the Alex Awards, in reverse!

YALSA has a wonderful award for books published for adults which have appeal for young adult readers, the Alex Awards. At our next meeting, April 28, 2010 at 9am at the Emmet O'Neal Library, the RA Roundtable will be turning the Alex Awards upside down and discussing books published for young adults that have appeal for adult readers.

Look to J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer if you don't believe this crossover takes place!

If you'd like a bit of assistance in finding a suitable title, here are a couple of lists!

Publisher's Weekly online, "Adult Readers in the Kids' Section"

About.com: Bestsellers, "Top 7 Young Adult Books for Adults"

Amazon.com, "YA Books that Adults Can Appreciate"

SF Signal: MINDMELD, "Young Adult SF/F Books That Adults Will Like Too"

I'm having a hard time narrowing down my selections! A lot of these I've already read, but I love a good reread! Have you read any of the titles on these lists?

Happy reading!

Holley

Fiction of Choice

The Roundtable met yesterday morning to talk about fiction of choice and the discussion was brisk and varied! The few housekeeping matters brought up included using Encore's community tagging feature to add your library book group's name to the books that they have read, are reading, and will read so that patrons can see library book group selections when searching the catalog.

Also, remember that the April meeting was moved back to the 28th to avoid conflict with the Alabama Library Association conference in Huntsville AND that the venue will change to the meeting room of the Emmet O'Neal Library.

Thrillers, cozies, historical sagas, contemporary explorations of character, and genre-bending award winners are just a few of the great books read and/or talked about by roundtable members. See how many you've read!

Searching for Tina Turner by Jacqueline Luckett

Push by Sapphire

Total Eclipse of the Heart by Zane

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson
Fans of Patterson's serial-killer hunting detective, Alex Cross, expecting another cat-and-mouse thriller based on this book's title, will find Cross's appearance limited to a two-page preface in which the fictional character explains why he's written a book called Trial. Abraham Cross, a great uncle who lived in Eudora, Miss., at the beginning of the 20th century, helps liberal lawyer Ben Corbett to expose the truth about a wave of lynchings near that town, an assignment undertaken at the request of Corbett's friend, President Theodore Roosevelt. When Corbett arrives in Eudora, where he was born and raised, he receives a frosty reception from many unhappy with his record of representing African-Americans accused of murder, including a cold shoulder from his father, a judge. Soon, Corbett finds evidence that racism is alive and well, and that brutal murders of blacks, often for the most trivial of reasons, are endemic. Ben aims to break the reign of terror--but the truth of who is really behind it could break his heart. Written in the fearless voice of Detective Alex Cross, Alex Cross's Trial is a tale of murder, love, and, above all, bravery.
Leslie West, Vestavia Hills Library

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Sittenfeld presents a fictional portrait of First Lady Laura Bush, although she changes some important details. In a memoir told entirely in the first person, Alice Blackwell relays her unlikely ascent to the White House from her humble Wisconsin beginnings. She conveys in convincing, thoroughly riveting detail a life far more complicated than it appears on the surface—the moment she discovered that her beloved grandmother was a lesbian; a tragic, life-changing car accident she had as a teenager; the friendship she willingly sacrificed with her best friend when she started dating the good-humored, athletic Charlie Blackwell; and her uncomfortable initiation into the tight-knit, immensely wealthy Blackwell family, run with unflappable authority by its formidable matriarch. No one is more surprised than Alice when her hard-drinking, sports-team-owning husband morphs into a born-again Christian with political ambitions. Suddenly, Alice’s life is no longer her own as her every move is scrutinized for its political implications. Sittenfeld is sure to come under fire for presuming to so methodically blur the lines between fiction and reality and for timing her novel’s publication to an election year for maximum publicity. Yet what she does here, is winning and very confident ; she manages to craft out of the first-person narration a compelling, very human voice, full of kindness and decency. And, as if making the Bush-like couple entirely sympathetic is not enough of a feat in itself, she also provides many rich insights into the emotional ebb and flow of a long-term marriage.
Leslie West, Vestavia Hills Library

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? What does it mean to love those people--parents, grandparents, even lovers--who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink has written an austerely beautiful narrative in the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre- and postwar generations, between those guilty and those innocent, and between words and silence. Thought provoking. An excellent choice for books clubs.
Leslie West, Vestavia Hills Library

