Mark Felt

Mark Felt, the former FBI agent who was revealed as the "Deep Throat" in the Watergate scandal, has a new memoir out, A G-Man's Life: The FBI, 'Deep Throat' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington. The library currently has the audio CD on order. You may reserve it here.

Enrique's Journey

One of this bloggers' favorite books of the year is Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite With His Mother by Sonia Nazario. Nazario, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, follows the journey of Enrique, a young boy who leaves Honduras to the travel to the United States in hope of finding his mother. His mother had left him behind in Honduras a dozen years earlier in hope of making a better life for herself in the United Stes. Thousands of Latin American and Mexican children undertake a similiar journey every year. The journey is dangerous, life-threatening and humilating with a ever-present risk of starvation, rape and death.

If you're looking for a book about immigration, motherhood or a plain good read, this is it.

Computer tips

We at the Addison library are here to help you with your computing needs. We have computer classes, computer books and computers for you to use at the library. And yes we do have wireless Internet access.

For questions or help about any of these, please email the Information Services desk at adult@addison.lib.il.us or call at 630-458-3318.

Top Adaptations of Movies Into Books

Yesterday, The Guardian newspaper in England announced a poll for the "Top Film Adaptation" of a book. The fifty titles on the longlist are:

1984
Alice in Wonderland
American Psycho
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Brighton Rock
Catch 22
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
A Clockwork Orange
Close Range (inc Brokeback Mountain)
The Day of the Triffids
Devil in a Blue Dress
Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
Doctor Zhivago
Empire of the Sun
The English Patient
Fight Club
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Get Shorty
The Godfather
Goldfinger
Goodfellas
Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Jaws
The Jungle Book
A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)
LA Confidential
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Lolita
Lord of the Flies
The Maltese Falcon
Oliver Twist
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Orlando
The Outsiders
Pride and Prejudice
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Railway Children
Rebecca
The Remains of the Day
Schindler's Ark (aka Schindler's List)
Sin City
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The Talented Mr Ripley
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
To Kill a Mockingbird
Trainspotting
The Vanishing
Watership Down

This blogger's personal favorite is the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. These and many of the others on the list are available at the library.

Finding Book Gems

Next Wednesday, April 26th at 7pm in our meeting room, Mary Marshall, a local book expert, (and our very own Assistant Director/Head of Children's Services) will share tips about how to recognize the gems—those books that are more valuable than the sale price. The cost of the program is free.

Book News

One new feature of our website you may not know about are our new monthly book newsletters called Book News. Each month on the 15th, there will be descriptions of new books listed in a number of categories from Audio Books to Science and Nature. You may read the newsletters on the website and/or have them emailed to you.

Winnie The Pooh

Yesterday, Winnie the Pooh, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Winnie the Pooh is one of mine, and probably yours, favorite characters in children's literature.

The library has a number of Pooh-related items including the book, The Brilliant Career of Winnie-the-Pooh: The Definitive History of the Best Bear in All the World by Ann Thwaite and the DVD, Disney's Sing Along Songs: Sing a Song With Pooh Bear and Piglet Too.

31 Days

One of the best history books of the spring is being published today, 31 Days: The Crisis That Gave Us the Government We Have Today by Barry Werth. It's an inside look at the first 31 days of Gerald Ford's presidential administration. The library also has it on CD.

Elinor Lipman

One of modern fiction's funny writers is Elinor Lipman. Her latest novel, My Latest Grievance was reviewed in this past Sunday's New York Times.

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Another DVD that the library received this week was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

The movie is based on the classic C.S. Lewis children's novel. We have many other Narnia items including the original books, CDs and other film versions of the series.

Brokeback Mountain

The multiple Oscar-winner Brokeback Mountain was released on Tuesday. We have the DVD at the library.

We also have the original short story in print and CD as well as the film's soundtrack.

Blooker Award

What's the Blooker Award you ask? It's a new annual reward for the best blook. So what's a blook then? A published book that originated in a blog.

This year's Blooker Award for Non-Fiction is Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living. The book originated from a blog the author had about her quest to try all the recipes in one of Julia Child's cookbooks.

Who Reads What 2006

Every year, the Gardiner Public Library in Maine surveys celebrities and politicans to find out what books they have read and loved recently.

Following are a few of the celebrities and their choices:

Gregg Allman (musician) – The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

Rosalynn Carter (former First Lady) – The Bible

Barbara Delinksy (writer) – A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks

Margaret Geller (astrophysicist) – A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan by Nelofer Pazira

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Supreme Court Justice) – John Marshall: Definer of a Nation by Jean Edward Smith and The Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest by Sandra Day O’Connor

Not-So-Silent Spring

An article "Not-So-Silent Spring" in today's Slate magazine talks about two new books about global warming, Field Notes from a Catastrophe and The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth.

You may borrow these books at the library.