The Best of the Best!

It’s a new year and time to honor the best of the best books written in 2011 for children. Many awards are given, but there are two that stand above all the rest. The first one is the John Newbery Medal. This award dates back to 1922 and it was the first children’s literary award ever given in the world. The award was named after John Newbery, an 18th century English publisher of books, and it was given for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. The honor for this award for 2011 goes to “Dead End in Norvelt” by Jack Gantos. This story is a blending of true and fictional events. 12-year old Jackie Gantos (does the name sound familiar?) is looking forward to 2 fantastic months of summer vacation when out of the blue, he is grounded for life. All he has to look forward to now is helping some little old lady, who types obituaries about fellow townspeople, each with their own story to tell. Who knew that a summer filled with molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, Hells Angels and a possible murder would take Jack on an unexpected adventure in this quirky little town. Readers will laugh at all the twists and turns as this story unfolds Jack’s summer.
We have a change of pace with the first Newbery Honor Book, “Inside Out & Back Again”, by Thankha Lai. Ha’ has lived her whole 10 years in Saigon. As the Viet Nam war comes ever closer to Saigon, Ha’ and her family are forced to leave Saigon for a new home and a new hope in America. That first year is a year of change from the warmth of friends to the coldness of strangers, from the exciting aromas and tastes of her marketplace to food that is dull in comparison, and from the beauty of her own papaya tree to the strange shape of a new landscape in Alabama. The one constant in her life is the strength of her family. You come to know all of Ha’s dreams, grief, and healing as she adjusts to her new home.
“Breaking Stalin’s Nose” by Eugene Velchin is the second Newbery Honor book. From age 6, Sasha has known all the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers. He lives and dreams about being the perfect Soviet comrade, just like his dad and Stalin; then, when he can finally join the Young Pioneers, his world changes in a heartbeat. It’s bad enough when he breaks a schoolmate’s glasses with a snowball or when he accidentally damages a bust of Stalin, but the worst is yet to come-- his father’s arrest. Velchin, born and educated in Russia, shows in this story the fear that Russians lived with during the Stalin regime.

The Newbery award honors writers, but many people believe that the artists creating the book are also deserving of an honor for their artistic skill. In 1937 , a prestigious second medal was established in honor of the nineteenth-century English illustrator, Randolph J. Caldecott. This honor is given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
The honor of this award in 2011 goes to “A Ball for Daisy”. Through the use of watercolor, gouache, and ink, Christopher Raschka is able to convey the joy and sadness of a little dog as he plays with his prize possession without writing a single word.
The first Caldecott Honor book is “Grandpa Green”, written and illustrated by Lane Smith. Reading this book is like entering a secret garden. Line drawings and sponge drawings create whimsical topiaries that tell the story of Grandpa Green’s life. Even though Grandpa struggles with his memory, the garden helps him to remember his past. You can easily see the love between the grandson and the grandfather conveyed through the illustrations. Words aren’t necessary to describe their feelings for one another.
The second Caldecott Honor book, “Blackout”, is written and illustrated by John Rocco. We’ve all been there-- a hot summer night, storm breaks, and the lights go out. All that you were busy with has come to a screeching halt because there is no electricity. At first it’s frustrating, but then, if you’re lucky, you get out the candles and give in to the moment and enjoy it. That’s what happens in this beautifully illustrated book. Everyone in this story is “too busy” to play a board game and then the blackout occurs. Because the apartment is too hot, the family goes up to the roof where they can actually see the stars. As Rocco puts it “It was a block party in the sky”. Eventually the lights come back on, but the family chooses to turn them off and take the time to be together.
In the third Caldecott Honor book, “Me… Jane”, written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell, we get a short biography of Jane Goodall. Done in India ink and pastels, we see from the very beginning that Jane was meant to be a chimpanzee researcher and conservationist. Her favorite stuffed animal was a chimpanzee named Jubilee, she loved the outdoors, she loved learning about nature, and she dreamed of someday traveling to Africa. This book is so highly thought of that, on March 3rd, it will receive the 2012 Charlotte Zolotow Award, given for outstanding writing in a picture book.
Hope you enjoy reading the best of the best.

Newbery picture courtesy of Google images

Get Ready for World Book Night!

On April 23, 2012, something exciting will happen: one million books will be given away across the United States. Even more exciting: you can be one of the people who gives them away!

The event is called World Book Night, and the goal is to promote reading by putting books in the hands of people who seldom read. The organizers (mostly publishing and printing companies) are looking for 50,000 volunteers to each give away 20 books which will be shipped (free!) to a location near you. As a volunteer you even get to choose, from a list of 30 popular titles, which book you’d like to distribute. The idea is for the book-givers to be able to say, “You have to read this book—I loved it!” Interested? Go to worldbooknight.org to find out more about this event or to volunteer to be a book giver. The deadline for applying to be a book giver is February 1, so don’t delay.

Even if you don’t plan to be a part of World Book Night, you may want to peruse the list of books that were chosen to be given away. The committee began with a list of award-winners, best-sellers and frequently-requested books, and asked librarians and booksellers to choose from that list the books they would be most excited to give away. (For more on this process, read howwearechoosingtheusbooks). So the 30 books to be given away are a treasure trove of recommended reads. All of them can be found at the Weyenberg library. How many have you read?

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was hugely popular several years ago. I love books that give me a glimpse into another country; in this book you’ll get an unforgettable picture of life in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Don’t miss Hosseini’s second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which many agree is even more gripping than the first.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult is a riveting story about a child who was conceived as a bone marrow match for her older sister, who is fighting leukemia. As always, Picoult does an amazing job of getting into the heads of each of her characters, telling the story from multiple points of view.

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo is part of the juvenile collection, but it has a protagonist who is so endearing that I’m happy to recommend this book to adults as well as children. It’s funny and charming and sweet, filled with lovable and quirky characters, and focuses on the importance of family and friends--both human and canine.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is an unforgettable memoir. The author and her siblings have parents who seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that they are responsible for their four children, and the children are left to raise themselves. I enjoyed the adventure of their parentless childhood, was amazed at the resilience of the children, and astounded that there could be such parents in the world. You may also enjoy reading Half Broke Horses (or listening to it on CD--read by the author), which is about her incredibly independent and free-thinking grandmother.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak will grab you in the first chapter, and not let go. It’s a story of survival set in Nazi Germany, told by an unusual narrator, but it’s also a tale of how love of others makes all things bearable, and how books nourish the soul.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a mesmerizing dystopian tale. Most adults I know say they would never have chosen this book on their own, but read it because others raved about how good it was—and they were not disappointed! So if you usually avoid Young Adult books in general, and dystopian fiction in particular, try The Hunger Games. Once you start this book, you won’t be able to put it down, and after turning the last page, you’ll be hungry for more. Fortunately, there are two more titles in the series, Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

The other titles on the list are:

Adult Fiction
Little Bee by Chris Cleve
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Stand by Stephen King
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Just Kids by Patti Smith

Adult Genres
Kindred by Octavia Butler (Sci Fi)
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Sci Fi)
Blood Work byMichael Connelly (Mystery)
Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton (Mystery)

Adult Non Fiction
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Biography)

Young Adult
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Russia Revisited

Why do so many authors turn to Russia as a setting for their novels? It’s hard to say, but certain places just make for great stories. Russia with all its vastness, people and history, wintered in cold and darkness, shrouded in greatness just seems like a perfect setting for mystery, romance, intrigue or war. Who can forget Doctor Zhivago, Anna Karenina or John le Carre’s dark thrillers of cold war?

While not all novels can compete with the likes of these great books, there certainly are some newer books being written with that same familiar sense of place. The past and the present come full circle in the two novels described below. If it were not for the memories of the past locked up inside each of the characters, we would have no storyline. While one is the sole possessor of one’s own memories, it is in the here and now of the present that matters.

Winter garden by Kristin Hannah was fairly popular with patrons when it first came out and I still get frequent requests for it. The past (Leningrad) becomes the key to unlocking the present in this story of a mother and her two daughters. If you haven’t read anything by Hannah before I recommend you give her a try. Kristin Hannah writes contemporary stories focusing on women’s lives and relationships. Similar authors are Barbara Delinsky and Luanne Rice. I have read some of Rice’s books and have liked them. I found Winter Garden to be a satisfying read. You won’t be disappointed.

I suppose you could say the cover of Russian winter by Daphne Kalotay caught my eye when I first saw it. It’s unusual because it shows the back of a woman’s head with a necklace facing out. The necklace as it turns out is central to the story. Each of the main characters Nina, Drew and Gregori are interconnected through this necklace. Sense of place and history is well defined and the characters are equally drawn out. If you like jewelry, the ballet, a bit of romance and mystery along with an introduction to Russian history this book will appeal to you like it did to me.

I just finished reading Snowdrops by A. D. Miller. This tiny, slim debut volume was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker prize. It’s a psychological drama that takes place over one Moscow winter. The story is being told through the words of Nick Platt, a British lawyer living in Moscow as he confesses to a woman he is about to marry. A snowdrop is a corpse that lies buried or hidden in the winter snows, emerging only in the thaw. I’ve read you need to get past the first twenty pages to really enjoy this book. That may be true, but I was interested right from the start with the encounter at the train station. If you like a modern day story with a lot of twists and secrets this book may appeal to you.

With the film Tinker tailor soldier spy now playing in theaters, readers may be interested in rereading the novel of the same name or John le Carre’s other spy novels. It’s best to start with The spy who came in from the cold and then work your way up to the more challenging novels. Readers looking for other similarly complex, layered stories may also look to Alan Furst and Daniel Silva.


