Staff Picks
Check the blog every week for updates on what our staff is reading and watching and recommendations for our new and all-time favorite books and movies. What is your favorite book or movie? Post your answer in the comments section below. To see all previous Staff Picks posts, simply type "Staff Picks" in the search box at the top left of this blog and click the "search blog" button

I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter- recommended by Andrew
Can a self, a soul, a consciousness, an "I" arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here? If it can. then how can we understand this baffling emergence?" "How do we mirror other beings inside our mind? Can many strange loops of different "strengths" inhabit one brain? If so, then a hallowed tenet of our culture - that one human brain houses one human soul - is an illusion. - book cover

Sunshine by Robin McKinley - recommended by Thea
They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion-within easy reach of a figure in the moonlight. She knows she is a vampire. - library catalog


MOVIE WATCH

Searching for Bobby Fischer - recommended by Cheryl
This heart-warming film is based on the true story of a young boy who is a chess prodigy and his father, who attempts to walk the fine line between encouraging his son's talent and preserving the love they have for each other

Quote of the Week

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.
-Benjamin Disraeli

Staff Picks
Check the blog every week for updates on what our staff is reading and watching and recommendations for our new and all-time favorite books and movies. What is your favorite book or movie? Post your answer in the comments section below. To see all previous Staff Picks posts, simply type "Staff Picks" in the search box at the top left of this blog and click the "search blog" button

The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Holmes - recommended by Mary Anne
Author A.M. Homes, who was adopted at birth, tells the heartwarming and at times heartbreaking story of what happens when her biological mother comes looking for her thirty-one years later. The book is presented in two parts. The first details the efforts of her birth parents to find and meet her, and the second part tells of her efforts to explore her genealogical past and piece together the details of her birth mother’s and father’s past and present. The memoir ends with a touching tribute to her adoptive grandmother. This book is well written and compelling. I highly recommend it.

Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks - recommended by Andrew
Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? Do you work for one of those visionary software companies where people come to work wearing hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? If so, you might be a Bobo. In his bestselling work of "comic sociology," David Brooks coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today's upper class -- those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Their hybrid lifestyle is the atmosphere we breathe, and in this witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age, Brooks has defined a new generation.

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood - recommended by Megan

First published in 1985, this is a novel of such power that the reader is unable to forget its images and its forecast. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force. "A novel that brilliantly illuminates some of the darker interconnections between politics and sex".--The Washington Post Book World.

MOVIE WATCH

Notting Hill - recommended by Megan
A leading American actress accidentally meets an attractive, but unassuming British travel book seller and love immediately blossoms. However, fame and her American actor boyfriend gets in the way. - imdb.com

Staff Picks
Check the blog every week for updates on what our staff is reading and watching and recommendations for our new and all-time favorite books and movies. What is your favorite book or movie? Post your answer in the comments section below. To see all previous Staff Picks posts, simply type "Staff Picks" in the search box at the top left of this blog and click the "search blog" button

Flatland: a romance of many demensions by Edwin A. Abbott - recommended by Andrew

Classic of science (and mathematical) fiction -- charmingly illustrated by the author -- describes the adventures of A. Square, a resident of Flatland, in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions).

The Princess Bride by William Goldman - recommended by Megan
William Goldman’s beloved novel has sold over one million copies. A movie, released twenty years ago, perfectly captured the spirit of the book and has introduced new fans to its pages ever since. In 1941 a young boy lies bedridden from pneumonia. His perpetually disheveled and unattractive father, an immigrant from Florin with terribly broken English, shuffles into his bedroom carrying a book. The boy wants to know if it has any sports. His father says, "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions. Miracles." And the little boy, though he doesn’t know it, is about to change forever. As Goldman says, "What happened was just this. I got hooked on the story." And coming generations of readers will, too. - Book Jacket

Weird U.S. by Mark Moran - recommended by Jeff
There's something deliciously demented about two young men who wander the country in search of the bizarre, unexplained, or just plain nutty. Having had success, and plenty of reader response, with their magazine, Weird NJ, in which they documented New Jersey's less celebrated tourist attractions, they felt compelled to expand their research to encompass this entire land of Melon Heads, Phantom Clowns, Foulke Monsters, Prairie Moon Gardens, and Slimy Slim.

MOVIE WATCH:

Lars and the Real Girl - recommended by Megan
Lars is a sweet but quirky guy who thinks he's found the girl of his dreams in a life-sized doll named Bianca. He is content with his artificial girlfriend until he develops feelings for Margo, an attractive co-worker. Now Lars finds himself in a unique love triangle, hoping to somehow discover the real meaning of true love.

Quote of the Week

In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they like, but he must never, never be unfaithful to them.
- W. H. Auden

Staff Picks
Check the blog every week for updates on what our staff is reading and watching and recommendations for our new and all-time favorite books and movies. What is your favorite book or movie? Post your answer in the comments section below. To see all previous Staff Picks posts, simply type "Staff Picks" in the search box at the top left of this blog and click the "search blog" button

Paint it Black by Janet Fitch - recommended by Stephanie
This follow-up to Fitchs successful novel "White Oleander" presents a portrait of Josie Tyrell--a teenage runaway, an artist's model, and an habitu of the '80s punk rock scene, where sex, drugs, and rock n' roll inform her days and nights.

My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult -recommended by Barbara
Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Anna begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures and decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body.

Parenting Inc. by Pamela Paul - recommended by Megan
"In Parenting, Inc., Pamela Paul uncovers how, over the past generation, the parenting industry has convinced parents that they cannot trust their children's health, happiness, and success to themselves. From the statistically warped warning labels touting deluxe car seats to the booming supply of baby consultants charging hundreds of dollars, parents are assaulted by a whirligig of marketing hype, social pressure, and celebrity expertise, transforming the way they raise their children." "Paul's behind-the-scenes examination helps parents find their own way. She interviews educators, psychologists, doctors, and parents to reveal the developmental effects of excessive nursery gear and "screen" time, overstuffed toys, structured activities, and luxury labels. Talking to entrepreneurs and marketing executives, she discovers how companies gin up product endorsements and prey on parents' needs, fears, and desires."--BOOK JACKET.

MOVIE WATCH

Fur: an imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus - recommended by Cheryl
Turning her back on her wealthy, established family, Diane Arbus falls in with Lionel Sweeney. Sweeney is an enigmatic mentor who introduces Arbus to the marginalized people who help her become one of the most revered photographers of the twentieth century. Diane's strange, new world unlocks her deepest secrets, awakens her remarkable artistic genius, and launches her path to becoming the artist she is meant to be.

Quote of the Week

"Books are weapons in the war of ideas."
-American Library Association, 1942