Hayao Miyazaki's Best Loved Children's Books

MIYAZAKI'S SPIRITED AWAY (2001). Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1539868/1/144_1539868/cite. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

We can't help it - we're unashamed fangirls of the films of Hayao Miyazaki, as you can see from our past blog posts. So, when we found a list of Miyazaki's 50 favorite children's books, we were intrigued and wanted to share. There were some obvious ones - several "time-tested Western classics," and he made a movie based on The Borrowers, after all - and you can find a few of his choices namechecked in the documentary The Kingdom of Madness and Dreams. So, without further ado, we present to you the complete list of Miyazaki's favorite children's books, as available in the library catalog! We hope you find something you'd want to check out, or share with the children in your life, that will hopefully create a bit of  Miyazaki magic.

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson [eAudiobook]

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome 

The Flying Classroom by Erich Kästner

Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Eagle of The Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by  Lewis Carroll

The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling [eBook]

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The Hobbit by  J. R. R. Tolkien

Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en [eBook]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by  Jules Verne

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

The Little Humpbacked Horse by Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge [eAudiobook]

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

 

Happy Belated Birthday, Pema Chodron

Paper lotus flowers. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/300_260268/1/300_260268/cite. Accessed 29 Aug 2017.

Pema Chödrön, who was born on July 14, 1936, is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown and is a graduate of Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and the University of California at Berkeley. Pema worked as an elementary school teacher in California and New Mexico and is a mother and grandmother.

When Pema traveled to the French Alps, she met Lama Chime Rinpoche and began her Tibetan Buddhism studies. She began her novitiate as a nun in 1974 and when the Sixteenth Karmapa to England where she was studying, Pema was official ordained.

Pema's most profound and enlightening experiences as a student were with her teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, until his death in 1987. In 1984, Pema moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and became the director of Gampo Abbey and established a monastery for Western monks and nuns. Pema teaches in the United States and Canada and has recently completed an extended silent retreat.

Reading Pema Chödrön's books can help people from any faith perspective - or no faith at all, take responsibility for one's feelings, entrenched complexes, and cultivate a compassionate detachment from fear, self-absorption, and delusions. Her wisdom and clarity makes even the most challenging day possible to get through with some compassion and grace. I turn to Pema Chödrön for guidance and to see how a grown-up would handle any situation. Pema Chödrön isn't a perfect person, which she cheerfully owns up to by sharing her own experiences that anyone could relate to. What she holds out is the hope of trying again to get back onto the path when we are lead astray by our pride and expectations.

Always Maintain a Joyful Mind: And Other Lojong Teachings On Awakening Compassion and Fearlessness by Pema Chödrön 

Comfortable With Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion  by Pema Chödrön

Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better by Pema Chödrön

How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends With Your Mind  by Pema Chödrön

Living Beautifully With Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chödrön

The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation by Chögyam Trungpa

No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva by Pema Chödrön

Practicing Peace In Times of War by Pema Chödrön

Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chödrön

Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves From Old Habits and Fear by Pema Chödrön

Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving Kindness by Chögyam Trungpa

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön

The Wisdom of No Escape: and the Path of Loving-Kindness byPema Chödrön

What's Your Cleaning Personality?

Cleaning. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/132_1255602/1/132_1255602/cite. Accessed 29 Jul 2017.

Not to suggest that there are only three ways to clean, but we happened to be reading 3 housekeeping books recently (you can imagine what prompted our excursion through this subject) and were intrigued by their different takes on orderliness.

Do you just need to get organized?
If your house is clean but cluttered, try Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of  Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

KonMari (as the author is nicknamed in her native Japan) put this out as a follow-up to her bestselling The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. We almost feel she's mellowed - we don't remember any talk of a "gray zone" in the first book, or suggestions that you can save items for indoor cosplay, and a statement like "the act of discarding things on its own will never bring joy to your life" smacks faintly of blasphemy. Helpful, though, is her definition of  tidying up - "tidying up means confronting yourself" - as opposed to cleaning, which is "confronting nature." Spark Joy is definitely about tidying. How to place things, hang things, fold items (there's a lot of folding methods, who knew?) and pack drawers, suggestions for parting with and discarding items. KonMari does touch on different areas of the house, but it's all about how to store all the items you've kept because they spark joy.

