Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Winter Reading update and book recommendations

We are now into week 3 of Teen and Adult Winter Reading: Reading is Your Ticket to Travel. Congratulations to Emily, who is the winner of our week 2 drawing. She wins a $20 gift card to Dunkin' Donuts! Get your reading entries in for a chance to win in our weekly drawings or the grand prize of a $75 gift card!

These books have received high ratings and positive reviews from teen and adult participants in Winter Reading.

Rachel's Garden by Marta Perry
LARGE TYPE FICTION PERRY
Find it in the catalog!
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
by Sir A. Conan Doyle
MYSTERY DOYLE
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Find it in the catalog!

Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files
by Jim Butcher
NEW MYSTERY BUTCHER
Find it in the catalog!
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
FICTION ISHIGURO
Find it in the catalog!

The Exodus Quest by Will Adams
FICTION ADAMS
Find it in the catalog!
Million Dollar Dilemma by Judy Baer
FICTION BAER
Find it in the catalog!

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
TEEN COLLINS or JUV FICTION COLLINS
Find it in the catalog!
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas
NEW FICTION KLEYPAS
Find it in the catalog!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Cookbook Nook



There's nothing us librarians love more than food (even more than books!) and now we have our own pseudo kitchen at the library. Even better yet, it's full of cookbooks, which you can check out and make actual delicious food with!


Thursday, January 20, 2011

Read chapter 1 of the next Sookie Stackhouse book

The next installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, Dead Reckoning, is due to be released in May. Fans who are looking for their Sookie fix can read the first chapter, all nineteen pages of it, on Charlaine Harris' official site. Are you all caught up with reading this series? If you're working your way through the books or are a newcomer to the series, here are the books (not including short stories featuring Sookie), listed in order:
  • Dead Until Dark
  • Living Dead in Dallas
  • Club Dead
  • Dead to the World
  • Dead as a Doornail
  • Definitely Dead
  • All Together Dead
  • From Dead to Worse
  • Dead and Gone
  • Dead in the Family
  • Dead Reckoning (coming in May 2011)
Since we already have Dead Reckoning listed in the catalog as being "on order" you are now able to put yourself on hold for the book! If you do a title search for Dead Reckoning or a words or phrase search for "charlaine harris and sookie stackhouse" the book will appear in your results list.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Have you signed up for Winter Reading yet?

Reading is Your Ticket to Travel is the theme for Teen and Adult Winter Reading this year. When you sign up at the Information Desk, you will receive a reading log where you can write down the books you listen to or read. There is no requirement for a certain number of books to read. Read 1 book. Read 5. Read 15! Grab more entries from the Information Desk if you need them. Each book you read enters you into the weekly gift card prize drawings. All entries must by in by Saturday, March 5 before we close at 5:30 PM.

Winter Reading prizes:
Weekly gift card drawings: $20 to Dunkin' Donuts, Classic Cinemas, or Target
Grand prize for adults: $75 gift card to Target
Grand prize for teens: $75 gift card to Target

If you will read at least one book between now and March 5, be sure to sign up and fill out an entry slip! That $75 Target gift card could be yours!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Pyramid: The First Wallander Cases

Inspector Kurt Wallander made his first appearance in Henning Mankell's 1991 novel, Faceless Killers; an intelligent, elegantly plotted police procedural set in the small Swedish community of Ystad. At the time of that first introduction, Wallander is approaching middle age, divorced, intermittently estranged from his father, consumed by the responsibilities of his profession, and yet ambivalent about the value of police-work. He is a complex character, and one not given to undue self-examination. In Faceless Killers and subsequent novels in the series, we learn that Wallander suffered a life-threatening injury early in his career, that he has loved opera virtually all his life, and that the roots of his father's disapproval are oblique. With the publication of The Pyramid: The First Wallander Cases, Mankell has chosen to elaborate on these hints at his creation's past. The book is comprised of five short mysteries: Wallander's First Case, The Man with the Mask, The Man on the Beach, The Death of the Photographer, and the novella-length The Pyramid. (It seems fitting that this "prequel" is structured around Wallander's investigations, as the cases he's worked are unquestionably the defining experiences of his life.) Mankell establishes connections between these narratives, often foreshadowing events that are well known to readers of the series. Some of these connections, though subtle, are quite touching. There is something thrilling, and yet bittersweet, in our first glimpse of Wallander as a brash young man. Something like seeing an old photograph of your father, stronger and younger than you can remember him. We get a sense of the character's innate gifts for investigation, and some revealing hints at his deteriorating private life. I was particularly affected by the scenes involving Wallander's mentor and senior detective, Rydberg. In a scene that takes place on New Year's Day, Wallander and Rydberg shake hands before parting, "as if to mark the occasion." More than just a touching example of how colleagues express their affection, it's an indicator of how much Wallander values his older friend, whose absence casts a long shadow over the series. Mankell does a fine job of portraying the passage of time from one case to the next. In Wallander's First Case, the twenty-three-year-old cavalierly tells his father that he never gets sick, and his father replies, "Wait ." By the last narrative in the book, 40-year-old Wallander is following leads while nursing a cold and a fever, carrying toilet paper in his pocket to wipe his endlessly running nose. The author wisely holds back as much as he reveals, never quite specifying the cause of enmity between the father and the son, but The Pyramid does provide a powerful example of how similar and yet divergent are the personalities of these two characters. In light of these new cases, it seems clear that Wallander's aptitude for investigative work is innate, and not something that was completely taught. Wallander's progression as a detective can be seen as an ongoing refinement of temperament. The brash young police officer of Wallander's First Case is still alive and well, tempered by experience, maturity, and some regret.

The Pyramid: The First Wallander Cases
Find it in the catalog!