I feel like we just did this...  Here's the long list of Man Booker Prize finalists. Short list finalists will be announced in September. If you recall, Hillary Mantel won the 2012 prize for Bringing up the Bodies. Click on each of the title links below to see brief descriptions of each book.

Five Star Billionaire    by Tash Aw

We Need New Names   by NoViolet Bulawayo

The Luminaries    by Eleanor Catton

Harvest   by Jim Crace

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman   by Eve Harris

The Kills   by Richard House

The Lowland   by Jhumpa Lahiri

Unexploded   by Alison MacLeod

TransAtlantic   by Colum McCann

Almost English   by Charlotte Mendelson

A Tale for the Time Being   by Ruth Ozeki 

The Spinning Heart   by Donal Ryan

The Testament of Mary   by Colm Tóibín

- Click here to read the press release...

Now is the perfect time to pick up a few of these at the Merrick Library and weigh in with your selection for this distinguished prize.

 

On Monday we posted a photo of a library setting up shop on a beach in France. Now it seems a wave of libraries can be found at the beach. Click the title link below to read this article:

"Tel Aviv opens a new beach library, or why we’re never coming home."   by Sal Robinson of Melville House

Tel Aviv Beach, pictured above.

New DVDs out today at the Merrick Library...

"Ginger & Rosa" - two inseparable teenage girls face the upheaval in their family and personal lives as the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis looms over early 1960's London - stars Elle Fanning, Annette Benning and Christina Hendricks (TV's "Mad Men").

 "Graceland"-  When a kidnapping goes wrong, a desperate father risks everything to save his daughter from the men who hold her captive. From the Phillipines.

"Starbuck" - from France - 142 people may have the same biological father, a fortyish man about to become a dad the old-fashioned way. From New Zealand.

"Trance" - a priceless Goya painting is missing and so is the thief's memory - which will the beautiful hypnotist find first? - stars James McAvoy ("The Conspirator"), Vincent Cassel ("A Dangerous Method") and Rosario Dawson ("Zookeeper").

"Welcome to the Punch" - when his son gets in trouble, an ex-criminal comes out of hiding and must face again the detective who once strove to put him in prison - stars James McAvoy, Andrea Rieseborough ("Made in Dagenham") and Mark Strong ("Day of the Falcon").