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Tuesday, April 30, 2013


25 Vintage Photos of Librarians 

Being Awesome...


"Librarians, in case you hadn’t heard, are essential members of society — likely to expand minds wherever they go — and, as such, are fully worthy of hero worship (whether they’re among the coolest librarians alive or just pretty cool). That’s at least part of the impetus behind My Daguerreotype Librarian, ”[a] tumblr dedicated to literally or figuratively hunky and babely librarians from the past.” Inspired by the website, here’s a little extra literary goodness: 25 awesome vintage photos of librarians from ages past."  Click here to see these great photographs via Flavorwire.com.


minnie

Monday, April 29, 2013

New Audiobooks!

The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to to the Heart of American Power, by Kim Ghattas
In this first inside account to be published about Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state, Kim Ghattas draws on extensive interviews with Clinton, administration officials and other players around Washington, telling the story of Hillary Clinton as America's envoy to the world. 

The Hit, by David Baldacci
Skilled assassin Will Robie is asked by the U.S. government to track down fellow assassin Jessica Reel, who has gone rogue, but during his pursuit of Reel, Robie realizes that her betrayal may be concealing a larger threat that could impact the whole world.




The Humanity Project, by Jean Thompson
Thompson proves herself at the height of her powers in The Humanity Project, crafting emotionally suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining characters, in which we inevitably see ourselves. Set against the backdrop of current events and cultural calamity, it is at once a multifaceted ensemble drama and a deftly observant story of our twenty-first-century society.

12th of Never, by James Patterson
A week after giving birth, Lindsay Boxer is investigating two cases: a grisly murder where the main suspect is an NFL player and an eccentric professor who thinks his dreams of a murder are real in this new addition to the best-selling series.



Maya's Notebook, by Isabel Allende
After the death of her beloved grandfather, 19-year-old Maya Vidal, turning to drugs, alcohol and petty crimes, becomes trapped in a war between assassins, the police, the FBI and Interpol, until her grandmother helps her escape to a remote island off the coast of Chile where she tries to make sense of her life. 



House Girl, by Tara Conklin
This stunning debut novel of love, family and justice follows Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in a Manhattan law firm, as she searches for the "perfect plaintiff" to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves. 


Waiting to be Heard: a Memoir, by Amanda Knox 
Filled with never before-told details and photos, the young exchange student whose conviction and acquittal on murder charges in Italy made headlines worldwide tells the full story of her ordeal, from the events that led to her arrest to her hard-fought battle to overcome injustice.



Whiskey Beach, by Nora Roberts
After suffering through an intense year of public and police scrutiny after being wrongly implicated in his fiancâe's murder, Boston lawyer Eli Landon takes sanctuary in a centuries-old family home and falls in love with resident housekeeper Abra Walsh, with whom he is entangled in an old, life-threatening mystery.

Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud 
Relegated to the status of schoolteacher and friendly neighbor after abandoning her dreams of becoming an artist, Nora advocates on behalf of a charismatic Lebanese student and is drawn into the child's family until his artist mother's careless ambition leads to a shattering betrayal.
















Bookish.com released the "Must-Read Mysteries and Thrillers for Spring 2013..."

"Spring's most electrifying thrillers include a "Gone Girl"-meets-"Groundhog Day" mind-twister, a horror novel by son-of-Stephen-King Joe Hill, crime fiction from the creator of"Artemis Fowl" and a modern-day espionage thriller from the author or "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," plus werewolves, video games and "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown's intriguing tale of Dante's "Inferno." Read on for top picks from Bookish's Mysteries & Thrillers editor." 
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Friday, April 26, 2013

New DVDs


"Broken City" - an ex-policeman turned private eye gets caught in a web of corruption when he is hired to follow the mayor's wife - stars Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones
 
"The Details" - which will fall first: a suburban couple's marriage or their raccoon infested house? - stars Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Ray Liotta
 
"The Guilt Trip" - on impulse, a grown man asks his mother to tag along on a cross-country journey - good idea? - stars Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogen
 
'Silver Linings Playbook" - Jennifer Lawrence won Academy, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Awards for portraying Tiffany, catalyst in a former mental patient's drive to rebuild his life - based on the bestselling novel by Matthew Quick - also starring Bradley Cooper, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker and Robert DeNiro


The Trustful Detective: A Q&A With An 
Israeli Crime Novelist...

