Summer Reading Program Will Bug You

Catch the Reading Bug @ Your Library.

The Summer Reading Program is open to children of all ages from preschool through high school. Children must read 10 hours to complete the Summer Reading Program. Great prizes that children will earn by completing the Summer Reading Program are: An Ice Cream Cone from Sweet P’s on Main St in Essex, Tickets to a CT Defenders Game or a New Britain Rock Cats Game, and several others that have not been confirmed yet… Many thanks to the generous sponsors of the Essex Summer Reading Program.

Check our website for a complete list of summer activities for kids. http://www.essexlib.org/services-childrens.html

Great News For Patrons!

Great news! The Russell Library in Middletown is joining the Wallingford Public Library in allowing LION patrons to place holds on most of the materials in their adult collections including: new books, DVDs and music CDs. Both Wallingford and Russell have great collections and this change should make for a wonderful opportunity to have easier access to them. In addition, on July 1, the Case Memorial Library in Orange, CT will join the LION consortium and its materials will also become available to other LION patrons.

New Downloadable Audio Titles On Overdrive

We’ve got more than 20 great new titles available for download to your computer which you may then transfer to a compatible portable device (MP3 players and many cell phones) or burn to CD where allowed. New titles include:

1434 by Gavin Menzies

7th Heaven by James Patterson

America America by Ethan Canin

Audition by Barbara Walters

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

City of Thieves by David Benioff

Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted by Elizabeth Berg

Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz, David

One in a Million by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Remember Me? By Sophie Kinsella

Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson

The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber

What Happened by Scott McClellan

The Whole Truth by David Baldacci

Cold War Spy Thrillers For Warm Weather Reading

A recent spate of quality espionage fiction has come to our attention bringing with it a return to Cold War-style spy stories of old. John le Carré created the yardstick by which most other spy novels are measured against along with a number of other contemporaries who propelled the genre forward with protagonists who were as morally ambiguous as their enemies. Le Carré returns this fall with A Most Wanted Man. Set in Germany, it chronicles the fate of a Muslim man who relocates to Hamburg to begin medical school but has a shadowy past that attracts the attention of intelligence agencies from Germany and beyond.

Robert Littell also produced well-crafted spy fiction in the 70’s and still continues publishing. His 2002 fictionalized account of the CIA, The Company, a bestseller, was made into a multi-part series by both the BBC and TNT. He has followed that up with Legends, a darkly humorous story about an aging spy’s identity crisis and Vicious Circle, an account of a kidnapping plot gone bad sending Israel and Palestine to the brink of collapse.

Charles McCarry had a small but devoted following in the 70’s for his books featuring CIA agent Paul Christopher. McCarry too, has seen a recent renaissance in his popularity beginning with Old Boys which brought back Paul Christopher and an aging group of fellow co-workers. Last year’s Christopher’s Ghosts continues the popular series.

We are lucky to have a cadre of newer writers to continue presenting espionage in the Cold War tradition. Olen Steinhauer has a first-rate series of books featuring Inspector Emil Brod set in a fictional Eastern European country. The first, The Bridge Of Sighs, nominated for multiple awards, begins at the end of WWII. The series closes at the fall of the Berlin Wall with Victory Square, portraying the corruption that has etched itself on Brod over the preceding 40 years.

Jenny Siler also writes as Alex Carr. Her books depict events still resonating in our society: Easy Money, portrays drug running with its origins in the killing fields of Vietnam, and An Accidental American covers the 1983 Beirut bombings. Carr’s newest novel brings us up to date, exposing the underbelly of Morocco in The Prince of Bagram Prison.

Alan Furst uses WWII and the days immediately following as glamorous backdrops for his espionage tales beginning with The Night Soldiers and continuing with the just-published The Spies of Warsaw.

Daniel Silva’s bestselling series starring Mossad agent Gabriel Allon carries on the tradition with his take-no-prisoners scenarios and plenty of action just begging to be bought up by Hollywood. His latest installment, Moscow Rules, is due out in July.

In a similar vein, but already cashing in on the Hollywood interest, is Robert Ludlum with Eric Lustbader and the Bourne series. The latest Bourne book, The Bourne Sanction, is due out the end of July.

Although William F Buckley is gone, he’s certainly not forgotten, and his bestselling Blackford Oakes series will continue to find new fans. Oakes, a CIA agent described by Buckley as being “distinctly American”, acquits himself with style and charm. The series begins with Saving The Queen and concludes with Last Call For Blackford Oakes.

Science fiction stylist William Gibson brings his expertise with cyberspace to the genre with two espionage novels that won critical acclaim: Pattern Recognition and Spook Country.

Last but not least, Ted Bell has produced an enjoyable spy series with Alex Hawke as the lead character who works for both the American and British governments. The series includes Hawke, Spy, Assassin and TSAR due out this September.

New Books In This Week

Some great new books for summer reading are arriving almost daily. Here are just a few recent arrivals in no apparent order:

Death Of A Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet ~~ “Detective Chief Inspector St. Just finds himself with a pretty puzzle when a father and son are murdered in a snow-shrouded Cambridgeshire manor house. The family of wealthy mystery writer Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk have arrived in response to a shocking wedding invitation. Long divorced from his first wife, he delights in keeping his unloved heirs on edge by constantly changing his will. Upon their arrival, they learn that he has already married beautiful, aristocratic Violet Winthrop, who Ruthven, his oldest son, announces was accused of murdering her first husband.” Kirkus Reviews

Gas City by Loren Estleman ~~ “Estleman exposes the black heart of a seemingly stable, well-run city suddenly pitched into violence and chaos. A delicate balance of forces—greed and corruption, ambition and desire—run out of control in the wake of a serial killer’s grisly rampage. A power struggle—between a police chief who has looked the other way for too long, a Mafia boss who holds the city’s vices in his powerful grasp, and media reporters looking for a big story—turns what has been a minor dispute into a desperate struggle for survival.”

Outtakes From A Marriage by Ann Leary ~~ “How does a free spirit turned wife and mother cope with her actor husband’s infidelity? According to this debut novel from memoirist Leary, with tears, irreverent humor and, ultimately, a reaffirmed sense of self.” Kirkus Reviews

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris ~~ “David Sedaris uses life’s most bizarre moments to reach new heights in understanding love and fear, family and strangers. Culminating in a brilliantly funny account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, Sedaris’s sixth essay collection will be avidly anticipated.”

While America Aged by Roger Lowenstein ~~ “Bestselling author Roger Lowenstein explains how corporations and governments ran up ruinous pension and health-care promises to workers—promises that are now coming due and that will hit America like a tsunami if nothing is done.”

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber ~~ “Anne Marie Roche wants to find happiness again. At thirty-eight, her life’s not what she’d expected—she’s childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattle’s Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, there’s a feeling of emptiness. On Valentine’s Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebrate…what? Hope, possibility, the future. They each begin a list of twenty wishes, things they always wanted to do but never did.”

Ladies Of Liberty by Cokie Roberts ~~ “Roberts presents a colorful blend of biographical portraits and behind-the-scenes vignettes chronicling women’s public roles and private responsibilities.”

Politics For Kids, Some Book Suggestions

With a grateful nod to the Salt Lake tribune for their article on the opportunity an election year brings to teaching kids about politics.

Otto Runs For President by Rosemary Wells (ages 4-7)

LaRue For Mayor by Mark Teague (ages 4-7)

What To Do About Alice? by Barbara Kerley (ages 4-7)

If I Were President by Katherine Stier (ages 4-9)

White House Q&A by Denise Rinaldo (ages 5-9)

America Votes: How Our President Is Elected by Linda Granfield (ages 9-12)

Dublin Prize Announced

The long-awaited announcement of this year’s Dublin Prize is finally here. The winner is De Niro’s Game by Rawi Hage. Hage beat out 136 other authors to win the 100,000 euro prize. See the longlist titles here and the shortlist titles here.

“De Niro’s Game is told through the eyes of Bassam, as he grows up with his childhood friend George, in war-ravaged Beirut. As the young men reach adulthood they must choose their futures: to stay in the city and embrace a life of crime or go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have known.”

Previous winners of the prestigious award include:
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (2007) and The Master by Colm Tóibín (2006)

New This Week

We have new books arriving almost every day. This week’s new arrivals include travel books, just in case you’re looking to get away from the current warmth.

Try out the new editions of:

Fodor’s Canada

Fodor’s Pacific Northwest

Fodor’s Essential USA

Zagat’s Connecticut Restaurants 2008-09

If you can’t get away to a cooler clime, we also have the 2008-2009 Zagat survey of Connecticut restaurants which might have suggestions for a good air-conditioned meal.

Orange Prize Winner Announced

Rose Tremain, one of Britain’s most celebrated authors, is £30,000 (about $59,000) richer after winning the Orange Broadband Prize last Wednesday-June 4th, with her book: The Road Home.

As descrbed by The Guardian, “The Road Home follows the story of Lev, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, as he tries to make his way in Britain. He sleeps rough on the streets of London; works in the kitchen of a Gordon Ramsay-style restaurant; and picks asparagus in East Anglia, falling in and out of love on the way.”

Other shortlisted books include:

• The Outcast by Sadie Jones
• Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill
• Lottery by Patricia Wood
• When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson
• Fault Lines by Nancy Huston

Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn and Twilight

If you’ve looked at a New York Times Bestseller List or Amazon’s Top 100 List recently, then you know that author Stephenie Meyer’s has tapped a vein with her Twilight Saga vampire series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse). The fourth and final book in the series, Breaking Dawn, is being masterfully marketed and is due out on August 2nd. The series, designed for young adults but also very popular with adults, has caught the attention of the Hollywood crowd. Twilight, the movie, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson is due out December 12th.