In case you missed it in all the excitement of Valentine’s Day, this is National Condom Week!

Along with a spiffy display and free condoms (while they last), Eckles also offers you an interesting display of books on Love, Sex and Valentine’s Day. Feel free to giggle if you must, but come by and check it out.

            
Interior Design Studio in the 1970s                  Interior Design Resource Room 2008

You may have noticed an extra bit of hubub going on in Eckles for the past few days.  Perhaps you’ve noticed the disappearance of the student projects lining the 1st floor walls or seen the flurry of activity in the auditorium?

The Interior Design Department, located on the Mount Vernon Campus is busily preparing for a very big weekend.  It is time for them to renew their accrediation from CIDA.  You may not know it, but this is a pretty big deal.  In fact, our Interior Design program is the ONLY accredited program in DC and one of only 2 within 100 miles.  This accrediation process is a massive endeavor and they have been preparing for it for years!

We thought this would be a good time to reflect a little on what Interior Design has meant to this campus, so we went to the archives and found lots of interesting stuff.  You can check out the history of this program through photographs, newspaper clippings and other materials in an exhibit on our gallery wall. 

Unless you live under a rock, you know we are in the midst of a heated race to nominate two presidential candidates. The field remains wide open and it looks like it could be at least a month or two until we know the nominees. Since The Daily Show is in repeats it looks like we’re all going to have to get our candidate information somewhere else.

How about from their own books? We’ve got an assortment on display at Eckles. Here are a few interesting selections:

Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by: Barack Obama
Barack Obama, a black man raised by his white mother and grandparents, decided to journey to Kenya to learn more about his African father after receiving news of his death. This memoir is not about his father’s life, but about Obama’s, and he brings that home with an intimate tone rather than that of his public speeches. (His 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address is included at the end.) Throughout the book, the he looks at race from the point of view of someone who has seen and been part of a variety of cultures, and he explains how his perspective shaped his views.

Why Courage Matters: The way to a braver life
by: John McCain
After two stirring memoirs, Senator McCain turns in a slim meditation on the nature of courage. Suggesting the definition of courage has been stretched thin in contemporary parlance, where it can be applied to acts as insignificant as cutting or not cutting one’s hair, McCain seeks to return to the word’s fundamental meaning not just of “the capacity for action despite our fears” but self-sacrifice for the benefit of others as well as for oneself.

It Takes a Village: And other lessons children teach us
by: Hillary Rodham Clinton
This year is the tenth anniversary of Hillary Clinton’s primer on raising children in the contemporary world. For the most part, this is not the former first lady and presidential hopeful we all know. In a softer, almost neighborly voice, Clinton reveals intimate details about her childhood and the childhood of her husband. She saddens when talking about Bill’s life with an abusive, alcoholic stepfather. All of this leads into her main subject–how we can raise a new generation of strong, purposeful young adults.

Now that school is out it is time to rediscover reading for pleasure. You remember that? Well, the new Harry Potter doesn’t come out until July 21st, so we’ve come up with a bunch of brand new books to amuse and entertain you throughout the summer. Here are just a few you might enjoy:

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities
by Alexandra Robbins

Wow! What an eye-opener. My undergraduate institution didn’t have sororities, so I had no idea what went on in them. I was truly shocked by this book. I highly recommend every woman considering Greek life to take a look.

Headless Males Make Great Lovers & Other Unusual Natural Histories
by Marty Crump
From the back: “From penis-gnawing slugs to tadpole-transporting frogs, Headless Males captivates readers with remarkable stories about animals and their bizarre behaviors.”

A History of the World in Six Glasses
by Tom Standage
From the back: “Standage tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola.” This books is a great excuse to drink up (soda, of course) and call it studying.

April 6th marked the 13th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda. All of the news coverage of the anniversary, as well as the ongoing situation in Darfur made me think about the concept genocide…and our latest book display was born. Check out a few of the many interesting titles on display:

East Timor: Genocide in Paradise
by Matthew Jardine

“In 1975, after centuries of Portuguese rule, tiny East Timor - population 700,000 - declared its independence. Nine days later, Indonesia - current population 200 million+ - invaded. Since that day, well over 200,000 East Timorese have died…yet Indonesia’s actions are supported diplomatically and economically, by the US and most other western countries.”

The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia
by Michael A. Sells

“The Bridge Betrayed reveals the crucial role of the religious mythology of Kosovo in the destruction of Yugoslavia and the genocide in Bosnia.”

Hotel Rwanda

Okay, it’s not a book and it is not on the display, but it is available as an Eckles Flix DVD. Hotel Rwanda is the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who in 1994 saved 1,200 Rwandan “guests” from certain death during the genocidal clash between tribal Hutus, who slaughtered a million victims, and the horrified Tutsis, who found safe haven or died.

It is hard to walk away from the powerful exhibit of photographs taken in New Orleans by the participants in this year’s Alternative Spring Break and not have some questions about Hurricane Katrina and it’s aftermath. We’ve brought together a few books for a book display about New Orleans’ past, the impact of Katrina and plans for the future. Here are a few I thought looked the most interesting:

Stormy Weather: Katrina and the Politics of Disposability
by Henry Giroux
In his newest provocative book, prominent social critic Henry A. Giroux shows how the tragedy and suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina signals a much larger crisis in the United States. Questions regarding who is going to die and who is going to live are driving a new form of authoritarianism in the United States. Within this form of “dirty democracy” a new and more insidious set of forces – embedded in our global economy – have largely given up on the sanctity of human life, rendering some groups as disposable and privileging others. Giroux offers up a vision of hope that creates the conditions for multiple collective and global struggles that refuse to use politics as an act of war and markets as the measure of democracy.

New Orleans: Playing a Jazz Chorus
by Samuel Charters
In December 1950, Samuel Charters first journeyed to New Orleans in search of its jazz sources and its musicians. In December 2005, he returned to his beloved city to find what still was left of this musical heritage after the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina.
In this highly personal portrait, Charters decribes staying with his son’s family in their small, temporary apartment, as he explores the new music scene in the undamaged French Quarter and revisits old haunts like the celebrated Preservation Hall.
Amid the inevitable destruction and chaos, he found hope. Clarinet player Pete Fountain sums up the feelings of many fo the New Orleans musicians, old and new: ‘I have two of my best clarinets. I can still toot.’

Federal Disaster Programs and Hurricane Katrina
Editor: Douglas D Syzerhans
Preface: Federal disaster programs kind of sit there and gather moss after all the expenses of running the government agencies responsible for rendering assistance to the disaster victims are spent on staff salaries, computers, travel and all the accompaniments of perceived power. Hopefully there will be no disasters. Otherwise, let them be small disasters which might not inturrupt lunch. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the federal disaster programs were themselves disasters which were limp responses to the thousands dead, hundreds of thousands homeless and entire sectors of America destroyed. This new book tries to examine the initial disaster programs, recovery disaster programs designed to cover-up for the initial flaws and the programs planned to prevent more disastrous disaster programs.

This Friday, March 30th, the 2007 Women’s Leadership Conference will take place on the Mount Vernon Campus. The conference celebrates women who have taken leadership roles. We thought that was a pretty good thing to celebrate, so we put up a book display highlighting a few of the women leaders throughout history who have inspired us.

Here are just a few of the books you might find interesting:

African American Women in Congress: Forming and Transforming History
by Laverne McCain Gill

Shirley Chisholm rocks my world. In 1968 she became the first African American woman elected to Congress. Four years later she became the first African American woman to run for president, running with the slogan, “Unbossed and Unbought.” This book chronicles her life and and the lives of 14 other trailblazing women who have served in the House and Senate.

We Were Making History: Women and the Telangana Uprising
by Stree Shakti Sanghatana

From the back: The Telangana struggle (1948-51) against the feudal overlords in the princely state of Hyderabad, and later against the Indian army itself, is now legendary. These interviews tell of women who left behind a life of the household to learn a life of activism: hiding from the police, fighting and facing the death of comrades. The excitement of working in a resistance movement is clear, but also the bitterness of being told to go back to the kitchen once the struggle ended.

Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
by Linda Lear

From the back: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring did more than any single publication or event to alert the world to the hazards of environmental poisoning. Linda Lear gives a compelling portrait of this heroic woman, illuminating the origin of her connection with nature and of her determination to save what she loved.

Every once in a while something happens that gets us library nerds all a-twitter. We get NEW BOOKS. And how we love them…all shiny, spines unbroken, free from coffee stains and those faint pencil marks that you think we don’t notice but we do.

In the last month, we’ve been bursting with happiness over the arrival of 100+ beautiful new books on a wide array of subjects. Below are a few I thought you’d find especially interesting:

Mechademia 1: Emerging worlds of Anime and Manga
Frenchy Lunning, Editor

From the back: “Mechademia 1 is a juicy compendium that casts a wide net over the worlds on manga and anime. It is a beautiful, lively book with something for the otaku in all of us.”

I don’t know what that means, but it seems pretty good.

Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda (A Spy’s Story)
Omar Nasiri

From the back: “A chillingly detailed portrait of life inside the Afghan training camps. Omar Nasiri’s memoir offers a unique insider’s perspective on the crucial years during which a loosely connected group of regional Islamist movements coalesced into Al Qaeda’s global jihad.”

The Cutting Edge of Wallpaper
Cigalle Hanaor, Editor

Stunningly beautiful photographs of the most amazing, crazy, hip, funky and downright trippy wallpaper you have ever seen. Also, I think there are words. The Eckles staff has spent some serious time flipping through this book.

In honor of President’s Day we have a new book display focusing on (almost) all of our American presidents. From the beloved to the impeached, you can find biographies, speeches, and other assorted writings on the shelves at the entrance to Eckles. On the table below, you will find books about what it takes to run for and win the presidency.

Here are a few of my favorites from the current display:

The Making of the President 1960
Theodore H White
This is the best book I’ve ever read about presidential politics. No lie. I have a Masters Degree in Political Management from this august institution so I’ve read a lot of political books, and this is still the best.
Theodore White was the first journalist to really cover the “process” of political campaigning. He started in the Fall of 1959 and gained intimate access to each of the seven candidates vying for the presidency in 1960. His book was a sensation and caused the tidal wave of “process” reporting that we live with today.
I wish I could share with you a few of the great tidbits from this book that I just love, but there isn’t enough space. You’ll have to read it for yourself!

Bush at War
Bob Woodward (the man who brought you Watergate) interviewed over 100 high level Bush Administration officials to write this “account of George W Bush at war during the first 100 days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.” If you are wondering how we got into Afghanistan or how the decision was made to go to war there, this is a good book for you.

The Presidency of George Washington
Jack D. Warren, Jr
George Washington. He’s why we drink a cup of coffee instead of a spot of tea. He shaped the powers of the presidency, created our city, founded our university and still had time to build that cool house at Mount Vernon. What a guy! He’s also half the reason we have Monday off.

In honor of Valentine’s Day (hint: it’s next week, guys!) our current book display is about Love, Sex and Valentine’s Day. Actually, it is just about love and sex because I couldn’t find any books of Valentine’s Day, but I know you’ll let it slide.

Here are a few of the most interesting:

The Kama Sutra and The Perfumed Garden
Vatsyanyana and Cheikh Nefaoui
Hey guess what…there are actual words in this book, not just the pictures you might already be familiar with. The Kama Sutra is actually a Hindu sexual treatise from the 4th century AD and it isn’t just about sexual positions. It is more like an essay on sexual etiquette, telling the reader just what is permissible. The Perfumed Garden is an Arabian work from the 16th century and is much more poetic. Both provide and interesting look at sexuality in different cultures.

The Well of Loneliness
Radclyffe Hall
This book definitely falls into the “love” category. In fact, the only sex scene in the entire book consists of the words “and that night, they were not divided.” However, it was banned anyway because the couple in question are both women. This is a classic of lesbian fiction and was groundbreaking for being the first novel to condemn society for its unfair treatment of gays and lesbians.

Outspoken Women: An anthology of women’s writing on sex, 1870-1969
Edited by Lesley Hall
The “sexual revolution” may have started in the 1960s, but women were writing about sex long before that. This is a pretty interesting look at women’s attitudes about sex from the Victorians to your grandmothers.