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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Book Signing...


CARL SAFINA

Sunday, May 1st, 4pm @ Book Revue in Huntington.
Local author CARL SAFINA will speak about and sign his new book,
The View From Lazy Point.


In The View from Lazy Point, Carl Safina shows us that nature and human dignity require each other. It follows the arc of the seasons from Carl Safina’s home waters of eastern Long Island to far horizons of the globe, from the Arctic to Antarctica and across the tropics. Safina shows how philosophy, religion, and economics-all developed before we knew the world was round-are so out of sync with scientific realities that they’re essentially irrational and why our institutions fail to see these danger.

Carl Safina is a prominent ecologist and marine conservationist and president of Blue Ocean Institute, an environmental organization based in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. He is a winner of the prestigious Pew Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowships. Safina has also written five books including, Song for the Blue Ocean, Eye of the Albatross, Voyage of the Turtle, Nina Delmar, The View from Lazy Point, and A Sea in Flames. Safina’s new TV series, Saving the Ocean, premieres on PBS starting April 2011.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

New York Times Literary Treat of the Week....


Perry, Anne. Treason at Lisson Grove. Ballantine Books.

American Sherlock Holmes scholar Vincent Starrett in his now classic poem “221B” placed the year 1895 in “that age before the world went all awry.” For husband and wife sleuths Thomas and Charlotte Pitt that age has already past. When an informant with details about a plot against the British government dies before Pitt can debrief him, the now intelligence officer tracks the anarchist killer to France. Meanwhile, Pitt’s superior Victor Narraway has been framed for embezzling government funds and enlists the high-born Charlotte to help clear his name. Perry weaves in nicely the looming fact that Narrraway has an unspoken love for Mrs. Pitt even as she poses as his sister in 1895 Ireland.

Merrick Library also has the following Anne Perry novels featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt:

Buckingham Palace Gardens
Long Spoon Lane
Seven Dials
Southampton Road
The Whitechapel Conspiracy
Half Moon Street
Bedford Square
Brunswick Gardens
Ashworth Hall
Traitor's Gate


Reviewed by Librarian, Bob.

Friday, April 22, 2011

New Fiction Titles



Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Dead Reckoning - Sookie Stackhouse Novels #11 by Charlaine Harris
If You Ask Me: And of Course You Won't by Betty White
Does the Noise in My Head Bother You by Steven Tyler
Tabloid City by Pete Hamill

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Let Us Pick Your Next Read......


Merrick Library's Reference Department would like to make choosing your next read easier. Fill out this short questionnaire and our staff will provide you with up to 5titles according to your preferences. You will be notified when your selections are available at the Reference Desk.

Author Signing


KARA DIOGUARDI

Wednesday, April 27th, 7pm @ Book Revue in Huntington.
Former American Idol Judge KARA DIOGUARDI will speak about and sign her new memoir, A Helluva High Note.


Award-winning song writer, record executive, and former American Idol judge, Kara DioGuardi, presents Helluva High Note: Surviving Life, Love, and American Idol. DioGuardi retells the experiences that have inspired her songs, which have been recorded by artists such as Pink, Britney Spears, Carrie Underwood, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, and Gwen Stefani. Written with grace and filled with emotion, this new memoir not only tells the raw details of her collaborations with the music industry's most successful artists, but she also opens up about her behind-the-scenese stories from her years as an American Idol judge.

Kara DioGuardi is an grammy-nominated song writer, record executive, and former American Idol judge. Her music has appeared on more than 159 million albums world-wide. She has received fifteen BMI Awards for co-writing the most-performed songs on the radio and works at Warner Bros. Records, where she serves as executive vice president of talent development; co-owns Arthouse Entertainment, a music-publishing venture with Bug Music; and is currently appearing as a judge on Platinum Hit, Bravo's new reality show in search of America's best songwriters.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New Audiobooks!


When his daughter's father-in-law, legendary navy officer H¯kan von Enke, inexplicably disappears during a routine walk, Inspector Kurt Wallander personally spearheads the search. As he investigates, Wallander starts to uncover a conspiracy dating back to the Cold War, one which threatens to plunge all of Sweden into a scandal. However, Wallander's efforts are hampered when he begins to experience memory loss.



