Read some of THE weirdest things 
fans have said to authors:
"On Fandom: I Love Your Book, I Love You, We're Soul Sisters, I Hate You"

by Nichole Bernier 

The Weight of Books...

Please click the title link above to read this very interesting piece by David L. Ulin the Los Angeles Times book critic about his 4,000 volumes and more than 100 book shelves. Perhaps we can all relate?

What Did Publishers Weekly Learn from their Great American Novel Poll? 

Click here to find out!

New Audiobooks!

The Storyteller, by Jodi Picoult
Sage Singer becomes friends with an old man who's particularly beloved in her community after they strike up a conversation at the bakery where she works. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses, but then he tells her he deserves to die. Once he reveals his secret, Sage wonders if he's right. What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever redeem themselves with good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all--if Sage even considers his request--is it murder, or justice?

Tenth of December, by George Saunders
A collection of stories includes "Home," a wryly whimsical account of a soldier's return from war; Victory Lap," a tale about an inventive abduction attempt; and the title story, in which a suicidal cancer patient saves the life of a young misfit.



Balancing Act:  All She Can Be / Free Spirit
Divorced novelist Rita Bellamy's fragile confidence is boosted when a younger man shows an interest in her, and New Yorker Dory, after moving to Washington, D.C. to be with a man, has a hard time adjusting to her new life.


Don't Go, by Lisa Scottoline - out 4/9
When Dr. Mike Scanlon is called to serve as an army doctor in Afghanistan, he's acutely aware of the dangers he'll face and the hardships it will bring his wife Chloe and newborn baby. And deep inside, he doesn't think of himself as a hero, but a healer. However, in an ironic turn of events, as Mike operates on a wounded soldier in a war-torn country, Chloe dies at home in the suburbs, in an apparently freak household accident. Devastated, he returns home to bury her, only to discover that the life he left behind has fallen apart. He's a stranger to his baby girl, and his medical practice has downsized in his absence. Worse, he learns a shocking secret that sends him into a downward spiral.


The Boyfriend, by Thomas Perry
Jack Till, who has retired from the LAPD after a respected career as a homicide detective, now works as a private investigator, comfortable chasing down routine cases while visiting his 24-year-old daughter, Holly, who has Down Syndrome. But when the parents of a recently murdered young girl, about Holly's age, ask for his help when the police come up empty, Till reluctantly takes the case. Jack Till must delve into the shadowy world of the online escort business to find a serial killer who hops from city to city. 

Robert Ludlum's The Utopia Experiment, by Kyle Mills
While assessing the military potential of a new intelligence device, Covert-One's Colonel Jon Smith realizes the technology must never fall into the hands of America's enemies.



Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip & Dan Heath
Explains how to overcome natural biases and irrational thinking to make better decisions in work and life, drawing on extensive studies and research to outline specific strategies for enabling clear-headed thinking.

Five Girl-Power Books Exactly Like Sheryl Sandberg’s 

‘Lean In’

Read Sean Macauly's Daily Beast article here.

Teenage girl shot by Taliban to publish 'I Am Malala'

In a release about the book, Malala said: "I hope the book will reach people around the world, so they realize how difficult it is for some children to get access to education. 

I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right."  Click the title link above to read more about Malala's story.

10 Wonderful Short Stories to Read For Free Online...

 Read them at   flavorwire.com

Fascinating Photos of Famous Authors as Teenagers...

 

Can you guess who this very famous author is?  

No hints! Read it at Flavorwire.com

A Brief History of Book Vending Machines by John Geoghegan

"There are lots of reasons why a white elephant technology doesn't catch on. Sometimes the technology is ahead of its time. In other cases, no amount of time can make a misguided technology useful or attractive. Then there's vending machines that sell books..."    Click the title link above to read this fun and interesting blog piece by Geoghegan at Huff Post Books. ENJOY!

Robert Frost's Birthday: Read 16 Inspiring Quotes From The Famous Poet

                     

 Click the link above to read 16 inspiring Robert Frost quotes in 

honor of his

139th birthday day, courtesy of The Huffington Post. 

              

Chinua Achebe Dies: Beyond ‘Things Fall Apart,’ And His Best Books

The titan of African literature has died at the age of 82. We know him as the writer of Things Fall Apart, but here’s a primer on his other great novels and nonfiction—and his life.  Check out the Daily Beast link above for more about this author and his compelling work.

New to our DVD Collection.

Out March 26:

"Day of the Falcon" - the discovery of oil in the 1930s means life for two formerly warring Arab states will never be the same - stars Antonio Banderas, Mark Strong ("Zero Dark Thirty') and Frieda Pinto ("Slumdog Millionaire")

"Killing Them Softly" - who does The Mob call when things get out of control? Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), the enforcer - also starring Ray Liotta, Sam Shepard and James Gandolfini (TV's "The Sopranos")

"Lincoln" - Daniel Day-Lewis in his multi-award winning role as the 16th president who faces personal and cabinet storms as he prepares to free the slaves in the midst of the Civil War - screenplay by Tony Kushner ("Angels in America") based on the book "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin - acclaimed supporting cast including Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

"Parental Guidance" - Artie and Diane are old school, their grandkids 21st century - can they coexist? - stars Billy Crystal, Marisa Tomei and Bette Midler

"A Royal Affair" - from Denmark - Mads Mikkelsen ("Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky) stars as an enlightened German doctor who helps the queen he loves bring about reform in the late 18th century in spite of a mad king

"Veep: The Complete First Season" - the HBO comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus in her Emmy-winning role as Selina Meyer, first female vice-president of the United States

50 Reasons You Should Be a Bookworm...

Want to know what they are? 

Check it out at qwiklit !

Eat Like a Caveman? 

The Trouble With Paleo Living. 

Should we live like our hunter-gatherer forebears, run barefoot and eat nothing but meat, nuts, and fruit? Robert Herritt of the Daily Beast says a new book shows that paleo living is based on a misreading of evolution. Use the title link above to find out.

The Devil and Woodrow Wilson: An Interview With Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates speaks to Jane Ciabattari of The Daily Beast about her new novel The Accursed, which deals with the scourge placed on the founding families of Princeton University, where Oates teaches.  Read this interview by clicking the title link above. 

Books aren’t dead yet

Self-publishing fans and the tech-obsessed keep getting it wrong: Big authors want to be in print -- and bookstores.

Without a doubt, book publishing is an industry in a state of flux, but even the nature of the flux is up for grabs.

Read this compelling article by Laura Miller at Salon.com

In the spirit of The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 list, Bookriot.com profiles eight octogenarians (and older) who are still perfecting their craft. Alice Munro, Herman Wouk, Toni Morrison and Tom Wolfe are featured on this list. 

       

Read about it here: 8 Writers Over 80... 

New Advantage Titles for your E-Readers!

The Merrick Library has purchased additional copies of popular E-Book Titles for Merrick Library Card holders. This is our current collection as of March 2013. 

After Wife

Age of Miracles

All Summer Long

Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society

Baker’s Daughter

Beginner’s Goodbye

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Calico Joe

Columbus Affair

Confessions

Dark Places

Defending Jacob

Dressmaker

End of Your Life Book Club

Fifty Shades trilogy

Friends Forever

Friends Like Us

Girls in White Dresses

Gone Girl

Heads in Beds

I Am Forbidden

I’ve Got Your Number

Innocents

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

Mission to Paris

Racketeer

Sandcastle Girls

Seating Arrangements

Sins of the Mother

Summer Breeze

Sutton

Sweet Tooth

Time Keeper

Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Until the End of Time

Week in Winter

World WithoutYou

10 Free Stories by George Saunders

George Saunders,  George Saunders!   Everyone is talking about  George Saunders and his new short story collection. 

Open Culture website has this terrific piece about Saunders which links to 10 free short stories and features an "Authors at Google" interview. Clink the title link above.  It's really worth checking out.

The play Lucky Guy, Nora Ephron’s last completed work, is about a journalist who kept striving to do his best work even as he was dying of cancer. 

He was her inspiration to do the same.

Read all about it in  Nora Ephron’s Final Act,  

written by her son, Jacob Bernstein, The New York Times Magazine

35 Bookplates Belonging To Famous People

Curious how famous people laid claim to their libraries? These lovely inserts not only indicate a book's provenance, but they often reflect the owner's personality. Ranging from silent movie stars to presidents, here are examples of ex libris from the historical elite.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/babymantis/35-bookplates-belonging-to-famous-people-1opu

These bookplates are wonderful and 

definitely worth a look.

Free E-'Da Vinci Code' Offered 

Until March 24

According to the Huffington Post website, ten years and tens of millions of copies later, "The Da Vinci Code" is on the house.

Doubleday announced Monday that a free e-book edition of Dan Brown's blockbuster novel will be available at online retailers through March 24. The e-book will include the prologue and first chapter of Brown's next novel, "Inferno," coming out in May. "The Da Vinci Code" was published March 18, 2003. It has since sold more than 80 million copies worldwide.

Doubleday also announced that Brown will make a single promotional appearance in the U.S. for "Inferno." He will speak at Avery Fisher Hall in Manhattan's Lincoln Center on May 15, the day after his new book is released. 

Geographic Comfort Zones in Literature by Dave Astor

"A gift of a book I have yet to read gave me the idea for this post.

How can that be? Well, the Silent House novel I received last month is by Orhan Pamuk of Turkey. The country that Nobel Prize winner is from reminded me that I and many other readers have a geographic comfort zone when it comes to literature..."  

To read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor/geographic-comfort-zones-_b_2877532.html?utm_hp_ref=books

Dave Astor's memoir Comic (and Column) Confessional (Xenos Press, 2012) includes a preface by Heloise; back-cover endorsements by Arianna Huffington, "The Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson and others; appearances by Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Coretta Scott King, Martha Stewart and others; and a mix of humor and heartache.