2008 Book Club Schedule Available

The book club reading schedule has been set for 2008. Our first meeting of the year will be on Tuesday, January 15th at 11:00 am and we will discuss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Copies of the reading schedule are available at the library. Books are also available for checkout. Please join us in January as we start a new year of reading and discussing books.

Newest Oprah Selection

Oprah has chosen Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth as her newest book club selection. The Albemarle library does have a copy of the book available for checkout.

Coming to the Badin Branch Library

Local writers, Jim and Joyce Lavene are graciously donating their entire Sharyn Howard Mystery series to the Badin Library on Thursday, November 8th at 6:00 pm. Everyone is invited to come to the Badin Library and meet the Lavene's. Find out how Badin became the inspiration for Diamond Springs. Light refreshments will be served. The Badin Branch Library will be the only library in the Stanly County Public Library system to house the complete Sharyn Howard Series.

Fall Book Sale

PREVIEW SALE

For Friends Members

Thursday, October 25

5:00 - 8:00 pm

Memberships will be available at the door.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Friday, October 26

9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Saturday, October 27

9:00 am - 2:00 pm

Sponsored by the Friends of the Stanly County Public Library

Author Mark Ethridge

Last evening, author Mark Ethridge gave a wonderful talk about his book Grievances and the writing process, and a little bit about the newspaper business. At the end of the evening he mentioned that his grandmother, Willie Snow Ethridge, was also a published author. The library does have copies of two of her books, I Just Happen to Have some Pictures..., and You Can't Hardly Get There From Here.

Nobel Prize for Literature Announced Today

Doris Lessing, author of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic The Golden Notebook published in 1962, has won the Novel Prize for Literature. Eleven days short of her 88th birthday, Lessing is the oldest choice ever for the prize and is the second British writer to win the prize since 2005, when Harold Pinter received the award. Last year, the academy gave the prize to Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk.

The library has two of her books available:
a biography, Under My Skin
and a novel, Ben, in the World : the Sequel to the Fifth Child

Oprah Picks New Book Today

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the newest selection in Oprah's book club. The Stanly County Public Library does have copies of the book for checkout.


From Publishers Weekly:


The ironic vision and luminous evocation of South America that have distinguished Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning fiction since his landmark work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, persist in this turn-of-the-century chronicle of a unique love triangle. It is a fully mature novel in scope and perspective, flawlessly translated, as rich in ideas as in humanity. The illustrious and meticulous Dr. Juvenal Urbino and his proud, stately wife Fermina Daza, respectively past 80 and 70, are in the autumn of their solid marriage as the drama opens on the suicide of the doctor's chess partner. Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, a disabled photographer of children, chooses death over the indignities of old age, revealing in a letter a clandestine love affair, on the "fringes of a closed society's prejudices." This scenario not only heralds Urbino's demise soon afterwhen he falls out of a mango tree in an attempt to catch an escaped parrotbut brilliantly presages the novel's central themes, which are as concerned with the renewing capacity of age as with an anatomy of love. We meet Florentino Ariza, more antihero than hero, a mock Don Juan with an undertaker's demeanor, at once pathetic, grotesque and endearing, when he seizes the memorably unseemly occasion of Urbino's funeral to reiterate to Fermina the vow of love he first uttered more than 50 years before. With the fine detailing of a Victorian novel, the narrative plunges backward in time to reenact their earlier, youthful courtship of furtive letters and glances, frustrated when Fermina, in the light of awaking maturity, realizes Florentino is an adolescent obsession, and rejects him. With his uncanny ability to unearth the extraordinary in the commonplace, Garcia Marquez smoothly interweaves Fermina's and Florentino's subsequent histories. Enmeshed in a bizarre string of affairs with ill-fated widows while vicariously conducting the liaisons of others via love poems composed on request, Florentino feverishly tries to fill the void of his unrequited passion. Meanwhile, Fermina's marriage suffers vicissitudes but endures, affirming that marital love can be as much the product of art as is romantic love. When circumstances both comic and mystical offer Fermina and Florentino a second chance, during a time in their lives that is often regarded as promising only inevitable degeneration toward death, Garcia Marquez beautifully reveals true love's soil not in the convention of marriage but in the simple, timeless rituals that are its cement.

October is National Reading Group Month

Celebrate National Reading Group Month by joining a local book club. The Stanly County Public Library system has three ongoing book clubs that welcome new members:

• The Albemarle book club will meet on Tuesday, October 16th at 11:00 am to discuss Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
• The Locust book club will meet on Friday, October 19th at noon to discuss Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard.
• The Norwood book club will meet on Tuesday the 8th at 6:30 pm.

If you already belong to a book club, take time this month to celebrate your accomplishments as a club. Share with all of your friends how wonderful book clubs are, and encourage them to join your book club or one that meets at the library.

