As we officially head into March and the temperature starts to pick up (at least a couple degrees!), it seems as though our coursework does as well. For this week’s TBT we travel to the 1960s and the Falvey Hall Reading Room. Falvey still offers great study spaces 60 years later, so make sure to come in and find the perfect spot to get your work done. 

This photograph comes from the University Archives and can be found in Villanova’s digital collection.

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department.

Some people pair peanut butter and jelly, others pair wine and cheese, but in my opinion the perfect pairing is books and board games. Taking some time curled up with a good book and then meeting up with close friends and family in the evening to play a tabletop game constitutes a perfectly relaxing day. Below, I paired books and games together for a variety of different interests!

If you like pirates… you should read Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin and you should play Pirate’s Cove.

If you like zombies… you should read Zone One by Colson Whitehead and you should play Dead of Winter.

If you like spies and espionage… you should read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré and you should play Code Names.

If you like vampires… you should read My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due and play Fury of Dracula.

If you like the woods… you should read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and you should play Parks.

If you like classic adventure… you should read On The Road by Jack Kerouac and you should play Ticket to Ride.

If you like horror… you should read The Shining by Stephen King and you should play Betrayal at the House on the Hill.

Can you think of any other book and board game pairings I missed?

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department.

“This is a serious problem that is showing some real cracks, not only in the global refugee system that we have, but also individual countries are not finding ways to repatriate these women… so the children that are attached to these women are suffering the most.”

This week on Dr. Tim Horner’s Global Smackdown he looks at the global refugee system by focusing on two key cases stemming from women at Al-Hol, a housing camp for women and children from ISIS in Syria. Horner looks at international responses to these appeals for repatriation and explores the potential outcomes if the West does not reevaluate their system. 

The full Global Smackdown for Monday, March 1 is available here.

Where in the world are we?

We may not be able to be in the stands this basketball season, but that doesn’t mean we can’t show our Wildcat Pride and cheer on our team! This week’s TBT takes us back to a photo inside the Villanova Field House in the 1970s during a basketball game. This photograph comes from the University Archives and can be found in Villanova’s digital collection.

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department.

With winter seeming never-ending and spring still feeling like a far-off dream, it’s time to make a new list of movies and TV shows to watch. Below is a list of five books that have been adapted into TV series or movies for 2021. Many of these books are in Falvey’s collection. If you’re like me, you’ll need to read the book before you watch the movie!

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Platform: Netflix

Release Date: OUT NOW – Feb 1, 2021

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Platform: Netflix

Release Date: OUT NOW – Jan 22, 2021

The Dig by John Preston

Platform: Netflix

Release Date: OUT NOW – Jan 15, 2021

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari

Movie Title: The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Platform: Hulu

Release Date: Feb 26, 2021

Cherry by Nico Walker

Platform: Apple TV+

Release Date: Mar 12, 2021

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department.

Valentine’s Day is only four days away and whether you are choosing to celebrate with a significant other, your gals (Galentine’s Day is just as important as a day!), or other loved ones, it might look a little different this year. Less fancy dinners and more cozy movie nights and take-out!

For this week’s TBT, here’s a picture of the 1904 February edition cover of Comfort, an Augusta, Maine publication calling itself “the key to happiness and success in over a million and a quarter homes.” 

No matter where you are or how far apart, Valentine’s Day is a great day to remind your loved ones how much you care for them with a letter (or a text or phone call)!

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department.

By Jenna Newman

I’m kicking off the new year in a new apartment, which means when I’m not working, most of my time involves unpacking boxes and trying to make this apartment feel like home. One of the top ways to make a space feel like your own is through the decor. Whereas now we turn to Pinterest for all our interior decorating needs and inspiration, back in 1913 people turned to articles written by authors, including Richard Digby-Junger.

The image above is from The Fra: a Journal of Affirmation, v. 10, no. 4, January, 1913, p. Lviii and is included in Falvey’s digital exhibit You Can Learn A Lot From Advertising: Household. The items in the picture are considered essential for anyone’s living room table. It includes a combination match-holder and ashtray (top left), single flower vase (top right), copper paper knife (middle left), molded leather mat (bottom left), and the book of epigrams (bottom right). 

These might not be the exact things I plan on decorating my living room with, but it’s always fun to throw back and see how people used to decorate!

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department. Current mood: Adding decor to my Pinterest board.

We’re just about to kick off the spring semester, which also means a time to make more memories and reminisce on the old. One great way of looking back on and preserving memories is to make a scrapbook! Falvey has a digitally archived collection called “Scraps for Keeps” that looks at the classic way of storing information – through albums and scrapbooks.

The picture above shows a page of a scrapbook depicting the life of Edith Good of Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire. Being from a family of artists, the scrapbook contains many watercolor photos of her, her family, as well as some landscape pictures. Falvey’s “Scraps for Keeps” collection shows more pages from Edith Good’s scrapbook, as well as many others.

The last time I made a scrapbook was my senior year of high school for a Psychology project, what about you?

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department. Current mood: Not ready to virtually travel to work today.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes things happen and absolutely nothing goes according to plan. This lesson is something that we need to internalize and remember going into 2021 and beyond. Take a minute, stop reading, and think about all of the New Year’s resolutions you made last year that you completely forgot about when March hit. For my first Cat in the Stax of the year, I want to change the way that we think about “New Year’s resolutions,” especially with many of your resolutions potentially pertaining to the new semester that’s right around the corner.

According to Google, a resolution is, “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” In my opinion, humans just aren’t good at that, we’re wishy-washy and that’s totally okay. So let’s stop setting ourselves up for failure. If I make my New Year’s resolution to workout 5 times per week, the first time that I don’t do that, I’ve technically failed. Instead, let’s think of this new year as a time to reassess our goals.

By changing our mindset and making goals instead of declaring resolutions, we offer ourselves more grace and can celebrate the progress made. In 2020, I set my reading goal on Goodreads to 25 books, as of December 13 I had read 9. Instead of thinking of that as, “Wow, I failed!” I can focus on the fact that had I not set that goal, maybe I would have only read 3 or 4 and missed out on reading fantastic books.

Goals partially completed at the end of each year can be seen as progress markers. I now know that I read 9 books in 2020, and I wish that I had made reading more of a priority. In 2021, maybe my next goal is to read 15 books. It’s not that lofty 2020 goal of 25, but I took the progress I had made and can now work to beat that.

To encourage you all in crushing your goals for 2021, here are some of my goals for the Spring 2021 semester:

• Get to know two Falvey librarians better
• Engage Cat in the Stax reader’s by replying to every comment
• Read 5 books off of the Falvey shelves
• Take my own photos for 50% of my Cat in the Stax 

What goals do you have for 2021 and how can Falvey help you crush them?

Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department. Current mood: Figuring out how to crush my goals (& 2021)!

In honor of the Christmas countdown being in full swing, for the next three weeks our throwback Thursdays are going to focus on past Christmases at Villanova. For our first Christmas throwback, we’re taking it back a decade to the 2010-2011 Belle Air. 

The article pictured is entitled “Coming Together for the Holidays” and talks about how more often than not instead of being full of cookies and carolling, the beginning of December is a time of all-nighters, caffeine, and stressing out. Despite finals looming, the Villanova community came together and hosted Merry Christmas Week Villanova, including the annual Tree Lighting ceremony, a gingerbread-house making competition, and a Holiday Bazaar to shop in.

A decade later, the world is looking very different, but those same ideas of coming together and giving yourself a brain break are so important. Take a moment after reading this and think about who you are able to come together with this holiday season, whether it’s in person or virtual. Be present in those moments and remember the connections that are the most important.