Your source for information on the latest and greatest in reading arts and entertainment!

Monday, December 24, 2018

Merry Christmas to all our patrons and a very Happy & Healthy 2019!

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Wishing all our patrons a very 
happy & healthy 2019!

We thank you for your continued support.

Looking forward to a year filled with 

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Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Here come Head of Adult Services Diane's Favorites of 2018!

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Click on any title to place a hold!

he host of The Daily Show With Trevor Noah traces his wild coming of age during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed, offering insight into the farcical aspects of the political and social systems of today's world.

Traces the author's experiences as a child born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, describing her participation in her family's paranoid stockpiling activities and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn an acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond.

Branded for her affair with her congressman boss, an intern and blogger changes her name and moves to a remote town in Maine with her young daughter before local prompting to run for public office forces her to reckon with the past.

Given a chance to resume a deferred dream years after raising her troubled siblings, Isma worries about the influence of a powerful politician's son who drives the family to choose between love and loyalty, with devastating consequences.

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
When a custody battle divides her placid town, straitlaced family woman Elena Richardson finds herself pitted against her enigmatic tenant and becomes obsessed with exposing her past, only to trigger devastating consequences for both families.
In early 1900s Korea, prized daughter Sunja finds herself pregnant and alone, bringing shame on her family until a young tubercular minister offers to marry her and move with her to Japan, in the saga of one family bound together as their faith and identity are called into question.

Discussing motherhood, marriage, friendship, and the legacy of her great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author, who has been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, explores what makes a meaningful life when one has limited time.

A shocking discovery while on their honeymoon in Bora Bora forces Mark and Erin to make a dangerous choice between speaking out or protecting their secret.

Having spent her entire youth under Japanese occupation, a young woman in World War II-era Korea follows in her mother's footsteps as an elite female diver, only to be forced into prostitution in order to save her beloved younger sister.

After the Russells move in next door, Anna Fox, a recluse, finds her world crumbling when she witnesses something she shouldn't.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Here come Librarian Carol Ann's favorites of 2018 in no particular order...

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Fiction:
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Receiving an invitation to his ex-boyfriend's wedding, Arthur, a failed novelist on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, embarks on an international journey that finds him falling in love, risking his life, reinventing himself, and making connections with the past.

There There by Tommy Orange
A novel that grapples with the complex history and identity of Native Americans follows twelve characters, each of whom has private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.

The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo
When a popular middle-school girl is abducted in broad daylight by a masked man, the victim's rival, Meredith, struggles with terror while their community organizes vigils and searches.

Meet Me At The Museum by Anne Youngson
A disenchanted farmer's wife and a widowed museum curator begin a correspondence over their mutual fascination with poet Seamus Heaney's "The Tollund Man" and gradually share details from their lives, forging an unexpected bond along the way.

The Child Finder by Renee Denfeld
Hired by a family that has become desperate to find the young daughter who went missing three years earlier, a talented private investigator embarks on a search in a mysterious forest in the Pacific Northwest, where she is forced to confront painful realities from her own past as a lost child.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Unexpectedly chosen to be a family manservant, an 11-year-old Barbados sugar-plantation slave is initiated into a world of technology and dignity before a devastating betrayal propels him throughout the world in search of his true self.

The Birdwatcher by William Shaw
Living with the secret that, as a child in Northern Ireland, he may have killed a man, Police Sergeant William South finds his world turned upside down when the only person connecting him to his early crime is murdered.

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Faced with a life of menial prospects in the years after high school, Mike Munoz, a young Mexican-American, attempts over and over to change his life for the better and achieve the American dream, only to be stymied by social-class distinctions and cultural discrimination.

The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook
Surviving a panther attack that kills her mother and leaves her with scars, a tenacious young woman resolves to find and kill the unusually aggressive cat with the assistance of a charismatic Mexican-American, a haunted preacher, her traumatized half-brother, and an old hunting dog.


Non-Fiction:

Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco by Jeff Tweedy
The singer and songwriter of Wilco opens up about his past, his songs, the music, and the people that inspire him. Talks about his time with band Uncle Tupelo too.

I'll be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
An account of the unsolved Golden State Killer case, written by the late author of the TrueCrimeDiary.com website and featuring an afterword by her husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, traces the rapes and murders of dozens of victims and the author's determined efforts to help identify the killer and bring him to justice

Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond & Adam Horovitz 
Featuring contributions by the group's surviving members and complemented by rare visuals, a panoramic chronicle of the Beastie Boys traces their early collaborations, genre-breaking achievements and evolution as musicians and social activists.

Thanks a Lot Mr Kibblewhite: My Story by Roger Daltrey 
The front man of The Who draws on years of careful introspection in an anecdotal memoir of his rise from poverty to rock-and-roll stardom, sharing insights into the creative processes behind iconic hits and his relationship with Keith Moon.



Wednesday, December 5, 2018

We continue our 2018 favorites with...

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...these from Reference Librarian Jill: 



After a lonely divorced man with a compulsion to fix things books a room in the rundown Hotel Silence in a war-torn town, he finds new meaning to his life when he becomes close to the hotel owner and her young son and helps the locals mend their homes.

A man with a secret rare condition that has enabled him to survive for centuries moves to London to become a high-school history teacher and considers defying his protective guardians' rule against falling in love when he becomes entranced by a captivating colleague.

