The Land of Words

No Fancy Hazmat Suit Required
Maybe it's an occupational hazard but we library types love words. If you, too, love words these books (none of them dry, all of them spicy) may be for you.

Joshua Kendall's The Man Who Made Lists tells the life story of Peter Mark Roget (1770-1869) who penned the world famous Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's life, which reads like a modern-day thriller, is highlighted by family troubles, even troubles with the leading European personality of his time, Napoleon.

The Meaning of Everything and The Professor and the Madman, both by Simon Winchester, discuss the origins of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) 'the definitive record of the English language'. You'll be surprised by how the original OED effort came together and who contributed.

Jonathon Green's Chasing the Sun presents a history of lexicography from pre-Babylonian Sumeria to current times. Like the age old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg, this book asks the question which came first, the culture or the language?

Hide Your Neurons, Folks!

Marketing 101, 102, 103...
Martin Lindstrom's Buy-ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy examines how our brains respond to ads. The 'truth', according to the author, is not in what we say -- it's in our brain waves!

Business Week journalist Stephen Baker offers The Numerati. This book explores how online and credit card use -- even a phone call -- might end up in a geeky math formula that discloses something about our interests, habits, and preferences.

Both of these books are sure to be interesting reads for e-commerce or marketing professionals, general readers concerned about privacy, and frankly, anyone who enjoys scientific, mathematical or... dah, dah, dah... conspiracy theory.

Poet of the Month

November's Featured Poet
Marilyn Hacker (1942-) was born in NYC and attended the Bronx High School of Science, NY University, and the Art Student’s League. She has taught, sold antiquarian books, and worked as an editor of books and periodicals. She has several collections of poetry and has won numerous awards. She likes to write in form. The rondeau which follows has three stanzas. In the second and third, the closing line is an echo of the first stanza’s opening line. See what an interesting thing she does with it. She was 30-something when she wrote it:

Rondeau After a Transatlantic Telephone Call
Love, it was good to talk to you tonight.
You lather me like summer though. I light
up, sip smoke. Insistent through walls comes
the downstairs neighbor's double‑bass. It thrums
like toothache. I will shower away the sweat,

smoke, summer, sound. Slick, soapy, dripping wet,
I scrub the sharp edge off my appetite.
I want: crisp toast, cold wine prickling my gums,
love. It was good

imagining around your voice, you, late‑
awake there. (It isn't midnight yet
here.) This last glass washes down the crumbs.
I wish that I could lie down in your arms
and, turned toward sleep there (later), say, "Goodnight,
love. It was good."

Further Reading: Selected poems, 1965‑1990 / Marilyn Hacker,1994; Squares and courtyards / Marilyn Hacker, 2000; Winter numbers : poems / Marilyn Hacker, 1994.

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson.

Scaring Up a Good Read

Chilling Tales

Looking for a change of pace read? Do you like short-format stories but with a non-fiction twist? Let's not leave out the main question -- do you believe in ghosts? No, it's not Halloween but for the ghost-story fan in you, we recommend:

Ghost Hunters of New England, penned by Alan Brown, covers New England hauntings in a state by state format. Associations, societies, and teams of investigators showcase parapsychology at its best.

For those of you interested in reading outside our region, Edrick Thay's Haunted Houses covers haunted real estate all over the U.S.

Deborah Blum’s Ghost Hunters tells the story of leading intellectuals, who at the turn of the 20th Century risked their reputations to pursue – and debate -- psychic research.

Head's Up: Lorraine Warren to Speak in East Hampton

Leading psychic researcher, Lorraine Warren is a New England legend and has been called "America’s Top Ghost Hunter." With her late husband Ed, the duo investigated the Amityville Haunting & Southington Funeral Home Case.

Accompanied by Tony Spera, Mrs. Warren will speak about her investigations into the supernatural world on Saturday, March 14, 2009. Registration begins February 1st.

The Search Continues...

Where IS Waldo?
We know that many people have wondered where Waldo went. Wonder no more, because he is back in the library in six different titles that you can check out!! Enjoy the fun of searching for Waldo in so many different places.

For those of you who like I Spy books, you're sure to love Waldo's classic picture searching series as well. They are perfect for those cold weather days when kids are searching for a fun indoor activity!

In a Word...

