Haven’t read Agatha Christie yet?

Haven’t read Agatha Christie yet? 

Try one of these … as suggested by the Staff members of Syosset Public Library.

Throughout the month of March, the Syosset Public Library Readers’ Services Department will be honoring Agatha Christie, Queen of the Mystery Fiction genre.  Along with programs and displays, staff members have been recommending their favorite Agatha Christie titles and we would like to share them with all of you as well.  Having published an extraordinary amount of titles in her lifetime, choosing the right book might prove a bit overwhelming.  We’re here to help by narrowing down your choices to our top picks. 

The Secret Adversary (1922)

“Investigating the case of a woman who has been missing for five years, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford uncover just enough information to solve the mystery and put their own lives in jeopardy.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Brenda, Reference Librarian

Series: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford Mysteries, Book #1

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  (1926)

“A murder in a small English village leads Hercule Poirot into a strange mystery involving a determined, curious spinster, the local doctor, and a wide range of suspects with possible motives and mysterious relationships,” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian & Sue Ann, Head of Children’s Services

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book #3

Murder on the Orient Express (1933)

“On a three-day journey through the snowbound Balkan hills, Hercule Poirot must weed through an array of international suspects to find the passenger who murdered a gangster on the Orient Express.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Karen, Library Director, Audrey, Library Clerk,  Rosemarie, Librarian Trainee, Brenda, Reference Librarian & Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book #8

The ABC Murders (1936)

“Hercule Poirot’s mastery of detective skills is tested by a mysterious correspondent who predicts and then executes alphabetical murders.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book # 11

Death on the Nile (1937)

“Linnet Doyle is young, beautiful, and rich. She’s the girl who has everything–including the man her best friend loves. When Linnet and her new husband take a cruise on the Nile, they meet brilliant detective Hercule Poirot. It should be an idyllic trip, yet Poirot feels that something is amiss.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Lisa J., Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book # 15

And Then There Were None (1939)

“A killer stalks ten strangers on an isolated island off the Devon coast, in a suspenseful story of murder and retribution set to a sinister nursery rhyme.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Jackie, Head of Readers’ Services, Stacey, Readers’ Services Librarian Trainee & Sue Ann, Head of Children’s Services

*Alternate Title: Ten Little Indians

The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side (1962)

“Famous film actress Marina Gregg witnesses a murder in her country home, and Miss Marple agrees to investigate.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

Series: Jane Marple Murder Mysteries, Book #13

Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1975)

“Arthritic and immobilized, Hercule Poirot takes up his last case, relying on his old friend Captain Hastings to be his eyes and ears as he hunts down the slipperiest criminal of his career.” (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Sue Ann, Head of Children’s Services & Brenda, Reference Librarian

Series: Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book #34

Prefer to read her series in order? 

See a Readers’ Services Librarian for a printed list.  Enjoy …

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Title Swap with Librarians

Please join us on

Tuesday, September 4th at 1:30 PM.

Share tea, coffee and cookies, as well as your favorite titles with the Readers’ Services staff of the Syosset Public Library.  Join librarians Jackie Ranaldo, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Lisa Jones and Ralph Guiteau for a fun hour of sharing the titles of our favorite books.

Looking for something particular?  Mystery? Literary Fiction?  Your next book club pick?  Ask the group … we promise you’ll leave with a great fall reading list.  Not able to make the program?  No worries.  A list of the discussed titles will be left at each public service desk.  They will also be made available online on the Books and Reading section of our webpage.  We will be meeting on the 2nd floor right in front of our cozy fireplace.   Can’t wait until September for a recommendation?  Check out the past title swap lists on our website.

We look forward to seeing you there!  

This program is free and no registration is required.

Non-Syosset residents are welcome.

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Title Swap With Librarians

Please join us on Monday, June 4th at 1:30 PM for a

Share tea, coffee and cookies, as well as your favorite titles with the Readers’ Services staff of the Syosset Public Library.  Join librarians Lisa Caputo, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Lisa Jones and Jackie Ranaldo for a fun hour of sharing the titles of our favorite books.

