Adult Summer Reading 2013: Beneath the Surface

Summer Reading has begun! At a loss for what to read? Dive below the waves and learn about marine life or the shipwrecks that lie on the ocean floor, or sail above and enjoy a maritime adventure. Take a look at this list on the Library’s Adult Summer Reading theme, Beneath the Surface.

Read a classic nautical yarn:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

Master and Commander, by Patrick O’Brian

Mutiny on the Bounty, by Charles Nordhoff

Captain Horatio Hornblower, by C.S. Forester

Check out another tale of the sea:

The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy

Jaws, by Peter Benchley

The Reef, by Nora Roberts

The Log from the Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck

    (published in The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings)

Deep Storm, by Lincoln Child

The Caine Mutiny, a Novel of World War II, by Herman Wouk

Or science fiction:

Meg: Primal Waters, by Steve Alten

The Ghost from the Grand Banks, by Arthur C. Clarke

And learn about the ocean in these non-fiction selections:

The Discovery of the Titanic, by Robert D. Ballard

Exploring the Lusitania, by Robert D. Ballard

The Discovery of the Bismarck, by Robert D. Ballard

Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria, by Kevin F. Murray

Shadow Divers: the True Adventure of two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II, by Robert Kurson

Leviathan Or the Whale: In Search of Giants of the Sea, by Philip Hoare

In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick

While the ocean is an interpretation of the theme of ‘Beneath the Surface,’ there could be many more. What are some other books that could fit this theme?

-Emily Miller

Librarian

Reference Dept.

Join us for Love the Library

 

It's that time of year again when community members come together to show their support for the library at our Love the Library event. This year's event will take place at the Pittsburgh Field Club on April 20th from 6:00-9:00 p.m.

We will be honoring Melinda Beard for her many years of service to the community. Our speaker for the evening is Andy Masich, President and CEO of the Senator John Heinz History Center. Andy will tell us about the exciting exhibit currently at the History Center entitled "1960: The Year That Rocked America".

To attend this very important fundraiser for the library, go to our website to purchase your tickets by April 10th.  

Winter 2013 Adult Winter Reading: Books Into Movies

Adapting books into films is nothing new. In fact, the practice is as old as motion pictures itself. Birth of a Nation, the D.W. Griffith film widely considered to be the first full-length feature, was based on a novel. Since then, there have been many movies adapted from books, and even some good movies adapted from good books. Books chosen to make into films have spanned all genres and intended audiences.

Many of these books will be in high demand, so get your holds in soon! There are, of course, many more books that have been made into movies. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so feel free to search the library catalog to find others.

This past holiday season, director Peter Jackson revisited J.R.R.Tolkien’s Middle Earth to bring us the first part of a film trilogy adapted from The Hobbit, a prequel to the series The Lord of the Rings. Other fantasy and science fiction books that have been made into movies include Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Another popular genre for film adaptation is ‘chick lit.’ Some books in this category that have been made into ‘chick flicks’ are: Bridget Jones’s Diary, by Helen Fielding, or The Devil Wears Prada, by Lauren Weisberger.

But it’s not just genre fiction that makes for good cinema. Smash hit bestsellers that have recently hit the big screen include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson, which was made into a Swedish-language film as well as an American version. A couple other recent book-to-movie blockbusters are The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, which held a spot on the bestseller lists for months, both before and after the film, as well as Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen.

Many classic and well-loved films were adapted from novels. James Dean’s star turn in East of Eden was adapted from the book by John Steinbeck. The Wizard of Oz is from the book by L. Frank Baum, although Dorothy’s shoes were silver rather than ruby in the book. Another film from those earlier eras of film that was adapted from a well-loved book is To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. One of the most celebrated films of all time, Gone with the Wind, was originally a book by Margaret Mitchell. Some classic films from the more recent past that have been made into movies include The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, and The Graduate, by Charles Richard Webb.

Some authors seem to be particularly inspiring to screenwriters and filmmakers. Some have had multiple books and short stories adapted for the screen. In the classics department, Jane Austen rules as an enduring force. Some of her books, such as Pride and Prejudice, have become movies more than once. Two recent movies based on books by a living author were The Road and No Country for Old Men, both by Cormac McCarthy. Dennis Lehane also had a pair of mysteries made into movies with Mystic River and Shutter Island. Many of Nicholas Sparks’ books, including The Notebook have been filmed. John Grisham is another writer whose legal dramas have proven to be well-suited for the silver screen, including The Pelican Brief. But of course, one author rises above the others when I think of movies made from books: Stephen King. 