D.A. Mishani is also the editor of international fiction and crime literature at Keter Books in Israel.
D.A. Mishani
"D.A Mishani is an Israeli literature scholar who specializes in the history of detective fiction. And recently he became a novelist as well — his debut, The Missing File, was published in the U.S. in MarchIts hero is police inspector Avraham Avraham, a lonely character who, on most nights, eats dinner in front of his TV. Only Avraham's parents call to wish him mazel tov on his birthday, and he can't solve the case at the center of the story because he refuses to suspect anyone. He is also one of the few detectives ever written in Hebrew." - NPR
Read more from this great NPR interview with Mishani,  and then reserve your copy at the Merrick Library today.


The Missing File

Thursday, April 25, 2013


Endless Summer: Meg Wolitzer Talks About “The Interestings” with The Daily Beast about her inspiration for her new book...




Come in and reserve your copy today.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

New DVDs


"The Bible" - the highest rated miniseries ever aired by the History Channel - coproduced by Mark Burnett ("Survivor, "The Apprentice") and Roma Downey ("Touched By An Angel"), who also appears as Mary the mother of Jesus
 
"Hemingway and Gellhorn" - from HBO - Nicole Kidman stars as the woman who inspired the novel "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and was the only one to ask the famed writer for a divorce - costars Clive Owen, David Straithairn and Parker Posey
 
"The Ten Commandments" -  director Cecil B. DeMille brought a onetime silent epic into the sound age with this 1956 masterpiece starring Charlton Heston in his signature role as Moses - all-star supporting cast includes Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne DeCarlo and Vincent Price

Carnegie Prize Finalists Announced by the American Library Association, include Big Names...


The Associated Press has reported that, "Junot Diaz and Louise Erdrich are among the finalists for a literary prize chosen by the American Library Association.
Diaz's "This Is How You Lose Her" and Erdrich's "The Round House" are nominees for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Also contending for the $5,000 award is Richard Ford's "Canada."
Finalists for the nonfiction category, also worth $5,000, are Jill Lepore's "The Mansion of Happiness," Timothy Egan's "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher" and David Quammen's "Spillover."
The library association announced the nominees Monday. Medals will be given to the winners June 30 at the association's annual conference in Chicago. Established in 2012, the awards are made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corp."
    book jacket 
    book jacket

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Whered-You-Go-Bernadet.jpg


You've seen this cover. You've heard the buzz.  Read the book and you will fall in love with Maria Semple's Bernadette.  

Click here to read this great interview 

with the author at  shelf-life.com

New Audiobooks!

Fly Away, by Kristin Hannah  
A follow-up to "Firefly Lane" returns readers to the world of Tully, Kate, and Tully's mother, who explore their understandings about love, family, loss, and redemption while turning to each other in the hopes of salvaging their lives.



Wedding Night, by Sophie Kinsella
Tiring of commitment-phobic boyfriends, Lottie readily accepts her ex's offer of marriage in fulfillment of a safety pact made years earlier that they would marry if they were still single in their thirties, a rushed arrangement that prompts family disapproval and an unexpected renewal of passion.



Best Kept Secret, by Jeffrey Archer  - out 4/30
Embarking on a shared family life after the events of The Sins of the Father, Harry, Emma, Sebastian and Jessica find their happiness challenged by Emma's brother's engagement to a fortune-seeker, Sebastian's hedonist pursuits and a grudge-bearing enemy from the past who would destroy their careers.

Monday, April 22, 2013


Award-Winning Children's 

Book Author Dies: E.L. Konigsburg


El Konisburg Dead

Konigsburg, who had two sons and a daughter and five grandchildren, 
started writing and illustrating children's books 
when her youngest child began kindergarten. 