New York Times Best Selling Fiction

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini


2. The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child


3. Dark Possession by Christine Feehan


4. Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs


5. The Elves of Cintra by Terry Brooks


6. Play Dirty by Sandra Brown


7. The Quickie by James Patterson


8. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon


9. Away by Amy Bloom


10. Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson


11. Power Play by Joseph finder


12. The Sanctuary by Raymond Khoury


13. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan


14. Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson


15. The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva

Noted titles:

Songs Without Words by Ann Packer

Area Author Events

There are a lot of author events happening this fall in our region. I hope everyone gets the chance to attend one, or more, of these events.

An Evening with John Hart, author of King of Lies, will be speaking at the Historic Salisbury Station on Sunday, September 30 from 5:30-8:00 PM. A copy of his second novel, Down River, will be given to each person who attends. Reservations can be made by contacting The LandTrust at 70-647-0302.

A Conversation with Sue Monk Kidd will be held at the Salem Fine Arts Center, Salem College on Tuesday, October 2 at 7:00 pm. General admission, which includes dessert reception, is $22. For tickets call: 336-721-2855.

Kathy Reichs, Forensic Anthropologist and best-selling author, and Dr. James Tabor, scholar on the times of Jesus, will present Dead Bones Talk & Silent Stones Speak: Solving Mysteries with Forensic Science and Archaeology on Tuesday, October 9:00 at 8:00 pm at the Anne R, Belk Theater at Robinson Hall, UNC. Tickets are $15 for the general public and can be purchase by calling 704-687-2599.

The Friends of the Stanly County Public Library present Mark Ethridge, author of Grievances at their annual author dinner. The event will be held on Thursday, October 11 at 6:30 pm at Stanly Regional Medical Center's Family and Education Center. Tickets are $12 for Friends members and $15 for non-members and can be purchased at the Albemarle Library.

Remembering 9/11 in Fiction

The library has the following novels written around 9/11:

The Falling Man by Don DeLillo

Extremely Loud and Incredible Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Zero by Jess Walter

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus

52 Ways to Use Your Library Card

(for each week of the year)

1. Get to know your librarian, the ultimate search engine @ your library.


2. Update your MySpace page.


3. Research new job opportunities.


4. Find a list of childcare centers in your area.


5. Learn about local candidates for office.


6. Pick up voter registration information.


7. Check out your favorite graphic novel.


8. Pick up a DVD.


9. Get wireless access.


10. Participate in a community forum.


11. Find out how to navigate the Internet.


12. Prepare your resume.


13. Get new ideas for redecorating your house.


14. Get a list of community organizations.


15. Attend a lecture or workshop.


16. Hear a local author reading his/her latest novel.


17. Join a book discussion group.


18. Attend story time with your child.


19. Get homework help.


20. Look up all kinds of health information.


21. Research the purchase of a new car.


22. Trek to another planet in a sci-fi novel.


23. Call the reference desk if you have a question.


24. Research your term paper.


25. Learn about the history of your city, town, or family.


26. Decide which computer to buy using a Consumer Guide.


27. Check your stock portfolio.


28. Read a newspaper from another town.


29. Borrow or download an audiobook for your next road trip or commute.


30. Use the library's resources to start a small business.


31. See a children's art exhibit.


32. Volunteer.


33. Find a new recipe.


34. Ask for a recommended reading list for your kids.


35. Make photocopies.


36. Get a book from interlibrary loan.


37. Enroll your child in a summer reading program.


38. Take a computer class.


39. Hear a poetry reading.


40. Read the latest fashion magazines.


41. Check out a book.


42. Trace your family tree.


43. Check out a special collection of rare books.


44. Check out a legal question or issue.


45. Find out how to file a consumer complaint.


46. Learn about home improvement.


47. Borrow some sheet music.


48. Lear how to use a database or computerized catalog.


49. Find the latest romance paperback.


50. Pick up tax forms.


51. Connect with other people in the community.


52. Find a quiet spot, curl up with a book and enjoy.

"It's a Mystery" with Jim and Joyce Lavene

Local authors Jim and Joyce Lavene will be at the Stanly County Public Library on Thursday, September 13th from 6:30-7:30. They have had several books published this year, and will discuss how they write their mysteries. The Sharon Howard Mystery series is set in a fictional Badin and feature the local sheriff. If you like gardening, they also have the Peggy Lee Garden Mystery series that your knowledge of deadly plants could help you figure out who done it. Their newest series starts with Swapping Paint and is about race car driving.

We will have several copies of their books for a door prize drawing.

U.S. Poet Laureate Named

Charles Simic, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet has been named the U.S. Poet Laureate. The library has a copy of The Voice at 3:00 A.M.: Selected Late and New Poems published in 2003.

Book Club Sets Reading List

The Locust Branch Library Book Club has set their discussion list for the next six months. This lively group meets at the Locust Library on the 3rd Friday of each month at noon. Copies of the books are available for checkout, and they would love to see some new faces.

Here is what they will be discussing:

• August - The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards
• September - Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg
• October - Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard
• November - Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• December - Gideon's Gift by Karen Kingsbury
• January - Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Anthony Award Nominees

The Anthony Award Nominations for best mysteries have been announced. Finalists will be announced in September.

