10 Books We’re Looking Forward to in June

June 3, 2014June 3, 2014 / Louise / Leave a comment

Summer reading never looked so good, here are some great new titles for your beach bag!

Every month, librarians from around the country pick the top ten new books they’d most like to share with readers. The results are published on LibraryReads.org. One of the goals of LibraryReads is to highlight the important role public libraries play in building buzz for new books and new authors. Click through to read more about what new and upcoming books librarians consider buzzworthy this month. The top ten titles for June are:

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healy
China Dolls by Lisa See
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum
The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand
Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch
The Lobster Kings by Alexi Zentner
The Hurricane Sisters by Dorothea Benton Frank
The Quick by Lauren Owen
Rogues edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Jenn Reads: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

June 1, 2014April 30, 2014 / Jenn / Leave a comment

Our mystery book club recently read Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.

A recently unemployed millennial, Clay, wonders into a curious San Francisco bookstore and leaves finding himself employed. It’s a strange bookstore- long with shelves that seem to reach towards the sky and some odd books. His boss, Mr. Penumbra, has just three rules for Clay, the most important of which is to never look inside the books on what Clay calls the “wayback shelves.”

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Clay works the midnight shift and encounters a few characters, all of whom want books from the “wayback shelves.” It does not take Clay long to peek into those books and open the proverbial can of worms. Along with the help of friends, Clay seeks to solve the puzzle of eternal life.

This is a book for anyone who loves to read, loves bookstores or libraries, or ponders what the future will bring. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is a book for today, with its clash of technology and traditional ways and methods. We get asked a lot here at the library what we believe the future of print books will be with the advent of e-books. It is difficult to say for sure (no one has a crystal ball), but I would personally like to hope that print books will always be around. After all, people still use brooms even though they have vacuum cleaners!

This book also raises the question: How do will we solve problems – by using computers or our own brains? How reliant will we become on computers? Clay finds throughout the book that technology can be useful, but it also cannot do the critical and complex thinking our minds can accomplish.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is an easy to read, engaging, and quirky book. I enjoyed the adventure and the resolution of the puzzle (solved without the help of a computer!). There were times however, when problems were too easily solved with a ready answer or helping hand. So-and-so just happened to have that skill or know a person who could help them. It became a little too predictable. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is not at least familiar with some of the changes in technology – this book is full of 2012 popular jargon and pop culture references, which could be confusing for some.

Rating: 4 bookmarks out of 5

See you in the stacks,
Jenn

Linda Reads: Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead

May 31, 2014June 5, 2014 / Linda / Leave a comment

After reading a review, I decided to give Astonish Me a try. I was not disappointed! This book takes you into the fascinating world of ballet and into the complicated life of a second string dancer. The chronological way of telling this story was, at first, awkward. But as the book progressed, it made a complex story more interesting. There are several ‘main’ characters, each with their own story to tell. Ms. Shipstead deftly weaves their stories together. While the world of dance is foremost, you don’t have to be a lover of ballet to like this book. This is a story of love, family, marriage, careers and the struggles of life that many can relate to.

Astonish Me is the irresistible story of Joan, a young American dancer who helps a Soviet ballet star, the great Arslan Rusakov, defect in 1975. A flash of fame and a passionate love affair follow, but Joan knows that, onstage and off, she is destined to remain in the background. She will never possess Arslan, and she will never be a prima ballerina. She will rise no higher than the corps, one dancer among many.
After her relationship with Arslan sours, Joan plots to make a new life for herself. She quits ballet, marries a good man, and settles in California with him and their son, Harry. But as the years pass, Joan comes to understand that ballet isn’t finished with her yet, for there is no mistaking that Harry is a prodigy. Through Harry, Joan is pulled back into a world she thought she’d left behind—back into dangerous secrets, and back, inevitably, to Arslan.

Maggie Shipstead

Maggie Shipstead is a novelist and short story writer. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Maggie’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Tin House, The Paris Review Daily, VQR, American Short Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. Her story “La Moretta” was a 2012 National Magazine Award finalist. Her debut novel, “Seating Arrangements,” was a national bestseller and the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.

Everybody’s Got a Story – 10 New and Upcoming Memoirs

May 29, 2014June 5, 2014 / Louise / Leave a comment

What is a memoir?

