New Year's Resolution #5 - Join a book discussion group

Join us for a morning of lively discussion at the Sterling Morton Library's book discussion group, Leafing Through the Pages. Meeting on the second Thursday of each month from 10-12 in the Sterling Morton Library, this year we will be reading and discussing:

January 12, 2006 - Teale, Edwin Way. Wandering through winter : a naturalist's record of a 20,000-mile journey through the North American winter, 1965.

February 9, 2006 - Heinrich, Bernd. Winter world : the ingenuity of animal survival, 2003.

March 9, 2006 - Mee, Margaret. Margaret Mee : in search of flowers of the Amazon forest : diaries of an English artist reveal the beauty of the vanishing rainforest, 1988.

April 13, 2006 - Simon, Laura. Dear Mr. Jefferson : letters from a Nantucket gardener, 1998.

May 11, 2006 - Nearing, Helen and Scott. Living the good life : how to live sanely and simply in a troubled world, 1970.

June 8, 2006 - Moring, John. Early American naturalists : exploring the American west, 1804-1900, 2002.

July 13, 2006 - Gallagher, Tim. The grail bird : hot on the trail of the Ivory-billed woodpecker, 2005.

August 10, 2006 - DeBlieu, Jan. Wind : how the flow of air has shaped life, myth, and the land, 1998.

September 14, 2006 - Horn, Tammy. Bees in America : how the honey bee shaped a nation, 2005.

October 12, 2006 – Berry, Wendell. Watch with me : and six other stories of the yet-remembered Ptolemy Proudfoot and his wife, Miss Minnie, nee Quinch, 1994.

November 9, 2006 - Peattie, Donald Culross. Green laurels : the lives and achievements of the great naturalists, 1936.

December 14, 2006 - Capek, Karel. “The Blue Chrysanthemum” & “The Stolen Cactus” (Short stories in: Tales from two pockets, 1994.)

A Fond Farewell

After 38 years on the staff of The Morton Arboretum, Nancy Hart Stieber, the curator of the library’s rare print collection, retired this past November. Nancy’s contributions have been many, and one of the most lasting was her contribution to The Morton Arboretum Quarterly. Her fine pen and ink drawings graced most of the covers from 1974 to 1995. If you would like to see some of her fantastic artwork, the library has a complete set of the Quarterly, bound and available for viewing in the reference room.

As the curator of the print collection, one of her many responsibilities was to design and mount the various library exhibits together with library director Michael Stieber. Over the years exhibits have showcased many of the treasures in the rare book and print collection. Recently there have been exhibits featuring the magnificent engravings from Basil Bessler’s "Hortus Eystettensis" and an exhibit entitled “In Praise of Oaks” which featured the mighty oak as depicted in art, books, photographs and maps.

Our current exhibit, Little Acorns and Budding Artists: Kids Who Followed Their Dreams, features some examples of Nancy's artwork. Be sure to stop in the library to view this fascinating exhibit, which also includes the artwork of her student and noted children's book author-illustrator Carol Lerner. The exhibit will be up through the end of January.

We hope to see Nancy return in a guest capacity in the future, and wish her well as she embarks on this very exciting time of life.