New Books - April 2009

Baseball season is here! San Diego Padres' opening day was Monday April 6th!

Most Americans and probably all baseball fans have heard of Jackie Robinson! But did you know that he was a star in the 'Negro Leagues' before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers? We are the Ship: the Story of Negro League Baseball by California artist Kadir Nelson is a brief history of Negro League baseball. Written for children and young adults the book is very easy to read. Kadir's detailed writing and beautiful illustrations, however, also make it informative and enjoyable for all audiences. The title is from a quote by Rube Foster, owner of the Chicago American Giants: "We are the ship, all else the sea."
To read more about the league visit Negro League Baseball Players Association website.

In our increasingly environmentally conscious world those living in the Southwest areas of the United States have special concerns about access to water.



The October 2004 issue of JAWRA (Journal of the American Water Resources Association) includes a reference by E. George Robison to the 1st edition of David Carle's work as " ... the type of book you would hope to see in every welcome basket for every lawmaker coming to Sacramento for the first time. California, with its diversity in climate, natural water wonders, and massive expenditures on water based infrastructures deserves such a book. Anyone living in or interested in California should reach such a book." Even Escondido students who aren't in taking a Water Technology course will want to browse the 2009 updated edition of Carle's work Introduction to Water in California in order to learn about water issues that impact Californians.

Also new this month is Celebrity Culture in the United States, Vol. 80, No.1 in the H. W. Wilson series The Reference Shelf.

In the opening essay of Celebrity Culture in the United States, Amy Henderson traces an evolutionary line from P.T. Barnum to the contestants on American Idol, illustrating an essential feature of celebrity culture. Americans once worshiped their heroes as a means of establishing a national character and identity, but in the mid-nineteenth century, Barnum created spectacles and celebrities out of not much more than sheer bravado. Americans moved from idolizing politicians and war heroes to worshiping athletes and entertainers, and ultimately, to admiring celebrities not for any aspect of their character, but simply for their ability to be famous. This collection is an insightful examination of America's fascination with celebrity. Twenty-four articles are divided into four sections: "The Cult of Celebrity" ... "Celebrity Activism and American Politics" ... "The Price of Fame" and ... "The Democratization of Celebrity".

— from a review by Doug Achterman of Gale Cengage Learning

To learn more about celebrity culture visit this 2001 annotated online bibliography developed by David Blake's English students at The College of New Jersey.

While there are books written from various perspectives on how illegal aliens impact US culture, this newest title offers something unique.

Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity and Violence is a 2006 publication that includes a chapter on San Diego. The essay Immigration and Asian homicide patterns in urban and suburban San Diego (pages 90-116) is written by Matthew T. Lee and Ramiro Martinez Jr. Several other essays in the collection are written by faculty from the University of California, Irvine. You can preview the chapter through the Google Books program, but be forewarned the system limits the number of pages you can read and how many times you can access the site.
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