Friday, October 31, 2014

October 31 - What should we celebrate?

October 31st is Magic Day.
For books about magic tricks, see 793.8.
For books about witchcraft and sorcery, see 133.4.
For books about Shamanism, see 201.44.

October 31st is also Bandanna Day.
For books about hand crafts, see 745.5.
For books about cancer, see 616.99.

For books about Halloween, see 394.2646.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

October 30 - What should we celebrate?

October 30th is Create a Great Funeral Day.
For books on religious ceremonies for the dead, see 265.85.
For books on the social aspects of death, see 393.
For books of cemetery records, see 929.5.
For books about the public health aspects of burial, see 614.6.

October 30th is also Candy Corn Day.
For books about making candy, see 641.853.
For books about growing corn, see 633.1.
For books about cooking with corn, see 641.6567.

October 30th is also Checklist Day.
For books about memory, see 153.

The evening of October 30th is Mischief Night.
For books about property crime, see 364.16.
For books about aggression, see 157.3.

Want to see something really scary? For a story about what it's like to work at Burger King, try this link:
https://docs.google.com/a/eastonpl.org/document/d/1-uCQT2bT5rNLMvMn4zThGkGcojzIzjolFuYlPAYtZjs/pub

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

October 29 - What should we celebrate?

October 29th is Internet Day.
For books about the networking aspects of the Internet, see 004.67.
For books about various information resources on the Internet, see 025.06.
For books about the Internet as a form of social interaction, see 302.231.
For books about the Internet as a type of telecommunications, see 384.3.
For books about website and database design, see 005.7.

October 29th is also Cat Day.
For books about taking care of cats, see 636.8.
(October 16th was Feral Cat Day, so this seems a little redundant...)

October 29th is Republic Day in Turkey.
For books about the republic as a form of government, see 321.8.
For books about the history of Turkey, see 949.6.
For books about the history of the Ottoman Empire, see 956.1.
The book Plato's Republic has nothing to do with the concept of a "republic"; the time-honored mistranslation of the title is misleading. The original title is Politea, which roughly translates to "city." For a copy of Plato's Republic, look under 321.07 or 888.4.

Halloween is drawing closer. Here is one of my favorite Halloween songs:

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

October 28 - What should we celebrate?

October 28th is Animation Day.
For books about drawing technique and cartoons, see 741.
For books about animated films, see 791.433.

October 28th is also Plush Animal Lover's Day.
For books about making soft toys, see 745.5924.
For books about collecting teddy bears and beanie babies, see 688.724.
For books about collecting toys as a form of recreation, see 790.133.
For books about animals in general, see the 590s.

Halloween is coming up! Take a look at what our library did three years ago for Halloween:



Sunday, October 26, 2014

P.D. James' "Death Comes to Pemberley" on PBS This Week - See Trailer

While fans of Downton Abbey wait for the next season, PBS is airing another period drama this week. Death Comes to Pemberley, an adaptation of P.D. James' 2011 mystery, begins on Sunday, October 26, on WHYY and Wednesday, October 29, on WLVT.

James' novel is a sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice,picking up six years into the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy. They're preparing for the annual ball at their Pemberley estate when Elizabeth's sister Lydia and her husband arrive with the news that a companion has been murdered in the nearby woods.

Many people will recognize the main actors. Anna Maxwell Martin (Bletchley Circle) stars  as Elizabeth and Matthew Rhys (The Americans) as Darcy. (I'm looking forward to watching Martin. I'm hoping she's as good in the role as Jennifer Ehle was in 1995's Pride and Prejudice.)

Death Comes to Pemberley airs in two 83 minute parts with the conclusion airing next week.

The Library has P.D. James' novel as well as DVDs of Bletchley Circle and Pride and Prejudice.

Here's the trailer for a preview of the PBS show:


Saturday, October 25, 2014

Reblogged: The 10 Books Every Zombie Fan Must Read

World War Z

The following books are available for request.  For the complete list (and original source), please visit LitReactor's original article.


PATIENT ZERO by Jonathan Maberry
Monday, 1300 Hours: Joe Ledger kills terrorist Javad Mustapha, aka Patient Zero, with two point-blank shots from his Glock .45.

