Join us June 11 at 6:30pm when we will discuss Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Books On Tap meets at Jimmy's Pub on the 2nd Tuesday of the month.

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning he learned that six of his fellow climbers hadn't made it back to their camp and were in a desperate struggle for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated.

Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people - including himself - to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eye-witness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.

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!

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.

Join us April 9 at 6:30pm when we will discuss Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle. Books on Tap meets at Jimmy's Pub, located at 16804 Chadler Road.

An electrifying story of the sensational murder trial that divided a city and ignited the civil rights struggle.

In 1925, Detroit was a smoky swirl of jazz and speakeasies, assembly lines and fistfights. The advent of automobiles had brought workers from around the globe to compete for manufacturing jobs, and tensions often flared with the KKK in ascendance and violence rising. Ossian Sweet, a proud Negro doctor-grandson of a slave-had made the long climb from the ghetto to a home of his own in a previously all-white neighborhood. Yet just after his arrival, a mob gathered outside his house; suddenly, shots rang out: Sweet, or one of his defenders, had accidentally killed one of the whites threatening their lives and homes.

And so it began-a chain of events that brought America's greatest attorney, Clarence Darrow, into the fray and transformed Sweet into a controversial symbol of equality. Historian Kevin Boyle weaves the police investigation and courtroom drama of Sweet's murder trial into an unforgettable tapestry of narrative history that documents the volatile America of the 1920s and movingly re-creates the Sweet family's journey from slavery through the Great Migration to the middle class. Ossian Sweet's story, so richly and poignantly captured here, is an epic tale of one man trapped by the battles of his era's changing times.

Arc of Justice is the winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Nonfiction and a Michigan Notable Book for 2005.

Looking ahead:
May 14, The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Join us March 12 at 6:30pm when we will discuss Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Books on Tap meets at Jimmy's Pub, located at 16804 Chandler Road.

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

The following titles were the most popular book group picks in January based on votes at Bookmovement.com.

Tonight, I will have the honor of talking with two book clubs about my beloved time spent hiking the Appalachian Trail! When I hiked the trail, it was 2,164 miles long. It's stretched a little longer now, but it was long enough then! 1998 seems like a long time ago most days, but my memories of the trail are crystal clear. It made a huge impression on me and I have carried it with me in my heart every day since I last set foot on it. When I read Cheryl Strayed's book Wild, it brought back so many feelings and thoughts about my own long distance solo hike. I laughed and cried along with her and often knew exactly what she was talking about. I don't think I've ever read a book that had so many torn little bits of paper marking so many pages by the time I read the last sentence. Although our reasons for setting off on our long solo journeys were quite different, they were also very much the same. I am so excited to talk with everyone at the East Lansing Public Library's combined meeting of the Better Living Book Club and Books on Tap at Jimmy's Pub from 6:30-8 pm tonight! If you haven't read Wild yet, you still have time! You are also welcome to attend if you're still reading (we'll try not to spoil anything)! If you want to know more about these and other awesome book clubs, visit elpl.org! No registration required.

The 2013 Edgar nominees were announced and seven finalists have been selected for best novel. They are:

All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman
Sunset by Al Lamanda

The Edgar Allan Poe Award honors the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television. A complete list of nominees, and other information about the award, can be found at www.theedgars.com. Winners will be announced May 2.

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The Oscar nominations were announced this week and five of the nine best picture nominees are based on books! So add these books to your reading list this winter and see how they compare to the adapted movie.

Argo by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
Team of Rivals (Lincoln) by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Behind The Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, this year's One Book One Community Selection, won the 2012 National Book Award for nonfiction.

The fiction award went to Louise Erdrich for her novel The Round House which tells the story of Joe, a young Ojibwe boy, whose life is forever changed when his mother is attacked and raped. Ms. Erdrich has been a finalist twice before this year's win.

Back in the old days, I had a transitor radio...anyone remember those?  I used to listen at night to a station that read Edgar Allan Poe stories.   Lying in the dark, listening to those wonderful tales of terror, I was hooked on feeling scared and safe at the same time!

With Halloween coming it's a great time for your children to listen to stories in the dark. You could read to them by candlelight or let them listen to a playaway.  What's a playaway? It is a digital audio book loaded on a small device similar to an MP3 player.  Just plug in your earphones and press start.  The library supplies the batteries.

Some playaways with a supernatural or fantasy theme for children ages 10 to 12 years are:

• The Seer of Shadows by Avi
• A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull
• The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley
• Mossflower by Brian Jacques
• Magyk by Angie Sage

So, check out some playaways or read aloud some Poe tales and give your older children the gift of scary stories in the dark for Halloween!

This year's winner of the Man Booker Prize is Hilary Mantel for her novel Bring Up the Bodies, the second book in her Thomas Cromwell Trilogy. Hilary Mantel is the first woman and the third author to win the award twice. She is also the first author to win with a sequel; she won in 2009 for Wolf Hall. J.M. Coetzee and Peter Carey are the other double winners.

Mantel is currently working on the third volume of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light.

BOOKS FOR BOYS

                  

Every summer it seems we get many requests from parents asking us to help their school-age sons find something to read.  Many times these boys are reluctant readers. Connecting a child with a book he is eager to read is one of our greatest pleasures!

Did you know there are also great websites that have book suggestions for boys, tips for getting boys to read, and more?

Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys is a great place to start.  It was begun by author (and Flint, MI native) Jon Scieszka, named in 2008 as the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

Boy Meets Book is also an excellent website for finding books boys will like and tips for parents of boys. This website was created by Michael Sullivan - teacher, librarian, chess instructor, author, storyteller, and expert on boys and reading.

One of my favorite websites for reading about children's books is KidsReads.com. Besides the Great Books for Boys list, other features include lists of new books, series books, and books into movies as well as trivia, author interviews, contests and more.

For other reading lists for boys, try BoysRead.org and Parents Choice Book List for Boys. 

In an effort to educate myself and read books other than fiction, I recently finished a book called China Road: A Journey Into the Future of a Rising Power, by NPR correspondent Rob Gifford. I have to admit that nonfiction books take me longer to read, but that can be a good thing - I really did learn something!