The Art of Taiwanese Glove Puppet Theater
Monday May 23, 2016: 7:00pm to
8:30pm
Downtown Library: Secret Lab
Grade 6 - Adult
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #581 “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi
by muffy
A bestseller in its native Spain, love in lowercase by Francesc Miralles (translated by Julie Wark) is a delightful romantic comedy in the tradition of The Rosie Project and The Solitude of Prime Numbers, where a series of surprising events lends a solitary bachelor a second chance at love.
New Year Eve. 37 year-old Samuel, a linguistics lecturer could hardly wait to turn in after observing the Twelve Grapes ritual alone in his Barcelona apartment. Accustomed to a routine of lesson-planning, housework, books, foreign films, classical jazz, and the thrill of an occasional trip to the supermarket, he would hardly believe that all that will change on New Year’s Day when a cat decides to take up residence in his home, and forces him to interact with the messy outside world.
The cat, which he named Mishima first sends him upstairs to meet Titus, a frail book editor who, in turn sends him on an errand where he crosses paths with Gabriela, his lost childhood love. Along the way Samuel learns the importance of what he terms "love in lowercase", a phenomenon in which “some small act of kindness sets off a chain of events that comes around again in the form of multiplied love” and inspires him to seek out Gabriela.
Listen to the Publishers Weekly's radio podcast as Francesc Miralles discusses his novel, also available in Spanish in our World Language Collection.
Les Bandes Dessinées
by Rachel S.
When you are learning another language, reading graphic novels can be a helpful and fun way to develop your vocabulary and cultural knowledge with supporting visual context. Did you know that AADL’s Word Languages collection includes graphic novels for several languages?
I love to practice my French by reading graphic novels, or bandes dessinées. You can browse our French graphic novels in the catalog. Don’t miss Aya de Yopougon by Marguerite Abouet, the story of a young woman studying to become a doctor in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) circa 1978, and her party-loving friends Adjoua and Bintou who always manage to get into trouble. Loosely inspired by the author’s own experiences growing up, the book includes rich appendices featuring a glossary of expressions, cultural anecdotes, and some Ivorian recipes. Aya de Yopougon will charm anyone looking for a vibrant story of teenage crushes, friendships, dreams, and rebellions, or those who are interested in a story of everyday life in Côte d'Ivoire during an economic boom. Don’t speak French? AADL’s collection includes the Aya series in English.
AADL World Languages Audiobook Collection
by BugsAndSlugs
Did you know the AADL has audiobooks in many languages? If you're learning a new language (or already know a few!), check out some of these titles:
Award Winning Audiobooks:
The Pulitzer Prize winning story, Enrique's Journey (Spanish) by Sonia Nazario
The Harry Potter series in German and French.
Classic Literature:
Of Mice and Men (French) by John Steinbeck
Old Man and the Sea (Chinese) by Ernest Hemingway
For Kids:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Spanish) by C.S. Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Italian) by Lewis Carroll
For more fiction and nonfiction audiobooks in Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish, browse our World Languages Collection!
Cinema of Jean Rollin
by manz
Fall is a good time of year to explore some darker films that make us think. Jean Rollin is a French film director, actor and novelist that helps us do just that. A slew of Rollin's French language films are now in the AADL catalog! What should you expect from his films?
Revered by enthusiasts of fantasy and horror films, but largely overlooked by the critical mainstream, French filmmaker Jean Rollin (1938-2010) is finally being given the recognition he deserves. His surreal, dreamlike films are grounded in traditional gothic imagery but are flavored with 1970s-era eroticism, resulting in a body of work that is as eerie as it is outrageous. Though constrained by low budgets, Rollin managed to drench his films in atmosphere and used them as unvarnished expressions of his own personal fears and desires. As Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog has written, Rollin’s films represent “the very heart and soul of ‘le fantastique’-”its flamboyance, its melodrama, its sense of the impossible made possible. They do not scare us; they were designed to delight us, to arouse our imagination, to move us.”
A sampling of our collection includes: The shiver of the vampires, Zombie lake, Two orphan vampires, The grapes of death, and many more to choose from.
Wonderful World Languages #5
by krayla
Want something you can do no matter what the weather? Do you speak Spanish? Then take a look at AADL’s Spanish language collection! In addition to language learning materials, the Library also has a wide selection of materials for native speakers, including audiobooks and graphic novels.
