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Thanks and Happy New Year!

NPR has picked its Best Books of 2009. There is a multitude of lists, such as best debuts, best gardening books, best mysteries, etc., so I am just providing the link for you to check for yourself! Among other things, lists of best books are often a good starting point for finding books to read in your book club. NPR actually has a list of Best Books for a Book Club.

Labels: best books, NPR

To balance all the lists of best books I have been mentioning this Holiday season, I thought you might like to consider a very personal worst books list from the blog of a Book Maven.

This list was posted on December 20 on her blog by Bethanne Patrick. Bethanne Patrick is managing editor and host of The Book Studio. The Book Studio is a project of weta.org, the website for public television and radio station WETA in Washington, D.C.

Labels: worst books

April is National Poetry Month. We are going to celebrate again in 2010 with a pledge contest as we did in 2009. During the month of March, we will invite our customers to pledge to read “A poem a day for 30 days in April�. On March 31, we’ll draw a name at each branch and the winner will receive a copy of Poem in Your Pocket: 200 Poems to Read and Carry.

Look out in your branch and on our website for posters and more information!

Labels: National Poetry Month

Labels: Book Club Books, contemporary fiction

Labels: 2009 Winter Reading, literary fiction, poetry

Labels: inspirational nonfiction, literary nonfiction, Sci-Tech, Science Writing

Author O'Nan is known for his realistic fiction & Last Night at the Lobster is no exception. Manny DeLeon is the hardworking manager of a Red Lobster that is slated to close just before Christmas. All he wants is one last perfect night, but a snow storm and complications with his love life seem set to prevent that. This tender yet harsh story brings together a small group of characters, those staff members who through loyalty or the need for cash have turned up for work on this last day. With very few of them working, they must band together to turn out meals for those customers who brave the snow. The relationships between the characters, the trials of managing a restaurant and the thanklessness of that role, are all portrayed with feeling and a clarity that puts the reader right in the restaurant with them.

Stewart O'Nan's website
http://stewart-onan.com/fiction/last_night_at_the_lobster_little/

Stewart O’Nan Fiction
Boston Noir (featured author), Songs for the Missing, Last Night at the Lobster, The Good Wife, The Night Country, Wish You Were Here, Everyday People, Writer’s Harvest (featured author), A Prayer for the Dying, A World Away, The Speed Queen, The Names of the Dead, Snow Angels, In the Walled City.

Snow Angels was made into a movie with Kate Beckinsale.

Non-Fiction
My New Orleans, Faithful (with Stephen King - about Boston Red Sox), The Circus Fire, The Vietnam Reader, On Writers & Writing (featured author).

Labels: Christmas, last night at the lobster, restaurants, stewart o'nan

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman (Find this book in our catalog)
My book club read this book last month. We all loved it and found a great deal to discuss, despite the fact that we all found it "depressing but good!"
Blackbird House should appeal to readers who like books with a dark, moody New England sort of sensibility. One reader compared the book for this reason to the classic, Ethan Frome.

Blackbird House is a series of interconnected stories about the inhabitants of a Massachussetts house over the course of two centuries. My book club thought Hoffman used the short story form with very great success. The writing is beautiful. We enjoyed the discipline and how much is conveyed with an economy of words. We enjoyed the descriptions of the natural environment, the beach, the pear tree, the pond, which mirrored the emotions of the characters.

There is no plot. Everything is about the relationships and the emotions of the characters throughout the generations. Often it is tragedy that changes the relationships and also the inhabitants of the house. There are a few recurring themes: the strength and sisterhood of women, the strange power of love, madness, the presence of the occult just under the surface of daily life.

Throughout the book, Blackbird House stands both as a place to which people are drawn over and over again, and as a symbol for the common needs and emotions that bind humanity.

Labels: literary fiction, Massachussetts - fiction, Short Stories

There has been a great deal of interest on the TV and other media in the latest Ian Halperin book, Brangelina, about the celebrity couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It has just arrived on the shelves of Harford County Public Library (Find this book in our catalog).

Seeing the keen interest in Halperin's exclusive revelations and personal anecdotes of this superstar couple's relationship, I wondered if there were any similar books currently out there for fans of the celebrity biography. The answer is, not many lately - perhaps it is because most celebrities warrant a book all to themselves, and autobiographers prefer to write about themselves! Perhaps it is because Halperin's book is critical of the couple, saying their Hollywood handlers have manipulated the public into "believing a glamorous fairytale that bears little resemblance to the reality of the pair's life together" (dust jacket).

If you enjoy reading unvarnished behind-the-scenes anecdotes about celebrity couples you could try Nemesis : the true story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the love triangle that brought down the Kennedys by Peter Evans (Find this book in our catalog).

This more recent book is about one side of a former celebrity couple: The Unsinkable Heather Mills : the unauthorized biography of the great pretender by Neil Simpson (Find this book in our catalog) "Who exactly is the woman who was married to the most famous living Beatle?" (catalog summary).

This current book talks about the pleasures and pains of being married to a celebrity. My Delicious Life with Paula Deen by Michael Groover (Find this book in our catalog) is the story of a successful partnership. Paula Deen's fan have heard about the fairy-tale romance, "but they've never heard Michael's side of the story. Here, for the first time, the Savannah native tells all, from his quintessential Southern childhood on the banks of the river to his career as a docking pilot to his international travels with his bride. Along the way, he speaks frankly about the children he adores, the challenges and rewards of blending families, and the pleasures and difficulties of fame. Michael loves food and is a pretty good cook himself, and each chapter is accompanied by one of his trademark recipes..." (catalog summary).

To read about other successful partnerships that could be a source of inspiration try:
Barack and Michelle : portrait of an American marriage by Christopher Andersen (Find this book in our catalog)
It's All About Him : finding the love of my life by Denise Jackson (Find this book in our catalog). "this inspirational book gives the reader an all-access look into one of country music's most famous couples" (catalog summary).

Labels: celebrity biographies, celebrity couples, inspirational nonfiction, nonfiction

Fans of Sookie Stackhouse, author Charlaine Harris' telepathic cocktail waitress and heroine of the Southern Vampire mystery series, may well enjoy another Harris series featuring amateur sleuth, Harper Connelly.

Grave Secret (Find this book in our catalog) is the 4th in the series featuring Harper. Harper grew up in a trailer in Texarkana, Texas, with her mother, her stepfather an older sister, two stepbrothers, and two baby half-sisters. Harper and her siblings lived a life of danger and privation while their drug addicted parents ignored them completely, until one day her sister, Cameron disappeared never to be seen again. The older siblings left home and the small sisters were adopted by their aunt and uncle. Now a few years later the mother is dead, the father is in jail and Harper is a psychic consultant in parnership with her half brother, who is her manager, protector, and, recently, her lover. Ever since she was struck by lightning as a young teen Harper has been able to find the bones of the dead and relive their last moments on earth. She is often hired to solve mysterious deaths. In Grave Secret, Harper is called back to Texarkana to solve the death of a wealthy rancher. In the cemetary she literally stumbles across another set of bones, starting her on the trail of old secrets and sins, a trail that keeps intersecting with her lifelong quest to find her missing sister.

Just as in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Charlaine Harris in the Harper Connelly series manages to depict a heroine in extreme and perhaps unbelievable circumstances and to make it all believable. She does this by her careful observation and depiction of ordinary people. Many of them are on the fringes of conventional society. She has their voices just right.

This series will appeal to readers who like series about amatuer sleuths using paranormal gifts to solve mysteries. It will also appeal to readers who like to see heroines in disfunctional relationships rise above their circumstances. It should appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum because of the dark humor with which Harris draws the larger than life and eccentric characters. Fans of books with a gritty southern setting should like it too.

Labels: female amateur detectives, grave secret, Harper Connelly, paranormal mysteries, Texas - fiction

Me and Orson Welles, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ben Chaplin, Zac Efron, and Claire Danes, opened on November 25. The movie is based on Robert Kaplow’s novel Me and Orson Welles: A Novel (Find this book in our catalog).
"An irresistible romantic farce that reads like a Who's Who of the classic American theater, Me and Orson Wellesis set during the launch of the then twenty-two-year-old Orson Welles' debut production of Julius Caesar at the Mercury Theatre on Broadway. Beautifully translated to screen by Richard Linklater, the film stars Zac Efron as Richard Samuels, a stage-struck seventeen-year-old from New Jersey who wanders onto the set and accidentally gets cast in the show, forever changing his life as he becomes caught in a vortex of celebrity, ego, art, and love." (catalog summary)

Labels: books to movies, Orson Welles - fiction, romantic farce

Labels: Christmas, nonfiction, Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus

Yesterday I made some suggestions for romances set in the Amish culture like The Shunning by Beverly Lewis, which really was the forerunner of a bestselling new trend in Christian fiction.

