10 Books to Read While You’re Waiting for ‘The Great Gatsby’ to Come Out

About a month from now, Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated film adaptation of The Great Gatsby will hit theaters, and try as we might to maintain a healthy amount of “they’re going to ruin it” skepticism; we have to admit that we’re pretty excited. So excited that we’ve already re-read the book, and now we’re casting about for similarly jazzy, indulgent, socially critical reads to hold us over until we can watch it unfold as a spectacle in theaters.

Appointment in Samarra, John O’Hara

Fran Lebowitz famously called O’Hara “the real F. Scott Fitzgerald,” and whether or not that scandalizes you, you should try his first novel of small town politics and the dark side of polite society — all wealth and jealousy and downward spirals spurred on by alcohol. Sound familiar?

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles

Towles’s recent bestselling novel follows enterprising, wise-cracking secretary Katey Kontent from a Greenwich Village jazz bar to the top of New York Society — and all the trappings, both glittery and grungy, that come along with it.

 

An object of beauty, Steve Martin

Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her magnetic charisma and liveliness. Both this and The Great Gatsby feature the deception of a social climber amid wealthy New Yorkers.

The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hey, when you’re on a Fitzgerald kick, you’re on a Fitzgerald kick, and sometimes nothing else will do. Like his other novels, The Beautiful and Damned is steeped in hard liquor, marital discord, and vaguely existential greed. Read it with cocktail in hand and intone along, “Here’s to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.”

Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

Woolf, it should be noted, does parties much differently than Fitzgerald. But if it’s party tricks you like, things don’t get much more exciting than an affair with a defenestration.

Lady Windermere’s Fan, Oscar Wilde

Though Lady Windermere’s Fan is set a few decades before Gatsby, you can always count on Wilde for some biting social satire. And then there’s the most notorious line of the play, which sums up the themes of both Wilde’s and Fitzgerald’s work pretty well: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

If you’re looking for jazz age gossip, go no further than the memoir-of-sorts by Fitzgerald’s very best frenemy, Ernest Hemingway, whose biting sketches of absolutely everybody will entertain and inform.

Jazz, Toni Morrison

If it’s the general mania of the ’20s you love and not West Egg in particular, try Morrison’s musical historical novel of Harlem during the decade, equal parts glamor and chaos, shine and sweat. The prose even reflects the musical styles of the time, with shifting narrators and a sort of call and response throughout. It’ll rattle your bones.

The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

Well, we couldn’t leave off our favorite novel of the perils of social climbing, and perhaps our favorite New York novel of all time, could we? If only Lily Bart could have met Jay Gatsby. Now that would be a good book.

 

Free fun websites – Who’s playing who?

 

Every day your child has lots of fun playing games on free websites. But did you know that there is a hidden cost? Studies have shown that up to 87% of these sites include some form of advertising. Our kids are being bombarded with advertising!

 

Some of it is obvious to us as adults, such as banner ads or billboard ads. But some of it is sneaky, because it is in the form of “advergames”. Like the name suggests, an advergame is a hybrid of two different types of media: kids recognize and like the game parts, but most can’t also recognize the advertising part. They may not be hawking the latest sugar cereal or toys directly, but they act like movie trailers sending kids to the sponsoring television shows and channels. Do we really want our kids to be mindless slaves to all this advertising? How much whining will we as parents have to listen to when we go to the store? How can you teach your child to recognize and resist the marketing? Should we keep them off of the Internet and TV altogether?

Rather than cocooning them completely until they're 18, I suggest you talk with your children to teach them the life skills they'll need to handle all of the advertising they're exposed to. Here are some basic suggestions that you can talk about with your children, a little every day:

1)      Ask your child some simple questions, such as, “Why might this site provide free games when others require payment?”

2)      Point out the various places that websites put advertising, such as banner ads at the top and smaller ads on the sides.

3)      If your child is a struggling reader, help them identify ad breaks in a text. If the word “advertisement” is perpendicular, they may not be able to read it easily.

4)      Point out how games commonly include distinctive logos that are designed to be easily remembered. Ask how the advertisers make the logos to be appealing to kids their age.

5)      Play a game: “Guess what they’re selling”.

6)      When someone offers something for free, such as free wallpaper, ask who is getting what for free. They may be getting something for free, but is the company getting to use your computer for free as advertising space?

 

Being able to question what they read online -advertising and news - is a skill that your children can take with them throughout their lives. Children under the age of 8 may not have the brain structure to recognize the difference between ads and news or games, but as they grow older we as parents, librarians and teachers can all teach these skills. Hopefully they will learn some of this at school from their school library media specialist, and hearing it at home is a useful reinforcement to both them and you as a parent. This way your kids can play online games, but now they'll have the tools to handle those sneaky "advergames", and you have the tools to handle the whining demands in the store, too.