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
This dense, complex novel won the 2009 Man Book Prize, awarded to the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Many books have chronicled the life and many loves of Henry VIII, and this one does as well, but from the viewpoint of Thomas Cromwell, who rose from obscurity to become one of the most powerful men of the day. The perspective from which the book is written takes some time to get used to, the descriptive detail is exhausting, the cast of characters is a few rungs of the ladder above extensive, but this book is so worth the time and trouble. This book is like the very darkest chocolate, not at all meant to be devoured in large portions, but to be savored in tiny nibbles. I was sad when it was over and I greatly anticipate the next in the series.
Holley Wesley, Emmet O'Neal Library

Do you enjoy a good detective novel, but are sometimes overwhelmed with the superabundance of characters that writers like Agatha Christie can throw at you? The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler introduces Private Detective Philip Marlowe to readers. Marlowe is a cynical, hard-boiled character who sees himself as an average guy who just happens to solve crimes. Chandler’s lasting appeal can be attributed to his unmatched skill at describing his settings with rich textures and exacting detail. As you read Chandler, it is important to remember that his main interest was in human drama, character and emotion, not plotting.
Chris Roddy, East Ensley Library

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely has Marlowe ensnared in murder from the beginning. As an ex-con thug proves that he is very willing to kill to find his old girlfriend, Velma. The plot takes several twists and turns, with more than one false lead. If the reader is able to sit back and enjoy the narrative, rather than the plot’s believability. He or she should find that the novel’s conclusion, while far from perfect, is a reflection that real life crimes hardly ever end well.
Chris Roddy, East Ensley Library

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
In The Big Sleep, what starts out as a blackmail case quickly escalates to include sex and murder. The fast pacing and short chapters make this a hard book to put down, I found myself staying up late at night to find out what happens next. Put your sleuthing skills to the test and see if you can solve the case before it is revealed at the end of the novel.

Chris Roddy, East Ensley Library

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith
As in most of McCall-Smith’s books the major activity is in the relationships between and among the characters as they go about their everyday activities. This fifth book in the 44 SCOTLAND STREET series brings the reader up to date on the lives of the characters from the address and the neighborhood. Matthew, owner of a small art gallery marries a young teacher. Narcissistic Bruce is engaged to a vacuous young beauty. Six year old Bertie’s parents wage a struggle over Bertie’s desire to join the cub scouts Angus Lordie’s Cyril fathers six pups who are dumped on his doorstep. Reading this series is like returning to one’s old neighborhood to catch up on the news and gossip. The reader can so easily identify with the feelings and dilemmas of this endearing set of quirky characters.
Mary Donlevy, Emmet O'Neal Library

La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith
A quiet story about a young woman, La (short for Lavender) Stone, whose philandering husband leaves her for another woman and then is killed in a freak accident. Trying to reassemble her life, she moves to a small cottage in the country near Suffolk. After the outbreak of WWII, she joins the Women’s Land Army and is assigned to work on a neighboring farm. Also assigned to the farm is an attractive young Polish aviator shot down over England. Despite suspicions about his past, she is attracted to him, and he becomes a member of an amateur local orchestra which La organizes to boost morale. This brings the members of the community together with each other and also with some of the soldiers from a nearby air base.
Mary Donlevy, Emmet O'Neal Library

Stone's Fall by Ian Pears
By the author of An Instance of the Fingerpost, Stone’s Fall is a murder mystery, as well as a love story. The cover of the audio edition summarizes the story well. “John Stone, financier and arms dealer, was a man so wealthy that in the years before World War I he was able to manipulate markets, industries and entire countries and continents. Stone’s Fall seeks to discover why John Stone died, falling out of a window at his London home. Chronologically the story moves backward—from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890and finally to Venice in 1867—and the attempts to uncover the truth play out against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe’s first great age of espionage and the start of the twentieth century’s arms race."
Mary Donlevy, Emmet O'Neal Library

The Lumby Lines by Gail Fraser

This is the first of the Lumby novels. As in the Jan Karon Mitford books, we get to know the inhabitants of a special place on earth and soon feel at home with them. Mark and Pam lived in Virginia but mainly just existed there with each other. When visiting Lumby on vacation they "met" Hank and others who lived in and around Lumby. They also discovered the long abandoned and burned Montis Abbey. As they walked over the grounds, which included seven buildings, orchards and bee hives, they decided they could restore all this and open it as an inn. So began their new lives doing what they wanted to be happy, not just to have the money to have things. After they bought the Abbey some of the former monks came by to help by answering questions about the buildings and the orchards, and even how to care for the bees. The owner of the local newspaper wrote an editorial soon after those East Coast outsiders bought the Abbey. For some reason he did not like these people he had never met. He was very definite in his opinion that they should not rebuild the Abbey or open it as an inn for tourists. Most of the people in Lumby were helpful and eventually accepting. Mostly, Pam and her husband found a new way of life for themselves and others in this little town just off the highway and overlooking a beautiful lake. Visit Lumby and meet Hank the flamingo. A moose might also cross your path. Or a drunk cow.
Beth Hutchinson, Homewood Library

