely write it down or record it somehow to look up later. Feel Free to leave recommendations in the comments! I generally read literature (e.g. Austen, Dinesen, Wolfe, Bronte, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Kafka, Gogol, Conrad) with some classic science fiction (e.g. Heinlein, Asimov, Sturgeon) and the occasional very well written modern novel (e.g. Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman).
Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love.
Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power
Elias Canetti, Auto-da-Fe
Georges Bataille, The Accursed Share: Consumption
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class
St. Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul
Robert Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
Alexander et al., A Pattern Language
Randall Jarrell, The Animal Family
George J. Thompson, Jerry B. Jenkins, Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Dr. Betty Edwards
Chronicles, by Bob Dylan
The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself, by Susan Bell
Lies About Health At Every Size - [image: Public Health]I see a LOT of misinformation being spread about Health at Every Size, sometimes by well-meaning but misinformed people, sometimes ...
3 days ago


Millennial Struggle by Dhara Shah, author of Quarantined Together, will be the first book in the Millennial Series coming soon! It is an interracial romantic comedy novel which takes new adult contemporary romance to the next level.
For readers of romance, this novel will not only make you laugh but will take you through the struggles both in love and real world issues in the life of a typical Millennial.
All Millennials and those that are friends and family of Millennials should read this for entertainment and awareness. It is relatable and highlights the ups and downs in love life that this generation experiences which is very distinct from love issues that we see in other generations.


A Little Math
In 2008, I began my search of the Tree-of-Life patterns in this record of scriptures. It was the work of reverse engineering. The finished product (the Book of Mormon) was before me. I asked myself if the tree patterns even existed in the book. So, I attempted to deconstruct the verses in pursuit of that answer. After discovering that the whole book consisted of a dizzying array of patterns, I set forth to establish the rules that seem to govern their construct. In other words, I had to deconstruct the book by using the Tree-of-Life patterns before I can reconstruct it.
Early on in my research, I realized that all I needed was a little math. The Utah version of the Book of Mormon contains 6,604 verses; the Missouri edition--8,701. Tens sefirot (circles) make a tree pattern. Simple division reveals that 660 trees with a remainder of four verses comprise the Utah edition. Eight hundred and seventy trees are in the Missouri version, with one extra.
Could the rule endings and the rule of adjustment work with the rest of the Book of Mormon, mathematically? I found that they did in what I call systems. We will now turn our attention to one of these systems--OS 1. Utah A will provide additional support.


