July's Magazines of the Month: Cooking Light & Everyday with Rachael Ray

We've once again selected two magazines of the month for July. This month we're featuring Cooking Light and Everyday with Rachael Ray. These are both great titles to turn to as you plan summer cookouts, BBQs, picnics, family reunions and other festive gatherings!

Cooking Light shares a publisher with Southern Living magazine, which is also available at Carnegie-Stout. Cooking Light is a monthly magazine that features recipes along with fitness and health tips and information. You can them out from our collection the next time  you visit, or take a sneak peak at their website right now: www.cookinglight.com

Everyday with Rachael Ray is available through Carnegie-Stout in both print and digital editions. You can download the latest issue through our Zinio collection. Rachael Ray's magazine began publication in 2005, and was recently acquired by the publishing company responsible for Midwest Living. Be sure to check out the website, which is packed with tips, recipes, videos, and more: www.rachaelraymag.com

Spotlight on Shojo & Josei manga

When you're looking for a good book, it's often helpful to know the vocabulary that help readers, publishers, and librarians to sort the thousands of books printed each year into recognizable categories. The differences between middle grade, young adult, new adult, and adult fiction. Why this series is urban fantasy and that one paranormal romance, and just what is the difference between a suspenseful thriller and a thrilling suspense novel? The distinctions aren't always clear, and some authors delight in defying conventions, but these are the tools that give us a shared vocabulary.

When it comes to manga (Japanese comics and graphic novels) there's a whole new set of vocabulary to learn. Today we're going to take a closer look at josei and shojo manga. These works are created with a feminine reading audience in mind. Individual titles can vary greatly in tone, topic, and setting, but the main character is almost always a woman or teenage girl, and there is usually a romantic element to the storyline. If you're a fan of women's fiction, chick lit, or romance novels, these are the manga for you!

Shojo (or shoujo) manga are intended for a teen or young adult audience, while josei are aimed at young professionals or new adults. Because of the differences between our cultures, American readers might find that the line between shojo and josei titles can be blurred. Readers should also be aware that publishers often retain the right to left format of the original manga. It might seem strange at first, but you'll quickly grow used to reading a book from back to front.

I've gathered together a list of popular titles and personal favorites that fall under the umbrella of shojo and josei manga. You should also check out our anime collection, as it is very common for a popular manga to be adapted for television.

Ttiles found in the adult Manga collection: 

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio 

Moto Hagio is one of the earliest and most popular shojo manga artists. Check out Andrew's review to learn more about this collection of short stories by Hagio. 

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori

A story of life in 19th century Central Asia told through the eyes of a young bride. Rich with carefully researched detail and beautifully intricate art, you should check out Chel's review to learn more! 

Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga 
An award-winning alternate history manga set in a feudal-era Japan where most of the men have been killed by a plague. Japan is led by a female shogun, and the Ooku is inhabited by her male harem. 

Nana  by Ai Yazawa 

Two young women, both named Nana, meet on the train to Tokyo. Both are moving to Tokyo, one to rejoin her friends and the other to achieve her dreams of musical stardom. Despite their different personalities and goals, they decide to share an apartment together. 

With the Light by Keiko Tobe 

Sachiko's son, Hikaru, is not like other children, and she finds that there is little understanding or support for those diagnosed with autism, but little by little their family finds a way. 

Bunny Drop by Yumi Unita 

Single career-minded Daikichi is the last person anyone expects to take over the guardianship of 6-year-old Rin, but then no one expected to discover that his late grandfather had an illegitimate child either.

Titles found in the Teen Zone:

Antique Bakery by Fumi Yoshinaga
An earlier series by the creator of Ooku, Antique Bakery is much lighter fare. Set in a small, quirky bakery, each issue is packed with images of delicious pastries. Character-driven with touches of romance, mystery, and a fair dash of absurd humor. 


Skip Beat by Yoshiki Nakamura 

Kyoka is distraught to learn that her boyfriend was only dating her so she'd take care of him on his quest to musical stardom. Not only does she kick him to the curb, she decides to beat him at his game, and become Japan's number one pop idol!

