The Dog Days of Summer
These long hot summer days can be a drag but your summer reading doesn’t need to be! Keep your reading light and breezy by sticking to short stories. Short story collections allow you to put the book down and come back to it later (even much later) without feeling like you’ve forgotten the plot, you can read a whole story in the time it takes to wait out a child’s swimming class or read a few while sitting by the pool. An additional benefit to picking up a short story collection is that if you don’t like one you can skip it (this is especially helpful when listening to the audio versions on road trips).
Lucky for all of us short story fans several great collections have been published and added to our collection recently among them are;
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth - 8 stories written in Lahiri’s soothing and beautiful prose that detail and compare the struggles of everyday life for characters in remarkably different places.
Elizabeth Berg’s The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted - Stories that convey the trials of womanhood at all ages, from preteen years to the onset of old age. Some of these stories will draw a chuckle while others are truly touching.
Libby Fischer Hellmann’s (editor) Chicago Blues - A collection of 20 stories written by local authors in a noir crime/mystery fashion, this collection will appeal to mystery and crime readers especially.
While your here don’t forget about nonfiction essays and collections, short and sweet just like their fiction counterparts!
Try Something New This Summer!
With the kids away at camp or otherwise occupied outdoors have you found yourself with a little free time on your hands? Perhaps you have found that you are craving a little grown-up time in your life? Maybe the inevitable and much dreaded question, “what do you want to do tonight?” has been popping up at an alarming rate lately.
Let me make a suggestion….
It would seem that Oprah can be credited, yet again, for making something that was once passé popular anew. Although Oprah and I don’t always see eye-to-eye, I must admit that her book club has refreshed the activity and has really sparked a wide-spread interest in group book discussions among adults. For those of you that are not currently participating in a book group (not counting Oprah’s) I would strongly suggest checking one out. Not only do they provide an excuse to remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and lose yourself in a book, they also require that you participate in discussions that don’t revolve around children, spouses, mortgages, or work (unless these topics happen to be relevant to the plot).
Should you happen to not know of any local book groups or if those that you are aware of don’t happen to suit your taste/needs… start one of your own! While the founding of a book group is not difficult there are a few things you should consider before you get started.
1. The general size of your group: I have known people who participated in groups with over twenty members, and while they claim that these large meetings were fun and full of energy I prefer a smaller more manageable group of between 5 and 10 members. Keeping the group size relatively small ensures that everyone will get a chance to speak. A great way to maintain a small group without having to feel exclusionary is by defining the group members, for example, you may start a book group among colleagues within only your department or among members of your block or apartment/condo association.
2. Where will the group meet: Make sure it’s a comfortable environment that everyone can get to easily. If you plan on meeting in a restaurant/coffee house clear it with the proprietors first to ensure that there is not a meeting fee or bill requirement.
3. Discussion rules: Will one person lead the discussion and be responsible for bringing questions, or will the discussion format be organic? If you choose to have a discussion leader will it be the same person every time or will it change?
4. The Books: How will books be chosen? Will there be a theme for the group, will it change? I have found that it is not useful to try to stick to rigid rules like “we only read fiction” or “we only read books with female characters,” this tends to get boring and you may find that you are selecting books because they follow the rules rather than because you want to read them.
A few other things to keep in mind;
1. Be open-minded: book groups are about trying new things and meeting new people, enjoy it!
2. Don’t forget that you can get help at HPL: We are happy to put together reading toolkits that include discussion questions, book descriptions/reviews, and author bios., HPL patrons simply pay the cost of printing!
3. If you don’t think that you have time to read it – listen to it: You can get many popular books, both fiction and nonfiction, on CD so you can listen as you run errands or clean the house!
4. Enjoy!
A Broader Definition of “Library”
In the April 15, 2008 issue of Library Journal Editor-at-Large John N. Berry made a statement that, for this librarian, has become the mantra I repeat over-and-over as I build the Hinsdale Public Library’s feature film and music collections. Berry stated in his blatantberry commentary entitled “More Than ‘Information’” that “While many people view and use the public library as an information agency, its original mandate, many more now come to it to learn, to interact, to explore, and, of course, to be entertained. Yes, they come to the library to have fun.”
