Questions About Books: 2012, Part 1

Syosset R and R tries to follow as many other book blogs as time allows just because we love books and we also like to see how others are doing it.  Recently we saw a blog post onThe Broke and the Bookish called “Julia’s End of Year Book Survey” in which a list of questions about books for 2012 were answered.  The list originated as a survey on the blog The Perpetual Page Turner where it is to be found yearly.  Syosset R and R has circulated some of the questions to our library staff and hope to be publishing the answers that we get back throughout the first half of January 2013.  So our thanks to both of the aforementioned Blogs for the inspiration.  Here’s the first installment of questions answered by Sonia, Readers’ Services Librarian:

Best Book You Read in 2012?

There were two: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, read, deliciously, back to back.

Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going to Love More But Didn’t?

This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz.  I had loved The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and was very much looking in forward to Diaz’ new book. While the first was heartbreaking it was still somehow joyful and enjoyable, the second was just heartbreaking.  A big disappointment.

Favorite book cover in 2012?

A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson.

Book you recommended to people most in 2012?

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt.  This is a story about a middle aged poet whose husband asks her for a “pause” in their marriage.  She goes back to her hometown to regroup and there she interacts with her aging mother, a neighbor who is a young mother with marital problems and a group of young teenage girls in a summer poetry class she is teaching.  This book has something for most everyone to empathize with.

Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2012?

Archie Meets Nero Wolfe by Robert Goldsborough.  Rex Stout, the author of the Nero Wolfe detective novels, is one of my favorite authors.  Reading this latest installment in Goldsborough’s series reboot (after a 19 year hiatus) was almost as good as reading a book of Stout’s that I had somehow overlooked.  It was wonderful to meet up with Archie, Wolfe and the rest of their cohorts one more time.

– posted by Sonia, Readers’ Services

Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge

Goodreads, the social networking site for book lovers and book recommendations, issues a reading challenge every year.  For 2012 the challenge was to read 100 books by the end of the year. I think this is a great way to promote and encourage reading. There are at least 303,892 participants involved in this year’s challenge. The totally amount of books pledged to be read this year is 17,880,746. What a huge number!! Every time I update the page the number changes and becomes higher. According to the website and data from the challenge the average amount of books per challenge are 58. And so far there have been 8,116 challenges completed. I started the challenge around mid-January and have made it to 61% meaning I’ve read 61 books towards my goal of 100. I had hoped I’d be able to be the next one on the list of 8,116 challenges completed but I only made it a little more than halfway. Maybe next year I’ll reach it.

On the homepage when you sign in to your account there is a small update box towards the bottom of the homepage that updates with every book you’ve read since starting the challenge. Within the update box there is a progress tracker counter the percent you’ve completed so far and how behind you are. You can also see how other members in the Goodreads community are handling the challenge. Although everyone pledges to make their own challenge. I have friends who have pledged to read anywhere from 5-15 books for this year and not the original 100. According to my progress tracker I am 61% and at my current pace I am 38%, or 37 books, behind. It’s seems a little off because I am technically 39 books behind although by the end of this year, December 31^st, I will have read 65 books. I am in the middle of reading Animal Farm by George Orwell, Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward, Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares, and Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. I plan to finish those four by the end of this year. It’s now the last few days of December, I know I won’t be able to achieve my goal but I hope to be able to read 100 next year for the 2013 challenge.

– posted by Stacey, Librarian Trainee

Holiday Gifts: Books for TV Fans

The Walking Dead : Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga

In the Walking Dead universe, there is no greater villain than The Governor. The despot who runs the walled-off town of Woodbury. The world will finally understand what drove Philip Blake to become….The Governor.

America Again : Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t  by Stephen Colbert et al.

Covering subjects ranging from healthcare to the economy to food, Stephen gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on track.

Most Talkative: Stories From the Front Lines of Pop Culture by Andy Cohen

The man behind the “Real Housewives” writes about his lifelong love affair with pop culture that brought him from the suburbs of St. Louis to his own television show.

Talking With My Mouth Full : My Life as a Professional Eater by Gail Simmons

A judge on Top Chef and the host of Top Chef: Just Desserts details her remarkable career, from her days as a cook and food writer, to her meteoric rise to fame as a permanent judge on the number one food show on cable television.

The Skinny Rules : The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles For Getting to Thin by Bob Harper with Greg Critser

The superstar trainer and co-host of NBC’s reality show “The Biggest Loser,” distills his knowledge of nutrition, weight-loss strategy, and human nature down to twenty simple, nonnegotiable principles and offers a month’s worth of menu plans and more than 90 rule-abiding recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to keep you cooking and eating skinny.

Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson

The “Top Chef: Masters” winner and proprietor of Harlem’s Red Rooster traces his Ethiopian birth, upbringing by an adoptive family in Sweden, and rise to a fame as a New York chef, sharing personal insights into his challenges as a black man in a deeply prejudiced industry.

– posted by Sharon, Reference Services

New in DVD

Total Recall

Sci Fi PG-13

Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid, even though he’s got a beautiful wife who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man.  Also available in Blu-Ray DVD.

