Blog Post
H.M., World-Renowned Amnesia Patient, Has Died
by Caser
In 1953, Henry Gustav Molaison underwent brain surgery to ameliorate devastating epileptic seizures. The surgery removed two-thirds of his hippocampus and other sections of his medial temporal lobe. His seizures ended. However, so did his ability to form new long-term memories. For the next 55 years, Molaison became H.M., a profound amnesiac patient and the subject of groundbreaking neurological studies on the composition of the human brain and the processes of learning and memory. He knew his name and a few facts from his childhood, but aside from that, each day was a brand new life for H.M. Perhaps what we can take away from the life of Henry G. Molaison is that despite our regrets and failures in life, memory is the one thing that holds our identity together.
Featured books on amnesia, memory, and learning at the AADL include: In Search of Memory by Eric R. Kandel, The Woman Who Can't Forget by Jill Price, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks.
Blog Post
Christmas Reads
by ErinDurrett
For those of you who enjoy Holiday books, as well as the Holidays, you may want to consider reading The Christmas Train by David Baldacci. The book delves into a story about Tom Langdon, a former war reporter who now writes features for magazines. To his detriment, he is forced to take a train from D.C. to L.A. (where his girlfriend awaits), after a hostile incident at airport security. On the train he meets several different characters...an eccentric old women, a former Catholic priest, a young couple who are planning to marry on the train, and the former love of his life. Unresolved issues between the two ensue, while a series of unexpected events occur to try to derail any plans of a reconciliation. This book is more sentimental and heartwarming unlike the majority of Baldacci's books and may not suit his usual fan base.
Another sentimental Holiday series is the Christmas Hope Series by bestselling author Donna VanLiere. This series starts with The Christmas Shoes, and continues with The Christmas Blessing, and The Christmas Promise. Each book in the series shows how one good deed can irrevocably change the lives of others. Check out these heartwarming reads today!
Blog Post
French author writes "une histoire elegante"
by Maxine
I'm almost finished reading a charming, heartfelt and beautifully written novel by French author Muriel Barbery with the improbable title The Elegance of the Hedgehog. The hedgehog refers specifically to Renee Michel, the dumpy concierge of an exclusive Paris apartment building. But it may also refer to the hidden intelligence and appreciation of beauty that lies within many people. Renee is a self-taught intellectual who loves great literature and music. As a counterpart to her story is the one of Paloma, a precocious 11 year old who lives in the building and already is so dismayed by the superficial life of her family and other upper-class snobs that she is planning to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Other residents, most equally as pretentious and self-serving as Paloma's parents, pop in and out of Renee's apartment asking favors. But when Mr. Ozu, a refined, perceptive Japanese gentleman moves in, both Renee and Paloma begin to reveal their hidden sides. Barbery also injects through Renee a biting critique of the class system that relegates people like Renee to the bottom of French society, not worthy of acknowledgement either in life or death. This is a tenderly rendered story by a writer who finds elegance where it's least expected.
Blog Post
NationStates -- for world leaders!
by elijah
If you could lead a nation, what kind of leader would you be? Would you be benevolent or evil? A dictator or a freely elected official in a perfect democracy? Liberal or conservative, religious or secular, big government or little government? Now is your chance to prove it! Play NationStates, and just by addressing a few issues you can shape the nation you lead!
This game was inspired by Max Barry's novel Jennifer Government. How did Jennifer get such a strange last name? She comes from a time and place where people take as their surnames the companies they work for, and Jennifer is an investigator for a privatized government.
Blog Post
Teen Reading Habits and Perceptions Survey - take it now!
by erin
Love to read? Hate to read? Maybe you're somewhere in the middle? Please TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! You are invited to take a quick survey to let the authors of the forthcoming book, Connecting Young Adults and Libraries, 4th edition, know about your reading habits and your perception of reading in general. So if you read willingly and often, reluctantly and rarely, or have a more challenging relationship with reading - we encourage you to share your experiences. The authors are Michele Gorman and Tricia Suellentrop. Take the survey here.
Blog Post
A Dark and Deep Underneath
by Caser
Infused with songs of the delta blues, told through the eyes of two kittens and a battered dog, and bent with a violent owner and a vengeful moccasin, The Underneath, a youth novel by Kathy Appelt, bears little resemblance to a Norman Rockwell painting. A finalist for this year's National Book Award, The Underneath is a dark novel that intertwines three stories, each about characters battling with the same philosophical dilemma: choose love, or live in fear.
When a pregnant cat is abandoned in a ditch in southern Texas, she finds protection and love with an unlikely suitor: Ranger, a bullet-wounded hound living underneath his abusive owner's dilapidated house. The hound's owner, known as Gar Face, spends his days hunting his own Moby Dick, a 100 foot alligator lurking in a nearby swamp. Finally, there's Grandmother Moccasin, a mystical snake over 1,000 years old, who plots her revenge against those who wronged her long ago. In the swamps of the south, there is death, there is evil, and there is hope.
Blog Post
Heartland Bestseller List
by Liberry Shortstack
Well, the New York Times Bestseller List isn't the only game in town--or the region, in fact! The Heartland Indie Bestseller List is put out by IndieBound, Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association, and the Midwest Booksellers Association. So, check out what's been flying off the shelves in Michigan and surrounding states, and then come to the library to check them out for yourself.
1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer
2. The Private Patient, by P.D. James
3. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski
4. The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb
5. Cross Country, by James Patterson
6. A Mercy, by Toni Morrison
7. The Christmas Sweater, by Glenn Beck
8. Divine Justice, by David Baldacci
9. Just After Sunset: Stories, by Stephen King
10. The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille
Then, see how the Midwest and Great Lakes regions stack up against the New York Times Bestsellers List!
Blog Post
Fantasy? Epic Saga?
by Maxine
Today, December 1, is the birthday of author, John Crowley who was born in 1942 in Presque Isle, Maine. He is most famous for his novel, Little, Big which is a fantasy complete with fairies and magic but also is a saga of a New England family. Noted critic, Harold Bloom, has credited Little, Big with changing his life. Crowley has a cult following as a fantasy writer but his books are about a lot more than enchantment though you may be enchanted by his words. To whet your appetite, read some of the text online.
Blog Post
Celebrating Life's Crossroads
by annevm
Because Ann Patchett is one of my favorite authors, I was drawn to What Now?, which is based on her graduation speech at Sarah Lawrence College a few years back. Now this book rivals Oh the Places You'll Go as a potential gift for friends who are graduating or facing other life crossroads. Amazon has an essay in which Patchett credits her former writing teacher Allan Gurganus for rescuing her 2006 commencement address from being boring.
Blog Post
The Migrant Project
by Beth Manuel
This is the last week-end you can view the Migrant Project Exhibit on the 3rd floor of the downtown library. The work of Rick Nahmias is compelling and disturbing in that the plight of the migrant worker in America remains a contemporary issue. Despite improvements made since Edward R. Murrow’s documentary Harvest of Shame was aired on Thanksgiving Day in 1960, Nahmias writes: “There is no other sector in our country where people work so hard to earn so little”. Something to think about as we celebrate the harvest as a nation this week. For more startling anecdotes read With These Hands by Daniel Rothenberg or see Nahmias' book, new to our collection.