Birmingham Public Library Blog

Sanctuary Cove A Cavanaugh Island Novel Rochelle Alers Rochelle Alers introduces a new series that takes place on Cavanaugh Island, considered as Low country in South Carolina. Residents in Sanctuary Cove adhere to 400-year-old traditions, and a much slower pace of living. Deborah Robinson is recently widowed. Her best friend and husband of eighteen years drowned after attempting to save three boys who were swimming in a rip tide. Prior to his death, her husband was involved in a high school scandal that implicated him in an affair with a pregnant teen. In order to remove herself from the hurt and loss, Deborah Robinson sells her home and moves her two teenaged children from Charleston to Sanctuary Cove. They reside in her grandmother’s house. Sanctuary Cove is also home to snowbirds who visit during the winter months. This is where Dr. Asa Monroe enters the story. Asa has experienced a loss. Not only did he lose his wife, but his six-year old son, as well. He is only in town u

It’s in any décor, Easy and frugal. Art made from paper – A favorite of all. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own special project using paper. The Art of Science is a grant-funded after-school program conducted by Elinor and Winfield Burks at six Birmingham Public Library branches: Avondale, East Lake, Five Points West, Ensley, Powderly, and Springville Road. The program will run nine months—from September 2011 through December 2012—and will cover the science of nutrition, geometry, sound, plants, optics, recycling, and materials engineering in a hands-on atmosphere. Each program will begin with a science principle and end with a craft or group project. Supplies for the crafts are provided. At each session, the library will showcase books and videos about the program’s topic, and introduce age-appropriate databases for children to further explore what they learned at each program. The Art of Science is made possible by the Kresge Arts in Birmingham, a partnership

The 9th annual Art in Avondale Park , along with a community arts festival, will be held Saturday, May 5, from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. in the newly-restored and refurbished historic Avondale Park. The mission of Art in Avondale Park Alliance, Inc. is to inspire children to discover their talents through a wide variety of art lessons provided by local art teachers, artists, and community volunteers. Art from local and regional artists will be on exhibit and for sale. The event will also feature an area which will showcase art from students of area schools. Local musicians, singers, and dancers will perform on the Avondale Park Amphitheatre stage. A hands-on art area, clowns, magicians, pony rides, popcorn, and cotton candy will also be a part of the festivities. In case of rain, the festival will be held Sunday, May 6. The event is free and food and drinks will be available for purchase. The park is located at the intersection of 41st Street, South and 5th Avenue South, beside the Avo

In Joshilyn Jackson 's A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty , we are introduced to three generations of strong Slocumb women, Ginny, Liza and Mosey. As the story is told through the points of view of different characters, we gain an understanding of each of their personalities.  Jackson delivers southern fiction at its finest.  You will laugh, cry, shout.  The Slocumb family undergoes hardships and heartbreak, but the family bonds stay strong. Now, pull up a chair and stay a while.  I would like to tell you a little about the Slocumb family and the mystery surrounding a long-hidden grave. When the novel opens, young Mosey Slocumb discovers a hidden grave under the Willow tree in the backyard.  This discovery is the catalyst which drives the rest of the book.  Over the years, this family has learned that the number fifteen means trouble is coming.  Now, Mosey Slocumb has just turned fifteen and she discovers a grave in the backyard.  When Mosey and others search further, they find a ti

May is coming, and with it the Memorial Day Holiday. For some this marks the unofficial beginning of summer and ushers in a time for picnics, family reunions, and blockbuster films. But the holiday was originally known as Decoration Day and originated shortly after the American Civil War as a time to honor the war's casualties and decorate their graves. By proclamation of General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, “the 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country . . .” This first celebration of Decoration Day was marked by a speech from President Garfield and the decoration of graves in Arlington National Cemetery. Many towns took up the practice and after World War I it became a day to honor all of America’s war dead. Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday in 1971 and fixed the date for its observance as the last Monday in May. For more on

Responsibility by Mary Dillard Birmingham Public Library (BPL) presents a very special exhibition created by faculty and former students from the University of Montevallo’s College of Fine Arts. Four Decades: Photography from the University of Montevallo opens in the Fourth Floor Exhibition Gallery of the Central Library on Tuesday, April 17, and runs through Friday, May 25. A reception for this exhibition will be held on Monday, April 30, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Board Room adjacent to the Gallery. The reception is free and open to the public. Read more about the exhibition . Reception Details Central Library , Board Room adjacent to Fourth Floor Gallery Monday, April 30, 2012 5:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public Exhibition Details Four Decades: Photography From the University of Montevallo Central Library, Fourth Floor Gallery April 17, 2012-May 25, 2012 Gallery open during library hours: Monday-Tuesday, 9:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.

