The Short List from April 2, 2012

Greetings Lantana readers!

We now have a new short list of new and older books.

Click on the image below to see what’s available to you.  You may need to magnify your browser’s view (in Internet Explorer, it’s on the bottom right of your browser screen).

Reading in times of distraction…

The Lost Art of Reading:
Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time
by David L. Ulin
ISBN-13: 978-1-57061-670-9 [Hardcover],
Sasquatch Books, 2010, 152 pages
Lantana Library Call No. 028.9 Uli

Good readers of Lantana! Do not disregard a desire to read books, yes books, even if you feel embarrassment or disquiet that you read books far less now than you did ten to twenty years ago.  David Ulin, LA Times book critic, may have some insights for you.

Picking up Ulin’s slight, hand-sized last month, I intended to speedily read it as if for sport.  Distractions of all other kinds won out, just as they did Ulin.  I picked it up again, though, and on arriving at page 9, found Ulin confessing that,

Sometime in the last few years—I don’t remember when, exactly—I noticed I was having trouble sitting down to read. That’s a problem if you read, as I do, for a living, but it’s an even bigger problem if you read as a way of life.

That resonated with me, as I’m a teacher, a librarian by educational background, and a reader for enjoyment, too.  I also like Ulin’s insight that reading is really a journey of discovery, an excavation of our inner world, even if it doesn’t seem to be ours (the readers’) at the beginning.  Ulin observes it’s important to “take the plunge” and to remember that the writing we read is a kind of interaction.  A sort of give and take, perhaps, a push-pull relationship, a lurking played out in silent intimacy?  Hmmm-hmm.

Ulin sets forth the sources of his distraction (much of which will be familiar to you as it is to me — internet, the 24 hour news steam, etc.).  Then he narrates, albeit meandering at times, a personal essay of how reading can be rediscovered.  He seeks to help his technology-savvy teenage son enjoy Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.  His son in turn helps Ulin recognize a kind of interactivity and connectivity in the on-line chatting, lurking, browsing, and scanning of search engine results, websites, Facebook posts, e-mails, and e-readers.

Beyond that, though, Ulin is able to rediscover the pleasures of reckoning with time and slow, long form reading, for he claims that what we read inhabits us and we animate it in turn.  He also enlists the help of Fitzgerald, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and a host of other modern writers and thinkers to help him (and us) rediscover reading for pleasure.

Book Discussion Series 2011/2012 at Lantana Public Library

Hi everyone.

Teresa Willhelm, head of the Friends of the Library, has organized a book discussion series for 2011/2012, beginning Wednesday, October 19th.  Thereafter, book discussions will meet on the third Wednesday every month, except December.

Multiple copies of titles will be available at the library.  Come and enjoy some good tea, cookies, and stimulating discussion.

Click on the flyer below for more information.

Summer Bestsellers! Come check them out!

Attention Book Lovers!  Summer Reading that you may want to check out!!
Newly Arrived NY Times Bestsellers  at Lantana Public Library

FICTION

Folly Beach: A lowcountry tale
by Dorothea Frank
A woman returns to the past [in South Carolina] to find her future in this enchanting new tale of loss, acceptance, family, and love.

Robopocalypse: A novel
by Daniel H. Wilson
In the future, a shy but powerful artificial intelligence, Archos, takes control of the world’s computer network…

State of Wonder
by Ann Patchett
A doctor’s stirring and breathtaking trip to the Amazon to search for her deceased colleague…and larger-than-life challenges.

Those in Peril
by Wilbur Smith
A daughter and heiress to an oil fortune is hijacked by African muslim pirates…and held for ransom.

MYSTERY/THRILLER

The Hypnotist
by Lars Kepler
An entire family has been savagely murdered…and Detective Joona Linna convinces a retired hypnotist, Erik Bark, to help.

Now You See Her
by James Patterson
The latest from one of the best American mystery writers.

Trader of Secrets
by Steve Martini
Lawyer Paul Madriani investigates criminals attempting to steal dangerous weapons technology…

Fallen
by Karin Slaughter
A deadly hostage situation and policewoman Faith Mitchell’s search for her mother…

BIOGRAPHY

All that is Bitter & Sweet
by Ashley Judd with MaryAnne Vallero
The Hollywood actress and humanitarian remembers her childhood, her famous mother Naomi and sister Wynonna, and her career.

If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t)
by Betty White
The famous 89-year old actress humorously recounts her career and shares her thoughts on important life topics.

A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother
by Janny Scott
A first biography of Ann Dunham, mother of the U.S. President.

Lantana Public Library is at 205 West Ocean Ave (next to the Post Office).
For more information, contact us at (561) 540-5740, or visit us on-line at http://www.lantanalibrary.org

From the Short List: biographies of two American women writers

Edith Wharton    Lantana Library Call No.: B Wha
by Hermione Lee
Mining previously untapped sources, Hermione Lee gives readers a new look at Edith Wharton in a landmark biography that is as tough, modern, brilliant and complex as Wharton’s own fiction.

(From the Short List by Catharine Rambeau, Dec. 19, 2007)

Eudora Welty: A Biography            Lantana Library Call No.: B Wel
by Suzanne Marrs

An icon of American fiction, Welty loved the written word from early childhood. An astute shrewd observer, she studied people and loved strangers, and her work reflects humor and tragedy with lyric style. Marrs, who knew Welty for the last 20 years of her life, makes brilliant use of that access. An appendix, bibliography and notes are included.
(From the Short List by Catharine Rambeau, April 23, 2007)

New Haitian fiction…

Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat
[Softcover], 309 pages. (December 2010)
Publisher: Akashick Books

Fans of Edwidge Danticat, perhaps Haiti’s most well known author today in the U.S., will be interested in this collection of noir/crime genre stories that she had assembled before Haiti’s tragic earthquake early last year.

I admit I’m new to reading Haitian literature.  I recently read most of  Danticat’s The Dew Breaker (also available here in the Library, Call No.: F  Dan), a series of related stories on a Haitian immigrant man’s life in the U.S. with his family, and his dark, murderous past.

I’ve read other authors writing on the experience of immigrant displacement and the conflicts between cultures. However, to date I’ve never read anything quite so dark and anti-heroic, except of course, Dostoevksy, which a Baltimore Sun review likened Danticut’s novel to.  The itching sense of guilt, unease, displacement, made Danticat’s Dew Breaker difficult to read at times.

With Haiti Noir, Danticat introduces readers to a slew of native Haitian diaspora writers and non-Haitian ones.  Readers can also read a review of this collection of stories by Carolyn Kellogg of the LA Times.