Can reading make you rich...?

Well, will reading make you rich? 

Researchers claim reading fiction bestows marketable skills.  This is a follow up article to last weeks post about reading making us better thinkers. 

Salon.com takes that study one step further.  

This is great, click here for this follow-up piece...

Out July 2:

"Identity Thief" - who is the real Sandy Patterson? It's not the one whose credit cards are maxed out! - stars Melissa McCarthy (TV's "Mike and Molly"), Jason Bateman ("Horrible Bosses"), Jon Favreau ("Couples Retreat") and Amanda Peet ("2012")

(Note: Miss McCarthy is currently starring with Sandra Bullock in the comedy "The Heat," now playing at your local movie theater.)

"The Other Son" - from France - two young men were accidentally switched at birth. A further complication: one is Israeli, the other Palestinian - directed by Lorraine Levy (winner of the Best Director Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival)

Vince Flynn

Vince Flynn, whose fourteen novels tapped into the worst-case anxieties of a post-Cold War world and sold fifteen million books in the process died in his native Minnesota June 19 at the age of 47. At times employed as a marketing specialist, commercial real estate operator and bartender, Flynn self-published his first novel "Term Limits" after sixty rejection letters and won through local salesmanship a contract with Simon and Schuster plus national paperback best seller status. This was all the more remarkable given Flynn's lifelong battle with dyslexia. His next novel "Transfer of Power" introduced counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp who would in later books ally with the Secret Service, Special Forces and national security officers. Rapp's adversaries were often Islamic radical fundamentalists out front and politicians and bureaucrats in the background. Vince Flynn won a legion of fans among which were actual members of the intelligence community and leaders of many nations including former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Other admirers numbered such talk show hosts as Joe Scarborough, Don Imus, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Flynn's passing comes at a time when CBS Films is planning a movie adaptation of the 2010 novel "American Assassin" featuring Bruce Willis as Stan Hurley, mentor to Mitch Rapp.


The following books by Vince Flynn can be found at Merrick Library:

Act of Treason
American Assassin
Consent to Kill
Extreme Measures
Kill Shot
The Last Man
Memorial Day
Protect and Defend
Pursuit of Honor

An untitled final novel, cowritten by Brian Haig, will appear on Merrick shelves later this year.

New DVDs

Out June 25:

 

"The Call" - a 911 operator takes matters in her own hands when a killer from her past abducts a teenage girl - stars Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin ("My Sister's Keeper")

 

"The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" - imagine Steve Carrell, Jim Carrey and Steve Buscemi (TV's "Boardwalk Empire") as competing magicians - anything can happen!

 

"No" - whether or not 1980s Chile remains under the thumb of dictator Augsto Pinochet is up to one advertising executive (Gael Garcia Bernal, "A Little Bit of Heaven")

- voted among the top five Foreign Films by the National Board of Review

New Audiobooks!

Second Honeymoon, by James Patterson
FBI agent John O'Hara and Special Agent Sarah Brubaker hunt an ingenious pair of serial killers whose victims all seem to be newlyweds.




Sisterland, by Curtis Sittenfield
When the strongest earthquake in U.S. history occurs just north of their St. Louis home, Kate and Jeremy find the disaster further complicated by Kate's self-proclaimed medium twin's prediction about a more powerful earthquake, a situation that places Kate under public scrutiny and reveals her own psychic abilities.


Her Last Breath, by Linda Castillo
When her best friend's husband and two children are killed in a suspicious car accident, Amish community member Kate maintains a vigil by a grievously injured survivor who may hold answers before investigating a brutal killer who makes her question everything about her Amish culture.


Gotcha, by Fern Michaels
Julie Wyatt is convinced that her daughter-in-law, Darlene, is responsible for the mysterious death of her son Larry and enlists the aid of fellow members of the Sisterhood, Myra and Annie, to help ensure the safety of Larry's daughter and obtain a confession from Darlene.



Two of a Kind, by Susan Mallery
A second book in a trilogy about three brave bodyguards and the women who love them.

Crime author Jeffery Deaver wrote this funny and interesting piece on Bookish.com discussing why New York City is the crime novel capital:

"Sorry, Paris, London, Moscow, Rio, Tokyo . . . You have your charms and your dark sides, but there's no place like New York City for crime writers. Why do I and so many other authors set books there? I've come up with a top five list to answer that question."

Read the post here and then please come in and take some of Deaver's books with you to the beach!  The Merrick Library has a big selection of his titles including: 

Reading novels makes us better thinkers? 

Pacific Standard reports that new research says reading literary fiction helps people embrace ambiguous ideas and avoid snap judgments. Sounds good to me. 
Read this article here from the Pacific Standard.

James Gandolfini, the powerful New Jersey-born actor best known for portraying the complex Garden State-based mob boss Tony Soprano on the groundbreaking HBO series "The Sopranos" died June 19 while visiting Rome with his teenage son Michael.  He was 51 years old.  Gandolfini won three Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and one Golden Globe Award for his work in a program that paved the way for HBO and other cable networks to produce quality dramatic programs such as "Mad Men" and "Boardwalk Empire." An actor since age 25, Gandolfini made his Broadway debut in a minor role in the revival of the Tennessee Williams classic "A Streetcar Named Desire" starring Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin.  In 2010, Galdolfini returned to the Great White Way to star opposite Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis in Yasmina Reza's drama "God of Carnage."

In addition to the complete third season and the second half of season six of "The Sopranos," Merrick Library has the following films on DVD featuring the talents of James Gandolfini:

All The King's Men
Cinema Verite
In The Loop
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Lonely Hearts
Romance and Cigarettes
The Taking of Pelham 123
Welcome to the Rileys
Where the Wild Things Are (voice work)

Building a Better Book Club...

"I've...set out a few "rules of the road" that I think any book club would do well to keep in mind when proceeding. There is no greater social pleasure than discussing a book with others who have read it as well. The books we read are frequently the narratives we live by and learn with. Our discussions of them should be at least as rewarding as the stories themselves." 

This is from a blog piece featured on the Huffington Post website. It's full of great suggestions for your book group. Please take note here...

I love things like this: read how 8 famous writers chose their pen names.


"Some pen names are fairly well-known for what they are. Most people know that Mark Twain was the alias of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The outing of Richard Bachman as a pen name used by Stephen King was well-publicized and inspired King’s novel, The Dark Half. Some pen names you don’t see coming, though, and assume the name on the book cover is the real deal."

Can you guess who Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto is?  How about, Eric Arthur Blair?   This nice piece from Mental_Floss.com gives you the answers. Read it here.