Pratt City Branch Library after the April 27, 2011 tornado One year ago today, the Pratt City Branch Library was destroyed by a tornado. Tomorrow at noon, the city of Birmingham will unveil the plans for the new library as part of this weekend's schedule of events to be held in Pratt City. Additional Information Photographs of the Pratt City Branch Library's Damage " Tornados Rip Apart Several Libraries in the South " American Libraries Schedule of Events

Girls in White Dresses Jennifer Close Ah, to be twenty-two again; or maybe not. The girls referred to in Jennifer Close’s debut novel are young, well-educated, and eager to begin their adult lives. Three college friends, Isabelle, Lauren, and Mary have settled in New York City for work and law school. Follow each young woman (and several of their friends and co-workers) as she takes those first tentative steps into adulthood, experimenting with careers, relationships, and living arrangements. Just as the characters begin to find their footing in the job market the weddings begin, hence the “white dresses” of the title. The romantic relationships chronicled here may not seem ideal, but they are described with such realism and empathy that I found myself rooting for every one of them. In the end, however, the relationship that the author is most concerned with is the women’s relationship with each other. Though their lives change via marriage, job loss, and motherhood, the three fr

LearningExpress Library has added some updates to their test prep and skill-building website. New Online Practice Exams New professional and educational practice exams are available to users preparing for various state and national tests, as well as basic skill-building practice. These new additions include NCLEX-RN, PANCE, ASSET, and Praxis practice tests. New eBooks The inventory of vocational and instructional eBooks has grown to include new preparatory materials in various areas of study. New professional skills eBooks include Nursing Assistant/Nurse Aide Exam , Fifth Edition; Praxis I: Power Practice ; PANCE: Power Practice ; and Career Changer's Manual . Academic skills eBooks include 501 Geometry Questions , Second Edition; ACT Flash Review ; and Practical Math Success in 20 Minutes a Day , Fifth Edition. LearningExpress Library has something for everyone in the household. Beginning with fourth grade level reading and math help and continuing through college to workplac

Urban Grit: A Guide to Street Lit Megan Honig Street lit, also known as urban fiction, has become a very popular genre among readers. Publishers such as Urban Books and Triple Crown Publications specialize in publishing street lit titles for interested readers. Urban Grit defines the genre as “raw, gritty, urban stories set in the violent, dangerous, familiar, and sometimes exhilarating landscape of the streets, featuring tough African American characters and focusing on themes of interpersonal relationships and survival by any means necessary.” Urban Grit is a great resource for learning more about the genre and finding good books to read. Although designed to educate librarians and booksellers about street lit, it is a valuable resource for readers who want to find information on authors, titles, series, and subgenres (e.g. players and hustlers, prison). The guide uses a gun symbol and a pepper symbol to indicate the levels of violence and sexuality in each book. The r

Summer Gothic: A Collection of Southern Hauntings Edited by Jared Millet Anytime is the right time for a good ghost story, or maybe 22 of them. This you will find in Summer Gothic , a new collection of stories edited by Jared Millet. As head of the Birmingham Public Library's Acquisition Department—the people who buy the books for the library—Jared knows good story telling and he's assembled a score plus two ghost stories with a summer theme. While we think of dark and stormy nights as the best time for reading ghost stories, Summer Gothic might be more appropriate for the beach or the pool. In the story "Beachfront," a demonologist and her friend spend a week at a beach house that was the sight of a grisly murder. In "Fourth of July," set on Alabama's Smith Lake, a suicidal young woman returns to her family's vacation cabin searching for the ghost only she sees. In "Earl and Bubba Save the King," two beer besotted good old boys, devoted s

Did you know April is National Card and Letter Writing Month? As with many of us who delve deeper into the digital-age trends of e-mail and texting, we may have grown a tad lackadaisical with our handwritten correspondence. However, this eloquent means of communication does deserve its well-deserved recognition. So, what’s a better way to ensure this literary art does not become obsolete? Well, get inspired, of course! Here are some interesting books about letters that will, hopefully, remind us that the art of handwriting snail mail is not lost. • Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self edited by Joseph Galliano • I Love You, Ronnie : the Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan by Nancy Reagan • The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens edited by Jenny Hartley • Marshalling Justice: the Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall edited by Michael G. Long • Ten Letters : the Stories Americans Tell Their President by Eli Saslow • The Letters of Ernest Hemingwa

The Birmingham Public Library will host a free five-part reading and discussion series called Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War . In commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial, the series encourages participants to consider the legacy of the Civil War and emancipation. The series is open to all adults in the community (registration is required) and is led by Dr. Victoria E. Ott, Associate Professor of History at Birmingham-Southern College and author of Confederate Daughters: Coming of Age during the Civil War . Part Four: The Shape of War Thursday, April 26, 2012 5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Central Library, Arrington Auditorium Program consists of a group discussion on Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (2002) by James M. McPherson, and readings from America's War (2012): Drew Gilpin Faust, excerpt from This Republic of Suffering: Death and the Civil War [2008] Gary W. Gallagher, "The Net Result of the Campaign was in Our Favor: Confederate Reaction

Did you know you can register for a temporary e-card? E-cards are one-month library cards that allow you to have access to the Jefferson County Library Cooperative (JCLC) electronic resources, which includes databases and e-journals. You can obtain an e-card if you are a resident of Jefferson County and can do so online . However, the card is limited to the virtual library and won’t allow you to check out library materials. You will need a full-use library card which you can get, with proper identification, at any JCLC location. Those who reside outside the Jefferson County area could still get a library card for an annual fee of $50. Services such as this and the “one county, one card” system is provided by the JCLC. The cooperative includes 22 municipal libraries and the 19 branches of the Birmingham Library System. Help keep JCLC alive by giving your support .

Now that your 2011 tax returns have been filed (or at least were supposed to have been filed), you might find it rewarding to take a look at how your federal tax dollars are being spent. For the second straight year, the White House has placed on its homepage a tax receipt calculator . The idea for placing such a calculator on the homepage was first proposed by President Obama in his 2011 State of the Union address . It was the President’s intention to make the operations of the United States Government more transparent and accountantable to the American people. The tax receipt calculator helps him accomplish that goal by allowing taxpayers to find out how much of their money is being spent on the variety of services offered by the federal government. The calculator works like this: you enter the dollar amount that you paid into three categories of taxes—Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, and income taxes—and the calculator computes the dollar amount that goes to each of twe

The Birmingham Public Library’s (BPL) popular Bards & Brews poetry performance and beer tasting series is heading back to the Avondale neighborhood and will be an OPEN MIC rather than a slam. On May 4, staff will pack up the sound equipment and supplies as they return to the spot which has generated one of the largest gatherings yet for the popular after-hours series. Usually held the first Friday of each month at the Central Library downtown, the May edition of Bards & Brews will travel to the Avondale Regional Library located at 509 40th Street South. The program begins at 6:30 p.m. with live music, and poetry performances start at 7:00. Emcee Brian “Voice Porter” Hawkins will deftly guide both novice and veteran poets through an evening of verse with topics that run the gamut from romantic relationships to the local political scene. Back Forty Beer Company , located in Gadsden, will provide craft beer for sampling. Light snacks will also be served. Attendees must be 18 y

"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." These are the words of American Captain John Parker, engraved on the stone at Lexington Green where American minutemen and British redcoats came to blows. It was the commencement of the American Revolution and end of the British hold of the colonies. General Thomas Gage , then Governor of Massachusetts, was secretly ordered by King George III to enforce the Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts, law enacted as response to the Boston Tea Party with the intent to gain control and bestow punitive measures to the colonies. Gage was also ordered to suppress any and all rebellion, using any force necessary. On April 18, Paul Revere and William Dawes learned of the attack and set out to warn the colonists, especially Samuel Adams and John Hancock who were main targets. A signal of two lanterns meant the troops chose a route “by water.” Revere and Dawes rode out, alerting al

WORD UP! 2012 winners from left to right: Eboni Wallace (Tarrant), first place winner; Derrick McKenzie (Hewitt-Trussville), second place winner; Jeramie Scott (Woodlawn), third place winner; Justin Wright (Shades Valley), third place winner. WORD UP! is an annual poetry slam for high school students who are enrolled in schools, or home schooled, in Jefferson County. At the event held on Sunday, April 1, Eboni Wallace walked away with the grand prize. Eboni is a 10th grade student at Tarrant High School. Also stepping onto the stage to receive cash awards were second prize winner Derrick McKenzie, a 12th grade student at Hewitt-Trussville and two winners who tied for third place, Jeramie Scott, a 10th grader at Woodlawn High, and Justin Wright, an 11th grade student at Shades Valley High School. Other schools represented by the more than 25 participating students included the Alabama School of Fine Arts, A.H. Parker High, Spain Park, and Wenonah High. The slam was sponsored by the B

Earth Day is a day in which the events occur world-wide to increase environmental awareness and to appreciate the natural environment. Earth Day falls on April 22 this year. Many counties celebrate it on different days, some having an Earth Week, but most celebrate on April 22 as well. The name and concept of an Earth Day was first discussed at a UNESCO conference in 1969 in San Francisco. The next year was the first official celebration of Earth Day. The celebration of Earth Day helped raise environmental issues in the United States and the world, and helped lead to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 by President Richard Nixon . To find materials in the Library about Earth Day, click here . For information about events on Earth Day, check out the Ear th Day Network . For national Environmental issues, check out Keep America Beautiful . The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website for Earth Day . On May 5, the Botanical Gardens will be having a specia

According to the Alabama Small Business Development Consortium, the first three steps to starting a business are: prepare a written business plan complete with financial statements; decide whether you wish to operate as a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation; and establish a source of adequate and reliable financing. These are daunting but necessary steps to making your dream a reality. To help you get started, Birmingham Public Library offers access to resources to help you start your business as well as information to manage and grow your business. Some of the resources we offer are listed in our online Small Business Resource Guide . This guide provides you with an overview of materials you can use to help with market research, write a business plan, contact other agencies that help entrepreneurs, etc. The lists of references contained in the Small Business Resource Guide are not exhaustive, so in order to find out all we have to offer, visit the Business, Science, &

Representatives from Impact Alabama and members of BPL's Trivia Team (green shirts) from left to right: Danny Dorroh, Tobin Cataldo, Jaclyn Hogan, Jared Millet, Marybeth Newbill, and Jim Pate Congratulations to BPL’s Trivia Team for winning not one, but TWO $10,000 awards in the annual Birmingham’s Brightest trivia competition! Presented by Impact Alabama and sponsored by Protective Life Corporation, the first competition, held at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel, drew over 70 Birmingham-area businesses and organizations, with over 650 individuals in attendance. The state-wide contest on April 18 netted an additional $10,000. Team members beat out Mobile’s Hargrove Engineers + Constructors, Montgomery’s Alabama Arise, and Huntsville’s Dynetics Inc. All four teams were the winners of their respective city competitions. The total of $20,000 will go to BPL’s sponsor in this endeavor, the Friends of the Birmingham Public Library. Thank you, Friends! And now to the team members: Tobin Cata

The Birth of Venus Sarah Dunant The grand panorama of the Renaissance Florence of Lorenzo Medici and Savonarola is largely denied to young Alessandra Cecchi, who strains against the social and religious constrictions of her time that imprison women in the homes of their fathers and husbands. Luckily for the reader, our heroine seizes every chance to experience humanist learning and art in the freshness of its birth through her eager eyes and mind. The Birth of Venus is historical fiction with a dollop of romance, but Sarah Dunant has not left the thriller genre entirely behind. Torture, slavery, evisceration and childbirth, the sublimity of the Virgin, Dante and Botticelli, all challenge Alessandra as she seeks freedom in a rapidly evolving new world. At age sixteen Alessandra is introduced to her prospective husband, Christofero Langella, a wealthy middle-aged scholar and art collector. Langella asks, “So tell me, Alessandra Cecchi, do you love the art of our fair city?” “Oh I adore

