eBranch Blog

February 28, 2007

Press Release: eAudio Books for the Whole Family

Houston, TX ? March 1, 2007 ? Is your family planning a trip for Spring Break? Check out the new Family Listening collection of downloadable audio books and music available from Harris County Public Library. The Family Listening collection includes titles that appeal to both parents and kids.

Atascocita resident Melissa Chen has been using downloadable audio from Harris County Public Library since November, 2006. ?I love it because I do not need to step a foot out of my door to check anything out, the catalog is easy to search and view and it only takes a few minutes to download. I don?t have to worry about items being overdue since they automatically return in two weeks. Great convenience!? Chen said she is looking forward to taking a car trip during spring break when the whole family can listen to the same book.

Residents all over Harris County are discovering the ease of using downloadable audio from Harris County Public Library. Libby Reynolds is a customer at the Katherine Tyra @ Bear Creek Branch Library. ?Instead of dreading my commute to and from work each day, I now look forward to listening to the next chapter of my audio book. I don?t leave my house without a travel mug of coffee and my newly downloaded audio book.?

With over 3,200 titles to choose from, the HCPL Digital Media Catalog at Harris County Public Library is a free and easy way to take your book with you anywhere you go!

79th Annual Academy Award Winners

The 2006 Academy Award winners were announced Sunday, February 25. Nominees are listed below for the major awards; winners are indicated with an *. Check out previous winners for Motion Picture, Documentary Feature, Foreign Language Film, and Animated Feature.

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Nominees
Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond (In Theaters)
Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson (In Theaters)
Peter O?Toole in Venus (In Theaters)
Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness (In Theaters) - Read the Book
* Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland (In Theaters) - Read the Book

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Nominees
Pen?lope Cruz in Volver (In Theaters)
Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal (In Theaters) - Read the Book
* Helen Mirren in The Queen (In Theaters)
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada - Read the Book
Kate Winslet in Little Children (In Theaters) - Read the Book

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Nominees
* Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children (In Theaters) - Read the Book
Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond (In Theaters)
Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls (In Theaters)
Mark Wahlberg in The Departed

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Nominees
Adriana Barraza in Babel
Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal (In Theaters) - Read the Book
Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine
* Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (In Theaters)
Rinko Kikuchi in Babel

Achievement in Directing Nominees
Babel - Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rritu (In Theaters)
* The Departed - Martin Scorsese
Letters from Iwo Jima - Clint Eastwood (In Theaters)
The Queen - Stephen Frears (In Theaters)
United 93 - Paul Greengrass

Best Motion Picture of the Year Nominees
Babel
* The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima (In Theaters)
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen (In Theaters)

Best Animated Feature of the Year Nominees
Cars
* Happy Feet (In Theaters)
Monster House

Best Documentary Feature Nominees
Deliver Us from Evil
* An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Nominees
After the Wedding (Denmark)
Days of Glory (Indig?nes) (Algeria)
* The Lives of Others (Germany)
Pan?s Labyrinth (Mexico) (In Theaters)
Water (Canada)

New Bestsellers 2/26/07

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.

We are currently transitioning several of our bestseller lists to Newsletter format including New York Times Fiction and Nonfiction, Publisher's Weekly Fiction and Nonfiction and USA Today. Others may be transitioned to this format as well. Through this format you can subscribe to the lists by email or RSS feed.

E = Essence Magazine
NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
* = Titles that have previously appeared on the bestseller lists but are new to our catalog.

Fiction

Barbara Delinsky. Family Tree (NYT #12, PW #14)

Lisa Jackson. Most Likely to Die (USA #12)

Sherilyn Kenyon. The Dream Hunter (USA #11)

Robert B. Parker. High Profile (NYT #4, PW #3)

James Patterson. Step on a Crack (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #2)

Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Natural Born Charmer (NYT #3, PW #4)

Nora Roberts. Irish Dreams (USA #8)

Nonfiction

Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Infidel (PW #14)

Barak Obama. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (USA #15)

February 22, 2007

HCPL Librarian, Victor Schill appointed to Newbery Committee

Victor Schill, Assistant Branch/Children?s Librarian at Fairbanks Branch Library, has been appointed to the American Library Association, Association for Library Service to Children?s John Newbery Award Committee. This is without question one of the highest honors a children?s librarian can receive and Victor is particularly deserving. He has served tirelessly on a variety of committees for both the Texas Library Association and the American Library Association which have prepared him well for this ultimate of assignments. Over the next year the Newbery Committee will consider the best of over 5000 children?s trade books published annually. Their selection(s) will be announced at ALA Midwinter in January, 2008 in Philadelphia. The award presentation will be at ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim in June, 2008.

Victor Schill was featured in the August/September 2006 issue of the HCPL Kids Newsletter.

February 14, 2007

New Bestsellers 2/12/07

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.

Publisher's Weekly Audio Fiction & Nonfiction lists have been updated for January 29, 2007.

E = Essence Magazine
NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
* = Titles that have previously appeared on the bestseller lists but are new to our catalog.

Fiction

Steve Berry. The Alexandria Link
Too bad former secret agent Cotton Malone knows how to unearth the lost contents of the Library of Alexandria; now his bookstore has been ransacked and his son kidnapped. (NYT #3, PW #4)

Lincoln Child. Deep Storm
In his major new suspense story, Lincoln Child takes readers to a top-secret laboratory 12,000 feet beneath the icy Atlantic and into the search for the greatest--and most deadly--archeological find in history. (NYT #7, PW #6)

Lisa Gardner. Hide
Ex-sniper Bobby Dodge, from Gardner's "New York Times" bestseller "Alone," returns in this thriller about a woman who is thrust into the center of a 20-year-old crime with terrifying repercussions. (NYT #9, PW #8)

Stephanie Laurens. What Price Love?
The internationally bestselling author continues her extraordinary success with this lushly romantic new tale featuring the wildly poplar Cynsters. (USA #15)

Timothy Zahn. Star Wars: Allegiance
Following the events in Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa face the harsh realities of the conflict they have entered. (PW #7)

Nonfiction

LL Cool J. LL Cool J's Platinum Workout
The multitalented, ultrafit hip-hop star LL Cool J shares his personal workout regimen in a revolutionary new program that promises to help anyone build muscle and burn fat en route to six-pack abs. (PW #12)

Michael Oren. Power, Faith, and Fantasy
The history of America's political, military, and intellectual involvement in the Middle East from George Washington to George W. Bush. (PW #15)

DEATH BY BLACK HOLE, by Neil deGrasse Tyson. (Norton, $24.95.) A collection of essays about the evolution of the universe, many of which first appeared in Natural History magazine, by an astrophysicist who directs the Hayden Planetarium. (NYT #14)

February 08, 2007

New Bestsellers 2/5/07

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.

E = Essence Magazine
NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
* = Titles that have previously appeared on the bestseller lists but are new to our catalog.

Fiction

Bernard Cornwell. Lords of the North
The third volume of the Saxon Chronicles: the story of the birth of England as the Saxons struggle to repel Danish invaders. (NYT #15, PW #13)

Jayne Ann Krentz. White Lies
Clare Lancaster is a level 10 para-sensitive and "human lie detector." She met her half-sister and a family she didn't know seven months ago and is now not sure that was the best idea. When her father summons her to California to be part of his business empire, she meets Jake Salter, his "financial consultant." They must overcome their mutual distrust to unravel a web of conspiracy and murder. (NYT #4, PW #3)

Norman Mailer. The Castle in the Forest
Using an SS man as narrator, Mailer explores the life of Adolf Hitler. (NYT #5, PW #9)

Nonfiction

FINAL EXAM, by Pauline W. Chen. (Knopf, $23.95.) A surgeon reflects on her experience with dying patients. (NYT #16)

Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter. What Got You Here Won't Get You There
An executive coach shows how to get to the top. (PW #15)

SUPREME CONFLICT, by Jan Crawford Greenburg. (Penguin Press, $27.95.) The ABC correspondent argues that President Bush has succeeded in moving the Supreme Court decisively to the right. (NYT #15)

Terry McAuliffe with Steve Kettmann. What a Party!
Memoir of one of the Democratic party fundraiser and former chairman of the Democratic National Party. (NYT #5, PW #13)

Sidney Poitier. The Measure of a Man
Poitier a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. (USA #6)

NYT Business

Ken Fisher with Jennifer Chou and Lara Hoffmans. The Only Three Questions that Count
The first book to show you how to think about investing for yourself and develop innovative ways to understand and profit from the markets. (#14)

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. The Carrot Principle
Based on an extensive management study, the bestselling authors of "A Carrot a Day" and "The 24-Carrot Manager" show how great managers use constructive praise and recognition to motivate their workforces. (#17)

Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Made to Stick
Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the "human scale principle," using the "Velcro Theory of Memory," and creating "curiosity gaps." (#13)

Rodd Wagner and James Harter. 12: The Elements of Great Managing
The long-awaited sequel to "First, Break All the Rules." Grounded in Gallup's 10 million employee and manager interviews spanning 114 countries, "12 "follows great managers as they harness employee engagement to turn around a failing call center, save a struggling hotel, improve patient care in a hospital, maintain production through power outages, and successfully face a host of other challenges in settings around the world." (#16)

February 05, 2007

Ghost Fever by Joe Hayes wins Texas Bluebonnet Award

Joe Hayes, author of Ghost Fever/Mal de fantasma has won the Texas Bluebonnet Award for 2006-07.

This year, almost 170,000 youngsters from across the State voted for the award. Ghost Fever received 23,580 votes to win. It is the first time that an author of a dual language book has received this award.

Joe Hayes. Ghost Fever/Mal de fantasma
In the 1950s, fourteen-year-old Elena Padilla and her father move into a haunted house in Duston, Arizona, where only Elena can see and help the ghost of the young girl who died there.

February 01, 2007

New Titles Cataloged in Past 30 Days - Updated

We are proud to introduce a new format to the popular new titles lists. Formerly, we had three pages - Audio, Movies, and Books. This has been improved by dividing the titles into 12 different lists by format and age level. With this improvement, all titles link properly and by popular demand authors/artists are included, when available. The lists are in PDF file format and require the free Adobe Reader to view. We hope you enjoy the new format. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this change please use our Feedback Form.

New Titles Cataloged in the Past 30 Days