Press enter after choosing selection
Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Available for Download through AADL: Books by Local Author Tristan Gregory

by SaraP

All four titles in The Wandering Tale series by local author Tristan Gregory are now available for download from the catalog! Satisfy an appetite for adventure (think swords, knights, and damsels and distress) with these little gems. Tight schedule? No worries - read a novella in one sitting!

If you're looking for something a little meatier, try Gregory's epic fantasy novel Twixt Heaven and Hell, where one wizard who dreams of peace will clash with a power-hungry warlord in control of sorcerers and demons in a battle to save his precious land and people. Full of magic, action, and plenty of atmospheric suspense - fantasy fans won't want to miss this one!

To download a book, click on one of the links below, then click on the book cover image underneath "Download This Item". Easy!! (If you aren't logged into your AADL account, you'll be prompted to do so - still pretty easy).

The Swordsman of Carn Nebeth (Wandering Tale 1)
The Three Fingers of Death (Wandering Tale 2)
The Giant of Tidesmouth (Wandering Tale 3)
The Crown Unconquered (Wandering Tale 4)

Twixt Heaven and Hell

Le Morte d'Arthur (a short story to whet your appetite)

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Now Available Through AADL: 250+ Downloadable & Streaming Albums from Ghostly International & Spectral Sound

by mariah

For over a dozen years, record label Ghostly International has made Ann Arbor its home. Haven't heard of them? The Ann's piece highlighting them as a "hidden gem" will help get you up to speed.

Founded in 1999 in a dorm room by a then-UM student, Sam Valenti IV, the label has grown steadily in scope and size. Beginning with talented locally-based artists such as Matthew Dear and Dabrye, the Ghostly crew has expanded over the last decade-plus to include illustrious alumni and around a dozen currently active artists, including Shigeto, ADULT., and Tycho. A spin-off/related label -- Spectral Sound -- also emerged, and 100+ of their albums are also included in this special AADL collection.

As its roster of musical artists has grown, Ghostly has also maintained a careful, deliberate approach to the visual elements of each release (and to the aesthetic of the label as a whole), evident by their attention to cover design and frequent partnerships with companies that are beyond the imagination (aim) of many more traditional labels.

AADL is thrilled to partner with Ghostly to offer DRM-free downloads and streaming of 150+ Ghostly and 100+ Spectral Sound albums to all AADL cardholders. All you need is to have an AADL library card. Then, login with your linked AADL online account, and all of these tracks are yours for the listening!

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Now Available Through AADL: Downloadable Issues of Midwestern Gothic

by mariah

Literary journals can be a marvelous way to discover work by writers you might not already be familiar with — a gateway to some of the most interesting new writing. Midwestern Gothic is "a quarterly print literary journal out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, dedicated to featuring work about or inspired by the Midwest, by writers who live or have lived here."

Is this limiting? The breadth of work collected in Midwestern Gothic — issue after issue — proves that it's not.

The journal, now on its twelfth release, "aims to collect the very best in Midwestern fiction writing in a way that has never been done before, cataloging the oeuvre of an often-overlooked region of the United States ripe with its own mythologies and tall tales." An August interview with AnnArbor.com gives more insight into the journal's background and its founders, Robert James Russell and Jeff Pfaller.

We're happy to report that now you can read every issue of Midwestern Gothic by downloading them directly from AADL's website! A dozen issues are currently in our catalog, and new issues will be added upon release.

If you like what you read in Midwestern Gothic, their MG Press imprint will be celebrating the release of the novel Above All Men with an event at Literati Bookstore on Monday, Feb 17 at 7pm.

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Madison Connors, Romance author and publisher

by muffy

One of the first publishers on board in our unlimited download ebook collection is owner and CEO of Front Porch Romance, a Southeast Michigan Romance publisher. Click here for a list of these romance titles in our collection.

A writer with deep Michigan roots, Madison Connors, in a recent podcast, talked about her writing, her experience in the publishing business, the history and stories behind Front Porch Romance.

You could also catch Madison as she hosts a weekly radio program called Romance Hour, on ArtistsFirst, a CBS Radio News network, Wednesdays at 6 pm where she interviews other romance authors.

Attachment Size
AADL_Talks_To-Madison_Connors.mp3 26.9 MB

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

New Download: Local Artist Papillon's "The Amber Dawn"

by eli

Paris-born Actor, Artist, Musician and Ann Arborite Papillon's first solo album, The Amber Dawn is now available for instant download by AADL cardholders. A bit of hiphop infused with Jazz and Soul makes for an outstanding full-length set of tracks that will find a home in many local music collections. Papillon is also running an Indiegogo Campaign to help fund his newest album, Calligraphy, and it wraps up soon, so have a listen to The Amber Dawn and check Papillon out if you're looking for more!

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

LISTEN!! Digital Music News: Ghostly International

by darla

YOU can access over 1,000 digital music albums directly through our AADL.org catalog. Stream or download as much as you like, DRM free, on any device you choose. No waiting for a copy. No due dates. Hooray!

Fans of local music unite! Music from Ann Arbor's independent record label Ghostly International has arrived at the library and is ready for you to download!

ELECTRONIC / POP / ROCK
Midwest Product: Floating Happily Somewhere Between Music Genres
Ann Arbor trio Midwest Product welds live instrumentation to crafty electronics for output that could easily be described as both cold machine funk and ionized indie-pop. Inspired by the industrial sheen of early New Order and the hyperbolic romance of Prince’s early material, Specifics is a debut album that references the group’s love for early electro styles, warm glitch, and atmospheric post-rock in equal parts. Recommended!

RAP / HIP HOP
Dabrye: Fractured Hip-Hop Production
Taking the next logical step in his evolutionary hip-hop album cycle, Dabrye rounded up a formidable crew of MCs to create Two/Three. A moody, propulsive take on the genre, the Blade Runner-esque beats help cage rhymes ranging from world events to the street, with little chance to catch your breath. The result is a dizzying narcotic rush stronger than a back alley glue hit. Five years after his meticulously sculpted debut One/Three, local artist Tadd Mullinix made yet another indelible mark with this hip-hop sound. Gritty singles “Air” and “Game Over” have thus far foretold the progression of the Dabrye sound, and in the full-length context these tracks fit together as pieces of an unstoppable manifesto.

ELECTRONIC / IDM / AMBIENT
Christopher Willits: Gentle Sound Clashes
Christopher Willits’ newest record on Ghostly International, 2010’s Tiger Flower Circle Sun, is his most technologically complex yet—it’s also his most organic, drifting skyward in a swell of ambient hums and subtle polyrhythms. On Tiger Flower Circle Sun, Christopher Willits takes his attention to craft further than ever before, using the language of ambient, dream-pop, experimental electronic, and afro-latin music to explore themes of love, connectivity, and universal vibrations. With Tiger Flower Circle Sun, Willits has created a diverse, effortlessly complex album of sublime beauty.

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Romance - Anytime, Anywhere, and For Keeps

by muffy

In celebration of August being National Romance Awareness Month, we are reminded to "think about romance in a new way".

AADL has a new way to bring Romance into your reading experience.

We have contracted with Front Porch Romance, a Southeast Michigan independent publisher of Romance fiction to make available to our library card holders free, immediate and unlimited downloads of their titles.

We know you will be pleased - there is no waiting, hold lists, or expiration/due dates. That means once you have downloaded a title, it is yours to keep, for as long as you would like, on your reading device.

Click here for a complete list of the titles and start the romance now.