Friends' Bookstore BOOKSALE

TOMORROW: BOOKSALE!!
Thursdays on First and Third comes to Second Street!!

Thursday, July 1 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Buy 2 get 1 free
of equal or lesser value

Art books
Coffeetable books
Oversize Non-fiction
Exhibit format books

Beach Reads Contest!

The next contest is Beach Reads.
Submit a photo of your favorite beach book. Photo can include your favorite beach location, pals, and/or treats! Include a caption or short commentary on what makes this a good beach read. This is a great opportunity to be creative! The best entry will win a book of your choice from our prize bookshelf. Entries must be submitted by July 14, 2010. Beach reads are for sale in the Friends’ Bookstore, during the month of June and July. And they will be having a special beach read book sale on July 10!
Official contest rules.

Book Sale

Special Book Sale
Rochester Public Library
Foyer

Thursday, July 1
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Buy 2 get 1 free
of equal or lesser value

Art books
Coffeetable books
Oversize Non-fiction
Exhibit format books

How to Read a Book Mortimer Adler Charles Van Doren

I have a number of Reading Guides from various stages of life. This one is subtitled - the classic guide to intelligent reading. 1940, renvewed 1967. It turns out it is on a summer reading list for one of the local highschools. I discovered this via a text message from a daughter to a friend who was trying to buy the book online all day, and missed the deadline by taking the dog for a walk. They said the title, I said by Adler? I have a copy.... My husband said SOLD (e.g. one more book OUT of the house!).
I felt this book was pretty much common sense - leaving through it again I realise I normally do these things. The Art of Reading... How to make reading a habit. Inspectional reading. The essence of active reading (four basic questions: 1) what is the book about? 2) what is being said in detail? 3)Is the book true (in whole or part)4)what of it? (in the chapter how to be a demanding reader - yup, that's me!} Analytical Reading. Which is more relevant now as it relates to the author, to fairness, to reasoning/thinking about the book, the subject, the author.
There is a section on the approaches of different kinds of reading matter - as you should read history different from stories, different from poems, different from practical books, different from science/mathematics or philosophy. There is of cousre a suggested reading list and 'what good books can do for us'.
I had forgotten the chapter on Syntopical Reading (especially as it is the 'ultimate goal' - reading several books on the same subject/topic. Of course it is not easy to determine what is considered the same topic! And I tend to forget people don't read alot of books (the recent example of Stieg Larson, where it was supposed to be such new and original work, but honestly, haven't you read that ending 100 times?) ....
I have to relate that it was THIS book, that started me reading Thucydides, The history of the Peloponnesian War - as it is on their recommended reading list. From High School through University, I attempted to read this list. Yes, during the summer, when everyone else was reading Beach reads! I will never forget the faces when asked what I was reading (and obviously enjoying). Looking through the list, there are still afew things I need to find (The Song of Roland, 12th century; Persian Letters, Gottfried Wilhel van Leibniz Discourse on Metaphysics (perhaps not)- I still haven't read Henri Bergson or John Dewey or Alfred North Whitehead....
I finally read 'about' Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations because of PJ O'Rourke's distillation).
It has obviously been a good 30+ years of reading this list though - I am astonished at the memories that each title brings back.
Happy Reading!

Art Walk, Second Saturday BOOK SALES

Save the Dates:
Art Walk is going to be this Thursday the first July in the Bookstore. From 3pm to 7pm we will have a display of Art Walk books for sale, as well as other materials. August 5th will be our next Art Walk Sale!
Second Saturday
July 10th will be our next Bookstore Second Saturday Sale. Check details next week as we are sorting out the specials!

Joshua Ferris

With the publication of his second novel The Unnamed (2010) I noticed the reviews in the New Yorker, and advertisements all over. I had missed his first novel: Then we came to the End, which won the Hemmingway Foundation/PEN award and the Barnes and Nobel Discover Award. It was also a National Book Award finalist. He also writes for the New Yorker, living in NY. SO, both books were taken out of the Library, and provided extremely thoughtful 'chews'. They require thinking as you read, and much more thought to digest/assimilate. There is so much I just can't understand or relate to, yet it is so vivid you think 'it must be real'. Corporate life, family, lawyer, having it all, to vagrant. The writing is astonishing, the story progression unusual. Neither is an easy read, but they are unforgetable.

Richard Yancey The Highly Effective Detective.