What does a shaker look like? A shaker is a member of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, a religious group that originated in England circa 1747. The group later spread to the United States and was known as the Shakers. In addition to their furniture, Shakers are known for their music and spirituality. If you’re interested in learning more about this group, read on to learn more about this fascinating faith and their homes.
The Shaker community was largely self-sufficient, attempting to create a utopia akin to heaven on earth. The Shakers grew their own food, built their own houses, manufactured their tools and household furnishings, and abided by strict rules of behavior, codified in the Millennial Laws of 1821 and expanded in 1845. The Shakers practiced racial equality, pacifism, common property, and celibacy. Although they were very strict about the laws and practices, the community was also heavily dependent on outside recruits.
While unison singing was the predominant mode of Shaker music, western Shaker music manuscripts also include hymns and wordless songs written in three-part harmony. These manuscripts reflect the Shaker preference for harmonized singing. By the 1840s, the eastern Shaker population was experiencing clumsy harmonized anthems. These anthems, originally composed in unison, had lost their effect on the Shaker culture.
In the early twentieth century, Shaker society was also committed to equality. In keeping with their theology, the Shakers allowed women to hold office alongside men and held leadership positions in the community. The Shakers also discouraged procreation, allowing only adult males to become Shakers. The Shakers were also known to be vegetarians and vegans. However, these views were not necessarily popular in the United States, and the Shaker culture continued to develop despite these stances.
The Shaker way of life had an effect on a number of people, and in the twentieth century, the community began to decay. In the meantime, the Shaker artifacts were highly sought-after by modern artists. Modern artists such as Kaare Klint, a famous furniture designer, and Doris Humphrey, a pioneer of dance movements, were inspired by Shaker culture. The latter created «Dance of the Chosen Ones» – an artistic work depicting the fervor of the Shakers.
Though the Shakers initially discouraged visitation, they embraced the idea of ecstatic dance, despite ridicule and discrimination. In 1774, Ann Lee brought eight followers to New York. The Shakers were still a minority in a growing New York City, and the local society was not in the mood for ecstatic dancing and the idea of a God that was equal parts male and female. Shakers began to codify spiritual dances, and visitors soon toured the Shaker villages.
Shaker furniture is a distinctive style of furniture that was created by the religious group United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or Shakers. These people followed three guiding principles: utility, honesty, and simplicity. Shaker furniture was designed with simple, clean, and elegant lines. Today, these types of furniture can still be found in many homes. Listed below are some of the best examples of Shaker furniture.
Developed for communal use, Shaker furniture is often lightweight and easy to store. Most Shaker furniture features drop leaves and unscrewable legs to facilitate storage. Some pieces even hang from pegs instead of legs. While the Shaker style is known for its simple lines and unadorned designs, it is not devoid of decorative features. Most Shaker furniture features wide slats on the back of chairs and often incorporates acorn-shaped finials.
Shaker and Mission styles of furniture are distinguished by their different wood-working methods. Shakers made furniture from maple and other local American woods, while Mission-style furniture tends to use oak. Mission-style furniture focuses on straight lines and flat planes, whereas Shakers use more natural wood. Mission-style furniture also features exposed joinery, which draws attention to the craftsmanship behind the pieces. Shaker furniture emphasizes functionality rather than aesthetics.
After colonization, Shaker communities began to decline. Their ascetic lifestyle could not compete with modern life and many eventually closed. Faith Andrews, an English scholar, recognized this and began a documenting effort of the remaining Shakers. Her work inspired scholarly research about the Shakers and the style of their furniture. She also helped inspire the creation of museum exhibits on the subject. There is even a Wikipedia article dedicated to Shaker furniture.
Modern designers have also been inspired by Shaker style. Several stores carry furniture and housewares. Bode Manhattan’s design recalls the feel of a Shaker woodshop. In fact, the furniture designers behind Virgil Abloh’s Markerad chair, inspired by Shaker dining chairs, took their cue from the original Shaker designs. Another young designer inspired by Shaker aesthetic is Brian Persico. Persico’s designs are simple, but recall the classic New England furniture.
The Shakers lived in communal villages throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and New England. Their aspirations were primarily spiritual rather than material or social. They believed that Christ had come back as Mother Ann or in the other people who awakened the Christ consciousness. The Shakers modeled their living on this ideal. Their spiritual practice was based on simplicity and austerity. While their ideals differed from other religious groups, there are some common characteristics among Shakers.
The religious practice began with a covenant, which was developed after the Shakers’ first spiritual experience. Shakers often engaged in ecstatic movements during their worship. In Shaker texts, dance was considered a spiritual means of shaking off sin. Today, many world religions incorporate dance into rituals. For example, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus all write about dance during worship. Shakers were no exception. In addition to the ecstatic movements, Shakers also practiced celibacy and other forms of sanctity.
According to the tradition, Shakers communicated with various spirits, including Native Americans, Africans, and Arabs. They also had regular conversations with Spiritualist preachers. In the late 1830s, the Shakers had their own religious revival. A young novitiate at South Family in Watervliet received spiritual visions. The ministry was thrown by the sudden upswing in spiritual activity. This young novitiate even sweated blood.
Although Mother Ann died in 1784, her teachings were maintained close by the Shakers. In 1816, they collected the Testimonies, an oral history and eyewitness accounts. The text is full of parables and miracles. Today, two Shakers, June and Arnold, continue to preserve the name of the Mother in their prayers. They worship in the Shaker temple on Sabbathday Lake, near Albany. While a number of Shakers adhere to this unique spirituality, it is important to note that the community is not uniform.
One of the most notable differences between the Shakers and other religious groups is the group’s social structure. In the Shakers, the majority of the members are white. While Shakers were not racially diverse, they practiced an extremely liberal lifestyle. Their observance of communal living is a testament to their egalitarian nature. In addition to avoiding sexuality, Shakers practiced communal living. This social structure has many parallels with the social structure of modern America.
Today, the public rarely hears any Shaker music. Most Shaker music has only been popularized by Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring. In fact, Shaker music is practically unknown to the public and is only familiar to a few Shaker enthusiasts and scholars. Although Shaker music is not as well known as other genres of American popular music, it is still an impressive display of innovation and productivity. Hundreds of Shaker musicians produced a prodigious amount of original music, and many of these songs were also used as custodians of Shaker friendships.
The Shaker music notation was developed to make it easier to play and learn, and hundreds of manuscripts of Shaker music use letteral notation. Songs may have hundreds of pages or thousands of songs in each book. While Shaker music was largely ignored until the twentieth century, most of the manuscripts of Shaker songs still feature their signature letteral notation. The lyrics, meanwhile, are composed of tongues unknown to historians, and are similar to Native American languages and African slave songs. Despite these similarities, the melodic material contained in Shaker tunes is European and has a definite connection with the music of the European era.
A significant contribution of western converts to the Shaker movement was the development of their musical style. The earliest hymns infused Shaker doctrines of gender equality and a dual godhead. Shaker hymns also incorporated concepts such as collectivity and gender into their lyrics. While these ideas are not as prevalent today, they remain powerful in American folk culture. So, a renewed public interest in Shaker music may be just what the genre needs to be revived.
The first Shaker hymn was written in 1787 by Father James Whittaker. Father James Whittaker later went on to write the first full-length Shaker song with words and music. Another song, «Simple Gifts», was composed by Elder Joseph Brackett and Brother Thomas Hammond in 1848. It became an instant classic, and is now widely available on CD and computer discs. The song also has bonus audio and video features.


From time to time, Famous Mathematicians appear that completely revolutionize how the role of math is understood in the world. The Math Discoveries by these great men and women illustrate that way that the science of math can be used to describe and explain many mysteries of the world. The Famous Mathematicians have come from all times and their focus is usually indicated by their current age. For a student that is interested in math and is considering a career in this science, it is important to look at the works of these masters to fully understand the concepts that have built the foundation of modern mathematical thought.
In the beginning, the majority of the Famous Mathematicians came from ancient Egypt and Greece. As these were the centers of modern learning for the time, it makes sense that the cradle of knowledge bloomed in both of these locations. Perhaps the most known of these Famous Mathematicians was Euclid. In the 4th century B.C, this expert literally wrote the book of mathematical theory. His History of Mathematics was long considered the full authority when it comes to mathematical ideas and focused on the study of Euclidean geometry which has many real world uses. Another of the Famous Mathematicians to come from this area was Pythagoras. The best of his math discoveries was the creation of the Pythagorean Theorem and the idea of the relationship of numbers to life. His opinion was that all things in life were governed by numbers, a theory that created the learning community of the Pythagoreanism, which studied normal math in relation to music, botany, and other areas. Another classic thinker of the ancient times was Aristotle. While his main claim to fame came in the realm of philosophy, his writings concerning physics are still considered classics. He wrote about the science of motion as well as being responsible for the classic text on causality.
As mathematical thought moved into modern eras, the famous math experts were more concerned with other concepts. One example of this is the great Isaac Newton. Famously responsible for discovering gravity, Newton’s works have also been said to have moved forward the study of every branch of mathematics. In addition to his explanation of the law of gravity, Newton also created the three laws of motion. The explanation of these concepts successfully illustrated such baffling concepts as why the planet turns and how objects are able to travel through space. The most famous of the modern mathematicians is the world renowned Albert Einstein. His greatest work was clearly the general theories of relativity and special relativity, which set the base for future mathematicians to study the principles of light and outer space.


