Monday, October 29, 2012

eReader Technology Fair


Please join us this Saturday, November 3rd in the Community Room for our first (annual?) eReader Technology Fair. Are you trying to decide which eReader is best for you? Do you already have an eReader and you'd like to learn more about the Library's downloadable services? Just drop in Saturday from 10:00 - 2:00 and talk to Glenview Library StaffAbt Electronics (Glenview) and Barnes & Noble (Old Orchard) for an opportunity to learn about the latest in eReaders and other mobile devices. Find out more about the Library's MyMediaMall service and view demonstrations on downloading eBooks to a Barnes & Noble Nook, an Amazon Kindle, an iPad and other tablets and mobile devices.

It's a perfect time to learn more about eReader's and other devices that are sure to be popular holiday items. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Good in Any Language!

Originally I was going to compile a list of good reads in Spanish, that the library owns, but I didn't want to exclude any readers, so here is a list of titles that we have in both languages.  So go ahead and pick one, they are great in any language.

Carlos Fuentes
Happy Families
Barbara Kingsolver
Pigs In Heaven
Cerdos en el cielo
Junot Díaz
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
La breve y maravillosa vida de Oscar Wao
Sandra Cisneros
The House On Mango Street
La casa en Mango Street
Isabel Allende
Daughter Of Fortune
Hija de la fortuna
John Grisham
The Associate
 El asociado
Mitch Albom
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Las cinco personas que encontrarás en el cielo
Carlos Ruíz Zafón
The Shadow of the Wind
La sombra del viento

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Forthcoming Fiction for November

Here are some titles coming out this November. You can reserve these by going to our Online Catalog, or by calling the Reader Services Desk at 847-729-7500 x7600.

The Forgotten by David Baldacci
The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen
Cold Days: a novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Fox Tracks by Rita Mae Brown
The Legend of Broken by Caleb Carr
Target Lancer by Max Allan Collins
The Black Box by Michael Connelly
Poseidon’s Arrow by Clive Cussler
Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich
The Last Man by Vince Flynn
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
A Season of Angels by Thomas Kinkade
Crown of Vengeance by Mercedes Lakey
The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron
An Instrument of Slaughter by Edward Marston
The Marseille Caper by Peter Mayle
The Prodigal Son by Colleen McCullough
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
Looking for Yesterday by Marcia Muller
Dear Life: stories by Alice Munro
Cat Bearing Gifts by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Merry Christmas Alex Cross by James Patterson
Femme: A Nameless Detective Novella by Bill Pronzini



Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Lyric Opera of Chicago 2012-2013 (Winter)

Even if you can't get downtown to the Lyric this winter, you can still enjoy opera in the cozy Multi-purpose room of the Glenview Public Library.   Come join other opera enthusiasts and a docent from the Lyric Opera Lecture Corps at 7:00 p.m.  Materials can be found in the Audiovisual Department.


Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (Thursday, December 6)

Hansel and Gretel was based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.  It began with some verses that Humperdinck's sister had written for her children that she wanted set to music.  The first performance was given as a Christmas entertainment in Frankfurt and later elaborated into a full-lenth Wagnerian-like opera.  Humperdinck based musich of the material on popular songs and
folk-tunes.

La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini (Thursday, January 10)

The critics savagely blasted La Boheme on opening night, complaining that the music was too simplistic, and that there wasn't enough action.  Little did they know then that La Boheme would go on to be the second most-performed opera in the world.

Debussy is alleged to have said that no one had detailed Paris at that time better than had Puccini.



Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg by Richard Wagner (Thursday, January 31)

Wagner's most outspoken detractor was an obnoxious know-it-all music critic named Eduard Hanslick.  The Master-Singers features a nasty, narow-minded music judge named Beckmesser who hates anything new or innovative.  In the first draft of the opera, Beckmesser's name was Hans Lick!

Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi (Thursday, February 21)

Rigoletto was originally based on a Victor Hugo play about teachery in the court of the French King Francois I.  But Italy, uner Austria's rule, was in considerable political turmoil; Verdi and Piave ran into trouble with the Italian censors, who felt that the people didn't need a play about a malicious, philandering king.  So Verdi and his librettist changed the setting of the opera to Mantua, which was governed by a small-time nobleman.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Great Group Reads 2012

For the past several years in the fall, National Reading Group Month has released a selection of books that they consider to be great choices for book discussion groups. I have found these selections to be not only interesting discussion ideas for book groups, but also wonderful suggestions when I'm simply looking for a good book to read.