Chagall

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is considered one of the great pioneers of Modern Art. His productive life spanned many decades; the work he produced continues to influence contemporary art in all forms. These colorful biographies clearly illustrate this talented artist 's contribution to our world or art and artful imagination:

Jackie Wullschlager's landmark biography, Chagall, gives exceptional coverage of this remarkable artist's life.

Chagall: The Art of Dreams, written by Daniel Marchesseau and published by the Harry N. Abrams Company, offers text and side-bar illustrations bound to intrigue and invite the reader to learn more.

Marc Chagall by Jonathan Wilson presents the life of this great Jewish artist amid the historical background of the times in which Chagall lived and worked.

It's Official

National Book Award Winners

The National Book Awards ceremony was held last Wednesday evening. Medal winners included What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (Young People's Literature) and The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed (Non-Fiction). Peter Matthiessen's Shadow Country took top prize in the fiction category; Mark Doty's Fire to Fire won in the poetry category.

The awards, founded in 1950, are sponsored by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization that offers numerous educational and literary programs.

Make It Personal, Make It Strong

Greetings!

None of the above are international award winners or life-altering reads but darn; they're cool. If you are even a little bit crafty and looking to save money during the holidays, how about making your own greeting cards?

50 Nifty Beaded Cards by Chris Rankin; bright colors and beads join with nifty-thrifty ideas.

Cards That Pop Up, Flip and Slide by Michael Jacobs provides great suggestions on how to use simple cuts and folds.

Paper Pop-Up: 40 Dynamic Designs for Surprising Cards and Gifts by Dorothy Wood illustrates how cool 3D mechanisms can be. We recommend you couple Jacobs' and Wood's books with Robert Sabuda's online tips to mix it up and combine techniques.

Designing Handcrafted Cards: Step-by-Step Techniques for Crafting 60 Beautiful Cards by Claire Sun-ok Choi includes paper quilling in this mixed bag of personal card techniques.

If more experienced card-makers have best-book recommendations to offer, we'd welcome your suggestions. Everyone in our community benefits when we share.

Classic Novel?

Priceless
In The Financier, Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) tells the story of fictional financial tycoon, Frank Cowperwood. Cowperwood's businesses thrive but not without slights of hand.

Published in 1912, The Financier is one of America’s finest historical novels; read and re-read for close to a century of years. Dreiser's tale about double-dealing, egotism, and greed is just as relevant today as it was then.

Bags 'O Goodies

One-Stop Fun from the Children's Services Area

Next time you visit the library, check out one of our theme bags. Each bag contains an assortment of materials related to the theme, such as books, videos, puzzles, games, and puppets.

Several of our most popular theme bags are titled Food, Dogs, Farm, Friends, Beach and of course, the famous "Potty" bag!

Enjoy a bag 'o goodies for two weeks and then bring it back to try another! There are 21 different bags to choose from; our theme bag program is sponsored by the Friends of the East Hampton Public Library.

Sci-Fi Greats

Ender Wiggins Rides Again
We've been enjoying Orson Scott Card's 'Ender' books since Ender's Game, the first in the series, was published over 20 years ago. Card recently added the latest in series but with a retrospective touch. That is, Card shuffled the order of the series and moved Ender In Exile to second in line.

Though it may seem like blasphemy to suggest the 'Ender' books may be read out of order (they can, we often did), try this core order if you are new to or re-reading the series: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind.

Click here for all books in this thoughtful series suitable for 'sci-fan' families with youth in their planetary sphere.

Cool Month

Hot Picks
Upcoming new fiction releases include Clive and Dirk Cussler's Arctic Drift. In this 20th Dirk Pitt adventure, saving the planet from global warming is on the agenda.

Kate Jacob's Knit Two is generating major buzz. The buzz may be due in equal parts to Jacobs' sleeper hit, The Friday Night Knitting Club and its upcoming film adaptation starring Julia Roberts as club leader, Georgia Walker.

Belva Plain's Crossroads is her first book in five years. Incidentally, Plain is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of one our favorite gentle reads, Evergreen.

Daring Do

Climb Every Mountain
If you love adventure tales, outdoor stories, or mountaineering itself, you may enjoy the following reads, each with its own set of thrills.

Maurice Isserman and Stewart Weaver's book, Fallen Giants, illustrates the effect political and social changes have had on mountaineering in the Himalayas.

