The saddest thing I could think of

A library in Maine was hit by lightening and burned to the ground. The entire collection of books and local history materials were destroyed.
Full article here.

Man Booker Prize 2008!

The longlist for the 2008 Man Booker Prize:

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
From A to X by John Berger
The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

The shortlist will be announced on September 9, and the £50,000 winner will be announced on October 14 at an awards ceremony in London.

A surprisingly good book; A surprisingly bad book

I just finished two books. One of the books had me excited for months and turned out to be completely mediocre. The other book I picked up assuming I would put it right down but it has surpassed my expectations to the point of enthralling me.
Let me say before I give a bad review - I own every one of David Sedaris' books and most of them are signed. I have travelled to hear him give a reading and when I read his essays I usually end up squirting milk through my nose or choking on salad (I like to eat while I read). So clearly, I was very excited to hear about his new collection, When You Are Engulfed In Flames. Others were excited, too. There are hundreds of reserves in the Suffolk County Library System alone and the book remains #1 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list.
A few weeks ago I found myself at Penn Station with nothing to read (scariest thing I can imagine other than the giant spiders in Harry Potter). Browsing the Penn Station book store, I picked up Sedaris' book. I was one of the hundreds waiting for a library copy and figured I might as well purchase a copy. At the last minute I changed my mind (and picked up the latest issue of New York Magazine, which had a cover story by Tom Wolfe that was absolutely fabulous). Now that I have waited my turn and read the book I am sorry to say that I am happy I didn't purchase the hardcover at full price. It's just not that funny.
As a fan, I would say that the book is worth reading. The first essay had me giggling and the last (and lengthiest) essay on his attempts to quit smoking in Tokyo were interesting in an armchair travel sort of way, but not so much in a humorous story kind of way. But Sedaris' life is interesting, nonetheless. Who else gets to live in Normandy, Paris, and NYC while travelling to countless other countries large and small.

A librarian from another library had mentioned the book Three Junes in passing. I picked it up recently and it has taken me by surprise. I feel like this book is at a level beyond everyday fiction for three reasons:
1. This is a well-built book. I don't know if I have ever said that of any other novel, but the way this book is designed adds to the story. It is in three parts: the first through the eyes of Paul, an older Scottish man who has just lost his wife and is travelling through Greece. He finds himself attracted to a young female artist and through the conversations they have you learn of his three sons.
In the second part, Paul has passed away and the story is through the eyes of his oldest son, Fenno, who has left Scotland to open a bookstore in New York City. The final part takes place on Long Island when Fenno comes across the young artist his father had met in Greece.
2. The words. Yes, all books are made of words. But which words? Some are full of cliches and overly used adverbs, other are pretentious in their vocabulary but Three Junes is neither. Her descriptions are unique and efficient enough to be noticeable but are never show-offy.
3. Characters. This book is brimming with interesting, 3-D characters who are both everyday and extraordinary.

It's no wonder Three Junes, Julia Glass' first book, won the National Book Award.

What classic literary character are you?

Make me a classic character!

This is a fun, short quiz that tells you what classic character you are. It's also an impressive website! Click on the link above, watch the nifty intro, than click on Which Character Are You? on the upper right hand side.

American Eve

I have just finished a book so good that it has left me in mourning. I mourn the death of Evelyn Nesbit and the end of the book. I also mourn the fact that I missed meeting the author, Paula Uruburu, a week ago. She is a professor at Hofstra University here on Long Island and I look forward to another opportunity to meet her and get a copy of American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century signed!
This book was an amazing read for many reasons. First, the story of Evelyn Nesbit and Stanford White has all the ingredients of a classic, tragic love story but could still satisfy today's gossip lovers (a la tmz.com). The fact that this story is told by Professor Uruburu makes it all the more enjoyable. She is an expert on the time period (1899-1900 turn of the century), the pop culture of the period and feminist history. This could all equal a big bore of a book in the wrong hands, but it is the definition of nonfiction that reads like fiction. I could not put this book down. The many photos of Evelyn and other "characters" throughout the text perfectly illustrate the narrative.



This book is HIGHLY recommended for anyone who enjoys reading about the history of Manhattan, architecture, gossipy and scandalous murder trials, rags to riches bildungsromans, or pop culture during the turn of the century.

So Many Books, So Much Eyestrain....