The Merrick Library features the following Konigsburg titles: 

"From the Mixed-Up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"
"Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's"
"Journey to an 800 Number"
"The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place"
"Silent to the Bone"
"T-backs, T-shirts, Coat, and Suit"
"The View from Saturday"

Read more about Konigsburg here.




Friday, April 19, 2013

New DVDs

Out April 19:


"Les Miserables" - Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress honors at the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards portraying Fantine in this film version of the renowned musical based on the timeless Victor Hugo novel - also starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amandra Seyfried and Helena Bonham-Carter.

"This is 40" - Pete and Debbie, the married folks from "Knocked Up" face a milestone year in their individual and united lives - directed by Judd Apatow and starring Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann and Jason Segel (TV's "How I Met Your Mother")

Out April 23:

"Gangster Squad" - based on a true story - to damage mobster Mickey Cohen in 1949 Los Angeles a cop not only had to be incorruptible but a rogue! - stars Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte and Emma Stone ("The Help")

"The Impossible" - based on an incredible true story - a family visiting Thailand must unite with strangers to survive the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami - acclaimed performances by Naomi Watts and Tom Holland

"Mr. Selfridge" - Based on a True Story- Jeremy Piven (HBOs Entourage) portrays the American born entrepreneur who make shopping in early 20th century London an entertainment!  

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

New Audiobooks!

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg
The Facebook CEO and Fortune top-ranked businesswoman shares provocative, anecdotal advice for women that urges them to take risks and seek new challenges in order to find work that they can love and engage in passionately.



The Vatican Diaries: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities, and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church, by John Thavis
Presents a behind-the-scenes perspective on the Vatican's inner workings that challenges popular perceptions, revealing the personal conflicts, authority-undermining scandals, and modern considerations that are challenging the Vatican's daily business.

The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.


The Blossom Sisters, by Fern Michaels
Swindled out of his home by his gold-digging wife, successful accountant Gus Hollister returns to his grandmother Rose's Virginia farmhouse where he helps the residents of Blossom Farm expand their business and finds the courage to love again.



Wise Men, by Stuart Nadler
Falling in love with a young African-American woman during the summer of 1952, Hilly Wise, the son of one of the country's most powerful lawyers, inadvertently reveals dark secrets that shatter both families and compel Hilly years later to settle old scores.



Secrets From the Past, by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Leaving her successful job after the unexpected death of her famous father, photojournalist Serena Stone risks her life to save a former lover and discovers an archive of her late father's work that reveals shocking truths about her parents' marriage.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

"The Jackie Robinson Story"


On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in the major leagues.  In recounting that historic event, the Ken Burns PBS documentary series "Baseball" proclaimed that with Robinson's arrival the sport had finally become that which it had always said it was: "The National Pastime."

Sixty-years later on the weekend before April 15 the motion picture "42: The Jackie Robinson Story" premiered in theaters across the nation earning an impressive $27.3 million in profit for the Warner Brothers studios. High praise has been expressed for the performances of Chadwick Boseman as Jackie and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, co-owner and general manager of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers who engineered the groundbreaking move. Among the talented supporting cast members are Christopher Meloni (TV's "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit") as Leo Durocher, Max Gail (TV's "Barney Miller") as Dodger manager Burt Shotton, and John C. McGinley (TV's "Scrubs") as broadcaster Red Barber.

Merrick Library has numerous books recounting the life and times of Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers and baseball during those turbulent times. Among them:

Breslin, Jimmy. Branch Rickey.
Eig, Jonathan. Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season.  
Falkner, David. Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson, From Baseball to Birmingham.
Golenbock, Peter. Bums. An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Wait Till Next Year.
McNeil, William F. The Dodgers Encyclopedia.
Prince, Carl E.  Brooklyn's Dodgers: The Bums, The Borough and the Best of Baseball, 1947-1957.
Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made.
Shapiro, Michael. Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself.
Thorn, John. The Glory Days: New York Baseball, 1947-1957.
Tygiel, Jules.  Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy.
Ward, Geoffrey C. Baseball: An Illustrated History.

