Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A New "Oprah" Book



Oprah Winfrey has chosen A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle as her latest book club selection. Tolle, whose other books include The Power of Now and Stillness Speaks, was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. He now makes his home in Vancouver, British Columbia.


According to his website: "Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet."

Visit Oprah's website to learn more about Oprah's Books.

Books of 2008

USA Today online has a fun-to-use interactive book calendar, click here. Click on a month and then "page" through the book day by day to see what books will be coming out soon. For example, on Feb 12th Dakota by Martha Grimes (a story of a woman who uncovers wrong doings at a slaughter house) will be released. Then on March 3rd, Stephen White's new book Dead Time will be out (a story about a psychologist who is dragged into a mystery when his ex-wife asks for his help.) Autobiographies by Helen Mirren and Julie Andrews should also be popular coming in March and April.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Book Discussion Groups for Adults

The Library offers two book discussion groups for adults. Both groups meet the fourth Thursday of the month. The afternoon group meets from 1:00-2:30 in the Library’s small downstairs meeting room. The evening group meets from 6:30-7:45 in the Library’s upstairs boardroom. You can discover the current month’s selection (as well as upcoming selected titles) by visiting the Library’s LibraryThing page. New attendees are always welcome.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Alternatives to Reruns on Television

The Writer's Guild is still on strike and all your favorite shows are in reruns. You have caught up on your reading -- so now is the perfect time to catch up on a television series you may have missed.

Here are the titles of the various TV shows we will be adding to our DVD collection (be sure to look for them soon):

Dexter : The Complete First Season
Weeds : Season 1
The Golden Girls : Season One 20th Anniversary
Brideshead Revisited
Mission : Impossible : The Complete First Season
Police Squad! : The Complete Series
The Waltons : The Complete First Season
The Closer : The Complete First Season
Johnny Carson : The Ultimate Collection
All In The Family : The Complete First Season

Friday, January 11, 2008

On the New Book Shelves

Here is a sample of some of the books from our new book shelves this week:

The Torch of Tangier by Aileen G. Baron
Set in 1942, Baron's fast-paced second thriller/mystery featuring Lily Sampson (after 2002's A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes) finds the attractive archaeologist working in Morocco, where her mentor, Prof. Hammond Drury, gets her involved with the clandestine activities of William "Wild Bill" Donovan, the real-life founder of the OSS. (information from Publisher's Weekly)

Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills
Masterful thriller writer Mills returns to his series hero, former FBI agent Mark Beamon (last seen in 2002's Sphere of Influence), with a pulse-pounding apocalyptic scenario that is terrifying in its plausibility. (information from Publisher's Weekly)

The Practical Entomologist : An Introductory Guide to Observing and Understanding the World of Insects by Rick Imes
For beginners who wish to be serious hobbyists, The Practical Entomologist lists organizations and biological supply companies that sell collecting gear and insects for study. (information from Library Journal)

How to Rig an Election : Confessions of a Republican Operative by Allen Raymond
A completely original tale of the disillusioning of a man who enters politics with no illusions, How to Rig an Election is a brilliant and hilarious exposé of how the contemporary political game is really played. (information from Amazon)

The Complete Guide to Chip Carving byWayne Barton
A beginner’s guide from the world’s most renowned chip carver Wayne Barton—author of Chip Carving and Art of Chip Carving—presents what is unquestionably the finest guidance ever for the novice. (information from Amazon)


The World Encyclopedia of Coins & Coin Collecting : The Definitive Illustrated Reference to the World's Greatest Coins and a Professional Guide to Building a Spectacular Collection
by Dr. James Mackay
Practical advice on collecting coins, with tips on how to research, organize and build your collection including the internet marketplace. (information from Amazon)

Books on Film! display

Thanks to Heather for putting together this display of "Books on Film!"

Titles include:

Anna Karenina (book by Leo Tolstoy)
Anna Karenina (Анна Каренина), also Anglicised as Anna Karenin, is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical Ruskii Vestnik (Russian: Русский Вестник, "Russian Messenger"). Tolstoy clashed with its editor Mikhail Katkov over issues that arose in the final installment. Therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form.

The Joy Luck Club (book by Amy Tan)
The Joy Luck Club (1989) is a best-selling novel written by Amy Tan. It focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families who start a club known as "the Joy Luck Club," playing the Chinese game of Mahjong for money while feasting on a variety of foods. There are sixteen chapters divided into four sections, and each woman, both mothers and daughters, (with the exception of one mother, Suyuan Woo, who dies before the novel opens) share stories about their lives in the form of vignettes. Each section comes after a parable. While The Joy Luck Club was usually described as a novel by critics, to Tan it is a collection of short stories.

Pride & Prejudice (book by Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice, first published on 28 January 1813, is the most famous of Jane Austen's novels and one of the first "romantic comedies" in the history of the novel. Its manuscript was first written between 1796 and 1797, initially called First Impressions, but was never published under that title. Following revisions, it was first published on 28 January 1813. Like both its predecessors, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey, it was written in Steventon, Hampshire, where Austen lived in the rectory.

Holes (book by Louis Sachar)
Holes is a Newbery Medal-winning novel by Louis Sachar. It was later adapted into a screenplay for the 2003 film by Walt Disney Pictures, which starred Shia LaBeouf and Khleo Thomas. In 2006, Sachar published Small Steps, a companion novel.

About Schmidt (book by Louis Begley)
About Schmidt is a 2002 American film directed by Alexander Payne and starring Jack Nicholson as Warren Schmidt and Hope Davis as his daughter Jeannie. It is based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley but all it shares with the book is the title and the hero's name. Everything else - Schmidt's profession, his location, the way his wife died, personality, etc. is changed. Important plot details in the book like his relationship with Carrie and his feelings about Jews and about selling his house do not appear in the movie.

The Constant Gardnener (book by John LeCarre)
The Constant Gardener is a 2001 novel by John le Carré. It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered. Believing that there is more behind the murder, he seeks to uncover the truth behind her death, and finds an international conspiracy of corrupt bureaucracy and pharmaceutical money.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (book by Ken Kesey)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is a novel written by Ken Kesey. It is set in an Oregon asylum, and serves as a study of the institutional process and the human mind. The story was adapted into a Broadway play by Dale Wasserman in 1963, and a film directed by Miloš Forman and written by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman in 1975.

plus much more.....

(descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia)


Stop in the library to Check it Out

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Weird News about Librarians

And you thought we just read in our spare time -- here is a librarian that used those 29 hours of "reading time" for something completely different:

Stan Friedman, a research librarian in Manhattan, won the ESPN Zone Ultimate Couch Potato Competition in Times Square last week. The four participants, sitting in recliners in front of TVs, could order unlimited food and drinks, but they weren't allowed to go to sleep or leave their recliners except for restroom breaks once every eight hours. Friedman won, after 29 hours of continuous sports viewing, when the runner up took an unscheduled break.

He won a $5,000 prize package, including a huge TV, a cozy recliner and a trophy with a potato on it.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

New Magazines at the Library









We have added several titles to our magazine collection. Be sure to come in and "check them out" -- the new magazines cover such topics as travel, "green" living, and finance.

TITLES:
Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel
Best Life

Bottomline

Cottage Living

Domino

E-Environmental Magazine

Guitar World

More

Natural Home

New York Times -- Sunday edition
Orange County Home Magazine
Spin

TEEN ZONE:
Six7*8th

CHILDREN'S ROOM:
Babybug
Wild Animal Baby

Zootles