Attention Dog Lovers! National Dog Day is being celebrated August 26th, but you can enjoy great dog stories all month long. Check out the list of titles available at the library.

Books and DVDs:

There are three important things you need to know about Justin Cronin's new epic novel, The Passage.

First: You'll want to cancel any appointments, meetings, and commitments you had planned for this week.  Trust me, they are no longer important.  Once you start reading this book you won't be able to put it down.  Cronin does a masterful job of quickly building tension and then maintaining it over the entire span of the novel.  Reading The Passage feels like reading Stephen King at the height of his game (fellow lovers of The Stand, this book is for you!), which is probably why King wrote a rave review for the dust jacket.  Just like with King’s novels I was afraid to keep reading, lest one of my favorite characters get killed or infected with the terrifying virus that plagues Cronin’s tale.  But the story was so compelling that I was afraid to stop reading!  I had to know what happened next so I kept reading, and reading, long into the night.  Which brings us to the important question of sleep.  Sleep no longer matters. 

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying..." 

June is National Rose Month.  Of course the library has lots of information on growing and appreciating all the beautiful varieties of roses for gardeners and aficionados.

But beyond the literal, the library has wonderful books to read and films to view to celebrate the power of the rose in life and literature.  Below are a few suggestions.  Share your own suggestions by clicking below on "add new comment."

Always looking for a new author to try?

The New Yorker magazine has chosen its "20 Under 40" list of fiction writers worth watching.  It's been more than a decade since the magazine published such a list, which features noteworthy young writers who are relatively unknown but may emerge as future literary stars.  The previous list included authors like Jhumpa Lahiri, Nathan Englander, and Junot Diaz.

Here's the new list.  Dip right in.  For more information, click here.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chris Adrian
Daniel Alarcon
David Bezmozgis

Sure feels like summer, doesn't it? And summer reading at ELPL for children of all ages (and adults, too) will begin on Monday, June 14. We'll have lots of fun, free programs to keep everyone busy, plus a reading incentive program to keep kids reading all summer long.

I kept reading good things about Sarah Blake's new novel, The Postmistress, but I thought, "not another book about World War II." Well, yes, it is another book about World War II, but a good one, told from yet another vantage point. The Postmistress is told partially from the viewpoint of a young woman, a journalist, stationed in London on the eve of the United States' entrance into WWII and partially from the viewpoint of the postmistress of a small town in Cape Cod.

Each Spring the Mystery Writers of America present the Edgar Awards which honor the best in mysteries published in the past year. This year's winner for Best Novel is The Last Child by John Hart.

For a full list of nominees and winners in all categories visit TheEdgars.com

War Dances by Sherman Alexie is this year's winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The PEN/Faulkner Award is America's largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States.

This year's finalists include--

I recently finished a wonderful work of historical fiction called Honolulu by Alan Brennert, which is the absorbing tale of a young Korean mail order bride who arrives in Hawaii in 1914 in search of a better life. Her dreams, unfortunately, don't become reality, at least at first. Her marriage turns out to be a disaster, but she proves to be a strong woman who ultimately finds love and community. Her life in Honolulu is a far cry from what she would have been offered as a woman in Korea.

I rarely have "Oh my God!" moments when reading a book, but I did when I read Audrey Niffenegger's latest work Her Fearful Symmetry. You might recognize the author's last name because she penned the best-selling novel (and movie) The Time Traveler's Wife. Her current work is about a set of twins, their extremely close relationship, their relationship with their

I must admit I first chose this book because of its lovely cover: a hummingbird noses a pretty pink flower on a background of lavender and green.   And the inside is just as sweet.  This book has been described as “Steel Magnolias” meets “The Help”, but I think it reminds me more of “The Secret Life of Bees”.

 CeeCee Honeycutt is twelve years old and has spent her life dealing with her mentally ill mother and absent father.  After her mother dies tragically, her great aunt Tootie sweeps in and takes CeeCee to live with her in Savannah .  Tootie is a rich widow, and CeeCee lives in the luxury of a gorgeous southern mansion, complete with a beautiful garden, a loving housekeeper who is a great cook, and an assortment of eccentric women friends of her aunt.

 This lacks the depth of “Bees”, though. Aunt Tootie is almost too good to be true, as is Oletta, her housekeeper.  Conflicts that arise are easily and perhaps unrealistically solved.  Even the annoying neighbor is not quite bad enough to deserve everyone’s hatred and the accident that befalls her – she’s stupid and silly, but not really evil.

 

And yet I found myself looking forward to picking up the book.  It was like grabbing a rocking chair on Aunt Tootie’s porch and observing her garden and lady friends -full of color and warmth and contentedness.

Prolific author Dick Francis passed away on Sunday at the age of 89. A champion jockey turned writer, Francis was best known for his horseracing thrillers. For a list of his books at the East Lansing Public Library click here.

New York Times Article.

J. D. Salinger, best know for his novel The Catcher in the Rye, died Wednesday at his home in New Hampshire.
Other works by Salinger at ELPL include Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey.

Also check out Dream Catcher by Salinger's daughter, Margaret Ann Salinger.

To read the New York Times article about Salinger click here.

This year's Edgar nominees for best novel are:

• The Missing by Tim Gautreaux 
• The Odds by Kathleen George 
• The Last Child by John Hart 
• Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston 
• Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett 
• A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn 

The Edgar Award honors the best in the mystery genre. For a full list of the nominees click here.