Fruits Basket by Takaya Natsuki 
A story of family and the supernatural, Fruits Basket is popular as both manga and anime. After she is orphaned, Tohru is taken in by the Sohma family who suffer a strange curse. When stressed or embraced by a member of the opposite sex, they turn into one of the 12 animals of the zodiac.


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!

C-SPL's 25 essential summer reads

Fernando Valença via Flickr

It's finally starting to feel like summer (just in time, too!) For those looking for a great summer read - whether you're on vacation or not -  we've picked out 25 of the season's most talked about, best-reviewed books. From family drama to mysterious deaths, and even the immigration experience of supernatural beings, these books can help you relax, keep you awake, make you think or to just escape reality - at least until the season’s over!

Dare Me by Megan Abbott
After a suspicious suicide, the members of a high school cheerleading squad - along with their new, perfectly cool coach - Colette French, are drawn into the investigation.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Separated by their ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America while Obinze endures an life as an undocumented immigrant in London.

Ladies' Night by Mary Kay Andrews
Forced to attend court-mandated group therapy after an act of post-divorce rage, rising media star Grace Stanton bonds with three fellow patients who she helps plot pursuits of justice and closure.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Ursula Todd is born on a cold snowy night in 1910 -- twice. As she grows up during the first half of the twentieth century in Britain Ursula dies and is brought back to life again and again.

The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
Stage designer Egon Loeser leaves early 1930’s Berlin to pursue a disinterested woman and arrives in Los Angeles, where a Caltech physicist is trying to develop a teleportation device.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
The sole survivor of a time-traveling serial killer—who began his murder spree in Depression-era Chicago—tries to hunt him down in 1989 with help from an ex-homicide reporter.

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Ten-year-old Zimbabwe native Darling escapes the closed schools and paramilitary police control of her homeland in search of opportunity and freedom with an aunt in America.

No One Could Have Guessed the Weather by Ann-Marie Casey
Forced to give up her posh life and move to a tiny Manhattan apartment when her husband loses his job, Lucy unexpectedly falls in love with her new home and forges close friendships with three women who are also struggling with the disparities between the ambitions of their youth and middle age.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani 
Exiled to an equestrienne boarding school in the South at the height of the Great Depression for her mysterious role in a family tragedy, strong-willed teen Thea Atwell grapples with painful memories while acclimating to the school's strict environment.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
A modern fantasy about fear, love, magic, and sacrifice is told in this story of a family at the mercy of dark forces, whose only defense is the three women who live on a farm at the end of the lane.

Flora by Gail Godwin
Isolated in a decaying family home while her father performs secret work at the end of World War II, 10-year-old Helen, grieving the losses of her mother and grandmother, bonds with her sensitive young aunt while desperately clinging to the ghosts and stories of her childhood.

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Holmes
Feeling overshadowed by his more-successful younger brother, Harold is shocked by his brother's violent act that irrevocably changes their lives, placing Harold in the role of father figure to his brother's adolescent children and caregiver to his aging parents. Winner of the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and step-mother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters.

Equilateral by Ken Kalfus
Obsessed by a belief that highly evolved beings exist on Mars, a turn-of-the-century British astronomer gets support for a massive project to build a signal that is undermined by malaria-stricken Egyptian laborers and two women who understand the astronomer more than he realizes

The Last Summer of the Camperdowns by Elizabeth Kelly
A 12-year-old girl keeps silent after witnessing a crime near her home on Cape Cod during the summer of 1972 as her parents struggle with running a political campaign.

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
A tale spanning 150 years and two continents reimagines the peace efforts of democracy champion Frederick Douglass, Senator George Mitchell and World War I airmen John Alcock and Teddy Brown through the experiences of four generations of women from a matriarchal clan.

The Son by Philipp Meyer
Kidnapped by the Comanche, thirteen-year-old Eli McCullough quickly adapts to Comanche life until the tribe is decimated by Americans, leaving Eli alone in a world where he is neither white nor Indian.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl
When the daughter of a notorious film director is found dead in New York, an apparent suicide, investigative reporter Scott McGrath throws himself back into a story that almost ended his career.