Wednesday, 0800 Hours: Patient Zero rises from the dead…

When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills. Ledger, a Baltimore detective assigned to a counterterrorism task force, is recruited by the government to lead a new ultrasecret rapid-response group called the Department of Military Sciences (DMS) to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies.

FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan
In Mary's world there are simple truths.
   The Sisterhood always knows best.
   The Guardians will protect and serve.
   The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now, she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

ZONE ONE by Colson Whitehead
A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. After the worst of the plague is over, armed forces stationed in Chinatown’s Fort Wonton have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the three-person civilian sweeper units tasked with clearing lower Manhattan of the remaining feral zombies. Zone One unfolds over three surreal days in which Spitz is occupied with the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder (PASD), and the impossible task of coming to terms with a fallen world. And then things start to go terribly wrong…

BREATHERS: A ZOMBIE'S LAMENT by S.G. Browne
(Staff Pick!)
Meet Andy Warner, a recently deceased everyman and newly minted zombie. Resented by his parents, abandoned by his friends, and reviled by a society that no longer considers him human, Andy is having a bit of trouble adjusting to his new existence. But all that changes when he goes to an Undead Anonymous meeting and finds kindred souls in Rita, an impossibly sexy recent suicide with a taste for the formaldehyde in cosmetic products, and Jerry, a twenty-one-year-old car-crash victim with an exposed brain and a penchant for Renaissance pornography. When the group meets a rogue zombie who teaches them the joys of human flesh, things start to get messy, and Andy embarks on a journey of self-discovery that will take him from his casket to the SPCA to a media-driven class-action lawsuit on behalf of the rights of zombies everywhere.

FEED by Mira Grant
The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.



RAISING STONY MAYHALL by Daryl Gregory (Available from Allentown)
In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda—and he begins to move.

The family hides the child—whom they name Stony—rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow. For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret—until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.

WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. 



Other Mentions from Our Staff:

THIS IS NOT A TEST by Courtney Summers
(Staff Pick!)
It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

ASHES by Isla J. Bick
It could happen tomorrow . . .
 
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.
Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
(Staff Pick!)
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to rea

THE ENEMY by Charlie Higson
(Staff Pick!)
In this dystopian thriller set in London, everyone over 16 is dead or diseased, and youngsters are in constant danger of being eaten by boil-infested grown-ups who roam the streets like zombies looking for children to kill. Led by teens Arran and Maxie and armed with makeshift weapons, a group of kids sets out from the uncertain safety of an abandoned supermarket to travel to Buckingham Palace, where a young messenger promises that food, medicine, and a haven are available. Along the way, Arran is killed. One youngster selfishly decides to stay behind with a secret stash of food and is there to tell Small Sam, who had been abducted and feared dead, where the others (including his sister) have headed. Sam's quest to find Ella parallels the story of the large group with similar run-ins with marauding adults and mistrustful children who scavenge about the city. The bleak setting is filled with decay, danger, and puss-oozing parents who have turned into butchers. On arriving at Buckingham Palace, Maxie decides that David, the teen leader there, is too tyrannical, and she must regain control of her brood and convince them to leave for a new location.

BREAK MY HEART 1000 TIMES by Daniel Waters
Living in the aftermath of the Event means that seeing the dead is now a part of life, but Veronica wishes that the ghosts would just move on. Instead, the ghosts aren't disappearing-they're gaining power.

When Veronica and her friend, Kirk, decide to investigate why, they stumble upon a sinister plot. One of Veronica's high school teachers is crippled by the fact that his dead daughter has never returned as a ghost. Veronica seems like the perfect body to host her. And even if he's wrong, what's the harm in creating one more ghost?

ROT AND RUIN by Jonathan Maberry
In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.





All titles available for request for $0.50 to any of the EAPL branches, or to Allentown and Bethlehem.

Friday, October 24, 2014

October 24 - What should we celebrate?

October 24th is United Nations Day.
For books about the history of the United Nations, see 341.23.
For books about the politics and practices of the United Nations, see 341.13.
For books about international cooperation, see 327.17.

On this day in 1857, the world's first soccer club, Sheffield F C, was founded in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.
For books about soccer, see 796.334.
For books about Sheffield, see 942.82.
For books about European history in 1857, see 940.28.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

October 23 - What should we celebrate?

