Book Events at the Library on Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Bestselling Author Gustavo Arellano to Visit
the Buena Park Library
Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:00 - 7:30 pm
in the Downstairs Community Room

Orange County native Gustavo Arellano is a nationally bestselling author, syndicated columnist, and voice of the Mexican-American community. He is a staff writer with the OC Weekly in Orange County and a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Op/Ed pages.

Arellano writes a nationally syndicated column, "Ask a Mexican!," which has a circulation of more than two million. He is the author of two books, Ask a Mexican!, based on the writings in his column, and Orange County: A Personal History, part personal narrative, part cultural history.

During this program, Gustavo Arellano will be talking about his books. Books will be available for sale, and Arellano will be signing them after the discussion.

Book Discussion Group for Adults -- Afternoon Group

The afternoon book discussion group will meet at 1:00 pm in the small meeting room downstairs. This month they will be discussing The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. New members are always welcome.

Book Discussion Group for Adults -- Evening Group

The evening book discussion group will meet at 6:30 pm in the 2nd floor Board Room. This month they will be discussing Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson and Anne Born. New members are always welcome.

What's On Your Summer Reading List? -- From the Los Angeles Times

Here are 60 of the summer's forthcoming reads, arranged by the months in which they'll be published, from the Los Angeles Times:

JUNE
And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture by Bill Wasik
The Angel's Game (A Novel) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age by Richard Rayner
Conquest of the Useless: Reflections From the Making of "Fitzcarraldo" by Werner Herzog
Erased (A Novel) by Jim Krusoe
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, a Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler
I Am Not Sidney Poitier (A Novel) by Percival Everett
In the Kitchen (A Novel) by Monica Ali
Larry's Kidney: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China With My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant -- and Save His Live by Daniel Asa Rose
Let the Great World Spin (A Novel) by Colum McCann
One Ring Circus: Dispatches From the World of Boxing by Katherine Dunn
Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness by Dean Kuipers
The Scarecrow (A Novel) by Michael Connelly
Shanghai Girls (A Novel) by Lisa See
The Signal (A Novel) by Ron Carlson
The Story Sisters (A Novel) by Alice Hoffman
The Strain (A Novel) by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Strangers (A Novel) by Anita Brookner
This Wicked World (A Novel) by Richard Lange
Trouble (A Novel) by Kate Christensen

JULY
American Adulterer (A Novel) by Jed Mercurio
Best Friends Forever (A Novel) by Jennifer Winer
The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World by Paul Collins
Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It (Stories) by Maile Meloy
Camus, A Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets
Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Everything Matters! (A Novel) by Ron Currie Jr.
Exiles in the Garden (A Novel) by Ward Just
Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
Get Real (A Novel) by Donald E. Westlake
Glover's Mistake (A Novel) by Nick Laird
Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963 by Kevin Starr
I'm So Happy for You (A Novel) by Lucinda Rosenfeld
Jericho's Fall (A Novel) by Stephen L. Carter
A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition by Ernest Hemingway
Short Girls (A Novel) by Bich Minh Nguyen
"What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?": Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country by Kevin Mattson
Where the Money Went (Stories) by Kevin Canty
The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana by Rick Bass

AUGUST
Await Your Reply (A Novel) by Dan Chaon
Before the Big Bang: The Prehistory of Our Universe by Brian Clegg
The Bride's Farewell (A Novel) by Meg Rosoff
An Expensive Education (A Novel) by Nick McDonnell
Heart of the Assassin (A Novel) by Robert Ferrigno
Imperial by William T. Vollmann
Inherent Vice (A Novel) by Thomas Pynchon
It Feels So Good When I Stop (A Novel) by Joe Pernice
The Magicians (A Novel) by Lev Grossman
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disasters by Rebecca Solnit
Red to Black (A Novel) by Alex Dryden
Self's Murder: A Gerhard Self Mystery by Bernhard Schlink
Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick
The Silent Hour (A Novel) by Michael Koryta
Silver Lake (A Novel) by Peter Gadol
Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up by K.C. Cole
South of Broad (A Novel) by Pat Conroy
Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness by Tracy Kidder
That Old Cape Magic (A Novel) by Richard Russo

Top Ten Literary Tear Jerkers

Independent writer and British novelist, David Nicholls, shares his list of books that have left the pages of his library more than a little damp:

If you fancy a good cry here are the books that you should read:

1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Nicholls finds it sad "particularly for its moving scene between Pip and the Magwitch")
2. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
4. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (Nicholls says that "I still find the book as overwhelming now as when I first read it at seventeen.")
5. And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison
6. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
8. The Perfect Stranger by P.J. Kavanagh
9. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (Nicholls finds this one of the saddest books of all: "This was the first piece of prose that really moved me, and the first portrayal of death that really hit home.")
10. Danny, The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

The Most Anticipated Books of 2009

Booksellers were in New York recently for BookExpo America 2009. After seeing the new titles on tap for the second half of 2009, many told Publishers Weekly they were very excited about what they saw.

Here are some of the titles that are creating the buzz:

Books scheduled for release in August:
Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson and Richard Diallo
This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Trooper
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit

Books scheduled for release in September:
Love and Summer by William Trevor
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker
Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman
Level 26 by Anthony E. Zuiker
Stitches by David Small
South of Broad by Pat Conroy
Spooner by Pete Dexter

Books scheduled for release in October:
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
Invisible by Paul Auster
Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
The Big Burn by Timothy Egan
How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood by William J. Mann
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

Books scheduled for release in November:
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Books scheduled for release next January:
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
Happy by Alex Lemon

A Book Lover's Summer from The Wall Street Journal

The Wall St. Journal "asked publishers, booksellers, agents and readers what they were looking forward to taking on vacation (or selling to vacationers). After reading the books they recommended, we chose a few novels and nonfiction books we liked for the lazy days ahead.
Here is their list:

Nonfiction:
1. The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky
2. American Heroes by Edmund S. Morgan
3. Young Woman and the Sea by Glenn Stout
4. The Snakehead by Patrick Raddden Keefe
5. The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli

Fiction:
1.The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
2. South of Broad by Pat Conroy
3. The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith
4. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
5. My Father's Tears by John Updike
6. Ravens by George Dawes Green
7. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
8. Do Not Deny Me by Jean Thompson
9. A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias
10. Fragment by Warren Fahy
11. Border Songs by Jim Lynch
12. It's Beginning to Hurt by James Lasdun
13. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
14. Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment

Summer Books from USA Today

USA Today says summer books are all about escapism: "ask book sellers what books are hot this summer, and they cite fare that should appeal to readers in a tough economy."


Fiction titles:
Medusa by Clive Cussler
Relentless by Dean Koontz
Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners by Luanne Rice
Dune Road by Jane Green
The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
South of Broad by Pat Conroy
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley


Non-fiction titles:
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton
My Remarkable Journey by Larry King
Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal by Julie Metz