Arlington Heights Library has a much bigger staff than we do in Sweetwater County. Our Technical Services consists of three people; one acquisitions librarian and two catalogers. We do not get 300 items daily, unfortunately, but they do catalog an amazing amount of new books. This is dedicated to them.
FEATURE. First published April 15, 2008 (Booklist).In recent years in our Spotlight on Historical Fiction, we have insisted the current renaisssance in historical fiction shows no signs of abatement. We are only too happy to sing the same tune again this year: it may be a different verse, but it’s still the same song. Read the following historical novels, and try to resist admiring them all.
The second volume in this author’s fictionalized biography of Jesus sees the Son of God at a major turning point in the preordained path of his ministry on earth; excellent historical fiction with sensitive, humanizing religious interpretation.
This stirring novel of Jewish immigration from a Russian shtetl to early-twentieth-century New York challenges the clichés of the golden promised land. It shows the grim reality not only of the daring struggle to survive but also of how the dream of success often led to corruption and heartbreak.
Consequences. By Penelope Lively. Viking, $24.95 (9780670038565).
The historical event around which this beautifully crafted family saga revolves is the chaotic Battle of Crete, in 1944, which resulted in an Allied defeat and, in Lively’s sensitive rendering, the death of her artist hero.
Fellow Travelers. By Thomas Mallon. Pantheon, $25 (0-375-42348-6).
Mallon patiently develops a riveting story of love and politics set in the mid-1950s. Within the District of Columbia, the McCarthy Subcommittee on Un-American Activities rages against suspected Communists and homosexuals within the federal government and the military, with personal consequences felt by a young senatorial aide and his lover, an older State Department official.
Foreigners. By Caryl Phillips. Knopf, $24.95 (1-4000-4397-2).
In this elegiac trio of stories, the author reclaims the lives of three black men in England—in Samuel Johnson’s day, in 1951, and in the 1960s—and deciphers the toxic social chemistry that first gave each man hope and then destroyed him.
Johnny One-Eye. By Jerome Charyn. Norton, $25.95 (9780393064971).
Never before has the American Revolution been so glorious or tawdry as it is in Charyn’s picaresque adventure of spies, harlots, and Founding Fathers; wartime Manhattan provides the backdrop for a tale of a young double (at least) agent and his infatuation with a sharp-tongued octoroon.
People of the Book. By Geraldine Brooks. Viking, $15.95 (9780670018215).
Brooks fictionalizes the history of an actual book, the Hebrew codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, an extremely precious illuminated manuscript originally from medieval Spain; the author traces, in greatly imaginative scenes, where the book has been, ranging from 1894 Vienna to 1940 German-occupied Yugoslavia.
The Reavers. By George MacDonald Fraser. Knopf, $24 (9780307268105).
In the late Fraser’s rollicking Elizabethan-era swan song, hero Archie Noble and friends stumble upon a fiendish Spanish plot to install an impostor on the throne.
Redemption Falls. By Joseph O’Connor. Free Press, $25 (1-4165-5316-9).
In this enthralling saga, O’Connor illuminates a slice of the Civil War and Reconstruction; the stories of Eliza Mooney and her younger brother, Jeremiah, are intertwined with those of General James O’Keefe and his wealthy wife in a vibrant literary collage of letters, personal accounts, transcripts, and newspaper articles.
The Seventh Well. By Fred Wonder. Norton, $23.95 (9780393065381).
In this slim, overwhelmingly powerful novel, it is as if the narrator, imprisoned in Buchenwald, is turning the pages of a photo album, pausing at each turning of the page to remember, for a brief time, the individuals with whom he became familiar during his long, cruel months of incarceration.
From Instructibles: http://www.instructables.com/ “The World’s Biggest Show And Tell“.
Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others. The seeds of Instructables germinated at the MIT Media Lab as the future founders of Squid Labs built places to share their projects and help others. Read more about the history…
To create a new Instructable, comment on someone else’s Instructable, or do lots of other cool things, you need to create a free account. We also have a new guided tour.
I once saw a watermelon cut resulting in a minimum of seeds after the slicing, but could not remember how, so this was gold. Now I can’t wait for the melons to appear at the store. The site offers much more and you can check it out here.
introHow to remove most of the seeds when cutting up a watermelon
Step 1. Cut both ends off the watermelon. Read on.
