As we move into November and tune personal thoughts to our 2020 harvest celebrations, this month we also commemorate the heritage and history of the native peoples of North America. We’re featuring a selection of poetry, memoirs, history, and fiction from our collections, as well as related links to elibrary resources and Indigenous People’s Day […]
The Christmas when I was 12, my uncle gave my mother the audiobook tapes of “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt as a gift in our family exchange. She may have listened to the first tape once, but otherwise I don’t think she ever heard them, because I stole them away almost immediately. I began listening […]
My inbox has been deluged with summer reading recommendations– from publishers, from professional organizations, from other libraries and from some famous people. Taking a quick survey of summer reading lists I’ve been sent over the month of June (not counting the summer reading lists we have been busy making for adults, for kids and for teens), there are […]
My resolution plate is happily empty, as I’ve chosen to skate by picking goals to live up to this year. In this waning January of 2018, I find I’m revisiting not-quite-left-behind connections and planning to pick up the pieces. I will refocus daily on juggling work and work life, home and home life, projects, health, […]
Twelve days into 2017: long enough to consider resolutions passé but not yet time to give up hope for improvements. It’s an aging new year we’re facing. As we multitask to juggle our goals and lives, we’re craning to peer forward, straining to glimpse sight of our hopes and to spark brief touches with our dreams. […]
I'm not sure why, but recently I've been reading much more nonfiction than fiction. It's not that there isn't any interesting fiction being written (one need only glance at the monthly LibraryReads lists to find a novel worth reading), but nonfiction just feels more necessary in our complicated world. As I was ordering books for the library that are coming out in the next few months, I noticed a few nonfiction selections that looked especially appealing.
Perhaps the best part of browsing the shelves at the Princeton Public Library is stumbling across something truly unusual. It could be the content of the book or the form or both. I've been working here for quite awhile and below are some of my favorite finds. I encourage you to come in and check them out.
20th Century World Architecture
Sometimes you have to listen to get it. Here’s a riddle: You are the bus driver. You drive three blocks and pick up two people. You drive three more blocks and one person gets off. You drive around the corner and pick up five people. How old is the bus driver? Read it aloud, slowly and clearly, one time, to someone and watch the reaction of puzzlement. (If you still haven't figured it out, scroll to the bottom of the screen.)
One of the best things about being a librarian is hearing about books way before they are published. Since I work in Collection Development (librarian-speak for book purchasing) I have the good fortune to buy the books that I think will appeal to the people of Princeton. Below are a few books we either just acquired or are on their way to our shelves very soon. Please feel free to place holds for any or all of them!
First, let's start with five forthcoming bestersellers:
What is the best book you've read this year? Need to refresh your memory? The lists are beginning to roll out. Additionally, there are always the award winners. In the land of fiction, "Good Lord Bird" by James McBride (our second Princeton Reads author, circa 2006) is this year's National Book Award winner.
The corner of Witherspoon and Wiggins streets in Princeton is home to the Princeton Public Library and the Arts Council of Princeton. If you are in the neighborhood, you’ll notice a statue of Paul Robeson on the sidewalk, marking the spot where Wiggins Street becomes Paul Robeson Place. Walk up Witherspoon, past the Arts Council’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, and the first house you see is Robeson’s birthplace.
One of the benefits of staffing the Welcome Desk is talking about great books. Two recently released titles that have been frequently requested are the fictional novel, "Lone Wolf" by Jodi Picoult and the nonfiction title, "The Obamas" by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor. Both of these recently made it to my "to read" list. Not able to put either down, I finished them in time to blog about them here.
"Lone Wolf" by Jodi Picoult
As I was thinking about which recent reads I'd like to blog about, two very different titles came to mind. One is a War World II spy thriller that takes place in Germany in 1939 and the other is a magical, sensual tale of an exotic spice merchant from India.
I can count the number of times that I have found myself completely arrested by someone’s brilliance. Last week, I had one of those moments. It was a moment in which I felt myself lingering; feeling the very core of my body and mind wanting to stay present with what I was experiencing.
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