Weird Website Wednesday

From the Bee Dogs homepage.

I hope that you had a chance to read Allison's post about stamp collecting, and the potential for collecting to become hoarding. While I imagine it would take an extreme number of stamps to earn you a spot on the television program Hoarders, you still might want to consider starting an online collection. Such as the fine website Bee Dogs, which is chock full of pictures of dogs wearing bee costumes. Though I suspect this site may've stopped updating years ago, the archives of bee dogs are still there for your enjoyment!

Archived Wind Map of Hurricane Isaac, click through for animation.

For something a bit more educational, you should take a look at the Wind Map created by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg. An animated map of current wind speeds and directions that's both soothing and interesting for amateur metereologists. Be sure to check out the gallery of past Wind Maps, including the landfall of Hurricane Sandy.

The Akinator

Because you're reading a library's blog, it's fairly safe to assume that you're a reader, and you probably enjoy television, movies, and have at least flipped through a graphic novel or comic book. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and guess that you probably have a favorite character. Maybe you wanted to marry Mr. Darcy or live the life of Jack Reacher. Whatever your favorite book is, The Akinator can read your mind. Through a variation on 20 Questions, this website will narrow in to guess whatever character you're thinking of. Although it is possible to stump it.

maHvaD muv pujbe' tay, logh vIq!

These days there are several different free online translation services, but I can still remember how helpful Babelfish was for my French homework when it first appeared years ago (though our teachers warned that it made our sentences into gibberish). These days I tend to rely on Google's Translator, but their rival, Bing, is the place to turn for all your Klingon translation needs. The feature is offered as part of the promotion for the new Star Trek movie, but also serves well as a segue to promoting our upcoming Space Fleet adventure. 

We'll be launching three spaceships on Wednesday, July 17th at 7 p.m. Click through to read more about Artemis, and be sure to let us know if you're interested in signing up! 

If you missed our first Weird Website Wednesday post, you can check that out here.

Memorial Day

From the Library of Congress' Flickr account.

Memorial Day has been an occasion to honor the sacrifices of those military personnel who have given their lives in service to our country since the end of the Civil War. Several communities in both the North and the South began Decoration Days shortly after the end of the war, and in fact, the name and date of Memorial Day were not codified until 1967.

Today, it may be more common to think of Memorial Day as the unofficial start to summer and the date on which it is acceptable to break out the summer wardrobe/white shoes. In fact Memorial Day marks the shift to summer hours for Carnegie-Stout Public Library, and we will be closed on Sundays until September.

In honor of the fallen, we've put together a Memorial Day display with books about America's wars and the experiences of our soldiers. You can visit this display on the first floor of the library, or, as the library is closed today and tomorrow, you can check out these previous blog posts:

• Veterans' Day
• Civil War
• "The date which will live in infamy"

The Case of the Mysterious Stamp Collection

A medical librarian friend of mine recently began clearing out some of the supply cabinets at her library. Deep in the recesses of a drawer, she came across a plastic note card box, filled with small envelopes. Each had a number written on them: 3.55, 1.97, 15.84. Looking inside one envelope, she found that they were filled with postage stamps, ranging in denominations from 1 cent to several dollars. With the advent of postage meters and the introduction of the "forever" stamp, her library had stopped using postage stamps to mail inter-library loan materials, and the varied collection had been forgotten.

And yet, she certainly didn't want to throw them away. They retained their worth and could still be used, of course, but they also held an intrinsic value, especially the oddball ones; the ones that looked old or unique. Of course, my friend knew she hadn't stumbled upon her retirement fund, but the stamps were far too interesting to just shove back into a drawer.

National Letter
Writing Week
1980

She then contacted me, since medical libraries don't generally carry stamp identification books. At C-SPL, we carry the "Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog" and the U.S. Postal Service's "The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps." The bulk of the multi-volume Scott Catalog is devoted to stamps issued by other countries, and is intended for collectors looking to put a retail value on their stamps. The USPS guide gives retail prices as well, along with an index and color photos. Unfortunately, neither catalog was of much help in identification, since I didn't know the year the stamps were issued in.

Fortunately, this isn't the first time we've needed to identify something odd with very few clues. In this case, a reverse Google Image search seemed to be the best method. After scanning and uploading the images, I found the website Arago: People, Postage and The Post, the online database of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

Named after French physicist, astronomer and politician, François Arago (1786-1853), the website has information and resources for amateurs and avid collectors (philatelists) alike, and I was able to identify all the stamps in question. The above "ink & quill" stamp was issued in 1977, as part of the Americana Issue series. I found several from the same collection, including a stamp issued in commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the founding of Switzerland and another issued in 1982 on the 100th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's birth. I - and my medical librarian friend- were thrilled!

Blanche Stuart Scott
1980

While some might raise an eyebrow to our excitement, collecting things - be they stamps, figurines, dolls or bread clips - is something nearly everyone does, though some to a greater degree than others. When interest crosses over to obsession, however, things can get ugly. Many books have been written (and TV show made) about collectors and collecting, from research into why we collect, to the world's most famous collections and to accounts of collecting gone terribly wrong. Click here for a list of books and DVDs on the subject that you can borrow from our collection. (Just please bring them back; we're a little compulsive about that!)

~ Allison, Adult Services

Who writes short, short... stories?

May is National Short Story Month, and we hope you've had a chance to browse our display on the first floor of the library. Last week's blog post with recommendations for Tenth of December and The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, may've tipped you to the fact that I'm a fan of short fiction. Or maybe you were left wondering if I'd gotten lost looking for Janet Evanovich or James Patterson? The short story love probably would've been more obvious if I'd had time to include a short review of  Junot Diaz's This is How You Lose Her*.

Either way, the focus today is on short shorts. Really short stories. Sometimes referred to as microfiction, sometimes as flash fiction, the idea is to tell an entire story in the smallest number of words possible.

Lou Beach's 420 Characters is a collection of this type of short fiction. Beach started crafting these stories to fit within the restrictions of the 420 character limit to a Facebook status update. Occasionally you'll see someone who attempts to write stories within the confines of a Twitter update, which limits the author to 140 characters.

Ernest Hemingway is often cited as the progenitor of the short fiction movement, as the author of the variously punctuated "For Sale: baby shoes. Never worn." Unfortunately, there's no proof that Hemingway wrote this story. Still, you can let this famous six word story serve as inspiration! That's right, we're asking you to try your hand at flash fiction. You can check out the stories already posted to our Facebook event page, and share your own creations here or there.

Looking for more information?

• Check out this article with tips for writing flash fiction.
• Vestal Review, a flash fiction periodical that has been in publication since 2000.
• 365tomorrows, a new work of speculative flash fiction every day.
• SmokeLong Quarterly and Flash Fiction Online, more flash fiction periodicals.
• FlashFiction.net has compiled an even longer list of publications with a focus on flash fiction.
• This Wired article touches on flash fiction as part of larger changes to reading and writing driven by technology.

*Extra short review of This is How You Lose Her: It's excellent. There are swear words. You don't have to have read The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao to enjoy it, but it does add to the experience.

What are you reading? A few good books.

Studies consistently show that most people discover new books from people they trust, whether friends, family, or a book industry professional (bookseller, librarian, author, or reviewer). Those of us at Carnegie-Stout's Recommendations Desk are always happy to talk books with you, and if you give us a week, we'll give you a whole list of books we think you'll like! We also invite you to share your favorite books with other Dubuquers on our Pinterest board. Don't have a Pinterest account, or want to submit an anonymous review? No worries, you can pick up a review bookmark at the Recommendations Desk!

Today I'm here to vouch for a mixed list of recent books that have received a number of good reviews and press. I've read them all personally, and it's not just hype. So if one of these titles has been on your radar, but you weren't quite sure if it was worth your time, pick it up! This list is also a bit of a grab bag for genre and style, so you might spot some unexpected title worth checking out!

Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan’s first novel is an offbeat adventure tale built around a love of books and reading. In addition, he provides a thought-provoking look at how technology is changing our relationship with information. Quirky characters, an ancient conspiracy, and the human drive for innovation. Plus? Glow-in-the-dark cover!

Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

The fact that this was the second title selected for Oprah's Book Club 2.0 should not put you off. Ayana Mathis’ haunting debut is a collection of interconnected stories that explore the lives of one African-American family during the 20th century. A lyrical and bittersweet story of family, identity, and race that captures both universal human experience of a dynamic historical epoch.

Tenth of December by George Saunders

Critics-darling George Saunders hovered on the edges of my awareness, so when his latest short story collection popped up on several most-anticipated lists for 2013, I bit. Tenth of December is dark, funny, and thought-provoking, with just a touch of the fantastic. Saunders voice is distinctive and infectious.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

After enjoying her first novel, I was already inclined to like Rainbow Rowell's second book, Eleanor and Park. A young adult novel about the intensity of first love, Eleanor and Park are mismatched outsiders thrown together when Eleanor changes schools in the middle of their sophomore year. The 1986 setting mean that adult readers will likely catch more references than the average teen.

Among Others by Jo Walton

Jo Walton blends reality with the fantastic in her character-driven novel, Among Others, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. This ambiguous and engaging story is set in a world where magic might, or might not, influence reality. A British boarding school, an evil mother, a dead twin, Welsh fairies, and a love letter to the classics of science fiction that added a dozen titles to my To Read list.

Suspect by Robert Crais

I picked up Suspect, a stand alone title by Robert Crais, author of the Elvis Cole series, as part of my quest to incorporate more mystery novels into my reading life. A suspenseful and fast-paced tale of an LAPD cop hunting for the men who killed his partner/love interest with the help of his new partner Maggie, a German Shepard suffering from PTSD after deployment in Afghanistan.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

While most Dubuquers are probably familiar with Kate Atkinson as the author of the Jackson Brodie mystery series, I've spent the past ten years with my fingers quietly crossed that she would return to her quirky, family-centered literary fiction. Life After Life is just the witty, complex, time travel reincarnation mashup, Downton Abbey era novel I've been waiting for.

Next up on my Everyone's Talking About It Reading List are: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, and The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. How about you?
 

*Family and friends beware! These are titles you will likely be unwrapping at gift giving occasions.

A Review of A Chinese Life by Li Kunwu and Philippe Otie

In one of my favorite passages from the graphic memoir A Chinese Life, young artist Xiao Li and his wife Fengfeng go to see old Bureau Chief Wang and his wife in their cramped room in the night-shift dormitories of the Yunnan Ribao newspaper. It's a friendly visit, but Xiao Li and Fengfeng are obviously checking out the room, since they'll likely be assigned to live there after Chief Wang gets a bigger place.

The young couple tries to be optimistic about the dorm, but gangs of kids are running wild, smoke is pouring out of one of the rooms, the halls are cluttered with junk, laundry is draped across indoor clotheslines, an old man is bathing in the open near a woman who's chopping vegetables, another woman is screaming and throwing dishes, and someone else is frantically searching for a lost chicken.

In A Chinese Life, illustrator Li Kunwu and French writer/diplomat Philippe Otie present the history of modern China to Western audiences from Li's intimate perspective as a "Chinese everyman." While they offer a sweeping view of China, the view is sharpest when focused on ordinary, everyday life.

A Chinese Life more or less covers major Chinese events from about 1950 to 2010, including Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, the famines of 1958-1961, the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, urbanization, and increasing prosperity.

But even at 700 pages, some historical details in A Chinese Life are sketchy. Li admits, for example, that he doesn't know anyone who was directly affected by 6/4, the Chinese name for the Tiananmen Square protests which were violently suppressed on June 4, 1989. During the crackdown, the Chinese military killed hundreds if not thousands of students and civilians.

Li skims over 6/4 by saying he believes many Chinese people value stability and order over human rights because of the earlier decades of famine and political upheaval which killed tens of millions of Chinese. Li's portrayal of the "indescribable torments" of those earlier decades is powerful. One of his uncles literally ate dirt while trying survive the Great Famine, and his father was publicly denounced during the frenzy of the Cultural Revolution and was forced to perform manual labor in re-education camps for ten years.

