Mary Roach! My Favorite!

What I am reading next:





From Amazon.com:

The irresistible, ever-curious, and always best-selling Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside.
“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of—or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal. With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists (who have occasionally administered holy water rectally), rabbis and terrorists—who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive tracts. Like all of Roach’s books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.

What's a Good Book to Read?

Two of the five laws of library science are that there is a book for every reader, and a reader for every book. Our job is to match up books to readers. Here are a few tools which can help:

www.Cozy-Mysteries.com

----Intelligent mysteries, often involving amateur sleuths, without graphic violence, profanity or sex. This is a HUGE genre.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
----Romances are another giant category, and this site will help you find titles that are won't insult your intelligence.

Book Jam
----Two Vermont book lovers blogging about the books they are reading.

GoodReads
----This is a social networking website for readers. To use it, you create a profile, list books that you have read and liked, and the site will make recommendations for you. You can also write your own reviews, join discussions on particular books, and connect with friends to see what they are reading.

What's Next?
----Let's say you heard about an author who has written a series of books, and you want to find out what the first one is, or you've read one or more and want to find out what the next one is. Here's the site which will tell you.

What's Your Favorite Color?

It is always a good Thursday knitting group when G. stops by the library with her latest projects for a Show and Tell. G. is one of those talented people who never stops learning--she is already an accomplished knitter, crocheter and spinner, and today she shared her latest experiments--dyeing with Easter egg dyes. Here are some photos of what she brought today. The yarn in the picture above is tinted with Easter egg dyes--except for the red one on the top--that's dyed with beet juice!

 

This yarn  is dyed with Kool-Aid. Using food products makes dyeing a non-toxic, kid-friendly craft. For more information on how to do this yourself, go to this link. 

G. is also a spinner. This is what wool looks like before it's spun into yarn. She tried dyeing it before spinning it to see how it turned out. I hope she brings her spinning wheel again to show us how it goes.

 

Below you can see the same wool bundled into a chain. These two are different kinds of fibers, dyed with the same dye solution, but the fibers accept the colors in different ways.

Sometimes G. uses hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn, and sometimes she uses hardy, inexpensive acrylics. Here is the afghan she crocheted--she brought in her leftover yarn to the library--there's enough yarn left over for you to crochet an afghan, too!

Immediate Worlds

The Library is pleased to share the publication of a new book, Immediate Worlds, by local poet Anthony Bernini.

His poems have appeared in anthologies and journals published in the Northeast, and he reads his work in New York’s Hudson Valley and in New England. A graduate of Hamilton College, Bernini is the author of Distant Kinships, a volume of poetry published in 2002.


 This handsome volume was produced by The Troy Bookmakers, and can be purchased through them, or on Amazon.com, and is available for loan at the Library.


To obtain an inscribed copy, mark your calendar for 8:00 pm, October 24th, when Bernini will be the featured poet at a reading in McGeary's Tavern 4 Clinton Square, Albany.

Helping NY libraries

Several libraries in our vicinity were hit by Hurricane Irene. The New York Library Association has a Disaster Relief Fund. To donate, go to this page:
NYLA: Make a Donation

 In the Upper Hudson Library System, we had several closings, but they were thankfully brief.

Author Kate Messner wrote about two libraries on her blog. Many photos.

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag...

Do you have an eReader yet? I just got my first one, a Nook Simple Touch from Barnes & Noble. Some people have expressed surprise that a librarian has an eReader, as if we were all the Priestesses at the Temple of the Codex Format, but that is far, far from the truth. Our system, the Upper Hudson Library System, created a circulating collection of digital downloadable books, audio and video five years ago, around the time the Kindle came out.

I like gadgets, but a few things held me back from buying one. One, I'm cheap thrifty, and it was hard to justify the purchase of a reader when I have daily access to All the Books. Two, I was waiting for the kinks to get worked out of the technology, which can take a few generations. Three, I was letting other people (friends and reviewers) test out the various models for me. I have been waiting a while. The first reader I saw was in 1998, the Rocketbook, a hefty specimen weighing 22 oz, which could hold 10 books. (Today's readers weigh a third of that, and hold 1000s of books....)

I have to say, reviews were mixed. My nephew took his Kindle to Iraq with him, where he mostly read free books. A librarian friend found that the books she liked to read for fun, romance novels, weren't often available in eBook format (This was a while ago). But there were also people who lovedlovedloved their readers. People who put them in a gallon sized ziplock bag and read happily, while taking a bath. Knitters who downloaded their patterns on to their readers. Friends who cited their ease and portability...

