Anne's blog

Our June meeting at Jimmy's Pub to discuss Into Thin Air was another great discussion with the consensus being none of us want to be that miserable for that long! Summiting Mount Everest takes a lot of money, time and more risks than any of us is willing to take. For more information about Mount Everest and the controversy of the climbing industry, check out these links.

Outside Online - Take a Number

List of people who died climbing Mount Everest

National Geographic - Everest

Everest season ends on a high note

Join us July 9, 6:30pm at Jimmy's Pub to talk about This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. 

The death of Judd Foxman’s father marks the first time that the entire Foxman family—including Judd’s mother, brothers, and sister—have been together in years. Conspicuously absent: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd’s radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. 

Simultaneously mourning the death of his father and the demise of his marriage, Judd joins the rest of the Foxmans as they reluctantly submit to their patriarch’s dying request: to spend the seven days following the funeral together. In the same house. Like a family.

This Is Where I Leave You is Jonathan Tropper's most accomplished work to date, a riotously funny, emotionally raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind—whether we like it or not.

Belong to a book group or just looking for a good book to read? Here is a list of the most popular book club books in May from Bookmovement.com. The popularity of the new Great Gatsby movie has pushed that classic to the top of the list!

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
3. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed
4. Unbroken: A World War II Tale of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
6. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
7. Defending Jacob by William Landay
8. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
9. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
10. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

As part of our Summer Reading theme, Dig Into Reading, we are going to offer you the chance to dig up some plants and flowers from your garden and swap them for some new varieties. Just bring your plants to the library on Saturday, June 15 and meet with other library gardeners who might have just the plant that's been missing from your garden!

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout is more than the story of a dysfunctional family, it also deals with religion, race and cultural issues in a small town in Maine after a large number of refugees from Somalia relocate there.

The personal and psychological struggles of the main characters stem from childhood traumas. Each gives insight into how their lives were shaped by the things they believed to be true from childhood interpretations; things that are never spoken of as adults. A personal success doesn't necessarily mean that someone is good, or a failure that someone is bad.  The twists and turns will pull you along to the final pages of this story.

Here's a list of what we'll be talking about this summer at Books on Tap. 

June 11 - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
July  9 - This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
August 13 - Manhunt by James L. Swanson

September 10 - The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers - This year's One Book, One Community selection.

We have new people drop in every month! So if you have been looking for a place to meet and discuss books, stop by Jimmy's Pub the 2nd Tuesday of the month.

Have a drink and join the discussion!

Tuesday night 17 people showed up at Jimmy's Pub for a lively discussion of Dog Stars by Peter Heller. While not everyone enjoyed the book as much as I did, people pointed out and discussed the parts of the book that spoke to them.

For more information about the book or the author visit www.peterheller.net.

Enjoy apocalytic fiction? Try some of these titles!

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Postman by David Brin
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Stand by Stephen King
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Feel free to post any of your own favorites!

We've now wrapped over 200 books, getting them ready for their big dates! At the end of next week we will be drawing the name of the lucky winner of 12 wonderful noodle entrees from Noodles and Co., one each month for a year!

There's still time to get in on the fun! Just check out a wrapped book based on a single sentence description.  Take it home, unwrap and read!  Maybe it will be the start of a new reading relationship!

And don't forget to let us know how it goes. Drop off the “Rate Your Date” form so you will be entered into the drawing!

This year's Edgars, awarded by the Mystery Writers of America for the best mysteries of the year, were announced Thursday night.

This year's winners are:

Best Novel - Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
Best First Novel - The Expats by Chris Pavone
Best Paperback Original - The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters
Best Fact Crime - Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
Young Adult - Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

For a complete list of winners visit www.theedgars.com

The shortlist has been released for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction which was formerly called the Orange Prize. This prize "celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world."

The 2013 finalists are:

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
May We Be Forgiven by A.M Homes
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
NW by Zadie Smith

The winner will be announced June 5 in London.

About 125 books have been out on a date in the last few weeks! Some were very successful, other OK, and a few were declared disasters! Try your luck with a mysterious book, you never know where it may lead!

Join us March 12 at 6:30pm when we will discuss Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

Looking ahead:
April 9, Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle

There are now over 100 people registered for Hot Reads for Cold Nights! We are so excited that so many people are participating! The program runs through March 3, so there is still plenty of time to read, visit the library, go to a program and submit those points!

Don't forget to pick up your prizes! Emails are sent out when your prize is ready to be picked up at the circulation desk.

And don't forget that everyone who reaches 100 points is entered into our GRAND PRIZE drawing!

HRfCN has almost reached the half way point and WOW it has been quite a month! As of 1-31-13 there are 99 people registered for the program, with most of those people submitting points and earning prizes! DF1 is in the lead with a total of 950 points!

So keep reading those books, doing those activities and combining those points for the highest scores possible!

On February 12, Books On Tap will meet to discuss the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Wild traces the personal crisis the author endured after the death of her mother and a painful divorce, which prompted her to undertake a dangerous 1,100-mile hike that both drove her to rock bottom and helped her to heal.

The Better Living Book Club will join us at Jimmy's Pub for this special discussion which will include guest speaker, Karrie Korroch. Karrie has hiked the Appalachian Trail and will share some of her experiences from the trail.

Looking ahead to what we will be discussing in March and April.
March 12 - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
April 9 - Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle