Holiday Craft Ideas

Get a jump start on your holiday crafts! Stop by our main floor display near the copy/fax room to find books about decorating, cooking, quilting, and all things handcrafted for the holidays. Here is a few of the many titles you'll find:

Home-Made for the Holidays: Over 60 Treats to Enjoy at Home or Give as Gifts by Aileen Anastacio
A Handcrafted Christmas: Creating a Welcoming Home for the Holidays by Dawn Anderson
Southern Living Big Book of Christmas edited by Rebecca Brennan

Christmas Comfort and Joy edited by Carol Field Dahlstrom
Merry Christmas Quilts by Martingale and Company
Quick and Clever Christmas Cards: 100 Fast and Festive Cards and Tags by Elizabeth Moad

101 Christmas Crafts by Pat Richards
Home for the Holidays: Creative Ideas for Making the Holidays Memorable by Heidi Tyline King
Holiday Crafts: 35 Projects for the Home and for Giving by Catherine Woram

Debut SF Book by X-Files Alum

A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rosin
Actress Gillian Anderson, best known for her role as Dana Scully on the popular sci-fi TV show The X-Files, along with science fiction author Jeff Rovin, pens a new scientific thriller A Vision of Fire, book one of the Eartend Saga.

Juggling her career and parenting responsibilities, child psychologist Caitlin O'Hara begins treating an ambassador's daughter, who starts having violent visions and speaking in tongues right before children throughout the world demonstrate similar mystical symptoms. Caitlin begins to think that there’s a more sinister force at work.

With Asia on the cusp of nuclear war, Caitlin must race across the globe to uncover the mystical links among these seemingly unrelated incidents in order to save her patient - and perhaps the world.

A Patron Recommends

Long Gone by Alafair Burke
Recently, a patron stopped by to let us know about a book she was reading that was full of edge-of-your-seat suspense with twists and turns making it an unpredictable story. "I can't wait to be left alone so I can read this book" (says L.S. The patron didn't want her name shared but she did want to share her enjoyment of the book with you.)


The book is Long Gone by Alafair Burke.

Summary: In New York City’s cut-throat world of art, appearances can be deceiving—especially when art world newcomer Alice Humphrey becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder at a Chelsea gallery, and is thrown into a treacherous labyrinth of intrigue, crime, and conspiracy. Now, Alice must discover the truth behind the murder before the unsolved mystery claims her as its next victim.


Holiday Novels to Curl Up With

Get in the mood for - or escape from - your holiday planning with these heart-warming stories from our Holiday Display:

Kissing Under the Mistletoe: A Sullivan Christmas by Bella Andre
Christmas Brides by Suzanne Enoch
Mr. Miracle by Debbie Macomber
Last Chance Christmas by Hope Ramsay

The Christmas Wedding Ring by Susan Mallery
The Lodge on Holly Road by Sheila Roberts
All is Bright by Katherine Spencer
An Island Christmas by Nancy Thayler

Kissing Under the Mistletoe: A Sullivan Christmas by Bella Andre:
While waiting for her eight children and their partners to arrive at her Lake Tahoe cottage to celebrate Christmas, Mary Sullivan reminisces about her whirlwind romance with her husband, Jack, and their first Christmas together.

Christmas Brides by Suzanne Enoch:
A collection of four Christmas Regency romances includes Suzanne Enoch's "One Hot Scot," in which Duncan Lenox comes to the aid of an English beauty when they are stranded together during a winter storm.

Mr. Miracle by Debbie Macomber:
Assigned to help young college student Addie Folsom get her life back on track, guardian angel Harry Mills poses as a teacher and oversees her relationship with contrary neighbor Erich Simmons, with whom Addie is forced to spend Christmas.

The Christmas Wedding Ring by Susan Mallery:
After being dumped by her fiancé just before Christmas, Molly Anderson walks back into the life of bad boy Dylan Black, hoping for some no-strings-attached fun, but when their affair turns into something more, she must reveal a secret that could drive him away.

Last Chance Christmas by Hope Ramsay:
When Lark arrives in Last Chance, beauty shop owner Ruby Rhodes prays for a Christmas miracle for her oldest son, Stone, who, since his wife died, has put everything into raising his daughters--and who is the perfect person to come to Lark's rescue.

