Summer Left Behind- Top 20 Books Left Behind in Hotel Rooms

summerIt’s the last day of summer, your vacation’s  just a memory.  But did you leave something behind in your hotel room?

Travelodge has released its list of the top 20 books left behind in their rooms.

  1. Fifty Shades Freed by EL James
  2. Bared to You by Sylvia Day
  3. The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst
  4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  5. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
  6. Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
  7. Reflected in You by Sylvia Day
  8. My Time by Bradley Wiggins
  9. Entwined with You by Sylvia Day
  10. Fifty Shades Darker by EL James
  11. Cheryl: My Story by Cheryl COle
  12. The Marriage Trap by Jennifer Probast
  13. Camp David by David Walliams
  14. The Midwife by Jennifer Worth
  15. Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
  16. The Marriage Mistake by Jennifer Probst
  17. The Racketeer by John Grisham
  18. The Carrier by Sophie Hannah
  19. Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French
  20. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

A total of 22,648 books were left behind – 1,209 were Fifty Shades Freed!  No surprise that many of the top 20 are sizzling romance novels!

It’s National Talk Like Pirate Day, Celebrate with Picturebooks!

Today is National Talk Like Pirate Day! Celebrate this fun day with us by enjoying some great pirate themed picturebooks! Everyone loves a great pirate tale, and these are fun stories that you can share with the whole family while getting into the spirit of a silly holiday.

Pirate Pete’s Talk Like a Pirate by Kim Kennedy
In search of a crew, Pirate Pete and his parrot look for “stanky scallywags” who possess certain conversational skills.

The Pirate Princess by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Tired of the royal life, Princess Bea boards a pirate ship and sets out for adventure on the high seas but soon finds she is not good at swabbing decks, cooking in the galley, or keeping watch from the crow’s nest.

Small Saul by Ashley Spires
Small Saul is a different kind of pirate. Will Small Saul be able to prove his worth as a pirate or will he be thrown overboard?

Henry & the Buccaneer Bunnies by Carolyn Crim
Captain Barnacle Black Ear, baddest of the Buccaneer Bunnies, is ashamed of his book-loving son, Henry, until the day a great storm approaches.

You might also want to check out  The Pirates Next Door: Starring the Jolley-Rogers by Jonny Duddle, Pirate vs. Pirate: the Terrific Tale of a Big Blustery Maritime Match by Mary Quattlebaum, The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, The No-Good Do-Good Pirates by Jim Kraft, or Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates by Carolyn Crimi.

Would you prefer to learn about real pirates instead of reading picturebooks, or to follow up a fun tale with factual adventures? Then check out these children’s nonfiction books that they whole family can enjoy.

The Pirate Queen by Emily Arnold McCully, Women of the Sea: Ten Pirate Stories by Myra Weatherly, Blackbeard, the Pirate King: Several Yarns Detailing the Legends, Myths, and Real-life Adventures of History’s Most Notorious Seaman: Told in Verse by J. Patrick Lewis, Pirates: Facts, Things to Make, Activities by Rachel Wright, I Wonder Why Pirates Wore Earrings: and Other Questions about Piracy by Pat Jacobs, Pirates by Peter Chrisp, Real Pirates the Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship by Barry Clifford, Pirates : Robbers of the High Seas by Gail Gibbons, and Sea Queens: Women Pirates around the World by Jane Yolen.

2013 National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature – the Longlist

 

 

The National Book Foundation and The Daily Beast have announced the 2013 National Book Awards longlist for young people’s literature. The finalists will be announced on October 16, and the winners will be revealed on November 20.

The longlist:

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt.
Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by K.G. Campbell
A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff.
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson.
The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata.
Two Boys Kissing
by David Levithan.
Far Far Away
by Tom McNeal.
Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff.
The Real Boy
by Anne Ursu, illustrated by Erin McGuire.
Boxers
and Saints by Gene Luen Yang.

No Meat Please: Vegetarian Cookbooks

October 1st is World Vegetarian Day, and I get to celebrate it this year! In March my husband and I decided to become vegetarians, for a variety of reasons, and we haven’t looked back since. I get asked all the time, “So how IS it being a vegetarian???” Let me tell you, my carnivorous friends, it’s really not that bad. I thought I would crave burgers and chicken, but not really. The only thing I really miss is… bacon! It’s my trigger word.