Stealing Lumby by Gail Fraser
This is the sequel to Lumby Lines, Gail Fraser's book introducing us to a Northwest small town with quirky characters and seemingly normal people who sometimes enjoy peculiar behavior. Such as the Midnight Moo Doo Iditarod. This Lumby tradition involves a team of two people, a sled and two bovines pulling the sled. The people of Lumby are proud of their town and traditions and care for each other. Especially when someone has special need. In this second book about Lumby the town experiences thievery. At stake is not just the object stolen but also the town's collective pride. When sickness, grief or financial troubles strike, the town pulls together to help and comfort their member or members involved. In Stealing Lumby when Katie needs help, people volunteer their time, labor and resources. As always Hank, the flamingo, stands ready to help, dressed appropriately for each occasion. look at www.lumbybooks.com to learn more about these fun books, the characters and the author.
Beth Hutchinson, Homewood Library

Maid for Murder: A Squeaky Clean Charlotte LaRue Mystery by Barbara Colley
Charlotte LaRue has owned a cleaning business for thirty years serving the Garden District in New Orleans. During this time she has acquired a reputation for excellent cleaning, punctuality and not sharing the family secrets of many of her wealthy clients. One of those families is the Dubuissons who own an amazing mansion and have employed Charlotte for years. She has seen their daughter, Anna-Maria, into a lovely young woman with a fiance and Jeanne Dubuisson's mother, Clarice St. Martin, grow old and show signs of senility. Needless to say, Charlotte was distressed when one evening Jeanne called Charlotte to come clean the room where her husband, Jackson, had been murdered. Of course, Charlotte did as requested for such a good friend and client. Then after she had done her usual excellent job of cleaning, the police informed her that they were not done with the crime scene and in fact had left crime scene tape around it. The tape was gone when Charlotte arrived. Why had Jeanne removed it and had the area cleaned? Charlotte had conflicting emotions about helping the police, including her detective niece, find Jackson's killer. Because the evidence might point at some of her clients.
Beth Hutchinson, Homewood Library

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
This is a lovely story about a young woman, Eilis Lacey, who leaves Ireland behind for a better life in America. Reading about life through the eyes of a newly immigrated person in the 1950s was very interesting. She has to deal with intense loneliness while working and establishing a new life in the US. The story moves along at a very slow pace but it is a good kind of slow - intriguing, not boring. It is a beautifully written story that feels very real with characters that you can relate to.
April Wallace, Irondale Library

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

I would categorize this novel as true-crimish fiction. Is this a real genre? Not really, but it describes this book perfectly. It is set in a small-town in Iowa where a seven year old selectively mute girl and her best friend go missing. Who took the girls? Is it the older brother? One of the fathers? Or a stranger? Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view which gives the reader a lot of insight as to what is going through their minds. It was easy to get sucked into the fast-paced plot and trying to figure out who was involved and if the girls will be found alive. This is a debut work by the author; I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
April Wallace, Irondale Library

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
So i read the hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet by jamie ford for our book group. the consensus - we loved it! it would be a great read for parent/child book groups or for teens as the tale is told both by a man in his 50s AND the same man when he was 13 - we get the story from both perspectives. the main character is a chinese american growing up during the 2nd world war. his parents are very much patriots, but have strong ties to "the old country" and still consider themselves chinese. The problem for their son is that they want him to be both - he must speak english at home and go to an american (not all chinese) school. he is bullied there and teased and is, in general, miserable. the bright spots are his friend sheldon who is a30 something african american jazz musician and a girl named keiko okabe, who, although a 2nd generation american, is also of japanese descent, which leaves henry (our narrator) in a REALLLLLY bad situation. his father hates the japanese and basically disowns henry for befriending keiko. when keiko's family is rounded up with other japanese americans and sent to an internment camp, henry wonders if he will ever see her again. our book group loved this book not only for the sweet friendship and love story between henry and keiko, but also for the relationship between henry and sheldon, the jazz musician. also? it was a GREAT way to find out more about this period in american history - the panama hotel DOES exist and many of the plot points are true. also? the chapters are brief and it was easy to breeze through this book. i would highly recommend this to someone looking for a book one step above a light read - maybe something nice for a long weekend at the beach or lake. it's not a tough story to read, there is a redemptive quality to the story, and it is basically free of angst. also? you CAN recommend this to someone who likes a "clean" read. i give at an A+++++++

