Monday, September 28, 2009

Evening Book Group tomorrow night!


Join the most fun book group in town tomorrow night at 6:30pm when we meet to discuss young adult fiction. What was your favorite book when you were a teenager? What is your teen reading right now? Which trends are hot and which are not in teen reading?

Genre Reading Group
Tuesday, September 29th @ 6;30pm
Bring a YA fiction book and tell us about it!


October's topic will be National Book Award winners, fiction and nonfiction. I have a selection pulled for your perusal or you can find a complete list here! Call or email me if you have any questions!
205/445-1117 or hwesley@bham.lib.al.us

Happy reading!
Holley

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Fall/Winter Book Tour

If you missed the Brown Bag program last week, Katie and I shared a cornucopia's worth of books to be published soon about which we are very excited!

Never fear, here they are! Links to the library catalog are provided where available!

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Tassie Keltjin, 20, a smalltown girl weathering a clumsy college year in the Athens of the Midwest, is taken on as prospective nanny by brittle Sarah Brink, the proprietor of a pricey restaurant who is desperate to adopt a baby despite her dodgy past.

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert Edsel
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellroy
In 1939, in the small, rural community of Augusta Falls, Georgia, twelve-year-old Joseph Vaughan learns of the brutal assault and murder of a young girl, the first in a series of killings that will plague the community over the next decade. Joseph and his friends are determined to protect the town from the evil in their midst and they form "The Guardians" to watch over the community. But the murderer evades them and they watch helplessly as one child after another is taken. Even when the killings cease, a shadow of fear follows Joseph for the rest of his life. The past won't stay buried and, fifty years later, Joseph must confront the nightmare that has overshadowed his entire life...

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.

True Compass: A Memoir by Edward Kennedy
In this landmark autobiography, five years in the making, Senator Edward M. Kennedy tells his extraordinary personal story--of his legendary family, politics, and fifty years at the center of national events.

Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve
Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya. Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn't know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband. A Change in Altitude illuminates the inner landscape of a couple, the irrevocable impact of tragedy, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. With stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Anita Shreve transports us to the exotic panoramas ofand into the core of our most intimate relationships.

Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods
CIA agent Holly Barker deals with corruption in a small town police department.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners--a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life--has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women survivors, Ren and Toby, seek to break out of the individual confines and seek other survivors.

Separate Country by Robert Hicks
Set in New Orleans in the years after the Civil War, A Separate Country is based on the incredible life of John Bell Hood, arguably one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army--and one of its most tragic figures.

SEPTEMBER 28TH

The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King by James Patterson
James Patterson and Martin Dugard dig through stacks of evidence--X-rays, Carter's files, forensic clues, and stories told through the ages--to arrive at their own account of King Tut's life and death. The result is an exhilarating true crime tale of intrigue, passion, and betrayal that casts fresh light on the oldest mystery of all.

SEPTEMBER 29TH

Have a Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom
Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere.

Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius by Colin Dickey
The word skullduggery finds a new meaning in Dickey's well-vetted account of those obsessed with owning the skulls of the highly talented and famous. Fiction and nonfiction writer Dickey (co-editor of Failure! Experiments in Aesthetic and Social Practices) takes the reader back to the plucky grave robbers who stole the craniums of famed composers Haydn and Beethoven, Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, artist Francisco Goya, the English doctor and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne and others to sell, study or put on public display.

OCTOBER 1ST

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers
His new novel, based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay cowritten with Spike Jonze, is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control.

OCTOBER 6TH

Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon
What does it mean to be a man today? Chabon invokes and interprets and struggles to reinvent for us, with characteristic warmth and lyric wit, the personal and family history that haunts him even as—simply because—it goes on being written every day.

OCTOBER 13TH

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly
LAPD detective Harry Bosch battles a Hong Kong triad.

Pursuit of Honor by Vince Flynn
Mitch Rapp battles Al Qaeda terrorism on U.S. soil.

OCTOBER 19TH

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan
On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in an eyeblink. Equally dramatic, though, is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen.

OCTOBER 20TH

Blood Game by Iris Johansen
Eve tracks a serial killer who drains the blood of the victims.

The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell
Kay Scarpetta is asked to launch a TV show celebrating her crime solving abilities and she quickly receives threatening packages and ominous callers.

OCTOBER 23RD

The Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross
The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles—and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. William Shawcross—given unrestricted access to the Queen Mother’s personal papers, letters, and diaries—gives us a portrait of unprecedented vividness and detail.

OCTOBER 27TH

True Blue by David Baldacci
A mysterious high-profile homicide in the nation's capital collides with the dark side of national security in David Baldacci's new, heart-stopping thriller.

NOVEMBER 2ND

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong.

NOVEMBER 9TH

Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi
The tennis great tells all.

NOVEMBER 10TH

Under the Dome by Stephen King
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

NOVEMBER 16TH

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
The follow-up to Alex Cross's Trial

The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov
When Vladimir Nabokov died in 1977, he left instructions for his heirs to burn the 138 handwritten index cards that made up the rough draft of his final and unfinished novel, The Original of Laura. But Nabokov’s wife, Vera, could not bear to destroy her husband’s last work, and when she died, the fate of the manuscript fell to her son. Dmitri Nabokov, now seventy-five—the Russian novelist’s only surviving heir, and translator of many of his books—has wrestled for three decades with the decision of whether to honor his father’s wish or preserve for posterity the last piece of writing of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. His decision finally to allow publication of the fragmented narrative—dark yet playful, preoccupied with mortality—affords us one last experience of Nabokov’s magnificent creativity, the quintessence of his unparalleled body of work.

NOVEMBER 24TH

The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley
In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name.In 2005, a century later, James Bradley traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's mission in search of exactly what transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing and Seoul.

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
Discovered as a complete manuscript in his files after his death in 2008.

Breathless by Dean Koontz
Grady Adams lives a simple, solitary life deep in the Colorado mountains. Here the thirty-five-year-old carpenter works out of a converted barn, crafting exquisite one-of-a-kind furniture. There’s little about this strong yet gentle man to suggest the experiences that have alienated him from the contemporary world. But that is about to change.

DECEMBER 1ST

U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
The next installment in the Kinsey Millhone series.

Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession by Julie Powell
Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she'd ever do--until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING. Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery.

JANUARY 12TH

Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Happy Reading!
Holley

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Beautiful new book!


We just received a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica/Getty Images History of the World in Photographs: 1850-Present and this is definitely a book you shouldn't miss!
  • 2,000 historical photos
  • 6,000 chronological entries
  • Plus 20,000 more photos on an enclosed CD-ROM
This large, coffee-table style book is one of the most gorgeous books I've looked through in quite some time. Encyclopedia Britannica, one of the world's most respected reference publishers, and Getty Images, the largest photographic collection in the world, have joined together to create this groundbreaking visual journey through more than a century of world history. Beginning in the year 1850--the year Harriet Tubman guided members of her family to freedom via the Underground Railroad, Charles Dickens published David Copperfield, and Levi Strauss began selling dry goods to California miners--this comprehensive volume of facts and photographs chronicles 150 years of human progress.



Happy reading!
Holley

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

50 Excellent Online Communities for Lifelong Learners!

Click through to view the list of online communites. There are categories for Books and Reading, Foreign Languages, Finance, Travel, and Variety of Communities.

I have several friends who love GoodReads, Katie likes LibraryThing, and I am a Shelfari girl myself! If you are keeping a written list of the books you read, sharpen your pencils no longer! I have a virtual bookshelf which displays the covers of the books I add, I can rate, review, and make notes about the books I read, and I can save books I plan on reading. These are social networking sites so other users can view your bookshelf and you may comment on theirs.

How do you keep up with what you read?

Happy reading!
Holley

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Tickets are now on sale!



Come read between the wines...

Join us Friday October 2, 2009 from 5:30pm-9pm at the Birmingham Zoo for the annual fundraiser for the library sponsored by Western Supermarkets!

The Western Wine & Food Festival!

Ticket Pricing:
Advance Tickets - $45
Purchased at the door - $55

Group Discounts
10-24 Tickets - $40 each
25 or more - $35 each

Tickets are available at all Western Supermarkets and at EOL so buy yours (and a friend's) today! Proceeds to benefit the Emmet O'Neal Library.

ALSO...

An Evening with Mary Kay Andrews

Don't miss your opportunity to meet New York Times best-selling (The Fixer Upper) author Mary Kay Andrews on Thursday October 22, 2009!

Ticket Pricing:
Advance Tickets for members of The Friends of the Emmet O'Neal Library - $20
Advance Tickets for the general public - $25
Purchased at the door - $30

For more information on either of these events, call 205/445-1121!

Happy reading!
Holley