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.

One of the most popular novels of 2009, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, will be discussed at  Book Talk on Tuesday, January 26, from 7-8:30 pm.  The author, an acclamied short-story writer, has written his first novel - the story of Henry Lee, a recent widower, who relives his childhood in Seattle and his first love, Keiko, whose family ends up being relocated to a Japanese internment camp.

Guest speaker: Dr. Iwao Ishino will talk about his family's experiences in Japanese internment camps during WWII.

Best known for his Spencer detective series, Robert B. Parker wrote more than 60 books including westerns and young adult novels. His newest book Split Image will be available February 26, 2010.

New York Times Article

List of books in the East Lansing Public Library collection.

The votes are in! BookBrowse.com has announced the 2009 BookBrowse Favorite Awards.  Over 4,000 votes were submitted, and the winners are...

• Overall Winner: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Did you know that the Friends of the East Lansing Public Library have used books for sale every day? It's the best deal in town! Stop in the library and check out the Friendshop, where you'll find tons of used books at great prices. There's something for everyone - adult fiction, mysteries, history, gardening, music CDs, magazines, children's books, and much more. You'll pay a fraction of the price of brand new, and when you're done, you can donate them back to the library! And remember, all proceeds benefit the library.

Check out the Friends' web site for more information.

The New York Times has published their list of what they consider the best books of 2009. The books, both fiction and nonfiction, are listed below.

Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

I read several reviews of this title, and initially thought I would pass on it. But I decided to give it a listen in my car. It's a story of the Holocaust but told from yet another viewpoint, and the story jumps back and forth from 1942 to the present. The main character, Julia, and her husband are renovating a family apartment in Paris that belonged to Julia's mother-in-law. Through one thing and another, Julia discovers that a Jewish family once lived in the apartment and in 1942 were brutally arrested in the Vel’ d’Hivâ roundup and sent to concentration camps.

This year's National Book Award Winner for fiction is Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.

The finalists for fiction this year included:

American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Far North by Marcel Theroux

For a complete list of this year's winners and finalists visit the National Book Foundation website.

Check out our list of new books that are being released this December. Place a hold and be one of the first people to read one of these new titles.

Romanian-born German author Herta Muller won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. Only 5 of her 20 books have been translated into English. ELPL has 2 of her books. For anyone interested in reading her other books copies can be interloaned through MelCat.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is this year's winner of the Man Booker Prize. The Man Booker Prize is Britain's top literary award.

Other books from this year's short list include:

The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
Summertime by J. M. Coetzee