Michael Hastings, author and award-winning journalist for Buzzfeed, died yesterday in Los Angeles.

In the June 22, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Hastings wrote a blistering piece on then-General Stanley McChrystal who was commander of American forces in Afghanistan. Quotes from McChrystal and his aides were so highly critical of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden that the General resigned shortly thereafter. Hastings received a 2010 Polk Award for this article.

Hastings' early career as a driven, heat-seeking missile for the truth included writing for Gentleman's Quarterly and Newsweek. Then in 2007, Hastings' world was rocked. He and his fiancee, Andi Parhamovich were both stationed in Baghdad (he was writing for Newsweek; she was an aide worker for The National Democratic Institute. Andi died in an ambush on January 17th and Hastings returned to his parents' home in Vermont, where holed up in their attic for two months while he wrote I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008), a keening, bitter, loved-filled tribute to Andi.

Hastings' last hard copy book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War on Afghanistan came out last year. His last book, published earlier this year in Kindle-only format, is
Panic 2012: The Sublime and Terrifying Inside Story of Obama's Final Campaign

Lauren Graham (BA, Barnard and MFA, SMU) is better known for her roles on the hit TV series The Gilmore Girls and Parenthood. Her debut novel Someday, Someday, Maybe is a witty, charming, and hilariously relatable chronicle about a struggling young actress trying to get ahead and keep it together in New York City.

Franny Banks is coming up against the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway. Other than some bit parts and commercials, waiting tables at a comedy club is all she has to show for. With a dwindling bank account and pressure from her father to move home, everything is riding on the upcoming showcase for her acting class, where she'll finally have a chance to perform for people who could actually hire her. That is if she won't be distracted by James Franklin, a notorious flirt and the most successful actor in her class.

Someday, Someday, Maybe is "a story about hopes and dreams, being young in a city, and wanting something deeply, madly, desperately. It's about finding love, finding yourself, and perhaps most difficult of all in New York City, finding an acting job".

In Montaro Caine, Sidney Poitier's debut, a baby is born with a coin in her hand. An orphan crafts a mysterious wooden object. Montaro Caine, the CEO of Fitzer Corporation finds himself under extraordinary pressure at work and at home. And on a remote hilltop on a Caribbean island, a medicine man seems to understand the meaning of all these events and to hold the key to the future.

When a man and woman appear at his office with a coin of unknown provenance, composed of a metal unknown on Earth. Montaro immediately recognizes it as the companion of a coin he analyzed as a graduate student working in a lab at MIT. Drawing attention from scientists, collectors, financiers, and thieves while Montaro himself hopes that the discovery of the coin will save his company.

"Sidney Poitier (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) takes us on a wild and unexpected adventure from New York to Europe to the Caribbean and beyond, and offers a heartfelt message about the potential each of us has within ourselves, and about being open to the possibility that there are mysteries in the universe. An enthralling journey into the magic of existence, Montaro Caine is a radiant debut from an American legend".

10 years in the making, Hawk Quest * by Robert Lyndon is an epic adventure set in the aftermath of the Norman conquest.

In 1072, the world is at war, hunger and disease are widespread. Sir Walter is held captive by Süleyman, the emir of Anatolia (now Turkey). The ransom: four pure-white gyrfalcons. In medieval England, the price of a gyrfalcon is roughly equivalent to half of the yearly income of a knight, and a monarch's expense to send a ship to Norway to buy a falcon could have bought 250 cows, or 1200 sheep, or paid for 50 peasant workers for a year.

Vallon, a Frankish soldier of fortune with reasons of his own, accepts the seemingly impossible task of capturing four gyrfalcons. The journey takes his motley crew from England to Iceland, Greenland (home of the gyrfalcons), and on to Russia and Anatolia, pitting them against Arctic seas, Viking warlords and other formidable challenges.

"...first-novelist Lyndon never loses control of his material, mixing fascinating descriptions of the inhospitable landscape with full-bodied portrayals of the principal characters (including a bit of romance), all the while ratcheting the tension and sense of danger to ever-higher levels".

"...utterly engrossing", teeming with historically accurate details of medieval warfare and falconry, from an author who is himself a lifelong falconer, a climber and traveler to exotic places. For fans for Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt, Robyn Young's Brethren, and Conn Iggulden's Conqueror Series.

* = starred review

Just some reading resources to get you started:

My favorite: NPR's Critics' Lists.

Publishers Weekly's Best Books Summer Reads.

Slate Magazine's Summer 2013 Staff Picks - brilliant and quirky.

This is the 5th year that the smart librarians over at Swarthmore college ask the faculty & staff to recommend a book read in the past year, or one they plan to read during the upcoming summer. You will find a wonderful mix of fiction and non-fiction, new and old classics, comedy and drama. Here is the 2013 list.

If you are one who'd rather work on your mind than your tan, here is The Washington Post's The innovator’s 2013 summer reading list: Eight books to make you smarter. Actually, you could work on both at the same time...

What's in my beach bag? I am taking the cue from the LA Times' Summer Reading Guide, with a total of 156 picks. Some are the hottest titles to hit the shelves this summer. Don't miss out.

You don't need me to remind you, Summer Game 2013 has started. Here is the info. to play.

Meet O.J., a dog like no other, in When Life Gives You O.J. by Erica S. Perl.

When Zelly Fried’s parents refuse to let her get a dog, her grandfather comes up with a crazy plan. Zelly will care for a “practice dog” to show her parents she is responsible enough to care for a dog of her own. The problem? This “practice dog” just happens to be an old orange juice container, and Zelly is terrified about what her classmates will think if they see her feeding it and taking it for walks! Will Zelly be able to stick it out long enough to earn a real live dog?

While the hilarious “practice dog” plot is sure to hook listeners, there is also much more to this heartfelt story. It takes on timely kid issues like being the new kid, feeling like an outsider, dealing with the death of a grandparent and worrying about losing a best friend. This book is also a 2012 Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Older Readers, awarded for its authentic portrayal of the Jewish experience.

If you enjoy realistic stories with just the right blend of humor and heart, you should definitely check out When Life Gives Your O.J. You'll find it on our NEW shelf.

AADL continues to grow its collection of films that have a Descriptive Video Service or DVS feature. More films are being produced for children and adults that are Described Video Recordings for L Card users to borrow. There are comedies, action, animation, horror and science fiction films available. Many can be sent by mail to our WLBPD patrons as Free Matter for the Blind. If your vision isn't what it used to be, you may want to try watching a film with described narration. That way you don't have to ask other folks what's happening on the screen and can concentrate on the film.

It’s summer! The kids are out of school! Time to keep them entertained when they’ve had enough of sprinklers, pool slides, cotton candy, and ferris wheels. There are oodles of games and fun things to do, and AADL’s has some books with a few ideas.

The Downtown library has a shelf in the Youth Department known as the Parent Shelf. On this shelf you’ll find a variety of parent-child related books on a multitude of topics- including everything from language to tantrums to potty training to homework. These books are available for checkout, and can be found in the catalog when searching “parent shelf,” if you’d like to have one sent to a branch of your choice. For some books on games and play, check these out:

Carschooling: over 350 entertaining games & activities to turn travel time into learning time

500 five minute games: quick and easy activities for 3-6 year olds

101 movement games for children: fun and learning with playful moving

The complete book of activities, games, stories, props, recipes, and dances

For additional titles, see here and here for a longer list. And speaking of games, there's always AADL's Summer Game to keep you busy!

Inspired by comics such as Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright, Man of Steel tells the story of Clark Kent's transformation from lonesome farmboy to greatest hero the world has ever known. A survivor of the distant alien planet of Krypton, Clark struggles to determine his purpose in life on Earth. Knowing his tremendous power may inspire fear in others, he keeps to himself, a secret guardian angel. But with famed reporter Lois Lane on his trail, and the murderous kryptonian General Zod seeking vengeance, Clark must choose whether to claim his birthright and step into the light as Earth's protector.

With 75 years of history behind him, Superman has a mighty presence at the library and AADL can help you go up, up, and away! Having seen the beginning, why not check out the end? Find out the answer to the question "What would Superman do if he knew he was dying?" in the Eisner award-winning graphic novel from Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly, All-star Superman. Or read all about how the hero has developed and influenced the world in journalist Larry Tye's Superman: The High Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero. You can even discover how the superhero helped thwart real-life villains.

"Take a dollop of Alfred Hitchcock, a dollop of Patricia Highsmith, throw in some Great Gatsby flourishes, and the result is Suzanne Rinde's debut - The Other Typist, a pitch-black comedy about a police stenographer accused of murder in 1920s Manhattan.... A deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced page-turner, both comic and provocative." Now, who could resist that?

1924 Manhattan. Rose Baker, the recorder of confessions and transgressions of all sorts, is a typist in a Lower East Side precinct of the Police Department, and considers herself to be an astute judge of character. Raised by nun and seemingly destined for the solitary life of a boardinghouse, she comes under the spell of glamorous Odalie Lazare, the new girl in the typing pool who represents the epitome of the new era of relaxed mores and life on the fast lane. Soon Rose is drawn into the sparkling underworld of speakeasies, bootleggers, and elegant house parties.

It is at one such house parties that a young man turns up dead after approaching Odalie, and Rose no longer could ignore the mystery that is her friend.

"With hints toward The Great Gatsby, Rindell's novel aspires to re-create Prohibition-era New York City, both its opulence and its squalid underbelly. She captures it quite well, while at the same time spinning a delicate and suspenseful narrative about false friendship, obsession, and life for single women in New York during Prohibition."

A notable addition to the pantheon of unreliable narrators, joining the likes of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Equally sensational and tantalizing, and set in the same era is Ron Hansen's A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion, based on a true story of the affair between Ruth Brown Snyder and undergarment salesman Judd Gray, whose plot to kill Ruth's husband triggers an explosive police investigation.

* = starred review

Having spent 10 years in Muncy, Pennsylvania's death row for women, Noa P. Singleton is resigned to the approaching "X" day - her execution for the first-degree double-murder of Sarah Dixon and her unborn child. She will be the first to acknowledge her guilt which also explains why she slept through the trial and blew off any attempt for appeals on her behalf. What she does not expect is a visit from Marlene Dixon, the high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is also the heartbroken mother of Noa's victim. It appears that Marlene has a change to heart about the death penalty and offers to help Noa petition for clemency.

Elizabeth L. Silver's (JD, Temple University) debut The Execution of Noa P. Singleton * is a "darkly witty, acerbic jigsaw puzzle about legal versus moral culpability". Neither Noa nor Marlene would win any popularity contest. Noa is a smart (she turned down Princeton), complicated and manipulative underachiever, while Marlene is a dominating, judgmental bully with a personal agenda. Long before that fateful day, Noa and Marlene are already inextricably linked through their families and circumstances, and ultimately both play a hand in the tragic outcome.

"This devastating read stands less as a polemic against the death penalty than as a heartbreaking brief for the preciousness of life". Entertainment Weekly gave it an "A-".

Read-alike: Defending Jacob by William Landay, and The Dinner by Herman Koch.

* = Starred review