Posts filed under 'General'
Warning! This is not a bedtime story.
So opens John Perry’s most dangerous picture book, The Book That Eats People. “One day in Little Rock, Arkansas, Sammy Ruskin forgot to wash his hands after lunch and the book tasted peanut butter on his fingers.” Over the top text is matched by Mark Fearing’s over the top, dark, collage illustrations of bug-eyed kids and adults being consumed by the book. The book disguises itself as a book about dolphins, oops, there goes innocent little Victoria Glassford. Have you ever heard a book burp? If you have young fans of Scieszka’s The True Story of the Three LIttle Pigs, or Emily Gravett’s Wolves, then this one should be a hit as well.
Don’t miss John Perry’s visits to the library. He’ll be at the Sequoya branch on July 26th at 1:00 p.m. and the Pinney branch on July 26th at 7:00 p.m. The events are free, and recommended for ages 6 & up.
July 21st, 2010
Karen - Sequoya
A recent technical glitch had our library blogs zooming forward several weeks in time, causing all sorts of functionality issues. If you’ve tried to post a comment in the last few days, or noticed anything odd in your feed reader, we apologize and thank you for your patience! All is restored to normal time now.
July 8th, 2010
Tana
If you like to be prepared, here’s your chance. These books have been optioned, are being cast or are in production to be new movies.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - reports are that Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen and Natalie Portman have been offered roles in the movie which makes it sound like a winner to me.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett - we reported this movie in the works earlier but now there is casting news - Bryce Dallas Howard, Viola Davis and Jessica Chastain have been cast
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich - Many fans were surprised to hear a couple of months ago that Katherine Heigl has been cast as Stephanie, now news is out that Jason O’Mara is going to play Morelli. It’ll be very interesting to see who they get for Ranger.
One Day by David Nicholls - this book is just now making its debut in the states but Anne Hathaway has already signed to star in the movie.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - Jude Law, Ben Kinglsey and Sasha Baron Cohen have all been cast in what is planned to be a 3-D movie simply called Hugo Cabret.
How about you? Have you heard any industry gossip? I’d love to hear about it.
July 2nd, 2010
Jane J. - Central Library
You can now register for the 13th Annual Friends of Madison Public Library Book Club Café, to be held at Olbrich Gardens on Wednesday, May 26 at 7 p.m. We are pleased to welcome Michelle Wildgen, author of two novels set in Madison: You’re Not You and But Not For Long. Wildgen lives in Madison, and attended the University of Wisconsin and Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She also writes about food, is a senior editor of Tin House magazine, and editor of an anthology, Food & Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast. Her work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, and O, the Oprah Magazine, as well as numerous anthologies and journals. Please visit the author’s website for more information.
See more information about the Book Club Café, including a list of previous Café authors.
March 26th, 2010
Tana
Save the date for the 2010 Book Club Café, to be held at Olbrich Gardens on Wednesday, May 26 at 7 p.m. We are pleased to welcome Michelle Wildgen, author of two novels set in Madison: You’re Not You and But Not For Long. Wildgen lives in Madison, and attended the University of Wisconsin and Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She also writes about food, is a senior editor of Tin House magazine, and editor of an anthology, Food & Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast. Her work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, and O, the Oprah Magazine, as well as numerous anthologies and journals. Please visit the author’s website for more information.
See more information about the Book Club Café, including previous Café authors. Sign up to receive registration information by email.
March 12th, 2010
Alicia - Lakeview
In one of the most anticipated and followed book contests of the year, United Kingdom based Bookseller magazine has announced its longlist for its 2009 Diagram Prize. Yet another list of books for the harried reader to consider, you ask? The beauty of the Diagram Prize is that the reader has to go no further than the cover: merit is awarded entirely on the oddity of title. Hence, books such as The Theory of Lengthwise Rolling, Versailles: The View From Sweden or The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification can finally get their due recognition.
The prize, the result of an especially boring afternoon at the Frankfurt Book Fair, was first claimed in 1978 by Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice. Since then, Bookseller has allowed the public to vote on the worthiest of titles. Not surprisingly, winners have skewed towards the somewhat suggestive–If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs took a whopping 30% of the vote in 2007. However, voters have given due to classics like Bombproof Your Horse and (my personal favorite) How to Avoid Huge Ships.
This year’s longlist includes a well-known bestseller, but the inclusion of such titles as The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin reminds that such humor is relative–and that there truly is a book for every reader. The Diagram’s award of a bottle of middling claret goes not to the author of the book, but to the original submittor. Alas, most titles are too specific to be included in LINKCat, but it is never too early to begin thinking of next year. Suggestions, anyone?
February 23rd, 2010
Katie H.
Readers like to read. That’s a fact. What’s also often true is that readers love to find someone who’s read the same book. Because, although readers are stereotyped as quiet, head-in-the-book folks, the fact is we love to talk about what we’ve read with other readers. Doesn’t matter if our fellow reader liked the book as much as we did (though we can hope) what matters is being able to talk about it.
