Save the Date!

The Community Library's Literacy Department will be holding their annual book sale on Saturday, October 18th and Sunday, October 19th.  


If You Like 'The Valley of Amazement,' You May Also Like...

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping, evocative epic saga of two women’s intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.

Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China’s last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign “Shanghailanders” living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II. (Publisher's Summary)

If you loved The Valley of Amazement, then you may also like the read-alike books listed below. These books are recommended by NoveList, our readers advisory database.

Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones

Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis

Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Night in Shanhai by Nicole Mones
Touring Shanghai in 1936 as part of a black jazz orchestra, Thomas Greene meets Song Yuhua, translator for one of Japan's biggest crime bosses, and through friendship and love they weather the Japanese invasion together. (Publisher's Summary)

Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis
Follows the story of the fiercely independent women of the Firielli family as their lives, relationships, and the pursuit of their dreams take them from Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and the United States. (Publisher's Summary)

Hanna's Daughers by Marianne Fredriksson
A Swedish writer chronicles more than a century in the lives of three extraordinary women against the background of the unforgiving Swedish countryside, in an evocative novel that captures the contributions of women to Scandinavian history. (Publisher's Summary)

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Forced to leave Shanghai when their father sells them to California suitors, sisters May and Pearl struggle to adapt to life in 1930s Los Angeles while still bound to old customs, as they face discrimination and confront a life-altering secret.(Publisher's Summary) 

Book to Broadway Alert!

The internationally best-selling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is coming to Broadway! 

As reported by Early Word, the play will be coming to Broadway this fall, "after a long run in London, where it won the most Olivier Awards (the equivalent of the Tony’s here) for any play in the history of the award." 

Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and he distrusts strangers. But Christopher's detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that turns his world upside-down. (Publisher's Summary)

View the official trailer for the show below. 


Click here to read the full article.

September Book Discussion

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
Don't forget to register for the book discussion that is being held at the Community Library on September 17th, between 2 and 4pm! 

This month the group will be discussing Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

The novel follows a young man, living in Manhattan as if he owned it, through nightclubs, fashion shows, editorial offices, and loft parties as he attempts to outstrip mortality and the recurring approach of dawn. With nothing but goodwill, controlled substances, and wit to sustain him in this anti-quest, he runs until he reaches his reckoning point, where he is forced to acknowledge loss and, possibly, to rediscover his better instincts. (Publisher's Summary)

Copies of the book are available at the Circulation Desk. Click here to reserve your spot today!

Quick Summer Reads

With less than a week until Labor Day, there is not a lot of time left for reading on the beach..with that, here's a list of quick summer reads! Run to the Community Library to borrow a copy today!
Return to the Beach House by Georgia Bockoven

The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert

One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern

The Girls of August by Anne Rivers Siddons

Return to the Beach House by Georgia Bockoven 
Eight people share their lives, loves and secrets at a warm, and welcoming shore cottage, including photographers Matthew and Lindsey and widowed Alison and her college-age grandson in this sequel to Another Summer and The Beach House.

The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert
Bay's mother, Nan, has kept lots of secrets from her, and when Nan meets up with her estranged friends Mavis and Ruthie, the secrets just begin to be revealed.

One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern
After her dying mentor leaves her a mysterious list of 100 names, journalist Kitty Logan tries to locate the people and uncover their connections in this new novel from the author of P.S. I Love You.

The Girls of August by Anne Rivers Siddons
Four friends who used to meet for an annual summer beach vacation drift apart after one of their group tragically dies but reconvene years later.

The Dog Days of Summer

Check out our adorable display on the bottom floor of the Community Library featuring books about man -and woman's best friend!
A Girl's Best Friend by Elizabeth Young

Doggie Day Care Murder by Laurien Berenson

Dancing Dogs by Jon Katz

Chow Down by Laurien Berenson

A Girl's Best Friend by Elizabeth Young
Still recuperating from her latest romantic disaster, Isabel "Izzy" Palmer becomes convinced that the only male she needs in her life is Henry, her faithful and lovable canine companion, that is, until she meets Nick.

Doggie Day Care Murder by Laurien Berenson
Melanie Travis's new case is truly for the dogs when Steve Pine, the co-owner of the Pine Ridge Canine Care Center, is found murdered, and she is faced with a wealth of suspects, including his sister, his neighbor, and a disgruntled client.

