Southern Fried

The Southern Independent Bookseller's Association has announced the nominees for the SIBA Book Awards. The award was created to recognize great books of southern origin and nominees are chosen by booksellers across the South from among the "southern" books they most enjoyed selling. I selected books we own to be listed here.

For a complete list, see the SIBA Book Award webpage.

Young Adult

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight / Brad Barkley

Part of Me / Kimberly Willis Holt

Samurai Shortstop / Alan Gratz

Get Real / Betty Hicks

Alabama Moon / Watt Key

Cookbooks

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence / Amy Sedaris

Paula Deen Celebrates! / Paula Deen

Southern Cooking / S.R. Dull

Deep South Parties: or, How to Survive the Southern Cocktail Hour Without a Box of French Onion Soup, a Block of Processed Cheese, or a Cocktail Weenie: a Cookbook Featuring the New Celebratory Cuisine of the South with Recollections and Stories From the Region / Robert St. John

The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners / Matt and Ted Lee

Fiction

The Collectors / David Baldacci

Lay of the Land / Richard Ford

The Judas Field / Howard Bahr

Back to Wando Passo / David Payne

The Templar Legacy / Steve Berry

Plum Wine / Angela Davis-Gardner

The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster / Kaye Gibbons

End of California / Steve Yarbrough

Miss Julia Stands Her Ground / Ann B. Ross

Nature Girl / Carl Hiaasen

One Mississippi / Mark Childress

On Agate Hill / Lee Smith

Sufficient Grace / Darnell Arnoult

The Worthy: a Ghost's Story / Will Clarke

Smonk, or Widow Town / Tom Franklin

Thirteen Moons / Charles Frazier

The Brief History of the Dead / Kevin Brockmeier

True Evil / Greg Iles

Eye of Vengeance / Jonathan King

King of Lies / John Hart

Nonfiction

Mockingbird: a Portrait of Harper Lee / Charles Shields

The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town / John Grisham

An Inconvenient Truth: the Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It / Al Gore

Lost Mountain: a Year in the Vanishing Wilderness / Erik Reece

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game / Michael Lewis

American Plague: the Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History

Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength From Friends and Strangers / Elizabeth Edwards

The Creation: an Appeal to Save Life on Earth / Edward O. Wilson

LBJ: Architect of American Ambition / Randall Bennett Woods

The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast / Douglas G. Brinkley

Blood and Thunder: an Epic of the American West / Hampton Sides

Happy Reading!

Holley

March 2007 Brown Bag Programs

Wed. March 7th

Too Hot Not To Handle
Today’s speaker is Jane Trechsel, a local actress and author of
A Morning Cup of Yoga. Her audio-visual presentation today
will address the question of climate change and ways we can
reduce its effects.

Wed. March 14th
A Global Warning
Today’s film stirred controversy at the end of 2006. This film
is a passionate and inspiring look at former Vice President
Al Gore's campaign to expose the myths and misconceptions of
global warming, and to create public awareness on the subject.

Wed. March 21st
Creatures of the Deep
Today’s film takes viewers on an underwater adventure complete
with strange and terrific creatures deep under the ocean’s
surface. Award winning director James Cameron is our guide on
this journey into the deep.

Wed. March 28th
Deathly Ascent
We will travel to the extreme opposite end of the earth for
today’s film as we venture to the heights of Mt. McKinley,
the highest point in North America. This NOVA film attempts
to solve the mystery of the many high altitude deaths which
have occurred on McKinley’s summit. We will follow high altitude
rescuers, emergency medical evacuation teams, and scientists
leading cutting edge experiments as they attempt to save climbers
from deathly ascents.

Programs are Wednesdays in the Library’s Meeting Room from 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Please bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided.
For more information, please contact Katie Moellering at 205-445-1118 or
kmoellering@bham.lib.al.us.

-Katie M.

Friends Book Sale

The Friends Book Sale is finally here! The Preview Party has been a smashing success, so hurry on in to the library and grab some books! The Friends have assembled a wide variety of titles, both fiction and non-fiction. There are children's titles, young adult books, cookbooks and more! Books will be for sale in the library's basement and in the meeting room all weekend! For more information, please give us a call at 445-1101.
We hope to see you this weekend!
-Katie M.

! ! ! HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! !