October 23rd is Diwali.
For books about Diwali, see 294.536.
For books about Hinduism, see 294.5.
For a brief introduction to this holiday, see Diwali - Festival of Lights.

October 23rd is also Mole Day.
For books about atomic theory, see 541.2.
For books about inter-molecular forces, see 539.6.
For books about the mammal called a mole, which has nothing whatsoever to do with this holiday, see 599.33.

October 23rd is also TV Talk Show Host Day (Johnny Carson's Birthday).
For books about television, see 791.45.

October 23rd is also iPod Day.
For books about audio technology, see 006.54.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

October 21 - What should we celebrate?

October 21st is Count Your Buttons Day.
For books about the role of buttons in clothing, see 687.8.
For books about using buttons in crafts, see 745.58.
For books about collecting buttons, see 391.4.

October 21st is also Reptile Awareness Day.
For books about reptiles, see 598.1.
For books about the history of extinct animals, see 578.68.
For books about wildlife conservation, see 591.68.

October 21st is also Apple Day.
For books about apple orchards, see 634.1.
For books about cooking with apples, see 641.641.
For books about baking fruit pies in general, see 641.8652.

Monday, October 20, 2014

October 20 - What should we celebrate?

October 20th is Brandied Fruit Day.
For books about jams, jellies, and sweet preserves, see 641.852.

October 20th is also Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day.
For books about organizing your possessions, see 648.8.
For books about desktop applications, see 005.5.
For books about the MS-DOS Operating System, see 005.446.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

How Bad Will Winter Be?



Don't count on the woolly caterpillar for your winter forecast. For a more scientific prediction, join meteorologists Bobby Martrich and Mike Defino as they talk about weather on Thursday, October 23, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the Main Library.

Martrich and DeFino operate the Eastern Pennsylvania Weather Authority website where you can find daily forecasts, interactive radar, and analytical models. Founded in 2012, EPAWA now has close to 200,000 Facebook followers and served as the official weather forecaster for this year's Musikfest.

Using a slide show, Martrich and DeFino will explain daily forecasting, long-range forecasting and weather patterns, and how they make their successful predictions, including one for Hurricane Sandy.

The program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Library.

The program will be held in the Catherine Drake Room which is handicapped accessible from Church Street. Remember to feed the meters if you use street parking.

For more about woolly caterpillars and other forecasters in nature, go to http://epawaweather.com/2014/09/the-true-winter-prognosticator-nature/


                        EPAWA meteorologists Bobby Martrich (left) and Mike DeFino.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Trailer for Tuesday's Movie Grigris



Grigris, an African crime/thriller  set in Chad, will be shown at the Main Library at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21.

Grigris is  this month's selection from Film Movement, a distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films. It will be shown at the Main Library at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, October 21. After the public screening, the DVD becomes available for checkout. The Library has over 90 Film Movement DVDs in its catalog. To see the list, choose "Series" in the drop down menu and search "Film Movement."

Grigris  is about a 25-year-old man who, despite having a paralyzed leg, has hopes of becoming a professional dancer. He makes some extra cash putting his moves to good use on the dance floor of his local club every weekend. His dreams are tested when his step-father falls critically ill and he's forced to risk his future by smuggling oil to pay the hospital bills. When he befriends Mimi, a beautiful but damaged prostitute, the two will try to start a new life together. But as bad decisions begin to catch up with them, they'll have to run for their lives. Their pasts, however, are never far behind, bringing them to a perilous climax.

The film, which runs approximately 101 minutes in French and Arabic with English subtitles, is free and open to the public. It will be shown in the Catherine Drake Meeting Room which is handicapped-accessible from Church Street. Patrons are welcome to bring light refreshments.






October 17 - What should we celebrate?

October 17th is Spreadsheet Day.
For books about Microsoft Excel, see 005.36.

October 17th is also Mulligan Day.
For books about adapting and adjusting, see 155.24.

October 17th is also Wear Something Gaudy Day.
For books about cosmetics and fashion, see 391.
For books about creating your own costumes, see 746.92.
For instruction books about sewing and tailoring, see 646.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

October 16 - What should we celebrate?