 

Source: http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/02/transliteracy/whos-playing-who-how-sneaky-online-marketing-is-targeting-kids-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

-Kathy

 

Best Books of 2012

I know, I know, everybody comes out with these "best of" lists at the end of the year. But hopefully given the variety you can find your next best book. The books I have on this list are either books that I read and thoroughly enjoyed this year, or have been recommended in multiple places, such as "Library Journal". It has teen books, kid books, adult fiction and nonfiction. You should be able to find books on this list that fit your taste and mood, so go forth and read!

 Code name Verity  by Elizabeth Wein  In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can. Also highly recommended by Nancy Pearl on NPR.

The fault in our stars by John Green Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a cute boy in recovery at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

The false prince by Jennifer Nielsen In the country of Carthya, a devious nobleman engages four orphans in a brutal competition to the death to be selected to impersonate the king's long-missing son in an effort to avoid a civil war.

Wonder by RJ Palacio Auggie Pullman was born with a facial deformity so severe that it prevented him from going to a mainstream school - until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and is nervous about being the new kid at school. The thing is, Auggie's just an ordinary kid, but with an extraordinary face. Can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

Don’t ever get old by Daniel Friedman Death-camp survivor Buck is 87, abrasive, and has trouble remembering. But his cop's watchfulness is intact, and he keeps his .375 Magnum close by. When he learns that the sadistic guard who brutalized him is likely still alive and the possessor of much stolen Nazi gold, Buck and his chatterbox grandson go on a quest. But why are the bodies piling up?

Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking by Susan Cain Why is brash all-roundedness emphasized in college when singular focus serves so well in many jobs and relationships? Relating personal experience and backing it up with case studies, Cain explains how the quietly confident can take over the world – or at least become more content.

Beautiful ruins by Jess Walter In 1962 on a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper looks out over the incandescent waters and spies a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. And today, half a world away, an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier. Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, this is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, clinging to their improbable dreams.

Curious behavior: Yawning, laughing, hiccupping, and beyond by Robert Provine Psychologist and neuroscientist Provine looks at 13 curiosities of how humans function, from laughing and yawning to being ticklish and prone to emotional tears. Random oddities? No, each is an evolutionary inheritance. With wit, a light touch, and scientific expertise accessibly delivered, Provine gives us the fascinating backstory on each.

Let’s pretend this never happened by Jenny Lawson A memoir about growing up poor in rural Texas and learning to live with mental illness doesn’t sound like a laugh-out-loud read, but Lawson, known online as The Bloggess, has a way with gallows humor and a knack for providing non-treacly support to anyone struggling with loneliness, anxiety, chronic pain, or depression. Plus, after her stories about life with a taxidermist father, readers will never look at a dead squirrel in the same way.

The snow child by Eowyn Ivey In this evocative retelling of a Russian folktale set in 1920 Alaska, a childless couple distract themselves their first winter by building a snow girl. The snow girl and the scarf are gone the next morning, but Jack spies a real child in the woods. Is she indeed a "snow fairy," magicked out of the cold? Or is she a wild child who knows better than anyone how to survive in the rugged north?

Billy Lynn’s long halftime walk by Ben Fountain A member of Bravo squad, whose fiercely fought battle in Iraq was caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew, Billy Lynn is on a victory tour of sorts with the survivors. In a compacted but unrushed time frame, Fountain effectively captures both the transformative experiences of one young man and the horrific impact of war. As he ponders life choices, Billy makes a surprising decision.

NW by Zadie Smith Relating the story of four people in North West London, Smith articulates important issues of race and class, but what matters most is her distinctive narrative voice. In numbered, run-on chapters that occasionally turn to aphorism, memo and even poetry, Smith shows us how to write for the 21^st century, when the online environment has changed our way of thinking, that makes other books sound ordinary.

The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller Patroclus is an awkward, exiled young prince; golden Achilles is the much-admired son of a sea goddess. In telling the story of their intense friendship and love, debut novelist Miller brings Homer’s ancient Greece to glorious life and offers a masterly vision of the valor, drama, and tragedy of the Trojan War. This won the 2012 Orange Prize for fiction.

-Kathy 

Hot Reads for Cold Nights

Using the Marysville Facebook page fans for one of my sources, here are some great reads to keep you warm at night, either in a sexy sense, or in the sense of pulling you so into the scene that you're surprised you're not sweating in the heat:

Several people suggested “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon. This was far and away the most suggested book, and it’s a series, too! “In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she finds herself in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.”