Katie Moellering, Emmet O'Neal Library

The Exception by Christian Jungersen
here's the blurb from amazon: Starred Review. The slow burn of office politics can be just as riveting as international intrigue, as shown in Jungersen's second novel, his first to be translated into English. Iben, Malene and Camilla work in Copenhagen for the Danish Center for Information on Genocide. Even before Iben and Malene receive death threats with Nazi overtones, the three friends had been ostracizing the new librarian, Anne-Lise. Though evidence suggests Serbian war criminal Mirko Zigic has been sending the death threats, the paranoia and fear of the three friends converge to make Anne-Lise the target of rising suspicion. Victimizing is part of human nature, Anne-Lise's doctor tells her when she seeks advice, and the novel hauntingly pursues this idea to its deepest implications. Can people fighting genocide display the same traits as war criminals? What does it mean to be evil? Jungersen (Thickets) explores these questions and others on a very personal level. A complex understanding of people turns what could have been pace-slowing conversations and reproductions of essays on genocide into fuel for a sometimes cruel but always intense page-turner. this book got a starred review for a reason - there are so many ambiguities in plot and character, so many places to wonder what really happened and what the characters are really thinking. i loved this one as well, it's a GREAT thriller. i would recommend this to patrons who like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo . also? it's another book that teaches you a lot about history (in this case genocide all over the world) without you even realizing it. i STRONGLY recommend this title!
Katie Moellering, Emmet O'Neal Library

The Hours by Michael Cunningham
This sad, yet exquisite, little novel chronicles the last few days of Virginia Woolf’s life before she committed suicide in 1941. Juxtaposed with Woolf’s downward spiral are the lives of two more modern women, Mrs. Brown in 1949 and Clarissa in a contemporary setting described merely as “the end of the twentieth century (pg. 9).” Cunningham draws these three women and their struggles with everyday life together in an effortless homage to Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway. While sad and introspective, the writing is beautiful and evocative. The Hours was made into a movie in about 2002 starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore.
Holley Wesley, Emmet O'Neal Library

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Angela's Ashes by Franck McCourt

The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale

Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

The Second Opinion by Michael Palmer

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

It was another great Roundtable meeting and I hope you'll make plans to join us Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 9am in the Emmet O'Neal Library meeting room to discuss Young Adult Novels with Appeal for Adult Readers AND hear from guest speaker and young adult fiction author Chandra Sparks Taylor! Visit her website at www.chandrasparkstaylor.com!

Online paranormal romance roundtable!

Random House's Suvudu science fiction/fantasy blog has announced the perfect event to warm those winter blues away!

From their website:

Are you worried about post-Valentine’s day blues? Tired of the cold, gray winter? Well, Suvudu has the cure for you! On February 17 (at 4pm EST), we’re bringing in some of the hottest voices in Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy for a round-table discussion and we’re going to be bringing it live!

Participants include Kelley Armstrong (New York Times bestselling author of the Women of the Otherworld series), Diana Rowland, Jenna Black, Lucy A. Snyder, and Carolyn Crane. There is a quickform to get an email reminder and this also functions as your sign up. This is an outside webinar and is not connected with the Public Libraries of Jefferson County so if you have technical questions, please direct them to the Suvudu site.

Happy reading!

Holley

Fiction of Choice Next Week!

The Reader's Advisory Roundtable will meet at the HOMEWOOD LIBRARY next Wednesday, February 10th at 9am to discuss Fiction of Choice! I'm bringing refreshments this go around, everyone else bring a book (or books) of fiction to recommend!

Happy reading!

Holley

Audiobooks

I have a rather lengthy commute to work each day and I don't know what I would do without audiobooks to keep me company! For some, audiobooks are too distracting while driving (either losing track of the plot of the book *bad* or the driving *VERY bad*) or people simply prefer the feel of a book in hand. If you fall into the group that can't go anywhere in the car without an audiobook, then be sure to pick up one or all of these without delay!

Happy reading!

