Summer Reading 2012: New Books

The news website PolicyMic has a great post by Sarah Swong, a freshman at Yale University, about new must-read books this summer. Her selections are an interesting combination of fiction and non-fiction books, and her descriptions compelling and concise. Most of the books are available now although a few are soon to be published. A list of her selections is below along with links to their records in the Minuteman Catalog. You can read the full post on PolicyMic, an interesting social networking online news platform with articles by a wide variety of authors.

Home by Toni Morrison

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey

Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa – released on June 5

The Red House by Mark Haddon – released on June 12

Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & daughter Samantha van Leer – released on June 26

NW by Zadie Smith – released on September 4

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

A Wedding in Haiti by Julia Alvarez

A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for the Restless and the Hopeful by Gideon Lewis-Kraus

Architecture Inspired by Literature

Flavorwire recently published an article entitled, “10 Beautiful Buildings Inspired by Famous Books”. The article describes buildings with designs inspired by a piece of literature or writer. The pictures of the buildings are incredibly beautiful and look like fabulous places to visit! Several are located in New England.Links to the catalog records of some of the books mentioned in the article are below.

Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence

Franz Kafka, The Castle

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Wilhelm Hauff, Lichtenstein

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

Writings of Knut Hamsun

Poetry of Luis Cernuda

Books for Young Adults

Every year the American Library Association names the Alex Awards, the 10 best books published in the previous year written for adults with a special appeal to readers ages 12-18.

“The 2012 Alex Awards will take readers from rural New Hampshire to the robot apocalypse to Katrina-ravaged Mississippi to a magical circus. The Alex Award winners are as diverse and eclectic as the teens who will read them,” said Karen Keys, chair of the 2012 Alex Awards Committee.”

2012 Winners:

Big Girl Small, by Rachel DeWoskin, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

In Zanesville, by Jo Ann Beard, published by Little, Brown & Company

 The Lover’s Dictionary, by David Levithan, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (ISBN: 9780374193683)

The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens, by Brooke Hauser, published by Free Press

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, published by Doubleday

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, published by Crown Publishers

Robopocalypse: A Novel, by Daniel H. Wilson, published by Doubleday

Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward, published by Bloomsbury USA

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures, by Caroline Preston, published by Ecco

The Talk-Funny Girl, by Roland Merullo, published by Crown Publishers

2012 Notable Children’s Books

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced its 2012 list of Notable Children’s Books in March. The list is divided into four categories: younger readers, middle readers, older readers, and all ages. The books are judged to be of “special interest, quality, creativity and value to children 14 years of age and younger.” A selection of the titles are listed below along with links to the Minuteman Library Network with a full annotated list of the selected books is located on ALA’s website.

Younger

All the Water in the World. By George Ella Lyon, Illus. by Katherine Tillotson, Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

A Ball for Daisy. By Chris Raschka, Illus. by the author, Schwartz & Wade Books.

See Me Run. By Paul Meisel, Illus. by the author. Holiday House.

Tales for Very Picky Eaters. By Josh Schneider, Illus. by the author, Clarion Books.

Me…Jane. By Patrick McDonnell, Illus. by the author. Little, Brown.

Middle

Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade. By Melissa Sweet, Illus. by the author. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.

Breaking Stalin’s Nose. By Eugene Yelchin, Illus. by the author, Henry Holt.

The Great Migration: Journey to the North. By Eloise Greenfield, Illus. by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. HarperCollins Children’s Books/Amistad.

Inside Out and Back Again. By Thanhha Lai. HarperCollins.

The Lily Pond. By Annika Thor. Trans. by Linda Schenck. Delacorte Press.

Soldier Bear. By Bibi Dumon Tak, Illus. by Philip Hopman. Trans. by Laura Watkinson. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

Underground. By Shane Evans, Illus. by Shane Evans. Roaring Brook Press.

Older

Between Shades of Gray. By Ruta Sepetys. Philomel Books.

Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition. By Karen Blumenthal. Roaring Brook Press.

Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck. By Margarita Engle. Henry Holt.

Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein. By Susan Goldman Rubin. Charlesbridge.

The Scorpio Races. By Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic Press.

Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. By Rosalyn Schanzer, Illus. by the author. National Geographic Society.

All Ages

Can We Save the Tiger?, By Martin Jenkins, Illus. by Vicky White. Candlewick Press.

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans. By Kadir Nelson, Illus. by the author. Balzer + Bray.

Never Forgotten. By Patricia McKissack, Illus. by Leo and Diane Dillon. Schwartz & Wade Books.

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature. By Joyce Sidman, Illus. by Beth Krommes. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Earth Day 2012

Acadia National Park – http://www.nps.gov

April 22, 2012 is the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day. Many consider the founding of Earth Day in 1970 as marking the beginning of the environmental movement, it is celebrated every year to bring environmental issues into the forefront.  On the eve of Earth Day, Orion Magazine announces the finalists for its Book Award which is “given annually to a book that addresses the human relationship with the natural world in a fresh, thought provoking, and engaging manner.” Newton library subscribes to Orion and has issues available in the periodical section on the first floor. Orion’s mission is to inform, inspire, and engage individuals and grassroots organizations in becoming a significant cultural force for healing nature and community. The finalists are listed below along with links to their catalog records in the Minuteman Library Catalog.

Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors (Ecco)

The author discusses his time spent ten thousand feet above ground as a fire lookout in a remote part of New Mexico, a job where he witnessed some of the most amazing phenomena nature has to offer.

Oil on Water by Helon Habila (W.W. Norton & Co.)

In the oil-rich and environmentally devastated Nigerian Delta, the wife of a British oil executive has been kidnapped. Two journalists-a young upstart, Rufus, and a once-great, now disillusioned veteran, Zaq-are sent to find her. In a story rich with atmosphere and taut with suspense, Oil on Water explores the conflict between idealism and cynical disillusionment in a journey full of danger and unintended consequences.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Vintage)

Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, Karen Russell has written an utterly singular novel about a family’s struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking. An arrestingly beautiful and inventive work from a vibrant new voice in fiction.

The View from Lazy Point by Carl Safina (Picador)

Beginning in his kayak in his home waters of eastern Long Island, Carl Safina’s The View from Lazy Point takes us through the four seasons to the four points of the compass, from the high Arctic south to Antarctica, across the warm belly of the tropics from the Caribbean to the west Pacific, then home again.

Raising Elijah: Raising our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis by Sandra Steingraber (De Capo)

Biologist and poet Steingraber has written previous books for general readers, approaching environmental issues from the perspective of family relationships: Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood and Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment. Here, she offers a conversational memoir about the environmental threats our children face. Each chapter focuses on one of the universals of childhood, such as milk, pizza, and homework, and explores the hidden social, political, and historical forces behind it.

2012 Pultizer Prize Winners: Letters, Drama and Music

The winners of the Pulitzer Prize were announced on April 16th, 2012. To the surprise of many, no award was given in the fiction category. Links to a selection of recent news articles published about the decision not to choose a winner from the 3 finalists (Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Alfred A. Knopf); and The Pale King by the late David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown and Company)) are listed below along with the complete listing of winners in the Letters, Drama, and Music categories.

Fiction: No Award

New York Times, News: Publishing Is Cranky Over Snub by Pulitzers By Julie Bosman

New York Times, Opinion: And the Winner Isn’t … By Ann Patchett

Huffington Post: And the Winner Is — Nobody by Joel Conarroe

The Economist Blog: The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – Nobody wins

Drama

Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes

History

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by the late Manning Marable

Biography or Autobiography

George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis (The Penguin Press)

Poetry

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf Press)

General Nonfiction

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (W.W. Norton & Company)

Music

Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts by Kevin Puts (Aperto Press)

New spring poetry books to celebrate National Poetry Month

In celebration of National Poetry Month in April poets.org put together a list of new spring poetry books. A few are listed below with links to the Minuteman Library Catalog. The full list can be viewed HERE along with several other programs dedicated to Poetry Month.

