Join Us for the Library's All-Terrain 5k FUNdraiser!

Have you ever wondered what the Shady Side Academy campus looks like beyond those imposing brick pillars? Well, now's your chance to find out. Sign up to run or walk in the 2nd Annual Cooper-Siegel Community Library All-Terrain 5k on November 8th. The race starts at 9:30 a.m. right in the middle of the campus. Runners and walkers will then wind their way through the campus streets, onto the athletic fields and back to the middle of the campus.

Not only will you get a behind the scenes look at Shady Side's beautiful

campus, but you'll also help to raise much-needed funds for the library. Sounds like a win-win to me!

                                                     

Artwork in the Library: Fritz Keck

If you've stopped by the Library lately, you may have noticed some new artwork gracing our walls.  You can find these new additions outside of the Wean Family Group Study Room and next to the rear double doors leading out to the Welcome Garden.

 

These prints are from a series of oil paintings  of "distinctive vintage Pittsburgh scenes" by hometown native Fritz Keck.

Fritz is a recent retiree who grew up in Edgewood but now lives in Harmar Township after many years away.  He has partnered with Cooper-Siegel to allow our patrons to view his unique vision of days gone by.  Using old black and white photos on loan from the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum and the Senator John Heinz History Center, Fritz enlivens them with a rich color pallet and distinctive brush strokes.

These prints will be on display in the Library for several months and a catalog of prints as well as original paintings are available to be ordered from Fritz.  For more information, visit or call the Reference Desk at 412-828-9520 ext 215.  A portion of the proceeds from any print on display that is purchased will go to Cooper-Siegel Community Library.  For further reading on Fritz and his art, check out the article "Past Life: The Artistry of Fritz Keck" in the Summer 2014 issue of Shady Ave Magazine.

Smile While You Shop

Did you know that you can donate to the library every time you shop on Amazon? Just go to smile.amazon.com, sign in using your Amazon account information and type Community Library Association as the charity you want to support. Once you've done that, the library will receive .5% of all of your purchases you make through the smile.amazon.com website.

You can even go one step further and post your purchase on your Facebook page telling all your friends how they can help support the library, too!

So, remember to Smile while you shop at Amazon :)

Winter Reading Program 2014

Join Us for the Winter Reading Program

This winter, curl up with a good book (or three, or four), fill out our paper or online reading log, and be entered to win some fabulous prizes!

Stop by the Reference Desk to pick up the print log or go to our website, and log your books and submit reviews online.

Winter Reading will begin on January 4th and end on February 28th. 



Looking for some ideas on what to read?

Join fellow library patrons in reading January's book club selections:

Booked For Lunch

Friday, January 10th at 12:00 pm

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

Friday, February 14th at 12:00 pm

A Pale Horse by Charles Todd

Evening Book Discussion

Monday, January 20th at 7:00 pm

No ordinary time : Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt :
the home front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Monday, February 17th at 7:00 pm

White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse

Our Health, Our Stories Book Group

Wednesday January 15th at 7:00 pm

The River Ran Red: Homestead 1892 by David P. Demarest

ALT Reads

Thursday, January 16th at 8:00 pm at Panera Bread at The Waterworks

Lexicon by Max Barry

Thursday, February 20th at 8:00 pm at TBD

Fordlandia by Greg Grandin

Or choose from these books recommended by staff and professional reviews:

Fiction:

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Non-fiction:

Midnight in Peking by Paul French

Cooked by Michael Pollan

Revolutionary Summer
by Joseph J. Ellis

The Smartest Kids in
the World by Amanda Ripley

Mysteries:

Mystery Girl by David Gordon

How the Light Gets in by Louise Penny

Biographies:

In the Body of the World
by Eve Ensler

The World's Strongest Librarian
by Josh Hanagarne

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

London Falling by Paul Cornell

The Incrementalists
by Steven Brust and Skyler White

Happy Reading!

Gettysburg 150 at the Library

July 2013 is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and November 2013 is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. While you’re waiting for the Gettysburg 150 and Civil War events that Cooper-Siegel Community Library is holding in September, including a lecture by Andy Masich of the Heinz History Center and Tales of Gettysburg with Storyteller Alan Irvine, check out some of these books and learn more about these historic events:

The Gettysburg Campaign, June and July, 1863, by Albert A. Nofi

Guide to the Battle of Gettysburg, edited by Jay Luvaas and Harold W. Nelson

Gettysburg: “What They Did Here," by Luther W. Minnigh

Gettysburg: the Final Fury, by Bruce Catton

Gettysburg, by the editors of Time-Life Books

Lincoln at Gettysburg: the Words that Remade America, by Garry Wills

All of these selections and more can be found at Cooper-Siegel Community Library in the nonfiction section. Look in the call numbers starting with 973.

-Emily

Librarian

Reference Department

More Summer Reading Suggestions

Still looking for your next summer read? Check out these literary mysteries – more than a typical whodunit, these books feature complex characters, intriguing storylines, and rich language.

 

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield

The Alienist, by Caleb Carr

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: a Savannah Story, by John Berendt

In the Woods, by Tana French

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain Pears

Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane

Spade & Archer: the Prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, by Joe Gores

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

 

These books are another way to interpret this year’s theme: Beneath the Surface. As you read your books, please log your progress on the Library's summer reading website. Or, you may keep track of them on your paper log and return the completed log to a librarian at the Reference Desk.

 

- Emily Miller

Librarian

Reference Department

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.