Ages 11-18
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #127
by muffy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo* is the hot Swedish thriller (with 5.5 million copies sold across Europe) that features "one of the most original heroines to come along in years" - a young, prickly tattooed computer hacker, who teams up with an embattled and discredited journalist facing a jail term, to investigate the disappearance of an heiress 40 years ago. Talk about a cold case!!!
Debut novelist Steig Larsson who died of a heart attack in 2004, was an investigative journalist. Girl, (originally published as Män som hatar kvinnor = Men Who Hate Women) is the first of a 3-part series. Highly recommended. Readers might also like to check out another FFF Nordic mystery Redbreast by Jo Nesbo.
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
ACT/SAT Test Practice at Pittsfield Branch on Wednesday, September 17
by K.C.
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Learn how to access Learning Express Library to take practice tests for either the ACT or SAT. Join us from 7:00-8:30 p.m. in the Pittsfield Computer Training Center.
Blog Post
Book Finalists Chosen for Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads 2009
by iottJen
The theme of the 2009 Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads program is The Universe: Yours to Discover. Three books have been chosen as finalists for the community read and are available at AADL. Request the books online or visit the display in the lobby of the Downtown Library.
The three book finalists are available in alternative formats for those who are unable to read or use printed materials due to a physical disability (blindness, macular degeneration, paralysis, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, dyslexia, etc.). Please contact the Library of Michigan Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped at 1-800-992-9012 for more information.
The finalists are:
Timothy Ferris, Seeing In The Dark: How Amateur Astonomers Are Discovering the Wonders of the Universe. New York: Simon & Schuster, c2002.
Homer Hickam, Rocket Boys: A Memoir. New York: Delacorte Pres, 1998.
Dava Sobel, The Planets. New York: Viking, 2005.
A selection committee of community leaders, librarians, and students in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area will meet in October to choose the book that will be the focus for 2009.
Community members are encouraged to visit the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti website -aaypsireads.org - and blog about their favorite of the three finalists. Committee members will be reading the blogs.
Blog Post
I've Always Wanted to Learn to KNIT
by Bertha
It's 'Easy Knits' with Jillian Moreno and friends teaching basic stitches, sharing cool, simple patterns. Yarn will be supplied-bring needles if you have them, size 8, 10, or 12 will work for most basic patterns. Once you've learned the basic stitches at the 'Easy Knits' program you can move on to Easy Knitted Socks and work your way up to Knit Scarves! or choose something from Knitted accessories. Whether you want to start crafting holiday gifts or make scarves to wear with sweaters and winter corduroys, come join us and learn to knit Thursday, September 18, 6:30-8:30 at Traverwood. Grade 4 - Adult.
Blog Post
As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial
by ballybeg
Is there anything funny about global warming? Derrick Jensen, a committed and very serious environmental activist, manages to find some thin threads of humor behind the despair in As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial. In the format of a graphic novel, he tells a fable-like story of the Earth versus big business, environmentalists versus profiteers, creatures (yes, snails and foxes and a one-eyed bunny) versus dam builders. The result manages to score the point: if we don’t change our direction, we will end up where we are headed. Other titles by Jensen include Thought to Exist in the Wild, which presents the case against zoos, and How Shall I Live My Life?, interviews with ten progressive thinkers about resisting the dominant culture of excess.
Blog Post
Twilight: Audiobook
by Cherie Lee
You may have noticed the buzz when Stephenie Meyer's fourth book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, just came out this August or when the Twilight film grabbed Harry Potter's original release date of November 21st (it's not Twilight's fault, don't get mad at them). All this publicity also means that the original Twilight novel is still in hot demand here at the library. But if you're like me and you enjoy audiobooks, then there's a significantly shorter holds list on the Twilight audiobook.
As for the story and audio themselves, for any who've managed to avoid the media, Twilight is a vampire teen romance novel. For personal reasons Bella Swan (the name kinda makes me think of a certain Pirates of the Caribbean character) arrives in the small town of Forks to live with her father. Used to the warmth and sun of Arizona, Bella languishes in the dreary gloom of Washington state until she meets a strange boy at school...
