Novel Destination: India



This month, one of your Community Library's NextReads e-newsletters (cardholders subscribe free here) spotlighted historical fiction about India. Here are their recommended titles, plus a few additional selections set in modern times. Get lost exploring this Novel Destination!

See early 20th century Cambridge University through the eyes of The Indian Clerk, an amazingly talented self-taught Indian mathematician. Read an uplifting Indian Cinderella story about the luckless secretary at The Marriage Bureau for Rich People. Experience a forbidden cross-cultural romance between a World War II-era Englishwoman and an English-educated Indian man in The Jewel in the Crown. Or go even further back in time to the Mughal Dynasty and meet the woman who will one day become the emperor's Twentieth Wife. Finally, find your way in modern India with Miss New India, a country girl who reinvents herself in the big city of Bangalore.

Have any other India-themed book suggestions? Please comment!

Ben Stiller to direct film adaptation

James Thurber's classic short story "The Secret Lives of Walter Mitty" has already made the leap from print to film once in 1947. Now, according to this article from Variety, a new adaption of this humorous story is being produced by 20th Century Fox, and will be directed by the film's star, Ben Stiller. The story is about a meek, mild-mannered book editor who, tired of his Clark Kent existence, dreams up secret, imaginary lives in which he is a Superman. Read the full story as well as Thurber's tongue-in-cheek autobiographical essay "The Secret Life of James Thurber" in this special illustrated edition available from your Community Library.

Thriller Awards Announced

Looking for a heart-stopping, action-packed thrill ride of a book? Try one of the recently-announced 2011 Thriller Award winners, sponsored by the International Thriller Writers.


Best Hard Cover Novel: Bad Blood by John Sandford


When a murder suspect commits suicide after his arrest for killing a soybean farmer, Virgil Flowers uncovers a multi-generation, multi-family conspiracy involving a series of monstrous crimes.


Best First Novel: Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Captured by a psychopath posing as an interested house buyer, realtor Annie spends a brutally traumatic year in captivity in a remote mountain cabin and recounts her experiences and dramatic escape to her therapist while agonizing over the ongoing police search for her captor.

Week 4 Summer Reading Club Update

Summer Reading Club Raffle Week #4

Congratulations to Rachel A., who won the "Take a Hike" raffle basket, the fourth of eight weekly prizes offered through the 2011 Adult Department Summer Reading Club! It's not too late to join this all-online club for book lovers, which is free and open to all adult Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library cardholders: sign up here or call (631) 399-1511 x 240. You can read or listen to any book you want, and for each book review you contribute to our site, you're entered to win the raffle prize of the week. So far over 350 books have been reviewed! Next week's prize is "How Tweet It Is;" good luck and happy reading from your Community Library!

Hot off the Press: Brand-New Fiction & Nonfiction




Happy birthday to these new books, officially published today, July 26, 2011!

Summer Reading Club Trends



Only halfway into this year's summer reading club and it's already obvious that most members have very diverse reading tastes. Still, a few books are already emerging as this summer's most popular reads. Leading the list is James Patterson's new book 10th Anniversary; six of the reading club's 300+ members read it. Four people gave it 5 stars and two people gave it 4 stars. His book Now You See Her has also been a popular choice, with three people reading it so far. Other popular reads include (in no particular order): Kiss of Midnight, The Postmistress, Buried Prey, Miles to Go, Quicksilver, and I'll Walk Alone. Two titles which are surprisingly popular given that they're not new releases are Stephen King's 2009 Under the Dome and Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, which was published in 2006 but has since been turned into a movie. Popular authors include James Patterson, Stephen King, Charlaine Harris, Stephenie Meyer, Nora Roberts, Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars series), and Richard Paul Evans.

Remember, even if you're not a Summer Reading Club member, you can see for yourself what others in the club have been reading here. Also, it's not too late to join: click here to do so & remember to stop by the Information desk the next time you're at the library to pick up your free sign-up prize, which consists of candy, a bookmark, and a luggage tag that fits this year's Club theme, "Novel Destinations."

New Historical Fiction



Travel with an 1800s circus in the fictional autiobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, join a war crimes trial that spans decades from World War II in The Things We Cherished, or join The Soldier's Wife as she waits for her husband on a German-occupied English island. In The Sweetest Thing, follow two Depression-era girls in Atlanta from opposite ends of the social spectrum who forge an unlikely friendship, or investigate a murder in 1880s Virginia in The Reservoir. All these new historical fiction releases are available from your Community Library.

Sarah's Key Movie Release

Today marks the film premiere of yet another book that has been turned into a movie: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. On the anniversary of the roundup of Jews by the French police in Paris, Julia is asked to write an article on this dark episode and embarks on an investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah. Check this book out through your Community Library: it's available in print, as a book on CD, as an audiobook download, and also as a preloaded ebook on our circulating Sony Readers.

Beneath a Starlet Sky

Did you see author Amanda Goldberg talking about her new book Beneath a Starlet Sky on yesterday's Today Show? Check out this lighthearted chick lit selection from your Community Library. Lola Santis - CEO of a struggling fashion line, reformed actorholic, and daughter of Hollywood royalty - is now not only bicoastal, she's bi-lolar: This is the condition that causes her to swing like a pendulum between the opposing poles of fashion world in New York and the real world with her doctor-boyfriend in Los Angeles.

Week 3 Summer Reading Club Update

Summer Reading Club Raffle Week #3

Congratulations to Althea D., who won the "Grill Master" raffle basket, the third of eight weekly prizes offered through the 2011 Adult Department Summer Reading Club! It's not too late to join this all-online club for book lovers, which is free and open to all adult Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library cardholders: sign up here or call (631) 399-1511 x 240. You can read or listen to any book you want, and for each book review you contribute to our site, you're entered to win the raffle prize of the week. So far over 300 books have been reviewed! Next week's prize is "Take a Hike;" good luck and happy reading from your Community Library!

Harry Potter Magic from your Community Library




The final Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, has been raking in huge amounts at the box office since it opened this weekend, but when some fans walk out of the movie theater, they still haven't gotten enough of this magical world. Available through your Community Library are some additional official & unofficial Harry Potter-universe books not in the core 7-book series that you (or your young family members) might enjoy.

Who wants to feel younger?

Let's face it, just about everyone wants to feel younger. In the popular new release 2o Years Younger (recently featured on Oprah), author Bob Greene promises readers a practical, science-based plan for feeling their best as they age. For those who only want a quick cosmetic fix, try How Not to Look Old by Charla Krupp.

Reader Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett has enjoyed continued success since its original publication in 2009 (as evidenced by the fact that your Community Library owns over 20 copies and still has trouble keeping them on the shelf!). Here's a quick plot summary: "Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone." Interested? One Summer Reading Club member puts it best: "Hurry up and read it before the movie comes out."