Staff Picks: Book Groups
What are APL staff members currently reading, watching, listening to or recommending?
The Fishing Librarian (and other staff) pick out their favorite current reads
We've asked our staff to share what they’re currently reading, watching or listening to. What we ended up with is a very eclectic list of books, movies, audiobooks and music. These are cumulative lists that we’ll add to all year long.
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Online Book Clubs bring surprises!
I have always been a fan of our Online Book Club - DearReader. I signed up to receive the daily fiction email 7 or 8 years ago and I feel like I have come to know the owner of the Book Clubs - Suzanne Beecher. I know how many cats she has, that she likes to run a bubble machine outside her house to make people smile, the age of her grandson and what they like to cook together...I sometimes think I know more about this woman I have never met than some of my own family! Her daily posts are always warm and informative and I like the flexibility of being able to delete my daily email featuring excerpts from new books if I'm short on time.
Whether you are interested in Fiction, Nonfiction, Teen, Business, Romance, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thrillers or Classics - Suzanne has a new book for you to try! You can sign up here!
If you're still hesitating I should mention she even mails out home made chocolate chip cookies to selected readers when she gets into a baking mood... :)
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Fall Book Club Picks
At the Arlington Public Library we have six different book clubs to choose from, and we are revving up for some fun Fall reading! Each book club has its own flavor, from Diana Gabaldon to Jonathan Franzen and some non-fiction thrown in. Because we have so many groups to choose from, we also get a lot of book club suggestions from publishers and websites. I thought I would share a couple that have discussion guides with you that I received in the mail the other day, courtesy of ReadingGroupChoices.com. Please also take a look at what we've got in store for our own book clubs!
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Good Grounds June Picks
Thanks to the eight of us that shared in person and the one person who shared their recent reading by email. We had a good group this month.
Don’t forget to complete a few logs (at least 3) for the adult summer reading club. You can pick up paper logs at the libraries but this year it is super easy to enter online. I did it myself today. Go to the website and click on Summer Reading Club and then go to Adult SRC. Each time you read a book (anything read after June 3 counts) you enter it in this online log. You can also fill one out for attending a program, so 7 of you from this last Good Grounds should get credit for attending. A library card number is not required for this. After 3 entries, you are eligible to win one of 3 Nooks that will be given away. If you don’t want one, save it for Christmas and give it to somebody else. Happy reading, everyone. Hope to see you all on July 20.
My Picks
The Body in the Library /Agatha Christie. Refreshing easy read that left me thinking, I like the book character Miss Marple better than movie character.
Iron Thunder : the battle between the Monitor & the Merrimac, a Civil War novel/Avi. Juvenile. Fictionalized version of the battle between the Iron Clads, with historical pictures and prints interspersed in the text.
A Savage Thunder : Antietam and the Bloody Road to Freedom/Jim Murphy. Juvenile. Non-Fiction written by respected juvenile history author. Murphy is no fan of George McClellan.
Now reading, Pearl of China : a novel/Anchee Min. Fictionalized account of Pearl S. Buck to explain her writing about China.
Picks from the Group
Cutting for Stone : a novel/Abraham Verghese. Long complex saga involving immigration, love and betrayal and family relationships.
Unbroken : a WWII Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption/Laura Hillenbrand. Fascinating new novel by the author of Seabiscuit : An American Legend. This novel goes in an entirely different direction and leaves people with thoughts about war and torture. Extremely popular. 10 copies owned by APL.
A Singular Woman : the untold story of Barack Obama’s mother/Janny Scott. Biography of the President’s mother, S. Ann Dunham.
Fortune’s Favorites/Colleen McCullough. 878 page fiction book set in Rome. You get a good sense of what is meant to be a Roman. Thumbs up.
Tales of the Black Widowers/Isaac Asimov. Mystery book of short stories with straight, easy writing. APL owns Banquets of the Black Widowers (WW) and The Return of the Black Widowers (SE.) Also mystery and detective series, 1980s era.