Maybe you want to be more organized about cleaning.
Your house needs cleaning. You don't have time and you feel overwhelmed. How do you start? Maybe you'd like charts to help you stay on track. Perhaps you'd like to deep clean using less toxic cleaners that you can make yourself. You need Simply Clean: The Proven Method for Keeping Your Home Organized, Clean, and Beautiful in Just 10 Minutes a Day by Becky Rapinchuk.

We had heard of Becky Rapinchuk before, because people had shared some of her Clean Mama charts on Facebook. Simply Clean wants to be your cleaning bible. Rapinchuk offers a down-and-dirty take on establishing your cleanliness goals ("Just Start Somewhere: Every Day a Little Something") and puts you immediately on  a weekly cleaning schedule -Wednesday is vacuuming day, Thursday is floor washing day, etc. She recommends putting together "a cute cleaning caddy that makes you actually want to clean," suggests a 7-day kick start and a 28-day challenge for those who need a boost, and then moves into monthly and yearly cleaning schedules. There are checklists of tasks for you to fill in, recipes for cleaning products, and a section called "how to clean anything." She touches on organizing and decluttering, but her focus is cleaning, so expect to use elbow grease. Rapinchuk remains upbeat and down-to-earth in her presentation - you've got this! She did it, and so can you, in just 10 minutes a day.

You are a slob. You live with a slob. You need emergency action.
My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag...And Other Things You Can't Ask Martha by Jolie Kerr begins, "If you're here it means that you've got a cleaning disaster on your hands." You're not thinking about organizing - you have a mess on your hands. Maybe you don't even know how much of a mess!

We were first introduced to Jolie Kerr by her online column, "Ask a Clean Person." Kerr tackles the nitty-gritty of cleaning your kitchen, your bathroom, your laundry, your wedding regalia and gifts, your car, and "the things you really can't ask Martha (or Mom, for that matter)" - there really is advice for cleaning barf out of a purse, goo out of your pocket, and more intimate messes. You will learn how to clean your hairbrush, your hot rollers, your forced heat radiators, your greasy vent hood, your washer and dryer. You will learn how to tackle an assortment of stains using different methods (although the author admits she is obsessed with OxiClean). And throughout, Jolie Kerr will not mollycoddle you. The world is a a disgusting place, and there is mess everywhere. She is plain-spoken and reassuring ("Now, then, that wasn't too bad, was it? I bet you thought our discussion of bathroom cleaning would be far more scarring!") and not afraid to touch on the rude details - a mushroom could grow in your house, your laundry could mildew, you have to clean your pumice stone because you are rubbing it on your "gross feet," and that pee smell in your bathroom might be the floor or the walls around the toilet, particularly if you have men and children in the house. Less of the natural solutions to your cleaning dilemma, but touches on cleaning issues you've never heard of or might be embarrassed to discuss, many of them taken from real-life scenarios that she received letters about.

Which is closer to your cleaning personality? We got the information we were looking for (about carpet-cleaning) from Simply Clean, but now that we read My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag we will be cleaning our radiators. We're still working on tidying up.

A Vast Energy-Broth: Reading Lincoln in the Bardo

Everything was real; inconceivably real, infinitely dear. These and all things started as nothing, latent within a vast energy-broth, but then we named them, and loved them, and, in this way, brought them forth. And now we must lose them.
~George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo

We just finished listening to the audiobook of George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo. Seven hours and 166 voices! The magazine Wired says the audiobook "feels like a movie," and we really can't argue with that assessment, particularly as the readers include Susan Sarandon, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, Nick Offerman, and Megan Mullally. Author Colson Whitehead called the book "a luminous feat of generosity and humanism."