The tipping point for me started a few months ago when the price for two new models of readers dropped down to my level. It was cinched a few weeks ago when I had to take an unexpected plane flight alone. I did a lot of people-watching on the trip, and noticed how very many people were reading on their nifty little devices. A friendly couple sitting next to me on one leg of the journey each had a reader, and showed me the features they liked and disliked. I was increasingly intrigued..... 

During the trip I spent time on a family member's tablet computer. I liked it, and I enjoyed using the touch screen. I'd once had a (non-smart) phone with a touch screen, but where that had been an unsatisfying interface, the screen on the tablet was so easy to use--in fact, I found myself trying to use imaginary touchscreens on TVs, and other appliances.

A few days into this trip I decided to spring for a reader, a little comfort-food for the soul, if you will--it was either that or a cocker spaniel-sized chunk of chocolate. Although I had liked using the tablet, I didn't want a tablet/reader that had the distractions of email, video, and web surfing. I wanted a reader that was small and light, and not back-lit, which can make it harder on the eyes.

My choice came down to two: the Kindle and the Nook. Both were the same price, so with the help of a young sales-person, I ran through the features of each, and ended up at the cash register with a Nook. A short time later, I was downloading books from the library system's website, so I'd have reading matter on the flight home.

Do I like it? Yes, a lot. It fits into my purse. I bought a little clip on light for it, and have made two covers for it. I've read several books on it, more than I have in a while, downloaded more books, and organized my books into "shelves". The shelf with the knitting patterns is well-stocked.  

In November, on Wednesday the 9th, at 6:00 pm, we'll have a forum at the library with demos of various readers. If you have a reader, and want to share your experiences, or ask questions about downloading library books onto it, come on down. If you are thinking of getting a reader, or researching a reader holiday purchase, come on down.

Summer is coming (really), Where Do You Want to Go?

Like many libraries in our system, we offer passes to area museums. Typically, these passes admit two adults, and four children, although some museums charge an additional entrance to special exhibitions. The passes can be taken out for three days. With limitations on our budget, we can only purchase passes for a limited number of museums. Our most popular passes have been to the Clark Art Institute, MassMoca, and the Berkshire Museum. We are considering the Adirondack Museum, the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Eric Carle Museum...where do you want to go?

If you'd like to weigh in what passes you'd like to see us add, please vote in the poll on our Facebook page. Time to plan ahead for summer fun....

Just passing on an item of interest to the many wannabe children's authors out there.....

Presented by the Children's Literature Connection, 

 www.childrensliteratureconnection.org 

"Who's the Seuss?" - Writing and Publishing Workshop 

Saturday, June 4, 2011   

  

Are you the next Dr. Seuss, J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer?

Join two CLC members who are publishing insiders - authors Eric Luper and Coleen Paratore - for a fact-filled, hands-on, all-questions-answered FUN workshop on how to get your children's or young adult book published!

Seek answers to your publishing questions:

 How do I get started?

Where do I get ideas?

Where and how do I submit?

How do I meet editors and agents?

How do I know if my manuscript is ready?

What is an elevator pitch and do I need one?

How do I write a query letter that gets read?

Plus special segments on:

How to act like you're "in the club" until you ARE in the club!

Writing that great first sentence, paragraph, page, and chapter an editor or agent can't resist!    Our 'we've-been-in-your-shoes-so-here's-the-real-deal' tips on how to get that big break.

When:    Saturday, June 4, 2011

Where:  Hilton Garden Inn, 235 Hoosick Street, Troy, NY

(ample free parking)

Time: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (Lunch 12-1)

Cost: $99

 (Special $10.00 discount for up-to-date Children's Literature Connection members and all teachers and librarians.)

Send contact information (incl. phone number and email) and check made out to "Who's the Seuss?" by May 20^th to:

"Who's the Seuss?"

c/o Eric Luper

350 Northern Blvd, Suite 103

Albany, NY 12204  

What to Bring: a 20-word or less "pitch" for your book, one copy of the first page of your manuscript (double-spaced), a notebook and pen, and your favorite beverages/snacks.There is a restaurant downstairs or feel free to bring a brown bag lunch!

Register soon! Enrollment is limited!

Library PSA's

Check out this Library Public Service Announcement from author Neil Gaiman. He's so mild mannered, yet his books are fantastical and fun. I especially liked Neverwhere

Books to Movies

I love reading and I love watching movies, and I don't mind when movie makers take some liberties with books. I'm not talking new characters, or changing the ending...although I did think that the movie version of The Tin Drum had a better ending than the book.

