Ages 18+.
Blog Post
One Hour to Better Job Interviews
by Debbie G.
Considering a career or a career change? The experts at Manpower will discuss the do's, the don'ts, the strategies for successful job interviews. Learn how to prepare, how to interact, and how to follow-up with savvy and style. Join us Thursday, April 5th, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. in the Downtown Branch Freespace. Please call 327-4525 to register.
Blog Post
Plastic Man is Back!
by anned
Kyle Baker has re-visited the Golden Age Plastic Man in his Eisner Award winning series. First released in 2004, issues 1-6 have been collected into one volume Plastic Man: On the Lam. Follow Patrick “Eel” Obrien from his days of crime to his transformation into Plastic Man and then see what happens when his former identity is framed for murder. Baker’s wonderfully energetic style and sense of humor translate beautifully to this character. Be on the lookout for surprise characters from Plastic Man’s past and members of the Justice League acting a bit out of character.
Blog Post
Good Listening on Religion and Science
by annevm
A fabulous interview with Richard Dawkins was broadcast today on NPR's Fresh Air With Terry Gross., in which he talked about his book The God Delusion. Tomorrow the radio show will feature an interview with Francis S. Collins author of The Language of God: A scientist presents evidence for belief. You can download Fresh Air as podcasts and listen whenever you want.
Blog Post
New Fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers List (3/25/07)
by Mazie
Jodi Picoult has tapped into many of the current hot button topics in American culture in her many bestselling novels. Most of them involve parents and children, husbands and wives. These novels are not lighthearted romps. While there is always a resolution to the conflict, there has also been serious damage done to the protagonists, emotional and physical. Picoult also likes to take a set of circumstances and twist the perspective. All of this may be why she is more popular with book groups than the New York Times reviewers.
This is certainly the case in Nineteen Minutes, the unnerving story of a school massacre (Columbine?). Once again things are not always as they seem. While engaging our emotions, Picoult tells a riveting story with a surprise ending.
Other new entries on the List are Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy and Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas.
Blog Post
The trials of an immigrant family
by Maxine
Forteen year old Nadira is the narrator of Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos. She and her sister, Aisha and their parents, all from Bangladesh, are on their way to Canada because their visas have expired. The government has cracked down on immigrants since 9/11. Their illegal status is discovered at the border, their father is detained and his wife stays nearby. He tells the girls to return to New York to stay with an aunt and uncle. Aisha has always been the golden girl, bright, beautiful and ambitious. She worries that now all her dreams for college are just that- dreams. She retreats into her own world and Nadira, always seen as the average one, takes charge to find a way to keep her family from being deported. Budhos, also the author of Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers, knows her subject well and brngs the struggles and heartbreak of immigrant families to life through her characters and suspenseful plot.
Blog Post
Come what (ever) may...
by tkj
The Jagermeister Music Tour is coming to the State Theatre in Detroit this Friday, March 30th at 6:30pm.
Headlining the event will be Stone Sour (FYI: The song 30/30-150 from the album Come what (ever) may was nominated for a Grammy in the category of "Best Metal Performance").
Joining them will be Shadows Fall and Lacuna Coil.
Now believe me when I say that this concert is not for the faint at heart. Even you "die-hard" metal fans need to boss up before you go...
Blog Post
Looking for Prom Dresses!
by lola
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The Youth Department is hosting a teen program called Mission: Prom on April 14 from 2-4 PM at the Malletts Creek branch. The program will include a dress exchange, as well as make-up tips and DIY shoe embellishments.
We don't want to exclude anyone doesn’t have a dress to exchange or shoes to embellish, so we are looking for dresses in various sizes, as well as formal shoes. Don't worry about the dresses being outdated. Some very imaginative teens will be able to create something great and prom-worthy from our old dresses. Please help us clothe these teens for Prom! Drop off any dresses to the Youth Department at the Downtown library. Call the Youth Department at 327-8301 with questions. Thank you for your support!
Blog Post
The Gypsy Poet
by Maxine
Zoli, the most recent novel by Colum Mccann, is loosely based on the life of Polish Gypsy poet, "Papusza". Zoli is a Gypsy from Slovakia who is also a talented singer and poet. Raised by her grandfather after her parents are drowned by the Hlinka Guard, Zoli is discovered by a publisher who wants to use her as a symbol of the new Czechoslovakia, post 1945, a socialist state where Gypsies will be given permanent homes even if this goes against everything their culture stands for. The Gypsies view Zoli as a traitor and she is banished from their community. Zoli becomes a true wanderer, escaping Eastern Europe on foot and barely surviving. This is a beautifully written, compassionate portrait of a rich culture in danger of losing its identity.
Blog Post
The Doctor Is In...
by RiponGood
What do plastic men, Charles Dickens, and the End of the World, have in common? They are the three episodes you'll find on Doctor Who Series One, Disk One, from 2005. Christopher Eccleston plays the Doctor and Billie Piper, his "plus one". The shows were very entertaining. I especially liked the story with Charles Dickens.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #56
by muffy
This almost slipped by me…
Ice by Vladimir Sorokin came out quietly without much media fanfare.
In this, his first English-language debut, postmodernist (and often controversial) Sorokin gives us a frighteningly engaging page-turner. Critics are calling it “ a gritty dispatch from the front lines of the contemporary world, a gnostic fairy tale, a hard-boiled parable, a New Age parody, a bitingly funny fantasy in the great Russian tradition…”
Blond, blue-eyed contemporary Muscovites are being kidnapped, driven to remote areas and bashed in the chest with hammers made of ice. It appears the victims are being "cracked" by their assailants, who want to free their hearts to "speak”.
Suspense builds with the incrementally telling of the story from the perspectives of three "heart-speakers” and Khram, their spiritual leader who was herself "hammered" by a German S.S. officer in a slave labor camp during WWII.
Ice ”…succeeds brilliantly as both a thriller and a cautionary tale about totalitarianism, bigotry, elitism, and fundamentalism". (Library Journal).
Click here for a NYRB review of Ice, and a biography on Sorokin.