If nonfiction is your thing, a few books that have been made into good movies are: Girl, Interrupted, a memoir written by Susanna Kaysen about her stay in a mental ward, In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, or A Beautiful Mind, a biography of mathematician John Nash by Sylvia Nasar.

Remember, if you complete a book that was adapted for the screen as one of your four Adult Winter Reading selections, you will be entered into an extra drawing for prizes. Here are a few more book suggestions in a variety of genres, all of which can be found at Cooper-Siegel Community Library:

The Cider House Rules, by John Irving

The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro

One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Push, by Sapphire (film titled Precious)

The Reader, by Berhard Schlink

-Emily Miller

Librarian

Reference Dept.

#GivingTuesday

You've heard of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Now there's #GivingTuesday, a day for giving back this time of year. #GivingTuesday will take place on Tuesday, November 27th. On this day, you can donate to the library in various ways:

1. Go to our website at www.coopersiegelcommunitylibrary.org and click on the Support the Library tab. Select to donate a Gift Book by clicking on the link to the form or select the Donate Now link to send an undesignated donation.

2. Text GIVE WISDOM to 84465 to donate $10* to the library. Please designate if your donation should go to Cooper-Siegel Community Library or to Sharpsburg Community Library.
*Terms: mGive.org/T

3. Bring your donation to the library in person. We love to see our patrons!

 

Have to Read from a Required Summer Reading List? Download Free eBook Copies

If you're a student looking for summer required reading books, think about reading an eBook. There are plenty of free eBook versions of these summer reading books available and often you can access and download them immediately.

The library-provided Overdrive and EbscoHost services are available and free with your library card.  You can download them to your pc or eBook reader, and the books automatically return themselves so you can read them on vacation and not have to return them to the library.

Project Gutenberg (which contains public domain books) is a good choice for free downloads. PG offers most of its books as free Kindle books, as well as in the ePub format. (You can download free Kindle books directly to your Kindle by pointing your Kindle browser to m.gutenberg.org). It also has a useful guide to downloading books from this site.

Epubbooks offers Kindle and ePub books available as free downloads. iBookNook has these downloads also and currently on the site is a recent post that lists 50 classic books that are available to download.

Amazon has free Kindle books that may be on your reading list, and Barnes and Noble ran a promotion for a while for free “classic” eBooks but this has apparently ended.

Google offers free eBooks although they don't organize the free ones as a browsable group. Many classic books are offered for free.

I've included this link to free eBooks for Nook, and this link to free eBooks for Kindle (includes information on a free way to convert eBook files to Kindle) as additional resources.

If you only find a book in PDF format and have a real desire to read the book in the ePub format (here’s an article on the advantages of reading an eBook in the ePub format) for $23.95 you can download a PDF to ePub converter.

We'll be happy to help you. If you need help finding or downloading free eBooks, contact the library reference department at 412-828-9520 ext. 215 or send an email to coopersiegelref@einetwork.net

Finding Good Homes For Your Electronic Stuff This Spring

The Cooper-Siegel Community Library is looking for donations of e-readers such as Nooks, Kindles, etc..  If you are considering discarding your e-readers, we would love to use them in our classes to train our library patrons how to use these devices. 

If you're getting rid of old cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, GPS units, laptops and handheld gaming devices during spring cleaning, the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium are looking for your help in saving endangered animals.  They are currently holding a recycling drive here at the library, and you can find the collection box at the front of the library.  The Zoo and Aquarium will receive funds from Eco-Cell to help endangered species. 100% of the funds raised will be donated to several different conservation organizations that the Zoo is involved with including: The International Snow Leopard Trust, Painted Dog Conservation and Polar Bears International.

If you donate items for the Zoo and Aquarium drive, you can enter a drawing for free admission.  Ask for raffle entries at the circulation desk at the front of the library.

More about the Barnes & Noble bookfair

The library's fundraiser through Barnes & Noble has been extended to online shopping as well. Go to http://www.bn.com/ between November 26th and December 3rd to shop online. Please enter our bookfair ID which is 10269447 when making your online purchase and we will earn a portion of your sales. Thank you in advance for your support!