Holley

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
This lovely little book was published in 1925 and holds up well as, for the current day anyway, historical fiction. Beautiful and vain, Kitty Fane is very disenchanted with the social life in Hong Kong after she travels there with her rather dour husband Walter. After Walter discovers her affair with local magistrate Charles Townsend, he offers her an ultimatum. Townsend must divorce his wife and marry Kitty or Kitty must accompany Walter to the cholera-ravaged village where he has volunteered his medical expertise as a bacteriologist. If she does not do one of these two things, Walter will divorce her for adultery. The events that follow challenge Kitty in ways she never could have imagined. Kate Reading narrates this gorgeous novel with an amazing vocal and emotional range, making the scenery, and the heartbreak, stand out vividly in the mind of the reader. I would definitely search out an audiobook and listen to it just for her talent alone, but this book is exquisite!
Holley, Emmet O'Neal Library

World War Z by Max Brooks
A full cast audio elevates this audiobook (sadly, only available abridged) to epic levels. Author Max Brooks narrates the part of an interviewer talking with survivors of a war in which most of the population of the world is overcome by an infection that turns them into flesh eating zombies. Not merely content to discuss zombies, World War Z could also be considered a stinging political and social criticism of a world that places more value on corporate executives and the like than on the working person. Actors like Alan Alda and Carl Reiner lend their talent to this chronicle of worldwide devastation.
Holley, Emmet O'Neal Library

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
(This book has been made into a film in Denmark. Netflix shows it as a “Save” title but not yet with an expected release date here in the states. The Last two books in the trilogy are The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.)
Narrated by Simon Vance. Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best I’ve ever listened to. You want to sit in your car and keep listening! The narrator was perfection, able to handle the voices of the young and old, men and women alike. The story was originally written in Swedish, so the pacing is different and interesting……..it is slower but suddenly you are sucked in and hours have passed. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Lisbeth is one of the most fascinating feminist characters to come along in quite a while. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo.
Leslie West, Vestavia Hills Public Library

The Help by Katherine Stockett
(A note for bookgroups: many people have bought this title based on word-of-mouth advertising. If you are running short of copies, ask participants to poll their friends for an available copy)
Not only is this a great story, I definitely feel that the audio version handled by a host of brilliant narrators, made it even better. Four peerless actors handle a variety of Southern accents with ease and draw out the daily humiliation and pain the maids are subject to, as well as their abiding affection for their white charges. The actors handle the narration and dialogue so well that no character is ever stereotyped, the humor is always delightful, and the listener is led through the multilayered stories of maids and mistresses. Set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement, the story is narrated by the three principal characters...Minny and Aibileen, two black maids, and Miss Skeeter, a young, white woman newly graduated from college. The characters are wonderfully developed, as are the historical background and setting. As each character took her turn at narrating, she became my favorite character until the next one took over again. I was torn between not wanting to get out of my car and being late to work. It was a book I didn’t want to end.
Leslie West, Vestavia Hills Public Library

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows
Narrated by Paul Boehmer, Susan Duerdan, John Lee, Rosalyn Landor and Juliet Mills.
This is yet another example of a delightful book, made even better by it’s excellent narration. With a small cast of gifted narrators including Paul Boehmer, Susan Duerdan, John Lee, Rosalyn Landor and the enjoyable Juliet Mills, this production is first-class from start to finish. The narrators' British dialects, each quite regional and equally as different as they are ear-pleasing, serve the story well and allow Shaffer's words to leap from the page into the hearts and minds of her listeners. Shaffer's debut novel, written with her niece Barrow, is an original account of one writer's relationship with a member of a unique book club formed as an alibi to protect its members from arrest at the hands of the Nazis during WWII. The final result is an almost theatrical experience with an entire cast of enthusiastic performances. I highly recommend this book, but most especially as an audiobook where one feels he or she is actually meeting & becoming friends with this entire cast of characters!
Leslie West, Vestavia Hills Public Library

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult
Narrated by George Guidell. This is an older book but worth mentioning here for two reasons. First, it is the only book I have ever seen where the author has repeatedly reported in print on numerous occasions, that this book is her own favorite among the many popular titles she has written. (I agree that this is the best of her many books!) So many times, authors shy away from answering this question saying that picking a favorite work of their own is like being asked to pick a favorite among their children. I think it is refreshing that the author picks a favorite……especially since I am in full agreement! This is another in a long line of Picoult’s “ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances” plotlines. But this title has many plot lines, a lot of interesting characters, several love stories, as well as moral dilemmas (a Picoult specialty), an historical as well as a current day timeline, and even a ghost story!!! All characters, as well as plot lines, converge into a well blended conclusion. Picoult describes her real-life experiences with “ghostbusters” (she incorporates the details of these experiences into her story) on the last disc of this CD in an interview with the narrator. That is the second piece of this review: the incomparable George Guidell. I could listen to this guy read the phone book. He is a superstar of narrators in the audio world. ANYTHING he narrates is worth listening to. Trust me, I’m an audio-junkie. It doesn’t get much better than this!
Leslie West, Vestavia Hills Public Library

