Non-Fiction

Boost Your Summertime Fun - Visit our July Displays

Submitted by Brenda on Thu, 07/01/2010 - 2:27pm

Come to the library and sharpen the joys of summer!

In July, our display spotlight is on "Beach Reads" -- books that are enthralling, mesmerizing, funny, moving, thrilling, cryptic, charming, riveting, jocular  ... well, you get the picture!

And, your "Road Trip" this summer gets the spotlight in another display.  You'll find more than you'll ever need to get the most fun out of your next jaunty excursion!

Great Combat Memoirs of the 20th Century

Submitted by Brenda on Wed, 06/16/2010 - 7:06pm

Since childhood, I've had a fascination with times of warfare and the people who live in them ... the French Revolution, the Civil War, both World Wars.  Through the years, I've read many memorable books on and around the topic, from The Warriors: reflections on men in battle, by J. Glenn Gray, to The Great War and Modern Memory, by Paul Fussell (both of which I highly recommend).

It's no surprise, then, that my eye alighted upon "Beyond Fear: Great Combat Memoirs of the 20th Century," an article in the current issue of Military History.  The editors draw attention to 9 memoirs that demonstrate the spirit, strength, pain, and raw courage that have enabled the best to survive the worst, from World War I through Vietnam.

For a truly compelling reading experience, try a book from the list:

With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, by E. B. Sledge.
Quartered Safe Out Here: a recollection of the war in Burma, by George MacDonald Fraser.
The Coldest War: a memoir of Korea, by James Brady.
A Rumor of War, by Philip Caputo.
We Were Soldiers Once...and Young:  Ia Drang, the battle that changed the war in Vietnam, by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway.

New Books That Honor Fathers

Submitted by Brenda on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 6:41pm

As we celebrate Father's Day on Sunday, June 20, 2010 ... here are some great recent books that remind us of the importance of fathers in our lives ... no matter how old we get.

The Council of Dads : my daughters, my illness, and the men who could be me, by Bruce S. Feiler.

Father Fiction : chapters from a fatherless childhood, by Donald Miller.

Not My Boy! : a father, a son, and one family's journey with autism, by Rodney Peete.

My Father, the Captain : my life with Jacques Cousteau, by Jean-Michel Cousteau.

Losing My Cool : how a father's love and 15,000 books beat hip-hop culture, by Thomas Chatterton Williams.

No Wonder My Parents Drank : tales from a stand-up dad, by Jay Mohr.

 

Nonresident fees for library cards have increased

Submitted by Julie on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 4:58pm

To offset reductions to the library's budget, fees for nonresident library cards have increased, as of July 1, 2010. This first increase in seven years was approved by the East Lansing Library Board of Directors on April 21, 2010.

New annual rates are:

  • Individual card: $30 (from $20)
  • Family card: $40 (from $30)
  • 6-month individual card: $18 (from $12)

Favorite books of 2009

Submitted by Julie on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 3:11pm

The votes are in! BookBrowse.com has announced the 2009 BookBrowse Favorite Awards.  Over 4,000 votes were submitted, and the winners are...

  • Overall Winner: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

ELPL has great deals on used books!

Submitted by Julie on Sat, 01/09/2010 - 1:19pm

Did you know that the Friends of the East Lansing Public Library have used books for sale every day? It's the best deal in town! Stop in the library and check out the Friendshop, where you'll find tons of used books at great prices. There's something for everyone - adult fiction, mysteries, history, gardening, music CDs, magazines, children's books, and much more. You'll pay a fraction of the price of brand new, and when you're done, you can donate them back to the library! And remember, all proceeds benefit the library.

Check out the Friends' web site for more information.

We'll Always Have Paris : recent books that highlight the City of Lights.

Submitted by Brenda on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 4:00pm
Paris from the Ground Up, by James H. S. McGregor. Here’s the definitive portrait of Paris, combining chronological history with a cultural exploration of all things architectural, artistic and practical, from Gaul to DeGaulle.  McGregor keeps it lively with public bath tours, the secrets of aqueducts and central heating, tales of martyrs from St. Denis to Joan of Arc, and unending cathedral construction (emphasizing Notre Dame); the Sorbonne, marketplace evolution and the great plague all play their part. The Louvre is explored meticulously in many permutations, as are the sewers and even the language.
 
The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious--and Perplexing--City, by David Lebovitz. After a nearly two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author,  Lebovitz moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood. But he soon discovered it's a different world in France. From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men's footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the

Compelling New Books on the Civil War

Submitted by Brenda on Mon, 07/20/2009 - 4:06pm
The Civil War period holds an enduring appeal for readers.  Grab one of these recent histories that relate stories not often featured in the classroom.

No Quarter!  : The Battle of the Crater, 1864, by Richard Slotkin.

Here’s an intellectually dazzling military history that recounts and reassesses one of the most devastating and dramatic battles of the Civil War. Slotkin chronicles the Union army's attempt to burrow a tunnel beneath a key Confederate position, the explosion that enabled the massacre of thousands of black Rebel soldiers, and the ensuing stalemate that prolonged the war for another year.
 
Sultana : Surviving Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History, by Alan Huffman. The explosion and wreck of the Mississippi riverboat Sultana in 1865 is but the capstone of this engrossing survey of the many varieties of suffering in the Civil War. The 1,700 passengers killed on the Sultana were mostly Union soldiers recently released from Confederate POW camps, where they had endured the torments of starvation, exposure, festering and maggoty wounds, predatory criminal gangs, lice and diarrhea.
 
The State of Jones : The Small Southern County that Seceded from the Confederacy, by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer. In Jones County, Mississippi, a farmer named

Who's on First? Recent Baseball Biographies

Submitted by Brenda on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 3:23pm

Lemonade in hand, hammock at ready ... feed your passion for the Great American Pastime during these long summer afternoons by delving into one of these recent baseball biographies.

The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the rage for baseball immortality, by Jeff Pearlman.  Clemens is fierce and hard-nosed, one of baseball's best pitchers, but deeply flawed.  The Boston Globe says this book "develops a stark, unsparing picture of Clemens's life that surpasses anything that's come before."

Satchel: the life and times of an American legend, by Larry Tye.  Leroy "Satchel" Paige could have been the star to break baseball's color line but Jackie Robinson got the first crack.  It's taken this long, says Publishers Weekly, to get the definitive biography of this black showman-athlete, one of the finest pitchers ever, who finally was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.

A-Rod: the many lives of Alex Rodriquez, by Selena Roberts.  Roberts captures one of baseball's greatest players as a tragic figure in pinstripes: the man once considered the clean exception of the steroid generation is revealed as an unmistakable product of its greed and dissolution.

Straw: finding my way, by Darryl Strawberry.  Strawberry was dubbed "The Black Ted Williams," but he faced many personal challenges, including drug use, tax evasion, solicitation, and allegations of domestic violence. Strawberry tells his own story of finding redemption.

Yogi Berra: eternal Yankee, by Allen Barra.  "One of America’s most insightful and precise sports writers artfully separates the myth from the reality of the iconic Yogi," in this gripping biography of the legendary Hall-of-Famer and one of the most quotable figures in American culture. (David Maraniss).  "One of the best baseball books of the year," says Library Journal.

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