This summer's Ypsilanti Crossroads Music Festival will be kicking off again on June 6th! Be sure to check out the event and appreciate our neighboring city. It will take place at the intersection of Washington and Pearl Streets every Friday night this summer from 7-10 pm. In the meantime, check out our collection on Ypsilanti history, including Ypsilanti in the 20th Century, Ypsilanti: A History in Pictures, and Our Heritage: Down by the Depot in Ypsilanti.

Time is running out. The Earth of the 22nd century is on its way to global self-destruction. Fortunately, faster-than-light (ftl) space travel is available to help teams find a new home. One such place is Quaraqua, a planet of mystery. It turns out, an ancient civilization previously inhabited the planet. Now Richard Wald, an interstellar archaeologist, and Priscilla Hutchins, his pilot, must collect as much data on the site before the planet is terraformed. So goes The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt. The story continues in DeepSix, Chindi, and Omega.

In honor of Mother's Day, following are two books and one film that tell the stories of three remarkable mothers:

From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island by Lorna Goodison describes this local poet's mother, Doris who grew up in a privileged family in Jamaica but then married a chauffeur, moved to urban Kingston and raised nine children.

A Remarkable Mother by former President Jimmy Carter is his loving tribute to Lillian Carter, a nurse serving troops in World War I and in her later years a Peace Corps volunteer in India.

My Flesh and Blood is a documentary about Susan Tom, a single mother, who adopted eleven special needs children.

The History of Lucy’s Love Life in Ten and a Half Chapters is fun, fluffy and fantastical.

29 year-old commitment-phobic Lucy is staring at the prospect of a perfect life with dishy and nice Anthony (with whom she had 400 plus one-night stands) and chucks it all, wondering if there’s something better on the horizon.

Sacked from her pointless job and bored, an errant time machine sends Lucy on a dating frenzy with bad boy Lord Byron, Leonardo da Vinci, Ovid and Casanova (a sweet guy, really). It’s a thrill ride but there’s also a lesson to be learned. The question is… Is Lucy ready for it?

This British chick lit./fantasy/romantic comedy is the first to be published in the United States by Deborah Wright, a graduate of Oxford University with three best-selling novels in the U.K.

Summer Reading is UNDER CONSTRUCTION so keep your "thinking machine" oiled. You'll need good equipment.
Librarians are visiting schools the month of May promoting Summer Reading.
We can NAIL DOWN some good books for 1st graders, like
Amelia Bedelia Under Construction;
You Read To Me And I'll Read To You: Short Scary Stories; or
Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie.
Just Ask!
Sign-Up BEGINS June 9, 2008 at the Library.

The Magic of Recluse is the opening story in The Saga of Recluce by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. The series is unusual in several ways. First of all, the series is not written chronologically. The book first actually occurs towards the end of the series. As the series progresses, characters in the stories will be in later books referred to as heros and legendary figures.

The books also feature an in-depth system of magic in the series. Instead of wizards just casting a spell, they must have the ability to control the natural forces of order or chaos inherent in all matter.

The author recommends reading the series in the order written, not chronologically. The second book in the series is The Towers of Sunset.

Enjoy.

Pablo Neruda's shyness renders him silent in a world of sights and sounds. When the principal of his school in Chile opens his mind to the world of literature, Pablo Neruda becomes one of the world's most distinguished poets and is awarded the Noble Prize in Literature. With lines of his poetry scattered throughout the text, Deborah Kogan Ray offers an enlightening look into the life of Pablo Neruda.

Adam Mansbach's third novel, The End of the Jews shows the writer's growth in his ability to expand his universe, i.e., from hip-hop culture which still plays a part in this story, into other expressions of the American experience. His last novel, Angry Black White Boy brilliantly conveyed both the excitement and anger of that sub-culture.