The 2012 selections below feature 20 titles--19 novels and 1 memoir. The books chosen are all intended to initiate "lively conversations about a host of timely and provocative topics, from the intimate dynamics of family and personal relationships to major cultural and world issues....All are books with strong narratives peopled by fully realized characters; books which perhaps have flown under the radar of reviewers and reading groups overwhelmed by the sheer number of new releases each year."

The Absolutist by John Boyne
An Age of Madness by David Maine
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan‐Philipp Sendker
Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall
Boleto by Alyson Hagy
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani
Faith by Jennifer Haigh
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
The O'Briens by Peter Behrens
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeannette Winterson

The Absolutist
An Age of Madness
The Art of Fielding
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Blue Asylum
Boleto
The Dovekeepers
Equal of the Sun
Faith
I Married You for Happiness
In the Shadow of the Banyan
A Land More Kind Than Home
The O'Briens
The Orchardist
The Right-Hand Shore: A Novel
Running the Rift
Salvage the Bones
The Snow Child
What Alice Forgot
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Saturday, October 13, 2012

BOO! Frightly Fiction Ghost Stories!

What is a ghost and what do they do?
A ghost is considered to be the spirit of a dead person. Scientists say there are no real ghosts, but many believe that there are. There are many stories about ghosts in books and movies. Sometimes the ghosts in these stories exist because of some problem the person had during life that was not solved before he or she died, or to say goodbye to loved ones. The ghost stays on earth truing to fix the problem. Once fixed, the ghost can leave the earth.

Do you dare to partake of the following award winning ghost novels?:

The Woman In Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill (2012)
Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, travels to the north of England to settle the estate of Alice Drablow, but unexpectedly encounters a series of sinster events.

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (2007)
A collector of obscure and macabre artifacts, unscrupulous metal band musician Judas Coyne is unable to resist purchasing a ghost over the Internet, which turns out to be the vengeful spirit of his late girlfriend's stepfather.

Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)
The story unfolds with the arrival of a new governess at a remote country estate. She has been hired by the uncle of two young orphans to take complete charge of the children's lives and upbringing. Her first peaceful weeks are disturbed by the apparition of the ghosts of two evil servants who once served in the house.  

In the Night Room by Peter Straub (2004)
Willy Patrick finds her life intersecting with that of a stranger, Timothy Underhill, when she experiences an eerie event involving the death of her daughter and Timothy receives communications from dead people he had known in his youth.

Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons (2002)
Returning to the small Illinois town of his childhood to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, Dale Stewart leases an empty farmhouse of a long-dead friend, who had been murdered in the summer of 1960, and finds that the house is haunted.

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons (1995)
The house next door to the Kennedys appears to be haunted by a mysterious, all-pervasive evil, and the couple watches in horror as a succession of owners becomes engulfed by the same sinister force, until the Kennedys set out to destroy the house themselves.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub (1979)
Questions arise concerning the connections between a strangely detached young girl's captivity in a seedy Florida motel, a death that occurs at a party for a visiting actress, and a young California instructor's obsession with one of his students.

Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood (1973)
Thirteen short stories by the English supernaturalist demonstrate his mastery at evoking feelings of mysticism and cosmic experience and his skill in creating an atmosphere of unrelieved horror.

Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
An 80-year-old mansion harboring dark secrets comes to menacing life in this classic spine-tingling tale from Shirley Jackson. Anthropologist and ghost hunter Dr. John Montague invites four strangers to stay in haunted Hill House for the summer. One of the guests is 32-year-old Eleanor, for whom three months in a haunted house is preferable to caring for her invalid mother. Soon, Eleanor begins to see and hear things that the other guests cannot. Is it all in her imagination, or is she the only one who can perceive the evil that lurks in Hill House? --

Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe
A selection of Poe's poetry and sixteen of his best-known tales, including "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Black Cat," and "The Pit and the Pendulum."..

Don't shudder, just continue reading, but keep looking over your shoulder . . .












