This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,753) on Friday, January 6, 2023. Some people blanche at the word “resolution” especially at this time of year. They believe, often rightly, that New Year’s resolutions are meaningless if not harmful because they raise expectations and often result in frustration. I don’t really subscribe • Read More »
Archives: libraries
Ray Bradbury’s zest for writing, the story of the grand marshal, and May’s ebook giveaways: newsletter, May 13, 2022
May 13, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, libraries, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,234) on Friday, May 13, 2022. Like millions of others in the 1990s and beyond, I was caught up in the television depictions of “crime scene investigation” and the way in which “forensic science” is used to convict people accused of crimes. Calling something a • Read More »
Henry VIII’s court painter, E.B. White, and the rich kids at school: newsletter, November 5, 2021
November 5, 2021 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, libraries, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,266) on Friday, November 5, 2021. We didn’t always wear the best clothes or live in the finest houses, but those of us who were lucky enough to receive musical training when we were young were the rich kids in school. We had something special, • Read More »
Banned Books Week, Sept. 22-28, 2019: Keep the Light On
September 20, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, libraries, writing.
We’re coming up on the annual Banned Books Week, a celebration of intellectual freedom sponsored by the American Library Association. This year’s theme is Keep the Light On. If your local library is having an event, be supportive and take part. If not and you have other means of promoting this idea (a website or • Read More »
What good are libraries? How should they be run? Provocative questions from a reader
May 29, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, libraries.
After my rant last week about the funding proposals from the county government for our local library, one of my very good newsletter readers and faithful correspondents (Frank C.) sent me these provocative questions. They were challenging enough that I thought I should share them with you to see if you had any reactions. Does • Read More »
King Richard and the legend of Robin Hood
May 6, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: libraries, writing.Note: This is the first entry in a series about Robin Hood If you had asked me, as a boy growing up in the 1950s and 60s, to name some of the kings and queens of England, I probably could have come up with two. One was Elizabeth II, the then current queen (she still is) • Read More »
Andrew Carnegie, the man and his libraries
April 9, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, libraries.
No name is more associated with public libraries than that of Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie has his name on a lot of things, to be sure — Carnegie Hall and Carnegie-Mellon University, to name a couple — but for most of the 20th century, America and a good part of the world paired the name Carnegie with • Read More »