Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Rainbow Book Month

Rainbow Book Month™ is a nationwide celebration of the authors and writings that reflect the lives and experiences of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, and queer community. 

This June, Hewes Library highlighted a selection of LGBTQ non-fiction and fiction titles accessible via the Hewes Library catalog. Contact reference@monmouthcollege.edu if you see a title you'd like to check out!


Non-Fiction Selections


 

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Accessing the Chronicle of Higher Education

Learn more about accessing the Hewes Library subscription to The Chronicle of Higher Education - on and off campus  - with this handy video tutorial!




Friday, June 11, 2021

New Items at Hewes Library

New items are added to the Hewes Library collection on a continual basis. Recent titles have included: 

  • Biomimicry: Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Best Practices by Dayna Baumeister
  • Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
  • From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ by Patrick Cheng
  • Boneheads and Brainiacs: Heroes & Scoundrels of the Nobel Prize in Medicine by Moira Dolan
  • Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel by Bernardine Evaristo
  • Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Save the America City by A.K. Sandoval-Strausz
  • Ultimate Punishment by Scott Turow
  • When the Nazis Came to Skokie: Freedom For Speech We Hate by Philippa Strum
  • I didn't do it for you: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation by Michela Wrong
  • Life's Edge: The Search for What it Means to be Alive by Carl Zimmer

Friday, June 4, 2021

What Scots are Reading: The Consequences of Fear, a Maisie Dobbs Novel

We ask fellow Scots to tell us about a book they've recently enjoyed. Hewes Library welcomes contributions from students, faculty, staff and alumni. If you would like to contribute a review, drop a note to: reference@monmouthcollege.edu. 


Jacqueline Winspear.  The Consequences of Fear: A Maisie Dobbs Novel. Harper, 2021.
Reviewed by James L. De Young, 
Professor Emeritus of Theatre and Communication Arts  
Consequences of Fear (cover)


Run don’t walk to find a copy of Jacqueline Winspear’s new Maisie Dobbs adventure THE CONSEQUENCES OF FEAR.  I and many of my friends have been a fan for several years.

It is 1941 and the bombs are fast producing a reign of terror on London. A young message runner views what appears to be a brutal murder and then thinks the killer is the same man he has just delivered a dispatch to. He reports his experience to the police, but they seem less than interested. Frustrated, the troubled young man turns to a woman he has delivered messages to before. Maisie Dobbs is a private investigator, a forensic psychologist, and also an intelligence operator for Churchill's newly formed SOE (Special Operations Executive). Dobbs takes the boy’s story seriously and then quickly discovers that there are dangerous intersections with the Free French, the French Resistance, and the insertion of British spies into occupied France.    

There is, as per usual with Winspear, a seamless conjunction of London and British geography that pairs up in this book with the historical context of the Blitz and the beginnings of  World War II. Her style is spare and direct, yet manages to convey complexity without sacrificing simplicity.

Masie’s personal romantic life, the lives of her daughter and her family and friends are also given full play in the narrative. They add a sense of the personal emotions and deadly consequences that lurk just under the surface in any wartime. It is this element that takes Maise’s trials outside of and above the level of standard detective fiction. 

You can start with this adventure and be well satisfied, but picking up Maise’s life from the scullery, to WW I nurse, to detective, to secret agent adds oceans of depth to a complex female character whose growth seems to parallel the women’s movement itself. She survives the battlefield, tragic love losses, and narrow scrapes that make her as unsinkable as Molly Brown. She is a character you will comfortably live with over time and love more with each new episode. 

The Consequences of Fear is available to borrow via I-Share, as are others from the Molly Dobbs series

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Summer Access

In order to clean and make anticipated Fall 2021 updates, Hewes Library will be closed to the public May 17th - July 31st.


Staff from the Library, Wackerle Career Center, Registrar, Global Engagement, Information Services and Student Success and Accessibility Services are available to assist Monday - Friday 8am-4:30pm. 

Please contact us for access to resources. 
We will help you search, request, and facilitate pickup of materials by appointment.

To access the building:  call with a cell phone when you arrive, or utilize the East entrance house phone and dial the last four digits to contact someone.  


Global Engagement

Tel: 309-457-2453
Email: cjohnston@monmouthcollege.edu


Hewes Library
Tel: 309-457-2190
Email: reference@monmouthcollege.edu


Information Services (IS)
Tel: 309-457-2106
Email: patte@monmouthcollege.edu


Registrar
Tel: 309-457-2326
Email: registrar@monmouthcollege.edu


Student Success and Accessibility Services
Email: ssas@monmouthcollege.edu

Wackerle Career Center
Tel: 309-457-2116
Email: mdugan@monmouthcollege.edu