New Year's Resolutions

It's a new year, and time for a new start for many of us. Maybe, like me, you've resolved to lose a couple pounds or save a little more each month, and you're not alone. USA.gov* has a list of twelve popular New Year's Resolutions, each of which links to various government-created resources to help you achieve your goals.

Here at Carnegie-Stout Public Library, we've also gathered together library resources to help with some popular resolutions. You can check out the display next to the Recommendations Desk on the first floor or click the links below for lists of library materials. Library staff is also happy to help if you have any questions!

• Addiction

• Budgets and Debt

• Career

• Diet

• Exercise

• Stress

• Vacation

• Volunteer

*USA.gov is "the U.S. government's official web portal" with access to "U.S. government information and services on the web"

Nox

Poet and classical scholar Anne Carson has created a book in an untraditional format. NOX (“night” in Latin) is an elegy to her brother Michael who died in Denmark in 2000. Carson elegantly links her grief to ideas about history and translation. The result is a literary “art” object that almost sings her talent in classics, translation, and poetry.

The work is printed on one long sheet of paper, folded accordion-style and placed into its own somber grey box, a casket with a tombstone. Carson creates a collage of memories about Michael who was a shadowed presence in her life, and at the same time reveals the underside of translating both a text and a life. She asks what is at the heart of history by bringing in a reading lesson from Herodotus.

The book works as an elegy on several levels: as homage to Michael, as Michael mourning a lost love, and as Roman poet Catullus (poem C1 [101]) mourning his dead brother. Carson deconstructs each of the 63 words within poem C1, offering the translator’s dilemma of choice. The variant meanings read as chants, and the reader discovers Carson inserts her own musings.

This book is a “slow read,” an experience I found moving and approached as if in a temple. The publisher has marvelously reproduced Carson’s hand-made book so the reader can feel its shadows, folds, and staples. I wonder if this publishing effort will spur more such specialty books and usher in a renewed appreciation for the physical book.

~ Mirdza, Adult Services

2011 Films Based on Books

In 2011 there are many movies being released based on books. Check out the titles listed below and read the story before you go see the movie. (Movie release dates courtesy of IMDB.com)

The Rite: the making of a modern exorcist by Matt Baglio

A portrait of the phenomenon of demonic possession traces the history, rites, and rituals of exorcism and one man's path toward a terrifying and perplexing world transforming him from a skeptical apprentice to a practicing exorcist. (in theatres January 28,2011)

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years waiting to develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to rejoin the other six surviving Garde members and fight the Mogadorians who destroyed their planet, Lorien. (in theatres February 18, 2011).

Beastly by Alex Finn

A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form. (in theatres March 18, 2011)

The Lincoln Lawyer : a novel by Michael Connelly

Representing some unsavory characters in his work as a defense lawyer, Mickey Haller takes on his first high-paying and possibly innocent client in years, but finds the case complicated by events that suggest a particularly evil perpetrator. (in theatres March 18, 2011)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

Greg Heffley tells about his summer vacation and his attempts to steer clear of trouble when he returns to middle school and tries to keep his older brother Rodrick from telling everyone about Greg's most humiliating experience of the summer. (in theatres March 25, 2011)

Water for Elephants: a Novel by Sara Gruen

Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope. (in theatres April 15, 2011)

One for the Money by Janet Evonovich

Out of work and out of money, Stephanie Plum becomes a bounty hunter. Her first assignment is to track down a former vice cop on the run for murder. (in theatres July 8, 2011)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling.

Burdened with the dark, dangerous, and seemingly impossible task of locating and destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes, Harry, feeling alone and uncertain about his future, struggles to find the inner strength he needs to follow the path set out before him. (part two in theatres July 15, 2011)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project. (in theatres August 12, 2011)

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Although eighteen-year-old Bella joins the dark but seductive world of the immortals by marrying Edward the vampire, her connection to the powerful werewolf Jacob remains unsevered. (part one in theatres November 18, 2011)

City of Thieves

Have you ever wondered what writers read when they are not writing their next bestseller? In the December 17, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly author Stephen King lists the top 10 novels he read this year. Coming in at number 10 on that list is “City of Thieves: A Novel” by David Benioff.

Lev Beniov (a fictional version of the author’s grandfather) is 17 years old and barely surviving the 1942 siege of Leningrad. Arrested by the NKVD (Russia’s public and secret police force) for a variety of minor crimes Lev is thrown in jail. His cell mate is Koyla, a soldier charged with desertion. The two are complete opposites; Lev is awkward, unsure and pessimistic while Koyla is charming, confident and charismatic. Instead of facing execution, they are given the task of finding a dozen eggs to make a wedding cake for a powerful colonel’s daughter. The people of Leningrad are starving and there is very little real food to be found. Finding a dozen eggs under these circumstances is an impossible task and they have just 5 days to complete it or they will be executed. Lev and Koyla venture out into the lawless and dangerous streets of Leningrad and soon their journey takes them into the Russian countryside, behind German lines.

Lev’s narration is engaging and self-deprecating and Kolya often inserts humor into some pretty depressing and dangerous situations. The two young men experience firsthand the lengths to which people will go to ensure their own survival. You may find yourself wondering if this could be a fictional account of a true story or did Benioff use his grandfather for character inspiration.

Rounding out the rest of King’s top 10 list are “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett, “Swamplandia!” by Karen Russell (published in early 2011), “Bloods a Rover” by James Ellroy, “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes, “Last Night in Twisted River” by John Irving, “Savages” by Don Winslow, “I’d Know You Anywhere” by Laura Lippman, “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen and “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace. (Entertainment Weekly 12.17.10 pg. 32)

~Amy, Adult Services

The Charming Quirks of Others

If you think you would like to be a member of “The Sunday Philosopher’s Club” you will probably enjoy the Isabel Dalhousie novels by Alexander McCall Smith. The relaxed pace of these novels befits a Sunday philosopher’s club (also the title of the first book in the series) as Isabel spends a great deal of time judging the moral and ethical implications of everyone’s decisions, particularly her own. While McCall Smith is more known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency mysteries, this series gives him a chance to explore his native Scotland, particularly Edinburgh, while inventing more of the quirky characters he is known for. The titles should be read in order, as we get to see Isabel grow and change throughout the series. Isabel agonizes over her choices and philosophizes about the complications in her life.

The humor is more subtle than that in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and the mysteries are only incidental to the stories, as this series is also about the characters and their relationships. The Charming Quirks of Others finds Isabel investigating three candidates for the headmaster’s position at a local school. A letter has been received, which hints at scandal and Isabel must determine which of the three finalists has a skeleton in his closet. We also gain insight into her relationship with her much younger fiancée, Jamie, as they talk more seriously about marriage. And as usual, Isabel learns much about herself in the process.

~ Becky, Adult Services