The audio begins with some appropriately dark guitar music and the reader, Ilyana Kadushin, does subtle but fitting voices and manages to make most of the more dubious lines not sound too over-the top. Admittedly, the music initially made me fear all the worst things I'd assumed about the book were true, that it was just a modern day teen gothic romance. And in many ways it is. But I was reassured by Meyer's generally straight-forward description of events at the beginning and relieved to find a lot less teen angst than I'd expected. Although, Meyer is overly flowery when describing the love affair, and I thought the reasons behind the love were a little weak. But it's still a good exciting book for a rainy day if you don't mind cheesy romance.
Blog Post
Chess origins and happenings
by K.C.
The most widely accepted scenario is that chess derived from a game played in India around 600 AD called Chaturanga. The game made its way into Persia around 700 AD, where it was named Shatranj. The Persian word “shah”, meaning king, is thought to be the origin of the English name “Chess” and the phrase shah mat, meaning the king is ambushed, is the origin for the word "checkmate".
See if you can “shah mat” this Sunday, September 14 at Chesstastic. This open play opportunity will be held from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the Pittsfield Branch.
Blog Post
"Kids, don't try this at home"
by K.C.
Learn how one of the greatest escape artists Harry Houdini mesmerized a generation of Americans when he was alive, and continues to do so 80 years after his death. Houdini: the Handcuff King centers on one of his most famous jumps. This slender graphic novel shows the careful preparation and execution of a death-defying leap into the icy Charles River in Boston.
Read it and you will see the secret behind his most amazing trick!
Blog Post
September Books to Films
by muffy
Man on Wire is based on the book To Reach The Clouds: My high wire walk between the Twin Towers(2002) by Philippe Petit
One August 7th, 1974,@7:15 a.m. a young Frenchmen stepped out on the high wire and walked (Oh, he more or less danced!)across the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan. It is about Petit’s 6-plus years of dreaming, 8 months of planning, and the actual spell-binding feat itself. Terrific and terrifying!!!
Based on the author's memoirs(1995), (And)When Did You Last See Your Father? is an unflinching exploration of a father/son relationship. Blake Morrison's memories of his childhood are interspersed with scenes in the present, as he struggles to come to terms with his father, and their history of conflict. With a star-studded cast - humorous and heartbreaking at the same time.
Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane (2003) is now a feature film. Nazneen is forced into an arranged marriage to an older man, exchanging her Bangladeshi village home for a block of flats in London’s East End. As she pines for her home and her sister, she struggles to do her duty by her husband until the day a hot-headed local man, bursts into her life. A truly contemporary story of love, cultural difference, and ultimately, the strength of the human spirit. A visual feast.
The film Elegy is based on The Dying Animal (2001), a brutal, short novel by Philip Roth. David Kepesh is an eminent 70-year-old cultural critic (played by Ben Kingsley) who's womanizing ways were ended by a devastating affair he had eight years before with a voluptuous graduate student (Penelope Cruz). Check out the New York Times review.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #124
by muffy
A Map of Home* by Ann Arbor author Randa Jarrar hits the bookstores today.
Critics are calling this fiction debut “sparkling”, “intimate, perceptive and very, very funny”. It’s the story of Nidali, an audacious Muslim girl (with a Greek-Egyptian mother and a Palestinian father) who grows up in Kuwait, Egypt and Texas.
As citizens of the world, this family weathered some harrowing experiences that were even funny and wacky at times, but it is Jarrar’s handling of adolescent angst - "stifling parental expectations, precarious friendships, sensuality and first love; and her exhilarating voice and flawless timing that make this a standout”.
You can find Randa Jarrar's profile in myspace. She will be at Shaman Drum on September 15th, at 7:30 p.m., one of only two Michigan stops on her fall book tour.
* = Starred reviews