LibraryThing Local launches
LibraryThing Local is a gateway to thousands of local bookstores, libraries, and book festivals—and to all the author readings, signings, discussions, and other events they host. It is the site’s attempt to accomplish what hasn’t happened yet—the effective linking of the online and offline book worlds. You can show off your favorite bookstores and libraries, keep track of interesting events, find out who else loves the places you do, and write comments about the places you love…. LibraryThing Blog, Mar. 3
Next time you miss a call from an unknown number, check if it’s a telemarketer on the CallerComplaints web site. CallerComplaints maintains a user-submitted database of telemarketer phone numbers and even rounds up the worst offenders. Registering with the Do Not Call list is your best defense against unsolicited calls, but for those telemarketers still pushing through, CallerComplaints could come in handy.
Iris Lockhart is busy tending to the everyday business of her vintage clothing shop and her complicated love affairs when she received a stunning phone call. Her Great aunt Esme, whom she never even knew existed, is being released from a psychiatric hospital where she has been locked away for over sixty year. Esme has been labeled harmless, same enough to coexist with the rest of the world. but why has her family never mentioned her, and what is the secret of her virtually wiped-out past? If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?
While observing exotic animal trainers for her acclaimed book, Kicked, Bitten and Scratched, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: what if she used these training techniques with the human animals in her own life?
Jeffrey Sachs, world-renowned for his work around the globe advising economies in crisis, here draws on his twenty-five years of expertise to offer a uniquely informed vision of the keys to economic success in the world today and the steps that are necessary to achieve prosperity for all.
It only takes three little words to break free from the past.
Ashely Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes. As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster-care system. In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed-and in doing so, discover the power of her own voice.
Immediately gripping and thoroughly harrowing, Storming Las Vegas tells the story of a remarkable true-life crime spree-a story that was previously quashed so as not to disturb tourism, in the ultimate proof of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”.
The Bentley’s London household is in a state of flux. The elderly matron is on her deathbed; so her son, recently returned from France, is acting as the new master of the house. Busy developing a reputation in anthropometry, the science of identifying criminals by body measurements, he is unaware of the secrets the women in the household-the mysterious woman who claims to the the bride of his dead brother, the new maid from the country, and even his own wife-keep from him.
Howard Hughes lived one of the greatest, most heroic, misunderstood, mysterious, bizarre, and tragic lives in American history. In this brilliantly documented biography, the mythology that surrounded that life is disentangled from the truth.
In this compelling behind-the-scenes account, former top CIA officer and Cuba expert Brian Latell examines the extraordinary Castro brothers and the impending dynastic succession of Fidel’s younger brother, Raul. Exploring the brothers’ remarkable relationship, he reveals how Fidel and Raul have collaborated, divided responsibilities, and resolved disagreements for more than forty-six years-a challenge that the little-known Raul has been an insignificant player.
This gripping high-concept thriller about a virus that is eating the world’s oil supply is reminiscent of Michael Crichton’s best. When a Muslim cleric predicts planes will fall from the sky, America braces for a terrorist attack. But when the prediction proves true, the real cause is far more terrifying: a microbe that eats oil, effectiely destroying all gas-operated mechanisms.
In exploring the strong desire in all of us to feel fulfilled by our work, Moore offers no charts or questionnaires but rather a personal, contemplative guide to traversing obstacles such as inflated egos, despair, and fear that prevent us from finding purpose in our careers. He also shares the struggles of great thinkers and artists who grappled with uncertainty before finding their calling.
Winged Creatures is the startling and intimate story of six survivors of a gun massacre. Hidden under a table, teenagers Anne and Jimmy watched as the gunman indiscriminately murdered Ann’s father and others, then himself. Struggling to understand her father’s death, Anne experiences a virulent religious conversion. Jimmy ceases to speak, protecting a secret that he and Anne share until it nearly destroys him and his fractured family.
The Teapot dome Scandal of the early 1920′s was all about oil-hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of petroleum. when the scandal finally broke, the consequences were tremendous. President Hardin’s legacy was forever tarnished , while “Oil Cabinet” member Albert Fall was forced to resign and was imprisoned for a years. Others implicated in the affair suffered prison terms, commitment to mental hospitals, suicide, and even murder.
