looking for a series book?

Finding a book in series order is always a pain in the neck. The Nebraska Library Commission solves this problem! For major authors, they have produced a Books in Series database, which can be searched by author, book title, or series title. My search was using Peter Danielson, author of the Children of the Lion series, which, by the way is a pseudonym for multiple authors who wrote the books in this series.

historical fiction

If you are a fan of historical fiction, you may want to check out the Historical Novel Society website. Their aim is to " ... review every new work of adult historical fiction released in the USA or the UK. Selected titles from Canada and Australia are also reviewed, as are selected children's/young adult titles, for a grand total of over 800 reviews per year" Ambitious, but they publish the Historical Novels Review which does just that.

2005 Notable books

Read about the The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year here...
(Note: registration to the NY Times may be required)

NBA winner -- Poetry

W. S. Merwin, author of Migration: New and Selected Poems, is the winner of the 2005 National Book Award for poetry. Merwin is a poet's poet -- he lives and writes in Hawaii and is not affiliated with any college or university -- just writes! When I worked at the downtown public library I stumbled onto a collection of his poems, Finding the Islands; a collection of three stanza poems like the following excerpt from the poem "At Home":

As the ants know
where the honey is
I know the way to you
____

where we live
we look far out to sea
and our clothes are behind us in the bedroom

His poetry is beautiful and evocative.

NBA Winner -- Fiction

The National Book Awards were finally announced this past week. William Vollman won the Fiction award for his novel, Europe Central...

classic

Just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird -- about time! I still don't understand why this book wasn't required reading when I attended school. Perhaps too controversial? Although this doesn't seem right, considering the book's themes could be just as applicable today. Racism, bigotry, violence -- all still relevant topics which need to be addressed and discussed in public schools.

Anarchist in the Library

Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan is coming to Geneseo! An NYU Professor of Culture and Communication, Dr. Vaidhyanathan is going to be the keynote speaker at our annual SUNYLA (SUNY Librarians' Association) Conference. Author of The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System, Dr. Vaidhyanathan is a former journalist and cultural historian and media scholar. His previous book was on copyright and intellectual property. He will be speaking at SUNY Geneseo on June 15, 2006. Can't wait!

Sleuths unite!

How many of you were Nancy Drew fans when you were kids? I was a HUGE fan and thought what better way to celebrate my book-lovin' youth than to host a a Nancy Drew sleuth party !Wouldn't this be loads of fun?

2005 Booker winner

John Banville was awarded the Booker Prize last month for his novel The Sea. Read why he finally feels his critics have been silenced...