Tag Archives: staff picks

“The unexamined life is not worth living,” or How to Give Yourself a Headache.

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Did you know that besides carrying the latest bestsellers, the library carries books for us overly contemplative types?

After finishing grad school, I’ve been looking for a new challenge to prevent my brain from turning into treacle.  I’m trying to brush up on my understanding of philosophy, regardless of how abstruse it may be. I started last fall with Great Courses’ Introduction to Greek Philosophy. The presenter, a philosophy professor at Carnegie Mellon, makes the whole mess accessible and entertaining. And I could listen to it in my car. It definitely cut down on the road rage, although I’m certain that my driving concentration was probably somewhat compromised.

Certainly, philosophy may be hard to comprehend, but the library has excellent resources for trying to do the mental gymnastics required that would drive others mad.  My current reading companion is The Philosophy Book, which puts the salient thoughts of the major thinkers in (mostly) Western philosophy in easy to comprehend language. Plus, it has pictures and brightly colored diagrams and shiny, glossy pages! Another great series of introductions is the Philosophers In 90 Minutes series, which is also written for the non-specialist.

Good luck and don’t become too much of a solipsist!

 

 

 

Spring Fever

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Spring is in the air, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and somewhere the crack of the bat can be heard. With each puff of smoke from the mitt optimism for the upcoming baseball season abounds.

Around here, the Cincinnati Reds opening day may as well be declared a holiday. This is the time of year when any team can win the pennant, at least in the eyes of their fans. For me its a time to break out the sunflower seeds.  There is nothing better than sitting in the dugout or bullpen with a couple dozen sunflowers in your mouth while the salty taste permeates as you shuck each one and separate the tasty insides from the outer shell.   But for those of you who don’t get nostalgic for the taste of seeds and the competition of spitting the shells into a cup, here are my top 5 baseball movies that are available here at the Clermont County Public Library in chronological order.

1942-The Pride of the Yankees-because of the iconic speech…”Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

1976-Bad News Bears-because every team should have a girl for a pitcher…”and just wait til next year.”

1984-The Natural-because who doesn’t want to hit the ball into the scoreboard and cause a giant epic explosion while rounding the bases triumphantly?

1989-Field of Dreams-because now we know that “if you build it, he will come,” and every kid wants to connect with their dad.

1992-A League of Their Own-because woman can make great baseball players too and “THERE’S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!”

1993-The Sandlot-because the whole neighborhood played baseball and we all knew that the neighbor’s dog would eventually get our ball…game over.

2005-Fever Pitch-because there is more to life than just baseball and even the Red Sox can win the Pennant (take note Cubs fans).

So before the games starts get some sunflower seeds, and break out some of your favorite baseball movies, then watch them all so you will be ready for this year’s baseball season.

 

 

Home

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Read this BEFORE going back home after a long absence, especially if to care for an aging parent or sibling.  There are behaviors in every character and interactions between the characters that bring to mind a thought provoking memory to relate to, to gain insight from, and to find a new way to deal with the past.

Home, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson, is a book to be read or listened to on many levels.

First, as a Christian fiction or inspirational story. An elder minister father is dying. His youngest single daughter and wayward alcoholic son return home to care for him in his last days, hoping to reconcile the past.

Second, as a psychological study of family interactions and how aging children deal with a dying parent and each other after years apart. How family dynamics and events of when they were children resurface and are never forgotten, but rather have formed who they are and what they’ve become.

Third, as an historical fiction story portraying a way of life in a small rural town in Iowa and how early events formed and reinforced the culture, beliefs and lives of it’s inhabitants.

The reader comes to know the characters intimately through the relaxed pace and familiarity of the writing.  And one can’t help but reflect on one’s own family relationships and past events and how one deals with them through the years.

Marilynne Robinson is the author of the novels Gilead (2004) – winner of the Pulitzer Prize – and Housekeeping (1980).

Best of 2011: Young Adult Books

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The days when so called ‘grown-ups’ who loved Young Adult books had to hide them in shame behind the covers of Oprah’s latest book pick just to avoid ridicule is over. The world has embraced YA, realized that regardless of who a book is targeted at the things that make a book interesting transcend designated age groupings. If you haven’t tried a YA novel yet, see what all the rage is about by trying one of these, my favorite YA releases of 2011. Check out our Teen Blog for the reviews and trailers for them all in the coming weeks.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor  Prepare to be sucked into the beautifully crafted world of Karou. Covered in tattoos with hair that grows blue straight out of her head, Karou’s friends in Prague think that the drawings of monsters and angels in her sketch book are imaginary, but really, they’re her family. Good luck figuring out who is good and who is evil in this fantastic offering from National Book Award finalist Taylor. Regular teenaged life is mixed with beautifully described otherworldly beings in a book you’ll be surprised to find yourself still reading at 3 A.M.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs With the eclectic dark appeal of a Tim Burton movie, this book combines delicious, spooky fiction with strange vintage photographs to tell the story of mysterious island off the coast of Wales. Terrifying, fascinating and delightful Rigg’s debut work will suck you in.