The Chance family is wild about baseball and cantankerous about religion. Papa is a gifted by luckless minor-leagues pitcher whose big-league hopes are fading. Mama clings obsessively to her religion as a ward against the darkest hour of her past. And the four chance brothers, coming of age during one of the country’s most bewildering decades, each must choose their own way to deal with what the world has become.
Bantam Dell Goes With Webisodes for Koontz’s Odd Thomas
By Rachel Deahl
Bantam Dell’s ad blitz for Dean Koontz and his Odd Thomas series seems to be ramping up instead of letting up. The imprint, which unveiled a trio of dramatic TV spots promoting the series in 2006 and followed that up with a video contest last year, is in the midst of airing a series of webisodes leading up to the May 20th release of the fourth Odd Thomas book, Odd Hours.
The webisodes actually grew out of the aforementioned video contest. “Odd Passenger,” as the four webisodes are dubbed, was co-created by Jack Paccione, Jr., and Jerry White, the duo that won last summer’s “Shoot the Good Guy” contest with their book trailer. “Odd Passenger,” which features Koontz’s titular hero in an original plot, is a kind of mini-movie, clocking in at a total of 15 minutes over the four webisodes. (Paccione and White also wrote the script for “Odd Passenger,” which Koontz signed off on.) Read on »
I just heard about a children’s books-themed podcast, entitled Just One More Book. The podcast comes out three times a week, is between 5 and 25 minutes in length, and discusses favorite books and literacy issues. There are over 300 archived episodes, so there is a lot of information to draw upon already, not to mention the future episodes. As a speaker and presenter I often get questions about why there aren’t more youth services-themed technology initiatives out there. I am happy to add this site to my knowledge base!
Sweetwater County also offers BookFlix, a Database of children’s works, along with games and exploration.
Scholastic BookFlix is a new online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning. The engaging way to link fact and fiction, BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.
It’s hard to imagine much in Sony’s reader that can be improved technologically, but the question remains, can a digital reader match the experience of reading a traditional book?
JACK KAPICA From Thursday’s Globe
*The Good: Sleek, light and highly portable in a leatherette binder, with excellent storage for a number of books.
* The Bad:A retrograde grey-on-grey display; the price.
* The Verdict: The best e-book reader yet, but it has a way to go before it can match real books.
The arrival of a new generation of e-book readers in Canada, led by the Sony Reader PRS 505, is a story that suggests we’re nearing a peak of technological development. Does it mean e-book manufacturers will finally realize their dream of the past dozen years or so? Technologically, perhaps. The Sony Reader PRS 505 is, compared to most of its competitors, small, capable of storing whole libraries, thin (15 mm, including its soft front and back leather-like covers), light enough (337 grams) to hold for a long period of time without fatigue, and ultimately really cool-looking. And the number of books being released is growing every day. In short, wow.
A slumbering Georgia community almost chokes on its mint juleps when Hollywood arrives to film the true life-and-death story of heroic local lawman Harp Vance.One person has a very private reason for not wanting the details of Harp’s life exposed-his feisty and forthright widow, Grace.So begins her comic crusade to undermine the production, aided and abetted by adventurous in-laws and a bodyguard named Boone.Amidst the hi-jinks, heartbreaking secrets are revealed and friendships are forged that will transform all of them-in memory and in life-forever.
If you like to take a look at Fiction that is a bit older (2004), here is one I would recommend.Charming Grace was a surprise.I was walking through the stacks hoping to find something to listen to.I picked this one up and I am so glad I did.First I must warn there is some bad language, but the story is a breath of fresh air.
I truly loved the characters and more than once found myself laughing while I listened.I love a story with humor.The widow, Grace, is my kind of girl.She fights for what she believes in, in what ever way she can.She stands for what is right when it would be easier and more profitable to just go along with the Hollywood version of things.Boone is a man’s man.He comes from a hard life and with a rough start, but he is a diamond in the rough.
I have not read or listened to any other material by Deborah Smith, but I will very soon.
Behind the Scenes, Technical Services at the Library