If you are looking for something slightly different to read, this one came recommended to me by Elizabeth (via Carol). As she said, it did take me awhile to get into it, e.g. put up with the bumbling characters, but it was fun. It should make for an enjoyable summer read too. Teddy Ruzak begins his first case, a hit and run killing of a gaggle of goslings. This is a debut series novel, so if it suits you there will be more! Many people who like Donald E Westlake's novels like this.
I had previously read Something Missing by Matthew Dick, which was more hilarious, about a thief, so that might be why this one didn't sizzle for me (but it didn't fizzle either, just seemed a bit unlikely! One more bumbling detective.).

Fourth of July Book sale/ Book store

We have a fabulous new display in the Friends' Bookstore with red, white and blue books!
The Unusual and Special Book Case also has an amazing display of wonderful older books on American subjects. Enjoy!

Rochesterfest BOOKSALE

LAST FEW HOURS FOR THE BOOKSALE!!We had a great day yesterday with over $2500 (by donation), so help us achieve more funding for the library, while you get your summer reads! Good books still left, in all categories (travel, mysteries, paperbacks, hardcovers, children's, etc etc etc) There are also FREE Library discards!

Unusual & Special book sale

This is a great way to view what was for sale at the Unusual and special booksale part of Rochesterfest that was held today. And the music is charming! The books that didn't sell will be available in the Friends' Bookstore, or online. Check out their new display in the case next to the Elevator. Some wonderful books!

Rochesterfest buttons!

Don't forget your free book when you visit the store with a rochesterfest button! Don't forget to visit the Bookstore after the Auditorium Book Sale!

Friends' Membership, Booksales

Now is an excellent time to become a Friend of the Rochester Public Library! Your membership will give you a 20% discount on (nearly) every book in the Friends' Bookstore. BUT more importantly, it will get you EARLY admission to the Rochesterfest BOOKSALE starting WEDNESDAY June 23rd.
New Arrivals in time for mega book sale!

Summer Reading - Summer FUN begins at Rochesterfest

Today is the Summer Solstice! (latin sol - sun, stitium - to stand still) (time (and sun) seems to stand still/pause, before heading back/joining the two ends of the year together).
There are many literary references to this day from Shakespeare (A midsummer's night dream) to Sir Walter Scott (The eve of St John, ballad poem of the Lady of Smailholm Tower, Kelso) as well as JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings (Aragorn and Arwen wed in Minas Tirith on midsummer's day).
Generally celebrated with bonfires, feasting and merrymaking - certain elements of the Rochesterfest and our booksale! Come join us this week during our book sale, in our Bookstore, find your summer read(s) and make merry!

Summer Reads: Rochesterfest!

Summer Reads
When did the commercial notion of "summer reading" first appear from publishers, bookstores, writers and readers? American families with little more than modest incomes didn’t have much leisure time to enjoy a weekend or a week even, until the 1960s. Many people read throughout their lives, during the evenings. But the anticipation of a few leisurely summer days gives hardworkers/ readers a destination and goal. I always stockpile new books as well as books recommended by others for summer reads. Ok, I always have a pile of books that I want to read! But knowing that many authors will be having their big debuts/sales in the autumn, summer is a time to read for pleasure – anything that takes your fancy. Classics, mysteries, fiction, history, historical thrillers, period pieces, out of print novels, those yard sale delights that you couldn’t resist for 50cents. To say nothing of reading through that stack you collected over winter, kept warm by looking forward to those unbroken stretches of sultry summer sunshine.
The FRIENDS BOOK SALE during Rochesterfest is the perfect time to gather up reading material, so those summer days as well as winter nights!

Rochesterfest Book Sale

I am aware that we have SO MANY BOOKS that are going to be in our MEGA Rochesterfest Book Sale (the cupboards are full!). This will be a great opportunity to find alot of great books to read. I am especially thinking of all the DEALS you will get as I am reading through many of my book catalogues and online sites. There are many books that are being republished at $12 to $14.95 in tradesize paperbacks, especially the mysteries of Mary Stewart, Georgette Heyer, LR Wright and other Felony and Mayhem publications. There are many other fiction and nonfiction books that are being re-issued - and we have the ORIGINALS, often in excellent condition! You never know what treasure you will find. Come early and often, as we will be restocking the tables as books sell.


Do consider becoming a Friend of the Library, as membership gives you early admission to all of our sales.

Don't forget to shop in the Friends' Bookstore as well - great books, AND a discount to all Friends!
And remember that the Unusual and Special Books are only on sale on Wednesday! A sneak peak at a few titles below.

Friends' Bulletin Board

The Current Bulletin Board, with information on the Friends, the Library, Booksales and Events.

Friends' Bookstore Photos

This week's New Yorker cover

Isn't it brilliant?

Unusual & Special book sale

ARTigras Village - Save the Date!

ARTigras 2010, is getting closer ... so mark your calendars for Saturday, August 21st, 2010 when Rochester's Second Annual Free Arts & Cultural Festival comes to Mayo Park followed on Sunday, August 22nd by the season finale of Down by the Riverside's outstanding concert schedule.

There is a great line-up of entertainment on the ARTiStage, family-fun arts activities at ARTiKids, and a juried ARTiVillage with more booths than last year- and more food! If the weather cooperates again, it should be a great time starting at 10 am!

The Friends will again be participating in the Rochester Arts Council's ARTigras Village

Saturday, August 21, 2010
12-6pm at Mayo Park.

We will be selling art books and other art related materials. Discount coupons for book store in the Rochester Public Library will be distributed.

Check the Rochester Downtown Alliance website or Eventful for further details, but we will try and keep you posted.

Rochesterfest

Rochesterfest Book Sale

A huge two-day sale featuring tens of thousands of books is held during Rochesterfest in the library auditorium.

Wednesday, June 23
Book Sale
9:30am - 8:00pm - Auditorium

Unusual, Special Booksale
9:30am - 3:00pm - Library entryway near the mural

Thursday, June 24 Book Sale
9:30am - 3:00pm - Auditorium

Remember to stop by the Friends' Bookstore with your Rochesterfest button and receive a free book!

Bluestocking Contest winner!

And the winner is... Jessica Erbe. She put blue socks on her dog, Zeke, and read Ink Heart by Cornelia Funke to him. Zeke likes the parts with Gwin, Dustfinger’s pet. Zeke says, “Keep reading Silvertongue, I want Gwin to come out of the book to play with me.”

Jessica was able to pick out a book from the prize bookshelf, she chose Fablehaven by Brandon Mull.
She was introduced to Fablehaven after her mother had read The Candy War by Brandon Mull which was the Rochester Reads 2008 Junior Title and noticed additional books by the author. Jessica fell in love with the stories and there are now five books in the series. She highly recommends them to other young readers and likes Fablehaven even better than Harry Potter.

The next contest is Beach Reads. Submit a photo of your favorite beach book. Photo can include your favorite beach location, pals, and/or treats! Include a caption or short commentary on what makes this a good beach read. This is a great opportunity to be creative! The best entry will win a book of your choice from our prize bookshelf. Entries must be submitted by July 14, 2010. Beach reads are for sale in the Friends’ Bookstore, during the month of June and July. And they will be having a special beach read book sale on July 10!
Official contest rules.

Olen Steinhauer The Nearest Exit

MILO IS BACK!
I couldn't believe it when I read the jacket cover that Milo, the hero of The Tourist was in another book! There have been 5 in between, and all are excellent thrillers of the Eastern European variety, but Milo was particularly interesting to me. I was also delighted to hear that George Clooney has has optioned film rights for the Tourist and Milo
;-)
My library copy is in hand, and I can't wait to start reading it. Will let you know, but I am sure it is going to be a rollercoaster ride. Olen Steinhauer always writes a complicated cat and mouse espionage game in the genre of le Carre, Deighton or even Greene. He has been shortlisted for so many awards, I sincerely hope he wins big. soon.

Quilt

RACE Exhibit Community Quilt Books

We now have quilt books displayed with the RACE exhibit in the Friends' bookstore. The books sell for $10.00 plus tax. We have put a sign upstairs by the podium that holds the Rochester Public Library's copy of the quilt book, letting viewers know that the book is for sale in the Friends' Bookstore. Again, this makes a sizeable donation to the Friends and therefore to the Library. Please spread the word!

Kate Carlisle Beach Reads

Homicide in Hardback by Kate Carlisle
Just finished a library book which was a bibliophile mystery - start of a new series (murder is always a best seller!) Great summer fun read- light easy, description of amazing books (Faust)...and off to the Edinburgh Book Festival in the next one!! I did like the dedication: "Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather and their own contents." - Paul Valery.
Brooklyn Wainwright is the main character who lives and breathes book restoration in San Francisco. She has an interesting set of friends to say nothing of the 'far out family', and has a quick wit, convoluted past (three engagements?!) and a new possibility (Derek Stone, british security who drives a bently continental for heaven sakes!) So much is completely far fetched, but you will laugh. Light entertainment with a few heart strings. This was nominated for an RT First Mystery award. The author's blog: katecarlisle.com is also very entertaining, and reveals that alot of what was written, was actually personally lived. Her next book has been published: If Books could kill and she is at work on her third bibliophile mystery.

Bluestocking entry

Fathers' Day at the Friends' Bookstore

We are so fortunate to have Sue, our creative wizard, in charge of the displays in the Bookstore. This week's Fathers' Day is particularly fun. There are great books on tools, camping, woodworking, fishing and other 'manly' stuff!


FYI: In the USA, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June (June 20th this year). Modern Father's Day was invented by Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who reared his six children in Spokane, Washington.
She suggested June 5, her father's birthday, but there wasn’t enough time to make arrangements, so the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first June Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, WA, at the YMCA.
Support was immediate and widespread from such figures as William Jennings Bryant. President Wilson Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge (Vermont) recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday although it was not officially recognized until 1972.
Retailers have adapted to the holiday by promoting greeting cards and traditionally male-oriented gifts such as electronics. Mother’s Day is more popular for phone calls than Father's Day, but the percentage of collect calls on Father's Day is much higher, making it the busiest day of the year for collect calls. They also talk longer than average phone calls.

Fathers' Day at the Friends's Bookstore

BOOK SALE, Second Saturday

You still have time! Lots of wonderful gardening books for sale. Half price selection in the Bookstore! See you soon

EO Wilson, Anthill

June 10 (1929) is the birthday of the biologist E.O. Wilson, born Edward Osborne Wilson in Birmingham, Alabama. There have recently been several book reviews of his novel Anthill (2010)(not his usual forte, his 22nd book but first fiction, but brilliant nonetheless) by Klinkenborg and Kingsolver.

A biology major at the University of Tennessee and Harvard (later professor), he developed an interest in Ants. He spent years researching ants all over the world (which makes fascinating reading!). One of his first books The Theory of Island Biogeography (1967), was a cornerstone in my own ecological career. The book remains influential in the fields of ecology and conservation biology.

Then, he wrote Sociobiology (1975), describing the biological foundation for behavior from ants to humans. The book was and remains controversial because some people believed that it justified racism and sexism. His book On Human Nature(1978) was a rebuttal, developing the concepts of sociobiology into a more fair and just society, not the opposite. It won the Pulitzer Prize. Other favourite books include Biophilia (1984), The Ants (1990), and his autobiography, Naturalist (1995). I love reading Bernd Heinrich's nonfiction books as well (ravens, bees, Maine Woods). Edward Hoagland still writes the best nature essays.

Wilson said, "Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal."

Gardening Book Sale - Second Saturday

Friends of the Rochester Public Library Just a reminder that THIS SATURDAY The Friends' Bookstore will have gardening books for sale in the lobby of the Rochester Public Library. The books include such books as planning patios, herbs and perennials, pruning, Minnesota/Wisconsin climate and fail-safe flowers. The Friends' Bookstore will also be offering garden books for half-price in the store. Spend $20 and get a free Friends' t-shirt!

Bluestockings!

Today is the deadline for the Blue stockings Literary Contest! SUBMIT your photo/ writing and win a prize!! Looking forward to your entries!

Special and Unusual Book Sale

The Special and Unusual books have a lovey display on many older / classic mysteries. Most of them are $5! The old version of Clue is a BEAUTIFUL set and worth a close look. Remember Col Mustard in the Library with a wrench?

Second Saturday Sale Friends' Bookstore

!

Don't miss our June 12th Booksale! Especially if you need gardening books

June Bookstore - Images

The June Bookstore is quite festive, and has LOTS of new books for childrens, adults, and everyone in between! New arrivals everyday!

Remember to get your Rochesterfest Button here - you will receive a free book from our cart during Rochesterfest!

Louis Jenkins, poetry

The Writer's Almanac today has a poem by Louis Jenkins, The Couple. It reminded me how much I like his poetry - most that I know is prose poetry, but all has such beautiful word renditions. When he recites his poetry it is magical. When Garrison Keillor recites it, it is soulful. When I read it, it triggers memories. Everyday items, events, lives are transformed. Pick up any copy!

Second Saturday Book Sale

Second Saturday Garden Books Sale
Saturday June 12
10:00 AM to 12:45 PM

The Friends' Bookstore will have gardening books for sale in the lobby of the Rochester Public Library. The books include such books as planning patios, herbs and perennials, pruning, and fail-safe flowers. The Friends' Bookstore will also be offering garden books for half-price in the store. Spend $20 and get a free Friends' t-shirt!

Rochesterfest BookSale

ROCHESTERFEST, BOOKSALE

Remember the Friends of the Rochester Public Library will be having their ROCHESTERFEST BOOK SALE in three weeks: June 23, 24 in the auditorium of the Library.
There will of course be LOTS of fiction, nonfiction, media (LPs, vhs, etc) and children's books as well.
SAVE THE DATE
Come early, come often!