A girl typically wants to find a guy who is more interested in her brain than her looks… and in Warm Bodies, Julie Grigio finds just that. Unfortunately, the boy is dead. Well, UNDEAD, actually. Isaac Marion’s debut novel is a zombie book with a twist: love.

The narrator, R, wanders around the ravished earth after a global epidemic has robbed him – and hordes of others – of life (and normal dietary needs). Feeding on brains, R experiences his victims' memories, and after dining on the brains of teen Perry Kelvin, R meets Perry’s girlfriend, Julie. R, full of Perry’s memories of Julie, gets to know her and finds that the virus may not have robbed him of everything human after all. Convinced that R is losing his zombie traits and gaining back human qualities, takes him to the city of the living in an effort to nourish his evolution back from the land of the undead.

A perfect read for the zombie-lover for Valentine’s Day, Warm Bodies puts a spin on the traditional views of flesh-eating, soulless zombies, and shows that with love, anything is possible. Check out the movie adaptation of Marion’s, just released on February 1.

~The sensation of the Frankfurt Book Fair
~150k initial print run, film rights to Warner Bros.
~ Endorsements by Lee Child and Robert Crais

Roger Hobbs's debut Ghostman * * , "a propulsive thriller... with more twists and turns than a 10-yard-long corkscrew", is a must read for adrenaline junkies.

Only 2 knew his name and only one is alive. Now he calls and Jack Delton had to answer. Five years ago, a mega heist in Kuala Lumpur went bad and Marcus now looks to even the score. Jack is the ghostman who specializes in disappearing, and it is up to him to make a botched armored-car robbery in Atlantic City disappear—. The trouble is the $1.2 million in freshly minted bills set to explode in 48 hours if not found. Hot on Jack's trail is a female FBI agent who may be more interested in Jack than the crime, and half of the criminal world is ready to pounce for a piece of the action.

"Straight out of the gate, Hobbs has mastered the essentials of a contemporary thriller: a noirlike tone, no-nonsense prose and a hero with just enough personality to ensure he doesn't come off as an amoral death machine ... A smart entry into the modern thriller pantheon, at once slick and gritty".

Roger Hobbs (website) graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 2011, where he majored in English. Ghostman was written during the summer between his junior and senior years.

* * = starred reviews

I’ve declared 2013 the year of reading, and I’ve been on a mad tear reading a lot of young adult fiction, and so far Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by poet Benjamin Alire Sáenz, has been my favorite. It is beautifully written, is magically captivating, and I read it in a day.

In January the book won several awards at the Youth Media Awards including a coveted Printz Honor Award, the Stonewall Award, and the Belpré Award.

15 year old Angel Aristotle Mendoza (Ari) is practically an only child with two older sisters and a ghost of a brother who has been in prison for as long as Ari can remember. It’s hard for Ari growing up in a quiet house with so much unspoken regarding his brother and his dad’s past in Vietnam. He has no friends until one day at the community pool he meets a kid named Dante Quintana when he offers to teach Ari how to swim. The boys spend forever laughing when they realize their names are Dante and Aristotle and an immediate bond is formed, just in time for summer.

While they form a strong friendship, Dante's family life is very different from Ari’s. His father is a professor and he and Dante are forever reading and discussing books. It’s not long before Ari gets in on the action as well. The self-assured Dante talks in his unusual way and draws, Ari is an angry sort of quiet and listens, and the boys read and swim and have summer teen adventures, until one day tragedy strikes. What will happen to their friendship as their lives begin to change? It’s a touching, coming of age story about friendship and loyalty, figuring out who you are, discovering family secrets, dealing with tragedy, and just trying to get by in this Universe.

Here are just a few of the posts Madeleine Albright has held during her long career in public service: legislative liaison for National Security Council and member of White House staff, 1978-81; U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, 1993-97; cabinet member and National Security Council member, beginning 1993, and U.S. Secretary of State, 1997-2001.

Along the way she collected jewelry and her pins became part of her diplomatic signature. A famous example is cited in her book when as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations she criticized Saddam Hussein and was criticized in turn by his poet in residence who called her “an unparalleled serpent.” At an upcoming meeting with Iraqi officials she decided to wear a snake pin to send an unspoken message that originated with the American Revolution slogan "Don’t Tread on Me."

She also sent some kinder messages with her pins, for instance, when she wore her dove pin while with visiting with survivors of the Rwandan genocide.

Ms. Albright wrote a wonderful book about her collection called Read My Pins: Stories From a Diplomat’s Jewel Box that is available at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Take the opportunity to see over 200 of her pins at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids. The exhibit lasts through April 21st. Stop in and see the pins she collected and used as diplomatic tools throughout her fascinating career.

Number one on the list of Amazon Best Sellers in Teen Books is Beautiful Creatures, followed lower on the list by #3 Beautiful Darkness, #8 Beautiful Chaos, and #11 Beautiful Redemption, the final book in the Gothic romance series by Kami Garcia. These books in the Caster Chronicles series seem to be appealing to young people including fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books.

Julia Strachey's slim novella Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (with a new preface by Frances Partridge) has recently been adopted into a feature film, starring no less than Elizabeth McGovern of Downton Abbey fame, for which the period drama has inevitably been compared.

With sharp eye and playful language, Strachey's slim novella, first published in 1932 depicts the upstairs-downstairs activities on Dolly Thatcham's wedding day as her oblivious mother bustles about getting her ready to marry the wrong man. Waylaid by the sulking admirer who lost his chance with her and her own sinking dread, the bride-to-be struggles to reach the altar.

A brilliant, bittersweet comedy which Virginia Woolf observed as being "an eccentric mixture of Katherine Mansfield and E.M. Forster".

Julia Strachey (1901-1979) was born in India to a Civil Servant. Educated in England, she later worked as a model/photographer and in publishing. Her two novels appeared in 1932 and 1951.

Readers might also enjoy other women novelists such as Elizabeth Bowen; Penelope Fitzgerald; and Alice Thomas Ellis, in particular, The Summer House: a trilogy.

Click here for the New York Times review and the official trailer of the movie.

Saturday, February 9 | 10 - 11:30 am | 1 - 2:30 pm | Malletts Creek | Grades 1 - 3

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) presents a classic story followed by a related math session with hands-on activities and a variety of materials. This event is for Grades 1 - 3 accompanied by an adult. You're welcome to come to either the morning session from 10 - 11:30 am or to the afternoon session from 1:00 - 2:30 pm. There is no registration for this event.

"The King's Commissioners," by Aileen Friedman, is a story about a king with so many commissioners, he needs to get organized and count them! Math activities include using the hundreds chart, puzzles, sequencing and counting, and skip counting.

Also, check out these books on counting at the AADL.

In Dana Bate's The Girls' Guide to Love and Supper Clubs *, 26 yr.-old Hannah Sugarman (Cornell, Economics) could hardly keep up as a research assistant in a DC think tank while secretly dreaming of opening up an underground supper club, a recent phenomenon in the foodie world.

When yet another ill-fated dinner with the patrician Prescotts (her live-in boyfriend Adam's parents) goes hopelessly sour, she is unceremoniously dumped and evicted. With mounting pressure from her academically distinguished parents to jump start her lackluster career, and eager to move on, she seizes the chance to do what she loves, and lands at the doorstep of Blake Fischer, a bachelor landlord with a basement apartment for rent.

"Journalist and debut novelist Bate deftly conjures up a witty, resilient heroine, surrounds her with delightful friends and frenemies, and sends them all on a rollicking quest for love and delicious food".

Cheeky, smart, and up-beat (with an implausibly happy ending), it is like sunshine and birdsong on a frigid February day - sure to bring a spring in your step and smile to your face.

Readalikes: Cupid and Diana (finding Mr. Right in DC); The Lost Art of Mixing - a sequel to The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (where 8 lives mingle and intertwine at a cooking school); and Brian O'Reilly's Angelina's Bachelors : a novel, with food (young Philadelphia widow feeds the neighborhood loners and builds a village); Girl Cook by Hannah McCouch (delicious modern Cinderella story of love, sex, chefs, and the city).

* = Starred review

Roses Are Red, Valentines Are Too!

Come to the Pittsfield Branch Library on Saturday, February 9, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. to make some Valentine cards for the special people in your life.
Moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles . . . everybody likes to get Valentine's Day cards. We'll be making beautiful tissue paper flowers
to go with the cards. This is for preschool - Grade 5 but all are welcome. Supplies will be provided.

You can also make cards for patients at the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and the Veterans Hospital. We'll deliver those cards for you.
If you can't make it to the Saturday program, you can drop off Valentines cards at any AADL location from Feb. 5 - 11.
When making your card, please remember: sign it with your first name and leave it unsealed; do not use glitter, and please do not
include messages about getting well or feeling better - many of the patients are in the hospital for a long time.

For materials about this popular holiday, click here.

Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year!

This Sunday, February 10 marks another Chinese New Year, a major holiday for millions of people worldwide. Following the lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year is based on solar and lunar movements. Literally translating to the “Spring Festival,” this significant holiday emphasizes good luck and fortune in the coming year. To celebrate, people often travel long distances to see their families and participate in traditional Chinese practices such as enjoying Chinese cooking, watching fireworks, handing out red envelopes with money inside, and decorating with flowers and lanterns. This year is the year of the water snake.

Since this popular holiday lasts for 15 days, you can take part by checking out our Chinese language collection or related materials, such as traditional folk music, interpretive music, Ni Hao, Kai-lan on dvd, and cookbooks in English or Chinese. AADL also has a wealth of materials on this topic in English for children!

For more information, check out this article by BBC or Wikipedia.