Jude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone's needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes Mia's best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable. But senior year of high school brings unexpected dangers and one night, Jude's worst fears are confirmed: there is an accident.




Linda Davis' local fabric shop is a place where women gather to share their creations: quilts commemorating important events in their lives. Wedding quilts, baby quilts, memorial quilts, each is bound tight with dreams, hopes, and yearnings. Now, as her only child readies for college, Linda is torn between excitement for Molly and heartache for herself. Mother and daughter decide to share one last adventure together: a cross-country road trip to move Molly into her dorm.




Witch and Yale historian Diana Bishop discovers an enchanted manuscript, attracting the attention of 1,500-year-old vampire Matthew Clairmont. The orphaned daughter of two powerful witches, Bishop prefers intellect, but relies on magic when her discovery of a palimpsest documenting the origin of supernatural species releases an assortment of undead who threaten, stalk, and harass her.

Monday, April 18, 2011

New York Times Literary Treat of the Week...


Leon Donna. Drawing Conclusions. Atlantic Monthly Press.

Costanza Altavilla of Venice, Italy is dead. The medical examiner attributes the sixtyish widow’s demise to heart failure. But when Commissario Guido Brunetti notices bruises that very likely contributed to the fatal attack he is suspicious of their origins. Brunetti’s misgivings are confirmed as he learns Signora Altavilla not only volunteered at a local nursing home but apparently ran a safe house for abused women. Both enterprises, it turns out, ran afoul of the corruption that permeates the historic metropolis and has regularly been part of Brunetti’s beat. This is Leon’s twentieth depiction of that world in which justice is sought within a beautiful city that has a sordid underbelly.

Merrick Library also has these adventures of Guido Brunetti by Donna Leon:

About Face
Acqua Alta
Blood From A Stone
Death At La Fenice
Death In A Strange Country
Doctored Evidence
Friends In High Places
The Girl Of His Dreams
A Question Of Belief
Suffer The Little Children
Through A Glass Darkly

Thursday, April 14, 2011

New Non-Fiction Audiobook Arrivals!


The premier biographer of the British royal family presents the updated inside story of the romance that has made headlines the world over, just in time for the royal wedding. Nicholl paints a portrait of Kate by looking back at her family and childhood, her close friends and former boyfriends, and her ever-present devotion to the love of her life, Prince William.



Suze Orman, the woman millions of Americans have turned to for financial advice, delivers a master class on personal finance and teaches her readers that the "New American Dream" is not the things they accumulate, but the confidence that comes from knowing that which they've worked so hard for cannot be taken away from them.





From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that you're no one until someone calls you bossy.



Geneen Roth is the author of several books about women and food, including When Food Is Love and Women Food and God. Here, Roth explores the fascinating relationship between money and food.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Author Signing


MARIA MENOUNOS

Tuesday, April 12th, 7pm @ Huntington's Book Revue
Access Hollywood, Today Show, & Nightly News Correspondent, MARIA
MENOUNOS, will speak about and sign her new book The Every Girl's
Guide to Life

In this tell-all new book, The Every Girl's Guide to Life, Maria Menounos, shares all she's learned from her time in Hollywood, on how to get the best and look the best for next to no money at all! Creating the perfect smoky eye for a night out, designing the most time-saving way to accomplish your weekend errands, organizing splendidly simple dresser drawers or toning your legs while never leaving your bed, Maria's new book showcases what she has been able to learn through her high profile life. This new book includes Maria's experiences from her life both on the red carpet and off of it. Filled with colorful photos, mantras, mottos, and philosophies on health, beauty, relationships, careers, and so much more! From your carpet to the red carpet, she teaches the EveryGirl, on the "every salary," how to live a healthier, happier, and successful life.

Maria Menounos is a reporter for Access Hollywood, NBC Nightly News, Dateline and the Today Show. She is also an international spokesperson for Pantene as well as an actress and movie producer. Maria is a hands-on, ground breaking, multi-tasker who seeks to execute all aspects of life in smarter ways, particularly when time and money are short
.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Books To Movies....


Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen
"In theatres April 15, 2011."

A veterinary student abandons his studies after his parents are killed and joins a traveling circus as their vet.

Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Richard LaGravenese (screenplay), Sara Gruen (novel)
Stars:Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Let Us Pick Your Next Read...



Merrick Library's Reference Department would like to make choosing your next read easier. Fill out this short questionnaire and our staff will provide you with up to 5 titles according to your preferences. You will be notified when your selections are available at the Reference Desk.

New York Times Literary Treat of the Week....


Doctorow, E.L. All the Time in the World: New and Selected Stories. Random House.

One wonders if an historical novelist lauded for nearly forty years can adapt his style to short fiction. Doctorow not only succeeds in this collection but provides reminders of his longer works. “Liner Notes: The Songs of Billy Bathgate” is a companion piece to the 1989 novel. The New Yorker magazine contribution “Heist” was later incorporated into City of God (2000). The Holocaust’s survivor’s powerful narrative in “Willi” can be compared to that in The Book of Daniel (1971). Doctorow also takes inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne by presenting “Wakefield” (also a Hawthorne story title) in which a lawyer for no given reason hides out from his family and civilization in a garage attic. Rounding out the set is “Assimilation,” where a busboy is forced by his corrupt boss into a green-card marriage; and “Walter John Harmon,” depicting a charismatic cult leader who supervises construction of a compound and then abandons everyone.

Also by E.L. Doctorow at Merrick Library:

Billy Bathgate
The Book of Daniel
City of God
Creationists: Selected Essays, 1993-2006
Homer and Langley
Lives of the Poets: Six Stories and a Novella
The March
Ragtime
Reporting the Universe
Sweet Land Stories
The Waterworks
World's Fair


Reviewed by Librarian, Bob.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Book Signing...


EDDIE TRUNK

Thursday, April 7th, 7pm @ Book Revue in Huntington
Leading expert on all things rock, EDDIE TRUNK, will speak about and sign his new book, Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.

In his debut new book, Eddie Trunk, explains his most unique and personal experiences with rock stars such as Axl Rose (frontman of Guns N' Roses) and being onstage with Ozzy Osbourne during his infamous tour with Motley Crue. He also explains mediating a fight between Bret Michaels and his band Poison on air for VH1 Classic, being one of the first to play Metallica on the radio, how he convinced Twisted Sister to get back together, and his longtime relationship with the late, great, Ronnie James Dio. The book also includes his audience-favorite "Stump the Trunk" anecdotes and Eddie's favorite playlists.

Eddie Trunk has been sharing his love of hard rock and heavy metal with fans for more than twenty-five years. He is the host of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show and is also heard on two weekly radio shows: Eddie Trunk Live which airs on Sirius/XM radio's the Boneyard Channel, and the FM-syndicated Eddie Trunk Rocks, heard live in New York City on Q104.3 and various affiliates. He is as a leading expert on all things hard rock and heavy metal, Eddie Trunk continues to entertain fans on the radio and as the host of VH1 Classic's hit television program That Metal Show.

Friday, April 1, 2011

New York Times Literary Treat of the Week....



Lanctot, Neil. Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella. Simon and Schuster.

The February 27 passing of Brooklyn Dodgers star Edwin “Duke” Snider comes as another of the “boys of summer” is given a thorough examiniation in print. Campanella dropped out of high school at age 15 to play Negro League baseball. His rifle arm and superb hitting might have qualified “Campy” to break the major league color line had not his half-Italian heredity made him lighter-skinned than Jackie Robinson. Arriving with the Dodgers one year after Robinson, Campanella would win three National League Most Valuable Player Awards and was an eight-time All-Star. Lanctot details the rift that developed between Robinson and Campanella as the former became more outspoken on race issues while the latter was at first reluctant to be a “boat rocker.” The 1958 auto accident that ended Campy’s career became part of his reconciliation with Robinson and helped in getting better treatment for quadripilegics.

For more about the Brooklyn Dodgers, Merrick Library has the following books:

Breslin, Jimmy. Branch Rickey.
D'Antonio, Michael. Forever Blue.
Murphy, Robert. After Many A Summer.
McGee, Bob. The Greatest Ballpark Ever.
Shapiro, Michael. The Last Good Season.
Thorn, John, editor. The Glory Days.


Reviewed by librarian, Bob.