When we made the decision to go veggie, I took out a LOT of vegetarian cookbooks and looked through them. Many of them have rather unusual, and frankly weird ingredients that my husband and I just aren’t ready for (some of these things you need to ease into). And tofu will never be a part of our diet. No matter how it’s prepared, it always tastes like a pencil eraser to me. But to each their own.

Whether you decided to be, or already are a vegetarian, or just like meatless cooking options, here are a few vegetarian cookbooks we have added to our collection this year:

Small Planet, Small Plates

  1. Small Planet, Small Plates: Earth-Friendly Vegetarian Recipes by Troth Wells. There are over 100 recipes from all around the world in this cookbook, dishes ranging from Africa, Latin-America, and the Middle East. Wells is a firm believer in low-impact eating and moving towards a vegetable-based diet as a sustainable method for our planet to survive. Picture with each recipe.

    French Market Cookbook

  2. The French Market Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes From My Parisian Kitchen by Clotide Dusoulier. Dusoulier is the blogger behind the popular blog ChocolateandZucchini.com and is not a vegetarian. But like a lot of people, she has chosen to eat fewer meat dishes. She includes 82 recipes using fresh, in season, and ripe ingredients that do not have a lot of cheeses, creams, or dairy.

    Meatless

  3. Meatless: More Than 200 Of the Very Best Vegetarian Recipes by Martha Stewart. Meatless has over 200 recipes, all with pictures, that are for the vegetarian and meat-eater alike. What is cool about this book is a guide on how to stock a vegetarian pantry, with essentials like beans, vegetable stock, and pastas.

    Simply Satisfying

  4. Simply Satisfying: Over 200 Vegetarian Recipes You’ll Want To Make Again and Again by Jeanne Lemlin. This is a reinvention of Lemlin’s first cookbook, published more than 25 years ago as Vegetarian Pleasures: A Menu Cookbook. In this new cookbook, Lemlin’s first in more than 10 years, she uses fresh, easily available (key in my book), and robust flavors. One recipes that sounds to die for is fragrant vegetable stew with corn dumplings. YUM!

    Welcome To Claire’s

  5. Welcome to Claire’s: 35 Years of Recipes and Reflections From the Landmark Vegetarian Restaurant by Claire Criscuolo. We are lucky enough to live within a half and hour of Claire’s Corner Copia and hope to make it there soon. If you’ve been to Claire’s before, you’ve likely tried her Lithuanian Coffee Cake. The recipe is included here!

See you in the stacks,

Jenn

Mystery/Thrillers Coming This Fall

book leavesThe days are getting shorter, nights longer.  Soon you’ll be looking for that perfect book to curl up with.  Here are some great mystery/thrillers to look forward to this fall.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King – Stephen King returns to the character and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

Sycamore Row by John Grisham – John Grisham’s A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial-a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.

The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly – Defense attorney Mickey Haller returns with a haunting case in the gripping new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.

The Spook Lights Affair by Marcia Muller – Fans of Marcia’s Muller’s bestselling Sharon McCone novels and Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series will applaud The Spook Lights Affair and future exploits from the annals of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services.

The Death Trade by Jack Higgins – The master of suspense returns with a cutting-edge tale that pits his heroes Sean Dillon and Sara Gideon against the nuclear ambitions of Iran.

Ask Not by Max Allan Collins – Fifty years after JFK’s tragic death, Collins’s rigorous research for Ask Not raises new questions about the most controversial assassination of our time.

Accused by Lisa Scottolini – New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Lisa Scottoline revolutionized crime fiction when she introduced her all-female law firm of Rosato & Associates, thrilling readers with her twisty, fast-paced plots and capturing their hearts with her cast of strong and relatable female characters. Now Bennie Rosato, Mary DiNunzio, Judy Carrier, and Anne Murphy are back with all cylinders firing in Accused.

Critical Mass by Sara Paretsky – New York Times-bestselling author Sara Paretsky’s brilliant protagonist V.I. Warshawski returns in another hard-hitting entry, combining razor-sharp plotting and compelling characters with a heady mix of timely political and social themes.

Other titles debuting this fall:  W Is For Wasted by Sue Grafton, Innocence by Dean Koontz, Hazardous Duty by W.E.B. Griffin, Police by Jo Nesbo, Going Dark by James W. Hall, The Mayan Secrets by Clive Cussler, Never Go Back by Lee Child, Second Watch by J.A. Jance. The October List by Jeffery Deaver, White Fire by Lincoln Child, Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith, Silencing Eve by Iris Johansen