For those of you who haven't heard of George Saunders' first foray into novel-writing (he was previously known for short stories and essays, particularly the collection Tenth of December), Lincoln in the Bardo is the story of the one night during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, in the first year of the war and after the death of his son Willie, "his parents’ darling" - the Lincolns had four sons, but only one survived to adulthood - but the story is told primarily as an oral history by the residents of the graveyard in which Willie was temporarily interred, Georgetown's Oak Hill Cemetery. The term "bardo" refers to "the transitional state between life and death defined by Tibetan Buddhism." As Saunders was writing the book, he could see a statue of Lincoln from his office at Syracuse University - as he told GQ magazine, "He's in a meditative posture. He's sitting with his legs spread wide and looking down. I would wander out there to kind of remind myself that, you know, he was a real person and that he was a little inclined to depression. Almost like a gut check: ‘Okay, man, I'm still trying to do you justice.’ ”

The book dances between the stories told by residents of the afterworld and historical sources. Saunders cites over 39 sources just in the first 50 pages of the book - in fact, the term op. cit. is employed so many times in the audiobook, we were confused at first, being unfamiliar with that citation. However, not every source is the real deal, though all the quotes go a long way towards evoking Lincoln's era. In NPR's generally favorable review, author Maureen Corrigan takes him to task for his "postmodern" mix of real historical sources and imagined ones - "Throughout Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders intersperses chapters packed with quotes from historical sources. He gives citations for these historical sources and some are legit — like Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on Lincoln, for instance. But other sources are made up. All the historical passages are tossed together indiscriminately" - while Colson Whitehead argues "Are the nonfiction excerpts — from presidential historians, Lincoln biographers, Civil War chroniclers — real or fake? Who cares? Keep going, read the novel, Google later." What's your take on the issue?

A Washington Post review enthuses, "The quotations gathered from scores of different voices begin to cohere into a hypnotic conversation that moves with the mysterious undulations of a flock of birds."  Passages describing young Willie Lincoln are extremely specific and moving, describing his traits and habits (including blinking from under his bangs, baggy suit, and ceremonial salutes to his father's cabinet), convincing us at first that all the quotes were from real sources. Personally, we have to confess to a little sadness that some of the titles quoted do not exist - we wouldn't mind reading an anthology called White House Soirees, or even the somewhat maudlinly-titled The President's Little Men and Lincoln's Lost Angel, not to mention A Season of War and Loss and Long Road to Glory. But some of the titles quoted do exist, and Lincoln enthusiasts can find several of the books cited by Saunders or related books by the same authors in the library catalog:

Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House by Elizabeth Keckly

Lincoln, An Illustrated Biography by Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt; Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr. also co-authored Twenty Days with Dorothy Meserve Kundhardt 

Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington by Daniel Mark Epstein, author of The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage 

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Not cited by Saunders, but another fictional take on the era that may perhaps be of interest: The Murder of Willie Lincoln by Burt Solomon.

The following titles are not in the library catalog, but might be borrowed using Interlibrary Loan. Interlibrary Loan is a cooperative service among libraries for obtaining materials not available in our catalog. Items requested are located, ordered, and, if available for loan, shipped by mail to the branch library of your choice. Interlibrary Loan service is available to New Mexico residents with full accounts in good standing - simply submit a signed  Interlibrary Loan application form in person at any branch of the the Public Library Albuquerque/Bernalillo County.

Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year by David Von Drehle

Mr. Lincoln's Washington by Stanley Kimmel  

With Lincoln in the White House by John G. Nicolay, edited by Michael Burlingame 

Lincoln's Sons by Ruth Painter Randall 

"Tad Lincoln's Father" by Julia Taft Bayne [article] 

Reveille in Washington, 1860-1865 by Margaret Leech

Witness to the Young Republic: A Yankee's Journal, 1828-1870 by Benjamin Brown French, et al. 
 