The front page of the April 16, 1912, evening edition of the Boston Daily Globe details the Titanic disaster. Picture: AP You’ve seen the movie and TV shows and maybe you’ve read some books about the sinking of RMS Titanic 100 years ago. But if you want to read actual documentation of the Titanic disaster, read the documents available on the U.S. Serial Set Digital Collection database. This database gives access to documents created by each of the United States Congresses since 1789. You can do advanced searches or basic ones, like the one for information on Titanic . Enter “Titanic” into the search box, and you’ll retrieve ten documents produced soon after the sinking occurred—and all in full text. Three can be singled out for their detailed content. Hearings on Titanic Disaster (May 28, 1912) is an 1176-page report of the Senate Committee on Commerce’s questioning of dozens of witnesses. These included J. Bruce Ismay, the General Manager of the White Star Line and also a pa

The Birmingham Public Library’s (BPL) popular Bards & Brews poetry performance and beer tasting series is scheduled tonight starting with live music at 6:30, call time at 7:00. Usually held the first Friday of each month, the April edition of Bards & Brews is being held on the second Friday since BPL was closed for Good Friday on April 6. Tonight's event will return to the slam format and will be held at the Central Library located at 2100 Park Place. The slams are emceed by poetry slam events director Brian “Voice Porter” Hawkins. Hawkins has hosted On Stage at the Carver at the Carver Theater , the longest running poetry open mic in Birmingham (7 years running). He has hosted numerous additional events of this nature and has also performed his own works many times across the country. Each contestant contributes $5 to the pot, and winner takes all. Southern Fried Slam rules will be observed. Craft beer will be available for sampling, along with light refreshments. You

Smut: Stories Alan Bennett For at least fifteen years Alan Bennett has been one of my never-miss fiction writers (he also writes un-missable memoirs, plays, journalism and more). His short stories expertly, and often hilariously, reveal the misunderstandings, snobbery and—best of all—embarrassment that so define the English. Speaking of miscommunications, the title alone indicates not what you’d think (there’s little explicit sex here) but instead what could be called erotic fumblings among the English. Fumblings: because class, boredom, anxiety and, yes, embarrassment get in the way. Not actually having sex (or satisfactory sex) is what mostly happens here; the title is a send-up. In "The Greening of Mrs Donaldson," the first of the two stories in this book, the title character carries the talent she developed muddling through her marriage to her late husband into acting out patient symptoms for medical students. Why not get paid for something she’d always, in effect, done?

Over the past two months, Wylam Library has been offering Zumba classes for adults and they seem to love it! Zumba is a Latin-based dance that was created by Berto Perez in 1999 and loosely translated from a Columbian slang word means "to move fast or buzz like a bee." Zumba combines body-sculpting moves with the dance steps of meringue, cumbia, reggaeton, salsa, mambo, hip-hop, rumba, calypso, and flamenco. This fun exercise program allows our patrons to have fun while burning calories. You can also do the workouts in the privacy of your own home by watching and practicing them on DVD . This program has been a great way to motivate many of our patrons to get up and get moving while introducing them to something new. Not only is Zumba incredibly fun, it is an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise. A high-intensity Zumba workout can burn up to 1,000 calories per hour. In addition to the workout, this time allows the staff to interact with our patrons on a more personal bas

There are many who criticize romance fiction and view it as fluff. However, being the most popular downloadable genre, obviously its readers couldn't care less. The bottom line in any fiction genre is finding a good author who writes a great story. One very popular sub-genre of historical romance is Scottish Highland. A multitude of authors write in this genre, but sometimes it can be difficult sorting through them to find the best stories. The Jefferson County Library Cooperative downloadable collection has a large number of eBook/audiobook highland historical romance titles available for checkout. The following is a short listing of popular authors of this genre in our collection: Paula Quinn ; Julie Garwood ; Diana Gabaldon ; Hannah Howell ; Karen Marie Moning ; Karen Ranney ; Jennifer Ashley ; Maya Banks ; Mary Wine ; and Connie Brockway . There are many more authors of the Scottish Highland romance genre available in our downloadable collection. Just type the string of word

