Curl Up With A Biography

After much thought, many nights of employee-testing and analysis, the library has formulated the following equation:

Mug of cocoa + Snuggie + captivating biography = BLISS!

This is the perfect time of year to cozy up to the couch and get lost in a biography! Here are some of the season's newest biography titles:

Remember How I Love You: love letters from an extraordinary marriage by Jerry & Elaine Orbach

Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli

Shooting Stars by Lebron James and Buzz Bissinger

Ted Kennedy: scenes from an epic life by The Boston Globe

Finding It by Valerie Bertinelli

Paul McCartney: a life by Peter Ames Carlin

Open: an autobiography by Andre Agassi

Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

Last Words by George Carlin

The Queen Mother: the official biography by William Shawcross

Prophet of Purpose: the life of Rick Warren by Jeffery L. Sheler

High Society: the life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto

Come on down to the library and check out or reserve any of these titles today!

Photo credits: stevendepolo & fuzzy gerdes @ flickr.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

The library will be closed Thursday, Novemeber 26th and Friday, Novemeber 27th for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will re-open on Saturday at 11am.

Remember if you get in a pinch tomorrow trying to get your turkey ready you can always call 1-800-BUTTERBALL. They have been answering turkey cooking questions for 29 years! What is the craziest question phoned in over the years? Get the scoop in this interview with a Butterball Talk Line supervisor.

Have a happy, safe holiday!

National Book Awards - 2009

From the National Book Foundation:

On March 15, 1950, a consortium of book publishing groups sponsored the first annual National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Their goal was to enhance the public's awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans, and to increase the popularity of reading in general. Since then, The National Book Awards have become the nation's preeminent literary prizes. Currently, awards are given to recognize achievements in four genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature.

Here are this year's winners (click on the title for more info):

Fiction: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Nonfiction: The First Tycoon: the epic life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles

Poetry: Transcendental Studies: a trilogy by Keith Waldrop

Young People's Literature: Claudette Colvin: twice toward justice by Phillip Hoose
Alabama takes special pride in this winner. This book is a biography of a 15 year old African-American who in 1950s Montgomery, AL refused to give up her seat on a bus - nine months before Rosa Parks did. For more information about last week's awards ceremony (in which Ms.Colvin attended) read this NYT's article.

All of these books are available with the Jefferson County Library System. Or if you want to check out a title from a previous year, click here to view the complete list of winners and nominees from the past 50 years.

Come down to the library to check out a National Book Award winner or nominee today!

Are you ready for New Moon?

It is finally here!!! The highly anticipated movie New Moon will be released this Friday, November 20th, 2009. It is the second film installment of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series. From the official movie site:

Bella Swan is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

No matter whether you are Team Edward or Team Jacob - has it been a while since you have seen or read Twilight? Do you want to re-read New Moon before you see the movie on the big screen? Then come on down to the library to check out a copy of any of the books in the series or the movie Twilight.

Or if you are a middle-schooler or high-schooler.....

....come play Teen Twilight Trivia! This week, in honor of New Moon's release, we are running a little contest. Answer a Twilight trivia question correctly and you will win an awesome prize!

Book Club Wrap-Up - Holiday Favorites

We had a fun book club meeting last night. It was a bit different from previous meetings because we had a book show-and-tell! Everyone brought a few of their favorite holiday books to share with the rest of the group. It was a lot of fun to talk about the books and share fond memories we had related to the stories.

Here are the books that can be found within the libraries of Jefferson County:

The Christmas Alphabet by Robert Sabuda

Every single one of us loved looking at this beautiful pop-up story!

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Cute story about a family who tries, much to the chagrin of their neighbors, to skip over the holiday. The movie Christmas with the Kranks was based on this book.

You Better Not Cry: stories for Christmas by Augusten Buroughs
A funny book of holiday stories that David Sedaris fans would appreciate.

Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

Irondale's favorite native writer tells a the sweet tale about a man who has recently relocated to the little town of Lost River, Alabama.

The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke

Another classic - this one tells the story of the 3 wise men but with a twist.

The Christmas Wish by Richard Siddoway

This heart-warming story starts off with a man who comes back home when his grandfather passes on. It was turned into a TV movie starring Debbie Reynolds.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A great classic - always a favorite!

Babar and Father Christmas by Jean de Brunhoff

Babar is in search of Santa as he attempts to bring Yuletide cheer to Elephants' country.

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

Classic memoir of Capote's childhood in rural Alabama.

And speaking of Truman Capote....one of our book club members sent me a link about Monroeville's 2nd Annual Fruitcake festival that honors Capote and "A Christmas Memory". It is set for this Friday, November 13th. Check out this Birmingham News article for more information (Thanks, Jan!).

I hope this list gives you a few ideas to help get into the holiday spirit. Tell us - what are some of your favorite holiday books? Leave us a comment...we would love to hear from you :)

Book Club - Monday, November 9th

We are doing book club a little differently this month and would love for you to come join us. Instead of reading a selected book and and discussing it, we are having a book show-and-tell! Bring one or more of your favorite holiday books. This can be for any holiday - craft books, cookbooks, children's picture books, fiction, etc. - whatever gets you in the holiday spirit!

I already know one book I am going to talk about....

All I can say is YUM-MY! Maybe I will have more to say by Monday. If not, we can always just drool over the pictures :)

Feel free to call (951-1415) or email (irondalelibrary@gmail.com) us with any questions about book club. Hope to see you Monday, November 9th at 6:30pm!

Shelf Discovery Challenge

A couple of months ago BPL made a blog post about a neat book called Shelf Discovery: the teen classics we never stopped reading edited by Lizzie Skurnick. It is a collection of essays about books from the late 60s to early ’80s that are still influencing readers today. Shelf Discovery includes dozens of essays featuring over 70 young adult titles.

Now Julie from the blog Booking Mama has taken the fun of this book one step further by creating a blog challenge! The Shelf Discovery Reading Challenge will run for six months, from November 1, 2009 through April 30, 2010. All you have to do is read 6 of the titles featured in the book and you can post a "book

report" or comments about what you read. Visit Julie’s post about the challenge for more details.

This book kind of reminds me of another book that I read recently that will take the ladies down memory lane: Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I learned from Judy Blume edited by Jennifer O'Connell. The title says it all - it is a book of essays written by authors reminiscing about coming-of-age with Judy Blume novels. Both books are interesting reads!

Myself along with another staff member at our library have middle school aged daughters, so we are super excited to not only participate in the challenge ourselves, but with our daughters, too. If you have a pre-teen/teen daughter or niece, this would be something fun to do together :)

Request a copy of Shelf Discovery today and join the challenge!