Best Novel:
All Mortal Flesh, Julia Spencer-Fleming, St. Martins
The Dead Hour, Denise Mina, Little Brown & Co.
Kidnapped, Jan Burke, Simon & Schuster
No Good Deeds, Laura Lippman, Harper
The Virgin Of Small Plains, Nancy Pickard, Ballantine

Best First Novel:
Field Of Darkness, Cornelia Read, Mysterious Press
The Harrowing, Alexandra Sokoloff, St. Martin’s
Holmes On The Range, Steve Hockensmith, St. Martins
The King Of Lies, John Hart, St. Martin’s
Still Life, Louise Penny, St. Martin’s

The library does have copies of all of these titles - stop by and check one out. Please leave us a comment if you read one, or more, of these nominated books and let us know if you think it deserves to win.

Volunteers Needed!

The Stanly County Public Library is looking for volunteers to deliver books and other materials to people who are home bound due to illness, disability or lack of transportation. The volunteers will work with library staff to select, check out and deliver library materials to home bound patrons on an agreed-to schedule. Volunteers are needed in all areas of the county.

Benefits of Volunteering

• 
  
  Satisfaction in providing a much needed and appreciated community service.


• 
  
  Annual service recognition.


• 
  
  Valuable and meaningful use of your free time.


• 
  
  Develop new social skills.

To get more information or sign up, please contact Melanie Holles, the Outreach Services Librarian, at 704-986-3761.

Here's Your Chance to WIN a Free Book!

I recently received a free paperback copy of The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard from the publisher, Ballantine Books. The book was originally published in a hardback edition in 2006. The trade paperback edition has just been released.

I wasn't going to read the book because it's a mystery type book and it's set in Kansas. But I'm looking for good books for my book club to read and discuss next year, so I thought I would at least try this one. If you've had a chance to talk with me about books, you'll know that I don't like mysteries; and having lived in Kansas, I sure don't need to read books about it. But I loved this book! I actually had to stop myself from reading one night because I wasn't ready for it to end.

The novel is set in a fictional small town by Emporia, Kansas (where I went to graduate school). I had to keep reading to find out who the Virgin was that was buried in the cemetery (and causing miracles), and I had to find out who knew what and who killed her. The ending was very satisfying - not a happy ending like a romance novel - but all the bad guys are dealt with and the characters I liked all had closure.

I plan to suggest to my book club that we read and discuss this book next year. But I'm still looking for other great books for my club to read. If you'd like to win my free publisher copy of this book, please leave me a comment with a suggestion for other great books my book club might enjoy. I'll draw a name from all the comments on July 28th and send them the book.

Author Read-Alike: Jennifer Crusie

Romantic comedy best describes Crusie's stories, and by introducing elements of mystery and suspense, she broadens her appeal. These are fast-paced, upbeat, heartwarming, humorous stories that address issues in human relationships - among lovers, families, and friends. Snappy dialog, steamy sex, and amusing dogs are all part of the package, as is the usually urban but definitely Midwestern setting and feel. To get a feel for Crusie's trademark humor and racy romance, try Welcome to Temptation.

Fellow Midwestern romance writer Susan Elizabeth Phillips shares many qualities with Crusie: spunky heroines with modern values, strong but vulnerable heroes, humor in characters and situations, snappy dialog, and an emphasis on the relationships among characters. Try her first hardcover title, This Heart of Mine.

Millie Criswell makes another good suggestion for Crusie readers. Criswell's books are also Midwestern in setting, humorous, and feature quirky characters. Recipes are an added draw. The Trouble With Mary is the first of her series of linked titles.

Although Janet Evanovich comes immediately to mind as a similar author, other mystery writers might appeal equally. Gillian Roberts writes with similar verve, combing humor with more serious issues and romantic interest. Sarah Shankman writes outrageously humorous, even bizarre romantic mysteries.

Mary Kay Andrews debut novel, Savannah Blues, stars a sassy heroine and includes a steamy southern setting and romance, irreverent humor, and antique lore. Not to mention a dog.

I hope everyone enjoys these suggestions from Joyce Saricks, author of Reader's Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, and regular contributor to NoveList.

Best Crime Novels

I wanted to share with you a great list of the "Best Crime Novels" as compiled by Book List magazine. All the "*" titles are available in the Stanly County Public Library system. Use the link to the right to connect to the library online Public Access Catalog to place a reserve on any of the titles you are interested in. The titles we don't currently have will be ordered, so watch for them.

The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees

*Echo Park by Michael Connelly

*Free Fire by C.J. Box

*The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst

*The Limehouse Text by Will Thomas

The Meaning of the Night: A Confession by Michael Cox

*Vicious Circle by Robert Littell

*Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

*The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

*The Zero by Jess Walter

And if none of the "best" books sparked your interest, then maybe one of these titles by rising stars will.

*Codex by Lev Grossman
*Still Life by Louise Penny
*Speak of the Devil by Richard Hawke
*Blood of Angels and The Last Goodbye by Reed Arvin
*The Sweet and the Dead by Milton T. Burton
*Sliver of Truth and Dead at Daybreak by Deon Meyer
*The Smoke by Tony Broadbent