On Display: Best Books of 2017

Best Books of 2011Happy New Year! If one of your resolutions is to read more in 2018, we have just the thing you get you started…our 9th annual Best Books display! This year we have combed through 20 year-end best books lists* to bring you over 130 of the top titles published last year. The display includes fiction and nonfiction, print and audio. You’ll find wildly popular bestsellers alongside books that were critically acclaimed yet didn’t receive as much mainstream attention.

Stop by the library’s lobby to browse. If you don’t find anything of interest at first glance please keep checking back. We will add books to the display as new acquisitions arrive and currently checked-out books are returned.

Many of these books are also available as downloadable and streaming eBooks and audiobooks via the library’s OverDrive digital collection. For help using OverDrive, view their Getting Started page or visit the Reference Desk for personal assistance.

Happy reading!

Best Books of 2017

* Lists consulted: AudioFileBloomberg, Booklist, The Boston Globe, CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, The Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company, Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, The New York Times, NPR, Publishers Weekly, strategy+business, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

On Display: A Hot Topic – Climate Change

On display at the Bentley Library November 7, 2017 – January 2, 2018 is a selection of book, films, and audiobooks about the topic of climate change. Chosen in collaboration with Professor Thom Davis of the Natural Science Department, these titles will focus on the many aspects of this multidisciplinary topic. Included in the display are the works of Dr. Michael E. Mann, an upcoming speaker in the Distinguished Visiting Scholar series.

Stop by to browse and borrow. Don’t forget to attend Michael Mann’s lecture,  The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: The Battle Continues, on Thursday, November 16 from 5:00 to 6:20 PM in Koumantzelis Auditorium.

Michael Mann books

On Display: Words Have Power – Read a Banned Book!

According to the American Library Association website, “A [book] challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.”

child reading a book with fist raised
American Library Association

In 2016, 323 book challenges were recorded in the United States by the American Library Association. (It is worth noting that many challenges go unreported.) The majority of challenges occurred against materials found in public and school libraries, and were most commonly brought by parents and public library users. The most common reasons for book challenges are: sexually explicit subject matter, offensive language, and religious viewpoint. ALA does not track international challenges, but history records many instances in which books have been censored and/or suppressed based on political viewpoint and other reasons deemed offensive to the state or nation.

In conjunction with Banned Books Week 2017 and through the month of October/beginning of November, we’ve provided a selection of fiction titles that have been reported as challenged and/or banned by public libraries, school libraries, and countries. Also included are some nonfiction titles on censorship topics. Stop by to take a look at the books on display or view them online (and place holds on anything you’d like to check out). Books on display each contain a banned-books-themed bookmark, which readers are welcome to keep. We’ve also made some buttons which are free for the taking.

If you use our OverDrive Downloadable Books , a list of banned and challenged books appears when you log into that collection.

Exercise your freedom to seek and express ideas- read a banned book!

 

On Display: Nonfiction Audiobooks

Commute getting you down? Going on a summer road trip? Why not check out an audiobook to listen to!

We’ve pulled together a selection of nonfiction titles especially for you. This display covers a broad variety of topics including: psychology, business, history, sports and science. This display also features some biographies and true adventure accounts.

Can’t get to the Bentley Library this summer? All these titles are also available through Overdrive, just download the app, check out the title and start listening today.

Great way to enjoy your next trip to Bentley or to anywhere.

On Display: Not-so-obvious Adaptations

The library’s latest display features “Not-so-obvious Adaptations”. The collection features films that are based on books, but the catch is that the movie titles are different than the original book’s title! For instance, did you know that Forbidden Planet is based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest or that the inspiration for Mean Girls is a book called Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World?

Summer is a great time to discover a new book and watch a movie, so stop by the library to check out the display and if you don’t see what you’re looking for, please come ask at the Reference Desk.

