2006 Man Booker Prize

On October 10th, Kiran Desai won the Man Booker Prize for fiction 2006 with her book The Inheritance of Loss. The Man Booker Prize “aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.” The winner receives £50,000. Desai, 35, is the youngest woman ever to receive the Prize. Born in India, Desai has studied in England and in the U.S., including studying creative writing at Columbia University. She also wrote the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard. Desai’s mother, author Anita Desai, has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times since 1980 and has never won.

Other books on the 2006 Prize shortlist were The Secret River by Kate Grenville, Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland, In The Country Of Men by Hisham Matar, Mother’s Milk by Edward St. Aubyn and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. John Banville won the 2005 Prize with his book, The Sea.

The End Has Come

Yes, The End has come and we have it! It’s the thirteenth and final book in A Series Of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. What will be the end for the Baudelaire orphans? Read The End from beginning to end and you will see.

If you can’t get enough of Mr. Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) check out the Lemony Snicket website for more fun and games.To learn about Lemony Snicket himself, read the interview with him on CNN or see the article in Wikipedia.

There’s more about Beatrice Baudelaire in the recently published The Beatrice Letters. And keep in mind that the compilation of the theme songs from the audio versions of A Series Of Unfortunate Events performed by The Gothic Archies has just been released and is called The Tragic Treasury. Many LION libraries have a copy of the movie version of A Series Of Unfortunate Events starring Jim Carrey available for patrons to enjoy.

A Masterpiece In The Making

Artist Ted Esselstyn is in residence and creating a true masterpiece in the hallway between the main entrance and the children’s room. Please mark your calendars to visit the Essex Library on October 27th between 2-4PM to see our art work in progress! We’ll have cookies and juice, and encourage you to bring your children to see our mural being created — and get to ask the artists questions and even make suggestions! This project is generously underwritten by the Friends of the Essex Library.

And, don’t forget that our grand reopening celebration is on November 5, 2006 from 3-5PM, once again hosted and sponsored by the Friends.

New Library, New Services

Welcome to the Essex Library’s weblog, The Short List. We will be offering great reasons to read–news of interesting things to read, updates on new materials added to our collections and fabulous ways to enjoy the Essex library. Visit us often and don’t forget to visit our other blog, The In-Site Bank…where we will keep all the In-Site links from the Librar-E-Lations newsletters as well as fascinating and fun links we come across all month long.