The Short List

Do you need to make a New Year’s resolution to get your life under control? Then join us on January 20th and 27th as celebrated local artist and author Jill Butler conducts two Sunday afternoon workshops from 4 - 5:30pm. The workshops will be based on material from her new book Create the Space You Deserve: An Artistic Journey to Expressing Yourself Through Your Home. Those of you who have the pleasure of knowing Jill will testify to her talent, wit, and wisdom. The programs are sure to be informative and lots of fun as well. The January 20th workshop, entitled Clearing the Clutter; Make Way for More Energy and Clarity in Your Life will help us clear out the old, while the January 27^th session, entitled Dare to Imagine the Possibilities: Where Are You and Where Would You Like to Be in Your Career, Everydayness, and With Your Creative Self-expression, will help us towards a new future. If you can’t make both dates, the sessions are independent of one another and may be attended on an individual basis.

A sneak preview of Jill’s book which will be arriving in bookstores in July, 2008 will be available at the workshops and copies can be ordered at that time. The price is $ 24.95. Jill is also the author of three previous books which are available in the library. Come in and check one out to get a sampling of her amazing combination of whimsy and wisdom.

To reserve your seat and to guarantee there will be adequate materials for all, please call the library to register at 860.767.1560. There is no charge.

The Library has recently subscribed to The Commercial Record Connecticut’s Weekly Business Newspaper Since 1882. “The Commercial Record is a business-focused publication for professionals in the real estate, banking, lending and related industries. Our mission is to provide fair, accurate, impartial and balanced coverage of issues and topics of interest and concern to our readers, enabling them to understand and assess the competitive environment and markets in which they work; trends and strategies being employed for success; and industry news of value and importance to their businesses.

For our patrons who are not business professionals, The Commercial Record publishes recent home sales sorted by town within each county in Connecticut so one may follow the real estate trends not only in Essex and the Shoreline but across the state.

MyLibraryDV now offers 15 episodes each of PBS’s series Boobah (ages 3-6), Caillou (ages 3-6), and Liberty’s Kids (ages 7-12) with episodes of Cyberchase (ages 8-11) coming soon. All of the more than 500 videos offered by MyLibraryDV can be downloaded for free from the Essex Library website–click on the Downloadable Videos button on our homepage and follow the easy instructions.

“PBS KIDS for preschoolers, and PBS KIDS GO!, for early elementary school kids, are committed to providing he highest quality non-commercial content and learning environment for children across the country. This ge-appropriate, diverse programming for kids consistently earns more prestigious awards than any other roadcast or cable network. Only PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! have earned the unanimous endorsement of arents, children, industry leaders and teachers. MyLibraryDV gives your younger patrons the ability to download four of their popular children’s programs!”

The Times Book Review has posted their list of the 10 best books of 2007; 5 fiction and 5 non-fiction titles. How many have you read? Do you agree with their choices? The list will be published in the December 9th print version of the Book Review.

FICTION

Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

Tree Of Smoke by Denis Johnson

NONFICTION

Imperial Life In The Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

The Ordeal Of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History by Linda Colley

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/books/review/10-best-2007.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

The Times Book Review has released its 100 Notable Books for 2007 online; the print version will be in this weekend’s Book Review. We noted an increased number of story collections in this year’s fiction group– all of which have received wide acclaim since their release. We also saw a distinct international flavor in the list reflecting a more global view in publishing generally.

Bill Pronzini will receive the title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America next May 1 in New York City during the Edgar Awards banquet. MWA executive v-p Daniel J. Hale said that Pronzini “is not only a passionate author and reader of crime fiction–he is also one of the most ardent proponents of the genre. For 40 years, he has distinguished himself with consistently high-quality writing and editing in all areas of the field, including creating one of the longest-lasting detective series ever.”Pronzini has written more than 70 books, including 32 novels in the Nameless Detective series and three written with his wife, Marcia Muller, who was the MWA’s Grand Master in 2005.

The Library will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day–December 24, 25, 31 and January 1st.

The National Endowment For The Arts has released a report today (“To Read Or Not To Read”) with more disappointing results including the decline of voluntary reading by older children and young adults, the decline of national test scores by students in middle school through high school and the decline in proficiency of adult readers. One of the conclusions on page 94 states: “Greater academic, professional, and civic benefits [are] associated with high levels of leisure reading and reading comprehension.”

According to the article in today’s New York Times which reports on the study: “Americans — particularly young Americans — appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining. At the same time, performance in other academic disciplines like math and science is dipping for students whose access to books is limited, and employers are rating workers deficient in basic writing skills.” “These trends are concurrent with a falloff in daily pleasure reading among young people as they progress from elementary to high school, a drop that appears to continue once they enter college. The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all.”

“The new report also looked at data from the workplace, including a survey that showed nearly three-quarters of employers who were polled rated “reading comprehension” as “very important” for workers with two-year college degrees, and nearly 90 percent of employers said so for graduates of four-year colleges. Better reading skills were also correlated with higher income.”

“In an analysis of Education Department statistics looking at eight weekly income brackets, the data showed that 7 percent of full-time workers who scored at levels deemed “below basic” on reading tests earned $850 to $1,149 a week, the fourth-highest income bracket, while 20 percent of workers who had scored at reading levels deemed “proficient” earned such wages.”

“In an interview Mr. Gioia (Chairman of the NEA) said that the statistics could not explain why reading had declined, but he pointed to several commonly accepted culprits, including the proliferation of digital diversions on the Internet and other gadgets, and the failure of schools and colleges to develop a culture of daily reading habits. In addition, Mr. Gioia said, “we live in a society where the media does not recognize, celebrate or discuss reading, literature and authors.”

Ira Levin, 78, playwright and author of Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and The Boys from Brazil, among other novels, died last week in New York City. Most of Levin’s bestselling books were made into movies. He also wrote Deathtrap, the long-running Broadway play.

The New York Times wrote: “Combining elements of several genres–mystery, Gothic horror, science fiction and the techno-thriller–Mr. Levin’s novels conjured up a world full of quietly looming menace, in which anything could happen to anyone at any time. In short, the Ira Levin universe was a great deal like the real one, only more so: more starkly terrifying, more exquisitely mundane.”

We know you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for the announcement of the winners since there were some terrific books on the Shortlist. (See post from October 12th) The winners were presented last night:

• Fiction: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
• Nonfiction: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A. by Tim Weiner
• Poetry: Time and Materials by Robert Hass
• Young people’s literature: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie