Parsons Public Library: March 2007

Book Signing

On Thursday, April 12 at 7pm George Hill will read excerpts from his new book The Season. He will speak about the process of getting a book published and discuss his experiences as a coach including college athletics in general. Copies of his book will be available for purchase.

George Hill was a college coach from 1958 until his retirement in 1995. He served as head basketball coach at Rogers State University, the United States Coast Guard Academy, The Citadel, Robert Morris U and Oklahoma Panhandle State U. In retirement, he worked for The Parsons Sun as a sports correspondent covering high school football and college basketball for five years.

Welcome Home, Jim!

Come into the library and meet our new director, Jim Payne, pictured here with his wife, Sylvia.

The Last Cattle Drive

The Last Cattle Drive is also the last book discussion program in our Kansas Literary Heritage series presented by the Kansas Humanities Council. Here’s how they describe the book.

The Last Cattle Drive, written in 1977, focuses on these characters:
Spangler Tukle, a rancher;
Leo, the greenhorn from Kansas City
Jed, the last real cowboy
Opal, Spangler’s wife and the brains of the outfit
Heather, Leo’s ex-girl friend

Spangler is a victim of circumstances in the modern world. He attempts against all odds to drive his cattle from the western Kansas town of Gorham to the Kansas City stockyards. We learn about the cattle drive and Leo’s initiation into cowboy life through Leo, who relishes delivering his tall tale. After all, cowboys aren’t cowboys unless they can sit beside an open fire chewing tobacco and weaving stories about their exploits. Perhaps Day is really reminding us not to forget the rich history and traditions of the cowboy and of western Kansas.

Come by the library today to pick up a copy of the book. Read the book and then join us on Thursday, May 10 at 6:30pm.

Picnic Book Group

William Inge, another native of Kansas, wrote Picnic in 1953 drawing on his experiences growing up in Independence, Kansas. Picnic is the story of a beautiful girl from the wrong side of the tracks who seems destined to marry one man until a sexy drifter comes to town. Within a twenty-four hour period she makes a decision about how she will spend her life.

It is not too late to sign up for the book group on Thursday, April 5 at 6:30. Pick up a copy of the play at the front desk, read it and come prepared to discuss it.

Want to learn more?

http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc63.html - William Inge info.
http://www.ingecenter.org/ -the William Inge center in Independence
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1795 -his grave
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0408718/bio - IMDB on William Inge
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0408718/ - William Inge filmography

Study Guides for Picnic can be found at:
http://rs243.securehostserver.com/~anoisewi/studyguide.shtml
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-picnic/

The Learning Tree Book Talk Discussion

The second discussion in our four part book talk series on Kansas Literary Heritage took place on Monday, March 19. Our designated book was The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks. This was also the book chosen by the State Library for its One Book, One State project.
We began the program with a wonderful meal provided by Ellynne Booker including fried chicken, corn bread, apple butter, sweet potatoes, greens, peach cobbler and pound cake. A red velvet cake was provided by Naomi Long. The meal was based on Sister Sara's Sunday dinner as described in the book.

Our presenter was Carmaletta Williams, Professor of English at Johnson County Community College. She has visited our library several times in the past and is very popular with our patrons. Twenty-five people from a variety of backgrounds and ethnic groups attended this event. Carmaletta is a very dynamic presenter and engaged us in some very insightful and productive discussion. We had many positive comments about this event.