Touch the Top of the World is Erik Weihenmayer's story. Eric was the first blind person to summit McKinley; to scale the infamous 3000-foot rock wall of El Capitan and then Argentina's Aconcagua, the highest peak outside of Asia.

Jonathan Neale's Tigers of the Snow blends mountaineering history, German politics in the 1930s, and the legendary Sherpas into one tight read.

True Crime

On TV and In-Print
While Saturday night channel surfing, we almost "twapped" our way past the Lifetime cable channel on our way to... well... anything other than Lifetime.

Alas, we were pulled in by Killing Mr. Kissel, the story of two multi-millionaire brothers, both murdered. The Kissel brothers’ fate made for tawdry headlines in both Hong Kong and the U.S. True crime writer Joe McGinniss also told this train wreck of a story in his 2007 book Never Enough.

With a story this horrific, McGinniss did a better job describing the consequences.

Famous Last Words

"Please" and "Thank You"
Laura Claridge presents the first authoritative biography of Emily Post, the "mistress of American manners". Claridge recounts Post's personal trials and the enormous influence she exerted on 20th century ideas about manners and ethical behavior. Post's most famous work, Etiquette, was first published in 1922 and is now in its 17th edition.

P.M. Forni, founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility Project (1997-2000), weighs in with The Civility Solution. Forni offers more than 70 modern day examples of rude behavior and describes their trigger points; e.g., anger, fear. The author also delivers solid advice on how we might all change our ways.

Meet the Press?

Print Power
Once upon a time, Americans actively read news printed on (drum roll) paper! Centuries later, our news comes from myriad sources but one thing has not changed: we’re still arguing about how the media shapes public opinion.

Along these lines we recommend two good books on the not so early days of American print journalism. Both books have a contemporary feel.

Taking on the Trust by Steve Weinberg presents dual biographies of investigative reporter/muckraker Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil fame.

David Dary's Red Blood Black Ink relates tales of the days when frontier west newspaper editors ran the show.

Whodunits

November Pleasures

The prolific James Patterson, who recently weighed in as a non-fiction writer, delivers his latest Alex Cross thriller next week. In this case, Alex traces a murderer across Africa.

Also next week, the mother-daughter team of Mary & Carol Higgins Clark offer up their mystery-light holiday book, Dashing Through the Snow.

Truth be told, we're mainly waiting for P.D. James's latest Inspector Adam Dalgliesh mystery, The Private Patient. Buzz has it this book will be the last in the Dalgliesh series; we're preparing to love the book and mourn the loss of one of our favorite Scotland Yard detectives.

Icons

Legends, Too
Few would argue Martin Scorsese's (1942-) or John Lennon's (1940-1980) unbreakable hold on the American imagination or their enduring influence on film and music, respectively.

Prominent film critic, Roger Ebert, analyzes Scorseses's films in an essay collection that is both reverent and thoughtfully critical. Philip Norman covers old and new terrain in his comprehensive biography of the late Beatle.

Fortunately for all of us, Scorsese is very much alive and regularly adds to his resume of stunning film accomplishments. Lennon's legacy is also alive and keeps on giving...

First Americans: Resources for Families

Native American Heritage Month
As Thanksgiving nears, we must remember an important group of people who played a crucial role in that first holiday. You can learn more about First Americans through books and on the web. This month, use these and other resources to plan your family celebration of Thanksgiving and of Native American heritage.

Books to Share
American Indian Crafts Kids Can Do ** American Indian Games and Crafts ** Buffalo Days ** Celebrating America ** The Girl Who Married a Ghost and Other Tales from the Native American Indian ** Squanto ** Turkey, Pilgrims, and Indian Corn

Resources On the Web
Library of Congress ** Wild West.org ** Native American Games (Scholastic) ** Native American Crafts (Enchanted Learning)

Lifesavers

No Paramedics Required

At this time of year, many of you are looking for quick and easy meal ideas. We recommend two stylish and easy-format books to help you rescue your family from dinner boredom and save you time in the kitchen, too.

In The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner, Liz Edmunds provides quick recipes and tips to help you organize prep work. Food themes for different days of the week are included and most recipes are suitable for novice cooks.

Recipes to the Rescue, illustrated by Lou Brooks, provides 80 recipes that may be prepared in 30 minutes or less. Betty Crocker meets Marvel Comics in this colorful book illustrated with popart cartoons. 'Rescue' recipes included here seem sure to make you a superhero.