Mayor Michael A. Nutter visited Parkway Central on Monday, September 29 to officially unveil the Library’s new green roof demonstration project. Encompassing 5,000 square feet on the south side of Parkway Central, the space holds 100 cubic feet of soil and more than 5,400 plants. The green roof project, which is a part of the Mayor’s initiative to make Philadelphia one of the greenest cities in the country, is the first green roof on a city-owned building.

Green roofs offer environmental and energy-saving benefits—installations improve air quality, reduce stormwater runoff to city sewer systems, and keep buildings cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Several layers designed specifically for insulation, drainage, and waterproofing were installed below the layer of soil media (see attached illustration). The new demonstration space features a pathway that will allow visitors to experience the green roof up close—featured signage includes information on the variety of plants, as well as details on the layers installed and benefits of green roofs.

Click here to learn more about our green roof. 

Two extraordinary writers have recently released new novels, years after their earlier books established their literary reputations. It's been fifteen years since Fae Myenne Ng's debut, Bone, and eager fans have been devouring her new novel, Steer Toward Rock, since it came out earlier this year. Fans of Paul Beatty's 2001 release, The White Boy Shuffle, haven't had to wait quite as long for his new satirical novel, Slumberland. But seven years without Beatty's labyrinthine riffs that pull together European history and popular culture - effortlessly linking images of everything from Kant to candy bars - felt like a lifetime.

Steer Toward Rock is one of the first fictional treatments of the Chinese Exclusion Act from the late 19th century, which severely restricted Chinese immigration and naturalization and imposed brutal restrictions on Chinese American life. Ng tells the story in several voices, starting with that of an old man who has sneaked into the country with false papers and ending the story with narration from the man's grown daughter. Fans of Bone will recognize Ng's fearless female characters who are marbled with both surprising vulnerability and unshakeable confidence. Steer Toward Rock is a brand new take on an old immigration experience.

Beatty's Slumberland is instead an emigration story, telling the tale of an African American man with a "phonographic memory" - he can perfectly remember any sound he has ever heard - who moves to Berlin just before the wall comes down. he is in search of a DJ, the perfect DJ, who goes by the name Schwa. Beatty's satire runs deep in the wacky characters he meets and strange settings he travels through in East and West Berlin's Afro-German communities. You've never read anything about this facet of Berlin or the Cold War. Beatty's prose is magical and just the thing to take you to the time and place of which he writes.

There are many copies of Fae Myenne Ng and Paul Beatty's books in branches all around the system. Head to the library and check one out today!

By Joel N., Blackwell Regional Library

Tags: African American, Reviews

The MacArthur Foundation recently named its 25 new 2008 MacArthur Fellows. Two writers made the cut, and the Free Library is proud to have a connection to both. Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun was on the 2008 One Book, One Philadelphia supplemental reading list for the featured selection, Dave Egger’s What is the What. Alex Ross, the other writer awarded with the genius grant, is a music critic for the New Yorker and will be visiting Parkway Central on November 20 as part of our Fall Author Events program. He will be interviewing John Adams, author of Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life. Ross's The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century studies the cultural history of music since 1900. Ross has received two American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publisher’s Deems Taylor Awards, a Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center for his contributions to contemporary music, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Rest is Noise.

Often referred to as the MacArthur “genius grant,” the program awards recipients with $500,000 over a five-year period. The Fellows must meet three points of criteria: “exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.” This year, the MacArthur Foundation awarded grants to an urban farmer and several doctors, scientists, musicians, and artists. 

Congratulations to all 25 recipients!

Looking for a spooky read to get you and your kids in the mood for Halloween? Tune into XPN on Wednesday, October 1 from 7 to 8 p.m. and hear the Free Library of Philadelphia's own Joe Hilton discuss scary story recommendations. Joe is a regular on the station's Kids Corner, making an appearance on the first Wednesday of each month. In his upcoming October appearance, Joe will also be discussing Banned Books Week, which runs from September 27 through October 4. In the meantime, check out Joe's list of recommended reads from the past few years.

Library staff, as well as the literary world, have been saddened this week over the tragic passing of author David Foster Wallace. To keep his memory alive for booklovers, we encourage you to listen to a podcast of Wallace's visit to Parkway Central in June of 2004. While here, he read from his work, Oblivion, which was his first new work of fiction in five years. Click here to listen.