Looking for something particular?  Historical Fiction? Romance?  Your next book club pick?  Ask the group … we promise you’ll leave with a great summer reading list.  Not able to make the program?  No worries.  A list of the discussed titles will be left at each public service desk.  They will also be made available online on the Books and Reading section of our webpage.  We will be meeting on the 2nd floor right in front of our cozy fireplace.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This program is free and no registration is required. 

Non-Syosset residents are welcome.

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Title Swap With Librarians

Please join us on Tuesday, March 6th at 1:30 PM for a

Title Swap with the Librarians

Share tea, coffee and cookies, as well as your favorite titles with our Readers’ Services staff.  Join librarians Ralph Guiteau, Lisa Jones, Evelyn Hershkowitz and Jackie Ranaldo for a fun hour of sharing the titles of our favorite books.

Looking for your next book club pick?  Trying to find a new mystery writer?  Or maybe you want something fun and light to read?  Ask the group … we promise you’ll leave with a list of great reads.  Not able to make the program?  No worries.  A list of the discussed titles will be left at each public service desk.  They will also be made available online on the Reader’s Corner section of our webpage.  We will be meeting on the 2nd floor right in front of our cozy fireplace.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This program is free and no registration is required.

Non-Syosset residents are welcome.

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Not What I Expected: Books That Fell Short

One of the great pleasures in life is settling down in a comfortable seat with a book that you have been looking forward to reading.  More often than not, you have chosen well and an enjoyable reading experience results.  But every once in a while a book does not live up to the expectations engendered by glowing reviews or tremendous word of mouth.   This can leave you feeling disappointed and irritated, sometimes even a little bit angry.  Our staff shares some of the books that fell short:

Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

After he crashes his plane into Lake Champlain, killing most of the passengers, Chip Linton moves into a new home with his wife and twin daughters and soon finds himself being haunted by the dead passengers, all while his wife wonders why the strange herbalist denizens of the town have taken such an interest in her daughters.

“I was very disappointed.  For me his books are always gripping…real page turners.  I always find something worth speaking about, but this just left me saying ‘what the heck?’  Hope he gets back to what he does best.” – Rosemarie, senior library clerk.

Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

The books follow the protagonists Richard Cypher, Kahlan Amnell and Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander on their quest to defeat oppressors who seek to control the world and those who wish to unleash evil upon the world of the living.

“I’d heard a lot of good things about this series, but finally started reading it after it’s tv incarnation, Legend of the Seeker, began airing.  The tv series had great characters and a moving plot, but the books were incredibly disappointing.  If I’m going to invest in reading a series that’s 10+ books, 700+ pages per book, it has to be really well written.  If this is your style, I recommend The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan instead.” -Megan, Reference Librarian

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.  It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.  Behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose.  Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love…

“The hype for this book was enormous and I expected a wonderful read.  I found the story very disappointing.” – Evelyn, Librarian Trainee.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Rendered a latest test subject in a covert government experiment, abandoned six-year-old Amy is rescued by an FBI agent who hides them in the Oregon hills, from which she emerges a century later to save the human race from a terrifying virus.

“I found this 700+ page book to be boring, mainly due to the fact that I never came to care about even one of the large cast of characters.  What kept me reading was that buzz about the book: it had to get better…but it never did!” – Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

Our Favorite Books of 2011- Part Three

These staff favorites for the year were published during 2011:

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

A researcher at a pharmaceutical company, Marina Singh journeys into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years–a dangerous assignment that forces Marina to confront the ghosts of her past. – 2011 favorite of Karen, Library Director

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

Implicated in the murder of her best friend, Jennifer White, a brilliant retired surgeon with dementia, struggles with fractured memories of their complex relationship and wonders if she actually committed the crime, a situation also marked by her grown children and live-in caretaker. – 2011 favorite of Betty P., Reference Services Librarian

The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a Greenwich Village jazz bar on New Year’s Eve 1938 catapults witty Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne’er-do-well and a single-minded widow. - 2011 favorite of Evelyn, Librarian Trainee

The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone-Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl…- 2011 favorite of Nadine, Children’s Services Librarian

This will be R and R’s last post for 2011.  Be sure to check back with us in the new year.  Until then please have a wonderful holiday - we wish all of our readers a very happy and  healthy 2012!!

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

Our Favorite Books of 2011- Part Two

Some of the staff’s favorites for 2011 were not published  in 2011.  In fact one of the picks was published 164 years ago!

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, as his elder brother takes up medical studies in Modena and their younger brother leaves school for the stage, Europe’s unfolding tragedy sends each of their lives into terrifying uncertainty. At the end of Andras’s second summer in Paris, all of Europe erupts in a cataclysm of war.  – 2011 favorite of Jackie, Head of Readers’ Services and Lisa J., Readers’ Services Librarian

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson

Elliot Rosenzweig, a wealthy Chicago philanthropist, is attending opening night at the opera.  Ben Solomon, a retired Polish immigrant, makes his way through the crowd and shoves a gun in Rosenzweig’s face, denouncing him as former SS officer, Otto Piatek.   Solomon is blind-sided, knocked to the floor and taken away.  Rosenzweig uses his enormous influence to get Solomon released from jail, but Solomon commences a relentless pursuit to bring Rosenzweig before the courts to answer for war crimes. - 2011 favorite of Pam S., Librarian Trainee

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty, and at a charity school with a harsh regime. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane’s natural independence and spirit – which prove necessary when she takes a position as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving the man she loves? Jane Eyre (1847) shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman’s search for equality and freedom.- 2011 favorite of Rosemarie G., Senior Library Clerk and Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian

Super Sad True Love Story – Gary Shteyngart

In a very near future—oh, let’s say next Tuesday—a functionally illiterate America is about to collapse. But don’t that tell that to poor Lenny Abramov, the thirty-nine-year-old son of an angry Russian immigrant janitor, proud author of what may well be the world’s last diary, and less-proud owner of a bald spot shaped like the great state of Ohio.  …Lenny loves Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel twenty-four-year-old Korean American woman who just graduated from Elderbird College with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. – 2011 favorite of Lisa C., Assistant Director

In Legend Born by Laura Resnick

This is the story of Sileria and its oppressed tribes, who have for centuries been crushed under the boot of successive conquerors. Despite their indomitable spirit… the Silerians have spent more time fighting amongst themselves than against their oppressors, most recently the loathsome Valdani.  Tansen is the prophesied warrior who will drive out the Valdani, but his path is strewn with terrible obstacles. As word of his coming spreads, he joins with the infamous thief Josarian, who becomes the leader of a cadre as strange and disparate as the tribes of Sileria themselves. - 2011 favorite of Megan, Reference and Systems Librarian

All descriptions are from the publishers.

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

Our Favorite Books of 2011, Part One

R & R has asked the Syosset Public Library staff to share which books read in 2011 were their favorites.  Here are some picks in non-fiction:

Unbroken: A World WarII Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared–Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor. – 2011 favorite of Audrey, Media Services Clerk

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

A humanities professor describes the impact had by the translation of the last remaining manuscript of “On the Nature of Things” by Roman philosopher Lucretius, which fueled the Renaissance and inspired artists, great thinkers, and scientists. – 2011 favorite of Ralph, Head of Media Services

Bossypants by Tina Fey

From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that you’re no one until someone calls you bossy. -2011 favorite of Amy, Children’s Services Librarian

The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci’s Arithmetic Revolution by Keith J. Devlin

Traces the early 13th-century introduction of Arabic numbers to Western Europe by Leonardo of Pisa, documenting the influential publication of his Liber Abbaci and how it enabled everyday people to understand numbers and engage in commerce, a capacity that set the stage for larger scientific, technological and trade advances. -2011 favorite of Brenda, Reference Services Librarian

Keep checking back again with the R & R blog during the month of December to read about some more of of our staff’s 2011 book favorites!

-posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services