Readers' Advisory

Keeper of Lost Causes
Jussi Adler-Olsen (2011)

 

This is the first installment of the Department Q series, featuring the deeply flawed chief detective Carl Morck, who used to be a good homicide detective-one of Copenhagen's best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't so lucky, and Carl, who didn't draw his weapon, blames himself.  So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects.

But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl's been selected to run Department Q, a new special investigations division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen's coldest cases to keep him company, Carl's been put out to pasture. So he's as surprised as anyone when a case actually captures his interest. A missing politician vanished without a trace five years earlier. The world assumes she's dead. His colleagues snicker about the time he's wasting. But Carl may have the last laugh, and redeem himself in the process. (Publisher)

Readers' Advisory

The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt (2013)

 

 

A young boy in New York City, Theo Decker, miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Aloneand abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a friend's family and struggles to make sense of his new life. In the years that follow, he becomes entranced by one of the few things that reminds him of his mother: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the art underworld. (Novelist)

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Nelson Mandela

Human Rights Activist

1918-2013

 

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African resistance leader who, after years of imprisonment for opposing apartheid, emerged to become the first president of a black-majority-ruled South Africa and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Click here for books by and about Nelson Mandela.

 

Readers' Advisory

David and Goliath (2013)
by Malcolm Gladwell

The best-selling author of Outliers uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty, the powerful and the dispossessed.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Doris Lessing

Nobel Prize-Winning Author

1919-2013

 

Click here for books by Doris Lessing.

 

Readers' Advisory

In the Shadow of Gotham
by Stefanie Pintoff (2009)

Having relocated to less-violent Westchester County after the tragic loss of his fiancée, detective Simon Ziele takes the case of a brutally murdered young woman and follows leads to a local criminologist's violent subject; an investigation during which Simon wonders if someone is imitating the suspect's methods. (Publisher)

Readers' Advisory

This House Is Haunted
By John Boyne (2013)

 

This House Is Haunted is a striking homage to the classic nineteenth-century ghost story. Set in Norfolk, England in 1867, Eliza Caine responds to an ad for a governess position at Gaudlin Hall. When she arrives at the hall, shaken by an unsettling disturbance that occurred during her travels, she is greeted by the two children now in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There is no adult present to represent her mysterious employer, and the children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room, another terrifying experience further reinforces the sense that something is very wrong.

From the moment Eliza rises the following morning, her every step seems dogged by a malign presence that lives within Gaudlin’s walls. Eliza realizes that if she and the children are to survive its violent attentions, she must first uncover the hall’s long-buried secrets and confront the demons of its past. (Publisher)

Readers' Advisory

The Rosie Project
by Graeme Simsion (2013)

 

Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially challenged professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. And so, in the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman is all these things. She also is strangely beguiling, fiery, and intelligent. And while Don quickly disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, as a DNA expert Don is particularly suited to help Rosie on her own quest: identifying her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on the Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you. (Book cover)

Freeport Musician

Farewell Lou Reed

Musician

1942-2013

 

 

Born in 1942, Lou Reed was lead singer and songwriter for the Velvet Underground from 1965 to 1970. Some of the Velvet Underground's songs were published by "Oakfield Avenue Music Ltd." a reference to the street in Freeport where Lou Reed lived.

.

The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

 

Lou Reed signed his Freeport High School Yearbook during his induction into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on November 16, 2010.

 

This yearbook is available for viewing at the Freeport Historical Society by appointment only: 350 South Main Street, Freeport, NY, (516) 623-9632.

 

 



Click here for material by Lou Reed.

Readers' Advisory

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
By Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr. (2013)

Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr., a cousin of the book's subject, reconstruct the life of reclusive copper heiress Huguette Clark (1906-2011) in this riveting biography. The authors bring Huguette's odd past into clear perspective, including the hilariously corrupt political schemes of her father, W.A. Clark, who was a Montana senator. Though less celebrated than his compatriots Rockefeller and Carnegie, W.A. Clark was at a time wealthier than they, and by extension, so was his daughter. She was a regular in the society pages during her youth and even married for a short time, Clark later slipped into her own world and stayed there, quietly buying multi-million dollar homes for her dolls. Kind and unspeakably generous to those who worked for her and usually suspicious of family, she wrote a few big checks to people she hardly knew. Other family acquisitions, valuable musical instruments and jewelry among them, she simply gave away. The authors provide a thrilling study of the responsibilities and privileges that come with great wealth and draw the reader into the deliciously scandalous story of Clark's choices in later life, the question of Clark's presence of mind always at issue. Hewn from Huguette's stories, purchases, phone calls, gifts, and letters, the tale of where and how Huguette Clark found happiness will entrance anyone. (Publishers Weekly)

Readers' Advisory

Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet
By John Bradshaw (2013)

About one-third of US households have at least one cat. John Bradshaw examines the newest research on how cats think and why they do what they do. He understands that the cat is still, in essence, a wild creature, and it is his owners who must come around to being a better friend too them, at their level. He examines, and give good advice, on cats' learning how to be domestic, and how they respond to thoughts and feelings, and how they look at other cats and humans, and how they respond as individuals, and as wildlife. He closes with a very interesting chapter on cats of the future; given our human propensity for altering our companions genetically, it is all very possible. This is a worthy companion to Bradshaw's Dog Sense. (Book News).

Click here to listen to an interview with author John Bradshaw on NPR. 

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Tom Clancy

1947-2013

Author

 

 

Books by Tom Clancy.

Readers' Advisory

Book Adaptation

Author Melissa De la Cruz's best-selling "Beauchamp Family" series will premier as the television drama Witches of East End on Lifetime beginning October 6.

If you want to read the series, here are the books in order:

Book 1 - Witches of East End (2011)

Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. All three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret-- they are powerful witches banned from using their magic. When mysterious, violent attacks begin to plague the town and a young girl disappears over the Fourth of July weekend, they realize it's time to uncover who and what dark forces are working against them. (Novelist)


Book 2: Serpent's Kiss (2012)

Just as things are settling down for the Beauchamp witches, Freya, Ingrid, and their mother Joanna must deal with a series of events which culminates in an explosive Thanksgiving family reunion that results in magical mayhem. (Novelist)



Book 3: Winds of Salem (2013)

 

Transported back in time where she is forced to relive the horrors of Salem, Freya Beauchamp must find a way to survive the witch-burning hysteria, while her family, stuck in the present, must confront the trickster god Loki to save Freya. (Novelist)

Book Recommendations

Wilson
by A. Scott Berg (2013)

Pulitzer Prize winner A. Scott Berg presents a thorough, entertaining account of our 28th president. Wilson, a lawyer who became an academic—a professor of history, political science, and law—then president of Princeton University, was elected New Jersey's governor in 1910. Two years later he won the U.S. presidency in a landslide. Berg's detailed account of Wilson's presidency shows how Washington has changed over the past century. In Wilson's White House, the West Wing was staffed with six people. The president (until a late second-term stroke) walked the streets of Washington, DC, to and from appointments and visits. After ten years of research, Berg is unable to disguise his admiration for his subject; he tends to downplay Wilson's flaws, such as his obvious racism. But Berg shows us that in many ways Wilson was a trailblazer. He reformed Princeton's curriculum to what is now the standard for undergraduate education. As U.S. president, he took his isolationist nation on the path to world power, advocated for women's suffrage, instituted the income tax, and pushed for the direct election of U.S. senators. (Robert B. Slater - Library Journal).

Book Recommendation

Crazy Rich Asians
by Kevin Kwan (2013)

 

When Rachel Chu’s boyfriend, Nick Young, invites her home to Singapore for the summer, she doesn’t realize how much gossip she’s generated among Asian socialites around the world. To Rachel, Nick is a sweet, intelligent history professor—and the first man she’s imagined marrying. To the Asian billionaire set, he’s the gorgeous heir apparent to one of China’s most “staggeringly rich” and well-established families who virtually control the country’s commerce with their ancient fortunes. As soon as she steps off the plane, Rachel is ushered into the opulent world of castle-like estates and mind-boggling luxury. As if the shock of realizing the scale of Nick’s wealth is not enough, she must also contend with a troupe of cruel socialites who would absolutely die before they let Singapore’s most eligible bachelor get snapped up by a no-name “ABC” (American-born Chinese). There is also Nick’s family—his imposing mother, Eleanor, who has exact ideas about who Nick should be dating; his beautiful cousin Astrid, who the younger girls dub “the Goddess” for her stunning fashion sense (she was “the first to pair a vintage Saint Laurent Le Smoking jacket with three-dollar batik shorts”); and Nick’s cousin, the flamboyant Oliver, who helps Rachel navigate this strange new world. A witty tongue-in-cheek frolic about what it means to be from really old money and what it’s like to be crazy rich. (Publisher's Weekly)

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Elmore Leonard

1925-2013

Author

 

Books/movies by Elmore Leonard.

Book Recommendation

Tell the Wolves I'm Home
by Carol Rifka Brunt (2013)

It is 1987, and only one person has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus -- her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young of AIDS her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life -- someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart. (Publisher Summary)

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Wall Street Journal • O: The Oprah Magazine • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • School Library Journal

Adult Program

Evening with Freeport Author Tom Phelan

 

Wednesday, July 31

7 pm



 

Do you want to know where authors get their ideas from? Or what they read when they’re not busy writing? Well, join us for a discussion with local novelist, Tom Phelan and learn first-hand about the writing life. Tom, who was born in Ireland, is the author of Nailer, The Canal Bridge, In the Season of the Daises, and other books.

 

News You Can Use

The New York Health Benefit Exchange

 

New York Health Benefit Exchange is an organized marketplace designed to help people shop for and enroll in health insurance coverage. The enrollment period begins October 1, 2013 and the coverage begins January 1, 2014.  Visit the official New York Health Exchange site and learn about the benefits of this organized marketplace for individuals and small businesses.

http://healthbenefitexchange.ny.gov

Navigator Agencies

These agencies will assist individuals and small businesses to apply for health insurance coverage. There are 50 agencies across New York State selected to answer questions and guide consumers through the health insurance enrollment process.  Listed here are agencies in the Nassau/ Suffolk region that have been selected.

• Nassau-Suffolk County Hospital Council  www.coverage4healthcare.com
• Community Development Corporation of Long Island  www.cdcli.org
• Public Health Solutions   http://www.healthsolutions.org/

Approved Health Insurance Rates

www.governor.ny.gov/assets/documents/Approved2014HealthInsuranceRates.pdf

I Love My Librarian Award

Nominate Your Favorite Librarian

2013 Award

Nominations for the 2013 Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Awards are open through September 6.

For more information, click here.

Book Recommendation

Bad Monkey
by Carl Hiaasen (2013)

 

Author, Carl Hiaasen combines familiar themes with an inspired cast in this exercise in Florida zaniness. Andrew Yancy, who became an ex-cop after publicly assaulting his girlfriend's husband with a vacuum cleaner attachment, is now on "roach patrol" as a restaurant inspector, but he soon gets a chance at redemption. Sonny Summers, the new Monroe County sheriff, tells Yancy to take a severed, shark-bitten arm snagged by a fisherman to Miami, where DNA identifies the limb as belonging to Nick Stripling, a retiree in his 40s whose boat was wrecked at sea. Stripling's grown daughter, Caitlin Cox, claims after the funeral that her hated stepmother murdered her father, and Yancy sees proving the stepmother's guilt as a way to return to the force. Add in some real estate shenanigans, a voodoo witch, and a deranged monkey, and you have another marvelously entertaining Hiaasen adventure. (Publishers Weekly).

Special Services

Borrow a Nook!

The Library has begun circulating Nook Simple Touch e-readers, preloaded with a variety of titles.  Additional titles will be added each month.  The Nooks circulate for 14 days, and may be borrowed by Freeport Memorial Library cardholders, 18 years of age or older. 

For a list of titles click here.

Readers' Advisory

Serious about Series

Series Title: Song of Ice and Fire
Author:  George R. R. Martin

Description: In the shadow of an oncoming winter likely to last longer than a decade, families ruthlessly vie for power in the Seven Kingdoms. As war threatens to erupt, the last heirs to a fallen dynasty wander the continent, and dragons make their return to the world.

Order of books:

#1 Game of Thrones: (1996) The aristocratic Stark family faces its ultimate challenge in the onset of a generation-long winter, the poisonous plots of the rival Lannisters, the emergence of the Neverborn demons, and the arrival of barbarian hordes.

#2 Clash of Kings: (1999) Five separate factions vie for control of the Seven Kingdoms, while an ancient form of magic, an everlasting winter, and an unearthly army threaten to return.

#3 Storm of Swords: (2000) The three surviving contenders for the throne of the Seven Kingdoms continue to struggle among themselves, Robb Stark defends his kingdom from the Greyjoys, Jon Snow confronts an escalating threat, and Danerys Stormborn and her dragon allies continue to grow in power.

#4 Feast of Crows: (2004) The uneasy peace is threatened by new plots, intrigues, and alliances that once again will plunge the Seven Kingdoms into all-out war for control of the Iron Throne.

#5 Dance with Dragons: (2011) New threats emerge to endanger the future of the Seven Kingdoms, as Daenerys Targaryen fights off a multitude of enemies, while Jon Snow faces his foes both in the Watch and beyond the great Wall of ice and stone.


More about this series: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=noh&tg=UI&an=763648&site=novelist-live



Databases

ProQuest Goes Mobile!

 

 

With the launch of ProQuest Mobile, Freeporters now have instant access to ProQuest research databases anytime, anywhere, on their iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, or BlackBerry smartphones.

 

 

See how it works.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Richard Matheson

1926-2013

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror Author

 

 

Books/movies by Richard Matheson.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Vince Flynn

1966-2013

Author

 

Books by Vince Flynn.

 

Readers' Advisory

Freeport's Favorites:

Adult Summer Reading Club

To learn more about this program, checkout Freeport public access TV channels 18 or 14 or click here.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Iain M. Banks

1954-2013

Author

 

Books by Iain M. Banks.

 

New Reference e-Book

Biotechnology in Context (2013)

Available as part of Gale Virtual Reference

The goal of Biotechnology: In Context is to help high school and early college students understand the essential facts and deeper cultural connections of topics and issues related to the scientific study of biotechnology.

Book Recommendation

Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth Century New York
Matthew Goodman (2010)

 

Who doesn’t love lunar man-bats?  Goodman takes us back to the summer of 1835, when the Sun newspaper flooded New York with tales of man bats, unicorns, poppies, and other life forms on the moon, supposedly discovered by a British astronomer. This hoax made the Sun the most widely read newspaper in the world and, in the process, led to the creation of both tabloid journalism and the modern newspaper business.

Book Recommendations

Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History
Andrew Carroll (2013)

Author Andrew Carroll takes readers on an eye-opening and entertaining grand tour of America in this lively exploration of lesser-known or overlooked historical sites. From birthplaces to gravesites and high points to low, from those that inspired inventions to those that sparked change, he leaves no stone unturned or landmark unvisited. Bite-sized chapters focusing on a specific destination as well as Carroll's own personal journey make this an addictive experience—each entry sheds a little more light on the people and locations we've forgotten. (Publishers Weekly)

New Reference e-Book

American Eras: Primary Sources: Civil War (2013)

Available as part of Gale Virtual Reference

American Eras: Primary Sources: Civil War offers full or excerpted primary material representing the seminal issues, themes, movements, and events from the Civil War. Categories include: the arts, business and the economy, education, fashion and leisure, government and politics, law and justice, lifestyles and social trends, media, medicine and health, religion, and science and technology.  Sources of information includes: oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoons, and recipes.

Book Recommendations

The World's Strongest Librarian
by Josh Hanagarne (2013)

 

Josh Hanagarne is a remarkable man. He is a librarian, a follower of the Mormon faith, has Tourette's syndrome, and can deadlift 600 pounds. In this moving memoir, Hanagarne shows his readers what it is like to live with a severe form of Tourette's and how, with patience, love, and support from his family, he was able to build a rich, full life. With the onset of Tourette's, Hanagarne found a source of joy and delight and a welcome escape in books. Hanagarne is open about his struggles, from his questioning of his faith, through the difficulties in his marriage, to his dogged determination to challenge himself to persevere and become a librarian. Throughout, his optimism and amusing, self-deprecating sense of humor shine through. An excellent and uplifting story on accepting and coping with lifelong disabilities.

New Reference e-Book

From Green Industries to Green Jobs (2013)

Available as part of Gale Virtual Reference

This Gale database presents occupational profiles, alongside overviews of the green job that cover such details as, what job it is most similar to, what skills are required to perform the job, and what a typical day in the life of that job is like.

New Database

Morningstar Investment Research Center

 

Freeport patrons have access to Morningstar's premium information, including Morningstar analysts' independent opinion on 1,700 stocks, 2,200 mutual funds, and 300 exchange rated funds. Also offered are accurate, up-to-date data on 35,000 stocks and funds, along with industry and market data. The database lets users build and test portfolio ideas online, and provides financial education through its Investing Classroom.  To begin, click here.

New Reference e-Book
The Gale Encyclopedia Of Diets (2013)

Available as part of Gale Virtual Reference

This e-book covers topics such as dieting and popular diets, dietary concerns, nutritional basics, and the effects of a person's dietary choices on one's health. Topics are organized around the development and history of a diet, its basic principles, any key figures that influence the trend, and any public or regulatory concerns associated with the practice. Provides information across all age groups from infants to the elderly.

Book Recommendation

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President
By Josh Lieb

This young-adult book will have adult readers laughing out loud.  Even Jon Stewart loved it!  Twelve-year-old Oliver Watson’s got the IQ of a grilled cheese sandwich. Or so everyone in Omaha thinks. In reality, Oliver’s a mad evil genius on his way to world domination, and he’s used his great brain to make himself the third-richest person on earth! Then Oliver’s father—and archnemesis—makes a crack about the upcoming middle school election, and Oliver takes it as a personal challenge. He’ll run, and he’ll win! Turns out, though, that overthrowing foreign dictators is actually way easier than getting kids to like you. . . Can this evil genius win the class presidency and keep his true identity a secret, all in time to impress his dad?

New Reference e-Book
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Extinction (2013)

Available as part of Gale Virtual Reference

This new supplement explores all aspects of extinctions and extinct life, featuring approximately 80 articles outlining major extinctions and related scientific areas. Entries are written by nationally renowned subject experts specializing in zoology, paleontology, and environmental science. Written for students and general researchers.

Bus Trip:
Brotherhood Winery and Woodbury Commons
SATURDAY, MAY 18
COST: $71 per person (check or money order)
The cost includes transportation in a deluxe coach, lunch and a wine tasting at Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY and outlet shopping with discount coupons at Woodbury Commons in Central Valley, NY.  THERE ARE STILL SEATS AVAILABLE!

Our Movers and Shakers, Authors, and Innovators

THURSDAY, MAY 9, 4 p.m.

Join us as we celebrate the achievements of our staff.  Bilingual Reference Librarian Rose Luna and Youth Services Librarian Margaux DelGuidice, who are also full-time Teacher/Librarians, have each earned a Library Journal 2013 Movers and Shakers Award for their advocacy efforts, which have gained national attention. Together, they authored the book, Make a BigImpact @ Your School Board Meeting (ABC-CLIO, 2012). Reference Librarian Tanisha Mitchell has earned a Library Journal 2013 Innovator Award for her work at the Metropolitan Opera Library, where she has been organizing and cataloging its extensive collection. Safety Monitor Robert Sizemore Jr. has written a book of poetry, Poems of Encouragement (Xlibris, 2012).  Mr. Sizemore is also a minister at a local church.