Fiction

  • And They Lived…

    As children our parents read us stories with happy endings; it’s just part of the innocence of childhood and into adulthood we come to expect that big Hollywood ending. The first movie I saw that didn’t go the way I wanted it to was My Best Friend’s Wedding starring Julia Roberts. I was angry that… Continue reading

  • Armistead Maupin is a man I dreamt up

    A couple of weeks ago I checked out Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel by Armistead Maupin and felt positively giddy about my reunion with the characters I’ve gotten to know so well through all eight novels. It was way back in 1976 when Tales of the City began running in weekly… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Two novels for teen readers

    Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford Each of the three Sullivan sisters has committed a crime against Almighty, their rich and powerful grandmother. She threatens to cut their entire family out of her will, leaving her vast estate to Ponchos for Puppies (the most ridiculous charity on earth) if the culprit who has… Continue reading

  • Royal Reading

    My latest favorite author is Alison Weir because she writes so elegantly and compellingly of medieval and Renaissance Britain, focusing especially on the lives of female rulers.  Better yet, this esteemed historian has in recent years branched out into luxuriously detailed, historically accurate novels that bring to life great historical figures. I recently read Weir’s… Continue reading

  • Let them read cake

    Having just celebrated my birthday, I’ve been thinking about cake for some time and have noticed a trend: we need cake now more than ever.  In an unofficial cake cookbook census taken by *me,* statistics indicate a rise in the Library’s purchase of how-to-bake-cake books. The library owns ten cake cookbooks published from 1991 to… Continue reading

  • Place your holds now!

     Moon Over Manifest won the Newbery Medal this morning, Ship Breaker took home the Printz, and A Sick Day for Amos McGee received the Caldecott Medal. Check out the full list of winners from the ALA’s Youth Media Awards 2011. And here’s a neat trick: You can search award titles easily in our catalog. Here are… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Two novels to start the year

    Our newest edition of “Staff Favorites” — with book recommendations for children, teen and adult readers —  is hot off the press and on its way to your favorite branch. Here are a couple of novels included in the brochure: One Day by David Nicholls The classic story of boy meets girl with a twist:… Continue reading

  • Books for the college-obsessed parent

    Last summer I texted my son to tell him I was bringing home a copy of  Colleges That Changes Lives. His reply, via text: “Shouldn’t all colleges change lives?” I should end this post right here, because that says it all. Nope. I can’t leave it alone, no matter how hard I try to not… Continue reading

  • #1 New York Times best sellers 1942-2010

    The end of the year always puts me in a nostalgic mood. I am reminiscing about some of the #1 best sellers of the NY Times since the list began in 1942. The Robe, a religious novel,  topped the charts in 1942. Then we have the best sellers that were considered risqué for their time:  Forever… Continue reading

  • Torgny is #1

    There are a lot of wonderful things to say about the Swedish author Torgny Lindgren. However, we don’t have room here, and so I will simply say that Mr. Lindgren is the greatest living novelist. Of course that is only my opinion; others might suggest prolific writers such as James Patterson, Joyce Carol Oates, or… Continue reading

  • Who is like Flavia de Luce?

    After you find The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, what’s left but the plate? If you loved Alan Bradley’s child sleuth Flavia de Luce as much as I did, you can’t help feeling bereft at the end of this brilliantly funny “cozy” mystery in which she prevents a family catastrophe – the conviction… Continue reading

  • Brain Candy: MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead and Unfinished

    Admit it, you (munch, munch) love that candy. Well, do you have a sweet tooth for brain candy? Recently I read MaryJanice Davidson’s latest in the Betsy the Vampire Queen aka the “Undead” series, Undead and Unfinished. I went through the novel faster than a package of Fizzy Cola gummies…and it left me with a mild… Continue reading

  • It’s the End of the World As We Know It

    The leaves are falling, the bubble has been popped for awhile now, and the holidays are right around the corner, which means it’s the best time to read dystopian fiction! Knowing these characters have it worse of then we do definitely puts a spring back in my step. In Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde… Continue reading

  • More In the Stacks

    Here are some more “Shelf talkers” in the stacks: Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron A twisty plot starts out all innocent when an old high school classmate shows up at Ivy and David’s garage sale. The next day, the visitor is dead – and the last place she was seen was going into… Continue reading

  • The new medieval historicals 2010

    This is a great year for historical fiction! A plethora of medieval and Renaissance novels entered the market in competition with the ever-popular Philippa Gregory. Gregory’s latest novel, The Red Queen, is fabulous by the way — an imaginative portrait of Margaret Beaufort, the indomitable, ambitious and frighteningly powerful mother of Henry VII. Alison Weir’s… Continue reading

  • The Sky’s the Limit: Young Women and Aviation

    There are two books in the Library’s collection with titles that sound exactly alike: Flyy Girl and Flygirl. But don’t get them mixed up. One is a gritty, realistic, coming of age urban fiction—that’s Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree. The other, Flygirl, is an action-packed, historical novel about flying during World War II written by… Continue reading

  • The Novel: Live! 36 authors to create a novel in six days

    Here’s your chance to read it as they write it: Tomorrow morning at 10 sharp, novelist Jennie Shortridge will write the opening lines of a new novel, something she’s certainly done before, but never in so public of a space. This time, Shortridge and 35 other local authors are writing on stage in The Novel: Live!  —… Continue reading

  • In the Stacks: Short & Sweet

    Recently at the Central Library we did a large display of staff picks with plastic-encased “Shelf Talker” sleeves. We thought we would share some of these with you: The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan Finished with boarding school, Bess Heath returns home to find her family’s prospects drastically changed. She also… Continue reading