Library Closed for the Holiday Weekend

The Library will be closed on Sat., Aug. 30 through Mon., Sept. 1 for the Labor Day Holiday. Beginning on Sat., Sept. 6 we will be open on Saturdays from 9am to 5pm and on Sundays from 1pm to 5pm. Enjoy the holiday!

Seeing Double

Over the years I have seen many books that have the same title or the same plot. I easily found six other books named Absolution, there are probably many more. This is the first time I have seen two books with the same cover. Granted, The Third Angel cover has been colorized, but it is the same image. I don’t know why, but this irritates me. How about you; do you feel jacket art should be distinctive to the book that it covers?

Again With the Stephenie Meyer's Fans

Yesterday I received a request for Stephenie Meyer's book Midnight Sun. Hmmm...never heard of that one, and so I went to Stephenie Meyer's web site to find out the scoop. Apparently they have been bombarded with emails about this title and so they had this note to the rabid fans:

Update: In response to the outrageous number of emails that I have received with questions concerning Midnight Sun, I talked to Stephenie this weekend and she asked me to let everyone know that Midnight Sun is her next project. She has not yet finished writing it (and there is no timeline set up, so we all need to put a lot of effort into being patient for a while longer), but she is definitely still planning on having it published. And, after Breaking Dawn comes out, Stephenie will have much more time to focus on writing Midnight Sun.

Apparently Midnight Sun is Twilight, but it is told from the perspective of Edward. The first chapter of the book is available on Stephenie's web site for your viewing pleasure.

Listen Up!

The New Hampshire State Library has purchased more new titles for you to download, check them out!

New June Titles

Title	Author
The Billionaire's Vinegar	Wallace, Benjamin
The Fires of Merlin	Barron, T.A.
The Front	Cornwell, Patricia
Peeled	Bauer, Joan
Shadow Command	Brown, Dale
Audition	Walters, Barbara
Careless in Red	George, Elizabeth
Devil May Care	Faulks, Sebastian
Executive Privilege	Margolin, Phillip
First Test	Pierce, Tamora
Hickory Dickory Dock	Christie, Agatha
The Immortal Highlander	Moning, Karen Marie
Life's a Beach	Cook, Claire
Our Dumb World	Onion, The
The Sugar Queen	Allen, Sarah Addison
What Happened	McClellan, Scott
Fearless Fourteen	Evanovich, Janet
No Choice But Seduction	Lindsey, Johanna
Nothing to Lose	Child, Lee
Page	Pierce, Tamora
Plague Ship	Cussler, Clive
Summer Blowout	Cook, Claire
Sway	Brafman, Ori

New July Titles

Title	Author
The Beach House	Green, Jane
The Beach House	Patterson, James
Chasing Darkness	Crais, Robert
The Dead and the Gone	Pfeffer, Susan Beth
Echo Burning	Child, Lee
Ghost	Burton, Fred
The Mysterious Affair at Styles	Christie, Agatha
Persuader	Child, Lee
Squire	Pierce, Tamora
Without Fail	Child, Lee
YOU: The Owner's Manual Updated and Expanded Edition	Oz, Mehmet
At First Sight	Cannell, Stephen J.
City of Time	Mcnamee, Eoin
Death Angel	Howard, Linda
The Enemy	Child, Lee
Love Only Once	Lindsey, Johanna
The Monster of Florence	Preston, Douglas
Mostly Harmless	Adams, Douglas
On the Wings of Heroes	Peck, Richard
One Shot	Child, Lee
Silent Thunder	Johansen, Iris
Tribute	Roberts, Nora
The Book of the Dead	Preston, Douglas
Illegal Action	Rimington, Stella
The Lion's Game	DeMille, Nelson
London Bridges	Patterson, James
The Magician	Scott, Michael
Moving Forward	Pelzer, Dave
Rogue	Steel, Danielle
Tender Rebel	Lindsey, Johanna
The White Giraffe	John, Lauren St.