If you don't want to visit any extra sources, you can still further immerse yourself in the world of Lincoln in the Bardo via virtual reality - experience the graveyard and its inhabitants with the New York Times VR app. But perhaps the novel on its own is enough, as it tussles over "great matters...freedom and slavery, the spirit and the body" while making Abraham Lincoln come alive, tender and tragic, amidst the boisterous shades.

 

Narrated by Bahni Turpin

The experience of absorbing audiobooks can be challenging for some modern listeners, Bahni feels. The heavy reliance on television for entertainment has led some to forget how to listen without a visual component. But she doesn't draw a line between acting and narration. Bahni reads each book before recording and makes notes about how each character should sound. "I like to give each one a characterization and really try to read the way I feel the text should be heard. I especially enjoy doing dialects."
~Jenan Jones Benson, "Talking With Bahni Turpin"

Bahni Turpin is an actress, an ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles whose movie roles have included Daughters of the Dust and who has guest starred in several television series including NYPD Blue, Law and Order, Six Feet Under, and Cold Case. The first audiobook she narrated was Cupcake Brown's A Piece of Cake - before she began her narrating career,  she had not been a fan of audiobooks, but now she "loves listening to women's stories as she tools around Los Angeles" and has narrated over 70 audiobooks. Her narration is "known for the depth of her character portrayals and her ability to set a scene, especially her skill at reflecting the tone of all she narrates," and she has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards for her work. Here's a sampling of the audiobooks she has narrated which are available in the library catalog:

Book on CD

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours: Stories by Helen Oyeyemi [with others]

The Help by Kathryn Stockett [with others]

Smek For President! by Adam Rex [J] 

Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes [J]

Back Channel by Stephen L. Carter 

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis [with others]

eAudiobook

Unbound: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg [J]

Hidden Figures: Young Readers' Edition by Margot Lee Shetterly 

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn 

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon [YA]

 

The Muse by Jessie Burton [with others]

 

My Spirit Took You In: The Romance That Sparked an Epidemic of Fear by Louise Troh 

 

'Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma [with others]

 

Pieces and Players by Blue Balliett [J]

 

Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk 

 

Untwine by Edwidge Danticat [YA]

Disgruntled by Asali Solomon

 

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

 

 

an ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series including NYPD Blue, Law and Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case - See more at: http://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/narrator/72264/bahni-turpin/#sthash.mop31Tk7.dpuf

Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angelesmost known for her roles in Cold Case and Without a Trace. The first audiobook she narrated was Cupcake Brown's A Piece of Cake. She had narrated books for both youth and adults, and is "known for the depth of her character portrayals and her ability to set a scene, especially her skill at reflecting the tone of all she narrates

Literary Links: Celebrity Book Recommendations

Are you looking for a good book? Authors, actors, musicians, businessmen, politicians...seems like everyone these days has a book they loved and want to share. We've collected a few lists for you below that we hope might match your interests and help you find your next great read. How'd we do? Let us know in the comments!

ENDURING LOVE (2004) - CRAIG, DANIEL. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1572936/1/144_1572936/cite. Accessed 18 Feb 2017.

Daniel Craig's favorite books? "...the Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman.  “They are fantastic children’s books. They’re about love and growing up and about how, as adults, we should see the world.” [Dish Nation]

Every Book Barack Obama Has Recommended During His Presidency [Entertainment Weekly]

Famous Favorites: Read the Books That Spurred Your Idols to Greatness [HuffPost]

21 Famous Authors and Their Favorite Books [Mental Floss]

10 Books Famous People Really Want You To Read [Cosmopolitan]

Stephen King's Reading List for Writers [Aerogramme Writers' Studio]
"As you scan this list, please remember that I’m not Oprah and this isn’t my book club." ~Stephen King

50 Cultural Icons On Their Favorite Books [Flavorwire]

25 Books Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Other Top CEOs Recommend [Inc]

The Greatest Books of All Time, As Voted by 125 Famous Authors [Brain Pickings]

The Libraries of Great Men: Theodore Roosevelt's Reading List [Art of Manliness]

20 Books Mark Zuckerberg Thinks Everyone Should Read [Business Insider]

Ta-Nehisi Coates' List of 13 Recommended Books [Open Culture]

My Favorite Books of 2016 by Bill Gates [Gates Notes]

John Cleese's 6 Favorite Books [The Week]

CONVENT, THE (1995) - MALKOVICH, JOHN. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1540273/1/144_1540273/cite. Accessed 18 Feb 2017.

John Malkovich's favorite book? Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. [Flavorwire]

Translation Matters: Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear

Over three decades of collaboration, Volokhonsky and Pevear have been alone together with Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and Tolstoy, and also with Bulgakov, Chekhov, Leskov, Pasternak, and Turgenev. In a now-famous story, they were brought to the public consciousness when Oprah picked their Penguin Classics translation of Anna Karenina for her book club. As they’ve often explained in interviews since then, their work happens in separate offices. First, Volokhonsky, a native speaker of Russian, produces a complete first draft. Then Pevear, whose spoken Russian is not fluent, revises the draft, working to reproduce the writer’s style coherently in English—'what the French call the language of arrival,' he says. This process is repeated as necessary, draft by draft. 'Translation is a craft that sometimes becomes an inspired craft,' Volokhonsky explains.
~Elina Alter, "Lost in Translation: Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky"

If you read enough books in translation, you start to realize that the translation (and the translators!) are really important. Sometimes, one book in a series will be translated by someone different, and the pacing or dialogue may seem off. People have read the same book translated by different people and preferred one version over another. In 2013, Buzzfeed writer Jason Diamond recommended "50 Works of Fiction in Translation That Every English Speaker Should Read" - if you're not already reading, say, Scandi noir or other translated literature, that list is a good place to start, as it specifies book and translator (Paste came out with a smaller, but more recent, list last year). If you're interested in reading about the process of translating, check out "The subtle art of translating foreign fiction." Lastly, if you think you might want to become a translator - there's a wikiHow for that!

The University of Rochester/Three Percent has presented the Best Translated Book Awards for fiction and poetry since 2007, if you want to find the cream of the translating crop, but for Russian-to-English, we usually recommend translations by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear, "lauded for restoring the idiosyncrasies of the originals—the page-long sentences and repetitions of Tolstoy, the cacophonous competing voices of Dostoevsky." Do you have a favorite translator for Russian literature? Let us know in the comments!

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Notes From a Dead House by Fyodor Dostoevsky  

The Double; and, The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky [eBook]

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky [eAudiobook] 

Selected Stories by Anton Chekhov 

Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak [Playaway & eAudiobook]

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy [eBook]

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy [eBook]

What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoy [eBook] 

Selected Stories by Anton Chekhov

 

Narrated by Tim Curry

MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND (1996) - CURRY, TIM. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1485300/1/144_1485300/cite. Accessed 28 Feb 2017.

Actor Tim Curry is one of our favorite audiobook narrators - he's wonderful with voices. His readings of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (he's read all but Book Three) have been called "sublime, the perfect marriage of material and performer and the only audiobook I’ve heard that manages to improve creatively on the print version," and his readings of Garth Nix and Stephen King have led to him being deemed " one of the best fantasy narrators."  In fact, his career as a narrator has been rife with accolades - in 2007, Publisher's Weekly named him Children's Narrator of the Year; Book Riot called his narrative style "expressive and on point" (and recommended listening to the audiobooks he narrates rather than reading the print book!); and no less than the New York Times Sunday Book Review claims Tim Curry was "born to have recorded Lemony Snicket’s sardonically melodramatic 'Series of Unfortunate Events.'" If you are looking for a well-read audiobook, particularly one to share with children, look no farther than the ones below!