Tristan Brodsky, one of the featured characters, is the son of Jewish immigrants and a writer who is influenced by jazz and African-American culture. His grandson, Tris, is a suburban teenager who loves hip-hop and is also a writer although not as successful. The third main character is Nina, a young and beautiful Czech photographer who has been hired by a black jazz combo to travel the U.S. with them as they perform. Mansbach adeptly moves back and forth in time to tell their stories and to articulate, often with great touches of humor, the odd dislocation of people caught at different moments in the soupy mix caused by the diaspora.

Spring Storytimes ended with BEARS at Malletts Creek and Pittsfield Branches. You can find many versions of the Three Bears. Byron Barton's The Three Bears is perfect for littlest kids. Jan Brett's Goldilocks And The Three Bears has fabulous illustrations. Add action with Michael Rosen's We're Going On A Bear Hunt. If you also have kids in grade school you can continue the theme with the movie A Bear Named Winnie, the true story that inspired A.A. Milne's Winnie The Pooh.

True Crime meets autobiography in The Butterfly Garden, a striking and capturing book about a boy's experiences living as the son of one of America's Most Wanted. Chip St. Clair was always told not to open the trunk in his father's bed room, but one day he did and his life was never the same again. What he found in the trunk was false documents as well as possible trophies from children his father had murdered in the past... several baby teeth, phony birth certificates, forged credit card and student loan paperwork and family photographs with cryptic messages written on the back. Chip's entire life--his name, even his date of birth--had been a lie, and the man he called 'Dad' was an impostor, an escaped child killer who had been on the run for over two decades. The stunning revelation would send one of America's Most Wanted to justice and another on a quest for his true identity.

"With chilling detail and a riveting, lyrical narrative, The Butterfly Garden reveals St. Clair's struggle to piece together his haunted past before it consumes him and shares his inspiring metamorphosis from victim to victim's advocate. The Butterfly Garden is a timeless triumph, a reminder that hope can be the most powerful of all emotions, freeing us to soar despite the past and the odds against us."

The other night my son asked me a very profound question. "What would you do if you found out you only had two days left to live?" I told him that I'd spend it with my family. No parties, no wild adventures, no spending sprees, just time with my wife and kids. That got me thinking. What would I read if I could only read two books in my life. My first pick is the Bible. My second is The Hobbit.

Why The Hobbit you may ask? Well, the story of Bilbo, Gandalf and the thirteen dwarfs is a classic for all ages. Written by J. R. R. Tolkien, the story was originally intended to amuse his three sons. The library has several different versions of the story: Book on CD, Book on Cassette, DVD, graphic novel, large print, Spanish translation, and Korean translation.

So, if you could only read two books, what would they be?

It's that time of year again. Spring is upon us and, along with being the birthday of Niccolo Machiavelli, Saturday, May 3 is Free Comic Book Day! What is Free Comic Book Day, you ask? It is a wonderful day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books to anyone who comes into their stores. Local comic book shops that are participating include Get Your Game On, Vault of Midnight, and Fun 4 All. I'm especially looking forward to Tiny Titans! Too busy to go to the comic book store this Saturday? Fear not, true believer! Everyday is "free comic book day" at the library. AADL has thousands of comics and graphic novel titles available for checkout.

What do a fire in Manhattan, P.T. Barnum, Irish gangsters, and an Aztec deity have in common? Nothing unless your reading A Scattering of Jades by Alexander C. Irvine. In his first novel, Irvine combines historical facts with elements of fantasy to make this a great book.

Girl detectives have come a long way since Nancy Drew first hopped into her roadster and solved The Secret of the Old Clock. Learn the history of the Nancy Drew series in Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak, or watch a modern-day girl detective in the tv show Veronica Mars. Or read Kelly Link’s amazing short story “The Girl Detective” from her collection Stranger Things Happen. (Don’t want to wait for the library’s copy to be returned? Download the book for free under a Creative Commons license, or listen to this free audiobook version of the story.) And tell us about your favorite girl detectives in the comments.