“Like water for chocolate” by Laura Esquivel is another great suggestion seconded by others: “A passionately in love young couple is blocked from marrying by the demands of the young woman's cold and selfish mother. To be near his love, the young man marries her sister, and she expresses her passion for him through her cooking – with unintended passionate results.” With passionate love, revolution, and great cooking, this will keep you warm at night!

Another patron suggested Sherrilyn Kenyon’s “Dark Hunter” series. Start with “Fantasy Lover” and go from there. What is the Dark-Hunter credo? “We are Darkness. We are Shadow. We, alone, stand between mankind and those who would see mankind destroyed. And we are eternal.”  They are tough and tormented, just waiting for the right woman to open their jaded hearts.

Laurell K Hamilton is another author that will get you to breathe harder and fan your face. My favorite is her Meredith Gentry series, starting with “A kiss of shadows”.  The elven Princess Meredith Gentry has fled her cruel aunt, Queen Andais, for Los Angeles. Using her magic to pass for human, she begins a life as a private eye specializing in supernatural crime, but Doyle, the Queen's assassin, has been sent to bring her back. Deadly faery politics, a resourceful heroine, and great sex scenes, you will lap this up.

Sandra Brown writes great romantic thrillers set in the heat of the South. You’ll stay warm in both senses! “Fat Tuesday” is one example where sparks fly and sweat drips as Burke Basile, a cop with nothing left to lose focuses on his nemesis, a flamboyant attorney who helps killers evade justice. His shocking revenge centers on kidnapping Remy, the lawyer's trophy wife. But Burke hasn't planned on the electric attraction he'll feel for this desperate woman, who rose from the slums of New Orleans to marry a man she can never love. Nor can he predict the fierce duel that will explode as the clock ticks toward midnight on Fat Tuesday, when all masks will be stripped away--and Burke must confront his own terrifying secret. Start here, but read them all!

JD Robb is the pseudonym Nora Roberts uses to write the popular “In death” series. Intrigue, passion and suspense fill the series, but this Christmas season go for “Midnight in death” to really get you in the mood as Lieutenant Eve Dallas makes the Christmas list of a killer out for revenge.

Colin Cotterill’s Dr Siri Paiboun series is set in the communist Laos of the 1970’s. Not hot in a sexy sense, the heat and humidity of Laos is so vivid you will be surprised at the cold outside your window. In “The coroner’s lunch”, elderly Dr Siri has been appointed national coroner since he is the only forensic doctor left in the entire country. He is expected to come up with the answers the party wants. But at his age, he reasons, what can they do to him? And he knows he cannot fail the dead who come into his care without risk of incurring their boundless displeasure. Eternity could be a long time to have the spirits mad at you.

If sitting in the bright warm sun in Italy is the dream that keeps you going in these dark days of the year, you will enjoy Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan sun”. Buying a villa in the spectacular Italian countryside is a wonderful fantasy -- even if it needs immediate loving care. This is an enchanting true account of her love affair with Tuscany: of scouring the neighborhood for the perfect panettone and the perfect plumber; of mornings spent cultivating her garden, and afternoons spent enjoying its fruits in leisurely lunches on the sun drenched terrace; of jaunts through the hill towns in search of renowned wines; and the renewal not only of a house, but also of the spirit.

Pre-Civil War New Orleans was a hotbed (in both senses) of cosmopolitan, multi-racial intrigue. Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January series follows a free black man - educated as a surgeon and as a musician - as he navigates both the mysteries he finds in steamy New Orleans and pushes the limits to his freedom as a colored man and ex-slave. Start with “A free man of color” and be transported to the center of the cosmopolitan South in an age when both its glories and the forces which would tear it apart are equally in evidence.

Thinking about heat, what is it like for a woman wearing a black hijab in hot Saudi Arabia? Fast-paced and utterly transporting, “Finding Nouf” by Zoe Ferraris is a riveting mystery and an unprecedented window into the lives of those in Saudi Arabia. When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing, her prominent family calls on Nayir al-Sharqi - a pious desert guide - to lead the search party. He quickly realizes that if he wants to gain access to the hidden world of women, he will have to join forces with Katya Hijazi, a female lab worker at the coroner's office who is bold enough to bare her face and to work in public. Their partnership challenges Nayir and forces him to reconcile his desire for female companionship within the parameters imposed by his beliefs. Read other books by this author too!

What are your favorite "hot" reads?

-Kathy

Don't Level Your Child's Reading!

“My child is reading level ___. What do you recommend?” This is a question I get as a Children’s Librarian that I dislike, but even worse is: “My teacher won’t let me read that because it’s below my reading level.” A teacher is telling a child not to read a book!

