Friday Five: YA Series to Watch

It seems like after the success of Harry Potter, every YA book title promotes itself as a "The first book in the ____ series." As a YA junkie, I am okay with this. As a buyer of books, I say "Enough!" And as a lover of books, I would rather see them stop at one book rather than pumping out two more books of low quality just to market the series as the next Hunger Games. In the hope of highlighting some quality up and coming series, I present to you todays "Friday Five: YA Series to Watch" with my reviews:

Series: Divergent

Author: Roth, Veronica

Book Title(s): Divergent, Insurgent

My thoughts: I am very excited about this series and this author. Veronica Roth is in her early twenties and already pumping out some quality work. Her characters are very human and I cannot wait to see what she gives us in the future. For now we have this YA Dystopian Novel about a teenage girl who must choose between staying with her family and being who she really is

, as well as the repercussions of that decision. Divergent is definitely one to watch. While it has not hit Hunger Games or Twilight fandom, it does have a large following and a movie adaptation to be released March 21, 2014.

Series: Unwind

Author: Shusterman, Neal

Book Title(s): Unwind, UnWholly

My thoughts: Rather than a discussion on war or love, this book series takes on the concept of abortion. In the future, abortion is illegal. However, at 16 parents can choose to have their unruly child “unwound.” Instead of dying, the teen lives on with his heart in a man who needed one, his skin as a graft for a burn victim. The story in Unwind has 3 main narrators and was a great read. UnWholly came out recently and I am trying to get to it this weekend.

 

Series: Graceling

Author: Cashore, Kristin

Book Title(s): Graceling, Bitteblue

My thoughts: Graceling contained a quality of writing you rarely see in debut novels. This idea centers in a world where some people are born with “graces” or amazing skill sets that can range from excellent culinary skills to a killing “grace.” We meet our young female hero (surprise!) who has a killing grace and has become somewhat of personal thug to the king she serves, who happens to be her uncle. It is a very fun read and I cannot wait to finally read Bitterblue, the second book in the series.

Series: Legend

Author: Lu, Marie

Book Title(s): Legend, Prodigy (tbr 2013)

My thoughts: I will say I was annoyed that there are two different fonts in this book to show which of the two narrators are talking. I find it offensive to all readers that whoever made that decision thought the average reader could not see the difference in narrators. Once I got past my annoyance with the font, I was immensely impressed with the descriptions of action sequences in this book. The story focuses around two teenage military geniuses who are on different sides of the current military regime. I am excited to see where Prodigy, due out 2013, picks up.

 

Series: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Series title unknown)

Author: Riggs, Ransom

Book Title(s): Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

My thoughts: The sequel to this book was just announced this past week. I loved the book but I do not know if I can be truly excited about the sequel. The book took such an interesting turn of events from start to finish that I do not know what to expect from the sequel.

Are there any series you are excited about?

~Jason

ARRRRRR I'm geARRRing up for talk like a Pirate Day

Argggggg September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day (no, really it is - check the website.) Still not convinced? check their Flickr photostream!

Ever since I saw the movie Hook, I have always had a soft spot for pirates. I watched that VHS so many times the tape ripped. I am fairly certain I quote this movie 2+ times a week. In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I thought I would share some of the more jovial pirate/pirate related items that we have here at the Wellesley Free Library.

Books:
The pirate queen : Queen Elizabeth I, her pirate adventurers, and the dawn of empire
The pirate wars
Pirate: a novel
search through our catalog for more books on pirates and pirate related fiction

Movies:
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Pirates of the Caribbean Movies:
    Curse of the Black Pearl  
    Dead Man's Chest
    At World's End
    On Stranger Tides
and many more, check our catalog and search by material type: DVD

Children's:
Your life as a cabin boy on a pirate ship
Pirate boy
Jake and the Never Land Pirates. Peter Pan returns
and many more! Head to the Children's room to find more pirate related books and DVDs!

Want to really get into the spirit? Switch your Facebook language to Pirate by going to:
Account Settings > Language > English (Pirate)and therrrrrrre ya have it Matey!

Find your Inner Pirate with the Official Talk Like a Pirate Personality Inventory

!!!***UPDATE***!!!
As I am new here, I am learning new things every day. I JUST learned the online language resource Mango, provided by the Wellesley Free Library, has pirate lessons. Check them out yourself! Head to http://www.wellesleyfreelibrary.org/ on the left hand menu choose Online Resources Scroll down to M - or use M navigation on the right hand side - to Mango

 
Have a great International Talk Like a Pirate Day buccaneers!