From the end of Queen Elizabeth I's reign to that of
William & Mary, this blog covers the music, literature, history, wars,
scientific endeavours, religious tensions, fashions, and daily life of
people, rich and poor, in Europe in the 1600s.
Categories used most frequently by the blogger:
18 March 2022
This is the first novel I’ve read by E.M. Vidal, although I’ve known her on social media for several years now. With ‘My Queen, My Love’, the first in her trilogy of Henrietta...
29 January 2022
Happy New Year, gentle readers! Published in May 2021 by Pen & Sword History, Wentworth Woodhouse: The House, The Estate, & The Family by Melvyn Jones, Joan Jones, and Stephen...
29 August 2021
Sometimes we need a bit of escapism and, for me, that sometimes means a romance—and this book totally fit the bill. I have to be honest, I wasn’t really interested in the beginning,...
21 August 2021
I do not usually review books that are not about the 17th-century or the Stuart period, but given that this author has written several important works about the Stuart period, I thought...


Nos ha llegado información sobre un cogreso dedicado a Alfred Wegener, el padre de la deriva continental. Os la adjuntamos por si alguno le apetece y puede acercarse a Australia.
We would like to call your attention to a symposium on the History of the Geosciences at the 34th International Geological Congress in Brisbane: (33.2) THE EARLY HISTORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT: A CENTENARY TRIBUTE TO ALFRED WEGENER (1912). Third circular. http://34igc.org/FileLibrary/34igc_third_circular_v5.pdf
We are looking for contributions that deal with any aspects of the continental drift theory. There were many interesting arguments for and against drift, not only by Alfred Wegener. Even though you are probably not a Wegener-historian, you might like to help us consider how Wegener's contemporaries dealt with this theory.
To encourage you to consider work by other scientists, we enclose here a list of authors who leaned toward "Fixism" or toward "Mobilism", with the years of relevant publications. Maybe you would like to present a paper showing how one of these authors dealt with ideas about the positions of continents and oceans. The IGC deadline for abstract submissions will be February 2012.


” If Poetry were Short Stories” ,is a modern romantic style book of poems that reads like a series of short stories. Mr. Robert Lee Wilson III approaches his work with careful consideration. He opens with sensitivity and purity like a Nicholas Sparks novel, building to a climax filled with heartache and pain and concluding with a happy ending.
This book kept me turning pages, wanting more as the author writes as if the poems were reflections of his own life. He keeps the reader engaged with poems like ,”The Scarlet Choir Singer”, and “Overdose” as he uses euphemism to highlight socially taboo topics of today. “Body of Instruments” draws you in as he plays with personification and allegory to explain the caressing of a woman’s body.
Overall, “If Poetry were Short Stories” lives up to its title. Mr. Wilson keeps readers imagination open and allows the reader to draw his/her on interpretation. This book gives room to reader to learn from both sexes as it has poems that focus on those who are in love, have been hurt, and those who are on the road to recovery. Mr. Lee has ingeniously found a way to not only merge the writing of poems into short stories but also a self-help book.
I suggest this book for all. The married, single, and the in-between. For the man who has dealt with trying to express his love and don’t know how to verbally, I suggest “The Fine (her) Things”. For the woman who has to deal with the knowing of her man being with another woman, yet just can’t let go I suggest “Like Her” . For Mr. Robert Lee Wilson III first publication, I can truly say he not only accomplished his goal by turning poems into short stories, but he exceed expectations when provided the unspoken understanding of the everyday man. On a scale for 1 to 5, I give this book a 4.5.
– Lee A. Prophet, Editor in Chief


Free offer for libraries
Hikaru No Go is a best-selling "coming of age" saga in the classic "Hero's Journey" style. Hikaru Shindo is like any sixth-grader in Japan: a pretty normal school boy with a two-tone head of hair and a penchant for antics. One day, he finds an old Go board in his grandfather's attic-and that's when things get interesting. Trapped inside the Go board is Fujiwara-no-Sai, the ghost of an ancient Go master who taught the complex board game to the Emperor of Japan a thousand years ago. In one fateful moment, Sai becomes a part of Hikaru's consciousness and together, through thick and thin, they make an unstoppable Go-playing team. Will they be able to defeat Go players who have dedicated their lives to the game? Will Sai achieve the "Divine Move" so he can finally rest in peace?
Perhaps unique in the history of comics, Hikaru creates a compelling action story around a board game. All of the fighting in the story takes place on the game board, a refreshing change of pace from the usual shonen manga. Both school and public libraries are eligible for this offer. The manga and anime of this story are credited with helping thousands of young people to discover Go.
The AGF provides Hikaru for free to schools and libraries, but we do ask for $25 to help us cover the cost of shipping and handling.
If your location is serving disadvantaged kids, or your budget cannot cover the expense, you may request free shipping.
To order your set of Hikaru, contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Two cardboard playing sets are included with the shipment, as well as two copies of our booklet on how to play, The Way to Go. Once kids read Hikaru, they will want to play Go. The cardboard sets will get you by until you are ready to launch a full Go program.


AXYS has provided this collection of downloadable information for genetic counselors and other professionals who need current information about X and Y chromosome aneuploidy based on the most recent research. We recommend that you provide your clients with copies of the relevant brochure and FAQs. Please also provide them with the toll free number, 888-999-9428 to be linked with a support parent or peer. The AXYS website also offers invaluable information for obtaining support.
All materials in this collection are downloadable and provided with appropriate author permissions for use in clinical education and support.
Materials from the 2014 NSGC Conference
AXYS and the NSGC Prenatal SIG sponsored a presentation on these conditions at the 2014 NSGC conference.
Sex Chromosome Aneuploidies: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Counseling and Current Treatment Recommendations (Session #210) by Nicole Tartaglia, MD, Children’s Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado School of Medicine; Pravin Rao, MD, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Susan Howell, MS, CGC, MBA, The eXtraordinarY Kids Clinic and Fragile X Clinic, Children’s Hospital Colorado.
- Describe the features associated with Sex Chromosome Aneuploidies (SCAs) from developmental, endocrinological, fertility and psychological perspectives.
- Summarize medical management recommendations across the lifespan.
- Discuss genetic counseling issues and identify strategies and resources to provide effective prenatal and postnatal genetic counseling.
(Educational Breakout Sessions, Item 210)
Other content regarding X and Y chromosome variations
Book Chapter from the Handbook of Pediatric Neuropsychology
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Spanish translation of the guidebook: We are sharing this draft with the proviso that it is missing some figures and that it requires additional formatting adjustments. Click here to access the draft.


Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael Luther King, Jr. January 15, 1929, but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks, whose actions sparked a movement that changed the face of our nation passed away at the age of 92 on Monday, October 24, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of a bus to a white man and move to the back. Mrs. Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, states that she wasn't exhausted from a day of work as it was widely reported. "The only tired I was, was tired of giving in," she said - tired of the degradation and unjust treatment that African-Americans were subjected to daily.
"Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it," Mrs. Parks wrote in her book, Quiet Strength: The Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation. "I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others."
Her defiance sparked the famed 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott, led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., lasted more than a year and opened the door for anti-segregation legislation and a Supreme Court ruling to ban segregation on public transportation. By December 1956, the buses in Montgomery were officially desegregated.
Not the accidental activist, Mrs. Parks had been active in the movement for change for some time. She was secretary of the local chapter of the NAACP for 12 years before her noted arrest. And rarely is it mentioned that Mrs. Parks' most noted bus ride was not her first act of defiance on a Montgomery bus. During the 1940s she refused several times to abide with segregation policies while riding the bus. Coincidentally, the same bus driver who had her arrested in 1955 had ejected her from his bus a decade earlier for not complying with orders to move to the back of the bus. Also during the 1940s, Mrs. Parks organized the NAACP Youth Council and its members also defiantly rode in the front seats of buses.
Unable to find employment in Montgomery because of the boycott, Rosa and her husband Raymond moved to Detroit. While continuing to work for the NAACP, she was hired as office manager for U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr.'s Detroit office in 1965. In 1987, Mrs. Parks created The Rosa and Raymond Institute for Self-Development, an organization to motivate multicultural youth to reach their highest potential by using her philosophy of Quiet Strength and to also provide them with a cross-cultural exposure for nurturing a global and inclusive perspective.
Numerous honors have been bestowed upon Mrs. Parks including dozens of honorary doctorates from universities around the world, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998 and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor - the highest award given by the United States government - in 1999.
Rosa Parks, a modest, and peaceful woman, was one of the greatest civil rights leaders in the United States. One way to remember her courage is to follow her example: "to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision," she told us, "the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace."
We honor her memory by redoubling our efforts in the fight for social and economic justice.
Fannie Lou Hamer, Co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Fannie Lou Hamer, known as the lady who was "sick and tired of being sick and tired," was born October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the granddaughter of slaves. Her family were sharecroppers - a position not that different from slavery. Hamer had 19 brothers and sisters. She was the youngest of the children.
In 1962, when Hamer was 44 years old, SNCC volunteers came to town and held a voter registration meeting. She was surprised to learn that African-Americans actually had a constitutional right to vote. When the SNCC members asked for volunteers to go to the courthouse to register to vote, Hamer was the first to raise her hand. This was a dangerous decision. She later reflected, "The only thing they could do to me was to kill me, and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember."
When Hamer and others went to the courthouse, they were jailed and beaten by the police. Hamer's courageous act got her thrown off the plantation where she was a sharecropper. She also began to receive constant death threats and was even shot at. Still, Hamer would not be discouraged. She became a SNCC Field Secretary and traveled around the country speaking and registering people to vote.
Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). In 1964, the MDFP challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hamer spoke in front of the Credentials Committee in a televised proceeding that reached millions of viewers. She told the committee how African-Americans in many states across the country were prevented from voting through illegal tests, taxes and intimidation. As a result of her speech, two delegates of the MFDP were given speaking rights at the convention and the other members were seated as honorable guests.
Hamer was an inspirational figure to many involved in the struggle for civil rights. She died on March 14, 1977, at the age of 59.


Multi-award-winning Liverpool Central Library combined exacting refurbishment and the introduction of new 21st century spaces. This complex scheme involved the demolition of existing buildings and the construction of a new world-class library and archive facility. A fine balance was struck between restoring the adjacent existing Grade II-listed buildings and introducing new, modern spaces.
The new library and repository building consists of a concrete framed five-storey structure with post-tensioned floors. A particular challenge was the design of the repository floor which had to be designed to cope with the Brunzeel automated storage racking system which can only operate within very tight floor deflection tolerances.
Further, the repository required sophisticated environmental control to preserve historic documents and the concrete mass played a part in this environmental strategy.
The retained listed façade to main front William Brown Street elevation was sympathetically supported and restrained by the new structure.Challenges/Solutions
At the project’s inception, we invested time in identifying potential site development constraints; these included unexplored ordnance, a culvert easement, party wall to the new Museum of Liverpool structures and interfaces with the existing retained listed façade.
Part of this approach included an appraisal of the various structural forms, including structural steelwork, in-situ reinforced concrete and posttensioned concrete. All of these materials were used to provide optimised solutions. The retention of the façade to the William Brown Street elevation required careful consideration so that the building to be demolished could be carefully and methodically disconnected from the façade. In its final form, the façade was to appear effectively free-standing and was supported with concealed structural interventions, so that its full height could be seen from the central atrium.
Close liaison with adjacent neighbour, New Museum Liverpool and its advisors was vital to understand their needs and concerns. Frequent communication enabled the development of practical and cost-effective solutions to party wall support which was acceptable to all parties and minimised any risk to the project.Added Value
Investigation of the existing structure before demolition was problematic due to occupancy of the library. It was subsequently discovered that a void within the party wall between new Museum of Liverpool and the library housed museum display cases. Originally it was envisaged that the party wall would need to be propped; however by designing a system of ties and struts across the 1.2 metre gap enabled both walls to act as a diaphragm, thus eliminating the need to prop the wall during the demolition process and subsequent construction. This solution simplified what would have been a complex site-wide demolition and retention scheme, resulting in reduced cost and reduction in programme for this phase of the contract.
|Liverpool Central Library
|Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering
6 Commercial Street