 

 

 

 

Almost Invisible by Mark Strand

Apocalyptic Swing : Poems by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

Collected Poems by C.P. Cavafy

Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert

The Shout: Selected Poems by Simon Armitage

This Morning: Poems by Michael Ryan

Top Ten Tuesday book lists

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by the contributors to the blog The Broke and the Bookish. Every week a variety of bloggers publish a book list about a different theme and post links to their lists on The Broke and the Bookish. The meme has a large number of devoted followers who create lists that reflect their diverse reading interests and personalities, all the posts are worth exploring. The meme is also a great place to find links to blogs created by and for avid readers that are worth following on a regular basis. The theme for this week, March 20th, was “Books on my Spring To Be Read List”.  A complete list of past and future meme themes can be located by clicking HERE. Enjoy!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

National Book Critic Circle Award Winners Announced

The winners of the National Book Critic Circle (NBCC) Awards for the 2011 publishing year were announced on Thursday March 8th, 2011. Descriptions of the winners by the NBCC are below along with links to their records in the Minuteman Catalog.

Fiction

Edith Pearlman – “Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories (Lookout Books), a collection of 34 Chekhov-like short stories that was also nominated for the National Book Award. The publication is the first from Lookout Books and a triumph for Pearlman’s distinctive storytelling, bringing it to a larger audience.”

Nonfiction

Maya Jasanoff – “Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (Knopf), a book of fresh, original, and sprightly scholarship, by Harvard professor of British history Jasanoff, acknowledging colonists’ response to Loyalists during the Revolutionary War and the consequences for Britain’s entire empire thereafter.”

Biography

John Lewis Gaddis – “George F. Kennan: An American Life (Penguin Press), a book that brings alive the remarkable American statesman while also delivering a profound understanding of U.S. foreign policy in the 20th-century.”

 

Poetry

Laura Kasischke – “Space, in Chains (Copper Canyon Press), a formally inventive work that speaks to the horrors and delights of ordinary life in an utterly original way.”

 

 

Autobiography

Mira Bartók – “The Memory Palace: A Memoir (Free Press), a book that rose to the formal challenge of blending her mother’s journals, reflections on her mother’s mental illness and subsequent homelessness, and thoughts on her own recovery from a head injury to create a heartfelt yet respectful work of art.”

Criticism

“Geoff Dyer – Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews (Graywolf Press), celebrating critic par excellence who showed his love of his various subject in tour-de-force language.”

 

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing – Kathryn Schulz

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award – Roberts B. Silvers of the New York Review of Books

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature. It was founded in 1974 to encourage and raise the quality of book criticism in all media and to create a way for critics to communicate with one another about their professional concerns. It consists of about 600 active book reviewers.

The Book Report Network

The Book Report Network is a company that provides an extensive and diverse set of book reviews. The mission of the Book Report Network is “to solve these reader dilemmas, with thoughtful book reviews, compelling features, in-depth author profiles and interviews, excerpts of the hottest new releases, contests and more every week.” The Network’s main site is the Bookreporter but their reviews are also organized by genre and reader type on a series of other websites. Links to several of their unique sites are below.

20SomethingReads.com  “Created for readers in their twenties, which we define as, ‘A decade. A state of mind. An age. A lifestyle. A time for self-discovery. A new perspective. An attitude. A philosophy. Independence. Freedom. A time to re-discover reading for pleasure – and FINALLY – read what you want.’ It is a place “where readers, writers, booksellers, librarians and twentysomething bibliophiles share the books they’re reading and the books they suggest you read as well. Before you come into your twenties most reading was by assignment for school with short stints for reading for pleasure, thus this is a time to broaden reading horizons and discover and explore books in a whole new way.”

Teenreads Created for teens, this website reviews young adult literature. One really unique feature is the Ultimate Teen Reading List. The Book Report Network describes this list as “over 400 titles that we believe are perfect choices for reading and discussing. Our dream is that schools will use this list to help them make their own for summer reading or, even better, suggest that students just read what they want from this list. How did we create our list? Titles range from young adult books to adult books that we think would be enjoyed by teens.”

Kidsreads Designed “for kids to find info about their favorite books, series and authors. Reviews of the newest titles, interviews with the coolest authors and special features on great books are our specialties.”

ReadingGroupGuides Provides book group suggestions and reading and discussion guides for a wide variety of selections.