October 16th is Conflict Resolution Day.
For books about peaceful resolution of international conflict, see 327.172.
For books about resolution of social problems, see 303.69.
For books about the resolution of conflicts in office personnel, see 658.3145.

October 16th is also World Food Day.
For books about food culture and history, see 641.3.
For cookbooks of various cultures, see 641.59.


October 16th is also Get Smart About Credit Day.
For books about the credit system, see 332.7.
For books about personal finances, see 332.024.


October 16th is also Feral Cat Day.
For books about the biological aspects of cats, see 599.75.
For books about taking care of cats, see 636.8.


October 16th is also Steve Jobs Day (See, he has his own holiday already! And so can you!).
For books about business enterprises in the computer industry, see 338.761.
For books about computer engineering, see 621.39.
For books about computer hardware and software, see 004 and 005, respectively.


October 16th is also Boss' Day.
For books about managing your business relationships, see 650.13.


October 16th is also Department Store Day.
For books about different types of stores, see 381.1.


October 16th is also Dictionary Day.
For English Dictionaries, see 423.
For German Dictionaries, see 433.
For French Dictionaries, see 443.
For Italian Dictionaries, see 453 (are you seeing a pattern here?).
For Spanish Dictionaries, see 463.
For Latin Dictionaries, see 473.
For Greek Dictionaries, see 483.
For Russian Dictionaries, see 491.73.
For Chinese Dictionaries, see 495.13.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

October 15 - What should we celebrate?

October 15th is Information Overload Day

For books about clear judgment while thinking, see 153.4.

For books about human memory, see 153.12.

For books about the Internet, see 004.67.

For books about relaxation, see 613.792.




October 15th is also Hagfish Day.

For books about Marsipobranchii and Lampreys, see 597.2.




October 15th is also White Cane Safety Day.

For books about ophthalmology, see 617.7.

For books about social services for blind people, see 362.41.

For patents and inventions, see 608.




October 15th is also Take Your Parents to Lunch Day

For books about lunch, see 641.534.

For books about restaurants, see 647.95.

For books about parenthood, see 306.874.





October 15th is also Global Dignity Day.

For books about personal success in business, see 650.1.

For books about personal improvement, see 158.1.

For books about self-knowledge, see 126.

For books about decision-making, see 153.83.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

October 14 - What should we celebrate?

October 14th is Be Bald and Free Day

For books about hair loss, see 616.546.



October 14th is also Face Your Fears Day.

For books about fear in a psychological sense, see 152.46.

For books about bravery and cowardice in terms of ethical consequences, 179.6.



October 14th is also Ada Lovelace Day.

For biographies of mathematicians, see 510.92.

For algorithms in an accounting context, see 511.8.

For algorithms as applied to computer programs, see 005.1.

Monday, October 13, 2014

October 13 - What should we celebrate?

October 13th is Native American Day.

For general works on Native Americans, see 970.1.

For certain tribes, see 970.3.

For government relation with and treatment of Native Americans, see 970.5.

For Native American literature, see 897.

For Native American languages, see 497.

For Native Americans' role as an ethnic group in modern America, see 305.897.



October 13th is also Yorkshire Pudding Day.

For pudding, see 641.8644.

For the history of Yorkshire, see 942.81.

For English cooking techniques, see 641.30942.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

October 12 - On this day in history...

On October 12th, 1915, the Ford Motor Company under Henry Ford manufactured its 1 millionth Model T automobile.

 For technical books on the design of passenger automobiles, see 629.222.

 For a social perspective on urban communities, see 307.76.

 For a history of America in 1915, during the Woodrow Wilson administration, see 973.913.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

October 11 - On this day in history...

On October 11th, in 1634, a strong storm developed off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state in Germany. The storm created enormous waves that flooded the coastline and caused what is known as the "Buchardi Flood," also known as the "second Grote Mandrenke." Between 8,000 and 15,000 people died as a result of the storm.

For floods in a geological sense, see 551.489.

For social services performed in response to floods, see 363.3493.

For technology designed for the purpose of flood control, see 627.4.

For the history of Schleswig-Holstein, see 943.51.

For information on Germany in 1634, which was during the reign of Ferdinand II, see 943.042.

