eBranch Blog

September 28, 2007

Fun Website for Agatha Christie Fans

Fans of Agatha Christie will enjoy The Official Agatha Christie Website. This highly interactive site is packed with information on Agatha Christie's life and writing. It also includes games, discussion boards and other fun extras.

Mystery lovers will enjoy these film adaptations of Agatha Christie's stories:

The ABC Murders
Belgium sleuth Hercule Poirot untangles a baffling mystery of a murderer who announces his next victims through a series of letters each addressed to the the detective himself.

And Then There Were None
Ten strangers are invited as weekend guests to a mansion on a remote island where, one by one, they are murdered.

4:50 from Paddington
Miss Marple is on her way to visit a friend, Elspeth McGillicuddy, when she witnesses a strangling on a passing train.

Death on the Nile
Set amidst the Egyptian landscape, Hercule Poirot must unravel the web of treachery and guilt woven by the murderer of a beautiful young heiress.

Evil Under the Sun
An opulent beach resort is the setting as Hercules Poirot attempts to unravel the murder of an actress everyone has reason to hate.

September 20, 2007

Fantasy Author, Robert Jordan has Died

Author Robert Jordan, whose bestselling "Wheel of Time" series sold millions of copies, died Monday, September 17 of a rare blood disease. He was 58.

2007 Quill Awards Announced

Don't forget to vote for your favorite book for the 2007 Quill Book of the Year! The Quill Award winners are chosen by a board of librarians and booksellers, but you, the reader, get to choose the Book of the Year. Voting closes on October 10th. Check out these great titles at your library:

Debut Author Of The Year
Diane Setterfield. The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
A compelling emotional mystery about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling. A dying writer bids a young bookshop assistant to write her biography.

General Fiction
Cormac McCarthy. The Road
America is a barren landscape of smoldering ashes, devoid of life except for those people still struggling to scratch out some type of existence. Amidst the destruction, a father and his young son walk, always toward the coast, but with no real understanding that circumstances will improve once they arrive. Still they persevere, and their relationship comes to represent goodness in a world that is utterly devastated.

Romance
Nora Roberts. Angels Fall
A woman witnesses a murder on a remote mountain, but only one man, and killer, believe her.

Audio
Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird
Scout Finch, daughter of the town lawyer Atticus, has just started school; but her carefree days come to an end when a black man in town is accused of raping a white woman, and her father is the only man willing to defend him.

Religion/Spirituality
Stephen Prothero. Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't
A religious primer serves as an argument for why the author believes that religion should become a mandatory subject in American public schools, contending that most Americans are not able to identify basic tenets of their faith.

Graphic Novel
Scott McCloud. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
In a voice that mixes dry humor and clear, concise instruction, McCloud's cartoon narrator shows readers how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalist way. Comic book devotees as well as the most uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once-underappreciated art form.

Poetry
Kevin Young. For the Confederate Dead
For the Confederate Dead finds Young, more than ever before, in a poetic space that is at once public and personal. In this surprising book, the poet manages to do a bit of both, embracing the contradictions of our "Confederate" legacy and the troubled nation where that legacy still lingers.

Cooking
Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker. Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition
"Best loved and brand new"--Cover.
"500 new recipes, 4000 of the most beloved Joy classics retested and updated, 4500 recipes for the way we cook now"--Cover.

Health/Self-Improvement
Jerome Groopman, M.D. How Doctors Think
A New Yorker staff writer, bestselling author, and professor at Harvard Medical School unravels the mystery of how doctors figure out the best treatments--or fail to do so. This book describes the warning signs of flawed medical thinking and offers intelligent questions patients can ask.

Biography/Memoir
Walter Isaacson. Einstein: His Life and Universe
A narrative portrait based on the complete body of Einstein's papers offers insight into his contributions to science, in an account that describes the influence of his discoveries on his personal views about morality, politics, and tolerance.

Sports
Michael Weinreb. The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team
At Brooklyn's prestigious Edward R. Murrow High School, the closest thing to jocks are found on the powerhouse chess team. Weinreb follows the members of the team through an entire season, capturing their eclectic differences as they prepare for the national championship.

Humor
Amy Sedaris. I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence
Are you lacking direction in how to whip up a swanky soiree for lumberjacks? A dinner party for white-collar workers? A festive gathering for the grieving? Don't despair.Take a cue from entertaining expert Amy Sedaris and host an unforgettable fete that will have your guests raving. No matter the style or size of the gathering -- from the straightforward to the bizarre -- I LIKE YOU provides jackpot recipes and solid advice laced with Amy's blisteringly funny take on entertaining. You don't even need to be a host or hostess to benefit -- Amy offers tips for guests, too!

History/Current Events/Politics
Al Gore. The Assault on Reason
Al Gore explains politics and why the American people need to be more aware of what is happening in the government.

Business
Robert I. Sutton, PhD. The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
Sutton uses in-depth research and analysis to show how managers can eliminate mean-spirited and unproductive behavior (while positively channeling some of the virtues of problem employees) to generate a newly productive workplace.

Mystery/Suspense
Laura Lippman. What the Dead Know
A 30-year-old missing persons case becomes more mysterious when a woman, claiming to be one of a pair of missing sisters, suddenly reappears.

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
Patrick Rothfuss. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One)
This powerful debut novel follows the story of Kvothe, the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.

Children's Picture Books
David Wiesner. Flotsam
The story of what happens when a camera becomes a piece of flotsam.

Children's Chapter/Middle Grade
Brian Selznick. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
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.

Young Adult/Teen
Patricia McCormick. Sold
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape.

September 19, 2007

September Teen Newsletter

The September/October 2007 issue of the Teen Newsletter is now available!

The Teen Newsletter is produced every other month and features news about Harris County Public Library young adult programming. It also contains interviews with our Young Adult Staff and new young adult materials that we have just added to our collection.

This issue features Teen Read Week. Celebrated the week of October 14-20, this year's theme is LOL @ your Library.

The staff interview in this issue is with Jeff Coyle of the Kingwood Branch Library. He is the Assistant Branch Librarian but also does the Young Adult programming for the branch.

September 13, 2007

Get Email Notices from HCPL

Why wait for the US Mail? You can add an email address to your HCPL account and receive email notifications when your requested items are available. We will even send you a notice that your checked out items are about to be due.

There are two ways to add an email address to your account. You can call or visit your local branch, or add it through My Account. Just log in, click Profile, add your email address, and click Update.

Note: It takes a few days for email notifications to take effect. To learn more about email notifications, go to our help page: http://www.hcpl.net/help/emailnotifcation.htm.

September 12, 2007

Vote for The Quill 2007 Book of the Year

The 2007 Quill Book Awards nominees for Book of the Year have been announced. The Quills are the only televised awards for literary works. Vote for your favorite books with your fellow readers! Learn about The Quills at http://www.thequills.org/. To view the Quill nominees and to vote, click here.

September 10, 2007

Author, Madeleine L'Engle has Died

Author, Madeleine L'Engle died on Thursday, September 6, 2007 in Litchfield, Conn. She was 88. L'Engle was best known as the author of A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963.

A Wrinkle in Time
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

September 05, 2007

2007 Hugo Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2007 Hugo Awards were announced this weekend at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan. Some of the winners are as follows:

Best Novel
Vernor Vinge. Rainbows End.
An Alzheimer's patient recovers his faculties through a cure developed during his decline. He discovers, however, that the world and his place in it have changed. He must now learn to cope with the digital world as well as the real while combating a vast conspiracy of world domination through technology.

Best Related Non-Fiction Book
Julie Phillips. James Tiptree, Jr. : The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Tiptree burst onto the science fiction scene in the 1970s with a series of hard-edged, provocative short stories. Then the cover was blown: the author was actually a 61-year-old woman named Alice Sheldon--world traveler, debutante, chicken farmer, CIA agent, and experimental psychologist. This fascinating biography is based on full access to her papers.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Pan's Labyrinth
When young Ofelia and her mother go to live with her new stepfather on a rural military outpost, she finds herself in a world of unimaginable cruelty. Soon Ofelia finds the creatures of her imagination in which she used to escape have become a reality and she must battle them to save both her mother and herself. In the terrifying battle that ensues, Ofelia soon learns that innocence has a power that evil cannot imagine.

For full awards listings , see the Hugo Awards website.

September 04, 2007

Super Why! Story Times at HCPL

Harris County Public Library announces the newest program in our continuing partnership with HoustonPBS, Channel 8. To celebrate the launch of the new Super WHY! Series (Weekdays at 8 am on Channel 8) all of our branches will present special Super WHY! storytimes between September 10 ? 15. Check with your neighborhood library for their time and date. Go to www.pbskids.org/superwhy to learn more about Whyatt and the other Super Readers. So far ten episodes have been announced and there are printable activity sheets and lesson plans on the website to encourage early readers and enrich the Super WHY! experience. Enjoy!

Over 100,000 Participate in HCPL Kid's and Teen's Summer Reading Program

Harris County Public Library young readers had an extremely busy and exciting summer. For the first time more than 100,000 children and teens (103,713 to be exact!) participated in our Summer Reading Program activities. Younger children?s programming followed the Sail Away with Books theme sponsored by the Texas State Library and Archive Commission?s Texas Reading Club. Teen programs had their own theme, Read TV. The number of readers completing the requirement to be awarded a certificate was also up this year. After registering and reporting completion of a minimum of ten books, 500 pages, or five hours 11,222 young readers were recognized for their achievement. Many went on to read even more books over the summer with branches sharing that some readers passed the 100 books or equivalent mark. Library program attendance increased as well with the 26 branches and the eBranch presenting 2,815 special programs and storytimes for 78,266 children and teens.

A big thank you goes out to the 2007 Summer Reading Program Supporters: Comcast, Randall?s Food Markets, the Simmons Foundation and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Without their assistance in publicizing, promoting, and implementing our activities we would certainly not have been able to reach as many young people this summer. Be sure to view the slide show to get a sample of the good times that were had.

Library staff members jumped on the chance to have fun this summer. The branches and administrative offices got into the spirit with All Decked Out Day in June, Harry Potter activities in July, and Aloha Summer Week in August. Congratulations to Summer Reading Program Coordinator Monique Franklin, the Variety Show Committee, and the Teen Summer Reading Planning Committee for their hard work in ensuring a memorable summer. Two weeks after the close of Summer Reading 2007 we are already starting the planning for next year. We hope that many children and teens have learned that their neighborhood branch of Harris County Public Library offers them so much more than a resource for their school assignments. The Library is a year round destination for information and fun.