After losing her parents, a young college graduate in New York City spends a year under the influence of a crazy combination of drugs to help heal herself from her feeling of alienation from the world.

An account of the unsolved Golden State Killer case traces the rapes and murders of dozens of victims and the author's determined efforts to help identify the killer and bring him to justice. 

Recounts the author's effort to retrace the historic 1899 Harriman Expedition around Alaska by using the state's public ferry system, and discusses how the lessons learned on the 1899 journey relate to Alaska's current environmental situation.

A psychological thriller by a former BBC News producer depicts the harrowing experiences of a coma patient with shut-in syndrome who, while unable to move or speak, must listen to those around her to figure out what happened and who is responsible for her injuries.

Chronicles America's more than twenty-year struggle with opioid addiction, from the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, through the spread of addiction in distressed communities in Central Appalachia, to the current national crisis.

New York chef and novelist Bourdain recounts his experiences in the restaurant business, and exposes abuses of power, sexual promiscuity, drug use, and other secrets of life behind kitchen doors.

When the small community of Beartown learns their amateur ice hockey team may be disbanded, the tensions mount, but a surprising new coach offers a chance at a comeback.

The comedian and star of The Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt delivers a hilarious and uplifting collection of essays about one pale woman’s journey from Midwestern naïf to Hollywood semi-celebrity to outrageously reasonable New Yorker.

Drawing on the work of geologists, botanists, marine biologists and other researchers, an award-winning writer for The New Yorker discusses the five devastating mass extinctions on earth and predicts the coming of a sixth.


Hotel Silence by [Olafsdottir, Audur Ava]How to Stop Time by [Haig, Matt]My Year of Rest and Relaxation by [Moshfegh, Ottessa]
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by [McNamara, Michelle]Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier by [Adams, Mark]

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Here come our favorites of 2018...!

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Let's start things off with our Director!  
Director Ellen Firer is a voracious reader...
trust me when I say she reads ALOT.  
Here are her favorites of 2018:

When mathematician Stella Lane decides to improve her love life, she hires Michael Phan, an escort, to help her gain knowledge and experience in dating.

A widow from India travels to California to learn the truth about what happened to the son who was declared dead shortly after he revealed his sexual orientation to their traditional family.
An anxiety-riddled cub reporter for a small London paper is assigned to cover the closing of a local rec center and bonds with an 86-year-old widow who has swum in the community pool every day since childhood

Maddy and Leanne are in need of a miracle, when they win the lottery these
two best friends pack their bags for the trip of an hilarious trip of a lifetime, and promise to start living life to the fullest.

An adventurous young woman takes a typist job to assist the war effort and lands in the employ of a renowned advice columnist before she begins secretly replying to heart-wrenching letters rejected as unsuitable.

In 1921, Bombay's first female lawyer, Oxford graduate Perveen Mistry, investigates a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows living in strict seclusion who become subject to a murderous guardian's schemes for their inheritances.

An idyllic romance between Sarah and her boyfriend, Eddie, is shattered when Eddie abruptly disappears, prompting Sarah to ignore her friends' advice and investigate what really happened. 

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
A freelance writer returns to her grandmother’s homeland to fulfill her last wish to have her ashes scattered in Havana and discovers her family history amidst Cuba’s tropical beauty and dangerous political environment.

 The Lido by [Page, Libby] Next Year in Havana by [Cleeton, Chanel]
Ghosted: A Novel by [Walsh, Rosie] The Widows of Malabar Hill (A Mystery of 1920s India Book 1) by [Massey, Sujata] Dear Mrs. Bird: A Novel by [Pearce, AJ]
The Kiss Quotient by [Hoang, Helen]America for Beginners: A Novel by [Franqui, Leah]


Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Our Next Book Discussion Book is your 2nd place Merrick Library Great American Reads Book Choice...

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Join us Wednesday, December 5th at 2:30pm.

It has won the Pulitzer Prize, 
been translated into more than forty languages, 
sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, 
and been made into an enormously popular movie.

Get your books at the Circulation Desk!

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Harper Lee

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Since we're in October, it seems only fitting that we would get this announcement via Tweet...


 Oct 3
Some exciting news: Thomas Harris, bestselling author and creator of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, is returning with a new novel in 2019. Pre-order it now:
Well of course I'll keep you posted on this as soon as we have any information. 
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Who is Thomas Harris? 
A native of Mississippi, Thomas Harris began his writing career covering crime in the United States and Mexico, and was a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in New York City. His first novel, Black Sunday, was published in 1975, followed by Red Dragon in 1981, The Silence of the Lambs in 1988, Hannibal in 1999 and Hannibal Rising in 2006.
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Thursday, September 27, 2018

The 2018 National Book Award Long List is Out!

Here are the long list titles for the 

Click any title to place your hold!
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Sunday, September 9, 2018

A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice? Sure! Why Not!


 Join us at the
Wednesday Afternoon 
Book Discussion 
on
Wednesday, October 3rd at 2:30pm 
as we discuss 

This is part two of our 
Great American Reads programming.
Don't miss it!

Monday, August 20, 2018

Let Lynda Help! ....

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Lynda.com is a leading online learning platform 
that helps anyone learn business, software, 
technology and creative skills to achieve 
personal and professional goals. 

Merrick Library patrons have access to the Lynda.com 
video library of engaging, top-quality courses 
taught by recognized industry experts.

Sample topics include: