Dubuque's Haunted History by Richard A. Barker

Instead of telling you about a book I have enjoyed reading, I am going to tell you about a book I am anxious to read. Dubuque’s Haunted History by Richard A. Barker will be published on February 14, 2011 by Arcadia Publishing.

Barker is a local author and principal investigator for Big Muddy Ghost Hunters in Dubuque. Mike Gibson from the Center for Dubuque History at Loras College wrote the preface and provided many of the photographs used in the book. Arcadia is the same company that published the James Schaffer/John Tigges pictorial books on Dubuque history.

Instead of looking for valentines this year, I’ll be looking for ghosts!

~Betty from Adult Services

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

What comes to mind when you hear the words “Salem witch trials?” If you are of a literary bent, you might think of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables. One of Hawthorne’s relatives was a Salem magistrate, and another was actually a judge at the witchcraft trials. His family history and Puritan background impacted his writing. Miller used the events from Salem in 1692 to stage his political views of the 1950’s McCarthy era so-called witch hunts for communists.

Writing more recently than Hawthorne or Miller, Kathleen Kent, author of the historical fiction novel The Heretic’s Daughter, traces her ancestry back nine generations to Thomas and Martha Carrier. Kent uses her family history to craft a tale of Martha’s daughter Sarah, who, along with her mother and brothers, is accused of witchcraft. Nine-year old Sarah is the narrator of the story, which is rich in historical detail and emotionally powerful.

Families living in Massachusetts almost a century before the Revolutionary War deal with smallpox, Indian attacks and primitive conditions, unheard of in modern day America, but mother-daughter, brother-sister and other family interactions are timeless. Rumors, accusations of witchcraft, formal charges, arrest and imprisonment shatters some families; the Carrier family becomes stronger.

Some critics find The Heretic’s Daughter too slow moving. I was intrigued; I read the book in two days. I want to read The Wolves of Andover, Kent’s prequel to her debut, but it is checked out. While I am waiting to read the story of Sarah’s parents, I’ve been studying the University of Virginia’s amazing archive of documents from the Salem trials. Next I will reread The Crucible and The House of the Seven Gables. One good read leads to another. Now for trip to New England to view the settings . . .

~ Michelle, Adult Services

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

I’m a great fan of fairy tales and have spent many happy hours poring over the more obscure corners of the Grimm brothers’ stories (if you’ve never read The Mouse, The Bird, and The Sausage, I recommend it highly). However, even the most avid fairy tale reader may tire of their emphasis on plot over character development and bemoan the lack of strong, interesting women. In Castle Waiting, Linda Medley rights both these wrongs and produces an enchanting graphic novel that Publishers Weekly called “a modern, feminist Chaucer for happy people.”

The titular castle serves as a safe haven for a small group of social outcasts including a bearded nun from an unusual order and a widow whose giant husband was murdered by a bigoted young “hero” named Jack. The main storyline follows Jain, a pregnant woman who comes to the castle to escape an abusive husband. No one pushes her for details about her past, but everyone’s curiosity is piqued when her baby turns out to be less than human.

Ultimately, the mystery of Jain’s past takes a backseat to the simple pleasure of watching the interactions of the cast of well-developed and likable characters. Domestic affairs such as patching a roof or tending the goats are enlivened by Medley’s detailed and expressive art and her clear affection for her subjects. Over time, the characters reveal themselves through numerous flashbacks. Much of the first volume is devoted to the history of the bearded nuns of St. Wilgeforte, many of whom joined the convent to escape mistreatment in traveling circuses.

Castle Waiting is largely devoid of the sword-fights and derring-do that some readers may expect from their fairy tales. Instead, the patient reader will joy a leisurely sojourn filled with gentle humor and smart, kind women.

~Andrew, Adult Services

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

Every Man Dies Alone is a literary thriller based on an actual Gestapo case file about a German couple who secretly distributed anti-Nazi propaganda in Berlin during World War II, an act of resistance punishable by death.