Divergent by Veronica Roth When Beatrice Prior makes the shocking choice to give up her life with family as member of Abnegation she doesn’t realize how hard she’ll have to fight for her place as one of the Dauntless. A fast paced novel of survival against all odds, Divergent is a great choice for fans on The Hunger Games.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater My best pick for fans of The Hunger Games who are longing for something new to read. Fast paced action is matched with a slow building relationship all rolled together around beautiful, ocean swept language. I don’t want to give it away but there are teens, a deadly contest and mythical Celtic water horses. AWESOME.

Bumped by Megan McCafferty After a virus makes everyone over the age of 18 infertile teens become the most prized members of society. Contracted out to conceive children, teenage girls are treated as celebrities. Bumped is a light hearted romp, but hidden behind the likeable characters, mistaken identify twin crisis, compelling love story and interesting, bubbly take on the dystopian future Bumped offers a stark view of where our social media and sex appeal obsessed culture is headed.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray What do you get when you mix Lost and the Miss America pagent? An island full of stranded teen Beauty Queens. In a book that is hilarious (No, really, it’s laugh-out-loud-so-much-your-roommates-shoot-you-dirty-looks-funny), but also full of intrigue and mystery, Printz award winner Libba Bray dishes up hi-jinks in a tiara.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis  Full of mystery, romance and dystopain awesomeness, this sci-fi gem proves that finally, the Space Opera is getting the attention it deserves! With chapters that alternate point of view between Amy, a girl stuck in the past and Elder, a unwilling leader in training of the giant ship, Revis will suck you into this strange, scary future.

Ashfall by Mike Mullin Ok, I’m not going to lie, I haven’t started this one yet…. But it  appeared on several of the Best of 2011 lists, and it is the title I’m most excited about reading this month. The CCPL catalog gives this description: After the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano destroys his city and its surroundings, fifteen-year-old Alex must journey from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to Illinois to find his parents and sister, trying to survive in a transformed landscape and a new society in which all the old rules of living have vanished.

Feeling Grinchy?

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stupidest angelThanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I hate, Hate, HATE that it gets shoved aside in favor of Christmas every year. So the time after Thanksgiving always leaves me feeling a little Grinchy and unwilling to get into the holiday spirit. The 24/7 holiday radio grates on my nerves and the thought of going shopping in that swarm of humanity makes me want to hide under my bed.

This year I’m taking preventative measures to keep my Grinch locked down by reading some hilarious holiday books. If you need something to bolster your holiday cheer, try checking out some of these titles:

Try The Stupidest Angel: A heartwarming tale of Christmas terror by Christopher Moore because nothing says Christmas cheer like a little zombie action. Our catalog gives it this description, which is bound to be far more concise than my own: ‘It’s Christmastime in Pine Cove. Lena Marquez rings the bell for the Salvation Army, and when ex-husband Dale Pearson won’t part with his pocket change, she decides to exact revenge. Meanwhile, while rushing home from a friend’s house in the dark one night, little Joshua Barker, age seven, sees a woman kill Santa with a shovel. (But it wasn’t Santa; it was Dale.) A small boy makes a simple Christmas wish: Please, Santa, come back from the dead. The angel Raziel, not the brightest halo in heaven, is sent to Earth and accidentally revives the entire Pine Cove graveyard. Now under attack by the undead, the town has to put aside differences, bind together, and discover the true meaning of “Christmas spirit.”

Or how about When Elves Attack: a joyous Christmas greeting from the criminal nutbars of the Sunshine State by Tim Dorsey. This one has a pretty short and sweet description in the catalog: ‘Deranged serial killer Serge Storms delivers his special brand of Christmas Cheer in balmy Florida’.

Or maybe try some real life accounts of Christmas in today’s strange world is more your scene. How about You Better Not Cry: stories for Christmas by Augusten Burroughs. ‘You’ve eaten too much candy at Christmas… but have you ever eaten the face off a six-foot stuffed Santa? You’ve seen gingerbread houses… but have you ever made your own gingerbread tenement? You’ve woken up with a hangover… but have you ever woken up next to Kris Kringle himself? Augusten Burroughs has, and in this caustically funny, nostalgic, poignant, and moving collection, he recounts Christmases past and present — as only he could…’

Ashes & Fire

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I didn’t think it would happen, after three long years of silence, Ryan Adams has released an album of new material. Check out Mr. Adams’ new release Ashes & Fire, of which we have at the library. Three years may not seem like a long time, but if you look at his track record for CD releases, it is forever. Between 2000 and 2008, Mr. Adams released ten full length albums of mostly original music (not including EPs, abandoned songs or internet only), even recording three records in the year 2005. As recently as 2010, some of that abandoned and/or lost music came out on the CD entitled III/IV.