Time travel isn't what it's like in the movies. Nothing changes, and people don't remember anything about the traveler. In Julie Cross' Tempest , Jackson Meyer has the ability to jump through time. It's just harmless fun for him. When two strangers burst into his girlfriend's room and attack Jackson and Holly, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back to 2007—further than he's ever jumped before. But this isn't like his other times, he's stuck there, unable to get back to his own time. As Jackson assumes his past self's life and learns more about his power, Jackson will learn the truth about his past and find out not even time will stop these attackers from finding him. Tempest is a quick paced read that with an unpredictable plot that keeps the reader caught up in the story. You will want to finish this story in one sitting. Lynn Carpenter Five Points West Regional Library

Responsibility by Mary Dillard Birmingham Public Library (BPL) presents a very special exhibition created by faculty and former students from the University of Montevallo’s College of Fine Arts. Four Decades: Photography From the University of Montevallo opens in the Fourth Floor Exhibition Gallery of the Central Library on Tuesday, April 17, and runs through Friday, May 25. A reception for this exhibition will be held on Monday, April 30, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Board Room adjacent to the Gallery. The reception is free and open to the public. Faculty featured in the exhibition includes Associate Professor of Art, Karen Graffeo, and Scott Stephens, Professor of Art and Chair of the Department of Art. Graffeo is also the director of the photography concentration at the university. In 2005, she was appointed University Scholar for her documentary work in Roma communities in western and central Europe. Graffeo’s personal work includes multi-media, alternative processes, and

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction . It’s a great read for guys, but girls will love it too. Dead End in Norvelt is an entirely true and wildly fictional novel. The story takes place during an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, who had plans for an exciting vacation but ends up "grounded for life" by his parents. Although poor Jack’s nose discharges blood badly at every little shock he gets, there is plenty of excitement and shocks coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a feisty old neighbor with a most unusual chore: typing obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded this model town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a

The exhibition Simpler Times: The Paintings of Maurice Cook will be available through Friday, April 13, at Central Library's Fourth Floor Gallery. Cook is self-taught and his work depicts people enjoying life and activities typically found throughout the rural South. He began painting professionally in 1994. Working primarily in acrylics, Cook’s art is honed from experiences and impressions through his lens on life—working as a juvenile detention officer, barber, welder, and fireman. Cook has exhibited in numerous shows including the Birmingham Art Walk, Montevallo Art Show (where he was recipient of the 2010 Award of Excellence), Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival, and the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon, Virginia.

The Birmingham Public Library will host a free five-part reading and discussion series called Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War . In commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial, the series encourages participants to consider the legacy of the Civil War and emancipation. The series is open to all adults in the community (registration is required) and is led by Dr. Victoria E. Ott, Associate Professor of History at Birmingham-Southern College and author of Confederate Daughters: Coming of Age during the Civil War . Part Three: Making Sense of Shiloh Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Central Library, Arrington Auditorium Program consists of readings from America's War (2012): Ambrose Bierce, "What I Saw of Shiloh" [1881] * online * Ulysses Grant, excerpt from the Memoirs [1885] * online * Shelby Foote, excerpt from Shiloh [1952] Bobbie Ann Mason, "Shiloh" [1982] General Braxton Bragg, speech to the Army of t

The Birmingham News reported this morning of an open call for extras in the upcoming film “ 42 ,” about Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Jackie Robinson. The casting call will occur Monday, April 10 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Boutwell Auditorium. A second casting call is scheduled for Tuesday in Chattanooga, TN. The film’s casting directors are looking for men and women ages 18 and older to play stadium crowds, fans, umpires, and coaches. Headshots and 1940s attire are encouraged. The movie is tapped to be filmed in Alabama and Tennessee later this year. Harrison Ford is slated to play Dodgers vice president Branch Rickey, and Chadwick Boseman will play Robinson. Robinson was the first African-American to play major league baseball. He helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series in 1955 and retired in 1957 with a batting average of .311. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, becoming the first African-American to have the honor. He continued his advocacy fo