At Madison Public Library we offer a variety of opportunities to talk about the books you’ve read. One of them is right here on MADreads of course. But the other biggie is our book groups. All of our locations offer monthly book groups and here’s just a sampling of what they’re talking about:
South Madison Branch - February 20 at 1:30 pm
–Reading: One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
Pinney Branch - February 24 at 7 pm
–Reading: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
Sequoya Sleuths - March 3 at 7 pm
–Reading: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
And there are many more which you can find here. All the groups are open to everyone. I know I’m always happy to see new faces at the mystery book group at Central (we’re reading Crossfire by P.M. Carlson next). If you haven’t joined one of our groups have you been to any recent book groups of your own? What books have generated great discussions? We’re always looking for suggestions.
February 19th, 2010
Jane J. - Central Library
Thanks to generous grants from the Madison Community Foundation (for the Monroe Street Branch) and the Madison Public Library Foundation (for the Pinney and Sequoya branches), the library now has a collection of Playaways. You might ask just what is a Playaway? It is a preloaded easy to play audiobook in a small case that will contain the entire unabridged book regardless of how long the text.
Although the start-up collections are relatively small, their content is as varied as MPL’s audiobook collection. For example there is foreign language instruction as well as many popular titles by authors like Michael Connelly. Also keep in mind that other libraries in the South Central system are purchasing them as well and all are searchable in the catalog.
Audiobook fans - who have not yet taken the plunge with an MP3 player - should find the Playaways to be a good substitute for books on cassette, a format that is now discontinued by most audio publishers. MPL will still maintain the cassette collection, but will not be adding new cassette titles as the technology advances.
Look for more Playways to be arriving at these three branches. The Madison Community Foundation will again donate funds to build the collection at Monroe Street. Holds may be placed on them and they can be picked up at other libraries as well.
January 14th, 2010
Mary K. - Central
The big news this year at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) was the explosion of ereader designs. Seemed everybody and their brother had a new reader to present to the market. For those of you new to the idea, these are the devices that have books loaded onto them for you to read. And with Christmas just past there are probably a fair number of you with new devices in hand. If that’s the case you might want to check out the free ebooks available for download to your reader through our Overdrive service.
Madison Public has had Overdrive for a few years, but up until a couple of months ago the items to be downloaded were primarily audio in nature (with a few videos thrown in). Now Overdrive includes digital ebooks - like Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked - for download to your ereader device - with the kicker being that it won’t work for the Kindle (proprietary software is the culprit here). If your ereader works with epub books then here’s your chance to download items for free with your library card. Perhaps not as flashy as that Electronics Show, but cool nonetheless.
January 11th, 2010
Jane J. - Central Library
In the last month we’ve posted some of the “best” lists of books of the year. And there is definitely enough on them to keep you reading for while. But when you’ve caught up, remember that Madison Public has lists all year round. Some of them are part of our categorized list of lists called Don’t MIss and might include things like: Nonfiction that Reads like Fiction, Women Sleuths, Tearjerkers and Thanks for the Memoirs. We also have monthly lists that can be emailed to you through our Bookletters service. These include everything from the latest mysteries to a Chapter a Day that emails you an audio clip reading of a chapter a day.
So if you’ve finished all those best lists, fear not. There are always more where those came from.
January 1st, 2010
Jane J. - Central Library
When I think of the best time of the year, I am not talking about the upcoming holidays, but instead the various lists of best books that come from multiple sources. Katharine’s review of Little Bee a few days ago brought Library Journal’s list of the Best Audiobooks of 2009 to my mind. All LJ audiobook reviewers contributed to this list and I concur with the choices. And for my own contribution to the list I would include Farm City, my personal favorite audiobook of this year.
This has been a banner year for audiobooks. It seems that there have been a lot of good choices. The Overdrive downloadable program also has really taken off and has made it a lot easier to listen to books on various devices - now including iPods!
Take a look at the Library Journal list and let me know what you think. Is one of your favorites missing?
December 22nd, 2009
Mary K. - Central
While some people like lists, and some don’t, I couldn’t resist Jane’s invitation to list my own favorites from the year. Just because I haven’t been posting, this doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading, so here are the top ten, in alphabetical order:
- Barthelme, Donald. Forty Stories. Shorter than Sixty Stories (reviewed here) and more fun.
- Bouldrey, Brian. Honorable Bandit: A Walk Across Corsica. A rollicking adventure in Corsica combined with a poignant memoir about the AIDS epidemic. Available from The University of Wisconsin Press.
- Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita. The devil, a giant talking cat, witches, and lots of other interesting characters in this book.
- Campbell, Bonnie Jo. American Salvage. Intensely realized stories of people living in rural poverty in Michigan. “The Inventor, 1972″ is particularly great.
- Chabon, Michael. Wonder Boys. Reviewed here.
- Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Very funny, somewhat sad, and a little bit hot. Flaubert’s characters are obsessed with sex and money, and here we are, 150 years later, obsessed with the same things.
- Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One-hundred Years of Solitude. Reading this book made me feel more alive.
- Kumin, Maxine. Still to Mow: Poems. A vital, relevant collection.
- Manguel, Alberto. The Library at Night. Reviewed here.
- Percy, Walker. The Moviegoer. A philosophical novel that never gets bogged down in ponderous ruminations.
December 10th, 2009
Jon - Central Library
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Warning! This is not a bedtime story.