Books, movies to escape the weather

What wacky weather we’re having this spring. Hopefully, you’ve come to the library and stocked up on books and movies to allow you to escape from the weather.
Here are some new titles in the Vigilance Collection. The collection is growing and we have gotten some good responses to the materials available. Take a look for yourself.
We have a number of titles by economists promoting a change in the way we look at economics. Among the most notable is Jeffrey Sachs. His newest title, Common Wealth, is available in both book and compact disc. The book is subtitled “Economics for a Crowded Planet” and proposes an economic paradigm that is global, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware and science based. Available on compact disc is Creating a World Without Poverty by Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, and a pioneer of microcredit. Mr. Yunus and Grameen Bank are winners of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. This book introduces social business, where creative entrepreneurs apply their vision to the most serious of the world’s problems, including feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick and protecting the planet.
The documentary movie is coming into its own these days. No longer are most of these films just dry voices with still images. The movies in the Vigilance collection cover difficult subjects. But overall the movies are well-made and some are entertaining as well. Two new titles to the collection include Out of Balance: Exxonmobil’s impact on climate change and War Made Easy: how presidents and pundits keep spinning us to death. Out of Balance director, Tom Jackson, worked with a group of scientists, business executives and environmentalists to create this documentary about one of the largest, most powerful companies in the world. War Made Easy is based on the acclaimed book by Norman Solomon and is narrated by Sean Penn. It exposes how presidential administrations have managed to sell one war after another to the American people.
The Vigilance collection also has a small handful of books aimed at children and young adults. This includes a graphic novel entitled Weird Weather: everything you didn’t want to know about climate change but probably should find out by Kate Evans. The title is pretty descriptive of the work. How We Know What We Know about Our Changing Climate by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch also has a teacher’s guide by Carol Malnor. And be sure to read and share Planting the Trees of Kenya which tells the story of Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Don’t forget the online resource we have as part of this collection. Visit http://www.arrowhead.lib.mn.us/ifalls/vigilance.html and click on the link to the Ebsco Alternative Health Database. You will need to stop by the library or call when we are open to receive the user id and password to access the database. You can search for information on any health issue face and find out what the alternative medicine community recommends and what options they support.