The Teaching of Buddha
The Teaching of Buddha
Anyone who has stayed in a hotel in Japan has probably seen a copy of The Teaching of Buddha. First published in 1925, the book was originally edited by Japanese scholars of Buddhism before WWII and distributed widely throughout Japan. The first English edition was published in 1934. The Reverend Dr. Yehan Numata brought out another English edition in 1962, and in 1966, after the establishment of the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism), Dr. Numata assembled a committee of Buddhist scholars to substantially revise and edit a new English-Japanese edition. The Teaching of Buddha has undergone minor revisions and numerous reprintings since. It is now available in more than forty-two languages and over 8 million copies have been distributed and placed in hotel rooms in over fifty countries throughout the world.
The Teaching of Buddha is a collection of writings on the essence of Buddhism, selected and edited from the vast Buddhist canon, presented in a concise, easy-to-read, and nonsectarian format. It also includes a brief history of Buddhism, a listing of the source texts, a glossary of Sanskrit terms, and an index.
El Deafo by Cece Bell
El Deafo
by Cece BellThe Library Book Club meeting for this book was held Thursday, April 20, 2017, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school and making new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your chest? That requires superpowers! In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful–and very awkward–hearing aid. The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear–sometimes things she shouldn’t–but also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become “El Deafo, Listener for All.” And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and find the friend she’s longed for.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★★
Bekka rated it ★★★★★ and said “Very well done! I appreciated the humor as well as the emotional times. The art is charming – very cartoony and cute. I love how they all have bunny ears! This is a great story for both kids and adults. Highly Recommended.”
Vivian rated it ★★★ and said “What I would like to find out is, are children picking this up to read without being led to it by adults, and if so, what about it keeps them reading it? Aside from it’s obvious exposure to what it feels like to be different and that being different can be triggered by circumstances beyond one’s control, which is the “swallow this pill” purpose of the book, why has this book caught on? Here’s my quick answer. It’s really about friendships — different kinds of friendships and social situations — and every body has experience with this. Have you had the “you’re my project” kind of friend (or big me, little you)? Just saying, she nails the “friends” things on so many levels. And then there’s the whole “dealing with reality by creating an alternate reality” thing going, which she also nails. There are lots of springboard opportunities in her story to talk about assumptions we make and communication and taking social cues, which is why I think it’s good that the book is going the rounds in adult circles. It gives us a way to start some important conversations.”
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy EganThe Library Book Club meeting for this book was held September 15, 2016, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
A limited number of book club reading copies were available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.
The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times).
In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.
My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir
My First Summer in the Sierra
by John MuirIn the summer of 1869, John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, joined a crew of shepherds in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept while tending sheep formed the heart of this book and eventually lured thousands of Americans to visit Yosemite country.
First published in 1911, My First Summer in the Sierra incorporates the lyrical accounts and sketches he produced during his four-month stay in the Yosemite River Valley and the High Sierra. His record tracks that memorable experience, describing in picturesque terms the majestic vistas, flora and fauna, and other breathtaking natural wonders of the area.
Today Muir is recognized as one of the most important and influential naturalists and nature writers in America. This book, the most popular of the author’s works, will delight environmentalists and nature lovers with its exuberant observations.
Old Yellowstone Days by Paul Schullery
Old Yellowstone Days
by Paul SchulleryOver thirty years after its original publication, former Yellowstone National Park archivist Paul Schullery’s collection of travelers’ accounts of their visits to the first national park still resonates with the tremendous impact the Park has had—and continues to have—as a wilderness and recreation destination. From John Muir’s exultation of the beauty of “Wonderland” to Rudyard Kipling’s hilarious invective of the American tourist, Old Yellowstone Days includes selections which form the best picture of what Yellowstone must have been like before the intrusion of the automobile.
Updated with a new introduction by Schullery, new illustrations, and a new foreword by Yellowstone National Park Historian Lee Whittlesey, this volume, which takes its title from an article by Owen Wister, also includes the impressions of William O. Owen, Charles Dudley Warner, Theodore Roosevelt, John Burroughs, Mrs. George Cowan, George Anderson, Emerson Hough, and Frederic Remington.
Teewinot: A Year in the Teton Range by Jack Turner
Teewinot: A Year in the Teton Range
by Jack TurnerJack Turner grew up with an image of the Tetons engraved in his mind. As a young man, he climbed the peaks of this singular range with basic climbing gear friends. Later in life, he led treks in India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Tibet, and Peru, but he always returned to the mountains of his youth. He continues to climb the Tetons as a guide for Exum Mountain Guides, the oldest and most prestigious guide service in America. Teewinot is his ode to forty years in the mountains that he loves.
Like Thoreau and Muir, Turner has contemplated the essential nature of a landscape. Teewinot is a book about a mountain range, its austere temper, its seasons, its flora and fauna, a few of its climbs, its weather, and the glory of the wildness. It is also about a small group of guides and rangers, nomads who inhabit the range each summer and know the mountains as intimately as they will ever be known. It is also a remarkable account of what it is like to live and work in a national park. Teewinot has something for everyone: spellbinding accounts of classic climbs, awe at the beauty of nature, and passion for some of the environmental issues facing America today. In this series of recollections, one of America’s most beautiful national parks comes alive with beauty, mystery, and power.
The beauty, mystery, and power of the Grand Tetons come alive in Jack Turner’s memoir of a year on America’s most beautiful mountain range.
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Desert Solitaire
by Edward AbbeyWhen Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey’s Road and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the essence of his life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeastern Utah. This is a rare view of a quest to experience nature in its purest form—the silence, the struggle, the overwhelming beauty. But this is also the gripping, anguished cry of a man of character who challenges the growing exploitation of the wilderness by oil and mining interests, as well as by the tourist industry.
Abbey’s observations and challenges remain as relevant now as the day he wrote them. Today, Desert Solitaire asks if any of our incalculable natural treasures can be saved before the bulldozers strike again.
Hey Ranger!: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America’s National Parks by Jim Burnett
Hey Ranger!: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America's National Parks
by Jim BurnettIn his thirty years with the National Park Service, Jim Burnett has seen it all: boat ramp mishaps that have sent cars into the water; skunks in the outhouse and bears at the dumpster; visitors looking for the bridge over the Grand Canyon.