I see the characters in my head when I'm reading, and I can't always prevent the movie actors from co-opting my own mental images. Sometimes, though, the movie actors are better, or even, who I had in mind when I read the book. Did you think Alan Rickman was the perfect choice to play Snape in the Harry Potter films? I did. Maybe that's because author J.K. Rowling had him in mind when she created the character. He got the part after Tim Roth turned it down to be in the instantly forgettable Planet of the Apes remake.



Our Book and Movie Group at the Brunswick Community Library chooses a different title every month. First, they meet to discuss a book, then a week later, they watch the movie adaptation of the book. Sometimes the films are recent, sometimes they are classics. The group members take turns bringing snacks, which are often inspired by what they are reading and watching. You are welcome to join the group, and to attend either, or both sessions.  Check out our website to see the schedule and book/movie title list.

In the meantime, you might be interested to hear about two movies coming out soon which are based on best-selling books. One is The Lincoln Lawyer, with Matthew McConaughey and Marisa Tomei; and another is Water for Elephants, with a non-sparkly Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.

The Eating Season

The NY Times Best Cookbooks of the Year

The above article just came out, and I defy you to read it and not get hungry. I love books, and cooking, and so, I love cookbooks. Or books about cooking, or food, or eating. Or books about writing cookbooks. I heard the author, Harold McGee, interviewed on Fresh Air, and bought his new book, Keys to Good Cooking, for the library. In it, he will explain why your brisket gets more tender the longer you cook it. 

I think this is because eating, and food, is so closely related to our upbringing, to our families, to how we feel about our selves, our bodies, our lives. Flavors can evoke strong memories, tied to powerful feelings. Sometimes we have strong attachment or aversion to a particular flavor--I know people who can't stand the tiniest bit of cilantro in a dish. When a company changes a formula, or discontinues a product, it can create an uproar amongst its consumers--anyone remember New Coke? Many people started stockpiling Postum when it was discontinued, and there are fan clubs for candies that are no longer made. (Please, someone, bring back the Choc-O-Lite!)

The "Holiday" Season used to start with Thanksgiving, but now it more or less kicks into gear with Halloween. I think of the period from Halloween through Valentine's Day, as the Eating Season. I'm sure this is no mistake--everyone eats, so it's in the interest of food producers to get us to associate  lots of kinds of food with as many holidays as possible. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. I enjoy trying new ways of cooking old favorites--I do believe that the brined turkey won out in the moistness competition over the deep-fried turkey this year, although both were delicious. I do have a hankering for the Thanksgiving Cake.

Here are some of my favorite cooking/foodie books:

Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl. She was the last editor of Gourmet magazine, and a former food critic for the New York Times. This is the first in her series of memoirs, and my favorite of the bunch.


My Life in France, by Julia Child. Re-issued after the movie Julie and Julia came out, this is the charming story of how Julia Child learned to cook, and co-wrote a cookbook, while living in France.

The Emperors of Chocolate, by Joel Glenn Brenner, tells the fascinating histories of the Mars and Hershey companies.There's a lot you don't know, and will like hearing about. Trust me.

For books with recipes, you can check out:

Dirty Sugar Cookies, by Ayun Halliday. She's a fun, funny writer, whether she takes on child rearing, or world travel. Here's her other books.

Anything by Madhur Jaffrey. She is a writer and actor, and while opinions vary, I find that her recipes come out well.  If you like Indian/Asian/vegetarian dishes, check it out.

Extending the Table: a World Community Cookbook, by Joetta Handrich Schlabach. This compilation of recipes was collected by Mennonites living all over the world. It includes poignant anecdotes of their experiences, and the recipes, while they may not be the most authentic you will ever find, are well tested and delicious, plus they are made from readily available ingredients.

E-book Readers, and their accoutrements

Now that you have turned off the outside tap, and are huddled inside watching the mums wither, you can feel bad about not having your holiday decorations up. I'm kidding--I am of the school that says that one should not flick a switch on a colored light until the last Day After Thanksgiving sandwich has been consumed.

I am not a traditionalist, however, when it comes to e-books. People ask me about e-books all the time, and more often than not, they preface it by apologizing. Please, stop it. I may be a librarian, but I do not worship at the altar of the printed word. These days, if I added up the time each day that I spend reading from a glowing screen, or listening to audio-books, it would far surpass the time I spend staring at a piece of paper.

Yes, I grew up with books, magazines, and two daily newspapers (morning and afternoon--really). When I went to Library School we learned how to type catalog cards, but after I graduated, I created a database that printed the information for me in card format--until a grant came along to buy an automated system. Goodbye, card catalog...

Many librarians love technology. We jump on the technology bandwagon too quickly sometimes--microfiche, anyone? Second Life? I wasted an afternoon a couple of years ago, listening to a Second Life enthusiast describing how we would all be running our libraries on Second Life any minute. I wonder what he's promoting now...

The first e-book reader I saw was a RocketBook--this was in 2000 or so. It was clunky, and being circulated in a public library. Oh, yes, in 2000. We were told that they would be replacing books any minute, and here we are in 2010, and still waiting to see which e-book reader will become the standard format. Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPad?

A lot of people I know receive them as gifts, so I expect to see more in a few months from now. If you are thinking of getting one, or if someone wants to give you one, the Upper Hudson Library System does have e-books that you can load onto your reader. Please go to this page to find out which readers you can use with our collection.

If you'd like to see what titles are available in digital format (audio and e-books, and yes, some video), go to this page. Come in to the library, if you like, and ask me about it. And don't apologize. You're reading. Reading is good. I approve.

PS If you think you know an e-book reader who would like a knitted cozy to protect the gadget, here's a link to a pattern for a knitted e-book reader.

Books You Hold Dear

This morning I was listening to Joe Donahue on WAMC talk to author Brock Clarke. In discussing Clarke's new book, Exley, they were saying that they have found that they don't fall in love with as many books as they did when they were children and teenagers. They agreed this was a function of getting older.

Sorry, fellows, I'm not sure I agree.  Yes, I remember getting passionate about The Catcher in the Rye, and The Bell Jar, and The Lord of the Rings. But I still fall in love with books. I don't think I fall in love with books any less, but I don't have the time to read and read and read that I had when I was younger. Now I only have time for reading marathons while on vacation, or on a few weekends here and there.

The books that I've gotten passionate about over the past few years are a pretty varied list: Candyfreak, by Steve Almond;  Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert; Operating Instructions, by Anne Lamott; A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, and The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orleans. Notice anything? All non fiction. I do like fiction, too, but I don't read it as much as I used to. When I was a kid, I went through science fiction by the bucket load--Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Ursula LeGuin, and Orson Scott Card. I do still love, love, love, Terry Pratchett, who is like tiramisu, in book form.

Joe (I feel like I can call him Joe) and Mr. Clarke also said they were hesitant to re-read their beloved books from long ago, afraid that they wouldn't hold up. I am lucky to be able to talk to kids every day about the books that they read, and so I get to share the excitement that they feel when they start reading a book or author they are crazy about, without having to take the time to re-read the books myself. Thanks, kids!

That Nice Lady Writer...

The Huffington Post just reviewed a book by Elizabeth Brundage, an author from our area who visited our Tuesday Book Group last fall. The reviewer reveals that he's met Ms. Brundage, and wonders how a seemingly well adjusted person could write scenes of deep depravity and desperation.

Um...what? My first reaction was to say, this is sexism--why should a writer who is a mom be any different from anyone else? And I think that's part of what I object to, but I think that people also wonder how tightly wound Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk are, too. However, it's not with quite the same "but she seems like such a nice lady" attitude.(For the record, you can bring Stephen King with you to my barbecue. You can leave Chuck at home, thanks. I like his books...but...I'm not sure he'd mix in well with the neighbors.)

 The reviewer clearly likes Brundage's book, A Stranger Like You, which is getting many good reviews. He says,      
               "A Stranger Like You could not be better written; it is a showcase of clever plotting,
memorable characters and dialogue that reads as if it were overheard."

Though later, when he interviews Brundage, he has to say,

                          "You write brilliant descriptions and sharp dialogue. I'm wishing you huge success. But
this kind of story -- how large an audience do you feel it can attract? Who wants this? Who is your reader?"

And once again, I thought, What? What does this reviewer read? Does he not realize that people have been gobbling up books and flocking to movies about blood sucking fiends? Reading and watching stories about zombies? Rooting for the serial killer Dexter? (If you've only seen the Showtime tv series, the original Dexter character in the books by Jeffry Lindsay is a lot more crazy.)

Isn't that why we read? To safely explore the outer boundaries of human experience and emotions? So fire up the tea kettle, tuck in your lap blanket, and bring on the depravity, I say! Thanks, Elizabeth Brundage!

Overheard in Your Library Today

Today I overheard a tutor working with a student. "Use the word 'creche' in a sentence," said the tutor. "It was bad when Mom creched into Grandma's car," said the student.

These two were working in our comfy chairs, but we also have a small study room available for this purpose. The first week that we we opened in our new location in Sept of 2009 we realized how useful this room was for our patrons. A young woman was studying in the room for hours one day, and returned the next day with a young man. It turned out they were studying for medical board exams. They had been driving to another library in Albany County, but were very happy to have a place where they could work together here in Brunswick. They have not been back--I hope that means they passed their boards.

We have a larger meeting room, too, which can be used by community groups, equipped with a projector, screen, etc. Guidelines for the use of this room can be found on our website.

Library Life

N.J. library patron overstays welcome; eats and reads well

The above is a story that librarians are sending to each other, about a man found camping out in N.J. library basement. The reporter takes a light-hearted approach to the story, as if the homeless man was fulfilling a dream, like a kid hiding away in a candy factory. Reading to his heart's content, and eating from the staff refrigerator, who could ask for anything more?

I can't imagine it that way. One of my friends who worked in a small public library described a similar situation to me. First, let's picture a typical basement: dimly lit, cobwebs, dusty supplies stored on sagging shelves, an old furnace. You are a librarian, going down to the basement after closing time, alone. You had heard a sound from upstairs, wondered if it was maybe a mousetrap going off.  Next to the furnace you see jars filled with murky liquid. From the shadows behind the furnace a man steps forward. He is painfully thin, hair unkempt, clothes torn and stained. Doesn't sound so cute and whimsical, told that way, does it?

Thanks, Mr. Baker

I like to watch old TV shows, like Columbo, Kojak, The Rockford Files. They take place in a world without computers, microwave ovens, GPS, and cable tv. The telephones have cords.

Don't get me wrong--I like gadgets. I have two kinds of rice cookers. (I am able to enjoy my old tv trips down Memory Lane through a streaming wi-fi connection.) But I am a cautious, reluctant adopter. I like to wait til the kinks are worked out. It might take years. I got a cell phone in 2004. I started turning it on in 2008.

So I would like to thank Nicholson Baker, for looking into the whole video game thing for me, in the August 2 edition of the New Yorker magazine. (The link takes you to a podcast of an interview with Baker, the article is not online. You can check out the magazine at the library. We have a lot of magazines you can check out: Cooking Light, People, Poetry, etc.)

I guess video games have been around for a while, but I kind of missed the boat on them, especially the home versions. I was around when video games were introduced in arcades, and I played Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Robotron. When the home consoles came out, I was busy with other things. Life went on...now it's possible to get a four year college degree in video game design. I'm not really sure what to think about that. Should we have them in the library? Circulate them? What do you think?

Meets and Greets...

If you love writing, and you have a wad of dough burning a hole in your pocket, head over to the Berkshire WordFest this weekend. They have an AMAZING slate of authors who will be speaking, reading, signing and being interviewed. It's at Edith Wharton's home, the Mount, in Lenox, MA.

Looking ahead to another great festival, now in its 9th year, the Brattleboro (VT) Literary Festival will be held on October 1-3. New and established writers are featured; plus it's mostly free, from what I can tell; plus it's in Vermont, in October, so it'll be gawgeous.

In Remembrance

It is with great sorrow that we mourn the loss of Jayne Sullivan, a charter member of the Brunswick Community Library, a Friend of the Library, a library volunteer.

I met Jayne in 2005, when the Board of Trustees held an open house to welcome my tenure as the new director. She was wearing a knitted vest, very smart, and I asked if she had knitted it herself--she had, and we immediately bonded around our love of knitting. It was one of her many talents.

Through the years I also came to know Jayne as an avid reader--I think she checked out almost every  large print book we had, as soon as it came in. I loved hearing her stories about her travels, she had been to all fifty states, and much of the world. A few years ago she cruised on a small boat down the Amazon river.

On the last day of her life, Jayne drove her car to the library, from her apartment, and enjoyed a lunch of coq au vin with the Book and Movie group, as they discussed "Julie and Julia". She was 87 years old.

Virginia Woolf  had this to say about readers, on their way to heaven:

When the Day of Judgement dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards—their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble—the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when he sees us coming with our books under our arms, "Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading." 

Jayne, we were lucky to know you.  You are missed.

 

The E Book Reader--You Know You Want One

I have been watching the eBook Reader saga since the RocketBook days (late 90's). I have friends who love their Kindles/iPod Touch, etc., and couldn't live without them. I have friends who received them as gifts and haven't become fans yet.

Both the Kindle and the Sony eReader have popped up on sale, refurbished, for around $100. (They sell out fast.) The question is not whether you will ever own an eBook reader, but when. If you feel ready to make the plunge now, Wiley, a publishing house, has a handy comparison tool to help you select the right one for your needs. Find it here.