Memoir (from French: mémoire, meaning memory or reminiscence), is a literary subcategory of the autobiography, usually a collection of memories that an individual writes about moments or events that took place in the author’s life. Like most autobiographies, memoirs are written from the first-person point of view. Where an autobiography tells the story of a life, while memoir tells a story from a life, such as touchstone events and turning points from the author’s life.

Memoirs have seen a major surge in popularity in recent years. The old adage “everyone has a book in them” seems to be coming true! Some hypothesize that the growing popularity of social media and reality television shows has increased the public’s appetite for reading memoirs. Whatever the reason, there are more and more published every year. Here are a few of the new and noteworthy memoirs being published in 2014:

I Forgot to Remember by Su Meck. the story of an amnesia survivor who permanently lost all of her memories after a traumatic brain injury and who endured a more than 25-year effort to relearn basic skills and reclaim her life. In her own indelible voice, Su offers us a view from the inside of a terrible injury, with the hope that her story will help give other brain injury sufferers and their families the resolve and courage to build their lives anew.

Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart. A candid, witty, deeply poignant account of his life, Shteyngart shares his experience a young Russian immigrant, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. It is a memoir of a Jewish family leaving Russia and coming to America, as told by a lifelong misfit who forged from his imagination an essential literary voice and, against all odds, a place in the world.

Out of the Woods by Lynn Darling. After her daughter leaves home for college, the author, a widow, embarks on a journey of self-discovery that leads her from New York to Vermont where she, with her dog and a compass, maps out a new direction for her life while adapting to the solitude of her new surroundings. Combining the soul-baring insight of Wild, the profound wisdom of Shop Class as Soulcraft, and the adventurous spirit of Eat, Pray, Love: Lynn Darling’s powerful, lyrical memoir of self-discovery, full of warmth and wry humor.

Paddle Your Own Canoe by Nick Offerman. The actor known for roles in such productions as Parks and Recreation shares whimsical musings on a range of topics from love and manliness to grooming and eating meat, offering additional discussions of his life before fame and his courtship of his wife, Megan Mullally. A mix of amusing anecdotes, opinionated lessons and rants, sprinkled with offbeat gaiety, Paddle Your Own Canoe will not only tickle readers pink but may also rouse them to put down their smart phones, study a few sycamore leaves, and maybe even hand craft (and paddle) their own canoes.

Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan. The author of the best-selling The Middle Place presents an account of her perspectives on motherhood, which have been shaped by her job as a nanny for a grieving Australian family and her character-testing experiences with her daughters. A book about the difference between travel and life experience, stepping out and stepping up, fathers and mothers; But mostly it’s about who you admire and why, and how that changes over time.

Duty by Robert M. Gates. The former Secretary of Defense and director of the CIA recounts his service under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, describing his roles in such major events as the Bin Laden raid, the Guantánamo Bay controversy and the WikiLeaks scandal.

Sous Chef by Michael Gibney. An executive sous chef who has worked alongside cooks from some of the nation’s leading restaurants documents an intense twenty-four-hour period that illuminates the allures and adversities of a professional culinary life. Sous Chef is an immersive, adrenaline-fueled run that offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective on the food service industry, allowing readers to briefly inhabit the hidden world behind the kitchen doors, in real time.

Stronger by Jeff Bauman. Long-distance runner Bauman’s inspiring memoir of his experiences during the terrorist bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon in which he lost both his legs and his ongoing mission to walk again.

Things a Little Bird Told Me by Biz Stone. Telling personal stories from his early life and careers, the co-founder of Twitter and one of today’s most successful businessmen shares his knowledge about the nature and importance of ingenuity today. Biz also addresses failure, the value of vulnerability, ambition, and corporate culture.

Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former secretary of state, senator and first lady shares candid reflections about the key moments of her service in the Obama Administration as well as her thoughts about how to navigate the challenges of the 21st century.

Handling Questions About Bodies with Your Young Children

May 27, 2014June 6, 2014 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

I think every parent dreads certain questions and discussions with their children. There are a thousand difficult things that we will need to discuss with them as they grow up, and no matter how well-prepared we think we are, they are bound to ask a question or make an observation we are unprepared for. In order to help us feel better about approaching the discussion about body differences, changes, and babies I put together a few book lists to help all of us.

In this post I will offer suggestions for parents in deciding what to say and when, and how to broach the body discussion with the youngest children that need to know why boys and girls are different, and why certain actions or questions might be inappropriate. I followed up that list with some book suggestions that you can share with even the youngest children to help explain matters.