OverDrive Book Review: In the Country of the Kaw

 

By Dwight Hunter

James Locklear manages to combine history, geology, biology, and sociology topics all in one well-written book. In the Country of the Kaw: A Personal Natural History of the American Plains.

There are so many reasons I enjoyed reading this book. I am a huge fan of history and telling the history of the Kaw and its tributaries was a continual learning lesson while reading the book. I am an enthusiastic fan of sociology and telling the human lessons wrought from living in the Plains were lifelong learning lessons. Learning about the biology and the flowers of the Plains and the Kaw brought me new learning. And there's geology. Erosion, wind-carried dirt and rocks, and limestone. I learned so many different layers of limestone. A lot of reasons to like this book.

So, what is the Kaw? Most people know it as the Kansas River, about 170 miles long. But people who live there know better than to call it the Kansas River. It is the Kaw.

Locklear not only covers the Kaw but all the tributaries that feed into the Kaw. The Kaw is truly a prairie river - the only Plains river whose headwaters do not begin in the Rockies. Instead, the Kaw headwaters rise up from the eastern Colorado plains.

The tributaries of the Kaw once teemed with bison, fish, and unique plants. A narrative of how people affected those things. Bison hunted to near extinction. The Ogallala Aquifer is becoming depleted to the point causing some of the western ends of the Kaw tributaries to be decoupled from ground source water. 

But Locklear brings about hope and continued resilience of the land and of the Kaw.

Take a dive into an eBook that weaves history, biology, geology, and sociology into learning lessons about life. In the Country of the Kaw.

OverDrive Book Review of Wholehearted Faith

 

Review by Dwight Hunter

Rachel Held Evans died on May 4, 2019.

Local writer from Rhea County, Tennessee, former newspaper reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, author of many books. The last book, Wholehearted Faith, combines her last unfinished manuscript with the help of Jeff Chu. A review from Booklist states that Held Evans was widely known for her openness to question the Bible, God, and the practice of white evangelical Christianity.

Wholehearted Faith, released on November 2, 2021, is available on the ChattState Library's OverDrive collection at https://chattanoogastate.overdrive.com/media/5962325?cid=266370

"This manuscript isn't what Rachel originally envisioned. Our life today isn't what she envisioned. Being dead at thirty-seven isn't what she envisioned. But that's one thing about having vision. It's not about always being right about the future. It's constantly learning what's right and striving for it." Daniel J Evans, Foreward, Wholehearted Faith

"It’s a pastoral letter to someone Rachel loved. It says you’re not alone because you’re questioning." Jeff Chu, co-author, Wholehearted Faith.

The first paragraph of this book describes the East Tennessee hills in the splendor of the sun and the green landscape. Held Evans was from East Tennessee. Her upbringing in conservative evangelical Christianity led her to question the tight grip of having no other dialogue about beliefs. I can relate to that thought process. I've attended churches that were in that way of rigid thinking -- questioning the Bible and fundamentalist beliefs were not acceptable practices.

In the essay, My Wicked Heart, Held Evans talks about changing from a proselytizing high school student to a person who learned about privileged, who learned about critical thinking skills. The chapter talks about how religion has torn people apart. Religious quests and crusades asked so many to ignore their conscience and to conform to expected cultural norms, faking happiness, and looking the other way from things that bother one's conscience. This is, Held Evans writes, an unhealthy way to live.

In this book, the exploration of our relationship with religious beliefs begins with who we are and where we are in the universe. Held Evans through this book has articulated thoughtfully of how to bring that awareness into our spiritual lives. The touch of poetic phrasing often gives a lift of rhythm when reading this book.

About OverDrive
The ChattState OverDrive collections brings electronic books onto a readable format of flipping a page of a book, or a page on one of the 3000+ magazines, or even to listen to an audio-book. Find the ChattState Library OverDrive collection at library.chattanoogastate.edu/overdrive and browse the collections, search for a book, and checkout an item via your ChattState email login. If you have purchase requests, you can use this form to make a request.

Book Review for Poetry Month: Obit

Obit by Victoria Chang
Available in Chatt State Library OverDrive

Accolades: The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2020, Time Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020, NPR's Best Books of 2020, National Book Award in Poetry--Longlist, and the Frank Sanchez Book Award.

Book Review written by Dwight Hunter

A poetry book that makes one read poetry differently. High-strung with lines that emote grief and future ambition intertwined into one. At first glance, the contents of the book may seem a little weird even, but the depth of emotions and the hop and skipping between objects and content gives a free flow in an otherwise constrained environment. This is Obit by Victoria Chang.

Chang wrote this book in the refusal to write elegies after her mother died. When you lose someone, the world doesn't stop to let you mourn, Chang writes. The poet explores the lack of time to see the world through the gaping hole left behind and to see what the future is like without someone to share it with. Many of the poems do not have titles.

The one exception is in section two of the book, taking a line from a Sylvia Plath writing, "I am a Miner. The Light Turns Blue." Happiness and rain and death and grief pack this 12-paged high-paced poem making it the masterful poetic stroke in the book. The free-verse poem here is a hodgepodge, a run and stop read, that makes a reader hue to the sense of uphill, downhill of life journeys through the darkness and into happiness. I love this poetic line: "How the snow falls to its death, how snow is just dressed-up rain". A powerful link that we dress up for death but in the end we are what we are born with.

Obit is available in the library's OverDrive platform at https://chattanoogastate.overdrive.com/media/5378934

Celebrate National Poetry Month!

Book Review: Barack Before Obama: Life before the Presidency

 

Review by Dwight Hunter

David Katz found himself in a car with Illinois state legislator Barack Obama. This starts the journey pictured in the book Barack Before Obama.