Why do I dislike these questions? It concentrates on the mechanics of reading, but not the interest in reading. It is merely an automated way for schools to measure reading, not a good way to find books suitable for a particular child. Book leveling is not about the book, or the story, or child appropriateness, or a child’s interest. Just to give you an example, some of the smuttiest books out there are written at a fourth grade level. Would I put such a book in a child’s hand who reads at that level? No way! Or if a teen is struggling with reading, his/her reading level may be at the second grade level, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be interested in stories about second graders.

The Lexile company puts out levels, for example, and are labeled for a 75% comprehension rate.  That means that kids who supposedly read at a particular level don’t understand a quarter of what they’re reading! If I were reading a book that hard I’d get frustrated and bored. Kids are the same way. Do we really want to teach kids that reading is hard and boring? If you think something is hard and boring, do you want to do it in your free time? I didn’t think so.

My working philosophy (backed up by research) is that kids should read books they find interesting. If they find books and reading interesting, they’ll do more of it. The more they read, the better they’ll get. The better they get at reading, the better they’ll do on tests at school. Just like in sports, the more they do it, the better they’ll get. The more fun they have doing it, the more they’ll want to practice, whether it be throwing a baseball or reading a book.

My job is to find a book that is just right for your child. Yes, being able to read the words on the page is part of the equation. But the most important part is putting a book in your child’s hands that they’ll be excited to read. Come visit us at the library Information Desk, and let’s find a “Just Right” book for your child.

So what do I love to hear instead? “I just finished this book. What should I read next?”

 

-Kathy

Eek! Christmas is Coming!

Christmas!? You are probably asking yourself 

a) why is the library posting about Christmas already?? And 

b) why is the library posting about Christmas at all? 

Now don’t panic or get upset, but are some very good reasons to blog about Christmas in November from a library perspective:

Some people like to get crafty and give hand-made gifts for Christmas. This is very cool, as I am not particularly crafty myself. But the people that do this like to get started on their projects before Thanksgiving so they can be sure and finish them on time. How can the library help? We've got lots of craft books to give you clever ideas, of course! Head out into the 745 section for most craft books, and don't hesitate to ask about other crafting sections as well.

Sno-Isle Libraries has also purchased access for our patrons to a database called “Hobbies and crafts Reference Center”. With crafty ideas for your kids, quilting ideas, beading instructions, knitting, sewing and scrapbooking, this is a great place to explore. Whether you make gifts out of wood out in your shop, knit them in a cozy corner, or even create them out of recycled materials, we've got the ideas and the instructions.

So what if you just want to buy something for your loved one? Sno-Isle also give you online access to Consumer Reports so you get the best gift for your dollar, whether you’re buying a tablet for your spouse,  a backpack for your kid or even a car for yourself.

To get to either database, from sno-isle.org click on “Research”. “Hobbies and Crafts” is under the “Home and Hobbies” button and “Consumer Reports” is under the “Your Money” button.

So as we head into the holiday season, don’t forget your library!

We're Celebrating 50 Years!

Come join us and help celebrate Sno-Isle's 50th anniversary on Saturday, October 13 2-3:30 at the Marysville Branch. We will fill a time capsule and enjoy musical entertainment, and refreshments by Oosterwyk's Bakery will follow. The Quilceda Carvers have carved a beautiful box for the time capsule.

Marysville has had a library almost since its beginning; at first it was just a collection of books in an upstairs room. So what happened 50 years ago? That was when two separate county library systems - Snohomish and Island - decided to pool their resources and become one. Because of this, Sno-Isle can get more and better resources for everybody in the system than they could get separately.

What kinds of changes have we seen in the last 50 years? I can think of several:

• The catalog is now online, and you can access it anytime, anywhere with internet access
• We have over 30 computer terminals for patrons to use.
• We have online resources for learning and research, whether it be for repairing your car, exploring your genealogy, looking up a magazine article, or learning a language.
• You can check out items yourself if you want.
• You can ask for help finding what you want via live online chat or email.
• We have eBooks, audiobooks and music available for you to download.
• Hey, and we blog, too!

What hasn't changed in the last 50 years?

• We still have print books, magazines and newspapers.
• We still help you find what you're looking for either in person or by phone.
• We still have storytimes for young children with fun books, songs, and activities.
• We still provide a place for people to study or work or learn.
• We still promote a love of reading for all through programs and consultations.

What kinds of changes will happen in the next 50 years? I don't see that print will completely go away. But given the changes in the past 50, I know I can't even imagine the changes that we'll see! Please come and celebrate this coming Sat, and see what we put in our time capsule.

-Kathy