Dancing Dogs by Jon Katz
A warm and whimsical first collection of dog-themed stories by the best-selling author of Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm includes the tales of a woman's farewell to a beloved retriever, a young girl's instant connection with a shelter puppy and a sheepdog's confrontation with an injured coyote.

Chow Down by Laurien Berenson
Finalists in a contest to become the spokesdog for Chow Down, Melanie Travis and her Standard Poodle Faith watch in horror as this dog-eat-dog competition turns deadly when a fellow contestant is murdered.

Oh Captain, My Captain

Click here to read Roger Tagholm's moving editorial about Robin Williams and Literature. Tagholm "looks back at how Robin Williams brought moments of poetry and literature to life for a generation, instilling them in the popular culture."
Several of the books mentioned in the article are available at the Community Library, they are listed below. 

Tell Me the Truth About Love by W.H. Auden

The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Tell Me the Truth About Love by W.H. Auden
W. H. Auden wrote some of the greatest love poetry of the twentieth century.  This book contains ten of his poems about love.  They range in mood from the exhilaration of a new love affair, through love's anxieties and fears, to the sorrow that comes with the end of love.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry
A pilot is forced down in the Sahara where he meets a strange little prince from another planet.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The publication of Leaves of Grass in July 1855 was a landmark event in literary history. Nothing like the volume had ever appeared before. Everything about it - the unusual jacket and title page, the exuberant preface, the twelve free-flowing, untitled poems embracing every realm of experience - was new. The 1855 edition broke new ground in its relaxed style, which prefigured free verse; in its sexual candor; in its images of racial bonding and democratic togetherness; and in the intensity of its affirmation of the sanctity of the physical world.

Stephen King's ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

View Stephen King's ALS ice bucket challenge below! He nominated John Grisham to take the challenge...do you think he will respond?


Click here for more information on ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal, Lois Lowry’s The Giver is the quintessential dystopian novel, that was followed by its remarkable companions, Gathering BlueMessenger, and Son.

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back. (Publisher's Summary)



Is The Giver an old favorite book of yours? Just finished reading it in anticipation of the movie release last week? Either way, fans of this beloved book may also enjoy the read-alike book listed below, recommended by NoveList, our readers advisory database.

Matched by Ally Condie

Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Matched by Ally Condie
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her, so when Xander appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate--until Ky Markham's face appears for an instant before the screen fades to black.

Crewel by Gennifer Albin
Gifted with the unusual ability to embroider the very fabric of life, sixteen-year-old Adelice is summoned by Manipulation Services to become a Spinster, a move that will separate her from her beloved family and home forever.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

August Calls for an American Adventure

Craving an American adventure during the dwindling days of summer? If so, you may like the following books:

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Hidden Order by Brad Thor

In Calamity's Wake by Natalee Caple

In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazer
Based on local history and family stories passed down by the author's great-great-grandfather, Cold Mountain is the tale of a wounded soldier Inman, who walks away from the ravages of the war and back home to his prewar sweetheart, Ada. 

Hidden Order by Brad Thor
When a string of high-profile kidnappings in Washington, D.C. escalate upon the discovery that the victims are being murdered, an eventual ransom demand triggers terror throughout the country.

In Calamity's Wake by Natalee Caple
To fufill her adoptive father's dying wish, Miette sets out to meet her mother, the notorious Calamity Jane, and crosses the badlands of the North American West in her quest to find the woman who had forsaken her for a life of danger and adventure.

In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde
A rafting trip through the Grand Canyon changes the lives of everyone on board, including JT Maroney, a jaded guide; unemployed Peter, who is avoiding his family; septuagenarian veteran rafters Ruth and Lloyd, who know they will never make this trip again; and teenager Amy Van Doren and her mother, who will face the most daunting journey of all.

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
Fleeing her strict grandmother's home in 1963 Mississippi, 9-year-old Starla Claudelle becomes an unlikely companion to an African-American woman at whose side she learns harsh lessons about period segregation and family. By the RITA-winning author of Back Roads.

The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton
Desperate to understand the war that claimed the life of his brother, journalist John Easley heads to the Territory of Alaska to investigate the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands, a story censored by the U.S. government, while the wife he left behind is forced to reimagine who she is and what she is capable of doing after he disappears.

2014 Hugo Award Winners Announced

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
As per the official Hugo Award website, the Hugo Awards are science fiction’s most prestigious award. Presented annually since 1955, the Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon).