Obviously, the five-hour drive between my home and my college forced me to leave many beloved books. I could only afford to pack a few essentials. Here’s what I chose and why.
1) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Yes, I still need to finish the last portion of this gift that I received over a year ago. And as a loaded book of biology, race, health care, and biography, I knew that its multifaceted approach would be an excellent example for my ideal college education.
2) The Things They Carried
This is the next book on my hit-list of Vietnam War literature. And in this collection, it’s the only one with short stories, the genre I’m striving for as a writer. It’s also a reminder for me to continue to pursue my odd fascination, because the Vietnam War will never stop being confusing and interesting.
3) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
In conversations with fellow freshmen this week, I’ve already raved about this play, like, three times. I then retracted my recommendation with: “Oh, but it’s also super weird and makes no sense.” Despite its obscurity, I’ll always cherish this play for its dark messages about fate and for its perfect articulation about fearing death.
4) Their Eyes were Watching God
Haven’t read a page. I brought it simply because a friend recommended it to me. 🙂
5) Robert Frost poems
Frost is pretty nice. This thin volume will remind me to not dismiss poetry as I pursue creative writing. Though I have no intentions to become a poet, I think every writer should study poetry to understand imagery and rhythm.
6) The Great Gatsby
One of my favorite reads from high school. Gatsby is a model for a book I’d love to write: with an interesting but detached narrator, complex relationships, and anguished thesis.
It’s almost like the “what book would you bring on a stranded island?” question. Except the context is much less dire. So what would you pack? 🙂


