New and Featured Books for 07/10/2013:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

Unseen by Karin Slaughter

The Newcomer by Robyn Carr

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich

Little Green by Walter Mosley

Hidden Order by Brad Thor

Dirty Rotten Liar by Noire

Nemesis by Bill Pronzini

The Good Luck Girls Of Shipwreck Lane by Kelly Harms

Please Don’t Tell by Elizabeth Adler

Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner

Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair by Len Wein and John Higgins and illustrated by Jae Lee, John Higgins, and Steve Rude

Superman, vol. 2: Secrets And Lies by Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen, Scott Lobdell, and Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Dan Jurgens, Jesus Merino, Vicent Cifuentes, and others

Green Lantern Corps, vol. 2: Alpha War by Peter J. Tomasi and illustrated by Fernando Pasarin

Let It Burn by Steve Hamilton

Freud’s Mistress by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman

Bomb Shell by Catherine Coulter

NON-FICTION:

Difficult Men: Behind The Scenes Of A Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos And The Wire To Mad Men And Breaking Bad by Brett Martin

Circle Of Friends: The Massive Federal Crackdown On Insider Trading – And Why The Markets Always Work Against The Little Guy by Charles Gasparino

Here Is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History by Andrew Carroll

Rose Kennedy: The Life And Times Of A Political Matriarch by Barbara A. Perry

Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside The Center by Ray Monk

Hunting Che: How A U.S. Special Forces Team Helped Capture The World’s Most Famous Revolutionary by Mitch Weiss and Kevin Maurer

A Survival Guide For Life: How To Achieve Your Goals, Thrive In Adversity, And Grow In Character by Bear Grylls

True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure by Andrew Weil, Sam Fox, and Michael Stebner

Cooking Italian With The Cake Boss by Buddy Valastro

Old-School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned To Cook by Alex Guarnaschelli

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Please note that books mentioned here could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk, OR call us, OR send us an email at robinsbaselibrary@gmail.com and  we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

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Previous New/Featured books for Adults:

07/02/13.

06/18/13.

06/06/13.

05/31/13.

05/28/13.

New and Featured Books for 12/27/2012:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Chinese Whiskers by Pallavi Aiyar

Political Suicide by Michael Palmer

Killer Crust: A Pizza Lovers Mystery by Chris Cavender

Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand

Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson

Umbrella by Will Self

The Big Four by Agatha Christie

The Intercept by Dick Wolf

Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Raised From The Ground by José Saramago

Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding

NON-FICTION:

Trusting Calvin: How A Dog Helped Heal A Holocaust Survivor’s Heart by Sharon Peters

I Could Pee On This: And Other Poems By Cats by Francesco Marciuliano

We’ve been having a nice laugh reading this book around the Library. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as we have.

(I almost went for the fun and was going to say that it’s a purrrrrr-fect read for the Holidays.)

from here.

Because I Said So! – The Truth Behind The Myths, Tales & Warnings Every Generation Passes Down To Its Kids by Ken Jennings

Massage For Dummies by Steven Capellini and Michael Van Welden

Riddled With Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, And The Parasites That Make Us Who We Are by Marlene Zuk

Freedom National: The Destruction Of Slavery In The United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes

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Please note that books mentioned here could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk, OR call us, OR send us an email at robinsbaselibrary@gmail.com and  we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

* * *

Previous New/Featured books for Adults:

12/12/12.

12/04/12.

11/20/12.

11/19/12.

11/01/12.

10/19/12.

Reading material for 04/30/12.

Some reading material from around the internet:

Grant Snider’s The Book Of The Future.

Get ready for the future of Firefox.

Portland tries to ban Groupon.

The dark side of Facebook memes.

The picture above is by Beverly Ealdama, from here.

104 year old woman sets world record as the oldest person to go paragliding (for the second time in five years).

Wal-Mart would like you to pay with cash.

All about CISPA, the bill that wants to erode your online privacy.

How are women’s eyes different from men’s?

from here.

The Choose Your Own Adventure books are now out in digital form.

Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet, talks about his novel.

The 10 grumpiest living writers.

The New Yorker has figured out what went wrong with the Pulitzers this year.