How Go-Go Dancers Saved the World

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler

It’s a captivating title for a particular type of reader. Since I am a fan of post apocalyptic fiction and Monty Python, it is definitely my cup of tea. Picture this: the world lies in ruins after a devastating flu epidemic, a massive earthquake in California, economic collapse, and nuclear terrorism. In the U.S. the last bastion of civilization is a chain of taverns similar to Hooters called Joey Armageddon’s Sassy A-Go-Go. Fascinating characters abound; Bill copes with the collapse of the civilized world by taking on the persona of a straight-shooting, good guy cowboy, the Glam Van Dammes, a bearded radical Ted Turner fights in the resistance, and Terry, the polite corporate torturer.

Terry cleared his throat. “I’m not usually involved with interrogations, but I was the only one around, and, well beggars can’t be choosers. Am I right?”

“I’ll try to go easy on you.”

“Ha, That’s the spirit,” Terry said. “We’re going to get along. I can tell.”

Terrific.

“Now. I’ve got a lit of question and procedures here, so that should help things along.” He produced a pencil and a clipboard from his briefcase. “First question: are you here to kill the Czar?”

“Actually,” Mortimer said, “I think I can save us some time. If I could just talk to the Czar--”

Terry tsked, sucked air through his teeth. “Yeah, the thing is, I just have this list of questions, and I’d feel better if we just got through them. I’m a rules kind of guy, and, look, I’m going to be square with you, okay? I’m a little out of my comfort zone, so I really think I should stick with the format.”

Mortimer said nothing.

“Let’s skip ahead,” Terry said. “Are you here to steal gasoline or sabotage the Red Stripe gasoline supplies?”

“No.”

“Super. Now let’s--” Terry consulted the clipboard. “Oh wait. It says here not to believe you and in parenthesis it says slap face.” Terry tsked again. “I guess we can skip that. Things are going well enough, don’t you think?”

The stone-faced guard cleared his throat, shook his head.

“Oh.” Terry seemed disappointed. Rules are rules.”

And then there is the Mad Max style chase that pits Mini Coopers against muscle cars…

If I Had the Time

A Young Adult Novel I would read if I had the time:

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson.

Alcatraz Smedry doesn’t seem destined for anything but disaster. But on his thirteenth birthday, he receives a bad of sand, and his life takes a bizarre turn. This is no ordinary bag of sand… and it is quickly stolen by the cult of evil librarians who are taking over the world by spreading misinformation and suppressing truth. The sand will give the evil librarians the edge they need to achieve world domination. Alcatraz must stop them!

Who could resist a story like that?

Mean Librarians are Wealthier!

Maybe it's because I just finished laughing at all the Bulwer-Lytton entries (see previous post) but this online article's headline from American Libraries' ALA News just struck me funny!

Mean librarian salaries up 2% in 2008

Analysis of data from more than 1,010 public and academic libraries showed that the mean salary for librarians with ALA-accredited master’s degrees increased 2% from 2007, up $1,151 to $57,809. The median ALA MLS salary was $53,251, and salaries ranged from $22,000 to $331,200. Results are reported in the 2008 edition of the ALA-APA Salary Survey: Librarian—Public and Academic, published by the ALA–Allied Professional Association....

So, apparently the nastier we are, the more we make? In that case...

The Bulwer-Lytton winners!

Each year, I love to read the ghastly (but extremely clever) opening sentences created by the winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. This year's grand prize ($250) winner is from Washington, DC (a place where we know they write good fiction!) and his winning sentence is:

"Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."

This is the 26th year for this international literary parody contest and among the category winners are some sentences I really enjoyed:

Winner---Adventure: Leopold looked up at the arrow piercing the skin of the dirigible with a sort of wondrous dismay -- the wheezy shriek was just the sort of sound he always imagined a baby moose being beaten with a pair of accordions might make. (from New Hampshire!)

Winner---Children's Literature: Joanne watched her fellow passengers - a wizened man reading about alchemy; an oversized bearded man-child; a haunted, bespectacled young man with a scar; and a gaggle of private school children who chatted ceaselessly about Latin and flying around the hockey pitch and the two-faced teacher who they thought was a witch - there was a story here, she decided.

