Month: October 2012

Baton Rouge Trick-or-Treat Times 2012

The official hours for trick-or-treating in East Baton Rouge Parish on Wednesday, October 31st, are from 6:00pm-8:00pm. Young ghouls will be roaming the streets collecting treats, so be sure to watch out if you’re driving around town.

The Baton Rouge Police Department have offered the following safety tips:

  • Never allow children to trick-or-treat without adult supervision.
  • Always stay in groups.
  • Use sidewalks and stay out of the street whenever possible.
  • Wear reflective clothing or bright costumes.
  • Trick-or-treat only in familiar neighborhoods.
  • Do not allow children to eat candy or treats until thoroughly checked by an adult.
  • Call police if any suspicious activity occurs, or if candy is suspected to be tainted.
  • Residents are urged to hand out only manufactured, sealed candy.

Oh, The Horror!

Looking for a good scare this Halloween? Check out one of these frightful flicks on DVD or Blu-ray. For more ghastly treats, check the library catalog.

Army of Darkness

Child’s Play

Cronos

Day of the Dead

Drag Me to Hell

Eden Lake

Friday the 13th

The House of the Devil

The Last Exorcism

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Paranormal Activity 3

Pontypool

Re-Animator

Scream 4

Tales From The Crypt

Vampire Circus

The Walking Dead

2012 Louisiana Book Festival

The Louisiana Book Festival is back is on Saturday, October 27! If you haven’t been before, then make this year your first year. It’s a fun day out. The event will feature over 225 authors, poets and panelists. There are workshops, panel discussions, book signings, storytelling and entertainment for all ages.

The book festival takes place around the grounds of the Louisiana State Capitol. This is Louisiana, so you can be assured there will be wonderful music and delicious food. Admission is FREE! For more information visit the Louisiana Book Festival website.

EBRPL will of course be down there, and we’d love for you to come and visit us and say hello!

Book Review: Ancient Images

Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell. Reviewed by Andrew Tadman

The set up for this book is excellent – a long-lost horror movie starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff surfaces only to be censored by people and forces desperate for it to remain forgotten. Why? And to what lengths will they go to keep it quiet? A mysterious death befalls the finder of the movie reel, and it’s left to his close friend to continue the crusade in his memory. Throughout the book there is a tremendous sense of foreboding, of shadows watching just out of sight. The tension is palpable as the plot moves along. It’s a slow burn but an enjoyable one. The atmosphere is really the highlight of the book.

Our intrepid crusader, Sandy, travels around England following different leads, interviewing people involved in the film, piecing together where the stolen movie could be. The people she meets are interesting. Conversations with these characters about the movie and their usually hostile reactions to it are the most fascinating  interactions in the book. I really liked the idea of the missing movie reel. While tracking the movie our heroine travels to the town of Redfield, where much of the second half of the book takes place. It has more than its fair share of Wicker Man-esque, ‘we don’t like strangers ’round here‘ pagan villager types.

The main characters are likeable enough, but the relationship between Sandy and her new-found writer boyfriend doesn’t really come off. He is the one character who comes across as bland. The forces opposing the surfacing of the film reel are a mixture of powerful old aristocracy, corporate wealth and a supernatural agent.

The tension of the plot builds as Sandy gets closer to finding out what’s on the film reel that everyone is so desperate to repress. Unfortunately, the almighty climax that I was expecting didn’t really materialize. The final conflict was minor. The main antagonist died rather boringly and not at the hand of the heroine. The supernatural never really had the impact I felt it should have and questions were left unanswered. The book ended too soon, failing to provide a satisfying resolution. For a horror book, it is pretty low on scares and low on gore, but high on tension and atmosphere.

Overall, it’s not a bad book. I just have the sense that after such a gripping build-up it could have been so much more.

For more horror book reviews, visit Books of Blood.

Featured Database: Sanborn Historical Maps

The library subscribes to the Sanborn Historical Map collection featuring maps of Louisiana cities dating back as far as 1885. For Baton Rouge, you will find well over a hundred maps. The maps for Baton Rouge are dated May 1885, June 1891, May 1898, June 1903, April 1908, August 1911, August 1916, 1923, 1923-1947, 1923-May 1951. It is fascinating to see how our city has changed and grown over time.

Maps can be downloaded as PDF files, and are printable (just not for commercial purposes). On the database you can select the size of the viewing window, re-center maps and zoom in and out.

We also have a physical collection of historic Baton Rouge maps that are part of the Baton Rouge Room collection at the River Center Branch. To find out more about our map holdings please visit the Baton Rouge Room InfoGuide.

To access the maps you can go to EBRPL.com, then Online Databases, or go straight to the maps through the Sanborn links on this page. All you will need to access them is your library card.

Book Notes October Quiz

Book Notes is a monthly email newsletter written by Gerald Lively. If you would like to sign up for his newsletter please email him at geraldlively@cox.net Here is the October quiz from Book Notes:

You read the titles of literary works all the time, but do you understand what all the words mean and why the titles were chosen? Here’s a quiz that will test your title knowledge. The answers appear at the end of the newsletter.

1. What is the name of the thin man in Dashiell Hammett’s novel of the same name?

2. What is the purpose of the lottery Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”?

3. Who is Charley in John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley?

4. Name the two cities in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities?

5. Who are the title characters in John Grisham’s novel The Brethren?

6. Name the title character in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

7. What are the dolls in Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls?

8. What is the source of the title of Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls?

9. Where does the title of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies come from?

10. What does “wuthering” mean in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights?

11. In Robert Browning’s “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” what does “pied” mean?

12. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, what is the letter, and what does it stand for?

13. In Arthur Conan Doyles story “The Five Orange Pips,” what are “pips”?

14. What is “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” in George Bernard Shaw’s play of the same name?

15. In D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, who is her lover?

16. Name the title character in Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man?

17. What is the name of the title character in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest?

18. What is the vacancy in J. K. Rowling’s new novel The Casual Vacancy?

19. In Nicholas Myers’ novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, what substance is the seven percent composed of?

20. In Neil White’s book In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, what is the sanctuary?

Want to see how you did? Head over to the answers on Book Notes Plus

National Geographic Magazine Archives

We’re excited to tell you about the National Geographic Magazine Archives library database that provides access to over 100 years of this popular journal. You can enjoy thousands of breathtaking photographs and articles. The archive begins with the very first issue published in October, 1888, and runs through to 1994. The issues are presented in their entirety including all articles and advertising.

You can search for articles by keyword, by subject, by country and by time period. There is also a separate search feature for just the amazing images.

When reading an issue, there are some useful viewing options, such as zooming in, full screen view, and you can also print articles. Another cool feature is that you can create an account and then save articles for viewing next time that you login. Don’t delay, head over to the National Geographic Magazine Archives! All you need is your library card.