Noir-like scenes from the novel include Anna Quangel waiting anxiously in the street while her husband Otto slips into a crowded Berlin office building to leave a postcard denouncing Hitler, and Gestapo Inspector Escherich escorting an informant to the city outskirts at night, handing the man a gun, and encouraging him to commit suicide.

First published in Berlin in 1947, Every Man Dies Alone was written in 24 days by Hans Fallada, a disturbed German writer who died of a morphine overdose before the book came out. The 544-page 2009 edition includes the first English-language translation of the novel, plus an afterword with excerpts from the original Gestapo file.

Hans Fallada was considered to be an "undesirable writer" by the Nazis in part because his earlier 1932 bestseller Little Man, What Now? had been made into a Hollywood movie by Jewish producers. By the end of the war, Fallada was imprisoned in an insane asylum where he wrote the anti-Nazi novel The Drinker by hiding the text within overlapping, handwritten script.

~Mike, Adult Services

Free Resources for Your E-Reader

Don't forget, Carnegie Stout Public Library is holding a one-session class to introduce students to Overdrive, an online service accessible both in the library and from home. Overdrive allows library patrons to download free audio books, eBooks, and music. Downloaded media may be accessed on a home computer or portable electronic device. For more information or registration check out our website.

Unfortunately, if you have a Kindle, you will be unable to use the library’s collection of eBooks. Amazon has chosen a proprietary form of software and will not allow libraries to check out eBooks that work with their software. You may of course purchase e-books directly from Amazon. However, there are several places to download eBooks for free. Many of these sites have older titles that are copyright free and some are new titles by aspiring authors.

ARTICLES:
Check out these two articles which discuss Google books, currently the largest collection of digital books. There is also a lot of good information regarding the Kindle.

Laura Miller from Salon has an article discussing Google eBooks.

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/12/07/google_ebookstore/index.html

And check out this explanation of Google books by The Tattered Cover bookstore:

http://www.tatteredcover.com/img-srcfilestatteredcovere-books-customersjpg-vspace9-width473-height108

WEBSITE LISTS:
We have also put together a list of websites where you may download eBooks for free. Many of these sites can also be used for Nooks, Kobo and Sony Readers, as well as simply reading on your PC. There are several different types of formats available, such as: ePub, PDF, HTML, Mobipocket, and Txt. You will need to check to see if your device can read the particular format.

http://www.suite101.com/content/free-ebook-websites-a318293
This article lists several of the free sites.

http://ebook-store-review.toptenreviews.com/top-7-free-ebook-websites.html
Top Ten Reviews reviews seven free sites.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/
Hongkiat.com has a blog post listing the twenty best websites for free e-books. The blog also added another 16 extra listings. The post was updated about a year ago and a second set of websites can be found here.


INDIVIDUAL WEBSITES:
Here is a partial list of the sites where you can download free e-books, with an informational quote from each website.

http://www.gutenberg.org/
“Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 33,000 free eBooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device. “

http://www.free-e-books.net/
“Free-e-books.net is the Internet’s #1 online source for free eBook downloads, eBook resources and eBook authors.”

http://www.getfreee-books.com/
“Getfreee-books.com is a free e-books site where you can download free books totally free.”

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-e-books/379001668/
Claims to have thousands of free eBooks, but only about 100 or so are listed. Can be used on iPad, iPhone, Android, NOOK, and PC.

http://manybooks.net/
“There are more than 29,000 eBooks available here and they're all free!”

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
“Listing over 900,000 free books on the Web”

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-e-books/b/ref=sv_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&node=1286228011
Look on the left under Special Features/Free E-Book collections. “Free classics and out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books, as well as limited-time free promotional e-books available for Kindle.”

http://www.smashwords.com/
“Discover Great E-books from Indie authors and publishers.”

http://www.kobobooks.com/
299 titles in multiple formats.

http://www.archive.org/details/texts
“The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.”

http://books.google.com/e-books
“Read nearly 3 million free eBooks and hundreds of thousands of titles that are ready for purchase; you can read all of your favorite books using just about any device with an Internet connection. You can read Google eBooks on the Web, with Android phones, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and supported eReaders.. You can't use your Kindle to read any eBooks you buy from Google.”