“Happiness is a warm puppy,” said Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts comic strip. But some of us might think happiness is a warm cat. Or owl, chimp, horse, elephant, etc.
Click here for true animal stories that will warm your heart.
Anthony Shadid was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent. His coverage of three Middle Eastern wars (wherein he was shot and held as a prisoner of war) ruined his marriage. He felt broken by his personal life and jaded by the hostile politics surrounding his ancestral homeland, Lebanon. Then Shadid learned that a rocket had crashed into his great-grandfather’s home. House of Stone chronicles how rebuilding his great-grandfather’s home restored Shadid himself. Equal parts memoir and Lebanese primer, House of Stone is a moving family history that will appeal to anyone who enjoyed Three Cups of Tea or The Bookseller of Kabul.
Książka Steve’a Sema-Sandberga Biedni ludzie z miasta Łodzi była jednym z najbardziej rozchwytywanych tytułów na tegorocznych Targach Książki we Frankfurcie. Przywódca łódzkiego getta Chaim Rumkowski, pan życia i śmierci, dla jednych był człowiekiem budzącym odrazę, kolaborantem zmuszającym Żydów do wyniszczającej pracy na rzecz Trzeciej Rzeszy, a dla innych – bohaterem, który prowadził z faszystami ryzykowną grę. Legendarna stała się jego podróż do Auschwitz salonką; został tam spalony żywcem w piecu krematoryjnym przez samych Żydów. Autor szuka odpowiedzi na pytanie, które musi sobie zadać sobie każdy czytający tę książkę – kim naprawdę był Rumkowski? Czy byl zręcznym graczem ratującym swoich braci? Czy pozbawionym wszelkich uczuć kolaborantem?
Steve Sem-Sandberg zbadał tysiące stron dokumentów z getta i na ich podstawie stworzył wstrząsającą i jednocześnie wiarygodną opowieść o wojnie i ludziach.
Biednymi ludźmi z miasta Łodzi Steve Sem-Sandberg cementuje swoją pozycję jednego z najbardziej liczących się autorów.
In City Island, Vince has plenty of secrets. His whole family does. His son has a fetish, his daughter moonlights as an exotic dancer, his wife thinks he’s having an affair and all Vince wants is to be an actor. The comedy of ill-communication is magnified in City Island.
A tale of dark whimsy and treachery, Peter & Max by Bill Willingham offers the fun of a traditional fairy tale partnered with a return to the more gruesome roots of folklore. Inspired by the successful graphic novel series, this first novel explores the rivalry between Peter Piper and his older brother Max. When the Pipers and the Peeps are trapped by villainous forces in the Black Forest, heated jealousy and terrifying danger spark repercussions on all of Fabletown for centuries to come. A fanciful and dramatic reading by Wil Wheaton spotlights the clever interplay of legends both familiar and reinvented. Embrace the storytelling experience, and try Peter & Max on Playaway.
The e-book revolution is upon us, and it’s awesome! Have you been to MyMediaMall? You can download free library books to your e-reader.
However, as e-books get more popular, publishers are putting more restrictions on libraries using them. For example: HarperCollins has a 26-checkout limit to an e-book before libraries have to buy it again. Random House recently raised e-book prices. Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Hachette won’t even sell e-books to libraries.
The Topeka and Shawnee County Library made this video to explain the situation. If you agree with the video, please sign their petition.
“If my life wasn’t funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable,” said Carrie Fisher. You can find out what she meant in her memoir, Wishful Drinking.
If you want to read more sordid, hilarious, and sometimes sad memoirs by famous, funny women, click here.
Myke Cole’s first novel, SHADOW OPS: Control Point, makes for excellent weekend reading. Oscar Britton is an Army officer turned fugitive sorcerer. Britton isn’t a bad guy, but he is dangerous. He’s manifested magical powers that he can’t control (like thousands of others across the world) and the government he formerly worked for is now determined to collect and control him…or take him out.
Cole has the chops to write military fantasy. He’s been a security contractor, government civilian, and military officer. He’s worked everything from Counterterrorism to Cyber Warfare, in addition to serving three tours in Iraq and being recalled to serve during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The Library got a hold of Myke Cole to talk about good books, good movies, and a few other things between.
Mount Prospect Public Library: What are a few of your favorite nonfiction military books?
Myke Cole: Wow. There are so many that have been incredibly influential throughout my career. This is almost like asking me to pick my favorite fantasy novels or comic books. The problem is that they’re pretty much all my favorites. Let me give you three:
The first is Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman’s The Art of War in the Middle Ages. It’s dated, but it has mapped layouts of most of the major battles I was interested in and forms the basis for many of my favorite table top historical wargames.
The second would have to be Carl Philip Gottfried von Clausewitz’s Vom Kriege. I swear, I’m not just 
picking these guys because they have long names. Vom Kriege is the seminal text on modern warfare (the kind of warfare that company grade officers like myself have been trained to fight and is now being rendered partially obsolete by the rise of transnational insurgency). It has helped define how an entire generation of military leaders think about war. It has set our vocabulary, and given us a context for discussion.
The third is The Western Way of War, by Victor Davis Hanson. It’s a foundational book that helps lay the ancient groundwork that would eventually become my trade.
Keep in mind, these are just three good books. They are not my three favorite by any means. You’ll also want to read Martin Van Creveld‘s The Transformation of War, Mao Tse-Tung’s On Guerrilla Warfare, Sun Tzu (and commentaries), Musashi, Fussel, Gibbon and on and on and on.
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Follow the clues to discover the best mystery writing of the year. The Mystery Writers of America recently named the winners of the 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, and it would be a crime for you to leave these cases unsolved:
Best Novel: Gone by Mo Hayder
Best First Novel: Bent Road by Lori Roy
Best Fact Crime: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
Best Critical Biographical: On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda
Best Young Adult: The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall
Best Juvenile: Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
Don’t walk home after dark if you live in the London projects. You might get mugged. Street toughs don’t get much of Sam’s money before they’re interrupted by…AN ALIEN! Attack the Block is a British sci-fi comedy where the inner city battles outer space and bad seeds get second chances.