As I select titles to add to the HPL collection of DVDs and Music I do consider the educational value the items possess, what they say about a time in our history, whether or not they have been positively reviewed by those professionals we trust to dictate quality, and I also consider whether or not it will make someone happy. Beyond whether or not a movie or CD will bring a an hour or two of joy into a person’s life I might also ask myself if the tears it produced were genuine, if it might make someone laugh spontaneously, if the scares were truly scary, or if it made me think about a time I never had the chance to experience.
The heart of the library will always be the pursuit and discovery of information and the role of the librarian will continue to be to aid in that pursuit and to be the steward of information for future generations. It is the hope of this new librarian that I can help to foster a library environment that also aids in the pursuit and discovery of entertainment and that I can be a steward of joy, thrills, tears (the kind that we welcome), scares (the kind we like), and even fun. So please come and take a look at the HPL DVD and Music Collections and please don’t be shy about making suggestions!
Pilar Garcia-Montero
Reference and Adult Services
The High and the Mighty: NBA Winners and Oprah’s New Book Pick
Most folks think of basketball when they hear NBA, but the acronym also stands for the National Book Award, arguably the most prestigious literary prize in the United States. This year’s NBA winners were announced last night in a gala New York ceremony. Denis Johnson’s trenchant Vietnam War novel Tree of Smoke took the fiction prize, Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA won for nonfiction, Robert Hass’ Time and Materials won for poetry and Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian won for young people’s literature.
However, the literary champ of the week probably is veteran novelist Ken Follett. For her latest book club pick, Oprah Winfrey selected Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, 973-page opus about the building of an English cathedral in the 12th century. The book’s sequel, World Without End, was released a few weeks ago and already is on bestsellers lists.
Surprise Booker Prize Winner Announced
Anne Enright’s The Gathering, a dark novel about three generations of an Irish family hiding a bitter secret, was the surprise winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, announced today in London. Most literary observers considered Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach and Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip to be the favorites to win the prize, which rewards the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.
Doris Lessing Wins Nobel Prize in Literature
The British novelist, essayist and short story writer Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize in Literature today, becoming the 11th woman to receive the award. The Nobel committee lauded the “skepticism, fire and visionary power,” of Lessing’s work, which is known for its humanism, experimentalism and concern for social inequity. Lessing is also known for her uncompromising, independent personality, which was very much in evidence when she told journalists she “couldn’t care less” about winning the award.
Burn, Baby, Burn
On this date in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire blazed through nearly four square miles in the city, leveling more than 18,000 structures and killing at least 300. You can commemorate the 186th anniversary of the disaster by checking out the dramatic, albeit mostly fictional, Hollywood account of the inferno, the 1937 film In Old Chicago, starring Tyrone Power and Don Ameche. They play the sons of Mrs. O’Leary, who has gone down in legend as the owner of the cow who purportedly started the conflagration. However, those looking for a historically accurate account of the fire might want to turn to Richard Bales’ book The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow, which exonerates the unfortunate bovine once and for all. Meanwhile, readers of all ages will enjoy Jim Murphy’s award-winning The Great Fire, which includes historical accounts and numerous sepia-tinged photographs of the aftermath of the blaze.
Oprah’s Latest Pick: Love in the Time of Cholera
Continuing her trend of selecting complex, highly literary novels (McCarthy’s The Road, Eugenides’ Middlesex, etc.) Oprah Winfrey newest book club selection is Love in the Time of Cholera by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia M
Book Review: Julie and Julia
Pushing 30 and stuck in a dead-end job, Julie Powell one day distractedly picks up a dog-eared copy of Julia Child
Book Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
To the staff and fellow residents of his nursing home, Jacob Jankowski is just another cranky 90-something widower. What they don