Word Woman

Welcome to another wild and wonderful episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! A mind is a terrible thing to waste, so keep yours firing on all cylinders with life-long learning. Here's the Word of the Week to get you started:

Myriad: (noun)

1. Ten thousand

2. A great number

"myriad", http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myriad , 3/1/2011.

Example: Such a myriad of people arrived before opening on the day of the big sale that the employees feared that the security gate would not hold long enough for them to open the store.

Tournament of Books

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/

In case you didn't know, the annual Morning News Tournament of Books starts today. It's like March Madness for reading, where judges (culled from the publishing and lit-blog worlds) pit sixteen books against each other in head-to-head match-ups, with a champion chosen by month's end. The method is totally subjective, and more often than not your favorites will lose to books you've never heard of or even dislike. That's okay because it's more about the discussions that follow than it is about any assumed winner. And likely--and this is what's great about it--you'll find a gem of a book that you might not have heard about otherwise.

Artwork by Jean-Leon Gerome, whose incredible paintings can be viewed here.

Word Woman

Welcome to another astonishing installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Spring is just around the corner, and now is a great time to sweep all of those winter cobwebs out of your head by learning new words. Here's the Word of the Week to get you started:

Redoubtable:

1. causing fear or alarm, formidable

2. illustrious, eminent; broadly: worthy of respect

"redoubtable", http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redoubtable , 2/11/2011.

Example: The redoubtable reference librarian ruled her department like a lioness and no matter how obscure the question posed to her, she was able to answer it.

Read Across America Day!

March 2 is the birthday of Theodor Geisel, known to generations of young readers as Dr. Seuss. In his honor, it has been declared Read Across America Day by the National Education Association. This is the 14th year that thousands of participating schools, libraries and community centers will celebrate the day by reading together. Geisel died in 1991.
Washington, D.C., will celebrate Read Across America Day with First Lady Michelle Obama reading "Green Eggs and Ham" at the Library of Congress at 11 a.m. She'll be joined by actress Jessica Alba, Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and others.
Dr. Seuss' works are central to the project, and publisher Random House has a package of special Read Across America Day materials available for educators at the website Seussville.com. The website on its own is pretty Seuss-er-ific.

The official Dr. Seuss app-maker is also celebrating. All week long, Dr. Seuss e-book apps are on sale, 25% to 75% off. The Dr. Seuss Happy Birthday to You Camera app is free.

Toni Morrison turns 80

For those that are fans of Toni Morrison, you may want to brush up on her accomplishments as we wish her a happy birthday. She was born in 1931 and made her debut as a novelist in 1970 with her first novel, The Bluest Eye. She has been awarded a long string of awards and prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

If you are a fan you might enjoy taking the quiz at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2011/feb/22/toni-morrison-80-quiz and see just how much you know about her.

You'll find her works in the library in the children's section in the Easy books and in the children's non-fiction section under 379.263, in the adult fiction section under MORRISO, and in the adult nonfiction section under 374.7326 as well as in the literature section under 808.8, 810.9803, 813.52 and 818.52.