Consumed with an overwhelming curiosity about funeral homes, Tom Jokinen quit his producing job at the CBC to apprentice under a Winnipeg undertaker. He recounts his experiences in CURTAINS: ADVENTURES OF AN UNDERTAKER-IN-TRAINING. With compassion and humor, Jokinen describes exactly what happens between the time someone dies, and when they reappear again for their service. His discoveries range from why the heart is the last organ to burn in a cremation to the reason purple lipstick works best for men.

Younger readers should enjoy Paul Gobles wonderfully illustrated THE BOY & HIS MUD HORSES. Gobles retells 27 different Native American legends, all highlighting the aspects of each individual tribe.

Everyone is invited to attend the Library’s Landscaping Open House, from 3 to 5 pm this Thursday, June 17th. Come and check out what’s new outside the Library. Cake and refreshments will be served.

The Friends' Travelogues are off for the summer but will resume in the fall. If you would like to present a travelogue, please contact Sheila McDonald at 250-417-1597 or

The Library has 3 fantastic summer reading clubs this summer:

READING ROCKS SUMMER READIN CLUB.

This program includes storytimes, coloring contests, movie nights, cybercamps, story writing contests and even a rock concert.

Registrations starts June 26th, or sign up any day afterwards

Free for everyone aged 3 to 12.

Toddlers also have a program.

GET INTO CHARACTER TEEN READING CLUB.

Open and free to all teens. Get started at website www.teenrc.ca

This program provides teens the opportunity to read books, post their own reviews and personal writing, participate in online chats with peers and authors, and the chance to win weekly prizes.

PASSPORT TO READING ADULT BOOK CLUB

Open and free to all adults. Simply pick up your passport at the Library, and enjoy a summer full of great reading. Prizes included. Registration begins June 26th.

For more information please contact Kristen at 426-4063, or drop her an email at kmacdonald@cranbrookpubliclibrary.ca

Don’t forget to check out our wonderful Ktunaxa Nation display.

ADULT NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:

Water – Steven Solomon (553.7)

The Bandido Massacre – Peter Edwards (364.106)

The Husband and Wives Club – Laurie Abraham (306.81)

Enlightened Sexism – Susan J. Douglas (302.2082)

The Undervalued Self – Elaine N. Aron (158)

Getting Organized in the Google Era – Douglas C. Merrill (650.1)

Chocolate Cakes – Elinor Klivans (641.8653)

Your Brain: A User’s Guide (612.82)

Complexion Perfection – Kate Somerville (646.72)

Made for Goodness – Desmond Tutu (170)

Curtains – Tom Jokinen (363.75092)

Instinctive Parenting – Ada Calhoun (649.1)

Hand Dyeing Yarn & Fleece – Gail Callahan (746.6041)

The Gourmet Pregnancy – Leah Douglas (641.56319)

Easy Italian Step by Step – Paola nanni-Tate (458.2421)

In the Path of an Avalanche – Vivien Bowers (971.168)

Before You Say Yes – Doreen Pendgracs (658.048)

Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Paranormal – Nathan Robert Brown (130)

Dodging the Toxic Bullet – David R. Boyd (615.902)

Getting Past OK – Richard Brodie (158)

Thriving After Divorce – Tonja Evetts Weimer (306.89)

Work It: Ultimate Career Wardrobe – Jesse Garza (646.34)

Blue Valley: An Ecological Memoir – Luanne Armstrong (bio)

Marshall McLuhan – Douglas Coupland (bio)

American Lion – Jon Meacham (bio)

Treading Water – Anne DeGrace (fic)

Lightning – Fred Stenson (fic)

Holding Still for as Long as Possible – Zoe Whittall (fic)

The Bourne Objective – Eric Van Lustbader (fic)

My Name is Memory – Ann Brashares (fic)

Shameless – Karen Robards (fic)

The Spy – Clive Cussler (fic)

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott – Kelly O’Connor McNees (fic)

Trespass – Rose Tremain (fic)

The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman (fic)

The Long Song – Andrea Levy (fic)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Stieg Larsson (mys)

Storm Prey – John Sandford (mys)

The Rule of Nine – Steve Martini (mys)

61 Hours – Lee Child (mys)

Fever Dream – Douglas Preston (mys)

House of Secrets – Richard Hawke (mys)

Mandela (DVD)

Ugly Betty: Complete First Season (DVD)

Brideshead Revisited (DVD)

A Mighty Heart (DVD)

Stop Loss (DVD)

The Holiday (DVD)

Tim (DVD)

Firewall (DVD)

YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S NEWLY ACQUIRED ITEMS:

Med Head – James Patterson (ya 616.83)

Me & Death – Richard Scrimger (ya fic)

Amazing Aztecs – Terry Deary (j 972.018)

World Myths and Legends – Kathy Ceceri (j 398.2)

Paper-Mache Monsters – Dan Reeder (j 745.542)

Pika: Life in the Rocks – Tannis Bill (j 599.329)

The Boy & His Mud Horses – Paul Goble (j 398.208997)

Following the Trail of Marco Polo – Geronimo Stilton (j fic)

C’Mere Boy – Sharon Jennings (j pic)

Tap Tap Bang Bang – Emma Garcia (j pic)

Car’s Snowy Afternoon – Alexandra Day (j pic)

Olivia Meets Olivia –Ellie O’Ryan (j pic)

The Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree (j DVD)

The Berenstain Bears Kindness, Caring, & Sharing (j DVD)

Clifford’s Really Big Movie (j DVD)

MIKE’S BOOKNOTES:

In 1969 Leslie Conway Bangs was a 20-year-old women’s shoe salesman in El Cajon, a sleepy suburb just south of San Diego. He hated his job, hated attending the local college (which he had to do to avoid the draft), and mostly hated living with his hyper-religious mother; an unemotional force who found solace in the coming Armageddon. What he didn’t know—what no one knew—was Leslie (who later changed his name to Lester) was about to become one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century.

One thing Lester Bangs definitely did not hate in 1969 was music. He was an avid fan since 1960, when his nephew first played him Miles Davis’s BIRTH OF THE COOL. But it wasn’t until the late 60s, when he first heard the Beatles and the Rolling Stones that music became his overriding passion. So much so, that Bangs felt complete outrage at any music that wasn’t life changing. This much he said so in a letter he wrote to Rolling Stone Magazine, after they had praised MC5’s album KICK OUT THE JAMS, proclaiming they were “the greatest band in the world.” Bangs fired off a letter stating how he had been fooled by their hype, and wasted his money on the MC5’s “clichés and ugly noise.” He also was choked about their glowing review of the group It’s A Beautiful Day: “I hate this album. I hate it not only because I wasted my money on it, but what it represents: An utterly phony, arty approach to music that we will soon not escape.”

Certainly Rolling Stone, let alone any other music magazine, had never seen anything like it. Up until that point, musicians—especially rock musicians—were either trivialized in the main press, or worshipped as deities in the music magazines. Lester Bangs did neither; he covered them with a critical style previously unseen. Rolling Stone not only printed his letters, but immediately hired him sight unseen to write music reviews. An unbelievably charged writer when excited (he wrote an entire book about the group Blondie in only 3 days), Bangs sent them 15 reviews per week, some running over 17,000 words long. His writing spoke directly to the readers, making him the most requested and fan favorite for the next 5 years.

But as his popularity soared amongst the readers, many musicians and their record companies were less than pleased. They wanted this rogue journalist who had the habit of telling it like it is roped in. In 1973 Rolling Stone Magazine fired its most popular writer, citing “disrespect for musicians” as cause. As he had been moonlighting as an editor for Creem, Bangs simply wrote for them full time, taking a good chunk of Rolling Stone readers with him.

This was not truly understood until 1979, when Rolling Stone’s record review editor demanded Lester Bangs be reinstated, or he would quit. Inexplicably, the first album they sent Bangs to review was MACHO MAN by the Village People. When Bangs wrote “they prove that gay people can be as stupid and banal as anybody else,” he confirmed to the publishers why they fired him in the first place, but he was kept on. By this time, Bangs was a celebrity in his own right, sometimes more popular than the bands he was covering.

By 1982, Lester Bangs had published over 150 feature reviews in Rolling Stone, and almost 200 feature articles in Creem. A full career for any serious writer, but for Bangs he was just getting started. After success with writing the books about Blondie and one about Rod Stewart, he had at least a dozen ready to go to respective publishers. These included PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS & CARBURETOR DUNG, ROCK THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, LOST GENERATION, A REASONABLE GUIDE TO HORRIBLE NOISE, WOMEN ON TOP, ROCK GOMORRAH: THE SCANDALOUS LIES ABOUT THE WOODSTOCK NATION, and the novel ALL MY FRIENDS ARE HERMITS.

On April 30th, 1982, Lester Bangs dropped off a book manuscript at Delia Publishing, bought the new Human League album, some cold medication, and went home for the night. When a girlfriend of his dropped by to hear the new album, she found Bangs lying on his back in front of the record player. His eyes were open but he had no pulse. The paramedics pronounced him dead at 9:30. When a policeman on the scene picked up a Miles Davis record—the very one which infused Bangs’s love of music—he asked his girlfriend if he could have it. “Of course,” she smiled. “Lester would have liked that.”

Lester Bangs was only 33 when he died; a toxicology report found he had combined too much cold medicine at one time, causing a fatal overdose. Sadly, his books waiting to be published were all canceled. Only PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS & CARBURETOR DUNG came out. In the book’s introduction, Greil Marcus laments the loss of such an unrealized talent, lamenting at “the willingness to accept that the best writer in America could write almost nothing but record reviews.”