(some of the) Best Books of 2011

It’s that time of year…no, I don’t mean the holiday season.  It’s the time of year for the “Best Books of the Year” lists.  There’s  Amazon, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, among others, already weighing in with what their editors believe are the most important and enjoyable books published during 2011.

Here is a sampling of some of books that are already being considered as the most noteworthy of 2011:

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht (fiction)

Struggling to understand why her beloved grandfather left his family to die alone in a field hospital far from home, a young doctor in a war-torn Balkan country takes over her grandfather’s search for a mythical ageless vagabond while referring to a worn copy of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (fiction)

A baseball star at a small college near Lake Michigan launches a routine throw that goes disastrously off course and inadvertently changes the lives of five people, including the college president, a gay teammate and the president’s daughter.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (fiction)

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.  A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (non-fiction)

Based on more than 40 interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors and colleagues–the author offers a fascinating look at the co-founder and leading creative force behind the Apple computer company.

Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (non-fiction)

The chef of New York’s East Village Prune restaurant presents an account of her search for meaning and purpose in the central rural New Jersey home of her youth, marked by a first chicken kill, an international backpacking tour, and the opening of a first restaurant.

Don’t forget to look for the “Best Books of 2011″ display located on the main floor when visiting the library during December.

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

Civil War Sesquicentennial

Throughout the early days and months of 1861 the Southern States had been seceding from the Union. But it was on April 12, 1861 that the country fell into Civil War. On that day, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

This year we commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. The National Parks Service offers  timelines, events at national parks and a database of the names of more than 6 million servicemen who fought on both sides in the war. The NPS site even has a fictional reporter named Beglan O’Brien relating day-by-day accounts of the war.

If you are interested in the causes of the war check out Apostles of Disunion by Charles Dew,  Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston and the Beginning of the Civil War by David Detzer,  Lincoln President-elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter by Harold Holzer,  Why the Civil War Came edited by Gabor Boritt, Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought On the Civil War by  Douglas R. Egerton.

 

 

 

 

If reading about these battles sparks an interest in seeing the battlefields for yourself, check out some of the travel books Syosset Library has to help you in planning your trip:

• Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields
• Insiders’ Guide to Civil War Sites in the Eastern Theater
• Insiders’ Guide to Civil War Sites in the  Southern States
• The Smithsonian’s Great Battles and Battlefields of the Civil War

-posted by Brenda, Reference Services

What we’re reading now…

One of the great conversation starter questions has always been “Read any good books lately?”   R & R decided to ask the Syosset library staff about the books they are reading right now.  Below are some of the answers to that question.  Whether the books turned out to be good or not, well, you’ll have to ask the readers when you see them around the library.

Evelyn Hershkowitz, Librarian Trainee, is reading “The Passage” by Justin Cronin:

“First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.”- from the publisher.

Karen Leibman, Assistant Library Director, is reading “The Cookbook Collector” by Allegra Goodman:

“Emily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore.  Emily’s boyfriend, Jonathan, is fantastically successful. Jess’s boyfriends, not so much. When Emily confides her company’s new secret project to Jonathan as a proof of her love, the stage is set for issues of loyalty and trust, greed, and the allure of power.” – from the publisher.

Pam Martin, Head of Programming, is reading “The Invisible Bridge” by Julie Orringer:

“Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian-Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné. As he falls into a complicated relationship with the letter’s recipient, he becomes privy to a secret history that will alter the course of his own life. Meanwhile, Europe’s unfolding tragedy sends the lives of Andras and his two brothers into terrifying uncertainty.” – from the publisher

Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk, is reading “Leaving the World” by Douglas Kennedy:

“Jane Howard is a professor in Boston, in love with a brilliant, erratic man named Theo, and she becomes pregnant. Motherhood turns out to be a great welcome surprise–but when a devastating turn of events tears her existence apart she has no choice but to flee all she knows and leave the world. The disappearance of a young girl pulls her back from the edge and into an obsessive search for some sort of personal redemption. ” from the SPL catalog.

Neela Vass, Acquisitions Supervisor, is reading “No Way Down: Life and Death on K2″ by Graham Bowley (non-fiction):

“K2—the world’s second-highest mountain,has lured serious climbers for decades.  In 2008, near the end of a brief climbing season cut even shorter by bad weather, no fewer than ten international teams—some experienced, others less prepared—crowded the mountain’s dangerous slopes with their Sherpas and porters, waiting to ascend.  Finally, on August 1, they were able to set off. But hindered by poor judgment, lack of equipment, and overcrowded conditions, the last group did not summit until nearly 8 p.m., hours later than planned. Then disaster struck …” (from the publisher).

Jill Jacobson, Readers Service Librarian, is reading “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America” by Erik Larson (non-fiction):

“Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life”, this book  “intertwines the true tale of two men–the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World’s Fair, striving to secure America?s place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death.” – from the publisher

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services