Use the buttons below to browse the children and adult book resource categories.
ABC, Adoption & Me
Gayle H. Swift with Casey A. Swift
Named a Favorite Read of 2013 by Adoptive Families magazine, this book celebrates the blessing of family and addresses the difficult issues as well with exuberant, multicultural illustrations to depict a wide range of families. It also includes a parent guide.
Adoption Is a Lifelong Journey
Kelly DiBenedetto, Katie Gorczyca and Jennifer Eckert
This illustrated book — a tool for families touched by adoption and foster care — provides insight into emotions and thoughts an adoptee or foster child might encounter while also equipping parents and caregivers with responses and resources.
A Forever Family
Eight-year-old Jenny tells her story, including living with her biological parents, foster parents, and finally about being adopted in a courtroom and having a big celebration. Photos help to make the story realistic.
A Mother for Choco
Choco is a motherless little bird who sets out to find his mother. Finally Mrs. Bear reaches out to him, offering to be his mother and after some difficulty at first, he accepts her as his new mommy.
All About Adoption: How Families Are Made & How Kids Feel About It
Dr Marc A Nemiroff PH.D. and Jane Annunziata PsyD Psy.D.
For the child who already understands the concept of adoption, this work provides a deeper understanding of how the adoption process works and the feelings that many children have about being adopted. Topics include why children are given up for adoption and why adoptive parents want to adopt.
All Kinds of Families
Many different kinds of families are described.
And That’s Why She’s My Mama
Mamas come in all different shapes, colors, and ages, but they all have one thing in common. They love you! Enjoy the multiple characters in this children’s story which explores the loving tasks of what makes a Mama.
Beginnings: How Families Come to Be
This is a beautifully illustrated book with six diverse stories of different types of families, told from the perspective of a child asking questions of his parents about how they got to become a family, including single parent, kinship adoption, birth family, etc. Good for reading to and with parents.
Little Horace, who looks like a leopard, has spots, while his adoptive parents, who look like tigers, have stripes. He finds a family that looks like him in the park one day and has a wonderful time playing with them, and at the end of the day, realizes that he misses him family, and, instead of going home with the leopard family, he runs home to his parents. He learns that being a family has nothing to do with what you look like.
I Bet She Called Me Sugarplum
Joanne V. Gabbin
A young child delights in her mother’s recounting of favorite family memories, including the story of her adoption and birth mother.
Is That Your Sister? A True Story of Adoption
Catherine Bunin and Sherry Bunin
A realistic story told by six-year-old Catherine, who is bi-racial and transracially adopted. Answers adoption related questions.
I’ve Loved You Since Forever
I’ve Loved You Since Forever is a celebratory and poetic testament to the timeless love felt between parent and child. This beautiful picture book is inspired by Hoda Kotb’s heartwarming adoption of her daughter.
I Wished For You
I Wished for You: An Adoption Story follows a conversation between a little bear named Barley and his Mama as they curl up in their favorite cuddle spot and talk about how God chose them to be a family. Barley asks Mama the kinds of questions many adopted children have, and Mama lovingly answers them all.
Lucy’s Family Tree
Karen Halvorsen Schreck
Lucy, who was born in Mexico and adopted by her blond parents in the United States, tells about how she handles her family tree assignment. An excellent book for teachers to use when explaining variations of the family tree project.
Oliver, an alligator-like creature, is mischievous and is sent to his room. He is angry at his adoptive parents and, while confined to his room, daydreams about his birth parents. He wonders what life would be like if he lived with them. Expresses the feelings of many young adopted children.
In a heartwarming intergenerational story, Pablo cannot wait to visit his grandfather and discover what treasures will be placed on his tree, a tree that was purchased when Pablo was adopted and that, each year, is decorated with special surprises.
Juliet C. Bond
Sam’s Sister follows six-year-old Rosa as she comes to understand her mother’s choice to place her brother for adoption, learns about adoption, and experiences his birth and placement with Sarah and Joe.
Having Two Dads is double the fun! Many families are different, this family has Two Dads. A beautifully illustrated, affirming story of life with Two Dads, written from the perspective of their adopted child.
We See The Moon
Adapting the concept from the song — “I see the moon, the moon sees me…Please let the moon that comforts me, comfort the one I love.” — readers watch the heroine of the story use the moon as a private tool to connect with the birth family that is always with her in her imagination.
Why Am I Different
Children explain the many things that make them unique. Mentions adoption, but does not focus on it.
Why Can’t You Look Like Me?
This is the story of a young girl who has been adopted transracially and feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere, even within her own family.
William is My Brother
Jane T. Schnitter
This story focuses on families built by both birth and adoption through the eyes of Tony, who was born to the family.
You’re Not My REAL Mother!
In a story about a white mother talking to her Asian child, the book describes the things “real mothers” do every day in a warm, affectionate tone. The illustrations are colorful and full of fun.
Jazzy’s Quest: Adopted and Amazing!
Carrie Goldman and Juliet C. Bond
Ten-year-old Jazzy Armstrong, the only adoptee in her family, feels different from her parents and her two older sisters. Jazzy, who loves Star Wars, needs to find out what makes her amazing in time for the community talent show.
Lost in the System
Charlotte Lopez with Susan Dworkin
This is the story of Miss Teen USA 1992 who was finally adopted after many years in the foster care system.
Perspectives on a Grafted Tree: Thoughts for Those Touched by Adoption
Patricia Irwin Johnston
This collection of poetry provides much food for thought.
Pieces of Me: Who do I Want to Be?
Pieces of Me: Who Do I Want to Be? is a collection of heartfelt poems, essays, songs, and artwork that give voice to the unique struggles and experiences of adopted teenagers.
See No Color
Sixteen-year-old Alex Kirtridge is a biracial girl with a white family, which never seemed to matter until recently. She discovers letters from her biological father that her parents kept for her; she meets Reggie, the first black guy who wants to get to know her, and she begins to question her identity.
The Colours in Me: Writing & Poetry by Adopted Children & Youth
This book is a beautiful collection of poetry, personal stories, interviews and artwork by children and young adults ages five to twenty who have been impacted by adoption.
The English American
The English American is perfect for anybody wanting to explore the journey of an adoptee because of the honest feelings Larkin expresses. When the main character, Pippa, learns at age twenty-eight that her birth parents are from the American South, she feels that lifelong questions have been answered.
The Great Gilly Hopkins
A well-written story about a mischievous, spunky, intelligent girl as she at first resists becoming close to her foster family.
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Follow the story of Sal who is finding his place with his adoptive gay father and navigating senior year of high school.
The Pinballs is about Carlie, Harvey and Thomas J, three children who are made to live together in a foster home. At first, they don’t get along, as each is carrying personal burdens from difficult home lives. But over time, they find ways to help each other, and in doing so, forge a bond. The characters grow and change during the story.
Thirteen-year-old Sophie, skipping between “dreamland or earthland or muleland,” hears the sea calling her. Much to the concern of her adopted parents, she decides to join her uncles and male cousins on a sailing voyage from Connecticut across the Atlantic to England (and her grandfather Bompie) on a 45-foot sailboat. Not only does she want to make the trip, she feels she has to.
A Child’s Journey Through Placement
Vera L. Fahlberg, M.D.
The definitive resource! A look at all the factors which affect children who are in the child welfare system and who then are adopted.
Adopting the Hurt Child
Gregory Keck and Regina Kupecky
A realistic, yet hopeful look at children adopted after difficult beginnings. Useful for parents and the professionals who work with the children and their families.
Adopting the Older Child
Claudia L. Jewett
A nationally known family counselor and adoptive parent explains what is in store for those who decide to open their hearts to a waiting child.
A fascinating look at adoption today and how it impacts lives and our culture.
And You Are Still You – Developing & Maintaining a Stable Sense of Worth
Holly van Gulden and Ann Sutton
This Resource Manual is a working tool which is based on the model of attachment, child development and therapy taught by Holly van Gulden. It aims to give the theory to understand the behaviors of children and young people that workers, parents and carers so often experience in adoptive and foster families.
An Educator’s Guide to Adoption
A handy 22 page booklet which provides adoption information and suggestions to teachers.
Anti-Bias Curriculum. Tools for Empowering Young Children
How to create an atmosphere of tolerance and acceptance of differences.
Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents
Deborah D. Gray
Explaining that attachment forms the template for future adult relationships, the author stresses how important it is for adoptive parents to be patient in forging this new bond. She shows how to create a high structure/high nurture environment for your child. An invaluable resource.
Being Adopted, The Lifelong Search for Self
David M. Brodzinsky, Marshall D. Schechter, and Robin M. Harris.
A very readable discussion of the issues common to all adopted children and adults.
Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens
Case studies and treatment considerations for therapists and parent.
Birthmarks: Transracial Adoption in Contemporary America
Sandra Lee Patton
Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption.
Black Baby, White Hands: A View From the Crib
Jaiya John was the first African American baby adopted by a white family in the state of New Mexico. John’s lyrical memoir details his life as a black child growing up in a mostly-white community during the late 1960s and ‘70s.
Brown Babies, Pink Parents: A Practical Guide to Transracial Parenting
This short, accessible book provides an overview of issues that all new or prospective white parents raising children of color need to be thinking about.
Building the Bonds of Attachment
Illustrates the process of repairing children who have been severely damaged by abuse and neglect.
From Fear to Love
Provides new and highly effective techniques for parents dealing with behavioral challenges with their children. Intended for parents, adoptive parents, foster parents and caretakers of at-risk, ADD/ADHD/RAD,ODD, adopted children and children with behavioral and emotional challenges.
Gender Born, Gender Made
Diane Ehrensaft, PhD
This is an outstanding reference—an indispensible guide for those providing care for gender-nonconforming youth. Dr. Ehrensaft eloquently presents evidence to support her enlightened and impassioned plea to advocate for the ‘true gender self’ of all children.
Helping Children Cope with Separation and Loss
Claudia Jewett Jarratt
Here is compassionate, step-by-step guidance for any concerned adult who wants to help a child talk about, cope with, and recover from a loss.
Inside Transracial Adoption
Beth Hall and Gail Steinberg
An up-to-date book which covers all of the complexities of transracial adoption from a personal and well-informed perspective.
Learning the Dance of Attachment
Holly van Gulden and Charlotte Vick
Learning the Dance of Attachment, An Adoptive/Foster Parent’s Guide to Nurturing Healthy Development, is a child development guide specifically written for adoptive and foster parents.
Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child
Lifebooks help families answer difficult questions and provide a link between adoptees and their history. This resource will help you create a treasure for your child.
Making Sense of Adoption, A Parent’s Guide
Lois Ruskai Melina
Basic information regarding adoption. Some good information, but a bit outdated especially in resource referrals.
Parenting Adopted Adolescents-Understanding and Appreciating Their Journey
Experienced adoptive parent and therapist, Keck writes to demonstrate that all children who are adopted into their families must deal with the developmental issues of adolescence as well as adoption-related issues, either simultaneously or alternately.
Parenting the Hurt Child: Helping Adoptive Families Heal and Grow
Gregory C. Keck and Regina M. Kupecky
The authors explain how to manage a hurting child with loving wisdom and resolve, and how to preserve your stability while untangling a thorny heart.
Perspectives on a Grafted Tree
Compiled by Patricia Irwin Johnston
Poems expressing the emotions of adoption. A wonderful gift book.
Lawrence J. Cohen
This is an exciting approach to raising children that will help you nurture close connections, solve behavior problems, and encourage confidence. It is a welcome reminder that the serious business of parenthood can also be fun! A Family Builders favorite.
Post Adoption Blues
The postadoption blues explores the challenging time after adoption when adoptive parents are often expect to feel blessed, enriched, and ready for whatever comes, especially since they have crawled over coals to get to there. The truth, the authors point out, is that this is a vulnerable time that has the potential to turn into a crisis as unexpected and unanticipated feelings arise.
Raising Adopted Children, A Manual for Adoptive Parents
Lois Ruskai Melina
An excellent source of sound information
Real Parents, Real Children
Holly van Gulden and Lisa M. Bartels-Rabb
An adoptive parent and professional brings a wealth of insight and practical advice to parents.
Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Guides the way to peace and tranquility with humor, compassion and understanding, making life easier for both siblings and their parents.
The Adoption Reader
Susan Wadia-Ellis, ED
The stories in this collection are told by birth mothers, adoptive mothers, and adopted daughters. They provide valuable insights into the adoption experience.
The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity
Nadine Burke Harris, M.D.
In The Deepest Well, Nadine Burke Harris uncovers the once-hidden story of the effect of childhood trauma. She offers a new set of tools, based in science, that can help each of us heal ourselves, our children, and our world.
The Family of Adoption
Joyce Maguire Pavao
This is a must read for parents and professionals. Dr. Pavao illustrates through stories her view that adoption affects all involved through generations in a predictable and normal way. It provides a framework for thinking about adoption and adoptive family life.
The Open Adoption Experience
Lois Ruskai Melina and Sharon Kaplan Roszia
A guide for everyone involved in or considering open adoption and for those who want to learn more about it.
The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals
Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper
This comprehensive first of its kind guidebook explores the unique challenges that thousands of families face every day raising their children in every city and state. Through extensive research and interviews, as well as years of experience working in the field, the authors cover gender variance from birth through college.
The Women Who Raised Me
Detailing Rowell’s experiences in the numerous households of her youth (and beyond), The Women Who Raised Me stays close to its title in theme and intention, paying homage to the biological mother, foster mothers, teachers, mentors, friends, and child welfare workers who helped Rowell grow into the person she is today—a successful actress, dancer, activist, and mother.
To the End of June
Cris Beam, a foster mother herself, spent five years immersed in the world of foster care looking into these questions and tracing firsthand stories. The result is To the End of June, an unforgettable portrait that takes us deep inside the lives of foster children in their search for a stable, loving family.
Twenty Life Transforming Choices Adoptees Need to Make
A celebration of adoption, this book is based on the fact that adoption raises some of life’s most difficult questions, but also creates opportunities to truly understand yourself. It invigorates the healing process by engaging the difficult questions and emphasizing your ability to take control of your emotions through the choices you make.
Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
This book gives voice to children’s unspoken concerns, and shows adoptive parents how to free their kids from feelings of fear, abandonment, and shame.
7 Core Issues of Adoption
Deborah N. Silverstein and Sharon Kaplan
This brief article covers the 7 major challenges that can be found within the adoption triad. This is a must read for any adoptive or prospective adoptive parent.


The White Paladin Group, Inc. is an Information Technology Consulting company based in Kansas City. Since its creation in 1998, we have successfully provided cost-effective and quality services to prestigious organizations across the nation.
Scanning/Binding : EID, PDF, DPI : Waco, TX
1/13/2017 11:45:36 AM
There are approximately 75 3 binders, binder examples; Binders are approximately 350 pages each with single-sided documents Documents will be scanned in black and white at 300 DPI Indexes to be captured will be Vendor ID (normally written in the upper right corner), EID and date Each page will be saved as a single PDF unless the pages are clipped or otherwise grouped, then entire group will be stored as single PDF The documents will be saved in SharePoint Documents will be removed, unstapled, scanned and then returned to the binders after scanning. Scanned binders will be returned to the shelves. Post-It notes will be scanned in place if they do not cover text. If the cover text, they will be moved to an open area or a separate sheet and scanned with the document.


Question by David H: Book question???
I don’t know how many people have read the book River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, but if anyone has can you please give me as much information as possible, THANK YOU
Answer by norseheathen
In the heart of China’s Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.
Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!


The Fall of the Mayan Civilisation
By Jessica Cecil
Huge cities were swallowed up by the jungle, and Mayan wisdom and knowledge was lost to mankind for centuries. What brought down this thriving society, which had survived and prospered for millennia?
The Mayan ruins of Tikal are hidden deep in the rainforests of Guatemala. From the air only a handful of temples and palaces peek through the canopy. The stone carvings are weather-beaten. Huge plazas are covered in moss and giant reservoirs are engulfed by jungle. The only inhabitants are wild animals and birds.
But 1,200 years ago, Tikal was one of the major cities of the vast and magnificent Maya civilisation that stretched across much of what is now southern Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Tikal was home to perhaps 100,000 people. Thatched farmsteads and fields would have stretched as far as the eye could see.
Their civilisation was so stable and established, they even had a word for a 400-year time period.
The Maya thrived for nearly 2,000 years. Without the use of the cartwheel or metal tools, they built massive stone structures. They were accomplished scientists. They tracked a solar year of 365 days and one of the few surviving ancient Maya books contains tables of eclipses. From observatories, like the one at Chichen Itza, they tracked the progress of the war star, Venus.
They developed their own mathematics, using a base number of 20, and had a concept of zero. They also had their own system of writing. Their civilisation was so stable and established, they even had a word for a 400-year time period.
Mayan society was vibrant, but it could also be brutal. It was strictly hierarchical and deeply spiritual. Humans were sacrificed to appease the gods. The elite also tortured themselves - male Maya rulers perforated the foreskins of their penises and the women their tongues, apparently in the hope of providing nourishment for the gods who required human blood.
In the ninth century, the Maya world was turned upside down. Many of the great centres like Tikal were deserted. The sacred temples and palaces briefly became home to a few squatters, who left household rubbish in the once pristine buildings. When they too left, Tikal was abandoned forever, and the Mayan civilisation never recovered. Only a fraction of the Maya people survived to face the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.
For decades, archaeologists have been searching for an explanation of the Maya collapse. Many theories have been put forward, ranging from warfare and invasion to migration, disease and over-farming. Many think the truth may lie with a combination of these and other factors.
But none of the conventional theories were good enough for Dick Gill. He believed that what had devastated the Maya was drought. However, drought as the only explanation of the Maya collapse was highly controversial.
Dick Gill was a most unusual person to put forward a bold new theory explaining the collapse of Mayan civilisation. When he started his hunt for clues, he was actually a banker.
His love affair with the Maya started back in 1968 when he visited Chichen Itza in Southern Mexico while on holiday. The Mayan ruins, he says, really touched him. He resolved to solve the riddle of the Maya collapse - but he still had a banking career to pursue.
In the early 1980s, fate stepped in with a Texas banking crisis. The family bank collapsed, and Gill was suddenly out of work and free to follow his dream. He went to college to study anthropology and archaeology.
His realisation of what might have caused the Maya collapse came in a brainwave - it was an explanation that didn't come from books and study, but directly from his own childhood. Gill remembered the devastating droughts in Texas in the 1950s, when farmland was parched and fires raged. The hot, sunny days seemed interminable, and he was left with an emotional understanding of the power of drought.
His work led him to a dramatic conclusion - that the Maya civilisation consisted of millions of people who had died very suddenly.
He felt sure the Maya had faced a huge drought, but he had no evidence to back up his theory - so he set out to search for clues. One of the first people he turned to was archaeologist Dr Fred Valdez.
Valdez, from the University of Texas, worked deep in the jungles of Belize. He counted Maya farmsteads in order to estimate the likely total population. Fragments of pottery told him when the area was occupied and his work led him to a dramatic conclusion - that the Maya civilisation consisted of millions of people who had died very suddenly. Gill knew few factors could account for this - but one of them was drought.
In Gill's eyes, this strengthened his theory, but he still needed direct evidence. It was time to trawl the archives. National records held in Mexico City revealed that, at the start of the 20th century, a drought in the Maya region had lasted three years. Here was evidence that drought could, in fact, occur in this region.
He then stumbled upon older, colonial records from the Spanish authorities in the Yucatan province of Mexico, telling of repeated drought. 'I found this plea for help', he says. 'The crops had been very bad in the year 1795 - they were running out of grain and they were afraid that the terrible death they had seen so often in the past was going to repeat itself again, so they asked for help.'
Gill now had proof of devastating droughts in the past, but not in the key ninth century. Then he discovered an extraordinary coincidence. He'd studied hundreds of papers on meteorology before he stumbled on one entitled 'Dendrochronology, mass balance and glacier front fluctuations in northern Sweden'.
It had been extremely cold in northern Europe at just the time of the Maya collapse, but what could possibly be the link? Gill went back to the meteorological records, and found that one of the high pressure systems in the north Atlantic had moved towards Central America at the start of the 20th century. This was a time of both drought in the Maya areas and extreme cold in northern Europe.
Though the circumstantial evidence was growing stronger, Gill still didn't have direct proof of devastating drought in the Maya areas in the ninth century. He finally got that evidence when a team from the University of Florida visited Lake Chichancanab in Mexico's Yucatan region.
The scientists discovered that the ninth century had been the driest time in the region for 7,000 years.
The team was interested in past climates and measured them by taking cores of mud from the bottom of the lake. The mud had built up over thousands of years - the deeper the mud, the older the shells and seeds it contained.
Back at their labs in Gainesville, they looked at tiny shells from each part of the core, and in particular the two types of oxygen locked in them - heavy and light.
The surfaces of shells from times of high rainfall are dominated by light oxygen. More of the heavy oxygen means the water in the lake was evaporating at that time. A core from the ninth century showed an exceptional surge of heavy oxygen, indicating it was the driest time in the region for 7,000 years.
Here at last was the clinching evidence Gill had been searching for - exceptional drought at the time of the Maya collapse. His quest was over, but it had been an emotional journey of discovery.
'There's a certain satisfaction that I have finally understood what happened to the Maya, but as a human being it's awful to think about what happened', he says.
Find out more
The Great Maya Droughts: Water, Life, and Death by Richardson Gill (University of New Mexico Press, 2001)
The Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an Ancient Maya City by Peter D Harrison, Colin Renfrew and Jeremy A Sabloff (Thames & Hudson, 2000)
The Maya by Michael D Coe (Thames & Hudson, 1993)
The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings by David Drew (Phoenix Mass Market, 2000)
Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya by Simon Martin (Thames & Hudson, 2000)
Prehistoric Mesoamerica by Richard EW Adams (University of Oklahoma Press, 1996)
Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen D Houston (Westview Press, 2000)
Maya Art and Architecture (World of Art) by Mary Ellen Miller (Thames & Hudson, 1999)
Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D Coe (Thames & Hudson, 1999)
The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art by Linda Schele et al (Thames & Hudson, 1992)
A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya by Linda Schele and David A Freidel (William Morrow, 1992)


Who We Are
The library is open 7:20-3:00 p.m.. If students need us after this time, let us know and we can stay later as needed.
Robin Holmes: library media specialist
Annette Middleton: library media secretary
Pete Peters: library media secretary
Amherst County High School became a fully integrated high school in 1970. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination against blacks and women. At this time students from the African-American Central High School could choose to attend ACHS. With the five students who came in the fall of 1964, came Maurice L. Moore, a profound educator from Central High School. He educated the students of Amherst County from 1948-1988. Our library later became known as the Maurice L. Moore library.