The Other Typist by Susan Rindell
Working as a typist for the NYC Police Department in 1923, Rose Baker documents confessions of harrowing crimes and struggles with changing gender roles and searching for companionship before becoming obsessed with a glamorous newcomer.

The Peripatetic Coffin by Ethan Rutherford
Eight short stories focus on reality as it is known and as it could be and star characters who are confronted with, and battle against, the limitations of their lives.

Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
When her overweight brother - a once slim, hip New York jazz pianist -comes for a visit, Pandora, for whom love equals food, is forced to choose between her exercise fanatic husband and her brother, who desperately needs her support to lose weight.

The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls
Abandoned by their mother, Bean and her older sister, Liz, are sent to live in the decaying antebellum mansion of their widowed uncle, where they learn the truth about their parents and an increasingly withdrawn Liz has a life-shattering experience.

The Love Song of Johnny Valentine by Teddy Wayne
A satirical tale that follows preadolescent pop idol Jonny Valentine, who hides the bitterness and innocence of a child who feels manufactured by his Los Angeles label and hard-partying manager mother.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Tells the story of two supernatural creatures, Chava, a golem brought to life by a disgraced rabbi, and Ahmad, a jinni made of fire, who form an unlikely friendship on the streets of New York until a fateful choice changes everything.

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
Returning to the idyllic Rhode Island oceanfront for the summer of 1938, socialite Lily Dane is devastated by the appearances of her newly married ex-fiancé and former best friend, who reintroduce her to an alluring acquaintance from her college years at the same time she realizes that her ties to her ex remain impossible to ignore.


Stop by the Recommendations Desk on First Floor for even more reading recommendations! And don’t forget to sign up for our Adult Summer Reading Program!

Split Second by David Baldacci

It has been said that television rots the mind while reading enhances it.  Well, thanks to TNT and the new show King and Maxwell, my mind was rotted then enhanced.  I've never read anything by David Baldacci.  I think I unfairly lumped him in with a certain prolific writer (name withheld for my my own protection), who seems to come out with a book a month and writes very short and, to my mind, choppy chapters.  Mr. Baldacci, I apologize!  King and Maxwell is based upon Baldacci's series that starts with Split Second.  Normally I would read the book then watch the show but in this case I watched first, read second.  To be honest I'm glad that I did.  The television show jumps right into the action and gives a few nuggets of background information about the two primary characters, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell.  Both are former Secret Service agents and now work as private detectives.

Split Second begins with the event that ultimately ends Sean King's career with the Secret Service.  The presidential candidate he is guarding is assassinated on King's watch, wounding King in the process.  Eight years later, Secret Service agent Michelle Maxwell's career suffers a similar fate when the candidate she is guarding is kidnapped.  I am not giving away any spoilers because these events happen very quickly in the book. Maxwell is essentially put on administrative leave but she decides to launch her own investigation into the kidnapping.  One of the paths she takes leads her to Sean King.  Over the past eight years he has reinvented himself, going to law school, and opening a fairly successful law practice.  After Maxwell's candidate is kidnapped, people around King start to die.  King and Maxwell join forces to see if what happened to their candidates might be linked.  There are multiple mysteries to be solved in the first book of this series and instead of being confusing it completely held my attention.  Are the two events connected?  Was King the real target the day of the assassination and is that why people all around King are dying?  King and Maxwell have very different personalities and styles but show themselves to be competent investigators.  There is of course the requisite "will they or won't they" vibe in the book, but it does not detract from the story in any way.

I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on the TV series having only seen the pilot episode, but I am sold on the books. Perhaps I should write a letter to David Baldacci letting him know that the TV show has made me a fan of his books.  It might go something like this:

Dear Mr. Baldacci,

Thanks to the new TV show King and Maxwell, I was persuaded to pick up a copy of Split Second from my local library.  I'm certainly glad that I did.  I enjoyed the book throughly and look forward to reading more in the series.  The writing is fast-paced, the cases are complicated enough to hold my attention, and the characters are interesting. Additionally, as a woman, I want to thank you for writing competent female characters that don't need a big, strong man to take care of them.

Sincerely,
Amy

Amy~ Adult Services