It is remarkable that a member of the Chinese Communist Party would be so forthcoming, and that this is happening in a graphic novel. To some Westerners though, Li's depictions of such events may seem more like an apparatchik's apologia than a critical attempt to understand what happened.

More so than the grand historical overview, intimate scenes like Xiao Li and Fengfeng's visit to the dormitory are what make A Chinese Life worth reading. With a subtle mix of humor and sadness, Li examines his strained relationship with his larger-than-life father, describes an awkward moment when he asks his girlfriend if she would pose nude for his drawings, and recalls helping his elderly mother make dumplings.

Besides being a great storyteller, Li's artwork is brilliant. A Chinese Life is illustrated almost entirely in black and white. The contrast is stark and the composition is striking. Fascinating, energetic lines reveal austere landscapes, earthy villages, and chaotic cities. Characters' hands and faces are especially expressive. Some of the most compelling panels lack dialogue; they are simple portraits of children at school, soldiers in barracks, villagers in markets, and workers in factories.

Page 275 from A Chinese Life © Kana (DARGAUD-LOMBARD s.a.) 2011, by Li Kunwu, P.Otie. Published in English by SelfMadeHero. Used with permission.

Li describes his own style as "rough," but "bold and playful" is a better description. The illustrations appear to be done in brush and ink, and they look like extensions of the flowing Chinese calligraphy which Li includes on most pages.

A Chinese Life was originally published in France in several volumes. It was translated from the French by Edward Gauvin and published by SelfMadeHero in 2012. Some transitions between passages and stories in the English edition are abrupt, but the work as a whole is easy to follow. The book is hefty at about 700 pages, but it doesn't seem long when read. Instead, it ends far too quickly.

Michael May

May Magazines of the Month

We once again have two magazines of the month! Our selections for May are Birds and Blooms and Bird Watching. Spring has finally arrived and the robins and other migratory birds have returned to greet the morning sun with their song. Whether you're an avid bird watcher, a fan of The Big Year, or just curious about what bird built a nest in your tree, you should take an opportunity to flip through Birds and Blooms and Bird Watching.

Birds & Blooms began publication in 1995, and includes many reader submitted photographs and articles. The content includes both information for birders and gardeners.

Bird Watching also accepts reader submissions, but their focus is entirely on the world of bird watching. One highlight are regional guides for where the best bird watching can be found.

Staff Review: Vegan Cheesecake Recipes

It started as a joke. My friend Jackie was describing a complicated cheesecake recipe she was baking for a party while I was browsing through the smoothie recipes on a vegan blog, when I stumbled across a recipe for Raw Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake*. I immediately suggested she switch recipes, to which she responded, "How can it be cheesecake if there isn't any dairy!?" 

A year later Jackie has come to Dubuque for a visit, and I immediately realize that this is my chance to have someone who knows how to bake food help me in the creation of the mysterious raw vegan strawberry cheesecake.

Raw Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake, based on a recipe found in Raw Food for Real People

"Wouldn't you rather I show you how to make a real cheesecake?" she asked. No. No, I wouldn't. I can buy real cheesecake at the store or in a restaurant, but a raw vegan cheesecake is a challenge. A quest. An accomplishment. A topic for a book review for the library's blog.

I've seen other libraries post reviews of recipes from their favorite cookbooks, and I knew that our collection includes vegan cookbooks, so all that was left was to identify a recipe and bake a cheesecake.
 

 In the end, we decided to try making two different vegan cheesecakes:

• Strawberry Cheesecake from page 47 of Sweet Vegan: a collection of all vegan, some gluten-free, and a few raw desserts by Emily Mainquist (641.86 MAI)
• Rasberry Vanilla Cheezecake from page 149 of Raw Food for Real People: living veganf ood made simple by the chef and founder of Leaf Organics by Rod Rotondi (613.26 ROT)

Things we learned from our experience:

• Vegan baking is expensive, but it's possible to substitute vegan egg substitute with soy yogurt.
• The reason Sweet Vegan calls for you to make your own vegan graham crackers that you can then crush to use for the crust is likely that there are very few pre-made vegan cookies available in the store. We went with a vegan, nut free, gluten free, cinnamon cookie.
• Simulating regular food with a raw food recipe is far, far too much effort. It would've been so much easier to just fill a bowl with sliced strawberries, mixed nuts, and healthy squeeze of agave nectar.
• All the extra effort does make the reward of taste testing at the end that much sweeter. Plus! Vegan cheesecake has to be healthier than regular cheesecake!

Then came the fun part, bringing the finished product into the library and convincing my co-workers to give it a taste! While several library staff members turned a piece down on the basis of not liking regular cheesecake, or finding the idea of a vegan cheesecake too off-putting, those brave enough to try something new gave both generally positive reviews.

The last piece of vegan cheesecake.

The baked vegan cheesecake was the real winner. Amy said that if I hadn't told her she "would never have known it was tofu or vegan. All I could taste was the vanilla in the cinnamon crust and the consistency seemed very cheesecake-like." Andrew found both cheesecakes to be "entirely cromulent." He also coined the term "nut mush" for the raw vegan recipe, which more accurately describes the cashew butter experience of a raw vegan cheesecake.

And in case anyone was wondering, Jackie and I followed our vegan baking adventures up with burgers at Paul's tavern - to maintain a balanced diet.

~Sarah, Adult Services

*The blog with the original raw vegan strawberry cheesecake is no longer in existence. :(

Thanks to Dubuque Author Robert Byrne

Thanks to Dubuque author Robert Byrne and everyone who came to our screening of The Towering Inferno last night in celebration of Dubuque Main Street's Architecture Days.

If you missed Bob's visit to the library, you can place a hold on Bob's novel Skyscraper in our online catalog, and browse through Bob's many other titles.

Our next movie is Life of Pi on May 22. We hope to see you there!

Snack Time, Read Up!

 

Gulp, the latest book by popular science author Mary Roach, tackles the mysteries of the digestive system. If you enjoy learning while you laugh, you should definitely check out Mary Roach's writing. She has an ability to bring humor and insight to topics that would normally make the average person squirm (sex, death, etc.). If you're already on the waiting list for Gulp, or you're not quite sure you want to read about what happens in the small intestine, we've pulled together a list of some other recent titles that explore our relationship with food.

Mark Kurlansky is another popular author of non-fiction known for his engaging style and incredible detail, though his tone is far more serious, and his focus tends toward the historical. If you're looking to learn more about our relationship to food prior to consumption, you should ddefinitely check out Salt: a world history (333.85632 KUR), Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world (333.956633 KUR), and Birdseye: the adventures of a curious man (LP Biography Birdseye). For other in depth explorations of a single consumable's impact on humanity's history, try:

• Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon (553.7 SOL) 
• Sugar: A Bittersweet History by Elizabeth Abbott (633.6 ABB)
• A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (394.12 STA)

Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss (613.2 MOS)
This recent title has also spent some time on the best seller lists. A through-provoking and passionate look at our relationship with junk food by an award-winning journalist. If you're already on the hold list for this one, check out:

• American Wasteland by Jonathan Bloom (363.7288 BLO)
• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (613 POL)
• Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock (DVD 647.95 SUP)

Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (641.5092 HAM)
The stories of the people who devote their lives and careers to food and the restaurant business can provide a different perspective on our relationships with food. Blood, Bones, and Butter is a moving and straightforward autobiography by Gabrielle Hamilton. The book chronicles Hamilton's difficult path from rural New Jersey to the head chef of her own New York restaurant. For more chef, foodie, and restaurant memoirs, try:

• Relish: my life in the kitchen by Lucy Knisley (Graphic Knisley)
• Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford (641.59455 BUF)
• Kitchen Confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly by Anthony Bourdain (641.5092 BOU)

Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish (641.815 FOR)
Perhaps you're more interested in creating the delicious foods you eat yourself? Carnegie-Stout does have an excellent collection of cookbooks, but for today we'll stick to a few on baking bread. Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast is a recent guide to home baking from ken Forkish, a Portland baker. The recipes in this cookbook range from the beginner to rather more advanced. If you're looking for more, check out:

• Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery by Joanne Chang (641.815 CHA)Flour 
• My Bread: the revolutionary no-work, no-knead method by Jim Lahey (641.815 LAH)
• Bread Baker's Apprentice: mastering the art of extraordinary bread by Peter Reinhart (641.815 REI)

Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you! 