~Jason 

What's New in Mystery and Fiction?

Here are a few upcoming titles in mystery and fiction:

The Panther by Nelson DeMille
John Corey, the popular hero of The Lion is back -- now working in anti-terrorist capacity with his  FBI agent wife.

Astray by Emma Donoghue
A new story collection from the author of Room.

Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe
Wolfe again writes a novel attempting to sum up America's zeitgeist.  This time the location is Miami.   


maf

5 of 10 Quirky Libraries

Part I of 10 Quirky Libraries...

First Carnegie Medal for Fiction and Nonfiction Winners Announced

If you love to read books from award lists, try the winners of the first ever Carnegie Medal for Fiction and Nonfiction:

Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright.

The momentous drama of everyday life; the volatile connections between people for those entangled in an adulterous affair; the wry, accurate take on families, marriage, and brittle middle age. With The Forgotten Waltz Enright turns her attention to love, following another unforgettable heroine on a journey of the heart.

Catherine the Great by Robert Massie

Massie presents a reconstruction of the eighteenth-century empress's life that covers her efforts to engage Russia in the cultural life of Europe, her creation of the Hermitage, and her numerous scandal-free romantic affairs.  SH

Karsh : Beyond the Camera

Edited by David Travis,  Karsh : Beyond the Camera is a retrospective of the famous photographer's career spanning 50 years. The black and white collection is spellbinding even in its reproduction due to Karsh' expert use of light and setting in the pre-digital age.Travis, former Curator of  Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, draws on several hours of taped recollections between Karsh and Jerry Fiedler, his longtime assistant, of portrait sessions which have previously been unreleased. These narratives, paired with each photograph, reveal the photographer's psychological insight and personal thoughts about his subjects.
Yousuf Karsh was born in Turkey in 1908 and was a survivor of the Armenian genocide before escaping to Canada. The memories of the horrors he witnessed as a boy remained with him all his life.

-DB

Space Race

Neil Armstrong the first man to walk on the Moon has died at the age of 82. Remember the race to the Moon with these books.



John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon
     by John M. Logsdon
JFK actively involved himself in space decisions and several times reviewed his decision to go to the Moon, each time concluding that the benefits of being the leader in space outweighed the massive costs of the lunar landing enterprise. Logsdon traces the evolution of JFK’s thinking and policy up until his assassination

The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon
     by James L. Schefter
The messy and glorious saga of the golden years of the American space program, told in never-before-revealed detail by a man who was there. Life reporter Schefter could not write a fraction of what he saw then for PR reasons.Now, at last, he can tell it all.

Race to the Moon: America's Duel with the Soviets
     by William B. Breuer
Race to the Moon is the first book to trace the entire story of how America got to the moon before Communist Russia.
The book reads like an espionage thriller.

One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 Remembered
     by Piers Bizony
The first moon landing in July 1969 captured the imagination of the world as no subsequent "space spectacular" has.  Forty years later, space historian Piers Bizony has produced a stunning visual record of this unparalleled mission.

The Book of the Moon
     by Rick Stroud
To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, a visually striking cornucopia of everything worth knowing about our closest neighbor in space.

Tyson

What's new in Fiction and Mystery for August?

Here are some books coming out in August:

Bones are Forever
by Kathy Reichs
Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan and Detective Ryan are back.  This case involves the world of diamond mining.

The St. Zita Society
by Ruth Rendell
Interactions between residents and their servants in a fancy London neighborhood turn to violence.

Vengeance
by Benjamin Black
A bizarre suicide leads to scandal in another mystery by acclaimed novelist John Banville. 

maf

Tyson Recommends: Napoleonic Wars

"History as a laboratory rich in a hundred thousand experiments in economics, religion, literature, science, and government – history as our roots and our illumination, as the road by which we came and the only light that can clarify the present and guide us into the future." "It is, as Napoleon said on St. Helena, “the only true philosophy and the only true psychology.”

 - Will Durant

 Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World

by Roy Adkins

Nelson's Trafalgar  is a brutally vivid, gunport level account of the 1805 clash between Britain’s Royal Navy under the command of Horatio Nelson and Napoleon’s forces off the coast of Spain.

 The Battle: A New History of Waterloo

by Allesandro Barbero, Translated by John Cullen

This account by the Italian historian stands apart from previous histories by giving voice to all the nationalities that took part in the titanic and bloody struggle, invoking the memories of British, French, and Prussian soldiers.