2007 is the Year of the Pig and if you weren’t at the Birmingham Museum of Art this weekend to celebrate BMA’s first annual Chinese New Year Celebration you REALLY missed out! The event kicked off with a Lion Dance and parade while the staccato pop of firecrackers peppered the air. Some of the fireworks exploded in the sky, releasing colorful ribbons which soon festooned many of the trees in Linn Park. There were food vendors, many types of textile and decorative crafts for sale, and representatives from several Chinese and Chinese-American associations including the Birmingham Chinese Association, the Chinese-American Business Association of Birmingham, the Chinese Student and Scholar Association, and the Birmingham Chapter of the U.S. China Peoples Friendship Association. Traditional music was playing, kids were darting to and fro, and it was truly a wonderfully chaotic celebration!

From Linn Park participants could make their way into the Museum to enjoy hot tea and fortune cookies while listening to a choir of children sing traditional Chinese songs. There was a scavenger hunt in the Chinese art gallery, face painting (I was born in a year of the snake so that’s what I got!), and a calligraphy table where you could have your name written in Chinese. If you still had the energy, you could have enjoyed a fashion show of traditional Chinese garb while you relaxed at the Terrace Café with your tea. It was a great event so mark your calendars for next year’s celebration for the Year of the Rat.

For more information about China be sure to check out our collection at Emmet O’Neal! We have a comprehensive collection on China and many facets of its culture including history, language, myths, economics, commerce, furniture and more! Want to learn to speak Mandarin? Spanish? Farsi? Choose from these or any other of the over 25 languages available from the Rosetta Stone Language Lab!

Rosetta Stone is the #1 language-learning software in the world, used successfully by millions of people in 150 countries. It’s been adopted by government agencies and corporations—including Deutsche Telekom, IBM, and Lockheed Martin—and thousands of schools and universities around the world. With Rosetta Stone, learning a new language is easier than you ever imagined (description taken from http://www.rosettastone.com/).

Holley

This Should Keep You Busy -

Check These Title Out! They'll keep you busy ...




Until the last Harry Potter book comes out! Greg Keyes is one of my FaVoRiTe fantasy authors. His series (The Kingdoms of Thorn & Bone) is fantastic! Read the first three in this series, you won't be sorry! Here is a brief description of the first book, The Briar King (summary from Greg Keyes' website):

Two thousand years ago, the Born Queen defeated the Skasloi lords, freeing humans from the bitter yoke of slavery. But now monstrous creatures roam the landÑand destinies become inextricably entangled in a drama of power and seduction. The kingÕs woodsman, a rebellious girl, a young priest, a roguish adventurer, and a young man made suddenly into a knightÑall face malevolent forces that shake the foundations of the kingdom, even as the Briar King, legendary harbinger of death, awakens from his slumber. At the heart of this many-layered tale is Anne Dare, youngest daughter of the royal family . . . upon whom the fate of her world may depend.

Sounds cool, huh????

I also noticed a review in Library Journal for this new title that I am now eagerly anticipating:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Library Journal, starred review
From his childhood as a member of a close-knit family of the nomadic Edema Ruh to his first heady days as a student of magic at a prestigious university, humble bartender Kvothe relates the tale of how a boy beset by fate became a hero, a bard, a magician, and a legend. Rothfuss's first novel launches a trilogy relating not only the history of humankind but also the tale of a world threatened by an evil whose existence it desperately denies. The author explores the development of a person's character while examining the relationship between a legend and its reality and the truth that lies at the heart of stories. Elegantly told and layered with images of tales to come, this richly detailed "autobiography" of a hero is highly recommended for libraries of any size.


Now you have plenty to read and keep you busy until July!
Best,
Katie M.

! ! ! Of Reel Importance ! ! !

Break out the popcorn and candy!

New DVDs have arrived!

Available for checkout now, our eclectic blend of modern titles will provide endless hours of viewing entertainment. Academy Award winners, cult classics, foreign films, popular new releases and much, much more await you...

Come in today!

Attention MBHS Sophmores and Seniors!

Are you working on that HUGE research paper assignment?

Need more sources?

Citation help?

A shoulder to cry on?

Come on down to the Emmet O'Neal Library where we have (and let you check out!) the information you need on topics from Beowulf to bird flu...and we're open weekends Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 1-5.

Don't let that March 9th due date sneak up on you, come in today!

Don't let this be you...

Holley
Reference/Adult Department
205/445-1121

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

It's here! It's finally here!

The release date for the last installment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows will be July 21st - right after the movie!

We are going to have an amazing, wizard-filled summer around here! Be watching for some Harry related contests from the library.