Happy Birthday, Mr. Dickens

Wed, 02/07/2007 - 10:21am by annevm

Charles Dickens was born Feb. 7, 1812, as Writers Almanac reminds us. Dickens lived to write some of the most popular books in the English language, including those with autobiographical themes reflecting the authors' struggles in England at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

Happy Birthday, Charles and Sinclair

Wed, 02/07/2007 - 9:41am by Maxine

Today, February 7, is the birthday of two novelists also known as social critics, Charles Dickens and Sinclair Lewis, Dickens in 1812 and Lewis in 1885. While Dickens wrote about the deplorable working conditions and poverty of London and environs, Lewis wrote on the inequalities of race and the second class status of women and the powerless in 1930's America. Lewis was the first American novelist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930. Check out all the wonderful film adaptations of Dickens' novels that are at the Library. Lewis's novels, Elmer Gantry and Dodsworth are also in our film collection.

Sacrifices, Struggles, Achievements-AADL Recognizes African American History Month

Tue, 02/06/2007 - 10:26am by Sis

Please visit our book display on the 2nd floor reference section of our Downtown location. Throughout the month of February, browse our book display of titles representing the history of African Americans in the U.S. All books from the display can be borrowed for your reading pleasure.

Bone

Tue, 02/06/2007 - 10:01am by Brad B.

For those of you who don't know, Bone is one of those graphic novels that defies categories. It has the feel to it of a Sunday comic with all of its humor and silly punch lines mixed with the dark, compelling, complex storyline of a graphic novel. Cute-ish blobby characters exist right alongside beautifully detailed characters and backgrounds. It makes your head spin. Jeff Smith does a wonderful job of creating almost cinematic moments and the continuing storyline has depth enough to keep you hooked. Monsters, dragons, adventure. Think early Disney with a little edge and a storyline that's on going. Great for kids or adults. Published complete as one big volume in black and white (Bone 1 Volume ed.) or now coming out in color, of which there are 5 volumes so far...
1- Bone: Out From Boneville
2- Bone: Great Cow Race
3- Bone: Eyes of the Storm
4- Bone: Dragonslayer
5- Bone: Rock Jaw

February New and Noteworthy

Mon, 02/05/2007 - 4:44pm by muffy

The Teahouse Fire* by Ellis Avery. (A Fabulous Fiction Firsts)
Orphaned and alone in Kyoto, 9 year-old Aurelia Caillard is taken in by a Japanese family of tea ceremony masters. “...(T)old in an enchanting and unforgettable voice, The Teahouse Fire is a lively, provocative, and lushly detailed historical novel of epic scope and compulsive readability”.

Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis.
From the Barbara Kingsolver Bellewether Prize winner comes this quirky and moving story of Flan Parker who owns a thriving resale business, and a mysterious box from an abandoned storage unit that bears only an address and a note with the word “yes”. Yes – put your name on that wait list.

Sacred Games* by Vikram Chandra.
7 years in the making, this 900-page epic novel of Mumbai's underworld is a glorious and demanding literary thriller. “Corruption, murder, arms dealing, Bollywood, plastic surgery, and a superstar guru on an apocalyptic mission--all fuel this novel of crime and punishment, survival and annihilation. A splendidly big, finely made book destined to dazzle”.

Napoleon's Pyramids by Willaim Dietrich.
Action-packed thriller involving an American expatriate, Napoleon’s army and an ancient medallion for anyone looking for impeccable period details, passion and plot.

Looks to die for by Janice Kaplan.
Well-connected Hollywood insider sleuths to save her man. A new series of suspense-meet-shopping from the former deputy editor of TV Guide and the author of Mine are spectacular!

The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom.
In this “Nick Hornby meets Alexander McCall Smith”, Israel Armstrong, a roving bookmobile driver must solve the mystery of the missing 15,000 books from the library. A charming and entertaining first in a projected mystery series set in Ireland.

New Fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers List (2/4/07)

Mon, 02/05/2007 - 11:29am by Mazie

The 21st Richard Jury mystery by Martha Grimes just came out. The clever titles in this series are named for English pubs and the somewhat sketchy stories feature an ongoing cast of improbable characters, including Melrose Plant, for comic effect. It is this cozy but somewhat jarring blend of murder and mayhem that made Grimes' accusations that Elizabeth George was "stealing" from her so perplexing. No one would mistake any of the characters in Grimes' books for Barbara Havers or confuse her storylines with the haunting tragedies in the Lynley series.

At #6 is You Suck by Christopher Moore: "A 19-year-old discovers that his girlfriend is a vampire — and now, so is he."

At #7 is The Suspect by John Lescroart: "A lawyer defending a man accused of killing his wife is first drawn to him, but then begins to have doubts."

At #8 is Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein: "The Manhattan assistant district attorney Alexandra Cooper discovers a link between a wealthy woman’s murder and an explosion in a city water tunnel."

At #10 is Dust by Martha Grimes: "Investigating the murder of a wealthy young man leads Richard Jury of Scotland Yard to Henry James’s home and to forgotten Nazi atrocities."

Exam Bits - Test Prep

Sun, 02/04/2007 - 2:28pm by ryanikoglu

Preparing for school exams? Is everything checked out at the library? Try Learning Express Library on our website.

If your Library card is registered through "My Account" you have access to the databases from home. Login with your username and password. Choose "Research" file at the top of the page. Choose "Learning Express Library" by name. You will find practice exercises for TOEFL, Civil Service, Citizenship, GRE, SAT, and more. You will also find standardized testing for elementary, middle, and high school ages. Study Up!

Kid Bits - Regarding the Klises

Sun, 02/04/2007 - 11:58am by ryanikoglu

The Kate and Sarah Klise have put out the next book in their middle school series of history/mystery adventures with Regarding the Bathrooms: a privy to the past. Other titles the sisters write and illustrate are Regarding the Trees: a splintered saga rooted in secrets; Regarding the Fountain. These are great fun for creative minds and school-system intrigue.

Moomin!

Fri, 02/02/2007 - 5:42pm by anned

Join Moomin, the beautiful Snorkmaiden, and their friends as they send bad language (with legs) to Aunt Jane, encounter exploding pancakes, and introduce pirates to gardening. Tove Jansson has created a rare treasure that speaks to all generations and all ages. Moomin sums up Jansson's philosophy best when he tells his friend Sniff:

"I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes, and dream!"

Jansson first introduced the Moomins (Scandinavian troll-creatures that resemble white hippopotami) in books that she wrote and illustrated, beginning in 1945 with the book The Moomins and the Great Flood. More Moomintroll books followed, including Comet in Moominland, Finn Family Moomintroll, and Moominpappa's memoirs. These were so popular that she was approached by the London Evening News to do a daily comic strip featuring the Moomin characters. Drawn and Quarterly has released (for the first time in North America) a collection of these strips. This first volume includes four adventures: Brigands, Family Life, Moomin on the Riviera and Moomin's Desert Island.

Kid Bits - Time Warp Trio

Fri, 02/02/2007 - 1:51pm by ryanikoglu

John Scieszka writes one more book for the Time Warp Trio series. Like to travel? Like Time Warps? Read Marco? Polo! and land in 13th century China. Kublai Khan! Xanadu! Marco Polo! Whooa!!