 The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as WeKnow It

by David A. Bell

Bell exposes the surprising parallels between Napoleon's day and our own -- including the way that ambition "wars of liberation," such as the one in Iraq, can degenerate into a gruesome guerrilla conflict.

 Napoleon's Wars: An International History,1803-1815

 by Charles Esdaile

Historian Charles Esdaile argues that the chief motivating factor for Napoleon was his insatiable desire for fame and portrays Europe’s infighting as the consequence of rulers who were willing to take the immense risks of either fighting or supporting Napoleon.

 The Wars Against Napoleon: Debunking the Myth of the Napoleonic Wars

by Michel Franceschi, Ben Weider, Translated by Jonathan M. House

The authors argue that the caricature of the megalomaniac conqueror who bled Europe white to satisfy his delirious ambitions and insatiable love for war is groundless.

 Napoleon: The Immortal Emperor

 by Gerard Gengembre, Pierre-Jean Chalencon, and David Chanteranne

Lavishly illustrated, this volume includes rare and previously unpublished material, not only on Napoleon's military victories but also on his innovations in government, banking, universal education, a well organized code of law, public museums, and an efficient civil service.

 How Far from Austerlitz: Napoleon 1805-1815

 by Alastair Horne

The Battle of Austerlitz was Napoleon's crowing victory. It was also the beginning of his downfall. Historian Alistair Horne chronicles the rise and fall of Napoleon, drawing parallels with other great leaders of the modern era.

 Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story ofthe Campaigns of War and Peace

 by Dominic Lieven

A fresh examination of Russian military archives only open to Western researchers since 1991, Lieven provides the first-ever history of the longest military campaign in European history told from the Russian perspective.

 The Line upon a Wind: The Great War at Sea, 1793-1815

 by Noel  Mostert

 This narrative ranges from the Mediterranean to the West Indies, Egypt to Scandinavia, showing how land versus sea was the key to the outcome of the Napoleonic Wars.

 Napoleon as a General: Command from the Battlefield to Grand Strategy

by Jonathon Riley

A major general in the British army uses three campaigns - Napoleon's first campaign in Italy, the conquest of Prussia in 1806, and the Battle of the Nations in 1813 - to analyze Napoleon’s generalship.

Tyson

Books into Movies for September

The Eye of the Storm is based on the 1973 novel by Nobel Prize-winning Australian novelist Patrick White. Directed by Fred Schepisi, the drama stars Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis, Colin Friels, and Dustin Clare.

Killing Them Softly is based on George V. Higgin's 1974 crime novel Cogan's Trade. Directed by Andrew Dominik, the film stars Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini and Ben Mendelsohn.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an adaptation of Stephen Chbosky's 1999 coming-of-age YA novel. Directed by Chbosky, the film stars Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd, and Nina Dobrev.

-DB

Who Speaks for the Negro?

 In 1965 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren published Who Speaks for the Negro? Warren, a white southerner, interviewed a few dozen people influential in the struggle for civil rights and published the interviews in the book. His tapes of the interviews, recorded on his reel-to-reel tape recorder, are now available digitally from Vanderbilt University. They are no less than fascinating. Here are Martin Luther King, Robert Moses and Adam Clayton Powell speaking  in offices or living rooms--not from the pulpit or stage. Here are James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison speaking in conversation rather than from the pages of their books. And Warren is no slouch himself. Listen to him spar with Malcolm X on the culpability of individual White people (however well-meaning) for the oppression of Blacks. (And listen too, to James Farmer's put down of Malcolm as a talker, not a doer.) The interviewees include-- in addition to the who's who of top leaders--rank and file activists, women, and white sympathizers.If you have any interest at all in the Civil Rights Movement in the US, you will surely appreciate these recordings.(Thanks to the ResearchBuzz blog for the recommendation.)
--RL

Sue Recommends Bloodline: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins

Are getting bored with the lazy days of summer?  Try an action packed suspense novel by James Rollins titled Bloodline: ASigma Force novel.  

Rollins brings together a team of elite operatives, a holy treasure (the staff of Jesus Christ) that was uncovered by a Templar knight, Somali pirates, a kidnapping of a mother and her unborn child, and a centuries-old conspiracy to manipulate our genetic code to weave a story that leaves you anxious to see what happens next.

  

I listened to the book on cd and the reader is excellent.  Believe me, this book is anything but boring!  SH

Mars With Life

The Curiosity Rover has successfully landed on Mars.  It's mission is to find sings of ancient prehistoric life on the planet.  Here are a few books in which Mars has life.

