etc. - Nov. 4, 2010

Everybody Reads will feature award-winning Oregon author

The book the Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss has been the selected for the 2010 Everybody Reads, a community reading event involving libraries in this area.

A fourth-generation Oregonian who lives in Portland, Gloss will speak Nov. 10 at noon at the Neill Public Library in Pullman, at 7 p.m. in the 1912 Center in Moscow. On Nov. 12, she will be at the Colfax Library at 10 a.m. and at the St. John Library at noon.

Published in 2007, The Hearts of Horses, is the novel about a young woman who is breaking horses for several ranchers in Eastern Oregon in the winter of 1917 when many young ranch hands had been called away to war.

When Martha Lessen shows up at George Bliss’s doorstep looking for work breaking horses, George hires her, and Martha’s unusual, quiet way of breaking horses soon wins her additional work. Martha gradually comes to feel enveloped by a sense of community and family she’s never had before.

Gloss in 1996 was the recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award for her novel The Jump-Off Creek. She was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and winner of the Oregon Book Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award.

Everybody Reads is a regional program with public and academic libraries and book stores across the Palouse and the Lewiston/Clarkston Valley encouraging all citizens to read the same book. Public discussions and author appearances follow in a variety of locations.

Gloss will also make appearances Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. at Lewiston High School and at the Nezperce Community Library at 7 p.m. On Nov. 9, she will speak at noon at the Asotin County Library and at 7 p.m. at the Lewis-Clark Center for Arts & History in Lewiston.

Colfax PEO bake sale will benefit scholarships

Colfax Chapter of PEO will have a bake sale Nov. 23 in the Whitman County Library in Colfax meeting room. Proceeds will go into their scholarship award fund. The group normally awards $500 in scholarships to a senior girl graduating from Colfax High School.

Those interested in ordering pies, cookies and rolls can contact a PEO member by Nov. 15. Orders will be available to pick up at the sale in the library.

Items available are pies, rolls, cinnamon rolls, small or large coffee cakes and two-layer cakes. Contact Marsha Binder or Linda Marler to place an order.

Smokin’ Mojo at Dahmen

Smokin’ Mojo will play blues tunes at Dahmen Barn in Uniontown Saturday, Nov. 13, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Smokin’ Mojo started as a jam band at Mikey’s Gyros in Moscow. The group plays blues, soul and blues-rock. Leader Brad Crooks has been in numerous Bay Area bands, opening for acts such as B.B. King, Tower of Power and Elvin Bishop. He leads the vocals and plays the harmonica. Other band members are Axel Krings and Jerry Courtright, both guitar; Chris LaPagina, keyboards; Mike Cox, bass; Matt Evavold, saxophone and Mark Scalise, drums. Admission will be $7 at the door.

CHS ASB to honor vets

Colfax High School ASB will have an assembly to honor all Veterans, Friday, Nov. 12, at 11 a.m. at the CHS auditorium. All veterans are encouraged to attend. The public is welcome.

Rosalia ceremony

Rosalia Veterans Day Ceremony will be Nov. 11, 2010, at 10:30 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial in Rosalia, located behind the Texaco Service Station. Patricia Voge, vice president of the Rosalia Chamber of Commerce, will be the mistress of ceremonies. Pastor Mike Cooper will give the invocation. Local Boy Scouts will lower the flag and raise a new one.

On Campus

ART

University of Idaho Pritchard Gallery will feature the work of Kota Ezawa Oct. 27 to Dec. 5. The Bay area artists will present projected works in film, slide, and digital animations as well as lightbox watercolor. Ezawa will give a talk on his work Oct. 26 at 5 p.m. Pritchard gallery hours are 10 to 8 Tuesday through Saturday and 10 to 6 on Sundays.

WSU will present a world-class exhibition, "Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art: From the Collection of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan," Oct. 1 to Dec. 11.

The Levi-Kaplan Collection was built over many years of extensive travel and study. The collectors have sought out the best work by Aboriginal artists to reveal the diversity, creativity and aesthetic power of one of the most exciting art movements in the world today.

Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday, 10 to 4 p.m. (open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays).

