Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: March 2011

Fish out of Agua: Reader Review

Fish out of agua : my life on neither side of the (subway) tracks by Michele Carlo

Rating: 5 out of 5 (excellent)

Review: Michelle writes about her experience being a red-haired, freckle-faced, Puerto-Rican and her life growing up in the Bronx. The book is written in Spanglish which I really enjoyed. I could also relate with many of her experiences. She went to NYCCC and so did I, she lived in the Bronx where my Aunt used to live, and she ate at La Carida - I've eaten there many times with my family in NYC. For those of us who live in two worlds - this is an excellent book and portrayal of many of the feelings we experience.

Reviewed by: e l

Digital Comic Museum

For all you nostalgia-fans out there, the Digital Comic Museum offers the chance to download free digital editions of classic comics from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Discover (or re-discover) such superheroes as Atoman and Captain Science, as well as adventure, mystery, and humor comics from the golden age of this genre. For something a little newer, take a look at the Community Library's new section of graphic novels for adults (near the newly-created corner area for 18-24 year-old patrons). Titles include such critically-acclaimed books as The Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Maus, and Persepolis, as well as modern popular favorites.

Winter Reading Club Update, Week 8 (final week!)

Congratulations; we've reached the end of our Winter Reading Club with a record total of 567 posted book reviews and 225 participants! Congratulations to the winner of Week Eight's prize basket, "Game Night," as well as our seven other weekly winners. If you didn't win during the Winter Reading Club, remember that Summer Reading Club is closer than you think! Thanks again to all who participated & made this program a success. For your browsing pleasure, here are some of the books that received excellent reviews in the winter reading club this week (click the covers to see the complete record & reserve your own copy):

Caught Reading: The Weird Sisters

Recently, there's been a lot of positive feedback at the staff desk about the newly-published book The Weird Sisters by debut author Eleanor Brown. Readers agree that it's a good, quick read about sisterhood, adulthood, destiny, and returning to the nest, all peppered with Shakespeare references that you don't need to be an English professor to understand. Here's the publisher's official summary: "The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home to care for their ailing mother, and to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from might offer more than they ever expected." Sound interesting? Reserve your copy today!

Info-Graphic: Books Everyone Should Read

The folks over at InformationIsBeautiful.net have combined recommended reading lists put out by various groups to create this interesting info-graphic showing "Books Everyone Should Read." How many have you read?

New Award Winner: Three Sisters

Three Sisters by Feiyu Bi has won the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize for Asian literature translated into English. The book is set in rural China during the Cultural Revolution and follows three of seven sisters as they struggle against their destinies. The author will receive a prize in the amount of $30,000, with each of the two translators receiving an additional $5,000. Check out this new award-winner today!

Book to Movie: Water for Elephants

Sarah Gruen's acclaimed novel Water for Elephants premieres as a movie in one month, on April 22, 2011. Read the book before you see the film; reserve a copy today! Already read it? Try one of Sara Gruen's three other novels: Ape House, Riding Lessons or Flying Changes. Or try other circus/carnival-themed stories, such as: The Blue Moon Circus, The Circus in Winter, or Metropolis.

Winter Reading Club Update, Week 7

Seven weeks into the Winter Reading Club and the website already has 340 posted book reviews! Congratulations to M.D. , who won Week Seven's prize basket, "Jump Jive and Java." Keep the entries coming; the next & final raffle prize is "Game Night" and the drawing for it will be held first thing on Monday, 3/28. Haven't joined the reading club? It's still not too late; sign up here or by calling the Adult Reference Desk at (631) 399-1511 x 240. All adult cardholders are welcome. For your browsing pleasure, here are some of the books that received excellent reviews in the winter reading club this week (click the covers to see the complete record & reserve your own copy):

New Releases: Week of March 21

Here's a selection of new books by major publishers being released this week:

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith is the newest No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novel.
All the Time in the World: New and Selected Stories by E.L. Doctorow is a collection of short fiction.
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson is the fourth investigation with PI Jackson Brodie.
Night Road by Kristin Hannah follows an orphan who meets new friends while living with her great-aunt near Seattle.
Breaking the Rules by Suzanne Brockmann is the 16th Troubleshooters novel.

Reserve your copy today!

A Rainbow of Books

This week, readers in the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library's Winter Reading Club reviewed two books with the same title by different authors: True Blue by Luanne Rice (about a second chance at love in rural Connecticut) and True Blue by David Baldacci (about a disgraced ex-cop's quest to redeem his good name). For your enjoyment, here is a rainbow assortment of other books with "colorful" titles:

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
Yellow: A Novel by Janni Visman
Little Green: A Novel by Loretta Stinson
Redemption in Indigo: A Novel by Karen Lord
Violet by Jane Feather

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda