Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Author Jeffrey Zaslow (1958-2012)

Jeffrey Zaslow, an award winning American author, journalist and columnist, died Feb. 10, 2012 in a car accident in northern Michigan. Returning from a book signing event, he lost control of his car on a snow covered road and was hit by a tractor-trailer. He was 53 years old. He is survived by his wife and three daughters. Zaslow also co-authored best-selling books with Randy Pausch, Gabrielle Giffords, and Captain Chesley Sullenberger.There is an article by Tara Parker-Pope in the print edition of the New York Times, today, February 14, 2012, "Life's Frailty, and the Gestures that go a long way" in which she remembers her friend Jeffrey Zaslow and the important lessons he taught her.

The Last Lecture. By Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow. 2008.

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.
The Magic Room: A Story about the Love we wish for our Daughters. By Jeffrey Zaslow. 2012.

The New York Times bestselling journalist and author of The Girls from Ames , Jeffrey Zaslow, takes us to a multi-generational family owned small-town bridal shop called "Becker's. Run by the same family for years, Becker's has witnessed transformations in how America views the institution of marriage; some of the shop's clientele are becoming stepmothers, or starting married life for a second time.


Highest Duty. My Search for What Really Matters. By Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger with Jeffrey Zaslow. 2009.

On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed one of the most remarkable emergency landings in aviation history when Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger skillfully glided US Airways Flight 1549 onto the surface of the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 aboard. HIGHEST DUTY reveals the important lessons Sully learned through childhood, in his military service, and in his work as a commercial airline pilot. A few weeks after the crash, Sully discovered that he had lost a library book about professional ethics, Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability, in the downed planes cargo hold. When he called the library to notify them, they waived the usual fees. Mayor Michael Bloomberg replaced the book when he gave Sully the Key to the City in a New York ceremony.

Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope. By Gabrielle Giffords & Mark Kelly. With Jeffrey Zaslow. 2011.

As individuals, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, showed Americans how optimism, an adventurous spirit, and a call to service can help change the world. As a couple, they became a national example of the healing power to be found in deeply shared love and courage. Their arrival in the world spotlight came under the worst of circumstances. On January 8, 2011, while meeting with her constituents in Tucson, Arizona, Gabby was the victim of an assassination attempt that left six people dead and thirteen wounded. Gabby was shot in the head; doctors called her survival "miraculous." As the nation grieved and sought to understand the attack, Gabby remained in private, focused on her against-all-odds recovery. Mark spent every possible moment by her side, as he also prepared for his final mission as commander of space shuttle Endeavour. Now, as Gabby's health continues to improve, the couple is sharing their remarkable untold story.

The Girls from Ames. A story of women and a forty-year friendship. By Jeffrey Zaslow. 2009.

From the co-author of the bestselling "The Last Lecture" comes a moving tribute to female friendships, with the inspiring story of 11 girls and the women they became.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday February 12

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States from March 4, 1861 to April 15, 1865. He was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. He died, only 56 years old, on April 15, 1865 in Washington, D.C.

Click here for books and other materials on Abraham Lincoln in our library collection divided by subject headings. Explore an online daily account of Abraham Lincoln's life. Other interesting websites on Abraham Lincoln can be found here.

New York Times Topics - Abraham Lincoln



Lincoln's house in Springfield, Illinois, in Winter.

February - Black History Month

Celebrating Black History began in 1926, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard Ph.D., initiated "Negro History Week." Dr. Woodson, a historian, chose the second week in February because it included the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, the Bicentennial (200th birthday) of the United States of America, the week-long observance was extended to the entire month of February in order to have enough time for celebratory programs and activities. Please see our book display in honor of Black History Month in front of the main staircase.




Resource links from iconn.org (provided by Connecticut State Library)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Charles Dickens - 200th Birthday!

Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago, on Feb. 7, 1812.
When you come to the library this week, check out our display, or
click on these links to our online catalog to see what we have to offer on Charles Dickens.



Dickens 2012 (international events)

Charles Dickens Exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan


The Museum of London has created a free ipad and iphone app which takes users on a journey through the darker side of Charles Dickens' London.






Friday, February 3, 2012

And the Oscars go to ... books!


The 84th annual Academy Awards Ceremony will honor the best films of 2011. It will take place on Sunday, February, 26, 2012 at the Kodak Theatre in the heart of historic Hollywood, California. But the real winners this year are books! Eleven literary adaptations received recognition in major award categories. Six out of the nine best picture nominations are based on books. Cinema depends on literature, on the written word. Woody Allen's original screenplay for "Midnight in Paris" is a love declaration for the literary world of T.S. Eliot, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

Don't just see the movies, read the books! Click on the book title for a link to our catalog, the statewide catalog, or worldcat.org.


Moneyball: the Art of Winning an Unfair Game. By Michael Lewis. (This author also wrote the source for the movie Blind Side)

"Explains how Billy Beene, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, is using a new kind of thinking to build a successful and winning baseball team without spending enormous sums of money."



My Week with Marilyn. By Colin Clark.

"Presents the author's diary accounts of the week he, an assistant on the set of the movie "The Prince and the Showgirl," bonded with Marilyn Monroe after she escaped the high-pressure set and toured the English countryside with him."



War Horse. By Michael Morpurgo.


"Joey the horse recalls his experiences growing up on an English farm, his struggle for survival as a cavalry horse during World War I, and his reunion with his beloved master."


Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. By John Le Carré.

"Who is the mole buried within British intelligence, planted by Karla in Moscow years ago? George Smiley is back, in the first novel of The quest for Karla trilogy."




Albert Nobbs: a novella. By George Moore.

"Long out of print, George Moore's classic novella returns just in time for the major motion picture starring Glenn Close as a woman disguised as a man in nineteenth-century Ireland."



Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. By Jonathan Safran Foer.


"Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old son of a man killed in the World Trade Center attacks, searches the five boroughs of New York City for a lock that fits a black key his father left behind."


The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher. By John Campbell.

"Traces the life of Britain's only female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, from her upbringing in Grantham to her unexpected challenge to Edward Heath for leadership of the Conservative party and her eventual removal from power."
The Descendants. By Kaui Hart Hemmings.

"A descendant of royalty and one of the largest landowners in Hawaii, Matthew King struggles to deal with his out-of-control daughters--ten-year-old Scottie and seventeen-year-old Alex--as well as his comatose wife, whom they are about to remove from life
support."

The Invention of Hugo Cabaret: a novel in words and pictures. By Brian Selznick.

"When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized."



The Help. By Kathryn Stockett.

"In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another."




The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. By Stieg Larsson.

"Forty years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family, her octogenarian uncle hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional young hacker, to investigate."














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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Edith Wharton was born 150 years ago

Edith Wharton was born 150 years ago, on January 24, 1862 in New York City. She died August 11, 1937, at age 75 in France. She was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Her novel THE AGE OF INNOCENCE won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. She became the first woman to win the award.  

Edith Wharton in our collection  (books, CDs, DVDs, audiobooks, etc.)

The Mount - Edith Wharton's estate and gardens in Lenox, Massachusetts, designed by her 

Edith Wharton Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT


Edith Wharton - New York Times Topics

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Eva Zeisel dies at 105

Eva Zeisel, a ceramic artist, died December 30, 2011 in New York City, N.Y. at age 105. She saw her work as a "playful search for beauty". She was born in Budapest on November 13, 1906. Her maiden name was Eva Amalia Striker. An aunt's Hungarian peasant pottery collection inspired her to become a ceramist. In 1925 she visited Paris. In 1930 she moved to Berlin. In 1932 she visited the Ukraine. By 1935 she was working in Moscow, but was arrested in 1936, falsely accused by a colleague. She was imprisoned for 16 months. A friend, Arthur Koestler, drew upon her experience in writing his 1941 novel DARKNESS AT NOON. She was released without explanation in 1937 and went to Vienna. In 1938, upon the Nazi's arrival in Austria, she escaped to Britain. In London she was reunited with Hans Zeisel, a lawyer and sociologist whom she had met in Berlin. They married and then emigrated to the United States soon after. During her second day in New York, she went to the public library to look up addresses of trade publications. In 1939 she began teaching ceramics as industrial design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She left her teaching position in 1954 and then designed collections of ceramics, glass and metal, including rugs, furniture and lighting fixtures. Her book "Eval Zeisel on Design" was published in 2004. She remained active almost until the end of her life. Eva Zeisel is survived by a daughter and a son and three grandchildren. Her husband, Hans Zeisel, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, died in 1992. For more information on Eva Zeisel, check out:
Pictures of Eva Zeisel and her designs (outside link)






Tuesday, January 10, 2012

New Nonfiction Books in the 600s

We have updated our LIFESTYLES bookletter. See what is new in fitness, health, cooking! Find inspiration, ideas, and information.