LECTURES

Michael Berkowitz, professor of Jewish history at University College London, will give a lecture at WSU based on his latest book, "The Crime of My Very Existence: Nazism and the Myth of Jewish Criminality." The lecture will be at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 8 in the Smith Center for Undergraduate Education, Room 203. Sponsored by the WSU Department of History, the lecture is free and open to the public.

In his book, Berkowitz investigates an infrequently considered facet of anti-Semitism that was a critical catalyst in the conception and implementation of the Holocaust: the association of Jews with criminals.

Berkowitz received his bachelor’s degree from Hobart College and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He has held fellowships at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, The Leo Baeck Institute in New York, the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati and the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

DRAMA

WSU’s department of theatre and dance will present "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" on their Daggy Hall Jones Theatre stage for the next two weekends. Performance dates are Nov. 4, 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson and directed by Ray Pritchard, the play is about the two-sided battle of Jekyll and Hyde that arises when Hyde meets a woman.

General admission tickets are $15, senior citizens are $10, WSU students are $10 (with student identification), GPSA students and partners are $10 and children under 17 are $5. Tickets will be available at the Daggy Hall box office an hour before curtain time or Tuesday through Friday from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

EXHIBITS

"Nature Twice," a special exhibit of poetry about animals and nature, will be in WSU’s Conner Museum of Natural History Sept. 9-Nov. 21 on the WSU campus. Free and open to the public 8 to 5 p.m. daily in Abelson.

Bookmark

The Friends of Whitman County Library are hosting a large sale in the Colfax Branch to benefit children’s programs countywide. Besides the usual books, movies and music, the Friends are selling a number of older office items that were declared surplus after the move back into the library at the conclusion of the Colfax renovation.

Special tables have been installed on the library’s main floor to accommodate the large donation of books and movies that were recently given to the library. Additional surplus items for sale include TVs, a file cabinet, room dividers, desks, rolling chairs, stacking desk trays and more. The office items are available for viewing Monday through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For questions, contact Whitman County Library.

All branches of Whitman County Library will close Thursday, Nov. 11, for Veteran’s Day. Materials will not be due that day and the library’s website services like online requesting, renewing, magazines, legal forms, repair manuals and a live chat librarian will still be available at http://www.whitco.lib.wa.us.

Studies by the National Center for Education Statistics show a direct correlation between a child’s reading scores and the number of books borrowed from their local library. Whitman County Library has thousands of books, fourteen locations and reading programs countywide to expand your child’s interests while raising reading scores.

In Colfax, preschool aged classes continue each Thursday in Colfax with Baby time programs at 10:10, Toddler Time at 10:30 and Preschool Time at 11:00. Play and Learn for preschoolers, parents and caregivers is each Friday from 10-11:30 while Third Thursday Club is each month for children in grades 1-4. This month, Thanksgiving will be celebrated on November 18 at 3:30 with stories, games, snacks and fun. Visit the library’s online Events Calendar for a complete schedule of children’s programs at all branch locations.

With the busy schedules of today’s families, many folks are looking for ways to get organized. Two new books will help with that process. Real Simple: 869 New Uses for Old Things showcases how to repurpose everyday items, from accordion files to zippered plastic bags, in clever and surprising ways, saving readers both time and money. Organized in a colorful and lively A-to-Z format, the book covers a wide variety of categories, including, but not limited to, cleaning, cooking, fashion, beauty, health, gardening, and entertaining

Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer considers our hectic lifestyles and full schedules while revisiting traditional cooking methods nearly obsolete in many families. The results are poor nutrition and budgets strained by the high cost of fast food or commercially prepared meals. This cookbook offers a simple and economical alternative, featuring dozens of recipes to be prepared and frozen for future use.

Garfield library news

All children ages to age six are invited to storytime at the Garfield Library every Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.

Garfield Library has shelves of donated adult and children books for sale for just 25 cents. The "More Recipes from Our Friends" cookbook containing recipes from people all over Whitman County is also available for $10. Proceeds from sales of these items benefit the Friends of Garfield Library.

Garfield library hours are Mondays 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. or Wednesdays 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.