The Lodge on Holly Road by Sheila Roberts:
A widower who has lost his Christmas spirit and a mother struggling with raising her children alone, check in, along with their families, at the lodge in Icicle Falls for the Christmas holiday, and discover some unexpected gifts.

All is Bright by Katherine Spencer:
As Reverend Ben Lewis reflects on his challenging first Christmas as a minister in the small town of Cape Light, his daughter Rachel tries to plan for a future without her beloved husband, even as single-dad Ryan Cooper enters her life.

An Island Christmas by Nancy Thayler:
Returning to Nantucket to marry the love of her life, Felicia regrets the picture-perfect wedding her mother has organized, which is complicated by a mischievous cat and Felicia's judgmental, traditional sister.

Isabel Allende Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

Chilean born author Isabel Allende is one of 19 people named by President Barack Obama to receive the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is presented to "individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors" as stated in the White House Press Release (read full article here.)

This year's recipients will be celebrated at the White House today, November 24th. (To read more about the award and this year's recipients, click here)

Read more about Isabel Allende in her autobiographies:

My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende
The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende

My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile (2003): The author explores the landscapes and people of her native country; recounts the 1973 assassination of her uncle, which caused her to go into exile; and shares her experiences as an immigrant in post-September 11 America.

The Sum of Our Days (2008): A narrative memoir of the author's life in the wake of her daughter's tragic death describes the idiosyncratic network of friends she has gathered around herself and the realizations she has formed about such topics as love, parenthood, and addiction.


Novels by Ms. Allende available at the library include:

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende
Zorro by Isabel Allende

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende
Ripper by Isabel Allende

Daughter of Fortune (Fiction, 1999): Raised in the British colony of Valparaiso, Chile, after being abandoned as a baby, a pregnant Eliza follows her lover to California at the height of the Gold Rush and finds adventure and adversity on her road to independence and love. (An Oprah's Book Club Selection.)

Portrait in Sepia (Historical Fiction, 2001): Lacking all memory of the first five years of her life because of a brutal trauma, Aurora del Valle is raised by her regal grandmother Paulina and eventually seeks to confront the mystery of her past.

Zorro (Historical Fiction, 2005): Diego de la Vega, the son of an aristocratic Spanish landowner and a Shoshone mother, returns to California from school in Spain to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for the weak and helpless.

Island Beneath the Sea (Historical Fiction, 2010): In a novel where the setting moves from the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue to the lavish parlors of New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, an African slave and concubine is determined to claim her own destiny against impossible odds.

Maya's Notebook (Coming-of-age Fiction, 2013): Maya, a teenage girl neglected by her parents, falls into a life of drugs and crime, and must escape before it's too late.

Ripper (Mystery, 2014): A fast-paced mystery involving a brilliant teenage sleuth who must unmask a serial killer in San Francisco through Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world.

Thanksgiving Cooking

With just a few days left to prepare for your Thanksgiving feast, now is the time to stop in for a cookbook that might help make the preperations go more smoothly. Here are a few titles that may help:

The New Thanksgiving Table: An Amerian Celebration of Family Friends and Food by Diane Morgan
How to Cook a Turkey: and All the Other Trimmings
Thanksgiving Entertaining/Recipies by Lou Pappas

Looking for more options? Stop by the Reference Desk and speak with a librarian.

National Book Award Winners Announced!

The National Book Foundation presented their National Book Awards for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People's Literature to:

Redeployment by Phil Klay
Fiction Winner: 
Redeployment by Phil Klay
Phil Klay's Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos. "It's clear that Klay, himself a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who served in Iraq, has parlayed his insider's knowledge of soldier-bonding and emotional scarring into a collection that proves a powerful statement on the nature of war, violence, and the nuances of human nature." (Publishers Weekly Reviews)


Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos
Nonfiction Winner: 
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos
Evan Osnos, a Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, documents the political, economic and cultural changes occurring in today's China, examining a transition from Communist to personal power while addressing key questions about national freedom, generational identity and the influence of the West. "Osnos combines scintillating reportage with an eye for telling ironies that illuminate broader trends; without downplaying the uniqueness of Chinese society, he makes its tensions feel achingly familiar for Western readers." (Publishers Weekly Reviews)

Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Glück
Poetry Winner:
Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Glück
Louise Gluck shares her dreamlike poetry, including "Theory of Memory," "The Melancholy Assistant," and "The Couple in the Park" in her latest collection. "Witty, philosophical, and sensuous, Glück embraces dichotomies—The whole exchange seemed both deeply fraudulent / and profoundly true—while gracefully posing provocative questions about the nexus between nature and art and the churning complexity of consciousness." (Booklist Reviews)


 Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Young People's Literature Winner:
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child "...the result is both elegant and eloquent, a haunting book about memory that is itself altogether memorable." (Booklist Reviews)

December Book Discussion Title Now Available

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Join us for our next book discussion on December 30th from 2pm - 4pm where we finish up our year-long salute to books that have been made into movies with the classic Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.

Holly Golightly loves living in Manhattan. She has no job, but that’s okay because wealthy men keep her fed, clothed and bejeweled. Her favorite place to go is, you guessed it, Tiffany’s; nothing bad could happen, she believes, amid “that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets.”

Copies of Breakfast at Tiffany's are available for checkout at the Circulation Desk. To register for the book discussion, simply click here or call us at 631-399-1511 ext 240.

Anthony Awards for Mystery Announced!

The Anthony Award is a literary award for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention. The winner of the 2014 Anthony Award for Best Novel goes to Edgar Award winner William Kent Krueger for Ordinary Grace.

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kruger
New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. 

It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder. Finding himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, Frank is suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

Told from Frank’s perspective 40 years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is "a thoughtful literary mystery that is wholly compelling and will appeal to fans of Dennis Lehane and Tom Franklin. Writing with aching clarity, Krueger deftly shows that even in life’s moments of unimaginable sadness there is beauty to be found. Don’t take the title too literally, for Krueger has produced something that is anything but ordinary." (BookPage Reviews)

Happy Birthday Margaret Atwood

Today, November 18, is Margaret Atwood's Birthday!

As the author of over 30 books, "Margaret Atwood's literary fiction often incorporates mythical/fairy tale images into past, present, and future worlds that remain recognizably modern. Her protagonists are primarily women (often artists or writers) in difficult situations but who are never passive victims. Graceful, polished prose describes complex characters and story lines. There is always more beneath the surface, which allows readers to appreciate her novels on a variety of levels. Atwood weaves serious feminist concerns into highly readable stories, leavened by wit and humor." (NoveList)

Here are a selection of Atwood's novels available at the library.

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood
MaddAdam by Margaret Atwood
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood

The Tent by Margaret Atwood
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Carke by Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Librarian's Picks of the Month

Not sure what to read next? Take a look at our "Librarian's Picks" display where you'll find these and many more titles on display today:

The King's Mistress by Emma Campion
The King's Mistress by Emma Campion: (Historical Fiction)
A tale inspired by the life of Edward III's notorious mistress finds a young Alice dutifully marrying a dangerously secretive man and accepting royal protection while reluctantly participating in a strategically beneficial affair with the king to safeguard her family.

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira: (Historical Fiction)
Traveling to Civil War-era Washington, D.C. to tend wounded soldiers and pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon, headstrong midwife Mary receives guidance from two smitten doctors and resists her mother's pleas for her to return home.

Her: A Memoir by Christa Parravani
Her: A Memoir by Christa Parravani:(Autobiography)
After her identical twin sister, who, haunted by childhood experiences with father figures and further damaged by being raped as a young adult, succumbs to drugs and depression, the author, after reading a statistic that 50% of the time the surviving twin dies within two years, decides to beat the odds.

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks: (Romantic Suspense Fiction)
Coming into the possession of a photograph of a smiling woman he has never met, a man experiences a chain of fortuitous events that causes him to regard the photograph as a lucky charm, a belief that prompts a heartfelt search for the woman.

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak
The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak: (Historical Fiction)
A re-imagining of the early years of Catherine the Great traces the story of a naive German duchess as observed by young Barbara, a servant who watches her mistress's elevation and rises to become one of Russia's most clever royal spies.