Travelling with my Kindle so I decided to look at what I have downloaded over the last few weeks and share those contents/books with you. Will of course describe the better ones in a review as I read them!
What a dragon should know. GA Aiken
Chicago Restaurants. Zagat Ann Christenson
They never die quietly. DM Annechino
Train your mind, change. your life Sharon Begley
Crossing Places. Elly Griffiths
City of Shadows. Ariana Franklin
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. David Grann
Dark Tide. Andrew Gross
Poles in Minnesota. Bill Holm
Wild Hair. Neil Gaimen
Make it fast, cook it slow. Stephanie O'Dea
the coral thief. Rebecca Stott
Hopper. Mark Strand
World of Gerard Mercator. Andrew Taylor
Three Weissmanns of Westport. Cathleen Schine
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
BOOKSTORE BOOKSALE
The Friends' Bookstore is holding its "Second Saturday Sale" tomorrow in the library foyer from 10 am - 1 pm. Spend $20 at the sale or in the bookstore and get a free Friends' canvas tote!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Second Saturday Sale July 10
Beach Reads and Summer Reads will be on sale on Saturday, July 10, 2010 from 10 AM until 1 PM in the lobby of the Rochester Public Library. Come browse fiction with copyrights from 2005 to 2009; spend $20.00 at the sale or in the Bookstore and get a free Friends' canvas tote!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Beach Reads contest entries
Remember to submit your entries for the beach reads contest by July 14!
Location, Location, Location! (Notice book title)
Summer Beach reads can be anything.
Location, Location, Location! (Notice book title)
Summer Beach reads can be anything.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi, Young Adult Fiction
Young Adult Book Review by Lily Grebe
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
This was a fantastic book. The story line was completely unique and hooking. The main character, a skinny teenage boy named Nailer, is part of a crew of poor teens who live on ruined Gulf Coast beaches scavenging the hulks of stranded oil tankers for salvage. The work is hard and dangerous, and Nailer dreams of escaping a life of back-breaking work, crushing poverty, and an abusive, drug-addicted father to sail on the sleek, hydrofoil clipper ships he reads about in magazines. When one of those ships wrecks on the shores of Nailer's beach during a huge tropical storm, he might just get his chance to escape.
I generally don’t enjoy science fiction books because they end up all the same or people throw in lame vampires. However, Bacigalupi caught my attention from the very beginning and held it throughout with great characters and hidden meanings. Plus, the storyline wasn’t only unique, but the setting. I love descriptive books and Bacigalupi did a great job. I recommend this book to any teenager looking for a good read.
Happy Fourth of July
Today is Independence Day, quite a literary day in America. The Declaration itself is an amazing document - NPR had a reading Friday that was absolutely superb. Thank you Thomas Jefferson, and to every signer who fully understood what doing so meant.
Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died today, but they had reconciled and spent their last years writing letter to each other, which are definitely worth reading for their foresight, their hopes and dreams of our nation. As always, find an history book that David McCullough has written to also thoroughly enjoy the individual (Adams!)
It is also the birthdate of Nathaniel Hawthorne - born in Salem Mass, 6th generation. The Scarlet Letter is one of his better known works, but I like so many of them (House of the Seven Gables) and especially enjoyed visiting the town and houses last autumn. Still a tourist atraction, but also a literary one.
The Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman were published today - singing words of everyday America, of our natural environment, of our hopes and dreams. Emerson had written that America lacked a poet who described the sublime country, and he replied that he had been simmering, simmering, and that boiled him over to write this poetry. Alot of critics thought it absolute rubbish. I can remember being in High School and discovering the 'edited poems', going to the Library to find more of his work and being questioned "you do know he is a homosexual? Do you still want to read him?" I can still feel my face go slack at that small town verbiage, to which I replied "do you read Shakespeare?" Emerson also wrote a congratulatory note, which Whitman included in the next edition!
Today is also the day that Walden, by Henry David Thoreau was begun. He moved into his cabin in the woods for 26 months, writing daily notes on his life, the natural history, philosophy, etc. And here too, I can remember the first time I discovered that he went home to his mother EVERY DAY for food and laundry....I would truly like to live in the woods like that!
Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died today, but they had reconciled and spent their last years writing letter to each other, which are definitely worth reading for their foresight, their hopes and dreams of our nation. As always, find an history book that David McCullough has written to also thoroughly enjoy the individual (Adams!)
It is also the birthdate of Nathaniel Hawthorne - born in Salem Mass, 6th generation. The Scarlet Letter is one of his better known works, but I like so many of them (House of the Seven Gables) and especially enjoyed visiting the town and houses last autumn. Still a tourist atraction, but also a literary one.
The Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman were published today - singing words of everyday America, of our natural environment, of our hopes and dreams. Emerson had written that America lacked a poet who described the sublime country, and he replied that he had been simmering, simmering, and that boiled him over to write this poetry. Alot of critics thought it absolute rubbish. I can remember being in High School and discovering the 'edited poems', going to the Library to find more of his work and being questioned "you do know he is a homosexual? Do you still want to read him?" I can still feel my face go slack at that small town verbiage, to which I replied "do you read Shakespeare?" Emerson also wrote a congratulatory note, which Whitman included in the next edition!
Today is also the day that Walden, by Henry David Thoreau was begun. He moved into his cabin in the woods for 26 months, writing daily notes on his life, the natural history, philosophy, etc. And here too, I can remember the first time I discovered that he went home to his mother EVERY DAY for food and laundry....I would truly like to live in the woods like that!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tracy Kidder Strength in What Remains
Tracy Kidder wrote another extraordinary novel: Strength in What Remains (2009) about Deo, a man from Burundi who came to America (NYC) in 1994 with $200 and no English. He returned to Burundi in 2006 to help his people, the human race. You will be moved by this book - this story, this man. It is described as a journey of remembrance and forgiveness, what it means to be a human being. It is so much more than that. You cannot help but be changed, by what he did, what he is doing, what it means for each of us.
The lovely, wonderful, ordinary people who helped him - from the baggage checker who knew what he was up against right from the start (how immigration let him in is still a mystery!) - sleeping in Central Park, delivering groceries, taking any job to make a life. Reading dictionaries in the bookstores to lean English. The descriptions of his wonderment at the weather, flying in a plane, getting lost in the subway, to the people who got him into to Medical school. His decisions to go back and give back. The telling statements - I have killed people since 1967. What you are doing makes me ashamed.
It is a powerful book.
The lovely, wonderful, ordinary people who helped him - from the baggage checker who knew what he was up against right from the start (how immigration let him in is still a mystery!) - sleeping in Central Park, delivering groceries, taking any job to make a life. Reading dictionaries in the bookstores to lean English. The descriptions of his wonderment at the weather, flying in a plane, getting lost in the subway, to the people who got him into to Medical school. His decisions to go back and give back. The telling statements - I have killed people since 1967. What you are doing makes me ashamed.
It is a powerful book.
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