Palmer Adult Evening Book Group -- October Discussion

Palmer Adult Evening Book Group

THE PABG meets on the 4th Tuesday of every month from 6:00pm to 7:30pm.  New members are always welcome!


October 28, 2014

THE LIGHT BETWEEN THE OCEANS
by M.L. Stedman

Join us as we discussion this New York Times bestseller, soon to be a major motion picture.

"An extraordinary and heart-rending book about good people, tragic decisions, and the beauty found in each of them."  - Marcus Zusak, author of The Book Thief.


After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby. 
Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.


Contact Stephanie S. at Palmer Branch for more information about our book group: stephanies@eastonpl.org :: 610/258*7492 


Books available for request from Easton, Bethlehem, and Allentown libraries for $0.50.

Reblogged: Read Gone Girl? What to read next!

GONE GIRL Read-a-Likes

Now that you've read GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn, what are you going to read next?  The following titles are similar to Flynn's bestseller.



DARE ME by Megan Abbott
Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives. 
Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself.  
Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.  
The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as "total authority and an almost desperate intensity," provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

CARTWHEEL by Jennifer DuBois
When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colorful buildings, the street food, the handsome, elusive man next door. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn’t come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans. 
Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. But who is Lily Hayes? It depends on who’s asking. As the case takes shape—revealing deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA—Lily appears alternately sinister and guileless through the eyes of those around her: the media, her family, the man who loves her and the man who seeks her conviction. With mordant wit and keen emotional insight, Cartwheel offers a prismatic investigation of the ways we decide what to see—and to believe—in one another and ourselves.

RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA by Kimberly McCreight

In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate. 
An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.

Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.

DARK PLACES by Gillian Flynn
Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club—for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Nonfiction for Thriller Lovers


If you like to read mysteries and crime fiction, this list is for you.  These three titles are real-life thrillers and mysteries.  And they aren't for the feint of heart.

Public EnemiesBryan Burrough's PUBLIC ENEMIES: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI
Crime can keep a nonfiction book moving just like fiction, but you need to make sure there’s actual action and not just talk. True crime books can be painfully slow (as real crime often is) but this is one book that has bad guys to spare, crime sprees galore, and the kind of big names that you’ll recognize immediately. Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and many others make not only appearances but play starring roles. There’s much more to their stories than you’d expect: a wealth of crimes and chases and thrills. Criminals back in the day could get away with an awful lot just by leaving town, but this book follows the guys who finally started to chase them down from state to state. A really boring movie was made of this a few years ago- skip it.



Columbine
Dave Cullen's COLUMBINE
Only a few years after its publication, Cullen’s book is already considered one of the seminal nonfiction works of the modern day. It deserves the accolades. One thing going for it is the vast differences between what was reported during that first year in the aftermath of the horrific shooting and what Cullen uncovers when he goes back to put the pieces together years later. We learn more about the killers than we ever did before. We also learn a lot more about the victims and just how many of their stories were mis-reported. Columbine was a big news story for the mass media, and if you’re at all worried about the evils of the 24-hour news takeover, this book is a must-read. It is constantly riveting no matter how much you think you know.



The Map Thief
Michael Blanding's THE MAP THIEF
White-collar crime can be some of the most fascinating, and the subject of Blanding’s book is no exception. E. Forbes Smiley was a big player in the antique map dealer business- a small business, but one that deals with huge amounts of money for priceless items. And yet he stole dozens, possibly hundreds, of maps and got away with it for years. In our day of DNA and technology, it’s shocking to see the lack of a paper trail and just how easy it was to prey on map collections. If you like picking up trivia, it’s the kind of book that is full of tidbits you’ll be dying to read out loud to the person next to you. You may find yourself with a map addiction by the time it’s over.



Helter Skelter
Vincent Bugliosi's HELTER SKELTER: The True Story of the Manson Murders
   Only available from Allentown for reserve.
As a law student who started to find endless episodes of Law & Order boring and inaccurate, I decided to see what a real procedural looked like and couldn’t ignore all the positive reviews for this book. Helter Skelter is like nothing else, an intricate look at the Manson family, a methodical look at how the investigation unfolded, and a brilliantly done piece of courtroom drama as the killers go on trial. Bugliosi was the prosecutor in the case and he does an amazing job of telling this story and making the legal issues accessible for readers. It’s twice the length of any police novel, but also twice as good.

List courtesy of Book Riot.

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All books may be reserved for $0.50.  Titles are available in the Nonfiction collection at the Main Branch of the Easton Area Public Library.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

New DVD and Hardcover Available: Ken Burns' "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History"


If you missed Ken Burns' seven-part PBS series on Theodore, Eleanor, and Franklin Roosevelt, we have copies at the Main Library and the Palmer Branch. The companion book is also available.

The 14 hour documentary is fascinating. Rich in content, still photographs, and film clips, the series brings the Roosevelts to life. Some credit for that has to go to Meryl Streep for her narration as Eleanor and Paul Giamatti as Theodore.

Yes, we learn a lot about the Roosevelts' role in American history - the creation of the National Park system and the Panama Canal, the passage of New Deal programs, and the defeat of Hitler - but we also come away knowing  their personalities, relationships, and personal struggles - TR's probable bipolar disorder, Eleanor's unhappy childhood, and FDR's polio among them.

One especially poignant moment occurs when the series' writer Geoffrey Ward chokes up while talking about FDR's struggle with polio. It's not mentioned in the documentary, but Ward had contracted polio as a child.

It's an extraordinary program, and it left me with the question: Where are today's leaders who care about ordinary people and the environment and who can fill us with confidence?



Wednesday, October 8, 2014

You too can have your own Dewey Decimal Number!

When I was growing up, I was told that William Shakespeare was the only individual author to have his own Dewey Decimal Number - that is, 822.33. I have since learned that this is not quite true. There are other authors with their own DDC numbers.

(Of course, you can also argue with that statement on the grounds that William Shakespeare was not the author of all plays attributed to him, or that he was not a real person at all but simply a ghostwriting pseudonym used by a series of different authors of that time; I will not get into that here; let it suffice to say that I myself am a Stratfordian.)

There are DDC numbers for several of the Greek Dramatists: 882.1 for Aeschylus, 882.2 for Sophocles, etc. Miguel de Cervantes pretty much wrote the first modern Spanish novel, so 863.3, which is Early Spanish Fiction,  mostly belongs to him. Most of 851.1 (Early Italian Poetry) is devoted to Dante.

And so on. The DDC number for 21st Century American Fiction is 813.6; it has not been cut into subsections yet, since we do not yet have the perspective to determine which authors have been the most influential of our time. But someday you, too, might have your own DDC number.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Tips on Writing and Publishing Books

Recently a patron asked me for information on how to publish some fiction he had recently written. Now, my first impulse was to take him to the 800s class - Literature and Rhetoric. "808" is instruction in writing, and "808.3" is for writing fiction (novels and/or short stories). However, it concentrates on the process of writing it; there is very little there on how to get fiction published.

http://www.librarything.com/mds/808.3

For the best results in a situation like this, I recommend skipping the 800s altogether and going to "070.5," which is the section on publishing. You might not find a whole lot there that is specifically on publishing fiction, but you will probably find more information there about how to publish a book.

http://www.librarything.com/mds/070.5

I hope this is helpful to anyone who works in a public library.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Matthew and Vlada Return on Saturday

 Anyone who attended the two earlier Masterwork Conversations concerts here at the Library is looking forward to Saturday's performance "The Imagination of the Folk" at 2:00 pm.

Masterwork Conversations is the husband-wife team of Matthew Harrison and Vlada Yaneyva. Matthew and Vlada perform in an interactive story-telling recital format. You'll learn about the composers' lives, their inspirations, and what to listen for as the music is played by these accomplished pianists.

More exciting news for their fans in the Lehigh Valley: Matthew and Vlada are recording their debut album. Funded through a Kickstarter project, the CD will be titled "The Imagination of the Folk."

If you'd like to learn a little more about the CD and the music in Saturday's concert, take a look at this video.


The October 4 concert features two exciting collections of piano duets - Brahms' Hungarian Dances and Dvorak's Slavonic Dances - along with works by Stoyanov, Ligetti, and Szymanowski.

The free program will be held in the Catherine Drake Room which is handicapped accessible from Church Street. Light refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Library, the sponsors of the program.