Runner-Up--- Spy Fiction: The KGB agent known only as the Spider, milk solids oozing from his mouth and nose, surveyed the spreading wound in his abdomen caused by the crushing blow of the low but deadly hassock and begged of his attacker to explain why she gone to the trouble of feeding him tainted milk products before effecting his assassination with such an inferior object as this ottoman, only to hear in his dying moments an escaping Miss Muffet of the MI-5 whisper, "it is my whey."

Winner---Vile Puns: Vowing revenge on his English teacher for making him memorize Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality," Warren decided to pour sugar in her gas tank, but he inadvertently grabbed a sugar substitute so it was actually Splenda in the gas.

If you like this kind of stuff (and obviously I do!) see them all at: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/scott.rice/blfc2008.htm and feel free to create your own opening sentence for this post!

Summer Reading-a Success!

"Get a Clue @ Your Library", the childrens' summer reading program, was a huge success! 465 patrons between the ages of 5 and 12 participated. 324 patrons (in grades 2-6) recorded minutes spent reading (many read up to 20 hours!) and titles of books read on their reading logs and 141 patrons (ages 5 & 6) recorded the titles of books read (up to 36 books!) in their reading booklets. In addition, 190 attended our special programs and 1,622 used the craft table this summer. Congratulations readers, you did a great job!

Our thanks to everyone who helped make "Get a Clue @ Your Library" a success--especially The Friends of the Dover Public Library, the Dover Police Department, Dominoes Pizza, Nicole's Hallmark Store, the 99 Restaurant, Shaw's Supermarket, and all the parents/care-givers who transported the children to the library and made refreshments for the final party.

Breaking Dawn Mania

Breaking Dawn, the last book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, was released on August 2 and sold a whopping 1.3 million copies on its first day. It was a midnight release and fans were lining up outside the bookstores. The mania surrounding this book series, and upcoming movie, is unbelievable. There are hundreds and hundreds of fan sites with wacky titles like Twi-hard, Fatal Attraction, Fanpire Forums, and the Edward Plushie Club. Fans call themselves Twilighters, Cullenists, and Twerds, to name a few. There have been vehement arguments over the Jacob vs. Edward controversy, and many broken hearts over Bella's final selection. So if you have yet to find out who Bella finally chooses you best get your name on the waiting list for Breaking Dawn now, but don't worry the library owns more than one copy.

Wii Winner Announced

Ashlee Whitehouse is our Teen Summer Reading Program grand prize winner. Ashlee's name was chosen from amongst the 120 other Dover Public Library Teen Summer Reading Program participants. Congratulations to Ashlee!

Back by Popular Demand!

The final celebration of the Children's Summer Reading Program will feature Peter Boie: Magician for Non-Believers. Peter was featured at last years celebration, and was so incredibly popular we decided not to mess with a really good thing so join us tomorrow, Friday August 8th, at 10:45 in the Lecture Hall of the Library. Beware that once the show starts Peter doesn’t let you go for a solid 45 minutes. The show runs the gamut from audience members getting into the show and doing magic themselves, to award winning mind blowing magic, to side splitting comedy. So come to the library and experience the show for yourself!

Poppy are you out there?

I just finished The Sister by Poppy Adams. The book was recommended to me (by a very reliable source), and it is sort of a gothic mystery (right up my alley), and though I loved the novel, it left me scratching my head. I have so many questions and no answers! So Poppy if you are out there, or anyone who has some input on the matter, here are a few questions:

• Was Ginny really a famous lepidopterist (one who studies moths) or was this a figment of her imagination?
• Who really killed Maude?
• Why did Vivien allow Maude to carry her baby if she was unstable? Or was she really pregnant?

You see my dilemma? I should have known when the last patron returned the book and we had the following conversation:

Me: How did you like the book?
Her: Weird
Me: Good weird or weird weird?
Her: Weird

I think it is good weird, but take a look and let me know what you think.

It's Not Too Late

There is one week left in the Teen Summer Reading Program! Make sure that you have completed all four levels in order to maximize your chance to win the Wii. We will be drawing the winner on Friday afternoon, August 8th. Good luck.