“Out in the Stacks”: Books & DVDs on Display for LGBT Pride Month

Many of you may already know that June is LGBT Pride Month! The month of June was chosen to commemorate the historic Stonewall Riots, which took place in NYC on June 28, 1969. Hundreds of Pride Parades & Marches will soon take place across the globe, including the Boston Pride Parade on June 10th. If you’re interested in marching with the Bentley PRIDE delegation, you can register online here, or contact coordinator Tony Martin at amartin@bentley.edu .

The library is celebrating Pride Month with a display of almost 170 titles related to the LGBTQIA+ community. We chose a mix of fiction (including many graphic novels!), non-fiction, movies, and documentaries to try to provide a wide variety of voices and perspectives. The titles in this display engage with gender and sexual identity in myriad ways – academic or personal, joyous or difficult, sometimes all at once.

Come browse the display in the library lobby – titles will rotate so please ask at the Reference Desk if you’d like to see all the books/movies that are currently available! You can also see the full list of titles in our online catalog. If you see an item you want to check out, hit the “Request It” button to place a hold. Keep an eye on our social media to get recommendations, and to find links to items you can read or watch online!

On Display: The Art of the Book: Sustainability & Social Justice

“Small books are more durable than big ones; they go farther. The booksellers revere big books; readers like small ones. An exquisite thing is worth more than a huge thing.”

– Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)

 

Books mean many things to many people. To authors they are the breath of life. To readers, books are places where adventures begin, comfort is found or learning leads to knowledge. Books open us up to a world larger than ourselves. Books sustain the soul and sometimes our livelihood.

Bentley Library is proud to partner with Professor Jane de León Griffin to present a display entitled, The Art of the Book: Sustainability & Social Justice. Dr. Griffin has done extensive research on alternative forms of literary production in Latin America and recently published a book on the subject, The Labor of Literature: Democracy and Literary Culture in Modern Chile. Dr. Griffin’s book explores issues of literature publishing, Latin American culture, political and social movements that shape the literary world and what a book means to those who have limited access to the printed word.

The books and videos collected for this display include a variety of subjects that touch on Latin American culture and authors, the creative, emotional and artistic expression of books and book production, literature as a social movement and using the world’s cast-offs to create objet d’art. There is something for everyone to enjoy.

Black History Month Book and Film Display

“To my children, for whom I dream that one day soon they will no longer be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., dedication in front of his book “Why We Can’t Wait” 

 

View 150 books and DVDs in the library’s front hall for Black History Month starting now! Hear the voices of  past and present African American leaders and rediscover their accomplishments, both in the United States and South Africa. With this display, find works on the people who intensely pursued the rights for blacks to vote and meet advocates for the underserved. Refresh your knowledge of the history and events in this important subject area. Reflect on the work of African American desegregation martyrs. Also browse for beautiful works such as Eyes on the Prize or take home inspirational speeches by outstanding orators on DVD. Check out stirring primary documents such as The Ferguson Report or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to evaluate exactly what was written that has become so symbolic.

Key events and strong figures from the civil rights movement of the 1960’s

  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Medgar Evers
  • Malcolm X
  • Nelson Mandela

and the leaders of today

  • Angela Davis
  • Barack Obama
  • Henry Louis Gates
  • John Lewis

Mostly non-fiction, this display brings together multiple materials about positive, dynamic leaders and their successes. The Bentley Library is well-stocked with books on history of civil rights and successful African Americans and we limited the array to bring you the best materials. Racism, African American arts, literature, and athletes are minimally represented here, as those are entire areas which could merit their own displays and space was limited. We invite you to explore those topics in our catalog.

The 2017 Black History Month display is intended as a showcase of works by and about great African American figures throughout history, and the gains we have made with their leadership. Although the origins of Black History Month began in 1926 as Negro History Week, the topic has blossomed in scope and the conversation happily continues in many directions well past the month of February every year.

“To the committed supporters of the civil rights movement, Negro and white, whose steadfastness amid confusions and setbacks gives assurance that brotherhood will be the condition of man, not the dream of man.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., dedication in the front of his book “Where Do We Go From Here?