For example, AADL just acquired a book titled Viviendo, written by celebrity actress Adamari López. Although it was just published in December 2012, it has already received bestseller status and worldwide acclaim. “Viviendo” details Lopez’s most intimate moments, including her battle with breast cancer and her divorce from Luis Fonsi. Adamari López is currently a host on “Un Nuevo Día” on Telemundo, and has acted in several telenovelas.
AADL also has many other biographies in Spanish, Chinese, and French. If you would like to explore the collection more, you are welcome to visit the world language collection Downtown on the 3rd floor or at any of the branches.
If you don’t speak a language other than English but still like biographies, click here for a list of our newest acquisitions!
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #389
by muffy
Child of Vengeance *, the debut novel by David Kirk is part military history, part family saga, part action/adventure, based on the real-life exploits of Japan's greatest samurai - the legendary Musashi Miyamoto.
17th-century Japan was a land in turmoil where lords of the great clans schemed against each other, served by samurai bound to them by a rigid code of honor. Abandoned at an early age by his samurai father, young Bennosuke is raised by his uncle Dorinbo, a Shinto monk in their ancestral village. Though urged by Dorinbo to renounce Bushido, the "Way of the Warrior", Bennosuke worships his absent father. When Munisai returns, gravely injured, Bennosuke is forced to confront truths about his family's history and his own place in it, leading eventually onto a path "awash with blood, bravery, and vengeance", and culminating in the epochal Battle of Sekigahara in which Bennosuke will first proclaim his name as Mushashi Miyamoto.
Legendary director Hiroshi Inagaki first captured the saga of Musashi Miyamoto on film in The Samurai Trilogy, adaptations of the novels by Eiji Yoshikawa. Readers might also enjoy samurai character-driven novels, especially the historical mystery series by Laura Joh Rowland which depicts the precarious fortunes of Lord Ichiro Sano.
British David Kirk first became interested in Japan when his father gave him a copy of James Clavell's Shōgun : a novel of Japan. He has written his dissertation on samurai cinema, and now lives and teaches English in Japan.
* = starred review
Wonderful World Languages # 2
by krayla
Did you make a new year’s resolution to learn a new language? According to TIME, learning something new is the 3rd most broken resolution. With the help of AADL you never have to feel like it’s a lost cause! The Library has plenty of resources for you to learn languages, including Chinese, Spanish, French, German, and more (click on "language learning").
To look up some of those mysterious words in another language, the Library even has bilingual dictionaries to check out.
Want to get your kids involved? They can check out our online Muzzy Program (you need to log in to your library user account or use a library computer). They can use this free service to learn language lessons, watch videos, and play with vocabulary.
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #377
by muffy
The word is out about German author Nele Neuhaus' American debut Snow White Must Die * (translated by Steven T. Murray). This opener of a new contemporary police procedural series is already a huge international bestseller. (Available in the original German editions in our World Language Collections)
After serving a 10-year sentence for murdering two young girls (convicted solely on circumstantial evidence) , 30-year-old Tobias Sartorius returns home to Altenhain, a village near Frankfurt to find his parents divorced, and their lives in shambles. On a rainy November day police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: A woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto on-coming traffic, and witnesses are definite that she was pushed. It soon becomes clear to the detectives that the two cases might be connected.
When another young girl disappears, the investigation turns into a race against time as the villagers are determined to take matters into their own hands. "Again and again, Neuhaus inserts the old Grimm's fairy tale refrain: "White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony" that describes Snow White, the role of one of the original missing girls in a high school play 10 years earlier, to underscore the grimmest of human emotions: white for icily plotted revenge, red for raging jealousy, black for homicidal madness.
"An atmospheric, character-driven and suspenseful mystery set in a small town that could be anywhere, dealing with issues of gossip, power, and keeping up appearances".
This emotional page turner, fueled by unexpected plot twists will please fans of Tana French, Laura Lippman, Kate Atkinson, and Chevy Stevens.
* = starred review
Muzzy Language Learning for Kids
by lucroe
The library has a new children's language learning database called Muzzy. Currently there are 8 different languages to choose from: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, and Russian. You can use it at home or at the library. The Muzzy animated story and games are a captivating way for kids to learn another language. It was originally a BBC program so those from Europe may recognize it. Learn more about this database here. We also offer the Muzzy multilingual series (it includes a choice of learning English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish) and the separate traditional Chinese language learning version for checkout.