This online book from the KLIC Library Overdrive collection presents a stunning visual display of Barack Obama before he was president, before he was even US Senator. A volunteer campaign staffer in the early days of a primary election run for US Senate, David Katz was able to befriend the candidate, his advisers, and his family. The comfort level of all who were pictured is very telling. From the comfort of Sasha and Malia to Katz's camera, to capturing Obama in his favorite barbershop, and the capturing the rapt attention of VFW veterans gathering around then US Senate candidate Obama.

President Obama stated in his foreword for the book that he was grateful Katz was there to document his primary run for US Senate and beyond.

When Katz joined the Obama US Senate campaign, Obama was in third place for the Democratic primary election. This was in 2004. And 4 years later, Obama was elected president of the United States. Katz was there to document this appealing pictorial biography of the pre-presidential Barack Obama.

The quality of the pictures, the detailed captions for the pictures, and the story of the 2004 to 2008 time-frame for Barack Obama and his family makes this pictorial biography a book that can't be put down until the end.

This book is available online through the KLIC Library Overdrive collection.

July Online Hours and eBook for Savvy Student Online

July Online Library Help 

Beginning July 6th, we're available online for library help Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

 

eBook The Savvy Student's Guide to Online Learning

This online eBook available through KLIC prepares students of all kinds for contemporary online learning. It covers topics such as how to become a great online student, creating an online presence, interaction techniques, online group projects, and much more. Online access.

Booking a Computer at the Library

Library computer access is available by appointment only Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To make an appointment, please visit here. 

Student Tech Support 

We can't help in person right now, but Student Tech Support is currently available. You can call student tech support at 423-697-5595 and leave a message. We will be checking messages frequently. Please leave your name, phone number, or personal email address, A-number, and a brief description of the problem.

Thank you RODP for Access to more eBook Titles!

The library now has more eBooks! Thank you to RODP and to TBR academic affairs for providing access to these latest title additions. The latest eBook collection will consist of approximately 180,965 eBook titles from EBSCO eBook databases. This will be a great resource for all of our students, in RODP and in our campus and campus web-courses. Access any of the specific eBook databases from the library's A-Z list with Chattanooga State authentication. 

Here is the breakdown of the eBook titles by category:

• eBook Academic Collection:  appx. 139,761 titles

• eBook Engineering Core Collection: appx. 5,614 titles

• eBook History Collection: appx 13,917 titles

• eBook Business Collection: appx 14,033 titles

• eBook Religion Collection: appx. 5,496 titles
  
• eBook Clinical Collection: appx. 2,144 titles

NetLibrary's E-Book of the Month--December




Hey, remember the tune to the Mickey Mouse Club song? What do you mean, you're not old enough? Yeah, you've heard it, think back.

M-I-C-K-E-Y (short pause) M-O-U-S-E, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse;
Forever let us hold our banner high, high, high, high....

Well, the tune fits with this month's NetLibrary ebook of the Month. Just wave your banner and sing:

B-A-R-A-C-K (short pause) O-B-A-M-A, B'rack Obama, B'rack Obama;
Forever let us hold our Presidents high, high, high, high....

"Written by Martin Dupuis and Keith Boeckelman, this book examines Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to fame and what it means for American politics. The roots of President-elect Obama's politics and presidential campaign strategy are traced in this detailed political biography, ascending from his successful run in 1996 to represent Chicago's South Side in the Illinois Senate, through his partial term as the junior U.S. senator from Illinois beginning in 2004, to his campaign for the presidency. Dupuis and Boeckelman analyze in illuminating detail the critical ways in which the political calculus so brilliantly deployed in Obama's 2007-2008 national campaign was shaped by the lessons he learned from the successes and failures of his previous local and statewide campaigns....

Provided through the generous support of Greenwood Publishing Group, Barack Obama, the New Face of American Politics will be available to Chattanooga State library patrons December 1-31. If you have already established a NetLibrary account through this library, visit www.netLibrary.org and log in. If you do not have a NetLibrary account, you can create an account from any CSTCC library computer. For more information about NetLibrary or other services available through the Chattanooga State library," please contact any of your friendly librarians.

Image credit to NetLibrary.

NetLibrary E-Book of the Month--November



Foreclosure Survival Guide is NetLibrary's eBook of the Month.

A popular topic of conversation in the news and around many offices today and tomorrow is foreclosures, which rose in the U.S. by over 79 percent last year—and over two million more are expected in the next two years.

Written by a practicing lawyer who has helped hundreds keep their homes or come out of foreclosure financially sound, Foreclosure Survival Guide provides practical solutions and information that can help readers make the best decisions possible.

An essential tool for anyone at risk of foreclosure, Foreclosure Survival Guide provides key information about:

• What to expect from foreclosure
  
• Whether it’s worth trying to keep the house
  
• Walking away from a house with money in hand
  
• Building liquidity
  
• Opportunities and resources for a workout
  
• Using Chapter 7 to buy time
  
• Using Chapter 13 bankruptcy to save a home
  

Foreclosure Survival Guide gathers all the information Attorney Stephen R. Elias has used to help hundreds of clients over 30 years of practicing law and shows readers how to deal with foreclosure.

Foreclosure Survival Guide will be available to Chattanooga State Library patrons November 1-30.

If you have already established a NetLibrary account through the Chattanooga State Library, visit www.netLibrary.org and log in. If you do not have a NetLibrary account, you can create an account from any CSTCC library computer.

For more information about NetLibrary or other services available through CSTCC Library, please contact any of our librarians.