The Social Animal : the hidden sources of love, character and achievement/David Brooks. Author who also writes Op Ed for the New York Times and he recently gave the Commencement speech at Rice University. This book using fictional characters to show the broad implications of brain behavior and learned and instinctive behaviors. A heavy read but well worth it.
On, Off/Colleen McCullough. A mystery involving serial murder that is a “fast, good read.”
Summer/Karen Kingsbury. Found on the “summer” reading display at WW, this is Christian fiction that involves a newlywed couple and a reality show.
The Summer of Katya/Trevanian. 1983, a love story set in the Basque countryside. This has a shocking, tragic ending. Also, by the same author, Elizabeth read Shibumi : a novel. This was originally written in 1979 and republished in 2005. It is a thriller/suspense fiction.
Look Homeward, Angel : a story of the buried life/Thomas Wolfe. Elizabeth thinks this is a fictional autobiography and too wordy to be enjoyed.
Two previously reviewed books, The Outliers : the story of success/Malcolm Gladwell and The Help/Kathryn Stockett. The latter is a book club favorite. APL owns 58 copies!
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie/C. Alan Bradley. Mystery as seen through the eyes of an 11 year old girl (an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison.) Also in this series are The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag : a Flavia de Luce Mystery and A Red Herring without Mustard.
The Red Garden/Alice Hoffman.
The Sixth Man/David Baldacci. Newest Baldacci, with a long waiting list but “worth the wait.” Two characters from previous books resurrected in this story. Not written in legalese.
The Simple Truth/David Baldacci. 1998 Baldacci with heavy emphasis on the legal aspect of the story, involving the Supreme Court and false imprisonment.
Now reading, The Greater Journey : Americans in Paris/David McCullough. A new McCullough study of scientists and artists who went to Paris and brought back knowledge that changed America.
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DIY Summer Reading List
Our annual Summer Reading Club starts tomorrow and I've been thinking about how to plan my own summer reading... as well as my sons, daughter, and brother--he's been calling me every week to ask for book suggestions! In years past, I've relied on a mix of sticking to authors I know, and serendipity. This year I am going to finish reading my "regular" books and then dip into some YA Fiction and Adult Non-fiction. Both are easier to read in small chunks of time.
Resources for Your Own Reading List
- Lifehacker's "How to Create an Awesome Summer Reading List". They have some great suggestions.
- NPR Book Reviews. Each year NPR culls suggestions from authors and other places.
- Join one of our book clubs. The members of our book clubs read so much that they always have good suggestions.
- What Should I Read Next? A website that answers the age old question in seconds if you type in a book that you've liked in the past. I often use Amazon's "Customer's Who Bought This Item Also Bought" in a similar way, but WSIRN is actually created for that purpose.
- New and Coming Soon lists on our website. Check our Books page for a complete list.
- Other people like you! You can submit reviews of your own favorites and be entered to win a Nook. Then come back to this blog and find out what others have read. Our first review goes up tomorrow on the official start of the Summer Reading Club.
What I'm Reading This Summer
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Good Grounds May Picks
It was good to get back to our book group, after being gone last month. I thought I’d mention that I enjoyed the library’s new copy of Book Page. There was a good review of a new thriller book by Marcus Sakey called The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes. He previously wrote The Blade Itself and Good People.
My Picks
Rascal by Sterling North. Biographical novel of a young boy and his pet raccoon. The boy has a tough life but doesn’t whine about it and his treatment of his pets is not sentimental. I enjoyed this tremendously.
Midnight Tunnel: A Suzanna Snow Mystery by Angie Frazier. (juvenile) Slow to start but logical and ultimately enjoyable. I’m talking it up at schools as a good alternative to Nancy Drew.
Picks from the Group
Treasure by Clive Cussler. Enjoy Cussler as an alternative to David Baldacci. There are 69 readers waiting for Baldacci’s new novel, The Sixth Man.
A Widow’s Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates. Read and reviewed previously. This was a thumb’s down, mostly.
Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (If Disorderly) Life by Suzanne Beecher. Autobiography of the creator of DearReader.com.
A Lesson in Secrets: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear. A woman sleuth ala 1932 Scotland Yard. Really enjoyed this.
On, Off by Colleen McCullough. Murder mystery about a serial killer. “Loved” the book.
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen. English translation from Danish. A historical novel that follows 2 families of sailors from the mid-1800s to the end of WWII. An excellent read. 678 pages.
Ape House Sara Gruen. Reality TV and bonobos enter into this plot. Joyce likes Gruen’s writing style. She also wrote Water for Elephants, which we’ve looked at before
Bones: A Forensic Detective’s Casebook by Henry Scammell and Dr. Douglas Ubelaker. Available by Interlibrary Loan. Previously reviewed - fascinating non-fiction about forensic breakthroughs.
Strange Business by Rilla Askew. Available by Interlibrary Loan. Short stories about small town Oklahoma. Interesting but “rough” writing.
The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement by David Brooks. This book builds on recent advances in neuro-science. It talks about how the mind works and the subconscious with 2 “ideal” people. NPR reviewed this book and was on the bestseller list.
Time Spike by Eric Flint and Marilyn Kosmatka. Another time-travel Science Fiction book from Flint. This time an Illinois maximum prison is transported to the Jurassic period. The modern people don’t do too well in their adjustment!
Blasphemy by Douglas J. Preston. This author is known for his high tech thrillers. This one takes place in Arizona and has spies and scientists in it. Tech talk with nuclear physics and computers.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are by Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan. An exploration of what it means to be human.
How about that for variety! Thanks for coming, everyone. I hope to see you next month—June 15. I’m now reading Agatha Christie’s A Body in the Library. The murder wasn’t in a public library. Whew!…Laureen
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Good Grounds March Picks
Fellow readers,
Thanks to those of you that came to our meeting this month. The apple ricotta cake was delicious with coffee and tea. We had an interesting variety of choices this month. Take a look at the book club’s opinions on these books.
General Fiction
Christmas present, bought on a review. Thumbs down. The book summary says this book examines the dark side of suburbia and it isn’t kidding.
Fiction that examines lives of people, and their families, as the work or deploy from Ft. Hood.
Modern fairytale-like easy read.
Romance
Mystery
General Non-Fiction
Depressing memoir of Oates’ first marriage and widowhood.
Story of women and a forty-year friendship.
A volume of cat stories, including Dewey, the famous cat.
History
After reading Peony in Love, looked at this. The content talks about foot binding in Chinese tradition.
Non-fiction book written by a Lebanese Christian. No good answers to resentments Arab militants feel toward the U. S. because they provided arms to Israel in the 1940s and 1950s.
Science
Etc.
This is a Carnegie medal winner for Children. Its premise is that a boy has the opportunity to see the world from an adult point of view, while he goes on an unlikely but very funny space adventure.
An award winning, animated film set in Medieval Ireland, at the time of the Norse invasions and the beginning of the Book of Kells. The main character is a boy being raised in a monastery.
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Patron Picks: Sherry Woods
Sherry Woods, member of the Southwest Page Turners, has written some great reviews of books that we would love to share with you. Thanks Sherry!
The Scarpetta Factor ~Patricia Cornwell
Dr Kay Scarpetta, working for the NY City Office of Chief Medical Examiner finds herself knee-deep in suspense and action. It takes all of her skills and those of her acquaintances to solve the disappearances of a prominent heiress and a string of murders, bombs, missing persons, psychotic former patients and the news media. All embroil Kay, Benton, Lucy and Moreno in life threatening action. Cornwall's lengthy novel will more than satisfy Scarpetta fans..
The Scarecrow ~ Michael Connelly
When the LA Times announces crime reporter Jack McEvoy will be released from it's staff in two weeks time, Jack decides to go out in style with one final big write-up. As his investigation of a murder, he discovers the real murder is not the person the police have arrested. Jack links this murder to another murder. On the hunt for the truth, Jack, his life in peril, follows the trail of bodies. With every twist and turn, will Jack's search lead to the real killer?
