|
|
|
July 30th, 2008
09:12 am - Meet the “Reading with the Rays” Street Team at the Clearwater Main Library
To celebrate the summer reading program, Reading With the Rays, a Tampa Bay Rays street team will visit the Clearwater Main Library, Mon. Aug. 4, 1 p.m. The Pinellas Public Library Cooperative (PPLC) and their partners, the Rays baseball team and the St. Petersburg Times' Newspaper in Education (NIE) created the Reading with the Rays program for elementary school-aged youth. To participate in the program, kids can pick up a game card at any PPLC public library or at Tropicana Field and start reading. Move around the bases to win great prizes. Complete the bases and make it to Home Plate and you will receive two free tickets to a Rays baseball game. For more information, call (727) 562-4970, ext. 5236.
|
August 23rd, 2007
10:56 am - Late Summer Staff Picks
Come check out what we're reading!
Linda -Beach
Match Me if You Can, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Despite the popularity of computer dating there still exist people whose (pricey, exclusive) job it is to help someone find the perfect mate. Annabelle Granger has inherited such a business from her grandmother and is determined to prove to her family that this time she will not fail at her job. Her first job is to help Heath Champion, a gorgeous, high-powered sports agent who is very picky in his search for the "perfect wife." It's soon obvious that Annabelle and Heath are meant for each other; the fun is in seeing how they come to that conclusion. To add to the interest, there's a subplot involving Annabelle's fierce business competitor, who has some issues of her own. A light-hearted story by a popular romance writer.
Shadows at the Fair; Shadows on the Coast of Maine; Shadows on the Ivy; Shadows at the Spring Show by Lea Wait. In this charming set of cozies, Maggie Summer is a college professor and a dealer in antique prints. (Her business is called 'Shadows' because the prints were often a source of news and a reflection of life in the 19th century or earlier.) While the widowed Maggie solves the mysteries, her thoughts increasingly turn to the idea of adopting an older child, (possibly because the author herself has 4 adopted daughters). In addition, we learn various antique "trivia": the history of matches, all about Victorian mourning artifacts, early drawings of Santa Claus, biographies of artists, etc.
In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
It's a bitterly cold December night in a small New York town when a newborn baby is left on the steps of an Episcopal church. Fortunately the priest (Clare Fergusson) finds the baby in time, and she and the police chief (Russ Van Alstyne) join forces to find the baby's mother, and soon, her murderer. And then there's another murder. Clare risks her life several times to help Russ solve the crimes. Despite the fact that he is married, it's obvious that there's a real attraction between these two interesting people. The first of a compelling, beautifully-written, exciting new mystery series.
Paula - Main
What am I not reading? Now that we have "Playaways" AKA Digital Books my life is complete with an array of entertainment. In the last week I've enjoyed listening to three books and am going on my fourth. These compact (fit in your back pocket) type of books are great to tag along on dog walks, the gym, commute to/from work, house projects and chores. It's addicting. I don't have to worry about downloads or my computer crashing. Just add a battery, pump up the volume and off I go!
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
This book is about a young girl raised in South Carolina during the Civil Rights movement. Her mother was killed when she was a little girl and all she has of her mother is a photo and a Black Madonna (from Tiburon, South Carolina). She helps her "surrogate mother" Rosaleen escape from a hospital. Rosaleen had been arrested and beaten by three racist men. They head to Tiburon, South Carolina, and live with three sister beekeepers. Come to find out they knew her mother and they share in her past. This book is sad yet funny and filled with feminine bond and compassion.
The Lovely Bones A Novel by Alice Sebold
This book is about a young girl who is brutally raped and killed by the neighbor. She watches her family, friends, and investigator from heaven. Her parents and investigator have figured out who the rapist and killer is, but it's hard to prove. As she narrates, the reader has a sense of what heaven may be like and makes the reader aware that loved ones return without us knowing. She also experiences intimacy through her best friends flesh.
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
This book is about a young girls parents struggling through their marriage. She is raped by her ex-boyfriends who is later found dead. Evidence has the young girl connected to the crime scene, but the truth tells us otherwise. The father's past leads the girl to Alaska as she tries to escape the law.
Jen - Main
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
A novel set in modern India about a wealthy woman and her servant who share a strong bond of friendship.
Shannon - Main
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene.
Set against the backdrop of World War II and the Blitz in London, two lovers meet, have an affair, and unexpectedly fall in love. Beyond this standard formula, Greene throws in the question of faith: the very affair causes the woman to claim a previously non-existing faith in God, which ultimately tests the man's own atheism. Sound dry? Not So! Greene injects passion, jealousy and hatred into this unique love story. If you like the book, two movie versions have been made. The 1955 version starred Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson and Peter Cushing. A remake in 1999 starred Julianne Moore, Stephen Rea and Ralph Fiennes.