The Master of Disguise and Argo by Antonio Mendez

The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio J. Mendez with Malcolm McConnell.
Nov, 1999

Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio J. Mendez and Matt Baglio. Sep, 2012

Tony Mendez has won my ongoing debate as to who is the best James Bond ever.  Yes, of course, I know Bond, James Bond, is a fictional character and Antonio Mendez is not.  That’s why I’m giving the edge to Mendez, a retired CIA agent, artist and author.

The Cubby Broccoli Bond movies have it all; an unbelievable opening sequence, the Bond girl, a musical superstar singing the title song.  I grew up with Sean Connery as Bond.  None of the others—Moore, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan even comes close till Daniel Craig.  Just when I pretty much have decided Skyfall is the best Bond movie ever, along comes Argo, which isn’t part of the Bond franchise; it’s even better because it is a spy movie based on actual historical events and real people.

I wanted to know how much of the movie Argo is true and how much is Hollywood. That’s when I discover that the actual Tony Mendez, the character played by Ben Affleck in the movie, wrote a pre-Argo book called The Master of Disguise.  That’s the one I want to read, but I have to request it through Interlibrary Loan, which means I have to wait a few days for the book to arrive.  In the meantime I read Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History, the post-movie book which is in our collection.

While I like both of Mendez’ books, I give the edge to his first because it preceded the Hollywood hype.  So much for the movie Argo winning an Academy Award; do you know that the Center Intelligence Agency personnel, similar to the military services, are eligible for medals?  Tony Mendez received an Intelligence Star for the Canadian caper, and his wife and children could not even attend the ceremony because the mission he got the medal for was still classified.  Mendez also was honored as one of fifty CIA Trailblazers, an award given in 1997 to celebrate 50 years of CIA operations.

Both of Mendez’ books went through the CIA approval process for former operatives required prior to publication.  I speculated that all the “good stuff” had been edited out, but I didn’t find that to be true.  Although some details were sketchy, I found enough content to read both books and to put in an ILL request for a third book Mendez co-wrote with his second wife, also a retired CIA master of disguise:  Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War by Antonio and Jonna Mendez with Bruce Henderson published in September 2002.

I found both The Master of Disguise and Argo fast-paced and suspenseful enough that I kept reading. The first person narration allows Mendez’s character and voice to shine through and balances some of the drier details of the spy trade.  Mendez’s portrayal of his years as an agent matches John le Carré’s George Smiley more than Ian Fleming’s Bond.  Will I quit watching Bond movies now that I’ve read an insider’s view of the espionage business?  No, but I will be a more critical viewer thanks to Tony Mendez.

 - Michelle, Adult Services

Essays and short non-fiction

A selection of essay and other short non-fiction collections available at Carnegie-Stout Public Library. We've included a variety of topics and styles, but you'll notice a slight preference to the literary because it is, after all, National Library Week. If you're a fan of short non-fiction, you might also enjoy checking out this list of 102 articles from 2012.

The Lifespan of a Fact by John D'Agata (808.02 DAG)

In Other Worlds: SF and the human imagination by Margaret Atwood (813.54 ATW)

The Thing About Life is That One Day you'll be Dead by David Shields (813.54 SHI)

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (814.54 EPH)

Farther Away: essays by Jonathan Franzen (814.54 FRA)

Distrust that Particular Flavor by William Gibson (814.54 GIB)

When I was a Child, I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson (814.54 ROB)

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (813.54 SED)

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (814.6 GLA)

Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan (814.6 SUL)

The Possessed: adventures with Russian books and the people who read them by Elif Batuman (891.709 BAT)

Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!