New Adult Summer Reading Club Begins Today!

Welcome to the Syosset Library’s first annual Adult Summer Reading Club.  The program is simple and stress-free, just the way summer should be!  Sign up and submit titles of any book you read between June 16 and August 14.  For each title you submit, you will have a chance to win raffle prizes in our weekly drawing and at the Summer Reading Wrap-Up Party on August 18.  Registration for the club begins on June 16 at the Readers’ Services Desk on the second floor.

There are only a few simple guidelines:

• Patrons read books of their choosing

• Audio Books qualify

• Patrons who join the program and submit at least one title will be sent an invitation to the Wrap-Up Party on August 18 at 7 PM

• Must present ID to claim prizes

• Open to Syosset School District Residents 18 years or older

Join us today as we kick off the club with events and refreshments  throughout the day.  Receive a complimentary raffle ticket for attending either of the day’s Kick-Off events:

Title Swap with Librarians. Wednesday, Jun 16.  1:30 PM.

To celebrate this exciting new summer program, the Readers’ Services Department will hold a special Title Swap with Librarians.  Librarians and patrons will share favorite titles and you will leave with a great summer reading list!  No registration required for the Title Swap.   Attend this free event and receive a Summer Reading raffle ticket.  Refreshments will be served.

Brenda Janowitz, Author Visit.  Wednesday, June 16.  7 PM.

     The celebration continues in the evening with Syosset resident and author, Brenda Janowitz joining us for a reading from her novels.  Free and no registration required.  Attend this event and receive a Summer Reading raffle ticket.  

Hope to see you there!

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Summer is finally here …. and so are the new Summer 2010 Staff Picks!

Looking for a great book?  Let our staff suggestions guide you in your search for that perfect Summer read.  Check out the New Summer Staff Picks for 2010 now on display on the 2nd floor.  Reviews for the selected titles can also be found on display.  Titles such as the following were recommended by various staff members throughout the building. 

The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

“Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends… Just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy’s closest friends for what will be revealed (From the Publishers).” – Recommended by Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk.

Execution Dock by Anne Perry

“Set in 1864, bestseller Perry’s outstanding 16th novel to feature William Monk finds Monk suffering from a series of hard knocks, including memory loss. Now superintendent of the Thames River Police Force, Monk is on the verge of closing the books on Jericho Phillips, a particularly nasty villain …Monk and his team catch Phillips, but what appears to be an airtight murder case springs leaks and ends with the accused’s acquittal. Convinced that he got the right man, despite the jury’s verdict, Monk devotes himself to setting the record straight…Rich in plot development, believable characters and period detail, this entry will only add to the already sizable ranks of Perry’s admirers (Publishers Weekly).” – recommended by Sue Ann Reale,  Head of Children’s Services

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

“Ms. Moore has written her most powerful book yet, a book that gives us an indelible portrait of a young woman coming of age in the Midwest in the year after 9/11 and her initiation into the adult world of loss and grief…in this haunting novel Ms. Moore gives us stark, melancholy glimpses into her characters’ hearts, mapping their fears and disappointments, their hidden yearnings and their more evanescent efforts to hold on to their dreams in the face of unfurling misfortune (New York Times).”  – recommended by Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk.

Little Heathens by Mildred Kalish

“Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering… a loving but realistic portrait of a “hearty-handshake Methodist” family that gave its members a remarkable legacy of kinship, kindness, and remembered pleasures. Recounted in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish’s memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the bleakest of times seem like “quite a romp (From the Publisher).” – recommnded by Lisa Caputo, Head of Adult Services.

We guarantee you’ll leave with a great Summer read!

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

The Adult Summer Reading Program

Please join us as we introduce Syosset Library’s first annual Adult Summer Reading Club.  The program is simple and stress-free, just the way summer should be!  Sign up and submit titles of any book you read between June 16 and August 14.

- Patrons read books of their own choosing

- Audio Books Qualify

- Patrons who join the program and submit at least one title will be sent  an invitation to the Wrap-Up Party on August 18 at 7 PM

- Winners must present ID to claim prizes

- Open to Syosset School District residents 18 years of older

For each title you submit, you will have a chance to win raffle prizes in our weekly drawing and at the Summer Reading Wrap-Up Party on August 18.  Registration for the club begins on June 16 at the Readers’ Services Desk on the second floor.

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Book Review: Natural Born Charmer

Natural Born Charmer

by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

William Morrow 2007 (392 pp.)

Blue Bailey, walking alongside the road wearing a beaver costume gets picked up by “to die for” Dean Robillard, all star NFL quarterback.  It all goes up and downhill from there.

Blue’s car has broken down, along with most everything else in her life.  The man she came to Colorado for has taken up with another woman and her bank account has been mysteriously emptied.  Down to her last eighteen dollars, she is on her way from a job doing promotion for Ben’s Big Beaver Lumberyard when Dean enters the picture.  She takes the ride and sparks fly between them immediately.  Dean is on his way from his native California to his newly purchased East Tennessee farmhouse.  It isn’t too long before Blue is on her way to East Tennessee too, having no where else to go.

Amid very amusing and constant bickering, Dean and Blue get to know each other and the attraction between them grows.  On the surface, they might not have much in common but it soon becomes clear that the childhood abandonment issues each of them have might provide glue for a serious attachment: if they let it happen.  Once they get to Tennessee, the plot thickens and we meet some of Dean’s relatives and some other colorful denizens of the town of Garrison, including the cantankerous and nasty old woman who literally “owns the town”.  Getting to know all of the characters populating this book is a lot of fun and the plot moves along with breakneck speed.  Possibly a little too fast, as some of the conflicts that arise between Dean and Blue, and between them and others, are resolved a little too quickly to be believed.

“Natural Born Charmer” which contains most of the hallmarks of romance fiction including a very feisty heroine who is matched up with an impossibly good looking, very talented, yet down to earth man, manages to have enough unpredictably to keep the reader engrossed until the end.

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

My Summer Reading Project- Over!

Summer has ended and so has the reading project.  It was an interesting exercise and I have to admit in hindsight, much too ambitious.  To recap, I set myself the task of reading a book by each of the authors appearing in the top 20 of the NY Times bestseller list for June 21, 2009 (the first day of summer).  If I had previously read any of their books, I did not have to read another by them, which left me with  at least 11 books to read.

Piece of cake, no?  No.  I ended up finishing only 5 of the 7 books I attempted and the one I enjoyed most was by an author whose work I had already enjoyed many times.  That’s not to say I wasn’t reading much this summer, I just did not want to read those books and I kept putting them off.  The other books I read this summer were those that my own taste and curiosity gravitated towards.  I read them willingly and finished them quicker that those from the project that were not that great.  I believe that if I hadn’t been dragged down by these books, I would have read a bit more.

So, what did I learn? I learned that you should not try to force your recreational reading choices. We all have enough reading that we are required to do in order to keep up in our personal and professional lives.  When we have spare time to read for recreation, darn it, we want to read whatever we want.  And come next summer that’s exactly what I will be doing!

I haven’t shared my thoughts on The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.  The book is a thriller about a viral attack on NYC.  It’s a virus that spreads very quickly and turns its victims into vampires – vampires such as we’ve never seen before.  Although I found it to be a little too long and repetitive, I might read the next installment of the planned trilogy just to see what happens next.  Rating: 3 out of 4.

(Read my previous summer reading project posts here.)

-posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

My Summer Reading Project (cont’d)

Finished reading Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard (#18 on the 6/21/09 NYT Bestseller List), the sequel to his earlier book Out of Sight, and it is just as good.

I don’t know by what magic he conjures up the words that come out of his characters, but there isn’t much need for exposition in one of his novels, somehow the dialogue does it all.   Meeting his characters in print is almost like getting to know them in person, the words conveying all the nuances obtained from seeing a person in the flesh.  If you like crime fiction and have never read any of Elmore Leonard books, please do so real soon. I give Road Dogs a 3.5 out of 4.

I tried to read Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk (#16 on the 6/21/09 NYT Bestseller List), but did not like it at all.  Sorry, Chuck!

Next book in the queue is The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, #9 on the 6/21/09 NYT Bestseller List.

- posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

My Summer Reading Project (cont’d)

Finally finished Shanghai Girls!  The story follows two Chinese women from their late teens in 1930′s China through to their experiences as  adults  in America.  I found the book to be a very mixed bag.  There were parts that were riveting and parts that dragged.  The characters were  sometimes compelling and sometimes  not.  The knowledge gained about Chinese culture and the experience of  Chinese immigrants to this country and the insights regarding how close the bonds between sisters could be, made this novel by Lisa See a worthwhile read.  And the cover was one of the best looking this year!  Rating: 3 out of 4 (.5 just for the cover).

Next book:  Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard, #18 on the 6/21/09 NYT bestseller list.

- posted by Sonia, Reader’s Services.

Check out our latest main floor book displays!

Highlighted this month are:

Beach Reads – Need a great book to bring to the beach?  Grab one off the display – we’ve got everything from murder mysteries to love stories, biographies to historical fiction.  Also, some of the hottest summer bestsellers!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation – filled with great ideas on how to have a happy, healthy and active summer.  We’ve provided guides on travel, fitness, diet, health, summer activities, gardening,  home renovation, and much, much more!

Enjoy the rest of the summer with a great book from the Syosset Public Library!

- posted by Jackie,  Readers’ Services