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris

Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential by Dr. Daniel G. Amen

Curse of the Bane by Joseph Delaney (young adult/The Last Apprentice series: Revenge of the Witch, Curse of the Bane, Night of the Soul Stealer, Attack of the Fiend, Wrath of the Bloodeye, and Clash of the Demons)

Madapple by Christina Meldrum (young adult)

Going Bovine by Libba Bray (young adult)

Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman (young adult)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie (young adult)

Nice Girls Don’t Get…box set (…the Corner Office & …Rich) by Lois P. Frankel
In Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, Lois Frankel reveals why some women roar ahead in their careers while others stagnate. She has spotted a unique set of behaviors- 101 in all--that women learn in girlhood that sabotage them as adults. She helps you eliminate these unconscious mistakes that could be holding you back and offers invaluable coaching tips you can easily incorporate into your social and business skills. In Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich, Lois Frankel tackles the 75 financial mistakes that keep women from accumulating the wealth they deserve. She helps you discover the financial thinking that keeps you stuck in old patterns, dependent relationships, and jobs where you earn less than your male counterparts. This is an abridged version, but well worth the time to read. Narrated by the author.
Dianne, Bessemer Public Library

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn
Spencer Quinn’s debut introduces the world to two-legged Bernie Little and his four-legged pal Chet, a canine with a nose for mysteries. Together, this down-on-his-luck private investigator and K-9 school failure form an offbeat but effective sleuthing duo. Bernie is relieved when the missing teenage girl he’s searching for turns up unharmed. But after she quickly disappears again, Bernie and Chet resume their investigation. Since there’s no ransom demand, kidnapping seems like a questionable motive. Yet the girl had recently gotten involved with some villainous types, and as Bernie and Chet make their way through biker bars and other colorful destinations, they smell something foul. Told from Chet’s unique perspective, Dog on It, is a humorous whodunit seasoned with a loveable dog’s view of everything. Great narration by Jim Frangione. Some profanity.
Dianne, Bessemer Public Library

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Labrador Pact by Matt Haig

Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
Narrated by Suzanne Torren. Dewey is the story of an abandoned kitten that was left in the book drop of a small library in the small farm town of Spencer Iowa. Once discovered by the head Librarian and author of the book, Vicki Myron, on a cold January morning in 1988, Dewey was nurtured to full strength and given the opportunity to become the library’s loveable pet cat. This book is filled with wonderful and touching stories of how Dewey restored the library to a warm and inviting place. He was well received by both staff and patrons alike. Dewey became so popular that people drove hundreds of miles just to visit, meet and love on this amazing little cat. A wonderfully touching story of how one little cat single handily brought joy and laughter to a library and was a beacon of hope not only for Vicki Myron but for the entire town of Spencer Iowa.
Andrei, Five Points West Regional Library

It Happens Every Spring by Gary Chapman and Catherine Palmer (Four Seasons series: It Happens Every Spring, Summer Breeze, Falling for You Again, Winter Turns to Spring, read-a-like for Jan Karon’s Mitford series)

Back on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber (Blossom Street series: The Shop on Blossom Street, A Good Yarn, Susannah’s Garden, Back on Blossom Street, Twenty Wishes, and Summer on Blossom Street)

Storm Cycle by Iris Johansen

Narrators to watch for:

Joshilyn Jackson does a wonderful job of narrating her own material, as do Rick Bragg and David Sedaris. C. J. Critt is an excellent narrator and has worked on the early novels of Janet Evanovich, Patricia Cornwell, and many others.

Since we can’t seem to stop talking about books once we get together…

Stone's Fall by Ian Pears

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth

Roundtable Meeting Next Week!

Mark your calendars for Wednesday December 9th at 9am! We'll be meeting in the Homewood Library Boardroom to share our favorite audiobooks!

Refreshments will be potluck so bring something yummy and join the discussion!

For more information, contact Holley Wesley at 205/445-1117 or hwesley@bham.lib.al.us