Kent - Main
Wigfield: the can-do town that just may not by Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert
If you like the humor of the TV shows "The Colbert Report" and "Strangers with Candy" you'll like this satirical novel.
Try the digital audio player version (aka Playaway) performed by the authors.
Georgina - Countryside
Peony in Love by Lisa See, has turned me on to Chinese historical fiction. After reading her previous book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I couldn't wait to read her next. I was not disappointed. I am reading Peony's last chapter and it is a superb read. A learning experience in Chinese culture as well as a chronicled awakening of feminism in the early women poets of China, See juxtaposes her story against an opera the protagonists watch and it flows seamlessly excelling in imagery and meaningful symbolism.
Tracey - Main
Stumbling On Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Written in the same light and engaging style as Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Blink by Malcom Gladwell, Gibert introduces the idea that what we think makes us happy really doesn't. We, as humans, spend a lot of time focusing on and preparing for some moment in the future in which we will be "happy." His thesis, that even though we engage in this activity (consciously and unconsciously), and attempt to control that future, we don't know who we will be or what we will be feeling then, so how can we prepare for and predict what will make us happy then.
An interesting and somewhat thought-provoking read.
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Amusing...isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind. The tale of a sex addict con artist whose daytime job is in a Colonial-period theme park and whose night job is choking in restaurants to pay for his mother's nursing home care. In typical Palahniuk style, it's at turns disturbing, insightful, interesting, funny and off-putting, but always worth reading.
Ann - Main
Our book group just read Light on Snow by Anita Shreve and we enjoyed it. This author generally includes themes of love and loss in her stories. In this she also explores family relationships, the responsibilities we have to one another through thick and thin.
A pre-teen Nicky Dillon and her father are starting a new life in rural New Hampshire following a family tragedy. As they finally settle into familiar routines, an unexpected "find" one snowy day encroaches on the natural order of their lives. When they stumble upon a newborn baby left abandoned in the woods, little do they realize the tempest that is about to follow.
Joanne - East
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich - silly and light
6th Target by James Patterson - typical Patterson
Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly - not finished yet
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - Chinese foot binding, etc. Other than the foot binding, a sweet book.
Bob - Main
The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes also La Storia by Jerre Mangione & Ben Morreale.
Lisa - North Greenwood
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
Before you say, "Yuk, another memoir about a bunch of barfly alcoholics", read this book. It was one I didn't want to end. This is the story of JR, a boy growing up fatherless in Manhasset, Long Island. He and his mother live with his dysfunctional grandparents with off and on with a house full of cousins and Uncle Charlie, a bartender at the local bar. This book poetically tells the story of JR's life, as a young boy listening to the airwaves searching for his father's voice, a DJ who left him and his mother, how JR grows older, follows his dream of going to Yale, falls in love, works as a copy boy at the New York Times, and of course, spends a lot of time with his "family" of friends at the bar...
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
A cub reporter, Camille, returns to her small Midwest Missouri hometown to cover a murder of a young girl. She stays with her mother, step-sister, and "father", while covering the story. Camille who has a history of self mutilation, faces her past, her unmotherly mother, her alien 13 year-old stepsister, twenty years her junior, who appears to be a girl scout, but is into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. While delving into the lives of her former neighbors and classmates, Camille becomes friends with a detective from outside assigned to the case. She discovers what appears to be the truth about her mother while trying to report on the case, being swept up in the past memories of her hometown and getting to know her sister and herself... A first novel by the author. I am looking forward to her second!
Laura - Main
I was just perusing my Entertainment Weekly's Fall movie preview issue, and they've made No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy into a movie. It was such an interesting book; it's exactly why I read fiction books. It set me down in the middle of this situation, and acquainted me with some terrifically compelling people. By sheer happenstance a man is running for his life from a complete psychopath, with a couple million dollars in a satchel from a drug deal gone bad in the middle of rural Texas. The story follows from the perspective of the killer, the cop trying to solve the many killings, and the guy on the run with the money. It was a fabulous book; it has the makings of a great movie too, in November (Coen brothers!) Seriously violent, but it's writing at it's best.
Nanci - Countryside
For a fun no brainer summer read , I liked Quickie, by James Patterson, it was recommended by a friend, I don't normally read him, but I did enjoy this, as it had lots of twists and turns and I had no idea where it was going. Lots of surprises and had my attention the whole time. TRY it.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
c_scapes's journal