If you have never heard of him, you should, because he brings an amazing talent and voice to music that you may have not experienced  before.  Tim McGraw, on his Greatest Hits: Vol. 2, covered one of Mr. Adams’ song entitled, “When the Stars Go Blue,” which came from Adams’ 2001 release Gold.  Moreover, The Corrs featuring Bono of U2 fame, also covered the same song on the album entitles VH1 Presents: The Corrs, Live In Dublin. So if you have never heard of Ryan Adams as a singer at least you may have heard of him as a songwriter.

Post 2008, it seems, he decided not to continue with his music. He married Mandy Moore, yes that Mandy Moore. Wrote a couple of books of poetry and short stories entitled Infinity Blues and HelloSunshine. So I reckon, he was content to ride of into the sunset, never to be heard from again. Until now.

Also,  if you want to get acquainted with his previous stellar music check out these CDs which are also at the library: Gold, Demolition, and Easy Tiger. Then when you get hooked you can thank me.

Horror Books

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night shift
Do you have a favorite scary story or two? Something you’ve read that meant you slept with the lights on?

Horror movies bring out the total wimp in me – I’m the one “watching” with my hands in front of my face asking those around me “is the gross/scary part over yet?” But there’s something thrilling about a full blown case of the heebiejeebies because of a book. Bring on the jumping at shadows and cringing at night time noises!

My top five scary stories:

Nightshift by Stephen King

Turn of the Screw by Henry James

“Midnight Meat Train” by Clive Barker

Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

“Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

What are your favorite scary stories?

Some top horror novel lists:
Booklist’s Top 10 Horror Novels of 2011

Horror Writers Association Horror Reading List

The Night Circus

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The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. A black sign painted in white letters hangs upon the gates.

“Opens at Nightfall. Closes at Dawn.”

Wander through endless tents full of fantastic spectacles and performers. Luscious gardens made of ice, enchanted living carousel animals, mazes of clouds that defy gravity, acrobats that never fall. Each tent is created as an enchanted love letter shared between two magicians bound to each other for life but forced apart by their respective sides, pitted against each other in a magical battle that spans their entire lives. The circus is their playing field and their game has no rules.

Reading Morgenstern’s first novel, The Night Circus, is like floating through time and space, following the specter of a magical circus. Simultaneously dreamlike and more vivid than regular life, the real main character of the book is neither Celia the Illusionist nor Marco the Secret Magician but Le Cirque des Reves, The Circus of Dreams. The details of life in and around the circus consume the reader.

The hype surrounding The Night Circus has been extensive but well deserved. For an extra treat, try listening to it on audio; the sublime narration of Jim Dale (who also narrated all seven Harry Potter audio books and the sadly cancelled show Pushing Daisies) breathes an extra dose of magic into an already extrordinary book. 

Check out this preview to get into a more magical mood:

Iron Fey Series

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iron kingDid you ever have a passing daydream when you were a kid, that your “real” parents are royalty and so you are a prince or princess of some distant land?  Meghan Chase, age 17, finds herself in the middle of that daydream when she learns that her father is Oberon, the Summer King of Faery.  Only it turns out to be more of a nightmare when her brother is kidnapped and taken to Nevernever and she must journey there to rescue him.  The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, brings Faery to life with a fantasy that has not only action and adventure, but a little “non-sickening” romance as well.  Meghan finds that Faery is a place where a Summer princess needs to be careful about falling in love with a Winter Prince because the Courts definately don’t mingle with each other.  Meghan is a likable and engaging heroine and it’s easy to get caught up in the story.

It turns out that Meghan’s adventures don’t conclude at the end of The Iron King, but continue in the rest of the Iron Fey Series, including The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen.

The Iron Knight will be coming soon, so once you get caught up on these fun and “not your average fairytales” you will want to get on the hold list for this new additon to the “Iron Fey” Series.

The Lover’s Dictionary

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lover's dictionaryIt finally happened! David Levithan has written his first book for adults!

The Lover’s Dictionary combines my love for the English language and and great storytelling in a beautifully written account of how a relationship progresses. Amid the countless love stories that have been written through the ages Levithan has created a work that stands out as unique and timely. Written in the form of a dictionary, the nameless narrator explores the highs and lows of his love in a series of dictionary entries, each word defined by an experience somewhere on the path of his relationship.

Short but moving, this engrossing little book has entries that run the gamut from full page definitions to as small as “celibacy (n.), n/a,” The the words the narrator chooses to define can be laugh-out-loud hilarious, extraordinarily melancholy, and everything in between. The narrator’s “yearning (n. and adj.),” is defined as “At the core of this desire is the belief that everything can be perfect.” While a “kefuffle, (n.),” is described as, “From now on, you are only allowed one drink at any of my office parties. One. Perferably a beer.”  Words as beautiful as circuitous and sacrosant and as everyday as leery and fast are arranged alphabetical instead of chronologically in this short but poignant and extraordinary book.