During her visit to Casper this week, Lynne Cheney described her courtship with the Vice President in an interview with KCWY Channel 13. The library stood out in their memories of that teenage summer. She said, “Both of us were reading our way through the old Carnegie Library. And Dick was in the history section. I was in the fiction section. We didn’t cross paths, but we’ve compared notes so we know that one summer we were both in there a lot.” Romantic!

Gruesome but fascinating, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness traces the story of Walter Freeman, inventor of and advocate for lobotomy.

In The Scratch of a Pen, historian Colin Calloway tells the story of one year in American history. In 1763, the French and Indian War ended and all of the Frontier as well as the Eastern seaboard came under British rule, causing cultural and geographic upheaval. Publishers Weekly describes it as “enthralling”, “spellbinding” and “a first rate cultural history”.

Gruesome but fascinating, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness traces the story of Walter Freeman, inventor of and advocate for lobotomy.

In The Scratch of a Pen, historian Colin Calloway tells the story of one year in American history. In 1763, the French and Indian War ended and all of the Frontier as well as the Eastern seaboard came under British rule, causing cultural and geographic upheaval. Publishers Weekly describes it as “enthralling”, “spellbinding” and “a first rate cultural history”.

Coe Library:

May 27 (Saturday) Noon – 4:00 p.m.
May 28 & 29 (Sunday & Monday) Closed
May 30 (Tuesday) Resume Regular Hours

Geology Library and Learning Resource Center:

May 27, 28 & 29 (Saturday, Sunday & Monday) Closed
May 30 (Tuesday) Resume Regular Hours

Looking for the ASTM Standards or a CRC Handbook? Don’t worry, all reference books from the Science Library have been safely transported and moved to the first floor of Coe Library. Ask a librarian if you’d like help locating your favorites!

In response to the NY Times list of the best American novels of the past 25 years, Slate columnist Meghan O’Rourke makes the case for small novels rather than epic tomes. She argues that “What’s been lost in the conflation of ’small’ and ’small-minded’ is the recognition that small books can be powerful vehicles for big ideas—to say nothing of powerful examples of aesthetic rigor.”

Some of her top picks for tightly crafted small works: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick, and Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer.

The New York Times asked 125 luminaries of the literary world to select the best American novel of the past 25 years. The winners were announced this week, along with a thoughtful essay about the selection process. Leading the pack was Toni Morrison’s Beloved, followed by Don DeLillo’s Underworld, John Updike’s Rabbit books, Blood Meridian from Cormac McCarthy and Philip Roth’s American Pastoral.

No doubt about it, these books reflect the very serious view of literature taken by the Times and the judges they selected. I wonder what the list would look like if it reflected a broader perspective of American literary tastes?

Two new books from Wyoming authors arrived in the libraries this week.

Craig Johnson of Ucross offers a second Walt Longmire mystery, Death Without Company. Booklist gave it a starred review, noting “Like C. J. Box in his Joe Pickett series, Johnson uses the landscape of the Wyoming high country to evoke the sense of lives crushing in upon one another, as secrets refuse to stay buried, and old wounds continue to fester.”

Speaking of C.J. Box — everyone’s favorite game warden, Joe Pickett, is back. In Plain Sight marks the fifth Joe Pickett mystery, and the action is as good as ever. Check out the whole series to enjoy Box’s evocative and funny descriptions of the Cowboy State. Have your copies signed and meet C.J. Box on Saturday, May 20, 11 a.m., at Chickering Bookstore in Laramie, on Sunday, May 21, 2 p.m., at City Newsstand in Cheyenne, or on Monday, May 22, 4-6 p.m., at Ralph’s Books in Casper.