Thursday, September 15, 2011

Capitol Reads



September's Capitol Read is The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imaginations, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar, but loyal, family.

(Cover Copy)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Staff Pick of the Week



Megan's Pick

Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Chicago Stars quarterback Dean Robillard is the luckiest man in the world: a bone-fide sports superstar and the pride of the NFL with a profitable side career as a buff billboard model for End Zone underwear. But life in the glory lane has started to pale, and Dean has set off on a cross-country trip to figure out what's gone wrong. When he hits a lonely stretch of Colorado highway, he spies something that will shake up his gilded life in ways he can't imagine. A young woman..dressed in a beaver suit.

Blue Bailey is on a mission to murder her ex. Or at least inflict serious damage. As for the beaver suit she's wearing... Is it her fault that life keeps throwing her curveballs? Witness the expensive black sports car pulling up next to her on the highway and the Greek god stepping out of it.

Blue's career as a portrait painter is the perfect job for someone who refuses to stay in one place for very long. She needs a ride, and America's most famous football player has an imposing set of wheels. Now, all she has to do is keep him entertained, off guard, and fully clothed before he figures out exactly how desperate she is.

But Dean isn't the brainless jock she imagines, and Blue--despite her petite stature--is just about the toughest woman Dean has ever met. They're soon heading for his summer home where their already complicated lives and inconvenient attraction to each other will become entangled with a charismatic but aging rock star, a beautiful fifty-two-year-old woman trying to make peace with her rock and roll past; an eleven-year-old who desperately needs a family; and a bitter old woman who hates them all.

As the summer progresses, the wandering portrait artist and the charming football star play a high-stakes game, fighting themselves and each other for a chance to have it all.

Natural Born Charmer is for everyone who's ever thought about leaving their old life in the dust and never looking back. Susan Elizabeth Phillips takes us home again...and shows us where love truly lies.

(Cover Copy)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Join us tomorrow on Facebook or Twitter for the first APPy Friday

Want to learn which apps are the most useful, easy to use, or just fun? Want to share your app experiences? Join the Library Commission on Facebook or Twitter  for our first APPy Friday, this Friday, September 2!  #appyfriday

Free Webinar on hosting Banned Books Week events

Are you interested in helping your library celebrate Banned Books Week this year? If so, we invite you to participate in the FREE webinar, “Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read @ Your School, Public, and Academic Library,” which will be held on Tuesday, September 13, at 1:00 PM Central. BONUS: All participants will receive a special discount code to purchase Banned Books Week materials through the ALA Store.



To register, please email your name, institution, and contact information to Angela Maycock at amaycock@ala.org. For more information, please visit OIF’s Online Learning page.