Celebrating the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China, with the book, Hilary Knight Hockey Hero, (Juvenile Non-Fiction, J 92 KNI). Hilary Knight calls Sun Valley home and is the captain of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Hockey Team. She has played in more games for Team USA than any other women’s hockey player.
“Flywater” by Grant McClintock
Somewhere during his five decades as a professional photographer, Grant McClintock’s name became synonymous with fly fishing. This status is largely due to the success of two collaborative books featuring “flywaters” of the West.
A passionate fly-fisher since young adulthood, McClintock took on an idea that was sparked at a gathering of friends. Mike Crockett describes the moment as “a pleasant cocktail hour” with the McClintocks in Ketchum. They later enlisted Jack Hemingway, another avid Wood River Valley fly-fisher, in what would become Flywater (1994).
An exhibit of Grant McClintock’s images and books can be found at The Community Library outside the Idaho Room.
The Library has many other fly fishing books in the stacks at 799.12 and fly tying at 688.7, including these titles by Grant McClintock:
Flywater (1994))
Flywater: Fly-fishing Rivers of the West (2010)
Cast about for something of interest you!
Turtle-Necked Sea Turtle
Whimsical Dr. Seuss Artifact
The sculptures of the Carbonic Walrus, Gimlet Fish, and Turtle-Necked Sea Turtle (pictured here) are all hand-painted cast resin reproductions of original sculptures that Dr. Seuss produced in 1937.
The Children’s Library also has Dr. Seuss prints that are reproductions of “The Cat in the Hat” (1957) and “Green Eggs and Ham” (1960).
Reel Legends: Fly-Fisherwomen of the Wood River Valley
New Library Foyer Exhibit
To an angler, each bend in the river reveals new riffles and pools, glimmering with hope. The pebbles and rocks underfoot create pockets of opportunity. An emergence of insects becomes a call to rise as barely perceptible rings hint of hungry trout.
The perfect cast is an act of grace.
Pam Parker, Community Library Circulation Manager
When we step into the river to fly-fish, we become one with this natural flow, reading water like an ever-changing book. With senses attuned, we cast the fly line back and forth above the water before settling it in just the spot we aimed for. A perfect cast is an act of grace.
Through word, object, and image, the Library Foyer exhibit celebrates four Wood River Valley women who have earned the badge of Reel Legends on our local waters.
Amanda Bauman: Elementary school teacher at The Community School who spends her summers working as a fly-fishing guide
Morgan Buckert: Has worked for almost two decades in recreation and conservation in the Wood River Valley
Susanne Connor: Once flew gliders over the Valley and now guides fly-fishing year around and co-operates a local outfitter
Juliette Guiterrez: Lives steps from the river in Ketchum and might be found styling hair in the morning and casting a fly on the Big Wood that same evening
The Foyer exhibit ends in April 2022.
Book Review: An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
Media and Digital Librarian Aly Wepplo recommends An Untamed State by Roxane Gay.
I was working at the Circulation desk when Martha Williams, our Director of Programs and Education, dropped An Untamed State into the return bin.
Once she picked it up, she said, she hardly put it down again until it was finished. Three days later, I was making the same recommendation. To everybody.
An Untamed State is the story of Mireille, an American woman with Haitian roots. Her parents raised her in Nebraska and then returned to their home city of Port-au-Prince. Mireille thinks of both countries as home, and she visits her parents often.
On one such visit, Mireille and her husband plan to take their baby son to the beach for the first time. On the way, they are stopped by a gang of kidnappers, who pull Mireille from the car and take her to their hideout. They demand a ransom of one million dollars from Mireille’s father, who owns a successful construction company. He refuses to pay or negotiate.
And Mireille is left with her captors for a harrowing thirteen days.
This incredible novel kept me up till 3:30 on a Saturday night. The story jumps between past and present. It follows Mireille’s relationship with her husband, Michael, from their first accidental meeting through their engagement, wedding, and the difficult pregnancy that brings their son, Cristophe.
“. . .it is the story of the universal gender, race, and class issues that tie all people together.”
This is more than the story of one woman’s kidnapping. It is the story of her captors, who hope to buy their way out of a desperate existence. It is the story of her parents, who fight their country’s problems while also contributing to them. It is the story of Mireille’s husband, an outsider who wants so badly to help and doesn’t know how. It is the story of Haiti and the struggles and triumphs of its people.
And it is the story of the universal gender, race, and class issues that tie all people together.
I loved this book. I hope everyone will read it.
Find it in ebookand in print in Adult Fiction Main – FICTION Gay.
Hiroshige: A Shoal of Fishes
by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1980)
Fans of ukiyo-e, also known as ‘floating-world’ in the West, might want to drop by to view Hiroshige: A Shoal of Fishes (1980). This unique book is currently on display near the John A. and Carol O. Moran Lecture Hall in conjunction with our Winter Read, which is the novella by Norman MacLean, A River Runs Through It (1976).
The Japanese artist Ando Hiroshige lived during the late Edo period, which was marked by a rich artistic and cultural climate as well as increased pressure for isolation from Western influences. Originally published in two parts in 1832 and 1833, The Shoals was crafted in cooperation with Kyokashi, a guild of poets who wrote short light verses to accompany the prints.
Hiroshege, considered one of the masters of wood-block printing, was known for his horizontal landscapes featuring hundreds of slice-of-life depictions from his travels throughout Japan. While others focused on more theatrical and erotic imagery, Hiroshige explored themes of rural life and natural splendor. The Shoal of Fishes is composed of 20 double panels, each featuring an underwater scene depicting several unique species of fish or sea creature.
This publication is a reprint by The Metropolitan Museum of Art published in 1980 and constructed in an accordion-style format that unfolds to nearly 25 feet when fully extended. The Met had the poetry translated from Japanese, which we share in part here:
On rocks and sand and rinsing waves
the jewel, abalone, polishes itself
The kimono lining comes out
now that spring is here
and the sayori fish is cleaned for
a springtime feast
I would love to be transformed
into a creature thin enough
to follow the abalone
into the cracks of rocks
A Shoal of Fish illustrates how Hiroshige’s use of color and perspective and his particularly advanced use of gradient in his wood-block works set him apart from other ukiyo-e artists of his time. Come by to see how this particularly beautiful book complements his more famous work such as One Hundred Famous View of Edo (2005), which is a circulating book that you can check out.