Monday, October 8, 2012

Small Town Fiction

Readers who enjoy unconventinal characters and detailed idyllic settings are bound to enjoy small town fiction. These stories tend to be quieter and slower paced; however, the characters still struggle with relationships and inner conflicts just like their urban neighbors. Leave the fast-lane behind and take a drive down a one of these country lanes.

Little Giant of Aberdeen County - Tiffany Baker
Empire Falls -Richard Russo
Plainsong - Kent Haruf
Cold Sassy Tree - Olive Ann Burns
Larkspur Road - Jill Gregory
Inn at Rose Harbor - Debbie Macomber
The Welcome Home Garden Club - Lori Wilde
Return to Willow Lake - Susan Wiggs
Big Stone Gap - Adriana Trigiani
The Year of Pleasures - Elizabeth Berg
Whitethorn Woods - Maeve Binchy
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

Friday, October 5, 2012

Timely Topics - Political Fiction

Here is a small selection of books, each with a different take on what can play out during the course of a political campaign. Ranging from the classic to the irreverant, read one of these and then try to decide what's stranger, reality or fiction.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren - Set in the 1930s, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tracesthe rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, a fictional character who resembles the real-life Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana. Stark begins his political career as an idealistic man of the people but soon becomes corrupted by success and caught between dreams of service and an insatiable lust for power. As relevant today as it was more than fifty years ago, All the King's Men is one of the classics of American literature.

Kissing Babies at the Piggly Wiggly by Rob Dalby - Newlyweds Laurie Lepanto and Powell Hampton organize the mayoral campaign of Hale Dunbar, in which they are assisted by the eccentric Nitwitt widows and hampered by Dunbar's long-lost girlfriend, Gaylie Girl.


Echo House by Ward Just - An epic chronicle of American political fortunes, Ward Just's twelfth novel is his masterpiece, realized through the minds and pulses of men and women who strive to save the nation--or themselves. "Echo House" takes readers through a maze of furtive power alliances and misalliances, involving two dozen characters from one Washington, D.C., family, over nine decades of history.

Election by Tom Perrotta - A comic story about a philandering high-school history teacher in the midst of a student-body election gone haywire.

Domestic Affairs by Bridget Siegel - Tapped to work for a Georgia governor's presidential campaign, fundraiser Olivia Greenley, believing she has landed her dream job beside a candidate of unimpeachable values, unexpectedly falls for the governor and is forced to keep their subsequent affair a secret at all costs.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Banned Books Week - The Freedom to Read


September 30th through October 6th is Banned Books Week, an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read and draws attention to banned and challenged  books and promotes the freedom to select from a full array of possibilities. Banned Books Week not only encourages readers to examine challenged literary works, but also promotes intellectual freedom in libraries, schools, and bookstores.  Every year, the American Library Association publishes a pamphlet listing the books that had been challenged and/or removed from circulation in schools and libraries around the world, including the rationale behind these decisions.  Here is a selection of a few of the titles that were challenged, restricted, removed or banned in 2011 and 2012.  The reasons cited come from the American Library Association publication

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Banned, but later returned to the Richland, Wa. school district's reading list despite objections to the "coarse themes and language in the young-adult novel."  Pulled from the Dade County, Ga. library shelves and the required high school reading list because of complaints about "vulgarity, racism, and anti-Christian content."

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
Challenged, but retained, at the Clarkstown, N.Y. North High School despite a parent's complaint about the coming-of-age novel, which deals graphically with teenage sex, homosexuality and bestiality.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Challenged, but retained on the Easton, Pa. Area High School's Advanced Placement English reading list despite several residents and persons from outside the district calling the book "faddish," of "no moral value," and even "obscene."

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
Removed from a spring break elective course at the Bedford, N.H. School District after a parent complained about the novel's sexual content.  The complainant further suggested that the school only allow "youth versions" of particular books or organize a parental review system over the summer that would look at books that students need parental permission to read. 

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson.
Challenged, but eventually retained at the Merrill, Wis. High School despite some parents complaining that it is "questionable reading material for their tenth-grade students because of language, and sexual and racist themes."  School leaders added it to the curriculum twelve years ago, saying it was a less controversial substitute for The Catcher in the Rye.  School leaders also said students have the option of reading a different book if they don't feel comfortable with the one they're assigned.