May we suggest the following additional titles?

The Russian affair by Michael Wallner
Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith
Heart of iron by Ekaterina Sedia
The betrayal by Helen Dunmore
City of thieves by David Benioff
Three stations by Martin Cruz Smith
Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne dominion by Eric Lustbader


Picture courtesy: http://english.runsky.com/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20091120/00e061046ec50c7021320a.jpg

I GOT A KINDLE, NOW WHAT DO I DO?

This holiday season, getting a Kindle or other e-reader device from family and friends seems to be a common gift received. But now that you have an e-reader device, how do you go about using it? Sure, you could buy your books outright. And with prices under $10 for most titles, why not? But what about the books that you don’t want to own? What if you want to borrow books from the library like you have been doing for years? Well, you’re in luck because for a couple years now, the libraries in the state of Wisconsin have been pooling their resources together for OverDrive, a database that lends digital copies of audiobooks and e-books. And since September 2011, the Kindle device has joined the list of the hundreds of supported devices that can be used with OverDrive.

Borrowing e-books through the library system is free, fairly easy to navigate, can be borrowed for up to 3 weeks, returns automatically so there are no late fees, can be done in the comfort of your home, and did I mention free? Now, there can be waiting lists for titles just like there are for the physical books, but because of the automatic return process, you could get a book in a couple weeks versus a couple months.

Some recent books I have read through OverDrive:
A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair, book 1 of the Vintage Magic Mysteries
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, book 1 of the Kate Daniels series
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini, book 4 of the Inheritance Cycle series

The Outcasts by John Flanagan, book 1 of the Brotherband Chronicles

You may also find many popular best-sellers available in Overdrive, such as:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. A hacker and a journalist investigate the disappearance of a Swedish heiress 40 years earlier.
The Litigators by John Grisham. Partners in a small law firm take on a big case after a fast-track burnout joins them.
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. In the second volume of the Millennium trilogy, a Swedish hacker becomes a murder suspect.
Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich. After a disastrous vacation in Hawaii, Stephanie Plum becomes the target of an international killer.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett. A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. In the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are mustering.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. The third volume of the Millennium trilogy, about a Swedish hacker and a journalist.

If you would like instructions on how to use OverDrive with your new e-reader device or how to download audiobooks, here are some links to instructions.
OverDrive Services Summary – audiobooks & e-books
How to get an OverDrive e-book on your E-Reader (Nook & Sony)
How to get an OverDrive e-book on your Kindle

To access OverDrive, go to http://www.flwlib.org/ and click on the OverDrive link on the right hand of the webpage or type in the internet address bar dbooks.wplc.info. Once you have clicked on the OverDrive link, the OverDrive website will load. Sign into your account by going to the top right hand corner and clicking on “Sign In.” Select “Eastern Shores Library System” from the drop down menu. You will then be prompted to enter your library card number (located on the back of your library card) and PIN number (usually the last 4 digits of your telephone number). You are now signed into your OverDrive account and can begin searching!

****Image pulled from Google Images.

GOTHIC NOVELS

I recently started reading The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, and immediately, I was struck by a layer of creepiness within the story. This got me thinking about other creepy books, and the list I came up with consisted of mainly gothic novels.

Gothic novels combine elements of horror and romance and are often melodramatic. The birth of gothic novels is often attributed to The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, written in 1764. The age of gothic novels only lasted until about 1820. Then, their popularity began to fade. However, you can still find great gothic novels written today.

The main attributes that make up gothic novels consist of a castle setting, a mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere, a prophecy, omens and visions, supernatural or inexplicable events, high emotions, a woman in distress, a powerful and tyrannical man, and/or the prevalence of gloom and horror. While not all of these elements must be present for a book to be considered gothic, more than one must be prevalent throughout the story.

There is a lot of fear, terror, surprise, and darkness in these books. They make for fun reads on gloomy winter days: perfect for sitting next to a warm fire or curling up in your favorite chair to get lost in the sensationalism of the story.


Newer Gothic Novels:

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton: A long-lost letter arrives fifty years late and sends Edie Burchill to Milderhurst Castle where she encounters the three Blythe sisters. You will follow Edie as she attempts to unravel the mysteries of the castle and the sisters.

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood follows Gerard Freeman as he sets out to solve the mystery of his family. He discovers a ghost story written long ago that implicates his mother in a terrible family tragedy. This is a story of family skeletons and stories.

Half Broken Things by Morag Joss is a psychological suspense story that looks at the lives of three lost people who come together at Walden Manor and the events that occur upon their arrival.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield tells the story of Vida Winter, a famous author of twelve tales. She tells her life story to a biographer, Margaret Lea. The story is one of beauty, ghosts, a garden, and a terrible fire. The two women must face their pasts in order become transformed by the truth themselves.

Classic Gothic Novels:

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe



Picture from http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com/IrishGothicHaslam.html