Night Shadow ~ Cherry Adair
Alex Stone, agent for the international antiterrorism agency T-FLAC, tracks down dangerous global criminals. Lexi Stone, not related, switches from an Internal Affairs desk to become an agent herself. Danger and suspense combined with romance as Lexi takes on an undercover mission while on assignment to Alex's team. Paranormal abilities enable the team to follow a European terrorist who kidnap and then ransoms people. The twist is that they brutally massacre their hostages as they then vanish into thin air. Can Alex and Lexi stop the terrorists in time to avoid further causalities?
As a stand alone, this book is an action packed fun read. The first books in the trilogy Night Fall and Night Secrets are next on my reading list.
The Midnight House ~ Alex Berenson
When members of one of the government's secret interrogation team start turning up dead, CIA agent John Wells is called in the task becomes death defying as the trail goes from the US to CIA secret prisons scattered around the globe. Who is killing the interrogators of The Midnight House? Berenson keeps the reader in suspense up to the last page. A good read!
Dark of Night ~ Suzanne Brockman
Troubleshooters Incorporated once again come up against The Agency, a lethal enemy. When one of their own is nearly killed, team leader Lawrence Decker fakes his friend's death in order to protect him. To keep the death secret, Decker doesn't even tell his best friends about the deception. This secret complicates Decker's life to the extreme. The killers then target the entire Troubleshooters team. One breathtaking escape after another follow the team as they attempt to solve their problem. Will they succeed in protecting all, or will the team be extinguished?
Cross Country ~ James Patterson
Families are being slaughtered as Alex Cross tries to unravel the reasons behind a ruthless killer. The chase goes from Washington DC all the way to Nigeria as Alex follows the killers trail. For Alex Cross fans, this book is a must.& nbsp;
Never Less Than A Lady ~ Mary Jo Putney
Oh what a wonderful Victorian romance! Putney's Lost Lord Series makes you want to read the others in the series. Will the Earl of Daventry find the perfect bride to provide an heir for his family? Even though a parade of eligible women crosses his path, he keeps being drawn to a woman with an undesirable past. Can he find happiness and an heir with someone less than acceptable to his peers? Read on as the heartwarming story enfolds.
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One Book, One Arlington
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Take a look at the full questions we asked our Local Outliers and let us know what you think in the comments below. We are especially interested in your answers to question #4: What should Arlington do to foster success in our children? For your own book group discussions, you might also want to take a look at About.com.
In order to understand the outlier, Gladwell says you have to look around them—at their culture, community, family and generation. One of the chapters looks at the fact that a surprising number of the most powerful and successful corporate lawyers in New York City have almost the exact same biography: they are Jewish men, born in the Bronx or Brooklyn in the mid-1930's to immigrant parents who worked in the garment industry. What circumstances led to your success?
Gladwell argues that we vastly underestimate the extent to which success happens because of things the individual has nothing to do with. The book opens by examining why a hugely disproportionate number of professional hockey and soccer players are born in January, February and March. The very best hockey players are people who are talented and work hard but who also benefit from the weird and peculiar ways in which their world is organized – the hockey season begins in January so, if a hockey player was born in the first three months of the year, he was older and physically more developed at the beginning of the season, when he first started playing hockey, and naturally did better and progressed higher than his younger peers. Were there occurrences beyond your control that led you to where you are now?
Gladwell argues that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for a person to get really good at something. Achievement = talent + preparation. For example, once a performer has the talent to get to a top school, the thing that makes the difference is the number of hours spent practicing. The Beatles performed 1200 live concerts before they ever got to the US in 1964. Working really hard is what successful people do. How long did it take you to perfect your work and what is your schedule like now?
Gladwell says that outliers have ability, opportunity, and utterly arbitrary advantage and that we, as a society, have more control about who succeeds—and how many of us succeed—than we think. What should Arlington do to foster success in our children?
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