Here are some more authors of Amish romances that you might like to try:

Colleen Coble
Jerry Eicher
Shelley shepherd Gray
B. J. Hoff
Beth Wiseman
Cindy Woodsmall

Labels: Amish - fiction, Amish romances, Christian fiction

Ever since the publication of The Shunning by Beverly Lewis, Amish romances have been growing in popularity. Right now 30% of Christian fiction bestsellers are set in the Amish culture. If you liked The Shunning for its setting, you will probably also enjoy these:

The Secret by Beverly Lewis (Find this book in our catalog) "In the seemingly ordinary Amish home of Grace Byler, secrets abound. Why does her mother weep in the night? Why does her father refuse to admit something is dreadfully wrong? Then, in one startling moment, everything Grace assumed she knew is shattered. Her mother's disappearance leaves Grace reeling and unable to keep her betrothal promise to her long-time beau. Left to pick up the pieces of her life, Grace questions all she has been taught about love, family, and commitment.Heather Nelson is an English grad student, stunned by a doctor's diagnosis. Surely fate would not allow her father to lose his only daughter after the death of his wife a few years before. In denial and telling no one she is terminally ill, Heather travels to Lancaster County - the last place she and her mother had visited together. Will Heather find healing for body and spirit? As the lives of four wounded souls begin to weave together like an Amish patchwork quilt, they each discover missing pieces of their life puzzles - and glimpse the merciful and loving hand of God." (catalog summary)
This is the first installment in a series. The conclusion, The Telling will be out in April 2010.

Plain & Fancy by Wanda Brunstetter (Find this book in our catalog) "Is it good for two people-one plain, the other fancy-to fall in love? Laura Meade loves her modern life, yet she fascinated by the Amish culture in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she is studying interior design. Upon their first meeting, she is immediately attracted to Eli Yoder, one of the Plain People, but Laura has no real concept about faith, God's love, and forgiveness of sins. Eli is also enamored with Laura, but to marry outside his faith would be forbidden. What then is the hope for love? Plain and Fancy is book 3 in the Brides of Lancaster County series. Other books in the series include A Merry Heart: Book 1, Looking for a Miracle: Book 2, and The Hope Chest: Book 4." (catalog summary)


Shadows of Lancaster County by Mindy Starns Clark (Find this book in our catalog) "Following up on her extremely popular Gothic thriller "Whispers of the Bayou," Clark offers another suspenseful stand-alone mystery full of Amish simplicity, dark shadows, and the light of God's amazing grace. " (catalog summary)

Rebecca's Return by Jerry S. Eicher (Find this book in our catalog) "Readers who enjoyed Rebecca's Promise will eagerly devour the next entry in this Amish series set in southern Ohio.Rebecca Keim returns to Wheat Ridge full of resolve to make her relationship with John Miller work. But in her absence, John has become suspicious of the woman he loves. Before their conflict can be resolved, John is badly injured and Rebecca is sent back to Milroy to aid her seriously ill Aunt Leona.In Milroy, Rebecca once again visits the old covered bridge over the Flatrock River, the source of her past memories and of her promise made so long ago.Where will Rebecca find happiness? In Wheat Ridge with John, the man she has agreed to marry...or should she stake her future on the memory that persists...and the ring she has never forgotten? Does God have a perfect will for Rebecca-and if so how can she know that will?" (catalog summary)

Labels: Amish fiction, Amish romances, Christian Fiction

The Road, directed by John Hilcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall and Garret Billahunt opened November 25.

The movie is based on Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (Find this book in our catalog). PW’s starred review (available with other reviews in our catalog)had this to say: “McCarthy establishes himself here as the closest thing in American literature to an Old Testament prophet, trolling the blackest registers of human emotion to create a haunting and grim novel about civilization's slow death after the power goes out.�

Summary in our catalog: " A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

Labels: apocalyptic fiction, books to movies, Gentlemen of the Road

Michael Crichton's last book, posthumously discovered among Crichton's files, is a departure from his usual speculative novels of science and medicine. This is part of what it says in our catalog: "From one of the best-loved authors of all time comes an irresistible adventure of swashbuckling pirates in the New World, a classic story of treasure and betrayal. The Caribbean, 1665... Pirate Latitudes is Michael Crichton at his best: a rollicking adventure tale pulsing with relentless action, crackling atmosphere, and heart-pounding suspense."

Labels: 1660s, Historical Fiction, pirates - fiction, slave trade - fiction

On December 2nd's TV show, the Bob Edwards Show bestseller Edward Rutherfurd discussed his latest book, New York: The Novel (Find this book in our catalog).

Labels: Edward Rutherfurd, historical novels, New York - fiction

Here is a selection of thrillers available now in Harford County Public Library to check out or reserve.

Thrillers by International Thriller Writers Inc. authors. Click on a book title to read the feature story
The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry (Find this book in our catalog)
The Disciple by Stephen Coonts (Find this book in our catalog)
Silent Screams by C. E. Lawrence (Find this book in our catalog)
Lullaby for the Nameless by Sandra Ruttan (Find this book in our catalog)
THE GATEKEEPER by Michelle Gagnon (Find this book in our catalog)
THE RESSURECTIONIST by Wrath James White (Find this book in our catalog)
MANIA by Craig Larsen (Find this book in our catalog)
THE PRISONER by Carlos J Cortes (Find this book in our catalog)

Labels: Thrillers

Murder at Longbourn : a mystery by Tracy Kiely (Find this book in our catalog)

Labels: Bed and Breakfast, Cape Cod, cozy mysteries, Jane Austen, murder mystery

December 2009 - Vol. 3, No. 12

The Foreign Films New to View newsletter is a monthly publication designed to keep you up to date on some of HCPL's latest foreign films on DVD. The selections in this newsletter are just a sample of the rich variety of films available to you through your library.

Kabei

directed by Yoji Yamada


(In Japanese, with English subtitles)

Were all Japanese citizens in favor of war in the 1930’s and 40’s? Yoji Yamada shows that the answer is no. While Shigeru remains in jail for subversive and less than enthusiastic thoughts over Japan’s aggression towards China, his wife Kayo remains at home to raise their young children on her own. She faces the difficulties of being alone within her family and within the larger society around her, since her own enthusiasm for the war is less than her countrymen’s.

O’Horten

directed by Bent Hamer


(In Norwegian, with English subtitles)

Hamer, who directed the somewhat off-kilter Kitchen Stories, presents to us a story of a man who faces his retirement with his idiosyncrasies in tow. Forced to leave his job as a train engineer due to age, he now finds himself shifting his routines to suit his new life. Compared by more than one critic to Jacque Tati’s M. Hulot (Mon Oncle, Trafic, and Playtime), Odd Horten (for that is the O of O’Horten) goes about the routine of his humdrum life, all the while infusing subtle comedy into his actions and predicaments. In time, he comes to see what he has missed in life and what yet remains to be gained.

Stranded: The Andes Crash Survivors in Their Own Words

directed by Gonzalo Arijón


(In Spanish, with English subtitles)

In 1972, a plane crashed in the Andes, leaving several survivors stranded for 72 days. Their ordeal has been documented in both books and movies. Many of us remember well the shock of discovery that these young men had to resort to cannabalism of the dead in order to survive. This documentary looks at the events from the perspective of the survivors today, more than thirty years later. Arijón allows the men, now grey-haired and wiser for the ordeal, to speak of their experiences with candor and an almost transcendent respect for those who died and then became the means through which these sixteen men survived. Arijón uses some re-enactments, but allows the survivors themselves to address us with a poignancy and immediacy about the events so long in the past, but still so vivid to those who stand before the camera today.

Three Monkeys

directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan


(In Turkish, with English subtitles)

The director of Distant and Climates now brings us Three Monkeys. When a prominent politician kills a pedestrian, he knows his career may be over. He asks his driver to assume blame, for a reward, of course. At first, this deal looks pretty good. Eyüp, the driver, knows his family will be cared for while he serves his prison time, but he does not realize how thoroughly a family can fall apart even with financial support. His son begins to neglect his studies and falls in with a bad crowd. His wife may be having an affair with the politician. The story is full of uncertainties of plot and character, and behind it all brew numerous storms - rain storms that may be the cause of the initial accident and thunderstorms that become almost a metaphor for the disharmony engendered by the characters’ thoughts and actions.

Treeless Mountain

directed by So Yong Kim


(In Korean, with English subtitles)

When the mother of two young girls must leave them with their aunt as she searches for their missing father, the young girls learn the importance of prevailing in the face of adversity and abandonment. While the adults seem unthinkingly neglectful of the two children, the older child, Jin, only six years of age, becomes in a way even more responsible than any grown-up could be. Director Kim, Korean by birth but American-raised, brings to the film a poetic sensitivity and delicacy of style.

Labels: Audio-Visual, Foreign Films