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings 

      by Stirling, S. M.

In the parallel world aliens terraformed Mars (and Venus) two hundred million years ago, seeding them with life-forms from Earth. By the year 2000, America, Russia, and the other great powers of Earth are all contending for influence and power amid the newly-discovered inhabitants of our sister planets. On Mars, early hominids evolved civilization earlier than their earthly cousins, driven by the needs of a harsh world growing still harsher as the initial terraforming runs down.  Now, in a new stand-alone adventure set in this world's 2000 AD, Jeremy Wainman is an archaeologist who has achieved a lifelong dream; to travel to Mars and explore the dead cities of the Deep Beyond, searching for the secrets of the Kings Beneath the Mountain and the fallen empire they ruled.

Mars Trilogy: A Princess of Mars - The Gods of Mars - The Warlord of Mars
     by Burroughs, Edgar Rice; Fischer, Scott M. (Illustrator); Gustafson, Scott (Illustrator); Zug, Mark (Illustrator)

The first three John Carter of Mars books in a 100th anniversary edition. Ever since A Princess of Mars was published in 1912, readers of all ages have read and loved Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series. Still fun even after 100 years.

War of the Worlds: New Millenium
     by Niles, Douglas

First the Mars probe picked up an anomaly. Then NASA saw some strange activity, and many stargazers noticed meteorites rocketing towards earth. A cylinder surreptitiously landed in Wisconsin, then another, and another. The War of the Worlds had begun. Niles follows in the great tradition of Wells' original masterpiece. As tripods leave a swath of destruction across the Americas, Washington groups some of its great minds to solve the problem as the Pentagon throws at the invaders the latest hardware the military has to offer. At stake is the survival of the human race and the dominion of planet earth.  A Clancy like techno-thriller.

The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Alien Invasion As Reported by Mr. H. G. Wells
     by Mesta, Gabriel (Kevin J. Anderson)

What if Wells witnessed something that spurred him to write The War of the Worlds not as entertainment but as a warning to the complacent people of Earth? International bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson, writing here as Gabriel Mesta, explores that tantalizing theory in this unique, thrilling novel that expertly evokes the Victorian era. From drafty London flats to the steamy Sahara, to the surface of the moon and beyond, The Martian War takes the reader on an exhilarating journey with Wells and his companions -- and is pure delight from start to finish.

The Day the Martians Came
     by Pohl, Frederik

Henry Steegman is hardly "Mr. Personality" aboard the Mars-bound Algonquin 9. Yet it is he who bungles upon the spectacular Macy's-like city beneath the Red Planet's crust. For better or worse, the name Steegman will be immortalized by a discovery that will transform millions of lives. A collection of connected stories which investigate the impact the discovery of life on Mars has on the everyday life of humans.

Tyson

Release date set for Spielberg's Lincoln

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln has been scheduled for a November 9 limited release, expanding to more theaters on November 16.  The film, which focuses on the last four months of Lincoln's life, is based on portions of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals : the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Goodwin's book experienced renewed popularity after the 2008 presidential election when Obama referred to it as a blueprint for selecting his cabinet.

The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens. 

-DB

Free (Free) Music

I don’t really think of the Internet Archive as a source for music. But a post on their blog is a great reminder that the Archive is more than just the Wayback Machine; there’s a  whole bunch of music there too! The collection that interested me the most was the Live Music Archive. This  audio collection consists of over 100,000 live concerts. A quick glance showed that most are bands that I at least, have never heard of.  But the core of the collection is the 8000 concerts of the Grateful Dead. And I took note also of Smashing Pumpkins (919 shows), Justin Townes Earle(68), Warren Zevon (100), OAR (623), and Little Feat (463), plus 5000 other bands. No doubt you will find some great live music to fit your tastes.  But there’s more at the Archive:  the InternetUnderground Music Archive, Netlabels, Jamendo Albums Collection, recordings from the DNA Lounge in San Francisco  and a collection of 78rpm and cylinder recordings. One note of caution though: The search interfaces are limited and the cataloging shows need of a librarian or two. (Thanks to ResearchBuzz for pointing out the Archives blog post.)

--RL

Neglected Books

http://neglectedbooks.com/

Wondering where that well-reviewed book of yesteryear ended up?  Check out: neglectedbooks.com.  On the Neglected Books page, you'll find many, many lists of  books that have been neglected, overlooked, forgotten, or stranded by changing tides in critical or popular taste.


The Neglected Books Page:  Where Forgotten Books are Remembered! 

maf