"It was deeply surreal to walk among thousands of people in the streets of Pyongyang and see that the men all have the same exact haircut..."                         - Adam Johnson 


A vivid novel about North Korea by Adam Johnson 
has won the 2013 Pulitzer Honor. 


Monday, April 15, 2013

The Pulitzer Prizes Public Service Award Medal

....and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners are.....

FICTION - "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson

DRAMA - "Disgraced" by Ayad Akhtar

HISTORY - "Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam" by Fredrik Logevall (Random House),

BIOGRAPHY - "The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo" by Tom Reiss (Crown)

POETRY - "Stag's Leap" by Sharon Olds

GENERAL NONFICTION - "Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America" by Gilbert King (Harper)

To see the finalists click here.   Congratulations to the winners!





“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.” 
― Joseph Pulitzer
Click here to find out who sits on the 




Sunday, April 14, 2013


Pamela Paul Named New York Times Book Review Editor

Sam Tanenhaus and Pamela Paul

Pamela Paul will replace Sam Tanenhaus, the 9-year editor of the NYT Book Review.  

“Her versatility as an editor and writer has strengthened the Book Review and many other sections, including the Magazine, Education Life and Sunday Styles, where she originated the biweekly ‘Studied’ column,” the editors continue. ”Her weekly Q. and A. with authors, ‘By the Book,’ has been a wonderful new addition to the Review, and she has assigned a galaxy of great writers including Martin Amis, Colson Whitehead and Meg Wolitzer, among others. “ - New York Times

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Booklist 2013 Historical Fiction

"From an intriguing new way of looking at WWII, to a masterful reconstruction of the court of Henry VIII, to an authentic depiction of Montana in 1960, these historical novels, the best Booklist has reviewed between April 15, 2012, and April 1, 2013, make exceptionally good time-transporters." - Brad Hooper


The Accursed  The Accursed. By Joyce Carol Oates. 
Oates brings her dark humor and extraordinary fluency in eroticism and violence to this effective novel—set in Princeton, New Jersey, in the early years of the twentieth century—about the devastating toll of repression and prejudice, sexism and class warfare.

The Bartender’s Tale. By Ivan Doig. 
This coming-of-age drama, set in Montana in 1960 but often flashing back to the Depression, is involving and subtly portrayed.

Bring Up the Bodies. By Hilary Mantel. 
The sequel to Wolf Hall (2009) takes the dramatic story of Thomas Cromwell, chief secretary to King Henry VIII, through the edge-of-your-seat events in the fall of Anne Boleyn, the monarch’s second and doomed consort.

Coup d’Etat. By Harry Turtledove. 
The author’s masterful presentation of an alternate WWII reaches its fourth volume with its quality undiminished.

 The Dream of the CeltThe Dream of the Celt. By Mario Vargas Llosa. Tr. by Edith Grossman. 
An Irishman in the British diplomatic service in the immediate pre-WWI years—an actual historical figure—is the main character in the Peruvian Nobel laureate’s latest novel.

Heading out to Wonderful. By Robert Goolrick. 
With understated delicacy, the author creates a mesmerizing gothic tale of a good man gone wrong in the post-WWII years.

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. By Stephen L. Carter.
Carter draws on historical documents and a vivid imagination to render a fascinating mix of murder mystery, political thriller, and courtroom drama.

In Sunlight and in Shadow. By Mark Helprin. 
In this prodigious saga of exalted romance in corrupt, post-WWII New York, the author creates a supremely gifted and principled hero.

 MerivelMerivel: A Man of His Time. By Rose Tremain. 
In this wonderful sequel to Restoration(1990), set 16 years later, Tremain’s lovingly flawed protagonist, Sir Robert Merivel, pens a second riveting memoir as King Charles II’s once glorious reign winds down.

The Testament of Mary. By Colm Tóibín. 
This stunning interpretation of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is as beautiful in its presentation as it is provocative in its intention.