The Trouble with the Curve

Drama PG-13

Gus Lobel has been one of the best scouts in baseball for decades, but, despite his efforts to hide it, age is starting to catch up with him. Nevertheless, Gus-who can tell a pitch just by the crack of the bat-refuses to be benched for what may be the final innings of his career. The one person who might be able to help is also the one person Gus would never ask: his daughter, Mickie, an associate at a high-powered Atlanta law firm.

Pitch Perfect

Drama PG-13

Arriving at her new college, Beca finds herself not right for any clique. Somehow she’s muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls, and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together. When Beca leads this a cappella singing group out of their traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of college music competitions.

– posted by Ralph, Media Services

New Display: New York City

New York certainly has had a few difficult weeks with Super Storm Sandy and her aftermath. Things in many areas still are not back to normal. But we know New York will come back!

The third floor reference area has a book display celebrating New York and its resilience.

The city has a lot to offer. There is so much to see and do from the amusements of Coney Island as discussed in John Kasson’s Amusing the Million : Coney Island at the Turn of the Century  to  Calvin Tomkins’ Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There are gardens for strolling, maybe walk the relatively new High Line (Annik Farge’s On the High Line) or the magnificent Central Park ( Sara Cedar Miller’s  Central Park, an American Masterpiece ). Consider the city’s engineering wonders as described  in Robert Jackson’s Highway Under the Hudson: A History of the Holland Tunnel and Judith St. George’s The Brooklyn Bridge : They Said It Couldn’t Be Built.  Ken Bloom’s Broadway: An Encyclopedic Guide to the History, People and Places of Times Square pays tribute to the glittering lights and talent of the area.
If shopping and dining appeal to you, New York is the place to be! From the  high style along Fifth Avenue by Theodore James to  Sharyne Wolfe’s contemporary guide, The Fashionista’s Shopping Guide to the Galaxy of Discount New  York Fashion, there are fashion finds for everyone. With so many restaurants you really need a guide such as Mike Colameco’s Food Lover’s Guide to NYC : An Insider’s Guide to New York City’s Gastronomic Delights.

The city has always been a beacon of hope as seen in Barbara Benton’s
Ellis Island : a Pictorial History and  Sabina Khan Yasmin’s Enlightening the World :  The Creation of the Statue of Liberty.

But we all know it is the people who really make New York what it is. Diaries of Old Manhattan  edited by Louis Auchincloss and You Must Remember This by Jeff Kisseloff for a fond, nostalgic appreciation of The City.

.As the song says “I want to be a part of it, New York, New York!”

– posted by Brenda, Reference Services

Holiday Gifts: Books for Movie Buffs

Monty Python’s Flying Circus, All the Bits, Complete and Annotated  Annotations by Luke Dempsey

A fan’s treasury of every script and episode from the influential British comedy series is complemented by profiles of the famous troupe members, insider interviews, anecdotes, photographs, sketches and reproductions of Terry Gilliam’s iconic artwork.

The Age of Movies : Selected Writings of Pauline Kael  Edited by Sanford Schwartz

A compendium of top-selected, signature writings by the influential former critic of The New Yorker offers insight into her capacity for capturing cinematic details and includes her appraisals of such works as Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris.

My Mother Was Nuts : A Memoir by Penny Marshall

From her humble roots in the Bronx to “Laverne and Shirley” and her unlikely ascent in Hollywood, the beloved actor and director tells the story of her incredible life.

The Guttenberg Bible : A Memoir by Steve Guttenberg

The star of such blockbuster 1980s films as “Police Academy” and “Three Men and a Baby” describes his early encounters with celebrities and casting agents before rising to fame and learning how to stay grounded through the support of his family.

– posted by Sharon, Reference Services

New in DVD

Ted

Comedy NR

As the result of a childhood wish, John Bennett’s teddy bear, Ted, came to life and has been by John’s side ever since. Their friendship is tested when Lori, John’s girlfriend of four years, wants more from their relationship.

The Bourne Legacy

Action PG-13

Aaron Cross is an agent groomed by the government program that also unleashed Jason Bourne, but with a few new wrinkles. Cross is busy training in Alaska when he’s caught in a tsunami of hurt, thus beginning a frantic search for answers to who and what he is.  Also available on Blu-Ray DVD.

– posted by Ralph, Media Services

Author Visit: Hilma Wolitzer

Long Island/NYC author Hilma Wolitzer will join us for a book signing, as well as to discuss the writing of her latest novel, An Available Man (our December “He Said, She Said” Book Discussion selection),  on Friday, December 21 at 2 PM in the Theater.

Hilma Wolitzer is the author of 14 books.  Ms. Wolitzer has taught multiple creative writing programs and has received honors and fellowships from such groups as the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

An Available Man received ***Starred Reviews*** from Booklist.

From Booklist: “…Wolitzer has written before of the pain of losing a partner and its aftermath, and she does it with remarkable insight, grace, and humor … A warm, keenly incisive view of life’s vicissitudes by a writer too seldom heard from.”

Copies of the book will be sold by the Friends of the Library at the event.

For more information about Hilma Wolitzer, visit the author’s official website and blog.

– posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services