Literature and Poetry
The Potent Plant Garden, Patterned After Agatha Christie's Novels
"While this might sound extremely dangerous for staff and public alike we have been very careful in our choice of plants, substituting less potent garden cultivars where possible,"says Ali Marshall, head gardener. "This is a garden designed to entertain — not provide murderous opportunities!" more »
Gender and Political Communication in America
Respected communication scholar Erika Falk also extends her previous work by examining gender bias and maintenance in the press coverage of Hillary Clinton’s announcement to seek the presidency in 2008. Editor Edwards furthers her investigation of political cartoons by making “an examination of twenty years worth of masculinity as an interpretive frame” in editorial cartoons. Optimistically she notes that as more women enter presidential politics it could lead to a more neutralized gender depiction in cartoons. She notes the dearth of press coverage for women candidates both from the beginning of their presidential efforts in 1872 to today. That Barack Obama credited Chisholm for paving the way for his presidential success, should make race and gender scholars consider her important 1972 presidential race. more »
CultureWatch: Talking About Detective Fiction and The Museum of Innocence
This section covers everything from technical developments; to scientific advances like DNA which provide new investigative methods; to movie and television links; to new access to detective fiction from foreign countries (e.g. the Swedish Wallander series); to new avenues of research (she still prefers to do her own). Anent the latter, that there is a nifty little bibliography and list of suggested reading at the end of the book. more »
Hiding Another Story in a Story: There's A Mystery There; Sendak on Sendak
"That’s the best fun in all of this – the layers of meaning, the layers of storytelling," Sendak said in a 2007 interview. "When you hide another story in a story, that’s the story I am telling the children." more »