This year's winner of the best novel award is Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie! 
Now isolated in a single frail human body, Breq, an artificial intelligence that used to control of a massive starship and its crew of soldiers, tries to adjust to her new humanity while seeking vengeance and answers to her questions. (Publisher's Summary)

Click here for a complete list of award winners and/or more information about the Hugo Awards!

Media Alert!

The Kills by Richard House
The Kills by Richard House "is headed to television as a drama series for Starz and the BBC produced by Colin Callender's Playground," Deadline.com reported. Click here for more information.

Book Summary: a single-volume release of an acclaimed four-part Guardian Best Book of the Year follows the experiences of a man on the run from a conspiracy that takes him from the ashes of war-torn Iraq through multiple continents into Italy.

The Kills is available at the Community Library, click here to place your hold today!

The New York Times Best Sellers - August 17, 2014

Click here to access The New York Times Best Sellers List from Sunday, August 17, 2014.
 

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
New to the list this week, Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty! 

This new book follows three mothers, each at a crossroads, and their potential involvement in a riot at a school trivia night that leaves one parent dead in what appears to be a tragic accident, but which evidence shows might have been premeditated. 

Click here to place your hold today!

Librarian's Picks

Check out our Librarian's Picks display for August! This month's selection includes the following titles, plus many others:
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

The Red Thread by Ann Hood

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

East of Eden by John Steinbeck The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. 

The Red Thread by Ann Hood 
After losing her infant daughter in a freak accident, Maya Lange opens The Red Thread, an adoption agency that specializes in placing baby girls from China with American families. Maya finds some comfort in her work, until a group of six couples share their personal stories of their desire for a child. Their painful and courageous journey toward adoption forces her to confront the lost daughter of her past.

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.

Book to Movie Alert!

Another movie based on a Nicholas Sparks' book is getting ready to hit the silver screen on October 17th. The Best of Me stars James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan and is a story of two small-town former high school sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks. Now middle-aged, they have taken wildly divergent paths, but neither has lived the life they imagined, and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever altered their world. 

View the office movie trailer below!


Read the book before you see the movie! Click here to place your hold today!

Book to Television Alert!

Hurtled back through time more than two hundred years to Scotland in 1743, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence, and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for young Scottish warrior, James Fraser...

Diana Gabaldon's hugely popular Outlander series has been made into a television series that started last Saturday night on the Starz channel - preview the trailer below!



Looks interesting? Don't forget to read the books that the new television series is based on! 

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Book 1

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
Book 2

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
Book 3

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
Book 4

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
Book 5

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
Book 6

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
Book 7

Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon
Book 8

If You Like 'Orphan Train,' You May Also Like...

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Orphan Train is a gripping story of friendship and second chances from Christina Baker Kline, author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be.

Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse...

Already read Orphan Train and are looking for read-alike titles? Check out these suggestions from NoveList, our reader's advisory database:


The Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
The practices of Dr. Wilbur Larch--obstetrician, orphanage director, ether addict, and abortionist--are hindered, abetted, and continued, in turn, by his favorite orphan, Homer Wells.


The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow
Interweaves the story of Maria, a seamstress in the royal household of Buckingham Palace, and Caroline Meadows who discovers a beautiful quilt in her mother's attic.
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

New Tales for New Adults

Check out these brand new tales for new adults, both available at the Community Library!
Chinese Cooking for Diamond Thieves by Dave Lowry

You're Not Much Use to Anyone by David Shapiro

Chinese Cooking for Diamond Thieves by Dave Lowry
A rollicking debut novel about a young man who gets kicked out of college, becomes a Chinese restaurant chef, and inadvertently gets in the middle of a Chinese gang's search for their stolen diamonds.

David is a freshly minted NYU grad who’s working a not-quite-entry-level job, falling in love, and telling his parents he’s studying for the LSAT. He starts a Tumblr blog, typing out posts on his BlackBerry under his desk—a blog that becomes wildly popular and brings him to the attention of major media (The New York Times) as well as the White House. But his outward fame doesn’t quell his confusion about the world and his direction in it.

What Is New Adult Fiction?

Confused what constitutes a "new adult" novel? Check out this article by Gillian Engberg and Donna Seaman to help clear up any questions you may have.  The article was first published in Booklist, August 2014.