Read the Book... Watch the Film

Books-to-Film
Here's to exciting days ahead as many great books find their way to the big screen.  Several books-to-film are already generating Oscar buzz though all we can find are a couple of trailers on YouTube. Go figure...

Now Showing
Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo
Robert Pattinson as a Wall Street master of the universe in freefall.

The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader
After Robert Ludlum's death, Lustbader took over the franchise. In the film, Jeremy Renner is the new Matt Damon, er... Jason Bourne.

September 14
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Everyone's favorite summer reading selection now featuring Harry Potter favorite, Emma Watson, as a spot-on American teen.

October 12
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The objectivist classic gets its long-awaited Part 2 film treatment.

October 19th
Killing Them Softly (Originally Cogan's Trade) by George V. Higgins
Brad Pitt plays a hitman on the trail of two hoodlums who've robbed the wrong people. Tyler Perry also takes a turn as Alex Cross, the guy from James Patterson's thrillers.

November 16
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The tenth or so adaptation (Jane Eyre anyone?), this one with Keira Knightley and Jude Law. Let's not forget Breaking Dawn, Part 2 from the Twilight Saga series.

November 21
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Martel's beloved novel won 2002's Man Booker Prize.

December 14
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Dueling blockbusters...

Bricks + Imagination = Limitless Possibilities

Still Loving LEGO™

Now's the time to watch for latest information on how your kiddo can participate in East Hampton's FIRST LEGO League [FLL], 2012. Soon to start its second year, our local league is open to girls and boys ages 9-14, with an interest in cutting-edge science, robotics, technology, and exploring and recommending engineered solutions to real-world problems.

If the student(s) in your home are interested and have not already signed up to participate, give us a call and we'll put you in touch with our league's coordinator. Cost to your family is $25. League sponsors currently include the East Hampton Rotary Club, the league's first organizer, and the library.

Surf's Up
Check out the Connecticut FIRST web site to see what it's all about and hey there parents, there are oodles of ways to help mentor a team. Please do offer your time if you can.

Books and Reading and Games, Too
Click here for an abbreviated list of LEGO-related titles available at the library. Recommendations welcomed.

Just for Fun : Legos ROCK!
Need another way to think about Bricks + Imagination = Limitless Possibilities? Always make time to dance!

And by request...

Happy Birthday Julia!

Julia Child Born
August 15, 1912

Don Your Apron and Cook a Little Something
Though tributes to Julia Child are aplenty today, we offer a round-up of local resources by or about a woman who helped many a cook get in touch with their inner French chef.  Cookbooks first :

Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Julia Child and More Company
The Way to Cook
Cooking with the Master Chefs
Julia's Kitchen Wisdom

All About Julia
Appetite for Life by Noel Riley Fitch
My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
Julia Child by Laura Shapiro
A Covert Affair : Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS by Jennet Conant
Dearie : the Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

Don't forget the wildly entertaining Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell, book or book-to-film; the latter featuring a spot-on performance of Julia by Meryl Streep.

For Your Little Kitchen Assistant
Two charming books for kids:
Bon Appetit! the Delicious Life of Julia Child by Jessie Hartland
Minette's Feast : the Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat by Susanna Reich

Surf's Up
Julia's TV program, French Chef, premiered on PBS station WGBY in 1962. Catch a snappy tune tribute to Julia below, then click on over to PBS Food to watch Cooking With the Master Chefs, including episodes with Jacques Pepin, Emeril Lagasse, Nancy Silverton, Alice Waters, and Lidia Bastianich, among many others. Also find info and video tributes to Julia on Biography.com or try a virtual tour of Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

In With the Old?

Image courtesy of the
Wesleyan Writers Blog

Hidden Treasures
If you like the smell and feel of old books -- absent a whiff of nasty -- here's a short list of memorable library oldies, all great reads, on which we'd like to shine a little not-UV light.  We'll follow with a video on why old books have a distinctive smell and with contemporary pointers on dabbing your e-reader behind the ears for an old-new-new-old olfactory experience.

Kon-Tiki : Across the Pacific by Raft by Thor Heyerdahl
Aku-Aku : The Story of Easter Island by Thor Heyerdahl
Nook Farm : Mark Twain's Hartford Circle by Kenneth R. Andrews
Connecticut Beautiful by Wallace Nutting
The Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost; edited by Edward Connery Lathem
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery
Letters from the Field, 1925-1975 by Margaret Mead
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Great Adventures and Explorations from the Earliest Times to the Present, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, ed.
Another Country by James Baldwin
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Why Do Old Books Smell?
From AbeBooks, an online seller of new, used, old and out-of-print titles.

Smells Like Book Spirit?
Yes indeed there is a scent called In the Library which offers "a scent of old books; Russian & Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish." Listen to the story of the scent, courtesy of NPR.

You can also try Paper Passion, a smell that promises to replicate the smell of a "freshly printed book." Click here for info, via Roger Ebert.

The debate about the fate of the printed book continues, with perfumes...

Fountain of Knowledge

Page Turning Public Fountain Will Remind Future Generations of How Printed Books Worked

From Budapest, courtesy of the folks at Gizmodo.

The Next Best Thing to Being There...

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte -- 1884
Georges Seurat

Google Art Project
Art lovers will surely appreciate Google's latest collaboration with museums from around the world and the endeavor to make great art more accessible to real people. The images are delivered in super high resolution; so much so that you can often use a 'zoom' function to see a master painter's brushwork details.

Featured museums include The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée d’Orsay (Paris). For some museums, you can even take a virtual tour, similar to the street view feature used on Google Maps.

Though online comments indicate not everyone loves virtual reproductions and there is surely a little cumbersome clunk in the project's search engine, truth is many of us won't be flying to Paris anytime soon. Have some fun with this one.

Regional Museums
Good news is the MetMuseum, MOMA, the Whitney, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are not that far away.

Connecticut Art Trail and Library Passes
Also good news is you can enjoy the Connecticut Art Trail. The library offers discount admission passes to three museums on the Trail: Florence Griswold Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art, and Wadsworth Atheneum. These plus discount passes to the nationally renowned homes of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe...

Passes are funded by the Friends of the Library. Join the Friends today for as little as $5 to keep the program going.