We have been noticing here at the Reference Desk - as we peruse Publishers Weekly and Booklist - that there are tons of exciting books being published in the near future. It gets us salivating as librarians but also as readers.
Usually I have a list of MUST READs 1 or 2 long, but lately the list is getting longer and longer. Some have already been published and some won't be released for another month or two. Here are the books I am drooling to read (in no particular order):
The Film Club by David Gilmour
Documents the author's efforts to impart key life lessons to his high-school-dropout son by showing him three movies every week, in an account that describes how such films as True Romance and Rosemary's Baby enabled father-and-son dialogues about a range of life issues, from relationships and work to drugs and culture.
Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir From an Atomic Town by Kelly McMasters
An evocative memoir of growing up in working-class Long Island describes her youth in a town known as a service town for the glamorous Hamptons, a place plagued by such disasters as a UFO, a childhood cancer cluster, and the nearby Brookhaven nuclear laboratory, which leaked nuclear and chemical waste into the aquifer from which town residents got their water.
The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
Raised an outcast in the court of ancient Egypt after the deaths of her heretical relatives, Princess Nefertari is uncertain of her future until the heir to the throne, the future Rameses the Great, falls in love with her and offers her marriage, but his reign is beset with turmoil, in a story of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty. By the author of Nefertiti.
More Than It Hurts You by Darin Strauss
The lives of a family and a doctor are irrevocably changed and intertwined by a possible case of Munchausen by Proxy, a situation that forces a mother to question everything from her past and the doctor's concerns about her role in tearing a distressed family apart.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
Traces the 1860 murder of a young child whose death launched a national obsession with detection throughout England, nearly destroyed the career of a top Scotland Yard investigator, and inspired the birth of modern detective fiction.
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
Determined to seek her fortune in Beijing, Fenfang Wang leaves her rural farm to travel 1,800 miles to pursue her dreams in the city where, setting out to live a modern life, she lands a job as a film extra, falls under the spell of two unsuitable young men, and finally finds her true calling in an unexpected place. By the author of A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers.
The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue
Emily "Fido" Faithfull, a spinster pioneer in the British women's movement, is distracted from her cause by the details of her friend's failing marriage and affair with a young army officer, in this drama of friends, lovers, and divorce, Victorian style.

I spy .... books

During a lovely visit to NYC I saw polar bears at the Central Park zoo, a man looking at a $32,500 diamond ring at Tiffanys, and people reading books. Everywhere. My favorite thing to do in NYC (along with the zoo and Tiffanys) is to sneak peeks at what people are reading. I admit - I do it everywhere I go - but it is the most interesting in big cities. I suppose that is because of the diversity of the people and their reading tastes but also because they have nearly every book available to them. Between the Barnes and Noble on every corner, to the world famous second-hand and rare bookshops, to the department store-sized comic book stores (we checked out Cosmic Comics and Jim Hanley's Universe), not to mention the incredible New York Public Library system, New Yorkers have their pick of books.

In my travels, I saw the ticket taker at the zoo reading a V.C. Andrews, a teen on the subway reading The Sign of Four (and another teen with a book in his short's pocket - I couldn't see what it was!), and a woman on the street reading A Thousand Spledid Suns (really, standing on the street. Waiting for someone, maybe?).

Susan Nagel

My 4th of July weekend was spent spending. I stopped by Terry's bookstore The Open Book in Westhampton on Saturday to meet the author of (and purchase a copy of) Marie-Terese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter by Susan Nagel. Mrs. Nagel was friendly and clearly very passionate about her subject. She is currently looking for a third subject to write a book about and we discussed research opportunities. I look forward to reading about the fate of Marie-Terese. The New York Times reviewed the book here.

Wolfes in the library

Let me tell you - the best time to come do some quiet work in the library is the evening before a holiday. The place is a tomb. I am sitting here, ironically, reading the fabulous book In The Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fisherman, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities by Dan Rattiner. All is quiet except a patron or two taping away at a keyboard and the murmering of voices in the lobby. We have a monthly art opening, where patrons can meet the artist of that month's exhibit and snack on crackers and cheese (which is otherwise illigal!). As I pass by the gathering on my way to circulation, Mr. X from the board of trustees says, "Hello Beth!" He is speaking with a tall man dressed in a white suit. "Hello" I wave back to the men.

Back at my desk, a regualar patron stops by. "Hey! Did you know Tom Wolfe just left?" he asks me.

It's never a boring night at the library!