Sabriel by Garth Nix [J]

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket [J]

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: Volumes 1, 2 and 3 by Stephen King 

Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean [J]

Portobello by Ruth Rendell [eAudiobook]
 

Grown Up Books for Adults Who Love YA Fiction

Are you an adult who once loved young adult fiction and are starting to get burnt out on it? Or maybe you still love young adult fiction but you want to expand your reading. Either way, I created this list of "grown up" books that pair nicely with young adult books, for anyone who wants to make the jump from young adult fiction to adult fiction or non-fiction, for any reason.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

Charles Manson and the events of August 9-10, 1969 will probably always fascinate people. In the past few years, a couple YA books have come out that are loosely based on Charles Manson, or that have characters who are fascinated by the Manson Girls (Family by Micol Ostow and American Girls by Alison Umminger).

 Columbine by Dave Cullen

Why: School shootings are a hot topic in YA fiction. Columbine is an excellent look at what happened and why. It's a great book to pair with This Is Where It Ends, Hate List, and Violent Ends: A Novel in Seventeen Points of View.
Hawkes Harbor by S.E. Hinton

Why: S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders, which is considered the first young adult book. Hawkes Harbor is a great book to read if you like vampires but have read everything the young adult genre has to offer. It's not a paranormal romance, though, so if you prefer your vampires with a side of romance, Hawkes Harbor might not be what you're looking for.

Christine by Stephen King

Why: Christine takes place during the main characters' teen years, which make it an easy way to jump from reading young adult fiction to adult fiction. It's also a beautifully haunting, and of course terrifying, story.


Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay

Why: Just like the I Hunt Killers trilogy by Barry Lyga, the Dexter series offers a different perspective on serial killers.

Books in this series (in order): Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, Dexter by Design, Dexter is Delicious, Double Dexter, Dexter's Final Cut, Dexter is Dead

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda


Why: Megan Miranda was a young adult author before she started writing adult fiction. All the Missing Girls is reminiscent of novels like Never Missing, Never Found, a YA mystery with plenty of twists and turns, just like All the Missing Girls. As a bonus, it's the first book in a series.

Books in this series (in order): All the Missing Girls, The Perfect Stranger

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Why: Stephanie Garber's YA debut, Caraval, has been pitched as The Hunger Games meets The Night Circus. Both feature competitions, romance, and plenty of magic.



The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Why: Mental illness is also a hot topic in young adult fiction. Matthew Quick has also written YA fiction, and The Silver Linings Playbook is a great look at what adulthood is like for someone who has a mental illness.

Coming Soon: Books Guaranteed to Fly Off the Shelves!

Books. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/132_1258202/1/132_1258202/cite. Accessed 25 Feb 2017.

Here's a list of some of the most anticipated books of 2017 which are already available in the library catalog to place holds on!  Compiled from articles in Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, Time, The Millions, Vulture, and Buzzfeed.

Fiction

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell 

Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami 

Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch

White Tears by Hari Kunzru

Startup by Doree Shafrir 

The leavers by Lisa Ko 

What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky: Stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

The Accusation by Bandi 

Little Deaths by Emma Flint

Celine by Peter Heller

American War by Omar El Akkad 

Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron 

Void Star by Zachary Mason 

No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by  Hannah Tinti 

Ill Will by Dan Chaon 

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

Non-Fiction

South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion 

The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince by Mayte Garcia

Hunger by Roxane Gay 

Unwanted Advances by Laura Kipnis

 

City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris by Holly Tucker  

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann 

Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy by Anne Lamott 

Nevertheless by Alec Baldwin  

Also keep an eye out for titles coming out later in the year by: Alissa Nutting; Edan Lepucki; Catherine Lacey; Lindsay Hunter; Sarah Gerard; David Sedaris; and Colm Tóibín.

Blunt, Sarcastic, Inappropriate: A Reading List Suggested by the Works of Carrie Fisher

There were too many painful losses to count in 2016, and the death of Carrie Fisher was among the most painful for me. I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies–-I never got around to it as a kid and now it’s just fun to watch people’s horrified reactions when I tell them I’ve never seen the iconic films. I read her memoir, Wishful Drinking, the year I got sober. I related to Fisher on many levels–-as a recovering alcoholic, as a person who has learned not to be ashamed of her depression, as someone who is really and truly obsessed with her dog, and as a woman who has always found humor in the blunt, the sarcastic, and the inappropriate. So inspired not just by Wishful Drinking but her entire life, here are 10 non-fiction books I think the Great Carrie Fisher, Our Misfit Queen, would appreciate. 
~Katie MacBride, "A Non-Fiction Reading List In Honor of Carrie Fisher"


To many, Carrie Fisher was first and foremost an actress and Hollywood royalty. To others, like us, Carrie Fisher might have first come to our attention as Princess Leia, but we'd come to think of her as an engaging writer with a dry wit who'd penned some scathing social commentary based on her own life experiences. You can find most of her books, fiction and non-fiction, in the library catalog. She was also  a screenwriter and script doctor. But she always had a distinctive point of view.

In everything she wrote, she was a character. Our eResource NoveList describes Carrie Fisher thusly:

In both fiction and memoir, Carrie Fisher captivates readers with candid, insightful, funny revelations about the difficulties of celebrity life. Her humor ranges from amusing to darkly humorous as she relates characters' (and her own) struggles with relationships, addictions, and mental health. Even in the worst situations there is bittersweet emotion, a sense of thrill in survival by being not quite sane. Fisher's personal voice is witty, as is that of her heroines who are often sarcastic or sassy. Though drawn from her real life, scenes often resemble high-drama.

When she was cruelly taken from us too soon in December, we lost a voice that was "funny and sharp and witty even as she was laying her soul wide open," a generous soul who was also "a fervent activist who spoke openly about her own struggles with mental health and addiction." Inspired by the Katie MacBride reading list quoted above, we've tried to find other writings that echo some part of her voice, the wry humor in the face of adversity, the warts-and-all acceptance of family, negotiating celebrity, a willingness to share her highs and especially her lows with the world, the unflinching courage to speak truth to power (as Tavis Smiley explains it, "comforting the afflicted, and afflicting the comfortable"). Can you think of other titles? Let us know in the comments!

STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983) - FISHER, CARRIE; HAMILL, MARK. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1475199/1/144_1475199/cite. Accessed 8 Feb 2017.

 

I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual by Luvvie Ajayi [eAudio]

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh 

Dry by Augusten Burroughs  

Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay  

Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr  

The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays by Caroline Knapp 

I'm Supposed To Protect You From All This: A Memoir by Nadja Spiegelman 

Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life by Melody Moezzi  

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman [eAudio]

Listen to the Squawking Chicken: When Mother Knows Best, What's a Daughter To Do?- A Memoir (Sort Of) by Elaine Lui 

Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation by Aisha Tyler  

You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein  

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson

Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel 

The Rules of the Tunnel: A Brief Period of Madness by Ned Zeman 

The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron 

The Chronology of Water: A Memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch 

Bad Dog: A Love Story by Martin Kihn

Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous by Jancee Dunn 

Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear ... and Why by Sady Doyle 

How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

 

Notes From the Underwire: Adventures From My Awkward and Lovely Life by Quinn Cummings


Fisher herself, meanwhile, would like it to be reported that she was drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra. The joint public memorial for Carrie and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, will be in Los Angeles on March 25th. 

Debbie, Todd & Carrie. Photographer. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/115_2842483/1/115_2842483/cite. Accessed 8 Feb 2017.