“The Land Of Nod,” an illustrated poem by Robert Louis Stevenson.

John Irving’s advice to aspiring novelists.

The most cryptic titles in literature and what they mean.

Would you read a novel written by the internet?

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book will become a Disney movie.

The director of Chronicle is going to reboot The Fantastic Four.

Fringe has been renewed for a fifth and final mini season.

Fake Tupac is selling a lot of real records.

The Avengers comes out this Friday in America, but has already made almost $200 million overseas.

Tony Danza and Vince Vaughn are going to make a sitcom together.

The SyFy channel is planning to adapt Stephen King’s The Eyes Of The Dragon.

Movie theater owners still do not want you texting during movies, please.

They’ve already hired writers for the sequel to the new Spider-Man movie.

from here.

The lost civilizations that pioneered skull surgery.

4 people with super memory.

The question of why Rome failed.

How much of the moon’s surface did the Apollo 11 astronauts actually explore?

A brief history of international signage.

The more you struggle with new information the more likely you are to learn it.

Ponder existential depths as you answer the call of nature in this vertigo-inducing floor-less bathroom.

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Previous online reading material:

04/23/12.

04/16/12.

04/09/12.

04/02/12.

03/26/12.

03/12/12.

Author quotes: Burning books.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. once said, “We must be careful what we pretend to be,”  which is one of my favorite quotes of all time, but Vonnegut was a highly opinionated and prolific author and essayist, and he was always a good source for a good quote or a witty turn of phrase.

The other day I got into a conversation with a few patrons not just about the need for intellectual curiosity in people, especially in this day and age, but the need for constant access to the tools that could inspire and grow that curiosity in these modern times, and it reminded me of something Vonnegut had said a few years before his death (in 2007):

“While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and destroyed records rather than have to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

And still on the subject of books: our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books do we learn what’s really going on.”

-from A Man Without A Country, his 2005 memoir/essay collection.

You can find an excerpt from the book over at The Guardian, which includes the portion the above text comes from. Much of this book, and in particular this excerpt, are very political with Vonnegut discussing his disappointment in the then-current political climate of the country. Whether you agree with Vonnegut’s politics there or not, you have to admire that there are some nuggets of common sense true for all people, and that he always maintained a strong humanistic outlook on life.

Also, on a side note, in the paragraph preceding the above quote Vonnegut references Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, his documentary about the September 11 attacks and everything after, and reminds us that the title of the documentary is a reference/parody of Ray Bradbury’s great, classic science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. That novel refers to the fact that 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the combustion point, at which paper and the information on it will burn.

The gist of it is this: Not to toot our own horn (too much) but libraries curate and cultivate information, and with information comes intelligence, which is never a bad thing and always in short supply. The library is a resource that you should never let go to waste.

by Eddie Campbell, from here.

Elsewhere on the internet:

Vonnegut’s obituary in The New York Times.

15 things Vonnegut said better than anyone else ever has or will.

Venus On The Half-Shell by Philip José Farmer under the name “Kilgore Trout.”

Vonnegut’s advice for writers.

Vonnegut’s story diagrams.

“Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut’s classic short story.

An interview with Vonnegut in The Paris Review.

“2BR02B,” a 1962 short story that appeared in Vonnegut’s third collection, Bagombo Snuff Box.

“The Big Trip Up Yonder,” a short story that appeared in Vonnegut’s first two collections under different names.

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis.

Dave Eggers reviews Vonnegut’s first collection of unpublished fiction.

At the library we have quite a few books both by Vonnegut and about his life and work, including When Mortals Sleep, a posthumous release of previously unpublished short fiction by the author, as well as And So It Goes – Kurt Vonnegut: A Life, a new biography of the author by Charles J. Shields, and…

Vonnegut And Hemingway: Writers At War by Lawrence Broer, which draws interesting parallels between these two literary artists, who previously might have been only been coupled together by how vastly different they were. Both were born under the spectre of hereditary insanity, forged in wartime experiences, and used their writing as a means of therapy and survival. And how much more fitting to see them linked, since Hemingway was our quoted author last week? I hope you’ll come and check them out.